Chesnot/Getty Images(CHAMPAIGN, Ill.) -- President Barack Obama is set to receive an award on ethics in government from the University of Illinois on Friday, as he is set to begin campaigning for Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections. Obama will be the 28th person to receive the Paul H. Thomas Award for Ethics in Government, which has also been given to the late Sen. John McCain, civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and Supreme Court justices Sandra Day OConnor and John Paul Stevens. The award is named for Senator Paul H. Thomas, who represented Illinois from 1949 to 1967, according to the school's website. In his speech at the event, Obama is expected to give a call to action ahead of the midterms, emphasizing the importance of Americans' voting and how they can engage during this unique time in American politics. "President Obama believes the solution to our long-term challenges can be best addressed when we all fully participate in our democracy. His post-presidency is the next chapter in the cause of his life -- bringing people together to change the world for the better. His speech next Friday will address the challenges and opportunities facing our country," Obamas communications director, Katie Hill, said in a statement. Earlier this week, Obama announced that he would campaign for candidates in California and Ohio in the coming weeks. Michelle Obama is also scheduled to hold several rallies encouraging Democrats and young people to vote. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 7) There will be no military arrest for Senator Antonio Trillanes IV as President Rodrigo Duterte has deferred to the civilian court hearing petitions filed by the Justice Department, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday. "He will allow the judicial process to proceed and he will wait for the issuance of an appropriate warrant of arrest," he said in a media briefing in Jordan. Roque said Duterte ordered the military not to arrest Trillanes until the case is resolved in court. "Gusto niya civilian courts, abide by the rule of law. Maski mas matagal iyan, let it be because that's the rule of law," he said. Roque said the decision was made during a mini-Cabinet meeting held in Jordan. The Justice Department has filed motions at Makati Regional Trial Court Branches 148 and 150, asking the courts to issue alias warrants and a hold departure order against Trillanes. A court issues an alias warrant if the original warrant of arrest has been returned by the peace officer and the case has been archived. Trillanes may finally catch up on sleep this weekend as Judge Andres Soriano of Branch 148 is not expected to issue a warrant prior to the hearing on September 13, while the Clerk of Court said Judge Elmo Alameda of Branch 150 will not issue any order today. Branch 150 dismissed the rebellion charges against Trillanes, while Branch 148 dropped the coup charges in line with the amnesty granted to Trillanes in 2011. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said his department is not into forum shopping but is just exhausting all remedies to comply with President Rodrigo Duterte's Proclamation 572, which invalidated Trillanes' amnesty and ordered his immediate arrest. Guevarra earlier said Trillanes can be arrested anytime with the nullification of his amnesty, but his department also sought an arrest warrant from the court. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is constituting a general court martial to comply with Duterte's proclamation. Concurs de granturi adresat COMUNITATILOR (APL) pentru sporirea rezilientei lor la schimbarile climatice si FEMEILOR ANTREPRENOARE in vederea dezvoltarii unor afaceri prietenoase mediului Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 7) On top of all his worries, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV now faces a criminal case for libel, filed by presidential son and former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte. The complaint was filed at the Office of the City Prosecutor in Davao City on Thursday, and comes after President Rodrigo Duterte voided Trillanes' amnesty and ordered his arrest. The younger Duterte said his brother-in-law Mans Carpio also has a separate complaint against Trillanes. They accused the senator of making "false, baseless, and unfounded" claims when he said in September 2017 that they extorted money from ride-hailing firms. "Specifically, respondent indicted me and Atty. Carpo of "pangingikil" (extortion) against UBER in connection with its claimed franchise, and against "similar companies" purportedly in conspiracy with LTFRB RD (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Regional Director) 7 Ahmed Cuison," Paolo Duterte said in his complaint. He attached a transcript of Trillanes' radio interview. Libel is punishable by up to six months imprisonment under the Revised Penal Code. A civil case for damages is pending before the Davao City Regional Trial Court against Trillanes for the same accusations. Trillanes in December 2017 said the libel case was meant to harass him, after he accused Paolo Duterte of being part of a Chinese drug triad organization. The presidential son denied this. Malacanang meanwhile on Friday ruled out the possibility of a warrantless arrest for Trillanes after President Duterte invalidated his amnesty. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the President is deferring to the Makati court, where two judges received a petition to issue and alias arrest warrant and hold departure order against Trillanes. Dumaguete City (CNN Philippines, September 7) The government's top lawyer said he was willing to defend the presidential proclamation voiding from the start the amnesty of Senator Antonio Trillanes even at the Supreme Court. Trillanes believes Calida was involved behind the President's order. "We are ready to defend the proclamation of the President in any venue, even at the Supreme Court (SC)," Solicitor General Jose Calida said during celebrations of the Civil Service Month in Dumaguete City. Trillanes is making a similar intervention before the SC, saying he is confident the high court will rule in their favor. "My lawyers have been briefing me about the approaches to this legal problem. I'm very very confident that my lawyer, Atty. (Rey) Robles presented a very strong case," he said Friday. But Trillanes said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will try to maintain its professionalism as a "united" body, even though Duterte is commander-in-chief. He then said in order to reconcile the chain-of-command, a temporary restraining order (TRO) such as the one Trillanes sought from the SC should work. "A TRO will give them a way out, a face-saving measure," he said. Calida reiterated that President Rodrigo Duterte's Proclamation No. 572 invalidates the amnesty Trillanes received in November 2010 from then President Benigno Aquino III as no rights have been conferred to him in the first place. "It was a political arrangement of that administration," he added. Trillanes, a staunch critic of Duterte, believes Calida participated in reviewing his amnesty application. On September 4, he held a Senate Civil Service and Government Reorganization inquiry into the security firm of Calida's family after it entered into millions-worth of contracts with various government agencies. But on the same day, the signed proclamation was published in newspapers, which voided Trillanes' amnesty and rendered him subject to arrest. Unverified reports of his planned arrest floated as early as Thursday evening using a warrant from a court martial, after a Makati court held off issuing one upon the request of the Department of Justice. READ: AFP: Trillanes back to military personnel status Calida argued that the AFP Custodian under the Personnel's office (J1), found out that there was no record of Trillanes' application for amnesty. "About two years ago there were complaints, that the granting of this amnesty was irregular. So there was an investigation conducted," he said. The Solicitor General previously led a quo warranto petition against then SC Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, which led to her ouster last May. Calida had argued that her appointment was not valid, rendering her appointment as chief magistrate null and void. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 7) Senate President Tito Sotto on Friday chided Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and minority senators for calling on supporters to troop to the Senate. "Don't test my patience and leniency on the matter because I will not allow the Senate to be used for any unruly plot," Sotto said in a text message. Sotto asked Trillanes not to abuse the liberty and hospitality accorded to him to camp out at his office in the Senate, amid fears he would be arrested after President Rodrigo Duterte voided his amnesty. Trillanes is holing up in the Senate over the weekend to avoid any possible arrest, even as Malacanang on Friday said the President has decided to wait for the court to issue an arrest warrant against him. Trillanes earlier said he would spend the weekend in the Senate building to talk to more supporters, consult his lawyers, and prepare for his court hearing on September 13. "Masyadong nang mainit ang tensyon sa Senate kaya sana wag nang painitin pang lalo. Mahirap masingitan tayo ng ibang pwedeng magsamantala ng sitwasyon," Sotto said. [Translation: "They should not increase the tension at the Senate. Let's avoid any untoward incident from people who could take advantage of the situation."] Minority Senator Kiko Pangilinan agreed that the Senate should work toward "de-escalating tensions brought about by the controversial proclamation of amnesty revocation." But he clarified the minority lawmakers' call for Trillanes' supporters to go to the Senate. "With respect, our desire for people to come to the Senate and show support for Senator Trillanes was in response to reports gathered from sources both in the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the media that an illegal arrest was to be effected," he said in a statement. Meanwhile, Sotto ordered Trillanes to limit the number of his visitors and consider that there is no work in the Senate during weekends. "I expect Sen. Trillanes to act accordingly to what we agreed on. All senators have the responsibility to protect the institution above all," Sotto said. The Senate leader is also banning any mass action, even the holding of a religious gathering within Senate premises. CNN Philippines' David Santos contributed to this report. Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. 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"The Department of Justice and Court Martial of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are ordered to pursue all criminal and administrative cases filed against former LTSG (Lieutenant Senior Grade) Antonio Trillanes in relation to the Oakwood Mutiny and the Manila Peninsula Incident," the four-page document read. The "very urgent motion," was in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's Proclamation 572, which invalidated the amnesty granted to Trillanes in 2011. The move was separate from a similar petition the government filed on Tuesday before another Makati court under Judge Andres Bartolome Soriano. Instead of issuing a warrant, Soriano set a hearing on the petition on September 13, saying he still had to review about 53 volumes of records on the case. READ: Who is the Makati judge handling Trillanes' amnesty case? Alameda had dismissed the rebellion charges against Trillanes while Soriano dropped the coup d'etat case in line with the amnesty granted to the former naval officer. Trillanes, once a military rebel, was involved in the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, the Marines stand-off in February 2006, and the Manila Peninsula incident in 2007, all launched against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said his department was not into forum shopping, but simply exhausting all remedies to comply with Duterte's proclamation. Guevarra earlier said Trillanes could be arrested any time with the nullification of his amnesty, but Malacanang on Friday said the President had decided to wait for an arrest warrant from the court. "Ako mismo I felt that we should ask the military court to issue a warrant of arrest. Ayaw ni Presidente. Gusto niya civilian courts, abide by the rule of law," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing in Jordan, where Duterte was on an official visit. The arrest is not likely to happen this weekend as Alameda, like Soriano, said he still has to review case records. I directed my branch clerk of court to retrieve the records, Alameda told reporters in a chance interview on Friday. He refused to give more details but said the review may be finished by Monday. CNN Philippines' Anjo Alimario contributed to this report. (CNN) Yet another natural disaster has struck part of Japan, continuing a summer of chaos that has seen the country weather deadly floods, typhoons, earthquakes, landslides and heatwaves. At least seven people were killed when a magnitude-6.7 quake struck the northern island of Hokkaido early Thursday, causing landslides which buried a large number of homes at the foot of a ridge. More than 150 people were injured by the quake, mostly in Sapporo, said Kazuya Isaki, an official with the Crisis Management Office of Hokkaido Prefecture Government. Dozens of people are missing in Atsuma, near the epicenter of the quake, where four of the deaths occurred. Public broadcaster NHK reported that flights and public transport across the region had been brought to a standstill. Nearly 3 million households lost power, according to the Hokkaido Electric Power Company. Officials said a main power station lost operations, affecting other sites. Independently owned power generators were assisting. "The electric supply was stopped to Tomari nuclear plant, but it can operate without external electric supply for one week," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. Risk of aftershocks The powerful quake lasted almost a minute, jolting residents from their beds and collapsing roads. Near the epicenter, landslides wiped out houses in the tiny town of Atsuma, home to 40 residents. Officials said multiple people were still missing hours after the initial quake. Photos from Sapporo, Hokkaido's main city on the western part of the island, showed huge cracks in the street and subsided houses. More than 4,000 defense force soldiers have been deployed to help with rescue operations, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, and that number could rise to 25,000 if needed. Helicopter rescue crews were also dispatched and have airlifted around a dozen people to safety. Evacuation shelters have been set up in many towns and cities around the region. Aftershocks were continuing Thursday morning, and could pose a risk for the next week, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which warned residents of the increased risk that buildings could collapse near the epicenter of the original quake. Typhoon Jebi Thursday's earthquake comes as much of Japan is still dealing with the effects of Typhoon Jebi, the strongest such storm to hit the Japanese mainland in 25 years. High winds smashed a tanker into a bridge, forced one of the country's largest airports to close and left at least 10 people dead. On Japan's main island of Honshu, nine cities and towns issued compulsory evacuation orders. A further 53 issued non-compulsory evacuation orders. 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. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Earthquake buries homes under landslides in Hokkaido, Japan." Top 3 Quick Fixes to Heal Chapped Lips Photo credit: ASE Beauty Instagram Top 3 Quick Fixes to Heal Chapped Lips By Onicia Muller Chapped lips are the worst. Not only do they hurt, but they make you appear totally unkissable. Seriously, no one is trying to get up close and personal to the person with questionable lip cuts. Here are our top 3 quick fixes for healing (CNN) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has "unwavering trust for President Trump" and wants to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula before the U.S. leader finishes his term, South Korean officials said Thursday. "This trust, despite some difficulties surfaced during the negotiation process between the U.S. and the North, will continue," said South Korean special envoy Chung Eun-yong, who met with Kim in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Chung said Kim told him North Korea "was willing to take more active measures toward denuclearization if his advance steps could be met with matching measures (from the U.S.)." Kim said he had "never said anything bad about President Trump to anyone," Chung reported, adding that the North Korean leader expressed a wish to end 70 years of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula. Chung had just returned from a trip north to finalize plans for a meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-In, to be held in Pyongyang from September 18 to 20. It will be the first trip by a sitting South Korean president to the North Korean capital since 2007, and the third meeting between the two men this year. North Korean state media also reported on the outcome of Chung's trip to Pyongyang. It said Chung had delivered a letter to Kim from Moon, and reported that Kim "remains unchanged in his determination to strive hard to bring the fellow countrymen better results at an early date." State media also quoted Kim as calling on Seoul and Pyongyang to "further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." "Noting that it is our fixed stand and his (Kim's) 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," KCNA reported. Stalled talks Talks between North Korea and the U.S. have stalled in recent weeks, with both sides calling on the other to make further concessions in order to proceed to the next step. Trump recently canceled a planned trip by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang, saying the timing was not right. Washington has also accused China of undermining its efforts to maintain "maximum pressure" against North Korea and force it to negotiate for denuclearization. This impasse has put South Korea back in the driving seat, with Moon called on once again to salvage negotiations as he did ahead of Trump and Kim's Singapore summit in June. "South Korea can really play the good cop to Washington's bad cop, being a more sympathetic ear to Trump's hard line on denuclearization," Oliver Hotham, managing editor of the Korea Risk Group, told CNN last month. "There's certainly disagreement between Seoul and Washington on the speed at which all this peace stuff should unfold, but that disagreement actually helps this dynamic in many ways." But analysts warn that the continuing improvements in inter-Korean relations could see a rift grow between Seoul and Washington if the latter is unwilling to continue negotiation with Pyongyang or attempts to move back towards Trump's original belligerent "rocket man" posturing. As well as a peace treaty with North Korea finally ending the Korean War, Moon has spelled out an ambitious economic plan for an increasing interlinked Peninsula, and he only has one five-year term in which to achieve these goals. This story was first published on CNN.com, "North Korea's Kim has 'unwavering trust' in Trump, South Korea says." Earlier this year, in a fashionable basement nightclub in central Moscow, I spotted the man accused of murdering the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. He may be the chief suspect in the poisoning of Litvinenko in London but former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi was hardly keeping a low profile. He wore a blue patterned silk shirt and expensive-looking linen trousers. In one hand he held a cocktail, on the other was a pretty, blonde young woman. Indeed, far from hiding away, Lugovoi has become a well-known figure in Moscow high society. He has been a member of the Russian parliament since 2007, and on his frequent television appearances he is treated as a national hero for his role in eliminating a traitor to the Motherland. Earlier this year, in a fashionable basement nightclub in central Moscow, I spotted the man accused of murdering the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 (pictured) If someone has caused the Russian state serious damage, they should be exterminated, Lugovoi has told journalists. I would give the order myself. In the aftermath of Litvinenkos gruesome death, the British government promised retaliation. Diplomats were expelled, the Russian ambassador to London was ticked off. But despite all this, despite the professed outrage of our politicians at the time, Lugovoi and his alleged accomplice Dmitry Kovtun, got off scot-free. He may be the chief suspect in the poisoning of Litvinenko in London but former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi was hardly keeping a low profile And given their celebrity status following Litvinenkos death, is it any wonder that more Russian spooks felt free to try to murder yet another traitor on British soil this time former military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, along with his daughter. Just as with the Litvinenko hit, Skripals alleged assailants came to the UK armed with sophisticated, deadly assassins poisons. And just like Lugovoi and Kovtun, they left a tragicomically inept trail behind them. The Crown Prosecution Services detailed case against two Russians calling themselves Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov is painstaking in its detail, reconstructing their movements from Gatwick to London to Salisbury and back to Moscow in minute-by-minute detail. And just like the last lot of Russian hit-men, theres zero chance of them ever facing a British court. Because the sorry fact is that we have miserably failed to learn the lessons of the Litvinenko murder. In the face of a ruthless Putin, the British government has been utterly pusillanimous. During the decade since Litvinenkos murder, we have allowed Russias corrupt elite to continue to pour money into luxury British property, list their companies on the London Stock Exchange, sue each other for billions of pounds in British courts, and send their children to top British schools. All with complete impunity. With the exception of a handful of named individuals implicated in various Russian-sponsored outrages from the annexation of the Crimea and the shooting down of a civilian airliner over Ukraine in 2014, to the hacking of US elections in 2016 the Russian state, its leaders and their cronies remain fully integrated into the Western economy. If we are to prevent Putin henchmen from murdering at will in this country, we have to get serious. Russias gangsterism has to be stopped . In the face of a ruthless Putin, the British government has been utterly pusillanimous The United States has already shown the way to do it. On August 22 the U. State and Treasury Departments invoked a little-known law that requires the President to act against any country that has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law. The latest round of US sanctions invoked specifically as punishment for the Skripal operation bans the export of high technology to Russia, hitting its vital oil and military sectors hard. Internet providers that facilitate Russian hacking tools and botnets that relentlessly promulgate malicious anti-Western propaganda across cyberspace are also being targeted. The US has given the Kremlin 90 days to allow international inspectors into top-secret chemical weapons installations before harsher sanctions kick in. These could include a ban on Russian airlines flying to the US, or banks doing business with the Russian state. Effectively, the US is now on course to brand Russia a state sponsor of chemical weapons terrorism alongside North Korea and Iran. And this, ironically, for a murder committed not on US soil but here in Britain. What is so depressing is that, despite all the tough talk in Britain in recent days, we have shown none of this kind of mettle and determination. For too long our government along with an army of well-paid facilitators, from London estate agents to bankers to luxury goods retailers have turned a blind eye to the origins of the billions stolen from the Russian people that have poured into London. The lesson to be drawn from all this could not be more clear. While Russias top politicians declare themselves patriots and denounce the West, they keep their money abroad. Some 27.3billion left Russia in 2017 alone, according to Russias Central Bank a 160 per cent increase from the previous year. And thats just the official figure. Last April the Panama Papers the leaked records of Mossack Fonseca, the worlds fourth biggest offshore law firm revealed a bewilderingly complex network of offshore companies used by Russian oligarchs and Putin cronies, among others, to hide their money. Not only is this a striking demonstration of the Russian elites greed and venality, it also demonstrates how vulnerable the countrys economy really is. And it offers the British Government a serious opportunity to hit Putins circle where it hurts. Far tougher measures are needed to crack down on the tens of billions of pounds of Russian investments in Britain. Assets should be seized, bank accounts ruthlessly frozen. In addition the Russian economy has to be squeezed relentlessly. To date, the rounds of EU and US measures have been hopelessly ineffective. They have neither dented Putins popularity which remains a steady 80 per cent nor changed his contempt for international law in Ukraine, Syria, or Salisbury. Yet between them, the US, Britain and the EU have the power to devastate Russias economy. Without access to international financial markets or bank clearing systems like the Brussels-based SWIFT, its banking system would collapse. State-owned energy giants such as Rosneft and Gazprom are dependent on foreign capital and expertise. Major infrastructure projects like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany depend on European financing and engineers. The original rounds of sanctions drawn up in 2014 in the wake of the annexation of Crimea were designed to remind [Putin] how dependent Russias economy is on the West, says one of the key Obama-era US officials who drew them up. But the brazen attempt to murder the Skripals a British citizen targeted on British soil shows that this warning shot has not been heeded. Its time to take sanctions to a level that Putin and his circle will actually notice. Putin could retaliate, of course, with the only truly effective weapon still available to him cyber warfare. Already Russian hackers have shown their terrifying ability to shut down electricity grids in whole regions of the Western Ukraine. The devastating NotPetya computer virus designed by state-sponsored Russian cyber criminals was launched in 2017 as an attack on Ukrainian banks and businesses, but ended up spreading across the world, shutting down the entire global logistics operations of shipping giant Maersk and dozens of other Western companies. It caused an estimated 10billion worth of damage. Clearly, the West has to defend against this kind of international cyber-terrorism just as aggressively as it has responded to more traditional terrorist threats. For years, Russian television has been telling its viewers that the country is at war with the West battling a multi-faceted global plot to destroy Russia as Franz Klintsevich, a member of the defence committee of Russias upper house of parliament, said last week. Given the irrefutable evidence of Putins involvement in the Skripal attack, it is time to take such comments seriously. We must take the war to the Kremlin. One consolation of growing older and more forgetful (as I may have mentioned in the past!) is that I can re-read books with absolutely no memory of having read them before. Every page is as fresh as the first time, every twist of the plot as unexpected and I find I can work my way through to the end, baffled and eager to discover whodunit. But on our summer holiday this year, I plumbed new depths of forgetfulness that have left me seriously worried about the state of my marbles. Ever since my childhood Id been wanting to visit Quimper, the historic capital of Cornouaille in the south-west corner of Brittany. This was because my late aunt, Deirdre, used to go there summer after summer, returning in raptures over its medieval delights. Ever since my childhood Id been wanting to visit Quimper, the historic capital of Cornouaille in the south-west corner of Brittany (chateau in Quimper pictured) I remember fondly how every year she would come back with gifts of the local pottery for her nephews and nieces those colourful cups and bowls for which the region is famous, decorated with Breton characters and emblazoned with our names. Familiar Anyway, this summer my wife and I decided we should finally get around to paying a visit. So we booked a gite in nearby Fouesnant and the two of us set off on the car ferry from Portsmouth to Saint-Malo, with the wonderfully traffic-free roads of Brittany opening up before us for the three-hour drive. The following morning, after wed settled in, I drove the short distance to Quimper, full of curiosity as to whether it would live up to the high expectations raised by my aunt. It was just after wed found a space in the car park by the river that my wife said: Are you sure we havent been here before? I told her not to be silly. True, there was something a little familiar about the place. But as I mansplained to her, many old French cities are laid out on the same pattern, with the cathedral and its surrounding half-timbered buildings close to the river and modern shops and offices spreading out from there. As we walked towards the centre, however, I had to admit that Quimper did remind me quite strongly of somewhere wed been before. I just couldnt quite put my finger on where. Maybe it was Dinan or Vannes Brittany towns where wed stayed in the early years after our wedding in 1980? Or was it Ploudalmezeau, also in Finistere, near where wed rented a gite not so long ago? No, they were all very different. So perhaps it was somewhere else, not even in France? We found a nice-looking cafe by the cathedral a bit of a tourist trap, to be sure, but thats never really bothered me and as we waited for our moules marinieres, I scanned a mental map of Europe to try to identify the city of which Quimper reminded me. No good. I could think of nowhere in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary or Greece locations of past holidays that came even close to fitting the bill. Then, as I racked my brains for the answer, a mini-funfair sprang to life in the large paved area between the cafe and the church. Oh, Lord, that was familiar, too. Suddenly, everything came back to me. As so irritatingly often, Mrs U was right. We had been here before! In that moment, I knew that if we walked down the alley a few yards to the right from where we were sitting, we would find the restaurant where wed had a superb dinner during our previous visit. It dawned on me, too, that if we entered the cathedral in front of us, wed see the east end by the altar set at an angle to the nave, in a way unlike any other church Id seen. Furthermore, I knew exactly where Id find the shop, down by the river, in which we had bought T-shirts for our boys, and the jeweller where Id had a new battery fitted in my watch. Horror Worst of all, I remembered that the last time we were here, we had sat at this very same table, in this very same cafe, eating the very same dish for our lunch. This was deja vu in the most literal meaning of the words. On that last occasion, we decided that a single day and night were probably enough to see everything Quimper had to offer, and we headed off to the seaside in the north the following day. To discover when we were last there, I looked at my iPhones photo album. To my horror, there I found a picture Id taken of the cathedral, with the caption: Quimper, July 2016. Only two years ago! How could I have forgotten so soon? You will well understand, therefore, why I was more than a little interested in this weeks report by researchers at the University of Toronto, who believe they may have found the most promising way yet of detecting the early onset of Alzheimers, raising hopes of more effective treatment. Based on a study of more than 3,000 elderly people in the U.S., France and Canada, the study finds that indications of this devastating condition tend to be more evident in the coldest winter months, while brains appear 4.8 years younger in the summer. The best time to screen patients for dementia, therefore, is at the very end or beginning of the year. All I can say is that if my memory was so unreliable in late August and the weather in Brittany was deliciously warm while we were there heaven knows what it will be like when the temperature starts to drop. But though Mrs U earned the right to say I told you so in Quimper, I have to report (at the risk of instant divorce) that she, too, is capable of moments of forgetfulness. Take last Friday evening, when we were back at home in London. Weeks earlier, as part of her duties as a secretary, she had booked a table for her boss at a small fish restaurant, where he was to host a dinner for his fellow senior executives in honour of a long-serving staff member who was leaving. She happened to mention to me that the menu looked jolly appetising and I decided that, as end-of-holiday treat, I would take her there to try the place out for ourselves. Hiding Though it was fully booked for lunch, she made a reservation for the one remaining table available that evening. When we walked into the restaurant, it was her turn to look horrified. For there at the back were her boss and his senior executives. She had clean forgotten that this was the very evening she had booked for the leaving party. What would her employer think of us? My poor wife was all for bowling up to him and explaining everything. But I had a terrible fear that he might think we were creepy stalkers, trying to gatecrash his party. Worse, with his great kindness of heart, he might have felt obliged to ask us to join him. In the end, we decided that cowardice was the best policy, and we spent the duration of our meal hiding our faces if ever it looked as though one of the party might spot us. I have seldom endured a more embarrassing hour and a half. Back at work since Monday, she tells me she seems to have survived the ordeal unnoticed, with her secret intact. Not now it isnt, with her blabbermouth husband spilling the beans in the national Press. So it is that Mrs U and I (assuming she doesnt dump me the moment she opens this paper) seem destined to spend our declining years stumbling together from one senior moment to the next. Bring on that cure for senility! The Rwandan genocide that took place 24 years ago was one of the worst in modern history. Its estimated that 800,000 people were killed over 100 days, as Tutsi rebels were slaughtered by supporters of the Hutu government, who claimed to be weeding out the cockroaches. Men, women and children were felled by machetes, grenades and bullets in their homes and on the streets, even as they sought sanctuary in churches and schools. Mass graves are still being found to this day. Michaela Coel plays fictional character Kate Ashby (pictured) in a new eight-part drama portraying the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide which take place in 1994 Kate becomes an investigator under international lawyer Michael Ennis, played by John Goodman (pictured left) which inspires her to explore the truth about her past and seek justice New eight-part drama Black Earth Rising, written, directed and produced by Emmy-winner Hugo Blick the creator of hit show The Honourable Woman imagines how the aftermath haunts survivors today. British actress Michaela Coel, who won a BAFTA for sitcom Chewing Gum, plays fictional Kate Ashby, who was rescued from Rwanda as a child. She was adopted by British international human rights lawyer Eve Ashby, a role taken by Dame Harriet Walter of Downton Abbey fame. Now in her twenties, Kate is an investigator under international lawyer Michael Ennis, played by John Goodman. When they take on a case at the International Criminal Court, prosecuting an African militia leader who fought to stop the genocide but is now accused of crimes against humanity in the Congo, Kate begins to question whether she knows the truth about her past, wondering how much her mother hasnt told her and she wants to seek justice. London-born Michaela, 30, whose parents are Ghanaian, knew nothing of the genocide previously. I was embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, she says. But Ive really tried to understand Kate. Her mum is her rock yet she needs to get answers from her. Harriet Walter, 67, is a convincing lawyer. Eve plays by the book, but shes personalised her work by adopting a child from the Rwandan conflict. The Rwanda genocide began after Hutu extremists began 'weeding out the coakroaches' (Michael Ennis pictured as John Goodman) 'She tried to armour Kate against the evil of her past with privilege and education. But all of this comes crashing down when Kate tries to kill herself. The bloodbath in Rwanda began after Hutu President Habyarimana died when his plane was shot down on 6 April, 1994. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and began a campaign of slaughter. The nightmare ended when the RPF took control on 4 July. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has sentenced more than 60 people for their involvement, while nearly two million have stood before Rwandan community courts. Were familiar with 1994 but not what happened after, says Harriet Walter. Youll learn a hell of a lot with this show. Itll really challenge you. Black Earth Rising, Monday, 9pm, BBC2. (CNN) The leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Canada have backed Britain's assessment that two suspects accused of poisoning a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in the UK were Russian military intelligence officers, and that the Russian government "almost certainly" approved the attack. British Prime Minister Theresa May presented the assessment parliament on Wednesday, after prosecutors said they had "sufficient evidence" to charge two Russian nationals in connection with attack. Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury in March, in a case that triggered a diplomatic crisis between the UK and Russia. The Skripals and a police officer who were hospitalized in the attack have all been discharged. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said the two suspects traveled to the UK as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, almost certainly aliases. Prosecutors are seeking charges of conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, the use and possession of Novichok, and causing grievous bodily harm. "We have full confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level," the leaders said in a joint statement on Thursday. The leaders also urged Russia to fully disclose its Novichok program to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international watchdog. "We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, reiterate our outrage at the use of a chemical nerve agent, known as Novichok, in Salisbury on March 4," the letter said. The letter also noted the UK's assessment that Novichok also poisoned Dawn Sturgess and Charles Rowley, a couple living in Amesbury, near Salisbury. They became ill after exposure to liquid in a perfume bottle they found in a charity bin. Sturgess died on July 8 as a result of her exposure to Novichok. UK investigators have formally linked the two cases, but police said the couple did not appear to have been deliberately targeted. Russia fires back Prosecutors have obtained a European Arrest Warrant and the police are seeking to circulate Interpol Red Notices. The Russian constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals. While the two Russians are believed to have been traveling under aliases, they had genuine Russian passports, prosecutors said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the claims. "A link with Russia is being alleged. The names published in the media, like the photos, do not tell us anything," she said. She called on the British authorities "to move from public accusations and information manipulation to practical cooperation through law enforcement agencies" and repeated Russia's demand that they answer Moscow's queries about the case. "The investigation of such serious crimes which the UK side has repeatedly alleged requires the most careful work, scrupulous analysis of data and close cooperation," she said. More than 20 countries have supported the UK in its allegations against Russia, expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats between them. The U.S. alsoimposed new sanctions on Russia over the case, which the Kremlin criticized as "categorically unacceptable" and "illegal." This story was first published on CNN.com, "World leaders back UK's Novichok nerve agent allegations against Russia." For John Simm it wasnt much of a stretch to appear dazed and confused for his latest role as a British professor who discovers his wife has been living a double life in Hong Kong. The Life On Mars and Doctor Who actor admits the whole experience of filming stylish new ITV conspiracy thriller Strangers in the densely-populated former British colony was a heady mix of the unknown, the intoxicating and the exhausting. It was pretty discombobulating; its a very crowded place, he grins. I was fighting jet lag and having to learn lines, and the whole place was like an assault on the senses. 'The noise, the smell, the heat everything was different to what Im used to. 'You had this real fish-out-of-water sense of not belonging, but it was great for the part because Jonah feels that too. John Simm (pictured right), 48, stars as Jonah Mulray alongside Emilia Fox (pictured left) as Sally Porter in new thriller Strangers, he revealed how the script for the series hooked him John, 48, plays Jonah Mulray, whose life is turned upside down when his wife Megan is killed in what, at first, appears to be a car accident in Hong Kong. Megan, who appears in flashback scenes acted by Dervla Kirwan, spent half her time in the Far East, working, but despite her entreaties, Jonah had never visited because of his fear of flying. Arriving heart-broken and shocked in the strange city, he is supported by British consulate official Sally Porter, a role taken by Silent Witness star Emilia Fox. Shes the closest thing he has to a friend, says John. He becomes quite dependent on her because shes the first person he meets and she wants to help. But it turns out shes completely not what he thought she was either. He soon becomes suspicious about the way hes treated by Hong Kong police, and after spotting a man in custody with a picture of his wife, he learns there was much more to Megan than he ever suspected. She had a whole other life she never told him about, and lived in very different circumstances to those he had imagined. On top of that, when he picks up a phone message which she left for him on the day of her death, he learns that the car crash which killed her may not have been accidental. I was completely hooked from the moment I read the first scripts because it was such an intriguing premise this guy finds out his wife was living a double life for their whole marriage, says John, who has had a busy year with starring roles in ITV hospital thriller Trauma and BBC crime drama Collateral. John (pictured second from right alongside Strangers cast Katie Leung, Anthony Wong, Dervla Kirwan and Emilia Fox) claims it was interesting to consider how he would react in a situation similar to his character Jonah admitting it made him think about the people in his own life Everything she told him was a lie and every moment they spent together was a sham, so he becomes determined to find out what happened. It was interesting to think about how you would react in a situation like that, where all the elements come caving in on top of you. 'It makes you think about how well you know the people in your own life. Its pretty scary. How could she do that to him? Why did she do it? For him, there was no sign at all that anything was amiss in their marriage, and he tortures himself about what he could have missed. No one believes my character. He worries hes going insane My character isnt like Indiana Jones. Hes a normal guy who lives in a small world and whos never been on a plane. 'Then his wife is murdered and he finds himself involved in this massive conspiracy involving Hong Kong corruption. 'Lots of people dont believe him, so its no surprise that he begins to worry about whether hes going insane. The slick eight-part series has been created by screenwriting newcomers Mark Denton and Jonny Stockwood. But it comes from the production company set up by award-winning brothers Jack and Harry Williams, who wrote The Missing, Liar and Rellik. The story began with the idea of a guy whose wife was killed in a seeming accident but then he unfolds this growing conspiracy where nothing makes sense and he realises his shared past with her was an illusion, says Mark. As the grief-stricken Jonah tries to find out about who his wife really was, he meets David Chen, a former policeman who knew her well, and they form an uneasy partnership. John (pictured centre as Jonah) said his character begins to worry that he's going insane as lot's of people don't believe the corruption surrounding his wife's death Katie Leung (pictured centre as Lau Chen) whose family comes from Hong Kong says it was a thrill for her to return to the city Chen is played by Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong, who gives added authenticity to the drama having been the star of 2002 Hong Kong-set film Infernal Affairs, about a triad gang member and a police officer both leading double lives, which was an inspiration for the series. David Chens daughter, Lau, is played by Katie Leung, who as Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films gave Harry his first kiss. Katies family come from Hong Kong and it was a thrill for her to return to the city, and to be able to speak both English and Cantonese for the show. Lau is an activist determined to do what she can to draw attention to corruption in a major Hong Kong company. Despite both being among the best-known actors on TV over here, John Simm and Emilia Fox soon found that they were completely out-starred by Anthony Wong during the three months of filming in Hong Kong. We quickly realised what a big star he is there, says John. He got recognised all the time and there would always be a crowd. Hes such a lovely man and a brilliant actor. 'What was funny was that Hong Kong people seem to be on their mobile phones so much more than even we are. 'If they saw him, theyd get their phones out and clamour for a picture, and it didnt matter if we were filming or not. The bustle and strangeness of the place certainly add to the shows intensity. The humanity of Jonahs emotions is at the heart of this drama, says writer Mark Denton. But Hong Kong was this really awesome backdrop that allowed avenues of storytelling you just couldnt get in other countries. Strangers, Monday, 9pm, ITV. The setting is Sutton Place, the sprawling Tudor manor in Surrey, where oil tycoon John Paul Getty, the richest man in the world, lives surrounded by glamorous women and a pet lion. Into this scene in 1973 strolls his grandson John Paul Getty III, a wild-haired 16-year-old newly arrived from Rome where hes studying art. Once hes come to terms with his grandsons unkempt appearance, the older Getty welcomes him. But John Paul III has an agenda: a request for cash to cover drug and gambling debts hes run up in the Italian capital. The old man refuses. Disappointed, the teenager returns to Rome. When a message arrives almost immediately at Sutton Place saying that John Paul III has been kidnapped and demanding a ransom of $17 million (equivalent to 65.6 million today), a drop in the ocean that is the immense Getty fortune, the billionaire whos so tight-fisted that guests at his home must use a payphone to make calls refuses to pay it. Donald Sutherland stars as billionaire John Paul Snr alongside Hilary Swank as Gail (pictured together) in new BBC series Trust which portrays the kidnapping of John Paul III which took place in 1973 Until, that is, a grisly package containing the teenagers severed ear and threats of further mutilation turn up and he is shamed into parting with his money. This is Trust, a new ten-part BBC2 series starring Donald Sutherland and Hilary Swank the second time this bizarre tale has been committed to film recently. Earlier this year Ridley Scotts film All The Money In The World, with Christopher Plummer as Getty and Michelle Williams as John Paul IIIs mother Gail Harris, won respectful reviews that were overshadowed by original star, Kevin Spacey, being replaced by Plummer at the last minute after he was accused of sexually assaulting young men. Trust comes with no such baggage, and features a sharply differing story from the movie. In the series, the kidnapping is presented as a stunt set up by the young John Paul to wring money from his grandfather, one that went horrifically wrong. But the series, which aired in the US in March, has caused controversy. John Paul III is no longer around to speak for himself he died in 2011, aged just 54, after spending years in a wheelchair following a near-fatal drug overdose in 1981. His mother Gail Harris Getty, now 83, has remained discreetly silent. However, John Paul IIIs sister, Ariadne Getty, released a statement through her lawyer threatening legal action, describing the series as a wildly sensationalised false portrayal of her family, and suggesting it should be called Mistrust instead. But director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy are standing their ground. It was clear, reading between the lines, that John Paul III kidnapped himself, said Beaufoy of his research. John Paul III played by Harris Dickinson (pictured) ran up a large debt that he couldn't repay. He attempted to fool his grandfather into paying a kidnapping ransom to get the money however the hoax went wrong and he was sold to the mafia It was a hoax gone wrong. He ran up a large debt he couldnt repay. Whatever the truth, says Donald Sutherland, who plays the older Getty, the tale is gripping. Its about power, money, and a family. The struggle in families is fascinating we all know it on some level, its fascinating and desperate. 'Why do people stop when they see an accident on the side of the road? I dont know, but they do. The Getty family was an accident on the side of the road. John Paul Getty III (played here by Harris Dickinson) was brought up in Rome where his father John Paul Getty Jnr was running the familys oil business. His parents separated when he was eight and his father moved to England, but John Paul remained in Rome with his mother. John Paul III had run up a large debt he couldnt pay Before going missing, John Paul had apparently joked about faking his own kidnapping when he needed money, so members of his family initially took the ransom note to be a scam sent by him. According to this story, thats true John Paul III had agreed with his drug dealer to organise a fake kidnapping. But he was then sold to the Mafia and the kidnapping became real. He is said to have spent five months in captivity, mainly in a cave, and when his ear was severed the wound became infected and he caught pneumonia as winter set in. He was found at a petrol station after the ransom or $2.2 million (8.5 million today) of it was finally paid, and two members of a Calabrian Mafia organisation were later jailed for the crime. Having spent much of his time in the early 1970s working in Europe, Donald Sutherland was aware of the story. The real John Paul Getty III (pictured) had previously joked about faking a kidnapping to get money to his family which caused them to at first believe it was a scam The real John Paul Getty (pictured) was the richest man in the world and had 14 grandchildren I didnt go to Sutton Place, but a lot of my friends did and they all talked about the payphone! I remember the kidnapping but it was mixed up with everything else happening in Rome. 'There was a lot of kidnapping going on then. When I was making Fellinis Casanova, which came out in 1976, there was so much of it that the producer, Alberto Grimaldi, had to buy insurance for me. 'I only found out later because in order to buy kidnapping insurance, you couldnt tell the person who might be kidnapped that they were being insured. 'I do remember when I was driven to and from the studio I had to wear a white bag over my head so people couldnt see who I was. 'Kidnapping was a problem people took very seriously. He says that through his research on John Paul Getty Snr, he acquired a surprising respect for the man. Hes a wonderful character, just wonderful. He was incredibly complex. 'He was a brilliant man who spoke six languages and he could do extraordinary sums off the top of his head. 'He was very well-organised and very specific about what he wanted there was nothing of the playboy about him at all. Donald Sutherland (pictured right with Harris Dickinson as John Paul Getty Jnr) who plays John Paul Getty Snr claims his research into the character made him respect the oil tycoon His money gave him power, but he didnt use it aggressively some people are bullies with power but he wasnt, just very pragmatic. 'I dont think he was sinister either or certainly he didnt see himself that way. He had an inability to allow himself to love another person hed have loved to be able to love, but something somehow always came up that prevented it from happening. Gettys fundamental emotional problem, he says, came from a family tragedy that happened before he was even born. He was burdened all his life by the fact hed had an older sister who died as an infant, before he came along. 'Forever afterwards, he could never make up to his mother for the loss of that child. However hard he tried, she always let him know he was small recompense for his sister. Getty Snr couldnt let himself love anyone 'So the title of this show, Trust, refers to Gettys mothers trust. It was something he longed for all his life. Donald believes Gettys refusal to hand over the ransom money was the only logical response. You must remember he did end up negotiating with the Mafia and handing over money to free his grandson. 'But look Im John Paul Getty and Ive got 14 grandchildren. What am I supposed to do? He initially refused to pay the ransom for the same reason the US Government doesnt pay ransoms if they did, everybody would be taken hostage. 'Its an easy way to make a million dollars or two grab somebody and then wait to be paid. Playing his daughter-in-law, John Paul IIIs mother Gail, is Hilary Swank whos won two Best Actress Oscars, for Boys Dont Cry in 1999 and 2004s Million Dollar Baby. Hilary Swank (pictured) stars as John Paul IIIs mother Gail Harris who stepped in after her son was kidnapped When Danny Boyle called me to offer the part he said, Shes the emotional anchor of the story, and as the series went on, I understood that, says Hilary. Gail wasnt interested in money. She knew what she was marrying into with John Paul Getty Jnr, but the money was not what was captivating to her. 'In their divorce, she didnt ask him for anything she wanted to take care of herself. But she relied on the men in that family to take care of things to an extent, and when her son was kidnapped and she realised the men were taking care of it in a way that maybe wouldnt bring him back to her, she stepped into her full power and said, Theres nothing I wont do to get him back. Her only concern was her son. They say that when you have a child its like a part of your heart is outside and walking around, and I certainly think that for parents there should be nothing more important than their childrens wellbeing. 'I dont think there can be a worse nightmare than having your child captured. Not knowing whether theyre still alive or being tortured or who knows what might be happening. It must be hell on earth. Born in 1974, a year after the infamous event, Hilary says that before she took the role of Gail shed known little about the Getty family. Id heard of them we all have but I didnt know much about them. 'It was interesting to find out how infatuated John Paul Senior was with money. He was a billionaire who didnt even know how much he was making every day in interest. This idea of having money is a double-edged sword. People have always been obsessed with it getting it, having it, and then everything falls apart because of it. 'People who dont have it want it, but when they get it, it can bring so much stress that in some ways its not worth having. 'What people are concerned with on their deathbed is family and love. No one dies thinking, I wish Id made more money! Ironically in view of the dysfunctional on-screen family shes part of, Hilary has just taken three years out of Hollywood to care for her father Stephen as he recovered from a lung transplant. They gave him three years to live if he didnt get a transplant. 'A lung transplant is one of the hardest operations you can undergo, and it takes a year to see if the new lung will take, so it was a harrowing decision. But I was blessed to be able to take the time off work and be OK. I hadnt anticipated being off as long as I was but it was touch and go for a while even after a year there were complications. 'But I wouldnt have done it any other way. Dads doing great now hes still living with me but hes alive and healthy and its been over three years, so he made it past both marks. She admits that when she decided to return to her career, she was nervous she might have lost her flair. Youd think that after all these years itd be like riding a bike. But I did think, Oh my gosh, its been so long! Yet if anything, being away only gave me a deeper appreciation for that creative collaboration of telling a story. I love it! This series of Trust is only the start the plan is for it to stretch over more seasons and span the 20th century. Hilarys part is done after this series, and Donald says hes not sure hell be reprising his role. I think the second season goes back to when everyone is younger: Id love to revisit that time but at my age I think its technically impossible. 'And in season three, I think John Paul dies. I might be able to do that, but Im 83 now, so theyd have to hurry! Trust, Wednesday, 9pm, BBC2. A BBC journalist was threatened with abduction and even having his genitals chopped off as he confronted a violent gang leader while filming a documentary in Venezuela. In Ben Zand's BBC iPlayer series The World's Most Dangerous Cities, he travelled to Caracas where he met the leader of a feared 'Colectivo' gang set up by the late president Hugo Chavez to protect socialism. The Iranian-British journalist and filmmaker from Liverpool asked the commander Robert a question about Chavez, and he fumed at the journalist before miming a knife-cutting action. Ben told the cameras: 'He's going to cut my penis off.' In another encounter with a kidnap gang who boasted of killing 14-year-old girls, members also warned Ben that he was worth taking hostage for a ransom, leaving him in fear that he wouldn't make it out of the country. 'I was nervous, kidnapping was a common theme and I wasn't sure I was going to be making it back,' he said, admitting it was one of the scariest interviews of his life. Scroll down for video The journalist from Liverpool met with a commander of a community who got agitated over Ben's line of questioning and mimed something to Ben that he inferred was about cutting off his genitals Ben had a chilling visit with one kidnap gang where they revealed exactly how they go about kidnapping people with one member saying that as a journalist he would be a potential victim Ben Zand visited Caracas - one of the most dangerous cities in the world - where he met with killer kidnap gangs who explained exactly how they carry out their crimes The country is in economic and political turmoil with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already having fled the country, where food and medicine are in very short supply and crime is out of control. It's become nearly impossible to enter Venezuela as a journalist so Ben, 27, sneaked in on a tourist visa to interview the leader of one of the Colectivos, the powerful 'January 23rd' community in Caracas, where he was confronted with bodies lying on the streets. Meeting the leader Robert, who claimed he was just a builder and spokesman, he asked whether Chavez's leadership was responsible for the country's current plight. But the question didn't go down well and the leader, who became agitated: 'Of course Chavez has had a negative impact on capitalist society. 'Caracas will be dangerous for as long as wild capitalism is allowed off its leash. It is possible you are here to try and antagonise us.' 'We regard the BBC to be an antagonist of the interests of the commune because they are constantly seeking to present a line that is all about crimes,' Robert continued before knocking the camera signalling the end of the interview. Ben also went to interview a killer kidnap gang, but the crew had their phones, watches and cameras taken away from them to keep the gang's location secret. 'We were taken to a house on the back of motorbikes. Searched at gunpoint for tracking devices and told we had ten minutes to film,' Ben said. Iranian-British journalist and filmmaker from Liverpool sneaked in on a tourist Visa in order to interview the chief of the community group that had assumed a lot of power in the country The men, who had their faces covered in bandannas during their meeting with the documentary maker, waved their guns around and threatened the cameras for getting too close. Worried that he looked 'devious' like a police officer, Ben had to reassure them that he was just a reporter. The masked man then sneeringly said: 'A journalist, that's better for us to kidnap you.' They explained to Ben exactly how they would carry out a kidnap saying that businessmen can fetch them between $1,000 to $2,000 ransom money depending on how rich they are. During his meeting with Robert, who claimed he was a builder and spokesman for the community, Ben commented: 'He is quite a scary guy I'm not going to lie to you, I don't want to get on the wrong side of him' The kidnap gang didn't want their location revealed and took extreme measure to protect themselves before explaining to the reporter how using guns and killing people is the only way to bring home food for their family Ben was shocked at the state the country was in and how willing people go about committing crimes, afterwards he said: 'I was pretty shaken after the trip, the interview with the gang was one of the scariest I've done' Ben travelled to Caracas where he was confronted with dead bodies discarded on the side of the roads, seemingly a regular occurrence for the locals who seemed unfazed by the sight of murder victims 'First we study them for two or three weeks, then we get a car and snatch them up. 'Then we tie them up and ask for the ransom, it depends how rich the businessman is, $1,000 or $2,000.' One of the gang members said of the reasons he carries out the crime: 'In order to survive you have do it using this [holds up gun], this is our way. 'This is how we get food for our families. By dealing drugs and kidnapping. I've killed fourteen-year-old girls, fifteen-year-olds. Whoever messes with us, we will kill them.' Ben asked them what it feels like to kill somebody and they said: 'At the start you are gonna get upset, you'll be scared but eventually it becomes routine. 'This is our life, there is nothing else you can turn to.' Afterwards Ben said: 'I was pretty shaken after the trip, the interview with the gang was one of the scariest I've done.' Ben visits Caracas in the first episode of World's Most Dangerous Cities with Ben Zand, available on BBC iPlayer now A 26-year-old woman thought she was experiencing awful period pain, when she was actually battling a tumour. Courtney Reynolds, now 27, from Wellington, noticed nothing until she had severe stomach pains one morning while driving into work. 'As I was driving, it was getting worse and worse and eventually I was throwing up inside a rubbish bin. I was in so much pain,' she told FEMAIL. As the pain worsened and resulted in her not being able to walk Courtney was rushed to the hospital by her manager to figure out what was wrong. Courtney Reynolds, now 27, was planning to move from Wellington to Melbourne when she had severe stomach pains one morning, which ended up being cancer When she got to the hospital, Courtney was given a high dose of morphine. The legal recruiter was later told that what she had thought was cramps was actually ovarian cancer. Doctors think that the tumour, which was 10 centimetres by 10 centimetres and had its own blood supply, had twisted in on itself, causing the pain. An ultrasound confirmed that the tumour was the 'size of a softball', and it was positioned where her right ovary should have been. 'It took me a while to actually understand what they were saying. It wasn't until they put me in my own room with a view that I started to clue in,' she said. She was then given a dose of morphine so high, it would have killed someone not in that much pain This is how the legal recruiter found out that what she thought were cramps, was actually ovarian cancer (pictured at the hospital) The doctors later had a general surgeon assigned to remove the tumour and do a 'frozen section' - which means it was tested while Courtney was still under anaesthetic. 'The results came back as cancerous so the oncologist stepped in and took over. When I woke up from the surgery they confirmed it was malignant and I was in a bit of shock,' Courtney said. 'It wasn't what I was expecting. The tumour was a dysgerminoma - of which two per cent are malignant, so it was definitely surprising that mine fell into that two per cent.' The ultrasound revealed that the tumour was the 'size of a softball' where her right ovary should have been Courtney said this diagnosis was a particular shock because the typical patient for ovarian cancer is generally over 50 and often has a family history of the disease, which she didn't. It wasn't until I was unable to walk that alarm bells started ringing 'I am not very good at tracking my cycle generally so just assumed [it was period pain],' she said. 'My periods and the symptoms are quite different from month to month so it wasn't until I was unable to walk that alarm bells started ringing.' Courtney said this diagnosis was a particular shock because the typical patient for ovarian cancer is generally over 50 and often has a family history of the disease, which she didn't When she was in the hospital and given an ultrasound, the 27-year-old was asked whether she had had children yet. 'The rest is a bit of a haze because of the drugs they gave me but I remember the ambulance officers saying "potential ectopic pregnancy",' she said. That is when I realised it was probably more serious than what I thought and started calling my family At this stage the worst case scenario for the 27-year-old was an ectopic pregnancy. 'Around midnight a doctor came in and said they had found a mass on my right ovary but they weren't sure what it was and there was a chance they might have to remove the ovary,' she said. 'That is when I realised it was probably more serious than what I thought and started calling my family.' 'Around midnight a doctor came in and said they had found a mass on my right ovary but they weren't sure what it was and there was a chance they might have to remove the ovary,' she said What are the symptoms for ovarian cancer? The symptoms can be vague but there is a range of possible symptoms, which may include: - Pain in the lower abdomen or pelvic area - Bloating and a full feeling in the tummy (abdomen) - Having the feeling of needing to pass urine more urgently and more frequently - Loss of appetite Source: Ovarian Cancer Australia Advertisement After going into hospital on a Tuesday Courtney's operation happened on the following Friday. Her surgeon told her that once the tumour was removed she would also remove the surrounding tissue and do a saline wash to check for any loose cells. 'She explained they would do everything they could to preserve my fertility, given I haven't had any children yet,' Courtney said. They sent the tumour away for further testing to determine which stage it was at and held off on chemotherapy until they knew how much it had progressed. A week later they confirmed it was stage 1A. As it was such a rare cancer they didn't have a standard procedure to follow, so they gave Courtney the option to have chemotherapy or not. 'I chose not to because it's a brutal process and I also know it has an impact on fertility,' she said. Instead, she was put on a five year surveillance plan, and while she is now out of the 'high risk zone' she will remain under observation for another three years. Her surgeon told her that once the tumour was removed she would also remove the surrounding tissue and do a saline wash to check for any loose cells The legal recruiter said the diagnosis has changed her life and changed the way she treats her body. She has now started taking more notice of how different foods make her feel or what her menstrual cycle is doing. 'The emotional toll didn't really set in until I was back at work and living my normal life,' Courtney said. 'I definitely suffered from anxiety. I was overly aware of my body and if I'm honest, became a bit of a hypochondriac. Every twinge or pain suddenly felt like cancer.' Eventually this feeling wore off as she realised how lucky she is that she was in so much pain that day as it is the sole reason the tumour was detected. 'I've also started living life a bit more - you never know how much time you have. No one does,' Courtney said. Ovarian cancer is dubbed the 'silent killer' because the symptoms are so hard to detect. For that reason, it is usually detected at such a late stage that survival rates are particularly low. 'Pap smears don't screen for ovarian cancer. Girls need to find a GP they trust and if they're really worried, ask for a blood test or an ultrasound,' she warned. 'No one cares more about your health than you do. Not even a doctor.' A bride married the love of her life after having 253 flower girls walk down the aisle. Charlene Watts and her groom Leon decided to have a blooming bridal party when they tied the knot in an intimate wedding ceremony in Hita, Japan. Appearing on The Morning Show, the Australian couple - who were living in Japan at the time - revealed they wanted to celebrate their love with the town following the devastating Kumamoto earthquakes in 2016. Scroll down for video Charlene Watts married Leon after having 253 flower girls walk down the aisle in Japan 2017 The Australian couple - who were living in Japan at the time - revealed they wanted to celebrate their love with the town following the devastating Kumamoto earthquakes in 2016 The devastating 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes More than 44,000 people fled their homes in the hardest-hit town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture after a series of earthquakes struck in April 2016. At least 40 people were killed, and more than 1,500 were injured. The 7.3 magnitude earthquake destroyed buildings and roads, causing massive mudslides that washed away entire bridges and dumped hundreds of tonnes of soil on buildings and roads. Advertisement 'The big reason for us was that we wanted to give back to Hita. We had a lot of friends and people who helped us during the earthquakes,' Leon said. 'And as a result, we really wanted to give back to them and make Hita a little bit more well known.' The couple made a call out for flower girls by hanging posters all around town. With more than 250 flower girls at their wedding in April 2017, Charlene said she remarkably knows each and every one of them. 'I taught at nine schools [in Japan] so I knew a lot of girls,' she said, laughing. Astonishingly, the community rallied behind the bride and groom to bring their wedding forward - even sewing all 253 dresses for the flower girls. After sharing the beautiful day with the community, the couple had another reason to celebrate after breaking a Guinness World Record for having the most flower girls at a wedding With more than 250 flower girls at their wedding in April 2017, Charlene said she remarkably knows each and every one of them 'We had a wedding team and our friends were in charge. They did a lot of calculations and planning - and we ordered in some materials, we also went to Daiso to get the little hair pieces from there. 'We did this as a big community project so everyone was helping us out. It would've been impossible without everyone doing their little bit. It involved so much planning but it worked out in the end. 'A lot of people volunteered to help out with the dresses, even some schoolgirls were there, cutting out ribbons. Everyone did an amazing job to put this together.' Charlene said the community rallied behind the pair to bring their wedding forward in 2017 The couple broke the Guinness World Record for having 253 flower girls at their wedding And after sharing the beautiful day with the community, the couple had another reason to celebrate after breaking a Guinness World Record for having the most flower girls at a wedding. 'I'm just hoping no one breaks our record because I really don't want to do this again, Leon said, laughing. 'I think a lot of people were really uplifted. We had a big after party and everyone was extremely appreciative.' Charlene added: 'The Guinness Book of World Records was the biggest achievement and the big present everyone got.' Guinness World Records 2019 available for sale now. A childcare expert and a mother-of-four went head-to-head in a heated debate over whether parents should be banned from smacking their children. Liat Hughes Joshi and Shona Sibary clashed on Good Morning Britain when asked whether UK-wide legislation should be introduced to stop the practice. It comes as Scotland is set to pass legislation that will criminalise parents who discipline their children with physical punishment. Asked whether the rest of the UK should follow suit, journalist Shona, 46, said smacked her children growing up but said it has had 'no effect' on them in the long-term. Mother-of-four Shona Sibary, left, and parenting expert Liat Hughes Joshi, right, clashed on Good Morning Britain (pictured) when asked whether UK-wide legislation should be introduced to ban parents smacking their children The issue divided viewers on Twitter but a poll conducted by GMB revealed overwhelming opposition to the ban, with nearly 75 per cent of respondents claiming it will simply 'criminalise parents' She added: 'They understand there is absolutely no connection between having a smack in the family home, from a loving parent, and violent abuse.' However Liat, a parenting expert, argued the behaviour was teaching Shona's children that it is 'okay' to be violent as part of a violent relationship. The issue divided viewers on Twitter but a poll conducted by GMB revealed overwhelming opposition to the ban, with nearly 75 per cent of respondents claiming it will simply 'criminalise parents'. The debate comes after legislation aimed at banning the smacking of children in Scotland was published at Holyrood. Liat and Shona appeared on Good Morning Britain to debate the issue of a smacking ban today Parents in favour of a ban argued it will help protect children against abuse. Others said using physical punishment teaches children the wrong lesson when it comes to violence Green MSP John Finnie introduced the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill after gaining the backing of the Scottish Government and MSPs from across all the political parties. If passed, the legislation would remove the defence of 'justifiable assault' in Scots law, which allows parents to use physical punishment to admonish a child. Mr Finnie's Member's Bill is also supported by a range of organisations including the Scottish Police Federation, Barnardo's Scotland, the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland and the NSPCC. But the move is opposed by campaign group Be Reasonable Scotland backed by The Christian Institute and The Family Education Trust which argues a ban will 'criminalise parents'. Others, including those who were smacked as children, defended the technique and claimed it can be an effective form of discipline Speaking on GMB today, Shona said: 'My children are not affected by this [smacking in childhood]. They are very robust. 'They understand there is absolutely no conmnection between having a smack in the family home, from a loving parent, and violent abuse and to suggest there is completely and utterly absurd.' But Liat hit back: 'Shona, you're saying it's okay. It's part of a loving relationship. If I came and slapped you, that would be a criminal offence. So why is it not okay for me to smack you, but okay for me to smack my child?' She later added on Twitter: 'We need to ban smacking in England too. It's ineffective, sets a bad example and shows lack of control. Better ways to manage a child's behaviour.' Twitter users came down on both sides of the debate. A number argued a ban was a logical step at preventing abuse towards children. One tweeted: 'Smacking should be banned. Like everything there's always someone who takes it too far and causes injuries to the child. It's cruel.' Others, including those who were smacked as children, defended the technique and claimed it can be an effective form of discipline. 'Smacking children has its rightful place,' one mother tweeted. Another agreed: 'As long as you are not smacking in anger or to be a bully there is nothing wrong with it.' A loved-up couple has told how a seating mix-up on board an easyJet flight brought them together. Adaya Cohen, 24, a graduate from Israel, was on a flight from London to Tel Aviv when she approached Michael Hoffman, 27, who grew up in the UK but was studying in Israel, mistakenly thinking he had taken her window seat in their assigned row. After asking him to move they got talking and sparks flew, with the stranger in the middle seat of their row even moving to let the duo sit next to each other. After saying goodbye five hours later Michael could not get Adaya out of his mind, finally tracking her down on Facebook and inviting her out for sushi a few days later. Now living together in London, three years after falling in love in September 2015, the couple are happier than ever and still try to book seats in row 12 - the same row they met in - whenever they fly. Adaya Cohen, 24, a graduate from Israel, was on a flight from London to Tel Aviv when she approached Michael Hoffman, 27, (left) mistakenly thinking he had taken her window seat in their assigned row Recalling their first flight together, Adaya confessed: 'I felt like we really hit it off and was a bit disappointed when he didn't ask for my number before we landed. 'I thought he just wasn't interested, or maybe he had a girlfriend. When I got the message a few days later, I said yes straight away. 'It's so strange to have such a connection with someone you've known for just a few hours.' When they met, Adaya and Michael were both studying in Israel - her in Tel Aviv, where they were flying back to ahead of the new term, and him about an hour away at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Adaya and Michael got talking after she asked him to move and sparks flew, with the stranger in the middle seat of their row even moving to let the duo sit next to each other Now living together in London, the couple are happier than ever and still try to book seats in row 12- the same row they met in, whenever they fly (seen abroad together) But, while she grew up in Israel, Adaya - who was flying with her brother but sitting separately - had family in the UK . Michael, on the other hand - who was travelling alone - had grown up in the UK but moved to Israel in 2010. Adaya explained: 'My brother was in the same row on the plane, but on the opposite side. He was sat by the window and I thought I had a window seat, too, but there was a guy already sat there. 'I said, 'Excuse me, that's my seat,' but he explained that I'd got a bit confused. There was a girl in between us and when I sat down, we all continued the conversation.' Immediately, they hit it off so well, that the girl in the middle assumed Adaya and Michael knew each other and offered to swap seats, so they could be together. The couple celebrate three years together this month after falling in love at first flight back in September 2015 (seen enjoying dinner) Adaya and Michael still love travelling together and book their lucky row together whenever they travel (seen on holiday together) Michael laughed: 'She asked Adaya if she wanted to swap seats, but she said no. The conversation kept going as the flight was a bit delayed, but when we started to get ready to move, the girl in the middle was drifting off, so she offered again to swap.' After that, they chatted non-stop for the entire five-hour flight even discovering they had some mutual friends. 'It felt like we had a lot in common,' Adaya said. 'It was like I'd known him for a lot longer than five hours. The conversation just flowed. We talked about our friends, family and our studies.' Hoping, as they came in to land, that Michael would ask for her number, when he failed to, Adaya assumed she would never see him again. Michael explained: 'I really wanted to ask her, but I was worried she would feel a bit trapped. When you're on a plane there's nowhere you can really go if you feel uncomfortable. I didn't want to put her in that awkward position. 'As soon as I got off, I regretted it. I looked on Facebook, as she has an unusual name and I knew we had some mutual friends. I thought I might as well send her a message and just explain why I hadn't asked on the plane.' While Adaya grew up in Israel, Michael, had grown up in the UK but moved to Israel in 2010, when they first met The couple started dating after he tracked her down on Facebook before commuting between their respective universities Quick to accept, despite enjoying his company even more, Adaya was worried that, once the new term began, the hour-long train journey between their universities would put him off. 'I thought when I said goodbye at the train station, I might not see him again,' she confessed. 'But he was back that weekend and, after that, we made the trip back and forth each weekend to see each other.' After two years of living in separate cities, Adaya and Michael decided to take the leap and move to London together to study for their respective master's degrees. 'It's funny because before I met Michael, I knew I wanted to study in either the UK or the US,' said Adaya. 'I had thought about it for my BA degree, but that hadn't worked out and, at the time, I said I would do it for my postgraduate studies. 'When we met, that plan worked for Michael, as his family are back in the UK and it meant he could spend more time with them.' Adaya and Michael now live together in London's West Hampstead after moving in together six months ago (seen enjoying a night out) The couple are an example of the two in every 100 people flying every day who meet and fall in love in the air (Seen on holiday together) In September 2017, Adaya started her master's in post-production at the Met Film School, while Michael started his studies in genetics of human disease at University College London. Initially, Adaya moved into shared accommodation, while Michael lived with his family, but six months ago they finally started living together in West Hampstead, north west London. 'It's fantastic living together,' Michael said. 'To go from seeing each other at weekends to spending so much time together is great. It's just the little things like cooking together and even cleaning together.' And the couple - an example of the two in every 100 people flying every day who meet and fall in love in the air, according to new research from HSBC - have enjoyed many trips back and forward to the UK since they met. fter two years of living in separate cities, Adaya and Michael decided to take the leap and move to London together to study for their respective master's degrees this year (seen abroad) Now having finished their studies, Adaya is working as a junior video editor and Michael is applying for jobs in London Now having finished their studies, Adaya is working as a junior video editor and Michael is applying for jobs in London. Adaya said: 'We love living in London and we are very happy here. We have no plans to move any time soon but we think we would eventually like to go back to Israel.' If they do, they will be sure to book their lucky seats. Michael laughed: 'We always try to book the same seats, in row 12, that we were in when we met. It's not always possible, but it's a nice thing to do.' Meanwhile, Adaya is still dining out on their love story, three years later. She added: 'It's such a nice story to tell people. When they ask where we met and I say 'On a plane,' the conversation never ends there.' HSBC's research involved 11.9 million people around the world, who are flying on any given day, and found that two in every 100 have met someone and fallen in love on a plane. Head of Personal Banking, Becky Moffat, said: 'It turns out air travel brings an incredible sense of possibility and people are making life-changing connections in the sky.' A receptionist who suffers with Crohn's disease has revealed how she was so devastated by a fat-shaming text message she stopped taking her medication - prompting her weight to plummet to just five stone. Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester, weighed nine st when she received a text message demanding that she 'stop uploading bikini photos of her fat body'. Jane, who was diagnosed with the debilitating illness at 11, said she was already self-conscious over the weight gain caused by steroids she takes to help manage the condition, and the anonymous text prompted her to start skipping her medication. As her weight began to dwindle Jane's bowel suffered so much damage doctors told her it would have to be removed, and she would need to be fitted with a colostomy bag. Jane, who recalls being shocked by how 'skeletal' she looked in the weeks following the life saving surgery, has rebuilt her life following the procedure, after which she was pain free and able to stop taking steroids altogether. After the text, which was sent from an anonymous number, Jane Beaumont, 24, began skipping her Crohn's medication to lose weight, suffering dangerous consequences (seen in a Manchester hospital in 2014 when she was forced to have her bowel removed and a colostomy bag fitted The receptionist was a healthy nine stone when she says she was fat shamed by an anonymous text message that told her to 'stop uploading bikini photos of her fat body' (seen before her 2014 weight loss in the bikini picture targeted by trolls) She is now sharing her story - and shocking images of her at her lowest weight - to help others to realise the dangers of not taking medication properly. Recalling her gruelling battle, Jane said: 'I was already self conscious of my weight before I received the spiteful text message. 'I had been on holiday the week before with my friends and after feeling good about myself I had uploaded a few bikini photos. 'The message told me that I was fat and that I need to stop uploading bikini photos. Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester, dropped to five stone when she was 'fat-shamed' and has been forced to wear a colostomy bag after suffering irreparable bowel damage (seen looking healthy now) After the surgery Jane's weight plummeted to just five stone as her frail body struggled to cope (seen in a Manchester hospital) 'I tried to brush it off as we had no idea who had sent it was sent from the web anonymously.' Admitting it affected her more than she realised, she continued: 'But it did make me more aware of my appearance so I began skipping the medication that I knew caused me to gain weight. 'I didn't realise that by doing this my body was creating more anti-bodies so any medication I did then start taking would be ineffective. Pictured: Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester, in hospital as she recovered from surgery to remove her damaged bowel Her bowel had became so badly damaged that after building an immunity to all drugs, she was told she needed a ileostomy bag to remove her bowel in a bid to save her life Revealing that things started going downhill after the message, she continued: 'I had battled Crohns since I was 11 but as I turned 20 things took a turn for the worse. 'I had lost a lot of weight and was just over 7st before doctors warned that my bowels could rupture they were that badly damaged. 'No medication was working and my only option was to have a colostomy bag to save my life.' Remembering how her weight continued to plummet after the operation, she said: 'After my surgery my body was so weak and wasn't absorbing any nutrients from food so I dropped down to five stone and I even lost almost half of my hair. Jane is now sharing her story - and shocking images of her at her lowest weight - to help others to realise the dangers of not taking medication properly Pictured: Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester, with a feeding tube, seen in 2014 'When I looked at myself in the mirror I was so shocked by how skeletal I looked. 'I was so unwell at this point and I genuinely thought I was going to die. 'But after being tube fed for eight weeks I was finally allowed home in June 2014, two months after my first surgery on April 14th. 'I have spent the last few years rebuilding my life and getting to grips with my bag.' Jane now feels she is a different person since her surgery and doesn't care what others think. After the surgery Jane's weight plummeted to just five stone as her frail body struggled to cope (her back is seen as she stayed in a Manchester hospital) Jane admitted: 'No medication was working and my only option was to have a colostomy bag to save my life' Pictured: Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester, in hospital. Jane was told she needed a ileostomy bag to remove her bowel in a bid to save her life. Jane- seen looking healthy in 2018- now feels she is a different person since her surgery and doesn't care what others think She added: 'I am so much more positive about my Crohn's since having my colostomy bag. 'I am pain free, I no longer take steroids and I'm now back to a healthy weight. 'I was never big before and although we don't know for sure who sent the message we know it's someone we knew as they'd seen my photos on my private Facebook. 'I still have my up and down days but that's like any other girl my age anyway. 'I would tell anyone who is conscious of their appearance to ignore any negative comments as your health is far more important. 'I am now living my life to the full and have just completed my degree to become a dance teacher.' But despite fearing she was going to die, Jane began gaining weight and is now healthy and pain free- seen this year Pictured: Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester looking healthy now after her recovery Pictured: Jane Beaumont, 24, from Manchester, looking healthy at her graduation in 2018 Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden looked delighted as they were reunited with their dog Siri after she apparently ran away from her royal home. The couple, who live with their two sons at Villa Solbacken, Stockholm, beamed as they thanked the police officers who found their beloved border terrier. A photo shared by Stockholm's Norrmalm Police force show Carl Philip, 39, and Sofia, 33, standing alongside the officer who carried Siri home. Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden looked delighted as they were reunited with their dog Siri after she apparently ran away from her royal home. Stockholm's Norrmalm Police force shared this image of the couple with the officer who brought their beloved pet home A second image shows an exhausted Siri, who is thought to be around four years old, curled up on the ground after a long day outside. She was adopted by the royals as a puppy in May 2014 Sofia is dressed down in a white smock top, lightwash blue jeans and a black padded gillet, while her husband is wearing a button-down white shirt, jeans and a casual black jacket. A second image shows an exhausted Siri, who is thought to be around four years old, curled up on the ground after a long day outside. The caption, which was shared in Swedish, reveals the dog was 'drowsy' and 'tired' when she was found and fell asleep in the officer's arms on her way back to the palace. It added royal staff and housekeepers had been 'very worried' about the dog's whereabouts but that this was replaced with 'joy' on her return. Carl Philip and his wife Sofia are so fond of Siri they even ensured she was included in the family portraits taken to mark the birth of their eldest son, Prince Alexander, in May 2016 It is not known when Siri was reported missing or how she managed to escape. Carl Philip and Sofia adopted Siri in May 2014, the year before they tied the knot. The couple are deeply fond of their pet and are often spotted taking her on walks with the family. The proud parents even ensured Siri was included in the family portraits taken to mark the birth of their eldest son, Prince Alexander, in May 2016. Siri was given pride of place next to new mother Sofia as the couple announced the arrival of their first son, Alexander, in May 2016. The dog is believed to have been missing for a day The scruffy dog sits patiently by her owners' side as they cradle their newborn. The couple recently returned to the Swedish capital from a summer break at Solliden Palace in Oland. The family released sweet official portraits to mark the visit. Prince William took a leap into the world of Virtual Reality during a trip to Gateshead on Friday. The Duke of Cambridge paid a visit to PROTO: The Emerging Technology Centre, which is dedicated to testing and creating new digital solutions for future business challenges during his engagement today. PROTO provides an onsite research and development facility including Virtual Reality which the Duke was able to try for himself this afternoon. William was immersed in the work Mixed Immersion, a 3D Audio Production company that creates amazing experiences using Virtual Reality. Scroll down for video Prince William visited PROTO in Gateshead on Friday which provides an onsite research and development facility including Virtual Reality which the Duke was able to try for himself William was immersed in the work Mixed Immersion, a 3D Audio Production company that creates amazing experiences using Virtual Reality The 36-year-old royal was also given a demonstration of a motion-capture suit that helps to develop 3D animation after he officially opened the centre today. Following his visit to the technlogy centre William then attended the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art where he was given a gift for Prince George. The royal grinned as he was presented with a Newcastle United Shirt for his eldest son. Opening the box the famous Aston Villa fan exclaimed: 'Oh my goodness! I don't know about this' before adding 'that's very kind.' William was able to try out a motion-capture sensor for himself on Friday afternoon - though appeared to need a little instruction William was able to witness a demonstration of motion-capture suit used to create 3D animation The royal was invited to officially open the centre on Friday by unveiling a new plaque Earlier on Friday William showcased his paternal instincts today as he visited a new exhibition in Gateshead. The Duke of Cambridge proved popular with a group of school children who had gathered to welcome him to the Great Exhibition of the North on Friday. William, 36, could be seen waving at a particularly excitable group of young well-wishers from Riverside Primary upon his arrival at the Sage Gateshead music centre. The father-of-three spent several minutes chatting to the group who beamed with delight - although the duke had to bend down slightly in order to join the conversation. During a visit to the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art where the famous Aston Villa fan was given a Newcastle United shirt for Prince George While William admitted that he 'wasn't sure' about the choice in football strip, he thanked the directors for the 'kind' gift Upon his arrival today the prince was treated to a performance by a local gospel choir Voices of Virtue. He was also invited to sit in on the rehearsals of Quicksilver, a 50+ choir of which William complimented their 'angelic voices' and remarked 'they should be recording'. The royal then spent time with the CoMusica arts and music programme which uses music to help those in 'challenging circumstances'. Prince William's visit today marks the opening of the Great Exhibition of the North a three-month celebration of the North of England's pioneering spirit, showcasing art and culture, design and innovation from across the north. Prince William showcased his paternal side as he chatted to a group of school children from Riverside Primary in Gateshead on Friday Th father-of-three appeared delighted at the warm welcome he received from the local children upon his arrival at the Sage music centre this morning Later William was given a demonstration of how a 700mph futuristic Hyperloop transport system could link Liverpool to Glasgow via Newcastle in just 47 minutes. He was shown a prototype pod designed by Edinburgh University students which could one day be propelled using magnetic propulsion to zoom passengers through tubes. It has been suggested that the Northern Arc concept could one day link Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Bending down to join the conversation William spent several minutes chatting to the group who appeared fascinated by the royal Prince William's visit today marks the opening of the Great Exhibition of the North a three-month celebration of the North of England's pioneering spirit After speaking to the children William was treated to several musical performances from a gospel and over 50s choir William met schoolchildren who had drawn designs of how their pods would look, and watched as one drawing was fired through a clear tube which snakes around the Cooper's Studios offices in Newcastle. It has been a busy week of engagements for William having visited Heathrow airport on Thursday where he was shown a room full of seized contraband The Duke was left shocked at the amount of drugs and weapons intercepted by staff and border officials as he visited the Royal Mail's International Logistics Centre at Heathrow Airport. After five minutes in the room, which was filled with packets of cannabis, MDMA and cocaine, the royal joked: 'We had better get out before we have a drugs test!' The tour of the lock-up was part of William's visit to the centre to see the fight against the illegal wildlife trade in action. Ladies, its time to go back to school. Not just for your children, but for you too. Youre going to be viewed and judged by the other parents - theres no point pretending otherwise. Time to revise your school gate politesse and poise. The playground aside, thank heavens we have positive role models like Their Royal Highnesses The Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex for women everywhere to take inspiration. Whether they had married into royalty or not, its a good time to revisit the age-old rules that any lady of poise must follow. Crude, crass and coarse behaviour just wont get you very far in life and sets a terrible example for children. Here is my guide on how to be more lady than tramp during, and after, the school run. With the summer holidays at ab end, parents have returned to the school run. Etiquette expert William Hanson reveals how you can look classy in front of the other mothers (file photo) Avoid wet hair A lady is never seen in public with wet hair. The damp dog look for your crazed coiffure is not something that should be inflicted on anyone else. It can show a lack of personal standards, so build in an extra five minutes to your morning routine before leaving for the school run so it at least looks presentable. No one is asking for complete Cambridge-level perfection: were just asking for dry. Be on time A lady is never late. Regularly racing through the playground, clutching your child, sets a bad example for the child in later life - as does arriving late to collect the child at the end of the day. Then when at work, there should be no silly tactics, often favoured by insecure men, about arriving late in order to control the rooms attention, a lady is on time and plays by the rules. If school starts at 8.30am then the children should be frolicking in the playground by 8.20am at the latest But what does on time mean? Socially, at a party or dinner, on time means arriving 10 - 15 minutes after the stated arrival time. (Those who dont understand why this is important are invariably people who dont host.) For business appointments, on time means that you are there a few moments before the stated start time ready to begin on the dot of the appointed hour. And if school starts at 8.30am then the children should be frolicking in the playground by 8.20am at the latest. No swearing Theres no point pretending that people shouldnt swear. Obviously, it would be great if we all didnt, but life is not like that. What can be tempered is swearing at people, in front of children, clients and when in public. Keep the curse words for your private life and only when youve dropped something or stubbed a manicured toe - but of course, when delicate, ingenue ears are out of range. Ditch the grab and go coffee William Hanson says that women should be grateful that they have ladies like the Duchess of Cambridge as inspiration for how to dress and behave on the school run. Pictured is the Duchess of Cambridge with Princess Charlotte Tottering into the playground, or your office job afterwards, with your takeaway coffee (even if its in your own reusable cup) is not a good look for anyone. Teas and coffee are there to be savoured and enjoyed and if youve bothered to look half-decent that morning and are dressed in slick attire, nothing ruins it more than an ungainly cling to a takeaway vessel. Perhaps the coffee at your work is terrible, so you have to get something from elsewhere? Ask for a little bag, pop a coffee stirrer/plug in the lids hole, and carry this to the office. Then find a proper cup and saucer and decant the contents. Far more elegant. Tights are still an essential Its an etiquette rule that Meghan is having to get used to, but even in super-casual 2018 Britain, a woman must wear tights in formal situations. Fair enough, the school run is not a formal situation, so its fine to ditch them then or for a kitchen supper or picnic, but for the office, weddings, gala dinners and smart school events then tights add some extra sophistication to your pins. (If your legs are getting too hot whilst wearing them then perhaps time to invest in some finer, better quality hosiery.) Become well heeled Firstly, dont even leave the house unless you can walk in heels. Its difficult, Ive tried it, so dont worry, I do speak from experience. But the knack can be mastered with practice. But when dropping the children off is not the time to practice - youll just embarrass both them and you Tip: body-con dresses and miniskirts rarely help ladies get the leg extension you need to walk masterfully in heels, so pick a dress that allows for more flexibility of movement. A real lady knows that for daytime, footwear should not have a heel above three inches and for evenings, four inches is really the limit. Even with skirts, a good pair of flats can look as elegant and stylish as any heel. You can still look good without heels. Keeping it under wraps Those with true grace and style do not need to flaunt any part of their body that conventionally remains covered. The old rule was if youve got it, flaunt it. But today that seems to have been warped into if you havent got it, flaunt it. Less is not more. One hands width of decolletage is enough, and skirt lengths for semi-formal and formal events should never be above the knee. Similarly, and this applies to all genders and ages, underwear is not outwear. If we can see a bra strap or two, somethings gone wrong. Your outfit and wardrobe choices are two of the many things that will be judged by the parents and teachers Style over substance As lovely as Diana, Princess of Wales was, many noticed her wardrobe before they noticed her. The Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex get this the right way round and it is most usually the face of the lady you notice before the outfit. Clothes should complement a ladys persona but not overshadow it. Spencer Matthews and his wife Vogue Williams welcomed a healthy baby boy two days ago - and their bundle of joy has already had a visit from his proud auntie and uncle. Spencer's brother James Matthews and sister-in-law Pippa Middleton were seen arriving at the former Made in Chelsea star's London home on Friday. The Duchess of Cambridge's younger sister, who is expecting her first child with husband James, was seen arriving at the flat in her Land Rover this morning. Pippa, who is in her third trimester, arrived separately from her hedge fund manager husband James who showed up moments later equipped with his backpack - possibly containing a gift for his new nephew. Pregnant Pippa Middleton was seen arriving at her brother-in-law Spencer Matthews' home on Friday in order to meet his newborn son and her nephew for the first time Pippa's husband and Spencer's brother James was seen arriving separately at his apartment in London Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews were pictured together for the first time on Friday morning since welcoming their 'beautiful and healthy' son earlier this week An unexpected visitor was Pippa's younger brother James Middleton (pictured) who was seen arriving shortly after his sister Following behind was the new Matthews baby's grandmothers in the form of Vogue's mother Sandra Wilson and Spencer's mother Jane Matthews. The two new grandmothers appeared to come armed with breakfast for the couple carrying coffee, pastries and smoked salmon. Spencer's father, David Matthews, who is currently facing two accusations of rape, was not present today. An unexpected visitor came in the form of Pippa's younger brother James Middleton, who stopped by the flat to meet his sister's nephew. New father Spencer could be seen on the balcony of his home in Chelsea speaking on the phone ahead of his family's arrival. New father Spencer could be seen taking a phone call on the balcony of his flat as he awaited the arrival of family members The new parents appeared happier than ever as they strolled their bundle of joy along in a buggy during a cosy walk with Vogue's mother Sandra Wilson TV personality Vogue, 32, and her husband Spencer, 30, announced that they welcomed a 'beautiful and healthy' baby boy in the early hours of Wednesday morning The excited couple were accompanied by their adorable pooch and Vogue's mother Sandra, who primarily lives in Marbella Shortly after their visitors arrived the new parents were pictured together for the first time since welcoming their son. The new parents appeared happier than ever as they strolled their bundle of joy along in a buggy during a cosy walk with Vogue's mother Sandra who lives in Marbella. Vogue and Spencer proved to be learning the ropes around parenthood as they took turns to stroll their baby boy along in the pram. Spencer and Vogue - 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. 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 Vogue and Spencer (pictured at the Derby Festival in June) tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in June 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.' 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'. Pippa, who is in her third trimester, ditched her bike today and drove to her brother-in-law's home in order to meet her new nephew Kate's younger sister is yet to reveal her due date however, it is believed she will be welcoming her first child in October Following behind was the new Matthews baby's grandmothers in the form of Vogue's mother Sandra Wilson (left) and Spencer's mother Jane Matthews (right) The two new grandmothers appeared to come armed with breakfast for the couple carrying coffee, pastries and smoked salmon Vogue also shared a snap of their newborn son on Instagram (pictured) but the couple is yet to reveal the baby's name The pair, who have yet to reveal the baby's name, were inundated with well wishes from their delighted followers and celebrity friends. 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. Later this morning the new parents received a flower delivery to congratulate them on their new baby boy who was born on Wednesday 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. 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. An Australian label made a bold feminist statement during its New York Fashion Week debut. Discount Universe, which was founded in Melbourne in 2010 by designers Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov, hosted its first New York Fashion Week show on Wednesday night. The brand, which prides itself in its mastery of 'humor and irony, cliche and imitation', sent models strutting down the runway in eccentric, colorful garments, many of which were emblazoned with statements such as 'not your baby' and 'not for sale'. First: Discount Universe, an Australian brand founded in 2010, made its New York Fashion Week debut on Wednesday 'Not your baby': The brand, which prides itself in its mastery of 'humor and irony, cliche and imitation', sent models strutting down the runway in eccentric, colorful garments Reading material: Many of the outfits were emblazoned with various statements, such as this slip-style white dress featuring the words 'crazy', 'emotional', 'irrational', and 'mindf**k' Words: 'Not for sale' was a popular statement for the label, which featured it on this sparkly dress adorned with the statement 'I am sorry I am not for sale' Design: 'Hysteria' was featured on several garments, including a jumpsuit that also featured the image of a woman brandishing a sword, with the words 'goddess of war' surrounding her Shoes: The brand used footwear as a way to feature additional messages, such as the words 'bimbo' and 'not for sale' across these red slippers Many of the statements put forward by the brand reflect words that have been used to discredit women and discount their claims and opinion. For example, one model strutted down the catwalk in a slip-style white dress with spaghetti straps featuring the words 'crazy', 'emotional', 'irrational', and 'mindf**k'. Another model wore a see-through red dress with crystals and balloon sleeves, with the words 'not your baby' written several times from the shoulders to the bottom of the garment. 'Not for sale' was also a popular statement for the label. It appeared on a model's white strapless top, written across her chest in bold black letters. The same words were featured on the model's flat, red slippers, and on the belt around her waist. Eye-catching: This model's outfits featured the words 'not for sale' and 'mother' Style: One model strutted down the runway in this dress with the words 'hysteria', 'crazy', and 'emotional', 'irrational' on it, with a 'not for sale' belt Statement: This leopard-print jumpsuit was emblazoned with the sentence: 'It was his view that women would pass through a set of "passionate attitudes"' Bold: One outfit featured the words 'forever', 'emotional', crazy', and 'irrational', above a different belt with 'whore' printed several times on it They also appeared on a model's sparkly dress, which was adorned with the statement 'I am sorry I am not for sale.' Several models wore the 'not for sale' belt, and one of them even took to the runway in a strapless dress that looked like it was made mainly out of the same belt material, with a tulle attachment at the bottom. One outfit featured the words 'forever', 'emotional', crazy', and 'irrational', above a different belt with 'whore' printed several times on it. 'Hysteria' appeared on several garments, including a jumpsuit that also featured the image of a woman brandishing a sword, with the words 'goddess of war' surrounding her. Footwear was a way for Discount Universe to include various additional messages. Models walked the runway in red slippers emblazoned with different words, such as 'bimbo', 'whore', and 'feisty'. Accessory: Several models wore the 'not for sale' belt, which was used to cinch some of the garments at the waist Look: One of them even took to the runway in a strapless dress that looked like it was made mainly out of the same belt material, with a tulle attachment at the bottom Prom: The 'not for sale' belt was also used with this sparkly gray dress featuring balloon sleeves Inclusive: The label chose to feature a diverse cast of models and to celebrate their individual beauties A senator who grilles Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing has gone viral. Kamala Harris, a Democratic senator from California, asked Kavanaugh, 53, several questions on Thursday during his confirmation hearing. Harris, 53, brought up several topics, from Donald Trump's reaction to the Charlottesville car attack to marriage equality. One of her questions about how the government regulates male and female bodies differently which appeared to be a clear reference to abortion earned the attention of thousands of viewers who cheered on her on social media. Scroll down for video Kamala Harris, a Democratic senator from California, asked Kavanaugh, 53, several questions on Thursday during his confirmation hearing 'Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?' Harris asked Kavanaugh, Trump's pick to fill in the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh hesitated and eventually responded: 'Um... I'm happy to answer a, um... more specific question.' 'Male versus female,' Harris added. 'There are medical procedures...' Kavanaugh said, prompting Harris to continue: 'That the gov has the power to make a decision about a man's body?' 'I thought you were asking about medical procedures that are unique to men,' Kavanaugh replied. At that point, Harris smiled and said: 'I'll repeat the question. Can you think of any laws that give the gov the power to make decisions about the male body?' 'I'm not I'm not thinking of any right now, Senator,' Kavanaugh replied. Harris then continued grilling Kavanaugh about his thoughts on precedent and whether the court can overrule it, leading him to acknowledge that it can and sometimes does. Support: Twitter users praised Harris after she asked Kavanaugh a question that appeared to be a clear reference to abortion rights Cheering her on: Several people suggested Harris should run for president in the future Democratic lawmakers have frequently returned to questions about Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh called it an 'important precedent' that has 'been reaffirmed many times.' He singled out the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case reaffirming the decision and called it 'precedent on precedent'. But in a 2003 email that became public Thursday as part of the confirmation process, Kavanaugh noted Roe v. Wade could be overruled. Exchange: Kavanaugh (pictured during his confirmation hearing) hesitated before providing an answer to Harris' question Kavanaugh was working for George W. Bush's White House when he wrote in reviewing a proposed op-ed: 'I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so.' Asked about that email, Kavanaugh said that he was noting 'what legal scholars might say' and that he chimed in because he's 'always concerned with accuracy'. In the context of Kavanaugh's contentious confirmation hearing, the video of Harris' asking him 'Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?' promptly went viral. The clip, which Harris shared on Twitter, has now been liked more than 71,000 likes and retweeted more than 25,000 times. It has also generated thousands of comments, many of which have praised the senator for her hard line of questioning. One person deemed the question 'perfect', while another marveled at its phrasing. Someone else told the senator 'you rule' next to a gif of Rihanna placing a crown on her own head. 'I love you, Senator. Seriously,' another person wrote. Several people suggested Harris should run for president, including someone who tweeted: 'Harris for President 2020' above a gif of President Barack Obama telling the crowd 'Don't boo, vote' during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. 'Thank you for being my voice today!' someone else told Harris, while one Twitter user deemed her a 'shero'. 'If men could get pregnant there would be an abortion clinic at every Starbucks,' one person chimed in. Someone else wrote below the clip of Harris grilling Kavanaugh: 'SAY IT AGAIN LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.' Advertisement Late designer Kate Spade may have parted ways with her eponymous fashion label more than a decade before she died, but that didn't stop the brand from paying tribute to its founder as it hosted its first New York Fashion Week show since her tragic suicide in June. The brand honored Spade, who died in June at the age of 55 after hanging herself with a scarf, by leaving 'In Loving Memory' cards on the seats of each guest at its spring/summer 2019 show, which took place on Friday at the New York Public Library. Each card bore the years of Spade's birth (1962) and death (2018) on one side, while the other featured the quote: 'She left a little sparkle everywhere she went.' Bright and bold: Kate Spade held its first New York Fashion Week show since its founder died in June after committing suicide in her Manhattan apartment Tribute: The brand paid tribute to the late designer, placing 'In Loving Memory' cards on each guest's seat, all of which featured a touching quote about Spade, as well as the years of her birth and death Creative director Nicola Glass also highlighted the significance of the brand's roots, explaining that Kate Spade's new collection was inspired by the 'original codes of the house', which have been 'refined and evolved in unique ways', describing the design process as a 'journey that starts at the beginning to form new paths'. Tragedy: Spade passed away at the age of 55 after a battle with depression 'This collection has been given a lot of care, attention and love,' she signed off her message to the brand's guests. This season, the brand chose to move away from its traditional presentation-style format, choosing instead to share its new collection with fashion fans on the runway. Several stars turned out for the event, including actresses Priyanka Chopra, Kate Bosworth, and Elizabeth Olsen, as well as model Suki Waterhouse, all of whom had a perfect view of the show from their perch on the front row. Bright, colorful spring designs were showcased on the catwalk, with with pared-down florals and funky geometric patterns dominating the collection, which was punctuated with fun accessories, including laser-cut beach bags, large sunglasses, and colorful headcsarves. Bold yellow dresses stood out among a palette of muted pastels, with materials ranging from flowing silks to more rigid cotton. In another nod to Spade's lasting heritage, the show also featured updated versions of the designer's 'Sam' bag - one of the first designs she released when the label first launched. Spade officially parted ways with her eponymous brand in 2007, when she and her husband Andy sold off their remaining shares in the company - 44 per cent - in order to focus on raising their daughter. Star-studded: Several A-listers turned out to support the show, which took place at the New York Public Library on Friday, including model Suki Waterhouse (left), and actresses Kate Bosworth (center) and Priyanka Chopra (right) Glam: The brand's spring/summer 19 collection was inspired by the 'original codes of the house', according to creative director Nicola Glass's show notes Special: 'This collection has been given a lot of care, attention and love,' Glass signed off her message to the brand's guests But the designer remained forever connected with the label that she founded, which continued to use her name even after she moved on to new ventures. When Spade was found dead at her Manhattan apartment on June 5, the brand released a heart-breaking statement in honor of its 'visionary founder'. 'Our thoughts are with her family at this incredibly heartbreaking time,' the statement - which was shared on Twitter - continued. 'We honor all the beauty she brought into this world.' The brand's latest show comes just one day after Frances Valentine, the handbag brand that Spade co-founded in 2016, released its own tribute to the designer - the 'Kate' tote, which is inspired by the first bag Spade released when he founded her namesake label in 1993. Spade's business partner Elyce Arons appeared on Good Morning America on Thursday to share her grief over her friend's tragic death, revealing that she remains devastated by the loss - but determined to continue on with the brand that Spade left behind. Summer ready: The collection featured a muted pastel palette that was punctuated by funky geometric patterns and pops of bold color, be it in the form of a shoe, or an accessory Iconic: Several models carried updated version's of the 'Sam' bag (right) - which was one of the first designs Spade released when she founded her label in 1993 Strut your stuff: In recent years, the brand has stuck to a more low-key presentation-style format at Fashion Week, but chose to return to the runway for this season She added that, although she knew about Spade's ongoing battle with depression, she could not have ever predicted that the designer would even consider taking her own life. 'It was tough because she didn't always say it,' she said of Spade's mental health battle. 'She'd be sad and then one minute later, she'd make a joke. 'We talked every day and most of the time she was very happy but I don't know if anyone can understand the depths of depression of another person. 'I have thought and thought and thought about [why she did it]... but I think it was probably one moment of despair and of deep sadness that she felt when she was alone.' Vowing to carry on with Frances Valentine, the label they launched in 2016, Arons said she had been given a push in encouragement by the outpouring of love Spade's family received after her death. 'We miss her every day. Her spirit's here. We've had a lot of people, a lot of people, write in and talk about how she changed their lives and [saying] "please keep going and keep her designs alive." 'That's what we're going to do,' she said. Barack Obama is still heartbroken over his daughter Malia leaving home for college. The former president, 57, spoke on Friday spoke on Friday at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was receiving an award for ethics in government - and in the midst of a blistering attack on Trump and the Republicans, he took the opportunity to make some intimate remarks about his role as a dad. Drawing on his own experience as the father of a college student, referring to 20-year-old daughter Malia, Obama made it very clear just how much he misses having his eldest daughter around, while urging the crowd of students to pick up their phones every now and then to chat with their 'crying... suffering' parents or send them a message. Speech: Barack Obama, 57, spoke on Friday spoke on Friday at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was receiving an award for ethics in government Milestone: Both Barack and Michelle Obama looked emotional when they dropped off Malia for her first year at Harvard University last year 'Now that I have a daughter in college, I can tell all the students here: your parents suffer,' he said. 'They cry privately. It is brutal. So please call. Send a text.' His comments drew chuckles and applause from the crowd. Obama continued: 'We need to hear from you. Just a little something.' Malia is currently beginning her sophomore year at Harvard University, while Barack and Michelle have remained in Washington, D.C. as their youngest daughter, 17-year-old Sasha, finishes high school. Both Barack and Michelle Obama looked emotional when they dropped off Malia for her first year at Harvard last year. The parents kept their sunglasses on as they left her dorm and kept their faces down while making a swift exit in their SUV. Obama had previously acknowledged that he cried during Malia's high school graduation, and that he was wearing dark sunglasses at the time. During her first year of college, Malia has been spotted a few times with her boyfriend Rory Farquharson, a British student who also goes to Harvard. Studies: Malia (pictured last year on the day after she moved into her dorm) is now beginning her sophomore year at Harvard They were seen in July walking hand in hand in London's neighborhood of Mayfair, going out for dinner. In his speech on Friday, Obama also shared more serious remarks with the students in attendance, urging them to not just vote in the midterm elections, but to lead the fight against President Donald Trump and his allies. Address: Obama smiled as he prepared to speak to students on Friday He told them that 'you cannot sit back and wait for a savior', and that the biggest threat to democracy isn't Trump but 'indifference'. The speech was a preview of the arguments Obama is expected to make as he starts campaigning for Democrats on the ballot this fall. He said people have asked him what he's going to do for the November election. Obama told the students: 'The question is: 'What are you going to do?'' 'If you thought elections don't matter, I hope these past two years have corrected that impression,' he added. Obama called Trump 'a symptom, not a cause' of what's dividing the country. He said that Trump is capitalizing on the same resentments, fear and anger that politicians have fanned for years, which he views as the result of a rapidly changing world and growing inequality. Family: 'Now that I have a daughter in college, I can tell all the students here: your parents suffer,' Obama said on Friday. He is pictured with Malia in 2016 Away: Malia (pictured last year in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is hundreds of miles away from her parents, who have remained in Washington, D.C. Politicians who appeal to that fear are using 'an old playbook', according to Obama. The former president said the US needs to restore 'honesty and decency' in government. 'It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents, or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up,' he told the crowd. He remarked: 'I'm not making that up. That's not hypothetical.' Trump this week criticized the attorney general for prosecuting two Republican congressmen, saying it will hurt the party in the November elections. In his speech, Obama also said that Americans and politicians of both parties should stand up against discrimination and 'stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers.' 'How hard can that be?' he added. 'Saying that Nazis are bad?' Disneyland has been fined $33,000 for failing to protect people from Legionnaire's disease. Three employees at the park in Anaheim, California, contracted the life-threatening condition in the last year, with two requiring hospital treatment. Their cases were part of a county-wide outbreak that sickened more than a dozen, and killed one. Now, the Los Angeles Times has reported that, in an effort to control the outbreaks, California health officials slapped a hefty fine on Disneyland after finding that its cooling systems were poorly maintained. Three employees at the park in Anaheim, California, contracted the life-threatening condition in the last year, with two requiring hospital treatment (file image) Legionnaire's is spread via water droplets and air particles. It is caused by bacteria that can grow in man-made water systems. Most infections are in people exposed to dirty or poorly maintained air conditioning units. People can develop pneumonia after breathing in contaminated vapor. In sunny California, cooling systems abound, and ride-filled Disneyland is full of them. Disneyland has appealed and objected to the allegation that the park's cooling equipment caused the illness. The park says the source of the outbreak was not scientifically determined. But officials are keen to show action is being taken. There has been a 450 percent increase of cases in the past two decades, according to a 2017 CDC report. Flu-like symptoms including fever, fatigue and muscle ache typically appear between two and 10 days of inhaling the legionella bacteria. In most cases, the lung infection can be cured with a course of antibiotics. However, in vulnerable populations such as the elderly or people with compromised immune systems, it can cause life-threatening complications including organ failure and septic shock. One in seven NHS operations are cancelled on the day of surgery, new research suggests. Both emergency and planned procedures for everything from heart and cancer surgeries to abdominal operations and joint replacements are being cancelled or postponed on the day they are scheduled to be carried out, a study found. In half of cases, no reason is given for the cancellation, while in others a lack of beds, staff and hospital equipment are to blame, the research adds. Study author Professor Ramani Moonesinghe, from University College London, claims last-minute cancellations are affecting the 'health and welfare of tens of thousands of patients every year'. This comes after figures released in May showed 24,475 NHS operations were cancelled last minute between January and March this year in England - the highest level since records began in 1994. One in seven NHS operations are cancelled on the day of surgery, research suggests (stock) The researchers analysed more than 26,000 cases in 245 hospitals over a week in March 2017. These procedures were made up of both emergency and planned surgeries that required the patient to stay in hospital. In up to a third of cases, the procedure was cancelled due to the patient not being healthy enough to go under the knife. Of the 15,000 cases scheduled for planned operations, 10 per cent had previously had the same surgery postponed, according to the results, which were published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Professor Cliff Shearman, from the Royal College of Surgeons, said: 'It is important to underline that cancelling and rescheduling an operation is not only stressful for patients, but a complete waste of hospital resources. 'It is awful for a patient to have their operation cancelled twice.' JUST HOW STRETCHED IS THE NHS? Waiting times at over-stretched A&E units are at their worst level since records began, according to official figures in April 2018. Experts said the NHS was in the grip of an 'eternal winter' and many hospitals are still struggling to cope with the unprecedented pressure. Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt was forced to admit it was the 'worst winter ever' amid a severe outbreak of flu and cold weather. Chiefs cancelled thousands of operations in a controversial move to ease pressure. And experts have suggested this may be the only option to stop a crisis next year. The latest monthly data from NHS England also shows that waiting times for routine operations, such as knee and hip replacements, are at their highest since 2004. And violent assaults on staff have risen by 10 per cent in a year partly driven by frustration with waiting times. Advertisement The researchers acknowledge cancellation rates may be lower in quieter periods of the year, with Professor Moonesinghe adding planned procedures should be carried out during the less busy summer months. According to NHS bosses, minor treatments and operations where the patient goes home on the same day have significantly lower cancellation rates. An NHS England spokesperson said: 'This report provides only a selective, limited snapshot of surgery in England, where the NHS is funding more routine operations and more people are undergoing treatment than the year before.' A spokesperson from the Welsh government noted that when a operation is postponed, another procedure is usually carried out in its place rather than the surgery slot being lost. Speaking of the cancellation figures released last May, the Royal College of Surgeons branded such statistics 'unacceptable', adding that scrapped operations have left thousands in agony. Unprecedented winter pressures in overcrowded A&E units, which were described as being like war zones, had a knock-on effect on spiraling waiting times. As of May, nearly 3,000 patients endured waits for health service treatment of more than 12 months - the highest in six years, according to NHS England data. Health chiefs argued the NHS was in 'recovery mode', after being crippled by an 'eternal winter'. Tens of thousands of us down a probiotic drink every day in the belief that it helps digestion Tens of thousands of us down a probiotic drink every day in the belief that it helps digestion. But a new study suggests they may be ineffective for more than half of those who drink them. Probiotics are said to contain 'friendly' bacteria which help restore the natural balance of bacteria in the gut. It is claimed they can reduce hayfever symptoms, prevent stomach bugs in those travelling abroad and even stop colds from lasting too long. As well as drinks, they are often found in yoghurts. But when 19 people in the study conducted in Israel took probiotics containing 11 of the most common strains of bacteria, only eight had any 'notable colonisation' of their gut by the bacteria in the probiotics. Professor Eran Segal, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Tel Aviv, said: 'People have thrown a lot of support to probiotics, even though the literature underlying our understanding of them is very controversial. Surprisingly, we saw that many healthy volunteers were resistant. The probiotics couldn't colonise their tracts.' To test the probiotics, volunteers were given endoscopies (a tube from the mouth to the stomach) and colonoscopies (a tube along the large intestine) to remove and analyse the bacteria in their guts. It seems many were 'resisters' to probiotic drinks, and the probiotic bacteria were 'pushed out' by their existing gut bacteria. Probiotics are said to contain 'friendly' bacteria which help restore the natural balance of bacteria in the gut The authors say the number of people in the study who rejected probiotics are likely to be reflected in the wider population. They said: 'This suggests that probiotics should not be universally given as a 'one-size-fits-all' supplement. 'Instead, they could be tailored to the needs of each individual.' The results are published in the journal Cell. All smokers in England should have quit before 2030, a leading health expert has warned. The chief executive of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie, is calling for the country to go smoke-free within the next 12 years. Speaking at the NHS England Expo conference last night, he said cutting out cigarettes could save the NHS 900 million a year and prevent thousands of early deaths. More than six million people smoke and the habit is the leading cause of cancer it's responsible for 15 per cent of all cases of the deadly disease. Mr Selbie says everybody should be given help to stop smoking, saying it is an 'addiction that warrants medical treatment', not a lifestyle choice. The comments came just a day after the NHS revealed one in 10 British women still smoke while they're pregnant, and a study found last month that the number of teenagers taking up smoking is on the rise. The chief executive of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie, has said he wants all smokers to quit within the next 12 years in order to save thousands of lives and free up NHS money which is spent on diseases caused by the habit Mr Selbie, the boss of Public Health England, the government's national health watchdog, spoke at the annual NHS England Expo in Manchester yesterday. He declared war on smoking, saying removing it from society would be the single best way to improve people's health, The Sun reported. And he said all smokers should be offered help to quit the life-shortening habit. Mr Selbie said: 'Smoking should no longer be seen as a lifestyle choice. It is an addiction that warrants medical treatment. 'Everyone who smokes must be offered the support they need to quit. 'With the right long-term plan in place, we can remove smoking from England. This is the single biggest thing we can do to improve the nations health.' Figures released in July this year showed 14.9 per cent of adults around 6.3 million people were smokers in 2017, down 200,000 from the previous year. MEN WHO SMOKED AS TEENS ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE ASTHMATIC CHILDREN Children whose fathers smoked before they were even conceived are more than three times more likely to develop asthma, according to research from 2016. The effect of a mother's lifestyle on child health is well documented, but this suggests the link is also be true for fathers-to-be. It is believed sperm cells are damaged by nicotine, affecting a child's genes. The study of 24,000 children by the University of Bergen found boys having their first cigarette before the age of 15 put offspring at particular risk. Both the age at which a father first smoke and the time his habit had lasted before starting a family affected the risk, according to the study in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The findings added to a growing body of evidence showing men's behaviour before conception may be vital to a baby's health. Advertisement But Mr Selbie says he wants that figure to fall below five per cent or, in an ideal world, down to zero. He has called for a 'ruthless' plan from the NHS to tackle the deadly habit, as well as action on heart disease and obesity, both of which are killing people worldwide. But smoking campaigners say Mr Selbie's comments amount to 'bullying', and smokers have the right to do it if they want to. 'It's laughable to think England will be smoke-free within 12 years,' said Simon Clark, spokesman for smokers' rights group, Forest. 'Some people will always want to smoke. Its their choice and if youre an adult you have every right to do so. 'Some smokers would like to quit but many smoke because they enjoy it and no amount of state-sponsored bullying will force them to stop.' Mr Selbie's comments came just a day after the NHS released quarterly figures showing 10.4 per cent of expectant mothers across England smoke while they're pregnant. Despite scientific evidence that smoking while pregnant increases the chance of stillbirth or an unhealthy baby, women are failing to heed expert advice. And a study by the University of Bergen in Norway last month revealed the rates of 11 to 15-year-old children taking up smoking is on the rise in Europe. Starting smoking is falling across all other age groups, but twice as many 11 to 15-year-old girls in Western Europe took up smoking in 2009 as in 1970. iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- George Papadopoulos -- the novice, unpaid foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump who rose to prominence when he became the first former campaign adviser arrested as part of special counsel Robert Muellers Russian-influence probe -- is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Washington. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to FBI agents about his correspondence with Russian nationals, and attempts to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian officials. He faces up to six months in prison. Mr. Papadopouloss offense was unquestionably serious as he made materially false statements to FBI agents investigating the Russian governments efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, his lawyer wrote to the judge last week in asking for leniency. He lied during the course of an investigation that raised serious national security concerns, attorney Robert W. Stanley wrote. For that, Mr. Papadopoulos is ashamed and remorseful. As the first former Trump adviser to agree to cooperate with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Papadopoulos has sought probation. But prosecutors have been less forgiving, telling U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss that the young foreign policy and energy expert continued to mislead them even after they had reached a cooperation agreement. The sentence imposed here should reflect the fact that lying to federal investigators has real consequences, especially where the defendant lied to investigators about critical facts, in an investigation of national importance, after having been explicitly warned that lying to the FBI was a federal offense, prosecutors wrote. The nature and circumstances of the offense warrant a sentence of incarceration. Papadopoulos remains a central figure in the probe into Russian meddling because he is believed to be the first Trump campaign adviser to be contacted by someone believed to be tied to the Russian government and told of hacked emails tied to Hillary Clintons campaign -- information shared in April 2016, well before any pilfered material was published. The early date of this contact is significant: Even the Clinton campaign was not yet aware that Russia possessed their stolen emails, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee wrote in a status report about their investigation. How his cooperation influenced the direction and tenor of the Mueller probe, however, remains unclear. Prosecutors conducted four lengthy proffer sessions with him, according to court records. According to his court filings, the interviews included discussion of his interactions with a mysterious Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, who was believed to have ties to the Russian government, and his fleeting friendship with a Belarussian-born businessman who was making contact with numerous people in Trumps orbit. Both men have since gone silent. In their sentencing memo to the judge released last Friday, lawyers for Papadopoulos also claimed the future president "nodded with approval" when, at a March 2016 meeting that included then-campaign adviser Jeff Sessions, Papadopoulos offered to arrange a get-together with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has said previously that he does not recall much of what was said during the "very unimportant" campaign meeting. "Eager to show his value to the campaign, George announced at the meeting that he had connections that could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin," the sentencing memo states. "While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it." In the months since his guilty plea, Papadopoulos has been represented in public by his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos. As her husbands sentencing has approached, Mangiante Papadopoulos has spoken out repeatedly about her belief that her husband was in some way set up by the government. For several weeks, she maintained that her husband was reconsidering his guilty plea. But she said he ultimately decided to accept his fate with the court. George will take responsibility for some inaccuracies during the interview with the FBI, she said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday. She said she hopes the judge will take into account his lingering concerns about the conduct of the government in order to assess Georges role in this investigation from an objective point of view. And, yes, she added, definitely decide for zero jail time. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. People who drink their own urine claim it gives them better skin, helps them lose weight and keeps them feeling young. Those committed to the bizarre lifestyle have lifted the lid on why they drink their urine instead of flushing it, and say it is a natural way to boost your health. Drinking urine, rubbing it into the skin and even washing your eyes with it is apparently a centuries-old practice, and is believed by some to cure diseases, boost energy and even reverse ageing. And thanks to health bloggers promoting the seemingly grotesque idea online, more people are turning to the toilet for their health benefits. Christo Dabraccio, a meteorologist from Idaho, says drinking his urine helped him lose 30lbs (13.6kg) and leaves him feeling 'like Superman'. And after he recommended it to painter Julia Sillaman, from Maryland, she claims it has worked wonders for her acne and she's shed 25lbs (11.3kg) in the process. But scientists say there is no evidence the practice has any benefits and one said people drinking their urine 'do nothing more than make a mockery of themselves'. Julia Sillaman, 26, and Christo Dabraccio, 49, say drinking their own urine has helped them to lose weight and makes them feel more energised, healthier and connected to nature The fringe following of people drinking their own urine has picked up steam recently in the US, thanks to people recommending it on the internet. The logic is that urine contains compounds which can be reabsorbed to improve the body's ability to fight disease and provide other detoxifying effects. But the claims have left a bitter taste in the mouth of experts, who argue there is no scientific evidence to support drinking urine and that it may in fact be harmful. Christo Dabraccio, 49, claims what is called 'urine therapy' left him feeling like Superman and saw him lose 30lbs after he got over initially being 'grossed out'. He said: 'I heard about it online and to be honest I was immediately grossed out. But the more I researched and read testimonials, the more trust I gained. 'Your pee is just a highly filtered derivative of your blood, and blood is your lifeforce, so it makes sense. 'As soon as I tried it, I started feeling like Superman. 'I was loaded with energy, my head was clearer, I felt younger and my skin was glowing. It's like a fountain of youth.' Mr Dabraccio bottles his urine and drinks approximately three cups every day, as well as using it to wipe his face and wash his eyes. Christo Dabraccio (pictured before he started what he calls urine therapy) said the more he read about the practice online, the more intrigued he became about doing it now he says it is 'like a fountain of youth' Mr Dabraccio says he has lost 30lbs from drinking his own urine and fasting, and claims the grotesque habit leaves him feeling 'loaded with energy' Mr Dabraccio bottles his urine and drinks approximately three cups every day, as well as using it to wipe his face and wash his eyes He claims similar practices have been quietly adopted by high-profile figures in Hollywood but would not name names. Mr Dabraccio admitted many have turned their nose up at the online community, but said it is worth it to raise awareness for people who want the health benefits. He has lost 30lbs since starting the treatment alongside dry fasting, in which people avoid consuming water for short periods of time. He said: 'I understand why people can be skeptical, I felt the same way when I first saw it. 'But at the end of the day, I'm not trying to sell anything. We can't sell you your own pee I'm just promoting freedom. 'I like to open people's eyes to something that can help them.' Julia Sillaman, 26, claims to have improved her acne after Christo recommended she start massaging urine onto her face. As well as curing her complexion, she says she has lost 25lbs and improved her digestion since taking up urine therapy. Painter Ms Sillaman, from Maryland, said: 'I was breaking out badly in acne, but I was hesitant to see a dermatologist. Julia Sillaman, 26, said she was 'hesitant' to visit a dermatologist after developing severe acne, and instead tried drinking her own urine and rubbing it on her face Ms Sillaman said the idea of drinking her own urine did not gross her out when she found out about it, and now says it has cleared up her skin problem as well as helping her lose 25lbs in the process Ms Sillaman, a painter, said she has more energy and that drinking her urine has 'changed my life' and, she claims, after fasting her urine began to taste like coconut water 'That's when I met Christo I remember seeing how healthy he looked and how clear his eyes were. He told me to try urine therapy for my skin. 'It didn't gross me out, I was intrigued. The day after I started massaging it into my skin, the inflammation went down and my skin smoothed out. 'After I started fasting, the pee stopped smelling and started tasting like coconut water. 'I have more energy and feel more in touch with nature. This has changed my life I feel like a different person. 'I think I will do it for the rest of my life, but maybe not as strictly as I am now. 'I expected my family to be weirded out, but after seeing my results some of them are trying it for themselves. Ms Sillaman bottles her urine and uses it to drink or rub on her face in order to reduce inflammation caused by acne, and she says some members of her family have tried the practice after she told them about it 'I get why people might think it's weird, because it's not accepted. Most people's pee smells bad, so we think it's' gross. 'But with more success stories I think it could change.' Some followers of urine therapy believe it dates back to Biblical times. However, no independent research has been done on the practice, and kidney specialists have warned consuming too much can lead to a build-up of toxic waste similar to the effects of kidney failure. Professor Henry Woo, a urological surgeon at the University of Sydney, said: 'There is absolutely no scientific evidence to suggest that urine therapy has any therapeutic value. 'Those who drink their own urine do nothing more than make a mockery of themselves.' It appears Dracula may have been onto something when he drank the blood of young maidens. Scores of start-ups have been tinkering with transfusions of blood from younger adults to treat age-related diseases. But a leading geneticist at University College London insists those experiments are no joke, and are seriously considered by leading physicians to be one of the most promising ventures in modern medicine. Publishing an analysis of data in the journal Nature, Dame Linda Partridge, a geneticist, says research shows young blood could allow humans to live a life free of diseases like cancer, dementia and heart disease, right up until their deaths. Her work forms part of a wave of studies and trials, including a set of human trials backed by Peter Thiel at a San Francisco start-up called Ambrosia, injecting older adults with young blood - something that would cost $8,000 if it were rolled out to the public. Older people given transfusions of blood from younger adults are at a lower risk of cancer, dementia and heart disease, new research shows Professor Partridge's study showed older mice given young blood did not develop age-related diseases and maintained sharp cognitive function, while younger ones given older blood saw the opposite effect. It's proof, she says, that blood needs to be more closely studied in animals to identify the molecules that conserve physical health. 'Identification of these is a high priority for research,' the study says. 'The practical accessibility of both the human microbiome and blood system makes therapeutic manipulation a particularly attractive approach, but research in animals is needed to establish the long-term consequences and possible side effects.' Professor Partridge and her co-authors Joris Deelen and P. Eline Slagboom add: '[B]lood is the most practically accessible and therefore the most com-monly investigated tissue, but it is much less commonly used in animal studies. 'It will be important to develop blood-based biomarkers of risk, ageing hallmarks and responses to candidate interventions in animals.' Theirs is hardly the first study to show such an effect. The Ambrosia trials involved 70 participants. All of those involved were at least 35 and had paid $8,000 (6,200) to be part of the experiment out of their own pocket. They were given plasma - the main component of blood - from volunteers aged between 16 and 25. WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOUNG BLOOD? Various studies have shown the benefits of receiving transfusions of young blood. University of California at Berkeley scientists in November found 'vampire therapy' can repair muscle tissue. They also showed it had benefits for both the liver and brain after only 24 hours. In the same month, Alkahest, a company based in, reported similar findings during trials of young human blood on older mice. They found it improved the rodents' cognition, allowing them to frolic about like their younger counterparts. Stanford University experts had already shown the same findings in identical studies three years earlier, but using younger mice blood instead. Advertisement Researchers noted improvements in biomarkers of various major diseases, also known of indicators for certain conditions. This included a 10 percent reduction in blood cholesterol, of which high levels are known to lead to heart disease. Other effects noted by the scientists were a 20 percent reduction in proteins called carcinoembryonic antigens. These can be seen in high quantities in people who have various forms of cancer, the website reports, but it remains to be seen whether. The younger blood also helped to slash amyloid protein levels, which forms toxic clumps in the brains of dementia patients, by a fifth. In particular, one 55-year-old patient with early onset Alzheimer's began to show improvements in his condition after just one transfusion. Another, slightly older woman with more severe Alzheimer's pathology is showing similar improvements, the start-up reported. The scientists at Ambrosia envision a world in which elderly people receive two injections a year. However, he hinted it's possible some of the effects of could have been imagined by those who were desperate to see results after paying so much. Scientists have long studied the effects of young blood on animals, but have come across a mixed bag of results. Previous US research has suggested that the blood from human umbilical cords could be the key ingredient for a fountain of youth drug. The Stanford University team discovered a protein found with the plasma can reverse the effects of age-related mental decline. However, experts at The Ottawa Hospital made a much different finding last July. They noted how blood donations from young women may be linked to poorer survival rates in recipients. Bookstore Waterstones has agreed to buy Foyles, its iconic smaller rival, in a bid to fend off Amazon's expansion, it was announced today. The deal, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year, puts an end to Foyles' 115 years of family ownership. Waterstones managing director James Daunt said: 'We are honoured to be entrusted with the Foyles business, and greatly look forward to joining forces with the Foyles bookselling team. 'Together, we will be stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazon's siren call.' Iconic: Foyles flagship bookshop on Charing Cross Road, London The companies have not yet disclosed the full terms of the deal, but the acquisition will include London bookseller Hatchards, which was founded in 1797, and booksellers Hodges Figgis, which celebrates its 250 year anniversary this year. Foyles, which was founded in 1903 by William and Gilbert Foyle, said the decision to sell had been 'a hard one' but that it will protect Foyles 'for the good of the business, its staff and its customers'. William's grandson's Christopher, who took over the company 19 years ago, said: 'My family and I are delighted that Foyles is entering a new chapter, one which secures the brand's future and protects its personality. 'I look forward to witnessing the exciting times ahead for the company founded by my Grandfather and his brother 115 years ago.' Waterstones managing director James Daunt Foyles added in a statement: 'James Daunt [] has assured us of his desire to maintain and celebrate the Foyles name and our distinct bookselling identity.' It said that once the sale is completed, chief executive Paul Currie and financial director John Browne will be leaving the business. Best known for its former flagship branch in Charing Cross Road, Central London once listed as the worlds largest bookshop with 30 miles of shelving Foyles moved its main store a few doors along in 2014. It also has another three shops in the capital as well as shops in Bristol, Birmingham and Chelmsford. Foyles made a pre-tax loss of 88,800 in the 12 months to June 30, 2017 despite sales growing 6 per cent to 26.6million. At the time, the directors said heightened fears of terrorism and subsequent extra security measures meant fewer customers at its key locations. Waterstones is one of Britain's largest bookstores with 283 shops in the UK and over 3,000 employees. It was bought by hedge fund Elliott Advisors in April this year in April this year. The investors are thought to have paid as much as 250million for Waterstones from its previous owner, Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut. M&A advisory firm Cavendish Corporate Finance said the acquisition was a 'smart move' that will increase Waterstones' competitiveness. Jonathan Buxton at Cavendish said: 'Waterstones acquisition of Foyles is a smart move to try and counter the expansion of discounters like Amazon and capitalise on the recent rise in consumer demand for books both in store and online. 'The deal comes at a time when demand for books has risen both in the digital sphere and, perhaps more surprisingly, for traditional physical copies, and in 2016 Waterstones returned to profit after six consecutive years of losses.' Billboards slamming Gretchen Carlson, the chairwoman of the Miss America Organization, as a liar, a bully and 'so fake' cast an uncomfortable shadow on the second night of the pageant. The Daily Caller revealed the signs cropped up around Atlantic City, where the pageant is being held, on Thursday morning, referencing claims from the most recent Miss America winner Cara Mund, who has accused Carlson and organization CEO Regina Hopper of having bullied and silenced her during her reign. As of Thursday evening no one has taken responsibility for the signs, which were hung from traffic lights, posted at bus stops and glued to utility boxes. Scroll down for video The signs appeared across Atlantic City on Thursday morning Billboards blasting Miss America chairwoman Gretchen Carlson (left) as a liar, a bully and 'so fake' were posted around Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Thursday morning, referencing claims from reigning Miss America Cara Mund (right), who has accused Carlson and CEO Regina Hopper of having bullied and silenced her When asked about the billboards, Carlson, a former Fox News host and former Miss America herself, said she had no comment. Both she and Hopper have repeatedly denied bullying Mund. The signs appear to parody Carlson's book 'Be Fierce.' They include the same photo of her that appears on her book cover, but with the words 'So Fake' and 'private bully, public liar'. In addition, someone hung a pageant sash on the Miss America statue just outside Boardwalk Hall, where the competition takes place, that reads 'Gretchen Sucks'. This year's pageant is taking place amid a revolt by state organizations, most of which want Carlson and Hopper to resign. Forty-six of the 51 groups (the District of Columbia is included) have signed letters seeking their resignation. They are unhappy with the way the decision to eliminate the swimsuit competition from the pageant was reached, among other issues. Both Carlson and Hopper (pictured on August 30) have repeatedly denied bullying Mund Cara Mund of North Dakota was crowned Miss America 2018 last year (pictured above) This year's pageant is taking place amid a revolt by state organizations, most of which want Carlson and Hopper to resign The protest threatened to overshadow the second night of preliminaries Thursday night. The first night, on Wednesday, was free of any reference to the controversy as Mund and Carlson took the stage together to introduce this year's 51 hopefuls. The reigning Miss America did not reference the leadership controversy in her opening remarks, 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.' She said she was confident whoever wins this year's competition 'will be 100 percent ready and supported throughout her entire year'. Mund spent a majority of her speaking time deflecting questions about her August 17 letter criticizing the pageant's leadership, saying: 'It's all about the women competing and we're here to celebrate their accomplishments.' Asked about the letter, Mund said: 'I think my letter's telling. At the same time, I'm a product of this organization and I'm very grateful for that. I'll be able to go to law school because of the scholarship money I earned from this organization.' Carlson and Hopper separately declined to answer questions after the ceremony. On Thursday, an attorney representing Mund said the Miss America Organization had told him it was conducting an internal investigation into Mund's allegations that included, in his words, 'bullying and a corrosive work environment.' In a letter to the organization's attorneys, attorney Roger Haber urged that the results be made public. Contestants take the stage during the second night of preliminary competition in the Miss America pageant on Thursday in Atlantic City Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev, left, conducts an onstage interview with Miss Florida Taylor Tyson during the second night of preliminary competition on Thursday Miss Florida Taylor Tyson, left, and Miss Wisconsin Tianna Vanderhei, right, speak to media after their respective wins in the talent and onstage interview competitions on Wednesday All 51 contestants are pictured ahead of this year's competition, which ends on Sunday night The winners from Thursday night's competition were Miss Virginia Emili McPhail, who won the onstage interview portion, and Miss Louisiana Holli' Conway, who won the talent portion for a vocal performance. Contestants from Florida and Wisconsin picked up wins Wednesday in the first night of preliminary competition. Miss Florida Taylor Tyson won the talent competition for a piano rendition of 'Mephisto's Waltz' by Lizst. Miss Wisconsin Tianna Vanderhei won the onstage interview competition for her comments on how higher education should be more affordable and more widely accessible. 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. The third and final night of preliminaries will be held Friday. The next Miss America will be crowned Sunday night in Atlantic City. Terrified Syrians are making improvised gas masks out of paper cups amid fears dictator Bashar al-Assad will launch chemical attacks during a push to seize the country's remaining rebel stronghold. Pictures show colourful party cups filled with cotton and charcoal being fitted to a child's face with a tightened plastic bag around his head in a village in Syria's Idlib province. The desperate tactic comes as the UN warned that a regime attack on the region of nearly three million could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria's seven-year war, displace up to 800,000 people and result in a 'bloodbath'. Assad has massed his army and allied forces on the frontlines in the northwest, and Russian planes have joined his bombardment of rebels there, in a prelude to a possible assault. A US official has warned there is 'lots of evidence' chemical weapons are being prepared by Syrian government forces in the region. Terrified Syrians are making improvised gas masks out of paper cups amid fears dictator Bashar al-Assad will launch chemical attacks during a push to seize the country's remaining rebel stronghold Pictures show colourful party cups filled with cotton and charcoal being fitted to a child's face with a tightened plastic bag around his head in a village in Syria's Idlib province The desperate tactic comes as the UN warned that a regime attack on the region of nearly three million could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria's seven-year war, displace up to 800,000 people and result in a 'bloodbath' Civilians in Syria's last major stronghold of active opposition to Assad's rule are preparing food and digging shelters ahead of an expected army offensive. They are also putting their faith in neighbouring Turkey's diplomacy to spare them from military action. 'We are preparing what little we can: small primitive masks we can place on our children's mouths in case we are hit with chemicals,' 20-year-old Shahad told Reuters from his village south of Idlib city, where he shares a house with his pregnant wife, three children and around 15 other people. His brother, 35-year-old construction worker Ahmed Abdulkarim al-Shahad, shows off the cavernous space under a cool, vine-covered courtyard the family has been digging and sheltering in from bombardment since 2012. 'Military preparations as we have seen are in full swing ... We as civilians have started preparing the caves,' he said, showing glass bottles of pickled vegetables shelved on the damp cave walls. Around three million people live in the rebel stronghold in northwest Syria, which comprises most of Idlib province and adjacent small parts of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces. Hudhayfa al-Shahad fills a paper cup with cotton and charcoal in Idlib, Syria as he makes a make-shift gas mask Pickled vegetables are shelved in an underground cave in Idlib, Syria as civilians brace themselves for an assault by Assad's forces Civilians in Syria's last major stronghold of active opposition to Assad's rule are preparing food and digging shelters ahead of an expected army offensive Hudhayfa al-Shahad walks in a makeshift shelter in an underground cave in Idlib, Syria. There are fears of a looming humanitarian disaster in Syria About half of them fled fighting or were transferred there by the government under surrender deals from other parts of Syria as Assad has steadily taken back territory from rebels. The new U.S. adviser for Syria, Jim Jeffrey, said on Thursday there was 'evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared' 'I am very sure that we have very, very good grounds to be making these warnings,' he said. 'Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation. There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared.' Syria summit in Iran may decide Idlib military offensive The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. But each nation has its own interests in the yearslong war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. 'The Tehran summit can produce peace and reconciliation in Syria or it can deepen the mess created by endless bouts of violence mainly instigated by the Assad regime,' Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, wrote in the Daily Sabah newspaper. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria's civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia's longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria's postwar reconstruction. The streets of Tehran were quiet on Friday, the second day of the Iranian weekend. The country's state-run IRNA news agency described the summit as potentially offering an 'agreement on peace and security' in Syria. A former Iranian diplomat, Ali Akbar Farazi, told IRNA the summit shows that solving regional issues 'in a fair way that agrees with the interests of all sides' remains important for the three nations. For Turkey, the stakes couldn't be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control. Turkey also doesn't want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq. Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, also didn't pull any punches in his piece in the Daily Sabah, saying: 'Assad bolstered by Iran's land assets and Russian air power and his use of chemical weapons has punched his way into opposition strongholds and hence massive gains for the Damascus regime. 'You still need moderate opposition groups who represent the Sunni suffering masses in Syria to achieve a viable political solution and durable peace in this country,' he wrote. 'Iran and Russia are the fighting forces in Syria and have brought blood and tears.' All three nations face sanctions from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump. Although America has some 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. America's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has warned any military offensive in Idlib 'would be a reckless escalation.' The U.S. will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday about the possible offensive. 'There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict,' Haley said in a statement Wednesday. 'Assad's brutal regime - backed by Russia and Iran - cannot continue to attack and terrorize Syria's citizens.' By AP reporters Advertisement The White House has warned that the United States and its allies would respond 'swiftly and vigorously' if government forces used chemical weapons in the widely expected offensive. Jeffrey said an attack by Russian and Syrian forces, and the use of chemical weapons, would force huge refugee flows into southeastern Turkey or areas in Syria under Turkish control. In April last year, a Syrian government warplane dropped sarin on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, killing more than 80 civilians, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry has said. It also said Syrian forces have used chemical weapons, including chlorine, more than two dozen times during the war. Damascus and its ally Russia both deny these charges and say they do not engage in chemical warfare. Idlib residents are fearful and Washington has warned Assad against using chemical weapons in any offensive, promising a response if he does so. Russia, Assad's ally, resumed air strikes against insurgents in Idlib on Tuesday following weeks of bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the last major rebel enclave. But Turkey has said it hopes a summit with Iranian and Russian leaders in Tehran on Friday will avert an offensive. And some people Reuters spoke to in Idlib suspected an offensive may be avoided. A displaced Syrian child wounded by shelling lies in a tent in Kafr Lusin near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey in the northern part of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province Assad has massed his army and allied forces on the frontlines in the northwest, and Russian planes have joined his bombardment (pictured) of rebels there, in a prelude to a possible assault 'I do not believe there will be an attack on Idlib. It's all a media war,' said 50-year-old former construction worker Jaafar Abu Ahmad from a rural area near Ma'arat al-Nuaman town. 'The great world powers have pre-agreed on us and divided the land.' Nevertheless, seven years of grinding war have taught Ahmad to be prepared. His family is currently expanding a damp dugout they have been digging and sheltering in from strikes for the past five years, stocking it with food. 'We have been digging in the earth for two months non-stop, me, my wife and children,' he said. 'This cave is now our protection. We cleaned it recently after it had been neglected for a long time.' With shelling, air strikes and rhetoric about an impending offensive increasing, a number of local councils across Idlib have come together and asked Turkey for protection. 'For us in the liberated areas our only guarantor in negotiations is our Turkish brothers,' said Ahmad Shtaam al-Rashu, the 48-year-old head of Ma'shureen village's local council. Turkey has erected observation posts along the frontlines between rebels and government forces, and Rashu said Turkey had told them this was a sign of its commitment to protect the people of Idlib. Idlib is often described as the 'last refuge' for rebels and internally displaced civilians, and any offensive threatens new displacement and human misery. 'As for escaping towards the (Turkish) border, I don't believe we will move from our houses. The bombardment will get us. There is no place left after Idlib,' said Ahmed al-Shahad. 'We will fight to the last man, we no longer have any option.' Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has ordered the city to stop holding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in prison. The executive order signed Thursday cut city ties with ICE, declaring Atlanta will no longer hold anyone for the federal agency and transferred most remaining detainees out of prisons where they were being held. 'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thought to the fallout,' Lance Bottoms said. 'As the birthplace of the civil rights movement, we are called to be better than this,' she added. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has ordered the city to stop holding ICE detainees in an executive order signed on Thursday She tweeted Thursday saying: 'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population' As of Thursday evening several ICE detainees had been removed and five people remained in Atlanta City Detention Center, a major drop from 205 held there in June, according to 11Alive. Over the summer the number of detainees has dropped as ICE has released several of them, deported others, or transported migrants to other detention centers. The decision to cut ties with ICE was recommended by a task force that reviewed the city's immigration policies following Trump's zero-tolerance- policy that detained and divided hundreds of immigrant families entering via the Mexican border. In June the Democratic Mayor also signed a separate executive order that blocked the jail from taking in any new ICE detainees, according to MyAJC. Lance Bottoms has condemned the separation of immigrant families, resulting in her refusal to accept detainees into city jails. However holding ICE detainee's has been profitable for the city as Atlanta has been paid $78 a day for each detainee held in the jail through a contract with the US Marshals service. The city raked in $7.5million through the deal for this fiscal year as of June - more than a fifth of the jail's annual $33milllion budget. As of Thursday evening on five ICE detainees remained in Atlanta's city jail, detained migrants at another jail pictured above Lance Bottoms is an outspoken critic against Trump's zero-tolerance policy. In June 205 ICE detainees were held in Atlanta's city jail, pictured above Secretary of State Brian Kemp - who is also Georgia's Republican nominee for governor - said the decision to not hold detainees would add crime to the city. 'The City of Atlanta should focus on cleaning up corruption and stopping crime - not creating more of it,' he said in a Thursday statement. A spokesperson for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor, applauded the Mayor's 'efforts to combat the impact of the administration's cruel and inhumane family separation policy. Anyone who stands against keeping families together lacks any kind of moral compass.' Lance Bottoms added that the city has a partnership with Uber and Catholic and Lutheran charities that will provide free transportation and meals for immigrant families separated at the Mexico border who will be reunited with family members in Atlanta. The Mayor is exploring eventually selling the city jail that has a declining number of inmates and increasing maintenance costs. Also on Thursday the Trump administration moved to withdraw a 1997 decree that limits the government's ability to detain immigrant children. If the decree dubbed the 'Flores settlement' is removed, the government can detain immigrant chiildren with their parents for longer than 20 days. But federal officials said children would be 'treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors'. 'Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the departments ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country. This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress,' US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement. Police investigating claims of sexual abuse have raided a Catholic-run school for deaf children in Pope Francis's homeland of Argentina. Argentine authorities visited the school for youths with hearing disabilities in Buenos Aires province yesterday. A police official said officers seized documents from the archives of the Antonio Provolo Institute in the city of La Plata dating back more than 30 years. These documents cover the period from 1987 to 2018. A prosecutor investigating 'possible crimes against sexual integrity' ordered the search of the school building, the source said. Children walk past the Antonio Provolo Institute in La Plata, yesterday, where authorities in Argentina carried out raids at a Catholic-run school as part of an investigation into alleged sexual abuse of vulnerable children The school for deaf children was raided by police yesterday in Buenos Aires, the home province of Pope Francis The police official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the case, agreed to give details of the operation only on condition of anonymity. Provolo Institute officials could not be reached despite repeated attempts for comment. The clerical abuse scandal has also marred other Provolo institutes. At one of its schools in northwestern Mendoza province, around 600 miles west of Buenos Aires, as many as 24 children say they were abused by priest Nicola Corradi, priest Horacio Corbacho and three other men, who were arrested in 2016. The pair are being held at a jail in Mendoza and have not spoken publicly since their arrest. In May last year Catholic nun from Japan, Kosaka Kumiko, was arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at the school in Lujan de Cuyo. Horacio Corbacho (left) and fellow priest Nicola Corradi (pictured in wheelchair) after their arrest in 2016 Nun Kosaka Kumiko when she appeared in court last year over allegations she helped five priests 'sexually abuse' dozens of deaf children in Mendoza province Allegations against Kumiko began after a former student accused her of making her wear a nappy in class to cover up injuries after she was allegedly raped by priest, Corbacho. The nun, who also has Argentine citizenship, denied any wrongdoing and said she was innocent. Three school employees, Jorge Bordon, Jose Luis Ojeda and Armando Gomez, were also arrested. Dozens of students of the institute in Verona, Italy, say they were similarly abused for decades, some allegedly by Corradi. Horacio Corbacho was arrested as part of an investigation into abuse at a Provolo Institute school for deaf children. He is pictured with a cross on a wall behind him The Vatican knew about Corradi since at least 2009, when the Italian Provolo students went public with tales of abuse and named names. The Vatican ordered an investigation and sanctioned four accused priests, but Corradi apparently never was punished for his alleged crimes in Italy. In 2012 the Verona diocese apologised to the Italian students. After the students again named Corradi as an abuser living in Pope Francis' native Argentina in a 2014 letter to the pontiff and the Verona bishop, the Vatican still took no action. Then in 2016, a Vatican official said Francis wanted to assure the victims that the church was taking measures to protect children and prevent sexual abuse. The Antonio Provolo Institute for deaf children in Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza province, where at least 20 children say they were abused by priest Nicola Corradi, priest Horacio Corbacho and three other men, who were arrested in 2016 Unlike the Verona case, the statute of limitations has not expired for the alleged crimes in Mendoza, which could lead to prison sentences of up to 50 years for a conviction. While celebrating a Mass at Dublin's Phoenix Park last Friday, the Pope Francis, who was born in Buenos Aires, asked forgiveness for the 'abuses in Ireland, abuses of power, conscience and sexual abuses' perpetrated by Church leaders after meeting with victims. Retired Vatican ambassador to the US, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, said Francis should resign for his complicity in the Cardinal Theodore McCarrick scandal, which has implicated US and Vatican church leaders over a period of two decades. A couple who survived the 2017 Las Vegas shooting have been left devastated after their neighbor gunned down the dog they got to deal with PTSD from the attack. Lona and Joseph Johnson, from Washington, were at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in October when a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds of others. The couple bought labradoodle Jax following the attack to help with their anxiety and stress. Lona and Joseph Johnson with pet dog Jax, who helped comfort them after the Vegas shooting Early Sunday morning the couple reported hearing gunshots in their rural northwest Washington community. Neighbor Odin Maxwell, 49, has been charged with recklessly discharging a firearm. Maxwell said the dog had been chasing his chickens but investigators found no evidence that any chickens had been hurt. The Johnsons used the pet to comfort them and their two children, who weren't at the concert but saw the news and knew their parents had been shot at. Mr Johnson said: 'He was such a blessing. He gave us something to look forward to. I really believe Jax was a big part of our healing.' The Johnsons say the labradoodle was shot and killed by their neighbor Odin Maxwell, 49 Maxwell, a workers compensation lawyer in Bellingham, declined to comment. The Johnsons said they had not had any previous dealings with Maxwell. Mr Johnson said a nephew returned one of Maxwell's chickens unharmed after it came onto their property only days before the dog was shot. He said the couple is considering suing Maxwell. They also plan to host a 5K run for people with their dogs to raise awareness about animal cruelty. 'We're pretty upset and hurt right now,' Lona Johnson said. 'It triggered a lot of PTSD for our family. We're still trying to deal with what happened in Las Vegas, and then this happened. Everybody who knows us knows how important Jax was to us.' Mrs Johnson's cousin, Melinda Brockie, was injured in the festival shooting. In a speech in Washington, Jeremy Fleming (pictured) called on the international community to reject the Kremlin's 'brazen determination to undermine the international rules-based order' The head of GCHQ has said the agency will use the 'full range of tools' against the Kremlin after two Russian intelligence officers were accused of carrying out the Salisbury nerve agent attack. In a speech in Washington, Jeremy Fleming called on the international community to reject Moscow's 'brazen determination to undermine the international rules-based order'. On Wednesday, two Russian nationals, said to be members of Russia's military intelligence service the GRU, were identified as suspects by police investigating the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in March. Mr Fleming said the intelligence community had supported police in a 'painstaking' and 'highly complex' investigation into what happened. He said: 'We have ascertained exactly who was responsible and the methods they used. 'As you would expect, teams from across GCHQ have worked tirelessly with partners at home and abroad to ensure that our world-class intelligence has informed that investigation. 'Yesterday two GRU operatives were named and arrest warrants issued. The threat from Russia is real. It's active. 'And it will be countered by a strong international partnership of allies. Able to deploy the full range of tools from across our national security apparatus. And ready to reject the Kremlin's brazen determination to undermine the international rules-based order.' It is the latest rebuke aimed at Moscow by a British spy chief since the Salisbury attack. In May, Andrew Parker, the Director General of MI5, described the Russian Government as 'chief protagonist' among 'hostile actors'. Alexander Petrov (left image) and Ruslan Boshirov (right image) are wanted by British authorities after the chemical attack in March this year In other remarks, Mr Fleming, the Director of GCHQ, said encryption 'enables us all to live safer online lives'. But he warned: 'Its ubiquity brings anonymity to terrorists, paedophiles and cybercrime gangs who law enforcement and intelligence agencies are trying to stop. And it's getting worse.' It goes without saying that there has to be close co-operation with technology companies, he said. 'We are confident solutions exist,' Mr Fleming continued. 'And where they do, proportionality, as in everything else we do, is key. 'They should be limited in scope and scalability, supported by modern legislation and with strong oversight to maintain public confidence.' He also said the signals intelligence partnership between the UK and America was 'one of the jewels in the crown of the 'Special Relationship'. Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in the poisoning. Mr Fleming said GCHQ (pictured) would use the 'full range of tools' against Russia's spy agency after two intelligence officers were accused of carrying out the Salisbury attack Yesterday Russia claimed the UK had been 'mendacious' and was trying to unleash 'disgusting anti-Russian hysteria' during talks at the United Nations. Diplomat Vasily Nebenzya told the UN security council: 'I'm not going to go through the list of this whole unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts. 'London needs this story for just one purpose - to unleash a disgusting anti-Russian hysteria and to involve other countries in this hysteria.' Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left critically ill after being exposed to the military grade nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in March. Detectives believe it is likely the two suspects, thought to be aged around 40, travelled under aliases and that Petrov and Boshirov are not their real names. Officers have formally linked the attack on the Skripals to events in nearby Amesbury when Dawn Sturgess, 44, and her partner Charlie Rowley, 45, were exposed to the same nerve agent. Ms Sturgess died in hospital in July, just over a week after the pair fell ill. The bride and groom stand before a small gathering of guests in the backyard of a home once owned by Frank Sinatra, the San Fernando Valley stretching out below them as their wedding celebrant invites the couple to kiss. Jeff Baleja leans down to embrace his new wife, Serena, as their gathered friends and family applaud, then reaches into his left pocket to retrieve a small container. You may now smoke with the bride, the celebrant says, as the groom pulls out two enormous joints. Jeff and Serena light them from the same flame provided by the celebrant and inhale deeply, the California sun beginning to set behind them. Their shared marital marijuana is not the only time the plant surfaces during the wedding; cannabis is, in fact, a central theme of the day. The groom is a marijuana chef whos starting a company to produce cannabis-infused vegan popsicles, and the wedding is peppered with weed, from the decorations to the food to the recreational offerings on hand. Serenas bouquet and Jeffs boutonniere feature marijuana leaves, and guests are invited to try an assortment of weed-infused treats; tables manned by budtenders display rolled joints, edibles, cartridges and other options. Even the chocolate fountain is infused with cannabis, and many of the nearly 40 guests partake. Jeff, 29, and Serena, 27, say that cannabis consumption has been central to their relationship, and they couldnt imagine their big day without it. And theyre not alone; as more and more states legalize marijuana, the demand for weed at weddings is growing. Scroll down for video London native Serena Bhatia, 27, married Californian Jeff Baleja, 29, at the former home of Frank Sinatra overlooking the San Fernando Valley outside of Los Angeles on Wednesday The couple - who are regular cannabis consumers - decided that they wanted to incorporate marijuana into their special day, offering guests a variety of ways to partake and setting up stations around the property manned by 'budtenders' Jeff tells DailyMail.com: Its very important that we share cannabis together and our guests ... Its just a bonding moment; its very important The groom is a marijuana chef who is starting a business that sells weed-infused vegan popsicles; guests at the wedding also had the choice to enjoy marijuana-infused meals Its very important that we share cannabis together and our guests, Jeff tells DailyMail.com at the reception. Its just a bonding moment; its very important. He adds: Everyones having a wonderful time. I think cannabis spreads a lot of happiness, and you can see it when you look around the wedding, his new bride says, with a tranquil smile. Jeffs native California is one of nine states that has legalized both medical and recreational use of marijuana; its legal for medical purposes in 21 others. The demand for cannabis celebrations first surfaced in the trailblazing state of Colorado a few years ago, prompting one entrepreneur, Bec Koop, to not only tailor her floral business to the demand but also to begin a cannabis wedding expo which has now spread from Colorado to California and Nevada. She came up with the idea for the event, she says, because of the fact that I was turned down from a traditional expo. She tells DailyMail.com: I had a traditional expo tell me: Absolutely, hell no. I had another one tell me: Sure, but were going to charge you double, even from the price that was listed on the website. And then there was another that told me we could only bring photos of what we do; we could not even bring a bouquet that had cannabis in it or anything along those lines even if it was fake cannabis [if] it looked too much like the real deal. She says she joked around with another cannabis entrepreneur, Philip Wolf, that they should start their own expo. The joke turned into reality, and the expo debuted in Denver in 2016 with about 25 vendors; by the second year, that number had tripled. The event expanded to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, and next year the fourth year of the expo will include Las Vegas. One of the vendors earlier this year in Los Angeles was Ohio native Jamie Lee McCormick, who grew up around flowers in his mothers shop in Ohio. He started his own California business, The Flower Daddy, and specializes in cannabis weddings and he was hired by Serena and Jeff to plan a whirlwind wedding after their engagement just over six weeks ago. We always smoked together and have been involved in this growing industry over here, and it kind of is like, why wouldnt you want to smoke at your wedding? says Serena, a London native who works in social media marketing. We didnt really ever envision a wedding without this because of how involved it is in our lives and how often we partake. So it just felt really natural its now legal; why wouldnt we have a marijuana bar next to our usual bar? And as soon as I found out that this is a plausible thing that can happen, I wanted to run with it. She sought out a wedding planner that would have experience in finding a venue and all of the ins and outs and legalities of such an event, settling on The Flower Daddy. Ive always been a huge cannabis advocate and plus a user, and Ive always been a huge connoisseur of cannabis and Ive always wanted to keep it legal, McCormick tells Dailymail.com, adding: Its part of my life; I use it for anxiety, I use it for energy. Im a pretty motivational stoner. The couple met three years ago at a music festival and have been 'inseparable' ever since; Jeff proposed at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles just over six weeks ago Jeff and Serena were married by a friend; following their kiss, the celebrant said: 'You may now smoke with the bride - and the groom pulled two joints out of his pocket which the couple lit from the same flame from a lighter held by the officiant Professionals within the marijuana community say they've seen an increase in demand for cannabis-themed weddings such as the celebration thrown by Jeff and Serena, pictured above; Colorado-based Bec Koop, who began a cannabis wedding expo in 2016, says vendors tripled in number by the second year of the event Jeff and Serena hired wedding planner Jamie McCormick, who has a business called The Flower Daddy, to organize their event; he says he wants to combat the stigma surrounding marijuana use and wants 'a joint to be just like a bottle of Bud Light at a bar' He worked in the restaurant and event industry before starting his business. I always wanted to bring the two together, and there was this stigma so I wanted to break that stigma down you know, the social part of it, what comes with cannabis and with weed. And so i wanted to break those barriers; I wanted to break those walls. I want to change it. I want a joint to be just like a bottle of Bud Light at a bar. He sourced the venue for Jeff and Serenas wedding; despite the legality of marijuana, many locations are unwilling to host events that include cannabis consumption. In Colorado, however, Koop has already seen that change fast. In the beginning, it was about one in 10 venues would be open-minded about cannabis weddings in the state, says Koop, who co-runs Irie Weddings & Events, tells DailyMail.com. Its a completely different thing. We went from four years ago, literally having, I would say, eight venues that we could work with; now were up to 60 venues in Colorado alone that are cannabis friendly. Half the time, its just having the right conversations with the venue owners to convince them, hey if you turn away this business, then somebody else is getting their money. Number two, its not your right to choose how they want to consume or enjoy their night; its theirs. And number three, half the time, if theyre consuming, chances are theyre not going to be as rowdy and drunk as they might be if it was an alcohol only wedding so it actually decreases the cost of your total alcohol cost, as well as keeping people a little more sane, if you believe it or not. She explains: What we do is we regulate the way that cannabis is served and to what potency it is. We suggest our clients are purchasing very specific strains to set on specific onsets and feelings. We can literally orchestrate an entire evening based on cannabis strains. We can have you chatty and giggly in the beginning; we can have your mouth salivating as the food comes out; and then we can have you ready for the dance party. And then we can get you ready for that night cap to go home and relax. McCormicks Flower Daddy offers different packages from which couples can pick and choose; for an upcoming wedding, he says, hell simply set up an edible table. With Serena and Jeff, they got the full package, because were doing everything, he says. Everything is going to be cannabis. Koop tells DailyMail.com that her business has quadrupled she swears its increased by 420 percent, a synchronous nod to the stoner weed day of April 20 and shes noticed the plant becoming more and more socially accepted. I think its past a trend; I think its turned into a tradition, she says. Theres a lot of ways that people are incorporating it into their ceremonies part of like their sacrament and their unity. I would say one of the biggest proving pinnacle moments was when we got booked by some clients last year who dont personally consume but they wanted their guests to have the Colorado experience. So they booked us. The fact that they were open-minded enough, that they were like, Well, well spend extra money on this because everybody wants to know, everybody has questions, we cant answer every question they have about weed just because we live in Colorado that was a really big turning point that made it seem like it was past the trend. The thing that were seeing is [at] every single wedding, we have first time consumers. Weve not worked one wedding where we havent had one person whos trying it for the first time Two weeks ago, we had I think nine first time consumers at one wedding, which was one of our highest numbers, actually, for first time consumers. Serena, who works in social media marketing, tells DailyMail.com: Its a nice feeling to have, being buzzed and being in love Serena says that the cannabis industry 'is huge' and 'even this moment is huge; its like the lifting of the prohibition of alcohol I can see where peoples fears are coming from, but its literally the exact same way that peoples fears were with legalizing alcohol: Oh, were going to have more drunks. And its like, no, youre not going to have more stoners. The people who like to stone are always going to stone, and the people who like to drink are always going to drink' At her wedding reception, Serena says: I think cannabis spreads a lot of happiness, and you can see it when you look around the wedding' Bec Koop, who runs Colorado-based business Irie Weddings & Events, says she believes the rise in cannabis-themed weddings is 'past a trend; I think its turned into a tradition. Theres a lot of ways that people are incorporating it into their ceremonies part of like their sacrament and their unity' Koop tells DailyMail.com: I would say one of the biggest proving pinnacle moments was when we got booked by some clients last year who dont personally consume that was a really big turning point that made it seem like it was past the trend' For Jeff and Serenas wedding, they made it explicit on their invitations that the celebration would be heavily focused on marijuana without any negative reaction, even from older relatives. Her mother, she says, was very open to it. She said I can celebrate in whichever way that I want, Serena tells DailyMail.com. She asked me: Is it safe? And I think thats everyones biggest concern is it safe? And I always say, of course it is. Theres always going to be people who are going to be at the wedding to guide people through and talk about dosages and things like that. Again, even with the alcohol comparison, alcohol can also be very unsafe in so many situations and I think it should be looked at the same. Its things that you wouldnt do while drinking, dont do them while youre high. The new bride says: I think the whole industry, as it is, its huge. I think even this moment is huge; its like the lifting of the prohibition of alcohol I can see where peoples fears are coming from, but its literally the exact same way that peoples fears were with legalizing alcohol: Oh, were going to have more drunks. And its like, no, youre not going to have more stoners. The people who like to stone are always going to stone, and the people who like to drink are always going to drink. I would love to walk into a bar in Los Angeles and it be a smoke lounge where you can just order from the bar like you normally would a drink and just select what kind of a strain you want and just sit with friends and socialize and have a good time. That was certainly the atmosphere at her own wedding, and both Serena and Jeff beamed throughout the night, more often than not with a joint in hand as they partied and danced with their family and friends. The bride sums it up: Its a nice feeling to have, being buzzed and being in love. A 12-year-old girl who mysteriously vanished four years ago has been spotted 100km away from where she disappeared. Layla Leisha's family are desperate to find their 12-year-old daughter after she disappeared from Calliope, Queensland, in December 2014. In a stunning breakthrough, a relative now believes they spotted Layla at Woorabinda, an Aboriginal community in Central Queensland. Layla Leisha's family are desperate to find their 12-year-old daughter after she disappeared from Calliope, Queensland, in December 2014 Australian Federal Police believe the girl is with her father Shahrainer Eric Shem Leisha, a man who also goes by the name of Kooradaman Darngee. Police believe Mr Leisha lives in Rockhampton but are unable to locate him as he refuses to cooperate with the authorities, the Morning Bulletin reported. Child recovery expert Col Chapman is working with Layla's family to help recover the girl. Despite Mr Leisha claiming his daughter was healthy and enrolled at a top school, Mr Chapman said his research suggested the girl was not going to school at all and could 'barely read or write'. Mr Champman also said Layla did not have a Medicare card which meant she was not going to a doctor. 'Kooradaman has lied too many times already,' he said. Police believe Mr Leisha lives with his daughter in Rockhampton but are unable to locate him as he refuses to cooperate with the authorities Mr Chapman said the girl's father claimed he was in regular communication with the police, but he was not. 'And he claims that Commonwealth officials are aware of his location and protecting him but that's another lie,' he said. With Mr Chapman's help, Layla's family has launched a desperate appeal for help to find the 12-year-old. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said Thursday that it is time to invoke a constitutional amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office if top officials believe he can no longer fulfill his duties. The prominent Democrat's comments follow a stunning newspaper op-ed by an anonymous senior administration official expressing grave concerns about Trump's morals and behavior. The New York Times article described an insider resistance movement that prevents him making 'reckless' decisions. 'If senior administration officials think the president of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment,' Warren told CNN. Scroll down for video Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for Constitutional measures to remove President Donald Trump from the Oval Office following the publication of an op-ed by an anonymous senior administration official expressing grave concerns about his behavior The Trump administration was dealt a series of brutal blows this week when famed journalist Bob Woodward published a book painting the White House as a 'crazy town' and The New York Times twisted the knife with an op-ed by a senior Trump official Section 4 of the 25th Amendment of the Constitution allows the vice president and cabinet officials to write to Congress if they believe the president cannot do his job. In that event, the vice president would assume presidential duties - permanently if Congress agrees in a subsequent vote that the president cannot discharge his duties. The amendment, ratified in 1967, allows for a temporary transfer of power if the president is incapacitated by something like surgery, as in 2002 when George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy. The far more consequential Section 4 has never been used, however, and experts say the process is particularly fraught. The op-ed was published on the same day as explosive excerpts of veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward's upcoming book which described how officials would remove important documents from Trump's desk to stop him signing off on bad policy. Warren, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, expressed alarm that senior officials were offering anonymous but searing critiques of a troubling presidency but not taking constitutional action. 'What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the president can't do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution?' Warren said. 'They can't have it both ways.' Trump addressed impeachment concerns during a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana, on Thursday night, telling his supporters the blame is on them if he gets ousted Meanwhile during a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana, on Thursday night, Trump told his supporters the blame is on them if he gets impeached and claims it could lead to the US one day becoming a third world country. Trump raised the specter of impeachment if Democrats win control of Congress during his rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night. He warned that a Democratic-controlled Congress would pursue impeachment despite the strong economy and set a precedent that would hurt future presidents. 'Let's say a Democrat gets elected and let's say we have a Republican House. We will impeach that Democrat, right?' Trump said. 'You're going to have a country that's going to turn into a third-world country because if the opposite party becomes president, every time before it even starts, before you even found out whether or not he or she is going to do a great job, they'll say: 'We want to impeach him!'' 'If it does happen, it's your fault because you didn't go out to vote.' Trump continued on the topic of impeachment, saying: 'How do you impeach somebody that's doing a great job, that hasn't done anything wrong? 'Our economy is good. How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it?' He warned his supporters: 'You are not just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress. Very important thing. Very important thing.' Trump's senior aides have all scrambled to disown the op-ed that appeared in the Times on Wednesday that slammed the President's leadership style as impetuous, petty and ineffective Practically Trump's entire cabinet including these famous faces and the first lady have all declared they're not responsible for the mysterious op-ed Also at the rally Trump blasted the author of the Times op-ed, calling it an act of treason. 'The Times should never have done that because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason. You could call it a lot of things,' the president said during an interview with Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth in one corner of the Rimrock Auto Arena, with a live audience of more than 10,000 people. In his speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation. 'Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she,' he finally declared. The Times should never have done that because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason. Trump repeated a challenge he had already issued to the Times on Twitter, demanding the paper's nameless author's head on a platter. 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup. 'And it's really bad and it's really dangerous,' he said. 'And it's really sad for the media.' The president had suggested a half-hour earlier that he would put muscle behind efforts to identify the official who broke ranks to claim in the Times that a 'resistance' of aides is trying to subvert the president's worst instincts for the good of the country. DailyMail.com asked him on the tarmac in Billings how he planned to uncover the disloyal official's identity. 'We're going to try!' he yelled, over the noise of an idling Air Force One. Woodward's 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. He is pictured above leaving Trump Tower in January 2017 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 Trump needed the rally to publicly shake his Etch-a-Sketch following a week of revelations that hit his team like a series of kidney punches. First came excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book 'Fear,' which paints the president as an ill-prepared and crude leader whose lack of impulse control drove senior aides to protect him from himself. In one vignette, Woodward describes then-chief economic adviser Gary Cohn literally swiping a draft memo from the Resolute Desk to derail Trump's goal of ending a crucial Korean trade agreement. Scuttling the longstanding deal would have introduced uncertainty into Washington's relationship with Seoul and could have jeopardized America's use of South Korean real estate for an ambitious missile-detection program. Internal fallout from the Cohn affair inside the West Wing had barely softened from panic to mere shock when The New York Times twisted the knife. The publication of Wednesday's unsigned op-ed, which the Times claims was penned by a 'senior' administration official, struck a variation on the same theme. Its central claim is that a winking, nudging cabal of aides considers its primary mission to save the republic from Trump's ham-fisted ways. 'Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,' according to the still-unidentified writer. The US-Somali cop who fatally shot an Australian yoga teacher in Minneapolis after she called 911 pointed a gun at a motorist's head just two months earlier, it has been revealed. New records have shed light on whether Mohamed Noor was fit for duty with a series of red-flag events revealed long before he fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond on July 15, 2017. Lawyers have sought to have murder and manslaughter charges dismissed against Noor, but a court heard on Wednesday that Noor had pointed a gun at a driver's head after he saw him give the finger to a cyclist and then pass a vehicle without signalling. Scroll down for Video New records have shed light on whether Mohamed Noor was fit for duty with a series of red-flag events revealed long before he fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond (pictured) in 2017 A court heard on Wednesday that Noor (pictured) had pointed a gun at a driver's head after he saw him give the finger to a bicyclist Hennepin County prosecutors put forward the findings and said two psychiatrists flagged the cop in early 2015 during the pre-hiring evaluation because he showed signs of inability to handle the stresses of regular police work and had a striking unwillingness to deal with people. The report itself revealed Noor was assumed to have less patience than other police candidates for minor infractions but he was deemed fit for duty anyway as he lacked major mental illness, personality disorder or chemical dependence. It was also revealed that the year after Noor was accepted into the Minneapolis Police Department, he refused to answer radio calls asking for assistance. He was also reported for having tunnel vision whilst driving with the squad car's lights and siren on. Two psychiatrists flagged Noor in early 2015 during the pre-hiring evaluation because he showed signs of inability to handle the stresses of regular police work Michael Quinn, a former Minneapolis detective who frequently testifies in court as an expert on police conduct, told the Star Tribune any of those findings should have raised red flags during the hiring process. 'You've got to have a sense of what's right and what's wrong,' said Quinn. 'You've also got to communicate with people and have some confidence and be able to deal with stress situations.' The prosecutors claimed Noor showed a reckless disregard for human life and the evidence of his recklessness more than met the standard for probable cause for the case. The prosecutors overall claimed Noor showed a reckless disregard for human life and the evidence of his recklessness more than meets the standard for probable cause for the case Damond was fatally shot by Noor in July 2017 after she called police to a Minneapolis property out of fear a woman was being raped nearby. Noor shot Damond from the passenger seat of the police car being driven by his partner at the time, Officer Matthew Harrity, while she stood outside of the car in a nightgown. Both officers failed to record the incident on their body cameras. On July 15, 2017, the day of the shooting, Noor had gone from his off-duty job working seven hours of security at a Wells Fargo branch to his shift from 4.15pm to 2.15am. Justine Ruszczyk Damond was fatally shot by Mohamed Noor after she called police to a Minneapolis property out of fear a woman was being raped nearby in July 2017 (memorial service pictured) Before he received the sexual assault call, Noor and his partner responded to calls in the same area about a woman possibly suffering from dementia but four minutes after arriving to the scene, the two officers cleared the call to get dinner. There was no connection made by officer Harrity on the possible relation between the call about a woman in distress and the sexual assault call in the same area. Prosecutors said: 'This lack of investigative curiosity and indifference to the woman or women who were the subject of these calls shows a disregard for humans and public safety.' Noor became the first Minnesota police officer to be charged with murder in an on-duty killing and is now in court for a $50million wrongful death lawsuit. Terrifying video footage has captured the moment a senior Nomads bikie charged at two victims outside a tattoo parlour over a $5,000 debt. Michael Wayne Clark, 32, arrived at a tattoo parlour in Tuggeranong, Canberra, to discuss a disputed business transaction debt in February, the Canberra Times reported. Clark became hostile when the victim refused to speak and decided to launch at the man, striking him in the face. 'I'm not going to hit ya. If you don't come here I'm going to bash you there,' he said. Senior Nomads bikie, Michael Wayne Clark, pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault at the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday after a physical altercation at a tattoo parlour in February (pictured) Clark pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault at the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday. Court documents said Clark and one of the victims worked together at Tattoo Culture which was permanently closed after a fire. The CCTV footage, which was played in court, shows a group of people hanging out in front of a tattoo parlour. Clark arrives at the scene and greets the group, saying: 'How are you going fellas?' The group respond with pleasantries but Clark becomes quickly frustrated with his victim. Clark begins to threaten the victim and the group, claiming he would bash all of them. CCTV footage shows the moment Clark launches at two victims over a $5,000 debt dispute (pictured) 'I'm more than happy to bash all of youse right now if you want, come on,' he said. He lunges towards the victim who retreats and assaults a second person as he pushes through. Clark walks to his car to leave the scene but can be heard calling his victim a 'coward.' Defence barrister Jack Pappas argued the incident was not premeditated and Clark's judgement became altered when the victim refused to speak. 'This was a business dispute about monies outstanding that simply boiled over for a minute on that afternoon,' he said. Mr Clark became hostile when the victim refused to speak and decided to launch at the man, striking him in the face Prosecutor Anthony Williamson said the assault featured levels of aggravating behaviour, including threats. Magistrate Karen Fryar understood that not all monetary business disputes are handled in court but said it did not entitle Clark to take the law into his own hands. Magistrate Fryar determined the offence was low-to-mid range and sentenced Clark to a one-year good behaviour order and a $1000 fine. Clark was also placed on a non-association order which prohibits him from going near the victim or the tattoo parlour. President Donald Trump will not answer federal investigators' questions, in writing or in person, about whether he tried to block the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, one of the president's attorneys told The Associated Press on Thursday. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said questions about obstruction of justice were a 'no-go.' Giuliani's statement was the most definitive rejection yet of special counsel Robert Mueller's efforts to interview the president about any efforts to obstruct the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russians. It signals the Trump's lawyers are committed to protecting the president from answering questions about actions the president took in office. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said questions about obstruction of justice were a 'no-go.' The former New York City mayor is seen last month in New Hampshire It's unclear if Giuliani's public position has been endorsed by Trump, who has said he wants to answer questions under oath. Negotiations about the scope and format of an interview are still ongoing. If the legal team holds its stance, it could force Mueller to try to subpoena the president, likely triggering a standoff that would lead to the Supreme Court. Mueller's office has previously sought to interview the president about the obstruction issue, including his firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey and his public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump's legal team has argued that the president has the power to hire and fire appointees and the special counsel does not have the authority to ask him to explain those decisions. Giuliani said Thursday the team was steadfast in that position. It's unclear if Giuliani's public position has been endorsed by President Donald Trump (seen above in Montana on Thursday), who has said he wants to answer questions under oath 'That's a no-go. That is not going to happen,' Giuliani said. 'There will be no questions at all on obstruction.' In a letter last week, Mueller's team said it would accept written responses from Trump on questions related to Russian election interference. Giuliani suggested Thursday that Trump's lawyers had agreed to those terms but wanted to prohibit investigators from asking follow-up questions. 'It would be in written form and if you want to follow up on our answers, justify it. Show us why you didn't get there the first time,' Giuliani said. He said he was not categorically ruling out answering a second round of questions but the entire matter of whether there would be follow-up inquiries should be settled before the president answers anything at all. 'We aren't going to let them spring it on us,' said Giuliani, who has served as lawyer-spokesman for the president's personal legal team, using television interviews and public comments as a tactic in the negotiations. In the latest letter to the legal team, Mueller's office didn't address obstruction questions, indicating investigators would later assess what additional information it needs from the president after receiving a response about the written submissions, according to a person familiar with the document. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's (above) team raised the prospect in March that it could subpoena the president, though this would unquestionably prompt a court fight The person familiar with the letter spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations. 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 has the right to ask him about actions that he is authorized, under the Constitution, to take as president. Mueller's team raised the prospect in March that it could subpoena the president, though this would unquestionably prompt a court fight. The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on the question of whether a president can be forced to testify, though the justices did rule in 1974 that Richard Nixon had to produce recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed. In addition to questions about Comey and Sessions, Mueller has expressed interest in Trump's role in drafting a statement to The New York Times about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by his son, Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer. Trump Jr. took the meeting, emails show, after it was described as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign by providing derogatory information about Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it happened. Trump and Giuliani have led an onslaught of attacks on Mueller's credibility, claiming that the special counsel was biased and that the entire probe was a 'witch hunt.' Giuliani has also demanded that the probe suspend its activities with the midterm elections approaching, but the former mayor said Thursday he was not certain of Mueller's intentions. Nathan Board, 33, has been accused of beating his soon-to-be ex-wife's parents to death in their bedroom in Kent County, Michigan earlier this week A Michigan man has been accused of beating his estranged wife's parents to death in their bedroom, police say. Patty and Theodore Syrek, 62 and 66 respectively, were found dead in their Kent County home on Tuesday, and their daughter's soon-to-be ex-husband Nathan Board was arrested the following night. Board was formally charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing a police officer on Thursday afternoon in connection with the Syrek case, but the 33-year-old suspect is not yet facing homicide charges. 'At this point, we believe the case is going to be resolved with this arrest,' Undersheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young told WoodTV Thursday. 'But certainly, if you know anything more about this incident or any facts that might pertain to it, we're still interested in hearing those.' Board's bond has been set at $1million and he is being held in the Kent County Correctional Facility. Patty and Theodore Syrek, 62 and 66 respectively, were found dead in their home on Tuesday. An autopsy determined the cause of death was 'blunt cranial cerebral trauma' An autopsy determined that Patty and Theodore had been killed by 'blunt cranial cerebral trauma' - meaning they had been struck in the head - inflicted by another person. The instrument used in the killings has not yet been determined. It is unclear how long the couple had been dead before their bodies were discovered in their home on the 9000 block of Jordan River Drive SE in Bowne Township, east of Caledonia. Anyone with more information is urged to contact the sheriff's office at 616-632-6100 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345. A mother has been left baffled after an orange she cut up for her son turned purple overnight. Brisbane woman Neti Moffitt cut up an orange she purchased from a local fruit and vegetable shop for her son to snack on. He did not eat the entire orange and the leftover pieces were left on their kitchen counter overnight. When Mrs Moffitt awoke the next morning she found the slices had turned purple. A mother has awoken to a strange sight when the orange she had cut up for her son had turned purple overnight Mrs Moffitt told Daily Mail Australia of the five oranges she bought, this was the only one that had changed colour. 'My two-year-old ate half and the other half sat on the bench in a bowl with a cut homegrown lemon,' she said. 'When I discovered the orange had turned purple the next morning I immediately checked my son, who I'm happy to report is healthy and unaffected. Brisbane woman Neti Moffitt (pictured) had cut up an orange she purchased from a local fruit and vegetable shop for her son to snack on 'I then rifled through the rubbish and pulled out the three segments my son had eaten, which were even more so purple a really fantastic indigo colour.' She was eager to discover the cause of the purple hew. 'I then went looking for answers online but all I could find was the only other reported case from three years ago, absolutely no other information exists,' she said. Her next step was to contact Queensland Health who sent out an investigator to retrieve the purple orange. 'I called QLD Health who were very excited to hear of another case ad they were unable to find anything with the first case,' she said. 'They came to collect the orange, another orange from the same store, the homegrown lemon, the knife used to cut the orange and a steel used recently to sharpen the knife.' Right away Mrs Moffitt was scared that whatever had caused the oranges to change colour may have also caused her son to be sick but thankfully he was fine and their was 'no drama at all' with his health 'They've promised full disclosure with the results which I don't anticipate hearing for a few months.' Despite the incident Mrs Moffitt said she will still happily enjoy oranges in the future. 'Still happily eating oranges and definitely not boycotting oranges or the local fruit and vegetable shop,' she said. She said when he arrived he was visibly excited with the new find, he took both the orange and the knife used to cut it. They also asked her about what other fruit trees she had around the home but at this stage had no idea what might have caused the colour change. Her next step was to contact Queensland Health who sent out an investigator to retrieve the purple orange with no theories as to what caused the discolouration 'But they're baffled, they're absolutely stumped. No-one knows what caused it,' she told ABC News. An almost identical incident occurred in 2015 with another orange inexplicably turning purple after being cut open and left out. Scientists carried out tests on that orange and a spokesman for the Queensland Environmental Health Branch told 9 News that there was no indication of artificial colours. 'Testing was also undertaken to determine the presence of iodine. No evidence of iodine was found,' the spokesman said. At the time experts viewed the fruit and none of them could come up with an explanation and its hoped this new find could uncover the mystery behind the strange discolouration. A Townsville teacher accused of taking secret photos of children at his school wept in court yesterday as he was sentenced. Bevan Allan Stephens had allegedly used a mobile phone app called Spy Photo to take indecent images of children during a swim carnival at Pimlico State High School. Crown Prosecutor Chris Moore told Townsville District Court that the 42-year-old had taken 122 photos of students in swimwear during the event, including 38 close-up shots of their backsides and pubic regions. The Townsville teacher (Bevan Stephens, pictured) accused of taking secret photos of children at his school, wept in court yesterday as he was sentenced 'Further images were also captured by the defendant using the same application of other students on other dates,' Moore said. 'Although they do not fit within the classification of child-pornography materialthe presence of them on the mobile phone indicates the defendant had been taking covert photographs of his students on multiple occasions.' Moore said that taking the photographs was a gross breach of trust of his position, The Townsville Bulletin reports. Stephens had allegedly used a mobile phone app called Spy Photo to take indecent images of children during a swim carnival at Pimlico State High School (pictured) Police said that they discovered 130,000 photos and 600 videos of child pornography when they searched Stephens property in 2016 Stephens yesterday pleaded guilty to accessing child-exploitation material, making child-exploitation material and eight counts of possessing child-exploitation material, the court heard. Police said that they discovered 130,000 photos and 600 videos of child pornography when they searched Stephens' property in 2016. 'He was in the process of downloading further material when the search warrant was executed,' Moore said. A psychological report was presented to the court that revealed Stephens' 'long-standing interest in adult pornography'. A psychological report was presented to the court that revealed Stephens' 'long-standing interest in adult pornography' Defence barrister Claire Grant noted that Stephens' search for child-exploitation material started after his marriage broke down. She told the court that Stephens had only been charged with making child-exploitation material earlier this year after police advised they had been able to identify the photographs. Defence barrister Claire Grant said that Stephens had hit 'rock bottom' Grant said that Stephens had hit 'rock bottom', having lost his career, his relationship with his children and his home. 'It's a tragic circumstance where a person of otherwise good conduct comes before the court,' she said. She said that Stephens would have to completely reinvent his life and that 'the only person that really supports him is his mother.' Stephens was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for making child-exploitation material, four years for using a service to access child-exploitation material and 2 and a half years for each count of possessing child-exploitation material. He will be able to apply for parole after serving 20 months. Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Townsville District Court for further information. An alleged Islamic State commander who is accused of planning to blow up a plane last year is being held by American forces at a secret military base in Iraq. As the alleged ringleader of the plot, Tarek Khayat, is accused of conspiring with his three Lebanese-Australian brothers to blow up an Etihad Airways flight as it left Sydney on July 15 last year. News Corp has investigated into the whereabouts of Khayat, whose family gave him up following their arrests in Australia. Alleged Islamic State commander Tarek Khayat, who is accused of conspiring with his Sydney-based brothers to blow up a plane last year, and his Australian relative Ahmed Merhi (pictured), have been arrested in Iraq The bomb allegedly meant to murder 500 people by bringing down an airline flying from Sydney to Abu Dhabi was to be hidden inside a Barbie doll (stock image) The investigation found that the alleged ringleader has been secretly held in isolation by American military forces at an unnamed base. Since being there, they have interrogated him in regards to his role as a commander of an Islamic State unit that plotted attacks in the west. News Corp claim that Khayat has been intensely interrogated by the soldiers, and has since lost a leg, is suffering from lung cancer, and has given up names of foreign fighters and Islamic State members. He was captured by Kurdish fighters in the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah in March this year for his alleged plan to blow up Etihad flight EY451. Lebanese intelligence officers confirmed with News Corp that Khayat had been captured, and said that he was an 'Australian Lebanese jihadi', but is unsure if he holds citizenship in Australia. He was in a group of 13 Islamic State jihadis who attempted to flee Syrian Democratic Forces soldiers, but ultimately failed. It was confirmed by two separate Lebanese intelligence sources that he was taken into custody by Kurdish-backed SDF and then taken into Iraq. Khaled and Mahmoud were arrested in Sydney on July 29 last year and have been charged with two counts of planning a terrorist act The alleged ringleader's brothers, Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat, were both charged with two counts of acting in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act. The trio of brothers allegedly planned to sneak the bomb on to the plane by placing it in the carry-on luggage of an unwitting fourth brother who was travelling to Abu Dhabi to visit family, but the plot was foiled when he was told his bag was too heavy. The men were allegedly relying on insider information at Sydney Airport to successfully bring the bombs past security check points. Court documents prepared by a Lebanese military prosecutor claim Mr Khayat helped plan the attack in Raqqa, Syria, as revenge for the death of his two teen sons, who died in the war earlier last year. Members of Ahmed Merhi's family were also arrested during the raids (pictured) but were later released without charge Khaled and Mahmoud were arrested in Sydney on July 29, 2017 and have been charged with two counts of planning a terrorist act. The pair were seized during police raids at four properties just days after Australian authorities were alerted to the foiled plan by Israel's military intelligence. They have both pleaded not guilty to their charges and are set to face trial next year. Members of Ahmed Merhi's family were also arrested during the raids but were later released without charge. It's believed they're related to the Khayat family through marriage. Ahmed, who is in his 20s, moved to Syria from Sydney in 2014 and is allegedly connected to those responsible for the murder of police accountant Curtis Cheng in 2015, according to ABC. Advertisement President Donald Trump said Thursday that an anonymous op-ed slamming him in The New York Times was an act of treason, asserting something he has only written with a question mark to date. 'The Times should never have done that because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason. You could call it a lot of things,' the president said in Billings, Montana. Trump was being interviewed by Fox News Channel co-host Pete Hegseth in one corner of the Rimrock Auto Arena, with a live audience of more than 10,000 people. In his speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation. 'Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she,' he finally declared. Trump repeated a challenge he had already issued to the Times on Twitter, demanding the paper's nameless author's head on a platter. 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup. 'And it's really bad and it's really dangerous,' he said. 'And it's really sad for the media.' Scroll down for video In President Donald Trump's speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup Trump extends his hand to Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale during his 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana Trump's stemwinder was met with unanimous cheers. No protesters raised their voices. During his pre-show interview with Fox, he speculated about who might have written the piece, focusing on people working 'at a fairly low level' who may want to give the public a false picture of what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 'I don't mind when they write a book and they make lies, because it gets discredited,' he said. 'We just discredited the last one.' But he admitted that he 'can't discredit' the Times turncoat 'because you don't know who they are.' The culprit could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time.' The president had suggested ahalf-hour earlier that he would put muscle behind efforts to identify the official who broke ranks to claim in the Times that a 'resistance' of aides is trying to subvert the president's worst instincts for the good of the country. DailyMail.com asked him on the tarmac in Billings how he planned to uncover the disloyal official's identity. 'We're going to try!' he yelled, over the noise of an idling Air Force One. As Air Force One was on approach for landing, Trump flexed his Twitter muscle in the Times' direction, while one of the paper's star photographers was sitting on the plane. 'Are the investigative 'journalists' of the New York Times going to investigate themselves - who is the anonymous letter writer?' he wrote. President Trump flew to Billings, Montana on Thursday for a rally but found time beforehand to tell a TV interviewer that an anonymous, disloyal aide had committed an act of treason by trashing him in a New York Times essay Trump greets the crowd as he arrives for a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana Trump's assertion about 'treason' marks the first time he's used that word about the Times op-ed without a question mark A supporter of the US president wears a t-shirt reading 'CNN sucks' during the rally in Billings, Montana Trump supporters wave placards at the rally in Montana. Trump suggested the culprit behind the op-ed could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time' More than 10,000 people crowded into an arena in a Montana city of 110,000 Trump mocked the New York Times in a tweet as he was landing in Billings (pictured above) ahead of a rally Trump seemed content for most of the day while watching the drama of a Washington-wide molehunt play out on television and Twitter, and appreciatively consuming reports of Cabinet members denying any involvement in the journalistic bombshell. A White House official said in the afternoon that the president would 'probably go there in Montana' anticipating a stem-winder about the op-ed. But the official wouldn't predict Trump's willingness to field direct questions from the press about who was and wasn't under suspicion. Trump boarded Marine One on the South Lawn without approaching a waiting gaggle of reporters. At Joint Base Andrews, he strode methodically up the Air Force One stairway, never coming near a traveling press corps that shouted questions about how he would unmask his deep-state Judas. And despite a nearly four-hour flight to the upper plains, he didn't stray to the aft press cabin to talk: He was saving his rhetorical bullets for Fox News. Trump's aides had televisions in the press cabin of Air Force One tuned to Fox News during the four-hour flight, while the network was totaling the senior officials who denied being behind the op-ed Practically Trump's entire cabinet including these famous faces and the first lady have all declared they're not responsible for the mysterious op-ed Non-Fox reporters were treated to a nonstop Fox feed on TV screens while the network was reporting on an ever-lengthening list of Cabinet officials and other Trump A-listers who denied having anything to do with the Times essay. At one point Fox filled its screen with a grid of 32 faces including Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis. First lady Melania Trump said in a statement: 'To the writer of the oped - you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.' Another White House official said Thursday that West Wing aides couldn't wait for the president to leave town, knowing it would 'lower the building's blood pressure and give him a reboot' in an atmosphere where he excels. Trump held his Montana rally in support of U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Jon Tester. He blames Tester for scuttling his White House physician's nomination to serve as Veterans Affairs secretary. Dr. Ronny Jackson, a respected Navy admiral, was forced to withdraw following Tester's accusations that he oversaw a 'toxic' work environment, drank on the job and overprescribed medication. The president, who insisted none of it was true, pledged that Tester would ultimately have a 'big price to pay in Montana.' Tester, he said Thursday, 'will never 'drain the swamp' because he happens to live in the swamp.' 'Jon Tester talks like he's from Montana, but he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi,' he said, lumping the Democrat in with one of the nation's most liberal lamakers. Trump needed the rally to publicly shake his Etch-a-Sketch following a week of revelations that hit his team like a series of kidney punches. Trump's senior aides have all scrambled to disown the op-ed that appeared in the Times on Wednesday that slammed the President's leadership style as impetuous, petty and ineffective First came excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book 'Fear,' which paints the president as an ill-prepared and crude leader whose lack of impulse control drove senior aides to protect him from himself. In one vignette, Woodward describes then-chief economic adviser Gary Cohn literally swiping a draft memo from the Resolute Desk to derail Trump's goal of ending a crucial Korean trade agreement. Scuttling the longstanding deal would have introduced uncertainty into Washington's relationship with Seoul and could have jeopardized America's use of South Korean real estate for an ambitious missile-detection program. Internal fallout from the Cohn affair inside the West Wing had barely softened from panic to mere shock when The New York Times twisted the knife. The publication of Wednesday's unsigned op-ed, which the Times claims was penned by a 'senior' administration official, struck a variation on the same theme. Its central claim is that a winking, nudging cabal of aides considers its primary mission to save the republic from Trump's ham-fisted ways. 'Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,' according to the still-unidentified writer. A five-bedroom, two-bathroom home could be sold for as little as $1 in a rare opportunity for property buyers. In a genuine-no reserve auction, 47 Chermside Road, Mango Hill, north of Brisbane, will go under the hammer and sell for the highest bid on September 15. The homeowners have instructed the agents that the property must sell for the highest bid despite the suburb having a median house price of more than $500,000. In a genuine-no reserve auction, 47 Chermside Road, Mango Hill (pictured) in Queensland's north will go under the hammer and sell for whatever it can get on September 15 A former school teacher, 64, who owns the home has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and must transition into full-time care. The costs of her care are proving too much for the family so her sister, Sandra Joyce, has demanded a quick sale of the home to help pay for it. Ms Joyce told Domain: 'It's very sad because she has always been that person giving so much to everyone else; as a teacher, with her volunteer work. We just want to see this over and have her settled.' The unfortunate events have opened up an opportunity for not only the Brisbane property market but investors and home buyers across Australia. A former school teacher, 64, who owns the home has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and must transition into full-time care Remax Connected marketing agent, Mark White, welcomes the opportunity and stresses the genuine, no-gimmick nature of potentially Brisbane's best buy for 2018 Remax Connected marketing agent, Mark White, said the property was potentially Brisbane's best buy for 2018. 'The opportunity here is huge. Whether you live in this as is, renovate or knock the house down and subdivide into two blocks with two new houses, opportunities like this do not come along very often,' Mr White said. The property is situated on two lots under one title on a large 810m2 block. The property up for grabs is a five-bedroom, two-bathroom home situated on two lots under one title on a large 810m2 block Investors could split the title and develop two new properties, capitalising on the Mango Hill's median rental price of $445. Mango Hill is the suburb next door to North Lakes with its own Westfield shopping centre and is located 30km from the Brisbane CBD. The last sale on the street was a three-bedroom home in November 2016 which sold for $371,000, according to Corelogic Data. The median house price for the suburb is $514,900. Mango Hill is the suburb next door to North Lakes with it's own Westfields and only 30km from the Brisbane CBD in an established and well-serviced area According to a recent land valuation, the 810m2 land itself was valued at $250,000 in June 2017. In comparison to another Mango Hill property on an 810m2 block, which sold for $559,000 on August 9, 2018 the no-reserve auction style is a risky strategy. Mr White explained: 'There are a lot of new two-level homes in Mango Hill, so something like this is considered entry level.' For the opening weekend of September, Brisbane had an auction clearance rate of 45.95% and 37 properties were passed in. This property will sell at auction on site at 4.30pm next Saturday. Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised by Salisbury council for failing to make an official visit to the town after the novichok poisonings. The leader of Salisburys city council, Matthew Dean, said he had not even realised the Labour leader had visited at all until Mr Corbyn mentioned the trip in the Commons on Wednesday. Labour said Mr Corbyn made a private visit to the city on July 21, staying overnight on the way to another event. The city council has welcomed visitors including the Prime Minister, two home secretaries, numerous ministers and Prince Charles since the events in March. Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised by Salisbury council for failing to make an official visit to the town after the novichok poisonings Mr Dean, the towns Conservative council leader, said: Jeremy Corbyns office has made no contact at all with the city council. If he did visit, Im sad that we didnt have the opportunity to explain what weve been doing to recover from this terrible incident. We would have liked the opportunity for our officers to have briefed him and possibly to have arranged for him to meet residents, businesses and agencies involved. As the leader of the Opposition I would like him to come. The criticism comes a day after Boris Johnson accused Mr Corbyn of using weaselly language after he stopped short of linking the Salisbury attack to Vladimir Putin. Yesterday Labour MP Mike Gapes suggested Mr Corbyns spin doctor should quit for dissembling over Russia. Mr Gapes, a former chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said his leaders spokesman Seumas Milne had attempted to divert attention from the real culprits Putins regime. Hundreds of thousands of recorded crimes are never solved by police because they cannot identify a culprit, figures reveal. It means huge numbers of criminals including rapists, thugs, burglars and thieves have escaped justice and are free on the streets. In 57 per cent of robberies and around 14 per cent of both violent offences and sexual attacks, a perpetrator was never identified. Four out of five burglaries, three-quarters of vehicle thefts and half of shoplifting cases were closed without a suspect ever being established. For some offences such as criminal damage, arson and theft, as many as seven out of ten investigations were shut without anyone being caught, according to Home Office data. Hundreds of thousands of recorded crimes are never solved by police because they cannot identify a culprit, figures reveal In total, of 4.6million crimes assigned an outcome in England and Wales in the year to March, an alarming 47.5 per cent were written off as no suspect identified allowing 2.3million offenders to escape scot-free. Police charged a suspect in just one in every ten reported crimes half the level of five years ago. Critics said the statistics, which come amid spiralling violent crime in Wild West Britain as highlighted by the Daily Mail, gave criminals a green light to offend. The revelations will further harm faith in the police at a time when officers are under fire for failing to attend the scene of many crimes. In some instances, victims can expect little or no investigation or a visit from an officer unless they can supply evidence or name a suspect meaning thousands of criminals can act with impunity. It means huge numbers of criminals including rapists, thugs, burglars and thieves have escaped justice and are free on the streets Police chiefs have warned forces are struggling to cope following deep cuts to funding. Since 2009, the number of police and PCSOs has plunged from 160,000 to 132,000. Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: Too many investigations are closing without suspects being identified and we are hearing increasing reports of the police being too overstretched to investigate. Police forces are under immense pressure with rising serious and violent crime alongside cuts in the numbers of officers and PCSOs. Failing to identify suspects gives criminals a green light to reoffend. Former Home Office adviser David Green, of the Civitas think-tank, said: The Government claims that it has increased funding of police forces so that they can perform their duties. But if we compare the number of police officers with the number of recorded crimes they had to deal with, their claim collapses. Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: Too many investigations are closing without suspects being identified' In 2010 there were 29 crimes for every police officer. Because the number of officers has fallen dramatically, each officer now has 39 crimes to deal with. Its no wonder the criminals are winning. The Home Office published the outcomes of criminal investigations carried out by all 43 of England and Waless forces and the British Transport Police. The figures show that 81,788 of the 106,334 car thefts recorded by police 75 per cent ended up being logged as investigation complete, no suspect identified Around 81 per cent of the 249,235 house break-ins recorded during 2017-18 were closed without a culprit being established. And about 50 per cent of the 382,100 shoplifting offences were unsolved. In July, the Office for National Statistics revealed that police recorded 5.5million offences in the year to March, a rise of 45 per cent compared with 2015. Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, of the National Police Chiefs Council, said increased demand and fewer officer numbers had led to forces prioritising cases with a realistic prospect of prosecution. Police focus on targeting prolific offenders, organised crime networks and ensuring prevention measures by homeowners and businesses are in place, she said. A Home Office spokesman said: We expect the police to take all reports of crime seriously, to investigate and to bring the offenders to court. We have provided a strong and comprehensive 13billion funding settlement to ensure the police have the resources they need to carry out their vital work. The perfume bottle full of Novichok used to target Sergei and Yulia Skripal contained enough of the nerve agent to kill 4,000 people, it was claimed today. A security official said the two Russian agents accused of carrying out the Salisbury attack had brought enough Novichok to cause 'significant loss of life'. The UK's envoy to the UN yesterday accused Moscow of 'playing dice' with British lives after the finger was pointed at Vladimir Putin and the GRU. The attack left the Skripals critically ill and led to the death of British mother Dawn Sturgess, but the nerve agent could have cost thousands more lives, The Times reported. And security sources have also claimed the police and secret service are probing whether the novichok hidden in a high-tech perfume bottle entered Britain in a diplomatic bag then smuggled into the Russian embassy in London. The perfume bottle full of Novichok (left), which Russian agents Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov (right) are accused of using in the attack, could have killed up to 4,000 people Dame Karen Pierce (pictured yesterday), the UK's representative at the UN, said Russia had 'played dice with the lives of the people of Salisbury' over the Novichok poisonings Dame Karen Pierce, the UK's representative at the UN, said Russia had 'played dice with the lives of the people of Salisbury'. 'We have clear evidence of Russian state involvement in what happened in Salisbury,' she told the meeting. Russia said the West was operating in a 'post-truth world', calling the affair a 'theatre of the absurd'. The two men alleged to have been behind the March nerve agent poisoning - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - have been identified by the UK as members of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service. Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau earlier issued a joint statement with Theresa May agreeing with the British assessment that the operation was 'almost certainly approved at a senior government level' in Moscow. Detectives believe it is likely the two suspects, 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 Skripal's Salisbury home was contaminated with Novichok on March 4. Police said the suspects spent two nights at a hotel in east London and made a suspected 'reconnaissance' trip to Salisbury the day before the Skripals were poisoned. The two Russian spies being sought over the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury carried passports with the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - but police say that these are unlikely to be their real names This is the astonishing moment the two Novichok assassins casually window-shopped in Salisbury just minutes after smearing poison on the Skripals' doorknob Something in the shop display caught Alexander Petrov's eye (dressed in woolly hat and a blue coat) and he stopped fellow assassin Ruslan Boshirov (in the cap) The pair then look up at the shop door as they appear to be considering going inside to look more closely at the item they have been examining Petrov seems to head towards the front door on the shop before realising that the premises are closed and the men continue walking towards Salisbury railway station to catch a train back towards London Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mrs May's accusations are 'unacceptable' and that 'no-one in the Russian leadership' has anything to do with the poisoning. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the UK and US of a 'witch hunt' against Russia. Meanwhile the Russian embassy Twitter account posted a series of messages aimed at undermining the credibility of the UK investigation . They included comparisons to the intelligence evidence used to build the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. MailOnline revealed that the suspects casually window-shopped in Salisbury just minutes after they tried to murder former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The exclusive first footage seen of the killers shows the two men looking relaxed and good-humoured as they sauntered down the street towards Salisbury station to make their getaway. Fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle used by Salisbury assassins was 'made by top scientists from the 'Q-ski' branch of Russia's military intelligence Police have released images of the perfume bottle they say was adapted to help the two Russian suspects carry out their lethal attack The Russians spent a fortune on the tiny James Bond-inspired perfume bottle used to carry novichok including developing new technology to ensure it wasn't a suicide mission for their agents, experts revealed today. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, one of Britain's top chemical weapons experts, says the fake sample vial of Nina Ricci Premier Jour could only have been produced by Putin's top scientists in their most sophisticated and top secret lab. He told MailOnline: 'They needed to ensure that the men carrying out the attack did not kill themselves while doing it. It would be deeply embarrassing if their agents died on foreign soil'. The two assassins, using the aliases Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, carried the bottle of Novichok into the UK unhindered before spraying it on Sergei Skripal's front door in suburban Salisbury in March. Experts believe the botched hit came after up to three months of development and testing probably sanctioned at the highest levels of the Russian state. The lab, branded 'Q-ski' after the research and development division of the British Secret Service in James Bond, made the bottle and 'one-way' applicator nozzle so it was impossible for novichok to leak out in transit. It was also made of special toughened glass, plastic or ceramic sure not to smash, crack or degrade while carrying one of the world deadliest weapons. Advertisement Dressed in winter clothing, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are seen walking past the Dauwalders collectables and rare stamp shop before becoming distracted by the window display. Petrov is wearing a backpack, black woolly hat and blue down coat, while Boshirov is wearing a dark bomber jacket and a baseball cap. Appearing to forget about their mission, they examine the window display in detail, talking enthusiastically about the collectors' items. They then approach the shop entrance as if to make a purchase, before realising that the shop is closed and continued towards Salisbury railway station and make their escape. The Salisbury assassins spent two years jetting around Europe using their 'perfect' fake IDs and one even flew into London 12 months before the novichok attack, security sources in Russia revealed today. The suspects were handed genuine Russian passports and then secured visas from the British embassy in Moscow under bogus aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov to avoid detection during their murder mission in March. Their passports were repeatedly used on trips from Moscow to Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan and Paris between September 2016 and March 2018 with British investigators now scrambling to work out exactly what the Russian spies were doing in Europe. Petrov's passport was also used in London on February 28 2017 - a year before their botched mission to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent smeared on his front door in suburban Salisbury. The travel details have been published by Fontanka, an independent Russian media outlet with a strong track record of investigative reporting into Putin's regime. Hamish de Bretton Gordon, one of Britain's top chemical weapons experts, told MailOnline today that UK security sources have briefed him that the men, who were GRU military agents, had watertight backstories that helped them avoid being stopped at the UK border. He said: 'The passports were perfect in every detail including all the electrics and circuitry. It fooled the British border electronic security which is considered to be among the best around. We also gave them visas they must have had a plausible back story'. Mr de Bretton Gordon suggested that Russia may even have hacked the UK's border security system to make doubly sure they were not flagged as 'people of interest' and interviewed. The Home Office today denied this. Today Security Minister Ben Wallace said Vladimir Putin is 'ultimately responsible' for the novichok attack because of his tight grip on the GRU spy network which sent two 'calamitous' state assassins on a 'pathetic' mission to kill Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. This map shows the European cities visited by the two alleged assassins in the two years before the Salisbury attack He said: 'The state had clearly decided to sit behind this action and lend its logistics. The men were given genuine passports, provided with aliases that survived a certain level of test and visas used by many law-abiding Russians to visit Britain for holidays or business. 'The Russian state, which we know had invented novichok, must have made sure it was put in a package that was there to disguise it. If you let them into your system, airside in Russia, it becomes a harder thing to detect'. Mr Wallace said he is '100 per cent sure' the men named carried out the attack and claimed that Vladimir Putin has ultimate responsibility for the actions of his spies - but added: 'This was more Johnny English than James Bond'. He said: 'Ultimately he does, insofar as he is president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence - that's the GRU - via his minister of defence. I don't think that anyone can ever say that Mr Putin isn't in control of his state'. When asked how the UK would respond he refused to say, adding: 'We retaliate in our way. We are not the Russians, we don't adopt the sort of thuggish, destructive and aggressive behaviour that we have seen. We choose to challenge the Russians in both the overt and the covert space, within the rule of law and in a sophisticated way'. Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Theresa May's accusations are 'unacceptable' and that 'no-one in the Russian leadership' has anything to do with the poisoning. He also said Russia 'has no reasons' to investigate Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Theresa May will wreak revenge on Russia with cyber warfare, espionage, financial sanctions and travel bans all likely to 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. 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'. 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. 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 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 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 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.' 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 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. British jihadists who travel to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamic State will face ten years in prison on their return home. Home Secretary Sajid Javid is introducing measures to make it illegal to travel to terror hotspots without good excuse. Mr Javid acted after the Mail revealed that only 40 out of 400 British jihadis who fought with so-called Islamic State have been prosecuted. Home Secretary Sajid Javid is introducing measures to make it illegal to travel to terror hotspots without good excuse At least 360 fanatics have been allowed to go free as there was too little evidence to convict them. Now the Home Secretary is set to follow Australia's example and make it an offence for UK citizens to travel to a 'designated area' overseas. It would mean the only evidence needed to prosecute so-called 'foreign fighters' would be that they had entered a place listed by the Government as off-limits. Mr Javid said: 'Those who travel abroad to fight in terrorist conflicts pose a threat to us all and need to be stopped. This offence will help make our streets a safer place.' Only 40 out of 400 British jihadis who fought with so-called Islamic State have been prosecuted. Pictured, Mohammed Emwazi, the ISIS executioner known as Jihadi John He has tabled an amendment to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill which was unveiled in June and is going through Parliament. Independent MP John Woodcock, a member of the Commons home affairs committee, said: 'It is great news that ministers have listened and will bring in a tough new approach for people who are returning from terror warzones but who cannot currently be prosecuted. Ban was convicted of murder and Wan of being an accessory after the fact Yiting Wan, 27, and her father Ah Ping Ban, 65, stood trial on Thursday A chilling picture of a man convicted of murdering his ex-wife shows him and his daughter smiling wide at her graduation as his victim's unidentified body lay in the morgue. Ah Ping Ban, 65, was found guilty of his ex-wife's murder - while the victim's daughter, Tiffany Yiting Wan, 27, was convicted for being an accessory after the fact. Artist Annabelle Chen, 58, was bashed to death in her Mosman Park home near Perth between June 30 and July 2 in 2016 before her body was stuffed into a suitcase and dumped in the Swan River. Picture of Ping Ban, 65 (right), convicted for murdering his ex-wife, shows him and his daughter, Tiffany Yiting Wan, 27, (left) who was found guilty as an accessory, smiling wide at her graduation as his ex-wife's unidentified body lay in the morgue The photo was taken at the University of Melbourne during Wan's graduation and shows both of them smiling, despite fisherman having pulled Chen's body from the Swan River The photo was taken at the University of Melbourne during Wan's graduation and shows both of them smiling, despite fishermen having earlier pulled Chen's body from the Swan River, The West Australian reported. Ban is facing life behind bars and Wan a maximum 14 year jail term. The identity of the body was a mystery to police for almost two months until they achieved a breakthrough when Ms Chen's daughter Tiffany Wan, reported her missing to police. Tiffany Wan (pictured) and her father Ah Ping Ban have been charged with Ms Chen's murder Following a short investigation, Wan and her father Ban were charged with Ms Chen's murder. The pair stood trial in Western Australia's Supreme Court over the past three weeks before the jury passed on their verdict today. They pair blamed each other for Ms Chen's murder, with Wan maintaining her father hit his ex-wife during a disagreement over finances. Wan testified she heard Ms Chen scream and a 'loud metallic thud' sound, and then her father confessed to accidentally killing his former wife. Ban alleged his daughter confided in him she murdered her mother during a fight about Wan's upcoming university graduation ceremony. Annabelle Chen's body was dumped in a suitcase and eventually found in Perth's Swan River After almost a week of deliberations, the jury found Ban guilty of murder, while Wan beat a murder charge and manslaughter - but was convicted of being an accessory to the crime. Ban appeared emotionless as the verdict was read to the court, while Wan sobbed openly. Wan and Ban will face a sentencing hearing on November 22. Some of the world's biggest bottled water companies have thrown their weight behind a deposit and return scheme for plastic bottles across the UK. Danone, which owns Evian and Volvic, plus Nestle, whose brands include Vittel, Pure Life and Perrier, have backed research which calls for radical policies to tackle plastic waste. Danone, which owns Evian and Volvic, plus Nestle, whose brands include Vittel, Pure Life and Perrier, have backed research which calls for radical policies to tackle plastic waste In the short term, they are calling for a comprehensive deposit and return scheme, or DRS, for England, Wales and Scotland under which people pay a fee on bottles that is refunded when they are returned. The research, compiled by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership suggests that even more radical solutions are necessary in the long-run, including, scrapping plastic bottles in favour of green alternatives. A DRS has the support of 80 per cent of Britons, who have been alerted to the threat to the environment by the Mail's Turn the tide on plastic campaign. The number of people pledging allegiance to the Church of England has halved in just 15 years, researchers said yesterday. Fewer than one in seven now say they belong to the CofE after its following dropped from 31 per cent to 14 per cent between 2002 and 2017. Allegiance has slipped from 16 per cent since the current Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, took up his post in 2013. The British Social Attitudes survey said the loss of support has been worst among young people, with only one in 50 in the 18 to 24 age group identifying with the CofE. Church leaders said the figures gave only part of the picture. They added that many, especially the younger generation, were less aware of denominations but more willing to engage in faith. Church of England congregations are dwindling as the number of followers halves in fifteen years, it has been claimed The survey carried out annually with the help of Whitehall departments said ever-larger numbers of people are declaring themselves as without religion. But the CofEs decline has been faster than other Christian denominations, which have remained fairly stable, it said. The figure for those seeing themselves as Roman Catholic was 8 per cent while 10 per cent said they belong to other Christian groups and 8 per cent aligned with non-Christian faiths. Catholics are twice as likely to attend a service compared to Anglicans, with 42 per cent going once a month against 21 per cent of Anglicans. Roger Harding, of the NatCen research group which carried out the survey, said: Our figures show an unrelenting decline in Church of England numbers. While the figures are starkest among younger people, in every age group the biggest group are those identifying with no religion. We know that views are becoming more socially liberal. With growing numbers belonging to no religion, faith leaders will no doubt be considering how to better connect to a changing society. The steepest fall in those saying they were part of the CofE was among people aged 45 to 54, with the level dropping from 35 per cent to 11 per cent from 2002 to last year. In the same period, those aged 18 to 24 saying they had no religion rose from 56 to 70 per cent. In response to the report, Dave Male, CofE director of evangelism and discipleship, said: The headline figure here only gives us part of the picture. It has been clear for some time that we have moved from an era of people automatically classifying themselves as Church of England or Anglican to one in which identifying with a faith is an active choice. The number of people who are faithful is higher than figures suggest, according to the church, whose leaders said younger people to not select a denomination People are less aware of denominations. Yet research shows an increase in willingness to engage in faith. People of all ages have not stopped searching for meaning and answers in their life. Church officials said 1.1million people go to a CofE church to pray during a typical month. There are also 1.2million followers each month who pray online. The attitudes survey found the numbers holding allegiance to non-Christian religions has risen from 2 per cent in 1983 to 8 per cent in 2017. The report does not break this down but the 2011 census gave the total for Muslims in England and Wales as 2.71million and 817,000 for Hindus. The other main faiths were Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. Some 60 Eurosceptic Tories will this weekend publish their blueprint for a Brussels deal as they urge the Prime Minister to chuck Chequers. The European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees-Mogg, will bring out a series of reports setting out how a clean Brexit would work. The plans will argue for a Canada-style free trade agreement, and present solutions to the Northern Ireland question and complex issues like farming and fisheries. It came as Boris Johnson stormed ahead as the Tories preferred choice to be the next leader putting Theresa May under further pressure on Brexit. The ERGs 140-page manifesto will include a foreword by David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary. Various chapters will be released over four days, starting on Sunday. The deal drawn up at Chequers should be torn up as far as Eurosceptic MPs are concerned The group wants to neutralise the EUs criticism that ensuring there is no hard border with Northern Ireland means Britain must stay closely tied to Brussels. It is understood the papers will address money and migration on Monday, followed by a key paper on Northern Ireland on Wednesday. Sources said the plans were intended to set out alternatives to those presented by the Government and so force Mrs May to drop her Chequers deal. Downing Street insisted the Chequers proposals were the only credible and negotiable plan which has been put forward. Government sources said it was clear a simple trade deal could not resolve the problems around the Irish border. The basic premise of the Brexiteers is that there is a free trade deal on the table we can just pick up, a source said. Theresa May's plan to negotiate the Chequers deal with the European Union could fall apart There is, but it is a Great Britain-only deal we would be walking off the pitch in Northern Ireland. Mr Johnson was photographed outside a Westminster restaurant yesterday following talks with chief whip Julian Smith as a poll revealed 35 per cent of grassroots members want him as the next party leader. The figure up from 29 per cent last month is more than double the figure notched up by his closest rival, Home Secretary Sajid Javid. The only other MP to achieve support from 10 per cent or more in the poll by ConservativeHome was Mr Rees-Mogg. The arch-Eurosceptic said on Wednesday he believed Mr Johnson should be the next Prime Minister calling the former foreign secretary absolutely first class but added there was no vacancy at No.10. Just over two years ago, I was delighted when the Tories elected their second woman prime minister. Fast forward to today and for similar reasons I feel equally regretful to say that I believe Theresa May, if she doesnt choose to resign, must be replaced and quickly. The writing was on the wall when, entirely unnecessarily, she committed one of the biggest blunders in modern British political history. What was quickly called the dementia tax a controversial plan to shake up the way elderly care is funded wasnt just a shock to millions of voters, but appalled nearly every Tory minister, too. Mrs May thought she was just dropping another policy into the partys 2017 election manifesto, but she was actually dropping a political bomb on to her partys parliamentary majority and the careers and lifetime ambitions of many Tory candidates. She didnt even ask her own health and local government ministers if they thought it was a good idea. It wasnt, of course. It was a titanically awful idea. It blew up in Mrs Mays face, has prolonged Jeremy Corbyns leadership of the Labour Party because he wasnt crushed at the election, and ended the Tories control both of Parliament and the Brexit process. Nadine Dorries: 'I was delighted when the Tories elected their second woman prime minister. Fast forward to today and for similar reasons I feel equally regretful to say that I believe Theresa May, if she doesnt choose to resign, must be replaced and quickly.' Theresa May has been criticsed by her own party for failing to get a grip on the Brexit row between Britain and Brussels To her credit, Mrs May took personal responsibility for the fiasco and told a post-election gathering of my fellow Conservative MPs that shed caused the mess and she would dig the Government out of it. I was content to give her the benefit of the doubt at that time, but no longer. Ive changed my mind because, while Mrs May overhauled her Downing Street inner circle, she hasnt changed her ways. In fact, she has just gone and repeated the mistake of the dementia tax debacle. Her Chequers plan for Brexit was put together secretly, without the knowledge or input of her key ministers. And its deja vu all over again. Leavers and Remainers throughout the country oppose what emerged from her Downing Street bunker. Brussels isnt happy either rejecting the plan last week. She has lost support in the polls. Shes lost experienced ministers after they resigned in despair; she has lost MPs, both Leave and Remain supporters, and the nation has lost vital time in the negotiating window. The PM seems completely blind to the consequences of playing the team game of politics in such a presidential way. She announced that shed be taking personal charge of the final stages of the Brexit process. Given the explosive nature of what she generates in her Downing Street bunker, I fear Brussels will bounce her into another big mistake in the final stages of negotiations. I wish I hadnt reached this conclusion about her, and I dont for a moment pretend that Mrs May doesnt have major qualities. I admire her doggedness, as most of the nation does. It stems from the ethos of public service she learned from her father, a clergyman. And she has done many good things in No.10. Her response to the poisoning scandal in Salisbury was a lesson in statesmanship, for example. An Iron Lady moment. Overall, however, in a country that is as complex as ours, during times that are so challenging and given Brexit negotiations that matter so much, its vital we have a Government of all the talents and not just one. She really does exhibit a worrying disdain for the ideas of too many others. While I was not a great fan of George Osborne, his Northern Powerhouse project was truly of one-nation potential, but shes downgraded it. She has rejected, or shown no interest in, the many good ideas that Vote Leave campaigners deployed to help win the referendum such as cutting VAT on fuel. And she hardly uses Twitter, which is odd given that David Cameron exploited it so well, and he was the master communicator. If we are to prevent a disastrous Jeremy Corbyn premiership, we have no time to lose.Voters wont believe us if we wait until the eve of the next election to make promises of change and trot out the tired line that we have lessons to learn. We need a PM who will trust their Chancellor to deliver tax reform; a PM wholl back a housing minister to end the crisis in affordable homes. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks as she chairs a cabinet meeting next to Boris Johnson What we need is a premier who isnt afraid of bold change, because if Tories dont deliver change, the nation will turn to Jeremy Corbyn or some other populist figure to find it. My own choice for leader is Boris Johnson. Yes, many MPs nurturing their own political ambitions dont want him, because like Churchill, he will run and run. But he was the man who delivered Brexit. (Sorry, Nigel Farage, it really wasnt you). And it matters to Boris that the promises made in that campaign especially on NHS spending and immigration control are met as quickly and fully as possible. His loud critics who say theyll leave the party if he succeeds Mrs May remind me of celebrities who insist theyll leave the country if a general election result isnt to their liking. Most end up staying. Boris would need to put big figures from all wings of the party in top jobs, and preferably put Sajid Javid into No.11 he is a man with vision and unparalleled fiscal ability. Boris won the Labour city of London twice, and delivered. During his time at City Hall, knife crime did not explode. Infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the Olympics did not veer off course. Millions rallied to his call to back Brexit. Ive walked down many streets with politicians but Boris is the only one who has rock star status, and the only time Ive been mobbed was with him. Hes the man to seize the opportunities of Brexit and not drown in its short-term complexities. I know he wants to give practical help for people who cant afford a home and lack any job security and put those policies at the heart of Government. Tory MPs and other seemingly implacable opponents of the former foreign secretary need to dwell on that. We have almost run out of time. We have weeks to save the country and Brexit. Theresa May has to go, and MPs have to put personal ambition aside, do the right thing and put Boris to the membership to vote. Yesterday, he extended his lead as the preferred next party leader among Tory members, according to a poll for the website ConservativeHome. If we dont act, the winner will be Corbyn and the extremist groups that, throughout his political lifetime, he has befriended. No Tory should allow themselves to be an accomplice to that for the sake of their own personal ambition. Two Chinese women have been charged with running an illegal brothel after police raided three venues strewn with rubbish, sheets and women's shoes. ACT Police arrested six people at an apartment in the suburb of Reid in Canberra on Tuesday. The other four were Thai nationals who were illegally working in Australia. Photos of the raid show plastic bags scattered across the floor of one brothel's bedroom, with bed linen scattered across the furniture and mould covering the bathroom ceiling. Police raided three brothels (pictured) in Reid, Canberra, which were strewn with litter and bed linen, on Tuesday leading to two Chinese women being charged with operating a brothel in a non-prescribed location Police made the arrests after a member of the public tipped them off about the brothels, which were allegedly all staffed by non-registered sex workers ACT acting superintendent Kari Ellis said police (pictured during raid) would continue to disrupt businesses illegally employing foreign workers The women, aged 45 and 50, have been bailed and will appear in court on October 12 - having been charged with operating a brothel in a non-prescribed location. Police made the arrests after a member of the public tipped them off about the brothels, which were allegedly staffed by non-registered sex workers. Detective station sergeant Adrian Craft said the illegal brothels were disruptive to residents and police. He said: 'To have illegal brothels operating in apartment complexes can be terribly disruptive to residents. 'Police will continue to target illegal brothels in the Canberra CBD to improve the environment for those living in the complexes.' ACT acting superintendent Kari Ellis said: 'We are focused on disrupting businesses employing and potentially exploiting illegal foreign workers.' Outraged child protection advocates have criticised the sentence of an ice addict stepfather who bashed a toddler who eventually died from his severe injuries. William Andrew O'Sullivan was sentenced to nine-years imprisonment for the death of 22-month-old Mason Jet Lee but will be eligible for parole in less than four years. The toddler was found with extensive injuries at O'Sullivan's home in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, in June 2016. William Andrew O'Sullivan (pictured) was sentenced to nine-years imprisonment for the death of 22-month-old Mason Jet Lee and will be eligible for parole in less than four years The inadequate sentenced has been criticised by outraged child protection advocates (pictured: Mason Lee) The toddler (pictured) was found with extensive injuries at O'Sullivan's home in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, in June 2016 The sentence was kept a secret for a week out of concern for co-accused, Mason's mother Annemarree Lee, the Courier Mail reported. The young boy was so severely beaten he suffered anal injuries, a broken leg and a ruptured intestine, spending the last of his days vomiting, feverish and dehydrated. O'Sullivan failed to assist the toddler in his last days, instead yelling at him to 'shut up' when he cried as well as hitting and kicking him. Founder of Bravehearts, a leading child protection organisation in Australia, Hetty Johnson said the inadequate sentence proves the system is failing children. 'How can you kill a child and walk away after four years? It just defies any kind of logic, it doesn't set any example,' Ms Johnston said. 'I think they need to throw the whole sentencing regime out the window and start again.' O'Sullivan (pictured) failed to assist the toddler in his last days, instead yelling at him to 'shut up' when he cried as well as hitting and kicking him The Queensland Opposition's child safety spokeswoman Ros Bates said the system needs an overhaul. 'I'm sure that the public don't think that a sentence that lenient is sufficient for what that little boy went through,' she said. The state's attorney-general has a 28-day window to lodge an appeal into the judgement. 'As with all cases, DPP are looking at the judgement and will advise the attorney-general whether there are any prospects for appeal,' a spokesperson said in a statement. The Attorney-General has been left with a small window to fight for a longer sentence as seven days are already gone. O'Sullivan pleaded guilty to four separate charges before the Queensland Supreme Court, including manslaughter and cruelty to a child under 16-years-old. Mason, who was subjected to neglect and mistreatment in his short life, spent his final hours with blue lips, wrapped in a towel and making grunting noises. Mason was so severely beaten he suffered anal injuries, a broken leg and a ruptured intestine, spending the last of his days vomiting, feverish and dehydrated 'How can you kill a child and walk away after four years? It just defies any kind of logic, it doesn't set any example,' founder of Bravehearts Hetty Johnston said In addition to the injuries, traces of methamphetamine were found in his blood. In the months before his death, Mason was treated for multiple injuries and was admitted to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital for three weeks in February 2016, a court was previously told. O'Sullivan tried to blame Mason's death on paramedics for responding slowly, despite arriving at the property six minutes after they were called by a friend. He also lied to police saying he found Mason with blue lips and mouth clamped on a bottle before calling an ambulance. O'Sullivan, who has long battled drug addiction, also claimed his 12-year-old 'serial killer' daughter could have beaten the toddler. Defence barrister Ruth OGorman said OSullivan has been bashed unconscious by another inmate, since being in custody. She said he was forced to spend 13 days in hospital with a fractured skull after prisoners bashed, kicked and stomped him severely. Mason's mother will face a judge-only trial as her lawyer argued jurors would potentially be influenced by media coverage. Christmas parties and private functions are now in the firing line of draconian liquor laws that make it illegal for people to get drunk in pubs. The Canterbury Bulldogs' Mad Monday celebrations saw the 63-year-old licensee of the Harbour View Hotel in the heart of Sydney slugged with five penalty notices. Police issued three of the notices for allegedly breaching the New South Wales Liquor Act by permitting intoxication on the premises during the club's private event. As a result, the pub could be slapped with heavy fines, face trading hour restrictions or even be shut down - which would have a chilling effect on Sydney pubs ahead of the festive season. Christmas parties and private functions are now in the firing line of draconian liquor laws that make it illegal for people to get drunk in pubs (stock image) The Canterbury Bulldogs' Mad Monday celebrations saw the 63-year-old licensee of the Harbour View Hotel in the heart of Sydney slugged with five penalty notices The Harbour View Hotel told Daily Mail Australia said they were unable to comment on the police action, other than saying the Liquor Act was clear. The Australian Hotels Association said customers at licensed establishments should be able to able to enjoy office Christmas parties. 'Patrons attending end of season events or similar functions should be entitled to let their hair down,' AHA NSW Director of Liquor and Policing John Green said. 'But [they] must remember there are both behavioural and legislative responsibilities that govern what they can and can't do.' 'Venues work closely with police and the regulator throughout the year, and particularly during larger events, to ensure people have a good time, without going overboard and risking safety, or sanctions.' Former Labor leader Mark Latham slammed the penalties, describing them as a 'joke' and questioning whether there should have been any legal consequences at all. Police issued three of the notices for allegedly breaching the New South Wales Liquor Act by permitting intoxication on the premises during the club's private event (stock image) 'Has any member of the public complained or have the police been stampeded into action by media outrage?' he asked. Poll Do you think pubs should be punished for having drunk customers? Yes No Unsure Do you think pubs should be punished for having drunk customers? Yes 21 votes No 39 votes Unsure 4 votes Now share your opinion 'If it's the latter, it's a complete and utter waste of police resources. As are the charges laid against the Bulldog players. 'If no member of the public has been harmed, why the need for any action? 'What a joke.' The New South Wales Liquor Act 2007 makes it illegal for licensees to permit intoxication or sell or supply liquor to an intoxicated person. If enforced as zealously as against the host of the Mad Monday celebration, these laws would spell the end of the office Christmas party, a traditionally boozy affair. Satya Marar, Director of Policy at the Australian Taxpayers' Alliance, said punishing licensed establishments for the actions of their customers was unfair. The pub could be slapped with heavy fines, face trading hour restrictions or even be shut down - which would have a chilling effect on Sydney pubs ahead of the festive season (stock image) 'Our laws should promote a thriving nightlife by making sure that individuals are held responsible for their own actions,' Mr Marar said. 'Hitting pubs with penalty notices every time someone gets caught misbehaving is a surefire recipe for fewer pubs, more expensive drinks and functions, and restrictions on businesses and party-goers who don't deserve it. WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY? According to the New South Wales Liquor Act 2007, Section 73, licensees cannot permit intoxication on their premises, or sell or supply liquor to an intoxicated person. They are taken to have permitted intoxication unless they can prove they asked the intoxicated person to leave, called the police, or refused to serve them more alcohol. Violations of the Liquor Act can result in licensees being given strikes, and three strikes can result in closure. Source: Liquor Act 2007 Advertisement 'Nanny state restrictions have already turned one-time hotspots like Sydney into a ghost town with a nightlife that is an international embarrassment.' In March a new Kings Cross jazz club, Prohibition, was forced to close its doors just a day after it started trading after just one customer was not scanned on entry. Owner Ian Chandler told Daily Mail Australia at the time undercover licensing officers entered the premises on the first day. After noticing a patron was not scanned, the officer told Mr Chandler he faced fines of tens of thousands of dollars in fines, leaving him no choice but to shut down. 'It's death by a thousand cuts,' he said, saying the labyrinth of legal restrictions and regulations was killing Sydney's nightlife. Prohibition is one of dozens of licensed venues to be punished in recent years, and ten closure orders have been issued since 2015. Daily Mail Australia contacted the Harbour View Hotel and Liquor and Gaming New South Wales for comment. Megyn Kelly says the Trump administration official behind the anonymous New York Times op-ed is a 'coward' for not putting their face out their publicly. Speaking to TMZ in New York on Thursday, Kelly said the anonymous White House official should 'grow up' and 'take a stand'. 'I have no idea who it is but I feel like if you've got a problem with him, come out and say it publicly,' Kelly said. 'You don't just subvert the people's will by stealing things from the President. You aren't an elected person. President Trump was fairly elected, whether you like him or you don't like him - you have to deal with it. Megyn Kelly says the Trump administration official behind the anonymous New York Times op-ed is a 'coward' for not putting their face out their publicly 'Go to the house, got to the senate, try to get lawmakers to do something about it. 'Don't be a coward.' Kelly concluded by saying she didn't think the person should be penalized but urged them to just 'grow up'. Her comments came as Trump's top lieutenants scrambled on Thursday to deny authorship of the explosive op-ed that has plunged his presidency into its worst crisis yet by proclaiming a secret insider resistance to his 'reckless' and 'amoral' leadership. The White House has been convulsed since Wednesday by a fevered hunt for the senior official who declared, in an unsigned article for The New York Times, that 'unsung heroes' were quietly working within the administration to frustrate the president's 'worst inclinations'. Trump responded with a furious volley of tweets that asked if the author had committed treason while First Lady Melania Trump condemned the decision to publish. 'To the writer of the op-ed -- you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions,' she said. On the internet and in Washington, meanwhile, a guessing game has raged over who the author might be, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the government to deny it was them. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were among those who issued denials. Republican Sen. Rand Paul suggested that president Donald Trump use a lie-detector test to find out which White House official penned an anonymous New York Times' op-ed piece. Paul made the suggestion as at least 32 staffers deny they were the 'senior official' in the Trump administration who wrote a piece for the Times claiming there is resistance within the White House and officials were working 'from within' to thwart Trump's most dangerous impulses. 'It's not unprecedented for people with security clearances to be asked whether or not they're revealing things against the law under oath and also by lie detector,' Paul said. 'We use the lie-detector test routinely for CIA agents and FBI agents,' he added. 'If you have a security clearance in the White House, I think it would be acceptable to use a lie detector test and ask people whether or not they're taking to the media against the policy of the White House.' Republican Sen. Rand Paul says Trump should use lie-detector tests to find the senior official who penned the New York Times op-ed Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday urged the anonymous writer to stop hiding and have Trump removed if they think he's an unfit president The New York Times op-ed drew a furious response from President Donald Trump on Thursday Paul also expressed concern on whether the leaker could reveal national security secrets to the media, but said he does not think Congress should get involved and investigate. 'We need to get to the bottom of it,' he said. While Paul thinks lie-detector tests are the best route to finding the leaker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday urged the anonymous writer to stop hiding and have Trump removed if they think he's an unfit president. In a fundraising email on Thursday, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote: 'They should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking information to Bob Woodward' and 'do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office.' A flood of denials have been pouring in after dozens and dozens of senior staffers publicly deny their involvement in the op-ed. According to CNN, statements from his administration are being printed off and given to Trump. An official said that Trump is reading each statement carefully. The denials have been fast and definitive given that the president measures the strength of such responses as part of his loyalty tests. Earlier Thursday, First Lady Melania Trump joined the list of those denying they wrote the op-ed piece as the inflammatory essay becomes an all-hands on deck crisis for the Trump Administration. Deny, deny, deny: From left to right, Wilbur Ross, Alexander Acosta and Alex Azar say they were not the anonymous writer Didn't do it: From left to right, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Carson and Betsy DeVos released statements distancing themselves from the Times op-ed Dan Coats (left) released a statement denying that he or his aide wrote the piece. Elaine Chao (center) and Gina Haspel (right) also said they are not involved 'Freedom of speech is an important pillar of our nation's founding principles and a free press is important to our democracy. The press should be fair, unbiased and responsible,' the first lady said in a statement. 'Unidentified sources have become the majority of the voices people hear about in today's news. People with no names are writing our nation's history. Words are important, and accusations can lead to severe consequences. If a person is bold enough to accuse people of negative actions, they have a responsibility to publicly stand by their words and people have the right to be able to defend themselves,' she added. She concluded: 'To the writer of the oped you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.' She joined Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a string of senior figures in flatly denying they wrote the 'resistance' op-ed whose publication drew a furious response from Trump. Additionally every Cabinet secretary, along with other senior aides, have denied authorship as Trump has launched a massive mole hunt for the author behind the scandalous piece. Melania Trump denies authorship of New York Times op-ed and condemns anonymous author From left the right, Don McGahn, James Mattis and Jeff Sessions also said they are not the leaker From left the right, Jon Huntsman, KellyAnne Conway and Kirstjen Nielsen said they are not the anonymous writer who penned an op-ed for the Times Mick Mulvaney (left) also denied being involved, along with Mike Pompeo (center) and Mike Pence 'The Vice President puts his name on his op-eds,' Pence's office said in a tweet denying he was the writer Reports indicate the president is becoming more and more paranoid about who he can trust in the wake of the bombshell essay and a book by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. TRUMP OFFICIALS WHO HAVE DENIED AUTHORSHIP OF NYT OP-ED First Lady Melania Trump Vice President Mike Pence Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Defense Secretary James Mattis Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin Attorney General Jeff Sessions White House Counsel Don McGahn Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Health and Human Services Services Secretary Alex Azar Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Energy Secretary Rick Perry Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao Labor Department Secretary Alexander Acosta Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue UN Ambassador Nikki Haley U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman CIA Director Gina Haspel Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler White House Counsel Kellyanne Conway US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer Small business administration administrator Linda McMahon Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt Advertisement Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Health and Human Services Services Secretary Alex Azar, Labor Department Secretary Alexander Acosta, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and First Lady spokesperson Stephanie Grisham are all denying authorship of The Times piece. Also denying authorship are White House Counsels Don McGahn and Kellyanne Conway, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons, and Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders is slamming the who-wrote-it game going on in Washington D.C., advising the media to 'Stop.' 'The media's wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop. If you want to know who this gutless loser is, call the opinion Paidesk of the failing NYT at 212-556-1234, and ask them. They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J. Trump,' she said in a statement posted to her twitter account. Pence's denial was especially noteworthy after online speculation about who penned the piece narrowed in on the vice president, making him the odds on favorite as being the author. Jarrod Agen, Pence's deputy chief of staff and communications director, tweeted that the vice president 'puts his name on his op-eds.' 'The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts,' Agen wrote Thursday morning. Pompeo told reporters during a visit to India that it wasn't him either. 'It's not mine,' he said, according to the Associated Press. Nikki Haley (left) said she wasn't behind the op-ed either. Rick Perry (center) and Robert Lighthizer (right) also issued statements denying their involvement Robert Wilkie (left) said he did not write it, as well as Ryan Zinke (center). Sarah Sanders slammed the media's attention in finding out who wrote it Sonny Perdue (left), Steven Mnuchin (center) and Ajit Pai (right) also said they were not involved A spokesperson for Linda McMahon (left) said she was not the author. Joseph Simons (center) and David Bernhardt (right) also said they did not write the op-ed Trump claims a 'deep state' is working against him 'I come from a place where if you're not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave,' Pompeo added. Coats put out a statement denying either he or his deputy wrote the piece. 'Speculation that The New York Times op-ed was written by me or my Principal Deputy is patently false. We did not. From the beginning of our tenure, we have insisted that the entire IC remain focused on our mission to provide the President and policymakers with the best intelligence possible,' he said. US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer told CNN in a statement he didn't write it and it does not reflect his views. In total 32 senior officials have denied authoring the Times op-ed 'I did not write it. It does not reflect my views at all, and it does not reflect the views of anyone I know in the Administration. It is a complete and total fabrication,' Lighthizer said. '.@stevenmnuchin1 is honored to serve @POTUS & the American people. He feels it was irresponsible for @nytimes to print this anonymous piece. Now, dignified public servants are forced to deny being the source. It is laughable to think this could come from the Secretary,' tweeted Treasury Department spokesperson Tony Sayegh for Steven Mnuchin. 'Secretary Nielsen is focused on leading the men and women of DHS and protecting the homeland - not writing anonymous and false opinion pieces for the New York Times. These types of political attacks are beneath the Secretary and the Department's mission,' press secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said. A spokesperson for Carson simply stated 'haha nope' about whether the secretary of housing and urban development was the writer. Trump is trying to learn the name of the author of the anonymous piece and has a printed list of everyone's statement on the matter A Pentagon spokesperson denied it was Mattis. 'It was not his op-ed,' spokesperson Dana White said. A Justice Department spokesperson told CNN Sessions was not the author either. Energy Secretary Rick Perry tweeted he didn't write the piece. 'I am not the author of the New York Times OpEd, nor do I agree with its characterizations. Hiding behind anonymity and smearing the President of the United States does not make you an 'unsung hero', it makes you a coward, unworthy of serving this Nation,' he wrote. PLACE YOUR BETS ON WHO WROTE THE OP-ED Online bookmakers rushed to cash in on the Washington D.C. frenzy over who the anonymous 'senior official' behind the New York Times's 'resistance' op-ed could be. The runners from www.actionnetwork.com are : Mike Pence 60.0% (-150) Betsy DeVos 33.3% (+200) Mike Pompeo 20.0% (+400) Steven Mnuchin 20.0% (+400) John Kelly 20.0% (+400) Jim Mattis 16.7% (+500) Jeff Sessions 16.7% (+500) Ryan Zinke 14.3% (+600) Sonny Perdue 14.3% (+600) Wilbur Ross 12.5% (+700) Alex Acosta 12.5% (+700) Alex Azar 11.1% (+800) Ben Carson 11.1% (+800) Robert Wilkie 11.1% (+800) Kirstjen Nielsen 9.1% (+1000) Ivanka Trump 7.7% (+1200) Jared Kushner 7.7% (+1200) Stephen Miller 6.3% (+1500) Advertisement DeVos's press department tweeted the education secretary doesn't 'play Washington insider games.' '.@BetsyDeVosED is not a Washington insider and does not play Washington insider games. She has the courage of her convictions and signs her opinions. She is not the author of the anonymous @nytimes op-ed,' they wrote. Small business administration administrator Linda McMahon also said she did not write the op-ed, saying on Thursday via a spokesperson that it wasn't her. Who wrote the piece has become Washington's new guessing game and even the president is playing. Inside the West Wing on Wednesday, senior officials canceled afternoon meetings to start the search process, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some staff were even calling reporters to ask if they knew who wrote the piece. When it comes to negative stories involving the West Wing, the president looks at how forcefully aides respond them. A Trump friend told the Washington Post the president believes he can only trust his children. The president reacted to The Times piece with 'volcanic' anger and was 'absolutely livid,' The Post reported. Trump suspects the author works on national security issues or in the Justice Department. One senior administration official told Politico the White House is in 'total meltdown' over the op-ed. And the president is publicly expressing frustration that his own administration is working against him, claiming again he is a victim of 'the deep state.' 'The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don't know what to do,' he wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. The New York Times opinion piece describes the president as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' and says the author is part of an organized 'resistance' whose goal is 'to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting [President] Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office.' Within hours of its publication, online chatter Wednesday quickly focused on Pence as observers 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. The term means 'a star that leads or guides' or 'serves as an inspiration, model, or guide.' Trump himself has called the writer 'gutless' and called on the newspaper to release the identity in the name of national security. In an online introduction, the Times says the author's 'identity is known to us' and the person's '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.' 'Does the so-called 'Senior Administration Official' really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?' Trump tweeted hours after the newspaper published a brutal opinion essay that the newspaper said was written by one of his senior-level appointees. 'If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!' A father who was changing his son in a shopping centre parents' room says he was abused by two mothers who told him to get out of the room. Mathew Ferguson was trying to console his emotional toddler in the room at Wanneroo Central Shopping Centre, in Perth's northern suburbs, when he was approached by the two mothers. He described the moment as 'hell on earth' in a Facebook post that has since been taken down, WA Today reported. A father who was changing his son in a shopping centre parent room was abused by two mothers who told him to get out of the room (stock image) Mr Ferguson was attempting to console his screaming son after a haircut left him with ticklish hair clippings down his T-shirt. The women approached the father, called him disgusting and demanded he leave the parents' room. 'I don't know if it was a cultural thing, or they were not used to having men in that environment, but it definitely put them off and they were really disturbed about me being in there when it's clearly a parent room,' he said. A female bystander who witnessed the incident happened to step in to tell the women to settle down. Mr Ferguson said that this isn't the first time he's been abused while taking care of his children - and male friends had witnessed the same behaviour. When he spoke of encountering women in parents' rooms, he said that he could feel critical eyes on him and women weren't comfortable about him being there. Mathew Ferguson was trying to console his emotional toddler in the parent when he was approached by the two mothers (stock image) Mr Ferguson insists that changing a child in the men's room is a nightmare and has a message for mothers with poor attitude. 'You do not have sole rights to this space! Keep your disrespectful comments to yourself and understand if a child needs to be changed this is the place to do it,' he said. Mr Ferguson said he was frustrated and believes that while society wants men to step up and be hands-on parents, parts of the community don't appreciate what they do. 'They want us to step up but they still think we're useless. I'm just a parent,' he said. Curtin University Faculty of Health Sciences lecturer, Dr Gary Kendall, told the publication that although the mothers' behaviour was wrong, it is understandable. Dr Kendall said that the role of men and women in society was changing, but the women's behaviour wasn't appropriate. When he spoke of encountering women in parent rooms, he said that he could feel critical eyes on him and women weren't comfortable about him being there (stock image) In June, Daily Mail Australia reported that Troy Tinson, a new father from Mandurah in Western Australia was forced out of the parent room by a group of mothers. He was forced to change his baby's nappy in the men's toilets. He claims he walked into the parents' change room in a local shopping centre to change his daughter's nappy when three women stood in front of the change tables and told him he wasn't welcome. 'They said there were women breastfeeding in the room and that he wasn't welcome, that he was a male and that there were male toilets that he could access,' Troy's wife Terina told ABC. Troy did change their daughter on the sink in the men's toilets and Terina said that he felt insulted by the experience. Richard Simmons touted a new line of merchandise on an internet shopping channel Thursday, but the man himself was nowhere to be seen as a former student fronted the sales. 'Richard Simmons Sweatin' Shop' channel went live on talkshop.live on Thursday evening. A presenter, who said he was one of Simmons' former students, wore a T-shirt with the slogan 'I sweat with Richard Simmons' on it and touted a $17.50 Simmons calendar which offered daily quotes from the fitness guru. Viewers were posting questions about why the reclusive fitness guru was not appearing in person but they were ignored. Moderators appeared to delete some of the questions about Simmons, who has been in hiding for nearly five years. T-shirts with slogans like 'I sweat with Richard Simmons' were on offer, but viewers posting questions about why the reclusive fitness guru was not appearing in person were ignored Moderators appeared to delete some of the questions about Simmons, although several remained live Anthony W said: 'Is Richard turning in soon? Is Richard going to appear?' James B wrote: 'Literally the only appeal of Richard's products is Richard and you're selling his products without him? You can't just throw some semi-enigmatic queen on camera and expect us to buy stuff. Sad.' Some of the posts appeared to have been deleted by moderators. The Richard Simmons 2019 Day-to-Day Calendar is described on the site as 'a celebration of the wit and wisdom of beloved pop icon Richard Simmons. 'By helping people adopt sensible, balanced eating programs and exercise regimes that are energetic, fun, and motivating, as well as reframe their self-image and self-worth, Richard Simmons has inspired generations to achieve their full potential.' On offer were these fitness programs offering viewers '365 days of inspiration' for 2019 The last time Simmons spoke in public was in April 2017, when he reached out to fans to assure them he was still around - and thank them for their support. 'Aren't you sick of hearing and reading about me?!' he wrote in a Facebook post, alongside a picture of himself from 2014. 'Well by now you know that I'm not 'missing', just a little under the weather. I'm sure I will be feeling good and back home in a couple of days.' Simmons attends the 2010 World Fitness Day at the Georgia Dome on May 1, 2010 in Atlanta Simmons, who was in hospital at the time, also added his thanks to the many fans who had reached out to express their concern and good wishes. 'You will never know how much it means to me,' he wrote. 'This has reminded me that when you need help you can't be afraid to reach out and ask for it. 'We all think we should always be able to solve our problems all by ourselves and sometimes it's just bigger than we are. 'I reached out and I hope you will too. I'm sure there are people in your life who love and care for you and would do anything to help you with the challenges you face. 'Just knowing you care has already made me feel better. Hope to see you again soon!' Simmons' manager Michael Catalano said the fitness guru had been hospitalized 'at an undisclosed location in California.' 'After a few days of battling severe indigestion and discomfort while eating, we agreed it was best for him to seek treatment,' he said. Catalono added: 'He's already feeling better and is expected to make a full recovery.' Among Simmons last onscreen appearances were guest judging a 2014 episode of ABC's Sing Your Face Off and playing a dramatized version of himself on ABC soap General Hospital in 2013. A woman has been found guilty of aggravated dangerous driving causing death after she was found to be texting whilst driving moments before a crash which caused the death of her friend. Aine McGrath, 26, was charged after the accident in August 15, 2016, in which her friend, who was travelling in the passenger seat, died. McGrath was texting her boyfriend when the crash happened on Mitchell Freeway near Leederville in Western Australia. McGrath's friend Sarah Kelly (pictured) was sitting in the passenger seat and died at the scene Aine Marie McGrath, 25, was behind the wheel of her Mitsubishi Lancer on the Mitchell Freeway in Perth in August 2016 when her car swerved across four lanes of traffic and was T-boned by another car (crash scene pictured) Her Mitsubishi Lancer veered across four lanes of the freeway. The passenger side was hit by a Holden Colorado, killing her friend Sarah Kelly, who died at the scene. McGrath maintained that she had not read the last text from her boyfriend when the crash happened and the crash was instead the fault of a car pulling in front of her when she was trying to change lanes. She claims she then lost control of her vehicle after swerving to avoid hitting the car. McGrath's first trial in February was discharged when the jury could not reach a verdict. McGrath this week faced trial for a second time at District Court. McGrath admitted to the phone use back in February, and admitted she was distracted leading up to the crash, but denied she was driving dangerously. She maintained the crash was 'just an accident' when she appeared in court. A jury rejected her account of the incident and found her guilty of aggravated dangerous driving, District Court confirmed to Daily Mail Australia. A text exchange between McGrath and her boyfriend shown to the jury showed that she had sent the last text about 12 seconds before the first emergency call was made. McGrath's (pictured) first trial in February was discharged when the jury could not reach a verdict. McGrath this week faced trial for a second time at District Court Kate Matthews, driver of the Holden, described how she was forced to slam on the brakes and hold onto the steering wheel. 'There was nothing much I could do,' she said. 'We just crashed into the car straight into the passenger door.' District Court confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that McGrath is to be sentenced later this month. She remains on bail until then. In true Australian style, hilarious footage has emerged of a cockatoo on the Gold Coast knocking back the remains of three beer cans one after the other in quick succession. The 15 second clip, uploaded to You Tube, shows a cockatoo nicknamed 'Claude' picking up the beer summer cans by its beak before quickly polishing off the remains. The cheeky poster added the following caption: 'Claude the cocky having a sneaky few bevs after a long day. Don't worry the cans are empty. Always drink responsibly!' However, it seems cockatoos enjoying a refreshing ale isn't just limited to Australia. In 2016, a six-year-old cockatoo called Leo was banned from the Old Chapel Wetherspoon pub in Darwen, Lancashire, after staff told his owner, David Wilson, they operated under a strict no pets policy - with the exception of guide dogs. A defiant Mr Wilson then began drinking at the neighbouring Victoria pub in Darwen. The publican said 'he would be happy to accomodate' Wilson's feathered friend. 'We were welcomed with open arms at The Victoria,' Mr Wilson told the Lancashire Telegraph at the time. Claude the cockatoo seen chugging a can of summer beer on the Gold Coast this week The inquisitive Claude the cockatoo spotted some discarded beer cans and got to work 'Leo is an extremely intelligent and tame bird, he is very well behaved and never flies away too far. When we go to the pub he is very well behaved. 'Leo will sit on other customer's shoulders quietly, see what they are drinking and then find someone else to sit on. 'He's part of the furniture at the pub where the staff are really great with him.' The disgraced ice addict who bashed his 22-month-old stepson within an inch of his life received a taste of his own medicine in a prison attack. William Andrew O'Sullivan was sentenced to nine-years imprisonment for the death of Mason Jet Lee in the Queensland Supreme Court, last week. O'Sullivan's lawyer told the court that he fell victim to aggressive threats while in jail awaiting the outcome of his trial. Ice addict, William Andrew O'Sullivan (pictured), who bashed his 22-month-old stepson within an inch of his life has received a taste of his own medicine in a prison attack The self-described 'junkie' (pictured) was bashed by two inmates in vicious attack where his head was stomped and kicked in. He spent 13 days in hospital for fractured skull O'Sullivan was sentenced to nine-years imprisonment for the 2016 death of Mason Jet Lee (pictured) in the Brisbane Supreme Court, last week The self-described 'junkie' was bashed by two inmates in vicious attack where his head was stomped and kicked in. He suffered a severely fractured skull and spent 13 days in hospital recovering. O'Sullivan failed to assist the dying toddler in his last days, instead yelling at him to 'shut up' when he cried as well as hitting and kicking him, The Courier Mail reported. Mason was found with extensive injuries at O'Sullivan's home in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, in June 2016. The young boy was so severely beaten he suffered anal injuries, a broken leg and a ruptured intestine, spending the last of his days vomiting, feverish and dehydrated. Mason, who was subjected to neglect and mistreatment in his short life, spent his final hours with blue lips, wrapped in a towel and making grunting noises. In addition to the injuries, traces of methamphetamine were found in his blood. In the months before his death, Mason was treated for multiple injuries and was admitted to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital for three weeks in February 2016, a court was previously told. O'Sullivan (pictured) frequently wiped away tears during his court appearance last week O'Sullivan failed to assist the dying toddler (pictured) in his last days, instead yelling at him to 'shut up' when he cried as well as hitting and kicking him O'Sullivan tried to blame Mason's death on paramedics for responding slowly, despite arriving at the property six minutes after they were called by a friend. He also claimed his 12-year-old 'serial killer' daughter could have beaten the toddler. O'Sullivan frequently wiped away tears during his court appearance and took plenty of deep breaths. O'Sullivan pleaded guilty to four separate charges before the Queensland Supreme Court, including manslaughter and cruelty to a child under 16-years-old. He sentenced to nine years imprisonment and will be eligible for parole in less than four years. The sentence has been slammed by child protection advocates for being inadequate and too lenient. There are calls for the judgement to be reviewed by the Attorney-General. Mason was so severely beaten he suffered anal injuries, a broken leg and a ruptured intestine, spending the last of his days vomiting, feverish and dehydrated GoFundMe has promised to pay the full balance of the original $400,000 that was raised for a homeless veteran who was allegedly defrauded by a New Jersey couple. The crowdfunding site said it would make sure Johnny Bobbitt receives what is left of the sum he was promised after he helped a motorist stranded in Philadelphia by giving him his last remaining $20 for gas so she could get home. The inspirational story led thousands of people to donate to a crowdfunding campaign run by the motorist and her boyfriend. But the couple is now accused of paying Bobbitt only a portion of the funds while using the rest on gambling and vacations. 'Johnny will be made whole, and we're committing that he'll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from,' GoFundMe said in a statement. Under investigation: Cops are now investigating Mark D'Amico and Katelyn McClure after they failed to hand over money raised via GoFundMe to a homeless veteran. They raised $400,000 for Johnny Bobbitt after he spent his last $20 on gas for them to get home. 'GoFundMe's goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets [the] support he deserves. "We'll continue to assist with the ongoing law enforcement investigation.' GoFundMe made the announcement in a joint statement with a Philadelphia law firm representing Bobbitt, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The company is also taking steps to allow donors who contributed to the campaign to get their money back. Company policy states that donors have until 30 days of making their contribution to submit claims asking for a refund. But since the campaign took place 10 months ago, GoFundMe is waiving this aspect of its policy so as to allow donors to Bobbitt to submit claims. 'This is an extremely rare situation, and we are working with law enforcement officials to get Johnny the money raised on his behalf, which means the 30-day policy does not apply in this case,' a company spokesperson told the Inquirer. Earlier on Thursday, Mark D'Amico and Kately McClure, the couple accused of defrauding Bobbitt, had their home raided by police who have opened a criminal investigation. D'Amico and McClure raised $400,000 for Johnny Bobbitt after he spent his last $20 on gas for them to get home. Bobbitt is now suing the couple, claiming they kept the money for themselves and have spent it on vacations and gambling. Police today announced they are investigating the couple and executed a search warrant at their home in Florence, New Jersey. Footage from 6abc shows officers removing a used black BMW the couple had bought earlier this year on a flatbed tow truck. Footage shows officers removing a black BMW with a tow truck during a raid on D'Amico and McClure's home An officer is seen inspecting the used BMW, which the couple bought earlier this year, at the home of D'Amico and McClure Thursday The vehicle was taken away with a flatbed tow truck during the raid D'Amico smiled and played with his dog (pictured) as officers took the car away D'Amico smiled and played with his dog as officers took the car away. McClure was not home. Investigators later left the couple's home with bags and boxes of material. Burlington County Prosecutor Scott A Coffina said in a statement: 'Due to the enormous public interest in this matter, I am confirming that a search warrant was executed early this morning by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and the Florence Township Police Department at the residence of Mark D'Amico and Katelyn McClure in connection with a criminal investigation into the Johnny Bobbitt matter. 'As of this time, there have been no charges filed. Further updates will be provided as circumstances warrant.' It comes less than a week after the couple went on national television to claim there was still 'well over' $150,000 of the raised money left. They insisted that they have not spent the money on themselves and that they spent $200,000 on care for Bobbitt. Whatever cash they did give him, they said he spent it on drugs. After Bobbitt shared his story earlier this month, GoFundMe launched an investigation into the couple's handling of the fund. It seemed Bobbitt had triumphed when a judge earlier this week ordered the couple to give him control of the account. Now, Bobbitt and his lawyers have asked for a forensic accountant to examine the couple's records and determine if they misspent any of the money. They met in November 2017 when McClure, a receptionist for the state Department of Transportation, ran out of gas in Philadelphia on her way home. Nearly 15,000 people donated $402,000 to get Bobbitt off the street after he used his last $20 to buy McClure gas in Philadelphia Bobbitt was sleeping in the street and he used his last $20 to buy her gas and get her home safely. She shared his good deed on social media and launched a GoFundMe page in the hope that strangers would return his kindness. Within a month, McClure and D'Amico had raised $400,000 for Bobbitt and he was excitedly planning a new life. There were promises of trusts and retirement accounts, a financial adviser and lawyers, but Bobbitt now says none of what the pair told him he would receive panned out as planned. Instead of turning over the money to him, they maintained control of it and only once gave him a lump sum of cash. Rather than buy him a house, they bought him a trailer, which was then kept on land owned by McClure's family. He did not get the pickup truck of his dreams, and instead was given a used SUV, which they have since sold. McClure and D'Amico insist that he wanted the trailer and car, and that when he blew through $25,000, allegedly on drugs, in just 13 days, they decided he could not be trusted with the rest of the money. They say that an additional $30,000-$40,000 was eaten up by GoFundMe's fees and that another $135,000 were spent on lawyers, the trailer, an SUV, TVs, a laptop, a cell phone and a hotel where Bobbitt stayed when he first got off the street. It is not clear what legal services were given before they fell into dispute. During an interview with Megyn Kelly last week, the couple said they spent $200,000 on him in total and that $150,000 was still left. In that interview, D'Amico said GoFundMe took $50,000. They insisted that they had done nothing wrong and had not spent a single dollar on themselves. When asked for an exact figure of how much was left, they said they could not give one because the money was still being held in the account they used for themselves. McClure became emotional as she described receiving death threats from people claiming they had misspent the money on trips and shopping sprees. Since they met Bobbitt, they went on luxurious trips to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. They also got a new car but say they paid for it with their salaries. Bobbitt is back living on the streets. He is taking drugs again. His attorneys agreed to work for him for free. In his response to Bobbitt's claims earlier this month, D'Amico told The Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Giving him all that money, it's never going to happen. I'll burn it in front of him.' In April, they took Bobbitt to New York City from New Jersey. They were pictured there together smiling happily for photographs. D'Amico has been arrested on traffic violations and he has also frequented casinos, once dipping into the GoFundMe money to take $500 which he claims he replaced afterwards. In April, they took Bobbitt to New York City for the first time. It is 80 miles from their home in New Jersey In her final upload to the page, McClure said: 'Hopefully this will answer them while keeping his privacy and the privacy of the people he is helping also. 'The first thing on the list is a NEW Home which Johnny will own!! He will never have to worry about a roof over his head again!! Second will be the dream truck he's always wanted... a 1999 ford ranger (yes I'm serious). 'There will also be 2 trusts set up in his name, one essentially giving him the ability to collect a small 'salary' each year and another retirement trust which will be wisely invested by a financial planner which he will have access to in a time frame he feels comfortable with so when the time comes he can live his retirement dream of owning a piece of land and a cabin in the country. 'A bank account will be set up for him with funds for every day needs that will get him through until he finds a job. And lastly, he will be donating to a few organizations and people who over the last couple of years have helped him get through this rough patch in his life. 'This is a well thought out plan that Johnny his lawyer and financial advisor came up with in order to give Johnny the means to acclimate back into a 'normal' life and also to protect him and ensure he has a bright future.' Bobbitt said he was never given a lawyer and met once with a financial adviser. A man in his 60s is fighting for life after he was pulled from the surf in Sydney's south. Emergency services were called to a beach in Cronulla on Friday after 10am, a spokesman for NSW Ambulance told AAP. Rescue crews, life guards and paramedics performed CPR on the man for more than 40 minutes before taking him to hospital. He began to breathe again but did not regain consciousness at the scene. The man's official condition is unknown but authorities say there are serious concerns for his welfare. A former South Carolina middle school teacher is accused of shooting her ex-boyfriend before turning the gun on herself in what police say was an attempted murder-suicide. Jennifer Rudemyer, 39, was found dead outside her ex's Spanish Wells Plantation home around 6.15pm on Tuesday, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said. She died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Near Rudemyer's body was wounded Dr. Gaston 'Gus' Perez suffering from four to five gunshots to the upper body. The 60-year-old was taken to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah and is said to be in stable condition. Perez's son Alex told the Island Packet on Thursday that his father was shot in the chest, near his face and in his hands as he tried to block the bullets' path. The surgeon who operated on Perez said he was lucky to be alive. Jennifer Rudemyer is accused of shooting her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Gaston 'Gus' Perez, multiple times before committing suicide The shooting happened outside of Perez's Spanish Wells Plantation in South Carolina 'I just feel so, so, so lucky he survived,' Alex said. 'I know a lot of families don't get breaks like this when tragedy falls.' Perez's daughter, Mel, wrote on Facebook that he was resting in the ICU. 'Dad is in the ICU and resting, won't be able to see him for another few hours but so happy to know he pulled through. He's the strongest man I know. Thanks for all the sweet messages and support and will try and keep you all updated,' she posted. Authorities said based on witnesses accounts, the crime scene and information they gathered it appears that Rudemyer shot Perez in an attempt to kill him. She then turned the gun on herself. According to a police report, the couple had dated on and off for roughly eight years. Reports indicate that they had recently broken up. Hours before the shooting, Perez was granted a restraining order against Rudemyer, who he claimed would follow him, show up to his job and threaten him. A friend of Rudemyer told the Island Packet that Rudemyer had allegedly admitted to wanting to kill her ex-boyfriend a week before the shooting. Rudemyer, 39, allegedly had threatened to buy a gun and shoot her ex-boyfriend a week before the attempted murder-suicide Lauren Church, who said she had been friends with Rudemyer for a decade, told the outlet that on August 28 Rudemyer contacted her and told her that she was trying to buy a gun. Rudemyer allegedly told her friend that she was going to kill Perez and then kill herself 'I didn't really know what to say,' Church said. 'I encouraged her many, many, many times to seek help.' Church said she sent an anonymous tip to authorities alerting them to what Rudemyer said also told Perez about his ex-girlfriend's threats. Another friend, who's name has not been revealed, said they received a similar disturbing phone call from Rudemyer on August 28. The friend contacted authorities who went to Rudemyer's home to perform a health and wellness check. Police said they found the 39-year-old in bed intoxicated. 'Ms. Rudemyer said she was fine and that everything was okay,' the police report stated. 'After talking to her for several minutes Ms. Rudemyer did admit that she was having a rough time and she agreed that she wanted to be voluntarily transported to the hospital.' The report said she was taken to Hilton Head Medical Center, but provided no further details. Perez was granted a restraining order against Rudemyer hours before she allegedly tried to kill him outside his home Capt. Joe Babkiewicz confirmed to the Island Packet that the department received tips about Rudemyer but did not say if any action was taken. He told the outlet that the tips are 'still being pursued at this point'. Perez is a licensed family practice physician and owns Global Family Medicine in Bluffton. According to a LinkedIn page, he's also the medical director of Hospice Care of South Carolina and the home health care company Amedisys. Rudemyer taught at Hilton Head Middle School in 2003 and 2004, and at H.E. McCracken Middle School from 2008 to 2017. She was also the owner of a home and business organization company called Coastal Cluster Queens. Farmers in Australia are being forced to slaughter their livestock in large numbers as feed prices soar due to the crippling drought. The widespread drought has meant that the cost of feed has risen dramatically this year. July marked the seventh consecutive month of below average rainfall for NSW and daytime temperatures were 2.2 degrees warmer than average, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Farmers in Australia are being forced to slaughter their livestock in large numbers as feed prices soar due to crippling droughts Farmers in Australia are being forced to slaughter their livestock in large numbers as feed prices soar due to the crippling drought This has reduced the availability of both pasture and water, resulting in the huge increase of feed prices. Meat and Livestock Australia, a market research company for Australia's livestock industry, told Daily Mail Australia that the cost of buying the feed has risen 'dramatically' due to the weather conditions and farmers are faced with the tough decision of holding or selling livestock. 'The drought that is occurring across NSW and parts of Queensland has meant many producers do not have enough feed on the ground for their cattle and the cost of buying the feed has risen dramatically,' an MLA spokesperson said. 'This has forced many producers to turn-off stock so far in 2018 and led to an increase in production in 2018 vs 2017. On a national level, year-to-June adult cattle slaughter is up nine per cent year-on-year.' Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released in July show that the slaughter of livestock is currently at record levels. 'As a result of continuing dry conditions in the eastern states the numbers of sheep, lambs and cattle being slaughtered has steadily increased as producers in affected regions reduce stock numbers. 'Lamb slaughterings continues to set records with July being the sixth consecutive month of increased slaughtering,' the ABS report concludes. An actor in the Broadway musical Frozen was caught on video ripping a 'Trump 2020' banner away from an audience member. Timothy R Hughes - who portrays the character Pabbie in the Disney production - has refused to apologize for the outburst during the curtain call following Wednesday's show. Hughes shared a clip that shows him grabbing the sign away and throwing it off the stage, calling the audience member a 'disrespectful man trying to interrupt this moment with a pathetic political platform'. Timothy R Hughes, an actor in the Broadway musical Frozen, has said he will not apologize for ripping a 'Trump 2020' banner away from an audience member after a show on Wednesday In the caption Hughes wrote: 'What does it say about our country and politics when a man at the show tonight felt the need to protest Disneys Frozen on Broadway with a pro Trump flag?? 'How frightening is it that our shows messages of love, acceptance, and diversity have become the opposition to supporting Trump? 'The curtain call is a thank you between actors and audience, a final connection to end a shared experience. 'I will not apologize for how I responded to the disrespectful man trying to interrupt this moment with a pathetic political platform. Not at our show! Not in front of my beautiful, diverse, talented cast at @frozenbroadway. I appreciate everyones support.' Hughes shared a clip of the outburst on Twitter, which shows the cast doing curtain call when the actor notices the heckler with a sign in the front row, grabbing it and tossing it away Several audience members captured the incident on video, showing the cast bowing hand-in-hand before Hughes noticed the heckler wearing a 'Make America Great Again' visor. The Greatest Showman actor's behavior has been met with a range of reactions from criticism to praise on social media. The man holding the banner has not been identified. President Donald Trump says journalist Bob Woodward's new book is all lies and has mocked it for not being a 'bestseller'. Speaking at a rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night, Trump took aim at the explosive new book by the Pulitzer-winning journalist and its vivid depictions of White House dysfunction. He joked that he was getting used to being subjected to lies and smears, but said said Democrats and liberals had been getting tougher and lying about him more in recent months. 'They got tougher and tougher and they lied more. They write more books. I have books this high now,' Trump said. Speaking at a rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night, Trump took aim at the explosive new book by Bob Woodward and its vivid depictions of White House dysfunction 'Actually the ones that are really good are numbers one, two and three on the best sellers list. 'The media doesn't talk about those books, they only talk about the bad ones of which there are plenty. 'They are lies... they are bloody.' The 'good books' Trump referred to include Fox News host judge Jeanine Pirro's book 'Liars, Leakers and Liberals, the Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy' and 'The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump' by Gregg Jarrett. It isn't clear which bestseller list he was referring to. When excerpts of Woodward's book were published this week, Trump was quick to slam the tell-all memoir as 'a work of fiction'. Woodward's 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. He is pictured above leaving Trump Tower in January 2017 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 'The book means nothing,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 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. 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. It includes interviews with numerous aides and copies of internal memos. 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. In a statement to the Post, Woodward said: 'I stand by my reporting'. Details of the book emerged just one day before a bombshell New York Times opinion piece, penned by an unnamed senior administration official. Trump labeled that op-ed as 'treason' and urged the Times to publish the name of the author 'for the sake of our national security'. A bikini model accused of a string of offences including allegedly stealing a car has been accused of breaching her bail in bizarre fashion. New Zealand woman Patrice Ruby Poutu, 31, who has been refused bail on car theft charges, was allegedly found sleeping in a stranger's house on July 25, a court has heard. It's alleged Ms Poutu was found sleeping in a young boy's bed inside a stranger's house at Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast. Bikini model Patrice Poutu (pictured) is at risk of deportation if she is found guilty and convicted of a string of charges including stealing a car was caught out in a strange way after breaching her bail In a scene reminiscent of the Goldilocks story, the boy entered his room to allegedly find a blonde woman sleeping in his bed. The homeowner told police she had no idea 'why she was asleep at her house' and that she did not know the woman, The Courier Mail reported. Ms Poutu was allegedly still asleep in the bed when police arrived, she attempted to give them a fake name but police were able to discover her identity from the contents of her hand bag. After being arrested she was charged with breaching her bail conditions because she had failed to report to Southport Magistrates Court. It's alleged Ms Poutu (pictured) was found sleeping in a young boy's bed inside a stranger's house at Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast Since then her bail applications have been denied and the Australian Federal Police told The Courier Mail if she is found guilty of car theft she will be at risk of deportation back to New Zealand. On Monday Ms Poutu clashed with a Supreme Court judge after she was told to 'sit down' during a debate about bail after she was charged with the string of offences. She 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. Former Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle paid $45,000 to bury his mother in a gold casket, but didn't attend the funeral. Senior members of the Comanchero gang stepped out in their trademark garb at Botany cemetery in south-eastern Sydney, showing respect for the former national president. Buddle's mother passed away on a visit to Dubai, where he is believed to have spent time while on the run with a number of other bikie members. He is said to be living between Dubai and Turkey, according to The Daily Telegraph. Members of the gang shared pictures at the funeral (pictured) to Instagram, where they were dressed in full colours Former Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle paid $45,000 to bury his mother in a gold casket, but didn't attend the funeral (pictured is a similar gold casket for Comanchero Liam Scorsese's funeral) Strike Force Raptor invaded the funeral, where they forced bikie members to take off their shoes so they could search for drugs or weapons. Members of the gang shared pictures at the funeral to to Instagram, where they were dressed in full colours. One of the captions read: 'Brothers through the good times and the bad #loyalty #respect #support #comos'. Former Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle (pictured) paid $45,000 to bury his mother in a gold casket, but didn't attend the funeral 'Our respects to our loyal brother Mark Buddle on his loss #respect #love #loyalty,' another capton read. Buddle appointed himself president of the outlaw motorcycle gang after Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was arrested for murder in 2009. The self-exiled boss left Australia in 2010 after a security guard was fatally shot. He is still wanted for questioning over the shooting. After he fled the country, feuds were caused between members of the gang that wanted to stay loyal, and those that wanted a new leader in Australia. Violence reportedly heightened when Buddle's right-hand man, Ali Bazzi, returned to Australian soil. Infighting which broke out while Buddle was in Europe which prompted the national president to text Comanchero members in September. 'I'm the f***ing commander of the world ... no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission,' he said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The text followed a series of violent incidents that police feared could lead to an all-out civil war within the Comanchero. Earlier this year, former Comanchero bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi, was gunned down outside a gym in Rockdale and was believed to be at war with Buddle. Buddle appointed himself president of the outlaw motorcycle gang after Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi (pictured, right0 was arrested for murder in 2009. Buddle clashed with Hawi six weeks before the death, leaving tensions high between the two bikie powerbrokers. The violent execution of Hawi raised fears of a bikie war, with police confirming he has many enemies, including Buddle. Hawi was succeeded as the Comanchero national president after being arrested for his role in a fatal brawl at Sydney Airport in 2009. The former Punchbowl High School student and married father-of-two was found guilty of murder over the killing but conviction was later overturned. President Donald Trump has told his supporters the blame is on them if he gets impeached and claims it could lead to the US one day becoming a third world country. Trump raised the specter of impeachment if Democrats win control of Congress during his rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night. He warned that a Democratic-controlled Congress would pursue impeachment despite the strong economy and set a precedent that would hurt future presidents. A few Democratic lawmakers have called for Trump to be removed from office. Scroll down for video Trump raised the specter of impeachment if Democrats win control of Congress during his rally in Billings, Montana on Thursday night 'Let's say a Democrat gets elected and let's say we have a Republican House. We will impeach that Democrat, right?' Trump said. 'You're going to have a country that's going to turn into a third-world country because if the opposite party becomes president, every time before it even starts, before you even found out whether or not he or she is going to do a great job, they'll say, 'We want to impeach him!'' 'If it does happen, it's your fault because you didn't go out to vote.' Trump continued on the topic of impeachment, saying: 'How do you impeach somebody that's doing a great job, that hasn't done anything wrong? 'Our economy is good. How do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it?' He warned his supporters: 'You are not just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress. Very important thing. Very important thing.' Trump was in Montana to support Senate candidate Matt Rosendale who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Tester - a top GOP target in the mid-term elections. Trump was in Montana to support Senate candidate Matt Rosendale (above) who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Tester - a top GOP target in the mid-term elections As he stood alongside Rosendale, Trump said Tester 'will never drain the swamp because he happens to live in the swamp.' Seeking to portray the Montana farmer as a tool of liberal Democrats, Trump said: 'Jon Tester talks like he's from Montana, but he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi' - a reference to the House minority leader, a frequent Trump target. Trump also lit into Tester for his role in torpedoing Trump's nomination of Ronny Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Earlier this year, Tester released unsubstantiated, anonymous allegations against Jackson that accused him of on-the-job drunkenness, overprescribing medication and fostering a hostile work environment. Jackson, a Navy rear admiral who was Trump's personal physician, denied the claims and eventually withdrew his nomination. 'What Tester did to Admiral Jackson should never, ever be allowed,' Trump said, calling the allegations 'lies.' A little boy has been run over and seriously injured after being hit by a Volvo reversing out of a driveway. The toddler became trapped under the sedan on Palomar Parade, Freshwater on Sydney's Northern Beaches at about 11am on Friday. The 18-month-old suffered injuries to his right leg and pelvis and was air-lifted to Westmead's Children Hospital shortly after the incident. A toddler became trapped under the sedan (pictured) on Palomar Parade, Freshwater on Sydney's Northern Beaches at around 11am on Friday morning A car-jack was used by a family member and a neighbor to relieve the toddler from underneath the Volvo C70 sedan whilst he was crying but conscious. Paramedics were quick to the scene and arrived just four-minutes after the call to triple zero was made. It is believed the driver of the Volvo told police he heard a 'thump' noise when he was reversing down his driveway after the toddler wandered onto the driveway from a nearby property. Ambulance drivers transported the boy to North Manly where a helicopter was waiting on Nolan Reserve. It is believed the driver of the Volvo (pictured) told police he heard a 'thump' noise when he was reversing down his driveway after the toddler wandered onto the driveway from a nearby property. Before being flown to Westmead Children's Hospital, the boy was stablised with general anaesthetic. Some of the boys family remained on the scene. Drivers are urged to always check for children before driving off, supervise children around vehicles and separate play-areas from driveways. Ambulance drivers transported the boy to North Manly where an ambulance helicopter was waiting on Nolan Reserve to airlift the boy to Westmead Children's Hospital Statistics show 483 children aged 0-14 were seriously injured due to being hit by a four-wheel-motor vehicle while moving around the home between 2003 and 2009. Between 2001 and 2009, 66 children aged between 0 and 14 were fatally injured in 'driveway deaths' with 60 of the deceased aged between 0-4. In NSW alone, six children have been killed and 15 seriously injured in driveways since January 2013. It is sadly common for two thirds of driveway accidents to be by vehicles driven by the parent or close relative of the child. Driveway accidents are most common in summer when children are likely to be playing outside between 4pm and 7pm and 10am to 12pm. Hero dog walkers have saved a drowning man man's life by pulling him to safety and giving him CPR. The man, who is in his 60s and had been missing, is now fighting for his life after almost drowning in the surf in Sydney's south at a Cronulla beach before being pulled from the water fully clothed. Anthony Gentile, a Cronulla business owner, was walking his dog with his mother at Greenhills Beach when they spotted the man floating in the surf at about 10.20am on Friday. A man in his 60s is fighting for life after he was pulled from the surf in Sydney's south by passers-by who performed CPR on him until emergency crews arrived 'At first we thought it was a turtle but when we saw the waves come through we realised it was a person, I ran out and dragged him in, he wasnt breathing, he wasnt responding and we couldnt find a pulse,' he told The Daily Telegraph. Mr Gentile along with is mother and other bystanders acted quickly to save the man's life. Once they got him onto the beach they rolled him over onto his side started giving him chest compressions until he spat up water. 'After a while he spat out some water and we kept looking after him until the ambulance arrived.' Emergency services were called to the beach after 10am, a spokesman for NSW Ambulance told AAP. Anthony Gentile, a Cronulla business owner, was walking his dog with his mother at Greenhills Beach (pictured) when they spotted the man floating in the surf at about 10.20am on Friday Rescue crews, life guards and paramedics performed CPR on the man for more than 40 minutes before taking him to hospital. He began to breathe again but did not regain consciousness at the scene. The man was rushed to the St George Hospital in a serious condition. Police told The Daily Telegraph the man had been reported missing on Friday morning. An idyllic block of land stretching over 6.3 hectares is available to buy for just $150,000 - but there's a catch. The original listing for the land on First National Whangeri in Towai, New Zealand promises 'outstanding valley views, native trees to cool off in summer, or take a dip in the stream that runs through the property.' However potential buyers would struggle to check it out for themselves. The block has no legal access meaning that it's not possible to view on foot. The potential owner would have to buy the property unseen or try to view it by helicopter or drone. An idyllic block of land stretching over 6.3 hectares is available to buy for just $150,000 - but there's a catch The plot of land is located in Towai, in the Northland Region of the North Island, New Zealand The current owner, Paul Crewther, told Stuff he understands that the Maori family that owns the surrounding land subdivided it back in the 1920s, but failed to give access to this block. The potential buyer would have to try and negotiate with neighbours about obtaining access to the land. Alternatively they would have to seek relief under section 327/328 of the Property Law Act. Crewther's solicitor estimated the cost of going to the High Court to obtain legal access as being between $20,000 and $40,000. Crewther told Stuff: 'There are two streams running through the property for water and power generation. Use the wireless broadband rural network for internet, satellite TV and a septic tank and you have the complete off-grid getaway.' Crewther said it was possible for the new owner to rebuild the derelict house and the plot of land has the potential to be the cheapest lifestyle block around. Hurricane Florence, the first major hurricane of the Atlantic season, weakened late Thursday afternoon to a Category 1 storm. The hurricane is currently traveling toward Bermuda at an estimated 80mph as forecasters warn it will still likely strengthen again and pose a threat to the US East Coast. The hurricane was marked a Category 4 storm Wednesday with maximum sustained winds at 130mph. Forecasters predict it will strengthen to a Category 3 by the weekend or into early next week. AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski said: 'An area of high pressure over the central Atlantic will bridge westward and join with an existing high pressure near the U.S. East coast over the next several days. 'This setup will guide Florence on a west to northwesterly course into next week.' Hurricane Florence weakened late Thursday afternoon to a Category 1 storm The hurricane is currently traveling toward Bermuda at an estimated 80mph. Earlier Thursday, is was said to be moving at 105mph. Forecasters warn it could soon strengthen and pose a threat to the US East Coast Florence was centered about 1,295 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and moving northwest at 13 mph as of Wednesday afternoon. The first major hurricane of the Atlantic season is expected to cause 'life-threatening' surf and rip current conditions in Bermuda by Friday but forecasters said it was too early to say whether it would hit land. The National Hurricane Center said swells from Florence could also reach the East Coast by early next week. Weather Channel hurricane expert Greg Postel warned people to keep monitoring all the latest on the major hurricane. 'A close encounter with the United States is not unrealistic later next week,' he tweeted. If Florence does keep tracking towards the US, the hurricane could possible make landfall anywhere from the Carolinas to New England as early as Wednesday, according to Accuweather. Florence (abvove) was centered about 1,295 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and moving northwest at 13mph on Wednesday afternoon The National Hurricane Center said swells from Florence could also reach the East Coast by early next week Florence is expected to cause 'life-threatening' surf and rip current conditions in Bermuda by Friday but forecasters said it was too early to say whether it would hit land The National Hurricane Center said despite the weakening in the next couple of days, Florence is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through early next week. As Hurricane Florence strengthened on Wednesday, Tropical Storm Gordon weakened into a depression as it dumped heavy rains that threatened to cause floods across several southern US states. Gordon made landfall on Tuesday night near the Alabama-Mississippi border with near hurricane-force winds. A 2-year-old girl died when a tree fell on a mobile home in Pensacola, Florida as the storm resulted in heavy rains and flooding in western Florida and coastal Alabama. The deaths of two female postgraduate students from Thailand have been ruled a murder-suicide, according to authorities in Seattle. Kornkamol Leenavarat, 25, and her close friend Thiti-orn Chotchuangsap, 32, were found dead in their University of Washington apartment on Tuesday morning. Leenavarat died from multiple stab wounds in a homicide carried out by the older woman, who died of a self-inflicted stab wound to the chest. Both died on Saturday. Two Thai students Kornkamol Leenavarat, 25, (above) and her friend Thiti-orn Chotchuangsap were found dead in their University of Washington apartment in Seattle on Tuesday morning They were discovered by the apartment's building manager on Tuesday at 9.30am as they were conducting a welfare check on the girls after their family raised alarm, Leenavarat pictured center with family weeks before she was found dead The younger woman had flown to the US just two weeks ago to study law, The Bangkok Post reported. Police found their bodies in an apartment in Seattle's University District after responding to a call from a building manager at 9.30am, who had been asked to check by Leenavarat's family. Officials said there are no outstanding suspects. Leenavarat was a member of a political family in Thanyaburi, in Pathum Thani Province northeast of Bangkok. She was the daughter of the former deputy mayor and niece of the current mayor. University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce said in a statement posted online Thursday that both women were studying for a master's degree in law. 'This is a heartbreaking loss for their families, friends and our entire community. I offer condolences on behalf of our University to everyone who is grieving as a result of this tragedy,' she said. Leenavarat's family said her ultimate goal was to become a judge one day. There is little information on Chotchuangsap. Leenavarat, pictured left and right with her brother, was studying a master's degree in law. Both were post-grad students at the university. Leevnavarat left Thailand for Seattle on August 21. Chotchuangsap left Thailand on August 27 She has a bachelor's degree from Thammasat University and attained a master's degree from Thammasat University then a master's in law from a school in Boston, Massachusetts. There is little information on her friend Chotchuangsap who is from Samut Sakhon. Online she's listed as a director of Pornsiri Power Limitess Partnership, a company that deals with food products based in her hometown. Leenavarat left Thailand for Seattle on August 21, after returning there to spend time with her family for Mother's Day. Chotchuangsap left Thailand on August 27. Leenavarat's brother mourned her loss on Facebook saying 'our little sister who was always lively, friendly, and brave' with pictures of their family sending her off at Savarnabhumi Airport. The family is making preparations to bring her body back to Thailand. A stray sheep has been strapped in for the ride of her life after a generous farmer offered her a lift - at the expense of his children. Mark Modra, from Port Lincoln, South Australia, shared the unlikely image on Twitter after he found the sheep several kilometres away from its paddock. 'What you do when one finds a stray sheep and all you have is the family car... just don't tell my wife! #safetyfirst,' he wrote on Twitter. Mark Modra, from Port Lincoln, South Australia, shared an image of a sheep strapped into his car after he found the stray sheep several kilometres from its paddock The picture shows the sheep crammed into the vehicle with a seat belt strapped across her wool. Mr Modra claimed the passenger enjoyed her journey and likened it to the Wiggles tunes that were chosen on 'popular demand' by his children. 'I couldn't stick him in the boot because I've got child seats in there, the only place was the front,' Mr Modra told Yahoo7. 'We stuck her in there, I thought she might kick but she was fine.' Mr Modra said the sheep was surprisingly well-behaved during the five minute journey back to the paddock. Twitter users responded to Mr Modra's picture and some recalled their own memories strapping stray sheep into their vehicles 'It would've been interesting if a policeman pulled me over but at least she was strapped in,' he said. Twitter users responded to Mr Modra's picture and some recalled their own memories strapping stray sheep into their vehicles. 'Yep been there a few times myself,' one user shared with their own picture. 'Animal welfare is alive and well within the farming community. Mark Modra is living proof,' tweeted another person. One Twitter user said 'animal welfare is alive and well' after seeing Mr Modra's tweet (pictured) A driver who died in a car crash was due to have his 'killer' Takata airbag replaced just two days before his death, a court has heard. The NSW Coroners Court heard on Friday, Huy Neng Ngo, 58, died minutes after a 'relatively minor collision' in Cabramatta on July 13, 2017 due to a faulty airbag in his Honda CRV included in the largest ever automotive recall. The fatality became Australia's first death linked to Takata Corp's faulty part as the airbag activated and flung a piece of metal at the victims neck during the collision. Scroll down for Video The NSW Coroners Court heard on Friday, Huy Neng Ngo, 58, died minutes after a 'relatively minor collision' in Cabramatta on July 13, 2017 due to a faulty airbag in his Honda CRV A NSW inquest will examine why the airbag was originally scheduled to be replaced on July 11 but the booking was pushed back to a date in October, for unknown reasons. Counsel assisting Tamara Phillips, said the Ngo family had deep concerns they weren't made fully aware of the dangers associated with the Takata airbag and how faults may materialise before the fatal crash. Neither Mr Ngo nor his wife, to whom the car was registered, used English as their first language, Ms Phillips said. 'They have expressed interest in why it was they had to wait as long as they did to wait for replacement,' she said. 'Rather than provide protection ... this airbag malfunctioned.' A NSW inquest will examine why the airbag was originally scheduled to be replaced on July 11 but the booking was pushed back to a date in October, for unknown reasons His death was one month after the Japanese airbag manufacturer filed for bankruptcy amid the largest ever automotive recall on April 28, 2017. Ms Phillips told the court the inquest will determine the 'real risks posed by Takata airbags' and how the recall has been managed. Takata airbags have been reported as linked to 24 deaths and 266 injuries worldwide, according to the Australian website ismyairbagsafe.com.au. His death was one month after the Japanese airbag manufacturer (Takata CEO pictured) filed for bankruptcy amid the largest ever automotive recall on April 28, 2017. DOES YOUR VEHICLE HAVE A TAKATA ALPHA AIRBAG? If your car has an Takata 'alpha' airbag installed it is at serious risk of rupturing - immediately replace it. The higher risk alpha airbags were installed in certain Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mazda and Lexus cars, with models sold between 2001 and 2004 Check if your car is on the list here Advertisement The site allows Australians to check the status of their car by typing in the registration and checking it against the database of affected vehicle. 'It is very important that that website gets out,' Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame said. Lawyers for Honda Australia and Warwick Farm mechanic Peter Warren Automotive attended Friday's directions hearing. A second hearing will be held on November 23 ahead of a scheduled inquest beginning in 2019. Car owners are urged to check if there car has a Takarta airbag. A woman who threw her drink at a man who commented on her breasts in a bar has had her conviction overturned after she claimed she was pressured into pleading guilty by a judge. Canadian tourist Heather Gleason-Beard was convicted of injuring with reckless disregard for safety after she hit the man in the face with a glass in Queenstown, New Zealand and cut his top lip on July 9, 2017. Gleason-Beard was told by Invercargill District Court judge Mark Callaghan on the morning of her trial he doubted she had a defence and would likely go to jail without a guilty plea. Heather Gleason-Beard was convicted of injuring with reckless disregard for safety after she hit a man in the face with her glass at a Queenstown bar (pictured) after he made a comment about her breasts The Canadian, who was working on farms and doing odd jobs in New Zealand, was sentenced to 100 hours community work and ordered to pay $5000 to the victim. But her lawyer Nathan Bourke argued at an appeal hearing in July that she was bullied into pleading guilty, according to Stuff. He said his client had never faced a criminal charge before and was pressured into admitting the offence. The woman, who had been working on farms and doing odd jobs in New Zealand, was sentenced to 100 hours community work and ordered to pay $5000 to her victim - after a judge allegedly pressured her into making a guilty plea Appeals court justice Joe Williams said in 40 years he had never been involved with proceedings where a judge had repeatedly persisted in giving legal advice Mr Bourke said she felt dehumanised by the experience and felt like things were 'spiralling out of control'. The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday the judge overstepped his role and should not have persisted in giving advice to the woman - especially given how Mr Bourke resisted the judge's interference. One of the three judges presiding over the appeal, Justice Joe Williams, added that he had never seen a case where a lawyer asked a judge repeatedly to stop making such suggestions. Following the overturning of her conviction, the Canadian said that despite her ordeal being over she still wanted Judge Callaghan investigated. According to Stuff, she said: 'He definitely abused his position of power and is not serving justice.' Her lawyer said he intended to write to the Justice Ministry to argue that Gleason-Beard was entitled to be reimbursed to the $5000 she paid to the main who she injured. The woman returned to Canada in May, and now intends to study nursing. A man fell to his death from a 63-storey tower just as police arrested three others at the troubled Melbourne CBD apartment block. The trio were hauled away from the EQ Tower on A'Beckett Street moments before witnesses heard a loud thud as he hit the ground about 6.45am on Friday. EQ is the same building as where Sudanese teenager Laa Chol, 19, was stabbed to death during a party in July. A man fell to his death from a 63-storey tower just as police arrested three others at the troubled Melbourne CBD apartment block EQ is the same building as where Sudanese teenager Laa Chol, 19, was stabbed to death during a party in July Police were called to the tower about 6.25am by reports of suspicious behaviour and discovered two cars parked outside were reported stolen. They chased after five people who were allegedly linked to the stolen cars, arresting a 25-year-old from Bulleen, 33-year-old from Epping and 40-year-old from Chadstone. Another man and a woman made it back inside the apartment block, just before the man fell in front of shocked witnesses. Police commenced a search of the building for the pair when a resident approached them saying a man had entered his apartment and refused to leave. However, when they went inside the apartment was empty and the man was lying dead on the ground below the balcony. The woman is still at large. Haas Lee, who runs a business over the road from EQ, said he saw one of the men arrested just moments before. 'I stood there for a couple of minutes having a dart and that's when I heard this loud bang,' he told the Herald Sun. Police believed the man fell but will investigate his death and prepare a report for the coroner with oversight from Professional Standards Command Detectives were seen outside the building and on a balcony during the day as forensics poured over the scene and took photos 'We looked up and that's when we saw all the tenants on the side of the building looking out and taking photos.' Police believed the man fell but will investigate his death and prepare a report for the coroner with oversight from Professional Standards Command. Detectives were seen outside the building and on a balcony during the day as forensics poured over the scene and took photos. Weeks later an 18-year-old man who was a person of interest in Ms Chol's stabbing was attacked in a street brawl The teenager was badly injured after he was crushed between to cars during the mayhem involving 200 African youths Ms Chol died after she was stabbed at a party on the 56th floor of EQ as friends said she protected the birthday girl from aggressive gatecrashers. Two youths aged 17 and 19 were arrested and weeks later an 18-year-old man who was a person of interest was attacked in a street brawl. The teenager was badly injured after he was crushed between to cars during the mayhem involving 200 African youths. It is unclear if the brawl was a revenge attack for the alleged murder, or if the injured man was deliberately targeted. Jeremy Corbyn today hit back at Tony Blair for describing him as an 'existential' threat to the Labour Party. The ex PM savaged Mr Corbyn - saying the anti-Semitism crisis would never have happened under a different leader and it could be 'game over' for Labour if he stays at the helm. But quizzed about the criticisms while on a visit this morning, Mr Corbyn shrugged off the attack and boasted that party membership has surged under his tenure. Speaking on a visit to a museum in Leicestershire, he said: 'I think Tony needs to recognise that party membership is now much bigger than it has ever been - it's the biggest it has been in my lifetime, well over half a million members. 'And in the General Election last year we set out what our aspirations are for this country.' Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today with pump station volunteers as he is shown around Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester's Museum of Science and Technology) hit back at Mr Blair's comments - saying party membership has surged under his leadership Jeremy Corbyn (pictured at the Leicestershire museum today) also urged people who want to see political change enacted to back hi Labour Party Mr Corbyn (pictured at the visit to the Leicestershire museum this morning) has been dogged by criticisms he has failed to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis He said this included building more council homes and investing more in education and tackling homelessness. He added: 'Sadly we didn't win it but we got the highest vote for Labour since 2001. 'So I just think we need to recognise that people are not prepared any longer to live in a society that is so unequal.' Asked whether he should heed the former Prime Minister's words as he has won three elections with Mr Corbyn winning none, the Labour leader said: 'I've fought one election as leader of the party and we had the biggest swing to Labour during that campaign since 1945. 'I simply say this to all Labour party members and all Labour party supporters - if you want to get rid of this Tory government, if you want to live in a society that is fairer, that is more equal, that is more just, then vote Labour and support Labour.' Two Labour moderates lose confidence votes amid warnings of hard-left party purge Joan Ryan (pictured outside the meeting in Enfield last night) a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London A leading Labour moderate is battling to hold on to her political career after she lost a crucial party vote as the hard-left try to oust her as an MP. Joan Ryan, a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London. Ms Ryan, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, blamed the bid to deselect her on 'Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard left'. But she vowed to stay on as the local MP, telling her Twitter followers 'I am Labour through and through' and she will not be quitting. And Gavin Shuker, Labour MP for Luton South, also lost a no confidence vote last night. Jewish leaders and Labour MPs immediately rallied to their colleagues' defence - and slammed moves to oust them. In an extraordinary scenes at a Labour party meeting last night, activists packed into the hall to hear the outcome of Ms Ryan's vote. And some erupted into loud cheers, jumped up and down and hugged one another when news that Ms Ryan had lost the vote 94 to 92 came through. The moment was captured on video by Press TV - the Iranian state propaganda channel which Mr Corbyn has been criticised for appearing on - which jubilantly tweeted the result. Ms Ryan, who was first elected to the seat when Tony Blair swept to power in his 1997 landslide, hit back at the moves to deselect her. In a series of Twitter messages, she wrote: 'So lost 92 to 94 votes hardly decisive victory and it never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would have confidence in me. I have none in them.' She added: 'I will be out tomorrow morning working hard for the people of Enfield. 'Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values.' Advertisement Mr Blair launched into his most outspoken attack on the Labour leader in an interview with the BBC's Political Thinking podcast,released this morning. The ex PM said the party has been through a 'profound change' since the veteran leftwinger seized control and it may now be too later for moderates to get it back And he suggested a new centrist party could emerge unless Labour radically changes as voters will not 'tolerate' a contest between Mr Corbyn and Boris Johnson. He said: 'There are lots of people associated with me who feel that the Labour Party is lost, that it could be game over. 'I am hoping they are not right.' Meanwhile Lord Blunkett, former Home Secretary under Mr Blair, warned the party is facing 'irrelevance' unless there is a rethink of the 'Corbyn project'. Labour has been plunged into a bitter civil war over the anti-Semitism crisis, which sparked the resignation of Frank Field - one of the party's longest serving MPs. And Labour moderates across the UK are facing moves to deselect them as the hard-left floods local party branches. Last night Joan Ryan, a Labour MP and chair of Labour Friends of Israel, lost a confidence vote of her local branch in Enfield North in London. Asked if other Labour MPs should join Mr Field and quit the party, Mr Blair said this is a tough choice looming over moderates. He said: 'It's a very difficult conversation. I have been a member of the Labour party for over 40 years you do feel a strong sense of attachment. 'The question is can it be taken back? And that's a very open question.' Asked if young people should join Labour he added: 'I say join but I'm not sure it is possible to take it back.' But he said that if Labour continues its veer to the hard-left then moderates will find a new home in another party. He said: 'I don't think the British people will tolerate a situation where, for example, the choice at the next election is Boris Johnson versus Jeremy Corbyn. 'I don't know what will happen and I don't know how it will happen. 'But I just don't believe people will find that, in the country as a whole, an acceptable choice. Something will fill that vacuum.' And he said that the row over anti-Semitism which has reached a new height this summer has been hugely damaging. He said it is as 'bad because it has been, in the end, something that I just can't imagine ever having happened in the Labour Party that I joined'. 'I can't imagine that we have had three to four months debating over something where we have profoundly insulted the Jewish community in our country.' Lord Blunkett, one of the leading figures of the New Labour era, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme he was not sure if he would back the party even if he knew his vote would make the difference between Mr Corbyn becoming prime minister or not. Asked what he would do in these circumstances, the Labour peer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It would entirely depend on whether my good friends in the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Commons hadn't been deselected and were there to ensure that the sane, rational policies of a Labour Party for the future were going to be implemented.' A severe thunderstorm hit Sydney on Friday night, which has caused widespread chaos across the city. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued a warning that thunder and lightning would hit on Friday late afternoon, with Gosford, Sydney, Wollongong, Orange, Katoomba and Parkes all under threat. Hail, heavy rain and flash flooding caused havoc across Sydney, which sparked delays. Town Hall station was inundated with water from the downpour, where trains are not stopping at platform three due to flooding. The wild weather has also caused delays at Sydney Airport, leaving passengers stranded in the terminal and on the tarmac. Scroll down for video Thunderstorms have caused delays at Sydney Airport on Friday night Sydney Airport passengers were left stranded in the terminal and on the tarmac Town Hall station was inundated with water from the downpour One NRL fan was not happy about missing the Melbourne Storm versus South Sydney qualifying final in Melbourne. 'I wish @russellcrowe had a helicopter to rescue us from Sydney Airport, at this rate we are gonna miss the game,' he tweeted. Another man posted on social media that his wife stuck on a plane on the tarmac as it was too dangerous to depart. A Sydney Airport spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that passengers should check with their airline regarding any delays or cancellations. She added that the delays weren't any different to ones expected during storms and that the airport was still operating as normal. Parts of Sydney have been blanketed in hail Trains are not stopping at platform three at Town Hall station due to flooding Sydneysiders enjoyed a glorious start to spring with warm temperatures on Friday, before dark clouds rolled in. Social media users were quick to post about the dramatic weather change. 'Warm half the day, hailing the other half gotta love Sydney's weather,' one person tweeted. 'I wish @russellcrowe had a helicopter to rescue us from Sydney Airport, at this rate we are gonna miss the game,' one NRL fan tweeted Passengers are urged to check with their airline regarding any delays or cancellations 'The Sydney weather is trying to fool us again into thinking its gonna get warmer from now on, don't be fooleddddd,' another person shared. Footage has since emerged on social media of hail at Hurlstone Park and Canterbury in Sydney's south-west. The State Emergency Service has advised that people should move their vehicles under cover and away from trees. They have also recommended to stay at least eight metres away from fallen power lines. One of Sydney's busiest stations was inundated with water on Friday night A severe thunderstorm is set to smash Sydney during peak hour, with flash floods possible throughout the evening The State Emergency Service has advised that people should move their vehicles under cover and away from trees The Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning that thunder and lightning could hit on Friday late afternoon Dark clouds rolled in over Sydney's Bondi Beach on Friday afternoon, despite Sydneysiders enjoying warmer weather throughout the day A former government adviser has said MPs should be breathlysed before being allowing to vote. David Nutt, an Imperial College professor and former government adviser on drugs, claimed there is a risk of 'intoxication clouding their (MPs) judgments'. Professor Nutt wrote in the Drug Science, Policy and Law journal that it was bewildering that workers in other professions were sacked for drinking on the job, but that MPs were held to different standards. David Nutt, an Imperial College professor and former government adviser on drugs, has claimed there is a risk of 'intoxication clouding their (MPs) judgments' His warnings come just as Parliament reopened the closed The Woolpack bar. Professor Nutt said: 'It seems there's one rule for the rule-makers and one for the rest of us. 'If there is another vote on a Brexit referendum, the decision could go down to one or two votes. Would you want that decision to be made by someone who was drunk? 'Would you want them to make the decision to go to war? They may even walk through the wrong part of the chamber.' In 2010, MPs were told by the speaker to stop their 'wellrefreshed ejaculations' after a heavy night in the House of Commons bar. Former Conservative MP Mark Reckless later apologised for his behaviour, saying: 'I normally have just one or two and know when to stop. I don't know what happened. I don't remember falling over.' Professor Nutt said his calls for breathlyser tests come after one of his colleagues, Ashwin Venkataraman, went around the house of Commons. Professor Nutt wrote in the Drug Science, Policy and Law journal that it was bewildering that workers in other professions were sacked while drinking on the job (stock image) Speaking of Venkataraman, who is a co-author of the paper which looks into the effect of alcohol on the brain, Nutt said: 'He was horrified by what he saw. He was amazed by the amount of alcohol consumed at free parties.' Professor Nutt was dismissed as a government adviser due to his controversial claims some illegal drugs were less harmful than alcohol. But he is now hoping to convince politicians to sponsor a bill calling for an endt to subsidied drinking and breath tests before votes. He said: 'Alcohol affects the way you think even a small amount of it. 'Seeing people with the most responsible positions in the country behaving this way is shocking.' Footage of an AFL player allegedly scoring a goal at the same time lightning strikes has emerged - but not everyone is convinced the video is genuine. Adelaide Crows star Eddie Betts posted a video of himself kicking a goal in a heavy storm to social media just after midday on Friday afternoon. In the video, the footy star can be heard saying: 'OK, I'll have one crack. Let me have a crack before we go.' Footage of AFL player Eddie Betts (pictured) allegedly scoring at goal at the same time lightning strikes has emerged - but not everyone is convinced Adelaide Crows star Eddie Betts (pictured with wife Anna Scullie) posted the questionable video of himself allegedly kicking the lightning bolt goal on social media on Friday Betts is then shown kicking the ball, which curves around towards the side-on goal and just as it approaches the poles lightning appears to strike. At the same time, thunder is heard, and both Betts and another man nearby, who is holding an umbrella, hit the deck with the brolly being flung in the air. Betts is then shown jumping up and running towards a third man, who laughs and congratulates him. The Crows star then shared the video on his social media accounts, along with a caption that stated: 'So this happened' Since he posted footage of goal, the video has garnered plenty of comments, with some people suggesting it was 'edited'. 'Good goal don't know about the lightning,' one person wrote. Another person said: 'Thunder & lightning at the same time. Seems legit.' 'Thats some whacked as special effects or Eddie is just that good lol (sic),' a third person wrote. Since he posted the alleged lightning bolt goal, the video has garnered plenty of comments, with some people suggesting the video was 'edited' While it's unclear whether or not the video is fake, one man who might know the answer is the third bloke captured in the video. Despite his slightly disheveled look, it appears the man may have special skills that enable him to produce Hollywood-style special effects such as lightning bolt strikes. According to the website Sporting News, the mystery man allegedly has an Instagram account that labels him as a director based in the US and Australia. Brazil's far-right presidential candidate has survived life-saving surgery after being stabbed by a 'socialist' attacker who said he was acting on 'a mission from God' during a rally. Shocking footage showed the moment election hopeful Jair Bolsonaro was knifed in the stomach in the midst of a crowd in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, south east Brazil. The 63-year-old has since been transferred to intensive care after undergoing a procedure for serious internal injuries and is now stable and out of 'acute and immediate danger'. A 40-year-old suspect, identified by police as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, has been arrested over the attack with police saying he appeared to be mentally disturbed and had claimed he was 'on a mission from God'. Oliveira was said to be a member of the left-leaning PSOL party from 2007 to 2014. On his Facebook page, the attacker recently posted messages criticizing Bolsonaro and supporting the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is taken on the shoulders of a supporter moments before being stabbed during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil Jair Bolsonaro reacts after being stabbed during the rally. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed that his attacker had been arrested Bolsonaro is reported to have underwent laparoscopic surgery after being stabbed at a campaign rally according to his advisers Adelio Bispo de Oliveira (pictured) is suspected of stabbing Jair Boslanaro while he was campaigning in Brazil This photo released by the Military Police, shows the knife supposedly used by Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate The split-second assault happened as the politcian was being carried shoulder high by supporters in the midst of a crowd during the afternoon event. Horrifying footage from several mobile phones caught the moment a man plunged a knife into his belly. He was seen clutching his stomach and grimacing in agony before collapsing backwards. He was rushed through the crowds and whisked by car to Santa Casa de Misericordia de Juiz de Fora hospital where doctors performed emergency surgery. Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro, initially posted on Twitter that the injury was superficial and his father was fine. However, an hour later he posted another tweet saying the wound was 'worse than we thought.' He arrived at the hospital 'almost dead,' Flavio wrote. 'His condition now seems stabilised. Please pray.' The attack on Bolsonaro, is a twist in what was already Brazil's most unpredictable election since the country's return to democracy three decades ago. Corruption investigations have jailed scores of businessmen and politicians in recent years, and alienated voters. There was fear of violence flaring across Brazil on Friday, as the nation celebrates Independence Day with political groups likely to march in hundreds of cities. Bolsonaro's rival candidates called off campaign activities for Friday. Under Brazil's campaign laws, Bolsonaro's tiny coalition has almost no campaign time on government-regulated candidate ad blocs on TV and radio. That means Bolsonaro relies on social media and rallies around the country to drum up support. As such, not being able to go out in the streets could impact his campaign. Jair Bolsonaro is being carried by the crowd while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, south east Brazil He can suddenly be seen grasping his stomach and wincing in pain and the crowd carries him on The crowd react and carry the wounded politician to safety. He is currently undergoing critical surgery Flavio Bolsonaro said early Friday outside the hospital where his father was treated that he was conscious and the attack was a political boost. 'I just want to send a message to the thugs who tried to ruin the life of a family man, a guy who is the hope for millions of Brazilians: You just elected him president. He will win in the first round,' said Flavio Bolsonaro. In a statement Federal Police said: '[Bolsonaro] was (being) escorted by federal police when he was struck by a knife during a public act in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. A suspect was arrested in the act and taken to the police station. A police investigation was established to ascertain the circumstances of the incident.' Speaking to local media, Pedro Augusto Lima Possa, the suspect's lawyer said: 'Adelio confessed and claimed responsibility for the attack. But he said he had not intended to kill (Bolsonaro).' Stabbing could reshape election contest The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. Far-right congressman Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied. After a knife-wielding man stabbed the candidate in the abdomen during a campaign event Thursday, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the attack supports Bolsonaro's assertions that the country is off the rails or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Far-right congressman Bolsonaro (centre, at a rally earlier this week), a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazil's political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this would be a change election. But no true outsider has emerged. Instead, Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. The public's anger is partially responsible for making this year's campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. The man leading polls, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the October 7 presidential ballot. The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. His son Flavio is pictured today outside the hospital treating the firebrand politician In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. 'They made Bolsonaro a martyr,' said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. 'I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro.' But it is unknown when he can get out again on the campaign trail and if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. There were signs of the deep divide in Brazil at the vigil, when Bolsonaro's supporters briefly exchanged insults with some detractors who showed up. Meanwhile, on Twitter many decried the stabbing and asked for prayers for Bolsonaro, but others suggested the candidate might have brought the attack upon himself or even staged it. Brazilian medical doctor Eunice Dantas, director of the Santa Casa Hospital, speaks to the press about Brazil's right-wing presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro's health today This is not the first time in recent months that violence has touched politicians. In March, while da Silva was on a campaign tour in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, gunshots hit buses in his caravan. No one was hurt. Also that month, Marielle Franco, a black councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death in March along with her driver after attending an event. While Bolsonaro has a strong following, he is a deeply divisive figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays. He speaks nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His vice presidential running mate is a retired general. 'It's likely that Bolsonaro will use the attack to argue his opponents are desperate, that they had no other way to stop him,' said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro's state university Advertisement The unmarried man, who has a teacher's degree, is believed to be currently unemployed but has been working as a waiter and is apparently estranged from his family. According to Possa, the attacked was motivated by religious and political reasons. 'He told me that there were religious and political motivations and that he hated the prejudice that the Bolsonaro openly spoke about and held against different races, religion and women,' the suspect's lawyer said. Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, a member of the hospital's general surgery team who performed the critical operation on the victim said Bolsonaro suffered a 'blunt abdominal trauma and was admitted to the hospital with signs of shock.' 'Surgery was performed as a matter of urgency and a massive internal haemorrhage was diagnosed and controlled,' said Dr Borsato at a press briefing last night. He explained that the former army captain had suffered injuries to several organs and had lost between 2 to 2.5 litres of blood. 'The damage was very serious. (He suffered) three perforations to the small intestine and a severe lesion in the large intestine. There was faecal contamination inside the abdominal cavity,' the surgeon revealed. 'During surgery the small intestine was connected to a temporary colostomy pouch which was placed on the inner wall of the intestine. It will stop waste matter from passing through the large intestine and prevent the site from being infected,' he continued. Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, arrives at the Santa Casa hospital where her husband is hospitalised Jair Bolsonaro's son Flavio Bolsonaro is pictured outside Santa Casa hospital today People light candles in support of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, of the National Social Liberal Party A man covers his face with his hands as he stands outside the hospital where Bolsonaro is being treated Initially the politician's son, Flavio, said the injury was superficial, but ultrasound and CT scans showed trauma in the organs and bleeding from the superior mesenteric artery, a major blood vessel in the digestive system. Borsato dismissed earlier reports of injuries to the candidate's liver. 'There was bleeding from an abdominal artery and perforations in the large and small intestines. The injured part of the large intestine was removed, and the small intestine was sewn up,' said Borsato. 'The internal injuries were serious, and the patient's life was at risk. At the start of the surgery his condition was unstable, but we were able to bring it under control and stabilise him.' The team confirmed that Bolsonaro arrived at the unit wearing a 'yellow shirt' and was not wearing a protective vest. According to reports, Bolsonaro would normally wear body protection provided by federal police for his safety. However, on this occasion he was without the vest. The politician is expected to be hospitalised for at least l0 days and will undergo another operation in a couple months' time to remove the internal colostomy bag. 'It's too early to say if he will have long term problems,' Borsato said. A group of people try to detain Adelio Bispo de Oliveira (pictured centre), who allegedly stabbed the right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro campaigns in the district of Ceilandia in Brasilia, yesterday Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is running on a tough law and order platform advocating looser gun controls He is a polarising figure in an unpredictable election campaign but rising violent crime, anger over repeated corruption scandals and an effective social media campaign have helped him gain support. He was second in the polls to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was the front-runner in the country's elections until he was struck from the ballot. At the end of last month, electoral court ruled that the Brazil's embattled ex-president, who is in prison on corruption charges and who served two terms between 2003 to 2011, would not be able to stand for election again. Bolsonaro is known for insulting women, openly expressing racist and homophobic views, championing dictatorship, calling for political opponents to be shot and for holding derogatory views of indigenous people and foreigners. This has earned him the title of 'the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world'. The ex-military office, who has been called the 'tropical Trump' of South America, has been a serving politician in the Chamber of Deputies since 1991. Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is a polarizing figure and has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements towards women and black people Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (pictured left) gestures at the crowd during a campaign rally in the district of Ceilandia in Brasilia, on September 5, 2018 Keira Ball, 9, died on August 1 2017 after being involved in a serious car accident Her parents, Joe and Loanna Ball, have since pulled her from the school Katelyn Ball, 12, cut her hair for Little Princess Trust and InspiredbyKeira charity The family of a Devon schoolgirl who cut her hair off for two charities have pulled their daughters out of school after the headmaster 'shouted at' them and said the new style did not conform to uniform policy. Katelyn Ball, 12, had her long blonde hair cut short at the North Devon Show in August in aid of both the Little Princess Trust and a charity set up in honour of her sister Keira Ball, InspiredbyKeira. Nine-year-old Keira was in a car accident in West Buckland, Devon, on July 30 last year and tragically died days later on August 1. Now parents Joe and Loanna Ball have temporarily pulled Katelyn and other daughter, Keely, 13, from the South Molton school. They say the headteacher's 'negative reaction' has made Katelyn feel 'insecure and self-conscious' about her charity work. Scroll down for video Brave Katelyn Ball, 12, decided to cut her hair off in aid of the Little Princess Trust and InspiredbyKeira, a charity set up in her sister's honour after she died in a car crash last year 'If that was a pupil of my school I would say we're going to hold an assembly for this amazing thing you've done, after everything you've been through this last year losing your sister,' care coordinator Mrs Ball, who described Katlyn's haircut as 'personal and emotional for everybody', told the Mail Online. 'She has decided to do something by herself to support someone who is less fortunate than herself and raised money for a charity close to her own heart. 'But there was none of that.' Instead the school told Mrs Ball that Katelyn would have to grow her hair back immediately due to the uniform policy, and stated they 'didn't want children to stand out'. Katelyn's mother Loanna Ball described the chopping of her long locks on August 1, the anniversary of Keira's death, as 'personal and emotional for everybody' Mrs Ball claimed the head teacher 'raised his voice and talked over' her and her husband and even said that if the family had asked for permission to cut Katelyn's hair, they would have said 'no.' 'Because the school have had such a negative reaction to Katelyn's hair yesterday she was then bullied, (children) said she looked like a boy and asked if she was a t*****,' she said. 'I picked my daughters up at lunch time and they haven't gone back today. 'This has been a massive thing for my daughter's mental health. I'm actually thinking, forget school, if it's going to have such a massive impact on them. 'I'm considering returning to be a stay at home mum and looking into homeschooling.' Brave Katelyn decided to have her hair cut after watching a video on Facebook that showed a girl receive a Little Princess Trust wig and become 'really really happy'. Max Johnson, the boy whose life was saved by a transplant of Keira's heart, came down from Manchester especially to cut Katelyn's hair on August 1, marking the first anniversary of her sister's death and raising 1,500 for the charity in her honour. But after attending school on September 5, Katelyn has been left feeling 'insecure and worried she had caused a lot of hassle' due to her teachers' reactions. The schoolgirl was told off by teachers for her cropped hair and has since been pulled out of the school temporarily by Mrs Ball and her husband Joe 'My friends had seen pictures of (my hair) over summer and said it looked really nice,' Katelyn said. 'But because of what the teachers were saying it has made me think about what other people are thinking.' Both Mr and Mrs Ball shared furious Facebook posts about their interaction with the school, triggering an out-pour of anger and upset from their family, friends and followers. 'Im absolutely stunned, disgusted and so so upset to read this,' one person wrote. 'Your daughter has done a truly courageous brave thing for charity and this is how shes treated? She deserves recognition & praise.. the school should be utterly ashamed of themselves.' Keira, 9, was a passenger in a Vauxhall Vectra when it hit a Ford Ranger 4x4 on July 30 near West Buckland on the A361 North Devon link road. She died days later on August 1 Care coordinator Mrs Ball is now considering homeschooling her two daughters Keely, 13 and Katelyn, as well as son Brad, 8, after the incident with the school While another said: 'Thats so sad, she did an amazing thing and I can say (first) hand how grateful I am for girls like her. 'My wig came from the Little Princess Trust and without brave girls like her I wouldnt have had a chance to have a real hair wig! Amazing she should be proud of herself doing something so selfless for others and her sister would be so proud.' Mrs Ball is also considering homeschooling her son Brad, eight. On their website, South Molton Community College gives the following advice on hair as part of its uniform policy: 'Extreme styles are not condoned by the college. Hair must be of a natural colour. 'If the hair is over shoulder length then it should be tied back for all practical lessons or where health and safety requires it. The Ball family set up InspiredbyKeira to raise money for other families who had lost children, as well as to raise awareness of organ donation Mrs Ball's friends and family were outraged and upset after she recounted what had happened on her Facebook page Commentors called Katelyn 'courageous' and 'brave' for having her long hair chopped off in aid of the two charities 'Shaving of any part of the head is not accepted (no grade 1). Pupils should not wear decorative items in their hair.' A spokesman for South Molton Community College told Devon Live: 'At no point were any of the family shouted at and a reasonable compromise was suggested to parents. 'The suggestion made was that no sanctions would be taken, but we would expect her to grow out her hair over the next term, as it naturally would. 'This would then conform to school policy. The school is always supportive of any charity work that our students undertake.' A spokesman for South Molton Community College has denied that the headmaster raised his voice towards the Ball family and said they would expect Katelyn to grow out her hair Keira was a passenger in a Vauxhall Vectra when it hit a Ford Ranger 4x4 on July 30 near West Buckland on the A361 North Devon link road. Her mother and brother were also injured and taken to hospital, where Keira later passed away. Through organ donation, Keira has saved the lives of four people - including Max, who received her heart after eight years of being on the transplant waiting list. The schoolboy, from Winsford, Cheshire, suffered from cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart to enlarge. After Keira's death, the Ball family set up the InspiredbyKeira charity to raise money for other families who had lost children, as well as to raise awareness of organ donation. A family has adopted Britain's biggest puppy - a real-life Scrappy-Do that is more than 6ft and weighs more than a baby hippo. Arnie the Great Dane is only five months old and already tips the scales at a whopping 43kg (95lbs) - and is still growing. The massive canine, who was adopted by Julie and Colin Reid and their son Josh from Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, is the biggest the team at Dogs Trust in Glasgow have ever cared for. Arnie the Great Dane is only five months old and already tips the scales at 43kg (95lbs) - and is still growing The canine, who was adopted by Julie (right) and Colin Reid and their son Josh from Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, is the biggest the team at Dogs Trust in Glasgow have ever cared for After receiving a call from someone at Dogs Trust, the family went to see the canine and fell in love with him After falling in love with the dog, the family decided to adopt him - even though he dwarfs all of them when he stands on his hind legs. Julie said: 'I received a call from someone at Dogs Trust saying Arnie had come in and that he was a Great Dane. 'We didn't have a specific breed in mind when looking for a pet but Arnie is the perfect companion. 'When we went in to have a look at him and it was just love at first sight. 'He is gentle, loving and so playful; he will definitely fit in at home, we are just relieved we have a big enough home to accommodate our new baby hippo. Julie said: 'He is gentle, loving and so playful; he will definitely fit in at home, we are just relieved we have a big enough home to accommodate our new baby hippo' Julie and her family have four other dogs, including a Dogue de Bordeaux, two Chinese crested dogs and a French Bulldog 'He's just a big lovable rogue.' Julie and her family - who were unfazed by Arnie's size - have four other dogs, including a Dogue de Bordeaux, two Chinese crested dogs and a French Bulldog. She said: 'We've always fostered and have had Dogue de Bordeauxs which are medium to large dogs. 'It's so funny taking them for a walk because they're so different in size. 'Arnie's just a puppy but is so big already, I've no idea what he's going to be like when he grows up.' According to Dogs Trust Arnie is big for his age and could potentially double in size as he gets older to a hefty 90kg Dogs Trust said Arnie was handed in to them by a family who cited a change in personal circumstances. His vet records showed the first time he was weighed at eight weeks he was just 10kg. Arnie, who according to Dogs Trust is big for his age and could potentially double in size as he gets older to a hefty 90kg, eats a kilo-and-a-half of raw meat per day, along with fish, egg and vegetables. He eats a kilo-and-a-half of raw meat per day, along with fish, egg and vegetables but luckily his owners have an acre of land for him to exercise Luckily his new owners have an acre of land for him to exercise and burn off his mighty meals. Julie, who encourages others to adopt instead of buy from breeders, praised Dogs Trust for their help. She said: 'The Dogs Trust Glasgow team have been fantastic, they've said they're there is we need any support which is great. 'I've had two calls so far about followups to do with behavioral advice and making sure everything's OK. 'But he's still young and hasn't learned any bad habits.' Sandra Lawton, Rehoming Centre Manager at Dogs Trust Glasgow, said: 'We are always overjoyed when a dog finds their perfect someone and we are sure Arnie has gone to a home where he will receive lots of love and care' Sandra Lawton, Rehoming Centre Manager at Dogs Trust Glasgow, said: 'We are always overjoyed when a dog finds their perfect someone and we are sure Arnie has gone to a home where he will receive lots of love and care. 'The team can't wait to get regular updates from Arnie's family on all his antics because he is definitely a lap dog at heart and has no idea just how big he is. 'We can't be sure how big Arnie will grow to but, even now, he is still the biggest puppy Dogs Trust Glasgow has ever rehomed. 'We still have plenty of dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds in our care awaiting their forever homes so anyone interested in adopting a rescue dog should pop down to Dogs Trust Glasgow for more information.' A Hells Angel bikie will spend at least six years behind bars for shooting two men at a birthday party. A 'slight altercation' at a Melbourne bar for a 30th birthday party led to the shooting, a court has heard. Vince Tominiko, 26, was at the Hampton Park Tavern celebration November 19 last year, which was attended mainly by church group friends, when the dispute happened. Vince Tominiko, 26, was at the Hampton Park Tavern celebration November 19 last year, when he shot two men in the car park Tominiko, who had not been involved in the initial altercation, shot Tremaine Pasi in the stomach as he lay on the ground after he was bashed in the car park and had his head stomped on by others, the Herald Sun reported. Tominiko then shot Tremaine's brother, Foisa in the buttocks. The brothers were taken to hospital, where Tremaine required surgery and had to have part of his bowel removed with the shot still lodged in his sacrum. During sentencing on Friday, County Court Judge Sue Pullen said she was concerned about Tominiko's ability to be rehabilitated, saying she hoped one day 'the penny will drop'. Tremaine Pasi was shot in the stomach as he lay on the ground after he was bashed in the car park and had his head stomped on by others Judge Pullen said Tremaine still wonders why he and his brother were shot. '[His] whole lifestyle has changed and he's angry about it,' the judge said. Tominiko pleaded guilty to intentionally causing injury, intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence, possessing an unregistered handgun, driving while disqualified and committing an indictable offence. He was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria for eight years, four months and 49 days, with a non-parole period of six years. Germany's spy chief has said he is not convinced migrants were hunted down in right-wing protests in Chemnitz - and says video of violence may be 'targeted misinformation'. There was a surge of violent right-wing protests and counter demonstrations from left-wing groups in the eastern city after the fatal stabbing of Daniel Hillig. Reports soon emerged that migrants had been hunted down by neo-Nazi mobs during the clashes. Michael Kretschmer, Saxony's conservative state premier, had said on Wednesday that this had not happened - but Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed his remark, saying pictures had shown 'hate and ... the persecution of innocent people'. Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, has now appeared to undermine Merkel by telling Bild newspaper's Friday edition: 'I share the scepticism about media reports on right-wing extremists hunting down people in Chemnitz.' Germany's spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen (pictured) has said he is not convinced migrants were hunted down in right-wing protests in Chemnitz - and says video of violence may be 'targeted misinformation' There was a surge of violent right-wing protests (pictured) and counter demonstrations from left-wing groups in the eastern city after the fatal stabbing of Daniel Hillig Right-wing protestors clash with police officers during demonstrations following the killing of a German man in Chemnitz on September 1 He added: 'The domestic intelligence agency has no reliable information about such hunts taking place.' Maassen said there was no evidence that a video circulating on the internet was authentic, adding: 'Based on my cautious assessment, there are good reasons to believe that it amounts to intentional misinformation, possibly to divert the public's attention from the murder in Chemnitz.' Extremist groups and thousands of local citizens took to the streets in the days after the fatal stabbing, with a number of participants shouting anti-foreigner slurs and flashing the illegal Nazi salute. In a spasm of violence that shocked the country, marauding mobs also assaulted reporters and police. During the first demonstration on August 26, a freelance journalist working for respected weekly Die Zeit posted two videos on Twitter showing demonstrators running after foreign-looking people. They were widely picked up by media outlets. Extremist groups and thousands of local citizens took to the streets in the days after the fatal stabbing, with a number of participants shouting anti-foreigner slurs and flashing the illegal Nazi salute Police said that several people have come forward saying they were assaulted, including a Syrian, a Bulgarian and an Afghan. Merkel, who has said images from Chemnitz 'very clearly' showed hate, on Thursday accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) of using violent protests over the stabbing blamed on migrants to stir up ethnic tension. Thomas Oppermann, a senior member of the Social Democrats (SPD) - junior partner in Merkel's ruling coalition - criticised Maassen, telling German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk: 'The president of the domestic intelligence agency is causing confusion at the moment.' Oppermann said there was proof the incident had taken place, adding that a group of Social Democrats had been attacked by hooligans. Asda has been forced to order new shopping baskets after customers started taking them home when 5p plastic carrier bags were phased out. The supermarket chain has now ordered dozens of new baskets for its store in Cambridge after finding it had as little as 30 to 40 left for customers. It comes after the Leeds-based company stopped replenishing stocks of 5p plastic bags when they run out at stores, although 9p 'bags for life' are still available. The supermarket chain has now ordered dozens of new baskets for its store in Cambridge Asda said in February that it would stop selling 5p plastic bags by the end the year, following the charge that was introduced in England in October 2015. The chain, which is owned by the US retailer Walmart, has now asked that customers 'who are taking our baskets home with them use their bags for life instead'. Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrisons have also either phased out single-use plastic bags or are currently doing so, according to BBC News. An Asda spokesman said: 'After listening to our customers and their concerns about plastic, we made the decision to phase out our single-use plastic bags, in all of our stores, by the end of the year. 'We're trying to do our bit to protect the environment, and would ask that the small number of customers who are taking our baskets home with them use their bags for life instead.' Bosses at the Asda store in Cambridge found they had just 30 to 40 baskets left for customers It comes days after Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to 'go further' in tackling plastics use as she confirmed charges for bags are set to double to 10p. She backed it despite pushback from Philip Hammond, with Treasury insiders suggesting the rise was unnecessary and will look like government 'profiteering'. Environmental campaigners have hailed the success of the policy, which is said to have taken 13billion plastic bags out of circulation in the last two years. A consultation paper unveiled by Mrs May also raises the prospect of extending the levy to the estimated three billion bags handed out annually by smaller shops. A shopper carries a 9p Asda 'bag for life' (left), and a Sainsbury's 'reliabag' (right) in London Meanwhile, Asda is to scrap its price guarantee scheme that allows customers to claim money-off vouchers if their shopping is cheaper at other supermarkets. The store announced that it would end the scheme next month but it faces a backlash after consumers took to social media to complain. Launched in 2010, Asda promised that if its prices were not 10 per cent cheaper than at Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons and Waitrose, it would refund the difference. In April, Sainsburys confirmed plans to merge with Asda. The competition watchdog is investigating to see if the deal will mean higher prices for customers. Chinese President Xi Jinping today welcomed Prince Albert II of Monaco during the monarch's official state visit to Beijing, with both countries pledging to serve as a model for friendly exchanges between large and small countries. The principality's reigning monarch is in China from September 5 to 8 at the invitation of Xi and will attend the inauguration of an exhibition on Monegasque history in the Forbidden City of the Chinese capital. Both sides have pledged to further promote bilateral friendly ties to 'bear new fruits' after holding meetings to review relations between China and the Mediterranean nation, according to Xinhua. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prince Albert II of Monaco walk pass the People's Liberation Army honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on Friday The head of state of the Principality of Monaco is in China from September 5 to 8 'China and Morocco should maintain close exchanges and explore areas of cooperation on eco-environmental protection - including climate change, clean energy and wildlife protection - under the "One Belt, One Road" initiative,' China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The two countries shall continue to serve as a model for friendly exchanges between large and small countries, the ministry added. Xi also welcomed Prince Albert II to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics set to take place in Beijing. During his trip, Prince Albert also visited a bee farm and a Siberian tiger breeding centre in Jilin province. The two heads of state last met in Nanjing at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games Monaco's Prince Albert II attends a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing Prince Albert ascended the throne in July 2005 and has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1985. He has been the president of the Monaco National Olympic Committee since 1994. He has previously visited China nine times. In 2014, the two heads of state met in Nanjing at the opening ceremony of the second Summer Youth Olympic Games. In that meeting, both sides expressed the wish to deepen political mutual trust, promote cooperation in various areas and continue to support each other in multilateral occasions. Both sides have pledged to further promote bilateral friendly ties to 'bear new fruits' after holding talks to review relations between China and the Mediterranean nation, Xinhua reports The National Rugby League has been caught up in another off-field scandal, this time involving two Wests Tigers players. Josh Reynolds and Luke Brooks will be investigated by the NRL integrity unit after they were caught up in a police drug raid at the Illinois Hotel strip club at Five Dock in Sydney's inner west last Saturday night. The pair were with a group of men in a private room which was raided by police just after midnight on Saturday, where they allegedly found cocaine, 7 News reported. Wests Tigers says it won't take any further action against stars Josh Reynolds (left) and Luke Brooks, who were not charged and have not been contacted by police Reynolds and Brooks were present during the alleged raid but have not charged. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting the players were using drugs. 'Reynolds and Brooks came to the club to make it aware of a situation they found themselves in on Saturday night,' Wests said in a statement on Friday. 'The two players were at an Inner West venue with a larger group throughout the evening. During the night NSW Police conducted a search of the venue. NSW Police have confirmed that Luke Brooks (pictured) and Josh Reynolds will not be the subject of any further action 'NSW Police searched the entire group Reynolds and Brooks were with, and recorded the events, with both players remaining at the venue once police left. Neither player has had any further contact with NSW Police since the event.' The club stated it won't take any further action against the players but has informed the NRL Integrity Unit. Brooks was named as the Tigers' player of the year at the club's end of season presentation awards on Monday night, just two days after the alleged drug raid. The NRL players were present when police raided a private room at the Illinois Hotel (pictured) in Five Dock last Saturday night NSW Police has since confirmed to AAP that they will not be the subject of any further action. The latest scandal comes after the Canterbury Bulldogs were fined a record $250,000 on Thursday for its boozy Mad Monday celebrations earlier this week. Two players were charged by NSW Police, and four were fined by the club following their highly publicised end-of-season drinking session. Inside the Illinois Hotel in Five Dock, where police allegedly seized cocaine last Saturday night A 10-year-old boy has raised a remarkable $1million to help drought-stricken farmers across Australia. Jack Berne and his classmates raised the money in a campaign to help drought-stricken farming communities in Australia. The 'A Fiver For A Farmer' campaign on GoFundMe was launched in July, urging people to spare at least $5 to support struggling farming communities. Jack's original goal was to raise $200,000 but received overwhelming support, generating $1million in a little over a month. The Year 4 student at St John the Baptist Primary School in Sydney said he was inspired to take action after learning about the drought in class. Scroll down for video Jack Berne (pictured) raised $1 million in his 'A Fiver For A Farmer' campaign, which encouraged people to donate at least $5 to the cause Jack (pictured) asked then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull if he regarded the drought as a national disaster 'We have been learning about the drought and the farmers and I heard that there are kids that are skipping school to help out on their farms. Kids that are our age!' Jack wrote on his GoFundMe page. 'If we can raise some money, I think we can all feel better about helping our mates on the farms.' 'We believe in community, we believe in having each others back, and we believe in the Aussie spirit. We believe that together, we can make a huge difference to support the farmers,' he added. All proceeds will be split between Rural Aid and Drought Angels. The two organisations are dedicated to helping farming communities by sending care packages, much needed bales of hay and counselling support, according to 7 News. Just last month, Jack and his classmates dressed up as farmers as a show of support and in an effort to encourage more people to donate to the cause. The fundraising campaign has not just gained nationwide support but also caught the attention of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Jack made a personal plea to Mr Turnbull last month to do more to help drought-stricken farmers in rural New South Wales. Jack's original goal was to raise $200,000 but received overwhelming support that amounted to $1 million in just a little over a month 'We believe in community, we believe in having each others back, and we believe in the Aussie spirit. We believe that together, we can make a huge difference to support the farmers,' Jack wrote on his GoFundMe page Mr Turnbull personally thanked Jack and told him about his sheep and cattle farm in the Upper Hunter Valley. Jack called for better outcomes for farmers and asked Mr Turnbull if he regarded the drought as a national disaster. 'He had a pretty good reason to say no - he said the relief legislation was more designed for disasters like floods and fires,' Jack told The Manly Daily. Mr Turnbull publicly paid tribute to Jack's outstanding fundraising efforts in federal parliament afterwards. 'A Fiver For A Farmer campaign has raised 10 times more he'd hoped,' he told Parliament. 'When nature throws its worst at us, it brings out the best in Australians'. 'Every little bit helps,' Mr Turnbull told The Manly Daily. 'This just goes to show that you're never too young to make a difference.' Millie, aged 4, from Lancashire, walks to first day of primary school on her own This is the heart-warming moment a little girl with cerebral palsy took her first steps alone on the first day of primary school, with encouragement from her devoted twin brother. Millie Bea Hughes, aged 4, told her mum Natalie Hughes that she wanted to walk into school on her own on her first day yesterday. The clip shows Millie, dressed in her new school uniform and with a massive grin on her face, taking her first wobbly steps. Millie (left) is pictured walking in public unaided for the very first time. Millie and twin Evan, pictured right, both started their first day at school yesterday in Lancashire Mum Natalie, pictured left with Millie, walks behind her to give her support. The heartwarming video shows Millie slightly wobbling in her first few steps Mum-of-two Natalie, 36, can be seen walking behind Millie while younger twin brother Evan walks in front of encouraging her. Her brother Evan offers to bring her a toy or her stick to help. Natalie, from Carnforth, Lancashire, said: 'Millie was so determined and wanted to do it. 'It makes me cry every time I watch that video. Evan was encouraging her, you can see his little feet in the clip and hear him ask 'Shall I get your sticks or a toy?' It's really sweet. 'It makes me really, really proud. She's come so far with all her physio and Evan always wants to help her. 'It's just nice to see him be there for her and wants her to walk as much as he does.' Detective Constable for Cumbria constabulary, Natalie, and 36-year-old husband nuclear power station operator Chris Hughes say the pair have been inseparable since they were born. Millie, left, was born on 26th January 2014 at 32 weeks, 13 minutes before her twin brother Evan Ray, right Mum Natalie said that since Evan was able to walk he would fetch shoes and toys for his sister. She said: 'It's just nice to see him be there for her and wants her to walk as much as he does' A post on the family's donation page read: 'As we got bigger my brother could sit up and play with his toys, crawl around, walk and dance but because my legs don't work properly I can only get around with the help of my Mommy (sic) and Daddy' Natalie said that since Evan was able to walk he would fetch shoes and toys for his sister and make sure if he got a drink and biscuit, she got one too. Natalie said: 'They love each other very much and he'll ask 'Are you OK Millie?' and try and help her. 'When we go to the park he makes sure she has a good time and pushes her on the swing which is lovely to see.' Millie was born on 26th January 2014 at 32 weeks, 13 minutes before her twin brother Evan Ray. What is cerebral palsy? Cerebral palsy is a brain disorder affecting motor co-ordination throughout the body. The severity of the cerebral palsy varies from person to person. Some people have weak arms and legs, uncontrollable sharp movements, and some sufferers cannot walk at all. Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy is an operation carried out on children with cerebral palsy from ages three to nine. The operation can be used to cut nerves in the lower spine which are responsible for the body getting stiff. These give growing children who are cerebral palsy patients freer movement and mobility. Advertisement Millie had a 32K Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) operation at Portland Hospital in London on January 13. This, combined with extensive physical therapy, means the schoolgirl is starting to rely less on her walking frame and uses sticks to get around. The money for the operation was raised through the online fundraising platform Just Giving. The family raised 43,562 of a 40,000 target, donated by 449 supporters. A post on the family's donation page read: 'As we got bigger my brother could sit up and play with his toys, crawl around, walk and dance but because my legs don't work properly I can only get around with the help of my Mommy (sic) and Daddy. 'My Mommy and Daddy have been talking about an operation called SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy). This means having an operation to make my legs work properly and stop being stiff and tight. The doctors will open my back and find the rootlets in my spine which make my legs tight. They will split them up and this will make my legs feel better and help me to walk. I will need to do lots of physiotherapy after which will be hard but I just can't wait to be able to walk like my brother!' The procedure involves cutting nerves in the lower spine that are responsible for muscle rigidity, this is improving her mobility meaning she is now able to move and play more independently. Millie had a 32K Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) operation at Portland Hospital in London, which cuts the nerves in the spine. This means the schoolgirl is starting to rely less on her walking frame Millie with her Dad Chris before the operation. The money for the 40,000 operation was raised through kind members of the public via the online fundraising platform Just Giving Family photo: nuclear power station operator Chris, left, with Millie and Evan centre and Detective Constable for Cumbria constabulary, Natalie, right The family raised 43,562 of a 40,000 target, donated by 449 online supporters. The video shows the first time Millie walked unaided out in public, thanks to a specialist therapy centre Simple things such as kneeling on both knees and bringing one up to help get herself up again were impossible before the operation because her hips were too tight, but now she is able to do it with relative ease. Natalie said: 'Yesterday was her first time walking in public unaided, something made possible by an intensive strength and conditioning course at specialist therapy centre Walk This Way in Perth. 'She's struggled with confidence so I'm hoping our next visit there will really help. 'She's now able to do things she couldn't do before the operation and is smashing it - I'm so proud of her.' A leading Labour moderate is battling to hold on to her political career after she lost a crucial party vote as the hard-left try to oust her as an MP. Joan Ryan, a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London. Ms Ryan, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, blamed the bid to deselect her on 'Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard left'. But she vowed to stay on as the local MP, telling her Twitter followers 'I am Labour through and through' and she will not be quitting. And Gavin Shuker, Labour MP for Luton South, who also lost a no confidence vote last night, pledged to stay on in Parliament. Quizzed about the votes while on a visit to a museum in Leicestershire today, Mr Corbyn defended them - saying local parties have a right to challenge their MPs. Joan Ryan, a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, (pictured last night after the meeting in Enfield) lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London The Iranian state propaganda channel Press TV tweeted out a video of activists celebrating after the result came in (pictured, last night) Joan Ryan blamed the entryism of the hard left - including Communists - for the bid to deselect her in Joan Ryan vowed to stay on as a Labour MP and said that she is Labour 'through and through' Jewish leaders and Labour MPs immediately rallied to their colleagues' defence - and slammed moves to oust them. In extraordinary scenes at a Labour party meeting last night, activists packed into the hall to hear the outcome of Ms Ryan's vote. And some erupted into loud cheers, jumped up and down and hugged one another when news that Ms Ryan had lost the vote 94 to 92 came through. The moment was captured on video by Press TV - the Iranian state propaganda channel which Mr Corbyn has been criticised for appearing on - which jubilantly tweeted the result. The Labour Party will launch a formal investigation into how the broadcaster got inside the meeting as all press were banned, Enfield Constituency Labour Party said. Ms Ryan, who was first elected to the seat when Tony Blair swept to power in his 1997 landslide, hit back at the moves to deselect her. In a series of Twitter messages, she wrote: 'So lost 92 to 94 votes hardly decisive victory and it never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would have confidence in me. I have none in them.' She added: 'I will be out tomorrow morning working hard for the people of Enfield. 'Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values.' Mr Shuker also vowed to stay on as Labour MP, writing on Twitter: 'At a local Labour Party meeting last night a motion of no confidence in me was passed. And Gavin Shuker, Labour MP for Luton South, (pictured at a protest outside Parliament in 2014) also lost a no confidence vote last night Jeremy Corbyn (pictured with pump station volunteers as he is shown around Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester's Museum of Science and Technology, Leicester today) defended the votes - saying local parties have a right to have their say on their MPs 'It's not part of any formal procedure, so it changes nothing about my role as Labour MP for Luton South.' He added: 'I've not changed, but the Labour Party has.' In comments that will spark fury among many of his backbenchers, Mr Corbyn today defended the votes. The Labour leader was about them while on a visit to Abbey Pumping Station Museum in Leicestershire this morning, where he is campaigning on bringing water companies back into public hands. He said: 'Every party has a right to question what its MP does. Every party has a right to challenge them on what they do and how they represent the area and that's exactly what happens in those areas as I understand it.' Asked if Jewish MPs should be protected from deselection, Mr Corbyn added: 'Nobody should be attacked for whatever their faith is and I'm absolutely clear - there is no place for racism anywhere in our society. The Labour MP Gavin Shuker vowed to stay on in parliament despite the vote Labour moderate Mike Gapes hit out at the Iranian propaganda channel Press TV for tweeting a video of people celebrating as Joan Ryan's vote was announced Former Labour frontbencher Owen Smith said all Labour supporters should be worried that Press TV had got the clip and was jubilantly tweeting it Leading Labour moderate Liz Kendall also hit out at the votes and said the party must be a broad church if it wants to be elected 'There is no place for anti-Semitism anywhere in our society or in any of our political parties as I made clear to the Prime Minister on Wednesday.' Labour Friends of Israel rallied to the defence of their chairwoman, tweeting: 'Our chair Joan Ryan is one of the most decent, courageous and principled people in British politics. 'Nothing about tonight's vote changes that fact.' Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust, said: 'We are lucky to have such a strong advocate in Joan Ryan. 'A strong supporter of the Holocaust Education Trust, Joan is admired and respected by our survivors and the wider community and has done so much for our cause. Labour MP Mike Gapes, who has said he could quit the Labour party over the anti-Semitism crisis, expressed his 'solidarity' to his colleagues on Twitter. And ex Labour frontbencher Owen Smith said: 'Iranian State TV is now live-streaming Labour Party meetings, as part of their propaganda campaign against Israel. 'Labour members should reflect on that for a moment and ask if you are comfortable with what we are becoming in the eyes of the World.' A Spanish shop owner has been accused of an 'aberration' after an amateur restoration of three 15th century sculptures which included eyeliner and pink lipstick for the Virgin Mary. Maria Luisa Menendez, one of only 16 inhabitants in the tiny village of Ranadoiro in the northern province of Asturias, is said to have produced the eye-catching result with the permission of local priest Arturo Garcia. The Virgin Mary ended up with turquoise green hair in one of the three sculptures and Baby Jesus with a look which has been compared to a Playmobil figure. Luis Saro, the last person to restore the sculptures before tobacco shop owner Maria Luisa got to work, has branded them a 'disaster and an aberration.' Residents were said to have complained that the Virgin Mary was sporting red lipstick and eyeliner after the refurbishment Maria Luisa Menendez, one of only 16 inhabitants in the tiny village of Ranadoiro was given permission to carry out the work by a priest The makeover has led to comparisons with the famous 'Ecce Homo' saga in Borja near Zaragoza after an elderly Spanish artist tried to give a painting of Christ a facelift. In July restoration work began on a 500-year-old effigy of St George after a Spanish handicraft teacher was accused of it leaving it looking like a 'fairground carousel ride' with a non-expert restoration in the town of Estella in the province of Navarra. The three sculptures at the centre of the latest row - housed in the village chapel in Ranadoiro - are estimated to date from the 15th and 16th centuries. One represents the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus and Saint Anne, the mother of Mary. The other two represent Saint Peter and the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus. Maria Luisa, who has received support from her neighbours, hit back on Friday by insisting she had simply used colours she liked for the facelift and claimed they were horrible before she transformed them. She told a local paper: 'I'm not a professional but they were horrible and I wanted to paint them to make them look better. Statues of St Peter (left) and a second one of the Virgin Mary fared little better in the unsympathetic restoration Maria Luisa, who has received support from her neighbours, hit back on Friday by insisting she had simply used colours she liked 'I had the priest's permission. I painted them in the colours that took my fancy, that was all.' Mr Saro said he wanted try to return the sculptures to their original appearance but the paint used on them could make it impossible. He said: 'A proper analysis will have to be done to know for sure.' Estella mayor Koldo Leoz admitted the results left 'something to be desired' after the restoration of the 16th century effigy of St George and the Dragon which made headlines before the Ranadoiro makeover. Untrained Cecilia Gimenez's botched attempt to restore the fresco of Christ in 2012 in Borja sparked ridicule and led to claims by critics the face of Christ had been turned into a 'hairy monkey.' Several workers places a sculpture of St. George in the warehouse of regional Archeological Historic Heritage Administration after it was moved from St. Michael Church in the village of Estella in Spain Critics said the face of Christ had been turned into a 'hairy monkey' in an ill-fitting tunic In July this year it was announced that a 500-year-old effigy of St. George needed a full restoration after a handicraft teacher's botched job left it looking like a 'fairground carousel ride.' The sculpture of St George and the Dragon, which dates back to the 16th century, normally takes pride of place in the church of San Miguel in Estella, Navarra. The results caused outrage in Navarra and further afield with many blasting the sculpture as 'barely recognisable.' The botched restoration led to comparisons with the 'Ecce Homo' saga which catapulted the small town of Borja after an elderly Spanish artist tried to give a painting of Christ a facelift. The spectacularly bad results garnered worldwide attention and was dubbed one of 'the worst art restoration projects of all time'. Tourists flocking to see the 'world's worst restoration' of 'Ecce Homo' in the tiny town of Borja, Spain African 'teenage' migrants are targeting trucks heading for the UK in small port town in northern France because it's easier to get on board than in Calais, a report has claimed. Desperate migrants have moved on to coastal villages further along the French coast in their bid to get to Britain because the less fortified towns have fewer security patrols than the heavily policed Calais border, Sky News found. In the quiet Normandy fishing port of Ouistreham, more than 200 miles from Calais, young African men and boys were filmed clambering in broad daylight to get on board trucks and vans in their bid to reach the UK. When interviewed, most of the young men said they were from Sudan, in particular the war-torn Darfur region. This morning @SkyNews we are looking at the continued pressures & strains migration is causing in Northern France. Weve filmed scores of young Sudanese teenagers dangerously chancing it on trucks to the UK - not in Calais but at a smaller less secure port - THREAD pic.twitter.com/2pBdqClF8M Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) September 7, 2018 The Normandy fishing port of Ouistreham sees daily attempts by African migrants trying to board lorries and truck bound for Britain Young men chase a lorry down the small coast town in a desperate bid to get to the UK Town's such as Ouistreham are easier to target due to the narrow roads, which mean trucks have to go slower and there are less police around than at the heavily guarded port of Calais One attempt to board a vehicle happened as a truck went round a corner and three men tried to pull the back doors open then jump inside, but the truck was going too fast. Another clip shows 10 migrants successfully pulling open a set of back doors before all but two managed to climb in the back without the driver realising. A further clip showed a group of around nine African men desperately chasing a red lorry as it went down a main road in the town, without getting near it to open the doors. The port of Caen sits in Ouistreham, with daily ferry services to Portsmouth. Trucks and vans are vulnerable because drivers have to pass through the narrow roads and streets and often at slow speeds. After the Calais Jungle was shut down many migrants moved to Ouistreham, more than 200 miles south-west Small coastal French towns have become a target for migrants after the Calais Jungle camp Residents in the town see migrants chasing down lorries and trucks on a daily basis and try to pull open the back doors to hide inside After the Calais Jungle camp was closed last year, many thousands of migrants in northern France dispersed across the region and moved further along the coast to smaller less well-guarded towns. Some claimed asylum in France, others returned to live in Paris, while many more are looking for other ways to reach the UK. A spokesman for the Home Office told Sky the British government will spend money on reinforcing security around the small port towns in France. The story comes a day after five hundred UK-bound migrants were 'evacuated' from an illegal camp close to the French port of Dunkirk. Police stop a group of you young African men as they try to smuggle themselves on board a lorry bound for the UK Migrants sleep in ditches at the edge of the town and wait for their chance to try and board a passing truck or van as it heads to the Port of Caen in Ouistreham A group of eight migrants chase after a lorry as it goes round a narrow road in Ouistreham Riot police began destroying the bivouacs and other makeshift shelters after moving into a wood at Grande-Synthe at 7.30am on Thursday. 'It follows a court order from a Dunkirk judge in June,' said a spokesman for the local prefecture. 'He ruled that the camp broke the law, and that all those living there should be moved on.' Most of the 500 were Iraqi Kurds, including women and children, and all wanted 'to settle in Britain', said the spokesman. Whole families including several hundred women and children were cleared from the camp on Thursday morning A group of migrants is escorted onto a coach by a cohort of French police after the camp was cleared Buses turned up to deliver the migrants to 'processing centres' around France, where they were given the chance to claim asylum. The source added: 'There was no trouble during the evacuation, and nobody was injured. Everybody cooperated with police and other officials.' It was in October 2016 that the so-called 'Jungle' refugee camp was dismantled in Calais, some 30 miles from Dunkirk. The 'Jungle' had become a magnate for migrants from all over the world, and at one point housed up to 8000 men, women and children. Since it was burnt to the ground, the French have vowed to stop any kind of shantytowns springing up on the northern coast. According to the French Interior Ministry there are currently around 450 migrants living in Calais, and some 800 around Dunkirk. France's parliament last month passed legislation to speed up asylum applications, making the maximum processing time 90 days, rather than the current 120 days. A new law also made it far easier to expel those whose applications for asylum have been turned down. The Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall today spoke of the heartbreak of suffering two miscarriages with her husband Mike, in an emotional and revealing interview. One of the nation's favourite royals, the former Olympian discussed the impact both deaths had on the couple - in her first televised interview about their double loss. Speaking about the miscarriages, she told BBC Breakfast presenter Sally Nugent: 'I think that's the hardest thing in our situation, is that everyone knew. Zara Tindall, with her husband Mike and their daughter Mia in Oxfordshire in August 2016 'And very much when things like that happen, normally it's just your family and friends, but unfortunately everyone knew about it. 'Actually I had so many letters saying 'I'm so sorry, we've been through the same thing', which was incredible - and thank you to all those people. 'But it just showed how often it does happen and I have a very supportive family, Mike's incredible and it's hard for the guys too. She continued: 'It's very different for us because we're carrying the child, but for guys I guess it's kind of that helpless feeling, which must be incredibly high and horrible for them. At the end of the day they've still lost a child too.' Mrs Tindall's baby Lena is held today by her friend Dolly Maude, a maid of honour at her wedding, as the royal competed in the The Whately Manor International Horse Trials Mrs Tindall talked about her riding today as well, and how horses are 'very much in my life, in my family'. She is pictured competing in The Whatley Manor International Horse Trials today Mrs Tindall added: 'Being helpless is horrible isn't it... for anyone. So... you know, he's... it's been a horrible road but, you know, actually now we've come out the end of it, hopefully it makes you a stronger family.' Mrs Tindall revealed she suffered another miscarriage before becoming pregnant with Lena, who was born in June this year She carried out the interview with the BBC to also tell of her joy at riding horses again just three months after the birth of her second child, Lena. The equestrian champion, who won BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2006, first revealed to a newspaper in July how she had suffered two miscarriages before having her second child. The 37-year-old royal also announced in November 2016 that a pregnancy announced the previous month had ended in a miscarriage. Mr and Mrs Tindall had announced in November they were expecting a baby, saying they were 'very, very happy' and looking forward to 2017. But in July this year, she revealed that she suffered another miscarriage before becoming pregnant with Lena, who was born in June. In a joint interview with her brother Peter Phillips, she told the Sunday Times: 'I had a miscarriage in 2016 and afterwards loads of people wrote to me and Mike to say they'd been through the same thing. The former Olympian and granddaughter to the Queen was on BBC Breakfast this morning Baby Lena was held by Ms Maude as Mrs Tindall competed in horse trials in Gloucestershire today. Mrs Tindall's mother Princess Anne is also pictured (right) Mike Tindall holds his daughter Mia (left) before watching his wife Zara (right) compete at the Badminton Horse Trials in Gloucestershre in May 2016 'In our case, it was something that was really rare; it was nature saying, 'This one's not right'. For me, the worst bit was that we had to tell everyone - everyone knew. 'At the time, Pete was again very much the protective brother; he was very concerned about me, as was Mike. Everyone was. It was a time when my family came to the fore and I needed them. How at least one in six pregnancies ends in a miscarriage One in six pregnancies in women who know they are pregnant become miscarriages. But even more happen among women who don't know they have conceived. Miscarriage occurs when a pregnancy is lost within the first 23 weeks after conception. The main symptoms are bleeding from the vagina, which may be accompanied by lower abdominal pain. There are various reasons women may have a miscarriage it is common and is not usually caused by something they have done. If a miscarriage happens in the second trimester between weeks 14 and 26 it may be a sign of an underlying problem. Often, miscarriages are isolated events and women will go on to have successful pregnancies. The majority of miscarriages can't be prevented, although being generally healthy will help reduce the risk. Losing three or more pregnancies in a row - known as recurrent miscarriages - is uncommon but still affects around one in 100 women. Advertisement 'I had to go through having the baby because it was so far along. I then had another miscarriage really early on. You need to go through a period where you don't talk about it because it's too raw but, as with everything, time's a great healer.' The Olympic medal-winning equestrian is married to ex-England rugby captain Mike Tindall, 39. The pair have a four-year-old daughter Mia as well as Lena. Speaking about the tragedy last year, Mr Tindall described has described his daughter Mia as a 'saving grace' at the very difficult time. He told the Sunday Times: 'One thing you do learn is how many other people have to go through the same thing. The saving grace for us has been Mia however down we feel, she will come running up in our faces.' A Miscarriage Association spokesman said today: 'Thanks to Zara Tindall for talking about the experience of miscarriage on BBC Breakfast today and highlighting the needs of partners too.' During today's BBC interview, she also spoke about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in May, saying she was 'so uncomfortable' on the hard benches at St George's Chapel in Windsor. Mrs Tindall, who was famously seen with her mouth wide open during the pastor's electric address, added that her baby was 'quite active through the service'. She also spoke of her admiration at Serena Williams returning to tennis after having a baby, and how she inherited her hard work ethic from the Queen and Princess Anne. Mrs Tindall talked about her riding too, and how horses are 'very much in my life, in my family - being able to still have them in my life and part of my career is great'. Advertisement Detailed maps lay bare how more than 80 gangs are locked in bitter fights for control of London's streets. More than 100 people have been killed in the capital already this year, with fears gang rivalries and feuds are leading to spiralling numbers of shootings and stabbings. Maps circulated online have now attempted to plot the extent of each gang's fiefdom and flash-point roads where two territories rub up against each other. The map shows there are at least 30 gangs in south London, the most notorious of which are Moscow17 in Kennington, the Ghetto Boys in Deptford and the Woolwich Boys on the banks of the Thames. This map shows the patchwork of gangs who control different streets in London as violence continues to spiral in the capital 1. DBG 2. 9th Street 3. 22GZ (Wood Green) 4. OFB (Broadwater Farm) 5. Sin Squad/ NPK 6. #900 7. #AP / GMG 8. CHINGBLOCK 9. DRIVE 10. #LEYTONSTONE 11. 7th gang 12. 12th Manor Park 13. iLLMADE 14. 8910 15. Barking 16. 6th gang 17. Custom House Gang 18. 13th gang 19. 15th gang 20. #HOMERTON 21. London Fields 22. Holly Street 23. Lisson Green Mandem/ Edgeware Road Boys 24. ER 25. Harrow Road Boys 26. 1011 27. ICB (Ice City Boys) 28. SUSPECT GANG (USG) 29. 12World/12Anti 30. 3rd Set 31. N-GANG 32. Southall 33. Hayes 34. 37/OJB 35. 17/PriceyWorld/Wano Rd 36. KuKu/BP 37. Moscow17 38. AY gang 39. B-Town 40. Ghetto Boys 41. 10th (G-Town) 42. OCB/YCB (Cherry Boys) 43. Woolwich Boys 44. GS (Greenside) 45. AWB (Abbey Wood Boys) 46. Parkside 47. Splash Gang 48. BSIDE 785 49. 23 #GMASH 50. AR (ARMED RESPONSE) 51. Monson Bloodset 52. Queens Road NM/2 53. PR15/NBR 54. Zone 2 55. 198 BLOCK 5 56. 410 gang 57. Cassava 58. MBlock 59. Claptown 60. 67 Gang 61. 417 Tooting 62. #Mitcham 63. CRO 64. CR7 65. M20/SMG 66. Gipset 67. UpTop 68. LTH Advertisement Another 30 gangs are stretched across the west, north and east, from Southall in the west, to Barking in the east. If the maps are accurate, some gangs, such as Croydon's 'CR0' control large swathes of some boroughs, while others, such as the 'China Walk' gang in the Lambeth, have small enclaves of just a couple of roads. The maps show just how specific many territories are, with gangs' zones of influence often locked up against each other around small residential streets. The Elmington Estate in Camberwell, which has been plagued with violence this year, is shown as an 'unoccupied' zones surrounded by the territories of six different gangs; 198 Block, Zone 2, the AY gang, Moscow17, 410 and Cassava. Many of the gangs are named after postcodes or bus routes and some have corresponding drill groups, who post music videos online, sometimes threatening other groups. Figures released yesterday showed that more than a third of all homicide victims across the capital so far this year were aged under 24. This was the scene on the Elmington Estate in Camberwell last month where the Moscow17 gang has been engaged in a vicious feud with Peckham's 'Zone 2' gang The online maps show why the estate is such a flash-point, surrounded as it is by six different gangs' territories. The grey patch to the north west of the estate is the territory of the Moscow17 gang. The grey square to the north is the AY gang. The black block to the right is the Zone 2 gang. The brown patch to the south is the 198 Block's territory and the green and red areas to the south west are the 410 and Cassava gangs Ninety per cent of those victims were male and all but one died from gun or knife wounds. Four were aged under 16, analysis from the Press Association showed. The figures for London contrast with those for the rest of the country, with the demographics of murder victims correspond more closely with the general population. Responding to the stats, Tottenham MP David Lammy said: 'Youth violence is reaching epidemic proportions in the UK and we have a significant problem in London.' 'It is a failure of society at large that many young people feel scared in their communities that they would rather pick up a knife or join a gang to defend themselves,' he added. How gang rivalries have led to tragedies for families as former police chief brands youth deaths a 'public health emergency' Gang rivalries are thought to be behind a series of murders and killings on London's streets. MailOnline looks at just some of the clashes which have led to deaths. Retired Met Police officer John Sutherland yesterday called on politicians to come up with a '20-year plan' to break cycles of violence passed down between generations. He said: 'There's no way we're going to fix that by next Friday. There's no way we're going to fix that just by doing more stop and search, or by imposing tougher sentencing for carrying knives, because you're dealing with something that's much more fundamental. I would go so far as to say it is a public health emergency.' Seven-year-old's tragic death in fire linked to gang war involving Lewisham's 814 gang Seven-year-old Joel Urhie's body was found after a suspected arson attack led to a fire at his house in Deptford, south-east London, last month. In the weeks after his tragic death, it was claimed the apparent arson attack could be due to his older brother, Sam's links to the 814 gang - an offshoot of The Ghetto Boys. Sam was jailed for four years and four months for possessing cocaine and heroin with intent to supply. He had been released from prison three months before the fire and his friends have suggested the attack may have been 'payback' in the ongoing gang war. Masked members of 814 can be seen wearing EA7 Emporio Armani sports tops in one of their rap videos about 'shanking' (stabbing people). Family friends have suggested the tragic death of seven-year-old Joel Urhie (left) may be linked to a gang his brother Sam (pictured, right, in a photo taken in prison) is said to have been part of Advertisement Tit-for-tat violence between Kennington's Moscow17 and Peckham's Zone 2 claims two lives Sidique Kamara, also known as Moscow17 rapper Incognito, was stabbed to death in Warham Street, Camberwell, on the evening of August 1. It cames just three months after another member of the Moscow17 collective, 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, was found fatally shot on the same street in May. The group's tracks have had hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and include lyrics hostile to long-running rivals Zone 2, from Peckham. Sidique Kamara (left), known as Incognito, was fatally stabbed last month. Moscow17 member Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton (right) was found fatally shot on the same street in May Earlier this year, Mr Kamara and another member of Moscow17 had been cleared at the Old Bailey of murdering teenager Abdirahman Mohamed, a brother of a member of Zone 2. Moscow17 has been engaged in a vicious feud with Zone 2 from Peckham, immediately to the east of Camberwell. The borough of Southwark, in which Camberwell falls, has the second highest level of knife crime in London; 805 incidents were recorded last year. In June alone, according to the latest (and most localised) Home Office data, 349 crimes, including 92 'violent/sexual offences' were committed within just half a mile of the Elmington Estate. This works out at around three a day. Advertisement Youth worker caught in the crossfire of feud between Northumberland Park's NPK and Wood Green's WG Youth worker Tanesha Melbourne, who was shot dead in a suspected case of mistaken identity, is believed to have been caught in the crossfire of a bitter rivalry between The WG (Wood Green) gang and its enemies NPK (Northumberland Park) The 17-year-old was leaving her boyfriend's home in Tottenham, north London in April, with a friend who was thought to be the intended target, when she was gunned down in a drive by shooting. The decade long feud between WG and NPK has seen a never ending string of tit for tat battles on the streets of the north London area. It came after three men launched an attack on a victim in the Tinseltown diner in Farringdon. Locals have claimed the drive-by shooting which killed Tanesha may have come in retaliation for the milkshake bar attack. Youth worker Tanesha Melbourne was shot dead in a suspected case of mistaken identity in Tottenham in April Advertisement Advertisement This is the stunning moment a pair of vicunas appear to hug as they smash into one another in a violent turf war in the remote Atacama Desert. The feisty animals, which are distant relatives of llamas, can be see scrapping and biting at one another as they engage in the heated duel. Henrique Olsen de Assumpcao, 24, who witnessed the startling events unfold on in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, said he was thrilled to be in the right place at the right time. The photographer, from Porto Alegre, Brazil, said: 'The photos were taken as the sun was setting, The golden light matches that of the animals. 'I was going to the mountains by the car when I took a sandy path that leads to the Altiplanic lagoons to see the sunset from there. 'Suddenly, in the middle of the road, a vicuna crosses the sandy path and begins a territorial fight with another one.' Photos taken by Henrique Olsen de Assumpcao, 24, show the wild vicunas appearing to embrace while battling each other in the brutal turf war The Vicunas could be seen biting one another and grappling as they faced off on the remote plains of the Atacama Desert national park The photographer said he had travelled to the region to photograph the Vicunas because their coats match the colour of the landscape in the desert The feisty animals are distant relatives of llamas but choose to live in flat open spaces like the Atacama rather than in the hills A toddler in central China got her hand snagged under an escalator handrail after her grandmother failed to notice her playing with the moving belt. The one-year-old girl was holding her grandmother's hand and walking past the moving staircase at a supermarket when she reached out and touched the handrail. Her left arm got sucked under the moving belt and her grandmother alerted emergency services while shocked passers-by rushed to help the pair. A toddler in central China's Hunan province got her hand snagged under an escalator handrail after her grandmother failed to notice her playing with the moving belt The little girl's left arm got sucked under the moving belt and her grandmother alerted emergency services while shocked passers-by rushed to help the pair The accident happened on Thursday in Taojiang county, Hunan province. Surveillance footage shows the curious girl extending her left hand to touch the moving handrail while her grandmother was looking elsewhere. Suddenly her hand got snagged in the device and she was pulled to the floor. Staff workers immediately stopped the escalator and firefighters were able to free the girl in 15 minutes. She was taken to hospital but did not sustain any serious injuries. Local authorities are investigating the incident. Surveillance footage of the Chinese supermarket shows the curious girl extending her left hand to touch the moving handrail while her grandmother was looking elsewhere Advertisement A cocaine dealer's law student girlfriend will only have to pay back 7000 of the 40,000 she gained in gifts from her boyfriend's drug-dealing ring, a court heard today. But she will have to auction of the thousands of pounds worth of lavish designer goods that were bought with illegal obtained cash. Emily Lock, 22, used drug money to emulate the lifestyle of her idol Kim Kardashian and post about her life of luxury online. Lock jetted of the glamorous locations around the world, and would post pictures of her on the beach (left) and also uploaded snaps of her purchases, like these Tommy Hilfiger denim shorts (right) Emily Lock at a machine gun shooting range in US Lock at the Eiffel Tower in Paris (left) and with boyfriend Mark Price in Amsterdam (right) But her lavish lifestyle led to her downfall, as police smashed the drug ring after being alerted to her Instagram that showed off expensive trips and designer gear at odds with her job as a checkout girl on a salary of 10,000. Lock must repay 7,000 by December 6 or face five more months in prison. She only has assets left of 7,240, Newport Crown Court heard this morning. And now her designer goods and clothing would now be put up for sale by Wilsons Auctions. The 'gifted' law student, who got 3As at A-level, will have to sell her vast collection of Vivienne Westwood handbags, Gucci sunglasses, Christian Louboutin shoes and Christian Dior perfume to repay the money, as a judge said her Instagram pictures showed her 'dripping in clothes that most people could only dream about'. Judge Daniel Williams said if she fails to cough up by December 6 she will face a further five months in jail. Lock, of Llanbradach, Caerphilly, is already serving 18 months after being convicted of acquiring criminal property in April. The former Lidl checkout girl had a 'fixation' with Kim Kardashian and her rapper husband Kanye West and posted pictures on Instagram living the high life in Dubai, Miami, and Las Vegas, the court heard. Another selfie taken by Lock, left, and a picture of plane tickets for the couple to Miami, using a Louis Vuitton handbag as a backdrop The law student, who got three grade As at A-level was obsessed with living like a celebrity, and dreamed of a Kim Kardashian lifestyle Lock with boyfriend Mark Price on holiday in Miami, (left) and the couple posing in front of a Ferrari spider hire car in Dubai (right) She and her drug dealer boyfriend Mark Price, 27, were setting off on a five-star holiday to Thailand when police pounced after being alerted Lock's Instagram account. Judge Tom Crowther QC told her: 'When police went to your home they found a large quantity of Rolex watches along with clothing and shoes from well-known aspirational brands. 'You could not resist flaunting your extravagant lifestyle on social media. One of Lock's purchases included these Christian Louboutin shoes Emily posed on Instagram with expensive clothes and accesories such as Versace slippers (left) and a Louis Vuitton phone case (right) Lock has been ordered to repay just 7,000 or face five more months in prison, as she only has assets left of 7,240 Mark Price (left) was jailed for seven years for possession of cocaine, and Lock (right) was sentenced to 15 months for acquiring criminal property 'You were dripping in clothes that could only be dreamed of by most people. 'You went on extravagant holidays and the plan for your Thailand trip was cruelly interrupted by your arrest.' Lock's dream of becoming a probation officer was 'in tatters' a previous hearing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard. Price showing off some of his designer gear in a social media selfie (left) and the couple together on a shopping trip Emily Lock with her Siamese cats Judge Crowther told her: 'You did well in school and went on to university. 'I have read letters from your schoolteachers, family and friends who struggle to reconcile what they know of you and what you did. 'You spent conspicuously and self-indulgently in full knowledge of how your partner was making his money - your lifestyle was funded by a Class A drug dealer.' Lock and Price earned 1,600-a-week from cocaine dealing splashing out on designer brands including Gucci, Cartier and Vivienne Westwood. Andrew Taylor, defending, said: 'She left school with three As at A-level and went on to study law and criminology at university. Lock and Price earned 1,600-a-week from cocaine dealing splashing out on designer brands including Gucci, Cartier and Vivienne Westwood, they often drove expensive cars such the Ferrari 458 Spider (left) 'Her ambition was to be a probation officer but like a lot of young people she was fixated by a Kim Kardashian type of lifestyle.' Lock was working as a 10,000-a-year Lidl supermarket cashier when she went on six luxury holidays with Price who had worked in the construction industry. Price who owned a a 40,000 Audi RS4, was jailed for seven years after admitting possession with intent to supply cocaine and fraud. Emily Lock Showing her Louis Vuitton running shoes (left) and Chanel trainers (right) His 'subordinate' Kyle Crowley, 28, was jailed for five years after admitting supplying cocaine and the production of cannabis. Crowley's partner, mother-of-one Dionne Thomas, 25, admitted acquiring criminal property and was given 120 hours unpaid work after the court heard she received just a single pair of shoes from the 'lucrative' drug dealing operation. A fifth defendant involved in the investigation, Christopher Morgan, 30, was jailed for 20 months after pleading guilty to growing cannabis with intent tom supply. All five defendants are from the Caerphilly area of south Wales. Investigating officer PC Michael Coles said after the case: 'I hope this sends a message to those who continue to be involved in the supply of controlled drugs, that you will not just be prosecuted, we will also use our powers to seize any financial assets you have acquired though criminality.' Three war memorials - honoring an airman, a naval officer and a soldier - have been stolen in West Sussex. The near life-sized 'silent silhouettes' are an initiative from the Royal British Legion to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War and to symbolise the communities that took part. A black silhouette of a soldier was taken from outside a Co-Op in Main Road, Yapton, overnight on Wednesday August 29. Three war memorials - honoring a naval officer, an airman and a soldier - have been stolen from Yapton and Petworth in West Sussex The other two memorial figures - the naval officer and airman - are believed to have been stolen over night five days later on Monday September 3 from St Mary's Church in Church Street, Petworth. The memorials are of great sentimental value and police are appealing for anyone with any information to get in touch. Cllr Chris Kemp, Chairman of Petworth Town Council, said: 'I am saddened by the theft of the sailor and airman from outside the church here in Petworth. 'I feel that it is a bit of thoughtless misguided mischief by those who do not understand or appreciate the significance of what these silhouettes represent. 'Many in our community here in Petworth have a personal connection to the Great War 100 years ago and have sponsored a soldier in memory of a family member or a person of significance. The first black silhouette of a soldier (pictured) was taken from outside a Co-Op in Main Road, Yapton, overnight on Wednesday August 29 'I have been moved by the emotion attached to this personal act of remembrance and thanks to those that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.' Local resident Eileen Lintill said: 'I think it is very disrespectful to the memory of those they are representing and upsetting for those that have raised funds to provide them.' To mark the upcoming centenary of WWI the Royal British Legion invited the public to take part in a movement to say 'Thank You' to the generation who served, sacrificed, rebuilt and changed the nation. The silhouettes are near life-size and can be fixed to a wall or attached to an upright post in public or private spaces. A range of silhouettes, including the iconic image of a Tommy, have been placed across the UK. Other figures include soldiers from across the commonwealth, RAF/RFC, Navy Officers, munition factory workers and suffragettes. At their base are the words 'Lest we Forget' and business or community groups that buy or sponsor a silhouette can have its name incorporated in the base wording. After the first memorial was taken, a spokesperson for The Royal British Legion told the Standard: 'The Legion is shocked and saddened to hear of this incident. The Silent Soldier installations honour the memory of the Armed Forces personnel who have made the ultimate sacrifice and those who defend the freedom we enjoy.' Anyone with anyone information about the thefts is asked to report it online or call 101, quoting serial 78 of 03/09 (Yapton) or serial 1097 of 05/09 (Petworth). You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or report it online. A Russian scientist called Alexander Petrov who works at a secretive plant that produces smallpox vaccine has denied he is a GRU spy who was sent to Britain to assassinate Sergei Skripal. The 39-year-old, employed at mysterious Siberian 'scientific' company Virion in Tomsk, 2,235 miles from Moscow, insisted he had 'nothing to do with the Skripal story'. He made the denial after being highlighted by a Russian news agency as appearing to match one of two men identified by British antiterrorist police as being sent to Salisbury on a mission to kill Skripal, a former Moscow military spy double agent who was secretly working for MI6. Britain says two men - named Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - unleashed the novichok attack on Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March - but believes both names are aliases used by GRU military spies. A Russian scientist called Alexander Petrov (pictured) who works at a secretive plant that produces smallpox vaccine has denied he is a GRU spy who was sent to Britain to assassinate Sergei Skripal The 39-year-old is employed at mysterious Siberian 'scientific' company Virion - linked to scientific and manufacturing giant Mikrogen (pictured) - in Tomsk, 2,235 miles from Moscow. He insisted he had 'nothing to do with the Skripal story' Britain says two men named Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (right) unleashed the novichok attack on Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March - but believes both names are aliases used by GRU military spies 'This is a complete coincidence,' said Petrov in Tomsk, after being approached by a Russian news agency. 'Let alone London, I can't even manage to get to the Altai Mountains (in southern Siberia).' He works as a 'section foreman' for the Tomsk manufacturer Virion, linked to scientific and manufacturing giant Mikrogen, which has close ties to the Russian government. Virion develops and produces 'immunobiological medicinal products'. It is the sole manufacturer of smallpox vaccine in Russia. Russia is one of only two countries in the world - the other is the US - which holds officially sanctioned stocks of smallpox virus. The Russian stocks are held at Novosibirsk, near Tomsk. The two spies were pictured in Salisbury the day before the attack, when they carried out a reconnaissance trip Virion also produces a whole spectrum of vaccines for tick-borne infections. Petrov, born on July 13, 1979, appears to be a different man to a namesake living in Moscow whose grandparents worked for Stalin's notorious SMERCH killing machine which vowed 'death to spies'. The Moscow Petrov who also fell under suspicion after the names were revealed by Scotland Yard has gone to ground and was not seen at a block of flats to which he is registered. The other man named by Britain, Ruslan Boshirov, has also vanished. Britain in any case suspects that the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are aliases used by GRU military spies sent to Salisbury to unleash a novichok attack on Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 34, who was visiting him at the time. Skripal had been swapped for flame-haired agent Anna Chapman as part of an east-west spy exchange in 2010. However, there has been speculation his former service, the GRU, was used in an assassination bid in revenge for his 'treason' in working for Britain. British Airways could face a 500million fine following a cyber attack which saw bank card details stolen from almost 400,000 passengers. The Information Commissioner's Office said it was 'making inquiries' after the shocking security breach was not detected for 16 days. Former Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry was among the BA customers to slam the airline while another customer is claimed to have had 1,600 hacked from her account. British Airways Chief Executive Alex Cruz said today the company is '100 per cent committed' to compensating customers but the airline could be fined under the provisions of the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She tweeted: 'Furious @British_Airways. Found out re data breach from news, before you had the decency to tell me yourself I was likely affected' Under the new regulations, the maximum penalty for a company hit with a data breach is a fine of either 17million or 4% of global turnover, whichever is greater. In the year ended December 31, 2017, BA's total revenue was 12.2 billion, meaning the company could face a fine of around 500million if the ICO takes action. Businesswoman Ms Dewberry said she had been left 'vulnerable' after being forced to cancel her bank card while travelling alone in the middle of Vietnam. She tweeted: 'Furious @British_Airways. Found out re data breach from news, before you had the decency to tell me yourself I was likely affected. One customer reportedly had 1,600 hacked from her bank account with her friend writing on Twitter: 'So I guess this is what hacking looks like British Airways - my account looks fine, but my friend's account, not so much... what should she do?' It was posted by Sally Burtt-Jones alongside a picture of the passenger's bank account which apparently saw money being sent to BA.com 'We'll fly with someone else' Simon Nayyar received an email at 1.43am yesterday saying his card details and personal information may have been stolen. British Airways expressed its deepest apologies for the worry and inconvenience and urged him to contact his bank or credit card provider and follow their advice. Mr Nayyar, a senior consultant, who flies regularly with the airline on business, has a BA American Express credit card. He said it took him three attempts and more than 20 minutes waiting on hold to get through to American Express, which had been inundated with calls from worried BA customers. He was told it did not know whether the card had been compromised and could not give him any firm advice. As a result, he has decided not to cancel the card for the time being. The 51-year-old from London, who runs Acuitas Communications, which gives companies advice on reputation management, said: Ive been a member of BAs Executive Club for over 20 years and have spent a great deal of money with the airline. But whether you spend a lot or very little, no customer should be treated this way by a company that clearly doesnt take data breaches as seriously as they should. At some stage, many of us will vote with our feet and fly with someone else. Advertisement 'Im travelling alone in Vietnam and have had to put stop on the card, which makes me vulnerable & Im now spending precious [holiday] time trying to resolve.' One customer reportedly had 1,600 hacked from her bank account with her friend writing on Twitter: 'So I guess this is what hacking looks like British Airways - my account looks fine, but my friend's account, not so much... what should she do?' It was posted by Sally Burtt-Jones alongside a picture of the passenger's bank account which apparently saw money being sent to BA.com. Launching a furious tirade towards British Airways, Ms Dewberry said: 'All companies have problems, some of them will affect their customers. That is a simple fact of business. How the company reacts, communicates & cares, is everything. 'British Airways are failing badly on this. I cant even get a team manager in their call centre to call me.' Tweeting to Mr Cruz, the TV commentator, added: '@alex_cruz you say BA will work with affected customers. 'Yet Im one such customer & asking one of your call centre managers to call me and it seems impossible. '(I dont believe Im alone) All companies have problems, but its how you deal with them that separates good from bad'. Mr Cruz said the company had been hit by a 'very sophisticated, malicious criminal attack.' The security breach affects all 380,000 customers who booked flights online or via the BA app during that time using a debit or credit card. BA has insisted it had told customers about the security breach as soon as it could and it had now called in the police. But the cyber failure is a blow to the airline's once-renowned reputation for customer service with some victims vowing never to use them again. Launching a furious tirade towards British Airways, Ms Dewberry said: 'All companies have problems, some of them will affect their customers' Apprentice winner had to cancel her card 6,000 miles from home The 2006 Apprentice winner, Michelle Dewberry, is one of many British Airways customers lambasting the airline following a cyber attack on the company Michelle Dewberry only discovered her card details had been stolen when she read about BAs data breach in the news. The former winner of BBCs The Apprentice is on a backpacking trip around south-east Asia and has just landed in Hoi An in Vietnam. Travelling alone and in an unfamiliar city more than 6,000 miles away from her home in Hull, the businesswoman and broadcaster said the experience had been particularly stressful. Despite this, she says she has received precious little help or sympathy from BA. Like many thousands of others, the 38-year-old received an email from the airline alerting her about the hack and urging her to contact her bank. Anxious for guidance, she phoned BA and asked if a manager could call her back. She was told this was not possible. Miss Dewberry called her bank and, when she finally managed to get through, she was urged to trawl through all her recent transactions to check for suspicious payments. Worried she could fall victim to fraud, Miss Dewberry decided to cancel her main card and is now relying on a back-up card. She said: It is frustrating that BA has shown such little regard for me as a customer. I should be having a great time enjoying myself instead Im spending lots of time and money on calls trying to cancel my card and shift my money around. The fact that BA isnt even prepared to have a conversation with me about this is outrageous. I realise things can go wrong. But it is how a company reacts that separates the good from the bad. BA has ignored its customers. The whole experience has made me furious. Advertisement Mr Cruz said: 'We are deeply sorry for the disruption that this criminal activity has caused. We take the protection of our customers' data very seriously.' 'We know that the information that has been stolen is name, address, email address, credit card information; that would be credit card number, expiration date and the three-letter code in the back of the credit card,' Mr Cruz told the BBC, adding that no passport data had been hacked. The company said: 'The breach has been resolved and our website is working normally. British Airways Chief Executive Alex Cruz (pictured) said today the company is '100 per cent committed' to compensating customers whose financial information was stolen British Airways customers have vented their fury at BA, especially about how long it took them to notice 'British Airways is communicating with affected customers and we advise any customers who believe they may have been affected by this incident to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice. 'We have notified the police and relevant authorities.' Advice is currently being given to those who may have been affected, including resetting passwords on the BA website. The airline said it will contact people who it believes may have had their data collected by the criminals. Compensation claims will be discussed on a 'individual basis' the firm said. Alex Cruz, British Airways' chairman and chief executive, said in a statement: 'We are deeply sorry for the disruption that this criminal activity has caused. 'We take the protection of our customers' data very seriously.' The airline said it was investigating the breach as a 'matter of urgency' and had reported it to the police and other 'relevant authorities'. The National Crime Agency has been brought in. British Airways has admitted hackers spent more than two weeks accessing data online resulting in a risk to passengers Just last month, British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group said profits had hit 989 million for the first half of the year. BA raked in 780 million of that sum. The breach was revealed at 6.27pm yesterday, after the stockmarkets had closed. What to do if you have been affected by the British Airways data theft If you believe you have been affected by this incident, then please contact your bank or credit card provider and follow their recommended advice. Please check back here for further updates, we will be updating this page. How do I know if I have been affected? This relates to customer bookings made from 22:58 BST August 21 2018 to 21:45 September 5 2018 inclusive. We will be contacting affected customers directly to advise them of what has happened and are advising them to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice. Will there be any compensation? We take the protection of our customers' data seriously, and are very sorry for the concern that this criminal activity has caused. We will continue to keep our customers updated with the very latest information. We will be contacting customers and will manage any claims on an individual basis. What data has been lost? The personal and financial details of customers making bookings on ba.com and the airline's mobile app were compromised. No passport or travel details were stolen. Should I call my bank or cancel my credit cards? We recommend you contact your bank and follow their recommended advice. What shall I do if I am due to travel today? The incident has been resolved and all systems are working normally so customers due to travel can check-in online as normal. Will I still be able to check in? Yes, all customers booked on our flights will be able to check in as normal. Will this affect any future bookings? The incident has been resolved and ba.com is working normally so future bookings will not be affected. Source: britishairways.com Advertisement A spokesman confirmed that the airline had discovered the breach on Wednesday evening, but needed time to investigate the matter and assess which customers were affected. The data breach affects all customers who booked flights online or used the BA.com app from 10.58pm on August 21 to 9.45pm on September 5. BA said it had received no reports from customers who had had money fraudulently taken out of their account. It added that the breach had been 'resolved' and the website was 'working normally'. The airline has taken out full-page advertisements in today's newspapers, including the Daily Mail, apologising to customers. Shares in BA's parent company, IAG, were down 2 percent on Friday. Everyone affected by the breach was urged to contact their bank or credit card company as soon as possible. The leak is significant because the scale of the payment information accessed by the hackers is almost without precedent in the UK. Telecoms firm TalkTalk was handed a record 400,000 fine by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in 2016 when data from 156,959 customers was leaked the previous year, but financial information from just 15,656 was accessed. Banks are legally obliged to refund customers who have had money fraudulently taken from their account, but the hack raises fears that BA customers' details will be sold on the 'dark web' to fraudsters intent on hacking their accounts. Britain's flagship carrier has suffered a series of knocks to its reputation for customer service. An IT shutdown last summer grounded flights and resulted in tens of thousands of passengers being stranded across the world. In July this year BA apologised after computer issues caused dozens of flights in and out of Heathrow to be cancelled. The month before, more than 2,000 BA passengers had their tickets cancelled because the prices were too cheap. Customers took to social media to criticise the airline last night with many hitting out at BA for failing to contact them directly about the data breach. One customer said on Twitter: 'Idiots. So as an executive club member they have my card details, my passport, tel, email etc. All because you outsource IT to joke places to save money.' Alex Neill of Which? said: 'It is now vital that the company moves quickly to ensure those affected get clear information about what has happened and what steps they should take. 'Anyone concerned they could be at risk of fraud should consider changing their online passwords, monitor bank and other online accounts and be wary of emails regarding the breach.' The BA Twitter account has been bombarded with complaints about the way they have handled the crisis British Airways joined a growing list of companies whose customers had had their details stolen. In July, Dixons Carphone admitted a huge data theft. The airline has taken out full-page advertisements in today's newspapers (pictured), including the Daily Mail, apologising to customers for the breach Initially, the company said 5.9 million customer bank card details and 1.2 million personal data records had been hacked in 2017 and went unnoticed. Later, the company backtracked on its original figures and amended the total of customer records that had been accessed to a staggering 10 million. Access was also gained to non-financial personal data, such as addresses, names and email information. The major data breach involved shoppers at Currys PC World and Dixons Travel but bosses insist there is no sign of any related fraud. Simon Migliano, head of research and cyber security expert at Top10VPN.com, said: 'This serious security breach at BA could be sending the dark web into a frenzy. 'Financial information is extremely valuable and highly desirable and our Dark Web Market Price Index shows that credit card details can sell for 56.50 each. 'This means the value of the 380,000 hacked accounts on the dark web could be as much as 21.5m. 'And it won't take long for word to get around that Christmas has come early.' Jair Bolsonaro, known as the Brazilian Donald Trump, was stabbed in the stomach while being carried through a crowd in Juiz de Fora, part of Minas Gerais in the south east of the country during a campaign rally for next months election. Currently leading the polls in Brazil, Bolsonaro was caught on a number of cameras collapsing and clutching his stomach as the assailant struck him in his lower half, before he was rushed to hospital by car. The far-right politician, who has outraged many in the country with his racist and homophobic comments, had surgery for injuries to his intestines and is expected to recover after the attack, but who is Jair Bolsonaro? Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro gives thumbs up to supporters alongside wife Michelle Who is Jair Bolsonaro? Born Jair Messias Bolsonaro on March 21, 1955 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he is a former military officer of Italian descent and is regarded as a polarising, controversial presidential candidate because of his populist views, as reported by The Sun. As the leader of the PSL (Social Liberal Party), Bolsonaro is the second in the polls to ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is banned from running because of criminal conviction for corruption. His ambitious yet aggressive nature could stem from his background in the military, having served in the Brazilian armys parachutist units for seventeen years and reaching the rank of Captain. It has been reported that while he worked in Congress, following his time in the army, he hired his third wife Michelle as a secretary and she was promoted multiple times and her salary tripled in the space of two years. Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair After Brazils Supreme Court ruled that nepotism was illegal in the public administration, Bolsonaro was forced to fire her. He has been married three times and has five children and the couple now live in Barra da Tijuca, a wealthy area of Rio de Janeiro. Jair is also known as the Brazilian Trump, due to his racist, sexist and homophobic comments, in addition to his gun promotion. According to the BBC, Bolsonaro has been involved in scandal, especially after he told Playboy magazine in 2011 that he would be incapable of loving a gay son and he would rather see that son die in an accident. After this, in 2015, he was fined for saying that Congresswoman Maria do Rosario was not worth raping, she is very ugly in a newspaper interview. He was later investigated for alleged racism over remarks he had made about Afro-Brazilians. Despite his advocation of loosening the countrys gun control laws in order to deal with crime, Bolsonaro is in fact supported by millions of evangelical Christians because of his anti-abortion stance. Right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro reacts after being stabbed during a rally in Juiz de Fora Bolsonaro stabbing Footage of Bolsonaros stabbing revealed that while he was held at shoulder-height by a crowd of supporters, an assailant struck his stomach with what appeared to be a knife. Shortly after, he is slowly lowered to the ground, before being bundled into a car. After the attack, Jairs son Flavio Bolsonaro said that his injury had been worse than we thought and the puncture had hit parts of his fathers liver, lung and intestines, resulting in a lot of loss of blood. The presidential candidate had arrived at the hospital with a [blood] pressure of 10/3, almost dead. His condition now seems stabilised. Pray, please! the tweet read. After two hours of surgery, Bolsonaro was recuperating and would remain in hospital for at least seven days, as reported by BBC. Jair Bolsonaro is carried away after being stabbed during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora The suspect has been arrested and the police named him as Adelio Obispo de Oliveira, officials having later declared him mentally disturbed. He was beaten by supporters before being taken into custody before electoral rivals also condemned the stabbing. Fernando Haddad, who is expected to replace Lula for the Workers Party, said that the attack was absurd and regrettable and President Michel Temer said that it was intolerable in a democratic state such as Brazil. Brazilian stocks also rose after the attack on Bolsonaro, which has been seen as increasing his chances. Bolsonaro 2018 As President Temer is not standing for re-election, millions of voters remain undecided. According to research company Ibope, Bolsonaro will have a strong first round but lose a run-off to leftist Ciro Gomes, environmentalist Marina Silva or ex-Governor of Sao Paulo Geraldo Alckmin. A race against Lula's replacement, Fernando Haddad, could be much narrower with Ibope finding that Bolsonaro could lose to him by one percentage point. Haddad was charged with corruption and, like Lula, denies any wrongdoing. This comes after the Supreme Court rejected Lula's latest appeal to run and the Workers' Party has until the end of Tuesday to register Mr Haddad as its presidential candidate. A 64-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to the murder of a British-born toddler in Australia nearly 50 years ago. Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer vanished from a shower block at a beach in New South Wales in 1970. She was one of four children to emigrate from Knowle, Bristol, to Australia in 1969, with the family-of-six living at a hostel near Fairy Meadow Beach, 40 miles south of Sydney, at the time of her disappearance. Cheryl Grimmer (left) disappeared from New South Wales in 1970 - and her mother Carole Grimmer (right) was pictured with her three brothers Stephen, Ricki and Paul one day later A 64-year-old man (pictured with his face pixelated) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of a British-born toddler in Australia nearly 50 years ago The military joined police in the search for three-year-old Cheryl in January 1970 after she disappeared from Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong The accused man, originally from Britain, was arrested in Melbourne in March last year and appeared at the Supreme Court in Sydney today via video-link. The man, who cannot be named as he was a minor at the time of the alleged offence, spoke only to confirm his name and not-guilty plea. A trial will take place at the same court in May. Cheryl was last seen out the front of a toilet block at Fairy Meadow Beach, in Wollongong on January 12, 1970. She had gone to the changing rooms with her brothers when she vanished. Detectives have said they doubt that Cheryl's body will ever be found and her relatives have previously spoken about their ordeal. One family member said she 'cannot leave her children alone for one second' as a result of the toddler's disappearance outside the surf club. This ransom note for $10,000 was sent to Cheryl's parents after three days but no one showed up to collect the money where police dressed as council workers lay in wait Cheryl was last seen out the front of a toilet block at Fairy Meadow Beach, about 90 minutes south of Sydney, after going to the changing rooms with her brothers Cheryl's parents Carole and John, pictured eating with their children the day after she went missing in January 1970, died without ever knowing the truth about what happened to her Her brother Stephen Grimmer and niece Melanie have both said the whole incident had been 'very traumatic'. The Grimmer family say they have been deluged with tributes from friends and relatives, including from Britain. Last year it emerged that plans were in the works for a commemorative plaque to be laid for Cheryl at the spot where she went missing. Cheryl's brother Stephen Grimmer, now in his 50s, revealed in December 2016 that his parents Carole and John died without ever knowing the truth. Mrs Grimmer died four years ago, and on her deathbed made the brothers promise to find out what happened the day her daughter went missing during the family trip. The hangover continues for the Bulldogs with a major sponsor cutting ties with the club over the Mad Monday scandal. The Canterbury Bulldogs stars were pictured stripping naked and vomiting in the street during boozy end of season celebrations at Sydney's Harbour View Hotel this week. The fallout from the drunken Mad Monday celebrations has now seen Electronics company Jaycar, who have backed the team since 2009, decided to end its $500,000-a-season partnership. The fallout from the drunken Mad Monday celebrations has now seen Electronics company Jaycar, who have backed the team since 2009 Adam Elliott (right) is one of two players charged over the Bullldogs Mad Monday celebrations Company founder and owner Gary Johnston said it could no longer be associated with the team. 'Unfortunately, I just could not ignore this behaviour,' he told Fairfax. '[The club had] not bothered to contact us over this matter to explain their side of the story if there is one,' he said. It is understood that Mr Johnston plans to float the company on the stock exchange and requires a spotless reputation for share-buyers. The scandal has been costly for the club. Adam Elliott, 23, and Asipeli Fine, 25, were charged on Thursday after the pair were allegedly photographed dancing nude on a pub balcony. The men were also fined $25,000 each by the club for their alleged drunken antics. Marcelo Montoya - who was pictured having thrown up and passed out on the street - and Zac Woolford were also fined $10,000 each by the club. The Canterbury Bulldogs' Mad Monday celebrations saw the 63-year-old licensee of the Harbour View Hotel in the heart of Sydney slugged with five penalty notices The hotel where the players ran amok has been hit with five penalty notices - two for permitting indecent behaviour and three for permitting intoxication on a licensed premises. Police issued three of the notices for allegedly breaching the New South Wales Liquor Act by permitting intoxication on the premises during the club's private event. As a result, the pub could be slapped with heavy fines, face trading hour restrictions or even be shut down - which would have a chilling effect on Sydney pubs ahead of the festive season. Electronics company Jaycar has to ended its $500,000 a-season partnership with the Bulldogs after the Mad Monday scandal A hospital failed to give basic care to an elderly patient who died from multi-organ failure due to a severe bedsore. Peter James McBride was admitted to Port Pirie Hospital, South Australia in 2015 after falling twice in the same day. The 86-year-old suffered with dementia and was waiting in the regional hospital until a bed became available in the local aged-care home, the ABC reported. His distraught wife Alisa said she was she was 'horrified' by the coroners findings and said her husband 'should never have died'. 'It's very sad. I've lost a wonderful husband and father. I miss him terribly. Peter James McBride (pictured) suffered with dementia and was waiting in the regional hospital until a bed freed up in the local aged-care home 'I hope someone else doesn't have to go through what my dear husband had to go through it must've been agony for the poor man,' Mrs McBride told the publication. Mr McBride remained in the hospital's care for eight weeks and was cared for by three separate GP's. In an inquest in to the death of the former harness racing trainer, state coroner Mark Johns found there was a lack of communication between the staff at the hospital which led to issues 'in and of itself'. The coroner said Mr McBride's treatment was inadequate, that the best-practice treatment methods were not adhered to and the use of a catheter and sedative drugs were unnecessary. Despite the care from the three doctors - no notes were kept referencing his bedsore. Nurses were also found to have fed the elderly man with an extensive use of anti-psychotic medication which left him in a sedative state contributing to his bedsore. Mr McBride has died from a number of complications of excessive bed rest and poor nursing care,' expert geriatrician Associate Professor Craig Whitehead said. Mr McBride was transferred to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he died on April 11. The mother of a ten-year-old girl who was allegedly hung from a tree by a classmate has opened up about the state of devastation the family has been in since. Belinda Yoon said that the attack on her daughter has not only impacted Amber, who suffers from a severe medical condition, but the entire family. Amber suffers from a condition called Tracheo-Oesophageal Fistula and Oesophageal Atresia (TOF-OA) meaning that when she was born her oesophagus was connected to her trachea. She has had countless surgeries, is extremely susceptible to choking and can only hear out of one ear. Belinda Yoon said that the attack on her daughter has not only impacted Amber (pictured), who suffers from a severe medical condition, but the entire family Amber came home from school and told her mother a classmate had tried to kill her by hanging her from a tree (Picture: Amber's neck after the alleged incident) Last month Amber came home and asked to speak to her mother privately before she burst into tears and told her what happened at the Queen of Apostles school in Riverton, Western Australia. Mrs Yoon was in shock as her daughter told her what happened, including that a teacher had sternly told her what she was doing was wrong. The school didn't contact Mrs Yoon or her husband and so, after she called a specialist who knew the details of Amber's condition, she called the police, who are investigating. However what Amber says happened has had a domino effect on the family. The mother-of-four told Daily Mail Australia: 'When I say this literally devastated our whole family, it really did. 'I can't even describe to you. There were days, especially last week, when we couldn't sleep. Anytime we opened our mouths we just cried.' Amber's younger brother, Hunter, 9, is changing schools as a result of what happened to his older sister. 'My daughters are just devastated.' One of Mrs Yoon's older daughters is in her first year of university while another is in Year 10. Belinda Yoon (pictured) was in shock as her daughter told her what happened, including that a teacher had sternly told her what she was doing was wrong. Amber's younger brother, Hunter, 9, is changing schools as a result of what happened to his older sister (Pictured: Amber and her mother Belinda) She said one of them recalls holding Amber as she had a serious medical scare, believing her little sister was going to die. 'It is just a mix of anger and hurt,' Mrs Yoon said. As a result members of the family have missed school, angry at what allegedly happened to their sister. Mrs Yoon, who was in her second year as a nursing student, has had to withdraw from university so she can help her child get the help she needs as a result. Amber, who has never complained through countless procedures and wears her scars 'like war wounds' has always been a happy little girl, according to Mrs Yoon. Despite countless visits to the hospital she has never needed psychological help but last week her mother took her to her first appointment because of what she went through on that Friday. The bullying that Amber was experiencing was first brought to the attention of the school after Mrs Yoon found a 'heartbreaking' diary entry (pictured) from her daughter as she asked why none of her friends would play with her 'As I was reading them a common theme was recurring and it was the frustration and heartache at the lack of a system that does not yet exist', Mrs Yoon posted on Facebook The bullying that Amber was experiencing was first brought to the attention of the school after Mrs Yoon found a 'heartbreaking' diary entry from her daughter, her mother said. 'I can't get off my mind why won't my "friends" won't (sic) play with me,' the young girl wrote in a new diary after ripping out her previous entries, revealed by Nine News. 'And haven't been treating me not (sic) very nice. 'Pray for me please.' Mrs Yoon said that her and her husband Dave have almost lost Amber countless times due to her medical condition She described herself as the 'weird girl' and she wrote that nobody would sit with her. In a meeting two days before Amber was found hanging from a tree school officials said that there was evidence her daughter was being excluded, Mrs Yoon said. Mrs Yoon has opened up about her daughter's ordeal because she felt as though the school was trying to silence her and she was so angry. She told Daily Mail Australia: 'We have to do something. I can't let another family feel this pain. There is no feeling like it. 'We have been scared before - we thought we were going to lose her many times. 'But this was so different because it was completely preventable and it didn't need to happen.' Mrs Yoon told Daily Mail Australia: 'We have to do something. I can't let another family feel this pain. There is no feeling like it' Mrs Yoon has opened up about her daughter's ordeal because she felt as though the school was trying to silence her and she was so angry She and Amber have been targeted by people on social media as a result of their claims but Mrs Yoon said she and her daughter have stayed up all night reading positive messages. 'It was nothing but love,' she said. 'She was feeling shame. I was going, "Baby, you're so brave" and she said "What, for being bullied?".' Mrs Yoon had to tell her ten-year-old the shame wasn't on her. 'I told her people are so inspired by you because you have spoken out.' But now she feels responsible for everyone who has sent her a message thanking her for using her voice, to the countless parents of children who contacted her with their own horrific story with bullying. She and Amber have been targeted by people on social media as a result of their claims but Mrs Yoon said she and her daughter have stayed up all night reading positive messages Mrs Yoon is calling for government change about regulations regarding bullying because of the horrific effects it can have on children. She said: 'Children are killing themselves over this. They're not heard and the families are just heartbroken and they're trying to fight a system that doesn't exist.' She wrote on Facebook: 'Australia I have heard you, I am with you, and with your help we will create this much needed change. I will get the smile back on my little Amber's face and fight to never have another family have no where to turn when bullying occurs. Australias had enough our government needs to listen.' Mrs Yoon said she understands that there are children involved and that as long as what happened to her daughter is investigated, how she is feeling is validated and change is made that that is one positive outcome from this ordeal. A spokesperson for Catholic Education Western Australia, on behalf of the school, told Daily Mail Australia: 'Responding to media reports in relation to an alleged incident involving students attending Queen of Apostles Primary School, Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) continues to consult with the families of the individual students, the school, WA Police, and relevant authorities. The Catholic Education Western Australia described the situation as 'complex and sensitive' and said they are working with the families involved and the police 'This is a complex and sensitive issue and it is being managed with due consideration for the confidentiality that is required. 'CEWA is aware the incident has reasonably caused distress within the school and wider community and is treating the matter with compassion and respect for the dignity of all those impacted. 'The safety and welfare of all students remains the highest priority for CEWA and we will continue to work with the families of the individual students involved, the school, WA Police and relevant authorities to ensure their concerns are comprehensively addressed.' A Scottish building firm has been accused of 'glamourising rape culture' with a poster of a scantily-clad woman captioned: 'We don't pull out 'til the job is done'. Core Drilling Specialist Limited (CDS Ltd) have been branded 'misogynistic' after displaying the offensive picture onto the side of a generator in Edinburgh city centre. The poster shows a blonde cartoon woman wearing a minuscule cropped top with the bottom of her breasts clearly visible. She is also wearing hot pants, a hard-hat and holding a sledge hammer, alongside the slogan: 'Core Drilling: We don't pull out 'til the jobs done.' Core Drilling Specialist Limited (CDS Ltd) have been branded 'misogynistic' after displaying the offensive picture onto the side of a generator in Edinburgh city centre Non Jones shared the initial photograph of the sign with the caption: 'Casual misogyny courtesy of CDS Ltd Scotland in association with Malmaison Hotels - what awesome companies they must be' Locals spotted the advertisement at a building site outside Malmaison hotel near St Andrew's Square on Tuesday. The image was later shared on Twitter where furious social media users blasted the company saying it would be 'better suited to the 1970's'. One wrote: 'As a woman who works in the construction industry - this makes me mad. Welcome To The 1970's.' While another said: 'I've been in construction for over 10 years and I've never seen anything like this?! Absolutely shocking.' CDS Ltd have so far refused to comment on the scandal, while Malmaison have issued an apology and had the sign covered within an hour of being notified. Non Jones shared the initial photograph of the sign with the caption: 'Casual misogyny courtesy of CDS Ltd Scotland in association with Malmaison Hotels - what awesome companies they must be.' Speaking to a local paper yesterday, a female staff member for C.D.S said that they didn't find the poster distasteful. She said: 'It doesn't bother me at all. It's only a cartoon character.' It comes after Jark Norfolk, which is the UK's largest independent recruitment agency, sparked anger with their advert of a woman wearing a skimpy bikini next to the caption 'Want to see my white bits?' A spokesperson for Malmaison Hotels said: 'It has been brought to our attention that a supplier to a sub-contractor of one of Malmaisons development partners was responsible for an offensive image near our new Edinburgh site. 'Naturally we expect all of our suppliers to uphold the same high standards of decency, and we immediately stepped in to resolve the issue.' A spokesperson for Core Drilling Specialists, based in Bathgate, West Lothian, said: 'We are deeply sorry for the offence this image has caused. 'Were a local company with female employees, we all have mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, and recognise this type of sexism has no place in our society nor the construction industry, which has worked so hard in recent years to achieve equality for all. 'We are devastated that this wholly unacceptable cartoon image, which was on an old generator, has caused distress and its now been removed. 'We hold our hands up and concede it was poor judgement, we got it wrong and we apologise to everyone affected by it.' Social media users shared a link to CDS Ltd's Twitter page in June which apparently showed the poster and dubbed it a 'company meme'. The post has now been deleted. It comes after Jark Norfolk, which is the UK's largest independent recruitment agency, sparked anger with their advert of a woman wearing a skimpy bikini next to the caption 'Want to see my white bits?'. The ad which was sent out to its entire database also wrote beneath the main header: 'Oops sorry, I meant white collar candidates.' The Norwich based firm quickly recalled the image after screenshots were posted online by furious recipients. A number of Jark Norfolk clients have stated the firm had 'seriously misjudged their target audience'. It is believed Jark Norfolk has issued a private apology to their clients, but the company declined a request to comment. The furious hunt for the senior leaker who trashed President Trump in an anonymous op-ed heated up Friday, after reports Trump has a list of 12 suspects and still more denials from top officials who said they didn't do it. The effort came as Trump leveled a new attack on Bob Woodward's bombshell book, which reveals chaos in the White House and senior aides scurrying to thwart the president's worst impulses. Trump said the book isn't accurate because 'I don't talk the way I am quoted.' Trump Tweeted Friday that 'The Woodward book is a scam.' In President Donald Trump's speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation The president continued: 'I dont talk the way I am quoted. If I did I would not have been elected President. These quotes were made up. The author uses every trick in the book to demean and belittle. I wish the people could see the real facts - and our country is doing GREAT!' Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has suggested lie detector tests for senior aides in just one of the aggressive options to try to identify the author from within his own administration who charged Trump with holding 'off the rails' meetings, filled with 'repetitive rants' that produce 'half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions.' Another tactic being floated is to force aides to sign sworn affidavits stating that they weren't behind the leaks. FBI Director Chris Wray is the latest top official to deny being behind the devastating op-ed, after Vice President Mike Pence and a raft of cabinet secretaries and senior aides said they didn't do it. Top aides have already been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, so it is unclear what additional weight an affidavit might carry. An outside advisor said the White House has winnowed down the list of suspects to just a dozen, the New York Times reported. Trump tweeted Friday that Bob Woodward's book is a 'scam,' after saying an anonymous op-ed might be 'treason' Trump's rebuttal of the Woodward book about the way he comes off in direct quotes cuts to the storied author's unique methods. In the book's forward, Woodward notes that he has done hundreds of hours of interviews, conducted on 'deep background.' Woodward writes in the forward to the book, which was obtained by DailyMail.com: 'When I have attributed exact quotations, thoughts or conclusions to the participants, that information comes from the person, a colleague with direct knowledge, or from meeting notes, personal diaries, files and government or personal documents.' The book contains numerous eye-catching quotes from the president in private settings that show him in a different light from those who know his verbiage from public events. For example, Trump unleashes a slew of expletives when Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon ask him to cut a $50 million check to his campaign in one scene in the book. 'No way,' Trump responded. 'F*** that. I'm not doing it 'Where the f***'s the money? Where's all this money from these [donor] guys? Jared, you're supposed to be raising all this money. Not going to do it.' In a post-election scene in the book, Trump bashes a South Korea trade deal but uses its technical acronym in a way that would be unfamiliar at any Trump rally. 'I'm tired of these arguments!' Trump is quoted as saying at a meeting. 'I don't want to hear about it anymore. We're getting out of KORUS.' Trump said Thursday that an anonymous op-ed slamming him in The New York Times was an act of treason, asserting something he has only written with a question mark to date. 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said The title used by the Times op-ed page, 'a senior official in the Trump administration,' could refer to hundreds of people. 'The Times should never have done that because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason. You could call it a lot of things,' the president said in Billings, Montana. Trump was being interviewed by Fox News Channel co-host Pete Hegseth in one corner of the Rimrock Auto Arena, with a live audience of more than 10,000 people. In his speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation. 'Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she,' he finally declared. Trump repeated a challenge he had already issued to the Times on Twitter, demanding the paper's nameless author's head on a platter. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup. 'And it's really bad and it's really dangerous,' he said. 'And it's really sad for the media.' Scroll down for video Trump extends his hand to Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale during his 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana Trump's stemwinder was met with unanimous cheers. No protesters raised their voices. During his pre-show interview with Fox, he speculated about who might have written the piece, focusing on people working 'at a fairly low level' who may want to give the public a false picture of what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 'I don't mind when they write a book and they make lies, because it gets discredited,' he said. 'We just discredited the last one.' But he admitted that he 'can't discredit' the Times turncoat 'because you don't know who they are.' The culprit could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time.' The president had suggested ahalf-hour earlier that he would put muscle behind efforts to identify the official who broke ranks to claim in the Times that a 'resistance' of aides is trying to subvert the president's worst instincts for the good of the country. DailyMail.com asked him on the tarmac in Billings how he planned to uncover the disloyal official's identity. 'We're going to try!' he yelled, over the noise of an idling Air Force One. As Air Force One was on approach for landing, Trump flexed his Twitter muscle in the Times' direction, while one of the paper's star photographers was sitting on the plane. 'Are the investigative 'journalists' of the New York Times going to investigate themselves - who is the anonymous letter writer?' he wrote. President Trump flew to Billings, Montana on Thursday for a rally but found time beforehand to tell a TV interviewer that an anonymous, disloyal aide had committed an act of treason by trashing him in a New York Times essay Trump greets the crowd as he arrives for a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana Trump's assertion about 'treason' marks the first time he's used that word about the Times op-ed without a question mark A supporter of the US president wears a t-shirt reading 'CNN sucks' during the rally in Billings, Montana Trump supporters wave placards at the rally in Montana. Trump suggested the culprit behind the op-ed could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time' More than 10,000 people crowded into an arena in a Montana city of 110,000 Trump mocked the New York Times in a tweet as he was landing in Billings (pictured above) ahead of a rally Trump seemed content for most of the day while watching the drama of a Washington-wide molehunt play out on television and Twitter, and appreciatively consuming reports of Cabinet members denying any involvement in the journalistic bombshell. A White House official said in the afternoon that the president would 'probably go there in Montana' anticipating a stem-winder about the op-ed. But the official wouldn't predict Trump's willingness to field direct questions from the press about who was and wasn't under suspicion. Trump boarded Marine One on the South Lawn without approaching a waiting gaggle of reporters. At Joint Base Andrews, he strode methodically up the Air Force One stairway, never coming near a traveling press corps that shouted questions about how he would unmask his deep-state Judas. And despite a nearly four-hour flight to the upper plains, he didn't stray to the aft press cabin to talk: He was saving his rhetorical bullets for Fox News. Trump's aides had televisions in the press cabin of Air Force One tuned to Fox News during the four-hour flight, while the network was totaling the senior officials who denied being behind the op-ed Practically Trump's entire cabinet including these famous faces and the first lady have all declared they're not responsible for the mysterious op-ed Non-Fox reporters were treated to a nonstop Fox feed on TV screens while the network was reporting on an ever-lengthening list of Cabinet officials and other Trump A-listers who denied having anything to do with the Times essay. At one point Fox filled its screen with a grid of 32 faces including Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis. First lady Melania Trump said in a statement: 'To the writer of the oped - you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.' Another White House official said Thursday that West Wing aides couldn't wait for the president to leave town, knowing it would 'lower the building's blood pressure and give him a reboot' in an atmosphere where he excels. Trump held his Montana rally in support of U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Jon Tester. He blames Tester for scuttling his White House physician's nomination to serve as Veterans Affairs secretary. Dr. Ronny Jackson, a respected Navy admiral, was forced to withdraw following Tester's accusations that he oversaw a 'toxic' work environment, drank on the job and overprescribed medication. The president, who insisted none of it was true, pledged that Tester would ultimately have a 'big price to pay in Montana.' Tester, he said Thursday, 'will never 'drain the swamp' because he happens to live in the swamp.' 'Jon Tester talks like he's from Montana, but he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi,' he said, lumping the Democrat in with one of the nation's most liberal lamakers. Trump needed the rally to publicly shake his Etch-a-Sketch following a week of revelations that hit his team like a series of kidney punches. Trump's senior aides have all scrambled to disown the op-ed that appeared in the Times on Wednesday that slammed the President's leadership style as impetuous, petty and ineffective First came excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book 'Fear,' which paints the president as an ill-prepared and crude leader whose lack of impulse control drove senior aides to protect him from himself. In one vignette, Woodward describes then-chief economic adviser Gary Cohn literally swiping a draft memo from the Resolute Desk to derail Trump's goal of ending a crucial Korean trade agreement. Scuttling the longstanding deal would have introduced uncertainty into Washington's relationship with Seoul and could have jeopardized America's use of South Korean real estate for an ambitious missile-detection program. Internal fallout from the Cohn affair inside the West Wing had barely softened from panic to mere shock when The New York Times twisted the knife. The publication of Wednesday's unsigned op-ed, which the Times claims was penned by a 'senior' administration official, struck a variation on the same theme. Its central claim is that a winking, nudging cabal of aides considers its primary mission to save the republic from Trump's ham-fisted ways. 'Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,' according to the still-unidentified writer. Do the papers ever call Communists or socialists far left? Do the papers ever call Communists or socialists far left? Brazil 's far-right presidential candidate has survived life-saving surgery after being stabbed by a 'socialist' attacker who said he was acting on 'a mission from God' during a rally. Shocking footage showed the moment election hopeful Jair Bolsonaro was knifed in the stomach in the midst of a crowd in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, south east Brazil. The 63-year-old has since been transferred to intensive care after undergoing a procedure for serious internal injuries and is now stable and out of 'acute and immediate danger'. A 40-year-old suspect, identified by police as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, has been arrested over the attack with police saying he appeared to be mentally disturbed and had claimed he was 'on a mission from God'. Oliveira was said to be a member of the left-leaning PSOL party from 2007 to 2014. On his Facebook page, the attacker recently posted messages criticizing Bolsonaro and supporting the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Footage shows moment Brazilian politician is stabbed by thug Loaded : 0% Progress : 0% 0:08 Previous Play Skip Unmute Current Time 0:08 / Duration Time 0:24 Fullscreen Need Text SHARE THIS MORE VIDEOS Sister pulls off amazing 'invisible' prank on her poor West Midlands Safari workers intercept as female lions att Shocking video shows a football fan kick a homeless Tomohon market workers in Indonesia kill dogs and cats +20 Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is taken on the shoulders of a supporter moments before being stabbed during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil +20 Jair Bolsonaro reacts after being stabbed during the rally. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed that his attacker had been arrested +20 Bolsonaro is reported to have underwent laparoscopic surgery after being stabbed at a campaign rally according to his advisers +20 Adelio Bispo de Oliveira (pictured) is suspected of stabbing Jair Boslanaro while he was campaigning in Brazil +20 This photo released by the Military Police, shows the knife supposedly used by Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate The split-second assault happened as the politcian was being carried shoulder high by supporters in the midst of a crowd during the afternoon event. Horrifying footage from several mobile phones caught the moment a man plunged a knife into his belly. He was seen clutching his stomach and grimacing in agony before collapsing backwards. He was rushed through the crowds and whisked by car to Santa Casa de Misericordia de Juiz de Fora hospital where doctors performed emergency surgery. Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro, initially posted on Twitter that the injury was superficial and his father was fine. However, an hour later he posted another tweet saying the wound was 'worse than we thought.' He arrived at the hospital 'almost dead,' Flavio wrote. 'His condition now seems stabilised. Please pray.' The attack on Bolsonaro, is a twist in what was already Brazil's most unpredictable election since the country's return to democracy three decades ago. Corruption investigations have jailed scores of businessmen and politicians in recent years, and alienated voters. There was fear of violence flaring across Brazil on Friday, as the nation celebrates Independence Day with political groups likely to march in hundreds of cities. Bolsonaro's rival candidates called off campaign activities for Friday. Under Brazil's campaign laws, Bolsonaro's tiny coalition has almost no campaign time on government-regulated candidate ad blocs on TV and radio. That means Bolsonaro relies on social media and rallies around the country to drum up support. As such, not being able to go out in the streets could impact his campaign. +20 Jair Bolsonaro is being carried by the crowd while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, south east Brazil +20 He can suddenly be seen grasping his stomach and wincing in pain and the crowd carries him on +20 The crowd react and carry the wounded politician to safety. He is currently undergoing critical surgery Flavio Bolsonaro said early Friday outside the hospital where his father was treated that he was conscious and the attack was a political boost. 'I just want to send a message to the thugs who tried to ruin the life of a family man, a guy who is the hope for millions of Brazilians: You just elected him president. He will win in the first round,' said Flavio Bolsonaro. In a statement Federal Police said: '[Bolsonaro] was (being) escorted by federal police when he was struck by a knife during a public act in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. A suspect was arrested in the act and taken to the police station. A police investigation was established to ascertain the circumstances of the incident.' Speaking to local media, Pedro Augusto Lima Possa, the suspect's lawyer said: 'Adelio confessed and claimed responsibility for the attack. But he said he had not intended to kill (Bolsonaro).' Stabbing could reshape election contest The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. Far-right congressman Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied. After a knife-wielding man stabbed the candidate in the abdomen during a campaign event Thursday, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the attack supports Bolsonaro's assertions that the country is off the rails or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. +20 Far-right congressman Bolsonaro (centre, at a rally earlier this week), a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazil's political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this would be a change election. But no true outsider has emerged. Instead, Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. The public's anger is partially responsible for making this year's campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. The man leading polls, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the October 7 presidential ballot. +20 The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. His son Flavio is pictured today outside the hospital treating the firebrand politician In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. 'They made Bolsonaro a martyr,' said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. 'I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro.' But it is unknown when he can get out again on the campaign trail and if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. There were signs of the deep divide in Brazil at the vigil, when Bolsonaro's supporters briefly exchanged insults with some detractors who showed up. Meanwhile, on Twitter many decried the stabbing and asked for prayers for Bolsonaro, but others suggested the candidate might have brought the attack upon himself or even staged it. +20 Brazilian medical doctor Eunice Dantas, director of the Santa Casa Hospital, speaks to the press about Brazil's right-wing presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro's health today This is not the first time in recent months that violence has touched politicians. In March, while da Silva was on a campaign tour in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, gunshots hit buses in his caravan. No one was hurt. Also that month, Marielle Franco, a black councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death in March along with her driver after attending an event. While Bolsonaro has a strong following, he is a deeply divisive figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays. He speaks nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His vice presidential running mate is a retired general. 'It's likely that Bolsonaro will use the attack to argue his opponents are desperate, that they had no other way to stop him,' said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro's state university The unmarried man, who has a teacher's degree, is believed to be currently unemployed but has been working as a waiter and is apparently estranged from his family. According to Possa, the attacked was motivated by religious and political reasons. 'He told me that there were religious and political motivations and that he hated the prejudice that the Bolsonaro openly spoke about and held against different races, religion and women,' the suspect's lawyer said. Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, a member of the hospital's general surgery team who performed the critical operation on the victim said Bolsonaro suffered a 'blunt abdominal trauma and was admitted to the hospital with signs of shock.' 'Surgery was performed as a matter of urgency and a massive internal haemorrhage was diagnosed and controlled,' said Dr Borsato at a press briefing last night. He explained that the former army captain had suffered injuries to several organs and had lost between 2 to 2.5 litres of blood. 'The damage was very serious. (He suffered) three perforations to the small intestine and a severe lesion in the large intestine. There was faecal contamination inside the abdominal cavity,' the surgeon revealed. 'During surgery the small intestine was connected to a temporary colostomy pouch which was placed on the inner wall of the intestine. It will stop waste matter from passing through the large intestine and prevent the site from being infected,' he continued. +20 Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, arrives at the Santa Casa hospital where her husband is hospitalised +20 Jair Bolsonaro's son Flavio Bolsonaro is pictured outside Santa Casa hospital today +20 People light candles in support of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, of the National Social Liberal Party +20 A man covers his face with his hands as he stands outside the hospital where Bolsonaro is being treated Initially the politician's son, Flavio, said the injury was superficial, but ultrasound and CT scans showed trauma in the organs and bleeding from the superior mesenteric artery, a major blood vessel in the digestive system. Borsato dismissed earlier reports of injuries to the candidate's liver. 'There was bleeding from an abdominal artery and perforations in the large and small intestines. The injured part of the large intestine was removed, and the small intestine was sewn up,' said Borsato. 'The internal injuries were serious, and the patient's life was at risk. At the start of the surgery his condition was unstable, but we were able to bring it under control and stabilise him.' The team confirmed that Bolsonaro arrived at the unit wearing a 'yellow shirt' and was not wearing a protective vest. According to reports, Bolsonaro would normally wear body protection provided by federal police for his safety. However, on this occasion he was without the vest. The politician is expected to be hospitalised for at least l0 days and will undergo another operation in a couple months' time to remove the internal colostomy bag. 'It's too early to say if he will have long term problems,' Borsato said. +20 A group of people try to detain Adelio Bispo de Oliveira (pictured centre), who allegedly stabbed the right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro +20 Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro campaigns in the district of Ceilandia in Brasilia, yesterday Shocking moment Brazilian politician stabbed in broad daylight Progress : 0% 0:00 Previous Play Skip Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 0:19 Fullscreen Need Text Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is running on a tough law and order platform advocating looser gun controls He is a polarising figure in an unpredictable election campaign but rising violent crime, anger over repeated corruption scandals and an effective social media campaign have helped him gain support. He was second in the polls to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was the front-runner in the country's elections until he was struck from the ballot. At the end of last month, electoral court ruled that the Brazil's embattled ex-president, who is in prison on corruption charges and who served two terms between 2003 to 2011, would not be able to stand for election again. Bolsonaro is known for insulting women, openly expressing racist and homophobic views, championing dictatorship, calling for political opponents to be shot and for holding derogatory views of indigenous people and foreigners. This has earned him the title of 'the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world'. The ex-military office, who has been called the 'tropical Trump' of South America, has been a serving politician in the Chamber of Deputies since 1991. Jair Bolsonaro announces his presidential candidacy in July Progress : 0% 0:00 Previous Play Skip Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 1:36 Fullscreen Need Text +20 Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is a polarizing figure and has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements towards women and black people +20 Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (pictured left) gestures at the crowd during a campaign rally in the district of Ceilandia in Brasilia, on September 5, 2018 This is the moment Prince Harry made a little girl feel like a princess as he asked her to swear a 'pinky promise'. The caring royal met irrepressible Matilda Booth, seven, who has Spina Bifida, at the WellChild awards for seriously ill children earlier this week and won her heart as they linked little fingers, with Harry making her promise she would 'never stop smiling'. 'Never stop smiling because you have a beautiful smile,' he said, prompting the youngster from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, to beam from ear to ear. Although the moment was reported on across the globe, no one had seen it until now. The footage has been passed on by Matilda's grateful family to Mail Online. Scroll down for video Caring Prince Harry made a pinky promise with seven-year-old Matilda Booth and asked her to swear to 'never stop smiling because you have a beautiful smile' at the WellChild awards Matilda's family say she will 'always remember the pinky promise she made with Prince Harry and when she is feeling poorly or in hospital she will always remember to carry on smiling' They say she has vowed she will 'always remember the pinky promise she made with Prince Harry and when she is feeling poorly or in hospital she will always remember to carry on smiling'. Matilda, who was accompanied by her mother, Sharon, also got to meet Harry's wife, the Duchess of Sussex. The youngster presented her with a posy of white roses - the emblem of Yorkshire - but Meghan, 37, plucked one out, gave it back to her and told her to keep it in her 'memory box'. Harry, 33, cheekily interjected and asked if the flowers were for him. Photographs taken of the day as well as an article about their meeting, published in the Daily Mail, are also going in Matilda's special collection. Mrs Booth told Mail Online: 'Matilda has loved seeing her photos all over the papers and online.... she thinks she is famous! 'We have started writing a letter to the couple to say thank you. Matilda is dictating it and I am writing it as my daughter cannot write. She has referred to Prince Harry and Meghan as her "New Royal friends" and says she is sad she will never see them again but will always remember the pinky promise she made with Prince Harry and when she is feeling poorly or in hospital she will always remember to carry on smiling. 'She makes me laugh as she now wants to meet the Queen and her dogs!' The annual WellChild awards took place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, and celebrated the unbelievable bravery of the nation's most seriously ill children and the carers who selflessly look after them. Matilda's mother Sharon Booth said they are writing a thank you letter to the couple, that she now calls her 'New Royal Friends' and the seven-year-old would like to meet the Queen The youngster presented her with a posy of white roses - the emblem of Yorkshire - but Meghan, 37, plucked one out, gave it back to her and told her to keep it in her 'memory box' It was the first time that Meghan, 37, wearing what is fast becoming her trademark black trouser suit, has attended the event. She admitted that she wouldn't be able to hold back her tears. Her husband Harry has been patron of the WellChild charity since 2007. Matilda, who was chosen as the country's most inspirational girl in the age 4-6 category, spent her early years in hospital and has had more than 40 operations, including brain surgery seven times. Despite this, the beautiful little girl with the big smile - who says she wants to be a nurse when she is older - has a huge zest for life and impresses all she meets with her courage, strength and determination. Mrs Booth said of the royal couple: 'They were just so lovely. It was very exciting. Matilda had watched the royal wedding and was very nervous about meeting them but they completely put us at ease. 'They got down to Matilda's level and she gave Meghan a posy. But she took one out and handed it back to Matilda and told her to keep it in her memory box. She made her feel so special. Prince Harry, patron of the charity WellChild since 2007 and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex talk with seven year old Matilda Booth at the annual awards 'Prince Harry also told her she had such a lovely smile. They also wanted to meet Simon, her toy dog, who is named after Simon Cowell. She is inseparable from him.' Matilda was still clutching her rose and toy afterwards - with a beam that went from ear to ear. Harry also asked Mrs Booth if she would get emotional during the evening. When she said she would, the Duchess reassured her: 'By the way, me too. I won't be able to hold back.' WellChild is a national charity for seriously ill children, funding nurses, home makeover projects and family support service to enable to them live at home with their families outside of the hospital environment. To support the charity's valuable work see their website. Spina Bifida occurs when a baby's spine and spinal cord fail to develop properly in the womb, causing a gap in the spine. It can result in weakness or total paralysis of the legs, bowel issues and hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid on the brain. This is the terrifying moment 52 desperate migrants struggle to escape a dinghy as it sinks in the middle of the sea. Spanish authorities rescued the asylum seekers as they tried to reach Europe from Morocco. Dramatic footage showed the migrants leaping from the side of their sinking dinghy onto a rescue boat as they tried to scramble to safety. Migrants scramble on top of one another as they try to escape their sinking dinghy off the Spanish coast The asylum seekers, who'd made their way from Morocco, jumped from the side of their boat onto a rescue raft Some of them crashed into the water, while others failed to cling on and slipped over the edge as they made the jump onto the yellow raft. They were pulled to safety in the Alboran Sea off Spain's southern coast by the Maritime Safety and Rescue Society (Sasemar) who sent a rescue boat and helicopter. According to Sasemar, all the African immigrants they found at sea were rescued but four people died after setting off from Morocco. Prior to the rescue, Sasemar workers rescued a dinghy in a similar situation with 51 migrants on board, including five dead people. The vessel was spotted by a Sasemar aircraft and rafts were lowered to them so that they could wait safely for a rescue boat to arrive. The 51 asylum seekers are taken to the Port of Motril in Andalusia. From January until July this year, 318 migrants have died at sea trying to reach Spain From January until July this year, 318 migrants have died at sea trying to reach the Spanish coast. This number is three times more than recorded numbers for the same period in 2017. Reports said that 1,500 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea in total this year. A Chinese university's dining hall is making students work extra hard to earn the privilege of free Wi-Fi. Students at the elite Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Jiangsu province, known colloquially as Nanhang, are asked to solve a complex calculus question before they could access the protected network. The seemingly ridiculous-looking math question was printed on a laminated sign next to the menus listing the various food items at the Xinyuan Ethnic Restaurant on campus. 'Wi-Fi password is the first eight digits of the math problem below,' the sign indicated in Chinese. Students at the elite Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics are asked to solve a complex calculus question before they could access the protected network. 'Wi-Fi password is the first eight digits of the math problem below,' the sign indicated in Chinese The seemingly ridiculous-looking math question was printed on a laminated sign next to the menus listing the various food items at the Xinyuan Ethnic Restaurant on the school campus Ji jun, deputy director of the university's food administration department, told Beijing News that it is a basic question in further maths. 'If a student can't solve it, he/she should really study harder,' she said. 'Don't use the Internet!' The school decided to come up with the question to let pupils have fun with mathematics and to remind first-year students to study hard, she added. One student told reporters that if a a person has practiced enough, you should be able to solve the equation in 30 seconds. Can you solve the question in 30 seconds? The answer is actually a familiar number to many Since posted, Chinese social media was set ablaze by the math question, with many net users speculating what the answer might be. Others gave up immediately: 'I don't deserve to use the Wi-Fi... I'll go study instead,' one commented. Some posted images of their answers online, completed with steps showing their work. The answer - which is a familiar number to many - is actually 31415926, or pi. Advertisement These images are some of the world's most beautiful libraries, captured by a photographer who travelled the globe to see the stunning architecture. Massimo Listri's 30-year pursuit of the word's most exquisite sites has taken him to the likes of medieval chambers and vast 19th-century libraries, clad in rich mahogany which light up the room as well as solid marble pillared galleries. Others feature grand statues, globes, sprawling mezzanines, ornate chandeliers and golden ceiling installations with thousands of books lined by gilt-edged pillars. The photographer, from Florence, Italy, said everything about these grand venues attracts him - from the simple smell of dust, leather and wood to the pleasure of opening an aged book. Massimo's travels have taken him to the likes of Trinity College, Dublin, home of the Book of Kells, the oldest library in Naples, a monastery in Austria and sprawling research facilities housed across Europe. Other venues have played host to the likes of baroque halls and even bats, which protect the books from becoming damaged by insects. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana - The Vatican Library - in Rome, Italy, has around 1.1 million printed books and was built by Pope Nicholas V in 1450 to lure pilgrims and scholars to the city Nicolas wanted the create a public library for all scholars and it was meant to be seen as an institution for humanist scholarship Nicholas' death prevented him from carrying out his vision, but his idea lived on through his successor, Pope Sixtus IV, who lived from 1471 to 1484, who established what is now known as the Vatican Library Photographer Massimo Listri, from Florence, Italy, said that everything about these grand venues attracts him - from the simple smell of dust, leather and wood, to the pleasure of opening an aged book The Vatican Library is a research library for history, law, philosophy, science and theology and is open to any member of the public who can document their qualifications and research needs The Vatican Secret Archives, that contain another 150,000 items, were separated from the library at the beginning of the 17th century and contains another 150,000 items The library has striking colourful pillars and detailed representations of important moments in Vatican history Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the institution was founded in 1837 by a group of 43 Portuguese immigrants and political refugees to promote culture among the Portuguese community in the city The building, designed by the Portuguese architect Rafael da Silva e Castro, was erected between 1880 and 1887 in the Neo-Manueline style with thick dark wooden bookcases The library is full of Gothic-Renaissance features from the time of the Portuguese Discoveries - the territorial and maritime discoveries during the 15th and 16th centuries The ceiling of the Reading Room has a beautiful chandelier and a skylight in iron structure, the first example of this type of architecture in Brazil as well as a beautiful monument of silver, ivory and marble Biblioteca Comunale, Fermo, Italy, dates from 1758 and features a large globe as the centrepiece and a balcony containing a collection of inscriptions and antiquities Photographer Massimo Listri said: 'Libraries are different than all the other architectural interiors because they contain the books' El Escorial Library, Madrid, Spain, was founded in 1565 and is an UNESCO World Heritage site. It is one of the Spanish royal sites, functioning as a monastery, basilica, royal palace, pantheon, library, museum, university, school and hospital The library sits in the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial which is the historical residence of the King of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, around 28 miles (45km) northwest of Madrid In November 1984, the site the library sits, the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo of El Escorial, was declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site The library is a popular tourist attraction, often visited by day-trippers from Madrid with more than 500,000 visitors come to El Escorial every year Wiblingen Abbey Library in Germany was founded in 1093 by count Hartmann and Otto von Kirchberg who acquired the abbey fore their role in the First Crusade in 1099 A former Benedictine abbey, it was later used as barracks and now houses several departments of the medical faculty of the University of Ulm In 1806 Bavarian troops left after occupying the abbey and auctioned off all the remaining furniture. The South Wing was rebuilt in 1917 and is now retirement homes Codrington Library is part of All Souls College - a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Nicholas Hawksmoor begun designing the library in 1716 and contains some 185,000 books and manuscripts Unusually for an Oxford college library, access to the Codrington is open to all members of the university and contains a significant collection of manuscripts and early printed books, and attracts scholars from around the world Biblioteca do Convento de Mafra, in Mafra near Lisbon, Portugal. Construction began in 1717 and after being finished in 1755, it was eventually classified as a National Monument in 1910 This vast complex is among the best examples of Baroque buildings in Portugal and is nearly nine acres in size (40,000 metres), making it one of the largest royal palaces in the country The palace, which also served as a Franciscan monastery, was built during the reign of King John V of Portugal, who lived from 17071750, after he vowed to build a convent if his wife, Queen Mariana, gave him a child The former monastery near Lisbon has many Gothic features and has a balcony with a high arched ceiling Saint Emmerams Abbey in Germany, was a Benedictine monastery founded in around 739 in Regensburg, Bavaria. Massimo Listri added: 'For me they are the most beautiful environments in the world, where, in addition to being an object of beauty at a glance, there is the substance of knowledge' Biblioteca Statale Oratoriana dei Girolamini in Naples, which is the oldest library in the Italian city and has been open to the public since 1566. It is the second oldest in Italy after the Malatestiana in Cesena A press conference for the opening of the ancient library of the Girolamini to the students of the High School of History and Philology in May last year Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dario Franceschini during a press conference at the press conference to open the ancient library Church of Girolamini interior features many ornate details on the intricate ceiling and gilded pillars. Mr Listri said, 'I would like to live in a library' Seitenstetten Abbey Library in Austria, on the site of a monastery was founded in 1112. Massimo Listri added: 'I have photographed architecture since I was 18 and I am a bibliophile. These two things together led me to make the book on libraries' Stiftsbibliothek Kremsmunster library in Kremsmunster, Austria, was founded in 777 by Tassilo III, the Duke of Bavaria, reportedly on the site where his son, Gunther, had been attacked and killed by a wild boar during a hunting trip. The monastery library was built between 1680 and 1689 and contains around 160,000 volumes Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve is a public and university library in Paris, France, which inherited the collection of the Abbey of St Genevieve. The library contains around 2 million documents and was the inspiration for the Boston Public Library The library was built under the direction of architect Henri Labrouste and construction started in 1843. The building was finished in December 1850 and opened to the public on February 4 1851 During a period of decline in the 17th century, the library was dispersed and its contents sold, sometimes for the value of just their paper alone. In the next century, efforts were made to rebuild the library by buy back what books remained on the market The exterior of the Parisian library, in the city's Latin quarter, is plain compared to the interior's detail in the ironwork and masonry, which is due to architect's studies of Roman architecture General Archive of the Indies, Sevilla, Spain, houses valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and the Philippines and has been an UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987 The interior of the General Archive of the Indies in Sevilla. A large vaulted ceiling over a room which acted as trade buildings and a mercantile exchange A staircase in the General Archives of the Indies, Seville, which was made the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987 Advertisement A new glass-bottomed suspension bridge in east China is giving thrill-seekers a heart-stopping day out. The 228 meter (748 foot) -long crossing in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province dangles visitors 600 feet above a valley floor - equivalent to about 60 storeys - and has just opened to the public this month. Constructed with 56 super-strong glass panes, the vertigo-inducing glass-bottomed bridge at the Taihuyuan scenic area is able to support the weight of 700 people simultaneously. The 228 meter (748 foot) -long crossing in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province dangles visitors 600 feet above a valley floor Since its launch in September, tourists across the country have been flocking to visit the bridge for the thrilling experience Tourists pose for photos on the 60-storey-high glass-bottomed suspension bridge at the Taihuyuan scenic area To add to the terrifying experience, the see-through bridge that is 2.8 metres (nine feet) wide also features a cracking effect to scare visitors. The project started last November and was completed in June, adding to the beautiful landscape of Hangzhou, a top tourist destination in China. Since its launch, tourists have been flocking to visit the bridge, according to Zhejiang Online. Video footage of the adrenaline-packed expedition shows tourists hovering carefully over the glass panes while desperately grasping onto the rails. Others are seen enjoying the panoramic views of the trees and canyon while taking selfies. 'It seems pretty shaky to me!' one man told reporters while holding onto the barrier with both hands. Constructed with super-strong glass panes, the glass-bottomed bridge can support the weight of 700 people simultaneously The see-through crossing that is 2.8 metres (nine feet) wide also features a cracking effect to scare visitors The project started last November and was completed in June, adding to the beautiful landscape of Hangzhou city Eric Newman, 53 (pictured) was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the January 19 death of Tamara Loraine Tucker, 50 A Kansas man has been charged in federal court with killing a woman while they were aboard a cruise ship from Florida to the Bahamas in January. Eric Newman was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the January 19 death of Tamara Loraine Tucker, the Department of Justice announced in a statement released on Thursday. Newman and Tucker were long-time lovers, according to her obituary. 'I miss u more than u will ever know I hope some day soon we can be reunited. Love always and forever,' Newman, 53, wrote in a Facebook remembrance group in honor of Tucker, on April 7. Tucker died two days after her 50th birthday. The indictment alleges the Topeka, Kansas man and Tucker, of Lawson, Missouri, were aboard the Carnival Elation, a vessel registered in Panama, when Tucker died. Newman (left) is accused of Tucker's killing, but prosecutors did not released further details about the incident related to her alleged murder 'I miss u more than u will ever know I hope some day soon we can be reunited. Love always and forever,' Newman, 53, wrote in a Facebook remembrance group in honor of Tucker, on April 7 Newman is accused of her killing, but prosecutors did not released further details about the incident related to her alleged murder. Carnival Cruise Line, which operated the ship on which Tucker died, said a woman 'fell from her balcony to several decks below' while aboard the Elation on January 19, in a previously released statement. The Carnival Cruise Line cruise ship departed and arrived from Jacksonville, Florida, with a scheduled stop in the Bahamas. The cruise began on January 18 in Jacksonville, Florida and was scheduled to last for four days The couple shared many photos on social media, appearing to be very much in love Carnival Cruise Line, which operated the Carnival Elation cruise ship on which Tucker died, previously said a woman 'fell from her balcony to several decks below' on January 19; A stock image of the ship is shown here The cruise began on January 18 and was scheduled to last for four days. Tucker's obituary described Newman as her 'partner and long-time love.' A photo of the couple posted by Tucker on November 1 prompted an eerily premonitional comment from someone who appears to have been a mutual friend of Tucker and Newman. Tucker's obituary, published in January, described Newman as her 'partner and long-time love' A photo of the couple posted by Tucker on November 1 prompted an eerily premonitional comment from someone who appears to have been a mutual friend of Tucker and Newman Tucker began work at Park University in 2007 'That man better be treating you right! Or u could visit me in the islands lol,' a Facebook user identified as Andre Jones wrote on December 16. Tucker replied only with a photo a tropical setting. Tucker was a full-time faculty member in the social work department at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, from 2012 to 2017. She was an adjunct instructor before that, beginning in 2007, the Kansas City Star reported. Newman's first court appearance in the case was on Thursday, which is the same day that the indictment against him was unsealed by a judge. Newman appeared before the Honorable Ross A. Walters, US Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. His detention hearing is scheduled for September 12. Prisoners have sparked a massive riot in the latest targeted-attack on child killer Brett Cowan using boiling hot jam, a toasted sandwich maker and sharpened broomsticks. Inmates plotted to hurl the heated up condiments and house-hold items at the convicted murderer of Sunshine Coast boy Daniel Morcombe. Cowan was in the exercise yard of a jail block when the riot kicked off at the Wolston jail in Brisbane, according to the Courier Mail. Child killer Brett Cowan (pictrued) is the target of the latest prison attack The latest riot has been described as the worst in the prison's history by officers. 'He was in the exercise yard when they started going off, they all went outside. 'It was a diversion. They didn't get to him,' one prison officer told the paper. He was found guilty for the 2003 murder of Sunshine Coast boy Daniel Morcombe (pictured) Cowan is now in a protection unit at the Wolston Correctional Centre Cowan is now in a protection unit at the Wolston Correctional Centre which is filled with murderers and sex offenders. He is serving a life-sentence for the abduction and murder of the Queensland schoolboy in 2003. Since his arrest, he has been a target of multiple attacks at the Queensland prison. He is serving a life-sentence for the abduction and murder of the Queensland schoolboy in 2003 The loathed paedophile had a bucket of boiling hot water tipped over him by a fellow inmate in 2016. 'I did it boss,' Adam Paul Davidson told a prison officer immediately after the attack. 'Only me, no one else was involved. He had it coming. He is a f***ing grub.' Davidson told police at the time he had planned the attack for a month and 'didn't want to kill him or nothing.... I just wanted to hurt him ... just wanted him to feel the pain'. The loathed paedophile had a bucket of boiling hot water tipped over him by a fellow inmate in 2016 At the time, Cowan was left with his skin peeling from his scalded face, blistered chest and bulging prison gut after being attacked At the time, Cowan was left with his skin peeling from his scalded face, blistered chest and bulging prison gut after being attacked. Cowan screamed in pain and pleaded 'why, why, why?' after Davidson poured boiling water over his head at Wolston Correctional Centre, south-west of Brisbane. Pictures of Cowan's injuries seen by Daily Mail Australia showed burnt skin falling off his face, right shoulder, right arm and stomach. Pictures of Cowan's injuries seen by Daily Mail Australia showed burnt skin falling off his face, right shoulder, right arm and stomach (artist representation) Davidson then quietly approached Cowan from behind with the bucket and tipped the boiling water over Cowan's head and body A court heard Davidson - in custody for robbery and fraud offences at the time - watched Cowan's movements for a month and plotted the best way to harm the despised sex offender. Cowan was playing cards with other inmates in a prison common area about 9.15am in August 2016. During a break in the game Cowan went briefly to an exercise yard where he saw Davidson standing outside the laundry door next to a hot water urn, filling a yellow mop bucket. When Cowan returned to the card game Davidson asked another inmate to move the prisoners sitting near his target. A court heard Adam Paul Davidson - in custody for robbery and fraud offences at the time - watched Cowan's movements for a month and plotted the best way to harm the despised sex offender Davidson then quietly approached Cowan from behind with the bucket and tipped the boiling water over Cowan's head and body. Cowan immediately felt extreme pain coming over the top of his head and down his right side. He began screaming and stood up. His attacker stood facing him, holding the bucket in his hands. After the attack Cowan sent to his cell for a cold shower, and Davidson ordered to the kitchen, while all other inmates were sent to the exercise yard. Detectives from the Corrective Services investigation unit arrived at the prison. Anti-racism demonstrators clashed with supporters of conservative UK politician Nigel Farage in Melbourne on Friday night. More than 200 protesters gathered outside the Sofitel Hotel to protest the presence the right-wing figurehead, who was one of the driving forces behind Brexit. The controversial politician turned media commentator was at the venue to present the last speech of his Australian tour. Police made five arrests as protesters clashed with Farage supporters as they arrived at the hotel. A large crowd gathered outside a Melbourne hotel in protest of the appearance of UK politician Nigel Farage Protesters clashed with Nigel Farage supporters with police forced to intervene a number of times Far-right activist Neil Erikson was arrested by police while trying to enter the event. 'Was just arrested at Farage event in Melbourne. Just got released from lock up,' Mr Erikson later posted on Facebook, along with a photo of his arrest. There were other aggressive confrontations between protesters and supporters with police forced to intervene several times. It was also a chance for police to use its new powers to search anyone without a warrant in the CBD bounded by Spring, Bourke, Flinders and Russell streets. The crowd of protesters were organised by the Coalition Against Racism and Fascism (CARF). 'We will have chant sheets, placards, you bring yourselves, your friends and your hatred of this fascist filth. It's going to be an amazing evening,' the group posted on Facebook on Friday. Nigel Farage during a talk at Perth Town Hall earlier in the week This female supporter needed to be escorted by police into the venue Up to 100 officers surrounded the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne on Friday night Andrew Nolch, the man charged with defacing the Eurydice Dixon memorial after the young woman's recent rape and murder, was one of those entering the event. A post on CARF's Facebook page said that Nolch's attendance 'revealed the true nature of Farage's movement.' 'Nigel Farage you can't hide, we can see your Nazi side' and 'Nazis are racist, Muslims are not' were among the chants yelled. A protest organiser told the crowd (pictured) the protest has succeeded in reducing the attendance at the event Police said promoters of the Nigel Farage event will be foot the bill for the increased security A Victoria Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that five arrests were made at the event. Two people were arrested in relation to outstanding matters, one for criminal damage, another for riot behaviour while the final person was arrested for covering their face and assaulting police. At least a hundred police officers were at the event and formed a four-officer deep barricade at the Sofitel entrance. A protest organiser told the crowd the event has succeeded in reducing the attendance at the event. Five arrests were made outside the Sofitel Hotel on Friday night 'Nigel Farage you can't hide we can see your Nazi side' and 'Nazis are racist, Muslims are not' were among the chants yelled Penthouse Magazine publisher and event promoter Damien Costas told The Age he'd had worked with police in the months leading up to Friday night's event. He also dismissed claims he would be footing the bill for security. 'I don't expect them [police] to charge me at all, we've discussed no fees whatsoever and I would actually think that it's an international disgrace on Victoria if police were to charge a member of the European Parliament for protection,' he told the publication. Police arrested five people on Friday night for various offences But a Victoria Police spokesman told The Herald Sun that event promoters will foot the bill. 'As per the Victoria Police (fees and charges) Regulations 2014, Victoria Police has the right to charge any event organiser for the use of police resources,' he said. 'Victoria Police does not disclose the cost of engaging our services, or the private discussions held as part of the arrangements.' Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has said America's 'illegal interference' in Syria must end as he met his Russian and Turkish counterparts today. Rouhani hit out at the 'illegal presence' of the US in Syria as he held talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Iran's capital, Tehran. The leaders are discussing the looming military assault on the region of Idlib in northwestern Syria, the last major stronghold of active opposition to Syria President Bashar al-Assad's rule. Rouhani said: 'The illegal presence and interference of America in Syria which has led to the continuation of insecurity in that country, must end quickly. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (centre) has said America's 'illegal interference' in Syria must end as he met Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) today Rouhani (right) hit out at the 'illegal presence' of the US in Syria as he held talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin (centre) and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of a final decisive battle for Idlib Erdogan (centre) called for a cease-fire and an end to airstrikes in Idlib, something that wasn't immediately accepted by Putin (left) and Rouhani Smoke rises near the Syrian village of Kafr Ain in the southern countryside of Idlib province after an airstrike today He said the battle in Syria will continue until militants are pushed out of the whole country, especially in Idlib, but that any military operations should avoid harming civilians. And he added that 'we have to force the United States to leave' Syria. Rouhani did not elaborate on the comment. America has some 2,000 troops in Syria. 'The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end,' Rouhani said, while adding that terrorism must 'be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib.' 'Fighting terrorism in Idlib is an unavoidable part of the mission of restoring peace and stability to Syria,' Rouhani told the summit in Tehran. 'But this battle must not cause civilians to suffer or lead to a scorched earth policy,' he added, amid UN warnings of a humanitarian disaster if an offensive goes ahead. Putin insisted Damascus as 'the legitimate Syrian government has a right and must eventually take under control all its national territory'. He warned militants in Idlib planned 'provocations,' possibly including chemical weapons. The Syrian government has been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons in the long conflict. Iranian and Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has shored up the Damascus regime, allowing it to regain the upper hand in the seven-year civil war which has claimed some 350,000 lives since 2011. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control. It is home to some three million people - around half of them displaced from other parts of the country, according to the United Nations. On Friday morning, Russian air raids pounded rebel positions in the southwest of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Putin (left with Erdogan) warned militants in Idlib planned 'provocations,' possibly including chemical weapons. The Syrian government has been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons in the long conflict Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. Turkish leader Erdogan is pictured with Putin today Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. Hundreds of civilians have already begun to flee Idlib ahead of what could be the last - and bloodiest - major battle of the devastating conflict. Erdogan meanwhile called for a cease-fire and an end to airstrikes in Idlib, something that wasn't immediately accepted by Putin and Rouhani. Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels, fears the assault could prompt a flood of desperate Syrians towards its territory. 'We never want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath,' Erdogan told his Iranian and Russian counterparts on Friday. 'Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, massacre and a very big humanitarian tragedy,' he said, calling for a ceasefire in the province. 'If we can ensure a ceasefire here, this will be one of the most important steps of the summit,' Erdogan said. 'Idlib is of vital importance not only for Syria's future but also for our national security, as well as peace and stability in the region.' Each of the three nations has its own interests in the years-long war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (pictured today) says 'we have to force the United States to leave' Syria Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria's civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia's longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria's postwar reconstruction. For Turkey, the stakes couldn't be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. Syrian children are fitted with PAPER CUP gas masks as Assad prepares for 'bloodiest battle yet' Terrified Syrians are making improvised gas masks out of paper cups amid fears dictator Bashar al-Assad will launch chemical attacks during a push to seize the country's remaining rebel stronghold. Pictures show colourful party cups filled with cotton and charcoal being fitted to a child's face with a tightened plastic bag around his head in a village in Syria's Idlib province. The desperate tactic comes as the UN warned that a regime attack on the region of nearly three million could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria's seven-year war, displace up to 800,000 people and result in a 'bloodbath'. Terrified Syrians are making improvised gas masks out of paper cups amid fears dictator Bashar al-Assad will launch chemical attacks during a push to seize the country's remaining rebel stronghold Pictures show colourful party cups filled with cotton and charcoal being fitted to a child's face with a tightened plastic bag around his head in a village in Syria's Idlib province Assad has massed his army and allied forces on the frontlines in the northwest, and Russian planes have joined his bombardment of rebels there, in a prelude to a possible assault. A US official has warned there is 'lots of evidence' chemical weapons are being prepared by Syrian government forces in the region. Civilians in Syria's last major stronghold of active opposition to Assad's rule are preparing food and digging shelters ahead of an expected army offensive. They are also putting their faith in neighbouring Turkey's diplomacy to spare them from military action. 'We are preparing what little we can: small primitive masks we can place on our children's mouths in case we are hit with chemicals,' 20-year-old Shahad told Reuters from his village south of Idlib city, where he shares a house with his pregnant wife, three children and around 15 other people. His brother, 35-year-old construction worker Ahmed Abdulkarim al-Shahad, shows off the cavernous space under a cool, vine-covered courtyard the family has been digging and sheltering in from bombardment since 2012. 'Military preparations as we have seen are in full swing ... We as civilians have started preparing the caves,' he said, showing glass bottles of pickled vegetables shelved on the damp cave walls. Around three million people live in the rebel stronghold in northwest Syria, which comprises most of Idlib province and adjacent small parts of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces. The desperate tactic comes as the UN warned that a regime attack on the region of nearly three million could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters in Syria's seven-year war, displace up to 800,000 people and result in a 'bloodbath' Hudhayfa al-Shahad fills a paper cup with cotton and charcoal in Idlib, Syria as he makes a make-shift gas mask About half of them fled fighting or were transferred there by the government under surrender deals from other parts of Syria as Assad has steadily taken back territory from rebels. The new U.S. adviser for Syria, Jim Jeffrey, said on Thursday there was 'evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared' 'I am very sure that we have very, very good grounds to be making these warnings,' he said. 'Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation. There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared.' The White House has warned that the United States and its allies would respond 'swiftly and vigorously' if government forces used chemical weapons in the widely expected offensive. Jeffrey said an attack by Russian and Syrian forces, and the use of chemical weapons, would force huge refugee flows into southeastern Turkey or areas in Syria under Turkish control. In April last year, a Syrian government warplane dropped sarin on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, killing more than 80 civilians, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry has said. It also said Syrian forces have used chemical weapons, including chlorine, more than two dozen times during the war. Damascus and its ally Russia both deny these charges and say they do not engage in chemical warfare. Idlib residents are fearful and Washington has warned Assad against using chemical weapons in any offensive, promising a response if he does so. Russia, Assad's ally, resumed air strikes against insurgents in Idlib on Tuesday following weeks of bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the last major rebel enclave. Advertisement It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters were prepared for a battle that they expect will spark a major humanitarian crisis. 'The least the summit can do is to prevent this military war,' he said. Early on Friday, a series of airstrikes struck villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack. Turkey also doesn't want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq. Allies of Boris Johnson today rallied around the former Foreign Secretary and insisted that news he is getting a divorce will not damage his leadership chances. The Tory MP, 54, announced he and his barrister wife Marina Wheeler, 54, are divorcing after 25 years of marriage following reports he cheated on her again. His daughter Lara 25, was overheard calling her father a 'selfish b*****' and insisting her mother would now 'never take him back'. But a number of Tory MPs today insisted that they do not think his marital problems will damage his prospects of replacing Theresa May. One said he thinks the news is part of a bid to 'clear the decks' so that Mr Johnson can have a clear run at the leadership without any major skeletons in the closet. And the bookmakers Ladbrokes said odds on him being the next Tory leader were cut at news of the divorce, while one punter placed a 2,500 bet on it this morning. Boris Johnson 54, (pictured today driving in Uxbridge) announced he and his barrister wife Marina Wheeler, 54, are divorcing after 25 years of marriage following reports he cheated on her again Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told MailOnline: 'I don't think it makes any difference to his leadership chances. 'I think he is clearing the decks for a leadership run. 'I would like to see a leader of the Conservative Party who I have confidence can beat Jeremy Corbyn in a general election, and I think Boris has that charisma and appeal.' Mr Bridgen, who has sent a letter of no confidence in Mrs May to party chiefs, added: 'The Prime Minister has stuck with the Chequers proposals and I have no confidence in Chequers, therefore I have no confidence in Theresa May.' He said that Mr Johnson will be the 'star attraction' at the Tory party next month where he will address a rally of up to 1,000 people. He added: 'Boris has that star appeal that charisma.' Tory MP Nigel Evans told Sky News: 'It is a personal tragedy for both of them and I wish them both well. But it is a personal thing. Tory MPs (pictured left to right) Nadine Dorries, Andrew Bridgen and Nigel Evans all rallied around Boris Johnson as news emerged of his divorce this morning Boris Johnson (pictured with his wife Marina outside a polling station in May 2015) has a chequered love life amid reports he has had numerous affairs with other women 'We can all speculate about what happened in their personal lives, only they will really know. I wish them both well they have made this decision now and they are divorcing.' Asked if the announcement suggests Mr Johnson is not 'trustworthy', he added: 'It is 2018, we are not in the 1950s now, so things move on and people make judgements about people they are able to distinguish between personal lives and their public lives.' He said he does not think news of the divorce matters to Mr Johnson's political career. What are the odds on who will be the next Tory party leader? Here are the latest odds on who will be the next Tory party leader, according to the bookmakers Ladbrokes. Boris Johnson 7/2 Sajid Javid 6/1 Jacob Rees-Mogg 8/1 Michael Gove 8/1 Jeremy Hunt 10/1 Andrea Leadsom 12/1 Dominic Raab 14/1 David Davis 16/1 Penny Mordaunt 20/1 Ruth Davidson 20/1 Advertisement While Nadine Dorries, Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said she still backs Mr Johnson for the leadership. She told Sky News: 'We cannot continue with a Prime Minister who is non-consensual, who doesn't listen, who doesn't take on board people's concerns and acts in a presidential style. 'That is not how politics works, and I'm afraid it is the end of the road now.' She added: 'What I do know is both my party and the country needs a competent leadership, and they need a leadership that will deal with some of the many important problems that are facing us at the moment. 'That is not only Brexit - we do have a national domestic agenda, including housing and growth, which needs to be looked at. 'And I think we need somebody in Number Ten now that can take us forward in a much more positive way 'If we don't.we will be handing the keys of Number Ten to Jeremy Corbyn' She went on: 'Because the alternative is Jeremy Corbyn, we need somebody more than ever in Number Ten who has popular support from the people and Boris has that, and can win for the Conservative party.' Meanwhile, Ladbrokes announced this morning that they have slashed the odds of Mr Johnson being the next Tory leader from 4/1 to 7/2. They made the move this morning after a punter in Hampshire placed a 2,500 bet on him being the next Tory leader. Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said: 'Boris can bat off all the gaffes and scandals in the land as far as punters are concerned as they will back him big regardless of his actions.' iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Inside the Trump White House and across the administration, it was still a guessing game Thursday in the informal hunt to figure out which senior official wrote an anonymous op-ed published by the New York Times. The president had not commented beyond a tweet Thursday morning after expressing his outrage at the "gutless coward" Wednesday but was headed to a campaign rally in Montana later in the day. The almost 1,000-word opinion piece released Wednesday afternoon described "many senior officials' at high levels of the administration working to frustrate parts of [President Trumps] agenda and his worst inclinations. Ever since the explosive op-ed was posted, officials inside the West Wing have been speculating about who the author could be and were on edge, pointing fingers at colleagues. Text messages circulated among current and former officials, sources said, some reading "The sleeper cells have awoken." "The snakes are emboldened! one former White House official said. So far, the fact-finding mission to figure out who the culprit could be appeared to be unofficial. Implying there could eventually be a digital investigation into who authored the op-ed, one senior administration official said, "I hope they used a typewriter." Still, officials conceded that the sentiment expressed in the op-ed wasnt all that different from what has already been said by some at the White House and administration to journalists and lawmakers. On Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a second, scathing statement in response to the deluge of inquiries about who the author could be and called the New York Times complicit in this deceitful act. She even went so far as to share the phone number for the paper. The media's wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop, Sanders said. If you want to know who the gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT. First lady Melania Trump joined in, blasting the author. You are not protecting this country, she said in a statement. You are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions. As the op-ed appeared in the New York Times print edition Thursday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke out from his trip abroad in India, and then the Vice Presidents communications director tweeted a denial. Cabinet-level officials who said they were not directed by the White House to release statements refuting the op-ed came out one by one, some via spokespersons, with criticism of the opinion piece and their own form of denial. Cabinet members huddled with advisers to come up with their responses -- especially as the president, who had fumed after Bob Woodwards behind the scenes book about the White House surfaced earlier in the week, said he liked the on-the-record denials of his chief of staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis. It was noteworthy, though, that much of the Trump administrations response focused on the New York Times and the media and not the substance of the op-ed. In it, the writer says 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 the writer goes on to criticize the presidents leadership style, and says aides have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful. In an interview with Hugh Hewitt Thursday, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska a frequent critic of the president said the views in the op-ed were not surprising. Its just so similar to what so many of us hear from senior people around the White House, you know, three times a week. So its really troubling, and yet in a way, not surprising. A spokesperson for Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican and a close ally of the White House, said that GOP members of Congress are evaluating whether to start an investigation into the op-ed controversy and that some Democrats had reached out to his office as well, "There may not be a path. But if there's something we can do to protect the interests of the taxpayers, we're willing to look at it. Particularly on national security concerns." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. A news anchor has reported on her own daughter's deadly drug overdose in a desperate plea to end the opioid crisis. South Dakota journalist Angela Kennecke, 52, took to the air on CBS affiliate KELO-TV, where she has worked for 29 years, on Wednesday to share details of her daughter Emily's death in May. Staring solemnly into the camera, she began her broadcast: 'We have brought you many reports on the opioid crisis but now, the opioid epidemic has hit home in a tragic and devastating way for me personally. 'On May 16, my 21-year-old daughter Emily died of an overdose. Her official cause of death was fentanyl poisoning.' Kennecke, who has two other children and a stepson, went on: 'The loss of a child especially in this sudden and shocking way has turned my world upside down. 'I never intended a member of my family to become part of the statistic you hear on the evening news. Nobody does. There is no recovery for me or my family of the loss our our talented, smart, beautiful daughter Emily. Scroll down for video Angela Kennecke returned to work after four months off on Wednesday to report on the death of her 21-year-old daughter Emily who died of a fentanyl overdose in May I'm issuing a personal plea to end the stigma surrounding addiction and a call for action regarding the opioid crisis! pic.twitter.com/Ayxlf43UQm Angela Kennecke (@AngelaKennecke) September 5, 2018 Emily was an artist who was not living with her family when she died. Her mother said that every time she saw her , 'alarm bells' went off in her head but she had no idea how severe her addiction was 'Instead, I am forced to move forward and my only choice now is how I do that. 'My choice, even at great personal risk, is to share my daughter's story with all of you.' Emily, who was an artist, was found dead from a fentanyl overdose on May 18. Her mother had planned an intervention for three days later. Speaking on Wednesday, Kennecke said she never suspected her daughter was abusing opioids but said she had become aware that she was experimenting with drugs. 'It was soon pretty evident that the whole drug culture was attractive to her. I was really concerned as a mom. 'We would see Em quite a lot, she wasn't living with us - she was 21 years old - but the more time I spent around her before her death the more alarm bells went off in my head,' she said. 'I never intended a member of my family to become part of the statistic you hear on the evening news. Nobody does. The family hired an interventionist and had arranged to get Emily into rehab on May 20 but she died before they could ever seek professional help for her. 'We didn't get that chance. We didn't get a chance to get her into real treatment. Real help,' she said. Kennecke was stunned when she discovered the depths of her daughter's addiction, which also involved her using heroin. 'When I found out what she had been doing, the cause. It was unbelievable to me. The fact that my daughter would be using heroin and needles. 'My beautiful daughter who was very privileged, had every opportunity in life to have a great life had gone down this road. It was shocking to me,' she said. When she was found, the 21-year-old had taken six times the amount of fentanyl that is prescribed for an adult male. She is shown, left, around the time she graduated high school in 2015, and right, more recently Kennecke said it was obvious from 'early on' that her daughter found drugs 'attractive'. She was not living with her family when she began experimenting with drugs The pathologist said Emily had more then six times the recommended medical amount of fentanyl which would be required for an adult male. 'She was just a small young woman. She didn't stand a chance. That fentanyl killed her almost instantly when she injected it,' her mother said. Kennecke said she had decided to speak out about her experience because it could happen to 'any family'. 'My beautiful daughter,who was very privileged, had every opportunity in life to have a great life had gone down this road. It was shocking to me 'It's best if I just tell my story and let everyone out there know what happened to my daughter because I believe it could happen to anyone's daughter,' she said. Her goal is to destigmatize addiction to make it easier for families to cope with and to find 'better, more affordable ways' for young people to seek treatment if they find themselves in the grips of it. 'The reason I am doing this is that my only hope in the face of such devastating loss is that Emily's story, my family's personal tragedy, can be a catalyst for change. 'If 72,000 people were dying a year from any other cause, we would be uniting to end the suffering of so many families, so many mothers,' she said. Kennecke has launched a fund in her daughter's name to help people pay for the cost of treatment. It is called Emily's Hope and can be accessed through this link. Emily is pictured with her brother, sister and step-brother in April, a month before she died Kennecke, pictured with her husband and their children, now wants to destigmatize addiction 'I want her life and tragic death to at least give someone else hope. 'By telling Emiy's story and my story of loss and pain and suffering, I am opening myself up - I am being vulnerable to our audience in a way that I've never been before. 'It's super important I do that because if just one person hears me, if just one person does one thing to save a life, then I don't care about a million naysayers or a million people who don't understand. Emily's mother set up a fund to support other young people seeking treatment for addiction 'I just care about that one mother I can stop from experiencing the pain that I have,' she said. She added: 'She engaged in risky behavior but she didn't deserve to die. She was only 21.' The journalist said there was no way for her to describe the loss she and her family suffered with Emily's death and that the 'permanency' of it was devastating. 'Her chair sits empty at the kitchen table. That's when it really hurts when I look across and she's not there and she's never coming back. 'It's the permanency of it. I was robbed of my daughter. I was simply robbed. 'I consider myself a wordsmith, I write for a living every day, but there are no words to describe the devastation I feel at the loss of my daughter. 'There is nothing that can even come close to describe the grief and the sorrow and the pain. 'And all of the loss of what she could have been and what if. As a mom, I have a hole in my heat that will always be there. It is never going to heal. 'I have other children whom I love and a husband whom I love and other family whom I love, but nobody and nothing can replace the loss of my oldest child. Before returning to work on Wednesday, the mother took to Facebook to describe the decision as the 'hardest thing' she had ever done in her career. An ex-convict has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting to death the mayor of a tiny North Carolina town and his wife inside their home. The Edgecombe County Sheriffs Office said 25-year-old Keith Williams, of Tarboro, was arrested on Thursday in the killings of Leggett Mayor Gary Skelton and Jackie Dawn Skelton. A second person of interest in this case is currently being held on unrelated charges. Scroll down for video Small-time slaying: Deputies in North Carolina have arrested Keith Williams, 25 (left), on first-degree murder charges in the killings of Leggett Mayor Gary Skelton and his wife, Jackie Crime scene: The couple were found dead on their property along State Highway 33 Prison records cited by WITN indicate that Williams had just been released from prison last Tuesday on parole after serving a sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon. Williams has a lengthy criminal record including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, larceny, and assault on a child. Edgecombe County Sheriff Cleveland Atkinson said at a news conference Friday it took his investigators just eight hours to solve the double murder. According to Leggett Town Commissioner Teresa Summerlin, Jackie Skelton, 66, was an oncology nurse at Vidant Edgecombe Hospital, and didnt show up to work Thursday. Her coworkers contacted the sheriff's office to request a welfare check, which led to the discovery of the bodies on their property. Summerlin told WNCN the Skeltons were last seen alive on Wednesday night when they went out to dinner with another couple. It is unimaginable what they came home to last night, thats what sickens me to my core, how they must have felt, Summerlin told WRAL-TV. It sickens me and they were the epitome of good people, they were awesomely good people. Gary (pictured left with his son) was a retired banker who was in his second term as mayor. Jackie (pictured right with her granddaughter) was an oncology nurse Charlotte Observer reported that Gary Skelton, 70, was a banker at BB&T in Rocky Mount until retirement. He was in his second four-year term as mayor of the eastern North Carolina town of Leggett with a population of around five dozen. He was putting his heart into this town, Summerlin told the Observer. The couple are survived by three grown sons and multiple grandchildren. Julian Assange is in 'extremely poor health' and his condition will become 'life-threatening' if he is not released from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Wikileaks' lawyer has said. Greg Barns, an Australian lawyer in Assange's team has called the UK government 'cruel and inhumane' for refusing to let the Wikileaks founder leave the embassy for medical treatment without being arrested. 'What is remarkable is that Julian remains so mentally alert and is able to function physically given the inevitable impact of six years detention without natural light or access to fresh air on a constant basis. Julian Assange is in 'extremely poor health' and his condition will become 'life-threatening' if he is not released from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Greg Barns, an Australian lawyer in Assange's team (pictured together) has called the UK government 'cruel and inhumane' for refusing to let the Wikileaks founder leave the embassy for medical treatment without being arrested Greg Barns, a member of Julian Assange's legal team, speaks at a rally outside the British consulate in Melbourne, Australia 'However if there is not a resolution to his case in other words, the UK guaranteeing that he will not be extradited to the US the reality is Julian's health will deteriorate to the point where his life is in serious danger' Mr Barns told iTWire. Last week, Vaughan Smith, a journalist and supporter of Assange, said he was worried for his well-being after he was banned from using the internet, phones or having visitors. Assange was banned from having any contact with the outside world except via his legal team after he posted a tweet questioning the UK government's claim that Russia was behind the Novichok attack in Salisbury, in March. Meanwhile there are rumours that Ecuador is being pressured to rescind Assange's asylum so he can be arrested by British police and potentially extradited to the US. Robert Mueller is believed to be looking into Assange and Wikileaks as part of his Russian election meddling probe. Charging documents allege communications between Russian agents posing as hacker Guccifer2.0 and 'Organisation-1' - believed by many to be Wikileaks. Julian Assange pictured on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy Australian-born Assange was granted Ecudorian citizenship at the end of last year and has been in self-imposed isolation inside the embassy since 2012 after a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden on charges of rape and molestation failed It is not known if Mueller has enough evidence to charge Assange. Even if Mueller does not charge him, Assange would almost certainly face charges over the leak of millions of highly-sensitive US diplomatic cables in 2010. If he is leaves the embassy, he would be immediately arrested by British police for failing to surrender on a warrant related to a since-dropped rape case in Sweden. While in British police custody, he could be hit with charges by American authorities, which would spark and extradition request. Assange's supporters fear this renewed interest could persuade Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, who has already called him a 'hacker', to sacrifice him. Australian-born Assange was granted Ecudorian citizenship at the end of last year and has been in self-imposed isolation inside the embassy since 2012 after a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden on charges of rape and molestation failed. Simon Lemus, 49, had been working at a Hacienda Heights home with his teenage daughter when he got stuck under a heap of fronds inside the tree A tree trimmer became trapped and died inside a palm tree he was working on in a California neighborhood Thursday, according to officials. Simon Lemus, 49, had been working at a Hacienda Heights home with his teenage daughter when she heard screams from inside the tree. When the teenager ran over to the tree, she found that her father had gotten stuck deep inside a the tree's canopy under a heap of fronds. His family revealed that Lemus was doing a side project for a friend but that he had long been in the tree trimming business. 'Receiving news about my dad's passing at this accident is something that's very sad for our family,' son, Simon Lemus Jr., said through a translator to KTLA. 'But he passed away doing what he loved most.' Scroll for video First response arrived at the scene at 15400 block of Garo Street around 4pm First response arrived at the scene at 15400 block of Garo Street around 4pm, according to Vannesa Lozano with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Video taken showed two firemen ascending a ladder in efforts to reach the palm fronds that were 40ft off the ground. They were working to get access to the man who was deep inside the tree. Video taken showed two firemen ascending a ladder in efforts to reach the palm fronds that were 40ft off the ground Around 5.15pm, fire personnel brought the man's limp body from the tree by strapping him to the trunk of the tree Around 5.15pm, fire personnel brought the man's limp body from the tree by strapping him to the trunk of the tree. By 5.45pm, the man was pronounced dead. Lemus was said to have been stuck under dry palm fronds, which can be really heavy. A cause of death has not been determined yet. His family shared that Lemus was doing a side project for a friend but that he had long been in the tree trimming business Friends of Lemus say that the tree trimmer was a seasoned professional and had the right equipment. 'I know he's a very strong guy, so I don't know what happened inside there,' Leonel Granados said. 'It's not the first one; he had trimmed, I think, thousands of palms.' Lemus was remembered as a loving family man who was described as being religious and having a strong work ethic. 'First and foremost, he was a person who loved God,' Lemus Jr. said. 'He was the best kind of guy, admirable, always smiling.' Former Donald Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos was sentenced to two weeks in jail Friday for lying to the FBI during the Russia probe. He became the the first member of President Donald Trump's campaign team to be sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Former Campaign chair Paul Manafort was convicted on eight counts and is currently in jail but has yet to be sentenced. Judge Randolph Moss issued the sentence Friday afternoon. Papadopoulos also must pay fine of $9,500 and do 200 hours of community service Papadopoulos and his lawyers were hoping to avoid probation altogether, while prosecutors are recommending he get up to six months in jail for statements that didn't reveal his interactions with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Foreign policy advisor to US President Donald Trump's election campaign, George Papadopoulos was sentenced to two weeks in jail Friday Prosecutors say he lied 'to minimize both his own role as a witness and the extent of the campaign's knowledge of his contacts.' Papadopoulos 31, told the New York Times this week: 'I wanted to distance myself as much as possible and Trump himself and the campaign from what was probably an illegal action or dangerous information.' He added: 'I never felt that I did anything against my country's interests.' His lawyer, Thomas Breen, minimized the false statements Papadopoulos admitted to saying they weren't as damaging as President Trump's constant attacks on investigators. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty last year for making a 'materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement' to investigators during FBI's probe of Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election 'The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could,' Breen said in court. Traveling in the plains in hopes of keeping the Senate in GOP hands, Trump diminished Papopoulos, as his White House has done, though Trump once mentioned him as among a handful of early foreign policy advisors. 'I see Papadopoulos today; I dont know Papadopoulos, I dont know,' Trump told DailyMail.com and other reporters aboard Air Force One. 'They got him, on I guess, on a couple of lies is what they're saying.' Then Trump added, referencing his campaign and presidency, as well as the Mueller probe: 'There was no obstruction and there was no collusion. ... We have to get it over with.' Papadopoulos was the first Trump aide to plead guilty and reach a cooperation agreement withe government signaling an aggressive prosecution that has now gotten cooperation deals from top Trump aides and associates, and obtained a conviction of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. Papadopoulos' lawyers released a memo on Friday seeking a reduced jail sentence for their client lying to the FBI when interviewed in January 2017 After his guilty plea, the White House diminished Papadopoulos' role, with one former colleague saying he was just a 'coffee boy.' But he also was pictured at the only meeting of Trump with his foreign policy team at Trump Tower, when a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was discussed. Now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions was also pictured. Papadopoulos reflected on his situation in the Times interview. 'Looking back we all make mistakes in life, you know and thats I really hope for it to redeem myself in the eyes of my fellow countrymen, here in the United States. But I do really regret not telling the F.B.I. immediately after that because I probably would have saved a lot of problems for the world, at this point, considering I was perhaps the light that created this conflagration,' he said. He described the reaction he got when he said he could help arrange a Trump meeting with Vladimir Putin. 'I just wanted to hear what the two principals wanted to say, and it seemed at the meeting that candidate Trump was at least open to this. Though he wasnt committed either way, but he nodded and deferred to Jeff Sessions who I remember being actually quite enthusiastic about a potential meeting between then-candidate Trump and Putin,' Papadopoulos said. Among the things Papadopoulos lied about to FBI agents under questioning was his contact with Maltese London-based professor Joseph Mifsud, who said the Russians had 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton. His Italy-born wife, Simona Mangiante, who Papadopoulos met on the Linkedin site during the campaign, said he was considering pulling back from his guilty plea and said 'shady individuals' were targeting him from within the government. He made the false statements he admitted to during a Jan. 27, 2017 meeting with FBI agents. His Italy-born wife, Simona Mangiante, who Papadopoulos met on the Linkedin site during the campaign, said he was considering pulling back from his guilty plea and said 'shady individuals' were targeting him from within the government. Papadopoulos is the first member of President Trump's campaign team to face sentencing in the Mueller probe Foreign policy advisor to US President Donald Trump's election campaign, George Papadopoulos and his wife Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos arrive at US District Court for his sentencing The lawyers for former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos claim that the president-to-be 'nodded with approval' when asked if he wanted to have a meeting with Putin. Papadopoulos' lawyers released a memo on Friday also seeking a reduced jail sentence for their client lying to the FBI when interviewed in January 2017. At the first gathering of Trump's foreign policy team in Washington on March 31, 2016, Papadopoulos, 'eager to show his value to the campaign,' told the candidate and his advisors that he had connections that could facilitate such a meeting. 'While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it,' the statement said about their client's intention to set up a meeting with Putin 'While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it,' the statement said, referring to Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general. Papadopoulos is expected to be sentenced on Friday. In the statement to the court, Papadopoulos admitted he lied to investigators, but asked for a very light sentence, saying he had not sought to obstruct the investigation but only wanted to protect his career path. He said he was a young, inexperienced fan of Trump when his application to join the campaign was accepted in March 2016. Papadopoulos made contacts with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed Kremlin links and introduced him to other ostensibly well-connected Russians, including an alleged niece of Putin During his interview for the job with a senior campaign official, 'George learned that the campaign's foreign policy focus would be improving relations with Russia,' the statement said. 'George landed the job despite having no experience with US and Russian diplomacy.' Weeks later in Europe, Papadopoulos made contacts with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed Kremlin links and introduced him to other ostensibly well-connected Russians, including an alleged niece of Putin. 'To say that George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement.... He had no experience in dealing with Russian policy or its officials,' the statement said. Encouraged by the March 31 foreign policy team gathering, he continued to pursue a Trump-Putin meeting. At a breakfast on April 26, 2016, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that people in Moscow had 'dirt' on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton -- information Papadopoulos later shared with the campaign. The meeting would never take place and Papadopoulos would be arrested soon after on July 27, 2017. Papadopoulos' wife and unofficial spokeswoman, Simona, took to Twitter to share her support of her husband Prosecutors sought a sentence of six months in jail for lying, claiming that the man misled them about 'critical facts, in an investigation of national importance, after having been explicitly warned that lying to the FBI was a federal offense.' 'The nature and circumstances of the offense warrant a sentence of incarceration,' prosecutors wrote, according to ABC News. Papadopoulos' wife and unofficial spokeswoman, Simona, took to Twitter to share her support of her husband. She said: 'I trust that the facts are clear now. Hope for a fair decision. The defense sentencing memorandum is a very accurate portrayal of George genuine cooperation and the fact that he never hindered the investigation. #freeGeorge ' A former businesswoman who claimed more than 80,000 in benefits after falsely saying she was a single mother has finally been jailed when she jetted off to Tenerife after being ordered to do community service. Mother-of-two, Nicola Alcock, 41, was arrested after she landed back in the UK, several weeks ago. Alcock claimed she had gone to the Spanish island to raise some money after a proceeds of crime hearing, Preston Crown Court was told. Mother-of-two, Nicola Alcock, 41, was arrested after she landed back in the UK, several weeks ago Alcock (pictured with her husband) admitted benefit fraud charges between December 15, 2008 and and April 21, 2015, and was sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years, with 150 hours unpaid work The former criminology student was given the four-month sentence by Judge Andrew Woolman on Monday after breaching the suspended jail term she had been given at Burnley Crown Court in January last year. Alcock admitted benefit fraud charges between December 15, 2008 and and April 21, 2015, and was sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years, with 150 hours unpaid work. Alcock was already serving 91 days in custody in default, after an earlier proceeds of crime hearing. She will serve the sentences concurrently. And she had claimed to a court she was jobless and broke when she got a speeding fine cut from 220 to 40 in February last year, just weeks after being handed the suspended sentence. In January last year, Burnley Crown Court was told how Alcock claimed child tax credits and housing benefit over a five-year period after telling the authorities she was living alone with her two children. But her lies were unmasked after Alcock advertised her services on the Barking Mad dog sitting service - and wrote about her happy marriage and family life. Her lies were unmasked after Alcock advertised her services on the Barking Mad dog sitting service - and wrote about her happy marriage and family life An investigation revealed she married trucker Gerard Thornton (pictured together left) in 2008 but failed to mention the wedding to the authorities Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials were alerted to the organisation's website on which Alcock posed in a Barking Mad polo shirt and spoke about her happy family life at home in Earby, Lancashire with husband Gerard Thornton. In her promotional blurb she wrote: 'I am proud to be the Barking Mad representative in Keighley and surrounding areas. I live in Earby with my husband Gez and 2 children. 'So as you can see not only am I animal mad but being Barking Mad helps too!' An investigation revealed she married trucker Mr Thornton in 2008 but failed to mention the wedding to the authorities. Despite being confronted with the evidence she continued to deny being married and only confessed when she was shown her marriage certificate. Calculations revealed she was overpaid tax credits totalling 58,721.91 and housing benefit in the sum of 22,856.29. The total overpayment was 81,578.20. Julian Goode, prosecuting, said Alcock initially made a legitimate claim for tax credits on January 17, 2006, on the basis she was single, with dependent children. She also made an application for housing benefit, on October 3, 2008. Alcock's profile on the website describes her as a happily married, family-orientated Barking Mad representative But Mr Goode added: 'Matters altered on 13 December, 2008 when she married Gerard Thornton and thereafter maintained a common household with him. 'The change in circumstances would have affected her entitlement to benefits and she failed to notify the authorities.' DWP investigators uncovered various documents confirming Alcock and Mr Thornton were living together including a Nationwide Building Society personal loan, bank and insurance documents. Mr Goode said: 'She initially said the relationship started in 2009. 'Of course, we know the marriage was in 2008. She said Mr Thornton only stayed over if her daughter was at her father's house. 'She was later shown her marriage certificate and accepted she had been dishonest.' In mitigation defence lawyer Richard Dawson said Alcock was currently out of work, adding: 'That's primarily because she didn't want to take up employment only to lose her liberty and leave. She is keen to rejoin the workforce and gain stability in her life.' The court heard Alcock was being treated for depression but had led an 'honest life'. Sentencing at the time, Judge Mr Recorder Simon Hilton told her: 'There is no doubt that this behaviour is of a gravity which crosses the custody threshold. A suspended sentence order is justified notwithstanding the gravity of the offences. 'Everything I have read about you suggests this behaviour is out of character for you and, more importantly, is wholly unlikely to be repeated in the future.' The first sun bear cub ever to be born in the UK has emerged from its den for the first time. The new addition, which does not yet have a name, was captured on video as she took a stroll with her mother Milli at Chester Zoo. The 12-week-old cub took a few tumbles as she explored her indoor habitat at the zoo before heading back to the den. Scroll down for video The 12-week-old cub, who was born on June 13, took her first stroll around her den at Chester Zoo, in Cheshire Curator of mammals at Chester Zoo Tim Rowlands said the baby will 'quickly gain in confidence and become more and more excitable' Curator of Mammals at Chester Zoo Tim Rowlands said: 'The new cub has plenty of enthusiasm but, at just 12 weeks old, shes still somewhat wobbly on her legs. 'Shell soon find her feet though and it wont be long until mum Milli really has her paws full. 'Her little one will quickly gain in confidence, become more and more excitable and look to explore. Thats when her parenting skills will be given a new test.' In the video, the tiny bear can be seen exploring her home and playfully biting mother Milli's ear as they snack on carrots together. The baby bear is the first sun bear to have been born in the UK, something collections director Mike Jordan has called 'the shining beacon of light at the end of a dark tunnel' Weighing 14 ounces at birth, the new cub is yet to be named by zookeepers at Chester Zoo Sun bears are the smallest of the worlds eight species of bear but are highly threatened in their native south-east Asia The new addition was born earlier this year on June 13, weighing 14 ounces. The cubs parents, Milli and Toni, came to the zoo in 2013 after being rescued from illegal wildlife traders in Cambodia who had killed their mothers and kept them as pets. Mike Jordan, Collections Director at the zoo, said: 'These bears had a really tough start to life and so to now see Milli thriving with a cub is ever so special. 'Its the wonderful culmination of an awful lot of hard work by numerous conservationists - here and in Cambodia - who have fought to give her a brighter future. 'The cub is the shining beacon of light at the end of what, at one stage, was a very dark tunnel.' Sun bears are the smallest of the worlds eight species of bear but are highly threatened in their native south-east Asia and are thought to be extinct in Singapore, where they were once found in large numbers. President Donald Trump leveled a new attack on Bob Woodward's bombshell book revealing chaos in the White House and senior aides scurrying to thwart the president's worst impulses saying the quotes of himself don't ring true. Trump said the book isn't accurate because 'I don't talk the way I am quoted.' Trump, who is engaged in a two-front leak war following the release of a devastating anonymous op-ed from an anonymous senior administration official, Tweeted Friday that 'The Woodward book is a scam.' The president continued: 'I dont talk the way I am quoted. If I did I would not have been elected President. These quotes were made up. The author uses every trick in the book to demean and belittle. I wish the people could see the real facts - and our country is doing GREAT!' President Donald Trump said the Bob Woodward book isn't accurate because 'I don't talk the way I am quoted' Trump's rebuttal of the Woodward book about the way he comes off in direct quotes cuts to the storied author's unique methods. In the book's forward, Woodward notes that he has done hundreds of hours of interviews, conducted on 'deep background.' Woodward writes in the forward to the book, which was obtained by DailyMail.com: 'When I have attributed exact quotations, thoughts or conclusions to the participants, that information comes from the person, a colleague with direct knowledge, or from meeting notes, personal diaries, files and government or personal documents.' Trump tweeted Friday that Bob Woodward's book is a 'scam,' after saying an anonymous op-ed might be 'treason' The book contains numerous eye-catching quotes from the president in private settings that show him in a different light from those who know his verbiage from public events. For example, Trump unleashes a slew of expletives when Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon ask him to cut a $50 million check to his campaign in one scene in the book. 'No way,' Trump responded. 'F*** that. I'm not doing it 'Where the f***'s the money? Where's all this money from these [donor] guys? Jared, you're supposed to be raising all this money. Not going to do it.' In a post-election scene in the book, Trump bashes a South Korea trade deal but uses its technical acronym in a way that would be unfamiliar at any Trump rally. Trump said the book isn't accurate because 'I don't talk the way I am quoted' 'I'm tired of these arguments!' Trump is quoted as saying at a meeting. 'I don't want to hear about it anymore. We're getting out of KORUS.' Earlier in the week, Trump disputed the books claim that he called his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, 'mentally retarded,' and mocked his southern accent. 'I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing,' Trump wrote. However, Trump used the phrase 'mentally retarded' as an insult during radio interviews. He also has used the term 'dumb southerner' to mock in-laws, the New York Times reported. Trump went after the Woodward book as the furious hunt for the senior leaker who trashed President Trump in an anonymous op-ed heated up Friday, following reports Trump has a list of 12 suspects and still more denials from top officials who said they didn't do it. In President Donald Trump's speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has suggested lie detector tests for senior aides in just one of the aggressive options to try to identify the author from within his own administration who charged Trump with holding 'off the rails' meetings, filled with 'repetitive rants' that produce 'half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions.' Another tactic being floated is to force aides to sign sworn affidavits stating that they weren't behind the leaks. FBI Director Chris Wray is the latest top official to deny being behind the devastating op-ed, after Vice President Mike Pence and a raft of cabinet secretaries and senior aides said they didn't do it. Top aides have already been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, so it is unclear what additional weight an affidavit might carry. An outside advisor said the White House has winnowed down the list of suspects to just a dozen, the New York Times reported. Trump said Thursday that an anonymous op-ed slamming him in The New York Times was an act of treason, asserting something he has only written with a question mark to date. The title used by the Times op-ed page, 'a senior official in the Trump administration,' could refer to hundreds of people. 'The Times should never have done that because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason. You could call it a lot of things,' the president said in Billings, Montana. Trump was being interviewed by Fox News Channel co-host Pete Hegseth in one corner of the Rimrock Auto Arena, with a live audience of more than 10,000 people. In his speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation. 'Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she,' he finally declared. Trump repeated a challenge he had already issued to the Times on Twitter, demanding the paper's nameless author's head on a platter. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup. 'And it's really bad and it's really dangerous,' he said. 'And it's really sad for the media.' Scroll down for video Trump extends his hand to Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale during his 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana Trump's stemwinder was met with unanimous cheers. No protesters raised their voices. During his pre-show interview with Fox, he speculated about who might have written the piece, focusing on people working 'at a fairly low level' who may want to give the public a false picture of what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 'I don't mind when they write a book and they make lies, because it gets discredited,' he said. 'We just discredited the last one.' But he admitted that he 'can't discredit' the Times turncoat 'because you don't know who they are.' The culprit could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time.' The president had suggested ahalf-hour earlier that he would put muscle behind efforts to identify the official who broke ranks to claim in the Times that a 'resistance' of aides is trying to subvert the president's worst instincts for the good of the country. DailyMail.com asked him on the tarmac in Billings how he planned to uncover the disloyal official's identity. 'We're going to try!' he yelled, over the noise of an idling Air Force One. As Air Force One was on approach for landing, Trump flexed his Twitter muscle in the Times' direction, while one of the paper's star photographers was sitting on the plane. 'Are the investigative 'journalists' of the New York Times going to investigate themselves - who is the anonymous letter writer?' he wrote. President Trump flew to Billings, Montana on Thursday for a rally but found time beforehand to tell a TV interviewer that an anonymous, disloyal aide had committed an act of treason by trashing him in a New York Times essay Trump greets the crowd as he arrives for a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Billings, Montana Trump's assertion about 'treason' marks the first time he's used that word about the Times op-ed without a question mark A supporter of the US president wears a t-shirt reading 'CNN sucks' during the rally in Billings, Montana Trump supporters wave placards at the rally in Montana. Trump suggested the culprit behind the op-ed could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time' More than 10,000 people crowded into an arena in a Montana city of 110,000 Trump mocked the New York Times in a tweet as he was landing in Billings (pictured above) ahead of a rally Trump seemed content for most of the day while watching the drama of a Washington-wide molehunt play out on television and Twitter, and appreciatively consuming reports of Cabinet members denying any involvement in the journalistic bombshell. A White House official said in the afternoon that the president would 'probably go there in Montana' anticipating a stem-winder about the op-ed. But the official wouldn't predict Trump's willingness to field direct questions from the press about who was and wasn't under suspicion. Trump boarded Marine One on the South Lawn without approaching a waiting gaggle of reporters. At Joint Base Andrews, he strode methodically up the Air Force One stairway, never coming near a traveling press corps that shouted questions about how he would unmask his deep-state Judas. And despite a nearly four-hour flight to the upper plains, he didn't stray to the aft press cabin to talk: He was saving his rhetorical bullets for Fox News. Trump's aides had televisions in the press cabin of Air Force One tuned to Fox News during the four-hour flight, while the network was totaling the senior officials who denied being behind the op-ed Practically Trump's entire cabinet including these famous faces and the first lady have all declared they're not responsible for the mysterious op-ed Non-Fox reporters were treated to a nonstop Fox feed on TV screens while the network was reporting on an ever-lengthening list of Cabinet officials and other Trump A-listers who denied having anything to do with the Times essay. At one point Fox filled its screen with a grid of 32 faces including Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis. First lady Melania Trump said in a statement: 'To the writer of the oped - you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.' Another White House official said Thursday that West Wing aides couldn't wait for the president to leave town, knowing it would 'lower the building's blood pressure and give him a reboot' in an atmosphere where he excels. Trump held his Montana rally in support of U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Jon Tester. He blames Tester for scuttling his White House physician's nomination to serve as Veterans Affairs secretary. Dr. Ronny Jackson, a respected Navy admiral, was forced to withdraw following Tester's accusations that he oversaw a 'toxic' work environment, drank on the job and overprescribed medication. The president, who insisted none of it was true, pledged that Tester would ultimately have a 'big price to pay in Montana.' Tester, he said Thursday, 'will never 'drain the swamp' because he happens to live in the swamp.' 'Jon Tester talks like he's from Montana, but he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi,' he said, lumping the Democrat in with one of the nation's most liberal lamakers. Trump needed the rally to publicly shake his Etch-a-Sketch following a week of revelations that hit his team like a series of kidney punches. Trump's senior aides have all scrambled to disown the op-ed that appeared in the Times on Wednesday that slammed the President's leadership style as impetuous, petty and ineffective First came excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book 'Fear,' which paints the president as an ill-prepared and crude leader whose lack of impulse control drove senior aides to protect him from himself. In one vignette, Woodward describes then-chief economic adviser Gary Cohn literally swiping a draft memo from the Resolute Desk to derail Trump's goal of ending a crucial Korean trade agreement. Scuttling the longstanding deal would have introduced uncertainty into Washington's relationship with Seoul and could have jeopardized America's use of South Korean real estate for an ambitious missile-detection program. Internal fallout from the Cohn affair inside the West Wing had barely softened from panic to mere shock when The New York Times twisted the knife. The publication of Wednesday's unsigned op-ed, which the Times claims was penned by a 'senior' administration official, struck a variation on the same theme. Its central claim is that a winking, nudging cabal of aides considers its primary mission to save the republic from Trump's ham-fisted ways. 'Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,' according to the still-unidentified writer. Moroccan authorities prevented more than 54,000 migrants from smuggling into Europe illegally this year. Police dismantled 74 human trafficking rings and seized 1,900 boats in the last nine months, the country's official news agency MAP claimed. The North African country - a key route for people trying to reach Europe via Spain - has launched an operation targeting people smugglers. Asylum seekers risk injury to clamber across the border from Morocco to Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta Some 600 migrants reached Spain in a mass jump of the Spanish border in July, prompting the Moroccan government to clamp down on the issue It was forced to clamp down on the issue after hundreds of migrants forced their way into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta by violently storming a heavily fortified border fence with Morocco in July. Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other tiny territory in North Africa, make up the European Union's only land borders with Africa. Spain has become the main entry point for migrants arriving in Europe, after Italy and Greece. More than 35,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea and land so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. Migrants charged border fences separating Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco in July. The enclave is a hotspot for migrants looking to get into Europe From January until July, 318 migrants died at sea trying to reach the Spanish coast. That number is three times more than recorded numbers for the same period in 2017. MAP did not give the nationalities of the migrants prevented from crossing to Europe or specify what action was taken. According to the interior ministry, 230 suspected people smugglers - Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans - have been put on trial since the start of 2018. A kindly Army veteran was killed after trying to help a stranded driver who turned out to be a hitman hired to stop him testifying in road rage court case - after the killer accidentally got stuck in a ditch while hunting for his victim, police say. Carlos Cruz-Echevarria, 60, was 'executed' on a quiet Deltona road, in Florida on Veteran's Day. Police say Kelsey Terrance McFoley, 28, paid suspected hitman Benjamin Jaquaric Antonio Bascom, 24, to kill Cruz-Echevarria to prevent him from testifying against him in a road rage case. Both suspects were arrested this week. Carlos Cruz-Echevarria, 60, (pictured) was killed in 'planned execution' on a quiet Deltona road, in Florida on Veteran's Day Detectives say that Cruz-Echevarria was driving along a Deltona road, in Florida, in November, when he spotted a car which appeared to be stuck in a ditch. Cops say Bascom had gone to Cruz-Echevarria's home to kill him, but when he wasn't there, had decided to scope the local neighborhood. During his search, he accidentally reversed into a ditch where his car became stuck. Until, that was, his very target came to help him. Acting as a good Samaritan, the Army veteran brought his truck round to try and pull the vehicle free. But when he got out of his vehicle, he was shot dead. His truck was stolen and was later found burned in Apopka, sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant told the Orlando Sentinel. Investigators say the trouble began on May 2, 2017, when Cruz-Echevarria was driving in Deltona and he honked at a vehicle that was stopped at a green light. McFoley pulled up to Cruz-Echevarria at the next intersection, pulled out a gun and asked if he 'had a problem?' according to the police report. 'McFoley reaches into his glove box, pulls out a gun, and threatens to shoot Carlos,' said Sheriff Mike Chitwood. Police say Kelsey Terrance McFoley, 28, (left) paid suspected hitman Benjamin Jaquaric Antonio Bascom, 24, (right) to kill Cruz-Echevarria Bascom, McFoley and his girlfriend, Melissa Rios Roque, 21, (pictured) who allegedly conspired with them to commit murder, were all arrested on murder charges The veteran called the police and was able to provide McFoley's car registration. McFoley, a convicted felon with more than two dozen previous charges, was arrested over the road rage case on June 1, 2017. If convicted, he would have faced a lengthy prison sentence in view of his previous convictions. 'Somewhere along the line these three scumbags decide that Carlos has to die,' said Chitwood. Around three weeks before the execution-style murder, McFoley's attorney filed a court notice indicating Cruz-Echevarria would testify in December - which included the witness' home address. Capt. Brian Henderson said McFoley hired hitman Bascom to kill Cruz-Echevarria to prevent him from ever making that testimony. Bascom went to Cruz-Echevarria's house on November 11, but he wasn't in, so stalked the neighborhood looking for his victim. While turning around in the street, he accidentally got his car stuck in a ditch. That's when Cruz-Echevarria pulled up behind him and offered to help. Detectives say that Cruz-Echevarria was driving along a Deltona road, in Florida, in November, when he spotted a car which appeared to be stuck in a ditch and decided to help (pictured is the ditch where the alleged killer's car was stuck) Tributes have been left to the 60-year-old small business owner, who has a relative who works for the local police Meanwhile, the family of Cruz-Echevarria are still coming to terms with the loss of the 'gentle animal lover' When the good Samaritan bent over to get a better look at the car, Bascom shot him several times in the head, police say. For several months, it appeared that Bascom had gotten away with the murder and the road rage charges against McFoley were dropped. But eventually, DNA evidence was able to tie Bascom to both vehicles, and police were able to trace his phone records to the scene of the crime. His phone also revealed he'd been in touch with McFoley, who had instructed him how to carry out the murder, authorities said. On Tuesday, McFoley and his girlfriend, Melissa Rios Roque, 21, who allegedly conspired with them to commit murder, were arrested. Capt. Brian Henderson said McFoley hired hitman Bascom to kill Cruz-Echevarria to prevent him from ever making a testimony Bascom was arrested the next day at Orlando International Airport, where he was about to board a plane to Texas. They are all facing first-degree murder charges. Chitwood said his department is encouraging prosecutors to pursue the death penalty. Sheriff Chitwood called the murder: 'One of the most heinous, despicable, cowardly acts I've ever witnessed,' Wesh reports. 'Carlos did not deserve to die,' Chitwood said. 'A road-rage incident where a man does what he's supposed to do - notify the police, cooperate with the system - and his thanks is to end up with multiple bullets in his head, killed just outside of his home.' Meanwhile, the family of Cruz-Echevarria, a small business owner and brother-in-law to a Volusia County Sheriff's Office employee, are still coming to terms with the loss of the 'gentle animal lover'. His niece described him as someone who made life 'so much more rich and beautiful just for being himself.' Boris Johnson leaves his 4million family home in Islington with Marina Wheeler in 2016 as it emerged they will now divorce Boris Johnson must now split his millions with his wife Marina as they rush through their divorce - but he will not be punished for his alleged philandering. The Foreign Secretary, 54, who is believed to have at least 6.5million in cash and assets, will share half of everything he has because they have been married for 25 years. But Mr Johnson's alleged cheating will not have any impact on the settlement, even though he is reported to have had at least three affairs since he married Marina in 1993, legal experts have told MailOnline. The couple own a grand Islington townhouse worth at least 4million plus a country home in Oxfordshire with an estimated value of 1million. Mr Johnson, who is paid 275,000-a-year for a weekly Daily Telegraph column and has written bestselling history books, is said to have a personal wealth of at least 1.5million. Divorce expert David Leadercramer, a partner at law firm DMH Stallard, told MailOnline: 'If the assets total 6.5 million then Marina would look at getting half. 'If 3.25million gave her enough for a home and to meet her day to day needs then she would not usually look for maintenance in addition. They would simply divide assets equally on what is known as a clean break'. Marina, a successful QC in her own right, can expect to get half of everything when the divorce goes through Mr Johnson has previously had affairs with Helen Macintyre (left) and Petronella Wyatt (right) but this will have no impact on the settlement, experts have said Marina reportedly kicked her husband out amid claims he had another affair. Boris Johnson brings cups of tea to reporters outside his Oxfordshire home as he is set to split his assets with his wife The Tory MP has also cheated in the past but this will not be taken into account in any settlement. Mr Leadercramer said: 'In order to bring in conduct it has to be exceptional, such as trying to kill the other spouse, but serial adulterers are not made to pay in that sense for their "misdeeds". I have little or no doubt that in this case his conduct won't affect the financial issues at all'. Last year it was claimed that Boris Johnson told friends his then minister's salary of 141,405 a year is not enough to live on. The Foreign Secretary told friends his annual earnings were insufficient because of his 'extensive family responsibilities', according to The Sunday Times. The Tory MP has four children with Marina Wheeler and a daughter from his affair with Helen MacIntyre. In law children all require his financial support if they are in full time education or under 25 and not working. Boris and his wife today announced that they separated 'several months ago' and are divorcing. The rift emerged when his daughter Lara, 25, was apparently overheard calling her father a 'selfish b*****' and insisting her mother would now 'never take him back'. Their split was announced as it was claimed the Brexit cheerleader is poised to make a bid to replace Theresa May as PM with sources calling it a 'damage limitation exercise' rather than a 'stitch up'. One Tory MP claimed today the news was all a case of 'shovelling the s*** out of the way for the leadership bid'. Boris smiles as he arrives in his Uxbridge constituency today despite his announcement that he is splitting from his wife of 25 years Today Boris looked serious and refused to comment as he left his country home in Oxfordshire minutes before the couple announced their marriage was over. In a joint personal statement Mr Johnson and Ms Wheeler said: 'Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate. 'We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further'. Mr Johnson and his lawyer wife Marina Wheeler, both 54, now live apart and no longer socialise as a couple, it was claimed. He has already been thrown out twice before, first in 2004 over his affair with writer Petronella Wyatt, and again in 2010 when he fathered a love child with art consultant Helen Macintyre. In the past Mrs Wheeler, mother to their four children, has taken him back, despite his philandering. Sources close to Mr Johnson refused last night to comment. The MP's daughter Lara, 25, was overheard at a party ranting about her father's infidelity, saying her mother would 'never take him back', The Sun said. She added: 'Mum is finished with him.' She is said to have told pals at a party he 'is a selfish b******'. Increasing numbers of Type 2 diabetes cases now involve children as young as five years old - with doctors struggling to find better treatments for shockingly obese children. Data from the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) shows that there are up to 209 cases of children aged 15 years old or under with Type 2 diabetes. According to NDSS, what used to be more common in adults over the age of 45 years old is now affecting an increasing number of children and adolescents. When asked about the rising numbers of diabetes cases among children, Lady Cilento Children's Hospital Director of Endocrinology Professor Jerry Wales said that what used to be a rarity is now a disturbing trend. One notable case was that of a nine-year-old Queensland boy who was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and weighed 178kg. Data from the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) shows that there are up to 209 cases of children aged 15 years old or under with Type 2 diabetes (stock image) 'Type 2 diabetes in the young is not mild diabetes. If you get it at less than 30 years of age, your standard mortality rate is six times the average. You are going to lose 20 to 30 years of life,' he told The Courier-Mail. Type 2 diabetes is a progressive condition where the body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin or gradually loses the ability to produce insulin. According to Diabetes Australia, it represents 85 to 90 per cent of all diabetes cases. In its 2017 figures, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) stated that approximately 425 million adults have diabetes and that Type 2 diabetes was on the rise in most countries. IDF also added that more than 1,106,500 children had Type 1 diabetes alone. Although there is no one specific cause for Type 2 diabetes, research shows that it has links to family history and is also determined by the individual's lifestyle. Genetic risks are also noticeably higher among Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders. Associate Professor Ashim Sinha, a Director of Endocrinology at Cairns Hospital, also spoke to The Courier Mail of his experiences while operating an outreach service to communities in north Queensland and the Torres Strait Island Region. Genetic risks are also noticeably higher among Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders (stock image) According to Sinha, the youngest Type 2 diabetes case he had was a five-year-old Indigenous girl. The girl was born to a mother who also had diabetes, along with a family history of Type 2. He added that this was just one of many Type 2 diabetes cases he saw among children. 'We see everything from renal failure, cardiovascular disease and amputations at a young age,' he said. 'A boy I diagnosed with Type 2 at age 13 I saw him the other day at the Cairns Base [hospital] and he is now 32 and has lost both his legs. We have seen teenagers have minor amputations, losing a couple of toes, for instance'. Medication options can be limited for young patients under 16. Hundreds of Central and South American migrants, including children, were rescued by Mexican authorities from two trailers in separate incidents over just 12 hours. Law-enforcement in the northern state of Nuevo Leon were shocked Wednesday night when they found 119 migrants inside an abandoned trailer on the side of a highway connecting the city of Monterrey to the border town of Reynosa just hours from the U.S. border crossing. Officials said 81 adults and 38 children were found in the trailer at about 10pm local time, and received medical attention. A driver abandoned a trailer carrying 119 immigrants late Wednesday night before reaching a checkpoint station hours from the U.S border Paramedics tend to a migrant (right) that was transported to a hospital after Mexican law-enforcement agents rescued 119 migrants stuck inside a trailer headed for the U.S. border A paramedic offers aid to a girl who was among the 119 undocumented migrants who were abandoned and saved from a trailer in Mexico Two pregnant women, including one who was transported to a hospital, were also part of the traveling group that attempted to cross the border. According to Publi Metro, the driver of the truck identified as Miguel N, 42, was arrested and accused of human trafficking. Miguel stopped the trailer carrying foreign nationals from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala ahead of a routine inspection site set up at a station housing federal, state and local authorities in the municipality of Bravo. After he stopped the trailer, the agents heard people crying, screaming and pounding the doors before they were able to pry it open and lead them to safety. A few of the migrants managed to run off and evade capture. The driver tried fleeing but was quickly apprehended. '[They were] in deplorable conditions. It was tremendously overcrowded,' State Security Secretary Bernardo Gonzalez told Univision. 'Some said they had spent more than two or three days in the semi-trailer box which barely had oxygen.' A team of Mexican federal, state and local agents saved the lives of 218 migrants, including 102 minors, who were inside a trailer heading for the United States border Thursday morning A woman, who perhaps is the parent of the two children sitting on the ground, is attended by a Mexican agent during Thursday morning's rescue The government of state of Nuevo Leon was quick in helping the 218 migrants who were found inside a trailer that was bound from northern Mexico to the U.S. border Thursday On Thursday morning, a joint rescue mission between various law-enforcement agencies freed 218 undocumented migrants, including 102 children, inside a separate trailer traveling along a highway from Reynosa to General Bravo in the state of Nuevo Leon. The truck transporting immigrants from Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras that was also bound for the U.S border. 'Some kids and fathers and mothers fainted since there was no water,' said one of the migrants who was hoping to cross the border into Texas. Wildlife presenter Johnny Kingdom has died following an accident on his land, his family have confirmed. The film-maker, photographer and author, who specialised in his local area of Exmoor and north Devon, was 79. Police were called to a field near Wadham Cross in Knowstone, Devon, to reports that a digger had rolled over at about 9pm on Thursday. Mr Kingdom was pronounced dead at the scene. Johnny Kingdom worked as a gravedigger for more than 50 years. After a tractor accident and a bout of depression, he discovered a passion for film and nature which rocketed him to fame His television agent Hilary Knight paid tribute, saying: 'Today we have lost one of the last true characters of rural Britain. 'Johnny Kingdom embodied all the attributes that are associated with true countrymen. 'Born and bred an Exmoor man through-and-through he loved his Devon patch and all the flora and fauna within. 'He lit up our TV screens with his enthusiasm and passion. He became a very proficient photographer and cameraman and his work became very sought after. 'The various Devon shows, and in particular South Molton market, will be a sadder place without his cheery presence. He will be sadly missed.' Mr Kingdom's family asked for privacy following his death. In a statement, they said: 'This is a short message from the family, unfortunately a legend has been lost. 'Johnny would want you all to continue with his love for Exmoor as you all meant so much to him.' Kingdom started to make his own films after a tractor accident left him depressed. With his camera, he soon discovered the wildlife around him in north Devon Kingdom, a farmer and poacher, was born on February 23, 1939. After a tractor accident, he developed depression, until a friend of his gave him a camera. He then started making his own films, and was discovered by Yorkshire TV after meeting a Times journalist by chance. His series 'Johnny Kingdom: A Year in Exmoor' was shown on BBC2 in 2006. He also witnessed the death of Britain's largest wild land animal, a stag named The Emperor in October 2010. He is understood to have heard the gun shots and seen the stag's bloody head being loaded into a van, in Worthy Folly Woods, near Tiverton. Months later in November 2010, photographs emerged of an animal, which was believed to be The Emperor, being shot and buried on an open field. He said at the time: 'There's no doubt in my mind the stag lying dead in that field is the Emperor. I would know him anywhere. 'The antlers are huge, with a large number of top points.' 'It's nothing to do with me. Whoever took them is a complete amateur because the quality is absolutely dreadful.' The wildlife presenter authored many books, including Johnny Kingdom's wild Exmoor, The Man of Exmoor, and Johnny Kingdom's Westcountry Tales Passionate about nature and the Exmoor area, he lived there all his life. On his blog he praised Exmoor's 'beautiful landscape; the rolling hills, deep valleys, rivers and bubbling streams, woodlands and open moorland'. A spokeswoman for Devon and Cornwall Police said officers were called to a single-vehicle collision in the field on Thursday night. 'It was reported that a digger had rolled over in a field,' the force spokeswoman said. 'Emergency services attended and a 79-year-old local man was pronounced dead at the scene.' BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Illinois! I.L.L.! I.L.L.! Okay, okay. Just checking to see if you're awake. Please have a seat, everybody. It is good to be home. It's good to see corn, beans. I was trying to explain to somebody as we were flying in, that's corn. That's beans. They were very impressed at my agricultural knowledge. Please give it up for Amari, once again, for that outstanding introduction. I have a bunch of good friends here today, including somebody who I served with who is one of the finest senators in the country, and we're lucky to have your senator, Dick Durbin, is here. I also noticed, by the way, former governor Edgar here, who I haven't seen in a long time, and somehow he has not aged and it was great to see him. I want to thank everybody at the U of I system for making it possible for me to be here today. I am deeply honored at the Paul Douglas award that is being given to me. He is somebody who set the path for so much outstanding public service here in Illinois. Now, I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room. I know people are still wondering why I didn't speak at the 2017 commencement. The student body president sent a very thoughtful invitation. Students made a spiffy video, and when I declined, I hear there was speculation that I was boycotting campus until Antonio's pizza reopened. So I want to be clear. I did not take sides in that late-night food debate. The truth is, after eight years in the white house, I needed to spend some time one on one with Michelle if I wanted to stay married. And she says hello, by the way. I also wanted to spend some quality time with my daughters, who were suddenly young women on their way out the door. And I should add, by the way, now that I have a daughter in college, I can tell all the students here, your parents, they cry privately. It is brutal. So please call. Send a text. We need to hear from you. Just a little something. Truth was, I was also intent on following a wise American tradition of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the political stage and making room for new voices and new ideas. Truth was, I was also intent on following a wise American tradition of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the political stage and making room for new voices and new ideas. We have our first president, George Washington, to thank for setting that example. After he led the colonies to victory as General Washington, there were no constraints on him, really. He was practically a god to those who had followed him into battle. There was no constitution. There were no democratic norms that guided what he should or could do. And he could have made himself all-powerful, could have made himself potentially president for life. Instead, he resigned as commander in chief and moved back to his country estate. Six years later, he was elected president. But after two terms, he resigned again and rode off into the sunset. The point Washington made, the point that is essential to American democracy, is that in a government of and by and for the people, there should be no permanent ruling class. There are only citizens, who through their elected and temporary representatives, determine our course and determine our character. I'm here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who it is that we are. Just what it is that we stand for. And as a fellow citizen not as an ex-president, but as a fellow citizen I'm here to deliver a simple message, and that is that you need to vote because our democracy depends on it. Now, some of you may think I'm exaggerating when I say this November's elections are more important than any I can remember in my lifetime. I know politicians say that all the time. I have been guilty of saying it a few times, particularly when I was on the ballot. But just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different. The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire. And it's not as if we haven't had big elections before or big choices to make in our history. Fact is, democracy has never been easy, and our founding fathers argued about everything. We waged a civil war. We overcame depression. We've lurched from eras of great progressive change to periods of still, most Americans alive today, certainly the students who are here, have operated under some common assumptions about who we are and what we stand for. Out of the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression, America adapted a new economy, a 20th century economy, guiding our free market with regulations to protect health and safety and fair competition, empowering workers with union movements, investing in science and infrastructure and educational institutions like U of I, strengthening our system of primary and secondary education, and stitching together a social safety net. All of this led to unrivaled prosperity and the rise of a broad and deep middle class and the sense that if you worked hard, you could climb the ladder of success. Not everyone was included in this prosperity. There was a lot more work to do. And so in response to the stain of slavery and segregation and the reality of racial discrimination, the civil rights movement not only opened new doors for African-Americans but also opened up the floodgates of opportunity for women and Americans with disabilities and LGBT Americans and others to make their own claims to full and equal citizenship. And although discrimination remained a pernicious force in our society and continues to this day, and although there are controversies about how to best ensure genuine equality of opportunity, there's been at least rough agreement among the overwhelming majority of Americans that our country is strongest when everybody's treated fairly, when people are judged on the merits and the content of their character and not the color of their skin or the way in which they worship God or their last names. And that consensus then extended beyond our borders. And from the wreckage of world War II, we built a post-war architecture, system of alliances and institutions to underwrite freedom and oppose Soviet totalitarianism and to help poorer countries develop. American leadership across the globe wasn't perfect. We made mistakes. At times we lost sight of our ideals. We had fierce arguments about Vietnam and we had fierce arguments about Iraq. But thanks to our leadership, a bipartisan leadership, and the efforts of diplomats and peace corps volunteers, and most of all thanks to the constant sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, we not only reduced the prospects of war between the world's great powers, we not only won the Cold War, we helped spread a commitment to certain values and principles like the rule of law and human rights and democracy and the notion of the inherent dignity and worth of every individual. And even those countries that didn't abide by those principles were still subject to shame and still had to at least give lip service to the idea, and that provided a lever to continually improve the prospects for people around the world. That's the story of America. A story of progress, fitful progress, incomplete progress, but progress. And that progress wasn't achieved by just a handful of famous leaders making speeches. It was won because of countless acts of quiet heroism and dedication by citizens, by ordinary people, many of them not much older than you. It was won because rather than be bystanders to history, ordinary people fought and marched and mobilized and built, and yes, voted to make history. Of course, there's always been another darker aspect to America's story. Progress doesn't just move in a straight line. There's a reason why progress hasn't been easy and why throughout our history every two steps forward seems to sometimes produce one step back. Each time we painstakingly pull ourselves closer to our founding ideals, that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, the ideals that say every child should have opportunity and every man and woman in this country who's willing to work hard should be able to find a job and support a family and pursue their small peace of the American dream, ideals that say we have a collective responsibility to care for the sick and the and we have a responsibility to conserve the amazing bounty, the natural resources of this country and of this planet for future generations each time we've gotten closer to those ideals, somebody somewhere has pushed back. The status quo pushes back. Sometimes the backlash comes from people who are genuinely, if wrongly, fearful of change. More often it's manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because it helps them maintain the status quo and keep their power and keep their privilege. And you happen to be coming of age during one of those moments. It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause. He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years, a fear and anger that's rooted in our past but it's also born out of the enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes. By the way, it is brief. When I heard Amari was 11 when I got elected and now he's like started a company that was yesterday! But think about it. You've come of age in a smaller, more connected world where demographic shifts and the wind of change have scrambled not only traditional economic arrangements but our social arrangements and our religious commitments and our civic institutions. Most of you don't remember a time before 9/11, when you didn't have to take off your shoes at an airport. Most of you don't remember a time when America wasn't at war or when money and images and information could travel instantly around the globe. Or when the climate wasn't changing faster than our efforts to address it. This change has happened fast, faster than any time in human history. And it created a new economy that has unleashed incredible prosperity, but it's also upended people's lives in profound ways. For those with unique skills or access to technology and capital, a global market has meant unprecedented wealth. For those not so lucky, for the factory worker, for the office worker, or even middle managers, those same forces may have wiped out your job or at least put you in no position to ask for a raise, and as wages slowed and inequality accelerated, those at the top of the economic pyramid have been able to influence government to skew things even more in their direction. Cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans, unwinding regulations and weakening worker protections, shrinking the safety net. So you have come of age during a time of growing inequality, a fracturing of economic opportunity. And that growing economic divide compounded other divisions in our country. Regional, racial, religious, cultural. And made it harder to build consensus on issues. It made politicians less willing to compromise, which increased gridlock, which made people even more cynical about politics. And then the reckless behavior of financial elites triggered a massive financial crisis. Ten years ago this week a crisis that resulted in the worst recession in any of our lifetimes and caused years of hardship for the American people. For many of your parents, for many of your families. Most of you weren't old enough to fully focus on what was going on at the time, but when I came into office in 2009, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. 800,000. Millions of people were losing their homes. Many were worried we were entering into a second great depression. So we worked hard to end that crisis but also to break some of these longer term trends. The actions we took during that crisis returned the economy to healthy growth and initiated the longest streak of job creation on record. And we covered another 20 million Americans with health insurance and cut our deficits by more than half, partly by making sure that people like me who have been given such amazing opportunities by this country pay our fair share of taxes to help folks coming up behind me. And by the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate hit an all-time low, poverty rates were falling. I mention this just so when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started. I'm glad it's continued, but when you hear about this economic miracle that's been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers and suddenly Republicans are saying it's a miracle, I have to kind of remind them, actually, those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016 and -- anyway. I digress. So we made progress, but -- and this is the truth -- my administration couldn't reverse 40-year trends in only eight especially once Republicans took over the House of Representatives in 2010 and decided to block everything we did. Even things they used to support. So we pulled the economy out of crisis, but to this day, too many people who once felt solidly middle class still feel very real and very personal economic insecurity. Even though we took out bin Laden and wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, got Iran to halt its nuclear program, the world's still full of threats and disorder that come streaming through people's televisions every single day. And these challenges get people worried and it frays our civic trust and it makes a lot of people feel like the fix is in and the game is rigged and nobody's looking out for them. Especially those communities outside our big urban centers. And even though your generation is the most diverse in history with a greater acceptance and celebration of our differences than ever before, those are the kinds of conditions that are ripe for exploitation by politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into America's dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division. Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do, that's an old playbook. It's as old as time. And in a healthy democracy, it doesn't work. Our antibodies kick in, and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fear mongers and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature. But when there's a vacuum in our democracy, when we don't vote, when we take our basic rights and freedoms for granted, when we turn away and stop paying attention and stop engaging and stop believing and look for the newest diversion, the electronic versions of bread and circuses, then other voices fill the void. A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold and demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems. No promise to fight for the little guy, even as they cater to the wealthiest and most powerful. No promise to clean up corruption and then plunder away. They start undermining norms that ensure accountability and try to change the rules to entrench their power further. They appeal to racial nationalism that's barely veiled, if veiled at all. Sound familiar? I understand this is not just a matter of Democrats versus Republicans or liberals versus conservatives. At various times in our history, this kind of politics has infected both parties. Southern Democrats were the bigger defenders of slavery. It took a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, to end it. Although it was a Democratic president and a majority Democrat Congress spurred on by young marchers and protesters that got the Civil Rights Act and the voting rights act over the finish line, those historic laws also got passed because of the leadership of Republicans like Illinois's own Everett Dirksen. So neither party has had a monopoly on wisdom. Neither party has been exclusively responsible for us going backwards instead of forwards. But I have to say this because sometimes we hear a plague on both your houses. Over the past few decades, it wasn't true when Jim Edgar was governor here in Illinois. But over the past few decades, the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican party. This Congress has championed the unwinding of campaign finance laws to give billionaires outside influence over our politics. Systematically attacked voting rights to make it harder for young people and minorities and the poor to vote. Handed out tax cuts without regard to deficits. Slashed the safety net wherever it could, cast dozens of votes to take away health insurance from ordinary Americans, embraced wild conspiracy theories like those surrounding Benghazi or my birth certificate, rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change, embraced a rising absolutism from a willingness to default on America's debt by not paying our bills to a refusal to even meet much less consider a qualified nominee for the supreme court because he happened to be nominated by a Democratic president. None of this is conservative. I don't mean to pretend I'm channelling Abraham Lincoln now, but that's not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican party. It's not conservative. It sure isn't normal. It's radical. It's a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters even when it hurts the country. It's a vision that says the few who can afford high-price lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions set the agenda, and over the past two years, this vision is now nearing its logical conclusion. So with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, without any checks or balances whatsoever, they've provided another $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to people like me who I promise don't need it and don't even pretend to pay for them. It's supposed to be the party supposedly of fiscal conservatism. Suddenly deficits do not matter. Even though just two years ago when the deficit was lower, they said I couldn't afford to help working families or seniors on medicare because the deficit was in existential crisis. What changed? What changed? They're subsidizing corporate polluters with taxpayer dollars, allowing dishonest lenders to take advantage of veterans and consumers and students again. They've made it so that the only nation on Earth to pull out of the global climate agreement, it's not North Korea, it's not Syria, it's not Russia or Saudi Arabia, it's us. The only country. There are a lot of countries in the world. We're the only ones. They're undermining our alliances, cozying up to Russia. What happened to the Republican party? Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism, and now they're cozying up to the former head of the KGB. Actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russian attack. What happened? Their sabotage of the affordable care act has already cost more than 3 million Americans their health insurance, and if they're still in power next fall, you better believe they're coming at it again. They've said so. In a healthy democracy, there's some checks and balances on this kind of behavior, this kind of inconsistency, but right now there's nothing. Republicans who know better in Congress, and they're there, they're quoted saying, yeah, we know this is kind of crazy, are still bending over backwards to shield this behavior from scrutiny or accountability or consequence, seem utterly unwilling to find the backbone to safeguard the institutions that make our democracy work. And by the way, the claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the president's orders, that is not a check. I'm being serious here. That's not how our democracy's supposed to work. These people aren't elected. They're not accountable. They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this white house, and then saying, don't worry, we're preventing the other 10%. That's not how things are supposed to work. This is not normal. These are extraordinary times. And they're dangerous times. But here's the good news. In two months we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics. Because there is actually only one real check on bad policy and abuse of power. That's you. You and your vote. Look, Americans will always have disagreements on policy. This is a big country. It is a raucous country. I happen to be a Democrat. I believe our policies are better and we have a bigger, bolder vision of equality and justice and inclusive democracy. We know there are a lot of jobs young people aren't getting a chance to occupy or aren't getting paid enough or aren't getting benefits like insurance. It's harder for young people to save for a rainy day let alone retirement. So Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage, they're running on good new ideas like medicare for all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate. We know that people are tired of toxic corruption and that democracy depends on transparency and accountability, so Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns, but on good new ideas like barring lobbyists from getting paid by foreign governments. We know that climate change isn't just coming. It's here. So Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like increasing gas mileage in our cars, which I did and which Republicans are trying to reverse, but on good new ideas like putting a price on carbon pollution. We know in a smaller, more connected world, we can't just put technology back in a box. We can't just put walls up all around America. Walls don't keep out threats like terrorism or disease. And that's why we propose leading our alliances and helping other countries develop and pushing back against tyrants. Democrats talk about reforming our immigration system so, yes, it is orderly and it is fair and it is legal, but it continues to welcome strivers and dreamers from all around the world. That's why I'm a Democrat. That's a set of ideas that I believe in. But I am here to tell you that even if you don't agree with me or Democrats on policy, even if you believe in more libertarian economic theories, even if you are an evangelical and our position on certain social issues is a bridge too far, even if you think my assessment of immigration is mistaken and the Democrats aren't serious enough about immigration enforcement, I'm here to tell you that you should still be concerned with our current course and should still want to see a restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in our government. It should not be Democratic or Republican. It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents. Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. I'm not making that up. That's not hypothetical. It shouldn't be Democratic or Republican to say that we don't threaten the freedom of the press because they say things or publish stories we don't like. I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people. It shouldn't be democratic or Republican to say we don't target certain groups of people based on what they look like or how they pray. We are Americans. We're supposed to stand up to bullies. Not follow them. We're supposed to stand up to discrimination, and we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad. I'll be honest, sometimes I get into arguments with progressive friends about what the current political movement requires. There are well-meaning folks passionate about social justice who think things have gotten so bad, the lines have been so starkly drawn, that we have to fight fire with fire. We have to do the same things to the Republicans that they do to adopt their tactics. Say whatever works. Make up stuff about the other. I don't agree with that. It's not because I'm soft. It's not because I'm interested in promoting an empty bipartisanship. I don't agree with it because eroding our civic institutions and our civic trust and making people angrier and yelling at each other and making people cynical about government, that always works better for those who don't believe in the power of collective action. You don't need an effective government or a robust press or reasoned debate to work when all you're concerned about is maintaining power. In fact, the more cynical people are about government, the angrier and more dispirited they are about the prospects for change, the more likely the powerful are able to maintain their power. But we believe that in order to move this country forward, to actually solve problems and make people's lives better, we need a well-functioning government. We need our civic institutions to work. We need cooperation among people of different political persuasions. And to make that work, we have to restore our faith in democracy. We have to bring people together, not tear them apart. We need majorities in Congress and state legislatures who are serious about governing and want to bring about real change and improvements in people's lives. And we won't win people over by calling them names or dismissing entire chunks of the country as racist or sexist or homophobic. When I say bring people together, I mean all of our people. This whole notion that has sprung up recently about Democrats needing to choose between trying to appeal to white working class voters or voters of color and women and LGBT Americans, that's nonsense. I don't buy that. I got votes from every demographic. We won by reaching out to everybody and competing everywhere and by fighting for every vote. And that's what we've got to do in this election and every election after that. And we can't do that if we immediately disregard what others have to say from the start because they're not like us, because they're white or they're black or they're man or a woman or they're gay or they're straight. If we think that somehow there's no way they can understand how I'm feeling and therefore don't have any standing to speak on certain matters because we're only defined by certain characteristics, that doesn't work if you want a healthy we can't do that if we traffic in absolute when it comes to make democracy work, we have to be able to get inside the reality of people who are different, have different experiences, come from different backgrounds. We have to engage them even when it is frustrating. We have to listen to them, even when we don't like what they have to say. We have to hope that we can change their minds, and we have to remain open to them changing ours. And that doesn't mean, by the way, abandoning our principles or caving to bad policy in the interests of maintaining some phony version of civility. That seems to be, by the way, the definition of civility offered by too many Congressional Republicans right now. We will be polite so long as we get 100% of what we want and you don't call us out on the various ways we're sticking it to people. And we'll click our tongues and issue vague statements of disappointment when the president does something outrageous, but we won't actually do anything about it. That's not civility. That's abdicating your responsibilities. But again, I digress. Making democracy work means holding on to our principles, having clarity about our principles, and then having the confidence to get in the arena and have a serious debate. It also means appreciating progress does not happen all at once but when you put your shoulder to the wheel, if you're willing to fight for it, things do get better. And let me tell you something, particularly young people here. Better is good. I used to have to tell my young staff this all the time in the white house. Better is good. That's the history of progress in this country. Not perfect, better. The civil rights act didn't end racism, but it made things better. Social security didn't eliminate all poverty for seniors, but it made things better for millions of people. Do not let people tell you the fight's not worth it because you won't get everything that you want. The idea that, well, you know, there's racism in America, so I'm not going to bother voting, no point, that makes no sense. You can make it better. Better is always worth fighting for. That's how our founders expected this system of self-government to work. Through the testing of ideas and the application of reason and evidence and proof, we could sort through our differences, and nobody would get exactly what they wanted, but it would be possible to find a basis for common ground. And that common ground exists. Maybe it's not fashionable to say that right now. It's hard to see it with all the nonsense in Washington. It's hard to hear it with all the noise. But common ground exists. I have seen it. I have lived it. I know there are white people who care deeply about black people being treated unfairly. I have talked to them and loved them, and I know there are black people who care deeply about the struggles of white rural I'm one of them. And I have a track record to prove it. I know there are evangelicals who are deeply committed to doing something about climate change. I've seen them do the work. I know there are conservatives who think there's nothing compassionate about separating immigrant children from their mothers. I know there are Republicans who believe government should only perform a few minimal functions but that one of those functions should be making sure nearly 3,000 Americans don't die in a hurricane and its aftermath. Common ground is out there. I see it every day. It's just how people interact, how people treat each other. You see it on the ball field. You see it at work. You see it in places of worship. But to say that common ground exists doesn't mean it will inevitably win out. History shows the power of fear and the closer that we get to Election Day, the more those invested in the politics of fear and division will work -- will do anything to hang on to their recent gains. Fortunately, I am hopeful because out of this political darkness, I am seeing a great awakening of citizenship all across the country. I cannot tell you how encouraged I've been by watching so many people get involved for the first time or the first time in a long time. They're marching and they're organizing and they're registering people to vote and they're running for office themselves. Look at this crop of Democratic candidates running for Congress and governor, running for the state legislature, running for district attorney, running for school board. It is a movement of citizens who happen to be younger and more diverse and more female than ever before, and that's really useful. We need more women in charge. But we have first-time candidates. We have veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Record numbers of women. Americans who have previously maybe didn't have an interest in politics as a career but laced up their shoes and rolled up their sleeves and grabbed a clipboard because they, too, believe this time's different. This moment's too important to sit out. And if you listen to what these candidates are talking about in individual races across the country, you'll find they're not just running against something, they're running for something. They're running to expand opportunity and running to restore the honor to public service. And speaking as a Democrat, that's when the Democratic party has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people. When we led with conviction and principle and bold new ideas. The antidote to a government controlled by a powerful few, a government that divides is a government by the organized, energized, inclusive many. That's what this moment's about. That has to be the answer. You cannot sit back and wait for a savior. You can't opt out because you don't feel sufficiently inspired by this or that particular candidate. This is not a rock concert. This is not Coachella. We don't need a messiah. All we need are decent, honest, hard-working people who are accountable and who have America's best interests at heart. And they'll step up and they'll join our government, and they will make things better if they have support. One election will not fix everything that needs to be fixed. But it will be a start. And you have to start it. What's going to fix our democracy is you. People ask me, what are you going to do for the election? No, the question is what are you going to do? You're the antidote. Your participation and your spirit and your determination, not just in this election, but in every subsequent election and in the days between elections. Because in the end, the threat to our democracy doesn't just come from Donald Trump or the current batch of Republicans in Congress or the Koch brothers and their lobbyists or too much compromise from Democrats or Russian hacking. The biggest threat to our democracy is indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism. Cynicism led too many people to turn away from politics and stay home on Election Day. To all the young people who are here today, there are now more eligible voters in your generation than in any other, which means your generation now has more power than anybody to change things. If you want it, you can make sure America gets out of its current funk. If you actually care about it, you have the power to make sure what we see is a brighter future. But to exercise that clout, to exercise that power, you have to show up. In the last midterm elections in 2014, fewer than one in five young people voted. One in five. Not two in five or three. One in five. Is it any wonder this Congress doesn't reflect your values and your priorities? Are you surprised by that? This whole project of self-government only works if everybody's doing their part. Don't tell me your vote doesn't matter. I've won states in the presidential election because of 5, 10, 20 votes per precinct. And if you thought elections don't matter, I hope these last two years have corrected that impression. So if you don't like what's going on right now, and you shouldn't, do not complain, don't hashtag, don't get anxious, don't retreat, don't binge on whatever it is you're bingeing on, don't lose yourself in ironic detachment, don't put your head in the sand, don't boo. Vote. Vote. If you are really concerned about how the criminal justice system treats African-Americans, the best way to protest is to vote. Not just for senators and representatives but for mayors and sheriffs and state legislators. Do what they just did in Philadelphia and Boston and elect states attorneys and district attorneys who are looking at issues in a new light, who realize that the vast majority of law enforcement do the right thing in a really hard job, and we just need to make sure all of them do. If you're tired of politicians who offer nothing but thoughts and prayers after a mass shooting, you've got to do what the Parkland kids are doing. Some of them aren't even eligible to vote yet. They're out there working to change minds and registering people. And they're not giving up until we have a Congress that sees your lives as more important than a campaign check from the you've got to vote. If you support the #metoo movement, you're outraged by stories of sexual harassment and assault, inspired by the women who have shared them, you've got to do more than retweet a hashtag. You've got to vote. Part of the reason women are more vulnerable in the workplace is because not enough women are bosses in the workplace. Which is why we need to strengthen and enforce laws that protect women in the workplace, not just from harassment, but from discrimination in hiring and promotion and not getting paid the same amount for doing the same work. That requires laws, laws get passed by legislators. You've got to vote. When you vote, you've got the power to make it easier to afford college and harder to shoot up a school. When you vote, you've got the power to make sure a family keeps its health insurance. You could save somebody's life. When you vote, you've got the power to make sure white nationalists don't feel emboldened to March with their hoods off or their hoods on in Charlottesville in the middle of the day. 30 minutes. 30 minutes of your time. Is democracy worth that? We have been through much darker times than these. And somehow each generation of Americans carried us through to the other side. Not by sitting around and waiting for something to happen, not by leaving it to others to do something, but by leading that movement for change themselves. And if you do that, if you get involved and you get engaged and you knock on some doors and you talk with your friends and you argue with your family members and you change some minds and you vote, something powerful happens. Change happens. Hope happens. Not perfection, not every bit of cruelty and sadness and poverty and disease suddenly stricken from the Earth. There will still be problems, but with each new candidate that surprises you with a victory that you supported, a spark of hope happens. With each new law that helps a kid read or helps a homeless family find shelter or helps a veteran get the support he or she has earned, each time that happens hope happens. With each new step we take in the direction of fairness and justice and equality and opportunity, hope spreads. And that can be the legacy of your generation. You can be the generation that at a critical moment stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it. I believe in you. I believe you will help lead us in the right direction, and I will be right there with you every step of the way. Thank you, Illinois. God bless you. God bless this country we love. Thank you. Jemima Goldsmith has launched an attack on her ex-husband Imran Khan's government for bowing to far-right pressure and sacking an economist because of his Ahmadi Muslim faith. Pakistan's government backed down today over its decision to appoint Atif Mian - considered one of the world's top young economists - as an advisor, underscoring the pressure it faces from hardline Islamists. But the move has been slammed as 'indefensible and very disappointing' by Goldsmith, who was married to Pakistan's new premier Imran Khan from 1995 to 2004. Goldsmith, who is Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith's sister and who has two children with Khan, wrote in a tweet: 'Indefensible & v disappointing. New Pak gov asks renowned & respected Prof of economics to stand down because of his Ahmadi faith. NB: The founder of Pakistan, "Quaid-I-Azam" appointed an Ahmadi as his Foreign Minister.' Jemima Goldsmith has launched an attack on her ex-husband Imran Khan's (right) government for bowing to far-right pressure and sacking an economist because of his Ahmadi Muslim faith. Goldsmith is pictured (left) with Khan in June, 1995 The move has been slammed by Jemima Goldsmith, who married Pakistan's new premier Imran Khan in 1995 and before divorcing him in 2004. In a tweet (above), she called the decision 'indefensible' Goldsmith praised her ex husband's 'tenacity, belief and refusal to accept defeat' when he won the general election to become Pakistan's Prime Minister, explaining: '22 years later, after humiliations, hurdles and sacrifices, my sons' father is Pakistan's next PM'. But she warned at the time: 'The challenge now is to remember why he entered politics in the 1st place. Congratulations.' Mian, a 43-year-old economics professor at Princeton University, was recently named member of a new economic advisory council. He is an Ahmadi, a religious minority which has long been persecuted in deeply conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, and the announcement sparked swift backlash from Islamist groups. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, but their beliefs are seen as blasphemous in most mainstream Islamic schools of thought. They are designated non-Muslims in Pakistan's constitution. Government officials initially defended the decision, with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry vowing 'Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority... we will not bow to extremists' in a video clip which went viral. Three days later his government caved to the mounting pressure from the religious right. 'The government has decided to withdraw the nomination of Atif Mian from the economic advisory committee,' Chaudhry tweeted, saying they wanted to work with all sections of society, including Islamic clerics. Goldsmith, who has two children with Khan (pictured together in 2002), wrote in a tweet: 'Indefensible & v disappointing. New Pak gov asks renowned & respected Prof of economics to stand down because of his Ahmadi faith. NB: The founder of Pakistan, "Quaid-I-Azam" appointed an Ahmadi as his Foreign Minister' Mian (pictured), a 43-year-old economics professor at Princeton University, was recently named member of a new economic advisory council Blasphemy is a hugely inflammatory charge in Pakistan, and can carry the death penalty. The state has never executed a blasphemy convict, but mere accusations of insulting Islam have sparked mob lynchings, vigilante murders, and mass protests. Friday's announcement divided Pakistani social media, with the hardliners praising it while others slammed the government's 'cowardice', and Prime Minister Khan's failure to hold firm under pressure. 'This is sad and shameful. Pakistan should be for all not a hostage to some hate mongers,' wrote consultant and columnist Yousuf Nazar. But 'Those who are ashamed can go to hell with their thoughts,' tweeted another user, Farkhi. Friday's decision came after Islamists also forced the federal law minister to resign his post following anti-blasphemy protests last November, in a deal brokered by the military. Friday's announcement divided Pakistani social media, with the hardliners praising it while others slammed the government's 'cowardice', and Khan's failure to hold firm under pressure Those protests were led by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a radical preacher whose political party, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) also contested the July 25 election which brought Khan's government to power. TLP wants the automatic death penalty for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. Rizvi had vowed to 'wipe Holland off the face of the earth' if he came to power in the nuclear-armed country. Who are the Ahmadi? Atif Mian is an Ahmadi, a religious minority which has long been persecuted in deeply conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, but their beliefs are seen as blasphemous in most mainstream Islamic schools of thought. Under Pakistani law, Ahmadis are forbidden from calling themselves Muslims or using Islamic symbols in their religious practices. Their recognition of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the sect in British-ruled India in 1889, as a 'subordinate prophet' is viewed by many of the Sunni majority as a breach of the Islamic tenet that the Prophet Mohammad was God's last direct messenger. Ghulam Ahmad saw himself as a renewer of Islam and claimed to have been chosen by Allah. They face discrimination and violence over accusations their faith insults Islam, including impediments blocking them from voting in general elections. Advertisement The group gained no national seats, but won more than 2.23 million votes in the national assembly and more than 2.38 million provincial votes - a spectacularly rapid rise for an organisation which had gained national prominence less than a year earlier. Khan, meanwhile, caused concern with his full-throated defence of Pakistan's blasphemy laws during his campaign, with fears he was mainstreaming extremist thought which could deepen sectarian divides, empower radical groups, and even provoke violence. Last month, his government loudly protested plans by Dutch populist Geert Wilders to stage a Prophet Mohammad cartoon competition, as Islamist groups led by TLP held demonstrations calling for Pakistan to sever diplomatic relations with the Netherlands. Wilders later cancelled the competition, citing security fears. Analysts have warned that Pakistan's economy is the most urgent challenge facing Khan's new government, as a balance-of-payments crisis looms. The government has said it will decide by the end of this month if it needs to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio skewered one of his Democratic colleagues on Friday for calling a camera-ready stunt during a hearing his 'Spartacus moment.' With a televised flourish, New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker released a collection of previously secret documents about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's views on racial profiling after the 9/11 terror attacks, and portrayed himself as a progressive crusader. With a global audience watching, Booker proclaimed that he was making the material public against the wishes of Republicans despite the fact that they had already cleared them for publication the night before. 'This is about the closest I'll probably ever have in my life to an, "I am Spartacus" moment,' he said. Rubio turned it into a moment of mockery that quickly went viral 'On this day in 71B.C. the Thracian gladiator Spartacus was put to death by Marcus Licinius Crassus for disclosing confidential scrolls,' he tweeted. 'When informed days later that in fact the Roman Senate had already publicly released the scrolls, Crassus replied Oh, ok, my bad.' Democratic Sen. Corey Booker released documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's past on Thursday with a grand flourish even though they were already no longer secret, proclaiming it his 'I" am Spartacus" moment' Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, mocked him on Twitter with a joke about the historical Spartacus making a similar gaffe In Hollywood's version, Spartacus leads an audacious slave revolt only to die at the end when equally daring comrades refuse to let him face crucifixion alone The name Spartacus has become a symbol of resistance to power because he escaped and went on to lead a slave army against the Roman empire despite the fact that no one in power knew who he was. In the 1960 Kirk Douglas movie about him, the rebels are captured and the Roman soldiers threaten to crucify all of them unless their leader identifies himself and agrees to die alone. 'I am Spartacus!' he announces. And one by one his soldiers stand and repeat his words, claiming to be the traitor and sharing his gruesome fate because the Romans still have no idea which one is the real Spartacus. Karl Marx saw story as a model for the devotion required for an organized socialist resistance to capitalist economies. Booker's cache of documents revealed no new bombshells, despite his emphasis that he was willing to risk being expelled from the Senate for revealing them. Conservative pundits leapt to hammer him after a look at the material revealed only that Kavanaugh had argued for a 'truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral' policy during the George W. Bush administration. And a prominent House Republican piled on Friday morning in a Fox News Channel interview. What Ive watched over the last couple days are a bunch of people who want to be the nominee in 2020 and its sad, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said. The Senate Judiciary Committee was running a confirmation hearing Thursday for Supreme Courtnominee Brett Kavanaugh; the documents Booker revealed ended up showing the opposite of what Democrats hoped What Ive watched over the last couple days are a bunch of people who want to be the nominee in 2020 and its sad, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said of Booker's stunt Booker is widely expected to announce in the coming months that he's running for president in 2020 against Donald Trump. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley jumped in on Thursday and implied Booker was grandstanding: 'Can I ask you how long you are going to say the same thing three or four times?' Cornyn took his own shot: 'Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate.' Tesla's top accountant announced on Friday that he was stepping down after just one month on the job, citing the electric car company's frenetic pace. News of chief accounting officer Dave Morton's departure added to the sense of uncertainty surrounding the company, sending Tesla shares lower in pre-market trading. Ahead of the shakeup, chief executive Elon Musk gave a bizarre interview late on Thursday in which he was seen smoking marijuana on footage from Joe Rogan's podcast. Communications Vice President Sarah O'Brien is also leaving after two years at the company, with her last day being on Friday. O'Brien had been on leave. HR boss Gabrielle (Gaby) Toledano's last day with Tesla is also on Friday, also after being on leave for the last month, Bloomberg News reported. Meanwhile, shares plummeted to nine percent on Friday morning, wiping $4.3 billion off the company's value, before recovering slightly to down 6.3 percent and a drop of $3.1 billion by the end of the day. Tesla's chief accounting officer Dave Morton (pictured) announced on Friday that he was stepping down after just one month on the job, citing the electric car company's frenetic pace and 'the level of public attention placed on the company' Morton gave notice on Tuesday that he was resigning, according to a filing on Friday. 'Since I joined Tesla on August 6, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations,' Morton said in the securities filing. 'As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting.' The initial total nine percent share decrease that followed Morton's announcement took Tesla's value from $47.5 billion to $44.4 billion on Friday morning. Tesla shares dropped one percent after Musk's appearance on the Rogan podcast on Thursday, but then fell another seven percent in the half hour after the announcement of Morton's resignation. The full experience: Tesla founder Elon Musk was seen smoking a joint in Joe Rogan's podcast recording studio, hours before the share price dropped by nine per cent Communications Vice President Sarah O'Brien (right) is also leaving after two years at Tesla after coming over from Apple in 2016, with her last day being on Friday Tesla share prices were down nine percent on Friday morning before a slight uptick, resting at least temporarily at being down just under seven percent at 1pm Eastern on Friday Share prices bottomed out at being down nine percent on Friday morning before a slight uptick, resting at least temporarily at being down just under seven percent at 1pm Eastern on Friday. The company finished down 6.3 percent, with $3.1 billion off its total value by the end of the day on Friday. Tesla has already been under heightened scrutiny since Musk's chaotic announcement on August 7 on Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private, a plan that was reversed two weeks later. The ill-fated effort has prompted a US securities investigation and a class-action lawsuit alleging Musk was trying to punish investors who bet against the company. In an interview with comedian Rogan on Thursday, Musk drank whiskey and tried a marijuana-and-tobacco cigarette proffered by the comedian as he mused about artificial intelligence and colonizing space. Towards the end of the podcast, Rogan lit a 'cigar' rolled with both tobacco and marijuana - a drug which is legal in the state of California - and offered it to Musk. Puffing away: Musk clarified that the drug is legal, and took a puff before handing it back During the podcast, the pair discussed everything from kindness to artificial intelligence but also Musk's electric car company Tesla 'You probably can't do this because of stockholders, right?,' Rogan asks Musk. Musk, who earlier joked that mushrooms - both a harmless fungi and an psychedelic drug - are 'delicious', clarified that the drug is legal, and was seen taking a puff on the joint before handing it back. 'I'm not a regular smoker of weed. Almost never,' he told Rogan. 'I don't actually notice any effect. I know a lot of people like weed, and that's fine, however I don't find it's very good for productivity.' The appearance was the latest unorthodox move by Musk, who has often surprised investors with brash and unpredictable behavior as Tesla has sought to live up to lofty manufacturing targets for its Model 3 electric car. Musk called Vernon Unsworth (pictured) a pedophile after the British diver criticized the Tesla CEOs submarine Earlier this week, Musk also accused a British diver who helped rescue the 12 Thai boys stuck in a cave of being a pedophile. Musk suggested in emails to a BuzzFeed journalist that diver Vernon Unsworth was a 'child rapist'. Musk also claimed, without providing any evidence, that Unsworth had moved to northern Thailand to take 'a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.' The Tesla CEO's attacks on Unsworth, whose efforts were considered crucial to the Thai operation, came after the British diver criticized a well-publicized effort by Musk to lend a custom-built mini-submarine to the cave rescue effort. Musk responded on Twitter with comments strongly implying that the Briton was a pedophile. He then apologized for this, before repeating the claims this week. Regarding O'Brien's departure from the vice president of communications role, Tesla said in a statement issued on August 25 that the move had been planned for at least 'a couple of months.' 'We'd like to thank Sarah for all her contributions to Tesla and we wish her the best,' a Tesla spokesperson told Bloomberg News in an emailed statement. 'Sarah's transition has been underway for a couple of months and Dave Arnold, Tesla's Sr. Director of Global Communications, will take on her responsibilities.' O'Brien reportedly made the call to move on before Musk tweeted about taking the company private with Saudi Arabian investors on August 7. None of the departing executive have publicly announced their next moves at this time. O'Brien came to the company from Apple in 2016. Toledano joined Tesla in May 2017 as chief people officer. Pope Francis has hit out at what he describes as a money-centred culture that 'promotes poverty, slavery and waste'. The Pope ranted about modern society in an interview with Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, saying it valued money over people. The pontiff said: 'We can't ignore the fact that an economy structured like this kills because it makes money central and only obeys money. Pope Francis criticised the structure of modern society, saying it 'idolises' and 'obeys' money 'When people are no longer central, when making money becomes the one and only objective, then we're outside all ethics and that's how we get structures of poverty, slavery and waste.' Talking about unemployment in Europe, the pope decried 'an economic system that is no longer able to create jobs, because it idolises money'. The Argentine pope has repeatedly criticised what he calls the 'culture of waste' which excludes the poorest and weakest people and destroys the environment. 'There is still much work to do to reduce behaviour and choices that don't respect the environment and the planet,' he said. 'It is imperative to promote integral human development, reduce inequalities... and abandon consumerism,' he added. The pontiff also criticised our 'culture of waste', which excludes the poorest of people and destroys the environment The pope also slammed modern society for promoting selfishness and destroying the sense of community. He said: 'There is lacking awareness of a common origin... and of a future to build together. This basic awareness would allow for the development of new attitudes and lifestyles. 'Distribution and participation in the wealth produced, social responsibility, company welfare, wage equality between men and women, harmony between time for work and time for life, respect for the environment, recognition of the importance of man compared to machines, recognition of a fair salary and the capacity for innovation are important elements that keep the community dimension alive.' Pope Francis' comments come after he was accused of knowing about sexual abuse within the church for years. An 11-page text penned by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's former ambassador to the US, claimed that Pope Francis knew about sex abuse allegations since 2013. Vigano even claimed the pontiff tried to cover up for Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who resigned this year after a series of sexual assault allegations. The ultimate registration plate for a wealthy Rolls-Royce owner is set to sell for more than 600,000 this week - a record-breaking figure. 'RR1', described as 'one of the most special' registration plates in the world, became the most expensive plate when it was sold for a then whopping 4,800 In 1968. And 50 years later its value has since soared 12,400%. A fierce saleroom battle is expected to take place when this plate is auctioned off by Bonhams at the Goodwood Revival in West Sussex on Saturday. The registration, currently owned by Bentley, has been given a guide price of 500,000 to 600,000, potentially smashing the current auction record for a plate which stands at 518,000. RR1: One of 'the most special and easily identifiable registration plates in the world' Ferrari dealer John Collins paid the current record figure for '25 O' - perfect for a number of 1960s Ferraris. But 'RR1' is ideally suited to any Rolls-Royce model. It is also more valuable than the on-the-road base price of any current Roller, with the new Phantom costing from 360,000. Also on sale tomorrow for 2million is a Rolls-Royce used by The Queen and other members of the Royal family. The burgundy 1955 Phantom IV State Landaulette, one of just 18 ever produced, is being put on the market after four decades of Royal service. For sale: Her Majesty the Queen's burgundy 1955 Phantom IV State Landaulette (pictured) is being put on the market by auctioneers for 2million after four decades of Royal service The Rolls-Royce Phantom IV State Landaulette is one of just 18 ever produced worldwide It was kept in the Royal Mews from 1959 to 2002. An identical car was used to take Meghan Markle and her mother Doria to her wedding to Prince Harry at Windsor Castle this summer. The 'RR 1' license plate would be a 'perfect edition' to any Rolls-Royce, said Toby Wilson, from Bonhams. 'This is one of the most special and easily identifiable registration plates in the world,' he said. 'It evokes the illustrious history of Rolls-Royce, and would be the perfect addition to any Rolls, whether classic or modern. 'It is one of the most exciting pieces of automobilia that I have handled, and should be set to make an impressive world record.' Bonhams will be also be auctioning year a 1972 Ferrari Dino 246GT first bought by Keith Richards, estimated to sell for 300,000-400,000. Sholto Gilbertson, Director of Motor Cars at Bonhams said: 'If you want to feel like a Rock God, this is the car for you. 'The stunning low-sloping bonnet, purring engine power and 0 50 mph acceleration time.' Sometimes I post a particular report from the health page of Efecto Cocuyo, a Venezuelan dissident site. But this time I'll just list some of recent headlines, going back to late August: 15-year-old boy, lacking both chemotherapy and morphine, dies of cancer. "We're teaching doctors so they can leave the country," doctors lament. Depression: What it is, how it's treated, and how to help. Lesion cases in hemophiliac patients increasing for lack of treatment; eight have died so far this year. Diphtheria epidemic continues active in 20 Venezuelan states, says PAHO; 48 deaths so far this year. Five types of immunosuppression drugs now available in pharmacies. Colombia confirms 63 measles cases since the first case was imported from Venezuela. Delta Amacuro state has most measles cases and reports 53 deaths. (Also over 50 measles deaths in Yanomami communities. Australian Instagram model Sinead McNamara was just days away from a family reunion when she was found hanged off the back of a billionaire's superyacht in Greece. The 20-year-old was preparing to head back to Australia to see her family when she died on August 31. It's understood McNamara's mother, father and sister only travelled to Athens after they found out she had been found unconscious at the back of the Mayan Queen IV, The Daily Telegraph reported. Australian Instagram model Sinead McNamara (pictured) was just days away from a family reunion when she was found hanged off the back of a billionaire's super yacht in Greece The Instagram model even shared an Instagram post in the lead up to her eagerly-awaited return to Australia describing her excitement just before she died. 'Living & working on a boat seeing all that the world has to offer. yep I think I have it pretty good,' she said. 'Today's a day for being grateful anddd (sic.) it is less then a month till I get to see my family & friends in Aus. Excitement overload!!' The Instagram model had even shared an Instagram post (pictured) in the lead up to her eagerly-awaited return to Australia - describing her excitement - just before she died The news comes just days after the family's lawyer Charalampos Triantafyllopoulos revealed that McNamara had allegedly spoken to her brother before she was found unconscious. The 20-year-old also rang mum Kylie to tell her about an incident with another crew member on board the $190million Mayan Queen IV, which was docked in Argostoli on the Greek island of Kefalonia. It follows reports the model was struggling with a bad breakup, as officers review photographs and messages on her phone to piece together her final hours alive. Instagram model Sinead McNamara rang her mother in tears before taking her own life, according to the family's Greek lawyer The 20-year-old rang mum Kylie to tell her about an incident with another crew member on board the $190million Mayan Queen IV The young Instagram model was found hanged off the back of the Mayan Queen IV (pictured), an AUD$190million superyacht docked at the Greek port Argostoli owned by a billionaire Prior to that, the family claim Ms McNamara had been happy and enjoying her work as a stewardess on the six-storey yacht, which is owned by Mexican billionaire Alberto Bailleres. The family are now demanding answers as to why there was an apparent delay in airlifting her to a hospital in Athens. A doctor on board the yacht is understood to have tried to resuscitate her before she was taken to a hospital in Argostoli. She was there for several hours, Mr Triantafyllopoulos told Greek media, until a helicopter could transfer her to a private clinic in Athens. In a statement, he said: 'The family expects the Greek authorities to respond to the causes and circumstances of her death and incidents that occurred just prior. 'The deceased had telephoned her mother and brother shortly before the unfortunate incident under investigation. 'She was crying and referred to an incident that took place on the yacht with another crew member. The family are now demanding answers as to why there was an apparent delay in airlifting Ms McNamara (pictured) to a hospital in Athens The luxury yacht is owned by Mexican businessman Alberto Bailleres (pictured) who is worth an estimated $9.6billion The coroner who carried out the autopsy on Ms McNamara told Daily Mail Australia he advised her family against going to visit her body at the morgue, saying it was in 'such a bad state' 'The family state that Sinead was not having any problems, she often communicated with them and she was happy. In two days she will return to her family and her friends in Australia. 'The parents believe it crucial to thoroughly investigate both the events and incidents that preceded the death of their 20-year-old daughter died. 'In addition, they are looking for the reasons for the long delay between the time of the unfortunate incident and Sinead's transfer to an Athens hospital. 'She had been unconscious for several hours in a comatose condition and every minute was critical to her life. 'Expressing their trust in the Greek authorities, they hope that the critical issues above will be thoroughly explored and that they will receive appropriate answers for the sudden and unexpected death of their daughter, ' The Instagram influencer was not having any problems and was in high spirits before her suspected suicide, her family's lawyer said. She was found tangled in rope on the back of Mayan Queen IV (pictured) Ms McNamara's mother and sister were on their way to Greece to holiday with her when crew on-board the Mayan Queen IV made the grim discovery Greek authorities have seized CCTV footage from the cameras on the yacht but at this stage believe her death to be suicide. The MailOnline revealed how just 24-hours before she died, Ms McNamara had enjoyed a 'happy' night out dancing and drinking with friends. She visited the Baroque bar in Argostoli on Wednesday night and drank two vodka-based cocktails - one called Dragon's Breath and another called Mango Mangave. Later in the evening she was seen dancing on a chair. Bar manager Makais Chaliodis said: 'I saw the news and recognised her picture. 'She had come to the bar with five of her friends on the Wednesday about 5.30pm. 'She sat on one of the stools by the bar with two male friends and had two cocktails and a club sandwich. Ms McNamara was reportedly being consoled by a colleague just 15 minutes before her death Ms McNamara penned a cryptic Instagram post (pictured) just two weeks before her death 'One of her companions also bought a round of Tequilas but I don't know if she had one. 'They all seemed to be in high spirits and were happy. They were having a good time. 'They left at 7.30pm but some of them, including the girl who died, came back at 1am. 'The last time I saw her she had got up on one of the chairs and was dancing. 'She must have only been here for no more than 30 minutes the second time and then she left.' Back on board the Mayan Queen, she was seen talking to a security guard about 15-minutes before she was found dead. An ally of Jeremy Corbyn secretly recorded ranting about 'Jewish Trump fanatics' has today insisted anti-Semitism is not widespread and severe in Labour. Pete Willsman also revealed party bosses have announced a major crackdown to stop future leaks from meetings of Labour's ruling NEC body after he was exposed. It comes after he was controversially re-elected to the NEC on Monday despite being recorded saying the Jewish community invented the scandal rocking Labour. He later apologised for the remarks. Mr Willsman sparked fresh controversy as he smiled and waved while Momentum activists cheered him when he turned up to a meeting at Labour HQ this week. He has detailed what went on behind the scenes of the crunch meeting, where Labour finally adopted the international definition of anti-Semitism after months of party turmoil over the row. In the report sent to Labour activists, he doubled down on his claim the anti-Semitism scandal has been overblown. Peter Willsman (pictured attending Labour's NEC meeting in London on Tuesday) revealed that party bosses are banning members of the ruling group from taking their phones into future meetings as they try to stop leaks His revelation comes after Jeremy Corbyn (pictured at a museum in Leicestershire today) finally agreed to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism at the crunch meeting at Labour's HQ on Tuesday Referring to his diatribe, which was recorded at an NEC meeting in July, he said: 'We have some 550,000 members and so far, only some 100 cases of antisemitism have been brought before the NEC. 'No doubt, there are other examples to be found and, of course, one example is one too many. 'Nevertheless, the evidence does not support the assertion of "widespread and severe". Two Labour moderates lose confidence votes amid warnings of hard-left party purge Joan Ryan (pictured outside the meeting in Enfield last night) a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London A leading Labour moderate is battling to hold on to her political career after she lost a crucial party vote as the hard-left try to oust her as an MP. Joan Ryan, a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London. Ms Ryan, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, blamed the bid to deselect her on 'Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard left'. But she vowed to stay on as the local MP, telling her Twitter followers 'I am Labour through and through' and she will not be quitting. And Gavin Shuker, Labour MP for Luton South, also lost a no confidence vote last night. Jewish leaders and Labour MPs immediately rallied to their colleagues' defence - and slammed moves to oust them. In extraordinary scenes at a Labour party meeting last night, activists packed into the hall to hear the outcome of Ms Ryan's vote. And some erupted into loud cheers, jumped up and down and hugged one another when news that Ms Ryan had lost the vote 94 to 92 came through. The moment was captured on video by Press TV - the Iranian state propaganda channel which Mr Corbyn has been criticised for appearing on - which jubilantly tweeted the result. Ms Ryan, who was first elected to the seat when Tony Blair swept to power in his 1997 landslide, hit back at the moves to deselect her. In a series of Twitter messages, she wrote: 'So lost 92 to 94 votes hardly decisive victory and it never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would have confidence in me. I have none in them.' She added: 'I will be out tomorrow morning working hard for the people of Enfield. 'Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values.' Advertisement 'As I said to the NEC, I have not personally seen any examples of anti-Semitism in my nearly 50 years in the Party (and many party members have told me the same). 'In case anyone is confused, I was obviously speaking from my own personal experience as an individual party activist. 'The experience of being an NEC member is in a totally separate box and during 37 years as a member of all four national committees I have seen a whole range of quite dreadful things.' He also revealed that party bosses are ushering in a crackdown to stop future leaks from the NEC meetings. Party members will no longer be allowed to take mobile phones or laptops into the meetings or be able to dial in and take part remotely, he said. In a statement on the website Grassroots Labour, he wrote: 'In recent years, there has been an unprecedented amount of leaking directly from NEC meetings while they are still in progress. 'The recording of my emotional outburst had brought matters to a head. 'It was agreed that in future all phones, computers and recording devices will be handed in before NEC meetings start. 'Also, NEC members not present will no longer be allowed to phone in it is only recently that this has been allowed. 'Also, the circulation of documents that include details of individual cases will normally not be circulated in advance. 'Whole cases have been leaked which opens the door to legal action against the Party. 'The chair deeply regretted that we had to take this action but we had no choice.' The revelations come as two Labour moderates were hit by no confidence votes by their local branches last night amid fears the left are trying to pursue a purge of the party. Joan Ryan, chairwoman of Labour Friend of Israel and MP for Enfield North, and Gavin Shuker, MP for Luton South, both lost the votes. But both vowed to stay on as MPs as they hit back at hard-left entryists. Jewish leaders and Labour MPs immediately rallied to their colleagues' defence - and slammed moves to oust them. In extraordinary scenes at a Labour party meeting last night, activists packed into the hall to hear the outcome of Ms Ryan's vote. And some erupted into loud cheers, jumped up and down and hugged one another when news that Ms Ryan had lost the vote 94 to 92 came through. The moment was captured on video by Press TV - the Iranian state propaganda channel which Mr Corbyn has been criticised for appearing on - which jubilantly tweeted the result. The Labour Party will launch a formal investigation into how the broadcaster got inside the meeting as all press were banned, Enfield Constituency Labour Party said. Ms Ryan, who was first elected to the seat when Tony Blair swept to power in his 1997 landslide, hit back at the moves to deselect her. Joan Ryan, a leading critic of Jeremy Corbyn's failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis, (pictured last night after the meeting in Enfield) lost the confidence motion by just two votes at a party meeting in Enfield, north London In a series of Twitter messages, she wrote: 'So lost 92 to 94 votes hardly decisive victory and it never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would have confidence in me. I have none in them.' She added: 'I will be out tomorrow morning working hard for the people of Enfield. 'Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values.' Mr Shuker also vowed to stay on as Labour MP, writing on Twitter: 'At a local Labour Party meeting last night a motion of no confidence in me was passed. 'It's not part of any formal procedure, so it changes nothing about my role as Labour MP for Luton South.' He added: 'I've not changed, but the Labour Party has.' Consultant obstetrician Tony Boret, 53, leaving the GMC tribunal hearing in Manchester. He denies sexually motivated misconduct. The hearing continues A senior gynaecologist kissed and fondled a financier's wife and suggested they have an extra marital affair whilst she was campaigning to save a hospital maternity unit, a tribunal heard today. Consultant obstetrician Tony Boret, 53, had developed his flirtatious friendship with the mother of two after she raised a petition demanding a decision to shut the privately run service be reversed. But the friendship culminated in a sexually charged medical consultation in which Boret confessed to cheating on his wife before kissing the 38-year old woman and putting his hand up her top to touch her breasts, it was alleged. He also suggested they book a hotel room together to 'make love,' it was claimed. The patient - whose husband is a company financial director in London - fled Boret's office in a state of confusion. But later she sent the doctor an email saying: 'Perhaps I have 'mug' written on my forehead but I do not want to be married to my husband anymore. I hope to see you again. I miss being your patient.' The incident occurred after the woman met Boret whilst pregnant with her first child. Their friendship began to intensify in 2015 when whilst pregnant with her second child. She began a battle to stop the closure of private maternity services at Watford General Hospital. The woman broke down in tears as she told Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service: 'I liked him from the beginning and a friendship started in 2015. 'He was charming and open. He paid me compliments. He was grateful to me for my help. It is alleged Mr Boret (above) then he said he had cheated on his own wife and that other patients fancied Patient A before he kissed her on the lips and put his hands up her top and touched her breasts on top of her bra He used to say I was his number one patient and he referred to me as his favourite patient.' But matters came to a head on June 22 2017 when the pair had a sexual encounter at Boret's office. The General Medical Council claim the doctor told the woman she 'looked beautiful' and after suggesting they go for coffee, asked how 'she would feel about having an affair.' It is alleged he then he said he had cheated on his own wife and that other patients fancied Patient A before he kissed her on the lips and put his hands up her top and touched her breasts on top of her bra. The woman fled the consultation but asked for a further meeting four days later in which Boret allegedly warned Patient A to be 'very careful with what she said as there may be video cameras watching her.' He then allegedly said he was glad she had not been wearing a skirt at the earlier meeting 'because he did not want to just stick it in and it be over in three seconds.' He further allegedly said he wanted to take Patient A to a hotel, 'make love to her and give her an orgasm.' The woman - known as Patient A - told the Manchester hearing: 'He told me that I was beautiful and that he had cheated on his wife, and asked if I wanted an affair. 'We were talking about a mutual friend that they had cheated and he told me he had done the same. 'He told me honestly that he had cheated on his wife. He lowered his head and kissed me and I just responded to his advances. 'He had his hands up my top and touched my breasts. There were two kisses. One standing up and one over the desk.I didn't come onto him - I said he should lock the door but I was flustered. I responded to his advances. 'He told me that he wanted to take me to a hotel and make me orgasm. I know that he kissed me and touched me on that day. I am five foot tall - I would not have been able to make him kiss me.' 'I didn't wear a skirt at his appointments which is why he said he wished I was. He told me to be careful of what I said because there were cameras in the room.' But the hearing was told of a series of emails the woman sent to Boret after the encounter and she was also said to have made a comment that he was 'on her bucket list'. One email sent on July 10 said: 'It would have been a bit of fun between the both of us. Your career will be safe.' Another three days later read: 'I am so concerned with what happened and you may want to erase me from your memory. You made me feel like it was my fault.' In reply Boret said their relationship is 'nothing more than a doctor and patient, and that there should be an element of trust between them' but the woman retorted: 'You have already broken it, what the hell are you on about? You should have thought about that before you put your tongue in my mouth, touched my breasts and said you wanted to make love to me.' Then in separate emails she went on: 'I saw the way you looked at me with those big brown eyes in your office. I can see something was wrong. Perhaps I have mug written on my forehead but I do not want to be married to my husband anymore. 'I hope to see you again. I miss being your patient. I have only been kind and loyal and the only patient to support you.' She then emailed him again a few days later saying: 'I want to apologise to you. I have not been well I am sorry to come on to you. I told my therapist that I made it all up.' But a further email to Boret added: 'I only wrote the retraction email in fear. You are a liar and trying to hide what you did to me. You did not realise what harm you have had.' Under cross examination Boret's lawyer Robert Wastell accused the woman of leaving a 'paper trail' with her emails and said: 'In the summer of 2017, a sexual encounter was not only something you desired, you wanted it to happen. 'You were desperate to speak to him. You wanted to pursue him more. You felt a sense of entitlement because of your work for the practice.' Mr Boret (above) leaving court today. The hearing was told of a series of emails the woman sent to Boret after the encounter and she was also said to have made a comment that he was 'on her bucket list' He also said her conduct in sending heart-eye emojis to her doctor was 'inappropriate for a married woman' but the patient replied: 'Neither is a doctor telling a patient that he wants to make love to her or hugging a patient. I sent him many types of faces. 'I had wanted him to know what had happened would stay between us - I just wanted us to go back to the way things were as a friendship. 'I wanted him to know how I felt. 'He knows what he said and what he did, I wouldn't put myself through this ordeal if it didn't happen. This was someone who I trusted and he knows that but he still did this to me.' 'Mr Boret sent an email saying nothing could happen between us because he was panicking. He said he didn't want to risk his career but he had also been inappropriate with me that day. 'I disagree that it was him saying nothing could happen between us. I wanted him to to know I wasn't going to say anything and we were still friends. 'It is not the case that I was pursuing him and he was saying no. My husband says I was acting odd and he challenged me. He was concerned by what happened. I think if this happened to any patient or doctor anyone would be confused and hurt.' 'I am well aware of what he is facing and I wouldn't put myself through this if it wasn't true. It's not the truth that he rejected me.' Earlier Charles Garside QC lawyer for the General Medical Council told the hearing: 'She became his patient in about 2010 and was someone who visited him as a gynaecologist and consultant. 'When the private hospital was about to close she engaged herself in a campaign to try and keep it open. There is no suggestion of assault or unwanted force and she did not resist it, but it should not have happened.' Boret who qualified in 1987 worked briefly in Russia and Africa before returning to the UK to pursue a career in obstetrics and gynaecology. He was appointed as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to Watford General Hospital in early 2001. He denies sexually motivated misconduct. The hearing continues. The teenage girl who was held captive in a storage container for nine months before being dramatically freed by her abductor has told how she survived by building a bond with the man and convincing him to trust her. Abigail Hernandez, now 19, was 14 when Nathaniel Kibby, now 39, abducted her as she walked from from school in Conway, New Hampshire, in October 2013. He held her in a locked storage container for nine months where he forced her to wear a shock collar and sexually assaulted her. In July 2014, Kibby suddenly decided to let her go and drove her to a rural road where she was able to then walk home. He was arrested a week later and will likely spend the rest of his life in jail. Abigail has spoken about the horror she endured for the first time in an interview with ABC's 20/20 which will air on Friday night. In a clip from the show, she describes deciding early on that she had to strategise and form a bond with Kibby if she wanted to survive. Scroll down for video Abigail Hernandez revealed in an interview that will air on Friday how she won Nathaniel Kibby's trust while he held her captive for nine months in a trailer in New Hampshire between 2013 and 2014. She was 15 at the time but is now 19 'I remember thinking to myself, Okay, I got to work with this guy. I said [to him], I dont judge you for this. If you let me go, I wont tell anybody about this."' While she was in his captivity, Kibby was operating a counterfeit money scheme. She caught wind of it but went along with him to keep him happy. 'Part of how I gained his trust, I guess, was I went along with whatever he wanted to do.' She then convinced him that if he let her go, she would not tell anyone who he was or where he lived. 'I told him, Look, you don't seem like a bad person. Like, everybody makes mistakes If you let me go, I won't tell anybody about this. 'I really always kinda put it-- you know. This strategy is always there,' she said. Eventually, she won him over enough that he agreed to let her read books. One of the books he gave her had his name written on it. Until then, she had no idea who he was. 'I said, Whos Nate Kibby? And he just kind of breathed and he said How do you know my name?. Law enforcement experts have described Abigail's ability to strategize amid such severe trauma as extraordinary. She credits her faith with carrying her through. 'I remember I never said "amen" in my mind. I never wanted to end my prayers because I didn't want God to leave me. I just really wanted to live. Kibby convinced her that if she or anyone else broke open the trailer door, it would catch on fire and kill her. He also installed a security camera which was pointed at her and was always blinking, she said. Abigail Hernandez is pictured walking back into her family home in Conway, New Hampshire, after nine months in captivity. She was suddenly freed by her abductor in July 2014 after enduring months of sexual assault and abuse 'On the door there were wires, there were like screws and wires. He told me that he fixed the door so that for any reason if it was busted open it would catch on fire. 'If someone kicked open the door that I would quickly go up in flames basically. Yeah I was afraid that the room would set on fire. 'There was a camera that was always blinking, like a security camera. I thought he was watching me,' she said. In an earlier portion of the interview, she recalled the moment he drove her to a rural road and let her go. 'There were no cars coming either way and he said 'get out'. So I got out and then he yelled "wait, give me my hat back! Give me my hat back!" 'So I took it off, threw it in the car, slammed the door and he drove off. Abigail's mother Zenyah said she was stunned when her daughter suddenly walked through the door 'Just like that. That was it,' she said. At the time, she was 15. Now 19, she recalls looking up and 'laughing' afterwards. 'Just being so happy like, "Oh my God. This actually happened. I'm a free person. I never thought it would happen to me but I'm free." And I just walked home,' she said. The family had surveillance cameras on their front doorstep. They caught the moment Abigail walked through the door after while her mother was inside. 'I remember when I came up to my doorstep, I could hear my mum talking on the phone. I could hear her voice. I opened the door and said, "Mom?" and she said, "Abby?" And then she ran out,' she recalled. The girl's mother, Zenyah, said she 'shuddered' when she was first saw her. 't was almost like, it was a shock. Like, I had a shudder. I couldn't believe what I was seeing,' she said. Abigail said she remembered registering the change in her mother's appearance and realizing that her vanishing had taken such a severe toll on her. Kibby held the girl hostage in a storage container on his property in rural New Hampshire (picture) for nine months without suspicion 'That was such a beautiful moment. I remember just the look on her face. 'She looked different she really did. I could see months of stress in her face and it kinda killed me a little bit but I was so relieved to see her,' she said. Kibby is serving between 45 and 90 years in prison on sexual assault and kidnapping charges. Earlier in the interview, which will air in full on Friday, she revealed that Kibby 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. It took her Abigail a week after returning home 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) 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. 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. A coroner in Cincinnati has named the three men ranging in age from 25 to 64 who were killed during Thursday's bank shooting, which also left two other people injured. The Hamilton County Coroners office has identified the victims as 25-year-old Pruthvi Kandepi, 48-year-old Luis Calderon and 64-year-old Richard Newcomer. All three were killed when police say 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez opened fire at the 30-story headquarters of Fifth Third Bancorp in downtown Cincinnati. Two other people, a man and a woman, were wounded in the shooting spree before police officers arrived on the scene three minutes later and killed Perez. Scroll down for video At age 25, programmer Pruthvi Kandepi (left) was the youngest of the three victims shot dead at Fifth Third Bank in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday. The two other deceased were identified as Luis Calderon, 48 (center), and Richard Newcomer, 64 (right) The coroner, Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, said she recognized the youngest fatality, Kandepi, from a local Hindu temple. The two also shared the same hometown and language, Telugu. Sammarco posted Wednesday on Facebook, asking how officials will explain to his parents in India 'they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country.' Police on Thursday identified the shooter as 29-year-old Omar Enrique Perez, who was shot and killed by police at the scene The local Telugu Association of North America office said they plan to help Kandepi's father. He wants his son's body to be taken back to India. Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Kandepi worked as a programmer with a company called Tech Services. Richard Newcomer worked for the Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Company. On Thursday, the 64-year-old father and grandfather from Amelia was a supervisor on an electrical project on the third floor of the bank when he was shot dead. According to the description of a GoFundMe page, Luis Calderon was a married father of two, a boy and a girl. Investigators said a suit-wearing Perez used a 9mm handgun and had an estimated 200 rounds or more of ammunition. So far, they have not found a motive. Police Chief Eliot Isaac said investigators will study footage from the officers' body cameras and security from the 30-story building. According to police, Perez had never worked at Fifth Third and don't have any information linking him to other businesses in the building. Authorities believe that Perez had lived in the Cincinnati area since 2015. Police swarmed his apartment in North Bend, Ohio, about 15 miles. Police investigate the scene after a shooting at the Fifth Third Bank building on Fountain Square Thursday A woman is comforted by authorities stationed outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center's Emergency room Thursday Records show the shooter formerly lived in South Florida and had been charged with some non-violent crimes years ago. Police said he went into a sandwich shop and possibly other businesses before entering the lobby and opening fire around 9.10am. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the rapid police response probably prevented many more casualties. He said one investigator said it could have been 'a bloodbath beyond imagination.' Leonard Cain told The Cincinnati Enquirer he was going into the bank when someone alerted him about the shooting. He said a woman wearing headphones didn't hear the warnings and walked into the bank and got shot. Perez is seen in this 2014 mugshot released by the Greenville, South Carolina One of the victims died at the scene. Two more died at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The two wounded, a man and a woman, were listed there in critical condition and fair condition, respectively. The Inquirer identified the female survivor as 37-year-old Whitney Austin of Louisville, Kentucky. The married mother-of-two was shot 12 times on one side of her body, but the bullets missed all of her vital organs and arteries, Austin's neighbor told 9News. Her brother-in-law Lonnie Gardner told the Courier Journal that she was conscious and called her husband of 12 years, Waller Austin, from the ambulance en route to the hospital. Fountain Square is often the site of concerts, dancing, food trucks and other events around lunchtime or in the evenings. 'It could have been any one of us,' Mayor John Cranley said. He praised police and other emergency personnel, saying, 'It could have been much, much worse.' Gov. John Kasich ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds in Hamilton County, and at the Statehouse, through Monday. A Russian satellite 'with big ears' tried to spy on a French craft in an bid to eavesdrop on military communications, France's defence minister alleged today. Florence Parly said the Athena-Fidus satellite, operated jointly with Italy, was approached 'a bit too closely' by Russia's Luch-Olymp, known for its advanced listening capabilities. In what she said amounted to 'Star Wars' above the Earth, she named the Russian satellite as Louch-Olymp. The French-Italian satellite was launched in 2014 and is used for secure military communications and the planning of operations. Parly said: 'Trying to listen to one's neighbor is not only unfriendly. It's called an act of espionage. Florence Parly said the Athena-Fidus satellite (pictured), operated jointly by France and Italy, was approached 'a bit too closely' by Russia's Luch-Olymp 'It got close. A bit too close. So close that one really could believe that it was trying to capture our communications.' She added that 'this little Stars Wars didn't happen a long time ago in a galaxy far away. It happened a year ago, 36,000 kilometers above our heads.' The Russian satellite has 'big ears' and is 'well-known but a bit indiscreet', she said. Without giving details, she said France had taken 'the necessary measures' and is still watching the satellite attentively. The Russian satellite was launched by the rocket Proton-M in 2014. Parly was speaking at the Toulouse-based France space agency that developed the Athena-Fidus satellite jointly with the Italian space agency ASI. Last month Washington accused Moscow of developing anti-satellite weapons and cited 'very abnormal behaviour' of a 'space object' deployed by Russia last October. In what she said amounted to 'Star Wars' above the Earth, French defence minister Florence Parly (pictured in Paris last month) named the Russian satellite as Louch-Olymp It also dismissed a proposed treaty by Russia and China aimed at averting a space arms race, calling it 'hollow and hypocritical'. 'We are well aware that other major players in space are deploying intriguing objects into orbit, experimenting with potential offensive capabilities, conducting manoeuvres which leave no doubt as to their aggressive intent,' Parly said. French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to develop a 'space defence strategy' for France, and Parly said experts were preparing recommendations she intended to pass on by the end of the year. 'We're at risk, our communications, our military manoeuvres and our daily operations are at risk if we don't react,' Parly said. The Russian satellite was launched by the rocket Proton-M (pictured at a different launch) She noted the call by President Donald Trump last month to create a new 'Space Force' to assert US dominance in orbit and protect against vulnerabilities to its satellite-based systems. 'I've heard some people laugh' about Trump's plan, Parly said, but 'I'm not among them'. 'I see this as an extremely powerful signal, one of confrontations to come, of the increasing importance of space, of the future challenges,' she said. 'We know that space is becoming militarised. We're not going to stand by and watch.' Michelle Schiffer, 24, was sentenced to eight years in jail for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student on Thursday The Texas teacher who had sex with a teenage student she met up with at a local Chick-fil-A has been sentenced to eight years in jail. Michelle Schiffer, 24, was sentenced to eight years in prison for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student on Thursday. The history teacher at Cypress Springs High School was accused of having sex twice with her student in 2017. On one occasion she met up with the student from her school at a local Chick-fil-A then they went to a friend's house at the 7200 block of Barker Cypress for sex. On another day she picked up the student in a park, they smoked cannabis, then had sex in her car, according to KHOU. She pleaded guilty in court in May. 'Michelle is prepared to serve her sentence and hopes the complainant and his family can forgive her,' her attorney Grant Scheiner said on her sentencing. 'She has a scarlet letter thats going to last the rest of her life. And that is part of the punishment,' he added. They had sex on two occasions. On one they met up at a local Chick-fil-A in Cypress, Texas (stock image) Schiffer originally met the boy while teaching him at Cypress-Springs High School (stock) Schiffer originally met the boy while teaching him at Cypress-Springs High School. The alleged improper relationship was reported to the principal, Cheryl Henry, by an anonymous student. Her friends and family said she suffers depression during last month's hearing. Schiffer said she stopped taking her medication prior to meeting up with the student. But prosecutors say she was sending text messages to other students, including nude topless photos, according to the New York Post. 'This isnt a heat-of-the-moment thing. This is over a series of months with different students,' prosecutor Keaton Forcht said. Schiffer was placed on administrative leave when her relationship with the student was revealed and later fired. Schiffer could have faced up to 20 years in prison with the plea deal. Thomas Cook have paid 3,000 in compensation to a holidaymaker who suffered such extreme pain from food poisoning at a Turkish hotel that she would have shot herself if she could. Nicola Roberts, 29, an estate agent from Brackla, Bridgend in Wales, was on a seven-day break with her partner Gareth David, 36, in Liberty Hotels' Lykia Holiday World Hotel in Olu Deniz when she was taken ill two years ago. Earlier this week Thomas Cook was ordered to pay her 3,000 in compensation for her suffering at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre. The couple booked a seven-night all-inclusive package holiday at the resort near Dalaman. Nicola Roberts, an estate agent from Brackla, Bridgend in Wales, was on a seven-day break with her partner Gareth David, pictured together on holiday, when she was taken ill two years ago Thomas Cook have paid Ms Roberts 3,000 in compensation after she got food poisoning while staying at the Liberty Hotels' Lykia Holiday World Hotel in Olu Deniz, Turkey (pictured) Ms Roberts said: 'The hotel looked lovely in the brochure and seemed to be very nice. We arrived late on the Friday, when I ate a burger and a chicken wrap in the hotel. 'On the Tuesday I had eggs, beans and toast for breakfast and in the evening I had a lamb kebab. 'On the Wednesday morning I woke up and wasn't well. At first I thought I had a case of traveller's diarrhoea, but the pain got worse and I had to be taken to hospital. 'The pain was absolutely horrendous, and if I'd had a gun to my head I would have pulled the trigger gladly. That's how bad it was. 'I got better after the medication on the Thursday and was released from hospital. 'When we got home I had another week booked off. I needed that to recover before going back to work I felt very tired. 'I thought my case of food poisoning was an isolated case, but we heard people talking by reception in the hotel about other cases of food poisoning. 'We found a page on Facebook that included complaints about people falling sick in the hotel going back to 2010. 'We found out there had been an outbreak in the hotel affecting dozens of people before we left home. 'What really annoyed us was the fact that Thomas Cook sent us and others to the hotel even though there had already been an outbreak.' Her partner Gareth David, 36, an operations manager for an electrical company, said: 'Nicola was in an awful state - it was very worried. 'We were horrified when we looked at the stories about the hotel on Facebook. We can't understand why in the light of all the cases of food poisoning, Thomas Cook still uses the hotel. It seems they've paid out quite a lot in compensation to people in recent years.' She said: 'At first I thought I had a case of traveller's diarrhoea, but the pain got worse and I had to be taken to hospital. 'The pain was absolutely horrendous, and if I'd had a gun to my head I would have pulled the trigger gladly. That's how bad it was' The description of the hotel on Thomas Cook's website states: 'Set in its own turquoise bay surrounded by nothing but lush green mountains Liberty Hotels Lykia offers plenty of activities and spacious rooms. 'With newly baked bread and freshly squeezed orange juice it's the little details that make a stay here special. 'Make sure you check out the Turkish restaurant where you can dine amongst the magical forest or the beach restaurant where you'll see incredible sunsets. 'As for the kids, the waterpark complete with lazy river is their idea of paradise.' The website also states that the hotel won a gold Travelife Award. A Thomas Cook spokesman said: 'We want our customers to have the best possible time on holiday, so we are very sorry to hear that Ms Roberts was ill while on holiday with us in Turkey. 'We take reports of illness seriously and this matter is now resolved with Ms Roberts.' The company maintains it was not aware of a sickness problem in the hotel before Ms Roberts went on holiday, and says it has strict monitoring systems in place that trace levels of sickness in all its hotels. Once a concern is triggered, the company's health and safety team conducts enhanced scrutiny and support for hotels to conduct further prevention of sickness measures. If levels of sickness continued to increase then the company's policy is to remove customers if it believes there is a risk to their safety. It says the numbers of customers who were ill prior to Ms Roberts' holiday were very low and not at levels to trigger this escalation process. Yonatan Eyob (pictured), 26, received almost 87,000 in funds after falsely claiming he lived in Grenfell Tower in the wake of the fire A drug dealer who received almost 87,000 in funds after falsely claiming he lived in Grenfell Tower in the wake of the fire has been jailed for more than six years. Yonatan Eyob, 26, who was described as homeless but uses an address in Notting Hill, west London, was put up in a hotel and given a food allowance and pre-paid cards. Drugs, including MDMA and cocaine, and seven mobile phones were found in his hotel room, along with around 3,000 in cash, designer clothes, jewellery and credit cards. Eyob, who claimed he had been lodging with a friend in Flat 182 - home to a family of five who died in the blaze - pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in June. At Isleworth Crown Court on Friday, Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh sentenced Eyob to three years and four months for the fraud, and three years and four months for possession of drugs with intent to supply. The judge described the fire as 'a disaster which shocked the nation', and said Eyob was treated as a 'bereaved survivor and given top priority'. He said: 'You were profiting from the deaths of those people and the fact that they were in effect silenced.' The judge said Eyob had decided to 'enrich' himself by 'plundering the funds that were put aside for the victims', adding: 'It was a claim false and dishonest from the start.' The Crown Prosecution Service said it is the largest known convicted Grenfell fraud so far. Eyob received 15,918.20 on pre-paid cards, 60,945 in hotel accommodation and 9,968.36 for laundry and parking - a total of just over 86,831. He was given emergency accommodation at the Holland Park Hilton between July 2017 and June 2018. The court heard he had the use of a white convertible Mercedes and had asked for more money, claiming that he was finding it difficult to eat the food at the hotel. Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly also said that Eyob had complained about the WiFi signal in the hotel. She said: 'He was treated by the borough as a bereaved survivor and therefore given top priority. As a result of that then he was provided with hotel accommodation from June 2017 to June 2018. 'In addition to that he was provided with food and a travel card for zones one to two. He complained he was finding it difficult to eat the food at the hotel. 'He also complained about the wi-fi saying he was finding it hard to study.' Eyob was charged with dishonestly making a false representation for accommodation and subsistence between June 2017 and June 2018. Eyob claimed he had been lodging with a friend in Flat 182, home to a family of five who died in the blaze. Pictured: the Grenfell Tower blaze on the morning of June 14 last year The court heard there was a piece of paper with a list of names and numbers in the hotel room, and there were text messages found which related to drug dealing. A fire ripped through the west London tower block in June 2017 leaving 72 people dead. Hannan Wahabi, the sister of Abdulaziz El-Wahabi who lived in the flat, said what Eyob did was 'a stain on all those who died in the terrible incident'. Reading a victim impact statement, she said the fraud was 'another unwelcome extra heartache and stress to deal with', adding: 'The actions of this individual have caused me sleepless nights.' Ms Wahabi said the fact that someone had taken advantage of the distress felt by those left behind for their own personal gain 'really hurts'. A rich portrait was painted of the El-Wahabi family, who died at each other's side in the tower, at the public inquiry into the fire. Parents Faouzia and Abdulaziz, 42 and 52, died alongside their children, Yasin, 20, Huda, 16, and Mehdi, eight, on the 21st floor of the block. Catherine Gould, from the CPS, said: 'Yonatan Eyob took advantage of a terrible tragedy for his own greed. 'He carried on his fraud for nearly a year, diverting funds from those who genuinely needed it and betraying the trust of everyone who gave him assistance. 'If his deceit had not been discovered he would have been eligible for a council home with free rent and council tax until July 2019. 'When someone lies in this way it is only right they are held to account.' Justice Maryie McKay, 22, of Lake Butler, Florida, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly raping a 14-year-old boy on at least three occasions A mother-of-five has been charged with sexual battery for allegedly raping a 14-year-old boy multiple times - on one occasion in the same room as her husband and young children. Justice Maryie McKay, 22, of Lake Butler, Florida, was arrested Wednesday after the teenage boy's mother confronted her with photos of marks on her son's body. According to a police report obtained by The Gainesville Sun, McKay and her family were at the boy's home in July to celebrate a birthday when she sent a message to the teen via WhatsApp. She allegedly told the boy to come to the room where she was staying with her husband and children who were sleeping at the time. The boy reported to police that he initially refused and said no at least once, but finally went to the room with no intention of having a physical encounter. The report says McKay kissed him, removed his clothes and had sex with him - all while her husband and five children - all under the age of five - were sleeping in the room. The next day, the report says McKay told the teen she couldn't forget about the day prior and said she 'wanted to be with him'. One of the incidents reportedly happened while McKay's husband and five young children were in the room sleeping A month later on August 13, McKay then picked up the boy from his bus stop in Gainesville, offering a ride to school. Instead, she allegedly took the boy to her home where they had sex again, according to police. The boy was left with 'hickies' and scratch marks, indicating sexual battery, police said. A third incident came days later when McKay is reported to have picked the boy up from a gas station and they had sex again in her home. According to police, both of the August incidents took place while all of McKay's children and teen cousin were home. The marks were photographed and later presented to McKay by the boy's mother on August 22. The report showed that the boy's mother said McKay went missing with her children after she learned authorities had been contacted. McKay was arrested Wednesday and has filed a written plea of not guilty. She is being held in the Alachua County Jail with a $75,000 bond. A Chick-fil-A employee lost his job after getting into a massive brawl with an irate customer inside a Washington D.C. location. Video shows the Tuesday altercation at the Tenleytown eatery when Sean Turner, 55, and an unnamed employee duke it out. Turner is said to have started the altercation, shouting at other patrons in the store and going behind the counter, WTTG-TV reports. Video shows the Tuesday altercation at the Tenleytown eatery when Sean Turner, 55, and an unnamed employee duke it out When the man was asked to leave the store by an employee, Turner was said to have allegedly thrown a punch. The 27-year-old employee and Turner then brawl, with the staff member pummeling the man in the head. Other employees are able to pull the two men apart, but Turner tries to throw a stool at the man who just beat him. Turner is said to have started the altercation, shouting at other patrons in the store and going behind the counter Turner was detained and charged with simple assault. He was taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries. The employee was not arrested but he was fired from Chick-fil-A, according to a spokesperson. 'There is a viral video circulating of an altercation that took place last night between a restaurant team member and an individual in a franchised restaurant. This video is incredibly disturbing to watch, and we do not condone violence or the team member's response to the situation in any way,' the spokesperson said in a statement. Turner was detained by police and charged with simple assault 'Our franchise restaurant Operators and their team members strive to create a safe and welcoming environment and to treat all guests with dignity and respect. This situation does not live up to our brand's commitment to hospitality, and for that, we are very sorry.' Views for the video have exceeded past 5million views by Friday. 'We are continuing to investigate this situation, including what happened before the video was taken and how it escalated so quickly,' the chain said. A pair of American travelers who crashed their scooter in Bali in the middle of the night and were left for dead in a ravine have told how a single Facebook post and the tenacity of friends who responded to it saved their lives. On August 22, Michael Lythcotte, 39, and Stacey Eno, 26, were driving back to their hotel in Ubud at around 2.30am when a truck overtook them on a steep hill and blinded them temporarily. Lythcotte, who runs a boutique digital agency in Brooklyn, New York, was driving and he hit the brakes but they failed. The pair, who had met in Thailand earlier in the year and agreed to meet back up in Indonesia, went over the edge of the road and into a ravine. They found themselves unable to move, concussed and lying alone in the dark. Michael Lythcotte and Stacey Eno were rescued from the ravine they fell down in Ubud, Bali, four hours after crashing their scooter. Lythcotte posted an SOS message on Facebook which set in motion the chain of events which saved their lives. The phone he used is pictured still lying on his chest Lythcotte found his American phone in the top jacket of his jacket after the crash and was able to get enough signal to post this SOS message Stacey and Michael met in Thailand in February and they planned to meet back up in Bali. Both are world travelers. She is from Michigan but lives in South Korea, where she teaches, and Michael lives in Brooklyn where he runs a digital agency 'I then did think "I'm gonna die here," because no one knew we were here or went over and we were both hurt and for a minute I couldn't even remember how we got there,' Lythcotte told DailyMail.com on Friday. In desperation, Lythcotte reached for his US phone which was still in his jacket pocket. He turned on roaming and posted a Facebook message which read: 'Help. In danger. Call police,' marking his location just as 'Bali'. One of his friends who saw the post called him on Facebook then started speaking with him on WhatsApp where Lythcotte sent her his location Immediately, his hundreds of friends responded to ask what he needed. He was only able to type with one hand and responded to them intermittently in the comments section, asking repeatedly for help. Amy Sparks, a friend of his from Seattle, called him using the Facebook phone function. 'It was great that I talked to him because some people were worried that his phone had been stolen or that his account had been hacked. 'And I was able to say, I know his voice and I know it is him, that he is very badly injured and needs help,' she said. Sparks was able to instruct him to then send her a dropped pin of his location to her via WhatsApp. In their conversation, he wrote: 'Woods. By a river. Can't move.' Later, he said: 'Help,' and 'girl with me.' Sparks then took over leading the Facebook thread where dozens were by then asking how they could help. Between them, Sparks and the others hammered the Indonesian authorities with calls and bombarded the US embassy until they go through to someone who could help. The embassy then phoned Lythcotte and told him help was on the way. Aimee Sparks, who was in Pennsylvania at the time, shared his location on the Facebook thread to try to get him help. Dozens of his friends began hammering the US Embassy with calls and eventually they sent a search party to him His brother then got in touch with the doctor at the hospital he had been taken to and was able to tell the thread of Facebook users. More than 200 comments were left The pair were taken to hospital after being found. Neither remembers exactly what happened but say they are grateful to be alive His phone battery died right after he told the man on the other end of the phone the name of a hotel he remembered passing just before they crashed their scooter. After around three or four hours, the pair were found by a team of local rescuers. They were loaded into the back of a flatbed truck and were taken to hospital where doctors told them they had broken bones and concussions. 'I'm still amazed people from all over the world made it work. I'm grateful beyond measure. Technology saved us. In hospital, they found out at a 5.2 magnitude struck when they were either crashing or unconscious in the ravine. They do not remember feeling its impact. Stacey broke her nose, arm and cheekbones. Lythcotte suffered a skull fracture, broken wrist, internal damage, cracked ribs, an injured spine, and perforated bowels. A week after the accident, he returned to social media to thank his friends for saving his life. 'Hi everyone. I actually am sitting up now. Getting better daily. Even on my laptop for the first time today. '[I] will have most tubes removed in a day or two, which will really allow me to move and get well. 'Yes, most pain is gone now. A good sign. And not to be gross but I'm eating and pooping normally. Very good sign. They may try as early as tomorrow to stand me up! 'Your support has kept me sane. Thank you so much.' Stacey broke her nose and cheekbones and Michael suffered a skull fracture and perforated bowels Michael remained in hospital for 10 days. He is still in Indonesia but will fly back to the US on Sunday Both Michael and Stacey say they are grateful for technology and for their friends' efforts In a later post, he said : 'Thank you all for saving us and donating!' He told DailyMail.com he was stunned by the response he received. 'I'm still amazed people from all over the world made it work. I'm grateful beyond measure. 'Technology saved us. I was scared until we got a signal. I forced myself not to think about death. I knew they were coming and they did,' he said. Lythcotte remains in Indonesia and was in the hospital until September 3. His brother has flown out to be with him and they will return to the US on Sunday. Stacey, who is from Michigan, lives in South Korea where she works as a teacher. Her family flew out to be with her after the accident and she has been able to return to South Korea since. Both are relying on donations from two separate GoFundMe pages to pay for their medical care. Lythcotte has raised $30,000 of the $60,000 he hopes for. His page can be found here. Stacey has raised $12,000 of the $30,000 she needs. Her page can be found here. This is the disturbing moment two women allegedly lure a family cat away from his home. Fluffy, who has been in the care of Stephen Godfrey and his wife for 14 years, was sat outside their home in its usual resting place when she was approached by the two women. The cat can be seen wandering in front of its owner's driveway in Albany Road, Cardiff in footage taken on a home surveillance camera, as one of the girls appears to coax it, in a bid to gain her trust. The CCTV footage, appears to show one of the women offer her some fuss before grabbing the ginger feline and making a get-away. This is the disturbing moment two women allegedly lure a family cat away from his home Fluffy's owner Stephen said that the clip was taken on Tuesday at 6.15pm and after discovering the footage launched a Facebook appeal which has since been shared more than 6,000 times. The Godfrey's claim that their neighbours footage taken at the same time shows one of the women 'kidnapp' Fluffy. Footage filmed on a home surveillance camera shows the two girls walking past the house, looking back at the cat to see if it is following them. The first girl - seen wearing a blue and white jacket and black leggings - appears to hold her fingers out to encourage the cat to come nearer. As Fluffy approaches tentatively, the girl rushes over and stoops down in an attempt to grab her - but the cat manages to dart away to safety. Fluffy, who has been in the care of Stephen Godfrey and his wife for 14 years, was sat outside their home in its usual resting place when she was approached by the two women The girl then bends down and holds her fingers out and this time snares the poor animal when she comes back for fuss. Having scooped her up in her arms, the girl is then seen walking away as the footage cuts out. The 58-year-old engineer said: 'Fluffy's been with me and my wife for 14 years. We live on a main road and Fluffy likes to sit on the path outside our house. 'When she didn't come home that night I was concerned because she always comes back, but I was sure I'd find her waiting at the back door in the morning. 'When I woke up and she wasn't there I knew something was wrong. I looked at our CCTV and I could see these two girls enticing her, she was walking down the pavement towards them. The cat can be seen wandering in front of its owner's driveway in Albany Road, Cardiff in footage taken on a home surveillance camera, as one of the girls appears to coax it, in a bid to gain her trust 'The one girl went to pick her up but she walked away, then she enticed it back and grabbed it. On my neighbour's CCTV I saw the other girl holding a bag open and they put her inside and walked off. 'I can't understand why anyone would do something like this. It's an old cat, not a kitten, not a stray cat. They just seem to have decided they wanted my cat for some reason. 'We're hoping she hasn't come to any harm. We've had a lot of responses to the appeal and somebody's come forward with a name which we're looking into.' The family said they have not yet reported the theft to the police as they hope they can find Fluffy themselves. The CCTV footage, appears to show one of the women offer her some fuss before grabbing the ginger feline and making a get-away Stephen's daughter Holly, 23, added: 'I'm raging. We've had Fluffy since she was a kitten. 'Everyone in our road knows she loves to sleep on that same spot on the pavement and they all come over and fusses her. She's a friendly cat.' South Wales Police said it could find no record in its logs of a complaint being made about the incident. An RSPCA spokesman said: 'Stealing any animal is a crime and anyone with information should contact the police by calling 101. 'To help ensure that lost and stolen pets are reunited with their owners, the RSPCA encourages all owners to get their pets microchipped where possible. More information can be found online at rspca.org.uk.' A family have spoken of their anguish after an inspirational teacher became an unintentional victim of a petrol bomb attack. The body of Memunatu Warne, 43, was found by firefighters who were called after a suspected arson attack at a three storey townhouse at Centurion Square in Woolwich in the early hours of September 6. Today, Mrs Warne's family have spoken of the anguish of her death and that her loss was 'devastating.' Her nephew Hudson Burch told The Evening Standard the killing was a 'loss to Sierra Leone', adding: 'We are all in pain. She was a very good and disciplined teacher. Mother-of-two Memunatu Warne ran a business college in her native Sierra Leone. She was described by her family Sixty firefighters were called to the blaze on Centurion Square in Woolwich. The body of mother-of-two Memunatu Warne, 43, was found by firefighters wearing breathing apparatus 'Everyone respected her. She went to London for a holiday. We only thank God she didn't go with her children this time. 'We thought it was an accident. To lose someone like her is devastating.' Mrs Warne, a mother-of-two, was Principal of a business college in her native Sierra Leone, called Liccsal Business School. It was started after ten years of civil war in the country and its aim was to battle low levels of education and high rates of illiteracy. Some residents suspect the fire in Centurion square may have been a gang hit- with the target of the attack unclear. Theo Adler, 21, said: 'I saw the man run away from the window after breaking it. He was wearing a black hoodie and grey tracksuit bottoms. 'I could see him join his mate on the corner and they drove off on a moped ... The whole thing happened so quickly.' Forensics teams investigating the aftermath of a house fire, which broke out in the early hours of the morning on September 6 in Woolwich Residents in Centurion Square, Woolwich, were woken by a loud bang just after 1am on Thursday before seeing flames take hold. Nearly two dozen 999 calls were made and eight engines carrying around 60 firefighters tackled the fire. The London Fire Brigade said: 'Sadly one woman was found dead at the scene by crews wearing breathing apparatus.' A man in his sixties and a woman in her fifties were taken to hospital from the house but their conditions are not believed to be life-changing or life-threatening. The fire is being treated as suspicious and detectives from the Metropolitan Police's homicide and major crime command have launched the 100th investigation into a homicide a case of murder or manslaughter in the capital this year. Detectives are keen to hear from anyone in the area who heard or saw anything suspicious before or after the fire started, and added: 'At this early stage any speculation about anyone targeted or any possible motive for the attack is unhelpful.' A South African civil engineering boss has been sacked after claiming that women prefer family and raising children to working in business. Manglin Pillay, head of Saice, said that few women take up scientific professions because they are 'more predisposed for caring', during his column in July's edition of the company's in-house magazine Civil Engineering. Although he later apologised for his remarks the company said they said terminated his contract due to concern from Saice's magazines readers, of which just 5% are women. Mr Pillay's was largely based around a discussion on why more men than women begin careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Manglin Pillay, head of Saice, who said that few women take up scientific professions because they are 'more predisposed for caring' has been sacked He added that more men seek high-profile executive posts because of their 'appetite for work load and extreme performance requirements at that level.' The former head of the company believed that 'type-A personalities who are disagreeable at times, and highly competitive - workaholics, with almost no family, social or hobby time. According to Mr Pillay 'The reason why women do not occupy these positions is that women choose to rather have the flexibility to dedicate themselves to more important enterprises, like family and raising children, than to be at the beck and call of shareholders'. Since his departure founder of WomEng, Hema Vallabh, has said that this sends a message that discrimination will no longer be tolerated His departure has been welcomed by South Africa's Commission for Gender Equality, saying that it would help the fight against sexism. He was also slammed by South Africa's Science Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, who argued that the lack of support for women was the problem and not the attitudes, Fin24 reported. Mr Pillay issued an apology for 'antagonising and offending so many people, in August however this has not been enough to settle the controversy. Saice President Errol Kerst said that the response had been so large that the 'ramifications of the article' could not be ignored. Since his departure founder of WomEng, Hema Vallabh, has said that this sends a message that discrimination will no longer be tolerated. President Donald Trump said Friday aboard Air Force One that the Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his Justice Department should seek out the identity of the 'sick person' who wrote a blistering anonymous op-ed for the New York Times. 'I think so,' he told reporters on the way from Montana to North Dakota, 'because I think it's [about] national security. 'I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was, because I really believe it was national security.' Trump believes the nameless author won't stay nameless forever. 'Eventually the name of this sick person will come out,' he said, adding: 'Maybe it's nobody. Maybe the Times did it. Look, the Times uses phony sources all the time.' Trump seemed most agitated about the possibility that someone with a security clearance may be willing to leak state secrets in the future. President Trump said identifying the anonymous author who wrote the The New York Times op-ed was a matter of 'national security' on Friday 'Supposing I have a high-level national security meeting and he has got a clearance,' Trump mused about his anonymous Judas, 'and he goes into a high-level meeting concerning China or Russia or North Korea or something.' 'I don't want him in those meetings,' the president said. 'So we're going to see what happens. We're looking at it very strongly from a legal standpoint.' The president was airborne on his way from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota. Speculation has abounded since Wednesday about who might be the op-ed culprit, and three dozen administration A-listers have issued firm denials. 'Almost all of the high level people have said that,' Trump told reporters. 'You know, when you say that and if it were you, you'd be shunned for the rest of your life.' And he continued to bash the Times, one of the newspapers he most loves to hate, for publishing what the White House has called a 'cowardly' anonymous slap. 'For somebody to do that is very low, and I think journalistically, and from many different standpoints, and maybe even from the standpoint of national security,' Trump carped. 'We'll find out about that. For The New York Times to allow that to happen is disgraceful.' The furious hunt for the senior leaker who trashed President Trump in an anonymous op-ed heated up Friday, after reports Trump has a list of 12 suspects and still more denials from top officials who said they didn't do it. The effort came as Trump leveled a new attack on Bob Woodward's bombshell book, which reveals chaos in the White House and senior aides scurrying to thwart the president's worst impulses. Trump said the book isn't accurate because 'I don't talk the way I am quoted.' Practically Trump's entire cabinet including these famous faces and the first lady have all declared they're not responsible for the mysterious op-ed Trump Tweeted Friday that 'The Woodward book is a scam.' The president continued: 'I dont talk the way I am quoted. If I did I would not have been elected President. These quotes were made up. The author uses every trick in the book to demean and belittle. I wish the people could see the real facts - and our country is doing GREAT!' Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has suggested lie detector tests for senior aides in just one of the aggressive options to try to identify the author from within his own administration who charged Trump with holding 'off the rails' meetings, filled with 'repetitive rants' that produce 'half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions.' Another tactic being floated is to force aides to sign sworn affidavits stating that they weren't behind the leaks. FBI Director Chris Wray is the latest top official to deny being behind the devastating op-ed, after Vice President Mike Pence and a raft of cabinet secretaries and senior aides said they didn't do it. Top aides have already been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, so it is unclear what additional weight an affidavit might carry. An outside advisor said the White House has winnowed down the list of suspects to just a dozen, the New York Times reported. Trump's rebuttal of the Woodward book about the way he comes off in direct quotes cuts to the storied author's unique methods. In the book's forward, Woodward notes that he has done hundreds of hours of interviews, conducted on 'deep background.' Woodward writes in the forward to the book, which was obtained by DailyMail.com: 'When I have attributed exact quotations, thoughts or conclusions to the participants, that information comes from the person, a colleague with direct knowledge, or from meeting notes, personal diaries, files and government or personal documents.' On Thursday, Trump blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation during his speech in Billings, Montana The book contains numerous eye-catching quotes from the president in private settings that show him in a different light from those who know his verbiage from public events. For example, Trump unleashes a slew of expletives when Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon ask him to cut a $50 million check to his campaign in one scene in the book. 'No way,' Trump responded. 'F*** that. I'm not doing it 'Where the f***'s the money? Where's all this money from these [donor] guys? Jared, you're supposed to be raising all this money. Not going to do it.' In a post-election scene in the book, Trump bashes a South Korea trade deal but uses its technical acronym in a way that would be unfamiliar at any Trump rally. 'I'm tired of these arguments!' Trump is quoted as saying at a meeting. 'I don't want to hear about it anymore. We're getting out of KORUS.' Trump said Thursday that an anonymous op-ed slamming him in The New York Times was an act of treason, asserting something he has only written with a question mark to date. The title used by the Times op-ed page, 'a senior official in the Trump administration,' could refer to hundreds of people. 'The Times should never have done that because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason. You could call it a lot of things,' the president said in Billings, Montana. Trump was being interviewed by Fox News Channel co-host Pete Hegseth in one corner of the Rimrock Auto Arena, with a live audience of more than 10,000 people. In his speech he blasted the 'anonymous gutless coward' behind the essay, verbally hiccuping on the word 'anonymous' and twice mangling the pronunciation. 'Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she,' he finally declared. Trump repeated a challenge he had already issued to the Times on Twitter, demanding the paper's nameless author's head on a platter. 'For the sake of our national security, The New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. That would be a good scoop!' he said. 'At some point this whole thing is going to be exposed,' Trump predicted, as he warned about 'unelected deep-state operatives' who have tried to take his government into their own hands in a soft coup. 'And it's really bad and it's really dangerous,' he said. 'And it's really sad for the media.' Trump's stemwinder was met with unanimous cheers. No protesters raised their voices. During his pre-show interview with Fox, he speculated about who might have written the piece, focusing on people working 'at a fairly low level' who may want to give the public a false picture of what's going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump tweeted Friday that Bob Woodward's book is a 'scam,' after saying an anonymous op-ed might be 'treason' Trump's senior aides have all scrambled to disown the op-ed that appeared in the Times on Wednesday that slammed the President's leadership style as impetuous, petty and ineffective 'I don't mind when they write a book and they make lies, because it gets discredited,' he said. 'We just discredited the last one.' But he admitted that he 'can't discredit' the Times turncoat 'because you don't know who they are.' The culprit could be a non-Republican lurking in his administration, he suggested, or 'it may be a deep-state person that's been there a long time.' The president had suggested ahalf-hour earlier that he would put muscle behind efforts to identify the official who broke ranks to claim in the Times that a 'resistance' of aides is trying to subvert the president's worst instincts for the good of the country. DailyMail.com asked him on the tarmac in Billings how he planned to uncover the disloyal official's identity. 'We're going to try!' he yelled, over the noise of an idling Air Force One. As Air Force One was on approach for landing, Trump flexed his Twitter muscle in the Times' direction, while one of the paper's star photographers was sitting on the plane. 'Are the investigative 'journalists' of the New York Times going to investigate themselves - who is the anonymous letter writer?' he wrote. Trump seemed content for most of the day while watching the drama of a Washington-wide molehunt play out on television and Twitter, and appreciatively consuming reports of Cabinet members denying any involvement in the journalistic bombshell. A White House official said in the afternoon that the president would 'probably go there in Montana' anticipating a stem-winder about the op-ed. But the official wouldn't predict Trump's willingness to field direct questions from the press about who was and wasn't under suspicion. Trump boarded Marine One on the South Lawn without approaching a waiting gaggle of reporters. At Joint Base Andrews, he strode methodically up the Air Force One stairway, never coming near a traveling press corps that shouted questions about how he would unmask his deep-state Judas. And despite a nearly four-hour flight to the upper plains, he didn't stray to the aft press cabin to talk: He was saving his rhetorical bullets for Fox News. Non-Fox reporters were treated to a nonstop Fox feed on TV screens while the network was reporting on an ever-lengthening list of Cabinet officials and other Trump A-listers who denied having anything to do with the Times essay. At one point Fox filled its screen with a grid of 32 faces including Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis. First lady Melania Trump said in a statement: 'To the writer of the oped - you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.' Another White House official said Thursday that West Wing aides couldn't wait for the president to leave town, knowing it would 'lower the building's blood pressure and give him a reboot' in an atmosphere where he excels. Trump held his Montana rally in support of U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Jon Tester. He blames Tester for scuttling his White House physician's nomination to serve as Veterans Affairs secretary. Dr. Ronny Jackson, a respected Navy admiral, was forced to withdraw following Tester's accusations that he oversaw a 'toxic' work environment, drank on the job and overprescribed medication. The president, who insisted none of it was true, pledged that Tester would ultimately have a 'big price to pay in Montana.' Tester, he said Thursday, 'will never 'drain the swamp' because he happens to live in the swamp.' 'Jon Tester talks like he's from Montana, but he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi,' he said, lumping the Democrat in with one of the nation's most liberal lamakers. Trump needed the rally to publicly shake his Etch-a-Sketch following a week of revelations that hit his team like a series of kidney punches. First came excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book 'Fear,' which paints the president as an ill-prepared and crude leader whose lack of impulse control drove senior aides to protect him from himself. In one vignette, Woodward describes then-chief economic adviser Gary Cohn literally swiping a draft memo from the Resolute Desk to derail Trump's goal of ending a crucial Korean trade agreement. Scuttling the longstanding deal would have introduced uncertainty into Washington's relationship with Seoul and could have jeopardized America's use of South Korean real estate for an ambitious missile-detection program. Internal fallout from the Cohn affair inside the West Wing had barely softened from panic to mere shock when The New York Times twisted the knife. The publication of Wednesday's unsigned op-ed, which the Times claims was penned by a 'senior' administration official, struck a variation on the same theme. Its central claim is that a winking, nudging cabal of aides considers its primary mission to save the republic from Trump's ham-fisted ways. 'Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,' according to the still-unidentified writer. The saddest dog at a local adoption center in California has finally found a home after a Sacramento couple went against staff's recommendation to find a more friendly pooch. Jessica Williams and her boyfriend Jared had recently moved into an apartment that permitted dogs. Even though Jared was open to the idea, he asked her if she could wait until her birthday in November. But Jessica started searching around for her future pet, and a stray dog at a Los Angeles shelter won her heart. 'He would snarl and snap at people as they walked by,' Williams told The Dodo. 'I had never seen a sadder dog and knew we couldn't leave him there.' The shelter staff told the Sacramento, California couple that the dog they were looking to adopt wouldn't be too 'cuddly'. They presented other furry options that were quickly rejected Jessica Williams and her boyfriend Jared from Sacramento, California, made a six-hour drive to adopt Benji (pictured after the adoption) from a Los Angeles local public shelter, which told them the dog was not 'friendly' Jessica and Jared made the six-hour journey from Northern California but the workers continuously insisted that they instead adopt another pet. 'The shelter also told us he wasn't friendly,' said Jessica, adding the shelter staff said 'he wouldn't be a dog that would come over to us to be cuddly.' Benji, who had been at the shelter for 10 days, wasn't too fond of strangers. A flea allergy caused him to lose much of his fur and the shelter staff weren't very open to the idea of allowing the three to spend time together. The dog-loving couple thought otherwise and signed the required adoption papers, making Benji an official member of their family against the shelter's advice. Staff at the shelter did not want Jessica Williams and her boyfriend Jared to adopt the dog Benji wasn't too comfortable at first with Jessica Williams and Jared, his new owners, but now gets excited once he gets into their car While Benji struggled at first to warm up to his new owners, the couple started noticing some mood changes. Their new pet grew more accustomed to his new home after living on the streets, and now enjoys trips to restaurants, hanging out with Jessica and Jared on the patio and playing with his toys. Uncomfortable at first in the family car, he's now quick to bark with excitement as soon as the car motor starts to run. 'He loves to come up and lick our faces,' Jessica said. 'He is such a goofball now!' The U.S. is the only country in the world that has more guns than people, according to a new report. America is home to 393.3 million civilian-owned guns and has a population of 316.5 million, amounting to 120.5 firearms per 100 people, according to a report by Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based think tank. It's significantly more than in Canada, where a population of 36.6 million people owns 12.7 million guns, equating to 34.7 firearms for every 100 people. And Mexico, home to 130.2 million people and 16.9 million guns, has a concentration of just 12.9 firearms per 100 people. Redditor user Udzu created this graph illustrating civilian gun ownership worldwide. The U.S. is home to the significant majority of privately owned firearms The tiny Faulkland Islands, with a population of 3,000 and 2,000 privately owned guns, ranks second behind the U.S. for the concentration of firearms to residents at 62.1 per 100 people. Yemen comes in third, with 14.9 million and a population of 28.1 million, for a concentration of 52.8 firearms per 100 people. The households that do have guns are stockpiling. - Andrew Patrick, spokesman, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Worldwide, approximately 857 firearms were owned by civilians at the end of 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. While the U.S. has more than one gun per person, a majority (69 percent) of Americans do not currently own a gun, according to a 2017 survey by the Pew Research Center. In addition, two-thirds of gun owners have more than one firearm, including 29 percent who own five or more. Gun control advocates say the numbers suggest that a small number of people own a majority of the firearms in this country. 'You're seeing the households that do have guns are stockpiling,' said Andrew Patrick, a spokesman for The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. 'It's an extreme gun culture.' Patrick said the origin of gun culture in the U.S. dates back to the 1970s when the National Rifle Association's messaging began equating gun ownership with freedom. 'Our organization also believes that we should have freedom from gun violence,' he said. The NRA did not respond to multiple requests for comment. This 1982 advertisement from the National Rifle Association features an 8-year-old boy who was a member of the organization Patrick said things may be changing particularly since the Parkland, Florida school shooting in February. While the NRA has had historically had significant sway in Washington D.C., gun advocates argue the organization's reputation has been tarnished after Parkland students began an aggressive campaign for gun control across the U.S., even calling out politicians who didn't support their cause. 'They spoke up immediately and they did it without fear and they did it passionately,' Patrick said. 'They were smart and media savvy in the way that they did it, and when corporations started seeing it the NRA's brand almost overnight became toxic.' That remains to be seen. For example, Dick's Sporting Goods said earlier this year that it would stop selling certain types of semi-automatic rifles and that it would destroy its existing stock of those weapons a victory for gun control advocates. But the company's stock sank 6.3 percent in the aftermath, as gun owners stopped shopping at the national chain. According to Pew data, 36 percent of non-gun owners said they could see themselves owning a firearm in the future, while 33 percent said they could never imagine owning one. A majority (69 percent) of Americans own no guns at all, while 30 percent say they have at least one firearm and 1 percent gave no response in a 2017 survey by Pew Research Center Gun owners are more likely to be men than women, and white men, in particular, are likely to own firearms. Gun owners are also more likely to live in rural areas, where 46 percent of people report owning a firearm, compared to 28 percent of suburban dwellers and 19 percent of people in urban communities. Nearly half (44 percent) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents own a gun, compared to 20 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaners. The gun culture in America typically starts young, with about two-thirds (67 percent) of owners reporting that there was a gun in the household they grew up in and 76 percent saying they first fired a gun before age 18. A majority (about 80 percent) of gun owners say they have multiple reasons for owning a gun, although personal protection is the most common motivation, with 67 percent of current owners of firearms identifying that as a major reason. In addition, 38 percent cite hunting and about 30 percent say sport shooting is the reason they own a gun. President Trump has denied that his longtime friend and former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter from the Oval Office to prevent him from killing a trade deal, even though the document was published in Bob Woodward's book. 'He never took a memo off my desk,' the president told DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One, his lips pursed and eyes pinched in an unusually aggressive manner. In his book 'Fear,' Woodward writes that Cohn swiped the one-page document from the Oval office because it would have informed the South Korean government that Trump was terminating the United StatesKorea Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS. Woodward's book includes a copy of the letter, a draft that the president never signed. Trump, traveling from Montana to North Dakota, said flatly that he didn't believe the story. 'I would have fired him in two seconds! He would have been fired so fast,' he said. Trump has denied that Gary Cohn once stole a document from the Oval Office to prevent him from terminating the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement The letter in question was printed in Bob Woodward's new book, Fear. The journalist said that Cohn took the unsigned memo to stop him from pulling out of the deal Trump said he did not believe the story and that he would have 'fired him in two seconds' if it was true. He also said he would 'never speak to him again' if he Watching: Trump was on board Air Force One at the time of the Obama speech and later passed comment on it saying that it sent him to sleep Election head-to-head: Trump now finds himself campaigning directly against Obama 'That phony story about Gary Cohn!' Trump boomed later, returning to a topic that a White House official said Thursday had been his most consistent and loudest complaint about the book. The Cohn episode is told in a six-page prologue. On Friday the president was livid at the idea that the book he has labeled a work of 'fiction' had smeared Cohn, a perennial but decidedly non-conservative Trump insider whom he still trusts and speaks with regularly. 'If he did that, I'd never speak to him again!' 'I'd never speak to him again,' the president repeated, suddenly looking away in quieter thought. Cohn is a vocal advocate of free trade, and bristled during his White House tenure at Trump's preference for charging import tariffs as a form of negotiating leverage. At the time Trump was fuming about Washington's $18 billion annual trade deficit with Seoul, and had come to resent spending $3.5 billion every year to maintain the military presence on the Korean peninsula that keeps North Korea in check. Woodward writes that 'Cohn was appalled' at the thought of scuttling KORUS and 'could not believe that President Trump would risk losing vital intelligence assets crucial to U.S. national security,' one benefit of the two countries' close working relationship. Woodward quotes Cohn telling a friend: 'I stole it off his desk. I wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.' KORUS slipped temporarily off Trump's radar, according to Woodward, and he forgot all about it. But the president insisted that he was never derailed from rebooting and saving KORUS. Bob Woodward obtained a copy of the astonishing note that President Trump wrote in the margins of a speech he was poised to deliver: 'TRADE IS BAD' 'I completed the deal after Gary Cohn left,' he told DailyMail.com. 'It's completed. We're probably going to sign it [during] United Nations week in a couple of weeks.' 'I did that not because of Gary Cohn,' he said. 'I did that because of me.' Woodward also obtained a copy of the astonishing note that President Trump wrote in the margins of a speech he was poised to deliver: 'TRADE IS BAD.' The president never uttered the words, but Woodward says the phrase is the 'truest expression' of Trump's 'protectionism, isolationism and fervent American nationalism.' Trump planned to make the assertion during a speech that Woodward says he was working on en route to the United States from the G20 summit in 2017. It's not clear from the book why he never did, unlike the formal notification to South Korea that Trump was unilaterally ending its trade deal, which Cohn and ex-staff secretary Rob Porter are said to have kept away from the president. The unsigned letter to South Korea and the note Trump made about trade, in what appears to be his handwriting, are included in Woodward's book in an astonishing breach of White House security. Woodward uses the documents to bolster the narrative that aides were engaged in an elaborate campaign that is outlined in the book to sometimes shield information from Trump and at other times keep the president from doing things his aides thought would be disastrous. Cohn has been silent since Bob Woodward named him in an except of his new book as someone who tried to thwart the president from within. The White House ignored a request for comment on Thursday on the newest revelations. Woodward's book, which officially hits shelves on Tuesday, Sept. 11, includes a draft copy of a memo withdrawing the United States from its trade agreement with South Korea that the president never signed. That's because Cohn 'stole it' off the president's desk, Woodward writes. Cohn is said to have boasted to a colleague, 'I stole it off his desk....I wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.' Trump told a news outlet this week just after the release of the except that no one removed anything from his desk. 'That's false,' Trump said of the document removal excerpt. 'It's just made up.' He told The Daily Caller flatly: 'There was nobody taking anything from me.' A copy of the book obtained by DailyMail.com includes a scan of the letter, however. And the White House did not immediately slap it down as a faked document. The documents stated that the current trade deal was 'not in the overall best interest of the United States economy.' The letter provides notice of the president's desire to 'terminate the agreement' in 180 days, the required amount of notice. He committed in the letter to negotiating a new trade deal with the close, security ally of the United States. It contained lines for salutations by Trump and trade representative Robert Lighthizer but was left unsigned. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders did not respond to a request for comment via email on the document that was dated Sept. 5, 2017. The date of the letter indicates that it was drafted just before Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met for bilateral talks at the United Nations. At the summit the president also called North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man,' escalating tension between South Korea and its autocratic neighbor. Porter told an associate, according to Woodward's book, that there were multiple iterations of the letter, because Trump kept coming back to the topic. 'I'm tired of these arguments!' Trump said in one meeting. 'I don't want to hear about it anymore. We're getting out of KORUS.' Trump made his distaste for the trade deal with Korea, a key U.S. ally, in a White House meeting. Trump ordered son-in-law Jared Kushner to draft the order. The book describes a scene where Kushner took dictation. Porter heard about what Kushner was up to, and later told him: 'Send me the draft. If we're going to do this, we cannot do it on the back of a napkin. We have to write it up in a way that isn't going to embarrass us.' They prepared a draft, but it was described as part of a 'subterfuge' tactic. After a formal meeting on the topic, and following a debate, Trump asked for changes. 'Well, let's keep working on the letter,' Trump said. 'l want to see the next draft.' Cohn and Porter didn't produce a follow-up. The issue disappeared for a while. Porter and Cohn are depicted as ignoring Trump's orders to submit additional drafts, with the president's former economic adviser roping in Pentagon head James Mattis. 'We're teetering on the edge,' Cohn told Mattis. 'We may need some backup this time.' Mattis, for his part, told Trump: 'Kim Jong Un poses the most immediate threat to our national security. We need South Korea as an ally. It may not seem like trade is related to all this, but it's central.' Trump ultimately saw things his aides' way and did not shred the trade agreement. Woodward calls it part of a widespread 'administrative coup d'etat,' with Cohen recalling, '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.' Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs boss, is also quoted in the book stating privately: 'It's not what we did for the country. lt's what we saved him from doing.' Porter, who stepped down amid allegations of spousal abuse that he denied, is cast as part of the effort to head off catastrophes in the making. Once compared by Trump the likes of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, the book claims that Porter lost respect for the president after he castigated his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, as a 'rat' in his presence. Porter, whose pedigree includes Harvard Law and being a Rhodes Scholar, described efforts to manage Trump by working the tempo beyond swiping of documents. 'But slow-walking things or not taking things up to him, or telling him-right away, not just as an excuse but this needs to be vetted, or we need to do more process on this, or we don't have legal counsel clearance-that happened 10 times more frequently than taking papers from his desk. It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually,' he said. In another passage, Cohn tells Porter that he doesn't know how much longer he could remain at the White House, 'because things are just crazy here. They're so chaotic. He's never going to change. 'It's pointless to prepare a meaningful, substantive briefing for the president that's organized, where you have a bunch of slides. Because you know he's never going to listen. We're never going to get through it,' Cohn says, underlying claims that come up elsewhere in the book that Trump has the mental capacity of a fifth or sixth grader. Cohn had not commented on anecdotes of quotes that included him in the book as of Thursday afternoon, unlike other current and former Trump administration officials, suggesting the letter and the story about him snatching it off Trump's desk were authentic. The globalist whose worldview clashed with the president's left the White House earlier this year. Despite his run-ins with Trump, the president maintained that they had a good relationship until the end. He even suggested that Cohn could return one day in a higher-level position such as Cabinet secretary or chief of staff. All of that was in question this week as Woodward's book went drip, drip, drip. Trump raged on Twitter, and in remarks, about the journalist and the disgruntled current and former employees who provided him with the juicy material. Trump's spokeswoman had said that the Woodward book, which included damaging characterizations of the White House as 'crazytown' and the president as 'unhinged,' couldn't possibly be true when asked it about it at the White House on Wednesday. '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. 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 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 Woodward asaid 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.' 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 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' Trump suggested to the Daily Caller that 'disgruntled employees' may have made the embarrassing claims in the book or that they could have been falsified Woodward in their entirety. Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's new book set off explosions across the political world '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, 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 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 this week. With his 'Italians first' rallying cry and his tub-thumping against Islam and a 'migrant invasion', Matteo Salvini has rebranded himself and his party to become both interior minister and joint deputy prime minister. As leader of the right-wing League, the 45-year-old's new job allows him to focus on the chief aspects of his election campaign - stopping illegal immigration and deporting those who have already arrived. Salvini was sworn in as interior minister after striking a last-gasp deal to form a government with the Five Star Movement, an agreement that brought Italy a populist government after nearly three months of post-electoral deadlock. He took control of the right-wing coalition that won the most votes in March's election when his League party surpassed ally Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia. Far-right League leader Matteo Salvini (pictured) was named interior minister after his party struck a deal to form a government with the populist Five Star Movement Since taking over the old Northern League in 2013, Salvini has ridden a wave of public discontent, playing on anti-immigrant sentiment as he sought to shift the party's image from defender of the wealthy north against its 'parasite' south, to that of guardian of Italy's national sovereignty. Since Salvini took over the League, nearly 700,000 people have landed in Italy after crossing the Mediterranean, sparking a sense of resentment among many Italians who feel Europe has abandoned them. Salvini was in 2009 caught on video singing songs about 'stinking' Neapolitans and in 2012 said the south did not deserve the euro. But he represents impoverished southern region Calabria in the Senate and has redirected his regional chauvinism to take the League nationwide. Born and raised in Milan in 1973, Salvini joined what was then the Northern League in 1990, aged just 17, rising quickly through the ranks. At the time, the Northern League was a regional party known for its separatist campaign to secede from Italy. Salvini ran its Radio Padania, the referring to the wealthier northern region they wanted to see independent. One of his shows was called 'Never Say Italy' and in 2011, he won notoriety for boycotting Italy's 150-year anniversary celebrations, putting his desk outside Milan city hall to show he was working. 'The Tricolore doesn't represent me,' Salvini said of the Italian flag in 2014. Salvini took control of the right-wing coalition that won the most votes in March's election when his League party surpassed ally Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia But by 2018, he was campaigning as far south as Matera in the impoverished Basilicata region, where he promised 'order, rules, cleanliness' and railed against 'out of control' immigration. In a video on his Facebook page, which has more than two million fans, Salvini said he would work to 'stop the landings' once in power. He opposes same-sex unions wants to deport foreign criminals and sparked outrage on Monday when he promised a head count of Italy's Roma community and to throw out those without legal status. And as talks were under way to form the new government, he posted a photo of himself standing next to a bulldozer on Twitter with the message: 'We're working for you.' Since taking over the League, Salvini has forged alliances with other far-right Europeans like France's National Front and Dutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders. Despite positive words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Salvini in 2013 called the EU a 'gulag' like the 'Soviet Union' saying he would work to try and leave it. A savvy social media user, he has managed to successfully push his agenda online, updating his followers daily with constant updates, live videos, photos and even pictures of what he eats. Although happy to talk about his two children - 14-year-old Federico and Mirta, five - he is less happy to discuss his complicated love life. Currently living with glamorous model and TV presenter Elisa Isoardi, his children are from two previous relationships, one with ex-wife Fabrizia Ieluzzi, a political journalist, and the other with former girlfriend Giulia Martinelli. A police officer who stole blank cheques from a dead man he discovered at a property and paid himself 4,000 has been jailed for two years. Metropolitan Police Constable Robert Ward also stole 9,625 in cash from people who had been taken into custody at Edmonton police station. The 36-year-old officer based in Enfield, north London, admitted a host of fraud and theft charges before being jailed at Southwark Crown Court on Friday. Ward's force said he was called to an address over concerns for the welfare of the occupant in January last year before finding the man dead. Metropolitan Police Constable Robert Ward (pictured) also stole 9,625 in cash from people who had been taken into custody at Edmonton police station While he was there Ward stole two blank cheques and made them out to himself for 4,000 each but one bounced, police said. Ward, of Waltham Abbey, north-east London, was also ordered to pay 4,000 compensation to the estate of Peter Jones and a further 2,000 to the Met Police, a court official said. Police also said he took 76 days of compassionate, carers and emergency leave on the basis his child was critically ill - but this claim emerged to be false. Commander Catherine Roper said: 'Cases like this, although extremely rare, undermine public trust and confidence in policing.' Following the investigation by the Directorate of Professional Standards, Ward now faces a police misconduct hearing. This is the heart-melting a moment a K-9 officer whimpers as he is honored with a final radio call on his last shift after serving for eight years on the police force. Faust is a German Shepherd that served as a Explosives Detection and Patrol dog with Senior Special Agent Bryan Schaffer on the BNSF Railway Police Force in Texas. As with all retiring officers, Faust was honored with a final radio call, signing him off for the last time in his career in Fort Worth. A German Shepherd K-9 officer named Faust was honored with a final police radio call to thank him for his service, and the heart-melting moment was caught on camera In the video a dispatcher is heard saying on the radio: 'Faust thank you for your service to the BNSF Railway and most importantly for serving and protecting your handler.' Faust is pictured with his handler Senior Special Agent Bryan Schaffer The clip was originally posted on March 6, 2017 but has gone viral, capturing the hearts of dog-lovers across the nation, racking up 147,000 views. 'Thank you for your service, Faust! BNSF Railway Police said farewell to the K-9, who retired March 3 at the end of his shift after eight years and one day on the job,' the original post by the police force said on Facebook. 'The award-winning partner of Senior Special Agent Bryan Schaffer was certified in Explosives Detection and Patrol. He is now part of the Schaffer family. Schaffer writes, "Faust, thank you for all the good you have done for BNSF and other agencies - but mostly I thank you for getting us both home safe after every shift,"' the post added. The clip was originally posted on March 6, 2017 but has recently gone viral, capturing the hearts of dog-lovers across the nation Faust cuddled his handler Agent Schaffer as he was thanked on the radio for his eight years and a day of service on the BNSF Railway Police Force for eight years and a day Faust was heard whimpering and Schaffer was overcome with emotion by the end of the clip. The final radio call closed out with: 'Now we wish you a well, healthy, and happy retirement, radio clear' The video shows Faust and his handler seated in their squad car where Schaffer speaks into his radio. A dispatcher is then heard saying: 'K-9 partner Faust has just completed his last shift after serving as a Explosions detection and free service canine for eight years and one day and he is now officially retired.' 'Faust thank you for your service to the BNS Railway, the communities you've served and most importantly for serving and protecting your handler. Now we wish you a well, healthy, and happy retirement, radio clear,' the call ended. Faust is heard whimpering while listening to the last call as his handler Agent Bryan Schaffer sadly looks at his furry companion overcome with emotion and gives him a kiss. Schaffer thanked his canine companion on Facebook writing: 'He is now officially a permanent part of our family.' Faust retired after the moving video was captured, pictured above in a picture shared by Agent Schaffer A top surgeon who smacked a fellow doctor during a drunken row about BBC reporter Laura Kuenssberg has been let off with a written warning. Dr David Wilkinson, 58, attacked retired GP Lawrence King and knocked off his spectacles as they had a 'vigorous debate' in a restaurant over the political editor's 'lopsided smile.' The pair - who were on holiday in Bilbao, Spain - had been drinking for 'up to eight hours' in five tapas bars and were arguing about whether Ms Kuenssberg was 'attractive' enough to work for the BBC. Dr Wilkinson (pictured) attacked Dr King and knocked off his spectacles in a drunken rage as they and other medical colleagues were engaged in a 'vigorous debate' Dr King allegedly suggested she would look better 'with a bag over her head' due to her 'asymmetrical face.' As the debate at the Peso Neto fusion eaterie intensified, Dr Wilkinson suddenly walked up to Dr King and hit him twice - breaking his glasses and causing a gash behind his left ear. The postgraduate dean for Health Education England in Yorkshire faced being struck off the register for misconduct at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester. But a disciplinary panel ruled his fitness to practise medicine was not impaired after he apologised and said the incident was an 'utter moment of madness.' Dr Wilkinson also said he reacted violently after assuming the comments were made about his daughter, who like Ms Kuenssberg works as a television journalist. The father-of-four, from Leeds in West Yorkshire, has since made a 'financial settlement' with Dr King and has written him a formal letter of apology after the GP sued him in a civil court. Disciplinary panel chairman Emma Boothroyd said: 'Dr Wilkinson is very aware of the impact that his behaviour has had. It was capable of being remedied and it has been remediated and the risk of repetition is very low. 'It was also clear to the tribunal the profound impact the incident and these proceedings have had on Dr Wilkinson and it was satisfied that, were he to find himself in a similar situation, due to his extensive self-reflection, it is more likely than not that he would walk away. 'Dr Wilkinson has expressed remorse which the tribunal considers both heartfelt and genuine.' The hearing was told how the two doctors joined medical colleagues for a trip to Bilbao and had been out for eight hours before going to the restaurant. Witnesses said the doctors began having a 'heated' debate about Brexit before entering a row about Ms Kuenssberg. Members of the group were jokingly asking if Miss Kuenssberg (pictured) was 'attractive' enough to work for the BBC Dr King allegedly told colleagues the reporter would look better with a bag over her head - then said: 'You can't put a bag over her head - you could cut a couple of holes in the bag so she could see'. He also said Miss Kuenssberg's opinions 'didn't count for much' as she had an 'asymmetrical face.' Moments later Dr Wilkinson walked up up to Dr King and struck him once with his open hand and hit him again and his glasses fell off causing them to break and leaving him with a cut to his left temple. Dr King said he had no recollection of saying Miss Kuenssberg was 'not attractive enough to be a presenter.' But in his statement to the tribunal he said: 'We were sat about talking about this that and the other and somehow one of us got on to Brexit and conversation then moved to the reporter. She has been popping up a lot on TV recently. 'As I recall, one of the group commented that she had a lopsided smile. I concurred but I remember looking at Dr Wilkinson and he looked angry. 'He was sat across the table from me, almost opposite me. He got up and walked round the table to my right. 'He was then out of my view behind me. I looked up and saw his fist coming towards my head. 'He was still stood behind me at this point. I am pretty sure it was his right hand. I raised my arm and caught his fist in my open hand.' Dr Wilkinson momentarily left the restaurant but then returned to apologise to Dr King before going back to his hotel. Spanish Police were not alerted to the attack but Dr King tried to report the incident to police in the UK. Dr David Wilkinson (shown left, ahead of the tribunal) admitted attacking Dr Lawrence King (right) was a 'stupid thing' and said he burst into tears after the incident at a tapas bar in Spain In a statement to the tribunal Dr Wilkinson said: 'We are a close group of friends who have known each other a long time, we care about each other and have a huge range of shared experiences and memories. 'Dr King was slowly becoming part of the group by early 2017 and I imagine he thought he was gaining five friends relatively late in life and that he was enjoying that and looking forward to it continuing. 'Because of what happened he has lost that friendship and support, I imagine he feels snubbed, isolated and even bitter.' The statement added: 'I regret now that I did not get in touch with Dr King to find out how he was feeling. I had hurt him, and the incident must have been shocking and unpleasant for him. 'I should have reiterated my apology to him the following day, I included that in my letter of apology to him and I should have made contact with him after our return to the UK. 'I hurt Dr King and caused him physical and emotional distress. The public would rightly be shocked by my actions which adversely affect the reputation of the profession. As a senior visible clinical leader, the public has every right to expect that my behaviour is beyond reproach. 'I feel that I have embarrassed and distracted colleagues, the organisations they represent and risked the important work that we are all doing to improve patient care through excellent education and training. 'I am very sorry that I have allowed a moment of madness to detract from an otherwise unblemished 34 years of public service.' Dr Wilkinson is currently a specialist vascular surgeon with an interest in the management of critical limb ischaemia and vascular access surgery. He took up the post of postgraduate dean within the former Yorkshire and Humber Postgraduate Deanery in 2012. The warning will remain on Wilkinson's registration for two years. A high school in Tennessee has been forced remain closed for six to eight weeks while it works to qualm a rat infestation that has been viewed as an 'unavoidable act of nature.' Kirby High School is expected to undergo the period of trapping and exterminating the pest after the campus was closed for two weeks, according to Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson on Thursday. The rats were said to have been nesting in a auto shop near a greenhouse located behind the Memphis area school up until two weeks ago. The critters are believed to have migrated into the school while the greenhouse was being cleaned. Kirby High School will have to close for six to eight weeks after already closing for two weeks in efforts to tackle a rat infestation Rats in one section of the building have been getting poisoned but dying in another section of the school, according to Fox 13. As a result, the smell in the school has gotten all but unbearable. Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson and his team have been scouting for potential locations to house the school's 800 students - including the now-closed South Side High and Hickory Ridge Mall Hopson and his team have been scouting for potential locations to house the school's 800 students - including the now-closed South Side High and Hickory Ridge Mall. He hopes to solidify the temporary arrangements by next week. Under the current building hiatus, students could expect to return to the building by early November. 'I don't want to bring kids back and it's not right,' Hopson said, the Commercial Appeal reports. District personnel caught 80 rats when the school had first closed a few weeks ago, Hopson explained. The school was reopened after Labor Day once the school got clearance from health officials. Board member Kevin Woods claimed that the school was closed after Wednesday out of an 'abundance of caution' But the return of the stench because of dead rats in the walls caused the school to be closed on Wednesday night. 'We sincerely apologize to our students, families and staff for having to deal with this situation,' the district said in a statement Wednesday night. The school district has claimed that it has spent $70,000 and 800 hours tackling the infestation. Board member Kevin Woods claimed that the school was closed after Wednesday out of an 'abundance of caution.' The district is currently looking for solutions that allow students to take classes while not physically being in the school. Virtual school programs are a potential source for classes that the district is exploring. Kate McClure, right, and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico, center, took homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt, left, on a trip to New York in April - months after he spent his last $20 to buy gas for 28-year-old McClure, prompting them to set up a GoFundMe account for him A BMW. A limo driver. A helicopter ride. Luxury vacations in Las Vegas and LA. A trip to Disney. The list goes on and on, reading like the exploits of a jet-set couple whove enjoyed all of those perks in less than a year. It doesnt exactly sound like the lifestyle of a receptionist and carpenter who reside in a small house in rural New Jersey, a home down a long driveway surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds with lawn equipment sitting outside. And it begins to raise eyebrows when the timeline is taken into account; Kate McClure and Mark DAmico embarked on their year of luxury after starting a fundraising campaign for a homeless man last October that brought in $400,000. The homeless man, veteran Johnny Bobbitt, says hes barely seen any of the money; his lawyer says its all gone. And the couple havent been particularly forthcoming about where it all was spent. Whats not in dispute, however, is that McClure and DAmico have had quite the whirlwind year following McClures chance encounter with Bobbitt last autumn. She had run out of gas in Philadelphia, and Bobbitt who was panhandling spent his last $20 on gas for the 28-year-old. She started a GoFundMe campaign for him afterwards, outlining his selfless deed and setting the monetary goal she hoped to reach at $10,000. Her post soon went viral, however, garnering donations from more than 14,000 people that totaled $400,000. The money was supposed to be spent on a home and truck for Bobbitt, as well as a trust and retirement fund. GRAND CANYON: Following the setting up of the GoFundMe account for Bobbitt, McClure and D'Amico took a lavish trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in January 2018 DISNEY: McClure, who works as a receptionist, traveled to Disney this year, among other trips; Bobbitt claims in a lawsuit that she and D'Amico, who is a carpenter, used the GoFundMe account as a 'personal piggy bank' to 'fund a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford' BMW: The couple also purchased a new black BMW this year - which was towed away on a flatbed truck this week after authorities served a search warrant as part of a criminal investigation into spending by McClure and D'Amico Instead, he was bought a camper and a used SUV, and DAmico, 39, gave him $25,000 in cash which the couple claim Bobbitt spent on narcotics. The camper and the SUV have since been sold, and the 34-year-old veteran is back on the streets and back on drugs. He and the couple are locked in an acrimonious dispute, with Bobbitt claiming in a lawsuit that the couple used the GoFundMe account as a 'personal piggy bank' to 'fund a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford.' The couple counter that $200,000 was spent on Bobbitt and have said in interviews they gave him $25,000, which he spent in less than two weeks on drugs. The couple are now under investigation by New Jersey police who executed a search warrant at their home in Florence, leaving with bags of evidence and towing away their BMW on a flatbed truck. Earlier in the week, a judge had ordered the couple to give him control of the account, and Bobbitts pro bono legal representation said that all the money that had been raised was gone. A forensic accountant is going through their finances, but a cursory look back at their year indicates that theyve not wanted for money since McClure initiated the GoFundMe campaign. In January, she and DAmico enjoyed a luxury vacation to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, even getting a tour of the sights by helicopter a journey McClure contends was a gift from her boyfriend. McClure, who is a receptionist at the New Jersey State Department of Transportation, also traveled with her mother to Los Angeles where they were picked up at the airport by a limo driver holding a personalized sign. She also took a trip to Disney World in Florida, and all of this was documented on the couples social media accounts. They also bought a black BMW. And then there was the gambling. DAmico admitted that he spent $500 from the fundraising campaign at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, though he insists he paid it all back with his winnings. The couple claim that they spent $200,000 on care for Bobbitt, including a stay in a hotel, a camper, the used SUV, two cell phones, a television, a laptop, lawyer fees and money he sent to his parents and gave to his brother. They say they spent tens of thousands more on GoFundMe fees and gave Bobbitt $25,000 in cash while holding back the final $150,000. DAmico has said the couple believed Bobbitt shouldnt get the money until he was clean and would spend it responsibly. He told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month: Giving him all that money, its never going to happen. Ill burn it in front of him. The couple also argue that the BMW was paid for with their salaries and their California trip was at the expense of the Ellen Degeneres show, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. McClure also traveled to Los Angeles, where she was picked up by a limousine; D'Amico claimed in an interview that a California trip was financed by the Ellen Degeneres television show, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, and not GoFundMe money Despite the initial goodwill and friendship forged between the couple and Bobbitt, the relationship soured when they began to dispute the use of the GoFundMe money The couple took Bobbitt to New York in April, before tensions became strained about the spending of the GoFundMe account money After Bobbitt shared his story earlier this month, however, GoFundMe launched an investigation into the couple's handling of the fund. The site has promised to pay the full balance of the original $400,000. 'Johnny will be made whole, and we're committing that he'll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from,' GoFundMe said in a statement. GoFundMe's goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets [the] support he deserves. "We'll continue to assist with the ongoing law enforcement investigation.' GoFundMe made the announcement in a joint statement with a Philadelphia law firm representing Bobbitt, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The company is also taking steps to allow donors who contributed to the campaign to get their money back. Company policy states that donors have until 30 days of making their contribution to submit claims asking for a refund. But since the campaign took place 10 months ago, GoFundMe is waiving this aspect of its policy so as to allow donors to Bobbitt to submit claims. 'This is an extremely rare situation, and we are working with law enforcement officials to get Johnny the money raised on his behalf, which means the 30-day policy does not apply in this case,' a company spokesperson told the Inquirer. In her final upload to the page, McClure had written: 'Hopefully this will answer them while keeping his privacy and the privacy of the people he is helping also. 'The first thing on the list is a NEW Home which Johnny will own!! He will never have to worry about a roof over his head again!! Second will be the dream truck he's always wanted... a 1999 ford ranger (yes I'm serious). 'There will also be 2 trusts set up in his name, one essentially giving him the ability to collect a small 'salary' each year and another retirement trust which will be wisely invested by a financial planner which he will have access to in a time frame he feels comfortable with so when the time comes he can live his retirement dream of owning a piece of land and a cabin in the country. 'A bank account will be set up for him with funds for every day needs that will get him through until he finds a job. And lastly, he will be donating to a few organizations and people who over the last couple of years have helped him get through this rough patch in his life. The couple appeared last week on Megyn Kelly's talk show, insisting that they had not spent a dime of Bobbitt's money on themselves and saying they had not turned over the full amount because they believed he would spend it on drugs - and wanted to be sure he had funds left when he finally turned his life around On Thursday, New Jersey police served the warrant at the couple's small home, leaving with bags of evidence as well as towing away the BMW The account aimed to raise $10,000 for Bobbitt, a 34-year-old ex-Marine, but more than 14,000 people donated $400,000; he says he's barely seen any of the money Bobbitt has said he feels betrayed by McClure and D'Amico: 'I think it might have been good intentions in the beginning, but with that amount of money, I think it became greed' 'This is a well thought out plan that Johnny his lawyer and financial advisor came up with in order to give Johnny the means to acclimate back into a 'normal' life and also to protect him and ensure he has a bright future.' Bobbitt said he was never given a lawyer and met only once with a financial adviser, without signing any paperwork. Following the raid on the couples house this week, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott A Coffina said in a statement: 'Due to the enormous public interest in this matter, I am confirming that a search warrant was executed early this morning by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and the Florence Township Police Department at the residence of Mark D'Amico and Katelyn McClure in connection with a criminal investigation into the Johnny Bobbitt matter. 'As of this time, there have been no charges filed. Further updates will be provided as circumstances warrant.' It came less than a week after the couple went on national television to claim there was still 'well over' $150,000 of the raised money left. During an interview with Megyn Kelly last week, the couple said they spent $200,000 on him in total and GoFundMe took $50,000. They insisted that they had done nothing wrong and had not spent a single dollar on themselves. When asked for an exact figure of how much was left, they said they could not give one because the money was still being held in the account they used for themselves. McClure became emotional as she described receiving death threats from people claiming they had misspent the money on trips and shopping sprees. She said: It's so hard to deal with, because people are getting one side of the story, and receiving death threats and threats to burn my house down and threats against my family and everything like that is so hard to deal with when we know that we did a good thing,' she said. 'I still believe that we did a good thing, and I would do it all over again.I would do it all over again for him.' Bobbitt himself said he felt betrayed by McClure and DAmico and thinks their greed got the better of them once the money started pouring in. 'I think it might have been good intentions in the beginning, but with that amount of money, I think it became greed,' he said. A suspected member of the brutal MS-13 gang has been charged in connection to two murders of young men in Long Island. Kevin Morales-Lopez, 20, pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder during his arraignment in First District Court in Hempstead, New York, on Friday. Morales-Lopez is accused of playing a role in the violent death of 16-year-old Angel Soler, whom they suspected of being in the rival 18th Street gang. Suspected MS-13 member Kevin Lopez-Moralez, 20, is seen being led out of the Nassua County Police Headquarters on Friday on the way to his arraignment Morales-Lopez has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in Long Island The 20-year-old (left and right) is suspected of helping kill 16-year-old Angel Soler and 19-year-old Josue Amaya Leonor Morales-Lopez on Friday pleaded not guilty to the charges against him The boy was reported missing by his family on July 21, 2017, and his body was found hacked to pieces with machetes near the Roosevelt Preserve in October 2017. Four other alleged gang members have been previously arrested and charged in Soler's slaying, among them Dennis Lopez, David Sosa Guevara, Victor Lopez and Josue Antonio Figueroa-Velasquez. The Nassau County Police Department said Morales-Lopez also has been linked to the murder of Josue Amaya Leonor, 19, who was also slaughtered with machetes and then buried near the Preserve in September 2016. Leonor's remains were unearthed in the wooded area on May 30, 2018. Soler (left) was reported missing by his family on July 21, 2017, and his body was found hacked to pieces last October. Leonor (right) was killed in September 2016 and his body parts were recovered in May 2018 The victims' remains were found in the woods in the Roosevelt Preserve (pictured) Police believe seven members of the notoriously vicious street gang may have taken part in the killing of Leonor, whom they also suspected of being in the 18th Street gang. The 19-year-old was lured into the woods near Roosevelt, New York, with the promise of marijuana and then butchered with machetes, according to police. Jose Lopez (pictured), 19, also has been charged with murdering Leonor Both Soler and Leonor were students at Freeport High School. Police did not say whether the two were in a gang. All seven suspects are believed to be in MS-13's Hollywood Clique, reported ABC 7 NY. Another suspect in Leonors killing, identified as 19-year-old Jose Daniel Lopez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was charged with second-degree murder on Thursday. He pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Jeffrey Groder, says there's no physical evidence that links his client to the slaying. We're still looking to charge people with Leonor's murder, Nassau County Homicide Commander Detective Lieutenant Stephen Fitzpatrick said. But I think we've taken a big chunk out of them, where we have them on the defensive I believe. MS-13 is believed to be behind 25 killings on Long Island during the past two years. The gang has become a prime target of President Donald Trump's administration Dr. Richard Sackler, former president of Purdue Pharma, is one of six inventors listed on a patent for a new form of drug to treat opioid addiction, used to wean people off drugs the company makes The former president of the company widely believed to be at the root of the US's opioid crisis has been awarded a patent on a new medication for treating opioid addiction. Billionaire Dr. Richard Sackler, a member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, is listed as one of six inventors of a new form of buprenorphine, Financial Times first reported. 'Buprenorphine is used in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to help people reduce or quit their use of heroin or other opiates, such as pain relievers like morphine,' according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administation (SAMHSA). Purdue Parma produces OxyContin, one of the very drugs that this new wafer form of buprenorphine is proposed to help wean patients off of. Meanwhile, the company is being sued in federal court in Ohio by more than 1,000 cities, states, counties and tribes for its role in the rampant distribution of OxyContin in America, its following outbreak of substance abuse, and in some cases, public safety and law enforcement costs associated with addiction. Overall, Emergency Department visits for suspected opioid overdoses increased by 30 per cent in the US, from July 2016 through September 2017, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Buprenorphin is already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in its tablet and film forms. This new patent covers a new wafer formulation, which is supposed to dissolve more quickly than other medications used for MAT, like suboxone and methadone, when placed under the tongue. The faster dissolve time is supposed to decrease the likelihood of diversion (or, the risk that the wafer form of buprenorphin will itself be abused by addicts), according to the patent. 'Unlike methadone treatment, which must be performed in a highly structured clinic, buprenorphine is the first medication to treat opioid dependency that is permitted to be prescribed or dispensed in physician offices, significantly increasing treatment access,' SAMHSA said. Purdue Pharma is widely believed to be at the root of the US's opioid crisis with its OxyContin This new patent on a wafer form of buprenorphine covers a new wafer formulation, which is supposed to dissolve more quickly than other medications used for MAT, like suboxone and methadone, when placed under the tongue Overall, Emergency Department visits for suspected opioid overdoses increased by 30 per cent in the US, from July 2016 through September 2017, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC doesn't yet have data on the number of deaths from opioid overdose for 2017, but the government agency reported that 2016 recorded 42,000 deaths from the national epidemic, which is more opioid overdose deaths than any other year on record. It's also double the number of recorded deaths from 2010, which was 21,000. Purdue Pharma is being sued in federal court in Ohio by more than 1,000 cities, states, counties and tribes for its role in the rampant distribution of OxyContin in America, its following outbreak of substance abuse, and in some cases, public safety and law enforcement costs associated with addiction; Family and friends who have lost loved ones to OxyContin and opioid overdoses protest at Purdue Pharma LLP headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut on August 17 This data has prompted the Surgeon General to issue a warning that more people should carry naloxone, which is an FDA-approved medication that 'can temporarily suspend the effects of [an opioid] overdose until emergency responders arrive.' 'It is time to make sure more people have access to this lifesaving medication, because 77 per cent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and more than half occur at home,' said Surgeon General Sylvia Trent-Adams. 'Each day we lose 115 Americans to an opioid overdose thats one person every 12.5 minutes,' she added. Sackler's father was one of three brothers who founded Purdue Pharma, the company that may have fueled this epidemic. Sackler was deposed as part of a lawsuit that was settled in 2015, regarding the company's marketing of the highly addictive OcyContin, and what the company knew about its addictive properties during that time. Congress has requested a copy of that deposition, noting it may be the only time a member of the company spoke under oath on the topic. The patent on the new buprenorphin was issued in January. The billionaire playboy who murdered American restaurant heiress Gabriela Kabrins Alban in a horrifyingly violent killing in 2015 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday. Diego Novella Doughterty, 44, strangled the woman, 39, in a luxury hotel room in Cape Town after pumping himself full of drugs in July 2015. The Guatemalan playboy told prosecutors he thought she was the 'devil' and that he lashed out in a drug-induced rage. He strangled her then mutilated her corpse, stuffed chocolates down her throat, burned her genitals with a curling iron and defecated on her face after she lost consciousness. Her blood-soaked body was found in the hotel villa they were renting at Camps Bay Retreat. Diego Novella, 44, (left in 2017) was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in South Africa on Thursday for the brutal murder of 39-year-old American heiress Gabriella Kabrins Alban who he killed in 2015 Novella was convicted earlier this summer and was sentenced on Thursday. It is not clear why he was not given a life sentence, and his lawyer says he now plans to appeal. In handing down his sentence on Thursday, Judge Vincent Saldhana said the term would have been shorter if Novella had not mutilated his girlfriend's body after killing her. 'The deliberate desecration of the body of the deceased by the accused and his wanton humiliation of her abounds as a serious aggravating factor,' he said. When he was convicted, the judge called him 'evil' and said he wished him a 'long life in prison'. She is the daughter of Howdy Kabrins who founded Tex-Mex restaurant chain La Salsa. After her murder, he moved to South Africa to ensure justice was served. The pair were staying in this $1,300-a-night villa at Camp s Bay Retreat in Cape Town when Novella, who belongs to one of South America's richest families, attacked his girlfriend in a drug induced rage and left her body in the bathroom Novella had been taking cannabis and sceletium on the night of the murder. He told police he mistook his girlfriend for a 'demon' when he was high and attacked her because he thought she was attacking him. He strangled her then mutilated her genitals with a curling iron, defecated on her face and put chocolate and sweets in her throat On Thursday, her mother told Doris Weitz told South African news outlet Eyewitness News that she wished it had been longer. 'I hate to hear the things that the monster did to my child. Its been very, very difficult,' she said. The woman is the daughter of Malibu restaurateur Howdy Kabrins who founded the La Salsa Tex-Mex chain Kabrins said justice had 'prevailed' but said he too wanted a longer sentence. Before the sentencing, Weitz urged the judge to give him life without parole, saying: 'Diego Novella has given me a life sentence without parole. There will be no recovery from this. 'He has given Gabis father Howdy a life sentence without parole. All I can say is I hope he will not be outside of prison while I am still alive.' He and Novella had spent time together when his daughter was still alive. The couple met at Pepperdine University and dated for several weeks but they broke up because of his substance abuse problems. She went on to marry Dr. Blake Alban and reconnected with Novella after her divorce. She and Novella got back in touch online and rekindled their relationship in 2013. By then, she had launched her own marketing agency. Kabrins met Novella more than once. The pair are pictured holidaying together before his daughter's death Novella and Kabrins met at Pepperdine University where they dated as students for several weeks before she broke up with him over his substance abuse problems. They reconciled in 2013 after she divorced her husband. He convinced her to go to South Africa to seek treatment for Lyme Disease On July 29, he attacked his girlfriend in an apparent sex game gone wrong. He was described as a crack and cocaine addict beforehand. His lawyers said that he was high on cannabis and over-the-counter drug sceletium on the night of the attack. After attacking her, Novella went from his hotel room into the hotel bar where he picked up a guitar and started singing. The victim's mother, Doris Weitz, is pictured leaving court in South Africa (center) in 2015 A lawyer for Novella (shown in court in February) said he planned to appeal the conviction and sentence Witnesses said he told a bar tender: 'My lovely lady is dead,' and then waded in to the sea. He was arrested after room service staff found her body and called police. Novella is a scion of the billionaire Dougherty Novella family in Guatemala, who own Cementos Progreso, the country's largest cement company, and are one of the Central American country's most powerful families. At the time of her death, they said he was estranged from the family and had been for years. The victims's family has not yet spoken out about the sentencing. Authorities have arrested the South Carolina father of a seven-month-old baby who died after being found inside a hot car. The Florence County Sheriff's Office said Friday that it has arrested the baby's father, Brandon Scott Coward, 36, and that he has been charged with homicide by child abuse, according to WBTW. Florence County Coroner Keith von Lutcken said the child, Dean Emerson Coward, died a short time after he was found in the vehicle outside a Florence, South Carolina, home around 5:35pm Thursday. Brandon Scott Coward, 36, was arrested and charged with homicide by child abuse after authorities allege his infant son died after being left in a hot car for an extended period Von Lutcken said in a statement that while it appears to be a heat-related death, he has ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Authorities said that they responded to a call of an unresponsive child at the Florence home. By the time they arrived, the baby was already in the process of being taken to a local hospital, where he was then pronounced dead. The National Weather Service says the temperature in Florence was around 94 degrees when the boy was found. Authorities responded to a call about an unresponsive child at Coward's South Carolina home The FCSO alleged that Brandon had left Dean 'in a hot vehicle for an extended length of time.' Brandon is currently being held at the Florence County Detention Center. Neither his bond nor a court date has been set yet. Dean's autopsy was scheduled for Friday morning. Jail records indicate that Brandon's charge carries a possible penalty of 20 years to life. A murdered Russian exile believed he had previously been poisoned by mystery Russians who brought him Champagne, a paramedic who treated him said. Nikolai Glushkov, a frequent Kremlin critic, was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden, south-west London, a week after the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals. Paramedic Keith Carr said how he treated Mr Glushkov in November 2013 for suspected poisoning, after the exile shared drinks with two men from Moscow at The Grand Hotel, in Bristol. Detectives are now reinvestigating the suspected poisoning incident as part of their inquiry into Glushkov's murder, according to The Guardian. Nikolai Glushkov was a frequent critic of the Kremlin and friend of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky Nikolai Glushkov was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden, south-west London, a week after the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals The suspected poisoning came some six months after Mr Glushkov accused the Kremlin of murdering his friend and Vladimir Putin critic Boris Berezovsky. Mr Carr, then working with South Western Ambulance Service, said he responded to a report that Mr Glushkov had collapsed on the carpet the morning after the drinks. The 71-year-old said:'He had been visited by two Russians the night before,' 'They (the visitors) brought Champagne. They drank the Champagne together. 'He woke up on the carpet the next day. He had carpet burns to his face and he was unsteady.' Mr Carr said his patient had an abnormal heart rhythm, which was very fast. He added: 'In 47 years as a paramedic I've never had anybody deliberately poisoned so it wasn't foremost in my mind until he said, 'I think they poisoned me'. Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky was found lying on his bathroom floor at his home in Ascot, Berkshire, in March 2013 Nikolai Glushkov (pictured left) the general director of Avtovaz company and the general director of the All-Russian Automobile Alliance (AVVA) Boris Berezovsky (pictured right) posing during a briefing in Moscow 'I thought it was a bit far-fetched but when I saw the cardiac dysrhythmia I thought something's wrong, it's not like any normal heart rhythm, so somebody's got to him.' Mr Glushkov was treated in Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital. The disclosure comes after police named two men said to be Russian military intelligence agents as suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. Counter-terrorism police led the murder inquiry after Mr Glushkov was found dead on March 11. Mr Glushkov claimed political asylum in the UK after Russia accused him and Mr Berezovsky, who died in March 2013, of a criminal conspiracy in relation to Aeroflot. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the 'incident' in Bristol in 2013 was a matter for Avon and Somerset Police, and added: 'We are not prepared to discuss specific lines of inquiry in regards our investigation.' Russia has asked Britain for help in identifying the two assassins police believe carried out the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury in March. Moscow have claimed they want to establish whether or not the two men are Russian citizens, reports the Guardian. Last week, police released pictures of the two suspects who were using the bogus aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. The two men, believed to be officers in the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, were charged in absentia on Wednesday. Russia have asked Britain for help in identifying the two assassins police believe carried out the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury in March. The pair were using the aliases Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov (right) Russia have said the names and photographs of the men 'mean nothing to them', and denied involvement Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said: 'We need to establish who these people are, if these are [Russian] citizens or not. 'We want to do this with maximum haste and effectiveness, and so we are again appealing to Britain for help in ascertaining the identities of these people.' Russia have said the names and photographs of the men 'mean nothing to them', and denied involvement. Ms Zakharova also accused Theresa May of a 'frank lie' over claims Russia did not offer Britain information after the nerve agent attack earlier this year. The Crown Prosecution Service 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. The Crown Prosecution Service said the pair faced charges of conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal, and the attempted murder of him, his daughter Yulia and Nick Bailey, a policeman injured in the attack Pictured: The army begin their decontamination of Sergei Skripal's home in Salisbury earlier today 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 Dawn Sturgess, died in July. The news comes as a purported ex-GRU officer claimed the attempted assassination was too amateurish to have been the work of a professional. Ivan Tarasov told Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that professionals would have done it 'quietly, without fuss, and brought him [to Russia] in a mail bag, and no one would have known where he had gone'. Chicken and pork products sold in supermarkets and butchers are carrying dangerous superbugs resistant to antibiotics, an official study reveals. Bacteria such as E. coli, campylobacter and salmonella have mutated, giving them a resistance to important drugs, the Food Standards Agency found. It means people who develop food poisoning after coming into contact with these bugs are more difficult to cure. Alarmingly, some samples of pork mince tested for the Government agency found E. coli that is resistant to a so-called last resort antibiotic called colistin. Chicken and pork products sold in supermarkets and butchers are carrying dangerous superbugs resistant to antibiotics, an official study reveal Colistin is considered extremely important in human medicine because it is the only drug that works on some common human infections. Experts say the emergence and spread of superbugs, which are known as antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, poses a significant global threat both in terms of public health and economic impact. The chief medical officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, has called on ministers and the farming industry to radically reduce the use of antibiotics, which are also given to sick animals. She said: Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we dont act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that cant be treated by antibiotics. The new study involved 339 samples of raw chicken and 342 samples of raw pork mince from all the major supermarkets and butchers. Bacteria such as E. coli, campylobacter and salmonella have mutated, giving them a resistance to important drugs, the Food Standards Agency found Strains of E. coli were found in 165 of the chicken samples 49 per cent of them. Some 74 of these showed resistance to three or more groups of antibiotics. Ninety-four E. coli samples taken from pork mince were tested and of those, 52 showed multi-drug resistance and two were resistant to the important antibiotic colistin. Superdrug strains of campylobacter and salmonella were also found in the chicken and pork at lower levels. The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is campaigning to cut the use of the drugs on farms so that they can be saved for use in human medicine. Its scientific advisor, Coilin Nunan, said the discovery of strains of E. coli that is resistant to colistin in pork mince is particularly alarming. The drug is used on intensive factory pig farms in Britain despite being outlawed in countries such as China because of concerns for human health. It has also been banned on a voluntary basis by UK poultry farmers. Mr Nunan said: Why is the Government allowing a last-resort human antibiotic to be used in animal feed when we know it leads to resistant bacteria on retail meat that can transfer to humans? Colistin is used in intensive pig farming mainly to control diarrhoea in piglets caused by early weaning. This problem can be largely avoided by weaning piglets later. However, some farmers want to wean their piglets very young so that the sow can be impregnated again to produce yet more young. Alarmingly, some samples of pork mince tested for the Government agency found E. coli that is resistant to a so-called last resort antibiotic called colistin Mr Nunan said: How can it be right that a last-resort antibiotic is being undermined just so we can produce pork a bit more cheaply? A National Pig Association spokesman said: The UK pig industry has been working extremely hard to minimise its use of antibiotics, to limit the development of AMR. A British Poultry Council spokesman said: The poultry meat sectors drive for excellence in bird health and welfare is delivering responsible use of antibiotics and safeguarding the efficacy of antibiotics. The FSA report said: The risk of people developing antimicrobial resistant infections from these foods is very low providing that both chicken and pork is cooked thoroughly. The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance represents the animal medicines industry and argues antibiotics are needed on farms to promote animal welfare. A right-wing candidate for President of Brazil has spoken from his hospital bed after he was stabbed by a 'socialist' attacker and lost 40 per cent of his blood. Jair Bolsonaro said the attack was 'like a punch in the pit of my stomach' and said he suffered 'unbearable' pain when he was targeted during a rally by a man who said he was acting out a 'mission from God'. Claiming he had 'never done anything bad to anyone', the controversial politician said he had expected an attack and been prepared for it, but hospital staff revealed he was not wearing a protective vest at the time of the stabbing. Shocking footage showed the moment election hopeful Bolsonaro was knifed in the stomach in a crowd in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, south-east Brazil. The 63-year-old was transferred to intensive care after undergoing a procedure for serious internal injuries and is now stable and out of 'acute and immediate danger'. Jair Bolsonaro (said the attack was 'like a punch in the pit of my stomach' and said he suffered 'unbearable' pain when he was targeted during a rally The latest video, recorded in a hospital in Minas Gerais, was posted by Senator Magna Malta who prayed for the candidate's recovery by his bedside. Bolsonaro said: 'It felt like a punch in the pit of my stomach. Who ever has had a ball hit them in their stomach will know the pain is unbearable. 'The blade entered up to five inches and passed 1mm away from the main artery of my heart.' Bolsonaro, 63, said he was grateful to the doctors and nurses for saving his life and to God for giving him 'one more chance'. Earlier the politician's son Eduardo said: 'It was a miracle that he was alive. If he had been delayed five more minutes he would have died.' He credited the emergency medical team for saving his father's life and added the parliamentarian is recovering well from the knife attack. 'My father is stronger than ever. He is stable and talking, but still shaken because of the surgery.' On Friday morning, the injured politician was transferred to Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo. According to medical information the candidate is extremely stable and not at risk of death. A 40-year-old suspect, identified by police as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, has been arrested over the attack with police saying he appeared to be mentally disturbed and had claimed he was 'on a mission from God'. Oliveira was said to be a member of the left-leaning PSOL party from 2007 to 2014. On his Facebook page, the attacker recently posted messages criticizing Bolsonaro and supporting the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is taken on the shoulders of a supporter moments before being stabbed during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil Jair Bolsonaro reacts after being stabbed during the rally. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed that his attacker had been arrested Bolsonaro is reported to have underwent laparoscopic surgery after being stabbed at a campaign rally according to his advisers Adelio Bispo de Oliveira (pictured) is suspected of stabbing Jair Boslanaro while he was campaigning in Brazil This photo released by the Military Police, shows the knife supposedly used by Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate The split-second assault happened as the politcian was being carried shoulder high by supporters in the midst of a crowd during the afternoon event. Horrifying footage from several mobile phones caught the moment a man plunged a knife into his belly. He was seen clutching his stomach and grimacing in agony before collapsing backwards. He was rushed through the crowds and whisked by car to Santa Casa de Misericordia de Juiz de Fora hospital where doctors performed emergency surgery. Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro, initially posted on Twitter that the injury was superficial and his father was fine. However, an hour later he posted another tweet saying the wound was 'worse than we thought.' He arrived at the hospital 'almost dead,' Flavio wrote. 'His condition now seems stabilised. Please pray.' The attack on Bolsonaro, is a twist in what was already Brazil's most unpredictable election since the country's return to democracy three decades ago. Corruption investigations have jailed scores of businessmen and politicians in recent years, and alienated voters. There was fear of violence flaring across Brazil on Friday, as the nation celebrates Independence Day with political groups likely to march in hundreds of cities. Bolsonaro's rival candidates called off campaign activities for Friday. Under Brazil's campaign laws, Bolsonaro's tiny coalition has almost no campaign time on government-regulated candidate ad blocs on TV and radio. That means Bolsonaro relies on social media and rallies around the country to drum up support. As such, not being able to go out in the streets could impact his campaign. Jair Bolsonaro is being carried by the crowd while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, south east Brazil He can suddenly be seen grasping his stomach and wincing in pain and the crowd carries him on The crowd react and carry the wounded politician to safety. He is currently undergoing critical surgery Flavio Bolsonaro said early Friday outside the hospital where his father was treated that he was conscious and the attack was a political boost. 'I just want to send a message to the thugs who tried to ruin the life of a family man, a guy who is the hope for millions of Brazilians: You just elected him president. He will win in the first round,' said Flavio Bolsonaro. In a statement Federal Police said: '[Bolsonaro] was (being) escorted by federal police when he was struck by a knife during a public act in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. A suspect was arrested in the act and taken to the police station. A police investigation was established to ascertain the circumstances of the incident.' Speaking to local media, Pedro Augusto Lima Possa, the suspect's lawyer said: 'Adelio confessed and claimed responsibility for the attack. But he said he had not intended to kill (Bolsonaro).' Stabbing could reshape election contest The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. Far-right congressman Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied. After a knife-wielding man stabbed the candidate in the abdomen during a campaign event Thursday, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the attack supports Bolsonaro's assertions that the country is off the rails or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Far-right congressman Bolsonaro (centre, at a rally earlier this week), a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazil's political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this would be a change election. But no true outsider has emerged. Instead, Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. The public's anger is partially responsible for making this year's campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. The man leading polls, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the October 7 presidential ballot. The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. His son Flavio is pictured today outside the hospital treating the firebrand politician In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. 'They made Bolsonaro a martyr,' said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. 'I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro.' But it is unknown when he can get out again on the campaign trail and if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. There were signs of the deep divide in Brazil at the vigil, when Bolsonaro's supporters briefly exchanged insults with some detractors who showed up. Meanwhile, on Twitter many decried the stabbing and asked for prayers for Bolsonaro, but others suggested the candidate might have brought the attack upon himself or even staged it. Brazilian medical doctor Eunice Dantas, director of the Santa Casa Hospital, speaks to the press about Brazil's right-wing presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro's health today This is not the first time in recent months that violence has touched politicians. In March, while da Silva was on a campaign tour in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, gunshots hit buses in his caravan. No one was hurt. Also that month, Marielle Franco, a black councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death in March along with her driver after attending an event. While Bolsonaro has a strong following, he is a deeply divisive figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays. He speaks nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His vice presidential running mate is a retired general. 'It's likely that Bolsonaro will use the attack to argue his opponents are desperate, that they had no other way to stop him,' said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro's state university Advertisement The unmarried man, who has a teacher's degree, is believed to be currently unemployed but has been working as a waiter and is apparently estranged from his family. According to Possa, the attacked was motivated by religious and political reasons. 'He told me that there were religious and political motivations and that he hated the prejudice that the Bolsonaro openly spoke about and held against different races, religion and women,' the suspect's lawyer said. Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, a member of the hospital's general surgery team who performed the critical operation on the victim said Bolsonaro suffered a 'blunt abdominal trauma and was admitted to the hospital with signs of shock.' 'Surgery was performed as a matter of urgency and a massive internal haemorrhage was diagnosed and controlled,' said Dr Borsato at a press briefing last night. He explained that the former army captain had suffered injuries to several organs and had lost between 2 to 2.5 litres of blood. 'The damage was very serious. (He suffered) three perforations to the small intestine and a severe lesion in the large intestine. There was faecal contamination inside the abdominal cavity,' the surgeon revealed. 'During surgery the small intestine was connected to a temporary colostomy pouch which was placed on the inner wall of the intestine. It will stop waste matter from passing through the large intestine and prevent the site from being infected,' he continued. Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, arrives at the Santa Casa hospital where her husband is hospitalised Jair Bolsonaro's son Flavio Bolsonaro is pictured outside Santa Casa hospital today People light candles in support of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, of the National Social Liberal Party A man covers his face with his hands as he stands outside the hospital where Bolsonaro is being treated Initially the politician's son, Flavio, said the injury was superficial, but ultrasound and CT scans showed trauma in the organs and bleeding from the superior mesenteric artery, a major blood vessel in the digestive system. Borsato dismissed earlier reports of injuries to the candidate's liver. 'There was bleeding from an abdominal artery and perforations in the large and small intestines. The injured part of the large intestine was removed, and the small intestine was sewn up,' said Borsato. 'The internal injuries were serious, and the patient's life was at risk. At the start of the surgery his condition was unstable, but we were able to bring it under control and stabilise him.' The team confirmed that Bolsonaro arrived at the unit wearing a 'yellow shirt' and was not wearing a protective vest. According to reports, Bolsonaro would normally wear body protection provided by federal police for his safety. However, on this occasion he was without the vest. The politician is expected to be hospitalised for at least l0 days and will undergo another operation in a couple months' time to remove the internal colostomy bag. 'It's too early to say if he will have long term problems,' Borsato said. A group of people try to detain Adelio Bispo de Oliveira (pictured centre), who allegedly stabbed the right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro campaigns in the district of Ceilandia in Brasilia, yesterday Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is running on a tough law and order platform advocating looser gun controls He is a polarising figure in an unpredictable election campaign but rising violent crime, anger over repeated corruption scandals and an effective social media campaign have helped him gain support. He was second in the polls to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was the front-runner in the country's elections until he was struck from the ballot. At the end of last month, electoral court ruled that the Brazil's embattled ex-president, who is in prison on corruption charges and who served two terms between 2003 to 2011, would not be able to stand for election again. Bolsonaro is known for insulting women, openly expressing racist and homophobic views, championing dictatorship, calling for political opponents to be shot and for holding derogatory views of indigenous people and foreigners. This has earned him the title of 'the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world'. The ex-military office, who has been called the 'tropical Trump' of South America, has been a serving politician in the Chamber of Deputies since 1991. Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is a polarizing figure and has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements towards women and black people Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (pictured left) gestures at the crowd during a campaign rally in the district of Ceilandia in Brasilia, on September 5, 2018 An American Airlines Captain went above and beyond duty when the flight he was piloting was diverted and to ease his disgruntled passengers he bought 40 boxes of pizza. Captain Jeff Raines was concerned for the passengers on Flight 2354 traveling from Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth when the aircraft was diverted due to severe thunderstorms. The aircraft last-minute landed at the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport on Thursday and quick-thinking Raines decided to order 40 boxes of Papa John's pizza for his 159 frustrated passengers and his kind deed was all caught on camera. American Airlines Pilot Jeff Raines ordered and hand-delivered 40 boxes of Papa John's pizza for his disgruntled passengers after he had to divert the flight due to severe weather Thursday Come and get it! The kind-hearted pilot knew his passengers would have to stay in Wichita Falls the following morning so he ordered them pizza for a hot and tasty meal The video sees Raines running to a fro from a Papa John's delivery car, handing out pizza boxes to passengers standing on the tarmac. The gesture warmed the hearts of the passengers who were told they would have had to stake out in Wichita Falls until the following morning. In the video people are heard saying 'what a guy, what a guy.' The passengers are seen smiling and happily munching on their hot meal. The video was shared by airport employee Josh Raines who posted in on Twitter writing: 'I don't think I've seen this before.' 'All of us are always proud of our crew members who take great care of our customers who fly on American Airlines. We are fortunate that our crew members are the best in the business,' an American Airlines spokesperson said to Dailymail.com. Pizza Pilot! Raines, left, pictured handing out boxes to hungry passengers at Wichita Falls Municipal Airport in Texas Good deed: Raines walked around making sure each passenger received a slice of pizza 'Flight 2354 from Los Angeles to Dallas/Fort Worth yesterday diverted to Wichita Falls due to severe thunderstorms that impacted northern Texas. The flight remained overnight in Wichita Falls, and re-departed for Dallas/Fort Worth this morning,' they added. Raines has worked for American Airlines for 27 years and the airline applauded his loyalty to customers saying: 'We are fortunate that our crew members are the best in the business.' Speaking to KTLA, Raines said: 'Thanks for the compliments however this was a "TEAM" effort.' 'My First Officer was on the telephone with crew tracking / hotel desk arranging for our release and hotels for the entire crew. The Flight Attendants manned a galley cart from the aircraft serving waters, juice, and sodas to all the passengers in the terminal. All while the Envoy SPS Personnel were arranging for a bus, re-booking flights, and answering a flurry of questions from these passengers. Thanks to everyone for your help there is no "I" in "TEAM,"' he added. Three pilots celebrated as heroes aboard the Aeromexico plane that crashed into a field off the runway at an airport in northwest Mexico in late July were fired Thursday as it was revealed a pilot in training was behind the controls during takeoff. Chief executive Andre Conesa said in a letter distributed Thursday to its employees that 'the behavior of the three pilots in the cockpit was not carried out according to established protocols, deliberately violating the policies, manuals and procedures of our company'. Investigators said a trainee pilot was improperly seated in the co-pilot's seat when the plane took off, which is a breach of protocol. In total, 85 peopleof the 103 on board were injured in the terrifying crash on July 31. Captain Carlos Galvan Mayran was showered with praise following the Aeromexico Flight AM2431 crash in late July. He was fired Thursday for not following 'protocols' First officer Daniel Dardon is one of the three pilots fired by Aeromexico following the crash First responders were quick on the scene after Aeromexico Flight AM2431 was overwhelmed by the weather conditions Flight crew members (left) from the Aeromexico walk alongside the emergency responders team (right) that were carrying a passenger in a stretcher after the plane went down in an area of scrubland at the end of the runway The plane was left a smoking wreck at the end of the runway as emergency services personnel made sure no one was trapped They said the plane's commanding officer took over controls from the trainee just before the crash. The Mexican airline released a statement on Wednesday saying the accident was caused by severe weather. The initial report also indicated that there were no mechanical failures or human errors that could have caused the jetliner to crash. Flight AM2431 departed Durango International Airport and was bound to Mexico City when the Embraer 190 jet smashed into a grass field near the runway as the pilot tried to abort take-off. Passengers have described there being strong winds, hail and rain. All 103 passengers and crew survived by evacuating from the plane before it caught fire. The crew and passengers were commended for the poise they showed in helping some of the passengers that were immediately injured once the plane came to a stop and the exit doors were hatched open. The plane filled with smoke and caught fire. Captain Carlos Galvan Mayran, 38, was among the most seriously injured that afternoon. He was heavily criticized for allowing flight trainee Jose Ramon Vazquez to take off, before taking over control of the aircraft moments later. Aeromexico chief executive Andre Conesa said the behavior of the pilots, including pilot Daniel Dardon (pictured), was 'unacceptable' after an investigation into the crash of a July 31 flight in Durango, Mexico Carlos Galvan Mayran, a former flight captain with Aeromexico, was badly injured in the plane crash. All 103 passengers and crew survived by evacuating the plane before it caught fire First officer Daniel Dardon was also relieved of his duties. DailyMail.com reached out to Aeromexico but the airline declined to comment. 'This type of behavior is unacceptable and we will not tolerate [it] for any reason,' Conesa said. '[It] put at risk the trust that more than 20 million clients give us.' 'Today more than ever, our number one priority is and will continue to be the culture of safety, discipline and transparency, so any irregular event must be reported 'immediately' regardless of the rank of the person who committed the violation.' Standing behind a basic wooden table in a rural cabin, the eyes of the three girls look vacant and glassy, while their smiles look like those of mystics having a vision. Their hair is cropped in military buzz cuts, different frames show them cradling rifles or toying with knives, and one plays dreamily with a snake wrapped around her neck. They appear to be talking about what would happen if somebody threatened their leader, a man called Charlie. Tapes (pictured) unearthed in California after four decades reveal the chilling control American cult leader Charles Manson had over his followers We could respond so quickly, says the girl in the middle, Lynette Squeaky Fromme. With what? an interviewer asks off-camera. Anything, says the girl on the right, Sandra Good. Whatever. Whatevers at hand. We are animals! We are, Fromme interjects. And I know that if they laid a finger on Charlie, Good continues, if we were unarmed, we would chew their necks off. Claw their eyes out. And they know it. In another segment of film we see Fromme once again. This time her hair is long and she looks as if shes been crying. She is holding a rifle and leaning on it. Every girl ought to have a daddy like Charlie, she says, her voice slurred as if drunk or drugged. Manson (pictured) brainwashed his young followers to commit a series of savage murders in the summer of 1969 In another context, it would be easy to suppose that the footage is from some Seventies B-movie. But the girls wearing denim jackets with the words Satans Maidens, Devils Witches and Devils Daughters stitched on their backs are not actresses and the words they speak are frighteningly real and sincere. For the Charlie they speak about with such violent loyalty is none other than Charles Manson, the notorious leader of a cult he called his Family, who brainwashed his young followers to commit a series of savage murders in the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles that would shock the world. Among the nine people they slaughtered was actress Sharon Tate, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant, and married to the film director Roman Polanski. Tate had pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child, but the cult members would hang her from a beam and stab her 16 times. One of those who stabbed her would later recount that she murmured the words, Mother...mother as she was being killed. What made the murders all the more shocking was the identity of those that Manson had brainwashed into being killers. In the main, they were all-American boys and girls, whod fallen prey to his satanic charm, and who had been seduced by a life of unfettered sex and drugs. But as the 50th anniversary of the killings approaches, many questions about Manson who died last November and his cult still remain, the biggest of which is this: What drove these young people not only to kill, but to kill so savagely? The answer, I believe, lies in extraordinary lost footage of the Manson Family I discovered in California, and which is the basis of a documentary series being shown on ITV later this month.What the film shows is nothing less than the real-time radicalisation of a group of young, disaffected people, who were to fall under the spell of a highly charismatic leader. I first learned of the existence of the footage when I received a text. I think Ive found what you are looking for, it read. Attached to it were three pictures, showing some two dozen rusting film cans. They appeared to be stored in an attic, and many had the word Manson still just visible on their labels. Over the past 30 years, I have made a number of films about serial killers, and I have always wanted to make one about Charles Manson. Back in 2016, I came across an intriguing reference in a book to a young filmmaker who had gained access to Manson and his cult over a period of nearly four years, from 1969 to 1973. This was Robert Hendrickson, and there had been almost no trace of him for decades. His career seems to have focused almost entirely on Manson, producing two documentaries on the Family, one of which had a limited theatrical release in 1973 and was then banned, and one of which was never released at all. Girls with buzz cuts cradle rifles or toy with knives while discussing what would happen if someone threatened their 'Charlie' Manson had let him in because he was friends with one of the Familys associates but perhaps also because, in his heart, he wanted the world to witness what he had created, one day at least. He cant have known then that it would take nearly 50 years. I hired a private investigator and asked her if she could find any of his unseen footage. A few weeks passed and I waited more in hope than expectation. Then that text arrived. I was told that Hendrickson had died just a couple of weeks before and the tapes had been sitting in his attic for more than 40 years. It turned out that the find was even better than I had dared hope. What Hendricksons lost footage showed was nothing less than the unexpurgated life of Mansons cult over four years. This was exactly what was needed to make the film I wanted about radicalisation and, better still, there were chilling revelations in the footage about Manson and the madness of his family a madness that would lead to some of its members stabbing their victims more than 100 times and daubing the walls with their blood in a display of utterly horrific barbarism. So what does the film show? Clearly, Charles Manson is the central figure. Undoubtedly a man who committed many evil acts, he was born in 1934 into the kind of rootless and abusive environment that fostered criminality. With an absent father and alcoholic mother, the young Manson progressed from truancy to delinquency, before graduating to carjacking and armed robbery. Manson was sentenced to the type of institutions where physical abuse and homosexual rape were common, acts that he would then reciprocate on his peers. At some point in his troubled life, he found time to get married and father a child, although his criminality meant that his roles as husband and father were severely lacking. By 1967, Manson had spent half his life in correctional facilities or in prisons and when he was released in March that year, he headed up to San Francisco at the height of the hippie era. Here, the 32-year-old Manson realised that the counter-culture of free love offered him the opportunity not only to wield his darkly charismatic personality for his own sexual gratification, but to establish a community of impressionable youngsters who would be his acolytes. He was, in his own twisted way, needy for love and desperate for some form of control. While some members saw Manson as their 'Daddy' others were even more extreme in their affection for him By drawing on lessons he had learned from pimps in prison, Manson preyed upon young men and women especially the latter who were vulnerable and lacking in family bonds and self-esteem. He would tell them that their parents had betrayed them and that he would become their new father give them a sense of belonging to a new family. While some members like Lynette Fromme saw Manson as their Daddy, others were even more extreme in their affection for him. I am Charlie, says Family member Thomas Walleman in the newly discovered footage. When he dies, I die. I gave up my personality and became what he showed me I could be total love. This was the first stage in Mansons radicalisation process, although even he did not yet know its ultimately horrific destination.The second stage was, quite simply, to give the young people a good time. He provided an environment a run-down ranch in the Santa Susana mountains, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles which was free of moral restrictions and full of sex and drugs. It was here that a group of as many as 30 Family members lived together. Paul Watkins, one of the early male members of the Family, describes in the tapes his first experience of the anything- goes culture. There was a big room with mattresses all over it and a little table in the middle, he says. Charlie was playing the guitar. Among the nine people they slaughtered was actress Sharon Tate (pictured), who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant He laid out all these girls in front of me and said: Theyre yours. What are you going to do with them? I was flattered. Unsurprisingly, Watkins stayed, although he was to find that Manson used sex as a means of control. We all had to go through lots and lots of changes, Watkins says. All the guys had to get over all their homosexual [reticence] by doing everything you could possibly think of doing with guys. And all the girls had to do everything you could possibly think of with other girls. Manson would watch it all. That enabled him to get to know his disciples most intimate natures, which would, of course, help him control them. Some of the cult members were very young, such as Dianne Lake, who was just 14 when she joined the Family, and when Manson first had sex with her. It appears that Lake relished the attention. Her parents, she told us when we tracked her down last year, were not the warm, fuzzy, hugging variety. He expressed his love and admiration for me, she said. It was a high. It was magic. It was an incredible upwelling of love and joy. Charlie invited me to be a part of their family. It was what I was looking for. But along with the reward of sex, Manson would also use punishment to keep his followers in his thrall. When girls did not do as he pleased, he would hit them. Many of them became like battered wives, with Manson using intermittent cruelty followed by love and intimacy. The use of drugs was the fourth stage of radicalisation, and the Family took them daily. WHO WAS SHARON TATE? Sharon Tate was an the American actress and model who rose to fame in the 60s, appearing in several small-screen productions and starring in a several fashion magazine campaigns before making her film debut in Barrabas in 1961. Her most noteworthy role was as Jennifer North in the 1967 cult classic Valley Of The Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. After starring in The Fearless Vampire Killers in 1967, she married director and co-star Roman Polanski in August 1968. Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski in 1968 She was just two weeks away from giving birth to the couple's son when she was butchered by members of the Manson Family at Polanski's Southern California home in 1969. Four friends were slaughtered alongside her at Polanski's home in Benedict Canyon: Hollywood hairstylist, Jay Sebring, an ex-lover of Tate's, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, a Polish actor and writer, and Steven Parent, who had been visiting the caretaker. On that fateful summer night, Polanski was in London scouting locations for the Day of the Dolphin when he got the call that his wife was stabbed to death 16 times in one of the most vicious and brutal murders in the history of Los Angeles. Media frenzy directly followed the murders, with speculation that perhaps it had been part of a satanic ritual. Polanski posed for photographs in the home, next to where the word 'PIG' was written in blood, saying he hoped the graphic images would help shock people into coming forward with information. About a month later members of the Manson 'Family' were arrested on suspicion of involvement in an unrelated murder, which lead investigators to a breakthrough on the Tate case as well. The suspects told police they had killed Tate and her friends not because of who they were, but because of the home they were in, which had belonged to a previous acquaintance of Manson. Reporting by Megan Sheets Advertisement We took things like belladonna, smoked hashish a lot, smoked marijuana all the time, and took mescaline [a natural psychedelic], says Watkins, in the lost footage. When I was with Charlie, I took between 30 and 40 trips on acid alone. Everyone just went stark raving mad. I mean just completely crazy. While marijuana sedated the Family members, it was the psychedelic drug LSD that Manson used to cement his control. For it was while his cult members were having acid trips that Manson would insinuate the idea that he was the messiah. Charlie never just said he was Jesus Christ, says Watkins. But then he always said it in every other way. Another follower, Brooks Poston, recalls in the footage how Manson once said that two thousand years ago he had hung on the cross and died for everyones sins, and it didnt do a f*** bit of good. The Family members appeared to believe it. Weve seen whats possible, says Sandra Good in an audio recording. Weve seen Charlie do things that no human being has ever done, or no human being has revealed that he can do these things. Weve seen miracles. These supposed miracles which apparently included Mansons ability to bring a dead bird back to life and to jump higher than possible for a human being were doubtless the product of narcotics rather than divinity. By now, the members of the Family were utterly under Mansons spell, a fact that was compounded by the way he ensured that no members had access to any media there were no newspapers, magazines, televisions or radios. There werent even any clocks at the ranch. The only source of information about the outside world was from Manson himself and he presented the world as he wanted to see it, rather than how it was. They lived from hand to mouth, collecting food that supermarkets had thrown out, begging on the streets of LA, cajoling worried parents into sending gifts in the hope they would grow out of their Charlie Manson phase and yes, from casual prostitution. This paid for the food and, of course, the drugs as well. Tate pleaded for her life and that of her unborn child, but the cult members hung her from a beam and stabbed her 16 times What made Mansons view of the world so violent was that he was full of rage and wanted his revenge on those he felt had betrayed him. A failed musician, Mansons loathing was particularly intense for the showbiz world, which he felt had ignored his genius. The person for whom he reserved his greatest bile was a record producer called Terry Melcher, who had been introduced to Manson by Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys. After making some initially positive noises, Melcher realised that Manson was not all that talented, and besides, he was clearly prone to violence. The record producer did not sign up Manson and cut all ties with him. As well as loathing Melcher and his industry, Manson was a racist, convinced that a race war between blacks and whites would soon break out in the United States. He called this forthcoming war Helter Skelter after a song from The Beatles White Album and convinced the Family it was both real and imminent. Isolated at the ranch and strung out on drugs, the cult members believed him. Imbued with a strong sense of vengeance and feeling that his life was in danger of falling apart, Manson started training his followers to use knives and guns. Of all the footage we found in Hendricksons attic, perhaps the most disturbing features three elfin young women Fromme, Good and Nancy Pitman posing with guns and hunting knives. Their faces are set in rapturous expressions and they talk openly about their willingness to kill. If you want it, here it is, come and get it, sings Good with a smile on her face, brandishing a huge knife. In another section of the footage, she says, chillingly: When somebody needs to be killed, theres no wrong, you do it, and then you move on. And killing is what would soon happen. Towards the end of July 1969, Manson ordered his followers to start their slayings. On the 25th, Manson and members of the group went to the home of music teacher Gary Hinman in Topanga Canyon, on the fringes of Los Angeles They were concerned that Hinman had sold them some bad drugs and wanted to get their money back. But Hinman insisted the drugs were good and would not pay up. Eventually, Manson challenged Family associate Bobby Beausoleil to stab him to death. Afterwards, Beausoleil and the gang smeared their victims blood on the wall, daubing it as gruesome graffiti that suggested the killing was the work of the radical black power group, the Black Panthers. On the night of August 8, Manson ordered four Family members a man named Tex Watson and three women to a house at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and to kill everybody there. The address had been the home of Terry Melcher, the music producer who had cast aside Manson. Although it is often thought Manson was well aware Melcher had moved, our documentary reveals he had indeed wanted the gang to kill Melcher and not those who were to die five victims including the actress Sharon Tate. This revelation is made by Beausoleil, who gave us an exclusive interview from prison, where he is still serving a life sentence. While he and Manson were locked up together in a holding cell during his subsequent trial, Manson told Beausoleil that Melcher had been the target. He admitted to me that he had made a mistake, Beausoleil told us. And he said, I sent Tex to kill Terry, meaning Terry Melcher, the producer for The Beach Boys. What happened that night was truly barbaric. After cutting the telephone line, the groups first victim was the 18-year-old Steven Parent, who had been visiting the houses caretaker. Watson first tried to stab him, then shot him four times in the chest. The group then entered the house and this is where the butchery began. Its four inhabitants, including the heavily-pregnant Tate, were bound, pistol-whipped, hanged, stabbed and shot. One was stabbed 51 times. Tate pleaded with the killers to let her live long enough to give birth, but her appeal fell on deaf ears. After she was repeatedly stabbed, her blood was used to daub the word pig on the front door, in another ludicrous attempt to convince the authorities that the murders were committed by black activists wishing to start a race war. The following night, six more members of the cult, including Manson himself, were involved in the double murder of a supermarket owner and his wife, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca chosen, apparently, at random after a four-hour drive scouting possible targets. Leno was stabbed 12 times his wife 41 times. Justice would finally catch up with Manson and his cult after one of the killers, Susan Sadie Atkins, spilled the beans to a fellow inmate in a jail cell where she was being held on an unrelated charge of arson, three months after the murders. In June 1970, the Family were put on trial. However, even then, the cult was determined their messiah would never be punished and hatched an outrageous plan thats revealed in our film. One of those we spoke to, former member Aesop Aquarian now a character actor told us that the Family wanted to kill the judge appointed to the case: One of the girls came up to me and said, Weve gotta get Charlie out. We need you to go to the courthouse and kill the judge. I felt my jaw drop to the ground. You want me to what? We want you to kill the judge. That will show them that were serious and get Charlie out. Are you for real? And she said, Yeah. My first thought was what the hell am I doing here? As if he needed any more persuading, Aquarian left the cult immediately. It would be easy to say the demand to attack the judge was mere bravado, but the brutality of the gangs slayings mean the existence of such a plan should not be dismissed. Once more, the footage shows what extreme measures some cult members were willing to take to protect their Daddy: Im ready to die for Charlie, says Fromme. Hes ready to die for me. He has died for me. Im ready to die. Im ready to die to protect my own. Snitches will be taken care of. When asked how by one of the original film crew, she leans on a pump-action shotgun and says ominously: Ah. Thats to be seen. The plan to kill the judge never came to fruition and Manson and those Family members directly involved in the slayings were sentenced first to death and then, when the death penalty was temporarily abolished in California, to the rest of their lives behind bars. I do hope this proves to be a warning from history. It shows clearly how impressionable young minds can be twisted to suit the violent ends of a dominant and cunning personality. Ultimately, nobody deserves a daddy like Charlie. Manson: The Lost Tapes starts on ITV later this month. Sasha Young is the daughter of Scot Young, who fell from a fourth-floor flat he rented in Marylebone and was impaled on the railings Absolutely nothing about Sasha Youngs early life could be construed as normal. Her childhood was one of such unimaginable wealth she now regards its ostentation as obscene. Home was an elegant Palladian villa stuffed with 6 million worth of antiques, set in 500 glorious Oxfordshire acres. Little Sasha and her elder sister Scarlet had 15 ponies, six pedigree dogs and a collection of Fendi handbags worth thousands. The tooth fairy would leave us 50, she recalls. We flew in Concorde to luxury villas in Barbados or the South of France, and Christmas was every childs dream. Our parents would fill a room with presents everything from toys, to designer clothes, bags and jewellery. I didnt realise then that the life I was leading was abnormal that we were wealthy to a degree I now think of as obscene but Dad wanted us to have everything he didnt have as a boy. Sashas father Scot Young charming, smart and funny was a self-made billionaire who grew up in a humble street in Dundee and amassed a fortune in the Eighties property boom. He flaunted his wealth, rolling up to collect his daughters from their private school in one of his fleet of 52 luxury cars. He had two vintage Mercedes worth 500,000 each, Baby Bentleys, a Ferrari Spider, Porsches. Sasha reels them off like a shopping list. Her mum Michelle, a former fashion buyer, routinely spent 10,000 a week in Londons designer boutiques. When their wealth was at its zenith, Michelle and Scot Young frittered 2 million a year on clothes alone. Yet within a decade the idyll was shattered. Sashas adored father, aged 52, was dead. In December 2014, he fell from a fourth-floor flat he rented in Marylebone and was impaled on the railings below. Sasha believes that her fathers death, although it had been contrived to appear like suicide, was actually murder. This is why she is speaking for the first time about it now, in the hope that someone who knows the truth might come forward, and that the police will reopen their investigation. Dad called me eight minutes before it happened, she reveals. There was absolutely nothing in his voice that indicated anything was wrong. Everyday pleasantries were exchanged. Dad said, How are you doing? and I said everything was fine. I asked how he was and he said it was all good. He said hed call me the next day and that he loved me. I told him I loved him, too. He didnt sound stressed or agitated. After he died, we begged the police to investigate, but the forensic work that should have been carried out at the flat at the time wasnt done. Scots ex-girlfriend model Noelle Reno alleges he called her just minutes after he phoned Sasha to say he intended to take his life. But Sasha questions how her dad seemed so calm and chatty during the call minutes earlier? Reno is one of the original stars of the Bravo show ladies of London and Scot had appeared in it with her. Sasha Young aged four in Barbados with late father Scot, mother Michelle and sister Scarlet Sasha, now 23, was just ten when her gilded life began to disintegrate. Fissures developed in her parents marriage and the family planned a fresh start in Miami. Michelle and her daughters went there to live in an opulent beachfront house, expecting Scot to join them. But out of the blue his lawyer called Michelle. Scot, he disclosed, had lost all his money. The proposition seemed absurd. How could such vast wealth disappear in its entirety, apparently overnight? Sashas life was about to change for ever. She returned with her mother and sister to a lavish rented house in Regents Park, London, and although Scot professed to have no money, the familys affluent lifestyle continued for a while, at least. Michelle and her husband began a rancorous and protracted divorce, played out in the media. When the proceedings were under way, Scot began a relationship with Reno, an American-born model and TV presenter. The acrimonious divorce, meanwhile, continued and after 65 court hearings, Scot was ordered to pay his wife 28 million. But she has never received a penny. Sasha believes her fathers fortune of at least 400 million is secreted somewhere. But Scot continued to insist hed lost it all, and after failing to provide information about its whereabouts to the divorce court, he was jailed in 2013 for six months for contempt of court. Then, within months of his release from jail he was dead. Sashas quiet voice falters as she recalls the day she heard the news. Mum walked into my bathroom holding her stomach. She said: Your fathers fallen from a building. She said shed read about it in a newspaper. My legs were shaking. I felt sick. I wanted to see for myself what had happened. I walked to the flat. I had to see the blood on the street before I would believe it was true. And when I saw a section of the railings had been taken away I threw up all over the street. Sasha Young on her third birthday with her late father Scot at the family home Woodperry I bought a huge bouquet and wrote a card for Dad, hiding it near where he had fallen. I wrote that I loved him. She rubs away tears. And it was two days before the police came round and told us officially that he had died. He had been impaled through the heart on the spike of a railing. I wanted to see my Dad, to say my last goodbye. I needed that closure. But they told me I couldnt because his body had started to decompose, and I was devastated. I was at university at the time doing a business degree. I didnt go back. I couldnt. Everything was just too much. It still is. I adored dad. We were extremely close. He called me his cheeky monkey and people said we were the spitting image of each other. I cant think about how he died. I have nightmares. Theyre graphic and bloody. I dream hes hugging me. Then someone comes in and injects us with poison that kills us. She breaks off, exhausted by the emotion, the horror of it all. There are many reasons she is certain his death was not suicide. She explains: One day, when I was sitting my GCSEs, everything in my life seemed scary, unstable and horrible. I was embarrassed and ashamed my parents divorce was so public. At school, a teacher said: You know youll probably end up in a council flat. I felt desperate, suicidal, and I remember sitting at home crying and telling Dad Id considered taking my life. He said: Never think about doing that, ever again. He told me it made him scared. He was crying. That day we made a pact. We promised each other we would never, ever contemplate taking our own lives. And he had a terrible fear of heights. He didnt even like looking out of a high window. He would never have ended his life that way. Nobody wants to die like that, from impalement. The police said it was one of the worst deaths theyd seen. The inquest brought Sasha no resolution. The coroner recorded an open verdict. It makes me feel sick, shaky thinking about what actually happened that day and I really do want to know but I dont see myself getting any concrete answers. The reason she thinks it unlikely is that her fathers business deals were convoluted, shady and secretive. Today, Sasha reveals that she believes he was killed by a professional hitman on the orders of the Russian mafia. Scot had close links to Boris Berezovsky, the exiled Russian oligarch who was a vocal opponent of President Putin. Scot Young was a self-made billionaire who grew up in a humble street in Dundee and amassed a fortune in the Eighties property boom. He is pictured aged 36 And if Sashas theories about her fathers death seem extravagant, there is compelling evidence to support them. Five of her fathers friends all of whom attained huge riches on deals they brokered met sudden, violent deaths within four years of each other. They were property magnates Paul Castle and Robbie Curtis; ex-rock manager Johnny Elichaoff and Berezovsky, found dead at his Berkshire home in 2013 with a ligature round his neck. A coroner also recorded an open verdict on Berezovsky, while a forensic scientist said he could have been murdered. Berezovsky was an investor in Project Moscow, a Russian property deal set up by Scot, which collapsed, allegedly costing those involved hundreds of millions. But did Scot really lose all his wealth in the abortive project? Sasha believes not. She thinks Russian associates could have been involved in hiding her fathers huge fortune, and that they might have had a role in his death, sanctioning his murder by a hitman rather than returning his money when he asked for it back. People do crazy things for money, she says, only my dad knew the truth about where it went. If I thought about it too much Id go mad. There are too many unanswered questions, too many things Ill never understand. But what I want to know is the truth about why he died. I want justice for him. Sashas demeanour is almost diffident. She speaks in a soft, hesitant voice, recalling how her carefree and privileged early childhood descended into chaos, confusion and darkness. The former family home where Sasha Young lived - Woodperry House in Oxfordshire Back in London after her parents break-up, Sasha attended the 21,000-a-year Francis Holland School in Sloane Square; her father still gave her a 100-a-week allowance. We were still living an extremely expensive house, she recalls. Dad wasnt living with us but still called every day. Wed chat about school, everyday things. And hed reassure me and say, Dont worry. Everything will be fine. But there were lots of rows, and mum was angry. It was difficult for her to understand why her extravagant lifestyle had been curtailed. Shed been used to going to Hermes or Dolce & Gabbana every Thursday and coming out with rails of clothes which would fill her Range Rover. There was evidence, too, of Scots shady financial dealings. Money started arriving via intermediaries in wads of cash. I was about 13 and I remember a Russian guy one of Dads business associates handing over about 30,000 in cash outside a hairdressers in Mayfair. I saw it. It was very strange. We began to realise Dad was associated with people who were scary. It came to a head one night when I was about 14. Mum was at the cinema and my sister and I were in the house alone. Dad called us and said people were watching the house; that we were in danger and we had to meet him and leave the country that night. Im sure he believed it. He wouldnt have frightened us without reason. We locked ourselves in a bathroom. We were terrified; too scared to leave the house. By the time Mum came home we were trembling and crying. Her parents ruinously costly and bitter divorce case rumbled on. Then one day in 2008, Scot rang Michelle with a proposition. He said he would put 100 million in her bank account and give the same to each of their daughters if she would drop the case. Noelle Reno and Scot Young pictured together at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London He said he would give mum until 3pm the next day to decide, remembers Sasha. And Mum hesitated. Scarlet and I were begging her: Take the deal, take the deal! We pleaded with Mum. The next day we were walking on Primrose Hill with her and it was near the 3pm deadline. We were saying: We need to sort this out. Dont you want all this to stop? But mum called 15 minutes late. I heard Dad saying: Its too late. The deals off. Thats how he was. For Dad, a deal was a deal, no matter who you were. And when I think about it now, if it had been agreed it would have put a stop to everything. Dad would never have gone to prison. There would have been no more court hearings. He would probably still be alive today, because the more his business dealings were exposed in public, the more vulnerable he became. She breaks off again, in tears, remembering the court hearings: It was like the War of the Roses, she observes: bloody, intractable and seemingly interminable. By then, Michelle and her daughters were living in reduced circumstances. School fees left unpaid, Sasha left her smart independent school and went to a small private college. Home was a pleasant, but far from pretentious, three bedroom rented flat in Victoria. All the expensive cars had gone, she recalls. Mum drove a Mini and I went on a bus for the first time. She recalls how she took on the role of unofficial intermediary in the epic marital dispute. Dad would call and say, I need you to talk to mum. Then mum would say, Tell Dad this. I was piggy in the middle. So desperate was Sasha for peace, she brokered a meeting with them at a cafe in Victoria. They were flirting and laughing, which gave me tremendous hope that they would speak civilly and dispense with the lawyers; perhaps even get back together again. But after the meeting mum said she never wanted to see dad again. She felt so betrayed by all hed done. I was crushed, devastated. My hopes were raised then dashed. Meanwhile, the court decreed that Scot should pay Michelle 27,500 a month in maintenance. But no money ever materialised. Sasha was sitting her A-levels when her Dad was jailed. I wondered why Dad would rather go to prison than answer questions in court about his money. I cried. I was scared about what would happen to him in jail and I wanted to visit him, but he told me not to. Flowers are left at the scene in Marylebone, London, in 2014 after Scot Young fell to his death On the day he was released from Pentonville I met him. We gave each other a huge bear hug. He was in a great mood, so happy to be out. I said to him again: Why didnt you answer the questions about where the money was? And he just said: Its complicated. Today Sasha remains baffled, grief-stricken, and no nearer to reaching a conclusion. She is haunted by the fact that when he asked to meet her days before he died, she didnt go. He said there was something he wanted to say in person that he couldnt discuss over the phone. I didnt go. I had a university deadline. I regret it tremendously now, and the guilt stays with me. I think he was scared that someone was trying to get him. He thought he was vulnerable. Today her life has changed irrevocably. She lives in an unassuming flat and has just started a 25,000-a-year job with a charity. She is pretty and likeable; there is nothing ostentatious about her. Dad was not a normal person, she reflects. He was such a huge personality. He couldnt have lived an everyday life. I thought he was a strong, powerful man. She stares ahead, her intense blue eyes brimming with tears. Actually I thought he was invincible. But I was proved wrong. A man accused of running a red light while drunk and killing an Oregon couple on a motorcycle is said to have been in the US without documentation. Eduardo de la Lima Vargas, 39, of Hubbard, Oregon, was arrested and charged with two counts of manslaughter, driving under the influence, reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person, following an incident which occurred in Salem, Oregon, on August 19. Authorities said that Vargas was driving a pickup truck and pulling a horse trailer when he ran a red light and hit couple Jessica and Logan Wilson, who were attempting to turn a street corner on their motorcycle. Authorities said Eduardo de la Lima Vargas, 39, was intoxicated when he ran a red light, killing an Oregon couple on a motorcycle. ICE said that Vargas is in the US without documentation The Wilsons were taken to the hospital where they were declared dead, the Statesmen Journal reported. Police said Vargas' blood alcohol level was above the legal limit when he ran the red light, KGW8 reported. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed that Vargas is from Mexico and has been living in the US without documentation. They put an immigration hold on him on August 23. During his initial court appearance, prosecutors said that Vargas had received a DUI in 2001, but had been allowed to go into a diversion program instead of facing potential conviction and a criminal record. At Vargas' court appearance Wednesday, his lawyer said that Vargas first arrived in the United States 18 years ago. He spent the intervening years living in the US, minus a six-year period during which he'd gone back to live in Jalisco, Mexico. Logan and Jessica Wilson were riding a motorcycle, attempting to make a turn when they were hit by Vargas who was driving a pickup with a horse trailer attached to it Logan and Jessica Wilson were declared dead at the hospital. They leave behind three children Vargas was said to have been self-employed and working in construction with a friend, according to the AP. Vargas waived his right to a speedy trial and the judge set his bail at $500,000, due to his being a danger to society and a flight risk. Vargas is said to be one of the 943 foreign nationals in the Oregon Department of Corrections prisons system, all of who have ICE detainers. ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell told the AP that ICE 'only lodges detainers on individuals who are subject to removal, meaning these individuals violated the terms of their lawful status or are in the country illegally.' Oregon has the oldest sanctuary state law in the US. A GoFundMe was created to help provide for the Wilson's three children, although it is no longer accepting donations. Boris Johnson has put on a show of unity with his daughter who branded him a 'selfish b******' for infidelity by taking her to a play about power politics after his wife announced they were divorcing. The ex-Foreign Secretary was pictured with his daughter Lara after they enjoyed a night out watching Imperium at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End. As her parent's relationship unravelled, the 25 year old also reportedly said her mother would not take him back as in the past. Mr Johnson's long-suffering wife Marina Wheeler announced the divorce yesterday after tiring of the 54-year-old womaniser's antics. He is said to have been jugglingBrexit with secret trysts with a blonde Tory party aide. Boris Johnson is pictured leaving the Gielgud Theatre in London after watching Imperium with his daughter Lara Boris Johnson's long-suffering wife Marina Wheeler has finally had enough and the couple announced yesterday they would divorce Lara, 25, reportedly branded him a selfish b****** and said her mother would not take him back as in the past Boris Johnson, when he was mayor of London with wife Marina at the GQ Men of the Year Awards One of these trysts took place on Valentine's Day when he wined and dined the blonde at lunch time, reports the Sun. The pair were spotted in the cosy corner of the exclusive Rules in Covent Garden, London, and spent around two hours together. One diner told the Sun: 'It seemed quite an intimate meal and hardly anything to do with any great matters of the state. 'It was quite a strange day to be meeting a young attractive woman for a meal in one of Londons most exclusive restaurants.' Mr Johnson was seen today kissing his daughter on the cheek after watching Imperium, a play based on the bestselling Cicero novels by Robert Harris, before heading off on his bike. Sources said the marital crisis erupted in early July, around the time Mr Johnson sparked chaos by quitting as foreign secretary over Theresa Mays Chequers plan. One source claimed Mr Johnson had dumped a lover to take up the blonde Tory aide. Another said he was involved with only one woman. The aide was described as a young, vivacious and stunning blonde who regularly posts glamorous photos of herself online. But she took down her Instagram account yesterday and messages to her seeking comment went unanswered. She lives with her mother, who would not open the door yesterday. Mr Johnson, who has had at least four extramarital affairs and made at least two of his mistresses pregnant, refused to comment when he left his country home in Oxfordshire. Boris Johnson leaving Gielgud Theatre in London after watching Imperium with his daughter Lara Boris Johnson's daughter Lara Johnson-Wheeler branded him a a selfish b****** and said her mother would not take him back as in the past Minutes later he and Miss Wheeler announced their marriage was over. In a joint statement they said: Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate. We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further. In other developments: A poll for the Mail suggested Mr Johnsons divorce could make it harder for the Conservatives to win the next election; It found that 30 per cent of all voters would be less likely to vote Tory if he was leader against 21 per cent who said more likely; The MPs friends denied claims he leaked the news of the marriage split to clear the decks before any leadership bid; Mr Johnsons biographer claimed the MP once offered him 100,000 to abandon the book he was writing. Miss Wheeler, 54, a Cambridge-educated QC and the daughter of veteran BBC correspondent Sir Charles Wheeler, has been getting their assets professionally valued in recent weeks, a source said. She has put up with her husbands infidelity for years. In 2004, he admitted having an affair with the writer Petronella Wyatt who had an abortion. He had initially denied the fling but was sacked from the shadow cabinet for lying. In 2009, he was thrown out of the marital home again for fathering a lovechild with arts consultant Helen Macintyre. Boris Johnson seen leaving his Oxfordshire home this morning, it has been reported that his marriage is over Both times Miss Wheeler mother to their four older children Lara, Milo Arthur, 23, Cassia Peaches, 21, and Theodore Apollo, 19 took him back. Fashion journalist Lara was reportedly overheard exploding with rage at her father, telling friends at a party he is a selfish b******. The Sun newspaper quoted her as saying: Mum is finished with him. She will never take him back now. A former aide to Mr Johnson said: Marina is in the driving seat on this. She is being firm. No going back this time. They couple are thought to have been living apart for some time. The announcement of the break-up came amid signs that Mr Johnson was poised to make a pitch for No 10. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at a Theatre in the West End, central London, the day it was announced that he has separated from his wife of 25 years Marina Wheeler Boris Johnson when he was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs out jogging around St James Park in February last year There was no attempt by him to scotch the story as the news spread like wildfire on social media. Allies of the MP said Miss Wheeler had initiated divorce proceedings and that these would shortly become public. They said the couple had been considering announcing the end of their marriage on Monday, before the news leaked. A friend said: They were fine last Christmas but theres been strain since then. I dont think being in the Foreign Office helped all that travel. Marina wasnt at their daughter Cassias birthday party this week. In fact, she has not been evident for a while. Shes been writing a book and that probably hasnt helped either because she is no longer doing as many cases as a barrister. And yet I know they will always be incredibly close. He doesnt do anything politically without consulting her. Shes highly intelligent and very pro-Brexit. Another friend said: He hates the children knowing this stuff but theres no getting around the fact that his living arrangements have changed. Its all very painful to watch. Despite the family upheaval, Mr Johnson took his four children but not his wife to his father Stanleys holiday villa on Greeces Pelion peninsula last week. He was photographed by locals relaxing with one of the children in a taverna and at the airport with Milo. It was rumoured earlier this year that Mr Johnson had taken to the habit of giving his police protection officers the slip for illicit liaisons. His spokesman declined to comment last night. Bumbling Bojo, the unlikely ladies man: Ex mistress Petronella Wyatt reveals how the MP once grumbled it was 'unreasonable that men should be confined to one woman' Famously dishevelled and with a bumbling persona, Boris Johnson might not seem like the archetypal ladies man. So how, it is often wondered, has he managed to have quite such a colourful love life? And why has Mr Johnson repeatedly been unfaithful? A rare insight into these matters came from his former mistress Petronella Wyatt, now 50, who fell for his charms while she was Mr Johnsons deputy when he was editor of The Spectator magazine. Boris Johnson and Petronella Wyatt now 50, who fell for his charms while she was Mr Johnsons deputy when he was editor of The Spectator magazine Following their four-year affair, she told how he once grumbled to her: I find it genuinely unreasonable that men should be confined to one woman. Miss Wyatt attributed this in part to Mr Johnson being inordinately proud of his Turkish ancestry, and said his views on matters such as monogamy are decidedly Eastern. She had an abortion and suffered a miscarriage as a result of the relationship which cost Mr Johnson his job after his claims that reports of his infidelity were an inverted pyramid of piffle proved to be a lie. He was forced to quit as shadow arts minister and party vice-chairman in 2004 by then-Tory leader Michael Howard for failing to tell the whole truth about the affair. Mr Howards officials said the issue was one of personal morality. Boris Johnson and Allegra Mostyn-Owen celebrate in 1987 after his final Oxford exams Mr Johnsons barrister wife Marina Wheeler they had married in 1993 threw him out of their home in Islington, North London, but later took him back. In 2016, Miss Wyatt, whose late father, Lord Woodrow Wyatt, was one of Margaret Thatchers confidants, also said that Mr Johnson had told her he was a bit of a loner with few friends. Like many loners, he has a compensating need to be liked, she wrote in The Mail on Sunday. There is an element of Boris that wants to be Prime Minister because the love of his family and Tory voters is not enough. He wants to be loved by the entire world. She described her relationship with Mr Johnson as their amitie amoureuse, or amorous friendship and said he was devastated by his parents divorce because his father Stanley promised he would never leave Boriss mother Charlotte. The following year he fathered a love child with art consultant Helen Macintyre (pictured) who worked for him in an unpaid capacity Boris never sets out to lie. It is just that he will do anything to avoid an argument, which leads to a degree of duplicity, Miss Wyatt said. She also noted that he is the contrary of vain, adding: Boris regards himself as rather ugly, requiring half an hour to talk away my face. In 2006 The News of the World reported that Mr Johnson had also had an affair with journalist Anna Fazackerley, then 29. Mr Johnson, then 41, reportedly met her in his new job as Tory higher education minister. A source said: Anna is really, really gorgeous every thinking mans pin-up. Boris finds her irresistible. Mr Johnson had married his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, his university sweetheart, in 1987. Allegra Mostyn-OwenAllegra out and about, London, Britain in May 2008 . She was the first wife of Boris Johnson They divorced after he had an affair with his current wife Miss Wheeler. After the fallout from his affair with Miss Wyatt, Mr Johnson ran successfully for London Mayor in 2008. But the following year he fathered a love child with art consultant Helen Macintyre, then 39, who worked for him in an unpaid capacity. There were reports that his wife threw him out of his family home again like a tomcat when that affair was revealed. In 2006 The News of the World reported that Mr Johnson had also had an affair with journalist Anna Fazackerley, then 29 When the scandal broke a source close to Mr Johnson said: Is Boris the father of this child? Its quite likely he hasnt the faintest idea. In a significant victory for Press freedom, a High Court judge said in 2012 that the Daily Mail was justified in publishing stories about the child. This was because the politicians recklessness in conducting extramarital affairs, resulting in the conception of a child on two occasions, called into question his fitness for public office. A friend once said that Miss Wheeler tolerated Mr Johnsons philandering because she viewed it as a childish side of his personality which one day hell grow out of. But he hasnt, her tolerance has run out and now they are divorcing after 25 years of marriage. A federal judge on Friday found that election officials in 32 Florida counties violated the Voting Rights Act by failing to plan on providing Spanish-language ballots for the November elections. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker criticized election officials for not accommodating an estimated 30,000 Puerto Ricans who have moved to Florida following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. His 27-page decision sarcastically referenced the movie Groundhog Day, noting that Florida officials have repeatedly been accused of violating voters' rights. 'Here were are again. The clock hits 6:00 a.m. Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe' starts playing. Denizens of and visitors to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania eagerly await the groundhog's prediction,' Walker wrote. 'And the state of Florida is alleged to violate federal law in its handling of elections.' Voters line up to cast ballots for an election on August 28, 2018 in Miami The judge only partially sided with the plaintiffs in the case by requiring 32 of Florida's 67 counties to provide Spanish-language sample ballots for the general election, so voters may refer to the material when voting on official English-language ballots, The News Service of Florida reported. He also ruled that 13 counties with high numbers of Puerto Ricans must provide official Spanish-language ballots, but declined to order bilingual workers placed at polls across the state. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker referenced Groundhog Day in a scathing decision that condemned Florida election officials for violating voters' rights Walker wrote that there wasn't enough time before the election to order statewide official Spanish-language ballots, writing that such a broad mandate would create a hardship for election officials this close to the Nov. 6 vote. However, the judge noted the unique situation for voters displaced from Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory. 'Puerto Ricans are American citizens,' Walker wrote. 'Unique among Americans, they are not educated primarily in English and do not need to be. But, like all American citizens, they possess the fundamental right to vote.' 'The issue in this case is whether Florida officials, consistent with longstanding federal law, must provide assistance to Puerto Rican voters who wish to vote,' Walker continued. 'Under the plain language of the Voting Rights Act, they must.' The lawsuit was filed in August by a coalition of advocacy groups and a Puerto Rican voter who now lives in Florida. The suit accused Florida officials of violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which bans discriminatory barriers to voting. Election officials said in court documents that they have made efforts to assist Spanish-speaking voters, including providing materials in their native language and having a voters' guide translated into Spanish. While Walker did not rule entirely in favor of the plaintiffs, he expressed concern for their plight. 'Voting in a language you do not understand is like asking this court (to) decide the winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Ineffective, in other words,' Walker wrote. 'Courts have long held that the right to vote includes not only the right to physically enter a polling place and fill out a ballot but also the right to comprehend and understand what is on that ballot.' The sex is difficult. So said Tony Blairs biographer, John Rentoul, when I sought his advice as I set out to write the life of Boris Johnson. Fourteen years later, the sex is still difficult, and has precipitated the former Foreign Secretarys second divorce. Friends of Johnson and his estranged wife Marina Wheeler will think that the collapse of their marriage is a dreadful waste. Is it really necessary that two people who undoubtedly love each other for otherwise they would not have stayed together for a quarter of a century should split up? Tellingly, Johnson himself once wrote, in a trenchant defence of Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair, of politics being turned into hell for so many of its practitioners by the publics belief in its democratic right to insist on its leaders taking no mistresses. It is very true that we live in a contradictory age, with people in some ways far more relaxed than they used to be about sex. Then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson gets stuck on a zip-wire during the London Olympics Yet politicians still have to be worried about intrusion into their private lives. Not for todays generation the cloak of secrecy that shrouded from the public John F. Kennedys sexual shenanigans and compulsive womanising in the White House in the early Sixties. While I was writing my biography of Johnson, whom I have known since 1987 when he sought my somewhat superfluous advice about finding a job in journalism, he was at first immensely keen on encouraging my research and anxious to help in any way he could. However, he then got very cold feet. One evening, when we met in New Palace Yard in Westminster after hed taken part in a Commons vote, he mentioned the book. He said: If its a p***-take, thats OK. But anything that purported to tell the truth really would be intolerable. I put it to him that politicians almost always get into trouble not for telling the truth, but for trying to conceal it. Painful episodes in Johnsons past, of which there were already several, would lose their power to hurt him once they were known, I argued, and it would be much less dangerous to deal with this awkward stuff now than if he ever became Prime Minister. He was not persuaded by this argument and began to offer me larger and larger amounts of money not to write the book, eventually offering me 100,000 to give it up. I am the kind of Englishman who feels insulted by the idea that he can be bought, so I turned him down, after which he proposed, instead, to give free Greek lessons to my children. But many of us know that getting things out in the open does have quite a bit to recommend it. This is what Johnson has to some extent now done with the announcement about his divorce. The latest official statistics, for 2016, show that there were nearly 107,000 divorces in England and Wales that year. Marriage breakdown is not unusual, either, among those who aspire to lead us. Looking back in history, the Duke of Grafton got divorced while Prime Minister, using a special Act of Parliament in 1769. In more recent times, Sir Anthony Eden, got divorced before becoming PM in the Fifties. Only someone with exceptionally rigid moral views would nowadays contend that we cannot have a Prime Minister, or indeed a King, who has been divorced. Indeed, three of the Queens four children have been divorced. Boris Johnson and wife Marina Wheeler arrive to vote in the 2016 mayoral election in London Johnsons critics will nevertheless seize on his divorce, and the reasons for it, as yet more evidence that he is hopelessly unreliable, unserious and untrustworthy. There have always been people who reckon he would prove a national embarrassment if he were ever to be Prime Minister. Indeed, on these pages, Max Hastings has written that he would leave the country if Johnson ever became PM. The fact is that Johnson attracted many enemies by leading the Leave campaign to victory in the EU referendum. His much-disputed assertion that quitting the EU would mean Britain getting 350 million extra a week to spend on the NHS certainly helped convert scorn of him into hatred. The truth is that there has always been something about Johnson which is an affront to serious-minded peoples idea of how politics should be conducted. By refusing to adopt their solemn tone, and by making jokes about things which they consider to be no laughing matter, he implies that they are ridiculous. Indeed, the dreadful thing, from their point of view, is that millions of people agree with him. He is the Lord of Misrule: the Merry England candidate who shows that politics does not always have to be practised in an unrelentingly humourless way, with high-minded members of the Establishment deciding among themselves what is good for the rest of us. Where I live, in North London, I find that on social occasions it is tactful not to say anything which might be construed as support for a Johnson prime ministership. Instead, I wait politely to see what others have to say. Generally, even if they do not vow to emigrate to New Zealand in the event of Johnson in No 10, such a prospect has them choking on their canapes. And yet, as they utter their condemnations, I cannot help noticing that in quite a few cases the mention of the word Boris has put a smile on their faces. Ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson rides his bicycle in Westminster on Thursday afternoon There is something about him which cheers people up. Even as they say how unspeakably awful he is, some cannot help finding him amusing recounting his bumbling performances on TVs Have I Got News For You or recalling him once refer to black children as piccaninnies and talking about watermelon smiles. As a topic of conversation, he beats Philip Hammond or Jeremy Hunt hands down. He is marmalade to the vinegar of cautious, professional, career politicians who never take a risk. Those men and women, when interviewed, consider it their duty never to say anything in the slightest bit candid, unexpected or imaginative. In the United States, Donald Trump reached the highest office by shocking the Establishment, and the more he shocks it, the better his supporters are pleased. He has become their revenge on the prosy, priggish, self-satisfied Washington elite. Trumps manners are abominable, but they are authentically abominable. He is a genuine lout, a genuine sexist, a genuine disgrace. Thankfully, on this side of the Atlantic, we do not have anyone quite as vulgar as Trump. But we do have millions of voters who yearn to shock the Westminster establishment out of its complacent sense of superiority, and who in the EU referendum found an excellent way of doing so. They are the British equivalent of those Trump supporters who Hillary Clinton contemptuously described as a basket of deplorables. Of course, Johnson is cut from very different cloth than Trump. He is much better educated, much more liberal in his instincts and managed twice to get elected as Mayor of London, a city that has become predominantly Labour and Europhile. His opponents had confidently predicted that if by some accident he were to become mayor, he would within a short time stand exposed as a laughably incompetent clown. He proved them wrong by assembling, admittedly with some difficulty and after a number of false starts, a team which included such outstandingly able figures as Sir Simon Milton, who could perform the administrative work for which Johnson himself was unsuited. And while Trump likes to divide people, and is accused of practising the politics of hatred as far as foreigners and others are concerned, Johnsons instinct is to get people to like him. Boris Johnson and his wife Marina in Edinburgh on the day the UK voted in the EU referendum All this said, almost everyone who has ever had anything to do with Boris Johnson has, at some point, become utterly infuriated by him. As Ann Sindall, who worked for him for many years as his PA, told me: We can all hate his guts, we want to kill him, but then he can get us laughing again. That is Johnson through and through he always wants to mend fences if he can. This philosophy was behind his repeated willingness to be the fall-guy on Have I Got News For You. Like Trump, who revelled in his own role as the controversial host of The Apprentice on U.S. TV, Johnson knew he would be ambushed and risked humiliation. But he did not crawl away and resolve, as most politicians would have done, never to appear on such a dangerously unpredictable show again. He showed his resilience by coming back for more and expressed his individuality by being the most ill-prepared guest ever to appear. The whole of Johnsons life has, in a sense, been a preparation for being unprepared. Unlike most of us, he is prepared to have a go at things which he is no good at. Of course, this can be a very dangerous characteristic, but it is also an educational one. He learns by doing things himself, not by watching how other people do them, or by reading the instruction manual. History tells us that every so often, the Conservative Party finds itself enthused by a showman who can raise peoples spirits in a way which sober, solemn leaders cannot. The greatest of these showmen was Benjamin Disraeli. In his youth, Disraeli seemed, and in many ways was, a ridiculous and disreputable figure. He encumbered himself with enormous debts by setting up a newspaper which immediately failed and by promoting South America mining shares which turned out to be worthless. Then, adding insult to injury, he wrote a satirical novel in which he mocked the investors whose money he had just lost. Yet he became one of our great Prime Ministers, and the only person who could charm Queen Victoria out of her mourning for Prince Albert. After Disraelis death, he was the inspiration for the Primrose League, founded to promote Tory principles by another brilliant but rackety Conservative, Lord Randolph Churchill, father of Winston. The Primrose League soon acquired a mass membership and Lord Randolph was told by the wife of an Oxford don that he was duty-bound to give these people a solid political education. He responded: No. The only way is to amuse them: theyre quite incapable of anything else. This is the Tory tradition in which Boris Johnson now takes his place. His career may well end in failure: Lord Randolphs certainly did. But it will take a lot more than a divorce to stop Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Andrew Gimson is the author of Boris: The Adventures Of Boris Johnson, published by Simon & Schuster at 9.99. Watergate figure John Dean told senators at the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings Friday that President Donald Trump's is 'unchecked' by other branches and could 'shoot someone' without facing prosecution. Dean, whose testimony helped bring down President Richard Nixon during Watergate, referenced Trump's line from the 2016 campaign that, 'I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody' without losing support from his loyal followers. According Dean, Kavanaugh's views on issues of executive power might tilt the Supreme Court so that Trump could get away with crimes at least by avoiding indictment while holding office. According former Nixon counsel John Dean, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's views on issues of executive power might tilt the Supreme Court so that Trump could get away with crimes at least by avoiding indictment while holding office 'Under Judge Kavanaugh's recommendation, if a president shot someone in cold blood on Fifth Avenue that president could not be prosecuted while in office,' Dean said in testimony, where minority Democrats brought him as a witness. 'The fact that we have a president who is unchecked right now by other branches makes it particularly timely to be worried afresh about Kavanaugh's positions on some many cases that would enhance presidential powers,' Dean told lawmakers under questioning. Dean was the first Nixon administration official to testify the president was part of a cover-up. Vice president Nixon smiling after being nominated for president at Republican National Convention, July 1960 A panel of experts and character witnesses is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the final stage of the confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. From left are, real estate agent Monica Mastal, John Dean, former counsel to President Richard M. Nixon, Paul Clement, former solicitor general Former White House counsel to President Nixon John Dean Kavanaugh, who served on Kenneth Starr's team of investigators during the Clinton Administration, has been grilled on his writings about executive authority, but revealed relatively little during his testimony. Dean said there is 'much to fear from an unchecked president who is inclined to abuse his powers. That is a fact I can attest to from personal experience.' Dean told Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono that 'I could see [Kavanaugh] as the leader of the 5-4 that would enhance presidential powers.' Dean spoke of how his testimony helped trigger a discussion of White House tape recordings. Describing why Nixon resigned, he said, he said the Californian 'was going to lose in an impeachment battle that the House would impeach and the Senate would find him guilty and remove. But he said despite Nixon being caught in an 'awkward' situation by lying about what he had known, 'The man at his core had a respect for the rule of law' and decided to leave office. Dean does not hold that view of Trump. 'I don't think he would resign. He could care less about the rule of law,' Dean said.' Asked Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal: 'There is now arguably a cancer on the presidency as malignant and metastasizing as there was then, correct?' 'Yes, I would agree with that,' Dean responded. The US Air Force is looking into Elon Musk after he smoked marijuana during a wild, rambling two-and-a-half-hour podcast streamed live onto YouTube, it emerged on Friday. Marijuana use is prohibited for people with government security clearance, which Musk gained in 2015 when his company SpaceX started launching satellites for the Pentagon. The US Air Force told DailyMail.com a formal investigation is not underway at this time, but would not rule out that members of the department were looking into the incident. An Air Force source confirmed to CNBC that staff were examining the podcast. Tesla shares plunged this morning after the Tesla founder smoked and drank whiskey while discussing everything from drugs to the possibility we're all living in a simulation. Elon Musk was seen smoking a joint in Joe Rogan's podcast recording studio, prompting the US Air Force to look into his case, as people with government security clearance are not allowed to use marijuana The 47-year-old billionaire went on the Joe Rogan Experience late on Thursday night and accepted a joint from the host - after a rambling conversation that also took in the dangers of AI and the possibility China is spying on US citizens through their phones. Hours later, the company's chief accounting officer Dave Morton resigned citing 'public attention' on the company. Meanwhile, shares plummeted to nine per cent this morning, wiping $4.3 billion off the company's value. By close of trading they had slightly recovered to a 6.3 per cent drop, reducing the company's value by $3.1bn. It follows weeks of serious turbulence for both Musk and Tesla, after he falsely announced he was taking the company private in a deal with Saudi Arabia and accused a British hero diver of being a paedophile. Friday is also the last day for VP of Communications Sarah O'Brien and HR head Gabrielle Toledano, both of whom have been off work, on leave. Toledano's departure was announced on Friday, while O'Brien announced her departure two weeks ago. Tesla shares, down just one percent after Musk's appearance on the Rogan podcast, fell another seven percent in the half hour after the resignation of Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton, and then to nine per cent, before recovering slightly to down close to seven per cent. Morton gave notice on Tuesday that he was resigning, according to a filing on Friday. 'Since I joined Tesla on August 6, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations,' Morton said in the securities filing. 'As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting.' Dave Morton gave notice on Tuesday that he was resigning, according to a filing on Friday Today is also the last day for VP of Communications Sarah O'Brien (left) and HR head Gabrielle Toledano (right), both of whom have been off on leave Before the news broke of his executives departures, Musk, who has openly admitted to relying on sleeping pill Ambien, told Rogan on Thursday night that Tesla keeps him up at night, adding 'it's very difficult to keep a car company alive.' Towards the end of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the host lit a 'cigar' rolled with both tobacco and marijuana - a drug which is legal in the state of California - and offered it to Musk. 'You probably can't do this because of stockholders, right?,' Rogan asks Musk. Musk, who earlier joked that mushrooms - both a harmless fungi and an psychedelic drug - are 'delicious', clarified that the drug is legal, and was seen taking a puff on the joint before handing it back. 'I'm not a regular smoker of weed. Almost never,' he told Rogan. 'I don't actually notice any effect. I know a lot of people like weed, and that's fine, however I don't find it's very good for productivity.' Puffing away: Musk clarified that the drug is legal, and took a puff before handing it back During the podcast, the pair discussed everything from kindness to artificial intelligence but also Musk's electric car company Tesla The 2.5 hour long podcast began with Musk and Rogan discussing his dream of solving traffic problems in Los Angeles by building a tunnel underneath the city - a project which he has already embarked on - and artificial intelligence. Rogan asked Musk if he is 'honestly and legitimately' concerned about AI and the future of robotics, to which Musk replied 'yes, but it's less of a worry than it used to be.' 'It's not necessarily bad, but it's definitely going to be outside of human control,' before speaking of the danger of using AI being used as a weapon and a future where humans will be able to become part-robots: cyborgs. 'You're already a cyborg, and most people don't even realise. That phone [in your hand] is an extension of yourself.' Upon pouring themselves a generous whiskey, Musk said he had met former President Obama 'for one reason' and that was to warn him about the danger of artificial intelligence. He also spoke to the host about growing up and realizing at the age of five that he was different. 'I thought I was insane,' Musk said, explaining that he had kept his 'never-ending explosion of ideas' a secret for fear of being 'taken away' by authorities. The billionaire also joked with Rogen that the reason why he is able to come up with inventions such as Tesla and roof-tiles with built-in solar cells is because he is 'an alien'. He was also asked if he believes in the possibility of alternate realities and multiverses, to which he replied that 'we are most likely in a simulation, because we exist.' I think most likely there are many, many simulations. You might as well call them reality, or you could call them multiverse.' Musk also passed comment on the recent ban on phones from Chinese company Huawei, which applies to anyone working for the US government or a government contractor over fears of spying. MUSK'S MUSINGS: BILLIONAIRE'S BEST QUOTES FROM THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE PODCAST On why he comes up with innovations and runs his companies: Musk: 'I'm an alien! - Discussing the possibility we are living in an alternate reality and a 'multiverse'. Musk: 'If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will be indistinguishable from reality, or civilization will end. One of those two things will occur. 'Therefore, we are most likely in a simulation, because we exist. 'I think most likely, this is just about probability, there are many, many simulations. 'You might as well call them reality, or you could call them multiverse. - On social media: Musk: 'Be nicer to each other. Don't assume someone is mean. It's easy to demonize people.' Musk: 'It's way easier to be mean on social media than it is to be mean in person.' Musk: 'On balance [my Twitter interactions are] more good than bad, but there is definitely some bad'. Musk: 'The vast number of negative comments, the vast majority of them I just ignore them. Every now and again I get drawn in, it's not good. I make some mistakes.' - Rogan: 'What could potentially be holding the company [Tesla] back? Anything you'd change Musk: 'I wish politicians were better at science. That would help a lot. They [politicians] are pretty good at science in China, I have to say.' - On stopping use of Huawei phones because of risk of China spying on US citizens: Musk: 'If you have, like, top secret stuff, you wanna be careful with what hardware you use, but most people don't have top secret stuff. Nobody really cares what porn you watch! Nobody really cares. National spy agencies do not give a rats a** what porn you watch, they do not care. ' - Rogan: 'You know what could help, mushrooms.' Musk: 'They're delicious.' - Rogan: 'What keeps you up at night?' Musk: 'Its quite hard to run companies. Especially car companies. It's quite challenging. Space X is no walk in the park but a car company, it's very difficult to keep a car company alive. 'You know, there is only two car companies in the history of American car companies that haven't gone bankrupt and that's Ford and Tesla. That's it. We barely survived. ' Rogan: 'How close did you get to folding?' Musk: 'Very close. 2008 is not a good time to be a car company, especially an electric car company, that was like stupidity squared. ' - After puffing on the joint given to him by Rogan: Musk: 'I'm getting text messages from friends asking me 'what the hell are you doing smoking weed?'. 'I'm not a regular smoker of weed. Almost never. I don't actually notice any effect. I know a lot of people like weed, and that's fine, however, I don't find it's very good for productivity.' 'It's like a cup of coffee in reverse. I like to get things done. I like to be useful.' - Musk: 'You're already a cyborg, and most people don't even realise. That phone [in your hand] is an extension of yourself.' - Rogan: 'I don't know how you manage your time, it doesn't seem humanly possible?' Musk: I think people don't totally understand what I do with my time, they think I'm like, a business guy, I think even my Wikipedia page says business magnate.' Rogan: What would you call yourself? Musk: 'A business magnet.' - On sustainable energy and the environment Musk: 'We're really playing a crazy game here with the atmosphere and the oceans. We're taking vast amounts of carbon from deep underground and putting this, putting this in the atmosphere, this is crazy. 'We should not do this. It's very dangerous. We should accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. 'I mean the bizarre thing is that obviously we're going to run out of oil in the long term. There's only so much oil we can mine and burn. That's totally logical, we must have a sustainable energy transport and energy infrastructure in the long term. 'So we know that's the end point, we know that. So why run this crazy experiment where we take trillions of tons of carbon from underground and put it in the atmosphere and oceans. This is an insane experiment. It's the dumbest experiment in human history. Why are we doing this, it's crazy.' - On why he isn't building electrical sustainable energy airplanes: Musk: 'Electric cars are important, solar energy is important, stationary storage of energy is important. 'These things are much more important than creating electric supersonic VTOL[vertical take-off and landing planes].' Musk: The trick [with VTOL] is that you have to transition to level flight. The thing you'd use for vertical takeoff and landing is not suitable for high speed flight. 'The interesting thing about an electric plane is that you want to go as high as possible, but you need a certain energy density in the battery pack, because you have to overcome gravitational potential energy. ' Once you've overcome gravitational potential energy and you're at a high altitude, the energy you use in cruise is very low, and then you can recapture a large part of your gravitational potential energy on the way down. So you really don't need any kind of reserve fuel.' - On fossil fuels: Musk: 'It is the dumbest experiment in history' - Musk: 'I really think people should give other people the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they are good until proven otherwise and most people are actually pretty good people. Nobody is perfect.' - On flying cars Musk: 'If you get one of those toy drones and imagine it's 1,000 times heavier - that's not going to make your neighbors happy. 'If you want a flying car, just put wheels on a helicopter.' - On his plans to eliminate traffic jams in Los Angeles Musk: 'I have this, it's sort of a hobby company, called the Boring Company, which started out as a joke. 'And we decided to make it real, and dig a tunnel under LA. And then other people asked us to build tunnels so we said yes in a few cases.' Musk: 'I'm not saying it's going to be successful. It's not, like, asserting it's going to be successful. But so far I've lived in LA for 16 years and the traffic has always been terrible. And so I don't see any other ideas for improving the traffic. 'So in desperation, we are going to build a tunnel, and maybe that tunnel will be successful. And maybe it won't. 'I'm not trying to convince you it's going to work. Or anyone.' - On his new company 'Neuralink' trying to connect human brains straight to a computer. Musk: 'I think we'll have something interesting to announce in a few months.. that's better than anyone thinks is possible.' Musk: 'Best case scenario, we [humans] effectively merge with AI.' Musk: 'How much smarter are you with a phone or computer or without? You're vastly smarter, actually. You can answer any question pretty much instantly. You can remember flawlessly. Your phone can remember videos [and] pictures perfectly. Your phone is already an extension of you. 'You're already a cyborg. Most people don't realize you're already a cyborg. It's just that the data rate.. it's slow, very slow. It's like a tiny straw of information flow between your biological self and your digital self. 'We need to make that tiny straw like a giant river, a huge, high-bandwidth interface.' Advertisement While he acknowledged that anyone working with 'top secret stuff' ought to be careful with their choice of hardware, he said it was not something 'most people' should worry about. 'Nobody really cares what porn you watch! National spy agencies do not give a rats a** what porn you watch - they do not care. ' Later on, Musk, who recently who recently accused a British diver who helped rescue the 12 Thai boys stuck in a cave of being a paedophile, spoke about kindness. 'Be nicer to each other. Don't assume someone is mean. It's easy to demonize people.' Earlier this week, Mr Musk suggested in emails to a BuzzFeed journalist that diver Vernon Unsworth was a 'child rapist'. Musk also claimed, without providing any evidence, that Mr Unsworth had moved to northern Thailand to take 'a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.' The Tesla CEO's attacks on Mr Unsworth, whose efforts were considered crucial to the Thai operation, came after the British diver criticized a well-publicized effort by Musk to lend a custom-built mini-submarine to the cave rescue effort. Mr Musk responded on Twitter with comments strongly implying that the Briton was a pedophile. He then apologised for this, before repeating the claims this week. During the podcast, Musk was asked what percentage of his interactions with other people on Twitter was a good idea, with Rogan suggesting 'ten per cent'. Shocking: Musk called Vernon Unsworth a paedophile after the British diver criticized the Tesla CEOs submarine Musk replied that 'it's on balance more good than bad, but there is definitely some bad'. He later added: 'It's way easier to be mean on social media than it is to be mean in person.' Mr Unsworth, from St Albans in Hertfordshire has, through his lawyer, made it clear that he will be suing Musk over his comments. 'Elon Musks ongoing campaign of publishing vile and false accusations against Mr. Unsworth is outrageous,' Unsworth's lawyer, L. Lin Wood, said in an email to Reuters. 'Musk has publicly and clearly stated that he `hopes to be sued. Let me be equally clear in response - Musk will be sued - not because of his hopes, but because he deserves to be sued,' Wood said. Musk's renewed attack on Mr Unsworth, his appearance on the show and his top accountant resigning on Friday saw Tesla's stock and bond prices drop even further today. During the podcast, Musk revealed that the one thing that keeps him up at night is his electrical car company. 'Its quite hard to run companies. Especially car companies. It's quite challenging. Space X is no walk in the park, but it's very difficult to keep a car company alive. 'There is only two car companies in the history of American car companies that haven't gone bankrupt and that's Ford and Tesla. That's it. We barely survived. Rogan asked him how close Tesla had gotten to 'folding', to which Musk admitted it had been 'very close'. The $1.8 billion high-yield bond Tesla issued a year ago hit a record low price on Wednesday. It also became more expensive to insure Tesla's bonds against default. Tesla's stock has lost more than a quarter of its value since August 7, when Musk tweeted that he had secured funding for a previously undisclosed plan to take Tesla private. Musk on abandoned that plan on August 24, but he faces lawsuits and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the factual accuracy of his tweet that funding for the deal was 'secured.' The incident is weighing on investor confidence and has hurt the credibility of Musk, long viewed by Tesla supporters as its most valuable asset. A lawsuit was filed on Thursday accusing Musk of trying to 'burn' short-sellers through his false tweet that funding had been secured to take Tesla private. 'This appears to be a textbook case of fraud,' Michael Canty of law firm Labaton Sucharow said in a press release. 'We believe Musk attempted to manipulate the price of Tesla securities with false and misleading tweets, in a directed effort to harm short-sellers.' Labaton Sucharow is asking for class action status to represent anyone who bought or sold Tesla shares between August 7 and August 17. Musk has described the infamous privatization tweet - including his assurance that funding for going private was secured - as an attempt to be transparent. The bakery chain Greggs has sparked fury after it opened its first branch in Cornwall - but it won't be selling its own version of the famous Cornish pasty. Workers have said the store feared its crimped on top 'the Devon way' pasty would upset locals and wouldn't be welcome. Instead the outlet at a service station just off the A38 in Saltash features a range of slices and other baked goods including sausage rolls, sandwiches and cakes. One outraged local even asked: 'Why in the name of Satan does our county need a Greggs?' It is understood that Greggs, which has had several stores in neighbouring Devon for many years, has never sold pasties in the West Country as it did not want to create a pasty war. A Devon-based employee said: 'We don't sell pasties down here. It is something we have never done and no store in Devon will.' The bakery chain Greggs has sparked fury after it opened its first branch in Cornwall (pictured) It is understood that Greggs, which has had several stores in neighbouring Devon for many years, has never sold pasties in the West Country as it did not want to create a pasty war Staff at the newly-opened Cornish store also confirmed they were adhering to the 'no pasty' rule. Greggs confirmed the store had opened in July although there had been no publicity around it and it is still not visible on the store locator online. In a short statement they said: 'A new Greggs shop opened at Euro Garages Saltash, Callington Road in July. 'It is operated under a franchise agreement with Euro Garages and eight new jobs have been created.' News of the opening was greeted with disdain by some locals in Cornwall. Lee Stephens said: 'Why in the name of Satan does our county need a Greggs? Why would we require Greggs down here. 'We have proper bakeries down here, we don't need cookie cutter franchises like Greggs when we already have legit nom factories.' Hayley Hill said: 'They're surely not gonna get that much custom except tourists right? I mean Greggs doesn't even know what a pasty is, their "pasty" is a bleddy slice.' Kathy Aspinall added: 'I don't mind Gregg's but they're pasty's are nothing like a traditional Cornish pasty - flaky pastry for a start! No comparison really.' Greggs confirmed the store had opened in July although there had been no publicity around it and it is still not visible on the store locator online. Pictured: the store just off the A38 in Saltash Locals have reacted badly to the news Greggs has opened a store in Cornwall Speaking before the opening, a spokesman said: 'Cornwall is the only county where Greggs have yet to open. 'There is a strong demand for the Greggs offer and we look forward to being able to make this available to customers in Cornwall.' But renowned bakers in Cornwall said they had faith that locals will always pick a traditional pasty instead of any imitations. Marion Symonds, 51, owner of Portreath Bakery and Made Marion Gluten Free and a long time campaigner of the traditional Cornish pasty, said: 'I would have thought they would sell whatever they sell in their normal stores. 'If they sell pasties in their other shops why wouldn't they sell them in pasty world? 'I believe that Cornish people who have had Cornish pasties with traditional ingredients will always go to a Cornish bakery. 'There's a chance that we will loose some trade to Greggs but I don't think there will be a pasty war because Cornish people will always go for a traditional pasty.' She added: 'People will always go to a proper baker if they want a pasty made the traditional way. 'Greggs do a budget line and people on a low income do like it.' Ann Muller, 64, owner of renowned pasty business Ann's Pasties, said: 'I have never been to a Greggs and I don't know what their strategy is. 'But I suppose even a bad pasty is nourishing, as long as it has beef, onion and turnips then it is a wholesome meal. 'If they're no good at making pasties I'll teach them a thing or two, for a fee.' A young ballerina who is suing the New York City Ballet and her dancer ex over claims he swapped naked photos of her with male colleagues told on Friday how she first uncovered the sick messages by logging onto his laptop. Alexandra Waterbury, 19, accuses Chase Finlay, 28, of secretly photographing and filming their sexual encounters and sharing the files without her consent. She alleges his actions were part of a 'fraternity-like atmosphere' at the institution that tolerated the abuse of women. Waterbury told Good Morning America she was staying at Finlay's house when found a raft of sordid exchanges on his computer after logging in using a password he gave her. '[They] were just really misogynistic and vulgar and just cruel. It was a lot to take in,' she said. Alexandra Waterbury, 19, has opened up about her relationship with the former principal dancer at the New York Ballet who she accuses of sharing naked photos of her 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 The dancer said she had grown up 'idolizing' Finlay, who is seven years older than her, but shortly after they started dating he became 'abusive in every way - physically, emotionally, mentally. He was really manipulative,' she said. Waterbury was staying at Finlay's apartment one morning after he had left at 4am for work when she used his computer to check her emails. 'The first thing that popped up was an unsaved number with some pretty descriptive language,' she said. 'That just wasn't OK. I was just like, "What is this?" and it just got worse and worse.' She said the conversations were with men and women, all of whom I would've considered friends ... that were just really misogynistic and vulgar and just cruel. It was a lot to take in. When Waterbury confronted him about the alleged messages and images he had 'nothing to say', she said. The ballerina claims she shared them with other dancers, employees, NYC Ballet donors and even a sex trafficker, according to a complaint obtained by Dailymail.com. The ballerina said she was also angry at New York City Ballet for not offering an apology. 'They could address the situation at least,' she said. Finlays lawyer told Pix11 News: The Complaint is nothing more than a mass of allegations that ought not to be taken as fact. 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'. 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. 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 messages 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 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 shared this snap taken on her first day of class at Columbia University on her Instagram page Tuesday '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.' 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.' The lawsuit says Waterbury sustained severe psychological and emotional damage, mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation 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. Richard Engelbrink, 80, was charged with his wife's murder after someone reported seeing him in the bathroom washing blood off his hands An elderly man in Texas was arrested in connection to his wife's murder after police say he was found in the bathroom of a local bank trying to wash blood off his hands. Richard Engelbrink was taken into custody at a Chase bank in Houston on Thursday afternoon, shortly after his wife Alice was found wounded and covered in blood outside their Faust Lane home. According to ABC 13, police received several 911 calls around noon on Thursday from concerned residents in the area. Witnesses said after the incident they saw Engelbrink, 80, running door-to-door appearing to look for help. The outlet reports that blood was found on several doorbells. A construction worker in the area told ABC that he saw Engelbrink running from one neighbor's home to the next. The worker said minutes later Engelbrinks' wife emerged from the couple's home screaming for help. He said she was covered in so much blood it was hard to recognize her. 'She was saying, "Help, help, help!"' the construction worker said. 'Blood all over her.' The worker said he called 911, but by then Engelbrink was nowhere to be found. Police were called to the couple's Houston home after Engelbrink's wife Alice stumbled out of the house covered in blood and screaming for help. She died at the hospital A construction worker told police that he saw Engelbrink leave the home covered in blood and minutes Alice ran out asking for help Alice, a successful CPA in the area, was rushed to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital where she later died, according to the Houston Chronicle. Prosecutors said during a hearing on Friday a neighbor had let Engelbrink into her home. 'The defendant came to her house covered in blood. The witness said the defendant began washing his hands in her bathroom at which point she began calling 911 and he left the residence,' the prosecutor said. Engelbrink was later found in the bathroom of a Chase bank about a mile from the home. Police said they investigated and found he had a bloody gun on him. Neighbors said after the incident Engelbrink ran from door-to-door looking for help. Blood was found on several neighbor's doorbells Engelbrink was arrested at a Chase bank after he was seen in the bathroom washing away blood Engelbrink was arrested and has been charged with murder. He did not appear in court for medical reasons, ABC reports, but his charges were read. Authorities have not said why they believe Engelbrink allegedly murdered his wife. A medical examiner is determining how Alice died. Court papers say it was blunt force trauma. Linus Lee, who lives two houses down, told ABC that he was shocked by the murder. He described Engelbrink as a nice man and said the couple had lived in the home for more than 20 years. They had recently moved back into the house after it was renovated following Hurricane Harvey. Close friend now revealed Ms Wheeler 'is a women who should not be crossed' Boris Johnson and wife Marina Wheeler (pictured) were married 25 years before they called it quits As a couple, Boris Johnson and his wife, Marina, were a study in opposites. He affects an unkempt, even shambolic persona. She, by contrast, is usually meticulously elegant and well turned out. He is ebullient and garrulous, while she is quiet and thoughtful. And while Boris is a master of the punchy catchphrase and the ready quip, it is Marina Wheeler QC who is renowned for her fierce, inquiring mind, who assimilates the finer detail. But it was not their fundamentally different personalities that caused the problems within their marriage. After all, for it to have lasted as long as it did the union lasted 25 years and produced four children the pair clearly complemented one another. The problem, as we know only too well, was Boris and his women. And, we can reveal, that fiercely clever Marina finally became fed up that he was rarely alongside her physically, mentally or emotionally. And, during the marriage, not only did Marina have to contend with her husbands affairs with other women, a veritable posse of them, but she had to bear the worst betrayal of all seeing her husband father another child outside wedlock with one of his mistresses. Yes, she kicked him out a couple of times, but until now she has always taken him back. Now, following claims that Johnson has been having another affair, possibly two, she has finally called in the lawyers. Last night, a close friend of the couple said she was a woman who should not be crossed: Do not underestimate Marinas demeanour of quietness. There is an iron core of steel inside her and that can frighten Boris. She was prepared to tolerate if he strayed in the beginning of the marriage as she had never had in her life so turbo-charged or so large a character. But that tolerance ran out. His repeat crime of straying frayed it totally at the end. Here is a tiger who can send emails that can freeze your blood. Boris respects that. His eternally not being there in every way is what made her will to stay married lose its commitment. Still, there were many who thought Marina would never head down the path of divorce. I wouldnt say all was well with the marriage, said one source close to them both. But my understanding was that Boris and Marina had come to an understanding that they would stick it out. I thought theyd be together till they died. Its true that they dont really go out together much, but then Marina has always liked to be at home with the kids rather than go out. And, when all is said and done, marriages are complicated things, layered with nuances not easily detected by the casual outsider. Certainly, in the case of the Johnson marriage, the stereotypical image of the downtrodden, stay-at-home wife, putting up with anything to keep hold of her famous, charismatic husband could not be further from the reality. Ms Wheeler finally called in the lawyers following claims that Johnson has been having another affair, possibly two A star player in the legal profession, Marina Wheeler, who at 54 is the same age as her husband, enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a barrister before being made a QC in 2016. An insight into Marinas mindset may be found in her background. Her mother is Dip Singh, an Indian-born Sikh. Marina was raised in the Sikh religion and her faith remains at the heart of who she is. Sikhs place a special emphasis on the importance of family. As well as finally tiring of her husbands persistent disloyalty, Marina may have decided that the most important thing of all was to keep the family together. So she may, in part, have stuck with Boris for the most obvious and honourable reason of all for the sake of the children: Lara, 25, Milo, 23, Cassia, 21 and Theodore, 19. But now that Theodore, the youngest, is grown up, she may have thought she no longer had a duty to tolerate Boriss behaviour. And if she were to feel a twinge of malicious pleasure in the public confirmation that Boris is an unreliable husband and, ergo, possibly not entirely suited to the greatest office of Prime Minister who could really blame her? Still, despite everything hes put her through, making that final brutal cut and filing divorce papers must have been extraordinarily painful for Marina. Theirs, after all, is a history that goes right back to childhood. In the early Seventies, Boriss father, Stanley, was working in Brussels in an environmental division of the European Commission. Marinas father, Charles Wheeler, the distinguished BBC foreign correspondent who was knighted in 2006 and died in 2008, was also based in Brussels at the time, and was friends with Stanley. Marina and Boris both attended the European School in Brussels and their families holidayed together. Boris had a crush on her even then. Last night, a close friend of the couple said Ms Wheeler was a woman who should not be crossed At the age of 11, Marina and Boris were parted when Marina returned to England and was sent to Bedales School in Hampshire. She went on to study law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and, after taking a Masters degree in EC law at Brussels University where she practised for a while, she was called to the Bar in 1987. It was in the year that Marina became a barrister that Boris married Allegra Mostyn-Owen, daughter of the art historian William Mostyn-Owen and the Italian writer, Gaia Servadio, whom he met at Oxford University while he was studying Classics. Allegra was artistic and beautiful a Tatler cover girl and Boris was besotted. Allegra and Boris moved to the Belgian capital when he was appointed Brussels correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, but Allegra did not feel at home with the competitive environment that Boris revelled in and returned to London. It so happened that Marina was working in Brussels, too, at this time. The paths of the old school friends crossed again. While Marina apparently hadnt given much thought to Boris over the years, she is said to have fallen hopelessly in love with him then. They married in May 1993, 12 days after his divorce from Allegra was finalised, with Marina already pregnant with their first child, Lara. Three further children followed in quick succession. The family home was a four-storey, five-bedroom home in Highbury, North London. Friends say that Marina was more to the Left than Boris politically, but that he would often consult her on political matters. I ran this past Marina, he would say, or, Marina thinks . . .. Marina and Boris (pictured) both attended the European School in Brussels and their families holidayed together. There was a deep friendship, a partnership, as well as a marriage. But Boris had a fatal wandering eye. And the uncomfortable truth mystifying to some as it may seem is that women find Boris very attractive. In 2004, the News Of The World ran the story that he had had a four-year affair with journalist Petronella Wyatt while he was editor of The Spectator and she was one of his columnists. Ms Wyatts mother told the newspaper that the affair resulted in her daughter becoming pregnant and having a termination. Johnson famously dismissed the report as an inverted pyramid of piffle. Marina promptly threw him out, changed the locks and took off her wedding ring. But at some point he was allowed back into the marital home. A couple of years later, a fresh story appeared in the papers claiming that Johnson had also had an affair with a second journalist, Anna Fazackerley, which apparently had run concurrently with the earlier affair with Ms Wyatt. On one occasion in 2005, it was said, Boris, then a junior shadow education minister, had changed his travel plans and stopped off in Paris on the way back from China to meet up with Ms Fazackerley. The election of Johnson as Mayor of London in 2008 seemed to mark a new beginning for the marriage. But the most painful revelation was yet to come, when in 2010, it emerged that Johnson had fathered a baby girl by the name of Stephanie the result of a fling with art consultant Helen Macintyre. Stephanies wild flaxen hair and blue eyes made it pretty impossible for Boris to think about dismissing this claim as another inverted pyramid of piffle. Boris was thrown out a second time but again allowed back after a period of penance. It has been said often over the past few years that Marina and Boris had come to an understanding about their marriage. That it would continue, but they would not delude themselves into thinking it would be the same as it was at the start. Marina, who is based at One Crown Office Row chambers, focused on her family and her career. Her defence in public against the humiliation of Boriss proclivities was to put on a show of serene indifference. The pair were parted at the age of 11 when Marina returned to England and was sent to Bedales School in Hampshire Whatever else he may have been doing, Boris continued to consult his wife on political matters and she is said to have influenced his decision to reposition himself in favour of Brexit. Whether the understanding between Marina and Boris meant she had agreed to turn a blind eye to future indiscretions is not clear. The pair were photographed together in the summer looking happy enough. The catastrophic rupture appears to have happened a month or so ago. The pair are now living apart and are not in contact with one another. Their daughter, Lara, a fashion journalist, is reported to have told a friend: Hes a selfish b******. Mum is finished with him. She will never take him back now. Marina may have said that before, but this time its different a divorce is under way. Given the nature of these things, it seems unlikely that the identity of her husbands latest mistress will stay out of the public domain for very long. Marina Wheeler QC will, no doubt, rise above it. As she always has done. Eggs are being recalled from shops in Sydney after a cluster of salmonella cases were uncovered. On Saturday, the NSW Food Authority said 23 cases of salmonella enteritidis had been confirmed. Egg supplier Eggz on the Run have voluntarily recalled some products sold under the Glendenning Farm brand. Egg supplier, Eggz on the Run have voluntarily recalled some products sold under the Glendenning Farm brand (pictured) Consumers are advised not to consume any Glendenning Farm whole shell eggs sold in NSW with best before dates of September 8, 10, 15, 17, 22, 24, 29 or October 1. The products were sold in small independent supermarkets and retailers, in cartons and bulk trays in NSW only. 'Either bin or return them to the place of purchase for a full refund,' NSW Food Authority said in a statement on Saturday. 'You do not require proof of purchase for a recalled item.' Fever, headache, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting are symptoms of salmonellosis and usually start about six to 72 hours after the contaminated food is eaten. Illness can last seven days or longer. Eggs are being recalled from shops in Sydney after a cluster of salmonella cases were uncovered (stock image) In a post on Facebook, NSW Food Authority advised consumers to seek medical advice if they were concerned about their health. The government has restricted the movement of livestock, eggs, manure and disposables at the farm and ordered the disinfection and decontamination of equipment. Investigations are still ongoing. When the art historian, Kenneth Clark, commissioned the Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in 1932 to create a dinner service, he perhaps hadnt expected to receive a feminist history lesson. Face-painting: Laura Jackson and Alice Levine with their plate collection for Habitat The 50 plates Bell and Grant delivered were each hand-painted with the faces of 50 famous women. Kenneth Clark, best known for his TV series Civilisation, was taken aback. As usual with commissions it turned out differently to what we had expected, he recorded a little glumly. But his wife Jane, who had been writing to Bell discussing the commission, liked the artists idea of celebrating women from all sorts of fields. Now those 50 faces Christina Rossetti, Mary, Queen of Scots, Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Queen Victoria, Virginia Woolf, Emily Bronte and Greta Garbo among them are on display in a new exhibition space at Charleston, the Bloomsbury Groups retreat near Lewes, East Sussex. Did the Clarks serve cake from Marie Antoinette or eat tea-time sandwiches presented on Queen Victoria? Either way, the plates would have sparked dinner party discussion surely what the artists intended. Portrait: Greta Garbo on one of the plates hand-painted by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant Its a timely show because faces are popping up all over the place. If our dinner guests are dull it doesnt matter, our tableware has personality. Some of these portrait plates are so lovely, theyre too good to eat from. Hang those on the wall instead. This summer a ceramics collection for Habitat by the London-based supper club duo, Laura Jackson and Alice Levine, was an instant hit, selling out within three hours. Figurative illustration is having a moment, says Kate Butler, head of design at Habitat. Its striking a chord with customers who like this playful style. Hand-painted in the Fasano factory in Puglia, Southern Italy, the range will be back in store from next month. Dotty dinnerware: Part of the jaunty collection of ceramics by Jackson and Levine The faces on the plates are described in expressive brushstrokes, the plate rims decorated with polka dots. In mustard and red or olive green and pink, they will prolong that summer feel, (20 for a platter, 12 for a side plate, habitat.co.uk). The store has launched another collaboration with the faux fur clothing brand Shrimps. Rather disquieting cartoon-like faces by Shrimps founder Hannah Weiland appear on tea towels, cushions and rugs. More serene are the visage vases inspired by the Easter Island statues, 25, also at Habitat. Meanwhile, Liberty is celebrating the ceramic illustrations of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) with a range inspired by the work of the French poet. Cocteau came to ceramics, aged 68, and was influenced by Picasso. Fine lines: The Jean Cocteau inspired range made with Limoges porcelain by Raynaud for Liberty Picasso told me that if I put a ceramic in the kiln, I would be lost. But I have always taken great pleasure in being lost, he said. Made in Limoges porcelain by the French brand Raynaud and starring Greek gods, these gorgeous pieces are made to be admired (95, libertylondon.com). The interior designer and artist Luke Edward Hall also takes inspiration from Ancient Greece and is known for his handsome other-worldly portraits. Classical allusions: One of the Ancient Greece inspired faces by Luke Edward Hall Lukes Faces dinner plate comes in turquoise, pink, red and orange (55 each emporiosirenuse.com). While his dreamy Friend platter is more artwork than tableware, 295, alexeagle.co.uk. If you want to display your plates off the wall, then you need a dresser. John Lewis has the Audley Oak large dresser for 1,038, johnlewis.com. Auction houses seem to be almost giving away brown furniture. The Sale Room has several, ranging from a Ercol dresser in a dark stain with an opening price of 25 (September 11 auction) to a George III oak dresser with an estimate between 500 and 700 (September 12 to 13 auction), the-saleroom.com. New DNA analysis techniques are helping identify more victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, scientists in the office of New York City's chief medical examiner said on Thursday. Although the death toll after two hijacked airliners crashed into the Twin Towers was 2,753, the remains of more than 1,000 people remain unidentified, to the dismay of their grieving families. Using new technology it pioneered, the medical examiner's office said it was able to recently identify financial worker Scott Michael Johnson, 26, who worked on the 89th floor of the South Tower. Andrew Schweighardt holds a vial with a DNA sample at the office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New Yor. Although the death toll after two hijacked airliners crashed into the Twin Towers was 2,753, the remains of more than 1,000 people remain unidentified, to the dismay of their grieving families. HOW SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY REMAINS Scientists clean the bone, then pulverize it into a powder. They then add chemicals and incubate the sample. It is then placed into a large white auto-extraction machine that pulls out any recoverable DNA from the damaged material. The newest step is placing the bone in a chamber containing liquid nitrogen, which makes the bone more fragile, and shaking it until it is ground to a powder. The more a bone is pulverized, the more likely it is to extract DNA. Advertisement One new victim has been identified in each of the last five years due to advancements that have been ongoing since 2001. Investigators in the world's largest crime lab made the breakthrough by retesting bone fragments they had examined many times before with no success. 'These are all samples that we've tried in the past,' said Mark Desire, who leads the medical examiner's crime lab. Desire and his team of scientists in white lab coats demonstrated the steps of the latest DNA analysis technique, which is used on human bone fragments recovered from the attack. Known as the 'World Trade Center Protocol,' the method has been used to help identify victims of train and plane crashes and terrorist attacks in Argentina, Canada, South Africa and elsewhere, Desire said. Moving from table to table, the scientists showed how they clean the bone, pulverize it into a powder, add chemicals, incubate the sample, and then place it into a large white auto-extraction machine that pulls out any recoverable DNA from the damaged material. An evidence bag is pictured at the office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York during an event in New York City. One new victim has been identified in each of the last five years due to advancements that have been ongoing since 2001. The newest step is placing the bone in a chamber containing liquid nitrogen, which makes the bone more fragile, and shaking it until it is ground to a powder. The more a bone is pulverized, the more likely it is to extract DNA. The newest step is placing the bone in a chamber containing liquid nitrogen, which makes the bone more fragile, and shaking it until it is ground to a powder. Desire praised the chief medical examiner who decided in 2001 to preserve human remains in anticipation of future advancements in DNA identification technology, making it possible for scientists years later to identify victims and bring peace to their families. 'If we did not take that step back in 2001, those remains would have continued to degrade and decompose and the DNA identifications were making this year probably would not be possible,' Desire said. Google has confirmed when it will unveil its next-generation smartphone in a bid to take on the latest iPhone. The Californian search firm will hold a media event in New York on October 9. The latest 'Made By Google' hardware event is widely-tipped to include the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL handsets. Google has previously used its hardware announcements to unveil updated Home smart speakers and new ChromeBooks, as well as its Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones. In the launch event invitation, Google uses a numerical '3' hinting at the long-rumoured third iteration of the flagship handset designed by the company. Google has revealed few details about the updated smartphones, however, a number of recent high-profile leaks suggest it will launch two handsets that feature dual front-facing cameras, wireless charging, and a 'notch' display like the iPhone X. The Pixel 3 XL boasts a 6.7-inch display, almost an inch larger than the Pixel 2 XL, while the smaller Pixel 3 has a 5.3-inch display. Scroll down for video Pictured is the invite sent to media by Google for its next hardware launch event, which will open in New York on October 9. The company is expected to launch its Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones at the event Google has suffered a flurry of leaks in the months leading up to the launch of its latest handset. Pre-production units of the upcoming handset have surface for sale on a Ukrainian black market website for 1,500 ($2,000, or 55,728 Ukrainian hryvnia). It is believed the prototype handsets were stolen from a shipping container. The gadgets have been photographed from a number of angles, revealing details about the design and improvements planned by Google. Specifications photographed from the Pixel 3 XL packaging has confirmed the handset will have a notch at the top of the all-screen design similar to iPhone X. There are currently three pre-production Google Pixel 3 XLs on sale, according to a message from the seller shared on an encrypted Telegram with blog 9to5Google. The price for each stolen handset is currently $2,000 (1,500), the seller stipulated. According to a source close with knowledge of Google's response to the stolen unannounced handset, legal and security teams inside the Mountain View-based company are discussing a plan of action to address the leaks. A listing of the handset on a black market website says: 'Remains only 3 pcs. Google Pixel 3 XL I answer immediately to the most popular questions. The price is 2000 $. Payment is possible via PayPal or Bitcoin. 'The second is preferable because PayPal has a horse commission for international transfers. Dispatch is made from London via DHL or FedEx.' It's unknown point how the dealer obtained the units. Details of the upcoming device, and the 3XL version, have been steadily leaked for several weeks and the latest revelations include details about the phone's camera The phone is expected to be officially revealed in October and the leaks are thought to come from one person who is selling potentially stolen devices online According to the seller, as many as 10 pre-production Google Pixel 3 XL handsets have already been sold, suggesting the total number of handsets was much higher than the three units currently for sale. The dealer claims the smartphones can not be remotely disabled by Google. According to the details shared by the seller, the upcoming iPhone X rival with sport dual, front-facing cameras with one wide-angle sensor to allow users to take 'Super Selfies' that automatically blur the background behind the subject. Wide-angle selfies were first introduced with by rival LG with its G6 smartphone. A Russian tech blog believed to be affiliated with the seller has published leaks of the Pixel 3 XL itself this week, as well as images shot using the handset's cameras. It's unknown point how the dealer obtained the Pixel 3 and 3XL units and how they are sold. One screenshot does reveal as many 10 units for one buyer, which suggests the total number at one point is significant It is believed the devices' will have a dual, front-facing cameras that will house one wide-angle sensor to allow users to take 'Super Selfies.' These cameras will also have an improved portrait mode. It has an iPhone X-esque notch and a supposed high-quality OLED screen that measures 6.2inches, with a screen resolution of 1,440x2,960 According to a source close to the matter, the Google legal and security teams are aware of the matter and are involved in internal discussions about the leaks According to the bloggers, Google's new smartphone has a 12.2MP rear camera the same as its predecessor, the Google Pixel 2 XL, which launched in October 2017. Likewise, the next-generation Pixel handset has the same dual-tone case design and circular rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. It has an iPhone X-esque notch and a supposed OLED display that spans 6.2 inches, with a screen resolution of 1,440x2,960 pixels. Previous rumours suggest the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Google has not confirmed whether the Pixel 3 XL on-sale on the black market website is genuine, nor has it commented on the leaked specifications. Earlier this summer, a series of images claiming to reveal the finalised design of the forthcoming Pixel 3 XL were shared online after a Lyft driver discovered the prototype device in the back of his car, left behind by a forgetful passenger. It's unclear exactly where the incident, first reported by Android Police, occurred. Another set of images claiming to show the Pixel 3 XL has leaked - this time from a Lyft driver who discovered the device in the back of his car, left behind by a forgetful passenger The driver discovered the phone in the back of his car minutes after his passengers exited and, being a Pixel 2 XL owner himself, immediately recognized what it was because of the Google logo on the rear of the handset and the prominent notch at the top of the OLED display. He then shot a few photos of the device before contacting the rightful owner and returning the as-yet unannounced smartphone. The device had a number of identifying stickers, which Android Police censored. The incident has drawn some comparisons to when Apple suffered an embarrassing leak in 2010, after a man accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype behind in a bar. The leak comes about less than a month ahead of the Pixel 3 XL's release date on October 9 2018 in New York. This isn't the first time the Pixel 3 XL has been spotted out in the wild well ahead of its official launch. The driver discovered the phone in the back of his car minutes after the passengers exited and, being a Pixel 2 XL owner, immediately recognized what it was, due to the Google logo on the back and the prominent notch at the top of the screen A closeup of the device's notch. The unit lines up with what analysts have predicted for Google's upcoming phones. The firm is expected to launch two new phones in October In July, a savvy leaker shared images that purportedly show the yet-to-be-released Pixel 3 XL in a white colorway, according to XDA-Developers. They reveal that the Pixel 3 XL is likely to include a large notch, as well as a sizable 'chin,' or space at the bottom of the phone's display. The photos provide more details after another leak in early June claimed to show the Pixel 3 XL in black. Like the photos shared earlier this year, these show off a Pixel phone with a larger form-factor, an orange power button on the right side of the device, single-lens rear camera, dual front-facing cameras and stereo speakers. Additionally, the device shows a logo on the back panel that's different than the typical 'G', indicating that it's more than likely a prototype model. Critics of the notch on Apple's iPhone X are likely to be peeved by Google's next smartphone. New images claim to show the upcoming Pixel 3 XL with a massive notch and chin design The photos were leaked by XDA-Developers user 'dr.guru' on Sunday. 'Unfortunately the phone doesn't boot because it was remotely erased by Google,' the user wrote in a blog post. The prototype Pixel device shows that it has 4 gigabytes of RAM, as well as 64 gigabytes of storage. Last week, photos leaked that claim to show what Google's smaller Pixel 3 smartphone could look like. An anonymous Reddit user shared several detailed shots of the seemingly legitimate device, as well as a few screenshots of its specifications. It's the latest case of Google being been hit by savvy leakers who claim to have photos of the tech giant's yet-to-be-released flagship phone. An anonymous Reddit user shared several detailed shots of the seemingly legitimate device, as well as a few screenshots of its specifications. It appears to be the smaller Pixel 3 phone Google typically releases two variants of its Pixel smartphone each year. This year, it's expected to release a Pixel 3 base model, as well as the larger Pixel 3 XL. The leaked photos seem to depict the smaller Pixel 3. The phone appears to have a 5.5-inch display with a 2160x1080 resolution, making it about 10% bigger compared to the 5-inch Pixel 2. Small bezels can be seen at the top of the device, as well as a chin at the bottom. Consumers will likely be happy to find that it doesn't have a notch cutout. Making the phone seem more legitimate is the Google logo on the back, as well as the matte finish of the rear panel. Screenshots show that the phone will have a 2,915mAh battery, which is a noteworthy jump in capacity from the Pixel 2. It also shows two 8 megapixel front-facing cameras The leaked spec photos also give a glimpse of what could be coming in the smaller Pixel 3. Screenshots show that the phone will have a 2,915mAh battery, which is a noteworthy jump in capacity from the Pixel 2. It also features wireless charging and two 8 megapixel front-facing camera. It appears that users may be able to switch between f/1.8 and f/2.2 apertures. Previous reports have indicated that the Pixel 3 will come with 4 gigabytes of RAM and a Snapdragon 845 processor. The screenshots don't confirm this, however. Like the photos shared earlier this year, these show off a Pixel phone with a larger form-factor, an orange power button on the right side of the device, single-lens rear camera, dual front-facing cameras and stereo speakers. It has 4 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of storage The feature that's generated the most attention is the XL prototype's 'deep notch' and massive chin. Apple first popularized the notch, which houses facial recognition sensors and cameras, in the iPhone X. At the time, the controversial design received feedback from users who both loved and hated the notch, with some claiming it was an ugly feature that distracted from the phone's edge-to-edge screen. More and more smartphone vendors have worked to minimize the notch to make way for a truly bezel-less display, but if the prototypes prove accurate, the Pixel 3 XL will move in the opposite direction. The feature that's generated the most attention is the XL prototype's 'deep notch' and massive chin. Pictured is a closeup of the notch design, which likely houses front-facing cameras The large chin at the bottom of the device is expected to house dual front-facing stereo speakers. It's also unclear whether the phone features an organic LED display or the Active Edge squeeze feature that's appeared on previous Pixel devices. Active Edge first appeared on the Pixel 2 and can be used to activate Google Assistant, as well as other helpful features, such as silencing incoming calls. Along with the Pixel 3 XL, analysts have projected that Google will launch a smaller Pixel device that'll be reminiscent of the Pixel 2. It will feature sizable bezels at the bottom and top of the screen. Savvy Twitter user @PhoneDesigner created renderings of what the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL could look like based on leaked images of what claim to show their screen protectors Google is expected to release two Pixel models at its October hardware event later this year. A nearly bezel-less Pixel 3 XL (pictured in a rendering) will be released, along with a Pixel 3 Google typically features different designs for its base Pixel model and the XL model, so it's unsurprising that the notch may only make it onto the larger of the two devices. It's also believed that Verizon will be the exclusive carrier of the Pixel 3 devices. Unlike Apple, Google's next smartphones are expected to retain a single-lens camera design on the back panel. It may take a page from the iPhone maker in other areas, however, as new leaked images show off a 'Pixel Stand.' The device, also leaked by XDA-Developers, is believed to be a wireless charging device for some upcoming Google devices. It's unclear if that includes the new Pixel phones. Advertisement These stunning images show the Milky Way etched across the night sky over a Neolithic burial barrow, which will open this weekend as part of a Stone Age tradition being resurrected across Britain. The Soulton Long Barrow in Shropshire is only the third of its kind to be opened in modern times. The burial chamber is based on ancient solution to the lack of burial space in Britain used by our Neolithic ancestors almost 5,000 years ago. Soulton Long Barrow is made entirely by hand using natural limestone, lime mortar and traditional techniques. Housing ashes inside the structure costs around 750 ($970) for an individual, and 5,850 ($7,590) for a family. The barrow, covered by rich soil planted with wild flowers and meadow grass, will house cremation ashes and will provide a cheaper and more secular alternative venue for funerals, its creators say. These stunning images show the milky way stretching across the night sky over a Neolithic burial barrow which will open this weekend as part of a Stone Age tradition that is being resurrected in Britain WHAT IS A NEOLITHIC BURIAL BARROW? Neolithic barrows were first built by our ancestors thousands of years ago. They are essentially earth mounds that were built overs stone structures which acted as collective tombs. They are made entirely by hand using natural limestone, lime mortar and traditional techniques. Barrows were traditionally built for the social elite while ordinary citizens were cremated or buried. They were first constructed in about 4,000 BC with the best-known site at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. The ancient burial chambers have not been widely used in Britain since around 2,000 BC. Advertisement Similar structures have already opened at All Cannings in Wiltshire back in 2014, and at Willow Row in Cambridgeshire two years later. The Neolithic-inspired structures are the first to be built in the UK for 5,500 years. Prices range from 750 ($973) to 5,850 ($7,590) for a family niche [the space which holds the cremation urns] which will be reserved for a hundred years. Niches can be passed down to relatives within the hundred years. Burial of ashes varies in price across the UK, but typically costs around 1,000 ($1,300) for a plot in a cemetery. Neolithic barrows are essentially earth mounds that were erected over stone structures, which acted as collective tombs. The ancient burial chambers have not been widely used in Britain since around 2,000 BC. Toby Angel, managing director of Sacred Stones, the firm behind the project, said: 'We've worked with academics from Cambridge University and understand barrows were an integral part of community life. 'They would have been a theatre for union, creation and of course a sacred space to venerate their dead. 'We are echoing what community meant to our early ancestors by providing these unique venues 'The build is exciting. People came, saw and decided it was for them, expressing the desire to play a part in the construction of their niches.' He said some 20-25 per cent of niches in the first chamber are already taken. There are 390 niches within the Soulton Long Barrow. Each is lit by candlelight. The barrow, covered by rich with wild flowers and meadow grass, will house cremation ashes and will provide a cheaper and more secular alternative venue for funerals Inspired by those built by prehistoric ancestors 5,000 years ago, the space is made entirely by hand using natural limestone, lime mortar and traditional techniques Pictured is the inside of the Shropshire barrow, where people can place their ashes. Barrows were traditionally built for the social elite while ordinary citizens were cremated or buried 'It's a deeply spiritual experience to visit these places and offers a much more wholesome experience for what is a very important life ritual,' he said. Barrows were traditionally built for the social elite, while ordinary citizens were cremated or buried. The looming earth-and-stone burial chambers were first constructed around 4,000 BC with the best-known site at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Mr Ashton, who owns the land where the barrow now sits, said: 'We have been bowled-over by the support offered by our community. It is truly humbling. 'We knew this would provide much needed support for people at a difficult time in their lives, and this has been evidenced by the number of families who've chosen to use the barrow.' According to the Sacred Stones website, there is no limit to the number of ashes that can be placed inside each niche within the chamber. Pictured is a view of the roof of the barrow as seen from inside the complex. Barrows were first constructed in Britain about 4,000 BC with the best-known site at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk Pictured are some of the amazing views of the Milky Way captured by photographer Andrew Fusek Peters (right). The Soulton Long Barrow in Shropshire is only the third of its kind to be opened in modern times as an ancient solution to the lack of burial space in Britain. Pictured (left) is a picture of a barrow on the Sacred Stones website There are 390 niches within the Soulton Long Barrow. Each is lit by candlelight. Housing ashes inside the structure costs around 750 ($970) for an individual, and 5,850 ($7,590) for a family. Pictured is a wicker coffin in one of the barrows WILTSHIRE AND ITS NEOLITHIC BURIAL CHAMBERS Wiltshire is strewn with Neolithic burial mounds, or barrows, dating back to the new stone age period, beginning about 10,200 BC and ending between 4,500 and 2,000 BC. They were constructed using vast sarsen stones or wooden posts and then covered with mud, soil and grass. West Kennet Long Barrow, six miles from Daw's barrow at All Cannings, is one of the largest, measuring 100 metres (330 feet) long. Excavations suggest work began on the tomb, which has five sarsen stone chambers, in 3,600 BC - some 400 years before Stonehenge was begun. East Kennet Long Barrow is the largest in Britain, a wedge-shaped burial chamber measuring 106 metres (348 feet) long. It is believed to have been open for several centuries before being sealed up. Lanhill Long Barrow, near Chippenham, is a late Neolithic long barrow which was found to contain the remains of several people from the same family, ranging in age from 12 months to 60 years. Beckhampton Long Barrow, near Avebury, is one of the oldest known barrows in the country, dating back to around 3,200 BC. Its two ends have been ploughed away and destroyed, but the remains of one of the Beaker folk, migrants into Britain in 2,500 BC who were notable for the beaker shape of their pottery, have been found in the barrow. Silbury Hill, a vast chalk mound 16 miles (26 kilometres) from Stonehenge, is not strictly a barrow but is a man-made mound from the same, Neolithic period and can be seen from many of the barrows that post-date it. Despite various attempts to excavate it over the years, and despite a common assumption over the years that it must be a burial mound, its purpose is still a mystery. source: Wiltshire Web Advertisement Elon Musk has reiterated his controversial belief we are living in a simulation. During his controversial appearance on comedian Joe Rogan's popular podcast, 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' where he smoked a joint, he also explained why he still believes we are living in the Matrix. He said that the sheer age of the universe - 13.8 billion years, means alien civilizations have had time to develop the complex systems needed. 'If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will be indistinguishable from reality, or civilization will end. One of those two things will occur,' Musk said. The full experience: Tesla founder Elon Musk was seen smoking a joint in Joe Rogan's podcast recording studio, hours before the share price dropped by nine per cent 'Therefore, we are most likely in a simulation, because we exist.' 'I think most likely this is just about probability there are many, many simulations,' he added. 'You might as well call them reality, or you could call them multiverse.' 'The 'substrate' on which these simulations are running, whatever it may be, is probably quite boring, at least compared to the simulations themselves, Musk said. 'Why would you make a simulation that's boring? You'd make a simulation that's way more interesting than base reality,' Musk said, citing the video games and movies that humanity makes, which are 'distillation[s] of what's interesting about life.' The 2.5 hour long podcast began with Musk and Rogan discussing his dream of solving traffic problems in Los Angeles by building a tunnel underneath the city - a project which he has already embarked on - and artificial intelligence. DO WE LIVE IN A SIMULATION? THE SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTS Last summer, when asked at the Code Conference in southern California if the answer to the question of whether we are in a simulated computer game was 'yes', Elon Musk said the answer is 'probably'. Musk believes that computer game technology, particularly virtual reality, is already approaching a point that it is indistinguishable from reality. But, according to Sabine Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, the simulation scenario ignores the laws of nature. Such a universe that would either have to 'overthrow quantum mechanics' or rely on qubits, which have yet to tie in with general relativity. Elon Musk is one of many who have suggested reality may not be as we think. Last summer, when if the answer to the question of whether we are in a simulated computer game was 'yes', Elon Musk said the answer is 'probably' Essentially, the researcher argues, 'our presently best theories are the standard model and general relativity, and whatever other explanation you have for our observations must first be able to reproduce these theories' achievements.' So far, no one has been able to do this. Hossenfelder considers a scenario in which the universe is composed of bits, like a computer, relying on ordered time-series encoded by an algorithm. Such a thing could not be done using classical bits, as there would be no quantum effects. But, even if you were to attempt to build the universe from quantum bits (qubits), there 'are good reasons to believe it's not possible,' the physicist argues, as no one has yet succeeded in recovering general relativity and the standard model of particle physics from qubits. Advertisement Rogan asked Musk if he is 'honestly and legitimately' concerned about AI and the future of robotics, to which Musk replied 'yes, but it's less of a worry than it used to be.' 'It's not necessarily bad, but it's definitely going to be outside of human control,' before speaking of the danger of using AI being used as a weapon and a future where humans will be able to become part-robots: cyborgs. 'You're already a cyborg, and most people don't even realise. That phone [in your hand] is an extension of yourself.' It is a question that has persisted in science fiction and philosophical discussion alike: are we living in a computer simulation? Scientists have long argued both sides of the theory, with some even suggesting if we did live in a simulated reality, we'd never know the truth. But now, a new study could finally put the debate to rest. While the computer simulation theory continues to gnaw at the minds of many, with people such as Elon Musk backing the idea, the new study suggests it would be impossible to generate the illusion of life and reality in this way. A still from The Matrix is pictured Theoretical physicists have discovered that it is impossible, by principle, to simulate a quantum phenomenon that occurs in metals and, ultimately, something as complex as the entire universe. In a new study published to the journal Science Advances, the team from the University of Oxford and the Hebrew University used a technique known as Monte Carlo simulation to investigate a phenomenon said to be a gravitational anomaly. MUSK'S MUSINGS: BILLIONAIRE'S BEST QUOTES FROM THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE PODCAST On why he comes up with innovations and runs his companies: Musk: 'I'm an alien! - Discussing the possibility we are living in an alternate reality and a 'multiverse'. Musk: 'If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will be indistinguishable from reality, or civilization will end. One of those two things will occur. 'Therefore, we are most likely in a simulation, because we exist. 'I think most likely, this is just about probability, there are many, many simulations. 'You might as well call them reality, or you could call them multiverse. - On social media: Musk: 'Be nicer to each other. Don't assume someone is mean. It's easy to demonize people.' Musk: 'It's way easier to be mean on social media than it is to be mean in person.' Musk: 'On balance [my Twitter interactions are] more good than bad, but there is definitely some bad'. - Rogan: 'What could potentially be holding the company [Tesla] back? Anything you'd change Musk: 'I wish politicians were better at science. That would help a lot. They [politicians] are pretty good at science in China, I have to say.' - On stopping use of Huawei phones because of risk of China spying on US citizens: Musk: 'If you have, like, top secret stuff, you wanna be careful with what hardware you use, but most people don't have top secret stuff. Nobody really cares what porn you watch! Nobody really cares. National spy agencies do not give a rats a** what porn you watch, they do not care. ' - Rogan: 'You know what could help, mushrooms.' Musk: 'They're delicious.' - Rogan: 'What keeps you up at night?' Musk: 'Its quite hard to run companies. Especially car companies. It's quite challenging. Space X is no walk in the park but a car company, it's very difficult to keep a car company alive. 'You know, there is only two car companies in the history of American car companies that haven't gone bankrupt and that's Ford and Tesla. That's it. We barely survived. ' Rogan: 'How close did you get to folding?' Musk: 'Very close. 2008 is not a good time to be a car company, especially an electric car company, that was like stupidity squared. ' - After puffing on the joint given to him by Rogan: Musk: 'I'm getting text messages from friends asking me 'what the hell are you doing smoking weed?'. 'I'm not a regular smoker of weed. Almost never. I don't actually notice any effect. I know a lot of people like weed, and that's fine, however, I don't find it's very good for productivity.' 'It's like a cup of coffee in reverse. I like to get things done. I like to be useful.' - Musk: 'You're already a cyborg, and most people don't even realise. That phone [in your hand] is an extension of yourself.' - Rogan: 'I don't know how you manage your time, it doesn't seem humanly possible?' Musk: I think people don't totally understand what I do with my time, they think I'm like, a business guy, I think even my Wikipedia page says business magnate.' Rogan: What would you call yourself? Musk: 'A business magnet.' - On sustainable energy and the environment Musk: 'We're really playing a crazy game here with the atmosphere and the oceans. We're taking vast amounts of carbon from deep underground and putting this, putting this in the atmosphere, this is crazy. 'We should not do this. It's very dangerous. We should accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. 'I mean the bizarre thing is that obviously we're going to run out of oil in the long term. There's only so much oil we can mine and burn. That's totally logical, we must have a sustainable energy transport and energy infrastructure in the long term. 'So we know that's the end point, we know that. So why run this crazy experiment where we take trillions of tons of carbon from underground and put it in the atmosphere and oceans. This is an insane experiment. It's the dumbest experiment in human history. Why are we doing this, it's crazy.' - On why he isn't building electrical sustainable energy airplanes: Musk: 'Electric cars are important, solar energy is important, stationary storage of energy is important. 'These things are much more important than creating electric supersonic VTOL[vertical take-off and landing planes].' Musk: The trick [with VTOL] is that you have to transition to level flight. The thing you'd use for vertical takeoff and landing is not suitable for high speed flight. 'The interesting thing about an electric plane is that you want to go as high as possible, but you need a certain energy density in the battery pack, because you have to overcome gravitational potential energy. ' Once you've overcome gravitational potential energy and you're at a high altitude, the energy you use in cruise is very low, and then you can recapture a large part of your gravitational potential energy on the way down. So you really don't need any kind of reserve fuel.' - On fossil fuels: Musk: 'It is the dumbest experiment in history' - Musk: 'I really think people should give other people the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they are good until proven otherwise and most people are actually pretty good people. Nobody is perfect.' - On flying cars Musk: 'If you get one of those toy drones and imagine it's 1,000 times heavier - that's not going to make your neighbors happy. 'If you want a flying car, just put wheels on a helicopter.' Advertisement The effect, called thermal Hall conductance, can be seen in systems with high magnetic fields and low temperatures. But in their work, the researchers found that the simulation is unable to capture a system with gravitational anomalies, such as the quantum Hall effect. As the number of particles required for the simulation increased, the researchers found the simulation itself became far more complex. Scientists have long argued both sides of the theory, with some even suggesting if we did live in a simulated reality, we'd never know the truth anyway. But now, a new study could finally put the debate to rest. A stock image is pictured If the particles increased in a linear way, the number of computational resources to simulate the system would have to as well; for a system twice as large, for example, the number of required resources, including processors and memory, would have to double. But, if the system grew exponentially, this effect would be far more extreme. To store the information of a few hundred electrons on a computer, the simulation would require memory built from more atoms than exist in the entire universe, the researchers note. 'Our work provides an intriguing link between two seemingly unrelated topics: gravitational anomalies and computational complexity,' said co-author Zohar Ringel, a professor at Hebrew University. 'It also shows that the thermal Hall conductance is a genuine quantum effect: one for which no local classical analogue exists.' According to the researchers, the study shows that systems with gravitational anomalies will bring about a 'sign problem' within the Monte-Carlo approach. If the problem could be solved, large-scale quantum simulations could be possible, they say but the work provides proof that it cannot be solved for some systems. While the computer simulation theory continues to gnaw at the minds of many, with people such as Elon Musk backing the idea, the new study suggests it would be impossible to generate the illusion of reality in this way. Drugs for a variety of neurological conditions could be less effective for women, a new study has sensationally found. Experts identified a difference in the way the immune system of male and female mice react, which could result in women being given the short straw. Male mice are predominantly used in scientific research, however, their immune systems were found to be more naturally robust that their female equivalents. As a result, findings based on studies with male mice used in the research underestimate the strength of doses needed to achieve the same effect in females. This could have a drastic impact on the development of new drugs, experts say. Scroll down for video Drugs for a variety of neurological conditions could be less effective for women, a new study has found. Experts identified a gender gap in the way the immune system of male and female mice react, which could result in women being given the short straw (Stock Image) Researchers from the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin found that microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, differ in male and female mice. Microglia watch over the brain's health around the clock, much like a battalion of tiny soldiers. When the cells sense pathogens bacteria, viruses and other microorganism that can cause disease or an injury, they rush to the trouble spot and try to save whatever is still salvageable. But they do so quite differently depending on the animal's sex, which could explain previous research that suggests the human immune system also varies between genders. 'We were really surprised to find so many differences between the microglia of male and female mice,' said Dr Susanne Wolf, senior author of the study and a researcher in the cellular neurosciences lab at MDC. 'It turns out that the brains of male mice have more microglia.' Researchers from the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin found that microglia , the immune cells of the central nervous system (pictured), differ in male and female mice, with men's more alert and active HOW DO MICROGLIA DIFFER IN MALE AND FEMALE MICE? Microglia watch over the brain's health around the clock, like a battalion of tiny soldiers. When the cells sense pathogens including bacteria, viruses and other microorganism that can cause disease or an injury, they rush to the trouble spot and try to save whatever remains salvageable. But they do so quite differently depending on the sex of the animal, which could explain previous research that suggests the human immune system also varies between genders. Male mice have more microglia and the cell bodies of male brain immune cells are larger than their female counterparts. The microglia of male animals seem to be permanently at attention, ready to strike and keep order Male microglia also appear to wear themselves out faster because of their constant alertness. In female mice, the exact opposite was observed. Advertisement According to the researchers, that's not the only difference. The cell bodies of male brain immune cells are larger than their female counterparts. The team also determined not only which genes are active in the male and female cells, but also which proteins are produced by these genes. What's more, everything suggests that the male cells also act differently to female cells. 'We identified more than 1,000 genes and 300 to 400 proteins that are regulated differently according to sex,' Dr Wolf added. 'The microglia of male animals seem to be permanently at attention, ready to strike and keep order.' Male microglia, saysthe researchers, also appear to wear themselves out faster because of their constant alertness. 'In the female cells, proteins and genes responsible for protecting cells, such as DNA repair genes, are more active,' Dr Wolf said. 'In the male cells, on the other hand, we see increased activity of genes involved in initiating programmed cell death.' This means, she adds, that male microglia might be less protected against environmental insults and quicker to activate the cellular suicide program. 'It almost seems as if the male cells are more willing to take risks than the female ones,' says the study's first author Dilansu Guneykaya, a PhD student at the MDC. 'They almost always react faster, but as a result they sometimes seem to put themselves in danger.' The full findings of the study were published in the journal Cell Reports. A popular fetish app has been found to be storing users' passwords in plain text. Whiplr, which bills itself as the 'world's biggest online fetish community,' stores unmasked user credentials in its internal database, according to Engadget. This leaves them wide open to being exploited by hackers, should Whiplr's system ever be breached. Scroll down for video Whiplr, which bills itself as the 'world's biggest online fetish community,' stores unmasked user credentials in its internal database. This leaves them wide open to being exploited by hackers WHAT IS WHIPLR? Whiplr was launched in 2015 as a free, location-based messaging app that allows users to connect with others who share their interests in BDSM or other fetishes. According to the app's description, it is 'the world's first and only location-based messaging app to help you connect with potential play partners online or in person.' Users entire their 'kink category' upon creating an account. Inside the app, users can message, call or video chat with others. Whiplr offers a free version or a subscription-based version, which range from $19.95 for a one month of service to $119.95 for a year. Advertisement It was discovered when a user was asked to submit their password, username and email address in plain-text format to verify their account. The vulnerability is particularly distressing given that many users populate the site in near-anonymity. After the flaw was pointed out, Whiplr said it would implement greater security measures to protect users credentials. 'Whiplr places both the security and privacy of its millions of users around the world at the highest priority,' Ido Manor, Whiplr's data protection officer, told Engadget. 'This case was an error of judgment in a specific situation where a user could not have been identified via email address. 'We took steps to make sure this never happens again, just as it never happened before this incident,' he added. Whiplr says it has now secured passwords with one-way encryption and will be 'adding more security measures' in the future. However, it marks a troubling security flaw for an app that previously pledged to help protect users' identities. Storing the data in a raw format would've allowed bad actors to potentially figure out the real identities of users on the app. The Whiplr vulnerability was discovered when a user was asked to submit their password, username and email address in plain-text format to verify their account They could've also used their credentials to attempt to log in to other services - particularly if someone uses the same credentials for different apps or websites across the internet. In most cases, companies use a combination of hashing and salting to safeguard users login information. Hashing takes a user's password and scrambles it into a random string of characters. From there, the hashes are stored in an internal database, instead of the password. Every hash is the same length, which makes them harder for hackers to crack. Salting adds a random string of characters to either the front or back of your password before it's run through the hashing system. This adds an extra layer of security to the hashing process. Some firms use a combination of hashing and salting to safeguard users login info. Hashing takes a user's password and scrambles it into a random string of characters Additionally, more and more companies are adding extra security on the front end of the login process, by introducing two-factor authentication. When two-factor authentication is turned on, the service will send an email, text message or phone call to the user to verify a login attempt. But not every company considers user data protection to be its highest priority. In fact, there are no laws against storing users' passwords in plain text format, Engadget noted. Whiplr isn't the first firm to store users passwords in such a way. CHOOSING A SECURE PASSWORD According to internet security provider Norton, 'the shorter and less complex your password is, the quicker it can be for the program to come up with the correct combination of characters. The longer and more complex your password is, the less likely the attacker will use the brute force method, because of the lengthy amount of time it will take for the program to figure it out. 'Instead, they'll use a method called a dictionary attack, where the program will cycle through a predefined list of common words that are used in passwords.' Here are some steps to follow when creating a new password: DO: Use a combination of numbers, symbols, uppercase and lowercase letters Ensure that the password is at least eight characters long Use abbreviated phrases for passwords Change your passwords regularly Log out of websites and devices after you have finished using them DO NOT: Choose a commonly used password like '123456', 'password', 'qwerty' or '111111' Use a solitary word. Hackers can use dictionary-based systems to crack passwords Use a derivative of your name, family member's name, pet's name, phone number, address or birthday Write your password down, share it or let anyone else use your login details Answer 'yes' when asked to save your password to a computer browser Advertisement In April, T-Mobile Austria admitted it was storing customer passwords in partially plain text, revealing the practice in a conversation with a Twitter user. The firm even said in a tweet that it didn't 'get why [doing so] was a problem.' Twitter in May discovered a bug that caused passwords to be stored in plain text. The error caused passwords to be stored in plain text in an internal log before the hashing process was completed. Advertisement In the wake of a massive dust storm on Mars, NASAs Curiosity rover went dutifully back to work collecting samples at the surface. On August 9, just over two weeks after the storm officially began to die down, the rover scooped up a rock sample and captured a 360-degree view of its surroundings on Vera Rubin, revealing a thin layer of dust still lingering in the air. The stunning panorama reveals an immersive look at the eerie brown skies, with glimpses of Mount Sharp and ancient lakebed features and, a selfie of the Mars rover. Meanwhile, NASA's other Mars rover, Opportunity, is still silent more than two months after hunkering down in the dust storm. Click video and drag your cursor for the 360 view. Mobile users, simply point your phone in different directions On August 9, just over two weeks after the storm officially began to die down, the rover scooped up a rock sample and captured a 360-degree view of its surroundings on Vera Rubin, revealing a thin layer of dust still lingering in the air Curiosity captured the panorama and selfie using its Mast Camera. The rovers previous drill attempts were thwarted by unexpectedly hard rocks, according to NASA, so the latest collection came as a welcome surprise. Vera Rubin Ridge, where Curiosity is currently investigating, has perplexed scientists since its discovery. The region varies greatly in color and texture throughout, in a way never seen before. The ridge isnt this monolithic thing it has two distinct sections, each of which has a variety of colors, said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Some are visible to the eye and even more show up when we look in near-infrared, just beyond what our eyes can see. Some seem related to how hard the rocks are. To find a good spot for drilling, the team simply has to make an educated guess. So far, NASA says, this seems to be working out. The scientists suspected the ridges ledge may include harder rock while the spot below may be softer. The stunning panorama reveals an immersive look at the eerie brown skies, with glimpses of Mount Sharp and ancient lakebed features and, a selfie of the Mars rover. Curiosity captured the panorama and selfie using its Mast Camera With its new sample, Curiosity will be able to study the pulverized rock in its internal laboratories, to reveal what material is holding the ridge together in the face of wind erosion. While Curiosity is running just fine, the status of the Opportunity rover still remains unclear. Opportunity fell silent back in June, with no way to power its solar battery as dust continued to block out the sun. Engineers involved with the mission were at first hopeful that the robotic Mars explorer would wake back up once the storm abated but, after more than two months of silence, they recently admitted morale is shaky. In effort to keep their spirits high and inspire the rover to wake up, the team even crafted a themed playlist with a new song to kick off each Martian day from the control room. So far, the list includes 18 songs, from Wham!s Wake Me up Before You Go-Go and The Beatles Here Comes the Sun to Queens Keep Yourself Alive. Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the component images for this view from a position outside Endeavor Crater during the span of June 7 to June 19, 2017 HOW OFTEN DO DUST STORMS HAPPEN ON MARS AND WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO SEE THEM? Dust storms occur frequently on Mars, but global events that circle the entire planet appear every six to eight Earth years, which equates to three to four years on the red planet. MailOnline spoke to Dr Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, for his advice on witnessing this extra-terrestrial weather event. He said: 'Observing Mars is always challenging, as it's small, about half the size of the Earth, and at its closest is still around 34 million miles (55 million km) away. 'It is easily visible to the eye as a bright red object in the sky, but seeing any detail requires a reasonable telescope and binoculars won't show much. 'Even with that, details are fleeting, and depend on a steady terrestrial atmosphere as otherwise turbulence blurs out the view. 'This is why early Martian observers spent a lot of time making many sketches to try to map the planet's surface. 'A good time to look is when Mars is near its opposition, the point when the planet is opposite the sun in the sky and near its minimum distance from the Earth. 'Opposition in 2018 is on July 27, and Mars' closest approach is on 30 July. 'As it gets dark in the evening, you should look for a bright red object in the southeastern sky. 'With a decent telescope, observers can see the polar caps growing and shrinking and the dust storms described above. These can rapidly change from being local features to planetwide events.' Advertisement Opportunity hasnt let out a peep since June 10, and its unclear when the rover will wake up if it does at all. At the end of last month, NASA said it would have just 45 more days to contact Opportunity. Beyond that, the agency says the rover will more than likely not never recover. 'The Sun is breaking through the haze over Perseverance Valley, and soon there will be enough sunlight present that Opportunity should be able to recharge its batteries,' John Callas, Opportunity project manager at JPL, said at the end of August. 'When the tau level [a measure of the amount of particulate matter in the Martian sky] dips below 1.5, we will begin a period of actively attempting to communicate with the rover by sending it commands via the antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network. 'Assuming that we hear back from Opportunity, we will begin the process of discerning its status and bringing it back online.' Our brains respond to irony from emojis in the same way as words. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois examined the brain activity of English-speaking college students as they read sentences containing various emoji. They read sentences with emoji that were either negative, positive or ironic. Scroll down for video A team of researchers from the University of Illinois examined the brain activity of English-speaking college students as they read sentences containing various emoji HOW DO OUR BRAINS PROCESS IRONY? For the study, scientists monitored respondents' brainwaves as they read sentences that included ironic emoji. They specifically studied brain-wave patterns related to language processing, studying a pattern called the 'P600.' This is an 'error signal' that happens when someone encounters a word or symbol that's linguistically unexpected. It means the reader is encountering something, then reassessing it's meaning. Respondents who viewed an ironic emoji, such as the winky face, exhibited this brainwave pattern. Advertisement In one example, they read a sentence that said 'The cake she made was terrible,' followed by a frowning emoji, a smiling emoji and a winking emoji. At the same time, scientists recorded their brainwaves. Respondents then answered comprehension questions about how they interpreted the meaning of the sentence. They were asked whether they interpreted the sentence literally, or whether the wink emoji changed their reading of the sentence, so that they viewed it as an expression of irony. Researchers compared the brainwaves elicited by the ironic emojis and the nonironic emojis and found that the patterns elicited by the ironic emojis mirrored those shown in studies looking at ironic verbal communication. The study shows that words combined with emojis can be considered another form of 'multimodal communication,' in the same way that people might use gestures or facial expressions in combination with words to convey meaning. Put simply, emoji can convey irony or sarcasm in a written mode of communication, in the same way that intonation would do the same when you're speaking to someone. Typically, written modes of communication 'strips away' things like intonation or gestures, but emojis appear to add them back. In one example, respondents read a sentence that said 'The cake she made was terrible,' followed by a frowning emoji, a smiling emoji and a winking emoji As the respondents read the sentences, scientists recorded their brainwaves. They then served comprehension questions about how they interpreted the meaning of the sentence 'I wouldnt go so far as saying emojis are words, but they can be used linguistically,' said Benjamin Weissman, one of the co-authors of the study. 'Emojis can convey irony or sarcasm in a written format in the same way we might use intonation to convey the same thing when speaking.' Another example involved respondents reading the phrase 'You are such a jerk,' followed by a sad, smiling or winking emoji. They were asked to determine whether, based on the emoji used in the sentence, the person was actually a jerk. Again, people who interpreted irony showed different brain activity in response. Their brain scans showed separate spikes in activity, in contrast to other respondents. Specifically, one spike in activity occurred 200 milliseconds after reading the winky-face sentence. Another spike followed at roughly 600 milliseconds. People who interpreted irony in a sentence showed different patterns in brain activity. Specifically, they showed one spike in activity 200 milliseconds after reading the winky-face sentence. Another spike followed at roughly 600 milliseconds It shows that when a brain reads a sentence with ironic emoji, it first reads the words in one way, then changes its interpretation to consider new info - a process called 'reassessment' Researchers said that pattern is similar to what's been observed in studies where people listened to sentences that had a sarcastic tone. It appears to signify that when a brain reads a sentence with an ironic emoji, it first reads the sentence in one way, then changes its interpretation to consider new information - a process called 'reassessment.' The study shows that emojis convey a certain linguistic meaning in a sentence. 'This helps broaden our view of communication,' said Darren Tanner, another co-author of the study. 'It can be words, or words plus pictures, or words plus gesture, and it can be words plus emojis. 'You cant just use a string of emojis, but when you pair emojis with words, they can enhance each other. The combined effect of written words plus emojis is bigger than words or emojis alone,' he added. More than a decade after it was demoted, the debate over whether Pluto is a planet has been reignited by a new study. New research from the University of Central Florida in Orlando claims the reason Pluto lost its planet status is 'not valid'. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union, a global group of astronomy experts, established a definition of a planet that required it to 'clear' its orbit, or in other words, be the largest gravitational force in its orbit. Scroll down for video The new Florida study reviewed scientific literature from the past 200 years and found only one publication - from 1802 - that agreed with the IAU definition. THE GEOPHYSICAL DEFINITION Scientists have proposed a new way to define planets based on 'the physics of the world itself.' By the proposed geophysical definition: 'A planet is a sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion and that has sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxial ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters.' Or, simply put, 'round objects in space that are smaller than stars.' Advertisement Since Neptune's gravity influences its neighboring planet Pluto, and Pluto shares its orbit with frozen gases and objects in the Kuiper belt, that meant Pluto was out of planet status. However, the new study reviewed scientific literature from the past 200 years and found only one publication - from 1802 - that used the clearing-orbit requirement to classify planets, and it was based on since-disproven reasoning. 'The IAU definition would say that the fundamental object of planetary science, the planet, is supposed to be a defined on the basis of a concept that nobody uses in their research,' said UCF planetary scientist Philip Metzger, who is with the university's Florida Space Institute. 'And it would leave out the second-most complex, interesting planet in our solar system.' Metzger said moons such as Saturn's Titan and Jupiter's Europa have been routinely called planets by planetary scientists since the time of Galileo. Adopting the new definition would see roughly 110 objects in the solar system classified as 'full-fledged' planets, including dwarf planets and moon planets such as Ceres, Pluto, Charon, and our own moon 'We now have a list of well over 100 recent examples of planetary scientists using the word planet in a way that violates the IAU definition, but they are doing it because it's functionally useful.' 'It's a sloppy definition 'They didn't say what they meant by clearing their orbit. If you take that literally, then there are no planets, because no planet clears its orbit.' According to Metzger, the literature review showed that the real division between planets and other celestial bodies, such as asteroids, occurred in the early 1950s when Gerard Kuiper published a paper that made the distinction based on how they were formed. However, even this reason is no longer considered a factor that determines if a celestial body is a planet, he believes. Study co-author Kirby Runyon, with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said the IAU's definition was erroneous since the literature review showed that clearing orbit is not a standard that is used for distinguishing asteroids from planets, as the IAU claimed when crafting the 2006 definition of planets. 'We showed that this is a false historical claim,' Runyon said. 'It is therefore fallacious to apply the same reasoning to Pluto,' he said. Metzger said that the definition of a planet should be based on its intrinsic properties, rather than ones that can change, such as the dynamics of a planet's orbit. 'Dynamics are not constant, they are constantly changing,' Metzger said. 'So, they are not the fundamental description of a body, they are just the occupation of a body at a current era.' Instead, Metzger recommends classifying a planet based on if it is large enough that its gravity allows it to become spherical in shape. 'And that's not just an arbitrary definition, Metzger said. 'It turns out this is an important milestone in the evolution of a planetary body, because apparently when it happens, it initiates active geology in the body.' Pluto, for instance, has an underground ocean, a multilayer atmosphere, organic compounds, evidence of ancient lakes and multiple moons, he said. 'It's more dynamic and alive than Mars,' Metzger said. 'The only planet that has more complex geology is the Earth.' Last year astronomers proposed a new way to define planets based on 'the physics of the world itself,' citing technical flaws in the definition adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 2006 as the reason for the possible overhaul. If accepted, the geophysical definition would essentially classify all 'round objects in space that are smaller than stars' as planets, including Pluto, other dwarf planets, and even moons. Scientists from NASA's New Horizon's mission will make their proposal at the Lunar and planetary Science Conference in March. The team argues that the IAU definition is flawed in several ways, including that it only recognizes as planets those which orbit our sun. This leaves out objects orbiting other stars or those orbiting freely through the galaxy. Along with this, they say there are parameters which even the planets in our solar system cannot satisfy. The new definition, they argue, would meet the needs of both scientific classification and 'peoples' intuition.' By the proposed geophysical definition: 'A planet is a sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion and that has sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxial ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters.' Or, simply put, 'round objects in space that are smaller than stars.' This definition holds the physics of the planet itself to more importance than the physics of its interactions with other objects, the researchers explain. Adopting this definition would see roughly 110 objects in the solar system classified as 'full-fledged' planets, including dwarf planets and moon planets such as Ceres, Pluto, Charon, and our own moon. According to the proposal, the new definition would be better for scientists, educators, and students alike, as it is more intuitive and emphasizes the intrinsic physical properties of a planetary body. More than a decade after it was demoted, Pluto could soon be considered a planet again along with more than 100 other objects in our solar system. The newly proposed definition, simply put, would classify 'round objects in space that are smaller than stars' as planets And, it speaks to a practice that is already in use. 'In keeping with emphasizing intrinsic properties, our geophysical definition is directly based on the physics of the world itself rather than the physics of its interactions with external objects,' the authors explain. 'Our definition captures the common usage already present in the planetary science community. 'In peer-reviewed planetary science publications and talks, the world 'planet' often substitutes for the given name of the world, even if the world is a moon or a dwarf planet.' A special issue of Nature has published a series of studies looking at how monitoring Antarctica from space is providing crucial insights into its response to a warming climate. Here are their key findings: Three trillion tonnes of ice has been lost from Antarctica since 1992 The Antarctic Ice Sheet lost around three trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017, according to research led by Leeds University. This figure corresponds to a mean sea-level rise of about eight millimetres (1/3 inch), with two-fifths of this rise coming in the last five years alone. The finds mean people in coastal communities are at greater risk of losing their homes and becoming so-called climate refugees than previously feared. In one of the most complete pictures of Antarctic ice sheet change to date, an international team of 84 experts combined 24 satellite surveys to yield the results. It found that until 2012 Antarctica lost ice at a steady rate of 76 billion tonnes per year - a 0.2mm (0.008 inches) per year contribution to sea level rise. However, since then there has been a sharp, threefold increase. At some point since the last Ice Age, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was smaller than it is today Researchers previously believed that since the last ice age, around 15,000 years ago, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) was getting smaller However, new research published by Northern Illinois University shows that between roughly 14,500 and 9,000 years ago, the ice sheet below sea level was even smaller than today. Over the following millennia, the loss of the massive amount of ice that was previously weighing down the seabed spurred an uplift in the sea floor. Then the ice sheet began to regrow toward today's configuration. 'The WAIS today is again retreating, but there was a time since the last Ice Age when the ice sheet was even smaller than it is now, yet it didn't collapse,' said Northern Illinois University geology professor Reed Scherer, a lead author on the study. 'That's important information to have as we try to figure out how the ice sheet will behave in the future', he said. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet was stable throughout the last warm period The stability of the largest ice sheet on Earth is an indication to scientists that it could hold up as temperatures continue to rise. If all the East Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, the sea level would rise by 175 feet (53 metres). However, unlike the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets it seems it would be resistant to melting as conditions warm, according to research from Purdue University and Boston College. Their research showed that land-based sectors of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were mostly stable throughout the Pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago). This is when carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were close to what they are today - around 400 parts per million. 'Based on this evidence from the Pliocene, today's current carbon dioxide levels are not enough to destabilise the land-based ice on the Antarctic continent,' said Jeremy Shakun, lead author of the paper and assistant professor of earth and environmental science at Boston College. 'This does not mean that at current atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, Antarctica won't contribute to sea level rise. 'Marine-based ice very well could and in fact is already starting to contribute, and that alone holds an estimated 20 meters of sea level rise,' he said. Decisions in the next decade will determine whether Antarctica contributes to a metre of sea level rise One of the largest uncertainties in future sea-level rise predictions is how the Antarctic ice sheet reacts to human-induced global warming. Scientists say that time is running out to save this unique ecosystem and if the right decisions are not made in the next ten years there will be no turning back. Researchers from Imperial College London assessed the state of Antarctica in 2070 under two scenarios which represent the opposite extremes of action and inaction on greenhouse gas emissions. Under the high emissions and low regulations narrative, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean undergo widespread and rapid change, with global consequences. By 2070, warming of the ocean and atmosphere has caused dramatic loss of major ice shelves, leading to increased loss of grounded ice from the Antarctic Ice Sheet and an acceleration in global sea level rise. Under the low emissions and tight regulations narrative, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and implementation of effective policy helps to minimise change in Antarctica, which in 2070 looks much like it did in the early decades of the century. This results in Antarctica's ice shelves remaining intact, slowing loss of ice from the ice sheet and reducing the threat of sea level rise. What saved the West Antarctic Ice Sheet 10,000 years ago will not save it today The retreat of the West Antarctic ice masses after the last Ice Age was reversed surprisingly about 10,000 years ago, scientists found. In fact it was the shrinking itself that stopped the shrinking: relieved from the weight of the ice, the Earth crust lifted and triggered the re-advance of the ice sheet. According to research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this mechanism is much too slow to prevent dangerous sea-level rise caused by West Antarctica's ice-loss in the present and near future. Only rapid greenhouse-gas emission reductions can, researchers found. 'The warming after the last Ice Age made the ice masses of West Antarctica dwindle,' said Torsten Albrecht from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. 'Given the speed of current climate-change from burning fossil fuels, the mechanism we detected unfortunately does not work fast enough to save today's ice sheets from melting and causing seas to rise.' The world's ice shelves may be being destabilised by forces from above and below Researchers found that warm ocean water flowing in channels beneath Antarctic ice shelves is thinning the ice from below so much that the ice in the channels is cracking. Surface meltwater can then flow into these fractures, further destabilising the ice shelf and increasing the chances that substantial pieces will break away. The researchers, led by the University of Texas at Austin, documented this mechanism in a major ice break up, or calving, event in 2016 at Antarctica's Nansen Ice Shelf. The findings are concerning because ice shelves, which are floating extensions of continental glaciers, slow down the flow of ice into the ocean and help control the rate of sea level rise, according to the study. 'We are learning that ice shelves are more vulnerable to rising ocean and air temperatures than we thought,' said Professor Christine Dow, lead author of the study. 'There are dual processes going on here. One that is destabilising from below, and another from above. 'This information could have an impact on our projected timelines for ice shelf collapse and resulting sea level rise due to climate change', he said. A perfectly preserved spear dart used 1,000 years ago by hunters has been found in a melting ice patch in the Yukon. The 'amazing' find is so well preserved, feather and even the sap used as glue is still visible. 'I'd never seen anything like that before, it was amazing,' Jennifer Herkes, who is the heritage manager for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon, told CBC. The 'amazing' find is so well preserved, feather and even the sap used as glue is still visible. The incredible find was made on the Yukon ice patches, near Carcross. WHAT IS AN ATLATL? Atlatls are ancient weapons that preceded the bow and arrow in most parts of the world and are one of humankind's first mechanical inventions. The word atlatl (pronounced at-latal or atal-atal) comes from the Nahuatl language of the Aztec, who were still using them when encountered by the Spanish in the 1500s. Other words include spear-thrower, estolica (Spanish), propulseur (French), speerschleuder (German) and woomera or miru (English versions of the most common Australian terms). An atlatl is essentially a stick with a handle on one end and a hook or socket that engages a light spear or 'dart' on the other. The flipping motion of the atlatl propels a light spear much faster and farther than it could be thrown by hand alone. Advertisement 'The feathers, the sinew, the sap they would have used as, like, a glue to attach the stone point to the wood shaft all of it is completely intact.' The incredible find was made on the Yukon ice patches, near Carcross. At first, Herkes said didn't realize what had been found, thinking is was just a small part of a dart. 'I thought, 'Oh yeah, that's neat,'' she told CBC. Then she saw it wasn't just a piece it was the whole spear. 'My heart rate started increasing, and I got goose bumps all over.' The five-foot spear dart, or atlatl, would have been launched with a throwing tool, increasing its velocity. The area is home to woodland caribou who gather on the ice patches during summer, and it was once a popular hunting ground. Recent warmer weather has meant tools are now regularly being found in the area as the ice patches melt. The five-foot spear dart, or atlatl, would have been launched with a throwing tool, increasing its velocity 'Carcross/Tagish First Nation Citizens and staff had the opportunity to go up to the ice patches this year,' the organization said on its Facebook Page. 'Ice patches are used by caribou to escape the heat and bugs in the summer, and were used as a common hunting location for at least 9000 years.' The organization is working to have these sites designated as world heritage sites because of their importance and uniqueness. CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSING YUKON HARES TO CHANGE COLOUR Animals are losing their ability to blend in with their surroundings thanks to climate change, a new study suggests. Experts found that snowshoe hares in some parts of the US are not developing a white winter coat as expected, in response to lower levels of snowfall. Understanding animals' responses to the climate will become increasingly important as changes become more extreme in the future, researchers say. Animals in the extreme north, especially those adapted to survive harsh winters, are particularly vulnerable as these regions are experiencing the greatest changes. Snowshoe hares are named thanks to their large back feet. Having large back feet is not the only adaptation the small hare's have for life in the snow, their white winter coat (right) helps them blend in with the snowy background and they are brown (left) during the summer Agricultural scientists from Penn State University compared data from a study of snowshoe hares conducted in 2007 in the Yukon region of Canada with information collected from 70 Pennsylvania hares trapped in 2014 and 2015. Snowshoe hares are brown in the summer and develop a white coat in the winter to avoid predators. They found that the hares from the Eastern US had shorter, less-dense and less-white winter coats than their northern counterparts. Advertisement 'This year's amazing finds included a ground stone point, an arrow shaft with point, and an intact atl-alt dart,' it said. A few weeks before the spear was found, archeologists made another discovery in the ice patches a ground-stone point. Earlier this year, archaeologists also confirmed that a rare copper arrowhead discovered on a remote Canadian mountain is almost 900 years old. The arrowhead, which is at the tip of a perfectly preserved antler arrow, was found sticking out of an ice patch in the Yukon Territory. The Carcross/Tagish First Nations was also involved in the arrowhead discovery, which shed new light on the history of the Canadian Territory. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Amazon is to open a branch of its radical 'Amazon Go' cashierless store in New York The store was revealed through a series of job postings spotted by The Information. The firm recently opened a second location in Seattle, and has previously said it hopes to open stores in Chicago and San Francisco. Scroll down for video The plans for the New York store were revealed through a series of job postings spotted by The Information. Pictured, the original store in Seattle. 'On Thursday night, the internet retailer posted at least four job listings related to an Amazon Go store in the New York area,' The Information said. 'The listings seek candidates for a store manager, an assistant store manager, a learning and development manager, and a training lead associate.' It comes weeks after Amazon's second Seattle store opened. The store, the second in Amazon's hometown of Seattle, will be a mile away from the original location near the Seattle Central Library at 920 Fifth Ave., and opened at 7 a.m. today. HOW DO AMAZON'S GO STORES WORK? In December 2016, Amazon unveiled a convenience store in downtown Seattle that replaced cashiers with technology found in self-driving cars. It opened to the public in January 2018. To start shopping, customers must scan an Amazon Go smartphone app and pass through a gated turnstile. Ready-to-eat lunch items greet shoppers when they enter. Deeper into the store, shoppers can find a small selection of grocery items, including meats and meal kits. An Amazon employee checks IDs in the store's wine and beer section. Amazon's first Go Store opened in Seattle earlier this year and are looking to expand and open stores in Chicago and San Francisco Sleek black cameras monitoring from above and weight sensors in the shelves help Amazon determine exactly what people take. If someone passes back through the gates with an item, his or her associated account is charged. If a shopper puts an item back on the shelf, Amazon removes it from his or her virtual cart. Much of the store will feel familiar to shoppers, aside from the check-out process. Amazon, famous for dynamic pricing online, has printed price tags just as traditional brick-and-mortar stores do. Advertisement The new store is slightly smaller than the original, at 1,450 square feet, and won't sell alcohol or staples like milk and bread. It also forgoes an in store kitchen, and will have its fresh food supplied by an Amazon kitchen facility in Seattle. Gianna Puerini, the Amazon vice president who oversees Go, told the Seattle Times she expects a higher portion of office workers among the clientele compared to the first store. 'The population here is a little different,' Puerini said. The first store debuted one mile away at the base of Amazon's Day One tower in January, after more than a year of fine-tuning the concept. Amazon customers scan their smartphones at a turnstile to enter the shop. Cameras and sensors identify which products customers remove from the shelves and put into their backpack, or shopping trolley. Since the system is tracking their purchases as they move around the store, customers simply leave when they're finished shopping, with Amazon billing the credit cards on file for any products its cameras identified. Amazon Go, which is also set to open stores in Chicago and San Francisco, has sent rivals scrambling to prepare for yet another disruption from the online retailer. It comes after claims Microsoft is working on technology that would eliminate the need for cashiers and checkout lines in supermarkets. Other rival stores have purportedly tested programs where customers scan and bag each item as they shop, with mixed results. In the UK, Waitrose already allows customers to scan products customers to scan purchases as they pick them off the shelf. However, they still need to pay at a till. For Microsoft, becoming a strategic ally to retailers has resulted in big business. Amazon customers scan their smartphones at a turnstile to enter. Cameras and sensors identify what they remove from the shelves and Amazon bills their credit cards on file for everything on their person as they leave the store In addition to developing retail technologies, it ranks second, behind only Amazon, in selling cloud services that are key to running e-commerce sites, for instance. It is not clear how soon Microsoft would bring an automated checkout service to market, if at all, or whether its technology would be the answer retailers are looking for. But some see the technology as the next big innovation in shopping, one that Amazon's competitors cannot afford to ignore. 'This is the future of checking out for convenience and grocery stores,' said Gene Munster, head of research at Loup Ventures in Minneapolis. The venture capital firm estimates the US market for an automated checkout system is worth some $50 billion (37.2 billion). Microsoft said it 'does not comment on rumours or speculation'. Walmart and Amazon have declined to comment. So far, Microsoft's attempt at developing the checkout-free supermarket has largely fallen under its Business AI (Artificial Intelligence) team, one source said. A group consisting of 10 to 15 people have worked on a slew of retail store technologies, and they have presented their efforts to CEO Satya Nadella, the person said. MICROSOFT TO TAKE ON AMAZON IN SMART SHOPS It comes after claims Microsoft is working on technology that would eliminate the need for cashiers and checkout lines in supermarkets. The company is looking to challenge Amazon, which has already opened a checkout-free store in Seattle, called Amazon Go, according to people familiar with the matter. Microsoft is working on technology that would eliminate cashiers and checkout lines from stores. The tech firm is looking to challenge Amazon's automated grocery shop, according to six people familiar with the matter (stock image) It is believed Microsoft is developing systems to track what shoppers add to their carts or basket as they move around the supermarket. The Redmond-based software giant has shown sample technology to retailers from around the world and is reportedly in talks with Walmart about a potential collaboration. Advertisement In a meeting with the team several months ago, Mr Nadella recommended an 'intelligent edge' device that could manage connected gadgets such as cameras on site with minimum data transfers to the cloud, which would cut down on costs, they added. Making its technology cheap enough so it does not shrink grocers' already thin profit margins is a major challenge for Microsoft, another person said. Microsoft already showcases the basics for automated checkout at its Retail Experience Centre in Redmond. It has half a dozen partners, including Redmond-based AVA Retail, that are building their own checkout-free or related services atop Microsoft's cloud, some of the people said. Sales of partners' services result in cloud revenue for Microsoft, along with insight into the market for new retail technologies. Meanwhile, Microsoft's internal team, including a computer vision specialist hired from Amazon Go, has worked on attaching cameras to shopping carts to track customers' items. The secretive team has studied novel ways for smartphones to play a role in the shopping experience, people said. Still, the industry is playing catch-up to Amazon. The company spent four years building Amazon Go in secret, before launching an employee-only pilot on its Seattle campus in 2016. It collected data for almost 14 months before opening its first Seattle store. Amazon has said it has no plans to introduce checkout-free technology to its Whole Foods Market grocery chain, which it acquired last year. The company is still hard at work improving the service. Amazon Vice President Dilip Kumar told Reuters in an interview earlier this year that the company is training computers to identify items or activities with as little information as possible. 'It's a really hard problem,' said Scott Jacobson, managing director of Madrona Venture Group, adding it is 'one that Amazon is uniquely positioned to solve.' I slept in a cabin some 30ft from the spot in Arles where Vincent Van Gogh set his easel in September 1888 to paint Starry Night Over The Rhone. His vantage point, which offered a sweeping view of the river as it twists through the city, is barely two minutes' walk from the Yellow House, which Vincent rented in the hope of creating a 'studio of the south' for himself and fellow artist Gauguin. That friendship finished acrimoniously; their studio met an even more unhappy ending. The Yellow House was destroyed by Allied bombing in August 1944 as was the nearby Pont des Lions railway bridge. Water wonder: The Pont du Gard is an impressive aqueduct that crosses the River Gardon The bridge's lion statues survived to gaze over the mooring spot of our river cruise ship, the Amacello. River cruising is now big business on the Rhone. Arles to the south and Lyons to the north represent either the beginning or the end point of a seven-day journey for Rhone cruisers. Towards the end of the 19th Century, when Van Gogh was here, the Rhone was a less significant means of transport than you might have thought. By 1900 the railway had become the primary method of transport, but since the time of the Greeks and Romans, the Rhone, which flows 500 miles from St Gothard in Switzerland to the Mediterranean, offered intriguing possibilities. The problem was that for much of its length, the river was a terrifying torrent. In Victorian times, any passenger boarding a boat at Lyons for a journey south did so in the knowledge that they were boldly going where many had gone before and some had failed to make it back. At the summit in Lamastre, the steam train puffs its way on to a turntable where it takes just one man to push the huge engine around so that it can pull passengers back down Between Lyons and Arles the river descends more than 450ft, creating fierce currents and unpredictable shallows. Even today, larger vessels such as our cruise ship can face buffetings from the famous winds, the mistral and the sirocco, that race up and down the Rhone Valley. It wasn't until after the Second World War that work began to tame this mighty river. A series of 12 locks which also served as hydro-electric generating dams brought not only safer navigation but electricity and increased irrigation for local agriculture (which includes the like of wine-maker Chateauneuf du Pape). The cruise ships are also bringing tourism, not particularly needed in Arles and Avignon, which are already honeypots for visitors, but to smaller towns along the river which are charming and probably more rewarding for tourists. After a day spent wandering Arles in the footsteps of Van Gogh, the next port of call, Avignon, offered the chance to visit a more ancient watercourse project. In the 1st Century, the Romans decided to bring fresh water to the city of Nimes by building a 30-mile water channel, at the time a project as amazing in its ambition as it was extraordinary in its execution. Enchanted evening: Van Gogh's Starry Night Over The Rhone, which he painted while living in Arles The part of the project known to all is the Pont du Gard, the aqueduct which crosses the River Gardon. An excellent museum at the site explains with large-scale models how the water course was constructed and how the Pont du Gard, in particular, was built. The aqueduct ceased operating when the Roman Empire fell, and one wonders what Dark Ages visitors made of such a marvel. In the 17th Century they built a now-defunct road bridge, which sits next to the ancient structure with admirable sensitivity. After the wow moment of the Pont du Gard, it would be easy to imagine that, in tourist terms, you've peaked. Not so. One of the key attractions of an ATP cruise is that so much is included in the basic price being picked up from home and taken to and from the airport, for example. Or drinks at the bar or restaurant. A sunflower tribute to Van Gogh aboard Frank's ship At our stop in Tournon we travelled on the small-gauge Ardeche railway. It offers a short and sweet climb up to the Doux Gorges through woodland. At the summit in Lamastre, the steam train puffs its way on to a turntable where it takes just one man to push the huge engine around so that it can pull us back down. Such was the trading wealth generated by being next to the river, there are many handsome medieval towns along its way. Viviers, for example, looks as if its 15th Century merchants have only just stepped away from their handsome town- centre stone houses. Our most memorable meal was on an excursion to the Abbaye de Collonges once run by the late French master chef Paul Bocuse. It was of the highest of standards in glorious surroundings. One of the many unforgettable moments that come from being a river-cruise traveller, a member of one of the finest private clubs in the world. Most Londoners know that pressing the door-open button on Tube trains is totally pointless. And natives of the British capital say seeing someone trying to push it is a sure fire way of knowing someone is new to the city. That's according to an online discussion, where Londoners have been pinpointing the things that make visitors stick out like a sore thumb. And they're also, among other people, looking at you, the person who's complaining about the price of a pint. Londoners have been revealing the things that make visitors stick out like a sore thumb The comments were uploaded to internet forum Quora after a user posted the question: 'What screams, "I am new to London"?' And unsurprisingly, Tube behaviour came up rapidly. One Londoner, John Birch, said: They stand (or put luggage down) on the left-hand side of the Underground escalators.' While Freddy Smith added: 'Pressing the illuminated door-opening buttons on the doors of Tube trains. There is no point. The doors will all open anyway.' For Nick Cooper, it's intently studying the Underground map. He explained: 'Londoners who use the system regularly dont necessarily know the network like the back of their hands. 'But they at least know enough that all it will take is a cursory glance at the directional signs and specific line diagrams in the station to know they are heading where they need to go, without breaking their step in the process.' And for David Osofsky, a subtle clue while riding the Bakerloo line gives away London newcomers. He said in answer to the question: 'Plopping down on a Bakerloo seat too hard and launching a complete stranger into the ceiling.' Vincent Harriman wrote that travelling by bus and trying to pay using cash can also mark out who is new to London. He wrote: 'They are now all card based (except tourist buses) and cash isn't accepted on buses or on the Underground.' Some Londoners joked that making eye contact and talking marks out newcomers While Michael Charalambous added that seeing newcomers waiting to cross the road at traffic lights when there are no cars coming is another tell-tale sign. For Sindhu Satish, insisting on shopping on Oxford Street is another way of marking out people who are new to London. She wrote: 'Id recommend other places too like Piccadilly, Knightsbridge (Harrods) or even Camden. If you want knickknacks then go no further than Notting Hill.' And Roger Hughes explained that seeing someone wearing a Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt also screams 'I'm new to London'. Mike O'Boyle, meanwhile, joked that saying hello or making eye contact is not normal for natives. And Richard Smedley added that newcomers to London can be distinguished by them saying certain phrases, including 'wow, this place is really big!' and 'HOW MUCH for a pint?!' Advertisement It is one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, having welcomed more than 800million people through its doors. And now the fascinating history of the original Disneyland in California has been revealed in a stunning new book by Taschen, which shows how a dusty tract of orange groves an hour south of Los Angeles was transformed across six decades into one of the worlds most beloved destinations. The book, called Walt Disney's Disneyland by Chris Nichols, is described as a 'bountiful visual history' that 'draws on Disneys vast historical collections, private archives, and the golden age of photojournalism' to tell the story of the park. Pictures show Walts earliest inspirations and ideas for the park as well as extraordinary feats of design and engineering, its grand opening and each of its immersive 'lands' from Main Street USA to Tomorrowland. While other images depict the much-loved sign from the road that welcomed visitors to Disney between 1958 and 1989, as well as children running across the Cinderella Castle drawbridge on the day the park opened in 1955. Scroll down to see some of the mesmerising pictures from 'a visual history of the worlds megalopolis of magic'... Walt Disney described his park on television in 1954 (above) with the help of an aerial plan. Disneyland then opened to the public on July 17, 1955 The original Disneyland sign on Harbor Boulevard welcomed guests from 1958 to 1989. Its bold colours and shapes made it instantly recognisable to visitors, Nichols says The drawbridge to Sleeping Beauty Castle was lowered for the first time on opening day in 1955 (above), and only once since when the redesigned Fantasyland opened on May 25, 1983, Nichols says. The castle sits at the centre of Disneyland and is one of the world's most recognisable structures, with spires that rise as high as 77 feet (about 24m). But it wasn't the first concept that Walt Disney had in mind. A palace for Cinderella and a castle for Robin Hood were considered in the planning stages Fourteen years before actual astronauts would visit the moon, the Rocket to the Moon and Astro-Jets attractions offered Tomorrowland guests the simulated thrill of blasting into space Monstro the Whale, from Pinocchio, guards the entrance to the Storybook Land Canal Boats in 1956. His giant blinking eye and spouting blowhole sometimes surprised guests posing for photos Walt Disney is joined in 1964 by some of his most adored characters. Many starred in what Walt called 'classic stories of everyone's youth' that, in Fantasyland, had 'become realities for youngsters of all ages to participate in' The buildings of the Rainbow Ridge mining town were designed by art director and set designer Bill Martin, who recalled they were a favourite of the Disney family. He said: 'I remember that Walt and Lilly [Walt's wife] would often walk along the pathways between those little buildings when they stayed at the park overnight.' Although the attraction is long gone, the little town can still be seen in the queue to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad One of the original members of the WED Model Shop, Harriet Burns, helped construct the scale models for Pirates of the Caribbean so that Walt could study every detail from the point of view of guests riding the finished attraction. Though Walt oversaw the construction of the attraction, Nichols says, it did not open until after his death in 1966. Harriet is pictured working on the model in 1967 Walt Disney's Disneyland by Chris Nichols is available next month and is published by Taschen Advertisement The world's busiest airlines have been revealed - and it is American carriers that fly the most. American Airlines is ranked top of a list of busiest airlines after flying 324 million scheduled passenger kilometres (201 million miles) in 2017. Following is Delta Air Lines in second, which flew 316.3 million scheduled passenger kilometres (196 million miles), and then United Airlines on 311 million (193 million miles). American Airlines is ranked top of a list of busiest airlines after flying 324 million scheduled passenger kilometres in 2017 The ranking has been revealed in a new report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which announced industry performance statistics for 2017. The busiest non-US carrier is Emirates Airline, which flew 289 million scheduled passenger kilometres (179 million miles), claiming fourth place. The top five is rounded off by Southwest Airlines, which flew 207.7 million scheduled passenger kilometres (129 million miles). Also making the top ten is China Southern Airlines in sixth place on 177.4 million kilometres (110 million miles) followed by Ryanair in seventh on 157.1 million kilometres (97.6 million miles). Lufthansa is eighth on 152.2 million kilometres (94.5 million miles) followed by China Eastern Airlines (151 million km/93.8 million miles) and Air China (145 million km/90 million miles). In the cargo ranking Federal Express comes top having flown 16.9 billion freight tonne kilometres. A table by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showing the busiest passenger airlines by revenue passenger kilometres and the busiest cargo airlines by freight tonne kilometres In second place is Emirates (12.7 billion) and then United Parcel Service (11.9 billion), Qatar Airways (11 billion) and Cathay Pacific Airways (10.8 billion). Also making the top ten global ranking for cargo is Korea Air (8 billion, sixth), Cargo Lux (7.3 billion, seventh), Lufthansa (7.3 billion, eight), Air China (6.7 billion, ninth) and Singapore Airlines (6.6 billion, 10th). The busiest international routes of 2017, meanwhile, are all within the Asia-Pacific region with the most scheduled passenger kilometres on the link between Hong Kong and Taipei on 5.4 million (3.3 million miles). Following is Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta to Singapore on 3.3 million and third is the link between Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Hong Kong on 3.1 million. The top five is rounded off by Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on 2.8 million and Hong Kong to Seoul Incheon on 2.7 million. Delta Air Lines is in second place - it flew 316.3 million scheduled passenger kilometres, according to 2017 data It is a similar story for domestic routes, with the top five in 2017 all being in the Asia-Pacific region. The busiest is Jeju to Seoul Gimpo with 13.5 million scheduled passenger kilometers (8.3 million miles) followed by Melbourne Tullamarine to Sydney on 7.8 million. In third is Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda in Japan on 7.6 million followed by Sapporo-Tokyo Haneda on 7.4 million. The fifth busiest domestic route is Beijing Capital to to Shanghai Hongqiao on 6.4 million scheduled passenger kilometers. The report also shows that worldwide annual air passenger numbers exceeded four billion for the first time, which was attributed to an improvement in global economic conditions and lower average airfares. Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs Director General and CEO, said: 'In 2000, the average citizen flew just once every 43 months. In 2017, the figure was once every 22 months. 'Flying has never been more accessible. And this is liberating people to explore more of our planet for work, leisure and education. Aviation is the business of freedom.' The WA gaming watchdog launched an investigation into a competition run by Married At First Sight contestant Tracey Jewel, Daily Mail Australia can reveal. Earlier this year, the Perth resident, 35, offered customers who bought her book This Goddess Means Business the opportunity to win a 'wellness holiday' in Malaysia. However, the giveaway soon became the subject of complaints to the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor WA, which subsequently looked into the matter. EXCLUSIVE: Married At First Sight's Tracey Jewel has been given a 'warning' by the WA gaming watchdog after an investigation was launched into her Malaysian holiday competition A spokesperson for the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries said on Thursday: 'The Department has completed its investigation and taken appropriate action to conclude the matter'. Tracey told Daily Mail Australia that 'the appropriate action was a warning due to the allegations involved' and that 'no further action' was taken. She added that the matter was 'concluded back in July' and she 'followed [the] terms and conditions' of the competition. Giveaway: Earlier this year, the Perth-based single mother, 35, offered customers who bought her book This Goddess Means Business the opportunity to win a 'wellness holiday' in Malaysia In order to promote her self-help book This Goddess Means Business, Tracey had advertised a wellness retreat holiday to Malaysia. Last month, she claimed in a statement that 'the main prize winner advised in writing she was unable to take the major prize so it was redrawn'. A winner is currently named on her website. Investigation: However, the giveaway soon became the subject of complaints to the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor WA, which subsequently looked into the matter Earlier this year, Tracey became one of the most talked-about women in Australia when she was involved in a love triangle on Married At First Sight. She was paired with Dean Wells on the 'social experiment', but was left blindsided when he had an 'affair' with fellow contestant Davina Rankin. In the months after the show aired, Tracey's professional and personal life has come under scrutiny and she has spoken out about her battles with social media trolls. Roxanne Pallett's former Emmerdale co-star Adele Silva has claimed she 'rang alarm bells' on the set of the ITV soap. The 35-year-old actress has been at the centre of a national scandal after insisting her CBB co-star Ryan Thomas is a 'woman-beater' who treated her like a 'punching bag' - despite others claiming they were merely 'play-fighting'. And Adele, 37, who played Kelly Windsor opposite Roxanne's Jo Sugden in the ITV soap, hinted that she displayed the same sort of behaviour when they worked together. Not impressed: Roxanne Pallett's former Emmerdale co-star Adele Silva has claimed she 'rang alarm bells' on the set of the soap (pictured together in 2006) 'Sometimes when people come in and they don't behave like they should and that many people are speaking out about it, then obviously it kind of rings alarm bells,' she said on FUBAR radio. Filling in for Lizzie Cundy, Adele joined Stephen Leng on Access All Areas this evening. She noted: 'The more we talk about it the more we give attention to it is playing into somebody's hands, and maybe they like that in a narcissistic kind of way. 'Watch this space because I don't think that will be the end of it.' Oh dear: The 35-year-old actress has been at the centre of a national scandal after insisting her CBB co-star Ryan Thomas is a 'woman-beater' who treated her like a 'punching bag' - despite others claiming they were merely 'play-fighting' Hmm: And Adele, 37, who played Kelly Windsor opposite Roxanne's Jo Sugden in the ITV soap, hinted that she displayed the same sort of behaviour when they worked together Adele very openly condemned Roxanne's behaviour, saying: 'When someone has a reputation and they're been fired from different jobs or lots of people are claiming they're been bullied or accused of different things, then it's baffling that I think that person gets employed again and again and again. 'And then you get to a situation like this and you think this was going to happen at some point.' She added: 'I think when 20 plus people speak out about a certain person and they're probably not that vocal on Twitter anyway thenthere's no smoke without fire.' Adele also noted her love for Ryan Thomas and his brother Adam. Interesting: 'Sometimes when people come in and they don't behave like they should and that many people are speaking out about it, then obviously it kind of rings alarm bells,' she said on FUBAR radio Critic: She added: 'I think when 20 plus people speak out about a certain person and they're probably not that vocal on Twitter anyway thenthere's no smoke without fire.' (pictured, Adele with Roxanne in 2006) 'They are the nicest boys and nobody's got a bad word to say about them, and I think that speaks volumes that literally everybody was going "I know Ryan. I know Roxanne. I love Ryan".' MailOnline has contacted Roxanne's representative for comment. Roxanne has been at the centre of a media storm after branding her CBB co-star Ryan Thomas a 'woman beater' when he 'punched her' during a play fight, demanding her be removed from the Channel 5 show's house. This comes after Roxanne dubbed herself 'the most hated woman in Britain' after returning to the CBB studio. The former housemate appeared was quizzed by Emma Willis, 42, about her claims in the house in a 'savage' no-holds barred interview screened last night which set the internet alight. 'I'm the most hated girl in Britain': Roxanne told Emma on Celebrity Big Brother on Monday night that she made a 'massive, horrible mistake' over her Ryan Thomas punch claim 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. Responding to firm questioning by Emma, 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 is engaged to crooner Nick Jonas. But Priyanka Chopra was stag when she swung by the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards during New York Fashion Week this Thursday. The 36-year-old radiated chic at the Park Hyatt New York near Carnegie Hall, opting for a head-to-toe black ensemble that hinted at her trim midriff. Glamour icon: Priyanka Chopra was stag when she swung by the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards during New York Fashion Week this Thursday Priyanka's sleeveless black top offered only the barest trace of cleavage, and her skintight high-waisted skirt was hemmed shortly above the knee. Flares of black drapery were attached to the hem; earlier she accessorized with tortoiseshell shades. Adding another splash of glitz with a pair of glittering drop earrings, Priyanka lent herself some extra stature with a pair of ankle-strap heels. She joined many other famously beautiful faces at the star-packed event where guests enjoyed Kim Crawford Wines such as Ashley Graham, Nicki Minaj, Winnie Harlow, Shanina Shaik, Ashlee Simpson and Karrueche Tran. Movie star on the move: She was spotted out and about in the city wearing the same ensemble and beaming as she clambered into a glinting black SUV Off she goes: Priyanka's sleeveless black top offered only the barest trace of cleavage, and her skintight high-waisted skirt was hemmed shortly above the knee Priyanka was spotted out and about in the city wearing the same ensemble and beaming as she clambered into a glinting black SUV. The actress, who starred in a searing Hindi movie called Fashion about the modeling world, held a sleek black clutch in her right hand. Amid rumors they got engaged in July, Priyanka and Nick had their roka ceremony last month in Bombay, where she keeps a pad. After the roka and the engagement party, the spouses-to-be were glimpsed performing for the children at St. Catherine's Home, an orphanage in Andheri West. While in Bombay, Priyanka had also been working on her upcoming indie film The Sky Is Pink, whose producer Siddharth Roy Kapur had been at her engagement party. Chic to the last: Flares of black drapery were attached to the hem, and the Jamshedpur-born daughter of military doctors accessorized with tortoiseshell shades Star stature: Adding another splash of glitz with a pair of glittering drop earrings, Priyanka lent herself some extra height with a pair of ankle-strap heels The movie is about Aisha Chaudhury, a girl from New Delhi who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, became a motivational speaker and died at 18 in 2015. Since Priyanka and Nick were last in Bombay, their schedule has been a swirl of travel, including stops in Los Angeles, Cabo San Lucas and Mammoth Mountain. On Tuesday of this week, Priyanka was joined by her mother Madhu, Nick, Nick's brother Joe and Joe's fiancee for the US Open at Flushing Meadows in Queens. Priyanka achieved immense stardom in India, and in 2016 was garlanded with a Padma Shri, the fourth highest of the civilian honors granted by her government. Hoofing it: Priyanka, who starred in a searing Hindi movie called Fashion about the modeling world, held a sleek black clutch in her right hand She has not, however, appeared in an Indian film since 2016's Jai Gangaajal, which wrapped in the autumn of 2015, the Indian Express reported. Her ABC spy show Quantico lasted from 2015 until this year, during which period Priyanka was also in a flop Baywatch film starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. She did score an invite to her pal Meghan Markle's wedding to Prince Harry in Windsor this May, the month news broke that Quantico had been scuttled. Accomplished: Priyanka achieved immense stardom in India, and in 2016 was garlanded with a Padma Shri, the fourth highest of the civilian honors granted by her government Priyanka was slated to make her grand return to Hindi cinema opposite the colossally famous Salman Khan and the critical darling Tabu in Ali Abbas Zafar's Bharat. Then, as speculation swirled about her engagement, Ali tweeted: 'Yes Priyanka Chopra is no more part of @Bharat_TheFilm & and the reason is very very special , she told us in the Nick of time about her decision and we are very happy for her ... Team Bharat wishes @priyankachopra loads of love & happiness for life'. In a flash, Priyanka was replaced by Salman's ex-girlfriend Katrina Kaif, who rose to prominence in Bollywood during her relationship with him and whose big break came when she starred alongside him in 2005's Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?. Press (BBC1) Rating: Forget anything youve read about the national newspaper drama Press (BBC1) being brilliantly researched and authentic. It isnt. Every office scene, crammed with painfully duff notes, felt to me like listening to someone pick out a familiar melody on an out-of-tune piano. Even writer Mike Bartletts splashes of press-room jargon, with phrases like off-stone and death knock, are not quite right in the way that non-native speakers always retain a giveaway accent. TV drama is never really accurate, of course. Real-life coppers roll their eyes at Line Of Duty, and pathologists openly weep over Silent Witness. No doubt if an 18th-century Cornish tin miner could watch Poldark, hed be muttering: Taint right, taint fit, taint proper. Press: The BBC has filmed a new drama based on rival newspapers - but it does not hit the spot for many hardened hacks This muddled portrayal of how a newspaper works isnt the problem. Nor is the dreadful plotting: we have to suspend our disbelief with considerable force to accept Holly (Charlotte Riley) is a journalist. Supposedly a deputy news editor, she fails to recognise a story with the explosive power of a 20 megaton hydrogen bomb. Her best friend has been killed by a hit-and-run police car, and Holly doesnt mention it to her colleagues because she doesnt want their pity. If Holly doesnt think that story needs reporting, shes missed her vocation she should have been a nun in a silent convent. Still, lots of dramas survive atrocious storylines. Bodyguard is as nutty as a conker dipped in peanut butter, but still draws ten million viewers on a Sunday night. The real travesty of Press is the naked bias and hypocrisy of the BBC. Remember that, when the Beeb decided to highlight their own failings in a show, they painted themselves as lovably bumbling brainboxes on W1A. The whole existence of the Corporation is based on its impartiality, yet it uses this star-laden, six-part serial for a sustained attack on what it portrays as commonplace newspaper practice: manipulating grief, blackmailing politicians, covering up secrets. One scene showed bullying tabloid editor Duncan (Ben Chaplin) trying to browbeat a bereaved mother in a Parliamentary Press Commission meeting. Bartlett couldnt have made the man any more hateful if hed stamped on a kitten. Such gleeful stereotyping of newspapers is not merely dishonest, its dangerous. It increases the risk of censorship because, by painting all journalists as villains, the BBC encourages the public to think of reporters as the enemy. In an age when politicians, celebrities and tax-dodging oligarchs have never been more keen to muzzle the press, the BBC has picked the wrong side to support. Ross Kemp And The Armed Police (ITV) Rating: Realism was not in question on Ross Kemp And The Armed Police (ITV), as the former EastEnders actor joined firearms units on raids in Birmingham. The efficiency of the squads that surrounded suburban houses and arrested gun-toting drug dealers was coldly impressive but far from reassuring, as every operation revealed the ubiquity of illegal weapons on British streets. TV hardman Ross Kemp dons his Iraq body armour to meet young gang members on the mean streets of Birmingham The combination of Kemps fame and his investigative methods, honed in war zones, enabled him to set up two remarkable interviews one with a gun smuggler who cheerfully noted how underfunded the police have become, and one with three masked gang members intoxicated with gun violence. Its easy to turn a little child into a killer, boasted one youth, before admitting that his lifestyle terrified his own mother. This made depressing television. But no one could doubt its authenticity or the depth of its research. Nicole Kidman was curled up like a cat in the corner of a sofa, looking reassuringly bright-eyed and alert. Reassuringly, because the night before I was ready to call in emergency services to get her to hospital. Not the real Nicole, but the one I'd seen on screen in an extraordinary film called Destroyer, in which she plays a cop who has destroyed her body after a life of narcotics and booze. 'Ravaged eyes,' the actress mumbled. The opening shot of director Karyn Kusama's film does indeed show a pair of ravaged eyes. Bloodshot and bleary, they belong to Erin Bell, a Los Angeles deputy sheriff who has clearly seen better days. Her skin is blotchy, her hair lank, her teeth ghastly and you can practically smell her through the celluloid. The 51-year-old is unrecognisable as Erin Bell in the thriller Destroyer When she gets out of a car, her shoulders are hunched. She looks emaciated. 'I was a lot thinner then than I am now,' Kidman agreed. 'I was sick through most of that film. I had flu. It was good in terms of the character if not in terms of my health. A friend saw me walking as Erin and said: 'For God's sake, don't keep walking like that!' He was worried I'd be like that for ever.' It's a brilliant performance that captures a character who may be self-destructing, but who still knows how to handle a pistol and a machine gun. At one point she's a one-woman army trying to foil a bank robbery, and despite her haggard appearance, she's pretty awesome. Kidman said she didn't care that she looked awful. She was prepared to do whatever the director and screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wanted her to. 'I wanted to be believable as this woman who is a cop and a very bad mother to her daughter. To do that, she had to look the way she did. This was a low-budget film, so the amount of time we had to do the make-up was limited. You can't be having five hours in make-up or you wouldn't have time to shoot. 'It's very freeing as an actress to look like a wreck. I insisted on bad teeth,' she said, laughing and revealing a set of perfect gnashers. I asked if she met any addicts to help her prepare. She shook her head. 'I've lived a life, so I've seen a lot. I knew what I had to do.' But it wasn't easy for those around her. 'I didn't want people near me, not even Karyn the director. I wanted to say I'm sorry, but part of being an actor is not apologising. It's not a popularity contest. There are other characters you play where you can be engaged. But the type of person Erin is insular and introverted can't engage. Nicole Kidman, 51, as Erin Bell a Los Angeles deputy ravaged by drugs in The 'Destroyer' Nicole admitted: 'l'm kind of amazed that I'm still working'. Pictured here at last week's Telluride Film Festival 'Maybe Laurence Olivier would have said to me: 'Try acting!' But, I mean, maybe I'm not that good.' The 51-year-old star was at the Telluride Film Festival, in the San Juan range of the Colorado Rockies, with two films: Destroyer and director Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased, in which she plays the mother of a student (Lucas Hedges from Manchester By The Sea) who has come out to his parents. His preacher father (Russell Crowe) demands he undergo homosexual conversion therapy. Kidman's role is a supporting one but she almost steals the film when she marches into the conversion centre and takes her son away, chiding herself for putting him through such an ordeal. 'Shame on me!' her character cries. Edgerton told me Kidman had reached a place in her career where she had no fear. 'She has no vanity and doesn't care what she looks like,' he told me. Kidman admitted: 'l'm kind of amazed that I'm still working. I've lived a pretty wild life. There was a point where I was probably burned out and I stumbled. I wanted a baby and I wanted to find somebody to share my life with,' she told me, without referencing her tumultuous break-up from Tom Cruise. 'I was in a place where I was willing to give it all up, willing to walk away and then come back.' Joel Edgerton, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban and Laura Dern attend the Telluride Film Festival She's certainly back. Big Little Lies, in which she starred with Reese Witherspoon, became a phenomenon for HBO and Sky Atlantic and she's shooting a second series with director Andrea Arnold. Meryl Streep plays her mother-in-law, and Kidman said they had long conversations about life and career and how taxing it can be to fully immerse yourself in a character. Like every working mum, she has to juggle schedules; but she and husband Keith Urban are clearly happy together. 'Happy wife, happy life,' he told me. They had flown to Telluride with their daughters and two cats. This Christmas, she'll be seen in cinemas in Aquaman, playing the Queen of Atlantis. 'I did that for my daughters,' she told me. 'They can't see Big Little Lies and they can't see Destroyer. But they can bring their friends to Aquaman. It's a bit of street cred for them.' Destroyer will play in competition at the BFI London Film Festival next month. For more than a decade the actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has been telling me stories about his hardscrabble upbringing with white foster parents in Tilbury. He was born in Islington to Nigerian parents in 1967, but at six weeks old was farmed out to a white, working-class couple and raised with other children in care until he was 16. Growing up, he had to cope with local kids hurling racist abuse at him. His foster father, a lorry driver, told him to stand up for himself. Kate Beckinsale in the new film 'Farming' that tells the story of a young Nigerian boy The local skinheads beat me up, but I beat them back. After several encounters they were amused by me and took me in as a brutalised pet. By the time I was 16 I was a formidable member of that gang, said Adewale, who is known as Mr Eko from the TV drama Lost, and for roles in Thor and forthcoming TV drama The Fix. The actor has fictionalised his upbringing and written and directed a film called Farming, which is being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. Damson Idris plays the teenage boy struggling to discover who he is, and Kate Beckinsale in one of her best roles plays the woman who, in her own way, raises him. Adewale said his foster parents often made racist remarks, but they were made against a backdrop of Love Thy Neighbour and watching Alf Garnett on television. Coon and sambo was the fabric wallpaper. My foster parents had not been exposed to African culture. They didnt know any better. As harsh as it was, he got the best street education and later went on to study law. Adewale said he was bowled over by working with Beckinsale and we agreed that shes the fractured, flawed hero of the story, which also stars John Dagleish and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The film is set in the early 18th century as England is at war with France Emma Stone is insulted in the most delectable way in her latest film. 'I'm called 'scullery scraps' and 'disloyal little b***h'. And they're the politest ones,' the Oscar-winning star said. Stone appears in The Favourite, a gorgeously outrageous film 'some fact and some fiction' in the words of celebrated director Yorgos Lanthimos about the relationships between Queen Anne and her courtiers: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough and Abigail Masham. Olivia Colman plays the gout-ridden monarch, Rachel Weisz (who as I revealed exclusively on Mail Online gave birth to a baby girl last week) plays the Duchess, and Stone plays the maid who rises to the top. They are the most delicious performances and, being a bit of a glutton, I've seen the Film4 gem no fewer than three times. Emma Stone attends the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado on September 1, 2018 Stone described Abigail as a survivor. 'She's been in some pretty horrible circumstances but she's street smart; she speaks French and Latin and writes with a quill pen,' she said when I met up with her and Lanthimos at the Telluride Film Festival, high in the Rockies. She and her cast mates had to be prepared for all manner of strange tasks during filming, but the worst for her, she said, was having to put steaks on Colman's legs, as part of Abigail's attempts to help soothe the queen's swollen limbs. 'I kept putting them on her legs, over and over again, with a fire raging in the fireplace. You can imagine the smell,' Stone said. 'It was pretty gross.' Still, out of such horror has emerged one of the year's best pictures. It's in the first rank of movie making a dangerous, delightful classic that will be out here on New Year's Day. Russian ballet dancer Oleg Ivenko with Ralph Fiennes. They star in new film The White Crow Ralph Fiennes was the last person I expected to see in the Rocky Mountains. He had been given special dispensation to take a break from rehearsing Antony And Cleopatra with Sophie Okonedo at the National Theatre and go to Telluride for the premiere of his film The White Crow. Im virtual rehearsing with Sophie back in London, he joked. The picture tells the story of Rudolf Nureyevs defection to the West in 1961. But in Fiennes hands its much more than that. Its about the emergence of a ballet superstar and the ability of great art to take your breath away. Fiennes directs and plays Nureyevs teacher Alexander Pushkin. Nureyev is played by Russian ballet dancer Oleg Ivenko. He had emotions and attitudes that felt Nureyev-like, Fiennes told me. It was also essential he could dance and boy, can he! and possess some acting chops. His portrait of the often haughty but brilliant ballet megastar is sublime. Fiennes and screenwriter David Hare are interested in showing how the physical world around Nureyev influenced and informed the way he danced. The result is Fiennes best directorial work to date. The White Crow shows at the BFI London Film Festival from October 18. Natasha Gordon, who wrote the hit comedy Nine Night, at the National Theatre, London Natasha Gordon, who wrote the hit comedy Nine Night at the National Theatre, is joining the cast when it transfers to the West End. The play, the funniest Ive seen this year, is about a family in London who gather for a traditional nine-day Jamaican wake. Franc Ashman, who played Lorraine, the dutiful daughter who kept the family together, was unable to move to the Trafalgar Studios with fellow cast mates including Cecilia Noble. So actress and playwright Gordon (left) stepped up. I obviously know it inside out, she told me, adding: Its a natural progression. Cate Blanchett has admitted her children complain that she was only in Lord Of The Rings 'for about 30 seconds'. The mother-of-four, 49, confessed that her son wasn't impressed by her role as Lady Galadriel in the epic fantasy trilogy, and asked when she was going to play the lead in a blockbuster. In scenes set to air on The Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday, the Australian actress added that all her children think she's 'really uncool and embarrassing'. Not impressed: Cate Blanchett has admitted her children complain that she was only in Lord Of The Rings 'for about 30 seconds' She said: 'They do and they don't [watch my films.] My son gave me some great career advice a few years ago, he said, "Mum, when are you going to make a blockbuster?" She continued: 'I said, "I was in Lord of the Rings!" And he said, "Yeah for about 30 seconds." So it didn't really count. I had no brownie points with my children.' Cate is mother to sons Dashiell John, 16, Roman Robert, 14, Ignatius Martin, 10, and adopted daughter Edith, four, with husband Andrew Upton, 52. Jack Black, who is also on the sofa, added: 'My boys, they actually prefer the work of Will Ferrell. I think it's natural that kids think that their parents are really uncool and embarrassing.' Whatever: The 49-year-old actress confessed that her son wasn't impressed by her role as Lady Galadriel in the epic fantasy trilogy, and asked when she was going to play the lead in a blockbuster (pictured in The Fellowship Of The Ring in 2001) Cate and Jack - who are both going to turn 50 next year - spoke about whether they will celebrate their milestone birthdays. Cate says: 'We are going to be 100 together! Maybe we should have a Tenacious D concert for my birthday? I would love that. Would you sing at my party?' Jack says: 'Yes, what do you want to hear?' before the pair agreed that Jack will sing their classic, Tribute. Cate also spoke to Jonathan about living in the UK and why she has chosen home in London to from her native, Australia. Not her biggest fans: The Thor: Ragnarak star said her kids 'do and don't' watch her films Family ties: Cate is mother to sons Dashiell John, 16, Roman Robert, 14, Ignatius Martin, 10, and adopted daughter Edith, four, with husband Andrew Upton (pictured), 52 She joked: 'I came back just in time for Brexit. It's all my fault!' On the real reason she has moved to the UK, she said: 'I just think that in my country you walk into a field and you're going to be killed by some kind of snake or accosted by a huge [animal.] It's much more benign here pigs, chickens.' Cate previously revealed her feelings about the prospect of her children following in her footsteps. She told Harper's Bazaar this month: 'I think if I was in a different profession, if I was a lawyer, or a doctor, or an architect, maybe, or if I had a trade that I could actually use in the Armageddon, then there would be a sense that that would be a great and expected thing. Candid: On the real reason she has moved to the UK, she said: 'I just think that in my country you walk into a field and you're going to be killed by some kind of snake or accosted by a huge [animal.] It's much more benign here pigs, chickens' 'Certainly my children do not want to be 'the son of', and I know that my feisty daughter will not want to be 'the daughter of' And there is more rejection than there is acceptance.' And while she is happily unsure of which paths her offspring will take, she is also in doubt about her future on the big screen. This autumn, she will star in the children's fantasy film The House with a Clock in Its Walls, but Cate admitted to the magazine that she's not certain about how much longer she will keep acting. She said: 'I don't know what I am going to do next as an actor, I never do really. But I feel like I've probably got a couple more years left in it, before I lose my sanity.' The second episode of The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday at 9.45pm on ITV. The Bachelor's 'mean girl' Cat Henesy might be taking another bite at fame after she was sensationally kicked off the dating show by Nick Cummins for 'bullying.' The Bali-based jewellery designer hinted she will appear on Channel 10's upcoming season of Bachelor In Paradise during an interview with Nova's Fitzy & Wippa on Friday morning. Cat, who joined fellow 'mean girls' Alisha Aitken-Radburn and Romy Poulier on the Sydney breakfast radio show, said she would 'absolutely' love to appear on the Fiji-based spin-off. Scroll down for video 'Absolutely I would!' Cat Henesey (pictured here earlier this year) has hinted that she will appear on Bachelor In Paradise after being booted off dating show by Nick Cummins for 'bullying' The discussion was prompted after radio host Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald, 41, quizzed the former contestants about whether they would consider signing up for another reality TV series. 'Absolutely I would!' Cat revealed. '(However) I'd probably just be a bit more tactical,' she conceded. Romy said she wouldn't consider spin-off the show unless she was 'paid a lot of money.' Seconds later Fitzy turned his attention to the brunette Cat and exclaimed: 'Cat you're in!' Very keen! Cat, who joined fellow 'mean girls' Alisha Aitken-Radburn and Romy Poulier on the Sydney breakfast radio show Fitzy & Wippa on Friday morning, said she would 'absolutely' love to appear on the Fiji-based spin-off 'Cat is so keen!' Romy remarked with a laugh. 'I mean you're on an island anyway...you're in Bali anyway, Cat' Fitzy added. 'Cat from Bali...I've got a jewellery label if you didn't know!' she said sarcastically. During Thursday night's episode of The Bachelor, Nick took a tearful Cat aside and booted her off the program after learning of her 'bullying' behaviour. In a subsequent elimination ceremony, her pal Alisha Aitken-Radburn was also sent packing, before their co-conspirator Romy Poulier spectacularly rejected a rose. 'It's time to leave!' During Thursday night's episode of The Bachelor, Nick took a tearful Cat aside and booted her off the program after learning of her 'bullying' behaviour See ya! Alisha Aitken-Radburn (left) was rejected by Nick at the rose ceremony, while Romy Poulier (right) chose to quit the show on her own accord Thursday night's drama all began with Cat's shock booting - the first time in Bachelor Australia history that a contestant has been kicked off the show for bad behaviour. Nick confronted the Bali-based jewellery designer after he got wind that co-star Tenille Favois had been reduced to tears by her the previous evening. 'It seems that there's a bit of commotion that's been happening lately... I'm just wondering why, now, there's so many times your name keeps popping up,' Nick sternly stated. Confrontation: Nick confronted Bali-based jewellery designer Cat, who denied claims of 'bullying' Cat started to cry, and replied: 'I hope you don't believe that. Like, yeah, I'm competitive and you see that side of me and you see my confidence when I come in, but, like, I'm definitely not a mean person.' She then insisted: 'I have a heart of gold!' However, Nick failed to agree, telling Cat: 'I think it's time to leave.' Cat-ch ya later! A tearful Cat was escorted out to her car by an unimpressed Nick The aspiring fashionista was humiliatingly escorted out of the mansion, as she gave an irate voice over. 'I've sacrificed a lot to be here. I could be working on my business. I could be dating guys who actually want to go out with me to a dinner date. I know that I have qualities that a guy would like, so...whatever - it's his loss,' she moaned. Cat's unbecoming elimination caused her pals Romy and Alisha to react in disbelief, with Alisha spluttering: 'I am livid. I was feeling pretty confident, going into this rose ceremony, but now Cat's left the mansion, I don't really know what to feel!' Shock! Cat's best friends Alisha (centre) and Romy (left) were stunned by Cat's shock booting, but it wasn't long before the two of them also left the show Romy added: I literally am f**king mortified that Cat left tonight. She is the life of the mansion. She deserves it more than any of these losers... I'm really f**king pissed off'. In the subsequent elimination ceremony, political advisor Alisha was snubbed by Nick, failing to receive a rose. Fellow 'mean girl' Romy was offered the final rose of the evening, but in a shocking twist she decided to reject the flower. Big Brother 2013 winner Tim Dormer got engaged to his fiance Ash Toweel last year. And while the lovebirds are looking forward to their 'big gay wedding', it appears that their relationship may not be an exclusive one. After it emerged they had joined Tinder as a 'friendly couple' looking to meet other people, Tim proudly told Daily Mail Australia: 'We have a f**king great sex life!' Scroll down to video EXCLUSIVE: 'We have a f**king great sex life!' Big Brother's Tim Dormer has confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that he and fiance Ash Toweel are listed as a 'friendly couple' on Tinder Tim and Ash's Tinder profile, which surfaced this week, features a black and white photo of the pair alongside the caption: 'Friendly couple'. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Friday, Tim acknowledged the profile was in fact genuine. He was also happy to confirm the two men enjoyed a healthy sex life. Room for one more? Tim and Ash's Tinder profile, which surfaced this week, features a black and white photo of the pair alongside the caption: 'Friendly couple'. Tim acknowledged on Friday that the account is genuine 'I'm more than happy for you to let everyone know that Ash and I have a f**king great sex life,' he said in a statement. 'We're at a stage in our relationship where we are comfortably discussing what monogamy means for us. 'We don't believe in shaming other for not choosing to adhere to traditional ideals of monogamy in their own relationships. 'We thank Australia for voting to let us get married, but I'll be damned if I ever found myself in an unhappy, sex-deprived marriage bound by the expectations of others!' Tim added that the pair have done ambassadorial work for Tinder, and were invited on the company's float at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras earlier this year. They have nothing to hide! 'I'm more than happy for you to let everyone know that Ash and I have a f**king great sex life,' Tim told Daily Mail Australia in a statement. Pictured in 2017 The couple, who first met at a party in 2014, are busy preparing for their wedding after marriage equality was enshrined in law last December. Tim previously told Who magazine they are hoping for an outdoor ceremony. 'We'd love to do a beach wedding so it won't be in a church, but we're still quite spiritual ourselves,' he said. They previously declared their commitment to each other by exchanging hand-crafted pyrite crystal stone rings. Sofia Richie was put on the spot and quizzed about her relationship with Scott Disick during an appearance on The Morning Show on Friday. Prior to appearing on the Australian breakfast program, a leaked e-mail revealed that Sofia would not be discussing her relationship while doing media rounds Down Under. When asked the cheeky questions, the 20-year-old model awkwardly responded before defending her decision to keep Scott, 35, off limits in interviews. 'I'm not upset that I have to answer these questions, but...': Sofia Richie was awkwardly asked about her boyfriend Scott Disick during a breakfast show appearance in Australia on Friday after a leaked e-mail revealed personal questions are off limits during her media rounds The Morning Show host Larry Emdur carefully brought Scott into conversation while discussing Windsor Smith - the shoe brand Sofia is currently in Australia promoting. He asked: 'Now is it true your partner Scott helped you discover these shoes?' After being caught off-guard a little, Sofia responded: 'Yeah, he actually showed me the shoe line and said, "these are really cute sneakers you should wear these." Then they reached out. And it all worked out from there.' Awkward: When asked the cheeky questions, the 20-year-old model awkwardly responded before defending her decision to keep Scott, 35, off limits in interviews Cheeky question: Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies asked about Scott after a leaked e-mail in the Daily Telegraph earlier this week revealed personal questions were off limits in interviews 'We're very happy': Sofia tried to shrug off the chat about Scott and bring the focus back to Windsor Smith Shoes - the brand she is in Australia to promote Despite the American star bringing the focus back to the shoe brand, Larry's co-host Kylie Gillies continued to push for details on her highly publicised romance. Kylie said: 'This is Scott Disick... who is your boyfriend! Life with Scott looks pretty good, I've gotta say.' Ending the exchange on the subject, Sofia responded: 'Yeah, we're very happy, I'm very happy.' 'Are you happy answering all of these questions?': Kylie alluded to the recent story suggesting Sofia would not be discussing her personal life with Scott, pictured here After taking the interview to more neutral topics for a moment, Kylie then alluded to a recent report that Sofia would not be answering questions about Scott. Earlier this week, The Daily Telegraph revealed that an email from her representatives stated that Sofia would not discuss Scott, the Kardashians or her father, Lionel Richie, in interviews during her time in Australia. Kylie asked: 'Are you happy answering all of these questions?' 'Because when we want to talk to you, people want to bring up your relationships and stuff with your dad and your sister as well. 'Does that ever get tiring and you wish we wouldn't ask that? Or you're happy for us to sit here and ask you those questions?' Addressing the recent controversy surrounding her trip, Sofia responded: 'I mean, I can't deny the fact that that is my life.' 'By the way, that's been my life forever, and it's nothing new. 'I'm not upset that I have to answer these questions but there are moments where I want to be my own person and stand as my own person.' 'And I think that's actually what drives me to work and do my own thing,' she added. 'I be want to seen as my own person, even though I have all these amazing people in my life that I love so much.' Love's Labour's Lost (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse) Verdict: La-di-dah love games Rating: There is a reason Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost is not often produced: it is a wordy tangle about genteel courtship games among six young lovelies. Only at the end comes the whack of reality, when one of the lovers, the Princess of France, is informed that her father has died. That blow transforms the mood and makes the last ten minutes resonate; but until that point it is all rather fnarr-fnarr and frivolous. At the intimate, candle-lit Sam Wanamaker theatre they give it a stylised stab: olde-worlde techniques with flashes of 21st century irony. The princess is played by Kirsty Woodward, tall as a hop pole and done up in anachronistic spectacles with an inhaler to keep her calm in the love chase. At the intimate, candle-lit Sam Wanamaker theatre they give it a stylised stab: olde-worlde techniques with flashes of 21st century irony. The princess is played by Kirsty Woodward, tall as a hop pole and done up in anachronistic spectacles with an inhaler to keep her calm in the love chase. Miss Woodward's performance, with its occasional throw-away sarcasm, reminded me of Tamsin Greig. The three male lovers (whose doomed attempt to lead a monastic life is the premise for the comedy), gallop around on toy hobby horses. Is this 'the kingly state of youth' or just childishness? Nick Bagnall's direction was too fey for me. Spanish braggart Don Armado, done with aplomb but to diminishing returns by Jos Vantyler, is normally served by a tiny servant, Moth. Not here. Moth's presence is imaginary, Mr Vantyler mouthing the words in a northern-English accent and Moth's movements suggested by scratches of a 'cello string. This only confuses an already knotty plot. The show has its moments: some charming music and evocative snuffing of candles at the end. With the Royal Shakespeare Company so off-form at present, it is good that people like Mr Bagnall are bringing their undoubted skill to rarely-seen plays. But too much cleverness clogs. I watched two teenagers in the audience. They were bored rigid. Advertisement Cindy Crawford was among the top models who showed up to support a launch party for photographer Russell James's coffee table book Angels Collectors Edition. Cindy, 52, who was accompanied by husband Rande Gerber, flashed plenty of cleavage in a very low-cut metallic sleeveless dress. The figure-hugging number had semi-sheer shoulders and she paired it with strappy black stiletto heels. Star: Cindy Crawford flashed plenty of cleavage in a very low-cut metallic sleeveless dress at a launch party for photographer Russell James's coffee table book Angels Collectors Edition The supermodel left her brunette hair loose and accessorized with silver hoop earrings. For her make-up she chose black eye liner and mascara along with rosy blush on her cheeks and a glossy lip color. Rande, whom she married in 1998 after her first marriage to Richard Gere ended in divorce, was dressed in his go-to ensemble of a navy shirt tucked in dark blue jeans with black shoes. On trend: The figure-hugging number had semi-sheer shoulders and she paired it with strappy black stiletto heels Couple goals: Cindy, 52, was accompanied by husband Rande Gerber to the NY Fashion Week event. Gerber was dressed in his go-to ensemble of a navy shirt tucked in dark blue jeans Supporting his book launch: The glamorous couple posed for photos with photographer Russell James Loved up: The couple looked loved up as they enjoyed the private dinner Smitten: Rande and Cindy were every inch the hot couple as they packed on the PDA Close: Cindy linked arms with her hunky husband as they strolled along Happy couple: Rande wrapped an arm around his beautiful wife as they walked Toned: Cindy revealed her peachy posterior in the clinging gown Silver siren: The brunette beauty cosied up to her hunky husband The cover of Russell's book features a photo of Candice Swanepoel completely naked. And the 29-year-old South African was naturally on hand to show support for the book launch. She looked gorgeous in a plush black mini dress with long sleeves that she wore slightly off the shoulder. Her hair was styled back from her face in a thick braid and she added perspex heels with black straps above the ankle. Star-studded: Supermodel, Gigi Hadid, 23, was also in attendance and looked sensational in an off-the-shoulder metallic silver dress with a slit on the side Wonder in white: Martha Hunt was a vision in white while Elizabeth Sulcer showed off her slender figure in a plunging black ruffled dress with a diamond heart belt Cover girl: The cover of Russell's book features a photo of Candice Swanepoel completely naked. And the 29-year-old South African was naturally on hand to show support Classy: Swanepoel looked gorgeous in a plush black mini dress with long sleeves that she wore slightly off the shoulder Natural beauty: Her hair was styled back from her face in a thick braid and she added perspex heels with black straps above the ankle Dating: Barbara Palvin, 24, arrived with actor Dylan Sprouse, 26, and the two posed for photos with their arms around each other Barbara Palvin, 24, arrived with actor Dylan Sprouse, 26, and the two posed for photos with their arms around each other. Palvin wore a black leather halter neck dress with asymmetrical hem while Sprouse opted for a dark two-piece suit with suspenders over a white t-shirt. Adriana Lima looked on trend in an olive green patterned mini dress with plunging neckline. The outfit had a large sash tied at the waist and the Brazilian beauty, 37, added shiny gold strappy heels and carried a back purse. Chic: The Hungarian model looked effortlessly chic in a black crocodile print and leather asymmetrical dress Smile!: Dylan Sprouse, Russell James and Barbara Palvin also posed together for a photo Strike a pose: Josephine Skriver, Russell James and Elsa Hosk knew how to work their best angles as they posed up a storm Striking: Adriana Lima opted for an olive green patterned mini dress with plunging neckline Eclectic: The outfit had a large sash tied at the waist and the Brazilian beauty, 37, added shiny gold strappy heels and carried a back purse Flawless: Lais Ribeiro showed off her stunning figure in a silky red crop top and skirt with a matching jacket. She added metallic sandal heels and left her dark hair loose Fabulous: The 27-year-old Portuguese model flaunted her toned and taut midriff and her cleavage in the ensemble Pals: Lais and Romee Strijd knew how to work their best angles as they posed up a storm at the star-studded bash Big night out: Lola James (left) and Toni Garrn (right) were also in attendance Lais Ribeiro showed off her stunning figure in a silky red crop top and skirt with a matching jacket. The 27-year-old Portuguese model flaunted her toned and taut midriff and her cleavage in the ensemble. She added metallic sandal heels and left her dark hair loose and sleekly styled tucked behind her diamond-studded ears. Jasmine Tookes dared to bare in a shiny gold and silver dress with a very revealing bodice. The brunette stunner, 27, added shiny gold pointed toe heels and wore her long hair loose. Flashed cleavage: Jasmine Tookes dared to bare in a shiny gold and silver dress with a very revealing bodice Shimmery look: The brunette stunner, 27, added shiny gold pointed toe heels and wore her long hair loose Victoria's Secret Angels: The three Victoria's Secret Angels - Martha Hunt, Josephine Skriver, and Jasmine Tookes - looked sensational at the event Golden girl: Romee Strijd, 23, also went for a shiny metallic look. She chose a figure-hugging number cut low at the back and added matching heels All business: Sara Sampaio showcased her legs in a white mini coat dress Coordinated: The outfit had a wide shiny gold band at the waist and she added shiny heels. Her long hair was loose and she accessorized with gold hoop earrings Full of models: James's book will be published in 1000 Limited Editions and 200 art editions Model behaviour: Elena Matei and Sara Sampaio looked glamorous in plunging mini dress ensembles Work it: Marquita Pring and Jordan Barrett were also in attendance at the book launch Shiny style: Alessandra Ambrosio, 37, wore a gold patterned mini dress with cape and shiny gold heels Flaunting it: Elsa Hosk, 29, followed the trend for mini coat dresses showing off her legs in a sparkly number while Josephine Skriver, 25, opted for black underwear with sheer covering Sara Sampaio showcased her legs in a white mini coat dress. The outfit had a wide shiny gold band at the waist and she added shiny heels. James's book will be published in 1000 Limited Editions and 200 art editions. Quirky: Kendall Jenner dropped by in a bizarre ensemble of shorts, jacket and baggy boots to get her picture taken with James Eye-catching: Moldovan-born model Elena Matei wore a chic black mini dress with square shoulders and long sleeves as well as a low-cut neckline Funky: Belgian beauty Yumi Lambert opted for lacy black bra paired with cropped black trousers, black cropped jacket and chunky black boots Influencer: Designer Donna Karan, 69, also came out to show support wearing a baggy black dress and gladiator-style heels Famous friends: The models posed with the guest of honor Talented starlets: Actress Ajiona Alexus looked stunning in a metallic purple dress while Cindy Bruna looked effortlessly chic in a black sheer shirt with thigh-high PVC heel boots Family affair: Cindy and Rande's son Presley Gerber was spotted taking his girlfriend Charlotte D'Alessio out to dinner on Thursday Stylish couple: The young lovers made quite a stylish pair Their characters, Jasmine Delaney and Robbo, recently got engaged. And on Tuesday, Home and Away stars Sam Frost and Jake Ryan were seen filming even more romantic scenes in Sydney's Palm Beach. The pair passionately kissed while the cameras were rolling and looked every inch the young lovebirds. Something to smile about! Sam Frost passionately kissed her co-star Jake Ryan while filming scenes in Palm Beach on Tuesday, as their characters' romance heats up on Home and Away Relaxed: Sam looked in happy spirits as she laughed and smiled on set Sam cut a casual figure in ripped jeans and a blue and white singlet. She styled her long hair loosely and neatly straightened, and opted for natural-look makeup on the day. Meanwhile, Jake wore dark trousers and a black Adidas hooded jacket while carrying a backpack. In character: Sam cut a casual figure in ripped jeans and a blue and white singlet How romantic! The pair kissed while the cameras were rolling and looked every inch the young lovebirds Summer (Bay) fling! At one point, the pair were seen holding hands while taking a stroll and enjoying a relaxed conversation Looking fresh: Sam styled her long hair loosely and neatly straightened, and opted for natural-look makeup on the day At one point, the pair were seen holding hands while taking a stroll and enjoying a relaxed conversation. Sam plays Jasmine Delaney on the long-running soap, having landed the role after appearing on breakfast radio and several reality TV programs. In July 2017, Channel Seven announced that Sam would be joining Home and Away as a permanent cast member. At the time, she was perhaps best known for her role on The Bachelorette in 2015. New to acting: Sam plays Jasmine Delaney on the long-running soap, having landed the role after appearing on breakfast radio and several reality TV programs New gig: In July 2017, Channel Seven announced that Sam would be joining Home and Away as a permanent cast member Moving up in the world! At the time, she was perhaps best known for her role on The Bachelorette in 2015 Fan favourites: Jake plays the character of Summer Bay 'bad boy' Robbo Meanwhile, Jake plays the role of Summer Bay 'bad boy' Robbo. In July, Jake was pictured 'proposing' to Sam on set, seemingly confirming that Jasmine and Robbo become engaged. The two actors are believed to be good friends outside of the show. Close bond: The two actors are believed to be good friends outside of the show IMG Model BFFs Romee Strijd and Jasmine Tookes reunited in Manhattan on Thursday night at the Russell James Angel book bash, which was held at the Stephan Weiss Studio. The Victoria's Secret Angels - who earned their 'wings' in 2015 - work out five times a week together when they're not posing in lingerie/swimwear in front of the same camera. The Dutch 23-year-old was a glittery golden goddess in a sequinned pencil dress and matching stilettos selected by stylist Sonny Groo. IMG Model BFFs! Romee Strijd (L) and Jasmine Tookes (R) reunited in Manhattan on Thursday night at the Russell James (M) Angel book bash, which was held at the Stephan Weiss Studio Earned their 'wings' in 2015: The Victoria's Secret Angels work out five times a week together when they're not posing in lingerie/swimwear in front of the same camera Hairstylist Ruslan Nureev coiffed Romee's flaxen waves while make-up artist Kale Teter made sure she was ready for her close-up. And the 27-year-old SoCal native slipped her sensational 5ft9in figure into a plunging silver-and-copper pleated Abodi creation with matching Le Silla 'Eva' pumps selected by stylist Cary Robinson. Jasmine's waist-length 'mermaid' locks were coiffed by hairstylist Martin-Christopher Harper and make-up artist Mariel Barrera brought out her glowing complexion. Both Strijd and Tookes are featured in the Australian 56-year-old lensman's limited-edition fine art photography book, and only a thousand copies were printed. Glittery: The Dutch 23-year-old was a golden goddess in a sequinned pencil dress and matching stilettos selected by stylist Sonny Groo Glam: Hairstylist Ruslan Nureev coiffed Romee's flaxen partial updo while make- up artist Kale Teter made sure she was ready for her close-up Selected by stylist Cary Robinson: The 27-year-old SoCal native slipped her sensational 5ft9in figure into a plunging silver-and-copper pleated Abodi creation with matching Le Silla 'Eva' pumps Flawless: Jasmine's waist-length 'mermaid' locks were coiffed by hairstylist Martin-Christopher Harper and make-up artist Mariel Barrera brought out her glowing complexion Man of the hour: The gal pals puckered up with the Australian 56-year-old lensman, who's the official photographer of the San Francisco bra brand 'I cannot wait to see all of the beautiful images!' Both Strijd (R) and Tookes (2-R) are featured in Russell's limited-edition fine art photography book, and only a thousand copies were printed 'Look who I found! Who's butt is that?' Several of Russell's prints were on display at the star-studded exhibition, including an artsy shot of the former gymnast's pert derriere 'So happy being part of this!' The brunette beauty - who's a quarter Caucasian - shared a cute Insta-story of the dimpled blonde smacking the framed picture of her behind Several of Russell's prints were on display at the star-studded exhibition, including an artsy shot of the former gymnast's pert derriere. The brunette beauty - who's a quarter Caucasian - shared a cute Insta-story of the dimpled blonde smacking the framed picture of her behind for the amusement of her 3.1M followers. Missing from Romee's side was her boyfriend since 2009 - business consultant Laurens van Leeuwen - whom she met as a teenager through his sister. Meanwhile, the Ridiculousness guest star has been romancing Snapchat's Senior Partnership Manager Juan David Borrero as far back as 2016. 'Sundays with you are the best!' Missing from Romee's side was her boyfriend since 2009 - business consultant Laurens van Leeuwen - whom she met as a teenager through his sister (pictured July 15) Ronnie Ortiz-Magro worried about the well being of his baby daughter Ariana after a domestic violence incident on Thursday's episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. The 32-year-old reality star got into an ugly argument with his daughter's mother Jen Harley at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Las Vegas. She was seen spitting on Ronnie and storming away. Tough vacation: Ronnie Ortiz-Magro worried about the whereabouts of his baby daughter following a domestic violence incident on Thursday's episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation Police were called to investigate and MTV was not allowed to film as officers looked into the domestic disturbance allegation. Ronnie later told Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi , 30, that he was worried about baby Ariana since he couldn't get in touch with Jen who disappeared after their altercation. 'Now Jen will have a warrant out for her arrest,' said Ronnie who fretted that she could be arrested for kidnapping if she left with Ariana. 'At this point I don't know what to do,' admitted Ronnie who feared dragging his baby daughter into the serious situation. Stormy relationship: Jen Harley was shown arguing with Ronnie in Las Vegas Up close: The argument included Jen spitting on Ronnie Jenni 'JWoww' Farley, 32, and Snooki agreed to join Ronnie as they waited for police to arrest Jen. 'Let's go get the baby,' Snooki said while admitting that she was still drunk from the night before. Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino, Paul 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio and Vinny Guadagnino also joined Ronnie in his bid to claim his daughter. Police arrived: Police arrived after Jen stormed out Pauly D, 38, was worried about his multiple parking tickets as Ronnie interacted with police. An officer told Ronnie that Jen was questioned and there wasn't a warrant out for her arrest and also urged him to get a child custody plan in place. Ronnie after being assured the baby was safe decided to let his lawyers handle it. Daughter concern: Ronnie was worried about the whereabouts of Ariana and Jen was unreachable Good news: A police officer told Ronnie that his baby was safe No warrant: An arrest warrant at the time had not been issued against Jen 'It sucks. Me and Jen always get into altercations. We need stability for Ariana,' Ronnie said during a confessional. He pledged that he didn't want the current chaos around Ariana for the rest of her life. The group after the drama let loose at the Voodoo Steakhouse atop the Rio Hotel. Chaotic life: Ronnie insisted that he didn't want his daughter Ariana growing up amid chaos Pauly and Ronnie rode a zipline during dinner high above Sin City as they finally were able to relax. Snooki meanwhile screamed while riding the zipline with the The Situation. Pauly left to work a DJ gig in Atlantic City leaving his buddy Vinny to create a doll in his likeness. Dinner ride: Pauly D and Ronnie rode a zipline during dinner high over Las Vegas Good times: Snooki screamed while riding the zipline with The Situation Little buddy: Vinny made a doll of Pauly D after he left for Atlantic City for a DJ gig Angelina Pivarnick, 32, made a surprise appearance after being invited by Snooki. 'I hate you, Nicole,' Vinny said after learning that his former flame Angelina was on her way. Jenni who had previous run-ins with Angelina wasn't looking forward to her arrival. Surprise visit: Angelina Pivarnick made a surprise appearance after being invited by Snooki 'I like my inner peace. I don't want to see my angry side,' Jenni said. Angelina had trouble checking-in and the others knew she was 'coming in hot'. Ronnie left to see his lawyers and quipped that he would rather see 'nine lawyers before I see one Angelina'. Checking in: She got off to a rough start checking into the hotel Angelina greeted everyone but Jenni and said they had things to work out. Jenni then reminded Angelina that she wasn't part of their family. Vinny quickly got slapped in the face after trying to push Angelina into a shower. Hot entrance: Angelina came in hot and immediately challenged JWoww Angelina then asked Jenni to make her a drink but she refused. 'We're in for a long night,' Vinny said. A preview showed Angelina and Jenni getting into a fight and wrestling with each other at a club. Jersey Shore: Family Vacation returns next week on MTV. Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- One of President Donald Trump's top aides, Kellyanne Conway, on Friday became the latest high-ranking administration official to deny authoring that anonymous New York Times op-ed blasting her boss. Conway, whose title is Counselor to the President, called on anyone working to frustrate the president's agenda from inside the White House to resign. "I did not write the op-ed," she told reporters. The people who believe in the presidents agenda and believe in the presidents leadership ought to do their jobs, and if they dont want to do that ... they should just resign," she said. On Thursday, many members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet and other top advisers also took the extraordinary step of issuing public denials that they authored the bombshell New York Times op-ed attributed to an anonymous senior official in the administration. Vice Presidents Mike Pence's office was among the first to publicly deny any role, with communications director Jarrod Agen taking to Twitter to declare that the Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds and that his entire office is above such amateur acts. Defense Secretary James Mattis, who is traveling in India, also issued a firm denial through chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White, who said plainly: "It was not his op-ed." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also overseas, asked whether he was the author, blasted the New York Times for publishing what he said was "a disgruntled deceptive bad actor's word," and calling on the author, "if it's accurate" that they are a senior administration official, to take their "singular option, that is to leave." Then, he quickly said, I know someone will say: 'Gosh he didnt answer the question,' adding, "Its not mine." Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats also put his denial on the record, saying neither he nor his most senior staffer, were behind the essay, calling such speculation patently false. Speculation that The New York Times op-ed was written by me or my Principal Deputy is patently false. We did not, Coats said in a statement. From the beginning of our tenure, we have insisted that the entire IC remain focused on our mission to provide the President and policymakers with the best intelligence possible. The head spokesman at the Treasury Department also issued a firm denial, calling the prospect laughable that Secretary Steve Mnuchin would have been behind the essay. A denial from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen came through press secretary Tyler Houlton. Secretary Nielsen is focused on leading the men and women of DHS and protecting the homeland - not writing anonymous and false opinion pieces for the New York Times. These types of political attacks are beneath the Secretary and the Departments mission," Houlton said. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is traveling, but a spokesperson gave a straightforward denial on his behalf: "He absolutely did not write this garbage," Department of the Interior press secretary Heather Swift said to ABC News in an email. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley did not write the op-ed, a spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations wrote over email. A spokesman for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson denied he Carson was the author. Spokesman Raffi Williams said in an email: The Secretary didnt write the op-ed. Office of Management and Budget spokesman Coalter Baker also emailed a denial that Director Mick Mulvaney played any role, saying, Director Mulvaney did not write the op-ed. Liz Hill, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, denied that Secretary Betsy DeVos was the author, saying a tweet that DeVos "is not a Washington insider and does not play Washington insider games." A Department of Justice official issued a denial on Jeff Sessions' behalf, saying the attorney general did not write the essay. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders expressed outrage at the news media for what she called a wild obsession to find out the identity of the anonymous coward and also lashed out at the New York Times, calling the publication complicit in this deceitful act. "The media's wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop. If you want to know who the gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT ...," Sanders said. "They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act. We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J. Trump." White House Counsel Don McGahn, on Capitol Hill for the third day of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, issued a straightforward denial to reporters on the Hill who asked him about the op-ed: "No," he said. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry tweeted his denial and called the author a "coward, unworthy of serving this nation." Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross tweeted a denial as well. "I couldn't be prouder of our work at Commerce and of @POTUS," Ross wrote. Spokesperson Caitlin Oakley at the Department of Health and Human Services said on behalf of Secretary Alex Azar: "No, the secretary did not write the op-ed," she said. When asked if CIA director Gina Haspel wrote it, CIA press secretary Timothy Barrett said, "No." A spokesperson for Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie added him denial to the list, saying neither Wilkie "nor anyone at VA" wrote the op-ed. "Under President Trump, VA has accomplished more in the last 18 months than it has in decades in reforming the department and improving care and benefits for our nations heroes," spokesperson Curtis Cashour told ABC News. "We are committed to continuing this progress under the presidents leadership." A Department of Labor spokesperson issued a denial on behalf of Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, calling the op-ed "sophomoric Washington games." "He is definitively not the author," the spokesperson said. The press office at the Department of Agriculture said Secretary Sonny Perdue "did not write the op-ed" and pointed to the statement from Sanders. A spokesperson for the EPA, John Konkus, also pointed to Sanders' tweet in denying that Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler authored the op-ed and called for the writer to resign. "Acting Administrator Wheeler supports President Trump 100 percent and is honored to serve in his cabinet, he also believes whoever wrote the op-ed should resign," Konkus said in an email. The U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman Jr., rejected speculation about him, issuing his denial through his spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. "Amb Huntsman: Come to find, when youre serving as the U.S. envoy in Moscow, youre an easy target on all sides. Anything sent out by me would have carried my name. An early political lesson I learned: never send an anonymous op-ed," Andrea Kalan tweeted on behalf of Huntsman. Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow also distanced himself from the essay, telling reporters, "Of course I didn't do it." In the essay, first published online by the New York Times on Wednesday afternoon, the unnamed official painted a grim picture of a presidency in crisis, with senior members of the president's team actively working to undermine the president when officials believe his desired actions pose a risk to the nation's national security and basic governing principles. I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations, the anonymous individual writes. 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 writer continued. "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." Speculation abounds within the administration about who may have authored the brazen op-ed, with the White House launching a fact-finding mission to try and track down the individual now being viewed as a traitor internally. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday calling for the individual to resign. She called for the Times to apologize as well. "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, Sanders said in the statement. President Trump has labeled the op-ed writer "gutless," called for the New York Times to turn the individual over to the government, and raised the question, in a one-word tweet, whether the essay amounted to treason. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Em Rusciano's tenure as co-host of 2Day FM's breakfast show was controversial to say the least, with accusations of 'diva' behaviour and tantrums making headlines. And, having announced her resignation on Monday, the 39-year-old spent her last day on the job on Friday living up to her reputation as a loose cannon. During the program, Em claimed her boss was in the studio 'with the dump button in case I really burn the bridges'. ('Dumping' refers to the practice of removing unwanted segments by taking advantage of the broadcast delay.) Em Rusciano's chaotic last day at 2DayFM: Producers scrambled to hit the 'dump button' as the departing host alluded to 'burning bridges' with her bosses during her farewell show on Friday She later appeared to be 'dumped' during the program's Secret Sound segment, presumably after saying something not appropriate for broadcast. 'She was beeped. We are being told to move on,' Em's co-host Ed Kavalee said on air. At this point, Em was heard yelling in the background: 'Eat it, suckers!' Wild child: Having announced her resignation on Monday, the 39-year-old spent her last day on the job on Friday living up to her reputation as a loose cannon Later in the show, Em delivered a farewell speech in which she revealed her naivety going into the role and recalled some of the show's special moments. 'Two years ago I agreed to take this job on and, I'll be honest, I was pretty arrogant and I thought I'd totally blitz it and we'd go to No. 1 in like a year,' she said. 'And then I quickly realised it was going to kick my arse... I didn't expect to be questioning who I am and all that I hold dear on a weekly basis.' She went on to list some of her personal highlights from the show, such as taking on former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over marriage equality. Saying goodbye: Later in the show, Em made a farewell speech in which she spoke of her naivety going into the role, and recalled some of the program's special moments. She became tearful as she thanked her production team and co-hosts Grant Denyer (L) and Ed Kavalee (R) Em became tearful as she thanked her production team and co-hosts Grant Denyer and Ed Kavalee, saying: 'Thank you for coming on board. You didn't know what the hell you were getting into and we've been OK. 'Sydney I can honestly say I gave it a crack! I regret nothing.' Ed and Grant then led a round of applause in the studio. No regrets: 'Sydney I can honestly say I gave it a crack! I regret nothing,' said Em on Friday. Pictured on Studio 10 earlier this week Em, who is expecting her third child with husband Scott Barrow, has been with 2Day FM since the departure of Rove McManus and Sam Frost in early 2017. The first iteration of the program, The Em Rusciano Radio Show with Harley Breen, lasted less than 12 months before co-host Harley Breen's departure. It was rumoured that the two presenters did not get along behind the scenes. Last day: Em is pictured in the 2Day FM studios on her final day with the network He was subsequently replaced by TV personalities Ed Kavalee and Grant Denyer and the show was rebranded Em, Grant & Ed by the Hit Network. Em admitted earlier this year that this shake-up was a difficult transition for her. She said the Hit Network's decision came out of the blue, leaving her with the intimidating task of generating chemistry with two people she had never met. Career girl: Em, who is expecting her third child with husband Scott Barrow, has been with 2Day FM since the departure of Rove McManus and Sam Frost in early 2017. Pictured: Em with Scott (right) and her children Odette (left) and Marchella (second from left) Speaking to Wil Anderson on his Wilosophy podcast in May, she said: 'It was hectic. It was the Em Rusciano Radio Show - it was my show! And then all of a sudden Ed's anchoring and the show's called "The 2Day FM Breakfast Show".' Em also revealed at the time that she she fought with 2Day FM to let her produce the program and manage staffing, but they declined because they wanted to have a say in the show's direction. Shortly after her interview with Wil made headlines, the mother-of-two was publicly accused of creating a 'toxic' workplace at the Hit Network. Changes: Em has previously admitted that transitioning to the role of co-host alongside Grant Denyer and Ed Kavalee was difficult for her 'She makes it a toxic work environment,' a former staff member told News.com.au. 'In all honesty, I actually feel really sad for her. She seems really insecure. She portrays this really confident, "I think I'm the greatest!" image but I think it stems from a really deep-seeded insecurity, which is really sad. 'She just doesn't know how to interact with people. She won't compromise with anybody. She always has to be right.' Another ex-employee told The Daily Telegraph there 'had been casualties at the hands of Em Rusciano' at 2Day FM. 'Things are at breaking point, people just cannot work with her energy,' they said. 'The audio producer is now working on another show, the publicist is refusing to work with her and one of the producers has told the company that they are looking for other work. All of that on top of the previous host [Harley Breen] leaving.' She was at the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards earlier in the night. But Gigi Hadid is one of the biggest models in the world, and that means she's going to be bouncing around the Big Apple non-stop this week. The 23-year-old superstar was next spotted sitting front row at the Jeremy Scott runway show. Stunning: Gigi Hadid is one of the biggest models in the world, and that means she's going to be bouncing around the Big Apple non-stop this week Donning a back t-shirt featuring zippers on the sleeves and a print of a Polaroid that had Jeremy Scott written across the bottom, the blue-eyed beauty looked fresh faced despite her long evening. Her long legs stretched out from underneath the base of the shirt and she donned shiny black heels with dark socks. A long sleeve dark shirt was visible underneath and she painted her lips a soft pink and made her eyes pop with a smokey eye. Her dirty blonde tresses fell across her shoulders is relaxed waves and she accessorized with various gold necklaces. All smiles: The 23-year-old superstar was next spotted sitting front row at the Jeremy Scott runway show Gorgeous: Donning a back t-shirt featuring zippers on the sleeves and a print of a Polaroid that had Jeremy Scott written across the bottom, the blue-eyed beauty looked fresh faced despite her long evening Big night: A long sleeve dark shirt was visible underneath and she painted her lips a soft pink and made her eyes pop with a smokey eye Gigi joined a variety of her celebrity friends at the event, including Paris Jackson, Cardi B, Tiffany Haddish, and Hennessy Carolina. The quintet of beauties sat in the front row of Jeremy's Scott's show and looked completely engaged in the night's events. Paris was also in attendance at the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards before hand. Star-studded: Gigi joined a variety of her celebrity friends at the event, including Paris Jackson, Cardi B, Tiffany Haddish, and Hennessy Carolina Friends: Paris was also in attendance at the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards before hand Celeb-city: The quintet of beauties sat in the front row of Jeremy's Scott's show and looked completely engaged in the night's events Under the flashbulbs: It was another pop-heavy collection for Scott, who's never been shy of a color or strange silhouette It was another pop-heavy collection for Scott, who's never been shy of a color or strange silhouette. He included oversized sweater dresses emblazoned with bold catchphrases like 'hyper', 'power, 'peace' and 'shock.' Orange camo-print took streetwear trends onto the runway along with hoodies and overalls. The show also featured knee and shin pads on the footwear, attempting a contemporary gladiator vibe. Lace, neons, and straps aplenty also carried the collection. Packed house: It was another pop-heavy collection for Scott, who's never been shy of a color or strange silhouette Advertisement She's one of fashion's favorite faces. And Bella Hadid proved exactly why while walking the runway for Kith Park's NYFW show. The 21-year-old beauty simply smoldered in a velour jacket atop bold bustier as she hit the catwalk on Thursday. A walk in the Park: Bella Hadid was sexy as ever while walking Kith Park's New York Fashion Week show on Thursday Do you Bielieb in magic? Justin Bieber was there, looking casual in head-to-toe black while sitting front row Major cat-eyes added another level to the bombshell look. Also walking in the show was Sara Sampaio, who modeled gold and black Greek key trimmed bike shorts, bikini, and puffer jacket from Kith's Versace collab. Justin Bieber was there in the front row, looking casual in head-to-toe black while watching. Very Versace: Sara Sampaio modeled gold and black Greek key trimmed bike shorts, a bikini, and puffer jacket from Kith's Versace collab Smoking hot: The 21-year-old beauty simply smoldered in a velour jacket atop bold bustier as she hit the catwalk on Thursday Model fiance Hailey Baldwin wasn't with him, as she was too busy walking runways and accepting awards elsewhere. NBA pro Lebron James graced the front row wearing a denim shirt with bleach-splotched jeans and a distressed shirt, accessorizing with a crossbody bag from Kith's new collaboration with Eastpak, which made its debut at the catwalk show. He was joined by 2 Chainz, who donned a pink and green Versace sweater with several diamond-heavy necklaces, one even reading 'Trap.' All stars: Lebron James and 2 Chainz were also among the guests at the event. Lebron modeled a crossbody bag from Kith's new collaboration with Eastpak, which made its debut on the runway at the event Ronnie Fieg, the designer behind Kith, teased details about his couture collab on his Instagram yesterday. 'I worked with Donatella Versace on a collection that will stand as a very important notch in our timeline,' he shared, 'I dont want to give away too much info before the show. Tomorrow, Kith Park is going to change things.' The line also recently announced they were working on a joint-project with Tommy Hilfiger. He's set to come to Australia in November for his The Thrill of It All world tour. And now it's been revealed that Sam Smith will also perform at this year's Melbourne Cup. The British hit maker, 26, will headline the event and sing two of his hit songs. The Thrill of It All! Sam Smith to take a break from his upcoming Australian tour to perform at the Melbourne Cup 'I am so excited to be playing at the Lexus Melbourne Cup this year,' Sam said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia. Sam will be heading to Australia in November and will tour in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Earlier this year, some fans expressed disappointed that he won't be playing shows in Adelaide. 'I am so excited to be playing at the Lexus Melbourne Cup this year,' Sam said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia 'I've never woken up so disappointed,' one wrote on social media at the time. Sam is just the latest in a long line of musical acts who have left Adelaide off their tour list. Also skipping the city of churches recently was superstars Taylor Swift, Sia and Paul McCartney. Paris Hilton has been a fixture in the front-row of fashion shows for years. And the star premiered one of her most daring looks yet during Thursday night's New York Fashion Week show for Jeremy Scott. The hotel heiress, 37, made a statement in chap-inspired pants which revealed her bare hips. Risk-taker: Paris Hilton made waves in a bold Jeremy Scott outfit during Thursday night's NYFW show She teamed the edgy bottoms with a sheer crop top with sassy claw-mark appliques while studded boots and velvet motorcycle gloves tied everything together. Though her shirt was to sheer she needed to wear pasties, it wasn't the most provocative piece of her outfit. Paris' pants showed off parts of her body usually reserved for the beach. Hilton, who is engaged to wed actor Chris Zylka, encountered a minor fashion mishap pants as she posed to reveal a G-string shaped tan line upon the hips. Hippie! The hotel heiress, 37, made a statement in chap-inspired pants which revealed her bare hips Sheer wonder: She teamed the edgy bottoms with a sheer crop top with sassy claw-mark appliques Fashion faux pas: Hilton, who is engaged to wed actor Chris Zylka, encountered a minor fashion mishap pants as she posed to reveal a G-string shaped tan line upon the hips Paris, who was just at Burning Man Festival in Black Rock, Nevada, styled her hair back into a half-up 'do with two small French braids. It was another pop-heavy collection for Scott, who's never been shy of a color or strange silhouette. He included oversized sweater dresses emblazoned with bold catchphrases like 'hyper', 'power, 'peace' and 'shock. Best tressed: Paris, who was just at Burning Man Festival in Black Rock, Nevada, styled her hair back into a half-up 'do with two small French braids Show off: Paris' pants showed off parts of her body usually reserved for the beach Orange camo-print took streetwear trends onto the runway along with hoodies and overalls. The show also featured knee and shin pads on the footwear, attempting a contemporary gladiator vibe. Lace, neons, and straps aplenty also carried the collection. Undercover: Orange camo-print took streetwear trends onto the runway along with hoodies and overalls Billy Dee Williams got a helping hand on Thursday while catching a departing flight at Los Angeles International Airport. The 81-year-old actor was pushed in a wheelchair by a staffer as he made his way through the airport's concourse. Williams kept it simple in all-black ensemble for his travel. Departing flight: Billy Dee Williams was spotted catching a departing flight on Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport He accessorized with sunglasses and also carried a cane. Williams remains best known for his portrayal of Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars film franchise. The character was first introduced in the 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back as an old friend of Han Solo who betrayed him to Darth Vader. Williams again portrayed the character in Return Of The Jedi in 1983 that marked the end of the original trilogy. Fan favorite: The 81-year-old actor remains best know for playing Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise He will again play Calrissian in the upcoming Episode IX due out in December 2019. It will mark one of the longest gaps between appearances of a character by the same actor in US film history. Donald Glover, 34, portrayed a younger Calrissian in the prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story that came out in May. Coming soon: Williams, shown in May at the Los Angeles premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story, will play Calrissian in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX The film directed by Ron Howard also featured Alden Ehrenreich as a younger Han Solo. Star Wars: Episode IX will serve as the third and final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy following The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. J.J. Abrams who directed The Force Awakens will return to direct Episode IX. She's been a prominent star at New York Fashion Week for the last few days. And on Thursday, Australian model Shanina Shaik made the sidewalk her personal catwalk as she delivered a leggy display in a pair of thigh-skimming Daisy Dukes. Attending The Daily Front Row's 6th Annual Media Fashion Awards, the 27 year-old attempted to deflect attention from her stunning stems with an elaborate black military jacket dripping with intricate jewel detail. Legs for days! Shanina Shaik flaunted her endless perfect pins in thigh-skimming Daisy Dukes while attending fashion awards in New York Underneath, the Victoria's Secret beauty kept it simple with a white cropped top which flaunted her rock hard abs and killer physique. With her flowing dark locks cascading past her shoulders, the Melbourne-raised model captivated the waiting photographers as she strutted by in a pair of eye-catching metallic skyscraper stilettos from Stella Luna. Accessorising with a tiny black clutch, Shanina allowed her make-up palette to take centre stage, with dramatic cheekbones, dark eye make-up and a pink lip. Silver siren: With her flowing dark locks cascading past her shoulders, the Melbourne-raised model captivated the waiting photographers as she strutted by in a pair of eye-catching metallic skyscraper stilettos from Stella Luna Inside the Manhattan event, she cut a stunning figure as she stopped for the flashbulbs in a series of effortless, understated poses. She joined many other famously beautiful faces at the star-packed event where guests enjoyed Kim Crawford Wines such as Priyanka Chopra, Ashley Graham, Nicki Minaj, Winnie Harlow, Ashlee Simpson and Karrueche Tran. Meanwhile, the beauty recently opened up about the racism she endured when trying to land her big break. Last month, she told TooFab that she sometimes struggled to find work as a model because of her skin colour and cultural background. Naturally poised: Inside the Manhattan event, the model cut a stunning figure as she stopped for the flashbulbs in a series of effortless, understated poses '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,' Shanina, 27, 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.' Shanina, who is married to DJ Ruckus, 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. She hails from a family whose name has become a world-renowned brand. And Nicky Hilton swung by a New York Fashion Week party on Thursday in aid of another company named after the tycoon who founded it. The platinum blonde 34-year-old draped her enviably taut figure in a sequined silver dress that hugged her frame at the Cartier Precious Garage Party. Dazzling: Nicky Hilton swung by a New York Fashion Week party on Thursday in aid of another company named after the tycoon who founded it She swept her hair back into a ponytail and upped the glamour factor with a glistening necklace, a jeweled bracelet and a pair of earrings. Caking her face in makeup, the New York City-born Rothschild-by-marriage arced one of her svelte legs from the thigh-slit of her outfit. The mother-of-two, who went to school at the Upper East Side's Convent Of The Sacred Heart, balanced on a glinting silver pair of ankle-strap stilettos. Nicky - whose big sister is socialite, businesswoman and sex tape icon Paris Hilton - has been married since 2015 to James, grandson of the 3rd Baron Rothschild. Swank: The platinum blonde 34-year-old draped her enviably taut figure in a sequined silver dress that hugged her frame at the Cartier Precious Garage Party All that glitters: She swept her hair back into a ponytail and upped the glamour factor with a glistening necklace, a jeweled bracelet and a pair of earrings Girls' night out: The Hilton hotel heiress posed alongside Sabina Socol as they enjoyed the high-profile New York Fashion Week party James and Nicky tied the knot at the Orangery at Kensington Palace, the London home of William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Nottingham Cottage, which is in the grounds of Kensington Palace, is now where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle live as Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Before getting hitched in Valentino to James, Nicky married her old pal Todd Meister in Las Vegas in 2004, then had the union annulled before the year was out. Split gown: Caking her face in makeup, the New York City-born Rothschild-by-marriage arced one of her svelte legs from the thigh-slit of her outfit Girl about town: After hitting the town at the Cartier bash, headed over to the Dundas New York Fashion Week party Nicky and James welcomed their elder daughter Lily Grace in 2016, and their younger daughter Teddy was born five days before Christmas this past year. Meanwhile, Paris, who has never been married before, is currently engaged to actor Chris Zylka, whom she praised toTMZ in April. Paris and Nicky's mother Kathy was herself a little-known actress until 1979, the year she got hitched to Richard Hilton, by whom she has four children. Silver is the new black: Nicky posed with a friend in a cut out silver dress inside the bash Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw certainly took a walk on the wild side as she stepped out at the Tom Ford Fashion show in New York on Thursday. The blonde beauty displayed her purrfect figure in a red leopard print mini dress as she joined a litany of A-listers at the exclusive runway event. The Mad Max: Fury Road star commanded attention in the thigh-skimming animal print ensemble which showcased her slender stems. Take a walk on the wild side! Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw (pictured) slips her purrfect figure into a thigh-skimming red leopard print mini dress She added inches to her already statuesque figure by slipping her feet into a pair of bronzed-heeled black pumps. The beauty cemented her sartorial credentials by accessorising her ensemble with oversized hoop earrings. The statement bling drew attention to the blonde star's tousled tresses which fell softly around her flawless visage. Serious stems! The Mad Max: Fury Road star commanded attention in the thigh-skimming animal print ensemble which showcased her slender stems Killer heels: She added inches to her already statuesque figure by slipping into a pair of bronzed-heeled black pumps Blonde-haired beauty: Abbey Lee's tousled tresses fell softly around her flawless visage A-list event: At one stage, Abbey Lee was joined by fellow Aussie actress Elizabeth Debicki (right) who cut a chic silhouette in a sequined black number The successful model worked her best angles for the cameras and in the process gave onlookers a glimpse of her immaculate makeup palette. The blue-eyed beauty made her peepers pop with a dusting of gold shimmering eyeshadow and black winged eyeliner. At one stage, Abbey Lee was joined by fellow Aussie actress Elizabeth Debicki, who cut a chic silhouette in a sequined black number. Abbey Lee - who has walked for the likes of Gucci and Victoria's Secret scored a breakout role in the film Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015. She has since gone on to appear in films including, Gods of Egypt and The Dark Tower. Eye-popping: The blue-eyed beauty (pictured) made her peepers pop with a dusting of gold shimmering eyeshadow and black winged eyeliner Earlier this year, she spoke about gender inequality in Hollywood, claiming there is still 'one female to every 10 men' getting roles. Speaking to The Herald Sun, she said: 'For every script I get, a male actor friend will get five.' 'Every script with a female, there's one female to every 10 men. On top of that, there's the gender pay gap issue that's a huge problem worldwide.' 'In my workplace, I get paid less purely for that fact I am a female,' she continued. Kendall Jenner gave her blessing on Thursday to the engagement of fellow model Hailey Baldwin and Canadian pop star Justin Bieber. The 22-year-old model was asked about their pending nuptials by host Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on The Tonight Show on NBC. 'Whatever makes them happy. I'm friends with both of them,' Kendall said while looking lovely in a long-sleeved Paula Knorr blue top and green trousers. Chat show: Kendall Jenner appeared on The Tonight Show on Thursday to promote Keeping Up With The Kardashians Hailey, 21, and Justin, 24, announced in July that they were engaged to be married. Jimmy, 43, earlier shared an Instagram video of Kendall kicking a bottle off the top of a guy's head during a beach birthday party. She was dubbed 'Kung Fu Kenny' in the video that showed her impressive high-kick. Kendall said that Hailey's 'hidden talent' of opening bottles with her teeth 'makes me so nervous'. Reality star: The 22-year-old reality star wore a blue long-sleeved Paula Knorr top and green trousers 'I yell at her every time. It hurts my teeth,' Kendall said. Kendall added that she gets angry with Hailey when she does it and fears she will break her teeth. The Los Angeles native was on the NBC talk show promoting the current 15th season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Hidden talent: Kendall was teased about her hidden talent of kicking a beer bottle off the top of a guy's head Jimmy pointed out that she's been on the family reality show more this season. 'I'm not always in LA and sadly I'm not always around my family because I'm like traveling or working or whatever,' Kendall said. The top model said she made it a point to be on the show since she's been in Los Angeles more lately, but has managed to stay out of the drama. Famous friends: Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin are shown in July in New York City a short time after announcing their engagement 'It's a lot. I don't know how I stay out of it. I don't really care,' she admitted. Kendall said there are multiple group chats within the family, but she was told by her sisters that there are none dedicated to badmouthing her. 'They're probably lying,' Kendall joked. Keeping Up With The Kardashians airs on Sunday on the E! network. She's one of the breakout stars of the current season of The Block. And now Carla Dziwoki has swapped her usual hi-vis vest and helmet for something far more sexy after being photographed away from St Kilda's Gatwick Hotel. After going blonde, the 36-year-old went topless under a tailored white blazer while being styled by a team of professionals for a daring new photoshoot. Scroll down for video 'Blondes have more fun?': The Block's Carla Dziwoki goes topless under blazer as she swaps her usual hi-vis for sexy look in daring photoshoot after going blonde 'Couple of weeks ago I met these incredible ladies,' Carla captioned the picture which showed her posing alongside two stylists. In the photo, Carla's revealing blazer is fasted only at the midriff. The racy look is balanced out with a pair of skinny stone-wash jeans and heels. Carla added: 'I did a photoshoot with @timjohntom that was so far left field of of my comfort zone but I had the best day! Thanks for dressing me up and making me feel like a #bosslady!' A new woman! Carla, 36, swapped her usual hi-vis vest and helmet for something far more sexy after being photographed away from St Kilda's Gatwick Hotel Stunning: Earlier this month, Carla completely mixed up her look by going blonde Earlier this month, Carla completely mixed up her look by going blonde. Alongside a glowing selfie, the beauty wrote: 'Blondes have more fun??!...Let me get back to you on that one!' The star of the renovation show is of course no stranger to the attention that The Block has thrust upon her. Already famous: The star of the renovation show is of course no stranger to the attention that The Block has thrust upon her as a professional netball player Away from her reality TV fame, Carla has had a very successful career as an Australian netball player. Most noticeably she played with the Queensland Firebirds in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy from 2004 to 2007. Her Wikipedia page states she most recently signed with the Melbourne Vixens for the 2015 season. Carla is currently competing on The Block with friend Bianca Chatfield. Cardi B's husband Offset is so impressed by Kim Kardashian's prison reform efforts, he thinks she should be president. The 26-year-old Migos rapper spoke with TMZ on Thursday in New York City, a day after Kim again ventured to Washington, D.C. to address reform in the criminal justice system. The rapper, whose real name is Kiari Kendrell Cephus, cited his own past times in legal trouble in relaying the importance of Kim's political efforts. Scroll below for video Campaign manager? Offset, 26, said he's so impressed by Kim Kardashian's prison reform efforts, he thinks she should be president. He was snapped in NYC Thursday 'Hey, yeah, I've been through that s***, so it's like, being in there firsthand ... and then being able to have a second chance ... I've been through it, man,' he said. The celebrity advocate was instrumental in springing a 63-year-old woman named Alice Marie Johnson from a life sentence stemming from a 1996 conviction on nonviolent drug charges; she's currently pushing for the release of Clarksville, Tennessee native Chris Young, 30, from a life sentence for a 2013 conviction for nonviolent drug charges. Asked if he believed Kim's efforts could be a sign of bigger things to come for her in the political spectrum, the Migos artist said, 'Kim for president, man.' Offset praised the socialite for making an impact in getting people released from prison 'if they don't need to stay in that motherf****r.' Power couple: The rapper and his wife Cardi B were snapped at New York Fashion Week Thursday White House visit: Ivanka Trump posted a group shot after the meeting Wednesday He continued: 'She deserves to be president - ain't no other president doing that s*** ... helping them folks get out.' The Georgia native added that he was supportive of Kim's efforts to help black people. Trump's deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that the Keeping up the Kardashians star sat in on 'a listening session about the clemency process,' with a 'discussion ... mainly focused on ways to improve that process to ensure deserving cases receive a fair review.' Trump's senior adviser and daughter, Ivanka Trump, took to Twitter Wednesday sharing a shot of herself posing with the reality star as well as her husband and fellow adviser Jared Kushner, as well as CNN's Van Jones. 'Great working session today at the White House on ways to improve the clemency process with policy leaders and criminal justice reform advocates,' Ivanka tweeted. Jones had high words of praise for Kim's efforts on the issue, saying on Instagram she's someone who 'does her homework and comes prepared to fight hard. He continued: 'Kim is an incredibly smart, effective, humble and determined advocate - working day in, day out, around the clock to win clemency for individuals who should not be doomed to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.' Her brief stint on this summer's edition of Love Island ended abruptly, after she was unceremoniously dumped by Adam Collard just days after their romance began. But Rosie Williams, 26, showed that she's far removed from the drama that played out before millions of viewers on Wednesday, when she stripped down to white skimpy lingerie for a sultry shoot in Paris. The Welsh beauty looked sensational as she posed up a storm at a terrace bar overlooking a number of the City of Light's most iconic sights including the Eiffel Tower in her embellished barely-there two-piece. Illuminating the city of light: Rosie Williams posed up a storm in skimpy white lingerie during her recent trip to Paris on Wednesday Wearing her chestnut brown tresses in long voluminous waves, which fell beyond her shoulders, she complemented her tanned complexion with a generous application of makeup that included lilac eyeshadow and lipstick. Keeping her accessories to a minimum, the reality star added a touch of sparkle to her eye-catching look with a chunky pair of glittering gold earrings. She was joined by her fashion blogger pal Rachel Ward, who mirrored her look in a contrasting two-piece, which featured high-cut bottoms. A sight to behold: The Welsh beauty looked sensational as she relaxed on a balcony overlooking a number of the City of Light's most iconic sights Contrasting: She was joined by her fashion blogger pal Rachel Ward, who mirrored her look in a contrasting two-piece, which featured high-cut bottoms Snap decision: The stunning pair posed for selfies as they relaxed at the elevated terrace bar Cold beverage: They sipped on large cocktails as they enjoyed a friendly chat in their lingerie Towering: As they posed on the balcony, the Eiffel Tower was seen towering in the background The glamorous twosome sipped on cocktails, looked out over Paris's city skyline and also threw on white fluffy dressing gowns with towels over their hair as they flicked through the pages of Vogue magazine. Last month, Rosie and ex Islander Dean Overson set tongues wagging when they were spotted clambering into a taxi together after reuniting with their co-stars at the Love Island wrap party. Dean even shielded Rosie, who ducked her head, with a balloon as the photogenic pair made a desperate attempt not to be seen. Joined by fellow islander Kendall Rae Knight in the car, the hunk was then spotted wrapping an arm around her shoulder as they sped off to their next destination. Tress-ed to impress: Reality star Rosie wore her chestnut brown tresses in long voluminous waves, which fell beyond her shoulders Beauty: The Love Island beauty complemented her tanned complexion with a generous application of makeup that included lilac eyeshadow and lipstick Scrolling back: The twosome looked delighted as they checked over their selection of selfies It's all in the details: Keeping her accessories to a minimum, Rosie added a touch of sparkle to her eye-catching look with a chunky pair of glittering gold earrings Dumped: Her brief stint on this summer's edition of Love Island ended abruptly, after she was unceremoniously dumped by Adam Collard just days after their romance began Rosie and Dean seemingly hit it off at the bash, having never crossed paths in the Love Island villa. The Welsh beauty was dumped from the island in June, after her partner Adam Collard ditched her for Zara McDermott. Dean then arrived as part of a big twist the following week - with six new hunks descending on the villa, while six new girls joined the original boys in Casa Amor. Over it: Rosie appeared to be over her failed romance with Adam almost as soon as she returned to the UK from the famed Mallorca villa Setting tongues wagging: Last month, Rosie and ex Islander Dean Overson set tongues wagging when they were spotted getting a taxi together following the Love Island wrap party Social: Rosie has enjoyed the London social circuit since her Love Island stint came to an end Despite her early departure from the ITV2 series, Rosie has made no secret of the success she has experienced since. The brunette gave up her career as a solicitor to take part in the show, but recently revealed she has no regrets about her decision, as she is making far more money from personal appearances and Instagram endorsements. Appearing on Radio 5 Live last month, Rosie said: 'For me I went from a job that I studied eight years to achieve to doing this. 'I feel like the legal profession is struggling at the moment. I've made my year earnings in a month, let's just say that, doing this.' Under wraps: During her shoot, the TV star also threw on a fluffy white bathrobe and slippers Sunglasses: The pair further glammed up their looks with ever-fashionable cat eye sunglasses Magazine: They flicked through the pages of fashion magazines as they sat together at the bar Sensational: Rosie and her pal wowed as they commanded attention during their sultry shoot Gold: She added a further touch of sparkle to her look by sporting a pair of large gold earrings She has seen immeasurable success since bursting out on the scene on America's Next Top Model in 2014. And Winnie Harlow was named as the Breakthrough Model Of The Year at Daily Front Row's Fashion Media Awards held at the Park Hyatt in New York on Thursday night. The Canadian model, 24, was handed the prestigious award by her friend, rapper Nicki Minaj, for all her achievements over the last 12 months and took to Instagram to thank her pal for being there. Winner: Winnie Harlow was named as the Breakthrough Model Of The Year at Daily Front Row's Fashion Media Awards held at the Park Hyatt in New York on Thursday night Winnie shared a photograph of them together, she captioned it with: 'Wow.. I cant believe you did this. @NickiMinaj you came all the way to NYC to present me with BreakThrough Model of the Year award at @DailyFrontRow. 'The accomplishment in itself is breath taking to me! But to have someone Ive looked up to for soooo long and now call my friend present this iconic award to me.. Im crying right now writing this. You know i love you. .' Winnie showed off her statuesque frame in the slinky silver dress which flashed snippets of her figure with it's extensive side cut-out detailing. Eyes on her!: The Canadian model, 24, was handed the prestigious award by her friend, rapper Nicki Minaj, for all her achievements over the last 12 months Stunning: Winnie showed off her statuesque frame in the slinky silver dress which flashed snippets of her figure with it's extensive side cut-out detailing Standing tall in a pair of towering heels, Winnie looked sensational as she worked her angles. The catwalk queen sported long glossy raven tresses, which complemented her stunning features. Reaping the rewards of her hard work, Winnie looked undoubtedly delighted as she headed up on stage to collect her Breakthrough Model award. Model stardom: Standing tall in a pair of towering heels, Winnie looked sensational as she worked her angles Winnie once again justified her lofty position as one of the worlds most sought after models as she strode the runway at a New York Fashion Week event hours earlier The Canadian star sported a thigh-skimming sheer dress that left little to the imagination as she walked the catwalk on behalf of Australian brand Nany Judy. Fully exposing her lingerie, the outfit guaranteed maximum attention from guests at New York Citys Gallery II at Spring Studios. Striking: The catwalk queen sported long glossy raven tresses, which complemented her stunning features as she posed with pal Nicki Minaj Gal pals: Nicki put on a saucy display in a deep purple semi-sheer gown which had frayed and beaded detailing Her time to shine: Winnie couldn't wipe the smile from her face Loving life: All eyes were on Winnie as she strutted along in style to the venue Not raining on her parade: In the rain didn't deter Winnie for the bash as a member of her team held an umbrella over her head Proud: Winnie couldn't resist showing off her Breakthrough Model fashion spread A cropped silver jacket gave the look a distinctive flourish, while black leather ankle boots rounded things off. Keeping things simple, Winnie opted to style her hair with a conventional centre parting that served to frame her naturally pretty face. She joined many other famously beautiful faces at the star-packed event where guests enjoyed Kim Crawford Wines such as Priyanka Chopra, Ashley Graham, Shanina Shaik, Ashlee Simpson and Karrueche Tran. The star found fame on America's Next Top Model in 2014, where she was kicked out in the second week of finals, before returning to a comeback series where she finished 6th. Here she comes: Winnie once again justified her lofty position as one of the worlds most sought after models as she strode the runway at a New York Fashion Week event hours earlier Revealing: The star sported a thigh-skimming sheer dress that left little to the imagination as she walked the catwalk on behalf of Australian brand Nany Judy Since then she has soared to fame in the industry and fronted campaigns for Desigual, Diesel and Swarovski atop a host of magazine covers. Winnie - who has Vitiligo - discussed the changes in the modelling industry in an interview with ELLE Magazine. She explained: 'There is a big shift happening in the fashion industry in terms of beauty standards, and I feel Im part of that shift. Centre stage: Fully exposing her lingerie, the outfit guaranteed maximum attention from guests at New York Citys Gallery II at Spring Studios 'I remember on Americas Next Top Model, Tyra Banks asked me if a photographer told me to cover my skin for a shoot, would I do it? I said no. I dont care who it is, or who thinks I should. Im going to stay true to myself.' She also lashed out at being branded 'a sufferer' of pigment disease Vitiligo. Taking to Instagra, she wrote: "I'm not a 'Vitiligo Sufferer" I'm not a 'Vitiligo model.' I am Winnie. I am a model. And I happen to have Vitiligo. Stop putting these titles on me or anyone else.' Gemma Collins was branded 'lazy, rude and disrespectful' by Celebrity Masterchef viewers when she appeared on the show on Thursday night. The TOWIE star, 37, drove fans wild as she ordered professional chefs around, doing as little as possible for herself, claiming: 'I need to be the boss,' But others tweeted that they found her antics compelling, writing that were chuckling over her behaviour as she ruled the roost on the popular cookery show. Scroll down for video. Oh dear: Gemma Collins was branded 'lazy, rude, and disrespectful' by Celebrity Masterchef viewers on Thursday night's show... as others said they LOVE her 'bossy' behaviour Talking to one of the professional chefs, Gemma said: 'Do you want to put that in the oven for me hun'? Ooh, someone get me fish out!' she demanded. She then revealed that she felt completely at ease in the heat of the moment, admitting: 'I feel like I've got this right under control in the kitchen now.' 'I think if I worked in a kitchen I'd need to be like where this man's standing' explained the blonde bombshell, as she pointed at the head chef, before turning behind her and impatiently requesting: 'The fish, the fish!' Always first: The TOWIE star was the first celebrity to use the chance of working in an exclusive London restaurant by getting the kitchen staff to do her job for her Bossy: 'Do you want to put that in the oven for me hun'? Ooh, someone get me fish out!' she demanded Easy: Gemma then revealed that she felt completely at ease in the heat of the moment, admitting: 'I feel like I've got this right under control in the kitchen now' One fan of the show tweeted: 'What is the actual point of @missgemcollins? So rude and disrespectful in the pro kitchen. #CelebrityMasterChef.' '#celebritymasterchef Typical Gemma Collins BS... 'do this for me. do that for me' lazy b***h,' slammed another. Someone else fumed: 'My goodnesss @missgemcollins is a lazy f**ker - giving her orders in the kitchen because she can't cope - GET OFF OUR TV SCREENS YOU TALENTLESS NOTHING!! #MasterChefUK #CelebrityMasterchef.' The boss: Gemma admitted: 'I think if I worked in a kitchen I'd need to be like where this man's standing,' as she pointed at the head chef Furious: Celebrity MasterChef viewers immediately took to Twitter in their droves to express their fury over her treatment of the professional kitchen staff And, in true 'GC' style, the reality star didn't fail to deliver a range of perfect TV soundbites and shockingly awful culinary concoctions. 'Who knows? I could be the next Nigella!' suggested Gemma, despite her 'chick pea stew,' her crab-meat-filled mango, and her meal of chicken thighs served with an omelette, not wowing the judges by any stretch of the imagination. And so, while many were horrified with Gemma's feisty display, others found the reality star's appearance on the BBC cooking show nothing short of hilarious. Can't cook won't cook: In true 'GC' style, the reality star didn't fail to deliver a range of perfect TV soundbites and shockingly awful culinary concoctions Funny: While many were horrified with Gemma's feisty display, others found the reality star's appearance on the BBC cooking show nothing short of hilarious Other fans of the show couldn't contain themselves, with one person tweeting: 'Gemma Collins on masterchef is everything I wanted and more.' Another viewer wrote: 'Whoever signed up @missgemcollins to #CelebrityMasterchef I salute you. I'm obsessed. Put that in the oven for me hun x.' And a third reasoned: 'You may all dislike Gemma Collins but my God, you're all tweeting about her. I wouldn't want her around me in real life but she did make me chuckle. Too lazy to get her own fish. #CelebrityMasterchef.' Celebrity MasterChef continues tonight at 8pm on BBC One. It has been six years since they blissfully tied the knot. And Sam Taylor-Johnson, 51, and her husband Aaron, 28, looked stronger than ever as they attended the Outlaw King premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday. The filmmaker cut an incredibly glamorous figure as she cosied up to her suited and booted other half while storming the red carpet. Lovebirds: Sam Taylor-Johnson, 51, in Gucci and her husband Aaron, 28, wearing Givenchy, attended the Outlaw King premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday Sam's light-coloured dress was almost Western in style with it's midriff-cinching design of large stars. The number plunged down to middle to tease at her cleavage and she completed the regal look with tousled side-parted locks. Aaron looked undeniably handsome in a shiny black suit which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and a black bow-tie. Sensational pair: The filmmaker cut an incredibly glamorous figure as she cosied up to her suited and booted other half while storming the red carpet The screen star first met wife Sam in 2009 as she was the director of the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, in which he starred. He, at the time, was 19, and she over twice his age at 42, but they proved love knows no age restriction as they got engaged that year and married in 2012 at Babington House in Somerset. The lovebirds raise their two young children, seven-year-old Wylda Rae and five-year-old Romy, together at their glamorous home. Sam is also mother to 20-year-old Angelica and 12-year-old Jessie from her first marriage to Jay Jopling. Smitten: Aaron first met wife Sam in 2009 as she was the director of the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, in which he starred (Pictured 2013) Love: He, at the time, was 19, and she was 42, but they proved love knows no age restriction as they got engaged that year and married in 2012 at Babington House, Somerset The mother-of-four was married to the art dealer in 1997 but they decided to go their separate ways for good in 2008. Sam moved on her heartache with Aaron and the filmmaker defiantly defended her choice to marry a man 23 years her junior in June 2017. 'If I gave a second thought to other people, I would be the unhappiest person, probably still in a miserable marriage,' she told The Hollywood Reporter. 'People like to talk about it. I'm like, "Yeah, but it works better than my last marriage". It's lasted longer than a lot of my friends' marriages.' He's the lovable patriarch who stars with his wife and two kids on Googlebox Australia. But when he's not kicking back on the couch, Matt Dalton is a high-powered healthcare company director with some surprising connections. On Thursday night's episode of the reality show, the 52-year-old revealed he went to high school with Labor leader Bill Shorten, 51, and recalled his surprising impressions of the politician. Scroll down for video What a small world! Googlebox's Matt Dalton (left) reveals he went to high school with Labor leader Bill Shorten (right) back in the mid 1980s Matt told his wife, Kate, and daughters, Holly and Millie: 'I went to school with Bill Shorten, as you know and he was really quiet and unassuming.' 'If ever I was going to guess someone who was going to end up being a Prime Minister, I wouldn't have thought Bill Shorten.' Both Matt and Bill attended Xavier College, a private Jesuit college located in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. 'He was really quiet and unassuming': Matt told his family he's suprised that Bill could be Australia's next Prime Minister Described as 'the best-connected school in Melbourne', its alumni includes two former Deputy Prime Ministers, a former Premier and several Supreme Court Justices. Today, tutition at the all-boys school tops out at a $28,450, but both Matt and Bill graduated in the mid 1980s. It seems the two weren't close in high-school, and it's unclear whether business-minded Matt share's Bill's left-wing leanings. Family favourites: Matt is a lovable patriarch on Gogglebox, but off the show he's a high-powered healthcare company executive educated at one of Melbourne's top schools Meanwhile, other Googlebox stars didn't hold back when giving their assessment on the state of Australian politics during Thursday night's episode. Art collector Di Kershaw claimed that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has 'a very unfortunate face', while mum-of-six Stacey Jackson had a suggestion for the current government. 'Just bring back John Howard!' she demanded. 'Just bring him back!' She recently revealed that she's gone sober for the month of September. And Susanna Reid, 47, hasn't let her alcohol ban stop her from having fun as she put her best fashion foot forward while attending the launch of Derek Draper's new book Create Space at The IOD Pall Mall London on Thursday night. The Good Morning Britain host looked sensational in an emerald green python print midi dress as she hung out with pals Fiona Phillips and Kate Garraway at the star-studded event. Having a ball: Susanna Reid, 47, hasn't let her alcohol ban stop her from having fun as she put her best fashion foot forward while attending the launch of Derek Draper's new book Create Space at The IOD Pall Mall London on Thursday night Beaming for the cameras, the ITV darling's look accentuated her slender waist with a fabric belt, which she tied into a bow. Susanna continued to wow the style brigade in her chic number which featured a semi-sheer sleeve and fell just just below her knee. She added inches to her petite frame with a pair of nude pointed pumps and gold watch. The broadcaster continued her glamorous display by styling her brunette locks into a voluminous curl and sported a glowing beauty look. Star power: The Good Morning Britain host looked sensational in an emerald green python print midi dress as she hung out with pals Fiona Phillips and Kate Garraway at the star-studded event Wrapped up: Beaming for the cameras, the ITV darling's look accentuated her slender waist with a fabric belt, which she tied into a bow Figuratively letting her hair down, Susanna happily took a number of selfies with her pals Kate, 51, and Fiona, 57. Fellow GMB host Kate looked equally demure for the occasion and donned a navy ensemble with gold button detail. While Fiona looked effortlessly stylish in a black two-piece suit and white shirt. Meanwhile, Susanna's smiling appearance comes after she revealed she's gone 'sober for the month of September'. Fashion: Susanna continued to wow the style brigade in her chic number which featured a semi-sheer sleeve and fell just just below her knee Glowing: The broadcaster continued her glamorous display by styling her brunette locks into a voluminous curl and sported a glowing beauty look All smiles: The trio looked in jovial spirits at the party Revealing the secret to her bright-eyed appearance on Thursday's Good Morning Britain after the star-studded bash, the journalist explained: 'I am sober for September. Is that a thing?' Susanna announced her new booze-free plan to co-hosts Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway after Kate asked: 'Feeling alright this morning?' Expanding on her plan, Susanna said: 'I've decided no alcohol for the entire month,' before jokingly adding: 'I decided that last night.' All in the details: She added inches to her petite frame with a pair of nude pointed pumps and gold watch Picture perfect: Figuratively letting her hair down, Susanna happily took a number of selfies with her pals Kate, 51, and Fiona, 57 Laugh a minute: The trio couldn't contain their laughter looking at their picture Susanna's month-long alcohol abstinence comes after she looked typically glamorous on Wednesday evening, as she attended the event, held at the Tate Modern in London. The TV star turned heads as she hit the red carpet in a one-shoulder coral dress with a chic asymmetric hemline. The TV presenter left BBC Breakfast to launch ITV's new early-morning show four years ago, following failed attempts from other hosts to revive the ratings. Going for gold: Fellow GMB host Kate looked equally demure for the occasion and donned a navy ensemble with gold button detail Style maven: While Fiona looked effortlessly stylish in a black two-piece suit and white shirt Susanna revealed in June that she wasn't always so sure about her controversial co-star, Piers Morgan, who was drafted in to the show in 2015. She admitted to Radio Times that she she wasn't exactly 'filled with hope' when she heard that Piers's would be joining the team a year later. She confessed that rather than thinking 'Aww, what a lovely safe choice. Oh, my life's going to be easy from now on. Brilliant.' I was like... Argh!' Despite forging an authentic friendship following their time on air together, Susanna joked that sharing the sofa with Piers felt like 'sitting next to a hedgehog.' They've been dating for 16 years and Bo Derek and her Sex And The City beau, John Corbett, headed to a White Party on Thursday night. The 61-year-old actress and her man, 57, looked very well co-ordinated in their matching bright white ensembles as they posed for pictures by a boat. They were heading to a Celebrity Fight night party together, benefitting the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center held at the foot of The Church of St. Peter, Porto Venere, Italy. Well-matched: Bo Derek, 61, and her Sex And The City beau John Corbett, 57, headed to a White Party for a Celebrity Fight Night event in Italy Bo, famous for her role in 10, looked incredible wearing a white top with lace detailing with a pair of matching jeans. She carried a metallic tote in her hand which perfectly matched the bronze shade of her summery wedges. A smart sunhat made sure she didn't get too much sun and she carried a pair of designer shades in her hand. They've got the look: Bo, famous for her role in 10, looked incredible wearing a white top with lace detailing with a pair of matching jeans John, best known for playing Carrie Bradshaw's love interest, Aidan Shaw, in the famous HBO series, teamed a fitted white shirt with slim-fit trousers. He even wore bright white shoes and a pair of sunglasses. The couple appeared to be in high spirits on the day as they posed with the arms around one another. All in the details: A smart sunhat added some further style to her ensemble She likes the look: Bo pictured in 1981, pictured in a similar look Their romance followed her marriage to American actor John Derek, who was 30 years her senior. The couple tied the knot in 1976, marking Derek's fourth marriage, and the lovebirds remained wed until his death in 1998. Bo and John started seeing each other when she was just 16 and he was 50 as they shot a film called And Once Upon a Time in 1973. In 2016, Corbett gave Inquirer.net an insight about his relaxed life with Bo. He said: 'We live up past Santa Barbara in California. We have a nice little ranch. We ride horses. 'We dont have children, but we have furry childrenGerman shepherds and Irish wolfhounds. 'The weathers always pretty nice where we live, so I ride motorcycles with Bos brother-in-law, Mike. We play guitars. Its a fun life.' A look back: John is perhaps best known for playing Carrie Bradshaw's love interest, Aidan Shaw in Sex And The City As well as enjoying an enduring career as a lauded actress, she's also known to support a large number of philanthropic causes. And Kate Winslet stepped out in the name of charity once again on Friday, when she attended the London launch of Words for Work: Women in Leadership, a partnership between National Literacy Trust and Lancome. The 42-year-old actress looked typically chic for the occasion, which has been launched ahead of Saturday's International Literacy Day, arriving at the gathering in a sleeveless blue dress. Stepping out: Kate Winslet attended the launch of Words for Work: Women in Leadership, a partnership between National Literacy Trust and Lancome, in London on Friday Wearing her golden locks in perfectly coiffed shoulder-length waves, the Oscar-winning actress highlighted her natural beauty with makeup that included an array of soft and flattering tones. Standing tall in a pair of black heels, she accessorised with a gold necklace and a selection of matching bracelets, which perfectly complemented her chic ensemble. Inside the event, Lancome ambassadress Kate spoke in support of the Words for Work: Women in Leadership programme, which aims to break down the barriers to success for disadvantaged women by improving their literacy skills and confidence. Typically chic: The 42-year-old actress looked typically chic for the occasion, arriving at the gathering a sleeveless blue dress Her outing comes two months after Sir Richard Branson joyfully discussed her six-year marriage to his nephew Ned Rocknroll. Speaking on ITV's Lorraine, the businessman, 68, recalled a devastating fire at his private isle Necker Island in August 2011, before revealing his actress pal Kate 'stayed on a couple of days' and eventually fell in love with his nephew, Ned. The Titanic star has been happily married to Ned since 2012, after the pair got to know each other on the holiday where she saved his 90-year-old grandmother from a fire. Kate had fallen for the nephew of Sir Richard during her trip to Necker, despite arriving on the island with her on-off boyfriend model Louis Dowler. At the event, she posed alongside (L-R) Fiona Evans, of the National Literacy Trust, author Chidera Eggerue, aka The Slumflower, and Francoise Lehmann of Lancome Two's company: Kate looked in excellent spirits as she posed alongside Chidera Eggerue Speech: The Lancome ambassadress spoke in support of the launch, which aims to break down the barriers for disadvantaged women by improving their literacy skills and confidence Speaking of the turn of events, Richard gushed about Kate: 'She fell in love. Because of the fire she stayed on an extra couple of days to help out and fell in love with my nephew and got a beautiful child by it.' He continued to detail the devastating incident: 'She managed to get my mum out of the building and all her own children. We had the hurricane, which was the most devastating hurricane in history. 'Were lucky, we can rebuild and weve got help in the Caribbean as a whole. Its getting back on its feet,' he revealed. Love and marriage: The Oscar-winning actress has been married to Ned Rocknroll since 2012 Sharing details: In July, Ned's uncle Sir Richard Branson spoke with Lorraine Kelly on her eponymous show about the couple's romance Richard also discussed his shocking 76 near death experiences, confessing: 'I cant say no I just love a challenge, so if someone says lets see if we can fly around the world in a hot air balloon, I say, "Im in for it!". 'Life has been the richer for it. There have been occasions where Ive been dangling from a balloon at 35,000 feet where everything gone wrong, wondering why no Id be a very sad person if I had any regrets,' he concluded. Mother-of-three Kate welcomed son Bear, now aged four, with Ned back in 2013. As well as starring in Hollywood's chart-topping films, the blonde beauty is also mother to Mia, 17, from her marriage to Jim Threapleton, and Joe, 14, from her previous relationship with director Sam Mendes. First meeting: The couple met on Sir Richard's private Necker Island in the Caribbean in 2011 Turn of events: Kate had fallen for the nephew of Sir Richard during thetrip to Necker, despite arriving on the island with her on-off boyfriend model Louis Dowler It's one of the most polarising issues facing Australia, and a new SBS program will tackle it head on. In the upcoming Go Back To Where You Came From, a group of Aussies, including celebrities Meshel Laurie, 42, and Gretel Killeen, will experience life as a refugee. Hosted by respected journalists Ray Martin and Janice Petersen, the three-part series will see the show's participants witness the crisis firsthand. Scroll down for video From the other side... Meshel Laurie (left) and Gretel Killeen (right) will experience what it's like to be a refugee in the new program, Go Back to Where You Came From Live The participants all have differing views on the refugee crisis and are dispatched to different parts of the world. Once in their respective locations, they will report back on their experiences as they unfold over three nights from October 2 to 4. 'Australian audiences will follow events live from conflict hotspots and frontlines across multiple continents, witnessing the complexity of mass human migration and its ripple effects in 2018,' SBS said in a press release. Calling the project their most 'ambitious television event to date', SBS is likely to challenge many people's views on the refugee crisis - including those of many of the participants. 'The participants, each with pre-conceived ideas about refugees, will glimpse the reality of life in disputed territories, at border crossings and inside refugee camps,' the network said in a press release. Close up: The three-part series will see the show's participants dispatched to different parts of the world, where they will witness the crisis firsthand 'They will get a first-hand experience of the global refugee crisis beyond the headlines, protests and policies, and opinions from all sides of the debate will be challenged.' SBS has said they'll be announcing more participants in the coming weeks, but the first line-up blends high profile personalities with everyday Australians. Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Gretel, 55, announced her involvement in the program, describing herself as an 'opinionated Australian'. Coming soon: Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Gretel announced her involvement in the program, describing herself as an 'opinionated Australian' According to SBS, she thinks 'Australias treatment of refugees is barbaric'. 'Hi all - wanted to let you know that as an opinionated Australian Im joining the #GoBackLive team to broadcast Go Back To Where You Came from live from overseas,' she wrote on Instagram. 'I dont know where yet, stay tuned.' It was recently reported that she is planning to give away part of her reported 31 million divorce settlement from Ant McPartlin to a dog charity. But Lisa Armstrong stayed mum on the matter on Friday morning, when she was spotted leaving her London home as she stepped out for another busy day of work. The 41-year-old makeup artist turned heads in an all-black ensemble that included a mesh longline sweater, which she teamed with a matching leather miniskirt. Off to work she goes: Lisa Armstrong was spotted leaving her London home as she stepped out for another busy day of work on Friday morning Wearing her dyed purple locks in a sleek bob, she kept her makeup and accessories to a minimum, while hiding her eyes behind a pair of tortoise shell-framed shades. Complementing her flattering ensemble with tan suede booties and a large peach leather handbag, she marched her way into a waiting vehicle to go about her day. The Strictly Come Dancing makeup artist's outing comes as it has been claimed that she plans to part with some of her 31 million divorce settlement from Ant to give to a dog charity. Black to basics: The 41-year-old makeup artist turned heads in an all-black ensemble that included a mesh longline sweater, which she teamed with a matching leather miniskirt Accessories: Wearing her dyed purple locks in a sleek bob, she kept her makeup and accessories to a minimum, while hiding her eyes behind a pair of tortoise shell-framed shades Sources told The Mirror that Lisa who shares beloved pooch Hurley with Ant is said to want to help those four-legged friends who need looking after. An insider explained: 'It's pretty likely that Lisa is going to get a hefty payment when her divorce with Ant is finalised. She has told pals she wants to give a large chunk of that money to a dog charity. 'She is very passionate about her four-legged pals and really wants to help improve some of their lives around the country.' Ant has recently returned from a holiday to Florence with new girlfriend Anne-Marie Corbett and the two have been pictured cuddling up to one another. Staying hydrated: She carried a bottle of water as she made her way through the city streets Vehicle: Complementing her flattering ensemble with tan suede booties and a large peach leather handbag, she marched her way into a waiting vehicle to go about her day Meanwhile, Lisa has taken to social media to 'like' tweets about him being 'pathetic' and 'despicable'. Lisa also replied to a photo from her best friend and former Deuce star, Craig Robert Young, who shared a quote which said 'those people who tried to bury you didn't know you were a seed,' to which she replied with three red hearts. Lisa admitted that Ant did not give her a heads up about his relationship with Anne-Marie and he found out at the same time as the public. Ant announced he had split from Lisa in a statement back in January following 12 years of marriage, but Lisa refused to put her name to it. Flashback: In the early hours of Friday morning, she took to her Instagram Story to share an old shot of herself posing with another makeup artist She's the daughter of fiery Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna. But Delilah Belle Hamlin ensured all eyes were on her as she stepped out in a striking neon yellow ensemble to attend a series of New York Fashion Week parties on Thursday night. The rising model, 20, showed off her sensational figure in the bold two-piece which clung to her frame. Party girl: Delilah Belle Hamlin ensured all eyes were on her as she stepped out in a striking neon yellow ensemble to attend a series of New York Fashion Week parties on Thursday The social media sensation took centre-stage as she arrived at a launch party for photographer Russell James' coffee table book Angels Collectors Edition at Stephan Weiss Studio. Before long, Delilah dashed to the Daily Front Row's 2018 Fashion Media Awards held at the Park Hyatt in Manhattan. At both events, all eyes were on the stunning beauty as she confidently posed for photographs in her colourful outfit. Delilah made a style statement in a pair of heavily sequinned trousers which were noticeably too long for the 5'6" beauty, despite boosting her height with a pair of nude skyscraper heels. Work it: The rising model, 20, showed off her sensational figure in the bold two-piece which clung to her slim frame And pose: The trousers fell onto the floor, despite the model boosting her height with a pair of nude skyscraper heels The reality star teamed the sparkly trousers with a thin neon yellow sweater, with slits at the end of its long sleeves. She carried a gold boxy clutch in her hand and accessorised with a smattering of edgy gold necklaces and rings, and chunky hoop earrings Delilah wore her ombre-hued tresses in a sleek middle-parting, enhanced her natural beauty with a dewy foundation. The model was joined by a gal pal at the fashion awards show, with the pair holding hands as they strolled away from the party. Stylish: The star teamed the sparkly trousers with a thin neon yellow sweater, and posed for photos at her first event, photographer Russell James' book launch at Stephan Weiss Studio Gorgeous: Delilah wore her ombre-hued tresses in a sleek middle-parting, and enhanced her natural beauty with dewy make-up Fabulous friend: The model was joined by a gal pal at her second event of the evening, Daily Front Row's 2018 Fashion Media Awards at the Park Hyatt in Manhattan Lead the way: The pair held hands as they strolled away from the fashion party Delilah got her first taste of fame after appearing on The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills alongside her mother Lisa Rinna, 54. She recently admitted that despite their three-decade age gap, she can wear anything from her 'shopaholic' mum's closet because they are the same dress size. 'We have a different sense of style. Instagram and being in the fashion industry has made me realise what I like and it's always changing,' she told 9Style. 'But the great thing about my mum is that we both have the same shoe size, same clothing size. I can wear anything from her closet which is great as she is a shopaholic!' Delilah also revealed that while she is content with modelling for the moment, she would love to pursue a singing career in five years' time. 'I have long-term goals, I would love to start designing clothing and I sing so I would love to release an album,' she gushed. It's been two weeks since the former Bachelor In Paradise star claimed she was heartbroken at announcing her split from boyfriend Jarrod Woodgate. And on Thursday, Keira Maguire appeared to be keeping busy by partaking in a promotional shoot for food delivery service, Deliveroo. The newly-single reality TV star, 32, held up a heart-shaped pepperoni pizza and later add the cheesy treat straight from the box. Meal for one! Newly-single Keira Maguire chows down on a heart-shaped pizza following her shock split from Bachelor In Paradise boyfriend Jarrod Woodgate Just a slice? At one stage, Keira was seen devouring the heart-shaped pizza straight out of the delivery box Wearing a pair cropped grey skinny jeans and black Converse sneakers, Keira was seen chatting with the shoot's crew in between takes. The former 2016 Bachelor 'villain' also wore a turquoise and grey windcheater jacket printed with the Deliveroo logo. Keira had previously disclosed that she and ex-partner Jarrod would regularly order takeout, drink wine and watch TV while living together in Melbourne. Despite her split with the vineyard manager dominating the headlines, the blonde bombshell appeared to be in high spirits during the photo shoot. On the job: Keira Maguire was seen shooting an ad campaign for Deliveroo on the streets of Sydney on Thursday Moving on: The blonde bombshell appeared to have been in high spirits, despite her split with fellow Bachelor in Paradise star Jarrod Woodgate last month New gig: Keira appears to be the latest Aussie star to promote the food delivery service Taking a break: Wearing a pair cropped grey skinny jeans and black Converse sneakers, Keira was seen chatting with the shoot's crew in between takes Working hard for the money... She also wore a turquoise and grey windcheater jacket printed with the Deliveroo logo At one stage, Keira was seen peddling a matching turquoise bike around Sydney's side streets. Clearly taking her safety seriously, she also wore a white helmet. When she wasn't wrangling her bicycle, Keira was seen supposedly delivering a heart-shaped pepperoni pizza. She was later seen turning her back from passersby as she devoured the pizza straight out of the box. On your bike: At one stage, Keira was seen peddling a matching turquoise bicycle around Sydney's side streets Having a wheelie good time... Keira could be seen messing around with her bicycle in between takes In an interview with Who magazine on Thursday, Jarrod, 32, said Keira's obsession with Instagram was a driving force behind their breakup. 'Id spend two days a week with her and it [was] basically all Instagram-based,' he told Who. 'Its hard because youre competing with 177,000 other people that follow her, but I shouldnt have to compete.' Love pizza: When she wasn't wrangling her bicycle, Keira was seen holding a heart-shaped pepperoni pizza Picture this: In an interview with Who magazine on Thursday, Jarrod said Keira's obsession with Instagram was a driving force behind their break up Spent: Jarrod said that although Keira earned thousands of dollars from her Instagram posts, her tendency to spend money also put a strain on their fledgling relationship He also said that although Keira earned thousands of dollars from her Instagram posts, her tendency to spend money also put a strain on their fledgling relationship. 'When youre living in my family home and not paying any rent or bills, money shouldnt be an issue,' he added. 'But when it came to spending money, she would blow it on so much.' Shocked: In an interview with Who magazine late last month, Keira said Jarrod left her completely blindsided when he broke up with her It's a different story to the one Keira told Who late last month. In an interview with the magazine, Keira said Jarrod left her completely blindsided when he broke up with her. 'It was Jarrod who broke up with me,' she said. 'I really believed wed live happily ever after. I was so ready for that and nothing else in my life really mattered.' Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews were pictured together for the first time on Friday morning since welcoming their son earlier this week. The new parents appeared happier than ever as they strolled their bundle of joy along in a buggy during a cosy walk with Vogue's mother Sandra Wilson. TV personality Vogue, 32, and her husband Spencer, 30 who tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in the Scottish Highlands in June announced that they welcomed a 'beautiful and healthy' baby boy in the early hours of Wednesday morning. New parents: Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews were pictured together for the first time on Friday morning since welcoming their 'beautiful and healthy' son earlier this week Looking every inch the yummy mummy, the Fade Street star opted for comfort as she donned a pair of clingy black top, biker shorts and a khaki green bomber jacket. Vogue, who sported gradient-tinted Aviator sunglasses, beamed with delight as she strolled along the streets of the English capital in a pair of black trainers. The reality star displayed her radiant complexion in minimal make-up, and swept her tresses into a loosely tousled ponytail. Beaming with delight: The new parents appeared happier than ever as they strolled their bundle of joy along in a buggy during a cosy walk with Vogue's mother Sandra Wilson Happy family: TV personality Vogue, 32, and her husband Spencer, 30, announced that they welcomed a 'beautiful and healthy' baby boy in the early hours of Wednesday morning New journey: Looking every inch the yummy mummy, the Fade Street star opted for comfort as she donned a pair of clingy black top, biker shorts and a khaki green bomber jacket Meanwhile, former Made In Chelsea star Spencer cut a casual figure in all-black sportswear, teamed with a pair of vibrant blue trainers and a bright red baseball cake for a pop of colour. The excited couple were accompanied by their adorable pooch and Vogue's mother Sandra, who primarily lives in Marbella. Vogue and Spencer proved to be learning the ropes around parenthood as they took turns to stroll their baby boy along in the pram, covered in a Stars and Moon printed Muslin Swaddle by Petite Piccolo. James Middleton - the brother of Spencer's sister-in-law Pippa, was also pictured arriving at Vogue and Spencer's family home in his fancy Land Rover. High spirits: Vogue, who sported gradient-tinted Aviator sunglasses, beamed with delight as she strolled along the streets of the English capital in a pair of black trainers Natural glow: The reality star displayed her radiant complexion in minimal make-up, and swept her tresses into a loosely tousled ponytail Oh, baby! Meanwhile, former Made In Chelsea star Spencer cut a casual figure in all-black sportswear, teamed with a pair of vibrant blue trainers and a bright red baseball cake for a pop of colour In good company: The excited couple were accompanied by their adorable pooch and Vogue's mother Sandra, who primarily lives in Marbella Hours earlier, Spencer emerged to guide his little son's visitors brother James Matthews and his wife Pippa Middleton into the grounds of his home. Looking casually cool in a green sweater with blue jeans, the new dad held a phone in a pink case to his air as he prepared to welcome his stream of visitors, which also included the couple's mothers Sandra Wilson and Jane Matthews. The couple sent fans wild as they announced the arrival of their son, but haven't announced his name as of yet. Quality time: James Middleton - the brother of Spencer's sister-in-law Pippa, was pictured arriving at Vogue and Spencer's family home in his fancy Land Rover Off he goes: The businessman, 31, turned up to their abode with his pet pooch as he prepared to spend quality time with the new arrival Comfy: James kept casual in all-navy attire as he donned a jumper and baseball cap Pensive: The Reading native appeared preoccupied as he looked at his phone during his day out Your turn, my turn: Vogue and Spencer proved to be learning the ropes around parenthood as they took turns to stroll their baby boy along in the pram Baby joy: The couple announced the joyous news with a sweet snapshot shared on Instagram 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 Taking to Instagram on the arrival of their baby, the Irish presenter Vogue posted: 'This morning at 3:55am, we welcomed our son into a quiet London hospital... He is beautiful and healthy. We feel truly blessed.' 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. Celebrations: The pair have been having the time of their lives this year as they tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in the Scottish Highlands in June Big news: The couple sent fans wild as they announced the arrival of their son, but haven't announced his name as of yet Elated: 'This morning at 3:55am, we welcomed our son into a quiet London hospital... He is beautiful and healthy. We feel truly blessed' the Irish presenter Vogue said on the arrival of their baby Vogue also took to her Instagram stories to write 'I'm so in love'. The pair were inundated with well wishes from their delighted followers and celebrity friends. Frankie Bridge posted: Congratulations guys @spencermatthews soak up all the newborn you can. Just the best. Hope your all doing well xxxx Great spirits: The DJ also revealed she was 'so in love' with her first child as she continued to gush over his arrival Late arrival: 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 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 Delighted: The pair, who met on reality show The Jump, couldn't wait to become parents 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. Proud: Vogue had been praising supportive partner Spencer for taking care of her in the days running up to the birth Doting father: Ahead of their little ones arrival, Vogue told OK! magazine that she believed Spencer would be a 'hands-on dad' Difficult journey: The model suffered with bad morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy and admitted she napped every day Happy: 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 Candid: During her pregnancy: Vogue hit out at critics who accused her of exercising 'too much' as she admitted the past nine months have been difficult Whirlwind: The couple have enjoyed an event few months as Spencer proposed after a performance of The Lion King at London's Lyceum Theatre in February 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. Ahead of their little ones arrival, Vogue told OK! magazine that she believed Spencer would be a 'hands-on dad'. Sweet: Vogue and Spencer have been together for just over a year, after meeting on the set of winter sports show The Jump, in early 2017 Smitten: The hunk previously branded Vogue as 'The One' as he admitted he's her 'best friend' Gushing: Eton-educated Spencer once said he was the 'luckiest man in the world' after meeting Vogue Past: Vogue was previously married to former Westlife singer Brian McFadden from 2012 to 2015, while Spencer dated co-stars Louise Thompson, Caggie Dunlop and Lucy Watson 'We were shocked by how quickly it happened': The couple announced their pregnancy in a stunning shoot with Hello Magazine in March 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. Busy bee: The star enjoyed a jog around breezy London during his day out '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.' Enjoying life: Spencer delighted in some music as he wore wireless earphones during his run Working up a sweat: The reality star upped the ante during his workout as he was spotted pacing through the streets LIVE: U2 (Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin) Verdict: State-of-the-art arena show Rating: U2s Experience + Innocence tour ground to a temporary halt last weekend when Bono lost his voice on the second of two nights in Berlin. That gig was unceremoniously cut short, but the group were back onstage three nights later and the tour, which reaches the UK next month, is now continuing as planned. Given the demands that full-blooded rockers like Bono place on their vocal cords every night, the real surprise is that this doesnt happen more often, although Dave Grohls Foo Fighters also pulled two concerts this week for the same reason. I witnessed the tours barnstorming opening night in the German capital 24 hours before the abandoned show and the sense of an ensemble who still fly by the seat of their pants, and sometimes stumble, was palpable. Bono: U2s Experience + Innocence tour ground to a temporary halt last weekend when Bono lost his voice on the second of two nights in Berlin The special effects across two hours were stunning, with the centrepiece a 96ft walkway-cum-digital-screen that divided the hall in two. But U2 were at their best when they stuck to what Bono calls rocks primary colours, retreating to a cramped satellite stage and playing guitar, bass and drums in close proximity to one another: This is the kind of stage we started out on, he quipped. Its like Larry Mullens old kitchen or Adam Claytons en-suite. Night to remember: The special effects across two hours were stunning, with the centrepiece a 96ft walkway-cum-digital-screen that divided the hall in two Having toured 1987s The Joshua Tree last year, they eschewed any trace of it here. Omitting With Or Without You and Where The Streets Have No Name would seriously weaken most rock shows, but U2 called on I Will Follow, Beautiful Day, Pride (In The Name Of Love) and a visceral Vertigo to fill the gaps. There were also four tracks from 1991s Achtung Baby, a record made in Berlin and, for me, their finest hour. Bono, never knowingly understated, worked in some local colour. He praised the beautiful, beautiful city of Berlin, hummed the German national anthem and sang a line from Kraftwerks Hall Of Mirrors. Singalong: There were also four tracks from 1991s Achtung Baby, a record made in Berlin and, for me, their finest hour He made a plea for European unity and lamented the rise of the far-right. Heartfelt without being hectoring, this was Bono in full flow. But the nights most vivid moments were more personal. Iris (Hold Me Close) was dedicated to his late mother. A sunny Youre The Best Thing About Me was sung to his wife Ali, with Mullen on bongos and guitarist The Edge on strummed acoustic chords. On the biggest stages, U2 remain a benchmark. U2 start the UK leg of their tour at Manchester Arena on October (ticketmaster.co.uk[http://ticketmaster.co.uk]). She's been busy with her judging duties on the latest series of So You Think You Can Dance. But Vanessa Hudgens enjoyed some time off from work as she was spotted leaving a marijuana dispensary in Beverly Hills, California, on Thursday afternoon. The High School Musical actress, 27, nailed casual chic as she slipped her gym-honed frame into an ab-flashing crop top, tied with a pair of flared culottes. Casually cool: Vanessa Hudgens enjoyed some time off from work as she was spotted leaving a marijuana dispensary in Beverly Hills, California, on Thursday afternoon Adding an edgy touch to her appearance, the screen star sported an oversized light denim jacket, and strolled along the streets of the Californian city in running trainers. Vanessa opted for her signature accessories as she donned a pair of skinny cat-eye sunglasses, and was decked out in a dainty necklace and dangle earrings. The Bandslam actress swept her naturally curly tresses into a tousled ponytail and went make-up free. Low-key: The High School Musical actress, 27, nailed casual chic as she slipped her gym-honed frame into an ab-flashing crop top, tied with a pair of flared culottes Off she goes: Adding an edgy touch to her appearance, the screen star sported an oversized light denim jacket, and strolled along the streets of the Californian city in running trainers Vanessa's display comes after she took to Instagram to post a sweet tribute on her beau Austin Bulter's 27th birthday. In the romantic snap, the couple appeared in the throes of love as they shared a romantic kiss in the image. Showcasing her affection for the fellow thespian, she wrote in the caption: 'Happy birthday to my best friend and my love @austinbutler. Im a lucky lady...except for when were playing chess. Then Im not so lucky. Lol.' All in the details: The Bandslam actress opted for her signature accessories as she donned a pair of skinny cat-eye sunglasses, and was decked out in a dainty necklace and dangle earrings 'I'm a lucky lady': Vanessa's display comes after she took to Instagram to post a sweet tribute on her beau Austin Bulter's 27th birthday Vanessa and Austin were first romantically linked in 2011 and have been inseparable ever since, following her split from her High School Musical co-star Zac Efron after dating for five years. The pair have gone from strength to strength as the couple were long-distance last year, as Austin worked in New Zealand for MTVs The Shannara Chronicles. In an interview with PEOPLE, the brunette beauty shared her secrets to making a long-distance relationship work. She told the publication: 'Just communication, communication is key. I think that if anythings bothering you, dont hold it in. Always bring it up and just talk about it. Uncensor yourself and just be open.' The World's Hottest Grandma has blamed Instagram for the rise in women getting plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures. Gina Stewart, who shot to fame on the social media platform earlier this year, told the Attention People podcast that 'young girls' are getting fillers and implants to keep up with Instagram models. 'These young girls that are getting all these cosmetic surgery procedures, it's quite sad,' the 47-year-old said. 'And I know that social media is doing that.' Scroll down for video 'These young girls that are getting all these cosmetic surgery procedures': The World's Hottest Grandma Gina Stewart, 47, has blamed Instagram for the rise in artificial beauty 'It's actually destroying their bodies and destroying their confidence as well because the reason that they got it done in the first place was because they had insecurities.' The Gold Coast granny maintains that she's never had fillers or Botox, and says that the only procedure she's had done are her double-E cup breast implants - which she now regrets and wants to remove. 'My daughter's 25 and all her girlfriends have got the big lips and the big boobs and the tattooed eyebrows and it all comes from their own insecurities because they think that they've got to look a certain way to look good and feel good about themselves,' Gina said. Natural: Gina maintains that she's never had fillers or Botox, and that the only procedure she's had done are her double-E cup breast implants - which she now regrets and wants to remove 'My daughter's 25 and all her girlfriends have got the big lips and the big boobs and the tattooed eyebrows and it all comes from their own insecurities,' said the mum-of-four 'These young girls just really need to love themselves for who they are, but it's hard because on social media there's just all these beautiful girls.' The model went on to call today's cosmetic surgery trends a 'phase,' and said that she hopes natural beauty will come back into fashion soon. 'I think there's a whole thing with the lips and the cheeks and all the tattooing that's a phase, and I hope that the next phase will be more natural, that you can actually have expression and be more accepting of your looks.' 'These young girls just really need to love themselves for who they are, but it's hard because on social media there's just all these beautiful girls,' said the social media star The mother-of-four then recounted a story about meeting a 20-year-old woman who had just had her 'cheeks, lips and boobs done.' 'It saddens me,' said Gina. 'I don't want my little girl growing up thinking that she's got to have all of that done to her body just to be accepted in this world.' Gina is currently a single mum to her youngest daughter Summer, four. The Gold Coast-based bombshell became a grandmother at age 46. 'I don't want my little girl growing up thinking that she's got to have all of that done to her body just to be accepted in this world': The single mother wants to set a good example for her youngest daughter Summer, four The social media sensation, who boasts almost 100,000 followers on Instagram, was recently asked to compete in the USA Maxim Cover Girl competition. According to Maxim, the winner will be photographed by famed photographer Gilles Bensimon for the January/February 2019 cover of the magazine and receive a $25,000 cash prize. The winner will also score VIP tickets to a couple of prestigious red carpet Maxim parties. She is known for her role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. But there could be no medical explanation for how amazing Jane Seymour looks at 67-years-old. The veteran actress looked absolutely ravishing in red while spotted out for dinner in Los Angeles on Thursday. The ageless beauty, who was seemingly make-up free, looked glamorous in a crimson dress that she paired with slingback nude heels. Hollywood legend: Jane Seymour, best known for her role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, was spotted out for dinner in Los Angeles on Thursday Seymour flashed a smile for the cameras as she waited for her car outside of Spagoa Wolfgang Puck eatery. Jane attempted to keep a low profile in large sunglasses, but her infamous long blonde locks and side swept bangs were unmistakable. The UK native's red dress featured a skintight bodice and a sheer, lace skirt that fell just below the knee. She accessorized with two large diamond rings. Classic look: Jane attempted to keep a low profile in large sunglasses, but her long blonde locks were unmistakable Red-hot! The 67-year-old actress, who was seemingly makeup free, showed off her figure in a red dress that she paired with slingback nude heels Back in February, Seymour stole headlines when she posed for Playboy Magazine at the age of 67. 'I felt it was important to show you could be comfortable in your own skin, to be authentically you, and to still feel viable as a sensual woman at any age,' she told This Morning on Thursday. 'For me, I feel freer now than I did when I was 30 or 40. If you are enjoying life and you have a positive spirit, you will probably look better, live longer.' Cover girl! Back in February, Seymour stole headlines when she posed for Playboy Magazine at the age of 67 'I felt it was important to show you could be comfortable in your own skin, to be authentically you, and to still feel viable as a sensual woman at any age,' she told This Morning on Thursday With a long list of film credits behind her name, the former Bond Girl admitted that she's embracing each and every day. 'Growing older is actually a privilege,' she said. 'Sadly, I lost three of my closest friends last year, who were the same age as me. So for me to be here and even having this discussion is a huge privilege.' Jane added: 'Growing older is something I embrace because it means I'm around.' He sensationally announced their separation last week, with the mother-of-five, 40, snogging her new toyboy lover less than 24 hours later. And Kris Boyson appears to still be heartbroken over the split as he took to his Instagram on Wednesday to like a series of tweets claiming Katie Price made the 'wrong choice'. The personal trainer, 29, also shared a video of himself listening to sad love songs as he captioned it with: 'Smile through all the s**t... (prayer hand emoji) Split: Kris Boyson appears to still be heartbroken over the split as he took to his Instagram on Wednesday to like a series of tweets claiming Katie Price made the 'wrong choice' 'You guys are amazing!' followed by a blue heart emoji. He then went on to like a collection of tweets, with one that said: 'KP Made the wrong choice!!' followed by a drool face. A different one put: 'None of my business but hope your ok after splitting from Katie. Once again shes jumped from 1 guy to the next, and Im quite sad as your the only guy shes dated Ive actually had a warm feeling about! Sending my good vibes you way.' Not meant to be: The personal trainer, 29, also shared a video of himself listening to sad love songs as he captioned it with: 'Smile through all the s**t... (prayer hand emoji)' Hitting back: He then went on to like a collection of tweets, with one that said: 'KP Made the wrong choice!!' followed by a drool face With another tweet saying: 'Have followed her for years and often felt sorry for her but seems to be shes attracted to men that treat her bad but you were a nice guy. 'People s******g you but its her whos been seeing someone behind your back yet she thinks its not ok when its done to her, shes lost it!' Just days earlier, Kris had taken to Twitter to announce his split from the mother-of-five, 40, he said: 'This wasnt an easy decision for me to make, however @KatiePrice and I are no longer together! Its just clear we both want different things... Who knows what the future will bring but I wish her all the best! X.' Katie came under fire from fans on Tuesday for missing her four-year-old daughter's very first day of school, after she was pictured enjoying a boozy getaway with Alex Adderson, 25, less than 24 hours after her split. Candid: Just days earlier, Kris had taken to Twitter to announce his split from the mother-of-five, 40, on both his Twitter and Instagram New man: Katie came under fire from fans on Tuesday for missing her four-year-old daughter's very first day of school, after she was pictured enjoying a boozy getaway with Alex Adderson, 25, less than 24 hours after her split (pictured far right) It was reported that her new toyboy lover flew out to join the Loose Women panellist on the idyllic Spanish island. According to The Sun, Alex jetted to Mallorca to make their romance official following her split from Kris on Saturday - with Katie staying with him in his plush villa. A source told the publication: 'Alex and Katie are now 100 per cent together and in a relationship. They are both smitten and he can't believe his luck. He is head over heels. 'Alex is loaded and he's been treating Katie to whatever she wants - he's wining and dining her and they're both having a great time.' Alex and Katie were seen having a night out at a pub last month, during her romance with Kris. MailOnline has contacted Katie's representative for comment. 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. Geoffrey Owens has reportedly accepted an offer to star on Tyler Perry's drama series on Oprah Winfrey's cable network OWN. Perry stepped in to offer The Cosby Show actor a gig after he spoke out about being shamed for working at Trader Joe's after a customer took photographs of him at a checkout and posted them to her social media account. Sources revealed to TMZ on Friday that Owens, 57, has accepted the deal and is signing on for a 10-episode run on Perry's The Haves And The Have Nots. The website reports that Owens will fly to Atlanta, where the show shoots, next week. The show is currently on its 6th season. Scroll down for video Done deal: Geoffrey Owens has accepted an offer to star in Tyler Perry's drama The Haves And The Have Nots after the actor was shamed for working at Trader Joe's Perry is the creator and director of The Haves and the Haves Nots, which is based on his own 2011 play. The soap opera, which premiered in 2013, follows two powerful rich families and one poor family as their lives intertwine in Savannah, Georgia. Owens had appeared on Good Morning America proudly wearing his Trader Joe's name tag on Tuesday morning as he spoke of being 'shamed' for working at the supermarket chain last week. Shortly after the interview Perry invited Owens to join his hit drama as he tweeted on Tuesday morning: '#GeoffreyOwens I'm about to start shootings OWN's 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.' Owens had revealed that he quit his supermarket job due to the unwanted attention. Offer: Perry is the creator and director of The Haves and the Haves Nots and offered Owens a role on his show via Twitter after his story hit headlines Joining the cast: It was reported Friday that Owens will fly to Atlanta next week where the show shoots. It's currently in its sixth season Perry offered Owens a job on his show after the former Cosby Show star appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday During his GMA appearance Owens also seemed to indicate he would turn offers like Perry's down, noting he would not feel comfortable accepting an acting gig because of the recent attention. 'This might sound weird but I wouldn't feel comfortable getting acting jobs from this event,' he said. 'I wouldn't mind getting auditions. But I wouldn't feel comfortable, someone giving me a job, because this happened. I want to get a job because I am the right person for the job.' Owens said he never intended to advertise his work at the store and was stunned when the photographs first emerged. The actor revealed he had been working at store in New Jersey for 15 months 'out of necessity' between short-term acting gigs and teaching. Dedicated: The actor appeared on the show after he was photographed last week bagging groceries at a Trader Joe's in New Jersey Owens proudly wore his Trader Joe's name tag and a hat from Yale - his alma mater -on Tuesday as he spoke of being 'shamed' for working at the supermarket chain last week The former Cosby Show star said he never intended to advertise his work at the store and was stunned when the photographs emerged last week 'When I first saw the pictures...I was really devastated,' Owens said, explaining that he has not had an on-screen job which lasted more than 10 weeks in the 26 years since The Cosby Show wrapped in 1992. 'I got to a point where I'd been teaching acting and directing for 30 plus years but it just didn't add up enough. You've got to do what you've got to do.' 'I wanted a job that I could I have some flexibility and try to stay in the acting business.' 'I didn't advertise it, not because I was ashamed of it, but because I didn't want the acting community to think that I wasn't pursuing acting anymore,' he said. When photographs of him in the store swept social media last week, Owens said he was baffled by the sudden interest. 'It was really overwhelming. It came out of nowhere. I feel like I'm more of a celebrity now than I ever have been. I'm more of a celebrity now than when I actually was a celebrity!' he joked. The 57-year-old said he had been working at the store in New Jersey for 15 months 'out of necessity' between short-term acting gigs and teaching Owens said he hoped his story sparked a shift in attitudes about work and getting by. Owens is pictured in a head shot from The Cosby Show. He appeared in the hit show from 1985 to 1992, when it wrapped 'This business of me being the Cosby guy who got shamed for working at Trader Joe's, that's going to pass,' he said. 'I hope what doesn't pass is this idea that people are now thinking about - what it means to work.' 'The honor of the working person and the dignity of work. [There's a] reevaluation [of the idea] that some jobs are better than others. It's not true.' 'There is no job that's better than another. It may pay better, it may have better benefits, it may look better on paper. But it's not better. Every job is worthwhile.' Owens went on to say that he didn't want anyone's pity. 'No one should feel sorry for me,' he said. 'I've had a great life, a great career. I've had a career most actors would die for. I am doing fine,' he proudly added. Since The Cosby Show wrapped, Owens (shown above, top right, with disgraced star Bill Cosby and the rest of the show's cast in a fourth series promotional image) has not had an acting job which lasted more than 10 weeks He was catapulted into the mainstream during his long-running stint on Full House and it's Netflix incarnation Fuller House as daddy Danny Tanner. And while Bob Saget has become synonymous with the iconic TV role, the first father of sitcom has also enjoyed an illustrious stand-up career for over 43 years, which he admits is the 'biggest love of his life'. Now ahead of his first UK show at London's Leicester Square Theatre, the 62-year-old entertainer opened up exclusively to MailOnline about his relationship with fiancee Kelly Rizzo, 39, and life in comedy amid the #MeToo era. Getting candid: Bob Saget has become synonymous with Full House but has also enjoyed a illustrious stand-up career for over 43 years, which he admits is the 'biggest love of his life Bob has endured an incredible career, which has spanned over four decades, while hosting shows such as America's Funniest Home Videos and voicing a grown-up Ted Mobsy in beloved sitcom How I Met Your Mother? But it was his role in eighties sitcom Full House starring alongside John Stamos, Candace Cameron-Bure and then newborns Mark-Kate and Ashley Olsen, which solidified his name in American television history. With a busy career on his plate, he left little time to find love but all that changed in 2015 when a friend set him up with his travel blogger wife-to-be, Kelly. The Full House star, who already has three adult daughters from his 15 year marriage to ex-wife Sherri Kramer, had been divorced for over two decades at the time and albeit 23 years her senior admitted falling in love with her has been a 'gift'. Romance: The 62-year-old opened up exclusively to MailOnline about his relationship with fiancee Kelly Rizzo, 39, and life in comedy amid the #MeToo era Role: But it was his role in eighties and nineties sitcom Full House starring alongside John Stamos, Candace Cameron-Bure and then newborns Mark-Kate and Ashley Olsen, which solidified his name in American television history 'As you would say proudly in love because it's kind of a gift,' he said. 'I've been divorced for 22 years and this would be my second marriage and in Hollywood that's a miracle. He added: 'We've known each other for two years and she's just remarkable, she's just wonderful.' Although joking about their age difference, the TV icon reflected on his love life before he dated Kelly and insisted that he has always been a gentleman towards women. He joked: 'In Hollywood gross terms, she's half my age plus seven so that's legal. She's a full grown woman. Love: With a busy career on his plate, he left little time to find love but all that changed in 2015 when a friend set him up with his travel blogger wife-to-be, Kelly 'Gift': The Full House star, who already has three adult daughters from his 15 year marriage to ex-wife Sherri Kramer, had been divorced for over two decades at the time and albeit 23 years her senior admitted falling in love with her has been a 'gift' Before he reflected: 'I'm not an ageist but in the past I probably dated people that were too young. I've always treated women with the utmost respect and that's why nothing has ever come out about me. 'I've made mistakes where I've said the wrong thing but it would be on the phone or some double entendre joke but I would do that to a male or female or a squirrel - it doesn't matter, it's just me riffing. Adding: 'I'm not a guy who would even hit on a woman, they would have to come toward me and that never worked out because they thought I was scary. Nowadays with Twitter, you don't want to know anybody. Reflecting on his special connection with Kelly, he gushed about his other half, who he got engaged to in November 2017, and added that she's given him a different view of the world. 'Proudly in love': He said: 'As you would say proudly in love because it's kind of a gift. I've been divorced for 22 years and this would be my second marriage and in Hollywood that's a miracle. We've known each other for two years and she's just remarkable, she's just wonderful' 'Proudly in love': He said: 'As you would say proudly in love because it's kind of a gift. I've been divorced for 22 years and this would be my second marriage and in Hollywood that's a miracle. We've known each other for two years and she's just remarkable, she's just wonderful' (Pictured with two of his daughter Aubrey and Lara) He shared: 'I'm incredibly fortunate and met her through a friend in Chicago. She has a global way of looking at things.' In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Bob reflected on how comedy has responded but more importantly how he has changed his stand-up routine in light of the wave of sexual harassment and sexual assault claims in Hollywood. Referencing a 2005 documentary he was in called The Aristocrats, the TV star admitted that in light of the many cases that he is second guessing how to deliver his comedy. He said: 'I am politically correct in that there's no hurt to my comedy. I'm not going to say a joke I would have said 15 years without a thought. Change: In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Bob reflected on how comedy has responded but more importantly how he has changed his stand-up routine in light of the wave of sexual harassment and sexual assault claims in Hollywood 'I was in this documentary called The Aristocrats [released in 2005] and that wouldn't come out now. It was the telling of this foul joke but it's not right, it's the wrong thing to tell and I find myself being very cautious about how I tee up a joke like that. Adding: 'How would I want to set up a joke like that? Normally if I'm going to say something that's out of line then I say it pretty quickly and move quickly. 'If there's any repercussions I deal with them in the moment. I'm a real in the moment comedian. I'll know if I crossed the line and discuss it with them there and them. I don't want to offend anymore, just entertain.' Bob Saget is set to perform at The Leicester Square Theatre on Friday September 21. For more information click here. A heated argument between Kourtney Kardashian and ex Scott Disick played out in a teaser for Sunday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The 39-year-old reality star called Disick, 35, 'disrespectful' after he introduced girlfriend, Sofia Richie, 19 at the time, to their kids without warning. The couple share three childrenMason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three. Co-parenting: A heated argument between Kourtney Kardashian and ex Scott Disick played out in a teaser for Sunday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. . The 39-year-old reality star called Disick, 35, 'disrespectful' after he introduced girlfriend, Sofia Richie, 20, to their kids without warning 'It's called giving someone a heads up and having a respectful conversation. Giving someone the respect,' Kourtney, who wore a blue silk pajama set, said in reference to Sofia. Scott attempted to defend himself: 'Sometimes you want to do certain things or you map out certain things, but they don't always go as planned.' 'That could also just be an excuse,' the Kardashian responded. 'You just go and do whatever you want, and I'm not okay with it.' 'It's called giving someone a heads up and having a respectful conversation. Giving someone the respect,' Kourtney, who wore a blue silk pajama set, said in reference to Sofia Scott attempted to defend himself: 'Sometimes you want to do certain things or you map out certain things, but they don't always go as planned' 'That could also just be an excuse,' the Kardashian responded. 'You just go and do whatever you want, and I'm not okay with it' Disick then attempted to convince Kourtney of her flaws as they discussed his disrespectful ways. 'Do you think you're difficult?' he asked. 'No,' Kourtney said with a laugh. 'Do you think you're overly controlling?' 'No. I did have to be with you in our relationship,' she retorted. 'I expect a lot for my kids. I want the best for them.' In the KUWTK teaser, Disick attempted to convince Kourtney of her flaws as they discussed his disrespectful ways. 'Do you think you're overly controlling?' he asked 'No. I did have to be with you in our relationship,' she retorted. 'I expect a lot for my kids. I want the best for them' Richie was first seen in public with Disick's kids at Nobu Malibu on January 28. This came months after the KUWTK star denied Sofia from meeting her children. 'Kourtney is a fierce mom, and she'll do whatever it takes to protect her kids,' an insider told The Sun in October 2017. 'Kourtney doesn't want them meeting another one of Scott's new girlfriends, only for her to disappear from their lives in a month, Plus, it would kill her to see another woman 'playing mom' to her kids in public. It would break her heart.' Trio: Kourtney and Scott share three children Mason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three Scott and Sofia have been linked since May 2017. Until recently, Kourtney was romantically involved with Algerian model, Younes Bendjima. The couple split in early August after roughly two years of dating. Bendjima met the Kardashian's offspring in December 2017. She's already back to work after welcoming her second child, son Ariel, in June, And duty called on Thursday as the Victoria's Secret beauty was snapped breastfeeding her baby boy during a glitzy book launch in New York. The 29-year-old mother-of-two shared a black and white image of herself sitting cradling Ariel, with her black cocktail dress slipped off her shoulders so she could feed the tot. Multitasking mom: Candice Swanepoel shared a snap of her breastfeeding baby son Ariel during a book launch event on Thursday evening Candice captioned the Instagram shot simply 'Ariel' along with an emoji of a breastfeeding woman. The South African model has Ariel and Anaca, 23 months, with fiance Hermann Nicoli. Thursday's event, the launch of Russell James' book ANGELS, saw a slew of celebrities attend including Candice and Cindy Crawford who were hosts. Alessandra Ambrosio and current Angels Jasmine Tookes and Romee Strijd also put in super glamorous appearances. Leggy look: Thursday's event, the launch of Russell James' book ANGELS, saw a slew of celebrities attend including Candice and Cindy Crawford who were hosts Candice stunned in a black velvet mini dress and skyscraper heels with her long locks pinned back in an immaculate bun. Last month the 5ft 10in stunner preached the virtues of breastfeeding as she wrote a lengthy message on social media. 'This is the beginning of a month long celebration of the joy, the pain, the challenges & the triumphs of breastfeeding. Mother Nature is deeply invested in breastfeeding & we are uniquely designed to feed our young.' she wrote. 'Breastmilk provides information, not just nutrition- its a complex form of communication that is dependent on the endocrine system, the emotional body, the brain and the physical body. Brotherly love: Candice is also mom to son Anaca, one, and shared this cute snap of the siblings kissing last week Lingerie babe: The South African beauty has snapped back into shape less than three months after welcoming baby Ariel 'Besides the wonderful life long bond & deeply rooted connection you establish with your baby, breastfeeding also encourages the uterus to contract back to its normal size. Breastfeeding can burn up to 600 calories daily- so you need to eat & stay well hydrated to maximize production. From breastfeeding alone you may lose a pound of pregnancy weight every week.' She continued: 'Breastfeeding is also linked to lower lower incidences of breast cancer later in life.' 'Many women give up breastfeeding after the first few weeks postpartum due to pain, discomfort & no paid maternity leave. Support and community is key. Having healthy models for breastfeeding and advocates can increase breastfeeding success. #normalizebreastfeeding - this is Anacan 3 months old.' Sarah Roza is the latest Married At First Sight reject to use their fleeting reality TV fame to launch a product. The 39-year-old is currently in Singapore to shoot promotional material for her own line of 'luscious lip products.' The busty beautician has promised fans that the 'super sexy colours' can make the wearer's 'teeth look whiter,' which may be a world first for a lip gloss. 'Affordable, gorgeous, real wearable colours!' Married At First Sight's Sarah Roza is launching her own range of lip gloss products 'It's so exciting,' Sarah gushed on Instagram. 'Affordable, gorgeous, real wearable colours.' 'No coo-coo crazy colours,' she continued. 'Only classic, iconic, wearable forever loveable colours.' The single socialite also revealed that the line will be vegan and cruelty-free. Sarah isn't the first Married At First Sight star to cash in on their fifteen minutes of fame. 'No coo-coo crazy colours,' she told fans. 'Only classic, iconic, wearable forever loveable colours.' Pucker up! The 39-year-old is currently in Singapore to shoot promotional material for her own line of 'luscious lip products' Tracey Jewel memorably released her own self-help book, This Goddess Means Business, before being admitted to a mental health facility following a suicide attempt in Berlin this year. Sean Thomsen also started his own podcast called The Seany Show, which now appears to be defunct. The biggest success story from MAFS to date appears to be Davina Rankin, who had several businesses under her belt before appearing on the show. Following in Tracey's footsteps? Tracey Jewel memorably released her own self-help book, This Goddess Means Business, after appearing on MAFS Is Sarah the next Sean? Sean Thomsen also started his own podcast called The Seany Show, which now appears to be defunct Since her memorable stint on the series, the model's events company We Love Brunch Co has gone from strength to strength with a string of sold-out shindigs across Brisbane. Davina is now expanding her empire with a new event called Apres Mixer. Apres Mixer is a Brisbane-based event spearheaded by Davina and her boyfriend Jaxon Manuel for men and women to meet and 'mix.' It has been revealed that she hasn't been booked to walk in any shows during New York Fashion Week. But Kendall Jenner still took the Big Apple by storm as she stepped out in a semi-sheer top and high-waisted trousers on Friday. The reality star, 22, looked effortlessly chic as she accessorised with tiny sunglasses and toted her essentials in a red clutch. Model behaviour: Kendall Jenner looked chic in high-waisted pants and a sheer multi-colored top as she stepped out for another day of New York Fashion Week festivities Jenner, who wore her haired in a sleek bun, teetered on heeled booties as she left her NYC residence. The Calabasas native wore a swipe of lip gloss and gold chain link earrings could be seen hanging from her lobes. Accompanied by her bodyguard, Kendall hopped into a waiting SUV. Fashionista: The reality star, 22, looked effortlessly chic as she accessorised with tiny sunglasses and toted her essentials in a red clutch Picture perfect: The Calabasas native wore a swipe of lip gloss and gold chain link earrings could be seen hanging from her lobes Jenner, who says she was misquoted, recently received backlash after she bashed other models in Love Magazine's 10th-anniversary issue. 'Since the beginning, we've been super selective about what shows I would do,' she said. 'I was never one of those girls who would do like 30 shows a season or whatever the f**k those girls do. More power to 'em.' The KUWTK star addressed the supposed 'misrepresentation' on Twitter. 'It was intended to be entirely complimentary, but unfortunately my words were twisted and taken out of context,' she wrote. 'The respect I have for my peers is immeasurable.' Buddy system: Kendall was accompanied by her bodyguard as they left her NYC residence Meanwhile, Page Six reported Thursday that Kendall engaged in an 'epic make out session' with Anwar Hadid, the younger brother of her pals Gigi and Bella Hadid. The gossip site said the pair were seen 'furiously locking lips' at a party at Cipriani Downtown on Wednesday night. 'Kendall was sitting with Anwar all night and made out with him for quite some time,' a source said. 'They didn't give a d**n who saw them.' Back in June, TMZ published photos of the pair kissing at a CDFA Awards after-party in NYC. Kendall recently split from Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons after a short romance. Vince Vaughn has been charged with DUI after his arrest in Hermosa Beach, California nearly three months ago. The Los Angeles District Attorney charged the 48-year-old actor with Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and disobeying an officer according to a Friday report TMZ. This comes just days after the actor made a glamorous red carpet appearance alongside wife Kyla Weber at the Venice Film Festival in Italy on Monday. Ouch: Vince Vaughn (seen in his mugshot from back in June) has been charged with DUI and disobeying an officer by the Los Angeles District Attorney after his arrest in Hermosa Beach, California nearly three months ago according to TMZ Troubled: Vaughn - seen earlier this week - was charged with DWI and resisting while his passenger was also arrested and charged with public intoxication back in June Back in June Vaughn was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest in Hermosa Beach. He was busted early Sunday morning on June 10 at a checkpoint, according to the Manhattan Beach Police Department. A source told TMZ that Vaughn was stopped was driving with a passenger. According to a Facebook post by the Manhattan Beach police, the department held a DUI and driver's license checkpoint event from 8pm Saturday night until 3am Sunday morning. Making appearances: This comes just days after the actor made a glamorous red carpet appearance alongside wife Kyla Weber at the Venice Film Festival in Italy on Monday 'The purpose of the checkpoint is to promote public safety, increase the awareness of the dangers associated with drinking and driving, and deter impaired driving and unlicensed driving,' the post read. Vaughn was arrested by Manhattan Beach police around 1am. He was charged with DWI and resisting while his passenger was also arrested and charged with public intoxication, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Vaughn was later released on $5,000 bail. According to a Facebook post by the Manhattan Beach police (station pictured), the department held a DUI and driver's license checkpoint event from 8pm Saturday night until 3am Sunday morning The Wedding Crashers (pictured) actor was later released on $5,000 bail Vaughn most recently starred in Brawl in Cell Block 99 as a former boxer who landed in prison. He's most known for his stand-out appearances in Wedding Crashers and The Break-Up, which he starred in with Jennifer Aniston. Vaughn and Aniston dated for a little more than a year in 2006. In 2010, he married Weber. They have two children together. Earlier this year it was announced that Vaughn will be joining Kristen Stewart in Against All Enemies, which started production this spring. The movie stars Stewart as iconic actress Jean Seberg. Vaughn is set to play FBI agent Carl Kowalski in the political thriller. She's always been the calming voice at his side. But Jeff Lewis, 48, has revealed he is no longer on speaking terms with his project manager and Flipping Out co-star Jenni Pulos, after they had a huge row. Speaking on his radio show he confirmed reports, saying: 'Its true. Jenni and I did have a fight which then resulted in a rift. I havent spoken to her in three months. Row: Jeff Lewis says he hasn't spoken to Flipping Out co-star Jenni Pulos for three months after blowout fight... and says she accused him of abuse Jenni, 45, reported Jeff to both the show's production company and TV network Bravo for 'abuse and victimization', which he says could well have ended his career. Speaking on his SiriusXM radio show Jeff Lewis Live, Jeff said his actions had been thoroughly investigated by Bravo over the summer, anbd the network had cleared him of the charges. However, he said, Jenni had then taken things a step further - reporting him for wrongfully terminating her and alleging he created a 'hostile working environment.' Said Jeff: 'Her making this claim, it put my entire career in jeopardy. My family, my livelihood, everything. I just lost my job. Im pretty sure of that. But I need to get in front of the story and I have to tell my side of the story. Im a dead man walking, but I have to tell my story.' Your browser does not support iframes. Nbcuniversal Privacy Policy Family friends: Jeff and Jenni are practically family. In season 10 of Flipping Out Jenni stepped up to be a god parent to Lewis' baby girl Monroe along with Wen Haircare mogul Chaz Dean Jeff and Jenni had been friends for 16 years, and their families were close. Their personal and professional lives are so interwoven that last season Jenni stepped into the role of God Mother for Lewis' now two-year-old daughter Monroe. He denied her claims, saying: 'I would never do that to a friend of 15, 16 years. I would never put someone I love her family, I love her kids, shes a godmother to my child, I would never do that to her.' Jeff and Jenni first found fame when Flipping Out launched in 2007. Initially chronicling Jeff's house flipping business, following the property crash that year, the show was reinvented as a home decorating business. Spats between the hot-headed stars aren't uncommon and are, in fact, a major part of the show. Jeff is famous for his temper tantrums and has on numerous occasions cut ties with employees. Pulos gave birth to her second child last year and things with her boss were seemingly problematic when she returned from maternity leave. It's over! Tensions between Jenni and Jeff had been rising for months and they've officially parted ways. Their blowout fight will air on the new season of Flipping Out Family issue: Pulos gave birth to her second child last year and things were problematic when she returned from maternity leave. The mother of two is seen here with her husband and daughter from a recent trip to Hawaii in August Viewers will get a front seat to that 'horrible fight' soon enough. The design team reportedly had it out in a battle royale while cameras were rolling for the upcoming season of Flipping Out. Both Pulos and Lewis serve as executive producers on the show and the fate of Flipping Out remains to be seen. If Pulos bows out of the show, it will mark another major shift in the cast on the heels of Season 10 which ended with the tearful exit of fan-favorite Zoila Chavez. The big fight will air in the reality show's latest season that premieres on September 11. Eva Longoria has shared a sweet new photograph of her baby boy Santiago Enrique on Instagram on Friday. The 43-year-old was seen planting a kiss on her baby boy and captioned the snap: 'Smooches from Santi'. The former Desperate Housewives star gave birth to her first child, whom she has with her husband Jose 'Pepe' Baston, in June. Smooches for Santi! Eva Longoria shared this sweet snap of her baby boy on Friday She has since returned to work and has been juggling motherhood with her new ABC TV series Grand Hotel. She is an executive producer on the show, and is also directing. She regularly takes her son along to the set and shares snaps on social media for her fans. The drama, which is based on a Spanish series, focuses on the last family-hotel in Miami. 'Bring your baby to work day'! Eva took Santi onto the set of Grand Hotel earlier this week Eva was also recently cast in the new Dora the Explorer movie. She will voice the young adventurer's mother Elena 'Mami' Marquez in the upcoming live adaptation alongside Isabela Moner, who will play the titular character. Michael Pena will portray Dora's father Cole 'Papi' Marquez. And action! Baby Santi has joined his mother in the director's chair Dora the Explorer is a children's television programme which first aired in 2000 and is based around the adventures of the titular Spanish-speaking girl, her monkey Boots, her backpack and other animated friends. It ran for 14 years and was geared towards the younger viewers, with the franchise also branching out into dolls and video games. Dora the Explorer is set to hit cinema screens in 2019. She recently revealed her struggles to juggle a career with being a princess in the public eye, as well as helping organise her sister Eugenie's wedding. And Princess Beatrice seemed keen to blow off some steam as she partied with Prince Harry's best friend, Thomas 'Skippy' Inskip, in Mayfair, London. The eighth in line to the throne, who celebrated her 30th birthday last month, seemed to in good spirits as she left LouLou's private members' club in the early hours of Thursday night. Double trouble: Princess Beatrice lookED chic in A purple minidress as she partied with Prince Harry's BFF Thomas Inskip (R) at a private members' club in London on Thursday Beatrice looked as chic as ever on the night, donning a burgundy-hued dress with a pussybow neckline and a tiered skirt. Letting her statement dress do the talking, Beatrice added height with a pair of platform courts and covered up with a simple black pea coat. She seemed to be in good spirits as she strolled along with Thomas, who is one of Harry's childhood friends from Eton College. Thomas married Hon Lara Hughes-Young in Jamaica last year - one of the first times where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were first spotted together as a couple. Loving life: She seemed to be in good spirits as she strolled along with Thomas (C), who is one of Harry's childhood friends from Eton College Old pals: Thomas has accompanied Harry on endless trips, from swims in Croatia to wild trips to Las Vegas (pictured throwing snowballs from a balcony in Verbier, France, in 2011) The banker has accompanied Harry on endless headline-making trips, from swims in Croatia to wild trips to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Beatrice, who works for business management consultancy Afiniti and splits her time between London, Windsor and New York. She and sister Eugenie, 28, recently touched on everything from life in the spotlight to fashion, social media and Eugenie's upcoming wedding in a Vogue interview. At one point, they discussed living in the public eye as they say they constantly face mockery and criticism. Of doing media interviews, Beatrice said: Its hard to navigate situations like these because there is no precedent, there is no protocol. Glam: Beatrice, who works for business management consultancy Afiniti and splits her time between London, Windsor and New York 'It's hard to navigate situations like these because there is no precedent,' said Princess Beatrice, the vice-president of a technology company, who celebrated her 30th birthday this week. We are the first: we are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and were also princesses, and doing all of this in the public eye.' Eugenie, who will tie the knot with Jack Brooksbank in October, added: We want to show people who we are as working, young, royal women, but also not to be afraid of putting ourselves out there.' Nowadays its so easy to recoil when you see a perfect image on Instagram - but its important that its real. Were real. Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. She posed up a storm at the launch of her Adidas Originals Falcon collection. And one day later, Kylie Jenner enjoyed some downtime with her seven-month old daughter Stormi on Friday morning. The 21-year-old entrepreneur shared a clip of herself holding on to her baby girl as she stood up and danced in her arms, adding the caption 'My lover.' So cute: Kylie Jenner enjoyed some downtime with her seven month old daughter Stormi on Friday morning Kylie was getting ready in her bathroom; she appeared to be baking, which is a method to set your makeup. The mother of one donned a loose-fitting T-shirt with her long, blonde tresses loose and sleek. Stormi stood up and danced in her mom's arms; the seven-month-old wore adorable overalls with her hair in a top knot. Kylie captioned the short video simply with 'My lover.' Doting mother: The 21-year-old entrepreneur shared a clip of herself holding on to her baby girl as she stood up and danced in her arms, adding the caption 'My lover' Kylie welcomed Stormi on February 1 with her boyfriend Travis Scott, 26; the Kylie Cosmetics founder stepped out of the limelight during the entire course of her pregnancy. She announced news that she gave birth just days after welcoming her first child. The beauty posted a series of Instagram posts soon after while sporting a black and silver Dior T-shirt with shiny patent bottoms. The curvy makeup mogul donned the long blonde wig for the images with rainbow colored sunglasses and ombre pink nails. Focused: The beauty posted a series of Instagram posts soon after while sporting a black and silver Dior T-shirt with shiny patent bottoms; she shared the images Friday afternoon Iconic: The curvy makeup mogul donned the long blonde wig for the images with rainbow colored sunglasses Details: Her finishing touches included diamond rings and ombre pink polished nails On Thursday, Kylie attended the launch of the Falcon collection for Adidas Originals in Los Angeles. The beauty, who wore a Versus Versace black and white checkered dress, rocked the stylish shoes from her collection. She opted for long blonde hair for the event; she has been rocking platinum hair since her 21st birthday party on August 9. Hours later, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star slipped on a skintight dusty rose latex mini dress while heading to The Nice Guy in West Hollywood. All dressed up: On Thursday, Kylie attended the launch of the Falcon collection for Adidas Originals in Los Angeles Trendsetter: The beauty, who wore a Versus Versace black and white checkered dress, rocked the shoes from her collection Adidas ambassador: The stunner showed off the newest collection on her Instagram accounts in late August Va va voom: Hours later, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star slipped on a skintight dusty rose latex mini dress while heading to The Nice Guy in West Hollywood on Thursday Robbie Williams and Ayda Field reportedly kept their surrogate baby daughter a secret from fellow X Factor judge Simon Cowell. The couple excitedly announced the arrival of Colette Josephine Williams, to be known as Coco, via Ayda's Instagram page on Friday, while detailing their 'long and difficult' path to a third child in a heartfelt post. Simon, 58, and their ITV colleagues were allegedly completely blindsided by the news and had no idea the duo were expecting a new arrival. Blindsided? Robbie Williams and Ayda Field reportedly kept their surrogate baby girl Coco a secret from Simon Cowell and their X Factor colleagues 'It took everyone by surprise. Nobody could quite believe it. Even Simon Cowell didn't know,' an X Factor insider told The Sun. 'We've seen lots of Robbie and Ayda lately. They have been on great form on the judging panel. The fact they were going through so much behind the scenes has come absolutely out of nowhere,' they added. 'But obviously everybody here is delighted for them and we look forward to seeing them again at the next stage of filming.' MailOnline has contacted Simon's representative for comment. Ayda, 39, and Robbie, 44, who are parents to daughter Teddy, five, and son Charlie, three, announced the news with a black and white image of the family's hands in one frame and said they will be 'eternally grateful' to their surrogate. Shock news: The couple excitedly announced the arrival of Colette Josephine Williams, to be known as Coco, via Ayda's Instagram page on Friday Happy news: They made the announcement while detailing their 'long and difficult' path to a third child in a heartfelt post A lovely thing to say: Ayda accompanied the picture with a sweet caption which explained how full of joy the family are Ayda wrote: 'I spy with my little eye an extra little hand. So we have been keeping a very special secret! We are delighted to share with you that we have had a baby girl. welcome to the world Colette (Coco) Josephine Williams!! 'It has been a very long and difficult path to get here, which is why we have kept it on the down low. 'Family comes in all forms, and this little lady, who is biologically ours, was carried by an incredible surrogate mother, to whom we will be eternally grateful.' She continued: 'We are over the moon to have this beautiful baby girl in our lives and so blessed that we live in a world which makes this possible. 'As with Teddy and Charlie, we ask that you respect Coco's privacy and allow us to grow into our new team of 5!' In love: The couple are also parents to Theodora Rose Williams, five and Charlton Valentine Williams, three HOW COMMON IS SURROGACY IN THE UK? Surrogacy is becoming more common in the UK - with legal applications relating to surrogacy having risen six-fold in ten years. In 2007, there were only 55 parental order applications in England - the process where legal parenthood is transferred from the surrogate to the intended parents. This rose to 316 in 2016. The Department of Health and Social Care has said the rise reflects a 'broadening diversity of families, with more LGTBQ+ couples and people with fertility difficulties turning to surrogacy'. Some hospitals have insisted surrogates hand over their baby to intended parents in hospital car parks - for fear the hospitals could be caught up in legal disputes over the parenting rights of the child. But DoH guidance states 'there is no reason why the 'hand over' of the baby to the intended parents should take place outside hospital premises and hospital staff should not suggest this'. Advertisement The news comes as a complete surprise as it was unknown that the couple were on this journey. Ayda and Robbie are already parents to Theodora Rose Williams, five and Charlton Valentine Williams, three. In May, a source told Metro that they wanted more children. They said: 'Ayda and Robbie couldn't be happier with their private life but feel one more baby would complete their family. 'They're hoping it will happen for them soon, but it's tough for them to spend lots of time together as sometimes they spend weeks apart. 'But it's top of their agenda when they do get time off from their hectic schedules. It's a busy time for them as they are both judges on the new series of X Factor, so no doubt they will have their hands full. They are said to have signed a 10 million deal to take part in this series. Robbie famously referred to the experience of watching Ayda give birth to their son Charlie, as being like 'watching his favourite pub burning down.' Surrogacy is becoming more common in the UK - with legal applications relating to surrogacy having risen six-fold in ten years. Multi-tasking: It's a busy time for them as they are both judges on the new series of X Factor, so no doubt they will have their hands full Four years ago Robbie let the whole world share in his wife's labour. In fact, Robbie live-tweeted footage of legs in stirrups, feet in red glittering stilettos gyrating as Ayda joked and laughed her way through the birth. She found it hilarious though, writing: 'I thought the idea was genius. It took my mind off everything especially the pain.' And Ayda later admitted it was her idea to document the birth of the couple's second child through a series of bizarre social media videos, which went viral online. The US star was speaking about her child birth experiences on Loose Women, when she revealed she encouraged her fun-loving husband to 'goof around' in order to distract her from the pain. Fun loving pair: Ayda Field has admitted it was her idea to document the birth of her and husband Robbie Williams' second child Charlie through a series of bizarre social media videos which went viral back in 2014 The birth of Robbie and Ayda's son Charlie was caught on camera as the former Take That star posted a string of bizarre videos and pictures showing him in hospital in LA with his wife. Explaining that many people didn't believe she was actually in labour when the videos and snaps were shared online, the actress insisted: 'I was genuinely giving birth, I have to say for poor Rob he took a lot of flak but it was my idea.' 'We didn't set out to do it, it started out as me putting my heels on as a joke, I put them in the stirrups and he asked to tweet it.' The pic that started it all: 'We didn't set out to do it, it started out as me putting my heels on as a joke, I put them in the stirrups and he asked to tweet it,' Ayda explained 'When Ayda goes into labour she comes correct,' the funnyman wrote alongside the snap at the time. Robbie went onto share videos showing the pair of them dancing in their hospital room as well as him singing his hits as Ayda had contractions. 'It was 3 in the morning, a 17 hour labour. It kept me distracted, we were coming up with all sorts of funny bits,' Ayda told her Loose Women colleagues. 'It's our sense of humour, we're goofy. But I didn't think about it going viral. About an hour after the birth some lady passed by us and said 'oh my god, those videos are so funny!'. Then a cleaner told us she'd seen us on Spanish TV that morning and another said we were on Good Morning America and I went 'babe what happened?'' No idea: 'It's our sense of humour, we're goofy. But I didn't think about it going viral,' Ayda added In 2014, Robbie told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: 'I'm hooked on anything that takes my mind off me. 'It used to be food, drugs, sex, the internet, smoking or TV. Now it's my daughter.' He said: 'I'm in a content stage of my life. That's because I'm married with a kid. I'm less reckless. I thought it was all about the cars and the clothes, the girls and the house. But none of that is for me. 'With a baby girl there's a point to it other than my own ego. I'm now tethered to the planet.' The big banks don't realise how angry Australians are with them for hiking up mortgage rates, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says. His comments come after Commonwealth Bank and ANZ on Thursday followed Westpac's lead in lifting rates, with both institutions blaming growing international borrowing costs. "I think people would be disappointed with the banks in their response today and it seems that the banks still have a bit to learn about how angry the Australian public are," Mr Morrison told reporters in Melbourne on Friday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says claims one of his Liberal MPs mistreated her campaign workers have been debunked. Victorian Liberal MP Julia Banks, who is quitting politics due to bullying within her party, has denied claims she mistreated workers on her 2016 campaign. She cited bullying and intimidation tactics by male colleagues during last month's leadership spill as the reason she will leave parliament at the next federal election. Now claims aired in a confidential internal party report written after the 2016 election have been made public by The Australian. The report written by a "veteran Liberal political advisor" and submitted to Victorian Liberal director Simon Frost, accuses her of poorly treating volunteer campaign workers and having unrealistic expectations, The Australian said. Ms Banks denies the allegations. "The campaign went through a number of staff and volunteers. I believe it important to put on record the way staff and volunteers were treated as I have never seen anything like this before," the report said, according to The Australian. Ms Banks has reserved her right to take legal action over the "false allegations". Mr Morrison said there was nothing to the claims. "The 2016 report? That was dismissed by the party division last night," Mr Morrison told reporters in Melbourne on Friday. Scott Morrison and his new front bench face their first week in parliament without Malcolm Turnbull and without a majority. Speaker Tony Smith may be required to step off his chair to vote with the government to break voting deadlocks, with Mr Turnbull now out of parliament but not replaced. Labor is due to welcome back Emma Husar after she was on leave while she was investigated for bullying her staff. That puts Labor on 69 seats, while there are five crossbenchers. The government's 76-seat majority is down to just 74, with Mr Turnbull gone, and Nationals MP Keith Hogan promising to move to the cross bench. With Mr Smith in the Speaker's chair, the government will need Mr Hogan to vote with them every time to deadlock the numbers or else risk losing. In the Senate the government has a set of uncontroversial legislation it is trying to get through, as it looks to minimise opportunities for Labor to cause problems. Senators will look at amendments to Treasury laws, aged care reforms and changes to pathology health insurance rules. In the lower house, changes to laws to stop victims of family violence being cross-examined in court by offenders will be debated. MPs will also discuss changes to the My Health Record laws, which will be strengthened to protect people's privacy after controversy earlier in the year. On Wednesday the lower house will also examine legislation in preparation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership being signed. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has urged MPs to pass the legislation so the TPP can be made law and benefits can flow through to businesses. Mr Morrison's new ministers will face their first question time in their new portfolios, as Labor aims to catch them out. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will also face scrutiny over his eligibility to sit in parliament, due to government payments made to childcare centres he has a financial interest in. He will also face more questions about his use of ministerial intervention powers to give visas to two au pairs in immigration detention in 2015. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will reportedly miss his first parliamentary sitting day in the new role, as September 10 marks Rosh Hashana on the Jewish calendar. Mr Frydenberg and fellow Liberal MP Julian Leeser will be paired with Jewish Labor MPs Mark Dreyfus and Michael Danby on Monday. Videos of girls' "private parts" have been allegedly discovered on a young man's phone by police officers after he was seen acting suspiciously at a Sydney shopping centre. NSW Police officers arrested the 20-year-old on Thursday evening when he was behaving strangely at the Campbelltown shopping centre. Officers seized his laptop computer and mobile phone which allegedly contained videos of the genitals and breasts of girls and women shot at various Campbelltown locations without their knowledge. The 20-year-old was charged with 36 counts of filming people's private parts without consent and one count of behaving in an offensive manner in a public place. He was granted bail and is due to appear at Campbelltown Local Court in mid-October. An Australian Prime Minister is back to recommit to a $450 million train extension in Melbourne's southeast, but this time his name is Scott Morrison. Mr Morrison on Friday retraced his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull's footsteps in Frankston to reaffirm a $225 million federal cash splash to be matched by a Liberal state government, if re-elected. "It is a good opportunity to affirm the continuity of the commitment here. I brought down the budget in which the $225 million was in ... I am not going to take anything for granted in terms of how people understand what's been going on," he said at Leawarra train station. "I want to reassure them that those commitments that I put in the budget, they are all there. They are there to be getting on with. "We are on the same track as we outlined in the budget." He spruiked his new "congestion busting minister" Alan Tudge while also flanked by other Liberals including Dunkley MP Chris Crewther. "I wanted a pair of Melbourne eyes on congestion busting projects across the country, particularly here in Melbourne," Mr Morrison said. Mr Morrison then got lost in a spiel about a nationwide set of coalition eyes he has on the ground to inform him of "regional challenges". The original train announcement made on July 17 was for state Liberals to match a federal government commitment for the 8km electrification and duplication of the Frankston line to Baxter, if re-elected at the November state poll. There would be new stations at Frankston East near Monash University and Frankston Hospital and at Langwarrin, and an upgrade of the Baxter train station. The state government was continuing to compile a business case for the project when it was announced in July. But even Mr Guy got tongue-tied by Mr Morrison's appearance in Frankston on Friday. "It is so important that the Prime Minister is here again in Frankston today to recommit, as it is an important announcement," Mr Guy said. Mr Morrison told reporters he "had not heard" from Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews and he seemed "a little bit busy today". Mr Andrews was in Cowes making an education announcement, distracting from scrutiny over the inadvertent release of citizens' personal details as part of a Victorian government campaign to try to bring down Mr Guy over a decision he made as planning minister seven years ago. A 14-year-old boy has been charged over a stolen car crash in Melbourne which left another teenager fighting for life. The car lost control at a Hampton Park roundabout late on Tuesday afternoon and struck a pole, leaving a 15-year-old girl occupant in a critical condition and three other teenagers in the vehicle with minor injuries. A 14-year old Cranbourne North boy was due to appear before a children's court on Friday charged with motor vehicle theft. Another boy, also 14, was arrested shortly after the incident and released pending further inquiries. Detectives remain unsure who was driving the car, stolen from Springvale late last month. A driver has been charged after a 19-year-old man was killed and two other teenagers, aged 17 and 18, were injured in a car rollover in Western Australia's north. Police say the crash happened on Weaber Plain Road in Kununurra on June 30 when the driver tried to overtake another vehicle and lost control, causing the car to roll several times. The 22-year-old Wyndham man has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of dangerous driving occasioning bodily harm. A new Australian-developed blood test could help 30 million American diabetics predict whether they will develop kidney disease. Using technology developed by a Perth-based firm, doctors in the United States will be able to predict whether diabetes patients will require a kidney transplant or dialysis within four years, giving them a chance to avert a health crisis. Current tests can only detect diabetic kidney disease once there has been damage done to the organ as there are no early symptoms. The Australian test kit, called PromarkerD, was developed by Proteomics International to run proteins found in the blood which act as biomarker "fingerprints" through an algorithm that determines the likelihood of a diabetic's kidney deteriorating. CEO Dr Richard Lipscombe says the company chose to launch in the United States first because they have an efficient regulatory process and a "compelling" market size of 30 million people with diabetes. It's hoped Australia will follow within the next two years but the company needs approval from regulatory bodies first, Dr Lipscombe said. "The biggest challenge was actually getting people in the industry and community to recognise that new tests like this are available and they work," he said. "The existing test has been around for 50 years." In clinical studies, PromarkerD predicted 86 per cent of previously disease-free patients who went on to develop diabetic kidney disease within four years, according to the company. Once a patient takes their blood test, specialised clinics use their equipment to retrieve the biomarker data before sending the information to Proteomics International where a score is produced for the patient. Dr Lipscombe said he expected the company, which employs 25 people, to grow as the tests eventually make their way to markets such as China, where there are 115 million people with diabetes. The company has also begun work on similar tests for endometriosis, asthma and lung disease. A planned surcharge on foreign buyers of residential property in Western Australia may be supported by One Nation upper house MPs if the Labor state government accepts certain proposals. The Liberals have vowed to oppose the tax, saying it will drive foreign property buyers elsewhere and depress an already flat housing market. The Nationals have also threatened to not back it if Labor does not use some of the money to reverse education cuts, an argument partly extinguished after the federal government promised cash to save Moora Residential College. One Nation's WA leader Colin Tincknell said his party was working constructively with the cash-strapped state government instead of using blackmail. "We don't horse-trade that way," Mr Tincknell told AAP. But One Nation had asked the government to adopt certain amendments to the bill, and while talks continued, he would only say they were "all about fairness to the taxpayers of WA" and would "bring in even more cash to the coffers". "At this stage, we're looking at supporting it," Mr Tincknell said. Premier Mark McGowan promised a four per cent levy during the 2017 election campaign but has bumped it up to seven per cent. One Nation wanted a 15 per cent tax, which the state government would not accept as it was "a bridge too far", Mr Tincknell said. He stood by the party's decision to reject the McGowan government's gold royalty hike last year, which would have been used to reduce the state's crippling debt, but said he recognised households were now bearing the brunt of budget-repair measures. The state government was spending too much on things that could wait until the budget was back in surplus, Mr Tincknell said. These included pouring millions of dollars into a wave energy plant at Albany that will only power a modest number of homes. "Indoor swimming pools in Collie is not a priority," the South West MP said. "If you really want to fund raise, stop pork barrelling." The Northern Territory government could seize land owned by Alice Springs Town Council if it doesn't voluntarily hand it over so a National Aboriginal Art Gallery can be built. NT Labor committed $50 million to the project last year but new South Australian Liberal premier Steven Marshall gazumped them, pledging $60 million to a national home for indigenous art. The government wants to build the gallery in the CBD next to iconic Anzac Hill and while it controls an unused school on the site, the adjacent rugby field is owned by council. It is pressuring the local government body to state its position on Anzac Oval, accusing it of delaying a project that would grow visitor numbers and create local jobs in a town where tourism has dropped significantly. The council will vote in coming days on whether it will approve bulldozing the rugby complex, which received a multimillion dollar upgrade in 2014 that the previous CLP government paid for. The territory government, which says it cannot attract the investment nationally it needs on top of the $50 million it has pledged until it secures the site, can legally compulsorily acquire the land. Tourism and Culture Minister Lauren Moss and Alice Springs-based Braitling MP Dale Wakefield handed over a survey of 755 people including Aboriginal leaders to the council showing 88 per cent of people supported the project, with most backing the site or neutral. "They have got a decision to make," Ms Wakefield told reporters in Alice Springs. "We are now at a stage where we do need to make a decision so we can get on with this project. "We are looking forward to working with council to get a good decision that leads to really positive outcomes for the community of Alice Springs." Ms Moss said while she was not opposed to South Australia investing in art and culture, she believed Central Australia was the rightful home for a national Aboriginal gallery. Ms Moss said she was confident the gallery would be built by 2022, before South Australia's. A man has died after crashing his car into a tree near Brisbane. The 24-year-old was driving on Castle Hill Drive at Murrumba Downs on Friday afternoon when he passed through a roundabout and crashed into a tree on the opposite side of the road, police said. He died at the scene while a 17-year-old male passenger was seriously injured and taken to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. Two other male passengers, aged 17 and 18, and an 18-year-old female were transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Today's birthday: Australian political cartoonist Paul Zanetti (1961 - ). As a young man Paul Zanetti was often thrown out of class for drawing cartoons of his teachers. Little did they know those very cartoons would win a Walkley Award at just 23. Born on September 8 1961 in Wollongong on the NSW South Coast, Zanetti was one of six boys born to Italian migrant parents. Growing up, he says he was often the target of racism in the schoolyard. "My surname was a curse, in that it made me a target in the 1970s," he once wrote on the Pickering Post. "My way of handling it was to laugh it off. I picked up a pen and taught myself how to draw cartoons." At the age of 16, while still a schoolboy, Zanetti began contributing those cartoons to the Sydney Sun, which eventually led to a cadetship in the art department. The cadetship proved to be focused more on the technical aspects of the newspaper business rather than cartooning, but a helping hand from someone in the industry got him back on track. Zanetti says he was just 15 when he first met Larry Pickering, who at the time was a "national superstar cartoonist" at The Australian. "Keep at it chief, I reckon you've what it takes," Pickering told him, and years later he orchestrated a meeting for the kid from Wollongong to meet with the editor of the Daily Telegraph and News Ltd. "And by 18 I was sitting in my own little office drawing daily cartoons at The Tele," Zanetti wrote. By 1983 Zanetti's work had seen him become the youngest winner of a Walkley Award. In 1990 he moved to the US where he studied the country's system of syndication, which helps cartoonists have their work featured in as many newspapers as possible. On his return to Australia, Zanetti's website says he pioneered political cartoon syndication at home. Zanetti's political cartoons have featured in newspapers all over Australia and across the world. A third person has been charged after a young woman died in a hit-and-run in inner Sydney. A 20-year-old woman was walking across Lachlan Street in Waterloo about 2.15pm on Thursday when she was struck and thrown into oncoming traffic, police said on Friday. She suffered critical injuries and later died in hospital. Police say the car, believed to be a white Kia Rio hatchback, failed to stop. On Friday, a 50-year-old woman was arrested in Dapto, near Wollongong, and charged with hindering police officers, knowingly making a false or misleading statement, and acting with the intention to pervert the course of justice. A short time later, a 21-year-old man known to the woman handed himself in at Wollongong Police Station and was charged with a string of driving offences including dangerous driving occasioning death, failing to stop and assist and proceeding through a red traffic light. About 7.10pm, another 21-year-old man, who is alleged to have been a passenger in the car, was arrested in Wollongong. All three have been refused bail to appear at Wollongong Local Court on Saturday. A man is in serious condition after being stabbed a number of times at a Sydney home in what is believed to be a domestic violence incident. The 31-year-old man was found at a residence on Blacktown Road, Seven Hills, late on Friday night with multiple stab wounds to the abdomen. His alleged attacker had fled the scene and police are hunting him. The victim has been taken to Westmead Hospital where he is undergoing surgery. A pregnant 29-year-old woman who witnessed the incident was taken to Blacktown Hospital as a precaution. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 More than 100 specialist NSW firefighters will start returning to Sydney after battling massive wildfires along the United States west coast and Canada. The contingent flew to North America in July and August to help tackle wildfires burning in northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. NSW Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant said the state was fortunate to have such highly-skilled and respected firefighters. "These men and women put their lives on hold to go and support their international counterparts," Mr Grant said in a statement on Saturday. "It really is testament to their selflessness and professionalism, and I thank every one of them for their incredible dedication and service." The NSW Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW officers received praise from their respective commissioners who said they were pleased to have the crews home safe and sound. "They all deserve a well-earned rest before we call on them here, as the fire activity builds over the coming weeks," NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in a statement. Fire and Rescue NSW deputy Commissioner Jim Hamilton said their courage and commitment has further enhanced Australia's reputation as a "world leader" in forest firefighting. The crews were dispatched after formal requests from the National Resource Sharing Centre from US fire authorities and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Five people have been arrested during a protest outside a Melbourne CBD hotel against conservative UK politician Nigel Farage's speaking tour. About 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Sofitel on Collins St on Friday night, where the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party gave his last Australian tour speech. Five people were arrested, one for criminal damage, another for riotous behaviour and a third for covering their face and assaulting police, while two others were arrested for unrelated outstanding matters, police said. Musk late last week announced that the company would continue to be publicly traded, weeks after suggesting that he would take the pioneering electric carmaker private A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses Tesla chief Elon Musk of trying to "burn" short-sellers by falsely tweeting that funding had been secured to take the electric car maker private. The law firm of Labaton Sucharow said in a release that it filed a suit in US federal court in San Francisco on behalf of short seller Andrew Left and that it is asking for class action status to represent anyone who bought or sold Tesla shares between August 7 and August 17. "This appears to be a textbook case of fraud," law firm partner Michael Canty said in the release. "We believe Musk attempted to manipulate the price of Tesla securities with false and misleading tweets, in a directed effort to harm short-sellers." Musk late last week announced that the company would continue to be publicly traded, weeks after suggesting that he would take the pioneering electric carmaker private. Musk met Tesla's board of directors "and let them know that I believe the better path is for Tesla to remain public. The Board indicated that they agree," he wrote on the company blog. Musk surprised markets on August 7 by announcing on Twitter he wanted to take Tesla private at $420 a share, causing the stock price to jump. Short-sellers bet on share prices dropping. After the announcement the controversial entrepreneur came under extensive scrutiny over his Twitter statements related to the proposal, especially a claim that Tesla had "secured" funding for the move. Tesla shares tumbled on reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed Musk to talk about the tweet. Normally such a major announcement -- taking a huge company private -- would be explained in detail beforehand to regulators. Musk has described the infamous privatization tweet -- including his assurance that funding for going private was secured -- as an attempt to be transparent. The news shocked investors, market analysts and even Tesla board members. Musk explained on the company blog that his much-scrutinized statements about financing were based on his conversations with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and other investors. The lawsuit listing the company and its chief as defendants contends that funding to take Tesla private was not in place, and that Musk's false tweets to the contrary were intended to "burn" short-sellers, whom he has taunted. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a key summit in Russia Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a regional summit in Russia next week, officials said Friday, joining the prime ministers of Japan and South Korea at a gathering to which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was invited. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Kim to participate in the September 11-13 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Kim has not confirmed his attendance, but his participation would mark another major step in his efforts to bring Pyongyang out of international isolation over its nuclear weapons programme. At a press briefing to announce Xi's visit, Chinese officials would not comment on whether Xi planned to meet with other leaders during the summit. "Should we have any proposals from other countries, China will positively consider" them, assistant foreign minister Zhang Hanhui told reporters. Kim and Xi met three times in China this year as the two countries seek to repair relations frayed by North Korea's nuclear activities and Beijing's backing of United Nations sanctions against its Cold War-era ally. Xi is sending the head of China's rubber-stamp legislature, Li Zhanshu, to Pyongyang this weekend to attend celebrations marking North Korea's 70th anniversary, ending speculation that the Chinese president would use the occasion to make his first official trip to the neighbouring country. In the latest chapter in the roller-coaster diplomacy over North Korea, US President Donald Trump signalled on Thursday that negotiations on denuclearisation remain alive after weeks of an apparent deadlock. Xi will be in Vladivostok on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be the first time that a Chinese leader participates in the annual economic forum hosted by Russia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean premier Lee Nak-yeon are expected to attend the summit. Relations between China and Japan soured in 2012 over a territorial dispute, but have begun to warm. In recent months, the two sides have been negotiating an exchange of top level visits. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they prepare to join a three-way summit hosted by Iran's Hassan Rouhani that is set to decide the future of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey were due to meet Friday in Tehran for talks on the future of Idlib province amid growing fears of a humanitarian disaster in Syria's last major rebel bastion. Two people were killed in the northwestern province by Russian air strikes, according to a monitor, even as Russian leader Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran shortly after his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erodgan. The two men, shown arriving by plane by Iranian state television, were due to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rohani. The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention which has eclipsed the Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the UN. Iranian and Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has shored up the Damascus regime, allowing it to regain the upper hand in the seven-year civil war which has claimed some 350,000 lives since 2011. Smoke rises after an air strike near the Idlib province village of Kafr Ain on September 7, 2018 as the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey prepared to meet in Tehran for a summit expected to decide the future of Syria's last major rebel bastion On Friday morning, Russian air raids pounded rebel positions in the southwest of Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. Hundreds of civilians have already begun to flee Idlib as government forces and their allies ready for what could be the last -- and bloodiest -- major battle of the devastating conflict. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control. The province is home to some three million people -- around half of them displaced from other parts of the country, according to the United Nations. - 'Horrific scenario' - Neighbouring Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels, fears the assault could prompt a flood of desperate Syrians towards its territory. Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control But regime backers Russia and Iran have sworn to wipe out "terrorists" and Assad has declared his determination to retake control of the entire country. Eight leading aid agencies warned Friday that "once again, it will be the most vulnerable who will pay the heaviest price". They appealed to world leaders to "urgently work together to avoid this horrific scenario". The Tehran talks could determine the scale and the timeline of the Idlib offensive, which the UN has warned may displace some 800,000 people. Iranian television reported the three leaders would each have "bilateral meetings" on the sidelines of the main summit. They are also due to hold a press conference. Just hours later, the UN Security Council will also meet, at Washington's request, to discuss Idlib. Risk of humanitarian crisis in Idlib Russia wants Turkey, which borders the province, to use its influence to rein in the dominant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, as well as rival rebels. Turkey has limited sway over the jihadists who control an estimated 60 percent of the province, but it backs other rebel groups and has 12 military "observation points" across the area. Idlib's population has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories across the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed there. - 'Liquidation of terrorists' - Russia has said the Syrian army is preparing to solve the problem of "terrorism" in the rebel stronghold and reiterated Friday that its position had not changed. The Tehran meetings could determine the scale and the timeline of the Idlib offensive "A total and definitive liquidation of the terrorists across all of Syria's territory is necessary," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She stressed however that Moscow "is doing everything in its power to ensure that human losses and harm to Idlib's civilian population is limited as much as possible". Her Iranian counterpart, Bahram Ghassemi, assured Damascus of Tehran's support and willingness to "continue its role as adviser and help" for the Idlib campaign. Al-Watan, a Syrian newspaper close to the government, reported Monday the military operation could "immediately follow the summit". Analyst Sam Heller with the International Crisis Group said there was some hope of a deal. Any new flood of refugees towards Turkey would come at a time when Ankara is "vulnerable," he told AFP, adding it would be a "huge new burden on Turkey and would overwhelm its humanitarian capacities." "I don't think that either of these countries, or really anyone, has an interest in doing something which is genuinely destabilising to Turkey," he added. Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos, shown here voting in last year's election won by Joao Lourenco, says he wants to be remembered for his dignified exit from the office he held since 1979 Ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos will bow out from Angolan politics which he dominated for nearly four decades when he hands leadership of the ruling party to President Joao Lourenco on Saturday. The passing of the baton between the two men will be the climax of a handover marked by barely disguised friction and new policies challenging Dos Santos's legacy. As his rule came to an end, Dos Santos said he wanted to be remembered for his dignified exit from the office he held since 1979. The 76-year-old liberation war veteran did not seek re-election in the August 2017 polls and handed the reins of power to his defence minister Lourenco, 64. But he remained at the helm of the oil-rich country's People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party, where real power is seen to be vested. On Saturday "Comrade Number One" will relinquish control of the MPLA to Lourenco at an extraordinary party meeting, underlining the shift of power in the southern African nation of 28 million people. "The stepping down of Jose Eduardo Dos Santos as MPLA president is an important watershed moment," said Alex Vines, an Angola expert at the Chatham House think-tank in London. "It's been a bumpy transition with a bit of tug-of-war over power between (them)." By choosing a successor from within his own regime, Dos Santos had thought he would be assured a peaceful handover. He had earlier given control of strategic sectors of the economy to close confidants -- including the state oil giant to his daughter Isabel. Dos Santos also appointed loyalists to head the country's security forces. - Purge of the old guard - But Lourenco quickly moved to assert his authority after being elected president last year, beginning to dismantle his predecessor's empire. On the premise of rebooting the listless economy, Lourenco deposed Isabel from the top job at Sonangol as well as her half-brother Jose "Zenu" Filomeno from the leadership of Angola's sovereign wealth fund. Filomeno has since been charged with misappropriating public funds while Isabel faces several graft investigations. On the premise of rebooting the listless economy, Lourenco deposed Isabel Dos Santos from the top job at Sonangol as well as her half-brother Jose "Zenu" Filomeno from the leadership of Angola's sovereign wealth fund Many of Dos Santos's acolytes have been purged from the highest echelons of Angolan public life including the army and police chiefs as well as executives at state-owned companies. The clear-out created ructions at the top of the state and the party, drawing comment from the former president himself. "The changes are necessary but shouldn't be too radical," Dos Santos said in December. In recent months, the two men and their staffs have been seeking to make amends and smoothe the way to the final handover. "Everything is going normally, there hasn't been any turbulence," said Luzia Ingles, secretary general of the party's women's league. But the fissure between the two men had come close to breaking point. - 'For the good of the country'? - Dos Santos had originally proposed stepping down from the party leadership by April 2019 -- but Lourenco insisted it must be Saturday. "Lourenco is already entirely autonomous as shown by his sacking of the Dos Santos children -- all of the country's sectors have been purged," said Benjamin Auge, an analyst at the French Institute for International Relations. Marcolino Moco, who was prime minister between 1992 and 1996 and the MPLA's former secretary general, backed the changes. Joao Lourenco, Dos Santos's handpicked successor, was sworn in last September "The measures undertaken by Lourenco are encouraging -- he hasn't taken them to cement his power, but for the good of the country." Since his election, Lourenco -- dubbed "JLo" -- has enacted sweeping reforms of the oil sector, the country's leading source of revenue, with the aim of reassuring investors. But the task facing the president is daunting: chronic unemployment, sluggish growth and alarming deficits have dogged Africa's second-largest producer of crude. Highlighting the impending storm, Angola has said it will seek a $4.5 billion (3.87 billion euro) loan from the International Monetary Fund. "Lourenco will hopefully turn to longer-term structural reforms," Vines said. He added that breaking the country's "economic addiction to oil" would be key to progress along with "creating jobs as Lourenco prepares for elections in 2022". The Supreme Court's ruling caused jubilation among India's LGBT community Indian media on Friday -- including some conservative outlets -- hailed a Supreme Court ruling to decriminalise gay sex whilst highlighting a "deafening" silence from Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government. Banner front page headlines such as "Love at First Right", "Rainbow Nation" and "Independence Day" greeted the verdict of the top court to strike down the heart of Section 377, a law introduced by British rulers in 1861. Many said the five justices may have opened the doors to demands for greater civil rights for long-marginalised gays and lesbians, including same-sex marriage. The conservative Hindu newspaper called the verdict "a reaffirmation of the right to love" and "a welcome depature from centuries of 'hetero-normative' thinking". The judges had "furthered the frontiers of personal freedom and liberated the idea of personal rights from the pressure of public opinion," it added in an editorial. The Hindusan Times warned that the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender community will still face condemnation from their families and colleagues. "Harassment and violence will continue to occur," it warned. "But if the long legal battle and the courage of queer people and communities are anything to go by, this fight for equal rights will not end. It will grow even stronger now that even the apex court has said there is no going back." Amid pictures of celebrating activists, Google India put out a rainbow flag on its homepage and Facebook changed its display picture to a multi-hued icon. The court ruled the colonial era law effectively making gay sex illegal was unconstitutional The United Nations and rights activists around the world gave Twitter support to the Supreme Court ruling. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government has yet to make a comment on the ruling. Modi's administration had initially opposed dismantling Section 377, though in July government lawyers said they would give in to the "wisdom" of the top court. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the government should have taken a categorical stand one way or the other instead of being ambivalent, the Hindu newspaper reported the judge as saying. The Indian Express daily said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's silence on the issue was "deafening" and "deceptive". India's main opposition Congress and other small regional parties have welcomed the verdict. The BJP's ideological Hindu nationalist backer, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said it does not consider homosexuality a crime but it did not support same-sex relations. "Traditionally, Indian society does not accept such relations," it said in a statement. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been beset by policy squabbles with coalition partners and plummeting business confidence New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern faced her first major crisis Friday over her handling of a gaffe-prone minister's resignation. Ardern swept to power on a wave of "Jacinda-mania" late last year, with her centre-left Labour Party leading a coalition that promised "a government of change". The optimism surrounding her administration was enhanced in June when she gave birth to daughter Neve -- becoming only the second female leader in the world to have a baby in office. But the lustre surrounding the 38-year-old has dimmed in recent weeks amid policy squabbles with coalition partners and plummeting business confidence. Ardern revealed Friday that her government had suffered its first casualty, with Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran resigning after using a private email account to conduct government business. Curran, who had been disciplined twice previously for failing to declare meetings, said she faced "intolerable pressure" and did not want to become a distraction for the government. But it was the way Ardern dealt with the problem that drew most criticism, with opponents accusing her of misleading the public. Asked on talkback radio on Friday morning whether she was considering firing Curran, she replied: "No, I think she's paid her price. "We want to make sure that you don't set the bar so high that you have a situation where you show a bit of human frailty and you lose your job over it." In fact, Ardern had accepted Curran's resignation the previous night but failed to mention it during the 10-minute interview. Ardern later insisted that she answered the question correctly but opposition leader Simon Bridges zeroed in on her evasiveness, saying she had mishandled the affair. "The prime minister needs to explain why she misled New Zealanders this morning by saying Ms Curran's job was safe when Ms Curran says she resigned last night," he said. "This whole saga has seriously damaged the credibility of both the prime minister and the government." Another of Ardern's ministers, Meka Whaitiri, has stood aside from her customs portfolio while under investigation for an alleged physical altercation with a staffer. Meanwhile coalition partner New Zealand First, led by populist veteran Winston Peters, has undermined her election pledge to lift New Zealand's refugee quota. Ardern also came under fire this week for arriving late at a Pacific summit in Nauru to minimise time away from her baby, although defenders labelled such criticism petty and overly partisan. The group was part of a larger protest against a government plan to redevelop an area in Hong Kong for housing Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal on Friday quashed jail sentences for 13 pro-democracy activists who stormed the city's legislative council in a dramatic 2014 protest. The group were earlier sentenced to between eight and 13 months after the government successfully sought to overturn a previous punishment of community service and seek harsher terms. All 13 were already on bail pending their appeal. They included democracy activists, student leaders and villagers from Hong Kong's rural northeast who had been convicted of unlawful assembly for forcing their way into the territory's legislature. The group was part of a larger protest against a government plan to redevelop the area for housing, which they said was being waved through without proper consultation. Their actions came weeks before the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement mass rallies which brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for more than two months. Activists said they were "happy and excited" about the result and denied using violence in the protest. "We had no intention at all to hurt anybody," said Raphael Wong, one of the 13 protesters. Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong faced more restrictions and demonstrators would have to be "well-disciplined" in future, he added. It was the second time this year that the city's highest court freed democracy activists who had been jailed after their lighter original sentences were increased on appeal from the government. In February, three leaders of the Umbrella Movement including student activist Joshua Wong won an appeal against their jail terms in a case seen as a test of the independence of the city's judiciary. They had also originally been given community service or suspended sentences which had been switched to jail terms. Hong Kong has been governed under a "one country, two systems" arrangement since 1997, when Britain handed the territory back to China. The deal allows citizens rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary. But there are growing concerns that the semi-autonomous city's rights are under threat as Beijing tightens its grip. Pakistan PM Imran Khan's campaign rhetoric earlier this year raised fears he was mainstreaming extremist Islamist thought Pakistan premier Imran Khan's government backed down Friday over its controversial decision to appoint a member of a persecuted religious minority as an economic advisor, underscoring the pressure it faces from hardline Islamists. Atif Mian, an MIT-educated Pakistani-American economics professor at Princeton University, was recently named member of a new economic advisory council. Mian is an Ahmadi, a religious minority which has long been persecuted in deeply conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, and the announcement sparked swift backlash from Islamist groups. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, but their beliefs are seen as blasphemous in most mainstream Islamic schools of thought. They are designated non-Muslims in Pakistan's constitution. Government officials initially defended the decision, with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry vowing "Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority... we will not bow to extremists" in a video clip which went viral. Three days later his government caved to mounting pressure from the religious right. "The government has decided to withdraw the nomination of Atif Mian from the economic advisory committee," Chaudhry tweeted, saying they wanted to work with all sections of society, including Islamic clerics. Mian later tweeted to say he had stepped down "as the Government was facing a lot of adverse pressure... from the Mullahs (Muslim clerics) and their supporters". "My prayers will always be with Pakistan and I will always be ready to help it," he added. Blasphemy is a hugely inflammatory charge in Pakistan, and can carry the death penalty. The state has never executed a blasphemy convict, but mere accusations of insulting Islam have sparked mob lynchings, vigilante murders and mass protests. Analysts have warned that Pakistan's economy is the most urgent challenge facing Khan's new government, which has said it will decide by the end of this month if it will seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Hours after Friday's announcement, Khan appeared on television to appeal for Pakistanis to donate money to help build new water storage dams, underscoring the government's fragile economic position. Official estimates show that by 2025 Pakistan will be facing an "absolute scarcity" of water. - Hostage to hate - Friday's decision to withdraw Mian's nomination divided Pakistani social media, with the hardliners praising it while others slammed the government's "cowardice" and Khan's failure to hold firm under pressure. "This is sad and shameful. Pakistan should be for all not a hostage to some hate mongers," wrote consultant and columnist Yousuf Nazar. But another user, Farkhi, tweeted: "Those who are ashamed can go to hell with their thoughts." The decision came after Islamists also forced the federal law minister to resign following anti-blasphemy protests last November, in a deal brokered by the military. Those protests were led by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a radical preacher whose political party, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), also contested the July 25 election which brought Khan's government to power. TLP won more than 2.23 million votes in the national assembly and more than 2.38 million provincial votes -- a spectacular rise for an organisation that gained national prominence less than a year earlier. Khan, meanwhile, caused concern with his full-throated defence of Pakistan's blasphemy laws during his campaign, with fears he was mainstreaming extremist thought. Last month his government protested plans by Dutch populist Geert Wilders to stage a Prophet Mohammad cartoon competition, as TLP held demonstrations calling for Pakistan to sever diplomatic relations with the Netherlands. Wilders later cancelled the competition, citing security fears. Khan and his cabinet face a myriad of challenges including a faltering economy, militant extremism, water shortages, and a rapidly growing population negating growth in the developing country. Support for gay rights in Singapore has been growing in recent years A senior Singapore diplomat Friday urged the country's gay community to challenge a law banning homosexual sex after India's top court stuck down similar legislation, a rare high-level intervention on the issue. Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large in the Singapore foreign ministry, made the comments on Facebook in response to a post about Thursday's historic ruling, which followed a decades-long campaign against the law in the South Asian nation. "I would encourage our gay community to bring a class action to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A," Koh said, referring to the law which criminalises sex between men. Responding to a comment that previous petitions to strike down the law were unsuccessful, Singapore's former US ambassador and envoy to the United Nations said: "Try again." While Singapore boasts a modern and vibrant culture, attitudes towards homosexuality remain conservative. Sex between men remains technically illegal under a law dating back to British colonial rule, although the statute is rarely enforced. Despite the challenges, support for gay rights has been growing in recent years in the city-state of 5.6 million. Huge crowds attended the 10th anniversary of Singapore's annual Pink Dot gay rights rally in July. Pink Dot, Singapore's leading gay rights group, said the Indian ruling showed attitudes towards homosexuals were "positively changing in Asia" and called on parliament to decriminalise gay sex. In 2014, Singapore's highest court dismissed a constitutional challenge to the law and said it was up to parliament to repeal it. Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said the government was caught in between a majority of Singaporeans opposing the repeal of the law and a "growing minority" who want it abolished. "Really I think society has to decide which direction it wants to go," he added. "The laws will have to keep pace with the changes in society." Aid group Doctors Without Borders has urged the evacuation of thousands of migrants trapped in detention centres in Tripoli, which is under a fragile ceasefire after deadly clashes Aid group Doctors Without Borders on Friday urged the evacuation of thousands of migrants trapped in detention centres in Libya's capital Tripoli, which is under a fragile ceasefire after deadly clashes. The ceasefire brokered by the United Nations was agreed between armed groups Tuesday after at least 63 people were killed in days of fighting around the city. Doctors Without Borders, also known under its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said migrants in squalid detention centres close to the frontline could yet come under shelling and artillery fire. Analysts say the ceasefire is doomed without a sustainable political agreement between the myriad armed groups. Ibrahim Younis, MSF's mission chief in Libya, said food supplies to the detention centres were sparse as international groups had been forced to suspend their work due to the clashes. The charity has been completely cut off from one of the most crowded detention centres, depriving some 700 people of aid, and has pulled some staff from the city. The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, last week said it had "evacuated" some 300 migrants from the Ain Zara detention centre to another a few kilometres away as they risked getting caught in the crossfire. But Younis said this was not good enough. "Moving endangered refugees and migrants from one detention centre to another in the same conflict zone cannot be described as an evacuation and it is certainly not a solution," he said in a statement. The aid group called on the UNHCR and the governments of peaceful countries to organise a mass evacuation for the migrants, who could then claim asylum. The International Organization for Migration could arrange for those seeking to return home to do so, MSF said. The group also called on the European Union and Libyan authorities to stop blocking boatloads of migrants seeking to flee the conflict-torn country, "with the goal of reducing arrivals to Europe at all costs". Sub-Saharan African migrants have suffered appalling abuses since Libya descended into chaos following the death of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. A video showing African migrants being sold as slaves sparked global outrage last year. Some 8,000 people picked up by the Libyan coastguard while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe are being indefinitely held in detention centres, according to the UNHCR. EU countries have offered support and training to the Libyan coastguard in a bid to stem the influx of migrants to Europe. The head of Ethiopia's controversial project damming waters of the Blue Nile committed suicide, state media reported Friday. The body of Simegnew Bekele, project manager and public face of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, was found in a parked car in the capital Addis Ababa's in July with a gunshot wound to the head. "His death was a suicide" from a "contact shoot", state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported, citing an unnamed police official. The investigation into his death is continuing, Fana added. Ethiopians reacted with dismay to the death of Simegnew, whose body was found in a parked car in the capital's central Meskel Square. At his funeral, clashes broke out between police and bystanders who tried to push past their lines. The $4-billion (3.2-billion-euro) dam, being built near the country's western border with Sudan, will be Africa's largest when completed, producing 6,000 megawatts -- the rough equivalent of six large nuclear reactors. But the scheme faces opposition from Egypt, which is crucially dependent on the Nile and worries that downstream flows could be affected. The Blue and the White Nile converge in Sudan's capital Khartoum and from there run north, crossing Egypt before emptying in the Mediterranean. Copies of the China Daily fresh off the printing press pile up before distribution in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in this January 3, 2013 file picture Kenyan police on Friday briefly detained a Chinese journalist, just days after a raid on another Chinese broadcaster, as part of an immigration crackdown that has frustrated Bejing embassy officials. Police entered the offices of the China Daily newspaper in Nairobi demanding the documents of staff before hauling deputy bureau chief Liu Hongjie to the police station despite having verified his work permit online. "His work permit is valid. They even checked it online at his office. But he was still be taken away," said embassy spokesman Zhang Ghang, adding the journalist was later released. Police on Wednesday raided the African headquarters of the China Global Television Network (CGTN), briefly detaining eight journalists, as well as five other nationals employed in the same building. The Chinese embassy expressed concern at an increase in detentions of its nationals even though they hold legal documents. Government spokesman Erick Kiraithe told AFP the raid on CGTN was a "mistake", without elaborating. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing in Beijing that Kenya had "admitted inadequacies in law enforcement and apologised". 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. Last week the interior ministry released a hotline number for members of the public to report suspected illegal immigrants. Police have been stopping foreigners in malls, restaurants and other establishments and demanding they identify themselves, however no other raids on workplaces have so far been reported. On Thursday a Chinese businessman was arrested and deported after a video of him making a string of racist remarks was widely shared on social media. Zhang said that the video dated to June and that the person in question had already been punished by his company. 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 attended a two-day China-Africa forum in Beijing this week discussing the financing of the railway's second phase linking the Rift Valley town of Naivasha to Kisumu near the Ugandan border, at a cost of a further $3.5 billion. North Korea is preparing to celebrate its 70th anniversary and has invited foreign diplomats and media North Korea is preparing to mark the 70th anniversary of its foundation this weekend with a series of festivities, expected to include a military parade and the return of its renowned 'Mass Games' after a five-year absence. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the North is officially known, was proclaimed on September 9, 1948, three years after Moscow and Washington divided the peninsula between them in the closing days of the Second World War. Such set-piece dates are a mainstay of the North's political calendar, particularly when round numbers are involved, and it is pulling out all the stops this time. The military parades - overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, the third of his family to rule the country - are crucial to Korea-watchers, who observe them closely for clues about its latest military advances. Traditionally they see nuclear-armed Pyongyang show off its latest hardware, culminating earlier this year in intercontinental ballistic missiles rolling through Kim Il Sung Square. But analysts say the North may not put them on display this time with the peninsula in the throes of a diplomatic rapprochement, and may instead adopt milder messaging focussed on the economy and technological development. Reports say rehearsals for a military parade have been spotted at a training ground on the outskirts of the capital and at night in the city centre. And at the parade venue, the portraits of the North's founder and his son and successor Kim Jong Il have been covered up, most likely to protect them during the preparations. Practices for the Mass Games, which typically involve 100,000 performers or more in a spectacular display against an ever-changing backdrop at the May Day stadium, have been going on for months. Hundreds of drum-carrying youths dressed in white can be seen streaming out of the stadium every evening, and at night the sound of rehearsals echoes across the city. The show will be titled "The Glorious Country", according to the North's official KCNA news agency. Diplomatic invitations for the anniversary have gone out around the world, but few heads of state are known to be attending. Despite speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinping would go, the delegation from the North's key ally and main diplomatic protector will be headed by Li Zhanshu, one of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, its most powerful body. But Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz will attend, KCNA reported, and French actor Gerard Depardieu was spotted by AFP at a Pyongyang hotel Friday. More than 120 foreign journalists have been allowed to go to Pyongyang to cover the events, its largest-scale media invitation in recent years. But neither the reporters nor resident diplomats have yet been told of the exact schedule - nor even whether a parade will definitely go ahead. Such secrecy is standard procedure in the North. Abubakar has described Nigeria as a 'number of countries in one country' The political make-up of Africa's most populous nation is coming under scrutiny after a leading election hopeful promised greater devolution if he becomes president at polls next year. Nigeria's former vice-president Atiku Abubakar said this week he was in favour of handing more powers to the country's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory if he wins in February. "Over the years, since (the) military got involved governing the country, they have created too many states and concentrated a lot of power in the centre," he said. "So, we believe we should return to the principles of true federalism: devolving more power and resources to the components of federalism in terms of security, healthcare, education." Such issues "will be best dealt with by people nearer to the people than the FG (federal government), which is too far away", Abubakar, 71, told reporters in an interview. In July, states and local governments received 656.6 billion naira ($1.8 billion, 1.6 billion euros) from a total of 821.9 billion naira in federal funding, according to official statistics. The money shared out from the central account comes from revenue generated by the states themselves. But more prosperous states -- particularly those in the oil-producing south -- have long complained they are subsidising less productive counterparts, especially those in the more impoverished north. - 'Bottle feeding' - Abubakar's call for a loosening of federal ties is significant because it stands at odds with the position of his fellow politicians from the north, including Buhari. Until now, the idea has had more support in the south. Nigeria as a single entity dates back to 1914 when British colonial rulers amalgamated northern and southern Nigeria for commercial purposes. But there have been tensions ever since -- and questions about whether the union can hold -- because of ethnic, cultural and religious divisions. Regional identity is fiercely guarded in Nigeria, which is almost evenly divided between a mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian south. The most obvious division has been between the north and south. Abubakar, who was president Olusegun Obasanjo's deputy from 1999 to 2007, described Nigeria as "a number of countries in one country". Critics of the current political set-up, such as the Restructure Nigeria group, have called the current system of allocations "unfair, ridiculous and bizarre" and suggested it provides no incentives and breeds corruption. Militancy in the oil-producing south has largely been fuelled by demands for greater control of the revenue generated by oil and gas Ending "unitary 'feeding bottle' federalism" and giving states more control of areas from natural resources to policing would kickstart moribund local economies and improve security, they argue. Militancy in the oil-producing south has largely been fuelled by demands for greater control of the revenue generated by oil and gas. Repeated lack of central funding for infrastructure has equally contributed to the revival of separatist sentiment in the southeast. But Buhari's administration has maintained that good governance and better execution of infrastructure projects is more important than restructuring. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said last month: "It is about managing resources properly and providing for the people properly, that is what it is all about." He recalled his time as a commissioner in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, between 1999 and 2007 and how he fought for financial autonomy for the state. "We felt that there was a need for the states to be stronger, for states, to more or less, determine their fortunes." Osinbajo on Tuesday said Abubakar lacked proper understanding of restructuring, calling his plan "vague" and ill thought-out. - Support - Abubakar, who wants to secure the ticket for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, admitted that his position would not be popular in his native northeast Nigeria. But it could be a canny political move to win support in the south, which traditionally has not been inclined to back northern Muslim candidates. The ethnic Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere in the southwest has led calls for greater devolution. The region includes megacity Lagos - a key election battleground and must-win prize for any presidential hopeful. "When people talk about good governance and promise good roads, agricultural development and all that, we just laugh," Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo, said last weekend. Nigeria faces numerous security challenges ranging from jihadist attacks to a separatist movement in the southeast "There must be a country first before any development." Nigeria is riven with security challenges from Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast to Biafran separatists in the southeast and violence between farmers and herders in central states. Peace and stability would be elusive without restructuring, he added. ULIMO fighters performing a war dance west of the Liberian capital Monrovia on September 2, 1992 France has detained a suspected former militant commander from Liberia's brutal civil war and charged him with crimes against humanity for alleged atrocities including torture and cannibalism, police said Friday. A legal source said the man, identified as naturalised Dutch citizen Kunti K., is suspected of being a former commander in the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), which fought during the 1990s. Arrested on Tuesday in the northeast Paris suburb of Bobigny where he had been hiding out at the home of a friend, he is suspected of torture, murder, slavery, the use of child soldiers and cannibalism between 1993 and 1997. Liberia, Africa's oldest republic, formed by freed American slaves, was devastated by two civil wars which killed around 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003. ULIMO was set up to fight a rebel force headed by warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, who is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting rebels who committed atrocities in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Kunti K., born in 1974, was detained in a joint operation by elite GIGN police and officers from France's OCLCH agency, which investigates war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. "He had arrived in France in 2016, after leaving the Netherlands and passing through Belgium," said Colonel Eric Emeraux, head of the OCLCH. Paris prosecutors had opened an initial investigation into Kunti K. after victims' rights group Civitas Maxima filed a criminal complaint on July 23. Contacted by AFP, the Geneva-based group, which offers legal support to victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity, declined to comment on the case. Investing billions in the 'Mittelstand' Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in Berlin Friday his country would invest some 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in Germany, as he battles a policy of isolation by neighbouring states. "We are announcing Qatar's desire to invest 10 billion euros in the German economy over the coming five years," the Gulf state leader said as he opened a German-Qatari business forum alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel. Qatar plans to invest in the car, high-tech and banking sectors -- three traditional strengths of the German economy. Business daily Handelsblatt reported that Doha is especially interested in Germany's dense network of small- and medium-sized firms known as the "Mittelstand". In recent years its German investments in larger industrial or financial firms have often soured, including in the country's troubled largest lender Deutsche Bank. For more than a year, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt have cut off ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting "terrorist" movements, cosying up to Iran and undermining stability in the region. The cold shoulder from its neighbours has prompted Qatari leaders to fall back on more distant allies, with Germany now its third-weightiest trading partner after the US and China. Bilateral trade has more than doubled since 2011, to around 2.8 billion euros. Also Friday, Merkel confirmed German plans to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in Germany. Qatar is the world's largest exporter of the fuel. Both capitals also have a common interest in Turkey, with Qatar announcing $15 billion of investments there last month. Meanwhile Berlin is bound to Ankara by Germany's millions-strong Turkish diaspora community and an agreement for Turkey to hold back refugees from the Middle East from reaching Europe. Turkey's lira currency has been weakened recently as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump engage in a diplomatic face-off with mutual sanctions. The conflict between Yemen's Huthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition has left nearly 10,000 people dead Long-awaited UN-backed talks between Yemen's warring parties were sputtering Friday before even starting, with Huthi rebels refusing to travel to Geneva and fresh fighting breaking out on the ground. The Huthis, powerful armed tribes locked in a war with Yemen's Saudi-backed government, have refused to take off from the rebel-held capital of Sanaa unless the United Nations meets a list of conditions, which includes securing a safe return from Geneva to Sanaa for their delegation. At the same time, multiple military sources reported Friday that forces from the government alliance were attempting to close in on rebel-held Hodeida. The fate of the embattled port city had been scheduled for discussion at the Geneva conference, which was meant to be the first meeting between the warring sides since 2016. The talks had been scheduled to formally open Thursday but were put on hold, leaving UN envoy Martin Griffiths scrambling to save them. Over the past two days, Griffiths has hosted a number of meetings with the government delegation, which arrived in Geneva on Wednesday, and diplomats from countries with influence in Yemen's bloody conflict. But Friday evening, the envoy's office said he would give a press conference Saturday morning, when he was broadly expected to announce an end to the talks before they even got off the ground. Conflict in Yemen The announcement came after the Huthis' Supreme Revolutionary Council said Friday they were "increasingly suspicious that the coalition intended to insult" the rebels. It accused the Saudi-led alliance of planning to strand the rebel delegation in Djibouti, where their plane was to make a stop en route to Geneva. The Huthis hinted they feared a repeat of 2016, when 108 days of talks in Kuwait broke down and a rebel delegation was stranded in Oman for three months due to an air blockade, the council said in a statement on Telegram. - 'Excuses' - The Saudi-led military coalition controls the country's airspace and Sanaa international airport has been largely disused for years. The Iran-backed Huthis also demand the evacuation of their wounded fighters from Sanaa to Oman. But in Geneva Friday, Yemen's foreign minister Khaled Yamani, who is leading the government delegation, insisted the Huthi delay was evidence of infighting. "We came to Geneva .. ready and willing to delve into talks" on confidence-building, Yamani told UAE's Sky News. He slammed the Huthi "excuses" for not arriving on time as "an attempt to cover up something critical, and that is that the insurgents are arguing about who among them will represent them in Geneva." Saudi Arabia and its allies have meanwhile said they have already granted the Huthis clearance to fly, accusing the rebels of intransigence. Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher accused the rebels of "speaking no language other than force" and "using negotiations to secure more arms", in a tweet on Thursday. - 'Nothing short of heroic' - Among humanitarians, hopes for the Geneva talks have been high. On Friday, the heads of 10 international aid organisations, including Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps, sent an open letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres, describing Griffiths' efforts as "nothing short of heroic". "His consultations this week represent the best hope for peace that Yemen has seen in over two years," they wrote, also urging Guterres to personally urge the parties in Yemen to agree to "an immediate ceasefire." Washington, which supports the Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile voiced disappointment at the lack of progress in Geneva. "It's disappointing that the delegation from Sanaa isn't here or hasn't been able to be here to actually produce the result that we wanted to see," US ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller told reporters in Geneva. He said it remained unclear if the Huthis might still arrive, but that if they did not show up, "well regroup and try to find a way to bring again the group in Sanaa together with the government so that we can find some way to give Yemeni people hope". Griffiths, who said this week he hoped the Geneva talks would offer a "flickering signal of hope" to the Yemeni people, has been up against difficult odds from the start. He is the UN's third Yemen envoy since 2014, when Huthis overran the capital and drove Hadi's government into exile, and all previous attempts to resolve the conflict have failed. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the Yemen conflict on behalf of the government in 2015, triggering what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R), Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) join hands during a three-way summit in Tehran on the Syrian conflict Iran, Russia and Turkey were unable to overcome their differences at a Tehran summit on Friday as they held talks on an imminent offensive against the last rebel stronghold in Syria, amid warnings from the international community of a looming humanitarian disaster. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly disagreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a press conference in the Iranian capital and warned of a "bloodbath" in Idlib province, where an assault by Syrian government forces is expected any day. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who hosted the meeting, also warned against a "scorched earth" policy, but said "fighting terrorism in Idlib is an unavoidable part of the mission of restoring peace and stability to Syria." Russia and Iran are major allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs opposition fighters, including some present in Idlib, who are seeking his ouster. In front of the world's press, Erdogan criticised their joint statement for not including the word "truce", saying it would "strengthen and calm this process." Putin retorted that armed opposition groups such as the Islamic State group and al-Nusra front were not present at the talks to offer to uphold any ceasefire. "We cannot say for them... that they will stop shooting or stop using armed drones," Putin said. He also insisted Damascus "has a right and must eventually take under control all of its national territory". - 'Phased stabilisation' - The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's civil war launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention that has eclipsed Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the United Nations. Putin said they had spoken of a "phased stabilisation" in Idlib and hoped "terrorist organisations will have enough common sense to stop resistance and lay down their weapons." Iranian and Russian support has shored up the Damascus regime, allowing it to regain the upper hand in the seven-year civil war which has claimed some 350,000 lives since 2011. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control. It is home to some three million people. No caption On Friday morning, Russian air raids pounded rebel positions in the southwest of Idlib killing five people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. Hundreds of civilians have already begun to flee Idlib ahead of what could be the last -- and bloodiest -- major battle of the devastating conflict. - 'Humanitarian tragedy' - Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels, fears the potential flood of desperate Syrians into its territory. No caption "Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, massacre and a very big humanitarian tragedy," Erdogan said. But Russia and Iran have sworn to wipe out "terrorists" and Assad has declared his determination to retake control of the entire country. A statement released at the end of the talks on Friday was low on detail and merely reaffirmed their commitment to keep working together. The UN Security Council was also due to meet late Friday, at Washington's request, to discuss Idlib. Risk of humanitarian crisis in Idlib Russia wants Turkey, which borders the province, to use its influence to rein in the dominant group HTS, led by the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, as well as rival rebels. Turkey has limited sway over the jihadists who control an estimated 60 percent of the province, but it backs other rebel groups and has 12 military "observation points" across the area. Idlib's population has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories across the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed there. Russia has said the Syrian army is preparing to solve the problem of "terrorism" in the rebel stronghold. "A total and definitive liquidation of the terrorists across all of Syria's territory is necessary," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Al-Watan, a Syrian newspaper close to the government, reported Monday the military operation could "immediately follow the summit". Bob Woodward's book is not the first unflattering investigation into Donald Trump's White House, but it carries particular weight coming from the man who together with Carl Bernstein authored the Watergate expose that brought down Richard Nixon Donald Trump on Friday slammed investigative journalist Bob Woodward's damning portrayal of the inner workings of the US president's administration as a "scam," alleging that it includes made-up quotes. "The Woodward book is a scam. I don't talk the way I am quoted. If I did I would not have been elected President. These quotes were made up. The author uses every trick in the book to demean and belittle," Trump tweeted. 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. That idea was also supported by an unsigned article for The New York Times published Wednesday, which said that "unsung heroes" were quietly working within the administration to frustrate the president's "worst inclinations." 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. 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. Government spokesman Zaw Htay says he will no longer take phone calls from the media Myanmar on Friday "resolutely" rejected a ruling by the International Criminal Court empowering the tribunal to probe alleged crimes against the Rohingya even though the Southeast Asian nation is not a member of it. Around 700,000 of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority were driven into Bangladesh by a Myanmar army-led crackdown last August. They have given detailed and consistent accounts of a relentless campaign of murder, rape and arson that forced them to flee. Myanmar denies any systematic abuses, insisting its military actions were a proportionate response to attacks by Rohingya militants. In an unprecedented ruling on Thursday the ICC said it had jurisdiction over the crisis because of the cross-border nature of the alleged "deportations" of the Rohingya to Bangladesh. But in a stinging response late Friday from a government besieged by criticism, Myanmar said the decision was "of dubious legal merit". "The decision was the result of manifest bad faith, procedural irregularities and general lack of transparency," a statement released by the president's office said, adding the country "resolutely rejects" the court ruling. Myanmar was "under no obligation" to respect the ICC decision, it said, adding allegations of deportation "could not be further from the truth". Myanmar, which denies the Rohingya citizenship and has for years subjected them to apartheid-like conditions inside its western Rakhine state, says it is ready and willing to take those who fled back. But a "repatriation" deal with Bangladesh has so far not resulted in any serious numbers of returns. Refugees in the overcrowded, fetid Bangladeshi camps say they will not return to Myanmar without citizenship and the accompanying rights, as well as security guarantees and compensation for seized land and razed villages. The ICC ruling on Thursday significantly ups the ante on Myanmar, allowing the ICC's chief prosecutor to open a preliminary investigation that could lead to a wider probe and eventually a trial. While Myanmar has not signed the statute underpinning the tribunal, Bangladesh is a signatory. The judges said that because the deportation of the Rohingya amounted to a cross-border crime, the court has the right to pursue the issue further. - Journalists in jail - Last week a damning UN report called for military chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals to be prosecuted for "genocide", which was swiftly followed by Facebook pulling down the profile pages of several military top brass. Myanmar has barred journalists and diplomats from independently visiting the conflict-hit parts of Rakhine state -- except on short, military-chaperoned trips. On Monday a judge jailed two Reuters journalists -- both Myanmar nationals -- for seven years under a draconian state secrets act linked to their reporting of the crisis. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of Rohingya villagers when they were arrested in December last year. Rights groups decried the case as a sham trial in a country where press freedom has shrivelled, casting into serious doubt some of the gains of the last few years since the end of full junta rule. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto civilian leader, has been hit by a barrage of criticism from outside the country for failing to speak up for the Rohingya throughout the crisis or weigh in on the side of the Reuters' journalists. burs-apj/amu Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) attend a news conference after meeting in Tehran on September 7, 2018 to discuss Syria's Idlib province Leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran on Friday discussed a step-by-step "stabilisation" in Syria's Idlib, with a possibility of peace with some rebel groups, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after the talks. "We have discussed concrete measures regarding a phased stabilisation in the Idlib de-escalation zone, which stipulate... a possibility of making peace for those ready for dialogue," Putin said after the summit in Tehran to discuss the fate of Syria's last rebel bastion. Putin said that Russia hopes that its "call for peace in Idlib zone as well will be heard... we will strive for peace among all warring sides, and we have never factored in terrorist organisations." "We hope that representatives of terrorist organisations will have enough common sense to stop resistance and lay down (their) weapons," Putin said. A joint statement released after the talks gave few more details on the plans for Syria's Idlib. The communique said the leaders "took up the situation in (the) Idlib de-escalation area and decided to address it in line with... the spirit of cooperation that characterised the Astana format". The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's civil war launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention, which led to the creation of de-escalation zones. While Iran and Russia back the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey backs opposition fighters and has warned against an offensive on Idlib that could turn it into a "bloodbath". burs/ma/tm/del/hkb No caption The UN peace envoy for Syria on Friday proposed a plan for Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria's Idlib province to pull back from cities and other civilian-populated areas to avert a bloodbath in the rebel-held province. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster if Syrian forces, backed by Russia and Iran, launch an all-out attack in Idlib, the last major rebel bastion. Addressing the Security Council, Staffan de Mistura also called for evacuation corridors to be opened for civilians to voluntarily leave the war zone, under UN monitoring. The council was meeting as Turkey clashed with Iran and Russia at a summit in Tehran on how to address the crisis in Idlib, an enclave in northwest Syria where three million people live. De Mistura proposed that a deadline be set for all fighters -- in particular the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front -- to retreat from populated areas and that no military attacks would be launched during the pullback. "This would apply in particular for Al-Nusra, who should be notified by the guarantors, in particular Turkey, which still has the capacity to send messages," he said. A Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism, saying it was unclear where the fighters would go and whether Syria could be persuaded to halt military action. "There are challenges," he said. - Legitimate target - Russia told the council meeting that some 40 to 45 armed groups with up to 50,000 people were operating in Idlib. About 16,000 are fighting in the ranks of Al-Nusra and 11,300 others are members of hardline groups, said Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. Syrian civilians are "worn out by extremist tyranny" in Idlib, said Nebenzia, adding that armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda remain "a legitimate target for liquidation." Britain recalled that targeting civilians amounts to war crimes and warned that Syrian commanders and military units loyal to President Bashar al-Assad will be held accountable for any violations in Idlib. "There are more babies in Idlib than there are terrorists," said British Ambassador Karen Pierce. "I think this should give those engaged in military action pause for thought." US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned: "If Assad, Russia, and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire." "Syria is once again at the edge of an abyss," said French Ambassador Francois Delattre. De Mistura is to hold talks in Geneva next week with Russia, Iran and Turkey in Geneva, the three countries of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's war that has largely eclipsed the UN-led peace process. More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria's seven-year conflict. Syrian protesters in the rebel-held city of Idlib on September 7, 2018 wave the flag of the opposition as they demonstrate against a potential Russia-backed regime assault Hundreds of Syrians took to the streets in the country's last major rebel bastion of Idlib Friday, calling on neighbouring Turkey to help prevent a regime assault on their region. Demonstrators in the northwestern province also denounced a summit in Tehran between the leaders of rebel backer Turkey and regime allies Russia and Iran to determine the province's fate. "We all came to protest to say that this people will not back down and will not return to the era of (President) Bashar al-Assad," said Abdurazzaq Awwad, a father-of-one in Idlib city. "We expect the Turks to stand by this people," said Awwad, 31. "We are not happy at all that the fate of Idlib is being decided in Tehran," said Awwad, who sported a black beard and wore a white shirt. "Idlib's fate should be decided by its people." Syrian protesters in the rebel-held city of Idlib on September 7, 2018 wave the flag of the opposition as they demonstrate against a potential Russia-backed regime assault Around him, protesters held up the three-star flag of the Syrian opposition. "Your plots and conferences mean nothing to us," read one sign. Yussef Sadiq, 35, condemned the conference in Tehran as "Iran is part of the problem." "Most Syrians hope that Turkey's efforts will succeed in stopping an assault against Idlib and in protecting its population," said the bespectacled young man, whose home city of Aleppo was retaken by regime forces in late 2016 after a crippling siege and deadly bombardment. Some three million people live in Idlib province and adjacent areas, the United Nations says, around half of whom have already fled their homes in other parts of Syria. Assad's regime has massed forces around Idlib in recent weeks, sparking international alarm over an imminent offensive on the region controlled by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate and rebels. The United Nations says up to 800,000 people could be displaced by fighting and aid groups fear the worst humanitarian crisis so far in Syria's seven-year war. Turkey, which already hosts more than three million refugees, is keen to avoid a new influx across its border. Sawsan Al-Saeed, a 45-year-old pharmacist from the same city, was defiant. "I am certain that Turkey won't leave the region," she said. Syrian protesters in the rebel-held city of Idlib on September 7, 2018 wave the flag of the opposition as they demonstrate against a potential Russia-backed regime assault Similar demonstrations were held in Idlib's towns of Khan Sheikhun and Jisr al-Shughur, as well as opposition-held areas in the neighbouring provinces of Hama and Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Assad's Russia-backed regime has retaken large parts of Syria from rebels and jihadists, especially in recent months, through a combination of deadly military campaigns and surrender deals. More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of the conflict in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests. Tesla shares faced fresh pressure after news of the departure of the electric automaker's chief accounting officer and a bizarre interview with CEO Elon Musk Shares of Tesla Motors tumbled Friday as investors were rattled by the departures of two executives and a late-night interview in which chief executive Elon Musk was seen smoking marijuana. Tesla shares sank 6.3 to close at $263.24 after the latest events that heightened concerns over Musk's erratic management style at the electric carmaker. "Elon's actions are making it harder and harder to support Tesla as a company," said analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures. "His actions directly affect Tesla's share price because Elon is Tesla." Munster said that while there may be more "upside" to Tesla, Musk's actions are hurting. "The use of recreational drugs, legal or not, goes against the unspoken rules of being a public CEO," the analyst said in a blog post. Shares came under pressure at the opening following the Musk online interview and news that chief accounting officer Dave Morton was leaving only a month on the job, citing the company's frenetic pace. Separately, human resources chief Gabrielle Toledano told Bloomberg she planned to exit the company, rather than return from a leave of absence. Morton's departure further roiled the company, which has been under heightened scrutiny since Musk's chaotic Twitter announcement on August 7 that he was considering taking Tesla private, before reversing the plan two weeks later. The ill-fated effort has prompted a US securities investigation and a class-action lawsuit alleging Musk was trying to punish investors who bet against the company. Morton's brief tenure with the company coincided with the aborted go-private push. "Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations," Morton said in a securities filing. "As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting." - Turning heads in podcast - Musk appeared to be smoking a marijuana-and-tobacco concoction during a podcast interview, the latest in a string of actions raising concerns over his management Musk turned heads with a more than two-hour podcast interview with comedian Joe Rogan in which he drank whiskey and appeared to smoke a marijuana-and-tobacco cigarette proffered by the comedian as he mused about artificial intelligence and colonizing space. At one point, Musk described the constant barrage of ideas in his mind as a "never-ending explosion," and said he wondered as a young boy whether he might be insane because it didn't seem to happen to other people. The appearance was the latest unorthodox move by Musk, who has often surprised investors with brash and unpredictable behavior as Tesla has sought to live up to lofty manufacturing targets for its Model 3 electric car. Long a polarizing figure because of his swashbuckling style, Musk is seen by his champions as an entrepreneurial genius with the potential to remake the transportation system, while his detractors see him as an egotistical blowhard whose outsized promises have driven unjustified gains in the company's values. Especially bizarre moments involving the Tesla chief of late include disparaging remarks about Vernon Unsworth, a Briton who helped save boys trapped in a Thai cave and the abrupt shutdown of Wall Street analyst's questions during a contentious earnings conference call. "At times, Musk appears to be working against himself," analyst Munster wrote. "At the core, we believe he wants to prove his doubters wrong, but many of his actions strengthen the case against him. "If he wanted to prove them wrong with actions, he would delete Twitter, drop the Unsworth conversation and not use recreational drugs in a public setting." In August, Musk told The New York Times he was exhausted from too much work and difficulty sleeping in an interview that sharpened questions about his mental stability. Some observers have said Tesla could be helped with a strong number-two executive, but Friday's departures create additional gaps in Tesla's ranks. This undated image posted on his Linkedin profile shows George Papadopoulos posing on a street of London. The foreign policy advisor to President Donald Trump's election campaign whose contacts with Russians set off the investigation into possible collusion with Moscow is to be sentenced on Friday. After cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe for more than a year, George Papadopoulos faces up to six months in prison for one count of lying to investigators. He has testified that senior members of the Trump campaign encouraged him during 2016 to build ties with Russia, including after he told them that Moscow possessed -- and could be willing to share -- dirt on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. Those issues are now at the heart of Mueller's sprawling investigation, which increasingly threatens Trump's inner circle and the president himself. Out of the 35 people and entities so far charged, Papadopoulos is one of five who have pleaded guilty and will be the second to be sentenced. Prosecutors have recommended he be jailed for up to six months for one count of making false statements to investigators. Papadopoulos has asked to be sentenced to probation -- and have that immediately terminated, arguing that the past 13 months he has spent cooperating with the investigation is "the equivalent of one year of probation." - Offered 'dirt' on Clinton - The 31-year-old Chicago native was a little-experienced petroleum analyst based in London when he joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 as one of a handful of members of the future president's national security and foreign policy advisory board. Within weeks, he made contact with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who touted links to the Kremlin and introduced him to others who ostensibly had connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- including a woman who claimed to be Putin's niece. At the end of March 2016, Papadopoulos told Trump, then-senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and members of the national security team at their first meeting in Washington that he had connections in London that could set up a Trump-Putin meeting ahead of the November election. "While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," Papadopoulos claimed in a pre-sentencing statement last week. Sessions has claimed he opposed the idea. In subsequent campaign communications, Papadopoulos was encouraged to pursue a Putin-Trump meeting. In late April he told them that Mifsud said the Russians had information that could harm Clinton, in the form of thousands of emails. Weeks later, stolen Clinton emails were leaked over the internet by what US intelligence chiefs now say were Russian intelligence actors. Papadopoulos says he had nothing to do with the leak. - 'Misguided loyalty' to Trump - US investigators were only alerted to Papadopoulos' activities in mid-2016 after he told Australia's ambassador to London, Alexander Downer, about his talks with Mifsud during a late-night drinking session in a London pub. After the Clinton emails were leaked, the Australians told US intelligence counterparts what Downer had heard, spurring the FBI to begin investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. In his pre-sentencing statement, Papadopoulos admitted lying to FBI investigators in January 2017 but said it had been out of a desire to protect his career and a naive loyalty to the Trump administration. The lies did not impede the investigation, he argued. "Caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation, Mr Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master," the statement said. Shinya Tsukamoto said his stylish movie is a cry for peace in an age "in which more and more people think that violence is an answer" Cult Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto said Friday that his new film about a pacifist samurai who refuses to kill is "a scream" at the current state of the world. The actor-director with a huge following for his cyberpunk horror movies like "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" and "Tokyo Fist" said he was exasperated with the spread of violence as he premiered his latest film, "Killing", at the Venice film festival. Tsukamoto plays a samurai master who tries to recruit a young wandering ronin fighter in mid-19th century Japan as centuries of relative peace there are threatened by the arrival of the US Navy under Commodore Perry. But despite his master's insistence, the young samurai refuses to kill. Tsukamoto, 58, said the stylish movie was a cry for peace. "As I took in the current state of the world, I had an urge to let out (the film) like a scream. "The act of killing in the Edo period was quite normal. I found many connections with our age, in which more and more people think that violence is an answer," he told reporters. "I asked myself how a young person today would react if they found themselves in that period -- would they be able to kill without hesitation? - 'Stunning' Zhang Yimou - "That's why I created a samurai that doesn't want to kill anymore," Tsukamoto said. Joining Tsukamoto for a Venice screening which drew prolonged applause were Yu Aoi, who as a peasant girl makes her feelings known for the hero, and "The Last Samurai" actor Sosuke Ikematsu The film, which was greeted with prolonged applause and cheering at Venice, also features a remarkable performance from actress Yu Aoi as a peasant girl who makes her feeling known for the hero -- played by "The Last Samurai" star Sosuke Ikematsu -- by giving him the odd punch. Historian Julien Peltier told AFP that the young man's apparently modern, humanist dilemma was a recurring theme in Japanese culture before the samurai myth became the stuff of action films. "While samurais are often reduced in the West to pitiless killers in Japanese literature they were more complex characters, often riven by doubt, particularly during the Edo period (which lasted up to 1868)," said the French author of "samurai". "Killing" was screened after critics had raved about Chinese master Zhang Yimou's latest martial arts film, "Shadow", which the Hollywood Reporter called "stunning". Zhang, the maker of such classics as "Red Sorghum", "Raise the Red Lantern" and "House of Flying Daggers", said the historical epic was inspired by the ying and yang symbol and Chinese ink-brush painting. Director Zhang Yimou, whose much-praised "Ying" (Shadow) is being presented out of competition, told reporters he has just finished an as yet untitled new movie about "small characters from the lower classes" Critic Boyd van Hoeij said "this unexpected combination of constantly wondrous production design and lethal Chinese umbrellas... is probably the most beautiful film Zhang has made." Zhang told reporters that had he has just finished an as yet untitled new film, which is a story of "small characters from the lower classes", in a similar realist style to his highly acclaimed "Coming Home", which starred Gong Li, the superstar actress he discovered in "Red Sorghum" in 1988. South Korean and US Army soldiers stand guard at the Demilitarized Zone on September 7, 2018 Seoul and Washington are moving apart -- even heading in different directions -- on nuclear-armed North Korea, analysts say, putting at risk the diplomatic process on the peninsula. South Korean President Moon Jae-in will travel to Pyongyang later this month for his third summit this year with the North's leader Kim Jong Un, Seoul announced Thursday, with the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula on the agenda. Pyongyang has reaffirmed its commitment to the goal, but the term is a diplomatic euphemism open to interpretation on both sides. Senior US officials have for weeks been referring to the more precise "final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea" specifically, saying Kim promised it at his landmark Singapore summit with President Donald Trump. Pyongyang has made no such public declaration, however. Washington sent mixed messages Thursday, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying the North still had an "enormous amount of work to do", while Trump thanked Kim and tweeted: "We will get it done together." "There's no question that Seoul and Washington are moving at different speeds in their respective relations with Pyongyang," said Evans Revere of the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It's also becoming clear that the two allies are not on the same page when it comes to North Korea." While Washington continues to prioritise the dismantling of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal, Revere said, Seoul has stressed measures to reduce tensions. Any major new goodwill measures by the South are "bound to raise hackles in Washington, create suspicions about... (Seoul's) agenda, and undermine alliance coordination", he added. - 'Insincere, dishonest, shallow' - South Korea and the US are "on a collision course" when it comes to the North, according to Andrei Lankov of Korea Risk Group, as their interests are fundamentally different. "For the United States essentially the only issue, why they worry about North Korea, is nuclear weapons, and they are willing to stop at pretty much nothing to have the nuclear issue solved," he said. But South Korea "can live with a nuclear North Korea", he added. "For them it is far more important to maintain stability at status quo." But Lankov warned that Pyongyang will never surrender its nuclear weapons, as North Korean leaders consider it "collective suicide". If the current diplomatic process fails, Washington could return to threats against Pyongyang, and possibly military action that could rapidly escalate and engulf the South. To prevent such a confrontation, Moon is creating "a wave of insincere, dishonest, shallow optimism", Lankov said. "The message is that basically denuclearisation is proceeding -- which it's not -- that everything is fine." The two allies, he said, were going to experience "a level of friction they have not seen for many, many years". - The Korean War problem - A cartoon is displayed on the wall of a kindergarten, during a guided tour for visiting foreign media in Pyongyang on September 7, 2018 The most recent sticking point between Pyongyang and Washington has been a formal declaration that the Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, is over. The two Koreas have been pushing for such a move, but the US is wary, insisting on first making progress on stripping Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons. "In the North Korean negotiating list (a declaration) is something that was going to come relatively early," said John Delury of Yonsei University in Seoul. "They've been very frustrated that the Americans aren't giving on it." And while Seoul and Pyongyang are moving on a "shared approach", the parallel US-North Korea process is stuck at a time when both sides need to make compromises, Delury added. "It's a problem," he said. "Washington needs to speed up." The US, which backed Seoul against Pyongyang in the 1950-53 conflict, has 28,500 troops stationed on the peninsula to guard the South, a treaty ally. But Revere of Brookings said declaring the Korean War over could allow Pyongyang to argue that US forces are no longer needed in the South. A key goal for Pyongyang, he said, "is to create a situation in which a nuclear-armed North Korea faces a non-nuclear South Korea that no longer hosts US forces". Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center, inspects a military robot deployed with NATO troops in Latvia in July 2018 The Pentagon's research wing said Friday it was investing $2 billion to develop a new generation of artificial intelligence with "human-like communication" skills. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will use the money to fund around 20 existing projects over the next five years and launch new ones over the next 12 months seeking a higher level of machine learning, the agency's director Steven Walker told reporters near Washington. "We are making multiple research investments aimed at transforming computers from specialized tools to partners in problem-solving," said Walker, referring to the new generation of machines as "AI Next." "We want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them," he said in a statement. The current generation of smart machines and robots cannot be easily updated when new technology appears, and researchers want them to learn to update themselves, he said. The new smart machines will be designed to help speed up security clearance vetting or accelerated accreditation of software systems, the agency said. Most of DARPA's research, which is entirely funded by the Pentagon, is focused on technologies that can be used in combat, such as drones that are becoming ever more autonomous. Another use could be DARPA's Blackjack project, which aims to develop a constellation of low-orbit satellites that will communicate with one another and can continuously cover military operations. "We will be looking at, under that program, to help satellites be able to communicate and develop a corporate behavior," Walker said. Protesters flee from incoming tear gas canisters fired by Israeli forces during clashes following a demonstration along the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on September 7, 2018 A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by the Israeli army during renewed clashes on the Gaza border Friday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run strip said. Bilal Khafaja, 17, was shot in the chest during clashes east of Rafah in southern Gaza, the ministry said in a statement. Several thousand demonstrators approached the border in multiple locations Friday evening, AFP correspondents said, the latest in months of often violent confrontations. At least 45 people were injured by Israeli fire, the ministry said. East of Gaza City balloons attached to incendiary devices were again flown across the border, after being largely absent in recent weeks. A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli forces during clashes following a demonstration at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on September 7, 2018 The balloons have started hundreds of fires inside Israel, causing major damage to farmland. The Israeli military said in a statement that its aircraft targeted two Hamas observation posts after a grenade was thrown and "security infrastructure" damaged. It said thousands of "demonstrators and rioters" had gathered along the border, with some of those involved burning tyres and throwing rocks, incendiary devices and a grenade. Troops responded with "riot dispersal means" and no Israeli personnel were injured, the statement said. East of Gaza City protesters used a net to capture an Israeli drone carrying tear gas cannisters, an AFP correspondent said. Earlier Friday a Palestinian succumbed to his wounds, two months after being shot during protests, Gaza's health ministry said. Amjed Hamdouna, 19, was wounded on July 14. At least 174 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since protests broke out on March 30. Over the same period, one Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper. Palestinian paramedics tend to a fallen injured protester during clashes following a demonstration at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on September 7, 2018 The protesters are calling for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to the homes they or their relatives fled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israel accuses Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas of manipulating the protests and of seeking to use them as cover to carry out attacks. The Jewish state this week closed the only people crossing with Gaza after violent protests damaged the site. It said it would reopen the passage next Thursday providing the situation is calm. US President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One as he travels to Fargo, North Dakota Donald Trump on Friday urged his attorney general to investigate the anonymous author of a damning op-ed, escalating his long-running battles with the media and highlighting his suspicions that people are seeking to overthrow his presidency. Trump, battling one of the deepest crises in his 20-month presidency, has raged about Wednesday's searing essay, branding its unidentified writer a "gutless" coward and accusing The New York Times of borderline treason for publishing it. "I would say Jeff (Sessions) should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security," Trump told reporters traveling with him in North Dakota. "The Times should never have done that, because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason," the president said in an interview with Fox News broadcast earlier Friday. Asked on Air Force One whether action should be taken against the Times, Trump said "I'm looking at that right now." Trump appeared to be calling for a criminal investigation despite there being no indication that the mystery author broke any laws by releasing his extraordinary column, which detailed how "unsung heroes" were quietly working within the administration to frustrate an amoral president's "worst inclinations." The Times said in a statement that any such investigation would be an abuse of power, and that Trump's "threats... underscore why we must safeguard the identity of the writer of this op-ed." "We're confident that the Department of Justice understands that the First Amendment protects all American citizens and that it would not participate in such a blatant abuse of government power," the newspaper said. - 'Whodunnit' - A "whodunnit?" style guessing game has raged in the corridors of power and on social media over the identity of the author of an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the US government to deny involvement A "whodunnit"-style guessing game has raged in the corridors of power and on social media over the author's identity, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the government to deny involvement. Among them was Trump's United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, who wrote her own op-ed Friday that assails her unnamed fellow senior official for taking the "very dangerous" step of outlining how members of Trump's team are hamstringing the president. "A central part of our democracy requires that those who work directly for the president not secretly try to undermine him or his policies," Haley wrote in The Washington Post. "What the author is describing is an extra-constitutional method of addressing policy disputes within the administration. That's wrong on a fundamental level." Trump also took aim at a book set for release next week by investigative journalist Bob Woodward which offered a damning portrayal of the administration's inner workings, sparking yet another White House crisis and putting the president on the defensive. Trump attacked the book as a "scam," and suggested hardening the country's "pathetic" libel legislation. "Our libel laws should be toughened up so that if somebody writes things that are fraudulent and false, they get sued and they lose," said Trump. Later at a rally in Fargo, Trump called Woodward an "idiot." The respected White House chronicler's "Fear: Trump in the White House," a 448-page account of an out-of-control administration, draws on hundreds of hours of insider interviews. - Not how democracy works - Woodward describes a coalition of like-minded aides plotting to prevent the president from destroying the world trade system, undermining national security and sparking wars. Woodward's is not the first unflattering investigation into Trump's White House, but it has been particularly resonant coming from the man who together with Carl Bernstein authored the Watergate expose that brought down Richard Nixon. He is one of the most respected living US journalists, and has written extensively on modern American presidents, earning praise from Trump in 2013 for his work on Barack Obama. The book depicts Trump aides working to head off potential foreign policy disasters, disregarding a call by the president for the assassination of his Syrian counterpart, and removing from his desk an order that would have canceled a US-South Korea trade agreement. Like Haley, Obama spoke out about the way aides were doing end runs around Trump, saying it was irresponsible to think "that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the president's orders." "That's not how our democracy is supposed to work," he told students at the University of Illinois, in a speech launching his involvement in the 2018 midterm elections. The former president has endorsed dozens of Democrats in races across the country, and he will campaign with some of them ahead of the November 6 elections. Map of Yemen locating the rebel-held port of Hodeida Clashes between Yemen's Huthi rebels and a government alliance led by the United Arab Emirates broke out near the Red Sea city of Hodeida Friday, military sources said. The violence came as United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva have failed to get off the ground, with the Huthi delegation refusing to leave Yemen over alleged fears it will be blocked from returning to the capital Sanaa. Multiple military sources reported the government alliance attempted Friday to close in on rebel-held Hodeida, a city home to impoverished Yemen's most valuable port. The coalition, which launched an offensive on Hodeida in June, advanced some 16 kilometres (10 miles) along the coastal road of the al-Durayhmi district Friday, a military source said. The road is a key supply route for the rebels, who still hold Hodeida city. The fate of embattled Hodeida was scheduled for discussion at the Geneva conference, originally due to open Thursday but now on hold until an agreement is reached with the rebels. The Iran-aligned Huthis have demanded the UN guarantee their delegation's safe return to Sanaa and allow the evacuation of wounded rebels from the capital to nearby Oman. The rebels seized control of Sanaa in 2014 along with the Red Sea Hodeida port. Hodeida's port serves as an entry point for some 70 percent of imports in a country where eight million people face imminent famine. The government and the Saudi-led coalition that backs it accuse the Huthis of receiving smuggled weapons through Hodeida and have demanded their unconditional withdrawal from the city. Government forces backed by the coalition have paused their assault on Hodeida port in what they say is a bid to give UN-led peace efforts a chance, but clashes have erupted sporadically. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict since 2015, when the Saudi-led alliance intervened in the civil conflict between the government and rebels. Protesters in Ecuador have accused Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, of polluting the environment An appeals court in The Hague cancelled $9.5 billion in damages handed down by an Ecuadoran court against American energy giant Chevron for causing oil pollution in the Amazon jungle, Ecuador's public prosecutor said Friday. The original ruling dates back to 2011 and was twice upheld on appeal in Ecuador, but Chevron took its protest to The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, claiming it had already been exonerated of any wrongdoing. The Dutch court decided Ecuador was guilty of "denial of justice" and ordered it to annul its sentence against Chevron, prosecutor Inigo Salvador said. Chevron's lawyers had argued that the plaintiffs had "promised payments" to an Ecuadoran judge "in return for being permitted to draft significant portions" of the ruling against the American multi-national. "We are concerned that a court can ask a state to cancel a judgement by a national court in a case between private entities," said Salvador. The long-running saga stems from Chevron's acquisition of former rival Texaco in 2001. Although Chevron has never worked directly in Ecuador, Texaco Petroleum operated in the South American country from 1964 to 1990 and was accused of causing environmental damage. Thousands of indigenous villagers from the Lago Agrio region claimed they had fallen ill and even developed cancer from pollution in their water supply. An Ecuadoran court originally ordered Chevron to pay $19 billion in damages before the country's supreme court upheld the ruling but halved the amount. Chevron claimed it had already been cleared of responsibility and called the ruling "illegitimate." It filed a fraud case against Ecuador at a district court in New York, winning that and a $96 million award against the South American country. The Hague court's ruling was given on August 30 but did not include any damages awarded to Chevron, Salvador said. President Donald Trump told reporters traveling with him to North Dakota that North Korea's Kim Jong Un had made a "very positive" statement about him US President Donald Trump said Friday he was expecting a "positive" new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, indicating that negotiations on denuclearizing the peninsula remain alive after weeks of apparent deadlock. "I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me, that was handed at the border," Trump told reporters traveling with him to North Dakota. "I think it's going to be a positive letter." Trump, who said he expects Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to deliver the note, also brought up a statement from Kim on Thursday emphasizing his continuing "trust in Trump," despite difficulties in denuclearization negotiations. "That was a very positive statement, what he said about me," Trump said. "There's never been a more positive statement." He accused the news media of not covering it, however, adding: "Honestly I didn't see it on the front page of your papers." Trump lauded the progress he said had been made with Pyongyang since the June summit with the North Korean leader in Singapore. "We have our hostages back," he said. "I say it a hundred times -- no missiles, no rockets, no nuclear testing. There's been some rhetoric, let's see what happens." Kim on Thursday renewed his commitment to the goal of denuclearization in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in Pyongyang September 18-20 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. "The north and the south should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. Kim's expression of confidence in Trump, relayed by Seoul's envoy, prompted the US president to tweet out his thanks to the North Korean leader and vow to "get it done together." Trump and Kim pledged to denuclearize the Korean peninsula at the Singapore summit but no details were agreed. And Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since on what that means and how it will be achieved. - 'Still more work to do' - Trump in late August canceled a planned trip to Pyongyang by Pompeo over a lack of progress in North Korea's nuclear disarmament. But relations seem to have improved since then. South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-yong, who met with Kim, said the North Korean leader also emphasized that his "trust in Trump remains unchanged," the comment which led to the US president's tweet. Chung added that Kim expressed his intention to work closely with the United States to achieve denuclearization "in the first official term of President Trump," which ends in January 2021. In a statement on August 24, Trump said he was scotching Pompeo's trip "because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." He also slammed China as not helping with the effort to convince Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. In New Delhi on Thursday, Pompeo, the former US intelligence chief who heads the US negotiating effort, struck a sober note, saying there was still much work to do. North Korea "is the only country that has commitments under UN Security Council resolutions," Pompeo told reporters. "It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We haven't had any nuclear tests, we haven't had any missile tests, which we consider a great thing," Pompeo added. "But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make the strategic shift which we talked about, for a brighter future for the people of North Korea, continues." US President Donald Trump frequently lashes out at what he calls the "Deep State" seeking to thwart his agenda The "Deep State." President Donald Trump rails against it all the time. But what is it? And does it even exist? Trump's latest salvo against the shadowy forces he sees as ranged against him came after The New York Times published an opinion piece by someone identified as a "senior administration official." The anonymous author claimed to be a member of the "Resistance" inside Trump's administration, "working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." "It may be a Deep State person that's been there a long time," Trump complained to the show "Fox and Friends," speculating on the identity of the author. "The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don't know what to do," he tweeted, lumping his favorite villains together. "I'm draining the Swamp, and the Swamp is trying to fight back. Don't worry, we will win," he assured his supporters in another tweet. Trump's broadsides came on the heels of the publication of a book by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame that painted a picture of a dysfunctional White House in which even top cabinet appointees have a dim view of the president and are doing their best to contain him. Like the "Deep State" itself, the origins of the term are shrouded in mystery. Some political observers see the "Deep State" as the heir to the "military-industrial complex" warned about by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Some have used the phrase to refer to the military power structures behind ostensibly democratic regimes in countries such Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey. - Leaks are its currency - For some, the "Deep State" is the thousands of federal government employees who soldier on through changes in administration. "The Deep State is, in fact, a very real thing," geopolitical analyst George Friedman wrote in The Huffington Post. "It is, however, neither a secret nor nearly as glamorous as the concept might indicate. "This entity is called the civil service, and it was created to limit the power of the president." The anonymous author of the piece in The New York Times lent some credence to this explanation, seeking to reassure readers there are "adults in the room." "This isn't the work of the so-called Deep State," he or she wrote. "It's the work of the steady state." Writing in The Guardian in April, Jack Goldsmith, a law professor at Harvard, said the "Deep State," such as it is, is "national security bureaucrats who use secretly collected information to shape or curb the actions of elected officials." If the "Deep State" does indeed exist, leaks to the press -- Trump's "enemy of the people" -- are its currency. They are the weapon of choice used by its members to undermine or put the brakes on policies they oppose. "Since Trump was elected, unusually sensitive leaks of intelligence information designed to discredit him and his senior leadership have poured forth from current and former intelligence officials in the Deep State," Goldsmith said. Trump, for his part, said that "unelected, Deep State operatives who defy the voters to push their own secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself." The far right has been warning about the dangers of the "Deep State" ever since Trump took office, accusing it of seeking to thwart his conservative agenda. "The Deep State: How an Army of Bureaucrats Protected Barack Obama and Is Working to Destroy the Trump Agenda," is the title of a book by Jason Chaffetz, a former Republican congressman from Utah, one of several recently published tomes on the subject. Former president Barack Obama's remarks in his home state of Illinois came after a nearly two-year absence from the political stage, during which he avoided directly criticizing Trump and made a calculated effort not to utter his successor's name Barack Obama assailed US Republicans Friday for failing to keep President Donald Trump in check, in a forceful return to the political fray aimed at firing up Democratic voters ahead of key elections. Since leaving office, the 44th US president has pointedly avoided direct criticism of his successor, making a calculated effort not to utter Trump's name. But on Friday the gloves came off. "What happened to the Republican Party?" asked Obama, accusing Trump of "capitalizing" on "fear and anger." In a nod to the turbulence of the past week -- which saw allegations of a secret "resistance" working inside the White House -- the 57-year-old Obama poured scorn on the idea that "everything will turn out okay" because some of Trump's staff are secretly ignoring the boss's orders. "That's not how our democracy is supposed to work," Obama thundered, in reference to the revelations by investigative journalist Bob Woodward whose new book describes Trump's aides battling to rein in an angry, uninformed president. The Democratic former president assailed Republicans as "unwilling to find the backbone" to challenge Trump head-on -- accusing them instead of answering "outrageous" actions with "vague statements of disappointment." "They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this White House, and then saying, 'Don't worry, we're preventing the other 10 percent,'" he said. Obama's remarks to an auditorium of college students in Illinois -- the state he represented before he won the White House -- marked the opening salvo in a series of campaign stops aimed at boosting fellow Democrats in November's midterm elections, when voters will elect much of Congress and 36 state governorships. - Trump a 'symptom' - In a wide-ranging speech punctuated by frequent applause, Obama criticized the divisive politics of the era, decrying Trump's attacks on the media and the judiciary, his eagerness to work with Russia while neglecting traditional alliances. But he also sounded a hopeful note about the apparent mobilization of Democratic voters. "Out of this political darkness I am seeing a great awakening of citizenship all across the country," Obama said. Calling out the president by name, Obama said Trump was a "symptom, not the cause" of broader ailments in the nation's politics. The president -- who was traveling in North Dakota -- took a swipe back at his predecessor after the speech, telling a crowd of supporters at a fundraiser: "I watched it, but I fell asleep." "I found he's very good, very good for sleeping." Taking aim at a key campaign argument by Trump's Republicans, Obama challenged them for laying claim to a roaring economic recovery that saw 200,000 jobs added last month. "When you hear how great the economy's doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started," he said, recalling that he had inherited a dangerous economic downturn and left office amid a recovery. Trump fired back by pointing at the country's 4.2 percent growth rate for the second quarter -- accusing Obama of "trying to take credit for this incredible thing that's happening." Had Democrats won control of Congress two year ago, he jeered, "instead of having 4.2 up, I believe, honestly, we'd have 4.2 down." - 'You've got to vote' - Having devoted most of his time since leaving office to writing his memoirs and setting up his presidential foundation in Chicago, Obama will be back in the limelight in coming weeks with campaign stops planned in California Saturday, and Ohio on Thursday. The hugely popular former first lady Michelle Obama will also be bringing star power to Democratic races in Las Vegas and Miami late this month. Democrats are hoping to ride an anti-Trump "blue wave" to take control of the House of Representatives, and are also battling for seats in the Senate. Obama's speech was a preview of the arguments he will make on the campaign trail -- partly in an attempt to reach out to voters in parts of the country he won in 2012, but which voted for Trump in 2016. The former president implored the young Illinois audience to take a stand in November, warning "our democracy depends on it." "This is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us, as citizens of the United States, need to determine just who it is that we are, just what it is that we stand for." "You've got to do more than retweet a hashtag, you've got to vote," he said. Mdagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, pictured speaking in June 2018, announced he would step down ahead of the upcoming election Madagascan President Hery Rajaonarimampianina stepped down Friday, in line with the constitution, to contest elections in which he will face rivals including opposition leader and ex-president Andry Rajoelina. Rajaonarimampianina resigned two months ahead of the November 7 vote on the Indian Ocean island that has been beset by political instability. "The time has come for me to resign in accordance with the constitution and today I have submitted my request to the constitutional court," he said in a brief televised speech. Mounting protests earlier this year forced Rajaonarimampianina to accept the formation of a "consensus" government tasked with organising the election. Demonstrators took to the capital Antananarivo's central square between April and June over Rajaonarimampianina's efforts to change electoral laws that opponents said were intended to favour his party. The proposals were overturned by the courts. But the protests morphed into a full-blown movement to oust Rajaonarimampianina. Clashes between activists and the security forces claimed two lives and left more than a dozen injured. Also on the ballot paper will be opposition leader Marc Ravalomanana, Rajoelina's predecessor as civilian head of state. Rajoelina removed Ravalomanana from power in a coup in 2009. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent in the first round, a second round of voting will be held on December 19. Madagascar, a former French colony with a population of 25 million, has been endured decades of political crises and grinding poverty. The country's interim leader will be senate Speaker Riko Rakotovao. According to Bob Woodward's account, when Donald Trump urged him to assassinate Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad 2017, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hung up the phone and and said: "We're not going to do any of that" A secret "resistance" is working from within to cushion the United States from Donald Trump's worst instincts, according to damning accounts of his leadership that rattled the corridors of power this week. The alleged gap between the president's orders and what his mistrustful lieutenants actually do has been most apparent in bombshell revelations about the White House approach to foreign policy. Anecdote after anecdote in an anonymously published New York Times article and an incendiary book by veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward have painted the same picture of a "two track presidency." Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House," due for release next week, offers perhaps the most disquieting examples of aides plotting to head off potential foreign policy disasters. The reporter who made his name bringing down Richard Nixon describes West Wing aides and other senior officials taking more measured steps time and again to mitigate Trump's decisions. Backed by hundreds of hours of taped conversations, Woodward recounts that Trump wanted to have Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad assassinated in 2017. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hung up the phone, according to Woodward, and said: "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured." Woodward describes how Gary Cohn, Trump's former top economic advisor, swiped a letter from the president's desk to avoid him canceling a trade agreement with strategic ally South Korea. Consulted later by a colleague worried Trump was poised to sign a decree pulling the United States out of the NAFTA trade pact with Mexico and Canada, Cohen reportedly replied: "I can stop this." "I'll just take the paper off his desk." - Determination - The New York Times op-ed, published anonymously by a senior administration official, alleged that the president "complained for weeks" after being "boxed into" expelling a large number of Moscow's spies as punishment for the poisoning of a Russian double-agent in Britain. Bob Woodward describes how Gary Cohn, Donald Trump's former top economic advisor, swiped a letter from the president's desk to avoid him canceling a trade agreement with strategic ally South Korea "In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un," the piece said. It accused Trump of displaying little genuine appreciation for "the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations." "Trump wants to be Putin's friend, but in the meanwhile, the administration continues its work, methodically, makes the determination that the Russians are responsible for the poisoning and, according to the law, take sanctions," said a US official convinced that other governments pay more attention to such punishment than to Trump's rants. The "two track" presidency has been at its most apparent, according to Trump critics, in US relations with Russia. This was especially the case after Trump's summit with Putin in July, when he sided with the Russian leader's denials, rather than US intelligence agencies' insistence, that Moscow interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. Under pressure from lawmakers who are hostile to Putin, Trump later backtracked, albeit half-heartedly, and said he supported his intelligence people. On North Korea, too, a sort of two track diplomacy seems to have been in place since the summit during which Trump met with the hermetic Asian nation's leader Kim Jong Un. Daniel Sneider, of Stanford University, said most US officials working on North Korea policy were focused on keeping Trump from meeting again with Kim, to whom they say he made concessions without getting anything in return. - On the sidelines - "The (Pyongyang) regime expressed a clear preference for dealing only with President Trump," said Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. While serving as secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, whom some described as a buffer against White House chaos along with Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, managed for a while to dissuade Donald Trump from leaving the Iranian nuclear accord While Kim praised his American counterpart personally, North Korean officials have sought to keep Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines. This dynamic played out again Thursday as Kim said he trusted Trump in the process to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. Trump immediately fired back on Twitter: "Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" On Syria, Trump said in June he wanted nothing more to do with the war-torn country, forcing his civilian and military advisors to explain why the US had to remain committed to resolving the conflict. On other issues, from the Paris climate change accord to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, internal conflicts within the administration were won by Trump. While serving as secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, whom some lawmakers described as a buffer against White House chaos along with Mattis, managed for a while to dissuade Trump from leaving the Iranian nuclear accord. Tillerson's right hand man, Brian Hook, even reached a deal with European allies to toughen the text, diplomats say. But it was all in vain as Tillerson was fired in March and two months later Trump abandoned the nuclear accord. US President Donald Trump told reporters on board Air Force One he was ready to slap tariffs on all Chinese goods imported into the United States President Donald Trump threatened Friday to slap tariffs on all of the Chinese goods imported into the United States, ramping up the already tense trade relations with Beijing amid ongoing talks with Canada and the EU. His comments, which contradicted the more diplomatic remarks earlier Friday from his top economic adviser, sent the stock market plunging amid fears of the economic damage that could result from the multi-front trade war he pursues. The United States already has punitive tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in place and another $200 billion are "in the hopper" and "could take place very soon," Trump said. But he told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota that "behind that, there's another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want." That would cover virtually all the goods imported from the world's second largest economy. "That totally changes the equation," Trump said. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow just hours before said talks with Beijing were continuing to try to defuse the conflict, and that he was hopeful that a solution could be found. And there have been more positive signs in talks with North American partners as well as with the European Union. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held another day of meetings with Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, after reaching a deal last week with Mexico. However, Freeland left Washington without a deal in hand and the schedule for any future talks was uncertain. Lighthizer is due to meet Monday in Brussels with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to resolve the dispute ignited when Trump imposed steep duties on all steel and aluminum imports. And Freeland is due to attend a Liberal Party meeting on Wednesday and Thursday prior to the opening of Parliament. - China a 'bigger problem' - Trump tax on Chinese goods "China, right now, is a far bigger problem," Trump said. "I'm being strong on China because I have to be." The deadline for public comment on the next wave of punitive taxes on $200 billion of annual imports from China expired Thursday, so Trump could impose the tariffs immediately. He previously had threatened to hit 100 percent of imports from China if the country failed to address US concerns over theft of US technology and barriers to American goods and investments. Trump has had Beijing in his crosshairs since he took office and has applied increasing pressure to try to convince it to change its policies, allow more US imports and reduce the $335-billion US trade deficit with China. China so far has retaliated dollar-for-dollar with tariffs of its own on US goods but since it imports less than $200 billion in goods a year from the United States, it has run out of room to match the punitive measures. But businesses warn there are other ways China can strike back, through regulations and other administrative means, or even through sales of its large holdings of US Treasury debt. The last effort at a negotiated solution came in late August with meetings between low-level officials, but nothing came of it. In Beijing, China's Commerce Ministry said Thursday it was ready to retaliate. "If the US dogmatically implements any new tariff measures against China, China will have to take the necessary countermeasures," commerce spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Those steps include slapping tariffs on $60 billion of US imports, Gao said. - NAFTA talks 24/7 - Trump said talks with Canada to revise the 25-year-old NAFTA were "moving along" but again called the agreement "one of the worst trade deals in history." "Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they've got to treat us fairly," he said, and again threatened to impose duties on cars produced in Canada. Last week, Washington reached a new deal with Mexico and is pushing to sign a revamped NAFTA before December 1, when the next president takes over in Mexico City. Following meetings on Friday, Freeland told reporters the issues were "complicated" but that officials were working "really at this point 24/7." However, she seemed to have a different position than Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on the relationship between the NAFTA talks and the US steel and aluminum tariffs. Guajardo said Thursday it would be "very strange" to sign a new NAFTA "when this trade war is pending." "So the idea would be to table a solution to these trade aggressions before signing," Guajardo said at a conference in Mexico City. But Freeland said on Thursday the metals tariffs and NAFTA talks "are entirely separate" -- although she again called them "unjustified and illegal." The NAFTA talks between Washington and Ottawa have been hung up over Canada's insistence on retaining a dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 and US objections over Ottawa's tight controls over the dairy market. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point's vice-president for Europe says that smartphones are an ideal surveillance tool as "they accompany you everywhere and are almost always switched on" Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point on Friday said a surveillance operation had targeted the smartphones of several hundred Iranian citizens via malware implanted in their handsets, indicating Tehran was responsible. "This is the first time to our knowledge that a technical analysis technique has highlighted the fact a government has led a cyberespionage campaign on smartphones," the firm's vice-president for Europe, Thierry Karsenti, told AFP. He added that smartphones were an ideal tool for surveillance as "they accompany you everywhere and are almost always switched on". The company said its investigation had found around 240 people affected and nearly all were Iranians, "consistently aligning with our estimation that this campaign is of Iranian origin". However, the firm also found some targets from Britain as well as Afghanistan. Check Point also established that some supporters in Iran of the Islamic State group, as well as some of Kurdish and Turkish origin -- people "that could pose a threat to stability of the Iranian regime" -- had also been targeted by mobile applications containing spyware. One of the applications monitored came from a firmware system update website which initially linked through to an Iranian internet protocol address before switching to a Russian one. Filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin warns in a new film of the dangers of relying too heavily on robots and computers Automation is killing us, warns filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin in his new documentary "The Truth About Killer Robots," which premieres Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film is also the first ever to be narrated by a robot -- a possible sign of what's to come in the motion picture industry. "When I started making the movie, the idea of robots killing people was very trendy, people were talking about the theoretical possibilities," Pozdorovkin told AFP. Most cautionary tales about automation have considered "what robots will be able to do in the future," he said. "But I'm more interested in how technology presently works on us. How is automation transforming us? This is a deeper issue, fundamental to who we are as a species." The movie considers laws for robots first imagined by Isaac Asimov in the his 1942 short story "Runaround," which states that machines must not harm humans. It presents the viewpoints of engineers, journalists, philosophers and, through archival footage, Asimov himself. In the film, Pozdorovkin points to deaths at a VW factory in Germany, in self-driving Tesla vehicles in the United States and from an explosives-carrying robot used by Dallas police to end an armed standoff. The cases raise questions about accountability, legality and morality. Robots, Pozdorovkin suggests, are also job killers, as well as making our minds lazy and fraying our connections to other people. "We're talking about massive societal changes," he said. "And I think it's going to continue." Many of the impacts are incremental, as in the case of American truck drivers who are now being tasked with effectively "baby-sitting" robot navigators, for less money. "Before a truck driver is fully replaced by automation, their wages, their skills and their sense of dignity are slowly being degraded" as they hand over more and more tasks to computers, Pozdorovkin explained. He noted inroads by artificial intelligence and robots far beyond factory floors, such as in law firms, pizza restaurants and taxis (which provoked five driver suicides in New York), and supplanting even a spouse in one case in China, where men outnumber women. - Losing our humanity - The economic benefits are easy to understand: robots are faster and more productive. But what will happen to all of the people who lose their jobs to automation? More pressing for UC Berkeley philosopher John Campbell is the "loss of authentic connections with another person" as we increasingly turn to robots and artificial intelligence. He explains in the film that robots made to mimic human emotions -- or trick us -- risk making people less empathetic overall. "Relying on tech, your mind gets lazier," comments a witness to the Florida highway crash with a semi-trailer that resulted in the decapitation of the owner of the self-driving Tesla car, who was watching a movie at the time. The case of the Dallas police attaching explosives to a bomb disposal robot and sending it into a building to kill a man who ambushed a group of officers in 2016 was described in media reports cited in the film as a "watershed moment in police tactics." It was the first time American police used a robot to kill anyone. But it was what came afterward that interested Pozdorovkin: the Dallas police chief asked the city council for more technology, not officers, to respond to future threats. The filmmaker interviewed Chris Webb, a police sniper who responded to the Dallas attack, saying increased automation in policing was leading to "a loss of interpersonal relationships between officers and the community the officers serve." "We're becoming more robotic," he said. HBO television will show the film on November 26. On Tuesday, Pozdorovkin and the film's director of photography Joe Bender will also host a talk in Toronto about increasing automation. George Papadopoulos, a one-time foreign policy advisor to US President Donald Trump's election campaign, leaves the US District Court in Washington after his sentencing on September 7, 2018 A former advisor to US President Donald Trump whose contacts with Russians set off the investigation into possible collusion with Moscow was jailed Friday for lying to the FBI. US District Judge Randolph Moss sentenced foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos to 14 days in prison, acknowledging his guilty plea and his remorse, but noting that he "lied in an investigation that was important to national security." Papadopoulos was the second person ordered to prison in the sprawling, 16-month Russia collusion investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and came just over two weeks after two former top aides to Trump were convicted of felony crimes in cases that grew out of the probe. Trump sought to ridicule the sentence, suggesting that it was trivial accomplishment for an investigation that has cost millions since it began in May 2017 -- while ignoring the 35 indictments, five guilty pleas and one trial conviction Mueller has racked up so far. "14 days for $28 MILLION - $2 MILLION a day, No Collusion. A great day for America!" Trump tweeted. But Senator Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has its own Russia collusion investigation, applauded Mueller's work. "Despite constant attacks by the President and his allies, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team have once again demonstrated that they are conducting a serious, professional investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians during the 2016 election," Warner said in a statement. - Tried to arrange Trump-Putin meeting - Papadopoulos, 31, was an inexperienced oil analyst based in London when he joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 as one of a handful of members of the Republican candidate's national security advisory board. Told the campaign's priority was to improve relations with Russia, within weeks he made contact with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who touted links to the Kremlin. Mifsud introduced him to others who ostensibly had connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- including a woman who claimed to be Putin's niece. At a campaign meeting at the end of March 2016 Papadopoulos told Trump, then-senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and other campaign officials that he had connections in London that could set up a Trump-Putin meeting ahead of the November election. "While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," Papadopoulos's lawyers said in a pre-sentencing statement last week. Sessions has claimed he opposed the idea, but Papadopoulos continued to discuss the idea with top campaign officials over the following months. In late April, he also told them that Mifsud said the Russians had information that could harm Clinton, in the form of thousands of emails. Weeks later, stolen Clinton emails were leaked over the internet by what US intelligence chiefs now say were Russian intelligence actors. Papadopoulos says he had nothing to do with the leak. - 'Young and ambitious' - Papadopoulos's lawyer Tom Breen claimed that Trump hindered the Russia probe more than his client After being tipped off by an Australian diplomat that Papadopoulos had spoken about Russians having dirt on Clinton, the Federal Bureau of Investigation quietly opened a probe into whether people in Trump's campaign were colluding with Russia. Papadopoulos admitted that he lied to FBI investigators when they interviewed him on January 27, 2017. "In January 2017, I made a terrible mistake for which I paid dearly, I am ashamed," Papadopoulos had told the court in Washington. "I was young and ambitious." His lawyer Tom Breen said that at the time, Papadopoulos was naive and acted on what he told the court was a "misguided loyalty" to Trump, who had been inaugurated as president just one week before. Already at that time, Breen noted, Trump was calling the allegations of Russian interference in the election "fake news" and a "political witch hunt" -- terms he continues to use for the Mueller probe. "The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever did," Breen said. Moss, the federal judge, said he took into consideration Papadopoulos's "genuine remorse" in issuing the light sentence, which included a $9,500 fine, a year on parole and community service. Papadopoulos has cooperated for more than a year with Mueller's probe, but it remains unknown whether he has provided the probe with any information supporting allegations of collusion with Russia. Mueller's office did not immediately comment on the sentence. Authorities were seeking to charge the officer, who has not yet been named, with manslaughter; Dallas Police U. Renee Hall told a news conference the incident was "a very unique situation" Protesters in Texas are demanding immediate jail for a Dallas police officer who entered the wrong apartment mistaking it for her own and shot dead the black man who lived there. The officer, who police have yet to identify and has been placed on leave pending official charges, will face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, officials said Friday. A racially-mixed crowd gathered near the crime scene for a candlelight vigil late Friday to honor the victim, identified as Botham Shem Jean, 26, an immigrant from the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia. "We are here to express our outrage, and we are here to demand accountability," said Imam Omar Suleiman, an activist at the event organized by the Dallas-based Mothers Against Police Brutality group. "If this was not an officer that pulled the trigger, this person would be in a jail cell tonight!" Suleiman said Mourners carried signs with slogans that read "Have a trial when police kill" and "Where is justice when police kill us?" Authorities are seeking to charge the officer with manslaughter. Dallas Police chief U. Renee Hall told a news conference that the shooting was "a very unique situation." "We have ceased handling (the incident) under our normal officer-involved shooting protocol," the chief said, adding that the officer's blood was being tested for drugs and alcohol. - 'Was in no wrong place' - The shooting took place late Thursday at the end of the officer's work shift. While still in uniform, she told authorities she mistakenly walked into Jean's apartment in an upscale complex near downtown Dallas. Police did not yet know what interaction occurred between Jean and the officer. After the officer shot Jean, she called emergency services and told responding officers that she had thought she had entered her own apartment. "Right now there are more questions than answers," Chief Hall said. Jean had graduated from a private Christian college in Arkansas in 2016 and had since been working at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas. "It just still feels like a nightmare," Jean's mother, Allison Jean, told NBC News. "I wish I would wake up and find that it wasn't true." Allison Jean -- who according to the St. Lucia Times has served for years in the island's government -- said the details of her son's shooting make no sense. Her son "was in no wrong place at any wrong time. He was in his sanctuary, in the place where he called home. He didn't deserve this," she told NBC. Jean's sister, Allisa Charles-Findley, said she needs "answers for my baby brother." "Just last week I was thinking of what to get you for your birthday," she wrote on Facebook, "now I have to go pick out your casket." Neighbor Alyssa Kinsey told The Dallas Morning News that Jean helped her move new furniture into her apartment soon after she moved into the building with her family in April. "I'll remember his smile," she said. "It just lit up a room." Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- George Papadopoulos, the novice, unpaid foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump who rose to prominence when he became the first former campaign adviser arrested as part of special counsel Robert Muellers Russian-influence probe, was sentenced Friday to 14 days incarceration, one year of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to FBI agents about his correspondence with Russian nationals and attempts to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian officials. The 30-year-old foreign policy and energy scholar, who in 2016 attempted his maiden venture into electoral politics, eventually became the first former Trump adviser to agree to cooperate with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. Papadopoulos' lawyer Thomas Breen told the court Friday his client's cooperation earned him probation, saying he was "unsophisticated, he was naive and he was a fool. Papadopoulos then read a prepared statement in which he said, Serving the United States with pride is all I ever wanted to do. I made a dreadful mistake. I am a good man, Papadopoulos said, adding, I am ready to accept my sentence. Prosecutors demanded time behind bars, telling U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss that the young foreign policy and energy expert continued to mislead them even after they had reached a cooperation agreement. Prosecutor Andrew Goldstein said Papadopoulos "chose to lie again and again to advance his personal interests. His lies were purposeful, calculated and caused harm to the investigation. He made at best begrudging efforts to cooperate, Goldstein said. Papadopoulos remains a central figure in the probe into Russian meddling because he is believed to be the first Trump campaign adviser to be contacted by someone believed to be tied to the Russian government and told of hacked emails tied to Hillary Clintons campaign information shared in April 2016, well before any pilfered material was published. The early date of this contact is significant: even the Clinton campaign was not yet aware that Russia possessed their stolen emails, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee wrote in a status report about their investigation. How his cooperation influenced the direction and tenor of the Mueller probe, however, remains unclear. Prosecutors conducted four lengthy proffer sessions with him, according to court records. According to his court filings, the interviews included discussion of his interactions with a mysterious Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, who was believed to have ties to the Russian government, and his fleeting friendship with a Belarussian-born businessman who was making contact with numerous people in Trumps orbit. Both men have since gone silent. In their sentencing memo to the judge released last Friday, lawyers for Papadopoulos also claimed the future president "nodded with approval" when, at a March 2016 meeting that included then-campaign adviser Jeff Sessions, Papadopoulos offered to arrange a get-together with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has said previously he does not recall much of what was said during the "very unimportant" campaign meeting. "Eager to show his value to the campaign, George announced at the meeting that he had connections that could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin," the sentencing memo states. "While some in the room rebuffed Georges offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it." In the months since his guilty plea, Papadopoulos has been represented in public by his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos. As her husbands sentencing approached, Mangiante Papadopoulos has spoken out repeatedly about her belief that her husband was in some way set up by the government. For several weeks, she maintained that her husband was reconsidering his guilty plea. But she said he ultimately decided to accept his fate with the court. George will take responsibility for some inaccuracies during the interview with the FBI, she said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday. She said she hopes the judge will take into account his lingering concerns about the conduct of the government in order to assess Georges role in this investigation from an objective point of view. And, yes, she added, definitely decide for zero jail time. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The pioneering #DMUglobal scheme, which offers international experiences for De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) students, has hit an incredible milestone with the number of participants breaking through the 10,000 mark. Hundreds of DMU students travelled to Berlin last year #DMUglobal was launched by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Dominic Shellard in 2014 so that students could enrich their studies, broaden cultural horizons and develop key skills valued by employers. It came as a response to the Government at the time which had called on UK universities to send more students overseas as part of their studies. As the team prepares to take more than 200 students to Berlin next week for academic and volunteering experiences around the German capital, it has been revealed that among them is the 10,000th #DMUglobal participant. In the last four years #DMUglobal has taken these 10,000-plus students to more than 60 nations worldwide, covering the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Students joining in at New York Pride on a #DMUglobal trip The student experiences have involved everything from building libraries in the Gambia to leading discussions for peace and social justice at the United Nations in New York. Thousands have also taken part in programmes on campus with the aim of raising cultural awareness and improving language skills. All #DMUglobal trips are subsidised to ensure they are available to all. Leo Smith, Head of #DMUglobal, said: We passionately believe in offering our students incredible experiences while they study at DMU. What better way to do this than to see them travel overseas to meet new people, learn about different cultures and use their new-found knowledge to enhance their studies back at DMU. It is really rewarding for me and the #DMUglobal team to know that the experiences we offer will help students stand out in a very competitive global jobs market. Close to 200 people on a variety of courses have signed up to the latest epic visit to Berlin organised through #DMUglobal. The trip will see four groups of students flown from the UK out across Europe, heading respectively to Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin. In each of the cities, students will experience hands-on opportunities with groups or communities supporting refugees and other disadvantaged people. The #DMUglobal trip to Hong Kong in March this year Then all students will meet in Berlin to take part in a DMU event focused around the concept of global citizenship and the role young people have in shaping the future of Europe. Students will share what they have learnt from their visits and through group sessions, speed lectures, and panel discussions, develop ideas for projects and work which could be developed back in Leicester. In Paris, the Utopia56 group has invited students to its headquarters, giving them insights into how it supports the citys homeless refugees. In Brussels, Serve the City operates out of the Haren Centre, providing shelter and food to the citys most vulnerable. Students will be helping to provide food and meet some of the people the group supports. And in Amsterdam, students will visit Amsterdam University College to hear from and talk with the Mission: Right2Education group, which offers English and Dutch language classes to refugees throughout the city. #DMUglobal aims to be the most comprehensive international experience programme available at any UK university. In June 2016, #DMUglobal won the Outstanding International Strategy category at The Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards (THELMAs). WASHINGTON (AP) - Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will get price cuts. That's the conclusion from an exclusive analysis of the besieged but resilient program, which still sparks deep divisions heading into this year's midterm elections. The Associated Press and the consulting firm Avalere Health crunched available state data and found that "Obamacare's" health insurance marketplaces seem to be stabilizing after two years of sharp premium hikes. And the exodus of insurers from the program has halted, even reversed somewhat, with more consumer choices for 2019. The analysis found a 3.6 percent average increase in proposed or approved premiums across 47 states and Washington, D.C., for next year. This year the average increase nationally was about 30 percent. The average total premium for an individual covered under the health law is now close to $600 a month before subsidies. In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, April Box poses for a photo at her home in Spokane, Wash. Box is a healthcare advocate and runs the website www.hip-help.com to help guide people through major surgeries and other aspects of the healthcare system. Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will get a price cut. That's the conclusion from an exclusive analysis of the besieged but resilient program that still divides voters heading into this year's midterm elections. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) For next year, premiums are expected either to drop or increase by less than 10 percent in 41 states with about 9 million customers. Eleven of those states are expected to see a drop in average premiums. In six other states, plus Washington, D.C., premiums are projected to rise between 10 percent and 18 percent. Insurers also are starting to come back. Nineteen states will either see new insurers enter or current ones expand into more areas. There are no bare counties lacking a willing insurer. Even so, Chris Sloan, an Avalere director, says, "This is still a market that's unaffordable for many people who aren't eligible for subsidies." Nearly 9 in 10 ACA customers get government subsidies based on income, shielding most from premium increases. But people with higher incomes, who don't qualify for financial aid, have dropped out in droves. It's too early to say if the ACA's turnabout will be fleeting or a more permanent shift. Either way, next year's numbers are at odds with the political rhetoric around the ACA, still heated even after President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law last year. Trump regularly calls "Obamacare" a "disaster" and time again has declared it "dead." The GOP tax-cut bill repealed the ACA requirement that Americans have health insurance or risk fines, effective next year. But other key elements remain, including subsidies and protection for people with pre-existing conditions. Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Trump of "sabotage," driving up premiums and threatening coverage. The moderating market trend "takes the issue away from Republican candidates" in the midterm elections, said Mark Hall, a health law and policy expert at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. "Part of the mess is now their fault, and the facts really don't support the narrative that things are getting worse." Market stability also appears to undercut Democrats' charge that Trump is undermining the program. But Democrats disagree, saying the ACA is in danger while Republicans control Washington, and that premiums would have been even lower but for the administration's hostility. "Voters won't think that the Trump threat to the ACA has passed at all, unless Democrats get at least the House in 2018," said Bill Carrick, a strategist for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose re-election ads emphasize her support for the health law. As if seconding Democrats' argument, the Trump administration has said it won't defend the ACA's protections for pre-existing conditions in a federal case in Texas that could go to the Supreme Court. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that Americans regardless of partisan identification said those protections should remain the law of the land. In solidly Republican Arkansas, Democratic state legislator and cancer survivor Clarke Tucker is using the ACA in his campaign to try to flip a U.S. House seat from red to blue. Tucker, 37, says part of what made him want to run is the House vote to repeal the ACA last year and images of Trump and GOP lawmakers celebrating at the White House. Business analysts say the relatively good news for 2019 is partly the result of previous premium increases, which allowed insurers to return to profitability after losing hundreds of millions of dollars. "They can price better, and they can manage this population better, which is why they can actually make some money," said Deep Banerjee of Standard & Poor's. Repeal of the ACA's requirement to carry insurance doesn't seem to have had a major impact yet, but Banerjee said there's "a cloud of uncertainty" around the Trump administration's potential policy shifts. Yet some administration actions have also helped settle the markets, such as continuing a premium stabilization program. April Box of Spokane Valley, Washington, lives in a state where premiums could rise substantially since insurers have proposed an 18 percent increase. In states expecting double-digit increases, the reasons reflect local market conditions. Proposed increases may ultimately get revised downward. Box is self-employed as a personal advocate helping patients navigate the health care system. She has an ACA plan, but even with a subsidy her premiums are expensive and a high deductible means she's essentially covered only for catastrophic illness. "I'm choosing not to go to the doctor, and I'm saying to myself I'm not sick enough to go to the doctors," Box said. "We need to figure out how to make it better and lower the price." Now in her 50s, Box was born with dislocated hips. She worries she could be uninsurable if insurers are allowed to go back to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. She might need another hip surgery. "It needs to be a level playing field for everybody," said Box. "We need to have universal coverage - that is really the only answer." Tennessee is a prime example of the ACA's flipped fortunes. Last year, the state struggled to secure at least one insurer in every county. But approved rates for 2019 reflect an 11 percent average decrease. Two new insurers - Bright Health and Celtic- have entered its marketplace, and two others -Cigna and Oscar- will expand into new counties. Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander called that a "welcome step," but argued rates could have been even lower if congressional Democrats had supported a market stabilization bill. Democrats blame Republicans for the failure. To calculate premium changes, Avalere and The Associated Press used proposed overall individual marketplace rate filings for 34 states and D.C., and final rates for 13 states that have already approved them. Data was not available for Massachusetts, Maryland and Alabama. The average rate change calculations include both on-exchange and off-exchange plans that comply with ACA requirements. The government isn't expected to release final national figures until later this fall. The HealthCare.gov website is photographed in Washington on Dec. 15, 2017. Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will actually get a price cut. That's from an exclusive analysis bound to surprise 'Obamacare' opponents and supporters. The study of state data by Avalere Health and The Associated Press also found that insurers aren't bailing out of the ACA marketplaces anymore; some are coming back. The average premium increase across 47 states and Washington, D.C. will be 3.6 percent in 2019. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) In this Aug. 22, 2018 photo, April Box uses a roller to work on her hip muscles at her home in Spokane, Wash. Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will get a price cut. That's the conclusion from an exclusive analysis of the besieged but resilient program that still divides voters heading into this year's midterm elections. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) The family of an unarmed black man shot by police in Sacramento is seeking millions of dollars in damages from the city for his death. The city announced the claims on Thursday. The family of 22-year-old Stephon Clark is seeking more than $15million, including for funeral expenses, attorney fees and punitive damages. The city said such claims are usually a precursor to a lawsuit. Police shot Clark on March 18 in the backyard of his grandmother's home. Officers said they thought he had a gun but later found he was holding only a cell phone. The names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released because the Sacramento Police Department said they have received death threats. The family of 22-year-old Stephon Clark is seeking more than $15miillion in damages from the city of Sacramento The family is seeking the money for funeral expenses, attorney fees and punitive damages. Clark's brother Stevante is seen speaking before his brother's funeral on March 29 Clark is pictured above in an older photo with his two children and his girlfriend Salena Manni Last month, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters crashed the wedding of one of the officers after learning his identity. As the officer and his groomsmen got ready ahead of the ceremony, the protesters barged into the room yelling 'murderer'. The incident was captured on video and posted to the Black Lives Matter Sacramento Facebook page. 'I just wanted to know if you started planning your wedding before you killed Stephon Clark or after?' a woman said in the video. 'How you been sleeping since March 18? And I know this is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, he will not have that option.' Clark was running away from officers when he shot 20 times. The officers were responding to a 911 call of someone breaking car windows when they encountered Clark. The death has sparked widespread outrage and protests, and the police department said it was investigating the shooting. So far, there's no word on if the officers will be indicted. News of the Clark family seeking damages from the city, comes the same day Sacramento police fatally shot a masked man reportedly armed with a pellet gun made to look like a handgun. Officers were called to the area late Wednesday night after someone reported seeing a man wearing a face mask, a black hoodie, grey pants and a backpack. The caller said the suspect was pointing a gun at people, KCRA reports. Clark was killed on March 18 by two Sacramento police officers while he was fleeing through his grandmother's backyard. Rev Al Sharptoon is pictured at Clark's funeral on March 29 Clark's death has sparked widespread outrage. So far, there's no word on if the officers will be indicted On Thursday, police released the 911 tape from the caller who told the dispatcher that the masked man pointed a gun at him and his friend and then walked away. 'He didn't say anything,' the caller said. The suspect was tracked down to the backyard of an occupied home around 3.12am on Thursday. The department said cops opened fire when the man pointed the gun at officers. 'Officers observed the suspect with a gun in his hand and ordered him to drop his weapon. The suspect pointed his weapon at officers, who then fired at the suspect,' police said. Authorities said the pellet gun, which looked like a real gun, and a knife were found next to the body. His identity is not being released until the next of kin is notified, police said. WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and Canadian negotiators will extend at least through Friday their negotiations to reach a deal that would allow Canada to remain in a North American trade bloc. Canada's envoy - Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland - left a five-minute-long meeting with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer Thursday night. She told reporters that it was important to discuss a couple of issues face to face but offered no further details. She added that the two sides agreed to meet again Friday. Freeland has been negotiating in Washington since last week. 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. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local): 11:50 p.m. President Donald Trump says a docudrama about the moon landing would have been a "much bigger success" had it shown the planting of the American flag. President Donald Trump is interviewed before the start of a rally in Billings, Mont., Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) But the movie, "First Man," won't be in theaters until Universal Pictures releases it next month. The film recently was previewed at the Venice Film Festival, and some conservative pundits have decried its lack of emphasis on the American flag's planting on the moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong. Armstrong's sons have defended the film, calling it anything but "anti-American." Trump closed a rally Thursday in Billings, Montana, by speaking about the achievements of American ancestors who built railroads and linked highways. He says ancestors also "proudly planted an American flag on the face of the moon, which is not shown in that movie." 9:25 p.m. President Donald Trump says he doesn't think Nike's endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick is appropriate. Trump says Thursday: "I don't like what Nike did. I don't think it's appropriate what they did." Kaepernick is the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who started kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality. Trump has repeatedly criticized Kaepernick and other players for kneeling during the anthem. Nike this week unveiled an endorsement deal with Kaepernick, who also narrates a new "Just Do It" ad. Trump was interviewed by Fox News before a rally Thursday in Billings, Montana. He says: "I honor the flag. I honor our national anthem and most of the people in this country feel the same way." The NFL opened its new season Thursday night. ___ 9:05 p.m. President Donald Trump says he'd "shut down the government over border security in a second" if it were up to him. But he says he doesn't want to do anything to hurt Republicans so close to the November midterm elections. Trump says he thinks the GOP will do "really well" on Nov. 6, when the party hopes to retain control of both houses of Congress. Congress has been slow to fully fund construction of the wall Trump promised to build on the border with Mexico. He has reconsidered his threats to shut down the government when funding expires Sept. 30 as lawmakers work to pass annual spending bills. Trump made the comment Thursday in an interview with Fox News that was broadcast for the audience at his campaign rally in Billings, Montana. ___ 12:30 a.m. President Donald Trump is taking the Washington debate over his Supreme Court nominee to the home of two red-state Senate Democrats. Trump's trip to Montana and North Dakota this week is elevating Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation as a political litmus test for voters. The president's strategy aims to turn the screws on the lawmakers, Jon Tester of Montana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who find themselves caught between Senate leaders fighting Kavanaugh's confirmation and their states' more conservative electorate. Neither senator has said how he or she will vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation. Senate Republican leaders hope to bring Kavanaugh's confirmation to a vote before the full chamber this month. Trump is holding a rally in Billings, Montana, on Thursday, spending the night and traveling to the Dakotas on Friday. NEW YORK (AP) - President Donald Trump will not answer federal investigators' questions, in writing or in person, about whether he tried to block the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, one of the president's attorneys told The Associated Press on Thursday. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said questions about obstruction of justice were a "no-go." Giuliani's statement was the most definitive rejection yet of special counsel Robert Mueller's efforts to interview the president about any efforts to obstruct the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russians. It signals the Trump's lawyers are committed to protecting the president from answering questions about actions the president took in office. FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2018 file photo, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, addresses a gathering during a campaign event for Eddie Edwards, who is running for the U.S. Congress, in Portsmouth, N.H. President Donald Trump will not answer any questions, written or in-person, about possible obstruction of justice, Giuliani told The Associated Press. Giuliani's statement was the most definitive rejection yet of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's efforts to interview the president about any efforts to block the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russians. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File ) It's unclear if Giuliani's public position has been endorsed by Trump, who has said he wants to answer questions under oath. Negotiations about the scope and format of an interview are still ongoing. If the legal team holds its stance, it could force Mueller to try to subpoena the president, likely triggering a standoff that would lead to the Supreme Court. Mueller's office has previously sought to interview the president about the obstruction issue, including his firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey and his public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump's legal team has argued that the president has the power to hire and fire appointees and the special counsel does not have the authority to ask him to explain those decisions. Giuliani said Thursday the team was steadfast in that position. "That's a no-go. That is not going to happen," Giuliani said. "There will be no questions at all on obstruction." In a letter last week, Mueller's team said it would accept written responses from Trump on questions related to Russian election interference. Giuliani suggested Thursday that Trump's lawyers had agreed to those terms but wanted to prohibit investigators from asking follow-up questions. "It would be in written form and if you want to follow up on our answers, justify it. Show us why you didn't get there the first time," Giuliani said. He said he was not categorically ruling out answering a second round of questions but the entire matter of whether there would be follow-up inquiries should be settled before the president answers anything at all. "We aren't going to let them spring it on us," said Giuliani, who has served as lawyer-spokesman for the president's personal legal team, using television interviews and public comments as a tactic in the negotiations. He has repeatedly moved the goalposts on what would be required for a presidential interview and, at times, has been forced to clarify previous statements. In earlier interviews, Giuliani had suggested some obstruction questions could be allowed if prosecutors show necessity and preview the questions with the defense lawyers. Trump, in a Fox News interview taped ahead of a Thursday night rally in Montana, was noncommittal when asked about a possible Mueller interview. In the latest letter to the legal team, Mueller's office didn't address obstruction questions, indicating investigators would later assess what additional information it needs from the president after receiving a response about the written submissions, according to a person familiar with the document. The person familiar with the letter spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations. Giuliani's declaration drew a swift rebuke from Rep. Adam Schiff, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who tweeted: "Trump's legal team never had any intention of allowing him to be interviewed, knowing he is incapable of telling the truth. It's past time to subpoena the President. No one is above the law." 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 has the right to ask him about actions that he is authorized, under the Constitution, to take as president. Giuliani's comments came just hours after Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, espoused a belief in an expansive view of executive powers and declined to say whether a president can be subpoenaed and forced to testify. Mueller's team raised the prospect in March that it could subpoena the president, though this would unquestionably prompt a court fight. The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on the question of whether a president can be forced to testify, though the justices did rule in 1974 that Richard Nixon had to produce recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed. In addition to questions about Comey and Sessions, Mueller has expressed interest in Trump's role in drafting a statement to The New York Times about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by his son, Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer. Trump Jr. took the meeting, emails show, after it was described as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign by providing derogatory information about Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it happened. Trump and Giuliani have led an onslaught of attacks on Mueller's credibility, claiming that the special counsel was biased and that the entire probe was a "witch hunt." Giuliani has also demanded that the probe suspend its activities with the midterm elections approaching, but the former mayor said Thursday he was not certain of Mueller's intentions. ___ Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Chad Day contributed reporting from Washington. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday he is pushing for "irrevocable progress" in efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons by the end of this year as he prepares for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was expecting to get a "positive" letter from Kim after South Korean special envoys traveled to Pyongyang this week to help resolve the nuclear stalemate and pave the way for the Sept. 18-20 Moon-Kim summit. South Korean officials say the summit in Pyongyang will focus on how to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula - the goal that Kim and Trump agreed to at their own historic face-to-face meeting in Singapore in June. Diplomatic progress since then has been slow. In this Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, photo, South Korean President Moon Jae-in smiles as he presides over a meeting to make preparations for upcoming summit between South and North Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, from Sept. 18-20 at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea. Moon said Friday, Sept. 7, that he's pushing for "irrevocable progress" on efforts to rid North Korea of its nukes by the end of this year as he prepares for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Hwang Gwang-mo/Yonhap via AP) After returning home from North Korea, the South Korean envoys said Thursday that Kim still has faith in Trump and reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, although he expressed frustration over skepticism about his sincerity. Chief envoy Chung Eui-yong said Kim wanted to denuclearize before Trump's current term ends in early 2021. On Friday, Trump was upbeat about the North Korean leader's overtures, describing as "a very positive statement what he said about me and also what he said about he wants to denuclearize during the Trump administration." Trump said he's expecting to get a letter in the coming days that Kim is sending to him through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It was a reference to the message from Kim to Trump that South Korea said Thursday it would be forwarding to the United States. During their visit on Wednesday, the envoys had forwarded a message from Trump to Kim. "I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to a campaign event in North Dakota. "I think it's going to be a positive letter." Still, the next step in nuclear diplomacy is uncertain. Negotiators seem deadlocked over whether North Korea truly intends to denuclearize as it has pledged numerous times in recent months. North Korea has dismantled its nuclear and rocket engine testing sites, but U.S. officials want more serious, concrete action taken before North Korea obtains outside concessions. North Korea, which says its nuclear program is aimed at countering U.S. military threats, has demanded the United States jointly declare with that country and South Korea an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted by an armistice, not a peace treaty. During his meeting with the South Korean envoys, Kim said an end-of-war declaration wouldn't weaken the U.S.-South Korean alliance or lead to the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to prevent an North Korean attack, according to Chung. Kim's stance appeared designed to allay U.S. concerns that the declaration could be used by the North to demand the removal of U.S. forces. Moon's liberal government, which is eager to continue engagement with North Korea, also wants the declaration. In a written interview released Friday with Indonesian newspaper Kompas, Moon said he wants to see such a declaration made this year as part of trust-building measures. "What matters is implementing with sincerity the agreements among the leaders, and our objective is producing irrevocable progress by the end of this year," Moon said, referring to denuclearization and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Two senior members of South Korea's delegation to Pyongyang are to fly to China and Japan to brief them on their meeting with Kim. Chung is to meet senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi on Saturday, and National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon, who went to Pyongyang with Chung, is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday, according to South Korea's presidential office. Chung, whose official title is presidential national security director, spoke with his U.S. counterpart, John Bolton, on the phone on Thursday about his trip to North Korea. ___ Thomas reported from Fargo, North Dakota. NEW YORK (AP) - Tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions could be erased with the OK of Brooklyn's top prosecutor, under a new plan for wiping records clean of offenses no longer being prosecuted in parts of the nation's biggest city. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is inviting people to request conviction dismissals. He expects prosecutors will consent in the great majority of a potential 20,000 cases since 1990 and an unknown number of older ones. To Gonzalez, whose office has stopped prosecuting most cases involving people accused of having small amounts of pot, it's only right to nix convictions that wouldn't be pursued now. "It's a little unfair to say we're no longer prosecuting these cases, but to have these folks carry these convictions for the rest of their lives," the Democrat told The Associated Press ahead of a planned announcement Friday. Several states have laws allowing for expunging or sealing marijuana convictions in certain circumstances. And prosecutors in San Diego, San Francisco , and Seattle - all in states where pot is now legal - have taken steps toward clearing marijuana convictions en masse. California lawmakers approved a measure last month that would require prosecutors to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 pot convictions. It's awaiting action from Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. The Brooklyn initiative envisions a case-by-case wipeout of thousands of convictions obtained under a law that still stands. New York allows marijuana-derived medications for some conditions, but recreational pot remains illegal, although Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed a panel to draft legislation that could legalize it. Meanwhile, Gonzalez and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. decided this year to decline to prosecute most misdemeanor pot possession and smoking cases. The men oversee prosecutions in two of the city's five boroughs. The DAs said the prosecutions did little for public safety but sometimes a lot of harm - jeopardizing job opportunities, housing, immigration status and more - in the lives of defendants who were overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. District attorneys in the other three boroughs still pursue such cases, however. All five DAs are Democrats. Under Gonzalez' new initiative, people already convicted of pot possession misdemeanors or violations in Brooklyn can ask a court to dismiss the cases. Legal groups are ready to help people with the paperwork. The DA's office will oppose requests from people with additional convictions for drug sales, certain violent felonies or sex offenses, for instance. But Gonzalez expects those cases to be few. "This is really a relief that I think we can provide, and we do it in a way that is safe," he said. A dismissal will ultimately be up to a judge. In general, judges often dismiss cases when prosecutors consent to it. New York City overall has been shifting its approach to policing marijuana, which spurred more than 50,000 arrests a year as recently as 2011. Last year, there were 17,880, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. A 2014 city policy called for police to issue summonses citing violations, instead of making misdemeanor arrests, for most small-time marijuana possession cases, though not public pot smoking. As of last Saturday, officers have been directed to issue tickets in most marijuana-smoking cases, too. Police Commissioner James O'Neill supports the move, but the city's efforts to ease off on pot have drawn criticism from Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins. "If you want to not have enforcement of arrests," he told The Wall Street Journal in May, "then you need to change the law." Longtime Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware easily fended off a Democratic primary challenge Thursday from a political newcomer who was part of an antiestablishment wave that hoped to move the party farther to the left. Carper, 71, bested challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris, who had hoped to ride a growing anti-establishment wave within the party to victory, only to see it ebb against one of the most successful politicians in modern Delaware history. 'We need to reunite as a party,' Carper said after a primary win that kept his four-decade unbeaten campaign record intact. 'We need to keep in mind that we are not one another's enemies.' Longtime Sen. Tom Carper (left) of Delaware easily fended off a Democratic primary challenge Thursday from a political newcomer who was part of an antiestablishment wave that hoped to move the party farther to the left Carper and his wife Martha walk into Bluewinkle's Diamond Club at Frawley Stadium on Thursday in Wilmington to celebrate after his victory Carper's victory set up a November race against Rob Arlett, President Donald Trump's former state campaign chair. Arlett, a Sussex County Councilman, defeated former PayPal executive Gene Truono in the Republican Senate primary. Carper, who is vying for a fourth term in the Senate, touted his experience and his ability to work with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, despite being a vocal Trump critic. He served five terms in the U.S. House and two terms as governor before being elected to the Senate in 2000. Harris had hoped for a victory like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who beat a 10-term incumbent in a New York congressional primary in June; Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who won Florida's Democratic gubernatorial primary; and Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who beat an incumbent in a Massachusetts primary this week. 'We're going to just keep pushing against the machine,' Harris said. 'Our voices are louder than ever, and we are not going to sit silent whenever we see any injustices.' Carper, 71, bested challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris (seen in this August 31 file photo in Newark, Delaware). She had hoped to ride a growing anti-establishment wave within the party to victory, only to see it ebb against one of Delaware's most successful politicians Carper, 71, won by nearly 30 percent over Harris, who was part of a wave of young activists emboldened by the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Harris, a black, gay Air Force veteran, ran on a platform including government-paid health care for all, a $15 an hour minimum wage and abolition of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. She tried to paint Carper as an out-of-touch, career politician beholden to corporations and their political action committees. But Carper had a huge advantage over Harris, both in name recognition and fundraising. He raised more than $1.3million this year, compared to a little more than $120,000 reported by Harris as of mid-August. He outspent her by a similar margin. Arlett, the 51-year-old owner of a real estate business in southern Delaware, also likely faces an uphill battle against Carper in this heavily Democratic state. In 2012, Carper beat his general election opponent by 37 points. During the Senate campaign, Arlett touted his support of Trump's 'America First' agenda and his socially conservative positions, including opposition to abortion and gay marriage. He also reminded GOP voters that Truono is openly gay and in a same-sex marriage. Arlett has said he would work in Washington to remove burdensome regulations on businesses, improve border security and fight for free and fair trade. He also has called for repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the defunding of so-called 'sanctuary cities.' Republican voters on Thursday also chose businessman Scott Walker as their nominee for Delaware's lone U.S. House seat. He will challenge first-term Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester. CINCINNATI (AP) - Police say they're trying to learn why a gunman carrying a large amount of ammunition began shooting in a downtown Cincinnati high-rise building, killing three people and wounding two others before four officers all opened fire on him. Police Chief Eliot Isaac says they will study footage from the officers' body cameras and security from the 30-story building that headquarters Fifth Third Bancorp. Police say the suspect had never worked at Fifth Third and don't have any information linking him to other businesses in the building. Authorities believe that 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez has lived in the Cincinnati area since 2015. Police swarmed his apartment in North Bend, Ohio, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away. Members of the Cincinnati Police Department listen as Chief Eliot Isaac speaks to the media as emergency personnel and police work the scene of a shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Isaac says the shooter used a 9 mm handgun with some 200 rounds of ammunition. Officers arrived in seconds to drop him in a hail of gunfire. Authorities hope to have more information to release Friday. Records show the shooter formerly lived in South Florida and had been charged with some non-violent crimes years ago. Police said he went into a sandwich shop and possibly other businesses before entering the lobby and opening fire around 9:10 a.m. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the rapid police response probably prevented many more casualties. He said one investigator said it could have been "a bloodbath beyond imagination." Leonard Cain told The Enquirer he was going into the bank when someone alerted him about the shooting. He said a woman wearing headphones didn't hear the warnings and walked into the bank and got shot. The Hamilton County Coroner's office identified the victims as Pruthvi Kandepi, 25; Luis Calderon, 48; and Richard Newcomer, 64. One of the victims died at the scene. Two more died at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The wounded were listed there in critical condition and fair condition. Fountain Square is often the site of concerts, dancing, food trucks and other events around lunchtime or in the evenings. "It could have been any one of us," Mayor John Cranley said. He praised police and other emergency personnel, saying, "It could have been much, much worse." ___ Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Alexandra Villarreal in New York and AP Photographer John Minchillo in Cincinnati contributed. __ Follow Dan Sewell at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell Emergency personnel and police respond to a reported active shooter situation near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Emergency personnel and police respond to reports of an active shooter situation near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Emergency personnel and police respond to a reported active shooter situation near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Emergency personnel and police respond to reports of an active shooter situation near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) An area is cordoned off with police tape as emergency personnel and police respond to reports of an active shooter situation near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley stands at the scene as emergency personnel and police respond to reports of a shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, center, works the scene as emergency personnel and police respond to reports of a shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Pedestrians stand behind a police line as emergency personnel and police respond to reports of a shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Pedestrians stand behind a police line as emergency personnel and police respond to reports of a shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, center, speaks alongside Mayor John Cranley, left, during a media conference as emergency personnel and police work the scene of shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley speaks to the media as emergency personnel and police work the scene of shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Pedestrians are allowed to exit police cordons as emergency personnel and police work the scene of shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Emergency personnel and police work the scene of shooting near Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) This undated photo provided by the Cincinnati Police Department shows Omar Enrique Perez who is suspected of the shooting deaths of three people in downtown Cincinnati, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (Cincinnati Police Department via AP) SAO PAULO (AP) - The stabbing of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate jolted an already wildly unpredictable campaign to lead Latin America's largest nation, with doctors saying Friday that Jair Bolsonaro will be hospitalized for at least a week. Supporters of the far-right congressman who wants to crack down on crime said the attack would only boost his chances in next month's election, but it was unclear when he would be able to return to campaigning in person. A knife-wielding man whose motive was unknown stabbed Bolsonaro during a rally Thursday in Juiz de Fora, a city about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro, as he was being carried on the shoulders of a supporter. Supporters of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a campaign event, wave national flags as they gather outside the Albert Einstein Hospital, where the candidate was transferred, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Surgeon Luis Borsato said Bolsonaro was in serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for at least seven days. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Bolsonaro, 63, suffered intestinal damage and serious internal bleeding, said Dr. Luiz Henrique Borsato, one of the surgeons who operated on the candidate. He was in serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for seven to 10 days, Borsato said. The candidate was transferred Friday to a premier hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city. Supporters outside the hospital carried a giant inflatable doll of Bolsonaro dressed in a formal suit with a sash that said "President." "No matter what you think about him, he did not deserve this," said Mauro Rodrigues, owner of a construction business who went to the hospital to support Bolsonaro. "It will definitely increase his chances of winning the election because people will be more sympathetic toward him." The attack is likely to have a major impact on the remaining four weeks of the campaign, from how candidates interact with supporters to their message. For Bolsonaro, there will be questions about his physical ability to campaign - a key factor in a country slightly larger than the continental United States - as well as whether the attack will give him a boost among voters. "He probably won't go back to the streets during this campaign, so he can't do it, but we can," his son, Flavio, said in a video posted on Facebook. "More than ever I count with each one of you." Bolsonaro's vice presidential running mate, retired Gen. Hamilton Mourao, told reporters that the candidate will "come out of this process stronger than he went in." The sentiment was echoed by Flavio Bolsonaro, who tweeted: "Jair Bolsonaro is stronger than ever and ready to be elected President of Brazil in the 1st ROUND!" About a dozen candidates are competing in the Oct. 7 voting. If no one wins an outright majority, a second round will be held Oct. 28. In a video posted on the Facebook page of a senator who visited him in the hospital, Bolsonaro thanked his doctors in a weak and scratchy voice and said: "I never did harm to anyone." He described a painful wound, saying he had worried about an attack on the campaign trail. "I was preparing for this sort of thing. You run risks," he said. The leader in the polls is former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, but he is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and has been barred from running. Bolsonaro is currently second, and while he has enthusiastic followers, his disapproval rating is higher than any other major candidate. Friday was Independence Day in Brazil, and Bolsonaro had planned to attend a military parade in Rio de Janeiro. The former army captain openly praises Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship and has long argued the country is in chaos and needs a strong hand. That message has resonated with Brazilians, but his often derogatory comments about women, blacks and gays have also repulsed many. The attack "will turn into a dispute between the left and right," said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro's state university. "It's time that all presidential candidates make a declaration together to stop the aggressiveness." Videos on social media show Bolsonaro on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs-up with his left hand. He suddenly flinches and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who was apparently the attacker. The suspect, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, was arrested within seconds. The internet news portal G1 posted cellphone video, apparently obtained from police, of de Oliveira being questioned. Sitting on the floor with his hands cuffed behind him, a voice can be heard asking him who had sent him to attack Bolsonaro. "I didn't say anybody sent me," said de Oliveira. "He who sent me was God on high." Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police, told The Associated Press that agents believed "they were not dealing with a mentally stable person." Eraldo Fabio Rodrigues de Oliveira, who is married to a niece of the suspect, told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that he appeared to be "disturbed" and would often lock himself in a shed when he visited his family. "I can't say he was crazy, but, from the way he acted, he wasn't normal, no," the relative was quoted as saying. Lt. Col. Marco Rodrigues of the Minas Gerais state police told reporters that de Oliveira, who was once affiliated with a leftist party, said he acted because he disagreed with Bolsonaro. G1 quoted a lawyer for de Oliveira, Pedro Augusto Lima Possa, as saying his client did not mean to kill the politician, only wound him. Federal police said another suspect was detained in connection with the attack and questioned. That suspect was released overnight but remains under investigation. Minister of Public Security Raul Jungmann said the number of federal police providing security to candidates would be increased because of the attack, adding that Bolsonaro had been warned against launching himself into crowds as he did Thursday, according to the government-run news agency Agencia Brasil. Currently, 80 federal police protect five presidential candidates who requested security, and 21 were assigned to Bolsonaro, according to Jungmann. Brazilians surged onto social media to argue over whether the attack supports Bolsonaro's assertions that the country is off the rails or if his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Flavio Bolsonaro, a state legislator who is running for a seat in the federal Senate, rejected the idea that his father incited the attack, saying the candidate was engaged in a campaign of ideas. He said the mainstream media bear some responsibility, accusing them of portraying his father as a "monster." "They made Bolsonaro a martyr," said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil in Sao Paulo for the wounded candidate. "I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro." After more than four years of revelations of widespread political corruption, anger is running high. Despite being a congressman since 1991, Bolsonaro has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. He has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. It was not the first incident of political violence this year. In March, while da Silva was campaigning in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, gunshots hit buses in his caravan, although no one was hurt. That same month, Marielle Franco, a councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death along with her driver. "The campaign will become much more emotional than it already was," said Marcos Troyjo, co-director of the BRICLab at Columbia University. "Ideas will take a back seat." ___ Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo reported this story in Sao Paulo and AP writer Peter Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro. AP writers Stan Lehman and Victor Caivano in Sao Paulo and Marcelo Silva de Sousa and Yesica Fisch in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report. Supporters of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a campaign event, wear T-shirts emblazoned with his image, as they gather outside the Albert Einstein Hospital, where the candidate was transferred, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Surgeon Luis Borsato said Bolsonaro was in serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for at least seven days. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE - In this video still provided by Fernando Goncalves, National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is carried away after being stabbed during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. Officials and Bolsonaro's son said the far-right candidate was in stable condition, though the son also said Bolsonaro suffered severe blood loss and arrived to the hospital "almost dead." (AP Photo/Fernando Goncalves) Supporters of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a campaign event, gather next to a large inflatable doll depicting him, outside the Albert Einstein Hospital, where the candidate was transferred, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) Supporters of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a campaign event, inflate a large doll depicting him, outside the Albert Einstein Hospital, where the candidate was transferred, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) In this photo released by the Military Police, Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro, a leading Brazilian presidential candidate, sits after being detained in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. Officials and Bolsonaro's son said the far-right candidate was in stable condition, though the son also said Bolsonaro suffered severe blood loss and arrived to the hospital "almost dead." (Military Police via AP) Flavio Bolsonaro, second left, son of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, levaes the Santa Casa hospital where his father is hospitalized in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. Jair Bolsonaro, a leading Brazilian presidential candidate whose heated rhetoric has electrified some voters and angered others in a deeply polarized electorate, was stabbed during a campaign event. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) The ambulance carrying National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro leaves the Santa Casa hospital where he was hospitalized in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The wounding of the leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Supporters of Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a campaign event, inflate a large doll depicting him, outside the Albert Einstein Hospital, where the candidate was transferred, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) The ambulance transporting Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a campaign event, is escorted by police as they make their way to the Albert Einstein Hospital, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Surgeon Luis Borsato said Bolsonaro was in serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for at least seven days. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello) Flavio Bolsonaro, second left, son of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, levaes the Santa Casa hospital where his father is hospitalized in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. Jair Bolsonaro, a leading Brazilian presidential candidate whose heated rhetoric has electrified some voters and angered others in a deeply polarized electorate, was stabbed during a campaign event. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Friends of the National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, react as they stand at the entrance of the Santa Casa hospital in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. Bolsonaro, a leading Brazilian presidential candidate whose heated rhetoric has electrified some voters and angered others in a deeply polarized electorate, was stabbed during a campaign event. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) The ambulance carrying National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro leaves the Santa Casa hospital where he was hospitalized in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The wounding of the leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, greets students as he leaves the Santa Casa hospital where his father was hospitalized in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The wounding of the leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Prosecutors questioned Roman Catholic bishop emeritus Juan Barros as part of an investigation into sex abuse allegations against a former Chilean military chaplain. Barros, who has been accused of covering up the abuses of notorious predator priest Fernando Karadima, arrived on foot at the police sex crimes division in the capital Thursday to be questioned on the case involving a different cleric - former chaplain Pedro Quiroz. Quiroz was part of the military bishops' office headed by Barros between 2004 and 2015. According to statement from the office in late August, there were several complaints against Quiroz from between 1997 and 2000. The document said investigators didn't get the victims' statements necessary to determine responsibility in the cases. Bishop emeritus Juan Barros waves to the press after leaving the police sex crimes division building in Santiago, Chile. Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. Prosecutors questioned Barros, who has been accused of covering up the abuses of the country's most notorious predator priest. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) At the end of Thursday's questioning, Barros said: "I contributed what I could contribute. I told the prosecutor what I had known or didn't know." Barros has been at the center of Chile's growing clerical sex abuse scandal since Pope Francis appointed him bishop in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, the pope's own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile's other bishops. The critics questioned Barros' appointment since he had been a top lieutenant of Karadima and had been accused by the priest's victims of witnessing and ignoring abuses. Barros denied the charge but twice offered to resign in the ensuing years. Francis accepted his resignation in June. WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) - As she hits up the town fairs and parades across northwestern Connecticut, political newcomer Jahana Hayes is sharing her story of rising from poverty to the height of the teaching profession in her bid to become the state's first black woman elected to Congress. Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, defeated a veteran politician in the Democratic primary last month, propelling her candidacy onto the national stage in a year when many voters are embracing non-traditional congressional candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts. The onetime teen mother says her life experiences have shaped her positions on strengthening the public education system, passing stronger federal gun safety laws, and moving toward a single-payer health care system. In this Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018 photo, Jahana Hayes, right, Democratic nominee for Connecticut's 5th Congressional District, reviews photos in her Waterbury, Conn., campaign headquarters with campaign staffer Zeke Hodkin, who took a semester off from Middlebury College to be part of the candidate's social media team. Hayes, a former National Teacher of the Year, will face Republican Manny Santos in the November general election. (AP Photo/Susan Haigh) "A lot of it is very personal to me. I know what it was like to be unemployed, underemployed, homeless, homeowner, single mom, married professional," she told The Associated Press in an interview. "I think everything in my life has positioned me to be exactly where I am. I wouldn't change a thing about it." Hayes, 45, is running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, a Democrat who chose not to seek re-election after being criticized for her handling of a sexual harassment case in her office. Hayes faces Republican Manny Santos, a former mayor of Meriden and an analyst with the United Health Group. He currently trails Hayes in fundraising and says it's been a challenge going up against attention paid to Hayes and her life story, even though he has own compelling personal narrative as a poor immigrant from Portugal who became a U.S. Marine. "Her story is getting out there because she has the money to spend on commercials and messaging," said Santos, who doesn't expect much, if any, financial help from national Republicans, even though the 5th Congressional District is considered competitive for the GOP. "When I'm out there campaigning, I don't particularly talk about myself. I would much rather talk about someone else's issues and what they're concerned with and how I might be able to help them." Santos supports President Donald Trump's agenda of lower taxes and stronger immigration enforcement. He said Hayes' campaign is about "touching the emotions of people" and is "lacking in substance and policy." Hayes, who defeated former Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman in the primary, is competing in a year when Democratic voters have rewarded diversity and youth, including the candidacies of Stacey Abrams for Georgia governor and Andrew Gillum for Florida governor. Her story of overcoming so much personal adversity also has resonated with voters she has met since the primary at events like the Goshen Fair and the Newtown Labor Day parade. Hayes said she has received letters from single mothers who say she's inspired them to return to school or vote for the first time. Hayes grew up in Waterbury's Berkeley Heights, which was considered one of the city's most violent housing projects. Her mother struggled with drug addiction. Hayes became pregnant at 17 and considered dropping out of school, despite being a good student. She said public education and people in the system saved her life. She ultimately enrolled in community college and went on to earn her bachelor's and advanced degrees. A mother of four, Hayes is married to a detective in the Waterbury Police Department. The day after winning the primary, she was back at work, planning an orientation session for 112 new teachers entering the Waterbury Public Schools system. "I didn't campaign full-time until the two weeks leading up to the primary. That was my summer vacation," said Hayes, who is the school district's talent and professional development supervisor, a job she took on after winning the national award for her work as a high school history teacher. "I can't quit my job. I mean, I have a son who just started college last week." U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who encouraged Hayes to run, got to know her when she was named Connecticut Teacher of the Year and later National Teacher of the Year. He still remembers her "tour de force performance" at the White House, when she excitedly introduced President Barack Obama. "I remember thinking, as I watched her up on stage, she was just a natural at public presentation," he said. "She clearly had a gift to be able to translate really important, difficult topics amidst an authenticity that is pretty rare to find." After traveling the nation and overseas for a year-and-a-half as the National Teacher of Year, Hayes said she decided to run for public office. She refers to Trump infrequently on the campaign trail, but she said she is concerned by his policies and "the hollowing out" of the institutions and government programs that helped her succeed. "I thought I was doing my part," she said. "But all of a sudden, it seemed like what I was doing was not enough." NAURU (AP) - Surrounded by the shelves and furniture her older brother made, 13-year-old Parnian sits in the small, neat living room where she spends much of her time, recalling the day two years ago she watched family friend Omid set himself alight. "It was just down there," she says, motioning toward a patch of dusty earth in front of a couple of shipping containers on this hot, rocky part of the island that locals call Topside. "And then the man was on fire. And he was just screaming." Omid, 23, was airlifted from the Nibok refugee settlement, where Parnian lives, to a hospital in Australia, where he died two days later. He had timed his protest against Australia using Nauru as a holding station for more than 600 refugees to coincide with a visit by U.N. refugee agency officials. In this Sept. 4, 2018, photo, from left, Mohammad, 17, Aryana, 2 1/2 months old, his mother and little brother Amirparsa, 11, are pictured on Nauru. "We were innocent," says Mohammad about himself and other children. "It was not our fault to come out of our countries. It was not our fault to be in Nauru. We need future. We need education. We need to be in a normal place." (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) Australia designed its 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 it violates human rights. Parnian has been stuck on this tiny island for nearly five years now. She spends her days sleeping and watching movies, avoiding the local schools where refugees are often bullied. She holds little hope of ever leaving. Some of her friends from Myanmar were accepted by the U.S., but her family is among the many Iranian Christians on Nauru who say the U.S. won't take them under its current immigration policies. Like many of the refugees, Parnian did not want her full name used or her face shown in a photograph for fear of reprisals. She is one of about 120 refugee children and teenagers living on Nauru. In confronting interviews, several of the young refugees described how they often talk with each other about the desperate measures they're considering taking. "A lot of them are doing hunger strike now," says another refugee, Mohammad, 17. "They're not eating anything. They're not drinking. Their hope is to get out of here. If they don't get out of here, they hope to get out of their life." A series of Australian court cases has described how some of the refugee children on Nauru have been evacuated because they are suffering from resignation syndrome, a medical condition in which they withdraw socially and stop eating and drinking. Nauru's government claims the children have been manipulated into self-harm by their families and activists in a bid to get to Australia and make headlines. Not all the refugees feel so helpless. They aren't restricted in their movements on this island of 21 square kilometers (8 square miles) and many work in local businesses. And Nauruans are proud of their country. Before dawn, residents are up and sweeping the streets and sidewalks. The notion that some refugees could feel so unhappy about life on Nauru does not seem to sit well with its leader, President Baron Waqa. "They're living with us. They're living among us," Waqa said. "They're running their lives normally, just like any other Nauruans. They're provided all the services that are available to the Nauruans. And, you know, we live together very happily." Waqa was this week put in the unusual position of facing questions about the refugees from journalists, because the nation of 11,000 people was hosting the Pacific Islands Forum, a meeting of regional leaders. For years, Nauru had effectively kept journalists away by charging a fee of 8,000 Australian dollars ($5,750) to apply for media visas. Nauru waived the fee for the forum, but allowed only a handful of journalists into the country and placed restrictions on them. One New Zealand journalist was detained by police for three hours after she was spotted talking to a refugee. And Waqa, whose nation's economy relies on the revenue that Australia provides for housing the refugees, did not seem in a mood to invite journalists back. "The Pacific is doing a lot of good things. That's probably why (President Donald) Trump is not listening to us, because you people are not supporting us," he told media at a press conference. "You'd rather talk about the issues and refugees and things that only interest you, but not the Pacific." Helia, 15, a refugee who lives near her friend Parnian at the Nibok settlement, says Nauru feels like a jail. She says it's hard to even consider what a normal life might be like. "I'd like go to school and after school come back home, go out with my friends, hang out, go to the movies. I don't know," she says. "There's nothing, literally nothing, here. It's not even safe." Some of the refugees see some hope in moving to New Zealand, after it made an offer to Australia to take 150 refugees from Nauru and Papua New Guinea. But so far Australia has refused, saying that if the refugees gain citizenship in New Zealand, they could use that as a way to move to Australia thanks to the two countries free-movement policy. Before New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrived at the forum, she said she wanted to hear the concerns of refugees. And Mohammad said he wanted to give her a message. "What was my and the other children's guilt?" he said. "We were innocent. It was not our fault to come out of our countries. It was not our fault to be in Nauru. We need future. We need education. We need to be in a normal place." After Ardern arrived, Waqa picked up a guitar and, along with a group of elders, serenaded her with a song he'd written himself. Included was a verse about Ardern's 11-week-old baby Neve: "Her future is bright and secure." About the same time, Mohammad sent a text to a reporter. He'd heard that Ardern had arrived. Could he meet with her and tell her of the plight of the refugee children? "Please tell me if you think there is a way," he wrote. Told it wouldn't be possible, Mohammad responded: "Oh," he wrote. "OK." This Sept. 4, 2018, photo shows 15-year-old refugee Helia in the Nibok refugee settlement on Nauru. Helia says Nauru feels like a jail. She says it's hard to even consider what a normal life might be like. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) In this Sept. 4, 2018, photo, Parnian, 13, right, and her mother Zaha, only their first names given, are pictured in the Nibok refugee settlement on Nauru. Parnian has been stuck on this tiny island for nearly five years now. She spends her days sleeping and watching movies, avoiding the local schools where refugees are often bullied. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) This Sept. 4, 2018, photo shows Nibok refugee settlement on Nauru. About 120 refugee children and teenagers are living on Nauru. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) This Sept. 4, 2018, photo shows a general view of the Nibok refugee settlement on the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru. About 120 refugee children and teenagers are living on Nauru. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) This Sept. 4, 2018, photo shows the bedroom of a teenage refugee in the Nibok refugee settlement. The refugee spends all her time here, and has installed a sheet to provide some privacy in a tiny space from her sister. About 120 refugee children and teenagers are living on Nauru. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) This Sept. 4, 2018, photo shows the bedroom of a teenage refugee in the Nibok refugee settlement on Nauru. She spends all her time here, and has installed a sheet to provide some privacy in a tiny space from her sister. About 120 refugee children and teenagers are living on Nauru. (Jason Oxenham/Pool Photo via AP) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Even before it began, an airstrike early Friday struck Idlib's southern edge, killing at least one person. Each of the three nations has its own interests in the yearslong war in Syria. FILE- In this April 4, 2018, file photo, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, left, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lock hands during a group photo in Ankara, Turkey. When the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran meet in Tehran Friday, Sept. 7, all eyes will be on their diplomacy averting a bloodbath in Idlib, Syria's crowded northwestern province and last opposition stronghold. The three leaders whose nations are all under U.S. sanctions have an interest in working together, but Idlib is complicated and they have little common ground. (Tolga Bozoglu/Pool Photo via AP, File) Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. "The Tehran summit can produce peace and reconciliation in Syria or it can deepen the mess created by endless bouts of violence mainly instigated by the Assad regime," Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, wrote in the Daily Sabah newspaper. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria's civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia's longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria's postwar reconstruction. The streets of Tehran were quiet on Friday, the second day of the Iranian weekend. The country's state-run IRNA news agency described the summit as potentially offering an "agreement on peace and security" in Syria. A former Iranian diplomat, Ali Akbar Farazi, told IRNA the summit shows that solving regional issues "in a fair way that agrees with the interests of all sides" remains important for the three nations. For Turkey, the stakes couldn't be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters were prepared for a battle that they expect will spark a major humanitarian crisis. "The least the summit can do is to prevent this military war," he said. Early on Friday, a series of airstrikes struck villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack. Turkey also doesn't want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq. Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, also didn't pull any punches in his piece in the Daily Sabah, saying: "Assad bolstered by Iran's land assets and Russian air power and his use of chemical weapons has punched his way into opposition strongholds and hence massive gains for the Damascus regime. "You still need moderate opposition groups who represent the Sunni suffering masses in Syria to achieve a viable political solution and durable peace in this country," he wrote. "Iran and Russia are the fighting forces in Syria and have brought blood and tears." All three nations face sanctions from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump. Although America has some 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. America's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has warned any military offensive in Idlib "would be a reckless escalation." The U.S. will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday about the possible offensive. "There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict," Haley said in a statement Wednesday. "Assad's brutal regime - backed by Russia and Iran - cannot continue to attack and terrorize Syria's citizens." ___ Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. FARGO, N.D. (AP) - President Donald Trump declared Friday that the Justice Department should investigate and unmask the author of a bitingly critical New York Times opinion piece purportedly written by a member of an administration "resistance" movement straining to thwart his most dangerous impulses. Trump cited "national security" as the reason for such an extraordinary probe, and he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to get it going. He also said he was exploring bringing legal action against the newspaper over publication of the essay two days earlier. "Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security," Trump said. If the person has a high-level security clearance, he said, "I don't want him in those meetings." White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley, left, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Bill Shine, center, listen as President Donald Trump talks to reporters while in flight from Billings, Mont., to Fargo, N.D., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) A White House official later said Trump's call for a government investigation was an expression of his frustration with the essay, not an order for federal prosecutors to take action. Though the article was strongly critical of Trump, no classified information appears to have been revealed by the author or leaked to the newspaper, which would be a crucial bar to clear before a leak investigation could be contemplated. "The department does not confirm or deny investigations," said Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman. Trump's call is the latest test of the independence of his Justice Department, which is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without political interference from the White House. It also reflects an expansive view of White House authority that cuts to the heart of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Trump's lawyers and supporters have argued that as president he is empowered not only to hire and fire whomever he chooses but that he can also inject himself into law enforcement matters. Former FBI Director James Comey has said Trump asked him to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, an allegation that Mueller is scrutinizing. Trump's lawyers have said that even if that happened as Comey described - they say it didn't - it can't be a crime because the president has the constitutional authority to involve himself in the activities of the Justice Department. Trump's call for an investigation came a day after his top lieutenants stepped forward to repudiate the op-ed in a show of support for their incensed boss, who ordered aides to unmask the writer. The denials continued Friday, when U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley published an opinion piece of her own in The Washington Post titled, "When I challenge the president, I do it directly. My anonymous colleague should have, too." Democrats were quick to condemn the president's call for a federal investigation. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said, "President Trump continues to show a troubling trend in which he views the Department of Justice as the private legal department of the Trump organization rather than an entity that is focused on respecting the Constitution and enforcing our laws." Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she wished Trump "would put the same vigor into getting to the bottom of what Russia has been doing to our country in the elections." But Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney, suggested that it "would be appropriate" for Trump to ask for a formal investigation into the identity of the op-ed author. "Let's assume it's a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped," Giuliani said. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a key ally of Trump's, called for the president to order those suspected of being the author to undergo lie-detector tests. "People are suggesting it," Trump said Friday, steering clear of explicitly endorsing the proposal. "Eventually the name of this sick person will come out." In an interview Friday with North Dakota television station KVLY, Trump said he could think of "four or five" possible writers - "mostly people that either I don't like or respect, but they're there because in some cases they have to be governmentally, meaning they're protected." The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance "working diligently from within" the administration, wrote that, "Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." "It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room," the author continued. "We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't." ___ Miller and Tucker reported from Washington. AP writers Mike Balsamo, Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker, and Darlene Superville in Washington and Jonathan Lemire reported in New York contributed reporting. ___ Follow Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@KThomasDC, Miller on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@zekejmiller and Tucker at http://twitter.com/@ETuckerAP President Donald Trump speaks at a fundraiser in Fargo, N.D., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, as he makwa his second visit to North Dakota's biggest city within 10 weeks to campaign for Senate candidate Kevin Cramer, this time to help Cramer build up his finances. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) President Donald Trump walks off of the stage after speaking at a fundraiser in Fargo, N.D., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Trump is making his second visit to North Dakota's biggest city within 10 weeks to campaign for Senate candidate Kevin Cramer, this time to help Cramer build up his finances. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) SHASTA-TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) - A stretch of a major interstate near the California-Oregon border will remain closed through the weekend as crews try to tame a wildfire roaring along the roadway, forcing truckers and other motorists to take lengthy detours, officials said Friday. The blaze that shut down 45 miles (72 kilometers) of Interstate 5 in California on Wednesday was still burning out of control in the rural area, said Denise Yergenson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. It has destroyed thousands of trees - some 70 feet (20 meters) tall - that could fall onto the roadway, she said. Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The wildfire that erupted Wednesday has now burned more than 34 square miles (89 square kilometers) of timber and brush and prompted evacuation orders for rural homes in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest below the Oregon state line. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) "There is lots of damage, lots of emergency personnel. It's just not a safe situation," she said. Officials on Sunday will reevaluate whether to reopen the highway that traverses the entire West Coast from Mexico to Canada and serves as a main artery for commerce. It became a ghost road after fire turned hills on either side into walls of flame. Drivers fled in terror and several big-rigs burned. Drivers for RLT Trucking were slowly making deliveries by taking two-lane mountain roads with bumper-to-bumper traffic that added hours to their trips, company president Al Shufelberger said. About 140 truckers haul cargo for the company based in Redding, south of the blaze. He said only one customer demanded to know why a shipment wasn't coming on time. "We just sent him articles from our local newspaper about the fire. He said, 'Sorry, do what you can,'" Shufelberger recalled with a laugh. The Delta Fire had burned more than 34 square miles (89 square kilometers) of timber and brush and prompted evacuation orders for scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest. At times, flames shot 300 feet (91 meters) into the air. About 280 homes were considered threatened, but the blaze wasn't burning near any large towns, fire spokesman Brandon Vacarro said. There were some reports that homes had burned, but Vacarro could only confirm that an outbuilding and two mixed-use commercial and residential buildings had been damaged. Patience ran thin at Pilot Travel Center in the town of Weed, near the northern end of the closure, with facilities at the truck stop stretched to the limit and parked big rigs lining nearby roads. "It's been ridiculously congested. It's been frantic," cashier Jacob Chapman said Thursday. "A lot of the truckers are upset. They're just stuck, they can't get through and they're sick of waiting around." California has been hit with one massive blaze after another, including a blaze not far from the Delta Fire that killed eight people and burned about 1,100 homes last month. The unrelenting flames have drained California's firefighting budget and prompted victims to file more than 10,000 claims totaling nearly $1 billion in property claims - even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said. The previous fire near Redding and another in the Mendocino area - the two largest blazes in the state this year - destroyed or damaged 8,800 homes and 329 businesses, Insurance Commissioner David Jones said. The Mendocino fire was expected to be fully contained by Sunday, more than six weeks after it started. The director of the state's firefighting agency said it only had about $11 million remaining in its annual budget and anticipates needing another $234 million to add firefighters and helicopters, and to cover other costs of fires expected later this year. ___ Elias reported from San Francisco. AP writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento, Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, Janie Har in San Francisco and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Flames from a backfire burn around a fire truck battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) A scorched VW Beetle rests in a clearing after the Delta Fire burned through the Lamoine community in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Embers fly above a firefighter as he hustles to control a backfire as the Delta Fire burns in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) A firefighter passes flames from a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) A firefighter battles the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Firefighters light backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Embers fly above a firefighter as he works to control a backfire as the Delta Fire burns in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The blaze had tripled in size overnight. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) SEATTLE (AP) - Fights over teacher salaries and working conditions are escalating along the West Coast, emboldened in part by the momentum from widespread teacher strikes in more conservative states. The teachers in these blue states - with robust teachers' unions, the right to strike and legislatures that are generally more supportive of education funding - are tapping into a shift in public sentiment that supports better wages for teachers that came as a result of the "Red4Ed" protest movement that began earlier this year. The latest disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. With students returning to school in the last few weeks, teachers in at least 18 public school districts so far have voted to authorize a strike, gone on strike or settled their strikes in order to get pay raises. Striking Tacoma Teachers walk a picket line, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in front of Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash. Fights over teacher salaries and work conditions are escalating along the West Coast, and the disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) "We saw everywhere from Arizona to West Virginia standing up for fair wages. Now that it's coming to Washington state, we don't feel isolated. We know we have the support of our local community," said Connie Vernon, an elementary teacher in the Washougal School District in southwest Washington, where a nine-day walkout ended Thursday. Rich Wood, spokesman for the state teachers' union, said local bargaining units at two-thirds of the state's 295 school systems have sought to renegotiate salaries. In California, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District also voted last week to authorize a strike, although a walkout isn't imminent. The union and district in the nation's second-largest school system have failed to reach an agreement on pay raises, smaller class sizes and other issues. Both sides have filed charges against the other and a state mediation session is scheduled Sept. 27. The momentum earlier from teacher protests in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona has also carried into other kinds of actions, including an organized teacher hunger strike in Georgia and a major rally in North Carolina. Except for Colorado, all of those states have "right to work" laws, which limits the ability for teachers to strike. Teachers there instead scheduled widespread protest "walkouts." In West Virginia, teachers won a 5-percent raise even though they lacked collective bargaining rights and had no legal right to strike. The Washington teachers' union said it has been fighting for schools funding for more than a decade, and that the timing of their latest contract and strike discussions was coincidental to the national teacher uprising. Michael Hansen, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said the teachers' cause is undoubtedly helped by the political dynamics shifting in the national conversation about teacher value. As the protest movement moves from fiscally-conservative red states without much labor power, Hansen said momentum has shifted to more union-friendly blue states where pay and cost of living are substantially higher. The red-state fights thrived as state-wide actions, while the blue-state disputes are at the district level. "They sort of feel like a tipping point has been crossed," Hansen said. "Strategically, if you're going to advance and advocate for more teacher pay, this is the time." More state money toward teacher salaries was funded by the Washington Legislature after a court ruling that stemmed from a 2007 lawsuit. The ruling said the state was violating its own Constitution by inadequately funding K-12 schools. This year, many of the teachers urged their school districts to reopen bargaining talks in the middle of their contract period in order to settle the pay disparity. Teachers at Seattle Public Schools, the state's largest district, had authorized a strike but reached a one-year deal giving them 10.5 percent raises. In some smaller communities, school district officials have pushed back by suing the unions to get them to work. The state union is backing all teachers with a new political tactic, ordering for the first time "bargaining season" television, radio and Facebook ads to both put pressure on the districts and urge community members to stand with the teachers. One ad highlights the state's teacher shortage while saying salaries aren't competitive in a region flush with tech money. That's also a show of force for the unions after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in late June that declared government workers can't be required to contribute money to labor groups. As the state teachers union flexed its political muscle by spending in such an unprecedented but high-stakes way, local leaders say their membership numbers have not been affected by the ruling even though it has the potential to significantly weaken the revenue base for all labor unions. Washougal's superintendent Mary Templeton said the state union relationship with the locals has been affected by these broader elements and that it's evident by the rush of political activity being carried out by the larger labor group. She said the district also wants to support teachers with a new salary pay scale. "We gave a lot because we know how important they are," Templeton said. ___ Follow AP Education Reporter Sally Ho on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SallyHo. Striking Tacoma Teachers walk a picket line, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in front of Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash. Fights over teacher salaries and work conditions are escalating along the West Coast, and the disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Striking Tacoma Teachers, including, from left, Hope Bixby, Megan Holyoke, Nate Bowling, and counselor Michelle Ha, walk a picket line, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in front of Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash. Fights over teacher salaries and work conditions are escalating along the West Coast, and the disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Striking Tacoma Teachers walk a picket line, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in front of Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash. Fights over teacher salaries and work conditions are escalating along the West Coast, and the disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Striking Tacoma Teachers, including Megan Holyoke, left, Nate Bowling, center, and counselor Michelle Ha, right, walk a picket line, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in front of Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash. Fights over teacher salaries and work conditions are escalating along the West Coast, and the disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - A career criminal who authorities believe is the Gypsy Hill Killer faces trial in Northern California for the murders of two young women four decades ago. Law enforcement officials believe 69-year-old Rodney Halbower is the one who raped and killed six young women during a five-month period in 1976. The murders in Northern California and Reno, Nevada, remained cold until 2014. That's when DNA taken from cigarette butts saved from the scene of one of the killings in Reno led investigators to Halbower's prison cell in Oregon where he was doing time for rape and attempted murder. FILE - This undated file photo provided by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office shows Rodney Halbower. Halbower, a career criminal who authorities believe is a serial killer dubbed the Gypsy Hill Killer, faces trial Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in Northern California for the murders of two young women four decades ago. Law enforcement officials believe Halbower raped and killed six young women during a five-month period in 1976. Opening statements start Friday in Redwood City, California about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. (AP Photo/San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, File) Opening statements start Friday in Redwood City, which is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. DOUMA, Syria (AP) - Standing in line in the courtyard of their school in the capital Damascus, scores of Syrian girls in pink and blue uniforms saluted the flag and sang the country's national anthem. A few miles away in a suburb, children played in the courtyard of a rehabilitated school, where shattered windows were replaced but charred walls and pockmarks from bullets remained on building facades. With fewer areas in active combat in Syria, more children are going back to school this year, the Syrian government said, putting the number at 4 million. Keen to project an image of normalcy, the government said it has rehabilitated over 400 schools over the last two months alone and called on students to return to wearing school uniforms, shed in years of conflict. In this Wednesday, Sept 5, 2018 photo, Syrian students play in the courtyard of a school in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria. Millions of Syrian children return to school as the country's conflict simmers down. The Syrian government is keen to project a sense of normalcy, opening hundreds of newly renovated schools and calling on students to wear uniforms, which were shed in years of chaos. But humanitarians say the war is far from over, particularly its scars on children. (AP Photo) "This is to reaffirm that we have reached victory phase . which means things should settle down, including in education," Education Minister Hazwan Allwaz told the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper in comments published at the opening of the academic year Sunday. The war is far from over, however, and its devastation has been particularly scarring for the country's children, including those who fled the conflict, Geert Cappelaere, regional director of the U.N. Children's agency UNICEF, said. Loss of families' livelihoods, pervasive poverty, trauma and continued insecurity - even in areas where fighting has ended - as well as severe aid funding cuts are among the biggest obstacles facing Syria's children. Some 2 million kids in Syria remain out of school. Nearly one out of three Syrian schools is out of service. Some 180,000 qualified teachers have also left the system. Since April, 31 children were killed by unexploded ordnance, according to UNICEF, including in areas where fighting ended. In northwestern Syria, where the government is threatening an offensive in Idlib province, 1 million children - many of them already displaced more than once by the conflict - are bracing for a bruising military campaign. Conditions are also difficult in neighboring countries, where more than 4 million Syrian refugees live, over half of them children. At least 700,000 refugee children are out of school, and many more are at risk of dropping out. In this new phase of the war, donor countries are debating how to best to pool their funds. The Syrian government argues it is now safe for the refugees to return home. The U.N. and other agencies say it is too early but are facing budget shortages they fear will limit services and give refugees the impression they are being pushed back. Donor nations, already tiring of providing aid in multiple conflicts around the region, have been reluctant to pour more money into the prolonged Syrian war, particularly when a political resolution remands elusive. In countries hosting refugees, donors are looking to directly support local governments rather than through aid organizations. "The reality is the children become once again the playball of a solely political game, the government on the one side and the donors on the other side," Cappalaere said. "Ultimately we are standing in the middle and we are crying out loud on behalf of the children of Syria." Allwaz, the education minister, said UNICEF has cut assistance to students - including a million school bags - "under the pretext that international funding has dropped," he said. UNICEF says its funding inside Syria is short $40 million of its needs, a 43 percent gap. Some of the cuts were a reaction to government restrictions on his agency's access, Cappalaere said, including access to areas recently captured from the opposition, or independent monitoring of spending. In Douma outside Damascus, even on the first day of school Sunday, parents were still registering their children for government-run schools. Forces recaptured the area earlier this year after years of rebel control. One principal said over 1,800 students had enrolled in her school, which had 350 students in previous years. "There is a big turnout" now that the fighting has ended, said Malak Rislan, principal of Seif al-Dawleh elementary school. Many schools offer morning and evening sessions to accommodate the growing numbers. Taghrid Hailani, 27, said her four children, between 3 and 11 years old, have been home-schooled for years because of the shelling and now lag behind. "They can't read or write . I am glad that they will return to school." Yasser Hijazi said he kept his children at home because the rebels changed the school curriculum, teaching their "own interpretation of religion." During recess, the bullet-pocked and charred facades of the school buildings provided shade for the children playing in the courtyard. In Lebanon and Jordan, UNICEF funding shortfalls were at 48 and 49 percent, respectively. UNICEF reduced the number of refugee children getting school assistance from 55,000 last year to 10,000 this year in Jordan, said Rob Jenkins, UNICEF country director. More than 50 percent of the 670,000 registered refugees are children. In Lebanon, the country with the world's highest concentration per capita of Syrian refugees, the cuts meant 20,000 children have lost informal education, homework support and basic school rehabilitation. More than 55 percent of the 1 million Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon are children. "We are concerned about what we call negative coping mechanisms, a decision taken by extremely vulnerable families - for example, early marriage, child marriage and child labor," Jenkins said. In December 2017, Jordan's Ministry of Education reported that 31 percent of school-aged Syrian refugee children were not receiving formal or non-formal education. Child marriage has also increased in recent years - 2016 Jordanian religious court data shows that 36 percent of registered Syrian marriages in Jordan involved a girl younger than 18, four times more than in 2011. In Amman, two brothers were searching through a pile of trash for scraps of metal to sell to Jordanian factories. The 17- and 18-year-olds had dropped out of school since 2013 when they fled their hometown in Syria's Homs. With a disabled father, they are their family's main breadwinners, earning at most one Jordanian dinar ($1.4) a day, enough to buy bread. Soon, their three siblings, aged 10, 13 and 15, may join them on the job after the funding cuts. In their home in Amman's Jabal al-Nasr neighborhood, their mother Elham Sada wept. Her 10-year-old daughter, in a pink shirt that read "Mommy's Little Princess," knelt next to her. Without the U.N. money, Sada said her kids won't make it to school. "In Syria, it was amazing, with or without money, our family would help us survive," Sada said. "Here we are all aliens. No one knows us. There is no opportunity and we are so tired." The father, Taher al-Jamli, said his family had been traumatized during the fighting in Syria, running from one house to another and losing touch with most of his family. "We are too afraid to go back," he said. ___ Su reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. In this Wednesday, Sept 5, 2018 photo, Syrian students play in the courtyard of a school whose walls are still charred and pockmarked with bullets from recent fighting in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria. Millions of Syrian children return to school as the country's conflict simmers down. The Syrian government is keen to project a sense of normalcy, opening hundreds of newly renovated schools and calling on students to wear uniforms, which were shed in years of chaos. But humanitarians say the war is far from over, particularly its scars on children. (AP Photo) In this Wednesday, Sept 5, 2018 photo, Syrian students play in the courtyard of a school whose walls are still charred and pockmarked with bullets from recent fighting in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria. Millions of Syrian children return to school as the country's conflict simmers down. The Syrian government is keen to project a sense of normalcy, opening hundreds of newly renovated schools and calling on students to wear uniforms, which were shed in years of chaos. But humanitarians say the war is far from over, particularly its scars on children. (AP Photo) In this Aug. 26, 2018, photo, a young man stands next to the scales used to weigh cans and bottles brought into the recycling shop in Amman, Jordan. Originally from Homs, Syria, dropped out of school early. Now, his younger siblings face the same problem as funding cuts have forced UNICEF to stop its cash transfer programs aimed at keeping children in school. (AP Photo/Lindsey Leger) In this Wednesday, Sept 5, 2018 photo, Syrian students play in the courtyard of a school in the town of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria. Millions of Syrian children return to school as the country's conflict simmers down. The Syrian government is keen to project a sense of normalcy, opening hundreds of newly renovated schools and calling on students to wear uniforms, which were shed in years of chaos. But humanitarians say the war is far from over, particularly its scars on children. (AP Photo) In this Aug. 26, 2018, photo, a teen helps unload a truck full of discarded plastic and metal that just arrived at the shop in Amman, Jordan. Originally from Homs, Syria, Mohammed Nour left school early and now collects recyclables to sell back to help earn money for his family. (AP Photo/Lindsey Leger) WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Australia and New Zealand said Friday they are sending three maritime patrol planes to Japan as part of the effort to enforce U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Japan has been monitoring offshore ship-to-ship transfers of oil allegedly involving North Korean ships, which would violate U.N. sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile programs. New Zealand Defense Minister Ron Mark said in a statement it would coordinate efforts with partners to counter North Korean activities that breach sanctions, in particular ship-to-ship transfers. Australian Defense Minister Christopher Pyne said his country would deploy two Orion aircraft to put economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea. "Australia continues to work with partners to enforce sanctions to pressure North Korea to take concrete and verifiable steps to denuclearize," Pyne said in a statement. "A stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific remains Australia's priority." New Zealand will deploy one Orion plane. New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said in a statement he welcomed the recent dialogue North Korea has had with the U.S. and South Korea, but said that until North Korea abides by its international obligations, it was essential to fully implement the U.N. Security Council sanctions. TOKYO (AP) - Crown Prince Naruhito, Japan's next emperor, was heading to France on Friday for a nine-day goodwill visit. His 84-year-old father, Emperor Akihito, is abdicating next year, handing the Chrysanthemum throne to the 58-year-old prince. WHO IS NARUHITO? The eldest son of Akihito and the grandson of former Emperor Hirohito, the crown prince is most widely known for his marriage to Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat who has struggled with depression after being criticized for not bearing a son. She is not accompanying him on his trip to France. Naruhito has a strong interest in water conservation and has delivered speeches at international conferences on the subject. While studying at Oxford University, he authored a paper on water transport on the River Thames. He is a cello player, an avid mountain climber and skier and enjoys photography. Naruhito has a younger brother, Prince Akishino, and a sister, Sayako, who lost her royal status after marrying a commoner. He and Masako have one daughter, 16-year-old Princess Aiko. Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito looks back before boarding his plane at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Naruhito, Japan's next emperor, was heading to France on Friday for a nine-day goodwill visit. His 84-year-old father, Emperor Akihito, is abdicating next year, handing the Chrysanthemum throne to the 58-year-old prince. (Akiko Matsushita/Kyodo News via AP) ___ WHEN WILL HE BE EMPEROR? His father is taking the rare step in Japan's modern imperial history of abdication. Naruhito will become emperor on May 1, 2019, the day after Akihito steps down. He will be the first Japanese emperor born after World War II and the 126th in a line believed to date to the fifth century. Since soon after the end of World War II, the emperor has been a purely symbolic figure with no political power. As emperor, Akihito has sought to make amends for the scars of the war, which was fought in the name of his father, Hirohito. Naruhito is expected to follow in Akihito's footsteps. ___ WHAT IS HE DOING IN FRANCE? Naruhito is making the Sept. 7-15 trip to mark 160 years of diplomatic relations between France and Japan. He will visit a school and a textile museum in Lyon, a winery in Santenay, an advanced technologies research facility in Grenoble and a French-Japanese cultural institute in Paris. Japanese media reports say he will meet President Emmanuel Macron and attend dinner hosted by the French leader. MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has decided not to seek the arrest of an opposition senator, who has taken refuge in the Senate, without a court warrant after the defiant lawmaker asked the Supreme Court to declare Duterte's order illegal. The decision, however, failed to ease tensions between Duterte and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, the volatile president's fiercest critic in Congress. "This is not true," Trillanes said Friday of Duterte's assurance. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a news conference in Jordan, where Duterte is winding up a visit, that the president made the decision "to abide with the rule of law" after a long discussion with Cabinet officials who were traveling with him. Duterte is to return home Saturday, a day earlier than originally scheduled. Philippine opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, left, is interviewed by the media inside his office where he remains holed up Friday, Sept. 7, 2018 in the Philippine Senate in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. Trillanes took refuge in the legislature to avoid an arrest order by President Rodrigo Duterte four days ago and has asked the Supreme Court to declare the move illegal. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) "The instruction is to abide with the rule of law," Roque said. "If there is no warrant of arrest issued by any court, do not apprehend Sen. Trillanes." Backed by dozens of supporters, Trillanes did not immediately venture out of the Senate building, where he has been marooned since Tuesday. His lawyer said the senator would make sure there is no more danger of an "illegal arrest." In a signed proclamation made public Tuesday, Duterte voided a 2011 amnesty granted to Trillanes, who once joined mutinies as a navy officer, and ordered his arrest. Trillanes refused to leave the Senate and instead asked the Supreme Court in a petition to declare Duterte's order illegal without a court warrant, which, if upheld by the high court, could open the president to impeachment bids. Known for his temper and outbursts against critics, Duterte has openly expressed anger against Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs and extrajudicial killings in an anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of suspects dead. Duterte has denied the allegations. The Department of Justice said Duterte voided Trillanes's amnesty because the senator did not file a formal amnesty application and admit guilt for his role in past coup attempts. Trillanes, however, has presented TV and newspaper reports, along with defense department documents, showing he applied for the amnesty and acknowledged his role in three military uprisings between 2003 and 2007. Trillanes, 47, was jailed for more than seven years for involvement in the army uprisings, including a 2003 mutiny against then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when he and other young officers rigged part of a road in the Makati financial district with bombs and took over an upscale residential building. After being amnestied under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, Trillanes successfully petitioned two Philippine courts to dismiss rebellion and coup cases against him, allowing him to later run for public office. Despite many legal questions, the Department of Justice has asked the courts to issue a warrant for the senator's arrest and revive rebellion cases against him. Separately, the Department of Defense said earlier this week that it has deployed officers to the Senate to take custody of Trillanes and have him face a military court of inquiry into his role in the coup attempts. A military detention cell was being readied for him. Duterte "has made it very clear that although a military tribunal could order his arrest, he prefers and he has ordered that authorities wait for the decision of the regional trial court," Roque said. Since Duterte took office in 2016, another opposition senator has been jailed on illegal drugs charges, a critical Supreme Court chief justice has been ousted by fellow judges, and foreign critics, including an Australian nun, have been barred from entering the Philippines or threatened with deportation. BRUSSELS (AP) - Serbia's president refused to meet with his Kosovo counterpart at European Union-backed talks Friday, dashing hopes of an imminent improvement in long-strained relations between the two countries. Hopes of a breakthrough had been relatively high after a territory swap had been suggested as part of a package to normalize relations between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo. Only after the two sides have patched up their differences do they stand a chance of becoming a member of the EU. However, after separate meetings on an array of issues with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said "difficulties remain." A general view of town Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) Without elaborating, Mogherini said she trusts that both leaders will "continue the process and reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalization of relations, in line with international law." Behind the scenes in Brussels, there were few signs of a change in the rhetoric. Marko Djuric, a leading Serbian negotiator, said Vucic refused to meet Thaci because of recent "threats and deceits" from Kosovo. "There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina today," Djuric said. The dispute between Serbia and Kosovo dates back to 1998-99, when the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, ordered a bloody crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict before NATO forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognized as a nation by more than 100 countries. But Serbia does not recognize it, and neither do five EU countries - Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Tensions remain high in northern Kosovo, where many ethnic Serbs still live. Serbia and Kosovo have been told to sort out their differences if they ever hope to join the EU. Officials from both sides have suggested a land swap could work, but the idea has been criticized both locally and internationally. The proposal would likely see a part of southern Serbia centered on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Some fear that any border changes might trigger similar demands elsewhere in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, which like Serbia and Kosovo, were part of the former Yugoslavia. Germany, Austria and Luxembourg have warned that any land swap could open up old wounds in the region. Other EU countries, such as Belgium and Romania, believe it's up to the two sides to sort things out. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has signaled it would accept any agreement between the two sides. Zoran Ostojic, an analyst from Belgrade, said he believed that Vucic and Thaci are "testing the ground, primarily with the international community" by floating the swap idea. "Who knows where that could end?" Ostojic warned, echoing fears of a chain reaction throughout Balkans. Mogherini is due to chair further high-level talks in Brussels between the sides later this month. ____ Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia and Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, contributed to this report. A view on street in Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) A view on street in Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) A view on street in Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The Latest on Syria talks in Iran (all times local): 12:30 a.m. Syria's U.N. ambassador says the government is committed to regain Syrian territory and "liberate it from terrorism and foreign occupation," adding that there is no de-escalation zone in rebel-held Idlib because "armed groups refused to dissociate themselves from terrorist groups." FILE- In this April 4, 2018, file photo, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, left, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lock hands during a group photo in Ankara, Turkey. When the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran meet in Tehran Friday, Sept. 7, all eyes will be on their diplomacy averting a bloodbath in Idlib, Syria's crowded northwestern province and last opposition stronghold. The three leaders whose nations are all under U.S. sanctions have an interest in working together, but Idlib is complicated and they have little common ground. (Tolga Bozoglu/Pool Photo via AP, File) Bashar Ja'afari told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that "the situation is as it is now in Idlib because the countries sponsoring terrorism do not want to distinguish between terrorists and armed opposition." He said the Syrian government allowed plenty of time to armed groups in Idlib to lay down their arms and become part of the reconciliation process and dissociate themselves from terrorist organizations including the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (formerly the Nusra Front). Ja'afari said "those who facilitated the entry of foreign terrorist fighters into my country, especially the Turkish government, still have a chance to remove them from Idlib province." But he warned that "in case the armed terrorist groups refuse to lay down weapons, refuse to leave Syrian territory to go back to where they came from, the Syrian government is prepared." Ja'afari said Syria is aware of the humanitarian consequences that might result and "we take all precautions and preparations to protect civilians, to provide safe passage for them to leave, just as we have done in similar situations." ___ 11:30 p.m. The U.N. envoy for Syria says "the signals" from the Tehran meeting of the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are that they intend to continue talking to avoid a potential catastrophe in rebel-held Idlib. Staffan De Mistura spoke for a second time near the end of a Security Council meeting Friday saying Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly put some "substantive" ideas on the table, which the U.N. hasn't seen yet and are going to be considered. De Mistura said he wanted to offer an idea from civil society on a key issue in Idlib: how to separate groups identified by the U.N. as "terrorists" - including the al-Qaida-linked group formerly known as the Nusra Front - and other armed groups which are not terrorists and can be "reconciled," from the civilian population. Ideally, he said, "all militants and fighters should be asked with a deadline to move their own military presence" and bases away from populated areas and villages, which would remain under control of civilian local councils and police. At the same time, De Mistura said, a media campaign should be launched announcing that this is what is being asked of the armed groups. He said Russia and Turkey, especially, but also Iran, should be guarantors of the plan, and should ask fighters to halt all air and ground attacks on any population center. "Otherwise, all this would be appearing to be futile," De Mistura said. ___ 9:40 p.m. Syrian pro-government media reported that nine civilians have been killed by shells fired from rebel areas south of the province of Idlib on a government-held town. Syria state news agency SANA said they were killed when the missiles struck into a residential area in Mhardeh town in the northern countryside of Hama. Hama lies to the south of Idlib, and several of its villages and towns remain under rebel control. Warplanes, including suspected Russian ones, hit rebel areas in northern and southern Idlib earlier Friday, killing at least five, including one civilian, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The violence comes on the day that the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia are meeting to discuss the fate of the last rebel stronghold in Idlib and surrounding areas in Hama. ___ 9:30 p.m. The director of U.N. humanitarian operations is warning that if a military offensive takes place in Idlib and millions of people start fleeing, aid operations to help them will be overwhelmed. John Ging told the U.N. Security Council on Friday this worst-case scenario "has the potential to create a humanitarian emergency at a scale not yet seen through this crisis," now in its eighth year. He urged council members to ask the parties to cease hostilities in the Idlib de-escalation zone which includes parts of Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia and Hama governorates and includes some 3 million people, about 2.1 million already in need of humanitarian aid. Ging also called for protection of civilians, humanitarian and medical personnel, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure as well as freedom for people to move, access for aid deliveries, and increased funding. While donors including Britain and Germany have recently provided resources, he said, the U.N. is still "woefully short of the $311 million that we estimate is required if there is an increase in violence resulting in mass displacement." Ging said humanitarian aid is being prepositioned inside Idlib and in surrounding areas, and "plans are in place to support up to 900,000 women, children and men that could be affected by conflict." He warned that if millions of people flee Idlib, however, it "will overwhelm all capacity to respond regardless of plans or funding made available." ___ 9:20 p.m. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday after a trilateral meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss the war in Syria. In the Friday report carried by the leader's website, Khamenei.ir, he said that the United States is worried about the formation of an "Islamic authority." "America is concerned about the cooperation of Islamic countries and the formation of an Islamic authority," Khamenei was quoted as saying. Khamenei added that this fear underlies America's hostility toward Islamic countries, according to the report. ___ 8:50 p.m. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is warning Syria and its allies Russia and Iran that "the consequences will be dire" for an assault on the last major stronghold for Syrian rebels in Idlib. Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that an offensive against Idlib is starting despite warnings from President Donald Trump and other world leaders, including Russian and Syrian airstrikes against civilian areas. "The United States has been very clear, with Russia and with the broader international community: we consider any assault on Idlib to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Syria," Haley said. "If (Syrian President Bashar) Assad, Russia, and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire," she said. Haley said Syria must halt its offensive, and Russia and Iran have the power to prevent "this catastrophe." ___ 8:05 p.m. Eight aid agencies have called on world leaders to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, where the Syrian government is threatening a military offensive. The agencies called on leaders of the Iran, Russia and Turkey meeting in Tehran and members of the U.N. Security Council meeting later in New York to work together to find a diplomatic solution that can protect civilians, aid workers and allow access to humanitarian agencies to the overcrowded province and surrounding areas. More than 3 million live in Idlib and its environs, many of them already displaced by conflict elsewhere in Syria. The agencies, including CARE, Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, said the "most vulnerable" are likely to pay the heaviest price in case of an offensive. They said aid workers working in Idlib are already overwhelmed trying to provide basic needs and shelter to the province's population, which has doubled in size in recent months because it is hosting displaced citizens from all over Syria. ___ 7:50 p.m. The U.N. envoy for Syria says any proposal to avoid Idlib becoming "the biggest humanitarian tragedy at the end of the most horrible recent conflict in our memory" must be given a chance - and he has some ideas on how to separate "terrorists" from civilians. Staffan De Mistura is also calling for "protected voluntary evacuation routes" for civilians if they want to leave Idlib. He told the U.N. Security Council Friday that talk of a military offensive on Idlib "is happening at exactly the same time when there is serious talk" on moving to establish a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution and encourage the return of Syrian refugees. De Mistura said these are incompatible. "Either we are trying to find a political way to end this war and move to a post-war political scenario or we will see this war reach new levels of horrors." He said that's why Friday's meeting of the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Tehran is so important and why he will be meeting with the three countries in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday - and next Friday with Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States. It would be a failure of diplomacy "if with these efforts we simply saw an increase of military activities," De Mistura said. ___ 5:45 p.m. Turkey's president says his country does not have the "strength or capability" to host millions of more refugees from Idlib. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that a call for terror groups in Idlib to lay down arms was a strong message to them and would help halt refugee flows. "We have to take joint steps to prevent the migration, we need to be successful in the fight against terrorism," Erdogan said. "Turkey is already sheltering 3 million refugees (from Syria). The population of Idlib is 3 million. Turkey doesn't have the strength or capability to host 3 million more," he added. ___ 5:20 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin says it is "unacceptable" to use civilians as a pretext to shield "terrorists" in Syria's rebel-held Idlib. Speaking at the end of a trilateral summit with the leaders of Iran and Turkey Putin said Russia is worried about civilians in Idlib but said Russian finds it "unacceptable" when civilians are used a pretext to "shield terrorists" and target Syrian government positions. Russia has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has indicated its support for Assad to regain control of Idlib which is the last remaining bastion of the opposition ___ 4:35 p.m. Turkey's president is calling for a cease-fire and an end to airstrikes amid a looming campaign for Syria's Idlib province. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments Friday at a trilateral meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey in Tehran. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says "we have to force the United States to leave" Syria. Rouhani did not elaborate on the comment, which he made while speaking about Idlib. America has some 2,000 troops in Syria. Friday's summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. ___ 4:15 p.m. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the fight in Syria should continue until all extremists are "uprooted," especially in Idlib. Rouhani made the comment Friday at a trilateral summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. ___ 4:10 p.m. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says America's intervention in Syria should immediately end. Rouhani made the comment Friday at a trilateral summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran. Rouhani also said that "the fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end." ___ 3:40 p.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have begun a summit on Syria as a bloody offensive on Idlib province looms, despite warnings from the U.S. and others not to launch the attack. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. ____ 3:30 p.m. Residents in Syria's northwestern Idlib province are holding mass rallies in the rebels' last bastion, protesting an imminent government offensive there and chanting against the country's ruler President Bashar Assad. The Friday rallies came as Presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia are meeting in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action in Idlib and its surrounding areas, home to more than 3 million people. Nearly half of the area's residents are already displaced from other parts of Syria and have refused to reconcile with the Syrian government. The area also includes opposition fighters and some of Syria's most radical groups. "Come on, leave Bashar!" hundreds of protesters chanted in Saraqeb, a town in eastern Idlib. "We will defend our revolution." ___ 2:20 p.m. A spokesman for a Syrian rebel alliance says the least the summit in the Iranian capital can do is avert a humanitarian crisis in the last bastion for the opposition in northwestern Syria. Naji al-Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters are prepared for battle. But they expect a major humanitarian crisis, a large wave of displacement and a lot of destruction and death if a Russia-backed offensive takes place. Idlib and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of Syria. Al-Mustafa said his rebel alliance is looking to Turkey's efforts to prevent the attack and "to protect Idlib." Turkey has deployed 12 observations points and hundreds of fighters that ring Idlib, separating them from government and allied fighters, as part of a de-escalation agreement with Russia and Iran. ___ 1:55 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have both arrived in Tehran for a trilateral summit on Syria. The two presidents landed at Mehrabad International Airport. They will attend the summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 1:25 p.m. Activists and residents say warplanes have struck areas on the southern edge of the Syrian Idlib province, the rebels' last bastion, killing one and causing loud explosions and large plumes of smoke. The airstrikes Friday come hours before presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake bastion of Idlib. Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a series of airstrikes struck a few villages in southwest Idlib and along the borders with the adjacent Hama province, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the airstrikes. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people. ___ 12:55 p.m. The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry is calling a summit on Syria between Iran, Turkey and Russia an "invaluable opportunity." Bahram Ghasemi wrote an opinion piece published across Iranian media on Friday that the summit in Tehran helps as all the nations "have faced similar challenges and joint threats by bullying foreign powers." Ghasemi wrote: "The summit has double significance since all the three nations have faced ambitions and greediness of an illogical international big power." That refers to the United States, which has some 2,000 troops in Syria after its war against the Islamic State group. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 9:55 a.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit Friday, the third between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. LONDON (AP) - Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his wife have announced that they are divorcing. Johnson and Marina Wheeler said in a joint statement Friday that they separated "several months ago" after 25 years of marriage and have now decided to divorce. The couple said divorce proceedings are now underway. FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday June 23, 2016, British MP Boris Johnson and his wife Marina, are photographed after voting in the EU Brexit referendum in London. Johnson and his wife have issued a joint statement Friday Sept. 7, 2018, that they separated some time ago and are now in the process of divorcing. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE) "As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further," the statement said. The couple's split made front page headlines in several British tabloids that said Johnson had been thrown out of his house by his estranged wife. Johnson resigned as foreign secretary in July after breaking with Prime Minister Theresa May over her Brexit plans. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Donald Trump had to be tricked out of killing a U.S.-South Korean trade deal? He threatened to move a U.S. missile defense system from South Korea to Oregon? He ordered a plan for a pre-emptive attack on North Korea? These supposed moves by Trump, detailed in journalist Bob Woodward's new book, will cause bafflement and worry among government officials in Seoul. But, for many South Koreans, they just add more pieces of evidence to an established picture of an erratic U.S. leader who thinks little of an alliance forged in the turmoil of the Korean War and often described here as a "bond of blood." "South Koreans have already seen Trump's childish behavior many times," an editorial writer for the conservative Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's most-read newspaper, wrote in a column Friday about Woodward's book, comparing the president to a "rugby ball that could bounce anywhere" if not watched by others. FILE - In this June 12, 2018, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions about the summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un during a press conference at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore. To South Koreans, Bob Woodward's new book about the Trump presidency paints a bizarre but familiar picture of an unconventional U.S. leader who thinks little of a decades-long alliance that South Koreans describe as a "bond of blood." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) South Korea, before Trump, had become used to regular, glowing declarations from U.S. leaders of both political parties about the eternal strength of their alliance. The country, after all, is a global success story, rising from the poverty and destruction of the war into Asia's fourth-biggest economy; it's a regional bulwark of democratic, capitalist values and a leader in culture, trade and good works. So long before Woodward's book, South Koreans were shocked at Trump's open complaints about the costs of maintaining the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as protection against North Korean attack; at his decision, after his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to abruptly shelve major U.S. military exercises with South Korea; at his claim that the "horrible" U.S. free trade pact with South Korea destroyed U.S. industry and his insistence that Seoul renegotiate. When asked by The Associated Press whether he has ever seen a U.S. president who was so openly dismissive of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean deputy foreign minister, said, "No." "He's the first and hopefully the last exception," said Kim, whose last posting in the South Korean Foreign Ministry was in 2013 and who has never met Trump. "He doesn't approach alliances with a strategic mindset, but only evaluates their transactional value. He constantly questions whether the United States needs any alliance. He thinks that if a partner wants to keep an alliance, it should pay 100 percent of the costs." Many of the most explosive excerpts from the soon-to-be published book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," deal with the Koreas. Trump reportedly ordered a plan to pre-emptively attack the North; he suggested that a U.S. missile defense system in the South meant to guard against North Korean attack should be moved to Portland, Oregon; and a former Trump economic official allegedly swiped papers from Trump's desk so he wouldn't sign an order killing the free trade agreement between the countries. In a statement provided to The Associated Press, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it has been following the reports, but that it would be inappropriate to comment about a book that hasn't been published yet. It refused to say whether it considers any of the stories true. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy couldn't immediately comment on the trade deal allegations. "South Korea and the United States have been maintaining close communication and consultation on major issues such as the North Korean nuclear problem, security, economy and trade," the Foreign Ministry said. In spite of the behavior described in Woodward's book, Trump's administration has avoided policy moves that would have created major repercussions with South Korea. The United States and South Korea plan to sign a renegotiated free trade deal during the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month. The missile defense system - the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) - remains in Seongju, South Korea. Washington and Seoul have so far cooperated in diplomatic efforts in the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Still, experts say that Trump's attitude doesn't bode well for South Korea. It's possible that the alliance will end up looking much different depending on the outcome of nuclear diplomacy among Washington, Pyongyang and Seoul. Experts say Kim Jong Un, who initiated the diplomacy after a stream of nuclear and missile tests last year, sees a rare opportunity in a U.S. president who seems eager to prove his deal-making skills and thinks less of the traditional alliance with Seoul than his predecessors did. North Korea has been demanding the United States agree to a declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which some see as a precursor for pushing for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in South Korea. "Trump will continuously cause trouble and the alliance can be persistently shaken," said Choi Kang, vice president of Seoul's Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Choi said South Korean government officials will be anxious about the descriptions in Woodward's book, which he says show the United States as "dysfunctional." "I have never seen a situation like this," Choi said. Most experts say the alliance will probably survive the Trump presidency. South Korea, along with Japan, has served a crucial role in protecting U.S. interests in the region, a role that both Seoul and Washington may need more of in the future to check a rising China, said Lee Daewoo, an analyst at South Korea's Sejong Institute. Kim, the former diplomat, said South Korea's government should make stronger efforts to show the value of the U.S.-South Korean alliance to the American public. "Whether there's two years left or six years left, that's more than enough time for (the Trump administration) to cause serious damage to relations with South Korea," Kim said. "Efforts to persuade the U.S. public are crucial, because if Trump is afraid of anything, it's American voters." FILE - In this March 30, 2015, file photo, marines of South Korea, right, and the U.S aim their weapons near amphibious assault vehicles during U.S.-South Korea joint landing military exercises as part of the annual joint military exercise Foal Eagle between the two countries in Pohang, South Korea. To South Koreans, Bob Woodward's new book about the Trump presidency paints a bizarre but familiar picture of an unconventional U.S. leader who thinks little of a decades-long alliance that South Koreans describe as a "bond of blood." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File) PRESEVO, Serbia (AP) - The Latest on diplomatic talks between Serbia and Kosovo (all times local): 2:40 p.m. Kosovo's president says that negotiations with Serbia are becoming more and more difficult. A view on street in Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) Hashim Thaci on Friday had planned to meet in Brussels with his Serb counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, but they only met separately with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who said after several rounds with each of them that "difficulties remain." Thaci tried to avoid journalists' question on why Vucic left without meeting with him, saying they had "dialogued through Mogherini, which has been a procedure and practice even before," reported private television station rtv21. "It is becoming more difficult because disagreements are deepening," he said, without clarifying what the disagreements were. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and its independence is recognized by more than 100 countries, but not by Belgrade. ___ 1:55 p.m. The European Union's top diplomat says she's concluded separate talks with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo but that there has been no breakthrough in normalizing their strained relations. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Friday after meetings with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci that she held several rounds of talks but that "difficulties remain." She says she hopes both leaders will continue discussions and "reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalization of relations, in line with international law." Mogherini said she would chair further high-level talks in Brussels between the sides later this month. ___ 11:50 a.m. A top Serbian negotiator at European Union-brokered negotiations on normalizing relations with Kosovo says the two nations' presidents won't meet in Brussels as expected. Serbian government official Marko Djuric said on Friday in Brussels that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic "will not talk today with the representatives of Pristina." Kosovo is a former province of Serbia that declared independence in 2008. Belgrade does not recognize its independence. Djuric added that "there are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina today." Djuric cited "all the threats and deceits" from Kosovo that he says have made the meeting impossible. Vucic has met with the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is the mediator in the talks that are aimed at finding a solution to the dispute stemming from the 1990s conflict. Mogherini also met Kosovo President Hashim Thaci. ___ 10:30 a.m. The idea of a "land swap" between Serbia and Kosovo to settle their long-running dispute once and for all has stirred passions ahead of a new round of talks between former war foes. The notion would likely see a part of southern Serbia centered on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo's Hashim Thaci are meeting Friday in Brussels as part of efforts to normalize relations in the region still riven by tensions from the 1998-99 war. Both have been told that they must sort out their differences if they want to advance toward EU membership, but there is opposition both domestically and internationally to the land-swap plan. A general view of town Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) A view on street in Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) A view on street in Presevo, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. In an ethnic Albanian-dominated region in southern Serbia that borders Kosovo and that has been widely assumed a potential bargaining chip in any land-swap deal between Serbia and its breakaway former province. (AP Photo/Zenel Zhinipotoku) THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) - Thousands of police officers took up positions around Greece's second-largest city Friday as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met senior U.S. officials at a trade fair where protests of the Greek government's austerity measures were planned. The Thessaloniki police department said more than 4,000 officers will be on duty in the northern city Saturday, when Tsipras plans to outline his economic platform for a country emerging from a decade of international bailout measures. Many previous protests at the annual trade fair turned violent. U.S. security personnel were helping with the event because Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is in Thessaloniki with a delegation of executives from more than 50 American companies. Ross met Tsipras Friday and said he was encouraged by Greece's developing financial recovery. "It's good to see things are starting to turn around," Ross said. "The economy seems to be getting better, and there's a real feel of momentum coming in, so it's very rewarding to see that." The United States is eager to expand trade and military cooperation with Greece given its strained diplomatic relations with neighboring Turkey over the detention of an American pastor and U.S. sanctions on its NATO ally. Greece completed its final rescue program last month and is keen to secure greater overseas investment. The country faces a staggering national debt of nearly 180 percent of gross domestic product. In Thessaloniki, trade unions and left-wing and anarchist groups plan to stage protests Saturday around the fair venue. Their agenda includes restoration of worker benefits axed during three successive international bailouts. Right-wing groups also were set to stage protests over a proposed deal that would help Macedonia join NATO. Tsipras is scheduled to inaugurate the trade fair Saturday and to deliver a widely anticipated speech on his government's post-bailout financial strategy. __ Follow Kantouris at http://twitter.com/CostasKantouris and Tongas at http://twitter.com/theodoratongas NEW YORK (AP) - President Donald Trump will not answer federal investigators' questions, in writing or in person, about whether he tried to block the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, one of the president's attorneys told The Associated Press. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said questions about obstruction of justice were a "no-go." Giuliani's statement was the most definitive rejection yet of special counsel Robert Mueller's efforts to interview the president about any efforts to obstruct the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russians. It signals the Trump's lawyers are committed to protecting the president from answering questions about actions the president took in office. FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2018 file photo, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, addresses a gathering during a campaign event for Eddie Edwards, who is running for the U.S. Congress, in Portsmouth, N.H. President Donald Trump will not answer any questions, written or in-person, about possible obstruction of justice, Giuliani told The Associated Press. Giuliani's statement was the most definitive rejection yet of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's efforts to interview the president about any efforts to block the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russians. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File ) It's unclear if Giuliani's public position has been endorsed by Trump, who has said he wants to answer questions under oath. Negotiations about the scope and format of an interview are still ongoing. If the legal team holds its stance, it could force Mueller to try to subpoena the president, likely triggering a standoff that would lead to the Supreme Court. Mueller's office has previously sought to interview the president about the obstruction issue, including his firing last year of former FBI Director James Comey and his public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump's legal team has argued that the president has the power to hire and fire appointees and the special counsel does not have the authority to ask him to explain those decisions. Giuliani said Thursday the team was steadfast in that position. "That's a no-go. That is not going to happen," Giuliani said. "There will be no questions at all on obstruction." In a letter last week, Mueller's team said it would accept written responses from Trump on questions related to Russian election interference. Giuliani suggested Thursday that Trump's lawyers had agreed to those terms but wanted to prohibit investigators from asking follow-up questions. "It would be in written form and if you want to follow up on our answers, justify it," Giuliani said. "Show us why you didn't get there the first time." He said he was not categorically ruling out answering a second round of questions but the entire matter of whether there would be follow-up inquiries should be settled before the president answers anything at all. "We aren't going to let them spring it on us," said Giuliani, who has served as lawyer-spokesman for the president's personal legal team, using television interviews and public comments as a tactic in the negotiations. In subsequent interviews late Thursday, Giuliani backtracked slightly, saying that talks over answering obstruction questions were ongoing. The moment encapsulated one of Giuliani's roles on the Trump's legal team: to lay down public markers on interview negotiations that are actually taking place behind closed doors. Giuliani has repeatedly moved the goalposts on what would be required for a presidential interview and, at times, has been forced to clarify previous statements. In earlier interviews, Giuliani had suggested some obstruction questions could be allowed if prosecutors show necessity and preview the questions with the defense lawyers. Trump, in a Fox News interview taped ahead of a Thursday night rally in Montana, was noncommittal when asked about a possible Mueller interview. In the latest letter to the legal team, Mueller's office didn't address obstruction questions, indicating investigators would later assess what additional information it needs from the president after receiving a response about the written submissions, according to a person familiar with the document. The person familiar with the letter spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations. Giuliani's declaration drew a swift rebuke from Rep. Adam Schiff, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who tweeted: "Trump's legal team never had any intention of allowing him to be interviewed, knowing he is incapable of telling the truth. It's past time to subpoena the President. No one is above the law." 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 has the right to ask him about actions that he is authorized, under the Constitution, to take as president. Giuliani's comments came just hours after Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, espoused a belief in an expansive view of executive powers and declined to say whether a president can be subpoenaed and forced to testify. Mueller's team raised the prospect in March that it could subpoena the president, though this would unquestionably prompt a court fight. The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on the question of whether a president can be forced to testify, though the justices did rule in 1974 that Richard Nixon had to produce recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed. In addition to questions about Comey and Sessions, Mueller has expressed interest in Trump's role in drafting a statement to The New York Times about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by his son, Donald Trump Jr., and a Russian lawyer. Trump Jr. took the meeting, emails show, after it was described as part of a Russian government effort to help his father's campaign by providing derogatory information about Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it happened. Trump and Giuliani have led an onslaught of attacks on Mueller's credibility, claiming that the special counsel was biased and that the entire probe was a "witch hunt." Giuliani has also demanded that the probe suspend its activities with the midterm elections approaching, but the former mayor said Thursday he was not certain of Mueller's intentions. ___ Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Chad Day contributed reporting from Washington. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Last Veterans Day, a 60-year-old U.S. Army veteran stopped near his home in central Florida to help what he thought was a stranded motorist. Carlos Cruz-Echevarria was shot multiple times along a Daytona Beach road that night and his truck was found burned miles away. Volusia County investigators initially thought the slaying was random, that Cruz-Echevarria had been robbed while being a good Samaritan. But the driver turned out to be a hit man who'd been hired to keep him from testifying about a road rage confrontation six months earlier, investigators told news outlets. Sheriff's officials arrested three suspects in the killing this week and charged each with first-degree murder. In these photos made available by the Volusia County Dept. of Corrections, Fla., shows Kelsey McFoley, left, Melissa Rios Roque and Benjamin Bascom under arrest, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The three are charged in the death of Carlos Cruz-Echevarria. Echevarria was to give a deposition in a road rage case against McFoley. Bascom is accused as the shooter, Rios Roque assisted in planning the shooting and helped Bascom get away while McFoley hired to killed Eecevarria. (Volusia County Dept. of Corrections via AP) "I've been a cop for 32 years, and this is one of the most heinous, despicable, cowardly acts that I've ever witnessed," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said during a news conference Thursday. "You've got a pack of animals, (who) once again illustrate that human life is cheap on the street. A road rage incident where a man does what he's supposed to do, notify the police (and) cooperate with the system. His thanks is to wind up with multiple bullets in his head." Back in May 2017, Cruz-Echevarria was driving near Deltona when he honked at another vehicle that didn't move when the light turned green, officials said. An accident report says Kelsey Terrance McFoley, 28, was driving that vehicle. Cruz-Echevarria passed the vehicle, but McFoley caught up with him at another intersection. The two drivers got out of their vehicles and McFoley pulled a gun. According to deputies, Cruz-Echevarria wrote down McFoley's tag number and identified him in a photo lineup. McFoley was arrested June 1, 2017. Because he has a long record, including 29 felony charges, officials said McFoley could have faced a severe prison sentence if convicted in the road rage case. McFoley had found Cruz-Echevarria's home address listed on a court document about a deposition he was scheduled to give on Dec. 7, and hired Benjamin Bascom, 24, to kill Cruz-Echevarria to keep him from testifying, investigators said. Bascom had been staking out the house for several weeks, investigators said. On Nov. 11, Bascom went to the home but Cruz-Echevarria's wasn't there, so he waited in the neighborhood, investigators said. As Bascom turned his vehicle around, it got stuck in a ditch. That's when a truck pulled up. Inside was Cruz-Echevarria. As Cruz-Echevarria bent over to get a better look at the car, Bascom shot him in the head, Volusia County Sheriff's Capt. Brian Henderson said. As the slaying investigation continued unsolved, the road rage charges against McFoley were dropped. Then DNA found in the vehicles led investigators to Bascom and the bizarre tale unraveled. Phone records tied Bascom to the stranded vehicle and Cruz-Echevarria's truck, deputies said. Those same phone records linked Bascom to McFoley. Authorities said McFoley's girlfriend, Melissa Rios Roque, 21, assisted in the plot. Bascom was arrested Wednesday at Orlando International Airport, carrying a one-way ticket to Texas. McFoley was arrested Tuesday by U.S. Marshals in Orlando and Roque was stopped by Volusia County deputies on Interstate 4. No attorneys were listed on the suspects' court records. ____ This story has corrected the spelling of the girlfriend's last name to Roque, not Rogue. EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) - Egyptian security officials say a colonel has been killed in central Sinai after explosives inside an empty vehicle he was inspecting detonated. The officials said incident Friday took place at the foot of Jabal al-Halal mountain also wounded another army officer. They said a separate explosion wounded an army conscript in Sheikh Zuweid town. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Egypt has been struggling to contain a years-long Islamic insurgency in the turbulent Sinai region, the epicenter of a years-long Islamic insurgency spearheaded by the Islamic State group's local affiliate. In February, Egypt began a massive anti-militant operation mainly focused on Sinai as well as parts of Egypt's Nile Delta and the Western Desert along the porous border with Libya. A coroner in Cincinnati has named the three men ranging in age from 25 to 64 who were killed during Thursday's bank shooting, which also left two other people injured. The Hamilton County Coroners office identified the victims as 25-year-old Pruthvi Kandepi, 48-year-old Luis Calderon and 64-year-old Richard Newcomer. All three were killed when police say 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez opened fire at the 30-story headquarters of Fifth Third Bancorp in downtown Cincinnati. Two other people, a man and a woman, were wounded in the shooting spree before police officers arrived on the scene three minutes later and killed Perez. Scroll down for video At age 25, programmer Pruthvi Kandepi was the youngest of the three victims shot dead at Fifth Third Bank in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday The coroner, Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, said she recognized the youngest fatality, Kandepi, from a local Hindu temple. The two also shared the same hometown and language, Telugu. Sammarco posted Wednesday on Facebook, asking how officials will explain to his parents in India 'they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country.' The local Telugu Association of North America office said they plan to help Kandepi's father. He wants his son's body to be taken back to India. Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Kandepi worked as a programmer with a company called Tech Services. This undated photo provided by the Broward County Sheriff shows Omar Enrique Perez who is suspected of the shooting deaths of three people in downtown Cincinnati, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (Broward County Sheriff via AP) Richard Newcomer worked for the Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Company. On Thursday, the 64-year-old father and grandfather from Amelia was a supervisor on an electrical project on the third floor of the bank when he was shot dead. Investigators said Perez used a 9mm handgun and had an estimated 200 rounds or more of ammunition. So far, they have not found a motive. Police Chief Eliot Isaac said investigators will study footage from the officers' body cameras and security from the 30-story building. According to police, Perez had never worked at Fifth Third and don't have any information linking him to other businesses in the building. Authorities believe that 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez has lived in the Cincinnati area since 2015. Police swarmed his apartment in North Bend, Ohio, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away. Isaac says the shooter used a 9 mm handgun with some 200 rounds of ammunition. Officers arrived in seconds to drop him in a hail of gunfire. Authorities hope to have more information to release Friday. Records show the shooter formerly lived in South Florida and had been charged with some non-violent crimes years ago. Police said he went into a sandwich shop and possibly other businesses before entering the lobby and opening fire around 9:10 a.m. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the rapid police response probably prevented many more casualties. He said one investigator said it could have been "a bloodbath beyond imagination." Leonard Cain told The Enquirer he was going into the bank when someone alerted him about the shooting. He said a woman wearing headphones didn't hear the warnings and walked into the bank and got shot. The Hamilton County Coroner's office identified the victims as Pruthvi Kandepi, 25; Luis Calderon, 48; and Richard Newcomer, 64. A coroner says she recognized the youngest person. Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco had met Kandepi at a local Hindu temple. The two also shared the same hometown and language, Telugu. Sammarco posted Wednesday on Facebook, asking how officials will explain to his parents "they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country." The local Telugu Association of North America office said they plan to help Kandepi's father. He wants his son's body to be taken back to India. One of the victims died at the scene. Two more died at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The wounded were listed there in critical condition and fair condition. Fountain Square is often the site of concerts, dancing, food trucks and other events around lunchtime or in the evenings. "It could have been any one of us," Mayor John Cranley said. He praised police and other emergency personnel, saying, "It could have been much, much worse." Gov. John Kasich ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds in Hamilton County, and at the Statehouse, through Monday. Police investigate the scene after a shooting at the Fifth Third Bank building on Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (Albert Cesare/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) POREC, Croatia (AP) - Russia has failed to be reinstated as a full member by biathlon's governing body amid an investigation into bribery to cover up doping cases. The International Biathlon Union says its members voted against Russia's application and extended the provisional membership imposed last year. IBU members also elected a new president on Friday, five months after its only previous leader was implicated in an Austrian criminal investigation using evidence from Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov. In a 39-12 vote, Olle Dahlin of Sweden won a four-year term against Baiba Broka of Latvia, who was seen as Russia's preferred candidate. Dahlin succeeds Anders Besseberg, who stepped down with IBU secretary general Nicole Resch when Austrian prosecutors alleged about $300,000 was paid in bribes to hide Russian doping cases from 2012-17. ___ More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports SHASTA-TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on wildfires in California (all times local): 7:15 a.m. A major West Coast highway remains closed for a third day as a wildfire continues to rage on forest flanking it in Northern California. Flames from a backfire burn around a fire truck battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) The California Highway Patrol says reopening Interstate 5 is a priority but that highway patrol, fire and transportation officials will meet Friday to assess when to reopen the interstate running from the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. Officials say the condition of the pavement is a concern along with burned trees along the highway that might be in danger of falling down. Some are 70 feet (21 meters) tall. The 45-mile (72-kilometer) stretch of highway near the state line with Oregon has been closed since a fire Wednesday turned hills both sides of the roadway into walls of flame. ___ 12:00 a.m. Authorities are still mulling whether to reopen a major highway that's been closed for two days by a raging Northern California wildfire. Officials must first determine if it's safe to resume travel on a 45-mile (72-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 5 near the Oregon state line. The highway was closed on Wednesday as fire erupted on both sides. Fire spokesman Brandon Vacarro says work crews have cleared away burned and abandoned trucks that littered the road after the swift-moving blaze erupted but they must also determine whether charred 70-foot (21-meter) trees along the road are in danger of falling. The so called Delta Fire has burned more than 34 square miles (88 square kilometers) and prompted evacuation orders for scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The wildfire that erupted Wednesday has now burned more than 34 square miles (89 square kilometers) of timber and brush and prompted evacuation orders for rural homes in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest below the Oregon state line. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Firefighters light backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) A firefighter battles the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Embers fly above a firefighter as he hustles to control a backfire as the Delta Fire burns in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) A firefighter passes flames from a backfire while battling the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Embers fly above a firefighter as he hustles to control a backfire as the Delta Fire burns in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - France's foreign minister says his country is looking to bolster defense cooperation with Cyprus that could help augment Europe's presence in the east Mediterranean. Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides that France wants a more united, democratic and sovereign Europe "whose voice is heard with greater power in the world." Christodoulides said Cyprus is ready to work with France to fulfill the ambition of French President Emmanuel Macron that Europe takes more responsibility for its own defense. Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, right, and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian shake hands after they make statements to media during a press conference after their meeting at the Cypriot foreign ministry in capital Nicosia, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Cyprus and France have in recent years bolstered ties in the fields of energy, the economy, defense, and culture. French oil and gas company Total is licensed to search for hydrocarbons off Cyprus' southern coast. (AP Photo/ Philippos Christou) French warships often use the east Mediterranean island-nation - some 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Syria's coastline - as a resupply and refueling stop. The two ministers also discussed expanding energy cooperation. French company Total is already licensed to search for hydrocarbons off Cyprus' southern coast. Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, right, and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian make statements to media during a press conference after their meeting at the Cypriot foreign ministry in capital Nicosia, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Cyprus and France have in recent years bolstered ties in the fields of energy, the economy, defense, and culture. French oil and gas company Total is licensed to search for hydrocarbons off Cyprus' southern coast. (AP Photo/ Philippos Christou) Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, right, and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian make statements to media during a press conference after their meeting at the Cypriot foreign ministry in capital Nicosia, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Cyprus and France have in recent years bolstered ties in the fields of energy, the economy, defense, and culture. French oil and gas company Total is licensed to search for hydrocarbons off Cyprus' southern coast. (AP Photo/ Philippos Christou) LONDON (AP) - Coup attempts, cyberwarfare, assassination bids - Western officials say the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, poses a growing menace around the world. Increasingly alarmed by the agency's foreign forays, Western nations are scrambling to protect themselves and to strike back against a shadowy organization British Prime Minister Theresa May calls "a threat to all our allies and our citizens." This week Britain charged two alleged GRU agents in absentia with the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were left critically ill after being exposed to a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury. 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) May said the attack was approved "at a senior level of the Russian state," and vowed Britain would "deploy the full range of tools from across our national security apparatus in order to counter the threat posed by the GRU." Moscow denies any involvement, and Britain and its allies won't find it easy to counter an organization with strong ties to the Russian leadership and a seeming disregard for international laws. The GRU - formally named the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces - is one prong of Russia's vast security and intelligence apparatus, and has been linked to a series of audacious and deadly operations around the world. In the United States, 12 alleged GRU agents have been indicted for hacking the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The investigative group Bellingcat has reported that a GRU officer was in charge of operations in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists were fighting Ukrainian forces, when a Malaysian passenger airliner was shot down in July 2014, killing all 298 people aboard. Western officials have also linked GRU agents to an attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016. Aglaya Snetkov, an expert on Russian security at University College London, says Russia has taken an increasingly assertive stance overseas in a host of ways since Moscow authorities grew concerned more than a decade ago at "what they saw as increased Western interference in (places like) Ukraine and Georgia." "The Russians are now using their intelligence services more actively, alongside all the other instruments they have in terms of influence - things like (TV channel) RT, party political meetings, increasing societal links, greater links with the diaspora abroad," she said Friday. "The intelligence guys are only one side of it." For Western countries, countering Russian interference is equally complex. U.K. prosecutors say they have enough evidence to charge the two suspects in the attack on Sergei Skripal, a former GRU officer who had betrayed the service by spying for Britain. But they are unlikely to face a British trial, since Russia will not extradite its citizens to be prosecuted abroad. Instead, Britain is trying to squeeze Moscow through diplomatic, economic and covert channels. After the Skripals were poisoned March 4, Britain and more than two dozen other countries expelled a total of 150 Russian spies working under diplomatic cover. Russia kicked out a similar number of those countries' envoys. Britain gave its border guards new powers to stop people they suspected of being spies, and introduced a version of the United States' Magnitsky Act, which allows authorities to ban or seize assets of individuals guilty of human rights abuses. The U.S. imposed sanctions of its own, tightening restrictions on exports to Russia of national security-sensitive items. This week Britain promised more - though unspecified - responses. Jeremy Fleming, who heads the U.K.'s GCHQ electronic spy agency, said Thursday that Britain would use "the full range of tools from across our national security apparatus." Much of that action consists of strengthening British cyber-defenses against Russian hackers. Britain could also take offensive action of its own against Russian websites, though officials stress the U.K. sticks within the law - and British officials may not want to escalate international cyber-conflict. Some doubt U.K. actions will hurt Moscow much. A cartoon in Friday's Daily Telegraph newspaper showed a kitten-heel shoe in May's favorite leopardskin print bouncing harmlessly off a giant Russian bear ridden by Putin. Telegraph columnist Fraser Nelson said the Salisbury nerve-agent attack had been a triumph for the Kremlin, "showing the world that it can strike anywhere, with relative impunity." Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the British Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said there is one sure way to halt the meddling - go for the money. London is a magnet for wealthy Russians, and critics of Putin say Britain should do more to stop the president's wealthy backers from enjoying their money and property in the U.K. Shortly before Skripal was poisoned, Britain introduced powers to seize money and property whose origins are suspicious. But Tugendhat's committee reported in May that those powers had barely been used, and accused the British government of turning a blind eye to dirty Russian money. Tugendhat said Friday he has been assured the government "is now taking it extremely seriously." "We've got to make sure that people who have struck a deal with Putin over the last 10, 15 years - where the deal went, Putin gets the power and you get the money - realize the deal doesn't work anymore because the money is worthless," he said. "You can't go to Paris, London and New York; you can't send your kids to the best schools; you can't dine out in the best restaurants. All you are is a prisoner in a golden cage." In this photo taken on Monday, July 16, 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at the joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. The GRU is one arm of Russia's extensive security and intelligence apparatus, which also includes the Foreign Intelligence Service, known as the SVR, and the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which conducts domestic intelligence and counterintelligence. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) FILE - This Tuesday, July 31, 2018 file photo, shows the building of the Russian military intelligence service, located at 22 Kirova Street, Khimki, which was named in an indictment announced by a U.S. federal grand jury as part of a probe into alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia. Russia's military intelligence service GRU is attracting increasing attention as allegations mount of devious and deadly operations on and off the field of battle. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - As temperatures soared this week, University of Maryland students who live in dorms without air conditioning sought refuge in air-conditioned lounges and multipurpose rooms as the school gave out ice pops. A spokeswoman for the university's resident life department, Tracy Kiras, tells The Baltimore Sun the school's delivered 90 mattresses to the air-conditioned spaces, provided around 400 fans and stocked dorm freezers with ice pops. The four non-air-conditioned halls together house 2,000 students. While similar measures have been taken in the past, Kiras says the university has employed an extreme effort and "tried as many creative solutions as possible" to help students amid unusually high temperatures. The dorms without air conditioning are slated to be replaced by new dorms. The university has no plans to equip the existing halls with air conditioning. ___ Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com CANTON, Ohio (AP) - Police say the body of an Ohio woman who was killed by her husband might have wound up in a Kentucky landfill. Seventy-three-year-old Philip Snider pleaded guilty last week to aggravated murder and other charges in the death of 70-year-old Roberta Snider. A plea agreement requires the Hartville man to disclose where he put her body. The (Canton) Repository reports that Philip Snider initially told police he dumped his wife's body in the Tennessee River, then changed his story and said he put it in a dumpster in Bullitt County, Kentucky. From there, the body likely wound up in a nearby landfill. Hartville Police Chief Larry Dordea says he believes Snider is telling the truth. Snider initially claimed his wife died of natural causes during their trip to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. ___ Information from: The Repository, http://www.cantonrep.com CINCINNATI (AP) - The Latest on a fatal shooting at a downtown Cincinnati bank (all times local): 5 p.m. Hundreds have gathered in Cincinnati to remember the three people killed and the two injured in a downtown office shooting this week. Police investigate the scene after a shooting at the Fifth Third Bank building on Fountain Square, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in downtown Cincinnati. (Albert Cesare/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) Many left bouquets of flowers alongside a fountain that sits at the center of Cincinnati's Fountain Square, just steps from where Thursday's shooting took place. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley says the first responders and the police officers who confronted and killed the gunman showed true heroism and bravery. He says the officers risked their lives by running into the line of fire. Police say they don't know why 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez decided to open fire in the building. A 64-year-old contractor, a 48-year old bank employee and a 25-year-old engineer who worked as a consultant for the bank died in the attack. Two remain in the hospital. ___ 1:40 p.m. New security footage shows a gunman who killed three people in a downtown Cincinnati office high-rise firing randomly while carrying a briefcase with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The footage released Friday also shows the shooter walking quickly past a security turnstile Thursday morning just as he's shot and killed by a police officer outside the building. He says the shooter's gun jammed at one point during the four-minute rampage. Police say they don't know why 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez decided to open fire in the building. They say he never worked there and an apartment search hasn't turned up any answers so far. An aunt of his described him as "very quiet." A 64-year-old contractor, a 48-year old bank employee and a 25-year-old contractor died in the attack. Two remain hospitalized. ___ 12:10 p.m. An aunt of the man who killed three and injured two during a shooting Thursday broke down crying when she learned her nephew was responsible for the attack. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Yudy Martinez Perez slumped against a kitchen wall and muttered denials after she heard the news. She said she knew her nephew, 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez, had been working various jobs but his family didn't know where. Martinez Perez described him as "very quiet." Richard Newcomer, a contractor who worked for Gilbane Building Company, was one of three killed. Company spokesman Wes Cotter described Newcomer as a great employee, and struggled to describe how grief-stricken his coworkers are. A 48-year-old finance manager and a 25-year-old contractor were also killed. Another contractor and a bank vice president were injured. ___ 10:20 a.m. A Cincinnati coroner says she recognized the youngest person killed during a downtown shooting that left four dead, including the gunman. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco had met 25-year-old Pruthvi Kandepi at a local Hindu temple. The two also shared the same hometown and language, Telugu. Sammarco posted Thursday on Facebook, asking how officials will explain to his parents "they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country." The local Telugu Association of North America office said they plan to help Kandepi's father. He wants his son's body to be taken back to India. The other two killed are 48-year-old Luis Calderon and 64-year-old Richard Newcomer. Twenty-nine-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez began shooting at a Cincinnati high-rise Thursday before officers opened fire on him. CINCINNATI (AP) - In a story Sept. 7 about shootings in Cincinnati, The Associated Press misspelled the name of one of the victims based on previous information released by a coroner. It is Prudhvi Kandepi, not Pruthvi. A corrected version of the story is below: Police say shooter's gun jammed during office rampage The shooter who killed three people in a Cincinnati office high-rise had made filed a recent lawsuit that a judge in June said "borders on delusional." By ANGIE WANG and JOHN SEEWER CINCINNATI (AP) - The shooter who killed three people in a Cincinnati office high-rise once acted disoriented after being fired four years ago in South Carolina, and he filed a recent lawsuit that a judge in June said "borders on delusional." Authorities on Friday said they have not figured out why 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez opened fire inside the lobby of a building where he never worked or had any known connection. The city's police chief said the gunman's mental health history is one of several areas they are investigating. Police Chief Eliot Isaac said Santa Perez bought the 9 mm handgun legally about a month ago in Cincinnati before he randomly shot at workers Thursday morning in the building that houses the headquarters of Fifth Third Bancorp. Security footage from inside the lobby showed him firing while carrying a briefcase containing hundreds of rounds of ammunition over his shoulder. Police later found his gun had jammed during the four-minute rampage, Isaac said. The video also showed Santa Perez walking quickly past a security turnstile just as he was shot by police officers who fired through a plate glass window. Santa Perez had been in Cincinnati since at least 2015, police said. Before that he lived in South Carolina and Florida. He filed a lawsuit in 2017 that claimed CNBC Universal Media LLC and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. hacked into his computer, spied on him and published details about him. Santa Perez said the companies tapped into audio speakers and digital cameras to invade in his private life. Both companies rejected the claims, and a federal magistrate in late June recommended dismissing the lawsuit, saying it was "rambling, difficult to decipher and borders on delusional." Records show Santa Perez had a history of minor offenses in all three states where he had lived. One arrest painted a troubling portrait of him when he was charged with trespassing after being fired from a company that makes kayaks in Greenville, South Carolina. His boss told officers in October 2014 that Santa Perez had been throwing tools and not acting right in the week before he was let go and that he "was afraid of what Omar might do," according to a police report. A police officer said Santa Perez was on the ground, refusing to leave and appeared upset and disoriented. He mumbled "about the war and the economy" and talked about how he was upset about being fired, the officer said in a report. Neighbors who lived in a Cincinnati-area apartment building that Santa Perez moved into this year gave conflicting descriptions of him. Some told local news outlets that he usually looked angry and wouldn't say hello while another said he always appeared to be in a good mood. The body of one of the three men killed in the shooting was recognized by the coroner. Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco had met 25-year-old Prudhvi Kandepi at a local Hindu temple. The two also shared the same hometown and language, Telugu. Sammarco posted Thursday on Facebook, asking how officials will explain to his parents "they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country." The local Telugu Association of North America office said they plan to help Kandepi's father. He wants his son's body to be taken back to India. Kandepi was an engineer who worked as a consultant for the bank. The other two victims were identified as bank employee Luis Calderon, 48, and Richard Newcomer, 64, a contractor who worked for Gilbane Building Company. One of the wounded was in fair condition Friday and another patient was in serious condition at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Hundreds of people gathered Friday to remember the victims at a vigil in Fountain Square, just steps from the site of the shooting. Police and city officials said there could have been more victims if the shooter's gun hadn't malfunctioned and if police hadn't been nearby. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley praised the officers who confronted and took down the shooter. "If he had gotten on the elevator, gone up to a floor, if he had been there earlier or a little bit longer, many more people would have been killed," Cranley said. ___ Seewer reported from Toledo. Associated Press reporters Jeffrey Collins in South Carolina, Terry Spencer in Florida, Villarreal in New York and researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Most ardent supporters know where Beto O'Rourke stands on single-payer health care (he's for it), legalizing marijuana (ditto) and a border wall (against). But anyone watching his Facebook Live feed as the Democratic Senate candidate tossed wet laundry into the dryer on a recent Sunday learned a far more intimate detail. "Somebody asked, 'Boxers or briefs?'" O'Rourke said holding up a wet, gray undergarment for the cellphone camera at a South Texas laundromat. "These are like boxer-briefs." In his bid to upset Republican Ted Cruz, O'Rourke livestreams constantly, highlighting how the technology has created scenes once unthinkable for candidates seeking national office, but is nonetheless increasingly popular among underdogs desperate for attention. Then little-known New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broadcast from public transportation, an unsuccessful Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate evoked mermaid tales, a Michigan Democrat ran through the streets looking for last-minute supporters and a California congressional hopeful was on Facebook Live when she barged into a Denny's bathroom. In this Monday, Aug. 27, 2018 photo, U.S. Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke is livestreamed with a smart phone during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas. In his bid to upset Republican Ted Cruz, O'Rourke livestreams constantly, highlighting how the technology has created scenes once unthinkable for candidates seeking national office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Candidates have long livestreamed rallies, debates and question-and-answer sessions. But doing so at near junkie levels defies the increasing tendency among most top politicians to control all contact, from screening who attends public rallies to avoiding interviews with "unfriendly" media outlets. For those facing uphill fights like O'Rourke, using Facebook Live is an easy way to get free media and make low-stakes connections with voters. It's also fitting in the era of President Donald Trump, who is fond of shooting unfiltered thoughts directly to supporters at all hours - but uses Twitter. "It shows the real person and, if that's a good thing, that's good for the candidate," said Bill Jasso, a public relations professor at Syracuse University. "But campaign managers want to manage, and it's very tough to control live because there's no pause." Obvious dangers are misplaced curse words or offensive remarks. Also, anything that feels staged can alienate voters. Jazmina Saavedra lost her House bid despite causing a livestream stir by broadcasting forcing her way into a Los Angeles Denny's bathroom because she said there was a man in the women's room. Still, Rory McShane, a Republican consultant who organized Facebook Live sessions with past candidates in South Carolina and Virginia, said he'd like to see more politicians scrapping traditional scripts, even though he's "hurting myself as someone who writes those messages." "I've encouraged clients of mine to do full campaigns on livestream from the time you're brushing your teeth to the time you're going into your hotel room," McShane said. Embracing such a philosophy is O'Rourke, a one-time punk rocker and natural ad libber starkly different from Ivy League debate champion Cruz, who lacks easy charisma. O'Rourke eats and jogs on Facebook Live. He's gone bowling and gotten haircuts, offered Beatles trivia and skateboarded. Once filming while campaigning in remote West Texas, O'Rourke discovered two lost Labradors and urged their owner to "light me up on the livestream" to arrange a pickup. Asked if this was vanity gone wild, O'Rourke said, "If you're seeing too much livestream, turn it off by all means." But in a state where a Democrat hasn't won a statewide race since 1994, "We can continue to run the same campaign the same way and turn up the same result" or "we can make this about the people. As many people as possible in as many formats as we can." There have been some problems. O'Rourke said he supported instituting a year of required public service for young people, only to later recant. Cruz has made attack ads out of O'Rourke's frequent use of the F-word on livestream. But Suneel Gupta, who lost Michigan's Democratic congressional primary despite frequent Facebook Live sessions - including jogging in search of would-be voters as polls closed - said misstatements shouldn't be a risk for fervent live-streamers. "If you're being yourself consistently, then you don't have to worry too much," Gupta said "Because you were yourself the entire time." O'Rourke's sessions are generally watched by hundreds live, but that climbs after they're archived online. More than 36,000 people have since seen the laundry session, not all happily. "He's on there folding laundry now?" asked Kristine Shafer, an O'Rourke supporter in Austin. "Why do I have to watch him do that?" But Facebook Live presents some bizarre and sometimes wonderful, behind-the-scenes corners of politics. Clay Tippins, an ex-Navy SEAL and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, did an all-night livestream and told a story about his wife turning up with Snickers bars and Gatorade during a 3 a.m. Navy water training session. She was mistaken by his delirious compatriots for a mythical sea creature. "Sir, a mermaid comes out of the water in the middle of the night," Tippins recalled being told. In this Monday, Aug. 27, 2018 photo, U.S. Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke is livestreamed during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas. In his bid to upset Republican Ted Cruz, O'Rourke livestreams constantly, highlighting how the technology has created scenes once unthinkable for candidates seeking national office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) In this Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Communications Director Chris Evans, left, helps livestream U.S. Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke, right, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas. In his bid to upset Republican Ted Cruz, O'Rourke livestreams constantly, highlighting how the technology has created scenes once unthinkable for candidates seeking national office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) In this Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, photo, Communications Director Chris Evans, center, helps livestream U.S. Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke, third from left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas. In his bid to upset Republican Ted Cruz, O'Rourke livestreams constantly, highlighting how the technology has created scenes once unthinkable for candidates seeking national office. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump and an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times (all times local): 9:50 p.m. President Donald Trump says he can identify up to five people who could have written the anonymous New York Times opinion piece criticizing his leadership. President Donald Trump speaks at a fundraiser in Fargo, N.D., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Trump is making his second visit to North Dakota's biggest city within 10 weeks to campaign for Senate candidate Kevin Cramer, this time to help Cramer build up his finances. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) But he declined to name names when asked for them during an interview Friday with North Dakota television station KVLY. Trump was in Fargo to campaign for GOP Senate candidate Kevin Cramer. Asked for his opinion on the identity of the senior administration official who the Times says wrote the piece, Trump says, "I could think of four or five, mostly people that either I don't like or don't respect." He says the individual's identity will eventually become public. Trump also claims the issue is "reverberating in the opposite direction." He says people think it's "disgusting" that the Times would publish such a piece. __ 2:45 p.m. A White House official says President Donald Trump's comment about wanting the Justice Department to investigate the anonymous author of a critical New York Times opinion piece didn't amount to an order to federal prosecutors. The official isn't authorized to publicly discuss the matter and is speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump's call is the latest test of the department's independence. The department is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without political interference from the White House. Trump has told reporters that Attorney General Jeff Sessions "should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security." There's no apparent evidence of a crime committed by the author. -Associated Press writer Zeke Miller. ___ 12:25 p.m. President Donald Trump says Attorney General Jeff Sessions should investigate the identity of the author of an anonymous New York Times opinion piece. Trump says in an interview Friday with reporters aboard Air Force One that he believes the opinion piece critical of his leadership is a "national security" issue. Asked if he would take any action against the Times, Trump says "we're going to see, I'm looking at that right now." Adds Trump: "We're going to take a look at what he had, what he gave, what he's talking about also where he is right now." Trump says if the person had a high-level security clearance, "I don't want him in those meetings." Trump reiterated that it was a "disgrace" that the Times would publish the piece. __ 1:30 a.m. One after another, President Donald Trump's top lieutenants have stepped forward to declare, "Not me." They lined up to deny writing an incendiary New York Times opinion piece that was purportedly submitted by a member of an administration "resistance" movement straining to thwart Trump's most dangerous impulses. By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials paraded in from Cabinet-level officials - and even Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday - apparently crafted for an audience of one, seated in the Oval Office. Senior officials in key national security and economic policy roles charged the article's writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against America's interests in harsh terms that mimicked the president's own words. URBANA, Ill. (AP) - The Latest on former President Barack Obama (all times local): 7 p.m. Former President Barack Obama has issued a scorching critique of his successor, accusing President Donald Trump of "capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years." Former President Barack Obama makes a campaign stop at Caffe Paradiso in Urbana, Ill., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, where he did a campaign stop with Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, left, following his speech at the University of Illinois. (AP Photo/Sara Burnett) Obama spoke at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign less than two months before midterm elections that could determine the course of Trump's presidency. The remarks amounted to a stinging indictment of political life in the Trump era. Obama says, "Telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do - that's an old playbook." He is calling on "people of good will from across the political spectrum" to "call out the bigots and the fear-mongers." __ 2:45 p.m. President Donald Trump claims he fell asleep watching former President Barack Obama's speech about the current political climate. Trump says: "I'm sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep." He adds, "I found he's very good for sleeping." Obama criticized Trump during a speech Friday in Illinois, calling the current president "the symptom, not the cause" of division and polarization in the U.S. Trump responded during a campaign appearance in North Dakota, saying that Obama was trying to take credit for this "incredible thing that's happening to our country." Trump went to talk about economic gains since he took office. __ 12:20 p.m. Former President Barack Obama has urged an audience of college students to not just vote in the midterm elections, but to lead the fight against President Donald Trump and his allies. Obama said during a speech Friday at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that "you cannot sit back and wait for a savior." He said the biggest threat to democracy isn't Trump but "indifference." The speech was a preview of the arguments Obama is expected to make as he starts campaigning for Democrats on the ballot this fall. He said people have asked him what he's going to do for the November election. Obama told the students: "The question is: 'What are you going to do?'" Obama said: "If you thought elections don't matter, I hope these past two years have corrected that impression." ___ 12:15 p.m. Former President Barack Obama says the U.S. needs to restore "honesty and decency" in government. Obama says, "It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents, or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up." He says, "I'm not making that up. That's not hypothetical." President Donald Trump this week criticized the attorney general for prosecuting two Republican congressmen, saying it will hurt the party in the November elections. Obama delivered a speech Friday at the University of Illinois that included several broadsides at Trump while rarely mentioning his name. He said Americans and politicians of both parties should stand up against discrimination and "stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers." Obama said: "How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad?" ___ 11:50 a.m. Former President Barack Obama is blasting Republicans, saying "the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party." Obama says during a speech Friday in Illinois that the Republican-controlled Congress has championed the unwinding of campaign finance laws, made it harder for minorities to vote and voted multiple times to take health care away from ordinary Americans. He also says the GOP has "cozied up" to the former head of the KGB, a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is calling out lawmakers for not standing up to President Donald Trump. Obama says "What happened to the Republican Party?" Obama is speaking at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he's urging people to vote in the midterm elections. ___ 11:35 a.m. Former President Barack Obama says President Donald Trump is "a symptom, not a cause" of what's dividing the country. Obama says during a speech Friday at the University of Illinois that Trump is capitalizing on the same resentments, fear and anger that politicians have fanned for years. He's says it's the result of a rapidly changing world and growing inequality and that politicians who appeal to that fear are using "an old playbook." Obama is receiving an award for ethics in government at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Obama is hitting the campaign trail for his fellow Democrats, with an event in California for House candidates and then a stop in Ohio next week. __ 11:20 a.m. Former President Barack Obama is calling on people to vote in the November election, saying "our democracy depends on it." Obama is speaking Friday at the University of Illinois, where he's receiving an award for ethics in government. He says the country is at a pivotal moment in its history and "the consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire" than in prior elections. The speech is Obama's first big step into the campaign for the midterm elections. His advisers say it's a preview of the case he'll make throughout the fall campaign season. After spending much of his post-presidency on the political sidelines, Obama has several events scheduled in coming days where he'll campaign for Democrats. He'll next travel to California for an event with seven House candidates in Orange County. Next week he'll be in Ohio to campaign for Richard Cordray and other Democrats. ___ 9:50 a.m. Former President Barack Obama is stepping into the midterm battle. Obama is set to speak Friday as he accepts an ethics in government award in Illinois. Obama has spent much of his post-presidency on the political sidelines, but an adviser says that in the speech he will be more "pointed" in his reflection on the current political environment, including President Donald Trump. The speech will be a preview of the argument Obama will make this fall campaign season. After the speech, Obama will travel to California and campaign for more than a half-dozen House Democratic candidates at an event in Orange County. Next week, he'll return to the campaign trail in Ohio to campaign for Richard Cordray and other Democrats. President Donald Trump talks to reporters while in flight from Billings, Mont., to Fargo, N.D., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota regulators are enlisting an administrative law judge to help untangle some of the legal questions surrounding whether an oil refinery can be built near Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Public Service Commission on Wednesday voted 2-1 to have the state Office of Administrative Hearings designate a judge to make a non-binding recommendation on whether a complaint over the $800 million Davis Refinery should be dismissed. The judge won't weigh in on whether Meridian Energy Group can build at the site 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the park, but his recommendation could make it more difficult for the company to do so. FILE - This July 19, 2018, file photo, shows a sign on property near southwest Belfield, N.D, for the proposedfuture home of the Davis Refinery near Theodore Roosevelt National Park. North Dakota regulators are enlisting an administrative law judge to help untangle some of the legal questions surrounding whether an oil refinery can be built near the park. Meridian Energy Group plans to build the refinery 3 miles from the park. Two environmental groups maintain that Meridian needs state approval for the site. Meridian disputes that. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File) Meridian in July began site work for the refinery it hopes to begin operating in 2020, after obtaining permission from the state Health Department to begin building. Meridian maintains the plant will have modern technology and will be "the cleanest refinery on the planet," and supporters say it will boost the area's economy. Opponents fear pollution from the refinery will mar the park's scenery and erode the air quality at the state's top tourist attraction. The refinery faces several hurdles, including legal challenges of a state air quality permit and a local zoning permit. The Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Dakota Resource Council in late June also filed a complaint with the PSC, maintaining Meridian needs a site permit because the refinery's capacity will be 55,000 barrels per day - above the threshold of 50,000 barrels in state law that triggers a PSC review. The groups cited a number Meridian has previously given to the media, investors and government officials. Meridian maintains the figure is outdated and that the company's current plan is to build a facility capable of processing only up to 49,500 barrels per day - just below the threshold. Meridian has asked the PSC to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the commission has no authority under state law to wade into the dispute. The environmental groups dispute that, raising the question of whether the PSC has the authority to determine its own jurisdiction. They also question whether Meridian is planning a "bait and switch" in which it builds a refinery and then applies for permission to expand beyond the state threshold after the plant is already in place. The company denies that. Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the PSC wants input on the complex legal issues from an administrative law judge. The commission will then decide whether the complaint goes forward. If it does, the next decision would be whether Meridian needs to seek a state permit to build at the site, a process that involves public hearings and can take half a year or longer to complete. In the meantime, the two environmental groups have asked the PSC to order that Meridian stop work at the site. The commission will not address that request until after the administrative law judge is done with his work, Fedorchak said. Meridian said in a statement that it is "highly confident" it will prevail in its legal battles and that "all other aspects of the Davis Refinery are proceeding according to schedule, including site preparation work." ___ Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Rarely has art attempted to link the plight of refugees in the Middle East with those in Central America. Refugees in both regions face similar challenges: they are often fleeing violence and political upheaval and share similar journeys in crossing heavily armed borders with no certain future. But the differing cultures, religions even social classes sometimes mask some of the human elements that make the heart-wrenching migration universal. Three new documentaries are set to air this month on PBS hope to make this connection as part of the third season of Doc World, a PBS/WORLD Channel series focusing on international issues. This image released by PBS shows a scene from the documentary "Sky and Ground," about the plight of refugees in the Middle East. The documentary will air Sunday as part of the third season of "Doc World," a PBS/WORLD Channel series focusing on international issues. (PBS via AP) It begins Sunday with "Sky and Ground," a full-length documentary about a large, extended Syrian-Kurdish family fleeing war-ravaged Aleppo for Germany. Following that film are two short documentaries set to air Sept. 16 examining the journeys of Central Americans. "Los Comandos" follows 16-year-old Mimi, a volunteer emergency medic in El Salvador, who is forced to leave the country after getting caught in the crosshairs of violent gangs. "Towards the North" examines the journeys of Nelly and her daughter Joseline, as they wait in a tiny refugee shelter in Tapachula, Mexico, with their eyes set on the United States, They, too, are escaping gang violence in Central America. The trio of films are produced by the company Show of Force. Joshua Bennett, who co-directed all three projects, said producers were looking to piece together the story of the millions of people who are forced to leave their homes for the unknown and how the journey is universal. "It was really a deliberate decision to make several films that showed the common push factors," Bennett said. "The reason that millions of people have to leave is similar." Bennett said refugees in the United States and Europe currently face a backlash with the rise of neo-nationalism and often are the targets of blame for demographic uncertainty and economic anxiety. "These films are giving viewers human stories that show how we're more closely related to people from different countries than we actually know," Bennett said. That's why Bennett and his co-director Talya Tibbon sought to present the terror the Nabi family face in refugees camps across Europe in "Sky and Ground" along with mundane concerns. As refugee Guevara Nabi seeks to lead his family through Serbia and Austria while avoiding police, the young travelers also worry about bathing or a doll that never leaves their side. Juliana Schatz Preston, a Colombia-American filmmaker who co-directed "Los Comandos," said the unaccompanied minor migrant crisis was at its peak in the U.S. in 2013 when she joined the project. "I wanted to do something that was happening on the ground at its nexus point," Preston said. "What would the conditions have to be to provoke you to leave?" That's how Preston stumbled upon a group from a volunteer emergency medical unit. In filming 16-year-old Mimi, at first Preston said she was hesitant to compare her mother's family's plight from violent Colombia of the 1980s. "In Medellin, where my family is from, was once the most violent place in the world, very similar to what San Salvador is now," Preston said, before pausing. "So, yeah, I guess I did have some inherent empathy that I didn't know was there." ___ Associated Press writer Russell Contreras is a member of the AP's race and ethnicity team. Follow Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The Latest on Syria talks in Iran (all times local): 9:40 p.m. Syrian pro-government media reported that nine civilians have been killed by shells fired from rebel areas south of the province of Idlib on a government-held town. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, centre, flanked by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pose for photographs in Tehran, Iran, ahead of their summit to discuss Syria, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. The three leaders began a meeting to discuss the war in Syria.(Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool) Syria state news agency SANA said they were killed when the missiles struck into a residential area in Mhardeh town in the northern countryside of Hama. Hama lies to the south of Idlib, and several of its villages and towns remain under rebel control. Warplanes, including suspected Russian ones, hit rebel areas in northern and southern Idlib earlier Friday, killing at least five, including one civilian, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The violence comes on the day that the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia are meeting to discuss the fate of the last rebel stronghold in Idlib and surrounding areas in Hama. ___ 9:30 p.m. The director of U.N. humanitarian operations is warning that if a military offensive takes place in Idlib and millions of people start fleeing, aid operations to help them will be overwhelmed. John Ging told the U.N. Security Council on Friday this worst-case scenario "has the potential to create a humanitarian emergency at a scale not yet seen through this crisis," now in its eighth year. He urged council members to ask the parties to cease hostilities in the Idlib de-escalation zone which includes parts of Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia and Hama governorates and includes some 3 million people, about 2.1 million already in need of humanitarian aid. Ging also called for protection of civilians, humanitarian and medical personnel, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure as well as freedom for people to move, access for aid deliveries, and increased funding. While donors including Britain and Germany have recently provided resources, he said, the U.N. is still "woefully short of the $311 million that we estimate is required if there is an increase in violence resulting in mass displacement." Ging said humanitarian aid is being prepositioned inside Idlib and in surrounding areas, and "plans are in place to support up to 900,000 women, children and men that could be affected by conflict." He warned that if millions of people flee Idlib, however, it "will overwhelm all capacity to respond regardless of plans or funding made available." ___ 9:20 p.m. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday after a trilateral meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss the war in Syria. In the Friday report carried by the leader's website, Khamenei.ir, he said that the United States is worried about the formation of an "Islamic authority." "America is concerned about the cooperation of Islamic countries and the formation of an Islamic authority," Khamenei was quoted as saying. Khamenei added that this fear underlies America's hostility toward Islamic countries, according to the report. ___ 8:50 p.m. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is warning Syria and its allies Russia and Iran that "the consequences will be dire" for an assault on the last major stronghold for Syrian rebels in Idlib. Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that an offensive against Idlib is starting despite warnings from President Donald Trump and other world leaders, including Russian and Syrian airstrikes against civilian areas. "The United States has been very clear, with Russia and with the broader international community: we consider any assault on Idlib to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Syria," Haley said. "If (Syrian President Bashar) Assad, Russia, and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire," she said. Haley said Syria must halt its offensive, and Russia and Iran have the power to prevent "this catastrophe." ___ 8:05 p.m. Eight aid agencies have called on world leaders to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, where the Syrian government is threatening a military offensive. The agencies called on leaders of the Iran, Russia and Turkey meeting in Tehran and members of the U.N. Security Council meeting later in New York to work together to find a diplomatic solution that can protect civilians, aid workers and allow access to humanitarian agencies to the overcrowded province and surrounding areas. More than 3 million live in Idlib and its environs, many of them already displaced by conflict elsewhere in Syria. The agencies, including CARE, Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, said the "most vulnerable" are likely to pay the heaviest price in case of an offensive. They said aid workers working in Idlib are already overwhelmed trying to provide basic needs and shelter to the province's population, which has doubled in size in recent months because it is hosting displaced citizens from all over Syria. ___ 7:50 p.m. The U.N. envoy for Syria says any proposal to avoid Idlib becoming "the biggest humanitarian tragedy at the end of the most horrible recent conflict in our memory" must be given a chance - and he has some ideas on how to separate "terrorists" from civilians. Staffan De Mistura is also calling for "protected voluntary evacuation routes" for civilians if they want to leave Idlib. He told the U.N. Security Council Friday that talk of a military offensive on Idlib "is happening at exactly the same time when there is serious talk" on moving to establish a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution and encourage the return of Syrian refugees. De Mistura said these are incompatible. "Either we are trying to find a political way to end this war and move to a post-war political scenario or we will see this war reach new levels of horrors." He said that's why Friday's meeting of the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Tehran is so important and why he will be meeting with the three countries in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday - and next Friday with Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States. It would be a failure of diplomacy "if with these efforts we simply saw an increase of military activities," De Mistura said. ___ 5:45 p.m. Turkey's president says his country does not have the "strength or capability" to host millions of more refugees from Idlib. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that a call for terror groups in Idlib to lay down arms was a strong message to them and would help halt refugee flows. "We have to take joint steps to prevent the migration, we need to be successful in the fight against terrorism," Erdogan said. "Turkey is already sheltering 3 million refugees (from Syria). The population of Idlib is 3 million. Turkey doesn't have the strength or capability to host 3 million more," he added. ___ 5:20 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin says it is "unacceptable" to use civilians as a pretext to shield "terrorists" in Syria's rebel-held Idlib. Speaking at the end of a trilateral summit with the leaders of Iran and Turkey Putin said Russia is worried about civilians in Idlib but said Russian finds it "unacceptable" when civilians are used a pretext to "shield terrorists" and target Syrian government positions. Russia has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has indicated its support for Assad to regain control of Idlib which is the last remaining bastion of the opposition ___ 4:35 p.m. Turkey's president is calling for a cease-fire and an end to airstrikes amid a looming campaign for Syria's Idlib province. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments Friday at a trilateral meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey in Tehran. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says "we have to force the United States to leave" Syria. Rouhani did not elaborate on the comment, which he made while speaking about Idlib. America has some 2,000 troops in Syria. Friday's summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. ___ 4:15 p.m. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the fight in Syria should continue until all extremists are "uprooted," especially in Idlib. Rouhani made the comment Friday at a trilateral summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. ___ 4:10 p.m. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says America's intervention in Syria should immediately end. Rouhani made the comment Friday at a trilateral summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran. Rouhani also said that "the fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end." ___ 3:40 p.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have begun a summit on Syria as a bloody offensive on Idlib province looms, despite warnings from the U.S. and others not to launch the attack. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. ____ 3:30 p.m. Residents in Syria's northwestern Idlib province are holding mass rallies in the rebels' last bastion, protesting an imminent government offensive there and chanting against the country's ruler President Bashar Assad. The Friday rallies came as Presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia are meeting in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action in Idlib and its surrounding areas, home to more than 3 million people. Nearly half of the area's residents are already displaced from other parts of Syria and have refused to reconcile with the Syrian government. The area also includes opposition fighters and some of Syria's most radical groups. "Come on, leave Bashar!" hundreds of protesters chanted in Saraqeb, a town in eastern Idlib. "We will defend our revolution." ___ 2:20 p.m. A spokesman for a Syrian rebel alliance says the least the summit in the Iranian capital can do is avert a humanitarian crisis in the last bastion for the opposition in northwestern Syria. Naji al-Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters are prepared for battle. But they expect a major humanitarian crisis, a large wave of displacement and a lot of destruction and death if a Russia-backed offensive takes place. Idlib and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of Syria. Al-Mustafa said his rebel alliance is looking to Turkey's efforts to prevent the attack and "to protect Idlib." Turkey has deployed 12 observations points and hundreds of fighters that ring Idlib, separating them from government and allied fighters, as part of a de-escalation agreement with Russia and Iran. ___ 1:55 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have both arrived in Tehran for a trilateral summit on Syria. The two presidents landed at Mehrabad International Airport. They will attend the summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 1:25 p.m. Activists and residents say warplanes have struck areas on the southern edge of the Syrian Idlib province, the rebels' last bastion, killing one and causing loud explosions and large plumes of smoke. The airstrikes Friday come hours before presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake bastion of Idlib. Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a series of airstrikes struck a few villages in southwest Idlib and along the borders with the adjacent Hama province, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the airstrikes. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people. ___ 12:55 p.m. The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry is calling a summit on Syria between Iran, Turkey and Russia an "invaluable opportunity." Bahram Ghasemi wrote an opinion piece published across Iranian media on Friday that the summit in Tehran helps as all the nations "have faced similar challenges and joint threats by bullying foreign powers." Ghasemi wrote: "The summit has double significance since all the three nations have faced ambitions and greediness of an illogical international big power." That refers to the United States, which has some 2,000 troops in Syria after its war against the Islamic State group. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 9:55 a.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit Friday, the third between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people - nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani attends a news conference following the Russia-Iran-Turkey summit in Iran on Friday Sept. 7, 2018. Putin, Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives to attend a news conference following the Russia-Iran-Turkey summit in Iran on Friday Sept. 7, 2018. Putin, Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP) Russia's President Vladimir Putin, attends a news conference following the Russia-Iran-Turkey summit in Iran on Friday Sept. 7, 2018. Putin, Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP) Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, center, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attend a joint press conference in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Putin, Erdogan and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) DOVER, Del. (AP) - A federal court on Friday rejected the appeals of a Delaware man and his sister who were sentenced to life in prison in a landmark cyberstalking case involving the killing of the man's ex-wife. In a 77-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld the convictions of David Matusiewicz, 51, and his sister, Amy Gonzalez, 46, for what prosecutors say was a three-year campaign of torment and stalking against Christine Belford. Belford, and a friend, Laura "Beth" Mulford were fatally shot by the siblings' father, Thomas Matusiewicz, at the New Castle County Courthouse in February 2013. Mulford had accompanied Belford there for a child support hearing involving the three daughters Belford had with David Matusiewicz. Thomas Matusiewicz, 68, then exchanged gunfire with security officers before killing himself. Prosecutors say Belford's shooting capped a long, orchestrated effort by the Matusiewicz family to harass and intimidate her in an effort to regain custody of the children. David Matusiewicz and Gonzalez were convicted, along with their mother, Lenore Matusiewicz, on federal conspiracy and cyberstalking charges. Lenore Matusiewicz died in prison in 2016. The case marked the first convictions in the nation for the charge of cyberstalking resulting in death. Prosecutors claimed that David Matusiewicz, a former optometrist, conspired with his parents and sister over several years to torment and stalk his ex-wife with the intent to injure, harass, intimidate and kill her. Thomas Matusiewicz's family members consistently denied knowing that he intended to kill Belford. Attorneys for Gonzalez and David Matusiewicz argued on appeal that some of the evidence used by the prosecution was protected speech under the First Amendment, and that jurors shouldn't have heard certain details contained in a family court order terminating David Matusiewicz's parental rights. They also claimed the trial judge made several errors regarding jury instructions and the admission of evidence. The appeals court panel rejected all their challenges, lauding U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh Jr. for his "outstanding work" in handling a complicated case "with exceptional precision and care." "As the Court of Appeals observed, this is a watershed case of national importance," U.S. Attorney David Weiss said in a prepared statement. "Cyberstalking is a form of psychological terror that deeply impacts its victims. Individuals who engage in such conduct are on notice that the Department of Justice will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law." Edson Bostic, a federal public defender representing David Matusiewicz, declined to comment on the ruling. Jeremy H.G. Ibrahim, an attorney representing Gonzalez, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. David Matusiewicz had his parental rights stripped in 2011 after he pleaded guilty in 2009 to federal fraud and kidnapping charges after he and his mother took his daughters to Central America. Lenore Matusiewicz served more than a year in state prison for her role in the 2007 kidnapping. The Matusiewicz family has said they were trying to protect one of the daughters from being sexually abused by Belford, an assertion that has never been proved. The defendants nevertheless continued to maliciously accuse Belford of abuse and neglect in a series of online postings, emails and letters, according to prosecutors. During the cyberstalking investigation, authorities also found a purported "hit list" that included the names of judges and attorneys who were involved in the family court disputes between the former spouses, as well as the name of the federal judge who sent David Matusiewicz to prison on kidnapping and bank fraud charges. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Kasey Kahne will not defend his Brickyard 400 victory because of dehydration issues he said result in an elevated heart rate while he is driving. Kahne said he felt so poorly he should not have been driving the final 100 laps of last weekend's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. He said he was nauseous, struggled to take in fluids from the midway point of the race and vomited when it was over. "I definitely shouldn't have been in the race car anymore," Kahne said Friday. "I stayed out there, put my body through it, my brain, my head. It was really hard to keep my eyes open and see. I was struggling to do that. I was trying to control my heart rate because it was so high." FILE - In this June 30, 2017, file photo, Kasey Kahne talks with a crew member after qualifying for the NASCAR cup auto race at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Kahne will not defend his Brickyard 400 victory because of dehydration issues that have given him an elevated heart rate while he's driving. Regan Smith will drive the No. 95 Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kahne said Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, he's not sure when he can race again, and he's scheduled to retire from NASCAR competition at the end of this season.(AP Photo/John Raoux, File) Kahne received fluids in the medical center following Sunday's race in South Carolina. Regan Smith will drive the No. 95 Chevrolet at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Kahne is not sure when he can race again, and the 38-year-old is planning to retire from full-time NASCAR competition at the end of this season. Kahne said he's suffered from heat exhaustion in a handful of races dating back to last season, and including Indy. Kahne needed medical assistance after that win last July, the last of his career and last with Hendrick Motorsports. The health issues, he conceded Friday, factored into his decision to retire. Kahne said he has met with three different doctors, and NASCAR suggested doctors following Darlington. He's looking for a way to race at Las Vegas next week, but admitted the predicted temperatures in the 90s worry him. "If we can come up with a solution to stay hydrated throughout the race, prior to then ... I'll be in Las Vegas," he said. ___ More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) - Vince Vaughn has been charged with drunken driving. Los Angeles County prosecutors announced on Friday that the 48-year-old "Wedding Crashers" actor is charged with three misdemeanors: driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher and refusing to comply with police. Authorities say Vaughn repeatedly refusing to get out of his car when officers asked him at a sobriety checkpoint in Manhattan Beach on June 10. Police say he failed a field sobriety test that was captured on an officer's body camera, and a blood test later showed he was over the legal limit. FILE - This Sept. 3, 2018 file photo shows actor Vince Vaughn at the photo call for the film "Dragged Across Concrete" at the 75th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. Vaughn has been charged with drunken driving. Authorities say Vaughn repeatedly refused to get out of his car when officers asked him at a sobriety checkpoint in Manhattan Beach on June 10. Police say he failed a field sobriety test that was captured on an officer's body camera, and a blood test later showed he was over the legal limit. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File) Vaughn has not entered a plea. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Monday. His spokesman, Alan Nierob, declined comment. The Dotard Inquisition Senor Trumpanzee has been mocking Jeff Sessions as a dumb southerner for some time, thinking no one "outside" would pick up on his bigotry and that his "dumb" supporters in Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas and southern Missouri would ever figure out that a snob he is and that what he says about Mexicans publicly is what he says about them behind their backs. It would be fatal for him if they do-- which is why he's been shrieking on Twitter than Bob Bernstein is a Democratic operative and a purveyor of "fake news"-- lies like everything else Trump uses to manipulate his base, especially "dumb" southerners. Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Southern Republican senators-- usually Trump's most lock-step ass-kissing enablers and rubber-stamps-- were pushing back. Several explicitly defended Jeff Sessions from the Trump attacks exposed in Fear, Woodward new book. Trump's mockery of southern accents has been an ongoing disgrace that has gone largely unnoticed. Woodward wrote that the illegitimate "president" privately called Sessions a "traitor," saying: "This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb Southerner He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama." Johnny Isakson (R-GA), obviously seething: "Im a Southerner. People can judge my intellect, my IQ, by my product and what I produce rather than what somebody else says. Were a pretty smart bunch. We lost the Civil War, but I think were winning the economic war since then Im not gonna get into name-calling because I dont think you should be allowed to call names-- including the president." Richard Shelby (R-AL), a long-time friend and colleague of Sessions noted that it would be politically stupid of Trump to denigrate Southerners since they hugely helped elect the president in 2016. "Well, Im sure Ive got that accent, wouldnt you think?... I guess the president-- he says what he thinks... I think the presidents probably got a lot of respect for the South. I hope so. He did well there. Without the South, he wouldnt be the president of the United States... "I think thats strong words. I think Sessions is a very smart man and a man of integrity. I would disagree with the president on that." Trump has been on Twitter calling attention to Woodward's book-- likely making it a best seller-- and defending himself in ways that it will be hard to believe by anyone who isn't already brainwashed by his cult of personality. But Republican incumbents and and open red seat candidates in the South didn't need this new bullshit from Trump. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Andy Barr (R-KY), Mark Harris (R-NC), John Culberson (R-TX), French Hill (R-AR), Maria Salazar (R-FL), Will Hurd (R-TX), Karen Handel (R-GA), Denver Riggelman (R-VA), Carol Miller (R-WV), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Scott Taylor (R-VA), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Dave Brat (R-VA) are all in tough districts and none them can afford to lose a couple of points based on Trump being perceived as being a snob against the South. If a percentage point or two is shaved off anyone's totals because people who take offense stay home, these candidates will be even more certain to be defeated in November. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said Friday he does not want to hurt Canada's economy but also warned that if he imposes taxes on cars it would be "devastating" for the neighboring country. "If I tax cars coming in from Canada, it would be devastating. But I don't want to do that," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "I do use that as leverage in negotiating, where they don't want to give us some points. I say, that's ok, I'd rather tax your cars coming in, and I win a lot of points because of it." Trump spoke on route to Fargo, North Dakota, while Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was meeting in Washington with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. They have been trying to reach a deal that would allow Canada to remain in a North American trade bloc with the U.S. and Mexico. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, talks to reporters outside the United States Trade Representative building in Washington, Friday Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Luis Alonso Lugo) After a two-hour meeting, Freeland told reporters that "you could say at this very intense point that we are really in a continuous negotiation." Freeland did not say whether the negotiations would continue later Friday or next week. Lighthizer plans to see European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom next week in Brussels. Larry Kudlow, top economic adviser to Trump, told Fox Business Network on Friday morning that U.S. access to Canada's protected dairy market is the single issue holding up the negotiations. "I am just saying 'Let go.' Milk, dairy, drop the barriers, give our farmers a break," Kudlow said. 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. REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on an alleged serial killer's murder trial (all times local): 11:30 a.m. A man accused by Northern California authorities of raping and killing six women in the 1970s has shouted at a jury that he is not guilty and never raped anyone. Rodney Halbower made the declarations as his murder and rape trial for the killings of two women got underway Friday in Redwood City in the San Francisco Bay Area. The killings happened in 1976 in California's San Mateo County and in Reno, Nevada. They were nicknamed the Gypsy Hill Killings. DNA evidence led to Halbower's arrest in 2014. He was in prison in Oregon at the time. The judge denied motions for a mistrial made by Halbower's lawyer. ___ 12:05 a.m. A career criminal who authorities say killed six women in the 1970s in Northern California and Nevada is facing a murder trial involving two of the killings. Law enforcement officials believe 69-year-old Rodney Halbower raped and killed six young women during a five-month period in 1976. The killings were unsolved until 2014. That's when DNA taken from cigarette butts saved from the scene of one of the killings in Reno led investigators to Halbower's prison cell in Oregon, where he was doing time for rape and attempted murder. Opening statements start Friday in Redwood City, which is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - An eastern Kentucky disability attorney who masterminded the largest Social Security fraud in history has been sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for fleeing the country in an effort to avoid prosecution. Eric Conn pleaded guilty in 2017 to bribing doctors to falsify medical records for his thousands of clients and then paying a judge to approve their lifetime disability benefits. His plea agreement would have put him in prison for 12 years, but a few weeks before his sentencing Conn removed his electronic monitoring bracelet and dumped it along I-75 in central Kentucky. He led federal agents on a six-month chase that ended in December when he was caught outside a Pizza Hut in Honduras. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced Conn to an additional 15 years for his escape, meaning he is scheduled to spend 27 years in prison for defrauding the government of $500 million in disability benefits. FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2017, file photo, fugitive lawyer Eric Conn, left, is taken into custody by FBI agents on the tarmac at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky. Conn, an eastern Kentucky disability attorney who masterminded the largest Social Security fraud in history, has been sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for fleeing the country in an effort to avoid prosecution on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Goins, File) "I've made a lot of mistakes for a man who wanted to do a lot of good in my life," a shackled, shaggy-haired Conn, standing in blue flip-flops and a dark green jumpsuit, told the judge. "An apology can't right the wrongs that I've done, but I think it's a pretty good place to start." Conn's actions led the Social Security Administration to temporarily suspend benefit payments for thousands of people in eastern Kentucky, one of the poorest regions in the country. At least one man killed himself after getting the notice in the mail, leading his grieving widow to sue the government in a case that was eventually dismissed. The Social Security Administration eventually reversed that decision, instead forcing those people to go to court to prove their disability benefits were warranted. That process is ongoing. One of those clients is 70-year-old Guy Fluty. The Louisa, Kentucky, resident got to keep his benefits. But he said the Social Security Administration is trying to get him to pay back $206,000, a sum he is fighting in court. Fluty, who worked for 20 years for a coal company, said he was twice denied disability benefits before hiring Conn to be his lawyer. Fluty said he knew Conn's name because of a billboard near his home. He soon visited Conn's law office, a sprawling complex of connected mobile homes in eastern Kentucky that featured smaller replicas of the Lincoln Memorial and the Statue of Liberty. But he never met Conn in person and said he did not know about his scheme. "I wish to God I had never heard his name," he said. "He hasn't done anybody in eastern Kentucky any favors." Also in court Friday was Sarah Carver, a former Social Security Administration employee who blew the whistle on Conn's scheme. Conn tried to have her fired by following her and filming her shopping on one of her days off. But he held up a newspaper from another date in the video, making it look like Carver was shopping during working hours. Noting Conn's behavior toward Carver and others, prosecutor Dustin Davis scoffed at his apology in court, telling the judge Conn is "not worthy of belief. He has zero integrity." But Carver said she believed Conn's apology is sincere and said it's more than she's ever gotten from the Social Security Administration. She said Conn could not have carried out his scheme without help from many others in the agency. "There has been no effort to hold them accountable for their actions and there is no deterrent for this to happen in the future," she said. Reeves awarded Carver more than $8,000 in restitution. She and former co-worker Jennifer Griffith were awarded $31 million in damages in a separate lawsuit. It's likely they won't receive all of that money. Their attorney says the women have an agreement with the federal government to be paid 25 percent from money recovered in the case, including the sale of Conn's assets. ___ This version corrects the year in which Conn pleaded guilty to 2017 instead of 2016. SAN DIEGO (AP) - A 6-year-old immigrant boy sobs at the school bus stop in suburban Maryland and begs his mother to promise she will not disappear again. A toddler in Honduras wakes up screaming and searches for the government social worker who cared for him for several months. Other children duck or hide their faces when they see a uniformed officer. Families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration and then reunited with their children say they are suffering deep emotional wounds and want the U.S. government to pay for mental health treatment to remedy the situation. A mother from Guatemala, left, identified only by initials L.J., who was separated from her two children after entering the U.S. in May of 2018, receives support from translator Brenda Quintana, right, after speaking to reporters about the separation during a news conference, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Boston. L.J. is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration, seeking monetary damages on behalf of children who were separated from their parents at the border. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) The families say the joyous reunions that occurred after the government reversed its policy have given way to agonizing daily routines as they've settled back into life in the U.S. and Central America. They say both the children and parents are traumatized by the ordeal. Once easy-going children are now jumpy, disobedient, short-tempered and afraid of school, their parents say. They have nightmares on a regular basis. Little things trigger tears, even in older kids. "I can't sleep away from my son, nor he from me," Iris Eufragio said in a phone interview with The Associated Press from Rosedale, Maryland, where she and her 6-year-old boy, Ederson, are living with family friends while they seek asylum after fleeing violence in Honduras. The government separated them at the border in June and reunited them under court order after the boy spent a month at a Phoenix detention center. The son is struggling to adjust. As a kindergartner in Honduras, he loved school. Now teachers have had to embrace him to stop him from running off campus to get back to his mother. He keeps asking whether he may have to return to a detention center. "Just seeing a police car makes him scared," Eufragio said A federal class-action lawsuit filed this week seeks unspecified financial compensation and the creation of a fund to pay for mental health treatment for more than 2,000 children who were taken from their parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border this spring as part of the government's "zero tolerance" policy. The Trump administration declined to comment. Researchers and medical professionals have analyzed the effects of traumatizing events on children over the years, and studies have shown that persistent stress may alter brain structure in regions affecting emotions and regulating behavior. Imaging studies have found these regions are smaller than usual in severely traumatized children, and the damage may be worse the younger the child because the brain is still developing. Jenifer Wolf Williams, who is among thousands of U.S. mental health professionals offering free services to help the families, said recovery takes longer than people think. If not treated properly, children may become teens who engage in self-destructive behavior and struggle to make the right choices. The Texas therapist, who has counseled immigrants separated from their families for various reasons, said these kinds of separations can be even more traumatic for immigrants from Latin America where the culture is centered on large extended families. Thousands of miles away in Honduras, Baby Johan almost nightly lets out piercing screams. He stops when his mother mentions Emily, the social worker who cared for him in U.S. government custody. To make him feel better, she sometimes plays Johan the old videos the social worker had sent to his parents. Johan - who captured the world's attention by appearing before a judge in diapers - spent a third of his life at a U.S. government-contracted shelter in Arizona after being separated from his father at the border in May. When he returned home in July he didn't seem to recognize his parents at first. Since then, he has refused to play with his toys, drink from his bottle or eat much, rejecting the food he once loved, like bananas. He can't sleep without the lights on. He vacillates between holding onto his mother with an iron-clad embrace to hitting her to shutting down. "I wonder if this is normal for a toddler, but he cries out like he's having nightmares, he yells loudly like he's traumatized," said his mother, Adalicia Montecinos, who is eight months pregnant with her second child. "We thought once we got him back, everything would go back to normal, but he acts so traumatized, we don't know what to do." His father, Rolando Antonio Bueso Castillo, is consumed by guilt for ever taking him. He feels angry that his son, then 10-months-old, was separated from him. He said he agreed to be deported because he was told he would get his son back immediately. But Johan spent five months at a shelter in Phoenix. He spoke his first words and took his first steps there. Bueso Castillo wants to file a lawsuit against the U.S. as well. But the bus driver, who makes $10-a-day, doesn't have the means to pursue it. "This is all their fault," he said. Isai Valenzuela Segura, a 29-year-old Guatemalan, who was reunited with his 9-year-old son on July 26, wishes he could do more to help his boy, like a hire a counselor. The father has turned to his faith to guide him, reading the Bible to his son on a regular basis. "I thought when I saw my son that he'd be happy, but he asked me why I left him. He said, 'You left me alone for 41 days. You don't know how much I suffered,'" said Valenzuela Segura, who is living with his son in Tennessee while they seek asylum after fleeing violence in Guatemala. "With God's help, we'll heal," he said. ___ Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Astrid Galvan in Phoenix contributed to this report. This July 31, 2018 photo shows Honduran immigrant Iris Eufragio's 6-year-old son Ederson Eufragio in Rosedale, Maryland. The two were separated by U.S. authorities at the border with Mexico in mid-June. A federal class-action lawsuit is seeking money for damages and to fund mental health treatment for more than 2,000 children who were taken from the parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (Courtesy of Iris Eufragio via AP) This July 31, 2018 photo shows Honduran immigrant Iris Eufragio, 40, and her 6-year-old son Ederson Eufragio in Rosedale, Md. The two were separated by U.S. authorities at the border with Mexico in mid-June. A federal class-action lawsuit is seeking money for damages and to fund mental health treatment for more than 2,000 children who were taken from the parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (Courtesy of Iris Eufragio via AP) This Aug. 25, 2018 photo shows Honduran immigrant Iris Eufragio's 6-year-old son Ederson Eufragio in Rosedale, Md. The two were separated by U.S. authorities at the border with Mexico in mid-June. A federal class-action lawsuit is seeking money for damages and to fund mental health treatment for more than 2,000 children who were taken from the parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (Courtesy of Iris Eufragio via AP) This July 14, 2018 photo shows Honduran immigrant Iris Eufragio, 40, after she was reunited with her 6-year-old son Ederson Eufragio at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland. The two were separated by U.S. authorities at the border with Mexico in mid-June. A federal class-action lawsuit is seeking money for damages and to fund mental health treatment for more than 2,000 children who were taken from the parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (Courtesy of Iris Eufragio via AP) A mother from Guatemala, center, identified only by initials L.J., who was separated from her two children after entering the U.S. in May of 2018, is flanked by translators while speaking to reporters about the separation during a news conference, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Boston. L.J. is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration, seeking monetary damages on behalf of children who were separated from their parents at the border. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) A mother from Guatemala, identified only by initials L.J., who was separated from her two children after entering the U.S. in May of 2018, is tearful while speaking to reporters about the separation during a news conference, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Boston. L.J. is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration, seeking monetary damages on behalf of children who were separated from their parents at the border. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has authorized the release of $1.2 billion in U.S. military assistance to Egypt, despite human rights concerns that have held up previous funding. The State Department said Friday it is notifying Congress that Pompeo has signed national security waivers allowing the money known as foreign military financing, or FMF, to be spent. Congress has 15 days to weigh in on the waivers, which were signed on Aug. 21 but not previously made public. It was not immediately clear why there was a delay in the notification. The money includes $1 billion for the current 2018 budget year and $195 million appropriated for 2017 that would have had to have been returned to the Treasury had it not been spent by Sept. 30. In July, Pompeo had lifted a hold on another $195 million in FMF that Congress had approved for budget year 2016 but which former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had frozen due to the continuing human rights issues. The department said Friday the Trump administration still had "serious concerns about the human rights situation in Egypt" and would continue to raise those concerns with senior Egyptian officials. "At the same time," it said, "strengthened security cooperation with Egypt is important to U.S. national security. Secretary Pompeo determined that continuing with the obligation and expenditure of these FMF funds is important to strengthening our security cooperation with Egypt." Independent monitoring groups have documented continued human rights abuses in Egypt over the past year and one such organization, Human Rights First, condemned Friday's announcement. "Sending more military aid is just doubling down on July's terrible decision," it said. "This is a clear signal that the Trump Administration is more than okay with President Sisi's targeting of human rights defenders. Green lights don't come much bigger than this." The New York-based Human Rights Watch has described the situation in Egypt as the "worst human rights crisis in the country in decades." Egyptian police, the group said, systematically use "torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to silence political dissent," according to a recent assessment. Amnesty International reported an escalation in Egypt's crackdown on civil society and pointed to routine "grossly unfair" trials of government critics, peaceful protesters, journalists and human rights defenders. The suspension of the U.S. military aid to Egypt in August 2017 came as a surprise as the two allies had forged increasingly close ties under President Donald Trump. In announcing the freeze, Tillerson said he wasn't able to certify that Egypt had met the human rights criteria set by Congress in order to receive the American assistance. Egypt responded angrily and called that decision a "misjudgment of the nature of the strategic relations that have bound the two countries for decades." Egypt long has been a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, receiving nearly $80 billion in military and economic assistance over the past 30 years. MINSK, Belarus (AP) - About 4,000 children have been evacuated from a town in Russia-annexed Crimea where a noxious chemical leak has been blamed on a local titanium factory. Residents of Armyansk complained in late August that a sour smell was pervading the community and a substance resembling rust had fallen on roofs, trees and vehicles. Authorities this week decided to take children away from the town of 20,000 people for two weeks. They say the children are being housed at health resorts elsewhere in Crimea. Russian media have not reported widespread illness or symptoms in Armyansk. The head of Ukraine's adjacent Kherson region said Friday that 37 border guards have been hospitalized due to negative effects from the leak. Crimea's leader, Sergei Aksenov, identified the chemical as sulfur trioxide from the titanium plant. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Oklahoma zookeeper at an exotic animal park and candidate for governor earlier this year has been charged in a murder-for-hire scheme alleging he tried to hire someone to kill a Florida woman, federal prosecutors announced on Friday. Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 55, also known as "Joe Exotic," was indicted on two counts of hiring a person to commit murder in federal court in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors allege Maldonado-Passage tried to hire two separate people to kill the woman, who wasn't harmed. One of the unidentified people he sought to hire connected him with an undercover FBI agent, who met with Maldonado-Passage in December 2017. The indictment, unsealed on Friday, indicated Maldonado-Passage had been arrested. FILE - In this Aug. 28, 2013, file photo, Joseph Maldonado answers a question during an interview at the zoo he runs in Wynnewood, Okla. Federal prosecutors on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, announced that the zookeeper, also known as "Joe Exotic," and candidate for governor earlier this year, has been charged in a murder-for-hire scheme alleging he tried to hire someone to kill a Florida woman. Prosecutors allege Maldonado-Passage tried to hire two separate people to kill the woman, who wasn't harmed. Maldonado-Passage finished third in a three-way Libertarian primary in June. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) Court records don't list an attorney for Maldonado-Passage, who didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Known for his blonde mullet and expletive-laden rants on YouTube, Maldonado-Passage finished third in a three-way Libertarian primary in June. In October 2017, Garvin County authorities investigated after Maldonado-Passage's then-husband, 23-year-old Travis Maldonado, shot himself in the head in the zoo gift shop. Garvin County Sheriff Larry Rhodes said at the time that witnesses reported Travis Maldonado put a loaded firearm to his head and pulled the trigger to prove the weapon would not fire with the magazine removed. Maldonado married another man, Dillon Jacob Passage, in December, court records show. Maldonado's appeared on John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" when he was a 2016 write-in candidate for president. PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a Florida deputy has been fired for sleeping while on duty at a Florida school where 17 people had been killed a month earlier. Broward Sheriff's officials say 40-year-old Deputy Moises Carotti was fired last week. He had been suspended pending an internal investigation. Carotti had been assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to help boost security in the aftermath of February's shooting. About a month after the shooting, authorities say a student told another sergeant they'd spotted Carotti asleep in his patrol car. The sergeant reported waking Carotti by knocking on the window. An internal report says the brother of the shooter illegally came onto school grounds shortly before Carotti was found sleeping. Carotti told investigators he didn't feel well and should have called in sick. DENVER (AP) - The U.S. Center for SafeSport has permanently banned two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Steven Lopez for sexual misconduct involving a minor. The center has been investigating Lopez for about four months and made his ban permanent Thursday night. He can appeal. He was suspended in May, a few days after four women filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing USA Taekwondo and the U.S. Olympic Committee of sex trafficking. FILE - In this July 21, 2015 file photo, United States' Steven Lopez celebrates winning a bronze medal by defeating Venezuela's Javier Medina in the men's taekwondo under-80kg category at the Pan Am Games in Mississauga, Ontario. The U.S. Center for SafeSport has on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, permanently banned the two-time Olympic taekwondo champion for sexual misconduct involving a minor. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) The lawsuit alleges the organizations were long aware that Lopez and his brother, Jean, were sexual predators, but kept sending young women with them to competitions and practices. The plaintiffs have since added the U.S. Center for SafeSport as a defendant. Jean Lopez has also been banned on an interim basis. REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - A career criminal accused by authorities of raping and killing six women in the 1970s yelled "I am not guilty!" to a jury at the start of his trial Friday for two of the killings. Rodney Halbower also yelled "I have never raped or murdered in my life!" to the jury in an outburst that briefly disrupted court proceedings, led to a request for a mistrial by his lawyer and claims by a prosecutor that the outburst was staged. The killings happened in 1976 in California's San Mateo County and in Reno, Nevada, and were dubbed the Gypsy Hill Killings. DNA evidence led to Halbower's arrest in 2014. He was in prison in Oregon at the time. FILE - This undated file photo provided by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office shows Rodney Halbower. Halbower, a career criminal who authorities believe is a serial killer dubbed the Gypsy Hill Killer, faces trial Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in Northern California for the murders of two young women four decades ago. Law enforcement officials believe Halbower raped and killed six young women during a five-month period in 1976. Opening statements start Friday in Redwood City, California about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. (AP Photo/San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, File) Halbower, 69, is now on trial in the 1976 rapes and killings of two high school students within weeks of each other. The Gypsy Hill Killings sent fear through the San Francisco Bay Area when they happened. Prosecutors have said they don't plan to try Halbower for the other killings because a conviction in the current trial - for which their evidence is strongest - would keep him locked up for life. After Halbower's outburst, Judge Mark Forcum denied several motions for a mistrial made by Halbower's attorney, John Halley. "He doesn't get to set up his own mistrial," said Forcum. Prosecutor Sean Gallagher said he believed Halbower was purposely seeking a mistrial and vowed to talk over any outbursts that might come during opening statements. Gallagher told the jury about the two teen girls who were abducted, raped and killed in a once-tranquil suburb, and that DNA from semen found in both women and preserved for decades matched Halbower's DNA. One of the victims was stabbed to death and the other was beaten in the head with concrete and stabbed in her heart. Authorities in the 1970s said the killings were linked and dubbed the attacker the Gypsy Hill Killer for the location where one of the first victims was found. Halbower is also suspected of raping and killing a nursing student in Reno during the same period as the five California killings. "I wasn't here during that period of time," Halbower yelled out, interrupting Gallagher's opening statement. Gallagher responded that Halbower's statement wasn't true because he was living in the nearby city of San Bruno in early 1976. Halbower's attorney told the jury that some of the DNA evidence had been mishandled and that should create enough reasonable doubt for the jurors to acquit. Halbower calmed down and remained quiet in the afternoon. "I want to note for the record that the defendant stayed silent after opening statements," Judge Mark Forcum told lawyers after jurors left for the day. "That corroborates in my mind that he picks and chooses his spots to interrupt the proceedings." Halbower was in an Oregon prison for attempted murder when cold case detectives re-opened the Gypsy Hill investigation. Prosecutors say DNA taken from preserved crime-scene evidence match Halbower's DNA, which he provided to Oregon prison officials. He was charged with two counts of murder and rape in 2014 and transferred to the Redwood City jail to face a trial delayed several times by questions about his mental competency and his insistence on representing himself. A jury last year found him sane enough to stand trial. It's possible that Halbower would never have been linked to the attacks had he not escaped from a Nevada prison in December 1986. He made his way to Oregon, where he was arrested within days of his escape for rape and attempted murder. An Oregon jury convicted Halbower and sentenced him to 15 years in prison in that state. First, he was returned to Nevada to finish that state's prison term. When Nevada paroled him in 2013, he was sent back to Oregon, where prison officials took a DNA sample and submitted it to the national database investigators use to revive stalled investigations. Authorities say the results linked him to the Gypsy Hill case. Court records show Halbower has spent the past 53 years in prison or on the lam after escaping. A 1987 psychiatric report for an Oregon court concluded that Halbower was an intelligent man who suffered from "a severe personality disorder, with a propensity toward criminal behavior." Halbower earned a high school diploma in prison, but he has had no other education, court records show. He does not appear to possess job skills, although he took drafting classes and dabbled with art behind bars in Michigan, Nevada and Oregon. The report said Halbower "feels that he is pretty accomplished, that he should be able to teach, that he has a great many qualifications" and yearned to be a famous artist or a rock-and-roll star. It concluded that Halbower's "life is replete with poor impulse control, narcissism and a certain grandiosity." His trial resumes Monday. WASHINGTON (AP) - A student who survived the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, urged senators Friday to reject the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Aalayah Eastmond said that if Kavanaugh doesn't have the decency to shake hands with the father of a shooting victim, he shouldn't be able to "make life-changing decisions" affecting real people. She was referring to Fred Guttenberg, who tried to shake hands with Kavanaugh earlier in the week. Guttenberg's daughter, Jamie, died in the February attack that killed 17 at the high school. Guttenberg extended his hand to Kavanaugh, but the judge did not reciprocate. A White House spokesman said security intervened before Kavanaugh could take his hand. Kavanaugh this week told senators he's "very aware of the real-world consequences" of gun violence. Eastmond survived by hiding under the body of classmate. "I told God that I knew I was going to die; I asked to please make it fast," she said and called her parents to say her final goodbyes. Authorities picked body matter from her hair, collected her bloody dress and placed her in a chemical suit. "I completely broke down," she said, adding that her mother suffered a miscarriage a few days later. Eastmond, who has become an advocate for gun safety measures and spoke during the national March for Our Lives in March, said her 18-year-old uncle was also killed by gun violence in New York. "As you consider what to do and who to appoint to make and keep us safer from gun violence, remember my story, remember my classmates who died, remember the communities of color that face mass shootings every day," she said. WEST RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) - More than 220 years after the first ordained black minister in the U.S. became a pastor in a small, predominantly white community in Vermont and preached about brotherly love, freedom and unity, people there are honoring his life and work with an historic marker. Lemuel Haynes ministered in the Parish of West Rutland for 30 years starting in 1787, drawing people from neighboring communities and hours away, with sermons that historians say at times touched on racial equality. Local historians say now is an apt time to celebrate the popular preacher and author and inspire others with an historic marker near where the church once stood. The West Rutland Historical Society is holding a public dedication ceremony Saturday. In this Sept. 6, 2018, photo, Michelle Jagodzinski, left, and Mary Reczek, right, of the West Rutland Historical Society in Vermont stand next to a new historical marker honoring Lemuel Haynes, first ordained black minister in the U.S. in West Rutland, Vt. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke) "I think it is so timely in the fact that we have this African American person that was here so many years ago speaking out for interracial peace and acceptance ... And that's what this whole nation is crying out for that now," said Michelle Jagodzinski, treasurer of the West Rutland Historical Society. Haynes was born to a white mother and black father in West Hartford, Connecticut and indentured to a devout churchman at the age of 5 months. He read everything he could and became well versed in the Bible, Jagodzinski said. After leaving his adopted family at 21, Haynes joined the Revolutionary War but arrived too late for the battle at Lexington and Concord. He later wrote a poem about the skirmish, including a line about Americans not wanting to be enslaved by the British. He later penned "Liberty Further Extended" in 1776, making the case that liberty should be extended to all, said William Hart, an associate professor of history at Middlebury College. "There he begins to connect Republican liberty and virtue with abolition," Hart said. Vermont, where Haynes made his home, was the first state to abolish adult slavery. "He was one of not too many men at the time who believed ... that the Declaration of Independence was meant for all people - not just the landed gentry who could vote but also for the blacks," said Mary Reczek, vice president of the historical society, who lives just down the road from where the church once stood next to a cemetery. Nine years later Haynes was ordained a minister and served in a church in Torrington, Connecticut for three years before being called to minister in Vermont where other Connecticut residents had moved. He's widely acknowledged to be the first African American ordained minister in the U.S. Not only was he extremely well versed in the Bible but he also had a humility and wit, Reczek said. He was let go from the congregation in 1818, but the accounts differ on why. Some historians believe it was about a doctrinal dispute within the church and others say it was because of his race. He later served as a preacher in Manchester, Vermont, and then in South Granville, New York, where he's buried. His contributions were noted at the time by Middlebury College, which granted him an honorary master's degree in 1804. Now local historians hope his legacy will gain new attention. "Here's a man and a group of people who were principled and worked hard to develop not just their families and their community and their land, and they stood for something. And they all worked together. And the fact that he was of a different race didn't seem to bother them at all," said Reczek. "He's important. People should know his name. And his contributions should be remembered," Jagodzinski said. PARIS (AP) - French and British representatives of the fishing industry have failed to reach a deal for resolving a scallop fishing dispute off France's coast. Pascal Coquet is in charge of shellfish at the French Fisheries Committee and he said after more than five hours of negotiations Friday in Paris that British demands were "too high." Earlier discussions Wednesday in London had been described by both parties as constructive - but they said many details remained to be worked out. The talks follow a clash last week in which French and British fishermen angrily bumped boats over access to fishing grounds near Normandy. About 35 French boats confronted five British vessels in international waters during the incident. French and British fishing officials are considering a third round of talks. EMBDEN, Maine (AP) - Police in Maine are investigating the killing of a pet cow that was shot to death after it wandered from its owner's land and scratched a vehicle. Police on Friday were still determining if there will be charges. The shooting took place Wednesday in Embden, a small town about 45 minutes northwest of Waterville. The cow was kept in a fenced piece of land by a local resident, but it got free and wandered onto a neighbor's lot. It then rubbed its horns against a parked sport utility vehicle, damaging it. Police say a person living on the property killed it with a handgun. The owners of the cow, named Sophie, say they are traumatized by its death. The shooter says he was protecting his property. BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - A Brazilian man is the third and final defendant sentenced in connection with the placing of a card skimmer on a Mississippi Gulf Coast ATM. WLOX-TV reports that Claudio Fontes Ferreira was sentenced Friday to 39 months in federal prison. The Department of Justice says the 31-year-old, who is in the country illegally, was convicted of fraud. He and two others were arrested after D'Iberville police officers searched an SUV they spotted leaving a Keesler Federal Credit Union. It matched the description of a vehicle officers were looking for that was believed to have placed skimmers at a Gulfport ATM. The others who pleaded guilty were 37-year-old Rodrigo Ferrareze of Delray Beach, Florida, who drew a 10-month sentence and 26-year-old Taise Braganca Moscon, of Brazil, who received a 13-month sentence. ___ Information from: WLOX-TV, http://www.wlox.com SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Civic leaders in New Mexico's capital city turned the page Friday on a grinding dispute over the annual re-enactment of a 17th century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe following a Native American revolt. The decades-old pageant of Spanish soldiers in armor was replaced with new gestures of reconciliation at Santa Fe's autumn festival that starts with Catholic Mass and a performance by Indian Pueblo dancers. "Today marks a new beginning as we lay the past to rest through our mutual acknowledgement of the pain, agony and suffering that took place," said Paul Torres, chairman of a council of tribal governors in New Mexico that helped negotiate an end to the re-enactment. Dezmund Marcus of Ohkay Owingeh, N.M., performs the butterfly dance at the outset of an annual autumn festival in front of a crowd, including Roman Catholic Archbishop John Wester, right, on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in Santa Fe, N.M. Civic and Native American leaders this year agreed to cancel the traditional re-enactment of a 17th century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe after a Native American revolt. Public statues and tributes to early Spanish conquerors have encountered mounting criticism tied to the brutal treatment of American Indians centuries ago by Spanish soldiers and missionaries. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) A proclamation signed Friday by Hispanic and Native American civic leaders acknowledged "wounds older and deeper than any on this continent." "On behalf of those from the past who cannot ask forgiveness, we do so now," the proclamation said. Public statues and tributes to Spanish conquerors have encountered mounting criticism tied to the brutal treatment of American Indians centuries ago by Spanish soldiers and missionaries. Activists draw parallels to the national controversy over Confederate monuments. Santa Fe's "Entrada" re-enactment depicted the re-entry of conquistador Don Diego de Vargas into Santa Fe after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Hispanic organizers for many years insisted that the re-enactment was a celebration of Spanish settlers who defied the odds, settled hostile territory and came to an understanding with Native Americans unlike Europeans in other parts of the present-day United States. Critics of the re-enactment say it glorified colonialism and glossed over the continued violent subjugation the region's Native American tribes endured. Under the new plan, Santa Fe will host to a monthlong celebration that ends with Indigenous Peoples Day Oct. 8 at Santa Fe's central plaza. Destiny Baca, of Pojoaque, N.M., performs the butterfly dance at the outset of an annual autumn festival in Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Civic and Native American leaders this year agreed to cancel the traditional re-enactment of a 17th century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe following a 1680 Native American revolt. Public statues and tributes to early Spanish conquerors have encountered mounting criticism tied to the brutal treatment of American Indians centuries ago by Spanish soldiers and missionaries. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) Christian Romero, far right, of Ohkay Owingeh, N.M., drums and Edwin Felter, center, of Nambe, N.M., sings for a butterfly dance performance at the outset of an annual autumn festival in Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Katherine Garcia, far left, and Bobby Trujillo, second from left, are dressed as the Santa Fe Fiesta queen and 17th century Spanish conqueror Don Diego de Vargas. Civic and Native American leaders this year agreed to cancel the traditional re-enactment of conquistadors reclaiming Santa Fe following a 1680 Native American revolt.(AP Photo/Morgan Lee) Native American leaders, Paul Torres, sitting, of Isleta Pueblo, N.M., and Regis Pecos, standing, of Cochiti Pueblo, N.M., co-sign a new proclamation recognizing the "trauma, tragedy and sorrow" of the area's colonial past, at a ceremony in Santa Fe, N.M., on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Civic and Native Americ leaders agreed this year to put an end to an annual re-enactment of a 17th-century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe following a 1680 Native American revolt. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) Costumed participants in annual civic celebrations listen to a proclamation that does away with the re-enactment of a 17th century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe following a 1680 Native American revolt, in Santa Fe, N.M., on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Critics of the re-enactment said it glorified colonial rule and obscured the cruelty inflicted on Native Americans. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) Participants in annual cultural celebrations in Santa Fe, N.M., portray Spanish-colonial royalty during an anniversary of Roman Catholic Mass Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Civic and Native American leaders this year agreed to cancel the traditional re-enactment of a 17th-century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe following a 1680 Native American revolt and celebrate new forms of reconciliation. Public statues and tributes to early Spanish conquerors have encountered mounting criticism tied to the brutal treatment of American Indians centuries ago by Spanish soldiers and missionaries. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) Regis Pecos, center, of Cochiti, N.M., stands among Native American leaders who attend a Roman Catholic Massat the start of annual civic celebrations known as the Fiesta de Santa Fe on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Civic and Native American leaders agreed this year to put an end to an annual re-enactment of a 17th century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe following a 1680 Native American revolt. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) Members of a local Roman Catholic honor guard known as "The Caballeros de Vargas," carry a statue of the Virgin Mary through Santa Fe, N.M., on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, amid annual civic and cultural festivities known as the Santa Fe Fiesta. Civic leaders in New Mexico's capital city are turning the page on a grinding dispute over the annual re-enactment of a 17-the century conquistador reclaiming Santa Fe after a Native American revolt by canceling the costumed pageant. The decision comes as public statues and tributes to early Spanish conquerors have encountered mounting criticism tied to the brutal treatment of American Indians centuries ago by Spanish soldiers and missionaries. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee) NEW YORK (AP) - The New York attorney general's new investigation into clergy sex abuse allegations in the Roman Catholic Church could be sweeping, delving into confidential church files in a state where hundreds of people have already made claims through programs run by the church itself. But few criminal cases or lawsuits may come out of the inquiry, whatever its findings. New York has some of the nation's strictest time limits on taking child sex abuse claims to civil or criminal courts. A yearslong campaign to extend the timeframe has stalled in the Legislature. And even if it succeeds, at least 375 people who have settled abuse claims through church-run compensation programs waived any right to sue. People pass the Archdiocese of New York, in New York, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood subpoenaed all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state Thursday as part of a broadening civil investigation into the handling of sex abuse allegations by church leaders. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Still, investigations by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood and her colleagues in several other states could be valuable to victims just by bringing information to light, says Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania legal expert on child sexual abuse and the founder of CHILD USA, an advocacy group. "It's a way of educating the public on how severe the problem is" and informing lawmakers' debates on extending legal time limits, she says. "The public education and the public accountability is what we need, so there's value in (the investigations). But there's not a straight line to justice for the victims." New York and New Jersey opened new investigations Thursday into the church's handling of sexual misconduct claims against clergy. Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri also have started inquiries in the three weeks since a Pennsylvania grand jury report found that since the 1940s, about 300 Catholic priests had abused a total of more than 1,000 children statewide. The report, which accused senior church officials of systematically covering up the abuse, reignited outrage and national discussion of how the church has dealt with the issue. But it yielded new criminal charges against just two priests because of legal time clocks. In Pennsylvania, prosecutors have until an accuser's 50th birthday to file charges of child sex abuse, while accusers have until their 30th birthdays to sue. New York's limits are tighter: the accuser's 23rd birthday, in both civil and criminal cases. There's no time limit for prosecuting some major child sex crimes, but only if they occurred after 2000. A measure that would raise the age for future cases - and open a one-year window for lawsuits that have been barred by the current age limits - is at an impasse amid opposition from the church, as well as other large institutions. They fault the proposal for not including public schools or other public institutions, and they say opening that "look-back window" could be financially devastating: Catholic dioceses paid $1.2 billion in legal settlements after a similar law passed in California in 2002. The New York proposal, called the Child Victims Act, has passed the Democratic-majority state Assembly, and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo supports the idea. But it has been blocked from a vote by the state Senate's Republican leaders. They have broached a plan to address future age limits only. Steve Jimenez, a leading advocate for the Child Victims Act, said the attorney general's new civil investigation makes the legislation all the more urgent. "We must change the law," he said. "And we will not give up until we do." Jimenez, who says a Roman Catholic brother repeatedly assaulted him when he was a child attending Catholic school in Brooklyn, said he and other supporters will be back in Albany when lawmakers reconvene in January to keep up the pressure. Underwood also has urged the Legislature to pass the law. But it's unclear how willing Senate leaders are to budge. Senate GOP spokeswoman Candice Giove noted Friday that Republicans have put forward their own proposals on the issue, "and we look forward to holding meaningful conversations that finally get results." Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, said that while the investigation may fuel calls to allow lawsuits over decades-old claims, the archdiocese established its own, private compensation program "because it was the right thing to do." The 278 people who have received a total of nearly $59.8 million through the program waived their right to sue, though they are free to speak about their experiences if they choose. A similar compensation program in the Diocese of Albany has provided over $9 million in direct compensation and counseling assistance to about 100 people, according to spokeswoman Mary DeTurris Poust. In March, the Diocese of Buffalo released a list of 42 priests facing sex abuse allegations. Church leaders have vowed to work with Underwood in her investigation. ___ Klepper reported from Albany, New York. Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report. BOSTON (AP) - The Boston Red Sox are ready to slowly ease ace Chris Sale back into action. Manager Alex Cora says the left-hander will be activated from the disabled list and pitch about two innings Tuesday night against Toronto at Fenway Park. Cora said Sale would throw a maximum of 40 pitches for the AL East leaders. Cora made the announcement before Boston hosted Houston on Friday. The Red Sox have the best record in the majors and, if they win their division, would begin the playoffs in exactly four weeks. Sale originally went on the disabled list July 31 with mild left shoulder inflammation. He returned for a start Aug. 12 against Baltimore, going five innings and striking out 12. But he quickly as placed back on the disabled list a week later with the same ailment. "Little by little, we're getting healthy," Cora said. Sale has been dominant this season, going 12-4 with a 1.97 ERA. His ERA is the second-best in the majors, and he has struck out 219 in only 146 innings. In July, he started the All-Star game for the third straight year. Cora said the progression for Sale with be two innings his first outing, followed by three in his next start. "We'll keep going and then last one - whenever it is - it's like a full-go six innings, 100 pitches or seven innings 100 pitches," Cora said. "There's a few days with the off-days there where we'll take advantage of him building up and taking care of other guys." ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports ___ Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/khightower American defence secretary James Mattis has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul on a surprise visit to the war-weary country. Mr Mattis is expected to meet Afghan, US and Nato military commanders as well as Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. The defence secretarys arrival comes just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people amid a fresh round of insider attacks that claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police officers earlier this week. A US serviceman was killed in Afghanistan this week (AP) Washington appears to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistans war. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, as Washingtons new senior official for Afghan reconciliation. Mr Khalilzad, a controversial figure in the region, is a former envoy to Afghanistan. Chinese president Xi Jinping will meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin next week in a sign of strengthening ties between the two global powers. The summit will take place during Mr Xis working visit to Russias far-eastern port city of Vladivostok on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said. It will be the first time a Chinese head of state has attended the Russian-hosted Eastern Economic Forum, a gathering Moscow hopes will encourage investment in its thinly populated far-east. Mr Xis visit is a sign of healthy ties between China and Russia that have been cemented by joint military exercises and coordination on foreign policy issues from Syria to North Korea. The two leaders, pictured during a meeting in Johannesburg (AP) China this month is sending 3,200 troops and about 900 weapons units to take part in the biggest Russian military exercises since the Cold War. The visit also comes as China is reaching out to trade partners amid a tariff war with the United States. Russia has in recent years surpassed Saudi Arabia as Chinas largest source of crude oil and Beijing also imports Russian gas and military equipment. Russia and China have responded to the US national security strategy describing them as Americas top adversaries by vowing to further expand their economic, political and military cooperation. The two countries have also sought to strengthen the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional grouping they created which holds occasional defence exercises. The relationship is driven in part by the warm ties between Mr Putin and Mr Xi, seen as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. The two have met 25 times five times last year alone, according to Mr Putins foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov. Donald Trumps top lieutenants have stepped forward to declare that they were not behind a newspaper article written by a senior US government official who claimed to be part of a resistance working to restrain the presidents most dangerous impulses. By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials over the anonymous New York Times column came from cabinet-level officials, all the way up to the office of vice president Mike Pence. Senior staff in key US national security and economic policy roles charged the articles writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against Americas interests in harsh terms that mimicked the presidents own words. Mr Trump was incensed over the column, and called confidants to vent about the author, solicit guesses as to his or her identity and fume that a deep state within the administration was conspiring against him. He ordered aides to unmask the writer, and issued an extraordinary demand that the newspaper should reveal the authors identity to the government. In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump said it was unfair for the person to pen the editorial anonymously because there is no way to discredit it. Mr Trump has issued dark warnings about `the deep state (AP) He suggested it may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time. As striking as the essay was, there is a long list of officials who could plausibly have been its author. Many have privately shared some of the articles same concerns about Mr Trump with colleagues, friends and reporters. With such a wide circle of potential suspicion, Mr Trumps top aides felt they had no choice but to speak out. The denials and condemnations came from secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis and interior secretary Ryan Zinke. In Washington, the claims of not me were echoed from Mr Pences office, from energy secretary Rick Perry, from Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, from Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, as well as a host of other US cabinet members. On Twitter, Mr Trump said: The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy & they dont know what to do. Some White House officials who agreed with the writers points suggested the presidents reaction actually confirmed the authors concerns. Rudy Giuliani, the presidents personal lawyer, suggested that it would be appropriate for Mr Trump to ask for a formal investigation into the identity of the articles author. The presidents personal lawyer has suggested the author could have national security clearance (AP) He said: Lets assume its a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped. As the initial scramble to unmask the writer proved fruitless, attention turned to the questions the article raised, which have been whispered in Washington for more than a year: Is Donald Trump truly in charge, and could a divided executive branch pose a danger to America? Former CIA director John Brennan, a fierce Trump critic, called the article active insubordination born out of loyalty to the country. The US vice president issued a denial as the guessing game over the mystery authors name continues (AP) He told NBC: This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the orders of the chief executive. I dont know how Donald Trump is going to react to this. A wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded. The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance working diligently from within the administration, 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. It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do whats right even when Donald Trump wont. First lady Melania Trump issued a statement backing her husband. She praised the free press as important to our democracy but assailed the writer, saying: You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions. The stabbing of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarisation in Latin Americas largest nation. Far-right Social Liberal Party congressman Jair Bolsonaro was seriously injured after a man stabbed him in the abdomen during a campaign event in Juiz de Fora. The former army captain has promised to crack down on crime, and has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand. After the attack, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the incident supports Mr Bolsonaros assertions that the country is off the rails, or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery on the candidate, said Mr Bolsonaros recovery is satisfactory so far. He said the candidate would remain in hospital for at least a week after a two-hour operation to stop serious internal bleeding. In videos of the moment of the attack posted on social media, Mr Bolsonaro could be seen on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs-up sign with his left hand. Adelio Bispo de Oliveira is suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro (AP) He is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who appears to have been the attacker. A suspect, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, was arrested within seconds. Police did not identify a motive, but one official said the man appeared to be mentally unstable. (Twitter screengrab) After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazils political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this poll would see huge changes. But no true outside candidate has emerged. Instead, Mr Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot to kill while on duty. The publics anger is partially responsible for making this years campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. (Twitter screengrab) The man leading the polls, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Mr Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the October 7 presidential ballot. In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Mr Bolsonaros supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. They made Bolsonaro a martyr, said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Mr Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro. However, it is unknown when the candidate can get out again on the campaign trail or if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has decided not to seek the arrest of an opposition senator who has taken refuge in the countrys senate without a court warrant. The decision could ease a three-day stand-off between Mr Duterte and Antonio Trillanes IV, one of his fiercest critics. A presidential spokesman told a news conference in Jordan, where Mr Duterte was ending a scheduled visit, that the president made the decision to abide with the rule of law after a long discussion with cabinet officials who were travelling with him. In a signed proclamation made public on Tuesday, Mr Duterte voided the 2011 amnesty of Mr Trillanes, who once joined mutinies as a navy officer, and ordered his arrest. Rodrigo Duterte made a decision `to abide with the rule of law (Raad Adayleh/AP) Mr Trillanes has refused to leave the senate, saying Mr Dutertes order is illegal. Backed by dozens of supporters, Mr Trillanes did not immediately venture out of the senate building, where he has been marooned since Tuesday. His lawyer said the senator would make sure there is no more danger of an illegal arrest. Known for his temper and outbursts against critics, Mr Duterte has openly expressed anger against Mr Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs and extrajudicial killings in an anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of suspects dead. Mr Duterte has denied the allegations. The Department of Justice said the president voided Mr Trillaness amnesty because the senator did not file a formal amnesty application and admit guilt for his role in past coup attempts. Antonio Trillanes IV holds copies of a court ruling granting him amnesty (Bullit Marquez/AP) Mr Trillanes has presented TV and newspaper reports, along with defence department documents, showing he applied for the amnesty and acknowledged his role in three military uprisings between 2003 and 2007. The 47-year-old was jailed for more than seven years for involvement in the army uprisings, including a 2003 mutiny against then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when he and other young officers rigged part of a road in the Makati financial district with bombs and took over an upscale residential building. After an amnesty under Mr Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, Mr Trillanes successfully petitioned two Philippine courts to dismiss rebellion and coup cases against him, allowing him to later run for public office. Despite many legal questions, the Department of Justice asked the courts to issue a warrant for the senators arrest and revive rebellion cases against him. Separately, the Department of Defence said earlier this week that it had deployed officers to the senate to take custody of Mr Trillanes and have him face a military court of inquiry into his role in the coup attempts. A woman has been charged in connection with the alleged murder of a 22-year-old whose body was found near a roadside almost four months ago. Annalise Johnstone was discovered dead in a wooded area close to the B8062 between Auchterarder and Dunning in Perth and Kinross on May 10. Police said that a 28-year-old woman has been charged and she is expected to appear at Perth Sheriff Court on Friday. Annalise Johnstone was found in woods between Auchterarder and Dunning (Police Scotland) A woman, 28, now charged in connection with the alleged murder of 22-yr-old Annalise Johnstone. A 24-yr-old man was charged in connection with her death in May. Expected to appear at Perth Sheriff Court today Perth & Kinross Police (@PerthKinPolice) September 7, 2018 Jordan Johnstone, 24, was also arrested in connection with the death in May. He was charged with murder and theft when he appeared at Perth Sheriff Court on May 25. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable has announced plans to step down after Brexit is resolved or stopped. Sir Vince, 75, said reports of his imminent departure were very wide of the mark and insisted he would stay on to steer the party through any Brexit-related turmoil, including any possible general election. However, in a London speech he said the time would be right for a leadership election after that under new rules he unveiled to widen participation in the party. (PA Graphics) Sir Vince also made a naked pitch to disaffected Labour and Conservative MPs and members unhappy at the direction their parties are moving to join the Lib Dems, saying it was better to join an existing centrist party than to start a new one. He told the audience at the Liberal Club he had already made it clear he did not want to follow in the footsteps of Liberal prime minister William Gladstone, who served into his 80s or fellow octogenarian leader Robert Mugabe. Sir Vince said: Reports I have read of my imminent departure are very wide of the mark. Britain needs a movement that is ready to lead in the interest of the millions of UK citizens who dont have a voice. That movement is the Liberal Democrats pic.twitter.com/piMZunuCmw Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) September 7, 2018 Now is not the time for an internal election, there is serious work for me and the party to do. Once Brexit is resolved or stopped, that will be the time to conduct a leadership election under the new rules. Voters who are liberal-minded will be allowed to sign up for free under plans to bolster membership, the former Cabinet minister announced. Sir Vince is seeking a `movement of the moderates in the UK (Yui Mok/PA) The Lib Dems have languished in the polls and struggled electorally since going into government in coalition with the Conservatives in 2010. Sir Vince said he wanted to create a movement of the moderates that would bring together voters who loosely identify with the party. Appealing to moderates from other parties to join the Lib Dems, he said there was a risk of emulating the Peoples Front of Judea and the Judean Peoples Front from Monty Pythons The Life Of Brian two almost identical forces competing in the same ground. Britain needs a political party that is ready to lead in the interest of the millions of UK citizens who dont have a voice that party is the Liberal Democrats. Join me live at 9:30 AM > https://t.co/z95skC1PC8 pic.twitter.com/wPd5tmy3Ge Vince Cable (@vincecable) September 7, 2018 He added: I make the case that it is much easier under our electoral system to work within existing party structures and with people who have shared values, rather than trying to compete. As the old adage has it: we hang together, or we hang separately. Sir Vince lost his Twickenham seat in the mass defenestration of Lib Dem MPs at the 2015 General Election following their years of coalition with the Conservatives, but he regained the seat in 2017. He replaced Tim Farron as party leader in July 2017, who himself had replaced Nick Clegg two years earlier. If Sir Vince does trigger a leadership election in 2019 it would leave the Lib Dems searching for their fourth leader in four years. He declined to give a timescale for the election being held, saying he cannot clear away the current uncertainty over Brexit. (PA Graphics) But he said one of his objectives was to lead the party to further local election success in May and begin the process of transforming the Liberal Democrats from an old-style political party into a new, open movement. The speech come ahead of the partys annual autumn conference, which begins on September 15. Sir Vince insisted all of the partys 11 other current MPs could lead it. But he outlined a vision for a mass movement with similar impact if different politics to Labours grassroots organisation Momentum. Labelling it a Movement for Moderates he said: We should widen membership with a new class of supporters who pay nothing to sign up to the partys values. They should enjoy a range of entitlements, including the right to vote for the leadership and to shape the partys campaigning online. Ladbrokes made Jo Swinson, the partys deputy leader, the early favourite to replace him at evens, but said early betting was heaviest on education spokeswoman Layla Moran, who was cut from 5/2 to 2/1 behind her. Theresa May retains confidence in Karen Bradley despite her admission that she initially did not understand Northern Ireland politics when she took on the Cabinet brief, No 10 has said. The Northern Ireland Secretary revealed she initially did not realise that the countrys nationalists did not vote for unionist parties or vice-versa during elections. Ms Bradley, who was appointed earlier this year, also said she did not fathom some of the deep-rooted issues that define Northern Irish politics. Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley (Michael McHugh/PA) Downing Street refused to be drawn on the criteria used by the Prime Minister when appointing ministers. The Secretary of State is speaking to media about the clear plan for Northern Ireland she set out in Parliament today https://t.co/mkkFVHgukP pic.twitter.com/2CkduTfc2o Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) September 6, 2018 A No 10 spokeswoman said: The Northern Ireland Secretary is working incredibly hard to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland. Asked if the PM remained confident that Ms Bradley was able to do the job, the spokeswoman replied: Yes, she is working very closely with the parties there. Asked how voters in Northern Ireland could have confidence in Ms Bradley, the spokeswoman replied: I would point to all of the work that she is doing to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland. Ms Bradley was appointed in January after her predecessor James Brokenshire stepped aside for medical reasons. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley as she arrives in #Belfast for her first day of engagements in Northern Ireland: pic.twitter.com/azMHcrdWoO Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) January 10, 2018 She told The House magazine: I didnt understand things like when elections are fought for example in Northern Ireland people who are nationalists dont vote for unionist parties and vice-versa. So, the parties fight for election within their own community. Actually, the unionist parties fight the elections against each other in unionist communities and nationalists in nationalist communities. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have begun a summit on Syria as a bloody offensive on Idlib province looms, despite warnings from the US and others against the attack. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the north-western Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about three million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hardcore fighters, including al Qaida-linked militants. Vladimir Putin (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) The three leaders each held bilateral talks before the meeting began in Tehran. As photographers took pictures of the three leaders Mr Rouhani, smiling, reached for their hands. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Mr Rouhani said, adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Mr Erdogan appealed for a reasonable way out to avoid a bloodbath in Idlib. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have competing interests over Syria, and all also face US sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. Iran wants to retain its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and further destabilisation of areas it holds in Syria. Meanwhile, Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Early on Friday, a series of air strikes struck villages in south-west Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Mr Abdurrahman said suspected Russian planes carried out the attack. Key elements of Prime Minister Theresa Mays Chequers plan for Brexit are not acceptable to Brussels, the EUs chief negotiator has told MPs. But a transcript of Michel Barniers evidence to the House of Commons Exiting the EU Committee showed that he did not describe the blueprint agreed at the PMs country residence in July and set out in the Governments Brexit White Paper as dead, as Labour MP Stephen Kinnock claimed earlier this week. In a hearing of the committee in Westminster on Wednesday, Mr Kinnock broke into French to tell Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab that the EU negotiator had told them les propositions sont mortes the proposals are dead. I can tell you absolutely, unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt that Chequers is dead in the water, the Labour committee member told Mr Raab. Michel Barnier made it crystal clear that Chequers is completely unacceptable to the EU. But a transcript of Mondays meeting, held behind closed doors in Brussels, shows that, in response to repeated questioning over whether the proposals were dead, Mr Barnier insisted he was not rejecting them outright. Asked by committee chairman Hilary Benn whether the Chequers plan was dead in the water, Mr Barnier replied: In the White Paper there are lots of positive things, lots of useful things, just to make that absolutely clear. I did not just reject the White Paper outright; that is just not true. I hope that you will understand that. However, he made clear that Brussels will not accept Mrs Mays proposals on customs arrangements, as well as her suggestion that the UK and EU could have a free trade area with a common rulebook for goods but not services. In a translation of his comments released by the committee, Mr Barnier said: The proposals made in the White Paper on two points are not acceptable as they are, they are not acceptable to the EU that is the White Paper proposal on customs and the White Paper proposal on the common rulebook for goods. On Mrs Mays suggestion that the UK could carry out customs checks on its borders on the EUs behalf, he said: Your proposal does not seem workable to us. Theresa Mays blueprint for Brexit was agreed by her Cabinet at a meeting in Chequers in July (Joel Rouse/Crown Copyright) Mr Barnier said that agreement on the UKs withdrawal deal and a political declaration on the future relationship must be reached by the start of November in order to have time for ratification by the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29. Asked whether the deal would be ready by the deadline of October 18s European Council summit, he told MPs: We might need a few extra days. I have always said that give or take a day or a week, the essential thing to do is to get a good result, even if it takes a few days longer. But he added pointedly: It is not extra time we need now. It is decisions we need now. Mr Barnier said that the future of the Irish border remained the main obstacle to a withdrawal agreement, telling MPs he was very concerned about Ireland. He dismissed as too easy the suggestion put forward by some Brexiteers that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic could simply be kept open, arguing that this would not allow either the EU or the UK to protect their consumers and businesses. But he said that the EU was open to discussing other backstop arrangements for Northern Ireland than the Brussels proposal for it to remain within the European customs area, which has been roundly rejected by Mrs May. Mr Barnier insisted that he hoped the UK does well out of Brexit (Niall Carson/PA) Mr Barnier insisted that the EU wants to establish the closest relationship possible with your country an unprecedented relationship following Brexit. But he said that Mrs Mays proposals for a facilitated customs arrangement under which tariffs gathered at the border on goods heading for continental Europe would be passed on to Brussels were impossible, technically speaking, for us to implement. The proposal would create extra cost and bureaucracy, risk a major distortion in competition to the disadvantage of EU companies, and call into question the very integrity of our single market, he said. Mrs Mays White Paper appeared to be suggesting a kind of a la carte single market, a kind of cherry-picking approach, and we do not agree, he said. We cannot agree to that. Mr Barnier rejected a suggestion from prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg that the divorce bill of around 40 billion agreed by Mrs May represents a payment for a future trade deal and could be withheld if the EU failed to come up with terms acceptable to the UK. There was no question of going back on the financial settlement, which related only to commitments made by the UK during its time as an EU member, he said, telling Mr Rees-Mogg: That figure is settlement for the past. You want to leave the European Union. That is your decision, so we settle the accounts. Mr Barnier indicated that he expects the economic consequences of Brexit to become clear in the UK within a few years. We will see in a few years time where we are, where the advantages and disadvantages are, said Mr Barnier. We will see by then whether it is better to have a common trade policy or to go it alone. We will see then. I hope you do well. I hope you are successful, quite frankly, but I think myself in negotiating with Mr Trump, in negotiating with the Chinese, it is better to be in a big group and to be sitting on a big single market and a common trade policy In todays world I think it is better to be strong together when it comes to negotiating with the other major powers that are not going to wait for us. The idea of a land swap between Serbia and Kosovo to settle their long-running dispute has stirred passions as the prospect of a new round of talks between the former foes was reported. The proposal could see part of southern Serbia centred on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovan leader Hashim Thaci had been expected to meet in Brussels as part of efforts to normalise relations in the region still riven by tensions from the 1998-99 war, but Serbian officials said they will not talk today. Marko Djuric, a senior Serbian negotiator at the European Union-brokered talks, said in Brussels that Mr Vucic will not talk today with the representatives of Pristina. There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina today, he added. Presevo is an ethnic Albanian-dominated city in southern Serbia (Zenel Zhinipotoku/AP) Mr Vucic and Mr Thaci held separate meetings with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is the mediator in the talks. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognised as a nation by more than 100 countries, but Serbia does not recognise it, and neither do five EU countries: Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Serbia and Kosovo have been told they must sort out their differences if they want to advance towards EU membership. Officials from both nations have suggested a land swap could be a good idea, but there is opposition inside both countries and internationally. There are concerns that changes to the borders could trigger similar demands in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, nations which were also formed after the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Germany and some of its EU partners also have voiced fears this could open up old wounds in the Balkans rather than resolving their long-standing differences. Federica Mogherini has met both leaders (Olivier Hoslet/AP) Although there are no fixed proposals on the table, the most commonly mentioned ideas always involve the so-called Presevo Valley area of Serbia, to be swapped for Kosovos Serb-populated north. Zoran Ostojic, an analyst from Belgrade, believes the meeting in Brussels will not result in an immediate breakthrough. Mr Vucic and Mr Thaci are testing the ground, primarily with the international community by floating the idea, he said. Who knows where that could end? Mr Ostojic warned, echoing fears of a chain reaction throughout the Balkans. The 1998-99 war erupted when Kosovo separatists launched a rebellion to split from Serbia after Belgrade had stripped the region of its self-rule. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict before Nato forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. A former Stormont minister has said his department did not tell him that costs for a renewable energy scheme were spiralling. Jonathan Bell said it is a matter of grave concern to him that it now appears the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) had that information and did not share it with him. Mr Bell was minister at the DETI, which oversaw the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. Former DUP minister Jonathan Bell arrives at the RHI inquiry (Niall Carson/PA) It was intended to encourage businesses to switch from fossil fuels to green alternatives such as biomass. By the summer of 2015 the cost to the taxpayer was beginning to spiral as firms realised how lucrative the incentives on offer were. A public inquiry set up to examine what went wrong with the RHI scheme heard on Friday that there was a spike in applications in September and October before cost controls were applied in November. The inquiry heard that applications increased by 100% in six weeks. Mr Bell signed an order to introduce cost controls on September 3, but these did not come into effect until November. He insisted he would have tried other mechanisms if he had known about the spike in applications. Nobody informed me through the agreed processes of the department, so I wasnt aware at all of the spikes in applications, nobody was even informally briefing me, he said. What causes me grave concern is why I wasnt told after the first week, the second week, the third week, running right up to the sixth week. Why if my department had the information, and why when my department had a mechanism to get urgent messages to the minister, why was none of this done. If it is the case that Ofgem and others were telling my department about a surge in applications, had they told me after week one there had been such a surge, we cant deal with it, then I would have looked at urgent procedure, I would have looked at other legislative mechanisms that were in our arsenal to address legislatively that sort of concern. But nobody told me and that causes me grave concern that I was a minister in the department which seems now to have had that information but for whatever reason was not following the agreed process to bring that to the attention of the minister. The inquiry also heard that at that time, the DUP had an in-and-out policy in terms of its ministers. It was a protest move following the murder of Kevin McGuigan in Belfast in August 2015 and subsequent statement by PSNI Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes that members of the supposedly decommissioned Provisional IRA had been responsible. DUP ministers resigned in opposition to sharing government with Sinn Fein, a party with historic links to the Provisional IRA. Ministers resigned for a number of days before returning to office for a number of hours and then resigning again. This pattern was repeated to stage a protest without losing ministerial positions. Mr Bell told the inquiry that this in-and-out policy did not have an impact on his work as a minister. DETI functions continued as normal, I returned on (a) weekly basis to deal with urgent business, and only resigned when all urgent business (was) dealt with, he said. At the start of Fridays hearing, Sir Patrick Coghlin warned that the inquiry is not a media sensational platform. There is no open invitation to witnesses to come along and use the hearings for the purpose of publishing material to which they object or take offence for reasons which are irrelevant to the inquiry, he said. It is not a media sensational platform. The warning came after a reference was made on Thursday to allegations of sexual misbehaviour by DUP ministers. The Archbishop of Canterbury has waded into the anti-Semitism row engulfing Labour after taking an apparent swipe at the partys leadership. During a discussion with the Chief Rabbi, the Most Rev Justin Welby said it was excellent that MPs and peers in the party had accepted the international definition of anti-Semitism without any riders or caveats of any kind. The move by the Parliamentary Labour Party was in contrast to the ruling National Executive Committees decision to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances description with an additional statement saying the move would not prevent criticism of Israel. Justin Welby said the Jewish community had gone through a very demanding few months (Yui Mok/PA) Mr Welby said the Jewish community had gone through a very demanding few months and hit out at the unspeakable trolling of Jews on social media. Visiting Ephraim Mirvis at his home to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, Mr Welby said: Youve gone through in the last few months a very demanding, stressful time in some ways, over the last few years, I think, with the increase in anti-Jewish attacks across the country, on synagogues, on cemeteries, on individuals and the unspeakable trolling through social media. The Chief Rabbi said the Jewish community was in a worse position than 12 months ago because at that time it had hope but the position now has deteriorated. He added: What weve found particularly upsetting is that after three years of inaction during which we have waited for the Labour Party to show they are actually serious about tackling anti-Semitism, now we have found during the past summer they havent even known where the starting blocks are, how do you define it. Mr Welby replied: Personally, Im very pleased that the Parliamentary Labour Party has accepted IHRA without any riders or caveats of any kind at all. I think that is excellent news. The Archbishop of Canterbury came to the Chief Rabbi's home to talk Rosh Hashanah, hopes for the coming year & antisemitism. For a longer snapshot of their conversation see: https://t.co/RW7uO0146u pic.twitter.com/XyES76tnRx Chief Rabbi Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) September 7, 2018 Labour MPs and peers voted by 205 to eight on Wednesday to adopt the full IHRA definition and all its examples without any additional statements or caveats into the Parliamentary Labour Partys standing orders. On Tuesday, the National Executive Committee adopted all of the IHRAs examples but issued a statement alongside that said the party will ensure the changes do not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had wanted the NEC to endorse a statement that said it should not be regarded as anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact. I would like to express my thanks to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his important intervention in advance of Rosh Hashanah, saying that the Church of England should adopt the IHRA Definition of antisemitism. https://t.co/vIlWQ1NcK1 https://t.co/imHRDvY7vN pic.twitter.com/UcY5bTCAgn Board of Deputies President (@BoDPres) September 7, 2018 Mr Welby said the UK is made up of a collection of larger or smaller groups, most of which are minorities. Therefore, anything that permits attacks on one minority group is a threat to the entire structure of the nation because once you attack one group, why not attack every other group? The Archbishop said he wanted the Church of England to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism formally. Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl said: I would like to express my thanks to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his important intervention in advance of Rosh Hashanah, saying that the Church of England should adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. This moral leadership is warmly welcomed by our community and is a shining example of faith communities uniting against hate. Irelands deputy premier has said US president Donald Trumps visit to the country will cause controversy. Simon Coveney said the Irish Government was a little taken by surprise when Mr Trump made the announcement he was going to visit Ireland in November. The US leader is expected to visit the country after he attends the Armistice Day commemoration in Paris. Mr Coveney said: It will be controversial because everything Donald Trump does these days is controversial. Mr Trumps announcement caught ministers by surprise (AP) The Tanaiste added that the fact the Government was facilitating the visit did not mean the Government was endorsing US policies. We dont agree with Donald Trump in terms of his approach to climate change, we dont agree with his approach on migration, we dont agree with his approach in terms of international trade and the imposition of tariffs, he said. Mr Coveney also said he did not agree with former premier Enda Kennys description of Mr Trump as a racist. I dont say hes a racist, but as Ive said before I disagree with many of the policies that he advocates, Mr Coveney said. Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary partys think-in event in Co Galway on Friday, the deputy premier said the negotiations on the UKs withdrawal from the EU had intensified in recent weeks. Mr Coveney welcomed more `business-like dealings over the effect of Brexit (Simon Coveney/PA) He said: When Michel Barnier talks about the ticking clock, and a lot of work to do, and not much time to do it in, you know, its not a bluff. He means it. Mr Coveney said he was more confident about the negotiations than he was prior to the summer break. The engagement is now much more serious, much more business-like, Mr Coveney said. Both sides I think are determined to deliver an outcome, because no agreement and a potential for a no-deal Brexit is an outcome where everybody loses in particular the UK and Ireland, but the EU as well. Nobody wants that outcome. He added: With some more flexibility on all sides I think a deal can be done, hopefully by the end of October. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are meeting to discuss the future of Syria as a bloody military operation looms in the last rebel-held area of the war-ravaged nation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a ceasefire and an end to air strikes in the north-western province of Idlib, something that was not immediately accepted by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Mr Putin warned that militants in Idlib planned provocations, possibly including chemical weapons. The Syrian government has been repeatedly accused of using such weapons in the long conflict. Mr Putin added that it is unacceptable to use civilians as a pretext to shield terrorists in Idlib. Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) Mr Rouhani demanded an immediate withdrawal of American forces in the country. The US has 2,000 troops in Syria. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Mr Rouhani said, adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Each of the three nations has its own interests in the years-long war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilising areas it now holds in Syria. Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) North-western Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about three million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. There are an estimated 10,000 hardcore fighters, including al Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after government troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Mr Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalising, and could hurt Moscows longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias post-war reconstruction. Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) For Turkey, the stakes could not be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing towards its border and destabilising towns and cities in northern Syria. Early on Friday, a series of air strikes struck villages in south-west Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing one fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said suspected Russian planes carried out the attack. Primark will continue to pay workers from its Belfast store until December 31, after the site was devastated by fire last month. Around 300 people worked at the discount fashion chain in the historic Bank Buildings in the city centre, according to the company. The front section of the building, which was being refurbished and extended at an estimated of cost of 30 million, was destroyed by a fire which broke out on Tuesday, August 28. Some 1,500 staff and shoppers were safely evacuated from the blaze, which went on to burn for three days. Firefighters were able to prevent the flames spreading to an extension at the rear of the building. The historic five-storey Bank Buildings in Belfast city centre (Liam McBurney/PA) It was announced on Thursday that a cordon around the building will remain in place for at least four months. This sparked fury from other businesses who remain within the cordon and unable to trade, with some calling for the Bank Buildings to be demolished, instead of work continuing to preserve the historic facade. In a statement on Friday, Primark said it is working very closely with the authorities to determine the best approach to reducing the size of the safety cordon as soon as feasible. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, we established a team of specialist engineers to advise on how to secure the structure as soon as possible, the company said in a statement. The priority was to remove elements that posed an immediate risk to public safety. This specialist team continues to survey the building to determine its structural integrity and to inform the best next steps to reduce the cordon restrictions. All options are being explored for the future of the structure. The company revealed it will continue to pay its Bank Buildings staff until the end of December. We can today confirm that we will be paying all Primark Bank Building colleagues until Monday 31 December 2018, the company said. We will be allocating individuals to other Primark stores, taking into account each team members individual circumstances. We are aiming to have the team back at work from Monday 17 September. Primark is holding one-to-one discussions with colleagues to ensure that important factors such as additional travel expenses are also taken into account. Primark also restated its commitment to Belfast. Since the fire Primark has been working hard to identify suitable premises for a replacement Primark store. Primark remains committed to our colleagues, customers and retail community in Belfast. Meanwhile, Belfast City Council said a dedicated phone line has been set up (028 9027 0483) for those affected. From next week, where this can be safely facilitated, the Council will begin assisting traders located within the cordon who wish to access their property. A statement said; A list of vacant properties that could be used for possible relocation has been drawn up, and a facility for temporary office accommodation at various locations has been offered to businesses. Land and Property Services has issued businesses with updated advice regarding rates and Department for Communities are offering assistance and advice regarding benefits and employment for affected employees. Price Waterhouse Cooper has offered help and advice on issues such as insurance and business interruption. All options for increasing footfall and animating the city centre are being considered, and a campaign is urgently being developed with Visit Belfast, Belfast One and other city partners to support retailers and sustain visitors over the next four months. Academics are pressing for music therapy sessions for people living with dementia to be rolled out around the country. Weekly music sessions for those living with the disease and their carers were held in Saffron Walden, Essex, as part of a research project by Anglia Ruskin University. Helen Odell-Miller, director of the universitys Cambridge Institute of Music Therapy Research, said participants in the Together In Sound projects first year indicated an increase in mood and memory. Lecturer Claire Molyneux (right) holds a music therapy session at the Salvation Army Hall in Saffron Walden, Essex (Roger King/PA) Ultimately we would like to see this rolled out, she said. Attendees sing together and play musical instruments as a group. The project is a collaboration with the towns Saffron Hall concert venue, which provides guest musicians. Those taking part in the sessions reported an increase in mood and memory (Roger King/PA) Retired colonel Bob Stewart, 81, and his former primary school teacher wife Anne, 82, who live near Saffron Walden, attend the group. Mr Stewart said his wife of 56 years was diagnosed with dementia while in her 60s and now has virtually no memory. When we come here and music therapy starts, Anne actually becomes a different person, he said. Its lovely to see her remember things, songs, the music. That is therapy for me because Anne cant do that any more. There is no memory, but there is with music, and its quite remarkable what it does to her personality over that period of time. She laughs, she smiles, she has fun and for a short while she is back several years, and to me that is a therapy in itself. Bob Stewart and his wife Anne, who has lived with dementia for more than a decade, attend a music therapy session (Joe Giddens/PA) He said he believes there should be more music therapy sessions, and that it is something which brings him enjoyment. My brain is alive from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, he said. Im not regretting that at all, but my brain is totally concentrating on Anne and not on me, so personal enjoyment is not there really anymore unless there is something we can do together and music therapy I enjoy, Anne does, we can do something together but that is about the only thing we can do together. It is as a therapy quite remarkable and I am a huge fan of it. Ms Odell-Miller said: When people have dementia quite often they become confused and their cognitive abilities decline but they can still sing and make music. The sessions, which ran in two 10-week blocks in the first year, have funding to run for at least one more year. The first project was attended by 70 people, comprising 35 couples, and participants were asked to complete a survey. People with dementia, who completed a rating scale, noted a slight increase in mood and memory, while other aspects including energy, living conditions and physical health were rated as slightly decreased, reflecting an expected progression of their condition. Initial research findings show that 100% of respondents liked singing and playing instruments together and sharing experiences with others. The project restarts in October. Serbias president has refused to meet his Kosovo counterpart at European Union-backed talks, dashing hopes of an imminent improvement in long-strained relations between the two countries. Hopes of a breakthrough had been relatively high after a territory swap had been suggested as part of a package to normalise relations between Serbia and its former province. The two sides must patch up their differences to stand a chance of becoming members of the EU. However, after separate meetings on an array of issues with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said difficulties remain. Without elaborating, she said she trusts that both leaders will continue the process and reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalisation of relations, in line with international law. Behind the scenes in Brussels, there were few signs of a change in the rhetoric. Marko Djuric, a leading Serbian negotiator, said Mr Vucic refused to meet Mr Thaci because of recent threats and deceits from Kosovo. There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina today, he said. .@FedericaMog hosted @predsednikrs @avucic @HashimThaciRKS in context of #EU facilitated dialogue: Trust full commitment of both Presidents to continue work to reach legally binding agreement. Next high level dialogue to take place later this month. https://t.co/X0cx8909Kx pic.twitter.com/k7GKq9oFcy European External Action Service - EEAS (@eu_eeas) September 7, 2018 The dispute between Serbia and Kosovo dates back to 1998-99, when former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic ordered a bloody crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict before Nato forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognised as a nation by more than 100 countries, but Serbia does not recognise it, and neither do five EU countries Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Tensions remain high in northern Kosovo where many ethnic Serbs still live. Serbia and Kosovo have been told to sort out their differences if they hope to join the EU. Officials from both sides have suggested a land swap could work, but the idea has been criticised locally and internationally. The town of Presevo is at the centre of the idea (Zenel Zhinipotoku/AP) The proposal could see a part of southern Serbia centred on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Some fear any border changes might trigger similar demands elsewhere in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, which like Serbia and Kosovo, were part of the former Yugoslavia. Germany, Austria and Luxembourg have warned that any land swap could open up old wounds in the region. Other EU countries, such as Belgium and Romania, believe it is up to the two sides to sort things out. Zoran Ostojic, an analyst from Belgrade, said Mr Vucic and Mr Thaci are testing the ground, primarily with the international community by floating the swap idea. Who knows where that could end? he warned, echoing fears of a chain reaction throughout the Balkans. Ms Mogherini is due to chair further high-level talks in Brussels between the sides later this month. An adventurer is to celebrate 100 days at sea as part of his challenge to swim around mainland Great Britain. Ross Edgley has not stepped foot on land since he began his swim on June 1. Sorry for the radio silence Turns out Moray Firth is a pretty big bay, haha, so its been a week of swimming more than I sleep BUT catching up on social now INCLUDING this weeks NEW #greatbritishswim episode now on YouTube! See link below: https://t.co/OnKndZJjfe pic.twitter.com/yUe7I2n9xn Ross Edgley (@RossEdgley) September 7, 2018 In that time he has swam 1,230 miles, spent 2,039 hours in the sea and completed 1,600,000 strokes. The 32-year-old, from Grantham, has also gone through 442 bananas, two kilograms of Vaseline and had 54 jellyfish stings. His routine sees him swim for six hours, rest for six hours, then go back into the sea to swim. When not in the water he is on a boat. To mark the feat, the Red Bull Matadors aerobatic display team surprised him by writing 100 in the sky above him in the waters of Moray Firth Bay in the north of Scotland. A pilot flies through the 100 drawn to mark 100 days at sea for the adventurer (Red Bull Content Pool ) Saturday will mark his 100th day in the water. He is currently more than two-thirds of the way through his 2,000 mile challenge and expects to finish in mid-October. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has decided not to seek the arrest of an opposition senator without a court warrant after the defiant legislator asked the Supreme Court to declare the order illegal. The decision failed to ease tensions between Mr Duterte and Antonio Trillanes IV, the volatile presidents fiercest critic in Congress, who has taken refuge in the Senate. This is not true, Mr Trillanes said of Mr Dutertes assurance. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the president made the decision to abide with the rule of law after a long discussion with cabinet officials travelling with him. Rodrigo Duterte in Jordan (Raad Adayleh/AP) Mr Duterte is to return home from a visit to Jordan on Saturday, a day earlier than scheduled. The instruction is to abide with the rule of law, Mr Roque said. If there is no warrant of arrest issued by any court, do not apprehend Senator Trillanes. Backed by dozens of supporters, Mr Trillanes did not venture out of the Senate building, where he has been marooned since Tuesday. His lawyer said the senator would make sure there is no more danger of an illegal arrest. In a signed proclamation made public on Tuesday, Mr Duterte voided a 2011 amnesty granted to Mr Trillanes, who once joined mutinies as a navy officer, and ordered his arrest. Antonio Trillanes IV holds copies of a court ruling granting him amnesty (Bullit Marquez/AP) He refused to leave the Senate and asked the Supreme Court in a petition to declare Mr Dutertes order illegal without a court warrant, which, if upheld by the high court, could open the president to impeachment bids. Mr Duterte has openly expressed anger against Mr Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs and extrajudicial killings in an anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of suspects dead. Mr Duterte has denied the allegations. The Department of Justice said the president voided Mr Trillaness amnesty because the senator did not file a formal amnesty application and admit guilt for his role in past coup attempts. Mr Trillanes has presented TV and newspaper reports, along with defence department documents, showing he applied for the amnesty and acknowledged his role in three military uprisings between 2003 and 2007. The 47-year-old was jailed for more than seven years for involvement in the army uprisings, including a 2003 mutiny against then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when he and other young officers rigged part of a road in the Makati financial district with bombs and took over an upscale residential building. After being given amnesty under Mr Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, Mr Trillanes successfully petitioned two Philippine courts to dismiss rebellion and coup cases against him, allowing him to later run for public office. Despite many legal questions, the Department of Justice had asked the courts to issue a warrant for the senators arrest and revive rebellion cases against him. Separately, the Department of Defence said earlier this week that that it had deployed officers to the Senate to take custody of Mr Trillanes and have him face a military court of inquiry into his role in the coup attempts. The Irish government has said Karen Bradley is a smart and experienced politician after she admitted she initially did not understand Northern Ireland politics when she took on her Cabinet brief. The Northern Ireland Secretary will be working closely with Dublin, as co-guarantors of the peace process, over coming weeks to kickstart powersharing talks. She revealed that when appointed earlier this year, she did not realise that the countrys nationalists did not vote for unionist parties or vice-versa during elections. Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley (Michael McHugh/PA) Sinn Fein said her comments were a reminder of where the country is on the British Governments priority list but No 10 has said Prime Minister Theresa May retains confidence in her. Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said: Shes someone who has really made an effort to understand Northern Ireland. She didnt have a lot of experience of Northern Ireland before being appointed there but shes an experienced, very smart politician and Im going to work closely with her to help the parties in Northern Ireland to work with each other in a way thats good for people in Northern Ireland. Whether youre a unionist or a nationalist, having no devolved government structures, having no capacity to make political decisions in Northern Ireland is bad for everybody, both communities. Karen Bradley recognises that, so do I. Ms Bradley also said she did not fathom some of the deep-rooted issues that define Northern Irish politics when she was first appointed. Earlier this year, an immigration minister quizzed about the Irish border at Westminster admitted she had not read in full the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. Sinn Feins former Stormont finance minister Mairtin O Muilleoir said Ms Bradleys comments were a sorry reminder of where the country was on the priority list of the British Government. He added: We have gone beyond being shocked by the British Governments ignorance of affairs here and their disregard for the rights of people here but there is no way they would appoint a Chancellor of the Exchequer who could not count or did not know how to read a P and L (profit and loss statement). When it comes to appointing their representative in Belfast, the only requirement was that that person would take the orders of Theresa May, who of course is taking her orders from the DUP. The Secretary of State is speaking to media about the clear plan for Northern Ireland she set out in Parliament today https://t.co/mkkFVHgukP pic.twitter.com/2CkduTfc2o Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) September 6, 2018 A No 10 spokeswoman said the Northern Ireland Secretary is working incredibly hard to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland. Asked if the PM remained confident that Ms Bradley was able to do the job, the spokeswoman replied: Yes, she is working very closely with the parties there. Asked how voters in Northern Ireland could have confidence in Ms Bradley, the spokeswoman replied: I would point to all of the work that she is doing to restore devolved government to Northern Ireland. Ms Bradley was appointed in January after her predecessor James Brokenshire stepped aside for medical reasons. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley as she arrives in #Belfast for her first day of engagements in Northern Ireland: pic.twitter.com/azMHcrdWoO Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) January 10, 2018 She told The House magazine: I didnt understand things like when elections are fought for example in Northern Ireland people who are nationalists dont vote for unionist parties and vice-versa. So, the parties fight for election within their own community. Actually, the unionist parties fight the elections against each other in unionist communities and nationalists in nationalist communities. A man has been killed in a targeted shooting outside his home. Gary More, 32, died after a number of shots were fired at him in Gartness Drive, Airdrie, at around 8.10pm on Thursday. Police and ambulance crews rushed to the busy residential area in North Lanarkshire, but Mr More died at the scene. Police are investigating the murder of Gary More in Airdrie (David Cheskin/PA) Officers have launched a murder inquiry into the death and said they are treating the shooting as a targeted attack. Detective Superintendent Jim Smith, of Police Scotlands Major Investigation Team, said: The victim was outside his house in Gartness Drive when a number of shots were fired at him, causing fatal injuries. Although the investigation is at an early stage, it is not believed to be a random attack and at this stage we believe the victim has been targeted by the person responsible. Police said a small white vehicle is of interest to their investigation. A vehicle of a similar colour was found burnt-out near Craigmaddie Road in Balmore, in the north of Glasgow. Forensic work is being carried out at the scene of the shooting and on the burnt-out vehicle to see if the two are linked. Mr Smith said: I am interested in any sightings of a small white-coloured vehicle seen in the street at the time of the shooting. I am appealing for anyone who was in the area of the shooting or the area of the burnt-out vehicle who may have witnessed a small white car, or anyone acting suspiciously, to get in touch with Police Scotland as a matter of urgency. Officers are currently carrying out extensive door-to-door inquiries and gathering and reviewing CCTV footage in the area to trace the movements of the car involved. A post-mortem examination is being carried out to establish the exact cause of death. Specialist officers are said to be supporting the victims family at this time. Superintendent Louise Skelton said: We are aware the local community will be shocked by this incident as it took place in a busy residential area early in the evening. This is being treated as a targeted attack, and we have taken immediate steps by increasing police patrols in the area to provide public reassurance. Anyone with concerns should speak to officers. Witnesses who have not yet spoken to police are being urged to come forward. Anyone with information that could help the investigation is asked to contact Airdrie Police Office on the 101 number, quoting reference 3626 of September 6. Irelands president has hit out at the worlds most powerful countries for being behind the mass export of weapons of death across the world. Michael D Higgins criticised the five members of the UN Security Council who are responsible for the bulk of the worlds arms exports. Speaking at an address to mark the 50th anniversary of aid agency Concern, Mr Higgins warned of the role the five members China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States have in what he described as the arms race. Referring to findings by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, he said that the five UN members who are entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security account for three-quarters of global arms exports. Speaking at Dublin Castle on Friday, Mr Higgins said: In 2016, 2.23% of global gross domestic product (GDP) was devoted to military expenditure, the lowest since 2000, and far below the heights of the Cold War. Yet that has begun to rise as some of the permanent members of the Security Council embark on a new arms race, and the arms industry now exports weapons of death and destruction for use in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen. The self-defeating rhetoric of the arms race, and the immorality of the arms trade, only serve to fuel current and future wars. That is most evident today in Yemen. He told the audience that UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that 22 million Yemenis are in desperate need of humanitarian aid and protection. But he added that while the UN was seeking a peaceful political solution, the conflict in Yemen was sustained by the sale of arms and by the support of Security Council members. The president added: It is a stark example of the triumph of the diplomacy of transaction, and of narrow national interest, over the diplomacy of the common good embodied by the Charter of the United Nations. He went on to say, however, that the UN needs worldwide support as it is the best alternative to war. Through 50 years of action and advocacy, Concern has stood for a different vision of the world, one in which power yields to justice, one which recognises that we are all part of a common humanity, owing to ourselves and to others not only of compassion, but of solidarity, he said. Michael D Higgins applauds Amina Mohammed (Brian Lawless/PA) Among those attending the Resurge 2018 conference in Dublin Castle was UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed, Nigerias former environment minister. When asked about Mr Higginss comments on the Security Council, she said: Lets hope that we can turn that around. You would have seen in the secretary-generals recent speech on nuclear disarmament, that is taking hold. More people are thinking of better ways to reduce armed conflict and therefore there will be a reduction in the production and need for weapons. We should really be looking to the resolutions to peace, dialogue and mediation. The silly behaviour of Tory politicians means there will be no agreement on the nature of post-Brexit trading arrangements before the UKs exit from the EU, Irelands European commissioner has said. In a strongly-worded intervention, Phil Hogan stressed that Theresa Mays own red lines meant the only option available was a Canada-style trade deal and if her government remained fixed on the Chequers plan there can be no breakthrough on the future relationship by March next year. Mr Hogan, Irelands representative on Jean-Claude Junckers European Commission, branded Brexiteers Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage the Three Stooges and suggested they did not appreciate the significance of the Irish border issue. Phil Hogan stressed that Theresa Mays own red lines meant the only option available was a Canada-style trade deal (Victoria Jones/PA) In a speech at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Ireland, Mr Hogan said: More than two years after the referendum, the UK remains in a pickle. And by pickle, I mean that the UK is trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour. Were better and stronger together rather than actually working against each other - EU Commissioner Phil Hogan on working with the EU and the U.S #JFKSS pic.twitter.com/W3CJ51yqp8 Kennedy SummerSchool (@JFK_SS) September 7, 2018 Every time Mrs May has come up with a position to negotiate with Brussels the factions in her own party will have none of it, he said. Mr Johnson and Mr Rees-Mogg say, in effect, Prime Minister, you must negotiate Brexit with us. This is leading to absurdist politics. Mr Hogan said the Chequers plans approach to resolving the Irish border issue, by effectively keeping the whole UK in the single market for goods only, was unacceptable to the EU. We will not damage the EUs great achievement of the internal market just to save the UK from the consequences of its own silliness, he said. Mr Hogan, the EUs agriculture commissioner, said: If the UK attitude is Chequers and only Chequers, there will be no agreement before March next year on the future trade relationship. We come back then to the withdrawal treaty pure and simple, part of which is the backstop arrangement for Irelands border. Both sides were determined to maintain an invisible border, he said, which was essential for peace, adding dont listen to the Three Stooges, they dont know the first thing about it. He expressed hope that administrative matters relating to the operation of the border could be resolved as bureaucrats do it all the time. Labour MP Virendra Sharma, a supporter of the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign, said: Another day, another knife plunged into the heart of the Prime Ministers Chequers proposals. When will this Government give up on their unpopular plan? No-one voted for a messy half-way house that neither takes us out of the EU completely, nor protects us from the economic disaster that is Brexit. An 81-year-old woman has been airlifted to hospital after her car crashed into a tree. The pensioner was driving on the A76 in East Ayrshire when the grey Vauxhall Corsa came off the road. The collision happened at around 9.20am on Friday on the stretch between Cumnock and New Cumnock. The pensioner is stable in hospital after the crash in Ayrshire (David Cheskin/PA) Police Scotland is appealing for information after a road traffic collision involving one car on the A76 this morning. https://t.co/mYQHOJn0Tk pic.twitter.com/JR7rb1PCCX Ayrshire Police (@AyrshirePolice) September 7, 2018 The woman was airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and treated for non-life threatening injuries, Police Scotland said. She remains in a stable condition at the hospital. Sergeant Ian Thornton, from the divisional road police unit, said: We are appealing for anyone who was travelling on the A76 this morning who may have seen this vehicle prior to the incident, or witnessed the incident take place, to come forward. You may have encountered this vehicle without realising and have dash-cam footage that can help us. Anyone with information should contact police via 101, quoting incident number 0823 of Friday 7 September 2018. Julian Alaphilippe seized a potentially decisive lead on the sixth stage of the Tour of Britain in Cumbria won by Team Skys Wout Poels. Hollands Poels won on the 168.3-kilometres route from Barrow-in-Furness to Whinlatter pass to move to second overall, 17 seconds behind Frenchman Alaphilippe (QuickStep-Floors). Team Skys Wout Poels won stage six of the Tour of Britain ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Martin Rickett/PA Images) But with two flat stages to come Saturdays 215.6km seventh stage from West Bridford to Mansfield and Sundays concluding 77km London stage Poels chances of overall success appear remote. Poels said on tourofbritain.co.uk: Im really happy the team did a really good job G (Geraint Thomas), Ian Stannard so its really nice that I could finish it off. Second is really nice, Im quite happy with it. Its going to be a hard fight no more uphill finishes, everything is flat. But well keep on trying. @OVOEnergy Tour of Britain general classification after Stage 6.#OVOToB pic.twitter.com/7a2uxnRnJE AJ Bell Tour of Britain (@TourofBritain) September 7, 2018 Alaphilippe began the day six seconds behind Primoz Roglic (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) in the general classification. But he and Poels managed to distance Roglic on the final climb. Poels won the dash for the line by two seconds from Alaphilippe, with Briton Hugh Carthy (Education First) third, 12 seconds adrift. Slovakian Roglic now sits third overall, 32secs behind. The Frenchman, who won stage three in Bristol, is now the races fifth leader in six days. Alaphilippe said: I was only riding to take the (leaders green) jersey; in the fight for the stage victory Wout was fresher than me so Im not disappointed. A murder inquiry has been launched after a man was killed in a targeted shooting outside his home. Gary More, 32, suffered significant injuries after a number of shots were fired at him in Gartness Drive, Airdrie, at around 8.10pm on Thursday. Police and ambulance crews rushed to the busy residential area in North Lanarkshire, but Mr More died at the scene. Detectives said they are treating the shooting as a targeted attack. Gartness Drive in Airdrie has been cordoned off as police investigate the murder of Gary More (Lucinda Cameron/PA) They are keen to trace a small white car that was seen in the street around the time of the shooting and left the area shortly afterwards. Detective Superintendent Jim Smith, of Police Scotlands Major Investigation Team, said: A brutal act took place here. The victim was outside his house in Gartness Drive when a number of shots were fired at him, causing fatal injuries. Although the investigation is at an early stage, it is not believed to be a random attack and at this stage we believe the victim has been targeted by the person responsible. A white vehicle was later found burnt-out near Craigmaddie Road to the north of Glasgow. Forensic work is being carried out at the scene of the shooting and on the burnt-out vehicle to see if the two are linked. Speaking at the scene in Airdrie, Mr Smith said: A small white car was seen in the street around the time of the shooting. It was last seen leaving the area shortly after the shooting. There was a vehicle in the Craigmaddie Road area of Milngavie last night that was found on fire and burnt out. It is a small white vehicle that may be connected to this incident or it may not. We are obviously following that as a line of inquiry. Trying to link that vehicle to this incident here is going to be a key line of inquiry for me and my team. Officers are currently carrying out extensive door-to-door inquiries and gathering and reviewing CCTV footage in the area to trace the movements of the car involved. Flowers have been placed near the police cordon (Lucinda Cameron/PA) The area around Gartness Drive has been cordoned off and officers stood guard at the scene on Friday. Flowers have been laid near the cordon, with messages including You were always in my corner, Ill never forget you bro, and: In shock, sleep well brother. A post-mortem examination is being carried out to establish the exact cause of death. Superintendent Louise Skelton said: We are aware the local community will be shocked by this incident as it took place in a busy residential area early in the evening. This is being treated as a targeted attack, and we have taken immediate steps by increasing police patrols in the area to provide public reassurance. Anyone with concerns should speak to officers. Witnesses who have not yet spoken to police are being urged to come forward. Anyone with information that could help the investigation is asked to contact Airdrie Police Office on the 101 number, quoting reference 3626 of September 6. A blaze that shut down a major highway and is burning out of control through timber and brush in northern California grew overnight. The US Forest Service said the blaze is now covering 38 square miles, up from 34 square miles on Thursday night. California Highway Patrol Officer Jason Morton said the blaze is 0% contained and still burning along Interstate 5. The highway that runs between Mexico and Canada, and is the main thoroughfare for commercial trucks, is closed for a third day and officials are meeting to assess whether it can reopen. A scorched car in a clearing after the Delta Fire burned through the Lamoine community (Noah Berger/AP) It was a ghost road on Friday morning along a 45-mile stretch that has remained closed since a fire two days earlier swept down and turned hills on either side into walls of flame. Drivers fled in terror and several big rigs burned on Wednesday as the fire erupted on both sides of the route. Crews managed to remove the burned hulks and abandoned rigs on Thursday but flames continued to burn along the edge of the road in some areas, fire spokesman Brandon Vacarro said. The fire prompted evacuation orders for scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. At times, flames shot up 300ft high. Although the fire was not burning near any large towns, Mr Vacarro said about 280 homes were considered threatened. There were some reports that homes had burned but he could only confirm that an outbuilding and two mixed-use commercial and residential buildings had been damaged. Truckers who rely heavily on the I5 to transport timber and other goods along the West Coast had the unenviable choice of waiting or taking a jammed detour that added 115 miles or so to their journeys. There are ~79 large #wildfires currently burning on about 1.6 million acres of private, state, tribal, and federal land. 14,000 interagency fire personnel, including about 310 crews, 800+ engines, about 140 helicopters, and 20 Airtankers are deployed to wildfires. pic.twitter.com/BUcLpuzXEo USDA Forest Service (@forestservice) September 7, 2018 California has been hit with one massive blaze after another over the summer, including a blaze not far from the Delta Fire that last month burned about 1,100 homes and killed eight people. The unrelenting flames have drained Californias firefighting budget and prompted nearly a billion dollars in property claims even before the start of the dangerous autumn fire season, officials said. A white Dallas police officer who shot dead a black man in a flat she said she mistook for her own will be charged with manslaughter. It was not clear what the officer may have said to 26-year-old Botham Jean after entering his home late on Thursday. But given what investigators currently know about the case, they decided to pursue the manslaughter charge, authorities said. Right now, there are more questions than we have answers, Police Chief Renee Hall told a news conference. She said she spoke to Mr Jeans sister to express the departments condolences to the family. PIO is on scene and gathering information at the officer involved shooting in the 1200 block of S. Lamar Street. pic.twitter.com/kGlrxCF3Sk Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) September 7, 2018 According to police, the officer returned home in her uniform after her shift. She called dispatch to report that she had shot a man, and she later told the officers who responded that she believed the victims apartment was her own when she entered it. The responding officers administered first aid to Mr Jean, a native of the Caribbean island country of St Lucia who attended college in Arkansas and worked for accounting and consulting firm PwC. Mr Jean was taken to a hospital, where he died. Ms Hall said the officers blood was drawn to be tested for drugs and alcohol. She declined to speculate as to whether fatigue or other factors, including race, may have factored into the shooting. She also said the Texas Rangers will conduct an independent investigation. Authorities have not said how the officer got into Mr Jeans home, or whether his door was open or unlocked. The block of flats is just a few streets from Dallas police headquarters. Residents of the building said they can access their units with a key or through a keypad code. Jeffrey Scherzer, who lives at the complex, said when he returned home late at night an officer escorted him to his flat and warned him to steer clear of a blood trail. South Side Flats where the shooting took place (AP Photo/Ryan Tarinelli) Two women who live on the second floor near where the shooting happened said they heard a lot of noise late on Thursday. It was, like, police talk: Open up! Open up!' 20-year-old Caitlin Simpson told The Dallas Morning News. Yazmine Hernandez, 20, was studying with Ms Simpson when they heard the commotion. We heard cops yelling, but otherwise had no idea what was going on, Ms Hernandez said. Mr Jean grew up in St Lucia and attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he majored in accounting and information systems and often led campus worship services before graduating in 2016, the school said in a statement. That July, he went to work for PwC in risk assurance. The company said in a statement: We are simply heartbroken to hear of his death. More than a thousand far-right supporters have gathered for a rally over the fatal stabbing of a man in the German city of Chemnitz, for which two migrants have been arrested and charged with manslaughter. The flag-waving crowd rallied under the motto security for Chemnitz and behind a banner proclaiming we are the people. The number marching was far smaller than the estimated 6,000 who assembled the day after the August 26 stabbing of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig. Protesters marched under a banner reading "we are the people" (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Around 500 counter-protesters gathered nearby shouting slogans like theres no right to Nazi propaganda, while another opposition protest featured an open-air performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony as a sign against xenophobia, hate and violence. Local media reported one far-right supporter was arrested after being identified as having given the stiff-armed Nazi salute at a previous rally, which is banned in Germany, but police headquarters said they had no details on the report. Since the killing of Mr Hillig, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has sought to mobilise support with its anti-migrant message. But after a brief bump, polling suggests little change. An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges over Mr Hilligs death, which has also put a renewed a focus on Chancellor Angela Merkels welcoming migrant policies and revealed disagreements between her and top security officials. An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Interior minister Horst Seehofer expressed sympathy on Thursday for the protesters who were provoked by the killing. If I were not a minister, Id have gone to the streets as a citizen, Mr Seehofer said, quickly adding: Naturally, not together with the radicals. Mr Seehofer, who heads the Bavarian sister party to Mrs Merkels centre-right Christian Democrats, has long been to the chancellors right on immigration, but his rhetoric has toughened as polls show his party struggling ahead of an October state election. He told the Rheinischen Post newspaper that voters were linking their concerns to the issue of migration, which he called the mother of all political problems in this country. Mrs Merkel responded in an interview with Germany TV network RTL late on Thursday that she saw it differently. Migration presents us with challenges and here we have problems, but also successes, she said. Mrs Merkel added that she was working with Mr Seehofer to solve those problems. Former president Barack Obama has said his successor Donald Trump is the symptom, not the cause of division and polarisation in the US. Mr Trump is just capitalising on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years, the former president said. His comments came during a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he accepted an ethics in government award. Barack Obama made his first serious contribution in the US midterm elections (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) The remarks served as Mr Obamas first steps into the political fray ahead of the midterm elections autumn campaign. While he has endorsed candidates and appeared at fundraising events, he has spent much of his post-presidency on the political sidelines. In unusually direct terms, he made clear his concerns about politics in the Trump era and implored voters especially young people to show up at the polls in the November elections. Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different, Mr Obama said. The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire. He later added: This is not normal. The speech was a preview of the argument that Mr Obama is likely to make throughout the autumn. On Saturday, the former president will stump for House Democratic candidates from California at an event in Orange County, a conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several congressional seats. Next week, Mr Obama plans to campaign in Ohio for Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ohio Democrats. Mr Obamas campaign activity will continue through October and will include fundraising appearances, according to an Obama adviser. While the former president will be visible throughout the election, the adviser said Mr Obama will not be a daily presence on the campaign trail. iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The ongoing partisan battle over whether documents from Brett Kavanaugh's work at the George W. Bush White House should be made public continued to dominate the nominee's Supreme Court confirmation hearing Thursday, as Democrats sought to uncover additional information about the judge's views on controversial issues. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, quickly made waves on the third day of the hearing when he threatened to -- and eventually did -- release one of the so-called "committee confidential" documents relating to racial profiling, prompting Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, to accuse Booker of "conduct unbecoming of a senator." "Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate or of confidentiality of the documents that we are privy to," Cornyn said, referencing the popular assumption that Booker is eyeing a 2020 White House bid. The document in dispute was a 2002 Kavanaugh email with the subject line "racial profiling" that includes internal White House discussions about whether airport security and other law enforcement should strive for a "race-neutral" system in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In one of the emails, Kavanaugh referenced a possible interim policy and wrote "the people (such as you and I) who generally favor effective security measures that are race-neutral DO need to grapple - and grapple now -- with the interim question of what to do before a truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral system is implemented." As a whole, the documents at the center of the dispute, which started before the hearing even began, are not classified but are marked with the "committee confidential" designation, meaning committee members have access to them but that they aren't available to the public. Booker pushed back on whether the documents should be considered confidential, arguing it was improper for a private lawyer and former colleague of Kavanaugh, Bill Burck, to be vetting the documents and designating some as private. He said releasing them would be worth it -- even if it meant getting expelled from the Senate for violating the rules. "I come from a long line, as all of us do, of Americans that understand what that kind of civil disobedience is and I understand the consequences," Booker said. "So I am, right now, before your process is finished, I am going to release the email about racial profiling and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate." "If Senator Cornyn believes I violate Senate rules, I openly invite and accept the consequences of my team releasing that email right now," he added, later saying "bring the charges." Booker's fellow Democrats on the committee quickly expressed support. "I completely agree with you. I concur with what you are doing... I hope my other colleagues will join me," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said. "If there is going to be some retribution against the senator from New Jersey, count me in." Cornyn warned Booker that he and other Democrats risked being expelled from the Senate, but later Thursday, outside the hearing room, Booker told reporters he doesn't expect the Texas Republican to pursue charges. "I think he was just like most bullies are -- a lot of talk and no action," Booker said. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein then read aloud another of the unreleased documents -- a Kavanaugh email discussing the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. In that email, first disclosed by The New York Times earlier in the day, Kavanaugh proposed an edit to an op-ed about Roe v. Wade where he commented that he was "not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent." Since being nominated, Kavanaugh has referred to Roe as "settled law" and has said that other abortion cases had followed the Roe precedent, but he has declined to comment on how he might vote in any future cases. When asked about the email Thursday, Kavanaugh said he recommended the edit to the op-ed because he didn't think the draft accurately reflect the view of all legal scholars. He repeated his previous comments that cases since Roe v. Wade have upheld the decision and established "precedent upon precedent." On a topic of particular interest to Democrats concerned about how Kavanaugh might handle any matters related to President Trump, Kavanaugh said Thursday that he has not discussed or given any hints about his views of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. "I haven't had any inappropriate conversations about that investigation with anyone," Kavanaugh said. "I've never given anyone any hints, forecasts, previews, winks, nothing about my view as a judge or how I would rule as a judge or anything related to that." Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, provided Kavanaugh the opportunity to follow-up on an exchange with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Wednesday night. Harris had asked the judge if he discussed the Mueller investigation with anyone at the law firm founded by the president's personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz. Though he conceded that he may have talked to fellow judges about the Mueller probe because it was in the news, he said he wasn't sure he knew anyone at the firm, asking Harris to tell him who she had in mind. Harris shot back, saying, "I think you're thinking of someone and you don't want to tell us." Kavanaugh was more definitive Thursday, saying he doesn't recall conversations of any kind with anyone at the law firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres, but that he doesn't know everyone who might work there. He later disclosed that he was unaware that former Sen. Joe Lieberman was an employee of the firm. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Standing Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, head of the organising board of the WEF ASEAN (Photo: VNA) Vietnam WEF trusted and prioritized partner Since Vietnam and WEF started to cooperate in 1989, WEF is an important forum, making important contributions to Vietnams socio-economic development and international integration. Vietnam always builds cooperation with WEF, actively participating and contributing to outstanding initiatives. Vietnam has been joining WEF initiatives and activities in agriculture, trade, infrastructure, information and technology, thus having access and increasing cooperation with world leading corporations. So far, Vietnam is the first and only country in the Southeast Asian region with which WEF signed and carried out a cooperative agreement in accordance with publicprivate partnership (PPP). WEF ASEAN among Vietnams largest diplomatic events in 2018 The theme of the forum ASEAN 4.0: Entrepreneurship in the 4th industrial revolution proposed by Vietnam, has gained the support of political and business circles and partners, especially ASEAN members, as it is relevant to the ASEAN theme of resilient and innovative ASEAN. Vietnam has left its mark when including the 4th industrial revolution as well as many other contents, including start-up, infrastructure and smart cities, labour and employment, development of human resources, and hi-tech agriculture, which are the concerns of ASEAN member countries, to the forum. The participation of leaders from various countries and major international organisations, along with the WEF founder and executive chairpersons, shows that the theme and contents of the WEF ASEAN satisfy the regions and worlds concern and interest; and affirms Vietnams increasing position in ASEAN and the world, especially after the countrys successful organisation of the APEC Summit in 2017. Vietnam News Agency quoted Mr. Sons saying that the WEF ASEAN will deepen relations between Vietnam and other countries in the region. A number of meetings and official visits of foreign leaders to Vietnam will be made during the event to bolster bilateral ties and collaboration. With the participation of nearly 1,000 international business executives, the WEF ASEAN also offers chances to introduce Vietnam to the world, along with the policies of the Vietnamese Party and State in economic reform, improvement of business climate and start-up development, among others. In addition, the forum will facilitate access to new ideas and to development trends, particularly of Industry 4.0, serving the countrys building and implementation of policies, strategies and plans on socio-economic development and domestic businesses operation. The WEF ASEAN is also a festival of ASEAN countries. The organising board has dedicated a space for ASEAN countries to promote themselves, which is a new feature in WEF events so far. According to Vietnam News Agency, the WEF was established in 1971 as a non-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The forum engages political, business and other leaders to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups together Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./. A murdered exile believed he had previously been poisoned by mystery Russians who brought him Champagne, a paramedic who treated him said. Former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolai Glushkov was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden, south-west London, a week after the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals. Paramedic Keith Carr on Friday told how he treated Mr Glushkov in November 2013 for suspected poisoning, after the exile shared drinks with two men from Moscow in a Bristol hotel. Counter-terrorism police led the murder inquiry after Mr Glushkov was found dead on March 11 (Yui Mok/PA) The suspected poisoning came some six months after Mr Glushkov accused the Kremlin of murdering his friend and Vladimir Putin critic Boris Berezovsky. The Guardian reported that detectives are now reinvestigating that night in the Grand Hotel as part of the murder inquiry. Mr Carr, then working with South Western Ambulance Service, said he responded to a report that Mr Glushkov had collapsed on the carpet the morning after the drinks. He had been visited by two Russians the night before, Mr Carr, now 71, told the Press Association. They (the visitors) brought Champagne. They drank the Champagne together. He woke up on the carpet the next day. He had carpet burns to his face and he was unsteady. Mr Carr said his patient had an abnormal heart rhythm, which was very fast. In 47 years as a paramedic Ive never had anybody deliberately poisoned so it wasnt foremost in my mind until he said, I think they poisoned me, Mr Carr, of Bristol, said. I thought it was a bit far-fetched but when I saw the cardiac dysrhythmia I thought somethings wrong, its not like any normal heart rhythm, so somebodys got to him. Mr Glushkov was treated in Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital. The disclosure comes after police named two men said to be Russian military intelligence agents as suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. Counter-terrorism police led the murder inquiry after Mr Glushkov was found dead on March 11. Mr Glushkov claimed political asylum in the UK after Russia accused him and Mr Berezovsky, who died in March 2013, of a criminal conspiracy in relation to Aeroflot. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the incident in Bristol in 2013 was a matter for Avon and Somerset Police, and added: We are not prepared to discuss specific lines of inquiry in regards our investigation. Andy Robertsons first match as Scotland captain turned out to be a nightmare as his team suffered a 4-0 pasting at the hands of Belgium. Here Press Association Sport assesses the Liverpool defenders first display since taking over the armband. Reception Robbo is set to make his first start as captain for @ScotlandNT tonight. Good luck, @andrewrobertso5. pic.twitter.com/VA8Qu0iaYu Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 7, 2018 Robertsons association with Hampden stretches back to his days as a Queens Park player and he got a heros welcome as he returned to the National Stadium for the first time as skipper. He got the loudest cheer of the night as his name was read out before kick-off but that was as good as it got for the 24-year-old. With the ground less than half full and Belgium in no mood to take it easy, you could hear a pin drop for most of the 90 minutes as the Scots suffered their heaviest home defeat in 45 years. Defensive Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring after a mistake by John McGinn at the back (Ian Rutherford/PA) Four individual mistakes ultimately cost Alex McLeishs team as Belgium ruthlessly exploited the openings they were afforded but nobody can point the finger of blame at Robertson for the goals tucked home by Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard before Michy Batshuayis double. He had Dries Mertens to look after initially and did reasonably well up against the Napoli frontman. However, the danger of playing with a wing-back as keen to get forward as the Anfield ace is that space is all too often left in behind and he was lucky that Timothy Castagne did not do better when he ran loose on a couple of first-half occasions. Attacking Andy Robertson was rarely on the front foot at Hampden (Ian Rutherford/PA) Robertsons rise from Third Division amateur to Champions League finalist with Liverpool has much to do with his ability to race forward and provide pin-point deliveries from wide on the left. But there was little scope for the former Dundee United and Hull full-back to show the offensive side to his game as Belgium utterly dominated. His rare forays forward saw him make one early burst up-field which failed to trouble the visitors. He then made a second charge after nicking possession but his attempt to link up with Callum McGregor broke down after a slack pass. Leadership FULL TIME | Scotland 0-4 Belgium. A dominant performance from the visitors sees Scotland succumb to a friendly defeat at Hampden. pic.twitter.com/WMftluTPR8 Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) September 7, 2018 The softly-spoken Glaswegian is not afraid to make himself heard but his idea of captaincy looks to be based more on leading by example that rousing auditory. Unfortunately it is hard to raise spirits when up against a side packing such devastating firepower as Roberto Martinezs side. The true test of Robertsons influence will come in the next few days as he looks to soothe his squads battered pride ahead of Mondays Nations League opener against Albania. Angry protesters in Iraq have stormed and set fire to the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra. At least 10 protesters have died in clashes with security forces since Monday, including three who were shot dead by security forces on Thursday night. The protests in Basra and other cities, the most serious to shake Iraqs oil-rich southern Shiite heartland in years, have since July been calling for an end to endemic corruption, soaring joblessness and poor public services. Clashes erupted earlier this week, leaving several civilians and police dead. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into the violence which shows no sign of abating. The protests are demanding better public services and jobs (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) The violence prompted the temporary head of Iraqs parliament, the eldest lawmaker, to call an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the snowballing protests. The protesters shouted anti-Iranian slogans outside the Iranian consulate on Friday evening, including Iran, out, out! before they stormed it and set a fire inside. Smoke could be seen rising from the building. Protesters also burned an Iranian flag. Many residents of the predominantly Shiite city accuse Iranian-backed political parties of interfering with Iraqi politics and some hold them responsible for mismanagement and the poor services in the city. Irans foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, condemned the attack on Irans consulate in Basra and said none of the staff have so far been hurt, Irans state TV reported on Friday. Mr Ghasemi added the attack caused significant damage to the consulate building, and he called for maximum punishment for the assailants. Elsewhere in the city, protesters tried to attack the headquarters of Assaib Ahl Al-Haq Shiite militia and the guards stationed there opened fire. Other protesters set tyres on fire on main streets and highways, ignoring the curfew imposed by the authorities. Ethan Ampadu has vowed to impress Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri and break into the first-team picture at Stamford Bridge. Ampadu does not turn 18 until next week, but suggested he was ready for a greater senior role at Chelsea by producing a masterful central midfield performance in Wales 4-1 UEFA Nations League victory over the Republic of Ireland on Thursday. He made seven appearances under Antonio Conte last season before fracturing his ankle in March, but has yet to feature for new Blues boss Sarri. Ethan Ampadu (left) is hoping to make his mark at Chelsea after starring for Wales on his first competitive appearance (Mike Egerton/PA) You could say theres been frustration on one hand, but at the same time Im getting experience training with the players, said Ampadu who has remained in west London and not been loaned out like so many Chelsea youngsters. Im just trying to improve to get into the team. This seasons plans are this seasons plans and at the moment Ive just to keep improving to try and get in the team. I want to show the manager what I can do. Ampadus appearance against the Republic ended any lingering doubts over his international future. The Exeter-born midfielder or defender had previously played twice for Wales, against France and Panama last autumn. But those games were both friendlies and he could have switched international allegiance with the option of playing for England, Ghana or the Republic. There was talk (about his future), but Ive always been thinking about Wales, said Ampadu. As you could see here I really enjoy playing for Wales, the atmosphere, and everything around it. Ive always felt part of the set-up and the senior players and staff have helped that. The older, more experienced players definitely help us settle in, and that gives us more confidence to go out on the pitch and express ourselves. Iran and Russia have backed a military campaign to retake the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria as Turkey pleaded for a ceasefire. The disagreement narrows the chances of a diplomatic solution to avoid what many say would be a bloody humanitarian disaster. The trilateral summit in Tehran involves Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) It puts further pressure on the rebel forces still operating in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, including about 10,000 hardcore jihadists and al Qaida-linked fighters. It left the chance, however slim, for further diplomacy to try to separate civilians and rebels from the Islamic militants in Idlib. While Mr Putin called for the total annihilation of terrorists in Syria, he left open the possibility of a ceasefire. Mr Rouhani also spoke of cleansing the Idlib region of terrorists, while also noting the need of protecting civilians. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a military offensive will touch off a flood of refugees and destabilise areas it now holds in Syria. Ankara also has hundreds of troops manning 12 observation posts in Idlib. Idlib isnt just important for Syrias future; it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region, Mr Erdogan said. Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience. We dont want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath. Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) Mr Erdogan also sought to use Persian literature to drive home his point in Tehran, quoting the poet Saadi: If youve no sympathy for human pain, the name of a human you cannot retain. The US also warned against an assault in Idlib, with Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the UN Security Council that the consequences will be dire. North-western Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalising, and could hurt Russias longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias post-war reconstruction. Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) Russia also wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by the US and its long uncertainty over what it wants in the conflict. We think its unacceptable when (someone) is trying to shield the terrorists under the pretext of protecting civilians as well as causing damage to Syrian government troops, Mr Putin said. As far as we can see, this is also the goal of the attempts to stage chemical weapons incidents by Syrian authorities. We have irrefutable evidence that militants are preparing such operations, such provocations. Mr Putin offered no evidence to back his claim. The UN and Western countries have blamed Assads forces for chemical weapons attacks in the civil war, something denied by Russia and Syria. The US, Britain and France have vowed to take action against any further chemical attacks by Assads regime. Reacting to Mr Erdogans proposal for a ceasefire in Idlib, Mr Putin said a ceasefire would be good but indicated that Moscow does not think it will hold. We hope that we will be able to reach an agreement and that our call for reconciliation in the Idlib area will be heard, the Russian president said. We hope that the representatives of those terrorist organisations will be smart enough to stop the resistance and lay down arms. There was no immediate reaction from fighters in Idlib. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said before the summit that his forces were prepared for a battle that they expect will lead to a major humanitarian crisis. Idlib is about a lot of international power play and everyone is looking after their interests, Mr al-Mustafa said. The Scottish Liberal Democrats would support a boycott of controversial tests for primary one pupils, the partys leader will tell members. Willie Rennie will use his speech at the Lib Dem autumn conference to attack the Scottish national standardised assessments, which have been criticised by teachers. He will also call for formal education to start when children are aged six or seven a move being explored by Scotlands largest teaching union as he addresses delegates at the one-day event in Dunfermline. The Lib Dems will stand with parents and school staff if they snub the literacy and numeracy tests, aimed at helping teachers judge progress on a childs learning, Mr Rennie will say. Willie Rennie has said the tests have led to a `tidal wave of concern from teachers (Jane Barlow/PA) Education Secretary John Swinney announced changes to assessments last month after hearing feedback from parents, staff and unions. He said that while there is no statutory right for parents to withdraw their child from any aspect of schooling, they could discuss participation in the tests with their school. Opposition parties called for the P1 assessments to be scrapped altogether. Mr Rennie will say: International evidence shows that the under-sevens need a play-based approach to learning with plenty of opportunities for active, outdoor, social, self-directed play. National testing, especially for five-year-old primary ones, pulls Scottish education in exactly the opposite direction. He will add: And there is a tidal wave of concern from teachers. One teacher in Aberdeen said she had never seen such cruel nonsense in all of her life, branding the tests a shambles. Bold measures to deliver on education and for children in @scotgov Programme for Government. Expansion of early learning, empowerment of schools, incorporating principles of UNCRC into Scots Law, support for students. Great agenda. #ScotPfG https://t.co/LnEb3PDT2j John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) September 4, 2018 Another said this is a massive use of staff resources that could be put into supporting children instead. And to cap it all, an East Ayrshire teacher said the information gathered was completely useless. Mr Rennie said ministers had failed to listen to concerns when they were first raised, and warned the Scottish Parliaments opposition parties would defeat the minority Government in a vote against the tests. At that point if the pupils, parents and teachers boycott these tests, we will stand with them, he will add. These tests are damaging and theyve got to go. On reforms to primary education, he will add: I want schools be able to change the way we teach children aged four and five. We should start formal schooling at six or even seven. I want children in Scotland to get the long-term educational benefits. Because education is on the wrong track. So today I am committing to work with the education charity Upstart to develop a full programme for change. Commenting on the proposal, a spokeswoman for the teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, said: The EIS AGM agreed last year to investigate the opportunities and challenges associated with a change to the school starting age through a possible move to a kindergarten model of early years education. This work is ongoing, and we will be seeking the views of our members in early years and primary establishments as part of this process. On Mr Rennies support for a boycott, a spokesman for Mr Swinney said: This is deeply irresponsible from Willie Rennie. For the sake of a cheap party conference speech line, he wants to threaten the future of childrens education. That is reprehensible, even for the Lib Dems. School assessments have been used in Scotland for years. Throughout that time we didnt hear a peep from Willie Rennie. It would appear he only discovered he was against school assessments when a new version was introduced by the SNP government. By Christopher Bing WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is poised to charge a North Korean hacker over the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware attack and the 2014 cyber attack on Sony Corp , a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday. The charges, part of a strategy by the U.S. government to deter future cyber attacks by naming and shaming the alleged perpetrators, will also allege that the North Korean hacker broke into the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016, according to the official. In 2014, U.S. officials said unnamed North Korean hackers were responsible for a major cyber intrusion into Sony, which resulted in leaked internal documents and data being destroyed. The attacks came after Pyongyang sent a letter to the United Nations, demanding that Sony not move forward with a movie comedy that portrayed the U.S.-backed assassination of a character made to look like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The FBI said at the time it had recovered evidence connecting North Korea to the attack and others in South Korea. Last year, the WannaCry ransomware attack affected thousands of businesses across the globe through a computer virus that encrypted files on affected systems, including Britain's National Health Service, where nonfunctional computer systems forced the cancellation of thousands of appointments. (Reporting by Christopher Bing; Additional writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe) By Marco Aquino LIMA, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Dozens of Venezuelans who fled their crisis-stricken country for Peru are seeking to take up a Caracas offer to fly them home, as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro seizes on hardships migrants face abroad to shore up domestic support. Around 100 Venezuelans were waiting in line outside the Venezuelan embassy in Lima on Wednesday to secure 'repatriation cards' needed for a free flight home, according to a Reuters witness. Several Venezuelans in the line that Reuters spoke to described suffering discrimination and poor working conditions in Peru, an Andean country of 32 million people where some 300,000 Venezuelan migrants have migrated this year alone. The mass exodus of Venezuelan migrants in recent years - considered the largest external displacement in modern Latin American history - has strained public services, saturated informal job markets and fueled social tensions in host countries. Venezuelan migrant Endri Avendano, a 30-year-old former medical technician, said he eked out a living as a waiter and by selling food on the street when he arrived in Lima in May. "You have to work more than eight hours, sometimes 12 hours" a day, Avendano said, adding he could no longer find work. He was seeking to return to Venezuela even though food was scarce and expensive there, he said. Maduro has denied his citizens are fleeing to escape food and medical shortages in Venezuela. He said on Monday that opposition street protests and U.S. financial sanctions had led some Venezuelans to "try their luck" in other countries, but that most now regret doing so. Oscar Perez, a former opposition lawmaker in Venezuela who now lives in Peru and advocates on behalf of Venezuelan migrants, called the repatriations a "new show" by Maduro intended to discredit his regional critics. "It's a perverse plan. Maduro is offering jobs in public administration, repatriation cards, social welfare for those that support him," Perez said. Maduro said on Wednesday that a plane carrying Venezuelans seeking to return from Quito had already arrived in Caracas, and that another was expected shortly from Lima. A group of 89 Venezuelans returned home from Lima last week, Maduro said. The exodus of Venezuelans to South American countries is building toward a "crisis moment" comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations said last month. Some 2.3 million Venezuelans are living abroad and more than 1.6 million have left since 2015, according to the U.N. (Reporting by Marco Aquino, writing by Dave Sherwood and Mitra Taj, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) By Polina Nikolskaya and Darya Korsunskaya MOSCOW, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Russia's VTB bank has asked the government and central bank to relax Basel III capital requirements for Russian lenders, its chief executive said on Thursday, adding that would allow banks to lend more to the domestic economy. VTB, Russia's second biggest bank, has already boosted its capital by 300 billion roubles ($4.3 billion) to help meet the international Basel III rules, and needs to amass the remaining 150 billion roubles next year, Andrey Kostin said. "This (450 billion roubles) equates to 4.5 trillion roubles of unissued loans to the Russian economy," he said. State-controlled VTB, like some other Russian banks, has been subject to Western sanctions since 2014 following Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine. Those sanctions limit VTB's ability to raise funds abroad. "Today, when out of the ten biggest banks five have no access to the (external) capital markets, which were closed by sanctions, I think this (Russia's commitments to Basel III) should be adjusted," Kostin said. He added he had asked the central bank and the finance ministry to revise the requirements, possibly giving a 2-3 year grace period to set aside all the capital needed for Basel III. Russia has its own capital requirements and has started to implement the Basel rules in addition to existing banking regulations in an effort to improve the health of the sector. Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Thursday that his ministry planned to discuss a possible change to the way Russia adapts to Basel III with the central bank, which wants the domestic banks to be stronger. "I believe that VTB's proposal is considerably fair: it makes sense to consider softening existing Basel requirements for the banks which are under restrictions, sanctions, (and) are limited in attracting resources," Siluanov said. He did not say what the changes might be or when they might be implemented. ($1 = 69.3689 roubles) (Writing by Denis Pinchuk and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Toby Chopra and Mark Potter) PARIS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The offices of four of France's largest electrical goods' companies were raided by police on Thursday on suspicion of cartel pricing and corruption, a judicial source said. Twelve searches were carried out at Legrand, Rexel , Sonepar and Schneider Electric as part of an investigation opened in June, the source said. The investigation targeting the four groups was launched by the Paris prosecutor's office following reports received in April from the Competition Authority and the French Anti-Corruption Agency, the source said. That companies are suspected of cartel pricing, forgery, breach of trust, misuse of corporate assets, tax fraud and bribery, according to the source. Investigative website Mediapart reported in April a secret deal between Schneider, Legrand, Sonepar and Rexel to raise prices by limiting competition. If the companies are found guilty of cartel pricing they could face hundreds of millions of euros in fines. A spokeswoman for Schneider Electric said the company was cooperating with authorities. A spokesman for Legrand declined to comment. Rexel and Sonepar could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; writing by John Irish; editing by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Toby Chopra) Photo taken on Sept. 6, 2018 shows a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York. UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu on Thursday asked the Security Council to find a common approach to tackle the issue of lack of accountability for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu on Thursday asked the Security Council to find a common approach to tackle the issue of lack of accountability for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The lack of a mechanism to attribute responsibility to those who have used chemical weapons in Syria has been deeply troubling and a missing step on the path toward accountability, she told the Security Council. The closure of the Joint Investigative Mechanism of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in November 2017 after Russia vetoed the extension of its mandate emboldened those who sought to carry out further attacks, warned Nakamitsu. The Security Council holds the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, which is threatened by the use of chemical weapons, she said. "Anyone who uses chemical weapons must be identified and must be held to account." Speaking of the Syrian government's assault on Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold, Nakamitsu asked for adherence to humanitarian principles and international disarmament and non-proliferation norms. It is of vital importance that humanitarian principles are upheld, all relevant international disarmament and non-proliferation norms -- most importantly the Chemical Weapons Convention -- are fully respected, and that all sides work together to avoid further escalation in Syria, including in and around Idlib, she said. 4 1 [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] SINGAPORE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - A veteran Singapore diplomat on Thursday called for Singapore's gay community to challenge a law that bans gay sex in the conservative city-state, following India's scrapping of the same British colonial-era legislation. Tommy Koh, a prominent diplomat and lawyer, made the comments in response to a Facebook post by a senior Singapore-based academic on India's landmark ruling on Thursday. Simon Chesterman, dean of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, shared a New York Times story on the ruling, congratulating a former classmate and others on the change. "I would encourage our gay community to bring a class action to challenge the consitutionality of Section 377A," Koh wrote. Previous legal challenges in 2014 on the constitutionality of the law failed. Reminded of this by another Facebook user, Koh said from his verified account: "try again". Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has previously said that most Singaporeans would want to keep the statute and that Singapore society "is not that liberal on these matters". The prime minister's office and the home ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Koh's comments or current government thinking on the matter on Friday. Koh did not immediately respond to a request for further comments. Under Singapore's law 377A, a man found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man could be jailed for up to two years, although prosecutions are rare. The law does not apply to homosexual acts between women. (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; writing by John Geddie; editing by Richard Pullin) SOFIA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. -- Bulgarian prosecutors have charged businessman Minyo Staikov, the owner of the one of the biggest Bulgarian spirits producers, along with seven other people for large scale tax fraud and money laundering. (Monitor, Duma, Capital, 24 Chasa, Trud) -- Russia banned the imports of pork meat from Bulgaria, after the country reported an outbreak of African swine fever. (Standart, 24 Chasa) TRUD - The fuel prices have been rising since April in Bulgaria and the price of diesel has reached its highest levels in three years. The 85th President of The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Steven Swientozielskyj FCMA, CGMA, will be in Sri Lanka from September 8 to 14. During his visit he is scheduled to meet the President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and other top officials. He will be attending the Most Admired Companies of Sri Lanka Awards Ceremony on the 9th at the Shangri-La as the Guest of Honour. He will also host CIMAs Associate and Fellow Members to dinner at Cinnamon Grand on the 11th and on 12th will host members of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for a cocktail. Steven will be the Chief Guest at the CIMA Convocation to be held on 13th of September. As President, he is responsible for overseeing the global governance of CIMA, and promoting management accounting. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the global organisation representing 667,000 members and students from CIMA and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). Educated at Manchester Metropolitan University and with an MBA from Cranfield Business School, he qualified as a CIMA associate in 1980 and became a fellow in 1985. He started his professional career in the automotive industry before moving to the rail industry where he gained recognition for creating a world-class shared services operation. Swientozielskyjis an experienced executive specializing in operational transformation across a broad spectrum of organizations in the private, public and consultancy sectors. He has worked in the UK, US, France, Germany, and Holland. His achievements in shared services and business partnering have led to research being done on this by Loughborough University, CIMA and the Hackett Group. He is author of Business Partnering A Practical Handbook (Routledge), has worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and held a position as a UK National Health Service (NHS) non-executive director. He also lectures and speaks at conferences internationally. From left: CAA Chairman Anura Meddegoda, Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, Head of Cooperation of the Delegation of the European Union Delegation in Sri Lanka Frank Hess, Secretary of Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Chulananda Perera look on as visiting e-commerce expert from Genevas International Trade Centre Professor Michael Geist lights the ceremonial lamp at the launch of second e-commerce PPD in Colombo Sri Lankas e-commerce value remains small in comparison to region Only 0.4% of total annual retail sales taking place on e-commerce platforms By Shabiya Ali Ahlam Sri Lanka has much work to do for its economy to fully reap e-commerce benefits, according to an International Trade Centre (ITC) expert, who stressed the need to push for the necessary reforms so the island nation could keep up with its regional peers in this sphere. Sri Lankas e-commerce value is smaller in comparison to the region and it represents a challenge and opportunity of its potential. There are five key areas that require further work, in terms of legislative and programmatic aspects, to take this effort forward, visiting ITC E-Commerce Expert Michael Geist told the Public Private Dialogue (PPD) in Colombo yesterday. The PPD aims at offering relevant authorities clear guidance on policy and legislative solutions to ensure effective consumer protection, enhanced e-commerce adoption, and greater consumer choice and competition in the Sri Lankan marketplace. The five areas that require fresh focus are: ensuring affordable access to the internet, increasing digital literacy, having a clear and transparent online payment system, ensuring privacy and data protection and modernizing consumer protection laws. While the global e-commerce space is growing rapidly and transforming commercial activity around the world, in Sri Lanka, online sales stand far behind. The average online sales value in regional nations such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore has reached US $ 900 million while India takes the lead with an average online sales value of Rs.13.31 billion. Although there is considerable room for growth, Sri Lanka has trailed behind many other Asian nations in connection to e-commerce adoption despite the presence of e-commerce legislation for many years, Geist pointed out. It was highlighted that the current scenario indicates there is a need to move beyond conventional e-commerce legislation focused on contractual certainty and look at addressing other potential barriers that act as hindrances. In the area of consumer protection laws and privacy, it was noted that while the laws on protection could be working for off-line transactions in Sri Lanka, it is currently not entirely in favour of ecommerce. With the passing of the General Data Protection and Regulation (GDPR) in EU and as a result many around the world paying close attention to these rules, there is room for action in Sri Lanka on this too, Geist stressed. According to industry experts, Sri Lankas annual domestic e-commerce sales value is expected to grow to US $400 million by 2022. At present only 0.4 percent of the nations total annual retail sales (US $ 10 million) are taking place on e-commerce platforms. The Toastmasters Club of Expolanka (Pvt) Ltd recently held its seventh installation ceremony for club officers at the EFL Campus Auditorium in Wellampitiya. The ceremony was themed Champions Night in recognition of a strong winning streak by members at both local and international level. The Expolanka Toastmasters Club has received Presidents Distinguished awards by Toastmasters International for the past six years consecutively. Other awards have included coveted titles such as Golden Gavel, Club Quality, Producing Chief Judges, TLI Chairs, Super Star Area Directors, Distinguished Toastmasters, Social Media Awards and Champion Speakers. The event celebrated these accomplishments in the presence of Expolanka Group management, prominent Toastmasters, past and present members of the club, distinguished guests and family members of the Executive Committee. The installation also inducted the officers for the year 2018/19. Director Division F DTM Zaidh Naushard inducted the following officers; Toastmaster Ahmed Mauroof (President), Toastmaster Safiya Ismail (Vice President Education), Toastmaster Gazzaly Moulana (Vice President Membership), Toastmaster Sameera Dilhan (Vice President Public Relations), Toastmaster Sharon Rodrigo (Secretary), Toastmaster Mohamed Mirzan (Treasurer), and Toastmaster Allan Paul (Sargent at Arms). The immediate past President for 2017/18 is Toastmaster Hisham Yasir. Other accomplishments by members related to their participation were also celebrated. TM Safiya Ismail and DTM Zaidh Naushard were awarded Triple Crown awards for completing three educational awards during the year. Distinguished Toastmaster Zaidh Naushard was recognized for attending a record of 138 meetings consecutively since the beginning of his Toastmasters journey. Three motivated members of the club took home the award for Best Attendance of the Year; TM Safiya Ismail, TM Ahmed Mauroof and DTM Zaidh Naushard. Toastmaster Sharon Rodrigo (outgoing VP Education) received the evenings highest honour- the Best Toastmaster of the Year 2017/18. Rodrigo was instrumental in the club achieving 10/10 DCP points, the Golden Gavel Award and Club Quality Award for excellence in education. Speaking at the event, Hanif Yusoof - Group CEO commended the Expolanka Toastmasters Club for its drive and enthusiasm for competitive speaking. The Club has played a key role in improving the members communication and leadership skills, which they have applied in both professional and personal capacities. Beirut/Istanbul (dpa), Sep 7, 2018- The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey are meeting in Tehran on Friday to discuss the fate of Syrias Idlib province at a summit, which Ankara sees as the last chance to avoid a massacre. The Syrian government has vowed to retake Idlib, the last opposition stronghold that has been controlled by the rebels since 2015. Russia and Iran are major allies of the Syrian government, while Ankara backs rebels. Turkey, which borders Idlib, criticized Russian airstrikes on the province days before the summit and has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a bloody offensive. Syrian government troops and their allies have amassed troops near the Idlib countryside in preparation for a final assault. The north-western province is strategically important for the government because it borders Latakia, a province that is the main stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and home to the biggest Russian airbase in the country. Over the past three years, thousands of rebels and their families have been evacuated from different parts of Syria to Idlib under agreements with the government. Enhancing the style quotient in Colombo, Fouzul Hameed has launched its latest Limited Edition at the Envoy Mansion. The Limited Edition collection features one-of-a-kind pieces coveted by every style icon - with luxe trims, exclusive fabricsand high fashion designs for discerning shoppers! As the name implies, these Limited Edition pieces are only made in small amounts to ensure that you have the most up to-date and unique look this season. The highly coveted collection offer high fashion at affordable prices and judging by the overwhelming response, shoppers need to rush and grab these exclusive items quickly. Every piece is guaranteed to elicit that wow factor, whether it is a stunning full-length dress in a sumptuous fabric, designed to give a dramatic silhouette, or a simple t-shirt to help you put your best fashion foot forward in a day-to-day outfit that is bound to impress. With over 2 decades of experience in mens fashion, Fouzul Hameed is the one and only mens wear consultant in Sri Lanka, a leading designer and the Managing Director of Hameedia, the leading menswear store. The Limited Edition Collection mainly focuses on high-end customers who are looking for something unique to stand out in a crowd. Hameedia sales staff will be on hand to display different designs on the tab for easy selection. The collection features over 200 Asian and European fabrics and customers can have their outfits customized with monograms and request changes in certain details of the outfits to suit their taste, which Hameedia will render classy and elegant. Although the Limited Edition mainly focuses on custom made designs, it also offers ready-made clothes. The highlight of the collection is that its quality is on par with European standards in the fashion capitals. Going a step further, Hameedia offers an express service to make custom-made shirts besides delivering it within a usual time of days. Offering at least one fit on for customers, once Hameedia achieves the perfect fit for its valued customer, it will retain a permanent block for that customer for the future. Upholding its reputation for innovation,Fouzul Hameed has introduced a new concept called the Subscription box, wherein, customers can pay Rs. 7,500 monthlyto get a subscription box with a shirt and two additional gifts. The unique Subscription Box is a value-for-money offering for customers by paying upfront, quarterly or monthly. The inaugural subscription box was handed toShalinBalasuriya, Director and Co-Founder of Spa Ceylon, who co-hosted the launch of the Limited Edition collection along with Fouzul Hameed. The high profile launch event witnessed the presence of the cream of Sri Lankan society and people who revel in high fashion.Fouzul Hameed is optimistic that a high quality collection like this will encourage people to look beyond, says, a shirt to ensure it has finer details that makes it uber stylish. Hameedia is committed to developing the best of quality clothing for the discerning man. Started in 1949, Hameedia has grown from strength to strength and Envoy Mansion located at Colombo 03 is a premier store that presents quality and trendsetting clothing styles for gents. Today is the United Nations International Literacy Day and the world body says it gives an opportunity for governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the worlds remaining literacy challenges. The issue of literacy is a key component of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The SDGs adopted by world leaders in September 2015, promotes, as part of its agenda, universal access to quality education and learning opportunities throughout peoples lives. Sustainable Development Goal 4 has as one of its targets ensuring all young people achieve literacy and numeracy and that adults who lack these skills are given the opportunity to acquire them, the UN says. This years theme is Literacy and skills development. Despite progress made, literacy challenges persist, and at the same time the demands for skills required for work, evolve rapidly. This years theme explores integrated approaches that simultaneously support the development of literacy and skills, to ultimately improve peoples lives and work and contribute to equitable and sustainable societies. The day focuses on skills and competencies required for employment, careers, and livelihoods, particularly technical and vocational skills, along with transferable skills and digital skills, the UN says. September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) at the 14th session of UNESCOs General Conference on October 26, 1966 to remind the international community of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies. The idea of an International Literacy Day was proposed at the World Conference of Ministers of Education on the Eradication of Illiteracy. This was held at Teheran in Iran from September 8-19 in 1965. The conference in its final report said, the development of the modern world, the accession to independence of a large number of countries, the need for the real emancipation of people and for the increasingly-active and productive participation, in the economic, social and political life of human society, of the hundreds of millions of illiterate adults still existing in the world, make it essential to change national education policies. Education systems must provide for the educational training needs of both the young generations who have not yet begun working life, and the generations that have already become adult without having had the benefit of the essential minimum of elementary education.National educational plans should include schooling for children and literacy training for adults as parallel elements. Just as knowledge, skills and competencies evolve in the digital world, so does what it means to be literate. To bridge the literacy skills gap and reduce inequalities, last years International Literacy Day highlighted the challenges and opportunities in promoting literacy in the digital world, a world where, despite progress, at least 750 million adults and 264 million out-of-school children still lack basic literacy skills. According to UNICEF, there has been little progress in improving access to education to children in the poorer regions, notably in South Asia, West Asia (Middle East) and sub-Saharan Africa where there are still 123 million school-age children without schools.UNESCO reports more than 75% of the worlds 781 million illiterate adults are found in South Asia, West Asia, sub-Saharan Africa. Women represent almost two-thirds of all illiterate adults globally. Though South Asia is among the areas demarcated as having the highest illiteracy rates, two South Asian countries stand out having exceptionally-high literacy rates worldwide. The Maldives has a literacy rate of 99% and Sri Lanka 92%. Yet at the time Sri Lanka received independence from Britain in 1946, the literacy rate in the country stood at a mere 57.8%, with female literacy being 43.8% and male literacy 70.1%. C.W.W. Kannangaras pre-education policy is widely acclaimed as being the main reason for this. Sri Lankas coalition government has almost doubled the allocation for education and introduced a policy, where every student will have at least thirteen years of education. Even those who fail at the GCE Ordinary Level examination will be able to continue to a higher level where they will have access to a multitude of vocational training skills including high technology and digital training. Education will be largely job-oriented with the government assuring about one million new and productive jobs before 2020. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who died recently, has said Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. We hope Sri Lankas new education policy will produce more skilled citizens, but also eco-friendly and responsible citizens who work for the common good of all instead of just personal gain, glory or other selfish ambitions. Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said today a Cabinet Paper would be submitted soon to develop the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH) and Mulleriyawa Base Hospital as the Colombo East Teaching Hospitals. He told parliament that there were some issues in providing full staff to the NFTH as the final agreement had not been signed to take over the Hospital. "When the agreement is finalised, the NTFH will be assigned the required staff," the minister said. He said this in response to a question asked by JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa regarding the current status of the SAITM Hospital. The MP asked whether the SAITM Hospital was fully owned by the government and whether a Cabinet subcommittee was appointed to hand it over to the Air Force. The minister said the SAITM Hospital was fully owned by the government and functions under a board of directors appointed by the government just as in the case of Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital. "I was not in the country when the Cabinet paper was presented to hand it over to the Air Force. I spoke to the Prime Minister about it. I will present a Cabinet paper at the next meeting to develop the NFTH under the government. We hope to develop NFTH and the Mulleriyawa Base Hospital as Colombo East Teaching Hospital so that students of Kotalawala Defence University(KDU) can be provided clinical facilities," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera) The Catholic Church celebrates with great honour the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the 8th of September every year. In many churches, this feast culminates with the cutting of a Birthday Cake which is shared by all. Roman Catholics celebrate the births of only three persons. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, Mary, and St. John the Baptist. We celebrate all three birthdays for the same reason; all three were born without Original Sin. Christ, because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit; Mary, because she was kept free from the stain of Original Sin by the action of God in His foreknowledge that she would agree to be the mother of Christ; and Saint John, because he was blessed in the womb by the presence of his Savior when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, came to aid her cousin Elizabeth in the final months of Elizabeths pregnancy. This is a day of obligation or in other words, a day on which Catholics are obliged to attend Holy Mass and engage in rest from work and other acts which may hinder them from worship owed to the Lord. You may wonder why September 8th has been so deemed to be the birthday of the Virgin. It falls exactly nine months after December 8th the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The term Immaculate Conception does not refer to the conception of Jesus as many erroneously think, but to the Conception of Mother Mary in the womb of St. Anne, her mother. Marys father, Joachim, was considered a wealthy man, a member of one of the twelve tribes of Israel and Joachim and Anne were very worried because of their childlessness which grieved them deeply. They engaged rigorously in prayer and fasting wondering if their inability to conceive a child was because of Gods displeasure with them. As it turned out, they were blessed even more abundantly when an angel appeared to Anne and prophesied to her that in future all generations would honour their future child. Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley, he said. Let us celebrate the birth of our blessed mother with the honour she deserves and ask her to intercede with Jesus on our behalf in our hour of need, as He had done so many times when He was requested to do so, by His mother so long ago. The three-day event will serve as a venue for firms and experts to discuss and share experience in the developmental trends of real estate, the building of green and smart cities, the application of technology in developing real estate, and others. Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha said that the development of the real estate market over the past years has made positive contributions to the rapid and sustainable development of the economy and social welfare of Vietnam. US Ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, talked about the cooperation between Vietnam and the US to develop smart cities as well as the importance of real estate. He also expressed his belief that Vietnam has created a favourable legal environment which facilitates the operations of real estate firms. According to the Foreign Investment Agency, FDI capital poured into Vietnam's real estate reached beyond US$5.5 billion in the first half of 2018, with real estate becoming the runner-up in FDI attraction after the manufacturing industry. According to Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh, Vietnam will be an attractive destination for real estate investors in the mid and long-term due to the high demand for housing, industrial infrastructure, commercial centres, resorts, and others. Entitled "Vietnam - A World of Opportunities", IREC 2018 will also include various activities such as seminars, investment promotion conferences, and exhibitions in the field. The hunt is on for the senior official behind the anonymous New York Times op-ed that labelled Donald Trump amoral as the president demanded the paper name the author for national security reasons. If the gutless anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once! U.S. President Donald Trumps vice president and secretary of state on Thursday both said they did not write an anonymous column in the New York Times that asserted that many senior officials are part of a quiet resistance within the administration. The opinion column, published on Wednesday, prompted the Republican president to blast the anonymous writer and the news outlet, and further fuelled accusations by critics that Trump was unstable and unfit for the presidency. Many senior officials in the administration have been working from within to frustrate parts of his agenda to protect the country from his worst impulses, the anonymous Trump official wrote. The Op-Ed sparked a guessing game in Washington about whether the author worked within the White House or a government agency, and raised questions of whether other officials may come forward, step down or be fired. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who previously served as Trumps CIA director, said he was not the author. Its not mine, Pompeo told reporters during a trip to New Delhi, India. A spokesman for U.S. Vice President Mike Pences office also criticized the Times and said Pence does not write anonymous opinion columns. The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. WASHINGTON REUTERS/Daily Mail Sept 6 Current Context The American Hierarchy has been caught with its pants down. Like the proverbial cat that has defecated on a rock, they are unable to cover up their caca (shit) ----to use the very word Pope Francis employed to describe the repulsive effect of a child-abuse scandal. But quite unlike the Chilean bishops who had the courage and the humility to resign from their episcopal office as an act of repentance and reparation, the American hierarchy has shown cowardice and arrogance in the face of its scandalous failure; and they have demonstrated this in two ways: One Cardinal (a decent one, I admit) has begged the Pope to cancel the next synodal meeting on Youth because the credibility of the bishops among the teenagers has sunk to an all-time low.The Pope is trying to salvage the youth (the next generation of Christians) from a crisis of faith caused by the culpable negligence of their pastors; now these very pastors, in their pusillanimity, want to avoid being embarrassed before the youth who are now fully informed about how their young colleagues have been preyed upon by these same unscrupulous shepherds. The bishops would evade the unpleasant truth chicken-heartedly rather than face it with repentant hearts; cowardice, not courage. The other solution is crass treacherous. The devastating revelations of clerical paedophilia in just one State of that country has shocked the American laity so much that many bishops fear a lay uprising. Their spineless strategy is to put the blame on the Pope -- who assumed office only five years ago -- and wash their hands of a crime they have been perpetrating decades before this pontiff was elected! So it is the innocent Pope who has to resign, not the degenerate hierarchs! See what living in the lap of economic comfort has done to these pastors! They cannot even think straight. The Culprit The culprit behind the proposed coup against the Pope is Mgr. Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican Nuncio to USA. He cannot forget his humiliating departure from the Vatican and his grouse against the pontiff for not decorating him with a Cardinals hat. He has mendaciously accused Pope Francis of covering up the sex-scandals of the ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, despite the well recorded fact that it was Pope Francis, and Pope Francis alone, who severely censured this predator - prelate and even deprived him of his Cardinal status --- a first time event in the whole history of the Church! But the stakes have now turned against Vigano in a way he had never expected. According to the revelations made by eminent theologians like Massimo Faggioli (Villanuova University) and highly respected investigative journalists such as Andrea Tornielli (La Stampa), it is Vigano who had shamelessly covered up the ignominious sex-scandals perpetrated by the Archbishop of Minneapolis!!! Viganos duplicity is now a public secret! The next bombshell came from someone whom the conservative US bishops always admired and even favoured as the alleged opponent of Pope Francis, namely Benedict XVI. This retired Pope has dismissed Viganos accusation asfake news and a lie! Hence let me stress that this nuncio is a liar according to the very Pope whom the conservative Vigano-fans hold as the authentic leader of the church!!! The Popes Strategy No wonder that Pope Francis refused to respond to Viganos accusation and asked the journalists to do their job properly and find out the truth for themselves, promising that he would add a few words after they had accomplished their duty. He has nothing to fear.We admire his silence, which of course some crafty US bishops have interpreted as an admission of guilt! It is true that the scrupulous adherence to justice and mercy had made the Cardinal Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires reluctant to condemn even paedophiles until they were proved guilty beyond doubt; for the vilification of innocent people, who were later found innocent, has taught a bitter lesson to many ecclesiastical superiors. That policy of prudence is a far cry from covering up abuse, which is precisely what the Popes accusers have been caught doing! In fact recently at his mass at Santa Martha he explained (based on the days scriptural reading and the praxis of Jesus) that prayerful silence is the answer to those showing you hatred. Silence was also the Popes response to the despicable poster-campaign organized against him in the city of Rome by a notorious Curial cardinal from USA, covert supporter of Vigano! Hence our suspicion: is there also a political motive for many first-world Catholic leaders to bring disrepute on this Third World Pope? Third World Pope The first Pope who annoyed the First Worlds right-wing Catholic Churchmen by criticizing the First Worlds economic exploitation of the Third World, was certainly not Pope Francis. It was blessed (very soon St) Paul VI. This Italian pontiffs Populorum Progressio was dismissed by the First World Press as a Philo-Marxist critique of their allegedly successful economic system. PopePaul VI reiterated his uncompromising critique on several other occasions. Church historians have observed that Pope Francis was only continuing the Conciliar Renewal which ceased with Pope Pauls demise. Pope Paul has come alive in Pope Francis. Pope Francis, of course, has been even more blunt and insistent than Pope Paul when hurling this same criticism against economic exploitation by rich countries. For he comes from the Third World and had experienced the effects of such exploitation on his people. Hence we are amused to hear him being accused of Marxism, a label tagged on to anyone who struggles for economic justice! But Pope Francis seemed even more amused; for his humorous repartee was that whatever good Marx had taught about exploitation of workers was copied from the Bible! It is solely the Word of God in the Bible that guides this Pope whenever he sees, judges and acts. Hence the following observation. The culprit behind the proposed coup against the Pope is Mgr. Carlo Maria Vigano Pope Francis was only continuing the Conciliar Renewal which ceased with Pope Pauls demise Back to the Bible Back to the origins (reditus ad fontes) was the slogan with which Vatican II was launched. For the church felt it had deviated from its sources. The Wests right-wing Catholic lobby including bishops had forgotten that the biblical narrative does not begin with the Creation Story (which was an important after-thought) but with a Workers Revolt in Egypt and the revelation of a merciful God who took the Workers side in their struggle for justice. According to the New Testament, it was this Gods divine Son who, at the appointed time, was born into a workers family and inaugurated the reign of mercy and justice with a small group of disciples many of whom also came from a worker-background. It is about this God that Pope Francis speaks to the dismay of those Catholic leaders whose Mammon-worship had led them not only to abandon the God of the Oppressed but also oppress Gods little ones. Furthermore, history has demonstrated that wherever the Church has failed to witness to the revolutionary origin of Judeo-Christianity, it has sinned against Gods poor and has violated the dignity of the most vulnerable humans, i.e., children. We, Asian Christians, must learn a lesson from this crisis in the first world, and renew ourselves, our families, our parishes, our religious congregations and our dioceses as demanded by Vatican II lest we too succumb to the same temptation. There are signs that we are not far away from that pitfall. The Philippine Bishops have already pledged to the Pope that they would take every precaution to avoid it. Other Asian churches must wake up and follow the lead given by Asias most Catholic nation! Conclusion There is also another area in which our Third World Pope has antagonized the church leaders and theologians of the de-churched West, namely by severely reprimanding them for failing to feed their flock with Gods Word.From the fruits, you shall know said Lord Jesus. The crisis of faith in those countries is the visible fruit of the self-seeking clericalism of their pastors as well as their bookish theology which is evangelically ineffective and spiritually sterile. Ironically, it is this Argentinian Pope from the Third World who is re-gathering Europes de-Christianized youth while the Wests self-styled theologians, who look for heresies in this Pope, have lost their credibility among the believers entrusted to them. The Third World Pope is, therefore, a thorn in the flesh of failed pastors, who should now examine their own personal histories instead of harassing our lion-hearted pontiff for restoring the original charisma of Christianity in accordance with the renewal programme of Vatican II. A certain Government Department spinning money for the exchequer had been maintaining a holiday bungalow at the periphery for the exclusive use of its employees and their family members. In fact, the bungalow had been constructed on the initiative of the departments welfare division. However, security men of a very high political authority who had encroached the bungalow about one and half years ago are said to be still using it with no sign of releasing it for the use of the employees for whom it had been put up. The departments head finding himself helpless has now virtually written off the bungalow, they say. The dues on water and electricity bills run by this bungalow have now gone into arrears amounting to about Rs. 1 million, nevertheless, the supply of both water and electricity to it continues uninterrupted, informed sources say. From left: Messe Frankfurt SP Sri Lanka Director Hadi Salahuddin, Messe Frankfurt SP Sri Lanka CEO Omer Salahuddin, Messe Frankfurt Group Senior Vice President Consumer Goods and Board Member Stephan Kurzawski and Messe Frankfurt Group Director Marketing Erdmann Kilian Pic by Kushan Patiraja By Nishel Fernando Sri Lanka plans to have its own country pavilion at the worlds largest consumer goods show, Ambiente in 2020 organised by Messe Frankfurt. Addressing a media briefing in Colombo yesterday, Messe Frankfurt SP Sri Lanka CEO Omer Salahuddin revealed that Messe Frankfurt has been working with Export Development Board (EDB) and Industry and Commerce Ministry to have a country pavilion for Sri Lanka at the 2020 Ambiente show to showcase Sri Lankan consumer goods, particularly handicrafts. Salahuddin noted that five Sri Lankan exhibitors are expected to participate in Ambiente next year to showcase their products. Ambiente is scheduled to be held from 8 12 February 2019 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Addressing the press briefing, Messe Frankfurt Group Senior Vice President Consumer Goods and Board Member, Stephan Kurzawski noted that Ambiente 2018 featured around 4,441 exhibitors and attracted 134,600 trade visitors from 168 countries, presenting classic and innovative products over five days. He highlighted that Ambiente offers a wide range of events, programmes for newcomers, trend presentations and award ceremonies, all at the same time. The top 10 visitor nations (excluding Germany) include Italy, China, France, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, South Korea and Switzerland. Kurzawski emphasised that Sri Lankan designs are in demand at the trade fair while noting that Sri Lanka is rich in handicrafts, ceramic and other decorative items. According to organisers, the flow of Sri Lankan buyers going to Ambiente fair to buy high-end lifestyle products have been increasing every year. As the demand of Sri Lankan household keeps changing, retailers will need to response quickly to the changing trends. At Ambiente this can be seen at the various halls, events and presentations, Kurzawski said. He pointed out that the trade fair would also be a good opportunity for Sri Lankan manufactures to get inspired by various designs and innovations displayed . Kurzawski affirmed that Frankfurt is thus the number one trading location for volume business outside China. Fascinating presentations and valuable tips running on all five days of the trade fair will provide insights to current market developments. Experts will present how to compile attractive product ranges and how to position products in the best possible way, he elaborated. Meanwhile, Salahuddin revealed that seven Sri Lankan firms and two designers are signed up to participate for Messe Frankfurts Texworld Paris, the international fair for fashion fabrics, trims and accessories, which would be held during 17-20th of September, this year. The biannual event will feature 15, 000 visitors and 1, 700 exhibitors. Sri Lankan designers are also expected to hold their own fashion show Sri Lanka on Stage on September 20 as part of the event. Salahuddin said the Sri Lankan fashion show will be one of the most eye-catching events at the Texworld. He said that overall there are nearly 40 exhibitors from Sri Lanka who will take part in Messe Frankfurts exhibitions all year around. Speaking of Sri Lankas prospects, Kurzawski noted that the countrys product portfolio remains very attractive to the European consumer as the products are tailored to meet the tastes of the European consumer, which Sri Lanka should capitalise on. When queried if Messe Frankfurt plans to make Sri Lanka a partner country at Ambiente similar to India, Kurzawski said, We need a certain volume, as well as willingness of associations and the government. Messe Frankfurt also plans to open its local outbound sales office in Colombo this year. Messe Frankfurt is the worlds biggest trade fair, convention and event organiser with its own premises. It holds 146 trade fairs and exhibitions worldwide attracting 4.4 million visitors and 95,000 exhibitors annually. Messe Frankfurt employs a workforce of 2,400 in around 30 sites and generates annual sales of around 669 million euros. The group based in Frankfurt am Main is owned partly by the City of Frankfurt (60 percent) and State of Hesse (40 percent). Sri Lankas leadership of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) could serve as a catalyst for and inspire other countries to appreciate the value of peace building, Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva A. L. A. Azeez said. Delivering a speech on the assumption of Presidency of the 9th Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on Wednesday, Ambassador Azeez said. He said Sri Lankas Presidency of the next meeting of the States Parties is historic for several reasons. Sri Lanka became a State Party to the Convention on 1 March 2018, barely six months ago. We did so after acceding to the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines. This followed a very delicate national process, after having made considerable progress towards making Sri Lanka a landmine-free country. Taking resolute action to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions banning an injurious and indiscriminate conventional weapon category, which Sri Lanka had never used during its almost three decades-long conflict, was the next logical step to follow, he said. He also said Sri Lankas Presidency is an opportunity to clearly manifest both the commitment as well as the progress made in advancing reconciliation and peace building since the current Government came to office in 2015. "Sri Lanka and its Presidency, supported by the Coordination Committee, would do all that is possible to strive towards realising this vision in the coming year-which also marks a crucial year bridging the transition onto the second decade of the CCM and building momentum on to the Second Review Process of the CCM that will take place under the able leadership of Switzerland in the year 2020, he said. Fitch Ratings has affirmed National Insurance Trust Fund Boards (NITF) National Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) Rating and National Long-Term Rating at AA-(lka). The Outlook is Stable. The affirmation reflects the companys strong domestic business profile, conservative investment mix as well as strong financial performance and capitalisation. This is partly offset by volatility in profitability and capitalisation over the previous 15 months due to back-to-back natural disasters and high claims. Fitch believes NITF has a strong domestic business profile, which is underpinned by its role as the countrys only reinsurer, its well-established exclusive product lines, its function as an arm of the state in implementing policies, its full government ownership and a mandate requiring all domestic non-life operators to cede 30 percent of their reinsurance to NITF. NITFs strong capitalisation is reflected in its risked-based capital (RBC) ratio of 314 percent as at end-June 2018 (2017: 255 percent, 2016: 385 percent), which is well above the 120 percent regulatory minimum. However, capitalisation has been highly volatile since mid-2017 due to natural disaster-related losses and large dividend payments to the State. We believe the insurers capital position may come under pressure if it continues to pay high dividends during periods of increasing frequency of large natural catastrophes, Fitch said. Salahuddin noted that five Sri Lankan exhibitors are expected to participate in Ambiente next year to showcase their products. Ambiente is scheduled to be held from 8 12 February 2019 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Addressing the press briefing, Messe Frankfurt Group Senior Vice President Consumer Goods and Board Member, Stephan Kurzawski noted that Ambiente 2018 featured around 4,441 exhibitors and attracted 134,600 trade visitors from 168 countries, presenting classic and innovative products over five days. He highlighted that Ambiente offers a wide range of events, programmes for newcomers, trend presentations and award ceremonies, all at the same time. The top 10 visitor nations (excluding Germany) include Italy, China, France, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, South Korea and Switzerland. Kurzawski emphasised that Sri Lankan designs are in demand at the trade fair while noting that Sri Lanka is rich in handicrafts, ceramic and other decorative items. According to organisers, the flow of Sri Lankan buyers going to Ambiente fair to buy high-end lifestyle products have been increasing every year. As the demand of Sri Lankan household keeps changing, retailers will need to response quickly to the changing trends. At Ambiente this can be seen at the various halls, events and presentations, Kurzawski said. He pointed out that the trade fair would also be a good opportunity for Sri Lankan manufactures to get inspired by various designs and innovations displayed . Kurzawski affirmed that Frankfurt is thus the number one trading location for volume business outside China. Fascinating presentations and valuable tips running on all five days of the trade fair will provide insights to current market developments. Experts will present how to compile attractive product ranges and how to position products in the best possible way, he elaborated. Meanwhile, Salahuddin revealed that seven Sri Lankan firms and two designers are signed up to participate for Messe Frankfurts Texworld Paris, the international fair for fashion fabrics, trims and accessories, which would be held during 17-20th of September, this year. The biannual event will feature 15, 000 visitors and 1, 700 exhibitors. Sri Lankan designers are also expected to hold their own fashion show Sri Lanka on Stage on September 20 as part of the event. Salahuddin said the Sri Lankan fashion show will be one of the most eye-catching events at the Texworld. He said that overall there are nearly 40 exhibitors from Sri Lanka who will take part in Messe Frankfurts exhibitions all year around. Speaking of Sri Lankas prospects, Kurzawski noted that the countrys product portfolio remains very attractive to the European consumer as the products are tailored to meet the tastes of the European consumer, which Sri Lanka should capitalise on. When queried if Messe Frankfurt plans to make Sri Lanka a partner country at Ambiente similar to India, Kurzawski said, We need a certain volume, as well as willingness of associations and the government. Messe Frankfurt also plans to open its local outbound sales office in Colombo this year. Messe Frankfurt is the worlds biggest trade fair, convention and event organiser with its own premises. It holds 146 trade fairs and exhibitions worldwide attracting 4.4 million visitors and 95,000 exhibitors annually. Messe Frankfurt employs a workforce of 2,400 in around 30 sites and generates annual sales of around 669 million euros. The group based in Frankfurt am Main is owned partly by the City of Frankfurt (60 percent) and State of Hesse (40 percent). Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Buddhika Pathirana cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the twin exhibitions Deputy Minister Buddhika Pathirana examining a stall Pix by Kithsiri De Mel Sri Lanka Buildcon 2018 and Sri Lanka Wood 2018, two trade shows organised by Futurex Trade Fair and Events (Pvt.) Ltd, a leading SAARC countries organiser in collaboration with Sri Lankan marketing partner CDC Events, were kicked off yesterday at the BMICH. These exhibitions spanning three days from September 7 to 9, house over 100 international companies representing 10 countries, brimming with the latest products, innovations and developments across the building sector, both within the country and regionally. The expo is supported by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Lanka Ready Mix Concrete Association, Association of Colombo District Timber Businessmen, Sri Lanka Plywood Manufacturers, State Timber Corporation and Confederation of Indian Industry. Sri Lanka Wood 2018 is the only exclusive international trade show organised by the woodworking and furniture sector in the country, while Buildcon Expo brings together construction machinery and building material products, making it Sri Lankas leading trade show for the construction industry. The Future Build conference will take place at the Buildcon Expo theatre at various times throughout the event with speakers from the SAARC nations. It will also include provocative discussions on how best to prepare for futuristic developments within the construction industry. Seoul (dpa), 6 September 2018 - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the two Koreas should continue to work towards denuclearization as a date was set for his next meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae In. A third summit between Moon and Kim will be held in the North Korean capital Pyongyang between September 18 and 20, Seouls presidential office said on Thursday. The dates were decided on Wednesday at a meeting between a visiting South Korean delegation and Kim in Pyongyang, during which the North Korean leader also reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Kim said it was his countrys fixed stand and his will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean Peninsula and turn it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat, state news agency KCNA reported. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and two private banks-Hatton National Bank and Sampath Bank-announced a new partnership programme of up to USD 9 million for local financing available to private, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) throughout Sri Lanka. The USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA) is also a partner of the new programme. The signing of the agreement took place on September 5 in Colombo. In a statement, the US Embassy said this seven year program will help to address the current lack of financing to these key borrower groups. This partnership will complement and be further supported by USAID's YouLead program that strengthens employability and self-employment opportunities for youth in Sri Lanka, it said. Reed Aeschliman, Mission Director for USAID Sri Lanka said the USAID is proud to encourage private sector lending in key sectors that are vital to the economic development of Sri Lanka. "Increasing access to credit enables youth entrepreneurs to improve their own lives, and helps small and medium enterprises to spur further economic growth in their respective regions," he said. The program represents a crucial step toward enabling Sri Lanka's private sector and youth entrepreneurs to access capital, expand businesses, and, ultimately, to create more jobs. Jude Fernando, HNB Deputy General Manager (SME and Mid-Market) said the new partnership between HNB, USAID, and Sampath Bank represents a vital step forward in the collective mission in enhancing economic opportunities for young Sri Lankans. Meanwhile, Tharaka Ranwala, Senior Deputy Managing Director of Sampath Bank said they welcome this scheme which will provide better access to much required capital for the new entrepreneurs and it aligns well with their entrepreneurship development initiative. The World Physical Therapy Day, observed annually on September 8, gives the opportunity for physical therapists to raise awareness on their contribution to keep people well, mobile and independent. This years theme PHYSICAL THERAPY AND MENTAL HEALTH demonstrates the role played by physical therapy and physical activity in mental health. Age-standardised suicide rates: WHO There were close to 800,000 suicide deaths worldwide in 2016. This indicates an annual global age-standardised suicide rate of 10.5 per 100,000 people. The major differences between high-income countries and low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are that young adults and elderly women in LMICs have much higher suicide rates than their counterparts in high-income countries, while middle-aged men in high-income countries have much higher suicide rates than middle-aged men in LMICs. Some 800,000 people die from suicide each year (one death every 40 seconds). 2.8% was the median amount of the health budget allocated to mental health in 2011. At least 60 countries had less than 1 psychiatrist per 100,000 people in 2014. The World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) is the sole international voice for physical therapy, representing more than 350,000 physical therapists through its 106 member organisations. Sri Lanka is also a member of the WCPT since 2003. In 1996, it designated September 8 as the World Physiotherapy Day.This is the date the WCPT was founded in 1951.The day marks the unity and solidarity of the global physiotherapy community. It is an opportunity to recognise the work physiotherapists do for their patients and the community at large. WCPT encourages physical therapists around the world to use its toolkit to convey these messages to the public and policymakers; the campaign is focused around the following key messages. Exercise as an evidence-based treatment for depression. The role of physical therapists working with patients who may have mental health issues. The benefits of physical activity in protecting against the emergence of depression. How better outcomes are experienced when exercise is delivered by a qualified healthcare professional, such as a physical therapist. How people with mental health issues are more at risk of having poor physical health. These messages are important not just to encourage health and activity in populations, but can help demonstrate how physical therapists keep people moving through interventions which maximise strength and mobility. Through advice and exercise programmes, physical therapists support people of all ages to achieve activity goals. Since 2003, we commemorated the World Physical Therapy Day with various programmes. Using World Physiotherapy Day as a focus, this year too, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Sri Lanka (CSPSL) aims at organising several programmes to promote the profession among the nation and advance the use of profession by public. However, we have found out that a majority arent aware of this subject, which is why we have decided to hold public awareness programmes on the physiotherapy profession. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (Sri Lanka) To mark the World Physical Therapy Day, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (Sri Lanka) conducted a series of events. The objective of these programmes was to enhance awareness among the public about prevention and pre- and post-management of physical fitness when dealing with diseases, injuries and complications, assuring the wellbeing of life. The programmes consisted of five free physiotherapy clinics, four public awareness workshops and two sport injury management workshops. More than a thousand individuals including patients benefitted from these programmes. Also, wide media coverage was given. This included twelve television interviews. With the guidance and contribution of 22 physiotherapists representing CSPSL, the final programme was held on September 7 in Thelkumuduwala, a rural village in Sri Lanka. Free clinical and awareness events were organised, demonstrating the sense of value and importance of physical therapy. Physio Life Care (Sri Lanka) To mark the World Physiotherapy Day, Physio Life Care (Sri Lanka) conducted a series of events. They focused on this years Physical Activity for Life message and raised public awareness on the importance of physical fitness. Two free physiotherapy clinics were carried out, along with fifteen exercise workshops, three public awareness workshops and five sport injury management workshops serving more than ten thousand individuals including patients. This series included coverage on six television channels. The final programme was held on September 6 in Pannala, offering free exercise workshops and awareness events, as well as a television programme on ITN. Some 800,000 people die from suicide each year (one death every 40 seconds). 2.8% was the median amount of the health budget allocated to mental health in 2011. At least 60 countries had less than 1 psychiatrist per 100,000 people in 2014 Physiotherapy Students Welfare Society An inter-school quiz competition was organised to celebrate the World Physical Therapy Day on September 8. It was organised by the Physiotherapy Students Welfare Society, Department of Allied Health Sciences, ColomboUniversity Medicine Faculty. To raise public awareness on the subject matter, the World Physical Therapy Day should be mentioned in documents such as calendars, diaries and year planners. The export turnover of Dong Nai was estimated at US$12.2 billion in the first eight months, an annual rise of 12%, while the import turnover was US$10.4 billion in the period. The province has exported hundreds of varieties of products in recent years, including footwear, garments and textiles, fibres and textile threads, wooden products, computers, electronics and spare parts. According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam produced a trade surplus of US$2.8 billion in the first eight months of 2018. The United States remained the largest market for Vietnamese exports, purchasing US$30 billion worth of goods in the January-August period, up 10.2% from the previous year. The EU came second with US$27.7 billion worth of goods, followed by China with US$23.4 billion in imports. Vietnamese exports to the ASEAN countries rose 16% to reach US$16.5 billion, while exports to Japan and the Republic of Korea were estimated at US$12 billion and US$11.8 billion, respectively. This will be the first time the province has hosted an international photo exhibition. The exhibition will feature around 500 photographs, of which 300 are about ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and the rest feature Cao Bang; 30 documentaries about ASEAN; and the stamps and seals of ASEAN countries. Photos displayed are arranged thematically on beauty, traditional culture, ethnic minorities, and environmental protection work of ASEAN countries. The three-day event, jointly organised by the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Cao Bang Peoples Committee, is expected to give visitors an insight into the countries and people in the ASEAN Community, and promote mutual understanding, friendship and unity among ASEAN people. This is also an opportunity for Cao Bang to introduce its economic and tourism potential to international friends. Cao Bang, a northern mountainous province, is home to many ethnic groups like Tay, Nung, Mong and Dao. It is home to the magnificent Ban Gioc waterfall, the fourth largest border waterfall; the UNESCO-recognised global geopark Non Nuoc Cao Bang; and the historic site Pac Po Cave where late President Ho Chi Minh lived for a short time after he returned to Vietnam from abroad to lead the Vietnamese revolution against France. Acer ITS installs smart parking meters in Taipei Acer ITS has installed in-house-developed smart parking meters along a road section in Taipei, with operation kicking off on September 6, according to the company. The Acer subsidiary is undertaking a pilot project of smart roadside parking management commissioned by the city government. The parking meters can detect cars moving into roadside parking spaces and recognize their license plates. When cars leave, the meters will immediately transfer information on available parking spaces to a cloud computing-based platform established by Acer ITS. The information is available to users of a company-developed smartphone app. The smart meters have higher efficiency in parking management, providing real-time information on vacant parking spaces, Acer ITS indicated. The 13 smart meters recently installed in Taipei are expected to handle 5,000 times of parking a month, and the data collected by the meters can help the city government understand parking behavior in the area at different times. Acer ITS has also obtained two roadside smart parking meter projects from Tainan and Kaohsiung, both in southern Taiwan. Smart parking meters installed along a road in Taipei Photo: Acer ITS 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. Subscriber content preview The Associated General Contractors of Washington sweetened its offer this week to operating engineers, hoping to end a strike that began Aug. 21. Members of Local 302 were scheduled to meet last night at their headquarters in Bothell. . . . >>> National Day celebrated in Switzerland, Chile, Algeria Speaking at the event, Ambassador Dang Minh Khoi said over the past 73 years, the Vietnamese people have exerted efforts in the national liberation, reunification, renovation and integration into the global community. Vietnam and China have also regularly maintained visits and exchanges between their high-ranking leaders. Positive has been recorded in bilateral trade, investment, and tourism cooperation. Vietnam has been Chinas largest trade partner in ASEAN for two consecutive years. Exchanges between departments, localities, as well as people-to-people exchange have been strengthened, he said. The ambassador expressed his belief that China will fulfil the goal of socialist modernisation towards building China into a modern socialist country imbued with democracy, civilisation, and harmony. Earlier on September 5, the Vietnamese Embassy in Cuba held a similar ceremony on the occasion, attracting nearly 500 officials and guests from the two countries. Participants discussed issues of shared concern and enjoyed traditional Vietnamese cuisines at the event. Also on September 5, the Embassy of Vietnam on hosted a banquet for about 500 Singaporean guests, foreign diplomats, scholars, and Vietnamese nationals living in Singapore to celebrate the 73rd National Day. On the same day, the Vietnamese Embassy in India also held a ceremony in New Delhi to mark the National Day, with Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in attendance. The National Day was also celebrated in the Czech Republic at a reception hosted by the Embassy of Vietnam and attended by Czech Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Vojtech Filip and Deputy Foreign Minister Lukas Kaucky. Polar bear tourists flock to Alaskan village As attention has focused on the plight of polar bears, people from around the world are heading to tiny Kaktovik on the Beaufort Sea. JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) 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. 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. 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 started 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 was going to try to get us to shut down the whaling 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 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. Florence crackdown on boorish tourists' ROME (AP) The tourist magnet of Florence is cracking down on visitors who eat on sidewalks, doorsteps or driveways during lunch or dinner time. Mayor Dario Nardella has said that a new ordinance, calling for fines up to $575, aims to combat boorish tourists. The ordinance, which went into effect this week, applies to certain streets in the Renaissance city, including near the Uffizi Galleries, and only from noon to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. It's valid through Jan. 6, 2019, the end of the Italian holiday season. Tourists often eat in the street to avoid paying to dine at cafes. Last year, after a man swam naked in Rome's Trevi Fountain, that city began fining people eating on monumental fountains or bathing in them. 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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 The information was released at a WEF ASEAN press conference held in Hanoi on September 6. In addition to the delegates, about 300 reporters from global and regional media outlets are expected to come covering the event. Speaking at the press conference, Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, who is also head of the organising board of the forum, said that it is scheduled to take place in Hanoi from September 11 to 13 under the theme of ASEAN 4.0: Entrepreneurship in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He added that the theme is relevant to the blocs 2018 theme of Resilient and Innovative ASEAN. According to the official, the forum will revolve around a range of topics, including defining a new ASEAN vision for regional integration; new economic models and leadership in the digital ages; and the development of smart infrastructure, jobs, startups, and innovation. The forum will feature an open forum on ASEAN 4.0 for peoples benefits, an opening ceremony of the plenary session on September 12, and 60 in-depth sessions and discussions. On the sidelines, an innovative startup forum is scheduled for September 11, a Vietnam cultural gala will take place on September 12, the Vietnam Business Summit 2018 will start on September 13 as well as a two-day field trip to Quang Ninh province and its world-famous Ha Long bay starting September 13. Most of these activities will take place at the Vietnam National Convention Center in Hanois Nam Tu Liem district. Son said that both venues and needed infrastructure have been put into place, while reception, communications, security, and health works have been prepared well. At the press conference, head of the Asia-Pacific region of the WEF Justin Wood highlighted that the significant number of participants reflects the events attractiveness. He said Vietnam is to date the first and only country that the WEF has signed and implemented a public-private partnership agreement. The sides have worked closely together particularly in preparing for the WEF ASEAN 2018 over the past year. The event saw the presence of Vietnamese Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich and his Lao counterpart Gen.Lieut.Gen Chansamone Chanyalath, as well as Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Thongsavanh Phomvihane. Over the past few years, the two armies have coordinated closely and supported each other in numerous aspects. Notably, during the Vietnam-Laos Friendship and Solidarity Year 2017, they organised a string of activities to mark the 55th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and 40 years of the Treaty on Amity and Cooperation, thus helping educate young generations on their traditional bilateral ties. Defence cooperation has been intensified in recent times, becoming an important pillar in the two countries special solidarity and contributing to maintaining peace and socio-political stability by defeating all schemes to disunite the two nations. At the ceremony, Minister Chansamone granted the Lao State and armys Orders to 69 collectives and 22 individuals of the VPA. Russia imposes temporary ban on Bulgaria pork imports Russia state authorities have enforced a provisional ban on the imports of live pigs and pork meat products from the Bulgarian territory because of the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), a local Russian media reports. The ban will include pork carcases, pork and products containing pork, pork embryos and boar semen. However, an exception will be made for products processed using technology to ensure virus destruction, such as ready-made pig meat products, finished products containing pig or animal raw materials from pork, raw materials of animal origin from pig meat intended for production of feed for non-productive animals and for fur animals. Despite building a 130 kilometres fence along the border of Romania, the ASF epidemic has managed to cross the border into Bulgaria, according to the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision. Bulgaria is the eighth EU country to face an outbreak of ASF, while the deadly disease was previously discovered in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. On September 4, Bulgaria's Food and Safety Agency announced a long list of measures to prevent the spread of ASF. Source: Independent Balkan News Agency The joint statement highlighted Vietnam-Russia relations, regional and international issues, and the discussion points between the two countries leaders. During his trip, the Vietnamese Party leader held talks with President Putin and met Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin, and Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia Andrey Turchak. He laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Mausoleum, and the Statue of President Ho Chi Minh in Moscow. He also attended a ceremony to celebrate the 60th founding anniversary of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association as well as meetings with Russian veterans and experts who have worked in Vietnam, and visited Kaluga province. During the talks and meetings, leaders of the two countries discussed how to further develop the Vietnam-Russia friendship and all-round cooperation, as well as international and regional issues of their common concern. General Secretary Trong and President Putin affirmed the consistent policy of strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries in order to meet the long-term interests of their peoples, and agreed on the importance of maintaining joint efforts to promote cooperation in all areas. The two sides highly valued the regular and substantial political dialogue, across channels from the National Assembly, Government, ministerial and sectorial levels, localities, political parties and social organisations. The two leaders emphasised the significance of the thorough preparation of activities for the Vietnam Year in Russia and the Russia Year in Vietnam, taking place in 2019, which are hoped to contribute to promoting bilateral cooperation across many sectors. The two sides expressed their satisfaction with the development of defence-security and military cooperation, the field that holds a special role in the Vietnam-Russia relationship, while affirming their determination to consolidate and expand ties in these fields in the spirit of a comprehensive strategic partnership, on the basis of international law and laws of each country. Both sides highly appreciated the coordination role of the Vietnam-Russia Intergovernmental Committee on military technical cooperation and the Defence Strategic Dialogue mechanism at the deputy ministerial level between the two countries defence ministries. The leaders stressed the need for radical efforts to boost economic and trade cooperation, firstly overcoming any current problems, improving the cooperation mechanism, and effectively implementing the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union as well as its member nations, signed on May 29, 2015, as well as other documents between Vietnam and Russia, towards creating a breakthrough in bilateral trade and investment collaboration. They highly valued the important role played by the Vietnam-Russia Intergovernmental Committee for Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technological Cooperation, and its working groups in promoting cooperation, while emphasising the importance of improving the performance of the committee, including coordinating to supervise the implementation of agreements reached between the two countries, and identifying new priorities for cooperation, focusing on cooperative projects with a high technology content. The two sides highlighted the need to improve the effectiveness of activities of the Vietnam-Russia Senior Working Group on priority investment projects in order to develop and implement projects in the fields of industry and electrical energy; mining and mineral processing; agriculture; information and telecommunications; and urban and transport infrastructure in localities all over of Vietnam. They asserted their determination to expand cooperation in building a nuclear science and technology centre in Vietnam, as well as training Vietnamese students in Russia, who are pursuing subjects related to the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. The two sides agreed that in the case that Vietnam restarts its plan to build the national atomic energy sector, Russia will be considered a priority partner in this field. Both sides applauded and highly appreciated the implementation of joint projects in the field of oil and gas, affirming to continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese and Russian enterprises to expand their operations in the field in the territory of both nations. The leaders agreed to expand the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas on the continental shelf of Vietnam, in accordance with international law such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS 1982). The two sides emphasised prospects for their cooperation in power energy, especially the advantages of Russian firms participating in Vietnamese projects on the modernisation and rebuilding of old energy facilities. The Vietnamese Party leader and the Russian President agreed on measures to foster collaboration on motor vehicle manufacturing. The two leaders acknowledged the need to reinforce cooperation in agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, agricultural support industry, irrigation, and disaster prevention; and agreed that the removal of technical barriers and the uniform application of food safety standards will pave the wave for Vietnamese agricultural, aquatic, forestry, and pharmaceutical products to enter Russia and vice versa, as well as boost bilateral trade. They stressed the need to improve and diversify cooperation in banking and finance, and showed common interest in strengthening collaboration in science-technology and education-training. They highly valued the effective operation of the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre (VRCT) and agreed to expand cooperation within this centre for the benefit of both sides. The two sides agreed to foster partnership in the use of airspace for peaceful purposes and work together to deploy and develop Russias global space satellite navigation system GLONASS. They welcomed the strong promotion of people-to-people exchange between the two countries, including the regular organisation of Cultural Days of each country and the increase in Vietnamese tourist arrivals in Russia and vice versa. They highly spoke of bright prospects for cooperation between Vietnams cities and provinces with those in Russia, Siberia, and the Far East in multiple fields, particularly agriculture, light industry, and tourism. The two leaders took common stances on major regional and global issues and shared determination to push for a multipolar international system with enhanced equality and democracy based on the wide cooperation and uniform regulations for all nations, the rule of law, and the central role of the United Nations. Vietnam and Russia agreed that international security should be comprehensive and indivisible, based on the principle that a country cannot achieve security with acts detrimental to others, including the expansion of regional and global political and military alliances. Both sides endorsed equality between nations, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states and non-use of force and threat to use force. They opposed the performance of unilateral acts or the imposition of economic embargos that run counter to international law and overlook the role of the UN Security Council. They are ready to coordinate closely within the framework of the UN Security Council in keeping peace and improving its effectiveness, and will continue supporting each others candidacy for seats at regional and international organisations. The two countries looked forward to continued bilateral and multilateral cooperation to combat the increasing threat of high-tech crimes and terrorism, and urged for the concerted efforts of the international community to fight terrorism, including terrorist financing, transnational terrorism, and the dissemination of terrorist ideology and propaganda. They do not accept issues relating to terrorism as an excuse to take advantage and intervene in another countrys internal affairs. Vietnam and Russia affirmed their desire to expand cooperation in fighting terrorism, organised transnational crime, drug smuggling, corruption, as well as challenges posing a threat to security. Trong applauded Russias efforts to combat terrorism and seek a political solution to the Syria crisis on the basis of international law and the United Nations Charter, while the Russian side confirmed its willingness to help Vietnam in participating in the UNs peacekeeping missions. Both sides emphasised the necessity of close cooperation and coordination at multilateral forums where international security issues including arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons can be discussed. The two countries committed to obeying a policy of not being the first party to deploy weapons in airspace, and called for other parties with airspace potential to do the same. They showed their backing for the international communitys efforts to strengthen the legal framework in the fight against terrorism and the use of weapons of mass destruction, as well as ensuring the full implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons, and their Destruction. The leaders affirmed their hopes to strengthen cooperation in effectively implementing the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, and stressed the importance of expanding regional economic cooperation and coordination in the fields of transport, energy, and trade within the framework of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. They also stressed their determination to maintain collaboration to promote and protect human rights through regional and international organisations on the basis of the UN Charter and international law, while agreeing to develop equal cooperation and mutual respect to implement the two countries international missions in protecting human rights. Border and territorial disputes and other disputes in the Asia-Pacific region should be addressed by peaceful means, while not using or threatening to use violence on the basis of international law, to ensure peace, stability, and security in the region, they said, adding that the two countries back the full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and welcome the relevant parties efforts to soon adopt a Code of Conduct in the East Sea. The leaders confirmed that maintaining peace and stability and strengthening mutual trust are core factors to ensure stable development in the Asia-Pacific region. They also affirmed their support for the consolidation of ASEANs central role in the region. Vietnam pledged to back efforts by ASEAN and Russia to build the Russia-ASEAN strategic partnership following an agreement reached at the Russia-ASEAN Summit in Sochi in May 2016, and expand collaboration in trade, investment, science, technology, energy, culture, and agriculture; in ensuring peace and stability in the region; and in fighting terrorism and transnational crime. Both emphasised their desire to establish a win-win relationship between ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), while acknowledging the importance of increasing the role and position of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, according to the statement. The statement also affirmed that the official visit to Russia by the Vietnamese Party leader will act as a new driving force for the two countries strategic partnership. At the end of the talks, Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and President Vladimir Putin witnessed the signing of agreements between the two countries and their businesses. By Daily News , Sep. 6, 2018 Randi Berger of Encino organized the rally. Shes organized other conservative and pro-Trump events in Southern California, including one supporting Chick-fil-As policy of closing on Sundays for employees to rest and worship. Part of the goal of Wednesday nights rally was to give Trump supporters a place to air their views, she said. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook By WND , Sep. 5, 2018 California lawmakers recently proposed a law that critics say could have banned the sale of the Bible. It would have designated any purchase of a book that opposes the homosexual and transgender campaigns consumer fraud, but its sponsor at the last hour withdrew it. Read More: Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter "Like" Larry Elder on Facebook Dear @IlhanMN, I hear you plan to go on a fact-finding tour of Israel. In fact, Israel is doing pretty well. Its, Somalia, your native country, that could truly use your formidable skills. Maybe you could use your frequent flyer miles and swing by. The messages reveal that DHS asked staffers to find "positive gems" about war-torn countries to justify sending more than 300,000 people back to their homelands. The internal back-and-forths also demonstrate more subtle ways DHS sought to downplay the severity of conditions in volatile countries, like using the word "challenges," instead of "disasters" in talking points to the public. In the past six months, the Trump administration has moved to expel 300,000 Central Americans and Haitians living and working legally in the United States, disregarding senior U.S. diplomats who warned that mass deportations could destabilize the region and trigger a new surge of illegal immigration. The warnings were transmitted to top State Department officials last year in embassy cables now at the center of an investigation by Senate Democrats, whose findings were recently referred to the Government Accountability Office. The Washington Post obtained a copy of their report. The cables contents, which have not been previously disclosed, reveal career diplomats strong opposition to terminating the immigrants provisional residency, known as temporary protected status (TPS), and the possible deportation of hundreds of thousands of people to some of the poorest and most violent places in the Americas. The delegations observations are consistent with what federal authorities in both Republican and Democratic administrations have previously found on numerous occasions: that Honduras and El Salvador are plagued by stagnant economies, food insecurity, extreme gang violence, gender-based violence, and ill-functioning infrastructure that makes these countries unsafe for their nationals to return. In light of these unstable conditions, TPS provides safe haven for Hondurans and Salvadorans in the United States. In an abrupt departure from these findings, however, the Trump Administration terminated TPS status for Hondurans and Salvadorans. As it stands, TPS is set to terminate for Salvadorans on September 9, 2019, and for Hondurans on January 5, 2020. The deportation of TPS recipients is tantamount to a death sentence, and it will destabilize a region that is still reeling from ongoing natural disasters and other crises. In January 2018, the Trump administration cancelled Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for almost 200,000 Salvadorans living in the US, effective September 2019. Under TPS, Salvadorans who were in the United States without documentation in February 2001, were able to remain in the country, obtain employment authorization, and live without fear of deportation.The US government granted TPS for Salvadorans and for Haitians following devastating earthquakes in those countries in 2001 and 2010 respectively, and Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. After each 18-month period since then during both the Bush and Obama administrations, DHS had reviewed the program, determined that the nationals could not yet return safely to their countries (due to severe safety, health, housing, and infrastructure problems, exacerbated by subsequent natural disasters), and extended the program.With the anti-immigrant agenda of the Trump administration, however, TPS was cancelled for El Salvador, as well as Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan. TPS beneficiaries now have only months before their immigration status reverts to undocumented and deportable.With changes to immigration law in the US Congress seemingly stuck in an unending partisan stalemate, advocates for TPS holders have turned to the courts to reverse these TPS cancellations.The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, in partnership with Centro Presente, filed a federal class action lawsuit in Boston against the Trump administration to save TPS for Salvadoran, Honduran and Haitian immigrants. The Amended Complaint in the case titledis available here . The plaintiffs argue that DHS' decision to end the program was based not on a change in conditions in El Salvador, Honduras or Haiti, but rather on invidious discrimination toward black and Latino immigrants on the basis of race, ethnicity, and/or national origin. This racial animus appeared in President Trump's public remarks disparaging Haitians and Latin American immigrants. These actions by the administration, it is claimed, violate the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the US Constitution.In July, the federal judge denied the government's motion to dismiss the complaint inand will allow the case to proceed. Other documents from the case are available here The ACLU and other groups have also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration's TPS cancellations for El Salvador and other countries. This lawsuit includes both TPS holders and their US citizen children. Read the complaint in the action titled here . The plaintiffs allege that the arbitrary TPS cancellation violates rights of the US citizen children to the integrity of their families as well as constitutional violations of due process and equal protection.The federal judge inhas also rejected a motion by the government to dismiss the claims. A hearing on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction is set for September 25, 2018 in San Francisco. You can follow the docket of this case here The federal government has been forced to turn over internal documents in discovery in thecase. Those internal documents show administration officials trying to generate good facts to report about these countries in order to justify the TPS cancellations. As NPR reports Similar documents were revealed through an investigation by Senate Democrats and discussed by the Washington Post These disclosures in the documents should not surprise anyone. What changed between prior extensions of TPS and now was the administration in Washington, not the conditions in El Salvador and the other countries.In a third lawsuit, TPS holders supported by the American Immigration Council and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project sued the US government for its practice of not permitting TPS holders to apply for green cards (a process known as "adjusting status") in situations such as marriage to a US citizen spouse. Federal Courts of Appeals in the Sixth, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits have ruled that US Customs and Immigration Service must permit such applications, but the agency continues to deny the applications in all other parts of the country not within those three circuits. This lawsuit seeks a declaration which would require the government to process those applications nationwide. You can read the complaint in the action titled here and can follow the docket here In addition to these cases which directly impact Salvadoran TPS holders, two other lawsuits have been filed which focus solely on the termination of TPS for Haiti.Organizations supporting thelawsuit also conducted a fact-finding mission to Honduras and El Salvador earlier this year and issued a report detailing current conditions in those countries which would face TPS holders if they are deported. Their conclusion:Since Donald Trump came into office in 2017, it has been the US federal court system which has done the most to prevent or slow some of the worst abuses of Trump's anti-immigrant agenda. The courts may be the last best hope for Salvadoran TPS holders to remain in the country which has been their home for 17 years or more. At a working session with the Vietnamese leader, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Gordeyev affirmed that Vietnam is a friend and long-term partner of Kaluga. The two sides have enjoyed win-win cooperation in economy, trade, investment, social sciences, and humanities. He noted that the most positive improvement of the two countries relations is seen in economy and trade, with the trend continuing this year and proving that the establishment of a free trade area between the Eurasian Economic Union, of which Russia is a member, and Vietnam is a good step forward. He described the Vietnam-based TH Groups construction of animal farming complexes in Kaluga, and some other localities in Russia, as a bright example of the bilateral partnership. General Secretary Trongs current trip to Kaluga demonstrates that locality-to-locality cooperation is an important field in the countries connections, Gordeyev added. General Secretary Trong said he was happy to visit Kaluga for the first time and witness the dynamic development of this oblast as one of the fastest growing localities of Russia, taking the lead in investment attraction and advanced technology application. He expressed his delight at the enormous successes Kaluga has attained and wished it even stronger development in the future. He highlighted that in the two countries relations, economic, trade, and investment partnerships have played a pivotal role. In their talks and meetings, the Vietnamese and Russian leaders shared the view that the outcomes of their bilateral relations has yet to match their full potential. TH Group is a private Vietnamese firm that has been investing big in Russia, he said, thanking the Russian Government and the administration of Kaluga and asking them to continue their creation of optimal conditions for Vietnamese investors, including TH Group, and thereby contributing to local socio-economic development and the increase of the two countries relations. General Secretary Trong welcomed his hosts proposals on activities to mark the upcoming important anniversaries of bilateral ties in 2019 and 2020. He added that the Vietnamese side will introduce a locality to pair with Kaluga so as to contribute to the overall expansion of Vietnam-Russia relations. Also on September 7, the Party chief attended a ceremony to start the construction of TH Groups dairy factory in the Kaluga Special Economic Zone. The factory is expected to become one of the biggest and most modern of its kind in Russia. Invested with some US$150 million, it is set to cover 14ha and produce 1,500 tonnes of milk products per day once operational. TH Group has invested US$2.7 billion in dairy cow farming and high-tech milk processing complexes, along with some food-related projects, in Russias Moscow Oblast, Kaluga Oblast, Primorsky Kray, and the Republic of Bashkortostan. General Secretary Trong applauded efforts by TH Group, the first private Vietnamese company to have invested in Russian agriculture. He voiced his hope that more Vietnamese businesses will invest in Russia, including Kaluga, to produce high-quality products, create jobs for local people, and contribute to local development. iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- During a gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, President Donald Trump said that he is expecting a new letter from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, to be delivered to him by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The president, who has been exchanging letters and Twitter messages with Kim about a potential denuclearization deal, made the remarks as he traveled to a campaign event in Fargo, North Dakota. "I know that a letter, a personal letter, is being delivered to me from Kim Jong Un that was handed at the border yesterday," Trump said. Trump said he thinks it is going to be a "positive letter." On Thursday, a South Korean envoy who recently returned from meeting with Kim in Pyongyang said that the communist leader reiterated his commitment to denuclearize "if the countermeasures are taken simultaneously." The envoy said Kim told him he hoped to have complete denuclearization and end the hostile relationship between North Korea and the United States before 2021. "Yesterday he said I want to make this deal and denuclearize during President Trumps administration, so let's see what happens," Trump told reporters. "But he did write me a letter and the letter's being delivered to me, I think it's being brought in by Mike Pompeo," Trump said. Trump, who met with Kim face to face in Singapore earlier this summer to begin the long denuclearization process, admitted the relationship started out "very rough" but said the "rhetoric between myself and Kim has been very good." The president gushed about Kim on Twitter Thursday following news that Kim wants to reach an agreement before the end of Trump's first term. "Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims unwavering faith in President Trump. Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Trump tweeted. It was a dramatic change in tone from just two weeks ago when the president called off a meeting between Pompeo and Kim citing a lack of "sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization." The president seemed pleased with news of a new letter from Kim, even noting that it's being delivered in an "elegant way" -- that is, not electronically. "It's actually the way it used to be many years ago before we had all of the new contraptions that we all use." The president himself does not use a computer. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The event, held by the Institute for Economic Research under the National Autonomous University of Mexico, saw the participation of researchers and experts from Japan and Poland. Vietnamese Ambassador to Mexico, Nguyen Hoai Duong, discussed the relations between Vietnam and Mexico, as well as the potential for bilateral cooperation in various fields, particularly economy, trade, investment and culture. Since the two countries set up diplomatic ties on May 19, 1975, their collaboration and traditional friendship have been consolidated and enhanced in many spheres, he said, highlighting an annual increase of 10-15 percent in two-way trade over recent years. Vietnam has become Mexicos eighth largest trade partner in Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Mexico is Vietnams second largest trade partner in Latin America, with two-way trade value reaching nearly US$5 billion in 2017 and some US$1 billion in the first quarter of this year, the diplomat said, citing statistics released by the Mexican Ministry of Economy. Ambassador Duong expressed his belief that the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), to which both Vietnam and Mexico are signatories, will further facilitate economic, trade and investment links between the two countries once it takes effect. At the workshop, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Minh from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences presented Vietnams policies and progression in gender equality and female empowerment in political, economic and social spectrums. Dr. Naoko Saito from Japans Osaka University and Lukasz Czarnecki, a Polish researcher, spoke of the impressive development and increasingly important role of Vietnam in the region and the international arena at large. On this occasion, the Vietnamese Embassy in Mexico opened exhibitions of Mexican artists paintings and photos depicting the land and people of Vietnam. Eight European UN members back Turkey on Idlib effort UN Security Council members on Thursday supported Turkey's diplomatic efforts to avert an offensive in Idlib, northwest Syria, according to Sweden's UN envoy. Olof Skoog, ambassador and permanent representative of Sweden to the UN, said at the organization's headquarters in New York that a full-scale military operation in Idlib would escalate an already dangerous conflict in a volatile region. "PROTECTING CIVILIANS IS A PRIORITY" "Idlib is the last remaining de-escalation zone in Syria that the Astana guarantors committed to safeguarding. We express our support for the urgent diplomatic efforts being made to this end by Turkey and the United Nations," said Skoog. Skoog demanded that Russia and Iran uphold "ceasefire and de-escalation arrangements they have previously agreed, including protecting civilians as a matter of priority". The eight security council members who support Turkeys efforts are Italy, Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. The Syrian regime has recently announced plans to launch a major military offensive in the area, which is controlled by various armed opposition groups. Russian warplanes on Tuesday pounded civilian and opposition targets in Idlib. President Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are scheduled to meet Friday in Tehran for a trilateral summit on Syria. Erdogan and Putin meet in Tehran Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin come together ahead of a trilateral summit in Iran Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met on the sidelines of a Syria summit in the Iranian capital Tehran on Friday. BILATERAL MEETINGS The meeting came before the trilateral summit between Erdogan, Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the Sadabad Palace. Before having met with Putin, Erdogan also had a separate closed-door meeting with Rouhani. SYRIA TOPICS During a trilateral summit, the leaders will discuss joint efforts as part of the Astana process and political efforts for finding a lasting solution to the Syrian conflict. The first tripartite summit was held in Russias Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 22 to discuss progress made in the Astana peace talks and changes in de-escalation zones across Syria. THE PHOTO WHICH MAKES JEALOUS TRUMP President of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Erdogan's sincere photograph gave a message of unity, especially in Syria. Social media users tagged Donald Trump as "Jealous Trump". The second trilateral meeting was hosted by Erdogan in April in the Turkish capital Ankara. Pdf version JOINT STATEMENT CALL FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF SIMON MAGAL AND JAKUB SKRZYPSKI The West Papuan and Polish pair have been charged with treason in Indonesia Indonesian police arrested West Papuan student Simon Carlos Magal, 29, on 1 September 2018 in Timika, in connection with the arrest of Jakub Fabian Skrzypski several days earlier. According to news reports 1 , Mr. Skrzypski, a Polish citizen, was visiting West Papua as a tourist when he was detained by police in Wamena. He was arrested on suspicion of being a journalist, and for reportedly meeting with alleged members of an armed independence group in West Papua. 2 The two men have been charged with treason and are currently in jail awaiting trial in Jayapura. We call on the Indonesian government to stop using highly problematic treason charges that have long been used in excess to both intimidate peaceful dissent and to criminalise rights to the freedom of expression. Before his arrest, Mr. Magal was preparing to depart for post-graduate studies in Australia. A well-respected West Papuan lecturer, MY, has publicly condemned the arrest and expressed his frustration. Mr. Magal planned to join MY as a lecturer at the most prominent state university in West Papua once Mr. Magal finishes his studies. Mr. Magal's contacts with Mr. Skrzypski were limited and Mr. Magal has no capacity to carry out the weapons negotiations that he is being accused. Charging Mr. Magal with treason for having met Mr. Skrzypski and communicated with him on Facebook is excessive and not commensurate with Mr. Magal's actions. We believe that Mr. Magal has simply been dragged in by the actions of Mr. Skrzypski. Our findings show that Mr. Skrzypski is merely a tourist who may have been acting recklessly and irresponsibly in a conflict area. As a result, local people like Mr. Magal are left to face superfluous consequences. Close friends of Mr. Skrzypski that we interviewed describe him as an avid "extreme" traveller with a passion for other cultures, languages, and humanitarian issues. He had previously travelled to Armenia, Myanmar, and Iraq to learn about their cultures and respective histories of genocide. Before finally visiting West Papua, he had travelled multiple times to many places in Indonesia. He can speak Indonesian and, to a lesser degree, some local languages including Javanese, Ambonese, and Sumbanese. Sources indicate that Indonesian police used Mr. Skrzypski's photos of him holding guns as evidence of him being an arms dealer. A clarification that we received from one of Mr. Skrzypski's travelmates, alias AS, is that some of the photos was taken at an indoor sport shooting range located in Vaud, Switzerland, where Mr. Skrzypski had been living since 2008. Police confiscated all of Mr. Skrzypski's belongings, including the Libert e et Patrie, Vaud's cantonal flag. Connect with ETAN As an "extreme" traveller, the West Papua Liberation Army is not the first armed independence group that he has met for the sake of adventure. He had also visited the Kurdish Liberation Army in the troubled Qandil mountains region in Iraq in Spring 2017, before the liberation of Mosul from ISIS. His intention to learn about West Papua's struggle is indeed easily misinterpreted by the Indonesian government. While Mr. Skrzypski's choices may have been irresponsible and regrettable, his circumstances appear those of an idealistic and naive traveller, and not one of a criminal. By being accused of multiple counts of treason, we feel he has been unfairly charged. According to people that Mr. Skrzypski met in West Papua, he told them that he wished to learn about West Papuan culture, language, and their struggle for self-determination. He did document his travel and meetings, as many tourists do, which ought not to be confused with "journalistic activities." Reports indicate that Indonesian police were concerned about videos obtained from Mr. Skrzypski's phone. Some videos allegedly depict several West Papuans thanking the Republic of Poland for Mr. Skrzypski's visit. We feel this should not cause an over-reaction. Expressions of thanks to an individual's State, instead of towards the individuals themselves, is a way West Papuans commonly express thanks for international solidarity. Two other West Papuans, EW and AW, were arrested for possession of ammunition at a similar time and location as Mr. Skrzypski's arrest. A prominent local human rights defender, GK, who had met EW, AW, and Mr. Skrzypski, found that the ammunition belonged to EW and AW and not Mr. Skrzypski. He believes that the two separate cases have been confused. Convictions for treason charges can carry maximum sentence of life imprisonment or 20 years in Indonesia. The charge has long been used in West Papua to intimidate those who oppose or question Indonesian rule there, and to criminalise rights to freedom of expression. These latest charges against Mr. Magal and Mr. Skrzypski jeopardize the Indonesian government's efforts to strengthen national democracy, and reverses a trend which showed fewer cases tried for treason over the past few years. Recommendations We call for: The immediate release of Simon Carlos Magal The immediate release of Jakub Fabian Skrzypski We believe that Mr. Skrzypski has been unfairly charged. In the event he is prosecuted, we call on all representative parties to: ensure that Mr. Skrzypski is afforded a fair trial. We call on the Indonesian government to: stop using highly problematic treason charges that have long been used in excess to both intimidate peaceful dissent and to criminalise rights to the freedom of expression. TAPOL info@tapol.org ETAN etan@etan.org London, New York, 7 September 2018TAPOL and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) call for immediate release of Simon Carlos Magal and Jakub Fabian Skrzypski. In the event that Mr. Skrzypski is prosecuted, we call on all representative parties to ensure that he is afforded a fair trial.Indonesian police arrested West Papuan student Simon Carlos Magal, 29, on 1 September 2018 in Timika, in connection with the arrest of Jakub Fabian Skrzypski several days earlier. According to news reports, Mr. Skrzypski, a Polish citizen, was visiting West Papua as a tourist when he was detained by police in Wamena. He was arrested on suspicion of being a journalist, and for reportedly meeting with alleged members of an armed independence group in West Papua.The two men have been charged with treason and are currently in jail awaiting trial in Jayapura.The opinions and facts included below are based on information collected from media reports, human rights defenders on the ground, and families and friends of those affected. We understand the complications of the subject matter at hand. We also recognise the sensitivity of the issues and the Indonesian police's role in investigating any activities not in accordance with the law, particularly relating to the dealing and possession of arms. The following findings have not yet been published in any media. Our aim is to shine more light on this case and to encourage Indonesian law enforcement agencies and the general public to maintain the presumption of innocence towards both Mr. Magal and Mr. Skrzypski.Before his arrest, Mr. Magal was preparing to depart for post-graduate studies in Australia. A well-respected West Papuan lecturer, MY, has publicly condemned the arrest and expressed his frustration. Mr. Magal planned to join MY as a lecturer at the most prominent state university in West Papua once Mr. Magal finishes his studies. Mr. Magal's contacts with Mr. Skrzypski were limited and Mr. Magal has no capacity to carry out the weapons negotiations that he is being accused.Charging Mr. Magal with treason for having met Mr. Skrzypski and communicated with him on Facebook is excessive and not commensurate with Mr. Magal's actions. We believe that Mr. Magal has simply been dragged in by the actions of Mr. Skrzypski. Our findings show that Mr. Skrzypski is merely a tourist who may have been acting recklessly and irresponsibly in a conflict area. As a result, local people like Mr. Magal are left to face superfluous consequences.Close friends of Mr. Skrzypski that we interviewed describe him as an avid "extreme" traveller with a passion for other cultures, languages, and humanitarian issues. He had previously travelled to Armenia, Myanmar, and Iraq to learn about their cultures and respective histories of genocide. Before finally visiting West Papua, he had travelled multiple times to many places in Indonesia. He can speak Indonesian and, to a lesser degree, some local languages including Javanese, Ambonese, and Sumbanese.Sources indicate that Indonesian police used Mr. Skrzypski's photos of him holding guns as evidence of him being an arms dealer. A clarification that we received from one of Mr. Skrzypski's travelmates, alias AS, is that some of the photos was taken at an indoor sport shooting range located in Vaud, Switzerland, where Mr. Skrzypski had been living since 2008. Police confiscated all of Mr. Skrzypski's belongings, including the, Vaud's cantonal flag.As an "extreme" traveller, the West Papua Liberation Army is not the first armed independence group that he has met for the sake of adventure. He had also visited the Kurdish Liberation Army in the troubled Qandil mountains region in Iraq in Spring 2017, before the liberation of Mosul from ISIS. His intention to learn about West Papua's struggle is indeed easily misinterpreted by the Indonesian government. While Mr. Skrzypski's choices may have been irresponsible and regrettable, his circumstances appear those of an idealistic and naive traveller, and not one of a criminal. By being accused of multiple counts of treason, we feel he has been unfairly charged.According to people that Mr. Skrzypski met in West Papua, he told them that he wished to learn about West Papuan culture, language, and their struggle for self-determination. He did document his travel and meetings, as many tourists do, which ought not to be confused with "journalistic activities."Reports indicate that Indonesian police were concerned about videos obtained from Mr. Skrzypski's phone. Some videos allegedly depict several West Papuans thanking the Republic of Poland for Mr. Skrzypski's visit. We feel this should not cause an over-reaction. Expressions of thanks to an individual's State, instead of towards the individuals themselves, is a way West Papuans commonly express thanks for international solidarity.Two other West Papuans, EW and AW, were arrested for possession of ammunition at a similar time and location as Mr. Skrzypski's arrest. A prominent local human rights defender, GK, who had met EW, AW, and Mr. Skrzypski, found that the ammunition belonged to EW and AW and not Mr. Skrzypski. He believes that the two separate cases have been confused.Convictions for treason charges can carry maximum sentence of life imprisonment or 20 years in Indonesia. The charge has long been used in West Papua to intimidate those who oppose or question Indonesian rule there, and to criminalise rights to freedom of expression. These latest charges against Mr. Magal and Mr. Skrzypski jeopardize the Indonesian government's efforts to strengthen national democracy, and reverses a trend which showed fewer cases tried for treason over the past few years.We call for:We believe that Mr. Skrzypski has been unfairly charged. In the event he is prosecuted, we call on all representative parties to:We call on the Indonesian government to:TAPOLinfo@tapol.orgETANetan@etan.org East Timor and Indonesia Action Network - supporting human rights, justice and democracy PO Box 1663. New York, NY 10035-1663 USA; +1-917-690-4391; facebook.com/ETANUSA | TAPOL - promoting human rights, peace, and democracy in Indonesia 86 Durham Road, London N7 7DT; +44 (0) 20 7561 7485; www.tapol.org | facebook.com/TapolUK/ | twitter.com/TapolUKEast Timor and Indonesia Action Network - supporting human rights, justice and democracyPO Box 1663. New York, NY 10035-1663 USA; +1-917-690-4391; www.etan.org twitter.com/etan009 ------------------------- ------------------------- [1] https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-police-arrest-papuan-student-on-treason-charge/83229 [2] https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/31/world/asia/ap-as-indonesia-poland.html ============ Indonesia and West Papua Struggles see also Joint Statement of Solidarity: 20th Anniversary of the 'Biak Massacre', West Papua TAPOL: CONDEMNING THE CLAMPDOWN ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN INDONESIA: Nearly one hundred West Papuans arrested in two days (Statement) SINGAPORE, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New entity to support Temasek's Digital Transformation Journey Infosys [http://www.infosys.com ] , a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced the formation of a joint venture with Temasek, the global investment company headquartered in Singapore. The joint venture will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temasek's wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Trusted Source Pte Ltd ("Trusted Source" or the "joint venture"), which currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg ) As part of the transaction, Infosys will acquire a 60% stake in the joint venture and Temasek will hold 40%. The agreement was signed by the parties last night and is effective immediately. Infosys and Temasek see important synergy and strategic alignment in the joint venture. Infosys gains significant capacity in terms of workforce as it focuses on strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia, while Temasek will see a rapid enhancement of its IT services through the augmented capabilities of the joint venture entity. Trusted Source will provide Temasek and its other clients in the region solutions and technologies across Cloud, Data & Analytics, Cybersecurity, Digital Experiences and AI & automation, and more. The joint venture will support Temasek's digital transformation journey, managing a complex Cloud migration program that will enable Temasek to host its applications on a cloud platform. Infosys and Temasek have named Shveta Arora, Vice President at Infosys, as Chief Executive Officer. The joint venture will be headquartered in Singapore, and more than 200 employees and contractors from Trusted Source will be part of it on establishment, in addition to Infosys staff who will join over time. In line with Infosys' commitment to invest in advanced technologies and skills for its workforce, employees of the joint venture will have access to the company's world class education and training capabilities that will enable them to provide excellent professional services and have rewarding career paths. Mohit Joshi, President, Infosys, said, "Infosys will leverage its digital skills, learning capabilities and transformation experience to help enhance operations across Temasek's global business. Our joint venture with Temasek will accelerate our efforts in the region, enhancing our existing presence, as we help clients navigate the next journey in their business transformation. This development is a key element of our continued efforts to invest and have a presence in the regions in which we operate." Jon Allaway, Chief Technology Officer, Temasek, said "We warmly welcome the opportunity to build this joint venture with Infosys, and provide those who support our business, at Trusted Source, the ability to further develop their careers with one of the world's leading technology service providers. The partnership will also help unlock new capabilities and technology platforms that help Temasek as the organization continues our growth as a Singapore-headquartered investor, with a global presence." About Temasek Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by a network of international offices in 11 locations in Asia, Americas and Europe, Temasek is the owner of a US$235 billion (S$308 billion) portfolio as at 31 March 2018, with two thirds underlying exposure to Singapore and the rest of Asia. Its investment activities are guided by four key themes and the long term trends they represent: -- Transforming Economies; -- Growing Middle Income Populations; -- Deepening Comparative Advantages; and -- Emerging Champions. Temasek has offices in Singapore; and in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Sao Paulo and Mexico City in the Americas; London in Europe; Beijing and Shanghai in China; Mumbai in India; and Hanoi in Vietnam. For more information on Temasek, please visit http://www.temasek.com.sg. Connect with Temasek on social media: Facebook (Temasek); Twitter (@Temasek); Instagram (@temasekseen); LinkedIn (Temasek) and YouTube (Temasek Digital) About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov [https://www.sec.gov ]. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is mentioned at the beginning of the release, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg (CONTINUA) Delegates at the meeting discussed measures to attract greater numbers of visitors to Asian cities through cooperative projects, programmes, and campaigns. They also sought solutions to improve tourism management of State agencies and promote cooperation between those agencies and organisations and businesses of CPTA member cities. An exhibition on member cities of the CPTA was held on the side-lines of the event. In addition, the host city is set to hold an exposition and tours for participating delegates around Hanois tourism destinations. The CPTA gathers the state tourism management agencies of 10 Asian cities, namely Tokyo, Bangkok, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Seoul, Taipei, Metropolitan Manila, Tomsk and Hanoi. The meeting is scheduled to run until September 9. Natalya Sedletska of RFE/RLA Ukrainian court ruled that authorities should have access to the cellphone data of an investigative reporter working on stories about anti-corruption investigations. The court in Kyiv granted the prosecutor-generals request to allow investigators to obtain information covering a 17-month period from mobile service providers about calls to and from Natalya Sedletska. Sedletska hosts an award-winning anti-corruption TV program called Schemes. The show is produced and broadcast by the Ukraine service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Ukrainian Public Television. The court decision could have a chilling effect on press freedom and anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine tweeted. We are concerned that yesterdays court decision regarding investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska could have a chilling effect on press freedom and anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities should support independent journalism. U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) September 5, 2018 The 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 Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, RFE/RL said. The program reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the court action is an affront to the principle of press freedom that the Ukrainian government purports to uphold. Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, said the court ruling raises very serious questions, according to RFE/RL. ____ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. China to take necessary countermeasures depending on U.S. tariff action: MOC BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China will take necessary countermeasures depending on the U.S. tariff action, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Thursday. The statement was made in response to the possible imposition of additional tariffs by the U.S. on 200 billion U.S. dollars worth of imported Chinese goods. The public comment period in the U.S. of additional tariffs on the above-mentioned amount of Chinese imports recently ended and the majority of participants opposed the move. "If the U.S. side ignores the opposition of the majority of enterprises participating in the public comment, and goes its own way to impose additional tariffs on more Chinese imports, China will have to take necessary countermeasures," said Gao Feng, the MOC spokesperson, at a press briefing. China reiterates that any attempts to pressure China are unreasonable and futile. The trade war will not solve any problems. Equal and sincere dialogue and negotiations are the only correct ways to solve China-U.S. trade disputes, said Gao. After the U.S. announcement of a plan to impose additional tariffs on 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports, China announced countermeasures on Aug. 3 to impose additional tariffs on U.S. imports of 60 billion dollars and released the list of the U.S. products. Over the past few months, the U.S. has seriously violated the World Trade Organization rules, incessantly introduced unilateral policies and led to the continuous escalation of bilateral trade frictions, which not only damaged businesses and consumers' interests in both countries, but also undermined the global industrial chain and value chain, Gao said. China will pay attention to impact caused by the additional tariffs and take effective measures to help Chinese and overseas enterprises operating in the country overcome difficulties, he said. "China has the confidence, capability, and measures to maintain the stable and healthy development of its economy," said Gao. GENEVA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The expected new round of United Nations-led peace talks on Yemen did not take place Thursday as scheduled, and it is not likely to take place on Friday either. In a latest statement issued Thursday night, the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen said "no activities tied to the Geneva Consultations on Yemen are expected to take place at the Palais des Nations tomorrow". "We will keep you informed as more details become available," the statement said. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths met with the Yemeni government delegation, headed by foreign affairs minister Khaled al Yamani, Thursday morning and exchanged ideas on the expectations of the scheduled new talks in Geneva and relevant issues to the peace process. However, due to the absence of the Houthi delegation in Geneva, the scheduled peace talks, the first of their kind since the failure of the last talks in Kuwait two years ago, were stalled the very first day. In a statement issued earlier on Thursday afternoon, Griffiths' office said efforts were being made to overcome last minute obstacles to allow the talks to go forward, and he was still "hopeful" to see the Houthi delegation present at the Geneva talks so as to expedite the political process. "The Special Envoy is mindful of the challenges associated with bringing the parties together to Geneva, bearing in mind that they haven't met for two years," the statement said. According to previous arrangements, the Yemeni parties were, in principle, expected to be inside the Palais des Nations -- the UN headquarters in Geneva -- on Thursday morning. Griffiths announced on Wednesday that all the relevant parties to the Yemen conflict agreed that the time had come to restart the political process and both the government and the Houthi sides would kick off new peace talks in Geneva on Sept. 6. Some media reports from Sanaa said the Houthis would not join peace talks in Geneva until their conditions were met, while another report said the Houthi delegation was simply stranded in Sanaa because the Saudi-led coalition, which controls the airspace, had not given them permission to fly. According to the latest news report, the Yemeni government has given the Houthi 24 hours to join UN-sponsored talks in Geneva. Earlier on Wednesday, when answering the question "Do you actually expect the Houthis to arrive?", Griffiths told reporters "we will make it happen". . , . , ! . ! , . COVID-19, ! ... (L-R) Yun Kun-young, a South Korean Blue House official, Chun Hae-sung, vice unification minister of South Korea, Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser of the Blue House of South Korea, Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea, NIS deputy chief Kim Sang-gyun and Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and director of the United Front Department of the DPRK, pose for a photo in Pyongyang, DPRK, on Sept. 5, 2018. South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys met Wednesday with Kim Jong Un in their one-day visit to Pyongyang, the presidential Blue House of South Korea said. (Xinhua/South Korea Presidential Blue House) PYONGYANG/SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has called on the two sides to further their efforts towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Kim made the call when he met with the members of a special delegation of South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang on Wednesday, which was led by Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday. Kim firmly supports and will be devoted to completely removing the danger of armed conflicts and the horror of war from the Korean Peninsula and turning it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threats, according to the KCNA. Kim discussed the schedule with the special delegation for the Pyongyang summit between him and Moon due in September, and "came to a satisfactory agreement with it," the KCNA said. After reading a personal letter from Moon, which was delivered by the special delegation, Kim thanked the South Korean president for sending the letter, which expressed a firm will to wisely overcome many challenges in the future, "and open a bright future of our nation while appreciating the fresh advance in the relations between the north and the south," the KCNA said. Kim fully supports Moon and "remains unchanged in his determination to strive hard to bring the fellow countrymen better results at an early date, bearing in mind the mission before the nation and its expectation," the KCNA added. What's more, Chung said in Seoul on Thursday that Kim again expressed his firm commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK leader said he was willing to ly cooperate with the United States as well as South Korea for the complete denuclearization, Chung told a press briefing in Seoul after the delegation's one-day visit to Pyongyang. During the meeting with the South Korean delegation, Kim expressed his "stuffy" feeling over a part of the international community's raising doubts about his resolve to denuclearize, the chief special envoy said. Kim said the DPRK had taken advance measures for the denuclearization, which he hoped would be accepted as a gesture of goodwill, citing the dismantlement of its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site and its key Tongchang-ri missile engine test site. Kim said no more nuclear tests would be conducted as the nuclear test site had been completely destroyed, while dismantling the missile engine test site, the DPRK's sole test site, meant the complete suspension of long-range ballistic missile test-firings in the future. Kim asked the South Korean delegation to convey his message to the U.S. side, saying he would continue to trust U.S. President Donald Trump. The DPRK leader hoped that Pyongyang and Washington would end seven decades of hostility during President Trump's tenure, while realizing denuclearization and improving DPRK-U.S. relations, Chung told reporters. To discuss specific measures to be taken for the denuclearization, Moon and Kim will hold a summit for three days starting from Sept. 18 in Pyongyang, Chung said. However, the KCNA did not mention any specific date for the summit. The two Koreas will hold a high-ranking working-level meeting early next week at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss protocol, security, communications and media coverage for the upcoming summit, Chung said. During the upcoming summit, Moon and Kim are expected to discuss specific measures to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, as well as issues surrounding the permanent settlement of peace and prosperous coexistence on the peninsula and the implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration, which the two leaders signed after their April summit. The two Koreas, the special envoy said, agreed to keep advancing the ongoing dialogue to defuse military tensions along the inter-Korean border, and to reach an agreement at the upcoming summit on concrete measures to build mutual trust and prevent military clashes. Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to open a joint inter-Korean liaison office before the Moon-Kim summit is held. The two sides have already completed the necessary preparations to open the joint liaison office at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong. Chung said South Korea will brief the countries concerned, including the United States, in detail on the outcome of the special delegation's visit to Pyongyang, and ly cooperate with them. The two Koreas will patiently and consistently make efforts to develop inter-Korean ties, denuclearize the peninsula and build peace, Chung said. Move over Ford Explorer Interceptors because there's a new sheriff in town. Utah-based Armormax has revealed its latest armored vehicle, and it's none other than the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. First spotted by Carscoops, the Charger SRT Hellcat boasts various armored protection levels depending on the customer's wants, but there's one feature that really grabs attention: available all-wheel drive. Of course, Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles has never offered AWD for its Hellcat models from the factory. Armormax told Motor Authority the company can outfit the bulletproof Charger SRT Hellcat with AWD as part of an in-house conversion process. Customers simply check the box and the company will ensure 707 horsepower finds its way to all four wheels rather than just the rears. That may make a decommissioned Armormax Charger SRT Hellcat a highly desirable used car in the future. MORE AUTO NEWS FROM MOTOR AUTHORITY The company also installs police-spec lighting, ballistic armored glass, a push bar, and run-flat tires. The bulletproof paneling is available in B4, B5, B6, and B7 ballistic protection levels. Carbon-fiber decals complete the sinister package that surely no criminal will want to encounter. Protection is also present for the Hellcat's battery, radiator, fuel tank, and ECU. It's unclear how much weight the bulletproofing adds, but the 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine will certainly be able to handle it. Other trick options Armormax offers for include bomb blankets and an exterior listening device for covert operations. Pricing is on an individual quote basis, but we'd imagine the final tally easily crests $100,000, especially for those that opt for AWD. The 2018 Charger SRT Hellcat starts at $65,345 before Armormax gets its hands on it. Maybe a municipality or two out there can buy this one and not get in trouble. DODGE CHARGER HELLCAT TEST DRIVE: Timothy R. Hughes, a cast member of the hit Broadway musical Frozen, refused to apologize after he was seen grabbing a pro-Trump sign from someone who held it up in the audience on Wednesday. The cast was taking the stage for a curtain call when someone in the crowd displayed a sign that read Trump 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In response, Hughes, who portrays the character Pabbie in the Disney musical, grabbed it from the audience member's grasp and threw it off stage. The actor later shared a short clip of the moment on Instagram, insisting that he would not apologize for his behavior toward the disrespectful man trying to interrupt this moment with a pathetic political platform. In the video, the cast was on stage together when Hughes seemingly noticed the Trump sign, grabbed it and cast it off to the side. Questioning what he called a protest during the show, Hughes mused: What does it say about our country and politics when a man at the show tonight felt the need to protest Disneys Frozen on Broadway with a pro Trump flag?? How frightening is it that our shows messages of love, acceptance, and diversity have become the opposition to supporting Trump? he continued. Burt Reynolds once claimed he helped his good friend Elizabeth Taylor make Hollywood history. The actor, who passed away Thursday from cardiac arrest at age 82, told People magazine back in 2015 that he helped the late screen siren negotiate her groundbreaking $1 million dollar salary to star in 1963s Cleopatra. I was very crazy about her, Reynolds recalled about his good friend, who passed away in 2011 at age 79. She was enormously helpful to me in my career because I was having trouble with certain people, some of them in the press and some actors and shes got a mouth like a sailor. "She said, Dont let those blankity-blank bastards get you down. Youll be around long after theyre dead, just dont you kill them.'" In turn, Reynolds gave Taylor some valuable advice when it came time for her to negotiate her paycheck for the epic drama, which also starred her future husband Richard Burton. She was at my house and she was totally exhausted and I said, Well, take a hot bath, Reynolds claimed at the time. And it wasnt because I wanted her to take her clothes off but it wasnt a bad idea, he joked. She did, she got in the tub and she said, What am I going to do? Those bastards want me to make this movie and I dont want to make it, Reynolds continued. I said, Well, then, ask for a million dollars. "Now, nobody, nobody had asked for a million dollars and she did. I went in the other room and I heard this scream and I came back and I said, Are you all right? She said, I got it. Theyre going to give it to me. Reynold's Hollywood career skyrocketed in the 70s after his breakout film role as Lewis Medlock in 1972s Deliverance. He starred in iconic films such as Smokey and the Bandit and The Longest Yard and went on to appear in nearly 200 films throughout his lifetime. He received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of adult film director Jack Horner in 1997's "Boogie Nights." His last completed film, Defining Moments, is set to be released on December 2018. He was currently filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood opposite Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. That film, which details the Manson family and their reign of terror over Hollywood, is set to premiere in 2019. Princess Diana was grateful that Burt Reynolds once kept her off the cover of People magazine. The magazine revealed Friday that the late actor who died Thursday at age 82 recalled receiving a surprising message from the British royal in his 2015 memoir, titled But Enough About Me. Reynolds revealed that after he and his second wife Loni Anderson announced their separation, the press went into high gear. He added, Princess Diana sent me a thank you note for keeping her off the cover of People Magazine. In 1992, Diana and her then-husband, Prince Charles, released a statement announcing their separation after 11 years of marriage. Despite their fairytale wedding watched by nearly a billion people in 1981 British tabloids relentlessly published a slew of stories on both royals having extramarital relationships. And while media scrutiny around Diana only intensified, Reynolds took some attention away from the royal after he and Anderson endured their own explosive split. In his memoir, Reynolds claimed Anderson bought everything in triplicate, from every day dresses to jewelry to china and linens and that she maxed out a platinum American Express card with a $45,000 credit limit in nearly two hours. He alleged Anderson once claimed that she never wore a dress after it has been photographed. The Los Angeles Times reported Anderson claimed Reynolds threw her out of their house, accused her of cheating and criticized her mothering. The WKRP in Cincinnati star also alleged Reynolds physically abused her at least a dozen times, which she blamed on drug use. The two Hollywood stars married in 1988 and divorced in 1994. Diana and Charles divorced in 1996. Then in 1997, Diana died at age 36 from injuries she sustained during a car crash in Paris. In 2015, Reynolds told People magazine his marriage to Anderson was a mistake. I should have known that you dont marry an actress, he explained. That was a really dumb move on my part. Anderson, 73, and the couples son, 30-year-old Quinton Anderson Reynolds, told Fox News Thursday they will miss Reynolds and his great laugh. Quinton and I are extremely touched by the tremendous outpouring of love and support from friends and family throughout the world, Anderson said in a statement hours after Reynolds died of cardiac arrest. The statement continued: Burt was a wonderful director and actor. He was a big part of my life for twelve years and Quintons father for thirty years. We will miss him and his great life. Reynold's Hollywood career skyrocketed in the 70s after his breakout film role as Lewis Medlock in 1972s Deliverance. He starred in iconic films such as Smokey and the Bandit and The Longest Yard and went on to appear in nearly 200 films throughout his lifetime. He received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of adult film director Jack Horner in 1997's "Boogie Nights." Documentarian Kathleen Glynn is cranking up the Fahrenheit on her fellow filmmaker-ex husband Michael Moore, hauling him to court for allegedly stiffing her on profits from their movie projects. Glynn and the Fahrenheit 9/11 director split in 2014 after 23 years of marriage, and an even longer business partnership. She was the driving force in the making of many of [his] films and other ventures in which Mr. Moore was the featured personality, dating back to their first big success, Roger and Me (1989), Glynns attorney Bonnie Rabin says in the new Manhattan Supreme Court suit. Glynn also produced the Academy Award-winning Bowling for Columbine about the Columbine High School massacre and Fahrenheit 9/11 the highest-grossing documentary film of all time. The suit claims Moore has walked away from a binding arbitration that was required to flesh out the terms of an important provision in their property settlement. Glynn claims Moores trying to obtain all the benefits of their 2014 settlement in which she signed over essentially all of her interest in the fruits of the parties joint efforts as film-makers in exchange for a promise of future revenue-sharing by Moore. Click for more from Page Six Alison Brie and Brie Larson set social media ablaze on Tuesday when they each shared an Instagram photo of themselves working out together complete with their own witty caption. Its like youre dreaming about gorgonzola cheese when its clearly BRIE TIME, BABY, the GLOW star captioned the image. Her fitness bestie captioned the same image with, ALISON BRIE LARSON is coming for ya. It didnt take long for their fans to come up with their own funky puns for the two actresses, and Brie, 35, told reporters she was happy with the response. Im glad people enjoyed it. Total coincidence it just shows how in-synch we are, she said with a smile Thursday during the PaleyFest Fall TV Previews of BoJack Horseman in Beverly Hills, Calif., in which she stars in alongside Aaron Paul. Ive known Brie [Larson] for years. She actually guest-starred in a couple episodes of 'Community' when I was on that show, and shes worked with my husband [Dave Franco] in '21 Jump Street,' so Ive known her for a long time. The Community alum explained that she and Larson both utilized the same trainer for their rough and tough roles in their respective projects. She started training with my trainer Jason Walsh, who Ive been training with for years and Ive been going with hard him for 'GLOW,' and shes been training with him for 'Captain Marvel' so we both, I think, have been inspiring each other in the gym and kind of pushing each other to go a little harder. She continued: The other day we were wearing semi-matching outfits, so were like, We gotta get a photo! When asked by Fox News whether we could expect to see a project with the two of them, perhaps a nighttime show titled The Evening Bries, the former Mad Men actress perked up and simply replied, Oh! Well, thats a great band name! The "Greatest Showman" star Sam Humphrey is fighting for his life after undergoing extremely risky surgery according to reports and a statement from his family. TMZ claims the 24-year-old Australian actor is being treated in Los Angeles for complications caused by Crohns disease. Crohns is an inflammatory disease of the intestines that can affect the colon and ileum causing discomfort for sufferers. The condition is lifelong and can cause symptoms including weight loss, fatigue, stomach aches and cramps. Sams family have also released a statement confirming the star is undergoing treatment. He is currently under the care of some of the best doctors in the world at Cedars Sinai and is undergoing high-risk corrective surgery, the statement says. Humphrey was one of the stars of the blockbuster 2017 film "The Greatest Showman" alongside fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman, and A-listers Michelle Williams, Zac Efron and Zendaya. The actor, originally born in New Zealand before moving to Melbourne, played the character Charles Stratton (aka General Tom Thumb) based on a real actor who lived in the 1800s. "The Greatest Showman" was a hit with moviegoers and was nominated for an Oscar for its soundtrack. The semibiographical musical based on the life of P.T. Barnum was Humphreys first big screen role. Humphrey had previously starred in several episodes of the Australian soap opera, "Neighbors," between 2016 and 2017. This article originally appeared in The Sun. Click here for more stories from The Sun. China's top political advisor Wang Yang on Thursday said China stands ready to work with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to safeguard, consolidate, and develop bilateral ties. Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks at the reception celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK held by the DPRK embassy in China. Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, addresses a reception to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), at the DPRK Embassy in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 6, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Shen Hong] Commissioned by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Wang congratulated the anniversary on behalf of the CPC, Chinese government, and Chinese people. Wang said under the leadership of top leaders Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, and that of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), people of the DPRK have resolutely defended the country's independence and made major achievements in the socialist cause. He said China believes that the DPRK's socialist cause will embrace new bright prospects as it implements the decision at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Seventh Central Committee of the WPK to adjust the strategic route and focus on developing the economy. Wang said top leaders of the two countries have held three important meetings this year, opening a new chapter in bilateral relations. China is willing to develop relations with the DPRK to the benefit of the two countries and the two peoples and make new contributions to regional peace and stability, he said. Chi Jae Ryong, the DPRK ambassador to China, said the WPK and the government of the DPRK stand firm on carrying forward the traditional friendship between the two countries. He said the DPRK hopes to work with China to push for greater development in relations between the two parties and the two countries. Princess Diana found solace at the gym during some of the darkest moments of her short life. Jenni Rivett, who trained the late princess at The Harbour Club in London for several years starting 1991, told Yahoo News series The Royal Box Friday that working out helped Diana overcome her eating disorder, as well as the heartbreak of her separation from Prince Charles. The London-based South African celebrity trainer claimed Diana initially didnt want to separate from Charles, whom she married in 1981. Given the choice, she would have stayed and tried to make a happy marriage, said Rivett. She loved Charles. She married for the right reasons. She married for love. It wasnt her that asked for all of this. It was sprung upon her. She wasnt the one that wanted to separate or have a divorce. According to the site, Rivett began training Diana after her services were recommended by a mutual friend. Rivett explained how Diana immediately became disciplined and incredibly dedicated to their three workout sessions a week. Rivett claimed she and Diana even enjoyed a getaway together at the trainers suggestion when the princess was reportedly upset over not spending Christmas with her sons, Princes William and Harry, for the first time after her split from Charles. Rivett insisted that while she tried to maintain professional boundaries, Diana wasnt afraid to open up about her personal struggles. She wanted to be the Princess of Wales and the Queen of peoples hearts, explained Rivett. She wanted to be a loving mother, which she was, and a loving wife. The trainer also claimed Diana was disappointed when she lost the HRH title after she and Charles divorced in 1996. I think she just felt hurt, as you would, she claimed. It was just one thing after another. She had to be such an ambassador for Britain and everyone adored her and loved her and she was still the mother of the future king. Why should she lose her title? But a public breakup wasnt the only thing Diana was enduring. When she and Rivett began working out together in 1991, the royal informed her she was battling bulimia. Actually she had such an incredible sense of humor, Rivett explained. The way that was brought up was with a joke. She was just trying to make light of it. The sessions became a key part of Dianas recovery. When you train with someone and they start to feel that strength going through their muscles it is so empowering and it just helped so much to make you not want to go in that direction again. Diana would go on to use exercise as an outlet to help her find salvation from the constant media scrutiny. The challenge was that she was the Princess of Wales, explained Rivett. There was a lot of stuff in her life. The way we got through it was for her to turn up and just keep that discipline. She knew that every session she would feel amazing. It would help her to continue to better herself and feel more and more empowered and make the eating disorder a thing of the past. She liked to have a bit of a laugh when she trained and obviously there were days when she was having a really bad day, and Id be a little bit lenient on her and not boss her around too much. She used to feel so great afterward and the aesthetics are just a bonus. Back in 2017, Dianas biographer Andrew Morton told Fox News she quietly endured her collapsing marriage and constant attempts to fit in with the royal family because she was struggling with an eating disorder, as well as the pressures that came with a high-profile role, where every public engagement was scrutinized by the press. Somehow, he claimed, she continued to hope things would get better with time. Diana relied on her sons for support as her marriage came to an end. As the boys got older and became like her counselors and friends as sons, she began to enjoy life a lot more, said Morton. Diana was very protective of William and Harry. [If] you ever criticized the boys... she would be on you like a tigress. "She was the only one who could criticize those two. Of course, she indulged them She wanted to be a full hands-on parent herself. And interestingly, Prince William recently said the same about his own children, George and Charlotte. He wants them to enjoy a relatively normal upbringing. Diana died at age 36 in 1997 from injuries sustained during a car crash in Paris. Sofia Richie was put on the spot when asked about her relationship with Kourtney Kardashian's ex Scott Disick during a live interview with "The Morning Show" on Friday. The young model, who just turned 20, appeared on the Australian morning show and was faced with a question about dating the 35-year-old reality star after it was revealed in a leaked email that Richie would not answer any questions regarding her boyfriend, the Kardashians, or her famous father, Lionel Richie. "Morning Show" show host Larry Emdur asked Richie about the Windsor Smith shoe brand she was promoting while Down Under and said, "Now is it true your partner Scott helped you discover these shoes?" Richie, who was clearly caught off guard by the question, proceeded to answer without giving away too much detail about her relationship. "Yeah, he actually showed me the shoe line and said, 'These are really cute sneakers you should wear these.' Then they reached out. And it all worked out from there," she said. And while Richie thought she was done answering questions about Disick, host Kylie Gillies continued to push the star and said, "This is Scott Disick... who is your boyfriend! Life with Scott looks pretty good, I've gotta say." The star turned her attention away from the morning hosts and shrugged off the question with a simple, "Yeah, we're very happy, I'm very happy." Gillies then referred back to the leaked email and asked, "People want to bring up your relationships and stuff with your dad and your sister as well. Does that ever get tiring and you wish we wouldn't ask that? Or you're happy for us to sit here and ask you those questions?" Richie then stated, "I'm not upset that I have to answer these questions but there are moments where I want to be my own person and stand as my own person. And I think that's actually what drives me to work and do my own thing." Disick and Richie began dating in the fall of last year. Their relationship sparked controversy due to their 15-year age difference. A Chick-fil-A employee lost his job and a customer was arrested after the pair got into an intense brawl inside the Washington, D.C., fast-food restaurant and the fight was caught on camera. The skirmish took place Tuesday when a 55-year-old man, identified by police as Sean Turner, allegedly began shouting at other patrons and went behind the counter, WTTG-TV reported. The customer was asked to leave by an employee, but he allegedly threw a punch in response, according to a police report provided to Fox News. The unnamed 27-year-old employee and Turner then began to fight. In a viral video shared on social media, the employee is seen punching Turner several times in the head. Other employees and customers apparently attempted to intervene as well. WARNING: Footage contains graphic content Turner was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and was charged with simple assault, police said. The employee was not arrested, but he is no longer employed at Chick-fil-A, a spokesperson told Fox News. There is a viral video circulating of an altercation that took place last night between a restaurant team member and an individual in a franchised restaurant. This video is incredibly disturbing to watch, and we do not condone violence or the team members response to the situation in any way, the company said in a statement. Our franchise restaurant Operators and their team members strive to create a safe and welcoming environment and to treat all guests with dignity and respect, it added. This situation does not live up to our brands commitment to hospitality, and for that, we are very sorry. The video shared on social media of the fight had been viewed more than 5 million times by Friday morning. We are continuing to investigate this situation, including what happened before the video was taken and how it escalated so quickly, Chick-fil-A said. The Chick-fil-A is located on Wisconsin Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. More than 600 students in Utah stayed home from school on Thursday over concerns about a potential norovirus outbreak. Health officials had warned on Wednesday that several cases had been reported in the Alpine School District, in Utah County, while the health department said it received reports of students elsewhere vomiting and experiencing diarrhea. Letters about the illnesses sent home to parents urged them to keep students who feel ill home for 72 hours after symptoms have ended. Students with a sibling experiencing symptoms were also asked to stay home. DETROIT WOMAN SAYS SELFIES ALERTED HER TO STROKE, SAVED LIFE This letter is to inform you that an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness has occurred in several schools nearby the school your child attends, the Utah County Health Department letter said, according to Fox 13 Now. Because this illness has spread so quickly, it appears highly contagious and may likely enter your school. According to the Deseret News, parents calling in to report their child absent have been asked to say if their child has experienced potential symptoms of norovirus. Officials also noted that its entirely possible that cases have gone unreported, with students headed back to school easily spreading it amongst themselves. Just getting back to school, its always a little bit hard because you get kids in more of a confined space together, Aislynn Hill, Utah County Health Department spokesperson, told Desert News. Its entirely possible that there have been others that were just not aware of. MORE THAN 60 SICKENED AFTER EATING AT PASHA MEDITERRANEAN GRILL Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that can infect anyone through direct contact with an infected person, consuming contaminated food or water or touching contaminated surfaces and then putting your unwashed hands in your mouth. The illness can cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain. In order to prevent the virus from spreading, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends washing hands often, rinsing fruits and vegetables, cooking shellfish thoroughly, staying home when sick and avoid preparing foods for others while sick and for two days after symptoms stop. Congo health officials say that a case of Ebola has been discovered in Butembo, a city of 1.4 million people in the country's northeast. Jessica Ilunga, a Ministry of Health communication officer, said Wednesday that Congo's government and the U.N. World Health Organization are taking immediate steps to contain the new Ebola case in the urban area. Butembo is the largest city in Congo's North Kivu province and health experts worry that the contagious Ebola could spread rapidly among its dense population. MORE THAN 60 SICKENED AFTER EATING AT PASHA MEDITERRANEAN GRILL The city's mayor, Sylvain Kanyamanda, urged residents to be calm and to maintain hygienic conditions. Since August 1 the current Ebola outbreak has seen 93 confirmed cases which have caused 54 deaths . Health officials have started a vaccination campaign but they have been hindered by sporadic attacks by rebel militias operating in the eastern Congo region. The World Health Organization said "substantial risks" remain in the ongoing outbreak, noting that while control measures appear to be working, health officials are still unable to track exactly where the deadly virus is spreading. JAPAN ACKNOWLEDGES FIRST FUKUSHIMA RADIATION RELATED DEATH The U.N. health agency 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. Four of the 13 new cases from the city of Beni were not previously identified as contacts, meaning officials don't know how they were exposed to Ebola. WHO also reports "sporadic instances" of high-risk behaviors like unsafe burials, which could worsen the outbreak. Is your social media flooded with photos of kids going back to school? Mine is and I love it! Its great to see all the excited kids and hear from the proud parents as they show off their growing offspring. (Often followed by a Mom, youre embarrassing me! post by the aforementioned child in the comments section.) Back to school can also be an important time for many Canine Companions graduate dogs, puppies and their raisers. Many Canine Companions dogs work at a school for their service career as did Ollie, the puppy I raised 15 years ago. These "facility dogs" help engage students in schools and special education classes. THE DAILY SPIKE: GOOD DOGS ARE ALWAYS LEARNING, EVEN ON VACATION Delight, a Canine Companions lab, just started his "career" this week at a school for special needs in Queens NY. His "facilitator," Assistant Principal Jamie Allen-Zic, is positively delighted by the impact he will have helping her students with a wide range of disabilities including speech and language impairment, autism, intellectual disabilities and behavioral issues. There are a number of puppy raisers that are teachers and are going back to school with their Canine Companions puppy in training. In the Northeast region this includes Susan Sommers of Frostburg MD, Sonja Haasper of Riverhead NY, Christy Fajkowski of Billerica MA, and Jane Nagy of Lehigh Valley PA. Jane is a special education teacher at Harmony Elementary School in Harmony Township, New Jersey. Shes teaching language arts and math to students in grades 2 through 4 this year and her dog Hannon comes to school with her and provides great comfort to the kids at her school, even though hes still in training. Heres her dog Hannon with Principal Ryanne Bigelli and some of the awesome kids that attend the school. THE DAILY SPIKE: THE PROPER ETIQUETTE AROUND SERVICE DOGS AND THEIR HANDLERS And there are currently 18 colleges and universities involved in the Canine Companions collegiate puppy raiser program. The University of Delaware is very supportive of their puppy raising club. They even have a designated a dorm wing reserved for puppy raisers and allow the dogs to attend all classes. Way to go Blue Hens! Okay, time to get back to admiring all the backpack wearers with their big smiles! If youd like to learn how you can become a puppy raiser or start a puppy raising club at your college or university go to cci.org. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS A parent of an eigth-grader was shocked to discover a teacher's note to her class at the start of the school year announcing a limit on hall passes to two per month including trips to the bathroom, nurse, water fountain or administrative offices. The eigth grade teacher at Aspire Hanley Middle School, a charter school in Memphis, Tenn., asked students to sign a letter that outlined the rules. Each time the students use their pass, they're required to hand the piece of paper to the instructor for a signature. A mother was appalled when her child showed her the note from the teacher only referred to as "Mrs. White" in the document and shared a copy of it on Facebook, though the post has since been deleted. According to Mrs. White, if a student fails to comply with the rules, then he or she will be given an automatic detention or fail the assignment they walked out on. NORTH CAROLINA MOM IN 'DISBELIEF' AFTER SON, 10, PUNISHED FOR CALLING TEACHER MA'AM "I understand that Mrs. White is petty and although we both have options, I can be denied going to the restroom/water/nurse during the lesson," the teacher wrote in the note. "If you have any comments, questions or concerns, please feel free to speak with Mrs. White before or after-school, although nothing will change." Memphis native Jaadee Sykes spotted the note online and shared it on her Twitter account Aug. 30 asking parents to share their reactions to the rules. Thousands of people replied, many criticizing the teacher's actions by sending out the letter. "As a former teacher of almost 20 years, I get the teachers frustration with a few students who take advantage just to get out of class (most dont)," one Twitter user commented. "It can be a disruption that makes it harder to teach and a distraction for other students. However, many times, students simply dont have time to go between classes. Also, this is unprofessional and petty, and I would bet its not very effective, either." ALABAMA SCHOOL'S HILARIOUS 'OPT OUT' FUNDRAISING LETTER GOES VIRAL "I have always told my children that they do not need permission to go to the washroom - that they should evaluate 'need & timing' themselves, & advise the teacher that is what they are doing. Any problem, direct teacher to me. Never had a problem. No human needs permission to pee," one parent argued. "Not an acceptable policy, I a former School Board member and would have voted against such a policy," another added. Sykes told Buzzfeed News it's clear the teacher has "control issues." "This shows someone ... who has no power or authority at home, so they bring what little power they have to the one place where they will have no resistance: the classroom," Sykes said. In a statement posted online, Aspire Hanley Middle School clarified to parents that the teacher's restrictions were "inconsistent" with the school's policies. "We are currently reviewing the circumstances under which the document was prepared and distributed to students," the school wrote. "Please know the safety and care of our students is always our first priority. It is important that students know we respect them and are responsive to their needs." The middle school vowed to investigate the incident and meet with teachers to ensure every classroom follows their approved procedures. Aspire Public Schools Superintendent Nickalous Manning did not immediately return Fox News' request for comment Friday afternoon. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The Bernie Sanders far-left wing of the Democratic Party including some candidates who proudly label themselves democratic socialists has scored some big primary victories in recent months, but ran out of luck Thursday in tiny Delaware, when voters nominated U.S. Sen. Tom Carper for another term. The victory was good news for Democrats, who hope to capture control of the Senate and House in the November midterm elections with centrist candidates who can draw support from Democratic moderates, independents, and even some Republicans disenchanted with President Trump and the controversies surrounding him. But Carpers trouncing of challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris he captured 65 percent of the vote to her 35 percent was bad news for Republicans. GOP officials and candidates would like nothing better than the opportunity to run against candidates they can paint as leftist radicals who want to raise taxes, make Big Government a lot bigger, and replace Americas successful free market economy with the socialist model that has failed miserably across the world. The GOP would like nothing better than to run against candidates they can paint as leftist radicals who want to raise taxes, make Big Government bigger, and replace the free-market economy with the socialist model that has failed across the world. Carper is now the heavy favorite to win re-election in November when he faces Sussex County Councilman Robert Arlett, who defeated former PayPal executive Gene Truono by 67 to 28 percent to win the GOP Senate primary. Arlett chaired the Donald Trump presidential campaign in Delaware in 2016. Carper, 71, has served in the Senate since 2001 and was governor for eight years before that. He previously spent a decade as Delawares only member of the U.S. House and earlier served as state treasurer of Delaware. He was endorsed by the Delaware Democratic Party and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a former Democratic senator representing Delaware. Harris, 38, is a biracial community organizer and Air Force veteran. She was endorsed by democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who gained national attention with her surprise primary victory June 26 over veteran Democratic U.S. House member Joe Crowley in New York City. Harris left-wing platform included support for national health insurance, a bailout of student loan debt, a $15 minimum wage, and abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Those positions had limited appeal in Delaware, which does not have a large immigrant community and where voters are steeped in the so-called Delaware Way a culture of bipartisanship and political compromise. Even though she had a strong volunteer network, Harris was only able to raise about $120,000 for her race, versus $3 million raised by Carper. While the radical left is pushing to move the Democratic Party in its direction, Harris big loss to Carper shows the ability the ability of leftist extremists to succeed is limited. While few thought Harris had a chance of defeating Carper, her supporters hoped she could pull of a political miracle like some other far-left candidates have done. In addition to Ocasio-Cortezs win in New York in June, Boston City Councilwoman Ayanna Pressley scored an upset victory Tuesday when she easily defeated 10-term U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano in the Democratic primary for a U.S. House seat representing Massachusetts. Pressley is another far-left candidate and she will become the first African-American woman representing Massachusetts in Congress because she faces no Republican opponent in November. In Delaware, Harris brought in so many outside activist veterans of the campaigns of Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley that Carper was overheard complaining about it on an Amtrak train Thursday. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Carper told the person he was speaking to on a cell phone: "There are a lot of people coming from out of state, socialists coming in, trying to defeat me." The senator then went on to say socialists are ruining the Democratic Party, the Free Beacon reported. In the end, Carper need not have worried quite so much. Even though Delaware played a leading role in the American Revolution its hardly a bastion of socialist revolutionaries today. The states economy is benefiting from low corporate tax rates and business-friendly bank regulations. It has a history of electing moderate Democrats such as Biden and Chris Coons, Carpers Senate colleague. The lesson of recent primaries is that while the left wing is on the rise, its biggest impact will be in scaring Democratic incumbents to do its bidding rather than actually winning a lot of elections on its own. Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley both won in districts where Democratic primaries are dominated by minority voters. In Florida, liberal Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum, and African-American, was able to win his crowded primary with 33 percent of the vote. But would probably have failed if he faced a single moderate candidate. But while the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party is not going to take over the party, its certainly capable having a major influence, especially in primary campaigns, pushing candidates further left than they might otherwise go. Just think back to 2010, when tea party conservatives dominated the GOP primaries and set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump. Many far-left Democrats want to play a similar role in electing candidates to their liking in November and again in 2020. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! If the four long days that Judge Brett Kavanaugh spent before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing for a seat on the Supreme Court are viewed as a contest of gladiators, he clearly came out the victor. This was despite screaming protesters who jeered him and Democratic senators who gave the judge a thumbs-down before the confirmation battle even began and attacked him with everything they had. Kavanaugh never lost his cool, even as several Democratic senators engaged in political grandstanding to please their most radical supporters. He demonstrated an almost photographic memory of the law and the decisions he had written in his 12 years as member of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, as well as the many important decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. At one point, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked Kavanaugh to name his favorite one of the Federalist Papers (the essays written after the Constitutional Convention to convince states to ratify the Constitution). Without missing a beat, Kavanaugh rattled off the names and subjects of seven of the papers. The nominee consistently educated senators on the law as if he had a legal textbook sitting in front of him. Anyone transcribing his answers could use them to write a treatise on constitutional law, including religious liberty, freedom of speech, separation of powers, executive authority, the regulatory state, and abortion and privacy rights. Kavanaugh never made a substantive or procedural mistake, which is what his opponents on the committee were hoping to exploit. The judge showed beyond doubt that he is extraordinarily qualified to become an associate justice on the Supreme Court. Democrats were also unable to shake him with their claims that he would just be a puppet of President Trump and should agree to recuse himself from any case involving the administration. Kavanaugh responded: My only loyalty is to the Constitution. I have made it clear, I am an independent judge and vowed to stay three ZIP codes away from politics. The senators didnt come off nearly as well. The person who most embarrassed himself was Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who put on a show to jump-start his expected presidential campaign. On Thursday, he compared himself to Spartacus, the gladiator who led a slave rebellion against the Romans more than 2,000 years ago. He also tried to manufacture a racial incident that turned out to be much ado about nothing. Booker claimed he was knowingly violating the rules of the Senate, thus nobly risking expulsion, by releasing confidential emails from Kavanaugh when he worked in the White House during the Bush administration. Booker claimed these emails were about racial profiling, clearly implying that Kavanaugh favored racial profiling. But this was all a charade. Bookers office had been notified before his histrionic performance that the Judiciary Committee had received clearance from the George W. Bush Library to release these emails. Moreover, the actual emails showed the complete opposite of what Booker claimed. They were about the need to enhance airport security after 9/11. In one dated Jan. 17, 2002 Kavanaugh said he favors effective security measures that are race-neutral. Booker was setting up a straw man that didnt exist, obviously hoping that his false claims would get all of the media coverage not the actual content of the emails. In fact, the Civil Rights Division of the Bush Justice Department (where I was working at the time) issued just such guidance in 2003 barring federal law enforcement agencies from racial profiling. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking minority member on the Judiciary Committee, also made glaring mistakes. While questioning Kavanaugh about abortion and the Roe v. Wade decision, she cited a Guttmacher Institute report to claim that between 200,000 and 1.2 million women have died from illegal abortions. That is actually the estimate of women who received illegal abortions, not died from them. The number of deaths, all of which are tragic, is actually estimated at only a fraction of that: 200 to 300 per year. Friday, the last day of the hearing, was given over to 28 witnesses, consisting of two representatives of the American Bar Association, law professors, Supreme Court litigators, former Kavanaugh clerks, and representatives of various advocacy organizations. Paul Moxley was there on behalf of the American Bar Association. The ABAs rating of judicial nominees have generated great controversy in recent years over charges that it has been politically biased at times. Moxley told the committee the ABA had unanimously given Kavanaugh its highest recommendation of Well Qualified, which no doubt disappointed the judges Democratic detractors on the Judiciary Committee. As one would expect, the other witnesses called by the majority and minority senators fell into two categories: Those who said Kavanaugh is an honorable, knowledgeable jurist who will make a great justice, and those who said that the sky will fall in if he is confirmed. The latter group included a woman from Indiana who made the farcical claim that the ability of women to get birth control would virtually disappear if Kavanaugh is confirmed, and a 15-year old (one of three teenagers to testify against the nominee, remarkably) who complained about Kavanaughs decisions on environmental issues. The oddest witness brought in by the Democrats was John Dean, the convicted felon, disbarred lawyer, and former White House counsel for President Nixon. The only purpose in bringing the man who helped organize the cover-up of the Watergate break-in was apparently to assist the Democrats in trying to paint President Trump as another Richard Nixon. Dean warned that Kavanaughs views were too pro-presidential that he would help engender an Imperial Presidency. Listening to Deans advice on a Supreme Court nominee is like listening to the Devil tell you how to act in church. But it was all to no avail. After four days, Democrats landed no punches, and Kavanaugh made no errors. His nomination will no doubt be approved by the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote, and unless there is some great surprise in the next three weeks, he will be confirmed by the full Senate before Oct. 1, the first day of the Supreme Courts new term. The Nandao Island of Xisha Xuande Islands. [Photo by Guo Cheng/Xinhua] Beijing expressed strong dissatisfaction on Thursday after a naval vessel from the United Kingdom sailed into territorial waters off China's Xisha Islands, with China urging an immediate cessation of such provocative actions. Reuters reported that HMS Albion, a 22,000-ton amphibious warship, passed near the Xisha Islands on August 31 on its way to Vietnam. "HMS Albion exercised her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms," Reuters cited a spokesman for the Royal Navy as saying. The warship illegally entered territorial waters without permission from the Chinese government, and China's Navy, a branch of the People's Liberation Army, verified and identified the warship in accordance with law and warned it to leave, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing. The Xisha Islands are an inherent territory of China, Hua said. "The action taken by the British ship violated Chinese law and relevant international law, and infringed on China's sovereignty," and China strongly protests such moves and has lodged solemn representations, she added. China urged the UK to immediately stop such provocations to avoid harming overall bilateral relations as well as regional peace and stability, she added. Also on Thursday, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Ren Guoqiang said that such an action undermines China's sovereignty and security interests and can easily lead to accidents in the air and on the sea. Ren noted that the situation in the South China Sea is becoming better thanks to the efforts made by China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. However, some countries outside the region ignore this positive trend, dispatch planes and ships to stir up trouble in the region and disturb peace and security, he said, adding that the Chinese military will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national security and sovereignty. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! The anonymous senior administration official who wrote the anti-Trump tirade published by The New York Times as an op-ed Wednesday is a seditious traitor who must be identified and prosecuted for illegal conduct. The writer has broken the law by blatantly violating his or her oath of office with a level of arrogance and criminality that is outrageous and should face decades in prison for his or her despicable actions. President Trump was justified in asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday to launch an investigation to identify the writer of the op-ed, which was headlined online: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. Sessions should begin this important investigation immediately. Its treason, you could call it a lot of things, the president said in an interview on Fox & Friends. Hes right. Judicial Watch, the conservative nonpartisan organization where I work, is investigating the publication of this op-ed by a writer too cowardly to reveal his or her identity and too unprincipled to resign from federal employment. The anonymous op-ed writer lets call him or her the resister claims to be working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his (President Trumps) agenda and his worst inclinations. When President Trump identifies the resister (and he will) the president has good cause to fire him or her. But larger questions loom for the resister, his or her allies and the Democratic and Republican political operatives who populate and manipulate the federal departments and agencies in a conspiracy to attempt to thwart President Trump at every turn. The framework for the questions can be found in Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Chapter 115 Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities. While purportedly a senior official in the Trump administration, the resisters understanding of his or her duty is fatally flawed from the start. The resister writes: 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. Wrong. The resisters duty is not to this country. That sort of thinking and language is usually reserved for the well-intentioned but ill-informed. In the context of an anonymous New York Times op-ed, the resister is naively arrogant and self-righteous as well as cowardly. The oath that senior government officials and commissioned officers in the military take it to the Constitution. This is an important point. The oath includes specific language, swearing: I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The resister does not understand his or her duty. He or she does not want to do so. The resister is leveraging his or her office for power, while collecting a salary paid by U.S. taxpayers and selfishly granting himself or herself authority to thwart the Constitution and duly elected president of the United States, with an arrogance and hubris fueled by the desperate, publicity stunt mentality of The New York Times. The resister explicitly brags about deliberately undermining and defying the president on foreign policy decisions concerning hostile foreign powers (giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere 18 USC 2381 Treason) and attempts to reframe Deep State subversion against the president as the work of virtuous officials from the steady state. The resister did not, apparently, take the time to learn there are the duties and responsibilities inherent in the oath he or she violated. Before deciding to save the country, the resister should have examined 18 USC 2384 Seditious Conspiracy, containing specific language about people who conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, and prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States. The resister arguably faces 20 years imprisonment for each count of his or her malicious campaign against the Constitution and the Chief Executive, as defined under Article II. The greater problem for the Constitution is that the current administration is loaded with these sorts of self-serving operators. President Trumps greatest single administrative challenge has been personnel. The resister exemplifies this fact. Washington Post articles detail the dysfunction of the Presidential Personnel Office that seems not to have been corrected. The threat to the Constitution comes from the people that President Trump is forced to rely upon due to the scale and scope of the federal government. If there was ever a time for President Trump to clean house of the phonies, the self-righteous, the political operators, the leakers and seditious conspirators while simultaneously reinvigorating public servants sense of duty to the supreme law of the land the time is now. Crimes have been committed against the Constitution by the resister and his or her ilk. They must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Not doing so would be a further betrayal of the sacred oath our government officials take to the Constitution that serves as the foundation of our constitutional republic. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Former President Obama gave the nation some insights into the Democratic Partys midterm election strategy Friday with a political speech demonizing Americans who elected Donald Trump as president and doubling down on the failed liberal ideology that devastated our economy. In a moment reminiscent of Hillary Clintons outrageous characterization of Trump voters as deplorable and irredeemable, President Obama said: I have to say this Over the past few decades, the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party. Labeling the 63 million Trump voters as deplorable and irredeemable didnt work out for Hillary Clinton when she ran a failed presidential campaign against Trump in 2016. Labeling the same voters as divisive, resentful and paranoid will not work for Democrats in the November midterm elections. Democrats continually demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding and active demonization of Trump voters. They are clearly wrong but dont realize theyre wrong. I traveled the country in search of the Trump voter for my book, The New American Revolution: The Making of a Populist Movement. Here is what I found: a mother who lost her only son to an illegal immigrant; a wife whose husband died while languishing on a waitlist for health-care from the Department of Veterans Affairs; a mom whose entire family perished in a terrorist attack; factory workers whose jobs went overseas; and so many other great Americans who wanted change a change from the Obama presidency. These are some of the millions of Americans who made Donald Trump our president in an election that the liberal media, pollsters, and political elite never saw coming. They never saw it coming because they never took the time to talk to voters and understand their one simple request: change. As I wrote previously: In every single one of the twenty-seven states where CNN conducted exit and entrance polls during the Republican primaries, more than 80% of the Republican electorate felt angry or dissatisfied with the federal government. In total, just shy of 90% of Republican voters overall expressed a negative view of the federal government. In the states where CNN asked the same question of Democrats, an average 61 percent of Democratic voters had a negative view of the federal government! Interestingly, the highest level of Democratic frustration was in the state of Michigan, where 69 percent of voters reported frustration with the federal government. Michigan, of course, voted for Trump after 30 years of going blue. Election night exit polling once again confirmed voters appetite for change. Fox News 2016 exit polling found that a staggering 62 percent of voters thought the country was seriously on the wrong track. In short, the story of the 2016 election was a bipartisan call for change from the failed Obama status quo. So why, then, are Democrats bringing President Obama to the campaign trail? The Obama presidency delivered the slowest economic recovery since World War II. Economic growth languished at 2 percent each year; wage growth stalled; and the middle class shrank considerably. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that 71 percent of Americans believed the economy was rigged against them. In just two years, President Trump completely reversed course. Now, 85 percent of blue collar workers say their lives are heading in the right direction, and 62 percent of voters overall say the economy is good or excellent. The Trump economy has delivered 4.2 percent annualized economic growth in the second quarter; 3.6 million new jobs; and wages growing at the fastest pace in a decade. Now, President Obama is desperately trying to take credit for President Trumps successes, saying remember when this recovery started while conveniently failing to note the Obama recovery was the worst since World War II, costing Americans approximately $17,000 in wage growth. Make no mistake. The windfall of good economic news is precisely because of the Trump presidency reversing Obamas legacy of high taxes, onerous regulation and job-killing trade deals. Its why Economists Credit Trump as Tailwind for U.S. Growth, Hiring and Stocks, according to a Wall Street Journal survey. Returning to the status quo political class that oversaw a failing economy is not the answer for Democrats. Sending Obama out on the campaign trail forces every single red state Democrat to defend the failures of the Obama presidency. Obamas presence poses quite a challenge for Democrats like North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who pose as Trump allies while saying Obama will not be welcome to their states. Obamas disastrous liberal agenda was rejected in 2016, and it must be rejected in 2018. While Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats ignored the forgotten men and women of this country, President Trump spoke to them. Now, he is acting for them. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Those on the left have tried their best to make a partisan spectacle out of Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week on his nomination to the Supreme Court. Democrats on the committee have gone so far as to dispense with long-established Senate decorum and rules in order to fire up their base heading into the November midterm elections. Its a sad commentary that in retrospect, now-Justice Elena Kagans confirmation in 2010 seems like something from a different era, when senators on both sides of the aisle took the vetting process for the highest court in the land seriously. At the time, then-Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont called on all members of the committee to be fair during the hearings and abstain from questioning the integrity or independence of President Obamas nominee. Republicans did just that, prompting Kagan to publicly thank then-Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Senate Republicans for giving her such respectful and expeditious consideration. Times have certainly changed. Now that we have a Supreme Court vacancy being filled by a Republican president, Senate Democrats have failed to return the courtesy. During this weeks hearing starting from the moment Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced Judge Kavanaugh and his family the proceedings were interrupted by one Democratic senator after another, demanding a vote to delay the hearing. Then, like clockwork, came the shouts of protesters in the crowd. If these childish antics and partisan outbursts appeared to be a well-coordinated effort on the part of Democrats to obstruct the confirmation of Kavanaugh, its because they were. News organizations reported that on the eve of the hearing, Judiciary Committee Democrats hosted a conference call with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, and plotted a protest strategy to disrupt the proceedings. Unable to come up with any substantive criticism of Kavanaughs impressive and extensive record, which includes the 12 years he has spent as a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Democrats spent the entire first day of the hearing implementing their protest strategy. They expressed artificial outrage over the process and claimed they havent received enough documents. Senate Democrats have had plenty of documents to review including Kavanaughs 307 written opinions from the appellate court, his 17,000 pages of responses to the committees bipartisan questionnaire, and nearly 500,000 pages of executive branch documents. Yet Schumer managed to go on the Senate floor and claim with a straight face that there is a lot we don't know about Judge Kavanaugh. Thats quite a reversal from what Schumer said when Kagan was the nominee and provided the Senate with 170,000 pages of documents. Schumer proclaimed that having 170,000 pages of her as solicitor general, countless articles and discussions we have a voluminous record ... we have plenty of stuff about her. The pre-coordinated stunts from Democrats continued into the third day of the confirmation hearing on Thursday, when Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey announced he was releasing confidential Kavanaugh documents to the media. Booker even said that Im knowingly violating the rules. The embarrassing plot twist for Booker was that he didnt actually release confidential documents, because the Department of Justice and President George W. Bush already waived the confidentiality restriction hours earlier. The committee even notified Bookers office about the waiver before the hearing started. Booker may have also missed the letter Chairman Grassley sent to all Judiciary Committee Democrats last month, encouraging all members to send requests for any confidential documents they wanted released to the public. Only one Democrat took Grassley up on his offer in the lead-up to the hearing and the request was quickly granted. In spite of the good faith and proactive bipartisan overture made by Grassley, Democrats ignored it and decided to insincerely make the confidential documents an issue at the hearing. They justified their eagerness to break the rules of the committee by claiming it was for the sake of transparency. So, in the spirit of full transparency, I asked all of my Democratic colleagues during the hearing whether they would practice what they preach by releasing their own personal emails relating to the Kavanaugh nomination. My challenge to Judiciary Committee Democrats to walk the walk was met with deafening silence. When Judiciary Committee Democrats werent spending their time making themselves look silly with staged and hypocritical complaints about procedure, some used their time attempting to rattle Kavanaugh with desperate and unfair attacks impugning his character. However, Kavanaugh never flinched. He consistently answered every question with thoughtfulness and candor. Throughout the hearing he demonstrated a remarkable grasp of Supreme Court precedent. He made it clear that his role as a judge is to be an umpire, not a lawmaker. He said he is someone who applies the rules fairly and uniformly and doesnt change the rules in mid-game. Kavanaughs record on the bench shows that he approaches every case with an open mind. As a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Kavanaughs Democratic-appointed colleagues and Republican-appointed colleagues both joined his opinions 89 percent of the time. Thats the hallmark of a highly respected judge who can build judicial consensus from all sides. While Senate Democrats are likely to continue their partisan gamesmanship over the next few weeks, no talking point or political stunt will change the fact that Brett Kavanaugh is a fair-minded and eminently qualified jurist. It also wont change the fact that he will soon be confirmed as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court. In a recent ad, Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids, a candidate for a U.S. House seat, looks into the camera and declares: I don't support abolishing ICE. Trouble is, just a few weeks ago, when asked if she supported abolishing ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), her answer was the complete opposite. "I do. I would, I would," she said in a July 21 podcast. Davids gained national attention after winning the states crowded Democratic primary Aug. 7. The openly gay Native American candidate will now face Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder in Novembers general election for the chance to represent a suburban Kansas City district. Davids recent ad was a response to an earlier ad from a Republican super PAC that included the portion of the July podcast in which she said she supported abolishing ICE. The position has become a rallying cry for some on the political left, who accuse the agency of using heavy-handed tactics under President Donald Trump in rounding up illegal immigrants. But Republicans and many moderate Democrats say that abolishing it is a step too far. Davids turnaround on the issue began when the Kansas City Star first reported on the podcast two weeks ago. Since then, Davids has told news organizations, including the Associated Press on Wednesday, that she does not support abolishing ICE but favors comprehensive immigration reform. Asked to explain the contradiction between the podcast and her new ad, the Davids campaign said the ad was consistent with her views before she won the primary. As an example, the campaign pointed to comments she made in a June interview with the Star's editorial board, but the specific issue of abolishing ICE did not arise in that interview. Instead, she spoke in broader terms about her belief that talking about all immigrants as a national security risk dehumanizes them. The July 21 podcast interview cited by Republicans was part of the Millennial Politics Podcast, sponsored by GCK Consulting, a Democratic-leaning, Washington, D.C., firm that helps elect millennial candidates. The host was Jordan Valerie Allen, the podcast's politics editor and communications director for Run With Pride, a PAC working to elect LGBT candidates. It endorsed Davids. During part of the podcast, Davids discusses her concerns about having ICE handle immigration issues "in terms of policing," which she said was the wrong framework. Nearly 33 minutes into the interview, Allen asked: "And just to clarify, you do support abolishing ICE?" Davids answered: "I do. I would, I would. The Washington Post later reported that Davids said she had never endorsed abolishing ICE and had "stammered briefly" in answering the question. But in the podcast, Davids then mentioned defunding ICE, which she says is "essentially the same thing" as abolishing the agency. The Associated Press contributed to this story. The third day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh brought more arrests and charges, after 69 people were removed from the Capitol. U.S. Capitol Police said on Thursday that 37 people were removed from the Senate Judiciary Committees room in the Hart Senate Office Building. They were all charged with disorderly conduct. An additional 12 people were removed from outside the room for participating in unlawful demonstration activities during a break. They were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding. Another 19 people were removed from the Hart Building and face similar charges. Capitol Police said that one male was arrested inside the hearing and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, simple assault and disruption of Congress. This brings the total number of arrests since the start of the hearing to 74. 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 Kavanaughs confirmation would shift the Supreme Courts balance for years on issues like abortion rights, LGBT freedoms and gun control. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Former Republican Senate aide Manny Miranda is firing back after Sen. Patrick Leahy questioned whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had any knowledge about a batch of Senate Democratic memos allegedly "stolen" in 2003 while he was a lawyer in the George W. Bush White House. In a statement released Thursday, Miranda claimed Democratic memos were "negligently" put on a shared server roughly 16 years ago. "I admit that we exploited this to learn simple things about their plans to attack Bush judicial nominees at the behest of the left wing interest groups," Miranda wrote, in part. Leahy, D-Vt., asked Kavanaugh if Miranda sent him the documents via email on July 19, 2002, inquiring why Democrats were looking into financial ties between two special interest groups in regard to Priscilla Owen, a controversial nominee to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals at the time. "Did Mr. Miranda send you an email asking you why the Leahy people were looking into her financial ties?" Leahy asked after someone handed Kavanaugh a copy of the years-old correspondence. 'CONFIDENTIAL' KAVANAUGH EMAILS POSTED BY CORY BOOKER WERE CLEARED, DESPITE DRAMATIC CLAIM OF DEFYING RULES Seemingly confused, Kavanaugh asked, "Is that what this email is? Can I take a minute to read it?" Leahy agreed and then explained the exchange occurred four days before Owen's confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh pointed out he didn't send any emails on the chain, though he noted he was carbon-copied. Addressing Leahy, Kavanaugh said it wasn't "unusual" for a staffer to question what other party members are looking into ahead of judicial hearings. "I don't really have a specific recollection of any of this," he added. "This happens all the time." Leahy then pressed Kavanaugh about an unsigned letter drafted by himself and other Democrats included on the chain. BOOKER'S KAVANAUGH EMAIL RELEASE DURING SUPREME COURT HEARING DRAWS FIERY RESPONSES FROM SENATORS You had the full text of my letter in your inbox before anything had been said about it publicly, Leahy said. Did you find it all unusual to receive a draft letter from Democratic senators to each other before any mention of it was made public? Kavanaugh said he didn't realize it was an unofficial letter. "When you worked at the White House, did anyone ever tell you they had a mole that provided them with secret info?" Leahy then asked. "I don't recall a reference to a 'mole,' which sounds highly specific," Kavanaugh replied, repeating it's "common" for colleagues to talk to each other and share information with fellow committee members. Kavanaugh was questioned about the same incident during his 2006 confirmation hearing to become an appellate judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. His answer was similar to those he provided this week: he wasn't aware the memos were private. Miranda emphasized Thursday that Kavanaugh was unaware of the original source of the documents, which he maintains were never "stolen," during that time period. "In 2002 and 2003, I worked with Brett Kavanaugh and many other counsels to confirm the nominations of Bush judges who were being horribly obstructed. Brett Kavanaugh was intently ethical in all my experience with him. He has no worries now," Miranda wrote. "Contrary, to the malign intent of Senators Leahy and Durbin at Senate Judiciary hearings, I can confirm that Brett Kavanaugh knew nothing of the source of any information that we obtained. Nor did I ever meet with him privately nor publicly to discuss it." The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York investigated the matter and cleared Miranda of any wrongdoings, the former aide stated, adding he went on to serve as a U.S. diplomat in Iraq, receiving a full security clearance. President Trump addressed a crowd at a rally in Billings, Montana Thursday night in support of GOP congressional candidate Matt Rosendale in his quest to unseat Democratic Sen. John Tester. Trump kicked off the rally touting the work his administration has done and briefly mentioned the ongoing Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Describing Kavanaugh as "truly exceptional," Trump said he thought the nominee was "doing really well." Separately, likely referring to Democrats on the committee, he said it was "embarrassing to watch those people make fools of themselves as they scream and shout at this great gentleman." The president also referenced a controversial op-ed with The New York Times -- written by an anonymous "senior official in the Trump administration" -- and urged the publication to release the author's name "for the sake of our national security." The president's trip to Montana came one day after the op-ed's publishing, in which the official revealed "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." The president also made reference at the rally to allegations released earlier this year by Tester regarding Trump's pick to head the Department of Veteran Affairs, White House physician Ronny Jackson. Trump said Jackson "was subjected to horrible lies and smears." "What Tester did to Admiral Jackson should never, ever be allowed," Trump said. Jackson ultimately withdrew his nomination to lead the department amid allegations collected by Testers office about his prescription-drug practices and use of alcohol. Trump slammed Tester, accusing him of saying things to his constituents in Montana and then acting differently in Washington D.C., adding that "he votes like he's Nancy Pelosi." The president painted Democrats as weak on immigration, emphasizing the need, he said, to vote for Rosendale over Tester. "This election is a choice between Democrats who want to abolish ICE and Republicans who want to abolish MS-13," Trump said. Closing out the rally, Trump urged people in Montana to gather their friends and family in November and "get out and vote Republican." Rosendale and Tester are facing off in a state Trump claimed victory in during the 2016 presidential election, winning by 20 percentage points. When Trump visited Montana in July, Tester took out full-page ads in several newspapers welcoming the president to the state. Trump proceeded to slam Tester at a rally in Great Falls as an obstructionist who was out of touch with the state's voters. Tester, who on Wednesday revealed a new TV ad touting his work with Trump concerning veterans, told The Associated Press Thursday that its never a bad thing when a president visits Montana. Anytime you get a president of the United States to come to Montana, it's certainly not a bad thing for Montana, Tester said. He's going to do what he's going to do. I just hope he uses the trip for more than political purposes, but we'll see. Rosendale dismissed the idea of his opponent and Trump working together as being "rather amusing." Jon has opposed the president and he's trying to come back here and say he's supporting the president, Rosendale told The Associated Press. The president, who Jon says he's working so well with, is going to say, Jon isn't working with me. Fox News Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Authorities in Wyoming said Thursday that a fire at a local Republican Party headquarters was being investigated as arson. The fire early Thursday morning in a first-floor office at the Albany County Republican headquarters caused minor damage and no injuries, according to the Laramie Police Department. Albany County GOP chairman Ben McKay told the Laramie Boomerang newspaper that a "Make America Great Again" sign was hanging in a window that was broken during the incident. Police spokesman Steve Morgan told the Associated Press that agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting because of the possibility of a political motive. Morgan added Thursday afternoon there were no suspects yet. He declined further comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In the continued fallout over the murder of an Iowa college student, allegedly at the hands of a Mexican man, advisers to President Trump joined Angel Families at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Friday to draw attention to crime committed by illegal immigrants. You will never be silenced, and your loved ones will never be forgotten, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told families. Heres the truth: open borders leads to massive crime. And massive crime that is totally avoidable. Others at the rally included former White House deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who recently lost his Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. I also will never forget the names of these individuals, whether its Mollie Tibbetts or it's Kate Steinle, Gorka said. Tibbetts went missing after going for a jog in Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18. Police in August arrested a 24-year old illegal immigrant from Mexico and charged him with her murder. Steinle was shot to death on Pier 14 in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant in July 2015. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who had had been deported five times, was acquitted of Steinles murder in 2017 after arguing he shot her by accident. Trump has highlighted both cases, as he pushes for tougher measures to prevent illegal immigration. Democrats, some of whom are pushing to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, accuse Trump of exploiting isolated incidents. More than 10 Angel Families - those whose family members were killed by illegal immigrants - were among the dozens in attendance at the rally. Several speakers recounted stories of how their family members were killed, and spoke of the danger of sanctuary cities, arguing illegal immigrant crime can be prevented by securing the border. My daughter Sarah Root was killed less than 24 hours after graduating from Bellevue University, said Michelle Root, one of the founders of the Angel Families organization. Root said her 21-year-old daughter was on her way home after celebrating her graduation with friends on Jan 31, 2016. Sarah was stopped at a light in Omaha, Nebraska when an illegal immigrant rear-ended her car at a high speed, killing her. Root said the suspect posted bond, but fled before trial. He is still on the loose, Root said. We are still trying to find him to get justice for our daughter, and to prevent him from killing somebody elses family. Mary Ann Mendoza of Arizona told the story of how her son, Brandon, a police officer who was killed by an illegal immigrant in a head-on collision in May 2014 in Phoenix. Its important that our fellow Americans know the magnitude of crimes that are being committed, Mendoza said. Mendoza issued a warning to those watching, saying its a real problem. You are going to know somebody a friend, a family member who is going to be affected by illegal [immigrant] crime in the future, she said. Its inevitable. Neither the Tibbetts nor Steinle families attended the rally. Tibbetts father, Rob Tibbetts, recently pleaded with politicians to leave us out of your debate, saying, Im imploring you to stop. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity, Tibbetts wrote last week in the Des Moines Register. CHANGSHA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China Development Bank (CDB), the country's major policy bank, signed a deal Thursday to loan 500 million U.S. dollars to African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The deal was reached at an African investment forum held Thursday in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province. Afreximbank is an international financial institution aiming to finance and promote intra- and extra-Africa trade. The bank will enhance ties with CDB in financing infrastructure, power, communication, transportation and agricultural projects in African countries, according to the deal. The CDB also signed a memorandum of cooperation with Hunan provincial government at the forum to promote the province's investment in Africa. On Wednesday, CDB led the establishment of China-Africa Financial Cooperation Consortium along with 16 African financial institutions. Since 2006, CDB has spent more than 50 billion dollars financing nearly 500 projects in 43 African countries. An anonymous anti-Trump opinion column published by The New York Times has managed to unite the president's supporters and critics, journalism watchdogs, pundits and scholars who all seem to agree the piece wrapped neither its author nor the "paper of record" in glory. Published Wednesday under the headline, I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration, the column claimed Trump administration staffers are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. Critics say the piece is a breach by the Times of journalism ethics and Trump supporters say it justifies the presidents ongoing paranoia about the treachery of what he likes to call "The Swamp. By publishing the anonymous Op-Ed, the Times became complicit in its own corruption. New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen Poynter Institute senior vice president and media ethics guru Kelly McBride penned a column examining how the Op-Ed could change journalism and possibly erode the public's trust in journalism. Trust in national media outlets like The New York Times is significantly lower than trust in local media This Op-Ed will certainly exacerbate the gulf in trust between national and local, McBride wrote. McBride said its debatable whether or not the story was important enough to be published anonymously and pointed out spicy claims that would typically require evidence. If this had been a news story, we would have insisted on more details, she wrote. It would be helpful if the Times disclosed whether and how it vetted the writer's claims. It would be helpful if the Times disclosed whether and how it vetted the writer's claims. Kelly McBride DePauw University professor and media analyst Jeffrey McCall told Fox News that its extremely unusual for any newspaper to let an anonymous source post an op-ed or even letter to the editor. That's because news organizations normally feel people who want to speak out should have to take ownership of their viewpoints. Further, it protects the news organizations from possible claims that the comments are concocted, McCall said. The Times steered from this established practice and the rationale is not all that clear. Trump branded the op-ed as treason and many of his surrogates and supporters have condemned the paper for running it. Former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer called the op-ed deceitful and selfish, while ex-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said it was the most stunning proof we have seen so far of the liberal medias aggressive bias and the very real efforts by parts of the institutional establishment to undermine President Trump, the U.S. Constitution and the will of the American people. It was predictable that Trump supporters and champions of journalism ethics would criticize the controversial op-ed. But even members of the progressive left have taken aim at the Times and the anonymous author. What I see is an anonymous Op-Ed by a person who wishes to rebrand from enabler to patriots... I dont believe that should be possible." Erik Wemple The Washington Posts Erik Wemple called the op-ed gutless, and said it old news that was simply repackaged presumably written by someone who helped Trump get elected in the first place. What I see is an anonymous Op-Ed by a person who wishes to rebrand from enabler to patriot, Wemple said. I dont believe that should be possible." Liberal CNN host Chris Cuomo slammed the mysterious White House official on Thursday night. Are they a hero? I dont see why they would be called that, Cuomo said. Cuomo also criticized the Times for proclaiming that publishing the Op-Ed anonymously helps deliver an important perspective to readers. What did the Op-Ed do that wasnt done by the Woodward book? Being anonymous carries the same suspicion in either case, Cuomo said, referring to Watergate legend Bob Woodwards controversial Fear. CNNs Reliable Sources newsletter listed unanswered questions pertaining to the Op-Ed, such as whether or not the papers reporters are free to ferret out the source that the Times editorial board is trying so hard to protect. The paper declined comment. Anti-Trump talk show host Stephen Colbert called the piece confusing and poked fun at the author during his monologue on Thursday night. If youre inside the White House, pretending to be loyal to the president, but secretly thwarting the president to protect the rest of us from him, why would you tell us? Now hell try to stop you, Colbert said. The prestigious New Yorker called it a ploy by someone who wants to distance himself from what he perceives to be an imperiled Administration, while capitalizing on whatever credibility and popularity the Presidency still retains. The magazines Masha Gessen feels the Op-Ed wasnt newsworthy, but the decision to publish it is. An anonymous person or persons cannot govern for the people, because the people do not know who is governing, Gessen wrote. The Times, however, does know who the person is, which also changes the position the newspaper occupies in this democracy the paper forfeits the job of holding power to account. Gessen added, By publishing the anonymous Op-Ed, the Times became complicit in its own corruption. Two of California's best-known Democrats are slipping in the polls as the calendar advances closer to Election Day. In fact, both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein have only single-digit leads over their opponents, the results show. In the race for governor, a Probolsky Research poll, conducted between Aug. 29-Sept. 2, shows Newsom leading Republican businessman John Cox by a mere 5 points, with 17 percent of respondents undecided, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Feinstein faces similar problems, with the poll showing her with only an 8-point advantage over progressive challenger Kevin de Leon. A quarter of the respondents told the pollsters they remain undecided. Both Cox and de Leon have cut their opponents' leads since the primaries in June. Newsom took 34 percent of the vote while Cox received 25 percent. In California's "jungle primary" system, the two top finishers face off in the general election, regardless of party. In the U.S. Senate race, Feinstein received support from 44 percent of voters while de Leon received only 12 percent -- though other candidates ran as well. The Hispanic vote has been a source of frustration for Newsom, who has basically split that constituency with Cox, despite Hispanics historically preferring Democrats, the Chronicle reported. For Feinstein, one worry is support among the Republicans, who have no candidate of the Senate race. De Leon, despite positioning himself as a more progressive candidate than Feinstein, has 5-point lead among Republicans. Still, nearly half of Republicans in the poll said they are undecided. De Leon has been relentlessly attacking Feinstein from the left for not being progressive enough. Amid the chaotic Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the progressive Democrat attacked Feinstein for adhering to the process rather than joining the protesters. We should be praising the protesters and standing outside with them, not apologizing for their actions, he tweeted. We need a senator from California who will stand up and #RESIST not #ASSIST. The attack from de Leon followed Feinstein's apology Wednesday after a protest broke out during the Kavanaugh hearing. I'm sorry for the circumstances, the senator told Kavanaugh. We'll get through it. Cox, meanwhile, has been campaigning on the ground and went to the states multiple Division of Motor Vehicle offices with a promise that help is on the way to those waiting in lines. This is a great reference point for everything John talks about, campaign spokesman Matt Shupe told the Chronicle. It's about bringing more transparency to government. It's about approaching issues like a businessman. It's about reforming a government entity that nobody is happy with. Rahm Emanuels abrupt announcement that he wont be seeking re-election as Chicagos mayor turned an already crowded and chaotic race to lead City Hall on its head earlier this week. Without Emanuel, whose political machine and controversial terms in office provided easy fodder for his rivals, the dozen or so other candidates currently in the race have lost their main foil. So candidates already in the race now face the challenge of standing out in a field that only figures to get more crowded. At the moment, it is definitely a free-for-all, Christopher Mooney, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Fox News. You could list a dozen or even two dozen people who have a chance to make it to the run-off election. Its going to be a big messy race, and you dont know who will win. Much speculation swirls around the question of who might emerge as a favorite, now that the mayor has stepped aside. In an attempt to dissuade newcomers from joining an already congested field, former Police Board president and federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot took the offensive at a news conference earlier this week. To be the mayor of this city, you need to have courage, you need to have strength and you need to be able to bring people together, Lightfoot said, according to the Chicago Tribune. Many of us have been out here for months, making our case to Chicagoans. Anyone who decides to jump in to take advantage of todays political news, I think a fair question to ask them is Where have they been? Lightfoot has been one of Emanuels sharpest critics, lambasting him for the citys urban blight, high taxes, soaring violent crime rate and handling of the police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald. Hes the mayor, and our city is facing a public health crisis, Lightfoot said in August, following a bloody weekend that left a dozen people dead and another 62 wounded. Taking on gun violence goes far beyond policing: its about ending poverty and reversing decades of disinvestment through quality schools, career training, social services, and jobs in neighborhoods that have been ignored for too long. A flash poll conducted by the Chicago Sun Times shortly after Emanuel made his announcement on Tuesday gave Lightfoot 9.6 percent support among Chicagoans. That put her behind former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy's 16.8 percent, businessman Willie Wilson with 15.1 percent, and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas with 10.1 percent. The polls 3 percentage point margin of error has McCarthy and Wilson essentially tied, as were Vallas and Lightfoot. But there is enough time for new candidates to join the race before the November filing deadline, in advance of February's open primary election. A name that was immediately circulated on social media in the moments after Emanuel's announcement was Carlos Ramirez-Sosa, a feisty democratic socialist alderman who represents the 35th Ward, on the city's Northwest Side. Ramirez-Sosa, who earlier this year was expelled from the Chicago City Councils Latino Caucus for "lack of attendance and lack of participation," has already considered running for the congressional seat that Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez is vacating. Gutierrez himself has not ruled out a bid for mayor telling reporters, I think I owe it to the Chicagoans that are calling and I am having conversations with. Among the politically connected names being tossed around are many from former President Barack Obamas staff, including former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, White House ex-chief of staff Bill Daley, and Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett all of whom could benefit from the former president's support and the big donors who bankrolled Emanuels campaigns. While Daley has made some tentative moves to judge his political viability, neither Duncan nor Jarrett has publicly expressed interest in running for mayor. The Chicago Tribune reported that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was already making calls on Tuesday to gauge support. Gery Chico, a 2011 mayoral candidate, and city Treasurer Kurt Summers are also rumored to be considering the race. Experts say the mayor's seat is particularly enticing because of the outsized importance of the office in Illinois' political landscape. The mayoralty in Chicago is legendary, Mooney said. In Illinois, there are only two elected positions that really matter and that is governor and the mayor of Chicago. Nobody really cares about senators or who is in Congress. One of the countrys tightest Senate races has been injected with intrigue as the Democratic incumbent, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, faces an ethics complaint stemming from his mysterious warning that Russia had breached the states election infrastructure. At a campaign event in August, Nelsontied in a recent Quinnipiac University poll with Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scottsaid he warned county election supervisors that Russians are inside our records, and hackers already penetrated certain counties in the state. The senator later told the Tampa Bay Times, Russians are in the records, and all they have to do, if those election records are not protected, is to go in and start eliminating registered voters. Nelson faced swift Republican skepticism over the claim and a blunt denial from top federal agencies. The Department of Homeland Security and FBI said there is no evidence to back up the claim. But the questions hang over the race going into the general election, and whether Nelson was telling the truth or not, he could have a problem. FULL MIDTERM COVERAGE AND RACE RATINGS We have two options. One, the senator disclosed classified information, Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), told Fox News. On the other hand, its a lie, its an ethical violation to make up information and then say you know because its classified. If you are a senator, you have an air of authority, and using that authority to promote this type of lie and dishonesty would be an ethics violation. Arnolds conservative government watchdog group filed a complaint in late August regarding Nelsons claim with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Deborah Sue Mayer, chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Ethics Committee, did not immediately respond to a phone inquiry from Fox News about the complaint against Nelson. It remains unclear whether Nelsons original statement was grounded in classified intelligence or not. The Washington Post Fact Checker column gave Nelson Four Pinocchios, asserting, Not a single speck of evidence backs him up, and we have serious doubts whether the classified information he cited even exists. However, NBC News reported three sources said Nelson got the information from the Senate Intelligence Committee, and it pertained to a 2016 hack into Florida-based elections vendor VR Systems. The NBC story went on to say, The sources say Nelson was not supposed to speak publicly about the matter, and he erred by suggesting that the information was new. Disclosing classified information, if thats the case, would violate federal law, in addition to being a Senate ethics violation. Being dishonest in the course of a campaign or official duties, Arnold said, would fall under Senate Resolution 338 that states the ethics committee is authorized to investigate improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate. Arnold said it would be improper conduct for a senator to use his position to spread a falsehood to the public about a highly important issue, such as Russian election meddling. There should be a wall between your role as a senator and political actions, Arnold said. If he is making false statements just for political purposes, it is important for voters to know whether this was a breach of classified information or if he just lied to the public. Fox News made multiple efforts last week and this week to seek comment from Nelsons Senate office. Reached by phone, Nelson spokeswoman Jackie McGuinness said Tuesday she would attempt to get a comment. The Nelson re-election campaign did not respond to phone and email inquiries for this story. Nelson previously said in response to criticisms: It would be foolish to think that the Russians are not continuing to do what they did in Florida in 2016. It is unfortunate that some Florida officials are trying to use this for partisan purposes. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has secured indictments against Russian intelligence officials, including those who allegedly conspired to hack into state elections systems in 2016 . Nelson is the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity. In July, he and Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner urging him to seek assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, reminding him Russia targeted the election infrastructure in 2016. However, Nelsons claim Russians already had access to Florida voter lists in 2018 went well beyond the comments in his letter with Rubio. This prompted Detzner, a Republican, to seek clarity from the DHS, FBI and Congress. In a letter to Florida election officials late last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and FBI Director Christopher Wray said Russian spies have previously demonstrated both the intent and capability to conduct malicious cyber operations, but said there is no current evidence of meddling in November election. The letter added, DHS and the FBI will continue to notify any victim of a successful cyber intrusion into their election network in any jurisdiction nationwide. After this letter, Scott called Nelson either deeply confused or very dishonest. It is irresponsible and reckless that Bill Nelson would attempt to undermine the voters confidence in their county elections systems by making confusing statements while campaigning and then walking away with absolutely no explanation, the governor and Senate candidate said in a statement issued by his campaign. Even worse, hes done so with no evidence, potentially revealing classified information, and with a constantly shifting explanation for his bizarre remarks. Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for the Daily Signal. Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI during Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Papadopoulos was also sentenced to 13 months supervised release, 200 hours community service and a $9,500 fine. Before his sentencing, the former adviser said he was deeply embarrassed and ashamed. My entire life has been turned upside down, I hope to have a second chance to redeem myself, he said. Muellers team had pushed for a six-month prison sentence, while Papadopoulos defense had requested probation. Papadopoulos served as a foreign policy adviser to President Trumps 2016 campaign, and was the first to plead guilty in the Mueller probe. According to the indictment, Papadopoulos was told by a Maltese professor in April 2016 that Russian officials had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. He later attempted to use his links to the professor and Russian nationals to attempt to set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He admitted to lying about those contacts to Muellers team, which investigators said led them to miss a chance to interview the professor, Joseph Mifsud. The defense portrayed Papadopoulos as an eager campaign aide who was in over his head, and pushed back on claims by the prosecution that he had harmed the FBI investigation. "The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could," his lawyer said. Trump hailed the relatively short sentence as a "great day for America" and pointed to the cost of Mueller's investigation. "14 days for $28 MILLION - $2 MILLION a day, No Collusion. A great day for America!" he tweeted. In delivering his sentence Federal Judge Randolph Moss said he did "get the sense that [Papadopoulos] does feel remorse and not simply for getting caught." Moss also said he thought it was important that his sentence send the public a message about the gravity of misleading and, "telling lies to the FBI on matters of grave importance to the nation." The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Trump, in an exclusive "Fox & Friends" interview with Pete Hegseth, blasted the anonymous author who slammed his leadership in a New York Times op-ed, calling it treason and speculating a deep state person could be behind it. The publication of the article, which described a secret inside effort to protect the country from Trumps misguided impulses, has touched off a furious hunt for the author. A slew of Cabinet-level officials and others have scrambled to deny responsibility and condemn the writer. Trump, in the interview which aired Friday morning, said the Times should not have even had the piece. Its treason, you could call it a lot of things, he said, repeating a statement he made on Twitter earlier this week. But he went on to complain that the authors anonymity made the piece difficult to combat. Whats unfair, I dont mind when they write a book and they make lies because it gets discredited, he said, adding that its challenging when somebody writes and you cant discredit because you have no idea who they are. He speculated, It may be a deep state person whos been there a long time. Its a very unfair thing. He said there are thousands of people who could be considered a White House senior official. So they take one person out of thousands, Trump said. Trump said it appears that the individual is fairly low level. He said despite the claims in the piece, the White House is running like a well-oiled machine. Trump spoke to Fox News before his Thursday rally in Billings, Mont. The interview was wide ranging. Hegseth asked Trump if he would shut down the government later this month if he doesnt get the wall funding. Trump said if it was up to him, he would shut down the government over border security, but Republicans running in the midterms may not want to upset the apple cart." I guess when you get right down to it, it is up to me. But I dont want to do anything thats going to hurt us or potentially hurt us, he said. I have a feeling that the Republicans are going to do very well. Trump blasted Nikes decision to tap Colin Kaepernick as one of the faces of its 30th anniversary "Just Do It" campaign. I don't like what Nike did, Trump said. I don't think it's appropriate what they did. I honor the flag. I honor our national anthem. And most of the people in this country feel the same way. Asked about Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe, the president insisted his campaign did not work with the Russians in the 2016 campaign. Look, there was no collusion, he said. Even in these crazy books they don't talk about collusion. There was no collusion with Russia. I love this country. He hit the media for its coverage of his White House, arguing they focus on negative stories and dont give adequate attention to positive developments, like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently saying hes committed to denuclearization during Trumps first term. They don't want to write that. They only want to write bad when it comes to us and it's a shame, Trump said. The level of unfairness and bias in the press is actually incredible. But, in the meantime, we are winning, folks, be happy because we are winning. Former President Barack Obama launched his return to the campaign trail Friday with a fiery speech accusing President Trump and the GOP of fueling "division and resentment" -- but the sitting president responded with a yawn. "I'm sorry, I watched but I fell asleep," Trump teased, speaking at a political rally minutes later for GOP Senate candidate Kevin Cramer in Fargo, North Dakota. "I found he's very good for sleeping." At a rally later in the day in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for gubernatorial candidate Rep. Kristi Noem, he told supporters: "President Obama made a speech, now if that doesn't get you out to vote for the midterms, nothing will." The back-and-forth between the sitting and former presidents sets the stage for a battle of the mega-surrogates heading into the November midterms. Trump has promised to ramp up his campaign appearances for GOP candidates and, with Obama flexing his political muscle once again, he will have a worthy competitor. Obama's campaign season debut launches his midterm effort to rally Democrats to the polls and end Republicans' grip on power in Congress. The former president warned Friday that the stakes are high and the consequences of staying on the sidelines dire. Delivering some of his toughest broadsides against the GOP since leaving office and referring to Trump by name, something he used to avoid Obama said there are certain "powerful and privileged" people who want to "keep us angry." It did not start with Donald Trump, Obama said. He is a symptom, not the cause. Hes just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. But speaking in Fargo, Trump dismissed Obama's speech and mocked his claim that Trump was taking credit for a booming economy that started during the prior administration. "I think he was trying to take credit for this incredible thing happening to our country," he said. "I have to say to President Obama, it wasn't him, and if the Democrats got in with their agenda ... instead of having 4.2 [percent GDP growth] up, you have 4.2 down, you'd be in negative numbers." He said that Obama had overseen the "weakest recovery in the history of our country." "This is called not a recovery, but a rocket ship," he said in reference to the economy under his watch, as he touted his achievements. He also warned voters that Democrats "would destroy Medicare and destroy Social Security," two things he said that Republicans would protect. "Isn't this more exciting than listening to President Obama?" he later asked his crowd. The presidential sniping foreshadowed a fight that is likely to increasingly play out as both presidents rally their parties. Trump stumped in Montana Thursday night and will head to South Dakota after his appearance in Fargo. FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTIONS HEADQUARTERS The Obama speech was a preview of the argument Obama is likely to make throughout the fall. On Saturday, the former president will stump for House Democratic candidates from California at an event in Orange County, a conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several congressional seats. Next week, Obama plans to campaign in Ohio for Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ohio Democrats. In Illinois, Obama repeatedly argued that Republicans have reversed course in the Trump era on several issues, from the deficit to Russia. What happened to the Republican Party? he said. Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism, and now theyre cozying up to the former head of the KBG. He also referenced the anonymous New York Times op-ed and said of the claim staffers are secretly working to keep Trump in line, Thats not how our democracy is supposed to work." These people arent elected, they arent accountable, theyre not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff thats coming out of this White House and then saying, dont worry, were preventing the other 10 percent. Obama admitted that neither party has been exclusively responsible for us going backwards instead of forwards citing southern Democrats who vociferously defended slavery but said Republicans have traded a conservative vision for the country for one thats more radical in more recent times. OBAMA TO STUMP FOR CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS -- INCLUDING ONE FACING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ACCUSATIONS Obama was at the University of Illinois to receive the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government, an honor also bestowed upon civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor and the late Sen. John McCain. Im here to deliver a simple message, and that is: you need to vote because our democracy depends on it, Obama said. Hitting the campaign trail for other candidates isnt common for the former president. Since leaving the White House, he has only made occasional appearances on behalf of candidates, usually opting instead to issue endorsements. He recently endorsed 81 Democrats up and down the ballot in 13 different states; a second wave of endorsements is expected this fall. While many Democrats have been clamoring for Obama to have a greater presence, advisers said he has taken a more low-key role in part to create room for a new generation of party leaders to step up. He's also said to be acutely aware that he does not have a strong track record in helping Democrats win in years when he's not on the ballot, and that his presence can have the effect of energizing Republicans, according to the adviser. The former president's three priorities are to help Democrats take back control of the House, help his party win seats in the Senate and support state-level candidates in order to influence the redistricting process for future congressional races. Former first lady Michelle Obama, too, is hitting the campaign trail hard for the midterm elections. She is headlining voter registration rallies in Las Vegas and Miami later this month during a week of action by a new, nonpartisan organization, When We All Vote, which she co-chairs. She has long been one of the most popular draws among Democrats, but it remains an open question whether she will campaign for any Democratic candidates. She has kept a low profile since leaving the White House in January 2017, limiting her political commitment for now to helping When We Vote. Fox News Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland, Ore., has vowed to work toward making his city the "cleanest and most livable" in the U.S. Wheeler, 55, who has been mayor since January 2017, announced his goal at a Thursday news conference. He said he planned to create a city program for cleaning up trash and litter, the Oregonian reported. "We need to come together with a new and aggressive strategy around keeping our community clean and keeping our community livable," Wheeler said, adding "I've heard from everybody on this." In July, the city drew some negative attention when "Occupy ICE" protesters created a camp outside the local office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Eventually the city cleared out the protesters, who left piles of trash and debris behind. "It was pretty disgusting," nearby resident Frank Savage told Oregon's FOX 12 at the time. More recently, a Portland woman filed a lawsuit, claiming her landlords had let so much trash pile up outside her apartment that she got bitten by a raccoon, the Oregonian reported. Perhaps lampooning the situation, a Portland man recently created a "boyfriend" made out of trash, the paper reported. On Thursday, Wheeler said his program would include installing more trash cans in the city core and establishing regular pickups at the receptacles, the report said. "I don't think it's rocket science," the mayor said. The mayor said complaints about trash on public streets are the most common grievances he hears from residents, according to the paper. "In our last litter pick-up day we had, I'm told, over 1,000 people volunteered half a day to come out and pick up trash," Wheeler said. "So I know the community's excited and energized as I am to do this." A city staffer told Portland's KGW8-TV that more details should be released in the coming weeks. Wheeler reminisced about his childhood in Portland, where "you just didn't see litter." "I expect it. The people I represent expect it," he said. "And there's a sense of urgency to it." In the aftermath of the crippling New York Times op-ed penned by an anonymous senior White House official, a bevy of top administration officials have rushed to deny any involvement. The op-ed, published Wednesday, described a secret inside effort to protect the country from President Trumps misguided impulses and alleged there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th amendment to have the president removed from office. The controversial piece immediately set off a brouhaha from Trump and other White House officials. The president called on The New York Times to turn the gutless official over to the government at once. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said 'this coward should do the right thing and resign. But as Trump questioned whether the op-ed was authored by a phony source and others combed through the piece for clues as to who the writer could be, multiple high-level White House officials have publicly denied being the author. Here's a list of White House officials who have denied any involvement in the piece so far. Vice President Mike Pence: The use of the word lodestar in the piece set off early speculation that Pence, who has an affinity for that term, could be behind the article. But Jarrod Agen, his communications director, tweeted that Pence always puts his byline on opinion pieces. "The [New York Times] should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts," he added. Pence, too, called for the author to resign. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: Speaking to reporters following a meeting in India, Pompeo said the op-ed is not mine. He also criticized The New York Times for publishing it, saying it should not have well chosen to take a disgruntled, deceptive, bad actors word for anything. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh Jr., said, It is laughable to think this could come from Mnuchin. Mnuchin is honored to serve [the president and] the American people. He feels it was irresponsible for [The New York Times] to print this anonymous piece, he said in a tweet. Now, dignified public servants are forced to deny being the source. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis: A spokesman for Mattis said the Pentagon chief did not author the op-ed. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue: A spokesperson for Perdue confirmed to Fox News that he did not write the op-ed. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: I did not write and am thoroughly appalled by this op-ed, Ross said in a tweet. I couldnt be prouder of our work at Commerce and of [the president]." Energy Secretary Rick Perry: On Twitter, Perry said he neither authored the op-ed nor did he agree with its characterizations. Hiding behind anonymity and smearing the President of the United States does not make you an unsung hero, it makes you a coward, unworthy of serving this Nation, he said. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: A spokesperson for DeVos said the Education Department chief is not a Washington insider and does not play Washington insider games. She has the courage of her convictions and signs her opinions, the spokesperson said. She is not the author of the anonymous op-ed. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: A spokesperson for Nielsen said she is focused on leading the men [and] women of DHS and protecting the homeland not writing anonymous [and] false opinion pieces for The New York Times. These types of political attacks are beneath the Secretary [and] the Departments mission, Tyler Houlton said in a statement. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats: In a statement, Coats categorically denied the op-ed was written by either him or his principal deputy. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson: A spokesperson for Carson told The Guardian the op-ed was not authored by the Cabinet official. Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar: A spokesperson for Azar told The Guardian Azar did not write the op-ed. Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney: A spokeswoman for Mulvaney told Bloomberg he did not write the op-ed. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley: Haley told reporters she did not write the op-ed. Fox News' Judson Berger, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. An African employee works at StarTimes Groups headquarters in Beijing, Aug. 31, 2018. (Photo by Ji Peijuan from Peoples Daily Online) The Access to Satellite Television for 10,000 Villages project, as one of the ten cooperation plans announced during the 2015 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg, South Africa by President Xi Jinping, has greatly enhanced the lives of African people by providing TV programs with rich content in various fields. StarTimes Group, a powerful system integrator, technology provider and network operator in China's television industry, played a key role in the project's operation and maintenance. The company has chosen 10,112 villages in 25 African countries to supply with two projection television systems, one digital television system and 20 free-of-charge programs, said Guo Ziqi, Vice President of StarTimes Group. Guo said that so far, the project has been completed in over 2,000 villages in six countries including Senegal, Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique. The Beautiful Daughter-in-Law Era, a Chinese TV series, became popular in Tanzania in 2011. Watching television was once a luxury in the country, but with years of assistance from China, the country has seen great changes in economy and infrastructure, said Schilder, who stood out in a Swahili dubbing competition for a Chinese TV series held by StarTimes in Tanzania and was then given a job at StarTimes Beijing dubbing center. Chinese enterprises introduced digital television and set-top boxes to Tanzania where local people not only have access to television but also enjoy lower licensing fees for various programs, said Schilder, adding that thanks to the satellite television project for 10,000 villages, Tanzania now has access to digital signals, as well as more jobs and a higher standard of living. An African employee works at StarTimes Groups headquarters in Beijing, Aug. 31, 2018. (Photo by Ji Peijuan from Peoples Daily Online) StarTimes has improved the quality of life in a number of communities throughout Mozambique, said another dubber who comes from the Southeast African country, where children now have the opportunity to learn about China and Chinas technology though watching television. A Cameroonian host at StarTimes told Peoples Daily Online that the people of China and Africa can jointly promote sustainable development in political and economic cooperation by enhancing exchanges and understanding of each others culture. StarTimes has been expanding its market in Africa since 2002, setting up registered companies in 30 countries and beginning operation in 16 countries. With over 20 million users, it has become the fastest developing and most influential digital television operator and the only brand that covers digital television, satellite television and Internet television services in Africa. Omarosa Manigult Newman, the former White House official, will reportedly release another tape recording on Monday that includes multiple individuals "high up in the administration," PageSix reported on Thursday. Manigult Newman will appear on "The View," the report said. It is unclear who the individuals on the recording will be, the sources said. Manigult Newman released her book, "Unhinged: An Insiders Account of the Trump White House" last month, along with a series of recordings that included President Trump, Chief of Staff John Kelly and and Lara Trump (wife of son Eric Trump). She resigned in December 2017 as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liason. The former reality television star first met Trump in 2004 when she appeared as a contestant on the first season of "The Apprentice." Next week's "The View" lineup also includes Stormy Daniels, who plans to make a "big announcement," according to PageSix. Documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore, a known Trump critic, is also scheduled to appear next Friday ahead of his "Fahrenheit 11/9" release. President Donald Trump has reportedly agreed to new objectives that will keep American troops on the ground in Syria indefinitely to ensure Iranian forces are driven out of the country and to maintain pressure on the Islamic State. The new policy is in stark contrast to comments Trump made in April, when he said he wanted to get out of Syria and bring our troops back home, adding that the U.S is very seriously considering doing just that. The Washington Post, citing senior State Department officials, reported Thursday that the renewed interest to keep the U.S. military in Syria comes amid concerns regarding Russias commitment to help expel Iran. James Jeffrey -- a former U.S. ambassador who also served as a deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush -- was recently appointed "special representative for Syrian engagement" by the Trump administration, and told the Post the U.S. is no longer pulling out by the end of the year. The new goals of driving out Iran and creating a stable political environment means we are not in a hurry, Jeffery said, telling the paper the president had approved of what he defined as a more active approach. I am confident the president is on board with this, he said. America has roughly 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria. President Trump on Wednesday warned the Syrian government that the U.S. will get very angry if it conducts a military offensive against the rebel-held Idlib where an estimated three million civilians reside, many of them having fled previous fighting in the last rebel stronghold. The province also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. If it's a slaughter, the world is going to get very, very angry and the United States is going to get very angry, too." Trump said Wednesday during a White House meeting with the emir of Kuwait. The U.S. and its allies have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and prompt western retaliation, especially with a chemical attack. Jeffery noted that any type attack will not be accepted, period. Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation, he said, including chemical weapons, causing refugee exodus or attacking innocent civilians. the consequences of that are that we will shift our positions and use all of our tools to make it clear that well have to find ways to achieve our goals that are less reliant on the goodwill of the Russians, Jeffery told the paper. Presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are all slated to meet Friday in Tehran to discuss the situation in Syria, which may determine whether military action will be exercised in Idlib. Each country has its own reasons for involvement in the yearlong conflict in Syria. Iran wants to maintain a presence in the region neighboring Israel and Lebanon, while Turkey fears a mass migration of refugees fleeing more violence and destabilization. Russia wants to maintain its presence in the area to fill the void left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Jeffery also told the paper it is not the duty of the U.S to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from office, while calling the administrations broadened focus in the region a new phase, where you have forces from the different countries facing each other, opposed to pursuing their own goals. The Associated Press contributed to this report. PHOENIX (AP) 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 disease in 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 later a 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. 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. 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 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. But he said an important goal was met: the treatment seems safe. There were two serious side effects one patient was hospitalized for bronchitis and another for an irregular heartbeat but 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 bloodstream an 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 tested 10 times the starting dose for 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. "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." America's rivals are increasingly turning to bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies after their economies were brought to their knees thanks to crippling U.S. sanctions, experts have warned. Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are all investing in the technology in an attempt to counter American economic might and an expert says these nations are forming alliances through the technology. A form of digital money, cryptocurrency uses encryption to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. It uses cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely. Its major appeal is it is untraceable. U.S. sanctions work by placing bans on dealings and transactions with persons, nations and companies. These prohibitions are often enforced with the help of mainstream financial institutions. But cryptocurrencies do not operate within this established system. In fact, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were invented in part to sidestep the existing regulated financial system. This means nations like Iran using or controlling such a currency would allow it to bypass certain measures, such as a ban on buying U.S. dollars or even facilitate arms deals. In May, the United States pulled out of a deal to lift sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program a plan President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted. HACKER STEALS CRYPTOCURRENCY FROM MYETHERWALLET USERS Soon after, Mohammad Reza Pourebrahimi, the head of the Iranian Parliamentary Commission for Economic Affairs, spoke about cryptocurrencies as a way for countries to avoid U.S. dollar transactions - as well as a possible replacement of the SWIFT international payment system. And Alireza Daliri, a senior science and technology official of Iran's Presidential Office, said: We are trying to prepare the grounds to use a domestic digital currency in the country. This currency would facilitate the transfer of money (to and from) anywhere in the world. It can help us at the time of sanctions. Darren Parkin, editorial director of cryptocurrency news website Coin Rivet, described how the adoption of cryptocurrencies is helping to push economic alliances between these states. He pointed to the example of Iran and Russia working together to overcome the sanctions that affect them both. He told Fox News: The problem the U.S. has is if they are dealing with fiat currency (currency that a government has declared to be legal tender) they can monitor the effect of the sanctions. BITCOIN IS LEADING TO A HUGE UPSWING IN MONEY LAUNDERING, NEW RESEARCH SAYS But if countries use cryptocurrency they have fallen below the radar of what the U.S. can see. They're being pushed underground. Venezuela also reportedly received help from Moscow when it was hit with sanctions, leading to food shortages, soaring prices, a healthcare collapse and a crime spree. In February the South American nation launched a new cryptocurrency called petro that Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader of Venezuela, described as 'kryptonite' against the power of the U.S. government. An anonymous executive at a Russian state bank claims the Kremlin oversaw the creation of the petro after President Vladimir Putin signed off on it last year. The source told Time: People close to Putin, they told him this is how to avoid the sanctions. This is how the whole thing started. Last month Vladimir Gutenev, the first deputy head of the economic policy committee of the State Duma, said Russia should conduct transactions in cryptocurrencies linked to the value of gold to frustrate U.S. attempts to thwart deals on Russian weaponry and civilian goods. "And Im sure that this will be a very interesting option for China, India, and other states as well," he added. Meanwhile, Priscilla Moriuchi, a former NSA cybersecurity official, told The Hill North Korea earns an estimated $15 million to $200 million by mining and selling cryptocurrencies. Pyongyang's army of hackers is also believed to have stolen cryptocurrency from organizations and individuals throughout the world. As if states opposed to the U.S. exploiting cryptocurrency was not concerning enough, analysts have warned bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are already being used to secretly move cash between sympathizers and terror cells throughout the world. Nikita Malik, the author of a recent report by the UK-based Henry Jackson Society about online extremism called Terror In The Dark, said: The authorities must move urgently to increase their knowledge of terrorists activities in cyberspace and their use of technologies such as bitcoin. By fundraising and making financial transactions online, terrorists and other criminals can avoid interference from financial regulators or other third parties who might otherwise take steps to prevent their operations. Regulation in this area has to move carefully if we are to balance liberties with guarding against threats to our security but the time has come to deny extremists the space they need online to plan fresh atrocities. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Treasury told Fox News: "While Treasury doesnt comment on specific investigations, we are aware of reports regarding use of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. We continue to monitor evolving trends and issue guidance to the public on how to best prevent surreptitious use of these new payment exchanges. If an enemy tries to launch ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) to destroy American cities and Smalltown, USA then new drones with powerful laser weapons could blast them out of the sky. Rather than play defense, launching interceptors from home soil and warships while the ICBMs head towards impact, these incredible drones could pre-emptively patrol enemy skies for more than a day without ever having to land or refuel. Once a missile launch is detected, armed with its revolutionary laser, the drone could blast deadly enemy missiles as they are literally leaving the launch pad. Imagine the impact on enemy morale the drone would attack from heights unable to be seen with the naked eye about twice as high as commercial aircraft fly- and unlike in movies, the beams are invisible. The drones laser weapon would hit the missile and launch site with jaw-dropping fiery might. For enemy forces, it would seem as if things suddenly began destroying themselves and disintegrating. 'GIRAFFES' JOIN THE NAVY AND HUNT ENEMY THREATS It would be terrifying for enemy forces to have lasers suddenly strike and smite without warning from above. Sends quite a clear signal to adversaries not to even consider attacking the United States with a missile. In the face of the rising ICBM threat, these new drones, armed with ground-breaking laser weapons, could provide an important way to enhance the protection of every American, every small town and big city. Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, and Boeing have all been working on paving the way for the laser-armed drones that would seem the stuff of science fiction to become a reality. This week, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced additional investment for all three companies to further advance their projects. In dire need of a more fitting name for a project that could deliver technology worthy of the Avengers, this project that is paving the way for real life laser-blasting drones, it is currently called the Low Power Laser Demonstrator (LPLD). PODCAST: FARMBOY TO FIGHTER PILOT MEET THIS AMAZING AMERICAN HERO The threat to Everytown, USA Are we ready to shield the entire country from these deadly missiles? The Missile Defense Agency is responsible for defending against ballistic missile threats. The Ballistic Missile Defense system is a current shield with promising tests thus far. When an ICBM is detected, an interceptor would be launched from a ground or warship-based asset. BIGGEST-EVER BRITISH WARSHIP JOINS FORCES WITH MOST POWERFUL AMERICAN STEALTH FIGHTER JETS Enemies with advanced ICBMs can launch from thousands and thousands of miles away from oceans away to hit U.S. soil with maximum destruction. Not all ICBMs, and the multiple warheads they can carry, are the same. Some ICBMs could destroy entire American cities. Some could deliver nuclear bombs to farming country. Other ICBMs could detonate EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) knocking out connections to the modern world. Armed with deadly biological weapons, other missiles could unleash an invisible threat that invades state after state, infecting Americans with lethal sicknesses, wiping out populations as it spreads. If the ICBM carries chemical weapons, it could inflict horrific side effects and immense suffering. So ICBMs are a serious threat with serious consequences. Concerns over North Korea, China, Iran and Russia lobbing ICBMs at the homeland may have faded from the headlines, but the threat persists and grows. Some programs like North Korea may still be aspirational, but others such as Russia already have ICBMs that can reach the U.S. and devastating warheads readily available. Amazing new drone To destroy enemy ballistic missiles in boost phase, the weapon-laden drones need to reach the launch pad. This requires high-altitude long endurance (HALE) with specific capabilities. MDA aims to create high altitude drones that can fly at least 63,000 feet high. They will be able to stay in the area ready to strike with laser blasts for more than 36 hours without landing or refueling. A MILITARY HELICOPTER DRONE THAT CAN FIGHT WILDFIRES These drones will have a cruising speed of Mach .46 while patrolling and can travel at least 1,900 miles to a target. The futuristic drone will need to be able to carry at least 12,500 pounds. This is key because a mighty laser requires hefty power generation. It also needs to be able to carry an approximately five-foot optical system for the laser. PODCAST: HEAR THIS CHILLING FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE SAN BERNADINO TERRORIST ATTACK FROM THE BRAVE SWAT ON SITE PERSPECTIVE Revolutionary laser weapon Laser weapons are already real. Military and defense company projects have already achieved lasers capable of blasting through vehicles, drones, boats and more. The aim here is for this laser weapon to be at least 140 kilowatts, but hopefully exceed 280 kw. The laser weapon will be able to blast for at least 30 minutes without any impact on the drones flight performance. This is not a small feat. The many gigantic challenges involve developing solid-state lasers strong enough to destroy enemy ballistic missiles while the drone is flying at extremely high altitudes, aiming the laser from those heights and keeping it steady on the target. Advantage The Ballistic Missile Defense system is vital and doing remarkable things. But a layered defense will provide maximum protection. This laser-armed drone will have the unique ability to destroy enemy ballistic missiles in boost phase. 'FORCE FIELD' TECHNOLOGY COULD MAKE US TANKS UNSTOPPABLE Realistically, an ICBM attack on the United States or our military abroad will not be the lone missile with one lone warhead as often mistakenly portrayed in media instead, it will be adversaries with deep missile arsenals who will go all out unloading at us. They know the more they launch, the more the U.S. must intercept every single one to ensure complete protection. When interception occurs closer to home, after a single ICBM releases multiple warheads, then the number of threats that must be successfully intercepted multiplies exponentially. Enemies may also launch decoys to draw interceptors and try to overwhelm interception capabilities. Each missile can deliver a number of warheads. Each warhead may have a different target location with its own specific weapon (ranging from nuclear to biological). A drone that can fire at the ICBM during the first-stage rocket, aka booster phase, has a number of advantages. One of the most important is that ICBMs are at their most vulnerable while in their boost phase which makes it an ideal time to strike. Rather than have to destroy each warhead after they depart the ICBM, boost phase means just one shot can destroy multiple warheads. When will it hit the skies? This amazing project should be hitting the skies in less than two years and its laser weapon blasting in less than three. The U.S. was on the receiving end of more internet attacks than any other country, with Russia at the top of the list, according to a new report. The U.S. was hit by 11 million attacks, a report from Helsinki-based F-Secure says. France was a distant second with 6.4 million, according to the cybersecurity firm, whose report covered the first half of 2018. Russia led the list of countries attacking the U.S., with 8 million attacks coming from the Vladimir Putin-led country. US IS THE WORLD'S HOTSPOT FOR MALICIOUS WEBSITES That said, the volume is much lower than the second half of last year when there were about 70 million attacks from Russia on the U.S., the cybersecurity firm said. Traffic peaked in the second of 2017 when there were strong campaigns from Russia via so-called SSH, or Secure Shell, protocol. Russias relative quiet in Q1, however, accounts for a large part of this dropoff, the cybersecurity firm said in the report. One thing that didnt change is the top adversarial relationship between countries: Russia targeting the U.S., F-Secure said in comments that accompanied the report. Many of those Russian attacks use SSH for remote access by attempting, for example, to log in as an administrator. Russia is the largest source of SSH traffic, the report said. Overall, Russia led with 27 million SSH attacks worldwide and the U.S. was the largest target overall (including those coming from Russia and other countries), totaling 9 million, F-Secure said. F-Secure tallied the attacks for the report using a honeypot, which are decoy servers set up to attract the interest of attackers by emulating popular services such as SSH, HTTP, and SMB (Server Message Block). LOTS OF EMAIL SCAMS ARE SURPRISINGLY SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE, REPORT SAYS Other trends Spam booby-trapped with malicious web addresses and attachments was the number one infection method in the first half of 2018, the report said. A total of 31 percent of spam email had links to malicious websites, while 23 contained malicious attachments. Most malware attachments were found to be either 7Z, DOC, PDF, XLS, or ZIP. The other 46 percent of spam was mostly dating scams, which appear to be making a comeback, F-secure said. Why the uptick in Spam? Spam is becoming more sophisticated than before. Strategies include sending email ostensibly from someone the recipient knows and improving grammar and spelling. In particular, error-free subject lines are effective, F-Secure said. As any computer user knows, one of the easiest tip-offs to a scam is bad grammar. Another reason for Spam attacks: other tactics arent working. For example, antivirus software is beating back commoditized malware threats more effectively. HERE'S SOME OF THE BEST FREE ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS FOR PC AND MAC Meanwhile, the top banking threat during the first half of the year was Trickbot, whose target list includes over 400 banks, including every major bank in Scandinavia as well as major banks in the U.S. and Europe. Known to use EternalBlue to infect unpatched Windows systems, it then uses Mimikatz to grab credentials to spread to patched systems, F-Secure said. A Ph.D. recipient who slammed Qantas Airways on social media for referring to her as Miss, instead of Doctor, is receiving major backlash on Twitter a response she calls evidence of everyday sexism. Dr. Siobhan ODwyer holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy, a title she said was overlooked intentionally by a flight attendant. UNITED AIRLINES TO KEEP TOMATO JUICE ON IN-FLIGHT MENU AFTER TWITTER BACKLASH Her response gathered nearly 9,000 likes and 4,500 comments, sparking a barrage of hateful tweets calling Dr. ODwyer egotistical and self-important. Dr. ODwyer called the response a version of sexism that she often encounters. BRITISH AIRWAYS PASSENGER BLASTS 'DISGRACEFUL' AIRLINE OVER NUTRI-GRAIN BREAKFAST BAR Several agreed with ODwyer that this would not have happened if she was a man sharing their own experiences. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS The flight attendant was not named, and it was not reported if Dr. ODwyer spoke to the airline about the incident before sharing the tweet. Dr. ODwyer refused Fox News' request for comment. A honeymoon was ruined when the newlyweds were escorted off their flight by police after complaining about the food. Marcus, 38, and Zarrah Hayles, 34, from Nottinghamshire, England, were told that a comment made to cabin crew was "abusive and disruptive behavior." The incident took place while they were traveling home from a romantic getaway in Cuba as part of a Thomas Cook holiday. The couple say they had not been offered any food or drink two hours into their flight to Manchester Airport on August 30. And when it did eventually turn up, it was the combined main meal and snack which was due later on in the flight. 2 AMERICAN AIRLINES PLANES LAND AT PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CARRYING MULTIPLE PASSENGERS EXPERIENCING 'FLU-LIKE SYMPTOMS' Marcus complained about the service and admitted he swore by saying, "What the f---", but insisted the comment was not aimed at the flight attendant. He said 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 said they didn't want any trouble and were shocked to be greeted by police when they landed. Zarrah, 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. The reason they were called was 'disruptive and abusive behavior,' she said. I felt victimized. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS "It was the last day of the honeymoon. We were treated like criminals just because of an opinion on how the food was served, she added. Zarrah added that the police let them go once they heard their side of the story and later that evening they received a phone call saying the matter had been dropped. Marcus, a delivery driver said: "I felt demoralized over being treated the way I was just for having an opinion on the service I paid for. I did not threaten anyone or go over the top." "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 spokeswoman said: "The safety of our customers and crew is always our first priority and we will not tolerate any form of abusive behavior on board our aircraft." This story originally appeared on The Sun. Read more content from The Sun here. African political heavyweights, in recent days, have voiced their supports for Chinas African policies on various occasions, refuting those who smear or obstruct China-Africa cooperation. China is Africas sincere partner and friend, and African people oppose unfounded accusations against China, said Namibian President Hage Geingob, adding that China always treated African countries equally. China has never colonized Africa in history, and now it is Africas largest trading partner, offering abundant opportunities for the continent, Zimbabwean Ambassador to China Paul Chikawa disproved the western accusations against China, adding that the western countries did nothing to help Africa but making indiscreet remarks. China and Zimbabwe see a large gap in economic size, but China has always worked with us to seek for solutions and equal cooperation whenever Zimbabwe is in trouble, he remarked. Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh noted that the history of cooperation between China and Africa was based on win-win cooperation and mutual respect, in contrast to the defaming by some external powers. China saw a stronger Africa as an opportunity rather than a problem, said Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who serves as the rotating chairperson of the African Union (AU), at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). He also criticized on the misinterpretations of China-Africa ties, saying that "Africa is not a zero-sum game and our growing ties with China do not come at anyone's expense. China's engagement in Africa has been "deeply transformational both internally and with respect to Africa's global position", according to him. China has maintained Africas largest trading partner for nine consecutive years. The implementation of the 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans has created nearly 900,000 local jobs in Africa, accelerating the sustainable development of the continent. Kagame said that Africa-China cooperation improved infrastructure and promoted industrialization of Africa. In addition, the continent also witnessed increasing employment and improved livelihood. Speaking of the debt issues, the AU rotating chairperson explained that debt was inevitable for every country during development, since every construction needs capital. He said Chinas loans were used on the projects and areas that would help Africa grow, and the so-called debt trap was groundless, adding that China was a reliable partner. Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of AU Commission, said that Chinese President Xi Jinpings proposal of the eight major initiatives and financial assistance for African countries were a concrete reflection of China-Africa comprehensive cooperation. The official launching of AU representational office in Beijing would also further enhance Africa-China dialogues and cooperation, Faki said. Guelleh, citing a 2017 report, said that nearly 90 percent of Chinese enterprises in Africa were private companies, and 89 percent of the employees working in these enterprises were from local communities. Millions of jobs had been created in Africa, and Chinese companies also offered skill training courses to local employees, he added. Our relations have been mutually beneficial. For countries that we have dealt with before from the West, the benefit was always brought to what they call 'the mother country'. Now China is different, that is why we feel like it is a true and loyal friend, said Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho. He added that Chinas contribution to Africas development since the 2015 Johannesburg Summit of the FOCAC was obvious, and no other country had done that. China-Africa cooperation not only benefits Africa, but also the world peace and development, he remarked. A wild police chase in Florida ended when authorities apprehended two suspects and seized large amounts of drugs, a loaded gun and a sweet puppy. The Marion County Sheriffs Office released body-cam and dash-cam footage on Tuesday of an attempt by police to stop a speeding vehicle on Sept. 2. Police said when the speeding black Mitsubishi failed to stop, officers initiated a pursuit. They followed the vehicle into the parking lot behind Ocala Fire Rescue Station 7 where the passenger, 40-year-old Daniel Jones, threw a large bag out the window. Once at a stop, the driver, 39-year-old David Lolley, and Jones were instructed to exit the vehicle. Jones can be seen holding a female pit bull puppy as he comes out of the car. Police said the sweet puppy spent time cuddling with deputies before being handed over to Marion County Animal Control. Police searched the car and found a trafficking amount of methamphetamine along with cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and marijuana. They also located a loaded .32 caliber Kel-Tec firearm under the front passenger seat. Lolley also was found with several syringes with heroin residue on his person. He claimed to be a diabetic. According to authorities, Lolley was charged with fleeing to elude, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license. Jones was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and marijuana, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a concealed firearm. Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless military veteran who had $400,000 raised for him by well-wishers, will receive the full amount of money even though those behind the fundraiser allegedly squandered it. GoFundMe, along with law firm Cozen O'Connor, said Thursday that Bobbitt will receive the balance of what he was not given of the hundreds of thousands raised for him in late 2017, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. $400G IN GOFUNDME CASH FOR HOMELESS VET IS GONE, LAWYER CLAIMS "Johnny will be made whole and we're committing that he'll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from," the statement read. "GoFundMe's goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets support he deserves." Bobbitt was homeless and addicted to drugs in November when he gave his last $20 to Kate McClure, a stranded motorist on the side of the road in Philadelphia. To thank him, McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, created a GoFundMe account for Bobbitt which raised $400,000 from more than 14,000 people. Once the money came in, Bobbitt said he began to give some to relatives and spend it on drugs, and the couple claimed they withheld the money to help him. He ultimately received roughly $75,000 from the GoFundMe, which he used to purchase a camper and SUV both of which he no longer has. Bobbitt accused the two of mismanaging the donations, which the couple initially denied. Last month, DAmico claimed that he controls the funds in the fundraised money account and that he would dispense the money when Bobbitt gets a job and stops using drugs. McClure and D'Amico's attorney ultimately told a court that he learned there was no money left. The couple's home in Bordentown, New Jersey was raided on Thursday, and video footage showed a black BMW car being towed away from the property. COUPLE WHO RAISED $400G FOR HOMELESS MAN ORDERED TO TESTIFY McClure and D'Amico are reportedly expected to appear in court next week for a deposition in a suit filed by Bobbitt regarding the money. The Burlington County Prosecutor's Office confirmed in a Facebook post Thursday that because of "enormous public interest," McClue and D'Amico are under investigation, but no charges have been filed. Police say they're trying to learn why a gunman carrying a large amount of ammunition began shooting in a downtown Cincinnati high-rise building, killing three people and wounding two others before four officers all opened fire on him. Police Chief Eliot Isaac says they will study footage from the officers' body cameras and security from the 30-story building that headquarters Fifth Third Bancorp. Police say the suspect had never worked at Fifth Third and don't have any information linking him to other businesses in the building. Authorities believe that 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez has lived in the Cincinnati area since 2015. Police swarmed his apartment in North Bend, Ohio, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away. Isaac says the shooter used a 9 mm handgun with some 200 rounds of ammunition. Officers arrived in seconds to drop him in a hail of gunfire. Authorities hope to have more information to release Friday. Records show the shooter formerly lived in South Florida and had been charged with some non-violent crimes years ago. Police said he went into a sandwich shop and possibly other businesses before entering the lobby and opening fire around 9:10 a.m. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the rapid police response probably prevented many more casualties. He said one investigator said it could have been "a bloodbath beyond imagination." Leonard Cain told The Enquirer he was going into the bank when someone alerted him about the shooting. He said a woman wearing headphones didn't hear the warnings and walked into the bank and got shot. The Hamilton County Coroner's office identified the victims as Pruthvi Kandepi, 25; Luis Calderon, 48; and Richard Newcomer, 64. One of the victims died at the scene. Two more died at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The wounded were listed there in critical condition and fair condition. Fountain Square is often the site of concerts, dancing, food trucks and other events around lunchtime or in the evenings. "It could have been any one of us," Mayor John Cranley said. He praised police and other emergency personnel, saying, "It could have been much, much worse." ___ Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Alexandra Villarreal in New York and AP Photographer John Minchillo in Cincinnati contributed. __ Follow Dan Sewell at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell A romance writer in Oregon was arrested Wednesday after allegedly killing her chef husband at a culinary school in Oregon last June. Nancy Crampton-Brophy, 68, was arrested at her home in Beaverton, The Oregonian reported. Her husband, 63-year-old Daniel Brophy, was found injured in a kitchen by students at the Oregon Culinary Intitute on June 2, and ultimately died there. The day after his death, a Facebook account seemingly belonging to Crampton-Brophy mourned the man's death. Crampton-Brophy wrote her husband "was killed yesterday morning" and that she was "overwhelmed" and unable to "function." Yet, a neighbor of the couple told the news outlet that Crampton-Brophy didn't seem affected by her husband's death, and mentioned police considered her a suspect in his murder. Crampton-Brophy is an author of several romance novels, and a biography on her website says that her books "are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don't always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay." Crampton-Brophy has reportedly been booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center in Portland on charges of murder and unlawful use of a firearm. A Utah man said he planned to "kill the president" after police pulled over his vehicle last month and found six guns and ammunition inside, according to a complaint unsealed this week. Police in Price stopped the vehicle driven by William Scott Wheeler, 56, on Aug. 25 because the headlights were obscured with a blanket, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Price is about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The officer allegedly found a shotgun, two pistols, a revolver, two long guns and ammunition in the back of the truck, according to the complaint. When prodded about why he needed the weapons, Wheeler was reportedly silent, the Tribune reported. Later, Wheeler reportedly told the officer he suspected the Secret Service was after him because he had supposedly sent messages to the White House. They need to fix the problem, or Im going to fix the problem, Wheeler allegedly told the officer, according to an affidavit written by U.S. Secret Service Agent Marina Thomas that was obtained by Salt Lake Citys FOX 13. When the officer determined Wheeler had been drinking and was in no condition to drive, Wheeler allegedly told the officer, I think Im going to kill the president, according to court documents. He was charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition by a restricted person on account of having bought the firearms outside Utah and bringing them into the state, the Tribune reported. Wheeler appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday and was ordered detained, FOX 13 reported. According to records, cited by the Tribune, Wheeler was being held at the Tooele County Jail. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted. Wheeler has two prior felony convictions: one for vehicle theft in 1984, and another for theft in 1989, the Tribune reported. An Army vet shot dead in Florida on Veterans Day last year was thought to have been killed after he stopped to help a stranded motorist. Now authorities say 60-year-old Carlos Cruz-Echevarria was targeted in a murder-for-hire plot. They announced three arrests Thursday in Volusia County. The body of Cruz-Echevarria was found next to an abandoned truck in Deltona on Nov. 11, 2017, Fox 35 Orlando reported. Cruz-Echevarria had stopped to help the driver who got stuck in the mud. The truck turned out to be stolen and Cruz-Echevarrias vehicle was later found burned in Apopka. He didnt know then that the stranded driver he stopped to help was a hitman who was driving to his house to kill him, the station reported. "I've been a cop for 32 years and this is one of the most heinous, despicable, cowardly acts that I've ever witnessed," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. Authorities said their lengthy investigation of the homicide showed Cruz-Echevarria was killed to prevent him from testifying in a May 2017 road rage case. The defendant in that case, Kelsey McFoley, 28, faced a long prison sentence for allegedly pulling a gun on Cruz-Echevarria at a traffic light, the station reported. To avoid prison, McFoley was accused of hiring Benjamin Bascom, 24, to kill Cruz-Echevarria, according to the station. They were charged with murder, along with McFoley's girlfriend, Melissa Roque, 21. Investigators said she assisted McFoley and Bascom the night of the murder, according to the station. Click for more from Fox 35 Orlando. A career criminal accused by authorities of raping and killing six women in the 1970s yelled "I am not guilty!" to a jury at the start of his trial Friday for two of the killings. Rodney Halbower also yelled "I have never raped or murdered in my life!" to the jury in an outburst that briefly disrupted court proceedings, led to a request for a mistrial by his lawyer and claims by a prosecutor that the outburst was staged. The killings happened in 1976 in California's San Mateo County and in Reno, Nevada, and were dubbed the Gypsy Hill Killings. DNA evidence led to Halbower's arrest in 2014. He was in prison in Oregon at the time. Halbower, 69, is now on trial in the 1976 rapes and killings of two high school students within weeks of each other. The Gypsy Hill Killings sent fear through the San Francisco Bay Area when they happened. Prosecutors have said they don't plan to try Halbower for the other killings because a conviction in the current trial for which their evidence is strongest would keep him locked up for life. After Halbower's outburst, Judge Mark Forcum denied several motions for a mistrial made by Halbower's attorney, John Halley. "He doesn't get to set up his own mistrial," said Forcum. Prosecutor Sean Gallagher said he believed Halbower was purposely seeking a mistrial and vowed to talk over any outbursts that might come during opening statements. Gallagher told the jury about the two teen girls who were abducted, raped and killed in a once-tranquil suburb, and that DNA from semen found in both women and preserved for decades matched Halbower's DNA. One of the victims was stabbed to death and the other was beaten in the head with concrete and stabbed in her heart. Authorities in the 1970s said the killings were linked and dubbed the attacker the Gypsy Hill Killer for the location where one of the first victims was found. Halbower is also suspected of raping and killing a nursing student in Reno during the same period as the five California killings. "I wasn't here during that period of time," Halbower yelled out, interrupting Gallagher's opening statement. Gallagher responded that Halbower's statement wasn't true because he was living in the nearby city of San Bruno in early 1976. Halbower's attorney told the jury that some of the DNA evidence had been mishandled and that should create enough reasonable doubt for the jurors to acquit. Halbower calmed down and remained quiet in the afternoon. "I want to note for the record that the defendant stayed silent after opening statements," Judge Mark Forcum told lawyers after jurors left for the day. "That corroborates in my mind that he picks and chooses his spots to interrupt the proceedings." Halbower was in an Oregon prison for attempted murder when cold case detectives re-opened the Gypsy Hill investigation. Prosecutors say DNA taken from preserved crime-scene evidence match Halbower's DNA, which he provided to Oregon prison officials. He was charged with two counts of murder and rape in 2014 and transferred to the Redwood City jail to face a trial delayed several times by questions about his mental competency and his insistence on representing himself. A jury last year found him sane enough to stand trial. It's possible that Halbower would never have been linked to the attacks had he not escaped from a Nevada prison in December 1986. He made his way to Oregon, where he was arrested within days of his escape for rape and attempted murder. An Oregon jury convicted Halbower and sentenced him to 15 years in prison in that state. First, he was returned to Nevada to finish that state's prison term. When Nevada paroled him in 2013, he was sent back to Oregon, where prison officials took a DNA sample and submitted it to the national database investigators use to revive stalled investigations. Authorities say the results linked him to the Gypsy Hill case. Court records show Halbower has spent the past 53 years in prison or on the lam after escaping. A 1987 psychiatric report for an Oregon court concluded that Halbower was an intelligent man who suffered from "a severe personality disorder, with a propensity toward criminal behavior." Halbower earned a high school diploma in prison, but he has had no other education, court records show. He does not appear to possess job skills, although he took drafting classes and dabbled with art behind bars in Michigan, Nevada and Oregon. The report said Halbower "feels that he is pretty accomplished, that he should be able to teach, that he has a great many qualifications" and yearned to be a famous artist or a rock-and-roll star. It concluded that Halbower's "life is replete with poor impulse control, narcissism and a certain grandiosity." His trial resumes Monday. A Connecticut mother suffered severe injuries Thursday night after lighting a "quarter stick of dynamite that she mistook for a candle, officials said. The incident occurred after a thunderstorm in the area knocked out power and the family unsuccessfully attempted to buy emergency lighting from a Home Depot, according to a news release from the city of Bridgeport. CONNECTICUT POLICE OFFICER KILLED IN SOUTH CAROLINA TRYING TO BREAK UP FIGHT The family remembered that when they purchased their home two years ago, there were what they thought were candles left behind in the basement by the previous residents of the home, the news release said. She attempted to light one of what she thought was a candle and turned out to be a quarter stick of dynamite. The 30-year-old woman was ultimately transported to the hospital after getting extreme hand injuries and serious face injuries, officials said. FOOLISH PASSENGERS FAKE BOMB CAUSES SECURITY SCARE AT NEWARK AIRPORT: HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER The mother, who was home with her husband and two children, was the only one who was hurt during the tragic accident, officials said. An additional explosive device was later discovered at the home, which was removed by authorities and later detonated and disposed of by the Connecticut State Police. Authorities have opted not to file any charges because the incident seemed to have been unintentional and the family was unaware that what they had in their home were explosive devices, officials said. A Dallas police officer returning home from work fatally shot a neighbor on Thursday after she mistook his apartment for her own, police said. Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall on Friday revealed the department's intent to charge the officer with manslaughter based on available information. "Right now, there are more questions than we have answers," Hall said during a news conference. The officer had arrived at her apartment complex in uniform after working a shift, the Dallas Police Department said in an earlier news release. She called dispatch to report the shooting and told responding officers she believed the victims apartment was her own when she entered it. It was not immediately clear how the officer got inside the apartment or what led to the shooting. OHIO SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER USED TASER TO WAKE SLEEPING STUDENT: POLICE "I won't go into that information right now," Sgt. Warren Mitchell, a spokesman for the police department, said. "I mean, we have not interviewed her, and like I said this is just a preliminary statement. We still have a lot to do in this investigation. ... This is all we can give you at this time." The victim was identified as Botham Shem Jean, 26, FOX 4 News reported. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The officer, who hasn't been named, will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. She was not injured in the shooting. The police department and the Dallas County District Attorneys Office will be conducting a joint investigation. Harding University, a private university in Searcy, Arkansas, said Jean was a native of the Caribbean country St. Lucia and often led worship services at the school's campus. He graduated from the school in 2016. Since then, he's been working in risk assurance for accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas, the school said. FIRED PHILADELPHIA OFFICER ACCUSED OF HOMICIDE IN FATAL SHOOTING Jean's mother, Allie, questioned how the deadly mix-up occurred. "Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment," Allie Jean told NBC News. "He's a bachelor. Things are different inside." Allie said her son was a good student and was active in his church. "We were very, very close," she said. "We would talk about everything, about politics. Botham loved everyone, and everyone loved him." Residents were also shocked by the incident. "[It's] super scary because the police are supposed to protect you and then they come home and, you know, you're just hanging out in your own house and then they come home thinking they're home or whatever. I don't know if she was tired but that's pretty scary," Richard Healy Nelson, who lives in the complex where the shooting occurred, told FOX 4 News. "It's terrible. I hope it's just a tragic accident and nothing more than that," Tomiya Melvin, who lives nearby, told Dallas News. "This area appealed to me because it always seemed so safe, and so far it has been. But I won't be leaving my door unlocked anymore, that's for sure." Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report. U.S. Attorneys Office(CHARLESTON, S.C.) -- Four men pleaded guilty in federal court in South Carolina to taking part in an international wildlife smuggling between the U.S. and China, authorities said. Matthew Harrison Kail, 30; Joseph Logan Brooks, 29; and Matthew Tyler Fischer, 25; face up to five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to smuggle wildlife. William Martin Fischer, 48, who is Matthew Fischer's father, faces up to one year imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000 after his guilty plea to wildlife trafficking, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday of the South Carolina U.S. Attorney's office. Their pleas came after the accused ringleader, Steven Verren Baker, 38, pleaded guilty in June to wildlife conspiracy and agreed to assist prosecutors in the case. Holliday said traders in the United States and China exchanged endangered turtles protected under international agreements secreted in socks or hidden in candy wrappers labeled as snacks. Typically, about two to three turtles in a tube sock. One would be dropped in with some moss and a little food, then a knot was tied in the sock, Holliday told ABC News via email. Another turtle was then dropped in with moss and food, then another knot, and so on. They were shipped in boxes labeled as 'snacks,' then packed along with candy to obscure the turtles going through x-ray machines. The South Carolina U.S. Attorney's office said the transactions were set up through Facebook's text messaging system and that several of the shipments were intercepted at JFK Airport in New York. Some of the protected turtles being smuggled included Asian (Chinese) Soft Shell turtles, Reeves' turtles, Indian Roofed turtles, South American River turtles and Big Headed Turtles, officials said. Attorneys William Duncan and Deborah Barbier confirmed that their clients, Matthew Fischer and Joseph Brooks respectively, pleaded guilty. Attorneys for Rogers and Martin Fischer did not immediately respond to ABCs request for comment; Kails attorney, John Dennis Delgado, declined to comment. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The future of China-Africa cooperation has recently become a hot topic as the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) achieved success. The vitality and energy of the China-Africa community with a shared future are bringing more hope to the African continent and the Chinese that have set foot on it. A 38-year-old Chinese who runs an infrastructure company in Nigeria has climbed to the top of the local industry from scratch after 12 years of efforts, creating nearly 10,000 jobs for local community. But the man has bigger ambition, claiming that he would make greater accomplishment in the next decade. At an industrial park in Tanzanias capital Dar es Salaam, 600 African young women at a China-invested jeans factory learnt textile skills from a dozen of Chinese female spinners from Chinas Anhui province. The Chinese teachers said that they would train about 5,000 more local spinners in the next 6 years. Such stories are prevalent in Africa. Many skillful Chinese have found their positions in the continent through sincerity and hard work. According to incomplete figures, Africa is now home to more than a million of such workers and businessmen from China. However, these Chinese hoping to realize their dreams in and contribute to Africa are sometimes misinterpreted or even neglected by western media who consider the efforts by Chinese as Neocolonialism. In addition, some of the western media only focus on the risks and underdevelopment of Africa. As a matter of fact, they will see the prospect of the continent as well as the visions of the people working hard on it, if they look at it in a different way. The common struggle of Chinese and local Africans well explain what Chinese President Xi Jinping has put forward. 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, Xi noted, adding that together, both sides have worked in unity and forged ahead. The joining hands of China and Africa comes from the complementary advantages for development of the two parties. Thanks to Chinas complete industrial chain, the country can conduct international cooperation with and transfer technologies to developing countries. In addition, it also boasts cost-effective commodities, rich experiences of management and diligent work force. Africa is a continent with over 1.2 billion people, in which younger generations take the majority. Most of the countries on the continent have rich resources and huge potential of social consumption. They are willing to learn and develop. The cooperation between China and Africa, which is mutually complementary and beneficial, is of vital significance to the sustainable development of both sides. Chinas African policy is different from that of the western world, which is another reason for China and Africa to work in unity and forge ahead. China follows a "five-no" approach in its 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 its 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. The approach is the foundation and premise for China to be Africa's good friend, good partner and good brother. Thanks to this approach, China and Africa will implement more practical cooperation and focus on economic growth and livelihood improvement. Besides, China-Africa cooperation is also a result of the unprecedented change in the recent century. The two parties have similar situations and common destiny that both of them hope to maintain peace and development from the bottom of their hearts. They want to see a brighter future and a better life quality of the people. (Wang Wen is executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China) An illegal immigrant has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after cold case investigators linked him to the murder of his sister-in-law 22 years ago. Investigators initially suspected 40-year-old Victor Serrano killed Manuela Dominguez in Dallas in 1996 but believed he had fled to Mexico after they asked to talk to him, the Dallas Morning News reported. It was Facebook that eventually breathed new life into the two-decade old case. Serrano, who was 18 at the time of the killing, was sentenced in Dallas Thursday after pleading guilty to raping and strangling Dominguez, 23, the paper reported. Serrano spared the victims baby, a then-six-month-old who was left near her mothers body in a playpen alone for eight hours after the killing. The child, named Daisy Serrano-Dominguez, is now 23. The daughter was key in cracking the case after a long-lost cousin found her on Facebook and they began chatting about the case. Serrano-Dominguez contacted Dallas Police cold case detective Noe Camacho, who eventually used Facebook to track down Serrano, who was living in Utah under an assumed name, according to the paper. He was linked to the crime through DNA evidence after his arrest last May. The test connected the semen found on Dominguez to him, the paper reported. Serrano-Dominguez said she asked him in court why he spared her, and Serrano told her he would never hurt a child. He said he would never hurt a child, but in the end he still hurt me, she said in court at the sentencing, according to the paper. The paper reported last year that Camacho was hoping that Serrano wouldnt be deported while he waited for his DNA to be tested. A New York man who earlier this year allegedly "snapped" his ex-wifes parakeet in half in the midst of an altercation reportedly pleaded guilty to some charges this week that stemmed from the incident. During the April dispute, Javier Villanueba allegedly brandished a knife towards his former spouse and threatened to kill her, The Staten Island Advance reported, citing a criminal complaint and a source. TEXAS DOG FOUND WITH SHOELACE EMBEDDED IN NECK, SEVERELY SWOLLEN HEAD, SAVED BY ANIMAL RESCUE Villanueba reportedly grabbed hold of the womans bird and snapped it in half, according to the complaint. The man was taken into custody following the dispute, police told the outlet, and he was reportedly charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, torturing and injuring an animal, menacing, harassment and criminal weapon possession. SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN ACUSED OF KILLING HUSBAND WITH EYE DROPS SHOT HIM WITH CROSSBOW IN 2016, RECORDS SHOW During a court appearance on Wednesday, Villanueba entered a guilty plea for disorderly conduct and a criminal weapon possession charge, The Advance reported. However, the animal cruelty charge against him was ultimately dropped due to the results of a necropsy of the animal, which could not determine that Villanueba caused the birds death, a source told the outlet. Villanueba was also reportedly ordered to receive drug treatment. Two suspects were in custody Thursday after the mayor of a small community in North Carolina and his wife were found dead in their home, reports said. Leggett Town Commissioner Teresa Summerlin confirmed to the Charlotte Observer that Mayor Gary Skelton and his wife Jackie had died. But the Edgecombe County Sheriffs Office would not confirm the victims names per wishes of their family. Details on the cause of the deaths were not provided. Deputies said they found the bodies when responding to the home as part of a welfare check on someone believed to be missing. Jackie Skelton was thought to be missing when she didnt show up for her job as a nurse Thursday, Summerlin told Raleighs News & Observer. She said the couple had just returned from seeing their grandchildren in Georgia when they were found dead. "It is unimaginable what they came home to last night, that's what sickens me to my core, how they must have felt, Summerlin told Raleigh's WRAL-TV. It sickens me and they were the epitome of good people, they were awesomely good people." The sheriffs office said more details would be released during a news conference Friday. Leggett, about 70 miles east of Raleigh, has a population of 55, according to the News & Observer. A thief who broke into a Denver woman's car Tuesday stole not only her credit cards, but also an item she says is much more valuable -- the only remaining photo of herself with her late grandmother. Sara Castiglione told FOX 31 Denver that the photo is "irreplaceable." "My grandmother was able to take care of me before she sent me to an orphanage," Castiglione told the station. "So I have a picture of her in my wallet. "I'll never see her again," she added. "She's passed away." Castiglione was born in China and later adopted by Americans. The stolen photo represents to the only connection she has to the time she spent with her grandmother, she said. "My grandmother was able to take care of me before she sent me to an orphanage. ... So I have a picture of her in my wallet." Sara Castiglione So she is hoping that the suspect will somehow decide to return the photo, the report said. Meanwhile, there's the matter of about $5,000 in purchases that the suspect has made with the stolen credit cards, Castiglione said. Stores provided surveillance video to police and Castiglione that showed a woman being described as a suspect, according to the station. Police are investigating the theft, which occurred in Denver's Glendale section, the report said. Authorities have arrested a heavily armed suspect who took multiple hostages and barricaded himself inside a business in Parkland, Washington late Thursday evening. The suspect was wearing body armor and taken into custody after exchanging gunfire with police, authorities said. He was struck once in the vest, but sustained no serious injuries. All four hostages were released, KIRO 7 reported. There are no further injuries or suspects, police said. The incident began around 8:30 p.m. when multiple law enforcement agencies responded to an active shooter situation, which police believe began as an attempted robbery, KIRO 7 reported. A man in Laredo, Texas was arrested Sunday after he put a 78-year-old woman in a chokehold and stole $23 from her, the Laredo Police Department said. The man, identified as 25-year-old Juan Francisco Leyva, was arrested and charged Sunday with aggravated robbery, the Laredo Morning Times reported. HILTON HEAD FORMER TEACHER SHOT HER DOCTOR EX-BOYFRIEND BEFORE TURNING GUN ON HERSELF: REPORTS The woman, who has not been identified, claimed Leyva grabbed her from behind before stealing her coin purse, which contained $23, according to the newspaper. After the woman told authorities about the incident, the man was located and arrested. CHICK-FIL-A EMPLOYEE FIRED, CUSTOMER ARRESTED AFTER 'INCREDIBLY DISTURBING' BRAWL INSIDE DC RESTAURANT A spokesperson for the Laredo Police Department was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Fox News on Friday morning. The deaths of two female students from Thailand, whose bodies were found in an apartment on Tuesday, has been ruled a murder-suicide, The Seattle Times reported Thursday. Kornkamol Leenavarat, 25, and her friend Thiti-orn Chotchuangsap, 32, were found dead in an apartment in Seattles University District on Tuesday after police responded to a call from a building manager around 9:30 a.m. The building managers had conducted a welfare check and found a seriously injured woman inside, a police statement said. When police arrived, both of the women were dead. The younger woman died from multiple stab wounds and her death was ruled a homicide, the King County Medical Examiners Office in Seattle said Thursday. Bangkok media reported that she had flown to the U.S. recently to attend the University of Washington. The medical examiner said the older woman died of a stab wound to the chest and that her death was ruled a suicide. Both women died on Saturday. Seattle Police said there are no outstanding suspects in the investigation. The younger woman is reportedly a member of a political family in Thanyaburi, a district located about 35 miles northeast of Bangkok. Both women were studying for a masters degree in law, according to a statement from University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce. "This is a heartbreaking loss for their families, friends and our entire community. I offer condolences on behalf of our University to everyone who is grieving as a result of this tragedy," she said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A career criminal who authorities believe is the Gypsy Hill Killer faces trial Friday in Northern California for the murders of two young women four decades ago. Law enforcement officials believe Rodney Halbower, 69, is the man who raped and killed six young women during a five-month period in 1976. The serial killer was given his nickname when one of the bodies was found in the Gypsy Hills section of Pacifica, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Opening statements start Friday in Redwood City, which is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Francisco. The killings of six young women in Northern California and Reno, Nevada, remained a mystery until 2014. That's when DNA taken from cigarette butts saved from the scene of one of the killings in Reno led investigators to Halbower's prison cell in Oregon. The San Mateo County district attorney's office charged Halbower with two of the six murders that occurred there, citing the cases' DNA evidence. San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe called Halbower "a sociopathic serial killer" and said he is seeking to have Halbower sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Halbower's DNA was taken when he entered the Oregon prison in 1989 where he was serving 90 years for rape and attempted murder. Halbower's DNA was stored in a national database and matched the sample Reno cold case detectives scraped from the cigarette butt when they took another look at the Reno murder case in 2014. A woman who confessed to murder spent 30 years in prison for the crime, but evidence mounted that she was mentally unfit and probably innocent. It's likely Halbower would never have been linked to the five California murders and the killing of a University of Nevada nursing student in Reno had he not escaped from a Nevada prison in December 1986. He stole a car and made his way to Oregon, where within days of his escape he was arrested for rape and attempted murder. An Oregon jury convicted Halbower and sentenced him to 15 years in prison in that state. First, he was returned to Nevada to finish that state's prison term. When Nevada paroled him in 2013, he was sent back to Oregon, where prison officials took a DNA sample and submitted it to the national database investigators use to revive stalled investigations, which linked him to the Gypsy Hill murders. Halbower was first transferred to the San Mateo County Jail in 2014 and his trial has been delayed several times. He has fired several of his public defenders and demanded to represent himself. The case was also delayed until a jury last year determined he was competent to stand trial. Judges have refused to let him serve as his own attorney. His current public defender, John Halley, didn't return a call from The Associated Press on Wednesday. Court records show Halbower has spent the last 53 years in prison or on the lam after escaping. A 1987 psychiatric report for an Oregon court concluded that Halbower was an intelligent man who suffered from "a severe personality disorder, with a propensity toward criminal behavior." Halbower earned a high school diploma in prison, but he has had no other education, court records show. He does not appear to possess job skills, although he took drafting classes and dabbled with art behind bars in Michigan, Nevada and Oregon. Still, that psychiatric report said Halbower "feels that he is pretty accomplished, that he should be able to teach, that he has a great many qualifications" and yearned to be a famous artist or a rock-and-roll star. The report concluded that Halbower's "life is replete with poor impulse control, narcissism and a certain grandiosity." Widespread downpours and flooding remain possible from Texas to the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys into the weekend. Flood watches and warnings are in effect. Cooler weather is on its way across the northeast after many days of heat and humidity In the Central Atlantic, tropical storm Florence has weakened considerably, but re-strengthening is expected over the weekend. Bermuda will need to monitor Florence Monday night-Tuesday of next week. It is still too early to rule out U.S. impacts mid-to-late next week, as Florence could easily recurve back out to sea or have more direct impacts along the East Coast. We are also watching several systems behind Florence that will potentially develop over the next few days. And Olivia could threaten Hawaii next week, so we'll watch that system in the Pacific as well. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley echoed recent White House statements and again warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran that the U.S. will act again if chemical weapons are used against Syrian civilians. Haley was addressing a United Nations Security Council meeting on chemical weapons use in Syria Thursday afternoon. Haley made the Trump administrations intentions clear telling the Security Council that: We have a message for the Assad regime, and anyone contemplating using chemical weapons in Syria we want to take this opportunity to remind (President Bashar al-Assad) and his Russian and Iranian partners: You dont want to bet against the United States responding again. The U.S. and its allies responded twice before against the Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons, once in 2017 and earlier this year. Haley called on Russia to stop the Assad regimes current offensive plans in Idlib in Syrias northwest province. Its estimated that up to three million civilians are at risk, many of them having fled previous fighting in the last rebel stronghold. Todays Security Council session is devoted to chemical weapons but make no mistake, an Assad regime offensive on Idlib would be a reckless escalation even if chemical weapons were not used. It is up to Russia to keep this from happening, she said. Haley said that according to U.S. estimates Assad had used chemical weapons on its own people some 50 times, leading to 1,500 hundred deaths including women and children in Syrias seven-year war. Fifteen-hundred murders covered up by the Russian regime. And 1,500 reasons to disbelieve the claims that others are responsible for these atrocities. Earlier in the meeting, Russian U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia complained about what he called the anti-Damascus stance, adopted by the Western countries on the council. Nebenzia said, Damascus does not have chemical weapons and nor does it have plans to use it. He then echoed a recent Russian talking point that claimed that Syrian rebels were planning a chemical attack with the intent of blaming it on the Syrian regime to provoke a military response from Western countries. Great Britains Ambassador Karen Pierce joined with Haley and other members of the council in calling for the Russians to ensure chemical weapons are not used against the civilian population: Either Russia calls for restraint or Russia will be deemed complicit in their use when these weapons are used. Pierce responded to the Russian ambassadors earlier use of an Agatha Christie novel to prove his point. Turning to the risk of the use of chemical weapons over Idlib, and taking account of what the Russian representative said: Agatha Christie is a fiction writer. What's fact is that the Syrian authorities have been found to have used chemical weapons against their own people. Pierce continued, So what we hear from the Russian ambassador is an inversion of the facts; an inversion of the concern for protection of civilians that this Council has mandated; an inversion of what the rules-based international order of multilateralism is all about; and fundamentally, an inversion of what governments are supposed to do, which is their first duty is to protect their people and to keep their people safe. Syrias U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, while not a member of the Security Council, spoke at length claiming, among other things, that his country had not used chemical weapons, and echoed Russian talking points bizarrely accusing the U.S., Great Britain and France of being involved in prohibitive acts in Syria, by supporting terrorist groups in his war-torn nation. On Friday, the Security Council meets again on Syria. This time, members will discuss the humanitarian and political situations in Syria with a special focus on Idlib. The Trump administration also Thursday played down talk of an imminent pullout of American forces from Syria, while simultaneously demanding a complete withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syrian territory. U.S. special representative for Syria James Jeffrey, speaking to reporters Thursday about U.S. policy toward the war-torn nation, is pledging the U.S. will remain in Syria until the enduring defeat of the Islamic State group. There are roughly 2,000 U.S. troops deployed there. Trump previously has expressed a desire to get the U.S. out of Syria. Continually during the Trump administration, Americas foreign policy is trying to roll back the U.S. role as a global policeman. Fox News Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held on September 3 and 4, during which Chinese President Xi Jinping and African leaders gathered for discussion on future cooperation and development blueprint. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria paid a state visit to China in April 2016, making him the first African head of state received by President Xi in Beijing after the Johannesburg Summit of the FOCAC. Under the guidance of the state leaders of both countries, China-Nigeria relations have entered a new stage of rapid development. The two countries have deeply built political mutual trust, as well as enhanced trade and investment cooperation. It can be shown by the currency swap agreements signed by the two countries, and the strong momentum gained by the Made-in-Nigeria with China initiative. In addition, the thriving Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone and the Lekki Free Trade Zone, the delivery of China-made offshore patrol vessels, the emergency food aid, and the vigorous agricultural demonstration park funded by Chinese company all reveal the closer cooperation between China and Nigeria. Abuja-Kaduna Railway, Africas first modern railway built by Chinese enterprises with Chinese technologies and standards, started operation in July 2016. It was followed by the China-constructed Abuja Light Rail which came into service two years later. The line is the first light rail transit system in West Africa. More projects undertaken by Chinese companies are under construction in Nigeria, such as the largest port of West Africa Lekki Deep Sea Port, Nigerias largest hydropower plant Zungeru hydroelectric power plant, and the modern rail line between Lagos and Ibadan which was commenced in March 2017. Last year, China and Nigeria agreed to start another five infrastructure projects of railway, road, water supply, equipment and communication. Major cooperative projects undertaken or partially funded by Chinese enterprises have created tens of thousands of jobs for Nigeria, and also led the way to African market for China's technologies, standards, equipment, and management. China is the largest developing country in the world and Nigeria the most populous developing country in Africa. Their cooperation is based on equality and mutual benefit, which can be compared to a brotherhood under the South-South Cooperation. President Buhari has said in many occasions, "We send our gratitude to Chinese people for all their support to Nigeria. Since independence, no country has helped our country on infrastructural development except Chinese people. In some projects, Chinese help us with 85 percent payment, and soft loans that span 20 years. No country has done that for us ever before." The joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative will bring more resources and approaches, expand the market and space, and create a promising future for Africas development. Nigeria is looking forward to further deepening cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. (Zhou Pingjian is Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria.) next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday that he's pushing for "irrevocable progress" on efforts to rid North Korea of its nukes by the end of this year as he prepares for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Earlier this week, Moon sent special envoys to Pyongyang to help resolve the nuclear stalemate. After returning home, his envoys said Thursday that Kim still has faith in President Donald Trump and reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula though Kim expressed frustration over outside skepticism about his sincerity. Trump later responded by tweeting, "Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.' Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Moon said the outcome of his envoys' Pyongyang trip was "much more than what was expected." The next step in nuclear diplomacy is uncertain. Negotiators seem deadlocked over whether North Korea truly intends to denuclearize as it has pledged numerous times in recent months. North Korea has dismantled its nuclear and rocket engine testing sites, but U.S. officials want more serious, concrete action taken before North Korea obtains outside concessions. While meeting the South Korean envoys, Kim said he's willing to take stronger steps if his "goodwill" measures are met in kind, according to chief South Korean envoy Chung Eui-yong. Kim has repeatedly said he wants a step-by-step disarmament process, where each of his actions is reciprocated with corresponding outside concessions. North Korea, which says its nuclear program is aimed at countering U.S. military threats, has demanded the United States jointly declare the end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice not a peace treaty. During his meeting with the South Korean envoys, Kim said an end-of-war declaration wouldn't weaken the U.S.-South Korean alliance or lead to the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to prevent North Korean attack, according to Chung. Moon's liberal government, which is keen on continuing engagement with the North, also wants the declaration. In a written interview released Friday with Indonesian newspaper Kompas, Moon said he wants to see such a declaration made this year as part of trust-building measures. "What matters is implementing with sincerity the agreements among the leaders, and our objective is producing irrevocable progress by the end of this year," Moon said, referring to denuclearization and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. During the Seoul envoys' trip, the two Koreas agreed Kim and Moon would meet in Pyongyang from Sept. 18-20, in their third summit since April. South Korean officials say the summit will focus on how to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week in a sign of strengthening ties between the two Asian giants. The summit will take place during Xi's working visit to Russia's far-eastern port city of Vladivostok on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Friday. It will be the first time a Chinese head of state has attended the Russian-hosted Eastern Economic Forum, a gathering Moscow hopes will encourage investment in its thinly populated far-east. Xi's visit is a sign of healthy ties between China and Russia that have been cemented by joint military exercises and coordination on foreign policy issues from Syria to North Korea. China this month is sending 3,200 troops and about 900 weapons units to take part in the biggest Russian military exercises since the Cold War. The visit also comes as China is reaching out to trade partners amid a tariff war with the United States. Russia has in recent years surpassed Saudi Arabia as China's largest source of crude oil and Beijing also imports Russian gas and military equipment. Russia and China have responded to the U.S. national security strategy describing them as America's top adversaries by vowing to further expand their economic, political and military cooperation. They have also sought to strengthen the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional grouping they created and which holds occasional defense exercises. The relationship is driven in part by the warm ties between Putin and Xi, seen as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. The two have met 25 times five times last year alone, according to Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov. Putin's visit begins on Friday. Authorities in Mexico said Thursday that they found a total of 166 skulls in clandestine burial pits that are frequently used by drug cartels to dispose of their victims. Along with the skulls, found in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, investigators discovered 114 identification cards as well as other personal possessions. The field held about 32 burial pits, according to Veracruz state prosecutor Jorge Winckler. Winckler did not reveal the exact location of the site, citing security reasons. But authorities said it was one of the biggest mass grave sites discovered so far in Mexico. Investigators began searching for the pits about a month ago using drones, probes and ground-penetrating radar after a witness tipped off prosecutors that hundreds of bodies were buried there. Veracruz is known for heavy violence between the Zetas and Jalisco drug cartels, in addition to kidnappings and extortions that plagued the state. Families in search of missing loved ones were invited to the state capital of Xalapa, where they will be shown photos of items found at the site to help identify the remains. Maria de Lourdes Rosales Calvo, whose son was abducted with his girlfriend in July 2013, said the news of the gravesite gives hope. She said her son was 25 years old when he was abducted by four armed men just blocks away from her home, and that authorities brushed it off by saying the couple had run off together. Veracruz investigators have found several mass gravesites in recent years, finding 253 skulls and bodies in burial pits outside the state capital in 2016 and 2017, after receiving a hand-drawn map of the locations of the graves from relatives of missing people. In the capital of northern Durango state, which is also named Durango, police found 236 bodies in burial pits in 2011. Just north of Vereacruz, in the town of San Fernando in Tamaulipas state, authorities found 193 bodies that were mostly Mexican migrants kidnapped while on their way to the United States and killed by the Zetas cartel. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A billionaire Guatemalan playboy was sentenced to 20 years in a hell-hole jail yesterday for the horrific murder and desecration of an American woman. Diego Novella, 44, strangled and smashed the skull of Gabriela Alban after reportedly downing a cocktail of drugs in 2015. Novella born into one of Guatemalas richest families killed his long-term lover Alban, 39, in a crime so ferocious it shocked detectives. Her blood soaked body was found by traumatized room service staff at a 1000-a-night boutique hotel for the stars at a seaside resort in South Africa. A court heard how after murdering Alban he spent hours performing vile acts on her body, including defecating on her face and shoving sweets and chocolates down her throat. He left a note on her body saying cerote, which means piece of s--- in Spanish. Defense lawyer William Booth told Western Cape High Court in Cape Town Novella was suffering from diminished responsibility due to drugs. Booth said the cocktail of cannabis, cannabis oil and over-the-counter drug sceletium had caused Novella to have a psychotic episode." He claimed Alban appeared as a demon to Novella, similar to the character of Regan in the 1973 horror film in The Exorcist. This story originally appeared on The Sun. Read more content from The Sun here. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has decided not to seek the arrest of an opposition senator, who has taken refuge in the Senate, without a court warrant after the defiant lawmaker asked the Supreme Court to declare Duterte's order illegal. The decision could ease a three-day standoff between Duterte and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, the volatile president's fiercest critic in Congress. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a news conference Friday in Jordan, where Duterte is winding up a visit, that the president made the decision "to abide with the rule of law" after a long discussion with Cabinet officials who were traveling with him. The news conference was shown live by Philippine TV networks in Manila. "The instruction is to abide with the rule of law," Roque said. "If there is no warrant of arrest issued by any court, do not apprehend Sen. Trillanes." Backed by dozens of supporters, Trillanes did not immediately venture out of the Senate building, where he has been marooned since Tuesday. His lawyer said the senator would make sure there is no more danger of an illegal arrest. In a signed proclamation made public Tuesday, Duterte voided a 2011 amnesty granted to Trillanes, who once joined mutinies as a navy officer, and ordered his arrest. Trillanes refused to leave the Senate and instead asked the Supreme Court in a petition to declare Duterte's order illegal without a court warrant, which, if upheld by the high court, could open the president to impeachment bids. Known for his temper and outbursts against critics, Duterte has openly expressed anger against Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs and extrajudicial killings in an anti-drug crackdown that has left thousands of suspects dead. Duterte has denied the allegations. The Department of Justice said Duterte voided Trillanes's amnesty because the senator did not file a formal amnesty application and admit guilt for his role in past coup attempts. Trillanes, however, has presented TV and newspaper reports, along with defense department documents, showing he applied for the amnesty and acknowledged his role in three military uprisings between 2003 and 2007. Trillanes, 47, was jailed for more than seven years for involvement in the army uprisings, including a 2003 mutiny against then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when he and other young officers rigged part of a road in the Makati financial district with bombs and took over an upscale residential building. After being amnestied under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, Trillanes successfully petitioned two Philippine courts to dismiss rebellion and coup cases against him, allowing him to later run for public office. Despite many legal questions, the Department of Justice has asked the courts to issue a warrant for the senator's arrest and revive rebellion cases against him. Separately, the Department of Defense said earlier this week that it has deployed officers to the Senate to take custody of Trillanes and have him face a military court of inquiry into his role in the coup attempts. A military detention cell was being readied for him. Duterte "has made it very clear that although a military tribunal could order his arrest, he prefers and he has ordered that authorities wait for the decision of the regional trial court," Roque said. Since Duterte took office in 2016, another opposition senator has been jailed on illegal drugs charges, a critical Supreme Court chief justice has been ousted by fellow judges, and foreign critics, including an Australian nun, have been barred from entering the Philippines or threatened with deportation. Neighbors Eritrea and Djibouti have agreed to normalize relations after a decade of diplomatic stalemate in the latest thaw between countries in the strategic Horn of Africa region. Ethiopia's foreign minister, Workneh Gebeyehu, called the decision "a historic diplomatic achievement" in a Facebook post. The announcement came after an Ethiopia-led mediation effort. "(Djibouti's) President Omar Guelleh stated that Djibouti is ready for reconciliation," Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, said on Twitter. Eritrea, one of the world's most closed-off nations, and Djibouti have a border dispute extending back to 2008. Eritrea long accused Ethiopia of supporting Djibouti in the dispute. Between 2010 and 2017 Qatar attempted to mediate a settlement but that effort failed, and Qatar in June 2017 withdrew its 450 peacekeeping troops from the border. Djibouti accused Eritrean troops of occupying the Dumeira mountain area shortly after the peacekeepers left. In July, Djibouti's U.N. ambassador asked the U.N. secretary-general to work with the Security Council to bring his tiny Red Sea port nation and Eritrea together "with the aim of facilitating an agreement." The ambassador noted that the council imposed sanctions on Eritrea in 2009 "because of its aggression against Djibouti and its refusal to withdraw its troops from the disputed area, and its rejection of all efforts aimed at mediating between the two parties." Eritrea has sought the lifting of those sanctions while pointing to the region's latest diplomatic shifts. It has denied supporting the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group, another reason cited for the sanctions. The Horn of Africa region has seen a number of diplomatic thaws since Ethiopia's reformist new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in June fully accepted a peace deal that ended a 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea that killed tens of thousands. Restored diplomatic ties quickly followed. Eritrea and Somalia in late July agreed to restore diplomatic ties, while Somalia's leader called for sanctions on Eritrea to be removed. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey began a meeting Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Even before it began, an airstrike early Friday struck Idlib's southern edge, killing at least one person. The leaders each held bilateral talks before the meeting began in Tehran. As photographers took pictures of the three leaders Rouhani, smiling, reached for both of their hands. Each of the three nations has its own interests in the yearslong war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. "The Tehran summit can produce peace and reconciliation in Syria or it can deepen the mess created by endless bouts of violence mainly instigated by the Assad regime," Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, wrote in the Daily Sabah newspaper. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria's civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia's longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria's postwar reconstruction. The streets of Tehran were quiet on Friday, the second day of the Iranian weekend. The country's state-run IRNA news agency described the summit as potentially offering an "agreement on peace and security" in Syria. A former Iranian diplomat, Ali Akbar Farazi, told IRNA the summit shows that solving regional issues "in a fair way that agrees with the interests of all sides" remains important for the three nations. For Turkey, the stakes couldn't be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters were prepared for a battle that they expect will spark a major humanitarian crisis. "The least the summit can do is to prevent this military war," he said. Early on Friday, a series of airstrikes struck villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack. Turkey also doesn't want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq. Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, also didn't pull any punches in his piece in the Daily Sabah, saying: "Assad bolstered by Iran's land assets and Russian air power and his use of chemical weapons has punched his way into opposition strongholds and hence massive gains for the Damascus regime. "You still need moderate opposition groups who represent the Sunni suffering masses in Syria to achieve a viable political solution and durable peace in this country," he wrote. "Iran and Russia are the fighting forces in Syria and have brought blood and tears." All three nations face sanctions from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump. Although America has some 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. America's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has warned any military offensive in Idlib "would be a reckless escalation." The U.S. will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday about the possible offensive. "There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict," Haley said in a statement Wednesday. "Assad's brutal regime backed by Russia and Iran cannot continue to attack and terrorize Syria's citizens." ___ Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 The Latest on Syria talks in Iran (all times local): 9:40 p.m. Syrian pro-government media reported that nine civilians have been killed by shells fired from rebel areas south of the province of Idlib on a government-held town. Syria state news agency SANA said they were killed when the missiles struck into a residential area in Mhardeh town in the northern countryside of Hama. Hama lies to the south of Idlib, and several of its villages and towns remain under rebel control. Warplanes, including suspected Russian ones, hit rebel areas in northern and southern Idlib earlier Friday, killing at least five, including one civilian, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The violence comes on the day that the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia are meeting to discuss the fate of the last rebel stronghold in Idlib and surrounding areas in Hama. ___ 9:30 p.m. The director of U.N. humanitarian operations is warning that if a military offensive takes place in Idlib and millions of people start fleeing, aid operations to help them will be overwhelmed. John Ging told the U.N. Security Council on Friday this worst-case scenario "has the potential to create a humanitarian emergency at a scale not yet seen through this crisis," now in its eighth year. He urged council members to ask the parties to cease hostilities in the Idlib de-escalation zone which includes parts of Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia and Hama governorates and includes some 3 million people, about 2.1 million already in need of humanitarian aid. Ging also called for protection of civilians, humanitarian and medical personnel, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure as well as freedom for people to move, access for aid deliveries, and increased funding. While donors including Britain and Germany have recently provided resources, he said, the U.N. is still "woefully short of the $311 million that we estimate is required if there is an increase in violence resulting in mass displacement." Ging said humanitarian aid is being prepositioned inside Idlib and in surrounding areas, and "plans are in place to support up to 900,000 women, children and men that could be affected by conflict." He warned that if millions of people flee Idlib, however, it "will overwhelm all capacity to respond regardless of plans or funding made available." ___ 9:20 p.m. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday after a trilateral meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss the war in Syria. In the Friday report carried by the leader's website, Khamenei.ir, he said that the United States is worried about the formation of an "Islamic authority." "America is concerned about the cooperation of Islamic countries and the formation of an Islamic authority," Khamenei was quoted as saying. Khamenei added that this fear underlies America's hostility toward Islamic countries, according to the report. ___ 8:50 p.m. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is warning Syria and its allies Russia and Iran that "the consequences will be dire" for an assault on the last major stronghold for Syrian rebels in Idlib. Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that an offensive against Idlib is starting despite warnings from President Donald Trump and other world leaders, including Russian and Syrian airstrikes against civilian areas. "The United States has been very clear, with Russia and with the broader international community: we consider any assault on Idlib to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Syria," Haley said. "If (Syrian President Bashar) Assad, Russia, and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire," she said. Haley said Syria must halt its offensive, and Russia and Iran have the power to prevent "this catastrophe." ___ 8:05 p.m. Eight aid agencies have called on world leaders to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, where the Syrian government is threatening a military offensive. The agencies called on leaders of the Iran, Russia and Turkey meeting in Tehran and members of the U.N. Security Council meeting later in New York to work together to find a diplomatic solution that can protect civilians, aid workers and allow access to humanitarian agencies to the overcrowded province and surrounding areas. More than 3 million live in Idlib and its environs, many of them already displaced by conflict elsewhere in Syria. The agencies, including CARE, Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, said the "most vulnerable" are likely to pay the heaviest price in case of an offensive. They said aid workers working in Idlib are already overwhelmed trying to provide basic needs and shelter to the province's population, which has doubled in size in recent months because it is hosting displaced citizens from all over Syria. ___ 7:50 p.m. The U.N. envoy for Syria says any proposal to avoid Idlib becoming "the biggest humanitarian tragedy at the end of the most horrible recent conflict in our memory" must be given a chance and he has some ideas on how to separate "terrorists" from civilians. Staffan De Mistura is also calling for "protected voluntary evacuation routes" for civilians if they want to leave Idlib. He told the U.N. Security Council Friday that talk of a military offensive on Idlib "is happening at exactly the same time when there is serious talk" on moving to establish a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution and encourage the return of Syrian refugees. De Mistura said these are incompatible. "Either we are trying to find a political way to end this war and move to a post-war political scenario or we will see this war reach new levels of horrors." He said that's why Friday's meeting of the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Tehran is so important and why he will be meeting with the three countries in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday and next Friday with Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States. It would be a failure of diplomacy "if with these efforts we simply saw an increase of military activities," De Mistura said. ___ 5:45 p.m. Turkey's president says his country does not have the "strength or capability" to host millions of more refugees from Idlib. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that a call for terror groups in Idlib to lay down arms was a strong message to them and would help halt refugee flows. "We have to take joint steps to prevent the migration, we need to be successful in the fight against terrorism," Erdogan said. "Turkey is already sheltering 3 million refugees (from Syria). The population of Idlib is 3 million. Turkey doesn't have the strength or capability to host 3 million more," he added. ___ 5:20 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin says it is "unacceptable" to use civilians as a pretext to shield "terrorists" in Syria's rebel-held Idlib. Speaking at the end of a trilateral summit with the leaders of Iran and Turkey Putin said Russia is worried about civilians in Idlib but said Russian finds it "unacceptable" when civilians are used a pretext to "shield terrorists" and target Syrian government positions. Russia has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has indicated its support for Assad to regain control of Idlib which is the last remaining bastion of the opposition ___ 4:35 p.m. Turkey's president is calling for a cease-fire and an end to airstrikes amid a looming campaign for Syria's Idlib province. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments Friday at a trilateral meeting between Iran, Russia and Turkey in Tehran. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says "we have to force the United States to leave" Syria. Rouhani did not elaborate on the comment, which he made while speaking about Idlib. America has some 2,000 troops in Syria. Friday's summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. ___ 4:15 p.m. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the fight in Syria should continue until all extremists are "uprooted," especially in Idlib. Rouhani made the comment Friday at a trilateral summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. ___ 4:10 p.m. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says America's intervention in Syria should immediately end. Rouhani made the comment Friday at a trilateral summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran. Rouhani also said that "the fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end." ___ 3:40 p.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have begun a summit on Syria as a bloody offensive on Idlib province looms, despite warnings from the U.S. and others not to launch the attack. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the northwestern Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. ____ 3:30 p.m. Residents in Syria's northwestern Idlib province are holding mass rallies in the rebels' last bastion, protesting an imminent government offensive there and chanting against the country's ruler President Bashar Assad. The Friday rallies came as Presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia are meeting in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action in Idlib and its surrounding areas, home to more than 3 million people. Nearly half of the area's residents are already displaced from other parts of Syria and have refused to reconcile with the Syrian government. The area also includes opposition fighters and some of Syria's most radical groups. "Come on, leave Bashar!" hundreds of protesters chanted in Saraqeb, a town in eastern Idlib. "We will defend our revolution." ___ 2:20 p.m. A spokesman for a Syrian rebel alliance says the least the summit in the Iranian capital can do is avert a humanitarian crisis in the last bastion for the opposition in northwestern Syria. Naji al-Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters are prepared for battle. But they expect a major humanitarian crisis, a large wave of displacement and a lot of destruction and death if a Russia-backed offensive takes place. Idlib and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people, nearly half of them already displaced from other parts of Syria. Al-Mustafa said his rebel alliance is looking to Turkey's efforts to prevent the attack and "to protect Idlib." Turkey has deployed 12 observations points and hundreds of fighters that ring Idlib, separating them from government and allied fighters, as part of a de-escalation agreement with Russia and Iran. ___ 1:55 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have both arrived in Tehran for a trilateral summit on Syria. The two presidents landed at Mehrabad International Airport. They will attend the summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The summit may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 1:25 p.m. Activists and residents say warplanes have struck areas on the southern edge of the Syrian Idlib province, the rebels' last bastion, killing one and causing loud explosions and large plumes of smoke. The airstrikes Friday come hours before presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake bastion of Idlib. Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a series of airstrikes struck a few villages in southwest Idlib and along the borders with the adjacent Hama province, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the airstrikes. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people. ___ 12:55 p.m. The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry is calling a summit on Syria between Iran, Turkey and Russia an "invaluable opportunity." Bahram Ghasemi wrote an opinion piece published across Iranian media on Friday that the summit in Tehran helps as all the nations "have faced similar challenges and joint threats by bullying foreign powers." Ghasemi wrote: "The summit has double significance since all the three nations have faced ambitions and greediness of an illogical international big power." That refers to the United States, which has some 2,000 troops in Syria after its war against the Islamic State group. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 9:55 a.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit Friday, the third between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. The Latest on Syria talks in Iran (all times local): 1:25 p.m. Activists and residents say warplanes have struck areas on the southern edge of the Syrian Idlib province, the rebels' last bastion, killing one and causing loud explosions and large plumes of smoke. The airstrikes Friday come hours before presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake bastion of Idlib. Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a series of airstrikes struck a few villages in southwest Idlib and along the borders with the adjacent Hama province, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the airstrikes. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to more than 3 million people. ___ 12:55 p.m. The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry is calling a summit on Syria between Iran, Turkey and Russia an "invaluable opportunity." Bahram Ghasemi wrote an opinion piece published across Iranian media on Friday that the summit in Tehran helps as all the nations "have faced similar challenges and joint threats by bullying foreign powers." Ghasemi wrote: "The summit has double significance since all the three nations have faced ambitions and greediness of an illogical international big power." That refers to the United States, which has some 2,000 troops in Syria after its war against the Islamic State group. The summit Friday between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting Syria's northwestern Idlib province. ___ 9:55 a.m. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit Friday, the third between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have their own competing interests over Syria. All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 A 2006 letter from a top Vatican official confirms that the Holy See received information in 2000 about the sexual misconduct of now-resigned U.S. cardinal, lending credibility to bombshell accusations of a cover-up at the highest echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic News Service, the news agency of the U.S. bishops' conference, published the letter Friday from then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri to the Rev. Boniface Ramsay, a New York priest who made the initial allegation. Ramsay informed the Vatican in a November 2000 letter about then Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's misconduct with seminarians from Seton Hall University's Immaculate Conception Seminary. Ramsay, who in 2000 was on the faculty at the seminary, has said he sent the letter at the request of the then-Vatican ambassador because he had heard so many complaints from seminarians that McCarrick would invite them to his beach house and into his bed. Sandri, now a top-ranked Vatican cardinal who was the No. 3 in the Vatican's secretariat of state at the time, wrote Ramsay on Oct. 11, 2006, seeking his recommendation for a former seminarian for a Vatican job. In it, he referred to Ramsay's 2000 letter, saying: "I ask with particular reference to the serious matters involving some of the students of the Immaculate Conception Seminary, which in November 2000 you were good enough to bring confidentially to the attention of the then-Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, the late Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo." Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, at the center of a storm rocking Pope Francis' papacy, cited Ramsay's 2000 letter in his own expose of a cover-up about the McCarrick affair. He named Sandri among a long list of Vatican officials who knew about McCarrick's penchant for seminarians. Vigano also accused Francis of knowing in 2013 of McCarrick's misconduct but of rehabilitating him from sanctions purportedly imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. Sandri's letter is significant because it corroborates Ramsay's story as well as Vigano's claims. It shows the Vatican knew about allegations against McCarrick in 2000, a year before St. John Paul II made him a cardinal. And it further implicates the Benedict's papacy for failing to take action against McCarrick for years even as more allegations against him arrived. Vigano says Benedict eventually imposed some form of sanction on McCarrick in 2009 or 2010, nearly a decade after Ramsay's letter arrived. The fact that Sandri cited it so readily suggests it wasn't lost in a pile of unread mail somewhere, but was relevant even for a simple job reference. Significantly, Sandri appeared more concerned about the sexual purity of the seminarian-candidate than that McCarrick might have sexually abused or harassed him, or abused his power over him. McCarrick resigned as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation determined an accusation that he groped a teen-age altar boy in the 1970s was credible. Since then several seminarians have come forward to say he routinely bedded them, or harassed them when they refused. His lawyer has said the accusations are serious and that McCarrick looks forward to invoking his right to due process at the right time. Chu Ke works on the research project of his postgraduate program. In south-central Chinas Hunan Agricultural University, a student from Cameroon works on the research project of his postgraduate program which entails developing rapeseed drying equipment. After studying in China for a year and a half, 24-year-old Chu Ke can not only speak Chinese fluently, but can also operate more than 20 kinds of agricultural equipment. His goal is to master the technologies of modern agriculture, before returning to Africa to become a farmer. In recent years, many Chinese agricultural enterprises have brought advanced technologies and equipment to Cameroon to help improve the crop yield in local areas, said Chu, adding that Chinese people are now teaching locals how to plant rice. Chu Ke is not the only African student in China. With China-Africa relations continually deepening, more and more young Africans come to China for education. They hope to take what they learn in China back to Africa, and contribute to Africas development, according to Chinanews.com. The number of Africans studying in China totaled nearly 50,000 by September 2017, with the majority of students enjoying scholarships provided by the Chinese government, reported French newspaper Le Monde. Tina, Ou Ku and Ka Bing (from left to right) Universities in Hunan province currently have 1,102 African students enrolled in various majors including agronomy, business management, civil engineering, and mechanics. That figure accounts for more than half of the total number of international students in the province. Ka Bing is studying clinical medicine at the Hunan University of Chinese Medicine. She wants to bring Chinas advanced medical skills to her motherland, Ghana. The Chinese government has sent many medical workers to African hospitals, we are so grateful for what theyve done. They have greatly enhanced the friendship between China and Africa, said Ka Bing. Ka added that after graduation, she plans to return to Africa and find an internship in a local hospital, where she can help people who are struggling by putting into practice what she has learned in China. Many African people have benefited from the advanced medical services of China, said Ka Bings alumna Tina, who has studied Western medicine in Zambia for three years, and now wishes to publish an illustrated book about her experience in China, to help medical students in Africa better understand China. Arriving in China with the dream of becoming a doctor, Ou Ku cherishes this opportunity in China. He spends his spare time learning as much as possible from his teachers. He has been taught treatment methods of traditional Chinese medicine such as acupuncture and moxibustion, massage, and acupressure. Ou Ku hopes to see more exchanges in areas concerning young people and friendship between China and Africa. Young people are the future of Africa, as well as the future of Africa-China cooperation. Im going to introduce the magic of traditional Chinese medicine to Africa, he said. President Trump said Thursday on a conference call with American Jewish leaders that he is using cuts to refugee aid money as a bargaining chip in order to bring back Palestinians to American-led peace negotiations. Last month, the Trump administration slashed $300 million in yearly funding to the UN relief group UNRWA. According to a State Department spokesperson, the cuts were due to a disproportionate share of the burden and an endlessly expanding recipient pool. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley doubled down this week on the decision by the Trump administration during remarks at the United Nations. We have for two years asked UNRWA to reform itself because it has this ongoing number of refugees that is unsustainable, Haley said. Palestinian refugee Abdul Majid Abu Srour, 85, has been receiving aid from the United Nations since 1950. Srour grew up in what is now modern day Israel, but after Israels war of Independence in 1948, he fled his home and claimed refugee status along with 700,000 others. Srour, who lives in the West Bank, is one of over 5 million people now across the Middle East who gets assistance from the UN relief agency, UNRWA. This is a big mistake from the American president because the Palestinians have a just case and the U.S. knows what Israel did to the Palestinian people, Srour said. Palestinians who receive aid from UNRWA are not only located in the West Bank. More than 2 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, with more than 1.4 million living currently on the Gaza Strip. UNRWA provides food to more than 1,000,000 Gazans each quarter, according to Gazas UNRWA Director, Matthias Schmale. The Palestinians and Israelis with mediators need to agree with this and until they have agreed on a solution that is seen as just and fair, UNRWA needs to provide these services, Schmale said. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 The wounding of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarization in Latin America's largest nation. Far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied. After a knife-wielding man stabbed the candidate in the abdomen during a campaign event Thursday, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the attack supports Bolsonaro's assertions that the country is off the rails or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Dr. Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery on the candidate, said Bolsonaro's recovery so far was "satisfactory." He said the candidate would remain hospitalized for at least a week after a two-hour operation to stop serious internal bleeding. In numerous videos posted on social media of the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro could be seen on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand. He is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who was apparently the attacker. A suspect, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, was arrested within seconds. Police did not give a motive, but one official said the man appeared to be mentally unstable. "Our agents there said the attacker said he was 'on a mission from God,'" Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police, told The Associated Press. "Their impression is that they were not dealing with a mentally stable person." After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazil's political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this would be a change election. But no true outsider has emerged. Instead, Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. The public's anger is partially responsible for making this year's campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. The man leading polls, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the Oct. 7 presidential ballot. In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. "They made Bolsonaro a martyr," said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. "I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro." But it is unknown when he can get out again on the campaign trail and if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. There were signs of the deep divide in Brazil at the vigil, when Bolsonaro's supporters briefly exchanged insults with some detractors who showed up. Meanwhile, on Twitter many decried the stabbing and asked for prayers for Bolsonaro, but others suggested the candidate might have brought the attack upon himself or even staged it. This is not the first time in recent months that violence has touched politicians. In March, while da Silva was on a campaign tour in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, gunshots hit buses in his caravan. No one was hurt. Also that month, Marielle Franco, a black councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death in March along with her driver after attending an event. While Bolsonaro has a strong following, he is a deeply divisive figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays. He speaks nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His vice presidential running mate is a retired general. "It's likely that Bolsonaro will use the attack to argue his opponents are desperate, that they had no other way to stop him," said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro's state university. ___ Associated Press journalists Peter Prengaman and Marcelo Silva de Sousa in Rio de Janeiro and Victor Caivano in Sao Paulo contributed to this report. Sweden will go to the polls on Sunday in an election where the nationalist Sweden Democrats are expected to do well amid long-standing concerns over mass Islamic migration into the country -- the latest country to turn rightward as European Union countries struggle with the fallout from the 2015 migration crisis. The vote on Sunday will be the first since the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, which sent hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa flooding into Europe. Sweden took in 163,000 in 2015, one of the highest on the continent. But while the Swedes are known traditionally for their openness and tolerance of migrants, and the country has been seen as immune to the populist wave sweeping Europe -- the continuing migrant crisis has dented that consensus. Our questioning of mass migration and how to push back against crime -- everybody is talking about that now. Thats of course in our favor, Sweden Democrats' leader Jimmie Akesson told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. When in 2017, President Trump made reference to the problems with crime and terrorism Sweden was facing, he was widely mocked by many in the media. But concerns about migrant crime and terrorism are apparently shared by a significant number of Swedes. According to The Journal, in 2017 police reported more than 320 shootings, dozens of bombings, and 7,226 rapesa 10 percent increase from 2016. It notes that Norway only recorded one gun homicide in 2017, compared to Swedens 43. Polls show the Swedish Democrats, who have made immigration restriction their main focus, comfortably in the lead ahead of the Sundays election with between a 20-23 percent of the vote where there are eight parties in the running. HUNGARY'S PRO-TRUMP, POPULIST GOVERNMENT PUSHES SOROS CRACKDOWN While well short of an outright majority, it could be enough to stop the ruling center-left Social Democrats, or the center-right Moderates from being able to form their own coalitions without the Sweden Democrats. It could result in a political deadlock in the country after Sunday. What could also conceivably result is a situation like in Austria, where the center-right Peoples Party formed a coalition with the further-right Freedom Party in December -- both parties had taken tough stances on the question of migration. Should the Swedish Democrats find a way to enter government, it would be the latest -- although perhaps the most surprising country -- to be hit by the populist wave sweeping through Europe. That wave was thought to have crashed in 2017, when French President Emmanuel Macron beat nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen, while German Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democrats came first in the German federal elections later in the year. But Macrons popularity has dived since coming into office, while Merkel took months to be able to form a working coalition, and has struggled to hold onto power since. Meanwhile, in Italy a populist coalition of the Five Star Movement and the nationalist League swept into power after elections in March -- taking an unashamedly strict stance on migration from Africa and refusing to accept refugee rescue boats onto its shores. The combined popularity of the two parties in the polls is currently at approximately 60 percent. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbans Fidesz Party, running on a strict anti-migration platform, strengthened its majority in recent elections -- and has been proudly touting its border security as a reason why it hasnt had even one illegal immigrant enter the country since the migration crisis. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. But each nation has its own interests in the yearslong war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by America's long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. "The Tehran summit can produce peace and reconciliation in Syria or it can deepen the mess created by endless bouts of violence mainly instigated by the Assad regime," Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, wrote in the Daily Sabah newspaper. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syria's civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russia's longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syria's postwar reconstruction. The streets of Tehran were quiet on Friday, the second day of the Iranian weekend. The country's state-run IRNA news agency described the summit as potentially offering an "agreement on peace and security" in Syria. A former Iranian diplomat, Ali Akbar Farazi, told IRNA the summit shows that solving regional issues "in a fair way that agrees with the interests of all sides" remains important for the three nations. For Turkey, the stakes couldn't be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control. Turkey also doesn't want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq. Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, also didn't pull any punches in his piece in the Daily Sabah, saying: "Assad bolstered by Iran's land assets and Russian air power and his use of chemical weapons has punched his way into opposition strongholds and hence massive gains for the Damascus regime. "You still need moderate opposition groups who represent the Sunni suffering masses in Syria to achieve a viable political solution and durable peace in this country," he wrote. "Iran and Russia are the fighting forces in Syria and have brought blood and tears." All three nations face sanctions from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump. While America has some 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out. ___ Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. The United States and India have signed an agreement to bolster military ties as both powers eye Chinas growing influence in Asia, according to reports. The pact agreed to Thursday paves the way for New Delhi to buy advanced American weaponry and to share sensitive military technology, The New York Times reported. The two countries also promised to carry out large-scale joint military exercises off India next year. The drills would be a first of sorts the two countries forces have not previously trained simultaneously in the air, on the land and at sea, Reuters reported. Todays fruitful discussion illustrated the value of continued cooperation between the worlds two largest democracies, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told a news conference after the agreement was signed. We will work together for a free and prosperous Indo-Pacific. INDIA'S TOP COURT DECRIMINALIZES HOMOSEXUAL ACTS The U.S. and India have drawn closer in recent years, worried about Chinas rise in Pakistan, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, Reuters reported. However, The Times reported that the two countries remain deeply skeptical of each other. The U.S. is worried about how willing India will be to block Chinas inroads in the region. The U.S. is also unhappy about Indias reluctance to cut trade relations with Iran. Still, the agreement won praise. This is a huge deal, Rudra Chaudhuri, a senior lecturer at Kings College, London, told the paper. In one sense, it makes clear that the wind in the U.S.-India sail is strong, whatever differences there might be. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met separately Thursday before joining top defense officials for talks. "India attaches the highest priority to its strategic partnership with the United States. We see that the United States is our partner of choice," Swaraj said in her opening remarks. INDIA'S MONSOON FLOODS LEAVE 800,000 DISPLACED, THOUSANDS STRANDED Pompeo said the U.S. values its relationship with India, and noted "we fully support India's rise." Mattis and Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sithataman also met separately before joining the other two leaders. Sitharaman in her opening remarks said that defense cooperation has become one of the most significant dimensions of the countries' relationship. "We have acquired various advanced defense platforms from the U.S. We are thus partners in building defense capability in the broadest sense of the term," she said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan's war-shattered capital on Friday, the U.S. command in Afghanistan said, just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people in the city and wounded 90 others. As helicopters patrolled the skies over Kabul, Mattis arrived accompanied by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He was expected to meet President Ashraf Ghani, presidential spokesman Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri told The Associated Press. He was also expected to meet Afghan, U.S. and NATO military commanders. Mattis' arrival comes amid brutal assaults against the country's minority Shiites and a fresh round of insider attacks this week that have claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police. While in Kabul, Mattis is expected to discuss the escalating violence against both civilians and military personnel. The U.S. has been supporting Afghan forces in an aggressive campaign against Islamic State group insurgents in eastern Nangarhar province, yet the IS affiliate has repeatedly been able to carry out horrific and brazen attacks in the heavily fortified capital of Kabul. The victims have most often been Afghanistan's minority Shiite Muslims. The radical Sunni Islamic state reviles Shiites as apostates. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a wrestling center killing 21 people and wounding 90 others. Two of the dead were journalists who died when a second bomber blew himself up as first responders and journalists rushed to the scene. Mattis' visit to Kabul comes as Washington seems to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistan's protracted war and Washington's longest military engagement. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as Washington's new point man for Afghan reconciliation. Khalilzad, a controversial figure in the region, is a former envoy to Afghanistan. Mattis arrives in Afghanistan fresh off earlier meetings in Pakistan where Pompeo said the U.S. wanted to "reset" its raucous relationship with Pakistan and newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed optimism, promising to work with Washington for peace. But Khan has repeatedly said Pakistan is no longer interested in partnering with the United States in war. "This is my promise that Pakistan will never again fight someone else's war," Khan said on Thursday in a speech to mark Pakistan's Defense Day. As an opposition leader Khan was a sharp critic of Pakistan's participation in the U.S.-led war on terror. Still, Pakistan is seen as key to any negotiated end to the Afghan war because of its close relationship with the Taliban. Both Washington and Kabul have been harsh critics of Pakistan for allowing safe havens for Taliban fighters on its territory, a charge Islamabad has denied. Khalilzad's appointment was also unwelcome news in Pakistan because of his outspoken attacks on its military and powerful ISI intelligence agency, even suggesting Washington should declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. Washington last weekend announced it canceled a $300 million Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan, which is a payment for costs incurred by Pakistan's military in the war on terror. ____ Gannon reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed. More than 100 U.S. Marines launched an air assault in the southern Syrian desert backed by artillery fire to send a strong message to Russia not to send their forces inside a restricted area near an American military outpost, two U.S. defense officials have told Fox News. The show of forces comes as the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey are meeting Friday in Tehran to hammer out their next steps in the seven-year Syrian civil war ahead of an expected offensive led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces into the countrys northwest Idlib Province. On two separate occasions this month (Sept. 1 and Sept. 6), the Russian military warned its American counterparts of its intention to conduct a military operation in southern Syria near the At Tanf garrison where U.S. special operations forces are located. Twice the U.S. military has told the Russians to back off. The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war, Navy Capt. William Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement. The U.S. does not require any assistance in our efforts to destroy ISIS. In Tehran, the trilateral summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was meant to finalize military plans for the total annihilation of terrorists in Syria, Putin said. The area is home to three million people, including hundreds of thousands of civilians living among rebel fighters including thousands with ties to al-Qaeda. The Trump administration has warned Syria, Russia and Iran not to kick-start the offensive over fear of civilian casualties leading to continued bloodshed in a civil war that has lasted seven years. IRAN, NORTH KOREA AND VENEZUELA TURNING TO CRYPTOCURRENCY TO BYPASS US SANCTIONS, EXPERTS WARN Earlier this week, President Trump tweeted: "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!" The warning appeared to have been ignored after Russian jets began bombarding Idlib. We consider any assault on Idlib to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Syria, said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley Friday in New York. Airstrikes by Russia and the regime have already begun against civilian areas. The atrocities committed by Assad will be a permanent stain on history and a black mark for this council which was blocked over and over by Russia from taking action to help, she added. In a statement describing the air-assault that took place Friday night in Syria, a spokesman for the U.S. militarys Central Command, responsible for all American forces in the Middle East, said it was an effort to demonstrate the capability to deploy rapidly, assault a target with integrated air and ground forces, and conduct a rapid exfiltration anywhere in the Operation Inherent Resolve combined joint operations area. TRUMP REPORTEDLY APPROVES NEW OBJECTIVES IN SYRIA, KEEPING MILITARY PRESENCE INDEFINITELY Exercises like this bolster our defeat-ISIS capabilities and ensure we are ready to respond to any threat to our forces, said Navy Capt. Bill Urban. A threat some took as going beyond ISIS but to Moscow. The rare show of force in Syria comes months after U.S. aircraft -- including AC-130 gunships, jets and bombers -- killed roughly 300 Russian mercenaries near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria after American special operations forces came under attack. The Russians agreed to a [34 mile] deconfliction zone around the At Tanf garrison to avoid accidental conflict between our forces, and to remain professionally engaged through de-confliction channels. We expect the Russians to abide by this agreement, Urban said. The Russian government has long called for the 2,000 U.S. military troops to leave Syria. The Russian provocations were not limited to Syria. Friday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said a pair of fifth generation U.S. F-22 stealth jet fighters from Alaska intercepted a pair of long-range nuclear-capable Tu-95 Bear bombers last Saturday flying south of the Aleutian Islands. It was the first known flight of Russian bombers near the United States since May. Fox News' Ben Florance and the Associated Press contributed to this report Several U.S. Special Forces troops have been petitioning for special visas for the family of an heroic Iraqi interpreter killed in a 2007 suicide blast whose last words were, "Take care of my son. Take care of my wife," Stars and Stripes reported Thursday. Jay McBride, a former Special Forces medic, told the newspaper that Barakat Ali Bashar, an Iraqi linguist, sacrificed his life to save a squad of American Special Forces from a suicide bombers attack near the Syrian border in Sept. 2007. Bashar, who assisted U.S. Special Forces during their fight against Al Qaeda in northern Iraq, was among 50 interpreters scheduled to gain entry to the U.S. under legislation signed by President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama. After his death, Bashars family received compensation from the U.S. but never left Iraq. Is this how you treat a family of someone who worked five years with the U.S. Army; someone who was loyal to the U.S. and Iraq; someone who gave his life serving with U.S. Army soldiers and trying to protect them? Jay McBride, a former Special Forces medic As of 2018, the family is living in a refugee camp in Kurdistan, the report said. The family, which is of Yazidi descent, fled their home near Mount Sinjar after the Islamic State took control of the region in 2014, forcing to them leave behind documents proving Bashar had worked with the U.S. The family told Stars and Stripes that Bashars history of service to the U.S. and their Yazidi ethnicity made them a target on multiple fronts. These radical groups target all Yazidis, however, our situation was much harder since even many so-called moderates view people who worked for the US Army and their families as enemies, the family wrote in a statement. In April, the family was interviewed by the International Organization for Migration, IOM, and their case was submitted to immigration authorities. In an Aug. 30 email, the U.S. Army Intelligence confirmed to Stars and Stripes that Bashar had been employed with the company, L3, as a linguist in Iraq at the time of his death. McBride told Stars and Stripes that he and other veterans have been writing letters in support of the familys special visa application since 2015. [Bashar] never faltered in his commitment to help American forces in Iraq, even after his family was threatened and their names were placed on a list that was circulated around the region, describing him as a traitor for supporting American forces, said Michael Swett, another Special Forces soldier. Bashars family is now waiting for a follow-up interview with the State Department. Is this how you treat a family of someone who worked five years with the U.S. Army; someone who was loyal to the U.S. and Iraq; someone who gave his life serving with U.S. Army soldiers and trying to protect them? McBride said. NOTE: this is an archived page and the content is likely to be out of date. Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and Marubeni Software & Technology (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (MSTT), today announce that they have been selected by the Thai Japanese Association School Board to build an ICT-based educational platform for the two schools it operates in Thailand - the Thai Japanese Association School and the Thai Japanese Association School Sriracha. As a first stage, the platform will today begin operations at the middle school division of the Thai Japanese Association School Sriracha with 72 Fujitsu Tablet ARROWS Tab Q507 tablets and the Wi-Fi-based Fujitsu Education Solution K-12 Learning Information Utilization System V2 Chietama. The Chietama solution tracks and utilizes students' learning trajectory as teachers and students in the classroom can share teaching materials and ideas on their tablets in real time. These technologies will enable bidirectional communication, which is expected to bring about active learning, and lead to enhanced lesson quality by allowing teachers to share materials with one another and gain visibility into students' learning progress. Furthermore, MSTT will support with the IT infrastructure by setting up the tablets and implementing and assisting with the operation of Wi-Fi networks and servers. In addition to the Thai Japanese Association School Sriracha middle school division, the organizations plan to implement this system for the middle school division of the Thai Japanese Association School in Bangkok during fiscal 2018, and also plan to extend the system to the elementary school divisions of both schools thereafter. The Fujitsu Group and MSTT are promoting in Thailand classes utilizing ICT, which are becoming common in Japan, improving the quality of lessons and contributing to the development of educational environments for Thailand-based schools for Japanese nationals. Left: Tablets in use in the classroom , Right: Student opinions collected through "Chietama" are presented on screen Background Currently, there are 89 schools for Japanese nationals who live outside Japan, and the Thai Japanese Association School in Bangkok run by the Thai Japanese Association School Board is the largest, and one of the oldest, having been established in 1956. In addition, while the Thai Japanese Association School Sriracha is a new school that opened in 2009 (the 88th Japanese school outside Japan), it is also the 10th largest. The two schools have a combined number of students that exceeds 3,000, the majority of them being the children of Japanese national employees who are stationed in Thailand, and provide an environment in which parents and guardians have a high interest in education. The Thai Japanese Association School Board has set forth a goal of raising global citizens through education, and endeavored to improve international communication capabilities, especially focusing on conversational English and ICT-based education. Accordingly, the organization has decided to deploy devices and systems from MSTT and Fujitsu, which has a proven track record in the ICT education field in Japan, setting up a cutting-edge ICT education environment. Usage Scenarios 1. Encourages active learning through bidirectional communication Using the ARROWS Tab Q507 tablets connected to the Chietama solution server via a Wi-Fi network, teachers can send materials to the students' tablets. At the same time, students can use their tablets to display their insights and ideas on a projector or an electronic blackboard, leading to interactive lessons with student participation. 2. Sharing lesson materials, learning status to enhance class quality and streamline handover among educators Past teaching materials and insights submitted by students are all stored in the Chietama server, allowing teachers to search and share them with one another. Even in Japanese schools outside Japan, where teachers and students frequently transfer in and out, this system can support to improve the quality of lessons, as teachers can get a handle on previous situations and prepare lessons and assignments that reflect the inclinations and responses of each student. 3. Can also be used in distance learning and similar scenarios Going forward, by incorporating the distance learning system, which the Fujitsu Group conducted a field trial for in Myanmar in March 2018(1), this system can connect with educational institutions in Japan and provide real-time, bidirectional lessons to enhance teaching support. Products and Services The Arrows Tab Q507, a reliable tablet that can be used in educational environments The Chietama teaching support tools, which allow students to share ideas, as well as for teachers and students to ask and answer questions Future Plans Following the deployment at the Thai Japanese Association School Sriracha, the Thai Japanese Association School Board will prepare to build a system at the Thai Japanese Association School middle school division during fiscal 2018, and plans to deploy around 200 additional tablets and Chietama modules. As a result, at the beginning of the 2019 school year (April 2019), approximately 580 junior high school students, including those from the Thai Japanese Association School, are expected to use tablets in their school work. Eventually, the system is planned to be implemented in the elementary schools of both the Thai Japanese Association School Sriracha and the Thai Japanese Association School. The 4th Investing in Africa Forum opens in Changsha, capital of central-south Chinas Hunan province, Sept. 6, 2018. (Photo/Chinanews.com) The cooperation agreements signing ceremony of the Fourth Investing in Africa Forum was held on Sept. 6, 2018 in Changsha, capital of central-south Chinas Hunan province. 16 projects worth $1.371 billion were agreed upon, in fields including agriculture, industry, energy, industrial park construction and health, Chinanews.com reported. A memorandum of understanding on enhancing bilateral cooperation in the field of health was signed by Chinas Ministry of Finance, Chinas National Health Commission and the World Bank during the ceremony. President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso speaks at the 4th Investing in Africa Forum. (Photo/Chinanews.com) The China-Africa Development Fund and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation also signed a cooperation agreement on promoting Africas agriculture development and poverty reduction strategy. Additionally, China Development Bank has also signed a number of agreements on cooperation projects with relevant African countries and companies. Hunan province, as the host of the forum, has gained a remarkable amount from the discussion. The provincial government signed a memorandum of cooperation to promote Hunan enterprises investment strategies in Africa with China Development Bank. Meanwhile, enterprises based in Hunan such as Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and Broad Broad Homes Industrial International Co., Ltd. have also signed a series of cooperation projects with relevant African organizations and enterprises, with the plans said to be worth $700 million based on cooperation intention. The forum will effectively facilitate exchanges between China and Africa in investment and trade, as well as promote cooperation and interaction between governments and people, expressed President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, in his opening speech. He went on to add that Sierra Leone will forge a favorable environment for foreign investment and stay open to investment in infrastructure, agriculture, marine resources exploration, and tourism. Africa has become an important continent for Hunan province regarding overseas investment and cooperation, said Du Jiahao, Secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial People's Congress in the opening ceremony of the forum. According to Du, Hunan has held significant events on economic and trade cooperation with Africa for three years in a row, implementing a variety of educational and medical assistance projects, and helping to introduce hybrid rice and construction machinery to Africa. The Peoples Government of Hunan Province signs the memorandum of cooperation on promoting Hunan enterprises investment strategies in Africa with China Development Bank. (Photo/Chinanews.com) In 2017, the province invested $2.07 billion in Africa, while from January to July this year, the volume of imports and exports between Hunan province and Africa increased by 49.5 percent compared with the previous year, said Du. Du noted that Hunan will earnestly put the ideas developed during the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation into practice by combining advantages of the province with the natural endowments of Africa, deepening investment and cooperation with Africa to seek a brighter common future. Everyone under the age of 18 will need a consent from a parent or guardian to receive the shot. Unusual case in Bad Godesberg : Bonn family not permitted to remove tree from the driveway Schweinheim A young family in Schweinheim wants to buy a car, but if they had one, they would hardly be able to get it in the garage. Local politicians denied their request for permission to cut down a tree. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken A tree in front of their home is making life difficult for the Niecknig family. They have only moved in recently at the house on Horionstrae and want to purchase a car for the first time. Although there is a garage, it can only be used for storage. There is a tree right in the middle of the driveway, and politicians from the district council of Bad Godesberg have decided it can not be cut down. Originally, the Italian-style house belonged to a relative of the maritime radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi. She worked at the Waldkrankenhaus (Wald Hospital) and lived there with her two children. In 1983 she had applied for permission to build the garage as an extension, and this was approved. The tree was already there at that time, but it was much smaller. Tree error attributed to architect For the Schweinheim resident, it was not a problem because she had a small Smart car and it fit fine in the driveway. "The mistake that the tree was not taken away at that time was probably due to the architect," suspected Ralf Niecknig, who together with his wife bought the house for his son and daughter-in-law. They spent a lot of money on renovations. The new owners thought that they would receive permission to cut down the tree. The city had given them hope, especially since a few meters further, there was an empty tree pit where a possible replacement tree could be planted. So the young couple moved with their one-year-old daughter from the fifth floor of a building in the Altstadt to Bad Godesberg. "We plan to buy a family station wagon," said Franz Niecknig. "We just need a car." But he doesnt think it will fit on his driveway. Even with maneuvering, it is all quite dangerous because Horionstrae is busy and also steep. In addition, the curve to the right of the entrance is difficult to see. In the statement from the local officials, they recommended that the Linden tree, with a diameter of 1.11 meters, not be cut down because trees have an important function on roads (binding of carbon dioxide and fine dust particles, oxygen production and cooling). "The people who live there now knew that the tree was there," said Monika Heinzel from the Green party. Ralf Jochen Ehresmann said that one only had to drive skillfully. Marcel Schmitt (Burger Bund Bonn) said that the driveway had just been renovated, it could be made wider. The Niecknigs contradict this, saying that only the fence and wall had been painted. Borderline case "The case is borderline," said Philipp Lerch of the CDU party. Although the tree is a problem, his faction did not want to create precedents. As long as the driveway is passable and the tree is not in too bad of shape, "let it stay as it is". So the family will now buy a car and then see if they find a place to park it on the street. That will not be easy, since many of the parking spaces are used by the Finance Administration employees, according to Franz Niecknig. "We will have to see how we get along." Orig. text: Richard Bongartz European Heritage Days : Historical buildings open their doors Bonn/Region This Sunday is Tag des offenen Denkmals (Open Monument Day) where historical buildings in Bonn and the region open their doors to the public. The official website lists over 50 locations that can be viewed. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken This weekend there will be an event that connects all Bonn residents and at the same time highlights unique landmarks in the different districts and also in the region. On Sunday, September 9, it is time for the Tag des offenen Denkmals, an open day for landmarks and monuments of historical value. It is held in conjunction with European Heritage Days. Many historical buildings in Bonn and the region will be open to the public. The Hicog settlements One place where there will be guided tours (in German) is the Hicog settlements in Tannenbusch. A look at the empty balconies there reveals that the apartments are vacant. Also on the list is the Kennedy Bridge and the Viktoriabad indoor swimming pool. Daniela Bennewitz of Baukultur Workshop, said: "I find architecture so interesting because it makes history vivid, it is not just some text written down in books." Going out and experiencing yourself - this is exactly what people can do on Open Monument Day. Organizers of the event are responsible for getting citizens and organizations to open their doors. And all this is done on a voluntary basis, as city conservator Katrin Bisping emphasized. She said its all about conserving the monuments, and passing something on, so that it doesnt get lost. Adenauerhaus and castle Altendorf are participating In the Rhein-Sieg district, the "Adenauerhaus" in Bad Honnef, where former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer once lived, the mansion "Burg Altendorf" in Meckenheim, and the half-timbered farm complex next to the Catholic church in Lohmar are all open to visitors. Many churches are also participating in the "Open Monument Day". For example, the "Abbey Church of St. Michael" in Siegburg and the "St. Agnes "in Eitorf-Merten. A journey into the past in Erpel Those who are interested can take a look at the historic Erpel Neutor (gate) built in 1420 -from 10 am to 6 pm. Even older is the Leutesdorfer Fronhof, an old manor which was first mentioned in documents 1,150 years ago and was remodeled by the Abbey Marienstatt in a baroque style in the 18th century. Because it coincides with the wine festival, the Fronhof manor has art exhibitions in building, and is open from 7pm until midnight. In Linz, the parish church of St. Martin is on display with its Romanesque and Gothic design from the 13th century. The church is open from 1 pm to 5 pm, guided tours of the altar below the church and the bell tower are offered at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 (in German). In Ahrweiler there is also open day The Heimatmuseum Schloss Sinzig (Museum of Local History in Sinzig Castle) will also be open for visitation. For three years now, the Heimatmuseum Schloss Sinzig has provided an insight into the history of the local industry. For a complete listing of all the places that can be visited, please visit the website: https://www.tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/ If you click on Zum bundesweiten Programm, it will take you to a search mechanism. Type in Bonn or whatever region you are interested in where it says Suchbegriff and then click Suchen. It will give you a complete listing of the locations that can be visited. Orig. text: ga.de Possibly 5,000 jobs in danger : Karstadt - Kaufhof merger overcomes major hurdle Dusseldorf The planned merger of the two department store giants is getting closer. Employees may have to be prepared for a drastic reduction in jobs. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The planned merger of department store chains Karstadt and Kaufhof has taken on perhaps the last major hurdle. The banks have approved the merger of the two retail giants, according to information from the "Suddeutsche Zeitung" and the German Press Agency (dpa). There could already be an announcement next week, as dpa learned. According to the Suddeutsche Zeitung, the struggling Kaufhof may have to do away with around 5,000 of the remaining 20,000 jobs in the wake of the merger. But a person familiar with the proceedings at Kaufhof thought this number was too high. According to the newspaper report, the remaining employees would have to adjust to a restructuring agreement with worse conditions. Workers and the Verdi union were worried about the reports. The chairman of the General Works Council of Kaufhof, Uwe Hoepfl, said: "As representatives of the employees, it is scandalous to have to find out through the media that allegedly 5,000 jobs could be eliminated." The owner of Kaufhof, Canadian Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and Karstadts Austrian owner Rene Benko have been talking about a possible merger of department store chains since June. However, a banking consortium led by LBBW had a big say in the matter, as it is involved in a billion-dollar real estate loan from HBC. Both department store chains have been suffering for years from the success of low-cost chains such as Primark and online retailers such as Amazon and Zalando. A merger would allow the department store chains to make significant savings. By bundling their purchasing power, Kaufhof and Karstadt could, in all probability, get better terms from their suppliers. In addition, they would only need one corporate headquarters. Costs could also be saved in logistics and data processing. The new department store giant would apparently be led by current Karstadt boss Stephan Fanderl. A spokesman for the Canadian Kaufhof owner HBC did not want to comment on the information. A spokesperson from Karstadt also did not want to comment. Orig. text (from dpa) A strategic cooperation memorandum was signed by China-Africa E-commerce Co Ltd and the First Bank of Nigeria, to promote China-Africa international trade and cross-border payment at the China-Africa CEO High-level Dialogue on Sept. 4. According to the memorandum, both sides, under the principle of friendly consultation, pragmatic cooperation and mutual benefit, will work to better serve Chinese and African import and export enterprises through in-depth cooperation in such aspects as cross-border payment, brand promotion, supply chain finance and overseas investment. Africas value of international trade with China grows by double digits every year, and its population is similar to that of China, indicating the prospects of the cross-border e-commerce market, said Hou Zhigang, chairman of the board with the Chinese company. The Chinese company has already established the first China-Africa cross-border e-commerce platform, CA-B2B.COM, which was officially launched in June of this year. The First Bank of Nigeria, as Nigerias premier commercial bank and most valuable banking brand, has over 750 business locations across Africa and the UK. Photo shows the amazing scenery of the Zhangye Danxia Landform, northwest China's Gansu Province. (Photo/Courtesy of Zhao Jianwei) Journalists from 60 Chinese mainstream media outlets gathered in the historical city of Zhangye, northwest Chinas Gansu Province, during an activity held on Sept. 5, 2018. Zhangye, lying in the center of the Hexi Corridor, was an important city on the ancient Silk Road. It boasts a long history, as well as unique culture and incredible natural scenery. The Zhangye Danxia National Geopark, stretching more than 10 square kilometers, is known for its peculiarly shaped and brightly colored landforms. The National Referral Hospital Trusts Matrix Time-Attendance and Access Control Solutions September 2018 by Marc Jacob The Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital is one of the top most renowned institutions in Bhutan delivering Healthcare services. The hospital caters to the population of Thimphu and neighboring districts. The hospital not only functions as the National Referral Hospital for the entire country but also functions as: Regional Referral Hospital for the Western District, District Hospital for Thimphu District, Human Resources Pool and Technical Backup for District Hospitals, Clinical Training Centre for the Royal Institute of Health Sciences (RIHS) and Technical Support to the Public Health Programs. Challenges: As the hospital works round the clock, one of the major concerns was to manage complex shifts of employees. Elevator control, where only users with access rights can call the elevator, was another challenge the hospital wanted to meet. Furthermore, the customer also wanted a solution, with the help of which the admin could assign entry and exit points for patients, visitors and employees. Lastly, the management wanted to restrict visitor entry to a pre-defined time and rooms of the hospital for better visitor management. Solution Offered: Matrix pitched its Access Control, Time-Attendance and Visitor Management Solution along with the different variants of biometric devices, which fulfills every requirement of this renowned Hospital. Around 206 devices were installed in the hospital, which are used in controlling access at rooms and elevators. Devices were installed at the Main Entrance, Ward Rooms, Server Rooms, Outside Elevators, and at Ramps on every floor, to restrict access. So, there is no individual in the building who is not enrolled in the system. As the hospital works 24 hours a day, there are multiple shifts in which the employees work. Through this, the hospital could manage multiple shifts of employees. Approximately, 700 visitor profiles were created with constrained time to visit, limited rooms to enter and a pre-defined route of access. Also, crowd at the elevator was controlled by restricting the use to only users with elevator access rights. Results: JDWNRH fulfilled its requirement with Matrix People Mobility Management solution and achieved the following results: Simplified Security by Restricting Unauthorized Entry Reduced Complexity of Shifts Crowd Controlling through Elevator Access Control Time and Zone based Entry Restrictions for Visitors and Patients The mobile applications for food delivery are gaining popularity worldwide with more and more people, especially the younger generation opting for mobile apps for online ordering of food. This is because the food delivery apps overcome the disadvantages of the traditional queueing system. They also make ordering food hassle free and simple. Orders are generated without having to explain it to a restaurant staff and the food is delivered right at the customer's doorstep without him or her requiring any traveling. The platforms allow you to browse menus from your favorite local restaurants, select what you wish to eat, and submit your order with a click of a button. The payment is usually cashless via a credit or debit card if it's an online delivery or via cash if it's a cash on delivery. The food then gets delivered to your doorstep after some time. Some of the popular online food delivery apps include Grubhub, Uber Eats, Food Panda, Zomato, Swiggy, DoorDash, Seamless, and Postmates. The growing use of smartphones, high penetration of internet, and the rise in living standards of consumers in the developing nations drive the growth of the food delivery mobile application market. Moreover, the growing investment in digitalization, as well as the teaming up of different restaurants with the application developers, are reshaping the market. As per the report published by Allied Market Research, the food delivery mobile application market is likely to garner $16,605 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 27.9% from 2017 to 2023. The number of food delivery mobile app startups are growing rapidly leading to the rise in competition between these startups and the food delivery section of the restaurant market. Businesses are coming up with new tech products that effectively address the needs of consumers or expanding their services to cater to a wider group of consumers. Zomato, India's most preferred food app recently announced its plans to extend its food delivery services to four new cities by partnering with 500 restaurants. Grab, a South Asian ride-hailing company launched the beta version of its on-demand food delivery service called GrabFood in Singapore. Careem, a ride-hailing app in Dubai announced its plans to launch its food delivery service in Pakistan as well as in the Gulf countries. Zomato Expands its Food Delivery Services Zomato plans to expand its online ordering and food delivery services to four cities by collaborating with 500 restaurants. The cities include Surat, Vizag, Bhopal, and Bhubaneswar. With the launch of services, the company's online ordering services are now spread out across 21 cities in India, including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Nagpur, Lucknow, and Ludhiana. Zomato plans to provide its consumers with live order tracking, an average delivery time of 35 mins, personalized customer service, multiple payment options, and a range of restaurants to order from via their own delivery fleet in Surat, Vizag, Bhopal, and Bhubaneswar. Grab Launches Food Delivery Service In July 2018, Grab announced its plans to launch its food delivery service called GrabFood in Singapore. GrabFood provides several advantages to customers including no minimum order requirement, order scheduling feature, and reward points. For their drivers, the services provide anytime cash-out scheme and insurance program. The company says that an S$250-300 million (US$186-373 million) addressable market exists in Singapore for food delivery, and around 4,000 restaurants and 12,000 hawker stalls are still not served by food delivery services. GrabFood will be available in 6 markets including Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam by Q2 2018. "As we build out an everyday app that offers transport, food and package delivery, and mobile payments, Grab is focused on creating a seamless experience and unlocking value for our customers by offering complementary services on one platform. From the moment you wake up, you can plan and book your entire journey across different transport modes in one tap, shop and receive discounts on-the-go, and have your favorite foods and shopping delivered right to your doorstep - all enabled by one mobile wallet, within one everyday app," said Lim Kell Jay, the Head of Grab Singapore. Careem Plans $150m Investment Careem plans to raise US$150m investment to finance its food delivery business called CareemFood in Pakistan in September 2018. The delivery business will be subsequently launched in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf countries and Egypt. Careem entered the food delivery business in February 2018 with the acquisition of RoundMenu, online restaurant discovery platform which runs in 18 cities across nine countries. 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. California's firefighting agency is running out of money in the midst of a disastrous and deadly fire season and needs another $234 million to make it through the middle of next year, officials said Thursday.The request came as a new round of major wildfires erupted around the state, including a blaze near the Sacramento River in Shasta County that grew to 22,000 acres Thursday night, forcing mandatory evacuations as the flames threatened structures.Ken Pimlott, director of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said in a letter to legislators that the agency is down to its last $11 million after spending $432 million in July and August alone. The budget year doesn't end until June 30, 2019.The request means the state will probably dip into budget reserves for the eighth time in 10 years to cover the cost of putting out wildfires. This is the earliest Cal Fire has ever had to ask the state for more money.Pimlott wrote in the letter Thursday that "climate change-driven extreme weather conditions continue to drive intense and large fires," leaving the agency short on cash.Last year, the state budgeted $427 million. The fires in the North Bay and elsewhere in October, and then in Southern California in December, forced the state, local governments and the federal government to come up with another $470 million to cover costs.H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said Cal Fire's request shows the wisdom of Gov. Jerry Brown's push to increase the state's budget reserves. This year's state spending plan included an additional $2.2 billion for unexpected expenses like wildfires and floods.Pimlott said given new wildfires in recent days, he hopes the state will approve the emergency funding "as soon as possible."Brown's office can dip into the emergency funding after notifying legislative fiscal committees.Government firefighting budgets will be further taxed by the Delta Fire in Shasta County near Interstate 5 just north of Lakehead. Rough terrain made it difficult to contain the 300-foot flames, and low humidity spread the blaze by rates of 1 mph as it consumed mixed conifer and timber with no recent fire history, the U.S. Forest Service said.The agency said the blaze was caused by someone, but did not provide further details.The Shasta County Sheriff's Office issued mandatory evacuations for residents along I-5 just north of Lamoine to the Shasta-Siskiyou county line.Elsewhere in California, the North Fire at the Emigrant Gap area of Tahoe National Forest near Interstate 80 was 17 percent contained and grew by nearly 200 acres to 1,274 acres on Thursday. After almost slapping a tax on makers of opioid pills earlier this year, Minnesota lawmakers are set to try again when they meet in January.The drug manufacturers that helped create the opioid addiction crisis should help fix it, said state Sen. Chris Eaton, whose daughter died of an overdose.Im definitely going to pursue it in the next legislative session, said Eaton, a Democrat. Whether it has a chance or not kind of depends on the election.Lawmakers in at least 10 other states intend to consider opioid taxes in upcoming legislative sessions. Many pin their hopes on the November midterm elections.If Democrats retake governorships and legislatures this fall, lawmakers and policy analysts predict other states would be more likely to follow New York, whose groundbreaking opioid tax to raise $100 million a year took effect July 1.November results are absolutely going to drive some of this, said Tara Ryan, vice president of state government affairs for the Association for Accessible Medicines, which represents makers of generic medications and opposes opioid taxes. If the Democrats take the elections, like some people say they will, it could definitely change the votes.California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont are all eyeing renewed attempts to pass opioid taxes, officials in those states say. The proceeds would mostly pay for addiction treatment and prevention.Well be back come January, said Tim Ashe, president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate, which overwhelmingly passed a tax measure this year that faded in the House and was opposed by the states Republican governor, Phil Scott, who is up for re-election.New Yorks law taxes manufacturers and distributors according to an opioid medications strength and will direct proceeds toward addiction treatment, prevention and education. The tax is expected to amount to roughly a dime per lower-strength opioid pill and higher for more powerful ones.I think its a good idea, said Andrew Kolodny, an opioid-policy researcher at Brandeis University and frequent critic of the pharma industry. The human and economic costs of these meds are enormous.Adding to the momentum is frequent support from Republicans, who are normally reluctant to tax businesses.Im probably the No. 2 or 3 most conservative individual in the legislature, and Im standing up there proposing a[n opioid] sales tax, said Montana Republican Sen. Roger Webb.But an industry backlash is growing. An association representing pharmaceutical distributors sued in July to block the New York law, arguing that those businesses were unfairly targeted.Pharmas main trade group has also fought hard against such measures, arguing they drive up the cost of medicine and unfairly penalize patients with chronic pain.We do not believe levying a tax on prescribed medicines that meet legitimate medical needs is an appropriate funding mechanism for a states budget, said Priscilla VanderVeer, spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA.New Yorks law prohibits passing the tax on to consumers and other purchasers such as insurance companies, but enforcing that could be tricky, according to legal experts.The Association for Accessible Medicines opposes all opioid taxes but especially objects to that measure because it taxes drugs per pill rather than according to revenue. That puts most of the burden on makers of cheap generics and largely spares brand-name sellers, whose marketing helped fuel the addiction crisis, Ryan said.Drugmakers will prove to be tough opponents regardless of electoral outcomes, said Regina LaBelle, a visiting fellow at Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy who worked on drug strategy in the Obama White House.These types of taxes face an uphill battle in state legislatures as powerful forces, including industry and industry-funded groups, ally against them, she said. Pharma-funded chronic-pain patients can be a powerful lobby, she said.Surging mortality rates caused by fentanyl, heroin and other illegal opioids give pharma companies a chance to deny blame, even if many of those victims became addicted through prescription pills, LaBelle said.Drug overdoses killed more than 70,000 people last year, a record, according to new, preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Dozens of cities, counties and states have sued opioid makers and distributors, arguing the companies downplayed the dangers of addictive pills and ignored signs they were being abused on a massive scale. Often compared to litigation against tobacco companies in the 1990s, the cases could produce billions of dollars in government revenue to fight addiction and overdose.But that could take years. Through opioid taxes and related measures, states could quickly supplement addiction-prevention funds made available by Washington, which many consider inadequate and unpredictable.Members of Congress have pushed more opioid legislation this summer, but the Houses package so far has no clear path to becoming law.Federal funding is a drop in the bucket, said Patrick Diegnan, a Democratic New Jersey state senator who backed an opioid tax this year. We really basically have to put in place the infrastructure for treatment. It will cost a lot of money.Minnesotas proposed opioid tax had bipartisan support this year, passing the state Senate by a huge margin. But under heavy pressure from drug companies, a measure in the Republican-controlled house failed at the end of the legislative session in May.In the governors race this fall, Tim Walz, a Democratic congressman, faces Jeff Johnson, a county commissioner who upset former Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the Republican primary.Minnesota recently got Washingtons permission to bill Medicaid, the state and federal program designed for low-income people, for psychiatric hospital stays for those with intense addiction-treatment needs.But none of the moves so far will furnish resources adequate to relieve the crisis, argue patient advocates. Many see an element of justice in making opioid companies contribute.Why is it important for the drug industry to pay reparations? said Lexi Reed Holtum, executive director of the Steve Rummler Hope Network, a Minnesota advocacy group named for her fiance, who died of an overdose in 2011. No matter what, this is going to go on for decades to come. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Thursday signed an executive order for transferring all remaining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees out of the city jail and declaring that Atlanta will no longer hold anyone for the federal agency.The Democratic mayor's move follows a separate executive order from June that blocked the jail from taking in any new ICE detainees amid enforcement of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy on the southwest border, which split up many immigrant families. Bottoms has vigorously objected to that federal policy."Atlanta will no longer be complicit in a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thought to the horrific fallout," Bottoms told reporters moments before signing her executive order. "As the birthplace of the civil rights movement we are called to be better than this."Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Georgia's Republican nominee for governor, criticized the mayor's move in a statement he released Thursday afternoon."The City of Atlanta should focus on cleaning up corruption and stopping crime -- not creating more of it," he said.A spokeswoman for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor, commended Botttoms' "efforts to combat the impact of the administration's cruel and inhumane family separation policy. Anyone who stands against keeping families together lacks any kind of moral compass."The mayor signed her executive order on the same day the Trump administration moved to withdraw from a 1997 consent decree -- nicknamed the "Flores settlement" -- that limits the government's ability to detain immigrant children. The proposed rule change would allow the government to detain immigrant children with their parents for longer than 20 days. Federal officials said they would ensure the children are "treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors.""Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a prepared statement. "This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress."Immigrant rights advocates blasted the Trump administration's move."It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer," said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project. "That's the complete opposite of what we should be doing -- and it's yet another example of the Trump administration's hostility toward immigrants resulting in a policy incompatible with the most basic human values."Meanwhile, communities across the nation are rethinking their relationships with ICE amid the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. For example, Sacramento County, Calif., officials voted in June against renewing a multimillion dollar contract with ICE to hold the federal agency's detainees in a county jail."What it came down to for me is whether it's morally supportable to continue doing that, even if it came at a fiscal cost," Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna told Capital Public Radio.That same month, the Springfield, Oregon, City Council voted to end an ICE contract for holding its detainees in a city jail."What began as a routine jail contract in 2012, a contract that requires no direct input from the council, has become a lightning rod for our community in 2018," Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg said, according to The Register-Guard. "The fear, hatred and just plain craziness at the national level has drowned out any hope of making a pragmatic decision in Springfield."In Atlanta, the mayor's executive order directs city Corrections Chief Patrick Labat to permanently stop accepting ICE detainees and to request that the federal agency transfer its remaining detainees out of the city jail as soon as possible.There were just five ICE detainees in the Atlanta City Detention Center as of Wednesday, down from 205 in June. The number has fallen as ICE has released them, deported others and transported some to its other detention centers in Folkston, Lumpkin and Ocilla.An ICE spokesman confirmed the five that were remaining in the jail would be moved out by the end of Thursday. He declined to identify them or their native countries or give any details about their immigration records, citing his agency's privacy policies.The city, the mayor added, has entered into a partnership with Uber and a pair of Catholic and Lutheran charities, which will provide free rides and meals to immigrant families that have been separated on the southwest border and reunited in Atlanta.Atlanta has been paid $78 a day for each ICE detainee it has held in the jail through a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service, collecting $7.5 million through this arrangement for this fiscal year, as of June. That is more than a fifth of the jail's annual $33 million budget. City officials added the Atlanta jail will continue to hold detainees for other federal agencies.The Bottoms administration, meanwhile, is exploring selling the city's jail, citing its declining number of inmates and increasing maintenance costs. As of Wednesday, the jail was holding 121 detainees, including the five from ICE. The mayor has already directed City Hall to identify new positions for the jail's staff.An imposing gray building with red trim, the jail sits off Memorial Drive Southwest and across from the Garnett Transit station and several parking lots, bail bonds companies and DUI schools."We will have to work with interested stakeholders and see what the future is for our jail," Bottoms said, adding: "What I anticipate is that whomever we sell the jail to -- if it is another partner who will continue to operate it as a jail -- many of our employees will transfer with that new entity." Description GIS 07 September, 2018: The Employees Welfare Fund (EWF) launched three new schemes, namely the Online Loan Application Scheme, the EWF Holiday Scheme and the EWF Scholarship Scheme, yesterday at the seat of the EWF in Port Louis, with aim to enhance the services offered by the EWF for the welfare of employees both in the public and private sector. The Employees Welfare Fund (EWF) launched three new schemes, namely the Online Loan Application Scheme, the EWF Holiday Scheme and the EWF Scholarship Scheme, yesterday at the seat of the EWF in Port Louis, with aim to enhance the services offered by the EWF for the welfare of employees both in the public and private sector. The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Outer Islands, Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo and other personalities were present at the event. On this occasion, Mrs Jeewa-Daureeawoo lauded the EWF for launching the innovating schemes which focus on providing access to financing for key issues such as education, health, and family. According to her, these services will be highly beneficial to employees and their families. She highlighted that the welfare of the Mauritian workforce is one among Governments priority, adding that the local workforce has been instrumental in the development of the country. To this regard, she stressed on the need to strike a balance between employee welfare and employee productivity. Contented employees are more likely to be committed and work harder for the benefit of the economy, she said. Moreover, the Vice-Prime Minister pointed out that the schemes will encourage the public to turn to e-services, in line with Governments efforts to be more sustainable and environment-friendly. She encouraged all employees to avail of these schemes. For his part, the General Manager of EWF, Mr A. Reddi Sitanna highlighted that these new schemes have been formulated in order to respond to the evolving needs of employees. He recalled that the EWF, established in 1991, aims to cater for the welfare, leisure and recreational needs of the employees and their families in terms of loan, financial assistance, and welfare projects. The EWF, he underpinned, will continue to plan new ways and do all such things that appear to be necessary and conducive for the promotion of the welfare of employees and their families. The EWF is setting new targets and will be soon implementing new projects, namely a Hotel Project in Rodrigues, Education Saving Scheme and New Leisure Park, he added. The New Schemes The Online Loan Application Scheme will provide a hassle free interactive experience for users to get loan information on the different loan schemes and provide relevant information for their loan application. The EWF Holiday Scheme will facilitate employees of both the private and the public sector to plan holidays with their families and spend more quality time by providing them with attractive and cost effective packages, both locally and abroad. The EWF Scholarship Scheme will sponsor children from vulnerable families who have high potentials but are unable to pursue higher studies due to unavailability of funds . It will help broaden the scope for young people by addressing the shortage of personnel in certain fields and encourage them to move away from traditional sectors. (TNS) WATERLOO Black Hawk County has found a new company to supply an expensive tax administration system after the previous vendor failed to deliver.The county Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to select Tyler Technology, of Lubbock, Texas, to provide the software system used by the treasurer, recorder and auditors office for property taxes and real estate.Tyler Technology was the low bid on the project at $475,000 and also met the expectations of a committee reviewing the bids, said Kim Veeder, county information technology director.It is less expensive and has a higher percentage of functions included, she said.The county had voted in March 2014 to approve an $866,600 contract with Thomson Reuters to provide the tax and real estate software, which was supposed to be completed by 2017.The supervisors voted in April to terminate that contract when Thomson Reuters continuously pushed back the project start date. The company paid $30,000 in damages to the county as part of the termination settlement.Veeder said the countys new request for proposals from companies included a February 2020 completion date for the project.Obviously when we have the contract this year we will be very specific about our expectations of when its going to be completed and what penalty there might be if theres a delay, she said.Tyler Technology recently purchased New World Systems, which provides the county financial software system.Veeder said Scott County currently uses the New World Systems financial software and the Tyler Technology tax administration system an arrangement Black Hawk would emulate and it has been working successfully.Linn and Polk counties are also looking at the Tyler Technology system, she added. Geo-fencing: Public officials will be able to designate no-ride and no-parking areas for the scooters, as well as adjust the maximum speed based on where the rider is. Flight Control Dashboard: A data-sharing component that will allow local government to pull anonymized, aggregated information on vehicle status and trips. Rider education: At the beginning of every ride, the Bird app will tell users how to ride safely and let them know about rules specific to their local government. Local governments will also be able to request specific messages. Community Mode: Users will be able to report incidents of unsafe rider behavior and rule-breaking, and the company will have the ability to get in touch with or take action against the offenders. First, the companies came in and deployed fleets of electric scooters on the street for anybody to ride with the touch of a button.Next, the complaints started to bubble to the surface: Riders were being unsafe. They were leaving scooters in the way of pedestrians on the sidewalk. The companies werent asking permission from city governments to operate.Then the cities started pushing back. Some created a new permit for scooters and made the companies promise to follow rules and encourage safe riding. Some enacted temporary bans.Some, like Homewood, Ala., simply picked up the scooters off the streets.Now, one of the major e-scooter companies, Bird, has launched a dedicated effort to placate the concerns of local governments. Its a package called the GovTech Platform, which local governments will be able to access for free via application programming interface (API), and it offers four elements:The launch of the platform came just before San Francisco issued permits to two e-scooter companies, denying permits to Bird and a host of others. As part of the citys announcement, it also released the scoring rubric it used to assess the permit applications, and Bird received some of the lowest marks of any of the 12 companies involved.The GovTech Platforms functionality specifically addresses some of the areas on San Franciscos permit application; the city assessed whether companies had strategies in place to promote wearing helmets, for example.And San Franciscos areas of assessment arent too far off from what other cities and local governments are considering. Just south of San Francisco, in San Jose, the city is gearing up to release its own guidelines for e-scooter companies by the end of the month.Colin Heyne, a public information manager in the San Jose Department of Transportation, said he can see how the platform would address several areas of concern his department has outlined. For example, when the city held a public hearing in June, one concern it heard from residents was that they didnt feel like the companies were very responsive to them.Community Mode sounds like a potential answer to that, Heyne said.The city also specifically talked about wanting companies to share data; the Flight Control Dashboard could help with that; and it was interested in safety promotion, which the education component addresses; plus it wanted the companies to encourage unobtrusive parking, which is what the geo-fencing component is for.When Heyne spoke withon Sept. 5, the city hadnt had an opportunity to get its hands on the tool yet, so its not entirely clear how well the GovTech Platform will meet San Joses needs.But Heyne likes the ideas.These elements of the GovTech Platform are a good step toward addressing those concerns, he said.The geofencing component will work in two ways. The company is rolling out the ability to dynamically adjust the top speed of the scooters based on where they are. When the rider is done, the app will tell them where they should park it."These geo-fenced parking zones can be set up to alert riders, either with a push notification or in-app message, that they should park in the designated parking zone," Bird spokesperson Michelle Neumayr wrote in an email. "Physical signage at these locations will also clearly showcase where riders should park."San Jose is one of several cities that have asked e-scooter companies for a geo-fencing feature.Bird responded to a request for clarification but did not say how its geo-fencing component would work.As for Heyne, he said San Jose is effectively pro-scooter, in the sense that it sees value in them as a piece of the transportation system and doesnt want to drive them out. But of course, as a government, the city has to balance that against public needs like safety and equity.Things like scooters we see as a great opportunity for mobility in that distance thats too far to walk, and (they) can keep people out of their vehicles for short trips or mid-length trips, he said. So we definitely did not want to overreact and ban these things from our streets. (TNS) A meeting at the School Support Center revealed that support is lacking in the School District of Manatee County.Over the course of about seven months, less than 170 employees worked more than 7,400 hours to test the districts new business management system, known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Project leaders and internal auditors agreed a year ago that more people were needed to properly finish the massive task, but help never came.Speaking at a meeting of the Citizens Audit Committee on Thursday, Byron Shinn partner-in-charge at Carr, Riggs and Ingram said monthly audit reports warned about the need for more resources.Theres real burnout going on, and theres real frustration, he said. Attitude is so important.The school board approved half a dozen positions in the information technology department about five months ago. The positions are vital for a department that handles dozens of projects outside of the ERP system.Board Chair Scott Hopes was visibly frustrated as he discussed the vacant positions on Thursday.Its a real problem for us as the governing board to go through the effort of approving the positions, approving job descriptions, approving the budget and finding out the positions arent filled, he said.It seems the unfilled positions are now at risk of remaining vacant while the district researches any costs associated with completing the ERP project, which is still crippled by dozens of defects. The projects budget ballooned from less than $10 million to more than $20 million after it was expanded and mismanaged.Its a budget issue, said Doug Wagner, who is temporarily serving as the deputy superintendent of business services and operations. Were seeing if we have enough money to fill those positions.Hopes believes the positions were never advertised, a view that aligns with recent audit findings.In a new report, the districts internal auditors noted a delay in the posting of jobs and hiring of new employees, which caused issues before the 2018-19 school year could even begin.This was corrected by swift action by the Superintendent directing the immediate posting of the new positions, it states. However, this again continues to show a systematic issue which is continuing to directly impact the district and its services.Their report also noted delays in the creation of training materials, which district employees needed to understand the new software. And it took weeks for internal audit reports to reach the right people after they were presented to the audit committee and school board.The burden on district staff was worsened by problems at Ciber, the vendor tasked with implementing Manatees new ERP system. Ciber went bankrupt in May 2017, about one year after it was contracted for the project, leading to more turnover among its project leaders, according to the audit report.Such missteps had serious consequences for the district and its leaders. Thursdays conversation was limited due to an ongoing investigation. School board attorney James Dye was on hand to make sure nobody divulged sensitive information.Its unclear whether the referenced investigation was a review by the Florida Auditor General, which was previously reported, or something entirely different. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement visited district officials two weeks ago.The new audit report noted several matters of importance, including a recommendation of written Notice of Preservation of Evidence.Ron Ciranna, deputy superintendent of business services and operations, is on paid administrative leave while the district investigates unauthorized payments and scope of work related to the ERP project. A recent report said $107,000 in purchases were made without board approval.Internal auditors will present four recommendations at the school board meeting on Tuesday. They believe the district should provide more training, oversee the completion of business processes, evaluate its hiring process and grant auditors full access to the program for testing.And the audit committee voted unanimously to notify the school board of unfilled positions in the IT department.The administration did not comply with the boards authorization to hire the new employees, said Susan Agruso, chair of the committee, as she read from the approved motion.Though the system went live on July 1, more than 60 defects still exist. George Kosmac, a retired deputy superintendent from Seminole County, said he expects to uncover more problems with further testing.He was hired by the superintendent to create a report on the project and to aide in its completion. He recently joined the school board chair and Superintendent Cynthia Saunders in meeting with Ciber executives, who said they would fix all defects within two months.Its no easy task to transition from 20 years of paper-based operations to a highly complex software system, and the project had no shortage of problems, said Joe Blitzko, a member of the audit committee.However, he said, the outcome would have been far worse without employees who worked with limited resources to meet vast demands.Theres not been hardly one thank you out there, Blitzko said. Egypt's armed forces have launched the first Egyptian manufactured Gowind-class Corvette as part of a 2014 contract with France aimed at upgrading the countrys marine fleet, the military said in a statement on Friday. The warship, named the Port Said Frigate, is manufactured by the armed forces' Alexandria Shipyard Company in cooperation with Frances state-owned shipbuilder Naval Group. "The frigate is [now] the most advanced piece of Egypt's marine forces, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Khaled, the commander of the Egyptian Naval Forces, said during the launch ceremony. The warship is aimed to enhance Egypts naval capabilities to achieve maritime security and protect borders and economic interests in the Red Sea and Mediterranean, while ensuring safe maritime navigation and bolstering security of the Suez Canal, Lieutenant-General Khaled said. The corvette frigate is part of a 1 billion euro deal signed with France in 2014 to provide four naval frigates to the Egyptian naval forces. Egypt received the first corvette frigate manufactured by the French company in September 2017. According to the deal, the other three corvettes will be built in Egypt under a transfer of technology agreement. The multi-mission corvette is designed for surveillance and surface and subsurface combat and can also perform monitoring and policing missions, said Herve Guillou, Naval Group's Chairman and CEO, adding that the warship was built in a record time. "Naval Group is very proud to be part of this long-term partnership with the Egyptian authorities and industry. This ceremony is an opportunity to reiterate our strong commitment to execute all the programs and to equip the Egyptian navy with an homogeneous fleet," Guillou said, according to a press release by the company after the launch ceremony on Thursday. Port Said is the fifth ship designed by Naval Group and operated by the Egyptian navy, after the REMM frigate Tahya Misr in 2015, the two landing helicopter docks Nasser and Sadat in 2016 and the first Gowind corvette, El-Fateh, in 2017. Search Keywords: Short link: The collapse of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001 claimed the lives of 2,763, including 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 police officers and 37 Port Authority officers. But the carnage was long from over when the toxic dust had settled and been cleaned up.Today, people who were around the World Trade Center buildings that day and the days that followed, are sick and dying, including many first responders.According to the World Trade Center Health program, almost 10,000 people have gotten cancer from the dust and smoke on 9/11 and afterward until the area was cleaned up.New York attorney Greg Cannata represents World Trade Center victims, and said he gets 10 clients a month who have been stricken with cancer that is linked to 9/11.Cannata has been representing 9/11 victims from the beginning, including first responders, construction workers, office workers, anyone who was in the area on that day and the days following before the dust was removed.Cannata has been involved with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund during the various stages, including the beginning.There was the original Victim Compensation Fund for people who were killed or severely injured, he said, and to a lesser extent, some of the rescuers and recovery people who had suffered respiratory illnesses initially and these were like firemen, who were digging through the rubble that first week without respirators or masks.Those first responders soon came down with what was referred to as World Trade Center cough. Since then, thousands have become sick from the toxic dust that led to ailments, including many forms of cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, asbestosis, chronic sinusitis, chronic rhinitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease and sleep apnea.After the initial fund for those who died or were injured when the towers came down came federal litigation for people who got sick a bit later on firefighters, police, construction workers, volunteers who worked digging through the rubble and cutting it up during the cleanup.It also affected those in nearby office buildings that were completely contaminated with dust. When the buildings collapsed, there was a tremendous outward force that broke many of the windows and fronts of buildings and the debris poured into these buildings, Cannata said. The buildings ventilation systems were on and the dust was circulated throughout the buildings.About a year or two after the fact, the coughs were getting more serious and people, particularly firefighters, were developing cancer, mostly blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia. A few years after that, other cancers began to develop, including respiratory and digestive cancers, cancers of the lungs, throat, trachea, mouth, sinuses, colon, thyroid, breast and skin cancers.A report in the New York Post recently said that at least 15 men who were in or around ground zero on 9/11 have been diagnosed with breast cancer, which is extremely rare in men.The Victim Compensation Fund was reauthorized in 2011 for anyone who was injured as a result of 9/11. Cannata has a thousand of those cases. He said that all told, there are about 25,000 people registered with the Victim Compensation Fund.A lot of people have a miserable life, theyre sick, with cancer, heart disease. A lot of them are dying.An article in the British medical journal, The Lancet, said the U.S. government agencies that initially sampled the dust and rubble from ground zero made an early fundamental mistake. It says they used off-the-shelf equipment for fine-particle monitoring, which became clogged and screened out the larger, toxic particles.Michael Gochfeld, of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University, collected dust samples from ground zero four days after 9/11. We were concerned with the sluggishness of the sampling and the prevailing sense that dust is dust, he told The Lancet. We felt that the EPA did not take the dust seriously enough.Gochfeld said the EPA relied on a sluggish sampling procedure to bring in outside industrial hygiene and safety people, and when electricity was out, did not have a backup procedure or equipment. It would be a reasonable question to ask whether we are prepared for another attack, he said.The U.S. Geological Survey tested the debris right after 9/11 and found it to be largely wallboard and cement and glass and highly alkaline. It was harmless, they said, as a dry powder but a problem when swallowed as it reacts with membranes in the respiratory and digestive systems.People down there [ground zero] got the word that its not that dangerous so people were not wearing respirators, Cannata said. If they were wearing anything, they were wearing dust masks, which were totally ineffective. And they were breathing in that alkaline dust with synthetic vitreous fibers and scratching their respiratory tracts.Cannata said the area should have been sealed off until officials learned the dangers. You have a 46-year-old fireman who dies and leaves his family behind. Its a terrible tragedy just because they didnt check to see what they were dealing with. There are multiple hurricane models. The two most prominent are the American model and the European model. Hurricane Sandy that hit New York City on the nose at high tide is the classic example for how far behind our computing power is when compared to the European model.Today there is another storm brewing in the Atlantic. The two models described above have widely different scenarios at this point. The American model has it going south and hitting the Virginia or North or South Carolina. The European model has it trending north toward New York. See thisarticle,from five years ago that explains the challenges we have had with not keeping up with the times.Today I heard Cliff Maas, who is mentioned in the linked article above, share how the United States has been working to catch up, and a new American hurricane prediction model is supposed to be released and become operational in January 2019.For now we have the two existing models. With Hurricane Florence brewing in the Atlantic now and headed west, it will be interesting to see if the European model trumps the American model with a better-predicted path for the storm. David Sobel learned early on as a police officer the importance of situational awareness.As a young officer, he went on a hot call, where SWAT was also involved, at a residence. The issues were worked out and everyone went home safely, but as they left the scene, the SWAT commander asked Sobel to go back in the residence and make a sketch of it.Sobel did as he was told and delivered a very nice diagram to the commander and asked the commander why he had wanted the sketch. The commander explained that they might be back and could use the added situational awareness of knowing where things are.Fast-forward to today and The Sobel Group offers quite an advanced version of situational awareness in the companys TSG 360, an immersive digital mapping service that, during the last year, started increasingly focusing on school districts.The service allows school districts to offer first responders a high-definition look into every nook and cranny of a school along with features that show every egress and ingress point and search features that allow a first responder to find a room or location with a simple search.A school district will pay The Sobel Group for the service and allow first responders access. Of course, there is an agreement ahead of time and a very detailed walk-through of the buildings where comprehensive note-taking happens and free training.We embed information thats used by the first responders in the system and even though response protocols are similar, each jurisdiction has wants and needs that another might not have, Sobel said. Once everyone agrees on the protocols and so forth the production process begins.That includes the taking of thousands of exceedingly high-resolution images that are stitched together to create 360-by-360-degree capture locations. These are married to the proper floor plans or site plans. The finished product shows up on a computer screen, or other device, as side-by-side images, one of the floor plan and one of the 360-by-360 images.The images include hot spots, all egress and egress points. When a user clicks on a hot spot, it presents the user with the next location of an egress or ingress spot, a feature that shows a first responder where to exit a room or building.Features also include the ability to measure a door, window or room. That allows, as an example, first responders to know the volume of a room if the need to gas it.This past year, Sobel has added as clients: three high schools in Anaheim, Calif., (and will soon add the Anaheim Unified School District) and Ramona High School in San Diego to his client base that has mostly consisted of private-sector entities to date.This is something concrete that we can point to that will have a measurable impact on school safety, said Michael Matsuda, superintendent of the Anaheim Unified School District.The design is such that officers and in some cases fire, will have it on their terminals in their cars and can pull it up based on location, Sobel said. They have a menu system in their cars and in dispatch and in the watch commanders office. Birmingham Requiring riders upload a driver's license and confirm they are older than 18 Requiring all riders to consent to a safety agreement Showing riders an in-app tutorial on how to safely ride the scooters Posting safety instructions on each scooter (TNS) Birmingham, Ala., has asked Bird Rides to immediately remove scooters that were illegally placed on city sidewalks last week.Since the scooters landed on Aug. 28, the city of Homewood has impounded 38 Bird scooters that were illegally placed on city sidewalks, police Sgt. John Carr said. Bird will be issued a citation for doing business without a city license. Fines and court costs total $371, he said.He said a Bird representative is set to pick up the scooters on Friday.In a cease and desist letter, dated Aug. 29, Birmingham City Attorney Nicole King said if the scooters are not removed, they would be impounded for "safekeeping." The company would also face fines, the letter stated.As of Sept. 6, though, the scooters remain on Birmingham city sidewalks. A Birmingham spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for additional comment.A representative from Bird didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Bird Rides Inc. is in violation of city law by operating a business on the public right of way without obtaining permission, in the form of a franchise license, Birmingham's cease and desist letter stated. The company also placed scooters on city sidewalks without permission, which is punishable by a fine of up to $500 and/or 180 days in jail for each violation and for each day that a violation continues.Bird dockless, electric scooters landed in Birmingham, Homewood and Auburn on Aug. 28. They arrived in Tuscaloosa the week before. The scooters can be located and rented through the Bird app."It was a tough decision," Birmingham Chief Operating Officer Kevin Moore said, of city's decision to ask for the scooters to be removed. Moore made the remarks at a Tuesday meeting of the city council's transportation committee.He said the city was receiving complaints from local business owners where scooters were left.According to the city of Birmingham's letter, Bird Rides has applied for a business license but hasn't paid for the license. No license has been issued, according to the letter."Please be advised that Alabama courts have found that the mere purchase of a business license does not satisfy the requirement for consent of the proper governing authorities to do business in the public ways of a city in the state of Alabama, the letter stated.Birmingham City Councilor Darrell O'Quinn, who chairs the transportation committee, said the city is in the process of drafting legislation that would regulate scooters and similar small vehicles.The transportation committee had previously heard presentations from Lime-S and Spin dockless scooters, but none have been approved to operate in Birmingham yet.Officials with the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport contacted Bird to remove the scooters from airport property on Aug. 29. The nine scooters were removed later that afternoon."Our top priority is to operate a safe and secure airport of our passengers and community," airport spokesperson Toni Herrera-Bast said in an email. "In order for a company or individual to operate at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, they must follow and comply with all city and airport operating requirements."Bird scooters can be rented through its smartphone app, according to Bird. The app allows users to locate and unlock a scooter. The app also shares safety tips for riders.A ride costs an initial $1 plus a charge of 15 cents per minute. Bird scooters are calibrated to run at a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour. A charge lasts for about 15 miles.Each night a Bird contractor, called a charger, picks up the scooters and takes them home to be charged, according to Bird. The scooters are placed back in their "nests," a pre-approved spot, by 7 a.m. the next morning.According to Bird, the company works to make sure users are riding safely by:Though it is currently operating illegally in Birmingham, Bird contends that it works closely with the cities where it operates. The company said scooters are located in front of businesses where scooters are wanted.According to Bird, the company offers to remit $1 per vehicle per day to cities where they operate. The money is intended to be used to build more bike lanes, promote safe riding and maintain shared infrastructure. (TNS) The University of Texas at San Antonio will receive $70 million from the states Permanent University Fund for a pair of buildings that will further position the city and university as a national information security hub, officials said.Approved unanimously by the UT System Board of Regents on Thursday during an Austin-based telephone conference, the money will develop homes for a National Security Collaboration Center and a School of Data Science, both to be located on the universitys downtown campus.The center will focus on cybersecurity research and collaboration between the university, government agencies and private sector partners in a $33 million, 80,000-square-foot building. The school will consolidate existing programs and 70-plus faculty members in cybersecurity, cloud computing, data and analytics and artificial intelligence in a $57 million, 138,000-square-foot building.The intent is to put them close to each other to create a central hub. UTSA President Taylor Eighmy told regents he expects to settle on their locations in the next few weeks and announce where the remaining $20 million needed for the project will come from. He said he hopes to complete construction within two years.I do believe we can become a Sillicon Valley equivalent for this focus on data science, information management, information technology and cybersecurity, Eighmy said in an interview after the meeting.While some classified activity will take place in the center, undergraduate and graduate students will have opportunities to learn there from potential future employers through training and collaborative work, Eighmy said.Currently, about 3,500 undergraduate and 400 graduate students at UTSA are pursuing degrees in such fields. It has 10 partnerships with private firms and about a dozen federal partners, including the National Security Agency, U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Secret Service, said Bernard Arulanandam, interim vice president for research at UTSA. The partnerships include contracts, collaborative research and agreements to place students and faculty in remote facilities.The closer you get people together in collaboration, the faster innovation happens, Eighmy said. The whole purpose of the center is to pack densely bright people into one space.Such collaboration is the only way we can move at the speed of relevance in the 21st century, said Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, the commander of the Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, in a prepared statement. The model UTSA is creating will help the entire community move forward faster together to create economic opportunity and protect national security.Global cybersecurity employers report a shortage of employees to address current threats, according to a study by the business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan for the Center for Cyber Safety and Education. A need for 1.8 million professionals in information security and technology is expected in the United States by 2022, the study said.The UTSA programs will help us immeasurably in building a sustainable workforce pipeline, said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and chief executive officer of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation.Having a vibrant downtown campus with dedicated entities focused on data science and cybersecurity supports our targeted growth strategy in IT and cybersecurity to recruit and retain quality employers, she said.Last month, Eighmy released a plan to create a bigger downtown university presence integrated with the citys landscape.In a nutshell, I believe great public research universities have a wonderful opportunity to shape the future and those that are situated within an urban environment will have the best chance for that, he said. You might even say UTSA is a perfect example of what a future-urban serving university will look like. Riverside, Calif., recently announced the appointment of George Khalil as its new chief innovation officer. Khalil was formerly the citys chief information security officer, a position he held for three years.Khalil started work as the citys innovation executive on Aug. 27, taking over from Lea Deesing, who was promoted to Riversides assistant city manager earlier this year. Khalils career in technology spans more than two decades, and includes stints in both the public and private sectors, where he has worked on everything from critical IT infrastructure to cybersecurity.Ive been in technology for more than 20 years, starting from dot-coms and startups, to health care, and then I moved into municipalities, law enforcement and local government, Khalil said. One thing I really like from the private sector and startups is trying to find the challenge within technology.Khalil worked with many startups in the late 90s that grew into much larger companies. Something he remembers strongly is that the concepts behind these companies generally had to do with setting out to solve a specific problem. For example, he worked at Sun Microsystems, where he had a role called a technology evangelist, and was primarily responsible for technology adoption.Technology alone doesnt really work very well without being in touch with what the business and the organization are trying to accomplish, Khalil said. I really learned that early in my career innovation doesnt occur if technology is not aligned with what the organization is trying to accomplish.This principle translates well to local government where it has become important to have a technology advocate who can speak strongly for the overall organizations goals and objectives. That, Khalil said, is one of his primary objectives as Riversides CIO: to be both an advocate for technology and for the business of the organization.In terms of the jurisdictions top priorities, Khalil pointed to empowering users and the community. Riverside recently launched a new innovation division, which ties into his belief in technology serving as a bridge. That new innovation division has subject matter experts from various departments, such as community economic development, finance or internal audits. Theyre also trying to incorporate community members into ongoing work to support the use of data and evidence to better manage city problems.Were trying to view technology as a way to empower people to provide access to data, Khalil said, and to help them solve problems by leveraging expertise from different people, because as a team were all a lot stronger.This translates to some ongoing tangible efforts, including the use of data to leverage internal resources in a way that results in providing better outreach and assistance to the citys homeless population. Toto Wolff says he remains in "regular contact" with F1 legend Niki Lauda. Together, the duo own and run F1's highly successful works Mercedes team. Some weeks ago, 69-year-old team chairman Lauda had a life-saving lung transplant. He continues to recover in a Vienna hospital, and Mercedes boss Wolff said "everyone" at the team misses him. "For me I especially miss him from the human point of view. As a travel companion, a sparring partner and a friend," Wolff told Die Welt newspaper. "It was important that we always had dinner in the evening to discuss the day -- just the two of us. At the moment I have lost a very important contact person or opposite pole," he added. Wolff says he is keeping the F1 legend up to date with the goings on in F1 and at Mercedes. "His health is the most important thing for now, so he needs rest, but I'm in regular contact with him. He watches all the races and I try to keep him up to date as much as possible," he said. (GMM) Rolls-Royce launched its latest in a series of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled marine engines at the SMM maritime exhibition in Hamburg. The Bergen B36:45 model is designed in accordance with the Rolls-Royce philosophy of a common platform for all fuel options and applications, and can be configured to meet the specific engine requirements of customers. Power output of the LNG-fueled B36:45 engine is identical to that of the liquid-fueled B33:45 at 600kW per cylinder at 750 rpm. Specific energy consumption is a low 7300kj/kWh mechanical ISO including two engine-driven pumps; specific lubricating oil consumption is less than 0.4g/kWh. The B36:45 is available in six, eight and nine-cylinder in-line configurations. A V-12 version is now in development, which will be followed by a 20-cylinder V-engine for very high-power applications. The proven lean-burn Otto cycle combustion B36:45 technology has been developed during Bergen Engines extensive experience with LNG-fueled engines so that methane slip, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, has been minimized. This new engine builds on the success of the Bergen B35:40-series engine and offers a variety of new benefits to our customers, including rapid response to changes in load and speed, high reliability and clean burning. This makes the B36:45 ideally suited for mechanical ship propulsion installations, driving either controllable or fixed-pitch propellers. The engine is equally at home operating at constant speed driving alternators in gas-electric propulsion or auxiliary power generation systems. Kjell Harloff, Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine, Senior Vice President Engines The latest Bergen gas engines are able to achieve up to 22% lower Green House Gas (GHG) emissions than the equivalent diesel-fueled version. Sulfur oxides (SO x ) and particulate matter emissions are virtually eliminated, while emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) are reduced by more than 90% compared to an equivalent diesel engine. The Bergen B36:45 is able to meet IMO Tier III and EPA Tier 3 emission levels without the need for additional selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems. In the case of the new B36:45, the main structural components are the same as those used in the B33:45-series liquid fuel engines. The crankcase, common to all engine types, incorporates all air and oil galleries, minimizing external pipework and ensuring stiffness and operational safety. Individual cylinder heads and three-piece connecting rods allow the complete head, liner, piston and upper conrod to be withdrawn for overhaul and replaced, as an assembly, without disturbing the engine bottom end. For the gas version, different liners, pistons and heads are employed, giving a 30mm increase in cylinder bore compared with the existing, well-proven, liquid-fueled B33:45. The stroke remains unchanged, at 45cm. Other changes involve the fuel system and injectors, which are Bergen Engines own design and make for reliable operation with gaseous fuels. The robust variable valve timing system allows optimum response to load changes, regardless of the grade of fuel. The Worlds 50 Best Awards has been criticized for featuring very few women. Photo: Courtesy of Worlds 50 Best Restaurants The annual Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list is controversial for a number of reasons, with its lack of representation of women being perhaps the biggest. Only four restaurants on this years list are headed squarely by women, and in the case of Bangkoks Nahm, the chef Pim Techamuanvivit only took over from a man in May. The equally controversial Best Female Chef list is also still published, and its winner, London chef Clare Smyth, raised questions about representation. Now, after years of criticism, the people behind the Worlds 50 Best say theyre going to do something about this. In a blog post, Worlds 50 Best director Helene Pietrini writes that they are joining in calling for an industry where equality is a reality. She also writes that the group aspires to highlight and celebrate a culturally and ethnically diverse mix of restaurants and chefs, such as Ultraviolet, a French restaurant in Shanghai. Addressing the issue of gender parity, however, requires more thinking. Pietrini writes that while the group cannot alter which restaurants its voters wish to include, it will make an effort to update the makeup of that voting body. She writes: Were we actively to manipulate the make-up of the list (which is the result of the votes of over 1,000 experts worldwide), then we would instantly alter its central principle: that the voters select what they judge to have been their best dining experiences. As a result, the authenticity and credibility of the list and the 50 Best brand would undoubtedly be diminished. We cannot and should not control how people vote. Furthermore, we reflect the gastronomic world as it is, rather than as it should be. However, we can help foster an environment where expert female voices are heard and where female chefs are identified, valued and invested in on an equal basis to their male counterparts. We begin with a commitment to gender balance where it remains within our control the priority being in our voting panel. From now, 50 Best is committed to achieving a 50-50 gender balance across its 1,040-strong worldwide Academy of voters. Prior to the next round of voting for The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, Academy members will also be encouraged to look beyond the current list, to explore a diverse mix of restaurants during their travels and to take issues of representation into consideration in their voting choices. With a minimum of 25% of the panel renewed every year, we have the opportunity to recruit more female experts into the voting Academy. She also suggests theyll recruit more women going forward, and says that the gender parity will also apply to academy chair appointments, and points to new initiatives, including bringing in more female speakers for its #50BestTalks on September 12 and creating an informal advisory board comprised of leading chefs like Elena Arzak, Smyth, Daniela Soto-Innes, Pia Leon, and others. However, the much-criticized Best Female Chef Award will not be going anywhere. It will be interesting to see if these supposed changes do make a difference, or if the same handful of food-bro-centric kitchens continue to dominate the entire list. News PM Imran unveils Rs120b pro-poor package for 20m Pakistani families At the end of his speech, Imran said that he appeals to Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari to bring back half of the money they have looted over the past 30 years and he would half the prices of the essential commodities. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi visited the site of Gabal El-Galalah (El-Galala Mountain), a mega-project under construction located in the northeastern governorate of Suez, according to a statement released on Friday by El-Sisis office. The project, launched in December 2015, involves the creation of a 17,000-acre international city, a tourist resort, an intercity road and an industrial zone in the mountainous region. During his tour on Friday, El-Sisi inspected the giant hydroelectric desalination plant in the area, with a capacity of 15,000 cubic meters a day and the King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz University, named after the late Saudi king. He also visited the sites of phosphate and marble plants located in the area. More than 100 local Egyptian companies are hired to work on the Gabal El-Galalah project, which is being carried out by the Armed Forces Engineering Authority (AFEA), according to El-Sisi's office. Egypt intends that the project will create a complete urban development community comprising all residential, commercial, educational and tourist services, and will offer more than 150,000 in direct and indirect job opportunities. Search Keywords: Short link: Haiti - FLASH : UN warns of high risk of major unrest in Haiti On Thursday, Bintou Keita, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, emphasized to the Security Council the "volatility" of the situation in Haiti and warned of the "high" risk of "major unrest". ". She also stressed, as did many delegations, the uneven progress made towards the transition from the current United Nations Mission for the Support of Justice in Haiti (Minujusth) to another form of United Nations presence, from October 2019. Keita, who presented the latest report of the Secretary-General on Minujusth https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/N1826388.pdf recalled the outbreak of violence, with loss of life and destruction, which hit the country last July https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25055-haiti-flash-heavy-balance-of-riots.html 1148/5000 following the abolition of subsidies on petroleum products, leading in particular to an increase in the price of kerosene by 38% regretting that "Since the July violence, the Haitian authorities have not tried to remedy the root causes of the precarious social conditions, while the process of ratification by Parliament of the statement of general policy of the appointed Prime Minister and taking office of the new Government are pending." The Assistant Secretary-General also pointed to popular resentment fueled by revelations about the alleged benefits of officials and the debate over the questionable use of PetroCaribe funds and gangs in the capital that continue to put the Haitian National Police to the test. Keita then referred to the remaining challenges to the smooth transition to a United Nations presence in Haiti other than a peacekeeping operation by 15 October 2019. The report includes as an annex the 46 indicators selected for monitor the progress made in implementing a Minujusth exit strategy as desired by the Council. In particular, she deplored the slow progress in the adoption of laws aimed at improving access to justice and the functioning of the prison administration. The Under-Secretary finally stressed the need to fully implement the development plan of the Haitian National Police, to improve the professionalism of police officers, as well as their number. highlighting "[...] the rate of policeman per 1,000 inhabitants fell to 1.32 due in particular to resignations." Delegations expressed some skepticism about this transition to another form of UN presence by next year, with the United Kingdom saying the number of police officers was "alarming". Calling on the Haitian authorities to "take full control of the disturbances to public order" and to "avoid any politicization" of the police, France called for a "responsible" withdrawal from Minujusth based on a clear assessment of the situation on the ground. Poland warned against "a limitation too much or too early" of the UN presence in Haiti, while the Ivory Coast delegation said that "the success of the withdrawal strategy of Minujusth passes inevitably through close collaboration between the different stakeholders". Ambassador Denis Regis, Permanent Representative of Haiti to the UN was reassuring in his speech, saying that the July crisis has been overcome "Public institutions have demonstrated their maturity", stating that the new Government will have as priorities the organization of elections scheduled for October 2019 and the intensification of the fight against corruption, affirming "Haiti also continues to make sustained efforts to strengthen the rule of law, the justice system and the promotion of human rights" reiterating the commitment of the Haitian authorities to ensure a smooth transition from Minujust to a United Nations presence that is no longer focused on the maintenance of peace. Download the Secretary General's Report on Minujusth : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/N1826388.pdf HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - PetroCaribe : President Moise reiterates his full support for the CSC/CA On Wednesday, September 5, President Moise confirmed having met the members of the Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes (CSC/CA) and made the commitment at this meeting, to make available to the Court all the resources necessary for carrying out the audit work on the use of PetroCaribe funds. Affirming "Of the 27 million Gourdes requested by the CSC/CA for the audit work on the use of PetroCaribe funds, 10 million have already been released in the amending budget for this purpose. The balance will be disbursed from October in next year's budget." "My working session with the CSC/CA at the National Palace is another opportunity for me to reiterate my commitment to support the relevant institutions so that all the light is made around the PetroCaraibe folder" See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25443-haiti-petrocaribe-denial-of-the-government-commissioner.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25458-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24018-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23988-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23902-haiti-news-zapping.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23446-haiti-flash-senate-transfers-petrocaribe-report-to-csa-ca.html HL/ HaitiLibre Ministers Learn about the ministers of the Health portfolio, including who they are, what they are responsible for and what they do. David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images(LONDON) -- When the Royal Academy of Arts in London revealed its plans for next year's Renaissance nude exhibition earlier this week, it announced there would be gender parity among the paintings, sculptures and drawings. That is to say, equal numbers of naked men and naked women. Notably, the latter will not outnumber the former. The exhibition will attempt to "trace the development of the nude through some of the great masters of the Renaissance," the Royal Academy said "From full-scale paintings to jewel-like miniatures, bronze statuettes to anatomical studies, they contrast idealized beauty with the aging body, and public images with more intimate, private works." The gallery's director Tim Marlow told the Telegraph that including equal numbers of men and women would be a "very interesting exercise" in the "cultural climate" of 2018. The #MeToo era hasn't been the only catalyst for galleries and museums to rethink representation. Scholars, feminists and activists have long sought more equal opportunity on gallery walls. In 1989, a famous Guerilla Girls poster read: "Do women have be to me nude to get into the Met. Museum?...less than 5% of the artists in Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female." A copy of the poster now belongs to the Tate in London. The Royal Academy of Arts says it's not just about what's on the walls, but also who makes editorial decisions. Per Rumberg, a curator at the Royal Academy, said in an interview with The Telegraph that the gallery was trying to balance gender representation among the scholars working on the exhibition. On Wednesday, the Museums Association, an arts organization in the UK, began a poll on Twitter asking whether quotas should be introduced to ensure gender parity in exhibitions. The Royal Academy of Arts' focus on gender representation might be part of a larger trend. Madrid's Prado museum plans to celebrate two lesser-known female Renaissance painters, Lavinia Fontana and Sofonisba Anguissola, in its bicentennial show next October, artnet.com reported. Earlier this year, Londons National Gallery acquired its 21st piece of artwork by a female artist, a rare self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi for $4.08 million, artnet.com reported. The Royal Academy of Arts' Renaissance nude exhibit opens in March of 2019. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Egypt has expressed its support for Japan after a powerful and deadly earthquake hit the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Thursday. The foreign ministry offered condolences to the Japanese government over the deaths, adding that Egypt stands by the government and people of Japan in this adversity. At least 18 people were killed in the earthquake that struck the sparsely populated island before dawn, with a magnitude of 6.7. It is the latest natural disaster to hit Japan over the past two months, following floods and typhoons. Search Keywords: Short link: (Bloomberg) Deutsche Bank AGs hedge fund clients have had a front-row view of tumult this year, as the lenders new leader unveiled another strategy, dramatically shrinking its U.S. prime brokerage. Now, the firm is trying to reassure some of its most important customers in New York those it wants to keep that its ready to handle their business. To read this article: (HedgeCo.Net) 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 Nonkos 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 Divisions 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. Attorneys 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 SECs 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 SECs complaint charges Goldman and Eikenberry with fraud and with aiding and abetting Nonkos fraud and broker-dealer registration violations. The SEC is seeking injunctions and the disgorgement of their allegedly ill-gotten gains, plus interest and penalties. A 14-turbine wind farm is being constructed in Kannus, Central Ostrobothnia, by WPD Finland. The wind farm offers electricity users access to electricity at a fixed price under long-term, 1525-year power purchase agreements. Kauppalehti has reported that a total of three non-subsidised wind farms are scheduled for completion in Finland in 2019. Long-term power purchase agreements have recently become increasingly popular in, for example, Sweden, Norway and the United States. In Finland, however, the first long-term agreement was announced as recently as last summer. So far the production costs have been too high, while electricity prices have contrastively been too low in Finland. But now the market is becoming more attractive, Heikki Peltomaa, the managing director at WPD Finland, explained to the commerce-oriented newspaper in late August. In Kannus, the turbines will reach heights of up to 230 metres. With a rotor diameter of 150 metres, a single turbine will have a capacity of 4.5 megawatts. Market-based wind power projects have become more and more common especially due to advances in wind power technology. While a three-megawatt turbine produced eight gigawatt hours of electricity a year 1015 years ago, a four-megawatt turbine will be capable of producing 19 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2019. The lifespan of a wind turbine has similarly increased by 10 years since 2010 to over 30 years. Jari Suominen, the managing director of TuuliWatti, says the production costs of the first non-subsidised wind power project ever to be announced in Finland, the Viinamaki wind farm, will be below the market electricity price, at roughly 30 euros per megawatt. The wind power project was announced in June 2018. Finland, he believes, has an opportunity to take advantage wind power to achieve energy self sufficiency and transition from an importer to an exporter of electricity. Finland and Germany are roughly the same size in terms of landmass, but weve only installed a fraction of the wind power turbines that have been installed in the densely populated Germany. Theres plenty of room in the sparsely populated Finland, he told Kauppalehti. The third non-subsidised wind farm is being built in Isojoki, Southern Ostrobothnia, by CPF Finland. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi The Social Democratic Party saw its popularity drop by 0.9 percentage points to 20.3 per cent and the National Coalition by 0.8 percentage points to 19.0 per cent between July and August. The Centre Party, meanwhile, polled at 17.8 per cent for the second consecutive month. The Social Democrats, National Coalition and Centre Party are separated only by 2.5 percentage points at the top of the latest opinion poll commissioned by YLE. The poll was conducted between 13 August and 4 September by Taloustutkimus. The party to suffer the biggest setback was the Green League, which recorded a drop of one percentage point in voter support and continued its almost six-month slide in the poll. Support for the opposition party has fallen from 17.8 per cent to 12.6 per cent between September 2017 and August 2018. Tuomo Turja, a research director at Taloustutkimus, says it appears that recent controversies have taken their toll on the Green League. Theyve lost some floating voters who dont approve of resisting an official, he stated to YLE. If I was part of the decision-making bodies of the Greens, Id be a bit concerned about the situation. Their support is dropping month after month, and that has all but undone the gains they made earlier. Turja is referring particularly to a protest staged at Helsinki Airport on 31 July by Aino Pennanen, the legislative secretary of the Green League. Pennanen refused to sit down in an aircraft awaiting its take-off in protest of the deportation of a fellow passenger. The Left Alliance, on the other hand, recorded an up-tick of 1.4 percentage points in voter support to 9.1 per cent. The Finns Party and Blue Reform both similarly saw their popularity increase between July and August, the former by 0.7 percentage points to 9.4 per cent and the latter by 0.8 percentage points to 1.6 per cent. The Swedish Peoples Party and Christian Democrats both continue to poll around the 4.0 per cent-mark, according to YLE. Aleksi Teivainen HT Source: Uusi Suomi Egypts top prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered the bodies of a British couple who died in a hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada last month be handed over to the UK embassy in Cairo, the prosecutors office said in a statement on Friday. John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan Cooper, 63, who were on vacation in Hurghada at the Steigenberger Aqua Hotel, died within hours of each other on 21 August. The Egyptian tourism ministry had said that a preliminary autopsy showed the couple had died of natural causes. Earlier this week, Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with representatives of Thomas Cook, the British company that organized the couple's tour, promising a transparent investigation into the causes of the couple's death. Egypts top prosecutor had earlier stated that a committee of engineers tasked by the prosecution to examine the couple's hotel room's air conditioning system and found it to be sound, refuting reports that harmful gases might have been leaked into the room. In the Friday statement, the top prosecutor said that investigations are still underway and that results will be announced in time. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed Al-Assar discussed on Friday with an official delegation from the Anglo Belgian Corporation (ABC), the Belgian engine manufacturer, ways for the Belgian company to help develop Egypt's manufacturing capabilities in order to upgrade the railway sector. Al-Assar and ABC officials explored ways the Belgian side could share its advanced technology to allow the ministry firms to manufacture locomotive engines for the country's railway sector, the ministry said in a statement on Friday. The talks between the Egyptian and Belgian sides come a month after Minister Al-Assar, along with Egypts Minister of Transport Hisham Arafat, visited railway engineering company Bombardier in Germany and Belgiums ABC to discuss ways to meet the needs of the countrys railway system. The minister said the ministrys companies aim to supply locomotive engines to the local market, as well as exporting to Arab and African markets. The ABC delegation said they would draw up a preliminary report on ways to cooperate with the Egyptian ministry after they visited three of the ministrys firms that specialize in the manufacturing of diesel engines and armoured vehicles. Search Keywords: Short link: Picture a pretty welcome table in the lobby with Jewish calendars, apples and honey. Imagine a front desk clerk wishing all Jewish residents and their family members a happy New Year. Think about a holiday menu with challah, noodle pudding, tzimmes and apple cake. While these things were once unimaginable in Orlando, they are occurring today in over 70 elder-care communities thanks to the Jewish Pavilion. Seniors who are no longer able to travel to shul can celebrate the High Holidays with their friends in their buildings. Elders, like Sylvia Cohen, who just moved to senior living, will hear the shofar for the first time in many years. Faye Novick The Jewish Pavilion steps in as a "mobile community center on wheels." We have been bringing community, culture and companionship to the doorsteps of senior living communities since 2001, serving as a resource that provides room visits, festive holiday celebrations, intergenerational and memorial programs to 500 Jewish residents in more than 70 facilities for your mom's and dad's in long-term care. We also offer Jewish cultural education to their staff through our training program. The Jewish Pavilion promotes inclusion as loneliness knows no cultural borders, and thousands of seniors of all faiths attend and are welcomed into our programs each year. http://www.jewishpavilionn.org Our Senior Help Desk has assisted thousands of callers navigate their way through the daunting senior maze, alleviating caregiver stress while giving advice on all types of elder issues. http://www.orlandoseniorhelpdesk.org Please join us for our 18th (Chai) anniversary at our gala this year on Sunday, Oct. 28 at the Hilton in Altamonte Springs. We will be honoring Jason Mendelsohn and Paul Stenzler and celebrating all that has happened over the past 18 years to enhance the lives of our elders and their families. The Jewish Pavilion staff and volunteers wishes everyone a happy and healthy New Year! Faye Novick, Board chair, and Nancy Ludin, CEO In the next few days we'll celebrate Rosh Hashanah and herald in the new year 5779. It is a time of renewal and of family-filled with good food, traditions and wishes, hopes and prayers for the future. While the holiday is best known by the name "Rosh Hashanah," which literally means "head of the year," in the Torah the holiday is called "Zichron Truah," which roughly translates as "Memory Blast." Additionally, the only mitzvah, or commandment, that is directly connected with this holiday is to hear the blast of the shofar. Why is the Jewish New Year actually a memorial day? And why is the only commandment of this day to listen to a simple blast from the shofar? According to tradition, on Rosh Hashanah the past is brought to the fore, and God remembers us, our deeds and our actions. But I believe God isn't the only one who remembers; this is a time when we can also "remember ourselves." Intertwined with memory is an element of judgment and personal responsibly, a defining characteristic of Rosh Hashanah. By remembering, we compare between the past and the present, between our hopes and expectations and the way they played out in reality. We don't just think of the past, we re-live the moment. When we remember the people, the places and the experiences that impacted us the most, we are whisked back to that moment and we experience it again. I had the opportunity to talk with some of our residents as they shared their memories of the High Holidays. Memories can have a significant impact on our day-to-day lives, and when reminiscing, these women were transported to the past, re-lived the moments, and in that space, were able to bridge the gap between past and present. "When I was 12 years old," Bernice Landis reminisced, "Israel became a country. A man came to services to talk about the new country and gather donations. My friends and I came out of the synagogue. We were very upset because we wanted to contribute, but we didn't have any money. I clearly remember that we decided that we would go to Israel and help them fight!" In Judaism, we are taught to look forward with a sense of hope and take personal responsibility-to be a part of the change. To this day, Bernice feels a strong connection and love for Israel, which she traces back to that moment at synagogue. At the young age of 12, she wanted to be part of the change. In the daily rush of life, we often forget our true selves and what really matters. Do we stop and question what memories we are creating today? Are we being true to who we are or want to be? According to Maimonides, the great 12th century Spanish Jewish thinker, this is the purpose of the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. That strong, piercing and simple blast serves as an awakening. It grabs our attention to remind us that something is happening. It is a day of judgment. This blast wakes up our memory, our expectations and our hopes. "Hearing the shofar makes me feel good," said Joan Rosenman. "I'm a history buff," added Bernice, "so I read a lot about ancient times. When you experience the traditions that are still here today-that have been brought through thousands of years... that's really something special." Sandy Erstling added, "It gives me a warm feeling. I always look forward to another year in peace and harmony all over the world. It gives me hope." Rhonda Pearlman As we enter Rosh Hashanah, I encourage you to try to focus on memory and judgment. When you hear the shofar blast, perhaps you will experience that moment of awakening. Take a moment to connect with the past your own memories and the collective memories of the Jewish people. Then look forward and take personal responsibility for what you want to do differently this year. As the director of KCOA, I have the pleasure of spending my days with a special group of people who have far more wisdom than I do. I am lucky that they share their stories and memories with me. I wish you all a sweet and meaningful New Year. Carol Feuerman, KCOA Board president Rhonda Pearlman, KI/KII Board president Sharon F. Weil, KCOA director of Programming and Development It's that time of the year again when roughly 350,000 Jewish college students will be facing the High Holidays away from home. Whether for the very first time or just returning for another year of school, this is a time of the year when Central Florida Hillel is at its busiest. The High Holidays present a perfect opportunity for young Jewish adults to get together, whether they are observant or completely secular. The social aspects of the holiday combined with our famously abundant, delicious kosher food create a special place for students to gather and enjoy the benefits of community. Our synagogue partners in the community-like Congregation Ohev Shalom, Congregation of Reform Judaism and Temple Israel-open up their doors as well for our students that prefer an environment more like their shuls and temples back home. These offerings weren't always available here in Orlando and, as 5778 is making way for 5779, it is impressive to consider how just one year has changed so much on our campuses here in Central Florida. This time last year, there was no Hillel staff at Rollins College and now we have an associate director of Jewish Student Life, Emily Block, who is leading a movement to create a vibrant, dynamic and sustainable Jewish community. This was highlighted when on Passover, President Grant Cornwell became the first president in Rollins' 130-year history to host a Passover seder at Barker House. This time last year, there was no Hillel staff at Stetson University and now they have Sam Friedman (formerly our assistant director) as the first Hillel director at Florida's oldest university. There are literally more programs in the next two weeks at Stetson than there were almost all of last year and they are just getting started. This time last year, there was no Israel Fellow to serve our campuses here in Central Florida. Now we have Nirit Gelfer who will be working with our students to educate the campus community about Israel. Dana Bial This time last year, we had no rabbi to provide for the spiritual needs of our students. This year, we have an amazing partnership with Yehudi which brought us Rabbi Yisrael and Tamar Abisror whose beautiful home just down the street from campus is already being filled with students who are eager to learn more about their heritage, as well as experience the feeling of being in a home away from home. At the board level this time last year, we were still evolving from a nascent board to a more expansive model. Under the leadership of Board Chair Dana Bial, the board approved a new set of bylaws, introduced a committee structure where every board member serves, and inaugurated the agency's first strategic plan so that the organization that is the gateway for young adults coming into our community, can prepare a path for sustainability for the future. Dana Bial, Hillel Board chair Aaron Weil, CEO Many people are familiar with the "Aleinu" prayer recited at the conclusion of each Jewish prayer service. I would even venture to say that it is one of the favorite prayers of the Jewish people because it indicates that services are coming to an end. What many people don't realize is that this ancient prayer was originally only recited as part of the High Holiday liturgy. It was so popular that the rabbis decided to incorporate it as the concluding prayer of our daily service. During Aleinu we bend our knees and bow in prayer as a symbol of our dedication and commitment to G-d. The prayer also contains the phrase "L'Taken Olam B'Malchut Shaddai" which means "to repair the world in G-d's sovereignty." From this phrase, we have derived the more familiar concept of Tikkun Olam, the call to the Jewish people to repair our broken and fractured world in partnership with the Torah's teachings. This call for universal justice has been a clarion call of the Jewish people since ancient times. At Jewish Academy of Orlando, one of our core values is leadership. The core value reads "We empower students to become leaders and challenge them to go out and change the world through the concept of Tikkun Olam." Jewish day schools have been nurturing the leaders of our Jewish communities for decades. Around the country, graduates of Jewish day schools are the leaders of their Federations, JCCs, synagogues and other communal organizations. Studies indicate that Jewish day school graduates tend to give more Tzedakah, support Israel and are engaged in the community at a higher level than their peers who did not attend Jewish day school. The idea of Tikkun Olam is at the core of everything we teach and do at Jewish Academy. It is the message that we bless our students with each and every day. As in the Aleinu prayer, we teach our students that it is incumbent on each and every one of them to make our world a better place, to look at the world around them and say "how can I make a difference?" At Jewish Academy, we encourage our students to change the world, one good deed at a time. This is what has made Jewish Academy of Orlando a unique and special place in our community for over 40 years. May this New Year be a year of peace and righteousness, and may we all work together to repair our broken world. L'Shana Tova Tikatevu V'Techatemu! May you be written and inscribed in the Book of Life for a year of health and wholeness! May this be a year of learning and growing for you and all of your loved ones! Alan Rusonik, head of school It all started with 50 faxes. Yes, faxes. In 1992, after moving to South Florida, Rabbi Kalman Packouz was fascinated with the latest technology, a fax modem. So he found a way to put it to good use, by sending out a one-page "dot-matrix" fax about the weekly Torah portion to 50 people. Today, it's still sent out by fax to tens of thousands and has grown to become one of the world's most popular Jewish emails as well with hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide. The goal of the Shabbat Shalom Weekly (originally called Shabbat Shalom Fax and referred to as "The Fax of Life") is to excite and connect Jews of all ages and all different backgrounds to their heritage. With insights into life, personal growth and Torah, Rabbi Packouz's caring for and connection to his readers, along with his delightful sense of humor and great story telling, have earned him a following across the English-speaking world. Now, Rabbi Packouz is embarking on an expansion to reach an even wider audience. Starting this Rosh Hashanah, 26 years after sending that first fax, the Shabbat Shalom Weekly is launching Hebrew and Spanish editions. "I am thrilled and humbled that I have been able to touch so many lives, and with the new Hebrew and Spanish emails, I look forward to the opportunity of connecting even more Jews to the Almighty, their heritage and Israel." said Rabbi Packouz. "I am both touched and saddened when readers write that the Shabbat Shalom Weekly is their only connection to anything Jewish in their lives. " What is the Shabbat Shalom Weekly? It's a weekly uplift and inspiration in five short sections: 1. Insights into personal growth and life or an upcoming holiday, usually with a humorous story or joke. 2. A concise overview of the Torah portion of the week. 3. A short D'var Torah imparting a lesson for life-how to be happy, find the right spouse, make one's marriage work, raise one's children and have more joy in life, spring boarding from a verse in the weekly Torah portion. 4. Candlelighting times around the world. 5. Quote of the week. "Some people subscribe just for the quote-and many read it first!" Rabbi Packouz has a thick folder of notes from his readers. Writes Abby, "Your Shabbat Shalom Weekly has helped me shape my Jewish identity." Rick shares, "The Shabbat Shalom Weekly has connected me to my Jewish heritage, faith and belief. You cannot image how much I value your weekly letters." For a taste of the Shabbat Shalom Weekly, here's a timely excerpt from Rabbi Packouz's Rosh Hashanah edition: This time of year, many Jews all over the world are rushing to make sure that they have places reserved in their synagogues. I am reminded of the story of the person who had to deliver a very important message to a man in a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah. The usher wouldn't let him in because he didn't have a ticket. "Please, I just need a moment to tell him the message!" "No way!" says the usher, "No ticket, no entrance!" "Please," begs the man, "I promise ... I won't pray!" Rabbi Packouz was born in Portland, Oregon, where he attended Beth Israel, a reform temple that has given him a sensitivity to Jews from all backgrounds. After college, he found his way to Israel. Following a brief stay on a Kibbutz, he was introduced to Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the founder of both Yeshiva Ohr Somayach and the Aish HaTorah world-wide outreach movement. Continuing his studies under Rabbi Weinberg for six years, he received his rabbinical ordination and for 45 years has helped build Aish HaTorah into a powerhouse and leader in the Jewish outreach movement. Rabbi Packouz was the co-founder of Aish HaTorah's first branch in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1980 Rabbi Packouz founded the Aish HaTorah Jewish Computer Dating Service, perhaps the world's first Jewish digital dating service, leading to an appearance on the Today Show. He is the creator of TheWall.org, Aish HaTorah's webcam on the Western Wall where you can see the Kotel live in real-time and even send a note to be placed in the Wall. To date it has received almost 37 million visitors. Of all of his accomplishments and creations, the Shabbat Shalom Weekly is his greatest love. To sign up for the free weekly newsletter, in English, Spanish or Hebrew, visit http://www.ShabbatShalom.org. For the fourth straight year, on average, students at Jewish Academy of Orlando performed at least two grade levels ahead of their peers nationwide. Each April, Jewish Academy students take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, a nationally standardized achievement test for K-12 students. The test allows schools to compare students' scores to national norms in Reading, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science. This year, the upper grades at Jewish Academy outperformed their past achievements, with average scores of three grade levels ahead of their peers. The Iowa Assessments rank the students' scores by grade level equivalents. As a general guide, a score of 8.4 for a 5th grader means the student is testing on an achievement continuum at a level equivalent to an 8th grader in their fourth month, or also indicates they are 3 years and 4 months ahead of their current grade level. "We are always thrilled to see our students' scores and even more delighted about the upper grades' performance," Alan Rusonik stated, who is beginning his fifth year of Head of School. "The scores show the nation that Jewish Academy of Orlando is a top-ranking school, not only in Orlando but in our country." "We try to challenge every student to the best of their ability. Differentiated learning," Rusonik explains, "provides students with instruction, which adjusts learning, projects, homework, and classwork to meet the needs of each individual student. Through differentiated learning, teachers increase the speed at which a student covers the material. This could include opportunities for instruction beyond their current grade level to more challenging material." While many schools focus on "teaching to the test," Jewish Academy of Orlando focuses on the love of learning and high achievement through innovative, differentiated curriculum based on students' individual needs. "We use this test for a variety of reasons. One is to get a glimpse of how our student body is performing against national norms. It is one of many indicators teachers use to gauge how well students have met benchmarks at each grade level," Rusonik said. "We are proud of our students, and we truly believe that our dedicated teachers ensure that our students reach their fullest potential." To learn more about the Jewish Academy of Orlando, please visit https://www.jewishacademyorlando.org or follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JewishAcademyOrlando. LONGWOOD-Tracey Kagan, Democrat for State Representative District 29, won her primary election on Tuesday by a 2:1 margin. Kagan, a Ruth's List endorsed candidate, defeated her primary opponent, Darryl Block, with 66.8 percent of the vote in all 34 precincts. She is veteran criminal defense attorney, community activist and a Seminole County mother of three. She will now face Rep. Scott Plakon, the Republican incumbent, in the general election on Nov. 6, 2018. "This win is a pinch-me moment and a dream come true," said Kagan. "It is also the culmination of months of speaking with the voters of District 29, knocking doors, calling and really listening. What I heard is that our families care passionately about public education, affordable healthcare, common-sense gun legislation and protecting our environment. I've lived in Seminole County for more than two decades, and those are the issues that matter most to me too-and the reasons I'm running. "As a first-time candidate, I am deeply humbled to have earned Seminole County's vote. As a lifelong fighter, I can't wait to get to Tallahassee and start championing our families." In addition to Ruth's List Florida, Kagan is endorsed by the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida, the Brady Campaign, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Florida State Senator Linda Stewart, Former State Representative Dick Batchelor, Florida NOW PAC, former Florida Education Commissioner Betty Castor and former Florida State Representative (and newly elected Orange County School Board member) Karen Castor Dentel. Kagan is also very active in the Jewish community. Within the next month, Heritage plans to do an interview with her for our readers. (JTA)The High Holidays are approaching. It is a time when Jews worldwide join together in the spirit of camaraderie, pouring out their hearts for a good new year. But the lead-up this year has been different, often pitting Jews against Jews in bitter controversy Rosh Hashanah 5779 arrives with the passage of legislation declaring that Israel is a Jewish state with the right of Jewish self-determination. Supporters and detractors have been characterizing each other using inappropriate, explosive language. On one side, too many have called the laws supporters racist; on the other, too many have called its detractors anti-Zionist. Such language must stop. It fans the flames of conflict, potentially leading to hatredeven violence. While a word is a word and a deed is a deed, words lead to deeds. As the rabbis declare, wise people must be careful with language. Rather than call the other names, each side should listen to the others concerns, allowing them to influence their own thoughts. Listening is at the core of Rosh Hashanahs shofar ritual. The ritual is not only about sounding the shofar, but, as its preamble blessing proclaims, listening (lishmoah) to its sound. Supporters ought listen to issues raised by detractors. Specifically, with the one-state solution gaining traction among Israels Jews, will Arab citizens be denied an equal vote? And, it must be added, does a Jewish state mean a theocratic state where Jewish religious law will be imposed against the will of many? Recent events have increased these fears. A Conservative rabbi was picked up by police for performing a marriage outside of the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbinate, which follows rigid Orthodox practices. I, too, an Orthodox rabbi, have felt the sting of the Chief Rabbinate. Letters Ive written attesting to the Jewishness of longtime congregants of my synagogue in New York, where I have served for 45 years, have been denied. Detractors, too, must take into account questions raised by the laws supporters. Too many Israeli Supreme Court decisions have alienated many Jews living in Israel. While all communities ideally should be open to everyone, the Israeli Supreme Court has allowed Arab communities to exclude Jews while forcing Jewish communities to include Arabs. Additionally, because of the importance of free speech, some rhetoric by Arab members of the Israeli parliament that has bordered on treasonous has been permitted on the Knesset floor. This has outraged some Israeli Jews. I have long felt that the founders of the state should have been more decisive and named the country the Jewish State of Israel in 1948, proclaiming its Jewish identity from the outset. Among other matters, this would have clearly declared Hatikvah as Israels national anthem, Hebrew as its official language, the Israeli flag as its national banner and the Law of Return as applying exclusively to Jews. I support the nation-state law, even as I insist that all citizens of Israel be treated equally. I believe strongly in reaching out to our Arab brothers and sisters, and so I visited the mosque in Yasuf that was desecrated in 2009 and reached out to the father of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian teenager who was murdered in 2014 after three Jewish boys were kidnapped and murdered. I have reached out because of my passionate belief that all of humanity regardless of religion or race is sacred and every human is created in the image of God. For me, a strong sense of Jewish identity does not contradict universal consciousness but is a prerequisite to it. I have little doubt that the architects of this new law believe that it does not discriminate against Arabs. They would insist that equality for all is legislated in other Basic Laws that would fully protect Arabs and other non-Jews living in Israel. But with nationalism on the rise both in the U.S. and around the globe, the timing of this new law is suspect. And it very well may be that politicians are using the law to gain political points. Because of these concerns, I, a strong supporter of Jewish settlements, believe that the new law should be amended to include a simple but important phrase from Israels Declaration of Independence: [Israel] will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex. I suggest this addition because these rights are absolutely central Jewish values. Such an amendment would win over support of many of the laws original naysayers. Truth be told, supporters and detractors of the new law have more in common than not. Too many are politicizing the issue and painting their opponents as extremists. The center, including supporters and detractors of the law, recognize that Israel is a hybrid: a Jewish democratic state. There are many democracies in the world. No two are the same. Israel is not simply a Western democracy that happens to be in the Middle East. It is a unique Jewish democracywith all its beauty and complexity. And no democracy faces the existential challenges that Israel does. Despite threats on each of its borders, and even from within, Israel tries to do all it can to adhere to democratic principles. Its difficult to imagine that other nations facing similar threats would do the same. This Rosh Hashanah, supporters and detractors should remember that there is a short but clear pause between the sounds of the shofar. The pause may be understood as giving participants time to listen and incorporate each individual notes meaning into our hearts and souls. This, I believe, is our mandate, our tzav hashaah. Rather than the two sides in this debate demonizing the other, each must listen to the other. Each much see the other as an ally in the common goal of strengthening Israel as it was originally created to be: a Jewish state with inextricably built-in democratic values of individual equality for all of its citizens. Avi Weiss is the founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, Bronx, N.Y., and founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat rabbinical schools. He is a co-founder of the International Rabbinic Fellowship and longtime Jewish activist for Israel and human rights. The views expressed in this article are his own. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. (JNS)In all the furor around the anti-Semitism plaguing the British Labour Party, Ive noticed two distinct forms of defense of both the party and its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The first defense, favored by those for whom Corbyn is a Socialist equivalent of L. Ron Hubbard, is to dismiss any and all accusations of anti-Semitism as a hoax or smear aimed solely at destroying their leaders prospects of becoming Britains next prime minister. The second, which may be wrong-headed but is at least grounded in intellectual sincerity, is that there is indeed a problem inside the Labour Party, but that including anti-Zionism among the examples of contemporary anti-Semitism only makes the problem worse. Numerous examples of both of these defenses have appeared in the last week. To take an instance of the first, according to veteran pro-Palestinian commentator David Hearst in Middle East Eye, the definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)the source of the current Labour rowis actually a weapon intended to terrify all politicians ... from having any contact with Palestinian organizations. Because Corbyn has shown principled resistance to the depiction of anti-Zionism as a mutation of anti-Semitism, Hearst argued, the hostile reaction of the British press leaves only the question of how much dirtier the campaign to unseat Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party is going to get. Instances of the more nuanced approach appeared, ironically enough, on the Qatari government-backed Al Jazeera website. [T]o be honest I assumed that the issue of anti-Semitism was something that was exclusively associated with the far-right, confessed Steven Fielding, a professor of politics at the University of Nottingham. He continued: What has surprised me is the alacrity with which supporters of Jeremy Corbynand sometimes very close and prominent supporters of Jeremy Corbynhave been guilty of, at best, indulging in unconsciously anti-Semitic tropes. That theme was taken up in a longer article by Ian Almond, who teaches at Georgetown Universitys campus in Qatar. Briefly recounting his childhood in England, Almond recalled his shock when, at the age of 12, my teacher told me the word joo I had just spoken, which I had thought to mean to lie or cheat, was actually Jew and was anti-Semitic. He went on to assert that anti-Semitism is so entrenched in our society, so depressingly persistent, that to trivialize it is to trivialize the blueprint of prejudice itself. It is a barometer of moral cowardice: when someone doesnt want to take responsibility for their own faults or problems, they blame the Jews. Nothing to disagree with there, as Almond clearly grasps the critical role that anti-Semitism has played historically. The problem is that his understanding is restricted to the appearance of anti-Semitism in its vulgar, crude form only: ugly myths about Jews and the Transatlantic slave trade, say, or Internet tirades about the Rothschilds and other Jewish bankers. It does not occur to him that what is sold under the label of criticism of Israel frequently and consciously draws on anti-Semitic notions of Jewish power. The best illustration of this is the very same argument that Almond chooses to defend from the charge of anti-Semitism; namely, that Israel is the outcome of a racist endeavor, a favorite theme of the Corbynite left. This argument has historically been the preserve of anti-democratic ideologies and regimes. As early as 1965, Soviet diplomats at the United Nations were bracketing Zionism with Nazism; a decade later, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution spearheaded by a coalition of communist and authoritarian member states that equated Zionism with apartheid and racism. Publishing houses in Moscow pumped out cheap booklets that often ended up on Western university campuses, in which the reader would learn that Zionism was a natural extension of the Jewish exclusivism fostered by the Talmud. Similar propaganda appeared in the Arab media, usually accompanied by lurid cartoons of hook-nosed Israeli soldiers driving innocent Palestinians from their homes in Nazi-like fashion. One might counter that not everyone who presents Israel as a racist endeavor is driven by the same motivesstrategic, diplomatic, ideologicalthat the USSR was when it adopted anti-Semitism in the name of anti-Zionism. Perhaps. But to make the case, one is still forced to rely on the same arguments. If Israel should, as Almond astonishingly advocates, be presented as a settler-colonial project to school students encountering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the very first time, how is that to be done in a way that doesnt jeopardize attitudes to local Jewish communities? If Israel is to be portrayed as a rogue state of global proportions, whose inhabitants have essentially fabricated their historic and spiritual links to the territory which they now occupy at the expense of the indigenous Arabs, how can such an argument possibly avoid anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish wealth, Jewish political influence and ingrained Jewish exclusivism? And if the Palestinians are to be portrayed as ongoing victims of ethnic cleansing by Jews (and Jews alone), then how can one neatly separate the opposition to Zionism from the anti-Semitism? The short answer is that you cant. Thats because the racist endeavor portrait of Israel, however much one encounters it in Middle East Studies departments, is grounded on the anti-Semitic trope of a distinctly Jewish dishonestyin which schmaltzy, disingenuous appeals for public sympathy, ruthless political lobbying, the strategic use of financial wealth and overbearing military might are the essential elements in the story of Israels creation, as well as its ongoing existence. If Almond and those who agree with him want to protect Diaspora Jewish communities and achieve concrete progress for the Palestinians, the proper question they should ask themselves is whether their discourse about Israel is helping either of those goals. Ben Cohen writes a weekly column for JNS on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics. His writings have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. Egypts parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said a new criminal procedures code and a law regulating the elections of municipal councils will be high on the chamber's agenda when it returns from its summer recess. In an interview with editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram daily Alaa Thabet, Abdel-Aal said the House of Representatives, which was seated in January 2016, has had a busy legislative agenda, given that it is the first parliament after Egypt enacted its new constitution in 2014. Parliaments elected after a new constitution carry a greater burden to put this charter into force, Abdel-Aal said in the interview which was published on Friday. The house has issued a large number of complete laws over the past two years, he explained. Abdel-Aal said the 200-article criminal procedures code, which was referred by the government to the parliament during its last legislative season was slow to pass because "it iis a highly sensitive law that needs careful deliberation before enactment. Abdel-Aal also said that enacting the law of local governance, which regulates municipal elections, has been long overdue due to the parliaments very busy agenda. The last time Egypt held municipal elections was in 2008 and a new law regulating the poll has been delayed for three years. Asked about why Egypts new cabinet was sworn in by the President before the parliaments approval, Abdel-Aal said the move aimed "not to disrupt public services or undermine decision making at critical times." It is imperative not to leave the country without a government for a long period to protect the countrys interest, Abdel-Aal said. In June, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi appointed a new government in which he changed key posts, shortly after he was sworn in for a second presidential term. Addressing some critics who say that parliament fails to carry out its supervisory role over the government, Abdel-Aal said his parliemnt has carried out enquiries, issued urgent statements, put forward draft decisions, and formed fact-finding committees. He said the only two oversight tools it has not used with the government are questioning and the withdrawal of confidence because of the lack of main requirements or evidence to do so. He said the parliament has registered 350 notes on the current governments program and will follow up on ways to adopt them. Abdel-Aal criticized what he called attempts to undermine the House of Representatives by "merely focusing on its negatives, saying these harm the national interests. He dismissed accusations that the parliament is rubber-stamping governments decisions mainly those about subsidy cuts, describing the recent economic reform measures Egypt has adopted as bitter medicine to keep the countrys budget deficit in check. Abdel-Aal said that he is always keen to listen to the voice of the parliaments minority opposition, saying that he often shows favour to opposition MPs. Search Keywords: Short link: (JNS)U.S. President Donald Trump gave the Jewish people a gift of historic proportions by taking the issue of Jerusalem off the table back in December. On Aug. 25, President Trump gave a gift that is arguably of equal or greater value to the Jewish nation by significantly reducing by $200 million the aid that the United States gives to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine. PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat predictably called the decision disgraceful, and said that President Trump was meddling in the internal affairs of other people in an attempt to impact their national options. Since when is it that an American president deciding how to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars is considered meddling in the affairs of other people? Beyond that, according to an Aug. 25 report on Israeli Channel 2 news, the Trump administration announced that it will oppose the Palestinian claim for the right of return for the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war. If true, this would be a historic developmentnot just to the American taxpayer, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, but to the Palestinians themselves. UNRWA was formed in 1949, in the aftermath of the 1948 War for Palestinian refugees. These refugees, fleeing from the war (Dec. 1, 1947 to June 1, 1948), originally numbered 550,000 to 600,000. Because the Palestinians have inflated the numberand because they count multiple generations of descendantsthe figure that Palestinians and their advocates now invoke is 5 million. The U.N. High Commission of Refugees defines a refugee as someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. Only in the case of the Palestinians is this status passed down for generations. And only in the case of the UNRWA is there a refugee agency exclusively for one particular refugee group. In 1950, in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations High Commission of Refugees was established to deal with the millions of displaced refugees. However, the Arab League refused to allow the Palestinian refugees to go under that rubric. Why? Because the mandate of UNHCR is for the refugees to be settled and integrated into their host country as soon as possible. The Arab League, however, wanted to keep the Palestinian refugees in a perpetual state of limbo in order to use the Palestinian refugee issue as a thorn in the side of Israel. The Arab world seems have no concern over their Palestinian brethren, apparently preferring to keep generations of Palestinians in a perpetual state of victimhood, squalor and conflict. According to David Bedein of the Center for Near East Policy Research, the right of return is the focus of the entire life... to take back their homes that were abandoned in 1948... The children are taught you have to go back to these homes and kill the people who live there. Upon entering the Aida UNRWA camp, for example, one immediately sees a gate adorned by an oversized key, symbolic of their ancestors house left behind in Israel. The symbol of the key is used constantly in pageants that UNRWA schools put on, where the message is constantly drummed in that they will someday return to their ancestors orchards and vineyard in pre-1948 Israel. Throughout the campand particularly, inside the schoolspictures hang on walls glorifying Palestinian shahids (martyrs), with messages encouraging youngsters to follow in their noble footsteps. Prominently displayed is the ubiquitous map of Israel, of course labeled Palestine. During the summer, young children attend a camp where they engage in military exercises, replete with walls they are taught to crawl under and firewalls they are taught to jump over, dressed in in military fatigues. Recently, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), asked for a General Accounting Office report of what is being taught in the UNRWA schools, but for some inexplicable reason, that office insists on keeping the report classified. Perhaps because the results are too damaging to UNRWA. According to a recent study conducted by CNEPR together with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in which 150 textbooks from kindergarten through 12th grade were examined, researchers found Israel and Jews depicted as demonic, with violent liberation emphasized. A 2017 text even includes a disturbing text by describing a Molotov cocktail attack on an Israeli bus as a barbeque party, while another extols the virtues of Dalal Mughrabi, the female Palestinian terrorist who was responsible for the massacre of 38 Israeli civilians. All of this stands in stark contrast to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which proclaims, among other things, that the child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law and by other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions. Kids who are unfortunate enough to be educated in UNRWA camps enjoy none of the benefits of a normal childhood. Instead, they are indoctrinated to become nothing more than bullets in a war machinein a war that they will inevitably lose. Sarah N. Stern is the founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, an unabashedly pro-Israel and pro-American think tank and policy institute in Washington, D.C. In a previous Everywhere column, Love is not the antidote to hate, (Heritage Florida Jewish News, Aug. 17, 2018), I suggested that respect for one another was the only effective antidote to hate. Now, as we approach the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a time of self-reflection in our relationship with the Divine, we will also likely hear from the pulpit of many synagogues, the need to reflect on our many personal relationships, on our general behavior, and how well we treated those with whom we have interacted within the past year. As we seek forgiveness via prayer, repentance and charity for our heavenly transgressions, we are also urged to seek forgiveness from those we have mistreated or hurt, and in turn to forgive those who have behaved badly toward us. A good start then would begin by reintroducing the practice of respecting one another despite our different views, and forgiving those with whom we had issues during this past year. Respect for one another may even make the path to forgiveness less treacherous. In the final analysis the decisions we make about forgiveness will be unique to each of us, but there is no reason not to make mutual respect the underlying basis for all our actions. In that light, I would begin by asking forgiveness from those readers of my column who were personally offended or hurt by the contents of any of my columns this past year, and by forgiving those who may have denigrated me personally for the views expressed in my writings rather than respectfully expressing an alternative view. While respect for others is always appropriate, there are some views, matters and conduct that are so egregious as to be unforgivable. Despite the legitimacy of the Womens Movement for equality in all aspects of American life, I find myself unable to forgive those progressive Jews who in January marched with the anti-Semites and anti-Zionists (redundancy?) in Washington, D.C.; nor will I forgive the Jew-haters who proclaimed that feminism is incompatible with Zionism. As a supporter of equal rights for the LBGTQ community, I will not forgive those members in that community who condemn Israel, which is the only nation in the Middle East where LBGTQ individuals can live openly without fear, are respected, and enjoy equal protection of the law. I also find myself, in this time of forgiveness, unable to forgive those Jews who opposed the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. While criticism of Israeli government and U.S. policies that effect Israel is perfectly legitimate, I do not forgive those who reside outside Israel who seek to impose policy changes by coercive methods, because they cannot effect change in Israel by the legitimate use of the Israeli ballot box. Those who threaten to withhold donations to Israels social and medical NGOs, or wage economic war on Israel through the BDS to delegitimize the Jewish state, and organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine who physically intimidate Jewish students and suppress free speech, or actively support indirect funding of terrorism against Jews and Israelis, are not only not forgiven, but must be continuously condemned and actively opposed. As the new year unfolds, we should keep in mind Israels security needs and pray for a year of peace, prosperity, health, and good fortune for both America and Israel. As Jewish Americans we should give particular thanks that we are doubly blessed by G-ds Covenant with the Jewish people and by the protective embrace of the U.S. Constitution. La Shana Tovah! In you wish to comment or respond to any of the contents herein you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner. If you wish to respond by ranting and raving, please go into your bathroom, lock the door and shout your brains out. Mel Pearlman has been practicing law in Central Florida for the past 45 years. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; on the District VII Mental Health Board, as Special Prosecutor for the City of Winter Park, Florida; and on the Board of Directors of the Central Florida Research and Development Authority. He was a charter member of the Board of Directors and served as the first Vice President of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as its first pro-bono legal counsel. (JNS)Anybody who pays attention to the sorts of things honored by contemporary popular culture knows that stories about heroism are passe. But why then do we still long for them? One example comes from an incident that took place almost a century ago. In March 1920, Arab gangs attacked the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee. Josef Trumpeldor led the defense of the isolated farming village. He was a rare Jew who had served in the army of the Tsar and then helped lead the first contingent of Zionist Jews fighting with the British against the Turks in World War I. He returned to Russia, organized Jewish self-defense against pogroms and then headed back to Palestine, where he wound up defending newly established Jewish farming villages near the border with Lebanon. Trumpeldor was mortally wounded during the exchange of fire at Tel Hai. But before he died, he was reported to have consoled his companions in Hebrew, saying: Ein davar, tov lamut bead artzeinuNever mind, its good to die for our country. As was fitting for a secular Jew like Trumpeldor, his words echoed those of the Roman poet Ovids Odesdulce et decorum est pro patria mori (it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country) more than any traditional Jewish text. But his sacrifice inspired generations who followed in his footsteps rebuilding and then successfully defending the Jewish homeland. Just as important, he was embraced as a hero by both the Jewish rightthe Betar national youth group founded by Zeev Jabotinsky and later led by Menachem Begin was named for Trumpeldoras well as by their Labor Zionist rivals on the left. But to future generations of Israelis, the authenticity of Trumpeldors final utterance was called into question. He may have just cursed in Russian about his bad luck. His shaky command of Hebrew might also not have enabled him to say something so eloquent. Its a dispute that can never be definitively settled. More important is that many also came to doubt the validity of the sentiment behind those noble words. To the cynics of the last 20th and early 21st century, the idea of there being something glorious about bloody sacrifice for the sake of a national ideal was exactly the sort of talk that starts wars. To some, patriotism was not just old-fashioned, but also dangerous. That is especially true for Americans who came of age after Vietnam, Watergate and countless other scandals that have robbed the nation of much of the idealism about patriotism that was once taken for granted. Its in this context that we should think about the life of Sen. John McCain, who passed away this past weekend at the age of 81 after a long battle with brain cancer. McCain was a central figure in American politics for a generation and twice unsuccessfully sought the presidency. An independent spirit, he was often an unpredictable guided missile, taking up causes that struck his fancy regardless of whether they fit in with his generally conservative approach to politics. Sadly, in his final years, he was subjected to a torrent of abuse because of his feud with U.S. President Donald Trump, who started the spat by wrongly calling into question McCains status as a war hero. Some on the far right, especially on social media, even continued calling him a traitor after his death, though in doing so they demonstrated their own ignorance and lack of grace. That echoed the abuse he had always gotten from the far left, which viewed his unswerving support for Israel and belief in a strong U.S. foreign policy advocating American values of freedom of democracy with equal contempt. But what is important about McCain is that he lived his life in the same spirit as Trumpeldors famous quotation. His was a life lived in service to his nation. There is no denying that his bravery in enduring torture and imprisonment at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors. And whether you agreed with him on every issue or not, the fact that he continued serving his country throughout the rest of his life completed a legacy that was based more on character and patriotism than anything else. McCain mattered because unlike most politicians, his claim to office was based not so much on ideology as it was on biography. Not many U.S. presidents have been truly great men. And while we cant be sure that he would have been a good president, the main reason he came so close to that goal was because so many thought he deserved the honor as a result of his life story. In that sense, he was very much a throwback to an earlier time in American history, when the presidency was seen more as a reward for meritorious service or heroism than a mere political contest. We may not need presidents to be heroes, but the founders of the American republic believed that civic virtue was essential to the survival of their experiment. The manner in which Israels founding generation lived was a testament to the same sentiment. Cynics and those who decry even the most democratic forms of nationalism often dismiss patriotism and the idea of sacrifice for the nation. We no longer engage in hero worship of the kind that produced generations of Americans who thought George Washington never told a lie or Israelis who believed in the Zionist equivalents of that myth. Were right to keep even the most seemingly exemplary leaders feet of clay firmly in view. But we still need heroes because they are essential to perpetuating the ideals that are the foundation of American society. Nations like the United States and Israel are, after all, based on ideals more than other considerations. Thats why we need the Josef Trumpeldors and John McCains. They point the way for the rest of us towards the values to which we aspire but so often fall short. May the senators memory be for a blessing. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNSJewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin. Famed for his heroics on screen, a Hollywood idol topped himself at war as leader of a band of seaborne deception specialists As a U.S. Naval Reserve officer during the war, celluloid swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks Jr. led a real-life team of adventurers. (Heritage Auctions, Dallas) As a U.S. Naval Reserve officer during the war, celluloid swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks Jr. led a real-life team of adventurers. (Heritage Auctions, Dallas) Early in 1943, as Allied forces battled across North Africa and contemplated amphibious assaults on Italy and France, U.S. Navy Radioman Bob Rainie spotted a bulletin at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Virginia: The Navy requests volunteers for prolonged, hazardous, distant duty for a secret project. Rainie, 22, a seagoing veteran bored with shore duty, jumped at the opportunity. Among the officers screening volunteers at the base was a tall, studious lieutenant commander named Harold Burris-Meyer, who surprised Rainie by asking technical questions not normally covered in radio school. Fortunately, recalled Rainie, I was in college studying electrical engineering before entering active duty. One of my last courses had been properties of sound. The 39-year-old Burris-Meyer, Rainie learned later, was a sound pioneer who before the war had created sonic effects for theatrical plays, engineered the stereo soundtrack for Walt Disneys 1940 film Fantasia, and even consulted with New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. If Burris-Meyers questions deepened the mystery surrounding the project, the presence of another screener, a suave 33-year-old lieutenant, added a jolt of astonishment. To menand especially womenof Rainies generation, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was a Hollywood icon. His father, Douglas Sr., a silent screen legend, had starred in The Mark of Zorro, The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad, and The Black Pirate. Fairbanks Jr. took up the swashbuckling mantle in Dawn Patrol, The Prisoner of Zenda, Gunga Din, Safari, and The Corsican Brothers. The younger Fairbanks was now looking for real-life action. Teamed with Burris-Meyer, Fairbanks was building a seagoing dirty tricks outfit to confound German and Japanese beach defenders. All my life, Fairbanks later wrote in a memoir, I had lovedeverything to do with ships. In truth he possessed little actual nautical experience. But the biggest obstacle to Fairbankss sea command ambitions was education. Getting a naval reserve commissionmeant one had to have a university degree, he recalled, andI had no such thing. What Fairbanks did have, however, were influential contacts. In October 1941, after getting a correspondence course degree, a commission as a lieutenant junior grade, and a post to Washington, Fairbanks stayed overnight in Franklin D. Roosevelts White House, where his host, a former assistant secretary of the navy, blithely assured him promotion to Captain of the Headshipboard slang for toilet. A snotty lieutenant commander from Navy Personnel soon set Fairbanks straight. The quickest way for you to be a seagoing deck officer, he scolded, is to go to sea. After humbling familiarization tours aboard several ships, Fairbanks crossed the Atlantic in March 1942 as flag lieutenant to Rear Admiral Robert C. Ike Giffen. The admiral dispatched Fairbanks on even more observational forays, though this time closer to the action: aboard aircraft carrier USS Wasp, delivering British aircraft to embattled Malta, and then heavy cruiser USS Wichita, screening an ill-fated Russia-bound convoy, PQ 17, that would be devastated by the Luftwaffe in June-July 1942. Determined to achieve more, Fairbanks wrote Britains Lord Louis Mountbatten, a longtime family friend. Mountbatten, or Dickie, as Fairbanks knew him, led Combined Operations, responsible for British commando warfare. Eager to have Americas armed forces adopt Combined Ops methods for deceiving and misdirecting the enemy, Mountbatten attached Fairbanks to his staff. Fairbanks learned about explosives, camouflage, and the operation of Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVPs), best known as Higgins boats. He even participated in several pajama raidsCombined Ops slang for nighttime, cross-Channel, hit-and-run assaults on German outposts. Mountbatten (at right, above, in 1942) assumed command of Britains Combined Operationsand drew Fairbanks into the wartime specialty of military deception. (Imperial War Museum, A 13230) Mountbatten (at right, above, in 1942) assumed command of Britains Combined Operationsand drew Fairbanks into the wartime specialty of military deception. (Imperial War Museum, A 13230) In mid-November 1942 Fairbanks reported to Norfolk, Virginia, to join the staff of Vice Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force. He soon convinced Hewitt to allow him to organize Combined Ops-style training in seaborne deception tactics. At the same time, Fairbanks leveraged his Washington contacts. On March 5, 1943, Admiral Ernest J. King, chief of naval operations, formally authorized recruitment for what would be called Beach Jumper operations. Beach Jumper Unit-1 (BJU-1), the first of nine such units the U.S. Navy organized during World War II, was officially commissioned on May 25, 1943, at Little Creeks Camp Bradford, where Burris-Meyer established a Beach Jumper training group. While there are several stories about the derivation of the Beach Jumper nameBJ for shortthe most credible is Burris-Meyers oft-quoted determination to use sonic deception to scare the be-Jesus out of the enemy. In a prewar staging of Shakespeares Hamlet, Burris-Meyer had used the BJ factor on a theatrical audience, synchronizing visual and audio effects to dramatize the movements of the plays ghost. Whenever the projected apparition crossed the stage, its voice eerily moved with it, thanks to a backstage technician controlling a dozen carefully placed speakers. For his wartime work, Burris-Meyer devised portable, self-contained gear consisting of sophisticated generator-powered amplifiers and multidirectional speakers. Connected to recording and playback equipment, the unitscodenamed heatersbroadcast prerecorded noises simulating a seaborne invasion. Operating heaters from small boats offshore, Beach Jumper personnel aimed to convince enemy defenders an attack was imminent. If the BJ factor worked, hoodwinked enemy troops would rush to the ghost invasion beach, leaving the actual invasion site vulnerable. Living out of four-man tents, BJ volunteers attended classes and learned to operate small craft. In addition to Higgins boats, BJU-1 employed 63-foot, high-speed Air-Sea Rescue boats, or ASRsalso called crash boatseach manned by an officer and six sailors. Recalled Rainie, it took six men to lift the portable Burris-Meyer equipment onboard the ASRs. I created the [invasion sound] effects by recording boat engines, bosn whistles, tank engines from a nearby Army training site, [and even] anchor chain sounds by pulling a chain over the edge of an old bucket. Other Beach Jumper contraptions in-cluded smoke generators and Roman candles, which could be tossed overboard to simulate gun flashes. For radio and radar countermeasures, boats carried radio transmitters and radar-jamming devices. Crews could also stream 25-foot-long balloons covered with metal strips to further mislead enemy radar operators. Deception was key because ASR firepower was scant: four twin-mounted .50-caliber machine guns, 3.5-inch barrage rockets, and small arms. The Beach Jumpers expertise was soon tested when BJU-1 was abruptly called to participate in the July 1943 British-American invasion of SicilyOperation Husky. We were hustled into trucks and raced to Newport News to board a ship for Oran, Algeria, Rainie recalled. The unit reached Oran in early June, then took to its ASRs to follow Algerias coast east to Ferryville, Tunisia, an abandoned French lakeshore facility near Bizerte. BJ sailors again bunked in tentsnow, according to Rainie, sharing space with wharf rats the size of cats. Burris-Meyer came along to fine-tune gear, while Fairbanks temporarily joined Vice Admiral Hewitts headquarters in Algiers. For Operation Husky, at least, Fairbanks would watch from afar as what he called his diversion baby went into action. BJU-1s first mission was to convince German defenders an invasion in western Sicily was at hand, keeping them away from Huskys southwestern and southeastern landing beaches, where the real invasion was set to begin on July 10. With the BJs facing unknowable hazards in vulnerable craft, navy brass predicted huge losses. Accordingly, each man received a crate to stow all their personal effects for their next of kin. BJU-1 craft sortied from Pantelleria, a newly captured island midway between Ferryville and Sicily. Their opening foray was a diversion off Sicilys western coast, but mountainous seas forced them to abort it. The next days foray went better: one ASR generated smoke, an escorting PT boat laid down cover fire, and four other crash boats paralleled the Cape San Marco beachfront. As Burris-Meyers sound equipment blared a cacophony of simulated invasion noises, a six-inch German gun began firing shells just over their heads. Two searchlights came out, one opposite my boat, Rainie recalled, so I loaded a Garand [M1 rifle] and shot it out. When ordered to withdraw, ASR crews secured their sound gear, sped beachward, fired guns and rockets, pivoted, and then retreatedleaving enemy confusion in their wakes. The Beach Jumpers returned triumphant to Pantelleria, but their Husky labors were not over. When Fairbanks, stationed aboard Hewitts flagship, learned that a British aerial bombing diversion had been postponed, he persuaded Hewitt to substitute a nighttime BJ diversion using all available craft. Sailors head for the beach in 1943 during amphibious training exercises at the U.S. Navys Little Creek, Virginia, base. That same year, the first Beach Jumper unit was formed there of volunteers. (U.S. Navy/National Archives) Sailors head for the beach in 1943 during amphibious training exercises at the U.S. Navys Little Creek, Virginia, base. That same year, the first Beach Jumper unit was formed there of volunteers. (U.S. Navy/National Archives) The next day 11 ASRs and eight PT boats, split into groups Able and Charlie, staged sequential coastal diversions between Mazara del Vallo and Granitola, farther up Sicilys western coast. Group Charlie struck just as the moon went down, one of its PT boats dashing ahead to fire guns, launch rockets, and lay smoke. The groups subsequent display of sound, balloons, pyrotechnics, radar-jamming, and fake radio chatter promptly stirred a hornets nest of enemy searchlights, artillery, and heavy machine-gun fire. Charlies ASRs and PT boats escaped the fusillade, but Ables nearly didnt. Before they could even begin, shore batteries had opened up with heavy, accurate radar-controlled fire. Fortunately for Group Able there were no personnel casualtiesno need to send the next of kin crates. Despite glitches, BJU-1 performed impressively. An entire German reserve division stationed in the west froze in place as the true Husky invaders secured beachheads well to the south and east. In recognition, Vice Admiral Hewitt elevated Fairbanks to special operations officer, now directly responsible for all BJ operations. His frontline swashbuckling was about to begin. Fairbankss responsibilities took a new tack for Operation Avalanche, the September 9, 1943, invasion of Salerno on Italys southwestern coast. Assigned to an expanded task group that included American destroyer USS Knight, Dutch gunboat HNLMS Flores, four American sub chasers, and 20 American and British PT boats, his Beach Jumpers were to capture the lightly defended but vital islands controlling seaward approaches to the Gulf of Gaeta and Bay of Naples. Fifty paratroopers from the U.S. Armys 82nd Division, aboard one of the task group vessels, would reinforce the Beach Jumpers. During a September 7 briefing in Palermo, Sicily, Fairbanks promised participantsincluding several OSS intelligence agents and novelist-turned-war correspondent John Steinbecka real game of piratescapturing islands, starting with Ventotene. On the eve of the main Avalanche landings, the task group, enveloped by smoke screen, approached Ventotene Island, 180 miles north of Palermo. From the decks of Knight, speakers blared a warning in Italian: surrender or face devastating shelling and massive invasion. Tension mounted until white flaresthe surrender acknowledgment signalfinally arced across the sky. Then, as Fairbanks led a Tommy guntoting landing party into Ventotene Harbor aboard a lone ASR, things escalated. Ventotenes 50 Italian militiamen readily surrendered, but 90 Germans fled inland to dig in for a final stand. Fairbanks and the OSS agents accompanying him improvised a plan: the 50 paratroopers would come ashore, the agents would then deliver an ultimatum to the dug-in Germans, while Fairbanks returned to Knight bearing instructions to lob five-inch salvos. The bluff worked. Awed by the token bombardment and cowed by the paratroopersa hard, ragged and trigger-happy crew according to Steinbeckthe Germans surrendered. While Ventotene proved the most harrowing of the BJs invasions, it was not the last. Other largely bloodless conquests included the Pontine Islands (30 miles northwest of Ventotene), plus five islands nearer to Naples, including idyllic Capri. By the time the task group finally dissolved, on September 18, 1943, Fairbanks and his BJs had displayed valor and versatility. They had been fortunate as well: aside from incidental boat damage, a few minor shrapnel wounds, and one lamentable suicide, BJU-1 escaped Husky and Avalanche largely unscathed. BJU-1 remained in Capri until November, then rotated stateside for leave and refit. Burris-Meyer came back separately to Washington, DC, taking up chief instructor duties for what he jocularly called the Young Ladies Seminary course, instructing senior officers in how to infuse deception into their combat operations. For his part, Fairbanks, then a lieutenant commander, returned to Algiers. In mid-September he briefly accompanied BJU-4, newly dispatched from the States, as it supported anti-Nazi partisans of Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito in the Adriatic Sea. Late that year, Fairbanks devised deception plans for the January 1944 invasion of Anzio, Operation Shingle, which would become the longest and bloodiest battle of the Italian Campaign. The BJs themselves didnt carry out the deceptions, though, and received more credit, Fairbanks admitted, than we actually deserved. Beach Jumper actions in the Mediterranean and Europe ranged from Tunisia to southern France and mostly involved diverting enemy forces from Allied landings, like that at Sicily, above.(Popperfoto/Getty Images) Beach Jumper actions in the Mediterranean and Europe ranged from Tunisia to southern France and mostly involved diverting enemy forces from Allied landings, like that at Sicily, above.(Popperfoto/Getty Images) In spring 1944, as he shifted Beach Jumper headquarters to Naples, Fairbanks got wind of deception planning for the upcoming cross-Channel D-Day invasion of France. I could easily guess that we in the Mediterranean were to bepart of the smaller part of two invasions of Franceone from the U.K. and one from the south, he remembered. Now seasoned veterans of Allied invasions, Fairbanks and his Beach Jumpers anticipated their biggest challenge. Operation Dragoon, the August 15, 1944, American/Free-French invasion of southern France, aimed to relieve pressure on Operation Overlords forces in the north while securing port facilities in the south. The BJs job was to convince the enemy that landings could come anywhere from Marseille, France, to Genoa, Italy. Beach Jumper manpower there combined BJU-1, back for a second tour, along with units 3 and 4altogether 70 officers and 400 sailors. The 40-ship task group to which they were assigned was split in two: half for western diversions, half for eastern diversions. Our job was radio deception, recalled BJU-1s Bob Rainie, back himself for a second tour. He and fellow radiomen installed voice radios on two western diversion PT boats. Using transmission scripts Fairbanks had written, they were to convince the enemy that destroyer USS Endicott, the task group flagship, was actually an amphibious command ship controlling a dozen troop-laden transports. The day before the Dragoon invasion, Fairbanks, stationed aboard British gunboat Aphis, led diversions against eastern coast targets between Genoa and Cannes. Four of his PT boats simultaneously landed Free-French commandos at Deux Freres, a coastal promontory near Cannes. At 2 a.m., with the commandos ashore, Fairbankss flotilla swung west to join the other diversion team. Western diversion ships, meanwhile, had used radio and radar countermeasures gear to simulate an eight-by-10-mile assault convoy. Aboard a PT boat, Rainie poured out all kinds of commands and other information by voice. The imitation convoy maneuvered as if to invade Marseille, then veered east toward Toulon. A little after 3 a.m. the day of the invasion, as Dragoons main forces splashed ashore between Nice and Saint-Tropez, western diversion ASRs charged toward La Ciotat Bay, midway between Marseille and Toulononly to become disoriented in heavy fog. Arthur Henoch, a 19-year-old sailor riding one of the ASRs, captured the chaos in a hastily scribbled contemporaneous diary entry: D Day 0200-0500 Lost in fog in Bay of Ciotat. Tried to form waves [orderly formations] for action, gave up at 0500. Four decades later, Henoch visited the small town of La Ciotat with his son Gary. It was a clear day, Gary recalled of the visit he made with his father, who died in 2016. [From a pier] he looked to the west where the Germans fired on them. He always remembered seeing tracers cutting through the fog. Theyd run too far into the bay. It shook him a little bit just how close theyd been. Through the rest of August 15, as western diversions personnel sorted out missteps and eastern diversions personnel absorbed news that half the French commandos on Deux Freres had died after stumbling into a minefield, BJs geared up to return to La Ciotat Bay. Early the next day, as Aphis and sister gunboat Scarab lobbed six-inch shells at preselected targets, PT boats and ASRs from both diversion groups sped into the bay, laying smoke, launching rockets, blazing away with 40- and 20mm gunfire, and sowing delayed TNT charges. According to Fairbanks, The whole area lit up[as] star shells roared in the skySearchlights flashed along the coast[inbound] 20- and 40mm shells flew in all directionsfollowed by huge flashes from 88-, 105-, and 240mm near misses. The Beach Jumper craft fled seaward unscathed, only to confront an unanticipated threat: two high-speed German corvettes boasting rapid-fire, radar-controlled main batteries. Fairbanks frantically radioed Endicott for aid and then ordered Aphis and Scarab to turn and engage. Our returning shots were widebut we pressed on, he wrote. At best, Aphis and Scarab could make 12 knotsthe Germans nearly twice that speed. Still worse, Aphiss gunnery officer reported that its overheated six-inchers needed to pause fire. Astern, Scarab spotted four-inch enemy rounds splashing close-by. One by one, radars, radios, and compasses on both gunboats failed. Fairbanks signaled nearby smaller craft to lay smoke, allowing the bigger and speedier ASRs to flee. With the situation desperate, BJ luck unexpectedly returned. Maneuvering in a column as they knifed through a gap in the smoke, Aphis and Scarab, according to Fairbanks, by the purest chance performed the classical maneuver of crossing the enemys T, thereby allowing the gunboats to mass superior firepower on the vulnerable enemy corvettes. With our very first salvowe made a direct hit. Then, as their opponent slowed and listed, Endicott came pounding in, her 5-inch guns blazing. The destroyers salvos exploded the second corvette and finished off the first, forcing German crews into the water. A U.S. Navy destroyer lays a smoke screen during the Salerno invasion. (U.S. Navy/National Archives) A U.S. Navy destroyer lays a smoke screen during the Salerno invasion. (U.S. Navy/National Archives) What began as a diversionary mission and devolved into a surface action, finished as a rescue. Reported Rainie: I spent from 9:00 am til noon on the bow [of his PT] with a heaving line pulling in German survivors. With Allied troops now firmly ashore across Europe, Dragoon proved a fitting swan song to BJ operations there. Many veterans of BJU-1 were assigned to other units. Rainie went on to serve in the Pacific as a radio watch supervisor on an amphibious assault command ship. Fairbanks became a staff officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, DC. While he played no swashbuckling Beach Jumper part in the Pacific, he did have an unexpected role there. His father, during the silent movie heyday, had traveled to the Far East, befriending Japanese royalty and meeting Empress Teimei and her son, then-Crown Prince Hirohito. Fairbanks Sr. even gave young Hirohito a pony that once belonged to Fairbanks Jr. Based on these connections, Fairbanks Jr. concocted an elaborate diplomatic scenario whereby the dowager empress would influence her son to end the bloodshed. The scheme never gained traction, but language Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had drafted for it became part of the preamble to the July 26, 1945, Potsdam Declarationthe historic document outlining Allied terms for Japans surrender. With that contribution, Fairbanks closed the curtain on wartime derring-do, returned to Hollywood, and resumed his celluloid career. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Vast ocean distances and tiny island objectives precluded effective Beach Jumper use early in the Pacific War. Units 2 and 3 deployed there in 1943 but went virtually unused. Not until the invasion of the Philippines in late 1944 did Beach Jumper Units 6 and 7 see actionand tragedy. On December 30, BJs embarked on Landing Craft Infantry (LCIs) joined a supply convoy to Mindoro, a large Philippine island near Luzon. There, BJ crews schooled in deception confronted Japanese forces schooled in suicide. When a kamikaze aircraft caromed into PT boat tender USS Orestes, the explosion of its bomb wrought devastation among BJ senior staff. Recalled BJU-6 officer Jack Carlton: Our commanding officer was killed, our second-in-command had a leg blown off; our communications officer was killed and his number one assistant went into shock. Replacements stepped in for the January 1945 invasion of Luzon. Just before main assault forces landed on the Zambales and Batangas coasts, Beach Jumper LCIs and PT boats staged successful diversions to the south and east in the Tayabas Bay region. Though this proved the last World War II hurrah for the Beach Jumpers, sound wizard Harold Burris-Meyer had a postwar trick up his sleeve: his powerful sound system, called Polly, was attached to U.S. Navy aircraft overflying bypassed Japanese-held islands. Polly, claimed Burris-Meyer, first announced to many bypassed islands that the war was over and gave directions for surrender. David Sears This story was originally published in the August 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here. Whatever his shortcomings, British Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock did not lack courage. In battle along the Monongahela River in Ohio Country (present-day western Pennsylvania) on July 9, 1755, French and Indian attackers shot out several horses from under him. Enemy musket balls eventually found their mark, gravely wounding the general, and his command broke and fled. Evacuated by his aide, Col. George Washington, Braddock died four days later. His final words: Who would have thought? Britain and France had engaged in a series of sharp clashes in North America over the previous two years. A focal point was the Forks of the Ohiothe confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers at present-day Pittsburg. The French had bullied a British garrison from the forks in early 1754 and built Fort Duquesne. Sent by the Virginia governor to evict the French, Washington and his militia prevailed at Jumonville Glen before being overwhelmed and permitted to withdraw under arms. It was the spark that launched the Seven Years War. In late May 1755 Braddock left Fort Cumberland on the Potomac River with more than 2,100 regulars and militia for the 120-mile march north to Fort Duquesne. He brought with him a massive supply train and 19 artillery pieces. The heavily laden column averaged less than 4 miles a day through the dense wilderness. Frustrated, Braddock split off with a flying column of some 1,300 men, leaving the bulk of his artillery and supplies with a support column that soon fell days behind. Bereft of Indian allies and indifferent to the scouting abilities of his colonial troops, Braddock blundered blindly forward. By July 9 his column was near Fort Duquesne. But the French, informed by their Indian allies, knew where Braddock was and attacked first. When Capt. Daniel de Beaujeus 250 regulars, Canadian militiamen and 600-plus Indians ran into Braddocks advance guard under Lt. Col. Thomas Gage, British riflemen managed to kill Beaujeu and scatter the militia. But the French regulars stood firm, while the Indians filtered through the woods on either side of the British advance guard. Fearing encirclement, Gage ordered his men to fall back, and the flank guards collapsed in on the main body. But these werent the open plains of Europe, and Braddocks disordered column was soon packed onto a mile-long section of trail already congested with men and wagons. Familiar with wilderness combat, the colonials had slipped into the woods for cover, only to be fired on by jittery British regulars. Meanwhile, enemy sharpshooters targeted the British officers, killing or wounding 63 of them. Left leaderless, the rank and file bolted, abandoning their equipment and their mortally wounded commander. The British and their colonial allies suffered 878 casualties, while the French and their Indian allies lost fewer than 100. When the British survivors reached the support column, their panic infected the 800 troops who had yet to fire a shot. Rather than rallying his substantial force, Col. Thomas Dunbar burned his supplies and retreated all the way to Philadelphia. Braddocks Defeat left the frontier wide open. Air strikes hit parts of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Friday, a war monitor said, the same day as the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet in Tehran to discuss what to do about the enclave. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes were targeting positions belonging to rebel groups in the northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces. Around 3 million people live in the last major stronghold of active opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's rule, which comprises most of Idlib province and adjacent small parts of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces. Damascus, backed by allies Russia and Iran, has been preparing an assault to recover those rebel-held parts of the northwest, and resumed air strikes alongside Russia on Tuesday after weeks of lull. The Britain-based Observatory said strikes on Friday had destroyed a building used by the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group near the town of al-Habeet resulting in a number of casualties. Ahrar al-Sham is part of the Turkey-backed National Liberation Front alliance which formed earlier this year. Russian officials have stated clearly they want militants to be pushed out of Idlib. The United Nations has warned that a military offensive in Idlib could cause a humanitarian catastrophe. Search Keywords: Short link: As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. 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. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the main outside players in Syria's long war - meet in Tehran on Friday as rival factions in the rebel-held province of Idlib prepare for what could be the conflict's last great battle. With Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power preparing an offensive against the insurgents in their last major stronghold, the United Nations has warned an assault could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. Beyond that concern, the three leaders will be seeking to safeguard their own interests after investing heavily militarily and diplomatically in Syria. "The battle for Idlib is going to be the final major battle," said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. "It will be waged irrespective of civilian casualties, even though they will make an effort to minimize it." Tehran and Moscow have been President Bashar al-Assad's main backers and have helped him turn the course of the war against an array of opponents ranging from Western-backed rebels to Islamist militants. Turkey is a key opposition supporter. But the United States and other Western governments involved in the conflict will not be attending the summit. Nonetheless, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani will be making decisions on what could be a turning point in a seven-year-old war which has killed more than half a million people and forced 11 million to flee their homes. For Tehran, helping the Assad government re-establish control over Idlib would justify its expenditure of blood and treasure and solidify its position in Syria for years to come, analysts said. It would also send a message to hawkish officials in Washington, one of the Islamic Republic's principal goals in hosting the meeting in Tehran, they say. "Tehran is trying to communicate the message to Washington that it is indispensable when it comes to wider security issues in the Middle East region," said Ali Alfoneh of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Permanent Solution Russia is looking to the summit as a means of clarifying the military situation in Idlib, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday. Russian officials have also stated clearly that militants must be pushed out of Idlib. The most powerful jihadist group there is the Tahrir al-Sham alliance, spearheaded by al Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate, previously known as the Nusra Front. The fate of the Nusra Front and other foreign Islamists will be one of the top issues at the summit, a senior official in the alliance backing Assad told Reuters. Turkey, for its part, aims to find a "permanent solution" to the conflict in its southern neighbour through the discussions, President Tayyip Erdogan said. Ankara has said an all-out assault on Idlib would be a humanitarian disaster and could lead to another wave of refugees pouring across the border into Turkey. It has urged Russia, which resumed air strikes on the insurgent-held region this week, to hold back and prevent government forces and their allies from launching a ground offensive. Turkey agreed with Russia and Iran last year to make Idlib a "de-escalation zone" of reduced conflict and sent in army units to erect a string of observation posts along the frontlines between the rebels and the army. They now act as a tripwire for any Syrian government assault, potentially triggering an escalation with Turkey if there is no political deal. The Islamic Republic is also keen to hammer out boundaries with Turkey in Friday's meeting, analysts said. "Finding a mutually acceptable formula with Turkey would be key for the Iranians in the upcoming meeting," said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. Search Keywords: Short link: Berklee President Roger H. Brown shares a recent letter he penned to Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey supporting the Music Modernization Act and advocating for a music industry which betters compensates and empowers artists. ______________________________ Guest post by Roger H. Brown, President of Berklee I recently sent the following letter to Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey in support of the Music Modernization Act. Berklee, and our Open Music Initiative, are advocating for a creative industry that fairly compensates its artists and empowers them to have successful, sustainable careers. Dear Senators Warren and Markey, Im writing on behalf of Berklee to voice my support for the Music Modernization Act (H.R. 5447, S. 2334 and S. 2823), which unanimously passed the House as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee, and is currently under debate in the Senate. In close collaboration with MIT, Berklee is the founder and leader of the Open Music Initiative, a Massachusetts-based industry consortium designed to establish open-source protocols for the identification of rights holders in the digital music era. Through our work with Open Music, Berklee has been a thought leader in advocating for a new approach to creators rights. Our over 200 members represent an unprecedented cross-industry collaboration between creators, entrepreneurs, and also academic, music business, technology, and policy leaders to resolve longstanding media rights issues. As the worlds preeminent arts institution and founder of Open Music, Berklee advocates for a creative industry that fairly compensates its artists and empowers them to have successful, sustainable careersthe Music Modernization Act will help us move in this direction. While any policy addressing intellectual property and payment streams in the music industry will be necessarily complex and perhaps imperfect, I feel that this is the most impactful policy the music industry has seen in decades. The Music Modernization Act will benefit artists by: Changing the process by which royalties are determined, leading to expected increases in royalty rates for publishers, composers, and songwriters. Creating a streamlined, digital process for obtaining licenses and eliminating complexity of finding the rights-holder data. Establishing a new blanket license for streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music to obtain the mechanical rights to play songs and to pay songwriters, composers, and publishers for their copyrighted work. Establishing the creation of a Mechanical License Collective (MLC), a new centralized licensing entity to be funded by the streaming services, that would issue these blanket licenses and would collect and distribute royalties to all songwriters, composers, and publishers. Through the centralized MLC, limiting the liability that streaming services currently face in streaming songs for which they do not have assurance that all licenses have been obtained, thus accelerating innovation. The Music Modernization Act mandates a public database where rightsholder information for the recording, the composition and lyrics, or publishing for every song would be held, and through which royalties would be matched. We strongly advocate that this public database be built based on Open Musics open source protocols, which would allow other applications to query and inform the data, thus resulting in increased matching between artists and their royalty payments. This open source approach is particularly important for small, independent, and emerging artists, who do not have an established market share of royalties to fall back on. It will also empower artists to see that their creative content is correctly registered and to track that their royalty payments are being correctly measured and paid. As an artist-focused, neutral academic institution and as the leader of Open Music, Berklee can play a crucial role in increasing transparency in an industry historically plagued by opaque payments and rights transfers. I would be happy to discuss the bill and our work through Open Music further. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions. Sincerely, Roger H. Brown President, Berklee Superior Court Briefs: Sept. 6 - Sept. 7 Cases heard before Judge John Agostini on Thursday, September 6. Dylan Litchfield, 24, of Peru was found not guilty by a jury on single counts of mayhem, armed assault with intent to murder, and aggravated assault by means of a dangerous weapon. The charges were related to an incident in Windsor on June 13, 2016 involving a 29-year-old man. Austin Litchfield, 20, of Peru was also found not guilty - through a direct motion approved by Agostini and not by a jury -on a single count of attempt to commit murder in connection with the same incident. Brandon Griffin, 22, of Pittsfield had not guilty pleas entered on his behalf on single counts of assault by means of a dangerous weapon, illegal possession of a firearm, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling relating to an incident in Pittsfield on July 5, 2018. He also had not guilty pleas entered on two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, and single counts of illegal possession of a firearm, and resisting arrest relating to an incident in Pittsfield on July 11, 2018 when officers attempted to arrest him. He was ordered to be held at the Berkshire County House of Correction without bail. Shelly Nichlen, 38, of North Adams had not guilty pleas entered on her behalf on two counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and a single count of home invasion. She was released on personal recognizance. The charges stem from an incident in North Adams on September 19, 2019 where a 39-year-old man was assaulted. Harrington celebrating on election night. Harrington Reflects On DA Race, Looks Toward Transition Into Office City Council Vice President John Krol was particularly excited with the Williamstown numbers when they came in. PITTSFIELD, Mass. When Andrea Harrington entered the district attorney's race, she knew she could do it. She fully expected to win the race. She didn't think she was an underdog, but she was. "I didn't realize how improbable my winning was until I actually won," Harrington said on Thursday. Harrington entered the race in March after former District Attorney David Capeless had maneuvered to place Paul Caccaviello into the office. Caccaviello had strong support from the local business community and many well-established politicos. He already had a stronghold in the county's biggest population center. He was an incumbent with a head start and in line to continue a long history of first assistants taking over the office. Judith Knight entered the race and quickly had the support of many of the more progressive voters in the county, the same progressives that would likely have been backing Harrington. And Harrington won. "When I jumped into this race, I felt like I was going to win. I always knew they were underestimating me," Harrington said. It wasn't a runaway though. The difference in votes can be counted in the hundreds. And she did lose in Pittsfield, the grand prize. "It is all about the ground game," Harrington said. Dina Guiel and City Councilor Helen Moon took lead roles in handling that. In Williamstown, the progressive group Greylock Together pushed hard for Harrington. Her campaign team put in late nights and gave up summer vacations and weekends. They knocked on doors. They made phone calls. They spread the message of reform and change in the criminal justice system at every turn. State Rep. John Barrett III, whom she had helped in his race last year, and City Councilors Marie T. Harpin and Jason LaForest pushed in North Adams. In Pittsfield, she gained support from Mayor Linda Tyer, City Council President Peter Marchetti and Vice President John Krol. The race was nasty. It was almost night and day compared to the very positive campaign for state Senate she was part of two years ago. She said she stopped paying attention to the attacks and stopped reading about her opponents. "Both of my opponents' campaigns were attacking me relentlessly from the very beginning. That, to me, was a signal that they regarded me as a threat and a frontrunner," Harrington said. "I just put my head down and ran my race." She tried to stay positive and knew it was hard on her family and encouraged them to do the same. The six-month campaign came to a conclusion on Tuesday. "Those two hours before the polls close is when I started to feel the pressure. At that point, I did everything I could," Harrington said. Reports were coming in about a much higher voter turnout than was expected. A little feeling of anxiousness crept into Harrington as she worried that maybe she hadn't talked to enough voters. Polls closed at 8 and soon the Pittsfield numbers were in. She was down about 600 votes. "I was pleased with the Pittsfield results. I knew I didn't have to win, I just had to hold my own there," Harrington said. That's when Greylock Together's work in Williamstown made a dramatic appearance. She clobbered her opponents there and picked up almost exactly what she had been behind in Pittsfield. "Even I was shocked by how many votes I got from Williamstown," Harrington said. Harrington and her family after proclaiming victory Tuesday night. At Flavours of Malaysia in downtown Pittsfield, where she was holding her campaign party, the Williamstown numbers led to boisterous cheers. "Thank you, Williamstown!" someone yelled. North Adams numbers had come in, and the ground game there paid off, too. "I knew I was going to make up a lot of votes in North County," Harrington said, adding that the campaign focused a good amount of time on that area of the county. At about 11 p.m., her phone rang. She had a lead that wasn't going to be overcome. Caccaviello was on the phone, conceding the primary election to Harrington. Sure, the Richmond defense attorney did have support from some influential political leaders in the county herself and she did have name recognition from her last run. But, it was still an upset, a bitter and a close race, and one that had more interest and passion that the Berkshires haven't seen much of in primaries. "I made promises to the people who voted for me. It is time for me to fulfill those promises," Harrington said. With no Republican on the ballot -- and barring a last-minute write-in campaign -- the winner of the Democratic primary is essentially the next district attorney. When Harrington takes over in January, she will become the county's first woman district attorney -- an honor she doesn't take lightly as she heard stories of little girls from the area looking up to her as a role model. "I think it is amazing. I love it," Harrington said. "What more could I ask for?" She'll be in touch with Caccaviello soon to start working on a transition plan. With any change in leadership, there is an expected movement with staff and she'll be putting together her team. "My first order of business would be to put in a place a team that will be ready to start in January," Harrington said. Harrington has cast herself as a reformer, someone to usher out the "old guard" and bring in change. While the whirlwind of the election has now ended, work on the real reason she entered the race is just starting. "I didn't run to win this election. I ran this race to transform the community," she said. The convenience store will tear down the old public works buildings for a new 5,800-square-foot store and four fueling stations. An interior schematic of the proposed store. One of two historic markers that will be removed and taken to the new City Yard on Hodges Cross Road. PreviousNext Cumberland Farms Submits Plans for New Ashland Street Store The store will be on the south end of the parcel and the pump stations to the north. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Cumberland Farms Inc. has submitted plans for a new store on Ashland Street nearly a year after bidding on the old City Yard. According to documents filed for Monday's Planning Board meeting by the company's representatives Bacon Wilson Attorneys at Law, the regional chain is proposing a 5,814-square-foot convenience store and four fueling stations with eight pumps including diesel at 227 Ashland. The former public works buildings will be razed and the two lots that make up the parcel 227 and 245 will be consolidated into one 50,000 square foot lot. That will give the facility more than 340 feet of frontage. Cumberland Farms is asking to reduce the curb cuts from four to three and to have LED-illuminated directional signage indicating entrances and exits. There will be 30 parking spaces total and two of those as handicapped accessible. The loading area and dumpster area will be screened in on the south side of the property. Two 24,000-gallon, double-walled, fiberglass underground tanks will be installed to service the fueling stations. The traffic assessment, done by McMahon Associates, estimated 88 new vehicle trips (44 entering and 44 exiting) during the peak weekday morning hour and 100 new vehicle trips (50 entering/50 exiting) during the peak weekday afternoon hour. "Because of the predominately pass-by nature of the proposed Cumberland Farms convenience store and gasoline station, the project is not expected to result in a significant impact on the overall traffic operations of Ashland Street or the study area roadways," according to the application. The company bid on the property, one of six the city put up for sale, last October for $575,000.http://www.iberkshires.com/story/55763/Cumberland-Farm-Seeks-to-Buy-North-Adams-City-Yard.html The agreement states the city will share 50 percent of any cleanup costs up to $287,500, or half the purchase price. The costs incurred for the testing were entirely on Cumberland Farms. Mayor Thomas Bernard on Thursday said the city and the company had not entered into final negotiations and that he had not yet seen the environmental impact report. He anticipated any talks to begin after Monday's review of Cumberland Farms' site plan. The company also anticipates meeting with the Zoning Board of Appeals on Sept. 17. The Department of Public Works site was valued at $475,000 by appraisers earlier in 2017 when it was brought forward with five other properties then Mayor Richard Alcombright requested to put up for sale. The DPW has moved into the former anodizing plan on Hodges Cross Road that it purchased in 2016. The old City Yard dates back more than a century but as the equipment to maintain the roads and infrastructure became larger and more expensive, the facility became cramped, outdated and no longer practical. The desire at the time it was put up for sale was to bring that section more in line with the development that had been occurring along Ashland Street. The nearby Clark Biscuit mill has been renovated into apartments, a number of structures have been rehabilitated along the road including the Armory and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has torn down a scrapyard and constructed a $3 million facilities building. At the same time, Cumberland Farms had been looking for a larger property in the downtown area on which to build a newer, updated convenience store and add more pumps. The current store at 80 Ashland St. that was built in 1982 is obsolete compared with the new building program the company began nearly a decade ago. In the past few years, the Westborough company has built a new Cumbies at Hodges Cross Road and Curran Highway and at the bottom of the Mohawk Trail. One of the first of its new Colonial-style convenience stores was built in Williamstown after a fire there and it is also proposing a new store on Commercial Street in Adams to replace an older one also built around 1982. Monday's Planning Board will also include applications for three more businesses to move into 60 Roberts Drive, the Norad Mill, and plans for Black Loom, a restaurant proposed for the former Incarnation Church at 1288 Massachusetts Ave. The eatery, part of the plans for the Tourists spa and resort with chef Cortney Burns, was postponed from last month's meeting by the request of the applicant. North Adams' First K9 Officer Molly Dies Molly at the 10th anniversary memorial of 9/11 in the town of Florida. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The city's first K9 officer, Molly, has died. According to the Police Department posting on Facebook, Molly was put to rest because of complications of old age. "Molly served the City of North Adams and its citizens for several years with her handler Sgt. Albert Zoito. Upon retirement Molly was left in Sgt. Zoito's care to live out a comfortable and well-loved life," stated the post. "The members of the North Adams Police Department want to send our deepest condolences to Sgt. Zoito and his wife for opening up their hearts and home for Molly and for loving and caring for her in a way that every dog dreams of." The yellow Labrador was trained and certified in narcotics detection. She and Zoito were responsible for hundreds of investigations during her years of service. "No matter if it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon or 3 o'clock in the morning, Molly was eager to do her job right up until her retirement. Sgt. Zoito and Molly will be sadly missed by the children in our schools," the posting said. "They made it a point to walk the halls and interact in the classrooms as much as possible throughout the school year to bring smiles on the children's faces. ... "Even to those that have a fear of dogs, Molly's gentle demeanor and warm loving eyes would soon let their guard down and at the end would pat her on the head or give her a scratch behind her ear." Zoito and Molly attended numerous community and school events, including TRIAD picnics and commemorations. She joined the force in the mid-aughts and spent her golden years a member of Zoito's family. "K-9 Officer Molly, as you follow the Thin Blue Line across the Rainbow Bridge, we want you to know that you can keep your head and tail held high knowing that your service made a difference. Knowing that you helped take dangerous drugs off our streets. Knowing that you put a smile on and made every child giggle when they saw you. K-9 Officer Molly, May You Rest In Peace and Godspeed." Trump Marks Rosh Hashanah The Fellowship | September 7, 2018 Embed from Getty Images Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that begins Sunday at sundown, Donald Trump made a call to American Jewish leaders. The Times of Israel reports that the President spoke about the ongoing peace process, as well as how he is handling situations with those who wish ill to the Jewish state and the Jewish people: What I will tell you is I stopped massive amounts of money that we were paying to the Palestinians and the Palestinian leaders, Trump said to the Jewish leaders. The United States was paying them tremendous amounts of money. And I say, Youll get money, but were not paying until you make a deal. If you dont make a deal, were not paying' Asked by Prof. Alan Dershowitz: Should the Jewish community be optimistic that you can help bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict that we all pray for all the time?, the president replied: The answer to that is a very strong yes you should be. It is, as I said before, really considered to be one of the toughest deals to make of any kind. I dont kind what kind of a deal youre talking about. If you look at Israel and the Palestinians, its always top of everybodys list in terms of levels of difficulty. Trump also said that he had removed the first obstacle to a deal: Jerusalem which Trump last December recognized as Israels capital and where in May he moved his embassy. Further ahead, Israel would have to do something for the Palestinians, he said, without specifying. The fact is that I took something off the table, said Trump. If you go back and look at your negotiations with the Palestinians over the years, the first thing was Jerusalem and moving the embassy to Jerusalem, thereby making it the capital. And I will tell you, weve taken that off the table The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths has discussed issues including prisoners, humanitarian access and the reopening of Sanaa airport with Yemen's Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani, a UN spokeswoman said on Friday. But Griffiths, who began consultations with the Yemen government delegation in Geneva on Thursday, still awaits representatives of the Iranian-allied Houthi movement from the capital Sanaa, UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said. "He is still working on getting the Ansarullah delegation to Geneva," she said. "Since yesterday (Thursday) he has been discussing with them confidence-building measures, including the issue of prisoners, humanitarian access, the re-opening of Sanaaa airport, in addition to economic issues," she said. The United Nations announced on Thursday that Griffiths was not expected to hold any talks at its Geneva offices on Friday. Two sources in the government delegation told Reuters on Thursday they had given the international envoy additional time to noon on Friday to persuade the Houthis to come to Geneva. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen's war against the Iranian-allied Houthis in 2015 to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's internationally recognised government. Subsequent peace talks flopped. Since then the humanitarian situation has worsened sharply, putting 8.4 million people on the brink of starvation and ruining the weak economy. The United Nations wants the government and the Houthi movement to work towards a deal to end the war, remove foreign forces from Yemen and establish a national unity government. The Houthis' al-Masirah TV reported on Wednesday that the coalition had prevented their delegation from flying from Sanaa to Geneva. The Houthis have accused the United Nations of not keeping a promise to transport wounded on the flight. Hamza al-Kamali, Yemeni deputy minister for youth, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday the flight clearance had been given three days earlier. Search Keywords: Short link: Yesterday, some of the famous forums and blogs in the Philippines are currently down and experiencing distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack). According to the blog post of Rofus DelaCruz, this attack on forums and blogs was declared by PhLuzon Anonimos and requested by Anon Butan Ding. Rofus DelaCruz also said that PinoyDen, PinoyTechBlog, Symbianize and even YugaTech are among the websites that has been attacked this week. More details after the jump. "This is a very large attack that is why wala tayong magawa since mahal po ang mga Anti-DDoS Appliances or Anti-DDoS services. Pero rest assured that I am doing everything I can to restore the website. Sa ngayun po aagaayos na po kami ng temporary server at sana ay kayanin nya yung ganun kalaking traffic." - PinoyDen "sorry guys got hacked again... it's getting worse but will try to have it fixed asap" - PinoyTechBlog "the one that did this to our HOME is just Stupid. i don't know what is he trying to prove fordoing such things.... what he is doing is just plain STUPIDITY..... anung mapapala mo sa paghack ng websites tulad ng PD at SYMB??.. magyayabang? what a non-sense act......" - Symbianize "we're moving to a new server so some ISPs might not see the new DNS" - YugaTech Update: (10/14/12 12:58PM) Anon PH just released a statement regarding to this attack. Greetings SYMBIANIZE and Pinoy Den We , FamilyPride are not attacking your website.. We'll be helping you to trace the person / Groups that attack your website. Expect the unexpect FamilyPride | Philippine Cyber Army ~manila (10/14/12 3:23PM) Another statement from Anon PH. Good Afternoon Guys , We found out , those who are suspects or involved in DDOSiNG the " www[dot]symbianize[dot]com ".. sa #OpSymbianize Eh ito ang Description sa #Ops niLa This Operation declared by PhLuzon Anonimos This Operation requested by Anon Butan Ding You Can Request To Us Anytime Anywhere Just Join Us on Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/philippine.anonymous/ and Create a New Event There We will Attack at Exactly 8:00 AM Tomorrow October 14 2012 to November 2 2012 9:00 PM Site To Attack: www.symbianize.com Operation Flooder: http://deface.eu5.org/opsymbianize.html ..idinamay din niLa o ginamit ang pangalan ng "xL3gion " at " Anonymous Philippines " ang Anonymous Philippines ay nakaFOCUS cLa " TRO at CCL " .. wLa din VALiD REASON .. sa #OpSymbianize .. BESiDES ... SYMBiANiZE .. iS VERY HELPFUL COMMUNiTY .. FORUM SiTE ... SO ? BAKiT NiLA iDDOS -.- HAHA ! HINDI PO LARUAN ANG " DDOS TOOLS " AT MAGDDOS NALANG BASTA BASTA .. -.- PERO KUNG TRiP NiU MAGDDOS EDi GO .. PERO WAG KAU MANGDADAMAY NG iBA ..AT GAGAMiTiN ANG PANGALAN NG iBA ! (._ . ) ~Pnq Pride | Family Pride | Black House (10/14/12 5:00PM) YugaTech (www.yugatech.com) is now online! (10/14/12 9:15PM) PinoyDen (www.pinoyden.com.ph) is now online! What is a DoS attack or DDoS attack? A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the efforts of one or more people to temporarily or indefinitely interrupt or suspend services of a host connected to the Internet. One common method of attack involves saturating the target machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. Such attacks usually lead to a server overload. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately. HWI It took a few years longer than her classmates at Uniontown High in Southwestern Pennsylvania predicted, but the Class of 1990s crystal ball proved close to clairvoyant last year when Carol Jackson took the reins of the oldest and largest refractory producer in America. "I missed it by five years," the president, chairman and chief executive officer of Moon Township, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based HarbisonWalker International (HWI) reflects on the prescience of her classmates senior-year prediction that she would be the CEO of a multi-national corporation by age 40. "But I gave myself that deadline," Jackson, 46, says. Today, HWIs top executive, who was unanimously elected to the post that she assumed in July 2017, after serving three years as senior vice president and general manager of the company, is in the midst of a multi-pronged, people-centric, analytics-informed push to make HWI "the first and only call for industry." Initiatives along the way range from a rigorously researched and carefully implemented rebranding program that re-launched the ANH Refractories family of companies under a 'new name (HarbisonWalker International) and spirit in 2015 to the startup, only weeks ago, of a $30 million refractory plant in South Point, Ohio, which Jackson describes as "completely revolutionary." These days, HWI like other suppliers to the US steelmaking sector is riding a swell in mill sentiment. "Steel definitely is keeping us busy right now," Jackson says. "And whats good for steel is good for us. The entire value chain, whether it is those of us who support steel or downstream at the service center level, is very optimistic." Hot stuff At last look, iron and steel accounted for an estimated 70% of refractory consumption by industry, easily dwarfing other consuming sectors with non-ferrous metals pegged at a much more modest 3%, glass at 4%, chemicals at 6%, and lime and cement at 7%. And although refractory materials, as consumables, account for 2-3% of steel production cost, "they have much greater indirect influence on steel production," noted Rakesh K. Dhaka, a senior research engineer (Refractories) at Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp in an April 2017 paper. Jackson, who brought more than two decades of experience in the paint, coatings, chemicals, glass, ceramic materials and specialty steel sectors with her to HWI, could not agree more. "Our industry is incredibly important to steel and others," she concurs. To serve a customer base that cuts across industries ranging from steel and power generation to petrochemical, incineration and pulp and paper and spans countries around the world, HWI currently counts more than 1,800 employees operating 19 manufacturing plants in North America, the United Kingdom and Indonesia. Add to that 30 Global Sourcing Centers (GSCs) located throughout North America and a contractor/installer network that includes more than 100 companies in North America and around the world. "It is very much a team-based environment," says Jackson HWI Enter asbestos The fact that HWI is not only standing but stable, meeting its near-term financial goals and driving forward to capture growth is no small achievement given the tsunami of asbestos-related lawsuits that hit refractory producers and other industries some 18 years ago. At the same time, the US refractory sector was undergoing consolidation. In moves keyed to deal with the mounting asbestos liability, three assets A.P. Green, North American Refractories (Narco), and Harbison Walker were bundled under one umbrella and called ANH, a name derived from the first letters of each companys name. The combined entity was no sooner formed than it filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Today, some 16 years later and as part of that legacy, HWI is privately held, owned by two Trusts and governed by a Board of Directors. Although ANH, the predecessor company, emerged from bankruptcy in 2014 the same year that Jackson joined the refractory producer it surfaced suffering from what could be called a corporate identity crisis. "The three companies were never integrated," Jackson reflects. "The Narco guys stayed the Narco guys and the Harbison guys stayed the Harbison guys. When the company emerged, we were kind of in neutral," she adds. "We were kind of in limbo for 12 years." Driving forward To shift out of neutral and in an effort to identify "what is great about us," Jackson, an avid reader and meticulous researcher, rolled up her sleeves and dug in. "The first challenge and one of the things I am so happy I was able to be a part of was a lot of research, talking to our customers, talking to our employees to understand who we are because we needed to rebrand," she recalls. The feedback was telling. "We had really good participation across industries, strong brand names and there was not a customer I visited that didnt say how great our people are," HWIs top executive notes. Research also showed that the name that emerged as the strongest, top-of-mind customer awareness and no negatives was Harbison. "That was our first decision," Jackson says. "We are moving to HarbisonWalker, drop the 'Refractory and add 'International because we have aspirations." A name change is one thing, but getting employees to understand the need and buy into the rebranding and culture change that comes with it is something else. "It was a real commitment on our part to get that done," Jackson emphasizes. "Because its my personal opinion if I dont have everybody saying Im Harbison, if we are not part of that family, then we are still fighting against each other. Common name, common identity, common brand," she says. Add to that a common culture, one built from the ground up as part of the rebranding and carefully constructed around giving employees a voice. "Our cultural values and the beliefs that support those values were all driven by our people saying this is what we want to be," Jackson explains. "Fundamentally, we built this program around the culture we aspire to be," she elaborates. "And you start with the results you want to accomplish, results that are based on peoples actions, which, in turn, are informed by their beliefs and experiences. "We wanted to achieve different results," Jackson acknowledges, commenting on the objective behind the rebranding and growing number of initiatives she has championed, spearheaded and/or been part of over the past four years. "We want to grow, top line and bottom line. We want to be an investable enterprise moving forward, creating value for our shareholders. And to achieve different results, we have to start at the bottom and create new experiences," she adds. "Those experiences are built around our cultural beliefs like 'Drive Forward and 'Engage Others." "We want to grow, top line and bottom line," says Jackson HWI Full steam ahead Driving forward in pursuit of growth, HWI has begun shipping product from a newly constructed, $30 million, monolithics manufacturing plant located in South Point, Ohio. "We are not full-scale commercial yet, but we are up, running, and shipping to customers with a lot of feedback requests," Jackson told Metal Market Magazine in mid-June. "In fact, we are sending people on-site to make sure the products work right and the customers are happy. Its like no other, certainly in our world," she sizes up HWIs newest production facility. "And I would argue probably its new to the refractory industry." "A lot of the equipment is similar to what our competitors might have or we have," Jackson allows. "But the configuration, our approach, our adoption of automation and putting it all together in that combination is completely revolutionary." Describing the new facility, HWIs top executive uses words ranging from "super lean" and "nearly no-touch" to "maximum efficiency," emphasizing that it is the configuration of the plants equipment the way things are structured that is proprietary. "It is a configuration that is unique to us with the exception of packaging," Jackson points out. "Were implementing a state-of-the-art, world class, form, fill and seal packaging system that came from different industries." Startup of the new plant has brought with it the need for a different skill set on the part of its operators. "We need folks who are familiar with automation, who understand and can work with different process controls, think analytically, and are able to move around to do different jobs," Jackson notes. "Its an extremely flexible workforce there so they can back each other up. It is very much a team-based environment." While Jackson stops short of disclosing the details of any future expenditures, expansion or right-sizing plans, she makes it a point to note that HWI is always looking at footprint. "Part of the challenge is where the market is going," Jackson says. "And certainly where steel goes, we go. "The reality is just the sheer volume of refractory materials that are consumed in steel drives refractories," she adds. "And, even within that, the types of products, the chemistries really drive the decision with each facility because each plant is set up to manufacture certain types of products. "We will always have a need to evaluate our footprint and be thinking about where products should be made and what the future looks like," Jackson allows. "What we are focusing on now is improving efficiency at our current operations, becoming more cost-efficient and doing what we can to get to a cost structure that gives us the flexibility to deal with the ups and downs of the business cycle." "That is the aspiration," she says. "The notion of being flexible and having the ability to flex is really important to us." Trade tensions Although no stranger to trade actions the US refractory industry has filed cases against certain mag-brick from China HWIs Jackson stops short of assigning full credit for the recent upswing in steel prices and strengthening industry sentiment to the implementation of Section 232. "Do I think 232 is helpful?" she asks rhetorically. "Yes, but I think it is a factor. I think there is a lot working in our favor. Right now, the market is up. The entire value chain is experiencing lift and that is going to help us all," she observes. "Ultimately, I am hopeful we will get to a place of fairer trade. I dont think we have all the solutions in place and there will be lots more sound bites and a lot more provocative comments from any number of government officials." Jackson, whose blue-chip resume includes a 13-year stint at PPG Industries, where she led the team responsible for the purchase of the entire $5-billion portfolio of raw materials for all business units globally, is intimately familiar with the ebb and flow of global economic dynamics. "Certainly, there are geopolitical concerns," she says, acknowledging the potential for retaliatory actions launched in response to the imposition of tariffs and/or countervailing duties on certain products by one trading partner on another. "China is a concern," she goes on to note, zeroing-in on refractory raw material supply. "And it has nothing to do with buying cheap materials." "For us, China is a mineral-rich resource. It is where the raw materials are located," Jackson explains. "Weve spent a lot of time building our capabilities in our supply chain and procurement functions. And that includes growing a team of Chinese-speaking professionals deployed both in the US and China to ensure we are getting those materials." "Security of quality supply is number one with us," Jackson emphasizes. "And those materials come at higher prices. China is withholding explosives permits, which means less material mined," she goes on to add. "And that means further constraints in supply, which will help keep prices up." "What this tells me more broadly is China is truly looking to be a global player," Jackson concludes. "In the end, I think we will get to an equilibrium of supply but at a higher price. And that is not necessarily a bad thing." Meanwhile, back home Closer to home, Jackson is busy keeping a careful eye on the progress and real-world results of a growing family of initiatives launched under her leadership while staying fiercely committed to retaining the deep-rooted values, traditions and institutional knowledge of the company she is evolving. "We are not your old refractory company," she says. "I really am committed to keeping the stuff that is working well. Theres a heritage of knowledge and deep industry relationships that I absolutely want to retain." "But lets pepper-in supply chain concepts that are state-of-the-art, lets pepper-in automation, lets pepper-in new technology and open innovation," Jackson emphasizes. "In my view, that is how we are going to completely change the game in refractories. And that is exciting." Jackson, who was born and raised in Southwestern Pennsylvania, cites her childhood experience growing up on a family farm and participating during her youth in a Junior Achievement (JA) program as key factors influencing her approach to business and the arc of her career. "I was raised on a farm but my parents had daytime jobs on top of that," she elaborates. "So, I had two working parents, hard-working at that. Thats how I grew up," Jackson says. "I learned the value of a hard days work. I learned respect. I had the city and the country. I had diversity in my own little bubble." Her involvement in a JA program, sponsored by the company her father worked at as a human resources executive, opened a new and different world. "I discovered that I liked this business thing," Jackson reflects. "I liked the idea of making something. That is why Junior Achievement is so near and dear to me. It formed who I am," she says. "It gave me that taste for business, making stuff and industry." In the midst of a myriad of forward-looking initiatives ranging from overseeing the implementation of ERP to leading HWIs Open Innovation program, Rapid Technology Advancement Process and newly launched Intellectual Asset Council, Jackson is looking forward to a future very much formed and in her hands. "We are just so busy," she says. "I love the journey we are on, but I will tell you I am looking forward to the day when we get to a steady state. "I cannot wait to see when things are settled and were rockin and rollin and weve got the tools to run this business," Jackson adds. "We are going to be unstoppable." Local authorities in Dashiqiao city, in Chinas Liaoning province, have introduced stricter regulations on local companies to make them comply with Beijings environmental targets, and have already closed several producers that did not meet the new standards. The Bureau for Environmental Protection of Dashiqiao set out the new rules on August 31, with the intention of improving the quality of the local environment, in line with the central governments targets. The authority has since started new inspections of local companies, and has closed a number of companies that failed to reach the environmental standard now required. Dashiqiao said that so far 87 companies in various sectors have been closed, which has been achieved by cutting off their power supplies. Because Dashiqiao is the countrys second production hub for magnesia minerals after Haicheng, especially for fused magnesia, the new regulations are bound to affect local magnesia output. The number of magnesia companies that have been shut down, among the total of 87 closures, has not been revealed, but Industrial Minerals understands that a large number of them would be involved in magnesia production. Meeting the standards required by the governmental regulations would require costly upgrades to equipment. For this reason, many small and medium-sized producers are unlikely to have the financial ability, or the will, to carry out such improvements. Consequently, Industrial Minerals understands that smaller enterprises are likely to be the hardest hit by the latest government move. Despite this, however, and with demand remaining weak while there are still sufficient stocks, magnesia prices held stable this week. Industrial Minerals latest assessment on Tuesday September 4 showed that the price of magnesia, fused, 97% MgO (Ca:Si 2:1), fob China, was unchanged at $1,250-1,350 per tonne, flat from the previous week. "Magnesia prices increased in a large range last year amid a lack of raw materials, which made buyers turn to other global producers for supplies. With demand being extremely weak this year, magnesia prices have fallen because producers are eager to boost their sales in a flat market," an exporter in Dalian told Industrial Minerals. "Though the price of magnesia has shown signs of softening recently, I think it will not fall by much this year because production costs have risen due to the raised standard of the environmental requirements," the exporter added. Prices for dead burned magnesia (DBM) were unchanged on thin trading. The price of DBM 97.5% MgO, lump, fob China, was steady week-on-week at $1,100-1,300 per tonne on September 4, while the price of DBM 90% MgO, lump, fob China, stayed at $220-260 per tonne. Delegates at this years ZIA conference have heard multiple presentations on growing concerns about the levels of uranium and thorium (U+Th) in zircon in mineral sand deposits that are yet to be developed. Broadly, a level 500ppm of U+Th in zircon has historically been used to determine acceptability for... Syria - Mattis Lacks State Department's Intelligence ... On Al-Qaeda's Chemical Capabilities By Moon Of Alabama September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The U.S. Secretary of Defense seems to lack the intelligence the UN and the U.S. Department of State obviously have. U.S.'s Mattis says 'zero intelligence' that rebels in Syria's Idlib have chemical weapons capability New Delhi (Reuters) - There was zero intelligence of chemical weapons capabilities possessed by groups opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the province of Idlib, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said, adding that the facts did not back Russian assertions. ... We have zero intelligence that shows the opposition has any chemical capability, Mattis told reporters traveling with him to the Indian capital of New Delhi. ... 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 want to see the data, Mattis said. We cannot see anything that indicates the opposition has that capability. On October 18 2017 the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Syria: bigger Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter It says in the third paragraph (pic): Terrorist and other violent extremist groups including ISIS and al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (dominated by al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusrah, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization), operate in Syria. In July 2017, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham consolidated power in Idlib province after it clashed with other armed actors. [...] Tactics of ISIS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and other violent extremist groups include the use of suicide bombers, kidnapping, small and heavy arms, improvised explosive devices, and chemical weapons. ... The UN also knows of and is similar concerned about Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's chemical weapon capabilities. During a press conference on August 30 the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, explicitly discussed these: So, the issue of avoiding the potential use of chemical weapons is indeed crucial and would be totally unacceptable. We all are aware that both the government and al-Nusra have the capability to produce weaponised chlorine, thats the one people are talking about, not sarin. Hence an increased concern by all of us, and everyone else, and alert. There is no doubt that HTS and other such groups have chemical capabilities. They do. Why is Mattis lying about it? This article was originally published by " Moon Of Alabama " - ==See Also== Nikki Haley Knows Who Is Responsible For A Chemical Attack Before It Happens? pic.twitter.com/logF3ZKiZN Ron Paul (@RonPaul) September 5, 2018 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 September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Back in the 1950s, the US intelligence community coined a term: "blowback". It referred to the unintended consequences of a covert operation that ended up damaging ones own cause. There are mounting indications that the intensifying campaign by the Israel lobby in the UK against Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, is starting to have precisely such self-harming repercussions. A campaign of smears In the three years since he was elected to lead the Labour party, Corbyn has faced non-stop accusations that his party has an endemic "anti-Semitism problem", despite all evidence to the contrary. Of late, Corbyn himself has become the chief target of such allegations. Last week the Daily Mail led a media mauling of Corbyn over disparaging comments he made in 2013 about a small group of pro-Israel zealots who had come to disrupt a Palestinian solidarity meeting. His reference to them as "Zionists", it was claimed, served as code for "Jews" and was therefore anti-Semitic. Mounting evidence in both the UK and the US, where there has been a similar escalation of attacks on pro-Palestinian activists, often related to the international boycott movement (BDS), suggests that the Israeli government is taking a significant, if covert, role in coordinating and directing such efforts to sully the reputation of prominent critics. Corbyn's supporters have argued instead that he is being subjected to a campaign of smears to oust him from the leadership because of his very public championing over many decades of the Palestinian cause. Israel lobbyists Al-Jazeera has produced two separate undercover documentary series on Israel lobby ists ' efforts in the UK and US to interfere in each countrys politics probably in violation of local laws. Only the UK series has been aired so far. It showed an Israeli embassy official, Shai Masot, both plotting to "take down" a Conservative government minister seen as too sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and helping to create an anti-Corbyn front organisation in the Labour party. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Masot worked closely with two key pro-Israel groups in Labour, the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel. The latter includes some 80 Labour MPs. Under apparent pressure from the Israel lobby in the US, the series on the US lobby was suppressed. This week Alain Gresh, the former editor of Le Monde diplomatique, published significant quotes from that censored documentary after viewing it secretly in Dubai. The US lobby's aims and practices, as reported by Gresh, closely echo what has happened in the UK to Corbyn, as he has faced relentless allegations of anti-Semitism. The US documentary reportedly shows that Israel's strategic affairs ministry has taken a leading role in directing the US lobby's efforts. According to Gresh, senior members of the lobby are caught on camera admitting that they have built up a network of spies to gather information on prominent critics of Israel. In Gresh's transcripted excerpts, Jacob Baime, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, a group of organisations fighting BDS, states: "When I got here a few years ago, the budget was $3,000. Today it's like a million and a half [dollars], or more. It's a massive budget." "It's psychological warfare," he adds, noting how the smears damage the targeted groups: "They either shut down, or they spend time investigating [the accusations against them] instead of attacking Israel. It's extremely effective." David Hazony, a senior member of another lobby group, The Israel Project, explains that a pressing aim is to curb political speech critical of Israel: "What's a bigger problem is the Democratic Party, the Bernie Sanders people, bringing all the anti-Israel people into the Democratic Party. Then being pro-Israel becomes less a bipartisan issue, and then every time the White House changes, the policies towards Israel change. That becomes a dangerous thing for Israel. No discussion These reported quotes confirm much of what was already suspected. More than a decade ago scholars John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt wrote a book examining the composition and role of the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the US. But until the broadcasting of the Al-Jazeera documentary last year no comparable effort had been made to shine a light on the situation in the UK. In fact, there was almost no discussion or even acknowledgment of the role of an Israel lobby in British public and political life. That is changing rapidly. Through its constant attacks on Corbyn, British activists are looking less like disparate individuals sympathetic to Israel and more recognisably like a US-style lobby highly organised, on-message and all too ready to throw their weight around. The lobby was always there, of course. And, as in the US, it embraces a much wider body of support than right-wing Jewish leadership organisations like the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, or hardline lobbyists such as the Community Security Trust and BICOM. The earliest Zionists That should not surprise us. The earliest Zionists were not Jews but fundamentalist Christians. In the US, the largest group of Zionists by far are Christian evangelicals who believe that the return of Jews to the Promised Land is the key to unlocking the second coming of the Messiah and an apocalyptic end-times. Though embraced by Israel, many of these Christian fundamentalists hold anti-Semitic views. In Britain, there is an unacknowledged legacy of anti-Semitic Christian support for Zionism. Lord Balfour, a devout Christian who regularly voiced bigotry towards Jews, was also the man who committed the British government in 1917 to create a home for Jews in Palestine. That set in motion todays conflict between Israel and the native Palestinian population. In addition, many British gentiles, like other Europeans, live with understandable guilt about the Holocaust. One of the largest and most effective groups in Corbyn's parliamentary party is Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), most of whose members are not Jewish. LFI takes some of the partys most senior politicians on all-expenses-paid trips to Israel to wine and dine them as they are subjected to Israeli propaganda. Dozens of Labour MPs have remained loyal to LFI even as the organisation has repeatedly refused to criticise Israel over undeniable war crimes. When Israeli snipers executed dozens of unarmed demonstrators in Gaza in May, the LFI took to Twitter to blame Hamas for the deaths, not Israel. After facing a massive backlash, the LFI simply deleted the tweet. A double whamy Historically the Israel lobby could remain relatively low-profile in the UK because it faced few challenges. Its role was chiefly to enforce a political orthodoxy about Israel in line with Britains role as Washingtons foreign policy junior partner. No British leader looked likely to step far from the Washington consensus. Until Corbyn. The Israel lobby in the UK now faces a double whammy. First, since Donald Trump entered the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dropped any pretence that Israel is willing to concede a Palestinian state, whatever the Palestinians do. Instead, Israel has isolated the Palestinian leadership diplomatically while seeking to terrorise the Palestinian population into absolute submission. That was all too clear over the summer when those Israeli snipers picked off demonstrators each week in Gaza. As a result, the Israel lobby stands more exposed than ever. It can no longer buy time for Israeli expansionism by credibly claiming, as it once did, that Israel seeks peace. Second, Israels partisans in the UK were caught off-guard by the unexpected rise of Corbyn to a place that puts him in sight of being the next prime minister. The use of social media by his supporters, meanwhile, has provided a counter-weight to the vilification campaign being amplified by the British media. The media have been only too willing to assist in the smearing of the Labour leader because they have their own separate interests in seeing Corbyn gone. He is a threat to the corporate business interests they represent. But not only has the messenger the Israel lobby now come under proper scrutiny for the first time, so has its message. English Irony The success of the lobby had depended not only on it remaining largely out of view. It also expected to shore up a largely pro-Israel environment without drawing attention to what was being advocated, beyond unquestioned soundbites. In doing so, it was able to entirely ignore those who had paid the price for Israels diplomatic impunity the Palestinians. The campaign against Corbyn has not only forced the lobby to come out into the open, but the backlash to its campaign has forced the lobby to articulate for the first time what exactly it believes and what is at stake. The latest furore over Corbyn concerns a Youtube video of him speaking at a pro-Palestinian meeting in 2013, two years before he became Labour leader. He has been widely denounced in the media for making disparaging remarks about a small group of hardline pro-Israel partisans well-known for disrupting such meetings. He referred to them as "Zionists" and suggested that the reaction of this particular hardline group to a speech by the Palestinian ambassador had betrayed their lack of appreciation of "English irony". "I gave Corbyn the benefit of the doubt on antisemitism. I cant any more" - powerful piece from @shattenstone who, like me, has defended Corbyn up until now but, like me, struggles to defend his 'Zionist' remarks that have emerged from 2013.https://t.co/vHms7zKlcS Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 24, 2018 Israel's lobby, echoed by many liberal journalists, has suggested that Corbyn was using "Zionist" as code word for "Jew", and that he had implied that all Jews not the handful of pro-Israel zealots in attendance lacked traits of Englishness. This, they say, was yet further evidence of his anti-semitism. Jonathan Sacks, Britains former chief rabbi, told the New Statesman this week that Corbyns comment was "the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell's 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech". In that notorious speech, the right-wing politician sought to incite race hatred of immigrants. Calling Corbyn an "anti-Semite", Sacks added: "It undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien." Treacherous words In a now familiar pattern to lobby claims, Sacks relied on the false premise that all Jews are Zionists. He conflated a religious or ethnic category with a political ideology. The Labour leader has held his ground on this occasion, pointing out that he was using the term "in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people". Others have pointed out that his accusers many of them senior journalists are the ones lacking a sense of irony. Corbyn was not otherising Jews, he was pointing out a paradox not confirming a prejudice: that a small group of Britons were so immersed in their partisan cause, Israel, that it had blinded them to the English irony employed by a foreigner, the Palestinian ambassador. However, the terms "anti-Semitism" and "Zionism" are likely to prove more treacherous to weaponise against Corbyn than the lobby thinks. As the anti-Semitism controversy is constantly reignited, a much clearer picture of the lobbys implied logic is emerging, as illustrated by the hyperbolic, verging on delusional, language of Rabbi Sacks. The argument goes something like this: Israel is the only safe haven for Jews in times of trouble and the only thing that stands between them and a future Holocaust. The movement that created Israel was the Zionist movement. Today most Jews are Zionists and believe Israel is at the core of their identity. Therefore, if you are too critical of Israel or Zionism, you must wish bad things for the Jewish people. That makes you an anti-Semite. Problematic premises It probably doesn't require a logician to understand that there are several highly problematic premises propping up this argument. Let's concentrate on two. The first is that it depends on a worldview in which the non-Jew is assumed to be anti-Semite until proven otherwise. For that reason Jews need to be eternally vigilant and distrustful of those outside their "tribe". If that sounds improbable, it shouldn't. That is exactly the lesson of the Holocaust taught to children in Israel from kindergarten onwards. Israel derives no universal message from the Holocaust. Its schools do not teach that we must avoid stigmatising others, and discourage sectarian and tribal indentifications that fuel prejudice and bigotry. How could it? After all, Israels core ideology, political Zionism, is premised on the idea of tribal and sectarian exclusivity the ingathering of exiles to create a Jewish state. In Israel, the Holocaust supplies a different lesson. It teaches that Jews are under permanent threat from non-Jews, and that their only defence is to seek collective protection in a highly militarised state, armed with nuclear weapons. This idea was encapsulated in the famous saying by the late Israeli general Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be seen as a mad dog; too dangerous to bother." A 'globalised virus' Israels ugly, self-serving tribal reading of history has been slowly spreading to Jews in Europe and the US. Fifteen years ago, a US scholar, Daniel J Goldhagen, published an influential essay in the Jewish weekly Forward titled "The Globalisation of anti-Semitism. In it, he argued that anti-Semitism was a virus that could lie dormant for periods but would always find new ways to reinfect its hosts. "Globalized anti-Semitism has become part of the substructure of prejudice in the world," he wrote. "It is relentlessly international in its focus on Israel at the center of the most conflict-ridden region today." This theory is also known as the "new anti-Semitism", a form of Jew hatred much harder to identify than the right-wing anti-Semitism of old. Through mutation, the new anti-Semitism had concealed its hatred of Jews by appearing to focus on Israel and dressing itself up in left-wing garb. Israel derives no universal message from the Holocaust. Its schools do not teach that we must avoid stigmatising others, and discourage sectarian and tribal indentifications that fuel prejudice and bigotry. How could it? After all, Israels core ideology, political Zionism, is premised on the idea of tribal and sectarian exclusivity the ingathering of exiles to create a Jewish state. In Israel, the Holocaust supplies a different lesson. It teaches that Jews are under permanent threat from non-Jews, and that their only defence is to seek collective protection in a highly militarised state, armed with nuclear weapons. This idea was encapsulated in the famous saying by the late Israeli general Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be seen as a mad dog; too dangerous to bother." A 'globalised virus' Israels ugly, self-serving tribal reading of history has been slowly spreading to Jews in Europe and the US. Fifteen years ago, a US scholar, Daniel J Goldhagen, published an influential essay in the Jewish weekly Forward titled "The Globalisation of anti-Semitism. In it, he argued that anti-Semitism was a virus that could lie dormant for periods but would always find new ways to reinfect its hosts. "Globalized anti-Semitism has become part of the substructure of prejudice in the world," he wrote. "It is relentlessly international in its focus on Israel at the center of the most conflict-ridden region today." This theory is also known as the "new anti-Semitism", a form of Jew hatred much harder to identify than the right-wing anti-Semitism of old. Through mutation, the new anti-Semitism had concealed its hatred of Jews by appearing to focus on Israel and dressing itself up in left-wing garb. Perhaps not surprisingly, given his latest comments about Corbyn, that is also an approximation of the argument made by Rabbi Sacks in a 2016 essay in which he writes: "Anti-Semitism is a virus that survives by mutating. In a sign of how this kind of paranoia is becoming slowly normalised in Europe too, the Guardian published a commentary by a British journalist this month explaining her decision, Israel-style, to teach her three-year-old daughter about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. That, she hoped, would prepare her child for eventualities such as Corbyn becoming prime minister. But the increasing adoption of Israels tribalist doctrine among sections of the British Jewish community and the related weaponisation of anti-Semitism is likely to shed further light on what kind of a state hardline Zionists uphold as at the core of their identity. Paradoxically, the new anti-Semitism turns the tables by legitimising in fact, necessitating Jewish racism towards gentiles. Rather than Corbyn stigmatising Jews except in some feverish imaginations it is the pro-Israel lobby stigmatising non-Jews, by claiming that they are all tainted by Jew hatred, whether they know it or not. The more the lobby kicks up a hysteria about Corbyns supposed anti-Semitism, the clearer it becomes that the lobby regards much of the non-Jewish public as suspect too. Palestinians made invisible The other obvious lacuna in the lobbys logic is that it only works if we completely remove the Palestinians from the story of Zionism and Israel. The idea of a harm-free Zionism might have been credible had it been possible to establish a Jewish state on an empty piece of land, as the early Zionists claimed Palestine to be. In reality there was a large native population who had to be displaced first. Israels creation as a Jewish state in 1948 was possible only if the Zionist movement undertook two steps that violate modern conceptions of human rights and liberal democratic practice. First, Israel had to carry out large-scale ethnic cleansing, forcing more than 80 per cent of the native Palestinian population outside the new borders of the Jewish state it created on the Palestinians homeland. Then, it needed to deny the small surviving community of Palestinians inside Israel the same rights as Israeli Jews, to ghettoise them and stop them from bringing their expelled relatives back to their homes. These werent poor choices by flawed Israeli politicians. They were absolutely essential to the success of a Zionist project to create and maintain a Jewish state. The ethnic cleansing of 1948 and the structural racism of the Jewish state were unmentionable topics in legitimate public debates about Israel until very recently. That has been changing, in part because it has become much harder to conceal what kind of state Israel is. Its self-harming behaviour includes its recent decision to make explicit the states institutionalised racism with the passage last month of the Nation-State Basic Law. That law gives constitutional weight to the denial of equal rights to a fifth of Israels population, those who are Palestinian. The backlash against Corbyn and other Palestinian solidarity activists is evidence of the lobbys fears that they can no longer hold the line against a growing realisation by western publics that there was a cost to Zionisms success. That price was paid by Palestinians, and there has yet been no historical reckoning over their suffering. By veiling the historical record, Israel and the Zionist movement have avoided the kind of truth and reconciliation process that led to the ending of apartheid in South Africa. The lobby prefers that Israels version of apartheid continues. Loss of moral compass If there is one individual who personifies the loss of a moral compass in the weaponisation of anti-Semitism against Corbyn and Israels critics, it is Rabbi Sacks. Asked by the New Statesman what he thinks of the new Nation-State Basic Law, the normally erudite Sacks suddenly becomes lost for words. He asks a friend, or in his case his brother, for the answer: Im not an expert on this. My brother is, I'm not. He's a lawyer in Jerusalem. He tells me that there's absolutely nothing apartheid about this, its just correcting a lacuna... As far as I understand, it's a technical process that has none of the implications that have been levelled at it. Sacks, it seems, cannot identify apartheid when it is staring him the face, as long as it is disguised as Jewish. Similarly, he is blind to the history of Zionism and the mass dispossession of Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba. He tells the New Statesman: "Jews did not wish to come back to their land [Palestine] to make any other people [Palestinians] suffer, and that goes very deep in the Jewish heart." Not so deep, it seems, that Sacks can even identify who had to suffer to make possible that Jewish "return". In a critique of Sacks lengthy 2016 essay on anti-Semitism, a liberal Jewish commentator Peter Beinart noted that the rabbi had mentioned the "Palestinians" by name only once. He berated Sacks for equating anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism: "By denying that [Palestinians] might have any reason besides bigotry to dislike Zionism, it denies their historical experience and turns them into mere vessels for Jew-hatred. Thus, it does to Palestinians what anti-Semitism does to Jews. It dehumanizes them." Topsy-turvy world In a world that was not topsy-turvy, it would be Sacks and the Israel lobby that were being publicly upbraided for their racism. Instead Corbyn is being vilified by a wide spectrum of supposedly informed opinion in the UK Jewish and non-Jewish alike for standing in solidarity with Palestinians. That is, remember, the Palestinian people who have been the victims of more than a century of collusion between European colonialism and Zionism, and today are still being oppressed by an anachronistic ethnic state, Israel, determined to privilege its Jewishness at all costs. The lobby and its supporters are not just seeking to silence Corbyn. They also intend to silence the Palestinians and the growing ranks of people who choose to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians. But while the lobby may be winning on its own limited terms in harming Corbyn in mainstream discourse, deeper processes are exposing and weakening the lobby. It is overplaying its hand. A strong lobby is one that is largely invisible, one that like the financial and arms industries has no need to flex its muscles. In making so much noise to damage Corbyn, the Israel lobby is also for the first time being forced to bring out into the open the racist premises that always underpinned its arguments. Over time, that exposure is going to harm, not benefit, the apologists for Israel. - Jonathan Cook, a British journalist based in Nazareth since 2001, is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is a past winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at: www.jonathan-cook.net. This article was originally published by " MEE " - ==See Also== How the Israel Lobby Influences British Politics 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 Elizabeth Tsurkov September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Israel secretly armed and funded at least 12 rebel groups in southern Syria that helped prevent Iran-backed fighters and militants of the Islamic State from taking up positions near the Israeli border in recent years, according to more than two dozen commanders and rank-and-file members of these groups. The military transfers, which ended in July of this year, included assault rifles, machine guns, mortar launchers and transport vehicles. Israeli security agencies delivered the weapons through three gates connecting the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syriathe same crossings Israel used to deliver humanitarian aid to residents of southern Syria suffering from years of civil war. Israel also provided salaries to rebel fighters, paying each one about $75 a month, and supplied additional money the groups used to buy arms on the Syrian black market, according to the rebels and local journalists. The payments, along with the service Israel was getting in return, created an expectation among the rebels that Israel would intercede if troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad tried to advance on southern Syria. When regime forces backed by Russian air power did precisely that this past summer, Israel did not intervene, leaving the rebel groups feeling betrayed. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter This is a lesson we will not forget about Israel. It does not care about the people. It does not care about humanity. All it cares about it its own interests, said Y., a fighter from one of the groups, Forsan al-Jolan. Israel has tried to keep its relationship with the groups a secret. Though some publications have reported on it, the interviews Foreign Policy conducted with militia members for this story provide the most detailed account yet of Israels support for the groups. All the fighters spoke on the condition that their names and factions not be revealed. The quantity of arms and money Israel transferred to the groupscomprising thousands of fightersis small compared to the amounts provided by other countries involved in the 7-year-old civil war, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United States. Even at the height of the Israeli assistance program earlier this year, rebel commanders complained that it was insufficient. But the assistance is significant for several reasons. It marks one more way Israel has been trying to prevent Iran from entrenching its position in Syriaalongside airstrikes on Iranian encampments and political pressure Israel brought to bear via Russia, the main power broker in Syria. It also raises questions about the balance of power in Syria as the civil war there finally winds down. With the Iranian forces that helped Assad defeat the rebels showing no inclination to withdraw from Syria, the potential for the country to become a flash point between Israel and Iran looms large. A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment for this story. Israel began arming rebel groups aligned with the Free Syrian Army in 2013, including factions in Quneitra, Daraa, and the southern areas of the Damascus countryside. The arms transferred at the time were mostly U.S.-manufactured M16 assault rifles. Later, Israel switched to providing the rebels with mostly non-American weaponsapparently to conceal the source of the assistanceincluding guns and ammunition originating in an Iranian shipment to the Lebanese Hezbollah group that Israel had seized in 2009. The assistance to these groups remained steady for some time, but it expanded significantly last year. Israel went from supporting hundreds of fighters to reaching groups comprising thousands of rebels. The increase in assistance coincided with a broader shift in Israels policies in Syria. After appeals to the U.S. administration and the Kremlin failed to secure a deal that would ensure that Iranian-backed militias would be kept away from southern Syria, Israel adopted a more aggressive policy. Its Air Force began striking deeper inside Syrian territory, targeting not just individual weapons shipments from Iran to Hezbollah but also Iranian bases across the country. Two of the groups Israel supported have been publicly identifiedForsan al-Jolan (the Golan Knights), a faction based in the border town of Jubata al-Khashab in Quneitra, and Liwaa Omar bin al-Khattab, based in Beit Jinn, a town bordering Mount Hermon. Unlike other foreign supporters of the Syrian opposition, Israel made little effort to organize and consolidate its aid program. Instead, it apparently relied on relationships it developed with individual commanders, funneling assistance directly to them. According to rebels in southern Syria, these commanders would communicate with Israeli officials by phone and occasionally meet them face to face in the Israeli-occupied Golan. When commanders switched groups and locations, Israeli assistance followed them. On the other hand, when commanders were killed or removed from their position due to internal power struggles, Israeli assistance to their former factions was halted. Forsan al-Jolan was Israels preferred group. Last year, it added several hundred fighters to its ranks due to an increase in Israeli financing, according to members of the faction. It also served as a distributor of weaponry supplied from Israel to other groups. This allowed the group to have an outsized influence both in Quneitra and the nearby Daraa governorate. Israel also provided fire support to rebel factions fighting the local Islamic State affiliate in the Yarmouk Basin. According to local rebels, journalists, and residents, Israel carried out drone strikes targeting Islamic State commanders and precision-missile strikes against the groups personnel, fortifications, and vehicles during battles with the rebels. Israel did not extend similar fire support for rebel assaults on regime forces. As a result of Israels humanitarian and military assistance many residents of southern Syria came to perceive it as an ally. Israeli publicized its Good Neighbor program in Arabic, including humanitarian operations in southern Syria and treatment of some Syrians in Israeli hospitals. Y., the Forsan al-Jolan fighter, told me a few months ago: Israel is the only one with interests in the region and a little bit of humanity and [provides] assistance to civilians. But as troops loyal to Assad, aided by Russian and Iranian forces, reasserted control over more and more areas of Syria, Israel sought other ways to guarantee its interests along the border. In July of this year, Israeli officials apparently reached an understanding with Russia that allowed for the return of regime forces to western Daraa and Quneitra, the areas adjacent to the Golan Heights. In exchange, Russia reportedly promised to keep Iran-backed militias 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) from the Golan Heights and not to start hindering Israeli strikes on Iranian targets across Syria. Even after Assads offensive on southern Syria commenced, many Syrians in the area clung to hope that Israel would at least prevent the regime from recapturing the adjacent Quneitra governorate. Even after Assads offensive on southern Syria commenced, many Syrians in the area clung to hope that Israel would at least prevent the regime from recapturing the adjacent Quneitra governorate. Even after Assads offensive on southern Syria commenced, many Syrians in the area clung to hope that Israel would at least prevent the regime from recapturing the adjacent Quneitra governorate. One local community leader from western Daraa who agreed to be identified only as Abu Khaled said he soon realized that relying on Israel had been a mistake. Trust me, Israel will regret its silence over what had happened in southern Syria. We in our town and neighboring towns grudgingly reconciled with the regime, but this reconciliation will affect Israel in the near future, he said. As the regime was closing in, some of the rebels reached out to their Israeli contacts and asked for asylum, fearing retribution from Assads forces. Israeli officials responded by allowing a small number of rebel commanders and their immediate family members to enter Israel on the night of July 22. Others were turned away. The whereabouts of these commanders and their relatives remains unclear. According to people in Syria, some are rumored to be in Israel, others in Jordan. One former commander informed his subordinates that he had arrived in Turkey. As for the rank-and-file fighters, most chose to remain in their homes and surrender to the regime rather than flee to Idlib, the last remaining enclave of the rebel forces. Some have been arrested, apparently for working with Israel, while others joined pro-regime militias or the Syrian Army itself as a way to avoid persecution by the regime. By Paul Craig Roberts September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - I know who wrote the anonymous senior Trump official op-ed in the New York Times. The New York Times wrote it. The op-ed (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50194.htm) is an obvious forgery. As a former senior official in a presidential administration, I can state with certainty that no senior official would express disagreement anonymously. Anonymous dissent has no credibility. Moreover, the dishonor of it undermines the character of the writer. A real dissenter would use his reputation and the status of his high position to lend weight to his dissent. The New York Times claim to have vetted the writer also lacks credibility, as the New York Times has consistently printed extreme accusations against Trump and against Vladimir Putin without supplying a bit of evidence. The New York Times has consistently misrepresented unsubstantiated allegations as proven fact. There is no reason whatsoever to believe the New York Times about anything. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Consider also whether a member of a conspiracy working diligently inside the administration with many of the senior officials to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Trumps worst inclinations would thwart his and his fellow co-conspirators plot by revealing it! This forgery is an attempt to break up the Trump administration by creating suspicion throughout the senior level. If Trump falls for the New York Times deception, a house cleaning is likely to take place wherever suspicion falls. A government full of mutual suspicion cannot function. The fake op-ed serves to validate from within the Trump administration the false reporting by the New York Times that serves the interests of the military/security complex to hold on to enemies with whom Trump prefers to make peace. For example, the alleged senior official misrepresents, as does the New York Times, President Trumps efforts to reduce dangerous tensions with North Korea and Russia as President Trumps preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un over Americas allied, like-minded nations. This is the same non-sequitur that the New York Times has expressed endlessly. Why is resolving dangerous tensions a preference for dictators and not a preference for peace? The New York Times has never explained, and neither does the senior official. How is it that Putin, elected three times by majorities that no US president has ever received, is a dictator? Putin stepped down after serving the permitted two consecutive terms and was again elected after being out of office for a term. Do dictators step down and sit out for 6 years? The senior official also endorses as proven fact the alleged Skripal poisoning by a deadly Russian nerve agent, an event for which not one scrap of evidence exists. Neither has anyone explained why the deadly nerve agent wasnt deadly. The entire Skripal event rests only on assertions. The purpose of the Skripal hoax was precisely what President Trump said it was: to box him into further confrontation with Russia and prevent a reduction in tensions. If the senior official is really so uninformed as to believe that Putin is a dictator who attacked the Skripals with a deadly nerve agent and elected Trump president, the senior official is too dangerously ignorant and gullible to be a senior official in any administration. These are the New York Times beliefs or professed beliefs as the New York Times does everything the organization can do to protect the military/security complexs budget from any reduction in the enemy threat. Do you remember when Condoleezza Rice prepared the way for the US illegal invasion of Iraq with her imagery of a mushroom cloud going up over an American city? Iraq had no nuclear weapons, and everyone in the government knew it. There was no prospect of such an event. However, there is a very real prospect of mushroom clouds going up over many American and European cities if the crazed Russiaphobia of the New York Times and the other presstitutes along with the Democratic Party and the security elements of the deep state continue to pile lie after lie, provocation after provocation on Russias patience. At some point, the only logical conclusion that the Russian government can reach is that Washington is preparing Americans and Europeans for an attack on Russia. Propaganda vilifying and demonizing the enemy precedes military attacks. The New York Times other attack on President Trumpthat he is unstable and unfit for officeis reproduced in the fake op-ed: 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, writes the invented and non-existent senior official. Americans are an insouciant people. But are any so insouciant that they really think that a senior official would write that the members of President Trumps cabinet have considered removing him from office? What is this statement other than a deliberate effort to produce a constitutional crisisthe precise aim of John Brennan, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, the DNC, and the New York Times. A constitutional crisis is what the hoax of Russiagate is all about. The level of mendacity and evil in this plot against Trump is unequaled in history. Have any of these conspirators given a moments thought to the consequences of removing a president for his unwillingness to worsen the dangerously high tensions between nuclear powers? The next president would have to adopt a Russophobic stance and do nothing to reduce the tensions that can break out in nuclear war or himself be accused of coddling the Russian dictator and putting America at risk. The reason that America is at risk is that the CIA and the presstitute media have put Americaand Europeat risk by frustrating President Trumps intention to reduce the dangerous level of tensions between the two major nuclear powers. Professor Steven Cohen, Americas premier Russian expert, says that never during the Cold War were tensions as high as they are at this present time. As a former member of The Committee on the Present Danger, I myself am a former Cold Warrior, and I know for a fact that Professor Cohen is correct. In America today, and in Europe, people are living in a situation in which the liberal-progressive-lefts blind hatred of Donald Trump, together with the self-interested power and profit of the military security complex and election hopes of the Democratic Party, are recklessly and irresponsibly risking nuclear Armageddon for no other reason than to act out their hate and further their own nest. This plot against Trump is dangerous to life on earth and demands that the governments and peoples of the world act now to expose this plot and to bring it to an end before it kills us all. 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 . Dr. Roberts website needs your support. It cannot exist without it.- http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/donate/ ==See Also== Lodestar: Mike Pence suggested as Trump official behind anonymous op-ed, as White House hunts culprit : Vice president denies responsibility for article, but online sleuths say use of unusual word either telling or obvious misdirection The Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed and the Trumpian Corruption of Language and the Media: The article asserts that the country is, to some extent, governed not by the President but by a group of people who have taken it upon themselves to moderate, modify, and even block the Presidents actions 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 The temporary head of Iraq's parliament has agreed to convene an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the situation in Basra, the state news agency reported on Friday. "At the request of 54 members of parliament, the leader of parliament has agreed to hold a special session to discuss the problems, solutions and recent developments in Basra," a statement from parliament said. Search Keywords: Short link: Israel's Fifth Column Exercising control from inside the government By Philip Giraldi September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Referring to Israel during an interview in August 1983, U.S. Navy Admiral and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Thomas Moorer said Ive never seen a President I dont care who he is stand up to them. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasnt writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip these people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly dont have any idea what goes on. Moorer was speaking generally but he had something specific in mind, namely the June 8, 1967, Israeli attack on the American intelligence ship, U.S.S. Liberty, which killed 34 American crewmen and wounded 173 more. The ship was operating in international waters and was displaying a huge stars and stripes but Israeli warplanes, which had identified the vessel as American, even strafed the life rafts to kill those who were fleeing the sinking ship. It was the bloodiest attack on a U.S. Naval vessel ever outside of wartime and the crew deservedly received the most medals every awarded to a single ship based on one action. Yes, it is one hell of a story of courage under fire, but dont hold your breath waiting for Hollywood to make a movie out of it. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter President Lyndon B. Johnson, may he burn in hell, had ordered the recall of U.S. carrier planes sent to aid the stricken vessel, saying that he would prefer the ship go to the bottom rather than embarrass his good friend Israel. Then came the cover-up from inside the U.S. government. A hastily convened and summarily executed board of inquiry headed by Admiral John McCain, father of the senator, deliberately interviewed only a handful of crewmen before determining that it was all an accident. The sailors who had survived the attack as well as crewmen from Navy ships that arrived eventually to provide assistance were held incommunicado in Malta before being threatened and sworn to secrecy. Since that time, repeated attempts to convene another genuine inquiry have been rebuffed by congress, the White House and the Pentagon. Recently deceased Senator John McCain was particularly active in rejecting overtures from the Liberty survivors. The Liberty story demonstrates how Israels ability to make the United States government act against its own interests has been around for a long time. Grant Smith of IRMEP, cites how Israeli spying carried out by AIPAC in Washington back in the mid-1980s resulted in a lopsided trade agreement that currently benefits Israel by more than $10 billion per year on the top of direct grants from the U.S. Treasury and billions in tax exempt charitable donations by American Jews. If Admiral Moorer were still alive, I would have to tell him that the situation vis-a-vis Israeli power is much worse now than it was in 1983. He would be very interested in reading a remarkable bit of research recently completed by Smith demonstrating exactly how Israel and its friends work from inside the system to corrupt our political process and make the American government work in support of Jewish state interests. He describes in some detail how the Israel Lobby has been able to manipulate the law enforcement community to protect and promote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus agenda. A key component in the Israeli penetration of the U. S. government has been President George W. Bushs 2004 signing off on the creation of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (OTFI) within the Department of the Treasury. The groups website proclaims that it is responsible for safeguarding the financial system against illicit use and combating rogue nations, terrorist facilitators, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferators, money launderers, drug kingpins, and other national security threats, but it has from its founding been really all about safeguarding Israels perceived interests. Grant Smith notes however, how the secretive office has a special blind spot for major terrorism generators, such as tax-exempt money laundering from the United States into illegal Israeli settlements and proliferation financing and weapons technology smuggling into Israels clandestine nuclear weapons complex. The first head of the office was Undersecretary of Treasury Stuart Levey, who operated secretly within the Treasury itself while also coordinating regularly both with the Israeli government as well as with pro-Israel organizations like AIPAC, WINEP and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). Levey also traveled regularly to Israel on the taxpayers dime, as did his three successors in office. Levey left OTFI in 2011 and was replaced by David Cohen. It was reported then and subsequently that counterterrorism position at OTFI were all filled by individuals who were both Jewish and Zionist. Cohen continued the Levey tradition of resisting any transparency regarding what the office was up to. Smith reports how, on September 12, 2012, he refused to answer reporter questions about Israels possession of nuclear weapons, and whether sanctioning Iran, a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, over its internationally-inspected civilian nuclear program was an example of endemic double standards at OTFI. Cohen was in turn succeeded in 2015 by Adam Szubin who was then replaced in 2017 by Sigal Pearl Mandelker, a former and possibly current Israeli citizen. All of the heads of OTFI have therefore been Jewish and Zionist. All work closely with the Israeli government, all travel to Israel frequently on official business and they all are in close liaison with the Jewish groups most often described as part of the Israel Lobby. And the result has been that many of the victims of OTFI have been generally enemies of Israel, as defined by Israel and Americas Jewish lobbyists. OTFIs Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN), which includes sanctions and enforcement options , features many Middle Eastern Muslim and Christian names and companies but nothing in any way comparable relating to Israel and Israelis, many of whom are well known to law enforcement otherwise as weapons traffickers and money launderers . And once placed on the SDN there is no transparent way to be removed, even if the entry was clearly in error. Here in the United States, action by OTFI has meant that Islamic charities have been shut down and individuals exercising their right to free speech through criticism of the Jewish state have been imprisoned. If the Israel Anti-Boycott Act succeeds in making its way through congress the OTFI model will presumably become the law of the land when it comes to curtailing free speech whenever Israel is involved. The OTFI story is outrageous, but it is far from unique. There is a history of American Jews closely attached to Israel being promoted by powerful and cash rich domestic lobbies to act on behalf of the Jewish state. To be sure, Jews who are Zionists are vastly overrepresented in all government agencies that have anything at all to do with the Middle East and one can reasonably argue that the Republican and Democratic Parties are in the pockets of Jewish billionaires named Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban. Neoconservatives, most of whom are Jewish, infiltrated the Pentagon under the Reagan Administration and they and their heirs in government and media (Doug Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol) were major players in the catastrophic war with Iraq, which, one of the architects of that war, Philip Zelikow, described in 2004 as being all about Israel. The same people are now in the forefront of urging war with Iran. American policy towards the Middle East is largely being managed by a small circle of Orthodox Jews working for presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. One of them, David Friedman, is currently U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who has no diplomatic or foreign policy credentials, is a Zionist Jew who is also a supporter of the illegal settlements on the West Bank and a harsh critic of other Jews who in any way disagree with the Israeli government. He has contributed money to settlement construction, which would be illegal if OTFI were doing its job, and has consistently defended the settlers while condemning the Palestinians in speeches in Israel. He endlessly and ignorantly repeats Israeli government talking points and has tried to change the wording of State Department communications, seeking to delete the word occupied when describing Israels control of the West Bank. His humanity does not extend beyond his Jewishness, defending the Israeli shooting thousands of unarmed Gazan protesters and the bombing of schools, hospitals and cultural centers. How he represents the United States and its citizens who are not dual nationals must be considered a mystery. Friedmans top adviser is Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, who is described by the Embassy as an expert in Jewish education and pro-Israel advocacy. Once upon a time, in an apparently more enlightened mood, Lightstone described Donald Trump as posing an existential danger both to the Republican Party and to the U.S. and even accused him of pandering to Jewish audiences. Apparently when opportunity knocked he changed his mind about his new boss. Pre-government in 2014, Lightstone founded and headed Silent City, a Jewish advocacy group supported by extreme right-wing money that opposed the Iran nuclear agreement and also worked to combat the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He is reportedly still connected financially with anti BDS groups, which might be construed as a conflict of interest. As the Senior Adviser to Friedman he is paid in excess of $200,000 plus free housing, additional cash benefits to include a 25% cost of living allowance and a 10% hardship differential, medical insurance and eligibility for a pension. So, whats in it all for Joe and Jill American Citizens? Not much. And for Israel? Anything, it wants, apparently. Sink a U.S. warship? Okay. Tap the U.S. Treasury? Sure, just wait a minute and well draft some legislation that will give you even more money. Create a treasury department agency run exclusively by Jews that operates secretly to punish critics of the Jewish state? No brainer. Meanwhile a bunch of dudes at the Pentagon are dreaming of new wars for Israel and the White House sends an ignorant ambassador and top aide overseas to represent the interests of the foreign government in the country where they are posted. Which just happens to be Israel. Will it ever end? Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is www.councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org. This article was originally published by " Unz Review " - ==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 Idlib: Al Qaedas Last Stand By Tony Cartalucci September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The United States has raised tensions further amid Syrias ongoing conflict. It has issued a threat in the form of a warning against Damascus against retaking the northern region of Idlib. More specifically, the US has accused Damascus of preparing chemical weapon attacks as part of its alleged strategy to retake the territory. No evidence has been provided by the US to substantiate these accusations and it is clear that the warning was actually a threat implicating a planned, staged provocation likely to be followed by US military aggression. Idlib: Al Qaedas Syrian Capital The northern city of Idlib has become the defacto capital for Al Qaeda in Syria. It is home to Al Qaeda affiliates, partners, and allies including Tahrir al-Sham formally Jabhat Al Nusra, a US State Department-listed Foreign Terrorist Organization, Nour al-Din al-Zenki a US-armed and backed military front notorious for its many war atrocities involving torture and executions including the beheading of a child, and Ahrar al-Sham which has repeatedly cooperated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS). The nature of the militants occupying Idlib is well known to Washington, London, Brussels, and the Persian Gulf nations sponsoring them. It is because of this knowledge that the Wests media monopolies work feverishly to cover up, deny, defend, or even excuse their atrocities. When Idlib-based terrorist front Nour al-Din al-Zenki beheaded a child, the BBC disgracefully attempted to defend the atrocity by suggesting the boy was a fighter, and attempting to dispute his age, claiming: he appears to be as young as 10, although other reports suggest he is considerably older. The BBC appears indifferent to the fact that if the victim had been a fighter and was over the age of 18, Nour al-Din al-Zenki would still be guilty of an egregious war crime. BBCs defense of war atrocities committed by terrorist organizations occupying Syrian territory is the rule, not the exception not just for British state broadcaster BBC, but the Western media as a whole. From the beginning of the 2011 conflict, the BBC and others have played a direct role in covering up the terrorist affiliations of fighters attempting to overthrow the Syrian government. Terrorist Central A Collaborative Western Project Idlib remains one of the last remaining strongholds of Al Qaeda in Syria specifically because of its proximity to the Turkish border Turkey being a NATO member who has provided years of financial, political, and military support to militants operating in Syria. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Idlib has been since it fell to foreign-sponsored terrorists so dangerous that much of the governorate is inaccessible to the Western media and Western organizations sending aid to groups occupying it. US-based think tanks have even written entire papers on Idlibs status as a dangerous and dysfunctional epicenter of armed militancy. One 2016 paper published by the Century Foundation titled, Keeping the Lights On in Rebel Idlib, would admit: Restrictive border measures taken by the Turkish government and the security situation inside Idlib mean that access to Idlib is limited. Dangers include aerial bombing, but also the threat of kidnapping by entrepreneurial criminals and some of the groups referenced in this report. With some exceptions, independent Western researchers and journalists can no longer safely work inside Idlib province. With extremists more recently uprooted from around Damascus and the southern city of Daraa sent to Idlib, the concentration of entrepreneurial criminals and some of the groups referenced by the Century Foundation has only risen. In 2016, the Century Foundation admitted that because of the dangers involved in setting foot in Idlib, their research was conducted via remote interviews meaning that the Western media today is likely also heavily reliant on such methods to collect information when they are not simply fabricating it.The Century Foundation would also reveal another important aspect of Idlibs defacto status as Al Qaedas Syrian capital the extensive Western support keeping it afloat. The report first notes the leadership role extremist organizations play in Idlib: Islamist and jihadist armed groups hold power at the local level, and have developed relatively sophisticated service coordination bodies. The report then admits the networks and local institutions these extremists preside over are entirely funded by the US, UK, and European Union (emphasis added): In addition to helping organize relief distribution, councils also provide some intermittently successful municipal services, ranging from operating bakeries to street-cleaning and trash disposal, repairs to the water grid, and road maintenance. Many of these more resource-intensive services are supported by international donors such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdoms Department for International Development (DfID), which have made support for civilian governance and service provision a priority. The United States has provided support through a number of offices, including both USAID proper and USAIDs Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI), whose Syria Regional Program has a more directed, political mandate to support moderate opposition organizations and promote values of tolerance. Some international assistance has been delivered through discrete, branded projects such as Bil-Akhdar (In Green) and Tamkeen (Empowerment), supported by donors including USAID, the United Kingdom Conflict Pool, and the European Union. The report also makes mention of the now notorious White Helmets and the now defunded and exposed Free Police: Local councils coexist and cooperate with other nascent local institutions, including Syria Civil Defence emergency first responders (the White Helmets) and the Idlib Free Police, that are also supported by international donor governments. While the West has doubled down on its support for the White Helmets despite extensive evidence linking them directly to Al Qaeda, the so-called Syrian Free Police have already been defunded. The Guardian in their August 2018 article titled, Britain to axe funding for scheme supporting Syrian opposition, would admit: Britain was one of six countries supporting the community-led police force set up after the Syrian uprising in 2011. The Panorama programme, Jihadis You Pay For, claimed police officers in Idlib province had to be approved by Jabhat al-Nusra and that police officers in Aleppo province were forced to hand over cash to Nour al-Din al-Zinki, another extremist group. From the actual militant groups occupying Idlib, to the administrative networks attempting to run the region it is clear extremism now holds the population hostage and does so specifically because of Western aid the Wests own think tanks have exposed as ending up directly and exclusively in the hands of terrorists. Should this support be cut, the fighting capacity of terrorists occupying Idlib would quickly collapse. Continued support by the West of terrorists occupying Idlib ensures a bloody battle to finally liberate the civilian population held hostage and abused by these extremists. Idlib is thus every bit an Islamic State in practice as ISIS was in Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq and an Islamic State made possible by extensive and fully conscious Western sponsorship. Truth Aside: The Wests Window Dressing Thus it is not Russian propaganda or a public relations office in Damascus exposing those occupying Idlib as terrorists or the necessity for Syrian forces to liberate the region it is the Western media through their own incremental admissions made discretely beneath headlines and op-eds like the New York Times recent piece titled, The Death Blow Is Coming for Syrian Democracy The sub-heading for the NYT op-ed would read: The Assad regimes imminent assault on Idlib will empower jihadists and crush the last of the revolutions democrats. Why is the world standing by? The absurdity of claiming security operations aimed at uprooting the terrorist occupiers of Idlib will empower jihadists illustrates the departure from reality of much of what remains of the so-called opposition. The op-ed laments in its conclusion that: The people of Idlib are aware that they will probably be abandoned to a fate similar to their countrymen in Daraa and Ghouta. Anger at their betrayal by the supposed democratic powers, already deeply rooted, is growing. The residents understand that those who favor stability at any price perceive their continued resistance as an inconvenience. But the resumption of the regimes control in Idlib will not lead to peace, and still less to stability. It will eradicate the democratic alternative to tyranny, leaving the jihadists who thrive on violence, oppression and foreign occupation as the last men standing, to constitute a long-term threat to the region and the world. But if the supposed democratic powers who engineered Syrias 2011 conflict and propped up the opposition in Idlib ever since dont really care about democratic alternatives, they probably werent really democratic powers to begin with. Their interests in Syria were completely unrelated and merely obfuscated by humanitarian and democratic concerns, and the entire supposed revolution merely an obfuscation for Western-backed regime change in pursuit of regional and global hegemony. The so-called opposition does not really exist as a functional, relevant factor in Syrias conflict and never did. It was a superficiality necessary to dress the windows of Western-backed, violent regime change pursued with equally violent, ruthless terrorist organizations. With the eviction of terrorists from Idlib complete, Syrian forces and their Russian and Iranian allies will have only a tenuous US occupation in eastern Syria and Turkey to the north to contend with. Attempts to portray Idlib as a bastion of democracy, the Syrian government as a ruthless dictatorship terrorizing the population when in reality it is eliminating militants both the West and Damascus agree are actual terrorists all constitute similar attempts at window dressing what is otherwise a very clear and concise battle one between a sovereign nation defending and liberating its territory, and the proxies of a foreign invasion that have plagued Syria since 2011. Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazineNew Eastern Outlook. ==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 Paul Duncan September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Despite having no shortage of reasons to pen the now-infamous NY Times op-ed, America's next closest ally - after Mexico, Russia, Israel, North Korea, the Philippines, England sometimes, Europe once in a while, most of Africa, and all other ratified nations - has today stated that it would never insult Donald Trump. Anonymously. "Apart from obviously not being a part of either Mr. Trump's inner or outer circles of distrust, if we decided to write an opinion editorial on the subject of that man's gross incompetence, we would damn well sign it," Canada stated from its new capital, high in the Arctic Circle, where it recently moved in preparation to hibernate until 2020, or however long this shitshow takes. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The statement was issued in response to speculation - rife amongst many of Trump's enablers - that Canada has both the motive and access to the U.S. president; and has long been suspected of possessing the technology required to make words into complete sentences. These factors, along with the likelihood that many Canadians have read a newspaper some time in the past two years, has raised suspicions that the world's second largest nation may have put their icey ire into ink. "While it would be weird to describe an entire country as a 'senior official,'" noted leading Covfefeologist, Ronald Gump, referring to the Times' published description of the author of the article as being within Trump's administration. "It's possible this is a diversion, placed in the article to throw Trump off, thus sparing the Canadians from being covered in fake tan, were things to get physical." "No. We aren't afraid to get our hands orange," the Canucks said in response to Gump's posit. "While there have been many times lately when our nation's various representatives have been the only adults in a room with the president, we don't need the assistance of the NY Times to make this information public. We've made it clear from the outset that we think Donald Trump is to good governance as a sledgehammer is to watch maintenance. That's our opinion. Right there. No need to get Ed involved. He agrees." This article was originally published by " Out And Abouter " - ==See Also== Lodestar: Mike Pence suggested as Trump official behind anonymous op-ed, as White House hunts culprit : Vice president denies responsibility for article, but online sleuths say use of unusual word either telling or obvious misdirection The Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed and the Trumpian Corruption of Language and the Media: The article asserts that the country is, to some extent, governed not by the President but by a group of people who have taken it upon themselves to moderate, modify, and even block the Presidents actions 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 Britain Should Be in the Dock Over Skripal Saga, Not Russia Op-Ed September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The latest announcement by British authorities of two named Russian suspects in connection with the alleged poison assassination of a former Russian spy and his daughter is more absurd drama in a long-running tawdry saga. No verifiable evidence is ever presented, just more lurid innuendo and more refusal by the British authorities to abide by any due process and international norms of diplomacy. It is all scurrilous sound and fury aimed at smearing Russia. This week, Britains Metropolitan Police released video shots of two alleged Russian men purporting to show them arriving at Londons Gatwick airport on March 2. Other video shots purport to show the same men walking the streets of Salisbury on March 3, the day before former Russian Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were apparently stricken with a powerful nerve agent. The two would-be assassins then allegedly flew back to Moscow from London late on March 4. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter One preposterous claim, among several by the British authorities, is that traces of the putative nerve poison Novichok were found in the London hotel room where the alleged Kremlin agents stayed. The incompetence of the two supposed super assassins beggars belief. More realistically clumsy, however, is the attempt by the British to lay an incriminating trail. The day after the Met police announcement implicating the two Russian culprits, Britains Prime Minister Theresa May stood up in front of her parliament and claimed that the two individuals were members of Russian military intelligence, the GRU. Another British minister, Ben Wallace, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having personal responsibility for ordering the alleged assassination plot. Then on Thursday Britain summoned the United Nations Security Council to hash over the lurid claims against Russia without providing any further substantiating details to back up the sensational accusations. This is nothing other than more trial-by-media, a process of railroading allegations against Russia, not on any basis of legal due process, but simply by bluster and prejudice. The credulous British news media play a dutiful secondary role in giving the claims a semblance of credibility, instead of asking the gaping questions that are warranted. As Vasily Nebenzia, Russias envoy to the UN, remarked, the whole aim of the British claims is to whip up more international anti-Russia frenzy and hysteria. No sooner had Britain unleashed its latest allegations, a joint statement was released by the United States, Canada, Germany and France supporting the British claims. Britain is now calling for more punitive sanctions against Moscow just as it had triggered earlier this year when the Skripals apparently fell ill on a park bench in the southern English town of Salisbury. Some 28 countries have expelled Russian diplomats over those earlier and as-yet unfounded claims. More expulsions can thus be expected, with the intended effect of framing Russia as a pariah state. The timing of this weeks twist in the Skripal saga seems pertinent. The US, Britain and France are threatening to launch military strikes on Syria just as the Syrian army and its Russian ally move to defeat the last-remaining stronghold of NATO-backed terror groups in that country, potentially bringing an end to the Western-backed criminal war for regime change against the Assad government in Damascus. Last month, too, Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel held a productive, cordial summit with President Putin near Berlin, where the two leaders appeared to solidify a rapprochement over a crucial energy project between Russia the European Union. The British government is also teetering on political implosion from the Brexit debacle and growing public contempt. As Russias UN envoy Nebenzia further pointed out, how is it possible that the British prime minister can make the categorical claim that the two alleged Russian men in the video shots released this week are members of the GRU? Typically, she made the claim without providing any substantiating information. This was the same kind of plucking from thin air that Theresa May performed only days after the Skripals were apparently poisoned in Salisbury on March 4. Again, back then, May stood in front of parliament and dramatically accused Russia of a state-sponsored assassination attempt. The British authorities have cast, and continue to cast, a verdict without any legal case. That verdict relies entirely on Russophobia and prejudice of Russian malfeasance. Former British ambassador Craig Murray and other astute observers have noted that the latest video shots released by Britains counter-terrorism police are highly questionable. The images could have been easily fabricated with modern digital methods. They are not evidence of anything. Yet, suspiciously, the British authorities are in unseemly haste to make their sensational charges of Russian state culpability. Moscow has condemned the reprehensible rhetoric used by the British prime minister and senior members of her cabinet in throwing grave allegations against the Russian leadership. Britains trashing of diplomatic norms is deplorable, befitting a rogue state that is itching for conflict. The fact is that the British have spurned any normal legal attempt by Russia to access the supposed investigation in order to ascertain the nature of the alleged information incriminating Moscow. If Britain had a case, then why doesnt it permit an independent assessment? Russia is being denigrated with foul accusations, and yet Moscow is denied the right to defend itself by being able to ascertain the information. The British technique is that of an inquisition making a mockery of legal standards. Another salient fact is that the whereabouts of the Skripals is not known six months after the alleged poisoning incident. Russia has been repeatedly denied consular contact with one of its citizens, Yulia Skripal, whose bizarre one-off appearance in a video, released by the British authorities three months ago, conveyed her wish to return to her homeland of Russia. Britain is violating the legal principle of habeas corpus. Far from any evidence implicating Russia in a crime, the evidence so far points to the British authorities illegally detaining the Skripals for propaganda purpose. That nefarious purpose is clear: to demonize and delegitimize Russia as a sovereign state. The Skripal saga and official British clowning around would be laughable if the consequences for international relations were not so dire. The British authorities should be the ones in the dock, not Russia, to answer a case of forced abduction and incitement of international conflict. This article was originally published by " SCF " - ==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 Its The Real News Network, and Im Greg Wilpert coming to you from Baltimore. President Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faced his third day of Senate confirmation hearings on Thursday. Already on Wednesday he spent 12 hours answering questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on a wide range of issues, such as abortion, affirmative action, gun control, and presidential power. Kavanaugh would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who resigned from the Supreme Court at the end of July. Even though Justice Kennedy was a staunch conservative for 30 years, he prevented a conservative majority on a few key issues, such as on abortion, affirmative action, and LGBT rights. If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed. He could thus very well move the court even further to the right. Joining me now to discuss the Kavanaugh hearings is Professor Francis Boyle. Hes a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Also he is the author of numerous books on international law. His latest is Poems Against the Empire. Thanks for joining us again, Professor Boyle. FRANCIS BOYLE: Well, Greg, thank you very much for having me on, and my best to your listening audience, at, you know, what I think could be an inflection point for American democracy. GREG WILPERT: All right. So lets get started with the process itself. That is, the hearings. They began on Tuesday with a bit of an uproar both from the audience and from protesters who regularly interrupted the proceedings, and then also from Democratic senators right off the bat who objected that they did not receive over 100,000 pages of documents relating to Kavanaughs record; some of which they received only shortly before the hearings began. And then on Thursday Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey released emails that had been designated as confidential, and then the following exchange ensued. CORY BOOKER: Im saying Im knowingly violating the rules. Senator Cornyn has called me out for it. Sir, Im saying, Im saying right now that Im releasing, Im releasing committee confidential documents. DICK DURBIN: I just want to say to my colleagues, and particularly my colleague from New Jersey, I completely agree with you. I concur with what you were doing. And lets jump into this pit together. I hope my other colleagues will join me. So if there is going to be some retribution against the senator from New Jersey, count me in. GREG WILPERT: Senator Cornyn of Texas went on to warn Booker that he could be expelled. JOHN CORNYN: Any senator, officer, or employee of the Senate who shall disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees, and offices of the Senate, shall be liable if a senator to suffer expulsion from the body, and if an officer or employee to dismissal from the service of the Senate and the punishment for contempt. So I would correct the senators statement there is no rule. There is clearly a rule that applies. CORY BOOKER: Then apply the rule and bring the charges. GREG WILPERT: So, Professor Boyle, what do you think of the Democrats performance in these hearings? Has it been commensurate to the seriousness of the appointment? And also I guess one ought to keep in mind that Senator Cory Booker is widely rumored to run for president in 2020. GREG WILPERT: There are two questions there, so lets start with the first one. And then remind me if I dont get to the second one. As for the course of the proceedings, it seems to me, having followed them, that the Democrats, as usual, are engaging in a game of Kabuki theater here that is primarily designed to grandstand for political reasons to the television audience and to their base, and is using this to mobilize support for the November elections and also for fundraising purposes. Ive gotten several solicitations already asking me for money with respect to Kavanaugh and the November elections. The reason I say its Kabuki theater, however, is that in the New York Times yesterday it says, quote: Republicans wryly noted that Democrats admitted they had confirmed conferred with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader over the weekend, about their hearing strategy. So all this has been worked out and orchestrated in advance by the Republicans and the Democrats, and theyre basically going through the motions. I have concluded that they are not prepared to go to the mat, as I put it, to go for the jugular, to defeat Kavanaugh. So what were seeing here is a big game that they are playing, and have been playing for reasons other than defeating Kavanaugh. And its critical that we defeat Kavanaugh. Because as I said, this will be an inflection point on the U.S. Supreme Court, the transition from Kennedy to Kavanaugh. And also Im afraid for our, our democracy. Its going to be do terrible things for women, for blacks, Latinos, Muslims, organized labor, poor people. The list of the environment, the list of these things go on where were going to have a solid five to four right-wing reactionary majority on the Supreme Court. And the way it has been portrayed by Kavanaugh and Republicans is that hes clerked for Kennedy and isnt that bad is belied by a study in the Journal of the American Bar Association that he will be just a tad, a slight, maybe not even a percentage point to the left of Clarence Thomas, who is the most reactionary justice on the United States Supreme court. Youd have to go back to the Herbert Hoover Supreme Court to find a justice that reactionary. And indeed, Clarence Thomas historically reminds me of Justice Taney, who wrote the Dred Scott decision, ruling that African Americans were not human beings, and instead were property of their masters. Thats how reactionary Thomas is, and Kavanaugh is going to be just as reactionary. And with Kavanaugh, youre going to have a solid core of five hardcore movement Federalist Society people on there. So this could be a disaster. GREG WILPERT: Professor Boyle, lets dig into some of those issues in a moment. But I also want to ask you about the papers that hadnt been released. That is also part of this process, and now theyve received them, only some of them, and then this whole issue about whether theyre classified and all that. Whats your reaction to all of that? FRANCIS BOYLE: Right. Well, theres a quick answer. If the Democrats were serious, they could take all the documents they have now, which are substantial, and release them during the course of the hearings, despite any claims of national security or any claims of executive privilege or confidentiality, or anything like that, pursuant to what is known as The Speech or Debate Clause of the United States Constitution, that says that Senators and Representatives, quote, and for any speech or debate in either house they shall not be questioned in any other place. So during the course of the proceedings itself, they can release anything they want to, no matter what the Senate rules are, no matter what criminal statutes say, without any accountability, whether civil or criminal. And they have not done this. Now, the only penalty they could face, which Senator Booker pointed out, is expulsion from the Senate. But there, Section 5 Clause 2 of the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate. And the Senate right now is 51-49 Republicans now that that Senator Cornyn has joined in. So those two-thirds vote are not there. Senator Booker knows full well he cannot be expelled from the Senate. Theres no way hes going to get- no ones going to give a two-thirds vote of the Senate to expel him. And indeed, if all the Democratic senators joined in with Booker and proceeded to release everything they had, of course no ones going to be expelling anyone. And they would be fully protected under the Speech or Debate Clause for what theyre doing. And the question is, why are they not doing it? As Senator Booker pointed out, well, I have materials here that Kavanaugh was involved in racist profiling. Here it is. The senator from Hawaii, Hirona, said, well, Kavanaugh has discriminated against native Hawaiians, the kanaka maoli. Ive worked with them for years. This is pretty appalling. But interestingly enough, Senator Booker said apparently they have documents of involvement in torture. And that would have been part of the 45,000 document dump that was given to them on Monday. At least. I cant say anything about the other documents. GREG WILPERT: Thats one of the really, sorry, thats really an important question. I mean, why arent they releasing that? Thats something we probably need to explore at some point. But lets dig into some of the-. FRANCIS BOYLE: What, what, no, no. This is a very important question we have to deal with. You see, right now they are withholding documents when Kavanaugh was secretary to President Bush Jr. Well, OK. But Kavanaugh worked for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was behind me at Harvard Law School. And Gonzales was White House counsel. And during that time Kavanaugh was there with Gonzales, We know for a fact that Gonzalez and that office was up to their eyeballs in torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, extraordinary renditions, the enforced disappearance of human beings, and every type of felony you could possibly imagine, including violating the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996. So the question is, what did Kavanaugh do for Gonzalez on these issues? We in the American public do not know, but I suspect there are more than several smoking guns in that 45,000 document dump that the Democrats got on Monday. And Senator Booker alluded to that. He said, we have documents on torture. So why have they not released these documents immediately, either yesterday or today, and any analysis or anything else of Kavanaghs involvement in these matters when he worked for Alberto Gonzales? This could derail his entire nomination, because to the best of my knowledge for the first time ever we would be putting a war criminal on the United States Supreme Court. And this is a serious matter, because what happened with these Bush junior lawyers Jay Bybee, who worked for Bush Jr. and was one of his torture lawyers, Bush Jr. as a reward put him on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he sits today. But his nomination was rammed through before all those documents were out and people knew he had committed war crimes; authorized and approved war crimes. Likewise, under Obama you had two Democratic lawyers, David Barron, behind me at Harvard Law School, and Marty Lederman, now teaching at Georgetown Law School, who authored the infamous Obama saying Obama could murder United States citizens, despite federal laws and a statute that expressly criminalized murdering U.S. citizens abroad. And U.S. citizens were murdered, including Mr. Awlaki and his 16-year-old son. As a reward for that, Obama put David Barron on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where Im licensed to practice law. So right now we have two war criminals on the First Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, and it appears the Republicans want to ram Kavanaugh through as fast as possible like happened with Bybee before any smoking guns get released publicly. And my concern is it appears the Senate Democrats are sitting on these documents. Senator Booker indicated that they have such documents. These documents need to be publicized immediately. They need to be released in the hearings. And at that point I think that would derail Kavanaugh. But as of this afternoon they havent done it. GREG WILPERT: Yeah. Of course, this is one of the issues that it seems that the hearings really didnt get into, except in the form of perhaps talking about his views of the executive presidency, or the imperial- whats also known as the imperial presidency, and the power of the president, whether he can pardon himself, and also to what extent the power of the president really goes. And unfortunately he doesnt seem to have really answered those questions. Let me just show a short clip of one of those exchanges where they talk about the power of the presidency. PATRICK LEAHY: President Trump claims he has an absolute right to pardon himself. Does he? BRETT KAVANAUGH: The question of self-pardons is something Ive never analyzed. Its a question that I have not written about. Its a question therefore thats a hypothetical question that I cant begin to answer in this context as a sitting judge and as a nominee to the Supreme Court. PATRICK LEAHY: And the other half of that is the obvious one. Does the president have the ability to pardon somebody in exchange for a promise from that person they wouldnt testify against him? BRETT KAVANAUGH: Sir, Im not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort. PATRICK LEAHY: I hope for the sake of the country that remains a hypothetical question. GREG WILPERT: So as we can see in this exchange he doesnt really answer any of these questions. But what do you think does his response and his record actually say about how he regards presidential power? And we dont have very much time, so just if you could keep it relatively short. FRANCIS BOYLE: Well, Greg, this gets back to the Kabuki theater. That was Senator Leahy. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was wasting time, asking Kavanaugh questions, hypothetical questions, that he knew full well Kavanaugh was not going to answer. And indeed, they spent- the reports I read, Democrats wasted all day yesterday asking hypothetical questions that they knew Kavanaugh was not going to answer. And so its a game. You have to understand that. The Democrats are going right along with the script here, as theyve coordinated. Chuck Schumer admitted. And you know, Leahy knows what hes doing. Hes asking questions that he knows Kavanaugh cannot and will not answer instead of nailing him on positions hes already taken as a judge, which they could have done. Theyre sitting there asking him hypothetical questions, and everyone knows a sitting judge and a prospective nominee for the Supreme Court is not going to ask hypothetical questions. So I get back to my main point. This is Kabuki theater by the Democrats. Leahy knows exactly what hes doing. Hes a sharp guy. Hes been there and all the other Democrats are doing pretty much the same thing. And if they were serious, the Democrats, they would release all of those documents during the course of the hearings. Everything they have with their staffs analysis of it that is prejudicial and incriminating of Kavanaugh. And I think if we got those documents in the hearings, that very well might derail Kavanaughs nomination. But right now the Democrats are not doing this. GREG WILPERT: I guess we really need to dig further in terms of why the Democrats are playing this Kabuki theater. And hopefully well have you back on again to talk about that issue as well. Unfortunately we ran out of time, so were going to have to wrap it up. I was speaking to Professor Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. Thanks for having joined us today again, Professor Boyle. FRANCIS BOYLE: Well again, Greg, thank you for having me on again. GREG WILPERT: Our pleasure. And thank you for joining The Real News Network. Home Search ICH Obama Takes on Trump in Debut Speech Watch September 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - URBANA, Ill. Former President Barack Obama assailed President Trump on Friday as a threat to democracy as he emerged from a period of political silence to kick off a campaign blitz intended to help Democrats take control of Congress in the November midterm elections. In a speech meant to frame his message on the campaign trail over the next two months, Mr. Obama offered a stinging indictment of his successor, sometimes by name, sometimes by inference, accusing him and his Republican supporters of practicing a politics of fear and resentment, cozying up to Russia, emboldening white supremacists and politicizing law enforcement agencies. None of this is conservative, Mr. Obama told an auditorium of students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I dont mean to pretend Im channeling Abraham Lincoln now but thats not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican Party. Its not conservative. It sure isnt normal. Its radical. Its a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters even when it hurts the country. Mr. Obama said the headlines of the last few days alone demonstrated that the country had gone off course under his successors leadership. He cited the essay by an anonymous administration official in The New York Times saying that a quiet resistance of unsung heroes on Mr. Trumps team was secretly working to prevent him from making rash decisions that would harm the country. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter The claim that everything will turn out O.K. because there are people inside the White House who secretly arent following the presidents orders, this is not a check on Mr. Trump, he said. Im serious here. Thats not how our democracy is supposed to work. Theyre not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff thats coming out of this White House and then saying dont worry were preventing the other 10 percent. Mr. Trump lost no time in responding to his predecessor. Speaking to supporters in Fargo, N.D., he joked about Mr. Obamas speech, Im sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep. The president accused Mr. Obama of wrongly taking credit for the economic expansion that has occurred on his watch. It wasnt him, the president said, claiming that the recovery under Mr. Obama was the weakest in the nations history. Mr. Obama has largely stayed out of the fight against Mr. Trump, to the frustration of many Democrats who have been searching for a high-profile leader. He has from time to time issued mainly written statements criticizing Mr. Trump, usually for reversing a policy that Mr. Obama put in place, and he made a few campaign appearances during off-year elections in 2017. He also gave a eulogy last weekend for Senator John McCain that was widely seen as a rebuke of Mr. Trump. But advisers said the former president plans a more vigorous string of public appearances this fall in hopes of helping Democrats take back the House and perhaps the Senate. He planned to fly to California later on Friday to stump for House candidates, followed by a stop in Ohio and others later in the month. EDITORS PICKS Mr. Obama criticized the presidents policies on a list of issues, including climate change, taxes and regulations, but saved his most biting comments for his assertion that Mr. Trump has warped the institutions of American life. It should not be Democratic or Republican, it should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the F.B.I. as political cudgel to punish our political opponents, he said. Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. Im not making that up. Thats not hypothetical. He also accused Mr. Trump of playing to bigots. Were supposed to stand up to discrimination, he said. And were sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad? This article was originally published by " NYT " - ==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 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 07, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The current Swedish Government, led by the Social Democrats, is governed by a coalition with the Green Party since 2014. Incumbent PM, Stefan Lofven, intends to continue his government and hopes to win on general election day, next Sunday, 9 September 2018. However, for years ever since what they call the onslaught of undesirable immigrants; i.e., the lesser people from the Middle East and thereabouts the extreme right, anti-immigration, eurosceptics Sweden Democrats are on course to become the second-largest single party in the next parliament. On Facebook the partys leader, Jimmie Akesson, warned that Sweden is on fire again. He may have referred to the hundreds of cars set a blast this year in major Swedish cities, and then again likely refers to the same phenomenon at a lesser scale that has beleaguered Sweden already in previous years. They, the Swedish Democrats, are building up their momentum to take over and becoming the kingmakers this coming election. It looks like they have engaged hooligan-Nazi-type xenophobes like those that fight the mainstream in Germanys streets, and the AFD (the Alternative for Germany) sponsored masses to stage false flag terror attacks, mostly setting cars on fire. The cities principally affected are Stockholm, Malmo and Gothenburg. This year, the year of elections, the terror peaked with hundreds of car burnings and even a drive-by shooting in which at least three people lost their lives. When people feel in danger, are fearful because they seem helpless against an unknown enemy the terror they turn to the right for protection. Its them, the right, that promises fierce police and military protection and, indeed, they carry out their promise. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Just a look at France. After a number of false flag attacks in which hundreds of people lost their lives Macron was able to put the State of Emergency akin to Martial Law into the French Constitution. France today looks like a police and military state, in larger cities you find armed police and machine-gun touting military at every street corner. The sight has become the new normal. Are the French safer for it? Nope. Because the danger comes from within, not from outside. The danger comes from the very protectors which are complicit with those hidden forces that want to maintain a police state that oppresses the public, so that this small all-controlling elite, can do what they want. Strange enough, a year before the last elections in Sweden, in 2013, there was a similar eruption of car burnings in Stockholm, at a more modest scale, but all the same. Someone must have felt this kind of terror, rather new for Europe, and that could easily be pushed off to unhappy immigrants of which surely there are plenty might ignite the anti-immigrant discourse. This time it seems to work. The Social Democrats are way down in the opinion polls and the Swedish Democrats way up, poised to become the key player in the next government. France is in the middle of Europe, ready to break down any potential peoples uprising. Is Sweden going the Nordic way of France? The risk is there, if the extreme right wins. Are the Swedes conscious of this risk? I doubt it. The corporate war propaganda tells them differently. And looking beyond ones borders to learn is hardly a nations forte. Its learning the hard way and discovering when its too late. ***** Back to Sweden, in concrete, none of the two leading coalitions are predicted to have an absolute majority. The one led by the Social Democrats (Labor Party equivalent) is forecast to make 38.6% and the Conservative Alliance almost 40%. The right-wing, anti-immigrant and euro-sceptic Sweden Democrats have increased their adherents by about 50% since the 2014 elections and may get up to 20% at the polls which may make them the Kingmakers. And that largely thanks to the street havoc, destruction and terror they organized. Not a good omen for Sweden. Of course, there is much more at stake than just the Swedish election a country with barely 10 million inhabitants but a huge in surface (about the size of California) and with maritime borders facing Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Sweden has been and is a neutral country, unaligned to such military associations like NATO. The possibly new incoming government, the way for which was prepared for at least five years, reminds of the Ukraine coup in February 2014, also prepared for at least 5 years, according to former Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, that turned the Kiev Government into a pure Nazi crime nest, supported by the west and by NATO. It is very possible that Sweden may become a NATO country, one more on the door steps of Moscow. A NATO Sweden would be bordering on other NATO Russia fiends, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and could closely collaborate with them for possible aggression towards Russia. The northern build-up of troops could easily be channeled through a new NATO Sweden. Are the Swedes conscious of this potentially new perspective? The extreme-right Swedish Democrats have stolen voters from all the parties under the pretext of the immigrant curse and danger. Western paid propaganda played an important role, like everywhere when right-wing and hegemonic forces are at play. If Sweden falls, Finland, another neutral and NATO-unaligned country, might also fall. Norway and Denmark are already part of this murderous monster-club. The northern attack route is being established. Swedish defense minister Karin Enstrom has said her country is not in NATO partly because the EU treaty contains its own security guarantee: Who needs NATO if you have the Lisbon Treaty? Right. But the Lisbon Treaty is not engaging at all. Its not a European Constitution which would be binding for all member states, and which would allow Europe to build-up her own defense strategy and defense forces, and which would allow, or even force Europe to pull on the same string and more importantly in the same direction. All of this is not the case today. Thats why Europe is every time more integrated into NATO; NATO is absorbing the EU, one country and one military budget at the time. Karin Enstroms wise words wise, inasmuch as we dont want NATO are wishful thinking, delusionary, unfortunately. It would need a massive awakening in Europe and a massive resistance buildup against NATO to come clear of this ever-growing threat on Russia that has the capacity to annihilate first Europe, then the world. Mr. Putin and Mr. Lavrov warn the west all the time, but are they listening? At least for now, President Putins chess-playing excellence has avoided such a global catastrophe. The United States of America, for whom war is economic survival, the arms race is profitable, peace would be Washingtons downfall literally down into the pits the US of A will not listen to such warnings. It is a fine line that President Putin and Chinas President Xi Jinping, a firm and powerful defense and economic alliance, are walking. Sweden is at the crossroads of going down the dangerous and destructive path of western aggression or stay neutral, remain a northern nation of integrity, ethics and peace. It is high time, and never too late, that the Swedes awaken to the danger that might await them this coming Sunday, 9 September. Swedes, you have proudly followed a socialist-leaning and social agenda for the last hundred years. Are you thoughtlessly risking abandoning this noble tradition for false pretexts indoctrinated by a massive campaign of false flags? I trust not. Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! - Essays from the Resistance. ==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 You can pass exams using aptitude test past questions in Nigeria yes, you can! Whether it involves studying with post UTME past questions, job aptitude test past questions, bank aptitude test past questions or scholarship exams past questions, there are steps to take thatll help you excel. 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For example, a legal firm tests verbal reasoning, inductive and deductive reasoning, an auditing firm such as KPMG evaluates numerical reasoning, and Conglomerates assess general reasoning. Getting the appropriate job aptitude test past question will enable you to prepare adequately for any upcoming job test. One of the most difficult aptitude tests are bank job tests. Bank tests do not involve filed-related tests, they are mostly reasoning questions. This is why Bank test past questions are highly important. How to Study Using Past Questions Now that you know the trick and appropriate past questions for each of these exams, there is just one question left; how can you use these study materials effectively to pass the screening exercises? Outlined below are tips on how to use exam past questions to your success in Nigeria. 1. Get the past question Naturally, this is this is the first step to take towards preparing for any aptitude test in Nigeria. You must find a trusted platform or agent to download the updated version of past questions of your desired test. Two of the best platforms in Nigeria for aptitude test past questions include Testsregard and Eduregard, you can check them out on google. 2. Practice the Aptitude Test Questions Your confidence increases as you practice more aptitude test past questions. This also increases your experience with the various kind of questions, especially when youre preparing for abstract reasoning. 3. Do Not Make Wild Guesses You may be tempted to guess the answers to questions, rather than attempt to understand them. This is a bad idea. Understanding the question provides the insight and experience needed to answer other similar questions. 4. Put Yourself in the Exam Condition Before attempting any past question, put yourself in the exam condition. Imagine yourself in the examination hall, use a stopwatch to time yourself appropriately. If the exam body does not allow the use of a calculator, do not use it. Do this every day within a week of the examination. On a Final Note It doesnt matter which aptitude test youre preparing for, whether its a bank job at Access bank PLC, MTN scholarship test or UNILORIN post UTME examination, the right past question helps you prepare adequately, then its up to you to be diligent and hardworking. How well did this article help you? Feel free to share with friends and families. Senate president Bukola Saraki has reacted to news of earth tremors in some parts of Abuja on Friday morning. The Senate president has asked residents to be calm and not panic, as the appropriate authorities have been alerted. Speaking via twitter earlier, the presidential aspirant asked the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) and other agencies to be alert in other to prevent loss of lives and properties. At this time, it is important that @NEMANigeria, FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and all emergency services be on high alert to prevent the loss of lives and property. Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) September 7, 2018 Saraki also informed the public that Senator Dino Melaye, the Senate committee chairman on FCT has already informed the Minister of the FCT about the issue. He also asked residents to reach the FCT emergency management agency in case theres any emergency. Reports that suspected Fulani herdsmen beheaded the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Bare ward in the Numan Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Charles Chrisanthus, have caused serious debate among Nigerians on social media. According to reports, the deceased was killed in the presence of his wife, Dorcas and her four months old son, in his farm on August 29, 2018. Dorcas, wife of the deceased PDP chieftain, in an interview with newsmen at the State Criminal Investigation Department said the police are shielding her husbands killers. Dorcas, who had gone to lodge her complaint on Tuesday, at the state CID told Northern City News that only justice for her slain husband would bring her peace. She said: His attackers led by our Fulani neighbours repeatedly stabbed him on the back and on his stomach before beheading my husband in our farm and made away with his head, she said. A lot of commenters have lambasted the present administration over the way it is handling the excesses of Fulani herdsmen. Whereas some have said the killing wasnt carried out by Fulani herdsmen. See reactions below The beheading & running away with d head of @OfficialPDPNig Numan LGA Chairman in Adamawa State by suspected Fulani herdsmen terrorists goes a long way to confirm suspicions in reasonable quarters that APC's sympathy 4 d herdsmen is political & for 2019 Jude C. Ndukwe ANIPR (@stjudendukwe) September 7, 2018 Fulani herdsmen beheaded Charles Chrisanthus, Chairman of PDP, Numan LGA, Adamawa State in front of his wife and then ran away with his head. I condemn this barbarity and I am outraged and disgusted by the protection that Buhari constantly provides for these Fulani terrorists. Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 7, 2018 https://twitter.com/Sam_Debayo/status/1038014975099449345?s=19 Herdsmen behead PDP chairman, run away with his head. I know they'll ask, "How do you know they are Herdsmen? Then the discussion will focus on how we knew they were herdsmen and not on the poor man that was beheadedin front of his wife. God forbid this APC Govt. Newton Ikire (@NewtonIkire) September 7, 2018 Remember how they swung into action with the operation python dance in the east? Weve been clamouring for actions against the dreaded herdsmen for God knows how long, and absolutely NOTHING has been done. Disgusting lots!! Cross (@Elcrucifixio) September 7, 2018 Others who thought the killing wasnt done by Fulani herdsmen you'all be killing each other just to get to the top . . . And then blame it on Fulani herdsmen because they are the easiest suspect. Continue. kelvin kelvin (@Naijapikin_) September 7, 2018 Turkey and the Netherlands on Friday appointed ambassadors to each other, as part of an agreement to normalise their relations, according to Turkey's Foreign Ministry. The two governments had fallen out over the Netherlands' decision to bar Turkish officials from campaigning among the Turkish diaspora before Turkey's April 2017 constitutional referendum, a time when the Netherlands was holding its own elections. Turkey has been on a push to improve their relations with European countries, particularly amid worsening ties with the United States. Search Keywords: Short link: Davido first daughter Imade returns back to school after spending quality time with her father for her vacation. OBO shared the photo of imade with a caption : Back to school time for my princess! When we talk of influence, Imade is a major influence on Davidos career ever since he welcomed her with babymama, Sophie Momodu. The DMW CEO have always referenced the motive for his hustle and wealth to her. Vanguard All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State has adopted indirect primaries to elect its candidates for the 2019 general election. Thisday In furtherance of his commitment to putting smiles on faces of the less privileged in the society cutting across tribes, religion, and ethnicity, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, through his Hopes Alive Initiative, has donated a vocational centre equipped with various facilities to So-Said Charity Home in Ubakala, Umuahia South Local Government of Abia State. The Sun The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT) has advised its members not to not pitch tent with any aspirants to elective position in the 2019 elections. Daily Times A political organisation, Lagos solidarity movement (LSM), has put their support behind the defection of the erstwhile chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Moshood Adegoke Salvador to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Guardian For carrying out an alleged unauthorised search on the Abuja home of elder statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo (EK) Clark, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has approved the dismissal of three inspector The Nation The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday made good its threat to fine four banks that breached its capital importation policy N5.87 billion. The University of Ibadan (UI), Nigerias premier tertiary institution, has again honoured the Founder of FCMB Group, Otunba (Dr.) Michael Olasubomi Balogun by naming its modern and multi-purpose conference centre after him. On Thursday, September 6, 2018, the Center was unveiled and renamed Otunba Subomi Balogun Conference Centre. According to the University, the decision is in recognition of Otunba Baloguns numerous and significant contributions to the development of the institution, education and the country over the years. The University of Ibadan, in a letter to the FCMB Founder from the Governing Council and signed by the Registrar and Secretary to the Council, Mrs. Olubunmi Faluyi, said, we acknowledge with gratitude, your prayers and goodwill for the continuous progress of the University. The Olori Omo-Oba Akile Ijebu, Otunba (Dr)Michael Olasubomi Balogun is said to be the first Board Chairman of UI Ventures, who brought his business acumen into play to transform the organisation into a full-fledged business group. Today, UI Ventures whose hotel arm has about 110 rooms of quality standard, is into printing, landscaping and horticulture, consulting, bakery products, has a computer training center, petrol station as well as a fast food business, among other interests. Commenting on the naming of the architectural masterpiece after him, Otunba Balogun expressed profound gratitude to the University of Ibadan for finding him worthy of the honour. He stated that, I thank you for appreciating my services and commitment to the University of Ibadan by this recent honour that you bestowed on me. I feel honoured by and I deeply appreciate the long and personal relationship I have had with the University of Ibadan over the years. It is my prayer that the University will continue to retain the position of a primus-inter-pares among the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Otunba Subomi Balogun, Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), is the icon of the Nigerian financial industry. He is also a philanthropist par excellence and a distinguished leader who has devoted substantial part of his resources towards the care and service of humanity and the society. His impact on the University of Ibadan and other public as well as private institutions has been acknowledged as legendary. He was also the first in Nigeria, through First City Merchant Bank Limited (now First City Monument Bank, a member of FCMB Group), to endow a Professorial Chair in a University when at the University of Ibadan, he set up a Chair for Capital Market Studies in the Department of Economics and Finance. Otunba Balogun, in 2014 totally donated to the University of Ibadan, the Otunba Tunwase Paediatric Hospital (the largest in Nigeria) which he built in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, a facility worth N4billion in current market evaluation. He was the first Nigerian to receive special training in Legal Drafting in Whitehall and the City of London with particular specialisation in financial legislation, instruments and agreements. The FCMB Founder served as a Crown Counsel in both the Ministry of Justice of the then Western Nigeria and subsequently as Assistant Parliamentary Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice in Lagos. In 1979, he single-handedly set up the first wholly Nigerian owned merchant bank, entirely conceived and promoted by him and this he christened First City Merchant Bank Limited. Under his leadership as Chairman & Chief Executive, First City Merchant Bank Limited (FCMB) in its first twenty years of existence, experienced steady and uninterrupted growth and earned national and international recognition as market leaders in investment banking and capital market services. Among other national and international awards, in November 1989, the University of Ibadan awarded him the Degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) in recognition of his outstanding achievements both in the field of Law and his contributions to the socio-economic development of Nigeria. In January 1994, the President of the Republic of Italy conferred on Otunba Balogun the prestigious honour of Cavaliere dellOrdine Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana which means, Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy. In October 1995, he was installed The Olori Omo-Oba Akile Ijebu by His Royal Majesty, the Awujale of Ijebuland. Otunba Balogun is an author, a prolific writer and a distinguished opinion leader. In these capacities, he has contributed remarkably to the formulation of several and impactful economic policies in Nigeria. The newly named Otunba Subomi Conference Centre has five halls altogether. It can accommodate between 3,000 and 5,000 guests in the main auditorium and up to a total of 7,000 guests in the entire complex. The parking lot that can accommodate about 700 cars is also a major value added. The interior of the conference rooms are tastefully decorated. The Center comes equipped with varied facilities and a high standard of service to complement its relaxed and friendly atmosphere. It offers an extensive range of modern facilities and services. Such facilities include presentation screens, projectors and individual highly sensitive microphones that can be used independently in each of the halls or in all the halls simultaneously. Please see pictures from the event below: Pakistan Red Crescent Society PRCS Rawalpindi Jobs 2018 Latest Pakistan Red Crescent Society PRCS Engineering Posts Rawalpindi 2021 Pakistan Red Crescent Society PRCS Rawalpindi, Pakistan required applications from experienced and professional candidates to fill the positions of Site Engineer. How to Apply on Pakistan Red Crescent Society PRCS Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Official Website: www.prcs.org.pk Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia on Friday failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian goverment offensive in rebel-held Idlib province which the United Nations fears could cause a humanitarian catastrophe involving tens of thousands of civilians. Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan Rouhani, meeting inTehran for a summit of key foreign players in Syria's war, agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process. But as Syrian government and Russian warplanes mounted air strikes in Idlib on Friday morning in a possible prelude to a full-scale offensive, Putin and Rouhani pushed back against Erdogan's call for a truce. The Turkish leader said he feared a massacre and Turkey could not accommodate any more refugees flooding over its border. Putin said a ceasefire would be pointless as it would not involve Islamist militant groups it deems terrorists. Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory. Idlib is the insurgents' only remaining major stronghold and a government offensive could be the war's last decisive battle. Tehran and Moscow have helped Assad turn the course of the war against an array of opponents ranging from Western-backed rebels to the Islamist militants, while Turkey is a leading opposition supporter and has troops in the country. Their discussions in Tehran mark a crucial point in a seven-year-old war which has killed more than half a million people and forced 11 million to flee their homes. Erdogan, in his opening remarks, said a ceasefire in Idlib would be a victory for their summit. Putin responded: "The fact is that there are no representatives of the armed opposition here around this table. And more still, there are no representatives of Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS or the Syrian army.". "I think in general the Turkish president is right. It would be good. But I can't speak for them, and even more so can't talk for terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS that they will stop shooting or stop using drones with bombs." In the final statement, the three agreed on the need to eliminate Islamic State group, the Nusra Front, and other groups linked to al Qaeda and designated as terrorists. But there were were other armed opposition groups who could join any ceasefire agreement, they said. The communique also called on the United Nations and the international community to step up humanitarian aid to Syria and help in restoring basic infrastructure assets. Efforts must be made to protect and to create conditions for the safe return of refugees, it added. "Horrific, Bloody Battle" Iran's Rouhani said the battle in Syria would continue until rebels were pushed out of the whole country, especially in Idlib, but he added that any military operations should avoid hurting civilians. He called on all rebels in Syria to disarm and seek a peaceful end to the conflict. "The fight against terrorism in Idlib is an indispensable part of the mission to return peace and stability to Syria, but this fight should not harm civilians and lead to a "scorched-earth" policy," Rouhani said. Erdogan said Turkey no longer had the capacity to take in any more refugees from Syria should the government offensive in Idlib go ahead. Turkey has accepted 3.5 million refugees from Syria since the start of the war in 2011. "Whatever reason there is an attack that has been made or will be made will result in disaster, massacre and humanitarian drama," he said. "Millions will be coming to Turkey's borders because they have nowhere to go. Turkey has filled its capacity to host refugees." The Assad government was not directly represented at the summit, nor were the United States and other Western powers. The United States came in for criticism from all sides, however, higlighting to complex nature of a conflict involving a myriad of factions. Rouhani said the United States should end its presence in Syria, while Erdogan said Turkey was "extremely annoyed" by Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, whom Ankara considers as terrorists linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey. Widely abhorred internationality for the brutal conduct of the war, Assad has largely reclaimed most of Syrian territory though much of it is ravaged. Although the West has long said he must stand down or be removed, that looks unlikely at this point. Meanwhile, the fate of Idlib hung in the balance. The United Nations Security Council met to discuss Idlib on Friday at the request of the United States, and UN Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said there were "all the ingredients for a perfect storm". "The dangers are profound that any battle for Idlib could be, would be a horrific and bloody battle," de Mistura said Search Keywords: Short link: 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 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. A 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook southeastern Iran on Friday, killing at least one person and damaging houses in several villages, Iranian state media reported. Rasoul Rashki, provincial head of the Red Crescent Society, said an 18-year-old woman was killed in the quake which was followed by several aftershocks, the state news agency IRNA reported. Local reports that two other people were killed could not be immediately confirmed, Rashki said. Abdolrahman Shahnavazi, the provincial head of disaster management, was quoted by state television as saying some houses were damaged in several villages. The US Geological Survey put the earthquake's magnitude at 5.5 and said it struck 200 km southwest of the city of Zahedan at a depth of 26 km (16 miles). Iran is crossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years. Last November, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit western Kermanshah province, killing at least 620 people and injuring thousands. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in southeastern Kerman province killed 31,000 people and flattened the historic city of Bam. Search Keywords: Short link: Protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in Iraq's southern city of Basra on Friday, turning their wrath on Iraq's powerful neighbour after five days of deadly demonstrations in which government buildings have been ransacked and torched. Demonstrators broke in and began damaging the offices, shouting condemnation of what many Iraqis perceive as Iran's sway over Iraq's political parties. Security sources said the consulate was empty when the crowd burst in. The storming came hours after Iraq's most revered Shia cleric called for a political shakeup in Baghdad and a halt to violence against the protesters. Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the ultimate authority for devout members of Iraq's Shia majority, placed blame for the unrest with political leaders and said a new government should be formed, "different from its predecessors". At least 10 protesters have died, mostly in clashes with the security forces, since Monday in Basra, a city of 2 million people. Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption and misrule that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water in the heat of summer. The unrest could have deeper implications for a country that imports most of its food. Since Thursday protesters have shut Iraq's only major sea port at Umm Qasr, 60 km (40 miles) south of Basra. It remained shut on Friday, local officials and security sources said, although oil exports, carried out from offshore platforms, have not been affected. Smaller protests in solidarity with Basra took place in several other cities including Karbala and Baghdad. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's national security council met on Friday and said it was investigating casualties at the protests. Abadi, under pressure to promise more money to fix Basra's public services, said funds that had previously been allocated would be released. More than 2,000 people, including many women, gathered in Basra on Friday afternoon, to mourn a protester who died from burns during the torching of the provincial government headquarters overnight. Mourners carried the body from his house through the streets to the singed government building, chanting: "This is a promise, this is a promise, Basra won't stay silent anymore!" Some fired live rounds into the air. Others carried broomsticks, to "sweep clean" corrupt officials. Protesters set fire to what remained of the government buildings torched the night before. "Failings Of Leaders" The unrest has thrust Iraq into a major new crisis at a time when politicians still have yet to agree a new government after an inconclusive election in May. The new parliament finally met on Monday for the first time, but broke up after a day with no faction assembling enough votes to elect a speaker, much less name the next prime minister. Sistani, an 88-year-old cleric who normally holds himself above day-to-day politics, has been known to intervene in political affairs when he sees the country's future in danger. In his Friday prayer sermon read out by an aide he demanded an end to the use of violence against "peaceful protests" and placed the blame firmly on politicians. "The failings of Iraqi political leaders in recent years have caused the anger of people in Basra," Sistani said. "This reality cannot change if the next government is formed according to the same criteria adopted when forming previous governments. Pressure must be exerted for the new government to be different from its predecessors." Parliament's interim leader summoned lawmakers to an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest. The past four years saw Iraq's political factions mainly come together during a war against Islamic State group. Baghdad's two most influential allies, Washington and Tehran, also backed the government despite their deep hostility to each other. But since Islamic State group was largely defeated last year, divisions have resurfaced. Shia in the south, where most of Iraq's oil wealth is produced, say Baghdad politicians have squandered state funds while leaving them desperate. Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shia cleric whose electoral bloc came first in May's election, said on Twitter that Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi must release more funds for Basra. Sadr, the former leader of an anti-American Shisectarian militia who has reinvented himself as an anti-corruption campaigner, has allied himself with Abadi. Their alliance is competing to form a government against a rival bloc backed by Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki and the leader of an Iran-backed Shia armed group, Hadi al-Amiri. Amiri called on Abadi to resign over the crisis on Friday. Search Keywords: Short link: By NOAH BERGER and PAUL ELIAS , Associated Press SHASTA-TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) Truckers abandoned big-rigs and motorists screamed in fear as they came dangerously close to an explosive wildfire that shut down about 45 miles of a major California interstate near the Oregon border that authorities were desperately trying to reopen. In a video, a passenger in a vehicle screams: "Oh my God, I want to go!" as nearby trees burst into flames. "I can't breathe," the woman says, sobbing. "Please, guys, come put it out." The fire erupted Wednesday afternoon in a rural area and devoured timber and brush on both sides of Interstate 5 as it nearly tripled in size overnight, officials said Thursday. Elsewhere in the state, a fire raging in the Sierra Nevada had grown to more than 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) after shutting down stretches of U.S. 395, State Route 108 and the Pacific Crest Trail along the eastern spine of California. The Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, campgrounds and other areas were evacuated Wednesday. Ranchers were told to prepare to move livestock out of the area in Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The two fires Thursday were raging just weeks after a blaze in the Redding area killed eight people and burned about 1,100 homes in a frightening start to the fire season. California's insurance commissioner said Thursday that victims of that fire and one in the Mendocino area the two largest blazes in the state so far this year have filed more than 10,000 claims so far totaling $845 million. The two fires destroyed or damaged a combined 8,800 homes and 329 businesses. "The worst may be yet to come," Commissioner David Jones warned at a San Francisco news conference, noting that California wildfires are typically more destructive after Sept. 1. California's firefighting agency is about to exceed its budget and needs $234 million more, Cal Fire director Ken Pimlott said in a letter to lawmakers Thursday. The agency spent $432 million through the end of August and had only about $11 million left, Pimlott wrote. Cal Fire would use some of the money to add firefighters and helicopters, he said. The Legislature budgets for firefighting based on the historical average costs. Cal Fire has requested extra money in seven of the past 10 years, but never this early, according to the Department of Finance. The blaze Thursday along Interstate 5 has blackened 23 square miles (60 square kilometers), prompting mandatory evacuations. It was moving rapidly but was still far from any large towns. Officials from a number of agencies were meeting Thursday to determine if they can reopen the highway, a key route for commercial trucks, California Highway Patrol Officer Jason Morton said. The highway runs north from the Mexico border through California, Oregon and Washington state to the border with Canada. The scattered homes and cabins in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest were under evacuation orders, from the community of Lakehead north to the Siskiyou County line, said Chris Losi, a spokesman for the forest. "It isn't a lot of people," he said. The blaze was human-caused, officials said, without indicating whether it was arson or an accident. About 17 big-rigs were abandoned along the interstate and at least four caught fire, Lt. Cmdr. Kyle Foster of the California Highway Patrol's Mount Shasta office told the Los Angeles Times. At least two trucks were partially melted. U.S. Forest Service workers helped the driver of one flaming truck to safety. Truckers, firefighters and others aided more drivers. "There's vehicles scattered all over," Brandon Vaccaro of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the Redding Record Searchlight. "Whatever occurred here was probably pretty ugly for a while." About 45 miles (72 kilometers) of I-5 were closed in both directions, Losi said. The blaze also delayed Amtrak's Coast Starlight train service between Sacramento and Oregon. The city of Dunsmuir, with about 1,500 residents, was about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the flames. Residents were urged to be prepared to leave if the fire threatened. ___ Elias reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper contributed from Sacramento. Israeli troops killed one Palestinian and wounded more than 200 others at a weekly protest on the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, Gaza officials said. Protesters rolled burning tires and hurled stones towards the Israeli soldiers and the border fence, witnesses said. The Israeli military said that some threw firebombs and a grenade. No Israelis were hurt. Reuters television footage showed incendiary kites in the air being sent towards Israel. Palestinian health officials said Belal Khafaja, a 17-year-old boy was shot dead by Israeli soldiers and that 210 others were wounded, 45 of them with live fire, including a medic. An Israeli military statement said soldiers had used riot dispersal means and acted "in accordance with standard operating procedures." Israeli aircraft also struck two Hamas outposts, the military said. Since Gazans began holding weekly border protests began on March 30, the Israeli army has killed 173 Palestinians and wounded thousands. Gaza, a narrow coastal enclave home to more than 2 million Palestinians is controlled by Islamist group Hamas. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintains tight control of its land and sea borders. The protests are taking place at a time of growing frustration over the prospects for an independent Palestinian state. Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled for several years and Israeli settlements in the occupied territories have expanded. Israel says Hamas deliberately provokes violence at the protests, a charge Hamas denies. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) -- An armed man was taken to the hospital after an officer-involved shooting near a high school in Beaverton, Oregon. KOIN reports that police said they responded to a call Friday morning of a man riding a bike around with a knife by the 7-Eleven store near Jesuit High School. Officers found the suspect and shots were fired. No officers were injured in the incident. The man was conscious and alert when he was taken to a nearby hospital. It's unclear if he was struck by gunfire or the extent of his injuries. UPDATE: The suspect accused of an hours-long armed standoff overnight in Saginaw has been identified as Robert Goldberg, 58, according to the Lane County Sheriff's Office. Goldberg is charged with menacing, unlawful use of a weapon, and resisting arrest. ____________________________________ SAGINAW, Ore. -- A man came outside a residence with a gun and pointed it at someone Thursday evening, the Lane County Sheriff's Office said. Investigators said the incident happened around 9 p.m. on I Street close to Highway 99. The gunman retreated back inside the residence, officials told KEZI 9 News. Neighbors called 911, and deputies rushed to the scene. Law enforcement officials on scene said the man barricaded himself inside the residence. They said they didn't believe anyone else was inside. The standoff was still ongoing at 3 a.m. KEZI 9 News reporter Jessica Babb was on scene gathering information. At approximately 3:15 a.m., she reported hearing officials saying over a loud speaker, "Leave your apartment slowly with your hands up in the air." The standoff ended around 4:30 a.m. with a suspect being taken into custody. COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. -- One woman who lives right next to the scene of the massive structure fire in Cottage Grove Wednesday said that even though her home was left untouched, the same cannot be said for other parts of her property. Reta Cochrane said she and her husband got a call from a neighbor about the smoke and immediately went outside to do what they could. However, before she even had the chance to get the hose out, the fire had spread to their barn right there in their yard. RELATED: Community comes together after Row River Road fire destroys homes She and other community members who came to help began to fight the fire in any way they had. They were using hoses and other water tools. She said one person was even using a leaf blower at the perimeter of the fire, which proved to be quite effective. "Just the adrenaline you get trying to get everything done so you can keep things safe, and then watching the houses burn right there in front of us, to the ground, was just frustrating, Cochran said. Then we turned and looked and saw that, oh, we're losing the barn." MORE: Homes, structures destroyed by fire near Dorena The fire had even spread all the way to the fence that divides her property from the one next to it. Though it singed the fence, it never made it to her house. Right now, I am so thankful and feeling so blessed that we have everything, everything we really need. We have the memorabilia, the pictures of our children growing up and the grandson. They don't have anything, Cochran said. She said although theyre sad about the loss of their barn and everything inside of it, she knows their pain is nothing compared to the people who lost their homes. She said she watched her neighbor run from her burning house with her five dogs as the fire chased them. Although that neighbor made it out alive, all she has left now are the clothes on her back. A veteran Singaporean diplomat has called on the gay community to challenge a law that bans gay sex in the conservative city-state, following India's scrapping of similar British colonial-era legislation. Tommy Koh, a diplomat and lawyer, made the comments on Facebook on Thursday in response to a post by a senior Singapore-based academic on India's landmark ruling. "I would encourage our gay community to bring a class action to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A," Koh wrote. Under 377A, a man found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man could be jailed for up to two years, although prosecutions are rare. The law does not apply to homosexual acts between women. Previous legal challenges in 2014 had failed, when reminded of this by another Facebook user, Koh wrote: "Try again." Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam told reporters on Friday that the majority of Singaporeans were opposed to any changes to the law but that "a growing minority, want it (377A) to be repealed". He added that, in his personal view, care must be taken over criminalising sexual attitudes. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has previously said that Singaporean society "is not that liberal on these matters". The prime minister's office did not have further comment on Friday. Koh did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Singapore-based LGBT rights group PinkDot said that it had been told during the last constitutional challenge that it was up to parliament, not the courts, to change the law. "We hope that parliament will consider the decriminalisation of S377A... We are ready to keep up with India." Search Keywords: Short link: EUGENE, Ore. -- Uber officially returned to Eugene Thursday after the city issued a license to operate in the Eugene Springfield area. All you have to do is download the Uber app on your phone, set your pickup location and an Uber driver will pick you up and take you to your destination. RELATED: Rideshare battle begins Uber is offering a discount for riders in Eugene: $5 off for up to two rides. Enter the code "ubereugene18" in the payment section on the app to get the discount through Sept. 20. Greg Kastel, an Uber driver who has been working for the company for more than a year in different areas of Oregon, said Eugene needed this rideshare service. It seems like as soon as I drop somebody off, I get another ride right away so its super busy. Its early, probably two-and-a-half hours into it, (and) Ive done five rides," Kastel said. Coffee Plant Roasters held a signup session for potential drivers Thursday where they were able to talk with Uber employees about what the job entails. If youre interested in driving for Uber, there are certain requirements from the city that you must follow, including a vehicle inspection and background check. To learn more, visit Uber's website and click the sign up now button. US President Donald Trump on Friday urged his attorney general to investigate the anonymous author of a damning op-ed, escalating his long-running battles with both the media and leaks from the White House. Trump also took aim at a book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward which, like the incendiary unsigned piece in The New York Times, offered a damning portrayal of the inner workings of his administration, sparking yet another White House crisis and putting the president on the defensive. "I would say Jeff (Sessions) should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security," Trump told reporters traveling with him in North Dakota. "The Times should never have done that, because really what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason," the president said in an interview with Fox News broadcast earlier Friday. A "whodunnit?" style guessing game has raged in the corridors of power and on social media over the identity of the author, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the government to deny involvement. "We have thousands of people that, in theory, could qualify," Trump told Fox, describing the author's anonymity as "very unfair," since it prevented them from being openly scrutinized. The article, which was published on Wednesday, said "unsung heroes" were quietly working within the administration to frustrate the president's "worst inclinations." That account was also supported by Woodward's book, which Trump dismissed on Twitter as a "scam." "I don't talk the way I am quoted. If I did I would not have been elected President. These quotes were made up. The author uses every trick in the book to demean and belittle," Trump tweeted. 'Real Facts' "I wish the people could see the real facts - and our country is doing GREAT!" Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House," a 448-page account of an out-of-control administration set to hit bookshelves next week, draws on hundreds of hours of insider interviews. The respected White House chronicler describes a coalition of like-minded aides plotting to prevent the president from destroying the world trade system, undermining national security and sparking wars. Woodward's is not the first unflattering investigation into Trump's White House, but it has been particularly resonant coming from the man who together with Carl Bernstein authored the Watergate expose that brought down Richard Nixon. He is one of the most respected living US journalists, and has written extensively on modern American presidents, earning praise from Trump himself in 2013 for his work on Barack Obama. Woodward describes Trump regularly insulting key members of his own team, who are in turn contemptuous of the president. Attacking the veracity of the quotes attributed to Trump and his lieutenants in "Fear" has been a central plank of the administration's attempt to discredit Woodward. But Trump's insistence that the words attributed to him are "made up" hasn't always stood up to scrutiny. Trump's claim, for example, that he would never have used the word "retarded" to describe Sessions was quickly undermined by recordings showing he had used the term several times in the past. While Woodward does not name his sources, he says he spoke with many people currently or formerly working for Trump, discussing not just the president's personality but also major policy debates regarding North Korea and Afghanistan. The book depicts Trump aides working to head off potential foreign policy disasters, disregarding a call by the president for the assassination of his Syrian counterpart, and stealing an order that would have canceled a US-South Korea trade agreement. Search Keywords: Short link: BYRON, Minn. - The Byron School District receieved high marks in Minnesota's North Star System, a way to hold schools accountable for meeting the Every Student Succeeds Act federal requirements. This 2018-2019 academic year is the first full school year ESSA will be in place. Through the North Star System, Byron Intermediate School and Byron Middle School were ranked in the highest 5% of schools in the state for overall math progress, special education attendance, and the progress in reading and math for Hispanic students. Additionally, Byron 5th grade landed the number one spot in Minnesota for math. What is Byron's key to academic success? "Byron is really focused on and becoming more focused on personalizing learning," explains Principal Richard Swanson. "It's diving into helping our students really match their learning experience to the things that we know allow their brains to develop and really learn things deep and personal and tying them to the real world." Eighth-grade students Abigail Gettman and Ava Lortscher are happy for the opportunities they've had through Byron Schools. "The activities we get to do at school like student council or academic triathlon," says Gettman. "National History Day... We were actually partners for it and we went to state and that was really fun because a lot of teachers helped us with it," adds Lortscher. ROCHESTER, Minn. A woman is facing charges after Rochester Police located methamphetamine in a house located in a school zone and in a home with a 2-year-old. Schiann Towle, 40, of Rochester, was arrested after police conducted a search at 1853 17 St. NW. Police said around 10 grams of meth was found in an upstairs bedroom and around 12 total grams were found. Towle is facing charges of second-degree possession of a controlled substance in a school zone and storing meth and paraphernalia in the presence of a child. Police also found property of a man after he left the scene that tied him to drugs in the house and he will be charged at a later date. Jared McKay, 41, of Rochester, will facing charges for third-degree possession of a controlled substance in a school zone and storying meth and paraphernalia in the presence of a child. By Marco Aquino LIMA, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Peruvian Energy and Mines Minister Francisco Ismodes on Thursday proposed making a temporary tax benefit for mining companies part of the country's permanent tax code in order to reduce investment uncertainty in the world's No. 2 copper producer. Miners in Peru have enjoyed refunds on an 18 percent value-added tax rate for nearly two decades thanks to repeated renewals under market-friendly governments. But the tax refund tends to face criticism as its expiration nears, and opposition lawmakers have proposed ending it this year. In 2017 and 2016, the government returned about $3.625 billion to mining companies as part of the refund, according to the country's tax agency. "If this is something that's going to be renewed or extended repeatedly, it's better to just make it part of rules for the (mining) sector," Ismodes told Reuters in a brief interview, stressing that the Economy Ministry would make a final decision. Ismodes said the government of centrist President Martin Vizcarra would at the least extend the tax benefit past this year, when it is now set to expire. Mining is a key driver of economic growth in Peru, where international firms such as Anglo American , Glencore and Freeport-McMoRan Inc operate large mines, and scores of smaller companies prospect for new discoveries. Peru is the world's second largest producer of copper, zinc and silver, and the sixth biggest gold producer. Ismodes also said he expects Congress to approve proposed legislation aimed at promoting investments in oil and natural gas. The proposal, which would extend the length of exploration and drilling contracts, could draw $6 billion in new energy investments, according to a local industry group. "We expect that once the law is approved, oil production will rise by 30,000 barrels of oil per day from the current 40,000 average today," Ismodes said. Peru is a relatively small oil producer and has struggled to compete for energy investments with big regional players such as Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. (Reporting by Marco Aquino Writing by Mitra Taj Editing by Leslie Adler) Messaging: mitra.taj.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) * TC/RC benchmark to drop below $80/T in 2019 -Antaike analyst* Copper smelting capacity in China seen growing by 950kt in 2019* China's copper concentrate market now in deficit -Antaike By Tom Daly XINING, China, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) paid to China's copper smelters are set to drop below $80 a tonne next year as processing capacity expands and copper concentrate falls into a deficit, an influential Chinese research house said on Friday. Copper miners pay the charges to smelters to process ore into refined metal, offsetting what the smelters pay for copper concentrate. An annual benchmark agreed by both sides towards the end of each year plays a large part in determining the profitability of global copper miners and smelters. Rapid growth in Chinese smelting capacity will lead to "more intense competition for raw materials" in 2019, said Yang Changhua, principal analyst at Antaike, the research arm of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, in a market forecast at the China International Copper Forum in Xining. The 2019 benchmark will likely be "below $80," Yang told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. The 2018 TC/RC benchmarks were set at $82.25 per tonne and 8.225 cents per pound, respectively. The charges typically fall when the copper concentrate market tightens. Antaike forecasts that annual copper smelting capacity in China, the world's biggest copper consumer, will increase by 950,000 tonnes in 2019, on top of an expected 1.08 million tonnes of additions this year. "The output of (China's) copper mines is weak, and the supply of scrap copper will be further tightened," Yang said, increasing dependence on concentrate imports and leading to a "downward trend" in TC/RCs. Overseas copper mine output will increase slightly, he said. The world's largest copper mine, Escondida in Chile, recently avoided a labour strike and a potential outage. Freeport-McMoRan Inc in July, however, said a revised development plan at the second-biggest deposit, Grasberg in Indonesia, would reduce copper production during a transition to underground mining in 2019 and 2020. A source at a major Chinese smelter dismissed the Antaike forecast, saying a conclusion drawn by an institution or research house would not change fundamentals. "Let the market talk," the smelter source said, putting current spot TCs at over $90 a tonne. He declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media. Antaike forecasts China's concentrate imports will rise by 9.2 percent next year to 5.22 million tonnes of metal equivalent. Its copper concentrate market is seen flipping to a deficit of 12,000 tonnes this year and a deficit of 10,000 tonnes in 2019, from a 173,000 tonne surplus in 2017. China's refined copper demand growth will be at 3 percent next year, down from 3.1 percent in 2018, Antaike says. (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Tom Hogue) First, the Trump administration took Jerusalem off the table. Now, in an especially dangerous display of recklessness, they have announced their intention to do the same for the Palestinian right of return. The first indication that this was in the works came with the administrations announcement that they would be suspending all US assistance to UNWRA, the UN agency created to address the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians who were forced to flee from their homes in 1948 and again in 1967. More recently, the administration, supported by some Republican members of Congress, launched an effort to limit refugee status to only those Palestinians who were victims of the 1948 expulsions. (In a future article I will address the devastating humanitarian and political consequences that will result from crippling the work of UNWRA.) Because Israel has always rejected its culpability for the Palestinian refugee crisis and has consistently refused to acknowledge that those who fled in 1948 had any rights to repatriation, the US intent to take the refugee issue off the table was described by one Israeli writer as a dream come true. And a minister in Binyamin Netanyahus government celebrated the US move as finally speaking the truth to the Arab lie that has been marketed all over the world for decades... There is no reason for [Palestinians] to dream of returning. Israel claims that they have no responsibility for Palestinian refugees. As is their practise, the Israelis have attempted to exonerate themselves by creating alternate facts that Palestinians voluntarily left their homes or that they were ordered to leave by advancing Arab armies. However, an examination of the historical record establishes that the Zionist political leadership executed a deliberate plan to cleanse entire areas of their Arab inhabitants in order to create a state that would be larger than what was provided by the UN partition resolution, with fewer Arabs. They are indicted by their own words: Yigal Allon (leader of the Palmach the official Zionist military) We saw the need to clean the upper Galilee and to create Jewish continuity in the entire area of the upper Galilee We, therefore, tried a tactic which worked miraculously well. I gathered all of the Jewish Mukhtars, who have contact with the Arabs in the different villages, and asked them to whisper in the ears of the Arabs that a large Jewish reinforcement has arrived in Galilee and that it is going to burn all the villages in the Huleh. They should suggest to these Arabs, as their friends, to escape while they had time to flee. The flight numbered in the myriads. The tactic reached its goal completely. David Ben Gurion (speaking of Plan D, the operation designed to expand the size of the Jewish State and to reduce the number of Arabs within it): These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting them on fire, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their rubble), and especially those population centres that are difficult to control permanently; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the villages, conducting a search inside of them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the border of the state. Yiga Allon: There is a need for strong and brutal reaction. We need to be accurate about timing, place and those we hit. If we accuse a family we need to harm them without mercy, women and children included. Otherwise, this is not an effective operation. During the operation there is no need to distinguish between the guilty and the not guilty. Menachem Begin (leader of the Irgun): Arabs throughout the country, induced to believe wild tales of Irgun butchery, were seized with limitless panic and started to flee for their lives. The mass flight soon developed into a maddened uncontrolled stampede. Of the almost 800,000 who lived in the present territory of the State of Israel, only 165,000 remain. The political and economic significance of this development can hardly be overestimated. In the aftermath of the war, during which thousands of Palestinians were murdered and another 700,000 were forced into exile, Ben Gurion celebrated what he termed a double miracle an Israel with more land and less Arabs After its establishment, Israel compounded its crimes against the Palestinians by passing a series of Orwellian laws that enabled the new state to seize Arab-owned land (over two million acres were taken including businesses, homes, orchards and farmland) and demolish 385 Arab villages all done in the effort to physically erase any evidence of the prior Palestinian presence. I spent time in Palestinian camps in 1971 collecting the nightmarish personal stories of those who were expelled, perusing their family photo albums of the homes they had left behind, and being shown the keys they still carried, which had become a sacred symbol representing what they had lost and hoped to regain. One said to me: The Jews said they remembered for 2,000 years. For me, it has only been 23 years, how can I forget? In the face of this, the actions of the Trump administration are not only dangerous and reckless, they are cruel and insensitive, and violations of international law and covenants. While some conservatives love to cherry pick the celebrated 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights citing their favourite section, Article 18, which guarantees freedom of religion and belief they wilfully ignore other relevant articles: Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 13/2: Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 17/2: no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. In addition, there is the 1948 UN Resolution declaring the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes a resolution that has been regularly and overwhelmingly passed by the UN General Assembly. In the face of this incontrovertible history of Israeli ethnic cleansing and international conventions on the rights of refugees, I cringe when I hear of the Trump administrations intention to take the refugee issue off the table. What they are, in fact, taking off the table is so much more. At stake is: the lives and fortunes of innocent Palestinians and their families; the rule of law; simple human justice and the possibility of peace. The more than five million Palestinians living under occupation and in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria cannot be erased, and in their attempt to do so, it is not only the Israelis who are guilty of the war crime of ethnic cleansing.The Trump administration is making itself complicit in this crime. * The writer is president of the Arab American Institute. * A version of this article appears in print in the 6 September 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Mr Trump, you cannot erase the Palestinian right to return Search Keywords: Short link: European governments must stop their support for the Tehran regime if they are serious about curbing Iranian threats in the region The history of the Iranian regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has revolved around its expansionist ambitions, military threats and overestimation of the countrys military capabilities when facing its enemies. However, there have been hardly any direct military successes for the Iranian regime to boast of since the mullahs took the helm of the country 40 years ago. The confrontation with Iraq in the eight-year war initiated by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein resulted in major losses of life and equipment in Iran. These forced the Iranians to accept a ceasefire in 1988, marking the end of one of the worst conventional wars in recent history. As a result of economic hardships after the war with Iraq coupled with the economic sanctions imposed on the country, the Iranian leadership substituted confrontational war tactics for proxy ones, such as in the present conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. It consolidated its influence in these countries through arming and financing militias such as Hizbullah in Lebanon and Syria and the Houthis in Yemen. These have created havoc in the countries they have operated in, while managing to expand Iranian political and military influence a goal that the Iranians could not have attained by conventional political or military methods. At the same time, the Iranian authorities have adopted the policy of introducing new indigenously manufactured military equipment built entirely in Iran, such as their assortment of short-range and medium-range missiles and other more sophisticated equipment such as fighter jets whose real capabilities are unknown. When the Iranians declared they had developed a new jet fighter called Kosar or Kawthar, military analysts elsewhere found that this was simply a modified version of the F-5 fighter that was available in Iran before 1979, for example. The F-5 is regarded as obsolete, though the Iranians have declared their modified version of it to be a fourth-generation plane equipped with the latest equipment. Clearly, it represents little real threat when facing Western fighters such as the F-15, F-16, F-18, Rafale or Euro fighters owned by Irans Middle Eastern neighbours and Western adversaries. However, the decision by the Iranian military to relocate its short-range Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zu Al-Fuqra ballistic missiles, which have strike ranges of between 200 and 700 km, into Shiite militia-controlled areas of Iraq represents the latest threat by the Iranian regime against its neighbours and an infringement of the sovereignty of the Iraqi state. According to a recent Reuters report, the Iranian aim is believed to be to possess the capability to attack US allies in the Middle East more effectively should the US decide to launch an attack on Iran. While the number of ballistic missiles that have been deployed is only a few dozen, this could be increased significantly and could represent a threat similar to that presented to Saudi Arabia through the ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi rebels in Yemen against Saudi cities. The missiles in Iraq are operated by Shiite militias pledging allegiance to Iran, and they represent a new challenge to the Iraqi government, which is still facing Islamic State (IS) and Turkish aggression from the east and now has to deal with Iranian infiltration from the West as well. Despite its attempts to appear mighty on paper and its score of as high as the 13th-strongest army in the world in the Global Firepower 2018 rankings after Egypt, Irans military has antiquated equipment that is obsolete compared to that of its neighbours. This is mainly due to the years of military sanctions imposed by the international community on Iran and the countrys overreliance on indigenously produced equipment that cannot match that of its Western and regional rivals. It is this that has driven the Iranians to establish a nuclear capability and their attempts to establish a nuclear weapons programme that could secure the country from possible attack. With the exception of Syria, there is hardly a country in the Middle East that has not had problems with the Iranian regime over the past four decades. As a result, any complacency when dealing with the Iranian regime has to stop, especially on the part of European countries that in defiance of US President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear treaty with Iran are still extending credit lines to Irans government in efforts to keep business with the country going and in a desperate attempt to keep the nuclear deal from falling apart. While peace may appear to be the reason behind such moves, Iran has never failed to display its aggressive stance when the chance has been open to it. The deployment of ballistic missiles on Iraqi soil and the continuous support of Hizbullah and Houthi activities should be signals enough for the Europeans and others to cease their wishful thinking that the Iranian regime is going to change. The simple fact is that Iran is still being run by ideologues who care less about the human costs for their own people or for those of others and are only interested in achieving Iranian hegemony over the region. This has been shown in the steps the Iranians have taken towards their neighbours, whether in Iraq, Saudi Arabia or the UAE, and in their threats of annihilation towards Israel and the United States. There have also been covert operations against Egypt and the funding of terrorist organisations such as Hamas with the aim of thwarting peace in the Palestinian Territories. The Iranian missiles deployed in Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, most notably Syria and Yemen, represent a clear and present danger to the security of the region from a regime that has crushed its own people for over four decades and wants to do the same thing in other countries through allies such as Hizbullah and the Houthis. It is high time for European governments to send a clear message to the Iranian regime that such ambitions will keep the country a pariah in the region and that the lifeline provided by the European Union to Iran is conditional on its respecting the boundaries and the sovereignty of all the countries in the Middle East. If this does not happen, the European Union will be shooting itself in the foot by continuing to bail out the Iranian regime economically at a time when that regime has the funds to finance violence in the region. Sooner rather than later, the range of Irans short- and medium-range ballistic missiles will increase to cover areas close to or within the European Union, and when this happens European politicians will have only themselves to blame for having assisted Iran in building weapons that can be aimed at them whenever the mullahs wish to do so. * The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring and The Winding Road to Democracy. * A version of this article appears in print in the 6 September 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Curbing Iranian threats Search Keywords: Short link: Many countries, international and non-governmental organisations, as well as academic and research institutions all over the world, recently celebrated the centennial of the birth of the great late South African leader Nelson Mandela. During his lifetime, Mandela became an icon whose fame and status went far beyond the national borders of his country, not only to the rest of his African continent, but to each and every part of the globe. The significance of Mandela is definitely multi-faceted. He wore many hats and combined many characteristics and qualifications that made him quite unique in the march of humankind in the second half of the 20th century and in the early years of the 21st century. Nelson Mandela started originally as a freedom fighter in the ranks of the African National Congress (ANC). He proved that he was one who continuously fought for a democratic, just and multi-racial society and country. Despite the civil and political oppression, socio-economic exploitation and deprivation, as well as racial segregation and cultural repression the Africans in South Africa suffered under the Apartheid regime, Mandela did not fight for the elimination of the other party, namely the Afrikaans, or the whites in general, but rather for the dismantling of the Apartheid regime, and the establishment of a new South Africa, based on freedom and democracy; equal citizenship rights among the whites, the Africans, the coloured and the Indians; equality before the law; social justice; economic equity; unity and solidarity of society at large; and free expression of everyones culture as long as it does not incite hatred towards the other. Mandela proved also to be a great statesman and politician. When he was arrested and sent into exile on Robben Island in the early 1960s, he did not try to avenge by calling for violence against white civilians, but rather looked, with a far-sighted strategic vision, for the long term interests of his people and country. Whether when on Robben Island or after his release in 1990, Mandela consistently adopted a principled stand, tempered by realism. Although he did not bargain regarding his overall national objectives, he had shown on many occasions a lot of flexibility, willingness to adjust to what exists on the ground, as well as preparedness to adapt to developments and to move from maximalist and immediate demands for change to gradual and incremental ones. Yet, Nelson Mandela went in his fame and popularity one step further when he was elected president of the New South Africa. He insisted to be the president of all South Africans." To this end, he employed a number of tools and instruments, which led to all South African citizens whatever their racial origin, colour, tribal affiliation or ideology genuinely feeling that their country belonged to them all. Consequently, a sense of ownership of their country developed and became deep-rooted inside each and every citizen. For the benefit of his country, this meant that the whites, coloured and Indians did not feel threatened by the rule of the majority-elected ANC, which was unto itself a multiracial party, but naturally predominantly African. This policy of Mandela also meant that no sweeping nationalisations took place and no deliberate policies aimed at coercing part of the population, particularly the whites or the most affluent among the Africans, were pursued. Mandela proved that he learned the lessons of other previous experiences on the continent and beyond it. The next significant milestone in the long march of the late Mandela was when his first term in the presidency elapsed and he insisted on maintaining his position of not running for a second term, in order to ensure during his lifetime, and at the height of his popularity, the democratic and peaceful transformation of power in the new multi-racial South Africa. Although he was not the first historical African leader and president to take such a decision, it was a long time since other African leaders took similar decisions the Senegalese Leopold Senghor and the Tanzanian Julius Nyerere are just two examples in this respect. This decision turned Mandela into a South African, African, and global leader of legend. From then onwards, Mandela spent a lot of his time mediating different conflicts inside the African continent and beyond it, as well as touring many parts of the world upon invitation from governmental and non-governmental organisations to share the lessons learned from his very rich, long and diverse experience. He also assigned a lot of time to launching and supporting initiatives inside his country aimed at the empowerment of the most vulnerable sectors of society. However, one could argue with ease that the most outstanding and sustainable landmark made by the late Nelson Mandela, after his voluntary withdrawal from internal South African politics, was taking the initiative of establishing "The Elders," an independent global group of former world leaders whose secretariat is based in London. The group is composed of legendary figures from different parts of the world, each of whom made outstanding contributions in their lives. "The Elders includes in its membership, for example, figures such as the former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, two former United Nations secretary generals: the late Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon. It also includes in its membership the former Irish president and the first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, former United States President Jimmy Carter, the first female prime minister of Norway and former director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Gro Harlem Brundtland, former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, and the famous Nobel laureate, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "The Elders as a group has tried to be active since its establishment regarding a number of problems, challenges and crises that humanity has faced. The group attempted to send delegations to visit zones of conflict, to meet with relevant parties and stakeholders, and to issue reports with specific recommendations aimed at achieving world peace and security, as well as justice and welfare for humanity at large. The above was just an attempt to shed some light on a number of important milestones in the life of the late Nelson Mandela, who became a legend within his lifetime and will continue to be. Search Keywords: Short link: Second from left, actor Kim Dong-wook, actress Jung Eun-chae and actor Kim Jae wook pose with other cast members of OCN's upcoming mystery thriller "The Guest" during a press conference at Amoris Hall in Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of OCN By Park Jin-hai OCN, a cable movie channel leading in genre experiments, brings exorcism and Shamanism to the local drama market, currently crowded with courtroom dramas and crime thrillers. The upcoming mystery thriller "The Guest," directed by Kim Hong-sun who created the spine-chilling crime thriller "Voice" last year, tells the story of a psychic, a priest and a detective who join together to fight unusual crimes committed by supernatural powers. Various social ills, ranging from the widening gap between the haves and have-nots to hatred and bullying at workplaces, lead to heinous crimes when people are possessed by demons. "We see many hate crimes these days and I wanted to give a different perspective to these crimes through drama," said Kim during a press conference at Amoris Hall in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Thursday. The director and actor Kim Jae-wook, who plays the role of an exorcist, went to the Philippines to meet a real-life exorcist and witnessed the priest's ritual of expelling demons from individuals. "I heard the priest saying that people invited the demons, not the demons taking over them randomly. Watching this drama, viewers might end up thinking that the source of the crimes could be the people," said the director. Actor Kim Jae-wook, credited for his depiction of the cold-blooded psychopathic killer Mo Tae-gu in director Kim's previous work "Voice," plays a cynical and cold priest, Choi Yoon, who alienates people but is recognized for his ability as an exorcist. "For this drama, I thought a great scenario was a must. While reading the scenario, interesting and fresh visuals came to my mind," said the actor. "My previous work with Kim also gave me the assurance that the director would paint a great picture of it, beyond what I could imagine." Actor Kim Dong-wook, who shot to fame after appearing in the hit fantasy film "Along with the Gods" series, plays the role of a psychic Yoon Hwa-pyung who can see the spirits, while actress Jung Eun-chae plays a passionate detective who doesn't believe in supernatural powers. Veteran actor Lee Won-jong will play a male Korean shamanist. Regarding the unusual marriage of exorcism and local shamanism, Kim said he was initially concerned that viewers might feel some distance to see the two in one drama. "Exorcism is a Western concept, originating with the Catholic Church. Korea has had shamanism as its counterpart with a long history. But, we found through research that the two can be compatible with each other in the sense that they both are part of healing," Kim said. He added that his directing was focused on showing how feeble and helpless people can be when faced with supernatural powers. "I wanted to make a high-end well-made thriller. While following the reasons why evil spirits can appear, I'm confident that viewers will get interested and hooked on the drama," said Kim. "The Guest" will be the first Wednesday-Thursday drama for OCN. The cable focuses on dramas, which major local broadcasting TV stations had considered as non-mainstream with a limited viewer base, and has been successfully expanding its influence. It will premiere at 11 p.m., Sept. 12. Improving quality of life key to pulling up birth rate By Yoon Ja-young Kim Young-ji, a working mother in Seoul, gave up having a second child. She had dreamed of having at least two babies, but it wasn't long before she faced the harsh reality. "From the day I came back to work after childcare leave, I started juggling between work and home," she said. It was her job to leave her baby son at a daycare center every morning. Since she comes home late in the evening, she had to find a babysitter to bring her son home from the daycare center. Upon arriving home, she had to prepare dinner and take care of her son. Her husband usually came home late at night like other Korean men, and was of little help. "After paying a babysitter and part-time housekeeper, not much is left from my salary. However, I can't quit my job since we have to pay our mortgage. We will need more money soon to send my son to a hagwon (private cram school). How could we dare have a second child?" As Korean women such as Kim are shunning childbirth like Kim, the number of babies born in the second quarter totaled only 82,000, down 8.7 percent from a year ago. The country's birthrate, or the number of live births per 1,000 women in the reproductive age or between the ages of 15 and 44 years, recorded 0.97 in the second quarter. It came as a shock since such low rates were witnessed only during war or in societies in rapid transition, such as Eastern European countries' transition to capitalism from communism. Korea is the only country in the world with the figure below 1. The low birthrate is leading to an aging society. According to the 2017 census, senior citizens aged 65 or older made up 14.2 percent of the total population last year. The working age population, meanwhile, dropped by 116,000. It is expected that four out of 10 Koreans will be elderly in 2060. Aging threatens the economy since production and consumption slow down while welfare spending snowballs. It will be difficult to pull up economic growth by injecting labor. The country's growth rate is expected to fall to below 1 percent after 2026. The government is all out to raise the birthrate, but it isn't easy since this is a comprehensive problem which involves a tough job market, housing prices, huge private education costs, as well as the low social status of females. Young people delay marriage due to the tough job market, and they give up having a child due to expensive housing. Jung Jae-hoon, a professor at Seoul Women's University, said that Korea should increase spending on overall social welfare such as jobs, housing, education and safety to pull up the birthrate. "The OECD member countries whose rate stood at between 1.5 and 2 during the past few years spent on average 25 percent of their GDP on public social welfare. The ratio is a mere 12 percent for Korea." France, which boasts the highest birthrate in Europe, focused on supporting female participation in the labor market as well as childcare. The support, which includes childcare allowances and tax benefits, doesn't exclude relatively wealthy families either. It is based on the belief that any child should get universal support, with the government taking responsibility. It contrasts with Korea, which determined to exclude the top 10th percentile income bracket in childcare allowances. Yoo Jin-sung, director at the Korea Economic Research Institute, said that welfare spending on basic living expenses, housing and healthcare have a positive effect on the birthrate. "Support for housing, for instance, can increase the marriage rate, which leads to a rise in the birthrate. Flexible labor policy such as flexible work hours and selective work hours for working moms can prevent a falling rate. Korea should pull up the female employment rate and birthrate simultaneously as did Scandinavian countries or the Netherlands," he said. Though it is true that young Koreans are delaying or shunning marriage, some experts point out that it is a universal phenomenon witnessed in other developed countries. For instance, Korean mothers who gave birth to their first child were on average 31.4 in 2016, which is not much higher than Swedish mothers' 29.2. However, Sweden's birthrate is much higher at 1.85. Yoon Hong-sik, professor at Inha University, said that there should be a fundamental change in people's lives. "The country should look into the life of the ordinary people. Young people say that they don't want to have children and see them live in 'Hell Joseon.' It shows the reality of the society," he said. He pointed out that Sweden overcame the low birthrate in the 1930s by tackling difficulties that ordinary people faced in their lives. It focused on improving the quality of life, and the birthrate started to rise as a result. "Unless the overall quality of life is improved, even the rate of one baby per woman will be difficult to maintain," Yoon said. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, second from left, discusses ways to develop a hydrogen ecosystem with a group of industry executives at the head office of Elchemtech, a producer of hydrogen energy generation equipment, in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of the Ministry of Economy and Finance By Park Hyong-ki Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Friday the government will support hydrogen energy companies to develop a sustainable ecosystem surrounding the use, storage and transportation of the clean and alternative energy. He added in a meeting with a group of industry executives that the country is "running out of growth fuel" given the downturn of conventional manufacturers such as shipbuilding, automobiles and steel. The development of a "hydrogen economy" as a new source of growth is desperately needed through the relaxation of rules hindering clean energy research and development. "We will financially support the industry's research and development of hydrogen energy technology, and make sure we closely consult with the private sector on ways to ease rules," Kim said at the meeting in Seoul. This comes as Korea is falling behind the race to develop a hydrogen economy, compared to Japan and China, which have clear step-by-step roadmaps that will help push their new energy companies forward. Korea, on the other hand, hasn't had a policy as precise as that of Japan and China since the former Roh Moo-hyun administration promulgated a clean energy plan for sustainability. Hyundai Motor, a local auto giant, may have mass produced hydrogen cars ahead of its Japanese competitors, but Japanese automakers such as Toyota have surpassed Korea's capacity, analysts say. "Japan has been the most active in implementing its hydrogen policy in an effort to boost its energy self-sufficiency," said Lee Jong-min, an analyst at POSCO Research Institute. "A private-public partnership is important to develop a hydrogen ecosystem." It remains to be seen how the competition particularly between hydrogen and electric vehicles will unfold going forward, the analyst noted, given both energy sources have their strengths and weaknesses. Transportation running on electricity is a lot cheaper than vehicles powered by hydrogen. However, electric cars are affected by the supply and demand for lithium-ion batteries. The cost to develop infrastructure that comes with the production of hydrogen cars is expensive. But they can positively improve the environment as the cars do not emit toxic pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, the researcher noted. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, right, checks out hydrogen energy generation equipment at Elchemtech in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap By Yi Whan-woo For many South Korean conservatives, talks over a declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War has raised concerns over the possible pullout of U.S. troops stationed here as repeatedly demanded by North Korea, and the weakening of the bilateral alliance. So it was surprising that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un downplayed such concerns when President Moon Jae-in's special envoys made a one-day visit to Pyongyang, Wednesday, to discuss a summit this month. "Chairman Kim said the withdrawal of the American military and the weakening of the Seoul-Washington alliance will have nothing to do with a declaration ending the Korean War," National Security Office (NSO) chief Chung Eu-yong said during a press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. "This was what he thought of the nature of the declaration when we asked him." Chung, who led the five-member delegation to the North, also said Kim was fully aware of the security concerns raised by groups of American and South Koreans over talks to end the war. North Korea has for decades been calling for the withdrawal of American soldiers, claiming their presence hampered the creation of peace on the peninsula. But the rhetoric was long perceived by conservatives as a tactic to provoke another war and invade the South. According to Chung, Kim is committed to denuclearization as he agreed to during his summits with President Moon Jae-in, April 27, and with U.S. President Donald Trump, June 12. "Our government, in line with an agreement reached between the two leaders on April 27, deems the declaration of the end of the war as the first step to build trust among the related countries. And Kim sympathized with us during our Pyongyang trip," Chung said. Chung's briefing challenged suspicions that North Korea will not give up nuclear weapons even after the war is declared over, and will continue to pose a threat to regional security. "Chairman Kim spoke about the international community being harsh on Pyongyang's denuclearization efforts, which he said were concrete and meaningful." Chung said. He referred to North Korea's destruction of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in May, and U.S. satellite imagery in July showing the dismantlement of its Tonchang-ri missile test site. "Kim stressed the North is taking preemptive measures for denuclearization and expressed hope that such good will gestures would be accepted in good faith," the NSO chief added. Kim especially fixed the term for nuclear disarmament, saying "I hope to achieve denuclearization within the first term of President Trump, to end the history of North Korea-U.S. hostility and to improve bilateral relations." Trump's presidential term ends in January 2021. Kim also said he has "unwavering faith" in Trump. In response, the U.S. president tweeted, Thursday, "Thank you Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Meanwhile, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Friday the leaders of South Korea and the U.S. are "on the same track" on the need to speed up the denuclearization of the peninsula and the establishment of peace. "With North Korea's message delivered to the U.S, we now expect President Trump and other relevant decision makers to deal with the matter earnestly and take measures accordingly." He added Moon will send NSO chief Chung to China, Saturday, and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon to Japan, Monday, to brief their respective leaders on the Pyongyang visit. Suh jointly led the South Korean delegation to North Korea this week. By Kim Hyun-bin A lawmaker's recent proposal to ban smoking while driving is causing controversy. Supporters say it will prevent drivers from being distracted while smokers claim it will infringe on their rights. Under the traffic law, the use of cellphones or watching programs on digital multimedia while driving are banned because they are distractions. Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Bak Maeng-woo proposed the revision bill to fine drivers up to 200,000 won if they smoke while driving, claiming that getting a cigarette and lighting it also hinders a driver's focus. "Banning smoking while driving will enhance traffic safety and prevent second-hand smoking damage," Bak said. "We are pushing to set the regulation for the safety of the public." Some experts say lighting a cigarette and the smoke from it can hinder a driver's view, which could lead to an accident. There also have been cases where cigarette butts thrown from cars have caused accidents for vehicles traveling in their wake. In 2004, a lit cigarette butt fell inside a truck and the panicked driver crossed over the lanes, killing nine people. There was also a case where a cigarette butt thrown out by a driver caused a fire in a truck. A Ministry of Health and Welfare survey in 2012 found that 82 percent of those surveyed were against smoking while driving, citing the possibility of accidents and the unpleasant smell. Some 97 percent said the government needs to crackdown on the littering of cigarette butts as it causes environmental pollution and could spark wildfires. "As a non-smoker, I think it's a very good idea to ban smoking while driving," a woman surnamed Chung, in her early 30s, said. "I have seen a lot of people just throw their cigarette butts out the window and I am sick of it." On the other hand, smokers are showing outrage at the ban, calling it an infringement of their rights because the inside of their car is their private area. "If you think drivers can be distracted because of smoking, why don't you prohibit watching the navigation device, or eating food inside the car, too?" an online user posted on Daum. "This is pure nonsense," said Lee Ki-wook, a Seoul resident in his late 30s. "I'm paying 4,500 ($4) for each pack and should be allowed to smoke in my car if I want. We live in a democracy; we have our rights and freedom." The opponents say the current traffic law can punish a driver for littering the highway with cigarette butts. But another blogger who supports the bill said: "It's true that inside the car is a private area. But outside is public space. If you want to smoke in the private area, do not open the car window while smoking." For the proposal to become law, experts say there needs to be a correlation between smoking and traffic accidents. Bans on smoking in cars while children are in the vehicles are in force in Australian states, some states in the U.S. and several European countries. By Yi Whan-woo Stephen Biegun This CCTV footage shows immigration officials attacking an Uzbek man near a construction site in Haman, where he was allegedly working without a permit. By Park Si-soo Five immigration officials will be charged with violence against an Uzbek student during a crackdown on undocumented foreigners in South Gyeongsang Province in July. After a two-month probe, the Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency said Friday it had demanded that the prosecution take the officials to trial. It's unlikely the prosecution will reject the call. The investigation was based on CCTV footage, witness testimonies and other evidence. See CCTV footage: https://bit.ly/2QbY3jm The building of Sangdo Kindergarten in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, hangs precariously over the edge, Friday, after its partial collapse the previous night. / Yonhap Cracks on school building floor reported but ignored By Lee Suh-yoon Around 11:20 p.m. Thursday night, residents living near Sangdo Kindergarten in Dongjak-gu in Seoul heard a series of sharp crashing sounds. The three-story preschool building buckled as a retaining wall, which was supporting the foundations of the building, collapsed, causing residents in the area to evacuate. It narrowly missed being a disaster that could have affected over 120 children had it happened during the day. The building, with its windows and signs missing, now precariously hangs over the edge of a slope, tilted about 10 degrees from vertical. The incident happened as some major reconstruction work was taking place next to the kindergarten to redevelop a cluster of small housing units into an apartment complex. Warning signs had appeared in August, including a small crack in a classroom floor, but the construction firm of the apartment complex ignored the kindergarten's complaints, teachers there told reporters, Friday. A day before the collapse, officials from the kindergarten, the district office, and the construction firm held a meeting after an inspection showed the warning signs were too big to ignore. The construction company agreed to present a safety plan but the collapse occurred the next day. Successive rainfall in recent weeks may have contributed to weakening the building's foundations, but this was not the main factor, according to experts. "The rain only hastened the timing of the collapse. The main reason was unsafe excavation work," Lee Soo-gon, a civil engineering professor at the University of Seoul, said in a radio interview. Lee performed a safety check on the kindergarten at the preschool's request five months ago and issued a forewarning. "The geographic conditions of the area showed that major excavation work could lead to building collapses in the surrounding areas," he said. Residents look at the partially collapsed Sangdo Kindergarten building from their balcony, Friday, / Yonhap Joo Myung-geen, 39, shapes a guitar frame at his workshop in the basement of his parents' house in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. / Courtesy of Samsung SDI A salary man finds work-life balance with unusual hobby By Lee Suh-yoon Joo Myung-geen, a father of two and a packaging engineer at Samsung SDI, no longer has time to play the guitar. In fact, he's too busy making them. "The most thrilling part is joining the separate pieces together perfectly," Joo said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "If it doesn't fit, I just pick up the sandpaper again." Crafting guitars from scratch is an unusual hobby in Korea, especially for a 39-year-old salary man who works at Samsung SDI, the battery-making affiliate of Samsung the nation's biggest conglomerate. At work, Joo's job involves testing and tweaking designs for corrugated cardboard trays to safely transport lithium ion batteries. He is one of just 50 certified industrial packaging experts in the country. Joo started his unusual hobby in 2012, a year before he started working at Samsung SDI. He says the craft helped him get over an early mid-life crisis that made him quit his first job at another firm as a packaging engineer for flat screen TVs. "As with everyone at their first job, my enthusiasm made me a 'yes man' at work. And other people took advantage of that to pile all the work on me," Joo said with a sigh. "I was working 13 hours a day and it was also mentally strenuous to work in the same room with such colleagues." The new hobby gave him time to reflect and set his life in order again. "Sanding wood is a long process, it gives you time to imagine possible solutions to your life's troubles," he said. Now, shaping wood helps Joo wind down after work. He usually takes up the sandpaper again at night, after bathing his two children and passing them on to their mother. On Saturdays, he devotes the entire day to honing his craft in the basement under his parent's home, near his own place in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul. "In my favorite American drama series NCIS, the main character Gibbs, exhausted after a full day of chasing down criminals, opens a bottle of beer in his basement and starts sanding wood for a boat," Joo said. "It's an ironic scene because he can't take the boat out of the basement, and it reminds you of the perks you get from the process, rather than the product. Sanding wood is simple and boring, and sometimes that boredom is what you need. There's nothing like sanding to relax you after a busy and stressful day." Joo Myung-geen fits guitar pieces together at his workshop. / Courtesy of Samsung SDI By Oh Young-jin A three-story kindergarten building in Sangdo-dong, just south of the Han River in Seoul, leaned perilously in the middle of Thursday night as earth at a neighboring construction site gave away. A 119 emergency report was received at 11:22 p.m. and personnel arrived soon after to evacuate residents. No one was injured. Emergency personnel found the building leaning 10 degrees. It will have to be demolished. The Dongjak ward office has set up a temporary shelter for residents who evacuated. Police said the retaining wall 20 meters high and 50 meters wide was incomplete and about 80 percent of the structure has been destroyed. The authorities believe part of the ground on which the kindergarten stands suddenly subsided and crumbled into the construction site, causing the tilting. Police said they will continue efforts to find out the exact cause of the collapse. Experts who made preliminary examinations of the scene said the building is irreparable and should be torn down. They were yet cautious to draw any definitive conclusion on the cause of the accident, although many of them cited that recent downpours may have affected the area. By Lee Min-hyung Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha called for international society to deliver strong support for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula in a meeting with foreign diplomats here Friday. At a luncheon meeting with the diplomats, she underlined the need for them to make concerted efforts for complete denuclearization of the peninsula. "We are facing challenges and hardships before reaching our destination of lasting peace on the peninsula," Kang said in a speech at Woosuk University, before meeting with the diplomats. "The goal is a long-term task that requires patience and effort," she said. The two Koreas need to continue to engage in peace talks to ease inter-Korean military tension and reach a detailed consensus for complete denuclearization, Kang added. After the luncheon, she went to Jeonju Hanok Village in the city of Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul. On Friday, Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan also engaged in activities to promote worldwide peace. He visited the inter-Korean border village of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with a group of diplomats. Forty eight participants from embassies in Korea joined the DMZ tour where they took a look at the reality of the division of the Korean Peninsula. The tour was arranged as part of the government's efforts to promote the ongoing peace momentum here following the historic inter-Korean summit, April 27 this year. The latest event was arranged after the Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to South Korea Hayder Shiya Al-Barrak urged the foreign ministry in July to organize the event for them to have vivid experiences of the region at a time when the two Koreas are showing signs of harmony. To promote the rare signal for peace, the government also recently unveiled plans to develop the border area into an international tourist attraction symbolizing peace. "We want the foreign diplomats to see with their own eyes the DMZ, which will become a major place for peace tourism," Do said, calling for their support for the two Koreas to continue promoting the message of peace across the globe. The government expects the event to play a critical role in drawing international support to promote inter-Korean peace. After holding two summits this year, President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plan to have a third one for three days from Sept. 18 to 20 in Pyongyang. The upcoming dialogue between the leaders from the two Koreas will help resolve the ongoing political stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang, with President Moon playing a "mediating role" to help U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim make smooth progress in their denuclearization talks. On Wednesday, a five-member South Korean special envoy delegation visited Pyongyang where the North's young leader reiterated his firm determination to realize peace on the peninsula and bring the stalled dialogue with the U.S. up to momentum and back on track. In a meeting with the special envoys, Kim expressed frustration that international society continues to doubt his strong resolve for denuclearization despite his sustained peace efforts. Kim said his faith in Trump remained "unwavering," pledging not to stop realizing his pledge for complete denuclearization. A South Korean man was killed in a pistol attack on the Philippine island of Cebu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday. The man in his 20s suffered a total of eight gun shots to his head, body and hand in the second-floor hallway of a motel on the Filipino island on Sunday in the incident that occurred at around 6:17 p.m. (local time), according to the ministry. Local police are investigating the case, identifying a Filipino resident as a suspect. South Korea's Consulate General there has dispatched a consular official and a South Korean police officer, assigned to the Korea desk of the diplomatic mission, to the scene. They asked local authorities to conduct a thorough probe. Last month, a South Korean tourist came under gun attack by an unidentified assailant while getting into a taxi in Manila. His wound was not life-threatening. In May, a South Korean national residing in Manila was also shot to death by an armed man. (Yonhap) By Heo Mane Statism takes varied forms from monarchism to totalitarianism. Monarchism refers to a system of monopoly of power by a king or queen, while totalitarianism is a system of total mobilization of power by a ruler. The former is an old type of despotic rule, while the latter is based on the particular ideology for complete state control over political machinery and people. The other statism refers to the Communist and Socialist rule in which the economy is based on state ownership of the means of production and state-directed allocation of resources. Both are patterned after the Soviet-type economic system and highly controlled political structure where people do not enjoy freedom of press and speech, and human rights are not respected. Korea today fundamentally is a free democratic state whose economy is based on free-market operation and private entrepreneurship. The Korean economy once followed state capitalism in terms of function and operation. The Korean economy once took dirigisme, which was once operated in France during the second half of the 20th century. However, as the economy has developed over the past five decades or more, Korea today essentially has developed political culture deeply embedded in pluralism which respects free democracy, rule of law, freedom of press and human rights. However, we practiced state capitalism during the Park Chung-hee government from the beginning of the 1960s to the late 1970s. The then conservative government made an economic miracle through state capitalism which finally raised up the Korean pride, putting the country into the OECD club. In the end, the economic miracle gave us the capabilities to struggle against nuclear North Korea. The conservative Saenuri Party lost its power and fell to pieces following the massive candlelight rallies against then President Park Geun-hye over her alleged involvement in a corruption and influence peddling scandal in late 2016 and early 2017. Members of the party, including pro-Park politicians regrouped and created Liberty Korea Party (LKP), which is now in opposition. The party is now in a state of political dwarfism seen for the first time since the start of the 21st century. Kim Byong-joon, the interim leader of the LKP, mentioned the term statism in an attempt to criticize a series of economic policies of the Moon Jae-in government. Kim pointed out that the Blue House and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) have increasingly leaned toward statism in which the liberal administration has increased its intervention in operating the market economy. The government is playing a bigger role in the market economy than any previous governments did. For instance, the government raised the minimum wage by a whopping 16.7 percent this year as part of efforts to keep Moon's campaign promise. It also implemented a shorter 52-hour workweek July 1. The wage hike and the shortened workweek are core elements of President Moon's income-led growth policy aimed at revitalizing the economy by creating more jobs and boosting income for employees, especially poor workers. Ironically, however, such measures have so far failed to produce intended results. Small business and the self-employed reduced their hiring in a desperate effort to cut down on growing labor costs arising from the sharp minimum wage hike. Moon's economic policymakers seemed to have adopted those measures without considering the stark reality of the economy which is still unable to brace the higher minimum wage. They also seemed to ignore the free market function and private entrepreneurship. Their policy measures have only led small- and medium-sized businesses to close, causing a large number of unemployment. In particular, a great number of small shops operating 24 hours have closed, causing young students to lose even their part-time jobs. This is a consequence of the unrealistic and misguided policy measures of the government. In other words, the measures lack viability and sustainability under the current market and economic structure. Policymakers should have noted that the income-driven economic growth policy essentially has its marginal efficiency. In short, it seems that it is not realistically possible for policymakers to solve the present economic stalemate only with a fighting spirit for democracy. They need, in reality, a flexible application of the income-led growth policy combined a free market-promoted economic strategy. This means that investment and consumption, on the one hand, and income growth and production promotion, on the other, must go hand in hand and they should not be separated. Korea is facing the fallout of an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. Thus policymakers are required to take more appropriate and effective measures to cope with mounting challenges and reinvigorate the economy. But statism is only a recipe for failure. Heo Mane ( mane398@naver.com ) is a professor emeritus and adviser of the Korea-EU Forum. President Trump needs a new slogan for those red hats the White House sells, one that more closely reflects the true impact of his policies. Here's a suggestion: MASA, for Make Air Sooty Again. That's what will happen if the president gets his way and manages to increase the amount of coal that U.S. power plants burn to make electricity. The administration's announcement recently that it intends to replace President Obama's Clean Power Plan with a new Affordable Clean Energy rule quite the Orwellian appellation, given that coal is the dirtiest of energy sources is another step down the road to air more laden with carbon, particulates and smog-breeding pollutants after decades of progress. The only silver lining in this particularly sooty cloud is that burning coal also is among the more expensive ways of generating power, and market forces independently are leading power companies to phase out existing coal-fired plants or drop plans for new ones in favor of sources powered by natural gas or renewables such as wind and solar. Obama's Clean Power Plan sought to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 32 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030, achieved by setting limits for each state but giving them wide latitude in figuring out how to hit the targets. The rule was also projected to yield life-saving reductions in other forms of pollution from power plants. Experts say that carbon emissions must be reduced even more sharply than Obama's goal if we are to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, but the Clean Power Plan moved us in the right direction. Notably, power generation is the nation's second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after transportation. Unfortunately, the Clean Power Plan was stalled in the courts courtesy of a lawsuit brought by 27 Republican-led states and never went into effect. Still, experts say the country is on target to meet many of the emissions goals anyway, though they warn that if Trump gets his way, the reductions are likely to slow. The new plan sets guidelines for states to follow in getting power plants to use existing technology to operate more efficiently and measuring success based on improvements in the heat rate, or amount of power generated by burning fuel. The plan also allows states to relax pollution controls that would extend the lives of existing coal-fired plants. States would have three years to devise standards individualized to local utilities and subject to Environmental Protection Agency approval. Environmental advocates say that's an abdication of federal responsibility under the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon emissions. And even the EPA acknowledges that the plan is likely to cause up to 1,400 more premature deaths a year from pollution-related ailments. The plan falls in line with the administration's decision to freeze fuel economy standards for cars, light trucks and SUVs, as well as Trump's retrograde promises to revive the coal and nuclear power industries. The president's efforts on the latter front include a so-far fruitless proposal to require utilities to buy costlier power from coal and nuclear plants at consumers' expense. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wisely rejected that request by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, but the administration is continuing to push the issue by trying to frame increased use of coal and nuclear power as necessary to maintain a stable power grid as a matter of national security. That's hogwash, and the energy regulators said as much when they expressed doubt that the national security designation was legally defensible. In fact, the commission rejected the proposal unanimously, and four of the five members are Trump appointees. So this idea is too cockamamie for even some of his own people. Beyond the administration's attempts to put a thumb on the scale of the energy market in favor of big polluters hypocritical at best given Republicans' general embrace of free market forces the president's policies pose a dire threat to the health of Americans and weaken efforts to try to combat climate change and rid the air of particles damaging to human health. They must be opposed both in the courts and at the ballot box. The above editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Korea should step up cooperation with emerging economies Biotechnology is an industry that will feed the nation in the future. It is a crucial sector that can help the Korean economy grow and sustain itself, as the electronics-information communications industry did in the past. The nation began to recognize biotechnology as a future growth engine two decades ago and has since made various efforts to enhance it. However, the results have been far from satisfactory. Biotech is also a sector that should be developed under a long-term plan, as it has many regulations and a high entry barrier. For a country like Korea with a small domestic market, to build the biotech industry successfully it should be able to link a local success model to exports. It is significant in this regard that several Asian nations have just established a bio-economic community under the initiative of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, or KoreaBio. The "Asian Bio-industry Leaders' (ABL) Network," which was launched here Thursday, is likely to serve as a foundation to globalize Korea's biotech companies. The eight countries that are taking part in the network are Korea, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Taiwan and Israel. Korea plays host to its secretariat, gaining a foothold in taking a leading role in the network. The ABL Network will likely function as a tool to promote cooperation among emerging nations, sharing development information, and connecting technology and capital. Korea will likely acquire know-how and pre-empt the market by taking the initiative in the network. On the one hand, the nation can benchmark advanced bio infrastructure, laws and systems, and the industrial ecosystem of regional bio powerhouses such as Singapore, Israel and Taiwan. On the other, it can develop latecomers, such as Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia, into new export destinations following China, and thus diversifying its overseas markets. Compared to advanced countries, Korea's bio industry is in its initial stages. It has little experience of success, and a poor infrastructure. Without support from the government, the industry cannot even stand by itself yet. We hope the launch of the ABL Network will serve as an opportunity to promote Korea's bio industry as a critical sector through creating successful models, developing export markets and gaining brand loyalty. By Oh Young-jin Jang Ha-sung, President Moon Jae-in's top adviser, has been going all-out to defend his boss' signature "income-led growth" policy (It is as much Jang's as Moon's, though). The former anti-chaebol professor's promotional tour was highlighted by his rare on-the-record meeting with Cheong Wa Dae correspondents on Aug. 26. Jang talked as if back in a classroom, explaining the distribution-oriented three-stage program that smells a tad of socialism. The three stages are bigger incomes, innovative growth and finally a fair economy, a transition enforced by big government. In his lecture, few assertions sounded more ironic than this: The minimum wage increase amounts to an extremely small portion of the income-led growth policy. That puts the lie to the ongoing controversy that is threatening to unravel Moon's economic policy. The hourly minimum wage is about 7,530 won, up 16.4 percent from last year. Although Moon officially gave up his campaign promise of raising it to 10,000 won by 2020, he will pursue it by the end of his term in 2022, meaning additional increases over the next three years. Now, thousands of small merchants, including convenience store owners, are protesting against the minimum wage rises that they say are driving them out of business. This show of disapproval is giving life to the political opposition that had otherwise been reduced to a lifeless basket case. Some critical scholars claim that Moon's policy is to blame for the decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter to 0.6 percent from the first quarter's 1 percent. They argue that the onslaught of the bad effects of the wrong policy beat their expectations by several months at least. Of course, it beats me as well how their excuse makes sense, considering the minimum wage is all that has been implemented so far out of Moon's growth playbook, and it has only been in effect for half a year or so. Moon's playbook has many more chapters to come: fiscal support for the distressed small merchants, on top of administrative incentives such as lower transaction fees; an increase in the basic pension and greater medical coverage for the elderly; the expansion of welfare infrastructure and urban regeneration; and finally a stronger social safety net and welfare system. There are two things worthy of note. First, this growth policy is a progressive one that is so important to making the Moon government what it should be. If the government gives in to the detractors' demand for a reset of its economic policy, it would mean losing its entire economic agenda. Once it shows its readiness to click rightward and allow for moderation, it would lose its support base and subject itself to bigger demands. Second, Moon's policy is no doubt expensive so who will pick up the tab? Jang gave his answer, loud and clear. "Household income dropped from 67.9 percent to 61.3 percent, while corporate income rose from 17.6 percent to 24.5 percent," he told the reporters, comparing the change in respective portions to gross national income (GNI) from 2000 to 2017. If one doesn't get the clue, here is his giveaway: "Corporations have not increased their investment, with 'corporate savings' amounting to 36 trillion won in 2016." So one purse for the change would be taken up by conglomerates _ or more precisely chaebol, as Jang said innovative growth stems from small and medium companies because big ones don't invest and are therefore of no help in increasing the nation's growth potential. The other purse would be big-income individuals, as Jang said of the income imbalance: "The gap between the top 10 percent of the income pyramid and the bottom 10 percent was the third highest among OECD member countries in 2016." What all this indicates is an emerging struggle, pitting the progressive government against corporations and individuals with means: the first trying to squeeze the second for shakedowns to support the have-nots in the grand game of redistribution. The two sides can't afford to take a step back in a do-or-die duel. Oddly, it is as seen in the merchants' opposition to the higher minimum wage small people that are standing in the way of the changes that Jang is pushing for in their interest. This is only part of the challenge facing what Jang calls a "paradigm-shifting" economic policy. The bigger challenge is the changing economic situation. People who got new jobs in July numbered 5,000, compared with 313,000 a year ago, inducing some to brand it the onset of an employment cliff. Apartment prices also are skyrocketing, not just in Gangnam, southern Seoul, but in northern areas, in a scenario that makes the rich richer and exasperates the poor for getting poorer. Jang tried to explain away that the mere year-to-year comparison between the numbers of newly employed could be meaningless. And there was no talk about a big-stick policy to force the speculative fever down. But if there is more evidence of a worsening economy, or if the popular perception of the bad economy strengthens, nobody would bother to listen to Jang or anybody else. Now is the time to act before that happens, and in the initial stages of the struggle Jang has to go full throttle. Jang didn't say everything when he presented the minimum wage policy as something minuscule because, if it were so, it would be the quintessential minuscule thing that could make or break Moon's economic policy. He must know it. Oh Young-jin (foolsdie5@koreatimes.co.kr, foolsdie@gmail.com ) is the digital managing editor of The Korea Times. 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." LG Electronics CEO and Vice Chairman Jo Seong-jin, third from left, inspects an auto parts production line in ZKW's factory in Wieselburg, Austria, Wednesday. Jo visited its Austrian automotive lighting system firm for the first time since LG acquired it for 1.4 trillion won ($1.24 billion) in April. / Courtesy of LG Electronics Vice Minister for Transport Kim Jeong-ryeol speaks during a press briefing to announce a new plan to enhance carmakers' recall schemes at the Government Complex in Sejong, Thursday. / Yonhap By Nam Hyun-woo The automobile industry is expressing concerns about a government plan to impose punitive measures on carmakers negligent in recalls. They said that introducing punitive damages and enhancing investigations will end up causing potential technology leaks, and a greater administrative workload. According to the transport ministry, Friday, carmakers will be subject to heavier fines under the new penalty scheme. Automakers found to have scaled down or covered up defects in models will have to pay fines equivalent to 3 percent of an affected vehicle's overall sales. Also, fines for delayed recalls will be raised to 3 percent of the model's sales from 1 percent at present. When serious damage is incurred by consumers due to a manufacturer's negligence, the company will have to compensate the consumers at least five times the financial damage as a "punitive damage award." Along with the stiff fines and compensation, the government will require "all necessary documents" of the manufacturer when it launches an investigation of models feared to contain risks. Automobile industry officials showed a lukewarm response about the action, while some are questioning its effectiveness. "The move could be welcomed in terms of consumer protection," a domestic car company official said. "However, there are worries about confusions in determining the amount of fines and punitive damages, as well as the possibility of technology leaks." To the government's data request for its investigations, companies have been submitting documents "selectively" so far. But under the new plan they must hand over whatever documents the authorities want, meaning the core technology of their products could be disclosed to the public. "Burdens for companies will increase after the punitive measures," another official from a separate carmaker said. "With cars containing more advanced technologies, it is becoming more difficult to find out which parts were defective after a recall. Of course, carmakers should be more careful and thorough in making products, but it is also true that the enhanced punishment against manufacturers puts pressure on the companies, which will have to use more of their resources for administrative responses to government actions." he said. Experts say the new plan is somewhat meaningful for enhancing the responsibility of carmakers, but still lacks the essence of consumer protection and manufacturers' vigilance while posing excessive pressure on the industry. "It's true that it is a step forward," said Kim Phil-soo, a professor at Daelim University's Automotive Engineering Department. "Given that companies are having a hard landing following the government's pro-labor policies, however, this is a new burden for them." "Maybe the government could have been more flexible with the companies, such as introducing systems to encourage them to enhance self-monitoring," he said, adding that carmakers in the U.S. prove their vehicles are not defective by themselves, while the majority of defects were proven by consumers and private experts in Korea. The government's new plan came in the middle of BMW Korea's recall of 106,317 vehicles in Korea, following dozens of engine fires in its cars so far this year. BMW has been criticized for belatedly responding to the intensive series of fires, launching a recall Aug. 20, and not cooperating with the government's request for data. Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun, left, talks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hyundai's fuel cell electric vehicle Nexo during the Korea-India Business Summit in February. / Captured from the official twitter account of the Embassy of India in Seoul By Nam Hyun-woo Hyundai Motor will reinvent itself as a provider of smart mobility services to cope with rapid changes in the automobile industry, Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun, said, Friday. During the Move Global Mobility Summit 2018 in India, Chung, Hyundai Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo's only son and heir-apparent, said: "We are actively transitioning from a car manufacturer to a smart mobility provider." "Innovative changes in the field of mobility are tools that can improve not only our daily lives but also environmental and energy problems we are facing now," he said. "And I am convinced that these changes will connect urban and rural areas, reality and imagination, and people." During his speech, Chung announced a three-pronged strategy to achieve the transition _ clean mobility, freedom in mobility and connected mobility. For clean mobility, Chung said electric vehicles (EVs) are the most important component to achieve this mission, adding that the company is ready to deliver every type of EV including hybrid EVs, EVs and fuel-cell EVs. To achieve freedom in mobility, Chung said the company "aims to provide an environment where everyone has unlimited access to safe and convenient transportation," while developing a connected car program to link cars, homes, offices and the even wider urban environment, resulting in connected mobility. During his speech, Chung also pledged to roll out three EVs in the Indian market, as well as retailing the Nexo fuel-cell EV in the near future, in order to contribute to India's efforts to improve its air quality. "Hyundai Motor Group is striving to provide freedom of movement to everyone by investing in mobility services, such as car sharing and hailing, by building close relationships with leading mobility service providers in India," Chung said. Under the theme of "Shared, Connected and Zero Emissions Mobility," the conference was participated in by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, CEOs of leading global mobility companies, scholars and key government officials from major countries. During the conference, Modi visited the Hyundai Motor booth and met Chung to share their opinions on new technologies. Earlier in February, Modi tested the Nexo and showed a keen interest in the vehicle's technology during the Korea-India Business Summit held in New Dehli. "Hyundai Motor India Limited was established in 1996 and it is now a major Hyundai Motor base exporting cars to 90 countries," Chung said. "Hyundai Motor will continue joining India's great journey for the future it is dreaming of." In the Indian market, Hyundai Motor is the No. 2 brand, selling more than 320,000 vehicles from January to July this year, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier. By Nam Hyun-woo U.S. activist fund Elliott has issued a fresh governance reform proposal to Hyundai Motor Group (HMG), demanding the group "demerger" its auto parts unit Hyundai Mobis. In an Aug. 14 letter made public Friday, Elliott said: "Despite our repeated call for enhanced capital returns, optimized financial structure, and transparent governance structure that received support from both shareholders and the market, HMG has yet to take any substantive steps to address the concerns that continue to burden HMG and its share value." In the latest proposal, Elliott demanded the demerger of Mobis into module and core-parts business, and after-sale services business, and the merger the former business into Glovis and the latter into Hyundai Motor Company, meaning the breakup of Hyundai Mobis. After the demerger, Elliott called for Hyundai Motor to purchase shares from Kia Motors and the owner family to simplify its structure. Also, Elliott urged HMG to establish a "Restructuring Review Committee" inviting shareholders to "drive improving corporate structure, optimize capital management and shareholders returns, and enhance the boards of HMG's affiliates with diversity and expertise," as well as demanding a stronger dividend policy. Hyundai Motor Group said it "rejected Elliott's proposal because of legal limits," without elaborating further. Analysts say Hyundai rejected the fresh proposal because it does not resolve regulations on unfair internal trading and restructuring for long-term growth was absent. Criticism is also mounting that Elliott used the media by disclosing the letter to buoy the Hyundai company stocks it has. Elliott revealed in the letter that it owns a 3 percent stake in Hyundai Motor, 2.1 percent in Kia Motors and 2.5 percent in Mobis. In May, HMG withdrew its March 28 governance restructuring plan aimed at breaking its circular shareholding and improving its corporate governance. Under the plan, the group planned to start restructuring by spinning off Mobis' lucrative modules and after-service divisions and merging them with the logistics unit Hyundai Glovis. The remaining Mobis was supposed to become a controlling firm with the focus on developing technologies such as self-driving and connectivity. The withdrawal came after an opposition campaign led by Elliott, which demanded a stronger dividend policy and a revaluation of Mobis. Elliot then said it owned a more than 2.5 percent stake. 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. Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Los Angeles is cracking down on illegal pot shops -- again. L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Friday the Los Angeles Police Department has helped his office bring forward 120 criminal cases against 515 people connected to 105 cannabis businesses. It's the second wave of crackdowns in the city this year, and punishments for the misdemeanor charges could include up to six months in jail and fines of $1,000. Back in May, Feuer charged 142 people over illegal pot business activity. But the threat of criminal prosecution hasn't stopped many of the city's other unlicensed operators. "Our message is clear," Feuer said in a news release. "If you are operating an illegal cannabis business you will be held accountable." ISN'T THIS JUST A GAME OF WHACK-A-MOLE? A little bit. The city attorney's office provided addresses for the businesses it's prosecuting. They say the businesses include unlicensed shops, as well as grow sites, extraction labs and delivery companies. Here's where those 105 businesses are located: But there's plenty more where that came from. SO WHAT'S THE POINT? More than eight months into California's legalization of recreational marijuana, many of L.A.'s legal pot shops are still struggling. That's because they have to compete with hundreds of unlicensed shops that offer lower prices by skirting taxes and regulations. In L.A., getting a pot shop license takes time. There are strict rules, and the city's schedule for processing license applications has been slower than expected. Earlier this year, the city gave temporary approval to existing dispensaries that have been playing by the city's previous rules for medical marijuana businesses. Recently, the city has been focused on license applications from the city's existing non-retail businesses, like growers and manufacturers. But there's still no word on when it will start accepting cannabis business license applications from the general public. Marijuana on a scale at a dispensary in Los Angeles, California on Feb. 8, 2018. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images) On top of that, prices are much lower at illegal shops. It's not uncommon to see similar pot going for half the price at unlicensed shops. Why? Licensed shops have to pay state and local taxes, which get passed on to the customer. Once the state levies its 15 percent excise tax, and the city adds its 10 percent gross receipts tax, and sales taxes add about another 10 percent, recreational pot prices at legal shops are significantly higher than at unlicensed shops. "We just can't compete with these illegal dispensaries that are undercutting us... If they make [taxes] lower and actually let us compete against the illegal dispensaries, then we would see a return of our long-time customers," La Brea Collective president Daniel Sosa told KPCC in May. HOW CAN I TELL IF A POT SHOP IS ILLEGAL? L.A.'s Department of Cannabis Regulation maintains an online list and map of the city's 163 licensed businesses. If a shop is not on the list, the city wants customers to avoid it. However, popular sites like Weedmaps -- think of it like Yelp for pot -- list all kinds of businesses, licensed or not. For example, here's what part of Downtown L.A. looks like on the city's map of licensed businesses: The city's cannabis regulation department has a map of licensed L.A. pot businesses. Here's what it looks like in part of downtown LA, Sept. 7, 2018. And here's what the same area looks like on Weedmaps: Weedmaps gives its users results for many businesses that are not on the city's list of licensed pot shops, Sept. 7, 2018. Stores on sites like Weedmaps advertise their prices. For customers who don't know (or don't care) that certain businesses aren't licensed, why wouldn't they pick the spot with the cheapest prices? News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now. La Jolla 76 station 86ed The Unocal 76 gas station at 801 Pearl St., at the corner of Eads Avenue, has closed and plans are underway to demolish and replace it with a mixed-use building featuring 12 condos, four retail spaces and an underground garage. The La Jolla Community Planning Association voted 13-0-1 to approve Coastal Development and Site Development permits for the project on Oct. 15, 2015, recommending that the City complete an environmental study, look into the possibility of a left-hand turn lane at the intersection and add a stop sign at the top of the driveway ramp leading from the structure. Mark Conger, former owner of the 76 station and the lot it stood on, did not return several phone messages from the Light. However, an employee of the station who was stripping the interior of its valuables and declined to provide his name said that Conger has turned the keys over to the new guy, whom he identified as a Canadian property owner. Theyre going to put up a construction fence, the employee said, but its up to them when everything gets done. The project will situate three condos above four ground-floor retail spaces fronting Pearl Street, with the remainder on the south side accessible from an interior courtyard. The garage, which will contain about 40 spaces, will be accessible from Eads Avenue. UCSD invents nanosponge to fight arthritis UC San Diego engineers have invented a microscopic sponge a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair that absorbs proteins that trigger rheumatoid arthritis. When injected into mice with the disease, the nanosponge (nanoparticles of biodegradable polymer coated with the membranes of a specific type of white blood cell) reduced inflammation and shielded joints from further cartilage loss. Nanosponges are a new paradigm of treatment to block pathological molecules from triggering disease in the body, said nanoengineering professor Liangfang Zhang, lead author on the study, published in Nature Nanotechnology. Rather than creating treatments to block a few specific types of pathological molecules, we are developing a platform that can block a broad spectrum of them, and this way, we can treat and prevent disease more effectively and efficiently. Zhang and his team previously developed red-blood-cell nanosponges that combat and prevent MRSA invections and macrophage nanosponges that treat sepsis. Troubled water director resigns Vic Bianes, director of San Diegos Public Utilities Department, has resigned after less than a year. Bianes short tenure was marked by complaints of huge water bill overcharges that stoked public outrage. (An analysis by the San Diego Union-Tribune showed that single-family homes serviced by the Citys water department were collectively overchargd by more than $2 million last year.) Matt Vespi will serve as interim director while the City conducts a nationwide search for Bianes successor. It has also temporarily hired an experienced water official, assistant chief operating officer Stacey LoMedico, to audit operations and identify additional systemic problems. Paul Reiser cancels on Comedy Store Comedian Paul Reiser canceled his standup appearances scheduled for Friday, Sept. 7 and Saturday, Sept. 8 at the Comedy Store. Unfortunately, he did so after the deadline for the Lights Aug. 30 issue, which featured an interview with the former Mad About You star promoting the shows. A representative for Reiser blamed the cancellation on a scheduling conflict due to filming. She said she doubted, but did not know for sure, whether it was related to a Mad About You reboot that Reiser told the Light might still happen. The rep promised that the shows would be rescheduled, and that the Light would be the first to know when. Bry requests Torrey Pines shift to all night work District 1 Council member Barbara Bry has officially requested overnight work for the entire Torrey Pines Slope Restoration Project. Over the past several weeks, my office has heard from residents and businesses who have expressed their concerns regarding the traffic, Bry wrote in an Aug. 30 memo to City Public Works director James Nagelvoort. I ask that all measures be taken to minimize the disruption of traffic during the day by shifting construction hours to night time. Last month, supervisors of the project told the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board that daytime work would add 30 minutes to each of the 53,000 daily trips vehicles make in and out of La Jolla every weekday until at least early December. (La Jollans experienced similar Torrey Pines Road jams due to daytime work from March through May.) Brys memo also asked that, should night work occur, accommodations be made to ensure that disruption (especially noise) to the surrounding area be minimized. Sick waves! SIO finds that waves keep pathogens by shore Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) researchers have found that ocean waves trap pollutants and keep them near shore for longer than was previously thought. This new finding, made in collaboration with researchers from the University of Washington, could change the way health officials look for pathogens along coastlines when determining beach closures especially after storms, when runoff is likely to carry them from land to the ocean via river plumes and small drainage outlets. Angelica Rodriguez, a PhD student at SIO and lead author of the study, modeled how river plumes disperse in coastal waters in the presence of breaking surface waves. Her results showed that wave-current interactions trap water in the surf zone very close to shore and move it parallel to the coast, rather than offshore as they do more readily in the absence of waves. Our results indicate that wave-current interaction is significant to the dilution process and may explain why high levels of pathogens remain in the surf zone and are transported along the coastline, Rodriguez said of the study, which was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Goods sought for church rummage sale La Jolla Lutheran Church will hold its annual rummage sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 on church grounds at 7111 La Jolla Blvd. Net proceeds will benefit Feeding America San Diego, as they did last year. Donations of items to sell are appreciated, a church spokesperson said. All donations can be brought to the church Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays through Sept. 12. For more information, call (858) 454-6459. Place school supplies in good hands San Diego-area Allstate agency owners are donating school supplies to benefit needy students through a program called SKIP (Special Kids Interested Parents). Now through Sept. 7, La Jollans may drop off pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, pencil cases, erasers, crayons, washable markers, highlighters, scissors, notebooks or folders at the Allstate agency owned by Jawad S. Bisharat at 7858 Ivanhoe Ave. (858) 454-7808. Shaunas moved on ... The streets of La Jolla no longer have Shauna Smith roaming them. The polarizing 30-year La Jolla resident whom locals tended to adore or abhor has moved hundreds of miles away, to a desert community where, says longtime benefactor Kirsten Harrison-Jack, she feels less judged and more at peace. She writes me a bazillion texts saying how much fun shes having, says Harrison-Jack, a La Jolla clinical psychologist who continues to foot Smiths rent and phone bills. Nobodys judging her based on being different or sticking out. After her year lease is up, Harrison-Jack says, Smith may stay where she is, move somewhere else or return to La Jolla. According to Harrison-Jack, one of the reasons Smith was always on La Jollas streets even after she was housed was that her apartment in La Jolla was so tiny. Now, shes got a normal-size one-bedroom, Harrison-Jack says. Itll let her relax more and give her the peace and quiet she needs to get going on the book. Smith and Harrison-Jack plan to collaborate on Smiths autobiography, as has been reported by the Light several times over the past three years. Shes lived her life in so many marginalized categories intersex, homeless, African-American its amazing that she has the inner strength, but she does, Harrison-Jack says. Though she is Smiths benefactor, friend and co-author, Harrison-Jack wants it known that she has never served as her therapist or doctor. It was raining really hard one night and I saw Shauna outside and I couldnt take it, she says. I helped her get a hotel room and it progressed. LJCPA to address Playa del Norte parking at September meeting September marks the conclusion of the six-month pilot program to have limited parking at the end of Playa del Norte in WindanSea as a way to deter illegal parking and disruptive activities, but preserve the view treasured by surfers. As such, the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) will discuss the program and its efficacy during its 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7 meeting at La Jolla Rec Center, 615 Prospect St. The Home Owners Association for the complex adjacent the area and the WindanSea Surf Club will each give presentations. Prior to the limited parking, the City installed stanchions to keep people from parking their cars in the red-curbed area, and reportedly engage in illegal activity. However, those that use the area to view the surf conditions advocated for the stanchions to be removed. In March, the City opted to remove the stanchions and test the limited parking for six months. lajollacpa.org La Jolla researcher may have solved mystery illness The publicly reported symptoms of a mystery illness afflicting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba and China strongly match the known effects of pulsed radiofrequency/microwave electromagnetic (RF/MW), says UC San Diego School of Medicine professor Beatrice Golomb, whose unfunded study findings will run in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Neural Computation. I looked at whats known about pulsed RF/MW in relation to diplomats experiences, said Golomb. Everything fits. The specifics of the varied sounds that the diplomats reported hearing during the apparent inciting episodes, such as chirping, ringing and buzzing, cohere in detail with known properties of so-called microwave hearing. Beginning in 2016, personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba (as well as Canadian diplomats and family members) described hearing strange sounds, followed by an array of symptoms. Though some officials and media have described the events as sonic attacks, some experts on sound have rejected this explanation. In May of this year, the State Department reported that U.S. government employees in Guangzhou, China had also experienced similar sounds and health problems. Golombs conclusions may aid in the treatment of the diplomats (and affected family members) and assist U.S. government agencies seeking to determine the precise cause. Fire Season, published in 2011, felt like an instant classic. A soulful and surprising mediation on the life of a fire lookout, the book placed Philip Connors on a shelf beside giants of Western literature, including Norman Maclean, Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey. A few years later, a second book appeared, All the Wrong Places, which seemed quieter and more complicated but no less successful and stirring. This time the focus is on New York, where Connors was a reporter, working to process his younger brothers devastating suicide. In Connors next book, A Song for the River (coming Sept. 18 from Cinco Puntos Press), readers encounter yet another profound and memorable set of pages about personal loss but also in sweeping and memorable passages an intense return to the natural and philosophical terrain of the forest and what its like to watch it burn. Advertisement Tell us how you first came to be a fire lookout. I was visiting a friend who had the job, back in 2002, around the time I was dreaming of an escape from New York. I had been working for four years by then in a tower in Lower Manhattan. When I saw my friends lookout tower, it was immediately evident that her tower better suited me. So I talked myself into her job, flew back to New York to quit the one I had there, and returned to New Mexico, more or less to stay. Philip Connors new book is A Song for the River (Cinco Puntos Press) Its hard not to be jealous of a season in a lookout tower, however complex the actual matter of fire suppression. I think wed all benefit from some acquaintance with solitude, just to hear the music of our own minds away from the clamor and confusion of our so-called public life. And I think wed all do well to spend even one minute a day paying attention to creatures other than humans. But I readily admit a fire tower in the wilderness is a bit extreme as far as getaways go. Your first two books have a lot of the agony and ecstasy of a young man moving through the world. What kind of writer were you this time? I felt like the reluctant writer of an elegy sifting through losses Id rather not have contemplated. The death of a friend. The incineration of a forest. The deaths of young people who inspired me. I began to feel the weight of being fated to write about fire and death. A lot of great humor balances the heaviness here, such as the moment you remark hopefully that fellow lookout John died with his boots on. Then his fiancee notes, wryly, that he was actually wearing sneakers. It can be surprising what comes out of the shock of grief sudden moments of manic laughter, for instance. When my friend John died, several of us lookouts came down from our mountains for a long weekend together, and there was so much laughter in those evenings, even amid the tears. I remember Johns fiancee, Teresa, saying that her first good laugh after his death came when the veterinarians office wrote with a card of condolence. We were so sorry to hear about Sundance, it said Johns horse, which also died in the fall. No mention at all of the horses rider. What was your writing process with A Song for the River? I worked on it for three years, and I took a long time to see it as a book. It began as a short elegy for John in the local newspaper, 800 words or so. But I had a nagging sense I hadnt said enough, so I wrote a 5,000-word essay and shared it with a few magazines, all of which rejected it. So I let it sit for a while, then went back to work on it, and it became a 10,000-word essay that was published in the magazine n+1. At that point, too, I thought I was done with it, but soon enough it called out to me again. This late sunset view shows the charred remains of a major forest fire that took place in the Black Range area of the Gila National Forest in 2013. (SWInsider / Getty Images/iStockphoto) One of the most affecting passages of the book details what becomes of three high-school teens friends of yours. I held my breath, nearly sobbing, when you dramatized their final moments. That was the last part I wrote. It hurt to contemplate their deaths so minutely, and it hurt to get it right, detail by excruciating detail. At so many moments, the story could have turned out differently. Part of the reason the crash demanded to be part of the story was that the kids deaths and Johns death were linked by a wildfire one that burned up the side of Johns mountain. John and his horse fell to their deaths inside that burn scar, and the kids died in the plane crash because they had been flying over that same burn scar, assessing changes to one of their study transects in the forest. I couldnt in good conscience honor the one death and not the others. A lot of supposition and false information sprouted up around the crash in the hometown I shared with John and those students. I wanted to get to the truth for my own sake, and for the sake of my friends and neighbors. I didnt have the stomach to go around interviewing each person involved, making them relive the worst day of their lives, so I spent weeks with the depositions that resulted from a lawsuit over the crash. The whole story was there. This is a national newspaper: Do you have any words for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke? I would urge him to be cognizant of the history of the Gila Wilderness when making any decision about a dam on the Gila River. Also, I would caution him against blaming environmental terrorist groups for our wildfire problem. It makes him sound like hes had a lobotomy. Youve never been shy about quoting literary predecessors, from Gary Snyder to Rebecca Solnit, from Herman Hesse to Gertrude Stein. I owe almost everything to books whatever intelligence I may possess, whatever facility as a storyteller. The way I see the world is fundamentally determined by what Ive read. It seems to me natural to acknowledge that. There were moments in the story when it came time to express a thought, and I knew it had been expressed by someone else more eloquently than I could do it. Theres no shame in that. As youve matured as a writer, do you feel more like youre having a conversation with colleagues, or is there still some anxiety about belonging? If I had anxiety about belonging, I doubt Id be tilling ground considered so marginal by the literary world nature writing and memoir. Id have moved to Brooklyn and written autofiction about my complicated sexual life, and the joys and sorrows of curating an identity via social media. My concerns have more to do with belonging in the actual world, amid friends and neighbors and creatures in the place I call home. Deuel is a writer in Los Angeles and author of the memoir Friday Was the Bomb: Five Years in the Middle East. What are the sources of evil? Or literary inspiration? Can these impulses, toward crime and creation, be twins? These are some of the myriad questions evoked by Sarah Weinmans riveting account of the 1940s true crime that in part inspired Vladimir Nabokovs Lolita. Often named the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century, upon its publication in 1955, Lolita immediately became one of the centurys most notorious. In Britain and France, copies were seized by customs officers and the book was subsequently banned for two years. Its morally repellent, charismatic narrator, Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile whose obsession with a 12-year-old girl leads him to marry her mother. Upon his wifes death, Humbert abducts his stepdaughter and embarks upon one of literatures most infamous road trips. Nabokov, a Russian emigre and amateur lepidopterist, drew on his own annual cross-country journeys with his wife, pursuing rare butterflies between his academic commitments at Wellesley and later Cornell. He composed Lolita during these trips. As Weinman notes, throughout Nabokovs career, he adhered to the single-minded Nabokovian belief that art supersedes influence, and so influence must be brushed off. But a line in Lolita pointed to one real-life inspiration: Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948? Advertisement Frank LaSalles 1943 mugshot (New Jersey State Archives) Frank La Salle, the kidnapper and pedophile who abducted 11-year-old Sally Horner in 1948, was a serial rapist who preyed on young girls, adopting new identities, pseudonyms and residences with the ease of a habitual con man. The only examples of his writing quoted in Weinmans scrupulously researched book are appeals documents La Salle composed while serving more than 30 years for Horners abduction and rape. In one, he refers to Horner as Natural Daughter Florence Horner La Salle and states that a father cannot be convicted of kidnaping [sic] his own child. Remarkable proof of a false narrative, as Weinman points out. In other words, fiction like the novel that brought Nabokov international notoriety and renown. Yet fiction is rarely pure. Few, if any, novelists works ever issue solely from the creative imagination, untainted by the familial and romantic entanglements, cultural events and news, fake or otherwise, that can make writers inspirations so difficult to pin down, no matter how hard one tries. Nabokov was notably dismissive of such investigative efforts on the part of journalists or readers. It is strange, the morbid inclination we have to derive satisfaction from the fact (generally false and always irrelevant) that a work of art is traceable to a true story. Is it because we begin to respect ourselves more when we learn that the writer, just like ourselves, was not clever enough to make up a story himself? Author and avid lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov with a butterfly in 1947. (Constantin Joffe / Conde Nast via Getty Images) Weinman, a noted editor and writer who specializes in crime stories by often neglected female authors, first wrote about La Salles crime and its influence on Lolita in a popular 2014 article for the Canadian online magazine Hazlitt. In her book, Weinman explores the extent to which Nabokov pilfered in current parlance, appropriated a real girls plight for his fictional masterpiece. The Real Lolita incorporates interviews with surviving neighbors and family members of Horner and La Salle, court documents and prison records, newspaper accounts of the crime and archival material relating to Nabokovs succes de scandale. What happened In March 1948, a fifth-grade honor student named Sally Horner attempted to shoplift a five-cent composition notebook from a Woolworths in Camden, N.J. She did it on a dare, but before she could abscond with the notebook, she was accosted by a stranger who identified himself as an FBI agent. He was in fact La Salle, whod already served time for raping five girls under age 15. A slender, hawk-faced man loomed above her, iron-grey hair underneath a wide-brimmed fedora, eyes shifting between blue and grey. A scar sliced his cheek by the right side of his nose, while his shirt collar shrouded another mark on his throat. The hand gripping Sallys arm bore the trace of an even older, half-moon stamp forged by fire. After threatening Sally with the reformatory, the man let her go. In June, she encountered him again while walking home from school. Still posing as an FBI agent, he coerced her into going with him to Atlantic City. Presumably terrified that shed be arrested if she didnt cooperate, Sally went home and told her mother shed been invited to go on vacation with a school friend. La Salle telephoned, pretended to be Frank Warner, the father of Sallys school friend, and persuaded Ella Horner to allow Sally to accompany him and his wife and children on holiday. Despite never having seen or even heard of the Warners, Ella Horner agreed. She wouldnt see her daughter again for almost two years. The Real Lolita details what is known of Sally Horners time with La Salle, along with accounts of the various law enforcement officials involved with La Salles pursuit, and, most memorably, the intervention of a lady friend in the trailer park where Sally and La Salle were living, which led to the girls rescue and her kidnappers arrest. These are interwoven with chapters that scrutinize the long, slow-burning fuse that ultimately detonated Lolita. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Associated Press) Years before writing that book, Nabokov penned Volshebnik, a slender, unpublished novella, under his Russian pen name V. Sirin, posthumously translated by his son, Dmitri, as The Enchanter and first published in 1986. As in Lolita, a pedophile marries the mother of the child hes obsessed with, and after the older womans convenient death an illness in The Enchanter, a car accident in Lolita he makes his move on her daughter. The main character lacks Humbert Humberts seductive, first-person narrative voice that can captivate readers, making them complicit in his crimes. But there are flashes of the sinister beauty that illuminate the darkest moments in Lolita, and events (like the death in a car accident of The Enchanters protagonist) that prefigure central scenes in Nabokovs masterpiece. Photos of Horner depict a girl whose sturdy, apple-cheeked good looks are a long way from the elusive beauty Humbert Humbert attributes to young Dolores Haze, one of those children who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as nymphets. Nabokov creates this name and numerous habitations as Humbert abducts Dolores Haze and takes her on a cross-country journey that mirrors that of Frank La Salle and Sally Horner. Theres no doubt that Nabokov was familiar with the case, and little doubt that he mined its details for his novel despite what the author maintained. In addition to the parenthetical aside in Lolita, handwritten notes on an index card Nabokov used for the book one of the few to survive his regular purges refer to the death of 15-year-old Horner in a car crash two years after La Salle was captured, just as Dolores Haze dies just a few years after her escape from her stepfather. Sally Horner is reunited with her mother Ella almost two years after her abduction. The story made headlines. (Associated Press) As she states in her book, Weinman wasnt the first to point out the connections between Horner and her fictional counterpart. In 1963, five years after Lolitas American publication, a young writer named Peter Welding published an article in the mens magazine Nugget. He compared incidents in the novel with those from the real case (gleaned from newspaper reports), and concluded that the two parallel each other much too closely to be coincidental. Alan Levin, a writer for the New York Post, read the Nugget story and wrote to Nabokov, asking about Horners kidnapping. Levin subsequently published his own article in the Post, quoting Vera Nabokovs response to his letter (Vera vetted nearly all her husbands correspondence). Weinman reproduces the letter in full: Vera Nabokov flatly states, It [the Horner kidnapping] did not inspire the book. Weinman sets out to correct this erasure and honor Sally Horner, the triple victim: snatched from her ordinary life by Frank La Salle, only for her life to be cut short by car accident, and then strip-mined to produce the bones of Lolita. Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita. (Anna Ty Bergman) Its a noble goal, yet Sally remains the cipher at the books center, most alive in the photos that show a smiling child and, even more poignant, the young teenager who never had the chance to grow into a woman. Too many questions remain unanswered and maybe unanswerable. Were she alive today, Sally Horner might have been encouraged to write a memoir of her abuse and escape, or perhaps a novel. She left no diary or letters about the crime; nothing to feed readers prurient interest, but also nothing for a true crime writer to utilize. Weinman has more success underscoring how Any speculation that Lolita could be inspired by a real-life case went against the single-minded Nabokovian belief that art supersedes influence, and so influence must be brushed off. In researching her book, Weinman is staggered by the amount of material relating to Lolita in the Nabokov archives newspaper and magazine clippings, but also girlie mags featuring photos of starlets eager to play Lolita in Stanley Kubricks 1962 film adaptation (including an issue of Cosmopolitan with a photo of a then-43-year-old Zsa Zsa Gabor dressed as a 12-year-old). Yet other than that single index card, there is nothing pertaining to Horner. This seems odd, at the least. Stacy Schiff, Vera Nabokovs biographer, cautioned Weinman against reading too much into the omission. Weinman counters that if art was to prevail and for the Nabokovs, it always did then explicitly revealing what lay behind the curtain of fiction in the form of a real-life case could shatter the illusion of total creative control. Lolita ends with Humbert Humberts devastating realization, as he listens to children at play, that the hopelessly poignant thing was not Lolitas absence from my side, but the absence of her voice from that concord. Nearly 70 years after Sally Horners death, Weinmans dark and compulsively readable book will make readers aware of the absence of a nearly forgotten girls voice in discussions of one of the great works of American literature. Hands book Curious Toys, a historical novel featuring Henry Darger, is coming from Mulholland Books next year. The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman (Ecco) The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World Sarah Weinman Ecco: 320 pp., $27.99 Elon Musk apparently smoked dope with comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan live on YouTube late Thursday night, then giggled at Rogans joke about turning Mars into a big Jamaica. I mean, its legal, right? Musk said, accepting a lit blunt from Rogan in the Los Angeles studio where The Joe Rogan Experience is webcast live. Rogan told Musk hed rolled marijuana in tobacco leaves. Musk took a single deep toke. If the two were joking about what they were smoking, they didnt say so. Tesla investors were in a far less relaxed mood the next morning after seeing news that two of the electric-car makers top executives are leaving the company. Tesla stock sank as much as 10% before recovering some of those losses. At 8:25 a.m. PDT, shares were down 5.6% at $265.11. Advertisement (Los Angeles Times) Overnight, the Musk-led Tesla disclosed in a regulatory filing that its chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, had resigned Tuesday, just a month after taking the job. And Bloomberg News reported that Teslas human resources chief Gabrielle Toledano, who has been on a leave of absence said she would not return to the company. In resigning, Morton cited unexpectedly high scrutiny on Tesla and the pace within the company as reasons for his departure. He had joined the automaker just before Musk sparked turmoil by announcing via Twitter that he planned to take the company private. (Musk has since backpedaled on that plan, and he faces multiple shareholder lawsuits and a regulatory investigation.) Tesla erupts in chaos after senior executives leave and Elon Musk tokes up On Thursday night, Musk didnt project concern about any of that. Minutes after he took a drag of what Rogan offered him, the phone in Musks pocket began sending out alerts but not, apparently, about his company. Im getting text messages from friends saying what are you doing smoking weed? he said. Im not a regular smoker of weed, Musk told Rogan. How often do you smoke it? Rogan asked. Almost never, said Musk, chairman and chief executive of Tesla and chairman of SpaceX. I know a lot of people like weed and thats fine, but I dont think its very good for productivity. The two were more than two hours into a conversation fueled by Old Camp whiskey on ice, ranging from expensive cars and watches to the dangers of artificial intelligence, before Rogan pulled out the joint and lit up. The two then began discussing space travel and the future of human civilization. Rogan suggested they terraform Mars and turn it into a a big Jamaica. They both giggled and Musk said, That would be great. Then the talk turned more serious. If we were forever confined to Earth, that would be sad, Musk said. Rogan asked him how long the solar system will exist. If you say when does the sun boil the oceans, about 500 million years. The conversation shifted still darker as Musk talked about a never-ending explosion of ideas that constantly runs through his brain. When I was 5 or 6 or something, I thought I was insane, he said. He compared himself with other children. It was clear their minds werent exploding with ideas all the time. He said he feared adults would put him away. I dont think most people would like to be me, he said. Musk later brightened and said, This may sound corny, but love is the answer. It wouldnt hurt to have more love in the world. How are you going to fix that? Rogan asked him. Do you have a love machine? Probably spend more time with your friends and less time on social media, Musk said. I think people should be nicer to each other and give more credit to others and dont assume theyre mean until theyre actually mean. Its easy to demonize people. The webcast had begun at 9:30 p.m. and drew to a close around 12:15 a.m. Friday. I hope I didnt weird you out and I hope you didnt get mad that we smoked weed, Rogan told Musk, wrapping things up. Musk tossed back a final slug of whiskey and smiled. russ.mitchell@latimes.com Twitter: @russ1mitchell UPDATES: 8:25 a.m.: This article was updated with news of executive departures and Teslas stock movement. This article was originally published at 1:05 a.m. Amid a shortage of EpiPens, pharmacy chain Walgreens is teaming up with a drugmaker that makes a competing allergy injection. The Auvi-Q a device used to inject epinephrine to counter severe allergic reactions is available for the first time at Walgreens stores nationwide. Before, people seeking Auvi-Qs mostly got them through the mail. A two-pack of the devices, made by drugmaker Kaleo, has a wholesale price of $4,900, according to Elseviers Gold Standard Drug Database, but the devices will be free to most consumers. Kaleo is to cover any out-of-pocket costs for people with private insurance, regardless of whether the insurer agrees to cover the medication. If a customers insurer agrees to cover Auvi-Q, the person can get it at Walgreens, and Kaleo will cover any deductible or copay costs. If the insurer doesnt cover it, Walgreens will reach out to Kaleos hub of specialty pharmacies, which will mail the Auvi-Q to the customers home, Kaleo Chief Executive Spencer Williamson said. Advertisement The list price of Auvi-Q is much higher than that of drugmaker Mylans EpiPen, which can cost as much as $600 for a two-pack, according to Elsevier. Williamson said Kaleo set the Auvi-Qs price where it did because many large insurers refused to cover it at the same level as other similar products when the company reintroduced the device in 2017. Kaleo had to set the price at a certain level so it could give the auto-injectors for free to the many consumers whose insurance plans wouldnt cover it, he said. Michael Carrier, a professor at Rutgers University Law School, called it a particularly aggressive strategy for getting a product into patients hands. It shows how our healthcare system is broken, the fact that some entities are paying $5,000 and some are getting it for free, Carrier said. Schencker writes for the Chicago Tribune. Data breach? What data breach? One year after Equifax Inc. disclosed a hack of its computers that shook the financial world, sparking an FBI review and slashing a third off the companys share price in one week, investors and the public seem to have largely moved on. The company, whose shares have recovered almost 90% of the losses suffered in the plunge, will probably post a record annual profit next year. Equifax said there was no mass defection of clients after the breach put half the U.S. populations sensitive personal information at risk, and congressional hearings have yielded no major changes to federal laws protecting data. The credit-reporting companys revenue last quarter reached a record $877 million despite the hack. It was certainly a bump in the road, but it doesnt look like anything else is going to dramatically change the future, said Brett Horn, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. Advertisement Between May and July of last year, criminals exploited a vulnerability in the software Equifax used to build its website and absconded with data on credit cards, Social Security numbers and drivers licenses. The company faced withering criticism after disclosing the hack in September 2017, and more than 90% of consumers have taken some action to protect themselves from identity theft in the aftermath. A Government Accountability Office report released Friday details steps that have been taken since the incident, noting that Equifaxs primary regulators are still investigating. One year after they publicly revealed the massive 2017 breach, Equifax and other big credit reporting agencies keep profiting off a business model that rewards their failure to protect personal information, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who requested the report, said in a statement. An Equifax spokeswoman declined to make company executives available for an interview, but the company said in an emailed statement that it has made a number of improvements since the breach, including a more than $200-million boost to this years budget for security and technology. We have enhanced our leadership team to include some of the most experienced cybersecurity and technology professionals in the industry, notably new Chief Information Security Officer Jamil Farshchi and Chief Technology Officer Bryson Koehler, the spokeswoman said. Regulatory landscape After the breach, legislators held hearings and proposed policies to guard consumers data. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FBI looked into the hack, and the Federal Trade Commission started an investigation. California enacted sweeping data-privacy rules, and Vermont passed a law regulating data brokers. Eight state banking commissioners, including New Yorks, signed a consent order with Equifax requiring the company to bolster oversight. Theres now momentum building among state governments in the U.S., regulators, and regulators abroad to adopt stricter cybersecurity regimes to give consumers more control of their data, said Joseph Facciponti, an attorney with expertise in cybersecurity. Its a tipping point in the publics consciousnesses. Free credit freezes will now be required as part of legislation rolling back the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, but some argue more action is needed. One year later, Equifax still hasnt paid a price for putting 150 million U.S. consumers in harms way, said Mike Litt, consumer campaign director at U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which works for tougher consumer-protection laws. There hasnt really been consequences, at least not financial consequences, and thats ultimately whats needed. A class-action lawsuit pending in an Atlanta federal court might eventually bring some of that financial pain to Equifax. The suit, a consolidation of various cases representing a nationwide class, is in its early stages as it winds its way through the court system. Wheres the data? The data siphoned from Equifax probably wont ever show up as one big package for sale on the dark web, said Munish Walther-Puri, chief research officer of Terbium Labs, which monitors data on the dark web. Instead, he said, hackers are likely to bundle the information with details from other breaches such as medical data and sell it in packages known as Fullz. A Fullz bundle typically includes a persons name, Social Security number, birth date and account data and sells for about $30 on the dark web, according to Experian. Prior to Equifax, there was a solid layer of information out there about people, Walther-Puri said. The Equifax data really fills out a lot of that packaging. Levingston and Surane write for Bloomberg. Tenants in California will get more time to fight evictions under a new law that Gov. Jerry Brown signed this week. Currently, tenants have three days to respond to an eviction notice by either remedying the violation or vacating the property and five days to respond to an eviction lawsuit. Under AB 2343, which was introduced this year by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), weekends and court holidays will be excluded when figuring the response deadlines, giving tenants more time to find solutions. Tenants in California are facing unprecedented hardships and constantly living under the threat of eviction, Chiu said in a statement. A few extra days can be the difference between staying in their home or becoming homeless. Legal aid attorneys in California have long warned that some landlords have served tenants with eviction notices or court summonses on Fridays before holiday weekends, so the tenants were unable to find a timely remedy. Advertisement The law will take effect Sept. 1, 2019. aurora.percannella@latimes.com @auropercannella The founder of an Oregon chain of healthy convenience stores plans to saturate the West Coast in the next five years. But prepare yourself. Green Zebra Grocery, gearing up to observe Portlands first Kombucha Day, isnt your granddaddys quickie mart. If you crave a pack of Camels, a lottery ticket or a 40-ounce bottle of Olde English 800, you can blow off Green Zebra. But if you require a custom-built vegan sandwich, free-range chicken sausage, radish kimchi, organic beer or a half-gallon growler of CBD-infused sparkling lemon water, welcome home. Were not trying to be the food police, Green Zebra founder Lisa Sedlar said. But if healthy is your thing, we got it. Sedlar hopes to help redefine the nature of convenience stores, a $237-billion industry, with a chain of small shops that improve the health of neighborhoods. Advertisement The 52-year-old entrepreneur stepped down as chief executive of independent grocer New Seasons Market in 2012 to launch Green Zebra Grocery. She has built three stores in the Portland area, with another under construction. Sedlar says shes on pace to build two dozen locations from San Diego to Seattle by 2023, but her goal is 100. She has raised nearly $9 million for the expansion from investors, loans and $400,000 of her own money. This includes all of my savings, my cashed-in 401(k) and the loose change in my sofa cushions, she said. Sedlar is banking on market research, which shows Americans desire healthier provisions, and a trend that shows they will pop in more often to buy them especially if they are from the millennial generation. People regularly tell us we are their pantry, she said. Were not trying to be the food police. But if healthy is your thing, we got it. Lisa Sedlar, Green Zebra Grocery founder A pair of U.S. grocery experts concurs that Green Zebra succeeds by delivering traditional consumer needs of cost, taste and convenience under the halo of fresh, organic food, strong ties to neighborhoods and swaggering hipness. Everyone now is voting with their pocketbook, and they are looking to support those places that share a similar ideology, said David Fikes, a spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute. Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Assn. of Convenience Stores, has toured the groceries twice and says what Green Zebra does exceptionally well is they deliver on the experience. In Green Zebra, you see people getting high-fives, Lenard said. You see discounts for people who walk or ride their bikes to the store. Sedlars stores remind Lenard of Monrovia-based Trader Joes, but with a heavier focus on fresh foods instead of packaged goods. Green Zebras inaugural store rang up $4 million in revenue in 2014, Sedlar said, and the company is on pace to hit $12 million this year. As the chain adds links, she expects each of her suburban stores to bring in $4 million in yearly revenue and stores in bigger urban areas to produce $7 million each. A typical Green Zebra store is about 5,000 square feet, twice the size of the traditional 7-Eleven. The cost to open a store is about $1.5 million, mostly because of the high cost of refrigeration equipment. Lisa Sedlar tidies up the salad bar at a Green Zebra Grocery. (Bryan Denson / For the Los Angeles Times) Sedlar and her investors know that brick-and-mortar stores are their bread and butter, but they hope to take their products into office buildings. This month, Green Zebra will test an honor-system micro-Zebra outlet (with shelved and refrigerated food) at the WeWork Custom House in Portlands trendy Pearl District. The busiest Green Zebra Grocery sits in the middle of the Portland State University campus, drawing about 1,500 visits a day. Customers spend an average of $9 a visit. They pay premium prices for fresh, regionally produced organic food, including Daves Killer Bread, baked in Portland; Organicgirl greens of Salinas Valley; and Schmidlin Family Farms eggs, laid by pasture-raised chickens on the Oregon coast. Were dependent on people coming in to pick up two or three things a day, Sedlar said. Green Zebra hasnt jettisoned every trapping of traditional convenience stores. You cant buy a desiccated hot dog rolling on a grill, but you can find uncured ones on self-serve rollers (gluten-free buns available on request). Theres no urn full of hot-as-napalm coffee, but a barista will serve you Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a Portland favorite. And theres no 7-Eleven Slurpee, but Green Zebra will officially launch its version the Kombucha Slushie on Friday, the day Portland celebrates Kombucha Day by mayoral proclamation. Portlanders, incidentally, drink freakish amounts of kombucha, a fermented sweet-tea beverage said to be great for digestion. The city drinks 78 times more of the beverage than any other city in America, according to Well + Good, a website devoted to healthy living. Green Zebra Grocerys founder, Lisa Sedlar, hits the stores coffee bar, which features java from Portland favorite Stumptown Coffee Roasters. (Bryan Denson / For the Los Angeles Times) Beer and wine sales generate up to 18% of Green Zebras revenue. The beer aisle, choked with Oregons artisanal brews, demonstrates an ardor, and pretension, seldom seen outside Napa Valley. For example, a sign under a $7.99 bottle of Agrarian Ales Aristaeus reads: Caramelized Glorybee honey is added to an organic rye malt base. Fresh cut fennel adds an anise edge to what clearly lands in the liquid bread category. Go ahead make yourself a delicious mouth sandwich. Nothing in Sedlars early life suggested a career as an entrepreneur. She grew up in suburban Detroit in the 1980s, a devotee of the punk bands Black Flag and Circle Jerks. She enrolled at the University of Arizona in hopes of becoming a large-animal veterinarian. But in class one day, elbow deep in the hindquarters of a horse, she began a through reexamination of that dream. She took an abrupt course correction, enrolling in the culinary arts program at Chicagos Kendall College. She later interned at the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit, a restaurant famous for its locally grown, seasonally sourced menu. Sedlar came to see food as a form of magic: Its like alchemy, right? You pull it from the dirt, you wash it, you cook it in a way that makes it sing, and you eat it and it feels good. She left cooking to work for Fresh Fields Inc., a chain of health-food supermarkets, then Whole Foods Market, then Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy Inc., a purveyor of natural cosmetics and health products. On lunch breaks at the Boulder, Colo., company, she saw runners cooling down with Big Gulps and Snickers bars. She figured there had to be a healthier way to go, a belief that later inspired Green Zebra. She served as president of Portland-based New Seasons from 2005 to 2012, when she stepped down to take the entrepreneurial plunge. She named Green Zebra after a striped tomato with roots in the Northwest. Green zebra was named after the striped variety of tomato, which has roots in the Northwest. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The timing wasnt great. Sedlar was, as she described it, a menopausal single mom with a 16-year-old daughter whose college money she would spend getting Green Zebra off the ground. She feared any failure that would trickle down to her child. I didnt pay myself the first two years, and then I paid myself $12 an hour. So things were really skinny. Indeed, the wages wouldnt pay her mortgage. So she rented out the cottage in her back yard and a bedroom in her home. She described the dark forces that moved her in those days during a 2014 TED Talk in Portland: Only the paranoid survive in the start-up world. I have four liens against my house. I didnt know you could have more than one lien against your house. I have a backup plan, which is ... I bought a tent. In the time-honored tradition of entrepreneurs, she fretted but not about profits and losses. What kept her up at night was making sure her workers liked their jobs and were empowered to help shape Green Zebras destiny. Her employee handbook includes this line: It mostly boils down to doing the stuff your mom told you to do: Be on time, be nice, say please and thank you, look on the bright side, work hard and have fun. Denson is a special correspondent. business@latimes.com A suspected Russian hacker was extradited Friday to the United States to face federal charges alleging he played a key role in massive hacks of consumer information from U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said. Andrei Tyurin, 35, was arrested in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and arrived in New York on Friday. He was scheduled in the afternoon to make a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan on an array of hacking-related charges, including allegations he participated in the largest cyber theft of consumer information from a U.S. financial institution in history: the heist in 2014 of personal information belonging to 80 million customers of JPMorgan Chase. Andrei Tyurin, a Russian national, is alleged to have participated in a global hacking campaign that targeted major financial institutions, brokerage firms, news agencies, and other companies, Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. Tyurins alleged hacking activities were so prolific, they lay claim to the largest theft of U.S. customer data from a single financial institution in history, accounting for a staggering 80 million-plus victims. Berman called the arrest a significant milestone for law enforcement in the fight against cyber intrusions targeting our critical financial institutions. Advertisement The scams mastermind was Gery Shalon, an Israeli citizen who was extradited to face charges in the scheme in 2016, U.S. officials have said. Two others Joshua Samuel Aaron, a U.S. citizen, and Ziv Orenstein, an Israeli have also been charged in the case. No trial date has been set. An attorney for Tyurin could not be reached. Working at the direction of Shalon, U.S. officials said, Tyurin engaged in an extensive computer hacking campaign from 2012 through 2015 that targeted banks and other financial institutions, brokerage firms and financial news publishers. One of Shalons more lucrative scams, the officials said, involved artificially inflating the value of penny stocks and then duping investors into purchasing the shares through spam emails sent to addresses Tyurin had stolen. Most of the allegations in the case were made public in 2015 with the indictments of Shalon and his alleged conspirators. It wasnt clear whether the U.S. Secret Service or FBI would ever be able to catch the actual hacker. U.S. officials have faced obstacles in trying to capture Russians accused of cyber crimes. There is no extradition treaty with Moscow, and authorities often have to lure such suspects to third countries where they can be arrested. The circumstances surrounding Tyurins December 2017 capture in Georgia were not made public. Wayne Pearl, like millions of people with high blood pressure, takes the widely prescribed generic drug valsartan. So it was with more than a little concern that he recently learned the Chinese supplier of the drugs active ingredient for years had been hiding the fact that its product was contaminated with a carcinogenic material once found in rocket fuel. If that was the whole story, it would be sufficient to spark worry among all Americans about the safety and reliability of the pharmaceutical supply chain. But it gets even worse. Pearl, 65, a Westlake Village resident, discovered that when the generic valsartan that cost him $8 a month was imperiled, his choice was to switch to a name-brand alternative costing wait for it nearly $300 monthly. Advertisement That led Pearl to forgo treatment for several weeks until his doctor could find a generic med that contained a different active ingredient. Theres so much to be miffed about here, I hardly know where to begin. Oh, I forgot to mention: Pearl isnt exactly a bystander when it comes to the pharmaceutical business. He spent about 25 years with the Thousand Oaks biotech firm Amgen, including stints as vice president of manufacturing and vice president of operations. He currently works as an industry consultant. Its all about money, he told me. Its all about manufacturing for the cheapest amount possible. I asked Pearl if he was surprised to have been exposed to a potentially tainted med. No, he replied. Im not surprised at all. The Food and Drug Administration announced in July and August the voluntary recall of a number of prescription drugs containing valsartan. This recall is due to an impurity, N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which was found in the recalled products, the agency said with a breathtaking blandness. According to the federal governments Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, NDMA is a yellow liquid which has no distinct odor. It was used to make rocket fuel, but this use was stopped after unusually high levels of this compound were found in air, water and soil samples collected near a rocket fuel manufacturing plant. NDMA is very harmful to the liver of animals and humans, it says. People who were intentionally poisoned on one or several occasions with unknown levels of NDMA in beverage or food died of severe liver damage accompanied by internal bleeding. It adds that when rats, mice, hamsters and other animals ate food, drank water or breathed air containing lower levels of NDMA for periods more than several weeks, liver cancer and lung cancer as well as non-cancerous liver damage occurred. So, yeah, not something you want in your medicine. In its recall notice, the FDA said the tainted NDMA came from Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals in Linhai, China. European regulators say the company may have known about the contamination as early as 2012 and continued selling the ingredient worldwide to generic drug manufacturers. We have carefully assessed the valsartan-containing medications sold in the United States, and weve found that the valsartan sold by these specific companies does not meet our safety standards, Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDAs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. The thing is, staying on top of drug safety is an increasingly challenging issue as medication supply chains traverse the globe, with many ingredients originating in far-flung plants throughout the developing world. The FDA estimates that 80% of the active ingredients in drugs found in U.S. pharmacies originate abroad, with the main producers of these ingredients in China and India. Joel Hay, a professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC, said the FDA just doesnt have the funding or manpower to adequately monitor drug factories worldwide. In the case of valsartan, the FDA didnt act until 22 other countries announced their own recalls. Certainly it is the FDAs responsibility to monitor the safety of these production facilities and the produced drugs, Hay said. There isnt much we can do except get Congress to pass bigger FDA budgets. Ivo Abraham, a professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Arizona, agreed that its relatively easy for contaminated drugs to slip past regulators. Its just not possible to enforce high standards to the extent we would like them enforced, he said. To a certain degree, patients have no recourse but to trust and hope for the best. Its not like you should stop taking prescribed medications. Still, I advise doing the occasional search for news regarding either the brand name of any regularly taken drug or its active ingredient (which will be on the label). Thats the best way to stay on top of any announcements. Patients have to be advocates for their own health and know that they must contact their providers for answers, said Luba Ketsler, a healthcare economist at the University of Texas at Dallas. Thats a big problem people not asking or not understanding even what to ask. Switching from a generic to a name-brand drug may be safer the big drug companies have more resources for quality control but, as Pearl found, theres a cost attached. Why an $8 generic would equate to a $300 name-brand version, however, is a mystery. Moreover, many insurers may not cover the name-brand drug, leaving you on the hook for the entire cost. Make sure you speak with your doctor and insurance company before any change. Heres a thought: How about a requirement that drug companies provide full transparency if not on labels then online? Let people know the sourcing of all active ingredients, including both the manufacturer and country of origin. This may be too much information for many patients. But for some, including myself, it would be a very helpful way to be an informed consumer, which is exactly what the drug industry says they want us to be. Pearl told me youll never be able to prevent problems like this valsartan thing from cropping up, not the way the global drug business operates. Such issues are inevitable, he said. So the more sunlight the better. David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com. Many places in Southern California bearing the name of famed real-estate speculator Elias Lucky Baldwin have only a tangential connection to the pioneering land baron. But the town of Vineland became Baldwin Park thanks to a literal hands-on experience with the living legend. In 1905, an aged, infirm Baldwin made plans to establish a town called Baldwinville outside the hardscrabble San Gabriel Valley farming settlement of Vineland. The good folk of Vineland, already hard-pressed to eke out a living while their crops relied on the meager annual rainfall, were understandably concerned that Luckys new venture would siphon away what little groundwater there was. They invited him to parley with them on the matter. Baldwin agreed, and a meeting was arranged at Shultis Grocery in the tiny burgs downtown. Upon entering the establishment, the octogenarian lost his footing and, as the townsfolk looked on in horror, began to fall. Advertisement Only the quick reaction of Mrs. Shultis saved him from catastrophe, as she leaped forward and caught him before he tumbled to the ground. Lucky, who was no stranger to close calls (having survived two assassination attempts by spurned lovers), was so overcome with gratitude that he abandoned his plans for Baldwinville and granted Vinelanders the right to use his name for their town. Baldwin Park, like much of the San Gabriel Valley, remained semirural for the first half of the 20th Century. The end of World War II touched off the population boom that transformed the Los Angeles region into the megalopolis it is today. Suburbs soon engulfed the regions farmland, and as they exploded in popularity, so too did the car-oriented businesses that served their residents. In 1948, Baldwin Park gave birth to a quintessential symbol of California car culture the states first drive-through restaurant, an In-N-Out burger stand. By the 1960s, the city was essentially built out, but its population has continued to grow, with new arrivals drawn by its relatively affordable housing and convenient location near the confluence of the 10 and 605 freeways. In-N-Out Burger Company Store. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) Neighborhood highlights Affordable housing: What Baldwin Park lacks in glamour is more than made up for by its extensive stock of single-family homes that can be had for less than $500,000. Commuting convenience: With two freeways, Metrolinks San Bernardino line and Foothill Transits Silver Streak bus line, Baldwin Park offers plenty of options for getting to work. Nature calls: For outdoor enthusiasts, the Sante Fe Dam Recreational Area is right next door, and the Angeles National Forest is a short drive away. Neighborhood challenges The quiet life: Baldwin Park is great for families or those who are looking to settle down, but for party animals and singletons the lack of nightlife may leave something to be desired. Expert insight Winnie Tran, founder of Amigos Realty, has two decades of experience in Baldwin Park and six words of advice: Strike while the iron is hot. Despite surges in development and diversity in both the population and culinary scene housing prices are still affordable at the moment. Previously, vacant land littered Baldwin Park, Tran said. Now theres construction all over the city for new condominiums, planned unit developments and single-family homes. Suburban staples such as Home Depot and Walmart exist alongside Mexican restaurants and Taiwanese bubble-tea shops. The confluence of those, plus a growing business park, has brought the city new jobs and new life. You wouldnt have been able to find some of these 20 years ago. The landscape of Baldwin Park has completely changed since I started working here, Tran said. 1 / 11 The city park is on Baldwin Park Boulevard. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 2 / 11 The stop is on the San Bernardino line. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 3 / 11 The facility makes available game rooms and a computer lab and offers a boxing program. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 4 / 11 In July, the median sales price was less than $500,000. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 5 / 11 The public school is among 19 in the city. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 6 / 11 The Church of Christ is on Maine Avenue. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 7 / 11 The Francisquito Avenue is next to the burger chains university a manager training center. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 8 / 11 The restaurant is on Francisquito Avenue. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 9 / 11 The center is on Baldwin Park Boulevard. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 10 / 11 City Hall is on Pacific Avenue. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) 11 / 11 The museum is on Pacific Avenue. (Jesse Goddard / For The Times) Market snapshot In the 91706 ZIP Code, based on 24 sales, the median price for single-family homes in July was $472,000, up 19% year-over-year, according to CoreLogic. Report card Of the 19 public schools in the Baldwin Park boundaries, 18 scored above 700 on the 2013 Academic Performance Index, and eight scored above 800. The top performers were Santa Fe School, at 878, Sierra Vista Junior High at 830 and Ernest R. Geddes Elementary, at 828. Baldwin Park High, the areas main high school, scored 730. Times staff writer Jack Flemming contributed to this report. hotproperty@latimes.com The arts season is off and running, with openings all over Los Angeles and beyond! Heres a guide to the top exhibitions and events in the coming week. Paul Anthony Smith, Containment, at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. Smith collages bits of photographs of people taken throughout the African diaspora (Jamaica, Brooklyn, Puerto Rico) and then carves into these to create patterns that mask and mute the original image. Afterwards, he scans, manipulates and silkscreens the result, creating yet another layer of distortion. Opens Saturday at 6 p.m. and runs through Oct. 13. 2685 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City, luisdejesus.com. Rafael Cardenas, Landscape and Land Dwellers: Photography of Place, at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. Cardenas is widely known for his street photography. In this new exhibition he brings together a series of portraits and landscape images that find the connection between people and place in Los Angeles. Opens Saturday and runs through March 25. 501 N. Main St., downtown Los Angeles, lapca.org. La Loma, 2018, by Rafael Cardenas on view at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. (Rafael Cardenas) Advertisement Sarah Awad, Double Field, at Night Gallery. In a series of large-scale paintings, the Los Angeles-based artist takes on the human form in abstract and dreamlike ways. Opens Saturday and runs through Oct. 6. 2276 E. 16th St., downtown Los Angeles, nightgallery.ca. David Lynch, I was a Teenage Insect, at Kayne Griffin Corcoran. The famed film director is also an artist. A new exhibition at Kayne Griffine Corcoran gathers recent paintings, drawings and watercolors wryly dark pieces that blend materials and text. Also on view in the gallery will be a series of geometric abstract paintings by Mary Obering. Opens Friday at 7 p.m. 1201 S. La Brea Ave., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, kaynegriffincorcoran.com. Andrew Moore, Dirt Meridian, at Kopeikin Gallery. The 100th meridian neatly bisects the United States in two. Moore traveled the path of that line and chronicled landscapes both natural and man-made, capturing migration, settlement and a range of natural phenomena. Opens Saturday at 6 p.m. and runs through Nov. 3. 2766 S. La Cienega, Culver City, kopeikingallery.com. Art Gallery at the Dorsey Mansion, 2014, by Andrew Moore. (Andrew Moore / Kopeikin Gallery) Robert Yarber: Return of the Repressed, at Nicodim. Falling figures set against illuminated cityscapes painted in acid colors. Thats what youll see in Yarbers latest exhibition, which brings together paintings old and new and which the news release touts as the kind of experience that will be like the most meaningful conversation youve had while blackout drunk, the best sex youve almost had, and every unforgettable moment that you cant quite remember. Ill take that. Opens Saturday at 6 p.m. and runs through October 20. 571 S. Anderson St., Suite 2, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, nicodimgallery.com. David Ratcliff, Basement Psychedelia, at Team Bungalow. In paintings that digest visual influences such as comic books, illustration, pulp novels and elements of graphic design, Ratcliff ruminates on moments of dread and anxiety. Opens Sunday and runs through Oct. 21st. 306 Windward Ave., Venice, teamgal.com. Untitled (The Calling), 2018, by David Ratliff. (David Ratliff) Tomoo Gokita, at Blum & Poe. Ambiguous figures, often with faces or other parts of their bodies obscured, inhabit the monochrome worlds of Gokitas paintings. This show will gather new works, some of which echo paintings by 19th century masters. Opens Saturday at 6 p.m. and runs through Oct. 27. 2727 La Cienega Blvd., Culver City, blumandpoe.com. Wireframes: The Visualization of Architecture, at the A+D Museum. A new exhibition gathers work by 30 artists and architects that examine the ways in which buildings are presented in renderings. Opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 25. 900 E. 4th St., downtown Los Angeles, aplusd.org. Still from The Third and the Seventh, by Alex Roman on view at the A+D Museum. (Alex Roman) R. Buckminster Fuller, Inventions and Models, at Edward Cella Art & Architecture. The engineer and architect who devised the geodesic dome was also known for his inventive designs (most of which were never commercially produced). The show at Edward Cella surveys some of his key inventions and features drawings, models and prints many of which make economic uses of energy and materials. Opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 3. 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City, edwardcella.com. Vector Equilibrium Jitterbug Duo, 1980/2008, by R. Buckminster Fuller. (R. Buckminster Fuller / Edward Cella Art & Architecture) Tom Knechtel, at Proxy Gallery. The gallery in a box will have on display a handmade book by the artist, comprised of a series of glassine sheets that represent different modes of artistic production, including watercolor, woodcut, pencil and ink sketches. An opportunity to see something beautifully delicate. Through Sept. 30. Otis Graduate Studios, 10455 Jefferson Blvd., Culver City, ospace.otis.edu/proxy_gallery. Marcia Hafif, A Place Apart, at Pomona College Museum of Art. The minimalist painter, whose work explores color, its range and its histories, has a show of more than 100 works on view at the museum. In addition to her paintings, for which she is best known, the show also explores Hafifs drawing practice. Through Dec. 22. An artists reception will be held on September 15 at 4 p.m. 330 N. College Ave., Claremont, pomona.edu/museum. A Place Apart, 1997, by Marcia Hafif, at Pomona College Museum of Art. (Fredrik Nilsen) LAST CHANCE Pussy, King of the Pirates, at Maccarone. Inspired by the title of a Kathy Acker novel, this exhibition features work by 20 non-male artists who explore issues of the body, identity and gaze. This includes work by Eleanor Antin, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Sadie Barnett, Monica Majoli, Alison Saar and Sharon Lockhart an all-star lineup. Through Saturday. 300 S. Mission Road, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, maccarone.net. Shinique Smith, Refuge, at California African American Museum. The multimedia artist is known for her bulbous assemblages crafted from old clothing and fabric, which she twists and ties and suspends from gallery ceilings and walls. Her paintings echo these bound and squeezed forms. Her first solo show at CAAM brings together works that evoke questions of homelessness and itinerancy. Through Sunday. 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, caamuseum.org. Bamboo, at the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Bamboo baskets are often thought of purely as functional objects: vessels that contain and transport food and household goods. An exhibition at CAFAM, however, explores bamboo basketrys sculptural possibilities including a large-scale bamboo installation inspired by mathematics (such as Fibonaccis sequence and the Golden Ratio) by Japanese architect Akio Hizume. Through Sunday. 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, cafam.org. Fire, 2016, by Yamaguchi Ryuun, at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. (Susan Einstein) Charting the Terrain: Eric Mack and Pamela Smith Hudson at the California African American Museum. A pair of artists explore aspects of Western landscape through abstraction. In his work, Mack creates intricate compositions that echo aspects of movement and the urban grid, while Hudsons works evoke the topographic mapping devastation and rejuvenation. Through Sunday. 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, caamuseum.org. Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World, at the Getty Museum. This exhibition at the Getty explores the cultural connections between Greece, Rome and Egypt through more than 200 rare objects many on view in the U.S. for the first time. The show spans more than 2,000 years, from the Bronze Age to the late Roman Empire and includes stone vessels, pottery, sculpture, portraits and religious imagery. It also includes a more than 15-foot granite obelisk from A.D. 88-89 inscribed to the goddess Isis and the emperor Domitian, on loan from the Museo del Sannio in Italy. Through Sunday. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu. ONGOING Sidney B. Felsen, The Artist observed, at Gemini G.E.L. Felsen, a founder of the fabled print workshop Gemini G.E.L. has kept an extensive photographic archive of his time working with artists including figures such as Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, David Hockney, Tacita Dean and countless others. This exhibition presents images that he has snapped over the decades of artists at work and at play in the studio. Through Sept. 13. 8365 Melrose Ave., Beverly Grove, geminigel.com. Sidney B. Felsen taking a self-portrait with Ellsworth Kelly in 1984. (Sidney B. Felsen) When She Rises, at SPARC. This group exhibition is showcasing works by several dozen female artists including SPARC founder Judy Baca and myriad artists from across the U.S., such as Lorraine Jones, Nani Chacon, Ofelia Esparza, Sofia Maldonado, Erin Yoshi and Loveis Wise all exploring issues of social justice related to equality and ecology. As part of the exhibitions programming, there will be an arts and activism workshop and special screenings and panel discussions. Through Sept. 15. 685 Venice Blvd., Venice, whensherises.splashthat.com. Remote Castration, at LAXART. A group exhibition uses the #MeToo and Times Up movements and the ways in which they have drawn attention to abuses of power as a way of reflecting on the ways in which feminist thought is addressed in contemporary art. The show will include work by figures such as Kathryn Garcia, Jenny Holzer, John Altoon and Paul McCarthy.Through Sept. 15. 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, laxart.org. Todd Gray, Portraits, at Meliksetian Briggs. The Los Angeles artist, who recently received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, is known for creating multimedia collages and assemblages that take photographic imagery from his own archive and then presents them in ways that comment on representations of blackness and the African diaspora. The work, part of his Exquisite Terribleness series, is centered on images of acquaintances and friends as well landscape and objects. Through Sept. 15. 313 N. Fairfax Ave., West Hollywood, meliksetianbriggs.com. Samita, 2018, by Todd Gray at Meliksetian Briggs. (Todd Gray / Meliksetian Briggs) My Veins Do Not End in Me, at the Mistake Room. The show examines the Salvadoran Civil War through the work of artists from three generations of a single Salvadoran family: Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, his father, Juan Edgar Aparicio, and his late grandmother Maria de la Paz Torres de Aparicio. Through Sept. 15. 1811 E. 20th St., downtown Los Angeles, tmr.la. Nery Gabriel Lemus, Yearning to Breathe Free, at the Grand Central Art Center. In a series of detailed watercolor paintings Lemus explores migration and the dreams of those that seek to breathe free (in a nod to the famous Emma Lazarus poem, The New Colossus). Also on view will be sculptures and the painted rugs he makes in honor of individual migrants who perished attempting to realize that dream. Through Sept. 16. 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, grandcentralartcenter.com. Water and Power at the Underground Museum. This is the latest collaboration between the artist-run space founded by late painter Noah Davis and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. The show will feature a range of works by the likes of Olafur Eliasson, Robin Coste Lewis, Fred Eversley and Hans Haacke, among others. Through Sept. 16. 3508 W. Washington Blvd., Arlington Heights, theunderground-museum.org. Beauty, 1993, by Olafur Eliasson at the Underground Museum. (Anders Sune Berg) Discovering Saar Ceramics, at the American Museum of Ceramic Art. In 1949, artist Richard Saar and his brother William opened a ceramic studio in a small Quonset hut in El Segundo. Saar Ceramics, at its height, would go on to employ a staff of eight and produce functional and decorative pieces with elegantly rendered abstract designs and charming animal figures. Does the name sound familiar? Well, Saar was, for a time, married to key Los Angeles assemblagist Betye Saar in the 1950s and 60s. Through Sept. 16. 399 N. Garey Ave., Pomona, amoca.org. Nicole Reber and Eric Wiley, You Just Never Know Who Somebody Is, at These Days. A pair of artists from opposing coasts play with pop and surrealism in drawings, paintings and text works. Through Sept. 16. 118 Winston St., downtown Los Angeles, thesedaysla.com. John Divola and Zoe Crosher, Grounded, at the El Segundo Museum of Art. In the 1970s, photographer John Divola explored the homes and other buildings that were condemned by an expansion of LAX airport in an area referred to as the Noise Abatement Zone. Thirty years later, Zoe Crosher captured the ways in which the airport makes its presence felt in daily life in the surrounding communities. This exhibition at ESMoA brings together dozens of their works, shot decades apart, for a unique view of a transitory space that marks the city in permanent ways. Through Sept. 22. 208 Main St., El Segundo, esmoa.org. LAX NAZ Forced Entry Site 26 Exterior A, 1975, by John Divola at the El Segundo Museum of Art. (John Divola) Simone Kennedy Doig and Antonia Showering, at Baert Gallery. A two-artist show features work by a pair of emerging figurative painters: Doig (painter Peter Doigs daughter) and Showering, both of whom attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Through Sept. 22. 2441 Hunter St., downtown Los Angeles, baertgallery.com. Philip Rich: Drawings, 1965-1967, at as-is.la. The Los Angeles artist met with success early in his career, including a solo exhibition at the coveted Ferus Gallery and inclusion in LACMAs Five Younger Los Angeles Artists exhibition in 1965. But mental health issues cut his career short. This show presents some of his extensive production of small line drawings, which often touched on pop and surrealist themes. Through Sept. 22. 1133 Venice Blvd., Pico Union, Los Angeles, as-is.la. Untitled #77, by Philip Rich, from an exhibition of drawings produced between 1965 and 1967 at as-is.la. (Philip Rich / as-is.la) Don McCullin at Hauser & Wirth. The British photojournalist Don McCullin is perhaps best known for his striking war photography such as his images of grizzled fighters and mourning families in Vietnam. But his range extends well beyond Southeast Asia. He is also recognized for his work chronicling disasters in what was then Biafra (today part of Nigeria), the conflict in Northern Ireland and the ravages of the AIDS epidemic across the African continent. The gallery is bringing together images from various reporting assignments, including Northern Ireland and the construction of the Berlin Wall. Through Sept. 23. 901 E. 3rd St., downtown Los Angeles, hauserwirth.com. Larry Bell, Complete Cubes, and Mary Heilemann, Memory Remix, at Hauser & Wirth. The gallery also has two other key exhibitions. The first gathers the ethereal glass cubes made by Bell, a renowned California Light and Space artist whose attention to material, transparency and reflection have earned him a spot in the pantheon of minimalism. Separately, the gallery is showing California-born Mary Heilmanns first solo exhibition in more than 20 years a broad survey that brings together paintings, ceramics and furnishings that capture her wide ranging interests, including abstraction, textiles, film and song. Through Sept. 23. 901 E. 3rd St., downtown Los Angeles, hauserwirth.com. An installation view of Larry Bell: Complete Cubes at Hauser & Wirth. (Mario de Lopez / Larry Bell, Hauser & Wirth) Entre Tinta y Lucha: 45 Years of Self Help Graphics & Art, at the Fine Arts Gallery at Cal State L.A. For 45 years, the community arts organization based in Boyle Heights (previously in East L.A.), founded by Sister Karen Boccalero and artists Carlos Bueno, Antonio Ibanez and Frank Hernandez, has supported the work of Chicano printmakers. Since 1973, the print workshop there has produced more than 1,000 art print editions and countless exhibitions. This show presents the work of some of the voices the space has nurtured over the years, including Barbara Carrasco, Enik One, El Mac, Gronk, Delilah Montoya, Judy Baca, John Valadez, Patssi Valdes, Ernesto Yerena and many more. Through Sept. 29. Cal State L.A., Fine Arts building, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, selfhelpgraphics.com and calstatela.edu. Pairings: Painters & Sculptors, at Denk Gallery. A new exhibition pairs the works of a variety of sculptors and painters, such Martin Durazo and Jenn Berger and HK Zamani and Lana Duong, among others. Through Sept. 29. 749 E. Temple St., downtown Los Angeles, denkgallery.com. Irving Penn, Worlds in a Small Room, Seen & Unseen, at Fahey / Klein Gallery. A solo exhibition of the influential photographers work brings together ethnographic studies undertaken during journeys to Peru, Morocco and New Guinea, among other locations. This will include a mix of well-known and previously unexhibited works. Through Oct. 6. 148 N. La Brea, Hancock Park, Los Angeles, faheykleingallery.com. Cuzco Town Photographer with Barefoot Girl, 1948, by Irving Penn on view at Fahley/Klein Gallery.. (The Irving Penn Foundation) Kiff Slemmons, Collective Presence, at Craft in America Center. Slemmons is a jewelry-maker who is known for her fabrications in metal but who turned to paper as a material after a stint at the Taller Arte Papel of Oaxaca, a paper studio founded by Mexican artist Francisco Toledo. She has worked with the material ever since, creating one-of-a-kind pieces that employ paper in striking and innovative ways. Through Oct. 6. 8415 W. 3rd St., Beverly Grove, craftinamerica.org. In Focus: Expressions, at the Getty Center. An exhibition drawn from the museums permanent collection brings together portraits, figure studies and anonymous snapshots for a keen show exploring the wildly expressive nature of the human face. Through Oct. 7. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu. Barry McGee, SB Mid Summer Intensive, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara. A show of the Bay Area artists work gathers drawings, paintings and sculptural objects inspired by graffiti, sign painting, hobo markings and other aspects of contemporary urban culture. Plus, it will include a nod to the nearby Reagan Ranch Center. Through Oct. 14. 653 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, mcasantabarbara.org. Untitled, 2017, by Barry McGee, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara. (Brian Buckley / Cheim & Read Gallery) Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography, 1911-2011, at the Getty Museum. This exhibition gathers a centurys worth of fashion photography, beginning with images from the early 1900s by Edward Steichen that captured fashion in an artistic manner. The survey then goes on to include work by some of the most iconic photographers of the 20th century, such as Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Herb Rittz and Corinne Day. Its a striking look at fashion, photography and the stories these media can tell. Through Oct. 21. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu. 69: Deja Vu, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. This exhibition explores the work of 69, an anonymous Los Angeles fashion designer who frequently works with denim to create garments that could function as movable sculpture, articles that frequently disregard gender, size and race in the way they are constructed and presented. In addition to 69s designs, the gallery will also be showing the videos and photographs that are used to promote the work frequently executed in artful ways. Through Oct. 28. Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, moca.org. Denim Dean, by 69 on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. (Anthony Espino) Line & Color: The Nature of Ellsworth Kelly, at the Norton Simon Museum. The museum is featuring a suite of 27 color lithographs made by the artist in the mid-1960s, when he was just beginning to experiment with the medium a challenging one for an artist whose work was based on the seamless, solid expression of color. Accompanying the exhibit are two large-scale paintings from the museums collection, as well as preliminary sketches that reveal his working process. Through Oct. 29. 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, nortonsimon.org. Enrique Ramirez, Un hombre que camina, at the Grand Central Art Center. The Chilean-born artist is showing a single-channel video that dwells, in rather magical ways, on issues related to migration and the ways in which globalism and digital life have connected once-disparate realms. Through Nov. 11. 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, grandcentralartcenter.com. A still from Enrique Ramirezs single-channel video, Un hombre que camina, on view at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. (Enrique Ramirez / GCAC) All that Glitters: Life at the Renaissance Court, at the Getty Museum. No group in history has quite done bling like the Renaissance elite: there was gleaming armor, rich textiles, monarchs draped in brocaded everything not to mention architecture studded with gleaming stained glass and other luxuriant details. This exhibition gathers illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings, household articles and accessories that convey the richness of life in a Renaissance court. Get ready for some serious shine! Through Dec. 2nd. 1200 Getty Center Dr., Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu. A Handful of Dust: From the Cosmic to the Domestic, at the California Museum of Photography. Dust permeates the air around us. Dust will bury the cities we live in when we are gone. A group exhibition at UC Riverside brings together images produced over the last century that capture the various aspects of dust. The images are both benign and destructive, featuring the natural world, but also aspects of urban decay. Artists featured include John Divola, Man Ray, Gerhard Richter and Shomei Tomatsu. Through Dec. 9. UC Riverside Artsblock, 3824 Main St., Riverside, artsblock.ucr.edu. Yunhee Min & Peter Tolkin, Red Carpet in C, at UCR Arts. Inspired by the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who described music as liquid architecture and architecture as frozen music, Min and Tolkin have created an installation that fills the UCR Arts atrium with an undulating form constructed out of 150-foot bands of fabric and more than 17,000 colored paper tubes. Through Dec. 29. UC Riverside, 3824 and 3834 Main St., Riverside, ucrarts.ucr.edu. Installation view of Yunhee Min and Peter Tolkins Red Carpet in C at UCR Arts at UC Riverside. (UCR Arts) Judithe Hernandez, A Dream Is the Shadow of Something Real, at the Museum of Latin American Art. Hernandez is known for her work as a painter and muralist; the museum is showcasing more than two dozen of her recent works on paper: dream-like scenes that feature women and wildlife against slightly surreal landscapes. Also on view will be a number of Hernandezs early sketchbooks, as well as the museums recent acquisition, her canvas Les Demoiselles dBarrio, a feminist take on Picassos 1907 Les Demoiselles dAvignon. Through Dec. 30. 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, molaa.org. Striking the Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths, at the Fowler Museum. A sprawling exhibition of more than 225 objects will examine the virtuosity of African blacksmiths of the 19th and 20th centuries, who forged iron objects such as blades, elements of sculpture and musical instruments that were as aesthetically pleasing as they were, in many cases, functional. Many objects, drawn from the Fowlers collection, are connected with rituals and the powers of the natural world. This is the debut of this traveling exhibition, which will then go on to the National Museum of African Art in Washington. Through Dec. 30. 308 Charles E. Young Drive N., Westwood, Los Angeles, fowler.ucla.edu. Power Figure (Nkisi Nkondi), 18th to 19th century, on view at the Fowler Museum. (Don Cole / Fowler Museum at UCLA) Gary Simmons: Fade to Black, at the California African American Museum. In a lobby installation one that takes full advantage of its size and scale Simmons pays tribute to forgotten African American actors and films. On a black background, the L.A. artist features the titles and names of films and individuals important to the early days of Hollywood history, but forgotten over time. Through Dec. 31. 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, caamuseum.org. Childhood Left at the Station: A Tribute to the Children of the Kindertransport, at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. At the start of World War II, a non-denominational group supported by Jewish, Quaker and other groups called the Movement for the Care of Children From Germany organized to rescue children persecuted by the Nazi authorities in Germany. This exhibition brings together objects from 10 of the estimated 10,000 children who were rescued from Germany many of whom never saw their parents again. Through Dec. 31. 100 The Grove Drive, Fairfax, Los Angeles, lamoth.org. A kindertransport travel document for Rita Rimalower Berwald, mother of LAMOTH curator Michele Gold. (Michele Gold) Rick Bartow, Things You Know but Cannot Explain, at the Autry Museum of the American West. This is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to the late Oregon-born painter, a member of the Mad River band of Wiyot. Bartow developed a career as an artist later in life after his service in the Vietnam War and a period contending with PTSD. On canvas, he found inspiration, drawing from historic and contemporary European and Native American artistic traditions to create a fusion of something new: haunting and totemic images of creatures who channel grief and frailty. Through Jan. 6. 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, theautry.org. Ink, at the Museum of Latin American Art. This exhibition brings together various histories of tattooing in L.A. including those inspired by military culture, Chicano tattooing and other historic forms. It will be presented alongside works from the permanent collection that connect with the theme of tattooing. Through Feb. 3. 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, molaa.org. Art of Three Faiths: A Torah, A Bible, and a Quran, at the Getty Museum. The Getty Museum acquired the Rothschild Pentateuch, a manuscript of the first five books of the Torah from the 13th century. It is now putting this rare document on display with other examples of illuminated sacred texts, including a Christian Bible and a Koran. Through Feb. 3. 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles, getty.edu. Decorated Text Page (Book of Exodus), from the Rothschild Pentateuch, on view at the Getty Museum. (J. Paul Getty Museum) La Raza, at the Autry Museum of the American West. In its day, the civil rights publication La Raza, which was based in Lincoln Heights, served as a bible for the Chicano movement, covering protest, policy and everyday life for the Mexican American communities of Los Angeles. Over the years, the paper amassed an archive of 25,000 images, recently digitized by the Chicano Studies Research Center. Many are now on view as part of this PST: LA/LA show at the Autry and in a time of political strife surrounding the issues of civil rights, this exhibition couldnt be more timely. Through Feb. 10. 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, theautry.org The Archival Impulse: 40 Years at LACE, at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. LACE, the historic Los Angeles art spot that gave key shows to Mike Kelley and groups such as Survival Research Laboratories in the 80s, is turning 40 and to mark the occasion, the organization has been poking around its metaphorical attic (aka its archive) to see what it might turn up. This show gathers elements from that archive as well as video works by a range of Los Angeles artists, including Jim Shaw, Susan Mogul and Reza Abdoh. Through Feb. 24. 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, welcometolace.org. A Journey That Wasnt, at the Broad museum. A group show drawn from the museums collection features work by more than 20 artists whose work dwells on the concept of time and its passage. This includes pieces by Ed Ruscha, Glenn Ligon and Sharon Lockhart and will feature the return of the video installation The Visitors, by Ragnar Kjartansson, a charming multi-channel installation that features a group of musicians playing a collective piece while seated in rooms of a decaying mansion. In other words: a welcome break from the news. Through February. 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles, thebroad.org. L.A. Communities Through the Eyes of Artists, in the Passageway Gallery at Union Station. For 15 years, L.A.s principal train station has been showcasing work that reveals the city through the eyes of its artists. This year, it is showing a series of newly commissioned pieces including Shizu Saldamandos depiction of Little Tokyo, Sam Pace on Leimert Park and Artemio Rodriguez on East L.A. On long-term view; no closing date set. Union Station, 800 N. Alameda St., downtown Los Angeles, metro.net. Daniel Hawkins, Desert Lighthouse. The Los Angeles-based artist is obsessed with producing works that toy with ideas of grandiosity, failure and gestures that border on the Sisyphean. (One of his goals as an artist is to ultimately build a scale replica of the Hoover Dam.) Now, Hawkins has installed a 50-foot tall, fully functioning lighthouse in the Mojave Desert in the vicinity of Barstow. The piece even features a light to guide travelers through this rugged landscape. Directions and coordinates can be found on the website. On long-term view, Hinkley, Calif., desertlighthouse.org. Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter carolina.miranda@latimes.com Twitter: @cmonstah The state of the nation play has a long tradition in Britain, where playwrights are encouraged to think of the theater as a public forum, a place to debate the issues of the day and track the shifts in the collective narrative. The genre, of course, has an American pedigree too. Arthur Miller and Tony Kushner have written urgent political dramas that have advanced our national dialogue. But for too long, our dramatists have been more preoccupied with family affairs and identity crises than economic realities and race relations. Sweat, Lynn Nottages 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama set in a faltering factory town in Pennsylvania, magnificently answers the call for more far-ranging American playwriting. Although much of the action takes place in 2000, the play, which opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum, offers one of the most insightful explorations of the economic insecurity that has been fueling the political fury and racial tensions now engulfing us. Sweat shows how difficult it is to separate economics and race in an America in which the middle class is becoming a dwindling reality. Advertisement The story begins in 2008 with separate meetings between a parole officer (Kevin T. Carroll) and two young men recently released from prison. Jason (Will Hochman), who has a black eye and white supremacist tattoos, reveals a temper that could soon land him back in jail. Chris (Grantham Coleman), a soft-spoken African American who has turned to religion for answers, recounts running into Jason on the street and embracing his old buddy who upended his life eight years ago. Nottages prologue introduces a mystery that will take time to sort out. What was the crime that sent Jason and Chris away for so long? The question has a TV police procedural ring to it, but the play changes tack to become a gritty social drama about factory workers in the age of NAFTA, who are about to have the carpet pulled out from under them. The setting is a bar in Reading, a proud industrial town that is rapidly losing its identity as factory owners move their plants to Mexico, where labor is cheap and unions arent a headache. Stan (Michael OKeefe), the bartender who suffered a disabling injury at the plant where he used to work, maintains a familiar rapport with customers he knows from his days on the factory floor. Lately, his conversation is filled almost exclusively with news of plant lockouts and the crackups of the unemployed. Amy Pietz, left, is Jessie, Mary Mara is Tracey, and Portia is Cynthia in Sweat, Lynn Nottages Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a factory town in Pennsylvania, playing at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) Chris Barrecas spacious set gives this blue-collar hangout a den-like character. But the most ingenious aspect of the scenic design is the way it takes advantage of the Tapers tricky semi-thrust stage by heightening our proximity to the scene and fostering a sense of eavesdropping intimacy with the characters. The production, directed with a firm narrative grip by Lisa Peterson, invites us to kick back with these regulars. Two characters dominate the scene: Tracey (Mary Mara), whose family has worked in Reading for several generations, is Jasons mother. Cynthia (Portia), Traceys best friend and co-worker who also has roots in the town, is the mother of Chris. Hard-boiled survivors, these women share a bond of sweat, having labored together for more than 20 years and now watching their sons join them at the plant. Both are survivors: Tracey is a widow and Cynthias estranged husband, Brucie (John Earl Jelks), has developed a serious drug problem after getting locked out of his plant in one of the towns many union-busting developments. But Tracey and Cynthia also have happy memories of wild nights when there was more hope on the horizon. Hanging out at the bar with their friend and co-worker Jessie (Amy Pietz), who drinks so much that Stan inevitably has to take away her car keys, is still a necessary release for them. Nottage paints a portrait of an American town where racial divisions (while undeniable) are less important than worker solidarity. Globalization and automation, however, are ratcheting up economic strains that are raising to the surface old resentments. When Cynthia applies for a management position at the factory, Tracey become uneasy. Cynthia, like her son, is more ambitious than Tracey and Jason, who are content to work on the factory floor until retirement. Job security, however, is something no one can count on any longer. The blame game is underway, pitting friend against friend as scapegoats (affirmative action, immigration) are found to deal with a system that has come to treat workers as drags on a ledger sheet. One of the targets of Traceys ire is Oscar (Peter Mendoza), a Colombian American barback who wants a better paying factory job and is willing to work for less than union wages. For too long, our dramatists have been more preoccupied with family affairs and identity crises than economic realities and race relations. Sweat, which had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015, shows how difficult it is to separate economics and race in an America in which the middle class is becoming a dwindling reality. Nottage, who did extensive on-the-ground research for the play, humanizes the discussion that has only become more vitriolic since Donald Trump was elected president. Sweat is not without dramatic weaknesses. Characters are burdened by explanatory speeches that have a reporting ring to them. The tempo is sluggish at times and the writing occasionally strikes an earnest note. The script reads better than it plays. When violence erupts near the end, the effect is bracing. The audience is jolted out of the lull of so much talk. The actors are solid but not often much more than that. Portia leavens Cynthias righteous command with touching sympathy. Mara makes the most of Traceys savage wit, but she could use more modulation in her brawling abrasiveness. Hochmans Jason and Colemans Chris capture both the palling around humor and growing distance between their characters. The strength of the ensemble is its unity. Petersons production brings to life the expansive canvas Nottage has painstakingly created. This is a dramatic world actors and audience members can comfortably live inside. When I reviewed Sweat at the Public Theater in November 2016 before it moved to Broadway the following year, the play seemed to analytically grasp what too many political pundits had missed: the seething anger that turned a reliable blue state such as Pennsylvania red. The topicality of the drama sadly hasnt diminished. Economic fears and rising inequality are still polarizing Americans. In its lucid examination of how these divisions have activated other fault lines, Sweat offers the healing balm of a probing and compassionate playwriting intelligence. Sweat Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave. L.A. When: When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays (call for exceptions); ends October 7 Tickets: $30-$99 (subject to change) Information: (213) 628-2772 or www.centertheatregroup.org Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (including intermission) John Earl Jelks is Brucie and Gtantham Coleman is Chris in Sweat, Lynn Nottages Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a factory town in Pennsylvania, playing at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) charles.mcnulty@latimes.com Follow me @charlesmcnulty Try as he might and hes tried countless times Rolly Crump just cant quit Disney. But his latest attempt may be the closest hes come. Earlier this year Crump had artifacts from nearly all of his lifes work auctioned off, a sale decades in the making that brought in more than $600,000. No surprise the items were in demand. In addition to having a hand as an assistant animator in the Disney films Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, Crumps resume just so happens to contain work on Its a Small World, the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Haunted Mansion, cornerstones of Anaheims Disneyland and pivotal works in American Pop art. Crump is one the most important designers in the development of early Disneyland and one of only a few surviving architects of the park who can speak directly to the intentions of its creator, Walt Disney. He also has a reputation as one of the parks most vocal critics, and for decades has offered blunt assessments of Disney designs as well as his former peers a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is artist who is offended at the suggestion that others would be offended by his critiques. At the same time, Crump is fiercely possessive of Disneylands ideals and believes strongly in the theme park as a place of living art. Advertisement To those outside the secretive walls of Walt Disney Imagineering WED Enterprises (for Walter Elias Disney) when Crump joined the division in 1959 the 88-year-old designers reputation is that of a rebel, a fierce protector of individual freedom in the complex world of corporate art. His office door was graced with a smoke marijuana poster, and hes been known to brag about driving his Porsche around Fantasyland when he served as Disneylands art director, one of his many roles during his numerous stints with the company. Retired Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump, 88, who was pivotal in the designs of many key Disneyland attractions. Crumps Disney window, displayed on Disneylands Main Street, U.S.A., is behind him. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) To this day Crump is heralded as co-leading what would be Disneylands greatest version of Tomorrowland, a sort of mod-like vision of future-past that opened in 1967. And the Disneyland Hotels wildly popular bar Trader Sams is steeped in the Crump influence, having being designed in his vision of tiki culture. He was also the creative force behind one of Disneys most storied never-built attractions, the Museum of the Weird. For me, hes one of the greats, says former Imagineer Tom Morris, who retired in 2016 after more than 35 years with Imagineering. I would mimic his artwork as a kid, not even knowing there was a Rolly Crump. There was just something I liked about the line work and the design of the tikis and the stage in Tomorrowland or parts of the Small World facade. I would just doodle those, and then later I found out Rolly was the guy who did all that, and I was like, He was a god. Wild and crazy days Yet Crump certainly didnt feel like a god during his initial stint at Imagineering the first of three, not including the occasional consulting gig after being hired as an animator at Disney when he was in his early 20s. Crump says he was later told by Ken Peterson, who was running the animation department when Crump arrived, that what you showed us was the worst portfolio of anyone ever hired in animation. Crumps love of all things Disney began early, as an adolescent in Santa Monica raised largely by a single mom a secretary for 20th Century Fox and whose daydreams were fueled by Disneys Silly Symphony cartoons. A photo from the personal collection of Rolly Crump shows him discussing the facade for Its a Small World with Walt Disney. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Its Crump, whose odd and wacky tendencies led to the Small World facade, where a clock with a goofy smile...is at once welcoming and mysterious. So he drew, and with nothing more than a high school portfolio Crump never attended college made his way into the Disney fold. At WED Enterprises, he would become somewhat close to Walt Disney, or as close, perhaps, as one could Crump to this day refers to him as the old man. But that came later. Crump says he spent his first three years as an Imagineer speaking nary a word to him. All I did was absorb, Crump says. I watched how everyone reacted to Walt, and the strengths and the weaknesses of the different guys. I studied Walt Disney and what it was like to work with him, but I wasnt participating until after three years. Thats when I started talking. I learned that if you show something to Walt, it has to be something he hasnt seen before. A beatnik about two decades younger than many of Disneys other well-known early Imagineers, Crump cites large-scale sculptor Louise Nevelson and activist, provocateur and jazz great Josephine Baker among his primary influences. Josephine was wild and crazy, Crump says, so naturally I was attracted to that. One of Rolly Crumps paintings of artist Josephine Baker. (Rolly Crump) Crumps own art could appear erratic. A diamond in the rough, Crump says is how a superior once described him his colorfully untamed drawings lacked the encompassing, epic-like feel of Claude Coats, whose skill at creating environments formed the backdrop of many of Disneys key attractions, or the exquisiteness of Marc Davis, who had a knack for crafting characters that felt alternately realistic and exaggerated. And yet its Crump whose odd and wacky tendencies led to the Small World facade, where a clock with a goofy smile, inspired by the drawings of Mary Blair, is at once welcoming and mysterious, a clear sign that visitors are somewhere other than the real world. Only Sleeping Beautys Castle more instantly says Disneyland. The thing that should be noted is Walt allowed all of these people to show their own style, says Morris. It wasnt a big corporate guidebook or style guide. Walt allowed there to be a Marc Davis style, a Claude Coats style, a Mary Blair style and Rolly Rolly is definitely one of the Disneyland styles. There were just these different styles that co-existed and that makes it more fun, Morris continued. Its an interpretation. It was not like, Here is the corporate stylebook and here is how it has to look because this is how it looked in the movie. Disneyland really had a handcrafted quality. The Rolly Crump-designed facade for Its a Small World, as it looked in the summer of 2017. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Decisions for what could end up in Disneyland could be made in a single meeting, says Crump. He recalls an afternoon with Disney and three or four other Imagineers to discuss a restaurant destined for Adventureland. A light tiki theme was planned, and John Hench, whom Crump cites as a mentor, suggested that there be stuffed birds throughout. Then Walt said, Disney does not stuff birds, John. Then someone else said, Theyre little mechanical birds. These are words in a little meeting, and this all of a sudden became the Tiki Room. For Crump, the conversation led to one of his biggest challenges, handed down by Disney himself. Walt said, If were going to have people waiting to go into this restaurant, I dont want people standing in line. Design some tikis that talk to people while they stand in line. That was my assignment. Weeks of research, aided by anthropologist Katharine Luomalas book Voices on the Wind, led Crump to the idea of tiki gods and goddesses Pele, a fire goddess, Hina Kaluua, a mistress of rain. I showed them to Walt and he said, These are great. Lets go with them. One problem: When Crump arrived at the model shop, Blaine Gibson, the parks go-to sculptor, told Crump no. Despite the assignment coming from Walt, Gibson didnt have time for Crumps project and was unmoved by Crumps pleas. I said, Well, then who will sculpt these? Blaine said, You will. Everything was so goddamn naive, says Crump. You just did what it took to do it. I used a plastic fork from the commissary to sculpt the clay on the tikis that ended up in Disneyland. Thats beautiful. Walt Disney, right, and Rolly Crump with a model of the Tower of the Four Winds, which accompanied It s a Small World for the 1964 World s Fair. (Walt Disney Company) After Walt That handcrafted quality described by Morris and epitomized by Crumps fork-sculpted tiki gods is what he repeatedly worries is disappearing from the parks. Since the death in 1966 of his idol, Walt Disney, Crumps relationship with the Disney corporation has been in flux. Crumps conflicted emotions only intensified in the years leading up to the opening of Floridas Walt Disney World in 1971. It had no feeling of Disney, Crump says of Floridas Magic Kingdom, noting it lacked the personal touch of animators trained in a hand-drawn craft. It was a lot of good architectural pieces, but I looked at that and thought to myself, What the hell is going on here? Disneyland has charm. Disneyland freaking hugs you and kisses you. He points to the height difference between Californias Sleeping Beauty Castle (77 feet) and Floridas Cinderella Castle (189 feet) as an example of the change. When you go to Disney World and you see the castle, you want to genuflect ... and that disturbed me. Even so, he took part in the initial look of the Florida park. I helped design the rides at Disney World, but we lost the charm, he says. You cant have someone in charge that doesnt understand the look that Walt had the art was done by people in animation, and animation background painters. The whole thing fell apart. I quit. Disneyland has charm. Disneyland freaking hugs you and kisses you. Rolly Crump The colorfully decorated cane of Rolly Crump. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Of course, he didnt stay away long. Crump quit and went back numerous times, and even helped develop Walt Disneys Worlds Epcot, including a design for it that never came to be: Eptot, an area of Epcot that would be dedicated for young children. But when Disney died, so too did one of Crumps most personal projects the so-called Museum of the Weird that Disney championed and Crumps Imagineering peers did not. For Crump, its the one that got away. The idea began to germinate when he first started at WED and was assigned to work on a never-built Wizard of Oz-inspired area. He spent months with Disneys master illusionist Yale Gracey working out effects for the Haunted Mansion. Even now Crump can talk endlessly about his trippy take on a seance room for the Haunted Mansion, one that in his initial drawings contained a talking chair, a cauldron in a fireplace and demented, tarot-inspired flags. As Crump toyed with Mansion designs on and off over the years, breaking away for a time to work on Its a Small World for the 1964 Worlds Fair, his drawings increasingly emphasized the macabre a coffin that doubled as a grandfather clock, a doorway made of human bones, a woman dubbed the mistress of evil or a man-eating plant, the latter living on to inspire the Haunted Mansions wallpaper. During a presentation to Disney, Crump says his peers told him his ideas would be too weird for the old man. Crump says he arrived at WEDs offices the following morning to find Disney in his chair. The first thing he said to me was, You son of a bitch, Crump says. All that stuff you showed me yesterday? I couldnt sleep. Disney then declared to the staff, We have a Museum of the Weird now. The plan, says Crump, was to collect weird things from all over the world and bring them to Disneyland. Whether the Museum of the Weird would have ever become a reality depends on whom you ask. Yet longtime Imagineering leader Marty Sklar, who died last year, said in an interview in 2015 that if Disney had lived the Museum of the Weird would have found its way in the Mansion. But, says Crump, Management didnt like it. Walt passed, and he took the museum with him. No one else wanted to fool with it. Artists legacy Today, Crump is protective of his fellow artists designs. When he discusses the Haunted Mansion, he refers to it as belonging to Yale Gracey and when he talks about Its a Small World, its Marys ride. He says he has a number of Mary Blairs original drawings for the rides dolls, which he didnt auction. Those are priceless, Crump says. This is history. But Crump also has no patience for any additions or aspects to Its a Small World that deviate from Blairs work. I was given the job of kind of supervising Its a Small World, Crump says. I knew it was only going to work if everything looked like Mary Blair. As far as I was concerned, this is a Mary Blair ride. Crumps own legacy is preserved via a window on Disneylands Main Street, U.S.A. an honor reserved for those who were key in Disneylands evolution. Ask him about it and hell tear up. When I worked at the park, Id see the names on the windows, and they were all gods, Crump says. They were all old guys. Finally one day I became an old guy. That was a very special thing. But casually mention, say, the high-priced private Club 33, and prepare for a rant pretentious and stupid are among the printable words. No one is trying to keep charm in the park, and Ive had enough of it, Crump says of the Disneyland of 2018. This has been my whole life. Fall in love with Disneyland, and Disneyland can break your heart. Rolly Crump designed the tiki gods and goddesses for the Enchanted Tiki Room. (Paul Hiffmeyer / Disneyland) Which is partly why, despite Crumps tough talk about wanting to clear his home of his Disney artifacts It just became cumbersome, he says he ultimately wasnt prepared to say goodbye. He admits now that he tried to stop from crying when he saw his art boxed up while he sat at a dining room table. It really didnt hit me until they took it up to Los Angeles to have the auction, Crump says, sitting on the porch of the Carlsbad home owned by his wife, Marie Tocci. Hes still imposing today, his wide glasses and closely trimmed white beard hiding stern, forceful features. When that happened, I began to miss it. And when I went to the auction, it was a killer a killer. It was really emotionally scary. Before the auction at Van Eaton Galleries, which is quickly gaining a reputation as a wheeler and dealer of vintage Disney Crumps works were on display at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Crump says he debated donating many of the items instead to the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. And, says Crumps son, Christopher, 64, who followed in his fathers footsteps to work for Disney, There was talk of doing a traveling version of the exhibit, but dad, well, hes a control freak. It started to exhaust him. When this notion of selling everything came up, that sorted out a big question and a quandary of what he was going to do. The auction offered the sense of finality that Crump appears to have been after for much of the past 50 years. Ask him if he misses visiting Disneyland regularly, and he answers emphatically: No, no, no, no, no. Not anymore. Then he pauses, and says simply, The park is gone. Tomorrowland, as viewed from the now-defunct PeopleMover in July of 1967. Rolly Crump was a key architect in the 1967 Tomorrowland redesign. (Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA) While there most certainly is a theme park at 1313 Disneyland Drive in Anaheim Crump dismisses it as Stroller Park he views its current state the result of a battle hes long been fighting. When he expresses a frustration with the parks, its not due to a lack of desire to change. (And it needs to be noted that much in Disneys parks today are very much handcrafted and full of personality see Animal Kingdom in Florida, the massive, mountainous sculptures of Cars Land or the recently added evil beaver on the Disneyland Railroad.) What Crump laments is the obviously personal touch an attraction that clearly belongs to a specific artist more than it does a blockbuster film. That points to the question of what Imagineering did Rolly work for, says his son Christopher, who recently retired but returned to consult on the revamp of Paradise Pier into Pixar Pier at Anaheims California Adventure. If you wanted to think about his design philosophies and the guy he was youve seen the beatnik posters and what he calls the dope posters it was all counter-culture, and my dad dressed like a beatnik. But hes a nut. They were all nuts. This was a brand-new endeavor for most of them, Christopher continues. They were making this up as they went along and there was a lot of experimentation. It didnt matter if you hadnt done it before because nobody had done this before. Crumps outsider role was one he relished playing. This is a man, after all, who drew a naked and full-figured Rapunzel for Floridas Mr. Toads Wild Ride. And to help make ends meet while working at Disney, he sold what he calls his dopers, art prints that celebrated illicit drugs as if they were circus attractions. It was one such poster that Morris saw when given a tour of Imagineering in the 70s before going to work there full time. One of Rolly Crumps so-called dopers. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) He was newly returned to WED and I met him in his office, and it had a giant smoke marijuana poster on the front, says Morris. It was a big Disneyland-attraction-sized poster on his door, and I remember thinking, This is an unusual place. Remember, says his son, that the original Imagineers were artists who dont have to give a you-know-what about anything, people who say what they say because thats what they think. Thats dad. Hes not going to tailor his opinion to make someone feel good. Thats a byproduct of a particular time, and a time in which he was extremely prolific. So that part of him hasnt changed. Thats core Rolly. While Crumps art was more whimsically outlandish than what Disney was known for, emphasizing bold and brash colors and an offbeat sense of humor think work fit for a comic book, or better yet a tattoo it was far from rudimentary. And core Rolly had room for what some could perceive as imperfections. When it came to the Small World facade, Crump went above his boss, Richard Irvine, to go straight to Disney, as Irvine was seeking to have Davis redesign it. I showed the clock to Walt and Walt said, Thats good. Dick said, It doesnt have that European flavor. Im having Marc redesign it. Walt looked Dick straight in the eye and said, I like it the way it is. The old man backed me on so many damn things. Thats why so many people didnt like me. When Crump received his invite to become a Disney legend in 2004, he trashed the envelope, believing the company honor had become more about celebrity rather than saluting those who have shaped Disney history. But he went, largely at the urging of his son and Imagineering executive Sklar. And then he proceeded to choke up onstage. Thats my dad, says Christopher. Hell say, Im not going to that goddamn thing, Then he always goes to that goddamn thing. Yet theres no denying theres a sense of visible relief in Crump no longer being surrounded by his decades of Disney and personal work. Months before Disneyland opens what will be the largest expansion in its history 14 acres dedicated solely to Star Wars Crump simply hopes we dont lose sight of what Disneyland once was, a place, in the words of his son, designed by nuts. A plaque from the personal collection of Rolly Crump. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) I was part of all this stuff that had never been done before, Crump says. Im proud of that. I feel real good about that. I knew what we were doing was very special, and I knew that we were the best. He then recalls one of his proudest moments, and it occurred at Club 33 yes, the very place he dismissed as pretentious. Shortly after Tomorrowlands revamp opened in 1967, Crump took the staff out to celebrate. We had a big lunch at the 33 club, Crump says. Roy Disney was there. Roy Disney came up to me and he said, Are you Rolly Crump? I said, Yes, sir. I am. ' He said, My brother used to talk about you. This is when Crumps smile widens, a grin as big as a kid discovering a Silly Symphony for the first time. I just thought, Thats cool. ALSO Meet Disneys philosopher king: the brain behind Avatars Pandora and Marvels Guardians ride Digging up the ghosts of Disneylands Haunted Mansion ride This is your brain on Disneyland: A Disney addicts quest to discover why he loves the parks so much Two Bit Circus will bring an indoor game-focused theme park to downtown Los Angeles Todd.Martens@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter: @toddmartens Not everyone was up to the challenge of bringing director Tim Suttons brutal bare-knuckle brawl drama Donnybrook to the screen. Like the everyman warriors of the near-mythic cage fight at its center, the film pulls no punches as it surveys a country locked in dog-eat-dog conflict, afflicted by vicious cycles of violence physical, emotional, spiritual and traumas that have never healed. I had one actor say after a few meetings that he wasnt sure he wanted to do something that was so dark, and I was like, Well thats the movie, said Sutton, whose bold fourth feature stars Jamie Bell, Frank Grillo, James Badge Dale and Margaret Qualley in a startling and riveting turn. Opening the Toronto Film Festivals Platform section Friday as a title available for acquisition, Donnybrook is at once a requiem for a certain segment of America, and a clarion call for all to take a hard inward look at how and why weve arrived at such a tumultuous time in the nations history. Advertisement It feels quite dreamlike, said the British-born Bell, who plays Jarhead Earl, a devoted father, husband and military veteran and the closest thing the film has to a hero. Like a horrible Mark Twain nightmare set in a Trump America. Adapted from Frank Bills 2013 novel, the donnybrook of its title is a rural underground cage brawl with a $100,000 cash prize enough money to pay off debts, flee the past and restart a life, a windfall worth putting ones body, fists and blood on the line. Jamie Bell in the film Donnybrook. (Courtesy of TIFF) FULL COVERAGE: 2018 Toronto International Film Festival To Jarhead Earl, a good man struggling with dire financial straits and a wife whos fighting her own losing battle with addiction, its the only way to move his family out of the trailer park and provide for them a safe, secure future. But other more insidious forces stalk the road to the donnybrook, namely Chainsaw Angus (the menacing Grillo), a meth dealer whose twisted relationship with his younger sister Delia (Qualley) is in itself a complex tangle born of destructive cycles of violence, manipulation and abuse. I didnt make this movie because I wanted to make a fight movie, said Bell, who also stars as a reformed skinhead in another TIFF premiere title, Skin, based on a true story. I really dislike fighting. I dont find any kind of vanity in it. But its an integral part to this character . He knows thats what hes good at. Hes come out of the military like, well, these are the skills that I have. And although I dont agree with violence, theres something about that you defend your family with what you have, said Bell, who recalls pounding a punching bag during filming so intensely that viewers will see his own bloody knuckleprints onscreen. Jamie Bell in the film Donnybrook. (Courtesy of TIFF) FULL COVERAGE: 2018 fall movie preview Previously known on the art-house circuit for his more experimental first three features (2012s Pavilion, 2013s Memphis and 2016s Dark Night, inspired by the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre), Sutton adapted Donnybrook for the screen in his biggest feature to date, transplanting its setting from Indiana to the small-town saloons and trailer parks of rural Ohio. In his hauntingly lyrical vision an opera of chaos lensed by David Ungaro along the misty, verdant, and decaying landscape of economically depressed Middle America violence abounds long before we get to the desolate remote farm that hosts the titular fight. Darkness, to say the least, was always a given. Dark Night was about the threat of violence, and about holding back from that, said Sutton, who was tapped to adapt the project by Whiplash and Nightcrawler producer David Lancaster. This was about the act of violence. And if I was going to talk about violence at this point, I had to go fully into it I had to go to a place where it was as dark as it could be, where these people end up in an act of violence and I would show the whole thing, I wouldnt hold back. Sutton felt flashes of recognition reading Bills novel, tracking the colliding fates of Donnybrooks desperate characters. He saw these people, these lives, these lost dreams in folks he knew from his own upbringing in New York state. Most of all, says the director, the story of Donnybrook is incontrovertibly a story of America. This is about the country. This is where we are right now, said Sutton. There is a huge population of people in the middle of the country who feel like they are dispossessed some of whom have gone so far into a different place that they are kind of outside of the world that we live in. I wanted it to be this horrible opera of destruction, he said, because I think were so close to that right now as a country. But if Donnybrook is aiming squarely at America specifically poor and working-class white Americans, the only players represented in the deliberately limited perspective of Suttons dark fable it also seeks to understand and engage with those who might see themselves reflected onscreen. I think historically weve been on a descent long before Donald Trump, but I do feel that the movie speaks about the times for what they are right now, and is a larger kind of folk tale about American violence and about American anger, Sutton said. The point is made as Donnybrooks characters hurtle toward an ultimate violent reckoning, traversing a heartland of darkness. To get to the prizefight, combatants are ferried across the Ohio River a scene Sutton and Bell envisioned a la Willards watery quest in Apocalypse Now where the American flag hangs proudly for jeering spectators and men in cages stand in deference for a warbled rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner. To underscore his point, Sutton set a key scene not originally in the book at the site of a historic Civil War battle where, Jarhead muses, the South never recovered. To me, this film has a lot to do with white rage. Theres a lot of anger, theres a lot of confusion, theres a lot of menace, Sutton said. And while Jarhead and his family are not part of that kind of reality, the point of the film is about how people are simply trying to survive and how fighting isnt the only way. To that end, the actors tapped to bring Donnybrook to life describe a creative openness on set that allowed deeper currents of humanity to surface in characters who are situated at various points along a sliding scale of morality and lawfulness. For Grillo, who studied documentaries on the long-term effects of abuse and neglect on children to understand his characters background, it was important to make Angus more than just a monster. I didnt want to make him a sociopath, he said. He was a guy who was more emotionless until he was triggered. Frank Grillo (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) Read Justin Changs 2018 Toronto Film Festival diary Some of his most intense and charged scenes with Qualley were improvised in the moment with the camera rolling, he said. Qualley, who drew critical acclaim in last years Novitiate, approached Delia a departure from the sister character of the original book as a soul whose quest to reclaim her lost innocence is one of the films more bittersweet tragedies. Its a courageous turn for any young actress that includes frank scenes of nudity and one of the most potentially divisive sex scenes in recent memory. What I want to do more than anything is to do things that scare me, that push me and make me uncomfortable and get me out of my comfort zone, Qualley said. Mostly I hope people see things in the right context. Were fortunate to be in a time right now when there are a lot of conversations about ways in which women have been victimized, and minorities have been victims of various forms of abuse, she said. I think there are so many different things to take away from the film, and in my favorite stories theres not just one clear message that you walk away with. She and Bell are already planning to reteam with Sutton on the directors next project, The Chain, adapted from a Tobias Wolfe short story about people making bad decisions and paying for them, according to Sutton. That film similarly promises to continue the filmmakers exploration of what he terms this lost American rage. But as far as Donnybrook is concerned, Sutton emphasizes that his goal is a deeper understanding that doesnt take sides and one that, hopefully, will reach open eyes, hearts and minds across the country. I think the film is artful enough that [it will] play in, lets say, Missouri or Indiana or upstate New York and people see it and relate to it in a way they may not relate to a film about hipsters in Brooklyn, he said. I know it comes across as very dark and very brutal in certain ways, but the universal need to survive is in everyone. At its base, this is a movie about a family trying to survive not making the right decisions, not having the right chances, not given all the opportunities, literally just clawing their way to the next day. And I think everyone can relate to that, whether at a world premiere or at a cineplex in the middle of nowhere. jen.yamato@latimes.com @jenyamato If youre a devotee of film noir, and you should be, you likely think of it as a dark-end-of-the-street, distinctly American film style that was unaccountably given a Gallic-sounding name born when French film critics detected a more cynical, more corrosive tone in post-World War II Hollywood movies. But what if French filmmakers had been making their own accomplished noir-type films since before the war? And what if they continued to do so even after the English-language flowering? That is the premise behind The French Had a Name For It, a splendid eight-film series playing at the American Cinematheques Aero Theater in Santa Monica starting Thursday and running through the weekend. Not always given the respect they deserved in France, and then overshadowed by the coming of the New Wave in the 1960s, these films are mostly unknown, even completely unseen, as far as American audiences are concerned. Advertisement But at their peak, these are richly entertaining genre exercises, enjoyable and crisply made, at times directed by top drawer filmmakers on the order of Henri-Georges Clouzot and Luis Bunuel and featuring major stars such as Jeanne Moreau and Jean Gabin. Louis Malles jazzy, existential tale of a murder gone wrong features a glistening Jeanne Moreau in the 1958 French film noir Elevator to the Gallows. (The American Cinematheque) Author-programmer Don Malcolm estimates that these films number close to 600. He calls them a lost continent of cinema, and he should know. Malcolm, who is working on a book on the subject, is the guiding spirit behind the Cinematheque series, an annual event now in its fourth year. Hes devoted a chunk of his life to identifying these films, clearing up rights issues and pushing the original distributors to subtitle them in English so they can be seen in this country. Among the rarities on display are Sunday nights double bill (starting at 7:30 p.m., as do all the programs) of early Clouzot films: 1941s The Last of the Six, which he helped write, and 1942s The Assassin Lives at 21, a directorial effort that mixes humor with icy chills. The series opens Thursday night with arguably its strongest double bill, 1959s Fever Rises At El Pao and 1949s Such a Pretty Little Beach, both starring legendary French actor Gerard Philipe, who died at age 36. Gerard Philipe, early in his brief career, in the wet and melancholy Such a Pretty Little Beach. (American Cinematheque) A performer who mainlined tortured sensitivity, a bit of a French version of Montgomery Clift, Philipe is at his best in El Pao, his final role, a French/Mexican co-production directed by Bunuel during the great Spanish directors time in Mexico. Philipe plays an idealist enmeshed in the corrupt politics of a fictional Caribbean island, not to mention the romantic life of a powerful woman played by Mexican superstar Maria Felix. Helping create the films impressive air of florid hothouse romanticism is the cinematography of Gabriel Figueroa, Mexicos premier cinematographer, who brought visual electricity to everything he touched. Also on the bill is the Yves Allegret-directed Such a Pretty Little Beach, which stars Philipe much earlier in his career as a troubled young man returning to his hometown on the Breton coast. Featuring a series of melancholy walks on the beach, it is as wet and rainy a film noir as you can imagine. Just about as good is the Friday night double bill of 1952s Poison Ivy and 1959s The Strange Mr. Steve. Eddie Constantine & Dominique Wilms are five years ahead of James Bond in Poison Ivy, the beginning of a dozen films he made as agent Lemmy Caution. (American Cinematheque) Energetic and enjoyable, Poison Ivy is one of the first films to feature French-speaking American actor Eddie Constantine, unaccountably one of Frances biggest stars in the 1950s, in the role that made him famous, undercover FBI agent Lemmy Caution. The actor, who reprised the role in Jean-Luc Godards very different Alphaville, here plays a hard-drinking, compulsively womanizing secret agent involved with 25 crates of gold who says things such as dames like that take my breath away and if a bomb like that sang a number for the electric chair, theyd be turning them away. Its all set in a Casablanca that Humphrey Bogart would not recognize. The Strange Mr. Steve is a fine showcase for Moreau, a year before her breakthrough Elevator to the Gallows but already in her 20th feature, and in the starring role at that. Steve starts not with Moreau but with a personable young bank clerk (Philippe Lemaire) who is always short of cash. Then, he meets the suave and debonair Steve (Armand Mestral), who introduces him to the kind of high life he can hardly afford. Given that Steves rather peculiar occupation turns out to be robbing banks, you can see where this is headed, and Moreaus role as a woman romantically involved with both men is a pleasure to experience. Saturday night starts out with another icon of French cinema, Gabin, taking a turn playing Georges Simenons Inspector Maigret, the pipe-smoking master detective himself. Jean Gabin as Inspector Maigret in Maigret Sets a Trap. (American Cinematheque) In 1958s Maigret Sets a Trap, Gabins Maigret is rumpled to the max, threatening to retire (Im worn out, my memory is slipping) but still determined to capture the Marais killer. Gabin does not really break a sweat here, but there is a definite charm to him nevertheless. Closing the night is Jacques Derays tiptop 1963 heist movie, Symphony For a Massacre. Its a terrific and twisty story of larcenous plans being undone by duplicity and homicide, as codes of criminal honor clash with old-fashioned human greed. Rarely if ever seen in the U.S. before, this 4K restoration shows why The French Have a Name For It is a series to savor. Jean Rochefort is up to no good in the terrific and twisty film Symphony For a Massacre. (American Cinematheque) ------------- The French Had a Name for It Where: American Cinematheque, Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica When: Fever Rises at El Pao (1959) and Such a Pretty Little Beach (1949), Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m.; Poison Ivy (1952) and The Strange Mr. Steve (1957), Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m.; Maigret Sets a Trap (1958) and Symphony for a Massacre (1963), Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m.; The Last of the Six (1941) and The Assassin Lives at 21 (1942), Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m. Price: $8-$12 Info: (310) 260-1528, americancinematheque.com kenneth.turan@latimes.com @KennethTuran Ant-Man and the Wasp A bright, cheery distraction from darker, heavier Marvel Studios outings, this Peyton Reed-directed sequel to 2015s Ant-Man reunites Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly in a superhero caper of deliberately low stakes and enormous charm. (Justin Chang) PG-13 The Cakemaker A provocative, unexpected and very moving German-Israeli coproduction that is as unusual a love story as you are likely to find. (Kenneth Turan) NR Eighth Grade Starring a superb Elsie Fisher as a girl about to graduate from the eighth grade, writer-director Bo Burnhams debut feature paints a beautifully, painfully honest portrait of adolescent girlhood. (Justin Chang) R Incredibles 2 There is good news in the world tonight: Writer-director Brad Bird has brought everyones favorite superhero family back to the big screen, and we are all better off for it. (Kenneth Turan) PG Advertisement Juliet, Naked A charming film of an engaging, adult nature about two very different people trying to press reset in their lives, it is impressively directed by Jesse Peretz and acted with verve, passion and great skill by Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris ODowd. (Kenneth Turan) R The Little Stranger Domhnall Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling and a superb Ruth Wilson star in this intelligent, pleasurably moody English gothic from director Lenny Abrahamson (Room), adapted from Sarah Waters novel. (Justin Chang) Madelines Madeline A dazzling hall of meta-mirrors, Josephine Deckers gorgeous third feature turns the story of a 16-year-old aspiring actress named Madeline (astonishing newcomer Helena Howard) into an explosively creative rumination on art, acting, identity and the awesomeness of cats. (Justin Chang) NR Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Led by a vivacious star turn from Lily James, Ol Parkers sequel to Mamma Mia! is a thoroughly unexpected delight, an ABBA jukebox musical that improves on its dreadful 2008 predecessor in every respect. (Justin Chang) PG-13 Puzzle Kelly Macdonald, one of the best actors out there and a perennial costar (Trainspotting, No Country for Old Men), steps out and shows us what she can do on a bigger stage. Working with Indian star Irrfan Khan, she is a knockout as a suburban housewife who discovers herself through an unexpected mastery of jigsaw puzzles. (Kenneth Turan) R Searching A Bay Area dad (John Cho) looks for his missing daughter in this compelling and formally innovative thriller from first-time director Aneesh Chaganty, which unfolds entirely on the characters computer and phone screens. (Justin Chang) PG-13 Sorry to Bother You Rapper-activist Boots Rileys joyous dystopian cackle of a directing debut stars a superb Lakeith Stanfield as an Oakland telemarketer who stumbles into that arrestingly surreal zone where racial identity, class rage and corporate malfeasance intersect. (Justin Chang) R Support the Girls Regina Hall gives a marvelous lead turn as the manager of a crummy sub-Hooters breastaurant, with strong backup from Shayna McHayle and Haley Lu Richardson, in Andrew Bujalskis wise and wonderfully loose-limbed workplace comedy. (Justin Chang) R Three Identical Strangers A scientific and philosophical inquiry by way of a detective story, Tim Wardles intensely compelling documentary tells the twistier-by-the-minute story of identical triplet boys who found each other 19 years after being separated at birth. (Justin Chang) PG-13 Wont You Be My Neighbor? The goal of this exemplary documentary is not to tell the story of TV host Fred Rogers life but to show the way of someone whose formidable task was, in his own words, to make goodness attractive and made it happen. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13 ------------ See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Movie Trailers calendar@latimes.com @LATimesMovies Like millions of other music fans, Paul Simon had Aretha Franklin on his mind Aug. 31, on the day of her star-studded memorial service in Detroit. He spoke softly as he reflected on her rendition of his spiritually minded pop-rock classic, Bridge Over Troubled Water, frequently cited among her greatest recordings. In an interview with The Times about his new album In the Blue Light, in which he revisits and sometimes rewrites songs chosen from his various solo albums, Simon spoke of the thrill he felt as a songwriter when Franklin chose to record one of his compositions. Then he bristled, in a low-key way, about a writer who, while listing it among her essential performances, suggested that Franklin brought something to it that Simon & Garfunkels recording could only hint at. Advertisement RELATED: Paul Simon, in the homestretch of a farewell tour, talks of unique journey through his past for In the Blue Light album As much as Simon admires Franklins take, he, perhaps unexpectedly, feels a deep attachment to the original. I thought, thats actually not an accurate description, he said. First of all, the Simon & Garfunkel recording was really at least as good as Arethas. The piano on that Larry Knechtels piano is a beautiful gospel piano, absolutely beautiful. Im sure when Aretha heard it, she heard that. Her recording is brilliant maybe its the best cover of any of my songs that anyone ever did, Simon stressed. He added, In this particular case, the Simon & Garfunkel record was just as beautiful equally spiritual to the Aretha record, even though its roots really do come from black gospel [music]. The way [Art Garfunkel] sang it was sort of choirboy, which was very much Artie thats what he was when he grew up, he said. We werent hinting at anything. We knew what we were doing. I will say this: What Aretha did was, she did explain it to a black audience and made that song relevant in a way that it was always meant to do. Simon didnt even sing Bridge on the first several dates of his Homeward Bound farewell tour. But a half dozen or so stops in, he added it to the set list. Hes given it a new arrangement featuring New Yorks yMusic instrumental sextet backing him, and bringing a West African rhythmic accent to the song, since Simon isnt about to try to replicate the angelic purity Garfunkel brought to his original vocal. One of the great pleasures of this tour is singing Bridge Over Troubled Water, which I cant ever say I had a good time singing before, he said. I didnt [ever] sing it very often, but when I did, I never felt like I found the right way of doing it. But this felt good, with yMusic and that West African [element], he said. Introducing it at his Hyde Park show in London in July, he told 60,000 fans on hand that it felt like being reunited with a long-lost child. That was true, too, he said. My relationship to that song is very odd, because I gave it away so quickly. Even as I wrote it, I said, Oh, this will be for Artie. randy.lewis@latimes.com Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter.com For Classic Rock coverage, join us on Facebook With the fall season ramping up, the 99-Seat Beat column is back with the best bets for promising shows on the small-theater scene. American Saga Gunshot Medley: Part 1 at Rogue Machine at the MET Theatre and the Watts Labor Community Action Committee Theatre The Essentials: The 23-year-old playwright Dionna Michelle Daniel sets her precociously poetic play in an old cemetery in the Hereafter, where three long-dead African American slaves, overseen by a mysterious High Priestess, gradually reveal the nature of their torturous fates on Earth. Why this? Although set in a supernatural milieu, Daniels allegorical tale subtly addresses not only past racial atrocities but also the present-day scourge of police violence against African Americans. Director Desean Kevin Terry observes that the play exists outside the boundaries of time, which allows us to observe not only present day impacts of violence committed against the African American community but the history of violence and the notion of historical trauma. The production, Rogue Machines final production at the MET before moving to Venices Electric Lodge, features live music and an alternating cast that includes Obie-winner Cherise Boothe (Milk Like Sugar). Advertisement Details: The MET Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays; 2 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 23. $40. Starting Oct. 5 at the WLCAC Theatre, 10950 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 14. $35. Pay what you can for local audience at the door. (855) 585-5185. www.roguemachinetheatre.com Co-writers Charlie Mount and Jeff G. Rack have based their new play on Ray Bradburys writings. (Charlie Mount) Martians An Evening with Ray Bradbury at Whitefire Theatre The essentials: Co-writers Charlie Mount and Jeff G. Rack have based their new play from Bradburys writings, personal interviews and short stories. From the setting of his home office, Bradbury, played by Mount, is captured in the process of writing four of his beloved Martian tales, shortened here into brisk mini-plays that retain the flavor of the originals. As the omniscient narrator, Bradbury meanders freely between outer space and his own past as he invents his stories from scratch. Why this? One of literatures great enthusiasts, Bradbury eloquently expounded on the writing process throughout his career. Freely sampling from Bradburys fiction, as well as his rich trove of personal anecdotes, Mount and Rack offer an entertaining glimpse into what it takes to create. As Bradbury observed to Mount, a personal friend, Dont think. Just start writing. Jump off a cliff and build your wings on the way down. Veteran set designer Rack, a major contributor to the popular Wicked Lit series, directs. Details: Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. 8 p.m. Fridays through Nov. 2. Also 8 p.m. Saturday Nov. 10. Ends Nov. 10. (800) 838-3006. www.whitefiretheatre.com Andre de Vanny plays Austin Occi Byrne, a brawling, brain-damaged young Irish man (Yure Covich) Swansong at the Skylight The essentials: Conor McDermottroes monodrama, later adapted into a film, traces the fortunes of Austin Occi Byrne, a brawling, brain-damaged young Irish man, as he reflects back on his deprived and violent past. Why this? Raised in the slums by an alcoholic single mother, the casually brutal, always irrepressible Occi has been vividly brought to life by McDermottroe, who exposes the seamy underbelly that spawned his surprisingly engaging monster. Andre de Vanny, who originated the role in Australia to considerable acclaim, reprises his performance for this West Coast premiere. Greg Caroll directs this co-production of the Australian Theatre Company and Skylight Theatre Company. Details: Skylight Theatre, 1816 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. 8:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; 8 p.m. Mondays. Ends Oct. 7. $15-$32. (866) 811-4111. atctix.org or SkylightTix.com Time Stands Still at the Lounge Theatre The Essentials: In this Pulitzer-nominated play, emotionally traumatized freelance journalist James and photojournalist Sarah who has sustained near-fatal injuries from a roadside bomb return home from Iraq to face their own domestic upheavals, including ideological differences that doom their long-term relationship. An old friend and his far younger girlfriend complicate an already fraught situation. Why this? Thrice Pulitzer-nominated, once a winner for Dinner With Friends in 2000 Donald Margulies is a modern-day moralist who charts the emotional shifts among complex characters in ethical crisis. Social justice-minded Sarah and James examine their motives with a brutal insight that leaves little leeway for easy rationalization. Margulies also defies the obvious in his take on Mandy, a seemingly shallow event planner with surprising depths. Details: The Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Sept. 30. $25. (800) 838-3006. https://timestandsstill.brownpapertickets.com The 99-Seat Beat appears every Friday. Our reviewers shortlist offerings with an emphasis on smaller venues. Some (but not all) recommendations are shows weve seen; other picks are based on the track record of the company, playwright, director or cast. Comprehensive theater listings are posted every Sunday at latimes.com/arts. The family of an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by Sacramento police in his grandmothers backyard earlier this year lodged a $35-million wrongful death claim against the city this week. Stephon Clark, 22, was shot multiple times by two officers investigating reports of someone breaking into cars on March 18. The officers chased Clark into a yard, where authorities say he turned and advanced toward the officers while holding what they thought was a firearm. Only a cellphone was found at the scene. The claim, filed by attorneys on behalf of Clarks family, alleges false imprisonment, battery, negligence, failure to summon medical attention and wrongful death. The family is seeking two payments from the city as part of the claim: one for more than $20 million to be paid to Clarks two young sons and another in excess of $15 million for his parents and grandparents, according to documents released Friday. Sacramento officials on Friday did not immediately provide a comment. Advertisement The claim alleges that officers used excessive and unreasonable force against Clark and were not justified in shooting him in the March 18 altercation. Stephon Clark never verbally threatened anyone, and he was unarmed when he was fatally shot multiple times, including numerous shots to his back, shots while he was going to the ground and shots after he had already went down to the ground. At the time of the shooting, Stephon Clark posed no imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to either the involved officers or any other person, the claim states. Clarks death sparked a massive outcry in the weeks that followed and intensified already simmering tensions between the police and the citys black community. Video footage released by the Sacramento Police Department in April showed that officers waited almost five minutes after firing their weapons to approach Clark to deliver medical aid. Officers apparently were concerned that he was armed and playing dead. Claims filed against municipalities are typically the first step before a lawsuit can be filed. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry A teenager visiting Yosemite National Park from Jerusalem plunged to his death this week while reportedly trying to take a selfie at the parks popular Nevada Fall. The Mariposa County coroners office identified the 18-year-old as Tomer Frankfurter. Park officials said Tuesdays incident is under investigation and would not provide details about the circumstances of the fall. But the Times of Israel reported that Frankfurters mother said that her son apparently lost his balance while trying to take a selfie at the edge of Nevada Fall. The waterfall is in Yosemite Valley, which was closed for roughly three weeks this summer due to the deadly Ferguson wildfire burning nearby. It reopened Aug. 14. Advertisement Multiple fatalities have been reported in the park this year. In May, a man died on Half Dome after he slipped and fell during a thunderstorm on the last 400 feet of the climb, where hikers grasp cables to scale the summit. According to the park service, most accidents there occur during wet conditions. The next month, two veteran rock climbers were killed when they fell from the sheer granite face of El Capitan, which rises 3,000 feet and is a favorite challenge for climbers. alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @AleneTchek Rapper and producer Mac Miller was found dead in his Studio City home shortly before noon Friday of a suspected drug overdose, sources said. Los Angeles paramedics responded to his home in 11600 block of Valleycrest Road, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman. Officers went to the scene for a death investigation, said Los Angeles Police Officer Drake Madison, a department spokesman. LAPD officials determined there was no foul play and are turning the investigation over to coroners officials. Sarah Ardalani, the coroners spokesperson, in a statement said Miller was found unresponsive and declared dead at 11:51 a.m. An autopsy and cause of death is pending. Advertisement The 26-year-old rapper, whose real name is Malcolm James McCormick, had long struggled with drug issues. Shortly after his split with singer Ariana Grande in May, the rapper crashed his Mercedes-Benz G-Class SUV into a pole. Miller and two passengers fled the scene, but he was later arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Miller was best known for his hits Self Care and Programs. He garnered attention as a teenager in Pittsburgh with a series of mixtapes. He also worked as a producer under the name Larry Fisherman. Millers struggles had played out in the tabloids, particularly his relationship with Grande. In an interview published in August in Rolling Stone, Miller said that his break up with Grande was difficult but that he was moving on with a new album. Im just being real. Thats good. Now I have space for me. And thats great too, he told the magazine. He also pushed back against concerns over his drug use. If a bunch of people think I am a huge drug addict, OK. Cool. What can I really do? Go talk to all those people and be like, Naw man, its really not that simple? he says. Have I done drugs? Yeah. But am I a drug addict? No. In an interview with Vulture, he said he tried not to worry about the headlines about him and what others think. It just seems exhausting to always be battling something to always be battling for what you think your image is supposed to be. Youre never going to be able to get anything across. Its never gonna be the real. No ones gonna ever really know me, he said. In his last Instagram story Thursday, Miller posted a video of a record player spinning So It Goes, the last track on his fifth studio album, Swimming, that was released Aug. 3. It includes the lyric Nine lives, never die Im still gettin high. The music industry was stunned by his death. Completely devastated and heart broken Im at a loss for words mac you were like a brother to me and were there for me in the hardest of times, especially this summer. I cant believe this is real, rapper G-Eazy wrote on Twitter. richard.winton@latimes.com Twitter: @lacrimes UPDATES: 5:10 p.m.: This article was updated with coroner comment. 4:15 p.m.: This article was updated with more reactions and LAPD comment. 3 p.m.: This article was updated with new details about the rapper. 2:35 p.m.: This article was updated with background information. This article was originally published at 2 p.m. More than 100 U.S. Marines were sent as reinforcements to a remote coalition outpost in southern Syria on Friday after Russia threatened to attack militants in the area, the Pentagon said. The troops were flown by helicopter to the base at Tanf a small town near Syrias borders with Iraq and Jordan. The base is used by U.S. special forces to train Syrian fighters who are confronting Islamic State militants. Moscow has sent messages to the U.S. in recent days, warning that Russian military and Syrian government units were planning an attack on what they refer to as terrorists near Tanf, U.S. officials said. The Russian threats may be a way of testing U.S. resolve to keep troops in Syria now that President Bashar Assads forces, backed by Russian troops and warplanes, have succeeded in defeating rebels everywhere except Idlib province and areas of eastern Syria controlled by the U.S. and its allies. Advertisement (Los Angeles Times) U.S. military officials bluntly warned Russian and Syria not to go forward with an attack within a 35-mile-wide security zone that the U.S. maintains around Tanf, a key strategic outpost. The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war, said Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend U.S., coalition or partner forces. Russia is Assads top international backer; its support, including aircraft, special forces and mercenaries, enabled his military to reverse the course of his countrys seven-year civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. 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. Central Command said the troops sent to Tanf would conduct a multiday exercise using live ammunition. Our forces will demonstrate the capability to deploy rapidly, assault a target with integrated air and ground forces and conduct rapid exfiltration, said Capt. William Urban, the chief Central Command spokesman. U.S. officials who work on the Syria issue have said in recent days that the administration is now resolved to stay in Syria longer than President Trump previously indicated, to finish the fight against Islamic State but also to see the withdrawal of Iranian fighters. Previously, Trump said he wanted American troops out of Syria as soon as possible, and has redirected millions of dollars meant to help rebuild Syria to other projects. Russian warplanes have been carrying out intense airstrikes in Syrias northwest, pounding rebel-held areas in Idlib province and surrounding regions that have become the last sanctuary for the opposition. Russian military officials first informed the U.S. on Sept. 1 through a special communication channel that they intended to enter the At Tanf deconfliction zone to pursue terrorists, Brown said. That was followed by a letter sent Thursday to Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk II, the commander of U.S. forces in Syria, warning that Russia planned to carry out precision strikes near Tanf against Islamic State fighters, a warning that prompted Funk to speed up plans to dispatch additional troops to the base. The U.S. does not require any assistance in our efforts to destroy [Islamic State] in the At Tanf deconflicition zone, and we advised the Russians to remain clear, Brown said. Pentagon officials said that Russias threat to carry out precision strikes suggested it might be contemplating use of airstrikes, missiles, long-range artillery or bombardment from Russian naval vessels in the Mediterranean against Tanf. Such an attack might prompt the U.S. to respond with punishing reprisals using similar weapons, especially if a Russian attack caused casualties to the U.S. or its allies, officials said. Moscow has previously agreed not to enter the zone around Tanf, Brown said. We expect the Russians to abide by this agreement. Administration officials are at least giving lip service to the need for a stronger diplomatic push, in part because of the competing agendas of numerous factions fighting in the region. On Friday, for example, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, all of whom have fighters in Syria, held a summit in Tehran to plot their next moves. But Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russias Vladimir Putin and Irans Hassan Rouhani failed to agree on a cease-fire, apparently dooming any effort to slow an Assad assault on Idlib and the probably devastating toll it would take on several million civilians who live in the area. Turkey, which has largely backed opposition forces, sought the cease-fire. Putin rejected it, claiming that the possible fate of civilians was being used as a pretext to ease pressure on what he called terrorists. Also Friday, at the United Nations, the Syrian ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, declared his government was determined to move on rebel-held Idlib to wipe out what he called factions associated with terrorist groups. The situation is as it is now in Idlib because the countries sponsoring terrorism do not want to distinguish between terrorists and armed opposition, he said, a likely allusion to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces or Syrian rebels whom the Assad government accuses of being affiliated with Al Qaeda. In case the armed terrorist groups refuse to lay down weapons, refuse to leave Syrian territory to go back to where they came from, the Syrian government is prepared, Jaafari said. Russian jets began an intense barrage on Idlib province and surrounding regions earlier this week, hours after Trump warned on Twitter that Assad must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. U.S. officials have warned that the use of chemical weapons by Assads forces against the enclave would result in U.S. reprisals. An attack in February by Russian mercenaries on another U.S. base in eastern Syria was repulsed by U.S. airstrikes and artillery barrages, resulting in dozens of Russian casualties. The Russian government denied any role in the attack. david.cloud@latimes.com | Twitter: @davidcloudLAT tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com | Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson A homeless good Samaritan who claims a New Jersey couple mismanaged the $400,000 they raised for him online will receive all of the funds hes due while the couple is under criminal investigation. In a joint statement issued late Thursday, GoFundMe and the law firm representing Johnny Bobbitt said he will get an amount equal to the balance he didnt receive through the fundraiser. The announcement came several hours after authorities had executed a search warrant at the New Jersey, home of Mark DAmico and Katelyn McClure. Citing enormous public interest in the case, county prosecutor Scott Coffina confirmed in a Facebook post that Mark DAmico and Katelyn McClure are under investigation, though no charges have been filed. It was the latest twist in a onetime feel-good story about Johnny Bobbitt, who spent his last $20 to buy gas for McClure when she became stranded on a highway in Philadelphia last year, and the couple who found 14,000 people online who were so touched by his kindness that they donated to a fund to help him start a new life. Advertisement Police armed with a search warrant left the couples home in Florence, about 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia, with bags and boxes of material and their BMW. Bobbitt has questioned where they got the money for the new car. They have said they used their own money for it. The couples attorney, Ernest Badway, has not returned calls seeking comment on the police investigation. They have previously denied any wrongdoing. The couple is also being sued by Bobbitt, who says they used the GoFundMe account as a personal piggy bank to fund a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford. In court Wednesday, the couples lawyer said Bobbitt has gotten about $200,000. But Bobbitts lawyer said he had received only about $75,000, which includes the value of a camper and a 1999 Ford Ranger. A judge presiding over Bobbitts lawsuit ordered the couple to give sworn statements Monday on the status of all the money raised, as well as to turn over documents. Bobbitt, whose attorney says he is entering a drug addiction program, will also be deposed. Their attorney has indicated the couple will claim their constitutional right not to have to testify. The story initially led to appearances for Bobbitt and McClure on national TV programs as well as an interview by the BBC. But the dispute over the money soured the relationship. FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2018 photo released by NBC, Mark DAmico, left, and Kate McClure speak with host Megyn Kelly on Megyn Kelly Today, in New York. (Nathan Congleton / NBC) DAmico has said Bobbitt spent $25,000 in less than two weeks last year on drugs as well as paying for overdue legal bills and sending money to family. The couple also bought Bobbitt a camper with some of the cash and parked it on land McClures family owns in New Jersey. But Bobbitt became homeless again after DAmico told him in June that he had to leave the property. During a recent appearance on NBCs Megyn Kelly Today, DAmico said there was well over $150,000 left of the donations. But Bobbitts attorney said earlier this week that he was told all the money is gone. GoFundMe said it gave $20,000 to an account set up by his attorney to help him during the investigation. On Thursday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh completed two days of answering questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee that is considering his nomination to the Supreme Court. In some other reality, the Los Angeles Times editorial board would be struggling to reconcile our profound concern about how Kavanaugh might move a divided court further to the right with our longstanding view that presidents are entitled to considerable deference from the Senate, so long as their nominees to the court are well qualified and within the broad mainstream of legal thought. But in the current political environment, such agonizing is beside the point. Kavanaughs confirmation is a foregone conclusion, not because of his qualifications or the commitments he made to respect precedent and safeguard judicial independence. We earnestly hope that he meant it when he assured Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that he not only recognizes that Roe vs. Wade has been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years, but also that he is aware of the real-world implications of overruling that decision. (I dont live in a bubble, he said.) Yet these and other assurances Kavanaugh offered arent the reason he is headed to the Supreme Court. The question isnt whether the selection of Supreme Court justices should be rescued from excessive partisanship; its how that might be accomplished. Advertisement He will be filling the seat vacated by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy because he is the conservative nominee of a Republican president (albeit an unorthodox one) and the Senate is controlled by Republicans who no longer need to worry about the wishes of the minority party. Despite Kavanaughs strong credentials, he likely will be opposed by the overwhelming majority of Democratic senators, just as Trumps first nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was. Some of those Democrats who vote no, we suspect, will do so even though they privately believe Kavanaugh deserves to be confirmed. Its easy to cite explanations for the poisonous partisanship that has infected the Kavanaugh confirmation process: Senate Democrats remain rightly outraged by Republicans refusal in 2016 to provide even a hearing for President Obamas highly qualified nominee, Merrick Garland. Senate Republicans added insult to that injury by fast-tracking Kavanaughs hearings before the National Archives could deliver all of the documents that Democrats wanted to inspect from the nominees service in the George W. Bush administration. They were determined to put Kavanaugh on the court in time for the start of its next session on Oct. 1 and before the midterm elections. But regardless of how we got here, the fact is that judicial confirmations especially for the Supreme Court have become alarmingly more partisan in recent years. Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 97 to 0 in 1988. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed 96 to 3 in 1993. Flash forward to 2005, when John G. Roberts, like Kavanaugh a federal appeals court judge rated well qualified by the American Bar Assn., was confirmed 78 to 22, with half of Democratic senators voting against him. Partisan polarization in voting became even more pronounced in subsequent nominations. Forty Democratic senators voted against President George W. Bushs nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. in 2006. More than 30 Republican senators voted against Obamas two nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Ginsburg expressed the hope this year that one fine day, Congress will return to the bipartisan spirit that prevailed for my nomination. That also has been our position. We long have argued that, even though presidents can be expected to nominate justices who share their general approach to the law, the Senate in considering those nominees should place the emphasis on legal qualifications and judicial temperament. In that way, the court can remain above politics even if individual justices bring different philosophies to the bench as the White House changes hands. But were compelled to acknowledge that the bitter politicization of the confirmation process has made that argument sound quaint to many ears. Republican obstruction of the Garland nomination grossly violated the norm that a president has the right to fill a vacancy on the court that occurs during his term. Then Senate Republicans nixed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to secure Gorsuchs confirmation, taking a cue from Senate Democrats who had abolished the filibuster in 2013 for lower-court judicial nominations to overcome Republican obstruction of Obamas nominees. With no filibuster, the minority party in Congress has virtually no power in the confirmation process. If this is the new world, some liberals argue, why shouldnt we play by its rules? According to this view, Democrats who worry that well-qualified Republican nominees such as Kavanaugh would move the court to the right on abortion, voting rights and affirmative action should feel free to vote against him (and without trumping up other rationales for their opposition). Its a beguiling idea. But it solves nothing. For one thing, it legitimizes efforts by Republicans to oppose qualified nominees put forward by Democratic presidents. More to the point, as the Kavanaugh nomination shows, it wont succeed when Republicans hold the majority. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Most important, blurring the distinction between judges and politicians would undermine respect for the Supreme Court, and for its decisions, including those that vindicate individual rights. The question isnt whether the selection of Supreme Court justices should be rescued from excessive partisanship; its how that might be accomplished. Although in the past we have supported abolition of the filibuster, restoring it for Supreme Court nominations might be a way to encourage bipartisan consensus and to prod presidents to nominate broadly acceptable candidates. Its also worth considering whether Supreme Court justices should be appointed not for life but for lengthy fixed terms, which would lower the political stakes in any individual appointment and discourage justices from hanging on to office in the hopes of being able to retire when a president of the same party is elected. Kavanaugh seems certain to join the pinnacle of the American legal profession, but it will be an achievement tainted by acrimony and accusations of unfairness. There must be a better way. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook. An unnamed senior administration official claims there is a cabal of resisters in the White House working overtime to save the president from himself, or maybe just undermining him, depending on whom you believe. The president, for his part, turns ever more apoplectic, screaming not only about witch hunts but also treason as he hunts for disloyal leakers. On Capitol Hill, a confirmation hearing in a staid Senate office building is repeatedly interrupted by protesters shouting at the nominee and the senators; 70 people are arrested. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs criminal investigation into the administration continues; a porn actress who received $130,000 in hush money from the president poses for Vogue and packs them in at a Portland, Maine, strip club. A new book by legendary reporter Bob Woodward reveals that even the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, calls President Trump an idiot who is off the rails. In one meeting, the book asserts, Kelly said what everyone must surely be thinking: Were in Crazytown. Yes, we are. And even by todays Crazytown standards, this has been an extraordinary week in which a surreal picture emerged of a White House out of control, led (if thats the word) by a volatile president whose behavior appalls and terrifies even his own top aides. On one level, nothing much was revealed that we didnt already know. But this week the level of disarray and dysfunction was laid out for us once again in a stark, unvarnished and deeply depressing way. The level of disarray and dysfunction was laid out for us once again in a stark, unvarnished and deeply depressing way. As usual, some of this is just noise. Its been a challenge since the beginning of this administration to separate the meaningful outrages that demand a response from the empty ones that should be ignored. Name-calling, gratuitous insults, expressions of late-night petulance, resentment and bitterness much of Trumps Twitter blasting doesnt add up to much, or is designed to misdirect our attention to the wrong things. Advertisement But that shouldnt obscure the fact that the president is a profoundly powerful man, the commander in chief of an enormous war-fighting force and an executive capable of unilaterally reversing the nations efforts to combat climate change or provide healthcare to its citizens. He has ripped families apart at the border, incarcerating young children; he has irritated countries as powerful as China and as closely allied as Canada; at home, he has fanned the flames of polarization and mistrust into sweeping wildfires. Arguably, he has sought to obstruct justice. If his own most trusted aides see him as a demagogue or a narcissist or an ignoramus or a bigot, surely we need to know that. Our democracy is held together by venerable and resilient institutions: the rule of law, the electoral process, the free press, the courts, the loyal opposition. But Trump is testing them in ways they have not been tested for years. He has worked assiduously to undermine each of them for instance, calling news reporters enemies of the people and attacking judges and judicial rulings and his own attorney general. He has also called for political opponents to be prosecuted and threatened voting rights with his now-disbanded sham commission on election integrity. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Still, these institutions seem likely to outlast him. Laws, we hope, are stronger than men; voters, in the aggregate, decide the fate of presidents. Our democratic system of government has survived a civil war, several impeachments and a Great Depression. And, most likely, it will survive Donald Trump. For now, we could call on him to step back, calm down, hit the pause button and think about the needs of the country he has been given the authority to lead. But that seems unlikely to happen. We could call on Congress to play its constitutional role as a check on presidential power and misbehavior. But the Republican leaders who control the House and Senate have repeatedly failed to challenge Trump in any meaningful way, making them complicit. At the moment, it is left to the voters oh, and the prosecutors to defend the country from its president. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Of all the appalling things the Trump administration has done, the cruelest has to be arresting and detaining asylum seekers, and separating them from their children. Seeking to deter desperate families from entering the United States by detaining parents for weeks or months apart from their children is so hard-hearted it shocks the conscience. The cruelty has been compounded by ineptitude, as hundreds of migrant children have been stranded in the United States without their parents, who have been deported. Thankfully, the administrations callousness has been held in check by a court order left over from President Clintons second term. The 1997 settlement agreement in Flores vs. Reno requires, among other things, that children facing deportation be held in detention for no more than 20 days, and in the least restrictive environment possible. Courts later extended the agreement to include families with minors in detention centers. (The government has been sued at least five times for allegedly violating the order.) Now the Trump administration wants to scrap the agreement entirely by instituting even more draconian regulations that would allow it to detain families with minors indefinitely until their deportation cases are resolved. Thats beyond the pale. Migrant children seeking permission to remain in the U.S. should not be detained regardless of whether they have a parent to accompany them in confinement. Its especially troubling that one of the administrations stated reasons for doing so is to send a threatening message to other families who might seek asylum in the U.S. from dangerous circumstances in their home countries. Advertisement Migrant children seeking permission to remain in the U.S. should not be detained regardless of whether they have a parent to accompany them in confinement. Of course, the government has the right and duty to set immigration laws and enforce them. And we have a system for that, broken as it might be. Current U.S. law allows asylum to be granted to people facing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. If immigration courts rule that applicants dont meet those requirements, or reject appeals by people seeking permission to stay on humanitarian grounds, the government is entirely within its rights to send them to their home countries. But it should not (and may not, under international agreements) incarcerate them especially when they are children unless there is good cause to think the migrants are a flight risk or pose a threat to public safety. Remember, most of these families arrive seeking official permission to stay, so they have a powerful incentive not to skip their court hearings or break the law: doing so only leads to deportation orders. Advocates argue that most of the aslyum seekers who do miss court dates never received an appearance notice, often because the process takes so long that addresses change and official records dont catch up. As for public safety, a raft of studies has found that immigrants, regardless of their status, commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. If no-shows truly are the administrations concern, it inherited a new Family Case Management Program from the Obama administration that matched eligible asylum-seeking families with housing, healthcare, schooling for the children and legal advice to help navigate the immigration court system. Families in that program had a 99% show-rate for court hearings. But Trump killed it last year. Under the Flores agreement, the government can hold minors only in state-licensed facilities. But states tend not to license facilities for families, which, the government argues, means that it must release the families while the deportation cases continue. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion The new regulations would let the federal government do the licensing of facilities, paving the way for a massive expansion of the detention system. The government currently uses three family detention centers with a total of 3,500 beds. They are secured, dormitory-style facilities with shared bathrooms, common areas, play space and rooms for classes. Trump wants to add 15,000 more beds, but that may just be the start; border agents caught 77,674 people migrating as families in 2016 alone. It is fundamentally inhumane to incarcerate children with or without their parents while immigration courts try to figure out what to do with them. Psychiatrists warn of the damage even from short-term detentions, and some of those who have been held for months have shown signs of severe emotional distress and post-traumatic stress disorder. So in its obsessive quest to stop migrants from seeking asylum, the Trump administration is willing to, in essence, commit child abuse. Thats a stain not just on the presidency, but on the nation. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Who is the anonymous senior administration official who wrote Wednesdays op-ed in the New York Times? You know, the one who boasted of taking part in a shadow government that sees its noble mission as stymieing the deranged American president? Its amusing to guess. But, man, thats the wrong parlor game. The right one, for American voters, is deciding which actions to take before the midterm election to ensure we get a Congress that will stop both the president and the self-styled shadow government that imagines its subduing him. Theres nothing comforting about a soft coup detat in the White House made up of unnamed vigilantes who are accountable to no one serving as a thin, self-appointed line between the life and death of the republic. In a democracy, a coup is no response to a despot. Its a recipe for more despotism. Advertisement Like many stunts in journalism and the Times op-ed is a beaut this one does its job only if it spurs action. Its crucial to see the whole whodunnit as a Murder on the Orient Express situation. Theres nothing comforting about a soft coup detat in the White House. We all did it. Are doing it. The majority of us trapped inside the Trump regime thats the United States share the anonymous senior administration officials concerns about the presidents sanity, temperament and commitment to the Constitution. Those of us who disapprove of President Trump 53.7% of us couldnt have put it better ourselves. Like the clique of self-styled resistance fighters on the inside, we on the outside also want to thwart him. But, as members of a democracy, well do it at the polls. And well do it knowing what we have known since Trump took office: Government officials have long held Trump in a contempt that rivals that of the majority of voters. After all, high-level Washington officials notably Walter Shaub, then the director of the Office of Government Ethics, and James B. Comey, then the FBI director have been voicing grave concerns about the presidents moral fitness almost since he took office. Over the eons meaning months of Trumps presidency, the list of non-anonymous insiders who have reportedly questioned the presidents sanity, integrity and intelligence has grown ever longer. Theres White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, former Trump legal advisor John Dowd, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former economic advisor Gary Cohn, Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah, former national security advisor H.R. McMaster, former EPA chief Scott Pruitt and former communications aide Omarosa Manigault Newman. The first tell-all Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House detailed staffers aggressive disdain for the president. How many dissenters are in Trumps inner circle? According to Wolff, 100 percent of the people around him think hes an idiot. Even Trump knows the score. When the anonymous op-ed appeared Wednesday, Trump did not bother to claim that his inner circle is as loyal as they come. Who would believe that? Trump knows hes surrounded. As the Russian dissident and chess master Garry Kasparov has said of Vladimir Putins Russia, when despots stifle protesters, journalists, voters and detractors, the despots are expressing blind terror. Out of fear, Trump is still trying to pretend the attendees of his rallies small crowds of violent vigilantes and uncanny looking recruits represent America. Out of fear, hes determined to frame the moral majority peaceful protesters at the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings, for example as outlaws. Legacy both-sides-ism on cable news also means Americans are constantly confronted with scripted defenses of the president by compromised parties, including flip-flopper Sen. Lindsey Graham and burlesque performer Sean Hannity. But all thats an illusion. Excerpts from Bob Woodwards forthcoming book, Fear: Trump in the White House, make it clear that the uncompromised figures near him consider Trump a profound risk. Cohn, while serving as economic advisor, pilfered a document from Trumps desk to keep him from signing it and endangering the economy. And Dowd, according to Woodward, believed Trump was so dishonest that hed end up in an orange jumpsuit if he testified before special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Its as though Woodwards sources jumped off the pages of his book and into the New York Times to prove Woodward was telling the truth. In Woodwards book, Kelly is quoted as saying of Trump, Hes gone off the rails. Were in crazytown. The op-ed author says of Trump, Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Further, Woodward shows a scene of Mattis blocking Trumps move to deny South Korea military protection. The op-ed author claims that its her or his clique that is securing our alliances against the presidents efforts to destroy them. This is not to say that Kelly or Mattis is our Anonymous. Who cares? Whats important is that Trump is off the rails. Most of the people disapprove. The protesters are fired up. The voters will rise. And all the presidents men? This time, they despise him too. Twitter: @page88 Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook Naturalization ceremonies are joyous events. Theyre an occasion for new citizens many of whom are longtime U.S. residents to officially declare the United States as their home. Theyre also a reminder that it is not birthplace or ethnicity that makes one an American, but a commitment to shared principles and values. Encouraging permanent residents to become U.S. citizens traditionally has been an area of bipartisan agreement, even in the face of heated debates over immigration policy. So why is the country lagging behind in naturalizing aspiring Americans? Data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for processing naturalization applications, currently show a backlog of more than 750,000 people. Thats nearly double the number of pending applications that existed at the start of 2016, as pointed out in a report by the National Partnership for New Americans. Waiting time between applying for and receiving approval for citizenship used to be about six months; now it is closer to a year. Some USCIS processing centers, including Los Angeles, report that applicants could linger in naturalization limbo for nearly two years. Some USCIS processing centers, including Los Angeles, report that applicants could linger in naturalization limbo for nearly two years. Advertisement The problem predates the Trump administration. In the run-up to the 2016 election, a surge of people rushed to become citizens to vote that November. Thats typical of presidential election years, but USCIS seems to have found itself unprepared. During the more normal year of 2015, there were about 800,000 citizenship applications and the backlog at the end of that year (390,000) was only slightly larger than it was at the beginning. During 2016, however, there were more than 1 million applications and the backlog rose to about 640,000. As a result, many would-be citizens were shut out of voting. Today, however, the elections are long past and yet the application backlog has increased by another 117,000. Two years ago, one might have attributed the logjam to the challenges of hiring to meet unexpected demand. But now theres been plenty of time to staff up. And yet, as members of Congress recently complained, field office staff has increased just 7% as the application backlog nearly doubled. While some might point to scarce funding as the cause, USCIS is almost entirely self-sufficient; its funding comes primarily from immigration and naturalization application fees, not tax revenue. More applications should mean more resources. Despite this, USCIS has indicated it has no plans to add more adjudicators or expand its offices. Slow-walking citizenship applications is of a piece with other worrisome actions by the Trump administration affecting legal immigration. It has, for example, hired several dozen lawyers and agents to ramp up Operation Janus an effort to prosecute and strip citizenship from about 1,600 individuals (out of the more than 21 million naturalized citizens) who may have misled authorities on their naturalization application. There have also been efforts to discharge immigrants serving in the U.S. military who are part of a program that puts them on a path to citizenship. Currently the administration is writing rules to hinder naturalization for legal immigrants if anyone in their household often U.S. citizens utilized social services such as food stamps, childrens health insurance or the Affordable Care Act. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion USCIS has also sometimes drifted from its service-oriented mission of adjudicating and processing immigration benefits. Emails exposed in a lawsuit in Boston, for instance, show the agency working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to schedule fake interviews to lure immigrants to appointments where they were arrested and some deported. In late July, 50 mayors and county executives signed a letter asking USCIS to reduce the citizenship application backlog. In August, immigrant and civil rights groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request to clarify the reasons for the ongoing delays. Shining a light on whats happening inside USCIS will be key to resolving the naturalization backlog but so will continued public pressure. Our country is in the midst of an important debate one in which reasonable people can disagree about what constitutes a just immigration system. Still, it is hard to find a legitimate reason for making would-be citizens endure long waits after they have jumped through all the hoops of eligibility. Pramila Jayapal is the U.S. representative for Washingtons 7th Congressional District. Manuel Pastor, a sociology professor, directs the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at USC. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook As the oldest of 10 siblings, I did a lot of caretaking. My parents had to work long hours to support all of us, so I made sure dinner was on the table each night and that everyone was awake in the morning and headed off to school. My story isnt unique in Los Angeles. All over the city, parents work two (or more) jobs to support their children who go to local public schools. Many such parents dont have the time or opportunity to make sure their voice is heard at school board or City Council meetings. So as we get closer to the possibility of a strike by the teachers of the L.A. Unified School District, I want to speak up on behalf of these working families and immigrant families because they will feel it acutely if teachers walk out. If teachers strike and schools close, these parents will face bad options. Should they miss work to take care of their children? Will they be able to find suitable childcare? Will they get fired if they dont? Will they be able to afford it? A strike is not going to attract more money to L.A. public schools. Advertisement At the same time, they know their children are vulnerable to falling behind at school. The last thing any kid needs is to miss more days of learning, especially right on the heels of summer break when theyre already playing catch-up after three months off. These families, who will be seriously impacted by any strike, are not invited to the labor negotiations underway. These key stakeholders have no seat at the table. But if they were there, Im certain they would say they dont want a strike. They would tell the teachers union and the district to work out their differences and keep schools open. Im with them. I spent many years on the Los Angeles City Council and County Board of Supervisors, so I know a thing or two about politics and negotiations. A strike will not get L.A. Unified what it needs. L.A. Unified simply needs more money. More money so that teachers are paid more and class sizes are smaller. More money for school nurses, counselors, social workers, librarians and other staff. More money so that every student will have access to an education that enables them to reach their potential. More money so that California gets out of the bottom tier of states in per-pupil spending. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Those are among the things that the teachers union is asking for and potentially will declare a strike to get. But the truth is that fighting at the local level wont result in any of those things for our schools. More money needs to come from Sacramento. The way to get it is by working together to tell state leaders: Enough is enough, it is time to fully fund our schools. A strike is not going to attract more money to L.A. public schools. And a strike certainly is not going to help us come together to get what we need from the state Legislature. I dont know what my parents would have done if teachers had walked out and my siblings and I couldnt to go to school. I hope the district, school leadership and teachers are listening, and that L.A. families will be able to go to work and school without interruption in the weeks ahead. Gloria Molina was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for 23 years. She is a former member of the California Assembly and Los Angeles City Council. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook There are many reasons to oppose the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water tunnels project, now called the California WaterFix. The Trump administration has just added a few more. The WaterFix is the most controversial and expensive water project in California history. It would install two huge tunnels, at a cost of at least $20 billion, revamping the way the state diverts water from the Sacramento River and the delta to farms and cities to the south. The earlier peripheral canal version of this project was voted down in a statewide referendum by a 2-to-1 margin in 1982. The size of the tunnels could allow for massive water diversions that would further degrade the already impaired San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. WaterFix supporters, including the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California, suggest that federal and state environmental laws, and state water regulations, could provide assurances that such extreme diversions couldnt happen. But actions by Congress and the administration dramatically illustrate why there can be no such assurances. The Trump administration is trying to dictate Californias water policy with zero regard for states rights or the Golden States iconic rivers, lakes and estuaries. The latest attack is Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes late August demand for a federal plan to get around state policies in order to increase water deliveries to irrigation districts south of the delta. Advertisement The Trump administration is trying to dictate Californias water policy with zero regard for states rights or the Golden States iconic rivers and lakes. The tunnels would only make such machinations easier. With the technical capacity to carry 15,000 cubic feet of water per second, they could divert the typical summer flow of the entire Sacramento River, Californias largest river. Even much less extreme diversions could mean the death of the delta and the bay estuary. Congress has simultaneously declared its own war against California state water law and environmental protection. The House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would exempt the tunnels, the federally funded Central Valley Water Project and other state water projects from federal or state judicial review. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Until recently, it was unthinkable that a secretary of the Interior would seek to override the California State Water Resources Control Board in making decisions about allocations and protections of California waters. Until recently, it was unthinkable that Congress would attempt to eliminate judicial review under not only federal, but also California environmental protection laws of the states own public works projects. With climate change fueling more severe and prolonged droughts, pressure for such federal intrusion is likely to grow. The future may well bring even more extreme efforts to maximize water exports to the powerful and eliminate the ability of the state to protect the public interest. The construction and operation of the WaterFix tunnels will harm and could destroy the delta and Northern Californias water resources. Washingtons actions show how meaningless assurances to the contrary are. The only effective way to truly protect the delta is for the next governor to halt the tunnel plan. Eric Wesselman is executive director and Robert Wright is senior counsel for Friends of the River, a statewide conservation group headquartered in Sacramento. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook I was excited to read Rabbi Sharon Brous op-ed article, My daughter loves the miracle of Israel. It was time for her to see the other side, describing her last visit to Israel. After spending time with Brous during that visit, it was apparent to me she had a genuine affection for the Jewish state and its people. I greatly appreciated Brous attempt to show her daughter the complexity of the modern Jewish state. Any nuanced approach to education requires the ability to see things as they are, not as we assumed them to be. That is why I was confused by the truncated nature of the message in Brous article. I had the privilege of meeting Brous and her delegation just minutes after she visited Hebron. She demonstrated real courage by meeting with settler leadership that did not conform to the stereotype that had been choreographed for her in Hebron. In Efrat, where I am the mayor, Brous met a community built upon Jewish values, including co-existence with our Arab neighbors. She was able to challenge and be challenged about the genuine complexities involved in establishing a secure Jewish community while being confronted with the reality of the Palestinian Authority. She was able to sense the sacrifices, risks and genuine empathy that characterizes the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria. Advertisement What would have been candid and courageous is for Brous to have focused her op-ed article on her visit to Efrat. What we showed her here challenged preconceived notions of the conflict and provided a roadmap of how to embrace Israel more completely, thereby unifying our people. Brous writes that the message the Israeli government is sending to diaspora Jews: Stick to the playbook. Send Israel your money, your youth, your tourists and your unquestioning loyalty. I suggest that the truth is more complex than that. Perhaps the same stick to the playbook coercion is taking place among the Pavlovian we must be at fault crowd, where Jews (or members of any identity group) demonstrate their independence from group think by being overly critical. The same courage Brous demonstrated as a parent in pointing out the shades of gray to her daughters previous black-and-white perception of Israel, could be applied again to educate the Jewish world about the nuances she experienced on her visit to Efrat. Unfortunately, there is nothing courageous about stating that the democratically elected government of Israel has flaws. In fact, that is exactly what one would expect to hear from social justice warriors. The really brave action would be for you to place that playbook aside and tell the world about the real Israel an Israel that is striving to make the best of an imperfect reality, a reality that does not lift Israel beyond reproach, but also one that is not sanitized to conform to a narrative that is driving diaspora Jewry away from Israel. While todays Israel may seem far from ideal let alone miraculous it is an Israel that Brous and her daughter can respectfully and emphatically embrace. Oded Revivi is the mayor of Efrat and the chief foreign envoy of the Yesha Council, which represents the 450,000 Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria. This piece is part of Blowback, our online forum for rebuttals to The Times. If you would like to write a full-length response to a recent Times article, editorial or Op-Ed and would like to participate in Blowback, here are our FAQs and submission policy. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The two stories that dominated Washington this week the anonymous official who wrote an opinion column attacking Trump, and the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh share a common thread: careerism. The word is seldom used as a compliment. Perhaps thats wrong. The traits of the careerist concern for personal advancement, avoidance of controversy, willingness to sacrifice ideals for the sake of long-term goals have long been equated with moral cowardice. But as the weeks news suggested, the flip side that accompanies each of those traits diligence, professionalism, ability to compromise when needed can also form a bulwark against chaos. Sign up for the Essential Politics newsletter Advertisement A HINT OR A FAKE? Through two long days of questioning which began early in the morning and stretched late into the night, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced two overriding concerns about Kavanaugh. One, undoubtedly grounded in evidence, focused on ideology. Kavanaugh, following the advice he once gave another judicial nominee two decades ago, strove to present himself as near as possible to a blank slate, but his record makes clear that he has strongly held views about the law. As Jennifer Haberkorn, David Savage and Sarah Wire wrote, Kavanaugh has a broad view of the gun-owner rights protected by the 2nd Amendment, a narrow view of the powers of federal regulatory agencies and skepticism about claims for rights not specifically mentioned in the text of the Constitution. Pressed, sometimes intensely, on those positions, the nominee invariably offered politely deferential, affable answers in which he thanked Democratic senators for offering their perspective, pledged to keep an open mind, but gave no hint at retreat. The one exception came on the Supreme Courts most divisive issue abortion. President Trump said in his campaign that he would appoint judges who would overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that established abortion rights nationwide. Kavanaugh repeatedly refused to say how he would rule on the issue. But he offered hints that overturning Roe may not be in the offing. The strongest suggestion came as part of an analogy. Kavanaugh noted that the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, whom he has cited as one of his judicial heroes, had long criticized the Supreme Courts Miranda ruling, which requires police to read suspects their rights before questioning. But when Congress passed a law to overturn Miranda, Rehnquist wrote the 7-2 decision in 2000 that kept the warnings in place. Rehnquist decided that it had been settled too long, had been precedent too long, and he reaffirmed it, Kavanaugh told Sen. Dianne Feinstein, volunteering the history of Miranda in response to her question about Roe. Was all that an elaborate head fake? Perhaps. As Democrats noted, a hint isnt a commitment, and a precedent is only good so long as a majority of the high court stands by it. Moreover, as abortion-rights supporters also said, a conservative Supreme Court could significantly restrict the right without actually overturning Roe. Still, the goal of the antiabortion movement for 45 years has been to overturn Roe, not just to narrow it. Sixteen years ago, three Republican Supreme Court appointees Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day OConnor and David Souter bitterly disappointed that movement when they joined with Democrat appointees to reaffirm Roe in the case of Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. Kavanaughs hint suggests that might happen again. TRIUMPH OF THE ANTI-TRUMP The other main Democratic objection to Kavanaugh involved the man who appointed him. As a lawyer and a judge, the Democrats noted, Kavanaugh has expressed a broad view of presidential power, including the chief executives authority to fire other executive branch officials. Trump, they suggested, picked Kavanaugh expecting that as a Supreme Court justice, he would side with the president in any future battle with Robert Mueller, the special counsel. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, one of the nominees fiercest critics, called him a human torpedo aimed at Muellers investigation of Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election. All thats possible. Kavanaughs previous writings definitely suggest strong support for legal theories that favor executive power. Under questioning, Kavanaugh refused to tip his hand. He largely stuck to his views on presidential authority. And he avoided even a hint of criticism of Trump, as when Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona asked him to comment on Trumps tweets that attacked Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions for not shielding Republican members of Congress from prosecution. As a judge, Kavanaugh said, he needed to stay three ZIP Codes away from any comment on politics. But he also repeatedly praised U.S. vs. Nixon, the case in which the Supreme Court ordered release of the White House tapes in the Watergate scandal, leading directly to Nixons resignation 16 days later. And the visual tableau of the hearings suggested an alternative possibility. Sitting behind the nominee, hour after hour, was the main White House champion of Kavanaughs nomination, Donald McGahn, the White House counsel. Just last week, Trump effectively fired McGahn with a tweet, as Eli Stokols and Noah Bierman wrote. The president announced McGahn would leave his job shortly after the confirmation. He dismissed McGahn after news broke that the White House lawyer had spent more than 30 hours testifying to Muellers prosecutors. The nominee will almost surely be confirmed later this month. His prospects got a boost just as his hearing began, when Arizona Gov. Douglas Ducey named former Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. John McCain, whose funeral Saturday had a persistent subtext of countering Trump. As Mark Barabak noted, Kyl had already been working to help shepherd Kavanaughs nomination. With his nomination on a fast track toward confirmation, its worth pondering where Kavanaughs sympathies truly would lie in a possible Trump-Mueller battle. Kavanaugh is in many ways the anti-Trump concerned for precedent and orderly procedures, a strong advocate for racial equality in his profession, an embodiment of the Republican elite that Trump has attacked and deeply mistrusts. In short, if one searched for an older figure that Kavanaughs career reflects, a good model would not be Trump. It would be Mueller. How that might play out, time will tell. GUTLESS OR HERO? The other person in the news whom Kavanaugh seemed to resemble at least in sensibility and career arc would be the so-far anonymous official whose op-ed article in the New York Times this week about internal administration resistance to Trump threw the president into a fury. As Noah Bierman wrote, Trump denounced the official as gutless and suggested he was guilty of treason. While official Washington engaged in endless rounds of speculation over the officials identity, and senior Trump aides lined up to deny culpability, Trump veered between ordering investigations to find the miscreant and insisting it was all made up. He had a very similar reaction earlier in the week to revelations in a new book by Bob Woodward, as Stokols wrote. Like Kavanaugh, the anonymous official appears to have risen carefully through the ranks of the pre-Trump Republican Party. The writer praised the partys principles of free minds, free markets and free people and declared allegiance not to the deep state of Trumps fears, but to the work of the steady state. As Bierman and Stokols wrote, that path of internal resistance carries its own risk. Trump, feeling increasingly isolated and talking openly about being amazingly alone, has responded by moving closer to people who praise him like North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. As Trump moves down his own increasingly isolated path, might Kavanaugh one day find himself aligned with those senior officials who, as the op-ed writer described them, are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trumps] ... agenda and his worst inclinations? THE FORTUNATE SON Barring a huge upset, Gavin Newsom will become Californias next governor after Novembers election, marking the first time one Democrat has handed the governorship of the state to another Democrat since 1888. As Seema Mehta, Ryan Menezes and Maloy Moore documented, Newsoms rise has benefited enormously from the support of a small handful of San Franciscos wealthiest, most socially prominent families. Their work provides a fascinating illustration of the enduring influence of the states long-standing elite, even in the midst of rapid social and demographic change. THE MIDTERMS HURTLE INTO THE FINAL STRETCH Newsoms election is easy to predict. Much else about the midterm election remains uncertain. The prime reason, as Barabak wrote, is that the election features two opposing forces: a booming economy pitted against one of historys most unpopular presidents. One measure of Trumps problem: This summer, the USC-Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll asked people to rate how much they trusted several potential sources of news. Only about 1 in 5 voters said they mostly or completely trusted what Trump says, the poll found. President Obama remains considerably more popular than Trump. The former president is heading to Southern California this weekend to campaign for Democrats in key House races. As Christine Mai-Duc reported, the visit will kick off a round of campaign appearances Obama is making as he steps up his political activity in this campaigns final stretch. How are those key California races shaping up? Heres a rundown on information for each of the contests. One race has gotten more competitive because of scandal. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) was indicted last week on charges of using campaign money for personal expenses. Prosecutors noted this week that those expenditures include hotel rooms and vacations with a number of unnamed individuals. Hunters lawyer accused prosecutors of using evidence of extramarital affairs to harm his reputation and drive a wedge between him and his wife, who is also his co-defendant. OBAMACARE IN THE COURTS Democrats have reaped political benefit by accusing Republicans of trying to repeal Obamacares popular protections for people with preexisting medical conditions. Republicans have helped the Democrats highlight that issue by backing a court case that would knock the preexisting conditions protections out of the law. As Noam Levey wrote, a federal judge in Texas heard arguments in the case this week and promised a quick decision, which could come before the election. CAN GREENHOUSE GASES BE DIVERTED FOR GOOD? Greenhouse gases are warming Earths climate in risky ways. Even as efforts continue to reduce emissions, some scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs are investigating how to take carbon out of the atmosphere and divert it in ways that would combat warming. Evan Halper looks at an innovative but controversial technology. LOGISTICS That wraps up this week. Until next time, keep track of all the developments in national politics and the Trump administration with our Essential Washington blog, at our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics. Send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com. If you like this newsletter, tell your friends to sign up. David.lauter@latimes.com @davidlauter George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy advisor to President Trumps campaign whose suspicious conversations triggered the Russia investigation, was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison and one year of supervised release. The sentencing, coming nearly one year after he pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents, ends an important yet mysterious story line in the examination of whether anyone from Trumps team conspired with Moscow to influence the presidential election. Judge Randolph D. Moss said the sentence could have been higher but he sensed genuine remorse from Papadopoulos. The judge said theres no evidence Papadopoulos had any desire to aid Russia in any way. However, by lying to the FBI in hopes of maintaining his shot at a job in the Trump administration, he placed self-interest over the national interest, Moss said. Papadopoulos, 31, had never before appeared in a public court hearing; he admitted his guilt during a closed session last October. Advertisement Before the sentencing, Papadopoulos made a statement, describing himself as a patriotic American who made a mistake by lying to investigators. I was not honest, and I might have hindered the investigation. The junior advisor first appeared on investigators radar during the campaign after he told an Australian diplomat that Russians had political dirt on Hillary Clinton, who was on her way to becoming the Democratic nominee for president. When hacked emails were released publicly that summer part of an operation that intelligence officials later concluded was orchestrated by the Kremlin the diplomat informed U.S. officials and a counterintelligence investigation began. About a week after Trump January 2017 inauguration, FBI agents knocked on the door of the Chicago home where Papadopoulos was living with his mother, Kiki. I see two tall men in black suits, Kiki Papadopoulos told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday. I say, oh my God, trouble. She said her son, who had just stepped out of the shower, received a text from the men saying they were with the FBI, and he urged his mother to let them in. The agents started talking with Papadopoulos, and he agreed to an interview at their field office downtown. I said, George, please stop; theyre not your friends, his mother said. He wouldnt listen. During the interview that day, Papadopoulos lied to the agents about his April 2016 conversation with Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor working in London who had ties to Russian officials. Although Papadopoulos confirmed that Mifsud told him Russians had thousands of emails involving Clinton, he claimed he hadnt yet joined the Trump campaign when they spoke. Before Papadopoulos sat down for the interview, Trump had been blasting the Russia investigation as fake news and a witch hunt, said Thomas Breen, a lawyer for Papadopoulos. Because of Papadopoulos loyalty to the president, thats the mind-set going in there with the FBI, Breen said. Its unclear if the conversation between Mifsud and Papadopoulos was part of Moscows larger scheme to boost Trumps candidacy. Mifsuds current whereabouts are unknown, and Papadopoulos has denied telling anyone else from the presidents campaign about Mifsuds claims. Trump and his allies have repeatedly downplayed Papadopoulos role on the campaign, with one of them describing him as a mere coffee boy. The president told reporters on Air Force One on Friday that I dont know Papadopoulos. I saw him sitting in one picture at a table with me, thats the only thing I know about him, Trump said, referring to a widely circulated photo of Papadopoulos in a meeting with Trump and several other advisors. Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had asked the judge to sentence Papadopoulos to up to six months in prison, saying his false statements were intended to harm the investigation, and did so. The FBI met with Mifsud while he was visiting the United States in early 2017, but Papadopoulos lies undermined investigators ability to challenge the professor or potentially detain or arrest him. In a court filing, lawyers for Papadopoulos had argued for probation, saying he was ashamed and remorseful but wasnt trying to undermine the Russia probe when he was caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation. They said prosecutors have not provided any proof that Papadopoulos actually harmed the investigation as alleged. The lawyers portrayed Papadopoulos as out of his depth as a foreign policy advisor for a candidate for whom he had unbridled loyalty. Papadopoulos goal in speaking with Mifsud was not related to seeking dirt on Clinton, the lawyers said, but an effort to broker a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. When Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year, he pledged to help the special counsels office with its investigation. But prosecutors said his assistance was negligible. He didnt come close to a standard of substantial assistance, Andrew Goldstein, one of the prosecutors, told the judge on Friday. He added, It was, at best, begrudging attempts to cooperate. Papadopoulos disagreed in his own court filing, arguing that he cooperated fully and provided critical information. Follow the latest news of the Trump administration on Essential Washington chris.megerian@latimes.com Twitter: @chrismegerian UPDATES: 3 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from attorneys and Papadopoulos mother. 1:45 p.m.: This article was updated after the sentencing. This article was originally published at 11 a.m. In a rare breach of tradition for former presidents, Barack Obama launched a scathing attack Friday on President Trump, framing the November election as a historic chance for Americans to reject his successors dark vision of the nation and restore honesty, decency and lawfulness to the U.S. government. If you thought elections dont matter, I hope these last two years have corrected that impression, Obama told students at the University of Illinois. Obama attacked Trump by name, describing the incumbent and his Republican allies as defenders of the powerful and the privileged, stoking public anger and divisiveness as a means to protect themselves. It did not start with Donald Trump, Obama said. He is a symptom. Not the cause. Advertisement Public fears of economic disruption and disorder around the globe, Obama said, have created conditions ripe for exploitation by politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into Americas dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division. The extraordinary speech, just over an hour long, captured the Democratic Partys broader effort to define the midterm election as a referendum on Trumps convulsive presidency. Since leaving office, Obama has followed the pattern of ex-presidents keeping relatively quiet about their successors. But Trumps unpopularity has opened a path for Democrats to seize control of the House, and Obama plans to play a leading role in their campaign to capture seats now held by Republicans. On Saturday in Anaheim, he is holding a rally for seven Democrats running in Californias most fiercely contested House races. Obamas return to the national stage is notable for a former president long accused by fellow Democrats of neglecting candidates for lower office during his White House tenure, allowing Republicans to make sweeping gains in Congress and statehouses across the land. If you are really concerned about how the criminal justice system treats African Americans, the best way to protest is to vote not just for senators and representatives, but for mayors and sheriffs and state legislators, Obama said. Trump, who arrived at a fundraising luncheon in Fargo, N.D., roughly an hour after Obama concluded his remarks, sought to convey indifference to his predecessors speech. I watched it, but I fell asleep, Trump said. Ive found hes very good very good for sleeping. President Trump greets people Friday at an airport in Sioux Falls, S.D., where he landed after a visit to North Dakota. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) In Illinois, where Obama was receiving the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government at the universitys Urbana campus, the former president compared Trump to demagogues who promise simple solutions to complex problems and vow to clean up corruption while plundering away. Sound familiar? he asked. Obama mocked Trumps equivocation in responding to the deadly violence that erupted last year in Charlottesville, Va., when neo-Nazi white supremacists clashed with counter-protesters. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad? Obama asked. Obama also castigated Trump for trying to curb the constitutional protection of the press. I complained plenty about Fox News, he said. But you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people. Obama faulted Trump for undermining our alliances and cozying up to the former head of the KGB, Russian President Vladimir Putin. As for the Republicans who control both houses of Congress, Obama accused them of giving tax cuts to rich Americans who dont need them, voting to take away healthcare from millions, making it harder for young people and minorities to vote, and rejecting the scientific facts of climate change. Its not conservative, he said. It sure isnt normal. Its radical. Its a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters, even when it hurts the country. Obama made a point to seek common ground with rural white Americans and others who have turned away from Democrats. I know there are evangelicals who are deeply committed to doing something about climate change, he said. I know there are conservatives who think theres nothing compassionate about separating immigrant children from their mothers. Trump, by contrast, has stuck to a more polarizing strategy of trying to maximize turnout of his core supporters in November at the risk of alienating others. At his rally Thursday night in Montana and again Friday in North Dakota, Trump continued to drive home wedge issues such as immigration, contending that Democrats support open borders and high crime. Todays Democrat Party is held hostage by haters, absolute haters, left-wing haters, angry mobs, deep-state radicals, and their fake-news allies, Trump told the crowd in Billings, Mont. Obamas reemergence as the face of his party carries risk for Democrats. Though he inspires millions of supporters, he also draws often intense hostility from conservatives, said Peter Hart, a veteran Democratic pollster. Turnout is driven by bringing enthusiasm and intensity to the base, and thats what Obama has the ability to do, Hart said. He brings the passion and the voice that Democrats need to hear because he speaks in national terms, not just partisan terms. But he is still perceived as a partisan. Republicans dont like him. Indeed, Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said he has no doubt that Obama will galvanize conservatives. For three cycles, President Obama fired up Republicans like nobody, Stivers said, referring to the 2010, 2012 and 2014 elections. Im happy if he wants to do it again. In making his case against Trump, Obama assailed the president for what he described as political interference in corruption prosecutions by the Justice Department. It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents, he said. Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. Im not making that up. Thats not hypothetical. Trump was annoyed when federal prosecutors last month announced indictments of the first two House members who backed him for president: Republican Reps. Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of San Diego County. 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 Collins was charged with insider trading, and Hunter and his wife were accused of using more than $250,000 in campaign donations to pay for personal expenses. In North Dakota, Trump made a point of rebutting Obamas reminder that the economic recovery began during his administration. After touting his own economic record and complaining about his portrayal in journalist Bob Woodwards forthcoming book, Trump returned to the subject of Obama, asking the crowd: Isnt this more fun than listening to President Obama? michael.finnegan@latimes.com eli.stokols@latimes.com UPDATES: 5:15 p.m.: This article was updated with more details throughout. 2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Peter Hart and additional remarks from President Trump and former President Obama. 12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with President Trumps remarks in North Dakota. This article was originally published at 11:25 a.m. Insects have been the most dominant land animals on the planet, as measured by mass and ecological effects, since before the time of the dinosaurs. Yet their biological bulk is not necessarily reflected in the traditional fossil record. If you are a big goofy dinosaur, you are going to be preserved in any kind of sediment that surrounds you, said Brian Brown, curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. But if youre a tiny insect, he said, things are considerably more complicated. Advertisement For hundreds of millions of years, insects and the occasional small bird have become trapped in the soft, sticky resin produced by trees after they suffer an injury. Under certain conditions, this resin will become buried in sediments beneath lakes or oceans, and solidify into amber. And when it does, it will preserve any organism stuck inside in exceptional, three-dimensional detail. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County recently acquired 1,000 pieces of amber from David Penney, an entomologist (and powerlifter!) based in Manchester, England. Many pieces in the collection date back tens of millions of years, although a few are much more recent. Each piece of amber holds some kind of treasure, but some are more scientifically extraordinary than others. Some of them contain extremely rare organisms that are known from only one other specimen. Others hold creatures that have never been seen before. And in some pieces, ancient bugs are caught in the act of mating, laying eggs or being a parasite on an unwitting host. Curator Brian Brown of the NHMLACs entomology department uses a microscope to inspect a piece of amber from the new collection. (Deniz Durmam) Brown and his team at the museum are now in the process of sorting through the collection to catalog exactly what they have and prepare some of the specimens for use by other researchers. He spoke to The Times about why he convinced the Natural History Museum to purchase this particular collection, his favorite piece, and whether the public will get to see it firsthand. Lets start with the basics. What is amber? Amber is fossilized tree resin. Resin is what trees produce when they are injured, like when a branch breaks off in a windstorm. In order for resin to become amber it has to be extruded by the tree, fall into a stream, get washed out to sea, fall to the ocean floor and get buried in sediments. Then it has to sit in that dark, oxygen-free environment for millions of years. This creates cross links between all the molecules in the resin and forms a stable structure that we call amber. Wow. Thats a lot of steps. The miracle continues. For us to find it, the ocean sediments have to be uplifted, the amber has to weather out, someone has to find it and someone interested enough has to mine it. It is amazing that any one piece makes it through this whole process. What makes amber so good at preserving insects? Its stable, so it preserves and protects the structure of the creatures that get caught inside it. It doesnt preserve the actual cell content, like the DNA or anything, but it preserves the structure in great detail. Samples of amber from the collection recently acquired from entomologist David Penney. (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) Is there any limit to how long it will preserve an ancient specimen? Not as far as we know. The oldest amber we know of is a bit older than Burmese amber, which is 100 million years old. As long as the amber is protected from oxidation and light the two things that make it brittle it can last a long time. Are there any other substances that can do this, or is amber the only game in town? Hmmm. Theres nothing I know of that preserves animals within itself like amber does. How big was the museums amber collection before this new addition? It was about 3,000 specimens, but about half of them were of the family of fly I study, the phorid fly. We have one of the best collections in the world of phorid flies. But now we are starting to build our collection in other ways as well. A yet-to-be described species of fly preserved in amber. (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) What makes this new collection special? Its a mixture of things. It is about half Baltic amber, which is 50 million years old, and the rest is Dominican amber, which is 20 million years old. It also includes a range of different insects from beetles to flies to wasps, and it has a big component of super-high-quality things the Picassos and Renoirs of the amber world, if you will. How large are these pieces? They are various sizes, but most of them are about one-half to one inch long. Amber, when it is mined, comes in chunks. Baltic amber, for example, comes in chunks the size of a walnut, although there can be nodules that are huge, like the size of a human head. Then the dealers cut them up and polish them for sale. Do you have a favorite piece? Oh yeah. Theres one specimen that shows the oldest known wingless female phorid fly copulating with the male of that species. Its just a fabulous piece. I described this species in 1999 and later saw this pair pictured in a book. I thought, One day it would be amazing to have that specimen. Now we have it. This 20-million-year-old pair of dark-winged fungus gnats were captured in amber while mating. (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) How much did this collection cost? Im not going to answer that question, but it wasnt millions. Will visitors to the museum get to see the new collection? Amber is tough to display. If it is exposed to light for a long time it darkens up. And it will start to chip if it is exposed to oxygen. Im not in charge of what gets exhibited in the museum, but if we were able to build up a big enough collection, we could display parts of it to the public on special occasions. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. As the social season debuts on the Orange Coast I thought it would be interesting to explore the anatomy of one specific philanthropic couple dedicated to one particular nonprofit in the community. Folks often ask, Why do people donate so much money to this or that organization? Do they really know where their money is going? Arent nonprofits just another kind of business? Is the donation for a tax deduction? Isnt the charity gala circuit just about social networking and a fashion parade for the rich? Legitimate questions to be sure. Further, there is certainly validity in the implied answers to all of the common questions. Yet having covered the scene for years, I am confident reporting that the truth is often behind the mirror. Which is why I share the story of Keith and Florence Smith. The Newport Beach couple arrived in Orange County some 26 years ago, following Keiths meteoric rise in the business world from manager of a Dairy Queen store to the top echelon of the shopping center world. Born in Franklin Grove, Ill., a town of some 500 residents, Keith grew up as the son of hardworking parents in the produce business. We always had food on the table, but there was no extra money, he said. He did not have the chance to attend college. Instead, within a year following high school graduation, a boyhood friend from a well-to-do family offered Keith an opportunity to go to work at one of his fathers business ventures on the East Coast. So off he went to Meriden, Conn., to work at a Dairy Queen. Rising to manager in short speed, Keith would meet his future bride, Florence. Their journey together would begin. Still in his early 20s, Keith was recruited from Dairy Queen to develop a chain of Tastee Freez stores in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The project proved successful, and he eventually purchased the franchise with financing from the owner who had hired him. That opportunity changed the lives of Keith and Florence Smith. Within a short time, they sold the chain. For the first time in our lives, we had money, he said. And with that money, Keiths career took off. From Tastee Freez, his next stop was opening an advertising agency, Keith B. Smith Associates. Soon he would represent a big discount department store chain, Arlans, a forerunner to Walmart. His first agency would grow, and soon he would open a second, larger agency in New York City. At the ad agency, Keith created the concept of inviting celebrities to assist him by making personal appearances at the stores to increase customer traffic. He rallied many of the eras biggest names, including Van Johnson, Joey Heatherton, Forrest Tucker, Eddie Arnold, Ed McMahon, Rick Jason and his personal favorite, Jayne Mansfield. The concept was a smash. The public flocked to the events, and the merchants realized significant sales gains. As the shopping mall business was exploding, Keith sold his agency and became a founding partner in the Macerich Co., which specialized in acquiring existing malls. As director of acquisitions, he traveled the country. In 1976, the company purchased Lakewood Center, then one of the largest malls in the country, and relocated their corporate offices from New York to Santa Monica, which is where the Smiths decided to settle. With all of this success, Keith and Florence, who had both risen from humble beginnings, raised a family and built a life based on hard work and high standards, wanted to give back. It was Florence who set the couple on a philanthropic journey. She was volunteering as a teachers aid for underprivileged students in Santa Monica when she met a bright young boy from a seriously troubled family on the verge of eviction. We have to do something, she told Keith. For more than a year Florence had filled a role as surrogate grandmother to the boy, learning more about the family in crisis. What happened next is perhaps the heart of this story, as well as the message about the motivation of people passionate about helping others. In 1995 the Smiths purchased a three-bedroom home in Lakewood for the boy and his family. This gave them a permanent home in a safe environment, and it also gave them an opportunity to get their financial life back on track. There were no mandatory requirements, and the family lived comfortably in the home for 23 years. Fast forward to the early 1990s, when Keith and Florence settled in Newport Beach. There they would be introduced to a nonprofit, Serving People In Need (SPIN), by friends Frank and Peggy Listi, long-time advocates of the SPIN programs aimed at ending homelessness for children and families in Orange County. It was kismet, the perfect union of passion and purpose for the Smith family and for SPIN. Over the past 14 years, the Smiths have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to SPIN outreach, ranking as the largest individual donors. In our recent interview, the Smiths confided that they give to other causes, but said it would be hard to imagine any organization with leaders more committed than Jean Wegener and Kim Frazier. In addition to funding housing needs, Florence has in the past served as a dedicated volunteer every week, preparing meals for SPINs food service, which helps feed the homeless on the streets of Orange Countys poorest neighborhoods. Coming up on Oct. 5, the Smiths will underwrite the annual SPIN gala fundraiser as presenting sponsors at the Newport Beach Country Club. The Oktoberfest event will star comic Bobby Collins from Jimmy Fallons Tonight Show. To learn more about SPIN, or to attend and support the dinner contact, Frazier at KimF@SPINOC.org. The back story on Keith and Florence Smith is only one example of why well-meaning people step up to make a difference. It is not just about tax deductions, or glamorous parties. We must always pull back the curtain to find the real story about people. Impressions are often just that impressions. The O.C. can be proud of the Smiths and many others with the same genuine motivation to make a difference. B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. By Keith Keslers estimation, hes removed 1,500 graffiti tags in a little over a year on his mission to keep Laguna Beachs walls, benches, stairs, traffic signs and light poles a little cleaner. The 58-year-old Laguna resident has become such a force that the city has dubbed him the graffiti warrior. Its kind of embarrassing, he said of the nickname, because my wife and my kids laugh at me and my wife will joke, Youre like a superhero! Kesler is a native of Northern California who has lived in Laguna Beach for 30 years with his wife, Shirlyn. He said he always felt disdain toward tagging but didnt begin his removal efforts until last summer. I started seeing tagging everywhere in Laguna. I thought to myself, Its a problem in our town, Kesler said. I was out walking my dog and I just started doing it. And everywhere I went, there was graffiti. This is one of the tags graffiti warrior Keith Kesler found and removed recently in Laguna Beach. (Courtesy of Keith Kesler) Kesler started his mission with a bottle of Goof Off a professional strength spot and stain remover and some paper towels that he would take with him on his walks with the family dog, Jaxson. Kesler removed graffiti on parking meters, the steps leading to Aliso Beach and on the ground. Theyll get anything you can write on, Kesler said. Theyll write on the street, theyll write on the windows. Im not stopping. Im obsessed now. Its gotta come off. The war is on. Keith Kesler, graffiti warrior Kesler said he can remove 99.9% of the tags he finds, whether they be spray-painted, written in permanent marker or stuck on. In the past year, hes been experimenting with different cleaning methods wire brushes, scrapers and paint-removing sprays and can request supplies he doesnt have from the citys Public Works Department. His frustration with tagging on public spaces motivated him to do more than just remove the tags he began photographing every case of vandalism he saw so he could send the pictures to Laguna Beach police for research and comparison. Kesler hopes taggers can be caught in the act, and he believes his photos have helped police identify four possible culprits to watch for. Kesler was honored for his work during the Aug. 28 City Council meeting, where he received a public works hat and polo shirt. Looking ahead, the graffiti warrior has no intention of putting his bottle of Goof Off on the shelf. Im not stopping. Im obsessed now, he said. Its gotta come off. The war is on. miranda.ceja@latimes.com Twitter: @newsmirand Thirteen candidates eyeing seats on the Huntington Beach City Council took center stage Thursday night to address hot-button issues such as homelessness, high-density development and city finances during a forum presented by the Sunset Beach Community Assn. The seven-member council has four seats available as Mayor Mike Posey and council members Erik Peterson, Billy OConnell and Barbara Delgleize seek reelection in November. Each candidate was given five minutes to introduce his or her campaign platform and tell residents why they should earn their votes. Some candidates addressed problems concerning Sunset Beach, an area about a mile and a half long beginning at Anderson Street and ending at Warner Avenue. The community was unincorporated until 2010, when it was annexed to Huntington Beach. Darren Ellis, a first-time council candidate, proposed one full-time patrol officer in Huntington Beach before sunset and one an hour after dusk to help prevent homeless people from living on the beach or sleeping on Sunset Beach residents patios, furniture and lawns. Ellis also proposed a ban on plastic foam containers in Huntington Beach after seeing how pieces are left on the beach and blown into the ocean. Kim Carr, a national sales manager for a San Diego television station who was appointed to the citys Public Works Commission in 2013, told of how a council member seven years ago helped her when she got the runaround from the city for a year. That [runaround] wont happen [with] me on the City Council, said Carr, who opposes high-density development. I get it. Brian Burley, an information technology analyst at USC, urged residents to read the outline on his campaign website of his tentative 30-year plan for city expenditures. The first-time candidate, who also is against high-density development, has criticized candidates who claim to be against development but are backed by developers. Longtime Huntington Beach resident Don DK Kennedy voiced similar criticism and said it is time for new leadership. Complacency kills. He vowed to preserve open space in the city. Candidate Dan Kalmick, a city planning commissioner, said that to preserve the beach communitys charm, the city needs to amend its building code and provide development that reflects what residents want. Kalmick, owner of an IT management consulting company, also proposed using fiber optics to help synchronize traffic signals and ease traffic congestion. Candidate Ronald Sterud, a city finance commissioner, shared how commissioners recently countered city staffs suggestions to increase the sales tax as a way to generate more revenue with other revenue-creating proposals such as increasing fines for illegal short-term rentals, higher fees for parking meters, library room rentals and business license applications and renewals, and exploring cannabis-related revenue opportunities. With a financial advisory background, Ill help generate revenue and hold city staff accountable for what they have, said Sterud, who is making his second attempt at a City Council seat after running unsuccessfully in 2016. Incumbent Delgleize, who served as mayor in 2017, said the city has a lot on our plate but is making progress in addressing local homelessness. She said the city is working with Westminster on potential shelter in the area. In June, Huntington Beach officials said they were partnering with Westminster, Orange County and the nonprofit American Family Housing to expand two shelters in unincorporated Midway City to help serve the countys growing homeless population. That came a few months after public backlash killed county plans to place a homeless shelter on the site of an abandoned landfill in Huntington Beach. Incumbent OConnell shared how he founded the nonprofit Colettes Childrens Home, which he said has helped more than 3,000 homeless women and children in Orange County. These people need a hand, not a handout, OConnell said. Incumbent Posey said being mayor has been the fastest year of my life. He told of how he has tried to regain and maintain local control from legislators in Sacramento. Earlier this year, Posey helped spearhead a city lawsuit against state mandates such as Senate Bill 54 that expand protections for undocumented immigrants. Former businessman and history teacher Kevin KC Fockler focused on youth in the community. He said school resource officers should share with students what its like to work in the city and maintain a job. He said he also wants to bring technology to the north corridor of the city, where Boeing is selling a portion of its Huntington Beach campus. Incumbent Peterson, the current mayor pro tem who helped push for the citys lawsuit challenging SB 54, encouraged residents to attend an upcoming Sunset Beach community meeting at City Hall, where staff could address concerns and react better. Candidate Michael Simons, a Huntington Beach Union High School District trustee, said he aims to switch from the school board to City Council because hes concerned about the direction the city is heading. He said hes focused on quality-of life-issues, fiscal stability and bridging a gap between school districts and the city. Amory Hanson, who is making his second bid for City Council at age 21 after an unsuccessful run in 2016, proposed creating a cultural and community center. He added he is against high-density development. Candidates Charles CJ Ray, a lawyer, and Shayna Lathus, a teacher, were absent Thursday. City Attorney Michael Gates, who is running for reelection in November, addresses the crowd at a candidates forum Thursday night. (Photo by Priscella Vega) City Attorney Michael Gates, who is seeking reelection in November, also attended the forum and said his leadership has benefited the city and residents. When he took over as city attorney, he said, Huntington Beach was known for paying every single lawsuit that came to the door. He said he turned it around and now has seven other attorneys helping to challenge legal cases, saving taxpayers what he said is nearly $100 million. Gates challenger, local attorney Jerry Friedman, filed a legal challenge against one of Huntington Beachs four requirements to run for city attorney after the city disqualified him because the law school he attended wasnt accredited by the American Bar Assn. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella In a decision that could play a role in a closely watched Orange County case, a federal court ruled this week that it is unconstitutional to prosecute homeless people for sleeping on public property when they dont have access to shelter. Though the ruling concerned a case in Boise, Idaho where homeless people had challenged local ordinances prohibiting them from staying on public property overnight it also affects California and other Western states. As a result, it could come into play in a federal lawsuit filed in January against Orange County and the cities of Costa Mesa, Anaheim and Orange on behalf of homeless people cleared from a former encampment along the Santa Ana River. That action seeks to prevent the cities from citing or arresting those who violate municipal rules that prohibit camping in public areas. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that 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. The 8th Amendment prohibits the imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter, Judge Marsha Berzon wrote for the court. Brooke Weitzman an attorney with the Santa Ana-based Elder Law and Disability Rights Center who is representing the plaintiffs in the Orange County case said the 9th Circuit ruling should send a message, the Los Angeles Times reported. You cannot criminalize the homeless for eating, sleeping or sitting outside simply because they have no other shelter, she told The Times. Costa Mesa spokesman Tony Dodero said Wednesday that city officials are aware of the ruling and [are] determining its effect on the anti-camping ordinances. Bob Solomon, a clinical professor of law at UC Irvine, called the 9th Circuit decision an incredibly dramatic opinion that extends to the homeless population the notion that there is an obligation to provide an alternative to camping, and if there is no alternative and Im going to assume thats a reasonable alternative that you cannot be punished for doing that. U.S. District Judge David Carter, who is overseeing the Orange County case, has consistently pushed county officials to find ways to house the homeless and has threatened an order preventing cities from enforcing their anti-camping ordinances or citing the homeless for sleeping or setting up in public. This weeks ruling, Solomon said, would seemingly give Carter additional ammunition for such action. I think that this is going to say to Judge Carter, I have a tool that I have hinted that Im willing to use, and the 9th Circuit has just made sure its in my toolbox, Solomon said. luke.money@latimes.com Twitter @LukeMMoney Orphaned, threatened and poverty-stricken, the Nicavangelists are all searching for the same thing: purpose. The traveling performance group gives young, at-risk Nicaraguans a home, an education and, when necessary, a chance at redemption. They use the stage as a platform to call attention to their countrys declining conditions and learn life skills that engender independence. We want to give them a future, said Jed Brien, founder and director of the Nicavangelists. There are several reasons they may be in poverty. We try to end that cycle by giving them a home, an education and teaching them a performance discipline. Brien believes that teaching break dancing and tricking a martial arts-like discipline gives members something to work toward and a reason to avoid the street. The group, which stages performances around the world, plans two free Orange County shows: Sept. 12 in Yorba Linda and Sept. 30 in Costa Mesa. Members of the Nicavangelists from Nicaragua, pose for a photo at the Newport Pier. (Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer) Brien grew up the son of a missionary and pastor. Though the groups name uses word play to invoke evangelist, Brien is no longer religious, though he is indeed evangelical about helping Central American youths. Before he started his U.S.-based nonprofit in 2011 he was lost, working at Qantas Airways at an airport in his home country, Australia. In 2008, he quit his job and moved to Mexico to become a teacher, an occupation that led him to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Brien started the nonprofit Capital on the Edge after witnessing the rampant suffering of street youths a culture beset by violence, prostitution, drugs, gangs and other social ills. The Nicavangelists are a program under that umbrella organization. The organization operates out of a compound in Managua, where children and teens sleep in one house and adults in another. The nonprofit serves about 50 youths, ages 8 to 26. The organization also has an office in New York. A little more than a dozen members of Capital on the Edge perform as Nicavangelists. They travel for about eight months of the year, intermittently returning to Nicaragua. Each time the performers travel home, danger intensifies. Aside from martial arts tricking and break dancing, an important mission of the Nicavangelists is to shine a light on the struggles in Nicaragua, which is currently descending into economic collapse under its despotic ruler, Daniel Ortega. National Police officers in riot gear drive next to an overturned burning police vehicle after an anti-government protest in Managua. (Getty Images) Earlier this year, Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that Ortega uses violence and oppression to suppress dissent. Brien said theyve become a target in their home country for speaking out against the Nicaraguan government in national media. Pretty much all of them now have had their faces on television, and they are targets for potentially being on government hit lists, Brien said. People are being interviewed daily and are disappearing over there. For those reasons, TimesOC agreed to a request from the organization not to identify members of the troupe by name. A 28-year-old leading member said many of his friends have disappeared, possibly kidnapped or imprisoned for speaking out against the government. I feel fear that I may be on a list, but at the same time, I just want to share with the world what we know and what our experiences are, he said. Another member, who is 18, said hes been trailed by paramilitaries. Jed Brien, top center, Capital on the Edge director, an American nonprofit, with members of Nicavangelists, a group of performers, ages 8 to 26, from Nicaragua at the Newport Pier. (Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer) Brien said he worries the government may one day target the nonprofits compound. When the group was back home about two months ago, a gunman fired on the compound in the middle of the night. Briens assistant returned fire while Brien ushered the kids to safety. Nobody was hurt, but the incident exemplified growing unrest and possibly displeasure with the organizations unwillingness to stay silent. We have chosen to be advocates for Nicaraguans because we see our position here in the U.S. as a position of privilege, Brien said. We are in a position, while here, to speak freely about what is happening without fear of being murdered. If You Go What: The Nicavangelists When: 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at Yorba Linda UMC, 19002 Yorba Linda Blvd., and 6 p.m. Sept. 30 at Resurrection Beach Metropolitan Community Church, 3303 Harbor Blvd., Suite A104, Costa Mesa. Cost: Free Information: nicavangelists.com/ Donations: Nicavangelists.com/partnerships benjamin.brazil@latimes.com Twitter:@benbrazilpilot Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter as the first day of this Los Alamitos meeting is behind us. OK, lets finish up with the rest of the rulings from the Del Mar meeting. (Remember, all the detail comes from the stewards minutes.) --Blacksmith Keith Bowen was fined $50 for driving in a restricted area on Aug. 29. He was driving on a road which is closed during training hours because of how close it is to the track. Bowen said he had been warned before but ignored it because he thought the rule was stupid. --Jockey Stewart Elliott was fined $100 for using his riding crop more than three times without giving Portal Creek a chance to respond. Upon viewing the tape, Elliott admitted guilt. Portal Creek finished fifth. --Exercise rider Sherri Alexander was fined $50 for galloping a horse on Aug. 30 on the main track during a worker only period. She admitted she came on the track too early. --Veterinarian Nicola Hardgrove was fined $750 after a complaint was filed by official veterinarian Will Farmer, who said her report was late and inaccurate. Hardgrove said she usually proofs the work done by her assistant but didnt in this case. Hardgrove has been cited five times in the last two years for similar violations. --Trainer Michael McCarthy is fined $500 for failing to report in a timely manner that Liam the Charmer had been gelded. He had to be scratched from the Wickerr Stakes on July 22. The fine was by majority decision. Steward John Herbuveaux thought the fine should have been higher. --Trainer John Ivory was fined $200 for late registration of his horse Glitznglamour being treated with Lasix. The registration should have come before he was entered, however, it was listed in time for the program and charts. Glitzglamour finished fifth on Sept. 1. --Trainer Vladimir Cerin was fined $500 for not reporting that Big Sky Logan was gelded. He had to be scratched from a race on Aug. 2. Cerin said he thought his veterinarian has done the proper notification but accepted responsibility. The fine was by majority decision. Steward John Herbuveaux thought it should have been higher. --Trainer Paula Capestro was fined $100 for bringing her horse Star Kissed late onto the grounds on race day on Aug. 17. She said her van driver was a half-hour late. The stewards said it was still her responsibility to have the horse on the grounds on time. Star Kissed finished eighth. --Jockey Gary Stevens was fined $200 for using the whip more than three times without allowing King of Speed to respond on Sept. 2. King of Speed won the race. It was Stevens second violation in last 60 days. --Trainer Patrick Gallagher was fined $200 for having his horse, Fortnite Dance, improperly shod. Gallagher accepted responsibility for having toe grabs on a horse set to run on the turf on Sept. 2. Fortnite Dance finished fourth. --Weve already reported that jockey Kent Desormeaux was suspended three days for failure to give his best effort, costing his horse, Take a Leap, a better finish. He will serve the days on Sept, 13, 14 and 15. --Owner/trainer Lance Hellum was reinstated after fulfilling anger management education, a testing agreement and a $500 fine. It stems from an incident on Feb. 5, caught on tape, where Hellum allegedly assaulted groom Del Cid. Hellum said he had gone to Bakersfield for a few days and returned to find two of his horses without water and feed. Hellum said he thought two grooms who work for trainer Patrick Gallagher were going to take care of the horses. The grooms denied they were asked. The minutes report this happened to a third groom: Video shows trainer Hellum grab groom Del Cid around the torso and attempt to body slam the wiry groom. --Jockey Assael Epinoza was fined $500 for using a riding crop when Mz Brown had obtained maximum placing on Sept. 2. It was Espinozas second offense. Mz Brown broke down in the stretch and was euthanized. --Jockey Geovanni Franco was fined $300 for using a riding crop when Cat Holic had obtained maximum placing on Sept. 2. Cat Holic finished seventh. Los Alamitos review The feature on Thursdays opening day was an allowance/optional claimer for horses going six furlongs for a purse of $48,000. Class seemed to make the difference as Lombo, coming off a sixth in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs, rallied from far back to win by a head. Aristocractic pushed a strong early pace but weakened in the stretch to finish fourth in the five-horse race. Lombo, running for trainer Phil DAmato and jockey Martin Garcia, entered the stretch fourth but rallied on the outside to win. Lombo paid $6.80, $4.20 and $2.60. Street Vision was second and Conqueror finished third. Los Alamitos preview Its eight races on a Friday at Los Alamitos with a first post at 1 p.m. There is one allowance/optional claimer, three starter allowance races, one maiden special weight and three claimers. Now, thats a lot of starter allowance races, which a lot of people dont understand. In short, a starter allowance is a race for claimers of a certain price, but they cant be claimed out of this race. Its a good fit for Los Alamitos. The feature is the seventh, a 5 furlong allowance/optional claimer for Cal-breds 3 and up. It sends seven horses out for a total purse of $45,000. The favorite is King Abner at 5-2 running for trainer Phil DAmato and jockey Assael Espinoza. He has two wins in eight starts this year, but both were claimers. The second favorite is Older Brother at 3-1. He is trained by Edward Freeman and ridden by Mario Gutierrez. He is one for four lifetime, the only win coming in a maiden special weight. In his last out, he was second in an allowance. Here are the field sizes, in order: 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, 10, 7, 9 Jose Contreras LRC play of the day SECOND RACE: No. 1 Always Never (4-1) He has won his last two races including his last one over this track but that was way back in December. I think hes the fastest horse in the race and he should be on the lead with a comfortable margin. Yes, the layoff is the main question but this barn has been on a good roll in the last few weeks during the night programs. Hes entered not to be claimed off the long layoff and I like that Vinnie Bednar has been aboard for all three of his wins. Thursdays result: Sunrise Royale gave the 3-5 favorite Hailey Rachele all she could handle down the stretch but came up a head short to finish second. Jose Contreras is an excellent handicapper and well known on social media and familiar to racing fans watching on TVG. You can follow him on Twitter at @losponies or check him out at his website. Golden Gate preview Hes back and weve got him. We resume our weekly look at the best racing going on at Golden Gate Fields. As with the last meeting, were delighted to have race caller and all-around good guy Matt Dinerman as our host for previews and other musings. So, take it away, Matt. Our special Labor Day Monday card turned out to be a fun one, highlighted by the $50,000 Rolling Green Stakes on the turf. The race was won by Alert Bay, a million dollar earner and two time San Francisco Mile winner. Alert Bay was making his second start off a 13-month layoff in the Rolling Green and had most recently finished second in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs for trainer Blaine Wright and jockey Juan Hernandez. With the stakes victory, Alert Bay has now earned more than $1.3 million, with 15 wins from 35 starts. Ive been lucky enough in my (short) time as an announcer to call some pretty cool horses so far and Alert Bay definitely makes the top 5. He tries hard every race and is all racehorse. It gets me choked up that Ive gotten to train a horse this good, said Wright during the post-race interview. Hes probably a horse I can never replace. [Alert Bay] has given us fantastic pleasure and excitement, said winning owner Peter Redekop, who traveled to Golden Gate from his home in Canada. Weve had good people look after him and theyve done a fabulous job. I ran into Blaine after the races on Sunday and Blaine, still beaming with pride after the Rolling Green score, said that hell look for a Cal-bred stake or two to run for Alert Bay to run in down South (presumably at Santa Anita). Blaine also reported that the 2019 San Francisco Mile in April is a possible long-term goal for his star older horse. Racing continues this afternoon and runs through Sunday for Week 3 of our 24-day summer meeting. Please note that first post time has changed and will move to 1:15 p.m. That new post time is effective today and runs through the end of the meet. Golden Gate offers eight races this afternoon. Our feature event, Race 3, attracts an interesting field; its an allowance optional claimer for 2-year-old fillies (although none of the fillies are in for the 40k tag.) The morning-line favorite is Tomlin, a $200,000 sales purchase by Distorted Humor who comes off a dominating maiden win at Santa Rosa for trainer Steve Specht. The second-place finisher, Stealthediamonds, came back to break her maiden here two weeks ago. Also entered in Fridays allowance is Southern California invader Scatapulp, who defeated Cal-bred maiden special weight company at Los Alamitos in July, recent maiden special weight winner Gotta B Kitten Me and the Jerry Hollendorfer duo of Beautiful Creature and River of Doubt. The latter equine ran third in the Juan Gonzalez Memorial Handicap at Santa Rosa behind the Doug ONeill trained Lippy last time out. One final reminder: the late Pick 5 on Sunday is, once again, guaranteed at a $50,000 pool. The payouts in this wager have been very good and were expecting no exceptions this Sunday. Los Alamitos nighttime weekend preview This weekly segment is in the hands of Orlando Gutierrez, marketing and media maven at Los Al. So, the floor is yours, Orlando. Several of the top thoroughbred riders during the evening races at Los Alamitos will be piloting thoroughbreds during the daytime meet. With that in mind, lets take a look at whos been hot over the past month. Since Aug. 1, Kellie McDaid has been the leading thoroughbred rider at night at Los Alamitos with 10 wins in 33 mounts. Her 30.3% win ratio is also second among all riders during that span. McDaid even rode a stakes winner at 870 yards when she guided the thoroughbred Rule He Will to victory in the Truly A Pleasure Handicap in a race that also featured quarter horses. McDaid will be on Kaluhla and Sugaratsundown during the first two races on Saturday afternoon before riding The Tatoo Kid, Baba Be Gone, and Gone With It at night. Vinnie Bednar has been in sharp riding form since his return from injury. Hes won eight races from his 27 mounts since the end of July for a 29.6% win percentage and his mounts have hit the board in 77.8% of the time. Thats the highest figure for any rider during this period. Chris Rusell has also made the most of his recent opportunities. Hes won with four of his eight mounts. As for the top thoroughbred trainers since Aug. 1, Charles Treece has won with seven of his 23 starters in the last five weeks, while Kelly Castaneda has won with six of 19 starters. Yanet Rodriguez has saddled four winners from her seven starters. In the quarter horse ranks, jockey Erasmo Gasca and trainer Matt Fales joined forces to form a stellar pairing since Aug. 1. Gasca has won 11 races from 46 mounts during this five week spread seven of those wins for Fales to lead the quarter horse standings. Fales has been the top trainer since August with seven victories from his 23 starters. Cruz Mendez is the only other quarter horse jockey with more than 10 wins during that time. Hes won with 10 of 40 mounts and his winning percentage of 25% is the highest for any quarter horse rider in this interval. Ed Burgarts LA play of the day FIRST RACE: No. 6 Bullish On Steve (2-1) He hails from the high-percentage barn of trainer Jose Avalos, who does well with comeback runners. This gelding has been idle for nearly 18 months but has a strong work tab and is entered not to be claimed while also getting the services of leading jockey Juan Sanchez. In addition, he has terrific early speed. He looks plenty fit based on consecutive 5-furlong works in August prior to rapid 34 flat gate drill for three furlongs six days ago. Final thought If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter you can click here and sign up. Remember, its free, and all we need is your email, nothing more. Tell your friends, or even people you dont like that much. Any thoughts, you can reach me at johnacherwa@gmail.com. You can also feed my ego by following me on Twitter @jcherwa Los Alamitos Race Course Charts Results for Thursday, September 6. Copyright 2018 by Equibase Company. Reproduction prohibited. Los Alamitos Race Course, Los Alamitos, California. 1st day of a 12-day meet. Clear & Fast FIRST RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $15,000. Maiden Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $20,000-$18,000. Time 23.46 46.82 1:12.50 1:26.17 1:39.37 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 3 Take Charge Gal 115 3 1 31 42 31 21 14 Espinoza 1.10 1 Copper Cowgirl 120 1 4 42 3hd 22 1hd 21 Blanc 3.00 4 Solar Corona 122 4 5 6 5 4 33 313 Bednar 16.10 2 Exes N Ohs 120 2 3 21 21 58 54 42 Talamo 3.10 6 Curlina Curlina 122 6 6 5 6 6 6 57 Pedroza 5.80 5 Cheyenne Dancer 117 5 2 1hd 1 11 43 6 Figueroa 24.60 3 TAKE CHARGE GAL 4.20 2.40 2.10 1 COPPER COWGIRL 3.20 2.40 4 SOLAR CORONA 3.40 $1 EXACTA (3-1) $4.70 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (3-1-4-2) $6.41 $1 TRIFECTA (3-1-4) $18.80 WinnerTake Charge Gal Dbb.f.3 by Take Charge Indy out of Pilaf, by Woodman. Bred by Emilie Gerlinde Fojan (KY). Trainer: John W. Sadler. Owner: Desert Sun Stables. Mutuel Pool $49,043 Exacta Pool $25,995 Superfecta Pool $14,905 Trifecta Pool $19,715. ClaimedExes N Ohs by Ronald Stolich. Trainer: Dean Greenman. Scratchednone. TAKE CHARGE GAL stalked outside, came three wide into the stretch, bid outside the runner-up to gain the lead past the eighth pole and won clear under urging. COPPER COWGIRL stalked inside then a bit off the rail and along the fence into the second turn, came out into the stretch, bid outside a rival to gain the lead in upper stretch, drifted in late and held second. SOLAR CORONA stalked a bit off the rail then inside, came out in upper stretch and bested the others. EXES N OHS a bit washy at the gate, came off the rail and bid outside a rival into the backstretch to duel for the lead, dropped back into the second turn and gave way. CURLINA CURLINA chased outside, also dropped back on the second turn and gave way. CHEYENNE DANCER sped to the early lead, angled in and dueled inside, kicked clear on the second turn, fought back in upper stretch but had little left in the final furlong. SECOND RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $40,000. Maiden Special Weight. 3 year olds and up. Time 22.37 45.64 57.39 1:09.48 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Exultation 120 5 1 4 41 2 1hd Conner 15.10 4 Aced 120 4 6 3hd 3hd 1hd 22 Gutierrez 8.10 2 Justin's Quest 120 2 2 1hd 1hd 32 31 Maldonado 2.20 6 Boiler Plate 120 6 3 6 51 52 4 Pena 4.40 3 Dre Dan 124 3 4 21 21 42 57 Talamo 1.00 1 Goldie's Hills 124 1 5 51 6 6 6 Harvey 18.50 5 EXULTATION 32.20 9.80 10.00 4 ACED 7.80 6.20 2 JUSTIN'S QUEST 3.20 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (3-5) $69.20 $1 EXACTA (5-4) $104.10 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-4-2-6) $101.85 $1 TRIFECTA (5-4-2) $459.50 WinnerExultation B.c.3 by Paynter out of Oral Argument, by Outofthebox. Bred by France Weiner & Irwin J. Weiner (FL). Trainer: Peter Eurton. Owner: C R K Stable LLC. Mutuel Pool $45,940 Daily Double Pool $15,668 Exacta Pool $25,718 Superfecta Pool $13,859 Trifecta Pool $15,613. Scratchednone. EXULTATION stalked three deep then outside on the turn and four wide into the stretch, bid three deep under left handed urging a furlong out and gamely prevailed late. ACED close up stalking the pace between foes then off the rail on the turn, bid between rivals in the stretch to gain the advantage past midstretch, fought back inside the winner and was edged late. JUSTIN'S QUEST had good early speed and dueled inside, fought back along the rail in the stretch and held third. BOILER PLATE four wide early, stalked outside then off the rail, came five wide into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. DRE DAN had speed outside a rival to duel for the lead, came three wide into the stretch and weakened. GOLDIE'S HILLS saved ground chasing the pace, fell back some on the turn and weakened in the drive. THIRD RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $45,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $20,000. Time 22.35 45.68 57.50 1:03.87 Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Hailey Rachele 122 5 4 21 1 11 1hd Pereira 0.70 2 Sunrise Royale 115 2 1 31 31 22 21 Figueroa 3.30 6 Happy Issue 117 6 3 5 5 4 31 Espinoza 3.90 4 Magicalchic 117 4 5 4hd 4hd 5 43 Payeras 50.80 3 Lady Krishna 122 3 2 1 2 3hd 5 Bednar 32.80 1 Alpenhorn 124 1 6 dnf Gomez 5.50 5 HAILEY RACHELE 3.40 2.40 2.10 2 SUNRISE ROYALE 3.00 2.20 6 HAPPY ISSUE 2.20 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-5) $83.00 $1 EXACTA (5-2) $5.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-2-6-4) $5.26 $1 TRIFECTA (5-2-6) $12.20 WinnerHailey Rachele Dbb.m.6 by Bedford Falls out of Vicki's Mandate, by Perfect Mandate. Bred by Carol Lingenfelter (CA). Trainer: Sam J. Scolamieri. Owner: Lingenfelter, Carol and Scolamieri, Sam. Mutuel Pool $59,093 Daily Double Pool $5,459 Exacta Pool $31,174 Superfecta Pool $16,880 Trifecta Pool $21,498. Scratchednone. $1 Pick Three (3-5-5) paid $72.30. Pick Three Pool $17,846. HAILEY RACHELE had speed between rivals then dueled outside a foe then three deep leaving the turn, inched away into the stretch and held on gamely under late urging. SUNRISE ROYALE saved ground stalking the pace throughout and finished willingly inside. HAPPY ISSUE stalked outside then three deep on the turn and four wide into the stretch and gained the show. MAGICALCHIC close up stalking the pace a bit off the rail then between foes on the turn, came three deep into the stretch and lacked the needed rally. LADY KRISHNA had speed toward the inside to duel for the lead, battled between foes leaving the turn and weakened in the stretch. ALPENHORN ducked in sharply at the start and unseated the rider. The stewards conducted an inquiry into the start before ruling ALPENHORN was the cause of her own trouble. FOURTH RACE. 6 Furlongs. Purse: $48,000. Allowance Optional Claiming. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $62,500. Time 22.03 45.20 57.48 1:09.76 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 2 Lombo 118 2 4 33 31 45 1hd Mn Garcia 2.40 3 Street Vision 122 3 1 2hd 21 2 2 Pedroza 5.20 5 Conqueror 122 5 3 41 43 3hd 33 Talamo 2.70 4 Aristocratic 117 4 2 13 12 1hd 48 Figueroa 1.10 1 Stylistics United 117 1 5 5 5 5 5 Payeras 46.70 2 LOMBO 6.80 4.20 2.60 3 STREET VISION 5.20 2.60 5 CONQUEROR 3.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (5-2) $17.60 $1 EXACTA (2-3) $17.10 $1 TRIFECTA (2-3-5) $40.70 WinnerLombo Grr.c.3 by Graydar out of Burg Berg, by Johannesburg. Bred by Twin Creeks Farm (KY). Trainer: Philip D'Amato. Owner: Michael V. Lombardi. Mutuel Pool $74,130 Daily Double Pool $8,336 Exacta Pool $31,167 Trifecta Pool $31,520. Scratchednone. $1 Pick Three (5-5-2) paid $218.60. Pick Three Pool $7,219. LOMBO stalked outside, came three wide into the stretch, bid four wide a furlong out and got up on the wire under urging. STREET VISION stalked off the rail, also came three wide into the stretch, bid between foes in the drive, gained a slim lead in deep stretch and was edged on the line. CONQUEROR chased outside a rival then inside on the turn and into the stretch, bid along the rail in the drive and continued willingly late. ARISTOCRATIC sped to a clear early lead, set the pace off the rail, drifted out some into the stretch, fought back between foes in the lane and weakened late. STYLISTICS UNITED saved ground chasing the pace, came out into the stretch then angled to the inside in the drive and had little left for the drive. FIFTH RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $21,000. Maiden Claiming. 2 year olds. Claiming Prices $50,000-$40,000. Time 22.73 46.48 58.31 1:04.68 Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 3 Kid Koil 118 3 5 32 22 1hd 11 Pedroza 3.00 8 Just Hit Play 122 8 1 42 3hd 32 21 Gonzalez 2.40 2 Calder Vale 122 2 3 1 1 22 36 Fuentes 2.70 7 Forestation 122 7 4 51 52 42 42 Hernandez 10.80 6 New Salute 113 6 7 71 6 5 52 Figueroa 67.10 5 Lifesbeengoodsofar 122 5 8 8 8 68 623 Pereira 2.80 4 Bean Street 122 4 6 61 71 7 72 Harvey 58.70 1 Street Punk 122 1 2 2hd 41 8 8 Russell 39.00 3 KID KOIL 8.00 4.00 2.10 8 JUST HIT PLAY 3.60 2.20 2 CALDER VALE 2.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (2-3) $26.60 $1 EXACTA (3-8) $11.00 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (3-8-2-7) $14.98 $1 TRIFECTA (3-8-2) $25.70 WinnerKid Koil Ch.g.2 by Coil out of Bonita Star (GB), by Beat Hollow (GB). Bred by Richard Barton Enterprises (CA). Trainer: Adam Kitchingman. Owner: Firsthome Thoroughbreds, On Pointe Thoroughbreds and Pro Selection Stable. Mutuel Pool $61,629 Daily Double Pool $8,009 Exacta Pool $36,207 Superfecta Pool $24,082 Trifecta Pool $26,258. Scratchednone. $1 Pick Three (5-2-3) paid $38.90. Pick Three Pool $22,762. $1 Pick Four (5-5-2-3) 4 correct paid $752.80. Pick Four Pool $37,152. 50-Cent Pick Five (3-5-5-2-3) 5 correct paid $638.55. Pick Five Pool $158,725. KID KOIL dueled three deep then outside a rival on the turn, took a short lead in midstretch, inched away and held under urging. JUST HIT PLAY stalked off the rail, came four wide into the stretch and finished willingly in a bit close off the heels of the winner late. CALDER VALE dueled between horses then off the rail on the turn, fought back in the stretch and bested the others. FORESTATION chased off the rail, came four wide into the stretch and lacked a rally. NEW SALUTE between horses early, chased between foes or outside a rival to the stretch and weakened. LIFESBEENGOODSOFAR broke slowly, settled off the rail, came three wide into the stretch and lacked a rally. BEAN STREET angled in and saved ground chasing the pace to the stretch and gave way. STREET PUNK had good early speed and pressed the pace inside, stalked leaving the turn and had nothing left for the stretch. SIXTH RACE. 1 Mile. Purse: $40,000. Maiden Special Weight. 2 year olds. Time 24.03 47.81 1:12.06 1:24.15 1:36.82 Pgm Horse Wt PP St Str Fin Jockey $1 7 Seven Scents 122 6 4 31 31 1hd 1 11 Franco 4.30 6 Magnificent McCool 122 5 3 21 2 22 26 29 Bejarano 2.80 4 Earnest 122 3 5 55 54 55 43 31 Pereira 10.30 1 Dinesen 122 1 1 4 41 43 32 414 Mn Garcia 3.50 5 Dark Prince 122 4 2 11 1 3hd 56 53 Talamo 1.30 3 Rain Crow 122 2 6 6 6 6 6 6 Elliott 53.80 7 SEVEN SCENTS 10.60 4.60 3.60 6 MAGNIFICENT MCCOOL 4.20 2.60 4 EARNEST 4.40 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (3-7) $55.80 $1 EXACTA (7-6) $15.80 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (7-6-4-1) $29.96 $1 TRIFECTA (7-6-4) $89.90 WinnerSeven Scents Grr.c.2 by Goldencents out of Forever Vow, by Broken Vow. Bred by FPF LLC (KY). Trainer: Craig Anthony Lewis. Owner: Six-S Racing Stable and Barron, Shirley A.. Mutuel Pool $110,074 Daily Double Pool $8,813 Exacta Pool $51,479 Superfecta Pool $25,848 Trifecta Pool $35,087. ScratchedHerdsman. $1 Pick Three (2-3-7) paid $53.60. Pick Three Pool $16,597. SEVEN SCENTS stalked off the rail, bid three deep leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, took a short lead in the stretch and gamely prevailed under urging and steady handling late. MAGNIFICENT MCCOOL bobbled at the start, stalked off the inside, bid between foes leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, fought back off the rail leaving the turn and in the stretch and drifted in late. EARNEST chased off the rail, came out into the stretch and picked up the show. DINESEN broke in a bit, saved ground chasing the pace, continued a bit off the rail on the second turn, came out into the stretch and weakened. DARK PRINCE sped to the early lead and angled in, set the pace inside, dueled leaving the backstretch and on the second turn, fell back leaving that turn and had little left for the stretch. RAIN CROW broke a step slowly, settled inside then just off the rail on the backstretch and second turn and gave way. SEVENTH RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $12,000. Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Price $6,250. Time 22.54 45.98 57.59 1:03.81 Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 9 Princess Areni 120 9 4 3hd 31 11 1nk Pedroza 2.10 5 Kristie's Heart 119 5 5 41 2hd 22 25 Figueroa 1.40 3 Nazareth 124 3 7 61 5hd 4hd 31 Pereira 11.80 6 Scathing 124 6 8 7hd 81 51 4hd Gonzalez 9.60 4 Blooming Hannah 124 4 3 1hd 11 33 5 Harvey 42.70 7 Alpha Pegasus 124 7 2 5hd 6hd 61 62 Pena 7.70 8 Rockantharos 124 8 9 83 71 71 7ns Fuentes 6.00 2 Bella Raquella 124 2 6 9 9 81 84 Orozco 47.40 1 Stately Command 124 1 1 2 41 9 9 Hernandez 69.80 9 PRINCESS ARENI 6.20 3.20 2.80 5 KRISTIE'S HEART 3.00 2.40 3 NAZARETH 3.80 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (7-9) $40.20 $1 EXACTA (9-5) $7.70 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (9-5-3-6) $17.74 $1 TRIFECTA (9-5-3) $43.80 WinnerPrincess Areni Dbb.f.3 by Istan out of Cranberry Sauce, by Harlan's Holiday. Bred by Brereton C. Jones (KY). Trainer: Simon Callaghan. Owner: Simon Callaghan. Mutuel Pool $81,918 Daily Double Pool $9,778 Exacta Pool $52,391 Superfecta Pool $30,419 Trifecta Pool $32,599. ClaimedScathing by Antonio Mojarro. Trainer: Lorenzo Ruiz. ScratchedHolidayincambodia. $1 Pick Three (3-7-9) paid $77.20. Pick Three Pool $10,097. PRINCESS ARENI dueled three deep then stalked outside on the turn, re-bid three wide into the stretch, gained the advantage in upper stretch and gamely prevailed under urging. KRISTIE'S HEART stalked a bit off the rail then between foes on the turn, bid between horses into the stretch, fought back inside the winner in the final furlong and drifted in some late. NAZARETH chased a bit off the rail then inside on the turn, swung three deep into the stretch and picked up the show. SCATHING chased off the inside, came three wide into the stretch and lacked a rally. BLOOMING HANNAH dueled between horses then inched away inside on the turn, fought back in upper stretch, then weakened. ALPHA PEGASUS chased outside, came four wide into the stretch and also weakened. ROCKANTHAROS broke a bit slowly, settled off the rail, came five wide into the stretch and did not rally. BELLA RAQUELLA settled off the pace inside, saved ground on the turn and lacked a further response. STATELY COMMAND had good early speed and dueled inside, stalked along the rail on the turn and gave way in the drive. EIGHTH RACE. 5 Furlongs. Purse: $17,000. Claiming. Fillies and Mares. 3 year olds and up. Claiming Prices $16,000-$14,000. Time 22.25 46.03 57.95 1:04.32 Pgm Horse Wt PP St 3/8 Str Fin Jockey $1 5 Ciao Luna 115 3 2 2hd 2 1hd 1 Figueroa 4.00 9 Jeweled 119 6 6 52 51 2hd 2hd Espinoza 1.00 3 Majestic Authority 120 1 7 7 62 32 36 Ceballos 4.00 10 Fellina 117 7 4 6hd 7 6hd 41 Payeras 63.20 7 Sharona Sunset 120 5 1 41 41 4 52 E Garcia 5.90 6 Dashin Ashen 124 4 5 3hd 3hd 7 61 Roman 6.80 4 Creative Spark 120 2 3 1 1hd 51 7 Pereira 23.50 5 CIAO LUNA 10.00 3.60 2.80 9 JEWELED 2.80 2.10 3 MAJESTIC AUTHORITY 3.00 $2 DAILY DOUBLE (9-5) $34.40 $1 EXACTA (5-9) $11.40 10-CENT SUPERFECTA (5-9-3-10) $26.43 $1 SUPER HIGH FIVE (5-9-3-10-7) $666.20 $1 TRIFECTA (5-9-3) $29.20 WinnerCiao Luna Grr.f.3 by Marino Marini out of Madre Luna, by Rahy. Bred by Liberty Road Stables (CA). Trainer: Steve Knapp. Owner: Haagsma, David, Haagsma, John R. and Vanderdussen, Robert John. Mutuel Pool $109,505 Daily Double Pool $30,539 Exacta Pool $69,772 Superfecta Pool $48,669 Super High Five Pool $9,773 Trifecta Pool $52,059. ClaimedJeweled by Kahlden, Lawrence and Wiener, Brett. Trainer: Jorge Periban. ScratchedCoalinga Hills, Lady's War Dress, Topaz Time. $1 Pick Three (7-9-5) paid $105.30. Pick Three Pool $43,316. $1 Pick Four (3-7-9-5) 4 correct paid $309.60. Pick Four Pool $132,778. $2 Pick Six (5-2-3-7-9-5) 5 out of 6 paid $87.40. $2 Pick Six (5-2-3-7-9-5) 6 correct paid $4,271.80. Pick Six Pool $24,416. CIAO LUNA dueled between horses, was fanned out some into the stretch, battled three deep in midstretch, took a short lead between foes past midstretch and gamely prevailed under left handed urging. JEWELED stalked off the rail, came five wide into the stretch bid three deep past midstretch and continued willingly to the wire. MAJESTIC AUTHORITY dropped back and settled just off the rail, angled in on the turn and into the stretch, bid inside in the drive and also continued gamely to the end. FELLINA chased outside then off the rail to the stretch, angled inward past midstretch and lacked the needed rally. SHARONA SUNSET pressed the pace four wide on the backstretch and turn, was fanned five wide into the stretch and weakened. DASHIN ASHEN dueled three deep between horses, was fanned four wide into the stretch and also weakened. CREATIVE SPARK had good early speed and dueled inside, came off the rail into the stretch, was between foes in midstretch and weakened thereafter. One of the biggest and oldest festivals in Hawaii returns to the Honolulu area this month. Throughout September, locals and visitors are invited to Aloha Festivals, an annual celebration begun in 1946. Tourists who want to experience the richness of Hawaiian culture can enjoy authentic food, hula, music and pageantry at the free activities, which include: -- Pearlridge Keiki Hoolaulea, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 15. The Pearlridge Center in suburban Aiea hosts the Keiki Hoolaulea, in English the childrens celebration. Families can wander through the shopping mall to enjoy arts and crafts demonstrations as well as performances by musical groups and hula students. Lihau and Kellen Paik, who together form the band Kupaoa, perform during the 2016 Aloha Festivals in Honolulu. (Eugene Tanner Photography) Advertisement -- Waikiki Hoolaulea, 7 to 10 p.m. Sept. 22. Close to many of the big resorts, Waikikis Kalakaua Avenue is transformed into a giant block party for the evening. Music is performed on four stages, and people can wander from booth to booth to learn more about Hawaiian crafts and culture. Food stalls, including Mahaloha Burger, StripSteak Waikiki and Waimanalo Country Farms, are popular too. The royal court rides on a float in the Aloha Festivals Floral Parade from Ala Moana Beach Park to Kapiolani Park. (Eugene Tanner Photography) -- Floral Parade, 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 29. In its 72nd year, the parade glides along a 3.5-mile route from Ala Moana Park to Kapiolani Park, through the heart of Waikiki, full of color, fragrance and tradition. Floats covered in flowers make their way through the streets, along with men and women on horseback representing various islands of Hawaii. The parade also provides a chance for viewers to see the Aloha Festivals Royal Court, crowned during a Sept. 1 ceremony. The procession will reflect the festivals 2018 theme: We Are of the Sea. Info: Aloha Festivals, (808) 923-2030 ALSO After three months of quakes and spewing lava, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park prepares to reopen Viking makes it official: Kids no longer welcome on cruises Las Vegas steakhouse turns 60, and turns back the clock with throwback menus travel@latimes.com @latimestravel When Indias Supreme Court this week legalized same-sex intercourse between consenting adults, it buried, most likely forever, a 157-year-old law introduced during British colonial rule. The decision was a landmark not least because civil rights activists hope it will galvanize the repeal of similar anti-gay legislation that remains on the books in dozens of other former outposts of the British Empire. Britain decriminalized homosexuality beginning half a century ago, but the vestiges of its Victorian-era morality laws linger from Antigua to Zambia. About 35 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, made up mostly of former colonies, ban same-sex relations, accounting for roughly half the countries that outlaw gay intercourse. This year British Prime Minister Theresa May said she deeply regretted the legacy of discrimination, violence and even death left by the legislation and pledged more than $7 million to support repeal efforts in Commonwealth countries. Advertisement The harshest anti-gay laws in the world, including some carrying the death penalty, exist in the Middle East and werent inherited from the British. But in many former colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, conservative political parties and religious groups have resisted efforts to repeal the old legislation. Here are some Commonwealth countries where the laws remain in force: Malaysia Malaysias law, like Indias, is listed under Section 377 of the penal code and bans intercourse against the order of nature. Conviction carries a punishment of five to 20 years in prison. Previous governments used the statute to target Anwar Ibrahim, a longtime opposition leader, who was convicted and jailed twice on sodomy charges that many critics said were politically motivated. In May, Anwar was released from prison before the end of his five-year sentence after the shocking election defeat of his nemesis, Prime Minister Najib Razak. The new leader, 93-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, who returns to the position he held from 1981 to 2003, struck a deal that allows Anwar to succeed him as prime minister. But repeal of Section 377 is far from certain in a Muslim society often hostile to homosexuality. Just this Monday, two women were publicly caned in the countrys northeast under provincial Islamic laws on allegations of having lesbian relations, reportedly the first time such a punishment had been implemented in the state for any crime. Mahathir said he opposed the sentence, saying it ran counter to the compassion of Islam. Malaysian reformist Anwar Ibrahim speaks in Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday. (Francis R. Malasig / EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock) Singapore In Singapore, same-sex intercourse remains a crime, although the government has pledged not to harass gays. For the last decade, an annual Pink Dot rally drawing thousands of revelers has been held in the authoritarian city-state, where public gatherings are rare. Foreigners were banned from attending the rally last year, in keeping with Singapores usually tight controls over freedom of assembly. The government told international companies such as Facebook, Google and Goldman Sachs that they could no longer sponsor the event because it related to controversial social issues with political overtones. In a sign of domestic support for the LGBTQ community, dozens of Singaporean companies stepped in to sponsor the festivities. Following the Indian ruling, Singapores law minister said a growing number of citizens were in favor of decriminalizing homosexuality but added that the majority are opposed to any change. Brunei Homosexuality has long been a criminal offense in the tiny oil-rich sultanate on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. But in 2014, as part of an increasingly conservative turn under long-ruling Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Brunei introduced a new Islamic legal code that allows a punishment of stoning to death for a variety of offenses, including sodomy. Human Rights Watch has denounced it as medieval punishment. Several Hollywood celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno, said they would boycott the Beverly Hills Hotel and other luxury properties owned by the sultan. Bruneis Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Queen Saleha ride in a royal chariot during a procession in October 2017 to mark 50 years since his accession to the throne. (Roslan Rahman / AFP/Getty Images) Malawi Authorities in the southern African nation in 2012 said they would no longer enforce laws against same-sex intercourse. But occasional arrests have still been reported. In April, police in the northern city of Mzuzu arrested a 24-year-old man on suspicion that he is gay, local media reported, even though being gay is not a crime. Uganda Authorities rarely prosecute Ugandans under the anti-gay statute, but have often used the law as a cover to clamp down on LGBTQ-related events. Last December, police shut down the Queer Kampala International Film Festival in the capital city. That followed similar bans on events related to Pride Week and, in 2012, a human rights workshop led by LGBTQ activists. Longtime President Yoweri Museveni is often dismissive of gays and gay rights, describing them as being imposed by the West and incompatible with African culture. Last month he told an audience: You cannot stand up here and say, I am a homosexual. People will not like it. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is shown in a 2013 file photo. (Waakhe Simon / AFP/Getty Images) Kenya Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has made similarly homophobic comments, telling CNN recently that gay rights were of no importance to the people of Kenya. But the justice system has been more receptive. A case challenging the gay sex ban was heard in court this year, with a decision expected soon. Also this year, an appeals court outlawed the police practice of conducting rectal examinations of male prisoners suspected of engaging in homosexual sex. British Prime Minister Theresa May and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta arrive for a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in August. (Dai Kurokawa / EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock) The Caribbean In 1991 the Bahamas became the first former British colony in the Americas to strike down its anti-sodomy law, but 25 years would pass before the Central American nation of Belize became the next. This year, a court in Trinidad and Tobago ruled that its British-era laws prohibiting buggery and indecency were unconstitutional. The plaintiff in the case, Jason Jones, an openly gay activist who fled Trinidad because of discrimination, said that after he brought the lawsuit he received hundreds of death threats and hate messages. In seven former island colonies in the eastern Caribbean including Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Grenada similar laws remain in force. According to Human Rights Watch, while few people have faced criminal prosecutions, the laws give social and legal sanction for discrimination, violence, stigma, and prejudice against LGBT individuals. The rights group said that the Trinidad ruling, which found that all citizens were entitled to the same constitutional rights, could reverberate in other Caribbean nations with similar statutes. Special correspondent Roughneen reported from Bangkok and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai. shashank.bengali@latimes.com Shashank Bengali is South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengali For the last 12 years, a radical experiment has been playing out in Guatemala. A United Nations-backed commission has investigated hundreds of cases of corruption, drug trafficking and even genocide, probing the misconduct of political leaders, drug lords and others who had long been viewed as above the law. It has been a radical shift for a country long known for its weak institutions and still scarred by civil war. The group, known as the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, has been hailed as one of the most effective anti-crime efforts in Latin America, a region where corruption and violence often go unpunished. It has also been criticized as violating Guatemalan sovereignty and failing to stay above the fray of politics. Advertisement One of those critics is Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, who is the target of a commission investigation into illegal campaign financing. Last week he announced plans to end the commissions mandate, and on Tuesday said its head, Ivan Velasquez, would not be allowed to return to Guatemala from Washington, where he has been meeting with American lawmakers. Morales efforts have drawn widespread condemnation and sparked fears that Guatemala could face a constitutional crisis. What happens now may affect not only Guatemalas justice system but also the rest of Central America, where the commission was long held up as a model, and even the flow of migrants and drugs to the United States. The commission More than 200,000 people died during Guatemalas 35-year civil war, which pitted left-wing guerrilla groups against a series of right-wing governments backed by the United States. A truth commission launched after the war ended in 1996 exposed atrocities committed during the conflict, but Guatemalas weak justice system meant perpetrators were rarely brought to trial. At the same time, criminal groups operated with abandon, engaging in extortion, kidnappings and drug smuggling. Guatemalas judicial and political systems were widely believed to be corrupt. The country was no longer at war but was still beset by one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Immigrants left for the United States in droves. After appeals from civil society groups, the U.N. stepped in, forming the commission in 2006. It would work with Guatemalas attorney generals office to build criminal cases. The effect was immediate if controversial. The commissions work The commission has helped jail three ex-presidents, as well as dozens of lawmakers, hit men and drug traffickers. Its investigation into Otto Perez Molina, whom it accused of running an elaborate corruption scheme after he became president in 2012, sparked massive street protests three years later that forced Perez and his vice president to resign. Morales was elected president after Perez stepped down. A former television comedian, he ran on an anti-corruption platform, posting the slogan Ni corrupto, ni ladron not corrupt, not a thief on his campaign billboards. But Morales turned against the commission after it brought fraud charges against his brother and his son and later began investigating whether Morales accepted about $1 million in illicit campaign funds. Last year, Morales sought to expel Velasquez, a jurist from Colombia, and pressed for a law that would allow government officials to avoid prison. Anti-corruption advocates, with the help of the U.S. government, foiled those efforts. But after the commission and Guatemalas attorney general asked Congress to strip Morales of his immunity from prosecution last month, the president sought once again to get rid of the commission. His efforts have been buoyed somewhat by criticism of the commission from abroad. After the commission helped prosecute a Russian family that had used false passports obtained from a Guatemalan crime ring, a prominent critic of the Russian government questioned whether it had acted at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This year, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced a hold on $6 million in funding for the commission until questions about the incident were addressed. The announcement The optics were startling. Last Friday, Morales stood flanked by dozens of camouflage-clad soldiers and said that he would not renew the mandate of the U.N.-backed commission. Outside, armored military vehicles massed in Guatemala Citys main plaza and others circled the commissions headquarters scenes that brought back not-so-distant memories of the civil war. In the days since, Morales has escalated his efforts. Not only has Velasquez been barred from the country, but a spokesman for the commission said Thursday that its employees also have not received expected renewals of their visas. Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said Thursday that the commission had overstepped its bounds and become a clandestine and parallel apparatus that had begun to resemble the groups it was designed to fight. International reaction Criticism from inside and outside Guatemala has been swift. Guatemalan human rights prosecutor Jordan Rodas called attacks on the commission a great mistake, while Human Rights Watch accused Morales of casting his lot with the forces of corruption and impunity. A letter signed by 11 nations including Spain, Canada and the United Kingdom implored Morales to reconsider his decision, which it described as a step backward for Guatemala and its institutions. The United States was instrumental in creating the commission and provides about half of its $15-million annual budget. Though some members of Congress have called for sanctions against Guatemala, with Rep. Norma Torres, a Democrat from Pomona, asking the State Department to withhold U.S. assistance to Guatemala and to block visas and freeze assets of some Guatemalan officials, the Trump administration initially refrained from commenting publicly on the matter. Some observers speculated that the silence might be tied to Guatemalas support for President Trumps controversial decision to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guatemala was one of a handful of countries that also moved their embassies. But on Thursday, the State Department said Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo has offered a degree of support for the commission. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo called Morales on Thursday to discuss the importance of continuing our cooperation in the fight against corruption and impunity and the Guatemalan governments efforts working with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. Pompeo told Morales that the United States is open to some reforms to the commission, although Nauert did not detail what those would be. kate.linthicum@latimes.com Twitter: @katelinthicum tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson A Cape Coral builder faces fraud charges after police say he swindled more than $700,000 from customers who had contracted to build a home. Christopher Paul Cheney, 40, of 5505 Merlyn Lane, was charged Wednesday with fraud-swindle obtain property more than $50,000. Police say the arrest came after a long and very intensive investigation. The Cape Coral Police took several reports in 2017 in reference to Southern Premier Homes, LLC regarding fraud claims, the CCPD release states. The agency assigned a Financial Crimes Unit detective to investigate the complaints. Each victim reported that they contracted with Southern Premier Homes, LLC and were in the process of building homes with the company. The victims had given varied amounts of money to the company, which were intended for building needs, officials said. The complainants told investigators that they dealt directly with the owner of the business, Cheney. In each case the victims reported that the monies that were provided were not used as intended and they were unable to recoup any money back, the release states. It was determined that beginning in 2016 and continuing until around June 2017, Christopher Paul Cheney engaged in a systematic and ongoing course of conduct with the intent to defraud multiple parties to obtain monies by false pretenses, representations, promises or intentional misrepresentations of a future act with Southern Premier Homes, LLC which caused victims to incur of a loss of more than $703,000. CCPD filed for a warrant through the State Attorneys Office. Once obtained, Cheney was located at his residence, arrested, and taken to the Lee County Jail. Bond was set at $30,000 and he was released from the Lee County Jail the same day. Southern Premier closed its model on Chiquita Boulevard last June. At that time, Southern Premier Homes had 11 outstanding permits in Cape Coral, nine of which were open, according to city officials. Free reusable bags Macquarie Regional Library, New South Wales, incorporating the Councils of Dubbo Regional, Narromine and Warrumbungle will be offering free reusable library bags to the community when they borrow from any branch of the library. This offer coincides with the regions major retailers and supermarkets eliminating single-use plastic bags. Manager of Macquarie Regional Library, Kathryn McAlister, said she was happy to help the community reduce its use of plastic bags by handing out free library bags. Each library member is eligible to receive the free reusable library bag which can double as eco-friendly shopping bags. We hope this initiative will encourage more members of the community to visit their local library. It is also a way to say thank you to our regular borrowers. Ms McAlister said this was a great time to visit the local library to experience a range of engaging and exciting programs including technology classes, coding and robotics workshops, Lego clubs, childrens story time, book clubs and author visits. Funding for natural disaster resilience Maranoa Regional Council has received $150,000 in Commonwealth and Queensland Government funding to implement a Risk Assessment of Critical Infrastructure. The risk assessment will identify all critical infrastructure and natural hazard risk impacts for all agencies (including water, sewerage, energy, communications, transport, health, emergency services and support services) in the Maranoa region. Mayor, Tyson Golder, Portfolio Chair for Disaster Management said the assessment will evaluate access to critical infrastructure during flooding events. The data gathered over the two year project period will be used by Maranoa Regional Council and other agencies to create business continuity plans. The project will also create a risk assessment of all identified critical infrastructure for other natural disasters, including, fire, storm, earthquake or heatwave. Council is committed to the preparedness of all critical infrastructure in the Maranoa region. New opportunity Goondiwindi Regional Council, Queensland, welcomed the announcement that the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) will move to town. The new office will create five new jobs for the town. Mayor Graeme Scheu congratulated the Murray Darling Basin Authority on the decision to establish an office in Goondiwindi, stating that having a daily connection and relationship with the regional areas that the MDBA impacts can only be a positive outcome for the regions agriculture sector. It is also a major shift to see the decentralisation of government jobs back into regional Queensland. The Mayor was not surprised that Goondiwindi had been identified as the preferred location following the recent award of Regional Australia at its Best. The Goondiwindi office will be well placed to deliver the Northern Basin Review. As a community, we all benefit from this decision with dollars kept in our local economy, as well as the improved ability to engage with important policy decisions. 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. Social housing campaign launched The Eastern Affordable Housing Alliance (EAHA) has called on all Victorian political parties to zone in and deliver real action on social housing. The EAHA is a collaboration between the cities of Knox, Manningham, Maroondah, Monash, Whitehorse and Yarra Ranges that aims to ensure the most disadvantaged people in Melbournes Eastern Metropolitan Region have access to safe, secure and affordable housing. EAHA Chair Councillor Sharon Ellis, of Whitehorse City Council, launched the EAHAs Zone In campaign, four months out from the State Election. The campaign asks all political parties to commit to legislating to introduce mandatory inclusionary zoning in Victoria and delivering at least 11,420 new social housing dwellings in the Eastern Metropolitan Region by 2036. Cr Ellis said, There are 7,970 families in our region who dont have safe, secure and affordable housing. Alarmingly, if action is not taken, this number will increase to 11,420 by 2036. Real action is needed urgently. Cr Ellis said that while EAHA member councils are doing everything they can, the State Government has an important role to play in fixing this unacceptable situation. Introducing mandatory inclusionary zoning at a rate of at least 10 percent on all surplus government land and strategic redevelopment sites would guarantee a steady supply of new social and affordable housing across the state. It will give certainty to Government, councils and developers about whats expected, and provide more opportunities for our most disadvantaged community members to access safe, secure and affordable housing. Inclusionary zoning has been used extensively in places such as San Francisco, London, New York and Vancouver. Closer to home, South Australia has a mandatory 15 percent affordable housing requirement in all significant development projects. Cr Ellis said that a key priority for the EAHA in advocating for the introduction of mandatory inclusionary zoning is to ensure vulnerable people and families arent forced to move to unfamiliar areas to find a home. Three tips for the caretaker period - The Good Oil by Rod Brown When Cormann, Cash and Fifield wandered, with grim faces, into the Senate courtyard on Thursday 23 August we knew that the right-wing had prevailed in its quest to sack the Prime Minister. Interestingly, Cormann and Fifield have usually presented as sane and sensible politicians. Surely they hadnt been duped by their nervous and gullible backbenchers? But sure enough, they announced their resignations and thus set in train one of the craziest weeks ever in federal politics. I wont go into detail about all the shenanigans, because were all broadly aware of how and why things unfolded. But councillors and council staff should think and act carefully over the next eight months that is until May next year when the next federal election is expected. I humbly offer three pieces of advice. First, the incoming Morrison Government will essentially be in caretaker mode. By voting out a democratically-elected Prime Minister, the Liberal Party crossed the line. The incoming Government has little moral or ethical standing, and numerous government decisions it takes could be overturned by an incoming Labor Government. This means that local councils wanting to cosy up to this federal government should be very careful. Secondly, the wafer thin majority held by the Morrison Government means that all sorts of expenditure promises will be put on the table in coming months. And Labor will surely be doing likewise. My suggestion therefore is that local councils shouldnt blithely note such promises, but instead ask for a substantiation of them! For example, the Morrison Government is tipped to commit to a new dams program, to garner political support in regional Queensland and NSW. Well if they play that card, local councils should immediately demand details of where, when and how much. It is your local economies and your votes at stake. Vague promises are worthless. Another example is the assertion by the new energy minister, Angus Taylor, that he has only one Key Performance Indicator to bring down energy prices. A noble sentiment, but we need details. We should be pressing him to nominate a target - if he cannot promise a drop in retail and commercial energy prices of around 30 percent then he isnt trying. An alliance of local councils in socially disadvantaged areas or with energy-intensive industries could surely lead the charge. Thirdly, local councils could be on the front-foot, rather than allowing the feds to make the running. An example is the recent statement by ALP powerbroker Albanese that a Shorten Government would re-establish the Major Cities Unit. Many local councils would support this, and they could usefully make recommendations in the run-up to the election as to what its charter should be. After all, local councils are the closest to the action. And why not balance things off with a Regional Development Commission? Its charter should be to reinvigorate regional Australia, develop sensible investment incentives, lay out a regional city-town mosaic, create value-adding hubs, bed down new immigrants etc. This would force the two major parties to think about whether they are truly responsive to the people. The Labor Party says its roots are in the Bush. But the Nationals claim the Bush as its own. Forget the dreamin prove it. And think about this our new Prime Minister majored in economic geography at UNSW. He should surely understand the issues affecting cities and regions. Can we leverage this knowledge, or has it all been beaten out of him by his Treasury advisers? Hewsons hand grenade While on the subject of getting the federal government focussing on things other than themselves, former Liberal leader John Hewson recently lobbed a hand grenade into the Canberra bureaucracy when he claimed it had effectively been denuded of essential talent by years of spending cuts and efficiency dividends many departments are now referred to as gutted shells. He added that the latest budget also boasts of tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure commitments and hundreds of billions to be spent on defence procurement. But in both cases the cost/benefit processes have been inadequate, lacking essential transparency and not in accord with national priorities, with very poor accountability as the money is allocated. Hewson is spot on. Ive been railing about this for years, which is probably why I chose to run this item. But seriously, the federal bureaucracy is a shadow of its former self and we should be imploring both major parties to turn this around. Vale Turnbull The treatment meted out to our 29th Prime Minister was disgraceful. He made a valiant effort to find a way forward on energy policy, he ushered in same sex marriage and he got education and health failings off the front pages. Critics will say he failed on asylum seekers, immigration, personal and company tax cuts but gee the planets werent aligning for him. But to my mind, his main achievement was that he treated people with respect, which is a scarce commodity these days. And he went out with class and dignity. Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant and lobbyist specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction and clusters, and accessing federal grants. He also runs the Cockatoo Network. Phone: (02) 6231 7261 or 0412 922 559 Email: apdcockatoo[@]iprimus.com.au Visitor Information Centre supports local travel operator West Coast Council, Tasmania, has announced it will partner with locally owned and operated start up business, Tassie4Kids, in an exciting new venture that will see the West Coast Visitor Information Centre in Strahan as a direct operator booking engine for the Tasmanian travel website. Through Councils partnership with Bookeasy, the Visitor Centre will assist Tassie4Kids by managing bookings and payments on their behalf. Website visitors will be able to make bookings without being directed to an alternative website to finalise payment. This third-party agreement will allow Tassie4Kids to convert their website traffic into real-time data, without the need to establish their own online payment system and it will provide access to a modern, responsive and customised booking platform. Councils General Manager, Dirk Dowling, says that this is an opportunity to support the West Coast tourism industry as well as locally owned and operated businesses. We are leading the way by partnering with a local business to offer this service, which to our knowledge is the only partnership of its kind in Tasmania. By continuing to develop innovative ways of operating, the West Coast Council is strengthening the economic development and business opportunities for our region. We are breaking new ground here, this partnership is a new concept to Council and through positive communication, we will lead the way for other tourism operators in Tasmania. Tassie4Kids owner operator Amy Joseph says that her concept provides a travel website solely focusing on the family. When families travel they want value. A genuine experience with opportunities to share and create memories, Ms Joseph said. Industries A factory in your pocket A factory in your pocket thanks to Virtual Reality 07.09.2018 13:35:32 - Using just the smartphone in their pocket and a VR app, a project manager can visualise a factory in virtual reality even before the ground-breaking ceremony takes place (live-PR.com) - Cambridge, UK and Pittsford, NY 7 September 2018: Expensive systems used to be required to display large machines and factories in 3D. With mobile apps and an iPhone or Android device, this is now a thing of the past. Limited use of 3D design data Whether it is the sales department selling a machine, the designer planning its layout in a - Cambridge, UK and Pittsford, NY 7 September 2018: Expensive systems used to be required to display large machines and factories in 3D. With mobile apps and an iPhone or Android device, this is now a thing of the past.Limited use of 3D design dataWhether it is the sales department selling a machine, the designer planning its layout in a factory, or the project manager installing it precisely on site, they can all benefit from the use of 3D design data. Unfortunately, access to 3D data often remains solely within the design department. This is due to the high computer performance required to display such large and complex data. The processing speed, graphics performance, and memory capacity of a typical office computer are simply inadequate for this task. Problem: The 3D CAD models are too big Unfortunately, some 3D CAD models are simply too large to be visualized on a tablet or smartphone because they contain far too much detail. To overcome this problem, many companies will resort to remodelling their designs in a simpler form. This is a very expensive, time-consuming step that requires unnecessary resources because this data is already available in 3D in their CAD system. Solution: Automated Compression CAD Schroer is at home in the CAD world and uses specially designed software tools to process complex 3D data from a wide variety of CAD systems, ready for mobile use. After processing, the data can be used efficiently on mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Individual machines and even entire factories can be visualized on a smartphone without sacrificing detail. 3D AR applications for sales With the help of AR apps, large machines can be virtually displayed at their intended location in the real-world factory. This enables the project manager to quickly determine whether unforeseen problems will be encountered during construction. For sales presentations, large machines can be virtually displayed in the meeting room and explained in detail via the use of animations. A factory in your pocket Motion sequences can be simulated, which enables the customer to virtually observe the movements of individual parts within the machine. The project manager can also walk through the factory using the apps on their Apple or Android device to inspect machines and see them in action. All this with a device that fits in your pocket. >> More about the factory in the pocket www.cad-schroer.fr/actualite/lusine-dans-sa-poche-grace-a-la-realite-virtuelle/ About CAD Schroer CAD Schroer is a global software development company and engineering solutions provider, helping to raise the productivity and competitiveness of customers working in manufacturing and process engineering, including the automotive sector and its supply chain, the energy sector and public utilities. CAD Schroer has offices and subsidiaries throughout Europe and in the United States. CAD Schroers product portfolio includes 2D/3D CAD, plant design, factory layout and data management solutions. Customers in 39 countries rely on MEDUSA, MPDS, M4 ISO and M4 P&ID FX to provide an efficient, flexible and integrated design environment for all phases of product or plant design cutting costs while raising quality. CAD Schroers product and service portfolio also includes Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR & VR) solutions. Together with its customers, CAD Schroer develops immersive AR & VR apps using existing 3D CAD data for a wide range of applications, including impressive sales presentations, interactive training workshops, and servicing and maintenance guides. CAD Schroer apps are also used by distributed design teams to collaboratively review designs in virtual meeting rooms. CAD Schroer emphasizes close customer partnerships and supports its clients objectives through extensive consultancy, training, development, software support and maintenance services. Contact Information CAD Schroer GmbH Fritz-Peters-Strae 11 47447 Moers Germany Website: Email: Telephone: UK: +44 1223 850 942 USA: +1 866-SCHROER (866-724-7637) Germany: +49 2841 9184 0 Switzerland: +41 43 495 32 92 France: +33 141 94 51 40 Italy: +39 02 49798666 factory, or the project manager installing it precisely on site, they can all benefit from the use of 3D design data. Unfortunately, access to 3D data often remains solely within the design department. This is due to the high computer performance required to display such large and complex data. The processing speed, graphics performance, and memory capacity of a typical office computer are simply inadequate for this task.Problem: The 3D CAD models are too bigUnfortunately, some 3D CAD models are simply too large to be visualized on a tablet or smartphone because they contain far too much detail. To overcome this problem, many companies will resort to remodelling their designs in a simpler form. This is a very expensive, time-consuming step that requires unnecessary resources because this data is already available in 3D in their CAD system.Solution: Automated CompressionCAD Schroer is at home in the CAD world and uses specially designed software tools to process complex 3D data from a wide variety of CAD systems, ready for mobile use. After processing, the data can be used efficiently on mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Individual machines and even entire factories can be visualized on a smartphone without sacrificing detail.3D AR applications for salesWith the help of AR apps, large machines can be virtually displayed at their intended location in the real-world factory. This enables the project manager to quickly determine whether unforeseen problems will be encountered during construction. For sales presentations, large machines can be virtually displayed in the meeting room and explained in detail via the use of animations.A factory in your pocketMotion sequences can be simulated, which enables the customer to virtually observe the movements of individual parts within the machine. The project manager can also walk through the factory using the apps on their Apple or Android device to inspect machines and see them in action. All this with a device that fits in your pocket.>> More about the factory in the pocketAbout CAD SchroerCAD Schroer is a global software development company and engineering solutions provider, helping to raise the productivity and competitiveness of customers working in manufacturing and process engineering, including the automotive sector and its supply chain, the energy sector and public utilities. CAD Schroer has offices and subsidiaries throughout Europe and in the United States.CAD Schroers product portfolio includes 2D/3D CAD, plant design, factory layout and data management solutions. Customers in 39 countries rely on MEDUSA, MPDS, M4 ISO and M4 P&ID FX to provide an efficient, flexible and integrated design environment for all phases of product or plant design cutting costs while raising quality.CAD Schroers product and service portfolio also includes Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR & VR) solutions. Together with its customers, CAD Schroer develops immersive AR & VR apps using existing 3D CAD data for a wide range of applications, including impressive sales presentations, interactive training workshops, and servicing and maintenance guides. CAD Schroer apps are also used by distributed design teams to collaboratively review designs in virtual meeting rooms.CAD Schroer emphasizes close customer partnerships and supports its clients objectives through extensive consultancy, training, development, software support and maintenance services.Contact InformationCAD Schroer GmbHFritz-Peters-Strae 1147447 MoersGermanyWebsite: www.cad-schroer.com Email: marketing@cad-schroer.com Telephone:UK: +44 1223 850 942USA: +1 866-SCHROER (866-724-7637)Germany: +49 2841 9184 0Switzerland: +41 43 495 32 92France: +33 141 94 51 40Italy: +39 02 49798666 Press Information: CAD Schroer GmbH Fritz-Peters-Str. 11 47447 Moers Contact Person: Sergej Schachow Marketing Phone: +44 1223 850942 eMail: eMail Web: http://https://www.cad-schroer.com 07.09.2018 13:35:32 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. The Chinese military protested on Thursday after a British Royal Navy warship sailed close to Chinese islands in the South China Sea on Aug 31, calling the act a provocation and an infringement on Chinese sovereignty, the ministry spokesman said. The HMS Albion, a 22,000-metric ton amphibious warship, illegally entered the waters near China's Xisha Islands without permission, Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense, said in an online statement Thursday afternoon. In response, the Chinese military has dispatched ships and planes to identify and warn the ship to leave in accordance with laws and regulations, he said. "The Xisha Islands have been a part of China's territory," he said, adding China had published the baseline of the territorial sea surrounding the islands in May 1996. The British navy entering Chinese territorial waters is a provocative move, Ren said. It violates Chinese and relevant international laws, undermines China's sovereignty and security interests, and can easily lead to accidents both in the air and on the sea, he added. China strongly protests such acts and has launched a solemn complaint to the British side, he said. The situation in the South China Sea is becoming better thanks to the efforts by China and ASEAN countries. However, some countries outside of the region ignore this positive trend, and dispatch planes and ships to stir trouble in the region and disturb regional peace and security, he said. This goes against the effort and common aspirations of countries in the region, he said. The Chinese military will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national security and sovereignty, as well as regional peace and security. This content is from: Patents The German Federal Patent Court has rejected the application for a preliminary court order for a licence to use the European patent of a US pharmaceutical company By Fang Xiaozhi BEIJING, Sep. 7 (ChinaMil) -- The inaugural US-India 2+2 dialogue of defense and foreign affairs ministers was held on September 6 in New Delhi, capital of India. The two sides discussed their cooperation under the Indo-Pacific strategic framework and exchanged opinions on weapons procurement, technology transfer, trade, immigration, and so forth. In recent years, the US and India have accelerated military cooperation, deepened defense relations, and conducted exchanges and coordination such as procurement and joint development of arms, technology transfer, joint exercise and training, and counter-terrorism operations. Above all, the scale of the US-India joint military exercises has been constantly expanding and involved such countries as Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, continuously amplifying the scope of exchanges. Both the US and India have their own interests on strengthening their defense cooperation and exchanges. For the US, Trump has emphasized the value of the "Indo-Pacific" region in safeguarding US national security interests since he took office. He has also extended the deployment of the Asia-Pacific strategy to the entire "Indo-Pacific" region, and the military security structure has preliminarily formed in this region. The US military presence in the Indian Ocean has been relatively weak in comparison with the US strategic deployment in other regions. Therefore, the US particularly values India as it hopes India to become its "agent" in the Indian Ocean region and serve as its chess piece through cooperation to pick the strategic move. . For India, on the one hand, it hopes to strengthen military cooperation with the US to reduce its dependence on Russia-made weapons, diversify its sources of weapons and equipment, and close gaps in weapons demand such as importing advanced drones and other equipment to increase its competitive advantage over Pakistan. On the other hand, it also hopes to enhance its international status and influence and gain support from the US in international affairs such as becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council. In addition, India hopes to develop a close tie with the US and use it as a bargaining chip to gain a dominant position in the relationships with Russia, China, Japan, and other countries. In terms of the content of the US- India 2+2 ministerial dialogue, the two sides focused on military cooperation, especially on the procurement and joint development of weapons and equipment. However, the two showed relatively large differences in terms of practice. For example, the US asked India to make a choice between itself and Russia, especially stop purchasing advanced weapons and equipment including the S-400 air defense missile system from Russia. It is impossible and India is unwilling to do so. Furthermore, the US asserted that the two countries should sign a communications compatibility and security agreement (COMCASA) first and military communications security measures can be transferred only when equipment such as attack drones are sold. It reflects the US' wariness and distrust with India. India also has deeply-rooted long-standing distrust of the US. India, who has always regarded the Indian Ocean as its own backyard, does not allow other great powers to get involved in this area. It deepens defense cooperation with the US mainly for the purpose of maintaining a balance among regions, so as to maximize its profits. Therefore, India has been conservative and cautious in dealing with military cooperation with the US. To sum up, although both the US and India are willing to expand military cooperation, they must face the inevitable differences and contradictions, inconsistent strategic priorities, and even potential conflicts on many issues. These would be the possible key reasons for the US- India 2+2 ministerial dialogue being postponed for number of times. From a long-term perspective, the first US-India 2+2 ministerial dialogue provides a symbolic meaning, but its unlikely to have any significant impact on the regional security layout and strategic balance. Crude Oil Price Likely To Find Support In Uptrend I have focused my attention on the recent price rotation in the Crude Oil market. I believe the recent downside rotation in price, while technically still in a bullish trend, is an excellent opportunity for traders to identify entry positions for a potential price rally to levels near of above $70~71 ppb. My proprietary price modeling systems and price cycle systems are clearly illustrating that Oil prices should find support, bottom and rotate higher within the next 5~7+ days. I rely on these proprietary indicators and modeling systems to help understand when opportunities exist in the markets. When I can determine that price is moving counter to a primary trend and creating what I call a price anomaly, where enhanced opportunity exists for a profitable outcome, I attempt to determine if this trigger warrants alerting our followers. In this case, I believe the opportunity for upside price action following this price rotation is exceptional. This first chart shows our proprietary price cycle modeling system at work and clearly shows the key Fibonacci support levels that I believe will act as a floor for the price of Oil. I believe a bottom will form near $67 ppb and a new price rally will result in prices moving quickly back above $70 ppb. This second chart shows the XLE price cycles on a Daily basis and I want to highlight the potential for a price move from near $73 to well above $76 (or higher) if our analysis is correct. This reflects a +4~8% price move that I believe could happen within the next 5~10+ days. The research here shows a long entry trade over the next 2~3 trading days is ideal and that this move will likely end before September 21 (if the market does not change its current cycle patterns). Overall, this could be an opportunity for skilled traders and investors. Often, followers and subscribers find my research of finding and alerting them to these types of opportunities. Most of the time, these types of triggers are ones that members would have missed or ignored. These proprietary price modeling tools provide us with a strong advantage over other traders. If you want to learn what it is like to have forward-looking prediction systems backing you up every day with Daily video analysis, detailed global market research, clear trading triggers/signals and more, then join me at /www.thetechnicaltraders.com/partners/idevaffiliate.php?id=127&url=http://www.TheTechnicalTraders.com/" target="_blank">www.TheTechnicalTraders.com to learn how I can help you. Chris Vermeulen www.TheTechnicalTraders.com Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better. His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility. He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect. Chris Vermeulen Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. A lot of fuss is being made about what one can and cannot say about the state of Israel. Especially virulent is the campaign against Jeremy Corbyns so-called anti-semitism in Britain. In reality this is a blatant attempt to silence any criticism of Israel and its discriminatory policies against the Palestinian people. In light of all this, Francesco Merli looks at the new law that openly discriminates against Palestinians living in Israel, officially reducing them to the status of second-class citizens. On 19 July, with 62 in favour and 55 against, the Knesset approved the Jewish Nation State Law backed by Israeli premier, Netanyahu. The approval of such a law has constitutional value and means that the daily oppression of and discrimination against the Israeli Arab minority (about 20 percent of Israels population) has officially become a constituent part of Israels legal foundations as a state. Netanyahus aims Netanyahus foreign policy is based on a very simplistic appraisal of the situation, exemplified by his remarks during the renaming ceremony for the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center on 29 August: The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong. PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 29, 2018 On the internal front, his tune is not changing. It is clear that Netanyahu is pushing for a legitimisation of the unofficial status of non-Jewish Israelis as second-class citizens. By doing so, however, he is openly breaking the fiction of Israel as a democracy, thus pushing Israels liberal supporters within the country and throughout the world into disarray. Netanyahu is pushing for a legitimisation of the unofficial status of non-Jewish Israelis as second-class citizens. By doing so, he is breaking the fiction of Israel as a democracy / Image: Kremlin If the message was not clear enough, the Knesset presidium had just previously rejected a counter-proposal to the Jewish Nation-State Law: the State of All its Citizens law, submitted by the Joint List party. The promoters idea was that of establishing the principle of equality for every citizen, while recognizing the existence and rights of two national groups, Jews and Arabs, who live within the states internationally recognised borders. However, this move just provides a stronger legal back-up to an established fact, rooted in the seven decades of Israels history. Israel as a state is inherently based on the systematic discrimination against the rights of the Arab minority of Israeli citizens, as well as on the oppression of the Palestinian population in the territories under effective Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Israels Jewish Nation State law approved what changes? The new law defines Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, with Hebrew as its official language and Jerusalem as its capital. It also states that the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people, thereby denying to Palestinians any national rights or existence. Significantly, it declares Jewish settlement as a national value and that the state will encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation. The meaning of this provision is very clear: it is a green light to further colonisation of Palestinian lands in all the territories occupied or controlled by Israel, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. To add insult to injury, Arabic is stripped of its status as an official language and downgraded to one with special status. The provisions of this new law fly in the face of the most elementary international standards of what democracy bourgeois democracy should look like, by setting double citizenship standards and recognising the colonisation of what are regarded as illegally occupied territories by the United Nations. Trump and Netanyahu are dealing a final blow to the already dead two states solution / Image: IsraelMFA In passing, Trump and Netanyahu are also dealing a final blow to the already dead two-states solution to the Palestinian question, firmly backed until yesterday by the previous US administration and the European Union. One would expect a barrage of criticism from the very liberal and democratic European Union, but apparently once again they seem to value democracy only as long as it doesnt get in the way of their fundamental interests. After a passing incident in which the EUs ambassador in Tel Aviv, Emanuele Giaufret was publicly reprimanded by Netanyahu for protesting against the discriminatory law, the EU has retreated by stating How Israel chooses to define itself is an internal issue for Israel to decide and We value Israels commitment to the shared values of democracy and human rights, which has characterized our longstanding and fruitful relations. The new law in fact is not introducing, but recognising and backing up discriminatory laws already in place. Just to provide a few examples, as already recognised by a UN special rapporteur in 2012, Israeli authorities already pursue a land development model that excludes, discriminates against and displaces minorities. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has denounced the enactment of a number of discriminatory laws on land issues which disproportionately affect non-Jewish communities. The issue of segregation and Jewish-only communities should also be considered on the grounds that Israel already has hundreds of such segregated communities, thanks to the role of "admission committees" that enforce the exclusion of Arabs. Palestinians, whether Muslim, Christian, Bedouin or Druze, whether they are regarded by the Israeli ruling class as loyal or disloyal, are officially disenfranchised and relegated to a position of second-class citizens. The Druze betrayed Netanyahu forcing through the approval of this law has triggered shockwaves within Israel, with unprecedented protests and mobilisation of the Druze Palestinian minority who have traditionally been loyal allies of the Zionist leadership and now rightly feel let down by Netanyahu and the Israeli state. Zionists have traditionally used the example of the Druze men serving in the Israeli army as proof that non-Jews can prosper inside a self-declared Jewish state. Many Druze (who constitute about 2 percent of the population) have served as soldiers and officers in the IDF (Israeli Defence Force), even in positions of important responsibility. They have been disproportionately serving in the occupied territories and in the highest-risk areas. The Druze are regarded even by right-wing Zionists as reliable and loyal to Israel. Their reaction has been that of loyal subjects betrayed. As Druze scholar, Rabah Halabi, put it to Middle East Eye: Much of the Druze community are in a state of shock. They thought that by proving their loyalty, they would be treated as equals. But now they are being forced to re-evaluate, to accept that this view was mistaken." He added: Their illusions are being shattered. It looks like a process of awakening has begun that will leave both sides bruised. Retired, Druze, IDF general, Amal Asad led demonstrations of tens of thousands, supported by Jewish sympathisers, including quite a few former Israeli security senior officials. Netanyahu met them with a contemptuous attitude, offering them secondary concessions, to which the Druze leaders replied: We cant be bought off with benefits and rhetoric on closing gaps. Embed from Getty Images The Druze question is at the heart of decades of successful application of the tactic of divide and rule by the Zionist ruling class. The collaboration of the Druze elite was useful to divide the Palestinian national movement, but they were never really accepted into the Israeli ruling class. In fact, loyalty to Israel has never helped the Druze (or the Bedouin) population, which was subject to the same systematic mistreatment the majority of the Palestinian Israeli citizens faced. Druze communities are generally as overcrowded and poorly resourced as other Palestinian communities in Israel. According to Dalia Halabi: Some 70 percent of Druze lands were confiscated by the state, despite our communities loyalty. They did not get a better deal than other Palestinian communities. The limitations of the Druze leadership are evident. What they aim to achieve is a return to the past, but the trust between the Druze population and the Israeli ruling class has been profoundly damaged. Dozens of resignations of high-ranking officials are just the tip of the iceberg of a more fundamental break taking place among the mass of the Druze population, who are disproportionately represented in Israels state and private security industry. The liberal Zionists attitude exposes their weaknesses. Not by chance they initially supported the Druze protests, but dropped out as they became more radical. In an unprecedented move for a Druze leader, Asad warned on social media that the Basic Law risked laying the foundations for apartheid. He called the measure evil and racist. As in the movement against the deportation of the African asylum seekers earlier this year, failure to connect the demands of the movement to the burning questions of the Palestinian rights prevents the cementing of a broad movement of the oppressed. Demolition of Khan al-Ahmar Meanwhile, the colonisation process in the West Bank is continuing and the Jewish settlers movement (numbering several hundreds of thousands between the West Bank and East Jerusalem) will be emboldened by the new law, as the following example shows. The Israeli High Court paved the way for its long-sought-after demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, a tiny village whose destruction will allow Israel to unify a continuous block of illegal settlements in the area, which will cut the West Bank in half / Image: Peter Tkac On 4 September, the Israeli High Court finally rejected petitions filed against the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, paving the way for Israel to demolish the entire village after 12 September. For years, the Israeli government has been pursuing the demolition of this tiny village in order to unify a continuous block of illegal Israeli settlements in the area, which will cut the territorial continuity of Palestinian land, severing the West Bank in two parts. Khan al-Ahmar Bedouins have already been deported twice. First in the 1950s when they were pushed out of the Negev into the West Bank, and again in 1967, when the lands they had resettled in were seized to build the Kfar Adumim Jewish settlement. Deprived of their land, homes and livelihoods, they were pushed into illegality. Unfortunately for them, they are now again in the way of the Israeli ruling classs expansion plans. After their eviction they will be forced to resettle next to a waste dump, near Abu Dis. Trump lobbying for UNRWAs liquidation The historical pressure by Israel on the Palestinians has been strengthened since Trumps election as US president. The US has abandoned any pretence of neutrality. Israel-Saudi relations have never been closer, given the need to make a common front against the rising Iranian influence in the region. Over the past 18 months, Trump has backed Netanyahu in all possible ways. The recent decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, coinciding with the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of Israel, was not just symbolic. Trumps strategy is based on the assumption that the Palestinian leadership will buckle under stronger pressure and capitulate. In typical Trumpian fashion, the US State Department announced two weeks ago that it was slashing $200m of US contributions to Palestinian aid programmes. This was soon followed by the announcement that the US would no longer continue its $360m annual contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), depriving it of a third of its budget. This is a first step towards the declared US-Israeli aim of liquidating the UNRWA altogether. The US is slashing $200m of US contributions to Palestinian aid programmes, as well as cutting the budget for UNRWA by a third. Trump has abandoned any pretence of American neutrality / Image: US Embassy Tel Aviv These are extremely serious attacks, cutting whatever existing safety net exists for about 5 million Palestinian refugees spread out for decades in camps throughout the Middle East, and relying on the UNRWA for basic health care, food and education. By taking these measures, Trump is jeopardising the uneasy equilibrium in the whole region, with important, immediate consequences for the stability of Lebanon and Jordan above all, as will become evident in the near future. Humanitarian aid by UNRWA and other agencies represented an essential imperialist tool for regional stability, which for decades prevented the explosion of the pent-up anger of millions of Palestinian refugees. Trumps intentions were stated quite clearly in a leaked email (recently reported by Foreign Policy magazine) by Jared Kushner. Trumps son-in-law, who is also the presidents special envoy to the Middle East, wrote that it was time to disrupt UNRWA and added that sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there. This is clearly designed to blackmail the Palestinian leadership into further selling out the rights of the Palestinian refugees, after the already scandalous position taken by the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, of renouncing their Right of Return. What we saw a few months ago with the defiant movement of the youth at the so-called Gaza border will just be the first act of a much broader revolt that will inflame the whole region / Image: fair use Trumps calculations may be based on a fair assessment of the real standing of the Hamas and Fatah leaderships, but dont fully take into account the resilience and iron determination of the Palestinian youth to confront and overcome the unbearable oppression they are subject to. What we saw a few months ago with the defiant movement of the youth at the so-called Gaza border will just be the first act of a much broader revolt that will inflame the whole region. This will represent an opportunity for the movement to unify all the oppressed layers even within the ever-more-entrenched Israeli state and provide the possibility of ending the present imperialist and capitalist nightmare. The Montana Ambassadors recently named a University of Montana professor in the College of Business the Mike Malone Educator of the Year. Regents Professor of Marketing Jakki Mohr http://www.business.umt.edu/faculty-staff/JakkiMohr , who also serves as the Poe Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the UM College of Business, received the award at the Montana Ambassadors Innovate Montana Symposium last month in Billings. http://news.umt.edu/2018/09/090618prof.php *** The Montana Ambassadors is a volunteer, nonprofit organization of leaders in business, education, and local and state government, with a common dedication to living and doing business in Montana and to furthering the best interests of the state. Interested in becoming an Ambassador? https://www.montanaambassadors.com/ It might sound a little backward, to move the companys base further from an international port city, but owner Amanda Bevill has known for years that the Flathead Valley is where she wants to be. Turning down Arcadia Way just north of Glacier Park International Airport, if your windows are down and your nose is keen, you can start smelling wafts of worldly spices emanating from the red building at the end of the road. By the time you hit the gravel parking lot, you can smell the end result of centuries of cultural immersion and trade: the World Spice Merchants https://www.worldspice.com/, a Seattle institution known for its Pike Place location and commitment to quality, has opened its Montana outpost here. By Molly Priddy A gold mining company pitched a new idea to an Idaho federal judge on how it wanted to pay a quarter-million-dollar, court-ordered penalty for environmental violations. No, not with gold. Canada-based Atlanta Gold Inc. told Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush it planned to raise the money through a cryptocurrency sale. By Cynthia Sewell [email protected] Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/environment/article217934030.html#storylink=cpy Les membres du gouvernement on pri snot de la promulgation du Local Government (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 aussi celle de Road Traffic (Registration of Personalised Registration Mark for Motor Vehicle) Regulations 2021, la mise en application du Construction Industry Development Board (Amendment) Act 2021, Africa Finance Corporation (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations 2021 entre autres. 1. Cabinet has taken note that the Local Government (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 regarding the payment of trade fees would be promulgated in line with measures announced in Budget 2021/2022. With a view to further supporting Small and Medium Enterprises by stimulating their growth and thereby mitigating the impact of the pandemic on small businesses, it was announced in Budget Speech 2021/2022 that the exemption on trade fees not exceeding Rs5,000 would be extended for an additional five years and an amnesty on trade fees and related penalties and interests that were due before 01 January 2020 would be granted. With the coming into effect of the new Regulations for the extension of the exemption from trade fees not exceeding Rs5,000 for an additional five years, these business operators would be exempted therefrom up to year 2027. Business operators would be granted an amnesty on trade fees, related penalties and interests that were due prior to 01 January 2020. The Local Government (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 would be deemed to be effective as from 30 June 2021. 2. Cabinet has taken note that the Road Traffic (Registration of Personalised Registration Mark for Motor Vehicle) Regulations 2021 would be promulgated. These Regulations make provision for new personalised combinations, as follows: (a) a combination of eight letters followed by any number between numbers 1 and 9; (b) a combination of seven letters followed by any number between numbers 1 and 99; (c) a combination of six letters followed by any number between numbers 1 and 999; (d) a combination of five letters followed by any number between numbers 1 and 9999; (e) a combination of four letters followed by any number between numbers 1 and 9999; (f) a combination of three letters followed by any number between numbers 1 and 9999; and (g) a grouping of alphabets up to nine letters. Relevant fees would be applicable. The Regulations would be effective as from 01 October 2021. 3. Cabinet has taken note that the date for the coming into operation of the Construction Industry Development Board (Amendment) Act 2021, has been fixed for 01 October 2021. The following Regulations would also be promulgated: (a) the Construction Industry Development Board (Collaboration between Foreign and Local Consultants) Regulations 2021; (b) the Construction Industry Development Board (Collaboration between Foreign and Local Contractors) Regulations 2021; (c) the Construction Industry Development Board (Amendment of Schedule) Regulations 2021; and (d) the Construction Industry Development Board (Registration of Consultants and Contractors) (Amendment) Regulations 2021. 4. Cabinet has taken note that the Africa Finance Corporation (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations 2021 would be promulgated under the International Organizations and Conferences (Privileges and Immunities) Act. The Africa Finance Corporation is a Pan-African multilateral development financial institution established by a treaty among sovereign African States. In September 2019, the Africa Finance Corporation welcomed Mauritius as the 23rd Member Country of the Corporation. Following the ratification of the Agreement, each Member State has to enact laws to give effect to the provisions regarding the immunities, exemptions and privileges set forth in the Agreement, and promptly inform the Corporation of the specific action it has taken, for that purpose. 5. Cabinet has taken note that the Environment and Land Use Appeal Tribunal would make Rules to set out, with more clarity, the procedures for lodging of appeals and the conduct of proceedings before the Tribunal. The objective of the Rules is, to give a better guidance in the conduct of the proceedings of the Tribunal and for expeditious case management. 6. Cabinet has agreed to payment of basic pensions being effected to beneficiaries whose pensions are credited into their banks on the fourth working day of each month instead of the first working day as from February 2022, in order to curtail overpayment of basic pensions in respect of cases of death of beneficiaries. 7. Cabinet has taken note of the setting up of the Project Implementation and Monitoring Agency (PIMA) under the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development as announced in Budget Speech 2021-2022. PIMA would: (a) assist and advise in the implementation of budgetary measures; and (b) submit its findings and make recommendations to a Coordination Committee. The Director of PIMA, after analysis of the various submissions by the public bodies, would submit its monthly Consolidated Progress Report to a Project Implementation and Monitoring Committee under the chairmanship of the Financial Secretary. The Consolidated Progress Report would be submitted to a Coordination Committee under the chair of the Prime Minister. 8. Cabinet has taken note of the Cambridge Higher School Certificate Examinations Results for the year 2021. Out of 7,866 school candidates in the Republic of Mauritius, 7,079 were successful representing a pass rate of 89.99 percent, as compared to 74.95 percent in 2019. The HSC pass rate for 2021 for Rodrigues is 81.82 percent, as compared to 67.92 percent in 2019. Girls have performed better than boys with a pass rate of 92.01 percent compared to 87.22 percent for boys. Three schools with a cohort greater than 50 candidates have achieved 100 percent pass rate. 9. Cabinet has taken note that Mauritius has been ranked 1st in Africa and 17th globally in the Global Cybersecurity Index Report 2020, which has been recently released by the International Telecommunication Union. The score of Mauritius has improved from 88 percent in 2018 to 96.89 percent in 2020. Cabinet has further taken note that with the advent of the forthcoming Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Bill, the legal framework would be further strengthened and would provide for increased compliance, international cooperation in cybercrime matters and adoption of comprehensive measures against cyber threats. Mauritius is expected to further improve its rating at the level Global Cybersecurity Index with the implementation of a new National Cybersecurity Strategy, which is currently under preparation. 10. Cabinet has taken note of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic prevailing across the world. Some 227.8 million cases have been reported globally, of which 204.4 million persons have been successfully treated. With regard to Mauritius, as at 17 September 2021, there were 2,562 active cases of COVID-19, out of which 29 were admitted at New ENT Hospital including three on ventilators. Over the past week, seven deaths were attributed to COVID-19. Cabinet has also taken note of progress in the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. As at 16 September 2021, 844,306 persons had received a first dose of vaccine (representing 67 percent of the population). 785,280 persons had been fully vaccinated (representing 62 percent of the population). A donation of some 50,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine would be received on 17 September 2021 from the Government of South Africa. Cabinet has further taken note that the Minister of Health and Wellness would promulgate the COVID-19 (Self-Confinement) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, so that henceforth a person who is tested as being infected with COVID-19 by any reliable COVID-19 test, may be ordered by the Quarantine Officer to be self-confined at his residence, subject to certain specific conditions. Cabinet has also taken note that the operation of commercial flights to Rodrigues would resume on 01 November 2021. 11. Cabinet has agreed to the submission of the First Country-level Report on the Status of Implementation of the African Unions Agenda 2063, for the period 2013 to 2020, to the African Union Development Agency New Partnership for Africas Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Secretariat. The Agenda 2063, adopted at the African Union (AU) Summit in May 2013, is a set of strategic orientations to guide the development efforts of Africa over a period of 50 years. Each AU Member State is expected to submit, every two years, its Country-level Report on the Status of Implementation of the Agenda 2063 to the AUDA-NEPAD Secretariat. The Country-level Reports are used by the AUDA-NEPAD to prepare the Continental Report on the Implementation of the Agenda 2063. 12. Cabinet has taken note of the activities that the Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity would organise, in collaboration with the National Social Inclusion Foundation and the National Empowerment Foundation, to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2021, commemorated every year on 17 October. The theme for this year is Building Forward Together: Ending Persistent Poverty, Respecting all People and our Planet. The programme of activities for Mauritius includes: (a) a main event on Sunday 17 October 2021 at the Sir Harilal Vaghjee Hall, Port Louis, which would comprise, among others, the handing over of keys to 40 beneficiaries across the island under the Fully Concrete Housing Scheme and 51 beneficiaries of the NHDC Housing Scheme; and (b) the inauguration of the extension of the Residential Rehabilitation and Night Shelter to accommodate some 33 additional homeless persons at the Ex-Rishi Building, Abattoir Road, Roche Bois. Activities would also be organised in Rodrigues including the launching of an Expo-Sales for some 50 entrepreneurs and training courses in handicraft, electrical installation and garment making. 13. Cabinet has taken note of the event being organised by the Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity to mark the International Day of Older Persons on 01 October 2021 at the Sir Harilal Vaghjee Hall, Port Louis, in accordance with COVID-19 sanitary protocols. The UN theme for the International Day of Older Persons 2021 is Digital Equity for All Ages. 14. Cabinet has taken note that the International Conference on Electrical, Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (ICECCME 2021), would be hosted by the University of Mauritius on 7 and 8 October 2021. The ICECCME 2021 is being organised by the Aksaray University, Turkey, in collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) headquarters in New York and its local branch, IEEE-Mauritius. The Conference which would be held in hybrid mode would provide a broad and multi-disciplinary platform for industry professionals, academics, and engineers from related institutions to exchange information and ideas, and discuss findings of research works on emerging technologies such as Sustainable Development, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Deep Learning, Renewable Energy and Systems Integration. Some 280 professionals, academics, researchers and industry experts, both local and international, would participate in the Conference. 15. Cabinet has taken note that the contract of Mr Ramesh Sunt as Ombudsperson for Sports would be renewed for a further period of one year. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn UDON THANI, Sept. 7 (ChinaMil) -- Multiple fighter jets of the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) have arrived at the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base (Udorn RTAFB) recently to participate in the joint exercise codenamed "Falcon Strike 2018". This is the third such exercise between the Chinas PLA Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force. "Falcon Strike 2018" kicked off on Sept. 4 and will run till Sept. 21 in Thailand. The exercise aims to deepen the cooperation and exchanges between the two air forces, test combat tactics and methods, promote equipment development, and improve the actual combat training level of the two sides. Chinese and Thai air forces have carried out a series of pragmatic exchanges and cooperation in recent years. The previous two "Falcon Strike" joint exercises of Chinese and Thai air forces were held in Thailand in 2015 and 2017 respectively. By Wang Yunfei, a former naval expert on operations and armaments The HMS Albion, an amphibious transport dock of the British Royal Navy, illegally sailed into the territorial waters off China's Xisha Islands on August 31. Chinese vessels and aircraft verified and identified the British warship and warned it to leave. Generally speaking, the Chinese Navy has made proper response, but it could take tougher actions against the UK vessel. Firstly, it is justified. Although the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that warships are given the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of other countries, China made a statement that foreign warships must get permission from the Chinese government before entering Chinese territorial waters as early as in 1995. Now that the British warship chose to ignore it, China of course could give tougher warnings. Secondly, it is restrained. Proper tough warning doesn't mean direct strike against the vessel. It can demonstrate Chinas uncompromising stand, prevent direct armed conflicts, and warn the future intruders. Actually, the recent British warship incursion provides a rare opportunity for China to test the bottom line of other countries so-called freedom of navigation in South China Sea. Of course, not taking tough actions will not reveal China's bottom line on dealing with such issues and avoid intensifying conflicts with relevant countries. But the downside is that it might encourage the insatiability of some countries. In brief, it is suggested that the Chinese Navy should take tougher actions when such incidents happen again. Disclaimer: The author is Wang Yunfei, a former naval expert on operations and armaments. The article is extracted from an article on ifeng.com and translated from Chinese into English by the China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity. We 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. Top Trump administration officials are denying they are the author of an anonymous New York Times opinion piece criticizing President Donald Trump's "petty and ineffective" leadership style. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking during a visit to India, called the article "sad," saying he finds "the media's efforts in this regard to undermine this administration incredibly disturbing." Vice President Mike Pence's office said it is "above such amateur acts." The director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, released a statement saying: "Speculation that The New York Times op-ed was written by me or my Principal Deputy is patently false. We did not." Others issuing denials included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The Times said the author is a senior administration official whose job would be jeopardized if that person's identity is made public. The anonymous writer asserts the president's worst impulses are frequently foiled by his own staff. The author of the piece writes, "it may be cold comfort in this chaotic era" but wants Americans to know that "there are adults in the room." Trump responded to the article with a series of comments after it was published Wednesday, including a tweet demanding the newspaper name the source for prosecution. "Does the so-called 'Senior Administration Official' really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?" Trump said on Twitter. "If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!" Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, will realize its chairman's dream Friday when it opens an upmarket roastery and cafe in Milan, but the test will be to convince coffee-obsessed Italians to pay more for their daily espresso. The store will be the Seattle-based giant's first foray into the Italian market, the world's fourth-largest consumer of coffee, and comes 35 years after chairman emeritus Howard Schultz visited the country and was inspired to set up his own cafe chain. The venue features a green industrial-scale roaster, marble counters, brass engravings, and a price that could make many Italians reluctant to make it their regular cafe. At 1.80 euros ($2.09) for a simple espresso, Starbucks will charge nearly double what Italians pay at their local bars. "The price reflects the premium experience we will offer customers," Starbucks Global President of Retail, John Culver, told Reuters as he showed media through the store, built inside an elegant, century-old palazzo that the company renovated. "Once they enter the space our customers will understand exactly what that premium experience is going to be." Coffee chains are having to up their game as big money flocks to one of the few fast-growing areas of the drinks market. Coca-Cola agreed to buy Costa, the world's second-biggest coffee chain, last week, while drinks group JAB snapped up Britain's Pret A Manger in May. : H123456789 (icesnow8), : Biology : Potential Postdoc Position in microbiology : BBS (Thu Sep 6 13:58:13 2018, ) Funding is available for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Division of Microbiology at the FDA National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas to conduct research examining plasmid biology and virulence in bacterial foodborne pathogens, such as Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli. Based on the fellows experience and interests, they will conduct research to assess the contribution of plasmids to virulence in Salmonella and related organisms and to develop tools to better assess plasmid biology. These studies will likely include the use of in vitro models to assess virulence, genomic and transcriptomic sequencing and bioinformatic analyses, and other molecular approaches to study plasmid biology. The laboratories are well equipped to conduct experiments, including multiple BSL-2 laboratories, tissue culture facilities, DNA sequencing, molecular biology and protein chemistry resources. The fellow will need to have completed their Ph.D. in Microbiology, Food Science, Biology or similar field within the last 5 years and lived in the US at least 3 of the last 5 years. Preferred qualifications include a strong molecular biology background with knowledge of bioinformatics approaches, excellent written and oral communication skills and interest to contribute to improving public health. If you would like further information, please send me a message. Thanks! -- :WWW mitbbs.com [FROM: 150.] President Moon Jae-in will probably fly directly to Pyongyang since North Korean roads and railways "are in terrible shape and an overland trip would take too long," a diplomatic source said. Officials from the two Koreas will meet in the truce village of Panmunjom early next week to finalize the details of their next summit on Sept. 18-20, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday. Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not after all attend a lunch and dinner organized for five senior South Korean officials in Pyongyang on Wednesday, contrary to earlier announcements from Cheong Wa Dae. In fact no North Korean officials attended the dinner. According to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, the South Koreans met Kim Kong-un from 10:30 a.m. until after 12 noon Wednesday but then had lunch with their approximate North Korean counterparts, including Kim Jong-un's right-hand man Kim Yong-chol and Ri Son-gwon, the chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, at the Koryo Hotel. They held more talks in the afternoon. "As their meeting was protracted, the North Korean side provided them with dinner, which they had alone," Kim Eui-kyeom said. But on Wednesday Cheong Wa Dae had announced that Kim Jong-un threw a dinner reception for the officials and concluded that things had gone better than expected. Apparently communication was rudimentary during their time in the North since they used a fax machine with a scrambler to report back but reception was poor. Voters may not yet know who won their local elections, but they know what they can do with their campaign signs. The Montgomery County Recycling Office is reminding residents to recycle campaign signs instead of sending them to the landfill.... Letter to editor: Congress can get this right September 07, 2018 Syria - U.S. Reveals Underpants Plan For Indefinite Occupation Today the United States officially announced a new policy in its war on Syria. It is an equivalent to the three step business plan (vid) of the underpants gnomes: The new U.S. plan is to: 1. keep north-east Syria indefinitely occupied, 2. ???, 3. Iran leaves Syria and the 'regime' in Damascus falls: President Trump, who just five months ago said he wanted to get out of Syria and bring U.S. troops home soon, has agreed to a new strategy that indefinitely extends the military effort there and launches a major diplomatic push to achieve American objectives, according to senior State Department officials. Although the military campaign against the Islamic State has been nearly completed, the administration has redefined its goals to include the exit of all Iranian military and proxy forces from Syria, and establishment of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community. The first major step of the "diplomatic push" is to prevent the imminent Syrian army operation against al-Qaeda aligned groups in Idleb province: While the United States agrees that those forces must be wiped out, it rejects the idea that we have to go in there . . . to clean out the terrorists, most of the people fighting . . . theyre not terrorists, but people fighting a civil war against a brutal dictator, as well as millions of civilians, [U.S. special representative for Syria James] Jeffrey said. Instead, the United States has called for a cooperative approach with other outside actors. Weve started using new language, Jeffrey said, referring to previous warnings against the use of chemical weapons. Now, he said, the United States will not tolerate an attack. Period. Jeffrey just visited Turkey. The intent was to stiffen Turkey's objection to the upcoming Idleb attack. The result was a plan that the Turkish president Erdogan presented today at the Tehran summit with President Putin of Russian and President Rohani of Iran. It included: prolongation of the deescalation ceasefire 12 armed groups, including Hayat Tahrir al Sham to be disbanded Turkey will train a new rebel force to control Idleb under Turkish command Groups who resist will be targeted in counter terrorism operations ... The plan is nonsense. It is a copy of the task list Erdogan was given when the deescalation zone in Idleb was established at an earlier summit in the Astana format. Erdogan failed to implement it. HTS still rules Idelb province. HTS still rejects to dissolve. The observation posts Turkey established around Idleb still depend on the goodwill and protection of HTS fighters. Erdogan has no way to implement his plan. Accordingly today's summit in Tehran ended with a mealymouthed statement. It failed to come up with a common way forward for Idleb. via Thomas van Linge - bigger Syria and its allies Russia and Iran should proceed with their plans to cleanse Idleb of terrorist. The U.S. is bluffing. It has no realistic means to prevent the operation. Any U.S. attack on Syrian and Russian forces involved in it would likely escalate into a conflict between nuclear powers. That is a risk the U.S. military is unwilling to take. It knows that the forces it planted into Syria are vulnerable to attacks. The U.S. is now screaming of imminent chemical attacks by the Syrian army on "civilians" in Idleb: If they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, said Nikki Haley at a UN press conference today, without explaining how a nations only recognized government can take over the country it governs. But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They cant do it assaulting their people. And were not gonna fall for it. If there are chemical weapons that are used, we know exactly whos gonna use them. If a chemical incident occurs the U.S. will know who did it because it provided the chemicals to the terrorist. The Syrian army will of course not use any such weapons. Sun Tzu never gave this advice: bigger Chemical warfare is ineffective. That is why everyone agreed to ban it. Like in east-Ghouta the U.S. obviously plans to again fake such a "chemical attack on civilians" to have a propaganda pretext to attack Syrian forces. Tomorrow the Russian fleet will finish its ongoing maneuver in the eastern Mediterranean. All Syrian army units have taken up their launching positions for the Idleb operation and are ready to go. The shaping operations by artillery and air forces have been ongoing for a while. Any hold off now would only deteriorate the readiness of the troops and give the U.S. more time to implement counter measures. The Russian President Putin seems to understand that. At the press conference at the Tehran summit he said: "Regarding a ceasefire, we consider it unacceptable when, under pretext of protecting the civilian population, they want to withdraw terrorists from being under attack, as well as inflict damage on Syrian government troops." Russia is not in the mood to compromise. It warned the U.S. military that it would soon launch an operation against ISIS forces under protection of the small U.S. garrison in al-Tanf. Those forces recently launched another attempt to recapture Palmyra but were caught and defeated before they could achieve their aim: Russian complaints about the presence of potential Al Qaeda or ISIS fighters in the buffer zone are not new, the US officials point out. But with an imminent Russian-backed assault by Syrian regime forces in the Idlib area in the north, there is concern Moscow could see this as an optimum time to conduct multiple offensive operations. And there is the problem of the new U.S. strategy in Syria. The position in al-Tanf is untenable. The U.S could put a full brigade there, including anti-air assets, and it would still be too vulnerable. That is why today the U.S. launched a rescue and exfiltration exercise in al-Tanf. The place is too far away from other U.S. assets to withstand a committed attack. In the north-east of Syria the U.S. positions is likewise endangered. Since early August 1,900 trucks brought in weapons and equipment for its Kurdish proxy forces, the SDF. The Saudis have committed to pay some money for reconstruction and the U.S. surely hopes to use the oil fields there to finance a future occupation. It will soon start to announce some 'independent' regional government that will be under its complete control. But Turkey is against such empowerment of Kurds. The supply lines through Iraq are vulnerable. The population is diverse with many Syrian Arab tribes unwilling to live under Kurdish/U.S. control. They will resist the sectarian and ethnic cleansing the Kurds have planned. That makes it easy to instigate a guerilla war against the U.S. occupiers and their proxy forces. What happens when the U.S. forces start to take serious casualties? The U.S. presence in Syria is costly heap of underpants with no chance to ever turn it into a profit. It was a mistake by Trump to fall for the siren songs of the neo-conservatives and Zionists who pressed for this plan. It is he who will have to pay the political price. Posted by b on September 7, 2018 at 15:53 UTC | Permalink Comments next page 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. China remained dependent on Korea in terms of its import of memory chips. The Korea International Trade Association said on Thursday that China imported $46.35 billion worth of memory chips from Korea last year, accounting for more than half of its total import of around US$88.62 billion. It imported $19.73 billion and $5.76 billion worth of memory chips from Taiwan and Japan. China's dependence on Korean memory chips is expected to continue for some time. Its imports from Korea stood at $14.67 billion in the first quarter of this year, up 75.4 percent on-year. If this trend continues, industry insiders forecast Korea's chip exports to China will exceed W60 trillion this year (US$1=W1,122). The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said in a recent report that Korea will remain the biggest chip supplier to China, whose production capacity remains limited amid rising demand. Hello! Thanks for checking out my daily TIFF blog. I hit the ground running on the first day of TIFFI saw 5 films. 4 of the screenings were strictly with press & industry folks, and one was public screening that had all the glitz and glamour of the fest (red carpet, big stars, etc.). First off was DOGMAN directed by Matteo Garrone. Heres the festivals brief synopsis: In the latest from Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah), mild-mannered Marcello spends his days grooming dogs, hanging out with his beloved daughter and, like most of his neighbourhood, trying to avoid Simoncino, a former boxer and resident bully with whom Marcello uneasily coexists until a double-crossing prompts an ugly act of vengeance. This was the first of two Italian films I saw today both shot in rather desolate locations that arent the Italy weve come to know in classic cinema. This little film started out with some glimmers of hope, but it got really dark really fast. I loved the protagonist, and I believed his trajectory, but this film isnt for everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI2JE_xjAaY NON-FICTION, directed by Olivier Assayas, was next on my list. Heres the festivals brief synopsis: French auteur Olivier Assayas probes the promises and pitfalls of art in the age of digital communication, in this comedy about a Parisian publisher (Guillaume Canet) and his successful-actor wife (Juliette Binoche) adapting to the new-media landscape. This film covers all the bases in the debate/discussion of whether the digital age is helping or hindering society/artists/publishers/basic human communication. Though it certainly has some insightful and funny moments, I found it to get tedious after a while. When it comes to Assayas, I think my favorite is still SUMMER HOURS. BURNING, directed by Lee Chang-dong, was next on my list. Heres TIFFs brief synopsis: In this thriller from director Lee Chang-dong, based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, a young man grows suspicious about the motives of a deceptive interloper who is hanging around with his childhood friendturnedburgeoning love interest. This slow burn thriller is heavy on the slowI could easily remove 40 minutes from its 2 Hr 28 Min runtime. There were certainly some moments that worked, but I looked at my watch one hour in and couldnt believe we werent at the half way point yet. GRETA was my first public screening of the festival. Heres the brief synopsis from TIFF: Isabelle Huppert teams with writer-director Neil Jordan to play the title role in this psychological thriller about a lonely, mysterious widow whose friendship with a naive young woman (Chloe Grace Moretz) takes on an increasingly obsessive and sinister air. I was delighted that Jordan, Huppert and Moretz were all in attendanceas was Maika Monroe a supporting star who stole several several scenes while on screen. (Interestingly, Chloe Grace Moretz is the lead actress in the Opening Night Film of this years Dayton LGBT Film Festival THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST.) The film is glossy and full of some fun choicesbut its perhaps the most over-the-top and campy thriller Ive seen in years. At one moment, when a major plot point is revealed, the audience burst into laughter and I immediately thought Is that what Jordan intended or was that supposed to be a gut-punch? Some of the music cues are so big, and some of the decisions are so on-the-nose I couldnt decide how I was feeling for most of the film. But by the end, I was rooting for the protagonist and laughing along with the brilliant Huppert. (Ill post a picture I took of the cast on our FACEBOOK page.) VICE OF HOPE, directed by Edoardo de Angelis, was my last film of the night. This was the second film of the day set on the bleak seaside of Italy. Heres the brief TIFF synopsis: To support her family, Maria works as a trafficker of surrogate mothers, transporting them from place to place along a river but when one disappears, Maria is left with the task of finding her and must enter deeper into a world she wishes to escape. This film had more walk-outs than any film I can recently remember. Granted, it was late at night and there were lots of parties going on, but I couldnt bring myself to leave. This was a world Id never seen before, and Maria, the lead character (played by Pina Turco), was someone I really wanted to see overcome the odds. Given the subject matter, you cant escape the overall sad and desperate and humiliating tone of the filmbut there were always glimmers of hope and thats what kept Maria going (as well as the viewerwell at least for me). No parties tonight for me. Im going to bed early and looking forward to another full day tomorrow (though maybe only 4 films). Thanks for reading, Jonathan Kim said he took "preemptive measures toward denuclearization and hoped that the moves would be interpreted as gestures of goodwill," Chung said. Chung added Kim has not spoken negatively about Trump even to his closest advisers. But Kim also complained that the international community has not shown enough appreciation of the steps he has already taken to end nuclear and missile tests. "He made it clear that his trust in President Trump remains -- and will remain -- unchanged, even though there have recently been some difficulties in negotiations between the North and the United States," national security adviser Chung Eui-yong told reporters Thursday. "He said he wished he could eliminate 70 years of hostile history with the United States, improve North Korea-U.S. relations and realize denuclearization within the first term of President Trump." North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday promised a five-member South Korean delegation to scrap his nuclear weapons before U.S. President Donald Trump's first four-year term ends. The U.S. holds its next presidential election in November 2020. The measures he mentioned were the demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in May and the closure of a missile engine testing facility in Tongchang-ri. According to Chung, Kim said, "Two-thirds of the underground tunnels inside the Punggye-ri test site have completely caved in, permanently disabling it," and adding, "The Tongchang-ri missile test site is the only one of its kind in North Korea and its closure signifies a complete halt to long-range ballistic missile tests." Kim "voiced frustration over the continued suspicions of the international community in spite of such meaningful measures," Chung added. The reaction was ecstatic. President Moon Jae-in said in a meeting on Thursday, "The special envoy and his delegation brought back results that exceeded our expectations. We can now hope to see U.S.-North Korean dialogue pick up the pace to achieve complete denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula." Trump was quick to respond on his favorite medium. "Kim Jong-un of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.' Thank you to Chairman Kim," he tweeted Thursday. "We will get it done together!" That leaves Moon with the urgent task of mediating differences between the U.S. and North Korea when he meets Kim from Sept. 18 to 20 in Pyongyang and, probably, Trump at the UN Assembly at the end of this month. The North still wants a formal declaration to the end of the Korean War first, while the U.S. has stepped up sanctions to push for palpable steps toward denuclearization. Chung spoke over the phone with White House National Security Adviser John Bolton to brief him on his trip. National security adviser Chung Eui-yong returned from Pyongyang on Wednesday from a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and other officials. Pretty much the only thing to emerge from the flying visit was that the next inter-Korean summit is to take place on Sept. 18-20. Yet before the delegation left, it appeared as if all the hopes of the nation's future rested in its hands. Kim was given a letter sent from President Moon Jae-in, but did not even bother to have a meal with the special envoys. This is not the proper way to treat senior officials who traveled to North Korea on behalf of the president. The purpose of the visit by a delegation that was after all composed of South Korea's national security adviser, National Intelligence Service chief and unification minister was to ensure that denuclearization talks get back on track. The U.S. is willing to declare an end to the Korean War if the North submits a list of its warheads, fissile materials and nuclear facilities to be verified. They had to convince North Korea that no progress can be made without that list, yet they made absolutely no mention of the list in its briefing and only mentioned that they reaffirmed Kim's firm determination for denuclearization. That is exactly the same thing they said after returning from Pyongyang in March, and Kim's father and grandfather used much the same formula. Chung quoted Kim as saying that denuclearization can be realized "within President Trump's first term in office" which ends in January 2021. That is a very tight deadline, so the North urgently needs to turn in a list of its nuclear arsenal and facilities to meet it. Nobody can trust North Korea's verbal pledges unless it backs them up with actions. Chung also said Kim expressed frustration over the international community's skepticism over his denuclearization pledge. But all he has done so far is to demolish a nuclear test site that was moribund anyway and blow up a missile launch facility he no longer needs. He has done nothing about the scores of nuclear facilities and weapons of mass destruction and is in fact refusing to say how many there are and where. Chung and his cohorts should have convinced the North Korean leader to at least start the process of denuclearization, but all they did was to give a louder voice to Kim's apparent frustration, as if anyone owed it to him to understand his predicament. Looking at what Chung said about the meeting, it is dubious that he engaged in any serious discussion with Kim but rather as if he went all the way to Pyongyang simply to lend a kindly ear and relay his comments to the outside world. The U.S. has warned that South Korea's efforts to pursue cross-border economic projects could undermine the denuclearization process. But the government insists on opening a liaison office in Kaesong, even though the U.S. warned that this could violate sanctions, and plans to discuss cross-border economic projects at the summit. It is to be hoped that this special envoy achieved more during the visit than meets the eye. SOUTHINGTON A Waterbury woman faces charges after police said she struck a tree while driving on Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike in May. Three children were injured, including a two-year-old that suffered life-threatening injuries. Alimatu Ahmed, 32, of 3250 E. Main St. Apt. 21, Waterbury, is charged with three counts of risk of injury to a minor, traveling too fast for conditions, two counts of failure to transport a child between 2 to 5 years with proper restraint, one count of failure to transport a child between 6 to 8 years with proper restraint and failure to maintain lane. Ahmed appeared in Bristol Superior Court on Aug. 28. Her case was continued to Oct. 12. On May 25, a van Ahmed was driving struck a tree about 4:30 p.m. near 2344 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike. Ahmed, another adult and four children were in the van, according to Ahmeds arrest warrant. A nine-year-old was in the front passenger seat, a seven-year-old and five-year old were in a row seat, and a man was holding a two-year-old on his lap in another row seat. All six occupants of the van were taken either to Saint Marys Hospital or Connecticut Childrens Medical Center for evaluation. The two-year-old, who suffered life-threatening injuries, was airlifted to CCMC, the warrant said. Ahmed told police she was driving and noticed the brakes were not slowing the vehicle as she went down the hill, the warrant said. She said she swerved off the road to avoid hitting other vehicles at a red light, and hit the tree. A mechanic inspection of the brakes found they were functional, with about 50 per cent wear life left, the warrant said. Ahmeds medical records showed she did not have alcohol or drugs in her system at the time of the crash, the warrant said. The two-year-olds injuries included multiple rib fractures, a fractured arm, laceration of the liver, injuries to a lung, the warrant said. WALLINGFORD Along with the start of its annual fundraising campaign, the United Way of Meriden & Wallingford celebrated the beginning of Maria Campos-Harlows tenure as executive director on Thursday. About 150 supporters gathered at the Connecticut Hospital Associations office for the event, which also served as a chance for the Midstate Chamber of Commerce to feature CHA in a Business after Hours event. (Tonight is) an opportunity to get people together, to get people excited about the campaign, to get ... their support, and hoping for a very successful campaign, Campos-Harlow said. Midstate Chamber of Commerce President Sean W. Moore said the annual event brings together people from all facets of the community. Its good to bring otherwise separate (agencies) together, Moore said. Amidst drinks, appetizers and music, attendees could stop at tables set up by a handful of the agencies United Way supports, including the Columbus House, Literacy Volunteers and the Boys & Girls Club. Campos-Harlow said the kickoff event was a chance for community members, particularly business people, to get to know the programs and agencies their monetary donations support, and a chance for the nonprofits to get to know their supporters through United Way. The fundraising campaign lasts through November, and funds go toward the many critical human care services and projects that address the top concerns of our communities, as United Way describes. The United Way of Meriden & Wallingford supports about 20 local agencies. Campos-Harlow succeeded James Ieronimo, who held the executive director position since 2006. Thursdays event was a chance to welcome Campos-Harlow, as well as say farewell to Ieronimo. bwright@record-journal.com 203-317-2316 Twitter: @baileyfaywright International Turkey, Russia, Iran call for Idlib ceasefire Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right), Iranian President Hassan Rohani (center), and Russian President Vladimir Putin greet the media during a trilateral summit in Tehran on September 7. Tehran, Sep 7 (Agencies) | Publish Date: 9/7/2018 11:56:26 AM IST The presidents of Turkey, Iran, and Russia on Friday invited all groups involved in the conflict in Syrias Idlib province to lay down their arms in a move aimed to ease reconciliation, urging a negotiated political process, the Daily News reported. A joint statement, released at the end of a three-way summit in Tehran, said there could be no military solution to the Syrian conflict. The statement signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said they took up the situation in [the] Idlib de-escalation area and decided to address it in line with the spirit of cooperation that characterized the Astana format. The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syrias civil war launched after Russias 2015 military intervention, which led to the creation of de-escalation zones. The next round of Syria talks between the three countries leaders will be held in Russia, the statement said. The joint statement on Sept. 7 said the leaders highlighted the need to create conditions for the safe and voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced persons [IDPs] to their original places of residence in Syria. The statement came after Erdogan, Putin, and Rouhani spoke at the summit meeting in Tehran to discuss the future of Syria as a bloody military operation looms in the last rebel-held area of the war-ravaged nation. Erdogan appealed for a cease-fire in Syrias Idlib, saying a government offensive in the northwestern province would be a national security threat to Turkey and unleash a humanitarian catastrophe. Turkey is already sheltering three million refugees [from Syria]. The population of Idlib is three million. Turkey doesnt have the strength or capability to host three million more, Erdogan said. Idlib isnt just important for Syrias future, it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region, the Turkish president said. Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience, he added, saying we dont want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath. We must find a reasonable way out for Idlib, he said. Erdogan also called on Putin and Rouhani to agree to a cease-fire in Idlib, saying such an accord would be a victory of their summit. However, Putin responded that a cease-fire would be good but indicated that Moscow does not think it will hold. He said al-Nusra Front and ISIL militants located there were not part of peace talks. Syria should regain control of all its territory, he said. The fact is that there are no representatives of the armed opposition here around this table. And more still, there are no representatives of Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS [another acronym for ISIL] or the Syrian army, Putin said. I think in general the Turkish president is right. It would be good. But I cant speak for them, and even more so cant talk for terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS that they will stop shooting or stop using drones with bombs. Putin said Russia hopes that its call for peace in Idlib zone as well will be heard... we will strive for peace among all warring sides, and we have never factored in terrorist organizations. We hope that representatives of terrorist organizations will have enough common sense to stop resistance and lay down [their] weapons, Putin said. For his part, Rouhani demanded an immediate withdrawal by American forces in the country. The U.S. has some 2,000 troops in Syria. He added that we have to force the United States to leave, without elaborating. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Rouhani said, while adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Kathmandu, September 7 On the first day of his visit to New Delhi of India, ruling Nepal Communist Party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal held a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis National Security Advisory Ajit Doval. The dinner meeting had lasted for around two hours, Dahal told Nepali organisations in New Delhi after the meeting The Indian Prime Minister had said he would extend a support of rs 100 billion as he addressed Nepali Parliament. But it has not been implemented well, he said, I demanded that the promise be kept. He also stressed that Nepal and India should make maximum efforts to improve the ties between two countries immediately as both the countries have powerful governments currently. Dahal had left for New Delhi on Thursday. Home Just In Indian Home Minister assures security of Nepalis near border Kathmandu, September 7 Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh says he will direct officials working in the areas bordering with Nepal to make sure that Nepalis do not face any security threat from the Indian side. Singhs assurance follows reports of robbery and other criminal cases near Nepal-India border recently. As he received Nepals former Prime Minister and ruling Nepal Communist Partys Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to his office today, Singh said his government would address complaints of Nepali citizens effectively. Earlier, Nepali workers in New Delhi had requested Dahal to raise concerns about the security threats in his meetings with political leaders and officials in India. Meanwhile, the two leaders also discussed increasing cooperation between the two countries as the ties between them are improving of late. Dahal is in New Delhi since Thursday. By PTI KOLKATA: Consumer and SME lending will be thrust areas for Tata Capital Financial Services Ltd due to high growth registered by these segments, a top official of the company said Friday. "Consumer finance sector is growing at 20 per cent, followed by SME lending which is showing expansion of around 15 per cent. ALSO READ | Tata Capital Financial Services to raise up to Rs 7,500 crore We will definitely focus in these sectors," Kusal Roy, Managing Director of the company said. He was in the city to participate in a roadshow for the company's maiden non-convertible debenture (NCD) sale from September 10. The Tata Capitals flagship lending arm also said it can raise up to Rs 7,500 crore including over-subscriptions of Rs 5,500 crore from the NCD issue. The company has consumer finance assets worth Rs 16,080 crore and SME assets of about Rs 14,146 crore as on March 2018, accounting for 43 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, of the total assets under management. The company is keen on even higher share of its assets from the consumer finance segment in the future, Roy said. He said though all sectors of operation are important, it is good to exercise caution in commercial lending as the sector continues to face stress. Deputy VP, Sandip G Joshi said the average cost of fund for the company is around 8.2 per cent. With the compounded annual growth of assets under management at 15 per cent for the last three years, the profitability of the company stood at 35 per cent, he said. The company is offering a coupon rate between 8.70 per cent and 9.10 per cent, depending on the investor class and tenor for the NCDs. By Express News Service MUMBAI: Perhaps agreeing with the US, the Indian government on Thursday indicated that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) indeed has to shape up. Asias third-largest economys remarks come close on the heels of US President Donald Trump, who last week threatened to withdraw from WTO if it doesnt shape up. WTO needs reform, it needs change. India is willing to be a facilitator to make it happen, given our good relations with the worlds countries, said Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation. Trumps beef with the global trade body follows the ongoing trade scuffles with China, Germany and other EU countries, putting pressure on export-dependent nations and emerging markets relying on foreign inflows. Speaking at a two-day event organised by the US India Business Council in Mumbai, Prabhu said the government will work to create a new agenda for WTO. How can we work together to create a new dynamic agenda for WTOWe will take this up during my next visit to Geneva. It may be noted that in the past, Prabhu was vocal about how the global trade body has come under threat, though India strongly supports its need for existence. The very existence of WTO is now under threat. But, if there is no WTO, all countries will face problems. There will be chaos, he said earlier. Stating that Indias relations with the US were strong and that the two countries plan to promote strategic interests, Prabhu said, The US is a country where we have trade surplus and have trade with the country on merchandise as well as services and have large number of people working there. So we have a very different kind of relationship with the US. The Commerce and Industry Minister added that the two nations have close relationship in areas like defence and others. By Express News Service BENGALURU: It services major Infosys on Friday announced the signing of an agreement with Singapore-based global investment company Temasek. Temasek owns a $235 billion portfolio as on March 31, 2018. The joint venture will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temaseks subsidiary in Singapore, Trusted Source Pvt Limited, which currently delivers IT services. As part of the transaction, Infosys will acquire a 60 per cent stake in the joint venture and Temasek will hold 40 per cent, Infosys said in a statement. The agreement will help Infosys strengthen its footprint in South-East Asia and gain significant capacity to its workforce and Temasek will see enhancement in its IT services. The JV will support Temaseks digital transformation journey, managing a complex Cloud migration programme that will enable it to host its applications on a cloud platform, Infosys said. Shveta Arora, currently vice-president at Infosys, will be the new chief executive officer for the entity, which will be headquartered in Singapore and will have more than 200 employees and contractors from Trusted Source as part of its initial team. More Infosys staff is set to join in over time. Our JV with Temasek will accelerate our efforts in the region, enhancing our presence. This move is a key element of our continued efforts to have a presence in the regions in which we operate, said Mohit Joshi, president, Infosys. By PTI MUMBAI: With pilots warning of "non-cooperation" over delay in pay, crisis-hit Jet Airways has assured them that 50 per cent of their August salary will be paid by September 11, sources said. The full service airline expects to complete payment of the whole salary amount by September 26 to the pilots, they added. ALSO READ | Jet Airways pilots warn of 'non-cooperation' on salary payment default The Naresh Goyal-promoted full service carrier, in which Gulf airline Etihad holds 24 per cent stake, is grappling with acute financial crunch after two back-to-back quarterly losses. As much as 50 per cent of salary for the month of August would be paid by September 11 and the remaining amount by September 26, sources privy to the development told PTI. The airline will continue to pay salaries in two installments for the next two months, the sources said. "Withholding salaries, that too without prior notice, is a serious matter and the management will bear sole responsibility for any repercussions," Jet Airways' pilots said in a communication to the management earlier this week. "We would like to advice that failure to address the above points and not paying the salaries on time would lead to non-cooperation by pilots," they warned. The salaries for the month of August have been delayed. In a statement, a Jet Airways' spokesperson said the management is in dialogue with the pilots and other members of its team to resolve some issues, including disbursement of salaries. Significantly, Jet Airways had delayed payment of July salaries to its staff. "Our issues such as the disbursement of salaries, are being amicably addressed and we continue to resolve ongoing concerns through constant dialogue with the airline's management team," the National Aviator's Guild (NAG) said in a statement. The NAG, a grouping of around 1,000 pilots of Jet Airways, also said the management has been receptive of the cost-saving initiatives suggested by it. In June, the airline proposed up to 25 per cent cut in salaries of its employees but deferred the plan following opposition from its pilots' union -- National Aviator's Guild (NAG) -- and engineers. "(Earlier) it was agreed that, henceforth, salaries would be paid on time and, if there were to be a delay, the same would be communicated to the pilots well in time," the pilots said. "We are deeply disappointed over both these conditions being violated by the management and the pilot body would be sure to share our disappointment," they said. Last month, the pilots had written to airline's CEO Vinay Dube expressing their displeasure over the "unnecessary" increase in expenditure in recent times. In the fresh communication, they have also demanded that "all unnecessary positions and committees/ groups created in the last three months be dissolved with immediate effect and the hiring of the expensive expats (vis-a-vis domestic pilots) be stopped forthwith". "We trust you will treat the above with the urgency it deserves and take immediate steps to resolve the situation," they said in the communication. The airline spokesperson said that in line with the mandate received from the board of directors, the management is undertaking definite steps to turn around its business and is evaluating various funding options on priority to resolve the interim challenge. The management is confident of resolving these challenges, he added. While stating that the airline is committed to honour its obligations towards employees, the spokesperson claimed that it has "already paid salaries on time to 84 percent of its employees". The airline reported a loss of Rs 1,036 crore in the three months ended March this year and the same widened to Rs 1,300 crore in the June quarter. By PTI NEW DELHI: Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to start road tests of its electric vehicles (EVs) in India next month as a precursor to launch of EV in 2020, its chairman Osamu Suzuki said Friday. Suzuki said the company has decided to launch EV in India around 2020 in cooperation with Toyota Motor Corporation. It will commence production of lithium-ion batteries, used in electric-vehicles, at its Gujarat plant in 2020. ALSO READ | Maruti Suzuki posts 3.4% decline in August sales "I am pleased to announce today that we will start road running test using fleet of 50 EV prototype vehicles in India from next month for developing safe and easy-to-use EV for Indian customers in line with Indian climatic and traffic conditions," Osamu Suzuki said at the Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE' here. For increasing the penetration of EVs in India, it is obvious that it cannot be done without sufficient charging infrastructure development, he noted. "In this regard, we look forward to proactive leadership from the Government of India," Suzuki said. He said that in India there is significant number of people who are eagerly waiting to have their own car. It is said that EV will be around 30 per cent in 2030, which means huge population of vehicles would still be using non-EV at that time, Osamu said. "In order to answer to the need of better life style and meeting expectation of Indian customers, as well as resolving environmental challenges at the same time, I think it would be essential to promote not only EV but also hybrid and CNG vehicles too," he noted. "In this sense, we seek the kind support of the government in terms of policy formulation," he added. Osamu said various issues like building a safe and efficient mobility using information technology also need to be taken care of going ahead. "We will continue to make our best effort for resolving all those issues in order to realise sustainable mobility society in India," Osamu said. Suzuki Motor Corporation has around 56 per cent stake India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India. Speaking at the event, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) chairman Anand Mahindra suggested creating a universal application, a digital platform encompassing multi-modal mobility under a public-private partnership run by an autonomous body. Toyota Motor Corporation CEO Takeshi Uchiyamada said the company will make efforts for electrification of its vehicles in India, for which it is working with Suzuki to introduce EVs in the country. Tata Motors MD Guenter Butschek said the company will continue to harness its core competence of bringing solution that country needs. "We are open to building new partnerships and business models to leverage the best competitive advantage in this constantly changing mobility space," he said. SAIC President Chen Zhixin said the company will also bring its new energy vehicles in India through its arm MG Motors India. The company has announced investment of USD 500 million by 2020 in India. Ford Global Vice President (Mobility and Growth) Brett Wheatley said globally the company is working aggressively on hybrid and electric vehicles and plans to introducing such vehicles in India is under consideration. Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Euisun said the company is looking to introduce vehicles with green technology in India. By Express News Service BENGALURU:With The Supreme Court decriminalising Section 377, the LGBTQ+ community in the city is celebrating the long overdue verdict. Supporters called the day historic and said there is still a long way to go in sensitising public about gay rights. Dr Akkai Padmashali, founder of Ondede, said, In such a tense situation in the country where activists have been arrested, SC verdict is a boost and historic event. The community has been struggling for 25 years against this 150-year-old law. I would like to thank the judiciary and all supporters of this cause. She added that September 6 should be called the Independence Day as the rights of the marginalised community have been recognised. ALSO READ | Section 377: Five people, one cause, one victorious fight Randy Scarhol, a drag artist and model, said she is overwhelmed. This is a landmark victory for the queer movement. However, the battle is not over. We still have a long way to go, she said.Spoken word poet Bharath Savithri Divakar, said the fight was worth it. Our existence has our rebellion, and now our fight has been justified. After the legal battle, now it is important to fight our battles on the societal front. After the verdict,there will be many who will come out of the closet, we have to look at how society can be accepting of them. But this judgement is a positive development, she said. They also opined that the British law never made any sense.Fashion designer Prasad Bidapa said, Now, when Im listening to people talk against it even after the verdict, I think its absolutely ridiculous. Nothing is going to change on the ground immediately, but police harassment will definitely be stopped. The next step is to bring about inclusivity, he says. MLA Sowmya Reddy, who has also been fighting for the cause, said it was an emotional day for everyone. My faith in the Supreme Court has been reinstalled today. Its about equality and freedom of speech and expression. Any discrimination is a violation of human rights and thousands of people have been fighting for it, she added. By Express News Service BENGALURU:From early next year, right from stepping into the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) up to the point of boarding your flight, you no longer need to carry your boarding pass, passport and other personal identification documents. Your face, captured using biometric technology, will suffice to facilitate a seamless journey through the airport. Domestic passengers of SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Air Asia stand to benefit initially. This follows an agreement signed in Portugal on Thursday between Hari Marar, CEO of Bangalore International Airport Limited, which operates KIA, and Miguel Litman, CEO of Vision Box, a global player in electronic identity solutions, said an official release. Portuguese PM Antonio Costa and the Indian ambassador to Portugal Nandini Singla were present. Bengaluru airport will become the first in India to have an end-to-end solution for paperless air travel, the release added. This project will be implemented under the Centres Digi Yatra project. Your face is your boarding pass, said Marar. Vision-Boxs state-of-the-art biometric technology, combined with its passenger flow platform, will enable a seamless journey for our passengers, without obstacles, waiting lines or hassles, from registration to boarding, A BIAL spokesperson told TNIE, Passenger needs to log on to the Digi Yatra portal run by the Aviation ministry and provide Aadhaar and a few other government identity documents. A unique ID which will be linked to the passengers biometrics will be generated. This ID needs to be used at the time of booking flight ticket. Whenever a passenger steps into the airport, the biometric scanners placed around will automatically scan his or her face and permit passage throughout, the spokesperson said. This ID number needs to be obtained just once and not for every journey, she added. Initially, only domestic passengers can benefit from this technology but it will be extended to international passengers in future after the Immigration Department clears it, the spokesperson said. We cannot specify when exactly it will come into effect. The process has been set in motion and it will be anytime in the first quarter of 2019, the spokesperson added. Until the technology gets accepted, the regular security clearance checks will be carried out in the case of passengers who do not want to go through the digital process. Registration on the portal can be done from anywhere. BIAL will also facilitate the process with special counters for it. Vision-Box CEO Miguel Leitmann said, This is the first end-to-end face recognition-based walk-through experience in Asia and the largest in the world. It is also one of the most significant steps towards the Digital India campaign endorsed by the government.... CHECK-IN WILL BE A BREEZE n Passenger needs to log on to Digi Yatra portal n Shold provide Aadhaar and a few other government identity documents n A unique ID linked to the passengers biometrics will be generated n This ID should be used at the time of booking any flight ticket to avail paperless travel n When passenger steps into the airport, the biometric scanners automatically scan his/her face n Then he/she is permitted passage throughout n This ID number needs to be obtained just once and not for every journey n Initially, only for domestic passengers By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A day after the government felicitated teachers from government-run educational institutions, Hyderabad saw two separate protests by the teaching fraternity on Thursday. While teachers from 194 Model Schools across TS staged dharna at Commissioner and DSE office, another protest by employees of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in front of Pragathi Bhavan at Begumpet resulted in traffic disruption. Officials in education department told Express that the protests were called at last minute when teachers realised that Assembly would be dissolved. Teachers are disappointed. In 2014, TRS had promised that all contract employees would be made permanent. But not a single contract teacher was regularised, Chava Ravi, general secretary, TS United Teachers Federation, said. E Raghunandan, TS Teacher Federation state president, said teachers are feeling cheated because none of the promises made in the May 16 meeting fructified. Kathmandu, September 7 China has agreed to allow to Nepal to use its ports for import and export of goods from third countries. The landmark agreement, reached during a meeting of officials from both the countries, in Kathmandu on Thursday, puts an end to land-locked Nepals total dependence on India for international trade. According to the soon-to-be-signed agreement, China has agreed to allow Nepal to use the facilities at its ports such as Tianjin, Shenzen, Lianyungang and Zhanjiang. Similarly, China has also agreed to provide access to Lanzhou, Lhasa and Shigatse dry ports. We have also discussed customs clearance procedure and other trade-related issues, says Nawaraj Dhakal, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. However, China is yet to propose routes to connect Nepal to its port facilities. The key meeting took place two years after Beijing agreed to allow Nepal to use its ports to trade goods with third countries, ending Kathmandus sole dependence on India for overland trade. The agreement was reached during Prime Minister KP Olis visit to China in March. Nepal has been relying on India for movement of goods to and from its trading partners. During the 2015 Indian Blockade, there were calls to end the dependence on India and to seek access to Chinese ports. Following the agreement between China and Nepal, India too had agreed to open its Vishakhapatnam Port for Nepali traders. By Express News Service KOCHI: With the flood rescue phase over, the government is scaling up relief and rehabilitation processes by going for an aggressive fund-raising drive from next week. As per the plan for Rebuild Kerala, the district administration has organised platforms to facilitate fund collection. Industries Minister E P Jayarajan and Minister for Local Self Governments A C Moideen will visit various places in the district on September 11, 13 and 14 to receive donations for the Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund. On September 11, the ministers will participate in fund-raising platforms at the mini civil stations at Muvattupuzha, Perumbavoor and Kothamangalam. On September 13, they will be at the Civil Station in Kakkanad and the mini civil station in Aluva. On September 14, the ministers will visit Infopark, the RDO Office, Fort Kochi and the mini civil station in North Paravur. ALSO READ | Corporate house supports Kerala flood victims We have miles to go before the derailed life at flood-ravaged regions is brought back on track. However, even in the unprecedented calamity there was a silver lining as it proved that united, we can overcome all challenges, said Ernakulam Collector K Mohammed Y Safirulla. The situation demands a joint effort from all of us, he said. Safirulla said Ernakulam was one of the worst-hit regions in the floods. The water level in the Periyar and Muvattupuzha rivers surged dangerously and entered human habitats, leading to unprecedented loss, he said. During the deluge, a total of 4.11 lakh people were shifted to relief camps in Ernakulam. The extensive damage to private and public property, including houses, buildings, shops and offices, is beyond imagination. The economy came to a standstill following the huge loss and damage to industries and business in our district, which is also known as the business capital of Kerala, said Safirulla. By IANS MUMBAI: A 29-year-old man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly plotting the killing of his 86-year-old grandfather in Fort area, the police said Thursday. Police also arrested four aides of the prime accused Dorji Lama. Prima facie, grabbing property was the motive behind the crime, a police official said. The prime accused bore a grudge against Aja Lama who had sought sexual favours from his (Dorji's) mother in the past, he said. Aja Tejling Lama was found dead with stab injuries at his residence in Sant Niwas building on Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg on September 4, he said. A case of murder was registered by Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg Police. "Police found that Lama's daughter-in-law and her son Dorji are staying separately in Dombivli in neighbouring Thane district due to some personal reasons," said DCP (Zone I) Abhishek Trimukhe. According to police, the deceased owned some property and two hawking stalls in prime South Mumbai area. Police then questioned the family members of the deceased, including Dorji. Police found that Dorji had a criminal background and had serious offences registered against him, according to the official. Dorji had been externed for two years from Thane in the past. During interrogation, Dorji "confessed" to have plotted the killing of his grandfather by awarding a "contract" of Rs 1.5 lakh to four people. On September 4, they allegedly went to Aja Lama's residence where one of them stabbed him in chest and stomach, resulting his death, the official said. Other accused are identified as: Utkarsh Soni (19), Angel Bhise (21), Anand Ray (21) and Jayesh Kanoujia (22) from various places in the city, the official said. A local court Thursday remanded the accused in police custody, he said. S Viswanath By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Without the presence of main opposition YSR Congress, the first day proceedings of the monsoon session of AP Legislative Council and Assembly went off smoothly on Thursday. BJP members tried to grab the attention by coming to the House with umbrellas highlighting the leakage of rainwater in the Assembly complex. Though BJP floor leader P Vishnu Kumar Raju, who announced to play the role of opposition in the Assembly in the absence of YSRC, intervened in the discussion in the Question Hour and tried to pinpoint the government on issues like health, loans to Viswabrahmins and tendering process of projects. However, he lauded the TDP government for setting up Anna Canteens in the State to provide food to the poor at an affordable price. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu expressed immense satisfaction over the successful running of Anna Canteens at several places in the State. Later, TDP members praised Naidu for his initiative in setting up Anna Canteens to provide food to the poor at a highly subsidised price. BJP floor leader Raju also complimented the government for setting up Anna Canteens. Despite being in opposition, we have the moral responsibility to appreciate the good works of the State government like Anna Canteens. It is a wonderful concept. The ambience of Anna Canteens resembles corporate atmosphere. It is a better concept than other schemes like Chandranna Sankranti Kanuka and Ramzan Tohfa, he said. However, in the Legislative Council, BJP MLC PVN Madhav described Anna Canteens as Election Canteens. After promising to set up the canteens way back in 2014 elections, the TDP government had fulfilled it a few months before next elections, he said. He also alleged large scale corruption in setting up Anna Canteens as over `40 lakh is being spent on each one. After the Question Hour, Condolence Motion over the demise of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was passed unanimously in both the Houses and the members irrespective of their political affiliations hailed the statesmanship of Vajpayee. Introducing the motion in Assembly, Chief Minister Naidu highlighted the contribution of Vajpayee to the development of nation. Vajpayee had considered several of his ideas, Naidu said.In the Legislative Council, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu introduced the Condolence Motion. House business Session of AP Legislature to go on till September 19 Assembly and Council to function for 7 working days on September 6, 7, 10, 11, 17, 18 and 19 Shilajit Mitra By Express News Service Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Neeraj Kabi, Sahana Goswani, Ranvir Shorey Rating: 3.5 stars In his short story, The Last Leaf, O. Henry had written thus of the Greenwich Village: "One Street crosses itself a time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street. Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back, without a cent having been paid on account!" A dingier version of this description, if imported to the godowns of Old Delhi, might truely befit its maze-like streets. It's easy to lose oneself in Purani Dilli -- where walls back into walls and commercial backlanes bustle under top-floor barsatis. A musty labyrinth where angles have no respect for edge, where sounds assult sights, where the drawl of azaan blends into the cangle of arti, and where long-fused street-lamps soften the gnarliest of crimes. In this world lives Khuddoos (Manoj Bajpayee), a retiring electrician coming undone in his crumbling house, a lonily man who spies on neighbours with CCTV cameras but ironically, doesn't intrude. The character offers itself up to Bajpayee, who came off a similar mindspace in Aligarh -- another film which, for different reasons, was just as soaked in solitude. Shirt untucked, hair unkempt, eyes red from the smoke of beeris, Bajpayee plays Khuddoos with an unerving stillness of craft, grimacing at the face of simple instructions such as 'Go, get some air' or 'Eat your food on time', as though confronted by alien ramblings. Khuddoos, one day, perked up against a wall, hears the muffled cries of a child. Parallel scenes depict a butcher father (Neeraj Kabi) beating up his older son (a boy named Idris, played by Om Singh). Irdis's ammi (a lived-in Sahana Goswami) is positioned as a meek onlooker, resigned to raising a second child while pregnant with a third. The domestic violence in Gali Guleiyan doesn't seem instantly cruel, which says a lot about how normalized the menace is in our society. Director Dipesh Jain, who studied filmmaking from USC and is based out of LA, is cautious about not amping up the brutality; instead, he hinges on silences and terse exposition to capture the mute horrors of oppression. In all, it's mood that catches the director's fancy. He shoots the spiral alleyways of Delhi as evil layouts of synaptic clefts, the dark nooks and crannies coiling up to resemble Khuddoos's mental state. The sound design is immersive, full of resounding footsteps and gasping shudders, meant to distract from the diabolical give-aways planted by editor Chris Witt. The supporting actors (especially Ranvir Shorey as Khuddoos's best friend) understand the fragility of the plot -- which is about a man's journey to lead a child to freedom -- and thus lend searing human depth to their limited scenes. Gali Guleiyan has the familiarity of an arthouse thriller, but also has moments of raw delight. In its tenderest moment, the film finds Khuddoos refusing to be ousted from a local eatery. He has been drinking at his table, which is not allowed, and the manager tries to drag him out. Clinging vehemently to his table, as though grappling at the last shred of sanity, Khuddoos wimpers like a mellowed dog... "Maine nahi jayunga, main nahi jayunga..." Nothing delights like a homecoming by Manoj Bajpayee. Amit Agnihotri By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The CAGs assessment of presumptive losses in the allocation of 2G spectrum and coal blocks, followed by the 2011 anti-graft movement led by activist Anna Hazare, sealed the fate of the UPA government which lost the battle of perception as corruption charges against it were hurled by the Opposition, former Union minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal believes. The notion of presumptive losses, created by the then CAG, in the allocation of spectrum and coal blocks gave rise to allegations of scams of the highest order. Right decisions were portrayed as acts of vandalism by the Opposition; we were painted by the media as a corrupt lot, frittering away valuable national resources, benefiting specific entities and were charged with crony capitalism. I believe all this could have been defended, Sibal says in his book Shades of Truth: A Journey Derailed, to be launched on Friday by former prime minister Manmohan Singh. He goes on to say that the subsequent protests in Delhi by Hazare and his aides, who had political ambitions, backed by BJP-RSS, dealt further blows to the UPA. The government's nod to a joint committee of these activists towards framing the anti-graft watchdog Lokpal, was a big mistake in particular, says the Congress veteran. "The government succumbed, which I believe was a mistake," says Sibal, adding that Hazare's subsequent fast, his arrest and later release from Tihar Jail under public pressure portrayed the government as weak and unsure. Describing the anti-graft protests along with the widespread public anger over the brutal gang rape and murder of Nirbhaya in December 2012 as symptoms of Arab Spring in India, Sibal says candlelight marches and skirmishes with the police that followed again portrayed the government as unresponsive. He attributes the Congress defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as people's desire for a change. Anuraag Singh By Express News Service BHOPAL: The Bharat Bandh called by the upper caste and other backward castes (OBC) outfits to protest last month's amendment to the SC/ST Atrocities Act evoked overwhelming response across Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. Commercial establishment, petrol pumps, and schools remained closed all across the assembly poll-bound state. With the commercial establishments largely downing their shutters voluntarily in response to the Bandh call, the development is bound to be a cause of concern both to the ruling BJP and the Congress. Shops and commercial establishments, particularly big markets remained shut all across MP, including the four major cities, Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior and all other districts, including Mandsaur, Neemuch, Barwani, Khargone, Ratlam, Vidisha, Narsinghpur, Jabalpur, Satna, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Tikmagarh, Damoh, Sidhi, Rewa, Morena, Bhind, Sheopur and Sidhi.In Bhopal's Bittan Market, the flower shop owned by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan's son Kartikey Singh Chouhan also remained shut down. In Mandsaur and Neemuch districts of West MP, even medical store owners didn't open their shops till afternoon in support of the Bandh. In various districts, protestors wearing T-Shirts bearing the upper caste-OBC movement's punch-line 'Mai ke Laal' carried out protest rallies.The Bandh largely remained peaceful, except for some incidents in Shahdol, Ashok Nagar, Guna, Morena, Satna, Sidhi, Rewa, Alirajpur and Bhind. According to IG (Intelligence) of MP Police Makrand Deouskar, the Bandh largely remained peaceful, barring a few incidents of disturbance in some districts. Not giving the actual figures on number of people arrested in the state during the Bandh, Deouskar confirmed that Pushpendra Singh, the son of BJP MLA from Bhind seat Narendra Singh Kushwah was taken into custody for violating prohibitory orders, but later released on production of surety bond in Bhind district. Protestors attempted to stop trains near Shadora railway station in Ashok Nagar district and also in Rewa district, where protestors also reportedly pelted stones on a train. Protestors also attempted to storm into the Rewa district police control room and damage property there, but police acted in time. Burning of tyres on roads was reported from Rewa and Satna districts, while the police had to fire tear gas shells in Aron town in Guna district, which forms part of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's Lok Sabha constituency. Protestors pelting stones on police vehicle in Bhind district and police using force to disperse mob in Shahdol district was also reported. The patron of SAPAKS (main outfit backing the Bandh) retired IAS officer Dr Hiralal Trivedi alleged that a protestor and social activist Shekhar Mishra was assaulted in a targeted manner by three cops, including district police superintendent Kumar Sourabh in Shahdol district, resulting in grievous injuries to Mishra. The incident happened when the protestors were peacefully handing over the memorandum of demands to the district collector Anubha Srivastava. While the Shahdol district collector Anubha Srivastava maintained that she had not ordered use of force by police in the matter, the senior officials at the state police headquarters in Bhopal remained tight-lipped in the matter."We're going to take up the matter with the state's home minister and demand immediate removal of Kumar Sourabh from the SP Shahdol post followed by a through probe into the matter. We also demand his suspension," said SAPAKS patrol Dr Trivedi. Also, there were reports of activists related to tribal organization JAIS demonstrating at the Nagar Palika in tribal-dominated Alirajpur district, to protest the removal of their banner bearing a call against the Bharat Bandh. By Express News Service BHOPAL: A Deputy Forest Ranger, Subedar Singh Kushwah, was allegedly mowed down by the sand mafia in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh on Friday, exposing rampant illegal sand mining in the Gwalior-Chambal region of the Assembly poll bound state. Its the same area, where an Additional SP (ASP) rank Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Narendra Kumar was crushed to death by a tractor trolley engaged in illegal sand mining in the Chambal River in March 2012. The murder of Subedar Singh Kushwah, 50, near Ghirona temple took place five months after an electronic media scribe Sandeep Sharma, who had exposed alleged police-sand mafia nexus, was crushed to death by a truck in adjoining Bhind district in April. The incident happened at around 8 am when Kushwah was on duty on the check post to prevent vehicles carrying illegally mined sand from the Chambal river. When the forest department staff tried to stop vehicles allegedly laden with illegally mined sand, one of the vehicles managed to speed away but the other behind it ran him over. He was rushed to the district hospital, where doctors declared the deputy forest ranger dead on arrival, said Morena district police superintendent Amit Sanghi said. Shreesha Ghosh and Prajanma Das By Express News Service The whole country lauded the apex court's landmark judgement scrapping the 157-year old Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised homosexuality in India. But this verdict came after almost three decades of struggle by the LGBTQ community in India. Among them are a group of 20 IITians who were party to this petition. The handful represents a 400-strong group of LGBTQ IITians across India named Pravritti, which, in Sanskrit, roughly means different thoughts. The secret Facebook group was started by three queer IITians in July 2012, who wanted to create a common platform for all queer students in IIT to interact. Given how connected different IITs are in exchanging ideas and researchers, it quickly spread to a group of about 50-60 students from various IITs. "Pravritti has been an informal group. No one, who is not a member, would know about it" said Akhilesh Godi, a 2015 graduate from IIT Madras who is now a data scientist at a leading Indian start-up. "It gives you an outlet to be yourself and makes you feel more secure." It's high time: Akhilesh Godi is ecstatic that they managed to change the script for lakhs of Indian queer people. (Photo | Edex) Unlike most other students groups or bodies, Pravritti didn't find the kind of acceptance the students would have liked from the administration. When Karthik Rajkumar, a student from IIT Madras, wanted to start a formal group he faced resistance from the authorities. "To an outsider, it might seem that the IITs uphold a liberal setup but an institution which practices gender segregation to the limit that the girls and boys hostels are at different corners of the Delhi campus, cannot be expected to embrace the queer community," said Debottam Saha, a PhD scholar at IIT Delhi. However, things have changed over the years. Campuses of the premier institution now have their own chapters for the sensitisation of LGBTQ rights and awareness Vanam in Chennai, Saathi in Mumbai and Ambar in Kharagpur. But as the SC overturned the Delhi High Court verdict on Section 377 these groups started diluting, "When the Right to Privacy verdict was announced and these petitions were revived, we started talking about a petition from an institution like IIT," said Saha. "We wanted the authorities and the society at large to know that there is a significant population of IITians who belonged to the LGBTQ community." Man with a plan: Debottam Saha has been spearheading the movement for acceptance in the IITs for a while now. (Photo | Edex) Debottam recalled a comment on a post supporting the gay community, "It said that the 'disease' has now spread to IIT as well. We wanted to dispel that idea and tell people that JNU and DU are not the only places that gay or queer individuals are at," he said. The petition was filed with no support from the administration but there is now a need to formalise the LGBTQ communities in various IITs, they feel. "I feel this is high time that we have a formal interaction with the administration, who have been sort of aloof from the issue till now," added Saha. Godi too is hopeful that the verdict would bring about some real change, "I hope this legal change would lead to societal transformation as well. Most people are ignorant of this section of the society. This gives us an opportunity for dialogue which I believe would lead to better awareness," he believed. Dance of democracy: Celebrations in Delhi after the verdict was read out. (Photo | Edex) Though Akhilesh's family has been supportive throughout, Debottam has faced resistance along the way. When he confided in his brother that he liked men at the young age of 12, his family went berserk. He had to convince his father that he would 'mend his ways'. "When I finally came out of the closet my mother and brother supported me. But unfortunately my father still thinks that a blood test could tell what's wrong with me," said a now confident Saha. "My mother read up on literature to understand my situation better. I do not claim that my mother is too progressive but she makes an effort to engage in a dialogue to understand the situation on the other side of the table. That is what we are in dire need of. We need people to be able to talk freely. With this judgement, I think we have come a step closer to a better future." This article was originally published in Edex. By AFP NEW DELHI: Indian media on Friday -- including some conservative outlets -- hailed a Supreme Court ruling to decriminalise gay sex whilst highlighting a "deafening" silence from Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government. Banner front page headlines such as "Love at First Right", "Rainbow Nation" and "Independence Day" greeted the verdict of the top court to strike down the heart of Section 377, a law introduced by British rulers in 1861. Many said the five justices may have opened the doors to demands for greater civil rights for long-marginalised gays and lesbians, including same-sex marriage. The conservative Hindu newspaper called the verdict "a reaffirmation of the right to love" and "a welcome depature from centuries of 'hetero-normative' thinking". The judges had "furthered the frontiers of personal freedom and liberated the idea of personal rights from the pressure of public opinion," it added in an editorial. The Hindustan Times warned that the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender community will still face condemnation from their families and colleagues. "Harassment and violence will continue to occur," it warned. "But if the long legal battle and the courage of queer people and communities are anything to go by, this fight for equal rights will not end. It will grow even stronger now that even the apex court has said there is no going back." Amid pictures of celebrating activists, Google India put out a rainbow flag on its homepage and Facebook changed its display picture to a multi-hued icon. The United Nations and rights activists around the world gave Twitter support to the Supreme Court ruling. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government has yet to make a comment on the ruling. Modi's administration had initially opposed dismantling Section 377, though in July government lawyers said they would give in to the "wisdom" of the top court. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the government should have taken a categorical stand one way or the other instead of being ambivalent, the Hindu newspaper reported the judge as saying. The Indian Express daily said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's silence on the issue was "deafening" and "deceptive". India's main opposition Congress and other small regional parties have welcomed the verdict. The BJP's ideological Hindu nationalist backer, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said it does not consider homosexuality a crime but it did not support same-sex relations. "Traditionally, Indian society does not accept such relations," it said in a statement. By IANS NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday slammed Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for praising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the issue of opening of the Kartarpur corridor to enable devotees pay obeisance at a gurdwara associated with the first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev. The praise was an "insult to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi". "This has become a habit with the Congress to insult our Prime Minister and praise that of the neighbouring country. The entire country is watching this. (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi should clarify the issue," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told a press conference here. Hussain said that Sidhu's remarks came at a time when Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa has vowed to avenge the blood shed on the border by his country's soldiers. "On one side, Pakistan's Army chief is speaking of 'khoon ka badla khoon' and in India a Congress leader is thanking Pakistan. It is very sad and unfortunate," he said. "We reject Bajwa's statement. India is capable of responding to them," he added. Seeking to know if it (praise) was the Congress statement or of Sidhu, he said that until the opposition party clarified, the BJP will consider it a statement by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. "Sidhu is not an individual. He is a Congress leader and a Cabinet Minister in Punjab," the BJP leader said, adding that his statement thanking Pakistan is an indication of what the Congress feels about that country. He said that India and many of its Prime Ministers had tried many a time to improve bilateral relations but to no avail. Addressing reporters in Chandigarh, Sidhu earlier in the day thanked his "friend" Imran Khan for enabling the opening of the corridor that would allow pilgrims from India to go to the gurdwara close to the international border in Pakistan. "Ajj meri zindagi safal ho gayi (today, I have succeeded in life)," Sidhu told the media. Home Just In Search team returns emptyhanded as whereabouts of missing Bajura journalist still unknown Bajura, September 6 Whereabouts of journalist in Bajura district, Tej Bahadur Khadka (Teju), who had gone missing since August 25, is still unknown. A team mobilised to search the missing journalist returned Wednesday emptyhanded. It may be noted that journo Khadka had gone missing since August 25 while returning home after offering worships at the Budhinanda Mai, a famous religious tourism site of the district. The rescue team of the Nepali Army returned without anything in concrete from the area Khadka was supposed to have disappeared. Nepal Police personnel and locals also came back along with the rescue team, shared Coordinator of District Security Committee and Chief District Officer Chetraj Baral. Journo Khadka hailing from Silgadhi of Doti district has been in service at Radio Budhinanda FM based in Kolti of Bajura for the past one year. RSS By PTI NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Friday said it would not interfere with its single judge's order rejecting a plea for furlough by Vikas Yadav, who is in jail for life for the murder of Nitish Katara. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao noted that the state government and later the single judge on July 9 had rejected Yadav's plea based on his conduct in prison and said "we are not going to interfere in the matter". The bench observed that he was punished for misconduct while in jail and his behaviour in prison was found unsatisfactory. "Your conduct was not good. Your plea for furlough was rejected based on your conduct," the court said, adding it will pass an order later on Yadav's appeal against the July 9 decision. The case relates to kidnapping of Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002, before killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas Yadav's sister Bharti, the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav. Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas did not approve of the victim's affair with Bharati as they belonged to different castes, the lower court had said in its verdict. Today, Yadav's lawyer told the high court that his client has already spent over 16 years in prison and he was punished four times for violation of jail conditions. Additional criminal standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan opposed the appeal, saying Yadav was not qualified for furlough as he has not earned the required three Annual Good Conduct Remissions. Mahajan said Yadav will not be eligible for remission till he completed the 25-year jail term awarded to him by the high court, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court. He said the high court had made it clear that the convict was not eligible for remission till he completes his imprisonment. The prosecution lawyer also said that the appeal was not maintainable as, according to the apex court, a single judge's order in a criminal writ petition can be assailed only in the Supreme Court. He also said that Yadav could apply for parole as it does not require annual good conduct remission. Furlough is a right of a prison inmate to have leave for a certain period of time in a year when he can come out of jail. It is counted towards the total period of his sentence. The prison authorities may deny the relief in certain cases. Parole is also a temporary release from jail, but it is not a matter of right and is entirely subject to discretion of the prison authorities and the period outside does not count towards the duration of sentence. On August 29 last year, the Supreme Court had dismissed Vishal Yadav and Vikas Yadav's pleas seeking review of its verdict sending them to prison for 25 years. It had also awarded a 20-year jail term to third convict Sukhdev Pehalwan in the case. By PTI SRINAGAR: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has criticised the timing of changing the state DGP, saying there was no hurry to replace S P Vaid and the state police could do without having to deal with the confusion of leadership. The state government removed Vaid as the DGP late Thursday night and handed the charge to DG Prisons Dilbagh Singh till a permanent appointment is made. "There was no hurry to replace @spvaid. He should have been changed only when a permanent arrangement had been worked out. @JmuKmrPolice has enough problems without having to deal with confusion of leadership," Omar wrote on Twitter soon after the government announced Vaid's removal. "Changing the DG is the prerogative of the administration but why a DG as a temporary arrangement? The current DG won't know if he's going to stay & others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. None of this is good for @JmuKmrPolice," Omar said. There was no hurry to replace @spvaid. He should have been changed only when a permanent arrangement had been worked out. @JmuKmrPolice has enough problems without having to deal with confusion of leadership. Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) September 6, 2018 The outgoing DGP thanked the police department, other security agencies and the people for their support during his tenure as the top cop of the state. "I'm thankful to God that he gave me the opportunity to serve my people and my country. I'm grateful to @JmuKmrPolice, security agencies, and people of J&K for their support and their faith in me. My best wishes to the new DGP," Vaid wrote on Twitter. The move comes amid reports that the recent abductions and release of family members of policemen following release of terrorists' kin didnt go down well with the Centre. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reprimanded the Pune police for casting aspersions on the court during a press briefing on the arrest of five activists in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case. The SC also extended the house arrest of the activists Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha till September 12, when it will take up the plea filed by historian Romila Thapar and four others. A visibly upset Justice D Y Chandrachud, who along with Justice A M Khanwilkar was part of a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, referred to the statements of an Assistant Commissioner of Police of Pune that the SC should not have entertained the plea against the activists arrest. I watched the press briefing by the Assistant Commissioner, Pune which insinuated that the Supreme Court should not have intervened at this stage. He has no business saying that and casting aspersions on the Supreme Court Judges, Justice Chandrachud said. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Maharashtra government, immediately apologised for the action of the police officer. Tell him we have taken it very seriously ... You (law officer) must ask your police officials to be more responsible. The matter is before us and we dont want to hear from police officials that the SC is wrong, the judge said. On the law officers submissions that Thapar and others have no locus to file the plea, the bench asked the petitioners whether a third party could intervene in a criminal case. To this, senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Thapar and others, said they were not third parties and the issue was larger. By Express News Service Right to life, liberty encompass right to sexual autonomy Justice Indu Malhotra The community was compelled to live a life full of fear of reprisals and persecution, on account of ignorance of the majority to recognise that homosexuality is a completely natural condition, part of a range of human sexuality. The misapplication of this provision (Sec. 377) denied them the fundamental right to equality guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution. It also infringed the right to non-discrimination under Article 15, and the right to live a life of dignity and privacy guaranteed by Article 21. Sexual orientation is innate to a human being and is an important attribute of ones personality and identity... LGBT persons have little or no choice over their sexual orientation. LGBT persons, like heterosexual persons, are entitled to privacy, and the right to lead a dignified existence, without fear of persecution. The right to life and liberty would encompass the right to sexual autonomy, and freedom of expression. Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice. It manifests in early adolescence. Ones sexuality is the result of the complex interplay between nature and nurture as no findings have conclusively linked sexual orientation to any one particular factor. Fundamental rights dont depend upon the outcome of elections Justice RF Nariman Section 377 is the product of the Victorian era morality which is long gone and there is no reason to continue with it, especially when it enforces Victorian mores upon the citizenry of India. Section 377, in penalising consensual gay sex, is manifestly arbitrary. Given modern psychiatric studies and legislation which recognises that gay persons and transgenders are not persons suffering from mental disorder and cannot therefore be penalised, the section must be held to be a provision which is capricious and irrational. Constitutional morality always trumps any imposition of a particular view of social morality by changing majoritarian regimes. The very purpose of the fundamental rights is to withdraw the subject of liberty and dignity of the individual, and place such subject beyond the reach of majoritarian governments, so that constitutional morality can be applied by this court to give effect to the rights, among others, of discrete and insular minorities. One such minority has knocked on the doors of this court. These fundamental rights do not depend upon the outcome of elections. And, it is not left to majoritarian governments to prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of social morality. Respect for individual choice is the very essence of liberty CJI Dipak Misra Section 377 has become an odious weapon to harass the LGBT community which was made societal pariah by subjecting them to discrimination and unequal treatment. Individual has sovereignty over his or her body and can surrender autonomy wilfully to another individual and their intimacy in privacy is a matter of their choice. Such concept of identity is not only sacred but is also in recognition of the quintessential facet of humanity in a persons nature. Consensual carnal intercourse among adults, be it homosexual or heterosexual, in private space, does not in any way harm the public decency or morality. Therefore, Section 377 IPC in its present form violates Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The respect for individual choice is the very essence of liberty and criminalising carnal intercourse is irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary. The role of the courts gains more importance when the rights which are affected belong to a class of persons or a minority group who have been deprived of basic rights since time immemorial. Constitutional morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality, and it is only constitutional morality that can be allowed to permeate into Rule of Law. Sexual and gender based minorities cannot live in fear Justice DY Chandrachud Denial of right to sexual orientation is akin to denial of right to privacy. Section 377 has consigned a group of citizens to the margins, due to which the members of LGBT community were relegated to the anguish of being closeted identities. Sexual and gender based minorities cannot live in fear, if the Constitution has to have a meaning for them on even terms. In its application to adults of the same sex engaged in consensual sexual behaviour, Section 377 violates the constitutional guarantee of the right to life and to the equal protection of law. Even after Independence, citizens belonging to sexual minorities have waited as their fundamental freedoms remained restrained under an antiquated and anachronistic colonial-era law forcing them to live in hiding, in fear. The Constitution neither demands conformity, nor contemplates the main-streaming of culture as it nurtures dissent as the safety valve for societal conflict. Sexual orientation was recognised and protected by the Constitution... By imposing the sanctions of the law on consenting adults involved in a sexual relationship, it has lent the authority of the state to perpetuate social stereotypes and encourage discrimination. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: The Board of Governors of IIT-Kanpur has decided to issue a show cause notice to four senior professors of the institute who were found guilty of harassing a junior professor belonging to a scheduled caste. The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the Board Of Governors (BOG) of IIT-Kanpur held in Noida Extension (IIT-K campus in Noida) on Thursday. The four professors had been under the scanner for alleged harassment of a Dalit faculty member of the Department of Aerospace Engineering earlier this year. Even the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had directed the institute's management to suspend the four and lodge an FIR against them after they were found guilty of using a caste-related slur against the faculty member, who is also an IIT-K graduate. The BOG also inferred that the senior professors had violated the conduct rules under the statute of the institute. "The Board decided that on the basis of the inquiry report which holds all the four professors guilty of harassing a junior professor belonging to scheduled caste, show cause notice be issued to them and their response be sought," said a highly placed source in IIT-Kanpur. Sources added that based on the reply of the four guilty professors, a decision on the quantum of punishment to be given to them would be taken in the next board meeting, which is likely to be held in the first week of October. Dr Subramaniam Sundrela had joined IIT-K as assistant professor in January this year. Dr Sundrela had alleged that during a seminar in October last year, the four accused professors "continuously asked him questions and joked in such a manner as to make him feel ridiculed". He had brought the matter to the notice of the institution's management, including the director. A three-member panel headed by Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, was set up to probe the charges levelled by Dr Sundrela. The committee, which submitted its report to the institution's director, found the four professor guilty of harassing Sundrela. The probe report was placed before the IIT-K Board of Governing Council on March 19 to decide the nature of action to be taken against the guilty professors. However, the board did not take any action and instead advised Dr Sundrela to reach a compromise with the guilty professors. Dr Sundrela rejected the suggestion and approached the NCSC with his complaint. Taking a serious note of the issue, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes recommended suspension of the four professors besides lodging of an FIR against them under the SC/ST Act-1989. The NCSC directed the IIT-K administration to submit an action taken report on May 1. On a notice issued by the Commission, Director, IIT-K, along with other senior faculty members, had appeared before the NCSC on April 10 with the probe report pertaining to allegations of harassment levelled by the Dalit assistant professor. Dhinesh Kallungal By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a long hiatus, the foreign tourist arrival (FTA) to Kerala slumped by 4.6 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same time last year, in what should be a strong reminder to the authorities about the need to pull up their socks in the coming months. The Tourism Department statistics show the FTA had shown a skeletal growth of 3.46 per cent in the month of April. Compared to last year, it fell by 7.43 per cent in May and subsequently by 16.99 per cent in June. If Nipah outbreak and the Latvian tourists murder in the capital had adversely affected the sector, the deluge is expected to add to the worry, with its impact yet to be assessed. Thiruvananthapuram (May: 27.21 per cent and June 37.92 per cent) suffered the biggest jolt, followed by Malappuram, Kozhikode and Ernakulam. On the domestic front, the tourist arrival, which registered a growth of 21.21 per cent in April fell to 19.13 per cent in May and to 5.54 per cent in June when compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. Speaking to Express, Tourism Director P Balakiran said: The sector is expecting another dip in the third quarter following the flood, which inflicted an infrastructure loss of Rs 100 crore on the tourism department and a revenue loss of Rs 500 crore on the industry. Following the flood, the department is working hard to retrieve its lost glory in terms of opening all its tourism destinations soon and make them accessible, he said A senior officer said it has chalked out a set of plans to send a message to the outside world that Kerala has bounced back from the flood. As part of it, senior officers have been assigned to lead and address the tourism fairs and campaigns outside the state apart from doing promotions aggressively on social media platforms. The tourism director will speak at the Travel & Tourism Fair - Ahmedabad on Friday to alleviate various stakeholders fears. On Thursday, Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran addressed another fair in Visakhapatnam, which used to be attended by officers. Meantime, the department will mend the shortcomings in various destinations like Munnar and Wayanad, where the accessibility has been a big worry after the flood and landslips, he said. Ajay Kanth By Express News Service KOCHI: It was without much fanfare that a group of people launched the movement Love Commandos in Kerala in June. But since then, it has been flooded with calls from lovers seeking support to marry a man/woman of their choice against the will of families. Between June and August 2018, the Delhi-based NGO received over 500 calls from Kerala and handled 52 cases. There has been a tremendous response to our initiative right from the start. We never expected that lovers wishing to get married in Kerala are under this much stress. Weve been able to support a lot of people without being threatened or attacked by their family members, said Love Commandos Kerala chief coordinator Anil Jose. Though Kerala boasts a socially and literarily progressive culture, things arent that rosy as it seems. Families go to any extent to prevent their wards from marrying people belonging to other religion or caste, said Jose. Love Commandos provide the couples with legal services, shelter, protection and help them find employment. We also sensitise the couples to their rights and involve the police to ensure their safety. We organised two meetings in Kerala in the past two months. The next one will be held later this month in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala chief coordinator Anil Jose said, adding they are in the process of deploying 800 trained Love Commandos in Kerala to sensitise people to their rights and provide support to lovers who want to get married. The group will also provide social security to those who have entered into a love marriage, inter-caste, inter-religious marriage or live-in relationship. Meanwhile, intelligence officers of the state police said they have been monitoring the activities of the Love Commandos as a few Left-wing and religious radicals have managed to sneak into this group to carry out their activities. We are monitoring their activities and verifying their background, the officers said. Naushad Bijapur By Express News Service BELAGAVI: All eyes are on Belagavi. On the eve of the PLD Bank chiefs election here, the Jarkiholi brothers of Gokak have declared an all-out war against Belagavi Rural MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar, announcing here that they are being forced to take a make-or-break political decision. Giving an ultimatum to the Congress high command to ensure that Hebbalkar exercises restraint, the brothers said they will have to take a harsh political decision if Satish Jarkiholi suffers embarrassment (if his group loses the PLD Bank chiefs election) on Friday. Announcing that his brother Satish will take a final call on Friday, Municipal Administration Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi said he will abide by whatever decision he takes. Despite repeated queries, he only said their harsh decision will have a huge impact on the state politics. We (brothers) are tired of the ongoing tussle and keen to take a make-or-break call to end the rift once and for all now. Enough is enough. I cannot see Satish Jarkiholi getting insulted, he said. The stage is set for the election to PLD Banks chief as the process of filing nomination to the post of president and vice-president for PLD Bank begins at 10 am on Friday. Hebbalkar had claimed that a majority of 9 of the 15 members on PLD Banks board were in her group while six are in Satish Jarkiholis group. However, none of the 15 members (directors) of the bank were accessible to the media on Thursday even as the election has become a bone of contention for both the groups. In order to ensure that none of the nine directors of the PLD Bank in her group switched sides on the eve of the election, Hebbalkar and her associates took them to a private resort in Goa on Wednesday night. According to sources, all directors will arrive with Hebbalkar at the PLD Bank in Belagavi directly to take part in the election process at 10 am. Shifting of Laxmi Hebbalkars group to resort adds fuel to fire According to sources, Satish Jarkiholi has been sulking as he feels insulted over being left out of the state cabinet despite being the `most popular leader of the Congress in North Karnataka. At least six to seven MLAs are with Jarkiholis in North Karnataka. It may not be difficult for them to come out of the Congress in case their group loses the PLD Bank chief election, sources said. The shifting of Hebbalkars group to the resort has further added fuel to the fire as Jarkiholis brought this development to the notice of the party high command, sources said adding that Hebbalkars hasty political decisions taken against the interests of Jarkiholis could land her in trouble. She did claim that Jarkiholis were her political mentors a few days ago but is unwilling to end her feud with them in the banks issue. Ramesh Jarkiholi made a personal attack on Hebbalkar at a press conference in Belagavi on Thursday. Admitting that he would not wish to recall how Jarkiholis helped her grow politically over the last two decades, Ramesh said the prevailing situation forced him to do it. Hebbalkar came into politics in 2004 but I did not know her antecedents prior to that. It was Satish Jarkiholi who helped her become president of Belagavi District Congress Cell, he said. When Hebbalkars father was ill, I helped her financially. I also have helped her with regard to her son and brother when she desperately needed my help. But I never imagined she would stoop to such a low level to insult us. I do not wish to talk about her anymore. Its merely media speculation that she lent me money, added Ramesh Jarkiholi. Commenting on minister D K Shivakumar who tried to intervene in the feud upsetting the Jarkiholis, Ramesh said that they were both good friends and that both of them helped each other become ministers in the past. I can even swear in the name of Kolhapur Mahalaxmi temple that Shivakumar helped me become a minister, he added. Why drag my name: Kore Speaking in Bengaluru on his arrival from a foreign tour on Thursday, Rajya Sabha MP (BJP)Prabhakar Kore said the dispute between Hebbalkar and Jarkiholi is a matter related to the Congress party and that he was not aware of it. It is unfair to drag the issue out of context by saying that I and Hebbalkar are Lingayats, Kore added. We know how to make Chief Ministers and also how to unseat them. It was Belagavi politics which took late Veerendra Patil to the post of CM. And what we should not forget is that the same Belagavi politics brought him down from the post. Unfortunately, none from Belagavi became CM till now, he added. However, Kore said, We are waiting for an opportunity. We are waiting to see how we could gain from their (Hebbalkar-Jarkiholis) ongoing tussle. Yatnal invites M B Patil to join BJP Amidst rumours that Municipal Administration Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has been offered the plum DCM post by BJP in the wake of his feud with Congress leader Laxmi Hebbalkar, Vijayapura MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal has invited MLA M B Patil to join BJP assuring the latter a cabinet berth. In Vijayapura, Yatnal said, If he wants, let M B Patil join BJP, then we will make B S Yeddyurappa Chief Minister and Patil will be in his cabinet. Yatnal said the state politics would undergo major changes. Yatnal said Congress leader Siddaramaiah should clarify whether he is on a foreign tour in an attempt to topple the government. By Express News Service KASARGOD: Police have booked a Congress worker for a Facebook post purportedly 'mocking' Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's medical condition. Vellarikundu police said they have registered a case against Johnson Thomas of Kruamkund on a complaint filed by CPM local secretary C Damodaran. Thomas, who works in Karnataka, has been booked for causing nuisance and violating public order [Kerala Police Act Section 120 (o)] and for trying to 'promote enmity' between two political parties, said Vellarikundu sub-inspector Vipin U P. He said that the CPM workers in Vellarikundu were miffed with the 'insensitive' post, and there was a backlash against him on social media, too. The officer, however, said there was no need for an arrest. "We will serve a notice and he can appear directly in the court. If proven guilty, he will have to pay a fine prescribed by the court," the officer said. On his Facebook wall, Thomas wrote: 'Now no one should ask what is the chief is ailing from! Can't you make out from his gait his (***) has problem'. "We can prove in court that he used a word which has obscene connotation in local parlance," said the officer. This post was roundly panned on Facebook by users. CPM workers have also protested against the post. CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday left for treatment at Mayo Clinic in the US and is expected to be back after three weeks. By Express News Service As you step inside the banquet hall of OTDC's Panthanivas in city's Kalpana area, you will come across artistes busy shaping up their perspectives on coal mines with colours. A group of 20 artistes from across the country have gathered there to attend a national-level art workshop themed around coal mines. The event is being organised by Odisha Mining Corporation in association with Lalit Kala Akademi. Delhi-based contemporary artiste Vimmi Indra upholds the essence of tribal culture in her painting. We spoke to the artiste when she was giving finishing touches to the portrait of a tribal woman in black and white. The artiste revealed she would set the tribal woman in the backdrop of a coal mine that she visited during her ensuing trip to Bhubaneswar. "I will use different colours for the background. I have developed this distinct style of highlighting a particular element in black and white. I place the element in a coloured background," said Vimmi. For giving a soothing appeal to her paintings, she picked up a long brush and gently moved it over the painting. This was what she termed as the soft brush technique. Former Head of the Department of Fine Arts at DAV College for Women in Amritsar, Baldev Gambhir choose to give an abstract look to his painting. His piece was divided into three distinct segments. The bottom layer was painted in shades of purple, represented the mining area. "As you move up, you can see lighter shades of colours. These areas in green and yellow depict greenery. The pillar that runs through the painting is the main attraction of the painting. I will decorate it by adding textures," the artiste said. Each artiste had his own way of representing mining activities. Artiste Bijaya Biswal used surrealism to depict the same. He merged the motif of iconic Konark horse, a miner and iron rods to synergies his theme. "You can see the stone statue of the konark horse being protected by iron rods. And, a traditional coal miner taking the lead in the painting. The bottom half of the painting represents the coal mines. These are all virtual elements which can't be merged in the real world. But, for an artiste, it is possible to connect these things on canvas," he said. Budding artiste Ashutosh Patra tried to depict how the mining activities were being carried out by maintaining the nature's balance. "I have painted a human figure. It represents the mining corporation. You will find the painting to be dominated with the use of green and yellow. They stand for maintaining greenery. While, the mining activity has been depicted with darker shades on the top half of the painting," he added. The workshop will end on September 8. Speaking about the initiative, Secretary of Lalit Kala Akademi, Manas Jena said the artistes were taken to the nearby coal mines as part of the workshop. "They visited the mines and observed life there. These paintings are reflections of their observations," he added. Jena revealed that the Akademi was also planning to organise an international art fair in the city soon. Home Just In Speaker Mahara leaves for five-day Tibet trip Kathmandu, September 7 Speaker of the House of Representatives, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, has embarked on a five-day official visit to Tibet autonomous region of China on Friday. Five lawmakers and some staff of the Federal Parliament Secretariat are also accompanying Mahara. Those included in the team are Shanti Maya Tamang Pakhrin of Nepal Communist Party, Rangamati Shahi of Nepali Congress, Uma Shankar Arbariya of Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal, Ekbal Miya of Rastriya Janata Party Nepal and Durga Paudel of Rastirya Janamorcha. The team also includes the Secretariats Secretary Bharat Raj Gautam and some staff of the Speakers Secretariat. Mahara is scheduled to hold a meeting with the chief of Tibet government today itself. He will also lay the foundation stone for Nepals Consular Office in Lhasa. Likewise, he will address a meeting of Trans-Himalaya Belt and Road International Cooperation Forum. The team will return home on Tuesday. T Muruganandham By Express News Service CHENNAI: Bringing to the notice of the 15th Finance Commission the unfair treatment being meted out to the State for over a quarter century in inter-se share in devolution, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday urged the Commission to set right this trend, at least during the ensuing period 2020-2025. While emphasising the need to compensate the State for its revenue loss due to recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the government has sought a whopping Rs 70,105 crore grants-in-aid and States specific needs grants for various sectors. In the memorandum submitted to the Commission, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami pointed out that Tamil Nadu was the only State which had seen its inter-se share in devolution decline in every single finance commission since the Ninth. Criteria have come and criteria have gone, but regardless of which criteria were adopted by which Commission, Tamil Nadu always ended up with a reduced inter se share of devolution. This has led to a crisis of confidence in the polity, and among the people, in the core institutions of fiscal federalism, underscored the memorandum. Stating that the 15th Finance Commission needs to keep in mind three critical aspects in formulating its recommendations, the memorandum said, (There is an) inherent imbalance in the Constitutional scheme where the States have been entrusted with responsibilities far in excess of the financial resources endowed on them. The finance commission as a Constitutional mechanism is intended to correct this basic imbalance. The other two aspects include the need for realistic rather than optimistic projection of States revenue and expenditure besides adopting pragmatic criteria which encourage developed States to accelerate growth, rather than dampen their spirit, while also stimulating the backward States to bestow more attention on rapid economic and social changes. VV Balakrishna By Express News Service HYDERABAD: A master strategist that he is, caretaker Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao has delivered a perfect political googly, forcing opposition parties to hurriedly redraw their strategies. Though speculation over early elections had been rife for the last one month, the swiftness with which Rao moved in one single day right from the time the Cabinet passed a resolution to the Governor giving his nod and issuing the gazette notification left the opposition stunned and paralysed. After a muted performance at the Pragathi Nivedana Sabha, when his opponents mocked him for what they called a lack lustre speech which showed his nervousness, Rao returned to his true style and was unsparing in his attack as he tore into his opponents, particularly the Congress, even as he listed out the achievements of his government. Rao called AICC president Rahul Gandhi the biggest buffoon in the country, blasted the unlimited idiocy of the Telangana Congress and called the TDP an Andhra party. While taking a volley of questions at the press meet, Rao sometimes hit the Opposition hard and gave replies in a witty manner. Claiming to be greater than former Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy, he said that he would win the early polls and prove that he was greater than Chandrababu Naidu who had gone for an early poll and lost it. VV Balakrishna brings to you the best parts of Rao's press conference: Yours is now a caretaker government? There is nothing called a caretaker government in the Constitution of India. It is more of a moral obligation. I know my limits and know when and where to stop. I will not take hasty or indiscriminate decisions. The Congress termed your Pragathi Nivedana Sabha a flop. Some Congress leaders commented that the TRS meeting was an utter flop. Some said KCRs speech was a lacklustre affair. All Congress leaders are fools. At Pragathi Nivedana Sabha, I wanted to present the progress report. That was why I wasnt harsh on the Opposition. Once elections are announced, all the parties will criticise each other. The media will have a lot of work (laughs). Will TRS announce new schemes in the election manifesto? We have already implemented so many welfare and developmental schemes. We have implemented as many as 76 schemes like Kalyan Laxmi and Rythu Bandhu which were not listed in the manifesto. We did not know the financial status of the State when we formed the government. That is why we initially announced `50,116 for Kalyan Laxmi. In the last four years, the State registered 17.17 per cent economic growth. Therefore, we have increased the Kalyan Laxmi assistance to Rs 1 lakh. We have been trying to improve the revenues of the State further. Our policy is penchu (increase) and panchu (distribute). We will augment the States revenues further and distribute the wealth to the poor through welfare schemes. We have already constituted the election manifesto committee with 15 members, which is headed by party secretary-general K Keshava Rao. They will study and recommend some schemes. Vote for TRS which implemented massive welfare schemes and live happily (ee party ni gelipinchukoni challaga batakandi). Will early polls benefit TRS? Why not? KCR will be like a He-man like NTR. Marri Chenna Reddy failed to achieve Telangana. I have achieved Telangana and people thought that Chenna Reddy kanna KCR mogadu (He-man). I will prove myself as a He-man, better than NTR. How many seats do you think TRS will win? All our surveys indicate that we will win over 100 seats. No party is even close to TRS. In as many as 82 Assembly constituencies, the TRS has 60 per cent vote share. In 100 constituencies, we will get more than 50 per cent votes. Even if all opposition parties joined hands, they cannot defeat TRS. I welcome the unity of all opposition parties. Assembly is dissolved. Let us go to people and prove ourselves. You said that you wont seek votes if Mission Bhagiratha was not completed. But, you are going to polls now. Who told you that Mission Bhagiratha has not been completed? Bulk water supply to all the villages, except 1,100, is going on. In the next few days, those 1,100 villages too will get bulk supply. The door-to-door water supply is already being provided to 40 per cent of the households. Why do you worry? If Mission Bhagiratha is not completed, then people will decide. Even as the Congress termed the Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya as Commission Kakatiya, several international organisations presented the awards for these two schemes. Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha have won more than 40 awards. Double bedroom houses have not been completed, right? Who said so? Construction of double bedroom houses is going on and we will construct 2.6 lakh houses. The work has not stopped. Will TRS forge an alliance with its friendly party MIM as all opposition parties uniting against TRS? MIM is our friend. However, in segments where MIM will contest, TRS candidates too will be in the fray. There will be a friendly contest between TRS and MIM. How can Congress forge alliance with TDP which is an Andhra party? AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu wrote letters against the construction of irrigation projects in Telangana. The Congress should feel shy of allying with such a party. Had you preferred Assembly elections along with Lok Sabha polls, the anti-Modi wave would have helped you. Dont you think so? (laughs) Who knows if there will be an anti-Modi wave or pro-Modi wave? Some people may have love for Modi like our Rahul Gandhi who winked at him and hugged him in the Parliament. Are you scared of Modi wave? Is that why you are going for early polls? This is KCR. KCR is not scared of anybody or Modi. KCR is only scared of people. Will you forge an alliance with BJP for Lok Sabha elections? (In a lighter vein) The horoscopes of BJP and TRS will not match. Our gotrams (lineage) are different. The TRS is a secular party and it will remain so forever. But, BJP is expecting a huge number of seats in Assembly elections. I wish I was the Prime Minister. Will I become Prime Minister? Everyone knows the strength of BJP in Telangana. It will be great if BJP can retain its seats. What is the status of your proposed Federal Front? Federal Front is meant for development of the country and people. The Federal Front is demanding devolution of more subjects to States. There should not be a concurrent list at all. Why should the Union government deal with subjects like education, health, rural and urban development? Let the Centre transfer these subjects to States. I will unite all the political parties in the country on this. Who will become Chief Minister? No doubt that KCR will become Chief Minister (read not KTR). KCR (Photo | R Satish Babu) Senior leader D Srinivas wanted the party to expel him. Will you? We have respect for DS. We honoured his request and sent him to the Rajya Sabha. But now, he is against the party. We will not do anything against him. If he wants to continue in TRS, let him continue. Otherwise, let him leave. There are doubts about the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs). Will you demand paper ballots this time? We are ready for EVMs or paper ballot. But, usually the party which is defeated in elections blames EVMs. If EVMs are tampered with, then the ruling parties will remain in power forever. You supported the idea of joint elections for State Assemblies and Lok Sabha. But you have called for early elections now. Why sudden U-turn? The Election Commission made it clear that joint elections were not possible. The central government did not pursue the matter later. There are no joint elections now in the country. That is why I took my own decision and decided to go to polls along with four other States Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and two others. The Congress has also announced several sops. Do you think that will be threat for TRS? It is very childish behaviour. When TRS is giving Rs 1,000 as Asara pension, the Congress announced Rs 2,000. The Congress, which never thought of the welfare of the poor, is now on a spree of announcing sops, without even applying their mind. That is a victory for TRS. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Left initially a little dazed by the political avalanche induced by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, opposition parties managed to make a comeback on Thursday expressing their preparedness and confidence of winning the elections. They also retaliated by launching an attack against the ruling party. They compared the TRS party to Nizams rule and harped on the unkept promises. Despite indications of a possible alliance between TRS and BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party sharpened its attack on TRS. Claiming that corruption was rampant, the BJP alleged misuse of power over the last four years by TRS. Its undemocratic that the ruling party wants to advance elections, said senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya, while addressing the media along with State leaders K Laxman and Kishan Reddy.What happened to the promise of giving tap water connections to every household? The Chief Minister had himself said he would not ask for votes without giving tap water connections; what happened now? Mission Bhagiratha has achieved only 30 per cent of its target, Dattatreya alleged. Meanwhile, Telangana TDP claimed, rather maintained, it would play the role of kingmaker after polls. People will not like the Nizams rule imposed on them. If you see the manifesto, none of the promises have been fulfilled. It was just lip service, said TTTP president L Ramana, while also claiming that without his party, no party can form the government. The CPI, meanwhile, claimed that the caretaker Chief Minister feared a loss of attention if the elections were to be held next year. He will get more isolated if elections are held next year and thats why he wants it as early as possible, said the partys national general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy. BJP netas demand protection from Guv Hyderabad: BJP leaders seem to be fearing some sort of backlash from KCR in the run-up to the elections. A battalion of 15 saffron party leaders, including K Laxman, Bandaru Dattatreya, G Kishan Reddy, and NVSS Prabhakar, met the Governor on Thursday and submitted a letter to him. In the letter, they elaborated on their apprehensions of autocratic rule by KCR as the caretaker CM. They wanted the Governor to ensure smooth functioning of the State. The care-taker CM and government would have very limited role in actual governance. However, given the nature of the CM, there is every possibility that he would intervene in everything to get his way. As the custodian of the Constitution, especially when there is a caretaker government in the State, you have greater responsibility of protecting the Constitution from the mavericks of the CM, read the letter. We request you to instruct police officers to refrain from booking false cases or keeping opposition party leaders under house arrest on some pretext or the other, it added. By IANS NEW DELHI: Ahead of the full meeting of the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on Friday appeared to hint at the possibility of holding Assembly elections in Telangana along with the polls due in four other states in December this year. ALSO READ: No hiccups: Governor gives instant nod for Telangana House dissolution However, he said it could be difficult if more states decide to go for early polls in view of difficulties in logistics. "The Supreme Court has ruled clearly that in case of the House dissolution, polls should be held on the first occasion because caretaker governments cannot continue and get the advantage. You cannot dissolve the House and continue for six months as a caretaker government," Rawat told media hours before the Commission's meeting on the demand for early election following dissolution of the Telangana Assembly on Thursday. "Elections have to be held as soon as possible. A decision will be taken keeping in mind various court rulings on the issue and prevailing ground reality," the CEC said adding that the Commission holds poll within the legal framework to ensure they are free, fair and credible. Assembly elections are due in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram later this year. The term of the Telangana Assembly was ending on June 19, 2019 but the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government chose to dissolve it, seeking early polls. ALSO READ : TRS announces 105 candidates soon after dissolution of the Telangana Assembly Citing the malfunctioning of the VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines during the recent by-polls in many places, he said the Commission was working to fix the problem. "We are facing one constraint as of now. In many places during the by-polls the VVPAT malfunctioned, somewhere the complaints were about 5 per cent, eight per cent and 11 per cent. The technical committee of the Commission is working to fix the problem in the VVPAT after doing the root analysis of the problem," he said. He also said that the Commission would get the electronic voting machines (EVMs) by September 30 and the VVPATs by November 30. "And as the Commission has committed in the all-party meeting that the elections would be held with the VVPATs... so the elections that are possible within the VVPAT numbers, it won't be any issue for us. "But as you are saying that this (demand for early polls in other states) may spread like an infection, then there will be some problem," Rawat said. The CEC also said that as per Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling, "it is clear that any constitutional institution cannot claim impossible as possible. And as I said if there is any resource constraint then we shall explain it clearly that we are resource-constrained." Donita Jose By Express News Service HYDERABAD: In the 17-year long legal battle against Section 377 of IPC, it was an entourage of Telugus led by lawyer Menaka Guruswamy from Hyderabad and three IIT petitioners from the Telugu states, whose efforts added in getting the draconian law struck down on Thursday. Speaking to Express, one of the IITian petitioners, Akhilesh, who hails from Hyderabad said, It is a very progressive step. A few of the justices also mentioned how the Union of India should now take action in future to initiate sensitisation of police and people. Its very encouraging that they have gone a step ahead and recognised where the real problems are. Akhilesh, 25, a data scientist with a start-up told his parents about his sexual orientation while studying in IIT Madras. It was only in May this year that 20 IITians under the banner of Pravritti approached the Supreme Court to revisit their 2013 judgment that had criminalised unnatural sex. Before this Pravritti was only a secret support group which allowed entry only if one knew one of the members. But now we have a face and stories to the discrimination faced by the LGBTQI community, added Akhilesh. Their pleas were then led by Menaka Guruswamy, a Supreme Court lawyer from Hyderabad. It is a big win. What is most striking is the fact that all the judges, all the four judgments unanimously spoke of Constitutional rights, equality, life and liberty, said Guruswamy, who had moved the courts and the masses with her plea that how strongly must you love, to withstand being an unconvicted felon. However, the Telugu petitioners have been quite reluctant about the kind of response they may receive back home. I grew up in a semi-orthodox joint family in a small town where there was no mention of homosexuality anywhere in media or popular culture, so I always felt there was something wrong with me. Only after I moved to IIT in Chennai could I gain self-acceptance. There needs to be a major positive discourse countering the toxic masculinity fed by movies added Anwesh Pokkuluri, an IIT alumnus from Kakinada. Adding to that, they opined that Hyderabad was not as open to homosexuality as Bangalore or Mumbai. While growing up I also had to deal with my share of depression and anxiety for which I could take intervention when I was at IIT. But I cant imagine how the situation would have been if I was here during that phase. The society, media and popular culture in the Telugu states has been quite backward in those terms and has represented us wrongly, added Akhilesh. By PTI NEW YORK: A 25-year-old bank consultant from Tenali in Guntur district was shot dead in a shoot out in the headquarters of the Fifth Third Bank near Foundation Square in Downtown Cincinnati in United State, reports reaching here said. Pruthvi Raj Kandepi was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in the bank building on Thursday. Kandepi was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank. The other two victims were identified as Luis Felipe Calderon, 48 and Richard Newcomer, 64. Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, they said, adding that the gunman felled in a shootout with officers. India's Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told PTI that the Consulate is in touch with the police, Kandepi's family as well as members of the community. Pruthivi Raj hails from of Tenali and staying at Cincinnati working as a consultant in the bank. His father Gopinadh is working as Deputy Executive Engineer in AP Housing Corporation of Vijayawada. The family members were informed that Pruthvi Raj suffered multiple bullet injuries and died instantly in the shoot out. The Telugu Association of North America (TANA) is making arrangement to send the body to India, sources said. 'Gunman was shot multiple times' The gunman was shot multiple times as four police officers approached him and he died at the scene. According to the Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call around 9:10 a.m. local time about an "active shooter" at the bank. He had a pistol and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, Isaac said, adding that the gunman was not a former or current employee of the bank He had gone to several businesses before going to the bank, he said. Omar Enrique Santa Perez had opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Isaac told reporters at a televised press conference. (With inputs from Express News Service) By PTI NEW DELHI: Iran will handover the strategic Chabahar port to Indian company within a month for operation as per an interim pact, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said Thursday. Akhoundi is in India to participate in the Mobility Summit by Niti Aayog on the invitation of India government. "Now, we are ready just to hand over the port (Chabahar) to the Indian company just to operate this in an interim agreement that already we had with Indian part for one and a half year," Akhoundi told PTI here. The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar. Akhoundi after a meeting with his Indian counterpart Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said: "We have already moved one step forward. We should introduce a banking channel to India, which we already did it and fortunately has been formally accepted by the Indian side". He said India has also introduced a banking channel, which has been approved by Iran's Central Bank. "Indian side had investment in Chabahar port and we are moving towards utilisation of the Chabahar port," Akhoundi said, adding that the handing over of the port should be done "during one monthWe have done everything". The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. "The routes of the region should be connected on land, sea and air," Rouhani had said at the inauguration ceremony. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease. On US sanctions impacting oil trade, the visiting minister hoped to find a way out to continue selling crude oil to India. "Of course, it will impact the trade between the two countries," Akhoundi said, adding the sanctions would not halt oil sale to India. "At the end of the day, both sides will find out some way out to carry on their relationship as we hear from the Indian part that they are already committed to buy the crude oil and we are also committed to continue our trade relationship with India and buy rice and other food material and also industrial material from the Indian side". Iran is India's third biggest supplier of crude oil but US sanctions will from November 3 block payment gateways. "There has been some impact. I will just not say something that is not realistic. Certainly, US has made the trade between the two sides uneasy but I would like to emphasise that this is not something that US can halt and stop this relationship between two sides," Akhoundi added. He said Iran welcomes Indian firms developing the giant Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf nation. "Indian side is very keen to invest there. We are still to receive the project proposal," he said. On his meeting with Gadkari, the Iranian Minister said: "We reviewed the formal statement which was released by Prime Minister Modi during visit of Mr Ruhani to India. That statement is very very strong which shows that. We have very deep relationship". He said the thing that was emphasised in the meeting was that India is very committed to all the agreements that India has signed. By AFP NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's government spokesman will no longer answer phone calls from media, he said Friday, one day after the International Criminal Court ruled it had jurisdiction to investigate crimes against the country's Rohingya Muslim community. Myanmar's reputation has been further battered in the last two weeks with a damning UN report calling for military chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals to be prosecuted for "genocide" after more than 700,000 Rohingya fled a military crackdown last year. The International Criminal Court (ICC) flexed its muscles Thursday with its unprecedented ruling that it had the power to investigate the forced deportation of Rohingya to Bangladesh, even though Myanmar has not signed the statute underpinning the tribunal. Myanmar has stonewalled in response to international criticism, barring journalists and diplomats from visiting the scene of the crackdown except on short, military-chaperoned trips. Communication from authorities is also often slow and scarce, with only one official media spokesman for the entire government. Now even that channel of information is all but drying up. "We won't answer the phone in future," government spokesman Zaw Htay told reporters in the capital Naypyidaw Friday, adding that he will instead hold press conferences every one or two weeks. He had been expected to discuss the ICC's decision, telling AFP on Thursday night that he would answer questions on the matter at the media conference. But he refused to be drawn on the matter Friday, instead saying the government would give an official statement in response "soon". Myanmar has previously rejected any possibility that the ICC could have any jurisdiction over the country. Bangladesh is a signatory, however, and the judges said that the deportation of the Rohingya amounted to a cross-border crime, thereby giving the court the right to pursue the issue further. Its ruling means that the ICC's chief prosecutor can now open a preliminary investigation that could lead to a wider probe and eventually a trial. The ICC ruling followed international outrage triggered by the sentencing of two local Reuters journalists earlier this week for seven years in jail under a draconian state secrets act. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of Rohingya villagers when they were arrested in December last year. Rights groups decried the case as a sham trial in a country where press freedom is shrinking. Zaw Htay declined to comment on the case Friday. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Raking up the Kashmir issue, Pakistan Army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa has reaffirmed Islamabad's support for "self-determination" in Jammu and Kashmir. He also said the Pakistan Army learnt a lot from the 1965 and 1971 wars with India and has made the country's defence impregnable by developing nuclear weapons. Addressing the Defence and Martyrs Day ceremony organised at the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday, attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Bajwa said Pakistan supported the people in Jammu and Kashmir in their "struggle for the right to self-determination". Pakistan observes September 6 as the Defence and Martyrs Day to mark the anniversary of the 1965 war with India. "We have learned a lot from the wars of 65 and 71. We were able to further strengthen our defence forces in the wake of these wars. Despite difficult economic times, we were able to become an atomic power," Bajwa said. "September 6, 1965, is an important day in the history of our nation," he said, adding that Pakistani soldiers jumped into the fiery pits of warfare but did not let the country be harmed. "The bravery shown by our nation during the 1965 war serves as an important lesson and an inspiration to our youth even today," he said. Prime Minister Khan, in his address, said Pakistan will never fight any other country's war in future and his government's foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation. "We will not become part of a war of any other country (in future). Our foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation," he said, apparently referring to the country's involvement in neighbouring Afghanistan. Pakistan was the ally of the United States during the Cold War as it fought the American war with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Khan also praised the Pakistani armed forces for combating terrorism. "No other nation has fought the war on terror like the Pakistan Army," he said. He said role of the security forces and intelligence agencies in making the country safer against all threats was unparalleled. Khan also talked about investing in human capital by sending children to schools and building hospitals and system of merit so that everyone is treated equally on the pattern of first Muslim state of Medina. "The government will bring meritocracy and transparency in all sectors by following the golden principles of state of Medina," he said. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Friday to return Rs 2 million submitted as surety bonds in the murder case of veteran Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, citing his acquittal in the case. In January 2016, an anti-terrorism court acquitted 75-year-old Musharraf in the 2006 Bugti murder case. Dubai-based Musharraf's lawyer in the petition in the Supreme Court said since the former army chief has been acquitted in the case, the bond money should be returned, Geo news reported. The Supreme Court constituted a three-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam. The petition's hearing was fixed for September 12. Musharraf had submitted two bail bonds worth Rs 1 million each, following which, his bail was approved. Musharraf has been residing in Dubai since March 2016 after leaving the county on medical grounds. He is facing a high-profile treason case and has been declared absconder due to his persistent failure to appear before the special trial court set up to try him in the case. Home Just In What after a British degree in Nepal? These graduates answer your FAQs In the past, getting a foreign degree in Nepal was a pipe dream for Nepali students. But now, many colleges such as Islington College in Kathmandu, provide foreign degrees to students. But what do the graduates to after finishing college? Its a question many students interested in getting a foreign degree ask. We caught up with some of the graduates of Islington College to ask them these questions. We talked to Angkit Thapa Magar (AM), Web Developer at Monash University (Batch of 2012, BSc Hons Computing), Tridev Gurung (TG) ,Vice President of Configuration Management at the Bank of New York Mellon (Batch of 2012, BSc Hons Computing), Raman Pradhananga (RP), System & Network Engineer at Verscend Technologies (Batch of 2016) Anushka Baral, Data Analyst at Barclaycard US (Batch of 2016, BSc Hons Computing) and Vijay Limbu Senihang (VL), Co-Founder and CTO of Rigo Technology. What are the benefits of getting an International degree? What has been your experience like in the job market? AM: At most renowned universities, international degrees tend to keep their modules updated as per current trends and experiences. In order to be labelled as a ready to work graduate, one needs to have practical knowledge. Only international degrees can provide you this. Having said that students must also be equally competent to grab opportunities. As per my experiences in the job market, I believe its a combination of technical skills (50%), communication skills (40%) and a good degree (10%) can lead you towards success. A graduate from reputed university is always well recognised everywhere. TG: First and foremost, I would like to say that a degree is not just about getting a job. The international degree I received from Islington helped me see a whole new world. Today, after overcoming many hurdles, I believe I have the skills to compete in this market. The international degree provided a unique blend of opportunity and flexibility to shape and frame skills according to my strengths and interests. RP: An international degree prepares you for an international workplace, develop valuable life skills, strengthen leadership, widen your perception, advance your career and grow as a person. These skills prepare you as an industry-ready graduate. AB: The major asset of having an international degree is its global recognition. It is an eye candy for many recruiters and interviewers. VG: The benefits of getting an international degree is that you will be unique in the Nepal market. An international degree will help you to boost your CV. 2. Do you think the course you took prepared you for the job market in Nepal and abroad? AM: Yes, to some extent. As a student, while I was trying to figure out my interest, it certainly helped to carve my pathway to where I am now. After graduating from Islington, I worked for two years before applying for my Masters. This certainly helped to boost my confidence to compete for jobs in international arena. TG: The London Metropolitan Universitys course structure helped me hone my skills. No idea was ever too big, and that turned out to be the foundation on which I am able to live my life today. RP: Several classes, case studies, projects, extracurricular and social activities based on the real world have provided me the ability to accomplish things efficiently. AB: Yes, it definitely did. The degree focused on practical learning and skill development. Along with academics, platforms such as Battle Brainstorm, The Idea, Internship in Business Development Department, among others, shaped me well to be confident enough to take upon any challenges and opportunities in the job market worldwide. VG: Yes, since the course was updated and was as per the market demand, it has helped me to work in the real world. 3. Do you think you received more opportunities for career growth because you had an international degree? AM: I dont think one would excel in life and career wise just by pursuing an international degree. As I mentioned earlier, various other factors play a vital role. For me, the degree provided a platform from where I could strengthen my knowledge and skills. TG: For me it was always Computer Science. I knew I wanted to major in software engineering/project management, so I set my sights on London Metropolitan Universitys course structure. I still remember landing my first internship job within no time at Cloud Factory. RP: An international degree has helped me stand out from the crowd and face challenges of the market. AB: I believe your career growth depends on your, knowledge and dedication. I received an overwhelming response to my internship and full-time applications. Having worked for three major companies in the US, I must say that along with my graduate degree, the experience and skills I built from my undergraduate program were the ingredients of my success. VG: Definitely, being a graduate from international university and having an international degree is a plus point. Being in Nepal, I received a a job offer from Amazon, Sydney, and other various international companies. 4. Did you face any problem enrolling in a Nepali University after completing your international degree? AM: Yes, I faced compatibility issues when pursuing a degree at a Nepali university. Im not sure whats the current situation. But I believe one would definitely prefer to continue their higher education at a globally-recognised university. TG: Im looking forward to do a PhD in Computer Science. I havent tried, but I believe the degree already has been recognised by Nepali universities such as TU. RP: In-fact, I am studying EMBA at WhiteHouse College, which is affiliated to Purbanchal University. They were really happy to welcome students with international degrees. AB: I directly applied for masters degree in the US after graduating from Islington. Hence, I do not have an experience involving enrollment in a Nepali university. VG: Yes, Nepali universities discriminate against grads with international degrees. But that is not an issue, 5. Do you think your investment in an international degree is giving you satisfactory returns in monetary terms? AM: Yes, definitely. Considering the time and moneys worth, Im glad that I joined Islington College to pursue an international degree. TG: Just like Ive been mentioning before, having an international degree has it perks. Quality education makes us capable of interpreting things better. Education has its price everywherebut the only thing more expensive than investing in education is not investing in education. RP: The best investment anyone can make in their life is to invest in their education because it helps you develop valuable life skills. AB: Personally, in the present context, it is more than just satisfactory. I agree that investment in an international degree is comparatively higher. However, it unwrapped a wider career platform for me. VG: Having an international degree is more than an investment. It is a golden opportunity to boost your career. By UNI WASHINGTON: There is "lots of evidence" that chemical weapons are being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib in northwest Syria, the new U.S. adviser for Syria said on Thursday, as he warned of the risks of an offensive on the country's last big rebel enclave. "I am very sure that we have very, very good grounds to be making these warnings," said Jim Jeffrey, who was named on Aug 17 as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's special adviser on Syria overseeing talks on a political transition in that country. "Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation," Jeffrey told a few reporters in his first interview on the situation in Syria since his appointment. "There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared." The White House has warned that the United States and its allies would respond "swiftly and vigorously" if government forces used chemical weapons in the widely expected offensive. Jeffrey said an attack by Russian and Syrian forces, and the use of chemical weapons, would force huge refugee flows into southeastern Turkey or areas in Syria under Turkish control. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has massed his army and allied forces on the frontlines in the northwest, and Russian planes have joined his bombardment of rebels there, in a prelude to a possible assault. The fate of the insurgent stronghold in and around Idlib province rests on a meeting to be held in Tehran on Friday between the leaders of Assad's supporters Russia and Iran, and the rebels' ally, Turkey. "We will find out to some degree tomorrow if the Russians are willing to come to a compromise with the Turks," Jeffrey said. Backed by Russian air power, Assad has in recent years taken back one rebel enclave after another. Idlib and its surroundings are now the only significant area where armed opposition to Damascus remains. Jeffrey described the situation in Idlib as "very dangerous" and said Turkey was trying to avoid an all-out Syrian government offensive. "I think the last chapter of the Idlib story has not been written. The Turks are trying to find a way out. The Turks have shown a great deal of resistance to an attack," he said. He said the United States had repeatedly asked Russia whether it could "operate" in Idlib to eliminate the last holdouts of Islamic State and other extremist groups. Asked whether that would include U.S. air strikes, Jeffrey said: "That would be one way." There was periodic cooperation between the United States and Russia against the same jihadist groups operating in Idlib until mid-2017. DIPLOMATIC INITIATIVE As sides close in on the remaining jihadist forces operating in Syria, Jeffrey said it was time for a "major diplomatic initiative" to end the seven-year conflict. There was a "a new commitment" by the administration to remain in Syria until Islamic State militants were defeated, while ensuring Iran left the country, he added. While President Donald Trump had signaled that he wanted U.S.forces out of Syria, in April he agreed to keep troops there a little longer. Trump will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iran during an annual gathering of world leaders in New York later this month. The meeting will focus on Iran's nuclear program and its meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen. France has invited the United States, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Britain for talks on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting to discuss Syria, Jeffrey said. He said Assad "has no future as a ruler" in Syria, but it was not up to Washington to get rid of him and it would work with Moscow on a political transition. "Right now (the Syrian government) is a cadaver sitting in rubble with just half the territory of Syria under regime control on a good day," Jeffrey said. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. #sexual harassment Ex-boxer sentenced to 6 months in prison for sexual harassment A former world champion boxer was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday on charges of sexually harassing a woman at a Seoul restaurant earlier this year. The Seoul Central... #stocks Seoul stocks advance on Fed's comments over tapering South Korean stocks advanced Thursday, as the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled "patience" in raising interest rates. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Kore... 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). After 60 Years, 'Unknown Boy' Who Died in Crash Has a Name (Newser) Two women in their 20s were found dead in an apartment across the street from the University of Washington campus in Seattle on Tuesday, Fox News reports. Police say building managers found a seriously wounded woman inside the apartment Tuesday morning, and responding officers arrived to find both women dead. The incident was originally reported as a stabbing, Patch reports, but their causes of death have not yet been officially determined. The medical examiner has also not yet confirmed their identities, but the Bangkok Post IDs them as two close friends from Thailand. Seattle police say there are no outstanding suspects, which could indicate a murder-suicide; according to the Thaiger, there are also reports the apartment was locked from the inside when the women were found. story continues below Per the Post, the women are Kornkamol Leenavarat and Thiti-orn Chotchuangsap. According to her older brother, Leenavarat, 25, had just flown to the US two weeks prior to get her master's degree in law; he says Chotchuangsap was her roommate. Immigration records reportedly show that she, too, had only recently left Thailand. A local official says Leenavarat had called her family every day since leaving for the US, and when they didn't hear from her Saturday, they asked a relative in Seattle to check on her. The relative reportedly could not get in touch with her and ultimately asked the building manager to do a welfare check after the family also learned she had been absent from class. The Nation notes that Leenavarat's family is well-known in their Thai province due to some members being local politicians. (Read more Seattle stories.) (Newser) Jordan Belliveau spent some 15 months with foster parents Sam and Juliet Warren. During that time, Sam Warren told reporters Wednesday, Jordan learned to roll over and crawl, how to walk and talk. "We loved Jordan deeply," he said. Jordan was returned to his birth mother earlier this year. On Sunday, Inside Edition reports, she reported him missing. On Tuesday, investigators found the 2-year-old's body. His birth mother, Charisse Stinson, 21, has been arrested for allegedly killing her son and leaving his body in a wooded area in Largo, Fla., WFLA reports. "We are devastated by his loss, but for a court order, he would still be safe in our home," said Warren, who along with his wife, had reportedly hoped to adopt Jordan. story continues below "Jordan was failed by the system," Warren said. Authorities say Stinson has admitted to killing her son, per WFTS, saying that she struck the boy in the face out of frustration, causing his head to hit a wall. After a night of seizures, she reportedly told police, she took Jordan to the woods and left him. Initially, Stinson had told police that a man named Antwan on Saturday night offered her and Jordan a ride. Then Antwan knocked her unconscious, and when she awoke at Largo Central Park, Jordan was missing. That story, police now say, was a lie. Now community members are asking why Jordan was returned to Stinson, per WFLA, which adds that a caseworker saw Jordan the day before Stinson reported him missing. An investigation is underway. " We hope that Jordans loss will lead to a change to protect other children in the system," Warren said. (Read more Florida stories.) (Newser) A Brazilian presidential candidate who has campaigned on getting tough on violent crime was stabbed in the guts while mixing with the public at a rally Thursdayand analysts say it could secure his victory. Jair Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old whose divisive, right-wing policies have earned him the nickname "Brazil's Trump," was hospitalized in serious condition after he was stabbed at the rally in Juiz de Fora, 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, the Guardian reports. Doctors say he suffered intestinal injuries after being stabbed below his bulletproof vest and will be in the hospital for at least a week. The suspected attacker, 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, was arrested within moments. story continues below "Our agents there said the attacker said he was 'on a mission from God,'" Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police, tells the AP. "Their impression is that they were not dealing with a mentally stable person." Bolsonaro has angered manyand faces criminal chargesfor his attacks on women, black people, gays, and others, but polls suggest he could win the first round of voting on Oct. 7. Polls say former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could beat Bolsonaro, but he's in prison on corruption charges and a court rejected his candidacy last week. It's a "surreal situation," writes the BBC's Katy Watson, who notes that Bolsonaro becoming a victim of violent crime "plays into the hands of his supporters." (Read more Brazil stories.) (Newser) And the winner is not the new Oscars category. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a slew of changes last month to its annual awards show, among them a new "outstanding achievement in popular film" category meant to reward films perhaps not critically acclaimed but still able to draw big crowds. Not many details on voting or eligibility came with the announcement, but it was enough to cause an outcry, and that outcry has made an impact. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the academy said Thursday the new category will be postponed and won't debut at the 91st awards show on Feb. 24 so it can "examine and seek additional input." The group said in a statement that "the Academy recognized that implementing any new award nine months into the year creates challenges for films that have already been released," the BBC reports. story continues below But it wasn't just the timing that rankled some. The announcement met resistance from detractors who said hit movies that are also critically acclaimedchief among them Black Panthercould lose steam for a best picture award if they were also thrown into the "popular" film category. Advocates for the move say it would spur more of the general public to watch the awards show, which has seen a nearly 40% viewership decline over the past four years. The New York Times' sources say that at a Tuesday night meeting of the academy's 54-member board, Laura Dern was steadfast in her opposition to the new category; Steven Spielberg, who is described as a board member with "enormous influence," was reportedly "uncomfortable with plans to introduce [it] at the coming Oscars." (Read more Oscars stories.) (Newser) Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that the president wouldn't answer any questions about obstruction of justice from Robert Mueller's team. Speaking first to the AP, President Trump's lawyer said questions, in writing or in person, about whether Trump tried to stymie the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election were a "no-go" and "not going to happen." But Giuliani was less steadfast in later comments to NBC News, saying that Trump's team has agreed to provide written answers to "collusion/pre-presidential questions with no agreement to any post-presidential questions," including on obstruction, which are "not ruled in or out" but a matter to be debated after the first interview. story continues below "I thought we were close to having an agreement until they came back with, 'You have to agree now that you'll allow a follow-up,'" Giuliani told Reuters. "We've said no, and let's see how they deal with it." In discussing the possibility of a second round of questioning, Giuliani told the AP, "If you want to follow up on our answers, justify it. Show us why you didn't get there the first time." The months-long negotiations are ongoing. Trump has previously expressed a desire to sit for an interview with Mueller, though his lawyers have advised against it. According to Bob Woodward's new book Fear: Trump in the White House, former White House lawyer John Dowd told Trump in March that such a move would result in imprisonment and perjury charges, per the Hill. (Read more President Trump stories.) (Newser) Maryland prosecutors say they prepared a very strong case against Tyler Tessier that would surely have sent him to prison for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend last yearbut they don't need it anymore. Tessier was found hanged in his cell at Montgomery County Correctional Facility on Thursday, the morning his three-week trial was set to begin, the Baltimore Sun reports. "Today was his reckoning, prosecutor John McCarthy told reporters. "He took the cowardly way out." McCarthy said the evidence against Tessier was "overwhelming." Tessier, 33, was accused of shooting girlfriend Laura Wallen, 31, after luring her to a remote field. She was four months pregnant with his child. story continues below Wallen, a popular high school teacher, was reported missing when she didn't show up for the first day of classes last year. Her body was found more than a week later. Prosecutors say the "manipulative" Tessier was secretly engaged to another woman and living a double life, reports the Washington Post. "He knew today it was all going to crush down on him," McCarthy said. "He killed the woman he pretended to love and took the life of his own child," he said. Laura's mother, Gwen Wallen, called Tessier "diabolical." "As awful as today is, I feel at peace," she said. (Wallen's parents knew he was a suspect when he appeared at a press conference with them and pleaded for her safe return.) (Newser) An American scientist and her 3-year-old son are in critical condition after they were attacked by a giraffe near their home in South Africa. Katy Williams, 35, and her 3-year-old son Finn were 450 feet from their home in Blyde Wildlife Estate near the town of Hoedspruit when they surprised a female giraffe with a two-month-old calf around 6pm Monday. Returning from a trail run, 36-year-old British scientist Sam Williams found his wife and son being trampled and was able to chase the giraffe away, the family's lawyer tells the Guardian. A source at the Blyde Wildlife Estate describes the pair as "very badly injured" and "covered in blood," per the Sun. "You can imagine the trauma [Sam] felt." story continues below Airlifted to a Johannesburg hospital, Finn underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on the brain and may have brain damage, a relative tells the Sun. His mother underwent an "operation to attend to multiple injuries" early Thursday, the lawyer says in a statement. "Both mother and son are still in a critical but stable condition. The family said that they have decided to take one day at a time and to remain positive." Sam Williamswho, like his wife, has post-PhD experience in an animal-related field"understands the giraffe saw his wife as a threat to her young one" and regards the attack as an "unfortunate act of nature," the statement adds. (A giraffe killed a South African film director this year.) (Newser) There was a health scare at Philadelphia International Airport Thursday after two separate American Airlines flights from Europe arrived with sick passengersthe day after an Emirates plane was quarantined at JFK because of passenger illness. The Philadelphia flights arrived from Munich and Paris but as with the Emirates flight, some of the passengers with flu-like symptoms were returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where there has been an outbreak of flu, NBC Philadelphia reports. Officials say all 250 passengers and crew on the Philadelphia flights were held for a medical review out of an "abundance of caution," reports Reuters. story continues below The CDC says it worked with local health officials to "evaluate and test the ill passengers for influenza and other respiratory illnesses." The agency says 12 passengers "reported sore throat and cough; none were identified with fever." Nobody was hospitalized and the 12 passengers who were tested for flu have now been released. As for the Emirates flight, authorities say 11 passengers on the flight from Dubai were hospitalized and treated for influenza or other common respiratory diseases, the New York Times reports. The mayor's office says the passengers will be kept in the hospital as a precaution until they know the results of tests for other viruses. (Vanilla Ice says it was "chaos" on the quarantined plane.) (Newser) Microwave weapons? That's the latest theory being floated to explain the mysterious ailments suffered by staffers at the American embassy in Cuba. But now a pioneering scientist in that field thinks the ideabased on a principle called the microwave auditory effectis bogus. Kenneth Foster is a professor of bioengineering at Penn who explained the auditory effect in a 1974 study. At Scientific American, he assesses what's known about the Cuban ailments and lays out why it's "wildly implausible" that microwaves are to blame. For one thing, any such weapon powerful enough to cause brain damage would almost certainly burn the victims, too, and that didn't happen. Instead, Foster suggests that a much simpler explanation is likely. story continues below "It is reasonable to guess the sounds were inadvertently produced by ultrasound devices, possibly even spytech, but without malicious intent against the embassy personnel," he writes. Foster cites this earlier investigation from the AP revealing the sounds that the victims are believed to have heard, and he says the sounds are consistent with ultrasound devices interacting with each other. It makes sense to him that the Cubans might have been trying to listen in on Americans with these relatively common gizmos. "The incidents occurred about the time of the 2016 US election, and the Cubans undoubtedly were desperate for intelligence about US intentions." A Cuban scientist, meanwhile, agrees that the microwave theory is far-fetched. "First, it was sonic weapons, now microwave," he told CNN. "What's next, kryptonite?" (Read more Cuba stories.) (Newser) "Right now, there are more questions than answers." That's what Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall told reporters Friday when updating them about a shooting in which it appears an officer entered the wrong unit in her apartment complex and killed a man who was inside, NBC reports. Authorities investigating the Thursday night shooting, which claimed the life of 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean, aren't the only ones with questions. "How can you make a mistake like that, getting into someone else's apartment," a resident of the apartment complex asks, speaking to Dallas News. "Don't they train police?" The female officer, who is on leave and has not yet been named, now faces a manslaughter charge, according to reports. story continues below Authorities took blood samples from the officer to test for alcohol and drugs, and the Texas Rangers will conduct an independent investigation in the "different and very unique situation," Hall said during her press conference. According to reports, the officer who shot Jean was returning home, in full uniform, when she encountered the man in an apartment. Any interaction they had is not clear. After the officer shot Jean, she called 911. Jean died later at a hospital. Jean, originally from the island of St. Lucia, came to the US to study at the Christian Harding University in Arkansas, per NBC, where he is remembered as "always friendly, always smiling." After graduating in 2016, he got an internship with PwC in Dallas. "My brother is my best friend," Jean's sister tells NBC. "My heart is broken beyond repair." (Read more police shooting stories.) (Newser) Barack Obama has largely refrained from criticizing his successor, but that changed Friday in a speech at the University of Illinois. Some of the big lines from the speech, which is expected to be a theme of Obama's on the campaign trail before the midterms, as cited in the Washington Post, CNN, the New York Times, and Politico: It did not start with Donald Trump, Obama said, citing efforts by the "powerful and privileged" to divide the nation. He is a symptom not the cause. Hes just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years, the fear and anger thats rooted in our past. "We're supposed to stand up to discrimination, and we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers," he said, a reference to Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year. "How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?" The claim that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly arent following the presidents orders, this is not a check on Trump, he said, referring to this week's anonymous op-ed. Im serious here. Thats not how our democracy is supposed to work. Theyre not doing us a service by actively promoting 90% of the crazy stuff thats coming out of this White House and then saying dont worry were preventing the other 10%. story continues below "It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents. Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. Im not making that up. Thats not hypothetical." None of this is conservative, Obama said. Its not conservative. It sure isnt normal. Its radical. Its a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters. "Im here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who we are, what it is that we stand for," Obama said. "As a fellow citizen, not as an ex-president, Im here to deliver a simple message, which is that you need to vote, because our democracy depends on it." (Read more Barack Obama stories.) (Newser) George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, was sentenced to 14 days in prison Friday by a judge who said he had placed his own interests above those of the country, the AP reports. Papadopoulos, the first campaign aide sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation, said he was "deeply embarrassed and ashamed" for having lied to FBI agents during an interview last year and acknowledged that his actions could have hindered their work. "I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption," Papadopoulos said. The punishment was far less than the maximum six-month sentence sought by the government but also more than the probation that Papadopoulos and his lawyers had asked for. story continues below U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said that Papadopoulos' deception was "not a noble lie" and that he had lied because he wanted a job in the Trump administration and didn't want to jeopardize that possibility by being tied to the Russia investigation. "In some ways it constitutes a calculated exercise of self-interest over the national interest," the judge said. Defense lawyer Thomas Breen said his client was affected by Trump's cries of "fake news" ahead of the interview with the FBI and was torn between wanting to cooperate with investigators and wanting to remain loyal to the president. "The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could," Breen said. (Read more George Papadopoulos stories.) New Delhi: The government is mulling strategic sale of Air India subsidiary AIATSL to raise funds and help cut debt of the national carrier, according to official sources. Strategic sale of Air India Air Transport Service (AIATSL), which provides ground handling services, is being planned as part of the turnaround scheme for Air India which is reeling under a debt burden of Rs 48,000 crore at end of March 2017. The official sources said the strategic sale of AIATSL is in the works. ALSO READ: Record hike in fuel prices, petrol above 87 in Mumbai, 79.99 in Delhi The Expression of Interest (EoI) for bidders would be floated soon after the GoM clears the EoI, the sources told PTI. The stake sale plan follows the decision of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley led ministerial panel in June to make the airline competitive, but cutting down debt and raising resources by selling land assets and other subsidiaries. The Group of Ministers (GoM) had decided to revive Air India after the governments offer to sale 76 per cent stake in the airline failed to attract any bidder earlier this year. The government had originally proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players. The buyer would have had to take over Rs 24,000 crore debt or the carrier along with over Rs 8,000 crore of liabilities. However, the stake sale failed to attract any bidders when the bidding process got completed on May 31. ALSO READ: British Airways account hacked, details of 380,000 bank cards stolen In June, the GoM then decided not to go ahead with Air India stake sale in an election year. As per latest data, in 2016-17, two subsidiaries of Air India ? AIATSL and Air India Express Ltd ? posted profits. While AIATSL earned Rs 61.66 crore profit in 2016-17 fiscal, another subsidiary AI Express earned Rs 297 crore as profit. Some of the other subsidiaries of Air India include Air India Charters Ltd, IAL Airport Services Ltd, Airline Allied Services Ltd, Air India Engineering Services Ltd and Hotel Corporation of India Ltd. Besides, catering services provider AISATS a 50:50 joint venture between Air India and SATS Ltd too posted profit of Rs 66.06 crore in 2016-17. AIATSL was incorporated in June 2003 with the objective of carrying on the business of providing all types of services at airport. Under the administrative control of Ministry of Civil Aviation, AIATSL is 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India. The company is engaged in the business of providing repairing, maintaining, servicing, refurbishing providing engineering services of and for aircraft. Industrial / Business operations of AIATSL include rendering airport ground handling services, including passenger, ramp, security and cargo handling for Air India. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on Union Bank of India for failing to detect and report fraud on time. This is to inform that Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 million on the bank for delay in detection and reporting of fraud. The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under ...Banking Regulation Act, Union Bank of India said in a regulatory filing Friday. Also Read | MOVE: PM Modi pitches for clean kilometres to fight climate change RBI had issued a show cause notice to the bank on January 15, 2018 asking why a penalty not be imposed on Union Bank of India under the Act. Subsequently, the bank had replied to the regulator on February 1, followed by representations on oral submission during personal hearing on April 14 before the Committee of Executive Directors of the RBI. Read More | Record hike in fuel prices, petrol above 87 in Mumbai, 79.99 in Delhi The reply as well as oral submission made by the bank in the personal hearings and also additional documents furnished have not been found adequate by RBI leading to imposition of penalty of Rs 10 million, UBI said. However, the bank said that the amount of the penalty is not material considering the size of the bank. The bank further said it received communication from RBI on imposition on penalty on September 6. The bank has taken necessary preventive measures and has implemented a comprehensive corrective action plan to strengthen internal controls and to ensure that such incidents do not recur, it added. Stock of Union Bank traded 0.06 per cent up at Rs 83.15 on BSE. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Delhi Police Special Cell on Friday arrested two suspected terrorists associated with Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) from the Inter-State Bus Terminus at Kashmiri Gate, near Red Fort, official sources said. Also Read | Delhi Congress to hold Halla Bol rally against illegal sealing The police said that they recovered advanced weapons including imported pistols from the two accused, identified as Pervez Ahmed Lone and Jamshed, who hail from Jammu and Kashmirs Shopian district. Also Read | Suspected militants attack security forces in Srinagar According to the police, both the men are engineering students and were well versed with the areas of Delhi. "Delhi was being used as a transit point, they had no plans for Delhi," the police said at a news conference. They were associated with ISJK, the terror outfit influenced by Islamic State ideology (ISIS)," the police added. (With PTI inputs) Mumbai: BJP MLA Ram Kadam, under fire over his "will kidnap girl" remarks, was caught on the wrong foot again Friday after he tweeted that Bollywood actor Sonali Bendre was no more, only to retract it after realising that the news was not true and facing a massive backlash. Also Read | Gay Sex: Why is the land that has 'Manusmriti' and 'Kama Sutra' celebrating it today? Bendre is currently undergoing treatment for cancer in the US. Kadam tweeted in Marathi that "Bollywood and Marathi diva" Sonali Bendre "has passed away in America" and condoled her demise. After he was trolled for believing a baseless rumour, he deleted the message. He posted another tweet, saying, "About Sonali Bendre ji, it was rumour for the last two days. I pray to god for her good health and speedy recovery." Also Read | Bigg Boss 12: Not Salman Khan, THIS actor was first choice to host the show Bendre revealed in July that she has been diagnosed with a "high-grade cancer" and is undergoing treatment in the US. On Monday, Kadam sparked off a storm of protest with his remarks at a Dahi Handi (Janmashtami) celebration in Mumbai. A video clip showed him saying that youngsters often seek his help after girls reject their proposals. "Come with your parents. What will I do if your parents approve. I will kidnap the girl and hand her over to you," he was heard telling the crowd. New Delhi: Shahrukh Khan, the Bollywood superstar, faces fatwa. The fatwa was declared against SRK for celebrating Janmashtami at his residence Mannat in Mumbai, according to reports. According to the Ulema, it is forbidden for a Muslim to celebrate Hindu festival, and the fatwa stands true. The "Zero" actor has always celebrated every festival with his family, be it Eid, Diwali, or Ganesh Chaturthi, with utmost enthusiasm and the spark has been inspiring the youth for many years. The actor has made it a ritual to grace his fans, who crowd outside 'Mannat' for hours, on every occasion possible. Janmashtami, the celebration of Lord Krishnas birth, was observed on September 3 with great fervour across the country. Also Read | I didnt direct Laila Majnu because shades of the story in my earlier films: Imtiaz In Delhi, thousands of devotees thronging temples in the rain-lashed national capital and offering prayers on the occasion. Colourful tableaux depicting the story of Lord Krishnas birth were displayed at Janmashtami Park in Punjabi Bagh and other areas. In residential areas, cultural groups displayed special Jhankis of Lord Krishna. Read More | Rahul Gandhi on Kailash Mansarovar high: 'Gentle, tranquil and calm' photos silence critics For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor and wife Mira Rajput were blessed with a baby boy on Thursday. The actor took to Twitter on Friday to announce the name of this little munchkin. Zain Kapoor is here and we feel complete. Thank you for all the wishes and blessings. We are overjoyed and so grateful. Love to all. aiY, wrote the Padmaavat actor. Also Read | Shahid and Mira welcome baby boy and fans are suggesting names already! On Thursday, wishes started pouring on to the Kapoor family, when the birth of Shahids second child was announced. The baby was born at Hinduja Hospital in Khar, Mumbai. Zain Kapoor is here and we feel complete. Thank you for all the wishes and blessings. We are overjoyed and so grateful. Love to all. aiY Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) September 7, 2018 While the actor and his family were busy with the celebrations of the new baby, Shahids social media accounts were hacked on Thursday. Later, Shahid posted an Instagram story that read, Hey guys, thank you for the wonderful wishes. My Instagram and Twitter had been hacked. Just got Insta back my team working on sorting Twitter. So please, know its not me and avoid ANY INTERACTION. Also Read | Shahid Kapoor's Instagram and Twitter handles hacked for an hour; Restored now Before sharing the good news with the Twitterati, Shahid tweeted, Hey guys, finally I am back on twitter. Yes it was hacked. Kindly ignore any communication that came from my handle in the last 24 hours. Y Hey guys, finally I am back on twitter. Yes it was hacked. Kindly ignore any communication that came from my handle in the last 24 hours. Y Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) September 7, 2018 On the work front, the actor is riding high on the promotions of his next release Batti Gul Meter Chalu. Also starring Shraddha Kapoor and Yami Gautam, the film will hit the theatres on September 21. The team of News Nation wishes a hearty congratulations to Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput on the birth of little Zain! For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Los Angeles: Actor Boyd Holbrook, who plays the lead role in the new Predator film, is a fan of the original that came in 1987. The original film featured action star Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of an elite military rescue team who encounter an extraterrestrial monster. Holbrook, best known for starring in Hugh Jackman's Logan and in the hit Netflix series Narcos, considers Schwarzenegger's film as one of the great thrillers. "I think it came out when I was six, and I probably watched it when I was about 12 or 10. I thought it was terrifying. Yeah, it's pretty terrifying," Holbrook said in a statement. "I think it was also just one of the great thrillers like Bloodsport, Rambo, all those sorts of macho films of that time," he added. Also Read | Anne Hathaway to receive Human Rights award The 37-year-old actor also shed a light on his character Quinn McKenna in the Shane Black-directed film. "McKenna, he's ex-Special Forces. He's basically doing contract work. Probably not a lot really to live for in the sense that he's very detached from his son. He's estranged from his wife. We find him in Mexico and he's got these objects on him after a mercenary job has gone wrong. He's found all this Predator gear, these gauntlets, and these de-cloaking things," Holbrook said. "He has to team up with these guys who in some ways have been kind of rejected and are all suffering from some form of PTSD. They call themselves 'the Loonies' and they're a throwback to the team from the 1987 movie," he added. Also Read | Avril Lavigne teases music comeback The Predator, which is being distributed in India by Fox Star Studios, will release on September 13, one day before it hits the theatres in the US. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Congress on Friday posed a challenge to haters of Rahul Gandhi, currently on a yatra to Kailash Mansarovar, and asked whether they can keep up with him after union minister Giriraj Singh mocked at pictures of him with some pilgrims and called it photo-shopped. BJPs Mahila wing national in-charge of social media Priti Gandhi and Akali leader and legislator in Delhi Manjinder Singh Sirsa also poked fun of Gandhi over his pictures. Also Read | Delhi Congress to hold Halla Bol rally against illegal sealing of household industries The Congress later posted on Twitter a picture of a smiling Gandhi posing in front of Mount Kailash, considered the abode of Lord Shiva, along with details of his trekking details compiled by popular fitness mobile app fitbit. The fitbit data showed Gandhi having travelled 46,433 steps, 203 floors, 34.31 kms over 463 minutes, while burning 4,466 calories. Leaving all the haters behind, Congress President Rahul Gandhi sets the pace during his Kailash Yatra. Can you keep up? the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. These are Photoshopped. The reflection of the stick is missing, Singh had earlier tweeted, along with a picture of Gandhi will a fellow pilgrim also on the Kailash Yatra. Sirsa accused Gandhi of stealing the picture from Google and said people will not forgive him for speaking a lie even on Kailash Yatra. Also Read | Rahul Gandhi on Kailash Mansarovar high: 'Gentle, tranquil and calm' photos silence critics Have seen many who read their speeches written on a page, but have seen for the first time a pilgrim who picks up pictures from Google. Fake Janeyu-dhari Rahul Gandhi has spoken a lie even on the Kailash Yatra. People will not fogive him, he tweeted. Priti Gandhi asked the Congress president whether he was downloading pictures from the internet and tweeting them. Rahul Gandhi, Are you downloading pictures from the internet and tweeting? Are you really at Mansarovar or some place else?, she tweeted, while showing similar pictures tweeted by Gandhi available on Google images. Her post was retweeted by BJPs social media incharge Amit Malviya. Hitting back at Singh, Congress spokesperson RPN Singh said the minister has not done anything worthwhile to show to the people and is thus making these kind of statements only to remain in the headlines. Also Read | Smriti Irani: No development in Gandhi family bastion It is unfortunate that the minister without any information is tweeting like this, as he has been doing for the last 4.5 years. He tweets like this to remain in the news. I feel Rahul Gandhi ji is very fortunate to have undertaken the Kailash Yatra as it is done only when the call from Lord Shiva comes. Gandhi is the among the first front-rung leaders of the country to have undertaken the arduous Yatra. Issues of faith should not be linked to politics, he said. The Congress leader also attacked the BJP for using religion for political gains but said they do not understand the true meaning of the Hindu religion. Gandhi is expected to be back from his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra by end of this week. The Congress chief also tweeted a video of the hills on his official Twitter handle and said, Shiva is the Universe. On Thursday as well, Gandhi had posted a picture of Mount Kailash, saying, It is so humbling to be walking in the shadow of this giant. He had earlier put out pictures of the tranquil and calm waters of the lake and said there is no hatred here. 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 had said on Twitter. The 48-year-old leader is undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in accordance with a wish he expressed in April when his plane plunged hundreds of feet during the campaign for the Karnataka polls. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. The plane dipped steeply with violent shuddering, but soon recovered and landed safely. Three days later, on April 29, Gandhi announced during a rally that he wanted to undertake the pilgrimage. The arduous pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which is considered the abode of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology and is in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. Gandhi left the national capital on August 31 for the yatra. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Sheena Bora murder case accused Indrani Mukerjeas bail plea was on Friday rejected by a CBI court in Mumbai. Citing threat to her life, Indrani had applied for bail in August. CBI court judge Judge J C Jagdale, however, rejected her plea. Also Read | Sworn enemies Congress and Telugu Desam come together to take on Telangana strongman KCR The judge said that Indrani would be safer inside the prison and her claims of ill-health which she mentioned in her petition were exaggerated. In her bail plea, Indrani had cited an incident in April when she had to be admitted to a hospital. The court took note of the CBI submission that Indrani is kept in a secure cell as the prison premises are well guarded round-the-clock. Sheena Bora was allegedly killed on April 24, 2012. The crime was revealed by Indranis driver Shyamvar Rai, when he was arrested in another case in August 2015. Also Read | PAAS leader Hardik Patel hospitalised after health deteriorates Rai, Indrani and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna were arrested for alleged murder of Sheena. Her current husband Peter Mukerjea was arrested for allegedly being part of the murder conspiracy. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a chargesheet against journalist Upendra Rai and his associate Rahul Sharma for allegedly extorting Rs 15 crore from a Mumbai-based real estate company, officials said. The officials said that the CBI had not named any tax department official in its charge sheet and has kept the probe open. Also Read | Journalist Upendra Rai sent to 14-day judicial custody The CBI had registered the case on the complaint of one Balvinder Singh Malhotra, Director of Mumbai-based M/s White Lion Real Estate Developers Pvt Ltd. It was alleged that Rai approached Kapil Wadhawan, a relative of the promoters of the company in September 2017, portraying himself as a power broker in the Income Tax Department and threatened action against the builder if payment was not made. Rai had claimed that he had sensitive information from the tax department relating to the raids to be conducted on the companies associated to White Lion, and had threatened that action may be taken against the company under the Benami Act as well. Subsequently, when Wadhawan met Rai at his GK-1 Delhi residence, Rai showed him a bunch of documents of the IT department wherein action was contemplated against various companies, including White Lion. The CBI alleged that Rai demanded huge amount of money to settle the issue with the I-T department and adverse media reporting and said that Rai had claimed that he had contacts in I-T office, Scindia House, Mumbai. Also Read | Delhi Police arrests two suspected ISIS terrorists near Red Fort A sum of Rs 15 crore was paid by the company to Rais HDFC Bank account between October 2017 and April this year, the CBI alleged. The CBI has chargesheeted Rai and Sharma for alleged criminal conspiracy and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had not predicted extremely heavy rainfall for August, the Kerala government on Friday said and rejected the charges by the Congress and the BJP that water released from dams caused the massive floods in the state. The extremely heavy rainfall that the state received between August 9 and 15 was the reason for the floods, Water Resources Minister Mathew T Thomas and Power Minister M M Mani said in a joint press conference in Thiruvananthapuram. Also Read | Centre will provide all possible support to flood-hit Kerala: Nadda However, the government is not blaming the IMD... maybe they also did not expect heavy rains during the period, Thomas said in reply to the Opposition charge that the state had failed to take precautions considering India Meteorological Departments severe weather warning to the state. The Union government had on September 3 refuted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayans statement in the assembly on August 30 that there were lapses in the IMD weather forecast. Alleging that the Opposition was trying to tarnish the LDF governments image by using the calamity as a tool, the ministers rejected the Congress-led UDF Opposition demand for a judicial probe into the circumstances that led to opening of shutters of dams. The demand was politically motivated, Mani said. Mani said over 2,000 land slips and 300 landslides occurred at various places in Idukki district where he belonged, and natural calamities are bound to take place. Also Read | Monsoon rains, floods claim over 1,400 lives in 10 states, says Home Ministry The massive floods in Kerala since the onset of the Southwest monsoon on May 29had left over 491 people dead and caused untold loss across the state. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Rapping the government over the urban homeless issue, the Supreme Court on Friday said the people without shelter cannot be left to fend for themselves and urged implementation of the Grand plans. Housing is a basic need for everybody. When there is a policy of the Union of India, it has to be implemented by all, the Supreme Court said. Also Read | MOVE: PM Modi pitches for clean kilometres to fight climate change The Supreme Court had directed 12 states and union territories to notify the names of civil societies members in their committees to take care of the needs of the urban homeless. For failing to do so, the court slapped fines on these states and UTs and ordered them to deposit the cost within three weeks to the Supreme Court Legal Services Authority. These states and UTs had not yet notified the names, despite the courts order to this effect on March 22, the Supreme Court said. A Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta slapped Rs 1 lakh fine each on Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Goa, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Odisha and Tripura, while a fine of Rs 5 lakh was imposed on Haryana. We make it clear that unless necessary steps are taken by the states/UTs, we have no option but to impose heavy cost particularly since winters are coming and persons without shelter cannot be left to fend for themselves, the bench said. The bench observed the need to take necessary steps in view of the approaching cold season. These people (officials) do not want to work. What is to be done, the bench asked and added You (Centre) come out with grand plans but nobody implements them. Also Read | Section 377 abolished: History owes apology to LGBT people, says SC We require all the states and UTs to formulate a plan of action, if not already done, on or before October 31, 2018. The plan of action will include identification of homeless persons, providing them with some identification, nature of shelter required etc, the court said. The bench directed that this information be provided to the Centre by first week of November. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, told the bench that government officials who were part of the committee were not attending the meetings of the panels in some states and in Rajasthan, the principal secretary had also not attended the meeting. The bench took strong note of this and directed that the members of the committee would have to attend all the meetings of the committee. At the outset, the ASG, appearing for the ministry, told the bench that three meetings of the committee have been convened in Delhi, Karnataka and Puducherry while in Bihar and West Bengal, two meetings have been held. In 23 states and UTs, one meeting of the committee has been held. Also Read | Bhima Koregaon Violence: SC extends house arrest of right activists The ASG said the states and UTs would have to notify it and take appropriate steps to deal with the issue. Initially, the court slapped a cost of Rs one lakh on Haryana, but later the counsel appearing for the state told the bench that they have complied with the courts order. When the court perused the document handed over by the counsel for Haryana, it said that the name of civil society member have not yet been notified. The bench thereafter enhanced the amount of cost imposed on Haryana to Rs five lakh. The Centre had earlier told the court that several states have not yet constituted the committee to deal with the issues of implementation of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM). The apex court had expressed shock that welfare schemes were not being effectively implemented even after spending thousands of crores of rupees on them. Also Read | SC/ST Law: Supreme Court seeks response from Centre on fresh pleas The petitioners had referred to a report of the apex court-appointed committee headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice Kailash Gambhir and said a number of shelter homes in some of the states were much less than what was required. The bench, however, did not fine Kerala and Uttarakhand considering the peculiar circumstances in these two states due to the natural disasters there. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bengaluru: With the outgoing Chief Justice Dipak Misra recommending him for appointment as his successor as per convention, being the senior-most judge after Justice Misras retirement, the decks have been cleared for Justice Ranjan Gogoi to take charge as the next Chief Justice of India on October 3. Formally, the Union Government has to still take a call but for all practical purposes, Justice Gogoi is CJI-designate since Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has indicated that the Modi government will follow convention. ALSO READ: SC Verdict on Gay Sex: Stigma against LGBT community must end In free Indias history, there have been only two instances when the convention was not followed, both during Indira Gandhis premiership. In 1973, Justice A N Rays name was cleared for the CJI, superseding three others, and in 1977 when Justice M H Beg was chosen ahead of Justice H R Khanna who had stood up to the Emergency and the Prime Minister With the acrimony that characterises relations between the Treasury benches and the Opposition in Parliament today any defiance of convention would have disturbed a hornets nest. The Modi government could not but have been piqued at Justice Gogois participation in a media conference with three other senior Supreme Court judges last January to protest CJI Misra ignoring senior judges in allocation of work, but prudently, it seems to have let bygones be bygones. ALSO READ: 2+2 talks: Hope of good beginning in India-US trade ties If Justice Gogois name is finally cleared, he will be the first CJI from the Northeast (he hails from Assam) and he will get a 14-month stint before he retires. Significantly, all the three other judges who participated in the protest media conference---Justice Chelameswar, Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice Madan Lokur---would have retired before January 2019. These being momentous times with general elections only a few months away, if appointed, Justice Gogoi will be watched for how he steers through a difficult period especially on sensitive cases like the Ayodhya title suit, the National Register for Citizenship in Assam, the admissibility of Aadhaar as identity proof, among others. With the no-nonsense reputation that he enjoys he can be expected to eschew political biases though there could be a tendency to question his impartiality considering that his father Keshab Chandra Gogoi was a chief minister under the Congress regime in Assam in 1982. ALSO READ: DMK Family Feud: Miffed Alagiri all out to wreck Stalin's prospects Justice Gogoi would also be judged on how he deals with the contentious issue of appointment of judges which is hanging fire since the last few years. Since the time the National Judicial Accountability Commission was struck down by the apex court, the government has been clamouring for a method of appointment that addresses their concern that the principle of checks and balances has been given the go-by by the judiciary assuming a larger role than the Constitution had envisaged. The new CJI would also be judged by what he does to reduce pendency of cases in courts which has been a cause of much worry in a scenario in which it is recognised widely that justice delayed is justice denied. Another issue would be to root out corruption within the judiciary which is assuming alarming proportions. In general, it would be a big step in judicial reforms if a greater measure of accountability is injected into the system. On allocation of important cases, if one goes by the grievance expressed by Supreme Court senior judges during the media conference, there is a likelihood of PILs and important cases which are now mainly heard by CJI-led bench being spread among 12 or 13 benches. Justice Gogoi is known to be a no-nonsense man and a stickler for rules so there was surprise when he joined three other judges in a show of strength on the non-allocation of work. But that can be dismissed as an aberration. As CJI a degree of restraint would be expected of him. Bengaluru: Politics makes strange bedfellows and for sure in Telangana, the youngest state in the country. Sworn enemies, the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)are secretly talking to come together, along with few other smaller parties, and form a rainbow coalition to take on Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhara Rao also popularly called KCR. Telangana CM and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief Chandrashekhara Raos call for early elections, nine months ahead of scheduled date - May 2019 along with Lok Sabha general elections, has only accelerated the pace of peace talks among enemies the near extinct Congress (in terms of numbers in assemblies and Parliament) and the also ran in TDP. Also Read | DMK Family Feud: Miffed Alagiri all out to wreck Stalin's prospects If KCRs penchant for early polls to prevent these two enemies from getting together was an open secret, so are the talks between the TDP leaders and that of the Congress in the new state to come to an understanding, if not an electoral alliance, to defeat an ineffective and pompous Chief Minister. Clearly, the erstwhile united state of Andhra Pradesh has become the theatre of political realignments with the fledgling Bhartiya Janata Party, buoyed by its standing and muscle as the ruling party at the Centre, making a play for a piece of action in the two states. For the present, the focus is on Telangana, where the TDP as also the Congress leaders on the ground admit that talks are going on and they are hopeful of stitching up a coalition of like-minded forces to oust the KCR and Sons from Telangana. Sources in the Congress and the TDP admit that talks were on for the past several days for an understanding as also to rope in the Left, the Bahujan Samaj Party and other smaller regional parties to pose a serious challenge to KCR in the state. On Friday, Telangana TDP leaders were conferring with AP Chief Minister and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to persuade him to come to an understanding with the Congress as in Telangana the party had considerably weakened in the wake of systematic poaching by KCR. Naidu has called for a formal meeting with party colleagues on Sunday to discuss the issue of having a truck with the Congress in the Telangana assembly polls. Also Read | TRS chief KCR may try to bag Telangana today The Congress is still having a 25 per cent vote share in Telangana and can take on KCR if its hands are strengthened. Sadly, the Congress is a house very badly divided with factional leaders warring with one another. Recently, Rahul Gandhi visited Hyderabad where he drew a very good response. He pleaded with the party men to bury their hatchets and work collectively for victory. But, this is something very easier said than done as the rivalries date back to decades and the waring leaders in Congress prefer to kiss the enemy rather than shake hands with own party colleagues. A senior Congress leader from Telangana told NewsNation, We are fully prepared for the polls and fight on our own. But we are also open for any alliances with like-minded political parties. Other than TRS and BJP, the Congress is not averse to shaking hands with anyone else to save the state from KCR and his family. The Congress leader was convinced that KCR was a bit wary of the Congress as it was reviving itself with the arrival of some leaders who had drifted away from the party earlier. Couple of influential party leaders, who were poached by KCR could return to the Congress fold before the elections. In fact, one of the reasons that goaded KCR to go in for early elections is to reduce preparation time for the Congress and other opposition parties. More important, analysts say, is that his graph was coming down and few more months in the government could have added to the anti-incumbency factor. Similar sentiments were expressed by TDP Telangana leaders, ahead of their meeting with party chief Naidu and which is why this unit is in favour of a tie up with the Congress. Also Read | Modi government on GDP high must take care of pitfalls ahead of polls In Andhra Pradesh, interestingly, TDPs main rival is the Congress, though YSR Congress party leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy is snapping at the heels of Naidu. The TDP was born to fight the Congress and it grew up on the strength of its anti-Congressism and would find it tough to convince the people if it came together now. So, when Naidu takes a call on an alliance or an understanding with the Congress in Telangana, he has to take all these factors into account. But practical compulsions for both the parties could make them forget the past and kiss and make up to beat the common enemy KCR - and dislodge him. Read more OPINION here New Delhi: An Air India (AI) aircraft, carrying over 136 passengers, landed on a wrong runway in Maldives Male airport on Friday, according to an airline official. The A320 plane with 136 passengers and crew on board was flying from Thiruvananthapuram to Male. Also Read | Government working on strategic sale of Air India subsidiary AIATSL The aircraft VT EXL landed on an under-construction runway at Male, a senior Air India official said. The tyres of the plane were deflated and was towed away to the parking bay, the official said. Also Read | Delhi-bound AI flight returns to Milan after passenger tries to enter cockpit An Air India spokesperson confirmed that the aircraft landed on a wrong runway at the airport but did not provide specific details. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Dhaka: Bangladeshi police on Friday shot dead two suspected members of an Islamist group blamed for several attacks in the Muslim-majority country, including the murder of progressive writer-publisher, officials said. The suspects were killed in what police described as "gunfight" in Sreenagar upazila of Munshiganj, bdnews24 reported. Both men in their early 30s were the members of the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militant group, said Nazrul Islam, a district intelligence officer of Munshiganj police. The JMB is said to have links with the Islamic State. Also Read | Air India plane lands on wrong runway at Male airport The police had signalled two motor cyclists to stop around 2am on Sreenagar Highway which they ignored and entered the nearby Chashara KC road, said Additional Superintendent of Police Kazi Maksuda Lima. "Police chased them and they opened fire forcing the police to retaliate. At one point, both of them were shot dead." Two sub-inspectors and a constable of police were also injured in the incident, according to the police. The law enforcement agencies seized 11 handmade bombs, a pistol and two machetes from the scene. "We had information that both of them were involved in the murder of blogger Shahjahan Bachchu." Also Read | Mass grave with 166 bodies unearth in Mexico Abdur Rahman, the key suspect in the murder of Bachchu, died in a shootout with the police in June. On June 11, four unidentified assailants on two motorcycles gunned down Bachchu in the Upazila. The 55-year-old former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh's Munshiganj district unit was a publisher of Bishaka Prokashoni. He was known as a free-thinking writer in his ancestral village Kakaldi. The killing of Bachchu, 60, was the first Islamist attack on a prominent secular figure in two years. Police filed a case against four unidentified persons over the murder. The police said to have retrieved the information of the involvement of two more persons in the murder after interrogating Abdur Rahman, the report said. Also Read | Boris Johnson and Indian-origin wife Marina Wheeler seek divorce The JMB was also blamed for the 2016 attack on a cafe in an affluent Dhaka neighbourhood, in which 18 foreigners and four other hostages were killed. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. paraklisi The Hieromartyr Macarius (Makarii) of Kanev lived in the seventeenth century. This was a most terrible time for Orthodox Christians in western Rus.St. Macarius of Kanev (Feast Day - September 7)The constant struggles of the Hieromartyr were an attempt to defend the Orthodox faith under difficult conditions, when it was possible only to defend the future of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was preserved from the brusque passing of the hurricane of the Unia, endured together with Tatar incursions.Macarius was born in 1605 in the city of Ovruch in Volhynia into the illustrious Tokarevsky family, renowned adherents of Orthodoxy. In the years between 1614-1620 the Saint studied at the Ovruch Dormition Monastery, and upon the death of his parents he became a monk at this monastery, having begun his service as a novice.In 1625 Macarius, with the blessing of the archimandrite, left the Dormition Monastery and was sent to the Bishop in Pinsk, Avramii, who assigned him to the Pinsk Kupyatichsk Monastery. In 1630 he was ordained as hierodeacon, and in 1632 as hieromonk.Fame about the excellence of the monastic life of the hieromonk Macarius spread beyond the bounds of the Kupyatichsk Monastery, and in 1637 the brethren of the Bretsk Symonov Monastery turned with a request to the abbot of the Kupyatichsk Monastery, Hilarion (Denisevich), to send them Saint Macarius to be their head. But the Kupyatichsk abbot also had need of the hieromonk Macarius.In 1637 the head of the Kupyatichsk Monastery sent him to Metropolitan Peter Moghila of Kiev to hand over money collected by the brethren for the rebuilding of Kievs Church of the Holy Wisdom, and for the solicitation of help for the construction and repair of damaged monastery churches. Seeing in the hieromonk Macarius a talented son of Gods Church, the Metropolitan issued him a certificate to collect offerings, and in 1638 appointed him head of the Kamenetsk Resurrection Monastery (in the Grodnensk district).Until the pillaging and seizing of the monastery by the Uniates in 1642, Saint Macarius guided the brethren of the Resurrection Monastery. In these harsh times the brethren of the Kupyatichsk Monastery elected Saint Macarius as abbot, who led the monastery until 1656. From 1656 through 1659, Saint Macarius headed the Pinsk Monastery, and from 1660 as archimandrite Saint Macarius guided the brethren of his original Ovruch Dormition Monastery.More than ten years passed in constant struggle with the Latin Poles in Ovruch. Nothing could compel the brethren to quit the monastery, neither the seizure of the farm lands belonging to the monastery by the Dominicans, nor the rapacious pillaging of moveable property, nor beatings. Only in the year 1671, after the devastation of Ovruch by the Tatars, did the Archimandrite Macarius leave the monastery, in which there remained not a single monk, and he went to the Kiev Caves Lavra.But the defenders of Orthodoxy, like Saint Macarius, were needed not only at Kiev, but even more outside of Kiev. Metropolitan Joseph (Neliubovich-Tukalsky) assigned Archimandrite Macarius as head of the Kanev Monastery. Thus, after thirty years of struggle with the Uniates, Saint Macarius was again on the front lines of battle for the Orthodox faith.In 1672 Yuri, the son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, sought shelter at the Kanev Monastery. The hetman Doroshenko, petitioned Metropolitan Joseph for the assignment of Saint Macarius, and repeatedly visited Kanev Monastery. In 1675, he switched his allegiance to Russia, after he renounced allegiance to the Turks, evidently, not without counsel from Saint Macarius.In response the Turkish powers dispatched an army to Little Russia. On September 4, 1678, the aggressors rushed on the monastery. Saint Macarius met the enemy with cross in hand at the entrance to the church. The Turks demanded that the monk hand over to them the monastery treasury. Hearing the answer of the monk, that his treasure was in Heaven, the furious robbers hung the Saint hand and foot between two posts.After two days they beheaded the Hieromartyr on September 7, 1678. Witnesses to the martyric death of Archimandrite Macarius carried his body to the monastery church, in which they were hidden for safety. But the returning Turks placed firewood around the church and burned everything in the temple. When the surviving citizens of Kanev began removing the bodies of those who perished, then only one body was found whole and as though alive. This was the body of the Hieromartyr Macarius, attired in hairshirt, with a cross on his breast and another cross in his hand. The holy body was buried in this temple beneath the altar on September 8, 1678.The holy Hieromartyr Macarius was a man of highly righteous and spiritual life, glorified while still alive by miracles and the gift of clairvoyance. At Kanev, he healed the blind and the dying.In 1688, during renovation of the temple, the grave of the Hieromartyr was opened, and the incorrupt body of the Saint was found. In connection with the danger of invasion for the Kanev Monastery, on May 13, 1688 the holy relics were solemnly transferred to the Pereyaslavl regimental Resurrection Church. There also they transferred the beloved book of the Hieromartyr, Discourses of John Chrysostom on the 14 Epistles of the holy Apostle Paul (Kiev edition 1621-23) with his signature on one of the page-leafs. Under Bishop Zachariah (Cornelovich) the relics were transferred in 1713 to a newly-built temple of the Pereyaslavl Mikhailovsk Monastery, and after its closing the relics rested at the Pereyaslavl Resurrection Monastery from August 4, 1786.In 1942, the relics were transferred to the Trinity Church in the city of Cherkassa, and from 1965 they have been in the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in that same city.The commemoration of the Hieromartyr Macarius is made twice: September 7, the day of his repose, and on May 13, the transfer of his holy relics. Manama : Parliamentarian Khaled Alshaer has confirmed that he is yet to take a decision on his candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary elections. I will announce it in the right time, said the representative of the second constituency in the Southern Governorate. He, however, said that his chances exceed 80% and is not concerned about the competition in the constituency. Refuting allegations that the performance of the Council of Representatives were weak since the 2010 election, he said: We are the best council since the start of the parliamentary process in terms of the number of laws and the methodology of legislative work. We have evidence of this statistics and figures, not just words. He pointed out that the complaints against the Council came because of the international, regional and Gulf situation (the economic situation). The issue of taxes, he said, is what made people complain about it. However, it had to exist with the economic crisis and the limited resources of the Kingdom. Therefore, the Council cannot be blamed for this situation. This is the case of the majority of the councils in the world. Alshaer also urged all to contribute to the democratic process by ensuring active participation in the upcoming elections, which is also a national duty. Manama : Cloud of Hope Team, led by students of the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) and composed of volunteers from GCC, has concluded its rescue mission in Kerala State, where they provided medical care to flood victims. They marked their visit with tremendous success, added the accomplishments made by the team in their previous missions. Following the success of its first mission in the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania last year, the team worked to help hundreds of children, women, elders and orphans in Kerala, which was hit by floods caused by rain and monsoons. The Cloud of Hope team provided medical care with immunisations and preventive guidelines for infectious diseases in exceptional circumstances. Furthermore, they provided educational support to needy people, orphans and students in a number of rural areas in Kerala and visited some medical centers and orphanages to raise awareness. They also offered essential vaccinations and training in first aid, in addition to conducting basic examinations, providing medicines, school bags and symbolic gifts for children and orphans. Commenting on this initiative, Dr. Amer Al Ansari, President of the Department of Physiology in AGU, said: It was a unique humanitarian experience in which medical students and a number of young volunteers were able to help and assist the needy. This experience adds to their medical record as it was a practical training under difficult and exceptional conditions that are not usually available in the Gulf countries. We as professors and academics are very proud to be able to graduate generations of doctors aware of the sanctity of their profession and its humanitarian mission. AGUs students of medicine are the ones who adopted this wonderful initiative and made individual efforts to provide relief to those in need, motivated by humanity and volunteerism. Yousif Al Tandeel, who launched this initiative, said that the objective of this gesture is to give hope and spread volunteerism culture in every corner. Manama : Bahrain, according to a top expert here, has the right blend of expertise, passion and has the huge potential of becoming a medical-hub in the region, especially when it comes to sickle cell treatment. According to Zakareya Al Kadhem, a leading Bahraini expert and activist and the President of Bahrain Society for Sickle Cell and Anaemia, Bahrain has the right kind of expertise and familiarity to ease the sufferings of sickle cell patients around the globe. Al Kadhem, however, cautioned that there are areas in which the Kingdom need improvement while highlighting the advantages the Island nation had to Tribune. Bahrain, he said, has ample experience in sickle cell treatment as it also houses a comparatively larger patient population when compared to that in other countries around the globe. In many western countries, sickle cell is rare, hence doctors and the hospital staff there dont have the expertise to deal with the condition, he said. This, according to him, gives the Bahraini medical professionals an edge in the field as in most other countries doctors rarely encounter such patients. My brother took treatment here . Sharing a personal story, he recalled how his brother, opted to undergo a surgery in Bahrain despite having had the option to go to Germany for the procedure at no extra cost. Al Kadhems brother suffers from Sickle cell anaemia and needed a surgery to remove his spleen. About two years ago, my brother needed an urgent surgery to remove his spleen. For a normal person, the spleen should weigh around 300 grams, but for him, it was like 5 kilograms. I was given an option to send him to Germany at no additional cost. However, I decided that Bahrain is better for him. Am I saying that medical care in Bahrain is better than in Germany? Its not because Bahrain is more advanced in medicine or technology. Germany is more advanced when it comes to offering better ICU facilities, accessories, and more. What we have in Bahrain is surgeons who know how to deal with the disease, ICU team who knows sickle cell patients, staff who understand us, this is not available in Germany, he told Tribune. Share Bahrain model The time has come around for Bahrain to share its experience with the world. The steps taken here to build medical tourism project could benefit us as well as sickle cell sufferers around the world. This is our advantage, we have it and we can now build on it, Al Kadhem said. Citing statistics, he told Tribune that there are around a million and a half sickle cell patients in the Gulf region alone, while that number shoots up to 127 million when we look at the total patient population all over the world. Bahrain can change their destiny. We have done a lot in terms of studies and most importantly have the experience which we can share it to the world In the Gulf, almost 5 per cent of the population are suffering from sickle cell. Our government is spending a lot to support them not only with medical assistance but also in terms of retirement, employment, social serve etc. We can be a model for other countries. Geneva : Scheduled peace talks in Geneva between Yemens government and Huthi militia hung in the balance yesterday as both sides traded ultimatums and a UN envoy scrambled to mediate. The Houthi delegation, still in Sanaa, insisted the UN must meet a list of conditions before it will travel to Switzerland, prompting government representatives already in Geneva to give the Huthis a 24-hour deadline or it will leave. UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who said the planned meeting offered a flickering signal of hope for an end to the years-long conflict, had to postpone the start of the talks. He continues to make efforts to overcome obstacles to allow the consultations to go forward, his office said in a statement yesterday, adding that Griffiths remained hopeful the rebels would come.The Geneva talks are meant to be the first since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and rebels failed to yield a deal. The Huthis control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, while a Saudi-led coalition which backs Hadis government controls the countrys airspace. Led by Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani, a Yemen government delegation arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday. But on what was meant to be the first day of talks, the Houthis issued an ultimatum from Sanaa yesterday, saying they would not join the talks until the UN meets conditions that include transporting their wounded to Oman for treatment and a guarantee they will be allowed to return home after the talks. The rebels accused the UN of failing to keep promises in this regard. Asked about the Huthi claims, Griffiths said Wednesday: We are working on that. The government delegation said it would wait only another 24 hours, until midday Friday. We have this scheduled meeting since two months ago ... Today we are alone, delegation member Hamza Alkamali told journalists, and claimed theHouthis were making it clear they dont want peace. Riyadh : Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemens Huthi rebels on Wednesday, with shrapnel leaving 26 people wounded, a Riyadh-led coalition fighting the insurgents said. Two children were among the wounded from the missile that was intercepted over the southern Saudi city of Najran, said a coalition statement published by the Saudi state media. The Iran-backed Huthis have in recent months ramped up missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh usually says it intercepts. The Huthis Al-Masirah TV said Wednesdays strike was targeted at a Saudi National Guard camp in the border city. The attack brings the tally to more than 185 rebel missiles launched since 2015, according to the coalition, which that year joined the Yemeni governments fight against Huthi rebels. Hokkaido Electric Power Company says that 99 percent of the power supply has been restored across the quake-hit island prefecture in northern Japan. The utility says that roughly 3 million kilowatts of electricity has been restored as of 2 AM Saturday for the first time since a strong earthquake hit the northern prefecture early Thursday morning. Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said on Friday that roughly 3.6 million kilowatts of electricity will be supplied on Saturday, and that power will be back on in all affected areas. - NHK Supporters of a Taraba State Governorship aspirant, Alhaji Aliyu Umar have paid the N22.5m and obtained the expression of interest and nomination forms on his behalf.Umar, who is currently a Federal Government Liaison Officer to the United Nations Commission in New York, was not present when his supporters stormed the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress to obtain the forms for him on Thursday.The supporters who claimed to be representatives of about 168 wards from across Taraba State announced that they tasked one another and paid for the forms because they believed he had all it takes to develop the state.Addressing newsmen shortly after obtaining the forms, the leader of the group who is a former federal lawmaker, Kabiru Jalo, said the state was in dire need of the kind of experience Umar posses.He noted that Taraba state has suffered a lot of maladministration and there was the need for someone who has the know how to change things for the better ar.According to Jalo, most delegates from the 168 wards of the state had deliberated on the choice of governorship candidate for the APC before finally settling for Umar.He said, We have done something in Taraba state that is unprecedented in the political history of the state. We wouldnt let it go unnoticed because it is important to us, in trying to do what is right, in trying to deepening our democracy especially in Taraba state.We came under a political association in Taraba state that is known as New Taraba Agenda. Like I said earlier, we have done something that is unprecedented.We came together, brought in stakeholders from across the state and looked around independently, bringing in objective minds to look at the issues in Taraba state and determine what the way forward is.We brought in representatives from the 168 wards to come together and endorse a candidate that can move the state forward. So what we have done is a completely different approach to what we used to have. Our candidate is the candidate of the people, we came together and asked him to run, of course every politician will say that people asked him or her to run but in this case, we tried to make it real by bringing in the people to deliberate and search for a fit candidate.So, truly in our own case our candidate was pushed forward by the people and for the very first time we have a coalition which comprises of the 168 wards in all the local government with one person representing each of the wards to ask our principal to step forward to run for the office of the governor under the APC. Our principal accepted the call from the people to step forward and declared to run for the office, so we came here to pick the form for our principal.Also, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Edem Duke was also at the APC secretariat to obtain his forms. He was accompanied by a large number of party supporters.He told reporters he was in the race to win because he has what it takes to make Cross River State occupy its pride of place.In a similar vein, an Imo State governorship aspirant, Chima Anozie expressed confidence that he would easily beat the son-in-law to Governor Rochas Okorocha because the people were now better informed. The federal government says there is no cause for alarm over the reports of earth tremors in some areas of Abuja. The federal government says there is no cause for alarm over the reports of earth tremors in some areas of Abuja. Alex Nwegbu, director-general of the National Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), said this at a press conference in Abuja on Friday. He said Nigeria is not on the boundary that can make the country suffer earthquake. Earth tremor, otherwise known as slight earthquake, is caused by rocks breaking under stress against an underground surface. Residents of Mpape and Maitama districts of the nations capital city experienced vibrations in their homes on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. But Nwegbu asked those affected by it not to panic. I will assure Nigerians that there is no cause for alarm, he said. He explained that when the agency got reports on this, it dispersed geo-scientists to ascertain the cause. We checked for the intensity using certain parameters used in checking these things. We noticed no cracks on building walls & on the grounds, implying its an earth tremor of low intensity, he said. The Buhari administration has been helpful in enabling us generate our Geo science data. We are set to deploy our equipment in the 6 geo- political zones of Nigeria. This will enable us get firsthand info on when the tremors are set to occur in order to warn residents around. President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday night returned to Abuja after attending the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation in Beijing.During the six-day visit to China, Buhari held bilateral talks and witnessed the signing of some agreements between Nigeria and China in the areas of Information and Communication Technology and the economy.He also participated in the High-Level Dialogue between Chinese and African leaders and business representatives.At the FOCAC meeting, Buhari expressed the appreciation of ECOWAS member states for Chinas increasing investment in the sub-region with the aim of building a prosperous and shared future.He noted that China was the largest investor in the sub-region in both private and public sectors, covering areas, such as infrastructure development in energy, agriculture, mining and healthcare.According to him, China also provides significant assistance in emergency humanitarian aid and response to climate change for Africa.Buhari at the FOCAC Round Table on Tuesday, attended by African leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Nigerias partnership with China through FOCAC had resulted in the execution of vital infrastructure projects worth over five billion dollars.Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, who was part of the presidents entourage to China, reported that Buhari won the crucial support of Jinping, for Nigerias aspiration to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambilla hydro-power project. President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday returned to Abuja from China where he attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit... President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday returned to Abuja from China where he attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. The president departed Nigeria on August 31 alongside nine ministers and four state governors. The president departed Nigeria on August 31 alongside nine ministers and four state governors. He was also accompanied by Aisha, his wife and one of his daughters. Bashir Ahmad, personal assistant on new media to the president, announced his arrival via his Twitter handle. After a successful outing at the #FOCAC2018 in Beijing, the Peoples Republic of China, President Muhammadu Buhari returned to Abuja, yesterday, Ahmad wrote. During his stay in China, Buhari signed a $328 million agreement with China on the National and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) Phase 11. Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, said the NICTIB 11 project will be executed by Galaxy Backbone Limited and Huawei Technologies Limited (HUAWEI) while funding will come from the Chinese EXIM Bank. The president also sought support from the Chinese government for the speedy completion of the Mambilla power project in Taraba state. According to him, Nigeria has benefitted projects worth over $5bn from China during his administration. The Progressives Congress, (APC) Delta State Chapter led by Chief Cyril Abeye Ogodo has adopted direct primaries in the conduct of all party primary to elect its candidates ahead of 2019 general elements.The party reached this decision at the expanded State Executive Committee meeting of the APC Delta State Chapter led by Chief Cyril Abeye Ogodo, held on the 6th of September 2018, at Asaba.The meeting which was attended by members of the APC SWC, 25 LGA, Chairmen, secretary and youth leaders and the about 270 wards chairmen resolved to adopt direct primaries to give all aspirants level playing ground.In a communique issued and signed by the state party Chairman Chief Cyril Ogodo, Secretary Barr Silas Buowe, members of SWC and over 300 others resolved as followed:Arising from an expanded State Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Delta State Chapter led by Chief Cyril Abeye Ogodo, held on the 6th day of September 2018, the following resolutions were reached.To commend His Excellency, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomohle National Chairman and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great Party on their recent decision to entrench internal democracy in the Party through the approval for the use of DIRECT PRIMARIES in choosing our Flag Bearers.To commend the President and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, for repositioning Nigeria to greatness. The Delta State APC is excited like many other Nigerians across the Nation that Mr Presidents leadership style has rekindled our hope in democracy.That the Delta State APC hereby ADOPTS AND AFFIRMS the use of DIRECT PRIMARIES for choosing all our Flag Bearers.The above decision affirms our Partys disposition and desire to make our elections in 2019 and beyond truly reflect the will of the people as there cannot be democracy without the peoples participation. Following the earth tremor that shook some parts of Abuja at dawn of Friday, many Nigerians have reacted to the development, with some calling on God for help.While the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar called on the Abuja residents to be calm, those living in Maitama and Utako areas said they all felt the tremor.The Emergency Management Agency of Nigerias Federal capital territory, Abuja, has confirmed the reports of the earth tremor in Abuja.Although the agency said it could have come from the movement of the earth or that it could be by the blasting of rocks or mining in the area, it however urged residents to stay calm and hide under tables if inside the house or stay away from buildings if outdoor.The Senate President, Dr. Saraki who took to his twitter handle to confirm the development said, We have all been feeling the earth tremors in Abuja and surrounding areas over the last 48 hours. I know that many people are scared, but please, remain calm and vigilant.Saraki also said that, At this time, it is important that @NEMANigeria, FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and all emergency services be on high alert to prevent the loss of lives and property.The Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, has already briefed the FCT Minister on this issue.In the event of an emergency, the FCT Emergency Management Agency can be reached at the following numbers: 112 (toll free), 0818-888-8766 and 0805-722-4574.Meanwhile, many other Nigerians have reacted to the development in various ways, with other resorting to prayers, asking God not to allow any such natural disaster like earthquakes hit the country already plagued by poverty.Below are the tweets of some Nigerians who reacted to the news of tremor in Abuja.Atiku Abubakar @atiku I wish to encourage inhabitants of Abuja not to panic following reported cases of tremor experienced in some parts of the city. It will be reassuring to citizens for the relevant authorities to investigate the situation.AYO SOGUNROVerified account @ayosogunro News of tremors in Abuja and fault lines across Nigeria is worrisome. In the midst of our social, political, economic, and religious troubles, we cant handle an ecological disaster. I strongly urge the govt not to leave this issue to prayer and sentiment. Please research and act.Senator Dino Melaye @dino_melaye I have informed the FCT Minister and Perm Sec. on the scaring earth movement in some parts of Abuja at 6:11am. I felt earth tremors in my home in maitama too. Measures are been taken to address the problem. I will keep the FCT administration on their toes on this.KinG NomSo @ani_nomso Father Lord these things going on in Abuja better not be an Earthquake. Nigeria is already blessed with several Natural Disasters in our Politicians. Just look at our Natural Disastrous President to start with & have mercy on Usfy @nnekei All these earth vibrations felt last night in different areas of Abuja God Abeg make e no be Natural disaster ooo. We already have Buhari we cant afford another.EagleEye @bashiryusuf Another heavy tremor just occurred at 6.01 a.m. in Maitama, Abuja. Truth is, this seem like a warning for an earthquake. I think the authorities should do some scientific investigation or evacuate residents as a matter of precaution.Sim ShagayaVerified account @SimShagaya Regarding the Abuja tremors. a massive 7.8 earthquake was recorded in Fiji (and several other locations on the pacific rim of fire). When an earthquake happens, echoes of the quake can cause tremors to occur in a location at the opposite end of the globe.Heathen Hazard @TheFunnycator Earthquakes in Abuja, floods in Lagos. If anyone is building an ark please add me to the whatsapp group thanks b.Parosident Buhari @TheMbuhari, The earth tremors in Abuja is the handwork of desperate corrupt people who want me to run back to London because thats exactly what Im going to do if I feel this tremor again in Aso Rock.The cause of the earth tremor in Abuja is rampant fornication. You Abuja people fornicate too much. Tomide (@MrTomide) 7 September 2018Me : babe are you still coming over to Lagos today ?Babe : I cant , Im on my periodMe : but its supposed to be next weekBabe : Yeah , but the abuja earthquake shifted it pic.twitter.com/In1bOHJPRk 80s__vibes (@80s__vibes) 7 September 2018I experienced a tremor today for three consecutive times in some part of Fct Abuja. Between 4:30, 6:15, and 8:20 pm. Resulting to violent shaking of building. I hope this is not an early sign of earthquake. Chukwuma Ejerenwa (@chuks0002) 5 September 2018Going to MFM tonight to pray for Abuja.God, dont let my enemies rejoice over me.Dont let Lagos people with all their smelling city, debris, traffic and yahoo boys laugh at us.Dont put us to shame Olu (@The_Basquiat) 7 September 2018My God, so the tremors that shake Abuja to its foundation was actually an earthquake?Scientists worldwide are reporting this as an Earthquake and useless FERMA says its minor tremor?Earthquake under Buhari?God which kain punishment be this?Who we offend? pic.twitter.com/qZqLLpTDw7 By Law A Country Is Built (@RadicalYouthMan) 7 September 2018Lmaooo in this side of Abuja I have not felt one single vibration since it started meaning we dont sin too much in my area nice one guys chocolatechip (@fatousky) 7 September 2018Abuja people will now remember their relatives in places like Michika, Lapai & AjegunleHello! We say make we greet una. Its been long. We fit pay una visit soon. Moh (@moohh_) 7 September 2018May God safe Abuja residents from this tremors shaking #prayforabuja pic.twitter.com/yZUhFV5751 OLUMIGHTY (@teewine) 7 September 2018All the earth vibrations happening in Abuja makes you imagine the absolute hell the people in Yemen, Palestine, Syria are experiencing everyday in their lives. May Allah make it easy for them, Ameen. El Professor (@DesertGamer5000) 7 September 2018 Reno Omokri, former New Media Aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has agreed to a challenge by Suleiman Abba, former Inspector-General... Reno Omokri, former New Media Aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has agreed to a challenge by Suleiman Abba, former Inspector-General of Police, for a public debate on events that occurred during the immediate past government. Abba had while on a visit to the secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Lagos yesterday vowed to make damning revelations about the Jonathan administration in a public debate if Omokri provoked him. Recall that Omokri had accused him of spreading falsehood over the reason he was fired as police boss. that Omokri had accused him of spreading falsehood over the reason he was fired as police boss. However, in a swift reaction, Omokri said on his Facebook page that he was willing to fly to any location outside Nigeria at his own expense to face the ex-Police boss in a debate. He wrote: Please inform the past Inspector General of Police, Suleman Abba, that I accept his challenge for a debate. He should name any location outside Nigeria and I will meet him there at my own expense. Suleiman Abba, former inspector-general of police, has issued out a warning to Reno Omokri, former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.... Suleiman Abba, former inspector-general of police, has issued out a warning to Reno Omokri, former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. Speaking with reporters when he visited the secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Lagos, Abba expressed dissatisfaction with the reaction of Omokri to an interview he granted to Daily Trust last month. In the interview, the former number one police officer had said the force he led compelled Jonathan to concede the 2015 election. Abba also said a top Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member reached out to him to influence the Osun state 2014 governorship election in favour of the then ruling party. Omokri had responded by accusing him officer of spreading falsehood. The accusation of the former IGP of Police makes no sense to reasonable men and women, Omokri had said. IGP Suleiman Abba is proof of the fact that liars need a very good memory otherwise they would contradict themselves with their lies. But in his own response, Abba challenged Omokri to a debate on his activities as the IG. He said if Omokri provokes him, he would open up on some things and Jonathan would feel sad. Please tell him (Omokri) to leave me alone as a retired police officer. He cannot change the narrative of what I did in office If I open up, his godfather (Jonathan) will be sad, he said. Reno should keep quiet and leave me alone. He should know that he is talking about a former police IG and a lawyer. I am well informed about my fundamental human rights. It is my right to speak when I choose to. That he was queering why shouldnt I speak two or six months after leaving office, is not his business. If I can defend the right of others as lawyer, I should be able to defend my own by expressing myself. Out of the five IGs his boss worked with, I acted in good conscience. That much is not controvertible. I am proud to say that the police under my watch forced ex-President Jonathan to accept the result of the 2015 poll through our professional conduct. It was not the duty of the police to conduct election neither do we vote on election day. I have no regret over my action. Our action gave credibility to the 2015 poll which was widely acknowledged by both the local and international observers. For me, that translated into legitimacy for the current government. The practice all over the world is that whenever election is over everyone should work with the any government that emerged to move the nation forward. If Reno Omokri is sad that I am in Nigeria relating with a legitimate government, that is his headache. Anthony Martial has pulled the plug, on talks over a fresh contract with Manchester United, as his frosty relationship with Jose Mourinho continues.Martial was set to be offered a lucrative new deal, however his relationship with Mourinho has soured to such an extent that he is reluctant to commit to a new deal.The France forward was desperate to leave the club in the summer, but Woodward blocked any move.Contract talks had been opened in May between Martial and the club, but he has now stepped back from negotiations, according to the Sun UK.Mourinho has only used Martial once this season and hauled him off during a 3-2 defeat to Brighton. The player is now waiting to see what happens with the managers future at the club, before committing his own.Martial only has one year left on his contract and while United have an option for a further year, they are determined not to reach next summer without him signing a new deal. A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Friday, adjourned until September 10, the trial of former President Jonathans aide, Waripamo-Owen Dudafar, who is facing a charge of N1.7 billion fraud.Dudafar, who was charged alongside former manager of Heritage Bank, Joseph Iweujo, had earlier pleaded not guilty to the 23-count of fraud preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.They were alleged to have conspired to conceal N1.7 billion, proceeds they knew were from a criminal activity.At the resumed trial, EFCC Prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, continued the cross-examination of the first accused who was also first witness in his own defence.Dudafar was reminded that he was still on oath and Oyedepo began cross-examinating him, asking: you said in your statement, exhibit G, that you never had a contract with Bayelsa State Government?You signed all the pages of your statement, am I correct?The witness answered, I never had a direct contract with them. I did sign, but some of the words were not mine. They were dictated to me and I was asked to sign.Oyedepo later proceeded with the cross-examination, eliciting answers from the witness.The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Dudafar was alleged to have siphoned the amount through different accounts in Heritage bank in the name of some companies.EFCC is accusing them of converting N1.7 billion, themselves through Sea Gate Property Development and Investment Ltd., Avalon Global Property Development Ltd., and Ebiwise Resources.The anti-graft agency claimed that the defendants received the money sometimes in 2016 through Pluto Property and Investment Ltd., Rotato Interlink Services Ltd., De Jakes Fast Food Restaurant Ltd., and Ibejige Services Ltd.The offences contravene Sections 17 (a) and 18 (c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and Sections 27 (3) of the EFCC Act, 2004. A presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Taminu Turaki, has warned that the All Progressives C... A presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Taminu Turaki, has warned that the All Progressives Congress, APC, and President Muhammadu Buhari may win the 2019 election if the main opposition party fails to unite and work together. He also said that the National Assembly will override Buharis decision on the electoral sequence Act. Turaki said he was surprised that Buhari had declined signing the Act into law. Turaki spoke on Thursday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, during the inauguration of the campaign office of a Kwara State governorship aspirant on the PDP platform, Prof Sulaiman Abubakar. Turaki said, What is happening now is what has been happening with the APC-led Federal Government. Something that ordinarily should be a simple law-making process is being complicated unnecessarily. The President has the power upon the passing of a bill to assent to it or refuse to assent to it. But in this particular situation, the FG had gone to court and they lost and after losing, they are now saying they are going to veto it. Thank God, the constitution has made provision to override and they are going to use it. He advised PDP members to be united ahead of the 2019 elections. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold President Muhammadu Buhari culpa... The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold President Muhammadu Buhari culpable for violating provisions of the electoral act. The PDP said this on Thursday while reacting to the presidential nomination form bought for Buhari by a group known as the National Coordinator of Nigeria Consolidation Ambassador Network (NCAN). On Wednesday, the group presented a cheque of N45 million to Adams Oshiomhole, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for the purchase of the nomination form of Buhari. Sanusi Musa, coordinator of the group, said the decision to buy the form was informed by the need to consolidate on the foundation for a better Nigeria. The gesture is said to contradict section 91 (9) of the electoral act which states: No individual or other entity shall donate more than one million naira to any candidate. In a statement, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP spokesman, said Buharis failure to turn down the groups request indicts him. The party added that Nigerians are aware of the presidents gimmick in purchasing the form, despite the affluence his family lives in. Nigerians are aware that the very expensive personal effects, including posh jewelries daily paraded by his close relatives betrayed the gimmick of using an unregistered group, pieced together to execute another failed pro-poor stunt to sway Nigerians, the statement read. Already, our people are daily confronted by the flaunting of affluence and material wealth by the President and those around him, while betraying and abandoning millions of poor Nigerians who, unfortunately, put their trust in him in 2015. A former governor of Kaduna state and Presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi has urged the party to realize that it is up against the antics of Drowning men, as the preparations for the 2019 elections intensify.Makarfi who was at the party secretariat Friday to submit his Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms to seek the ticket of the PDP to contest the 2019 Presidential election was reacting to Thursday fracas involving supporters of the PDP and the ruling party.The Presidential hopeful tasked party delegates to prioritise experience and competence for the job in determining who picks the ticket, stressing that as governor of Kaduna state, he tackled the security challenges and restored normalcy across all parts of the state. He promised to replicate the feat if given the mandate to preside over the affairs of the nation as President.If you give a drowning man a sword, he will hold on to it. We are dealing with drowning men and we should understand and see them as such. We must never loss focus to wrest power from the APC. They may use whatever they want to use, but let use our brains.I will begin by sympathizing with PDP men and women on the attack on democracy yesterday, when we were assaulted by the APC thugs. This has never happened before, for a party to leave its domain to another partys headquarters and do what they did.But no matter how they try, they will not succeed. Intimidation will not work because we know the APC is left with no option other than intimidation. When you are losing, whatever you see, you grab, he said.The former chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the PDP also took a swipe at the ruling party, saying Up till now, they are still quarrelling over what type of primary to hold.That said, Makarfi moved on to clarify the mileage of his aspiration and what sets him apart from the rest of other aspirants.It is important for me to say that I am qualified, like every other aspirant. There is none of us that has indicated interest that is not qualified. Though all fingers are useful, they are equally not equal. There is no finger that is not useful, but there is no finger that is equal to another.I want to believe that when the needful is done, party men and women will decide wisely. And whatever the delegates decide, as a loyal party man, I will accept the result. I will work for the interest of the party, to make sure that we return to power, he addedMakarfi further reiterated his commitment to restructuring just as he emphasized the need to secure the nation and her citizens.We believe in restructuring in the interest of all. Nigeria needs to be secured as there is too much bloodletting in the country today. We must restore sanity, and stop these killings, he noted, adding that It is not possible for these killings to be going on, without one form of collusion or the other.Why Nigerians should vote for meIf I happened to be nominated and elected, as I have history to have restored peace in Kaduna, that will also be replicated across the length and breadth of Nigeria. This is not theory, but practical because we have done it before.I have spoken on the policy that our children must never leave school because of financial difficulties. We will introduce students soft loan, where students facing financial difficulties can borrow and they will only pay when they are permanently and gainfully employed.This will force the government to create job opportunities for our teeming youths so they can get the money refunded.I have also spoken on power generation. We are running a unitary system, where whatever is generated is domiciled in one place and then redistributed. When you are generating, you lose power, when you are distributing, you lose power, anything that happen at any point, the whole country goes into darkness but this must stop.We will explore God-given natural resources to satisfy any area of Nigeria with uninterrupted power. We must do so and we will do so under my leadership, so that within a short period of time , the entire country can have power for 24 hours.Meanwhile, former National Organizing Secretary of the PDP, Senator Abdul Ningi, yesterday submitted his nomination forms to contest the governorship election in Bauchi State.Ningi who spent a total of 16 years at the National Assembly promised to bring smiles to the faces of his people just as he berated the APC government in the state for performing below expectation.The state (Bauchi) has derailed especially in the last three and half years. Bauchi has become like a cursed state and if things continue to be the way they are, in the next couple of years, I dont know how we are going to describe Bauchi, he said.He described his aspiration as My obligation and resolve to ensure that Bauchi story changes. I want to add value to the state and make sure it becomes one of the front line states in terms of development. The All Progressives Congress (APC) says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chosen to hide behind lies in the face of imminent defeat ... The All Progressives Congress (APC) says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chosen to hide behind lies in the face of imminent defeat at the 2019 polls. The ruling party said this in response to the statement of Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the PDP, that six APC governors and some members of the national assembly have concluded plans to join the opposition party. Yekini Nabena, acting spokesman of APC, dismissed the claim and said the PDP was hallucinating. Nabena said Nigerians have rejected the PDP and all that it stands for. With PDP claim that six APC governors and twenty-seven national assembly members have concluded discussions to join the PDP, it is now clear that the PDP has assumed the role of comic relief ahead of the 2019 general elections, the statement read. Nigerians have rejected the PDP and all that it represents corruption, impunity, waste, greed. Hence, in the face of imminent 2019 defeat, the PDP has chosen to hide behind lies and false realities to save face. While the PDP hallucinates on APC members defection to the PDP, the APC is consolidating to go into the 2019 General Election as a smarter, more united and stronger political fighting force. 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. It's pretrial season in the Apple-Qualcomm FRAND disputes and we're bound to see a flurry of what is known as "motion practice" starting with one filed by Apple and their contract Manufacturers. The dispute is over 9 Qualcomm patents and this current motion is to strike portions of 12 expert reports served by Qualcomm. The motion in full below begins by stating that "This Joint Motion was filed on July 10, 2018. The joint motion presents Apple, Inc., and the Contract Manufacturers' (referred to collectively, for convenience, as Apple) motion to strike portions of 12 expert reports served by Qualcomm. Apple asserts that the experts improperly opined regarding infringement and introduced new patents into this litigation. Apple's portion of the motion, along with its supporting documents, is 7,951 pages. Qualcomm's response, with its supporting documents, is 3,143 pages. The Court could have managed with much less. As provided below, Plaintiffs' motion to strike, as presented in this joint motion, is Granted in Part and Denied n Part." 1 - Order on Motion to Strike Qualcomm Allegations Sept 2018 by Jack Purcher on Scribd Legal analyst Florian Mueller noted in his report today that "the following harsh words show that Magistrate Judge Dembin was annoyed by the way in which multiple Qualcomm expert reports were inconsistent with Qualcomm's decision not to bring infringement counterclaims with respect to the original set of nine patents: 'Qualcomm's counsel know that in a declaratory judgment action by a licensee against a patentee seeking an order of non-infringement, the patentee, Qualcomm, bears the burden of persuasion of infringement. [...] Qualcomm made the tactical decision not to assert infringement and thus avoid certain discovery obligations as mentioned above. In its expert designations, Qualcomm chose not to disclose that certain experts expressly would opine on infringement and assert that Plaintiffs are infringing patents-in-suit. Qualcomm will be held accountable for the consequences of its tactical decisions." (emphasis added). For more on this, check out Mueller's report here. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, the Minister of Business Development, has said the evasion of taxes in the country, was hurting governments quest to mobilise revenue for development. The biggest challenge in this country is tax evasion, 12 million people are working in Ghana and less than two million people pay tax and this is not acceptable. There are big, medium and small companies dodge taxes, they do under-invoicing We need to marshal resources to support the education, health and improve infrastructure all over the country but this cannot be done without the governments ability to mobilise local resource. Without adequate local resource mobilization the Ghana Beyond Aid, cannot be realized, he said. The Minister said this when he launched TheIntegrityApp a new digital tool that seeks to enhance compliance capacities available for businesses thereby detecting and preventing corruption in Accra. The App launch, was a kick-off event of a two-day training for businesses on Responsible Business and Integrity organised by the Alliance for Integrity and the Global Compact Network Germany. To address the canker, Dr Awal proposed the formation of an alliance involving the diplomatic community, the media, businesses, integrity and corruption crusaders to support government pursuit to fight the issue of tax evasion to generate revenue to develop the country. It is not only local businesses but some foreign businesses in the attempt to settle in the country sometimes circumvent the rules. This is not acceptable. If you are a new business coming in and someone wants you to pay bribe to expose the fellow. Every business needs to be ethical and go by the rules for the country to receive the respective revenue. No country develops without local revenue mobilization. We cannot continue to depend on aid to develop, for the past 60 years we have been deepening on aid and it has not helped us, he noted. The Minister called on businesses to position their firms by complying with rules and regulations to be able to compete on the global arena. Dr Awal entreated all businesses to make use of the app in order to enhance their compliance management systems and also influence their supply chain partners to do likewise. As a commitment towards ensuring compliance, he said TheIntegrityApp would be one of the prerequisites qualifications for funding entrepreneurs. 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 Officials of newly-created Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited yesterday told the Finance Committee of Parliament that the bank intends to close down 93 branches out of the 191 branches inherited from the five collapsed banks. The Consolidated Bank was created after the Bank of Ghana (BoG) last month revoked the licences of five banks, including Unibank, owing to insolvency. The new bank is also expected to embark on staff rationalization to cut down the number of workers needed to effectively run the bank. Ahead of that, the mangers of the new bank, which is a creation of the state, would carry out performance assessment of all workers across the country before determining how many of them would be laid off by the end of this month. Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Assibey-Yeboah made these known during a press briefing at end of day-two of the sitting yesterday. He said the government intervened to save jobs, otherwise all workers of the insolvent banks would have been sacked. The BoG, on August 1, 2018, revoked the licences of five banks and merged them into a new entity known as Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited. The BoG claimed some of affected banks procured their operational licences through dubious means. The five banks are The Royal Bank, Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank Limited, Construction Bank and uniBank Ghana Limited. Severance Packages Meanwhile, the Finance Committee would engage the BoG soon to expedite action on the payment of severance packages to about 3,000 workers of the seven indigenous banks who have lost their jobs as a result of the collapse of those banks. The chairman of the committee made this known to journalists after it met officials of KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), who are the receivers of the collapsed banks during its ongoing probe into the collapse of the banks. According to Dr. Assibey-Yeboah, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, the committee is expected to engage the Central Bank to expedite the processes of paying severance packages to the affected workers. If you go into the law, it will take more time before these severance packages will be paid, but we have an opportunity to engage Bank of Ghana and some of these will be fast-tracked, he said, adding that some workers, who were laid off a year ago, have not received severance packages. I think it is about time those severance packages were given to them, Dr. Assibey-Yeboah told journalists. PriceWaterhouseCoopers are the receivers for UT and Capital Bank, while KPMG are receivers for the five banks, comprising Biege, Unibank, Construction Bank, Royal Bank and Sovereign Bank. Dr Assibey-Yeboah said per the Banks and Specialised Deposit Taking Institutions Law (Act 930), the receivers are accountable to BoG. They dont report to us, but because matters like employees severance concern us; we wanted to know when former workers of UT and Capital Bank will get their severance packages and as a matter of fact, they gave us the details and how they have arrived at the packages they are going to pay to them, he said. The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who was at the committee meeting, also expressed concern about the job losses and asked whether the banks have capacity to pay severance packages to the affected workers. What happens to the children and wards of these affected persons as school reopens, what is it that the government of Ghana can do to find new life to those collapsed institutions as soon as possible, he said, adding that when the US faced similar financial crisis sometime ago, the state intervened to support those financial institutions. He, therefore, urged the government to emulate the example of the US and come to the aid of those institutions. The committee would continue with its in-camera sitting today with officials of the Security and Exchange Commission and National Insurance Commission (NIC). 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 Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has called on government to quickly come to the aid of workers who were affected by the collapse of some indigenous banks in the country. He is asking that decent packages be explored for the embattled bank staff in order to get them back on their feet. Addressing pressmen at the Parliament House, yesterday, Mr. Iddrisu said government had failed in properly handling the crises, especially the issues of job losses. What is it that the government of Ghana can do to find new life for those institutions as possible. Dont forget that the US did it when they had a financial crisis. Lets see what role the state of Ghana can play he said. Mr. Iddrisu said the local banks contribution to the growth of the economy, the growth of the service sector and employment generally must be jealously and religiously protected. In the public interest and for the public good, parliament and the finance committee must be concerned about the banking sector and employment in the banking sector and the consequence of severance and resulting unemployment arising out of the collapse of those financial institutions, he added. Thousands of people are reported to have lost their jobs after five indigenous banks had had their licenses withdrawn over liquidity challenges and two others, UT and Capital Banks being taken over by GCB Bank, somewhere last year. The five banksBeige, Construction, Royal, uniBank and Sovereign Banks have now been merged into the Ghana Consolidated Bank. Meanwhile, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) is yet to meet the Receiver of the Consolidated Bank Ghana over the exit packages for workers of the five collapsed banks that have now been merged into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited. The labour union is hopeful its intervention will reduce the impact of job layoffs on the livelihoods of the affected employees. Source: The Publisher 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 Ghana will lose US$40million every month if the country fails to relocate the current station of the Karpower Plant from Tema to the Aboadze Power Enclave in the Western Region, Energy Minister John Peter Amewu, has disclosed. The 470-megawatt capacity Karpower ship, was meant to augment the countrys energy supply. It is, however, being under-utilised. If you refuse, for instance, to relocate Karpower as quickly as possible, this government will be losing US $40million every single month, Mr. Amewu told the media in Western Region during a tour of some energy facilities. The relocation will also ensure availability and access to cheaper fuel supply to the plant to ensure continuous power supply. Meanwhile, the Minister has served notice to all Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of state institutions under him that he will not hesitate to sack them if they fail to listen to him. Mr. Amewu issued the warning after CEOs of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) failed to show up at a scheduled visit to the Aboadze Terminal Plant, even though they had been given prior notice. Source: The Publisheronline 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 Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the Minister of Health, says the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is the financial backbone of the countrys health delivery system, which engages more than 4000 public and private healthcare providers. He said the NHIS accounted for about 85 per cent of the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) of the Scheme and Ghana recognised health financing as the third arm of Universal Health Coverage beyond access and quality care. He said it was not surprising that Ghana was often considered an example of global good practice and was amongst only a handful of emerging countries in Africa to actively start implementing universal health insurance coverage by providing formal coverage to its vulnerable population. Mr Agyemang-Manu said this at the 68th Session of the World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Africa, held in Dakar, Senegal from August 27 to 31, 2018. He spoke on the topic: Sustainability Financing for Universal Health Coverage in Africa in the Midst of Changing Global and Local Economic Factors, a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency said. In the past 15 years, Ghana has made substantial progress in its quest to attain Universal Health Coverage. Active membership of the Scheme has increased form 1.3 million in 2005 to almost 11 million in 2018, representing 38 per cent of Ghanas population. Over the years, many countries in Africa and beyond continue to visit the National Health Insurance Authority to understudy its operations for possible replications in their respective countries, he added. The Minister said despite the progress made over the years, the Scheme was confronted with sustainability challenges, which Ghana believed Member States could learn from. Key among the challenges, he said, were high utilization rate by members; fraud and abuse of the system by some credentialed service providers resulting in high claim costs; premiums not actuarially determined; administrative and operational inefficiencies, and clearly defined benefit packages. Mr Agyemang-Manu said year-on-year the Scheme had been confronted with funding gaps leading to about five per cent of claims payments running into arrears. He said to address the aforementioned sustainability challenges, measures were being implemented including the financing model to secure additional inflows; operational efficiency; re-structuring of the entire NHIA; reviewing of NHIS benefit package, and full automation of claims processing to minimise fraud and abuse. The rests are strengthening of Quality Assurance and Internal Audit functions; amendment of the NHIA Law to make crime against it more punitive and obtaining of prosecutorial powers from the Attorney-General to prosecute service providers who abuse the system. The Minister said Ghana believed that the health insurance reform should be accompanied with a comprehensive health systems reform. In this regard, my delegation particularly endorses the Framework of actions for Strengthening Health Systems for Universal Health Coverage and SDGs in Africa, which encourages innovative means to raise funds. We welcome all the actions proposed by the team. Additionally, we encourage the setting up of health technology assessment agencies in Member States. They would conduct cost effective analysis and Budget Impact Analysis before interventions are accepted in the areas of medical devices, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, he added. The debate around Universal Health Coverage dates from a World Health Assembly Resolution of 2005 that stated that everyone should be able to have access to health services and not be subjected to financial hardship in doing so. Since then the influential 2010 World Health Report was dedicated to Universal Health Coverage and several conferences around the globe were organised around this theme. 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 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday assured China's business community of the safety of their investments in Ghana, urging them to make the country their preferred business destination in Africa. "Ghana is a haven of peace, security and stability, and because she protects legitimate investments...and you should take advantage of the growing business a friendly climate in the country to invest in Ghana, he said. President Akufo-Addo gave that assurance when he addressed the Ghana-China Investment Forum in the Shangdong Province of China. He told the Chinese business community that Ghana's flagship agricultural programme, Planting for Food and Jobs, its renewable energy sector and ICT growth were 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. China has, since 2015, been Ghanas largest trading partner, with total trade amounting to some $6.7 billion in 2017. The President told the gathering that Ghana had taken the decision to walk hand-in-hand with China and her business community, because we desire to walk far. 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. Thus, he recommended to Chinese business community his governments flagship policy of 1-District-1-Factory. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Association of Ghana Industries is collaborating with the Scholarships Secretariat to create a labour bank to allow industries and businesses to easily source the requisite manpower for growth, Kingsley Agyemang, Registrar of the Secretariat has disclosed. He said the labour bank, an initiative from the Akufo-Addo government, was a laudable initiative, citing the case of Cimaf cement, a company from Morocco which would have relied on Ghanaian students who studied in Morocco as their first point of call in respect to job placement. The purpose is that if for instance there is a company from Hungary seeking to invest in Ghana, the company will not look further than the labour bank had there been one in place from the previous governments, Mr Agyemang said. We want to get to a point where we can export excess labour to the neighbouring countries, he said adding that Ghana would want to replicate the Cuban style where its economy thrives on medical and educational export. He thanked President Nana Akufo-Addo for introducing such a laudable idea which has linked academia with industry. Mr Agyemang said this on Monday when the secretariat held a reception in honour of some 50 Ghanaian students who will be on Hungarian Ghana government scholarships. Expressing the Secretariats appreciation to the Hungarian government for their assistance, Mr Agyemang stated that aside the benefits Ghana stands to gain from the scholarship, Hungary is reputed to be one of the best countries in the world to pursue academic studies at the tertiary levels. Mr Agyemang revealed that more than 3000 students applied for the Hungarian scholarship out of which 50 were selected, stressing that although the selection process was rigorous, the secretariat had no shred of doubt that the best students were selected. He touched on Nana Akufo Addos administration determination to commit more resources to education in the country, something he described as unprecedented. Mr Agyemang commended the President for ensuring that the scholarship secretariat, which had been neglected for a long time, was back on its feet and helping Ghanaian students. He also said through the secretariats collaboration with EOCO and the support from government, scholarship funds that were unutilized have been retrieved from headteachers and this had ensured that the Secretariat is able to settle supplementary allowances and other entitlements to students in various countries. The Registrar told the students that the era where they were abandoned and denied their stipends were over. You have a government in place that understands education, you have a government that understands welfare, ou have a government that listens. We can assure you that we will provide dispatch services to all students. For us at the secretariat, you are our clients, he said. Lawrence Tetteh, Founder and President of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach, who played a crucial role in the Hungarian scholarship deal, said the Hungarian environment was very much opened for higher studies and asked the students to take advantage of it, especially, their language. He stated that Ghana has benefitted from Hungary in diverse ways, including areas such as pharmaceutical, engineering among others. The environment in Hungary is not like many European countries where you are allowed to work outside studies. In hungry you are paid and made comfortable to have a peace of mind to study, he said. Whilst asking them to take advantage of the system in Hungary, he cautioned them to draw the lines on what to do and no to do. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National Teaching Council (NTC) had warned the teachers that they will not be allowed to teach in the country if they refused to take the exam despite been trained as teachers. This has compelled them to come to an agreement with the Ministry to take the exams. In a statement signed by Ekow Vincent Assafuah, Head, Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Education he said the concerned teachers have agreed to take the test from Monday as scheduled. The licensure examination shall proceed as scheduled. The licensure examination shall be held more than once every year to enable all newly graduated teachers to participate, the statement read. It also announced that the license examination shall be held more than once a year to allow newly graduated teachers to participate. Teachers Licensing Examination The professional teaching license is the highest mark of professional accomplishment that makes the Ghanaian teacher a member of a larger network of accomplished educators shaping the profession and lives. It demonstrates the legal authorisation of the mandate of the NTC, indicating a teacher has met all standards required for the profession. The National Teaching Council (NTC) has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the examination meets technical, professional, and professional standards, and status of a teacher by assessing candidates abilities to practice competently. Once a candidate has passed a licensing examination, NTC will issue a license to the candidate, thus assuring the public that the licensee is minimally qualified to practice at the time of initial licensure. Statement On The Teacher Licensure Exam The Minister of Education this afternoon met leaders of the various teacher unions. They had earlier expressed reservations about the teacher licensing examination. At the end of the meeting, there was general agreement that; i. The licensure examination shall proceed as scheduled ii. The licensure examination shall be held more than once every year to enable all newly graduated teachers to participate. iii. National Service period be considered as part of the one-year post-graduation training period of all teachers. iv. All newly graduated teachers avail themselves of the opportunity of the licensure examination to qualify as licensed teachers to enable them secure employment as teachers. v. Discussions on teacher professionalisation must progress as agreed. 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 About 25 commanders from the 64 Regiment Special Unit of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) have successfully gone through a three-day Counter-Terrorism training by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). This was a special collaboration between IDF and GAF. Led by a team of seven officers from the IDF, the GAF commanders received training in the areas of shooting ranges, Krav Maga (an Israeli self-defense and fighting system) and skills building for dealing with hostage situations. At the closing ceremony on Wednesday, 5 September, the participants were awarded with certificates of appreciation and participation. The team also exhibited a practical demonstration of the acquired skills to the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul; the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Commodore Wayoe; Deputy Director, Col. Ako Adjei; and State of Israels Ambassador designate to Ghana, Shani Cooper. Speaking at the closing ceremony, Ambassador Cooper expressed delight in the military cooperation between the State of Israel and the Republic of Ghana, stressing the need for more future military cooperation to strengthen relations between Israel and Ghana. It is evident that the State of Israel and the Republic of Ghana have similar challenges and we hope there will be more opportunities to exchange ideas in our military cooperation, she said. The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, also emphasized the need to strengthen military cooperation between Israel and Ghana. He stressed: The fight against terrorism has become a global issue that requires well-trained security forces to fight the menace. This collaborative training between the Ghana Armed Forces and the Israeli Defence Force is a step in the right direction which adds to our efforts to ensure our preparedness and capacity building. He therefore expressed his appreciation to the State of Israel and the Israeli Defence Force for their initiative to share their vast experience in counter-terrorism with Ghana. The Israeli Military Defence Attache to Africa, Col. Aviezer Segal said the Israeli Ministry of Defence was ready to collaborate with Ghanas Ministry of Defence to share expertise. Throughout the years, Israel addressed its threats by maintaining its technological superiority supported by world-leading defence industries and training methods. I hope this training will bring the two countries more cooperation and collaborations in the areas of defence, security, training, and know each other better, he added. 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 Kweku Adoboli, the former UBS trader who was jailed after running up the largest unauthorised trading loss in UK history, is facing deportation from Britain to Ghana after being detained on Monday at an immigration detention centre in Scotland. The Home Office has indicated that it intends to deport Mr Adoboli on or shortly after September 10, said a spokesman for him. After reporting to Livingston police station on Monday, the 38-year-old was taken to Dungaval immigration removal centre at Strathaven. Mr Adoboli, who was born in Ghana, has exhausted nearly all of his legal options trying to stay in the UK, where he has lived since he was 12. Last month, a court ruled that the Home Office could begin the process of deporting him. The former UBS trader was found guilty in 2012 of causing a $2.3bn unauthorised trading loss. Mr Adoboli argues that his close friends and family ties to the UK, his efforts to prevent similar crimes to his, being at low risk of re-offending and being non-violent mean that he should be granted permission to stay He was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to serve half of that term. Under British law, any foreign national sentenced to more than four years in jail is subject to automatic deportation. Mr Adoboli has been living with friends in Scotland since his release. He has spent much of his time speaking to audiences ranging from students to business executives on banking and leadership reform, and on how to prevent a repeat of his actions. He has argued that his close friends and family ties to the UK he lives with two of his godchildren, whom he helps care for and his efforts to prevent similar crimes to his, along with the fact that he is at low risk of re-offending and is non-violent, mean he should be granted permission to stay. Recommended Kweku Adoboli How to stop finance companies succumbing to cultural failure Jacqueline McKenzie, Mr Adobolis lawyer, is preparing a fresh legal claim that she plans to lodge with the Home Office later on Monday in a last-ditch effort to keep him in Britain. He lived in Ghana until he was four. For the following eight years, he lived in the Middle East, and was sent to boarding school in the north of England at the age of 12. While he has stayed in Britain ever since, he was initially in the country on a student visa. After joining UBS from Nottingham university, he was given a work permit, and subsequently secured permanent residence status. He worked at UBS until his arrest in 2011. His permanent residence privileges were revoked as part of his prison sentence. He has never applied for British citizenship. Source: Financial Times 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 Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Samuel Yaw Adusei, has vowed to drag former Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Joseph Yamin, to "Antoa Nyamaa" a popular river god deity for accusing him of stealing some five excavators belonging to the state. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, the former Deputy Ashanti regional Minister says he is doing so to prove his innocence over the alleged theft. "How do you accuse me of stealing excavators, if Yamin himself did not steal excavators during his tenure as regional minister, how then does he come to accuse me of stealing excavators? "I am taking him to court and 'antoa' to prove my innocence. "He will hear from my lawyers even if he refuses (to respond), I will personally take him to Antoa," he fumed. A leaked conversation between Mr Yamin, who is a former Deputy Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and Madam Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Vice Chairperson of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), makes damming revelations about the previous administration. In the said conversation, Mr Yamin who is at warpaths with Betty Mould-Iddrisu over his recent defeat as in his bid to become the NDC's Ashanti Regional Chairman, alleges a former Deputy Ashanti Regional Chairman under the erstwhile Mahama administration, one Mr. Samuel Yaw Adusei stole 5 excavators belonging to the state, which the latter has vehemently denied. "If you are unable to win elections, how then do you blame somebody for it. Prior to the elections, he was in Accra visiting the office of the former President and the house of his brother Ibrahim Mahama, touting himself as the Ashanti regional commando and we had people in the party supporting such a character," a visibly angry Yaw Adusei stated. Yamin Attacks Betty Mould-Iddrisu Days after seeing his dream to become the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the opposition party fizzle into thin air, Joseph Yamin turned his anger on Betty Mould-Iddrisu, saying electing her as Chairperson for the NDC will be a disaster. To him, the NDC bigwig will be a perfect choice for the position of Vice Chairperson, but certainly not as Chairperson. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he insisted that the former Attorney General and Minister for Justice "does not deserve to be the national Chairperson of the party." "It is not that she cannot work for the party but the fact is she cannot work as a national Chairperson of the party," he added. Mr Joseph Yamin, whose aspiration to become Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party was crushed by his closest contender Nana Akwasi, denied speculations that his decision to fight against Madam Betty's dream of becoming a National Chairperson is borne out of the fact that she made him lose the Ashanti Regional chairmanship position. "In the coming weeks I will organize a press conference and let the public know why Betty Mould-Iddrisu will be disaster when elected as Chairperson for the party. "But she should have in mind that Ashanti region is a no go area for her, she has already lost in advance the votes of the Ashanti regional delegates of the party," he observed. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Energy Minister John Peter Amewu, has served notice to all Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of state institutions under his ministry that he will not hesitate to sack them if they fail to listen to him. Mr. Amewu issued the warning after CEOs of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), failed to show up for a scheduled visit to the Aboadze Terminal Plant, even though they had been informed ahead of time. The Minister could not understand why the CEOs asked their respective heads of department to represent them instead of being there themselves. He wondered what could be more important than taking a decision to prevent government from losing US$40million every month if the Karpower plant at Tema is not relocated to Aboadze, for which reason he convened the meeting to deliberate over it. These CEOs in this country, it is time something is done seriously about them, and for me, I am not going to sit down and work with Chief Executives that will not be prepared to listen to me. Before I am gone, a Chief Executive will go; I am not going to entertain that, he told the gathering at the programme in the Western Region. The Energy Ministers tour also took him to the Tema-Takoradi Interconnection Project which birthed a regulatory and metering station and the Aboadze Power Enclave. He also visited the Ameri Power Plant which is being run by Metka. His last stop was at the Western Naval base in Sekondi where the facility will finally be stationed. 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 Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Cousin of President Akufo-Addo has bemoaned the seeming eagerness by African leaders to catch the eye of China for financial support as sad. According to him, the situation is a reflection of how Africans have failed themselves over the years. A two-day summit in Beijing brought together the leaders of China and 53 African nations on Tuesday, with a declaration and an action plan being adopted. China is emphasizing the strengthening of relations with African countries with natural resources and huge markets. At the opening ceremony on Monday, Xi announced $60 billion in financing for projects in Africa in the form of assistance, investment and loans over the next three years. Tweeting on the development, Mr. Otchere-Darko who attended the conference said: Watching 40-odd African leaders lined up to be hosted by China was indeed a sad spectacle, necessitated by 2 things: how weve let ourselves down, historically; how eager we are today to catch up. I believe in the promise of Africa now than ever before. Destiny and duty beckon. Ghana-China relationship The $2 billion Sinohydro deal was also signed between the Government of Ghana and Power China. The barter trade facility will be used to construct roads, hospitals, houses, rural electrification, interchanges, bridges and other government priority projects. The agreement received parliamentary approval in July despite protest by the minority who insisted that agreement is a loan. In a Facebook post, President Akufo-Addo said, Amongst others, I held separate bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping, and Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, with the talks centered on deepening the ties of co-operation and the bonds of friendship between the two countries. Post Below- Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video In recognition of his extraordinary commitment to education by implementing free universal education in Ghana, African Leadership University recognize the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his exemplary leadership, and I quote Education is the most powerful weapon for which you can use to change the world, Nelson Mandela These words were contained in a citation presented to the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, by the African Leadership University (ALU), on Friday, 6th September, 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda. Speaking prior to presenting the award, Mr. Fred Swaniker, founder of the African Leadership University, explained that President Akufo-Addo embodies the meaning of the quote education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. According to him, Ghana, Africa, and, indeed, the world is already witnessing the impact of the Free Senior High School Policy on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians, which, for him, is the reason number one that we thought he deserves this citation. In the first year of the implementation of the Free SHS policy, 90,000 more students entered Senior High School in 2017 than they did in 2016. Again, in 2018, the second year of the policy, 180,000 more students have been admitted into Senior High Schools across the country. The second reason for the award, the ALU Founder said, is the Presidents belief in the ability of the youth. From the beginning, as he assumed office, he made it very clear that his number one priority was to ensure that the youth of Ghana got the opportunity, and were able to get jobs, and he's implemented the policy of One District, One Factory, which is really about promoting the youth entrepreneurship, and making sure that the rural youth got an opportunity for employment, he added. Thirdly, President Akufo-Addos persistence and perseverance in not giving up on his vision of serving Ghana, according to Fred Swaniker, is one which has to be emulated by this generation of African youth. Nelson Mandela was in jail for 27 years, and I believe that one of the traits of great leaders is their persistence, they don't give up until they achieve their vision. And our President ran for office twice, before he eventually won. And, that, I believe, is the mark of a great leader, he said. The final reason for the award being given to President Akufo-Addo, Fred Swaniker said, was his belief in African self-reliance. I remember watching him proudly in this video that was going around. It went viral, and many of you might have seen this video, and if you haven't, then you should watch it. This was when the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, visited and he stood there, as our President told him about Ghana without aid and described his vision for African self-reliance and for Ghanas self reliance, where we will no longer depend on colonial powers like France, he said. The ALU Founder continued, I have never felt more proud to be a Ghanaian than when I watched that video. So, Mr. President, thank you so much for really inspiring all of us to think about how, as Africans, we can only drive our destiny and no longer rely on the rest of the world. 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 Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate in Brazil's upcoming presidential election, was stabbed on Thursday, during a campaign rally in the southern city of Juiz de Fora. The dramatic knife attack was caught on video and shared on social media. The politician survived but was seriously injured and underwent surgery. Bolsonaro was being led through a crowd in Juiz de Fora city, in the southern state of Minas Gerais, when the attacker stabbed him from the front. As the suspect attempted to escape through the crowd, he was caught and received the beating of his life before they headed him to the Police. While the politician was rushed to a hospital where he underwent a surgery after he was seriously injured. In a press conference at the hospital, a surgeon said Bolsonaro suffered injuries to an abdominal vein, the colon and the large intestine. The operation was successful and the candidate was stable, but in a serious condition, he added. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago told the Associated Press (AP) that the attacker had been arrested and was identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira. Santiago said the suspect was badly beaten by Bolsonaro supporters after the stabbing. Watch the video below. 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 His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo has expressed grief over the death of retired Supreme Court judge, Vincent Cyril Richard Arthur Charles Crabbe, eulogising the deceased as someone whose "objective was always the advancement of Ghana, and not partisan considerations." Justice Crabbe died on Friday, 7 September 2018 after a short illness. He was 95. He was a former Professor of Law at the University of West Indies and a Professor of Law at Mountcrest University. The President, who posted on Facebook to commiserate with the bereaved family, described the deceased "as a dedicated nationalist and fine gentleman". "On behalf of the Government and people of Ghana, I express my sincere, heartfelt condolences to the family of Justice V.C.R.A.C Crabbe on his death, which occurred today, Friday, 7th September, 2018. Respected public servant, eminent jurist, 1st Ghanaian Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Justice of the Supreme Court, accomplished Ghanaian and patriot, he served his country with distinction, and contributed immensely to our nations jurisprudence and development. His discipline, honesty and integrity made him an outstanding servant of the Ghanaian people and of the public interest. His objective was always the advancement of Ghana, and not partisan considerations. Even in old age, he continued to make crucial interventions in our nations discourse. Ghana has lost a dedicated nationalist and fine gentleman. May his soul rest in perfect peace, and may God bless him. Profile Born on 29 October 1923 at Ussher town in Accra, Gold Coast, he was educated at the Government Junior and Senior Boys Schools in Accra. He attended the Accra Academy for the Cambridge Junior and Senior School Certificates. He went to London to study Economics at the City of London College Moorgate, London 1950-1952. In August 1952, Mr Crabbe was admitted to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple to read law He completed the normal three-year course in two years and was called to the Bar on the 8th February, 1955 having being granted a dispensation. The same year he was enrolled as a member of the Gold Coast Ba in order to maintain his Seniority at the Bar. He progressed from Assistant Crown Counsel to Parliamentary Counsel, the first African to be appointed as such and ended up as a Senior Instructor at the International Law Development Centre in Rome, Italy. He held the post of First Parliamentary Counsel and Constitutional Advisor to the Uganda Government, Director of the Commonwealth Secretariat Scheme for Legislative draftsmen for the West African Region, Southern Africa Region, the Caribbean Region and a Professor of Legislative drafting at the Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, University of West Indies. Mr Crabbe was Special Commissioner to the 1968 Constitutional Commission; Legislative Draftsmen to the 1969 Constituent Assembly which drafted the 1969 Constitution of Ghana. He was the Chairman of the 1979 Constituent Assembly and drafted the 1979 Constitution of Ghana. He worked with the Constitutional Review Commission of Kenya and was Leader of the group of Draftspersons who drafted the Kenya Constitution. He did work the Zambian Constitutional Commission for the drafting of the Zambian Constitution as well with the Fiajoe Review Commission for the review of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. He was elected a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and delivered an inaugural lecture on 15 March 2017 on the theme: The Philosophy of Man. 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 It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those... We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Since I'm not a skier, I probably would never have visited the Alta area of Utah, but I am soooo glad this wedding took me there. It is absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous (as is Salt Lake City) and there is so much to do even in the summer months. We flew out to SLC last Thursday and returned home late Sunday on a red eye flight. Although we were only in town for a few days, we did manage to squeeze in enough to give us a feel for the local flavor.The view of Bingham Canyon as we made our descent into SLC. On Friday morning, we explored a small section of downtown SLC on foot. We hit the City Creek section for a stop at Starbucks. There were other retail shops located in this section of town as well. We stayed at the AC Marriott , which is gorgeous. It's a new property (only 5 months old), so it was pristine and very contemporary. We walked to City Creek and also checked out Temple Square, 10-acre complex, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our first night was spent in downtown Salt Lake City at my sister-in-law's suggestion so that we could adjust to the change in altitude before we headed further up into the mountains. We met my husband's family at Wasatch Brew Pub for dinner and drinks. I had the Snowbird Session IPA, and it was delicious. We ordered tater tots and breaded pickles to share. For dinner, I had the Pub Salad and the hubs had a cheeseburger. Emma had the Steak Salad, and Harper ordered the BLT. The food was excellent. The salads were large but not overwhelmingly so. I'd recommend getting the dressing on the side as I thought mine was a tad overly dressed.Side note: Utah has some of the strictest DUI laws in the country. All the beers top out at 4% alcohol content, and the liquor is measured before being added to the cocktails (which are very small in comparison to other states).On Friday before we headed to Alta Lodge for the wedding festivities, we made a pit stop at In-N-Out Burger because DUH!After lunch, we made the 40-minute trek into the mountains to Alta Lodge. The drive was as scenic as any drive gets. The mountains are truly majestic. I was in complete awe of the natural beauty that surrounded us.This was the view from our room at Alta Lodge. As much as I wanted to sit on the bed and stare out the window, we had to get ready for the welcome BBQ on Friday night.On Saturday morning, there was mountainside yoga (which was moved indoors because it was too chilly) and breakfast. Afterwards, the girls and I did a short hike up the mountain and over to a nearby ski resort.Another view from our walk.When we came back to the room, the girls headed to the hot tubs while the Hubs and I took another walk. This was the amazing view from the hot tubs.While on our walk, the Hubs and I impulsively decided to ride a ski lift to the top of a mountain (9,540 ft.) and back down again. The Hubs has a fear of heights, so this was quite an accomplishment for him. He was totally out of his comfort zone, but I'm proud of him for facing his fear.We returned to the room to get ready for the wedding. It was held outdoors with the mountains forming the most beautiful backdrop.All dressed up with somewhere to go!On Sunday after brunch, we headed to Snowbird's Oktoberfest. It's one of the most popular Oktoberfests in the country. It was really crowded and probably would have been a really great time if we had more time. But we were heading back to Salt Lake City to catch our flight home later that night, so we took it easy.It was truly a memorable trip. I'll bet it's breathtaking in the winter when it's snow covered. If I ever return during the cold weather months, you'll find me cozily tucked in the lounge in front of the fireplace! The first shipments of British pork to Taiwan are expected to go out soon, after the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) announced that that the new export certificate is available. The certificate 8084EHC is now available here The deal, secured by the UK Government, working with AHDB and the UK Export Certification Partnership (UKECP), was announced in August. Farming Minister George Eustice described it as a significant development for pork exporters. AHDB international market development director Phil Hadley said the new agreement, open to all approved pork plants, is expected to be worth more than 50m over the next five years, based on current UK export capacity. This could rise to 100m if our capacity grows to match demand for pork imports in Taiwan, where last year alone imports rose by 26% to US$178.3m (137m), he added. He said exporters would be able to take advantage of the opportunity as soon as the administrative listing process is completed and export certification is made available. At the moment, there are a couple of dozen plants that are pre-listed and I hope the first shipments will go out in September, Mr Hadley told Pig World. Exports will include fifth quarter cuts but also some higher end products, including into the food service and restaurant trade, he added. These things take time to grow, but the reason for having these markets open is so processors can access the best paying market for any one product at any given time. This means growth in Taiwan might be dictated by prices paid elsewhere. It will be up to the commercial guys to do their magic now and make their business decisions. Spain got access a while ago and has been doing good business we want a slice of that action. Get Our E-Newsletter - Pig World's best stories in your in-box twice a week See e-newsletter example Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy Embed from Getty Images Late last week, it was reported that proponents of a proposal to open so-called "safe injection sites" facilities where drug users would be able to shoot up in an enclosed environment supervised by medical professionals on the lookout for signs of overdose gave a demonstration in San Francisco of what such a facility could look and feel like. The prototype site installed at the world-famous Glide Memorial Church popped up less than 24 hours after the State Assembly signed off on a final round of amendments to Assembly Bill 186, a piece of legislation that would allow San Francisco to create a pilot program for "safe injection sites" through January 2022. Police across the country are watching events unfold in Fog City because they know well that the credo, "as goes California so goes the nation" may apply here. Other cities Baltimore, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and others are talking about opening their own safe injection facilities. Such facilities already exist in places like Australia, Canada, and Portugal. Advocates say these facilities would save lives that would otherwise be lost to overdoses and provide an avenue for addicts to get treatment and break their addiction. They argue that by providing access to meal services, showers, dental care, mental health and medical referrals, they can help guide people away from their addictions and toward more stable environments. But not everyone in San Francisco likes the idea. Rick Andreotti vice president of the San Francisco Police Officer's Association told KRON News that while he's happy the city is concerned for people's well-being, he doesn't think this is the right way to stop the drug epidemic. "Is this the proper solution? We don't believe so," Andreotti said. "We are concerned that an increase, or influx of addicts in San Francisco, will cause an increase in petty crimes, quality of life issues and we all know that's a major issue in San Francisco." Holes in the Plan On paper, these sites seem like a good idea in practice, probably not so much. In theory, if drug users really did go to these facilities to shoot up and there's no guarantee that they would then they are necessarily off the streets. They would not be camped out in doorways or hiding out in bushes throughout the city, thus ending one of the worst problems facing San Francisco the blight of drug-addled idiots infesting every corner of the city. And all those needles would theoretically disappear from the gutters. I've been saying for years that cops should not have to be drug counselors and medical workers jobs for which they are not sufficiently trained to be truly effective, nor did they sign up for. Ostensibly, these sites would fix that problem. In the event of an overdose, the police would be relieved of their obligation to come to the rescue of the victim that task would be administered by the "supervisors" at the shoot-up site. Consequently, SFPD would no longer have to as frequently administer naloxone (Narcan) to an overdosing subject, freeing them up to engage in other policing activities. However, there are some serious holes in the plan. For starters, such facilities would be in direct conflict with federal law. The Justice Department said in a statement regarding an effort in Vermont to open such facilities, "It is a crime, not only to use illicit narcotics, but to manage and maintain sites on which such drugs are used and distributed." Under a 1986 law known as the Crack House Statute, federal law prohibits anyone from knowingly opening, maintaining or managing a "place for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, distributing, or using a controlled substance." United States Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in an interview with NPR, "I'm not aware of any valid basis for the argument that you can engage in criminal activity as long as you do it in the presence of someone with a medical license." And because users would have to supply their own drugs, these facilities would do nothing to reduce the manufacture and sale of illegal narcotics they would only exacerbate the problem of the illegal drug trade. Further, one must question the willingness of drug users to actually get off the streets and consume their drugs in a "sterile" environment. We can't even get thousands of non-addicted homeless to get off the sidewalks and into a shelter how can we realistically think we can reason with the unreasonable man or woman who insists on intentionally poisoning themselves? Finally, it would not be incomprehensible to imagine that the cities where these facilities are operated to become havens for drug users around the country. I've lived in this town for more than two decades, and in that time I've witnessed a massive influx of drug-addicted wanderers who have somehow found their way to San Francisco there are an estimated 22,000 intravenous drug users already here. Opening even more permissive doors to what amount to being drug dens would only make matters worse. The Wrong Answer According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), more than 115 people die by overdose on opioids prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl every day in the United States. That's roughly the equivalent of one (mostly-full) 737 airliner auguring into the earth every day. So it's clear that something needs to be done to address the question of how we can lower the number of Americans who die with a needle in their hand. But opening such sites is not the answer. According to a meta-analysis done by the National Center for Biotechnology Information and U.S. National Library of Medicine, an examination of eight studies of safe injections sites showed that they "were found to have no effect on overdose mortality" and that they had "a significant unfavorable result in relation to problematic heroin use." Drug addicts need treatment, not assistance in furthering their addiction. The government and the private sector should be helping addicts shake their addiction not giving them a "safe place" to continue destroying themselves. These proposed safe injection sites are really just needle exchange and distribution programs on steroids well, more accurately, on heroin. Rather than encouraging and normalizing heroin injection, we should be examining ways to marginalize its use and mitigating the national crisis it has created. When several children living in Covington, GA, heard that one of the officers with their department had suffered a severe wound when he was shot, they wanted to do something for him and his family. So they banded together and opened up a lemonade stand. Image courtesy of Shena Chambers / Facebook. When several children living in Covington, GA, heard that one of the officers with their department had suffered a severe wound when he was shot, they wanted to do something for him and his family. So they banded together and opened up a lemonade stand, according to NBC News. Officer Matt Cooper was reportedly shot in the head Monday by a 21-year-old shoplifting suspect who led Cooper and other officers on a foot pursuit. Cooper was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he successfully underwent surgery Wednesday to relieve swelling on his brain, reports Fox 5 Atlanta. The kids sold 50-cent lemonade beginning earlier this week, raising $80 on Tuesday alone, according to the report. Shena Chambers, the mother of one of the children, told POLICE Magazine, "Our kids wanted to give back and help the officer and his family through the hard time they are going through... they are wanting to keep going after this week with different things to sell to raise money for his family. We encourage all children to figure out a way to help their communities as well!" The kids plan on keeping the lemonade stand open, with operating hours beginning when school lets out in the mid-afternoon. An officer with the Cheektowaga (NY) Police Department is being praised for rescuing a three-year-old girl from a hot car after the mother apparently overdosed on heroin. According to US News and World Report, the officer smashed a window in the sweltering car, pulling the girlwho was suffering from dehydrationto safety. The 28-year-old mother was charged with child endangerment and heroin possession. A sergeant with the Fort Worth (TX) Police Department shot an assailant armed with an edged weapon who threatened him and two other officers, according to NBC News. The officers were responding to a call that a man inside a home there was acting erratically and tearing up a bed. The manwhose name has not been releasedwas transported to a nearby hospital. Authorities said his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. None of the officers were injured. Officers with the Sacramento (CA) Police Department responded early on Thursday morning to a call of an armed, masked man walking on a city sidewalk. Officers found a suspect matching that description at of the subject, and the man ran away as officers tried to make contact. The suspectwho has not yet been identifiedfled into a residential area and officers established a perimeter. SWAT Officers were called, and they later found the subject in a back yard. Upon making contact, officers opened fire, fatally shooting the subject. "He posed an immediate threat to officers, and two SWAT officers fired on the suspect," police spokesman Vance Chandler told the Sacramento Bee. A Dallas police officer who fatally shot a man when she entered the wrong apartment will soon be charged according to Dallas police Chief Renee Hall. An arrest warrant was in the process of being issued as of Friday afternoon, reports WFAA. The officer who is a five-year veteran, according to sources was going home after a 12-hour shift when she walked into the wrong apartment, thinking it was hers, and shot the man inside. The officer was in full uniform when the shooting happened just after 10 p.m. Thursday. The man was identified as 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean. The officer called 911 and authorities responded and took Jean to the hospital. He died at the hospital from his injuries. According to Chief Hall, it is unclear what the interaction was between the officer and Jean. At some point she did fire her weapon, ultimately striking Jean. Chief Hall invited the Texas Rangers to conduct their own independent investigation. Dallas PD says they are conducting a joint investigation with the DA. An officer with the Smithville (OH) Police Department has been placed on unpaid leave after reportedly "arcing" her TASER to wake a sleeping student, according to Fox News. School Resource Officer Maryssa Boskoski was called to a classroom at the Liberty Preparatory School to help wake a sleeping student after a teacher and the interim principal failed to stir the student. Officer Boskoski removed the cartridge from the TASER and activated the "arcing" function, which awakened the student. Smithville Police Chief Howard Funk said Boskoski violated the department's TASER policy and what she did in the classroom could put her job in jeopardy. According to WFTX-TV, Boskoski failed to remove the cartridge from a TASER prior to a spark test, and as a result, the device accidentally deployed. The ISP Column A column on things Internet Other Formats: What Drives IPv6 Deployment? May 2018 Geoff Huston Its been six years since World IPv6 Launch day on the 6th June 2012. In those six years weve managed to place ever increasing pressure on the dwindling pools of available IPv4 addresses, but we have still been unable to complete the transition to an all-IPv6 Internet. Nobody predicted this situation when we first thought about the consequences of running out of IPv4 addresses. We all thought that the depletion of IPv4 addresses would in a continuously expanding Internet provide sufficient rationale for IPv6. We have been proved right that growth of the Internet has been inexorable. Personal computers have jumped from the desk to our pockets, and then leapt across to a world of managed devices. A census of the Internets connected devices would readily number in the tens of billions of devices. If they all needed a globally unique permanent IP address IPv6 wouldve been an imperative over a decade ago. But that simply has not happened. Instead, weve managed to completely redesign the architecture of the Internet. Some might suggest we have undertaken this effort simply to avoid the transition to IPv6. Perhaps that a bit of an extreme view, but the picture of IPv6 today is certainly puzzling. Whats going on? Data would help answer this question, and at APNIC, weve been performing a large-scale Internet-wide measurement of the level of adoption of IPv6 since late 2011. I won't repeat the details of the measurement system here, but you can find a description of the way we undertake this measurement in a 2017 presentation "How we measure IPv6". At APNIC we operate the measurement system using a sample rate of between 6 to 10 million endpoints per day, drawn from across most of the deployed Internet. We are able to analyse this data to produce a time series of the adoption of IPv6 over time. The overall picture of the adoption of IPv6 by Internet users since late 2011 is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 User Adoption of IPv6 (percentage of total user population) When these measurements commenced in late 2011 there was very little in the way of IPv6 deployment, and the total deployment level was measured at 0.3% of the internet user base at the time (i.e., an average of 1 in 300 users could successfully use IPv6 to access a web object). World IPv6 Launch day on the 6th June 2012 saw the rate of IPv6 adoption rise from 0.4% to 0.8% on the day, but the long term IPv6 adoption rate was still very slow. It was not until mid-2013 that we saw the Internet-wide IPv6 adoption rise above 1%. A major change in the IPv6 deployment picture occurred over the two-and-a-half-year period from the start of 2015 to mid 2017. Over that period the level of IPv6 adoption rose from 3% to 15%, and the majority of that rise occurred in the first half of 2017. By the end of 2017 the level of IPv6 deployment was measured at some 18% of the Internet, but there has been no significant further movement in that number across the first four months of 2018. Just four months is probably an insufficient period to justify an assertion that IPv6 deployment has stalled, but the hiatus in the growth of the use of IPv6 is certainly a source of some concern (Figure 2). Figure 2 User Adoption of IPv6: 2017 to mid-2018 Can we determine what factors might lie behind this recent slowdown in the growth of IPv6? Perhaps some pointers to an answer to this question lie in an examination of the opposite question. What are the common factors that have been behind the deployment of IPv6 in networks so far? In this article Id like to look at some potential answers to this question and see if the accumulated data can support any of these theories. Who Uses the IPv6 Internet? To start with it might be instructive to look at the Internet itself, and in particular look at the national populations of Internet users. Where are the Internets users? One resource Ive been using is Internet Live Stats which provides an estimate of the total population of Internet users per economy. Today the five largest national pools of Internet users are in China, India, the United States, Brazil and Japan. Together these five economies account for slightly more than one half of the entire current estimate of some 3.4 billion Internet users. In terms of IPv6 adoption, it follows that if all of these five economies undertook a close to ubiquitous deployment of IPv6 they would be able to swing the IPv6 adoption measurement point to over one half of all users. Obviously, this is yet to happen and the actual picture of IPv6 deployment is somewhat different. The most overt missing element at this national level in this set of the five largest national Internet user pools is China, where visible IPv6 deployment is yet to lift above relatively small levels of adoption. If these existing IPv6 users are not in China, then where are they? Of the estimated 513 million IPv6 users, lets look at the subset of economies where the national IPv6 user population is at least 3 million, or more than 1% of the total IPv6 user population (Table 1). Country IPv6 Users % of Total World Count % of National Users India 242M 44% 52% USA 117M 21% 40% Germany 30M 6% 42% Brazil 30M 6% 21% Japan 28M 5% 24% UK 17M 3% 27% France 12M 2% 21% Canada 7M 1% 20% Belgium 6M 1% 58% Malaysia 5M 1% 22% Rep. of Korea 5M 1% 11% Vietnam 4M 1% 8% Australia 3M 1% 16% Table 1 IPv6 Users per Economy The economy with the highest IPv6 adoption level is Belgium. Other countries which high IPv6 deployment levels do not have a large population of Internet users in absolute terms, so missing from Table 1 are Greece (37%), Switzerland (34%), Luxembourg (33%) Uruguay (32%) and Portugal (25%). This table might also suggest that within each economy the distribution of IPv6 users is uniform across all national ISPs. This is definitely not the case, and to sharpen our focus in looking at where IPv6 is deployed, we need to look at each Internet Service Provider (ISP). Table 2 shows the 20 ISPs with the largest estimated IPv6 user populations. Rank AS AS Name CC Users (est) V6 Users (est) V6% 1 AS55836 Reliance Jio IN 257,116,163 236,669,761 92% 2 AS7922 Comcast Cable US 48,845,229 35,701,856 73% 3 AS7018 ATT Services US 27,190,530 21,621,772 80% 4 AS38266 Vodafone Essar Ltd., IN 42,711,918 17,068,044 40% 5 AS22394 Verizon Wireless US 18,499,350 15,788,328 85% 6 AS45271 Idea Cellular IN 38,817,216 15,470,268 40% 7 AS21928 T-Mobile USA US 15,402,964 14,513,144 94% 8 AS3320 Deutsche Telekom ISP DE 23,392,392 14,118,853 60% 9 AS5607 BSKYB Broadband GB 13,714,642 12,821,973 93% 10 AS2516 KDDI JP 22,146,612 11,725,651 53% 11 AS28573 CLARO BR 24,184,316 11,048,081 46% 12 AS17676 Softbank BB JP 25,292,851 8,259,099 33% 13 AS3215 Orange FR 16,990,645 7,976,416 47% 14 AS20057 ATT Mobility US 14,455,761 7,967,862 55% 15 AS22773 Cox Communications US 11,537,814 6,224,326 54% 16 AS18881 Telfonica Brasil BR 14,125,727 5,844,652 41% 17 AS10507 Sprint PCS US 7,548,658 5,797,873 77% 18 AS9644 SK Telecom KR 6,912,564 5,654,940 82% 19 AS4713 OCN NTT JP 19,995,028 5,586,165 28% 20 AS31334 KabelDeutschland DE 7,456,144 5,340,966 72% Table 2 IPv6 Users per ISP. Three surprising numbers in this table are those of 94% adoption in T-Mobile USA, 93% in BSkyB and 92% in Reliance Jio. They are surprising in that prior to these deployments we had though that an ISP deployment of IPv6 was only a part of the story. It was up to the connected user network to also use IPv6-capable equipment within their edge network. The Comcast deployment level of 73% reflects this, in that while the ISP network is fully deployed with IPv6 support, there are is still IPv4-only customer equipment in use. Upgrading equipment in the home or office takes time, and the 73% adoption level reflects this. Why can these three networks achieve significantly higher levels of IPv6 adoption? I suspect that this is a reflection of the difference between Mobile ISPs and fixed infrastructure of mixed ISPs, and even the dual stack technology used by the mobile ISP. T-Mobile USA uses 464-XLAT, where the communications system is an IPv6-only network, and all attached devices use IPv6 to connect to the network. IPv4 is a tunnelled addition, where the IPv4 module is found in the user device. When given the choice these devices have a very strong affinity to use IPv6 over IPv4. It would not be surprising to learn that a similar approach was taken in Reliance Jio and BSkyB. However, these three ISPs are somewhat anomalous within the larger picture of per-ISP deployment, and it is more common to observe that within an ISP, IPv6 is not ubiquitously used by customer equipment. Within these 20 ISPs with the largest numbers of IPv6 users, we see a variation of IPv6 penetration between a low of 28% deployment (NTT in Japan) to 94% (T-Mobile USA). It is likely that the lower numbers reflect an ISP that has integrated a number of different consumer products into a single AS, and only some of the products have integrated IPv6 support as yet, or the numbers reflect a combination of customer equipment capability overlayed on the ISPs network IPv6 capabilities. The basic observation is that IPv6 deployment is by no means uniform, and deployment levels are variable within an individual economy and even within an individual ISP. The question now is: Are there common factors behind these IPv6 deployments? Theories of IPv6 Deployment Lets look at the available data about the Internet, its users and ISPs to see if there is some visible correlation between IPv6 deployment in the ISP and some other factor that we can measure. What we are looking for here is some evidence that IPv6 deployment and some factor are closely related. IPv6 is only for the Rich Its not strictly necessary for an ISP to deploy IPv6 in order to provide a consumer Internet access product. There are apparently no significant services that are accessible only using IPv6, and as long as an ISP has sufficient public IPv4 addresses to service the activities of its customer base, then it is not forced to deploy IPv6. From this admittedly very limited perspective the case could be made that IPv6 is a luxury activity, as distinct from an essential activity. But is this the case? Is IPv6 an activity that is undertaken only by those ISPs who can afford to undertake an activity that is not strictly speaking absolutely required? Or, to put it more bluntly, is IPv6 only for the rich ISPs? One way to measure the wealth of an ISP is to look at the aggregate net wealth of its customer base. Using the current Gross Domestic Product of each national economy, and the current national population estimates we can derive a GDP per capita for each economy. We can then use the estimate of the customer size of each ISP to derive a notional wealth value by multiplying this customer size by the GDP per capita. The 20 richest ISPs using this method are shown in Table 3. The IPv6 deployment figures from these 20 ISPs show a range of IPv6 uptake from 0% through to 94%. Some 13 of these 20 ISPs have an IPv6 deployment above 35%. While 3 of the low-level IPv6 use ISPs are Chinese, there are also Korean, US and UK ISPs in a similar position. The proposition that IPv6 is only adopted by richer ISPs is looking like a somewhat tenuous proposition these days. Rank AS AS Name CC Users (est) Value (est) IPv6 Users IPv6% 1 AS7922 Comcast Cable US 48,845,229 2,783,982,672,084 35,701,856 73% 2 AS4134 ChinaNet CN 310,853,595 2,460,095,350,830 244,673 0% 3 AS7018 ATT Services US 27,190,530 1,549,751,447,880 21,621,772 80% 4 AS4837 China Unicom CN 161,782,709 1,280,348,359,026 109,825 0% 5 AS22394 Verizon Wireless US 18,499,350 1,054,388,952,600 15,788,328 85% 6 AS3320 Deutsche Telekom DE 23,392,392 988,562,485,920 14,118,853 60% 7 AS17676 Softbank BB JP 25,292,851 984,220,710,963 8,259,099 33% 8 AS21928 T-Mobile USA US 15,402,964 877,907,336,144 14,513,144 94% 9 AS2516 KDDI JP 22,146,612 861,791,112,756 11,725,651 53% 10 AS20115 Charter Comms US 14,901,389 849,319,567,444 1,528,640 10% 11 AS20057 ATT Mobility US 14,455,761 823,920,553,956 7,967,862 55% 12 AS4713 OCN NTT JP 19,995,028 778,066,524,564 5,586,165 28% 13 AS22773 Cox Communications US 11,537,814 657,609,246,744 6,224,326 54% 14 AS3215 Orange FR 16,990,645 642,144,437,130 7,976,416 47% 15 AS701 Verizon Business US 11,056,076 630,152,107,696 62,472 1% 16 AS209 CenturyLink US 9,668,638 551,073,691,448 24,719 0% 17 AS5607 BSKYB GB 13,714,642 546,089,615,156 12,821,973 93% 18 AS5089 NTL GB 13,230,998 526,831,878,364 967 0% 19 AS9808 Guangdong Mobile CN 59,428,828 470,319,744,792 17,133 0% 20 AS4766 Korea Telecom KR 16,463,111 454,085,527,602 385,156 2% Table 3 Top 20 ISPs as valued by GDP per capita. Another way to look at this data is by using a scatter plot, comparing the IPv6 deployment level on one axis and the aggregate value of the ISPs customer base on the other. This comparison is shown for the same 20 ISPs in Figure 3 using a scatter plot. Figure 3 IPv6 Deployment vs ISP Customer value for 20 richest ISPs If there were a clear relationship, then we should see a clustering of the data into some band where higher levels of notional value of the ISP would correlate with higher levels of IPv6 deployment. Clearly no such clustering is evident in these numbers. It is also the case that the 20 richest ISPs do not contain the majority of the IPv6 user population. Some of the larger IPv6 deployments, such as Reliance Jio in India and Claro in Brazil fall outside this top 20. The top 20 richest ISPs only contain a little over one quarter of the IPv6 user base, while the other three quarters of the Internets IPv6 users are served from ISPs outside this same top 20 rich ISP list. If we take the 400 highest value ISPs and perform the same comparison of value against IPv6 deployment, the correlation between the two metrics is shown in Figure 4. Figure 4 IPv6 Deployment vs ISP Customer value for 400 richest ISPs Within this larger data set here is still no clear correlation, and while having access to funding to deploy IPv6 is obviously an advantage, it is clear that ISPs that serve all profiles of user populations have decided to adopt IPv6. It seems that the data is saying that you dont necessarily need to be an ISP for a wealthy and large base of customers to afford to deploy IPv6. Being rich may well help to support the IPv6 business case, but its not a strict precondition here. IPv6 is deployed when the ISP is growing rapidly Another potential motivation for IPv6 deployment is the scenario where the ISP is experiencing a rapid growth in customer numbers. In this scenario it may be the case that the ISP has not made sufficient provision in its IPv4 holdings for this growth and needs to find a workable solution. Using the IPv4 address market to obtain additional IPv4 address is the obvious approach and many ISPs have used this market to obtain more IPv4 addresses, but the approach is not without its associated cost. While IPv6 is not backward compatible with IPv4 and is not directly substitutable for a lack of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 deployment can ease the pressure on an ISPs IPv4 address pools. Dual-stack hosts on a dual-stack network typically use a happy eyeballs approach, where an IPv6 connection is attempted first, and IPv4 is used only if the IPv6 connection does not complete in time. This means that a dual stack deployment will push usage to IPv6 as long as the users access services from sites also using IPv6. A rapidly growing ISP may well see part of a response to such rapid growth in the deployment of IPv6. The Reliance JIO network appears to be a good example of this approach. How general is this scenario? If we could identify those ISPs who are experiencing the largest growth levels in recent months would we see a strong correlation with that ISPs adoption of IPv6? Table 4 shows the 20 large (more than 1M customers) who have experienced the highest growth rates over the past 16 months. Only 7 of these rapidly expanding ISPs have an IPv6 deployment greater than 10%. Of these ISP who have deployed IPv6 to this level, all are expanding their IPv6 deployment at rates even greater than the underlying ISP growth rate. It appears to indicate that where an ISP has commenced an IPv6 deployment, growth in the underlying customer base is accompanied by an even faster growth in the IPv6 deployment levels. But at the same time where there is no initial IPv6 deployment the rapid growth of an ISPs customer base does not appear to act as an incentive for IPv6 deployment. Rank AS AS Name CC Users (5/18) Users (1/17) Growth V6% V6 Growth 1 AS9644 SK Telecom KR 6,846,142 1,521,612 350% 81% 55% 2 AS131445 Advance Wireless TH 4,657,758 1,047,844 345% 42% 42% 3 AS37075 ZAIN UG UG 3,776,883 1,021,996 270% 0% 0% 4 AS45271 Idea Cellular IN 38,917,738 11,901,462 227% 39% 33% 5 AS9605 NTT DOCOMO JP 5,840,898 1,826,417 220% 8% 8% 6 AS55836 Reliance Jio IN 252,882,243 79,115,818 220% 92% 19% 7 AS56048 China Mobile CN 4,632,749 1,479,558 213% 0% 0% 8 AS132061 Realmove TH 3,033,271 1,035,635 193% 0% 0% 9 AS56041 China Mobile Zhejiang CN 21,567,119 7,379,958 192% 0% 0% 10 AS38266 Vodafone Essar IN 41,404,353 14,332,740 189% 40% 40% 11 AS21928 T-Mobile USA US 15,522,746 5,725,701 171% 94% 17% 12 AS4761 INDOSAT ID 7,750,603 2,889,955 168% 0% 0% 13 AS56047 China Mobile Hunan CN 6,839,156 2,579,417 165% 0% 0% 14 AS10507 Sprint PCS US 7,582,025 2,936,890 158% 77% 49% 15 AS24389 GrameenPhone BD 5,202,927 2,018,349 158% 0% 0% 16 AS197207 MCCI IR 7,451,173 2,897,240 157% 0% 0% 17 AS33771 SAFARICOM KE 10,556,969 4,199,062 151% 2% 2% 18 AS23693 Telekomunikasi Selular ID 15,027,678 6,043,987 149% 0% 0% 19 AS15897 VODAFONE TURKEY TR 4,079,685 1,653,584 147% 0% 0% 20 AS5410 BOUYGTEL-ISP FR 7,359,006 3,015,444 144% 2% 2% Table 4 Top 20 ISPs ranked by customer growth. We can look at the correlation between the underlying growth in the customer base and the growth in IPv6 deployment for the 400 most rapidly growing ISPs (Figure 5). Figure 5 IPv6 Deployment vs ISP growth value for 400 growing ISPs Once more there is no clear correlation going on here. One sub-group of ISPs with growth rates between 10% and 210% show V6 deployment level that rises as the ISP growth rises (as shown by the blue group in Figure 5), but a second group shows a constant level of around 40% IPv6 deployment for all growth rates between 2% and 350% (orange group). The majority of the data points are in the band where IPv6 deployment is less than 20% and growth spans 2% through to 280% (green group). Once more, we cannot substantiate this theory from the available data. A rapidly expanding ISPs does not necessarily deploy IPv6 as a response to this rapid growth. Some ISPs do, but many others do not. IPv6 is deployed when an ISP runs out of IPv4 Addresses The development of the IPv6 protocol was a response to the projection of IPv4 address exhaustion. The rationale was that an operator would be strongly motivated to deploy IPv6 in order to avoid many of the issues of attempting to operate an IP service with insufficient IP addresses. If this is the case, then we should be able to look at each ISP and estimate their level of IPv4 address scarcity and observe that those ISPs with the greatest level of address scarcity pressure also showing substantial deployment of IPv6. Table 4 shows the Internets 20 largest ISPs as measured by the estimated size of their customer base. For each of these ISPs weve compared the number of users to the total span of advertised IPv4 addresses that are announced by this ISP. This gives us a notional value of the number of users for each visible public IPv4 address. The largest values, indicating the most extreme levels of IPv4 public address scarcity are seen Nigeria, and the largest ISP in that country has ratio of 402 customers per public IPv4 address. Three of the Indian ISPs have ratios of 66 or greater. The question is whether the higher the ratio of customers for each IPv4 address relates to deployment of IPv6 in that ISP. There are 10 ISPs in this list with an IPv6 deployment level of above 10%, but the address use ratios of these 10 vary from 0.34 (or 3 addresses per customer) to 70 customers per IP address. Rank AS AS Name CC Users (est) IPv4 Addrs IPv4 Ratio IPv6% 1 AS4134 ChinaNET CN 309,309,607 108,180,224 2.86 0% 2 AS55836 Reliance Jio IN 252,882,243 3,593,728 70.37 92% 3 AS4837 China Unicom CN 157,000,163 56,262,655 2.79 0% 4 AS45609 Bharti Airtel IN 70,522,541 3,968,000 17.77 4% 5 AS9808 Guangdong Mobile CN 61,231,552 18,678,528 3.28 0% 6 AS7922 Comcast US 48,758,165 71,069,952 0.69 73% 7 AS38266 Vodafone Essar IN 41,404,353 601,344 68.85 40% 8 AS45271 Idea Cellular IN 38,917,738 584,448 66.59 39% 9 AS4812 China Telecom CN 35,767,235 8,605,952 4.16 0% 10 AS29465 VCG-AS NG 32,523,737 80,896 402.04 0% 11 AS8151 Uninet S.A. de C.V. MX 29,853,671 13,798,112 2.16 11% 12 AS4808 China Unicom Beijing CN 28,340,473 6,860,287 4.13 0% 13 AS7018 ATT US 27,078,307 80,679,680 0.34 79% 14 AS17676 Softbank BB JP 25,227,427 44,918,528 0.56 33% 15 AS28573 CLARO S.A. BR 24,281,752 9,138,176 2.66 47% 16 AS3320 Deutsche Telekom DE 23,467,950 34,140,416 0.69 60% 17 AS8452 Telecom Egypt EG 23,396,481 7,063,040 3.31 0% 18 AS9121 Turk Telecom TR 22,621,162 6,905,600 3.28 0% 19 AS2516 KDDI JP 22,149,880 18,765,568 1.18 53% 20 AS56041 China Mobile Zhejiang CN 21,567,119 2,939,904 7.34 0% Table 5 Top 20 ISPs ranked by estimated customer size, and IPv4 Use Ratio The table does not show a clear correlation, but once more we can take the largest 400 ISPs and use a scatter plot to match their IPv4 use ratio (the number of customers per advertised IPv4 address) to the Ipv6 deployment level. This is shown in Figure 6. Most of these ISPs have IPv4 address use ratios of between 0.5 (or, inversely, 2 addresses per estimated customer) and 10 (i.e. 10 customers per advertised IP address). However, there is no visible relationship between this IPv4 address use ratio and IPv6 deployment. The highest customer to IPv4 address ratios are in excess of 800, experienced by a number of ISPs in Nigeria, yet there is no visible level of IPv6 deployment in those ISPs as yet. Figure 6 IPv6 Deployment vs IPv4 Address Use This is perhaps the most surprising result. The motivation behind the timing of the development of the IPv6 protocol was to have a mature and well understood technology platform long before we ran down the levels of IPv4 to the extent that not only are the pools completely exhausted. But instead of deploying IPv6, many ISPs are deploying address sharing technologies. There are good reasons why many ISPs have taken this path as a short-term business response. For many ISPs an investment in IPv6 does not offer immediate benefits to the ISP customer base. It does not reduce the ISPs cost base, and if development funds are finite it is not unsurprising that many ISPs have chosen to concentrate on activities that offer direct outcomes, such as 5G in the mobile sector, or securing content arrangements in broadband service sector. IPv6 is often seen as a risk mitigation measure, and while address sharing technologies are capable of deferring the problem, IPv6 is not screaming for an operators attention in many cases. However, perceptions of risk can be very subjective, and while some ISPs are comfortable with deferring IPv6 deployment, others have already taken steps. The salient observation here is that the level of address shortage being experienced by an ISP does not appear to have a strong influence on the perception of risk of a collapse of the IPv4 Internet. IPv6 is deployed when an ISPs competitors deploy IPv6 The early days of the outreach of the Internet from the academic and research sector were seen as wild days! The industry was driven by entrepreneurs who saw a unique opportunity in challenging the entrenched monopoly of the telephone companies. The catchcry of the time was innovation and a deliberate effort to distinguish these new entrants as being completely different from the ponderous conservatism of the telephone industry. Inevitably size creates inertia, and as the customer base of these service providers expanded their ability to move quickly was significantly reduced. The Internet business sector now shows behaviours that have much in common with the old telephone sector. One of the common characteristics in this form of environment is that the dominant operators in a market tend to act in similar ways, offering similar services and at similar prices to their customers. What happens when one of the larger service providers in a market offers a new service? It is often the case that this provides sufficient impetus for other providers in the same market to offer the same service. Does this same behaviour apply to IPv6? How many national markets exist where three or more of the six largest ISPs have IPv6 deployment of 20% or more? The list is surprisingly small, as shown in Table 6. Economy IPv6 India 58% Belgium 58% USA 44% Germany 39% Greece 38% Japan 27% Brazil 26% Table 6 Countries with Combined IPv6 Deployment The other more populous economies with significant level of IPv6 deployment only have 2 or 1 of the largest 6 ISPs providing IPv6 services to their customers. Does this small list of economies in Table 6 prove or disprove the theory that competitive pressures tend to push other ISPs to deploy IPv6 once IPv6 deployment has commenced in an economy? Its hard to say. What Drives IPv6 Deployment? What can we observe about the drivers for deployment of IPv6 in 2018? You don't have to be rich, but it helps. You don't have to be growing rapidly, but at times rapid growth provides sufficient grounds to make the move. You don't have to be desperately short of IPv4 addresses, but again it may help. You can do it by yourself, but it can help when your competitors do it as well. When we first designed the IPv6 protocol we through of the Internet in the same terms as the telephone network as a peer network. Every connected device was meant to be able to both initiate transactions and respond to transaction requests. Addresses were both a network locator and a persistent endpoint identifier. When we were projected to run out of IPv4 addresses the consequence was that the network could no longer admit more endpoints. That was then. Today is very different. These days it's a client server network. Clients do not need persistent network-wide identity, and only need addresses as and when they communicate with servers. Servers do not need persistent identity either these days, as the identity of a server is a name-based distinguisher rather than an address-based identifier. We have positioned IP addresses in a different role, and no longer need to associate a unique public IP address with every connected endpoint. Address sharing technologies have allowed us to grow the pool of connected devices far beyond the number of unique addresses in the protocol. How far can this client / server model grow while relying in IPv4? How many devices can we cram into the IPv4 Internet before we break it? Perhaps that's a question we should not want to answer from experience. Disclaimer The above views do not necessarily represent the views of the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre. About the Author GEOFF HUSTON B.Sc., M.Sc., is the Chief Scientist at APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry serving the Asia Pacific region. www.potaroo.net The City of Dearborn economic development experts are happy to welcome business professionals hoping to establish, expand or relocate a business in Dearborn. In an effort to make sure prospective owners have information and access to important tools, the business portion of the city website has been expanded at www.cityofdearborn.org/business. Since businesses and entrepreneurs now do much of their research for site selection and planning online, the City wanted to provide convenient access to the information they need to make informed planning decisions when looking to locate in our community, said Tom Paison, assistant director of the Economic and Community Development Department. Tools available on the new webpages are: *A list of available commercial sites *Access to business intelligence and site selection data tools provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation *Business district information, maps and property information packets *A guide to development in Dearborn *A resource guide for Dearborn businesses and entrepreneurs *Zoning and ordinance information *Economic development marketing and business plans *A Redevelopment Ready Community Certification webpage with links to resources *Banquet and meeting spaces operated by the City of Dearborn The City of Dearborn serves a critical role in helping entrepreneurs through the process of opening a new business, working with existing businesses, ensuring a good relationship with the community, complying with local ordinances, and advocating for programs supporting Dearborns business sector. For more information, call 313-943-2180 or visit www.cityofdearbon.org/business. In addition to more well-known projects, many upcoming developments are currently in the review or construction process, including the following: West Downtown: *1035 Mason (former Howells site) four story building (first floor commercial, upper floors apartments) East Downtown: *13730 Michigan (former Times Herald site) three story building (first floor commercial, upper floors apartments) *13929-13939 Michigan: renovate existing building for a coffee shop and an indoor childrens playscape for a business called Kidcadia Warren Avenue District: *14526 Warren renovation and expansion of Golden Bakery Other areas: *6300 Mercury: vacant land near Southfield and Paul to be developed for three hotels and a large restaurant *19401 Hubbard (Henry Ford Health System Fairlane): expansion/renovation of the emergency department and dialysis clinic *10413 Ford: construction of multi-tenant commercial center adjacent to the new Sonic and Tim Hortons restaurants *2220 N. Telegraph: renovation of building into multiple commercial lease spaces with new front facade *3807 Monroe: renovation of building into multiple commercial lease spaces with new front facade For more information about this and other city projects, visit cityofdearborn.org. Source: City of Dearborn BANGALORE, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 16-year-old Pledges Half 'Breakthrough Junior Challenge' Winnings to Kerala Relief Fund if her Video on 4-Dimensional Space Time and Gravity Wins Challenge After being judged the 'National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement 2017', 16-year-old Bengaluru resident, Nikhiya Shamsher, has her eyes set on the prestigious 'Breakthrough Junior Challenge', an annual global competition for students - aged 13 to 18 - to inspire creative thinking about science. Nikhiya aims to win this challenge, but to win a crucial round she has to get more than 50,000 likes and shares on her video. She needs likes and shares from viewers to help her reach the finals. Winning the Popular Vote will bring Nikhiya very close to winning the challenge plus a scholarship of $250,000. She has pledged to donate 50% of an equivalent amount (about INR 90 lakh) to the Kerala Flood Relief fund and the rest 50% for the education of the less privileged children in Bangalore. She will be the first Indian to win this competition. Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a platform for budding scientists, physicists or mathematicians to explain a complex scientific idea with a short video of 3 minutes. Nikhiya's video on 4-Dimensional Space Time and Gravity has already received great reviews and admiration. She has qualified in the top 30 semi-finalists, surpassing approximately 5,000 entries received from across the world. Through her 3 minute video, Nikhiya, a science enthusiast and a physics geek, has simplified Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, especially the warping of spacetime and gravity. Most sources show ball-on-a-trampoline analogy to explain how gravity works and yet somehow she never found the explanation good enough. This inspired her to build a device that she calls the 'Spacetime Grid'. Three months and umpteen trials of size, shape, materials, motors and a bit of carpentry work went into this and the result can be seen in her video. Nikhiya's passion is not new. At such a young age, Nikhiya has already made so much difference in the lives of many. Her fascination with science and her love for social causes has already won many hearts and appreciation. At the age of 13, she started an NGO and has since then set up 106 'Yearn to Learn' laboratories of Science and Math in schools and colleges that don't have them. The Yearn to Learn labs have created a phenomenal impact with students turning innovators and championing Olympiads and Science Competitions. Apart from the labs, in the last three years about 10,500 students have received school supplies like bags, books and study materials through her activity 'Bags, Books and Blessings'. For her social activities, Nikhiya is the recipient of some of the most prestigious awards like the 'National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement 2017', awarded by the honourable President of India; The Diana Legacy Award, presented by the Duke of Cambridge Prince William and Prince Harry; Gold Medalist at the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, USA; and the Outstanding Youth Economic Citizenship Award 2017, presented by the German G20 Presidency. In Nikhiya's own words: "The world's population is 7 billion and some people see that as a burden. But I see it as a huge opportunity. Even if we can get 10% more students in technological fields, we can solve a lot of problems that plague us today - climate change, scarce resources and conflicts. It is simply a statistical advantage." To vote for Nikhiya's video, visit the link: https://www.facebook.com/BreakthroughPrize/videos/2220774517964312/ and Like and Share her video. Likes, shares and positive reactions on the original post will be counted as votes. Voting is open from 7th to 20th September 2018. #vote4nikhiya About Nikhiya Shamsher Nikhiya's journey started when she was 11 years old. She would dress up as a clown and cheer up children admitted in the Pediatric ward in hospitals. From there she started her project 'Bags, Books and Blessings' where at the end of every academic year, she gets her entire school to donate books, bags and study materials to less privileged children in Bangalore. From here she moved on to her second initiative called 'Yearn to Learn' which has opened Science and Math labs benefitting over 12,000 students in and around Bangalore. She also runs her own e-commerce website called 'Knicnacs' and uses 100% of all the profits to fund her activities. Media Contact: Abhishek Saran [email protected] +91-9535046900 The PRview SOURCE Nikhiya Shamsher NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Tesla, Inc. ("Tesla" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: TSLA) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Northern District of California, and docketed under index 18-cv-05470, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired Tesla securities between August 7, 2018 through August 17, 2018, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials. If you are a shareholder who purchased Tesla securities between August 7, 2018, and August 17, 2018, both dates inclusive, you have until October 9, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here to join this class action] Tesla Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance electric vehicles and electric vehicle powertrain components. The Company owns its sales and service network and sells electric powertrain components to other automobile manufacturers. It primarily offers sedans and sport utility vehicles. On August 7, 2018, Defendant Elon Musk, Tesla's co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), issued the following statement via Twitter: "Am Considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." In reaction to Musk's tweet, the price of Tesla's common stock increased, reaching an intra-day high of $387.46 per share$45.47 per share higher than the previous day's closing priceand closed at $379.57 per share on August 7, 2018, an increase of $37.58 per share, or approximately 11%. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Defendants had not secured funding for a transaction to take Tesla private; (ii) Tesla's Board of Directors was unaware of any plan to take Tesla private; (iii) Musk had not retained advisors in connection with his purported plan to take Tesla private; (iv) the status and likelihood of Tesla going private was therefore misrepresented to the market; and (v) as a result, Tesla's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On August 8, 2018, reports began to emerge that the SEC had made inquiries into Musk's tweet and whether it was truthful that he did, in fact, have "funding secured" to take Tesla private. Following this news, Tesla's stock price fell $9.23 per share, or 2.4%, to close at $370.34 per share on August 8, 2018. On August 9, 2018, Tesla's stock price continued to fall after facts emerged after the market closed on August 8, 2018 and later on August 9, 2018 that Musk's tweet had, in fact, triggered an SEC inquiry. For example, The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC "has asked Musk to produce proof that he's secured funding. . ." and numerous other media sources reported that Musk did not have funding secured prior to issuing his statement to that effect via Twitter. Following this news, Tesla's stock price fell by more than $17.89 per share, nearly 5%, to close at $352.45 per share on August 9, 2018, resulting in a two-day decline of more than 7%. On August 13, 2018, post-market, Musk stated via Twitter: "I'm excited to work with Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs as financial advisers, plus Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Munger, Tolles & Olson as legal advisors, on the proposal to take Tesla private." However, on August 14, 2018, Bloomberg reported that at the time of Musk's August 13, 2018 Twitter announcement, neither Goldman Sachs nor Silver Lake were yet working with Musk pursuant to a signed agreement or in an official capacity. On this news, Tesla's stock price fell $8.77 per share, or nearly 2.5%, to close at $347.64 per share on August 14, 2018. Then, on August 16, 2018, The New York Times published an interview with Musk in which he described the circumstances leading up to the tweet, including his high stress levels and his use of the sedative-hypnotic sleep medication Ambien in order to cope with his stress. On this news, the price of Tesla stock declined $29.95 per share, or 8.93%, to close at $305.50 per share on August 17, 2018. On August 24, 2018, Musk issued a statement on the Company's website, stating that he would abandon his plan to take Tesla private. 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 Related Links http://www.pomerantzlaw.com SOURCE Pomerantz LLP PALO ALTO, California and NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian (NYSE: VAR) signed a partnership agreement with Mediheal Group of Hospitals to expand access to radiotherapy in Kenya. This comprehensive partnership agreement includes the supply of advanced linear accelerators to five new radiotherapy centers across Kenya, as well as service, training and research collaboration opportunities. The equipment to be supplied will comprise one Varian TrueBeam system and four Varian Halcyon systems. According to the World Health Organization, the cancer burden is growing rapidly in Kenya. Currently over 40,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer each year in the country. "Supplying equipment is only part of the solution," said Varian president and CEO, Dow Wilson. "By partnering with a visionary hospital network like Mediheal, we seek to address the entire cancer care continuum, from human capacity development to treatment to long-term sustainability." The signing ceremony on June 29, 2018 was witnessed by U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Gil Kaplan, who led the President's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA) delegation to Ethiopia, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Varian CEO Dow Wilson is a member of the PAC-DBIA. Health leaders from the Kenyan government also joined the signing ceremony, including Cabinet Secretary of Health Sicily Kariuki and Principal Secretary of Health Peter Tum. "The Ministry of Health will also leverage the centers once established so that they can contribute to improved cancer care and evidence-based policy development," remarked Cabinet Secretary Kariuki during the event. Over the next seven years, Varian and Mediheal will work together to realize the goals of the agreement. "Varian and Mediheal's partnership is the beginning of the fight against cancer in Kenya," stated Hon. Dr. S.R. Mishra, Mediheal Chairman. About Varian Varian is a leader in developing and delivering cancer care solutions and is focused on creating a world without fear of cancer. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Varian employs approximately 7,000 people around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com and follow @VarianMedSys on Twitter. Press Contact Mark Plungy Director, Public Relations +1 (650) 424-5630 mark.plungy@varian.com Investor Relations Contact J. Michael Bruff Senior Vice President, Investor Relations +1 (650) 424-5163 investors@varian.com Related Links http://www.varian.com SOURCE Varian If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Freelance labor leader detained till late October as part of $60k embezzlement case RIA Novosti, Vladimir Pesnya 10:42 07/09/2018 ST. PETERSBURG, September 7 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) The Kirovsky District Court of St. Petersburg has detained the leader of the Freelance Labor Union Vladimir Soloshenko charged with stealing 4 million rubles ($60,000) belonging to the organization until October 30, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI. Investigators claim that the defendant acting as a founder and chairman of the freelance labor union embezzled the organizations funds between May 2016 and July 2017. Soloshenko was arrested in early September. Searches were conducted as part of the case in the unions office and premises of Soloshenko and his alleged accomplices. According to the press office of the Federal Security Services Directorate for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, Soloshenko,48, is also a founder of OneShopWorld company registered in Great Britain. Fire team commander to stay detained in Kemerovo mall blaze case Imago/TASS 11:58 07/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 7 (RAPSI) The Central District Court of Kemerovo on Friday extended detention of fire team commander Sergey Genin involved in a case over the fire in the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall that left 60 people dead until October 11, the courts press service told RAPSI. According to investigators, Genin ignored information about scores of people at the cinema on the fourth floor and the nearest way to the movie hall he received from a witness of the fire. Other firemen obeyed their chief in accordance with applicable regulations. The defendant sent his subordinates to the far-away stairs and lost the time. His negligence resulted in the death of at least 37 people, the Investigative Committee said earlier. The blaze in the mall occurred on March 25. According to investigators, 60 people including dozens of children were killed by fire. Initially it was reported that 64 people died. A criminal case has been launched over involuntary manslaughter, violation of fire safety regulations that left more than two persons dead and provisions of services that dont meet safety requirements. Eleven defendants have been placed in detention. Alleged accomplice of Komi Republics ex-head denies wrongdoing RAPSI, Diana Gutsul 13:59 07/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 7 (RAPSI) A criminal case against Demyan Moskvin, an alleged accomplice of ex-governor of Russias Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer, will be reviewed for the second time, now under an ordinary procedure, because the defendant denies wrongdoing, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom. Initial review of the case was conducted under a special procedure because the defendant, who was later sentenced to 6 years in prison, admitted guilt. However, after his sentence was overturned by a higher court, he changed his plea and now denies wrongdoing. On May 3, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow found Moskvin guilty of embezzlement, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. He was sentenced to 6 years in a high security penal colony and fined 2 million rubles ($32,000). In July, the Moscow City Court overturned the sentence and ruled to review it once more. Investigators believe that a criminal gang involving Gaizer, another Komi Republics ex-head Vladimir Torlopov, ex-deputy head Alexander Chernov, ex-Chairman of the Republican State Council Igor Kovzel and 10 other people, was organized in 2006. Depending of their involvement and role in crimes, they were charged with taking bribes, embezzlement and money laundering. According to investigation, gang leaders and members committed crimes aimed at occupation of the regions highly profitable enterprises or instituting control over them for the purposes of unlawful enrichment. They allegedly caused a 4.5-billion-ruble (over $70 million) damage to the republic. Investigators also accused the gang members of taking bribes totaling to 160 million rubles in 2013. Moreover, Gaizer himself received 37.5 million rubles in bribes for assignment of a person identified by investigators to the post of the Syktyvkar liquor producers director. In August 2016, one of the defendants, businessman Anton Faershtein died in a Moscow detention center. Ex-Russian Border Agency heads sentence for embezzlement reduced RIA Novosti 14:53 07/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 7 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court has recalculated a 9-year prison sentence of the Federal Border Development Agencys former head Dmitry Bezdelov in embezzlement case in accordance with a new law, the courts press service has told RAPSI. In July, President Vladimir Putin signed legislation on recalculation of terms of imprisonment. Amendments were proposed to the Criminal Code of Russia. Under the law, 1 day in a detention center would be counted as 1.5 days in a general regime penal colony or 2 days in a penal colony settlement. Thus, the court included the term Bezdelov spent in detention in his prison sentence in the ratio 1 day to 1.5. The convict has been staying behind bars for 4 years after recalculation of which he is to be held in prison for another 3 years. However, he now has an opportunity to seek parole. The court also mitigated sentence for Bezdelovs ex-deputy Boris Khaitovich reducing a fine imposed on him by 250,000 rubles. Initially, Khaitovich was sentenced to 8 years in prison and a 1-million-ruble fine ($14,500). Prison terms given to other eight defendants were also recalculated. On December 29, Bezdelov was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined him 1 million rubles for embezzling about 500 million rubles ($7.2 million). His accomplices were also found guilty and received prison terms ranging from 2 to 8 years in prison. Investigators claimed that in 2009, Bezdelov, then head of the Federal Border Development Agency, conspired with a group of people to embezzle public funds allocated for the construction of checkpoints on the state border. From September 2009 to May 2013, they stole and laundered over 490 million rubles, according to investigation. Bezdelov resigned from his post in October 2013 after a probe had revealed inappropriate use of budget funds by the agency. He was arrested in Rome in October 2014 after he had been put on the international wanted list. Italy's court of appeals upheld the decision to extradite Bezdelov to Russia in October 2015. The Supreme Court left the judgment intact. In April 2016, he was extradited to Russia. Appeal against arrest of alleged St. Petersburg terror act organizer set for Sep.19 flickr.com/Damien 16:59 07/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 7 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court will hear an appeal against arrest of an alleged organizer of the notorious St. Petersburg subway terror attack Sirozhiddin Mukhtarov in absentia, the spokesperson of the Basmanny District Court Yunona Tsareva has told RAPSI. The appeal hearing has been scheduled for September 19. Earlier, Moscows Basmanny District Court issued an arrest warrant for Mukhtarov, a member of Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad terrorist group prohibited in Russia. The defendant is to stay in detention for two months after he gets apprehended by law enforcement. Currently. the defendant is on the international wanted list. On August 2, the Investigative Committee reported that investigation into the St. Petersburg metro terror attack case against 11 defendants was completed. On April 3, 2017, an unknown device exploded in a train between St. Petersburg metro stations Technological Institute and Sennaya Ploshchad. According to law enforcement authorities, 16 people died in the blast including a suicide bomber, over 50 were wounded. 112 persons were acknowledged as victims in the criminal case. Investigators believe that an organization with a goal of spreading terrorist activity, including attacks on Russia and its citizens, was founded in Syria. According to investigators, the suicide bomber Akbarzhon Dzhalilov manufactured two explosives and brought them to the St. Petersburg metro. One of the bombs that Dzhalilov kept to himself exploded around 2:40 PM Moscow time between St. Petersburg metro stations Technological Institute and Sennaya Ploshchad. The second bomb located at Ploshchad Vosstaniya station failed to detonate due to its malfunction and was subsequently found and disarmed. Private complaints against court decision in Gazprom-Media case dismissed flickr.com/ SashaW 17:38 07/09/2018 MOSCOW, September 7 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court has dismissed private complaints against its decision introducing interim measures against major Russian web corporation Yandex on the request of Gazprom-Media company, the press-service of the court has told RAPSI. The private complains were filed by 2*2, TV3 and Parnas Media companies. Another complaint filed by TNT-Teleset has not been considered yet. Earlier, during review of the Gazprom-Media lawsuit, the court ordered Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor to prevent distribution of several series and films on yandex.ru website. Nestled in the foothills outside of Modiin, Israel is a small base training some of the worlds most elite counter-terrorism forces and snipers. These soldiers make up the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Infantry, Reconnaissance, and Special Forces units. Camp Mitkan Adam, commonly referred to as Adam Base, was the recent host to the 2018 International Sniper Competition. After hosting the event for a few years, the IDF extended the invite to the international sniper community. With 14 partner forces attending, the response was tremendous. Forty-three teams competed, and after three days of intense battle, the title of the worlds best snipers was earned. The IDF uses its snipers in unique roles and applications. The Infantry Sniper operates as part of a company and platoon. He patrols with a personal rifle (carbine) and carries a sniper rifle in his pack. Serving in this role, as a rifleman, until the need arises for him to deliver long range accurate fire. IDF Special Forces handle the counter-terror (CT) role. In a CT unit, the sniper is part of an intervention team. The goal of this team is to respond to a high profile situation and then isolate the area. Trained to take highly accurate incapacitation shots to free hostages and eliminate embedded hostiles. That same skillset, enables additional missions, where lethal shots are not desirable. Training of the IDF snipers is designed specifically to fill these roles; every aspect of the competition was meant to highlight that training. Adam Camp provides the perfect landscape to simulate all the environments the sniper could expect to operate in. Surrounded by rocky hillsides, the base contains ranges with moving targets, urban shoot houses and maneuver live fire lanes. The IDF Sniper Branch used very little static targetry. They used movers, snaps, and incapacitation zone targets instead. Difficulty was increased by changing mover speed, limiting exposure time and 3D movers (drone targets). The organizers utilized target-rich environments where engagements have to be conducted rapidly. Therefore pushing the competitors outside of their comfort zone. Additionally, the IDF incorporated scenario-based training into every event possible. During the course of eight day and three night stages, only two were on static ranges. Every other stage required some sort of movement and was scenario based. Stages included; foot patrols up and down a mountain with multiple firing lines, firing on moving targets within an urban environment, engaging targets while inside of a tunnel and shooting from behind cover into an urban environment. Composed of teams from Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Canada, Poland, Italy, and the United States, this shaped up to be one of the most inclusive competitions around. The teams were broken down into three different categories and competed against like opponents. The special operations category displayed 14 of the worlds best sniper teams. Competition was tight, with just a mere 20 points dividing up the podium. Going into day two, the leaderboard read a different story than what the final result would be. After three days, 11 stages and two sleepless nights the winners were finally determined. The US Army Sniper School team took third, US Navy Seals second, and the home team Maglan secured first place. Similar to US Green Berets, Maglan is one of the IDF special forces. Unlike the rest of the IDF, which is regionally aligned, they answer only to the General Staff. Maglans history dates back to 1986, but was only officially recognized in 2006. During Operation Beach Boys, they are reported to have destroyed 140 Hezbollah targets along the coast of Lebanon. Often revered by our allies, the U.S. is a standard bearer for military excellence. It is easy to dismiss what smaller countries, like Israel, bring to the table. The passion and commitment that their soldiers display is second to none. With a history filled with battle, and borders repeatedly contested, its hard to find a nation with more experience on the battlefield. That experience was on full display and leaves little doubt why the IDF sniper is one the best in the world. Connecting with people is the first step to creating greater awareness for the brand and that in turn, believes ISRO chief K Sivan, will translate into the institution becoming a place that people want to work in. Caught in a moment where its significance on the national stage is rising, the Indian Space Research Organisation is stepping out of the laboratory to build a brand that attracts talent from the country's A-listed institutions and resonates more soundly with people at large. The organisation says it will soon set up an incubation centre for space technology, adopt a more intensive school outreach programme and start a television channel dedicated to science and technology -- all this in an effort to embed the ISRO identity deeper into the public consciousness. ISRO Chairman K Sivan sees this as the only way the institution can keep itself relevant. So far, despite the work done by its scientists, the organisation is still far from being a household name, espcially outside the urban centres. This is in sharp contrast to the huge brand that its American counterpart, NASA, has built for itself. NASA's name brings instant recognition, not just in its home country but around the world. Besides, ask young scientists in India about their dream job, and the answer for nine out of ten students, would be NASA. Not too many people know about the work that ISRO does and Sivan says, he wants to change that. He is encouraged by recent successes that its missions have had and the interest that this has generated within the global scientific community. At home, too, ISRO has found a large following online, especially after its Mangalyaan mission to Mars in 2014. Still there are plenty of dark regions for the brand, making it difficult to rope in the best minds in the business. Attracting good talent has always been a challenge. In 2014, a query under RTI (right to information) about the composition of ISRO's employee pool, showed that only two per cent of its people came from the IITs and NITs, the country's premier engineering/scientific institutes. Connecting with people is the first step to creating greater awareness for the brand and that in turn, believes Sivan, will translate into the institution becoming a place that people want to work in. But the dots are not as easily joined, said a former employee, who has worked closely with the organisation in the past. "To thrive in such a competitive market, ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix need to think and work harder in building a brand," he added. There is tremendous potential for ISRO to expand its influence today, given the huge interest space-related research generates among the young. The space launch services market is projected to grow from $8.88 billion in 2017 to $27.18 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.01 per cent during the forecast period, according to Research and Markets. If ISRO is to take advantage of the rising public and government interest in the sector and leverage the vast pool of homegrown talent that India generates, it has to reach out to the right people in the right manner, the former employee said. Outreach is very essential, says Sivan. That is why he says, they are launching their own channel, 'ISRO TV', with a strong digital component. At the same time, the team is putting its energy behind exhibitions, seminars, displays, visits to facilities, connecting with schools and so on. The idea is to inculcate a scientific temper' among Indians, Sivan added. Ratan Shrivastava, advisor, space division, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that any space programme, including Indian ones, aim to provide access to the benefits of space to the ordinary citizens of the country. "The easiest and the fastest way to reach out is through television," he said. Historically, ISRO has recruited from tier II and tier III colleges, and groomed them to be pioneers, in space and aerospace, Shrivastava added. It is time to take this message across to a larger set of people. The channel will also help build greater understanding about science, technology and space. "We don't have any science TV channel. This channel, expected to launch in the next four months, will inculcate scientific thinking," said Sivan. While it will be launched in Hindi and English, ISRO TV will expand to other languages. The television foray will be supplemented with an aggressive digital presence. In this the organisation is looking to emulate NASA that has a TV channel and is also active on social media. And just as NASA has done, ISRO has a YouTube channel too. Sivan said, "Whether it be on Twitter, Facebook or even Instagram, it is imperative for ISRO to build a brand around itself online and not just with TV." There is an effort being put into creating a buzz around the brand. Social media posts that talk about its women scientists have gone viral in the past and a recent announcement that it would put a man in space in less than four years, has been reported and talked about extensively. Among its other plans are an ambitious merchandising programme and an incubation centre for space technology. "We want to have an incubation center. Our aim is that the best brains in research and development should be utilised. The start-ups can contribute to ISRO without joining us," Sivan said. He is also keen to monetise the enthusiasm around space by offering space-related merchandise. But getting Indians to stock up on ISRO rockets, or Mangalyaan memorablia, could well be a tough ask. For most companies this would mean extending medical coverage to same-sex partners, say legal experts. The Supreme Court judgement decriminalising certain sections of 377 of the Indian Penal Code has put corporate India into an introspective mood. Even though India Inc has gone out of its way to welcome the judgement, HR experts and employment lawyers point out that most businesses have to tweak their workplace rules to walk the talk. Most MNCs and large Indian conglomerates said they already are an equal opportunities employer and do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of religion, caste, race, nationality or sexual orientation. Post this judgment, we may have to reconsider specifics in policies to more openly accept certain kind of relationships that seemed illegal earlier, said Santrupt Mishra, HR head for Aditya Birla group. For most companies this would mean extending medical coverage to same-sex partners, say legal experts. As an equal opportunity employer, we believe that being inclusive and allowing people to be themselves, truly brings out the best in them. "We strive to maintain a work environment that is free from any harassment, said a Hindustan Unilever spokesperson. According to Anuranjita Kumar, managing director & head HR, International Hubs, The Royal Bank of Scotland, the bank was the first to introduce a medical cover for same-sex partners. We see this as just the beginning of more job opportunities for the community, said Kumar. Godrej group, which already has an anti-discrimination policy in place, is contemplating extending health insurance benefits to same-sex partners in the future. The corporate world is the ground on which the next victory for equal rights will be won, said Parmesh Shahani, head, Godrej India Culture Lab. The advertising fraternity is already ahead of the curve when it comes to making the workplace friendly and fair for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. According to Shashi Sinha, chief executive officer, IPG Mediabrands India the group already follows an inclusive policy as part of our global charter. We do not discriminate on the basis gender or sexual orientation, he said. Arun Nanda, chairman, Rediffusion said the firm already extends mediclaim benefits to same-sex partners. However, the challenge going forward for companies will be to tackle the mindset issues at workplace, he said. Legal experts point out that decriminalising of Section 377 does not create an obligation on companies to have gender-neutral policies. Unless the Sexual Harassment Act is amended to protect male employees or other genders, companies will not be mandated to make gender-neutral policies by virtue of this judgment alone, said Atul Gupta, partner, Trilegal. According to Vikram Shroff, head, employment law, Nishith Desai Associates, one of the earliest impact would be to include a column on others or neither in the gender column of the application form. Such disclosures may also trigger workplaces needing to make necessary adjustments and effectively prohibit discrimination, bullying, abuse, etc, he added. However, Kumar of RBS does not agree with the idea. Social mindsets take long time to change. Though people would be more accepting of people with different facial orientation, or with people publicly out of the closet but it is not something I would ask on a CV, she said. With inputs from Viveat Susan Pinto, Dev Chatterjee and Priyadarshini Maji Photograph: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Reuters 'As demonetisation showed us, the Shah-Modi duo can take big risks.' 'Risking economic damage for political benefit, however, is one thing, stoking old fires in complicated Assam is another', warns Shekhar Gupta. IMAGE: Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Anilchandra Shah at a rally in Kolkata where he attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress President Rahul Gandhi for opposing the National Register of Citizens in Assam, asking them to 'clarify whether the country comes first or the vote bank'. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra/PTI Photo Don't ask me to tell you a story about Rwanda. Wikipedia would tell you more than me. You might not even need me to tell you stories about the great massacre of Nellie 35 years ago. It's part of our political folklore now. Let me tell you, instead, about less familiar places: Khoirabari, Gohpur, and Sipajhar. These places on the north bank of the Brahmaputra must be remembered when a deeply polarising debate over the National Register of Citizens in Assam is raging. In the killings of 1983 in the Brahmaputra Valley, about 7,000 people died. A little over 3,000 of these were Muslims, slaughtered in Nellie in a few hours on February 18 morning. The rest were scattered all over, and mostly Muslim. In the three places we mentioned, those killed were almost all Hindu. And by fellow Hindus. So why were Hindus massacring Hindus if the anger was against 'foreign nationals' (read Muslims)? Like most things in the north east, it's a complex story. Let's lift the layers. The attacking Hindus were Assamese-speaking, those massacred were Bengalis. The linguistic and ethnic hatred was as vicious as the communal bloodlust. Where the two impulses got rolled into one, as in Bengali Muslim enclaves like Nellie, the story was simpler as Assamese Hindus killed Bengali Muslims. Everybody was at each other's throat. The Bharatiya Janata Party, and a well-meaning Supreme Court have stirred the same deadly cocktail. Four million people have failed to make the cut in the final NRC draft. They have been described differently, depending on whether the BJP is speaking as the government or a party. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh says it's only an interim first draft. Amit Shah in Parliament calls them 'ghuspethiyas' (infiltrators). How will you read this if you were on this list? You will feel targeted. Next, the finance minister (and the real chief minister, never mind the title) of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, told us that about a third of these 4 million are Hindus. The BJP's solution: The new citizenship Bill, whereby Hindus and Sikhs from neighbouring countries would be given Indian citizenship as a norm. Even if this law passes, let's see how the 'indigenous' Assamese react to this. This -- sharing space with Bengalis, Muslim or Hindu -- isn't what they wanted. Remember, they were killing them both in 1983. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, a former chief minister, Asom Gana Parishad chief and a junior BJP ally now, has already expressed disagreement with this. From all estimates, chances are that no more than half a million of these 4 million will ultimately be left out in the final tally. There's an anomaly in the process that can't sustain. The Gauhati high court, in its wisdom, sanctified the 'indigenous' demand that certificates granted by village panchayats be not treated as proof of citizenship. Now, what other evidence would these poorest of people bring from a pre-Aadhaar past? The state government didn't appeal against this. It would have ended all the fun, you see. Someone else knocked at the Supreme Court's door. It didn't approve the high court order, but passed the buck back, asking the high court to draw up the norms for which panchayat certificates will be legitimate. It was in this confusion that the Supreme Court rail-roaded the preparation of the NRC. If any reasonable view is taken of these certificates, hardly any proven 'aliens' will remain. This isn't what the BJP would want. The court had gone by the spirit of the 1985 Rajiv-All Assam Students Union/All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad peace accord. It promised an NRC with March 25, 1971, as the cut-off year for determining citizenship. What this meant was anybody who had come to India before that date would be a legitimate citizen. This was based on the Indira-Mujib Agreement, whereby Bangladesh had agreed to take back all its 10 million or so refugees from India. Almost 80 per cent of these were Hindu. Indira Gandhi wanted them all, Muslim and Hindu, to return. It was in 1985, 33 years ago, when Rajiv Gandhi signed the accord with Assam agitators, promising the NRC on this basis. For all the various reasons, the NRC wasn't made until now. Two more generations have grown since. Can you deport or disenfranchise them now? Even the BJP knows it won't happen. If anybody from the BJP says there is no politics to it, ask them if they didn't hear Amit Shah's speech. He is to be given full marks for transparency as he laid out his pitch for the 2019 campaign. Since claims of 'vikas' are always less tempting than its promise, 'nationalist'; polarisation will be the BJP's vehicle for a second term. The issue in Assam will keep festering until then. The BJP will keep calling millions ghuspethiyas and, by implication, extend the insinuation to all Bengali-speaking Muslims in the country. The expectation is that the 'secular' Opposition, pushed along by its Left-intellectual support base, would ultimately be baited into defending these and, by implication, the infiltrators. The subtext will be: They are pro-Muslim and anti-national. The Congress sees the trap, but doesn't have an answer. If 2019 is set up as a vote for or against Muslims, the BJP has it in the bag. Assam for Amit Shah, therefore, is just a giant dog whistle to rouse the 'nationalist' faithful all over the country. Amit Shah and the BJP know their electoral politics better than anybody else. But do they know Assam? I will take you back 35 years, to my little room in Guwahati's Nandan Hotel. My four visitors had an aura of power with humility. They were also bewildered. The leader was K S Sudarshan, then bouddhik pramukh (intellectual chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He rose to sarsanghachalak later. A couple of the rest, north east 'specialists' in the RSS, now occupy key positions between the Sangh and the BJP government. The reason they had sought me out was to figure out how come so many Bengali Hindus had been killed in the Assam riots early that month. How can these Assamese not make the simple distinction between 'Muslim infiltrators and Hindu refugees'? How could they kill so many Hindus in Khoirabari, Sudarshan asked. I explained the ethnic and linguistic complexities in Assam which made the massacres, in a brutal way, secular. 'Kintu, Hindu toh arakshit hai (but the Hindu is unprotected),' Sudarshan said. That conversation is recorded in my 1984 Assam: A Valley Divided (pages 121-22). The RSS then launched a patient campaign to re-educate Assamese agitators. The last assembly election was the trophy of their success. The BJP in Assam now consists almost entirely of former AASU and later AGP converts, including the chief minister and his more powerful colleague. But like they did in their youth in 1983, they will again struggle to deliver on the NRC on RSS/BJP terms: Target Bengali Muslims, embrace the Hindus. The BJP has decided to use Assam as its key to 2019. As demonetisation showed us, the Shah-Modi duo can take big risks. Risking economic damage for political benefit, however, is one thing, stoking old fires in complicated Assam is another. It's possible that things will remain calm, but if they don't, it will again be Hindu against Muslim; Assamese against Bengali, Hindu or Muslim; Hindu against Hindu; and Muslim against Muslim. By Special Arrangement with The Print 'If people understand the love between boy-boy, girl-girl or transgenders, then that is the first great step for society to change.' IMAGE: LGBT community supporters in Bengaluru celebrate the Supreme Court verdict which decriminalises consensual gay sex. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo Krishna Reddy Medikonda, an IITian, was contemplating leaving the country. But the Supreme Court's landmark verdict on September 6 decriminalising Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code has given him new hope. "I wanted to stay with my partner, but it was not possible to do so openly," Medikonda tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf. "Because of this judgment, I will now stay in India," adds Medikonda, who was part of a group of 20 IIT students and alumni who filed a petition against the impugned law. What made you and your fellow IITians file a petition against Section 377? When the petition was filed by Navtej Singh Johar, all my friends in IIT thought we must file a co-petition as it would make a lot of impact. If an IITian group does something, then everyone comes to know that something is going on. Everyone in India knows IIT. We felt there would be some impact if we too support this cause, as the earlier petitioners had been fighting this case for years. As an IITian, why did you think this issue was important for India? It is not about being an IITian or anything. It is like everyone in India has the right to do what they want unless and until they are not disturbing others. Even if we are miniscule (in number), we should have the freedom that the Constitution gave us. This is not unnatural, but natural. There is nothing to discriminate, but still a lot of people used to get discriminated against. Did one feel a sense of guilt because of being gay? Will that change after this verdict? It is nothing like that there is shame. People used to take some time to accept this. Once the judgment came, people from the community will be relieved, especially people who are in the closet and who are mostly depressed (due to discrimination). Now, they can tell their parents openly that they are gay. At least now they can be free to themselves. Some people wanted to migrate because this issue was not settled here. In the long run, this judgment will be helpful. Many opposing the revocation of Section 377 say the LGBT community is a threat to the concept of family. What is your take on it? I know some families, they are fine with this. Until the time your family is fine with you for being LGBT, there is no threat to any family. I don't think there is any threat as we are not disturbing anyone. How difficult has life been for the LGBT community in India? It is difficult because we cannot express our own feelings and talk to our friends. Like, I cannot open my mouth in local trains as people will start judging you. These things exist in our society. I did not personally face anything because I had the support of my friends. But when I was in school, I had a slightly girlish character and people used to tease me. My school friends were not aware about these things. If people are aware and educated, then these things will not happen. The point here is people are not aware. What does the future look like for the LGBT community in India after this judgment? I thought I will settle in some other country where LGBT communities are accepted. Because of this judgment, I will now stay in India. I like India, but I had no option but to move out. Now things have changed for me, as earlier society was not accepting me. Even if I was not bothered about society, the Indian Penal Code was not accepting me earlier. So how could I stay here? But now, at least we have this judgment from the Supreme Court that is accepting us. So there is nothing wrong in staying in India. I wanted to stay with my partner. but it was not possible to do so openly. There will be a lot of change now. Striking down Section 377 only pertains to consensual sex between two adults. The apex court hasn't ruled on gay marriage, adoption, property rights etc for gays. Is that something you plan to pursue next? This is the first step. At least people are not criminalising us from now on. There is some hope for the future. Hopefully, in the future, someone else will take the step for marriage rights. If someone takes that step, I will be a part of that. There are a clutch of people who do not understand the significance of striking down Section 377. Could you explain why this law was anti-equality and anti-human rights? Most people think Section 377 is about sex. We are not fighting for sex, but for love. People think that love is all about two persons of the opposite gender only, but it can be love between the same gender too. If people understand this concept first, then they can understand who are lesbians and gays. If people understand the love between boy-boy, girl-girl or transgenders, then that is the first great step for society to change. 'There will be a broad coalition of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states' IMAGE: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh flanked by former vice president Hamid Ansari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal during the launch of Sibal's book Shades of Truth in New Delhi. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo Senior Congress leader P Chidamabaram on Friday predicted a broad alliance of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that will bring a coalition government, while his colleague Kapil Sibal said there is no way the BJP can retain power if opposition parties unite. Speaking at a discussion after the launch of Sibal's book Shades of Truth, opposition leaders exuded confidence that a non-BJP government would be in place in 2019 while calling for the need of a coalition of like-minded parties. Among those present at the launch included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former vice president M Hamid Ansari and a host of opposition leaders. Leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bahujan Samaj Party were not there. "I never predict the future. I will predict a step ahead of the election results. I think there is a very very good chance that there will be a broad coalition of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states. That I will predict today. If that happens, then I think night falls day, or day falls night, the result is foretold," Chidambaram said when asked about what will happen in 2019. Sibal, however, said, "I think everything will depend on two key states -- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And if Gorakhpur, Kairana and Phulpur are any indication, and when the opposition unites then the BJP cannot win. If we can replicate that in Bihar and in Uttar Prades, I think there is no chance for the BJP." Former Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav said "It is impossible to get everyone together, but even if there is possible unity, this government will have to go." He said all sections of society are being suppressed and the entire country will defeat the BJP in 2019 and the country's Constitution and its values will be restored after that. Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury while refusing to predict election result, said "what we will work for is to make sure that this government does not return to power and to strengthen India through a coalition of all the progressive secular forces." Trinamool Congress leader Chandan Mitra, formerly a BJP MP, however, struck a discordant note saying while the opposition is expected to win, there will be a regional leader leading it, as the rules will be changed now. Yechury retorted saying, "The Trinamool Congress will correct the historical blunder committed by the CPI-M." Former prime minister Singh, however, refused to make any prediction for the next Lok Sabha polls. Sibal noted that India is a nation of coalitions and coalitions with compromises can only take this country forward. "I think it is time to understand that India as a nation is a coalition. Coalitions with compromises can only take this country forward. Since 2014, the nature of our polity has changed and the difference between the party and the government has ended. It is the party that runs the government and not the government, that runs the country. Parties have infiltrated in a democracy and that balance has been disturbed," Sibal said. Chidambaram, however, said since 1989, the Lok Sabha elections have been a collection of state elections as no longer one leader will sway the elections in the country. "2019 would not be different and it would be a state-specific election. In every state a non-BJP coalition will be formed defeat the BJP. It is wrong to assume that India's election will be a presidential election and a state leader will be pitted against the other state leader," he said. Asked if Rahul Gandhi was up to the job of taking on prime minister Modi, Sibal said, "The prime minister sold dreams to India in 2014. Has he been up to his job?" For the first time, Chidambaram also acknowledged publicly that the party was divided and he was against impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, a move that finally failed, while Yechury said the move was delayed and much time was lost in bringing about consensus. IMAGE: Dilbag Singh, left, takes over as the new DGP of Jammu & Kashmir from S P Vaid, right, who was shunted out on Thursday. Photograph: Courtesy @JmuKmrPolice/Twitter Dilbag Singh took over as the new Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday after his predecessor S P Vaid was shunted out and posted as Transport Commissioner Thursday night. Immediately after taking over as the new police chief, Singh, a 1987-batch IPS officer from the state, said that his priority was to stamp out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest, while protecting the interests of common people. A 1986-batch IPS officer, Vaid, who was unceremoniously removed as police chief, passed on the baton to Singh at a simple ceremony held at the police headquarters in Srinagar. In a related development, the state government informed the Supreme Court about its decision of appointing Singh as an acting police chief. State government counsel Shoeb Alam said the government was seeking modification of the July 3 order by which a state was required to send the names of three senior IPS officer well in advance to the Union Public Service Commission for clearance before appointing an officer to the post of DGP. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submission of the state government and posted the matter for hearing on September 10. The 55-year-old Singh, who has served the state police in various capacities, said he would also work for the welfare of police personnel, who have been at the forefront of anti-militancy operations. The new police chief said it is a daunting task but he is sure the Jammu and Kashmir Police will pass all tests with flying colours. "My priority as of now is to deal with terrorism firmly, while protecting the interests of innocent common people. I have held a meeting with my senior officers at the police headquarters after taking over and will be interacting with district superintendents, range DIGs and Zonal IGs in the evening to have a brief on the ground situation and our priorities," he said. Calling the responsibility a great honour, he said due attention would be paid to the welfare of the all police ranks, especially the jawans. The state government is seriously concerned about that, he said. "The JK Police has earned a name for itself and it is duty for all of us to take it to greater heights," he added. WATCH: Going with a lot of good feelings, says S P Vaid Vaid, who has been made transport commissioner, is believed to have been removed because of continuous friction over interference in the police work by the state's bureaucracy. He has been shifted as Transport Commissioner, a post which was held by Saugat Biswas, a 2006-batch IAS officer. The post has been upgraded from Additional Secretary to the rank of Secretary. It will be headquartered in Jammu. Before demitting office, Vaid expressed satisfaction that he was able to serve the people of the state. "I'm thankful to God that he gave me the opportunity to serve my people and my country. I'm grateful to police, security agencies, and people of state for their support and their faith in me. My best wishes to the new DGP," Vaid said. "My only concern is the youth which is dying and unnecessary loss of human life. The sooner it ends, the better it would be," he said. Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah criticised the timing of changing the state DGP, saying there was no hurry to replace Vaid and the state police could do without having to deal with the confusion of leadership. "Changing the DG is the prerogative of the administration but why a DG as a temporary arrangement? The current DG won't know if he's going to stay and others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. None of this is good for @JmuKmrPolice," Omar tweeted. The state government removed Vaid as the DGP late Thursday night and handed over the charge to DG (Prisons) Dilbagh Singh till a permanent appointment is made. However, officials privy to the development said that Singh would continue as the Director General of Police and all necessary formalities including seeking permission from the UPSC was being taken. Patidar leader Hardik Patel was on Friday shifted to a hospital after his health deteriorated on the 14th day of his indefinite fast in Ahmedabad, a Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti functionary said. IMAGE: Khodaldham trustee Naresh Patel meets Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel during latter's indefinite hunger strike for reservation since Aug 25, in Ahmedabad. Photograph: PTI Photo According to PAAS spokesperson Manoj Panara, Hardik agreed to be shifted to Sola Civil Hospital after his supporters requested him to do so in view of his failing health. Following the end of a 24-hour ultimatum by the PAAS to the Gujarat government to begin talks with the protesting leader, Hardik had Thursday evening stopped intake of water, he said. "Hardik's agitation will continue. But, since his health has deteriorated due to the 14-day fast, we requested him to get hospitalised," Panara told reporters at the fast venue near the city. Another PAAS leader, Dharmik Malaviya, said that Hardik's "fight will continue". Hospital authorities said Hardik was in the ICU and a team of doctors was treating him. He was shifted to the hospital shortly after senior Patidar community leader and president of Khodaldham Trust, Naresh Patel, met and advised him to call off the strike or take medical treatment. "Hardik has not taken water since the last 18 hours. I told Hardik that everyone is worried about his health and that he should call off the hunger strike as soon as possible. He told me that he will inform me soon about his decision to call off the fast," said Naresh Patel. During the meeting, Hardik asked Naresh Patel to mediate with the Gujarat government and hold talks on three of the former's demands. "Hardik asked me to be a mediator. As per his wish, representatives of Khodaldham, along with of another Patidar body Umiya Dham Sansthan, will try to talk with the government to break the deadlock. Our priority is to see that Hardik's health does not deteriorate," Naresh Patel said. "If needed, we will pressure the government to accept Hardik's demands. Though the issue of reservation may take longer, we hope that the state government shows a positive attitude towards the two other demands," he said. Hardik went on the indefinite fast on August 25 demanding reservations in government jobs and education for the Patidar community and waiver of farm loans. Later, he added another demand that his close aide Alpesh Kathiria, who was recently arrested in a 2015 sedition case by the city Crime Branch, be released. The government had, in the last 14 days, not made any attempt to negotiate with Hardik, his supporters claimed. However, Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said that "doors are open" for anyone who wanted to talk to the government. The state's Congress leaders, in a show of support for Hardik, Friday observed a 24-hour fast. While Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani protested outside the collector's office here, Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda sat on a hunger strike in Anand. Chavda, speaking to reporters, questioned why no one from the state government had met Hardik despite the latter observing a fast for the past 14 days. Hitting out at the BJP-led government, Chavda said, "It is matter of shame for this government that someone has to sit on a fast for the welfare of his community as well as farmers." Dhanani called Hardik's demand for a farm loan waiver legitimate and claimed that Gujarat farmers were reeling under debts as they were not getting the right prices for their produce. "In such a scenario, the government must waive loans of farmers. Even the past UPA government had waived farm loans worth Rs 71,000 crore" Dhanani said. Succumbing to pressure from the hardliners, the Pakistan government on Friday withdrew the nomination of noted economist Atif Mian, a member of the minority Ahmadi community, from a newly-constituted economic panel, according to media reports. The move came three days after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government defended the academic's nomination to the Economic Advisory Council led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying in categorical terms that it will 'not bow to extremists'. Ahmadis are designated non-Muslims in Pakistan's Constitution and their beliefs are considered blasphemous in most mainstream Islamic schools of thought. Mian, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated Pakistani-American economics professor at the prestigious Princeton University, was recently named member of the 18-member EAC to advise the government on economic policy. His appointment embroiled into a controversy after it was opposed by several individuals and groups, including the hardline Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, who objected to his Ahmadi faith. Confirming the development, Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhary said the government has decided to withdraw the nomination of Mian from the EAC because it wants to avoid division. "The government wants to move forward alongside scholars and all social groups, and it is inappropriate if a single nomination creates an impression to the contrary," he was quoted as saying by the Dawn. Chaudhry said the ideal state, according to Prime Minister Khan, is of Madina and that the premier and members of his cabinet hold Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in high esteem. "Khatm-i-Nabuwwat (belief in the finality of the prophethood) is a part of our faith and the recent success achieved by the government in the matter of blasphemous sketches is reflective of the same connection," he said. PTI Senator Faisal Javed said Mian has agreed to give up his position on the council and a replacement will be announced later, the Geo TV reported. Earlier on Tuesday, the government had defended Mian's nomination, saying, "Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority." "I don't think anyone should have objections (to Mian's appointment), and those who do, they are basically extremists and we will not bow to extremists," Chaudhary had told a press conference in Islamabad. He had also tweeted that 'We'll follow (the) principles of Mr Jinnah, not of extremists'. His thoughts were echoed by Minister of Human Rights Shireen Mazari, who had tweeted: 'Exactly. Well put indeed. Time to reclaim space for the Quaid's Pakistan!'. BJP rolls out its pinch-hitters to question Congress president Rahul Gandhi's Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Rahul Gandhi, are you really at Mansarovar or some place else?' asked Bharatiya Janata Party's social media national in-charge, Priti Gandhi, on Twitter, voicing her doubt whether the Congress president has really gone on Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. It's not only Priti Gandhi, but all senior leaders of the saffron party are questioning self-confessed Shiv bhakt Rahul's pilgrimage to Hinduism's holiest abode. However, to prove that their leader is in fact at the location, the Congress on Friday posted a picture of a smiling Gandhi in front of Mount Kailash, considered the abode of Lord Shiva, on Twitter along with details of his trekking details compiled by popular fitness mobile app Fitbit. Later, some fellow pilgrims too shared some photos of Rahul on social media. The Congress also posed a challenge to "haters" of Rahul Gandhi whether they can "keep up" with its president, saying he has clocked over 46,000 steps while travelling more than 34 km during his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. "Leaving all the haters behind, Congress President Rahul Gandhi sets the pace during his Kailash Yatra. Can you keep up?" the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. The Fitbit data showed Gandhi having travelled 46,433 steps, 203 floors, 34.31 km over 463 minutes, while burning 4,466 calories. The Congress chief also tweeted a video of the hills on his official Twitter handle and said, "Shiva is the Universe". On Thursday as well, Gandhi had posted a picture of Mount Kailash, saying, "It is so humbling to be walking in the shadow of this giant." He had earlier put out pictures of the "tranquil and calm" waters of the lake and said there "is no hatred here". "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 had said on Twitter. However, some BJP ministers were not satisfied with the photos and questioned whether he was posting photo-shopped pictures picked up from Google. In fact, Union minister Giriraj Singh has accused Rahul of posting fake pictures. 'This is photoshopped... There is no shadow of the cane,' he tweeted to one of Rahul's photographs. The 48-year-old Congress leader is undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra following a wish he expressed in April when his plane plunged hundreds of feet during the Karnataka election campaign. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. The plane dipped steeply and shuddered violently, but soon recovered and landed safely. Three days later, on April 29, Gandhi announced during a rally that he wanted to undertake the pilgrimage. The arduous pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. Gandhi left the national capital on August 31 for the yatra. He is expected to be back by the end of this week. Earlier, the BJP also questioned questioned Gandhi's choice of route via Nepal, and alleged that he was visiting China and the government needs to know who he was meeting there. With inputs from PTI Photographs: @INCIndia/Twitter, ANI IMAGE: Delhi Police's special cell arrest two suspected terrorists, Parwez Rashid and Jamshed Jahoor, affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmirorganisation in New Delhi. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo Two suspected members of the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir have been arrested near the Red Fort, the Delhi Police said on Friday. The duo, from Shopian in Kashmir, were identified as Parvaiz Rashid Lone, 24, and Jamsheed Zahoor Paul,19. They were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort, said Pramod Singh Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police-special cell. They were boarding a bus to return to Jammu and Kashmir when they were nabbed around 10.45 pm Thursday. The officer said they were using Delhi as a transit point. A team of the Delhi Police's Special Cell had received inputs from reliable sources that some sleeper cell members of IS-JK had been visiting Delhi frequently for onward travel to Uttar Pradesh, said the officer. "It was revealed that they were procuring sophisticated weapons through their contacts in Uttar Pradesh. It was learnt that the duo were using Delhi as a transit point and had even managed to deliver an arms consignment to ISJK cadres earlier," he added. "We want to radicalise the entire world," Jamsheed Zahoor Paul, one of the alleged terrorists arrested by the Delhi Police's special cell, told the interrogators, sources said. The investigators said the two were highly radicalised and the cell phones seized from them had videos, adding that some notebooks were also recovered, which were being studied by the police. Parvaiz Rashid Lone is the elder brother of Firdous Rashid Lone, who along with one Sameer Ahmed Lone was killed by security forces in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir on January 24, the officer said. Lone is pursuing MTech from Gajrola in Uttar Pradesh after completing his BTech from Amroha. He was inspired by his elder brother, police said. In September 2016, his younger brother Firdous had first joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, before joining the ISJK, the DCP said. Firdous had idolised Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, who was killed by the security forces in July, 2016. Firdous was carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh and was brainwashed by the radical elements, the police said. Lone's father was a retired Jammu and Kashmir policeman, they said. Jamsheed is a final year electrical engineering diploma student in Jammu and Kashmir. He was friends with one Shaukat, who happened to be the brother-in-law of Syed Owais Shafi, police said. Shafi was allegedly a member of Al-Qaeda-motivated Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and was gunned down in an encounter this year. Jamsheed had also facilitated Mohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency, the officer said. This was their second trip to Delhi. They had gone to Kashmir from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh through Delhi in May. The two terrorists had flown into Delhi on September 4 from Srinagar and had then travelled to Amroha. Two 7.65 pistols and four cell phones were seized from the duo, who were working on the instructions of Omar Ibn Nazir and Aadil Thoker, current commander and deputy commander of IS-JK, he added. The officer said that they had no plans to carry out terror activities in the national capital and were using Delhi only as a transit point. He said the ISJK organisation is at a nascent stage. The duo were involved in transporting the weapons to Shopian, sources said. They said the suspected terrorists used to put the pictures of the weapon on their WhatsApp group which was administered by their commander. After two-three days, he was directed by them to come with the weapon to a particular location and then he would call them to another location mislead police. IMAGE: Police responds to shooting inside a bank in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday. Photograph: Courtesy Cincinnati Police Department/Handout via Reuters A 25-year-old Indian man was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in a bank building in the United States city of Cincinnati before police shot him dead on Thursday. Pruthviraj Kandepi, who hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, police said. India's Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told PTI that the Consulate is in touch with the police, Kandepi's family as well as members of the community. An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added. The other two victims were identified as Luis Felipe Calderon, 48 and Richard Newcomer, 64. Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, they said, adding that the gunman felled in a shootout with officers. According to the Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call around 9.10 am local time about an 'active shooter' at the bank. The gunman was shot multiple times as four police officers approached him and he died at the scene. He had a pistol and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, Isaac said, adding that the gunman was not a former or current employee of the bank He had gone to several businesses before going to the bank, he said. Perez had opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Isaac told reporters at a televised press conference. 'Those who attacked me, punish them.' Jyoti Punwani reports from the Bhima-Koregaon judicial commission hearing in Mumbai. IMAGE: Milind Ekbote, left, and Sambhaji Bhide have been accused of instigating the violence in Maharashtra over the bicentenary celebration of the Bhima-Koregaon battle fought 200 years ago. Ekbote was arrested, but released on bail. Bhide has not been arrested so far. Despite attempts to discredit her, and questions designed to provoke incriminating answers, witness Manisha Khotkar, one of the Dalits travelling in a bus that was attacked and later burnt near Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018, emerged with her testimony unshaken after a gruelling two-day cross-examination. Khotkar is the first witness to depose before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up to inquire into the violence that took place at Bhima Koregaon. The two-member commission is chaired by retired Calcutta high court Chief Justice Jai Narayan Patel with Chief Information Commissioner of Maharashtra Sumit Mullick as member. Khotkar's story remained unchanged till the end. The 44-year-old graphic designer described how she and her Dalit companions from Thane had set out to observe the 200th anniversary of the battle between the Peshwas and the British that took place at Bhima Koregaon in 1818. Mahars, fighting on the side of the British, had defeated the Peshwas. The Khotkars had taken their daughter along with them so that she could learn about Dr Ambedkar and about their community's history. However, they could not make it to Bhima Koregaon as violence had broken out there before they reached. The bus they were travelling in was stoned and later burnt. Both she and her husband suffered injuries. The police, Khotkar said, had taken down her statement, but had failed to include that those attacking the Dalits had also abused them on the basis of their caste. She had told them about these abuses. Maharashtra government counsel Shishir Hiray made an attempt to discredit the witness by bringing to light two cases against her relating to cheque bouncing. Khotkar replied that she knew that some cheques had bounced, but she did not know that there were any cases against her as she had not received any summons from any court. The government counsel's line of questioning drew criticism from Senior Counsel B A Desai. "As government counsel, why are you protecting the accused?" he asked. "You should not discredit a Dalit woman." Veteran lawyer Desai is representing Congressman Sanjay Lakhe Patil before the commission. Niteen Pradhan, counsel for ex-BJP corporator Milind Ekbote, one of the two persons accused in the very first first information report filed after the Bhima Koregaon violence, asked Khotkar: "Don't you have feelings of hatred towards Brahmins for having inflicted suffering on Dr Ambedkar and also on your community?" Khotkar's answer surprised everyone in court: "All that was in the past. I have no hatred towards Brahmins." Still, Pradhan persisted. "You may not hate Brahmins, but surely you don't love them?" Answered Khotkar: "I have Brahmin friends. I respect them." Asked Pradhan: "The Peshwas were Brahmins. Doesn't your community go to Bhima Koregaon every year to celebrate the defeat of the Peshwas at the hand of the Mahars?" "No," replied Khotkar. "We go to pay homage to the Buddhists who were martyred there." Obviously unaware of courtroom etiquette and with no lawyer to guide her, Khotkar often gave long explanations in response to questions. At times she even urged Justice Patel to listen to her. At one point she asked government counsel: "Why are you going into my financial affairs? I am here only to ask for justice. Those who attacked me, punish them." In the middle of her cross-examination by advocate Hiray, Khotkar burst out: "When we were being attacked, not a single reporter nor any police were present. Such a big event was to take place at Bhima Koregaon, the entire media should have been there. Where were all these reporters, all this security, at that time?" Justice Patel heard her out patiently, describing her utterances as an "outburst". Hiray tried to establish that the police had made adequate bandobast for the event. Khotkar agreed when asked whether the police had helped her group get into another bus to complete their journey home. Significantly, the government counsel introduced the idea of a "third party" different from the two groups who had clashed: One with saffron flags and the other with blue flags. Could the stone throwing have been from this third party, he asked. Could it be that this "third group with a completely different ideology" had tried to create "anarchy" among the other two groups? Outside the commission's room, Manisha Khotkar's companions from Thane were upset that she had had no lawyer to help her face the cross-examination. None of them had expected the proceedings to begin on the very day that she had been summoned, they said. Hence they did not ask any lawyer to be present. On Thursday, there was a lawyer who tried to help the witness: Advocate Vidya Triratne. But she had to stop after Hiray objected that she was providing the witness with answers, and Justice Patel asked her not to do so. Triratne told Rediff.com that it was not Khotkar or her group that had asked her to come. It was her organisation BAMCEF that had sent her there to help the witness. The cross-examination of the second witness, retired assistant police inspector Tukaram Gaware, by Niteen Pradhan, began on Thursday, September 6, and will continue on Friday. 70-year-old Gaware, who belongs to the same group as Khotkar, the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Kalyankari Mandal, Thane, had also travelled in the same bus as Manisha Khotkar to Bhima Koregaon. Devulkar had a certain abnormal vagueness about him that was unreal and defied belief. That came across in both his slightly too easy-going, extra-cooperative manner and the ragged nature of his testimony. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora trial. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com On the monsoon morning of August 25, 2015 at 11 am, Harshraj Vijay Devulkar went for a walk in Worli, south central Mumbai. It turned out to be the wildest walk of his lifetime. As he was wandered along from the Worli Sea Face on his way home -- "generally walk kar rahein the (generally just walking about)" -- towards the leafy enclave of Sir Pochkhanwala road, close to the Mumbai traffic police headquarters, a policeman was standing near or within the gates of Marlow, an upscale society of stylish flats. He called out to the strolling Devulkar -- "Awaz aaya (a voice shouted out)" -- asking him "One minute come here, I need your help." Devulkar, who lives at the Worli Koliwada village and was working with a real estate business at the time, didn't remember if the officer was in uniform, but at the moment he did know that the man was from the Mumbai police. The inspector, whose name he later learnt was Dnyaneshwar Ganore (whose 21-year-old son was charged last year for killing his mother in a stunning case), asked him if he could come to the home of someone named Indrani. Devulkar, though oddly not reluctant, asked the details, and then consented. After some delays, including a peculiar detour made to the building that houses NGO Anand Niketan, near the Famous Studios, Mahalaxmi, some kilometres away, with this policeman by car, he was taken by Inspector Ganore to Flat 18 at Marlow, along with Indrani Mukerjea, two women constables and two or three male constables, all in plain clothes, and another person who was not a cop. She was in custody of the police at the time. The police told her they wanted to search her house. Indrani rang the bell of her erstwhile home, which according to Devulkar had her name on the door. A woman, he believed was possibly the help, answered. They were taken into the Mukerjea home and various items belonging to Indrani and the family were seized. "The police were bringing different sorts of things from within the house and putting them on a table." These included "don mota chi (two of their big) albums," two cell phones, two laptops, a plastic card, her passport. Other than the help there was a "mulgi (girl)" in the home who he thought was her daughter, but he was not sure. He described no interaction between the "mulgi" and her arrested mother or a description of either. From Flat No 18 they went up by the building's common staircase to Flat No 19, another flat belonging to the Mukerjeas. There, Indrani opened the front door with her key and the "bar counter" was viewed -- "sheth logon ka ghar mein jaisa hota hai (like those you find in the homes of the seths, the rich): -- and after three or four minutes they returned to the other flat. Somewhere in the interim Peter Mukerjea, former CEO of Star India, also arrived at the home, Devulkar recalled (this was in the days before his arrest). The items that had been seized were thoroughly packed up, as is legal procedure, and sealed by the police personnel present. Devulkar had to sign on the items along with the other person, who turned out to be a man named Kishan Pawar. A statement was also drawn up that Devulkar first read and then put his signature to it too, with Pawar, who he said he neither knew nor had met before. From Flat 18, the whole group took the lift down to the ground floor and headed out to the garage that the Mukerjeas owned. That was opened up and the police spent half an hour or so searching it but didn't find anything. The search -- that Devulkar had been co-opted into, he just an ordinary man the police had pulled off the street one fine morning, probably one of the strangest mornings in his life -- went on many hours longer than he had expected and he fretted that his family would be worried. "Pura din laga! Doh baje gaye. Laga ki gharwala ko phone karein (It took the whole day! Till 2 pm. I felt I should phone the people at home)." By about two pm the whole process was done and Devulkar was allowed to go home. "I went home and he went his own way" he said of Pawar, whom he never met again. This account of Devulkar's visit to Indrani's home in 2015, as a random pancha (a witness for a panchanama or recording of evidence) formed the backbone of his testimony in Marathi on Thursday, September 6, in CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale's Courtroom 51 at the Mumbai city civil and sessions court, south Mumbai, in the Sheena Bora murder trial. When he started off talking about the visit to a home, the judge checked, "Your home?" Devulkar laughed, disbelievingly, "No, no, not my home!" Devulkar, 31, a short man, bulkily-built, with a full beard, bulbous lips, lively black eyes, wearing a green shirt and black trousers, was a voluble, chirpy witness, neither anxious nor tense. But full of smiles. And ready with plenty of extra details. Never surly or losing his cool under cross-examination. After he delivered his testimony the real estate/insurance agent, who had been in the trade for 3 or 4 years, he said -- was shown his panchnama and he identified the signatures on it. CBI Special Public Prosecutor Bharat Badami asked, "Vastu barabar? (Right items on it?)" Devulkar agreed. The albums, picked up that day from the Mukerjeas' home, were also pulled out by the court clerks and Devulkar vouched for the signature on the packet as being his. When they were opened up before the court, he agreed they were the same albums he had seen in 2015. Looking at the back of the court to where the three accused were in the aropee box, he said Indrani was the woman he met that morning, three years earlier. Devulkar is one of the 50 or so panchas who played a role in this initial 2015 Khar police station (north west Mumbai) murder investigation that was later taken over by the CBI. He along with a few other panchas have (or will) serve as witnesses in the trial. Given that the Mumbai police handles -- ballpark figure -- anywhere between 20,000 to 35,000 cases per year (Example: The 2012 figures for January to October were 24,821, according to The Times of India), closing just a fraction of them, the number of panchas that would be called upon to be witnesses in panchanamas drawn up across the city would be a mind-bogglingly large number, year on year. Panchas, for which there is a huge requirement, are not easy for the police to come by. Most people -- the ordinary public -- are reluctant to have interactions with the police voluntarily and subsequently spend endless time being present at a panchanama site, thereafter appearing in court, if need be. These witnesses, when the case goes to trial, can turn hostile or be influenced, as the Maharashtra government stated in a 2015 government resolution 'The reason behind the state's failure to prove its point beyond reasonable doubts is the panch witnesses turning hostile and damaging the entire prosecution's case. The chances of private panch witnesses, whom the police uses for panchnama, getting influenced for various reasons cannot be ruled out'. Panchas being used, various news reports allege, are usually from a middle-lower class background, that the police browbeat, through some means or another, into the process. The state government has looked at various kinds of solutions to help procure better quality and more willing panchas. In 2015 teachers were requested to take on pancha duty. But they registered their reluctance by petitioning the state home ministry government through their union. In 2015, the state government ordered that all government employees should serve panch duty in criminal cases. Devulkar, quite like the other one or two panchas/volunteer witnesses who have already appeared in this trial, had on Thursday a certain abnormal vagueness about him that was unreal and defied belief. That came across in both his slightly too easy-going, extra-cooperative manner and the ragged nature of his testimony. After he cheerfully gave his evidence through his 'examination in chief' helped along by Badami, he was turned over to the defence for cross examination. Though Indrani's lawyer Sudeep Ratnamberdutt Pasbola was initially present at the hearing, he left the cross to be done by Gunjan Mangla. Judge Jagdale -- who has been on a concerted mission to encourage junior lawyers to handle cross examinations in absence of their seniors, since it makes scheduling hearings far simpler (senior lawyers are juggling umpteen court dates in many courts) -- was pleased that Mangla was handling the 'cross'. Further he suggested, with a smile, to Mangla to allow her junior Sia Choudhry to tackle the cross examination. 'So you are not allowing your junior? Every senior does the same thing!' Mangla, who was wearing a white and black handloom kurta and black churidar, exclaimed: "My Lord, I don't have a problem!" indicating her junior didn't want to take the 'cross'. The judge, happy to be dealing with younger lawyers, was all patience on Thursday, gently suggesting to Mangla when questions be rephrased or how to go about confronting the witness on a certain point. Devulkar's account and assertions, both during his testimony and later when he was cross examined by Mangla, continued to grow more flaky, as he grew more cheerful, tossing up quite some peculiarities. He told the court that he worked in real estate. But it was not clear if he was a broker or a broker's associate and he admitted he had never struck a deal. He had also worked as a Peerless agent, he said. On his panchnama his profession was listed as 'naukri (job)'. He had no legitimate explanation as to why his stated occupation kept changing and said that though he worked in real estate he happened to say he was doing a job to the police. Why Devulkar liked to amble about neighbourhoods like Sir Pochkhanwala road, which is nearly 2 km from his home, around noon, and maybe bump into the police in a luck-by-chance encounter, was inexplicable too, because he never said he was there on work. "Shaam, subah ghumta rahta hoon (Morning, evening I wander about)," he said adding that at just about any time of day it was normal for him to be wandering those areas to meet friends. The judge's succinct interpretation, that was noted in the court record: "Very often (I) used to loiter in the area of Worli." Devulkar's description of what transpired during the search of the Mukerjeas home gave off a mild but distinct hint of being scripted. Especially the 10-minute trip to another flat, one floor up, to view, like a museum exhibit in The Life and Times of the Rich and Famous, a bar counter, as if liquor was being suggested to be the heart of the crime. He seemed to remember some obvious details clearly and some other obvious details not at all. This witness didn't seem particularly surprised to have met Indrani (who till date arouses endless curiosity in court). Or being roped into such a dramatic murder investigation by utter fluke, a case that had the whole city and country agog on the day he was asked to be a pancha. Devulkar was queried about who had signed on the panchnama that day. He said Indrani had, looking at her. At the back of the court Indrani, inserted her own trademark mime dialogue into the proceedings, indicating through her exaggerated expressions and sign language that she had never seen Devulkar before, nor had she signed on the panchnama. Indrani appeared a little less drawn and depressed on Thursday, a rather warm day in court. She looked cool in white and a big red bindi, standing between Peter and Accused No 2 Sanjeev Khanna. The accused apparently do not sign on this kind of panchnama and the signature on the panchnama produced in court seemed to be Peter's, a lawyer said later. When Devulkar was asked about names of the policemen he met on August 25, 2015, after supplying them, he candidly told the court that those were the names he could remember from the whatsapp message he recently received from the CBI/prosecution about the court date. He didn't correct himself and Mangla asked for this to be put on record, indicating he had been instructed to mention these names. That resulted in a bit of humour, which was enlarged when the court stenographer recorded what's up. The judge chuckled and asked her: "You don't know whatsapp? Written what's up?!" Devulkar gave an impression, through his account, of knowing his fellow-pancha Kishan Pawar better than he said he did. When Mangla queried that he said, with a big grin: "Dosti doh minute mein bhi hota hai (Friendships can be made in two minutes too)", denying that he knew Pawar or had ever been in touch with him since, as he didn't have his number. He denied ever helping the police earlier. Mangla, bringing her cross examination to a close, after a competent 15 minutes, declared she didn't believe he had gone to Marlow on August 25, 2015. Devulkar, a bit goofily, with a smile: "Achcha? (Really?)" Mangla concluded, bluntly and forcefully, telling Devulkar he signed the panchnama put together by Inspector Ganore at the Khar police station and the seized items were sealed there too in August 2015. The two albums picked up that morning from the Mukerjea home were passed about the court evoking mixed reactions. Mangla pointed out, with a broad smile: "My Lord it seems to be a scrap book not an album." Indrani, who recognised the ivory scrapbook, that belonged to her daughter Vidhie Mukerjea's, looked, it seemed, faintly wistful. The judge shuffled through the pages of the smaller red plastic album and the scrapbook and laughed incredulously, commenting to Badami that they hardly were of any importance to this case, since they contained random pictures of a holiday trip and a few childhood pictures of Vidhie that had little bearing in the trial. Badami said they were "family photo albums" that the Khar police had chosen to seize. Later the prosecution lawyers had a glance at it, smiling interestedly at some of the pictures. So did the court clerks, peeking with fascination, into the strange lives/world of the Mukerjeas, that had caused a mother to kill a daughter. A world they were getting to know through the trial. A cat sauntered into the courtroom around then, to have a peep at the albums too perhaps, and scampered under the lawyers' table. The team of defence lawyers viewed the album and scrapbook as well. The album was full of pictures of perhaps a long ago trip/picnic to Matheran or some other hill station in much happier times. The scrapbook contained a few snapshots of Vidhie with a younger Indrani, looking both glamourous and enchanting. One page of the scrapbook had a colourful sketch of a big, blooming picture-book tree. This was a family tree onto which the unsuspecting Vidhie (or maybe Indrani) had stuck five tiny, passport-size cut-outs of the faces of the family she thought she had -- Peter, Indrani, herself, stepbrothers Rabin and Rahul, Peter's sons from his first marriage. Not knowing that her family tree was far more complicated than that. Not knowing that this family tree, she had made, was part of the fairy tale Indrani had fantastically weaved for her. Not knowing that it was the oddness of the actual family tree, that Vidhie was unaware of, and not the one depicted in the scrapbook, would lead to a colossal upheaval in her life, putting all her parents -- her adopted father, her real father Sanjeev Khanna and her mother -- in jail. The tree with its bright green colour and red apples and the wrong faces hanging on it, seemed to be mocking the room. And providence. Burundi: the Commission of Inquiry is deeply concerned by the freedom of action and the impunity of the Imbonerakure Publisher UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Publication Date 5 September 2018 Cite as UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Burundi: the Commission of Inquiry is deeply concerned by the freedom of action and the impunity of the Imbonerakure, 5 September 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b926ba04.html [accessed 4 November 2021] "The violations that the Commission documented in its first report have persisted throughout the past year. Some practices, such as the disposal of bodies or operating at night, tend to make these violations less visible. Nevertheless, they are still real", stated Doudou Diene, the President of the Commission of Inquiry. "The Constitutional Referendum organized 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 findings of the Commission are based on approximately 900 statements of victims of human rights violations, witnesses and alleged perpetrators of such acts, including 400 statements collected this past year. This year, the Government of Burundi has once again refused any dialogue and cooperation with the Commission of Inquiry, despite repeated requests and initiatives from the Commission. "The members of the youth league of the ruling party, the Imbonerakure, have become increasingly important in the repression, outside any legal framework and with near total impunity. The Commission was in a position to establish that the Imbonerakure acted with the approval and effective control of the Burundian State," said Francoise Hampson, member of the Commission. "The Imbonerakure harass, control and intimidate the population. Several human rights violations can be attributed to them. They often operate alongside or collaborate with the Police and the National Intelligence Services (SNR) which remain the state organs that are the most involved in the serious human rights violations committed in Burundi." The strengthening of the role played by the Imbonerakure falls within a context of regimentation of the population with a view to silencing any form of opposition. "The control exercised over Burundians by the ruling power and the Imbonerakure increased significantly and is felt in all aspects of daily life", noted Francoise Hampson. "Civil liberties, such as freedom of expression, association and movement, are today very restricted in Burundi. A significant number of independent journalists are still in exile and others joined them this year. The fate of human rights defenders is also a cause of serious concern, as indicated by the recent sentencing of Germain Rukuki to 32 years in prison, following an unfair trial." The political crisis that has plagued the country since April 2015 has had a negative impact on the living conditions of Burundians and on the respect of economic and social rights. "From a country in a development phase, Burundi has reverted to being a country in a situation of humanitarian emergency: the needs in terms of nutrition, water and health of a growing percentage of the population are not met", said Lucy Asuagbor, member of the Commission. "The Government has contributed to this impoverishment by multiplying taxes and contributions which are collected willingly or by force, such as those put in place for the financing of the 2020 elections. The Government has increased the resources allocated to defence and security and in particular, to state organs involved in serious human rights violations at the expense of social expenditure. Corruption and embezzlement of public funds, at the highest level of the Government, has only worsened the situation." 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. These calls took place in a general context of impunity. "The Burundian judicial system has neither the will nor the capacity to establish who is responsible and to prosecute perpetrators of violations", stated Doudou Diene. "The judiciary has become an instrument of repression used by the executive against any form of protest or opposition. Instead of ensuring respect for the law, guaranteeing the respect of fundamental rights and determining wrongs, judicial institutions are used to cover up crimes and human rights violations committed by the Police, SNR and the Imbonerakure, by giving them impunity." The Commission has established a list of alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity. This list can be made 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. The Commission calls on all the Burundian stakeholders concerned to put an immediate end to human rights violations and abuses. The Commission calls on the Government of Burundi to prosecute state agents and the Imbonerakure involved in these acts. The Commission encourages the Government of Burundi to "engage in a comprehensive reform of the judicial system, in order to guarantee its independence, impartiality and its effectiveness", as well as reforming the security sector, responsible for numerous human rights violations. The Commission of Inquiry on Burundi further requests that the United Nations Human Rights council extend its mandate for an additional year. "Our Commission is currently the only international mechanism investigating independently and impartially human rights violations and abuses committed in Burundi and identifying their alleged perpetrators," stated Doudou Diene. "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." We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. . . "Borz" . . . . , ... Ashmore Group plc (ASHM.L), a specialist Emerging Markets asset manager, reported that its profit before tax for the year ending 30 June 2018 declined to 191.3 million pounds from 206.2 million pounds last year. Mark Coombs, Chief Executive Officer, Ashmore Group said, "While asset prices were more volatile in the final quarter of the financial year, this largely reflected nervousness about a small number of emerging countries with particular issues such as Turkey, with the market extrapolating these concerns across the broad and highly diverse Emerging Markets universe of more than 70 countries. This mispricing therefore presents another very appealing entry point for investors. The combination of attractive Emerging Markets valuations with Ashmore's strong investment track record and underweight investor allocations means that the outlook remains positive." Profit attributable to Equity holders of the parent for the year was 151.4 million pounds or 21.30 pence per share, down from 167.6 million pounds or 23.71 pence per share in the previous year. Assets under management or AuM increased 26% over the year from US$58.7 billion to US$73.9 billion, reflecting net inflows of US$16.9 billion, the highest delivered by the Group in a financial year. Net revenue increased by 7% to 276.3 million pounds from last year 257.6 million pounds, reflecting strong growth in net management fee income, and lower performance fee income and foreign exchange translation revenues than in the prior year period. Operating revenues, excluding FX translation, grew by 11% to 278.3 million pounds. The Board recommended a final dividend of 12.10 pence per share for the year ending 30 June 2018, which, subject to shareholder approval, will be paid on 7 December 2018 to shareholders who are on the register on 2 November 2018. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The Australian dollar weakened against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Friday, as investors continued to worry over a possible escalation in the US-China trade war later in the day. China has already warned of retaliation if the U.S. goes ahead with the fresh round of tariffs. The threat of auto tariffs is also back on the agenda as media reports suggest that Japan may be the next target of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. Trump reportedly told a columnist for The Wall Street Journal that he was "still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with Japan." Meanwhile, the U.S. Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly jobs report today, which includes both public and private sector jobs. U.S. employment is likely to increase by about 191,000 jobs in August after an increase of 157,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent. The latest survey from the Australian Industry Group revealed that the construction sector in Australia continued to expand in August, albeit at a slower pace, with a Performance of Construction Index score of 51.8. That's down from 52.0 in July, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The aussie slipped to 4-day lows of 1.0872 against the kiwi and 0.9380 against the loonie, from its early highs of 1.0929 and 0.9471, respectively. If the aussie falls further, 1.07 and 0.92 are likely seen as its next support levels against the kiwi and the loonie, respectively. The aussie weakened to 0.7137 against the greenback, its weakest since February 2016. This may be compared to a high of 0.7201 hit at 6:30 pm ET. The aussie is poised to find support around the 0.70 level. The aussie fell to near a 2-year low of 78.96 against the yen and more than a 3-year low of 1.6285 against the euro, reversing from its early highs of 79.72 and 1.6128, respectively. On the downside, 77.00 and 1.64 are possibly seen as the next support levels for the aussie against the yen and the euro, respectively. Looking ahead, Eurozone GDP data for the second quarter is due in the European session. In the New York session, U.S. and Canadian jobs data and Canada Ivey PMI, all for August, are scheduled for release. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Oil prices held steady on Friday after the latest inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) proved to be a mixed bag. Brent crude futures were marginally lower at $76.47 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were higher by 3 cents at $67.80 a barrel. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 4.3 million barrels to 401.49 million barrels in the week to Aug. 31, the lowest since February 2015, the EIA report released on Thursday showed. At the same time, gasoline stocks rose 1.8 million barrels, and distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, climbed by 3.1 million barrels. Investors are bracing for an escalation of the tit-for-tat trade war between the world's two largest economies after a public comment period ended Thursday. China has already warned of retaliation if the U.S. goes ahead with the fresh round of tariffs. The threat of auto tariffs is also back on the agenda as media reports suggest that Japan may be the next target of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. Trump reportedly told a columnist for The Wall Street Journal that he was "still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with Japan." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis A New York man has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the kidnapping and theft of more than $1.8 million worth of cryptocurrency Ether. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. announced the guilty plea of Louis Meza, 35. He pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to Grand Larceny in the First Degree and Kidnapping in the Second Degree. He is expected to be sentenced on September 27. Meza was accused of kidnapping an unnamed individual in New York in November last year. He forced the victim to hand over a cell phone, wallet and keys at gunpoint last, so that he can steal his Ether holdings. Police arrested Meza in December, and recovered the stolen funds. "Louis Meza orchestrated a 21st-century stick-up," according to District Attorney Vance. He commended investigators and prosecutors for their work on the complex case, and bringing the culprit swiftly to justice, "securing a landmark conviction in an undeveloped area of the law." He claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Office's Cybercrime & Identity Theft Bureau has developed the expertise and to become a national leader in cybercrime prosecution and prevention. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News A closely watched race in Tennessee that could play a key role in determining control of the Senate is neck-and-neck, according to the results of a new NBC News/Marist poll. The poll found that 48 percent of likely Tennessee voters back former Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen, while 46 percent support Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. The two-point gap is well within the poll's margin of error. Bredesen has a slightly wider 48 percent to 44 percent lead over Blackburn among a larger pool of registered voters, although his advantage is still with the margin of error. While Bredesen benefits from support among Democrats, African Americans, women, and independents, Blackburn leads among Republicans, men and whites. Tennessee has not elected a Democratic Senator since former Vice President Al Gore won in 1990, but Bredesen is staying competitive because of his popularity in the state. Sixty-one percent of likely Tennessee voters have a favorable opinion of Bredesen, while just 22 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable opinion of him. Meanwhile, 46 percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of Blackburn, 36 percent have an unfavorable opinion and 17 percent have either never heard of the congresswoman or are unsure how to rate her. Bredesen and Blackburn are fighting to succeed retiring Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has been critical of President Donald Trump and has offered praise for Bredesen. "Trump carried Tennessee by 26 points in 2016, and the state looks red again in 2018 with one possible exception," said Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. He added, "Democrats got an unexpected gift with the retirement of Senator Corker and that race is a tossup right now." Separate NBC/Marist polls released this week also showed competitive Senate races in Missouri and Indiana, while a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed a dead heat in the Senate race in Florida. The NBC/Marist survey of 940 Tennessee adults, including 730 registered voters and 538 likely voters, was conducted August 25th through 28th. The margin of error among registered voters is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, while the margin of error among likely voters is plus or minus 5.1 percentage points. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Former President Barack Obama launched attacks on President Donald Trump and the Republican Party in a speech seen as a preview of the message he will deliver in the lead-up to the midterm elections in November. In the speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Friday, Obama took the rare step of mentioning Trump by name. Obama described Trump as a symptom of a cycle in American that sees "eras of great progressive change" followed by "periods of retrenchment." "He is just capitalizing on resentment that politicians have fanning for years," Obama said of Trump. "A fear, an anger that is rooted in our past but is also borne in our enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes." Obama specifically took aim at Trump for threatening the freedom of the press, attempting to politicize the Attorney General and failing to stand up to Nazi sympathizers. The former president also had some harsh words for the Republican Party, claiming the politics of division and resentment has found a home in the GOP in recent decades. Obama accused Republicans of cutting taxes for the wealthy without regard for the impact on the deficit, rejecting science, and embracing wild conspiracy theories. "None of this is conservative," Obama said. "It sure isn't normal. It's radical. It's a vision that says our protection of our power is all that matters." Obama told the audience the solution is to vote in the upcoming elections, which he argued are more important than any in his lifetime. "As a fellow citizen, not as an ex-president, I'm here to deliver a simple message, which is that you need to vote, because our democracy depends on it," Obama said. "The antidote to a government controlled by a powerful few, a government that divides, is a government by an organized, energized, inclusive many," he later added. "That has to be the answer." The speech by Obama comes as he prepares to hit the campaign trail, beginning with a rally for Democratic congressional candidates in California on Saturday and an event for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray next Thursday. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News In comments likely to further inflame tensions between the world's two largest economies, President Donald Trump suggested Friday he may impose tariffs on another $267 billion worth of Chinese goods. Trump's remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One come as the administration is already considering imposing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods following the expiration of a public comment period at midnight on Thursday. "The $200 billion we are talking about could take place very soon depending on what happens," Trump said. "To a certain extent it's going to be up to China." "And I hate to say this, but behind that is another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want," he added. "That changes the equation." China's Commerce Ministry has warned it will be forced to roll out necessary retaliatory measures if the U.S. imposes any new tariffs. Trump also indicated the next trade dispute could be with Japan, noting that his administration has started trade talks with the country. "If we don't make a deal with Japan, Japan knows it's a big deal," the president said after previously telling a columnist for the Wall Street Journal he is "still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with Japan." The latest comments from Trump come as U.S. and Canadian officials also continue to engage in negotiations over reforms to NAFTA. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Crude oil prices declined marginally on Friday, as concerns about possible drop in demand due to trade war tensions slightly outweighed recent data showing a fall in crude stockpiles. Data released by the Energy Information Administration on Thursday showed crude stockpiles in the U.S. to have declined by 4.3 million barrels in the week ended August 31. That was a much larger than expected drop. Crude oil futures for October delivery settled at $67.75 a barrel, down 2 cents, from previous close. For the week, crude oil future shed about 2.9%. U.S.-China trade tensions have escalated today after U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly announced that his administration intends to go ahead with tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports. He reportedly added, "And I hate to say that, but behind that, there's another US$267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want. That totally changes the equation." China had already warned that it will be forced to retaliate if the United States implements any new tariff measures. The Chinese has slowed down due to trade war and further setbacks could result in a significant drop in China's oil imports. Meanwhile, Trump also remarked that he was "still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with Japan." This suggests more is coming up on the trade war front. A full-blown trade war could significantly hurt the outlook for global economic growth and result in a drop in demand for crude oil. However, with U.S. sanctions against Iranian oil set to take effect in November and reports about supply disruptions now and then in Libya and Venezuela likely, traders are hoping that crude oil prices may edge higher going forward. A report from Baker Hughes, released at 1 PM ET, showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil was down by 2 to 860 this week. Last week, the rig count had edged up by 2. With this week's drop, the total active U.S. rig count, including oil and natural-gas rigs, remains unchanged at 1,048, the report from Baker Hughes reveals. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that commercial vehicles such as buses, taxis and rickshaws powered by alternative fuels such as "Ethanol, Methanol, Bio-diesel and CNG" will be exempted from the requirement of a permit. The Minister for Road Transport and Highways was speaking at the 58th annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). "I am happy to announce that we have decided that electric vehicles and all vehicles which operate on Ethanol, Methanol, Bio-diesel, CNG will not require a permit," Gadkari said. The minister told the convention that the move will open more business opportunities for the industry. According to the minister, transport ministers of all the state governments have given their unanimous support to the criteria. "Now, the states will implement it and there will be no need for any permits for electric auto rickshaw, buses and taxis...." Besides, Gadkari informed the convention that the central government is going to cancel the requirement of speed governors. "We don't need it as we are developing good roads. There is no need to limit the speed artificially," he said. In addition, the minister asked the automobile industry to offer better engines and produce high performance vehicles. Sporadic violence and partial disruption of road and rail traffic on Thursday marred the Bharat bandh called to protest against the changes made in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. In four states -- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan -- rail and road traffic was affected and markets and schools were closed as smaller towns joined the protest called by upper caste communities and other groups. The agitators blocked trains and put up road blocks on national and state highways. Schools declared a holiday to ensure the safety of students. A Patna report said Pappu Yadav, MP from Madhepura Lok Sabha seat, was attacked by shutdown supporters. "I was attacked but saved by my bodyguards," said Pappu Yadav, chief of the Jan Adhikar Party. Shayam Razak, a Dalit leader and general secretary of the ruling JD-U, said shutdown supporters attacked his vehicle, injuring him. "They attacked my vehicle, called me out by my caste and abused me," he said. Police resorted to a lathicharge against shutdown supporters in Patna and Nawada, officials said, adding there were reports of clashes in Begusarai and Bhojpur districts. Organisations that joined the protest included Akhil Bhartiya Kshtriya Mahasabha, Rashtriya Brahmin Mahasabha, Garib Sena, Karn Rajpoot Samaj, Rajputana Youth Brigade, Anarakshit Samaj Party and several other groups. In UP's Mathura and Vrindavan, the bandh was total as protesters took out marches and blocked the main roads. In Firozabad, Muslim shopkeepers joined the shutdown. The bandh put mainstream political parties in a dilemma. Officially the Congress, Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party have remained neutral, but their members openly supported the shutdown. Organisations claiming to represent upper castes and supported by several fronts of OBCs, openly challenged the BJP leadership and demanded immediate withdrawal of the amendment. Sumant Gupta, national chief of the Vaishya Ekta Parishad, an umbrella front of various trading communities, said the protesters would march to Delhi on October 2 to demand scrapping of the amendment. Clashes and violence were reported from various parts of Uttar Pradesh. There was a scuffle in the Agra market where supporters of the SC/ST Act protested against efforts to shut down shops. Police chased away the mob and used tear gas shells to quell the warring groups as they threw stones at each other and vandalised property. Protesters stopped the Agra-Etawah passenger train by squatting on the rail tracks in Pinahat. They threw stones at the vehicle of a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) on the Yamuna Expressway. Prohibitory orders have been issued in many districts of the state. Protests were also reported from Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The agitators set ablaze some kiosks and stalled traffic at the Hyderabad Gate of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Two trains were stopped in Mainpuri district. Protests were also reported from Dibiyapur in Aurraiya, Aligarh, Hathras, Etah, Kasganj. In the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, petrol pumps were closed as security was heightened in 35 areas there, police said. The administration imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 in Chhatarpur, Shivpuri, Bhind, Ashoknagar, Guna, Gwalior and Katni, the police said. Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior and Sagar, too witnessed huge protests. Reports from Rajasthan said all shops, schools, business establishments and educational institutes were closed. The Jaipur police detained Samta Andolan Samiti president Parashar Narayan Sharma along with a few others in the city as a precautionary measure to maintain peace, officials said. The Samta Andolan Samiti campaigns for changes in the caste-based reservation system. The state's Special Director General (law and order) N.R.K. Reddy said the bandh was peaceful throughout Rajasthan. Its been a wonderful week in sunny Samoa. With tourists, visitors, returning Samoans and locals alike basking in the glory of the 2018 Teuila Festival celebration and all the other sporting activities, its nice to see life and culture being celebrated with so much vigour and passion. Which is what it is all about. We believe we are blessed to live in such a wonderful country, where we have so much to be grateful for. There is peace, freedom, love and joy to be shared with everyone. These are underpinned by our cultural values and Christian norms, which are the pillars of Samoa today. But days like today often bring out some of the issues we believe we should be truly concerned about. That for us is an old issue that appears to be getting worse by the day. You see, its hard to ignore that there are a growing number of children hawking goods on the streets on a daily basis. We are talking about young boys and girls at all hours of the day and night. Now whether we agree or disagree about the existence of poverty in Samoa, the truth is staring at us in the face point blank. Every day, everywhere in Samoa, young people are taking to the streets to find cash and food. We dont mind the adults doing that. That should be their responsibility. But children should not. They should be in school, instead, getting an education so they can go on to gain higher qualifications to secure jobs and the like. Children are not slaves and they should not be treated as such. As a community that cares, we cannot afford to ignore and allow the trend to continue as if its normal. Indeed, using young children to attract the sympathy of passersby, who are then forced to buy something from them or give them money, should be discouraged by everyone. We agree that this is not a new issue. For years, this newspaper has been highlighting some pretty heart-breaking stories about these young people. My mum asks me to come and sell this stuff so that we can get money, one of them told this newspaper recently. There are so many people in our household and we usually dont have enough money and food. So the money I make every day and night, I give it all to my mom. I am now used to what I do, and I love it. I am happy to know that I can help our family, even if its not enough. In another edition, we had a story on a five-year-old girl, who sold hair clippers instead of going to school. Thats right, we are talking about a five-year-old girl. But she was just one of many, who can hardly be considered a teen, who are unashamedly pushed by their by parents at all hours of the day and night to beg on the streets of Apia. This is absolutely heart breaking. But thats not all. Take a drive outside those nightclubs and you will see what we are talking about. There are children, boys and girls, running around with these goods among drunks and speeding cars. It is a recipe for disaster. It is only going to be a matter of time before one of them is killed. This would be a tragedy. But thats where we are heading if we dont do something to address it. Surely this is not the kind of future Samoa wants. Our children should treasured as the gifts that they are supposed to be. Let us remind ourselves here and now that it is the parents and caregivers responsibility to provide for our children. They should be given every opportunity to study and be nurtured, until such a time when they can go out to find formal employment. What do you think? Have a wonderful Friday Samoa, God bless! The womens fellowship from the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S) of Iva, Savaii won the float competition yesterday. Held in Savaii, nine womens fellowship from the C.C.C.S., Saleaula, Sasina, Sapapalii, Samalaeulu, Lalomalava, Iva, Lefagaoalii, Methodist Salelologa, and Tafua tai participated in the float parade. They each presented a float for their host contestant and coming in second place was Lalomalava. You are all aware that in the history of the pageant, Savaii has never hosted it. But with this year, it is historic for the big island to be the hosts, Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti said in keynote address. We applaud the preparations, time and efforts that went into creating a beautiful venue for this years pageant. Additionally, the Government will look into bringing the Teuila Festival to Savaii as well. Leader of the womens fellowship from C.C.C.S. Iva, Vaiuila Laulu said their preparations are just perfect. The mothers in Savaii are overwhelmed with happiness, especially our C.C.C.S from Iva. This is the first time something so significant has happened in our island. And even if there were difficulties and challenges faced, but so long as we all work together we can overcome any obstacle. There is not one person on this island that is not filled with joy As you can see with all our preparations showcased throughout the island, that is the real proof of how much our people convey their support and appreciation to being the host island for the pageant, Vaiuila stated. Whatever may be of benefit to Upolu, it is also good for our big island Savaii. We organised the float vehicle for our contestant that we have hosted along with her creative wear. Miss Salimu and Fagaloa - Dolores Cassandra Satiu Cufi said she was overwhelmed with the love that she received from the ladies of Iva. They went beyond my expectations; an example would be food, after all food is very important. The first time I arrived in my host village, there was food everywhere ready for me to eat. They all came at once and I could not hold back my tears so I cried tears of amazement at the treatment I was getting. I honestly felt like a princess because I felt so much love and warmth from the people. Overall I want to make my represented villages especially my new village Iva super proud, Dolores said. The Ministry of Revenue has been taken to task over its alleged failure to consult local businesses when plans were first mooted to increase excise tax on liquor by 100 per cent. Business owners including manufacturers of locally-made liquor voiced their disappointment at a consultation session with the Ministry on Wednesday. The Ministry was represented by Solia Tanuvasa Kalolo with State Solicitor Siovia Lui standing in for the Office of the Attorney General. Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Officer, Hobart Vaai, told the senior civil servants that the meeting on Wednesday was "not a true consultation and the Ministry should schedule a time and a date for a proper meeting. This is not a consultation this is a briefing. The difference is that with a briefing you turn up and present your ideas but a true consultation is when you take our feedback and you actually make changes. Can we please have an answer on that or when the deadline date is for submitting our comments for a true consultative process, faamolemole, he said. Co-owner of Aga Reef Resort and the now-closed Chiefs vodka manufacturer, Va'atuitui Apete Meredith, expressed his disappointment with what he described as ad hoc planning of the Alcohol Control Bill 2017, which went to the Parliament for passing in order for the new excise tax to be enforced. It would have been great if you had given it out before we came so that it would have given us some time to prepare properly and give proper feedback. On one hand we are grateful that you are revising the Act, on the (other) hand you should have given us the courtesy to prepare properly. Va'atuitui appealed to the Ministry officials to work with the private sector to assist them draft a better bill and insisted that there should be a special session between the local manufacturers of liquor and the Ministry, following the consultations. Can I request a special session after the meeting with just the manufacturers and the importers? We have current issues we need clarification that came through your changes to the excise tax act in April and we need that clarified urgently, because it impacts the essence of what you are trying to propose here with the changes to try alleviate the problems being cause by alcohol. We just had this in 2011 and now youre changing it again we need to do it properly. We need proper feedback from everyone. We need to help you and help each other to alleviate this problem once and for all. We need to clarify the enforcement of excise tax because that has a direct link to what you are trying to achieve with these new changes. Its no use having this if we are not going to address the root cause of the problem, he added. Earlier in the discussions Solia offered to give the businesses owners and representatives a chance to schedule a second consultation the following day, in order to inform them of the changes to the liquor legislation. But the offer got a rebuttal from Sinalei Resort financial controller, John Stunnenberg, who said that is not how a consultation is done. Its a sad way of doing a consultation, its more about preaching and us listening than inviting us to give actual feedback. I dont think thats how it should be, he added. After intense negotiations between the businesses and the Ministry, the parties settled on September 14 as the deadline for feedback with the second consultation between the two sides now set to take place a week later on September 21. The status of the feagaiga, or the sacred covenant, the sister as the apple of the brothers eye is not enough to protect all women from the prevalence of domestic violence in Samoa. This is according to Professor Tagaloatele Peggy Dunlop, Professor of Pacific Studies at Aucklands University of Technology, in delivering the keynote address, at the second day of the 4th Samoa Conference at the National University of Samoa. The professor presented a research titled revisiting sisters and wives. It posed the question of Can the value of women translate to ending violence against them? The Professor based some of her research on the recent first Commission on Womens rights where a steep increase of family violence was presented. Among the most vulnerable to violence according to her research were young girls, and particular the nofotane, or women who are married into other families. According to the professor, women were prevented from sharing their stories by the mentality of families to hide and silence what has been happening to protect the family status, undermining the emotional impacts on them and their children. This highlights the urgency of seeking answers. Professor acknowledges the legal processes set up by the state to address this problem. However the professor said that rearranging a few tasks and changing a few roles, will not provide a solution. She said we should go back to our family structures, and reevaluate how we value relationships with others in the past. One of the practices in the faasamoa which should theoretically prevent violence against women in Samoa is the womens sacred status as the covenant or the feagaiga the apple of the brothers eye. However the professor claim the feagaiga is no longer enough to safeguard women from violence. This feagaiga can never stop the domestic violence that women are facing today. The professor was unable to determine exactly when the status of the feagaiga stops being a force to prevent domestic violence. She claim however that the feagaiga only protect somebodys sister, and not the wives. In the question and answer session, some says feagaiga stops when the sister gets married however some says it only stops when the sister is no longer living. According to the Vice chancellor of the National University of Samoa professor Fui Leapai Tuua ilaoa Asofou Soo the feagaiga is now relegated to the periphery because the realities and contexts that it was related to are not there 100%. He said it was relevant in the old times, times of wars, conflict, strategies, deciding who to hold the matai titles. Now we have customary laws now to take care of conflicts. So the feagaiga relegated to the periphery. It is up to us Samoans to decide what to hold on to and what to let go, commented the Vice Chancellor. Tuiloma Dr. Susana Tauaa, one of the participants also suggested that perhaps the ideology of the feagaiga has shifted to a stranger, in this case the church minister which perhaps is the reason for the feagaiga status being relegated to the, periphery The wives and the sisters have the right to be safe. Women should be free from violence and harm, says Prof. Dunlop. In New Zealand the family system isnt working because there are so many options. Others turn to law for help, says Prof. Dunlop. In Samoa, there are many communities that they are divided into. For instance, there are the Matai Village Administration, Faletua & Tausi (In marrying wives), Aualuma (Daughters of the village), Aumaga (Untitled males) and Children. Prof. Dunlop said we need to find a system that prevents family against all women not some women. She insisted that we should go back to the traditional family structures and evaluating our relationships and how we use to view others, therein lays the solution to family violence against women. *Vaelei is a first year Media and Journalism student at the National University of Samoa. Representing Samoa has been nothing short of a blessing for outgoing Miss Samoa, Papalii Alexandra Iakopo. Today, Papalii will present her crown to one of nine contestants vying for the Miss Samoa crown in Salelologa, Savaii. It will be a bitter-sweet moment for the woman who has been the face of Samoa during the past 12 months. She came first runner up to being Miss Pacific Islands. During an interview with the Weekend Observer, Papalii hopes the new Miss Samoa will go on to represent Samoa with more grace, flare and most importantly be her true self. All good things must come to an end and with that being said, I am truly blessed to have gained so much experience throughout it all, Papalii said. The 24-year-old said joining the pageant and being crowned Miss Samoa was an eye opener for her because she saw more of Samoa that she did not see and experience. The experience had so many ups and down but that serves to shape you into a better person. It was a real blessing. I am very thankful for the opportunity to join and to even make it as a Miss Samoa. The biggest lesson I learned is patience because things will not always go your way. Additionally there were so many things outside of my comfort zone, and also things that I have no knowledge of, but then you just have to pick up the pieces and go with it. Papalii said being Miss Samoa is more than just a crown because you are responsible for representing Samoans locally and abroad. It comes with elegance and grace and also comes with service towards the people. Beauty as some would say comes with a purpose, but for me it comes with service to the people, its not about what the people can do for you, its what you can do for the people like those in need, those who need a voice, its about representing. Papalii was asked if she was ready to let go of the crown. I am ready in the sense that I have family commitments to fulfill, now that its just me, my mother and brother. Her father passed away two months after she was crowned Miss Samoa 2017-2018 and two-three weeks before the Miss Pacific Pageant. It was a tough time but then God was there to help me through it all. I have to say that it was the hardest challenge I have ever faced, having to smile on the outside while my heart was in pain, Papalii said. But at the end of the day, it takes courage to go through life with a smile on your face even though behind closed door, there is a battle that we all get to face. I conquered my fears when I joined the Pageant with how I perceive myself, with my inner and outer beauty. Eventually my family and friends have helped me come out of my comfort zone and show Samoa who I really am deep down inside even though I am this quiet, elegant and so forth type of person as so many perceive me to be but behind that theres that comedian side to me also, sort of like a bubbly personality. Papalii added that a year was not enough for her to accomplish everything, but she has given her all in the hopes that the people are satisfied with the work she has done. I acknowledge mainly God first, my family, my sponsor, and all of Samoa from the bottom of my heart because without everyone and all the complaints, it wouldnt have made me a better person and I hope I am a better person now. Leota Matautia Raymond Schuster is Samoas newest District Court Judge. The 51-year-old father from Vaoala, Malifa and Alafua took his oath before Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu in the Supreme Court yesterday. The joyous occasion was well attended by his families, friends, colleagues and officials of the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration. Minister of Works, Transport and Infrastructure, Papalii Niko Lee Hang and Member of Parliament of Gagaifomauga #3, La'auli Leuatea Schmidt were among the people who witnessed the swearing in. Chief Justice Patu congratulated Judge Leota, reminding him that everyone is equal under the law. It does not discriminate but treats the rich and poor, strong and weak, equally, said Chief Justice Patu. Judge Leota was reminded his oath is to serve Samoa in accordance with the Constitution and the law. As a Judge, you no longer have human feelings, but stand independently under the guidance of God, said C.J. Patu. Being a judge is no easy work because there will be times that your human feelings will debate with what is right, but you must always do the right thing. Chief Justice Patu encouraged Judge Leota to let God be his helper. You will need Gods help in decision making and doing the right thing, he said. Let Him be the bright star that will lead your every way and let Him be your guardian. He will never leave nor forsake you, but He will guide you when you go out and when you come in. Judge Leota said he was humbled by the appointment. He also revealed that he had been asked to take up the role last year but he was not ready. I didnt think I was the right person for the role, hence why I didnt accept it at that time, Judge Leota said. But then I thought about it hard and long and so I decided that this is probably my calling from God and if it is from Him then I shouldnt be stubborn, but to simply accept it. He dedicated the moment to his hardworking parents, Saunoamalii Sonny Schuster and Theresa Schuster. Thats where it all started through the hard work and the dedication of our parents that we are able to be where we are at today. So all glory to God for His blessings and I am thankful that my parents are still around to witness this new journey that I have been blessed with. Judge Leota said there is also a big difference between a lawyer and a Judge. Being a judge means we cannot take sides, we have to do what is right and then it comes down to transparency and accountability. As a judge, we are not defending one person, we are seeking the truth and that means we have to make our decisions based on the truth and nothing else, most especially we have to ensure that justice is served. Judge Leota is the fourth child of Saunoamaalii and Theresas seven children He holds a Bachelor of Law from the University of the South Pacific, an Advanced Diploma in Public Sector Management from the University of New England, Australia. In 1998, he worked at the Office of the Attorney General State as a solicitor. In 2006, he was the Assistant Attorney General. In March 2008, he was at the Raymond Schuster Law Office until 2012 when it was extended to become the Schuster Betham Annandale Law Firm. He hails from the villages of Vaoala, Malifa and Alafua. He is married to Lina Tone-Schuster and together they have three children. The 28th Teuila Festival ended on a high note at the Malaefatu National Park and Reserve, Sogi yesterday. Amidst the hype and excitement, prizes were awarded to best traditional dances, best fire knife competitors, string band and more. The Minister of Tourism, Sala Fata Pinati, said it has been a special week to celebrate the festival with family, friends and guests. The Teuila Festival, which is an annual event, has always showcased our culture through songs, games, and dances, Sala said. The festival has one more significant programme left and that is the Miss Samoa Pagent held at Savaii and we wish all competing contestants the very best. I wish to acknowledge you all once again for your participation in the festival this year, and also the members of the organising committee of our Samoa Tourism Authority who have organised and made this years festival possible. The 2018 Miss Samoa crowning is set to take place at the Don Bosco Hall at Salelologa, Savaii, starting at 10am today. Winners from various competitions: Winner of the taupou and aiuli competition were the youths from the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S.) from Solosolo. Traditional dancing winner: C.C.C.S. Saleilua, Falealili. Winner of Teuila String Band competition: Maeva String Band Winner of Teuila Siva Afi fire knife competition: Jack Laban Former Member of Parliament Afualo Dr. Wood Salele, is calling on the London Missionaries church (L.M.S.) to offer an apology for the spread of the deadly influenza epidemic 1918, which killed many Samoans at the time. The call was made during the Samoa Conference held at the N.U.S this week. A Senior lecturer for Archeology and Cultural Heritage at the Centre for Samoan Studies proposed that one of the reasons for the widespread of the influenza may have been when L.M.S representatives who were infected were out visiting and collecting donations, and inadvertently spreading the disease in the process. Dr. Brian Alofaituli says that the missionaries that went out to collect the contribution from church members may have been already with the disease which explains its widespread. Among the close to 8000 people who died in the early days of the outbreak, were 29 Reverend Elders. Within seven days, more than 8000 people died, equivalent to a fifth of the population of Samoa at the time. Afualo Dr. Wood Salele says church should at least offer an apology to take responsibility for the widespread of the disease. Dr. Salele said that there are no written records which document the Church even apologizing about their role in the spread of the disease. So in this matter it is in their best interest to offer an apology, says Dr Afualo. Dr Brian Alofaituli thinks otherwise. The epidemic Influenza happened ages ago and I dont think they should apologize because its been a long time, says Dr Brian Dr. Brian Alofaituli graduated in Pacific history from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is amongst the many academics, researchers and educationalists who are presenting at the 4th Samoa conference on the theme our heritage, our future; Fostering sustainable development through leadership innovation and collaboration. The process of mediation for land and titles disputes was explained during the Samoa Conference at the National University of Samoa this week. Lawyer and Accredited Mediator, Maiava Visekota Peteru said handing over the responsibility of mediation from the Land and Titles Court (L.T.C.) Registrar to a professional third party has been a success. Earlier this year, L.T.C. outsourced the practice of mediation to the Accredited Mediators of Samoa Association (A.M.S.A). Mediation or faatofalaiga is when a third party facilitates the discussions around disputes, ideally leading to a happy outcome for all parties. Maiava said for Samoans, it is more likely than not they will end up in a land or title dispute at some point in their lives, so it is important to understand the mediation process. If a dispute can be settled in mediation, families can save thousands of tala in Court fees. Mediation is confidential, so what you say during mediation cannot be discussed later in Court, she said. The process of mediation begins with a prayer to bring the parties together into the same space and then the mediator guides them through understanding the dispute from both perspectives, and negotiating to come to an agreement. We are asking people to come, not to come continue arguing with each other, but to bring forward your thoughts, look at each other, speak to each other and if at all possible, move from your position. Maiava said mediation is essential in the L.T.C. because sometimes people file their dispute petitions before speaking to the families about their objections. When they come to mediation, sometimes this is the first time they are facing each other and talking about the dispute, said Maiava. Sometimes, this might be because of a race against the clock. People may not have the time and they need to meet the time limit, for example a matai ceremony that is being held. A lot of matai are residents overseas now and they need to get back to their work or commitment overseas, so they too will put in a petition before actually sitting down with the other parties. Maiava said with mediation being compulsory, filing petitions in a hurry isnt necessarily a problem because the parties will have to sit down with each other regardless. Mediation is a fairly new concept to Samoa, Maiava said. The practice was introduced in 2012 with the establishment of A.M.S.A. and in 2013 Chief Justice His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu launched Samoas Mediation Rules 2013 as a legal framework to the practice. Mediation differs slightly to the Samoan practice of soalaupule in that it is purely facilitative, and not determinative in any manner. The residents and businesses in Savaii are lapping up their moment under the spotlight with the 2018 Miss Samoa Pageant being held there today. Since Monday, the arrival of the contestants and their teams had breathed a new lease of life in terms of excitement on the island as the nation celebrates the Teuila Festival. There is certainly a lot of excitement as the community embrace the contestants and their delegations. This was obvious on Thursday morning in Salelologa. There, pageant Hosts Samoa Events Incorporated (S.E.I.) with support from the Savaii Samoa Tourism Association (S.S.T.A.) hosted a mini-Teuila Festival day there. The celebration included a Floats Parade from the L.T.A. Office to the Don Bosco Technical College ending with the traditional wear side event for the Nine Mafutaga a Tina Committees hosting the contestants to showcase their ingenuity in Samoan cultural fashion design. The icing on the cake was announced by Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti, who said the 2020 Teuila Pageant will again be staged in Savaii. If you havent been to Samoa, then you havent experienced the authentic Pacific lifestyle. So says Kathryn Adams, 20, from Auckland, New Zealand. In Samoa this week, she said Samoa is a must go-to destination. She is originally from Denver, Colorado in America and moved about eight months ago to New Zealand, where she found a new home. The Dear Tourist team met Kathryn at the Teuila Festival in Apia when she described her island experience. It is super beautiful, the first thing I noticed was all the palm trees, and its so green and pretty. The natural scenery is amazing, she said. Ive been travelling around the Cook Islands, but Samoa is different from anywhere I have been, really pretty and everyone is so nice here, that is very special. Samoans are so proud of their culture, which I really like. She said the Teuila Festival was exciting because of the fire dancing and the cultural displays. I think it is really great to get a showcase of Samoan culture in an organised way like this, Kathryn said. There were actually less tourists in Apia than I expected. I dont think this event has been as advertised as it could have been, there wasnt much information. If I would have come with my friends, I probably wouldnt have known about it. Its not only the advertising but information where, what and when, she said. Kathryn said her intention of returning with friends is when she sees a lot of activities and offered for young people as well. I agree its more a destination where you relax and its not so much a night scene, but it is absolutely beautiful here. My favorite thing about Samoa is that everyone is so friendly, Kathryn said. Despite the low commercial standard, according to her, there is enough provided as she finds everything she needs. I do think in terms of signs, there are none or not many, which makes it hard to find anything. This could be improved to make the experience for tourists a bit easier. It has been an awesome experience and I would love to come back, she said. California legislators recently passed a bill that would require big companies in the state to put female directors on their boards. The bill has passed the state Assembly but still needs to go to the Senate and be signed by the governor. Question: Should major companies be required to put women on their boards? Phil Blair, Manpower NO: This is clearly intrusive in controlling the management of private industry. All CEOs should want what is best for their companies and employees. They need to be able to fairly, and legally hire and fire, without discrimination talent as needed to meet their goals. This includes the board room. We all know the more diversified a companys staff and management the more successful the company will be. We need diversity in the board room but we need the skill sets that are needed at the time, and candidates should not be mandated by sex, or age or color. Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research NO: While there may be advantages for women serving on boards, mandating appointments based solely on gender is counterproductive and violates intention, reasoning and legality of U.S. and California constitutions, and the Civil Rights Act. It is absurd to expect or compel organizations to mirror proportional population classifications by gender, race and sexual orientation. Corporations should select board members based on their qualifications, capabilities, character or whomever they want, not forced by stereotypes envisioned by Sacramento politicians. David Ely, San Diego State University NO: Companies benefit from having a diverse board. And, investors and other stakeholders are rightly pressuring companies to improve diversity in the boardroom. But mandating that companies increase the number of female directors through quotas, as recent California legislation proposes to do, is not the best approach. Companies will be best served by developing comprehensive plans to enhance board diversity. The legislation would force companies to focus on only one dimension of diversity. Gina Champion-Cain, American National Investments NO: Neither public nor private organizations should be subject to regulation designed to force personnel decisions of any kind. Just as women have gained an increasing number of elected political positions, we, too, will begin to make inroads into corporate suites as well as board positions. Women will achieve this through merit and perseverance not by governmental dictate. Any other path would be patronizingly offensive, not worthy of support. Alan Gin, University of San Diego YES: Membership on boards tends to be drawn from a narrow range of individuals, with the same people tending to serve on multiple boards. While women have made inroads, their progress is stalled by the exclusive network from which board members are drawn. Requiring female members would help rectify that situation. Some will argue that this would lead to calls for other groups to be included as well, but women are the appropriate place to start because they are the majority of the population. James Hamilton, UC San Diego NO: It is important to have directors who represent the diversity of the companys customers and who are not on the board just because the CEO finds them easy to work with. Although I think this is an important goal, I am uncomfortable with legislating it in the form of a quota. I do not believe that for every company in every situation, two of the five most qualified individuals will necessarily be women. Gary London, London Moeder Advisors NO: And its not because women, or a wide diversity of people and perspectives, shouldnt be placed on boards. They should. But not by the government. That sort of pressure, and common sense, ought to come from shareholders and customers. Norm Miller, University of San Diego NO: I do believe we should have more women and diversity on boards, but not by proclamation. If I was a woman on a board, I would fear the assumption I was there based on quotas rather than my qualifications. This taints the talented women already on boards. Aside from gender discrimination we can slice our socio-economic categories endlessly in future regulations, so much so that we lose sight of the profit requirement along with, not replaced by, people and planet. Jamie Moraga, IntelliSolutions NO: Companies shouldnt be required by the government to put anyone on their boards. The government doesnt know how the business is run, hasnt built it, contributed to it, took any risks for it, and doesnt own it. Shareholders and business owners have. Companies should put the most qualified directors on their boards regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or age. I wouldnt want to be on a board to fill a quota, I would want to be on it because I am the best and most qualified. Austin Neudecker, Rev Not participating this week. Bob Rauch, R.A. Rauch & Associates NO: There are many women who would be an asset to a board. These women do not need to be made to feel they are inferior by being given a token seat on a board. It is smart to have diverse boards and those that are culturally diverse are likely more effective at navigating industry. California is heading in the wrong direction on this issue as public companies have stakeholders who should hold them accountable. Not government. Lynn Reaser, Point Loma Nazarene University NO: Companies do not need another legal mandate and women selected under such regulations might be regarded as tokens and denied key committee leadership roles. Board members should be selected on merit, but firms should realize that female representation often serves their best interests. Evidence shows that companies with female board members financially outperform those without such representation. Earning more than half of all college degrees and making 70 percent of household financial decisions, women can bring valuable perspectives to the table. John Sarkisian, Motion Ventures NO: The requirement to have a woman on the board should not be legislated because companies recognize that diversity throughout the organizational is a key factor to success. Diversity leads to better decision making, innovative thinking and lowers the risk associated with insular organizations. With this knowledge companies are making all efforts to change and add women to their boards and executive staffs. Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health NO: I think qualified women should be on every board, but I dont believe it should be required by law. Scripps Health is a tax-exempt organization that has had several outstanding women board members, including our chair, several past chairs and our next chair. All were selected based on their exceptional qualifications, not because it was legislated. For publicly traded companies, the composition and qualifications of board members should be the prerogative of shareholders to address because they bear the risk and reap the benefit that result from these decisions. Have an idea for an EconoMeter question? Email me at phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com. Follow me on Twitter: @PhillipMolnar Competition for renters in newly apartment-heavy downtown San Diego is getting fierce with one complex entering new tenants into a contest to win a $10,000 European vacation. Alexan ALX in East Village opened at the start of the year and has some of the most amenities of any new apartment building such as a saltwater pool on the 18th floor and a hidden speakeasy for residents but it also is surrounded by a flurry of new apartments. It launched the contest July 15. The vacancy rate for Alexan ALX is around 27 percent, high for San Diego but common for a new building. Its average asking rent is around $2,930 a month, said real estate tracker CoStar. Thats not very far off from surrounding buildings. The rental offer is the latest in a trend of more concessions and rent reductions downtown among the surge of new luxury apartments that have opened in the past three years. Offers are especially noticeable in East Village with large complexes Alexan ALX, Park 12, Pinnacle on the Park and Shift all within blocks of each other. Advertisement I think they have to offer concessions, said CoStar senior market analyst Joshua Ohl. Theres tons of supply coming online. Its the only way they can compete to get renters. CoStar uses a team of 250 secret shoppers to figure out the latest deals at apartment complexes from one month free rent to complimentary cable TV used to entice affluent renters. At the end of the second quarter, 21.3 percent of apartment communities in downtown San Diego were offering concessions, up from 18 percent at the same time in 2016, CoStar said. Nearly 16 percent were offering one month free rent, up from 9 percent at the same time in 2016. Alexan ALX leasing manager Gergana Semerdjieva said they feel good about how much the building has filled up so far, but are very aware of competition surrounding them. We always want to keep our name at the top of everyones mind, she said of the contest. Its just something else that is exciting that will drive the traffic through our doors. Its something extra that gets people through our doors vs. other peoples doors. Semerdjieva said she thinks the 313-unit Alexan ALX has the best amenities downtown, but that doesnt change the fact they are in the middle of an apartment boom. Shift, a 368-unit complex known for its orange tower, recently opened up across the street. Just a short walk away is the newly opened Park 12 with 718 units, the most of any apartment complex in San Diego history, and a second Pinnancle on the Park building will bring the complexs total to 955 apartments. She said they are betting potential renters will see the contest, get them to check out Alexan ALX and be impressed by the amenities. Not everyone can enter the contest. It is limited to people who tour the building, then sign a 16-month lease and move in by Oct. 31. Current residents can get a ticket if they refer a person who ends up renting, or post a good review of the complex on Google or Facebook. The drawing for the contest is Nov. 3. The vacancy rate for apartments in downtown San Diego is around 16 percent, much higher than the 3.8 percent number for the entire county. Rent is also higher, with an average asking rent of $2,452 per month compared to $1,786 for the county. Mark Goldman, finance and real estate lecturer at San Diego State University, said it makes sense for new apartment buildings to ask for the highest rents they think they can get and decide from there what to do. If you are going to launch a new product, youre going to want to bring it out at the highest price you can, he said. Its easy to go down in price. Its hard to go up. Goldman also said many of the apartment complexes could be overshooting the mark with asking rents because incomes in San Diego have not kept pace with rent increases. Also, the monthly price in many of the luxury units is comparable (or higher) to a monthly mortgage payment so he said some potential renters may just decide to buy. Some promotions have ended at downtown complexes but there are still reductions to be had. The Rey, a 478-unit apartment in Cortez Hill opened at the beginning of 2017 and had a one month free rent deal until recently. While it might have ended the deal, it lowered rent prices two weeks ago. Average asking rent was up to $2,736 a month in 2017 but now is closer to $2,380. Pinnacle on the Park in East Village, 483 units and the tallest residential tower in San Diego, is still offering up to two months free rent on select units nearly three years after opening. The average asking rent is $2,612, down from $2,972 in 2015. Shift recently reduced rental rates and is offering up to two months free rent on some units. Average asking rent is 2,832 is a month, down from $3,133 at its height in 2017. It allows rent terms of six months, offering a shorter term than most year-long leases in the city. Business phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar ALSO San Diegos new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018 Last years housing market broke records A $13 million expansion and reboot of the more than half-century-old Kona Kai Resort & Spa seems to have paid off for its owners, delivering one of the best summers the Shelter Island property has ever had. The enlarged hotel, completed in June, now has 41 more suites, bringing the total number of rooms to 170, all of which have views of San Diego Bay or the Kona Kai Marina. A second pool area for the exclusive use of adult guests also was added, as was a new outdoor event space overlooking the Point Loma hillside. July and August were by far the busiest months weve ever experienced, said hotel general manager Hugh Hedin. It is clear that San Diego visitors have been waiting for a brand new suite product at the beach. One of the new California Endless Summer suites at the Kona Kai Resort & Spa (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) Advertisement The suites were designed to reflect two distinct themes California endless summer, featuring splashes of burnt orange, reminiscent of a Southern California sunset, and coastal Mediterranean, dominated by cobalt blue tones. The expansion represented the second phase of a $27 million makeover that began with extensive room renovations; a new hotel restaurant, Vessel; the addition of a spa; and a redesigned lobby. The project was launched after Noble House Hotels acquired the Kona Kai leasehold, which sits on Port of San Diego tidelands, in 2012 for $12.5 million. Sean Mullen, now president of acquisitions for Noble House, said at the time that the property was no longer top of mind among visitors to San Diego and that the company hoped to raise its profile as a destination by reinvesting millions of dollars in the resort. Business lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2251 Twitter: @loriweisberg You could call it her mission, or you could call it her passion. Whatever you call it, Pacific Beach resident Patricia Benesh is determined to change the face of aging through her company, 7 Memories. Benesh has written three books on the subject and started the company to get more senior citizens to turn their lives into legacies by writing down their personal stories. Benesh started her writing crusade in the late 90s, helping authors such as Thomas Steinbeck (John Steinbecks son) write manuscripts and articles. But it was the sudden death of her older brother in 2002 that sparked the idea for 7 Memories. In the last photo of him, he was holding the first great-grandbaby in our family, she recalls. I felt compelled to write the story of my parents for that great-grandchild. And now, Im honoring my parents by following my passion to help people turn their memories into memoirs before its too late. Advertisement When asked why she chose seven as the magic number of memories, she explains, Its a workable number in terms of starting a memoir. The thought of writing a memoir can be daunting, but if you start with just seven memories, it becomes do-able. Plus, it requires you to decide on the significant experiences in your life, and that gives you focus and direction. Benesh uses Its About Time as the program tagline, and with good reason. There does come a time when the window for capturing memories closes. So its critical to make that happen while its possible. I cannot stress that strongly enough. All of these amazing stories are lost to us unless we take the time to encourage and help older adults write down their stories. A memoir is a lifetime of experience and learning passed on to future generations. Otherwise, its a lifetime lost, like a library burning to the ground. BJ Strong as a young Marine (Courtesy photo) BJ Strongs story One of the seniors Benesh has worked with is BJ Strong, a Mission Beach resident who was 83 years old at the time she wrote her memoir. It tells the compelling story of her childhood on a farm in Nebraska with no electricity or running water, while attending a one-room schoolhouse until the eighth grade. Strong is most proud of being among the first female Marines in World War II, and is now a volunteer at the USS Midway Museum, where she regales visitors with her memories and autographs copies of her memoir. Strong remembers how much she loved the writing process. At first I thought it was dumb to do it. Why would my memories be important to anyone? she recalls. But then I realized it was really a different culture when I was a child. It changed so much, since I became an adult. The memoir helped Strong look back on her life with a new-found perspective. I dont know that I ever did anything spectacular, but I didnt make many mistakes. I chose my friends well. I think thats the secret to happiness. Writing my memoirs also made me realize things and think more. Gosh, Ive gotten so old, you forget about your mom and dad and grandmother ... thats one thing I liked writing about. Today, Strong is 97 years young. She still does yoga or Qi Gong five days a week and navigates the stairs to her second-floor home several times a day. Im not sure which is harder, she says. I think it might be the stairs. And when she looks back at her life, she has no regrets. Ive had a good life. Ive been one of the most fortunate people in the world. I count my blessings every day. Establishing Memoir Partners Benesh is not only offering her program to seniors; shes also teaching a class to young college students next semester at UC San Diegos Life Course Scholars program. Using her 7 Memories books, shell show students how to act as a guide for older adults to partner with them in the memoir-writing process. For Benesh, its the beginning of a vision she sees extending far into the future. I would love to have a legion of Memoir Partners whose mission is to capture the memories of older adults. Id like to start it here in San Diego, then expand it to California and the United States. It would have a strong inter-generational component and national visibility, perhaps endorsed by AARP, with its own day of celebration. Memoirs galore! Want to know more? E-mail Patricia Benesh at info@7memories.com, or visit 7Memories.com or facebook.com/7memories4 This story was first published Oct. 5, 2017 in the La Jolla Light (Editors note: BJ Strong died July 10, 2018 at the age of 98) At the request of Santee City Councilman Brian Jones, the City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution supporting the renewal of a contract between the 22nd District Agricultural Association and Crossroads of the West, the annual gun show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The popular and controversial gun show was held in July of this year at the San Diego County Fairgrounds. It is scheduled to return to the venue on Sept. 29 and Dec. 8 but the nine-member fair board will decide this month whether the show can return next year. Several Santee residents said it wasnt appropriate for the East County community to chime in on an event happening in north San Diego. This is unproductive and arrogant, Santee resident Aaron Townsend said. Why is Santee sticking its nose in Del Mars business? Dont we have enough on our plate with other issues? Advertisement Jones, a former Assemblyman who is making a run for the Senate this year, said some constituents had reached out to him asking for a letter in support of the event. Jones wrote a letter on July 26 to Steve Shewmaker, president of the 22nd District Agricultural Association Board of Directors explaining why the gun show should continue. In the letter, Jones gave several reasons, including the Fairgrounds is a state-owned regional asset serving all of San Diego County (and) California taxpayers own that property. Jones also wrote that the gun show is a lawful business that hosts other lawfully run and operated small businesses and that the event has an impeccable legal and safety record after 30 years and promotes firearms safety. He said he believes that the show is an important part of San Diegos history and culture. They said that they appreciated my letter but wanted a resolution from the city, Jones said. Im hoping the rest of the council agrees with me on this. Resident Michele Perchez said Santee getting behind the event means youre basically saying, Yes, we want more guns out there in the community, Perchez told Jones he put it on the agenda because he receives money from local gun organizations and youre up for election so this looks nice. City Councilman Ronn Hall said he didnt want to see items involving out-of-city controversies like this on Santee agendas in the future. City Councilman Rob McNelis said he is a proud Second Amendment defender and I will be until the day I die. McNelis agreed with Jones that Santee needed to take a stand on the Crossroads event because the Fairgrounds are for all San Diego County residents and cities like Santee should have a position, whether against or for. karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com Seven years ago, North County filmmaker Jonathan Berman moved to Joshua Tree for five months to start a documentary about 50s-era space alien-channeler George Van Tassel. Dozens of interviews, thousands of hours of research and editing and hundreds of test screenings later, Berman and his recently completed documentary, Calling All Earthlings, are returning to Joshua Tree this weekend for a sold-out screening. Although Van Tassels name may not be familiar to most Americans, its legendary among sci-fi/space age aficionados and beloved by residents of Californias Mojave Desert, where Van Tassel once lived, hosted UFO conventions and built his mysterious Integratron. The never-finished domed structure, which Van Tassel constructed from plans he claimed were delivered by a spaceman from Venus, was designed to rejuvenate human cells and dramatically extend life. Advertisement Bermans 76-minute film not only examines the life of Van Tassel and his Integratron, it also explores the culture of Mojaves often-quirky desert dwellers, whove been mystically drawn to the remote region for centuries. George Van Tassel was the grandfather of the Age of Aquarius. You could say he was the first hippie, said Berman, in an interview Wednesday in his office at Cal State San Marcos. Hes taught film arts there since 2004, including classes this fall in documentary filmmaking and media distribution. A photograph of UFO contactee George Van Tassel in a still from Jonathan Bermans documentary Calling All Earthlings. (Courtesy photo) Calling All Earthlings is Bermans fourth film and the second to chronicle Californias counter-culture history. His 2006 documentary Commune, about the collectivist Black Bear Ranch in Siskiyou County, was recently optioned for a TV series. His next project will be a TV series on California life in the mid-20th century. Berman, 56, grew up on Long Island watching Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks and John Cassavetes films and got his start in New York doing production jobs and editing on documentaries and a horror film. He found he preferred making documentaries because they offer the filmmaker more freedom to blur the line between fact and fiction. Fiction is all over Southern California in Hollywood gossip, which has been going strong for 100-plus years, in UFO stories like George Van Tassel and now even in politics. Once again we lead the nation, he said. Berman, who splits his time between homes in San Marcos and L.A.s Echo Park neighborhood, said he came across Van Tassels story in 2010. While watching a slide show about alternative spirituality at a salon-style gathering in L.A., he saw a picture of the Integratron flash on the screen. Here was this Gothic dome that looked like a planetarium with a sign in front that said for basic experimentation in life extension and thats what sent me down this rabbit hole, Berman said. He took a sabbatical from teaching, recruited young cinematographers Tony Molina and Greg Wilson and they moved into a friends rundown vacation home in Joshua Tree. Documentary filmmaker Jonathan Berman on location in Joshua Tree during the filming of Calling All Earthlings. (Courtesy photo) Working without a script, Berman interviewed nearly three dozen area residents on their memories of Van Tassel, the sonic powers of the Integratron and their own sightings of UFOs in the desert. He also interviewed an astronomer, a historian, 60s pop star Eric Burdon, Van Tassels son-in-law, a member of the Morongo Indian tribe and a channeler who summoned Van Tassels spirit to answer a few of Bermans questions on film. It took shape as I went along, he said, of the serendipitous style of the movie. One interview led to another. My films have an element of the Buddhistic where things are happening in real time and were just passing through. Van Tassel was born in Ohio in 1910 and moved at age 20 to the L.A. area, where he worked for nearly 20 years as an airplane mechanic and inspector for Lockheed, Douglas Aircraft and Hughes Aircraft. In 1947, he left L.A. and moved his wife and children to Giant Rock, the worlds largest free-standing boulder, about 25 miles northwest of Joshua Tree. There he built an airstrip, opened a cafe and, he later wrote, began receiving telepathic messages from Outer Space. In April 1953, he hosted the first of his annual Interplanetary Spacecraft Conventions, which would eventually grow in size from a few hundred to nearly 10,000 people. Then one night in August 1953, he claimed to have been awakened by a visiting Venusian named Solgonda, who took him for a spaceship ride and delivered blueprints via telepathy for the Integratron. Bermans film doesnt answer why Van Tassel was spiritually drawn to Giant Rock or whether his alien encounters were real. I think there are a multiplicity of answers, like in Rashomon, Berman said of the samurai film which features contradicting storylines. Did he meet people from another world? I dont know. I hope this film asks more questions than it answers. In 1957, Van Tassel broke ground on the Integratron in Landers, a tiny town four miles south of Giant Rock. The all-wood structure with a copper coil at its center was designed to harness electromagnetic energy to create a bathlike field of negative ions, so that when a person walked through the building they would emerge from the other side 20 to 30 years younger. Using money from his UFO conventions and a space-themed newsletter, Van Tassel worked for more than 20 years on the Integratron until his heart attack death in 1978, just weeks before it was scheduled for its first test run. Today, the building is owned by three sisters who use the acoustically perfect structure as a music, energy and sonic healing center. Berman said that through the Integratron, Van Tassel hoped to help people live longer and create a source of free energy, two things that have since come to pass thanks to improved medical care and renewable energy sources like solar and wind. The dome was like this Swiss army knife of all the things we wanted as humans, Berman said. Although Berman is listed in the credits as director and producer of Calling All Earthlings, he calls the film a collaborative effort that involved many of his students and colleagues at Cal State San Marcos. Students helped with editing and poster design; anthropology professor Bonnie Bade helped with research; theater professor Judy Bauerlein did voice work; and film professor Kristine Diekman helped Berman shape the film from unintelligible to a snoozefest to a lot better to finally holding together. The film premiered June 2 at the Illuminate Festival of Consciousness in Sedona, Ariz., and has since played at the Maui film fest and several screenings in L.A. Its now available for streaming On Demand and Berman is planning to tackle the European market next. For information on the film, visit callingallearthlingsmovie.com. Berman said he hopes viewers get a sense that his film isnt just about Van Tassel and his invention. He also hopes it inspires discussion on Californians endless quest to find spiritual healing and renewal in the desert. Was George a Tom Sawyer telling tales or a rainmaker? Berman said. He was representative of that generation of men who came back from World War II seeking answers and an alternative form of spirituality. pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com During the first week of school, a group of kindergartners at Adobe Bluffs School started the morning, as so many of the youngest students do, singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. This class, however, sang it in Mandarin Chinese, cheerfully belting out the lyrics with their teacher, Penny Wang. The 26 students are the first class to enter the schools Mandarin Immersion program, which will provide bilingual instruction in English and Mandarin, starting with the earliest grade. Half the class consists of native English speakers, while the other half are what the school calls heritage speakers whose families communicate in Mandarin at home. The philosophy is that the interaction with the students will elevate the language in English and in Mandarin, said Principal Eddie Park. Advertisement The school had about 200 applicants for 26 positions, Park said, and interviewed families to determine their interest and commitment to the program. Among the students they enrolled are children learning a third language, whose families also speak Spanish, Korean, Russian or French at home. Mandarin is the official language of China, the native tongue of roughly a billion people, and a key language of the Pacific Rim. Its a tonal language, where rising and falling tones impart different meanings to the same sounds. Those nuances are easiest to hear and pronounce for younger learners, so the earlier students start, the better, educators say. Adding the language to their education will enable these students to study internationally and afford them an advantage in college and beyond, Park said. In business, its huge, he said. More and more, they have to be culturally sensitive and aware and efficient in order to understand the nuances when youre doing business. Park started at Adobe Bluffs, in the Poway Unified School District, in 2015, and came to the campus from Barnard Asian Pacific Language Academy in the San Diego Unified School District, where he also served as principal and oversaw a Mandarin immersion program. Shortly after he took over at Adobe Bluffs, the school introduced Mandarin instruction through twice-a-week lessons in Chinese language and culture, with the goal of expanding to a full immersion program. They reached that milestone this year, when the campus welcomed the first kindergarten class to begin the bilingual program. Adobe Bluffs Elementary School in Poway kindergartner Jett Lo, center, joins his classmates in a Mandarin immersion program at the school Thursday. (Bill Wechter) On Thursday morning, students stood on mats facing Wang, following as she schooled them in the Mandarin words for directions. Reaching toward the ceiling, she recited the word shang for up. Pointing toward the rug, she led them in repeating xia for down. The program involves little translation; students absorb the words through practice and context, much as they learned language as toddlers. She tries very hard to make sure they are immersed in the language by not saying anything in English, Park said. After recess, the students returned to trace Chinese characters for the words they had learned. When Park asked one of the English speakers, Conner Gardner, if he knew Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Conner confidently sang the tune in Mandarin after just a few days of practice. Later in the school day, theyll switch over to instruction in English, and will continue alternating between the languages every day throughout the year. Adobe Bluffs Elementary School in Poway kindergartner Serena Tran works with Chinese characters during a Mandarin immersion program at the school Thursday. (Bill Wechter) The first weeks of class will focus on establishing classroom routines, much as any kindergarten program would do, Wang said. In this case, however, theyll learn daily routines in both English and Mandarin. To that end, they practice the words for drinking fountain and bathroom, and sing another song that recites the parts of the face. Theyll practice those really basic skills like how to sit down and stand up, Wang said. After they settle into school, Wang and her co-teachers will start teaching them subject matter math, social studies, science in both languages. Theyll use the calendar to practice counting, and will complete social studies lessons on early social skills, Wang said. In the first lesson on building community, we will understand how to be nice to each other, how to listen to each other and make new friends, Wang said. This group, or cohort, of students, will progress through elementary school together, building their academic and language skills simultaneously. The rest of the schools classes will continue to study Mandarin through the twice-weekly lessons, but the immersion students will get an intensive course in the language. By fifth grade, said Julie Li, the teacher on special assignment who coordinates the program, the immersion students should be able to read, write and converse proficiently in Mandarin. Park aims to develop sister school relationships with campuses in China and Taiwan, and to organize trips to those schools for students and families in the program. The district also plans to add a Mandarin pathway that will continue through middle and high school, so they can continue to build those language skills throughout their education. I am very proud that our students are having this opportunity to build our pathways, Park said. deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan Before the Coronado Bridge was built, the only way sailors could get to the naval base was through Imperial Beach. That route took thousands of motorists by Stardust Donuts on Palm Avenue and 7th Street where Cliff Arnold remembers charging 7 cents for a glazed donut and making $269 profit the first month he ran the store June 1967. I know what Im doing, Arnold, 74, said after a recent morning rush. Ive basically been at it my whole life. More than a half-century later, Arnold still sells donuts to sailors heading to Coronado. But now he charges $1.09 and makes more than $269 a month. Advertisement Arnold comes from a long tradition of donut shop owners. His grandmother opened one of San Diegos first donut shops, Keens Donuts off Pacific Coast Highway, in 1929. His parents ran Keens Donuts in Pacific Beach in the 1940s. Stardust Donuts hasnt changed much since Arnold and his brother Ed ran it back in the late 1960s. The menu is mostly the same, with their popular cinnamon rolls, cake donuts, and chocolate and glazed donuts. The same Fresh Donuts sign still lures drivers from Palm Avenue to the shops counter. But the shop has seen better days. The 2017 winter storm knocked a few letters from the classic sign. So now it reads, Fresh nuts. Arnold plans to repair the sign soon but hes in no mood to modernize. He doesnt have a website. So anything you find on the internet about me or this place has been put there by somebody else, he said. Ive read the reviews on Yelp. Some people think Im a real jerk and some people think Im just fine. And he doesnt plan to start accepting credit cards any time soon. I dont need to, Arnold said. Im selling enough donuts without having to take credit cards so why should I do it? Stardusts longevity stands in contrast to an increasingly changing Imperial Beach. The trailer park behind the store got turned into townhomes that sell for a half-million dollars. Across the street, a new strip mall has national chains like Starbucks, Five Guys, and Chipotle. But the donut shop remains the same. IMPERIAL BEACH, CA.- AUGUST 30, 2018,-Cliff Arnold with his days worth of donuts for sale. Star Dust donut shop in Imperial Beach is a family business that has been in business for 50 years. 2018 (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) Carlos Rojas remembers sneaking out of first period to buy cinnamon rolls when he was a student at Mar Vista High School in the late 90s. We had auto shop, so wed test drive a car and come get donuts, Rojas said. His favorite back then were the cinnamon rolls. Rojas, who is now 44 and owns a plumbing company in Imperial Beach, stopped by Stardust Donuts last week. He got cinnamon rolls. If I was going to a job site with more guys, I wouldve picked up more, he said. A few minutes later, Jaimie Guzman, 19, walked up to the counter. He also ordered cinnamon rolls. Ive been coming here since I was 2, he said. We had this little tradition every Saturday when theyd open my dad would buy donuts and walk back home. By the time we got home, wed finish like six donuts. No one knows how long Arnold will keep selling donuts. His brother Ed died five years ago so he runs the shop alone. The Arnold brothers bought the property in 1998 so hes not beholden to a landlord. Arnold doesnt have children or any other family he plans to leave the business to. So what will happen to the shop when Arnold decides to stop selling donuts? It dont matter to me, Ill be gone, Arnold said. But he doesnt plan to retire any time soon. Several people have offered to buy the lot but Arnold isnt interested. Or maybe their sales pitches havent been very effective. They come and say, Dont you want to retire and lay on the beach? and Ill tell them, If I want to lay on the beach, I can do that any time I want. The beach is right over there, Arnold said as he gestured toward the Pacific. IMPERIAL BEACH, CA.- AUGUST 30, 2018,- The original donut menu. Star Dust donut shop in Imperial Beach is a family business that has been in business for 50 years. 2018 (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter When 61 percent of California voters approved Proposition 22 in 2000, which recognized as valid only those marriages between a man and a woman, members of the South Bays LGBTQ community turned to their elected officials. We were all very frustrated after Prop. 22 so we went to our politicians and they said that it was a Hillcrest problem, that people like that dont live here, recalls Dae Elliott, one of the founding members of South Bay Alliance. But people like that did live in the South Bay. And they organized. In 2003, local business owners and members of the LGBTQ community held a family-friendly public gathering at Heritage Park in Otay Ranch. Advertisement About 150 people showed up. Dubbed Gay Day in South Bay, the event was more of a picnic than a pride parade, but it proved what was possible. I wasnt quite sure what the climate would be like, said Marci Bair, who organized the event. It was really well-received. Bair held another one in 2004, then again in 2005. In 2006, Bair, Elliott and a group of dedicated volunteers founded South Bay Alliance to organize the larger event. Over the years, South Bay Pride outgrew Heritage Park. They moved to Memorial Park downtown. When they outgrew that, the party headed to Bayfront Park. As more people kept attending, South Bay Pride moved to its current location Bayside Park. What started out as a gathering of 150 people in 2003 has evolved into a celebration of more than 16,000. Saturdays South Bay Pride, will have live music, food and drink vendors, performers from RuPauls Drag Race, paddleboard and kayaks on the bay, face painting and balloon animals for the kids, and an official proclamation from the mayor of Chula Vista. In anticipation of South Bay Pride, city staff hung a rainbow flag in front of the City Council Chambers and lit up City Hall with rainbow lights at night. What changed in Chula Vista between Proposition 22 and 2018? Councilman Steve Padilla has had a front-row view of that evolution. Padilla became Chula Vistas first openly-gay elected official when he came out in the middle of his mayoral term in 2005. The following year, Padilla lost his re-election campaign. Clearly, my being a gay person played a huge roll in 2006, he said. Thats a painful truth to have to grapple with and learn from and grow from. Ten years later, Padilla made history again by becoming the first openly-gay man to be elected for public office in Chula Vista. On the other hand, where Im at now, Im very blessed and lucky and grateful to have an opportunity to come back, the councilman said. One of the most important reasons behind greater acceptance of the LGBTQ community is greater education and visibility, Padilla said. As people continue to have a better understanding and knowledge of human sexuality and as peoples relatives come out as members of the LGBTQ community, that changes a lot of people to where they can understand the community on a personal level and recognize the humanity of each person, he said. Padilla recently attended a gathering of local Gay-Straight Alliance clubs from high schools throughout Chula Vista where more than 400 students, both members of the LGBTQ community and their allies, attended. The councilman left that meeting feeling that the South Bay is on the right track toward being more accepting, he said. Having a gay pride celebration in the South Bay sends the message that gay people are not confined to one area, Mayor Mary Casillas Salas said. Here in San Diego, people have always thought of Hillcrest as thats where the LGBTQ community is, Salas said. But really, the community is everywhere because they are our family members, our neighbors, our coworkers. So I think its just really important that the city celebrates that community with the same dignity that we celebrate our other cultural events. Prop. 22 was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2008. Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter Theres a macabre little moment in the 2000 movie American Psycho that begins with the unhinged lead character, Patrick Bateman, cheerily asking a co-worker whom he has invited to his Manhattan bachelor pad: Do you like Huey Lewis and the News? Then, while going about preparations to off the poor, clueless guy with an ax, Bateman continues: Their early work was a little too new-wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in 83, they really came into their own commercially and artistically! Setting aside the carnage that soon ensues, the scene raises an interesting question: Were Lewis and Co. actually part of the new-wave movement? Its true they made their first big splash on MTV alongside the likes of Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls and Kajagoogoo, but whether the bands R&B-influenced tunes really shared DNA with the likes of those groups is open to debate. So who better to ask than Lewis himself? The man happens to be in town just now for the world premiere of the Old Globes Broadway-bound musical The Heart of Rock & Roll, which is built around Lewis music and begins performances tonight. Advertisement And during a wide-ranging interview at the Balboa Park theater recently, we raised that question with him. RELATED: You gotta have Heart: Talking rock n roll, theater, hearing struggles and more with Huey Lewis as world-premiere musical hits the Old Globe Video of musical numbers in rehearsal for The Heart of Rock & Roll As it turns out, punk rock new waves angrier and more raw progenitor actually was a big influence on Lewis. Only maybe not for the most obvious of reasons. Lewis recalled that when he was in residence with his first major band, the country rock-influenced Clover, in England during the late 1970s, I watched the punk thing explode. And the thing that was interesting to me about the punk thing was, it wasnt a musical lesson for me. It was a lesson about how they were thumbing their nose at the musical establishment, and saying, Hey, were gonna do our own stuff sing our own quirky songs our own quirky way. And we dont give a (bleep) what you people think. And I thought: What a relief! I said, Thats what Im gonna do. Im not gonna play punk music, Im gonna do this R&B thing Im gonna get (the Bay Area musician) Johnny Colla to play horn, maybe one day get a horn section. But Im just gonna do what I want to do. So Lewis moved back to the West Coast, tapped back into the soul, blues and R&B sounds hed grown up on via the Bay Area radio station KDAI, gathered some like-minded band mates together and the rest is pop history. That independent streak eventually extended to the bands music videos. Lewis recalled that after he and the News shot a DIY video that helped them land their first record deal in the early 80s, their new label decided to do a professional shoot for the single Do You Believe in Love? The company poured money into the video, hiring a fashion designer for the expensive shoot. And 10 days later, band members and label executives were invited to view the rough cut. When the video was screened, My heart just sank, Lewis recalled. It was so weird no direction to speak of. I just thought, This is so terrible. And it ended and then everybody stood up and applauded! We got a standing ovation. And I remember thinking to myself, Clearly, anybody can do this. So, we make our own records, and were making our own videos from now on. And the angle was, Goof off. Avoid a literal translation of the song. If the song is zigging, you zag. Fast-forward to Heart: Lewis has made his voice heard from the start of the project, and has been on hand during pretty much every step of its Globe development. Well, because I can be, he said, adding with a laugh: Im not sure Im even helping! Im not sure Gordon (Greenberg, the director) likes me hanging around all the time. But I cant help myself. Its fun. In the process, he also has come to appreciate anew the deeply collaborative nature of doing theater. Lewis recalled that when he was participating in the 1985 recording of the all-star benefit single We Are the World, producer Quincy Jones explained: Its like building a house, people. And so is the play. But what a complicated house this is. Nothing has as many moving parts as a Broadway musical. By the way: In 2013, Lewis cheekily got back at the makers of American Psycho, teaming with Weird Al Yankovic for a faithful sendup of that scene from the movie. You can check it out here. But be warned: There will be (fake) blood. jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @jimhebert To enter Su-Mei Yus La Jolla home is to glimpse the story of her life. The two-story Spanish home is filled with meaningful pieces reflecting the pioneering restaurant founder and cookbook authors loves, interests and heritage. A double-high, arched, wide-planked front door opens into a soaring entryway with a curved stairway, circular wood ceiling and a stone floor. But its the art that catches the eye. The pieces often colorful and sometimes quirky each hold a story for Yu, who founded Saffron, San Diegos first Thai restaurant, in 1985. The artworks are a combination of my life, Yu said. In the curve of the stairway is a tall, bronze candlestick made from flea market items by Italo Scanga, an artist and her partner for 10 years until his death at the age of 69 in 2001. The candlestick was the last piece Scanga made. Advertisement Its one of the many mementos of their time together. On the floor in the dining area is an old, bronzed sewing machine that forms the base of a funky vase holder. The piece incorporates a flea-market dog figurine and holds an elegant cone-shaped glass vase, all made by Scanga. Yu said the piece was a gift to her because her mother worked as a seamstress in Thailand to support the family. The sewing machine her mother used all those years is in Yus office along with her fathers typewriter. He was an antique dealer in Bangkok, where Yu was born. Chihuly is really a soulmate, says Su-Mei Yu of her longtime friend, glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. His work is displayed throughout her home, including the shelves in this sitting area of her bedroom. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T) Many of her art pieces are the result of her friendship with glass sculptor Dale Chihuly, whom she met through Scanga. The two are still close friends. Chihuly is really a soulmate, Yu said. His glasswork is displayed throughout the house: on the fireplace mantel in the living room, on a side table by the dining area and in shelving in the bedroom. Long, fiery red and orange glass sticks also jut out of the lavender by the front door. The lettering for the Saffron logo was also created by him. Chihuly would often visit Scanga and Yu. The three of them would go to flea markets and thrift shops. I learned to like secondhand stores and flea markets. We liked to go treasure hunting to find magnificent, strange things, Yu said. Scanga used these pieces to create sculptures that included a series with glass vases and one of candlesticks. Some of her wall art is from those outings. They would look at something and say this is worth something, Yu said. At the time, she and Scanga were living in the La Jolla Farms area in a house that was originally a Sears catalog home. Yu bought the current home in 2003 with her then-husband Robert Nichols, a neurologist. We both felt we needed to start with our own lifestyle, Yu said. Bob needed a big house for his family to visit. I was looking for a house where you can cook outside. I grew up with an outside kitchen. Thats how I cook. Plants around the front entrance to Su-Mei Yus home are decorated with glass art by Dale Chihuly. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T) The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house, she said, is great for entertaining. She has hosted up to 150 people for fundraisers, and at 72, she continues to enjoy cooking for family and friends. Although she sold Saffron two years ago, she is still a consultant and involved with the restaurants menu as well as the opening of a new location in La Jolla. Yu started cooking at 15, while attending a boarding school in Kentucky. It was to save myself, she said, because she couldnt eat the food that was served at the school. She came to the United States to get away from the boarding school she was attending in Thailand. Yu was often picked on and ostracized because her parents were from China. It was hard growing up in Thailand, Yu said. I didnt feel good. I didnt understand it, but I knew something wasnt right. Su-Mei Yu prefers to do all her cooking outside on an inexpensive propane stove. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T) She still cooks outside on the $90 propane stove she bought years ago at Costco. Its been the best thing ever, she said. The outdoor cooking area includes a stainless-steel sink and counter. The kitchen, which is stocked with spices and has pots hanging above the window, is used for baking, prepping and things that wont leave lingering odors such as boiling pasta or making oatmeal. My cooking needs a lot of seasoning, and I dont like the leftover smell, Yu said, which is why she still prefers to cook outside. The kitchen connects to the dining area, which has an oblong table for eight that she purchased 50 years ago in Hong Kong. The space also holds her collection of hand-blown Venetian wine glasses, which were a gift from Chihuly, and a print from the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. Su-Mei Yus living room and dining room. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T) The home is also Yus sanctuary for practicing and studying Buddhism. Sacred art hangs in the living room, library and the master bedroom. In the library, which has a book-filled wall, she replaced the TV with a mandala and spends time there daily learning Tibetan so she can study ancient scriptures. The upstairs master bedroom has a corner for prayer and an old statue of Buddha from her mother on the fireplace mantel. Su-Mei Yus master bedroom. A statue of Buddha from her mother stands on the mantel. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T) Just past the library is an addition from a previous owner: a room with a built-in jet spa and a multi-head shower. Doors on two sides of the room connect it to the backyard while maintaining privacy. Its a great place for relaxing, she said. But for Yu, it is the items inside the home and not the structure itself that are important. White walls throughout the house except for the office which is a pale green allow the eclectic collection of art to shine. The home is a combination of my education from Dale and Italo and my own sensibilities, she said. Schimitschek is a San Diego freelance writer. The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year. Saturday, September 7, 1901 In 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. McKinley died Sept. 14. Czolgosz was executed on Oct. 29. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story: PRESIDENT MKINLEY SHOT BY AN ANARCHIST AT BUFFALO. Two Bullets Take Effect---One of the Wounds Very Serious---Would-be Assassin Did the Deed While Shaking Hands---He Is Arrested---Crowd Tried to Lynch Him---Confesses That He Is a Disciple of Emma Goldman. By the Associated Press. Buffalo, N.Y., Sept. 6.Just a brief twenty-four hours ago the newspaper of the city blazoned forth in all the pomp of headline type "The Proudest Day in Buffalo's History." Tonight, in sackcloth and ashes, in sombre type, surrounded by gruesome borders of black, the same newspapers are telling in funeral tones to a horrified populace the deplorable details of "The Blackest Day in the History of Buffalo." President McKinley, the idol of the American people, the nations chief executive and the city's honored guest, lies prostrate, suffering the pangs inflicted by the bullet of a cowardly assassin, while his life hangs in the balance. Out on Delaware avenue, at the home of John G. Milburn, president of the exposition, with tears on face and heart torn by conflicting hopes and fears, sits the faithful wife, whose devotion is known to all the nation. FROM JOY TO HORROR. It was a few moments after 4 p.m. while President McKinley was holding a reception in the Temple of Music on the Pan-American grounds that the cowardly attack was made, with what success time alone can tell. Standing in the midst of thousands, surrounded by every evidence of good will, pressed by a motley throng, showered with expressions of love and loyalty from enthusiastic multitudes, all eager to clasp his handsamid these surroundings, and with the ever recurring plaudits of an army of sightseers, ringing in his ears, the blow of the assassin came, and in an instant pleasure gave way to pain, admiration to anger, folly turned to fury and pandemonium followed. Tonight a surging, swaying, eager multitude throngs the city's main thoroughfares, choking the streets in front of the principal newspapers, scanning the bulletins with anxious eyes, and groaning or cheering in turn at each succeeding announcement, as the nature of the message sinks or buoys their hopes. View anniversary front pages online at sandiegouniontribune.com/150-years. For more from the Union-Tribune digital archives, go to newslibrary.com/sites/sdub. Searching is free, with registration. A fee is required to view full stories. Rafael Lomeli sat helpless in his truck, surrounded by a wall of flames that had jumped over Interstate 5. He called his family to tell them he loved them; then he prayed. In the back of his semitruck sat 2,000 gallons of bottled water. The sky grew dark and cloudy as the wind started to blow. A hellish scene soon developed along the 5 as 300-foot flames burned through tall pines and firs. One driver stopped in front of Lomeli, got out of his car with a boy and ran in the opposite direction. Several others followed, including a family and about 15 firefighters that had just arrived at the scene. He was about to do the same until he saw the flames behind him. Advertisement The windows of Lomelis truck were hot to the touch. He blasted the air conditioning, desperate. All he wanted was to make it home to Yuba City and see his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 6, again. The flames swirling around the highway, it was as if Mother Nature was acting like a fire eater, suddenly shooting flames onto nearby drivers, he said. It was like a tornado of fire, and we were in the center of it, the 30-year-old truck driver said in Spanish during a telephone interview. When the fire started, law enforcement officers were diverting hundreds of cars and trucks to the La Moine exit to turn around, but the blaze started advancing rapidly toward that once-safe location, said Lt. Cmdr. Kyle Foster of the California Highway Patrols Mount Shasta office. Officers had to send cars and trucks through a 12-foot gap in the center median designed for emergency vehicles. Remarkably, they were able to get most vehicles turned around and away from the flames, he said. About 17 semis were abandoned by drivers who couldnt maneuver their trucks out in time, and at least four of them were burned. The flames were over the tops of trees, 50-foot high, right here on the shoulder on both sides of Interstate 5, said Sgt. Tim Hinkson of the California Highway Patrol. It wasnt like it was a couple hundred feet from the freeway. It was right on top of the freeway. Less than 24 hours after the blaze broke out Wednesday in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, the Delta fire had grown to more than 15,000 acres. By Thursday evening, it had scorched 22,000 acres and was 0% contained. Fire officials feared that once the inversion layer sitting over the fire cleared, the blaze would once again explode through the mountainous forest region, heading farther north toward Gibson, east toward Greens Mountain and west toward Damnation Peak. By early Friday, the fire could expand east and possibly merge with the Hirz fire, a 46,150-acre blaze thats 80% contained, fire officials said. At least three homes have been damaged or destroyed, and several more are under threat. About 300 people have evacuated along the 5 from La Moine to the Shasta-Siskiyou county line, said Capt. Brandon Vaccaro, a Delta fire spokesman. Lakehead resident Stan Kulak fled his longtime home near Pollard Flat after watching 200-foot flames burning through pine trees along the Sacramento River canyon and the interstate. For decades, the family has lived on 40 acres behind the Pollard Flat restaurant and gas station, about 36 miles north of Redding. Kulak rushed to pack his wifes medicines, two family heirlooms an old wooden clock that has been in his family for more than 100 years and his late mothers .22-caliber rifle and most importantly, their Jack Russell terrier, Ducky. Helicopters hovered and several fire engines surrounded Kulaks home, his brothers home and one other house on the property. Firefighters soaked Kulaks three-bedroom house in water and cleared brush, but they couldnt keep the fast-moving Delta fire away. A family friend told the Kulaks that all thats left standing is the metal door frame. The 71-year-old Vietnam veteran was grateful his brother woke him up from his afternoon nap when the fire was less than a mile from his house. Ive been shot twice and blown up twice, but [to be killed by] a goddarn fire, thatd be a real pisser, wouldnt it? Kulak said. The blaze forced the closure of about 45 miles of Interstate 5 the main artery between Redding and the Oregon border. Kulak spent 6 hours driving from Mount Shasta to Lakehead, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic that the local highways rarely see. Traffic worsened Thursday when a car and a semitruck collided on Route 299 near Oak Run, leaving the truck jackknifed across both lanes of one of the main detours around I-5. By late afternoon, traffic on the winding, two-lane highway hadnt moved more than a mile in a few hours. Were trying to jam tens of thousands of cars into a single roadway thats capable of seeing maybe 2,500 cars a day, said Jason Morton, a public information officer with the California Highway Patrol stationed in Redding. Union Pacific Railway also shut down its tracks between Redding and Dunsmuir. The company has water cars protecting its tracks and other equipment in areas where its safe enough to travel within, spokesman Justin Jacobs said. Between eight and 15 trains move through the stretch daily hauling a range of goods including batteries, televisions and cars that make up roughly the equivalent of about 3,000 semitrucks a day, Jacobs said. Its a pretty significant amount of cargo, he said. Much like the massive Mendocino Complex and Carr fires, the Delta fire has been fueled by dry conditions, wind and unforgiving warm temperatures. Theres not one specific reason the region has been susceptible to fire in recent weeks. Maybe its a coincidence that the Delta, Hirz and Carr fires have all ignited in a cluster, making for one of the worst fire seasons Shasta County has seen in decades, said Scott Stephens, a fire sciences professor at UC Berkeley. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that its a heavily forested rural area, broken in some parts only by highways, which makes it so that vehicle sparks are dangerously close to fuel, he said. Stephens said the fires appear to all be human-caused accidents that just happened to ignite in the same area. The Carr fire, which burned 229,651 acres and killed at least seven people, was started by a vehicles flat tire, and Stephens suspects the cause of the Delta fire was also transportation-related. This fire is certainly going to be human-ignited because its by a transportation corridor, he said. Ive always called people fire magnets, because more people simply means more ignition. But Eric Knapp, a fire ecologist based in Redding, said he wouldnt attribute the cause of this cluster of fires to people alone. Though the population has been increasing, even in these rural areas, the number of human-caused fires and the number of fires started in general hasnt increased over time. Its the number of total acres burned in California overall that has increased dramatically, indicating the fires are simply faster and more intense. They are also harder to put out, he said. This is a really rugged area, and theres not a lot of people who live there, he said. Its hard to fight fire in this landscape and then you add the fuel accumulation issue and the drought. Its just another factor that makes it a challenging area to control once the fire starts. The Shasta County area is also susceptible to fires because of its dry coniferous vegetation large fir, pine and evergreen trees on steep slopes that make flames travel faster. What happens is when a fire goes up a hill, the fires flame leans forward and the flame then preheats the fuel thats in front of the fire, Stephens said. So the green fuel is heated by the flame of the fire going uphill, making it much easier to burn. Motorists who were stuck on Interstate 5 at the onset of the blaze watched from their vehicles as flames devoured trees and advanced toward the highway. One woman pulled out her phone to document the fire in a video that was posted to social media as traffic remained at a standstill. Oh my God, I want to go, the woman, identified on Instagram as Narraf Ellesse, screamed. Weve got to get out and walk. We cannot stay right here. She began to sob as the flames jumped along the treetops. Some truckers unlatched their trailers in an effort to escape the blaze. Others opted to catch a ride with strangers and abandon their vehicles completely. On Thursday, Lomeli was grateful for his life. The truck driver was able to zigzag around abandoned vehicles on I-5 once the flames died down enough and escape the blaze. I just wanted to get out of that mountain, he said. It felt ugly. I felt desperation. jaclyn.cosgrove@latimes.com @jaclyncosgrove The young actor who accused Asia Argento of having sex with him while he was a minor will cooperate with a Los Angeles County sheriffs investigation into the Italian actress, his lawyer said. Gordon Sattro, the lawyer for Jimmy Bennett, said he was shocked, appalled, and disgusted by Argentos new defense that the then-17-year-old Bennett was the sexual attacker. In the wake of a New York Times story detailing that Argento had agreed to a $380,000 settlement with Bennett following his allegation that she had had sex with him in a Marina del Rey hotel in May 2013 when he was 17, the actress-director initially denied the act. But in a statement and letter on Wednesday, Argentos new attorney, Mark Jay Heller, disputed the Bennetts allegations, labeling the young actor as the sexual attacker and saying Argento had opted not to contact authorities in 2013 following the incident. Advertisement Heller said in an interview that his client will now cooperate with any investigation and that she would stop the payouts to Bennett, which were made in small portions. Sattro, however, said in a statement that he will seek to ensure all remaining money owed to Bennett is paid and that the funds will go to the #MeToo movement. If I were to sum up the letter from Asia and her attorney in a single word it would be hypocritical, with a close second being nonsensical, Sattro said. We read this statement as a self-serving and slanderous one which is offensive, not only to my client but in all likelihood to victims both silent and outspoken, everywhere, he added. Sattro sought a settlement from Argento last fall after she became the center of the #MeToo movement as one of the first women to allege she had been raped by powerful producer Harvey Weinstein. The disgraced mogul has denied the allegation. Her most recent letter [is] seemingly crafted with the intent to intimidate, shame, and insult our client back into silence, Sattro said. This is a familiar tactic which has been criticized by the #MeToo movement repeatedly over the past year. In Hollywood, the one thing that has never and will never be condoned, or tolerated, is the abuse of child actors. He said Bennett, now 22, has a legally enforceable agreement in the settlement. Upon securing the outstanding funds owed, Jimmy will be donating the entirety of it to the #MeToo movement. The New York Times reported 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 now characterizing the incident that led to the settlement in a different light. Her attorney, Heller, said text messages she recently sent that were obtained by TMZ.com show it was a sexual attack by Bennett. In the messages, 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 the messages were turned over to law enforcement. richard.winton@latimes.com Twitter: @lacrimes A police crackdown on local unlicensed marijuana businesses has ended with misdemeanor charges against more than 500 people in Los Angeles, the city attorneys office said. In 120 criminal cases filed since May, City Atty. Mike Feuer has charged 515 people in connection with 105 illegal marijuana businesses, grow sites, extraction labs and delivery companies located throughout the city, his office announced Friday. All of the defendants were charged with unlicensed commercial cannabis activity within the city, which carries a potential sentence of six months in jail and $1,000 in fines. Local judges have been hearing the cases since May with arraignments scheduled through the end of October, Feuers office said. Though the number of defendants is staggering and will make a dent in unlicensed operations in the city, the larger aim of the crackdown is to try to level the playing field for the marijuana businesses that are following the rules, Feuer said. Advertisement If theyre going to go through this process, it just cannot be the case that others that flout the rules are allowed to function, Feuer said. Its bad for those who buy from them, its bad for the communities in which theyre located and, again, it threatens to undermine the viability of a system thats predicated on lawful licensing. As of Thursday, there were 165 approved cannabis storefronts and delivery businesses operating in Los Angeles, but many more without licenses are also open in Los Angeles. The crackdown reached all corners of the city, from South L.A. and Boyle Heights to communities in the San Fernando Valley and the Westside, officials said. Its important that every element of the new recreational marijuana regime in our state be implemented in a way the voters anticipated in the first place, Feuer said. Some of the unlicensed storefronts were near schools or didnt follow city regulations regarding security, among other things, Feuer said. Without proper permitting, there is no way for customers to know that the marijuana theyre buying is safe from toxins or other contaminants its exposed to when its grown, he added. Today, we are letting our residents and those who want to flout our laws know that the city is not going to stand idly by, while the safety of our communities are at risk, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez said in a statement. Of the 515 defendants Feuers office has charged, 21 have so far pleaded guilty or no contest to misdemeanors or infractions, one defendant was placed in a diversionary program, 11 cases were dismissed and 10 defendants are wanted on bench warrants. The remaining 472 cases are pending, city officials said. joseph.serna@latimes.com Twitter: @JosephSerna Actor Vince Vaughn is facing misdemeanor charges after he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol in Manhattan Beach in June, Los Angeles County prosecutors said Friday. The 48-year-old known for his roles in popular comedy films such as Wedding Crashers and Swingers was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint at Artesia Boulevard and Prospect Avenue about 12:40 a.m. on June 10, prosecutors said. Vaughn refused to get out of his vehicle despite officers repeated requests, prosecutors said. Manhattan Beach police took him into custody shortly after 1 a.m. He was released hours later after posting $5,000 bail, according to jail records. Advertisement Vaughn is charged with one count each of driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, driving with .08% blood-alcohol content or higher and refusing to comply with a peace officer or to submit to an inspection, according to court records. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 360 days in county jail. He is expected to be arraigned on Sept. 10 in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Torrance. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry As her election opponent cheered the protests from afar, Sen. Dianne Feinstein apologized for them. Im sorry for the circumstances, but well get through them, she told Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday amid an outburst during the second day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If she was trying to enrage the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, she did a pretty good job. Even before the hearing started on Tuesday, Democratic liberals who have been critical of Feinstein over the years said they were concerned about her more genteel approach to politics when they believe confrontation is warranted in the era of Trump. Comity right now is not needed in the U.S. Senate, Democratic state Sen. Kevin de Leon, Feinsteins opponent in November, said on Wednesday in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board. It requires extraordinary efforts that are out of the box and not the same old, tired Washington playbook of yesterday. Advertisement De Leon acknowledged that any assessment from him about Feinsteins performance during the hearings is going to come off as self-interested and highly subjective. But his comments mirrored those of other progressives who lit up social media complaining about Feinstein. Feinsteins center-left politics and refined public demeanor have served her well during a quarter-century in the Senate and at the ballot box. She has hardly been threatened seeking re-election in California. Liberal Democrats may not be happy with her, but Feinstein has used the forum to challenge Kavanaugh on matters of importance to them and her: abortion rights, gun control and executive power specifically, whether a president must respond to a subpoena. She asked him about Roe v. Wade, the 45-year-old ruling that established abortion as a fundamental right under the Constitution. He noted that the ruling has been reaffirmed many times and that its established precedent, but he did not give his legal view of it. After he gave a long answer on a question about executive power but did not clearly state his position, Feinstein told him: Youre learning to filibuster. At one point, he defended his appellate court dissenting opinion that an assault weapons ban was unconstitutional. Feinstein, whose long-expired federal assault weapons ban is still a hallmark of her Senate tenure, took to Twitter to declare Brett Kavanaugh is one the nations most extreme judges on guns. Feinstein was criticized by conservative publications about how she framed questions during the hearing on gun control (National Review) and abortion (Washington Examiner) which some Democrats would consider a badge of honor. Inevitably, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee is going to be compared with Californias other senator, Kamala Harris, who also sits on the panel. The contrasts are striking. Harris, a favorite of progressives, further solidified her status when she interrupted committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, during his opening remarks Tuesday. She demanded the hearing to be delayed to give Democrats time to review 42,000 pages of documents released the night before. Other Democrats joined in, disrupting the proceedings, and the meeting nearly spun out of control when protesters in the audience chimed in. Asked for his analysis, de Leon told the Union-Tribune editorial board Wednesday that Harris has been aggressive and I think shes done an outstanding job. That was even before Harris, the former California attorney general, took a prosecutorial tack in questioning Kavanaugh Thursday. Clips of the exchanges quickly ricocheted across social media. Regarding Feinstein, de Leon said, As difficult as this may sound, objectively, I think its been a subpar performance. You have a tale of very different approaches on the Judiciary Committee, he added. Those approaches may fit the senators political needs. Feinstein has shown broad appeal in California, and that includes among voters who have no party preference and cross-over Republicans. She has bemoaned the breakdown of civility in politics and clearly believes working across the aisle when possible is good government and good politics. Not everyone agrees. In a surprise move, the state Democratic Party endorsed de Leon in July. A poll two weeks later showed Feinstein with a still-commanding 2-1 lead, though she again fell just short of gaining 50 percent support. She also continues to have a huge financial advantage. A new poll by Probolsky Research has the race narrowed to an eight-point Feinstein lead with de Leon, running as the more liberal of the two, taking a perplexing five-point lead among Republicans. Both polls show a large percentage of undecided voters. Harris is one of several Democrats who may be positioning themselves for a possible presidential run in 2020. Capturing the activist, progressive base of the party would be key for any candidate. As for Kavanaugh, the math is pretty simple that he gets confirmed unless some blockbuster revelation derails him. So while serious legal and societal matters are being addressed, the confirmation process is playing to the coming campaign and beyond. Feinstein long has had an uneasy relationship with the Democratic Partys liberal wing but has highlighted that dispute when it suits her. In 1990, she famously reiterated her support for the death penalty during a state party convention, a move guaranteed to elicit boos from the crowd. Her political team captured the moment on video and turned it into a campaign ad. But times are different. The current Democratic Party surge is fueled by a loathing of Trump and propelled, in part, by liberal activists seeking to push some older, longtime incumbent Democrats aside. Witness the House primary victories by Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York. As California has become even more Democratic and liberal since she was first elected to the Senate, Feinstein says she, too, has evolved. After being ridiculed last year for urging people to have patience with Trump, she has taken a harder line against him. In the spring of this election year, she said she no longer opposed legalization of marijuana. Further, she said that some years ago she came to the conclusion that the death penalty is unfair and began opposing it. But she didnt make that position public until a couple of weeks before the June primary. This is Feinsteins first time running for re-election against a Democrat in November, a dynamic created by the states relatively new top-two primary system. Dont count on her campaign running an ad of her apologizing to Kavanaugh. A University Heights man suspected of shooting a city employee who was working to restore water to his home allegedly said I dont care who you are with, before shooting the worker, a deputy district attorney said. Nathan Brogan, 79, pleaded not guilty Thursday to three felony charges, including attempted murder. He faces 34 years to life in prison if convicted of the charges against him. A San Diego Superior Court judge set bail at $1 million. The victim was a supervisor of a San Diegos Public Utilities Department crew that was in the area of Meade Avenue and New Jersey Street working to restore water service to a number of homes in the area, according to police and Deputy District Attorney Matthew Greco. Advertisement The 55-year-old employee, who was wearing safety gear, including an orange vest, approached the suspects home to ensure service had been restored, identifying himself in the process. Greco said the victim saw Brogan in the home and tried to call out to him, but the suspect disappeared. Soon after, Brogan allegedly emerged from his home toting a 12-gauge shotgun, Greco said. The victim again identified himself, to which Brogan allegedly said, I dont care... before shooting the employee. The shot shattered the victims humerus and injured his chest. A doctor at the hospital where the man was treated said if a nurse had not been in the area, the worker may have lost his arm, Greco said. Brogan told police later that he thought the worker was trying to break into his house. Brogan was jailed and eventually charged with attempted murder, assault with a firearm and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied vehicle. The broken pipe was a high-line, a temporary two-inch pipe installed above ground to keep the water service operating in nearby homes while water mains are replaced. Damaged high-lines are treated as emergencies. Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com Try as he might and hes tried countless times Rolly Crump just cant quit Disney. But his latest attempt may be the closest hes come. Earlier this year Crump had artifacts from nearly all of his lifes work auctioned off, a sale decades in the making that brought in more than $600,000. No surprise the items were in demand. In addition to having a hand as an assistant animator in the Disney films Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, Crumps resume just so happens to contain work on Its a Small World, the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Haunted Mansion, cornerstones of Anaheims Disneyland and pivotal works in American Pop art. Crump is one the most important designers in the development of early Disneyland and one of only a few surviving architects of the park who can speak directly to the intentions of its creator, Walt Disney. He also has a reputation as one of the parks most vocal critics, and for decades has offered blunt assessments of Disney designs as well as his former peers a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is artist who is offended at the suggestion that others would be offended by his critiques. At the same time, Crump is fiercely possessive of Disneylands ideals and believes strongly in the theme park as a place of living art. Advertisement To those outside the secretive walls of Walt Disney Imagineering WED Enterprises (for Walter Elias Disney) when Crump joined the division in 1959 the 88-year-old designers reputation is that of a rebel, a fierce protector of individual freedom in the complex world of corporate art. His office door was graced with a smoke marijuana poster, and hes been known to brag about driving his Porsche around Fantasyland when he served as Disneylands art director, one of his many roles during his numerous stints with the company. Retired Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump, 88, who was pivotal in the designs of many key Disneyland attractions. Crumps Disney window, displayed on Disneylands Main Street, U.S.A., is behind him. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) To this day Crump is heralded as co-leading what would be Disneylands greatest version of Tomorrowland, a sort of mod-like vision of future-past that opened in 1967. And the Disneyland Hotels wildly popular bar Trader Sams is steeped in the Crump influence, having being designed in his vision of tiki culture. He was also the creative force behind one of Disneys most storied never-built attractions, the Museum of the Weird. For me, hes one of the greats, says former Imagineer Tom Morris, who retired in 2016 after more than 35 years with Imagineering. I would mimic his artwork as a kid, not even knowing there was a Rolly Crump. There was just something I liked about the line work and the design of the tikis and the stage in Tomorrowland or parts of the Small World facade. I would just doodle those, and then later I found out Rolly was the guy who did all that, and I was like, He was a god. Wild and crazy days Yet Crump certainly didnt feel like a god during his initial stint at Imagineering the first of three, not including the occasional consulting gig after being hired as an animator at Disney when he was in his early 20s. Crump says he was later told by Ken Peterson, who was running the animation department when Crump arrived, that what you showed us was the worst portfolio of anyone ever hired in animation. Crumps love of all things Disney began early, as an adolescent in Santa Monica raised largely by a single mom a secretary for 20th Century Fox and whose daydreams were fueled by Disneys Silly Symphony cartoons. A photo from the personal collection of Rolly Crump shows him discussing the facade for Its a Small World with Walt Disney. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Its Crump, whose odd and wacky tendencies led to the Small World facade, where a clock with a goofy smile...is at once welcoming and mysterious. So he drew, and with nothing more than a high school portfolio Crump never attended college made his way into the Disney fold. At WED Enterprises, he would become somewhat close to Walt Disney, or as close, perhaps, as one could Crump to this day refers to him as the old man. But that came later. Crump says he spent his first three years as an Imagineer speaking nary a word to him. All I did was absorb, Crump says. I watched how everyone reacted to Walt, and the strengths and the weaknesses of the different guys. I studied Walt Disney and what it was like to work with him, but I wasnt participating until after three years. Thats when I started talking. I learned that if you show something to Walt, it has to be something he hasnt seen before. A beatnik about two decades younger than many of Disneys other well-known early Imagineers, Crump cites large-scale sculptor Louise Nevelson and activist, provocateur and jazz great Josephine Baker among his primary influences. Josephine was wild and crazy, Crump says, so naturally I was attracted to that. One of Rolly Crumps paintings of artist Josephine Baker. (Rolly Crump) Crumps own art could appear erratic. A diamond in the rough, Crump says is how a superior once described him his colorfully untamed drawings lacked the encompassing, epic-like feel of Claude Coats, whose skill at creating environments formed the backdrop of many of Disneys key attractions, or the exquisiteness of Marc Davis, who had a knack for crafting characters that felt alternately realistic and exaggerated. And yet its Crump whose odd and wacky tendencies led to the Small World facade, where a clock with a goofy smile, inspired by the drawings of Mary Blair, is at once welcoming and mysterious, a clear sign that visitors are somewhere other than the real world. Only Sleeping Beautys Castle more instantly says Disneyland. The thing that should be noted is Walt allowed all of these people to show their own style, says Morris. It wasnt a big corporate guidebook or style guide. Walt allowed there to be a Marc Davis style, a Claude Coats style, a Mary Blair style and Rolly Rolly is definitely one of the Disneyland styles. There were just these different styles that co-existed and that makes it more fun, Morris continued. Its an interpretation. It was not like, Here is the corporate stylebook and here is how it has to look because this is how it looked in the movie. Disneyland really had a handcrafted quality. The Rolly Crump-designed facade for Its a Small World, as it looked in the summer of 2017. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Decisions for what could end up in Disneyland could be made in a single meeting, says Crump. He recalls an afternoon with Disney and three or four other Imagineers to discuss a restaurant destined for Adventureland. A light tiki theme was planned, and John Hench, whom Crump cites as a mentor, suggested that there be stuffed birds throughout. Then Walt said, Disney does not stuff birds, John. Then someone else said, Theyre little mechanical birds. These are words in a little meeting, and this all of a sudden became the Tiki Room. For Crump, the conversation led to one of his biggest challenges, handed down by Disney himself. Walt said, If were going to have people waiting to go into this restaurant, I dont want people standing in line. Design some tikis that talk to people while they stand in line. That was my assignment. Weeks of research, aided by anthropologist Katharine Luomalas book Voices on the Wind, led Crump to the idea of tiki gods and goddesses Pele, a fire goddess, Hina Kaluua, a mistress of rain. I showed them to Walt and he said, These are great. Lets go with them. One problem: When Crump arrived at the model shop, Blaine Gibson, the parks go-to sculptor, told Crump no. Despite the assignment coming from Walt, Gibson didnt have time for Crumps project and was unmoved by Crumps pleas. I said, Well, then who will sculpt these? Blaine said, You will. Everything was so goddamn naive, says Crump. You just did what it took to do it. I used a plastic fork from the commissary to sculpt the clay on the tikis that ended up in Disneyland. Thats beautiful. Walt Disney, right, and Rolly Crump with a model of the Tower of the Four Winds, which accompanied It s a Small World for the 1964 World s Fair. (Walt Disney Company) After Walt That handcrafted quality described by Morris and epitomized by Crumps fork-sculpted tiki gods is what he repeatedly worries is disappearing from the parks. Since the death in 1966 of his idol, Walt Disney, Crumps relationship with the Disney corporation has been in flux. Crumps conflicted emotions only intensified in the years leading up to the opening of Floridas Walt Disney World in 1971. It had no feeling of Disney, Crump says of Floridas Magic Kingdom, noting it lacked the personal touch of animators trained in a hand-drawn craft. It was a lot of good architectural pieces, but I looked at that and thought to myself, What the hell is going on here? Disneyland has charm. Disneyland freaking hugs you and kisses you. He points to the height difference between Californias Sleeping Beauty Castle (77 feet) and Floridas Cinderella Castle as (189 feet) as an example of the change. When you go to Disney World and you see the castle, you want to genuflect ... and that disturbed me. Even so, he took part in the initial look of the Florida park. I helped design the rides at Disney World, but we lost the charm, he says. You cant have someone in charge that doesnt understand the look that Walt had the art was done by people in animation, and animation background painters. The whole thing fell apart. I quit. Disneyland has charm. Disneyland freaking hugs you and kisses you. Rolly Crump The colorfully decorated cane of Rolly Crump. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Of course, he didnt stay away long. Crump quit and went back numerous times, and even helped develop Walt Disneys Worlds Epcot, including a design for it that never came to be: Eptot, an area of Epcot that would be dedicated for young children. But when Disney died, so too did one of Crumps most personal projects the so-called Museum of the Weird that Disney championed and Crumps Imagineering peers did not. For Crump, its the one that got away. The idea began to germinate when he first started at WED and was assigned to work on a never-built Wizard of Oz-inspired area. He spent months with Disneys master illusionist Yale Gracey working out effects for the Haunted Mansion. Even now Crump can talk endlessly about his trippy take on a seance room for the Haunted Mansion, one that in his initial drawings contained a talking chair, a cauldron in a fireplace and demented, tarot-inspired flags. As Crump toyed with Mansion designs on and off over the years, breaking away for a time to work on Its a Small World for the 1964 Worlds Fair, his drawings increasingly emphasized the macabre a coffin that doubled as a grandfather clock, a doorway made of human bones, a woman dubbed the mistress of evil or a man-eating plant, the latter living on to inspire the Haunted Mansions wallpaper. During a presentation to Disney, Crump says his peers told him his ideas would be too weird for the old man. Crump says he arrived at WEDs offices the following morning to find Disney in his chair. The first thing he said to me was, You son of a bitch, Crump says. All that stuff you showed me yesterday? I couldnt sleep. Disney then declared to the staff, We have a Museum of the Weird now. The plan, says Crump, was to collect weird things from all over the world and bring them to Disneyland. Whether the Museum of the Weird would have ever become a reality depends on whom you ask. Yet longtime Imagineering leader Marty Sklar, who died last year, said in an interview in 2015 that if Disney had lived the Museum of the Weird would have found its way in the Mansion. But, says Crump, Management didnt like it. Walt passed, and he took the museum with him. No one else wanted to fool with it. Artists legacy Today, Crump is protective of his fellow artists designs. When he discusses the Haunted Mansion, he refers to it as belonging to Yale Gracey and when he talks about Its a Small World, its Marys ride. He says he has a number of Mary Blairs original drawings for the rides dolls, which he didnt auction. Those are priceless, Crump says. This is history. But Crump also has no patience for any additions or aspects to Its a Small World that deviate from Blairs work. I was given the job of kind of supervising Its a Small World, Crump says. I knew it was only going to work if everything looked like Mary Blair. As far as I was concerned, this is a Mary Blair ride. Crumps own legacy is preserved via a window on Disneylands Main Street, U.S.A. an honor reserved for those who were key in Disneylands evolution. Ask him about it and hell tear up. When I worked at the park, Id see the names on the windows, and they were all gods, Crump says. They were all old guys. Finally one day I became an old guy. That was a very special thing. But casually mention, say, the high-priced private Club 33, and prepare for a rant pretentious and stupid are among the printable words. No one is trying to keep charm in the park, and Ive had enough of it, Crump says of the Disneyland of 2018. This has been my whole life. Fall in love with Disneyland, and Disneyland can break your heart. Rolly Crump designed the tiki gods and goddesses for the Enchanted Tiki Room. (Paul Hiffmeyer / Disneyland) Which is partly why, despite Crumps tough talk about wanting to clear his home of his Disney artifacts It just became cumbersome, he says he ultimately wasnt prepared to say goodbye. He admits now that he tried to stop from crying when he saw his art boxed up while he sat at a dining room table. It really didnt hit me until they took it up to Los Angeles to have the auction, Crump says, sitting on the porch of the Carlsbad home owned by his wife, Marie Tocci. Hes still imposing today, his wide glasses and closely trimmed white beard hiding stern, forceful features. When that happened, I began to miss it. And when I went to the auction, it was a killer a killer. It was really emotionally scary. Before the auction at Van Eaton Galleries, which is quickly gaining a reputation as a wheeler and dealer of vintage Disney Crumps works were on display at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Crump says he debated donating many of the items instead to the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. And, says Crumps son, Christopher, 64, who followed in his fathers footsteps to work for Disney, There was talk of doing a traveling version of the exhibit, but dad, well, hes a control freak. It started to exhaust him. When this notion of selling everything came up, that sorted out a big question and a quandary of what he was going to do. The auction offered the sense of finality that Crump appears to have been after for much of the past 50 years. Ask him if he misses visiting Disneyland regularly, and he answers emphatically: No, no, no, no, no. Not anymore. Then he pauses, and says simply, The park is gone. Tomorrowland, as viewed from the now-defunct PeopleMover in July of 1967. Rolly Crump was a key architect in the 1967 Tomorrowland redesign. (Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA) While there most certainly is a theme park at 1313 Disneyland Drive in Anaheim Crump dismisses it as Stroller Park he views its current state the result of a battle hes long been fighting. When he expresses a frustration with the parks, its not due to a lack of desire to change. (And it needs to be noted that much in Disneys parks today are very much handcrafted and full of personality see Animal Kingdom in Florida, the massive, mountainous sculptures of Cars Land or the recently added evil beaver on the Disneyland Railroad.) What Crump laments is the obviously personal touch an attraction that clearly belongs to a specific artist more than it does a blockbuster film. That points to the question of what Imagineering did Rolly work for, says his son Christopher, who recently retired but returned to consult on the revamp of Paradise Pier into Pixar Pier at Anaheims California Adventure. If you wanted to think about his design philosophies and the guy he was youve seen the beatnik posters and what he calls the dope posters it was all counter-culture, and my dad dressed like a beatnik. But hes a nut. They were all nuts. This was a brand-new endeavor for most of them, Christopher continues. They were making this up as they went along and there was a lot of experimentation. It didnt matter if you hadnt done it before because nobody had done this before. Crumps outsider role was one he relished playing. This is a man, after all, who drew a naked and full-figured Rapunzel for Floridas Mr. Toads Wild Ride. And to help make ends meet while working at Disney, he sold what he calls his dopers, art prints that celebrated illicit drugs as if they were circus attractions. It was one such poster that Morris saw when given a tour of Imagineering in the 70s before going to work there full time. One of Rolly Crumps so-called dopers. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) He was newly returned to WED and I met him in his office, and it had a giant smoke marijuana poster on the front, says Morris. It was a big Disneyland-attraction-sized poster on his door, and I remember thinking, This is an unusual place. Remember, says his son, that the original Imagineers were artists who dont have to give a you-know-what about anything, people who say what they say because thats what they think. Thats dad. Hes not going to tailor his opinion to make someone feel good. Thats a byproduct of a particular time, and a time in which he was extremely prolific. So that part of him hasnt changed. Thats core Rolly. While Crumps art was more whimsically outlandish than what Disney was known for, emphasizing bold and brash colors and an offbeat sense of humor think work fit for a comic book, or better yet a tattoo it was far from rudimentary. And core Rolly had room for what some could perceive as imperfections. When it came to the Small World facade, Crump went above his boss, Richard Irvine, to go straight to Disney, as Irvine was seeking to have Davis redesign it. I showed the clock to Walt and Walt said, Thats good. Dick said, It doesnt have that European flavor. Im having Marc redesign it. Walt looked Dick straight in the eye and said, I like it the way it is. The old man backed me on so many damn things. Thats why so many people didnt like me. When Crump received his invite to become a Disney legend in 2004, he trashed the envelope, believing the company honor had become more about celebrity rather than saluting those who have shaped Disney history. But he went, largely at the urging of his son and Imagineering executive Sklar. And then he proceeded to choke up onstage. Thats my dad, says Christopher. Hell say, Im not going to that goddamn thing, Then he always goes to that goddamn thing. Yet theres no denying theres a sense of visible relief in Crump no longer being surrounded by his decades of Disney and personal work. Months before Disneyland opens what will be the largest expansion in its history 14 acres dedicated solely to Star Wars Crump simply hopes we dont lose sight of what Disneyland once was, a place, in the words of his son, designed by nuts. A plaque from the personal collection of Rolly Crump. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) I was part of all this stuff that had never been done before, Crump says. Im proud of that. I feel real good about that. I knew what we were doing was very special, and I knew that we were the best. He then recalls one of his proudest moments, and it occurred at Club 33 yes, the very place he dismissed as pretentious. Shortly after Tomorrowlands revamp opened in 1967, Crump took the staff out to celebrate. We had a big lunch at the 33 club, Crump says. Roy Disney was there. Roy Disney came up to me and he said, Are you Rolly Crump? I said, Yes, sir. I am. ' He said, My brother used to talk about you. This is when Crumps smile widens, a grin as big as a kid discovering a Silly Symphony for the first time. I just thought, Thats cool. ALSO Meet Disneys philosopher king: the brain behind Avatars Pandora and Marvels Guardians ride Digging up the ghosts of Disneylands Haunted Mansion ride This is your brain on Disneyland: A Disney addicts quest to discover why he loves the parks so much Two Bit Circus will bring an indoor game-focused theme park to downtown Los Angeles Todd.Martens@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter: @toddmartens Arbys boasts, We have the meats, now Minnesota cops say, We have our guy. On Thursday, Usindini Colling-Harper was charged with criminal defamation, public nuisance and disorderly conduct after admitting to cops that he manipulated a signboard outside one of the roast beef chains restaurants to produce the derogatory message: NOW HIRING N------ AND W-----. Cops in Brooklyn Center, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, announced it had identified the suspect who manipulated the sign in the early hours of Sept. 1. During an interview, Colling-Harper confessed to creating the obscene message. Police asserted the suspect was not employed by the restaurant. Advertisement An untold number of shocked motorists driving past the restaurant last week witnessed the sign before one cop spotted it and took down the filthy lettering, according to Minneapolis affiliate WCCO-TV. Colling-Harper might have inadvertently tipped police to being the perpetrator after a criminal complaint revealed he was the first person to post a photo of the altered sign on social media. During his interview, the complaint asserted he changed the lettering because he was bored while waiting for a bus and thought it would be funny. A representative of the affected Armys claimed it had to disconnect its phones due to threats and perpetual harassment from the community while others expressed their fury by shouting into the drive-through intercom. FARGO, N.D. Authorities say a south Fargo daycare provider has been shut down after being charged with child neglect. KVLY-TV reports that Cass County Social Services were called for a welfare check at the home of Richelle Ulmer on July 27. Court documents show that Ulmer, who was outside with a child, was stumbling, slurring her words and smelled of alcohol. Social workers found two empty beer cans in the trash can, and an almost empty wine cooler bottle. Investigators say a child reported that Ulmer had at one time passed out on the kitchen floor and the kids couldnt wake her up, which caused food to burn in the oven. Advertisement Ulmer is facing one count of child neglect. Her public defender, Ashley Schell, did not return a message seeking comment. TACOMA, Wash. A gunman in body armor stormed an auto dealer Thursday night, setting off a hostage situation and a gunfight with police that ended with the suspect in custody. The Pierce County Sheriffs Office said the suspect was hit once in the vest by a round fired by a deputy during the shootout at Sky Motors Inc. in Parkland. No deputies or officers were injured. Body armor taken off suspect. Confirmed suspect was hit once in the vest by a round fired by our deputies, is being evaluated by medics but no serious injuries. No deputies or officers injured, no hostages injured, no bystanders injured. pic.twitter.com/Yns1AjvFE4 Pierce Co Sheriff (@PierceSheriff) September 7, 2018 Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said the suspect entered auto dealer at about 8 p.m. local time and held four people at gunpoint. Advertisement When officers arrived, three people ran out of the building and the suspect pulled one person into a back room, Pastor said. A short time later that person ran outside. Pastor said the man had fired shots throughout the incident but no one was injured. He said the incident likely involved an armed robbery attempt that went wrong. The state police, FBI, and members of other police agencies assisted the sheriffs office. With News Wire Services Brazils leading presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, was stabbed during a rally Thursday afternoon, according to local media reports. The attack was confirmed on Twitter by his son, Flavio, who said his fathers injuries were only superficial. He said the far-right candidate is recovering in the hospital. Bolsonaro was meeting with voters in the city of Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais when he was knifed in the abdomen, according to media reports. Advertisement A suspect is in custody, officials said. Brazils President Michel Temer addressed the attack during an event in Brasilia, saying the intolerance that theres been in Brazilian society is unacceptable. He is expected to win about 19% of the vote, according to election polls. Brazil will hold general elections in October. With News Wire Services Dramatic video shot in Chandler, Ariz., shows a woman, claiming to have been raped by a Mormon missionary leader in the 1980s, storming his church on Sept. 2 and shouting to his congregation that church leaders were protecting a sexual predator. McKenna Denson, 55, who lives in Colorado, walked into the Mormon church of Joseph Bishop, who oversaw hundreds of young adults as president of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, in the 1980s. She approached the podium under the pretense of speaking about spirituality. But she used the pulpit to address the congregants about Bishop. In order to keep the church safe, we need to hold sexual predators accountable, whether they are pedophiles or whether they are rapists like Joseph Bishop, Denson said. Advertisement At this point, an unidentified man attempted to grab her shoulders. Denson then asked the congregation to call the police before scolding the man touching her for invading her personal space. The man then said, This is not the place for you to share this. Come on. Thats when Denson left. Last December, she created a secret recording during a visit with Bishop, now 85, in which he is heard apologizing to Denson but not specifying why. Denson claims the church has failed to punish Bishop over the past three decades despite her repeated assault claims. Church members have told her Bishop has denied the charges and her allegations cant be verified. A mother and her 3-year-old son who survived an attack by a female giraffe just after she gave birth to a calf remain hospitalized in South Africa, where the incident took place. Three-year-old Finn Williams is in critical condition and has reportedly suffered from traumatic brain injury. Both Finn and his mother, Dr. Katy Williams, remain sedated, according to a press release put out by the family Friday. The pair was attacked Monday about 150 yards from their family home, according to their lawyer. Katys husband, Dr. Sam Williams, was able to chase the giraffe away from his loved ones. Advertisement Doctors operated on Katy Wednesday evening and say she is in stable condition. The operation was successful and she needs to be given time to heal, the press release reads. Katy, a Baltimore native, met her husband in 2003, in Indonesia, and has since lived in the United Kingdom and visited Honduras, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where she studies wildlife. Sam is in the same line of work. We are very aware of how wild animals behave and how we should behave around them, he said. We also realize with all the knowledge that anyone can have, wild animals remain unpredictable as this tragic event has once again shown. Sam said he is grateful that the giraffe will be moved with her calf, and will not be destroyed as a result of the incident. I have no doubt this is what Katy would want, he said. Sam says hes doing his best to remain upbeat and optimistic. I realize that even if things go well, we still have a long, hard road to recovery ahead of us, but I am hoping that we can one day go back to throwing rocks into the river together and have bedtime snuggles. The family has asked for privacy while they recover from the incident. San Diego officials have selected a longtime local healthcare provider to operate the citys new homeless intake center, a universal starting point where the homeless can connect to counseling, housing assistance and other services. Family Health Centers of San Diego, which operates more than a dozen local clinics geared for low-income residents, was selected over four other nonprofits that applied to run the center when it opens as early as this fall. The nonprofit, which was founded 48 years ago in Barrio Logan, would receive $1.55 million each year for five years if the City Council approves the selection later this month. While Father Joes Villages, Alpha Project and some other local nonprofits have worked with the homeless in more high-profile ways, city and Housing Commission officials decided Family Health Centers was the right choice. Advertisement We have a population that needs a great deal of engagement in order to successfully move back into housing, and Family Health Centers has been working with people experiencing homelessness for many years now, said Lisa Jones, a Housing Commission vice president. They also have high levels of training and staff skill in case management and outreach and engagement with people experiencing homelessness, Jones said. We think they are very well positioned to do this type of work and be able to engage a clientele that may be disenfranchised. The intake center has been touted by Mayor Kevin Faulconer for nearly two years as a key fix for one of the biggest flaws in San Diegos regional care network: a universal starting point to serve every homeless person in the city. The large number of nonprofits, government agencies, churches and other organizations trying to help the homeless has increased the need for a clear starting point, the mayor has said. The primary goal is directing homeless people into housing, job training, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and other services. The center has not, however, been embraced by all homeless advocates. Some say the money -- $7 million for the downtown site plus $1.5 million annually for operations could be better spent on permanent housing solutions. Michael McConnell, former vice president of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, said the intake center is another example of how the citys approach to homelessness lacks coordination. How does this fit into a larger strategy or plan, and what is that larger strategy or plan -- because there doesnt really appear to be any, McConnell said. He has also criticized three large tented shelters the city opened in the wake of last years hepatitis crisis, and a new downtown storage facility where the homeless can put their belongings. It feels like the same approach they did with the storage facility and tents and everything else, he said. How does this actually make the system better by getting more people out of homelessness? Bob McElroy, chief executive of the Alpha Project, said the intake center wont be a game changer for local homelessness, but he expects it to become another important resource. Its a place for them to get signed up, get in the system and get information about services that are out there, McElroy said. Any resource out there right now is a good resource, because we all know there is not enough low-income housing in San Diego. McElroy also said Family Health Centers is a solid choice for the intake center, praising the organization and Chief Executive Officer Fran Butler-Cohen. Theyve been my partner for 28 years, he said. Everywhere we go, they go. Theyre well aware of the challenges of the population and theyre good at it. The intake center operating agreement with Family Health Centers is scheduled for City Council approval on Sept. 18. Jones, the Housing Commission vice president, said Family Health Centers is expected to launch $300,000 worth of renovations and upgrades roughly two weeks after that. We are hoping it will open in late fall to early winter if all the stars align, she said. The site, located at 1401 Imperial Avenue, was previously an indoor skydiving facility that went bankrupt. Some in the real estate industry have said the city overpaid for the site. Others have said its ill-suited as an intake center because its dominated by two three-story wind turbines and associated air tunnels. Jones said the 26,000-square-foot site also includes many areas ideal for meetings rooms and counseling areas. The site also has space for satellite offices for other homeless services providers, the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs, the Department of Motor Vehicles and other agencies. Jones said the mayors office is now exploring such partnerships for the intake center. The agreement with Family Health Centers includes evaluations of the nonprofits success, including how many people they see. But Jones said the deal calls for a third-party consultant to add criteria after the center has been operating. One of the things weve learned from the bridge shelters is that we have to understand the population were working with before we start setting program targets and outcomes, Jones said. The pact requires Family Health Centers to operate the intake center, officially called a housing navigation center, seven days a week with reduced hours on weekends. Family Health Centers operates medical clinics in Chula Vista, Lemon Grove, El Cajon and in San Diego neighborhoods including Mission Beach, City Heights, Hillcrest and North Park. The other organizations that responded to the Housing Commissions request for proposals were Father Joes Villages, People Assisting the Homeless, Bay Area Community Services and Mental Health Systems, Inc. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick San Diegos Neighborhood Watch program will get a boost this fall from a new city effort to make it cheaper, faster and easier to install painted aluminum signs announcing the presence of such groups. Police officials say the goals of the streamlined sign policy, which the City Council is scheduled to approve this month, are helping Neighborhood Watch grow and alerting potential criminals they are in an area with vigilant residents. While studies have come to conflicting conclusions about the effectiveness of Neighborhood Watch, San Diego police officials say they consider the program one of the most effective ways the city fights crime in its communities. It has truly been a force multiplier for eyes and ears on the street, Capt. Kevin Mayer told the City Councils Public Safety Committee last month. Advertisement But in the absence of a formal sign program with established procedures and funding sources, even the most active and long-standing Neighborhood Watch groups have struggled to install the roughly $40 signs that are a key to their success. Councilwoman Barbara Bry, who made supplying Neighborhood Watch signs a priority after taking office in late 2016, said it took her about six months to secure signs for the individual communities that had active groups worthy of them. The process we went through to buy the signs is so convoluted, she said. It was unbelievable. In response to complaints from Bry and many others, the Police Department is proposing a streamlined set of procedures for groups to follow, and creating designated accounts to collect donations, grants and contributions from councilmember community budgets. Barbara Gellman, a longtime block captain in University City, said last week that shes upbeat about the streamlined approach as long as people realize theres more to Neighborhood Watch than just putting up a sign. I think its a good thing as long as people understand you cant just call and get a sign, you have to have your program in effect, Gellman said. To form a group, neighbors must attend a one-hour meeting at a school, church or other community venue with a Police Department community relations officer, and then formally register their group with the department. While subsequent meetings are typically held about once a year, most of a typical groups communications with residents and police officials takes place on email chains or the Nextdoor social media site. If there is a problem going on, like a rash of break-ins on a certain street, you can post that on Nextdoor so the neighbors know about it and theyre on the lookout, Gellman said. The areas community relations officer will also share with block captains any recent crime trends, specific concerns for that neighborhood and suspicious things to look out for. It makes the neighborhood more aware -- more observant, Gellman said. Working in partnership with our police, people learn what to look for and they learn to report when they see something suspicious. For details, go to sandiegoneighborhoodwatch.com. In addition to fighting crime, Neighborhood Watch groups also foster tighter connections among residents, she said. People dont always know their neighbors and this is one way to get to know them, and then you know who the strangers are, Gellman said. Cementing a relationship with your neighbors is really important. Bry agreed, adding that she helped establish a group in her neighborhood years ago. I think Neighborhood Watch is one of the best ways we have of building community, she said. It really does bring people together. Councilwoman Georgette Gomez agreed, saying Neighborhood Watch fits with the kind of community policing she has lobbied the department to prioritize. But Gomez said shes concerned residents in her district, where incomes are among the lowest in the city and crime rates are relatively high, may not take advantage of the new opportunity without outreach efforts by local police. National studies vindicate her concerns. A 2002 study by the National Institute of Justice said the primary problem found by the evaluations is that the areas with highest crime rates are the most reluctant to organize. The study said part of the problem is that neighbors in those areas distrust each other and law enforcement. That study also concluded there is no evidence that Neighborhood Watch is effective, stressing that the middle-income neighborhoods where its popular typically already have low crime rates. But a 2008 analysis by the U.S. Justice Department concluded that citizen policing programs were associated with a significant reduction in crime, with a 16 percent decrease in crime in Neighborhood Watch communities when compared with control areas. That study noted, however, that the results of evaluations are mixed and show that some programs work well while others appear to work less well or not at all. Gomez said shed like a map of all the Neighborhood Watch groups in her district and across the city so officials can try to foster groups in areas where they are missing and needed. Police officials said there are nearly 1,400 active Neighborhood Watch groups in the city, but that they havent mapped them. Gomez also suggested that making technology so integral to the program could be a barrier for many of her districts residents, who cant afford computers or high-speed internet. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick A man wearing a parachute BASE-jumped from a crane in the East Village Friday and floated several hundred feet to the ground where he landed unharmed, police said. A security guard at the Pinnacle in the Park building at 15th and J streets called police shortly before 1 a.m. to report that a person was trespassing, said San Diego police Sgt. Michael Stirk. The guard told police that the man was well up the crane, that he had a parachute and was preparing to jump. Officers arrived and a police helicopter hovered at the scene as officers used a loudspeaker to tell the man not to jump, Stirk said. The man ignored orders and jumped from the crane, which towered at least 480 feet above the street. Advertisement Police identified the BASE jumper Friday afternoon as 28-year-old Nicholas Miljenko Marinkovic. He landed mostly unscathed about a block away on Market Street. He was taken to a hospital for a medical issue unrelated to his contact with officers, according to police. It was a pre-existing condition, Stirk said. Marinkovic was cited and released by police for trespassing and delaying a peace officer, Stirk said in an email. A Facebook page appearing to belong to Marinkovic featured videos, photos and other posts about BASE jumping, including one that showed him jumping off Twin Falls, Idahos Perrine Bridge the only bridge in the country where it legal to BASE jump the entire year. According to WHIO-TV7 in Dayton, Ohio, Marinkovic was arrested in that state in 2012 along with another man for allegedly trespassing on private property to go on a 250-foot tower they apparently planned to jump off. I was trying to jump off something because I love to do it, Marinkovic reportedly told a television reporter outside an Ohio jail, adding that he planned to jump from a cell tower in Montgomery County. A witness who identified himself as Twelve Trillyen of San Diego said he saw the man jump from the crane. Police confiscated a parachute used by a man who jumped from a 480-foot crane in the East Village. (San Diego News Video) I was just standing right here at my house and I was wondering what was going on, he told San Diego News Video. I thought Batman came flying or something. The witness said he thought the man was really brave to make the leap. It scared me so I had to come check on him. I thought he was about to die or something, he said. Luckily hes OK . Stirk said the man was cited for trespassing and was released. Its not yet clear whether the City Attorneys Office will charge him with a crime. Police confiscated the parachute. The act of BASE jumping refers to using a parachute or a wingsuit to leap off a fixed structure. BASE is an acronym that stands for each of the categories of objects people jump from: buildings, antennae, spans and earth, such as a cliff. Staff writer Alex Riggins and City News Service contributed to this report. dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @danalittlefield UPDATES: 5 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about Marinkovic. This article was originally published at 7:20 a.m. Sheriffs detectives on Friday were investigating a shooting that left a man dead in Lemon Grove, authorities said. Dispatchers received reports shortly after midnight of a shooting on Pacific Avenue near West Street, San Diego County sheriffs Lt. Rich Williams said. Sheriffs deputies arrived at the scene and found a man lying next to a parked vehicle with at least one gunshot wound, Williams said. Paramedics attempted to revive the man, whose name was withheld pending family notification, but he died at the scene. Advertisement The circumstances leading up to the shooting were under investigation. No suspect descriptions were immediately available. Homicide detectives were called to the scene and were investigating the incident. A 35-year-old man was shot and wounded by someone inside a car during an argument Thursday night in a North Park alley, police said. The gunfire was reported at 5:14 p.m. in the alley between Utah and Kansas streets, just north of Polk Avenue and about two blocks west of the Vons shopping center on 30th Street, San Diego police Officer Robert Heims said. The victim was apparently standing in the alley when a sedan pulled up next to him and the argument erupted, Heims said. The front passenger shot the victim and the car sped away south toward Polk Avenue. Medics took the victim to a hospital with gunshot wounds to his buttocks and arm, Heims said. The injuries were not expected to be life-threatening. Advertisement Several people witnessed portions of the argument and shooting and were helping police piece together what happened, Lt. Mike Ramsay told OnScene TV. But detectives were not immediately able to interview the victim because of his injuries, so it was unclear what sparked the argument. Witnesses described the suspect vehicle as a white or silver Infiniti-style sedan, but gave vague descriptions of the possible gunman, Ramsay said. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com UPDATES: 8:20 p.m.: This article and its headline were updated with additional details. This article was originally published at 6:15 p.m. One of President Trumps top fundraisers became increasingly violent and disturbing over the course of a lengthy extramarital affair with a former Playboy playmate that ended in a hush-money deal after he impregnated her, according to claims from the womans lawsuit that was unsealed Friday. Shera Bechard, who was Playmate of the Month in November 2010, sued financier Elliott Broidy of Beverly Hills in July, saying Broidy had ceased making payments on the $1.6 million he vowed to pay for her silence. The unsealed portions of Bechards suit include intimate claims of her affair with Broidy, including allegations that he began to physically hurt her during sex toward the end of their relationship. The two began their affair after meeting in a restaurant in 2013, according to Bechards suit. Broidy was obsessed with playmates and promised to financially support her. Beginning in 2016, Broidy became more possessive of Bechard, insisting that she be financially dependent on him and commanded no other man touch her, according to the lawsuit. Advertisement During their relationship, Bechard alleges in her suit, he became increasingly derogatory toward women and began touching her in ways to which she did not consent. Bechard alleges that on the night of Sept. 24, 2017, Broidy pushed her into drinking excessively so that she would be more compliant toward his physical abuse. The suit claims that was the night she was impregnated. Broidy insisted on not using condoms, according to the suit. Broidy initially supported Bechard having the baby but later demanded she get an abortion, the suit alleges. Bechard also claimed that her former attorney, Keith Davidson, deceived her about the terms of the nondisclosure agreement that he negotiated last year with Broidys lawyer, Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of Trump. The new unredacted portions of the suit also reveal that Bechard felt threatened by Davidson into having an abortion. When she informed him that she planned on keeping the child, he went ballistic and told her she had to get an abortion because that is how these deals work, the suit alleges. Paul Berra, an attorney for Davidson, denied those claims. The idea that Mr. Davidson pressured Ms. Bechard to have an abortion is preposterous, he said. That was her decision alone, as was her decision to accept a $1.6-million settlement. Ms. Bechard should be offended that her attorneys, or anyone else, would suggest otherwise. Broidy, who has acknowledged having an extramarital affair with Bechard, has given her $400,000. But in a July 1 story in the Wall Street Journal, an attorney for Broidy said that he would not pay the remaining $1.2 million because the existence of the pact had been leaked. The suit was originally filed under seal though a version with redactions was made public later that month. A judge on Friday denied a motion by Broidy to seal the suit and instead ordered the full unredacted lawsuit unsealed Friday. We will continue to fight Ms. Bechards false and disgusting attempts to malign Mr. Broidys character and embarrass him publicly, and will seek appropriate relief from all who have violated the settlement agreement including plaintiffs attorney, said Jessica Stebbins Bina, an attorney for Broidy. Broidy has long been one of the Republican Partys top fundraisers in California. He was founder and chairman of Markstone Capital Partners, a private equity fund. But he got caught in 2009 paying kickbacks and pleaded guilty in New York to a felony, which was reduced to a misdemeanor after he cooperated with prosecutors. Broidy said in a statement that he would vigorously defend myself against these false and defamatory allegations. This person tried to extract money from me by making up false, malicious and disgusting allegations. I have acknowledged making the mistake of having an affair, and I entered a confidential agreement to protect my familys privacy, he said. I honored my agreement until her lawyer breached it. Updates on California politics javier.panzar@latimes.com Twitter: @jpanzar UPDATES: 5:20 p.m. This article was updated with a denial from Keith Davidsons lawyer and a statement from Elliott Broidy. This article was originally published at 1:55 p.m. San Diego County water officials have long been at odds with their counterparts in Los Angeles, who control millions of gallons imported every day into the southwest corner of California. But a new dispute has broken out between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and its member agency, the San Diego County Water Authority -- and its not about the wet stuff. Instead, lawyers for both sides are fighting over what qualifies as a public record. Attorneys for the San Diego water agency want to know how Metropolitan calculated its rates and other charges. They requested planning documents under the California Public Records Act, or CPRA, but officials in Los Angeles denied the request. Advertisement San Diego water managers took their case to court but lost. They appealed to a higher court and lost again. Now they have sued the superior court in San Francisco that denied the initial lawsuit, filing a petition last week with the California Supreme Court. The ratepayers in Southern California -- with a population and economy that exceeds many nations -- are now effectively prevented from obtaining a functioning Excel spreadsheet Metropolitan uses to calculate its rates and charges, the Supreme Court filing states. The fact that this happens without a full appellate decision on the merits should not be allowed to stand. Metropolitan Water District spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said the agency conducted an open and transparent rate-setting process that included numerous disclosures and multiple budget workshops. She said lawmakers and courts properly interpreted the rules.. The California Legislature has decided that computer software developed by a local agency is not a public record, Kimitch wrote in an email. The court correctly found that the formulas and programming code at issue are computer software developed by Metropolitan. The formula itself is not at issue. The San Diego County Water Authority already received the records as part of a separate lawsuit challenging Metropolitan water rates. Spokesman Mike Lee said the information should be available to the public at large. We believe that our ratepayers have a right to know that information and we are seeking it on their behalf as one of MWDs largest customers, he said in an email. Theres an important precedent at issue here as well: Theres a significant risk that if MWD is allowed to hide its ratemaking calculations, other agencies statewide will take a similar stand, thereby undermining the PRA. The petition from the San Diego County Water Authority, which represents two dozen water systems in the region, is specifically asking the state Supreme Court to resolve two questions raised by the Los Angeles water districts legal maneuvers. First, it wants to resolve whether an appellate court can deny a writ petition brought under the state open-records law without the benefit of oral arguments when there is no alternate method for judicial review. Second, the petition asks if information entered into a public water agency Excel spreadsheet is a disclosable public record or computer software developed by the agency and not subject to release. San Diego water officials say they were wrongly denied a hearing and the act of data-entry does not equate to protected software. The use of summary denials in CPRA cases undermines the legislative intent behind writ review, undermines important rights of the requestor and narrowly interprets the CPRAs right to appellate review in violation of the California constitution, the petition states. And information entered into an Excel spreadsheet is not transferred into exempt computer software, it asserts. Metropolitan officials dispute those statements. In court papers, the agency said the information was exempt from disclosure as a proprietary software program developed by Metropolitan that contains nondisclosable formulas and programming code. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Project on Government Oversight both filed briefs with the appeals court urging judges to conduct a hearing before rendering a decision on the San Diego County Water Authoritys petition, the 37-page Supreme Court filing states. But the appellate judges summarily denied the petition on Aug. 24. Terry Francke of Californians Aware, a Sacramento area open-government nonprofit, said the dispute between the two water agencies exposed a weakness in how the public-records law is enforced. I dont know which is more alien to the Public Records Act -- the superior courts acceptance of the idea that a government agency can hide the formulas it uses to arrive at fees and charges, or the Court of Appeals refusal to hear a challenge to that novel notion, he said. Anyone curious about how a public agency arrived at a particular rate or charge could be denied that information under this theory, he said. Itd be like being told the information is a trade secret. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the San Diego County Water Authority have been locked in litigation over wholesale water supplies and rates charged to the San Diego agency -- and passed onto the public -- for much of the past decade. It was not immediately clear whether or when the Supreme Court will decide the case. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald For years, the International Boundary and Water Commission the binational agency that oversees the boundary and water treaties of the United States and Mexico essentially has shrugged when it comes to the vast amount of raw sewage, industrial waste and trash that fouls San Diego County beaches because of contaminated runoff from the Tijuana River. Those running the commission may want to do the right thing, but they cant get the hefty financial commitment from their national governments thats needed to fix broken sewage infrastructure on the Tijuana side of the border. Now, finally, momentum is building with the potential to force Washington and Mexico City to respond to this crisis, which has closed local beaches more than 500 days over the past three years. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over its failure to address its environmental responsibilities. This is in addition to a similar lawsuit filed by Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego and to one filed by the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. For various reasons, the county and the city of San Diego have so far not joined in already-filed lawsuits or filed their own suits. This passivity must end. It sends mixed signals about the problems severity, and it could encourage the Trump administration and Congress to continue to do nothing. Please, Mayor Kevin Faulconer, City Council members and county supervisors: Lets get on with it. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Advertisement Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Its rare that a bill about the often-contentious issue of education unites factions so often at odds, but legislation Gov. Jerry Brown signed Friday that banned for-profit charter schools was just such a bill. Supporters included the California Federation of Teachers, the Association of California School Administrators, the California School Boards Association, and the California Charter Schools Association, which represents the schools with the vast majority of the states 630,000 charter students. The groups had various motives for backing Assembly Bill 406. The charter association was tired of responding to myths that charter schools are all about making money when nearly all are nonprofits, and the other groups were worried about the relative few for-profit charters inadequate record on transparency and record-keeping. The biggest offender appears to be K12, a for-profit national charter school operator that has paid the state $10.5 million in fines and settlements since 2015 because of dubious financial practices, overpayment of supervisors and inflated claims of attendance, which led to higher payments from Californias treasury. Brown vetoed a similar bill in 2015, partly because of concerns about ambiguous language that might create headaches for nonprofit charters that use for-profit vendors. His signature Friday was a sign this bill was better crafted. For-profit charters that cut corners and give the charter school movement a bad name were a real distraction. Good riddance. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Advertisement Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion UPDATES: 3:27 p.m.: This editorial was updated to reflect that Gov. Jerry Brown had just signed Assembly Bill 406. Last month, CraftBeer.com heres a six-pack salute to this sterling site asked 20 brewers: Which American brewery are they dying to visit? While no San Diego brewers were consulted, two San Diego breweries were cited. Joe Dinan of Sanctuary Brewery in Hendersonville, N.C., has his sights set on Modern Times: They have a number of locations, so I would choose the Modern Times Fortress of Raditude, a barrel-aging spot in San Diego. Adam Woodson at The Damascus Brewery in Damascus, Va., chose Coronado Brewing: Every beer I have had from them has been exceptional and flawless at the same time. Their collaboration beer with Cigar City called Jurata is probably one of my favorite beers to this day. Its dark, but not overly roasted or bitter just good! No one asked me, but Im hankering to tour Hill Farmstead, the cult brewery in Greensboro Bend, Vt., and spend a night at Old St. Francis School in Bend, Ore. The latter is a 1936 schoolhouse transformed into a hotel equipped with soaking pool, movie theater, pub and, yes, brewery. Advertisement To read more from Peter Rowes weekly beer column, go here. A Twin Peaks eighth grader had the opportunity to attend a prestigious music camp this summer thanks to his orchestra teacher. Creston Marien, 13, attended the Mark OConnor Summer Music Camp in Charlotte, North Carolina with Ulli Reiner, who is the orchestra instructor for several middle schools in the Poway Unified School District. Marien also studies the violin with Reiner privately and with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, which Reiner conducts as well. He began with the Twin Peaks Middle School Advanced Orchestra this year. He has been playing the violin for five years, he said. Reiner attends the camp each summer and usually recommends a student to attend it with her, she said. This year, she suggested that Marien attend. We were automatically interested, said Sarah Marien-Skolnik, Mariens mother, who also plays the violin and accompanied Marien to the camp. Creston comes from a musical family and is interested in bluegrass. Marien-Skolniks husband, Ron Skolnik, and Crestons younger brother, Cameron Marien, also accompanied them to the camp. The week-long camp featured 130 students along with 20 faculty members, ranging in age from 4 to 75 years old, according to a press release from Reiner. The students, including Marien, engaged in solo classes, jam sessions, orchestra classes, daily recitals and an all-camp orchestra, conducted by Reiner. Electives were offered in musical improvisation and playing jazz, dance, Celtic and Irish music. The orchestra and jam sessions were my favorite, said Marien. It was amazing playing with so many other people. It wasnt intimidating, just fun. Marien said it was also amazing that there were so many people at the camp to make music. This was the first time Marien had attended a music camp, he added. At the end of the camp, the students all performed together in a performance that began with the most complicated music and worked its way down in difficulty, with musicians joining in as they were able. The big performance at the end of camp was really cool, Marien said. It was a pretty amazing experience, said Marien-Skolnik. It was Crestons first experience learning bluegrass music. I think its really cool to have a camp like this. Marien said he previously had mostly performed classical violin pieces but is interested in pursuing bluegrass more in the future. Though she did not join in the performing this year, Marien-Skolnik said she would like to bring her family back next year and attend as a student herself. I think if more people knew about it, more Poway students would sign up to attend (the camp), she added. Email: news@pomeradonews.com Don your favorite tropical shirt and head over to Rancho Bernardo Community Park next weekend for a Hawaiian luau. The Ed Brown Center for Active Adults is holding a luau fundraiser from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 at the center. Tickets are $25, available through Wednesday by calling 858-486-9324 on weekdays or stopping by the center at 18448 W. Bernardo Drive. Wed love to have 150 people there as it will (financially) help significantly and the more people there the more fun it is going to be, said EBC Board President Lynn Wolsey. She said this is the third year the center has hosted a luau because it is a popular theme and everybody loves a luau. Duke Qseng is in charge of the event and planning to cook an authentic Hawaiian meal that includes a kalua pig, macaroni salad and dessert. The food will be authentic, plentiful and tasty, Wolsey said, adding there will be a no-host bar featuring wine and Hawaiian beers. Cool Breeze will perform island music and bring Hawaiian dancers to entertain attendees. The centers dance instructor, Mel Carrillo, will also teach those present how to dance the hula and local stand-up comedian Paul Gorman will perform, she said. The nonprofit organization based in Rancho Bernardo Community Park offers 35 classes and activities each week to its 350 members to keep them healthy, active and connected to life, Wolsey said. While predominantly utilized by seniors, membership is open to anyone 18 and older. We have a program for the disabled, she said. You do not need to be over 50. If you need our services, you can become a member, whether 18 or 88. Wolsey said the center tries to host a few fundraisers throughout the year since it operates on a shoestring budget. The center is located in a city-owned building, but not financially supported by the city, which recently renovated the building. Work included installing a new roof, repainting throughout, two new air conditioners and refurbishing a third, and placing solar panels above a section of the parking lot and behind the building. Wolsey said the latter provides shade to the centers patio, creating a beautiful, area that is shaded, cool and breezy. Its just lovely. Email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com After several days of coolish weather, San Diego will experience a brief warm spell over the weekend as temperatures rise 5 to 10 degrees above average from the inland valleys all the way to the coast, says the National Weather Service. Forecasters say downtown San Diego will reach the low-to-mid 80s, with Saturday being the hottest day. The inland valleys will report highs in the low-to-mid 90s. The regions deserts will reach the 105-115 degree range. San Diego International Airport has received only 3.34 inches of precipitation since the rainy season began on October 1st a figure thats about 7 inches below average. But forecasters say a wildfire warning isnt likely to be issued because air temperatures wont be super-hot, the relative humidity will be reasonable, and strong Santa Ana winds are not expected. Advertisement Even so, firefighters will be watching for any sign of smoke in East County, where the vegetation is dry. At the coast, sea surface temperatures are continuing to fall after they experienced one of the greatest rises in decades. On Friday afternoon, the water at Solana Beach was 74. It was 71 further south, in Mission Beach. Solana Beach hit 81 in August. On Saturday, the surf will be in the 2-foot to 3-foot range in South County and North County. The surf will rise about a foot on Sunday. The surf will pick up a little bit on Monday and Tuesday. But a major swell is not imminent. Snorkeling conditions in La Jolla Cove will be reasonably good on Saturday and Sunday. Forecasters say a cooling trend will begin late Sunday or early Monday and last into mid-week. NOAAs long term forecast suggests that the region will be warmer than average Sept. 11-17. If skies are clear, people will be able to briefly see the International Space Station fly over the region on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, says NASA. The first sighting opportunity will begin at 6:02 a.m. on Sunday when the space station will be visible for six minutes, which is uncommonly long. The orbiter will be moving from low on the northwest horizon to low in the southeast, NASA says. On Monday, the space station will be visible for five minutes, starting at 5:11 a.m. The orbiter will be moving from low in the North-Northwest to low in the East-Southwest. The space station orbits earth at 17,000 miles at an average attitude of 240 miles. It looks like a shiny ball bearing as it moves across the sky. 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. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/06/2018 -- The Iraq Healthcare (surgical Procedures) Market is foreseen to be immensely competitive and fragmented because of the large presence of various medical and healthcare suppliers and manufacturers, on both regional and global level. Key players in the Iraq market including suppliers and manufacturers, both are, Albanna Group, Al Assad Scientific Bureau, Applied Medical Corporation, Ismailiya Medical Co., Aesculap, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Medtronic, Inc., Maquet Holding B.V. & Co. KG, Minas Company (a subsidiary of Goran Group, Rudolf Riester GmbH, Munir Sukhtian Group Company, Siemens Healthcare, Stryker Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and TeknoMed Company. According to a recent research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the Iraq healthcare (surgical procedures) market is prognosticated to expand at a steady CAGR of 7.8%, within the forecast period from 2014 to 2022. In 2013, the market was valued around worth of US$320.3 mn, and is likely to surge around worth of US$530.3 mn by the end of 2022. The Iraq healthcare (surgical procedures) market is segmented broadly into general surgeries, cardiac procedures, orthopedic surgeries, reconstructive surgeries, and neurosurgeries. Among all of these, the cardiac procedures segment dominated the market, in 2013. The dominance is credited to the improvement and advancement in cardiovascular techniques along with the rise in population suffering from cardiac illnesses. Moreover, increase in people suffering from diabetes that triggers several cardiac issues is another factor foreseen to contribute in the growth of market in Iraq. As per the American Heart Association, heart stroke and cardiovascular illnesses are the major causes of death and disability in people suffering from diabetes. As a result, the increasing number of people with diabetes or cardiovascular illnesses in Iraq are expected to fuel the demand for the above mentioned segment within the forecast period. Request to View Sample of Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=4708 The Iraq healthcare system is majorly centralized, in terms of working. Here, mainly the public hospitals are the key of curative and preventive healthcare services. The nation uses the capital intensive model which was developed under government of Iraqs Ministry of Health, also known as MoH. MoH is the leading healthcare provider in the nation. Nevertheless, it doesnt hamper the growth of parallel growing private healthcare industry in Iraq. The two key firms in the Iraq health care market are the private sector and the public sector. In the latter sector, health care services are given by the help of public hospitals and basic health care centers at very low expenses. As per the national constitution, the Iraq Government is accounted to take care of free health care facilities at public clinics and hospitals for the people living in the country. The State Company for Marketing Drugs and Medical Appliances (KIMADIA), which is a company owned by the Iraq government, and is managed by MoH, Iraq. This firm deals with the distribution and import of various medical tools and devices, lab equipment, pharmaceuticals, and equipments to all public health care services in Iraq. Request to View Brochure of Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=4708 '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. Highlights include a Panama Canal transit, Egypt and the winelands of Western Europe. Overnights in 17 cities Maiden calls are planned in Townsville, Australia, and Banda Neira and Ambon, Indonesia, and there will be overnight stays in 17 cities. The cruise will visit Australias Great Barrier Reef, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, with an extensive early spring journey through Japan and calls in Hong Kong and Taiwan. South Korea and China are in the charts, too, with an overnight in Shanghai and two nights at Tianjin (for Beijing). In Southeast Asia, further overnights are in Vietnam's Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and in Singapore. Crystal Serenity will spend two nights in Myanmar, and call at Sri Lanka and India en route to Dubai, with stops in Oman and, in Egypt, an overnight at Safaga, affording access to the Valley of the Kings. In the Mediterranean, overnights are scheduled in wine havens like Lisbon and Bordeaux (two nights), as well as Civitavecchia (Rome), Sardinia and Ibiza. Nine segments plus flexible dates for full world cruise benefits Nine segments of 12 to 21 days are available. Alternate embarkation and disembarkation ports give flexibility while passengers still receive the full world cruise benefits. Travelers can choose to sail the complete itinerary from Miami to London (Jan. 5 to May 24, 139 days), from Los Angeles to London (Jan. 21 to May 24, 123 days), Miami to Rome (Jan. 5 to May 12, 127 days) or Los Angeles to Rome (Jan. 21 to May 12, 111 days). Travelers booking any of these full world cruise options get 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 person, complimentary private car and driver transfers between the ship and airport, a gala dinner World Cruise Extravaganza Event, an exclusive shoresside event, special themed on-board events and curated gifts. The cruise is now open for 2018, 2019 and 2020 full world cruise passengers for booking until Sept. 11. All other Crystal Society members will then get a pre-booking window from Sept. 12-18. 'Book Now' fares start at $46,199 The cruise will open to the public for booking on Sept. 19 with 'Book Now' savings fares starting at $46,199 per person. This rate expires Oct. 31. Last week, industry giant Transocean (symbol RIG) agreed to acquire the recently restructured Ocean Rig UDW (tied to George Economou, symbol ORIG) for a combination of Transocean shares, and a cash payment. The UDW indicates ultra deep water, 10,000 feet depths and greater, the province of high spec units costing upwards of $700m each in the boom markets earlier in the decade. Once the numbers are crunched, the price works back to a little over $32 per share for ORIG holders - approximately 20% more than the average share price during mid/late August. All told, the price paid is around $2.7bn. The offshore exploration business saw a spectacular slump, beginning with 2014s oil price drop, and only began to rebound in 2018. During the lengthy slump, Seadrill, a John Fredriksen company, also restructured earlier this year, following a bankruptcy proceeding, while harsh environment specialist Songa Offshore, at one time closely tied to shipowner Arne Blystad, was struggling before being acquired, also by Transocean, in late 2017 as the consensus emerged that a bottom had been reached. In the case of OceanRig, the previous group of shareholders, many smaller retail holders, had essentially been wiped out in a restructuring completed nearly a year ago, in Q4 2017, leaving its new equity in the hands of the larger holders - a group of distressed debt providers. As of March, 2018, the largest holders (besides Economou himself) included funds tied to Avenue Capital Group - an active energy investor which previously held a stake in Gener8 Maritime and Navios entities, BlueMountain Capital Management - a onetime Gener8 investor, also a longtime holder of project specialist Intermarine, Elliot Funds, Canyon Capital, Och Ziff Management and PIMCO. Transoceans acquisition, which is expected to close in early 2019, has received a thumbs up from Evercore ISIs James West, a top analyst in the offshore space. Writing in a flash note to clients, West said: RIG has been optimistic that the high spec ultra-deepwater market could be the next to recover, following the harsh environment market where dayrates have doubled over the past nine months. Transocean president and ceo Jeremy Thigpen, was emphatic, saying in a prepared release that the ORIG acquisition: better positions us to capitalize on what, we believe, is an imminent recovery in the ultra-deepwater market. In the Evercore ISI report, West works out that RIG is paying $278m per "core" floater (eight) and we view this as a particularly attractive price for the four 7th-gen drillships (vs. our NAV range of $335-500m). The chartering strategy for the big floaters (drillships and semi-submersibles) is not disimilar to that of a shipowner positioning to ride a rising market wave. Wests analysis points out that The ORIG assets will provide RIG with additional flexibility to respond to the improving market as only three (of nine) floaters are contracted with the others in various forms of layup. As optimism continues to fuel more exploration for oil, the optimism of Transocean may indeed by borne out. Clare Curran has resigned as a minister, less than a week after being removed from Cabinet. In a statement, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had accepted the resignation after Curran contacted her last night. "Clare has come to the view the issues currently surrounding her are causing an unacceptable distraction for the government and immense pressure on her personally," Ardern said. "I agree with her assessment that resigning is the best course of action for the government and for her." Curran requested personal leave yesterday morning and was absent from Parliament yesterday, after a poor performance in Wednesday's Question Time when she was questioned about using her personal email account for government business. Last Friday, Ardern sacked Curran from Cabinet, stripping her of the government digital services and open government roles after she again failed to declare a meeting when answering MPs' written questions. Ardern removed Curran from Cabinet and accepted her resignation of the government digital services and open government portfolios. At the time, Curran kept the ICT/broadcasting and associate Accident Compensation Corp portfolios as a minister outside Cabinet. Curran's resignation means Kris Faafoi will become Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, remaining outside of Cabinet, and Peeni Henare will become Associate Minister for ACC. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. 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Related News: L&Q Notice: Vulcan Steel Limited Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) October 2021 YTD Trading Performance Z Energy Limited (NZX: ZEL) 1HFY22 Earnings 4th November 2021 Morning Report Radius Residential Care Limited (NZX: RAD) Settles Acquisition of 23rd Facility Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Business Update Genesis Energy Limited (NZX: GNE) Sustainable Finance Programme 3rd November 2021 Morning Report 2nd November 2021 Morning Report DGL Group Limited (NZX: DGC) AUSBlue and Profill Industries Acquisition Complete Orion Health Group's plans to carve up its businesses then return capital through a share buyback is fair to minority shareholders who've seen their investment's value whittled away and probably better than any alternative, says independent adviser KordaMentha. The Auckland-based company outlined the plan in July to split up the business, selling the Rhapsody unit to UK private equity firm Hg for $205 million, dilute its stake in the population health management (PHM) unit, and retain full ownership of its hospitals division. After capitalising the joint investments, the remainder of the funds would be used to buy back shares at an estimated price of $1.16-to-$1.26, with the final price set by the board closer to the time. That's lower than the $1.24-to-$1.29 per share estimate initially flagged, but still a premium to the current $1.10 trading price, which was up 1.9 percent so far today, and within KordaMentha's forecast valuation of $1.15-to-$1.61. "With the benefit of a further two months since the original announcement of a higher estimated buyback offer price range, the directors have been able to further analyse the impact of the variables that could affect the level of cash available for the share buyback at the time it is able to be made," chair Andrew Ferrier said in his letter to shareholders. "In particular, the period required to satisfy the various conditions to the Hg transaction, and hence to close the Hg transaction, is uncertain, and therefore the timing of the share buyback could be delayed." The company's 3,023 shareholders will vote on the proposals at the annual meeting on Sept. 28 in Auckland. KordaMentha's report concluded the deal was fair to shareholders not associated with founder Ian McCrae, letting "minority shareholders to exit Orion Health in an environment where the business is currently incurring significant cash losses and its share price has declined materially since listing at $5.70 on 2014." While the estimated buyback is at the low end of the range, KordaMentha said it's still a significant premium to the 85 cents the shares traded at before the deal was announced, and that those valuations relied on forecasts from management that carried "inherent risks to Orion Health delivering on its growth plans, particularly in relation to PHM and hospitals future profitability." The independent adviser's report said the positives for the Hg deal outweighed the negatives, and that a number of alternative transactions had been considered but rejected. Among those considered was a similar carve-up, except Orion retained Rhapsody and diluted McCrae's stake to 20-to-25 percent in exchange for the PHM and hospitals units. Irrespective of whether the deal goes ahead, Orion Health will quit its ASX listing due to the low trading volume and relatively high listing fees, and will review its NZX listing after the buyback to determine how many minority shareholders remain on the register. Ferrier said he and director Paul Shearer will resign as directors of Orion Health once the buyback is completed and new directors are identified to lead the company "through its next phase". (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: L&Q Notice: Vulcan Steel Limited Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) October 2021 YTD Trading Performance Z Energy Limited (NZX: ZEL) 1HFY22 Earnings 4th November 2021 Morning Report Radius Residential Care Limited (NZX: RAD) Settles Acquisition of 23rd Facility Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Business Update Genesis Energy Limited (NZX: GNE) Sustainable Finance Programme 3rd November 2021 Morning Report 2nd November 2021 Morning Report DGL Group Limited (NZX: DGC) AUSBlue and Profill Industries Acquisition Complete New Zealand shares fell for a third session, taking their weekly decline to 2.3 percent, as investors cashed in some of August's gains in what was a strong month for the local market. Tourism Holdings and a2 Milk Co declined. The S&P/NZX 50 index decreased 6.21 points, or 0.1 percent, to 9,095.39. Within the index 20 stocks fell, 23 gained and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $122 million. The benchmark index hit a record on Aug. 29 and climbed 4.4 percent in the month as investors were buoyed by a relatively upbeat corporate earnings season. With global markets in a lull as traders await US President Donald Trump's decision on whether to impose a wider array of tariffs on Chinese goods, local investors have used the opportunity to cash in some of those gains. "We've had a lull over the last week from what's been an all-time high," said Shane Solly, a portfolio manager at Harbour Asset Management. "It's still pretty good in the global scheme of things." Solly said the market was having a "healthy pullback" and had absorbed "a couple of capital raisings" with the Macquarie-managed funds selldown of Oceania Healthcare and shortfall bookbuild of Steel & Tube Holdings this week. Oceania was unchanged at $1.13 and Steel & Tube gained 2.5 percent today. Tourism Holdings led the market lower, falling 4.3 percent to $5.60, giving up yesterday's gains when the rental campervan operator was the best performer on the bourse. Restaurant Brands New Zealand fell 2.2 percent to $7.57, while a2 Milk declined 2.2 percent to $11.62 and Kathmandu Holdings decreased 1.9 percent to $3.10. Sky Network Television dropped 1.9 percent to $2.12 after it was removed from S&P/ASX 300 index, effective from Sept. 24. Sky also shed rights to a dividend payment yesterday. Among other firms to shed dividend rights yesterday, Air New Zealand fell 1.6 percent to $3.16, Trade Me slipped 0.6 percent to $4.93, Heartland Bank rose 0.6 percent to $1.68, and Vector decreased 0.6 percent to $3.42. Ryman Healthcare gained 3 percent to $13.70, the biggest gain on the benchmark index today. Synlait Milk rose 2 percent to $13 and NZX increased 0.9 percent to $1.07. Among blue-chip stocks, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 0.7 percent to $14.90, Spark New Zealand increased 0.4 percent to $3.90, and Auckland International Airport decreased 0.3 percent to $6.86. Fletcher Building was unchanged at $6.20, as was Meridian Energy at $3.22. Orion Health Group was unchanged at $1.08 after independent adviser KordaMentha recommended shareholders back a proposal to carve up the company and return capital through a share buyback. The estimated buyback was reduced to $1.16-to-$1.26 per share due to uncertainty over the final wash-up. Liquidators for former NZX-listed software developer Wynyard Group today said shareholders may get a "very small" distribution and asked them to update their contact details. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: L&Q Notice: Vulcan Steel Limited Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) October 2021 YTD Trading Performance Z Energy Limited (NZX: ZEL) 1HFY22 Earnings 4th November 2021 Morning Report Radius Residential Care Limited (NZX: RAD) Settles Acquisition of 23rd Facility Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Business Update Genesis Energy Limited (NZX: GNE) Sustainable Finance Programme 3rd November 2021 Morning Report 2nd November 2021 Morning Report DGL Group Limited (NZX: DGC) AUSBlue and Profill Industries Acquisition Complete The New Zealand dollar is heading for a 0.6 percent weekly fall against the greenback as investors continued to fret about global trade tensions and await US President Donald Trump's decision on further tariffs for China. The kiwi fell to 65.79 US cents at 5pm in Wellington versus 65.88 cents at 8am and 65.84 cents yesterday. It traded at 66.18 last Friday in New York. The traded weighed index was at 71.51 from 71.59 late yesterday. Markets are poised to see whether Trump opts to impose tariffs on another US$200 billion of Chinese imports, a decision that is expected any time. China has warned of retaliation. The US-China trade war has weighed on both the Australian and New Zealand dollars given their heavy reliance on China as a trading partner. Investors were also jittery Friday after overnight news reports Trump is eyeing Japan as the next target in the trade war, something that drove investors to the safe-haven yen in Asian trading. "All the yen crosses got smacked," said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional foreign exchange sales at ASB Bank. The kiwi traded at 72.73 yen from 73.32 yen yesterday. Looking ahead, he said markets will be watching the US payrolls report for August which is expected to show a robust rise of 191,000, although Reuters noted that July was temporarily depressed by the closure of the Toys R Us chain that month. The local currency was largely unchanged at 91.80 Australian cents from 91.78 cents yesterday and traded at 4.5003 Chinese yuan from 4.5015 yuan yesterday. It was at 50.87 British pence from 50.99 pence and at 56.57 euro cents from 56.60 cents yesterday. New Zealand's two-year swap was unchanged at 1.96 percent. The 10-year swap was unchanged at 2.79 percent. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: L&Q Notice: Vulcan Steel Limited Steel & Tube Holdings Limited (NZX: STU) October 2021 YTD Trading Performance Z Energy Limited (NZX: ZEL) 1HFY22 Earnings 4th November 2021 Morning Report Radius Residential Care Limited (NZX: RAD) Settles Acquisition of 23rd Facility Stride Property Ltd & Stride Investment Management Ltd (NZX: SPG) Business Update Genesis Energy Limited (NZX: GNE) Sustainable Finance Programme 3rd November 2021 Morning Report 2nd November 2021 Morning Report DGL Group Limited (NZX: DGC) AUSBlue and Profill Industries Acquisition Complete SHEPHERDSTOWN The Light of the Child Montessori School, LLC, returned to its original home at 110 North King Street on May 31, and, according to founder and principal Suzanne Frund, is excited to be back in the center of downtown Shepherdstown. Although the preschool has been located in at least two other buildings in town, Frund believes this location, which is in the basement of St. Peters Lutheran Church, allows the school to offer more opportunities for its students. Its a smaller space, but I like being in the middle of town, because were close to all the community activities, and we can walk right to the library, Frund said, mentioning the school, which accepts 12 students ages two-and-a-half to five-years-old every year, also goes on field trips to local farms, local businesses like LellyBelle Cafe, Orrs Farm Market and the Discovery Museum in Winchester and to local parks, including Cullison Park and the Rumsey Monument. According to Frund, TLC Montessori School bases its education style on Dr. Maria Montessoris Montessori Method, which encourages teachers to help their students learn by doing. The classroom is separated into several interactive areas for students to learn in mathematics, foreign language, geography, sensory, vocabulary and life skills areas. The students learn at their own pace, as they listen to group lessons and personalized lessons, all while doing things related to the concepts being taught. They also learn about music, yoga and nature through interactive lessons. My goal is to serve the students and serve their families, Frund said, mentioning she has tailored the curriculum to help new students get used to the Montessori Method, while also incorporating some of the public school systems method, to prepare students for elementary school. We follow the American Montessori Societys methods, but because we have a lot of students who go to public school after they graduate, we prepare them for both Montessori and public schools, Frund said, as she watched her student and three-year-old granddaughter play with some of the schools sensory learning tools. Frund, a registered nurse, is also a certified teacher with the North American Montessori Center, which is part of the American Montessori Society. Along with the school being part of the AMS, it is also a member of the International Montessori Council. Although not all four of her fellow teachers have completed their AMS certification, they have been carefully vetted and are all college educated. At least three teachers are on location at all times during the school day. According to St. Peters Lutheran Churchs Pastor Karen Erskine-Valentine, the church enjoys partnering closely with the preschool. The preschool is an opportunity for us to minister to the children, and to be ministered to by them, Erskine-Valentine said. Well enjoy having the children around more. To learn more about the school or see if room is available for students this year, visit www.thelightofthechild-montessorischool.com/index.html. Xi to attend Russia summit, North Korea's Kim invited Beijing, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a regional summit in Russia next week, officials said Friday -- a gathering that may include North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the heads of Japan and South Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Kim to participate in the September 11-13 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Kim has not confirmed his attendance, but his participation would mark another major step in his efforts to bring Pyongyang out of international isolation over its nuclear programme. At a press briefing to announce Xi's visit, Chinese officials would not comment on whether Xi planned to meet with other leaders during the summit. "Should we have any proposals from other countries, China will positively consider these proposals," assistant foreign minister Zhang Hanhui told reporters. Xi and Kim met three times in China this year as the two countries seek to repair relations frayed by North Korea's nuclear activities and Beijing's backing of United Nations sanctions against its Cold War-era ally. Xi is sending the head of China's rubber-stamp legislature, Li Zhanshu, to Pyongyang this weekend to attend celebrations marking North Korea's 70th anniversary, ending speculation that the Chinese president would use the occasion to make his first official trip to the neighbouring country. In the latest chapter in the roller-coaster diplomacy over North Korea, US President Donald Trump signalled on Thursday that negotiations on denuclearisation remain alive after weeks of an apparent deadlock. Xi will be in Vladivostok on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be the first time that a Chinese leader participates in the annual economic forum hosted by Russia. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also confirmed his attendance. Relations between China and Japan have warmed over the last few years following a disagreement over Tokyo's decision to take control of privately owned islets also claimed by Beijing in the East China Sea. In recent months, the two sides have been negotiating an exchange of top level visits. Trump turns up the heat in trade conflict with China Washington, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 President Donald Trump threatened Friday to slap tariffs on all of the Chinese goods imported into the United States, ramping up the already tense trade relations with Beijing, while talks with Canada and the EU continue. His comments, which contradicted the more diplomatic remarks earlier Friday from his top economic adviser, sent the stock market plunging amid fears of the economic damage that could result from the multi-front trade war he continues to pursue. The United States already has punitive tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in place and another $200 billion are "in the hopper" and "could take place very soon," Trump said. But he told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota that "behind that, there's another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want." That would cover virtually all the goods imported from the world's second largest economy. "That totally changes the equation," Trump said. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow just hours before said talks with Beijing were continuing to try to defuse the conflict, and that he was hopeful that a solution could be found. It also was in contrast to more positive signs in talks with North American partners as well as with the European Union. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held another day of meetings on Friday with Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, after reaching a deal last week with Mexico. And Lighthizer is due to meet Monday in Brussels with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to resolve the dispute ignited when Trump imposed steep duties on all steel and aluminum imports. - China a 'bigger problem' - "China, right now, is a far bigger problem," Trump said. "I'm being strong on China because I have to be." The deadline for public comment on the next wave of punitive taxes on $200 billion of annual imports from China expired Thursday, so Trump could impose the tariffs immediately. He previously had threatened to hit 100 percent of imports from China if the country failed to address US concerns over theft of US technology and barriers to American goods and investments. Trump has had Beijing in his crosshairs since he took office and has applied increasing pressure to try to convince it to change its policies, allow more US imports and reduce the $335-billion US trade deficit with China. China so far has retaliated dollar-for-dollar with tariffs of its own on US goods but since it imports less than $200 billion in goods a year from the United States, it has run out of room to match the United States. But businesses warn there are other ways China can strike back, through regulations and other administrative means, or even through sales of its large holdings of US Treasury debt. The last effort at a negotiated solution came in late August with meetings between low-level officials but nothing came of it. In Beijing, China's Commerce Ministry said Thursday it was ready to retaliate. "If the US dogmatically implements any new tariff measures against China, China will have to take the necessary countermeasures," commerce spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Those steps include slapping tariffs on $60 billion of US imports, Gao said. - NAFTA talks 24/7 - Trump said talks with Canada to revise the 25-year-old NAFTA were "moving along" but again called the trade pact "one of the worst trade deals in history." "Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they've got to treat us fairly," he said, and again threatened to impose duties on cars produced in Canada. Washington last week reached a new deal with Mexico and is pushing to sign a new deal before December 1, when a new president takes over in Mexico City. Following meetings on Friday, Freeland told reporters the issues were "complicated" but that officials were working "really at this point 24/7." However, she seemed to have a different position than Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on the relationship between the NAFTA talks and the US steel and aluminum tariffs. Guajardo said Thursday it would be "very strange" to sign a new NAFTA "when this trade war is pending." "So the idea would be to table a solution to these trade aggressions before signing," Guajardo said at a conference in Mexico City. But Freeland said on Thursday the metals tariffs and NAFTA talks "are entirely separate" -- although she again called them "unjustified and illegal." The NAFTA talks between Washington and Ottawa have been hung up over Canada's insistence on retaining a dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 and US objections over Ottawa's tight controls over the dairy market. Page Content To the people of Sint Maarten, to our residents and to our guests, September 6th, 2017 will be forever etched in the memories of each and every person that was here, on our island, one year ago. Together, we shared the life-changing experience of the most devastating Hurricane to ever hit Sint Maarten. Hurricane Irma did not discriminate, with winds of over 185 miles per hour, this horrible storm left a path of destruction on Sint Maarten and many of our neighboring islands across the Caribbean Region. On behalf of the Government of Sint Maarten, I dedicate this moment of silence to all those who lost their lives during the passing of Hurricane Irma, and wish their family and friends much strength on this National Day of Reflection. To all that survived, but lost their homes, their businesses or their livelihoods; To the people of Sint Maarten, who continue to struggle with the trauma and pain that Hurricane Irma brought, I stand with you in solidarity and encourage you to remain steadfast as we build back our lives and our country. Together, we are a resilient people, and together, we will overcome. On this National Day of Reflection, when the memories come back to us of the storm and its aftermath, the devastation, chaos and violence that Hurricane Irma initiated, I would like to express my gratitude to each and everyone who chose to help; who chose to take responsibility and who chose to start working, immediately, on the recovery of our island. On behalf of the Government of Sint Maarten, I would especially like to thank the brave emergency responders of the Emergency Operation Center (EOC), all Civil Servants, the Dutch Military Forces, the Governments of the Netherlands, Aruba and Curacao, the numerous international agencies, local and international NGOs, the District Community Councils and also the many individual unsung heroes who all contributed in one way or another in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. We are forever grateful to you. The devastation caused by Hurricane Irma created unprecedented challenges for all of us, but it also brought new opportunities for our country. As a young nation, we are at a unique moment in history. We have the opportunity right now to decide the future of our island and to choose how we want to build a country that meets not just our desires, but the needs of our children and their children. To guide our nation to a more resilient and sustainable future, the Government of Sint Maarten has developed a National Recovery and Resilience Plan. With the support of Parliament, as representatives of the people, this Plan sets an ambitious agenda for the future of our island. This is our roadmap to restore, secure and strengthen the well-being of the people of Sint Maarten. We want to become a more resilient community with a healthy living environment without a smoking dump in the middle of Philipsburg. We plan to develop a resilient, growing, and more diversified economy that can withstand any type of disaster. As a country in the Kingdom, devastated by one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded, the Government of Sint Maarten agreed to the the preconditions set by the Dutch Government for financial support to our recovery efforts. Subsequently, the Dutch Government contracted the World Bank to manage a 580 million US dollar Trust Fund for the recovery and resilience of Sint Maarten. The World Bank manages these funds that are provided to Sint Maarten as grants, not as loans. We set the goals for our country, we choose where the funding goes and we work with the World Bank in ensuring that this funding is allocated in an effective, sustainable and transparent manner. Some choose to debate whether the construction with the World Bank is fair, some decide to complain that the process is slow, and others try to spread fake news and make false promises about alternative options. As Prime Minister, I choose differently, this government chooses differently. Together, we choose to commit to the people of Sint Maarten, to work as hard as we can to continue our recovery process with the support that is available from the Netherlands and the World Bank. We will use the funding of the Netherlands and the expertise of the World Bank to address some of our biggest challenges, to work on a permanent solution for the dump, to strengthen our Government and to build homes for our people. Until now, three grant agreements have been concluded with the World Bank. A total amount of 102.7 million US dollars has been allocated to projects that serve to address some of the most urgent needs of the people of Sint Maarten. With this money we will, for example, repair emergency shelters, support the repairs of severely damaged houses, strengthen our disaster preparedness and continue the income support and training program that is helping many unemployed or underemployed workers. With the start of the first Trust Fund projects, we have achieved an important step in our recovery process. Throughout this process, proper planning and preparation remain paramount to ensure that the limited available funding is spent in a sustainable and effective manner. As Prime Minister, I continue to ask for patience as we use this opportunity to rebuild our country more sustainable. While sometimes, frustrating, building back sustainable requires us taking the necessary time to ensure that our recovery is of such quality that it benefits the people of Sint Maarten for years to come. On this National Day of Reflection, I want to remind each and every one of you that we are in this together. The success of the recovery process depends on all of us. Through faith and hard work Sint Maarten will rise again. Thank you, May God Bless our Sint Maarten land and keep us safe. Page Content NEW YORK On Thursday September 6, 2018, Prime Minister of Sint Maarten the Honorable Leona Romeo-Marlin represented the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the United Nations Security Council meeting concerning the peacekeeping mission in Haiti. Mr. President, The Kingdom of the Netherlands would like to express our sincere thanks to Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita for her excellent briefing on the situation in Haiti. We are also pleased with the attendance of Special Representative Helen LaLime. We warmly welcome her appointment and wish her good luck in executing her duties. Mr. President, I am particularly pleased to be here today. Sint Maarten, a Small Island Developing State, autonomous country in the Kingdom of The Netherlands, is the proud home to over 118 different nationalities. One of the largest of these is the Haitian diaspora, numbering well over 5000 persons. With such strong social ties, the events in Haiti are very much felt at home. As part of the Caribbean region, we also share some of Haitis vulnerabilities to natural disasters and climate change. Today marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Irma, the strongest Atlantic Hurricane on record. Let me commemorate here today the people who passed away or were wounded; those who have lost their homes and livelihoods; those who today are still rebuilding their lives. In St Maarten, but certainly also in the neighboring countries in the Caribbean. Throughout the region work remains ongoing to improve resilience and ensure a full recovery from its devastating impact. Our National Recovery and Resilience Plan will include institutional reform and capacity building. 1. Rule of law: progress and challenges Mr. President, today we discuss the situation in Haiti, against the background of the benchmarked two-year exit strategy to a non-peacekeeping UN presence. For this transition to happen successfully a further strengthening of the Rule of Law is paramount. Cabinet of the Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin The Government of Sint Maarten The rule of law is the bedrock of any just, prosperous and peaceful society. It is an element of trust for both the population and investors. In addition, it helps cushioning external and internal shocks, as Haiti recurrently experiences. St. Maarten as Caribbean country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands recognizes this challenge. Over the past few years, Haiti has made significant progress, under difficult circumstances. However, as the latest Secretary-Generals report indicates, substantial work remains to be done. The Kingdom of the Netherlands therefore encourages the government of Haiti to continue institutional reform, strengthen Rule of Law institutions and improve respect for human rights. That means an increased engagement of the government with MINUJUSTH in all these fields, but it also means providing the necessary support; political, legislative and budgetary. One important dimension in this regard is judicial reform. To this end parliament needs to swiftly adopt both the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal procedure. 2. Strengthening police capacity Mr. President, the rule of law also requires effective and accountable security institutions, in particular the police and correctional facilities. The outbreak of violence in July serves as a reminder that the security situation in Haiti is still fragile and it could be challenged again in the coming months. It is of paramount importance that the Haitian National Police improves its ability to manage these threats and shore up the trust of the Haitian people in its performance. Particular attention should be given to the reported increase in gang activities and any perceived vulnerabilities following the scaling down of the presence of Formed Police Units (FPU) in two areas. We commend Haiti on recent steps taken in cooperation with MINUJUSTH to increase the capacity of its National Police. In this regard I would also like to highlight two very positive developments: the growing number of women recruited, and the specialized office for sexual violence crime, which was embedded within the judicial police directorate. On sexual based violence we welcome the initiatives undertaken to increase awareness, although the noted underreporting remains worrisome. It is essential that perpetrators of these serious crimes are prosecuted. 3. The road ahead on achieving the benchmarks Mr. President, the Kingdom of the Netherlands welcomes the thorough report of the Secretary General which transparently measures the level of progress made on the missions mandate against the previously elaborated benchmarks. We also appreciate the capacity assessment, security transition plan and mitigating measures MINUJUSTH has drafted and identified. All this should ensure a robust framework for the transition to a non-peacekeeping UN-presence, leading to a responsible withdrawal based on the situation on the ground. The government of Haiti, the mission, and the UN Country Team should continue to work closely together on achieving this. The coming period will be crucial in this regard. We wholeheartedly support the Secretary-Generals call that efforts must be redoubled to ensure that the benchmarks are attained. Conclusion Mr. President, as a close neighbor to Haiti, St Maarten and the Kingdom of the Netherlands strongly support the Haitian aspirations towards peace, justice and development. The necessary foundations for this are clear: a strengthening of the Rule of Law, including by increasing the police, justice and corrections capacity, a swift implementation of priority actions and an increased respect for human rights. For this the government of Haiti should take full advantage of the presence of MINUJUSTH until its exit and of the UN country team thereafter. The Kingdom of Netherlands will continue to support the UNs committed work in Haiti Thank you. Photo caption Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin addressing the UN Security Council meeting in New York. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd722a9e8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd733fbe8)', '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(0x7f3fd722a9e8)') 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(0x7f3fd733fbe8)') 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(0x7f3fd7337ab0)') 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(0x7f3fd733fbe8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd733fbe8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b998)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd723abf0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd723abf0)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd72a2078)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd7330a18)', '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(0x7f3fd72a2078)') 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(0x7f3fd7330a18)') 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(0x7f3fd72b3cc8)') 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(0x7f3fd7330a18)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd7330a18)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693bf38)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd72b2f78)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd72b2f78)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd6d2c8c8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd7387e30)', '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(0x7f3fd6d2c8c8)') 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(0x7f3fd7387e30)') 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(0x7f3fd71f0a48)') 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(0x7f3fd7387e30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd7387e30)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b3c8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd732c3d0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd732c3d0)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd7252b30)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd72dff00)', '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(0x7f3fd7252b30)') 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(0x7f3fd72dff00)') 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(0x7f3fd720aa20)') 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(0x7f3fd72dff00)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd72dff00)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693c040)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd72f65f0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd72f65f0)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd72be008)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd72d2680)', '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(0x7f3fd72be008)') 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(0x7f3fd72d2680)') 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(0x7f3fd72b7668)') 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(0x7f3fd72d2680)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd72d2680)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b118)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd71b07f8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd71b07f8)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd7207bf0)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b908)', '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(0x7f3fd7207bf0)') 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(0x7f3fd693b908)') 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(0x7f3fd7260988)') 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(0x7f3fd693b908)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b908)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b9b0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd724cce0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd724cce0)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd7249a78)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd724bff0)', '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(0x7f3fd7249a78)') 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(0x7f3fd724bff0)') 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(0x7f3fd7103f70)') 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(0x7f3fd724bff0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd724bff0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fbd6d0c28)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd715d738)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd715d738)') 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: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd726f410)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd738e0b8)', '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(0x7f3fd726f410)') 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(0x7f3fd738e0b8)') 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(0x7f3fd711d1f8)') 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(0x7f3fd738e0b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd738e0b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd693b278)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7251c20)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd7251c20)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 The new logo, fit to represent all of the various local businesses and organizations, was created after two years of research funded by a $600,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. Elon Musk muses about life over whiskey and weed San Francisco, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Entrepreneur Elon Musk sipped whiskey and puffed a little weed while musing at length late Thursday about artificial intelligence, colonizing space, and the need to give love a chance. Musk shared thoughts on those topics and more during a podcast with comedian Joe Rogan that lasted more than two hours and stretched into Friday. At one point, Musk described the constant barrage of ideas in his mind as being "like a never ending explosion," wondering when he was a young boy whether he might be insane because it didn't seem to be happening to other people. Musk's current endeavors include electric carmaker Tesla; private space exploration enterprise SpaceX; tunnel-drilling Boring Company, and a Neuralink operation working on augmenting human brains with artificial intelligence. "I don't think you would necessarily want to be me; you wouldn't like it that much," Musk quipped. "It might be great when it is turned on, but what if it doesn't turn off." During the course of a wide-ranging chat with Rogan, Musk drank whiskey and tried a marijuana-and-tobacco cigarette proffered by the comedian. "I'm not a regular smoker of weed; almost never," Musk said. "I don't find that it's very good for productivity. It is sort of like a cup of coffee in reverse." He maintained that getting things accomplished, especially being useful to others, was among his joys. "A lot of people don't like humanity and think it is a blight, but I don't," Musk said. "It may sound corny, but love is the answer. Spend more time with your friends and less time on social media." - 'Occupy Mars' - Musk said that when it comes to social media he only uses Twitter, and that is for its power to get messages out. He contended that he ignores the majority of negative comments at Twitter, but has occasionally been drawn in and made mistakes. Nearly 90,000 people tuned into the podcast Rogan live-streamed with Musk at YouTube. Musk said he is less worried about AI than he had been, mostly due to "taking a more fatalistic attitude." He had long argued that AI would be humanity's undoing, with sentient software treating people, at best, like house cats. Musk is now of a mind that whatever the future of AI, it is outside of human control. A danger, he noted, is that humans will turn AI into a weapon to unleash on one another. A best-case scenario would be the people merge with AI, enabling anyone to have "super cognition." Musk appeared to get emotional while talking about the harm being done to the atmosphere and oceans by burning fossil fuels. "This is crazy," Musk said "The more carbon we take out of the ground, the more dangerous it is." Musk, who wore a black t-shirt bearing the words "Occupy Mars" in large letters, also pictured a future in which humans explore and colonize the cosmos in manners depicted in science fiction films. "I think the future in where we are a space-faring civilization out there among the stars, that is very exciting," Musk said. "If we were forever constrained to earth, that would not be a good future." Tesla tumbles as new exits raise fresh concerns New York, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Shares of Tesla Motors tumbled Friday as a pair of executive departures raised fresh concerns for the electric automaker already in turmoil over the erratic behavior of its mercurial chief executive Elon Musk. Tesla shares sank 7.0 percent to $26.34 in mid-morning trading after chief accounting officer Dave Morton announced his exit after only a month on the job, citing the company's frenetic pace. Separately, human resources chief Gabrielle Toledano told Bloomberg she planned to exit the company, not returning from a leave of absence. Morton's departure further roiled the company which has been under heightened scrutiny since Musk's chaotic announcement on August 7 on Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private, a plan that was reversed two weeks later. The ill-fated effort has prompted a US securities investigation and a class-action lawsuit alleging Musk was trying to punish investors who bet against the company. Morton's brief tenure with the company coincided with the aborted go-private push. "Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations," Morton said in a securities filing. "As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting." - Turning heads in podcast - Musk, meanwhile, turned heads with a more than two hour podcast interview with comedian Joe Rogan in which he drank whiskey and appeared to try a marijuana-and-tobacco cigarette proffered by the comedian as he mused about artificial intelligence and colonizing space. At one point, Musk described the constant barrage of ideas in his mind as being "like a "never-ending explosion," and said he wondered as a young boy whether he might be insane because it didn't seem to happen to other people. The appearance was the latest unorthodox move by Musk, who has often surprised investors with brash and unpredictable behavior as Tesla has sought to live up to lofty manufacturing targets for its Model 3 electric car. Long a polarizing figure because of his swashbuckling style, Musk's champions see him as an entrepreneurial genius with the potential to remake the transportation system, while his detractors see him as an egotistical blowhard whose outsized promises have driven unjustified gains in the company's values. Especially bizarre moments involving the Tesla chief of late include disparaging remarks about a Briton who helped save boys trapped in a cave in Thailand and the abrupt shutdown of Wall Street analyst questions during a contentious earnings conference call this spring. In August, Musk told the New York Times he was exhausted from too much work and difficulty sleeping in an interview that sharpened questions about his mental stability. Some observers have said Tesla could be helped with a strong number-two executives, but Friday's departures create additional gaps in Tesla's ranks. New mission to find Argentine sub that sank with 44 crew on board Buenos Aires, Sept 6 (AFP) Sep 06, 2018 A US vessel will begin a new search for the missing Argentine submarine that disappeared last year with 44 crew members on board, the ministry of defense said Thursday. The Seabed Constructor, owned by the company Ocean Infinity, will set out Friday from the port of Comodoro Rivadavia, some 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles)south of Buenos Aires, carrying both Argentine sailors and relatives of the missing submariners. "We feel this is the last opportunity to find them. And we want to find out what happened," said Luis Tagliapietra, whose son Alejandro was a lieutenant on the San Juan. Ocean Infinity was also assigned the task of searching for the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which vanished without trace in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The government of President Mauricio Macri has declared that there were no survivors from the San Juan, but exactly what happened to the missing submarine in the waters of the South Atlantic has remained unclear. Investigators suspect a technical fault occurred when the vessel lost contact some 450 kilometers off the coast of Argentina as it was heading back to its base in the southern port of Mar del Plata. The Seabed Constructor is equipped with cameras that can be submerged to a depth of 6,000 meters. If it finds the missing sub, it will receive a reward of $7.5 million. Families of the missing crew have kept up pressure on the government not to give up on the search, staging protest marches and camping out in front of the parliament. Mattis makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan Kabul, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis landed in Kabul on Friday for an unannounced visit to war-torn Afghanistan, adding his weight to a flurry of diplomatic efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. His trip comes a little more than a year after President Donald Trump unveiled a revamped strategy for Afghanistan that saw him commit thousands of additional US forces to the country on an open-ended basis. Mattis, on his second visit to the country in recent months, will meet with President Ashraf Ghani and the new US commander for American and NATO forces, General Scott Miller. His arrival in Kabul comes at a sensitive time in the 17-year war. The grinding conflict has seen little progress by Afghan or US forces against the Taliban, the country's largest militant group. Afghan and international players have been ratcheting up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001. An unprecedented ceasefire in June followed by talks between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July fuelled hopes that negotiations could bring an end to the fighting. But a recent spate of attacks by the Taliban and the smaller but potent Islamic State group that left hundreds of security forces and civilians dead has severely dented that optimism. - Battlefield setbacks - A twin bomb attack on a wrestling club in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on Wednesday was just the latest in a long line of devastating assaults, killing at least 26 people and wounding 91. The attack underscored the challenges facing Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces that have been beset by corruption and low morale. Trump's strategy, announced in August 2017, increased the US troop presence in the country and now includes a renewed push to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But there are fears that Trump is growing frustrated with the pace of progress in the country, spurring US diplomats and other officials to intensify their efforts. The Taliban have long insisted on direct talks with Washington and refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, which they see as illegitimate. There is speculation that another meeting between US and Taliban representatives could be held this month. Mattis arrived in Kabul from Delhi where he and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with their Indian counterparts. Pompeo also visited Islamabad on Wednesday where he held talks with new premier Imran Khan and other senior officials. Pompeo said he was "hopeful" of resetting the troubled relationship with Pakistan, a key player in the Afghan conflict. Miller, who took command of US and NATO forces at a handover ceremony in Kabul on Sunday, replaces General John Nicholson, who rotated out of the role after a more than two-year deployment. Nicholson told reporters last month that the warring parties now had an "unprecedented" opportunity for peace, and insisted Trump's strategy for the country was working. But his optimism belied recent setbacks on the battlefield. The Taliban last month launched an extraordinary attack on the provincial capital of Ghazni -- just a two-hour drive from Kabul. Militants held large parts of the city for days and Afghan forces needed US air power to push them back. Spain 'defending' ship deal with Riyadh said under threat Madrid, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Madrid said Friday it was working "to defend" a lucrative warship contract with Saudi Arabia amid reports the deal is in trouble after the Socialist government blocked the sale of 400 bombs to Riyadh, which is involved in the bloody Yemen conflict. Spain's defence ministry said Tuesday it intended to cancel a 2015 deal to sell the laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition fighting rebels in Yemen, where nearly 10,000 have been killed. The ministry said it planned to return the 9.2 million euros (10.6 million) already paid by the Saudis for the arms under a deal signed by the previous conservative government. A report in online daily El Independiente said that Riyadh now planned to cancel a 1.8-billion-euro contract with Spain to build five Corvette warships. This has created huge concern in shipyards of Spanish company Navantia in the southern region of Andalusia, where thousands of jobs are at stake. "The government is working to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia and to defend the contracts for the construction of five Corvettes in Navantia's shipyards," government spokeswoman Isabel Celaa told reporters. "That implies maintaining the government's international commitments," she added, raising the question as to whether the government was considering reversing its decision to block the sale of the bombs. "I don't think there is a diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia," Celaa said. But she acknowledged "there may be an exchange of opinions and divergence which I think will be resolved." Spain's deputy trade minister Xiana Mendez meanwhile told lawmakers in the parliament's defence commission that the government was "aware of the importance of this... splendid contract worth 1.8 billion euros, with close to 6,000 jobs" involved. "As far as I know, this contract is still in force." She called for "calm", adding "the government will not endanger" the sale of these warships. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other allies intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after Shiite Huthi rebels linked to Iran ousted the government from the capital Sanaa and seized swathes of the country. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then, 2,200 of them children, and sparked what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Amnesty International says Spain is one of the biggest arms exporters to Saudi Arabia. France says Russia tried to spy on satellite Toulouse, France, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 A Russian satellite attempted last year to spy on a satellite providing secure communications for the French military, Defence Minister Florence Parly said Friday. The Athena-Fidus satellite, operated jointly with Italy, was approached "a bit too closely" by Russia's Luch-Olymp craft, known for its advanced listening capacity, Parly said at France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse, southern France. "It got so close that we might have imagined it was trying to intercept our communications," she added. "Trying to listen to your neighbours is not only unfriendly. It's an act of espionage," she said. Parly said officials took the "appropriate measures" and continued to monitor the satellite after it left, and observed it maneuvring near other targets as well, she said. Last month Washington accused Moscow of developing anti-satellite weapons and cited "very abnormal behaviour" of a "space object" deployed by Russia last October. "We are well aware that other major players in space are deploying intriguing objects into orbit, experimenting with potential offensive capabilities, conducting manuevers which leave no doubt as to their aggressive intent," Parly said. French President Emmanuel Macron plans to lay out next year plans for a "space defence strategy" for France, with an advisory committee expected to make proposals by November. "We're at risk, our communications, our military manuevers and our daily operations are at risk if we don't react," Parly said. Russia strikes hit Syria's Idlib as powerbrokers meet Beirut, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Russian air strikes killed five people in Syria's Idlib Friday, a monitor said, even as the brutal war's top three power brokers discussed "stabilising" the last rebel-held province. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who backs Syria's government, met the leaders of fellow regime ally Iran and rebel supporter Turkey to determine the fate of the northwestern zone on the Turkish border. Government forces have been massing around Idlib for weeks ahead of an expected offensive on the province, which is held by jihadists led by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate and rival Turkish-backed rebels. On Friday morning, Russian air raids targeted rebel positions in the southwest of the province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. They destroyed one Ahrar al-Sham post, killing four of its fighters and wounding 14 others in the area of Hobait, it said. An AFP stringer saw rescue workers working with their bare hands to retrieve a victim from rubble blocking the entrance of what appeared to be a cave inside a sandstone rock face. They carried away the limp body of a man covered in pale dust, as diggers worked nearby to clear the debris. A shepherd was also killed and four other people wounded in the bombardment, the Observatory said, although it was not immediately clear if they were fighters or civilians. "The aim was to destroy rebel fortifications," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. HTS controls more than half of Idlib province, while other rebels, including Ahrar al-Sham, hold most of the rest. Regime troops are present in a southeastern chunk of the province, but observers say a planned offensive could target other peripheral areas of the rebel-held zone. On Friday, Putin said that he, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan "discussed concrete measures regarding a phased stabilisation" for Idlib. But a joint statement released after the talks gave few details. Aid groups have warned that any military offensive in Idlib could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters of Syria's seven-year civil war. Almost three million people live in Idlib and adjacent rebel-held areas, half of whom have already been displaced from other parts of the country, the United Nations says. More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the war erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. Protesters set Iranian consulate ablaze in Iraq's Basra: AFP Basra, Iraq, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Hundreds of protesters stormed and set on fire the Iranian consulate in Iraq's southern city of Basra on Friday, an AFP photographer said, as they vented their anger over poor public services. Thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the building while hundreds went inside the consulate and set it ablaze, the photographer said. Basra has seen a surge in protests since Tuesday, with demonstrators torching government buildings as well as political party and militia offices, as anger boils over after the hospitalisation of 30,000 people who had drunk polluted water. At least nine demonstrators have been killed since then in clashes with security forces, Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of Basra's human rights council, has said. Protests first broke out in July in oil-rich Basra province before spreading to other parts of the country, with demonstrators also condemning corruption among Iraqi officials and demanding jobs. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has scrambled to defuse the anger and authorities have pledged a multi-billion dollar emergency plan to revive infrastructure and services in southern Iraq. But Iraqis remain sceptical as the country remains in a political limbo after May elections with the formation of a new government still to be sealed. Iraq's parliament has meanwhile called for an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest at the request of populist cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose bloc won the largest number of seats in the May polls. Trump says expecting 'positive' new letter from N.Korea's Kim Fargo, United States, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 US President Donald Trump said Friday he was expecting a "positive" new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, indicating that negotiations on denuclearizing the peninsula remain alive after weeks of apparent deadlock. "I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me, that was handed at the border," Trump told reporters traveling with him to North Dakota. "I think it's going to be a positive letter." Trump also said Kim had made a "very positive" statement about him. "That was a very positive statement, what he said about me," Trump said. "There's never been a more positive statement." Kim on Thursday renewed his commitment to the goal of denuclearization in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in Pyongyang September 18-20 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. "The north and the south should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. Kim also voiced his continuing trust in Trump, according to Seoul's envoy -- which prompted the US president to tweet out his thanks to the North Korean leader and vow to "get it done together." Iraq parliament to meet after protesters torch Iran consulate Basra, Iraq, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Iraqi protesters on Friday torched the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra in fresh demonstrations over poor public services after parliament called for an emergency session on the unrest. Unidentified attackers also fired shells into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in a rare attack on an area that houses parliament, government offices and the US embassy. There were no casualties. Basra has seen a surge in protests since Tuesday, with demonstrators torching government buildings as well as political party and militia offices, as anger boils over after the hospitalisation of 30,000 people who had drunk polluted water. At least nine demonstrators have been killed since then in clashes with security forces, Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of Basra's human rights council, has said. The wave of protests first broke out in July in oil-rich Basra province before spreading to other parts of the country, with demonstrators also condemning corruption among Iraqi officials and demanding jobs. "We're thirsty, we're hungry, we are sick and abandoned," protester Ali Hussein told AFP Friday after another night of violence. "Demonstrating is a sacred duty and all honest people ought to join." Thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the Iranian consulate on Friday while hundreds stormed the building and set it on fire, an AFP photographer said. A spokesman for the consulate said that all diplomats and employees were evacuated from the building before the protesters attacked, and that none of them were hurt. Iraq's foreign ministry called the attack against the consulate "an unacceptable act undermining the interests of Iraq and its international relations". Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi denounced the incident as a "savage attack", according to Iranian news agency Fars. Iran is a key power broker in Iraq and many of the militias and political parties whose offices were torched Thursday are known to be close to the Islamic republic. - 'Excessive force' - Parliament said that lawmakers and ministers, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, will meet on Saturday to discuss the water contamination crisis, the latest breakdown in public services to infuriate residents. The meeting was demanded by populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose political bloc won the largest number of seats in May elections although a new government has yet to be formed. Sadr, whose supporters held protests inside the Green Zone in 2016 to condemn corruption among Iraqi officials, called for "demonstrations of peaceful anger" in Basra after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday. And the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority, in his Friday sermon denounced "the bad behaviour of senior officials" and called for the next government to be "different from its predecessors". At least 24 people have been killed in the demonstrations since they erupted in Basra on July 8. Human rights activists have accused the security forces of opening fire on the demonstrators. But the government has blamed provocateurs in the crowds and said troops have been ordered not to use live rounds. Amnesty International on Friday denounced "the use of excessive force by security forces" and called for an investigation into the deaths. - 'Intentional policy of neglect' - The anger on Basra's streets was "in response to the government's intentional policy of neglect" of the oil-rich region, the head of the region's human rights council Tamimi said. Abadi has scrambled to defuse the anger and authorities have already pledged a multi-billion dollar emergency plan to revive infrastructure and services in southern Iraq. But Iraqis remain deeply sceptical as the country remains in a state of political limbo. Sadr on Thursday called for politicians to present "radical and immediate" solutions at the emergency meeting of parliament or step down if they fail to do so. Abadi, for his part, is trying to hold onto his post in the next government through forming an alliance with Sadr, a former militia chief who has called for Iraq to have greater political independence from both neighbouring Iran and the United States. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz 'Why Does Everything I Do Get So Overblown?' In a DER SPIEGEL interview, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, 32, talks about his goals as holder of the rotating European Council presidency, the fight against illegal immigration and his relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Hate Network Atomwaffen Division Atomwaffen Division is a militant neo-Nazi group in the U.S. Who is behind it? The Final Battle? All Eyes Turn to Idlib in Syrian War Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has his eyes on recapturing Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria. But Russia may have other uses for the province. And Turkey and Iran have a say as well. 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 TORONTO, Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT) (TSX:CAR.UN) announced today that it has sold its Georgian Towers property, located at 1450 West Georgia Street in Vancouver, consisting of 162 suites. CAPREIT has also agreed to acquire two brand new luxury apartment buildings totaling 269 rental suites strategically located in the City of Vancouver. The property, located in a large master-planned community in Vancouver, consists of two brand new luxury buildings connected by a state-of-the-art recreation complex with 5,742 square feet of amenities. One building, consisting of 155 rental suites, was completed for occupancy on May 29, 2018 with occupancy now near 100%. The second building containing 114 suites is under construction with an expected occupancy date in September 2018 with close to full occupancy anticipated by December 2018. CAPREIT will pay $32 million for the purchase of the two properties net of sale of its Georgian Towers property. The closing date for the two buildings is estimated to be on or before September 27, 2018. The acquisition of these two brand new luxury buildings affirms CAPREITs commitment to continuously modernize and upgrade the quality of the overall portfolio. ABOUT CAPREIT As one of Canada's largest residential landlords, CAPREIT is a growth-oriented investment trust owning interests in 50,764 residential units, comprising 44,172 residential suites and 32 manufactured home communities comprising 6,592 land lease sites located in and near major urban centres across Canada. For more information about CAPREIT, its business and its investment highlights, please refer to our website at www.caprent.com or www.capreit.net and our public disclosure, which can be found under our profile at www.sedar.com. CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS All statements in this press release that do not relate to historical facts constitute forward-looking statements. These statements represent CAPREIT's intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could result in actual results differing materially from these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are more fully described in regulatory filings that can be obtained on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. For more information, please contact: Madrid, September 7, 2018 (SPS) - Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Fernando Martin Valenzuela Marzo, reiterated the position of his country in support of the efforts of the UN Secretary Generals Envoy for Western Sahara to find a lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, during a meeting with the Delegate of the Polisario Front in Spain, Jira Bulahi. During the meeting the Sahrawi representative reiterated the Polisario Front's willingness to sit at the negotiating table, provided that they lead to respect for resolutions that allow the Saharawi people to exercise their right to self-determination and completion of the decolonization process of the last colony in Africa. She urged Spain to respect the judgment of the European Court of Justice and to call on the member countries of the European Union to refrain from the illegal exploitation of the natural resources in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA English06/09/2018 SRNA News Roundup /I/ - September 6, 2018 REPUBLIKA SRPSKA DOBOJ An academy will be held this evening in Doboj on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the sufferings of Serbs in Vozuca and on Mount Ozren where the so-called Army of BiH torched 30 villages, expelled 1,920 families with 7,680 members from their homes and killed 459 Serbian soldiers and civilians. The academy will also be attended by Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic and the Minister of Labor and Veterans Affairs, Milenko Savanovic. MODRICA The novel titled Guardians of Monasteries, dedicated to the defense of Serbian territories and monasteries in Gostovic, Vozuca and on Mount Ozren in the patriotic-defense war was presented last night in Modrica. The novel was written by the war-time commander of the Gostovic Battalion, Petar Lukic-Vuk, of Gostovic, and was published after his death. BANJALUKA The acting director of the Putevi Republike Srpske Company, Nenad Nesic, has told SRNA that the Company had a positive financial result in the first six months of the year, that is, it generated a profit of KM 2,722,112. BIJELJINA Every novel by Dragan Tepavcevic becomes a real cultural event in Republika Srpska, not only because of awards which do not necessarily guarantee a quality, but because of subjects dealt with and a simple, but yet a complex way of narration. Following an emotional sniper in the form of a novel titled The City for Homeless Children, which speaks of an /un/successful search for identity of a child and a city /Sarajevo/, Tepavcevic has returned to the literary and readers focus with a new novel titled Does Anyone Speak English? An article by Nenad TADIC BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA SARAJEVO The Head of the SNSD Caucus in the BiH House of Representatives, Stasa Kosarac, says it is sad that BiH Security Minister Dragan Mektic has more trust in the former bodyguard of Alija Izetbegovic and the present director of the BiH Intelligence-Security Agency /OBA/, Osman Mehmedagic Osmica, than in Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic. BANJALUKA Dusanka Majkic, a member of the Joint Defense and Security Committee of the BiH Parliament, has warned that the BiH Intelligence-Security Agency /OBA/ is under full control of the SDA and the SDS and stressed that Republika Srpska should consider withdrawing from the agreement, by which it gave its approval for the founding of OBA, and founding its own agency. SARAJEVO The Croatian member of the BiH Presidency, Dragan Covic, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic today opened the Consulate of Croatia in Livno. SERBIA BELGRADE The Serbian Government this year allocated additional 1.69 million Euros /200 million Dinars/ for agricultural machinery for farmers in Kossovo and Metohija, Serbias Minister of Agriculture, Branislav Nedimovic, has said. REGION LJUBLJANA The Slovenian police have said that they arrested two persons for paramilitary activities after the publishing of a video footage depicting a group of armed, masked persons headed by the former right-wing presidential candidate, Andrej Sisko. PODGORICA There are around 8,000 illiterate persons in Montenegro, and according to recent data, they are elderly citizens who did not have an opportunity for an education, said professor Goran Drincic. /end/sg It was the first prize shearling ewe, female champion and overall reserve champion from husband and wife breeders, David and Karen Shuttleworth, who run the Heber Park flock at Heber House Farm, Gargrave, which commanded the days leading price of 3,800gns. Celebrating the 10th anniversary since the flocks formation, their March, 2017, gimmer shearling, Heber Park Claribell, which had earlier stood ninth in class at this years Great Yorkshire Show the couples sixth prize winner the same day has since sold for 7,500gns - was by the Beachy Perfection son, Corra Wally, a tup borrowed from County Durhams Henry Jewitt and since sold by him for 1,800gns. Out of Dean Brow Tinkerbell, acquired as a gimmer shearling from Lancashires Harry Wood., the top price Claribell was secured by a Red Rose farming partnership - Nick Brown and his partner Charlotte Ormonroyd, of Claughton, Lancaster, and Dan Towers, of Wray. Nick and Charlotte were purchasing the Skipton reserve champion for the second year running. Their 2017buy, a 4,200gns shearling ram from the Artnagullion pedigree flock in Ballymena, has since been put to good use on their expanding Bronic Beltex flock, now almost 20-strong and further enhanced by their latest top-notch female acquisition, which will either go to their Artnagullion ram or a home-bred shearling tup. The young couple, who took over their first farm in 2016, were themselves in action in the sales ring shortly before the top price acquisition, selling their pen-leading February, 2017, shearling ewe, Bronic Camilla, sired by College Awesome, for 1,300gns to Dan Towers himself. Welsh show judge Dafydd Owen, who runs the Smart Ass Beltex flock in Golygfar Dyffryn, Conwy, found his supreme champion in a strong shearling ram show class - a top-class entry he said exhibited a great top and very good shoulders. It was the first prize winner and male champion from the North Craven Rathbone flock of father and daughter, Mike and Becki Davis, of Ravenshaw Farm, Eldroth, who were securing their first-ever Skipton title with Rathbone Cooper. The March, 2017-born son of Y Bedol A-Team, bred in Wales, though since acquired from Belgium after joining Mark Messien, and doing well in his first season for the Davis family he has sold shearling tups to 3,200gns - was out of one of the flocks flushing ewes, the Drumchapel Scooby daughter, Rathbone Winnie. The title winner attracted keen interest from many breeders, going on to top the ram trade at 2,200gns when joining Irish breeder David Browns Brownville flock in Bessbrook, Co. Down. Mr Davis established the Rathbone flock in 2002, with his daughter, now 27, coming into the fold straight after leaving Giggleswick School. They currently run around 140 pedigree ewes, a mixture of Beltex and Dutch Texel, and have always done well at their local Beltex showcase. From Tatham Hall Farm, Wray, near Lancaster, Procters Farms Jeff Aitken presented a nice pen of shearling rams, which sold early in the sale, with five achieving four-figure prices. Leading the way at 2,000gns was the January, 2017, Myna Actor son, Procters Calypso, which found a new home in County Durham with Frosterleys GW Lee & Son. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arena Minerals Inc. (Arena or the Company) (TSX-V: AN) is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing of 46,000,000 units of the Company (the Units) at a price of $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of $2,300,000 (the Offering). Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (a Common Share) and one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one Common Share of the Company at $0.10 for a period of 36 months from September 6, 2018. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering to fund potential future property acquisitions, continue the development of its Atacama Copper property located in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile, and for general corporate purposes. The Common Shares, Warrants and shares underlying the Warrants will be subject to a four-month statutory hold period from September 6, 2018, the closing of the private placement. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 1933 Act), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. To view the website, please visit www.arenaminerals.com . In addition to featuring information regarding the Company, its managements and projects, the website also contains the latest corporate news and an email registration allowing subscribers to receive news and updates directly. About Arena Minerals Arena Minerals owns 80 percent of the Atacama Copper property, consisting of two projects covering approximately 7,000 hectares within the Antofagasta region of Chile. The projects are at low altitudes, within producing mining camps in infrastructure rich areas, located in the heart of Chile's premier copper mining district. The technical and scientific aspects of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Vernon Arseneau, P.Geo, who is a qualified person pursuant to NI 43-101. As the Vice President of Exploration of the Company, Mr. Arseneau is not considered independent. For more information, contact William Randall at (416) 818-8711. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Arena Minerals Inc. William Randall, President and CEO Cautionary Note Regarding Accuracy and Forward-Looking Information: This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements, projections and estimates relating to the future development of any of the Companys properties, the anticipating timing with respect to the private placement financing, the ability of the Company to complete the private placement financing, the results of the exploration program, future financial or operating performance of the Company, its subsidiaries and its projects, the development of and the anticipated timing with respect to the Atacama project, and the Companys ability to obtain financing. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The statements made herein are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of the Companys interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Estimates underlying the results set out in this news release arise from work conducted by the previous owners and the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current exploration activities; other risks of the mining industry and the risks described in the annual information form of the Company. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Arena Minerals does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. 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. 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. TORONTO, Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV:BGM) ("Barkerville" or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it has completed the previously announced C$20 million royalty purchase transaction with Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd ("Osisko"), pursuant to which Osisko acquired from Barkerville a 1.75% net smeller return ("NSR") royalty (the "Royalty Purchase") on the Cariboo property (the "Property") for the aggregate purchase price of C$20 million (the "Royalty Transaction"). Of the purchase price paid on closing, $2,000,000 will be kept by Barkerville in a segregated restricted account and will not be available to Barkerville until certain conditions precedent are satisfied (the "Restricted Funds"). Those conditions precedent include the delivery to Osisko of certain waivers and consents required from third parties in connection with the Royalty Transaction (the "Conditions Precedent"). Under the terms of the Royalty Purchase Agreement, the Corporation also has the option to grant Osisko an additional 1% NSR on the Property (the "Option Royalty") for additional cash consideration of CAD$13 million, at any point between the closing date of the Royalty Transaction and December 31, 2018 (the "Royalty Option Period"). In order to grant the Option Royalty and receive the additional consideration, Barkerville must have successfully satisfied the Conditions Precedent to the release of the Restricted Funds. In the event that (i) the Corporation announces a change of control during the Royalty Option Period, or (ii) Osisko participates in an equity financing of the Corporation during the Royalty Option Period, if the Option Royalty remains unexercised, Osisko will have the right to purchase the Option Royalty. As part of the Royalty Transaction, Barkerville has granted Osisko 10,000,000 common share purchase warrants of the Corporation (the "Warrants"). The Warrants will be exchangeable for common shares of the Corporation (the "Common Shares") at an exercise price of $0.75 per Common Share for a period of 36 months following the closing of the Royalty Transaction. All securities issued under the Royalty Transaction are subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of closing. The gross proceeds from Royalty Transaction will be used by the Corporation to fund exploration and studies related to the Property and for general corporate purposes. Related Party Disclosure The Royalty Transaction is considered to be a "related party transaction" for purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") and Policy 5.9 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Corporation is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements available under MI 61-101. The Corporation is exempt from the formal valuation requirement in section 5.4 of MI 61-101 in reliance on sections 5.5(a) and (b) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the transaction is not more than the 25% of the Corporation's market capitalization, and no securities of the Corporation are listed or quoted for trading on prescribed stock exchanges or stock markets. Additionally, the Corporation is exempt from minority shareholder approval requirement in section 5.6 of MI 61-101 in reliance on section 5.7(b) as the fair market value of the transaction is not more than the 25% of the Corporation's market capitalization. The board of directors of Barkerville approved the Royalty Transaction, with Sean Roosen, John Burzynski and Chris Lodder having declared a conflict of interest in, and abstaining from voting on, the matters being considered. The Corporation did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the closing of the Royalty Transaction, as the details of the Royalty Transaction were not settled until shortly prior to the closing, and the Corporation wished to close the Royalty Transaction on an expedited basis for sound business reasons. About Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. The Corporation is focused on developing its extensive mineral rights package located in the historical Cariboo Mining District of central British Columbia. Barkerville's Cariboo Gold Project mineral tenures cover 1,950 square kilometres; along a strike length of 67 kilometres which includes several past producing placer and hard rock mines, making it one of the most well-endowed land packages in British Columbia. Since the management change in mid-2015, the Corporation has unlocked the fundamental structural controls of gold mineralization. The Company's Brownfield's exploration team is focused on developing and delineating a mineable resource within the 7 kilometers of principle project area located near the town of Wells, British Columbia. The Company's Greenfield's team is developing quality exploration assets throughout the remaining land package through systematic, scientific, exploration. The operation's team is focused on developing and mining the Bonanza Ledge and BC Vein deposits on Barkerville Mountain. This operation allows the company to generate near term cash flow, train a local work force, keeps the present mining permit active, and de-risk's the project through staged production growth. Processing of material from these deposits is processed at the QR mill. QR is a fully owned, permitted mill and tailings facility, located approximately 110 kilometres away from Wells, and can be accessed by an all-season road. For more information on Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd., please contact: Chris Lodder President and Chief Executive Officer 155 University Avenue, Suite 1410 Toronto, Ontario, Canada clodder@barkervillegold.com 416-775-3671 Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the Corporation's ability to exercise the Option Royalty, and the proposed use of proceeds. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, although not always, identified by words such as "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "project", "target", "potential", "schedule", "forecast", "budget", "estimate", "intend" or "believe" and similar expressions or their negative connotations, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond Barkerville's control, including risks associated with the ability of Barkerville to satisfy the Conditions Precedent required to release the Restricted Funds and exercise the Option Royalty,; the volatility of metal prices; risks and dangers inherent in exploration, development and mining activities; risks of not achieving construction and development timelines and estimates; uncertainty of mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; the ability to obtain and maintain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for mining activities; risks related to environmental regulations or hazards and compliance with complex regulations associated with mining activities; fluctuations in price and availability of energy and other inputs necessary for construction development and ultimately mining operations; shortages or cost increases in necessary equipment, supplies and labour; regulatory risks; climate change risks; volatility of global financial conditions; risks related to reliance upon contractors and third parties; challenges to title or surface rights; dependence on key personnel; risks associated with conflicts of interest among the Corporation's directors and officers; the risk of an uninsurable or uninsured loss; litigation risk; taxation, including changes in tax laws and interpretation of tax laws; community and aboriginal support for the Corporation's operations including risks related to strikes and the halting of such operations, from time to time; as well as other factors identified and as described in more detail under the heading "Risk Factors" in Barkerville's most recent management discussion and analysis and the Corporation's other filings with Canadian securities regulators, which may be viewed at www.sedar.com. The list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the Corporation's forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do, what benefits or liabilities Barkerville will derive therefrom. The Corporation's forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date hereof and except as required by applicable securities laws, the Corporation does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. 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. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Sudan is claiming that it will play a supervisory role in rebuilding war-torn South Sudans national army. The latest revised peace deal between South Sudan and the rebels (SPLM-IO) calls for the formation of a unified national army. That means rebel units and individual rebels must be integrated into the army. Prior to December 2013 when the civil war erupted, several rebel units still on the battlefield were units in the army. South Sudan was once part of Sudan, so Sudanese involvement in rebuilding South Sudans military is a bit ironic. However, that appears to be acceptable to South Sudans warring parties and to the IGAD (East African Intergovernmental Authority on Development) mediators. The peace agreement calls for the creation of a high-level technical integration committee (HLTIC). The committee will establish eligibility requirements for individuals seeking to join the army, police and internal security forces, and prison, fire brigade and wildlife services. Presumably, Sudanese officials would serve on the committee. (Austin Bay) September 5, 2018: South Sudan expects to revive its oil production and return to peak production of 350,000 BPD (barrels per day) by 2019. Current production is 20,000 BPD, mainly because of disruptions caused by the civil war. By catching up on some delayed maintenance production should reach 80,000 PBD by the end of the year. September 4, 2018: Some refugee camps outside the capital will have their inhabitants moved back to their home areas as quickly as possible. The urgency is the result of growing violence inside the camps, whose population is mainly women and children, between members of feuding groups. September 2, 2018: South Sudan and Ethiopia have agreed to create a joint border security force to insure the safety of South Sudanese and Ethiopians living in the border area. There have been several mass kidnapping incidents. In 2016 South Sudanese Murle tribesmen abducted over 100 Ethiopian children. That resulted in tribesmen from Ethiopias Gambella border region carrying out raids into South Sudan. The joint force would also intercept smugglers. Both countries are particularly concerned about illegal weapons. Stopping illegal weapons trafficking would be a primary joint border security force mission. September 1, 2018: Despite the new peace agreement, it appears a serious ceasefire violation has already occurred in South Sudan. Rebels claim that on August 29 soldiers began attacking rebel positions in the Yei River state. This is the first serious ceasefire violation accusation since July 20 when government forces attacked rebel positions in the south (Yei River state). The rebel accusation is detailed and credible. On August 29 soldiers based in Yei Town and Pakula assaulted rebel positions in the town of Kupera Payam. Prior to attacking Kupera, soldiers in armored vehicles seized an outlying position called Jamara Center. Rebel units withdrew from Kupera to avoid civilian casualties. Since the initial assault, the army has reinforced the units in Kupera. Some reinforcements arrived on August 30. The rebels called on UN peacekeepers and ceasefire monitors to investigate the attack and condemn the ceasefire violations. August 30, 2018: The rebel leader (Riek Machar) signed a revised peace agreement with the government. The government and mediators assured the rebels that any unresolved issues regarding power sharing will be favorably resolved. August 29, 2018: Sudan and Egypt announced that in October they will sign over 20 agreements that will help resolve outstanding diplomatic issues. The agreements will also encourage business cooperation, with tourism a common interest. The agreements will also encourage cooperation in energy development (oil and gas), education, agriculture and public health. August 28, 2018: Sudan continues to maneuver diplomatically with Egypt. The Sudanese Army has agreed to work with Egyptian security forces to fight terrorism and maintain security along the countries shared border. But the GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) on the Nile River disputes have yet to be resolved. Egypt sees the potential denial of Nile River water as a fundamental threat. On the issue of Nile River water and the GERD, Sudan is literally caught between Egypt and Ethiopia. Sudan sees the GERD as a major hydro-electric power source. August 22, 2018: In South Sudan soldiers belonging to rebel faction have rejoined the army. Brigadier General Chan Garang announced that he and some 300 officers and troops will rejoin the army. Garang defected in 2017 and joined the rebels (SPLM-IO). He later left the main rebel coalition to join another rebel faction. Garang contends he defected because of atrocities by pro-government forces. August 18, 2018: Sudan insists that the next series of Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile states) peace talks be held without any preconditions. Since 2011 two factions of the SPLM-N revels in those states have been waging a guerrilla war against the government. The African Union is sponsoring what it calls comprehensive peace talks to end the war and institute democratic reforms. August 16, 2018; Sudan and Ethiopia have agreed to pull back soldiers from disputed border regions. They will also create a joint bordering monitoring and protection force. Sudans Gedaref state has been particularly troublesome. Sudanese farmers accuse Ethiopians of illegally occupying land in the area. The two countries are also undertaking a new border demarcation effort. August 14, 2018: In western South Sudan (Bahr el Ghazal state) refugees now reaching the town of Wau reported that since the end of July there have been sporadic tribal fighting in a remote area of the state. Western. The primary belligerents have been two armed groups in the in the Mboro and Bisellia areas where the town of Nagero was also attacked. August 13, 2018: In Sudan, the defense ministry announced that Sudan will continue to improve military and economic cooperation with Russia. A Russian oil company is preparing to look for oil in Sudan. August 9, 2018: In South Sudan, the president (Salva Kiir) officially gave amnesty to the main rebel leader (and former South Sudan vice president) Riek Machar and all rebel groups. The amnesty follows the signing of a new power-sharing agreement between the government and the rebels. In Sudan senior leaders in the National Congress Party (NCP) unanimously recommended party members amend the NCP constitution so current Sudan president Omar al Bashir can be the party nominee in upcoming presidential elections. The current NCP constitution limits a party presidential candidate to two terms. There is also a move underway in Sudans legislature to abolish a Sudanese constitutional law that limits presidential terms. Abolishing it will let Bashir run for a third term, and more in the future thus becoming president-for-life. Bashir needs that because he is an indicted war criminal and being president of Sudan makes it possible for him to do some traveling outside the country without risking arrest. August 8, 2018: In western Sudan, three Darfur rebel groups have agreed to extend for three more months a unilateral Cessation of Hostilities for Humanitarian Purposes in the western Sudan region. The rebel groups involved are SLM-MM, SLM-A and JEM. The Sudan Liberation Movement, another major Darfur rebel group, continues to refuse to engage in peace discussions. August 7, 2018: In South Sudan, several members of opposition parties are criticizing the on-going peace negotiations between the government and its political opponents. Some of the splinter parties are not part of SPLM-IO (the main rebel coalition). The splinter parties say their concerns are being ignored. One key demand the small parties share with many SPLM-IO members is the unpopular recent partition of South Sudans original ten states into 32 states. Several opposition party members are also suspicious of Sudans motives. The peace talks are being held in Sudan and Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir is playing a prominent role in facilitating the negotiations or the 10 versus 32 states issue. August 6, 2018: The UN-African Union hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur announced that 1,229 former rebel combatants had successfully completed demobilization training exercise. The rebels belonged to rebel organizations that had accepted peace terms that included amnesty and demobilization. Since 2015 a Chinese firm (Norinco) has been offering for export the AH4 155mm towed howitzer. This weapon was basically a copy of the older British M777, but can be lighter and always cheaper. AH4 was designed to use all the same Western ammo the M777 does. There is a lighter (3.4 ton combat weight) AHS4 mountain gun version for moving around in rough terrain. The AH4, at 4.5 tons when combat ready, is only 3.3 tons for the weapon itself, is too heavy for that. China also offers a GP6 laser guided shell that has a range of 25 kilometers and requires someone near the target (on the ground or in the air) to aim a laser at the target so the shell can home in on the reflected laser light. The U.S. developed this sort of thing in the 1980s (Copperhead) and found there was little demand for it on the battlefield. But other nations have fewer guided weapons available and China sells a lot of GP6 shells. The AH4 has a longer barrel, which helps a bit with range and accuracy. The M777 has a 155mm/32 barrel. That means the barrel length is 32 times 155mm or 5.1 meters (16.7 feet) long. The AH4 has a 155mm/39 barrel that is six meters (19.5 feet) long. Normal AH4 range is 25 kilometers but with rocket-assisted rounds it is 40 kilometers. The M777 has proved more useful, especially when using the GPS guided Excalibur or M1156 (ATK fuze) shells. The M777 is also very much combat proven. For example, a U.S. Marine artillery battalion fired 35,000 shells in five months while in Syria (June-October 2017) supporting Kurdish forces that captured the ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) capital city of Raqqa. The individual marine 155mm howitzers also fired more rounds per gun and fired the largest number of GPS guided rounds per gun in one campaign. Moreover, there were never more than six of the marine 155mm howitzers in action at any one time. The marines rotated artillery batteries in and out of Syria to allow for maintenance on the guns and rest for the crews. Thus each of the marine 155mm guns averaged 39 155mm rounds a day. But the marine 155mm howitzers fired over a hundred rounds on some days and only a few on others, usually on days they were changing position to keep up with the Syrian rebels. The marines fired a lot of M1156 GPS guided shells and often did so at extreme ranges. The M777 has also been used in Afghanistan and that combat record has made it difficult for China to obtain export orders for the AH4. There have been two export customers, both in the Middle East. Kuwait said it evaluated the M777 and the AH4 before choosing the Chinese howitzer. Details of the evaluation were not revealed but it may have come down to price and diplomacy (buying Chinese weapons is considered a friendly gesture towards China.) China is increasingly eager to compete with the most popular Russian and Western weapons. China has already taken much of Russias traditional low-end market and is now moving on to the more complex, expensive and effective Western designs. China often uses stolen tech and the Russians never really had the clout to stop China from stealing tech. But the West is different and better able to strike back, at least in theory. The Chinese are putting that to the test. BAE (a major British arms manufacturer) developed the M777 155mm towed howitzer, which entered service in 2005 and is now mainly manufactured in the United States because the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are major customers. The M777 is a lightweight (3.4 ton for just the gun, 4.2 tons combat ready) howitzer that currently costs from three to six million dollars each. The lightweight means the M777 can be moved slung under a helicopter and thus quickly moved to otherwise inaccessible areas. The M777 is the lightest 155mm towed howitzer ever fielded. M777 fire control is handled by a computerized system that allows faster response time and more accurate shooting. The M777 can use all current 155mm ammunition, including the Swedish/American GPS guided Excalibur shell or the even cheaper M1156, which is a large fuze containing the GPS and guidance system. The guided round cuts ammo use enormously because one guided round will often get the job done quicker and with less collateral damage that dozens of unguided rounds. The Americans began replacing their 1980s vintage M198s with M777s in 2007. Until then the M198 was the standard towed 155mm howitzer for the United States and many NATO counties. M198s weighs eight tons and can fire conventional rounds as far as 22.4 kilometers. For rocket-assisted projectiles (RAP) the range is 30 kilometers. These unguided shells land anywhere within a 200 meter circle. That's at 25 kilometers range. Accuracy gets worse at longer ranges. It takes 12 minutes for the M198 to be ready to fire after the truck towing it stops. It can pack up and move again in about 4 minutes. Using GPS the M198 can be in position to fire in less than ten minutes and shift to another target in about 8 minutes. So far the U.S. has ordered over a thousand M777s. The manufacturer has also received a contract to refurbish 33 M777s that returned from service in Afghanistan. This cost $91,000 per howitzer. The M777 is also used by Canada and Britain. The U.S. Army uses M777s in airborne and Stryker brigades. A five ton truck is used to tow the guns, but a special, 4.5 ton LWPM (Lightweight Prime Mover) is available to do that as well. The 4.2 ton M777 is much lighter than the M198 it replaces mainly because it (like the AH4) makes extensive use of titanium, and new design techniques. It fires shells with a maximum range of 40 kilometers (using RAP, or rocket assisted projectile, ammo). A crew of five operates the gun, which can be ready to fire in under three minutes, and ready to move in under two minutes. The M777 is light enough to be moved (via a sling) by CH-53E and CH-47D helicopters. Its sustained rate of fire is two rounds a minute, with four rounds a minute for short periods. The AH4 uses a crew of seven and has similar ready times and rates of fire. Marines operate an assault amphibious vehicle during a simulated mechanized raid at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Aug. 28, 2018. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Brendan Mullin X 0 20 Help Keep Us Soaring We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month. Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways: WARWICKSHIRE Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe is encouraging people who live or work in Warwickshire to attend a special conference being organised to bring communities together to fight hate crime, embrace differences and promote cohesion. The Love Instead of Hate Community Conference is being organised by the Warwickshire Hate Crime Partnership to coincide with Hate Crime Awareness Week. Hate crime is a widely unreported problem as victims dont always think a crime has been committed. This event will aim to provide a greater understanding about what constitutes hate crime and how it can be reported within Warwickshire. The event takes place at The Life Church in Bulkington Road, Bedworth between 10am and 3.30pm on Saturday, 20th October and is free to attend. The conference format will be a mixture of presentations and more interactive sessions, including the opportunity to take part in a creative art project and an African Drumming workshop. Families are being encouraged to attend, with activities and supervised workshops laid on for children. There will also be joint activities for families to take part in together to make the day fun and entertaining for all, with a buffet lunch laid on. The Commissioner will be among those speaking at the event, with others scheduled to talk including BBC TV and radio presenter Trish Adudu, who will talk about her own experiences as a victim of hate crime; Dan Biddle, who is a survivor of the 7/7 London bombings and now works to improve access for the disabled; and Sylvia Lancaster, who founded the Sophie Lancaster Foundation as a lasting legacy to her daughter, who was murdered by two teenage boys because she was a goth. The overall conference objectives are to: Raise awareness and reinforce messages about hate crime and the importance of reporting; Encourage communities to speak out against hate and report incidents; Empower and inspire people to be actively involved in combating hate within their own community; Update communities about the work being undertaken in Warwickshire by partners (You said, we did) and obtain ideas about new areas of work. Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe said: Events like this help to bring communities together and help all the agencies to establish what is working well, what can be improved and also help bring in new ideas to combat the problem. It will also help raise awareness of all the ways which police and their partners are working to help victims of hate crime and bring offenders to justice. As a community we must do all we can to change attitudes to reinforce the message that hate crime is unacceptable and should never be tolerated. I want to encourage as many people as possible to register for the event and I hope they will find it enlightening and thought-provoking as well as entertaining for the whole family. Spaces at the conference are limited and residents need to register their interest in advance of the event. Follow the link below to book a FREE ticket now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/love-instead-of-hate-warwickshire-community-conference-tickets-44186542137. To find out more about hate crime and how you can report and get help and support in Warwickshire, visit:www.reporthatenow.com. Pune, India, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Worldwide Dental Consumables Market report titled Dental Consumables Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2024 provides country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. Dental consumables fall under a product category that is focused on the assisting dental care providers to perform procedures involving emergency, restorative, diagnostics and preventive oral health issues. The rising number of dental issues has fuelled the demand for dental consumables. Market Research Future (MRFR)s latest study reveals that the value of the global dental consumables market will rise to more than USD 28,300 Mn by the year 2024. The market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 6.5% between 2016 and 2024. Dentistry has continued to evolve, with new techniques, tools and medication making dental procedures more effective. Dentistry has been existing for several centuries and practised in various traditional forms. However, it became a more genuine profession only in the recent past. As new developments take place, the dental care industry becomes more dynamic. Advances in the dental care technology has led to development of novel dental care products such as dental consumables. Get Exclusive Sample Copy of Dental Consumables Market Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1806 Competition Tracking MRFR in its report has profiled some of the prominent market participants, which include Nobel Biocare (Part of danaher corporation), 3M, Henry Schein, GC orthodontics, Patterson Dental, Planmeca OY, Septodont, KERR Corporation, American Orthodontics, Straumann, EnvisionTEC, and Dentsply Sirona. Over the past couple of decades, the number of dental cases has grown astounding mainly due to the rising global population. There is a steep rise in preventive care and repairs procedures associated with oral health. At the same time, focus is also shifting towards providing special oral care services depending on the kind of treatment patients require. Some of the currently accessible especial branches of dental care include Prosthodontics, Orthodontics, Endodontics, Periodontics. More recently, new dental specializations have come such as Cosmetic/Aesthetic Dentist, Maxillofacial Surgeons, and Pedodontist. Development of novel dental consumables is facilitating the complex dental procedures associated with these branches. Dental Consumables Market Segmentation: Insights MRFRs report offers a detailed segmental analysis of the Global Dental Consumable Market based on type and region. By type, the market has been segmented into dental prosthetics, dental regenerative material, dental implants and others. Among these, the dental implants segment currently commands the highest share and is likely to remain highly attractive throughout the assessment period. Europe to Spearhead the Global Dental Consumables Market Over 2024 On the basis of region, the global dental consumables market has been segmented into Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Europe. The status of dental consumables industry in Europe is most favorable. The region will continue to offer lucrative opportunities to market players during the forecast period. Meanwhile, North America is expected to retain the second spot over 2024. Increased dental cosmetic surgeries and restorative procedures is supporting the growth of the market in North America. APAC is also an important market for dental consumables. In addition, the APAC dental consumables market is projected to expand at a relatively higher rate over the next couple of years. The regions market is projected to capture an impressive CAGR of 7% during the review period. Factors such as rising per capita income and widening access to high quality dental care services are making a positive impact on the regions market. Latest Industry News Leading dental lab products manufacturer DenMat Holdings, LLC has reportedly agreed upon an exclusive distribution deal with Henry Schein, Inc.s UK business - Henry Schein UK Holdings Ltd. The deal will allow Henry Schein take charge of sales, fulfillment activities and customer service operations of DenMat's professional products in the United Kingdom. This new deal is expected to support DenMat's existing field sales resources in the country who will continue their operations and try to expand their existing customer base. India-based dental care provider Clove Dental plans to open 600 Clinics Pan-India in the bid to expand its country-wide presence. For this the dental care brand is set to pump $25 Mn. It currently controls 250 clinics, of which 117 are in New Delhi. Clove Dental is reportedly adding 10-12 clinics a month and aims to reach a 250% growth in revenues by next year. It was established in 2011 and has invested Rs 239 crore ($35 million) since then. Most of clinics that the company has set so far have a minimum commercial space of 700 square feet and can accommodate two to four chairs. The company recorded a revenue growth of 300% in 2015-16 fiscal year. Get Discount on Report at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1806 Related Reports: Dental Radiology and Dental Imaging Devices Market Research Report - Global Forecast till 2023 Dental Radiology and Dental Imaging Devices Market information: by method (intraoral, extraoral, others), by devices (dental radiology devices, dental imaging devices), by application (diagnosis, therapeutic, cosmetic, forensic), by imaging types (2D imaging, 3D imaging), and by end user (hospitals & dental clinics, forensic laboratories, academic & research institutes) - Global forecast till 2023 Dental Prosthetics Market Research Report - Global Forecast To 2023 Dental Prosthetics Market information, by Type (Denture, Crown, Bridges, Veneer, Abutment, Inlays), By Type of Material (Porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM), Metal, All ceramic, and others), by End User (Dental Hospitals & Clinics Market, Dental Research Laboratories) - Forecast to 2023 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. NAPANEE, Ontario, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VIVO Cannabis Inc. (TSX-V: VIVO, OTCQB: VVCIF) (VIVO or the Company) is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Canna Farms Limited (Canna Farms), has completed an agreement with the Ontario Cannabis Store (the OCS) to supply the Province of Ontario with high-quality cannabis products. Under the terms of the agreement, Canna Farms will supply the Ontario market with cannabis products in two formats, representing 10 different product presentations, to help satisfy demand in the adult-use recreational cannabis market, set to open on October 17, 2018. This agreement between Canna Farms and the OCS brings VIVOs total count to 26 product presentations that will be available to Ontario recreational cannabis users. We are confident that cannabis consumers in Ontario will appreciate VIVOs high-quality branded products under the FIRESIDETM, LuminaTM and Canna Farms brands, said Barry Fishman, CEO of VIVO. We are extremely excited to extend our product offering by including Canna Farms branded craft-grown dried flower and pre-rolled products. About VIVO Cannabis VIVO is recognized for trusted, high-quality products and services. It holds production and sales licences from Health Canada and its world-class indoor cultivation facilities in Napanee, Ontario and Hope, British Columbia both contain proprietary plant-growing technology. VIVO is expanding its production capacity and pursuing partnership and product development opportunities domestically, as well as in select international markets, including Germany and Australia. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Barry Fishman (CEO and Director) Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information VICTORIA, British Columbia, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emerald Health Therapeutics, Inc. (TSXV:EMH; OTCQX:EMHTF) (Emerald) today announced that it has been selected as an approved supplier by the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, operating as the Cannabis Retail Store (OCS), to supply the province of Ontario with its cannabis products in anticipation of the adult-use market starting October 17, 2018. Quantities will be disclosed once details have been released by the Province of Ontario. Were proud to partner with the OCS to provide adults in Ontario with the opportunity to discover our products, said Chris Wagner, CEO at Emerald. We look forward to helping Ontario expand its supply and diversity of products to meet anticipated demand and consumer preferences. With more than 14 million people, Ontario is a key market for us as we expand nationwide and build our brand. Emerald is focused on product innovation that will command high profit margins; differentiating marketing, distribution, and sales strategies; and securing significant supplies of safe, quality, and low-cost cannabis. About Emerald Health Therapeutics, Inc. Emerald Health Therapeutics (TSXV: EMH; OTCQX: EMHTF; Frankfurt: TBD) is a Licensed Producer under Canadas Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations and produces and sells dried cannabis and cannabis oil for medical purposes. Emerald owns 50% of Pure Sunfarms, which is converting a licensed existing 1.1 million square foot greenhouse in Delta, BC, and is now in commercial production. It owns Agro-Biotech, a Quebec-based licensed cannabis grower with a 75,000 square foot indoor facility, and is planning to add a 500,000 square foot greenhouse in Metro Vancouver. Emeralds team is highly experienced in life sciences, product development, large-scale agribusiness, and marketing, and is focused on developing value-added cannabis-based products with potential wellness and medical benefits. Emerald is part of the Emerald Health group , which is broadly focused on developing pharmaceutical, botanical and nutraceutical products that may provide wellness and medical benefits by interacting with the human bodys endocannabinoid system. Please visit www.emeraldhealth.ca for more information or contact: Rob Hill, Chief Financial Officer (800) 757 3536 Ext. #5 Ray Lagace, Investor Relations Manager (800) 757 3536 Ext. #5 invest@emeraldhealth.ca Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements made in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and are subject to important risks, uncertainties and assumptions, both general and specific, which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements include legalization of nonmedicinal cannabis; production capacity of various facilities; expansion of facilities; and anticipated production costs. We cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties related to, among other things, failure to obtain regulatory approvals; failure to obtain necessary financing; results of production and sale activities; results of scientific research; regulatory changes; changes in prices and costs of inputs; demand for labour; demand for products; as well as the risk factors described in the Companys annual information form and other regulatory filings. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release represent our expectations as of the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are presented for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to obtain a better understanding of our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company undertakes no obligations to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur, unless required by applicable law. During PM's Question Time in the UK Parliament on Wednesday, prime minister Theresa May reiterated her government's commitment to fully include Gibraltar in all aspects of the Brexit negotiations. Speaking in response to a question from Conservative MP Bob Neill, who had asked if that were the case, she said she was very happy to confirm that, and that Britain would accept no veto over it. She also took the opportunity to pass her best wishes to the people of Gibraltar on their National Day on 10 September. The Gibraltar government has maintained a close relationship with the UK regarding Brexit since the EU referendum in 2016. The public health service in Malaga and on the Costa del Sol is facing industrial action this autumn because of a simmering dispute over a lack of medical staff. What doctors' representatives say is a shortage in community health centres was worsened over the summer when many workers were on holiday. They say they had to cover the patients of colleagues in July and August without locums. There has also been a reported increase in violence against staff recently. With summer over, GPs and paediatric doctors have said they can't wait for extra staff any longer and will start strikes from 15 October. There will be stoppages for four hours during the morning surgery and four hours in the afternoon. Doctors will down tools from 11am to 3pm and from 4pm to 8pm. Other demands The front-line doctors are also demanding, as part of their action, more time per patient and an improvement in salaries to match those in the rest of Spain. Carlos Bautista of local doctors' group 'Basta ya'( That's enough) said, " The situation is unsustainable. It's been a bad summer because of the lack of locum staff. The SAS health service hasn't listened to our requests. Unhappiness among doctors is getting worse. The strike is the only way out and to get the authorities to see our discontent." He added that emergency treatment in the centres during the strikes will be guaranteed. Minimum services are also expected to be maintained in normal surgeries during the stoppages. 'Basta ya' and the SMM medical union have also restarted the protests that they began earlier this summer. Although the demonstrations at the doors of medical centres have been focused on the Malaga city area, representatives of workers from centres along the Costa del Sol have been present in the 'Basta ya' meetings. Feeling of powerlessness The president of the Malaga doctors' association (Colegio de Medicos), Juan Jose Sanchez Luque, said that "the strike is a response to a feeling of powerlessness" in the health centres and the increase in verbal and physical attacks on staff this summer. He added that he hoped that the regional government and health service would react and that urgent solutions could be found. Sources at the Junta de Andalucia regional government said that the health service it runs had spent 25.2 million euros on bringing in 3,700 relief staff this summer in hospitals and health centres in Malaga province, a two per cent increase on last year. Seven people - three men and four women of Spanish origin - have been arrested and a 24-year-old man freed after police traced a kidnapping to a country house in Cartama. The man was taken by the gang from Ronda to a pawn shop in Malaga where they forced him to recover jewellery he had stolen and then sold for cash. Unsuccessful, they took him to Cartama where they beat him, injuring his eye, before calling his mother to demand a 1,500-euro ransom. The start of this school year is very special for Resurreccion Galera, who is returning to teaching religion again after being banned from doing so by the Catholic church 17 years ago. The reason? A few months earlier she had married a divorced man, Johannes Romes, in a civil ceremony, and she has been fighting ever since to be allowed to return to her job. It has not been an easy battle for this 52-year-old from Nijar, in Almeria. Several courts have found in her favour, but the Church authorities placed so many obstacles in her path that it is only now that she has been able to return to the school to prepare for the start of the new term next week. This has all gone on too long, says her lawyer, Amalia Robles. "We are very happy about the result, but it has been very difficult. The legal process should have been much faster, but with so many appeals and bureaucratic problems it has taken much longer than it should." Resurreccion had been working at the Ferrer Guardia school in Los Llanos de la Canada (Almeria) for seven years when in 2001 the Diocese decided not to continue employing her because of her marriage. It simply removed her name from the list of teachers for the forthcoming school year. She has only just been reinstated despite the fact that in 2011 the Constitutional Court decided that the Church was contravening her right "to suffer no discrimination on the grounds of personal circumstances, ideological freedom in connection with the right to marry in a legally approved manner, and personal and family privacy". It also said her marriage "does not affect what she is teaching". The Diocese appealed, and in 2016 the Supreme Court again found in her favour, saying her dismissal was unlawful because it contravened her fundamental rights. Even so, it was not until July this year that the Education authorities obliged the school to give her back her job. The Court also ordered her to be compensated for all the salary that she should have received during the 17 years. Resurreccion declined to comment on this occasion, but in 2012 she said that her beliefs remained the same, married or not, and that she had done nothing wrong. "Nobody questioned my teaching ability. The problem arose because of the agreements with the Holy See, which are causing situations like this," she said. Then came another blow: in October that year, she was told that by the Diocese that she had not been issued with the 'missio canonica', a certificate to guarantee her suitability to teach, and without which she could not do her job. "The Catholic church is apparently above the law," said her husband Johannes at the time. The Diocese has not commented on Resurreccion's return to teaching, but theologist Juan Jose Tamayo of the Juan XXIII association says it had not behaved well. "Its attitude has been arrogant and it has not respected the court decisions. It hasn't even apologised or admitted the error," he said. Recent terrorist attacks aimed at tourists in Mediterranean destinations are not lingering in holidaymakers' memories, it seems. This July, Spain's foreign visitor levels fell for the first time since 2009, by 4.9%; though hardly enough to dent the country's reputation as a tourism heavyweight, the slump shows that it lost some tourists to other "sun and sea" destinations this summer. Where did these holidaymakers go instead? Many spent July roasting on Egyptian beaches, despite recent atrocities. Last July, a 29-year-old Egyptian graduate named Abdel-Rahman Shaaban targeted two resorts in Hurghada, on the Red Sea, and stabbed seven female tourists, three of them fatally. Shaaban's gruesome spree - specifically aimed at international visitors - mirrored a similar attack in Hurghada in January 2016, when two militants stabbed one Austrian and one Swedish tourist. These tragic events are no longer acting as a deterrent to tourists, though: visitor numbers to Egypt increased by 41% during the first half of 2018, compared to the same period in 2017. Other tourists who passed over Spain this July chose Tunisia, the north African country that made international headlines in June 2015. In that month, an ISIS-backed gunman opened fire on holidaymakers in the El Kantaoui resort, just north of Sousse on Tunisia's beautiful Mediterranean coast. Thirty-eight people from six countries were killed. But in Tunisia, as in Egypt, the number of incoming tourists rose by 40% during the first six months of this year. Yet other holidaymakers lured away from Spain's sun-drenched Costas chose to work on their tans in Turkey. Turkey has seen several terrorist attacks over recent years, as well as a failed military coup against Recep Erdogan's government in 2016 that resulted in the deaths of over 300 people. The most horrific assault on tourists and civilians occurred in the early hours of New Year's Day 2017, when a gunman affiliated to ISIS massacred 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub; among the dead and wounded were people from fourteen countries. The UK Foreign Office currently rates the risk of further terrorist attacks in Turkey as "very likely", adding that it's "likely" tourists from western countries will be targeted. But none of this is putting people off holidaying there any more: the country's visitor numbers rose by almost a third throughout the first half of 2018. As these three destinations recapture their lost popularity, Spain's state tourism body, TurEspana, is trying a new approach to attract visitors. Over the next couple of years, its marketing strategy will focus on luring more "cosmopolitan tourists" - typically those who favour city breaks over beach resorts and who spend more - to Spanish destinations. While doing so, Spain can't afford to become too complacent about the appeal of its "sun and sea" hotspots, though: rival countries that were down-and-out a couple of years ago are firmly back on the scene. We've reached the point where we can stop using the word 'record' in every headline. The minus sign has appeared in front of the most important tourism statistics on the Costa del Sol at the height of summer, after three consecutive years of record-breaking figures and unusual growth for such a well-established tourist area. The first decline in tourism on the Costa del Sol since the financial crisis confirms that the vigorous upturn over the last few years was just part of a bubble that is starting to deflate. It could end up as nothing, something or everything, time will tell, depending on how well this destination has done in building customer loyalty. It seems that we have passed the first test, however, as the Costa del Sol is in a better position than the rest of Spain's tourist areas, also affected by the fall in international visitors which is a direct consequence of the recovery of competitors such as Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt. In other words, a significant proportion of those who came on loan from rival destintions are stillchoosing the Costa del Sol - for the time being. However the situation could have been worse had the tourism industry on the Costa del Sol not won back its Spanish tourists, who in recent years had turned their backs on this area because of its rising prices and the shortage of rooms due to the great demand from foreign visitors. This new period, although it comes marked by negative figures, must be understood as a turning point which forces business owners and the different authorities to realise that the times call for new strategies in sales and marketing. What we mustn't do is fall into the trap of defeatism, or depression, but neither must we attempt to disguise the situation. The Costa has started to slow down and must put its foot on the accelerator to get back on track as soon as possible. It's a well known fact that fussy people should all be cast adrift on a distant island somewhere to indulge in their favourite hobby ad nauseum among like-minded fuss pots. "Look! Look, everybody! A ship! We're saved! We're saved!" "That's one of those ships with wooden seats, isn't it? I'm not getting on that thing. Anyway, what kind of colour scheme is that for a starboard bow? And stop waving that sheet, for God's sake, the draught is playing havoc with my breeze-intolerant tonsils." I pride myself on being quite the opposite but last week I was, I have to say, pushed to the limit. Being at a loose end one evening, I took my newspaper down to a new curry house that had been highly recommended, intent on enjoying a spicy catch up on current affairs. The initial signs weren't good. The place was so brightly lit that I'm surprised they didn't receive complaints from Malaga airport. Not to worry, I'm not fussy, remember, so I plonked myself at a very bright white plastic table and perused the available fare although I don't really know why - I always have lamb madras anyway. The very eager waiter took my order and brought the bottle of beer I'd asked for. It was tepid. This is not really what you're after on a balmy Andalusian evening but don't fuss, Peter - maybe warm beer is fashionable among hipsters these days. The food arrived; it was nothing out of this world but still, by this time, I was deeply into trying to fathom what the hell is actually going on in Catalonia, so a plate of bland pilau rice was the least of my worries. So far, so uninspiring but certainly not worth making a fuss about, I'm sure you'll agree. What happened next, however, was enough to try the patience of the patron saint of unfussiness. One minute I was puzzling over Carles Puigdemont's vacuous gaze, the next, plunging my fork into what was left of my very average meal and there it was, right before my eyes, every diner's worst nightmare - an enormous black hair. It was roughly the length of Chile. Suddenly Spanish separatism didn't seem quite so important. What to do? Make a fuss? Unthinkable. Carry on eating? Unthinkable. Swig some beer? Undrinkable. In the end, I slid the plate as far away as I could and asked the waiter for some chocolate ice cream. They didn't have any, obviously. "Just the bill then, please." "Did you enjoy your meal, sir?" "Well... I... it's... oh yes, lovely, thank you. Keep the change." After all, nobody likes a fuss pot. For four days in September, something rather unusual occurs in four towns and villages tucked away in the mountains of Malaga and Cadiz. It is not unusual to see Texan hats in Montejaque, for country music to be heard beside the gorge in Ronda and the Mirador viewing point in Grazalema or for the bullring in Villaluenga del Rosario to resonate to the sound of electric guitars. The third Pueblos Blancos Music Festival began on Thursday and runs until Sunday. IN DETAIL Dates. Until 9 September. Venues. The Blas Infante auditorium on the balcony near Ronda gorge; the Plaza de la Constitucion in Montejaque, the Mirador del Tajo in Grazalema and the bullring in Villaluenga del Rosario. Entrance. Free. Programme. Further info: pueblosblancosmusicfestival.org About 20 groups, mostly from Austin but some from Nashville and elsewhere, have come to perform in these stunning places, and the concerts take place at different times between 1pm and 1am, depending on the location. The venues are the Blas Infante auditorium on the balcony near the Ronda gorge, the Plaza de la Constitucion in Montejaque, the Mirador del Tajo in Grazalema and the bullring in Villaluenga del Rosario. The music includes rock, blues, country, Tex-Mex, jazz, funky and R&B, performed by professional bands from the other side of the pond who have chosen this as their first platform in Europe. Sharing experiences "They come here because they love the places, and to share experiences, link up with musicians they know and meet others from here," explains Josu Camacho, the head of Perform in Spain, who founded this event with musician and philosopher Phil Plata and Juan de Castro, member of the Sierra de Libar Foundation, who runs the tourist office in Montejaque. The performers are not paid, and they even pay for their own air tickets. As the event has no private sponsors and is only supported by the local town halls and the Malaga and Cadiz provincial governments, the budget is very tight. The atmosphere, though, makes up for the lack of funds. A community of musicians has formed now, and they treat this as a meeting point for themselves, the residents of the 'white villages' and bands from the area or elsewhere in Spain. The exchange of talent has paid off. After the second festival the Madrid group Eclectica went on a tour of Mexico, and Chisum Cattle Co travelled to Austin and won Best Instrumentalist Of The Year in theTexas Sounds Awards. Both groups are performing at the festival again this year, and others include the Jake Levinson Band, Joe King Carrasco, Nakia Reinoso, Tim Gonzalez and Suzanna Choffel, to name just a few. Montejaque is the operations centre; all the artists are staying there and are taken by bus to the venues each day. The idea for this festival came after Phil Plata and Josu Camacho happened to meet in Austin. Josu had been impressed by the type of live music which he had seen there and wanted to bring it to Spain. "There were concerts in the street, a laundry, a bookshop, all totally informal," he says. Phil Plata came to the region to visit the 'Pueblos Blancos' and Juan de Castro then joined them to help with the organisation. Right now and for the next few days, Austin doesn't seem far away at all. MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- D. Bryan Jordan, CEO of First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN), will present at the 2018 Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York City on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. The conference will be available to the public via live webcast with audio replays available until September 26. A link to the webcast, both live and archived, along with the materials for this conference will be available in the events and presentations section of http://ir.fhnc.com/. Any materials may contain forward-looking statements, including guidance, involving significant risks and uncertainties, which will be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "should," "is likely," "will," "going forward" and other expressions that indicate future events and trends and may include cautionary statements. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking information. These factors are outlined in our most recent earnings press release and in more detail in our most current 10-Q and 10-K reports. First Horizon disclaims any obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements that are made from time to time to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations. About First Horizon First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN) provides financial services through its First Tennessee, Capital Bank, FTB Advisors, and FTN Financial businesses. First Horizon operates approximately 300 bank locations across the southern U.S. and 28 FTN Financial offices across the entire U.S. Our banking subsidiary was founded in 1864 and has the 14th oldest national bank charter in the country. Our First Tennessee and Capital Bank brands have the largest deposit market share in Tennessee and one of the highest customer retention rates of any bank in the country. We have been ranked by American Banker as No. 5 among the Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. Banks. Our FTB Advisors wealth management group has more than 300 financial professionals and provides services to about $30 billion in assets. FTN Financial is a capital markets industry leader in fixed income sales, trading and strategies for institutional customers in the U.S. and abroad. We have been recognized as one of the nations best employers by Working Mother and American Banker magazines and the National Association for Female Executives. More information is available at www.FirstHorizon.com. FHN-G Investor Relations, Aarti Bowman, (901) 523-4017 Media Relations, James Dowd, (901) 523-4305 Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shaker, the market-leading provider of pre-employment assessments, will showcase its award-winning assessment at the HR Technology Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, Sept. 1113. Shaker will showcase a new suite of Virtual Job Tryouts designed to support leading-edge hiring processes in call centers. Based on the award-winning Virtual Job Tryout platform, the new mobile suite features a convenient and easy-to-access mobile format, without sacrificing the platforms immersive, engaging, and highly predictive qualities. Shaker will demonstrate how Virtual Job Tryout, available in Pre-Configured, Tailored, and Customized options, can create recruiting efficiencies, reduce turnover, improve quality of hire, and deliver a better hiring experience. Mobile Virtual Job Tryout technology is available for four distinct call center jobs. It is ideally suited for volume hiring where getting to high-potential candidates first is critical in a talent scarce market. Virtual Job Tryout technology delivers a multimethod, multimedia evaluation experience that reports on essential performance drivers for call center jobs such as overall success, career stability, customer service, sales drive, reliability, and more. Leveraging over 15 years of data, selection science, and proven results to help companies improve their quality of hire, Shaker helps companies predict performance ahead of hires. By predicting candidate success, new hires are poised to be more productive, faster once theyre on the job. Shaker has been incorporating machine learning into its award-winning solution for over a decade and designs assessments that are shorter and more realistic, allowing candidates to respond in their own words and demonstrate a broad set of hard and soft skills that employers need. Shakers proven results help companies improve their quality of hire and acquire talent they already know will succeed in their jobs. ABOUT SHAKER Too much is at stake in finding top candidates. Talent leaders want ironclad, proven tools to identify people who will succeed, so their businesses will succeed. Shakers market-leading Virtual Job Tryout is the only pre-hire assessment that gives you powerful predictive insights and a preview of candidate performance, while also allowing your future employees a glimpse into your jobs and company. Realistic job previews, at speed, backed by unparalleled science Shaker. Learn more at shakerinternational.com. ALBANY, New York, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global target drone market was valued at US$ 3,156.7 Mn in 2016 and is projected to register compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 10.02% from 2018 to 2026, according to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled Target Drone Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20182026. The report suggests that rising use of target drones across defense forces and higher applications as compared to manned aerial vehicles is likely to spur the demand for target drones in the coming years (2018 to 2026). As key players introduce new target drones in developed markets such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, these regions are likely to account for dominant share of the global target drone market. Increasing popularity of the target drone, especially across economies such as China, Japan, and India along with the increased spending on defense systems and technologies in these countries, and presence of companies that produce target drones is likely to drive the Asia Pacific target drone market at a growth rate of around 10% from 2018 to 2026. Malfunction of target drones to affect the growth of the target drones market worldwide Malfunction of a target drone can be fatal for the people present in the vicinity during testing or training of any combat mission system. Several target drone accidents have been reported in the past, causing fatalities. For instance, in 2013, in Florida, a large QF-4 target drone crashed at the Tyndall Air Force Base. In 2014 as well, a target drone crashed in Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Another target drone malfunctioned and collided with a guided missile cruiser during training in California, causing slight injuries. Request a PDF Brochure at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=34700 These malfunction incidents are raising questions on the reliance of aerial target military aircraft. However, well-established players are installing technologically superior systems in target drones to minimize and address this concern. For instance, in 2017, The Boeing Company announced that it will produce novel target drones named QF-16 which include features such as a flight termination system that will destroy the drone in case of any technical error or in an out of control situation. Internal combustion engines are significantly adopted by companies producing target drones around the globe On the basis of engine type, the target drone market is segmented into internal combustion engine, jet engine, and others. Internal combustion engine segment is expected to hold a market share of 47.65% in 2026 and expand at a CAGR of over 9% during the forecast period. The significant CAGR is because of the increasing popularity of various types of jet engines due to their prominent power-to-weight ratio compared to other engines. Furthermore, jet engines provide higher speed for the target drones. Companies including The Boeing Company and many more are using jet engines in their target drone named as QF-16 because of all these benefits. Get PDF Sample for Research Insights at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=34700 North America is the leading contributor to the target drone market In terms of value, North America was the leading contributor to the global target drone market in 2017. The contribution is primarily because of the booming target drone marketplace due to significant defense spending along with the presence of well-established players across the region, especially across the U.S. Furthermore, North America is home to many well-established players from the target drone domain including AeroTargets International, The Boeing Company, Griffon Aerospace, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. Many North American companies are trying to improve the performance of their multiple target drones business units. For instance, in May 2018, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. announced that its Unmanned Systems Division has received a contract of approximately US$ 38 million pertaining to the unmanned aerial drone aircraft. Furthermore, in May 2018, the company announced that its Kratos Defense & Rocket Support Services Division has been awarded the Aerial Target Systems 2 contract. Download Report TOC at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/34700 Key Players such as The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. are likely to lead the global target drone market The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Leonardo S.p.a., Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. are some of the major players operating in the target drone market profiled in this study. Various players are focusing on the development of novel and highly advanced target drones. For instance, in 2017, Leonardo S.p.a. introduced its aerial target drone named Mirach-40 to the market at the Paris Air Show. The novel aerial target drone is designed to provide medium-to-high performance at a reasonable price compared to its competitors. Furthermore, it also supports armed forces training by simulating a range of airborne threat targets. Browse Research Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/target-drones-market.htm About TMR Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals. Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories. TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision. Contact Mr. Atil Chaudhari Transparency Market Research State Tower 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Research Blog: http://www.editiontruth.com/ The approval has been granted by the Spanish Medicines Agency The study will be done in patients with 3 psychiatric disorders and 2 neurodegenerative disorders This is the first Phase IIa study with Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) in the psychiatric field MADRID, Spain and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oryzon Genomics (ISIN Code: ES0167733015, ORY), a public clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging epigenetics to develop therapies in diseases with strong unmet medical need, has announced today the approval by the Spanish Medicines Agency (AEMPS) of a clinical trial authorization (CTA) to carry out a Phase IIa trial with Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) in patients with episodes of aggressiveness. The study, called REIMAGINE, is a "basket" trial to explore the safety and efficacy of Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) in patients with episodes of aggressiveness in two neurodegenerative disorders (Lewy Body Dementia (DLB) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD)) and three psychiatric disorders (Autism Spectrum Syndrome (ASD), Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)). This trial will include 6 patients per indication and will be conducted in Spain at the Valle de Hebron hospital in Barcelona. REIMAGINE is designed as a single-arm, open-label, 8-weeks treatment study to evaluate safety and efficacy in aggression. Vafidemstat (ORY-2001) is an oral and brain penetrant drug that selectively inhibits LSD1 and MAOB. The molecule acts on several levels, reduces cognitive impairment, memory loss and neuroinflammation, and at the same time has neuroprotective effects. The company has recently reported in several scientific conferences that in preclinical models Vafidemstat exerts a holistic action on different types of alterations also seen in patients with AD and other neurodegenerative disorders. Different experiments suggest Vafidemstat may act as a disease modifying drug. In AD patients and other neurodegenerative disorders, cognitive deterioration is often accompanied by episodes of agitation, aggression, psychosis, apathy and depression. In preclinical studies, Vafidemstat not only restores memory but reduces the exacerbated aggressiveness of SAMP8 mice, a model for accelerated aging and Alzheimers disease, to normal levels and also reduces social avoidance and enhances sociability in various murine models. In addition, Vafidemstat exhibits fast, strong and durable efficacy in several preclinical models of multiple sclerosis (MS). The company has already started Phase IIa clinical studies with Vafidemstat in patients with Relapse-Remitting and Secondary Progressive MS (SATEEN) and in patients with Mild to Moderate Alzheimers disease (ETHERAL). Roger Bullock, Oryzons Chief Medical Officer, commented: "This is a pioneering study borrowing cancer methodology for CNS research. Many behavior alterations like aggression are common across neurological and psychiatric disorders. Preclinical work with Vafidemstat suggest that these behavior alterations may share common mechanisms, which potentially respond to epigenetic approaches. REIMAGINE is looking at aggression in response to stress across diverse CNS disorders and we are anticipating exciting discoveries. Further REIMAGINE studies will look at other behavior alterations in a series of ground breaking experiments to literally reimagine the treatment of CNS disorders. Carlos Buesa, president and CEO of Oryzon, commented: "Vafidemstat is a first in class molecule and it is pioneering worldwide the epigenetic approach in the field of Nervous System diseases, not only neurodegenerative but also psychiatric. The molecule has shown a very good safety profile up to now, and in the preclinical studies it has shown a holistic action on the different alterations observed in human patients. The results of this trial will give us valuable information about the future clinical development of Vafidemstat." About Oryzon Founded in 2000 in Barcelona, Spain, Oryzon (ISIN Code: ES0167733015) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company considered as the European champion in Epigenetics. The company has one of the strongest portfolios in the field. Oryzons LSD1 program has rendered two compounds in clinical trials. In addition, Oryzon has ongoing programs for developing inhibitors against other epigenetic targets. The company has a strong technological platform for biomarker identification and performs biomarker and target validation for a variety of malignant and neurodegenerative diseases. The company has offices in Spain and USA. For more information, visit www.oryzon.com. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This communication contains forward-looking information and statements about Oryzon Genomics, S.A., including financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, capital expenditures, synergies, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally identified by the words expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates and similar expressions. Although Oryzon Genomics, S.A. believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and holders of Oryzon Genomics, S.A. shares are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Oryzon Genomics, S.A., that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the documents sent by Oryzon Genomics, S.A. to the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, which are accessible to the public. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The auditors of Oryzon Genomics, S.A, have not reviewed them. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to Oryzon Genomics, S.A. or any of its members, directors, officers, employees or any persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement above. All forward-looking statements included herein are based on information available to Oryzon Genomics, S.A. on the date hereof. Except as required by applicable law, Oryzon Genomics, S.A. does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The Companys securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of the Companys securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from the Company or the selling security holder, as applicable, that will contain detailed information about the Company and management, as well as financial statements. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX.V - XLY) (OTCQX - CBWTF) ("Auxly" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its previously announced interim supply agreement on January 17th, 2018, the Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Dosecann Inc. (Dosecann), has entered into a definitive supply agreement (the Agreement) with Aphria Inc. (Aphria). Pursuant to the Agreement, Dosecann will have the option to purchase cannabis, including dried flower and cannabis oil (collectively, Cannabis Products) for distribution to certain international markets, including Mexico, Portugal, and Serbia, as well as a limited amount for distribution into the Canadian market. Subject to Aphria receiving the necessary regulatory approvals for expansion of its cultivation facilities, Dosecann will have the option to purchase up to 20,000 kilograms of Cannabis Products on an annual basis, until such time, Dosecann will have the option to purchase up to 100 kilograms of Cannabis Products on a monthly basis. The Agreement extends until January 31st, 2022 and may be renewed for additional 12-month terms. The Agreement also includes certain minimum quantities of Cannabis Products that must be purchased by Dosecann during the term. Hugo Alves, President and Director of Auxly stated: We are pleased to have reached a definitive supply agreement with Aphria, an industry leading operator, to supply our international distribution channels which represent an increasingly important market segment to us. This agreement serves as a key source of interim supply that bridges the gap between now and when the bulk of our streaming partners come online. We look forward to working and building a meaningful strategic relationship with the team at Aphria. Restricted Stock Awards The Company also announces that is has granted 5,913,334 restricted common shares of the Company (the "Restricted Shares") at a price per share of $1.02 to certain of its non-executive employees pursuant to the terms of the Companys equity incentive plan (the Plan), which was approved by shareholders at the Companys recent annual general meeting. All of the Restricted Shares vest immediately upon grant and are otherwise subject to the terms of the Plan. Further information regarding the Plan can be found in the information circular of the Corporation dated May 7, 2018, a copy of which is available at www.sedar.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Chuck Rifici" Chairman & CEO About Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX.V: XLY) Auxly Cannabis Group is a collective of entrepreneurs with a passion for the cannabis industry past, present and future. Our mandate is to facilitate growth for our partners by providing them with financial support and sharing our collective industry experience. Our partners all have different visions, voices and brand values, and all share a common goalto build a world-class industry based on ethics, diversity, quality and innovation. About Dosecann Dosecann is a Canadian Licensed Dealer dedicated to developing cannabis solutions for the cannabis industry. Located in Charlottetown, PEI, Dosecanns purpose-built, 42,000 square foot facility will be the hub for cannabis extraction, quality testing, research and development, product formulation and manufacturing. Investor Relations: For more information about investing in Auxly Cannabis Group, please visit: http://www.auxly.com or contact our Investor Relations Team: Email: IR@auxly.com Phone: 1.833.695.2414 Stay Connected: Follow up on Twitter @Auxlygroup Media Enquiries (only): For media enquiries or to set up an interview please contact: Sarah Bain, VP External Affairs Email: sarah@auxly.com Phone: 613.230.5869 Notice Regarding Forward Looking Information: This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. This information is only a prediction. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking information throughout this news release. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to: political changes in Canada and internationally, future legislative and regulatory developments involving cannabis in Canada and internationally, the Companys ability to secure distribution channels in international jurisdiction, competition and other risks affecting the Company in particular and the cannabis industry generally. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from a conclusion, forecast or projection contained in the forward-looking information in this release including, but not limited to, whether: Dosecann is able to obtain and maintain a Dealers Licence, the Company is able to successfully develop international distribution channels for cannabis products, Dosecann can obtain all necessary governmental and regulatory permits and approvals for the facility, including permits for import, and whether such permits and approvals can be obtained in a timely manner, and general economic, financial market, legislative, regulatory, competitive and political conditions in which the Company operates will remain the same. Additional risk factors are disclosed in the revised annual information form of the Company for the financial year ended December 31, 2017 dated May 24, 2018. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all of those factors or to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's 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 information. The forward-looking information in this release is based on information currently available and what management believes are reasonable assumptions. Forward-looking information speaks only to such assumptions as of the date of this release. In addition, this release may contain forward-looking information attributed to third party industry sources, the accuracy of which has not been verified by the Company. The purpose of forward-looking information is to provide the reader with a description of management's expectations, and such forward-looking information may not be appropriate for any other purpose. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained in this release. The forward-looking information contained in this release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements and is made as of the date of this release. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise. 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. Pakistan's Khan launches fundraising appeal for dams to avert drought Islamabad, Sept 7 (AFP) Sep 07, 2018 Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday launched a fundraising appeal to construct new water storage dams to tackle droughts, warning that the country's current capacity would not last beyond a month. Official estimates show that by 2025 Pakistan will be facing an "absolute scarcity" of water, with less than 500 cubic metres available per person -- just one third of the water available in parched Somalia, according to the UN. The country has massive Himalayan glaciers, rivers, monsoon rains and floods -- but just three major water storage basins, compared with more than a thousand in South Africa or Canada. In a televised message, Khan announced the launch of a fund to address shortages, warning that the country has "water storage capacity only for 30 days". "I appeal to all Pakistanis especially those living abroad to donate generously to the fund," he said. "Expatriate Pakistanis living in western countries and Europe should donate at least $1,000 to the fund while those engaged in labour and other low-salaried jobs in Middle East and other countries should also contribute according to their financial situation," he added. The funds will be used to construct dams in northern and northwestern Pakistan, including the massive Diamer-Bhasha hydropower project, which is expected to produce over 4,000 megawatts of electricity on completion in 2023. Khan and his cabinet face a myriad of challenges including a faltering economy, militant extremism, water shortages, and a rapidly growing population negating growth in the developing country. Annual Corporate Citizenship award recognizes innovation and service to local community NEWTON, Mass., Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARS Restoration Specialists , providers of 24/7 emergency disaster restoration and reconstruction services for residential and commercial properties, today announced it has been named one of the 2018 Corporate/Nonprofit Partners of the Year as part of Boston Business Journals Corporate Citizenship Awards program for its partnership with the Ellie Fund. The annual awards honor the businesses and nonprofits that, by working together, have made an immediate and lasting impact in the region. All honorees were recognized at the Corporate Citizenship Awards event on Thursday, September 6th at Fenway Park. To learn more, visit HERE . We are thrilled to celebrate our long standing and personal relationship with the team at ARS, said Gail Fine, former Executive Director, the Ellie Fund. Their unwavering support has been instrumental in sustaining our critical programming to support thousands of patients and their families throughout Massachusetts. We are grateful to the Boston Business Journal for recognizing our partnership and appreciate ARS for their continued commitment to our mission. Since 2013, ARS has donated over $650k to support the Ellie Fund , a Needham-MA based nonprofit which seeks to relieve the burden of breast cancer on patients and their families by providing everyday support. ARS has exceeded year over year cash donations by at least 30% through a number of annual fundraising events and will continue to grow the yearly donation. New this year, ARS will send employees to Ellie Fund headquarters to pick up and personally deliver meal kits to patients. This level of active participation is truly valuable in solidifying employees commitment to and understanding of how the Ellie Fund makes a significant impact. The funds ARS donates annually to the Ellie Fund go directly to breast cancer patients and their families residing in and/or receiving treatment in Massachusetts. Unlike nonprofits focused on research, the Ellie Fund is uniquely focused on providing support and resources for every day necessities through the Healing Together Patient and Family Care Program and Metastatic Breast Cancer Support Program. Each program provides grants that are tailored to individual patients treatment plan and needs and can include services such as transportation to medical appointments, light housekeeping, nutritional and grocery assistance, childcare reimbursement, nutritious prepared/delivered meals and integrative therapy services, all provided free of charge. Relieving the stress of balancing these everyday responsibilities while receiving treatment allows patients to focus on family, recovery and healing. This level of support is as important as cancer research and treatment itself. ARS monetary and in-kind support helps sustain, and grow, these essential programs to ensure patients feel supported outside of their treatment in their daily lives to alleviate the burden of everyday life and keep patients focused on recovery. We are honored to be recognized for our unique partnership with the Ellie Fund as giving back to our community continues to be a core company value, said Rich Piltch, Founder, ARS Restoration Specialists. The Ellie Fund supports countless patients and their families across Massachusetts. We are grateful to play a small role in helping to sustain and enhance the critical programming patients need to alleviate stress and focus on recovery. About ARS Restoration Specialists ARS Restoration Specialists provides 24/7 emergency disaster restoration and reconstruction services for residential and commercial properties in MA, RI, CT, and NH. ARS can respond to any loss, emergency or claim involving flood, water, fire, smoke, mold, lead or asbestos remediation, clean up or restoration, large or small. Founded in 1987 by brothers Rich and Stan Piltch, ARS has 20+ teams of experts working 24/7/365 to meet your emergency needs. To learn more visit www.arsserve.com or follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn . Sarah Murray EmergePR 781-378-2674 smurray@emergepr.com The Expert consensus statement on the science of HIV in the context of criminal law was published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society to coincide with the July 2018 International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018). The statement summarizes existing science on certain routes of HIV transmission and treatment, with an eye to encouraging better use of HIV science within the criminal justice system. Based on a review of existing research literature on the possibility of HIV transmission during a single act of spitting or biting, or of anal, vaginal or oral sex, the authors note that the possibility of HIV transmission varies according to a range of factors including viral load, condom use, and other risk reduction practices. They summarize the research to date that "suggests the possibility of HIV transmission during a single episode of sex, biting or spitting ranges from no possibility to low possibility." They also reference the positive health impact of modern antiretroviral therapies that have improved the life expectancy of most people living with HIV to a point similar to their HIV-negative counterparts. Finally, they describe how phylogenetic analysis alone cannot establish beyond reasonable doubt either the source or direction of transmission in an HIV criminal prosecution. Documents of this kind can be very useful to advocacy efforts, particularly if they include a set of specific recommendations that serve to support the ongoing work of advocates. But in view of the International AIDS Society's considerable investment in this process and the many signatories to the statement, we wish it could have gone beyond what already has been described by legal and medical experts in the field, to an unequivocal rejection of HIV criminal laws altogether. This is not to suggest that the statement has no value or that it cannot be used to support HIV advocacy efforts. A single document that synthesizes the most relevant research studies on transmission risk can be very useful to advocates challenging any form of HIV discrimination. The who-what-when-where matters, too: authored by globally renowned scientists and launched at one of the most visible events in the field of HIV, the statement is intended to be understood as the "gold standard" on the science of risk and transmission. The statement also challenges traditional public health risk terminology as ill-fitted for use in criminal prosecutions, and instead pushes the straightforward continuum of no, negligible, and low risk. In our view, what's missing from the statement stands out more than its utility as an educational tool or authoritative analysis. As a lawyer and an outreach specialist who are also trained public health professionals, we have a deep appreciation for data and scientific rigor. But we also believe that science can't be divorced from efforts toward social justice or the lived experiences of the communities it is intended to benefit -- particularly in the area of criminal law, which is characterized by extreme disparities and inequality across the globe. For the Expert consensus statement to conclude that what we really need is "a correct and complete understanding of current scientific knowledge" to "inform any application of the criminal law in cases related to HIV" comes up seriously short. As we see it, dispassionate scientific analysis which summarizes what we already know, without situating that analysis within a broader social justice framework, does not foster change on its own. Efforts to engage with HIV criminalization that fail to consider how the analysis affects those living with other stigmatized diseases such as viral hepatitis and tuberculosis -- or the next virulent retrovirus that emerges -- actually can further entrench use of a unique legal standard that is the heart of the problem with these laws. The statement chooses to focus on "the possibility of HIV transmission during specific acts that are commonly considered in [HIV criminal] prosecutions" but excludes injection drug use (IDU), mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT), and laws criminalizing solicitation while positive for PLHIV in the sex trade. That choice is unfortunate. People who inject drugs (PWID) are a hyper-criminalized population and experience significant barriers to healthcare access. In the United States, numerous states specifically criminalize needle-sharing by PLHIV. Historically and up to the present, many countries have criminalized women living with HIV in response to behaviors viewed as endangering or harming their unborn child or infant. For example, in 2008 a Florida woman was charged and pled guilty to felony child neglect after "not taking" steps to reduce the risk of vertical transmission of HIV to her child. Data on the enforcement of HIV criminal laws in some U.S. states suggests that sex workers bear the overwhelming brunt of HIV criminalization. Thus, to exclude PWID, MTCT, and solicitation while positive from an analysis of HIV transmission risk in the context of the criminal justice system is to disconnect the science from the ways in which these laws are unequally applied in reality, and leave open to interpretation the legitimacy of criminalizing PLHIV who inject drugs, sell sex, or are women living with HIV. The most concerning aspect of the statement is its presumption of the fundamental legitimacy of HIV criminal laws and their application. The statement's closing recommendation is not that governments and legal systems should reject or challenge HIV criminalization -- rather, it is to ensure that HIV criminal prosecutions are consistent with advancements in HIV science. Ultimately, this is a far more conservative recommendation than those issued over the past five years from important scientific and medical associations, including the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, the HIV Medicine Association, The American Psychological Association or the American Medical Association. As the editorial in the September 2018 edition of The Lancet HIV observes, "[a]longside better use of scientific and medical evidence in legal settings, however, prosecutors, governments, policy makers, and medical and legal professionals must recognise that the only effective approach to ending the HIV epidemic is a rights-based approach." In the end, science should be considered just one element of a multifaceted HIV criminal law reform strategy rather than a standalone solution. When it comes to HIV criminalization, science alone won't win the day, much as it hasn't in debates about sexual health literacy, reproductive choice, or climate change. Within our movement, failing to acknowledge the fundamentally discriminatory nature of HIV criminal laws, or the racial and economic dynamics of their enforcement, is simply not an option. Related: What's the Future of HIV Criminalization Activism? An Interview With Trevor Hoppe Arpita Appannagari, M.P.H., is National Community Outreach Coordinator at CHLP. Kate Boulton, J.D., M.P.H., is a Staff Attorney at CHLP. [Note from TheBody: This article was originally published by The Center for HIV Law & Policy on Sept. 6, 2018. We have cross-posted it with their permission.] ALBANY, New York, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global safety light curtains market was valued at US$ 1.50 Bn in 2016 and is projected to register compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 8.75% from 2018 to 2026, according to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled Safety Light Curtains Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20182026. The safety light curtains market is expected to grow significantly due to increased adoption of Industry 4.0 and rising factory accidents on a global scale. The report suggests that the rising integration of Industry 4.0 with safety light curtains technology is expected to boost the safety light curtains market at the global level during the forecast period 2018-2026. Furthermore, leading safety light curtain technology providers are focusing on Industry 4.0 technology. For instance, in March 2017, Sick AG, a leading safety light curtain provider, discussed the importance and application of sensors in Industry 4.0 technology at the Industry 4.0 Summit in Manchester. Additionally, safety light curtains based solutions are seeing significant application in manufacturing applications, which holds a significant share in the market. Prominent safety light curtain providers are focusing on R&D investments for further improvement of their current safety solution offerings. For instance, in June 2018, Omron Corporation, a safety light curtain provider collaborated with Cisco Systems G.K. to strengthen its grip in the manufacturing industry. These developments are expected to have a positive impact on the global safety light curtains market. Request a Sample of Safety Light Curtains Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=36818 Rising number of factory accidents expected to boost the safety light curtains market The rising number of factory accidents on a global scale are expected to boost the safety light curtain market over the forecast period. For instance, in 2017 as per a report by Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation, approximately 1242 people lost their lives in workplace accidents in Bangladesh. Additionally, in 2017, British Safety Council, one of the worlds leading health and safety organizations stated that approximately 48,000 people die every year in India due to occupational accidents. Multiple safety measures are carried out for improving factory working safety. For instance, Sick AG, a leading safety light curtain provider launched a new Type 4 based safety light curtain named mac4 to its existing safety solution based product portfolio. Download Report TOC at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/36818 Prominent adoption of safety light curtains in the manufacturing sector Based on end-use industry, the global safety light curtains market is segmented into manufacturing, food and beverages, healthcare, packaging, and others. Others include wood processing and paper industry. The rising adoption of safety light curtains in Industry 4.0 technology, which is playing a crucial role in the manufacturing industry across the globe, is expected to impact the safety light curtains market positively over the forecast period 2018-2026. The prominent adoption of safety light curtains in the automotive industry is one of the primary reasons for the significant growth of the market. Additionally, major manufacturing industries in Europe and Asia Pacific are projected to offer prominent potential for the growth of the safety light curtains market. Get a PDF Brochure at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=36818 North America holding a significant share of the safety light curtains market North America is expected to hold the highest share of the market during the forecast period. The factors contributing to the regions higher share are the significant players of safety light curtains such as Banner Engineering Corporation and Rockwell Automation Inc., along with the rising initiatives taken by the leading firms for further market penetration. For instance, in June 2018, Banner Engineering Corporation launched muting kits for its LS safety light curtains to provide enhanced muting capabilities to multiple safeguarding applications. Additionally, in June 2017, Rockwell Automation Inc. launched a new safety light curtain named GuardShield 450L, focused on improving flexibility and industrial safety. The new addition to its portfolio provides patented transceiver technology causing a significant impact on the flexibility of its safety light curtains to be utilized optimally in multiple applications. Browse Press Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/safety-light-curtains-market.htm Key Players such as Omron Corporation, Keyence, Corporation, Sick AG, Rockwell Automation Inc., and Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH likely to lead the global safety light curtains market Omron Corporation, Keyence, Corporation, Sick AG, Rockwell Automation Inc., and Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH are some of the major players operating within the safety light curtains market profiled in this study. Various market players are entering into partnerships to enhance their safety light curtains offerings worldwide. For instance, in June 2018, Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH announced plans to associate with SAP to strengthen its IoT based offerings in the process industry. Additionally, in May 2017, Datalogic S.p.A, a prominent safety light curtains provider launched its Enhanced Partner Advantage Program which made doing business with Datalogic easier by enhancing its rewards channel. Under its marketing incentives to its partners named Loyalty League, the partner company can claim prizes on the sale of a Datalogic product. About Us Transparency 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 Us Mr. Atil Chaudhari Transparency Market Research State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Research Blog: http://www.techyounme.com/ TORONTO, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (OTC:WDDMF) (FSE:4WE) (WeedMD or the Company), a federally-licensed producer and distributor of cannabis, is pleased to announce it has now completed the first harvest from its modern greenhouse in Strathroy, Ontario. The Company marked the event with the WeedMD First Harvest event, a community open house that welcomed well over 120 guests that included WeedMDs Board of Directors, local government, business leaders, investors, media representatives and employees. Were proud to have been able to share this important milestone with our community, stakeholders, employees and industry. The first harvest was completed in early September and resulted in an impressive yield from our first 10,000 square foot grow room, with additional harvests from two further new grow rooms planned over the coming weeks, said Keith Merker, CEO of WeedMD. Were on track to meet our production targets by year end and beyond. This impressive expansion in capacity and product availability will be leveraged to support WeedMDs medical, adult-use, and international initiatives. Another 16 modern grow rooms from the first 220,000 sq. ft. are scheduled to be progressively brought online over the remainder of 2018. Furthermore, an additional 300,000 sq. ft. from the companys Phase 2 expansion is anticipated to be online by the end of December 2018. Cumulatively and following Health Canada approval, the company anticipates entering 2019 with one of the largest operating production platforms in the industry. For more information, access our investor presentation here and recently updated corporate video here . About WeedMD Inc. WeedMD Inc. is the publicly-traded parent company of WeedMD Rx Inc., a federally-licensed producer and distributor of cannabis and cannabis oil under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR). The Company operates two facilities: a 26,000 sq. ft. indoor facility in Aylmer, Ontario and a state-of-the-art greenhouse facility located in Strathroy, Ontario. The Greenhouse currently has 44,000 square feet of licensed space in production and is expected to have a total footprint of more than 500,000 square feet online by year-end 2018. WeedMD has a multi-channeled distribution strategy that includes supply agreements with Shoppers Drug Mart and provincial distribution agencies, as well as through strategic relationships across the seniors' market in Canada. Follow WeedMD On: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weedmd/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/5020743/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeedMD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weedmd/ For further information, please contact: WeedMD Inc. Keith Merker, Chief Executive Officer Tel: 519-765-2440 Ext. 222 Email: investor@weedmd.com To learn more, visit us at www.weedmd.com For Media Inquiries: Marianella delaBarrera Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Tel: 416-897-6644 Email: marianella@weedmd.com Forward Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation which are based upon WeedMD's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs and views of future events. Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expect", "likely", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "anticipate", "potential", "proposed", "estimate" and other similar words, including negative and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "would" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. The forward-looking information in this news release is based upon the expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and views of future events which management believes to be reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking information includes estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, targets, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking information in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to internal expectations, expectations with respect to actual production volumes, expectations for future growing capacity and the completion of any capital project or expansions. Forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of WeedMD to implement its business strategies; competition; crop failure; and other risks. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, WeedMD does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for WeedMD to predict all such factors. When considering this forward-looking information, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in WeedMD's Annual Information Form dated December 13, 2017 (the "AIF") and other disclosure documents of WeedMD filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . The risk factors and other factors noted in the AIF and other disclosure documents could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking information. 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 Burberry Group Plc plans to stop destroying unsold items after shareholders objected to the disposal of millions of pounds worth of goods. The company also plans to stop using fur, in a bid to boost its sustainability credentials. The London-based clothes and accessory maker destroyed almost 29 million pounds ($37 million) worth of goods in 2018, according to the annual report released in July. The figure jumped from 19 million pounds in 2016, and investors voiced their disapproval at the most recent annual meeting. Read also: Self-destructive behaviour: Burberry not alone The practice is widespread in the luxury-goods industry as brands seek to maintain their exclusivity by keeping unwanted products from ending up in discount outlets. Burberry said it will increase efforts to reuse, repair, donate or recycle unsaleable products. Modern luxury means being socially and environmentally responsible, Burberry Chief Executive Officer Marco Gobbetti said in a statement. This belief is core to us at Burberry and key to our long-term success. The debut collection of Burberrys new designer, Riccardo Tisci, will not contain any real fur, and its use in existing products is to be phased out, the company also said. Directed by Mark Teh, Baling a political drama revolving around the real-life figures of Malaysian founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman, British representative David Marshall and leftist Malaysian leader Chin Peng. In previous performances, the theater group had always used different approaches in delivering the narrative about the Baling Talks. During its latest performance, which took place at the Salihara Community Gallery in Jakarta on Sept. 1 and 2, the group once again showcased a different storytelling method in which there was no center stage and instead, the actors move freely around the audience, who were placed in the middle of the room. What also made the groups latest performance unique was its emphasis on dialogue, which was based on historical documents, instead of physical movements, according to Teh. I didnt make fiction [] we took scripts that are historical-based, such as newspapers, transcripts of the [Baling] Talks so we could fix it with our perspective, Teh said. The cast also changed characters frequently during the performance so the audience had to figure out what their roles were based on the dialogue. In history: Baling narrates the story of the 1956 Baling Talks, an important episode of Malaysias history as an independent nation. (Salihara/Witjak Widhi Cahya) Teh said he wanted to let the audience interpret the dialogue using their own judgment and perspective, so they could reflect on the topics and decide whether the context fits with the overall historical narrative. The performances also used people from different backgrounds to play the three main leading roles. We invited many people from different types of professions, such as human rights lawyers, film makers, sociologists and historians to read as Chin Peng, Tunku Abdul Rahman and David Marshall, Teh said. Part of the crowd: The actors of Baling move freely around the audience to deliver their performance. (Salihara/Witjak Widhi Cahya) Perhaps the most challenging part for the group in performing the play was its decision to deliver new narratives about Chin Peng, who was labeled an enemy of Malaysia, a country that, like Indonesia, does not welcome leftist and communist ideologies. Chin Peng in Malaysia, according to Teh, has the same notoriety as D.N. Aidit, the former chairman of the once great but now banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was accused by Soehartos New Order regime as the main orchestrator of the Sept. 30 Movement of 1965 that took the lives of almost every single Indonesian army general. We were a little bit scared to focus on Chin Peng, Teh Said. Jack Ma, Chinas richest man, is laying the groundwork for a future away from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the company he co-founded and turned into an e-commerce juggernaut. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, the Alibaba chairman said he is dedicating more of his time and fortune to philanthropy with the creation of a foundation in his own name focused on education, following in the footsteps of fellow billionaire Bill Gates. Ma, who turns 54 on Monday, has a net worth of more than $40 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. While Ma sees himself as an accidental executive who only entered the business world with Alibabas founding almost 20 years ago, he has become one of Chinas most recognized corporate leaders. Even after stepping down as chief executive officer in 2013, the former English teacher remains the public face of a company with a market value of more than $400 billion and interests spanning e-commerce and Hollywood film production to cloud computing and online payments. Theres a lot of things I can learn from Bill Gates. I can never be as rich, but one thing I can do better is to retire earlier, Ma said in the interview. I think some day, and soon, Ill go back to teaching. This is something I think I can do much better than being CEO of Alibaba. When asked if that could happen this year, Ma shrugged and smiled. He didnt indicate if he would give away his money or put it into a trust as other billionaires have done. Youll know very soon. Ive prepared a Jack Ma Foundation, Ma said. All these things that Ive been preparing for 10 years. Ma was born in September 1964 to Chinese traditional musician-storytellers living in Hangzhou, an ancient capital thats become a global high-tech hub and bastion of entrepreneurship, in part because of Alibabas base there. He started Alibaba.com in 1999 as a business-to-business marketplace, backed by $60,000 from 18 co-founders. With savvy deals and an investment from SoftBank Group Corp., its now morphed into a behemoth that can make or break brands. Its customers use its e-commerce platforms to order products that last year saw package deliveries reach 55 million a day. Ma also controls Ant Financial, the online financial platform that runs Chinas largest mobile payment system and money-market fund. The business has more than 870 million users via payment system Alipay and its affiliates. Read also: Jokowi asks Jack Ma to invest more in Indonesia A focus on education wouldnt surprise keen followers of Ma, who has spoken frequently of its importance to him and some of his shortcomings as a student, including failing Chinas national university exam twice. I was not considered a good student but I improved, we keep on learning all the time. So I want to devote most my time to this, Ma said. During his time as chairman, he has helped guide growth at home and overseas while also spearheading its 2014 initial public offering, the biggest ever. Ma was among the first foreign business leaders to meet with Donald Trump after his election. Ma has thrived in the spotlight as he became a much sought-after guest for conferences around the world, even as tensions between China and the U.S. have risen over trade. But he has also said in the past that he isnt happy being the wealthiest person in China, where vast personal fortunes have only emerged in recent years and are subject to intense scrutiny. As someone who has met the leaders of the worlds two largest economies, Ma sees his future philanthropy as a way to bridge the divide between them. People in China and America, one thing we have in common is the heart of love and respect, Ma said. This is a common language we have. The first tech revolution caused WWI, the second caused WWII, now we are a third revolution, whats gonna happen? It should be a war against poverty, disease et cetera. If he were to leave the company he founded in a Hangzhou apartment, it would remain controlled by its partnership structure, which enables a group of executives at Alibaba and affiliates to decide on board nominations. "I have full confidence in my team and in the partner structure which lots of investors dont like," said Ma. "Its the system which I think I have contributed to along with my team and this will be able to make the company last long." The third installment of Djakarta Teater Platform is set to run on two separate occasions, from Sept. 6 to 21 at Graha Bhakti Budaya in Taman Ismail Marzuki and from Oct. 24 to Nov. 8 at Studio Tom, FFTV, at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) in Central Jakarta. Themed Silent Mass", the festival features international groups such as Theater Ash from Hong Kong, Curious Directive from Norwich, the United Kingdom, Fujiyamaannette from Tokyo, Japan, and Teater Kubur from Indonesia. IKJ rector representative Seno Joko Suyono said during a press conference on Thursday that it was rare for TIM to host an international event that featured diverse aesthetics and artistic concepts. Seno said this year's event was interesting because it featured Curious Directive, which combined theater and film, and Teater Kubur, which seldom performed these days. Read also: 'Gemintang': Teater Koma's satirical sci-fi adventure Teater Kubur director Dindon WS released a sneak peek for the show Instalasi Macet (Traffic Jam Installation) and said it was based on his research about Kampung Apung in West Jakarta. Meanwhile, Theater Ash director David Glass briefly shared information about City of Darkness. Set in Kowloon Walled City, the performance mixes European and Asian arts, including wayang, Japanese butoh dance and Chinese opera. Djakarta Teater Platform is supported by the Communications and Information Ministry, British Council of Indonesia and the Japan Foundation. The performances are open to the public and free of charge. In addition to the theater shows, Djakarta Teater Platform will also host workshops and discussions. (kes) Germany has returned a pre-Columbian gold funerary mask to Peru following a 20-year legal and diplomatic battle, the South American country's culture minister said on Thursday. Peru had reported the eighth century Sican mask's disappearance in 1999, after which it was confiscated by Interpol from the German city of Wiesbaden. "I'm happy to receive one of the most emblematic assets from the north Peruvian cultures, the Sican Mask," said Patricia Balbuena in a statement. The mask was handed over to the Peruvian embassy in Berlin by Bavarian authorities. Read also: US returns stolen copy of Christopher Columbus letter to Spain The Munich regional court ordered the mask be returned to Peru in December 2016 after it had been confiscated by the public prosecutor. It is due to arrive in Peru in the coming weeks. Like neighboring Ecuador, which secured the return of 13 pre-Columbian artifacts from a private German collection in July after a six-year legal battle, the South American country has been eager to recover priceless pieces from its cultural heritage. The Sican culture inhabited the north coast of Peru between the eighth and 14th centuries. A video recently released on President Joko Jokowi Widodos YouTube channel revealed a thing or two about the President, including his penchant for social media. Two of his aides assistants, First Lieutenant Teddy Indra Wijaya and First Inspector Syarif Muhammad Fitriansyah, said at the end of the day, the President reads the direct messages addressed to him on social media. When he is alone or when his activities for the day are done, he watches YouTube, reads the news, as well as accesses his social media accounts, said Teddy. He reads all the direct messages from the public, he really does. At times, he would ask us, Whats this? Please check if the complaint is true, he added. The assistants of the Presidents aide differ from the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres), as they are responsible in helping the President carry out out his daily activities while Paspampres deals with security. Read also: Why you should watch Jokowis latest vlog with King Salman The assistants' daily interactions with the President also revealed another side of Jokowi, who is always asked for selfies upon meeting the public. As someone who often takes the pictures, Syarif said the President insists on having the best photos. He would always check the photo afterward. If its bad or blurred, he would ask for another photo. Once its good and he approves, he will return the phone to its owner and say, Here you go, this is nice, he said. When asked about what they can learn from the President, the assistants replied that he is a hard worker. He is also a good role model as a father; he is a family man, said Syarif. For closing words, the aides assistants were asked to describe the President in a few words. Teddy said, He has so many ideas. To which Syarif added, Yes, [he is] unpredictable. The video was uploaded on Wednesday and at the time of writing has been viewed more than 301,000 times. (wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 07:08 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771c8388 1 City Bukit-Duri,eviction,shelters,development Free The Jakarta administration has yet to begin the development of a kampung susun (elevated village) and temporary shelters for evicted Bukit Duri residents in South Jakarta, saying it faces difficulties in finding vacant land for the projects. The Jakarta Housing and Settlement Agency scrapped the budget of Rp 5.98 billion (US$400,084) for the construction of the shelter from the 2018 citys budget because it had failed to find vacant land. Because [the development] couldnt be realized and [the budget] became unused funds, it was better for us to scrap it from the city budget, said acting agency head Meli Budiastuti. Currently, the Jakarta administration is checking the availability of two plots of land for the projects. The first one is the 1.6-hectare Wisma Ciliwung site and the second is on land owned by the Finance Ministry, both located near the cleared Bukit Duri village. If the status of the land [of the Finance Ministry] is clear, we will allocate the budget [to procure the land], city secretary Saefullah said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com. Further, the administration is set to deliver a letter to the ministry to ask it to grant the land for the construction of the kampung susun. Saefullah said the land had been vacant and unused for years. Meanwhile, a representative of Bukit Duri residents, Sandyawan Sumardi, suggested the Jakarta administration procure the Wisma Ciliwung land. We have suggested that. However, I dont know, the procedure is always complicated, Sandyawan said as quoted by tempo.co. For the temporary shelter, the residents had recommended the city administration procure the land owned by the Finance Ministry. (cal) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 12:56 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771e05cf 4 National BPJS-Kesehatan,breast-cancer,medicine,healthcare-policy,health,#health,health-ministry Free The Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) is considering overturning its controversial decision to stop covering trastuzumab for breast cancer patients treated under its state-funded National Health Insurance-Healthy Indonesia Card scheme. The possibility came into focus after the Health Ministry asked the BPJS to cover the costs of up to a maximum of eight rounds of trastuzumab treatment. The request was part of the ministrys technical guidelines on the use of trastuzumab to treat certain types of breast cancer. We will decide whether the drug will be put back on our coverage list after the Health Ministry issues the regulation, BPJS Kesehatan spokesman Iqbal Anas Maruf told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. The BPJS Kesehatan removed trastuzumab, sold under the brand name Herceptin, from its coverage list on April 1, following the recommendation of the Clinical Advisory Council (DPK), which found the drug to be ineffective in treating breast cancer. Iqbal said despite its prevailing policy, the BPJS continued to cover alternative medicine, which are also acknowledged under the national formulary, arguing that different types of breast cancer receive different treatments. The BPJS decision to drop trastuzumab from its coverage list has been met with a torrent of protests, particularly after the issue came under the spotlight two months ago when 46-year-old HER2 breast cancer patient Juniarti and husband Edy Haryadi filed a lawsuit against the BPJS with the South Jakarta District Court. Edy argued that the policy put his wifes life in danger because other chemotherapy drugs on the market were known to be less effective in destroying HER2 cancer cells, which have a higher growth rate than other types of breast cancer. A 67-year-old Jakartan named Poppy Noviati is living proof of the drugs effectiveness in killing HER2 cancer cells. Poppy said the drug helped stop the cells from replicating, which in turn has made her live healthily and breast cancer-free for almost 10 years. Thank God, only weeks after I started the treatment, it made me feel a lot better because it helped strengthen my immune system to fight the cancer, she said, recalling her experience taking trastuzumab. Oncologist Ronald Hokum said the World Health Organization (WHO) had regarded trastuzumab as an essential drug for HER2-positive breast cancer patients and listed it as the first line of defense in treating the disease. Although the national formulary also recognizes lapatinib as an alternative drug, Ronald said it could only be administered for patients resistant to the drug. Lapatinib cant be used as an alternative to trastuzumab as it can only be used in combination with chemotherapy if HER2-positive patients dont respond to the initial treatment, he said. Trastuzumab is considered costly compared to lapatinib. A vial of trastuzumab could reportedly cost from Rp 20 million (US$1,345) to Rp 25 million, while a bottle of lapatinib tablets, sold under the brand name Tykerb, could only cost about Rp 4.23 million. However, Ronald said the BPJS Kesehatan would more likely spend more money on lapatinib due to the fact that the national formulary did not limit the maximum number of lapatinib uses per patient, while it stipulated that the BPJS maximum coverage of trastuzumab was eight rounds per patient. To help the BPJS Kesehatan reduce the cost of trastuzumab claims, state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma is reportedly planning to sell a more affordable version of the drug, which would be released to the market by 2019. The company claimed that the biosimilar drug would cost 30 percent less than Herceptin, which is produced by Swiss healthcare firm Roche. (ris) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7 2018 The Jakarta Polices uncovering of a case pertaining to the issuance of fake land certificates in East Jakarta and Bekasi, West Java, shows graft continues to plague the metropolitan area, where land prices continue to soar. In an East Jakarta case, suspects are alleged to have faked documents to claim ownership of a plot of land on Jl. DI Panjaitan to sue the Jakarta administration for Rp 340 billion (US$22.8 million) in compensation. The scheme was allegedly orchestrated by a resident named Sudarto, reportedly with the assistance of state officials. Sudarto, along with seven other residents, filed a lawsuit in 2014 with the East Jakarta District Court claiming that the land on which the East Jakarta Vehicle Document Registration Center (Samsat) office stood, belonged to them. Hamilton, Bermuda, September 7, 2018 As communicated to the market August 28, 2018, a conference for shareholders/investors will be held at 10:00 am US Eastern Time Monday September 10, 2018. Before the conference call, we shall distribute NAO material. Participants dial-in telephone numbers are as follows: Confirmation Code: 2611984 Norway, Oslo +47 2350 0296 United Kingdom +44 (0)330 336 9411 - or elsewhere in Europe United States +1 929-477-0448 Participants should give their full name and name of company they represent. A Q&A session will be held after the teleconference. Contacts: Gary J. Wolfe Seward & Kissel LLP New York, USA Tel: +1 212 574 1223 Bjrn Giver, CFO Nordic American Offshore Ltd. Tel: +1 888 755 8391 or +47 91 35 00 91 Herbjrn Hansson, Executive Chairman Nordic American Offshore Ltd Tel: +1 866 805 9504 or +47 90 14 62 91 Web-site: www.nao.bm Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 18:52 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771f2995 1 Business citilink,new-routes,China Free Low-cost carrier Citilink, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, is expanding its international service by opening new international routes to three Chinese cities. Starting in October this year, Citilink will provide regular direct flights every day to Kunming, Xiamen and Nanjang from Jakarta, Denpasar and Manado, respectively. The three cities were selected because they are important secondary cities in China, said Juliandra Nurtjahjo, Citilink's president director, when announcing the new routes in Jakarta on Friday. He said the new routes were expected to increase tourist arrivals to Indonesia. "The statistic shows that 78 million mainland Chinese residents traveled abroad in the first half of this year. But only a small number of them traveled to Indonesia," he said, adding that in 2017 only 1.9 million Chinese travelers went to Indonesia. For its new international routes, Citilink is partnering with Megacap Aviation Service, a sales agent that would represent Citilink in China to sell and promote the tickets. With its new international flight to China, Citilink will have five international routes as previously they already had a Jakarta to Penang route and a Denpasar to Dili route. In addition, Citilink also has operated charter flights to several Chinese cities. "So far, the performance of the international routes is good. Our occupancy rates for the routes are above 90 percent," he said. He added that the new routes to the Chinese cities were expected to help Citilink to achieve its target of 15 million passengers this year. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7 2018 The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has found strong evidence of crimes against humanity in the Rumoh Geudong case in Pidie, Aceh, which lasted from 1989 to 1998, implicating the Armys Special Forces (Kopassus). The report, which has been handed over to the Attorney Generals Office (AGO), was a document long-awaited by victims and their families after decades of physical and mental suffering. Rumoh Geudong in Billie Aron village was the former headquarters of Kopassus during the period of military operations in Aceh. Residents also referred to the building as the slaughter house. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 11:49 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771de493 4 Business IPP-independent-power-producers,power-plants,project,postponement Free The Indonesian Private Electricity Producers Association (APLSI) has expressed concern over the government's plan to postpone the construction of power plants worth US$23.9 billion. APLSI spokeman Rizal Calvary said state-owned electricity company PLN did not give a detailed explanation about the reason behind the postponement. [The postponement] upset [those] who have an interest in the projects, particularly the creditors, he said in Jakarta on Thursday as quoted by kontan.co.id. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said previously the government would postpone the construction of 15,200-megawatt (MW) power plant projects, equal to 43.43 percent of the 35,000 electricity projects planned by the government. The electricity projects mostly imported materials, with local content at only 20 to 39 percent. The postponement plan is part of the government's effort to curb imports to prevent the current account deficit (CAD), which now stands at 3 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, from widening. The CAD adds to strong pressure against the rupiah as a result of global economic uncertainty. Rizal said certain parties wanted to use the international arbitration mechanism if the government went ahead with its plan to postpone the electricity projects. He did not go into detail about which parties might use the mechanism. It depends on how the government communicates with independent power producers (IPPs), Rizal said, adding that PLN and the government needed to inform the IPPs about the details of the projects that would be affected by the postponement. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Chicago, United States Fri, September 7, 2018 06:06 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771c6003 2 World #USA,#shooting,#ShootingRampage,USA,shooting Free A gunman opened fire in a bank building in the US city of Cincinnati on Thursday, killing three people and sending terrified bystanders diving for cover, before police shot and killed him. Gun shots rang out just after 9:00 am (1300 GMT) at the high-rise headquarters of Fifth Third Bank, a regional financial institution in Ohio's third-largest city. Five people were shot, some multiple times, and one victim died at the scene while two others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Police identified the gunman, felled in a shootout with officers, as 29-year-old Omar Perez. He was not immediately determined to have any connection to the bank, according to detectives. "There may be a possibility that there's some mental health issues involved here," Cincinnati police chief Eliot Isaac told a news conference, cautioning that the investigation was in its early stages. Police believe Perez was armed with some 200 rounds of ammunition and a legally-bought 9mm semi-automatic handgun when he entered the lobby of the 30-story building, Isaac said. Several officers arrived within minutes of the first emergency calls and four of them shot the suspect, killing him at the scene. The building the gunman targeted was said to have strict security, and it wasn't clear how he was able to get in. "Per Fifth Third Bank, the shooter was not an employee of Fifth Third," police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told AFP via email. - 'Grotesque violence' - The quickly-responding police were credited with preventing widescale carnage. "This is clearly an act of grotesque violence to innocent people and it should frighten all of us," said Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley. "It has happened too much around this country and we, as a country, have to figure out how to end it." Witnesses told local media they heard as many as 20 gunshots. One unnamed construction worker told WLWT television that he saw two victims being brought out in the aftermath, including one woman in a blood-soaked shirt. "I just (saw) people running out of the building," the witness said. "There are guys with suits laying on the ground, hiding behind big flower pots," he said. - 'A senseless act' - Bank employees sheltered in situ for an hour or more as officers swept the building and cordoned off several downtown city blocks. "There was a senseless act of gun violence on the streets of Cincinnati this morning," Ohio Governor John Kasich said on Twitter. "I commend the law enforcement, fire and (emergency medical) personnel who swiftly responded to the scene and share my deepest sympathies with the innocent victims of this violent attack." It was the latest in more than 200 mass shootings in the US this year alone, with previous incidents often leading to mostly fruitless calls for gun control reforms. In June, a gunman killed five and injured two at The Capital Gazette newspaper offices in Annapolis, Maryland. "It is all too clear that we have to do more in Ohio to address the gun violence affecting communities across the state," said a statement from the Ohio chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 15:40 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771e816f 1 Business SOEs,exports,rupiah,weakening Free The State-Owned Enterprises Ministry will push for the export of products in the strategic industry to strengthen the rupiah amid strong dollar appreciation. Among the companies committed to the initiative are state-owned weapons manufacturer PT Pindad, steel producer PT Krakatau Steel, train manufacturer PT Industri Kereta Api (Inka), foundry company PT Barata Indonesia and aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI). "Our commitment to exports is vital for rupiah empowerment," said the ministry's mining, strategic industry and media undersecretary, Fajar Harry Sampurno. Pindad is expected to export military hardware such as weaponry, munitions and tactical vehicles to Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar, South Korea and France in support of United Nations missions this year. For the ministry's initiative, the company set a target of Rp 78 billion (US$5.40 million) in exports. Krakatau Steel has planned to export Rp 907 billion worth of hot-rolled coil steels to neighboring Malaysia and Australia this year. Barata Indonesia will export an estimated Rp 210 billion in train manufacturing components to the United States, Africa and Australia. "PTDI is committed to exporting PHP 813 million ($15.06 million) worth of NC212i-type aircrafts to the Philippines, as well as $18 million worth of CN235-type aircrafts to Vietnam," Harry said. Although the rupiah strengthened to below Rp 14,900 per US dollar on Thursday, Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government and the central bank would monitor the currency amid global uncertainty. (rfa/bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7 2018 Reiterating its position and influence as the worlds largest archipelagic country, the government has proposed providing US$1.2 billion to help promote marine conservation programs amid concerns about pollution and climate change. Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said that in particular, marine debris had been a global problem to which Indonesia had contributed. Therefore, as a country flanked by the Pacific and Indian oceans, Indonesia is committed to removing this crown title by reducing land-based plastic leakage by 70 percent, by 2025, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 10:15 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771d0b7e 1 National corruption,KPK,civil-servants,salary Free The government is spending a huge amount of money on the salaries of civil servants who have been convicted of graft, the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) has said. The money spent is estimated to be Rp 23.57 billion (US$1.6million) per month. A rough estimate is about an average of Rp 10 million multiplied by 2,357 civil servants, which equals to Rp 23.57 billion a month, BKN spokesman Mohammad Ridwan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. He said the estimate was not official and that only the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) had the authority to calculate the exact number. The [amount in] state losses is huge. But the exact number can only be calculated by the BPK, he said. The BKN revealed on Tuesday that of the 2,674 civil servants that were convicted of corruption, 317 were dishonorably dismissed, meaning the remaining 2,357 are still active as civil servants and, therefore, still get a monthly salary. Employment data of the convicted civil servants has been blocked by the agency to avoid further state loss. The move affects the civil servants' jobs, such with promotions, job rotations and raises. However, the termination of the payroll for civil servants requires a decree issued by each personnel supervisor (PPK), including the minister, governor, mayor and regent. We can block the employment data but its not enough. Only the PPKs have the authority to dishonorably dismiss them, Ridwan said. The PPKs, do not hesitate to fire them, he added. The agency, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Home Ministry and the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry are currently discussing the governments measure in handling the problem. KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo previously said that the commission was calculating the amount in state losses. (sau/ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7 2018 With 61 percent of Jakartas rivers severely polluted, city-owned water company PAM Jaya, in looking for new sources of water for the city, has turned to Sunter Lake in North Jakarta. We are currently studying the lake to determine whether it could be used as a source of water as there may be a water spring, PAM Jaya president director Priyatno Bambang Hernowo said on Wednesday, kompas.com reported. He said a lot of rivers and lakes in Jakarta were potential water sources but could not yet be used because of their water quality. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 14:39 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771e472a 4 National BPJS-Kesehatan,debt,hospital,capital-injection,government Free The Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) is waiting for government funds to pay debts of Rp 3.5 trillion (US$234.65 million) that had been used to purchase medicines, it said in Jakarta on Thursday. BPJS Kesehatan spokesman M. Iqbal Anas Ma'ruf said agency representatives had met with the Pharmacological Companies Association (GP Farmasi) to explain the situation. We were open and transparent. They understood our situation, Iqbal said as quoted by kotan.co.id. GP Farmasi had recently notified BPJS Kesehatan that it had Rp 3.5 trillion in maturing debt. Iqbal added that the agency wanted to pay the debt as soon as possible because otherwise, it would have to pay an additional 1 percent of any arrears it had accrued, which it could not afford. Iqbal could not provide details on the agency's arrears. He said BPJS Kesehatan was facing difficulties in gathering data on its overdue debt, as some of the data was not always provided for the batch payments the agency made to hospitals. We try to look at it objectively. We pay on a first come, first served basis, he said, adding that the agency had requested the governments help in monitoring its payment obligations to hospitals. (bbn) TheJakartaPost Please Update your browser Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below. Just click on the icons to get to the download page. OTTAWA, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA) will be kicking off Organic Week (Sept 8-16) by celebrating achievements in organic sector market growth. New data indicates that organic food and beverage have attained the highest-yet share of grocery market sales. Consumer demand is on the rise for the industry to provide more foodservice offerings and value-added products (a manufactured product that adds value beyond the primary ingredient). With more farmers transitioning to organic, the sector is able to increase its production capacity to meet this demand. What: Press conference When: 9:30 am ET, Monday, September 10, 2018 Where: Charles Lynch Press Conference Room, Parliament Hill, Ottawa Who: Tia Loftsgard, executive director of the Canada Organic Trade Association The Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA) is the membership-based association for the organic sector in Canada: representing growers, processors, certifiers, provincial farmers' associations, importers, exporters, retailers and others throughout the organic value chain. COTA's mission is to promote and protect the growth of organic trade to benefit the environment, farmers, the public and the economy. COTA brings together the diversity of Canada's organic sector: from farmer and processor to retail, including food products, fibre and textiles, personal care, and emerging sectors such as organic aquaculture. Visit www.canada-organic.ca Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 18:06 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771f1117 1 World #Indonesia,#Myanmar,#Reuters,Indonesia,Myanmar,journalist Free Dozens of journalists staged a protest on Friday to show solidarity and demand the release of two Reuters journalists imprisoned by Myanmars government. The rally, initiated by the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and Freelance Journalist Forum, was staged in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta. The protestors carried a banner that read, Free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, journalism is not a crime, defend press freedom! Some of them had their hands tied and mouths covered as a symbol of muted press freedom. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are two Reuter journalists that have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for allegedly breaching Myanmar's state secrets law during their reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims. "We hope this movement inspires other journalists around the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, to urge the release of our friends in Myanmar," said the rallys coordinator, Fira Abdurahman. She emphasized that the Reuters journalists were doing their job and had not committed a crime. Previously, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said she had contacted the Myanmar government in relation to the imprisonment of the journalists. Retno said she had reiterated Indonesia's position on the issue and urged Myanmar to implement the repatriation soon. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 18:48 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771f282b 1 City political-parties,funding,increase,jakarta Free The Jakarta administration announced it would almost triple political party funding to Rp 5.3 billion (US$457,000) in this years revised regional budget, from Rp 1.8 billion previously. The increase was based on Government Regulation No. 1/2018 on changes to political party funding, issued on Jan. 4, which stipulates that provincial administrations should increase yearly political funding from Rp 410 per vote to Rp 1,200 per vote. For Jakarta, this means the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) the largest party in the City Council will receive Rp 1.4 billion for 1.2 million votes, the Gerindra Party Rp 710 million for 592,000 votes and Golkar Rp 451 million for 376,000 votes. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party will receive Rp 433 million for 361,000 votes, the United Development Party (PPP) Rp 543 million for 452,000 votes and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Rp 509 million for 424,000 votes. The Hanura Party will receive Rp 428 million for 357,000 votes, the National Awakening Party (PKB) Rp 312 million for 260,000 votes, NasDem Rp 247 million for 206,000 votes and the National Mandate Party (PAN) Rp 207 million for 172,000 votes. The Jakarta Legislative Council's Committee A, which oversees governance, accepted the increase on Thursday and will forward it in the revised budget. So we will just add the difference to last years fund, which hasnt been disbursed yet, said Commission A secretary Syarief at the Jakarta Council building as reported by kompas.com. (nor) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 14:59 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771e564a 1 City officials,jakarta,dismissal,pension,money,anies-baswedan Free Several former civil servants, who were dismissed by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, have yet to receive their pension money, more than two months after their dismissal. State Civilian Bureaucracy Commission (KASN) head Sofian Effendi said the former civil servants told the commission that state-owned pension insurance company PT Taspen did not disburse the money because they were not yet 60 years old, the age of retirement for echelon II officials. "They were dismissed before they turned 60, therefore Taspen refused to give them their pensions. They don't receive salaries or allowances anymore and they can't get their pensions," Sofian said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com. Sofian added that the city administration failed to meet the deadline to adhere to the recommendations suggested by the commission regarding the dismissal of the civil servants. On July 27, Sofian delivered a letter to the Jakarta administration urging it to reinstate 16 civil servants on the grounds that Anies had violated procedures and regulations during the dismissal process. If the positions have been filled, Sofian said, the administration could place the dismissed officials in other positions, which were on the same level as their previous jobs. The recommendations should be adhered to within 30 days. However, as of early September, Anies had yet to reinstate all dismissed officials, Sofian said. Sofian added that the commission would try to settle the conflict between the Jakarta administration and the dismissed officials next week. After that, the commission would report the case to President Joko Jokowi Widodo. (cal) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 15:11 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771e7491 1 City city-budget,deputy-governor,portrait,budget Free A budget proposal for the official portrait of the next Jakarta deputy governor has been rejected by the City Council budget committee in a meeting on the revised 2018 state budget. Jakarta administration assistant Artal Reswan proposed a budget of Rp 150 million (US$10,078) for a portrait of the yet-to-be-named deputy governor who will replace Sandiaga Uno, who left his post to run for vice president alongside presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, the leader of the Gerindra Party, in next years election. We [proposed] an increased [budget] for the portrait of the new deputy governor. The photo will need to be duplicated, perhaps [with a budget of] Rp 150 million, Reswan said on Thursday, kompas.com reported. City Council Speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi immediately rejected the proposal, saying the operational budget of the deputy governor had been set too high, so there would be no need to set aside additional funds. The operational budget is set at Rp 1.4 billion for the deputy governor and Rp 2.1 billion for the governor. An additional Rp 1 billion is kept by the Jakarta treasurers assistant, bringing the total between the three to Rp 4.5 billion per month. That [the Rp 4.5 billion] is for operations of the governor and deputy governor. Its a lot. Just take it from there, Prasetyo said. Gerindra and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) parties that supported Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election are set to propose two candidates to fill the vacant deputy governor seat. (ami) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7 2018 Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are committed to intensifying economic cooperation with priorities in agriculture and seeking common ground in the environmental sector. The commitment was agreed during the historic visit of Congolese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu Lundula to Indonesia, the first visit by a senior official to Indonesia since the opening of diplomatic relations in 1963. We know that the Democratic Republic of Congo has great potential for investments from Indonesia, Okitundu said through a translator in a joint press statement with his Indonesian counterpart Retno LP Marsudi. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 10:53 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771d7477 4 Business rupiah-against-dollar,weakening,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,bank-indonesia,intervention Free Although the rupiah strengthened to below Rp 14,900 per US dollar on Thursday, Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati has said that the government and the central bank would monitor the currency amid global uncertainty. In the foreign exchange spot market, the rupiah was quoted at Rp 14,892 per US dollar on Thursday, strengthening 0.30 percent from its position on Wednesday, while according to Bank Indonesias rate, the rupiah strengthened by 0.24 percent to Rp 14,891 per US dollar. Rupiah was further strengthening on Friday morning as it stood at Rp 14,890 per US dollar at 9:20 a.m., according Bloomberg. We will always face uncertainty, therefore, we have to always stay alert, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by kontan.com, referring to global pressures against emerging markets due to the trade war between the United States and China and speculation of an increase in the Fed Fund Rate. Securities firm Valbury Asia Futures analyst Lukman Leong said the rupiah was strengthening because of Bank Indonesia's intervention. He said the rupiah would still be under pressure on Friday but believed that the intervention would prevent it from weakening further. BI has to keep its intervention. It is important to prevent the currency from hitting Rp 15,000 per US dollar, he said on Thursday, adding that the government and central bank policies had received a positive response from market players. He projected the rupiah to hover between Rp 14,825 and Rp 14,900 against the US dollar on Friday. (bbn) Politicians fill in substitution forms before handing them over to the Malang Council in East Java on Thursday. These politicians are to replace their colleagues who were implicated in a graft case. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has so far named 41 out of 45 Malang Council members suspects in a bribery case related to the deliberation of the 2015 city budget. (JP/Nedi Putra AW)(KPK) has so far named 41 out of 45 Malang Council members suspects in a bribery case related to the deliberation of the 2015 city budget. (JP/Nedi Putra AW) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Fri, September 7, 2018 07:07 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771c7816 2 World #DonaldTrump,#WhiteHouse,DonaldTrump,White-House,media Free The publication of a searing New York Times op-ed by an unnamed Trump administration senior official describing the president as amoral and making "reckless decisions" has thrown the White House into unprecedented turmoil. The explosive revelation of insider "resistance" paints a White House in which aides are aiming to thwart an unmoored Donald Trump and his "worst inclinations" in order to protect America's democratic institutions. But is the damning op-ed the harbinger of a coup or constitutional crisis? Unlikely, say experts. Here are three key questions about the anonymous essay: - Is there historic precedent? - Senior officials have pushed back against their commander in chief since George Washington's day. What makes this different is the extent to which the anonymous official says aides are working to frustrate Trump's agenda, and the very public platform through which the message was delivered. "There are no precedents to this in US history," James Thurber, a government professor and presidential studies expert at American University, told AFP. There have been at least some parallels, including an incident in 2013, in which a self-identified official used an anonymous Twitter handle to lambast aides to president Barack Obama. But that person, later caught in a sting operation and fired, was a mid-level National Security Council expert, far from the "senior official" that the Times says penned the essay. "The only modern precedent is Deep Throat during Watergate," offered political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, referring to the famed Nixon administration source of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward who kept his identity secret for 31 years. Mark Felt, former associate director of the FBI, was ultimately identified by his family as Woodward's source. - Is a constitutional crisis brewing? - Obama's former secretary of state John Kerry said the opinion piece was further confirmation that Trump's presidency has run "off the rails," telling CNN that "this is a genuine constitutional crisis." The essay's author wrote that there were "whispers" within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows cabinet members as a group to notify Congress should they believe the president can no longer carry out his duties. Just a day before the anonymous piece, damning excerpts from Woodward's new book on the Trump presidency had lent traction to the notion that a severe crisis was gripping 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Pulitzer-winning journalist described aides working behind the scenes to contain the president, going as far as snatching a trade agreement cancellation letter off Trump's desk, and ignoring the president when he urged the Pentagon to kill Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. Still, experts have hesitated to go there. "This is a continuing political and leadership crisis," Thurber said. "It is not yet a constitutional crisis." Sabato agreed. "We don't even know who the author of the op-ed is, and that is essential to properly evaluate it." - How will this impact Trump's presidency? - The essay is unlikely to precipitate Trump's impeachment, but no one sees it as a good sign. While the essay and Woodward's book caused a White House meltdown -- with Trump asking if the unsigned op-ed could be "treason" and demanding the author's unmasking -- the president's closest aides circled the wagons. More than a dozen top administration officials denied being the essay's author. "This will have little impact on Trump, but will continue to undermine trust in his presidency here in the US and in the world," said Thurber, who believes the 25th Amendment will not be used on Trump. Sabato pointed to the cumbersome nature of that process, which requires a notification to Congress explaining why the cabinet sees the president as unfit to serve, and a two-thirds vote by both chambers, to oust the president and replace him with the vice president. John Hudak, an expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, called the process "more difficult than impeachment." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, September 7, 2018 17:21 1154 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771ef01d 4 Business tourism,Holiday,rupiah Free Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has called on Indonesians to delay overseas holidays to help the government save the foreign exchange, while at the same time he said the ministry was working to increase tourist arrivals. We hope the people will spend their holidays in this country, said Arief in Jakarta on Friday as quoted by Antara news agency. He said tourism was the sector expected to boost economic performance amid strong external pressure and the expanding current account deficit (CAD), which was currently at 3 percent of GDP. Currently, the government and Bank Indonesia (BI) have been working to help the rupiah, which has been weakening against the United States dollar. The central bank had increased its seven-day reserve repo rate (7DRR) to 5.5 percent and carried out market intervention to build investors' trust in the countrys monetary markets. Meanwhile, the government introduced several policies to help the CAD improve, like introducing mandatory usage of 20 percent blended biodiesel (B20) and imposing higher import taxes to curb imports. Arief expressed hope the tourism sector would provide solutions in addition to the government program to boost exports; to curb imports and to optimize local resources. It is time for us to explore Indonesia to improve nationalism so that we will not spend too many dollars abroad, he said. He said the ministry was also trying to increase foreign tourist arrivals through various promotions. (bbn) Police officers look on while members of the Alliance of Independent Journalists and Freelance Journalist Forum stage a sit-in outside the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta on Friday. Both journalist associations condemned the seven-year prison term for two Myanmar journalists working for British news agency Reuters, Wa Lon and Kyaw Soe, saying it was a serious threat to press freedom and represented a regression of democracy in Myanmar. (JP/Umair Rizaludin)(JP/Umair Rizaludin) Pasadena, Texas, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PASADENA, Texas Since childhood, Dr. Rachel Garcia has been the problem solver. From fuel pumps to car brakes, she was the child by her fathers side repairing vehicles and spending time at the welding shop. She would later apply her problem-solving skills and hands-on approach of learning to the classroom and collaborate with researchers from across the globe. Now the chemistry professor and department chair of physical science at San Jacinto College can be found carving out projects from a 3D printer she helped obtain through grant opportunities. For her ability in finding solutions that positively impact the current and future students of San Jacinto College, Garcia was selected for a 2018 Outstanding Women in Texas Government Award by The State Agency Council. She was recently honored at a luncheon in Austin, Texas, to receive her award in the Outstanding Professional Development categories. Dr. Brenda Jones, San Jacinto College Provost, was named a nominee for the Outstanding Leadership category; and Rosalyn Parker, manager of organizational development at San Jacinto College, was named a nominee for the Outstanding Management category. The biennial Outstanding Women in Texas Government Award honors women in state service who are helping to shape the future of Texas by contributing their notable talents and skills. Candidates are nominated by their respective state agency heads in four categories, and an independent committee select women whose contributions best exemplified each category. I am very honored to receive this award, said Garcia. Its surprising, really, because I dont consider what I do every day as something extra; finding solutions to help open doors for our students comes with being an educator. It feels great to be among such amazing women who are positively impacting our state. As a science department chair, Garcia helps guide students into the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. She wrote the Dow grant, Helping Hands: Houstons Hallmark on Hurricane Harvey, to provide approximately $10,000 to local schools to replenish science kits lost to Hurricane Harvey. She wrote the American Chemistry Society Collaborative Opportunities Grant to fund STEM Expos for more than 600 K-12 students from after school programs. She has also written multiple San Jacinto College Foundation grants, the most recent being the Modeling Excellence Grant for $5,000 for 3D printer and molecule kits to assist students who are kinesthetic learners. However, its her persistence and willingness to take risks that have led her to success as well. Garcia wrote a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in partnership with Rice University for the San Jacinto College Acceleration in Math (AIM) program. Even though her proposal was not accepted, she was asked to serve on the NSFs Proposal Review Panel for the Division of Undergraduate Education for two consecutive years. Part of succeeding is going through failure, said Garcia. Ive never had a problem with failure. Thats the whole part of the process in scientific research. Garcias current project is leading a group to discuss chemistry curriculum for the process technology program. With the building of the 145,000- square-foot Center for Petrochemical, Energy, and Technology, the largest petrochemical training facility along the Gulf Coast, industry partners have expressed a growing need for graduates with a higher knowledge base of chemistry in the petrochemical areas. Garcia and other chemistry professors will work over the next academic year to develop curriculum and chemistry labs for the Center. Garcia joined San Jacinto College in 2010 as an adjunct chemistry professor and later became full time. In 2014, she became department chair of the physical science department. She is a member of the American Chemical Society Greater Houston Section and the San Jacinto College STEM Council. Her awards include the 2016 Minnie Stevens Piper Award, John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award, Deer Park Chamber of Commerce 2016-17 Teacher of the Year, Two-Year College Teaching Award of 2017 from the American Chemical Society and the 2017 Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition with the 36th Congressional District. Garcia earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biology in 2003 from Houston Baptist University and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Houston in 2008, where she received the opportunity to travel to Japan for the Global Centers of Excellence Program with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. She also assisted in the coordination of the International Conference on Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines in Russia. Garcia lives in Atascocita, Texas, with her husband, Greg, and their two daughters. "In the Lone Star State, we celebrate the role that women play in our successes," said First Lady Cecilia Abbott in a prepared statement. "Women who invest in themselves and inspire change in others represent the greatest potential for growth in Texas, and together we will help all of Texas rise to higher ground." In addition to offering professional development training to its members, the State Agency Council supports the Governors Commission for Women, which seeks to promote opportunities for Texas women through outreach, education, research and referral services. This year, Governor Greg Abbott charged the Commission with developing a strategy and implementation plan to help make Texas the number one state for women-owned businesses, to help address the issue of human trafficking, and to help in rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Harvey. About San Jacinto College Surrounded by monuments of history, industries and maritime enterprises of today, and the space age of tomorrow, San Jacinto College has served the citizens of East Harris County, Texas, since 1961. The College is fiscally sound, holding bond ratings of AA and Aa2 by Standard & Poors and Moodys. San Jacinto College is a 2019 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence Top 10 institution, a 2017 Aspen Prize Rising Star Award recipient and an Achieving the Dream Leader College. The College serves approximately 45,000 credit and non-credit students annually, and offers eight areas of study that puts students on a path to transfer to four-year institutions or enter the workforce. San Jacinto Colleges impact on the region totals $1.3 billion in added income, which supports 13,044 jobs. For more information about San Jacinto College call 281-998-6150, visit sanjac.edu or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Paris city council member in charge of housing said Thursday that he would propose outlawing home rentals via Airbnb and other websites in the city centre, accusing the service of forcing residents out of the French capital. Ian Brossat told AFP that he would also seek to prohibit the purchase of secondary residences in Paris, saying such measures were necessary to keep the city from becoming an "open-air museum". "One residence out of every four no longer houses Parisians," said Brossat, who is expected to head the Communist party list for European Parliament elections next year. With some 60,000 apartments on offer in the city, Paris is the biggest market for Airbnb, which like other home-sharing platforms has come under increasing pressure from cities which claim it drives up rents for locals. "Do we want Paris to be a city which the middle classes can afford, or do we want it to be a playground for Saudi or American billionaires?" he said. Brossat has had Airbnb and its rivals in his sights for years, and recently published a book assailing the US giant titled "Airbnb, or the Uberised City". He wants to forbid any short-term tourist rentals of entire apartments in the First, Second, Third and Fourth Arrondissements of Paris, home to some of the world's most popular sites including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Louvre museum. - 'Open-air museum' - "If we don't do anything, there won't be any more locals: Like on the Ile Saint-Louis, we'll end up with a drop in the number of residents and food shops turned into clothing or souvenir stores," he said, referring to the Seine island in the shadow of the Notre-Dame cathedral. "We'll be living in an open-air museum," he added. Brossat hopes the measures will be included in a law aimed at overhauling France's real estate laws to be debated this fall. Read also: Airbnb to launch up to 14 more home-sharing buildings by 2020 The administration of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has already taken action against Airbnb and others, requiring homeowners to register with the city and limiting the number of rentals to 120 nights a year. Last month the city said the total amount of fines levied against home rental platforms rose to 1.38 million euros ($1.60 million) from January to August 15, compared with 1.3 million euros for 2017 as a whole. Its crackdown echoes those in other hot tourist destinations including Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin. Last month Airbnb sued the city of New York after it passed a law forcing home-sharing platforms to disclose data about their hosts, calling it a campaign "funded by the city's powerful hotel lobby." As the hometown of the country's former first lady Fatmawati, Bengkulu has important historical and educational value, as well as tourism potential. Acting Bengkulu Regent Rohidin Mersyah told a press conference that plans were in store to make a movie of Fatmawati, which would also help promote some destinations that have been visited by her. "Fatmawati is a very heroic national hero with her background as a Muhammadiyah figure; as well as the designer of the Indonesian flag," said Rohidin in Jakarta on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com. He added that the film would feature various places that were closed to Fatmawatis heart, such as her birthplace, house, school and where she designed the flag. "All the story's settings will be in Bengkulu," he said, adding that hopefully these places could be promoted as tourist sites as Fatmawati's napak tilas (public destinations). The provincial administration is said to have conducted preparations for the film, especially getting permission from Indonesia's first president Sukarnos family. Half of the family reportedly gave their blessing for the film to be made. Read also: Exhibition puts Sukarno's internationalist spirit at forefront "I've communicated [the plan] with Bu Rahma, Bu Sukma, Pak Guruh, Pak Guntur; the latest one was with Bu Puan and she was very supportive. We'll soon have a meeting with Bu Mega, hopefully she'll give us permission [to make the film]," said Rohidin. The administration also founded a special company to manage and create the film, hence the movie rights will be in the hands of the government. "We don't want [the film rights] to fall to other parties so we are cooperating with Bekraf, the Education and Culture Ministry and others," he added. A team is currently collecting archives and related documents for the film. (kes) US hotel companies are stepping up efforts to provide employees with electronic safety devices -- known as panic buttons -- as the #MeToo movement raises awareness of sexual assault in the workplace and hotel unions make worker safety a key point in contract negotiations. Marriott International Inc. and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. are among the companies expanding their use of the electronic devices, which make it easier for housekeepers and other workers to summon help from security staff, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the trade group sponsoring the industrywide initiative. Hotel unions have made protecting workers from sexual assault an issue after a housekeeper at a New York hotel accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then the head of the International Monetary Fund, of sexual assault. Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations and reached a settlement with the housekeeper in 2012. Read also: The secret rooms hotels dont tell you about Since then, hotel workers have won access to varying degrees of protection through a combination of labor contracts and city ordinances in New York, Chicago and a handful of other major hospitality markets. The hotel association has opposed some of those measures, including a Seattle law requiring hotels to keep track of guests who have been accused of abuse. Rachel Gumpert, a spokeswoman for Unite Here, the hotel-workers union leading ongoing contract negotiations, called broader access to panic buttons a step in the right direction but said hotel companies should go further, including instituting temporary bans against known harassers. Tens of farmers gathered in a paddy field with their cows in Jrebeng subdistrict, Probolinggi city, East Java, on Sept. 2 as part of the annual Karapan Sapi Brujul (plowing using cows) (KSB) festival. Held during the planting season, the KSB has now become a competition and tourism event, which was initiated by the administration to highlight traditional art and culture and preserve it as well as to increase tourist arrivals. One of the participants, 59-year-old Misman, said the KSB served as a form of gratitude to God for the abundance of water during the planting season that runs between June and September. The farmers later used the opportunity to hold a cow race. Read also: Jakpost explores Mount Bromo "I brought six cows to this race; just for fun. Hopefully if I win, the price of my cows can increase at the market by around 15 percent," added Misman. The event's committee head, Pramino Legowo, said it was part of Probolinggo's 659th anniversary celebrations. "This year's KSB was attended by 80 participants -- all hailing from Probolinggo. The registration was free," he added. (kes) Marx Realty picks up 135 Bowery and 161 Bowery for $48.5 million. [Globe St.] The Rollins at Essex Crossing is reportedly fully leased, and people are super excited. [Curbed] The Kenmare Little Italy Loop Coalition is protesting the MTAs plan to send hundreds of buses through downtown neighborhoods as part of the L Train mitigation plan. [NY1] The Johannes Vogt Gallery leaves the Lower East Side for Madison Avenue as other local gallery owners fret about slumping foot traffic and escalating rents. [Art News] An update on the medical status of popular local restauranteur Jimmy Carbone. [EV Grieve] How Aicha Cherif spends her Sundays. The student activist lives with her grandparents on the Lower East Side and works with a non-profit that helps immigrants who cant vote participate in the political process. [New York Times] This food blogger wasnt so impressed with Randalls Barbecue. [Gothamist] Virginia Beach, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StarChase LLC, a leading GPS public safety technology company in the law enforcement and defense market, is pleased to share the State of New Mexicos Legislative Finance Committee study, Review of the Criminal Justice System in Bernalillo County. The reports findings include a recommendation to fund and use alternative technologies, such as StarChase, to avoid the risks associated with police pursuits. The review from the Legislative Finance Committee sought to describe the extent of the crime in the Albuquerque region and to determine the likely causes. In doing so, the report recognized that high-speed pursuits in the region increased almost 400% from 2013-2017. The committee review states, However, because of the clear dangerousness of police pursuit(s), it is likely appropriate to limit pursuits as much as possible and to continue to employ and develop alternative methods like BCSOs use of StarChase technology and air support. The report letter hopes Bernalillo County, and the state as a whole, will benefit from the studys findings. StarChase is a public safety tool commonly to address a broad scope of crimes such as evading, stolen vehicles, narcotics, and human smuggling. We are pleased to have been recommended in the Finance Committees report and proud to be recognized as part of the solution towards decreasing vehicle and border-related crimes, said Trevor Fischbach, President, StarChase. The full report can be found here (pp. 30-31). About StarChase: StarChase provides GPS tracking technology tools and solutions to public safety and government agencies worldwide. Our patented force multiplying technology empowers law enforcement, mitigates risk and protects communities. Technology solutions include multi-platform GPS tagging, tracking and locating technology (TTL), pursuit management, fleet and asset tracking and web based command, control solutions. The company has become a resource for agencies in over 40 states as well as internationally. StarChase is a privately held company based in Virginia Beach, VA. Learn more by visiting www.starchase.com or follow the company on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Anyone who has read A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner or And The Mountains Echoed will be somewhat aware of Hosseinis political agenda, which he brought to life on the stage of Londons South Bank Centre, interviewed and prompted by journalist Razia Iqbal, as well as launching his newest venture, Sea Prayer. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Sea Prayer commemorates the second anniversary of the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year old Syrian refugee whos drowned body shook the world with its jarring juxtaposition of innocence caught up in such brutality. The illustrated book imagines the words his father, the only survivor of the family, said the night that they embarked on the fatal journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Since Sea Prayer is not in the form of a novel, its words are so much more poignant, felt especially in the passage that Hosseini read out for the audience. The heart of Hosseinis talk, and work, is challenging the misconceptions that we are fed about refugees and immigrants, the fear of the other, as they have become, and the greater need to humanise the people behind the numbers. Refugees are real human beings, like you and I. Hosseini is not a stranger to this himself, growing up in America as a refugee from Afghanistan, where many of his novels are set, speaking very little English - an achievement in itself considering how beautifully written his books are. The manifestation of our fear, or perhaps our blind denial of what is truly happening, manifests itself in the isolation of those seeking refuge. In collaboration with UNHCR, Hosseini visited Lebanon and Sicily to meet some Syrian refugees; and their stories emanate through his words. Up to 1 in 6 citizens in Lebanon are Syrian refugees. He told us the necessarily brutal truths; these boats are flimsy, smugglers do not genuinely care about human life and the chance of survival has dropped significantly it is now 1 in 18.It is vital that we find a safe way for refugees to find safety; we were told about a horrific story of a young male refugee in Libya who was kidnapped, brutally hurt, escaped twice and was caught and shot in the leg with permanent consequences. We were told of a women threatened by the Taliban for owning a multi-gendered gym; her husband was beaten and died of his injuries. Hosseini also spoke of the haunting scene of a graveyard in Sicily that was empty of headstones; as if the refugees that were buried had never been alive in the first place. Hosseini, and humanity in general, can be under no veil of disbelief that social media almost disconnects us in such social tragedies; it is enough to post a status or change a profile picture to feign solidarity and move on with your life. In spite of this, one of the overriding messages that can be found, both in Hosseinis work and talk, is the overriding belief in people, and humanity. We were told the beautiful story of a woman in Sicily, who owned a restaurant that was composed entirely of refugees and paying homage to their authentic dishes. She also houses many of them; when asked whether she had a large house, she replied no, a home is as big as you make it. Hosseini went on to say that this is the case with the human heart, and for a nation, thus advocating that the EU should own the problem, rather than seeking external and often unsafe solutions. Hosseini spoke about a Syrian poets belief that we all have eternal shine, something that radiates in Sea Prayer and the stories that Hosseini has experienced. One of the most poignant moments of the evening was when Hosseini was asked what he would say to politicians if he could speak to them directly. The first, something of huge importance in both Hosseinis novels and his own life, was the sanctity of families. The second is the Universal right to refuge, that must be granted, and the third, the universal right to be treated with dignity and respect. These people are not coming to take our jobs, they merely seek safety. Hosseini was refreshingly honest and well received by the passionate audience, many of whom, when asking questions, said that they themselves were either refugees or ambassadors like Khaled himself. He admitted that his work is not unselfish, as he has found that his inner fulfilment comes from helping other people, explaining why he was a doctor before becoming a writer. He was also admirably humble, with a strong perspective of his role, not to assume power in Afghanistan where he didnt personally experience such political turmoil, in which women and children were particularly hit. This is perhaps why he was most proud of A Thousand Splendid Suns, as he voiced the inhumane hardship that women in particular went through under the Taliban. Hosseinis greatest achievement is how his novels have become a platform to connect people, speaking for those who dont have a voice around the world, refugees and women, especially in the exquisite A Thousand Splendid Suns. His talk, though somewhat predictable, was enlightening, thought provoking and utterly inspiring. His own charity, The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, has since raised over 1.7 million and provided education for over 12,000 students. Sea Prayer was published on 30th August. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Also, famous for his mentorship of fellow poet, Wilfred Owen, Sassoon was a pioneer of war poetry as it is known today. Both men were injured during the war and met whilst recuperating at Craiglockheart hospital in Edinburgh. Sassoons courageous anti-war stance encouraged Owen to pen some of the haunting poetry for which he is famous such as the seminal Dulce et Decorum Est. The poem below, written by Sassoon in 1917, is equally haunting. Reflecting upon the situation of many soldiers during the war, it engenders a sense of the acceptance of death within the ranks. The line which reads all these must pass. We are the happy legion, for we know times but a golden wind that shakes the grass is a moving reflection upon the impermanence of life. Furthermore, the initial use of wise to describe the soldiers arguably emphasises their youth and suggests the aging effects of war upon those who partake in it. Perhaps a gentler example of Sassoons poetry, Absolution still echoes the truths of war. Rejecting the rallying and jingoistic verse which was ripe at the beginning of the war, Sassoon introduced a new type of war poetry, one which presents its subject frankly and candidly, gaining justice for those involved. With the anniversary of the end of world war one only months away, we must remember all those who were involved in the conflict. Sassoons poetry allows us to do this, opening a window into the very heart of the trenches. Absolution: By Siegfried Sassoon The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes Till beauty shines in all that we can see. War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise,And, fighting for our freedom, we are free. Horror of wounds and anger at the foe, And loss of things desired; all these must pass. We are the happy legion, for we know Time's but a golden wind that shakes the grass. There was an hour when we were loth to part From life we longed to share no less than others. Now, having claimed this heritage of heart, What need we more, my comrades and my brothers? 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 Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for release, publication, distribution or dissemination directly, or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States. TORONTO, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Academy Explorations Limited ("Academy" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its September 5, 2018 annual general and special meeting (the "Meeting") of its shareholders ("Shareholders"). At the Meeting, Shareholders considered matters related to the proposed reverse takeover of Academy by Dixie Brands, Inc. ("Dixie"), whereby Academy will acquire from Dixie 100% of the issued and outstanding securities of Dixie (the "RTO"), and voted overwhelmingly, in favour of, among other things: approving a change in the name of the Company to "Dixie Brands Inc."; electing a new board of directors to hold office following the RTO and fixing the number of directors at seven (7); authorizing and approving the consolidation of the issued and outstanding common shares in the capital of the Company ("Common Shares") on the basis of one (1) post-consolidation Common Share for a minimum of every existing three (3) pre-consolidation Common Shares and a maximum of eight (8) pre-consolidation Common Shares issued and outstanding immediately prior to the consolidation; confirming and approving the stock option plan of the Company following the RTO; amending the current Articles of Incorporation of the Company to (i) create a new class of "Non-Participating Voting Shares"; (ii) to amend the terms of and re-designate the existing Common Shares as "Subordinate Voting Shares"; and (iii) to eliminate the existing non-voting special shares; and appointing MNP LLP as auditors of the Company following the RTO. Chuck Smith, President and CEO of Dixie stated "we are pleased that the Academy shareholders recognized the value in this merger and look forward to completing the merger agreement. Our next step will be to complete our filings, gain CSE approval and commence trading in October." Academy and Dixie are actively working to finalize a definitive acquisition agreement to effect the RTO and intend to file a listing statement for trading of the post-RTO Subordinate Voting Shares on the Canadian Stock Exchange shortly. To find out more about Dixie's innovative products, or about how Dixie is building the future of cannabis, visit www.dixiebrands.com . Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the proposal to complete the RTO and associated transactions. Any such forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "projects", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Statements about, among other things, the expected terms of the RTO and the entering into of the definitive agreement to effect the same, the number of securities of Academy that may be issued in connection with the RTO, Dixie's strategic plans and the parties' ability to satisfy closing conditions and receive necessary approvals in respect of, among other things, the listing statement, are all forward-looking information. 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, there can be no assurance that the RTO will occur or that, if the RTO does occur, it will be completed on the terms described above. Academy and Dixie assume no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by applicable law. For more information, please contact: A Sept. 4 recount of absentee votes in the city of Taylor resulted in an even wider gap between the winner and the field of candidates. RELATED: 24-year-old city council member Alex Garza one step closer to Lansing after winning District 12 primary Alexandria Taylor, who finished second to Alex Garza in the Democratic primary for District 12 state representative, requested an official recount of absentee ballots, claiming the city clerks office did not accurately tabulate them. After retallying the votes, the city of Taylor reported no change in the outcome of the election. In fact, Garzas vote total increased by six more votes than Taylors, cementing his spot in the Nov. 6 general election. Taylor City Clerk Cindy Bower said she fully supports candidates right to file for a recount and takes every aspect of elections seriously. Each ballot is handled as delicately as possible to adhere to a voters privacy, she said. I believe my staff and I go above and beyond to ensure that ballots are processed according to Michigan election laws. In my opinion, there is nothing more sacred than a voters right to a fair and just election process. The total number of unaccounted for absentee votes in the city of Taylor was 14. Garzas vote total increased by nine, Taylors by three and the remaining candidates by two. Garza is currently serving in his second term as the chairman of the Taylor City Council and will take on Republican candidate Michelle Bailey in the Nov. 6 general election. A month after Michigan shattered voter turnout records in the Aug. 7 primaries, the Wayne County Commission questioned election officials about the accuracy of the results. At the Sept. 6 meeting, Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett adamantly denied any implication that the final count was skewed. At no time were the numbers or the votes ever compromised, she said. With the ElectionSource system, it has no direct connection to the tabulation of the votes, nor the transmittal of the votes. ElectionSource, a web-based reporting system used by the clerks office to digitally display election results to the public, malfunctioned. Users saw fluctuating tabulations beginning at about 9:30 p.m. on election night, something Garrett was alerted to by a candidate. Greg Mahar, director of elections for Wayne County, explained that two systems were running in parallel on election night: an election management system, which tabulates and transmits the official votes, and a web-based reporting system (i.e., ElectionSource). Due to federal certification (laws), an election system cannot be connected to the outside world, to the internet, he said. So what happens is we have to download a special file from the election management system and then go to a separate computer that is hooked up to the internet and upload it to the ElectionSource website then their software displays the results from that file. Before the transition from the election management system to the web-based reporting system, the Wayne County Clerks office assigns an internal team to confirm the official results with local clerks. Wayne County Commissioner Glenn Anderson (D-Westland) asked whether ElectionSource would remain as a contractor, saying its mistakes cause people to question the integrity of the voting process. We all have to be realistic to realize that most people, thats what they see first, he said. They dont understand, as you made everyone aware of, the division between what your numbers are and what you do in the process, that the vote integrity was not in question. In most peoples minds, I think because of this snafu, they wonder whether or not thats the case. So its extremely important that we put forth a plan to prevent this from happening in the future. The companys president, Jeff DeLongchamp, took responsibility for the error. Im disappointed in what happened in the primary election here in Wayne County, he said. We thought it was vetted well beyond three times the use that we thought we were going to get. Unfortunately, we failed the county on that. The data flowing into ElectionSources program was 10 times what the company anticipated, causing drag on the system. The drag was then exacerbated by a coding error, which DeLongchamp said had been fixed, and the high number of users accessing the website on election night. He vowed to ensure it wouldnt happen again after putting new procedures in place and revamping the affected system so that it can accommodate additional capacity. The Wayne County Clerks office had not determined whether they would continue using ElectionSource for its web display at the time of the meeting. A meeting was scheduled for that evening to discuss it, but officials noted a dearth of options at a similar cost. In an email on Sept. 11, Lisa Williams-Jackson, director of communications for the Wayne County Clerks office, confirmed that they will continue using ElectionSource. Upon careful consideration and review, the Wayne County Clerks Office will continue to use ElectionSource for the November 2018 general election, she said. To the Editor: As a citizen and military retiree, a comment to Mitch Kehetians column Dishonoring national anthem, flag goes against what this country stands for is required. To begin, Colin Kaepernick played for the San Francisco 49ers. Not the Giants. Mitch, and others, wish for a utopian society wherein all citizens honor the flag, and stand for the national anthem. These are both worthwhile goals, and highly desirable. However, they do not consider the First Amendment. The Constitution guarantees citizens freedom of speech and action within defined guidelines. If burning the national flag is considered protected speech, why is kneeling for the national anthem considered heinous? The right to dissent and protest is just as much a part of what we all stand for. Mitchs column has it backwards. To honor a citizens right to dissent or protest only if we agree with their goals is the dishonorable part. I dont always agree with what someone says or does, but I will fight for their right to do so. Richard Kudrak Lincoln Park Ray Lambert, of Seven Lakes, holds a picture of him with his older brother, Bill. Both were in the first wave on D-Day and were injured during the fighting. LUXEMBOURG, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) Manager Olymp Capital today announced the launch of the first European investment fund to cover the entire blockchain and crypto asset ecosystem. The fund managed by Olymp Capital will include blockchain-related Private Equity, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) activity and a fund-of-fund activity centered on crypto hedge funds. The fund accepts investment both in fiat and crypto currencies (bitcoin, ether). The Olymp Capital leadership team is led by experts in both traditional finance and in the blockchain ecosystem who have drawn on the best features of traditional venture capital, updated for the world of crypto investment. Christophe de Courson, a serial technology entrepreneur, serves as CEO and Paul Bougnoux, co-founder of leading French corporate finance advisory firm Largilliere Finance, serves as chairman. In 2017 the ICO market raised $5.9bn1 whereas $13.7bn2 has already been raised by in 2018 so far. But while the ICO market is booming, it is difficult for investors to access the best deals; investors typically hear about an ICO via social or other media when it is already too late to invest. Tellingly in the first quarter of 2018 average returns for ICOs stood at -55%3, but the 5 best ICOs had a +1,100%4 return. Olymp Capitals role is to provide the link between investors and the ICO market to aid discovery of those premium ICO investment propositions. The Olymp network enables the fund managers to identify and screen the best entrepreneurs and companies which are about to launch ICOs in a way that individual crypto investors are unable to match. Olymp Capital has established strategic privileged partnerships with Fundstrat Global Advisors , the first crypto assets analysis company, based in New York and founded by Thomas Lee, ex-Chief Equity Strategist of J.P. Morgan and with John Bai, ex-Head of Equity Sales Asia & US at Mizuho Securities, and technological research institute SystemX , a French government-backed accelerator focused on digital transformation. These partnerships are supplemented by a worldwide network which Olymp Capital has established, including associates in Luxembourg, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore, which will enable the fund managers to identify the best opportunities in order to create an international ecosystem by investing in selected ones. Unlike other funds which launch an ICO in order to collect crypto-currencies, Olymps corporate wallet account allows it to collect payments in cryptocurrencies. This offers a significant advantage in ICO investments and removes the need to convert fiat currency to bitcoin or ether for their investments. We have built an international group of advisors, composed of recognized experts in complementary sectors finance and investment, blockchain and crypto assets, and compliance and regulation to assist our management team based in Luxembourg, said Paul Bougnoux, chairman of Olymp Capital. We believe we have the strongest network within the blockchain space in the EU. Christophe de Courson, CEO and co-founder of Olymp Capital commented: This new fund is the only one in Europe that is able to invest directly in tokens. Investors benefit from a unique deal flow, managed by Olymp Capital and offering a fully diversified portfolio in blockchain and crypto asset accessed via a more cost effective single investment vehicle. With first mover advantage, Olymp Capital is set to be the European leader in investments in the new digital asset class. ABOUT OLYMP CAPITAL Olymp Capital is the first asset management firm in Europe to cover all the blockchain and crypto asset classes ecosystem. The firm is headquartered in Luxembourg and is comprised of experts in traditional finance and the blockchain ecosystem. For more information, visit the web site at www.olymp.capital. EDITORS NOTE: If you would like a color photograph of Christophe de Courson, CEO and co-founder of Olymp Capital, or Paul Bougnoux, chairman of Olymp Capital, please contact Chris Pfaff on chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com or +1-201-218-0262 1 http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-much-raised-icos-2017-tokendata-2017-2018-1 2 https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/06/29/icos-have-generated-13-7-billion-in-2018-so-far-nearly-doubling-2017-numbers/ 3 https://www.tokendata.io/ and Olymp Capital calculations By Jackson Schulte schultej@grinnell.edu Adrienne Celt 06 visited Grinnell on Thursday as the first guest in this years Writers@Grinnell series. She sat down with students at a roundtable discussion in JRC 209, and then gave a larger reading and Q&A in JRC 101 at 8 p.m. Celt, who was a Russian and philosophy double major at Grinnell, is currently receiving critical acclaim for her new novel, Invitation to a Bonfire. The book tells the story of a young woman who has immigrated to the United States from Russia and finds herself attending an all-girls boarding school in New Jersey. At the boarding school, she gets entangled in a love triangle with a couple inspired by Vladimir Nabokov and his wife Vera Nabokov. Celt is not only a novelist, but a comic writer and a Grinnell alumna, so the discussion topics included editing manuscripts, why Nabokov gets a bad reputation and the ways in which Grinnell continues to inspire her. Celt even claimed that her novel might not have come into fruition without Grinnell. As a Russian major, she took Professor Kelly Herolds seminar on Nabokov during her senior year, which gave her the literary and historical information needed to write a book inspired by the Nabokov couple. For this book, Celt said, the historical elements were easier to find because I had already done the research ten years ago. It was in that Nabokov seminar that Celt fell for Nabokovs work, which has had a lasting impact on her. The reason that I love Nabokov is the way that his work affects me. He is able to be both stylistically brilliant and structurally inventive, Celt said. In terms of his personality and his legacy as an ego-driven art monster, I think that thats true. He was very controlling of both his characters and his readers. He and his wife Vera both felt that it was important to control the way that he was seen as an artist and a genius. Celt also mentioned that some of the criticism of Nabokovs persona shrouds the fact that he genuinely cared for those around him. I think that he also had a lot of dignity and honor and respect for the people who loved him. And the work that he was doing was very meaningful, Celt said. Even Lolita, which is controversial because some people think that it takes Lolitas story away from her the way that I read the book is that that is the point. She was a vulnerable and harmed child, and the reason that we see it through Humberts eyes is that he is an incredibly seductive narrator. Just seeing it through Lolitas eyes would have been tragic but almost unbearable. Nabokov aside, Celt highlighted seminars on Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt as some of the most memorable classes she took at Grinnell. And, even in her free time, she says that being isolated at a place like Grinnell can foster endless curiosity. I remember in my free time I would go to Burling, go to the fiction shelves and pick things off at random that looked appealing, Celt said. The nice thing about being in college in a small place like Grinnell is you feel like everything belongs to you. Youre sort of wonderfully insulated from the world for a while. Things that have been shared with a lot of people can feel very personal to you, which I think is a great way to build a relationship with an artist. Celts latest book, Invitation to a Bonfire, is available now, and her comics are published weekly at loveamongthelampreys.com. By Charun Upara uparacha@grinnell.edu Starting next Wednesday, Bill Menner, a former White House appointee to the Department of Agriculture, will teach a four-part bucket course on rural community and rural development at the Drake Community Library. The course will last from Sept. 12 to Oct. 3. The course, titled Agriculture, Small Towns and the Federal Government: A Look at the Relationship Over the Years, will meet every Thursday for four weeks. Participants can learn and engage in conversations about the roles that federal and local governments, businesses, and other institutions play in the development of rural economies. The course will also address the role of agriculture subsidies and the protection of farmers from unpredictable changes in commodity prices and the weather. The point is to bring in different perspectives, Menner said. My interest lies in, Why is it that the federal government needs to be engaged and supportive of rural economies? Menner, a long-time resident of Grinnell, hopes to explore the ways in which the federal government has helped rural communities in the past, starting with rural electrification during the 1930s. No right-minded utility was ever going to extend power lines down a gravel road or a dirt road to serve two farms, Menner said. There is no return on investment, so the government had to step in. In the later parts of the course, he plans to put the rural electrification of the 1930s in context and discuss the relevancy of the issue by comparing it to the rate that high-speed Internet is spreading today. Its really no different than the 1930s when small towns didnt have electricity. Today, many small towns dont have high-speed broadband, because theres no business case to be made, Menner said. A resident of Grinnell since 1990, Menner has been involved in numerous projects that helped shape Grinnell. From 2001-2009, he ran Grinnell Renaissance, the citys downtown development organization. He also served as the county economic development director for Poweshiek Iowa Development. After President Obama was elected in 2009, Menner spent the next eight years as the State Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Agency (USDA) in Iowa. Its an agency that provides funding, loan[s], grant[s] [and] loan guarantee[s] for projects in small towns, and it helps finance projects that the local banks dont have the capacity to fund or dont want to fund. Menner believes that small towns cannot solely rely on investments from for-profit organizations for their economies to thrive, and that support from the federal government is indispensable in the growth of rural communities across the country. Somehow, if the people there are going to get reasonable service, the government has to step in, Menner said. Menner would like this course to spark broader and deeper conversations as a community about issues concerning livability and how to resolve them. They may learn a few things they didnt know, or theyll get a chance to share their own experiences, which I hope they do, he said. *an earlier edition of this article stated Menners courses began on Thursday instead of Wednesday. It has been corrected to the correct day. By Seth Taylor taylorse@grinnell.edu As Iowans celebrated Labor Day this Monday with parades and picnics, labor unions a now controversial subject in the halls of Congress and the Statehouse were featured prominently in the speeches and celebrations. Denny Conway, a retired Grinnell-Newburg School District teacher of 44 years, spent his life around labor unions. In 1973, Conway accepted a teaching job in Grinnell and joined the National Education Association, which negotiates on behalf of teachers. Conway was born in Nebraska, into a family of railroad workers. While Conway avoided joining the railway union, the rest of his family enjoyed the unions benefits. And without the unions protection, Conway believes the railroad management would have ran right over [the workers]. I think they would have pushed and shoved and you would have had unsafe conditions. John McKerley, an oral historian for Iowa Labor History, traced the history of Iowa unions. According to McKerley, Iowa unions started in the late 1800s, when they arose to combat economic uncertainty. In the Great Depression the U.S. granted private-sector workers the legal right to unionize. McKerley ended today, when Iowa unions are weaker than ever. Iowa is a low-wage state with a large agricultural sector that never achieved the same union strength as unions in manufacturing states, according to McKerley. The weakness of unions allowed the Iowa legislature to pass right-to-work laws in 1947, much earlier than other states. Right-to-work laws are laws that ban unions from requiring workers to join and pay union dues. There was a lot of fear about what right-to-work would mean, McKerley said. But [Iowa] workers were actually able to adapt to it and through organizing they were able to keep their memberships relatively stable through the fifties and the sixties. Unions related to the College In 1969, Building and Grounds (B&G) employees at the College unionized, and when new-contract negotiations stalled a few months later, the new union members spent a week refusing to work. Less than a year later, the B&G workers went on strike again, this time for ten weeks, leaving college administrators to do the B&G employees work. A picture in an August 1974 issue of The S&B depicts Waldo Walker, then executive vice president and dean of the College, mowing the Nollen House lawn. Despite this burst of union activity in 1970s Grinnell, Logan Lee, economics, says that unions were largely in decline by then. Through a combination of globalization and deindustrialization, the American economy was changing, and it was a change unions werent prepared to deal with. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that from 1989 to 2017 Iowa union membership fell from 182,000 to 104,000. The percentage of total workers who are members of a union fell from 15.2 percent to 7.0 percent. In 2017, the Republican-led Iowa legislature passed new restrictions on collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions. The legislation bans non public-safety employees in public-sector unions from negotiating over health insurance and evaluation procedures, among other things. It also forces unions to hold a recertification vote every two to three years. I think pretty obviously all those laws are going to be bad for unions. Theyre going to hurt public sector union membership, especially in the long term, Lee said. For some people, though, the original impetus behind labor unions creation may have dissipated, according to Lee. When labor unions originally formed they were pioneers in establishing the 40 hour workweek, a federal minimum wage and new safety standards. But many Americans now take those advancements for granted. People say, Well, look. Unions have kind of served their purpose. A lot of the things that they used to fight for are now just federally mandated anyway, Lee said. Conway shared that sentiment. He believes that while unions served their purpose, they got out of control and asked for too much from management. I think the unions have been their own demise, he said. Neither Lee nor Conway sees much hope for unions in the future. Even if legislation were passed to buttress unions in Iowa or elsewhere, Lee believes they would struggle to attract the kind of large-scale membership that would return them to an American political and social power. McKerley, on the other hand, has a more optimistic view. Theres every reason that we could actually be at the beginning of a new era of union power that will take us in some direction that we cannot even imagine, McKerley said. Just like the workers in 1929 never could have imagined what the labor movement could become, McKerley said. If you stroll down Sixth Ave. headed for Dari Barn, you will likely notice a number of red-painted, wooden signs broadcasting VOTE NO in big, white lettering. Between the crimson panels, you will also see huge orange banners and smaller signs demanding you to do the opposite and Vote YES for our kids. What you will likely fail to gather from either sign, however, is exactly what youre supposed to vote on and why you should even care about voting. On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Grinnell-Newburg Community School District will invite members of the Grinnell community to vote to approve a plan to build a new pre-K-5 elementary school to replace the three current ones, completely renovate the local middle school and update the HVAC system and create spaces intended for career and college preparation in the high school. After conducting internal and external audits, the school district and superintendent determined the proposed plan the best course of action to resolve the current schools crumbling and inefficient infrastructures; cramped classrooms; inaccessibility for students, staff, and visitors with disabilities; and general failure to meet the needs of 21st century teachers and learners. A successful vote needs to pass at a margin of 60 percent, according to Iowa law. The district proposed this same bond in February, but the vote only gained a majority of 52 percent of the vote. Voting yes twice on Sept. 11 would grant the school district the power to move forward with their plan. Voting no would leave students and teachers to continue making do with the disintegrating schools they have. Investing in quality learning spaces for the children of our community seems like a no brainer, right? Well then, why does the community seem so polarized on the issue? Opponents of the bond list a number of reasons to oppose the plan, but most of them boil down to safety for our communitys children and the cost of the plan. The first issue, safety, relates to how the district plans to build the proposed elementary school on a former industrial site that once had contaminated air and soil. Opponents to the bond suggest the area is still contaminated, but they are wrong. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources declared the soil and air quality safe in 2012 and an independent environmental consulting service followed suit in 2017. The Vote No side also fails to acknowledge how the proposed plan will actually improve students safety by providing more secure entryways, storm shelters, safer drop-off and pickup zones and updated infrastructure, so students will no longer have to contend with mold from leaks in walls and ceilings and electrical fires from old systems (there was an electrical fire in an elementary school just two weeks ago). The next issue, money, is sensitive and valid for some. Voting yes on the school bond will raise property taxes $2.60 for every $1,000 of assessed property value, a rate that amounts to an increase of approximately 64 cents per day or $230 per year for the average household in Grinnell. While not a nominal amount, I would gladly sacrifice the cost of a soda per day or a couple cappuccinos per week at Saints Rest, so kids in my community can learn in safe, comfortable and adequate environments. True, some members of the community will end up paying more than the average rate in taxes. Nevertheless, our community must confront the financial costs of our current schools. The districts audits determined the cost to renovate the current schools would add up to $47 million and will continue to grow. We ought to build a new school and profit from selling the old properties, rather than continue seeking band-aid fixes for our outdated buildings at such a high cost. At some point, our community must face the fact that we need to spend money to support our childrens education. We can proactively approve this school bond, or we can wait until our schools fail because we cant keep up with the maintenance our outdated systems require. Forty years ago, our community watched the former middle school crumble until it was deemed unsafe for students and condemned. As a result, the district had to create an emergency education plan which required middle and high schoolers to split the high school for half days while they waited for the district to build a new middle school. While this is a drastic circumstance, it looms in my mind as something our community may face in the future if this bond fails. We must learn from our past mistakes. At this point you may be thinking, This is all fine and good, but why should I care about Grinnells public schools? Im just a Grinnellian who has to use Google Maps to get to the bookstore. I appreciate your honesty and concern. While you may not have spent much time in the community, your voice still matters. The College and the Grinnell community have a symbiotic relationship, each depending on the other to exist. Do you want great professors at Grinnell? I bet they factor in the safety and quality of the schools their kids will attend before they decide to accept their positions. Do you want to live in a vibrant, growing community despite Iowa trends of population decline? New schools will attract members to Grinnell rather than other peer communities with far better schools than ours. Do you want young children to know the same excitement of learning in creative and fun spaces as we do from having opportunities to learn in Noyce, JRC, the Bear and the future HSSC? A new combined elementary school with modern spaces will do the trick. Do you care about equal access and opportunity for students in a rural community to which you have personal ties? Creating spaces designed to help all learners reach their personal, career and educational goals will reduce inequalities between students with different resources at home. We would all balk at the notion that only property owners should vote on key social justice issues like this one in any other situation, so why do we find that argument valid now? As a lifelong citizen of Grinnell, alumna of the Grinnell-Newburg Community School district and fellow Grinnellian, I implore you to support the Grinnell community by voting yes twice on the school bond issue next Tuesday, Sept. 11 at the Elks Lodge. As students who benefit from the top-notch educational experience Grinnell affords, we know first-hand how key positive environments are for student success. Lets do all we can to make sure our communitys children, our most precious resource, have all the tools they need to thrive. Optimistically, Lily Hamilton 19 RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SECU Foundation announced its support this week for a housing and human services initiative in Carteret County SAFE, a Shelter and Family Empowerment facility that benefits victims and families of domestic violence. During a special event held in Morehead City, SECU Foundation Board Chair Cynthia Jolly delivered the announcement and presented a $365,000 ceremonial grant check to Carteret County Domestic Violence Program (CCDVP) to help fund the construction of a new 5,000 square foot shelter. The primary focus of CCDVP is to provide victims of domestic abuse, neglect, or violence with safe shelter and emergency services. In 2017, over 1,900 services were provided to adults and children free of charge, including shelter and emergency assistance, crisis intervention, food and clothing, transportation, counseling, and court advocacy. The Foundations grant will help CCDVP near the completion of its capital campaign efforts, enabling the non-profit to help meet the Countys steady increase in domestic violence needs. SECU members are honored to be part of helping Carteret County Domestic Violence Program continue their good works in the community, said Ms. Jolly. CCDVP is a strong, well-established organization that has been providing emergency shelter services for 28 years. The Foundations grant supports the Programs efforts for a new facility, increasing their capacity to provide victims with a safe, temporary place to live and the supportive services needed to help them heal and overcome the devastating effects of domestic violence. We are so grateful to SECU Foundation they heard our plea and responded with great generosity to our request, remarked Glenda Riggs, Executive Director of CCDVP. As a result, we are now ready to begin construction on the new SAFE house that will be handicap accessible and provide more efficient security to ensure client safety. Thank you so much to SECU members who fund the Foundation for their support and dedication to our community. About SECU and the SECU Foundation A not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members, SECU has been providing employees of the State of North Carolina and their families with consumer financial services for 81 years. The Credit Union also offers a diversified line of financial advisory services including retirement and education planning, tax preparation, insurance, trust and estate planning services, and investments through its partners and affiliated entities. SECU serves over 2.3 million members through 264 branch offices, nearly 1,100 ATMs, 24/7 Member Services via phone and a website, www.ncsecu.org. The SECU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by the contributions of SECU members, promotes local community development in North Carolina primarily through high impact projects in the areas of housing, education, healthcare and human services. Since 2004, SECU Foundation has made a collective financial commitment of more than $154 million for initiatives to benefit North Carolinians statewide. Contact: Jama Campbell, Executive Director Office: 919-839-5562 | secufoundation@ncsecu.org A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3cb30b67-74dc-42a6-bea2-fbf64bc1ea6a By Chloe Wray wraychlo@grinnell.edu Professor Barry Driscoll, political science, starts each semester by asking his students to share an obscure fact about themselves. The fact he shares: I built a dog park. The Poweshiek Animal League Shelter (PALS) Park dog park that Driscoll references, located on PALS property, opened its gates in November 2017. Creation and success of the dog park can largely be attributed to Driscolls efforts. After moving to Grinnell in 2015, Driscoll became involved with PALS. Over time, his work as a volunteer transitioned to his serving on the organizations Board of Directors. Around this time, I began thinking about the general absence of a dog park from our community. Its a strange thing given were in a land-abundant part of the world to have no dog park, whatsoever, Driscoll said. As former residents of Madison, Wisconsin, Driscoll, his wife, Taylor Price, writing lab, and their dog Bea were accustomed to having access to multiple dog parks. Access to a dog park was an amenity they sought within Grinnel. After becoming acquainted with the local dog community via his work with PALS, Driscoll set out to determine the feasibility of creating one for the city. Driscoll discovered that the city council had a dog park sub-committee. For almost a decade, this group had been working to build a dog park, only to be met with objections of not in my back yard each time a location for the park was proposed. Once youve got the space, the rest of it is pretty trivial, Driscoll said, explaining the difficulties faced by the dog park committee. Based on obvious interest from community members, Driscoll proposed that PALS use a portion of its four acres to build a dog park, a process which started in spring of 2017. Today, the park sits on two and a half acres behind the structure of the shelter. Beyond Walmart, the first right after passing under I-80 and then another right, locates the park as slightly out of town. Worth the drive, the park is not simply a fenced-in field; its most prominent feature is a pond shrouded in oaks. The wooded area keeps wind levels under control while muffling noise from the nearby interstate. Trails circle the pond and the perimeter of the park, cutting through the woods and running alongside tall prairie grasses. Along the trails sit benches for dog-owners, and recently constructed agility structures sit in a mowed grass area. Before the park, there were no fenced-off areas for PALS dogs to run. Instead, volunteers walked the dogs on leash, invariably doing little to release the animals pent up energy. Hank, a large white dog who resembles a lab mix, is one of a dozen dogs currently at PALS. All dogs at the shelter are guaranteed time in the dog park at least once a day most days they get to use the park twice. Off-leash, Hank explores the tall grass, jumping through the bramble, convinced he will catch the small animal he senses in the bushes. He does not tire of the park. Although small, the parks environment presents the dogs with a seemingly endless array of scents to sniff. Walks are not exercise for most dogs, Driscoll said. Walks are actually smells, thats what walks are. Theyre an opportunity to smell and become mentally stimulated. With the dogs able to roam freely through the park, their mental and physical wellbeing is greatly aided. Additionally, the park provides opportunities for young shelter dogs to interact and offers a space for potential adopters to meet the dogs. [The park] has been a huge advantage to the shelter, Driscoll said, citing PALS as unique among shelters, few of which feature dog parks. While it has its benefits for the shelter, the park is ultimately intended for public use. Technically, the park is private and requires a $30 annual membership fee per household, though, Driscoll adds, its public-spirited, but not legally a public park. Built entirely with funds raised through donations which Driscoll secured from individuals and businesses, the planning, building and opening of the park occured within six months. Membership fees do not accrue as revenue, rather they go to fund ongoing costs such as insurance associated with the park. Employees of businesses who donate are granted access to the park on varying levels dependent on donation amount. Currently, PALS is still seeking donations to repay the final set of loans on the $40,000 project. The dog park is open from dawn until dusk 365 days of the year, excluding the hours of 7:30-9 a.m. and 4:30-6 p.m. which are set aside exclusively for use by PALS dogs and staff. Video by Veronica Thomas By Lily Siebert siebertli@grinnell.edu his coming Friday and Saturday, Coe College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will be hosting the 20th annual White Privilege Symposium. Grinnell College will sponsor 10 students to attend the Symposium this year, affording them an opportunity to meet people from around the world and discuss issues of race, intersectionality and identity in a judgment-free zone. While the event addresses several different themes over the two-day period, the main focuses this year will be intersectionality and race. Erik Henderson 19 explained that one of the main goals of the event is trying to get people to understand that there is this thing called white privilege, as he believes that many who do not directly experience the repercussions of racism do not spend time thinking about issues related with race and ethnicity. As the Intercultural Affairs student program assistant, Henderson has become deeply involved with the Symposium and maintaining its connection to Grinnell. In preparation for this years event, he spent time raising funds and creating the application in order to facilitate students participation. Having this Symposium and this conference, it allows people to actually understand why these things are occurring, Henderson said, regarding issues of white privilege. What is really going on, how can we deflect this negative potential and turn it into something positive, something that we can actually learn from instead of making it very uncomfortable. The Symposium contains several different elements. Students can participate in several workshops, some of which Henderson had the opportunity to plan and organize. This years event will also feature various keynote speakers ranging from academics to musicians to political activists. Above all, the Symposium gives students a chance to meet others willing to have difficult conversations. For many of the attendees, the most important aspect of the conversation is the lack of shame and judgment that goes along with participation. To illustrate this point, Henderson recalled what many students refer to as the Grinnell Smackdown, or the practice of shaming someone who accidentally uses a particular word or phrase incorrectly. Rather, the environment of the Symposium is one of collective learning and growth. This allows for students that may want to have that conversation but dont have the language or the vocabulary to talk about it, Henderson said. Maybe theyre scared that someone with that language may smack them down. So it allows them to get that comfort level that they may not get on this campus. Henderson also stressed that those who run the Symposium remain committed to attacking ideas rather than people, operating in a way thats [not] negative and portraying white people as something thats innately bad. Its just, it happens, it exists, how can we best combat that and learn from that and work with that. While spots for the White Privilege Symposium have already filled this year, more options lie ahead for people who wish to get involved. A conference surrounding the same issues will happen in October, and first- and second-year students can take advantage of these opportunities for years to come. With continued enthusiasm from students, Henderson hopes that the conversation is only just beginning. San Diego, CA, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For shoppers needing a new home right now, Shea Homes is offering a prime selection of move-in ready homes from San Diegos South County to Carlsbad to North Escondido. Including popular designer upgrades and features, homes ready for occupancy now range from sleek and contemporary town homes (priced from the low $400,000s), to luxury homes up to 4,936 square feet in a gated neighborhood (priced from the low millions). In select communities, special Designer Homes are available that may include upgraded flooring, washer, dryer, refrigerator, and closing costs. For more information, please call or see the sales representative on-site. Also available are almost-finished homes that allow buyers to select designer finishes to suit their personal style. In San Diegos South County, Shea is currently building townhomes and detached condominiums at Z and Element, located in the popular Millenia master-planned community in Chula Vista. Further east, Shea offers several unique family neighborhoods at Chula Vistas new Village of Escaya. At Sierra and Seville, be sure to ask about no-money-down and low-money-down loans available through VA and FHA financing. Located on elevated property with views and spacious lots, the gated community of Vista Del Cielo in Chula Vista presents a limited opportunity with homes up to 4,936 square feet. Further up the coast, in a quiet neighborhood in Carlsbad: Lanai II features spectacular architecture in large spacious homes up to 3,842 square feet. Showings are available by appointment only; please call 619-572-1060 to schedule your visit. In North Escondido, Heritage Collection and The Estates at Canyon Grove offer large family homes nestled near established groves, stables and schools in a semi-rural atmosphere. No-money-down and low-money-down loans are available at both neighborhoods through VA and FHA financing. Visit SheaHomes.com/SanDiego for further details. Attachments Landlords who rent properties to multiple tenants face tough new licensing rules designed to protect tenants from next month. HMO licensing - which stands for houses in multiple occupation - already applies to landlords who rent their properties to five or more tenants from two or more different households where the property is three or more storeys. But from 1 October, any property let to five or more tenants from two or more households will be caught by the rules - regardless of the number of floors. It means that 177,000 landlords across the UK will have to meet new minimum standards on room size and safety or face fines up to 30,000 and even criminal prosecution. Any house with five or more people from two or more households will be considered a HMO The move is part of a wider Government effort to crack down on poor living conditions, overcrowding and tackle slum landlords who get away with cramming tenants into tiny flats. But it also means that thousands of landlords who do a good job and offer high quality accommodation to their tenants will also have to comply with the rules, which could mean costly refits. What is an HMO? An HMO stands for a house in multiple occupation. It is any property let to five or more tenants who come from two or more different households and at the moment, licensing only applies where the property is three or more storeys. Think typical student housing and properties let to young professionals in city centres. HMOs are increasingly common as a buy-to-let investment for a few reasons. Because the property is let to a number of different tenants, if one tenant falls behind on their rent, the landlord is usually still able to cover their mortgage payments from the rental income from the other tenants. Letting to multiple tenants on different tenancy agreements also means that landlords can generate higher rental incomes. For example, letting a three-bed house to a family might generate 2,500 rent a month. Letting the same property to three separate tenants might allow you to charge each one 1,000 a month, stepping up overall income to 3,000. Following several changes to mortgage rules and tax treatment over the past few years, buy-to-let has become less profitable. Because this type of property offers higher returns, many landlords have sold out of lower profit properties and reinvested in HMOs. Why is HMO licensing being extended? The Government argues that people living in properties not built, but used, for multiple occupation run the risk of overcrowding and fire. It argues that some housing has been used by opportunistic rogue landlords who exploit vulnerable tenants, and rent 'sub-standard, overcrowded and dangerous accommodation'. As with breaching the licence, failure to obtain one can result in fines and a criminal record Will you need an HMO licence after 1 October? While the existing HMO rules apply to around 60,000 landlords in the UK, the scope of licensing is being extended to capture 177,000 landlords from next month. Any property let to five or more tenants from two or more different households will require a licence after 1 October. Depending on the local authority, some licences may require vetting for both landlords and tenants - particularly in areas where anti-social behaviour is more common. Minimum bedroom sizes will also be introduced for all tenants after this date in a bid to clamp down on overcrowding. And landlords will have to provide an adequate number of bins for each HMO, or could face fines. If a landlord already has a selective or additional licence, as many will in certain boroughs, they may also come under the scope of mandatory HMO licencing from 1 October. Having an existing licence does not mean the new rules won't apply however, and you may have to apply for a different type of licence when yours expires. Check with your local council to see what's expected of you. What happens if a landlord doesn't comply? Your local authority may decide to request details of room sizes that are used for sleeping accommodation as part of the application process - and they may also choose to inspect properties at their discretion. If a landlord breaks these rules and is convicted, they are liable to an unlimited fine, or the local housing authority may impose a financial penalty of up to 30,000 as an alternative to prosecution. The local housing authority must allow a 'reasonable period' of up to 18 months for any overcrowding problems to be solved once identified. How do you apply for an HMO licence? If it turns out you need a mandatory HMO licence, youll need to apply to your local council. Theyll most likely want to see a floor plan, and youll need to pay an application fee. These fees vary by council but are usually around 500 and last for five years. Once youve submitted your application you will have to be vetted by the council before you receive your licence. Check with your local council to see what their specific rules are. As with breaching the licence, failure to obtain one can result in prosecution, fines, and a criminal record - and you must apply by 1 October. Renters across the country have been waiting almost two years for the promised ban on astronomical letting agent fees to materialise. But this week, the Government got one step closer as the tenant fees bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons. It will now pass over the House of Lords to be scrutinised before becoming law. The new rules, first proposed by Chancellor Philip Hammond two years ago, would see a ban on landlords and letting agents in England charging tenants any additional fees when they sign up for a new rental property. The bill passed through the Commons yesterday, and will now pass over the House of Lords It was brought into place due to a minority of agents routinely overcharging tenants for simple tasks - many of which they also billed landlords for, either as part of standard agency fees or as extras. The bill also proposes a cap on the security deposits renters pay at the beginning of their tenancy - to the equivalent of six weeks' rent. Government analysis suggests tenants will on average save around 300 every time they move house as a result of the ban. Minister Rishi Sunak MP said: 'Tenants across the country, whatever their income, should not be hit with unfair costs by agents or landlords. 'The tenant fees bill will make renting fairer and more transparent for all.' The latest version of the bill also includes a proposal to prevent agents and landlords from overcharging tenants for extras - such as slapping them with a 60 bill to refit a smoke alarm. Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: 'The tenant fees bill is good news for renters and recent changes inch millions of people closer to important protections. 'It's great that renters can no longer be fined hundreds of pounds for something as simple as losing a key, but it still doesn't stop landlords charging for a whole range of ridiculous things like cleaning cobwebs from light fittings. 'The Government needs to make the bill completely watertight before it comes into force by getting rid of unfair charges. Only then will renters get the absolute protection they deserve.' Why is the government looking to ban tenant fees? There is evidence that fees paid by tenants have increased significantly in recent years. Citizens' Advice found that 64 per cent of tenants experience problems paying letting agents' fees, and 42 per cent have to borrow money to cover the cost. Meanwhile a report from the charity Shelter found that nearly one in four people in England and Wales feels they have been charged unfair fees by a letting agent. Letting agencies typically charge tenants 337 in fees to rent a home and many tenants in London are forced to pay over 400. This has led to concerns that costs are being ramped up rather than passed on. Credit checks, for example, can cost as little as 3 but many letting agents charge tenants in excess of 50 for them. In other instances, tenants can be charged for admin work, such as tenancy renewals and inventories, when these should be covered by the letting and management fees already being charged to landlords. According to comparison site Letting Fees UK, as of April 2016 a two-person household paid an average 386 in letting fees, with fees charged ranging from 40 to up to 780. The Government predicts that the bill will cost landlords 83million, or 31 a landlord in the first year of implementation. It could also cost letting agents 157million and even lead to branch closures and job losses. Renters collectively can expect to save 240million a year. A Government consultation found that 93 per cent of tenants agreed with the proposals. Tenants will on average save around 300 every time they move house as a result of the bill Letting agents were less pleased by the bill's progress. 'We're disappointed but unsurprised the tenant fees bill has passed the House of Commons,' said ARLA Propertymark chief executive David Cox. 'As the bill moves into the House of Lords we will continue working to ensure parliamentarians understand the impact the ban will have on the whole private rented sector.' Tradebody ARLA Propertymark has previously suggested that the bill could push rents up by as much as 103 a year for the average tenant. Saint Paul, MN, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Books For Africa (BFA), a non-profit with offices in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Atlanta, has received Charity Navigators 4-star rating for the seventh consecutive year, the highest possible rating. Charity Navigator is the countrys premiere charity evaluator and rates charities on sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency. Books For Africa and other groups around the world are celebrating International Literacy Day on Saturday, September 8, sponsored for the past 50 years by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Attaining a 4-star rating verifies that Books For Africa exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in your area of work, Michael Thatcher, President and CEO of Charity Navigators, wrote in a letter to Patrick Plonski, Executive Director of Books For Africa. Only 5% of the charities we evaluate have received at least 7 consecutive 4-star evaluations. Thatcher said that the rating indicates that your organization adheres to sector best practices and exectues its mission in a financially efficient way. BFA had an overall rating of 100, with a financial rating of 100 and an accountability and transparency rating of 100. For more information: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3373 We are very happy with our high rating from Charity Navigator, Plonski said. We are proud that Books For Africa has once again been able to serve the students and people of Africa by shipping (during fiscal 2018) 2.3 million educational, library and law books to 28 different countries. Our hope is to continue to expand our work in the years ahead so we can serve even more people. The books shipped this past fiscal year (ending June 30) are valued at $22 million. Books For Africa has also shipped 123 computers and e-readers containing 283,000 digital books. More than $2.3 million was raised in the past year to ship the books to the students of Africa. Books For Africa remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, sending over 41 million books to all 54 countries on the African continent since its founding in 1988. Attachments A new report has uncovered that police close investigations into reported vehicles thefts without identifying a suspect. Hundreds of thousands of probes across a range of criminal activities are shut with no suspected culprit in the frame, the Press Association found as part of a recent inquest. The revelations prompted warnings that victims could be put off reporting offences, while criminals are given a 'green light to reoffend'. Suspect unidentified: Three quarters of investigations into vehicle thefts in the UK are closed without a culprit being found, a new report has revealed Police chiefs say increased demand and reduced officer numbers are to blame. Figures for shoplifting, theft or 'unauthorised taking' of a motor vehicle, and residential burglary were extracted from Home Office crime outcomes data for the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales, plus British Transport Police. The analysis, which covers the 12 months to March and reflects the position as of June, found that vehicle theft levels are at their highest in years but charges or summonses had been issued for just four per cent of recorded vehicle thefts. Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Commons Home Affairs committee, said: 'Too many investigations are closing without suspects being identified and we are hearing increasing reports of the police being too overstretched to investigate. 'Police forces are under immense pressure with rising serious and violent crime and changing patterns of crime alongside cuts in the numbers of officers and PCSOs. 'These figures suggest that investigations into volume crimes are now being hit. Failing to identify suspects gives criminals a green light to reoffend.' Alex Mayes, of charity Victim Support, said: 'News like this could undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prevent people reporting in the future.' Vehicle thefts levels are at their highest in years, the Press Association investigation found The 44 forces logged 106,334 offences of theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle in 2017/18, the highest tally for an equivalent period since 2009/10. For 81,788 of these offences, the outcome was 'investigation complete no suspect identified'. This is used when a reported crime has been investigated 'as far as reasonably possible' and the case is closed pending further investigative opportunities. The percentage of vehicle thefts in this category nationally, 77 per cent, was up by one percentage point compared with the previous year. West Midlands Police and the Metropolitan Police closed 91 per cent and 85 per cent of vehicle thefts they recorded without a suspect being identified respectively, the analysis found. Only City of London Police had a higher percentage, at 96 per cent, although it recorded the smallest number of such offences, with 54. All but five forces closed over half of these cases without identifying a suspect. City of London Police closed 96% of vehicle thefts they recorded without a suspect being identified, followed by West Midlands Police and the Metropolitan Police with 91% and 85% ended without a suspect in mind RAC Insurance spokesman Simon Williams said motorists will be 'shocked' by the findings. 'This is a sign that thieves have found ways around car security systems and have ways of selling vehicles on with little or no fear of being caught,' he said. 'The fact fewer suspects are being identified is very worrying and no doubt a symptom of the declining number of police officers and the resulting reduction in time that can be dedicated to investigating these crimes.' Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, National Police Chiefs' Council lead for acquisitive crime, said increased demand and fewer officer numbers have led to forces prioritising cases with a realistic prospect of prosecution. She added: 'Police investigate all cases of theft, burglary and shoplifting. Particularly for these types of offences, police focus on targeting prolific offenders, organised crime networks, and ensuring prevention measures by homeowners and businesses are in place.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'We expect the police to take all reports of crime seriously, to investigate and to bring the offenders to court so that they can receive appropriate punishment. 'However we recognise that crime is changing and police demand is becoming increasingly complex. That is why we have provided a strong and comprehensive 13 billion funding settlement to ensure the police have the resources they need to carry out their vital work. 'The Government remains alert to changes in trends and new methods used by criminals and we will continue to work with the police, industry and others to consider the evidence and what more can be done to prevent these crimes taking place.' With his reassuring faint east London accent and ability to make even the more technical points of investing sound simple, it's easy to understand why Terry Smith has become one of the UK's favourite fund managers. The 65-year-old Fundsmith founder, who grew up in Stratford as the son of a lorry driver, has just launched his latest offering Smithson, an investment trust designed to be the 'son of' his renowned original Fundsmith fund which invests 17 billion of savers' money. But as with any star stock picker bringing out a new product, the Smithson fund has been surrounded by hype as investors look for a reliably safe place to stick their cash. 'We really like Fundsmith as a fund, and I'm sure we're not alone there,' says Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management's Patrick Thomas. 'If you look at most client portfolios, you'll probably find some money in it.' The original Fundsmith fund has grown rapidly since its launch in 2010 as investors have piled more money in, and Smith has stuck to his guns by resolutely targeting companies around the world that are high quality and resilient to change. So far, the strategy has paid off. Any investor who put 1,000 in at launch would have more than 4,000, while the same amount placed with its average competitor in the same time would have turned into just over 2,000. But Thomas warns that just because Fundsmith's strategy works in terms of global developed large companies, it 'doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be a roaring success in other areas'. Aiming to raise a comparatively small 250m when it floats on the London Stock Exchange, the Smithson investment trust will focus on small to medium-sized listed firms around the world. The reason for the launch, Smith explains, is there are simply too many strong smaller companies with promising prospects for him to resist. He says: 'We monitor a lot of things at Fundsmith, and one is companies which have performed better than our fund. There's quite a few of them, but there's a smaller group which have outperformed the fund and are in sectors that we like consumer, healthcare, IT.' The companies aren't attractive because they have better cash flow or margins, Smith adds. It's their speedy growth rate that makes them deliver. But the problem with the stalwart fund is that it is getting too big for Smith to use for investing in these smaller firms. To keep the pool of companies it owns to a manageable size, it must buy stakes of around 600m in every one not advisable when this would mean buying a third or even half of a smaller business. Added to that, the outspoken Smith couldn't resist using the fund launch to have another jibe at his peers. He has promised to pay the costs of setting up Smithson a charge usually lumped on investors out of his own pocket, which will be around 5m. Smithson will also charge an annual management fee of 0.9 per cent of the fund's overall market value, decided by its share price, not the underlying value of its investments which is the metric most managers rely on. Some might see this as a gamble since Smithson's shares are likely to trade at a premium to the underlying value given the investor demand for the fund, but Smith is adamant that it is fairer. Smith, who lives in Mauritius, has future-proofed the fund for when he does eventually retire. Simon Barnard and Will Morgan, both formerly of Goldman Sachs, will head Smithson. Barnard formerly had 'every penny of my available net worth invested with Terry', while Morgan admits he was 'quite addicted to watching Terry's annual shareholder meeting on the Fundsmith website'. Though both have a history in investment research, Barnard and Morgan will be copying Smith's investment style but they are different people who may produce different results. Overall though, Thomas concedes that Smithson is likely to be a success. With names such as tonic group Fever-Tree, chicken shop Wingstop and technology business Sabre Airline Solutions on its potential buy list, it will certainly be one to watch. Banknote maker De La Rue, which lost the contract to create Britain's post-Brexit blue passports this year, is still in the crosshairs of activist investor Crystal Amber. Shares in De La Rue climbed 4.5 per cent, or 21.5p, to 494.5p amid rumours that Crystal Amber was upping its stake, as it continues to pressure the firm for change. Crystal Amber, headed by City veteran Richard Bernstein, is currently the third-largest shareholder in De La Rue. It has said it is prepared to increase its stake until it gets to the top spot. In an ominous sign for De La Rue boss Martin Sutherland, earlier this week Bernstein told the Mail: 'We see change as inevitable.' De La Rue threatened to lodge a legal claim against the government in April after it awarded the passport contract to Franco-Dutch rival Gemalto, which significantly undercut De La Rue. But it later dropped this challenge, saying the 'risk-reward does not stack up'. Since then, its shares have languished at between 470.5p and 557p down as much as 56.4 per cent from the ten-year high of 1080p in October 2012. De La Rue implemented a turnaround plan in 2015 to make the business more technology-led, and points to the sale of its banknote paper business earlier this year as a sign of its progress, but investors remain unconvinced. They have questioned whether De La Rue's passport and identification branch now has enough business to survive. The company is due to give further details on its plans for the division in its November half-year results. On the FTSE 250, engineering firm Weir Group warned it had spotted a weakness in its business as it met with investors. The firm, which specialises in servicing oil and gas rigs and mining infrastructure, said that there had been a 'considerable softening in demand' for its equipment towards the end of the summer. Earlier this week, Weir's US competitors Halliburton and Schlumberger set alarm bells ringing when they noted that a surge in oil and gas production in Texas meant barrels were being pumped faster than they could be moved. This backlog has caused the price of oil to slide, which poses a threat to drilling activity. Brent crude was trading yesterday evening at around $76.5 per barrel, down for the second day in a row from $78.2 on Tuesday. A sustained drop in oil prices could be bad news for Weir, which has said some orders had been 'deferred'. Its shares ended the day down 8.6 per cent, or 154p, at 1632p. The FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.9 per cent at 7319 points, a near-five-month low, as gains from British Gas owner Centrica failed to pull the index up. It climbed 5 per cent, or 7.2p, to 150.6p after the Government's price cap on energy bills proved less fiery than anticipated. But miners still weighed heavily on the index amid trade war fears. On London's junior market, Brave Bison which produces video adverts for social media shot up as it made a major breakthrough in China. It sealed a deal with Tencent, one of the world's largest internet companies, allowing it to post videos on WeChat, the major messaging, payments and social media app in China. Brave Bison said this would give it access to more than 1.5 billion viewers, cracking open a market currently inaccessible for most Western advertisers. Its shares shot up 60 per cent, or 0.9p, to 2.4p. But biofuel company Velocys, which makes jet fuel from forestry by-products, took a nosedive. It is a major lender and shareholder to Envia, a US biofuel plant which is under threat of being closed if it does not become profitable. Velocys's shares ended the day down 13.9 per cent, or 1.2p, at 6.71p. Online currency bitcoin has suffered its worst sell-off so far this year as investors pulled more than 30 billion out of digital money. Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies crashed 16 per cent in 24 hours as a wave of selling swept across the globe. Hit hard: Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies crashed 16 per cent in 24 hours Investors were spooked after Goldman Sachs pushed back plans for a cryptocurrency trading desk. A major exchange also said it would request more personal information from clients. One of Britain's best-paid female bosses has been hit by a backlash from shareholders over her 29m bonus. Avril Palmer-Baunack, chief executive of used car business BCA Marketplace, saw 23 per cent of investors refuse to back her lavish pay packet in a vote at the firm's annual meeting. Meanwhile, 12 per cent failed to back the 54-year-old's re-election to the board. The bonanza was agreed when the We Buy Any Car owner BCA floated in 2014. Advice group Glass Lewis said the pay-out is disproportionate and claimed that BCA's value has been boosted by rising markets rather than anything management has done. It is believed to be the highest ever bonus pocketed by a female boss of a firm on the London Stock Exchange. Mother-of-two Palmer-Baunack has previously hit out at critics of her pay by saying: 'Anyone who says they don't want money is talking b*******.' English French TORONTO, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) is pleased to announce the members of its Board of Directors for 2018-2019. IFIC welcomed two new directors. Bill Packham, President & CEO, Aviso Wealth Inc. was elected to the board for a three-year term. Johanne Blanchard, Vice President and Legal Counsel, Investors Group Financial Services was appointed to the IFIC board. She was elected Second Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Conseil des fonds dinvestissement de Quebec (CFIQ) last month. Following is the full list of the IFIC Board of Directors for 2018-2019 Ross F. Kappele (Chair), EVP & Head of Distribution, BMO Asset Management Canada Carol Lynde (1st Vice Chair), President & COO, Bridgehouse Asset Managers John Adams (Past Chair), CEO, PFSL Investments Canada Karen Adams, President & CEO, Fundserv George Aguiar, President & CEO, GP Wealth Management Corporation Johanne Blanchard, Vice President and Legal Counsel Stephane Blanchette, Executive Vice President, CCO & CFO, Investia Financial Services Inc. Paul C. Bourque, President & CEO, The Investment Funds Institute of Canada Sian Burgess, SVP, Fund Oversight, Fidelity Investments Canada ULC Marc Cevey, CEO, HSBC Global Asset Management (Canada) Doug Coulter, President, RBC Global Asset Management Inc. Jonathan Durocher, President, National Bank Investments Chris Enright, President & Managing Director, Aligned Capital Partners Inc. Judy Goldring, EVP, COO, AGF Investments Inc. Glen Gowland, SVP and Head, Asset Management, Scotiabank Stuart Graham, President & Managing Director, PIMCO Canada Duane Green, President & CEO, Franklin Templeton Investments Canada Rick Headrick, President, Sun Life Global Investments (Canada) Inc. Daniel Labonte, EVP, Member Experience, MD Financial Management Inc. Bernard Letendre, Head of Wealth and Asset Management, Canada, Manulife; President & CEO, Manulife Investments Damon Murchison, Executive Vice President, Head of Retail Distribution, Mackenzie Investments Bill Packham, President & CEO, Aviso Wealth David Scandiffio, President & CEO, CIBC Asset Management Michael Stanley, President, Sterling Mutuals Mark Tiffin, President, Capital International Asset Management (Canada), Inc.; General Manager and Director, Capital Group Mr. Kappele stated: This is an important time for the investment funds industry and the coming year will be busy as we seek to advance key issues that will shape the future of the industry. The Board is fully focused on supporting IFICs collaborative work with industry representatives, regulators, governments and investor advocates to promote a strong, stable sector where investors interests remain paramount. IFIC also released its Year in Review an interactive timeline that highlights research and advocacy milestones and significant initiatives from 2017-2018. About IFIC The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is the voice of Canadas investment funds industry. IFIC brings together 150 organizations, including fund managers, distributors and industry service organizations, to foster a strong, stable investment sector where investors can realize their financial goals. By connecting Canadas savers to Canadas economy, our industry contributes significantly to Canadian economic growth and job creation. For more information: Lisa Hall, Senior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs: lhall@ific.ca 416-309-2317 English German On June 11, 2018, the Extraordinary General Meeting of Sika AG approved, among others, the cancellation of the Sika registered shares purchased from Schenker-Winkler Holding AG by way of a capital reduction in the amount of CHF 106,295.20 to CHF 1,417,811.60 (see media release of June 11, 2018). With today's publication in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the capital decrease has been completed. CONTACT Dominik Slappnig Corporate Communications & Investor Relations +41 58 436 68 21 slappnig.dominik@ch.sika.com SIKA CORPORATE PROFILE Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing, and protecting in the building sector and motor vehicle industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 101 countries around the world and manufactures in over 200 factories. Its more than 18,000 employees generated annual sales of CHF 6.25 billion in 2017. The media release can be downloaded from the following link: Attachment By Trend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Azerbaijan in mid-September, the Turkish media reported Sept. 6. Reportedly, the prospects for development of bilateral relations, as well as regional issues will be discussed during President Erdogans one-day visit, scheduled for September 15. Over the past year, political and economic relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey have reached a new level. Ankara supports Azerbaijan in all international organizations in connection with the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. President Erdogan once again confirmed this position during the Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, held in Kyrgyzstan on September 3. He also said that Turkey, as before, will support Azerbaijan in all spheres. The Turkish president also said that all Turkic-speaking states must contribute to settlement of conflicts and establishment of stability in the world. Today, Azerbaijan and Turkey have a solid bilateral cooperation, but the two countries also have experience of working in a multilateral format. Turkey participates in the majority of large-scale projects being implemented by Azerbaijan in the region. Among them are the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline projects. Turkey and Azerbaijan demonstrated their leadership by signing an agreement on the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in Istanbul in 2012. TANAP is one of the important components of the Southern Gas Corridor, which will allow supplying Azerbaijani gas to the world markets. In summer, the first commercial gas from Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field was supplied via the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor from the Sangachal terminal through the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline. The next stage was the commissioning of TANAP, through which gas is supplied to Turkey and further to Europe. Another large-scale project of the century is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will ensure more active economic and trade cooperation between Ankara and Baku by supplying goods from Central Asia to Europe. After the railway was commissioned in November 2017, the time of cargo transportation was almost halved, decreasing by 12-15 days. As is known, at this stage the biggest cargo turnover is carried out between Europe and China. Before the BTK railway, the transportation was carried out through sea routes and on average it took 25-30 days. According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey reached $2.64 billion in 2017, of which $1.37 billion accounted for exports to Turkey. The trade turnover between the two countries increased by 14.8 percent in 2017. In January-July 2018, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $1.74 billion (a 19.6 percent growth for the year). I am unable to connect an LG-TV 65LB5200: with a Samsung HW-MM45C sound bar with subwoofer. The tv doesnt have an optical cable port, the HDMI cables wont work it and the tv doesnt have bluetooth. Can I get suggestions ? Thank You ! ATHENS In the distance, sparkling ferry boats would come and go to all the islands of the Archipelago, but on September 1 the place to be was on the shore at Bati Beach on the Athens Riviera for the inaugural concert of the Falirika cultural festival. Tenor Stavros Salabasopoulos, along with soprano Katia Paschou, backed by fine musicians and later joined by the womens chorus V Sea Nymphs of Paleo Faliro, dazzled the packed open air theater with hit songs of 20th century Greek and international music, films and Broadway musicals, including Somewhere (Theres a Place for Us) from West Side Story. Salabasopoulos set the tone for the evening with moving renditions of the Theme fromLove Story and O Solo Mio, and the audience was thrilled when Paschou joined him for the love duet from Phantom, her lovely green dress swaying in the sea breeze. The chorus is led and taught by Katerina Vasilikou. Among their presentations was the beautifully sung Ballad of Ouri,Nikos Gatsos haunting poem set to music by Manos Hajidakis, and the concert concluded with the soloists joining the orchestra led by Giorgos Tskokanis who also dazzled on piano for beloved Greek songs. The audience happily followed orders when urged to clap and sing along. They also enjoyed an unexpected bonus. Occasionally glancing the surf pouring onto the beach by the stage and the lights of Kastella hill in the distance, they were treated to a brief fireworks display over the Piraeus. Read more at thenationalherald.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: WeatherExtremes License: CC-BY-SA Thematic dinners and thematic wine tastings of local varieties, as well as in guided tours to the ancient wine presses in Vathipetro Aiming to get acquainted with Cretan wines, eminent sommeliers from Londons famed private club 67 Pall Mall traveled recently to Crete. At the initiative of the Wines of Crete Network of Wineries and of the Crete Prefecture, they visited wineries in Chania and Heraklion, participated in thematic dinners and thematic wine tastings of local varieties, as well as in guided tours to the ancient wine presses in Vathipetro. The group of sommeliers included: Assistant head sommelier, Svetoslav Manolev; sommelier (Wset Diploma) Jitka Auermullerova; sommelier Blagoy Kuzmanski; cellar master Jan Fitl; and, from Greece, assistant head sommelier, Klearchos Kanelakis. What impressed us in Crete is the variety of different styles of wine, Klearchos Kanelakis told ert.grs reporter, Nikos Ioannides. Our goal at Pall Mall 67 is to highlight it, as we do with every quality domain on the planet, Kanelakis underlined. Crete must rely on and invest in the incredible value-for-money dimension of its wines, the great variety of its native grapes, and the quantity that, contrary to smaller islands, it can produce, he continued . An internationally recognized wine spot, 67 Pall Mall is located in the center of London. Featuring a team of 17 distinguished sommeliers, the club counts among its members mainly people from the wine world: importers, sommeliers, and winemakers from all over the world. 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 Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Elisavetch License: CC-BY-SA Every year, in the beginning of September, the village of Artemonas in Sifnos, hosts the Nikolaos Tselementes Cycladic gastronomy festival, on September 6,7 and 8. In this major festival of local gastronomy, representatives from the Cyclades Islands, as well as an island honored from the rest of the Aegean Sea, will meet in Sifnos to present their culinary and cultural tradition. Each island has its own pavilion in the central square of Artemonas, where amateurs together with professional chefs, prepare and present the recipes of their region that visitors can enjoy. In a specially conceived space, the Tselementakia (children from 6 to 12 years old), dressed in colorful aprons and hats, participate tin cooking games and contests designed to entertain them. The festival opens its doors to the public every day at 7 pm, while at the end of each day, at 10 pm, the visitors can enjoy the musical traditions of the islands taking part. 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 Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Kondephy License: CC-BY-SA OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, announced that five (5) additional transfer agents have joined OTC Markets' Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program. Action Stock Transfer, Manhattan Transfer Registrar Co., Mountain Share Transfer, Pacific Stock Transfer and Securities Transfer Corporation are now included among a distinguished roster of leading transfer agents that are working with OTC Markets Group to create better informed and more efficient financial markets. 91% of US companies trading on our OTCQX and OTCQB markets are represented by 25 participating transfer agents. Effective January 1, 2019, OTC Markets Group plans to require all US companies trading on the OTCQX and OTCQB Markets to provide verified share data through a transfer agent who participates in the Transfer Agent Verified Share Program. OTC Markets Group launched the Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program in order to provide investors with current and reliable share data on OTCQX and OTCQB securities. The program enables eligible stock transfer agents to report their clients' share data, including authorized and outstanding shares, to OTC Markets Group on a regular basis via a secure, electronic file transfer. Share data provided by transfer agents is displayed on www.otcmarkets.com alongside a "Verified by Transfer Agent" logo, indicating the information is reliable and trustworthy. This data is also disseminated through OTC Markets Group's market data feeds and is widely available to investors and broker dealers. "The recent additions of Action, Manhattan, Mountain Share, Pacific and Securities Transfer Corporation further expand the availability of key data in OTCQX and OTCQB securities," said Liz Heese, Executive Vice President of Issuer and Information Services at OTC Markets Group. "We are delighted to welcome this latest group of providers to our growing portfolio of transfer agents who have qualified to take part in the Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program." "As one of the premier service providers for issues traded on the OTC Markets Group trading platforms, Pacific Services Group ("PSG"), including Pacific Stock Transfer and Capital Transfer Agency, is excited to participate in the Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program ("TAVSP")," said Kevin Kopaunik, CEO of PSG. "PSG recognizes the extreme importance of technology in the marketplace and participating in TAVSP allows technology to assist in providing transparency in the marketplace." "Our Clients understand investors are presented with a growing number of investment opportunities and having the right partnership can help drive interest in our clients and improve the overall investor experience. We are excited to be partnering with OTC Markets through their Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program to bring transparency to the market and improve the relationship between investors and our Issuers," said Jason Freeman, Director of Relationship Management at Securities Transfer Corporation. "Manhattan Transfer Registrar Co. is honored to be participating in OTC Markets Group's "Transfer Agent Verified Shares Program." Providing the public with our issuers' current and accurate share structure information gives current shareholders and future investors the transparency they need to make informed investment decisions. We are eager to see the positive changes that will unfold from this initiative." 1 2 next For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: Dallas, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thompson & Knight LLP is pleased to announce Alfredo Raul Ramos has joined the Firms Houston office as a Partner in the Oil and Gas Practice Group. Alfredos expertise in domestic oil, gas, and energy coupled with his extensive Latin American energy experience will be of great value to our clients, said Debra J. Villarreal, the Firms Oil and Gas Practice Leader. Our comprehensive, nationally ranked Oil, Gas, and Energy Practice has counseled clients worldwide, including those located in or doing business with Mexico, a country where we have been an active participant in the energy industry for decades. Mr. Ramos focuses his practice on oil, gas, and energy transactions as well as infrastructure and project development matters in the United States, Mexico, and throughout Latin America. He counsels clients in the upstream, midstream, oilfield services, and renewable energy sectors regarding acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and a wide-range of investments and commercial agreements. As a fluent Spanish speaker, Mr. Ramos frequently travels to Latin America to represent his clients business interests and advises clients in numerous areas of business in Spanish, including oil, gas, and energy matters. His experience also includes litigation and arbitration in the United States and Latin America, with particular expertise in oil and gas, trade secret, and complex contractual disputes. Previously, Mr. Ramos served as Latin America Operations Legal Director and in-house counsel for Lewis Energy, where he drafted, negotiated, managed, and administered the companys oil and gas acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and operative agreements in Texas, Mexico, and throughout Latin America as well as managed Lewis Energys Texas litigation matters. He is a recognized leader in energy policy, having testified before the Texas Senate Natural Resources Committee on Mexicos energy reforms, and a frequent presenter on energy issues affecting the United States and Latin America. Recognized for his legal work, Mr. Ramos has been selected for inclusion in The Legal 500 US by Legalease (2017), Texas Rising Stars by Thomson Reuters (2016-2018), and Whos Who in Energy by the Houston Business Journal (2015-2017). Actively involved in professional and civic organizations, Mr. Ramos is the President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Houston. He also is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, the Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law Section of the Houston Bar Association, Texas Exes - Houston Chapter, and the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association - Houston Chapter. He received a J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in 2006 and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish with a minor in Business Administration from Vanderbilt University in 2003. Mr. Ramos served as a Legal Intern for Justice Harriet ONeill at the Supreme Court of Texas in 2004. Immediately prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Ramos was a Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Houston. The International Exhibition and Conference titled Main Areas of Development of the Energy Industry of Turkmenistan started in Ashgabat on the eve of Day of Workers of the Energy Industry of Turkmenistan. The exhibition and conference aim to present Turkmenistans electric power industry capacity, investment opportunities and development of international cooperation in electricity production and exports. Representatives of 160 national and foreign electric power companies participate in the forum. The International Conference Main Areas of Development of the Energy Industry of Turkmenistan began in the second half of the day. It brought together representatives of the ministries and departments, specialists of the scientific research institutes of Turkmenistan, as well as heads of foreign companies, experts and analysts from a number of countries. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021 A woman from the Gedeo community cooks at a site for displaced people in Ethiopia. UNHCR/Anna Hellge UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is urging more support for the nearly one million people displaced by recent violence in south-western Ethiopia, including those who have returned home. Since April of this year, conflict between communities in the border areas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region and the Oromia Region of Ethiopia has forced civilians to flee their homes. The recent violence followed more than a year of drought and tension over resources. Civilians tell of watching houses being burned to the ground, neighbours turning on neighbours, and being forced to flee with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. UNHCR is responding to the urgent needs of the displaced persons and returnees after requests by the Ethiopian government for humanitarian assistance. We have deployed two Emergency Response Teams on the ground in Gedeo and West Guji areas. While people still continue to flee, government estimates suggest that over 200,000 people have returned to their areas of origin. UNHCR and partners are calling for all returns to be voluntary and conducted in safety and dignity. Our initial monitoring suggests that internally displaced persons' (IDPs') views on return remain varied, with some individuals expressing reluctance to return for fear that violence will start again. Our teams observed many of the IDPs being hosted in schools, hospitals and other public buildings. Those who have returned home to their plots of land or farms often find that there is nothing left. Infrastructure like schools, coffee factories and health centres have been partially or entirely destroyed. Displaced people, host communities and returnees are in dire need of assistance for basic necessities like food, water, blankets and cooking supplies. Shelter materials, especially plastic sheeting, are urgently needed before the heavy seasonal rains. UNHCR teams on the ground are providing 50,000 emergency kits comprised of kitchen sets, sleeping mats, blankets, plastic sheets and jerry cans, with funding from the CERF (UNs Central Emergency Response Fund). So far, 17,400 kits have been dispatched to the region and more are on the way. Hygiene and sanitary items, as well as clothing, are urgently needed. Many of the IDPs own nothing but the clothes they arrived in, which cannot keep them warm on cold nights. As the rains intensify, those staying in makeshift shelters are at risk of serious health problems and disease outbreak. We and our partners urgently need resources to continue providing life-saving assistance. For the coming 12 months, we need USD 21.5 million for the IDP response. UNHCRs current support during this crisis is in addition to providing assistance to some 854,000 refugees in the country. For more information on this topic, please contact: Displaced Rohingya Muslims in Dar Paing camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar await the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. UNHCR/Roger Arnold Three months after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UNHCR, UNDP, and the Government of Myanmar, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and UNDP, the UNs development agency, stand ready to commence assessment activities in 23 villages (as part of 13 village tracts), and 3 additional Village Tracts. These assessments would be a first, initial step only - with the expectation being that access will then be expanded to allow for the larger-scale comprehensive assessments that continue to be needed. Discussions have meanwhile been ongoing on the modalities of effective access to all areas in Rakhine State covered by the MoU, namely the three townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung. Once authorizations for staff are received, assessments in these initial locations will start. The assessments in the initial list of village tracts are part of a broader work-plan that has been under discussion with Myanmar authorities since July. By commencing with needs assessments to identify and implement quick-impact projects, UNHCR and UNDP hope to jump start confidence building measures aimed at rebuilding trust and social cohesion with those communities that remain in Rakhine State. Substantial progress however remains urgently needed in three key areas covered by the MoU: granting effective access in Rakhine State; ensuring freedom of movement for all communities; and addressing the root causes of the crisis, including a clear pathway to citizenship for those who are eligible. UNHCR and UNDP remain committed to the implementation of the MOU, and to supporting the Government of Myanmars efforts to find comprehensive and durable solutions to the crisis in Rakhine State. For more information on this topic, please contact: VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RSI International Systems Inc. (TSX-V: RSY) (RSI or the Company) is pleased to report that it has signed a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with nSight Inc., for the sale of RSIs RoomKeyPMS business and assets for gross proceeds of US$4.6m in cash, before any applicable adjustments. The parties are at arms length. Assuming the 7-day average of the most recently posted Bank of Canada US$/C$ exchange rates of 1.3188 and the Companys 36,835,278 issued and outstanding shares, this translates to approximately C$6m, or just over C$0.16 per share, before any adjustments. RSIs shares lasted traded on the TSX-V at C$0.04. Mr. David Keys, Chairman of the RSI Board of Directors and a representative for the Ernest W. Moody Revocable Trust, which holds 44.4% of RSIs outstanding shares, commented, We have been frustrated for some time with the quoted market value of RSI shares. The cash consideration being offered for the RoomKey business is about four times RSIs market capitalization based on the last closing price, and the funds available after we settle any liabilities will allow us to look at ways to better return value to our shareholders. This may include acquiring another business or distributing part or all of the net proceeds. nSight CEO, Rich Maradik, added We look forward to working with both the RoomKey team and customers as we build out a full portfolio of hospitality technology solutions. We expect to keep the RoomKey team largely intact, so that we can best serve the existing customers and grow the business. We see strong demand from the middle market hotel segment for an innovative technology partner offering a fully integrated platform allowing for unified processes. This will allow customers using our technology to streamline costs while optimizing RevPar. Under the terms of the LOI, nSight will pay RSI gross proceeds of US$4.6m, for the Companys current business and assets related to the development and operation of RSIs RoomKeyPMS. This figure will be adjusted to account for the timing of certain receivables, payables, deferred revenue, prepaid costs and other items that are assumed by nSight. RSI may also incur some costs related to the disposal of its RoomKey business for certain contractual obligations. The US-dollar figure will be converted to Canadian dollars by averaging the posted Bank of Canada closing US$/C$ exchange rate for the seven days preceding the LOI date of September 7, 2018, and the same exchange rate for the seven days preceding the closing of the transaction. Should the exchange rate move more than five percentage points in either direction, the disadvantaged party will have the option to terminate the transaction With the LOI in place, RSI and nSight will work towards negotiating a Definitive Agreement within 60 days, to replace the binding LOI. The Definitive Agreement will contain an RSI Non-Compete provision as well as a provision that RSI will not solicit any alternative transactions, and that should the Company terminate the Definitive Agreement, as the result of accepting a third-party acquisition proposal, nSight will be entitled to a break-fee of US$460,000. The transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including completion of satisfactory due diligence, the entering into of definitive documentation and the receipt of all necessary regulatory and third-party approvals and consents, including approval by RSI shareholders. 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. About nSight With the acquisition of RSI, nSight will rapidly assemble a full portfolio of hospitality technology solutions to accelerate growth in the middle market hotel segment. Currently, nSight Inc. provides predictive data and marketing solutions for hotels and destinations helping deliver incremental revenue through improving their pricing and marketing practices. About RSI RSI International Systems Inc. is the developer of RoomKeyPMS, a web-based Property Management System (PMS) that incorporates a fully integrated Online Reservation Booking engine and seamless real-time connectivity to the major Global Distribution and Internet Distribution Systems. RSI markets its RoomKeyPMS and a number of other proprietary hosted software solutions to a wide variety of Hospitality Industry clients around the world. For more information, please see our website at www.roomkeypms.com . Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not strictly historical fact are considered "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements cannot be guaranteed and involve assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to materially differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements made herein are made as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation and disclaims any intention to revise or update any forward-looking information and statements except as required by applicable laws. For more information, please contact: New Delhi, Sept 7 (UNI) In a bid to curb infiltration, human trafficking and drug smuggling along Indo- Bangla Border, both the countries have agreed to further extend mutual cooperation. The decision was taken during the 47th Border Co-ordination Conference between the Border Security Force, India and Border Guard Bangladesh here. In a joint press conference held here on Friday, the Director Generals of Border Security Force and Border Guard Bangladesh appreciated the efforts made to improve mutual relations through various agreed upon Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). DG BGB Md Shafeenul Islam appreciated the steps taken by BSF in bringing down casualties on borders and urged to bring it down to zero. BSF DG KK Sharma said that violence on the border could be brought down to zero level only when the criminals or offenders are stopped from crossing the International Border illegally and persecuted as per law of the land. Reiterating the need for joint efforts, both sides agreed to take preventive measures. Appreciating the cooperation extended by BGB and other security agencies of Bangladesh against Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs), Mr Sharma sought further cooperation from BGB to eliminate remnant IIGs. His counterpart informed that there is no IIGs hideout inside Bangladesh and clarified that Bangladesh does not allow its soil to be used by any entities or elements hostile to any country'. BSF DG appraised his concern about increase in smuggling of Fake Indian Currency Note. He appreciated the efforts of BGB and other security forces of Bangladesh against smuggling of fake currency note and sought further cooperation in detecting such units in Bangladesh and legal prosecution of defaulters. BGB DG informed that Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) of Bangladesh are taking actions against Fake Currency Note(FCN) racketeers and side by side government has already placed FCN detecting machines in all Integrated Check Posts(ICPs) and many other places across the country and smuggling of phensedyl and other psychotropic substances to Bangladesh . It also pledged to continue the efforts in this regard. Both sides agreed to take strong measures for prevention of illegal border crossing, human trafficking and said that willful violation of the sanctity of the IB would be dealt with as per respective Law of the Land and inadvertent crossers would be handed over to the concerned border guarding force immediately. Both the delegations agreed to aid victims of human trafficking and facilitate their early rescue and rehabilitation as per Law of the Land. . Both border guard force chiefs lauded the results of crime free zone which had been introduced in South Bengal Frontier and South West Region and agreed for its further expansion in other Frontiers and Regions. It was decided that next DG-level conference would be held in Dhaka in the month of March or April 2019. The delegation of Border Guard Bangladesh, led by DG Md. Shafeenul Islam arrived here on September 3 to attend the 47th Border Co-ordination Conference between the Border Security Force, India and Border Guard Bangladesh. UNI AKS AR 2034 Burundi top brass instigating crimes against humanity: UN Geneva, Sep 5 (UNI) The crime rate had seen a steep rise in the last two years in Burundi, majorly due to the utterings by 'the authorities, including the Head of State and members of (the ruling party) CNDD-FDD,' a UN human rights report said on Wednesday. Burundi has tried and failed to stop the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, set up by the UN 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. Prague, Sep 7 (UNI) India and the Czech Republic on Friday signed five agreements on defence, scientific and industrial research, laser technology, agriculture and diplomatic visa waiver during delegation levels talks led by visiting President Ram Nath Kovind. The two sides also agreed on initiating cooperation in civil nuclear energy. Details of a prospective agreement between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, Jhajjar, Haryana, and a relevant Czech institution are to be worked out, said a Rashtrapati Bhawan press release. The President was on Friday accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Prague castle where he was received by Czech President Milos Zeman. He had arrived here on Thursday on the last leg of his state visit to three European nations Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Appreciating the Czech hospitality during his one on one meeting with President Zeman and delegation level talks, Mr Kovind emphasised Indias keenness to cooperate with the Czech Republic in the fields of defence, technology and manufacture, business and trade, as well as on issues of multilateral importance such as terrorism. He said, ``Czech strengths in manufacturing and advanced technology make the country a natural fit to partner Indian economic growth and next-generation development. Mr Kovind especially thanked President Zeman and the government of the Czech Republic for a special carve-out for mobility of high-skilled Indian workers and business executives to work and live in the Czech Republic on a long-term basis. Initially limited to 500 visas a year, the new procedure will come into effect in October 2018. Later the President attended a luncheon banquet hosted in his honour by President Zeman where he highlighted that the latters visit to India in 2001, in his capacity as Prime Minister, provided impetus to bilateral relations. He said that the Indian growth story and Czech technology and manufacturing makes both ``natural partners. The five agreements included Work Plan to support Indo-Czech projects in diverse areas of science and technology, with the Department of Science and Technology taking the lead from the Indian side and cooperation between the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India, and the Czech Academy of Sciences. The two sides also agreed for cooperation in laser technology between ELI Beamlines and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and between the Haryana Agricultural University and the Czech University of Life Sciences. A visa waiver pact for diplomatic passport holders was also inked. UNI GP SHK2013 English French VALCOURT, Quebec, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BRP Inc. (TSX:DOO) will host a conference call from its semi-annual dealer meeting in Denver, Colorado, on Monday, September 10, 2018 at 12:30 p.m. (ET). Jose Boisjoli, President and Chief Executive Officer; Sebastien Martel, Chief Financial Officer; Bertrand Thiebault, President Powersports Group; Tracy Crocker, President Marine Group; Sandy Scullion, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Global Retail and Services; Anne-Marie LaBerge, Senior Vice-President, Global Brands and Communication; and Josee Perreault, Senior Vice-President, Can-Am On-Road, will discuss the business and BRP's new 2019 line-ups for Can-Am Off-Road, On-Road, and Sea-Doo, and address questions from analysts in the room. Interested participants may access the conference call on a listen-only basis: Date and time Monday, September 10 at 12:30 p.m. ET Telephone 1-877-304-0056 or Event code 6048 763 813# Webcast Click here to access the webcast SLIDE PRESENTATION available online here on September 10. About BRP We are a global leader in the world of powersports vehicles, propulsion systems and boats built on over 75 years of ingenuity and intensive consumer focus. Our portfolio of industry-leading and distinctive products includes Ski-Doo and Lynx snowmobiles, Sea-Doo watercraft, Can-Am on- and off-road vehicles, Alumacraft and Manitou boats, Evinrude and Rotax marine propulsion systems as well as Rotax engines for karts, motorcycles and recreational aircraft. We support our lines of product with a dedicated parts, accessories and clothing business to fully enhance your riding experience. With annual sales of CA$4.5 billion from over 100 countries, our global workforce is made up of around 10,000 driven, resourceful people. www.brp.com @BRPNews Ski-Doo, Lynx, Sea-Doo, Evinrude, Rotax, Can-Am, Alumacraft, and the BRP logo are trademarks of Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For information: Catherine Moreau Senior Advisor, Media Relations 514.231.2118 catherine.moreau@brp.com For investor relations: Published: September 07, 2018 Senior Discovers A Fuller Picture to Her Hometowns History UT senior Anisa Browns internship gave her an opportunity to find out more about her hometown and, at the same time, archive some family history. As a summer intern at the Plant City Photo Archives and History Center, Brown was tasked with filling in the gaps on the city just east of Tampa. Plant City was named for Henry B. Plant who built the Tampa Bay Hotel, which is now UTs Plant Hall. In 1884, Plant extended the South Florida Railroad into Plant City. While the centers archives have plentiful photographs and history on the white community, it was lacking in the turbulent history of its black community during the time of segregation. For over a century, Plant City has been praised for the Florida Strawberry Festival, their beautiful strawberry queens and generous southern hospitality, but people never talk about the inequality that took place in the mid-1900s during the Jim Crow era, Brown writes in the culmination of her summer research, the monograph, Growing up Black in Plant City, Florida, during the time of Segregation and Inequality. While segregation ended in 1964, many southern cities, including Plant City, were not open to the idea of change in their city, said Browns grandmother, Doreatha Brown, one of the many friends and family members she interviewed this summer while she gathered qualitative research. It was very prejudiced, said Doreatha Brown. We had to make sure we did all of our shopping and everything before dark. Even after desegregation came along there still took some time for the changes to take place. Anisa Brown, a journalism major, said her grandmother and mother were nervous her research might ruffle some feathers in the community. They were just nervous that people would disagree with my article or feel like Im attacking Plant City, she said. But Im really not. Im just telling the story. Brown said it was hard to hear the stories about integrating into schools and the bravery and fortitude it took. She also asked her interviewees of their reaction to hearing Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech and his later assassination. While growing up in Plant City may have been a loving and accepting community for some, for others the experience was not quite the same, Brown writes. They have struggled with racism, inequality and, to some degree, hatred from their counterparts. This is a universal feeling for the black community from Plant City. However, these individuals did not let that deter them from reaching their full potential. Brown is working toward a career in print or broadcast journalism, though she is finding a pull to print. She is a copy editor for the Minaret and enjoys interviewing people and learning their stories. It was just a plus that her assignment this summer gave her a better picture of her own history. Plant City, like any other city in the United States, has had its flaws. But, over the last 40 years Plant City has made major adjustments in how to treat others, so all races could feel equal, Brown writes. Living in this beautiful city my entire life, it was hard to imagine how difficult it was growing up as a black person during that time period, trying to overcome obstacles many said were impossible. These brave individuals powered through and continue to call Plant City their home. Browns paper will be published in three installments of Focus Plant City, beginning in mid-September. NEW YORK, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Ampio or the Company) (NYSE: AMPE) in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, on behalf of a class consisting of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded securities of Ampio between December 14, 2017 and August 7, 2018, both dates inclusive (the Class Period). Investors who have incurred losses in the shares of Ampio Pharmaceuticals, 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 Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., you may, no later than October 24, 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 Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The filed Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose that: the FDA would find Ampios AP-003-C Phase 3 clinical trial inadequate and not well-controlled; as a result, Ampio had not successfully completed two pivotal clinal trials for Ampion; consequently, Defendants public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On August 7, 2018, after the market closed, Ampio announced updated business disclosures relating to its AP-003-A and AP-003-C trials, disclosing that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that a single trial the AP-003-A study alone does not appear to provide sufficient evidence of effectiveness to support a Biologics License Application (BLA) and that the FDA does not consider the AP-003-C trial to be an adequate and well-controlled clinical trial. On this news, shares of Ampio fell $2.25 per share or over 78% to close at $0.61 per share on August 8, 2018. 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. Free Language Courses Offered at UW Thirteen different language courses will be offered for free this semester at the University of Wyoming. The World Language and Culture Program (WLCP) is offered to both the UW and Laramie communities. Classes in Czech, French, Farsi, German, Hebrew, Indonesian conversation, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tadjik/Dari, Turkish/Kurdish and Uzbek will begin Sept. 17 and end Dec. 7. Classes will be offered throughout the day and early evening, generally once a week. The schedule may be found at www.facebook.com/culturelanguageprogram/. Registration for free classes may be done by going here. For more information, email WLCP Coordinator Dilnoza Khasilova at dkhasilo@uwyo.edu. WLCP is a volunteer program that promotes learning world languages and cultures. WLCP learners explore basic language and culture in an informal setting. The WLCP was developed by Khasilova in 2013 and supported by UW College of Education faculty member Amy Roberts. It was launched in 2014 with the help of UWs international community and graduate students. The students received internal grants to purchase curriculum materials; instructional technology; and to organize international students and faculty, visiting scholars and international community members as WLCP service instructors. The Associated Students of UW, the UW College of Education and the Global Engagement Office sponsor the WLCP. Commentary by Paul Meinema, National President United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada) OTTAWA, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas food workers are glad to see that many of our hopes for the National Food Policy are shared by the Canadian public, including some of our fellow key stakeholders, who, with us, combine their efforts and resources to feed Canada and many other countries around the globe. What We Heard , the federal governments report on findings from the public consultation process on food policy, clearly shows that environmental conservation and economic growth are important to Canadians when it comes to this important issue, but they also prioritize the need to reduce food insecurity, to advance food safety, and to ensure the welfare and labour rights of food workers. Canadians have been heard, and its now the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that Canadas first-ever National Food Policy reflects the priorities listed above. Canadas food workers are certainly ready and willing to assist the government in developing that policy, and to create something that will not only result in a stronger, more just food system, but also serve as a model for other countries to follow. Food workers must serve a central role in the development and governance process if the National Food Policy is to be built on the feedback of Canadians. Actions on important issues like food safety will be less effective if the people who make and handle our food are excluded. They are the front lines and, if need be, the whistle-blowers in the food growing, harvesting, and manufacturing processes. Furthermore, any conversation about identified priorities such as worker welfare, labour rights, social justice (or food justice ), addressing labour shortages, technological innovation and its impacts, or sustainability will be incomplete without the direct input of food workers. To that end, the federal government must act on the public recommendation for an external advisory body. More specifically, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) union has proudly joined other key stakeholders in calling for the establishment of a National Food Policy Council that must include representatives from labour, industry and civil society. This council would serve a critical role in governing and advancing the progress of the National Food Policy, and provide tremendous value to the government and Canadians in helping to judge progress and mandate fidelity, adapt to future trends, and provide clarity on important policy terms like high-quality food. Workers and their organizations bring a unique and essential perspective to this discussion and others that must be central to all public policy decisions and documents. When theyre not, important points, approaches and potential solutions can be overlooked, and the public is left with an incomplete strategy for making positive change. This appears to have been the case with the recently released Poverty Reduction Strategy, which lacks substance when looking at root causes and proven remedies. For the sake of Canadians and their food system, federal ministers and policy makers cannot make the same mistake with the National Food Policy. Public consultation is essential, but the process of applying that feedback to the creation of effective policy is just as crucial. And to have lasting success the National Food Policy must include a mechanism for food consumers, employers, civil society actors and workers to feed and lead this initiative equally. Paul Meinema is the national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW Canada), representing more than a quarter-of-a-million workers in every aspect of the food chain, as well as healthcare, security, and other key economic sectors across Canada. Contact Derek Johnstone, UFCW Canada derek.johnstone@ufcw.ca 416-679-3417 Vietnams Law on Competition came into effect on July 1, 2019, replacing the 2004 version of the law. In June 2018, Vietnam passed the new regulation, which focuses on competition restraining agreements, market dominance, economic concentration, and unfair practices. Scope of the law The new law has expanded its scope and now includes both Vietnamese and foreign companies and individuals in case their actions have or potentially have a competition restriction impact on the domestic market. A competition restriction impact is an influence that will exclude, reduce, or hinder competition in the market. The government will also have authority over offshore activities if there is an impact on the domestic market. The law will apply to foreign entities part of competition-restricting agreements, economic concentration, or other unfair activities even if they do not have a subsidiary in Vietnam. In addition, public service units such as hospitals and schools have been brought under the ambit of the law, which was not the case in the previous version. Regulatory bodies Under the new law, the existing Vietnam Competition Authority and the Vietnam Competition Council have been merged to form the National Competition Committee (NCC). The Competition Investigation Agency has also been established under the NCC; it will be responsible for monitoring and investigating breaches of competition law. The NCC will be a unit under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Anti-competitive agreements The new law prohibits certain types of anti-competitive agreements if the firms are in the same market or if the agreements can impact market competitiveness. Agreements prohibited in case firms are in the same market: Directly or indirectly fixing prices; Sharing customers or markets or supply sources; and Controlling the number of goods produced, sold, or bought as well as services provided. Agreements prohibited in case they have a negative impact on market competitiveness: Restraining investments, technical, and technological capabilities; and Forcing other companies to sign contracts related to the buying or selling of goods and services or bind them into commitments not related to the content of the contract. Earlier, these agreements were only prohibited in case the combined market share of the parties was 30 percent or more. A leniency program has also been introduced in the new law. Now, companies that are part of an anti-competitive agreement may be entitled to leniency if they voluntarily reach out to the government authorities before an investigation is formally opened. This program will only be available to the first three applicants, with the first applicant being eligible for a penalty exemption of 100 percent, while the second and third will be eligible for an exemption of 60 percent and 40 percent respectively. Exemptions The new law allows for certain exemptions if they can satisfy certain conditions, such as promoting technical progress or business efficiency. However, the new law imposes a five-year limit on any exemption. Extensions are limited to a maximum of five years and the NCC will decide whether to continue the exemption within 90 days prior to its expiry. Economic concentration Earlier, economic concentration activities such as mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and joint ventures were prohibited in case the combined market shares of the entities were above 50 percent. Now the combined market share condition has been removed and such activities can be prohibited even if they have a significant competition restraining impact on the market. The NCC will make the final decision based on the following factors: Combined market share; Level of concentration before and after the economic concentration; The relationship of the firms in the chain of production, distribution, or supply of goods/services or whose business lines acts as an input or is complementary in nature; Competitive advantages due to the economic concentration; The probability of the participating firms to significantly increase the prices or rate of profit after economic concentration; and The capability of the firms to remove or prevent other firms to enter the market; In the previous version, economic concentrations activities that could lead to a market share of 30 percent or more were required to be reported to the relevant authorities. Under the new law, economic concentrations need to be reported to the NCC if they are subject to certain thresholds based on the below factors: Totals assets and turnover of the firms in the domestic market; Transaction value; and Combined market share. Violations of economic concentration regulations will attract a penalty of five percent of the total turnover (preceding financial year) of the violating firm. Earlier the penalty was 10 percent. Mergers and acquisitions Before a merger, acquisition, or joint venture, the entities have to notify the regulator if certain thresholds are crossed such as assets and turnover as per the 2018 Law on Competition. While not mandatory, a pre-merger consultation with the entities involved and the regulator is helpful to see if there are any issues. This can be an informal, cost-free step to clarify merger regulations. Once the entities submit to the regulator, the preliminary review should be completed in 30 days. If the NCC requires further time, it can extend the review to another 90 days, which can be further extended to 60 days for complex issues. Market position and power From July 2019, firms will be considered to be in a market dominating position if it has a market share of 30 percent or more and if it has significant market power. Market power will be determined by several factors such as: The financial strength of the firm; Technological advantages and technical infrastructure; Ownership and the right to possess and access infrastructure or use items of intellectual property rights; Correlation of market share among firms in the market; and Other factors specific to their sectors. Vietnams new law on competition builds on the previous regulation and provides investors with clearer guidelines on the regulations. The move underlines the governments intent to match Vietnams laws to international standards and this bodes well for foreign investors in the country. Note: This article was first published in September 2018 and has been updated to include the latest developments. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Labrador Gold Corp. (TSX-V: LAB) (Labrador Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce that it is implementing an online marketing and awareness program through AGORACOM that includes a CEO Verified Discussion Forum. This forum will enable the Company to interact with both shareholders and the broader investment community in a fully moderated environment. The Company will receive significant exposure through millions of content brand insertions on the AGORACOM network and extensive search engine marketing over the next 12 months. In addition, exclusive sponsorships of invaluable digital properties such as AGORACOM TV , the AGORACOM home page and the AGORACOM Twitter account will serve to significantly raise the brand awareness of the Company among small cap investors. Roger Moss, CEO stated, "We are happy to have retained the services of Agoracom to expand our online presence and social media participation. I encourage our shareholders and other interested parties to read and participate in our CEO Verified Discussion Forum. " The Labrador Gold Discussion Forum can be found at: https://agoracom.com/ir/Labradorgold Shares for Services Program The Company intends to issue shares to AGORACOM in exchange for the online advertising, marketing and branding services (Advertising Services). Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, the Company will be issuing a total fee of $50,000 (plus HST), to be paid as follows: $50,000 + HST to be paid via Shares For Services $10,000 + HST Shares For Services upon Commencement September 5, 2018 for initial set up of HUB, marketing materials and search engine programs. $10,000 + HST Shares For Services at end of Third Month November 5, 2018 $10,000 + HST Shares For Services at end of Sixth Month February 5, 2019 $10,000 + HST Shares For Services at end of Ninth Month May 5, 2019 $10,000 + HST Shares For Services at end of Twelfth Month September 5, 2019 The number of Common Shares to be issued at the end of each period will be determined by using the closing price of the Common Shares of the Company on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) on the first trading day following the end each period for which the Services were provided by AGORA. The term of the Agreement is for 12 months effective September 5, 2018 and the Agreement is subject to TSXV approval. About Labrador Gold: Labrador Gold is a Canadian based mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and exploration of prospective gold projects in the Americas. In 2017 Labrador Gold signed a Letter of Intent under which the Company has the option to acquire 100% of the 896 square kilometre (km2) Ashuanipi property in northwest Labrador and the Nain (503 km2) and Hopedale (458 km2) properties in eastern Labrador. The Hopedale property covers much of the Hunt River and Florence Lake greenstone belts that stretch over 80 km. The belts are typical of greenstone belts around the world but have been underexplored by comparison. Initial work by Labrador Gold during 2017 show gold anomalies in soils and lake sediments over a 3-kilometre section of the northern portion of the Florence Lake greenstone belt in the vicinity of the known Thurber Dog gold showing where grab samples assayed up to 7.8g/t gold. In addition, anomalous gold in soil and lake sediment samples occur over approximately 40 kilometres along the southern section of the greenstone belt (see news release dated January 25th, 2018 for more details). The Ashuanipi gold project is located just 35 km from the historical iron ore mining community of Schefferville, which is linked by rail to the port of Sept Iles, Quebec in the south. The claim blocks cover large lake sediment gold anomalies that, with the exception of local prospecting, have not seen a systematic modern-day exploration program. Results of the 2017 reconnaissance exploration program following up the lake sediment anomalies show gold anomalies in soils and lake sediments over a 15-kilometre-long by 2 to 6-kilometre-wide north-south trend and over a 14-kilometre-long by 2 to 4-kilometre-wide east-west trend. The anomalies appear to be broadly associated with magnetic highs and do not show any correlation with specific rock types on a regional scale (see news release dated January 18th, 2018). This suggests a possible structural control on the localization of the gold anomalies. Historical work 30 km north on the Quebec side led to gold intersections of up to 2.23 grams per tonne (g/t) Au over 19.55 metres (not true width) (Source: IOS Services Geoscientifiques, 2012, Exploration and geological reconnaissance work in the Goodwood River Area, Sheffor Project, Summer Field Season 2011). Gold in both areas appears to be associated with similar rock types. About AGORACOM AGORACOM is the pioneer of online investor relations, online conferences and online branding services to North American small and mid-cap public companies, with more than 250 companies served. More than just lip service, AGORACOM achieved two very big milestones on January 22, 2017, surpassing 50 Million Visits from 7 Million investors on AGORACOM. The company also expect to surpass 500 Million page views later this year. AGORACOM traffic ranks within the top 0.5% of all websites around the world. These traffic results are independently tracked and verified by Google analytics. AGORACOM traffic can be attributed to its strategy of maintaining the cleanest, moderated small-cap discussion as a result of implementing the first ever Investor Controlled Stock Discussion Forums. The Company has 51,442,552 common shares issued and outstanding and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol LAB. For more information please contact: Roger Moss, President and CEO Tel: 416-704-8291 Or visit our website at: www.labradorgold.com @LabGoldCorp 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. A model of a housing 'capsules' project. (AFP/Handout) The company argues the project called Haibu - which means beehive in Japanese - is a solution to a shortage of affordable housing in the Mediterranean city but Barcelona city hall has refused to issue a licence for it, saying such tiny accommodation is unfit for humans. "Fortunately piling up people is prohibited. The law does not allow this type of dwelling," Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, a former housing and anti-eviction activist, told reporters on Thursday. Despite the lack of a licence, the company, Haibu 4.0. has already started building the first eight pods which it expects will be finished by the end of the month at an empty business premise. Each 2.4 square metres pod will be equipped with a bed, TV, storage space and power plugs, following the module of capsule accommodation geared for tourists which are popular in Japan. This undated and unlocated handout photo released by Spanish company HAIBU Solutions shows a model of its housing "capsules" project. (AFP/Handout) The project will include a communal area with a kitchen with several microwaves, lounge and bathrooms, and the monthly rent would include utility bills and Wi-Fi. The website for the project says the Haibu housing is restricted to those aged 25-45 who have a minimum salary of 450 a month. Five hundred people have shown interest in renting a pod, according to the company. "We are based on the idea that a group of people who can't have access to housing can band together and move ahead," Victoria Cerdan, one of the entrepreneurs behind Haibu 4.0, told AFP. "Obviously it is not adequate housing, no one would want it for themselves. But no one wants a monthly salary of 500 euros and unfortunately they exist. Instead of living on the street, we offer this." The project was blasted on social media, with Inigo Errejon, a prominent lawmaker with Spain's anti-austerity Podemos party tweeting: "There are similar house in cemeteries, they are called coffins." The project comes amid a fierce debate in Spain over soaring rents, especially in big cities like Barcelona, with the average rent for a flat soaring 28.7 per cent between 2014 and 2017 to 903.4, according to city hall figures. The average monthly salary in Spain is 1,880 - and less than 1,300 for those under the age of 30 - which makes it difficult to rent a home. HCM City has implemented many renewable-energy measures in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. - VNA/VNS Photo Speaking at the Mayors Policy on Low Carbon City Development conference, Huynh Cach Mang, vice chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said Osaka had many effective solutions on the environment, climate change adaptation, water management and solid waste classification at the source. Osaka has provided HCM City with environmental consultancy services and solutions such as water management techniques, classification of solid waste at the source, and response to climate change. Mang also sent his condolences to the Japanese people, especially the people and authorities of Osaka affected by the recent typhoon Jebi. Mang praised the investors of Osaka who have chosen the environment as a priority in its work with HCM City, saying that he hopes the two sides will also cooperate in climate change adaptation and flood prevention. He encouraged enterprises from Osaka to invest in HCM Citys healthcare, transportation, high-quality human resources, and smart city activities, and to help raise public awareness about global warming. At the same time, the two cities will continue the annual policy dialogue at mayor level. Seigo Tanaka, deputy mayor of Osaka, thanked HCM City authorities for the condolences about the recent natural disaster in Japan, which he attributed to climate change. Viet Nam and Japan, as well as HCM City and Osaka, have many similarities in culture and geography, and both face subsidence, inundation and salinity intrusion. The Osaka Deputy Mayor also said he hoped HCM City would attend the G20 meeting on climate change in Osaka in June next year. HCM City and Osaka signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in low-carbon city development in 2013. Under the MoU, which has been extended to 2021, the two cities have stepped up cooperation in building a low-carbon society in HCM City. The two cities have organised various dialogues and meetings to promote public-private partnerships (PPP) to realise the plan. Under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, between 2021 and 2030, Viet Nam has committed to reduce 8 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, or nearly 62 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, with only domestic support, and to cut emissions by 25 per cent with global support in the fields of energy, transport, agriculture and waste. Under the greenhouse gas emission scenario, Viet Nam is expected to emit 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2018, 500 million tonnes by 2020, 600 million tonnes by 2025, and 800 million tonnes by 2030, according to MONRE. HCM City now emits 38.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, accounting for nearly 13 per cent of the countrys total, the ministry said. By 2025, the country wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent, increase use of renewable energy to 44 per cent, and increase forest coverage by more than 50 per cent. A sea turtle on Con Dao Island.- VNA/VNS Photo Under a pineapple bush, a pregnant turtle is lying in a 40cm-deep hole, dug by herself, ready to lay her eggs. Pregnant turtles can lay about 100 eggs in two hours, and she will dig 3-7 nests during the breeding season, which falls between July and September. As usual, Du waits until the turtle finishes laying her eggs then takes them to a facility equipped with incubators. Baby turtles hatch after 45-60 days, but only 1 in a 1,000 survive through to adulthood. Du is a forest ranger whose job is to incubating turtle eggs under a programme to conserve sea turtles in Con Dao National Park. Statistics from the park show that about 750,000 baby turtles have been released into the sea in the past five years. Conservation programme Tran Dinh Hue, deputy head of the national park, said board actually started protecting sea turtles in 1991. The park had installed chips to track 3,000 female turtles so far, and around 500 females return to the island to lay eggs each year, he said. Hue said public awareness of turtle protection had also risen over the years with positive results, and the had co-operated with authorities to ensure residents did not illegally trade, transport or store sea turtles and their products in the province. Authorites actually arrested a man for illegally storing 116 eggs from the olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) in June 2016. According to test results from the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the eggs belonged to a list of endangered species protected under Government Decree 130/2013/N-CP. The man was sentenced to 10 months in prison. The province was the first in the country to take legal proceedings against violations involving sea turtle eggs. Last year, the provincial Peoples Committee issued a message directing authorities to ensure safety in areas where sea turtles lay their eggs in the national park. Con Dao Island is now believed to be the largest nesting site for sea turtles in the country. Sharp decline Incomplete data from the Education for Nature - Vietnam (ENV) released in late July said that Vietnam was home to leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), the olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricate), loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas), which were all in danger due to illegally hunting. The centre said hawksbill turtles were the most severely depleted species because 80 per cent of the population had been illegally poached for their shells, and green sea turtles face a similar situation. Police and fire officials investigate following a shooting nearby in the Fifth Third Bank building in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Mark Lyons/Getty Images/AFP) Gun shots rang out just after 9.00am (9.00pm Singapore time) at the high-rise headquarters of Fifth Third Bank, a regional financial institution in Ohio's third-largest city. Five people were shot, some multiple times, and one victim died at the scene while two others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Police identified the gunman, felled in a shootout with officers, as 29-year-old Omar Perez. He was not immediately determined to have any connection to the bank, according to detectives. "There may be a possibility that there's some mental health issues involved here," Cincinnati police chief Eliot Isaac told a news conference, cautioning that the investigation was in its early stages. Police believe Perez was armed with some 200 rounds of ammunition and a legally-bought 9mm semi-automatic handgun when he entered the lobby of the 30-story building, Isaac said. Several officers arrived within minutes of the first emergency calls and four of them shot the suspect, killing him at the scene. The building the gunman targeted was said to have strict security, and it wasn't clear how he was able to get in. "Per Fifth Third Bank, the shooter was not an employee of Fifth Third," police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told AFP via email. 'GROTESQUE VIOLENCE' The quickly-responding police were credited with preventing widescale carnage. "This is clearly an act of grotesque violence to innocent people and it should frighten all of us," said Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley. "It has happened too much around this country and we, as a country, have to figure out how to end it." Witnesses told local media they heard as many as 20 gunshots. One unnamed construction worker told WLWT television that he saw two victims being brought out in the aftermath, including one woman in a blood-soaked shirt. "I just (saw) people running out of the building," the witness said. "There are guys with suits laying on the ground, hiding behind big flower pots," he said. 'A SENSELESS ACT' Bank employees sheltered in situ for an hour or more as officers swept the building and cordoned off several downtown city blocks. "There was a senseless act of gun violence on the streets of Cincinnati this morning," Ohio Governor John Kasich said on Twitter. "I commend the law enforcement, fire and (emergency medical) personnel who swiftly responded to the scene and share my deepest sympathies with the innocent victims of this violent attack." It was the latest in more than 200 mass shootings in the US this year alone, with previous incidents often leading to mostly fruitless calls for gun control reforms. In June, a gunman killed five and injured two at The Capital Gazette newspaper offices in Annapolis, Maryland. "It is all too clear that we have to do more in Ohio to address the gun violence affecting communities across the state," said a statement from the Ohio chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. Vietnams low participation rate in banking provides challenges and opportunities for the growing fintech sector So what is it about fintech in Vietnam? Duong Nguyen, financial services and IT advisory leader at EY Vietnam, analyses the situation. Duong Nguyen To have and have not Only 59 per cent of Vietnams population have a formal bank account, while the rest have no access to banking services. Due to these relatively low financial inclusion rates, Vietnam is among the 25 priority countries on which the World Bank is focusing its financial inclusion efforts through the Universal Financial Access (UFA) by 2020 initiative, which seeks to bring two billion unbanked people into the formal financial system. Since 2016, the State Bank of Vietnam has been partnering with the World Bank on a comprehensive approach to financial inclusion, which will result in a national financial inclusion strategy towards a cashless economy. Considering this, can we say fintech was born from the desire for change in the developing world? With all the favourable factors from the rapidly expanding economy and the young, urban, digital-savvy population to the increasing mobile and internet penetration fintech plays a key role in significantly improving Vietnamese peoples access to financial services. The era of digital payment Access to financial services begins with payment. The point is not just for people to possess a bank account, but to use it to improve their well-being. The example of financial inclusion and mobile money in Kenya is well known. Today, more than 70 per cent of Kenyans use their mobile phones to make transactions from their mobile money accounts. In Mongolia, mobile money account ownership has risen from under 5 per cent to around 20 per cent. In Southeast Asia, we have seen several significant investments in fintech payment. In 2017, InstaRem, one of the Asia-Pacific regions leading digital cross-border payment companies, received a $13 million investment led by GSR Ventures, with participation from SBI-FMO Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Fullerton Financial Holdings, and Global Founders Capital. In the Philippines, Ant Financial, the financial technology company founded by Alibabas Jack Ma, bought a 45-per-cent stake in Globe Fintech Innovations Mynt. Mynt, previously a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Capital Venture Holdings under Globe and Ayala Corporation, operates GCash, a micro-payment service which permits consumers to use their smartphones to pay bills and purchase goods. Similarly, in Vietnam, it is all about digital payment. We have witnessed a boom in the development of a cashless Vietnamese society. Major deals include the co-operation between South Koreas UTC Investment Group and VNPT Electronic Payment Company (VNPT Epay), as part of which UTC spent VND542 billion ($24 million) acquiring a 65-per-cent stake in VNPT Epay from VMG Media and a number of individual shareholders; MOL Access Portals acquisition of 50 per cent of Ngan Luongs shares; NTT Datas acquisition of 64 per cent of Payoos shares; True Money buying a 40-per-cent stake in 1Pay; and an investor group including Credit Saison, Golden Gate Ventures, and GMO Global Payment Fund purchasing a 25-per-cent stake in payment gateway company Bao Kim. Vietnamese fintech companies are focusing on the field of payments, with 47 per cent of Vietnamese companies working on payment services, the highest rate in the region. More fintech firms are born in the payment sector every day, and forecasts say the transaction value of digital payments will reach $12.2 billion by 2022. A new age of financial services Innovative technologies bring financial institutions and fintech startups closer. The spreading of these startups also means that established financial institutions can look forward to a market that will increasingly be about partnerships as part of their digital banking strategy growth. In ASEAN, banks have been actively collaborating with fintechs to drive efficiency and enhance customer experience. Most banks have an incubator, accelerator, or innovation lab which helps drive collaboration with fintech firms. Some ASEAN banks have also launched fintech-focused investment funds. Today, Vietnamese banks are in the first phase of their digital revolution, where most banks collaborate with fintech firms to offer their customers high-quality online banking websites, mobile apps, and other digital initiatives such as loan origination, front-end customer acquisition, and payment processing. These institutions started providing new and digitally differentiated ways of offering financial services to the consumer. For example, VIB co-operated with Weezi, a young, motivated Vietnamese fintech startup, to launch an embedded social keyboard that allows their customers to transfer money and to check account balances easily on their smartphones. VietinBank announced a partnership with Opportunity Network, a leading UK fintech, to create a digital small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) platform which helps their SME customers acquire funding more quickly. Similarly, TPBank recently co-operated with local fintech Instant.vn on developing an SME lending platform. In the near future, banks in Vietnam will increasingly look to apply fintechs across their entire value chain, from front-end and back-end to enhancing customer service and driving greater productivity. The future of M&As in Vietnamese fintech Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) could be the future trend for fintech in Vietnam. Fintech is an M&A focus for financial sponsors and an investment focus for many established financial institutions. Global financial institutions are increasingly looking to market infrastructure fintechs as a cure for internal cost management and an enabler to unlock the benefits of disruptive technology. Acquiring a fintech firm can increase a banks digital footprint and shortcut the development of new technology. Large global banks have been engaging in this fintech approach due to its benefits, such as a rapid route into new markets, new customers at low cost, opportunities to cross-sell, product differentiation, and access to talent and innovative culture. Notable fintech deals this year include TD Bank in January acquiring Layer 6, an artificial intelligence company based in Toronto that uses technology to offer personalised and predictive communications to financial services customers. JPMorgan Chase acquired two payment-oriented startups in 2017. This aligns with the organisational goal of scaling Chase Pay, the banks payments solution. Despite the global trend, we have not seen many financial institutions acquiring fintechs in Vietnam. From a technical point of view, one the biggest challenges comes from the integration of new fintech technology solutions into Vietnamese legacy banking systems. Most banking systems in Vietnam are considered to be outdated, which could lead to significant costs. According to an EY ASEAN fintech census report, 59 per cent of surveyed banks have budgeted to invest 10 per cent more in technology in 2018, and 44 per cent of them plan to buy new technology from third parties, while only 17 per cent are interested in acquiring a fintech company to possess its technology. From a management point of view, due to the heavily centralised organisational structure of Vietnamese financial institutions, acquiring a fintech firm may impact the banks organisational culture and lead to internal tension. Another factor to be considered is the lack of successful use cases, as the fintech trend is a recent development in Vietnam. Facing such challenges, Vietnamese banks are choosing a conservative approach when it comes to acquiring fintech firms. Having said that, with forecasted compound annual growth rates of 31.2-35.9 per cent between 2017 and 2025, we believe that more banks will look to build their own fintech products and that more fintech M&As or acqui-hires could follow in the near future. Mergers between fintech firms are another possible outcome, since there are a total of 77 fintech firms in Vietnam, while only half of them are active. On the other hand, the rapid growth of Vietnamese fintech is garnering increased interest from foreign banks. Foreign investors at odds with the regulated caps on foreign ownership in banks (currently 30 per cent) may look for opportunities to collaborate with fintech firms to tap into the banking sector. Sources say Shinhan Bank and KEB Hana are both looking at and studying opportunities for investment in local fintech firms. Like local banks, foreign players would like to add value to their banking products and services, especially focused on the retail market, where customer experience is key. Determining the approach to fintech depends on the banks business plan and objectives whether it is a go-to-market or product and service enhancement. Going forward, both local and foreign banks are looking for more diversified fintech products, as the current fintech landscape in Vietnam focuses mostly on payments. P2P lending, the second-biggest fintech investment sector according to a CB Insights report on Vietnamese fintech, and other fintech areas such as credit scoring, wealth management, and personal finance are in the development stage, with high potential to grow. 1,220 companies gathered in Singapore for Medical Fair Asia and Medical Manufacturing Asia 2018, the regions leading medical exhibitions Betting on offshore markets Last week, some Vietnamese medical technology companies joined 1,220 exhibitors from 62 countries worldwide in Singapore to showcase innovations and technology at Medical Fair Asia and Medical Manufacturing Asia 2018 the regions leading medical exhibitions. As some of the Vietnamese pioneers in technology innovations, Biology and Medical Device Technology Factory Co., Ltd. (Bimedtech), Medical Devices and Biomaterial Plant JSC (MEDEP), USM Healthcare Medical Devices Factory JSC, and Hong Ky Co., Ltd. joined the exhibitions, seeking higher profits internationally. Unlike previous years, when we were just a guest at these fairs, now we are here for the first time as a manufacturing exhibitor to promote our innovative products, which will be available on the market by the end of 2018, Duong Ngoc Cuong, COO of Bimedtech, told VIR. Founded in 2014, Bimedtech previously focused only on medical devices. The great impact of digital transformation prompted Cuong to focus on technological innovation by developing a high-tech factory in Saigon Hi-tech Park (SHTP) and make biochips based on microarray technology for the diagnosis of genetic disorders and infectious diseases. Equipped with non-contacting printing technology, the first phase of the factory began operations in the second quarter of 2018, making Bimedtech the first company in Southeast Asia to produce biochips. The second phase will be developed at a later date. Partnering with American, German and Spanish technology companies, we plan to partake in many similar international exhibitions to market our products. Many customers from South Korea, India, Germany, and the Philippines have shown interest in our biochips, he added. MEDEP, established in 2015 and the first intraocular lens (IOL) producer in Vietnam in the form of a 100 per cent technology transfer from the US, is also seeking business opportunities globally. Boasting a factory in SHTP equipped with some of the worlds most advanced technology, the company aims to release its first products in 2019 to serve the domestic and international markets. Currently, all IOLs in Vietnam are imported, while the number of people with cataracts is increasing significantly. Joining international exhibitions is a way for us to promote sales, with Asian and European markets being our targets, said Cao Thi Van Diem, vice managing director of MEDEP. USM is another company to join the race. USM established the first high-tech medical device factory in Vietnam, and has a biomedical technology research and development facility and healthcare factory in SHTP, producing high-tech medical devices, with the key products being cardiovascular devices and medical disposables. The company previously attended similar exhibitions in Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand in 2017. This July, it partook in another in the US and is preparing for an upcoming event in Germany in November. We export our products to Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Southeast Asia, with a population of 600 million but a very limited production capacity when it comes to these products, is the first target. South Africa and Angola will be the next destinations, said Vo Xuan Boi Lam, president of USM. The moves reflect the strong belief in imminent global success held by Bimedtech, MEDEP, USM, and others, driven by increasing regional and global medical technology demands. The market opportunities in Asia for global healthcare investors and service operators are undeniable, buoyed by growing needs for quality geriatric care. The exhibitions provide an opportunity for companies to introduce their newest technologies and products, said Gernot Ringling, managing director of Messe Dusseldorf Asia one of the worlds leading trade fair organisers. Foreign players look inwards While local companies are preparing to expand globally, the Vietnamese medical market has become more appealing to foreign pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, heating up competition in the local market. At the recent Vietnam Medi-Pharm Expo in Ho Chi Minh City, hundreds of foreign companies, including Philosys and Neusoft Medical Systems, prepared to seek partners to increase product distribution to the market. At present, locally made medical devices make up a small part of the market, while 90 per cent of the medical equipment available in local hospitals comes from foreign countries like Japan, Germany, the US, China, and Singapore, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the total import value of the medical industry, according to the Ministry of Health. In 2017, the country spent more than $1.1 billion on imported medical equipment, up from $950 million in 2016. In addition to famous brands such as German leading healthcare product maker B.Braun, Sanofi, and Nirpo, which are expanding rapidly in the country, many newcomers are also making appearances. For instance, South Koreas Celtrion Group is currently seeking opportunities to invest an estimated $800 million in a factory in the southern province of Binh Duong. According to Forbes, Asias healthcare industry is expected to grow by 11.1 per cent by the end of 2018. In tandem, the medical technology market in Asia will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8 per cent, overtaking the European Union as the second-largest market globally by 2020. The Ho Chi Minh City Medical Equipment Association predicted that Vietnams medical equipment market would enjoy a growth rate of 18-20 per cent in the 2016-2020 period. By Bich Thuy From Singapore Panasonic Vietnam received the Education Certificate of Merit for its Risupia Vietnam showroom On September 6, Panasonic Vietnam organised a ceremony of receiving the Education Certificate of Merit from the Minister of Education and Training to celebrate the 8th anniversary of Panasonic Risupia Vietnam and the 45th anniversary of Vietnamese-Japanese diplomatic relations at the science centre in Hanoi invested by Panasonic Corporation. Eight years since its grand opening, Risupia Vietnams contributions to creating a scientific playground for Vietnamese children has been recognised by the Ministry of Education and Training. Minister Phung Xuan Nha issued the decision of awarding the Education Certificate of Merit to Yoshiko Hamazaki, the representative of Panasonic Corporation, and the Ministerial Certificate to Risupia Vietnam. Established in 2010 to the suggestion of former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Risupia Vietnam is a unique facility utilising and combining Panasonics advanced technologies, solutions, products, and fundamental math and physic principles to create a wonderful world of science with fun exhibitions. The facility has attracted 600,000 visitors, including nearly 400,000 students, with more than 10,000 visitors a month. Risupia Vietnam has been constantly innovating to bring advanced science and technology experiences through the showroom, where visitors can access Panasonic's cutting-edge technologies and suggestions for a modern and safe living space. Over the years, Risupia has introduced many new exhibitions. Especially, the 3D theatrethe most popular areahas been renovated for the 8th anniversary with Panasonic's latest Laser 3D projector technology with 4K class quality offering a "virtual" space for children. With the establishment of Risupia Vietnam, Panasonic expressed a strong commitment to develop high-quality education in Vietnam. We expect Risupia to play an important role as a cultural and educational bridge between Vietnam and Japan. Therefore, while experiencing science and technology at Risupia, children and their families can touch cultural aspects, such as Japanese food, music, art, and lifestyle, said Yoshiko Hamazaki. Panasonic Vietnam's Risupia allows hands-on experience to the newest technologies With its unchanged business philosophy of contributing to society over the last 100 years, Panasonic strives to create A better life, A better world for every Vietnamese person. Panasonic Corporation is a world leader in the development of diverse electronic technologies and solutions for customers in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise solutions, and device industries. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates 468 subsidiaries and 94 associated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of JPY7.715 trillion ($69.3 billion) for the year ending on March 31, 2015. Panasonic Vietnam (PV) is the first 100 per cent foreign-invested company to open country headquarters in Vietnam. Panasonic Vietnam Group comprises of seven companies, five of which are manufacturing companies, including Panasonic Industrial Devices Vietnam (PIDVN), and Panasonic System Networks Vietnam (PSNV). The group currently employs a total workforce of about 8,500 people. In Vietnam, Panasonic is one of the enterprises that place great emphasis on social activities surrounding education and the environment. Panasonic Risupia Vietnam is a communication space for Panasonic and its customers. The facility consists of two parts, namely the Panasonic Corporate showroom where customers can sample premium lifestyle ideas through Panasonics latest products and technologies, and Risupiaa hands-on science facility which helps children explore the wonders and beauty of science and mathematics. Panasonic Risupia Vietnam is the second largest in the world after Tokyo, established by Panasonic Corporation on September 8, 2010. Risupia Vietnam uses state-of-the-art audio-visual technologies to integrate the principles and laws of science and mathematics into diverse activities for Vietnamese children. Since September 2010, the centre has welcomed more than 600,000 visitors free of charge. A Paris official wants to ban Airbnb to stop the city from becoming an "open-air museum" AFP/JEAN-PIERRE MULLER Ian Brossat told AFP that he would also seek to prohibit the purchase of secondary residences in Paris, saying such measures were necessary to keep the city from becoming an "open-air museum". "One residence out of every four no longer houses Parisians," said Brossat, who is expected to head the Communist party list for European Parliament elections next year. With some 60,000 apartments on offer in the city, Paris is the biggest market for Airbnb, which like other home-sharing platforms has come under increasing pressure from cities which claim it drives up rents for locals. "Do we want Paris to be a city which the middle classes can afford, or do we want it to be a playground for Saudi or American billionaires?" he said. Brossat has had Airbnb and its rivals in his sights for years, and recently published a book assailing the US giant titled "Airbnb, or the Uberised City". He wants to forbid any short-term tourist rentals of entire apartments in the First, Second, Third and Fourth Arrondissements of Paris, home to some of the world's most popular sites including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Louvre museum. "OPEN-AIR MUSEUM" "If we don't do anything, there won't be any more locals: Like on the Ile Saint-Louis, we'll end up with a drop in the number of residents and food shops turned into clothing or souvenir stores," he said, referring to the Seine island in the shadow of the Notre-Dame cathedral. "We'll be living in an open-air museum," he added. Brossat hopes the measures will be included in a law aimed at overhauling France's real estate laws to be debated this fall. The administration of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has already taken action against Airbnb and others, requiring homeowners to register with the city and limiting the number of rentals to 120 nights a year. Last month the city said the total amount of fines levied against home rental platforms rose to 1.38 million euros (US$1.60 million) from January to Aug 15, compared with 1.3 million euros for 2017 as a whole. Its crackdown echoes those in other hot tourist destinations including Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin. Last month Airbnb sued the city of New York after it passed a law forcing home-sharing platforms to disclose data about their hosts, calling it a campaign "funded by the city's powerful hotel lobby". Pharma companies report major declines in profits, source: laodong.com Tepid profits from cost burdens Nine leading listed drug-makers recently announced their business results for the first half of the year, with Traphaco (TRA), Hau Giang Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), and Cuu Long Pharmaceutical JSC (DCL) topping the list of companies seeing a decline in profits because of cost burdens. At TRA, the second-largest publicly traded drug-maker in Vietnam, net revenues fell by 7 per cent on-year to VND798 billion ($35.3 million), while net profits were down 48.6 per cent to VND56 billion ($2.47 million), making it the first negative growth in profits for the company since 2014. TRA has State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), Magbi Fund Ltd., and Super Delta Pte. Ltd. as major shareholders, holding 35.67, 24.99, and 15.12 per cent, respectively. Rong Viet Securities attributed TRAs poor business performance partly to its focus on a new Western medicine factory, thus neglecting its two major traditional products, boganic and Hoat Huyet Duong Nao (neurotropic drugs). As a result, revenues of these traditional medicines dropped. At present, the two products make up 50 per cent of the drug-makers revenues from self-made products. Other reasons include significant hikes in selling expenses and management costs, and a strong decline in gross profit margins, partly because of accumulated expenses for the new factory and an increase in input material prices. The biggest publicly traded drug-maker, DHG, faced the same situation, as it made a net profit of VND310 billion ($13.7 million) during the six-month span, down 13.9 per cent on-year. It is said that strong increases in tax payments, advertisement fees, and labour costs affected DHGs profit. Currently, SCIC is DHGs largest shareholder with 43.31 per cent, followed by Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings, one of the five largest pharmaceutical firms in Japan, with 32 per cent. Between January and June, DCL a famous brand in the local pharmaceutical industry - saw an on-year decrease of 78 per cent in net profit to VND9 billion ($398,230). The company, which has Rhinos Vietnam Convertible Bond Private Investment Fund, managed by Rhinos Asset Management, as its largest foreign stakeholder with 25 per cent, blamed its on-year profit reduction on increases in selling expenses, financial costs and input material prices, and production costs. It is worth noting that TRA, DHG, and DCL were also among the seven drug makers that saw a hefty fall in gross profit margins in the second quarter of 2018, with DCL taking the lead with a drop from a margin of 33 per cent in the second quarter of 2017 to 26 per cent. TRA and DMC followed, both reporting a decline of 12 per cent. Pymepharco (PME), DHG, and OPC Pharmaceutical JSC saw an on-year decline of 5 per cent on average. The poor business results have proven forecasts made earlier this year not quite accurate, as researchers and experts all projected that the pharmaceutical industry would grow strongly this year and in the long term. It is easy to understand why these projections were made, however. Vietnam boasts a young population in a developing country, where an increase in diseases caused by environmental pollution remains a major issue, while healthcare spending per capita remains much lower than in other regional countries. What is more, the Vietnamese governments supporting policies for domestic production are expected to create a driving force for local producers who have factories meeting PIC/S and GMP-EU standards. Research and development tops focus Amid stiffening competition from multinational corporations and new domestic rivals, the giant drug-makers now give priority to researching new drugs to increase their competitiveness. According to Vietnam Reports December 2017 survey of local pharmaceutical companies, 83 per cent of those surveyed ranked the research of new drugs as their main strategy in 2018. Recent moves by DHG, Imexpharm, TRA, DMC, and Central Pharmaceutical JSC No.3 have seemingly confirmed this trend, as spending on research and development topped their total expenditures. TRAs new high-tech factory became operational in early 2018, creating high hopes for it to become the prime drug producer in Vietnam by 2020, with market capitalisation of VND10 trillion ($454.5 million), revenue of VND4 trillion ($181.8 million), and a distribution network of 40 branches nationwide by 2020. In a related move, IMP is developing two new high-tech factories, with one scheduled to be put into operation in late 2018 and the other to open in late 2019. The two new facilities will enable IMP to increase revenue by 15-28 per cent and profit by 12-15 per cent, on average, in 2017-2021. The trend will enable pharma firms to venture further into the profitable segment of ethical or prescription drugs, which is currently dominated by multinational corporations, to cash in on the favourable conditions created in the Law on Pharmacy 2016, an analyst at BIDV Securities told VIR. Challenges ahead With poor performance in the first half of this year and mounting competition, the road ahead for Vietnamese drug-makers is now a difficult one. At present, TRA is making necessary changes to overcome the situation. Rong Viet Securities forecast that the companys performance would improve in the second half of the year. However, profit margins may not reach the level of 2017, as TRA is expanding its Western medicine segment, which often has lower profit margins than traditional medicine. Industry insiders said TRA and others would face a lot of challenges in trying to meet their future development targets, as multinationals and new domestic rivals are also expanding rapidly in the country. Recent moves from DHG are obvious evidence. It has decided to reduce its annual growth targets during 2018-2020 to 13 per cent in revenue and 7 per cent in profit. DHGs previous annual revenue growth target was 15 per cent. Retail losses raise taxing questions The Vietnamese retail market is growing rapidly and is considered one of the retail and distribution markets in Asia with the highest potential due to the young labour force, high-speed urbanisation, and the development of industrial production and services. According to the Global Retail Development Index 2017 (GRDI) by consultancy firm A.T. Kearney, which evaluates emerging markets, Vietnam has climbed five steps to claim the sixth place in the overall rankings, trailing only the large markets of India, China, Malaysia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. However, some retail giants have been reporting negative business results in the country over the past years. Specifically, Big C Thang Longs revenue has decreased over the last two years, from VND2.81 trillion ($124.3 million) in 2015 to VND2.72 trillion ($120.4 million) in 2016 and VND2.7 trillion ($119.5 million) in 2017, while its profit also declined sharply from VND164 billion ($7.26 million) in 2015 to VND84 billion ($3.72 million) in 2016 and rose to VND150 billion ($6.64 million) in 2017. Meanwhile, Lotte Mart of wholly foreign-invested South Korean retailer Lotte Vietnam Shopping JSC, which opened its doors in Vietnam more than 10 years ago, also reported consecutive losses. Its accumulated losses as of the end of 2017 were at VND800 billion ($35.2 million), while its equity is currently VND1.6 trillion ($70.4 million). According to its 2017 financial statement, Lotte Vietnam Shoppings liabilities are 45 times higher than its equity. Smaller retail chains Fivimart and Citimart also reported negative business results after being acquired by Japans AEON Vietnam Co., Ltd. Fivimarts 2016 financial statement claimed a total of VND1.24 trillion ($53.8 million) in revenue, up 20 per cent on-year. However, it also reported a loss of VND96 billion ($4.16 million), doubling the figure of 2015, according to local media. As a result, throughout two years of co-operation with AEON Vietnam, Fivimart suffered accumulated losses of VND173 billion ($7.5 million. Behind the losses There is a marked tendency, especially among foreign retailers, to incur short-term losses in hopes of greater future gains. Lotte Mart has been particularly vocal about this strategy when addressing its continuous losses. Lotte Mart is still in the initial stages of investment and our business is not as good as expected, so we have made losses. This is normal for any company that accepts losses in the short term to achieve good performance in the long term. We are confident that we will break even and turn a profit in the future, noted Jeong Seong Won, chief financial officer of Lotte Vietnam Shopping. He explained that Lotte Vietnam Shopping has spent more than VND8.9 trillion ($393 million) on infrastructure, prime land plots, and modern equipment for 13 trade centres and big supermarkets, as well as on mounting business and management expenses. In this highly competitive market, we have spent a lot on advertisements, promotions, and other initiatives to draw customers attention. Thus, some projects have yet to make profit as initially planned. The centres that have been posting good performance cannot make up for the rest just yet, but we expect to turn a profit from 2020, Won confirmed. Meanwhile, Fivimart and Citimart have been unable to make up losses generated by soaring management expenses in spite of increasing revenues and the backing of Japanese retail giant AEON. This was particularly true for Fivimart, where management expenses alone exceeded the companys gross profit. However, Vu Vinh Phu, an expert in the supermarket segment and former chairman of the Hanoi Supermarket Association, told VIR, The retailers financial statements only show part of the truth. Tax and auditing authorities have to inspect retail chains to clarify whether they are truly operating at a loss, because some companies use numerous tricks for tax evasion. According to Phu, the local tax authorities have an uncertain hold on retailers, as they mainly rely on figures declared by the retailers themselves, which makes it difficult to assess their actual revenues. As the founder of the first supermarket in Hanoi, I think it could be possible that cash registers are not directly connected to the local tax authorities management system and companies only declare a part of their sales revenue, while they could be pocketing up to two-thirds, Phu said He also said that it is also common practice among supermarkets to forget giving customers VAT invoices. According to regulations, sellers have to issue a VAT invoice to customers after each sale transaction above VND200,000 ($8.85). By declaring only part of their real revenue while blowing sales and management expenses way out of proportion, retailers are legitimising their losses, fishing for either an exemption or a reduction of tax payments, Phu added. A truly fierce race On the other hand, losses may actually be the result of the undoubtedly heavy competition in the retail market. While AEON considers Vietnam its second-most important market in Southeast Asia (after Malaysia) and had designs to grow the Citimart chain to around 500 supermarkets by 2025, the Japanese giant has decided to terminate its co-operation with First Vietnam JSC (FIVI JSC), which is the operator of Fivimart, to concentrate on Citimart in light of the sustained losses at Citimart and Fivimart. In 2016, after 18 years of being operated by Frances Casino Group with steadily growing revenue, the Big C supermarket chain was transferred to Thailands Central Group for a stellar sum. However, since the acquisition, Big C has been losing ground in Vietnam, despite the economic recovery and increasing shopping demand mainly because of the pressing competition. In addition to huge supermarkets, a series of convenience stores have started popping up across the country. Only a short time after its entry into Vietnam, US chain Circle K has expanded to 259 stores. Some of the earlier birds, like Thailands Bs Mart, Japans Family Mart and Ministop, and Singapores Shop and Go, have been growing strongly in residential areas to now run hundreds of outlets each. Not only foreign retailers, but a number of domestic retailers are also at the forefront of this trend. Vingroup has surprised competitors with its speed of opening new outlets. As of early 2018, Vingroup had 65 Vinmart supermarkets and nearly 1,000 Vinmart+ stores across the country. Experts said that convenience stores have opened a new facet to the retail market and made it a lot more dynamic. Vu Thi Hau, deputy general director of FIVI JSC, said that the competition has been getting tougher among local businesses, as well as between foreign and Vietnamese retailers. Defining real revenue Supermarkets, especially Big C Thang Long and Lotte Mart, still have a large customer base, especially during weekends. Based on his long years of experience in operating supermarkets, Phu said that over 80 per cent of the goods on the shelves in shopping centres and supermarkets are placed through agreements with certain brands, so retailers expenses on their inventory are not as high as they seem. In my opinion, it would be important to hire international audit firms to get a clear picture of the operations of retailers. At the same time, the local authorities should press ahead with regulations on applying e-invoices and building a network connection between cash registers in supermarkets and the local tax authorities system to monitor actual sales, Phu said. The central city of Danang has been piloting connecting cash registers to the local tax authorities to prevent tax loss, while Ho Chi Minh City has chosen District 5 to pilot a similar programme, which has yet to become operational. Europopulism: Immigration provides opening for Swedens right wing Isolated by the political mainstream, the Sweden Democrats could become one of the biggest parties Richard Milne in Hassleholm Magnus Persson/SOPA Images/LightRocket. Protests against forced deportation of migrants to Iraq and Afghanistan in Malmo In Hassleholm, a small, drab city in southern Sweden, a minor political earthquake took place last year. The Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration, populist rightwing party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement, have long been ostracised by all other Swedish political groups. But last spring three centre-right parties in Hassleholm used the Sweden Democrats to oust the centre-left-led local council. In return, the centre-right backed the Sweden Democrats to take the deputy chair of the city council, the first time the populists had received such support. For a brief period last autumn, Hassleholms council even recommended the Sweden Democrats budget for 2018 before the mainstream centre-right one was later adopted. All the time, my dream was to get to power. The legitimacy of the Sweden Democrats is higher if we show we can lead lead a municipality, a country. This is the first step, says Patrik Jonsson, deputy chair of Hassleholm city council and the Sweden Democrats regional head in Skane. In national elections on September 9, the Sweden Democrats are hoping for a much bigger political earthquake. Opinion polls over the past two weeks have given them everything from 16.8 per cent to 25.5 per cent, placing them anywhere from third to first place. At the very least, they are likely to become potential kingmakers and challengers to the centre-left and centre-right blocs that have ruled for decades. The centre-left Social Democrats have been the largest party in the Scandinavian country for more than a century. Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, has tried to distance his party from the racist far-right NurPhoto/Getty Images A strong showing by the Sweden Democrats would bring its own pressures: it would have to decide whether it wants to be a mere party of protest or a party of influence. Nordic neighbours have either seen rightwing populist parties enter government such as Norway and Finland or seen them gain considerable influence in parliament in Denmark. But such an outcome would be a deep shock to consensus-driven Sweden, which has long prided itself on being perhaps the most open European country to immigrants at the same time as offering a generous welfare state. It would put both Swedens traditional political system under immense strain and call into question the long-term cordon sanitaire that the main parties have tried to place around the populist party. It would also bring to the centre of political debate the Sweden Democrats policies on immigration and of holding a referendum over whether Sweden should leave the EU. For all these reasons, the results will be watched closely across the rest of Europe. While the European mainstream survived a series of challenges from the far-right in 2017, the results this year in Italy and potentially now in Sweden have demonstrated that the region remains vulnerable to the populist message, especially on the topic of immigration. Until now, the isolation of the Sweden Democrats has been a deliberate policy of the mainstream parties. When the current centre-left Swedish government called in all parliamentary parties to discuss immigration in 2015 at the peak of the migration crisis, it pointedly failed to invite the Sweden Democrats. The other parties have invested so much in the isolation of the Sweden Democrats, says Ann-Cathrine Jungar, a leading researcher into the radical right at Sodertorn University. The Sweden Democrats have in many ways benefited from their exclusion. The establishment political parties in Sweden long held similarly positive views on immigration. That meant that when Sweden received 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 more relative to its population than almost any other European country the Sweden Democrats initially stood alone in warning of the consequences. The other parties tied their hands behind their backs, says Anders Sannerstedt, an expert on the Sweden Democrats at Lund University. The partys message over the decades has been remarkably consistent: Swedens generous welfare provisions for the elderly and unemployed are under threat from immigration. A party advert from 2010 shows a pensioner moving slowly towards the state budget, only to be outpaced by a group of burka-clad women pushing prams. Mr Jonsson says: Immigration is costly: it takes resources from teachers, doctors, social workers. It affects everything else, and we cant look away from that. Its surge in support was checked in 2016 and 2017 as the establishment parties, led by the governing Social Democrats, tightened up the rules on immigration. But in 2018 the Sweden Democrats have become ever more popular, topping several opinion polls and spreading something close to panic among the other parties as to how to deal with them. They are also benefiting from public concern about violent crime. Just this week about 100 cars were set on fire by groups of youths in what appeared to be organised attacks centred on the western city of Gothenburg. Faced by a suggestion from the Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson to send in troops to quell gang shootings and grenade attacks in the suburbs, prime minister Stefan Lofven initially was open to the idea, before later backtracking.Its harder for other politicians to distance themselves from the Sweden Democrats as they themselves make policies that are close to the Sweden Democrats on immigration. They have become legitimised, says Ms Jungar. Burnt-out cars in Frolunda Square in Gothenburg Paula Bieler, a senior MP and the Sweden Democrats spokesperson on immigration, says many voters have become disillusioned by the other parties inconsistent views on immigration. If you represent 20 per cent and the other parties dont even want to negotiate or co-operate, the pettiness of it all makes people lose confidence in the other parties, she adds. It is not just immigration that attracts people to the party; a survey by Kantar Sifo suggested Sweden Democrats voters tend to feel that politicians do not listen to them or respect their way of life. For the other parties, the reason for the Sweden Democrats isolation is simple: the partys roots in the neo-Nazi movement. The party grew out of several fascist groups including one Keep Sweden Swedish, which also became an early slogan for the Sweden Democrats. Neo-fascists is how Mr Lofven calls them, and there is a visceral dislike from left-wingers. Stefan Lofven, front, with the justice minister, Morgan Johansson, in Gothenbug earlier this week Reuters But the Sweden Democrats have become more moderate since they were founded in 1988. Mr Akesson, in charge since 2005, has led a purge of dozens of members for openly racist views. A new party Alternative for Sweden was started last year, drawing several of the Sweden Democrats most high-profile extreme members. Steve Bannon, Donald Trumps former adviser, says the party is perfect casting for the movement of right-wing, populist nationalists he wants to encourage in Europe. Controversies still surface, however, most recently when a senior Sweden Democrat MP said that Jews and Sami people were not Swedish. The resulting dilemma for how the establishment centre-right parties should handle the Sweden Democrats and the opportunities and challenges that poses for the populists can be seen in Hassleholm. The city council is divided into three factions a centre-left one with just under half the votes, a centre-right one with a quarter, and the Sweden Democrats with a quarter. Each group used to vote for its own budget, all but guaranteeing the centre-left stayed in power. In 2017, however, the centre-right and Sweden Democrats teamed up to push the centre-left out. But then it started to go wrong. Ulf Erlandsson, the first Sweden Democrat to become deputy chair of a municipal council, became caught up in various scandals including sharing racist articles on social media. He was forced to resign almost immediately, denting the Sweden Democrats credibility. Douglas Roth, the centre-right chair of the council, calls the populists not serious for their constant linking of everything to immigration. The problem with them is that if we want to tarmac the road outside, they say we cant do it because there are immigrants here, he adds. Mr Jonsson, the new Sweden Democrat deputy chair in the city, is frank about the implications of the citys experiment. Hassleholm is an example of what we could be and also what can go wrong if you co-operate with the Sweden Democrats, he says. The issues are mirrored at a national level. Ulf Kristersson, head of the centre-right Moderate party and favourite to become prime minister, has said he will not negotiate or co-operate with the Sweden Democrats. But forming a government in that case will be highly tricky. The four centre-right parties are set to get roughly about 40 per cent, the centre-left 40 per cent, and the Sweden Democrats 20 per cent. Any government would require support from either the opposing bloc or the Sweden Democrats to pass legislation. There are different opinions throughout the four centre-right parties on how to deal with the Sweden Democrats. Some think they should be normalised and given influence in parliament, others that they should continue to be ostracised. Some analysts and politicians believe a one-party minority Moderate government is the most likely result. The more radical alternative would be to seek a left-right grand coalition as in Germany. Nobody really knows what will happen after the elections, says Mr Sannerstedt. The dilemma is just as acute for the Sweden Democrats. If the other parties refuse to engage, should they be destructive or constructive? It is a big debate within the party. Mr Jonsson says: Many of our voters are happy with us showing off our power to the other parties. So do this, or well do that. He argues instead for the alternative. What I think is the best way is to show we are a reliable party. Even if the Alliance [the four centre-right parties] dont have a budget that is perfect for us, we have to get an agreement to work together. Ms Bieler says she thinks a one-party minority government is most likely. The Sweden Democrats price for supporting that government would be influence over migration policy, and a willingness to listen to us. A supporter of the nationalist Sweden Democrats holds a placard hailing the party leader, Jimmie Akesson, for riding high in the polls NurPhoto/Getty Images As with all populist parties, the danger can be in compromising too much. Ms Bieler refers to the example of the True Finns who joined the centre-right government in Helsinki in 2015 but have since plummeted in the polls and split in two after a disastrous performance where the anti-EU party ended up endorsing the third bailout of Greece. Party officials instead look over the Oresund strait to Denmark where the Danish Peoples party has never entered government but has had increasing power for more than a decade from parliament, especially over immigration. The question for the Sweden Democrats is whether they can gradually become more accepted without falling apart, says Stefan Folster, director of the Reform Institute. So far, Septembers elections are very much being fought on the Sweden Democrats terms. Swedens economy has performed relatively well since the global financial crisis but there is little discussion of that. Instead, most of the focus has been on immigration, integration, and crime as well as recently on climate change after summer-long forest fires. Sweden Democrat proposals include restricting family reunification for immigrants, speeding up deportations, improving care for the elderly, and fighting criminal gangs. With the centre-left Social Democrats seemingly set for their worst result in more than 100 years, Ms Bieler believes that leaves the door open for the Sweden Democrats to do well. One way or another, the next government will have to talk to all parties, she says. If they dont do it with us, then you will see the results in 2022. Swexit: populists want an EU membership vote Of all the policies of the Sweden Democrats that have caused controversy, immigration is not top of the list. Instead, it is the partys suggestion that Sweden hold a referendum on leaving the EU. Swexit, as it was quickly christened, should take place because the EU is a large web of corruption, party leader Jimmie Akesson said in June. We pay unbelievably lots of money and get back unbelievably little. But the main reason is ideological: we dont want to be in a supranational union, he added. The Sweden Democrats have long tried to campaign on the issue but have got little traction with the public. Almost all the other political parties are firmly in favour of EU membership. Only the ex-Communists of the Left party want to leave as well and they have distanced themselves from the Sweden Democrats by saying they do not want a referendum yet as there is not sufficient public support. Only 27 per cent of Swedes think the country would be better out of the EU while 67 per cent disagree, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey. The other parties have sought to use that and the mess of Brexit to criticise the Sweden Democrats. The centre-right Moderates, favourites to assume the prime ministership, estimate that Swexit would cost Sweden SKr280bn ($31bn), or SKr40,000 for every household. Jan Bjorklund, leader of the centre-right Liberal party, made Swexit the main theme of his big summer speech, warning that as many as 150,000 jobs could be at risk. It would be devastating for Sweden . . . Prices would go up and the standard of living down, and it is important that people know this when we go to vote, he added. Carl Bildt, the former prime minister, went even further, calling the proposed referendum the biggest single danger to Swedens future prosperity. In the last few days, Phan Van Hieu, the 40-year-old chairman of CVI Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical JSC (CVI Pharma) a young player in the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry and his team have been negotiating with Bao Long Herb Medical Group to complete the acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Bao Long a powerful herbal brand. Owning about 100 remedies, Bao Long will be a stepping stone for us to boost our footprint by combining remedies of 1,000 years of traditional experience with high-tech oriental medicine, he told VIR. This is the second mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal at CVI Pharma in the last two years, following the 2017 deal in which Japans Daiwa-SSI acquired 20 per cent of CVIs stakes. In Vietnam, the market is divided into two segments: the segment of competitive drugs with a value exceeding VND1 trillion ($44.25 million) each, which is dominated by leading drug makers, and the niche segment, which covers drugs that are subject to less competition, with a value of several hundred billions of dong (several millions of US dollars) each. With the new investment, CVI Pharma is betting on the niche market. Adventures of success Looking at the 2009-2018 period, when Vietnam witnessed around five M&A transactions in the pharmaceutical industry, as shown in the Top 100 list announced recently by AVM Vietnam, CVI Pharmas two deals proved the companys superior performance compared to the market. CVI Pharma is currently enjoying the fruits of the M&A deal with Daiwa-SSI. It has reported fruitful business results in 2017, with an on-year rise of 60 per cent in revenue and 40 per cent in profit. In the first half of 2018, the companys revenue rose by 50 per cent to VND140 billion ($6.19 million). All our operations are now more transparent, with improvements in corporate governance, said Hieu. In 2013, Hieu and a friend decided to quit their well-paid jobs to venture into new grounds in the pharmaceutical industry. We faced many difficulties at the time. We decided to focus on less competitive and specific drugs to establish ourselves in this highly competitive market, he recalled. Five years ago, the local pharmaceutical market was already dominated by powerful Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies such as Domesco (DMC), Hau Giang Pharmaceutical JSC, and Traphaco (TRA), which made high-revenue herbal drugs, such as musculoskeletal drugs and others, which are valued at over VND1 trillion ($44.25 million), their mainstay market. CVI Pharma forged its own path by applying scientific research and co-operating with scientists and research institutions to bring nano-technology to produce lower-revenue and low-risk products from Vietnamese herbs, including products for stomach and acne treatment, aiming to serve the over-the-counter (OTC) segment. After several months of research and trials, we introduced the first product Nano curcumin in late 2013, when we almost ran out of funds. We were extremely worried, as we would have gone bankrupt if the product had failed to attract customers, Hieu reminisced. Fortunately, Nano curcumin was highly welcomed in the market and sold like hotcakes. At the time, nano-technology was in its initial development stages. CVI Pharma was one of the pioneers of nano-technology production. CVI Pharmas success continued when it entered the next development stage in July 2016, as Hieu met an old friend who proposed a co-operation with Daiwa-SSI Fund. At first, I did not agree, because I was afraid the big changes would have a negative impact on the company. I gave the issue much thought and then decided to stop negotiations three months later. However, my Japanese friends enthusiasm and friendliness changed my mind and I eventually agreed to resume negotiations in November 2016, Hieu recalled. 2017 marked a new milestone for CVI Pharma, as Daiwa-SSI decided to acquire 20 per cent of the company. With this partnership, CVI Pharma ventured further into the field of high technology. The Japanese fund would help us connect with potential Japanese and Taiwanese partners, enabling us to approach new technologies and export products to these markets, he added. Ambitious targets from M&A deals CVI Pharma is now concentrating its efforts on constructing a high-tech factory costing nearly VND300 billion ($13.27 million) on an area of 1.1 hectares in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park of Hanoi, planning to put it into operation in late 2018. This factory focuses on nano-technology, making it the most modern herbal production facility in Vietnam, tapping into the governments development policies for nano-technology. We will ensure that our products meet international standards, thus allowing us to penetrate markets like Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan, as well as others in Southeast Asia, said Hieu. Now going into a new M&A transaction with Bao Long, CVI Pharma is gathering energy to raise the value of its herbal products, thus increasing its prestige and market share. CVI Pharma now has a distribution network spanning 63 cities and provinces, with a portfolio of 12 products, including six key products such as Nano curcumin. With an annual growth rate of 30-50 per cent, the company now has nearly 9,000 drugstores as regular customers. One of the top 20 OTC drug makers in terms of revenue, CVI Pharma will continue to focus on the OTC market in the future. CVI Pharmas targeting of this niche market is a smart choice amidst big players increasingly focusing on the lucrative ethical drugs (ETC) segment sold through the hospital system. At present, in the local pharmaceuticals market, the main distribution channel is the hospital system, with ETC drugs accounting for around 70 per cent, while the rest of the market is OTC drugs. CVI Pharma plans to sell more stakes in the future to serve its development plans, including the launch of an initial public offering in the next three to four years and listing on the stock market, thus becoming one of the 10 largest drug producers in Vietnam within the next five years, with revenue of VND1 trillion ($44.25 million). Taxing e-business proves problematic, (AFP Photo/Karen Bleier) Over the past few years, slapping taxes on Facebook and Google has been difficult for Vietnamese authorities, as the two technology giants have not established representative offices in Vietnam. During 2016-2017, Facebook Inc. and Google only paid VND120 billion ($5.3 million) in taxes in Vietnam via their partners, including advertising agencies and Vietnamese businesses directly purchasing their services. The amount is very small compared to their revenue in the country, which is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc from Basico Law Company told VIR that the Law on Cybersecurity coming into effect will help local authorities to ask foreign companies to provide information related to their business activities in Vietnam. However, tax collection will need other measures. Facebook and Google, once they start doing business in Vietnam, have to pay foreign contractor tax (FCT), but that is just one part. More importantly, the country needs measures to collect tax from the two giants to avoid similar cases, which made billions of VND [VND1 billion is equivalent to $44,247] profit but have not paid taxes in Vietnam for years, Duc added. Similarly, Kenneth Atkinson, executive chairman of Grant Thornton, told VIR that under current tax regulations, offshore companies incomes earned from doing internet-based business in Vietnam would be subject to withholding tax, such as FCT. When the Law on Cybersecurity is enacted, offshore companies will be required to store data locally, open local offices, and remove offensive content. From a tax perspective, the above-mentioned requirements will lead to the creation of a permanent establishment (PE) in Vietnam by offshore companies. Accordingly, these companies profits attributable to the PE will be taxed by Vietnamese tax authorities. Tracking down individuals While tax authorities have been looking for a way to clamp down on internet giants and foreign companies, collecting taxes from individuals doing business on these platforms remains a challenge. The issue was discovered when the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department instructed banks to check all money transfers related to Facebook and Google to look into their tax compliance. During the checks, the department discovered nearly 14,000 accounts receiving money from the platforms. Overseas sellers who earn income in Vietnam are liable to withholding tax. However, when the sellers are offshore individuals, it is far more complicated to manage the fulfilment of the tax obligations, Atkinson stressed. Previously, Nguyen Nam Binh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, said that the department will notify other cities and provinces where the individuals live to contact each individual and require them to pay their taxes in full. The move is part of the departments efforts to get its fair share of taxes from these internet-based businesses. However, lawyer Duc argued that the departments method is not effective. The authoritys approach is completely backwards: the supervision of individuals and organisations should begin from the very start. These entities should register their businesses before beginning to operate then local authorities could collect taxes with far less effort, Duc said. Echoing this view, economist Nguyen Tri Hieu said that Vietnam currently lacks the tools to measure the incomes of individuals doing business online. He recommended that Vietnamese tax authorities work with Google and Facebook to bring the individuals together on one platform to better manage their online presence. Meanwhile, Atkinson from Grant Thornton noted that the best approach for the local tax authorities would be to utilise the tax treaties signed between Vietnam and other countries, which should contain clear guidance on tax obligations in e-commerce transactions. In addition, there should be a more efficient approach to data exchange between the competent authorities of Vietnam and those of other countries. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) shakes hands with President Donald Trump at a summit in Singapore on Jun 12, 2018. (AFP/SAUL LOEB) "Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.' Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Trump wrote on Twitter. The tweet came hours after Kim renewed his own commitment to the goal of denuclearisation in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in Pyongyang scheduled for Sep 18-20 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. "The north and the south should further their efforts to realise the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-yong, who met with Kim, said the North Korean leader also emphasised that his "trust in Trump remains unchanged," the comment which led to the US president's tweet. Chung added that Kim expressed his intention to work closely with the United States to achieve denuclearisation "in the first official term of President Trump," which ends in January 2021. END TO IMPASSE? The enthusiastic comments came 12 days after Trump summarily cancelled a trip to Pyongyang by his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, which was aimed at getting the discussions on North Korea's nuclear talks back on track three months after Trump's landmark summit with Kim in Singapore. In a statement on Aug 24, Trump said he was scotching Pompeo's trip "because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula." He also slammed China as not helping with the effort to convince Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. "Additionally, because of our much tougher trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearisation as they once were," Trump said at the time. Thursday's statements by the two leaders appeared to paper over differences the two sides have over what the current talks should focus on. Pyongyang apparently wants to first achieve an official end to the seven-decade state of war with South Korea, while Washington wants to start immediately on the long process of denuclearisation. Stephen Biegun, newly-appointed US envoy for the North, said last month Kim had promised "final, fully verified denuclearisation" at the Singapore summit. But Pyongyang has slammed Washington for its "gangster-like" demands for complete nuclear disarmament. POMPEO: 'STILL MUCH WORK TO DO' Trump's statement came hours before the US Justice Department unveiled criminal charges against a North Korean government-linked hacker involved in several major cybercrimes, including the hacking of Sony Pictures and the theft of US$81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh. Pyongyang had no immediate comment on the charges, which it has denied responsibility for in the past, and it was not clear whether they would impact the nuclear negotiations. The State Department announced on Thursday that Biegun would travel to South Korea, China and Japan next week for talks on North Korea. In New Delhi on Thursday, Secretary of State Pompeo, the former US intelligence chief who heads the US negotiating effort, struck a sober note, saying there is still much work to do. North Korea "is the only country that has commitments under UN Security Council resolutions," he told reporters. "It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We haven't had any nuclear tests, we haven't had any missile tests, which we consider a great thing." "But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make the strategic shift which we talked about, for a brighter future for the people of North Korea, continues," Pompeo added. Monseigneur Makarios, the Copte Bishop of the Egyptian city, Al-Minya, has been accused by the Egyptian authorities of not speaking out in the wake of the growing number of attacks by Islamists on Christians. Two weeks ago, several Islamists attacked the house of a Christian in Ezbet Zoltan because they suspected that it was being used as a church. A similar incident took place last week in the neighbouring village of Demshav Hachem. Houses have been looted and burnt. Three men, one of whom was one of the assailants, have been wounded. From the time of the Ottoman Occupation, Egyptian Christians have been forced to obtain authorization from the state to build churches. In 2016, a law that allegedly fostered relationships between different communities, gave the police the exclusive power to grant a licence to establish a church. However, there are a large number of policemen who keep up their ties with the Islamists and who attend the mosques. Currently, more than 150 Egyptian cities with robust Christian communities are waiting for permission to build churches. On 11 January 2016, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, undertook to resolve this problem, when the Copts celebrated their Christmas. He has not reacted publicly to these most recent events. Fuad Eliko, spokesperson for the National Coalition of the Opposition and the Revolution, has called on Turkey and Russia to eradicate Al-Qaeda from Idleb (North Syria). The leader of the armed opposition in Damascus considers Al Nusra Front to be a terrorist organization. Al Nusra controls 60% of the region of Idleb. This is a surprising declaration because in the West, the messages appealing not to attack Idleb have proliferated. Mr Eliko is considered to be close to Turkey. Ankara has just strengthened its military presence at the border so as to prevent an influx of immigrants should the jihadists of Idleb be attacked. The Israeli Minister of Intelligence and Transport, Yisrael Katz (see photo), publicly declared that Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Syria in the last 18 months. Speaking at the anti-terrorist conference at Herzilya on 4 September 2018, the minister affirmed that the Israeli operations targeted principally targets linked to the Iranian Guardians of the Revolution (which therefore includes the Lebanese Hezbollah) but does not disguise the fact that many of these were part of the international war against the Syrian Arab Republic. According to an Israeli official that accompanied the Minister in the operations, these attacks included the use of more than 800 missiles and mortars. The most recent operation attacking the Syrian territory took place on the same day as the conference (4 September 2018). What the Israeli minister has not said, which is something Voltaire Net has been able to provide evidence of, is that on the ground, the Israelis coordinate their attacks with jihadist groups and Israeli planes frequently provide air support to these terrorists. Generally, the Israeli planes penetrate Lebanons air space from where they shoot their missiles against targets in Syria without penetrating Syrian air space. While the majority of Western powers and the Arab countries in the Gulf arm and finance the jihadists but abstain putting their national boots on the ground, the United States and Israel have participated directly in the armed conflict. Other countries such as France and the United Kingdom limit their presence in Syria to the use of special forces. The war in Syria was concocted by the Pentagon under the framework of the 2001 Rumsfeld-Cebrowski strategy [1]. Although they were all acting under the orders of the United States, each of Washingtons allies went after its own objectives in Syria. The United Kingdom changed the US plan by pursuing the strategy Arab Spring of 2005, France applied its strategy of 1921 by using militia against Arab independists and Israel has recourse to the Yinon Plan of 1982 [2]. The Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Hassake-Nisibi, Monsigneur Jacques Behnan Hindo, has slammed the Kurdish leaders that control, with the support of the United States, the North East Syria, which they now call Rojava. This is because they articulate in his presence, their plan to eradicate Christian populations from this Syrian region. What these Kurds call the Rojava is a Kurdish entity which says it applies the libertarian communitarianism of the US anarchist Murray Bookchin. But in actual fact, the Rojava is a Syrian territory administered by the US occupants, that give orders to Kurdish armed groups and use them to control the terrain. For about three years, these armed Kurdish groups which claim to create a Kurdistan in lands populated by Arabs have had the support of a hundred schools. The language of instruction in these schools is Kurdish and the schools have their own teaching curriculum. The authoritarianism of these armed Kurdish groups has given rise to clashes between the Sunni Kurds and the Christian Arab populations in this region. As a question of principle, the Christians of Syria support independent states with secular institutions. In contrast, the Pentagon favours the creation of Ethnic or theocratic states under US control. On 5 September 2018, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced to the House of Commons that Scotland Yard has managed to identity those responsible for poisoning Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, an incident which also affected a police officer. [1]. The British authorities are holding two Russians (see photo), responsible for these events. They have been identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov (both very common Christian names and surnames in Russia). They arrived from Moscow at Gatwick airport, on 2 March at 3 p.m. and returned to Moscow two days later, on 4 March at around 22.30. The United Kingdom issued European arrest warrants but has not asked Russia to extradite them. The Russian Constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens. The immediate response of the government of the Russian Federation was that it did not know these persons. It also asked London to send the biometrics of the suspects given that the visa process for Russian nationals to enter the UK requires applicants to register their biometrics. Theresa Mays government refused to satisfy Moscows request. This makes it impossible to search in Russia for those culpable. It also rules out any chance of verifying the accusations that the British government made. During the 19th and 20th century, there were a number of instances when London used false evidence to hurl all types of accusations at Moscow. For example, in 1924, the Conservatives denounced a false attempt by the Soviet Union to influence the British elections [2]. According to the US journal Foreign Policy [1], since 2013, Israel has probably paid 75 dollars per month to several thousands of fighters during the war against Syria. From August 2014, the Hebrew State has probably also sent arms through three passageways along the boundary. This military aid would have been twice as much as humanitarian aid. However, Israel would have cut off support in July 2018 pursuant to an agreement made with Russia stipulating that Iranian troops withdraw to 50 miles (80 km) from the dividing line. This information confirms what we have said all along. But it is a much diluted version of what is happening on the ground: the Israeli support for the jihadists against Syria began before these events took place. Thus the first military operation against Syria was in Deraa (on al-Omari mosque), on 18 March 2011, and was executed by Israeli officers. This ended with the capture of the Intelligence Centre tasked with keeping a beady eye on the Golan which Israel was occupying. Israel had organized for Al-Qaeda to occupy the zone of demarcation which had been entrusted to the UN Force for the Observance of the Line of Demarcation, in August 2014, so that they could transport heavy weapons to Syria more easily. In July 2016, the United States and Russia had reached an agreement to jointly file a draft resolution with the UN Security Council to demand Israel to abandon its support to Al Quaeda and to re-establish the UN Blue Helmets [2]. Right at the last minute, the Pentagon blocked this draft resolution (which had been filed under UN reference S/2014/437). The humanitarian support included the medical care for more than 300 al-Qaeda fighters at the Ziv Medical Centre where the Prime Minister was filmed congratulating al-Qaeda officers (photo). The Israeli-Russian agreement on the withdrawal of Iranian troops was never concluded because the Russian Defence Minister was opposed to it. The Wall Street Journal has already shone the spotlight on Israels role on this conflict [3]. This financial daily made a comparison with Operation Good Boundary which Israel executed at the Lebanese border just before invading Lebanon in 1982. Foreign Policy made no reference to this but this is because it explains support for the jihadists in Syria in terms of anti-Iranian rhetoric. Steve Coogan and David Mitchell. Photo: Getty Images/Shutterstock Steve Coogan and David Mitchell are teaming up for a new movie from Michael Winterbottom. Deadline reports that the two will star in an upcoming untitled film produced by Melissa Parmenter, previously titled Greed, described as a satirical take on the world of the super-rich, with Coogan playing a ruthless, perma-tanned and self-absorbed retail clothing billionaire and Mitchell as a mild-mannered journalist hired by Coogans character to chronicle his life story. Winterbottom and Parmenter worked with Coogan on The Trip TV and film franchise, most recently in last years The Trip to Spain. Coogan also stars alongside Will Ferrell in the upcoming Laurel and Hardy biopic Stan & Ollie, which is reportedly close to being sold to Sony Pictures Classics at the Toronto Film Festival this week. Weinstein. Photo: Jefferson Siegel/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein is now being investigated by federal prosecutors, who are looking into whether the Hollywood producer broke any laws while working with the private intelligent service agency Black Cube, according to The Wall Street Journal. The New Yorker originally reported that the agency, which is operated largely by former Israeli intelligence agency officers, was hired to gather information on Weinsteins accusers in an attempt to stop them from going to the press. Though he is already facing state charges in New York for rape and felony sexual assault, federal prosecutors are investigating whether his activities with Black Cube could constitute wire fraud. In a statement to Deadline, Weinsteins lawyer Benjamin Brafman said that Black Cubes activities were supervised by prominent lawyers who would never have authorized illegal activity of any kind. Brafman also rejected the notion that the producer was attempting to silence his accusers, saying that the sole objective was to enable Mr. Weinstein to effectively defend himself through legal action from serious and patently false allegations. While Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to state charges, Deadline reports the federal charges may be a separate case to be pursued if the state fails to secure a conviction. Harvey Weinstein. Photo: EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images Casting JonBenet director Kitty Green is at work on a new fictional feature-film about Harvey Weinstein. According to Deadline, Greens movie will tell the story of a day in the life of one of Weinsteins assistants. Green spent nearly a year researching the former super-producer, currently facing charges of sexually assaulting three women. What was perhaps the hardest part of all my researches and discussions was the repetitive nature and banality of Weinsteins reign, which lasted over 30 years, over the hundreds of young people and specifically women who came to his companies ready to start their careers, Green said in a statement to Deadline. When you actually imagine and then live through even one day of what it must have been like, its terrifying. The project is still in preproduction, with casting to be announced soon. A series of reports in The New Yorker and New York Times last fall exposed decades of sexual assault accusations against Weinstein. Some of the women accusing Weinstein of rape and assault said that his assistants would often be used as honeypots to lure actresses into hotel rooms alone with the Weinstein Company boss. In the early 90s, a group of ex-Miramax employees started meeting informally as Mir-Anon, a support group for Weinsteins former employees. Photo: 1996-98 AccuSoft Inc., All rights reserved/Courtesy of TIFF Weve never made a film during a time of such terror. We didnt feel this way after 9/11 after making [Fahrenheit 9/11], Michael Moore said to a small group of family and friends over dinner including Flint whistleblower April Cooke Hawkins and Parkland student activists just hours before his latest film, Fahrenheit 11/9, was set to premiere to a packed house at the Ryerson Theatre at the Toronto International Film Festival. With the sun setting behind him, Moore added, Were very much in a take-no-prisoners mind-set. Unlike his past work, Fahrenheit 11/9 is Michael Moore at his most restrained, with the filmmaker leaving behind many of his trademark agitprop flourishes. (Dont worry, there are still a couple of stunts.) The initial focus is the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump became the president of the United States but rather than make a film lampooning the buffoonery of Trump, Moore takes him seriously as a figure who emerged out of a broken system that includes the Electoral College, political cronyism, and the Democratic Party (which yes, includes Barack Obama). It has moments of humor (that the Canadian audience seemed to appreciate more than, say, an American journalist), but is mostly an unflinching look at the political moment as a whole. Moore himself appears mostly in voice-over, as he covers everything from the Flint water crisis to the Parkland school shooting to the teacher strikes of West Virginia. Below, weve listed Moores biggest targets from Fahrenheit 11/9. Himself Like any good high-school debate team captain, Michael Moore acknowledges early on that he has gone soft on Trump and the administration in the past. Moore starts with his appearance alongside Trump on Roseanne Barrs talk show in 1998 at Tavern on the Green. Trump initially said he was going to walk unless Roseannes producers could convince Moore to go easy on him; Moore acquiesced, not wanting to ruin the show. There are a couple of other facts addressed: Jared Kushner threw the opening night party for Moores 2007 documentary Sicko, Steve Bannons company did the home video release for that film, and theres a video of Moore looking cozy with Kellyanne Conway just days before the election. Gwen Stefani In a (mostly) joking manner, Moore pins the blame of the Trump presidency on Gwen Stefani, whom he says was making more as a judge on The Voice than Trump was when he was hosting The Apprentice. Apparently this pay disparity prompted Trump to pretend to run for the presidency as a way to convince NBC that he was very popular and therefore worth more money. After delivering a long-winded racist rant, NBC fired him and the rest is history. Rick Snyder The most powerful moments of Fahrenheit 11/9 occur when Moore goes back to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and examines the water crisis, which he calls a slow-motion ethnic cleansing. This time, he takes aim squarely at Governor Rick Snyder, who removed democratically elected mayors from cities across the state and installed his cronies in emergency manager appointments. Most devastatingly, he switched Flints water supply from the glacial water of Lake Huron to that of the polluted water from the Flint River. The evidence is damning: documents demonstrating that Snyder knew about the poisoned water and did not act; Department of Health employee April Cooke Hawkins discussing how she was told to minimize the lead absorption levels tested in children. Most shockingly, Moore points out how Snyder ordered that the water used at the General Motors factory in Flint be switched back to Lake Huron, because the Flint River water was damaging the auto parts (and GM was one of his donors), but that the citizens would continue to drink the toxic water. Moore, and many others in Flint, believe this is a criminal act. The Electoral College Moore calls for an end to the arcane system known as the Electoral College, where the votes come inside baby coffins and a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election. The Democratic Party To Moore, the Democratic Party of Nancy Pelosi & Co. is out of touch and unable to mobilize American citizens, even though most of them have liberal values around everything from abortion to gun control to immigration. He also points out how the DNC is a sham: even though Bernie Sanders won every county in West Virginia, the majority of the delegate votes had gone to Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton Moore traces many of the Democratic Partys current problems to President Clinton, who signed crime laws resulting in the incarceration of more black people, weakened welfare, passed the Defense of Marriage Act, enacted NAFTA, and deregulated banks. Barack Obama The worst thing that President Obama did was pave the way for Donald Trump, Moore says in one voice-over. Moore excoriates Obama over the former presidents Flint water stunt, when he pretended to drink the water from Flint and says that as a child, he probably consumed lead paint, rather than call a national emergency and switch the water supply back. He doesnt stop there, pointing out that Obama increased deportations and family separation more than any other president before him, imprisoned whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning, and increased drone strikes. The Mainstream Media Something Moore gives Trump a lot of credit for is how the president manipulated the mainstream news to get publicity in the early days of his campaign. He points out how many of the media men who were tough on Hillary Clinton during the election campaign were later accused of sexual harassment, including Matt Lauer, Mark Halperin, Charlie Rose, Roger Ailes, and Bill OReilly. There are a couple of stinging moments, too, for Jeff Zucker and Les Moonves, with the latter saying that while Trump may not be good for America hes good for us. The New York Times The Gray Lady doesnt look good in Moores documentary; he positions them as handmaidens of the centrist wing of the Democratic Party, big business, and warmongers. Donald Trump To Moores credit, Fahrenheit 11/9 takes more time to dissect the system that created Trump rather than Trump himself. Many of the facts of Trump are well-known: he has a history of racism and creepy sexual advances. However, there is one incredibly uncomfortable sequence of photos and sound bites of Trump discussing, touching, dissecting, and praising his daughter Ivankas body, suggesting that if she were not his daughter, he would date her. This weeks episode plunks us down right back into Jen and Rons (okay, mostly Jens) screaming session, an ugly and interminable scene thats possibly Jersey Shores answer to that harrowing six-minute Dunkirk tracking shot in Atonement. Jen tears off her mic pack, swinging it at Ronnie before throwing it down the hallway, her commentary beeped into furious unintelligibility. Once and for all, Ron is over it, at least so he says: He and Jen would probably fight until were 65 years old, he predicts, and Im guessing 65 is the oldest age he can possibly conceive of. Everyone else is at dinner, where (with the exception of Mike) theyve gotten disproportionately, charmingly drunk off two glasses of wine each. Im not sure if an enterprising producer dumped a few shots of pure grain alcohol into their decanter when the cast wasnt looking, but however Gigglefest 2018 came to be, Im thankful for it. Jenni and Nicole collapse into laughter over the word snifter, because it sounds like sphincter, sort of. The sphincters like the thing between your dick and your ass? Vinny asks. Nicole, a veteran of anal gland expression thanks to her vet-tech training, educates him otherwise. A title tells us that, after Jen left, police came to follow-up on a call about a domestic disturbance and MTV was not permitted to film their investigation. Fortunately, we have no shortage of Sad Ron B-roll to fall back on. Later, he downloads the girls, who may or may not still be a little buzzed, on what happened: Hes not pressing charges, but Jen may nevertheless have a warrant out for her arrest. Hes understandably worried about the whereabouts and well being of Ariana. This is, like, Jerry Springer, Maury-type shit, Nicole says in an interview. Jenni suggests calling the cops to do a wellness check on the baby at Jens home. In anticipation of, well, theyre not even sure what, the entire group (including Pauly, despite his repeatedly stated discomfort over his multiple active parking tickets) drive to a restaurant near the house to wait for word from the authorities. If need be, theyre ready to perform an infant heist that Mike calls Operation Gym, Tan, Wheres the Baby. As tempting as this unlikely Oceans spin-off might sound, ultimately, thankfully, there is no need for it. An officer calls to let Ron know that Ariana is safe and that Jen is warrant-free. Ron is newly resolved to legally establish custody, and the clarity about his path forward seems to have lifted a weight off his shoulders. That night, the macaroni rascals dine at a steakhouse on the 50th floor of the Rio Hotel. Ron raises a glass: Thank you guys for being here and pushing me to do the right thing. Two by two, Ronnie and Pauly and then Mike and Nicole take on a terrifying-looking zip line between buildings. Except its not really a zip line riders are sitting, not dangling, and reassuringly seat-belted in place. Actually, what this attraction reminds me of is the Seaside Heights Sky Ride, a chairlift that runs along a quarter mile of the boardwalk, and from which the original Jersey Shore house can be seen. Does this look familiar? As the OGs scream and laugh, it feels like the ride might carry them all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, to 2009, to the earliest, most idiotically joyful days of Karma and Beachcomber and Bamboo. It cant, of course, but the good-old-days feeling is still intoxicating. We are officially drama free, Vinny says. Cut to Staten Island. Angelina, having accepted Nicoles ill-considered invitation to Las Vegas, is packing her bags. She complains about her erstwhile castmates to her (seemingly very nice and normal) fiance: Theyre all, Were family, were Okay, we all get it, you guys are a family. How many times do you want to tell me this? Seven hundred fucking times? I dont care how you, personally, feel about Angelina (I stan); that is an objectively solid burn on Family Vacation. She texts Nicole announcing that shes on her way. Holy dick fuck, Nicole says, which, yeah, pretty much sums it up. The rest of the roommates particularly Jenni, still smarting from whatever her Jersey Whore Instagram fight with Angelina was actually about concur. Dick fuck. But maybe theres a way to take these lemons life has given us and make lemon drops. As Nicole puts it, Angelina is not exactly a meatball, but she is a meatloaf, eaten out of desperation and already-in-the-fridge convenience. Early that morning, Pauly left for a few days to DJ in Atlantic City of all places. (To combat his crippling loneliness, Vinny has fashioned himself a Wilson by adhering a sticker depicting Paulys face to a bottle of his hair gel, with a pair of wiry arms crafted from the ho earrings that were left behind.) Mike sees an opportunity to prank the self-proclaimed prank war champion: What if Pauly returned to find Angelina in his bed? In practice, this is an even bigger prank on Vinny, who must now be Angelinas roommate. While the rest of the gang is enjoying a lively brunch conversation about the time 12-year-old Mike humped a bathroom rug to completion, Angelinas vacation gets off to a cranky start. Her plane may have landed successfully, without, as Id expected, being quarantined on the tarmac for at least a few hours like that Emirates flight to JFK, but checking-in to the hotel doesnt go so smoothly. She doesnt know what name their reservation is under; youll be shocked to hear that asking the Planet Hollywood receptionist to search Mike the Situation on her computer doesnt turn up anything. She launches a series of increasingly aggro texts Nicoles way from the lobby. Angelina is, in classic Jersey Shore parlance, coming in hot. When the roomies finally do meet up with her, she pointedly neglects to say hello to Jenni, who in turn wastes no time in reminding Angelina that shes not part of the family. In their suite, Vinny leads Angelina into the as-yet-unexplained living room stripper-pole shower and tries to push her inside. This is your hamster cage, he says. (Related: Has Vinny ever seen a hamster cage?) She smacks him in the face. Again, coming in hot. Mike gives Angelina some advice: I want you to show people who you really are. She puts that kernel of wisdom into action by demanding Jenni make her a drink. During happy hour, dick-fuck martinis are on the house. Photo: Martin Maguire/ 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc The following post contains spoilers for The Nun. Since James Wans outstanding The Conjuring was released five years ago, weve seen a full-blown cinematic universe spring up around the demon hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren, and gone deep on a few of the toughest cases they ever handled. The latest entry, The Nun, out this weekend, tells the origin story of the habit-wearing malevolent the Warrens vanquished in The Conjuring 2. Its name is Valak (the Defiler! The Profane! The Marquee of Snakes!), and it emerged from a very unwelcoming abbey in the mountains of Romania. While The Nun doesnt bring many novel moments to the haunted-house subgenre, it is as handsomely shot as the rest of the Conjuring-verse films and it does have one of the single best scares of this nebulous franchise. The Corin Hardydirected film stars Demian Bichir as Father Anthony Burke, a priest whos basically on the Vaticans supersecret SVU (supernatural victims unit) team, and Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene, a novitiate sent with Burke to investigate the suicide of a nun at a remote outpost of Catholicism and terror in 1952 Romania. As Irene and Burkes charming and flirtatious guide tells them, the hundreds of crosses surrounding the grounds are meant to keep the evil from leaving the abbey, not to bar it from getting in. The three of them brave the threshold and many bad, sacrilegious things happen. A bunch of crosses turn upside down on their own, and a showdown between God and the Devil ensues. In the films final challenge, Sister Irene has located Valaks origin point below the convent and the two finally come face to face in spectacular fashion. The resurrection chamber has filled with deep water after years of dereliction, and in a tussle, Irene is catapulted back onto a set of stairs. As she lays there, half submerged, she looks on in horror as Valak rises from the water in front of her. Those eerie green eyes rise above the surface and then the whole of the nun demon is slowly exposed. The camera pulls back to a wide shot of the now-towering Valak standing on the waters surface, staring straight at Sister Irene. Then we cut to her point of view, to behold the monster, and after a beat held just long enough to make you sink in your chair, Valak streams forward like a missile straight at the camera and snatches Irene into her hands. Reader, I gleefully screamed. Because heres the thing: Theres almost nothing more frightening in real life than a threatening person running directly at you. Think of that harrowing moment in It when Pennywise rises from the murky basement water and bears down on little Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher). Pennywise actually eats a babys arm in that movie, and yet its still more frightening to watch the clown just run screaming at full speed. The incredible door scene in Annabelle, another high point of the Conjuring-verse, uses the same technique as the Valak scene: setting the camera over the victims shoulder, right before we watch a ghost girl come plowing toward Mia Form (Annabelle Wallis). I didnt even like Annabelle, but I love this scene, and I think it represents the best of the franchises patience and smart cinematography. Women in particular spend their lives walking down dark sidewalks at night worrying about this exact scenario (except about men instead of ghosts), but even a big, strong dude isnt really ever ready for a deranged aggressor to come charging at them with a full head of steam. Case in point: that instantly iconic moment from Get Out when Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is rendered inert at the sight of a man, a plain old man (well, superficially plain, at least), sprinting at him from out of the darkness. This visual is terrifying on a basic level, and takes you from having to empathize with a haunted-house situation to responding to the very real terror of being chased. It strips away the barrier between you and the fantastic because when your brain screams RUN! you forget to tell yourself, Dont worry. Were not in a damned Romanian church in the 1950s. This is just an AMC. All of Wans films Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring and its adjacent movies rely on practical effects, and are all the better for it. Real people in nun habits. Real people painted to look like demons. Real dolls you want to set on fire. But The Nun, which is still practically driven, does rely more heavily than those other films on shadow play and jump cuts in part because it has to surmount the additional challenge of making a demon youve already seen in full feel mysterious. In other words, Corin Hardy had to figure out a way to set the reset button in his audiences brains, and hope they feel the nagging pull of dread as they squint to see Bonnie Aaronss spectacular face done up in full ghost makeup as she drifts in and out of darkness. And when you see Valak up close, it works. Hold off on the bloody red fangs and the extra-extended jaw, and just give me some glorious face-acting on a character with the worst intentions. The Nun, though not the best entry in the franchise, is an important reminder for horror filmmakers: The scariest thing you can do for an audience in a movie filled with shadow monsters is to show them something real. More than 100 US troops began an unexpected exercise in southern Syria on Friday in direct response to a series of Russian military threats, according to a US defense official. The exercise was detailed in a statement from the US Central Command, but did not mention that the command ordered the exercise specifically after a September 1 warning from Russia that it was going to enter a restricted area of southern Syria where US troops are located, the official said. The exercise, which may last for several days, involves US troops flying into the coalition's At Tanf garrison by assault helicopter and conducting live fire drills. "Our forces will demonstrate the capability to deploy rapidly, assault a target with integrated air and ground forces and conduct rapid exfiltration," said Capt. William Urban, the chief Central Command spokesman. The exercise is specifically designed for Russian and regime units in the area to see the activity and understand US capabilities, defense officials say. Russia on Thursday, via a note, had warned the US for the second time it was going to attack the At Tanf area to go after militants there. But the second warning specified Moscow would use "precision strikes," according to Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman. The use of the wording "precision strikes" in a written note to the US sparked alarm with US commanders that the Russians are signaling their intent to strike with aircraft firing precision weapons, or missiles launched from Russian ships in the Mediterranean, US defense officials tell CNN. Attacking with those types of weapons in a specific campaign against the US protected area at At Tanf would be a significant escalation in the sporadic violence in the area. The Pentagon has been unusually public in disclosing the potential Russian threat, in hopes that its statements will warn the Russians off the area. The first Russian warning came via the US Russian deconfliction line that has been used for the last several years to ensure both sides have visibility on what is happening in the area. In turn, the US used the deconfliction line to tell the Russians the ongoing US military activity is an exercise. "The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war. However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend US, coalition or partner forces, as we have clearly demonstrated in past instances," Robertson said. Authorities say a South Carolina woman has been charged with murder after killing her husband by putting eye drops into his water for several days.Police are still searching for a motive. York County deputies said 52-year-old Lana Clayton confessed to investigators after an autopsy uncovered a high amount of tetrahydrozoline in her husband's body. The chemical is found in over-the-counter eye drops such as Visine, or nasal spray. Authorities say 64-year-old Stephen Clayton was found dead July 21 in the couple's home in Clover. Arrest warrants and the statement from deputies didn't give a motive for the alleged poisoning. Lana Clayton also is charged with malicious tampering with a drug product or food. Jail records did not indicate if she had a lawyer. On Thursday, the Madison County District Attorney's Office calls the new sentencing reform plan by the American Civil Liberties Union "disingenuous." The ACLU revealed a sentencing reform plan for each state on Wednesday, including Alabama. The group advocates for shorter sentences for drug offenders along with robbery and burglary cases. Tim Gann is the Chief Trial Attorney for the Madison County District Attorney's Office and doesn't buy the ACLU's proposal for shorter prison sentences. The proposal claims to be an effort to save the state millions of dollars and help resolve prison overcrowding. "The whole study is extremely misleading and I think for them it's just a numbers game of hey let's let people out of prison and it will save us money," Gann said. The ACLU announced the Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint Project to help scale back incarceration across the country. When it comes to Alabama, the ACLU's report proposes the average sentence length of drug distribution offenders should be reduced by 70 percent and robbery and burglary offenders should both see a reduction of 60 percent. The report also recommends less sentence times for cases of assault, theft, and fraud. Gann says these are people that need to serve their time. "Folks who are really incarcerated that are doing time in our state right now are the worst of the worst," Gann said. The ACLU claims if Alabama follows the proposal, over 12,000 fewer people would be in prison by 2025, saving the state 470 million dollars. Roosevelt Morris lives in Madison and understands the overall goal. "The jails are overcrowded, some people don't deserve to be there as long as they've been there or are going to be there and some of the money can be used to do other things in the community," Morris said. To Gann, it poses too much of a safety risk to the community. "The havoc that those people cause in our community is immeasurable," Gann said. WAAY31 has tried to call the ACLU to ask about the potential dangers of releasing criminals early, they did not respond. "What do we tell our children? Because me, myself, i'm on the verge of losing where we live because my fiance isn't here by my side as he should be." That's the emotional response Kayla Bradley had when talking about her fiance who was picked up by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents during a recent arrests. The arrests happened across several cities in Northern Alabama over six days at the end of August. The Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice said around 30 immigrants were arrested and taken to a Dekalb County facility before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana. The group said they're concerned because many of the people arrested did not have criminal records. "I've been told by a lot of the affected families, you know, that they were told the only crime this person had committed was being here illegally. And that's the kind of narrative we're trying to counter." The group also told WAAY 31 they would like to see Mayor Tommy Battle meet with the families and for local police agencies to not participate in future arrests. The WAAY31 I-team is learning more about an analytical tool that lead to a man being paroled who now stands accused of murdering three people. A former parole board member shared his opinion on the tool and if it's working or releasing dangerous people on the streets. WAAY 31 obtained a copy of the reasons Jimmy Spencer was paroled. The parole board said Spencer was put in the category by this analytical tool of having a 'low' to 'medium' chance of re-offending. They also said he had a positive conduct record while in prison. Spencer did break out of prison numerous times and assaulted another inmate. Spencer was supposed to be serving a life sentence for crimes he committed in Franklin County. The WAAY 31 I-team has been following the Spencer case and this is what we've found so far. He was let out of prison in January 2018. He then walked away from a residential facility he was supposed to stay at for six months after only three weeks. Was arrested in June for drug paraphernalia charges by Sardis police and had a run in with Guntersville police on the same day. Both police departments tell us they ran his name in a national crime data base but no warrants popped up. Spencer was arrested on July 16th and charged with killing three people in Guntersville. The parole board asked the department of corrections to issue a warrant for his arrest on July 20th. DOC issued that arrest warrant one day later but it came down a week after Spencer was already behind bars in Guntersville. The parole board held a hearing just a few weeks ago to revoke his parole. The Attorney General's office is even questioning the parole boards use of this analytical tool. They told WAAY 31, "This case also raises concerns with the boards risk assessment procedures and whether the implementation of this process is failing the public." Bobby Longshore, who served on the parole board for 11 years and actually denied Jimmy Spencer parole twice, told WAAY 31 the parole boards use of the analytical tool was one reason he couldn't continue being on the board. The tool is used to measure an inmates chances of re-offending scientifically, rather than using judgement. "I just did not want an analytical tool trumping my expertise in the system," said Longshore. Longshore said he spent countless hours pouring over an inmates file before reaching a decision to grant parole or not. He said all of that changed when the Justice Reinvestment Act of 2015 was passed. The new law implemented the Ohio Risk and Needs Assessment System better known as ORAS (pg. 6). The analytical tool used by the board today. "As I saw that there was a move to place the blame on the parole board for overcrowding and to blame the parole board for failure to fix it certain programs were projected and proposed that I could not, and did not support," said Longshore. Basically the analytical tool takes into account a number of things; from a field officers notes on an inmate, home plans, mental exams etc. The analytical tool then puts inmates in different categories from a high chance of re-offending to a very low chance of re-offending. "The analytical tool which they will tell you right now it's simply a tool to look at and it's not a guide as to whether someone should be paroled or not. Whether or not that's the way it's being used or not I don't know," said Longshore. The parole board told us they use the analytical tool two ways. The parole board uses it to take into account an inmates chance of re-offending, if they are granted parole the analytical tool is used to see how much supervision a parolee needs. "The board gets their assessment and they base their decision on the probability that the ORAS assessment dictates for that person, the probably of re-offending. Then we do an assessment in the field to determine how their risk of re-offending in the community and we base our supervision on that," said Darrell Morgan, the Assistant Executive Director of the Alabama Pardon and Parole Board. The attorney general's office told WAAY31 they are concerned about the boards policies and procedues like this analytical tool. They told us they are working with prosecutors and law enforcement around the state on a plan. We asked them what that plan is and when information on the plan could be released. They have not responded to that email yet. One Jackson County School is receiving a $25,000 grant to buy technology. Woodville School was one of only 14 schools in Alabama and Georgia to receive the grant. The school plans on buying computers and programs with the money. The school has about 500 students in grades kindergarten through 12th. One of the teachers who helped apply for the grant during last school year explained how important having access to technology can be for students at the school. "It is very important because we are rural and a lot of our students don't have access to the internet or computers at their homes. This gives them a way to do that," said Amy Lack a teacher at the school. Seventh grade student Michaela Jones said she hopes the money will give more students at Woodville School the opportunity to learn using technology. "Sometimes we have to use our phones because there are not enough computers for all of us, so I feel like with the grant it's going to help us," she said. The money will also be spent to buy programs to help students prepare for standardized tests that are taken for college admission. "This affects their entire life. The scores on the act will either get them into a good college, get them good scholarships and also show other people that they are ready for a career," Lack added. The school told us they plan on applying for more grants so they can buy more technology to help their students succeed. New York State has initiated an expansive investigation of the Catholic church, with the Attorney General's office subpoenaing each of the state's eight dioceses to determine whether or not they helped hide sexual abuse. New York A.G. Barbara Underwood announced the effort on Thursday, along with the creation of a reporting hotline and online complaint center for anyone who experienced sexual abuse as a minor, or witnessed sexual misconduct by a clergy member. A source with knowledge of the investigation told the New York Times that the subpoenaswhich come from the Charities Bureau within the A.G.'s officeextend to "secret or confidential church archives" and call for all information pertaining to sex abuse and the church's handling of it. The inquiry comes in the wake of a grand jury report that came out of Pennsylvania in August, cataloging more than seven decades' worth of misconduct the church deliberately covered up. In 1,400 pages of findings, Pennsylvania identified 1,000 child victims and 300 priests, although the actual numbers are likely much higher. "The Pennsylvania grand jury report shined a light on incredibly disturbing and depraved acts by Catholic clergy, assisted by a culture of secrecy and cover ups in the dioceses," Underwood said in a statement on Thursday. "Victims in New York deserve to be heard as welland we are going to do everything in our power to bring them the justice they deserve." Still, Underwood cautioned that the statute of limitations may have run out on some complainants. In New York State, child sex abuse survivors have until their 23rd birthdays to sue the abuser and file criminal charges (rape excepted), but must sue the institution before they turn 21. "Make no mistake," Underwood's statement continued: "The only way that justice can fully and truly be served is for the legislature to finally pass the Child Victims Act," which would allow survivors to sue up until they turn 50, and extend the criminal charge deadline to 28. (The Roman Catholic church and Andrew Cuomo both bear some responsibility for the legislation's failure to pass.) Even if a tip doesn't lead to prosecution, Underwood's office emphasized, the information still helps the state gauge the full scope of the problem. Archdiocese of New York spokesperson Joseph Zwilling said in a statement the nonprofit would be "ready and eager to work together with [Underwood] in the investigation." "Since 2002, the archdiocese has shared with the state's 10 district attorneys all information they have sought concerning allegations of sexual abuse of minors, and has established excellent working relationships with each of them," Zwilling said. Albany bishop Edward Scharfenberger, meanwhile, called the subpoenas "necessary" in a letter to his parish on Thursday, according to the Washington Post. "I believe a fully independent investigation, one coordinated by the District Attorney, is the only way forward," he said. "So many people have questions about transparency and about the process. We need a thorough review of our records in order to objectively answer those questions. Our goal is to build trust, demonstrate transparency, and restore confidence that we mean what we say." Victims and anyone with information about abuse can call the hotline at 1-800-771-7755 or file a complaint online at ag.ny.gov/ClergyAbuse. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit After our relaunch this past April, Gothamist is looking to grow our full-time staff! We're looking for talented writers and editors who obsessively follow New York City news, omnivores of arts and culture, culinary adventurers, urban etiquette experts, and bodega cat aficionadosin other words, journalists who mix skepticism with a keen eye for details and are excited to share ideas and act on them. We're also a small team that does big things! We are hiring for multiple positionsDigital Producer, whose focus will be reporting for Gothamist, and Senior Digital Editor, who will help edit, coordinate, and manage stories and other content for the site, social media, and other platforms. Please see the descriptions below for details about the opportunities as well as application instructions: _______________________________________________________ DIGITAL PRODUCER Gothamist is looking for a Digital Producer who is at ease covering breaking NYC news events well as investigating longer features. You will be responsible for writing stories for Gothamist.com. Some may contain a mix of aggregation and our own reporting to advance the story, while others may emphasize substantive reportage that is influenced by the Gothamist "voice" that makes our aggregation trenchant and entertaining. As the Digital Producer, you will sift through an ocean of news, discard pro forma filler, and elevate important, insightful, moving, or otherwise noteworthy stories with enriching context and without cliche. They will also be a skeptical observer, dedicated to original thoughtfunny, but sometimes not. Sometimes, they will pick up the phone, send a raft of emails, or leave the office to bring back something original or unexpected for the story. They are also open-minded collaborators who are excited about the opportunities that a combined Gothamist/WNYC newsroom can offer in providing a definitive, authentic take on news and life in New York. Candidates should also be eager to think about how Gothamist continues to serve its audience of New Yorkers who want to be savvy about city issuesand present fresh ideas on how to reach those who might not have realized Gothamist was the resource they needed. Responsibilities include: Writing and reporting 2-4 stories per day (total output dependent on length and depth) Willingness to work across different subject areasnews, food, and arts & culture Working with editors to develop, pitch new story ideas Appearing on WNYC platforms, including news shows, talk shows and podcasts Creating content for social media media platforms, newsletters, and other Gothamist & WNYC products Necessary skills and experience: 1-5 years writing and/or reporting for a digital or print publication Strong interest in New York City Ability to multitask and take direction in a fast-paced environment Ability to meet deadlines Desire to collaborate and brainstorm Fluent understanding of social media platforms for research purposes Familiarity with social media best practices Basic photo editing skills Ability to shoot photographs and videos a plus If you don't meet all the bullet points, but think you'd be a great candidateapply and tell us why! You should apply for the Digital Producer position through Jobvite with a resume, a letter expressing interest and links to clips. _______________________________________________________ SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR We are looking for a Senior Digital Editor with strong background in digital journalism who is at ease with overseeing breaking NYC news coverage as well as shepherding longer features. As Senior Digital Editor, you will be responsible for identifying stories for Gothamist.com from a myriad of sources, including the WNYC newsroom and shows. They have proven themselves to be a deft communicator and an energetic team player, with a sharp eye for trending items. The ability to encourage exceptional writing and insights from reporters while meeting deadlines is also key. They are also open-minded collaborators who are excited about the opportunities that a combined Gothamist/WNYC newsroom can offer in providing a definitive, authentic take on news and life in New York. Candidates should also be eager to think about how Gothamist continues to serve its audience of New Yorkers who want to be savvy about city issuesand present fresh ideas on how to reach those who might not have realized Gothamist was the resource they needed. Responsibilities include: Edit stories from reporters from Gothamist and WNYC as well as freelance contributors Brainstorm coverage areas and assign stories Write stories for the site as needed Copyedit for the site as needed Manage story publication as needed Coordinate and manage content for social media media platforms, newsletters, and other Gothamist & WNYC products Necessary skills and experience: At least 5-7 years leading content team as an editor for a digital or print publication Proven experience as writer and reporter Deep knowledge of New York City Ability to multitask and take/give direction in a fast-paced environment Strong analytical and organizational skillls Familiarity of social media best practices Experience managing writers and freelancers Photo editing skills a plus If you don't meet all the bullet points, but think you'd be a great candidateapply and tell us why! You should apply for the Senior Digital Editor position through Jobvite with a resume, a letter expressing interest, and links to clips. _______________________________________________________ New York Public Radio is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. By Gil Arterburn, Paducah Citizen Sep. 06, 2018 | 08:23 PM | PADUCAH For example, seems one Commissioner was triggered by seeing certain historical flags in the Veterans Day Parade several years ago. As a remedy they outlawed all flags except the American flag. One elderly Vet was told he would be put in jail if he carried any flag other than the one authorized from on high. I'm not sure if anyone else was offended by seeing certain flags or not but one thing is for sure, many of our proud veterans were denied their right to a whole forest of flags in the name of so called tolerance and diversity. The bold divisionary leaders just published their "Strategic Action Plan" boasting their goal of "Celebrating a Diverse Community". Do they mean by diversity all the people they agree with and approve of. Because, seems like every time they have an opportunity to show tolerance to someone whose opinions are truly diverse from theirs (Veterans, General Tilghman, Richard Abraham, citizens refusing to celebrate the sexploitation of our town, dare I mention smokers...) they end up practicing the opposite of what they preach. I hope the Mayor and Commissioners are able to realize that passing ordinances against everything they dislike is not the same as celebrating diversity. Since the Veterans Day Parade is back in the news, they have a fine opportunity to show us if they really mean what they say in their Strategic Plan, or not. And, if not, there's an election right around the corner. There is an old saying about people who get so caught up in the minute details of an issue that they can't see the forest for the trees. This seems a fair diagnosis of our present city government. Three of our Commissioners and the Mayor seem to be so obsessed with making sure that nobody gets offended that they continually trample under foot the rights of good citizens who disagree with them. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 07, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 07, 2018 | 03:19 PM | PADUCAH A Paducah man was arrested Thursday afternoon on assault and other charges. Paducah Police say they responded to the 1000 block of Tennessee Street and spoke to a female victim. She said during an argument with her boyfriend, 19-year-old Hunter Diel, he struck her several times with his fists. She also said as she and four other people drove away from Diel's home, he fired a handgun in their direction. Police say they obtained and executed a search warrant for the home, and allegedly found a magazine with ammunition for a .45 handgun, a receipt for a handgun, and some loose ammo. Police say they interviewed Diel and he admitted shooting at the vehicle and getting rid of the .380 handgun before police arrived. Diel was arrested on charges of fourth-degree assault (domestic violence), first-degree wanton endangerment, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and tampering with physical evidence. He was booked into McCracken County Regional Jail. Diel is scheduled to make a court appearance on September 13. By Tim Brockwell Sep. 07, 2018 | 10:45 AM | PADUCAH A local charity has raised more than $600,000 for area non-profit organizations.Folks gathered Thursday at Walker Hall to celebrate the 2018 Fred Paxton Challenge that raised $618,210, a record amount for the event. A total of 22 non-profit organizations raised money for charity over the past 90 days, with up to a $10,000 match coming from the Paxton Foundation. This is the 17th year the foundation has been holding the fundraising event, which has raised nearly $5 million since it started in 2000.Tony Watkins with the Community Foundation of West Kentucky says the event has been so successful in part because it brings organizations together and helps them maximize their fundraising potential."I think there's strength in networking the non-profits together. I think it's a healthy exercise. It's a natural process for helping things to grow. If we come together, and are moving forward, that's good for the community." Watkins said.The Paxton Challenge began as the kickoff event for the Paducah Summer Festival. Originally, the main event was the annual Fund Run, but Watkins said organizers decided to change things up last year and end things with a huge celebration instead to thank all of the organizations who raised money. He said that although the event has changed a bit over the years, its core purpose of bringing people together to do good has not."I've found out over the years people will give when they're asked, and they're asked in the right way. But also, they'd like to see their gift multiplied," He said. "When you say I can get two or three times the benefit of my dollar that I give, they like that."Visit the link below to learn more about the Community Foundation of West Kentucky and the Fred Paxton Challenge. On the Net: Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 06, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 06, 2018 | 11:50 PM | PADUCAH The St. John's Picnic is this weekend, and the event kicks off Friday with a traditional event, with a couple of new events added for Saturday. The Knights of Columbus Hall on US Highway 45 will host their annual fish fry on Friday night. On Saturday, the "Old School" 5k run and 1-mile fun run will start at 8:30 am (registration starts at 7 am). The 1-mile fun run will start when the 5k is completed (approx. 9:30 am). Race-day registration is $30 for the 5k and $10 for the 1-mile run. Awards will be presented after the race. The picnic is from 11 am until 9 pm on the grounds of the church. Enjoy tons of delicious barbecue pork, chicken, and mutton with all the fixins, and theres even an all-you-can-eat dinner! Plus, enjoy games, live music, the country store, political speaking and for the first time ever, fireworks at 8:45 pm. The church is located at 6705 Old US Highway 45 South in Paducah. Come join them for the "biggest little picnic in Western Kentucky. 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. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 06, 2018 | PALMERSVILLE By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 06, 2018 | 06:19 PM | PALMERSVILLE Wednesday marked the 75th anniversary of the B-17 crash near Palmersville, that claimed the lives of seven airmen during World War II. According to KYTN, the B-17 aircraft, with 10 personnel aboard, left the Dyersburg Army Airbase with a destination of Gulfport, Mississippi. The plane was to join 10 other planes to form a squadron for combat in Germany. September 5, 1943, was a day that saw cloudy and stormy weather in West Tennessee. The flight crew, without the help of modern day avionics and navigation systems, planned to follow the Mississippi River. However, because of the bad weather, the crew mistakenly followed the Obion River. The crew attempted to take the plane above the storms, but the engines exploded after reaching 22,000 feet. There were three survivors of the crash, but seven crewmen were lost when the plane crashed in an area north of Highway 190, near Palmersville, just south of the Graves County/Kentucky State line. The monument that will honor the B-17 flight crew, will be dedicated Saturday afternoon at 4:00, at the crash site on East New Hope Church Road. The memorial monument is a project of the America Legion Riders. Last week, a judge ordered that a New Jersey couple who raised over $400,000 for a homeless vet had to turn over what's left of the money to him by the end of the week. That deadline has now passed, and the couple hasn't complied with the orderbecause they now claim there is no money left. Johnny Bobbitt Jr., the homeless veteran, first encountered Kate McClure in Philadelphia last October. Bobbitt, who at the time was living under an I-95 ramp in Kensington, gave his last $20 to her when she ran out of gas. McClure and her boyfriend Mark DAmico were so moved by the gesture, they set up a GoFundMe so that "his life can get back to being normal...Truly believe that all Johnny needs is one little break. Hopefully with your help I can be the one to give it to him." Although it was set at $10,000, they ended up raising over $400K thanks to donations from over 14,000 people. But Bobbitt, who is still panhandling, recently filed a lawsuit in New Jersey stating he never saw most of that money and that the couple kept it for themselves to "enjoy a lifestyle they could not afford." His attorney, Chris Fallon, told CNN last week, "From what I can see, the GoFundMe account raised $402,000 and GoFundMe charged a fee of approximately $30,000. Mark D'Amico and Kate McClure gave Johnny about $75,000. There should be close to another $300,000 available to Johnny." While defending themselves on Megyn Kelly's show last week, the couple noted that only around $150,000 of the money was left. The judge ordered the couple to hand over the remaining funds by September 3rd so it could be placed in a trust for Bobbitt, but the weekend came and went with no money. Then Bobbitt's lawyer heard that there was no money to be had: "It completely shocked me when I heard, Fallon told the Philadelphia Inquirer. The judge has ordered the couple to appear at a deposition on Monday to answer questions about the funds. Police also searched the couple's NJ home today. A BMW the couple purchased in recent months was taken away. BMW hauled away from Bordentown home where authorities executing search warrant. Kate McClure and Mark DAmico accused of defrauding a homeless veteran of donations. pic.twitter.com/j6DANOmOUd Katherine Scott (@KScott6abc) September 6, 2018 The couple have said they gave Bobbitt $25,000 in cash last Christmas but he spent all the money in 13 days on drugs; they also said they bought him a trailer that he parked at their house and an SUV in their own names, both of which ended up being sold. Bobbitt, who has admitted to struggling with drug abuse and has been in and out of rehab this year, has speculated the couple is spent the money on vacations (to Florida, California and Las Vegas), gambling and that new BMW. DAmico has also admitted to gambling some of the money, but said he repaid it quickly. Some of the location details provided by a teenage girl who accused two disgraced ex-NYPD detectives of kidnapping and rape may become an issue for prosecutors during the upcoming trial, the former cops' attorneys said today. As the attorneys for Richard Hall and Eddie Martins are gearing up for jury selection during the first week of November, prosecutors turned over more evidence to the defense that they said could perjure the victim. In September 2017, the victimknown under the pseudonym Anna Chambersreported to authorities that while she was under arrest for marijuana possession, Hall and Martins placed her in the back of a van and drove from Coney Island to Bay Ridge while taking turns sexually assaulting her as she remained handcuffed. Defense attorneys Mark Bederow, Michael Bibb and Peter Guadagnino received records from their clients cell phones showing the former detectives were not near Bay Ridge during the September 15th incident. The police report also states, "The cell towers also have a radius which could give false sense of location." The allegations are that these men took the complaining witness on a ride from hell and drove by locations including the address...of her grandmothers house and the prosecution knew the witnesss statements in the grand jury were perjury, Bederow told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun in court on Thursday. The police records showed that based on the time-frame of the incident, Hall and Martins did not leave the vicinity of Calvert Vaux Park and drive five miles past the victims grandmothers home. They (prosecutors) cannot ethically call her as a witness because it supports perjury, argued Bederow. They know its false and theyve known it the whole time. During the several minutes in the van, the victim said Martins blocked his number to call one of her friends and tell him not to follow them. The police report confirmed that Martins used his personal cell phone and blocked the number to make two calls in the Coney Island area to the victims friend. Hall, 33, and Martins, 38, claim they had consensual sex with the teen. At the time, this was a legal defense, but in March of this year, NY State passed a law explicitly prohibiting police officers from have sex with detainees. The pair resigned from the NYPD a week after Brooklyn prosecutors indicted them in a 50-count indictment. The top charge is forcible rape that, if convicted, the former cops face up to 25 years in prison. The victims attorney, Michael David, said the allegations were another attack against his client whose last concern was where she was as she was brutally raped. They are making up stories just to shame and attack her...She doesnt have a GPS on her. She was in the back of a van, being brutally raped by these two savages and she is not supposed to know where she is, said David. Bederow also charged that the victim gave inconsistent testimony during hearings for her $50 million civil lawsuit and the allegations that nine other police officers tried to intimidate her from reporting the attack were unsubstantiated. We want justice, we cant wait for the trial and for the truth to come out, said David. Christina Carrega is a Brooklyn native who dedicated her journalism career to telling stories surrounding the criminal justice system. When Christina's not reporting hard news, she writes for a lifestyle website she co-founded called 32Letter.com and enjoys traveling. On Thursday night, exactly one week out from a still very much wide open primary race, the four democratic candidates for New York attorney general shared a Cooper Union stage for what will likely be their final debatea lively slugfest that began with an ABBA-soundtracked entrance and concluded with co-moderator Preet Bharara asking each candidate to guess who wrote that op-ed. In between, the progressive candidates mostly traded barbs about their ties to corporate donors and outlined their plans for stymying President Trumps agenda, with very occasional allusions to how the state office might be of use to New York state. Despite trailing in the polls, Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout appeared the clear frontrunner on Thursday, in large part because the other three candidatesNew York City Public Advocate Letitia James, U.S. Rep Sean Patrick Maloney, and Verizon lobbyist and former Cuomo aide Leecia Evedirected most of their attacks toward her. That was the case when the four debated last month too; but this particular round came just hours after Teachout filed a lawsuit against Maloney, accusing the Hudson Valley representative of violating campaign finance laws by using cash raised in his congressional campaign for his attorney general bid. (Confusingly, he is running for both offices at once). Referring to the lawsuit as a "pile of nonsense," Maloney grew increasingly flustered by Teachout's mention of his support for the so-called Bank Lobbyist Act, which would weaken Dodd-Frank protections. "Her rhetoric on this is completely unhinged," he fired back at one point. The crowd, notably supportive throughout the night, audibly booed in response. Soon after, Public Advocate Jameswho has the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and once seemed a shoo-in for the joboffered her own emotionally-charged defense against the accusation that she is too cozy with corporate donors. "If you know anything about Letitia James you know that I am unbought," she said. "The reality is in order for me to compete, as an African American, I have consistently had a difficult time raising funds." James added that, as public advocate, she'd "turbocharged" the Worst Landlords List, and would continue to protect tenants from predatory real estate interests, despite the industry accounting for 19 percent of her latest $1.6 million fundraising haul. After starting out on the defensive, Maloney, James, and Eve quickly directed a string of attacks at Teachoutknocking her for only recently joining the New York State Bar, for treating the position as a "classroom exercise," and for her opposition to the SAFE Act gun control law. In more than one instance, the fact that she grew up on a farm in Vermont was floated as an insult. Teachout, meanwhile, repeatedly emphasized that she is not taking corporate PAC or LLC moneya stance that helped earn her the endorsements of several community groups, as well the editorial pages of the New York Times and the Daily News. "To be the next Sheriff of Wall Street, you need to be able to stand up to corporate lobbyists, not take money from big banks," said Teachout, referencing James's statement to the Times last month that she didn't want to be known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." But perhaps the most illuminating moment of the night came when moderator Brian Lehrer handed the mic to Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner, who asked how the future attorney general should use the powers of the office to protect voting rights in the state. None of the candidates seemed ready with a coherent response (Teachout, who referenced the state's lawsuit over the voter purge in Brooklyn last year, got closest.) "I'm afraid not all the candidates answered the question that was asked," lamented Lerner. On the question of Trump, of course, the candidates were better prepared. All four offered well-rehearsed answers for how they would take on the president, and each routinely circled back to the part of their resumeslegal, legislative, academic or otherwisethat made them uniquely qualified for the task. Asked early on what had pushed him to consider leaving congress, Maloney echoed a sentiment that would be repeated throughout the night: "This is the front lines of the resistance." The winner of next Thursday's primary will face Republican Keith Wofford. Within the last few days, Governor Andrew Cuomo has broken ground on a "historic" bit of Long Island Railroad track, divulged to an editorial board that he plans to "accelerate" the long-delayed East Side Access mega-project, and demonstrated the sturdiness of a new bridge span by walking on it. But on Thursday, the governor raised the stakes on his infrastructure walkabout to a whole new level, when he announced the construction of a "state-of-the-art" entrance to Penn Station. And not just any old entrance, but one of the MAIN entrances. Reminder: Cuomo is fending off a primary challenge from progressive candidate Cynthia Nixon on September 13th. Gale Brewer introducing Andrew Cuomo at press conference When complete, the exquisitely-rendered passageway, at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, will make it easier for subway and LIRR commuters to enter (and exit!) the transit hub, though it's important to remember Cuomo says he has no control over the MTA, so who knows how this came together. Safety will be enhanced, the governor assured reporters during a press conference announcing the new entrance. And hold on to your hats: there is talk of additional new entrancesinnovation hallways, reallycoming for Amtrak and NJ Transit riders. The existing pedestrian plaza on 33rd Street will also be made permanent, said Cuomo. The primary is on a Thursday this year, rather than a Tuesday, because of Rosh Hashanah. Once inside Penn Station, commuters will soon find the main corridor leading to the LIRR almost doubled in size, with some ceilings raised by up to 11 feet. Heaven, basically. There may also be glassed-in pedestrian areas for watching the trains thrillingly approach the trackways, Cuomo said. He did not explicitly invoke master builder Robert Moses, this time, but he didn't have to. Yes, there was already a primary in June, but that was for congressional, not state, races. The Pennsylvania Station in New York/Is like some vast basilica of old/That towers above the terror of the dark/As bulwark and protection to the soul (Langston Hughes) (Rendering: Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo) In addition to improvements for LIRR riders, the announcement also offered the governor a chance to point at some "significant milestones" in the construction of the Moynihan Train Hall, which is scheduled to be completed in 2020. Most notably, the steel structure for the midblock skylight is now complete. According to a press release, the total construction time spent on the project has now surpassed 1,000,000 hours. This is, Cuomo told reporters, "the doing phase." You had to register to vote last month, and it is too late to change your party affiliation. "For years there has been talk about transforming Penn Station, but no action, forcing New York's commuters and visitors to endure congested and potentially unsafe conditions for far too long," Governor Cuomo said in a statement. "The projects currently underway, including a new, state-of-the-art entrance, will not only turn Penn Station into a world-class transit hub, but they will ease the flow for riders and improve the overall passenger experience for all who pass through." You can look up whether you're registered to vote here and find your polling site here. Governor Cuomo did not mention a price tag for the new entrance, and his campaign did not immediately respond to Gothamist's inquiries. The Moynihan Train Hall is projected to cost $1.6 billion, at least $1 billion of which is coming from the state. In addition to the governor's contest, there are statewide races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, as well as multiple primaries within the state Senate and Assembly. In the latest episode of Trump supporters vs. the Arts, an attendee at a Wednesday performance of Frozen: The Musical waved a Trump 2020 banner near the stage during the cast's final bows. At which point actor Timothy Hughes snatched the banner out of his hands. Hughes later wrote on Instagram, "What does it say about our country and politics when a man at the show tonight felt the need to protest Disneys Frozen on Broadway with a pro Trump flag?? How frightening is it that our shows messages of love, acceptance, and diversity have become the opposition to supporting Trump? The curtain call is a thank you between actors and audience, a final connection to end a shared experience. I will not apologize for how I responded to the disrespectful man trying to interrupt this moment with a pathetic political platform. Not at our show! Not in front of my beautiful, diverse, talented cast at @frozenbroadway. I appreciate everyones support. #resist #lovewins #lovetrumpshate" The theatergoer was apparently wearing a super cool MAGA visor: He disrupted bows at @FrozenBroadway tonight with a giant Trump 2020 flag in the front row. a cast member snatched the flag. Here he is pouting and threatening to sue if he doesnt get his flag back. This is a childrens show, people. pic.twitter.com/iQUAtQqsbs Joy Rosenthal (@TheBroadwayWiz) September 6, 2018 According to Hughes, the man deliberately approached the stage, "I happen to look out of the corner of my eye, and I see this guy run up and he has the flag." He added, "I think that sign of disrespect has no place at our show and in our theater, and I felt the need to respond in that moment." In June, a Trump supporter waved a Trump-Pence 2020 banner during a Broadway performance of A Bronx Tale, which is directed by Robert De Niro. This came a week after De Niro used his Tony Awards appearance to repeatedly say "F--- Trump!". Last year, an alt-right blogger interrupted Shakespeare in the Park's production of Julius Caesar, which featured a grisly assassination of a Trump-like Caesar. And, just a week and a half after the 2016 election, the cast of Hamilton addressed Vice President Mike Pence, who was attending the acclaimed show about the Founding Fathers. (Pence was also heartily booed by the audience.) Hughes also told NBC New York, "I think my personal opinions are that I am anti-President Trump 2020, but my instinct and reaction was first out of disrespect to myself and the company." A source told Vulture that the theatergoer got his Trump banner back. Finally, Frozen is about snowflakes. Many of them. Oceans as empty spaces? Redrafting our knowledge by dropping the colonial lens Google the word seascape, and youll find pictures of an aquamarine ocean, possibly with a touch of perfect coast line. These images of a generic ocean are mirrored in maps where the sea generally appears as a uniform expanse of pale blue, apparently empty except for an occasional sprinkling of islands. The sea is a flat, homogeneous space that appears empty. This myth of the empty sea is largely the product of European imperialisms and their map-making traditions in which the sea becomes blank space across which power can be projected. Just like more familiar myths of empty land, uninhabited and ready for the taking. Like imperial myths of the empty land, this view of the sea conceals the traces of imperialism and its aftermaths. You dont see the graves of thousands of drowned slaves marked in the Atlantic. Undersea cables and oil rigs do not appear, nor do islands of plastic particles. You also dont see any trace of the more than one million shipwrecks that litter the ocean floor. A new project at the University of the Witwatersrand Oceanic Humanities for the Global South has taken on the task of unpacking the myth of emptiness. The project has three key focuses: it recognises that our understanding of oceans is informed to a very large degree by a colonial narrative. Secondly, that previous research in the humanities has focused on the surface of the ocean, in particular tracing the maritime movement of people, ideas and commodities. The ocean functions as backdrop; we learn little about its workings and its depths. And thirdly that the ocean doesnt fit neatly into scholarly-defined subject matter a deep understanding needs historians and artists working side by side with ecologists and archaeologists. Located in the global south, the projects aim is to undo these limitations. It will continue to keep histories of forced maritime migration like slavery and indenture and their legacies of inequality in view. But it will also pay attention to whats happening below the surface, such as the ecological and material qualities of the ocean. The project aims to produce new forms of knowledge that are attuned to the issues of ecology as well as decoloniality. Funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, it comprises researchers across a wide range of disciplines based at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of the Western Cape. Its international partners are from Mozambique, Mauritius, India, Jamaica and Barbados. Imagining the nether world The deep ocean forms one focus of the project. How does one imagine this nether world? What are the ways in which it is made visible to us and what philosophical and existential questions does it raise? What kinds of stories might one tell about it? In keeping with the decolonising aspect of the project, one graduate student is examining how black writers from across the world have dealt with the undersea. Another strand is examining the slave trade both above and below the waterline. Project members will meet in Mozambique next year to pursue research. Collaborators include a graduate student from Maputo with underwater archaeology experience and a marine scientist from Jamaica. Theyll be combining their expertise with art students, historians and literary critics to think about the histories, imaginaries and materialities of the ocean, discussing wind, tide, currents, shipwrecks, alongside art, poetry, film and fiction. Another example of the approach being taken involves a different look at the role oceans have played in South Africa, which unusually on the continent is bordered by the sea on both sides. Indian Ocean world South Africas oceans and shoreline were drenched in imperialism. The ocean ushered in European settlers, officials and armies. The beach marked the beginning of conquest and subsequently became the playground for white leisure seekers. A new relationship with the ocean is being forged in a range of ways that embraces both the countrys past as well as its future. The past speaks to the fact that slaves at the Cape and indentured labour in Natal were drawn from the Indian Ocean world. Reinserting these communities into the mainstream of South African history opens the country up to its multiple inheritances beyond just a story of native and settler. One avenue being explored is revising interpretations of southern African literature, such as the fiction and poetry of South African-born poet, novelist, and scholar, Yvette Christianse. Her novel Unconfessed examines a slave from the Mozambique region who is imprisoned on Robben Island for killing her son. The novel reworks one of the major themes of southern African literature, the farm novel, by linking it to narratives of slavery and the sea. Another focus is on exploring pre-colonial understandings of the ocean as a realm of the ancestors. Even today, it remains a site of pilgrimage and healing. One Fine Art graduate student is designing performance art around the practice of bringing bottles of seawater inland for health and spiritual purposes. In terms of the countrys futures, some of these will be tied up with the Indian Ocean world, with India and China. Isabel Hofmeyr, Professor of African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Former President Barack Obama offered his most pointed critique to date of President Donald Trump, delivering a lengthy and direct indictment Friday of the last two years in American politics by arguing the President is "capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years." The speech before more than a thousand students at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign was a preview of the message Obama will carry into the midterm elections. But it also represented the former President's most comprehensive condemnation of Republicans in Washington and the first time he has publicly criticized Trump by name in a speech. Barack Obama Continents and regions Donald Trump Elections (by type) Elections and campaigns Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Illinois Midterm elections Midwestern United States North America Political candidates Political Figures - US Politics The Americas United States US federal government White House 2018 Midterm elections Political organizations US political parties US Republican Party Education Michelle Obama Students and student life US Democratic Party "You happen to be coming of age" amid backlash to progress, Obama told the students. "It did not start with Donald Trump, he is a symptom, not the cause. He is just capitalizing on resentment that politicians have been fanning for years. A fear, an anger that is rooted in our past but is also borne in our enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes." Obama spent a sizable portion of his remarks criticizing Republicans in Congress, saying "the politics of resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party" over the last few decades and argued that the policies GOP leaders are pursuing aren't conservative. The Republican National Committee responded to Obama's criticism by saying "President Obama stepped back into the spotlight to make the case that our country is on the wrong track." "2016 is over, but President Obama is still dismissing the millions of voters across the country who rejected a continuation of his policies in favor of President Trump's plan for historic tax cuts, new jobs and economic growth," RNC spokesperson Ellie Hockenbury said in a statement. "Democrats may have a new resistor-in-chief on the campaign trail, but they'll need more than a message of resist and obstruct to win this November." Trump responded to Obama's speech by telling a crowd in North Dakota "I watched it, but I fell asleep. I've found he's very good for sleeping." Obama questions Republicans around Trump While Obama only mentioned Trump by name twice in the speech, it was clear that the remarks were aimed squarely at the man he handed power to in 2017. "It shouldn't be Democratic or Republican to say that we don't target groups of people because of what they look like or how they pray. ... We are supposed to stand up to discrimination and we are sure as heck to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers," Obama said, an apparent rebuke of Trump telling reporters after the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that there was good "fine people on both sides." "How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?" Obama said. And he slammed Trump for his treatment of the Department of Justice and FBI. "It should not be Democratic or Republican, it should not be partisan to say that we don't pressure the Department of Justice or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents," he said. "Or to explicitly call for the attorney general to protect members of own party from prosecution because elections happen to be coming up. I am not making that up. That is not hypothetical." Trump blasted his Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this week, lamenting the separate indictments of two GOP lawmakers who were his earliest supporters in Congress during the 2016 election, suggesting they should not have been charged because they are Republicans. At one point, a seemingly exasperated Obama openly questioned what happened with the Republican Party, noting that one of their early organizing principles was standing up to communism. "What happened to the Republican Party?" he said. "Its central organizing principle in foreign policy was the fight against communism and now they are cozying up to the former head of the KGB, actively blocking legislation that would defend our elections from Russia attack. What happened?" He added: "I don't mean to pretend I am channeling Abraham Lincoln, but that is not what he had in mind, I think, when he helped form the Republican Party. It is not conservative, it sure isn't normal. It is radical. It is a vision that says the protection of our power and those that back us is all the matters even when it hurts the country." Obama pushes audience to vote The remarks, Obama said, were not meant to depress the young voters in the audience, but instead inspire them to understand that their voice matters. "Don't tell me your vote doesn't matter," he said, referring to voting as the "antidote" to all that ails Washington. "And if you thought elections don't matter, I hope these last two years have corrected the impression." He acknowledged that politicians -- including himself -- had said similar messages about the importance of upcoming elections, but he added, "just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different, the stakes really are higher, the consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire." The speech ended Obama's lengthy reprieve from political public life, one that has annoyed some Democrats who believed he was sitting on on a what they call a generational fight against Trump. Obama joked at the outset of the speech that he needed time away to stay married to his wife, Michelle Obama, and to spend time with his daughters. But his decision to step back into the political fray also comes at a time when Democrats, through the midterm elections, could deliver their most potent referendum on Trump to date. Obama viewed the speech as arguably his most important of the year, his aides said, and was editing the remarks up until he touched down in Illinois. Obama will soon take the remarks on the road, too. On Saturday, he will headline a rally for a handful of Democratic congressional candidates in California and next Thursday an event for Richard Cordray, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio. Obama is also planning campaign trips to Pennsylvania in September, an Obama official said, as well as a New York fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an organization led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama's longtime friend. A complicated relationship Obama has made some appearances since Trump took office -- including headlining a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee earlier this year -- but the Trump era has complicated Obama's post-presidency. A series of former presidents have avoided critiquing their successors, and Obama has attempted to keep that tradition since he left office in January 2017. Trump has not honored that tradition and has shown little to no regard for his predecessors, regularly bashing them on Twitter, to the media and at rallies. And the two have not talked since the inauguration in 2017, sources told CNN. Obama's remarks represented that nonexistent relationship and while he focused some of his ire on Democrats -- arguing that the party cannot embrace the tactics of Trump as a way to get back at him -- Obama's speech seethed with his view that the Trump administration is not the new normal. "And by the way the idea that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the President's orders," Obama said of the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times this week, published by a Senior Administration Official. "That is not a check. I am being serious here. That is not how our democracy is supposed to work." Democrats, especially those in the room, welcomed Obama's decision to step back into the fray. The speech in the university's 1,300-person auditorium has seen sizable interest from the school's student body, according to university spokesman Jon Davis, who said they had received around 22,000 requests for tickets from students. But Republicans also said they were eager to see Obama back in the news, arguing he is the best weapon they have to motivate their base. "For three cycles (2010, 2012, 2014) President Obama fired up Republicans like nobody," Rep. Steve Stivers, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters on Friday. "And I'm happy he wants to do it again." But Obama showed on Friday that he has a potent critique for those Republicans: Mocking them for ignoring the principles they touted during his presidency. "Suddenly deficits do not matter, even though two years ago, when the deficit was lower, they said I couldn't afford to help working families or seniors on Medicare because the deficit was an existential crisis," he said. "What changed? What changed?" And on jobs, he sought to remind those in the room - but more directly Republicans back in Washington - that his last two years were times of economic growth. "I mention all of this because when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started," he said, subtly knocking Trump, a president who often cites jobs numbers. "I am glad it has continued but when you hear about his economic miracle that has been going on, when the job number comes out, monthly job numbers and suddenly Republicans say it is a miracle, I have to kind of remind them, actually those job numbers were the same they were in 2015, in 2016. Anyway, I digress." Obama out of the spotlight until now Obama has spent much of 2018 away from the political fray, focusing on writing his book and raising money for his post-presidency foundation. And he never said Trump's name during his fundraising speech for the DNC and instead urged Democrats to stop "moping" and get to work for candidates. That speech, in the eyes of Obama's team, was not a preview of the former President's midterm message. Instead, Obama's advisers believe his midterm message will more closely resemble the remarks the former President delivered in South Africa as part of an event honoring the late Nelson Mandela. That speech looked to be more inspiring, and that is exactly what Obama tried to do at the close of his remarks on Friday. "You can be the generation that at a critical moment, stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it," he said. "I believe in you. I believe you will help lead us in the right direction and I will be right there with you every step of the way." The Japanese government has recognized the first death associated with cleanup work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the tsunami disaster in March 2011, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The government designated the death of an unnamed man in his 50s as an "industrial accident." The man, who had worked at the plant from 1980 to 2015, was diagnosed with lung cancer in February 2016. 2011 Japan nuclear crisis Accidents Accidents, disasters and safety Asia Cancer Continents and regions Diseases and disorders Earthquakes East Asia Fukushima Health and medical Industrial accidents Japan Natural disasters Nuclear accidents After the 2011 tsunami that was triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the man was assigned to "radiation control" work in which he was responsible for monitoring radiation levels and work time of cleanup crews. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recognized his cancer and death as related to his work at the plant. A committee of experts determined his accumulated radiation level exceeded government standards. Kunihiko Konagamitsu of the ministry said 17 workers had applied to be considered cases with an "industrial accident" designation, including three with leukemia and one with thyroid cancer. Two workers withdrew their requests, five were dismissed, and five are still under review. The March 11, 2011, quake was the worst to hit Japan and lasted nearly six minutes. More than 20,000 people died or went missing in the earthquake and tsunami that followed. Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. or TEPCO, melted down in the nation's worst nuclear disaster. The damaged reactors released radioactive materials into the air and more than 100,000 people were evacuated from the area. Forty-five thousand workers were involved in the ensuing cleanup. In 2015 Japan health officials confirmed the first case of cancer linked to cleanup work at the plant. In 2016, TEPCO said that decommissioning the reactor was like climbing a mountain and that it could take as long as 40 years. As the summer comes to an end, and we approach the fall, many people will be scheduling their flu shots. Local physicians are recommending the best time frame for your flu shot to be the most effective. Physicians say you should get your flu shot before flu season begins, but not too early. They say the best time to get the shot is by the end of October. Local pharmacists and doctors have already started administering the flu shot to people who want it, but they say it's better to get the shot closer to the start of flu season. Flu season begins as early as October and can last until around march or later. The flu vaccination typically lasts for about 5-6 months. Pharmacists say if you have gotten the flu shot during the summer, that vaccination might not last through the entire duration of flu season. Vincent Chiffy, pharmacist and owner of Parkway Drugs, recommends getting the shot closer to when flu season starts so that your shot can be the most effective. "The CDC now, their website actually recommends waiting til the end of October, if possible, because it does seem to wear off 5/6 months after you get the shot, said Chiffy. There's a possibility 50 percent of the vaccination isn't working so, you may see them get the flu in March when there's a big outbreak." Pharmacists recommend the flu shot for anyone 6 months or older, and especially for anyone over the age of 65. According to the New York State Dept. of Health, once you get the flu vaccine, it takes about two weeks for it to be fully effective. Pharmacists at Parkway Drugs in Utica say they are scheduling appointments for anyone interested in getting the flu shot. ROME The Rome Police Department is asking for the publics help locating their latest Warrant of the Week suspect. Shawn Kelly, 51, is wanted on warrants for second-degree burglary, which were issued on July 31 and Aug. 6. Kelly is accused of illegally entering homes of people he knows and stealing property from inside. Kelly is described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 160 lbs. His last known address is on Roberts Street in Rome. If anybody has information regarding Kellys whereabouts, youre asked to contact Rome police by submitting an anonymous tip here, by calling them at 315-339-7780, by submitting a tip to the Mohawk Valley Crime Stoppers, or by calling 911. ROME Classes will resume Monday at Staley Elementary School in Rome, after cleaning crews have spent the last several days cleaning away mold at the school. The problem was visible they saw spores and surface mold caused by an overly humid summer. The school is also located along the Mohawk Rived and water flows underneath it as well. Instead of school beginning Thursday like it was supposed to, cleaning crews filled the classrooms to eradicate the mold. The superintendent says its now safe for occupation. We had a professional cleaning company come in and clean a few of the classrooms that had some surface mold on the ceiling, said Peter Blake, superintendent of the Rome City School District. Surfaces like chairs, things of that nature, bookshelves, we cleaned with a special anti-bacterial clean and then they get re-inspected by an air quality agency. Blake says the building passed air quality tests and he says those tests will continue for three more weeks. Staley Elementary School students will head back to class on Monday. CAMDEN New York State Police are asking for the publics help investigating fires in the town of Camden. Police say theyre investigating the recent burning of roadside trash cans along Elipis Road, Swartz Road and several other streets in the Camden area. If anybody has information regarding the investigation, theyre asked to call state police in Oneida at 315-366-6000, and reference case No. 8457846. All information will remain confidential. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A group of mothers is making sure that everyone in the community, especially children, has access to books. The West Lafayette chapter of Moms Offering Moms Support Club (MOMS) is in charge of running the little libraries at Columbian, Hanna, and South Tipp Parks. These boxes were almost empty at the beginning of this week. And in the span of just a day and a half the West Lafayette MOMS club came to the rescue with more than 180 donated books. "When you need something done, just ask a busy mom and we'll find a way to get it done," said MOMS Club member Melissa Luebbe. The West Lafayette MOMS chapter started in 2000. Its an organization designed to provide a network of support and companionship for local stay-at-home and working moms. When I had my first son, Henry, I went from being a professional social worker to being a stay at home mom, said Luebbe. And I became very lonely and felt very isolated. She found the MOMS Club at the urging of some friends and her therapist. She shared that it helped her overcome this sense of isolation. She said service is a big part of the MOMS Club. So when Lindsey Huffman, who works for Lafayette Parks and Recreation and is part of the MOMS club, said they needed some help, the moms got to work. "She put out the mom Bat-call last week that the Little Libraries were totally empty," said Leubbe. Huffman said it makes her happy to see the community take advantage of these free and accessible books. "As a mother of an almost 6-year-old son, I know that in our house reading is really important. And we really want to stress that to everyone," said Huffman. She said the libraries are about getting books into the hands of the youth in our community. We really want to promote literacy here in the city of Lafayette, she said. Its great come out here and see that our libraries are popular with the community. The Indiana Literacy Association says there is a connection between poverty and literacy rates in our state. They say in 2015, 72% of Indiana children on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program scored below proficient. "The Mayor says the city loves to promote literacy and we want to get books into the hands of the children," she said. The MOMS club officially opened them almost a year ago in November. The purpose of these is to provide free and accessible books to the community. The motto is "take one, share one" with the hopes that there will always be something to read. It's so important that we have access to books, she said. We've got a great library system here in Tippecanoe county but you have to have a card to get those. These you can come to the park and play and say I can take a book home with me today too. Maybe you cant get to the library every week or maybe families live close enough to a park to just walk there, said Leubbe. "Just to be able to grab a book and sit under a tree or take it home and enjoy it however you want to is pretty awesome." Leubbe said they will continue to search for more books for the libraries to make sure they never go empty, even if the books have to come from her own home. "I cleared out a large box of books but somehow all of my bookshelves are still full, she said with a laugh. The libraries typically contain children's books, but you may find some higher reading level books in there as well. Huffman says anyone who wants to donate a book or two is free to leave them in the Little Libraries boxes at either of the three park locations. Anyone with large amounts of books or any community organizations looking to partner with this effort should call the Lafayette Parks Department. That number is 765-807-1500. To learn more about the West Lafayette MOMS Club and how to get involved, email them at wlmomsclub@gmail.com or look them up on Facebook. 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 Wrexham Council looks to get out of the dark ages and modernise how it engages with the public This article is old - Published: Friday, Sep 7th, 2018 How does Wrexham Council engage with you, the public, more? That was the question banded around by members of the democratic services committee while debating the meeting webcasting service contract. The committee had been asked to approve an extension of the current webcasting contract up until January 2020 along with purchasing additional bundles of 20 hours, as required throughout the year to stream more meetings. However the conversation quickly turned into how the council as a whole can modernise how it engages with the public and increase the number of people who not only tune into watch meetings, but also create a wider interest in what councillors are discussing. Currently the councils webcasting service is provided via a company called Public-i, which offers streaming and archiving services to a number of local authorities across the country. As part of the package Wrexham Council webcast all executive board, full council and planning meetings from the main council chamber. In recent years several public interest scrutiny committees have also Earlier this year there were calls from members of the democratic services committee to extend the service to allow for the webcasting of all scrutiny meetings in a bid to increase transparency and boost public engagement. This morning the head of the democratic services provide an update on the work carried out by a task and finish group, which was set up to explore further options after the previous meeting. The officer explained that an in house webcasting service was not possible due to the lack of resources and expertise needed to run the system. Cllr Carrie Harper said that the council needs to move on as it is stuck in the dark ages and suggested that the option to install webcasting facilities into meeting room one was explored to allow for all meetings to be streamed online. However Cllr Derek Wright questioned whether webcasting more meetings was value for money, noting that scrutiny committees that have been streamed due to public interest still arent highly viewed. Cllr King said there was more the council could to to promote the work undertaken by councillors and to promote democracy. He said: We need to make it more accessible than it is. It is not just important to archive things, its how do we get out to the public what we do. We hardly do that as a council, but thats the same with lots of councils. How do we get people interested in what we do? One suggestion was to make scrutiny meetings mobile and take them out of the Guildhall and into a public venue, with the likes of Gwersyllt Resource Centre and Ty Pawb cited as potential venues. Cllr Mike Dixon said: Meeting room one is not particularly pleasant and feels as though we are hiding away. Ive always said we should use Ty Pawb for scrutiny committees. It may even help some councillors find out where it is. He added: If you stand up and say something, its already public. So possibly some of the controls and great fears we have, forget them. But Cllr Davies pointed out that the IT facilities in Ty Pawb arent fantastic, explaining that she has to download documents prior to drinking some excellent coffee and doing some work at the venue due to the connectivity performance there. Utilising YouTube as an archive for previous and future meetings was also noted by the head of democratic services, who explained that Public-i is currently reviewing its own archive with the indication footage could be deleted. The meeting was told prior to that there would be an opportunity to bulk export footage. If footage was then uploaded onto Wrexham Councils YouTube channel, it was acknowledged that a protocol review would need to be carried out to outline what the webcasts can and cant be used for. However this option would mean there wouldnt be a cost to Public-i for anyone wishing to access previous meetings. Councillors agreed to press ahead with extending the contract for another 12 months, with plans to explore installing additional cameras and microphones in the council meeting room. Our tweets from the meeting can be found below in reverse order Wrexham.com @wrexham Councillors seem keen to open up their debates and discussions to you the public. Two way street, you public need to take an interest too ! Wrexham.com @wrexham Longish debate wraps up, webcasting recommended to continue and extend hours/meetings covered. Youtube as public archive sounds likely, however the nitty gritty on that will come at future meetings when protocols & policies are adjusted to catch up! Wrexham.com @wrexham Wonder if all councillor speeches will end with LIKE & SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE BANGIN CONTENT ? #crepcheck PIC: (Click for large) Wrexham.com @wrexham Torfaen are doing what Wrexham seem to want to do, in terms of loading Public-i webcasts on to Youtube. This is their public video dump archive link Would mean all Cllrs become Youtubers! Flexing and Supreme hoodies to come to the chamber?! Wrexham.com @wrexham Clr Dixon compares video use in Westminster, and compares at concerns back when that was introduced, adds if you stand up and said it, it is public, make it easy for people to see what we do. Wrexham.com @wrexham Clr Alan Edwards says he remembers a Scrutiny meeting held in Rhos, so says idea of getting out and about is nothing new. Interesting debate on how the important scrutiny process gets public awareness. Wrexham.com @wrexham That sparked a mini debate over if Scrutiny could become more of a travelling entity- so more portable webcasting gear could be required. Scrutiny now looking at themselves asking if people know about, or care about what they do. More engagement required, from you the public too! Wrexham.com @wrexham Ty Pawb gets mention as possible Scrutiny base, Cllr Davies says the internet needs to get sorted there beforehand as she downloads her work before going in points out the excellent coffee in there. Clr Dixon says some councillors need to find out where it is ! Wrexham.com @wrexham Cllr Baldwin has asked us to give thoughts on video platform. Our feedback was we use Youtube, but think key will be what usage rules/protocol there regardless. Used examples of election coverage etc link Wrexham.com @wrexham Clr Wright says Chairs / Vice-Chairs get viewing figures and questions value for money on webcasts as the numbers are very low. Clr King counters by saying this is a way of getting out to public who might not even know the Council exists. Wrexham.com @wrexham Cllr Davies says after the prime funding by Welsh Gov some councils bought kit & use Youtube. Others focused debate back then about control to lock down the video content etc. Appears Wrexham has progressed and now about transparency with wider understanding of video content. Wrexham.com @wrexham Cllr Harper reiterates strength of feeling from Task & Finish Group that Wrexham should broadcast all scrutiny with kit out of another meeting room with cameras that could come as soon as early next year. Wrexham.com @wrexham Webcasting funding being debated. Welsh Gov kick started it now funded by councils themselves. 6 councils in north wales could look to procure Public-i system together to make it better value. Wrexham.com @wrexham Clr Derek Wright speaks of some visits hes been on to other authorities, wants Officers to get information on what other councils use and how expensive they are over the next 12 months. Officer says 12 in Wales use Public-i. 2 use Youtube, 2 other systems and 6 dont at all. Wrexham.com @wrexham Transcription being debated again basically expensive to correct public-is record. Councillors seem unaware (and not being told) that Youtube will create auto created subtitles that can also be viewed as a full text transcription (automated not perfect) for free. Wrexham.com @wrexham Cllr Dixon exploring issue further in debate with Cllr King: It maybe we do not need that. If you are going back to archive, you know what meeting it is. It is like looking at something on iPlayer. Cllr Rob Walsh adds you can push it along on Youtube to locate a topic. Wrexham.com @wrexham Cllr Dixon unhappy with Youtube, We would want it with the current functionality or it is just a youtube recording. (Here is example from other day of Youtube with a bookmark bit via a council link ) Wrexham.com @wrexham Officer mentions convo with Public-i (webcasting provider) saying they intend to delete archives in future but councils will get chance to export their archives. Indication why third parties controlling the public democratic/historic info of Wrexham could be a bad thing ! Wrexham.com @wrexham A few options will cost more money Council Leader has previously encouraged this committee to challenge him / administration to find the money to make Wrexham Council more transparent via webcasting. Wrexham.com @wrexham Using Youtube would require an update of the Councils webcasting protocols, so that is also to be debated and possibly recommended later this morning. Wrexham.com @wrexham Officer explaining to Councillors that some councils use paid webcasting systems, then after 6mths upload full meetings to Youtube. Cllr Baldwin enquires if video uploaded to Youtube is safe, as has concerns over councillor words being doctored. Today, 1,500 workers who have been on strike since August 8 at Alcoas Western Australia aluminum smelters and bauxite mines will finish voting on a concessionary contract offer in a company-imposed ballot. Later the same day, union officials representing 1,050 locked-out workers at ABIan aluminum smelter in Becancour, Quebec, that is 75 percent owned by Alcoawill meet with top Alcoa officials at the companys world headquarters in Pittsburgh. The timing is not coincidental. The ABI workers, who were locked out last January after they rejected the companys demands for sweeping concessions on pensions and seniority rights, and the Alcoa strikers in Australia face a common struggle against a transnational corporation determined to satisfy investors demands for ever-greater profits through job cuts, speed-up and concessions. However, rather than uniting aluminum workers and making these struggles the spearhead of a broader working-class offensive against concessions and job-cutting, the union apparatuses are doing everything to isolate and derail them. Alcoa workers in Canada, Australia, and around the world face three key political issues. First, the Australian workers strike underscores that ABIs decision to lock out its employees in Quebec was part of a globally coordinated drive to increase profits and productivity through the destruction of jobs and workers rights. This drive must be answered by the elaboration of an international working-class strategy to mobilize workers against Alcoa and the aluminum bosses worldwide. Second, Alcoa workers in both countries confront trade union bureaucracies that, although thousands of miles apart, adopt the same bankrupt strategy based on nationalism and the subordination of workers interests to investor profit. Both the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Australian Workers Union (AWU) are quarantining the struggle against Alcoa from the rest of their tens and, in the case of the Steelworkers, hundreds of thousands of members. In an attempt to demobilize workers, Steelworker leaders have sought to downplay the stakes of the ABI struggle. Pointing to their willingness to make major concessions, they long insisted that the lockout was unnecessary and the result of an employer misunderstanding. At the same time, the USW has attempted to divert the ABI workers into addressing futile appeals to company shareholders and capitalist politicians to pressure management back to the bargaining table. In Australia, the union opposed strike action for months, calling instead for sporadic and limited walkouts to put pressure on the company during collective bargaining. The AWU sanctioned an indefinite strike only when Alcoa broke off talks and threatened to invoke a reactionary mechanism in Australias labour laws giving them the right to unilaterally impose the industry base awardthat is, terms and conditions far inferior to those stipulated in the expired contract. The common anti-working class stance of both bureaucracies is underscored by their hailing of worthless and hypocritical promises of support from the leaders of parties that have played a pivotal role in the ruling-class offensive. The USW lauded the brief picket line appearance late last month of the leader of the Parti Quebecois, a party that has imposed savage social spending cuts and broken strikes whenever it has held office in Quebec. Meanwhile, the AWU invited Bill Shorten, whose Australian Labor Party has for decades led the assault on workers social rights, to address the striking Alcoa workers in Western Australia. Third, the two struggles, unfolding more than 18,000 kilometers apart, point to the need for Alcoa workers to conduct a unified struggle and expand it to other sections of the working class in Canada and Australia and around the world. All over the world, workers confront globally organized corporations and a capitalist elite determined to slash jobs, wages and worker rights to further enrich a handful of millionaires and billionaires. ABI is demanding the elimination of workers defined-benefit pension plan and its replacement by a plan that would be completely funded by the workers. In the name of greater flexibility in job placements, it is also demanding the gutting of seniority rights. Emboldened by the refusal of the Pittsburgh-based USW International leadership, USW Local 9700, and the Quebec Federation of Labour to mobilize workers in support of the locked-out ABI workers, Alcoa has increased its concession demands. It has repudiated its final contract offer of last December and now says that it needs to slash ABIs workforce by 20 percent, more than 200 jobs, to ensure the smelter remains competitive. As in Australia, Alcoa-controlled ABI justifies its draconian demands with arguments about global competition and the need to increase productivity. Its aim is to pit workers in different countries and even different facilities in the same country against each other in a race to the bottom. In this, major aluminum producers like Alcoa and Rio Tinto-Alcan have the full support of the unions, which systematically subordinate the interests of the workers to the imperatives of capitalist profit, and oppose any and all efforts to unite workers struggles across national boundaries and continents. This is clearly demonstrated by the response of the Steelworkers and the Canadian union bureaucracy as a whole to the NAFTA renegotiations and the US-led descent into international trade war, which, like the trade wars that erupted during the Great Depression, risks being the antechamber to great-power military conflict. Instead of alerting workers to the class issues behind these developments, warning them of the catastrophic consequences of trade wars and forging unity with workers from other countries to defend the jobs and rights of all workers and oppose rearmament and war, the unions in Quebec and Canada are rallying behind the ruling elite. They are enthusiastically supporting Ottawas counter-tariffs and other protectionist measures aimed at pushing the burden of the capitalist crisis onto workers in the US, Mexico, China and elsewhere. Serving as junior partners of corporate Canada and the big business Liberal government, Canadas unions, led by the USW and Unifor, are now agitating for even tougher trade-war measures against aluminum and steel workers in China, India and other emerging economies. The Steelworkers have warmly welcomed Trumps imposition, in the name of national security, of a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports and 25 percent tariff on steel imports, while arguing that Canada should be exempted. Echoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, USW President Leo Gerard has repeatedly boasted that Canadian steel and aluminum are vital for the Pentagons warplanes and tanks. Similarly, Australian unions, including the Australian Workers Union, have for years been fueling the campaign against China to promote big business in Australia and divide the working class along national and ethnic lines. The current struggle of Alcoa workers in Quebec and Western Australia is part of a growing rebellion of workers around the world against the ruling elites attack on jobs, wages and public services. To prevail in this struggle, workers need an entirely different strategyan international-socialist strategy based on the objective unity of workers around the world in a globally integrated economy. Opposition to Alcoas offensive can make headway only if workers seize control of their struggle from the hands of the pro-capitalist unions. New organizations of struggle, including independent rank-and-file committees, must be formed to resist the attempts of the USW and the AWU to torpedo the struggle. These committees should turn to other sections of workers in Australia, Canada, China, and internationally to carry out a counter-offensive involving the entire working class in defense of jobs, wages and public services. Such a struggle must be animated by a new political perspective. That is the fight for workers governments that would place basic industry and the banks under public ownership and the democratic control of the workers, so production and employment could be organized to meet social needs, not swell capitalist profit. Amazons market capitalization reached over $1 trillion in value on Tuesday, making it the second company to do so in US history after Apple. Although Amazons share value receded to $2,039.51 by the end of Tuesday trading, Amazons share value has soared by 108 percent over the past year alone. The growth of massive corporate behemoths like Amazon is not the product of its supposed creative ingenuity. Amazons soaring profits, like those of Apple, are the direct result of the brutal exploitation of its workforce. Amazon and its owners stand atop a mountain of broken bones, hernias, torn knee and back muscles, heat strokes, stress-induced asthma attacks, and countless other lifelong bodily injuries. The historic character of the rise of Amazon demonstrates once again that the inevitable outcome of capitalist development is monopolization. Amazon exemplifies how technological advances are subordinated to the profit motive under capitalism. Amazon is a massive operation, international in nature, which now employs 566,000 people across many countries and 5 continents. It utilizes state-of-the-art technology and information systems to mobilize and integrate the worldwide distribution of millions of goods. But the immense profits produced on the backs of its workforce are not used to improve living conditions for the masses of working people; they enrich a narrow layer of the super-rich. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made $1.8 billion on Tuesday alone. Broken down, this means Bezos made $20,833 per second, an amount roughly equivalent to what an Amazon worker makes in a year. He made $67 billion this yearequivalent to $8 million an hour. Bezos is now the richest man on earth, with a net worth of $164.7 billion. Based on the average US annual income of $28,446, it would take an Amazon worker over five million years to accumulate an amount equal to their CEOs wealthabout equal to the time since humans genetically split off from gorillas and chimpanzees. The pay for many US workers is even lower. Base pay at Amazon is $12 per hour, which amounts to less than $25,000 per year. Coverage by the International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) newsletter has cited reports by workers at multiple facilities who have seen coworkers sleeping in their cars. Inside the facilities, workers face a high-tech dystopia, characterized by long hours and an authoritarian industrial regime. It is like being tortured in your mind and your body for 10 hours a night, one worker, Shannon Allen, told the World Socialist Web Site. Another worker described the work as modern day slavery. A worker in the UK said that the company penalizes workers for getting hurt. Someone hurt on the job? It gets raised to a leader who then calls first aid, they take a statement then ask if you are returning to work or going home. Going home incurs a half-point penalty. All over the world, the company forces workers to labor at fast, tiring, and often dangerous speeds. The UK worker said: I still have near misses and collisions from people rushingnow its faster, faster, faster. Its all about being on the go, meeting rates and targets. Amazon is ramping up the exploitation of its workforce as it prepares for another massive expansion. Last year, the company announced plans to open a second headquarters, though the decision as to where the facilities will be located has not yet been finalized. It also recently purchased 20,000 vans from Mercedes-Benz, with which the company plans to establish a network of contractors to carry out their last-mile delivery services. This development will deal a harsh blow to the US Postal Service, which currently handles 40 percent of last-mile deliveries. It also has begun to muscle its way into the $88 billion online ad market, with clear plans to surpass tech giants Google and Facebook. Amazon workers have begun to fight back against their grueling working conditions and low pay. Strikes broke out at facilities in Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy and France this summer, and hundreds of workers have written in to the IAWV to describe the brutal exploitation they face at the hands of the company. The ruling class has begun efforts to neutralize the growing opposition to social inequality, low wages, and sweatshop conditions. In particular, the Democratic Party is seeking to take control of these struggles and direct them back into safe channels like the Teamsters Union and the political orbit of Bernie Sanders, who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president after the 2016 Democratic primaries. On Wednesday, Sanders introduced a bill that would tax corporations for the federal benefits their employees receive. The bill, named Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies or BEZOS Act, would establish a 100% tax on companies equal to the public assistance programs their employees depend on to live. This legislation does nothing to address the unsafe conditions workers face and will not raise wages or lead to an improvement in their lives. It is significant that the bill instead is intended to provide the government money which it will likely hand back over to the corporations in the form of tax cuts and deregulation. On top of this, the bills authors and sponsors know it has no chance of passage. In contrast, the Socialist Equality Party demands the immediate seizure of all of Jeff Bezoss assets and their immediate distribution to meet the needs of the working class, including by massive expenditures on public transportation, healthcare, education, and the provision of food, water and housing to those in need. The corporation must be transformed into a public utility to be run not for the private profit of a few but to meet human need. To accomplish this historical task, Amazon workers require organizationnot through the corrupt trade unions that take their dues money to pay the salaries of bureaucratsbut fighting organizations run by and for the workers themselves. Such organizations, workplace committees, will be based on the principles of democracy and workers control of production, and will fight to educate the working class as a whole about the conditions Amazon workers face while inviting other sections of the working class to join in a common struggle against the massive corporations. On September 4, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he would not seek a third term in office. Emanuel was first elected in February 2011, having left the White House Chief of Staff position under President Barack Obama. A former investment banker and leading figure in the Democratic Party nationally, Emanuel, who is now in his late 50s, has been in and out of official politics for the last three decades, working as a fundraiser for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley before raising funds for the Clintons campaigns. Emanuel cited the pressures of the job and the wishes of his family as reasons for his retirement. He made it clear in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that in his view none of the thirteen candidates currently declared for the February, 2019 mayoral election are capable of filling the position. The social crisis in Chicago created problems for Emanuel. There are really two Chicagos: the plush upper-middle-class and wealthy areas, and the large swaths of economic and social devastation in working-class and poor neighborhoods. Ten days ago, a house burned down, killing ten children aged 3 months to 16 years in the immigrant neighborhood of Little Village, a ward led by George Cardenas, one of Emanuels campaign fundraisers. Since Emanuels announcement, the tragedy in Little Village and the conditions that produced it have all but disappeared from media reports. Former President Barack Obama was recently in the city to visit the site of his presidential center and said nothing about the fire. Emanuels announcement came just one day before the start of the trial of Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer who killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014, shooting him 16 times at close range. Working with the Cook County states attorney, the Chicago Police Department and the City Council, Emanuel oversaw a cover-up of the teens murder that included the suppression of video evidence of the killing and the payment of $5 million to the victims family. When video of the killing was finally released in November 2015, the city erupted in protest and demands were made for Emanuels resignation, as well as that of top police and states attorney officials. Emanuel would eventually go on to fire his appointed police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, who is himself running a law-and-order campaign in the 2019 mayoral race. Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her recent bid for reelection. But Emanuel and the members of the City Council, who voted to pay the family, remained in office. In making his announcement just before the trial, Emanuel is aiming to protect his political future. His decision not to pursue a third term was a virtual acknowledgement of the contempt and hatred for him felt by the vast majority of workers and young people in Chicago. The mayor was polling in the range of 35 percent of the votenot enough to avoid another runoff election. In 2015, he was forced into a runoff against Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia, a Democratic machine figure (currently running for US Congress) who was backed by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in the wake of the political crisis created by the cover-up of McDonalds murder. Police violence has been a defining feature of his tenure. In the fall of 2015, shortly before the release of the video of McDonalds murder, the Chicago Police Department was revealed to be operating an unofficial detention center, or black site, in Homan Square, in which thousands of citizens have been held illegally without arrest. Detailed reports emerged of abuse and torture. At least one man died as a result of his injuries. Well over half of the roughly 7,000 detained there were held during Emanuels time in office. Under Emanuel, Chicago police began maintaining a secret watch list with 400,000 names. He also oversaw the police repression of the 2012 anti-NATO protests in Chicago, which involved the police entrapment of three protesters and their conviction and imprisonment on federal charges. The mayors tenure was beset by the crises his partys policies have provoked, primarily due to the massive increase in social inequality they created, including through corporate tax giveaways and the destruction of public schools and social services. His first term, from 2010 to 2015, was defined by the fight he picked with Chicago Public Schools teachers and the working families of Chicago in making an aggressive attack on public education. This was part of the Obama administrations reform plan, titled Race to the Top, itself a continuation of the Bush governments No Child Left Behind attack on public schools. After the powerful 2012 strike by Chicago teachers was shut down and betrayed by the Chicago Teachers Union, Emanuel closed an unprecedented 50 elementary schools in 2013. This inaugurated a period of mass layoffs of teachers, as the attack on public education and social services was advanced under the cover of a budget crisis, again with the help of the CTU, which claimed the budget crisis necessitated cuts and givebacks. The unions vice president (now president), Jesse Sharkey, is a member of the pseudo-left International Socialist Organization. Emanuels second term was dominated by the cover-up of the McDonald murder. The release of the suppressed video of the teens death came amid a protracted state and municipal budget crisis and the height of a bipartisan effort to cut state costs, including public-sector wages, health care, pensions, staff and essential services. The CTU worked to stabilize the city administration, suppressing the struggles of teachers for better pay, health coverage and teaching conditions (see: Chicago Teachers Union holds mock strike vote as it prepares to back massivecuts) The Illinois Democratic Party is the pro-austerity, pro-war apparatus that produced Emanuel and Barack Obama. It is running a billionaire, JB Pritzker, for governor against the Republican incumbent, former hedge fund head Bruce Rauner. Sharkey and the CTU have steadfastly worked to channel the anger of teachers, parents and students behind this big-business party. They are now declaring Emanuels decision not to run again a victory for the working class. This is a fraud. Insofar as he will be replaced by some other Democratic Party politician, his resignation will mark no advance for the working class. The critical lesson to be learned from the Emanuel experience is the necessity for a political break from the Democratic Party and its trade union appendages and the building of an independent socialist movement of the working class to fight for full funding of schools and social services, through the expropriation of the financial elite and public ownership of the corporations and banks. On Thursday the Trump administration announced that it was implementing a new regulation governing the detention of immigrant children. The proposed regulation would circumvent the existing settlement of the 1997 lawsuit Reno v. Flores, which mandates that children not be kept in detention for a period of more than 20 days. The settlement, which has been in effect for over 20 years, has been consistently criticized by the Trump administration as a legal loophole that has paved the way for illegal aliens to flood the country. Under the changes proposed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Human and Health Services (HHS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be able to expand family detention services in order to keep immigrant parents and children detained for much lengthier periods. ICE currently operates three such centers, with 3,500 beds in total. These centers are at maximum capacity. The new regulations provide for the construction of more family detention centers, with the promise that the government will ensure that they meet current standards as certified by a third party. This is hardly reassuring after widespread reports of malfeasance, sexual abuse, beatings and improper medical care. Announcing the new plan, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen declared: Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the Departments ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country. This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress. The statement, like almost every declaration about immigration from the current administration, blames the working-class victims of the US governments anti-immigrant policies. Over the past two decades, each administrationwhether Republican or Democratichas made border crossings even more perilous for immigrants and has overseen the creation of a system of immigration laws that have led to large-scale deportations and the growth of a network of detention centers across the country. The Trump administration has deepened the callous and inhumane treatment of immigrants. Increased militarization of the border, strengthening and expanding the scope of ICE, regularizing workplace raids, and of course the infamous family separations have all been part of the administrations war on immigrants. The Obama administration also fought the Flores settlement, but the Trump administration violated the deal by implementing its family separation policy last May. When faced with growing public anger about this inhumane policy, the Justice Department began detaining more families together until their immigration cases could be adjudicated, often after months or years of waiting. In July, US District Court Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees the Flores agreement, sharply rebuked the administration, telling the Justice Department that its request was a cynical attempt, on an ex-parte basis, to shift responsibility to the judiciary for over 20 years of congressional inaction and ill-considered executive action that have led to the current stalemate. The new rule is yet another cynical attempt by the administration to distract attention from the internecine struggles among the ruling class being waged in Washington, DC. The pull factor that forces people to make the perilous border crossing is not the existence of supposedly lax laws, but rather the need to escape brutal violence and poverty and make a better life for oneself and ones family. To criminalize the working class for this need, and to bring to bear on them the full power of the state, reveals the extent to which the ruling class is prepared to go in attacking the democratic rights of the entire working class, regardless of immigration status. In the wake of the recent downgrading of Ford credit by the rating agency Moodys, the financial press is full of speculation about a major round of job cuts by the US-based automaker as part of its already announced restructuring plan. On August 29 Moodys lowered Fords senior unsecured rating to Baa3, only one step above junk status. A downgrade makes it more difficult and expensive to finance debt. The downgrade was accompanied by a warning that there is an increased chance of a further lowering of Ford credit in the next 12 to 24 months. The moves by the credit rating agency represent a shot across the bow at Ford on the part of Wall Street, which is demanding a further assault on workers in order to boost what it views as inadequate rates of return by the auto manufacturer. It follows decades of relentless cuts, facilitated by the unions in the US and globally, that have resulted in the decimation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and the steady erosion of wages and benefits at all the US-based car companies. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times of London reported this week that Ford could cut up to 24,000 jobs at its European division as a result of a reorganization being discussed by top executives. The plan reportedly outlines $11 billion in restructuring costs including job buyouts and plant closures. The Sunday Times noted Ford employs 12,000 in Britain, with engine plants in Bridgend and Dagenham threatened. The paper also reported that Ford Europe President Steven Armstrong said the company is focused on aggressively attacking costs, implementing facility and product program efficiencies to lower product and material costs as well as capital intensity in Europe. Ford has been losing money on its European operations in contrast to North America, where it is still making profits. The plans by Britain to leave the European Union, Brexit, has added further uncertainty to Fords future in that country. For its part, Moodys noted the potential for a cyclical slowdown in the automotive industry. Indeed the increasingly volatile world financial situation, including the threat of auto tariffs on the part of the US Trump administration, points to the likely eruption of another major economic crisis that could put the 2008 crash in the shade. It is implicitly understood by the financial elite that the costs of such as shock would be shunted onto the backs of the working class. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who recently projected a 12 percent cut of Fords 202,000 worldwide workforce, said, We do not see restructuring at Ford as a nice to have but as a crucial step to set the global business on a more balanced footing, Jonas wrote August 20. Any attacks on its European workforce would only prepare for attacks on workers in South America, Asia and in the United States itself. The chorus on Wall Street for decisive action by Ford takes place under conditions where the company is still making substantial profits. The company made adjusted pre-tax earnings of $8.4 billion in 2017, however it is well short of profit expectations. While Ford sales were up four percent overall in August and the profitable Ford F-150 pickup truck is selling at a record pace for the year, Ford sales are down 1.2 percent in 2018. The company has already announced the ending of most passenger car production in order to focus on more popular light trucks and SUVs. It is reportedly also looking to end production of the Galaxy and S-Max in Europe to concentrate on larger, more profitable models. In an interview this week with the Detroit Free Press, Bob Shanks, Ford chief financial officer, acknowledged the term restructuring suggests, workforce reductions and closures. He continued, A year ago we started a journey thats going to be a very fundamental redesign of our traditional auto business. Its a huge, huge transformation. He added, [Ford] is looking at a major redesign in our business, particularly overseas markets. That performance is not good. After years of hard work, restructuring, new products and changes. It just isnt what it needs to be... The bottom line is unacceptable. Despite efforts by the European unions to prevent resistance to Fords cost-cutting measures, autoworkers in Germany struck the US-based company and other automakers earlier this year and, in late 2017, 1,000 workers conducted a wildcat strike to oppose a rotten deal signed by the Ford Craiova Automobile Union and Ford Romania. The deal demanded that 4,200 Romanian workers accept wage freezes for senior workers and a reduction in new hires pay to five percent below the current minimum salary, or as little as 300 (US$358) a month. Ford also demanded a reduction in payments for overtime work and flexible work hours whenever operational demands require it. In a December 13, 2017 memo to workers, Ford Romania chief John Oldham threatened them with mass unemployment, saying, "We need to reflect on what is critical at this crucial moment for the Craiova plant, to have a higher salary increase or to secure the future of this factory! We hope you understand the importance of this years negotiation in the present politically and economically unstable climate. Automakers globally are facing pressure for major investments for research and development of electric and autonomous vehicles. The large investment required to implement such technology puts heavy strain on corporate cash flows, increasing the need for cuts. One possible casualty of Fords cost cutting may be its plans for a technology center in Detroit, where the company recently purchased the old Michigan Central Depot with the apparent idea of converting it into a research hub for autonomous vehicles. The credit downgrade by Moodys follows the ouster of Ford CEO Mark Fields in 2018 after just three years tenure. In announcing the shake-up, Chairman Bill Ford pointed to the low valuation of the companys stock and declining profits. The threat to Ford workers takes place under conditions where financial pressures are mounting on the other US automakers. Speculation is widespread that GM, which sold off its European Opel and Vauxhall divisions in 2017, may soon announce the closure of one or more of its US passenger car assembly plants, in particular its Lordstown, Ohio facility where the company recently eliminated the second shift. GM is the only US car manufacturer that is continuing to build passenger cars in North America. Fiat Chrysler is in the midst of a restructuring operation that has led to the temporary closure of a number of its biggest plants. The company ended US passenger car production in 2016 to focus on light trucks and SUVs. The UAW has been predictably silent on the reports of Fords plans for a new round of cuts. This is not only because it is predicted that the cuts will fall most heavily on European autoworkers, but because the UAW takes its stand entirely on the basis of the defense of the profit interests of management. The UAW has facilitated US layoffs by implementing contract changes that eliminate whatever meager job protections autoworkers had. The union agreed to the elimination of the jobs bank that provided some employment security for laid off autoworkers. Meanwhile, the UAW has sanctioned the use of more temporary part time (TPT) workers who are not eligible for supplemental unemployment benefits and have no pensions or recall rights. The 2015 contract provided no explicit job guarantees. In place of a fight to defend jobs the UAW is actively inciting fratricidal conflict between US autoworkers and autoworkers internationally, supporting President Trumps trade war measures and denouncing Mexican and Chinese autoworkers for taking American jobs. The UAW has abetted the drive by the auto companies to force out better paid veteran workers and replace them with TPTs. The impact of the ruthless cost cutting drive by Ford was underscored by the injury earlier this year of Ford Flat Rock Assembly worker Lynn Hagood, age 55, who suffered severe injuries after being placed back on the assembly line with insufficient training. At all the auto companies the UAW has sanctioned the use of forced overtime by management to avoid the hiring of additional workers. This has led to worker burnout and the increased likelihood of death or injury on the job. The fight to defend jobs requires that workers elect factory committees, independent of the UAW, to initiate a struggle against plant closings and layoffs. This struggle must be waged in the closest unity with autoworkers internationally to counter the efforts by the global automakers and the unions to play workers off against each other country by country. The defense of jobs is bound up with the struggle for a socialist program, including the transformation of the auto giants into public enterprises under the democratic control of the working class. Thousands of school buildings and structures in Japan fail to meet earthquake resistant standards, according to Tokyos Education Ministry. This includes both the school buildings themselves and exterior walls found on school campuses. The danger was highlighted when one such exterior wall collapsed during a June 18 earthquake in Osaka Prefecture killing two people. On August 28, the Education Ministry announced that 978 buildings at public elementary and junior high schools were not earthquake resistant as of April 1, putting the ministry three years behind its own schedule to have all buildings up to code. Despite this, the government only plans to reduce this number of schools to 360 by the end of fiscal year 2020. An emergency review from the ministry published on August 10 also revealed that even more schools have external walls on their grounds that do not meet building regulations for safety. The report identified 12,640 schools out of 51,058 surveyed nationally that had such deficient structures. The schools included kindergartens, elementary, junior and senior high schools, and universities. Given that only about 20,000 of the schools actually have external walls, this indicates that 60 percent of these schools have hazardous, unsafe structures. Of these walls, 7,473 had clear signs of visible damage and degradation, heightening the risk of a collapse. Other structures violated height limitations or failed to have required buttresses. The review took place after a wall at the Juei Elementary School in the city of Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture collapsed during the June 18 earthquake. A nine-year-old girl who attended the school and an 80-year-old man were killed. The wall separated the schools swimming pool and a pedestrian path the two were using when the earthquake struck. The entire structure stood at 3.5 metres, which included the wall itself at 1.6 metres, sitting on a 1.9-metre foundation. This placed the entire structure 1.3 metres above existing regulations. The wall also lacked necessary buttresses and had not been adequately reinforced by steel beams. Professor Yasushi Sanada of Osaka University, an expert in concrete structures and part of the government investigation team, noted that the wall was already extremely unstable. Sanada also stated that the steel rods found inside the school wall were too short, increasing the risk that the cinder blocks would detach themselves for the main structure, as happened during the earthquake. Many such walls were built before 1981, when updated regulations required the building of earthquake-resistant structures, a necessity in Japan where earthquakes are common. This danger was already well known to local city officials in Takatsuki. Three years prior to the June tragedy, Ryoichi Yoshida, a disaster management expert, had informed the local education board responsible for Juei Elementary of the dangers inherent in the wall, which was close to a route to school taken by many students. He was ignored. The education board officials claimed to have tested the wall by hitting it with a hammer, and then told the school that it was safe. Only 80 percent of the schools with dangerous walls identified in the report have taken measures to address the situation, with some removing the structures. Others merely placed warning signs for passers-by to stay away in the event of an earthquake. Following the deaths at Juei Elementary, the Takatsuki municipal authorities declared their intention to remove any concrete wall higher than 1.2 metres within the city. The response from local authorities is indicative of a far wider problem. Under capitalism, vital safety issues are ignored or papered over in the name of saving money until disaster strikes, then officials posture as if they will make genuine changes to dispel anger and outrage, then drop their promises until the next tragedy. In addition, there were significant regional disparities in the proportion of schools with dangerous walls, with 52 percent of schools in Okinawa prefecture found to have such structures, as compared to Hokkaido with only 4.5 percent, the highest and lowest rates in the country respectively. These numbers could be an underestimation, as the education ministrys review consisted of little more than a survey sent to education boards, with no external checks of the responses. However, it is significant that Okinawa reports higher levels of dangerous school conditions as the prefecture also faces greater economic stresses than the rest of Japan. A third of Okinawan children live in poverty, more than double the rate on the mainland. Unemployment is more widespread and per capita income is also only 70 percent compared to the rest of the country. While poverty in Japan is by no means limited to Okinawa, this highlights that it is the poor and the working class who bear the brunt of attacks on education. The condition of Japanese schools is not simply a product of neglect by local governments, but the result of decades of cuts in education spending. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged no new funding to address school safety. It is only offering to re-direct funds from other school-related subsidies, while claiming that additional funds could be sought in the next fiscal year, which begins in April 2019. The response by Tokyo is symptomatic of the broader slashing of funds for public education over the past 30 years. Japan currently spends roughly 3.5 percent of its GDP on education, well below the OECD average for advanced capitalist countries of 4.7 percent, and a marked decline from the 5.6 percent it spent in 1987. The lack of funds has contributed to the continued use of deteriorating and unsafe structures by schools, which lack the resources to replace them or adopt safer alternatives. The lie that there is no money for schools to keep children safe is belied by the fact that the government recently requested another record increase in military spendinga 2.1 percent jump from last year to 5.3 trillion yen ($47 billion). Last September, the New York Times published an article, appearing on the first page of its business section, reporting allegations by the World Socialist Web Site that the internet search monopoly Google was censoring left-wing, anti-war and socialist web sites. The article prominently cited, and linked to, the WSWSs open letter to Google, Stop the censorship of the Internet! Stop the political blacklisting of the World Socialist Web Site! The open letter presented evidence that Google is manipulating its internet searches in order to block news that your company does not want reported and to suppress opinions with which you do not agree. But on Wednesday, the Times posted on its website (and published Thursday on the front page of the business section of its Thursday print edition) an article by the same author, Daisuke Wakabayashi, which is a white-wash of Googles censorship regime, echoing the companys self-serving denials without any serious examination of the facts. The article is the latest in a series of similar pieces by major US news outlets, which, using as a foil President Trumps claims that the company is censoring right-wing news sources, uncritically parrot Googles denials that it is blacklisting sites based on their political views. Wakabayashi writes: 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. He continues: 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 closest the author comes to a critical examination of the companys claims is the following passage: 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. The organization that complained about Googles demotion of what Wakabayashi cynically calls misleading, false or offensive information is the World Socialist Web Site , whose name goes unmentioned in the journalists new article. What Google demoted was, in fact, not misleading, false or offensive information, but political viewpoints critical of the US government and the political establishment. The Times whitewash of Googles censorship is all the more egregious given the fact that, in the year since the publication of Wakabayashis September 2017 report, every major claim made in the WSWS open letter to Google has been confirmed. The letter argued that in attempting to censor the internet, Google was acting as an agent of the state intelligence apparatus, with the aim of placing limits on the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Statements made by leading lawmakers and intelligence officials over the past year prove the correctness of this assertion. * At a February 2018 hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray praised the US intelligence agencies greater engagement and partnership with the private sector, concluding, We cant fully police social media, so we have to work with them so that they can police themselves. * At a November 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing, Congressman Adam Schiff said that Google had a societal obligation to change the fact that What ends up percolating to the top of our feeds tends to be things we were looking for. * At a November 2017 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, former FBI agent Clint Watts declared: Civil wars dont start with gunshots, they start with words... We all must act now on the social media battlefield to quell information rebellions Stopping the false information artillery barrage landing on social media users comes only when those outlets distributing bogus stories are silenced. In the year since Wakabayashi published his initial article, executives at major technology companies have made increasingly clear their efforts, in partnership with the US intelligence agencies, to control what their users say and read. The same day that the Times posted Wakabayashis article, the Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing at which top executives at Facebook and Twitter pledged to intensify their censorship of the internet. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg explained how Facebook blocked the distribution of statements disputed by its fact checkers, excluding bad speech and promoting good speech. Sandberg said that when content is marked as false by Facebooks fact checkers, we dramatically decrease the distribution on our site, we warn you if youre about to share it, we warn you if you have shared it, and importantly, we show related articles next to that so people can see alternative facts. She continued: The fundamental view is that bad speech can often be countered by good speech, and if someone says something not true and they say it incorrectly, someone else has the opportunity to say, Actually, you are wrong. This is true, and thats what were working on through our systems. By deciding which political views are true and which are false, by censoring bad speech and promoting good speech, by replacing statements it disapproves of with alternative facts, Facebook is carrying out a deliberate and systematic effort to manipulate public opinion on behalf of its partners in the US intelligence agencies. The exact same methodology is used by Google, but on an even broader scale. While Facebook censors and tampers with the statements of users on its own proprietary platform, Googles censorship affects how the great majority of people all over the world find and access information on the public internet, for which the companys search service provides a vital guide. In his article, Wakabayashi presents Googles search ranking system as a mysterious black box. But its operation is far less secretive than he makes it appear. Googles response to millions of search queries is meticulously tracked and analyzed by private search analytics tools, which the World Socialist Web Site has used in its research. Moreover, Googles own statements make clear the mechanism by which it has implemented its censorship regime. The popularity of Googles search engine was based on the effectiveness of its PageRank algorithm, which functioned as a type of crowd-funded system based on the sentiments of the literate public. The more widely cited and linked a web domain was, the more highly it placed in searches. The World Socialist Web Site, with its vast, highly researched and extremely diverse catalog of articles on topics ranging from cinema to photography to the history and contemporary politics of nearly every country on earth, is widely cited on the internet and in printfrom books, to blogs, to academic research papers, student essays and the national press in developing countries. It was no surprise that a search for almost any contemporary geo-political topic would return articles from the World Socialist Web Site in the top 100, and often in the top 10 or top three listed results. Examples included: is the US going to war with Iran (first place), nuclear war China (first place), social inequality in the world (second place), poverty and social inequality (third place), anti-war literature (third place), and UAW (United Auto Workers) negotiations (third place). But in April of 2017, Google announced a radical change to its search ranking system. Instead of passively reflecting what internet users saw as authoritative, it would now base the rankings of search results on the input of search evaluators given clear instructions to down-rank sites whose narratives conflicted with those of the political mainstream. In his April 25, 2017 blog post announcing the changes to Googles algorithm, the companys vice president of engineering, Ben Gomes, linked to the guidelines issued to the companys evaluators, which made clear that Googles search engine should show results from sites presenting alternative viewpoints only if the query clearly indicates the user is seeking an alternative viewpoint. In a manner precisely consistent with this mechanism, pages from the World Socialist Web Site were, within two months, removed from results for the queries noted above. Wakabayashi made no serious effort to question Googles claims. He did not reach out for comment to the World Socialist Web Site, or, for that matter, any other critic of Google, of which there are not a few. But this type of self-censorship is endemic in the American media, which has systematically sought to downplay the vast constitutional implications of the censorship regime being built right before their eyes. To cite just one example, despite the fact that there were dozens of reporters in the room when Sheryl Sandberg declared her intention to replace bad speech with alternative facts, not a single US newspaper even reported the phrase. This self-censorship by the American press is shameful. It is a reminder of the power and vital importance of a free and open internet, which is essential in breaking the stranglehold of a media apparatus that will defend any official crime, no matter how flagrantly unconstitutional. Sandbergs statements are a warning that a massive escalation of the attack on freedom of speech and expression is in the making. There is limited time. We urgently appeal to all of our readers to join our struggle against internet censorship. The UK government and media have doubled down on their anti-Russian campaign following Wednesdays announcement by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that two men have been named as suspects in the poisoning of former Russian/British double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. The police released passport photos and CCTV images of two men in various locations, including Gatwick Airport and Salisbury. But despite hysterical news broadcasts and front-page headlines regarding Russian assassins, the public know nothing more substantively about the events of Sunday, March 4, than they did more than six months ago. CPS Director of Legal Services Sue Hemming said that evidence from counter-terrorism police meant it is clearly in the public interest to charge Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who are Russian nationals, with the attempted murder of Sergei, Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey. Prime Minister Theresa May then told parliament that, in addition to the police investigation, the security and intelligence agencies had conducted their own investigation and, 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 added: 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 Russian Foreign Ministry has categorically rejected the UKs claims, stating the names of the two men do not mean anything to us. May did not detail the intelligence she was supposedly acting on. Instead she singled out Russia as the main enemy of the West that had to be confronted, declaring, 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. Back in March, Russia sought to sow doubt and uncertainty about the evidence we presented to this Houseand some were minded to believe them, May told parliament. Todays announcement shows that we were right. Except that it doesnt. The new narrative is that Petrov and Boshirov flew into Gatwick airport on Friday, March 2. CCTV footage purportedly verifies this. They checked into a budget hotel in Bow, east London, and the next day, according to police, travelled to Salisbury, staying in the area for several hours, before returning to London. The pair then returned to Salisbury on Sunday, March 4. Police claim they are shown on CCTV at 11:58 a.m., on Wilton Road, moments before the attack on Sergei Skripal. The police say two more images show the suspects at Salisbury train station at 13.50 on Sunday, 4 March, as they embark on their journey back to London. Another image shows the suspects passing through passport control at London Heathrow at 19.28 on Sunday evening (4 March)in the image, Petrov is at the front and Boshirov at the back. Mays definitive assertion of Russian authorship was contradicted by Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, National Lead for Counter-Terrorism Policing. Asked by the press if he had any evidence that the two men were Russian State operatives, he said, No. Basu said in his statement that it is likely that they were travelling under aliases and that these are not their real names. BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera reported that he understood the authorities identified the pair a while back and may also know their real names. But if so, why are they not being made public? Former UK ambassador Craig Murray asked: 1. Why did two alleged GRU agents travel under false names and fake passports, but still use Russian names and Russian passports? If they had used EU passportssay from Lithuania or Estonia for examplethey wouldnt have needed a visa, thanks to EU freedom of movement agreements, and could still have spoken Russian without raising suspicion. Murray retweeted a statement from a freelance journalist, Neil Clark, pointing out: If the two men were identified coming through Gatwick, it is impossible that the police do not know what kind of visa they were travelling on. Something is very wrong hereties in with the fact that the photos released [showing grainy images of the mens faces on dark backgrounds] are not UK visa standard photos. Among the glaring oddities in the new account is that the two photos released of Petrov and Boshirov shows them both in what appears to be the same space at Gatwick airport at precisely the same second (16:22:43 on March 2, 2018.) Raising the physically impossibility, Murray suggests the CCTV images may have been doctored. The police are now claiming that the two are in different but similar places passing CCTV cameras at exactly the same time. The governments latest narrative fails to correspond with claims it has maintained for months that the Skripals were poisoned by novichok being applied to the front door knob of Sergeis house. Murray points out that the Skripals left their home at 9:15 a.m. on March 4 and were assumed not to have returned home, before they were found collapsed. But the Metropolitan Police state that Boshirov and Petrov did not arrive in Salisbury until 11.48 on the day of the poisoning. That means that they could not have applied a nerve agent to the Skripals doorknob before noon at the earliest. An article on the Off Guardian website noted that the police said the Bow Hotel was contaminated with novichok, but no one has been reported ill in six months at the hotel. Moreover, to contaminate the room the suspects would have to physically apply the poison to it, and since they allegedly left [sic] country on March 4ththe same day as the alleged attackthe contamination must have happened BEFORE Sergei Skripal was poisoned. Also, previously the Metropolitan Police said that it was connecting the poisoning of the Skripals with that of Dawn Sturgess and her partner Charley Rowley. Dawn died in hospital after being exposed to what was described as a novichok on July 8. Rowley is now seriously ill with reported meningitis. Yet Basu commented, 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. The governments narrative cannot be taken at face value, especially as it is supplied by the same security services that faked evidence of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction to justify pre-emptive war against Iraq. Moreover, the timing of the governments latest disclosure is highly suspect. Yesterday, the UK raised its new allegations against Moscow at the United Nations Security Council, after which the US, France, Germany and Canada issued a joint statement that the Russian government almost certainly approved the poisoning of the Skripals. The same day the European Union announced it was extending, for a further six months, the sanctions it had imposed on around 150 Russian individuals and 50 companies following the right-wing Western-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014. Complaints of Russian aggression in Crimea have been used to carry through a massive NATO build-up on Russias borders. May wants the EU to go further and follow the US, which imposed additional sanctions from August 27 on the basis that Russia had used chemical weapons in violation of international law or lethal chemical weapons against its own nationals. This include terminating aid, except on urgent humanitarian grounds, restricting access to US credit, ending aspects of financing and prohibiting exports to Russia of restricted goods or technology. Russia has 90 days to allow inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to verify it does not have chemical weapons, or Washington will impose a far more severe set of sanctions. These measures unfold as the US renews threats over the operation by forces loyal to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad against Al Qaeda affiliates that control the northwestern province of Idlib. Denouncing the threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran, the White House stated that, in the event of a chemical weapons attack, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately. Washington and London are not responding out of humanitarian concerns. They have backed the Al Qaeda-affiliated terror groups in Syria as part of their regime-change operations in the Middle East, and broader geostrategic objectives against Russia and Iran. As in previous instancesDouma in April for exampleWashingtons threats amount to an invitation to the Al Qaeda forces to stage an incident to justify military intervention by the US and its allies. A race for Congress in the Seventh District of Virginia between a CIA Democrat and a far-right Trump supporter has turned into a battlefield in the ongoing conflict within the US ruling class between sections of the military-intelligence apparatus and the Trump administration. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, whose main political credential is eight years as an undercover CIA operative, is denouncing the Republican Party for obtaining a copy of her full federal security clearance document, known as an SF-86, from when she applied for a job as a postal inspector, prior to joining the CIA. The SF-86 is supposed to be confidential and was released by the US Postal Service (USPS) to the Republicans, allegedly by mistake. The irony of a CIA operative complaining of dirty tricks on behalf of her political opponent is hard to top. Spanberger was an undercover CIA agent in Europe, during the period that the CIA operated torture prisons in eastern Europe for alleged terrorists, and CIA-chartered planes regularly flew prisoners, bound, gagged and blindfolded, between European locations, and other secret prisons in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Guantanamo Bay. Congressional Republicans, evidently viewing Spanbergers CIA record as her strong point, have sought to undermine it by publicizing the facttaken from the SF-86that she worked briefly as a substitute teacher in Alexandria, Virginia for a Saudi-financed Islamic school. She taught English there in 2002-2003, during the period she was waiting for the CIA to complete the lengthy background check required before she could begin work as a spy. A 2005 valedictorian of the school was later charged with joining al-Qaeda. The Republicans are using Spanbergers time as a teacher at the school in a reactionary attempt to stoke anti-Muslim bigotry and bolster the reelection campaign of right-wing Representative David Brat. According to the Democrats, Republican operatives are calling voters in the Seventh District, asking them if they knew she taught at a school, funded by the Saudis, where students were arrested for terrorism. This information reached the Republican Party by a dubious route. In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by America Rising, a conservative research group, the USPS released Spanbergers entire personnel folder, including her SF-86. The research group then passed Spanbergers information on to its client, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a Super PAC that has raised more than $100 million to assist Republicans in the midterm elections, including Representative Brat. On July 9, America Rising submitted a FOIA request to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), seeking records reflecting Ms. Spanbergers employment dates, annual salaries, title, and position description. On July 12, the NPRC informed America Rising that it sent the request to the USPS. On July 30, in response to the FOIA request, the Postal Service provided the security clearance document. Normally, the SF-86, which contains confidential medical and other highly personal information, would be withheld or heavily redacted under a FOIA privacy act exemption. Instead, not only did the Postal Service provide the document unredacted, but it responded to the FOIA request with remarkable swiftness. Normally, FOIA requests take six months or longer to garner a response. In fact, Spanbergers campaign filed its own FOIA request for her employment records in December and has still not received them. The speedy delivery of non-redacted records suggests the involvement of higher-level officials of the Trump administration. Ned Price, a former CIA officer and special assistant to President Barack Obama, told reporters on August 28, I have never once heard of an SF-86 being released to the public pursuant to a FOIA request and noted that it strains credulity to believe that it was a bureaucratic mistake. Last Thursday the Postal Service claimed that human error was to blame for the release of Spanbergers security clearance application. USPS told Spanberger that the FOIA request did not go through the standard procedure for an open records request, but was instead sent to the Postal Services human resources department where a new employee allegedly treated the request as though Spanberger was seeking the records herself. Rallying to Spanbergers defense, on August 30 more than 200 national security officials wrote to Daniel Coats, director of national intelligence, and Jeff T.H. Pon, director of the Office of Personnel Management, to declare their displeasure with the release of Spanbergers security clearance application, stating it was with surprise, anger, and profound disappointment that we recently learned that our government whether intentionally or not violated the trust of one among our ranks. It is possible this situation may be the result of a single persons error, the letter continued. Nevertheless, we note how peculiar it would be for the first victim of such an error to be Ms. Spanberger, who is the Democratic nominee in a competitive U.S. House of Representatives race in Virginia. ... Absent answers, however, we cannot dismiss the deeply troubling possibility that this was an act of political retribution by this administration in violation of U.S. law. Responding to the release of Spanbergers security clearance document, Elissa Slotkin, another CIA Democrat, running in Michigans 8th District, stated, These are kind of techniques that were used to seeing from our adversaries, she said, not from American political organizations. Also, in the wake of the release of Spanbergers records, House Democrat Elijah Cummings, apparently without irony, stated, The right to privacy is sacred, and we must take all appropriate steps to prevent further damage to the individuals whose information was compromised. Of course, such privacy rights do not extend to the vast bulk of the population, who are spied on by the National Security Agency, the CIA and other intelligence agencies on a massive scale. The Seventh District, which extends from the Richmond suburbs northward through a series of rural counties, reaching the exurbs of Washington DC. It was long a Republican stronghold and held by Eric Cantor, then House Majority Leader, until his upset defeat by Brat in the primary in 2014. An economics professor at a local college, Brat focused his campaign on right-wing anti-immigrant demagogy of the type subsequently employed by Trump in his presidential campaign. Because of mounting popular hostility to the Trump administration, particularly in the Richmond suburbs, the contest between Brat and Spanberger is considered too close to call. Along with the support of the military-intelligence apparatus, Spanberger has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and various liberal and womens groups, including NARAL Pro Choice America and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Prime Minister Theresa Mays three-day visit to Africa last week was part of the British governments attempt to drum up trade, promote investment and attract business for the City of London and Britains construction and security companies as the UK prepares to leave the European Union (EU) in March 2019. May promoted the trip, which took in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, as an opportunity for Britain to deepen and strengthen its global partnerships and to continue to work together to maintain stability and security. But it was in fact a reassertion of British imperialisms interest on the continent against the challenge from its major rivals. Africa is home to five of the worlds fastest growing economies, she said, although these were not the ones she visited. She described South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya as key partners for the UK after Brexit, with a combined GDP of about $770 billion. However, it should be noted that this total is similar to that of the Netherlands. Britains total trade with Africa in 2016 amounted to some $36 billion, compared with $305 billion with the EU and is a fraction of Chinas $188 billion trade with Africa. May took with her a 29-strong delegation, made up of figures from financial services, including David Schwimmer, the London Stock Exchanges chief executive, and Bill Winters, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, a bank with a long history of dealings in Africa, as well as executives from the construction, technology and security industries. She said that Britain aimed to overtake the US and become the biggest G7 investor in Africaalthough in 2017, British investment of $2.3 billion lagged far behind Chinas $8.9 billion in greenfield projects. She said this investment would be channelled through the CDC Group, the former Commonwealth Development Corporation and the Department for International Developments (DfID) development finance institution. The largest single investor in private equity funds in Africa, it would invest 3.5 billion in Africa by 2022, alongside similar private sector investment. The CDC has been heavily criticised for its investments in development projects such as hotels and shopping centresKenyas largest travel market is the UK with nearly 170,000 visitorsas well as losing most of its $140 million investment in a Kenyan cement maker. Mays statement marked an explicit shift in Britains foreign aid policy. While aid has always been about Britains geo-strategic interests, in future DfIDs aid budget will be used not to alleviate poverty but to boost Britains business interests, under the cover of job creation. This is in line with former International Development Secretary Priti Patels earlier argument that Britains aid budget should be cut unless it works in the national interest and was tied to trade deals. Based on the UKs National Security Councils new Africa strategy, May said Britain would radically expand its diplomatic presence in Africa and expand its missions in west Africa. This would include reopening its high commissions in Lesotho and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), appointing the first-ever resident British ambassador to Mauritania and opening the first British diplomatic office in Chad, to be paid for by transferring 50 million from the foreign aid budget. It marks a change in focus towards the western Sahel region. May also focused on security cooperation, saying she wanted to boost security and support for fragile African states that would involve help and support from Britains armed forces and growing security industry. In part at least, this is bound up with efforts to reduce migration to Europe, with Britain sending three RAF Chinook helicopters to work with French forces in Mali earlier this year. But vital geo-strategic issues are involved. According to Michael Jennings of the Royal African Society, security cooperation would also include development projects in the high-risk conflict zones of the Sahel, based on British expertise developed in Syria and Afghanistan. The UK already provides Nigeria counter-terrorism and counter-extremism support and carries out military training in Kenya. Last year, London hosted a conference on Somalia; Chancellor Philip Hammond visited South Africa in late 2016; DfID Secretary Liam Fox visited Ethiopia, South Africa, Mozambique and Uganda in 2017; former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited more African countries than any senior UK government official in many years and attended the Africa-EU summit in Cote dIvoire; and Patel and her successor Penny Mordaunt visited several African countries over the past two years. May visited Africas two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa, and Kenya, which ranks ninth. In South Africa, Britains 29th largest trading partner at $8.7 billion in 2016, she met President Cyril Ramaphosa. She went on to Nigeria, home to the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell, which controls more than 20 percent of Nigerias oil production, meeting President Muhammadu Buhari in the capital Abuja, and pledging to help fight terrorism and human trafficking. She also made a brief stop-over in Lagos, where she met Aliko Dangote, Africas richest man, who recently indicated that he would list his $10 billion cement business on the London Stock Exchange. Half of Nigerias 180 million population exist on less than $1.90 a day. Her last stop was in Kenya, where President Uhuru Kenyatta treated her with some disdain, complaining that no British prime minister had set foot in the country for 30 years, and saying he was pleased she had found time to visit. He then made a show of forgetting the surname of the former foreign secretary and hard Brexit advocate, Boris Johnson. The Daily Nation newspaper noted sarcastically that the last time a British prime minister came to Kenya, Land Rover was the official government car, East African Industries [now Unilever] was market leader and most Kenyans banked at Barclays. Mays trip only highlighted Britains political, diplomatic and economic decline over the last decades. However, Britain is still one of the worlds main military powers, with a nuclear arsenal and the Brexit crisis is propelling it seek to new markets, including ones in its former colonies in Africa and Asiaincluding by military means. Whereas Mays trip was the first by a prime minister since 2011, aside from David Camerons brief trip to attend Nelson Mandelas funeral in 2013, French President Emmanuel Macron has already visited eight African countries and Chinese leaders have made no fewer than 79 trips since 2007. German chancellor Angela Merkel was also in Africa the same week as May, with her tour including visits to three West African countries: Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. She was accompanied by around a dozen German CEOs and investors. Britains declining position in Africa is reflected in the number of its diplomatic missions, just 31, compared to Germanys 39, Chinas 46, and Americas 49. France has 42 in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Turkey, which had 12 embassies in 2009 now has 39, while India announced in July it would open 12 new embassies. Crucially, Britain has had no less than six ministers of state for Africa since 2012. Just days after Mays visit, Beijing is hosting the huge Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, expected to be the largest ever, where China will welcome dozens of African heads of state and is expected to offer new trade and finance deals. It follows President Xi Jinpings second tour of Africa when he visited Senegal, Rwanda, Mauritius and South Africa. Last Fridays assassination of Alexander Zakarchenko, the head of the breakaway Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine, is exacerbating already heightened tensions between Russia and the Western imperialist powers. The 42-year-old leader of the Russian-backed rebel state died in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on the evening of August 31. According to official sources, an improvised explosive device was placed in the restaurant before the prime minister arrived for dinner. Zakharchenkos body guard was also killed. Twelve others, including the minister of finance, were injured. Dmitri Trapeznikov, Zakharchenkos deputy, has been appointed temporary head of government, and the republics parliament will vote on holding new elections this Friday. Over 100,000 people attended the slain politicians funeral on Sunday. The DNR and Moscow blame Kiev for the attack. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russias Foreign Ministry, denounced the Ukrainian government of Petro Poroshenko on Friday for implementing a terrorist scenario and resorting to bloody means. An official press release decried the murder as an event that runs along Kievs logic of a military solution to the internal Ukrainian crisis. It warned, Such actions carry the serious risk of destabilizing the situation in southeast Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin, without directly accusing Ukraine of involvement, paid tribute to Zakharchenko and described his murder as a dastardly crime. The speaker of the DNR Parliament, Denis Pushilin, insisted that the murder was carried out by Kiev with the aid of US special operations forces. The head of Ukraines security services, Igor Guskov, denied the countrys involvement. He stated that Zakharchenkos death was either the result of infighting among warring factions inside the DNR or an act carried out by Russia, which wished to remove the allegedly troublesome Zakharchenko from power. Moscow has dispatched investigators from its own Federal Security Services (FSB) to the DNR and called for an international investigation into the murder. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has said it is considering the matter. After initially circulating images of two suspects wanted by police on Wednesday, DNR officials declared that the individuals in question were no longer being sought. Zakharchenkos murder is one of a series of recent assassinations of prominent military and political figures in Ukraines two breakaway republics where there is a complex web of relationships between politicians, wealthy oligarchs, and state actors. The fighting in the Ukraines southeast stems back to the US-backed, far-right coup in the country in February 2014. Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraines president, who was moving in the direction of closer ties with Moscow, was driven from power in a wave of protests and violence led by ferociously anti-Russian, Ukrainian nationalists with the support of Berlin and Washington. As millions of ethnically Russian citizens fled Ukraine, a separatist movement took hold in the largely Russian-speaking eastern coal-mining region known as the Donbass. The DNR and its sister state, the Lugansk Peoples Republic (LNR), supported by Russia, formed out of this conflict. Powerful sections of the American ruling class, which are braying for war with Russia, see the conflict in Ukraine, like that in Syria, as an important front. After Zakharchenkos murder, DNR officials declared a state of emergency in the region and placed the military on high alert. They said that Ukrainian armored vehicles had been seen advancing on Volnovakha-Dokuchaevsk, a frontline south of Donetsk. Daniel Bezsonov, spokesperson for the DNRs operational command, stated Sunday that large numbers of foreign mercenaries, including US and Canadian forces, had arrived in Ukraine and joined two of Kievs artillery and infantry brigades in preparation for a major attack. Eduard Bazurin, a DNR military leader, said that Ukrainian shock troops have also been deployed to the southeastern city of Mariupol. The Ukrainian military also stated last weekend that anti-government attacks were escalating in the Donbass. On Monday, joint Ukrainian-NATO exercises started in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov. American Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch declared at the opening ceremony that the ten countries involved stand in solidarity with Ukraine for Ukrainian security, Ukrainian sovereignty, and Ukrainian territorial integrity. The murder of Zakharchenko may be the death knell of the Minsk II peace accords, agreed in 2015 between Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany (known as the Normandy Four), and to which Zakharchenko was a signatory. That agreement, which was supposed to stop the fighting and grant the DNR and LNR limited recognition, has been repeatedly violated by the Ukrainian army and far-right paramilitary stationed on the border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared Saturday that forthcoming talks among the Normandy Four to discuss the implementation of Minsk II were now impossible. Zakharchenkos murder is a provocation, a frank one, aimed at frustrating the implementation of Minsk accords. Although, Kyiv authorities never fulfilled them anyway, he added. While France and Germany initially insisted that the assassination not be used to further escalate tensions, on Wednesday the European Union (EU) extended sanctions against 154 Russian individuals and 44 Russian companies over the countrys involvement in Ukraine. The number of sanctioned individuals dropped by 1, as the now-dead Zakharchenko was removed from the list. The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature. Europe Striking Croatian shipbuilders return to work The 4,500 striking shipbuilders working for the Uljanik yard returned to work Monday. They had been striking for two weeks over non-payment of wages. The Croatian government, which has a 25 percent share in the company, intervened to cover the wage arrears. The struggle of the shipbuilders received support from local people who joined marches and protests organised by the strikers. The workers also demanded the resignation of the president of the management board, who they accused of bringing about the financial crisis. He resigned his position last week. However, the financial crisis remains, and a restructuring plan is awaiting the perusal of the European Commission while a search has begun for a private investor to come in. French unions propose autumn strike The General Confederation of Labour together with the Force Ouvriere and student unions have issued a call for a strike on October 9. They issued the call in opposition to French President Macrons ideological policies targeting the destruction of our social model, favouring notably the explosion of inequality and the breaking of collective rights. The unions view the strike as an exercise in letting off steam with no perspective to oppose Macrons continuing attacks. Despite the opposition by striking rail workers this year opposing the privatization of the state-owned SNCF Rail Company and destruction of conditions, the unions allowed the French government to push through its plans. Unions representing Air France employees have called for strikes in the autumn but have not set any dates for action. The union bureaucracy is mounting a nationalist campaign of opposition to the appointment of a Canadian as chief CEO of Air France. Strike by security staff at Dutch airport called off A planned strike by around 4,000 security staff at Schiphol airport in Holland, due to have taken place on Monday, was called off by the three unions representing the staff. The unions are De Unie Security, FNV and CNV. Security staff were seeking a three percent pay rise and more time off between shifts. The unions and management agreed a deal giving a one-off 700 payment plus a five percent pay rise for 2019 and 2020 as well as an agreement on shorter working hours. Further strikes by Irish pharmacy staff Around 200 staff working for the Lloyds Pharmacy chain in Ireland came out on strike on Monday and Tuesday. The members of the Mandate union are seeking union recognition, a pay increase, an improved sick pay scheme and an end to zero-hour contracts. The strike led to the closure of nine pharmacies in Dublin with another around 30 outlets partially affected by the strike. Mandate represents around a third of the more than 900 employees at Lloyds Pharmacy. In spite of a recommendation by the Labour Court that Lloyds recognize Mandate, it has refused to do so. The company has brought in a severance scheme as it seeks to reduce staff numbers through voluntary redundancies. Further strikes are planned for the first three days of October and the first three days of November, as well as November 5. UK rail strikes continue Rail conductors working for Arriva Rail North are due to hold a 24-hour strike Saturday, with three further 24-hour strikes planned for the next three weekends. It is the latest strike in a series of strikes over the last year against plans by the private rail franchises to extend the use of driver only operated (DOO) trains. Conductors working for South Western Railway are also due to hold a 24-hour strike on Saturday, with a further strike planned for next weekend over DOO. The conductors are members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT). The RMT has signed a deal with Merseyrail, whereby a new fleet of trains due to come into service in 2021 will operate with a form of DOO, as drivers will be responsible for closing train doors, and not the guard. The RMT said that the government mediation service ACAS brokered a deal allowing a second member of staff on the train. The press release notes that the second member of staff will be financed partly by productivity agreements between the RMT and Merseyrail. The RMT has limited action to regional, short-term strikes to isolate and dissipate struggles, without fundamentally affecting rail operations. It has also sealed deals with some private rail franchises such as ScotRail and Greater Anglia over DOO. Strike of Greek ferry workers Greek ferry crew workers represented by the PNO union struck on Monday to demand a five percent pay increase following eight years of a pay freeze. It affected nearly 200,000 tourists who had booked trips to and from the many Greek islands. Following a two percent pay rise offer, the PNO ordered its members back to work during the day on Tuesday. UK bus workers vote for strike against low pay Around 150 bus drivers working for the Trentbarton bus company operated by the Wellgrade Group in the East Midlands have voted by a 70 percent majority to strike. The members of Unite will strike on September 10 to be followed by further action on September 17 and 24, with more stoppages planned for October and November. They have rejected a 2.5 percent pay rise offer. Around 450 Unite members at another Wellgrade subsidiary, the Trent Motor Traction Company, have also rejected the 2.5 percent offer and may push for a vote. In an indictment of its own role, Unite noted in a press release that some of the bus drivers have had to resort to food bank usage because of low pay. Further strikes planned by staff at Liverpool John Lennon airport Around 80 staff at John Lennon airport in northwest England have announced they will strike later this month. The GMB union members will strike on September 13, 19, 24 and 26 with further dates in October planned. The workers are responsible for rescue and fire fighting, control room operations, engineering and driver operations. They previously held a 36-hour strike at the end of August. Staff voted by a near 70 percent majority to reject managements latest pay offer of a 2.2 percent pay offer plus a one-off 150 lump sum. This was an increase on their initial offer of two percent. The union has dropped its claim for a 3.6 percent rise down to three percent. Strike of council staff in Scotland announced Council staff working for East Dunbartonshire council in Scotland are to strike on September 12. The members of the Unison, Unite and GMB unions have called the strike over a range of issues including annual leave, overtime pay and unsocial hours payments. If it goes ahead the strike will hit schools, refuse bin collections and homecare services. The unions have stressed they are open to further discussions to avert the strike. UK: Birmingham care workers continue struggle Around 250 care workers employed by Labour Party controlled Birmingham City Council completed a five-day strike last week bringing the total days of strike to 17 so far. The Unison union members are set to walk out for a further five days on September 24 and again on October 5. They work for the enablement team offering support to people discharged from hospital to adjust to life back in their own homes. Birmingham council is seeking to cut the teams budget by 2 million. To do this, the council wants to cut the workforce. In January, at the beginning of the dispute, it sought to get rid of around 40 percent of the workforce and in the course of the dispute has cut the workforce by nearly 50 percent. It also wants to cut working hours and outsource parts of its service. Strike by UK crane assemblers continues Thirty construction crane assemblers working for the Liebherr Group in Sunderland in northeast England are continuing their programme of strikes. Their latest two-day action by the Unite members was due to begin yesterday. Further action is planned in October. They are protesting an inadequate pay offer, with the latest offer by the company a 3.2 percent pay rise plus an extra days paid leave at Christmas or a straight 3.3 percent pay rise. Middle East Israeli bus drivers set to strike Bus drivers working for Egged Transportation and Superbus were due to carry out a countrywide one-day strike on September 2 between 4am and 4pm. The strike was set to coincide with the first day of school for many Israeli school children. They are employed as private drivers but when driving public transport buses are not paid at the same rate as public transport drivers who are directly employed. They were protesting the failure by the Ministry of Finance to keep to an agreement to increase the drivers pay to NIS 43 ($12) a month by the end of August. Strike by Israeli consulate support staff Around 600 support staff at Israeli consulates around the world held a strike August 30. The surprise action was to protest delays in discussions with the Finance Ministry over concerns by the support staff about working conditions. Africa Protesting Swaziland workers attacked by paramilitary police Protesting Swaziland textile workers, mainly women at Juris manufacturers, Nhlangano, were fired on by a force of around 200 paramilitary police last Thursday. The police were supported by prison warders equipped with riot shields and batons. An injured pregnant woman had to be taken to hospital. Workers were protesting over poor pay and the company responded by locking them out. Workers confronted police by demanding to know why their workmates had been attacked. The attack on the textile workers follows nurses being tasered by police on a demonstration in Mebane, and a school teacher suffering a gunshot wound while protesting in Mazini just over a week ago. The protests by nurses and teachers were against the governments refusal to offer an annual wage increase. South African gold miners set to strike company Gold miners at South Africas Harmony Gold Phakisa mines received a certificate to strike from the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration. A strike was to start at the beginning of last Sundays night shift. The National Union of Mineworkers claim Harmonys management is in the process of eliminating all past agreements with the NUM, leaving it no choice but to strike. South Africa former waste disposal workers demonstrate for jobs Workers denied employment at Pikitup waste disposal services in Johannesburg, South Africa continue to protest. Operations in four of the provinces areas had to be suspended as aggrieved workers disrupted collections. Police are being brought in to escort waste collections in an attempt to defeat protests. The long running dispute was created when an employment schemejozie@workwas disbanded, leaving many without jobs and only a few employed. Nigerian aviation workers set to picket airport terminals for reinstatements Nigeria airport workers are set to picket Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) terminal in Lagos next week. Management of the airport terminal, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), walked out of a meeting with the governments aviation authority, while attempts were being made to settle a dispute over union representation. The unions are protesting the sacking of 26 workers that had attempted to join a union of their choice. Two unions in dispute with management, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, planned to picket the terminal on Thursday. Nigerian Labour Congresses end strike without pay resolution A strike by public sector workers in Osun state called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has ended. The two labour bodies called a three-day warning strike over many months of unpaid workers wages and pensions. Although no resolution to the wages and pension deficits was forthcoming at the end of the strike period, no further action is planned. The NLC and the TUC claimed the government was out of town last week and they had promised to meet them this week. Kenyan hospital staff strike over wages and resignation demand Hospital staff at Embu Level Five Hospital Kenya came out on strike Monday demanding the resignation of Chief Executive Officer, Moses Njue. Staff including nurses, clinical officers and lab technicians protested outside the CEOs office. A consultant, Mary Njoroge, claims Njue physically assaulted her by slapping her face and verbally embarrassed her in front of patients. The Kenyan National Union of Nurses (KNUN) said they will not return until the CEO is removed. In a separate dispute nurses, also KNUN members, in Nakuru City hospitals, Kenya are continuing their strike over two months of unpaid wages. The county authorities failed in their promise to pay wages by August 28. They came out last Wednesday after protesting at Nakurus Level Five hospital over their wages, promotions and lack of drugs. The Trump administration is walking back the notion of an imminent pullout of US forces from Syria, promising to remain until there is an "enduring defeat" of ISIS. "This means we are not in a hurry to pull out," said Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, the newly appointed US special representative, noting that creating conditions in Syria where ISIS or another terrorist group can't return may take a while. Continents and regions Donald Trump Eastern Europe Europe Idlib Iran ISIS ISIS airstrikes Middle East Middle East and North Africa North America Political Figures - US Russia Syria Syria conflict The Americas United States Unrest, conflicts and war Jeffrey, a former US ambassador to Turkey, said the US was "shifting its position" to remain active in the country and to push for a complete withdrawal of all Iranian forces from Syrian territory. Though President Donald Trump has previously expressed a desire to pull US forces out of Syria, Jeffrey said the President "is on board" with the new approach. Jeffrey spoke to reporters as Russian forces prepare for an all-out assault on Syria's Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold. Trump and his top officials have called attention to the impending Syrian government offensive in recent days, warning the Syrian regime and its backers Russia and Iran not to use chemical weapons or recklessly cause civilian deaths. Jeffrey, who just returned from a trip to the Middle East and Turkey, called the situation in Idlib "very dangerous" and warned Syria and Russia against an assault. "Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation," he said, adding that "there is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared." On Wednesday, Trump warned the Syrian regime that "the world is watching" and expressed concern about the 3 million civilians living there. His comments evoked past US warnings about Syrian military activities and the regime's use of chemical weapons, which has previously triggered US military strikes against Syrian targets. The US slapped sanctions on several companies with ties to the Assad government Thursday. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that "millions of innocent people in Idlib province are currently under the threat of imminent attack from the Assad regime, backed by Iran and Russia, under the pretense of targeting ISIS." An estimated 15 to 20 percent of the 60,000 to 70,000 Syrian rebels in Idlib are believed to be terrorists and Jeffrey said the US "asked repeatedly for permission" from the Russians to rid the area of the terrorists in order to avoid a mass assault. Turkey was also seeking to prevent a mass attack on Idlib at a summit among Russian-Iranian-Turkish leaders planned for Friday in Tehran. With the campaign against ISIS winding down and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad crushing the vast majority of his opposition, Jeffrey said it was time for a "major diplomatic offensive" in the weeks leading up to the United Nations General Assembly later this month. Jeffrey said the goal is to produce a political solution in Syria that stops the fighting and prevents conditions for a return of ISIS or another extremist group. He said Assad has "no future as a ruler" of Syria but that it was not Washington's job to get rid of him. Jeffrey said the new US approach is more suspicious of Russia amid "growing skepticism" that Moscow is either willing or capable of assisting the US with its goal of pushing "all Iranian-commanded forces from the entirety of Syria." "The consequences of that are that we will shift our positions and use all of our tools to make it clear that we'll have to find ways to achieve our goals that are less reliant on the goodwill of the Russians," Jeffrey said. As President Donald Trump jetted to Montana on Thursday night to give a campaign speech at a rally for Matt Rosendale, here's what was on his plate: A book by Bob Woodward, which isn't even out until Tuesday, making the case that top aides to Trump belittle him in private and work to circumvent his decisions on major issues in order to protect the country An anonymous New York Times op-ed from a senior person in his administration that suggests there is an organized group aimed at resisting and defusing Trump's worst instincts. The ongoing probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and the possibility that Russians colluded with members of the Trump campaign. A midterm election in which all signs point to a Republican washout and the loss of the party's majority -- a scenario that, if it comes to pass, would make the possibility of impeachment proceedings a very real thing. That's not all that's on Trump's mind. But, man oh man, just those four things is A LOT. Now, Trump has said throughout his life that he thrives under pressure. "You can't be successful if you can't handle pressure" is one of his most famous quotes. But has Trump ever dealt with pressure like this? Making a business deal -- even a multi-billion dollar one -- is one thing. Dealing with a near-coup within the White House -- even as a former FBI director looks into various aspects of your life and business -- is another. And Trump faces this unique pressure with deep distrust both toward and among his staff, and without the ability to change much of anything that is backing him into corner. He can't un-publish Woodward's book. He can't force the Times to tell him the name of the op-ed author. He can't make Mueller end his probe (although he could try). If past is prologue, a cornered Trump is a dangerous one. Always impetuous and mercurial, those traits seem to be heightened when Trump feels constrained -- limited in the choices he can make or the people he can trust. The Point : Look out. If you thought Trump tweeting "TREASON?" earlier this week was over the top, you might not have seen the extent of his unpredictability. Read Thursday's full edition of The Point newsletter, and sign up to get future editions delivered to your inbox. "We all have a right to express our opinions, and if they are different than the government, that doesn't mean we should be murdered or that we are terrorists," Josefa Esterlina Meza, 55, told me. She was clutching a photo of her son Jonathan Sebastian Morazan Meza, 21, who was allegedly murdered by government forces while attending a protest in Nicaragua on May 30. The government denies it had any part in his death, but Meza asks who else would have done it. On September 2, Meza took to the streets yet again to protest peacefully with some of the other "Mothers of April," all of whom allege their children were murdered or imprisoned by forces loyal to President Daniel Ortega. She reflected: "We aren't animals. We are thinking people, and we have the right to have an opinion." Central America Continents and regions Donald Trump Latin America Nicaragua Political Figures - US The Americas Banking, finance and investments Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Compensation and benefits Crime, law enforcement and corrections Crimes against persons Criminal offenses Daniel Ortega Employment and income status Families and children Freedom of press Freedom of speech Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Homicide Human rights International relations and national security Journalism and news media Labor and employment Media industry Murder North America Parents and parenting Pension and retirement plans Pensions Personal finance Political Figures - Intl Protests and demonstrations Retirement and retirees Savings (financial) Social and economic status Society United States US federal government White House Workers and professionals Sadly, the notion of freedom to protest felt like it was under siege further north, too. This week, as mothers gathered in the streets of Nicaragua to protest, women in the United States, some dressed as figures from "The Handmaid's Tale," stood outside Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing in Washington in silent protest. The situation in Nicaragua that led to nationwide protests began in April, when the Ortega government, after years of suppressing freedom of the press and freedom of expression, proposed reforms to the pension system. Students, knowing that the reforms would endanger the welfare of their parents and grandparents, took to the streets to protest and support pensioners. On April 19, pro-government forces associated with the Ortega government murdered three protesters and in the following days and months killed hundreds more. Protesters aren't being slaughtered in the United States, but the country's Handmaids still have much to protest as the Trump administration has sought to discredit free speech and peaceful protest. The administration has withheld tens of thousands of documents related to Kavanaugh's judicial record, one that women worry means he will limit their sexual and reproductive rights should he be confirmed. In response to the mothers gathered in the streets of Managua, Nicaragua, unidentified gunmen who protesters identified as pro-government operatives, opened fire. Although no one was hurt, the shots had all of us running for cover, videos of previous protesters who had been murdered fresh in our minds. Meanwhile, in response to the women gathered in the US, President Donald Trump said, "I don't know why they don't take care of a situation like that. I think it's embarrassing for the country to allow protesters. You don't even know what side the protesters are on." Ortega, like Trump, has suggested that you don't know what side protesters might be on, saying: "What is happening in our country has no name. The kids do not even know the party that is manipulating them." He has even gone so far as to call protest a form of "terrorism." Ortega has executed a plan to prevent protests at all costs. In August, Ortega, who has been in power with his wife, who is vice president, since 2006, passed an anti-terrorism law to criminalize protesters as terrorists. According to Gonzalo Carrion, the legal advisor for the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, government forces and pro-government groups have killed 311 protesters since April, most of them students, including 18 minors. Carrion explained that in Nicaragua "under a dictatorship, all forms of freedom of expression are repressed." Ortega, like Trump, has an Orwellian sensibility when it comes to the truth. For example, in July during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention, Trump said of the media: "What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening." Ortega, in a similar rejection of reality, has accused human rights organizations of "inventing deaths." I arrived in Nicaragua on September 1, and on that same day he expelled a UN team from the country after they published a report critical of his government's violent repression of protesters. When photographer Jacky Muniello and I covered the September 2 protest we found out firsthand what it feels like to have the government attempt to prevent protests: armed police tried to silence the peaceful protesters with threats, insults, beatings, gunshots and then we saw them set a truck on fire. I watched as mothers with young daughters stood up to the police, as a group of young women stenciled the faces of political prisoners onto the street, and all I could think of was the bravery of the protesters, risking their lives to peacefully request that the government respect the rule of law. When President Trump suggests that he doesn't think protests should be allowed, it is important that we ask him to define what he means. The history of our country is built on the selfless work of peaceful protesters who have taken to the streets to demand equality -- from suffragettes to those demanding Civil Rights. In Nicaragua, citizens have paid the ultimate price for peacefully expressing their opinions. Meza, who says she is threatened daily by the government after the murder of her son, has fled her home and sent her younger son to Costa Rica. As Trump continues his crusade against freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the US, we would do well to remember what the erosion of these rights look like in other countries. BRAZIL, Ind. (WTHI) - One Wabash Valley school took the chance to show some appreciation for their hometown heroes. On Friday morning, students at Forest Park Elementary School hosted breakfast for first responders across Clay County. It began five years ago, only honoring police officers. Now, the kids invite all first responders. Principal Doug Jorgensen told us he wants his students to appreciate those men and women who serve our community every day...but also know they are normal people too. "It's awesome...I mean there's no way to describe that because it gives you goosebumps. It gives you chills whenever you see all of these first responders standing there and all of these students cheering and clapping. It was a genuine appreciation and it really made me feel good," Jorgensen said. They plan to keep the yearly tradition going next year. CORINTH, Miss. (WTVA) - The Mississippi Trauma Advisory Committee recently recommended the re-designation of Corinths hospital as a Level III Trauma Center and Primary Pediatric Center. However, this requires a Corrective Action Plan be completed. Specifics of the plan are unknown. Magnolia Regional Health Center is finalizing their response to the plan. We have no reason to believe that Magnolia will not be successful in meeting the Corrective Action Plan and keeping its Level III designation, stated Jim Craig, Director of Health Protection, Mississippi State Department of Health. Trauma centers are ranked in four levels. Level I is the best and most accommodating for trauma patients. A Level III center is expected to provide initial resuscitation of the trauma patient and immediate operative intervention to control hemorrhage and to assure maximal stabilization prior to referral to a higher level of care. GRENADA, Miss. (WTVA) -- A Winona man trapped between two rail cars is in a Jackson hospital tonight. Grenada fire officials say Kennon Lollar was seriously injured at Grenada's North Rail Yard off Highway 332 Wednesday afternoon. The fire chief says it took them roughly two hours to pull Lollar from the two cars and he lost a lot of blood. Family members on facebook say Lollar is at University Mississippi Medical Center where he underwent surgery. Mississippi Blood Services said on its facebook page that Lollar suffered extensive damage to his legs. They held two special blood drives for Lollar Thursday who they say will be undergoing future procedures. Another special blood drive will be held for Lollar on Tuesday, September 11, at Winona Christian School from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. If you are not able to attend, you can give also blood at any of the Mississippi Blood Services locations in Oxford, Jackson or Greenville. Just be sure to use the code DR83 so that Kennon Lollar can receive credit. JACKSON, Miss. (Press Release) This week, the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor issued a demand letter to John Cullen, CEO of Payliance Inc. The demand is for $234,729.67 and includes principal, interest, and investigative costs. In 2010, Mississippi Development Authority awarded a $400,000 grant to the Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce to be administered to Payliance Inc. The grant required the company to create 60 jobs at its Oxford location to avoid default. From August 2010 to May 2011, Payliance received $174,233.87 from the ACE Fund, which is administered by Mississippi Development Authority. No employment verification was submitted to Mississippi Development Authority or Mississippi Office of the State Auditor. Payliance has now relocated to Ohio. State Auditor Shad White said: The fact that Payliance has moved to a different state is not going to stop us from pursuing the money that is owed to the taxpayers. The Investigations Division worked hard to complete this case in the last month, and I thank them for their diligence. We have to ensure that companies that make promises to Mississippians keep those promises or pay back what they owe us. WINSTON COUNTY, Ala. (WTVA) - Multiple people were sent to hospitals following a crash involving a University of Alabama-Birmingham passenger bus. The crash happened Friday at 12:12 p.m. on Valley Drive in Winston County, Alabama. Alabama law enforcement says the bus traveled down a steep hill, through an intersection, struck a large rock, then a tree. Officers say the bus had 27 occupants. Eleven injured passengers were transported from the scene. Seven were taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham and four to Cullman Regional Medical Center in Cullman. The university says most of the occupants are pediatric residents who were returning from a retreat at Camp McDowell. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The term "fake news" refers to news that has been distorted or entirely not true, and social media seems to be a breeding ground for that kind of reporting. Social media posts are able to originate from anywhere in the world and their website may even look authentic. We spoke with Francine Huff, the Knight Chair for Student Achievements at Florida A&M University who says it's important however to not just rely on one source for your news, whether it's social media, newspapers, TV, or radio. This will allow you to see sides of a story, and you become more informed on what you believe in. "It helps you become more informed, more well-rounded. You can just make better decisions about the political process, about other things going on in society," said Huff. "You can only do that when you are interested and curious enough to go out and look up information on your own." CORAL GABLES, FL (RNN) A man trying to evade police jumped into an algae-filled canal and quickly realized he'd made a mistake. Abraham Duarte, 22, was attempting to escape Coral Gables officers when he stopped his car, dashed across a freeway and dived into the canal. It was all captured on a police body camera over the weekend. Duarte told The Washington Post that he wasn't thinking clearly when he jumped in. "There was too much adrenaline," Duarte told the Post. "I had a panic attack." He said he ran from police because hed had "not-so-nice encounters in the past." The algae Duarte jumped into is toxic. It kills animals and also stinks. Soon after plunging into the water, Duarte calls for help from the responding officer. "Im going to die," Duarte said to the officer as he struggles to swim to shore. He appeared to be trapped in the algae. "Come on out. You going to make me really angry if I have to come in and get you," the officer said to Duarte. According to the news release, Wayne Farms became aware of the problem after a customer complaint on July 27. The company launched an investigation and reported its findings to the Food Safety and Inspection Service on Tuesday. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - We are remembering one of Tallahassees great pioneers, Earnest Adams, a retired firefighter of 25 years for the city, who passed away last Tuesday. Now, leaders in the Capital City are pushing to create a memorial in his honor. Adams blazed his own trail in 1971 when he joined the Tallahassee Fire Department in 1971 as the first African-American to do so. "Earnest Adams paved the way for our current leadership, obviously he was a role model to his colleagues, a role model to this community," said Delaitre Hollinger, President of NAACP Tallahassee Branch. In 1997, after serving 26 years of service, Adams retired as Deputy Chief of Administration, sparking future generations of African-Americans to join the department. "Through his contributions and those who he was able to pave the way for, that little boys and even little girls who look like me who are able to say 'I can too accomplish that goal,'" said Hollinger. Adams passed away on August 28 at the age of 74. Now some Tallahassee leaders say a statue should memorialize the pioneer, similar to the statue of Fred Lee Sr., the first African-American police officer for the city. I think that type of memorial based on what he contributed to this city would be very appropriate, so that his family and the city have a perpetual memorial of his pioneering efforts to integrate the fire department here in the city of Tallahassee and what he meant to this community in saving lives and properties through his role with the fire department," said Curtis Richardson, Mayor Pro Temp for Tallahassee. Richardson says he plans to bring the idea of a statue at the next city commission meeting on September 12 to continue to honor the man who broke barriers. Funeral services for Earnest Adams will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday at Meridian Woods Church of Christ. HAMILTON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - The Florida Department of Corrections says there was no "riot" reported at the Hamilton County Correctional Facility. FDC posted an update on Twitter Friday afternoon: There was no riot at Hamilton Correctional Institution Annex. The earlier incident is over, and everything is completely under control. FL Dept. Corrections (@FL_Corrections) September 7, 2018 Michelle Glady, the Director of Communications for the Florida Department of Corrections, sent a statement to WTXL that explains there were around 100 inmates on the recreation field when some inmates started "acting out and became non-compliant": "During outside recreation, there were approximately 100 inmates on the recreation field when a number of inmates began acting out and became noncompliant. Institutional response teams immediately responded, and due to their swift and methodical approach, the situation was brought under control with no injuries to staff or inmates. Outside law enforcement responded in an abundance of caution to secure the perimeter and never entered the secure facility." Glady says teams immediately responded and quickly got the situation under control. She said no staff or inmates were injured. "There is absolutely no indication that this incident occurred as a result of any national movement or organization," Glady wrote. Hamilton County Superintendent Rex Mitchell confirmed that they heightened security at the schools, though none of the schools were placed on lockdown. He issued the following statement to WTXL: "Throughout the day, the school board was updated to any changing conditions regarding the incident at the prison. There was never any kind of breach, therefore there was never an immediate threat to any of our schools. However, we did take precautionary measures and did heighten security a bit. We remained alert, and followed every protocol and proper procedure. At no point were any of our schools on lockdown." HAMILTON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Authorities from across North Florida are currently responding to the Hamilton County Correctional Facility for a "riot situation." According to city sources, prisoners at the Hamilton County Correctional Facility have started a riot in an attempt to take over the annex rec yard. First Coast News reports that authorities are coming in from as far as Jacksonville to assist. News4Jax learned that about 25 troopers froom Lake City and 25 more from Jacksonville were sent to the state prison just outside Jasper. Hamilton High School confirmed they are not on lock down despite the riot. The Florida Department of Corrections says they are, "aware of active incident and are continuing to gather info on what is happening there." They say they will provide updates when information becomes available. It is unknown if any inmates or correctional officers have been injured. WTXL is working to get more details. VALDOSTA, Ga. (WTXL) - Valdosta's City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve a proposal to allow for microbreweries in city limits. The proposal came after the Georgia Beer Company decided to open a microbrewery in Valdosta. That company will now be able to make and sell a limited amount of alcohol after getting a license. It is set to open in early November. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 22:16:07|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close HANGZHOU, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The first China-Africa Private Sector Cooperation Summit was held in the city of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province Thursday. More than 300 representatives from governments, private sectors and institutions of China and African countries attended the summit. Themed "Deepen the cooperation in the private economy between China and Africa", the summit aims to implement the Belt and Road Initiative, build a platform for the exchange and cooperation between Chinese and African enterprises, promote high-quality cooperation, realize mutual benefit and win-win results and build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future. "Private investment can inject vitality into the economy, boost exchange, increase employment opportunities and achieve common prosperity," said Senegalese President Macky Sall. He suggested that China and Africa should simplify private investment procedures, improve commercial management and environment, strengthen the partnership between Chinese and African private enterprises, and encourage Chinese companies in Africa to take part in the management of African companies. A series of economic cooperation agreements were signed at the summit, covering a wide range of fields including aviation, industrial zone construction, international business dispute mediation and transnational e-commerce. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-06 22:16:08|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Bruno Tshibala at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao) BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday met with Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) Bruno Tshibala after the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) concluded Tuesday. China has always firmly supported the DR Congo in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, promoting its political process, and opposing external interference, Xi said. Expressing China's support to the DR Congo government's efforts to maintain peace and stability and achieve economic and social development, Xi said China is ready to deepen exchanges and mutual learning as well as win-win cooperation with the DR Congo and help the country translate its abundant resources into development advantages so as to realize its goal of becoming an emerging market economy by 2030. China will continue to help the DR Congo enhance its ability to maintain peace and stability. China will also actively participate in the peacekeeping missions of the United Nations in the DR Congo, Xi said. Tshibala said the FOCAC Beijing summit fully reflected the importance China attaches to Africa and came as evidence that Africa and China can build a community with a shared future. The Africa-China cooperation is highly complementary and mutually beneficial. Tshibala said his country has always valued the bilateral relations and is grateful to China for supporting the DR Congo's national independence and development, and upholding justice in multilateral organizations. The DR Congo is willing to deepen cooperation with China and supports the Belt and Road construction, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 00:47:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RAMALLAH, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians are seeking international intervention to stop an Israeli court's decision to demolish the Palestinian Bedouin village near East Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said Thursday. Reyad al-Malki, minister of foreign affairs in the Palestinian Authority consensus government, told the official Palestinian radio station Voice of Palestine that the Palestinians efforts include a campaign at the United Nations Security Council. "The Palestinian side will ask for an emergency meeting for the Security Council to discuss the issue," al-Malki said. "In case the United States vetoes the bid, we will apply to the UN General Assembly," he added. The Palestinian side will also appeal to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for UN intervention to protect the residents of the Bedouin village and other Bedouin communities in the area, the top Palestinian diplomat stated. A day earlier, the Israeli Supreme Court decided to demolish the village within one week after rejecting the villagers' appeal to cancel the decision, which largely outraged the Palestinians. Al-Khan Al-Ahmar, a Bedouin area near the Ma'aleh Adumim and Kfar Adumim settlements east of Jerusalem, is home to about 200 Palestinian Bedouins living in tents and tin shacks, among whom 53 percent are children and 95 percent are Palestinian refugees registered at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. In May, the Israeli Supreme Court decided to demolish the village, which has a school serving 170 pupils. The village is surrounded by a number of Israeli settlements. It is part of the land the Israeli authorities are targeting to implement its "E1" settlement project, which the Palestinians say threatens the prospect of the two-state solution. Regarding Paraguay's decision to move its embassy back to Tel Aviv, al-Malki said "the Palestinian diplomacy did a mission impossible and succeeded in convincing the Paraguayan officials to change their position." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 00:57:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said here on Thursday that special representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) issue, Stephen Biegun, will travel to the capital cities of South Korea, China and Japan on Sept. 10-15 to discuss the denuclearization of the DPRK. Biegun "will meet with his counterparts and continue diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore," the State Department said in a statement. The current DPRK-U.S. talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences in the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration. The State Department said last month that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula shall happen before the United States signs a war-ending declaration with the DPRK; while 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. U.S. media reported earlier that the signing of a joint declaration to formally end the Korean War was one of the verbal agreements between U.S. President Donald Trump and the DPRK's top leader, Kim Jong Un, when they met on June 12 in Singapore. Kim told South Korea's envoy on Wednesday that he firmly supports and will be devoted to completely removing the danger of armed conflicts and the horrors of war from the Korean Peninsula and turning it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from any nuclear threat. Trump tweeted later on Thursday in response, thanking Kim for making such a statement and noting that "we will get it done together," referring to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit 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| 2018-09-07 01:57:28|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Miroslav Lajcak said Thursday that besides human suffering and planet contamination, nuclear tests also pose political threat as they do not build trust. "The last century has seen massive advancement in nuclear science and technology. And this has led to many benefits. But, also, indescribable pain," Lajcak said in his opening remarks at a high-level meeting to commemorate the International Day against Nuclear Tests that falls on Aug. 29. Since nuclear weapons testing began in 1945, nearly 2,000 have taken place. "Some of which, unfortunately, happened not that long ago," he said. "These tests do not build trust. Instead, they escalate tensions. They create openings for political miscalculations, and they bring us closer to the brink," he warned. The UNGA chief said the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was adopted in 1996 and has since been open for signature, "offers us our best shot at making nuclear tests a thing of the past," urging member states' support for entering the treaty into force. Turning to the developments on the Korean Peninsula, Lajcak commended the past year's progress towards denuclearization. "This time last year, things looked bleak... Now, we can see the opportunity," he said, noting "positive steps have been taken by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- including the suspension of nuclear tests and launches of inter-continental ballistic missiles, as well as the closure of a nuclear test site." At the same time, he urged more tangible action on the Korean Peninsula, stressing "verification is crucial for progress." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke after Lajcak at the high-level meeting. He recalled his visit in July to Japan's Nagasaki where he met with survivors of the atomic bomb attack. "Through the testimony of the survivors, the Hibakusha, we are reminded of the need to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again," he stressed. The UN chief also noted the victims of the disastrous era of widespread nuclear testing, saying "the catastrophic impact of nuclear testing has had profound effects on the environment, human health, food security and economic development." On Dec. 2, 2009, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution to declare Aug. 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The resolution was initiated with a view to commemorating the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan on Aug. 29, 1991. The Day is meant to galvanize the UN, member states, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, youth networks and the media to inform, educate and advocate the necessity of banning nuclear weapon tests as a valuable step towards achieving a safer world. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 02:37:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli university said on Thursday that its researchers have developed a drug for effective treatment of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become brittle and fragile, is caused by a disturbance in the balance between the formation of new bone tissues and the dissolution of old bone tissues. The researchers from Ben-Gurion University demonstrated the drug's effectiveness in delaying bone dissolution. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 02:57:46|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A gunman opened fire Thursday morning in a building in downtown Cincinnati, U.S. state of Ohio, in an attack that left him and three other people dead, authorities said Thursday. The incident took place at 9:10 a.m. EDT at a 30-story building, home to the corporate headquarters for regional banker Fifth Third Bank and other businesses. Local police said the gunman opened fire at the loading dock of the building and then entered the bank's lobby where he exchanged gunfire with police. "Five victims injured, three dead. Suspect is dead. Three or four officers responded and engaged the shooter," the Cincinnati Police Department tweeted. It's unclear if the gunman shot himself or was shot by officers. The gunman wasn't identified, and police didn't comment on possible motive. One of the victims died at the scene and two more died at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, according to reports. A spokeswoman for the medical facility said one victim remained there in critical condition and another was listed as serious. All four treated at the hospital suffered from gunshot wounds, she said. Fifth Third Bank issued a statement Thursday afternoon, offering thoughts and prayers for those caught up in the "terrible event." The bank operates some 1,200 banking centers in 10 U.S. states. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 04:28:04|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SANAA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) - Yemen's Houthi rebels on Thursday said their delegation in the capital Sanaa was prevented from flying to Geneva to attend United Nations-sponsored peace talks, the group-controlled Saba news agency reported. "The forces of the aggression (Saudi-led coalition) have still been refusing to give required authorizations to an Omani plane in the capital Sanaa to transfer the (Houthi) delegation to Geneva," the Houthis said in a statement. In the statement, the Houthis "blamed the United Nations for failing to secure the authorizations from the coalition which controls Yemen's airspace." However, Saudi-owned Al-Ekhbariyah television cited Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition, as saying that "the coalition had given authorization to the plane of Houthi rebel delegation based on an official request from the United Nations." "However, the United Nations on Wednesday sent another request to the coalition, demanding the coalition to cancel the authorization of the Houthi plane," he said. Also on Thursday, the coalition-backed Yemeni government delegation already in Geneva gave the Houthis a 24-hour deadline to show up in the peace talks, according to pro-government media outlets. Hours later, the UN envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths already in Geneva told reporters that "no meeting for Yemen's peace talks tomorrow (Friday)." Griffiths gave no further details. The Geneva meeting was scheduled to be held on Thursday, Sept. 6, then was adjourned until Friday. On Wednesday, delegation of the internationally-recognized Yemeni government arrived 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. Also on Wednesday, UN envoy Griffiths told reporters in Geneva that "the Houthis want to attend, and he will make sure they will." "The UN and others are working to ensure the timely arrival of the Houthi delegation," Griffiths said. The last UN-backed peace negotiations for Yemen were held in 2016 in Kuwait, which continued for several months in the Gulf country but no constructive results had been reached due to serious differences between the rival parties. Yemen has been locked into a civil war since the Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile. The United Nations and other organizations have listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with an estimated eight million of Yemenis remaining precariously close to famine. According to a latest statement by the World Food Programme, intensified conflict is making the humanitarian situation in the country worse, particularly in Hodeidah, the key port which is a lifeline for millions in northwestern Yemen. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 04:38:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ZAGREB, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Administration Minister Lovro Kuscevic on Thursday expressed disappointment at a London court's ruling to postpone extradition of Croatian tycoon Ivica Todoric, the founder of Agrokor, the largest privately owned company in Croatia. In the wake of the ruling given by the high court in London, the minister said he would prefer it if the court decided today to extradite Ivica Todoric to Croatia rather than postponed its conclusion for 40 days. Todoric is suspected in Croatia of corruption, forgery of administrative documents, and fraud. In October 2017 Croatian police arrested former executives of Agrokor on suspicion of a white-collar crime. But Todoric managed to escape to London where he is currently living and fighting extradition. Cherie Blair, wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair and member of Todoric's new defense team, said that this is a case of political persecution and asked the court to set a new hearing so they can prepare new evidence. The court in London granted Todoric's lawyers appeal and set a new hearing for Oct. 15. Minister Kuscevic told the media after a government meeting that he trusts the Croatian judiciary and that Todoric could defend himself before Croatian courts. Todoric claimed that this is a big victory for all those people who are fighting against corruption in Croatia and that he and his defense team now have more time to prepare and "fight for the truth". Agrokor was one of the leading companies in Southeastern Europe. It has about 60,000 employees across the region, while the company's revenues in 2015 amounted to almost 16 percent of Croatia's total GDP. In 2017, the company was hit by a debt crisis and the state-appointed crisis manager proposed a settlement plan with Agrokor's creditors. On June 19, major creditors unanimously endorsed a settlement deal making Russia's Sberbank the biggest shareholder with a 39.2 percent stake. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 05:08:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The 60th Damascus International Fair kicked off in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, as the government is promoting opportunities for investment in Syria amid improved security situation. The fair saw the participation of 48 foreign countries and a "large number" of companies, according to the state news agency SANA. The fair is the Syrian economy's window to the world at a time vast swathes of territories returned under the government's control. The Syrian government and its allies have been focusing recently on the reconstruction process, and the fair aims to encourage investments in that regard. At the opening ceremony, Syria's Prime Minister Emad Khamis said, "as Syria has won in its war on terror, it will also win in the battle of rebuilding and reconstruction." He pointed out that the fair constitutes one of the most important windows through which the government is attempting to communicate with friendly countries with the aim of introducing the "major investment chances" in Syria nowadays. For his side, Fares Kartali, director of the General Establishment for Exhibitions and International Markets, said that this year the fair space was expanded to 93,000 square meters, an increase of 20,000 square meters from last year. He said that 1,722 companies participated in this year's fair, adding that this year the preparations were better than that of last year. Kartali said the number of transportation buses increased to 150 this year from 70 that were in service in 2017 to secure the transportation of people from Damascus to the fair site, which is around 30 km from Damascus. The number of visitors' gates has also increased from three to 11 this year. This round is the second to take place during the war, as last year's fair was the first after five years of pause due to the war. This year the fair is being held at a time the entire capital Damascus and its surrounding, as well as the vast majority of southern Syria, have been recaptured by the Syrian army. The Syrian army is now preparing to launch a massive campaign against the northwestern province of Idlib, which is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. Students from the Santa Monica area participate in a walkout demonstration as part of the National School Walkout for Gun Violence Prevention campaign in Santa Monica, California, the United States, on April 20, 2018. Students across the country were urged to walk out of classes to mark the 19th anniversary of the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado which left 13 people dead. (AFP Photo) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Around 150 million school children aged 13-15 are the victims of violence from their peers, says a report from the UN children's fund, UNICEF, on Thursday. The new study measures the number of students who report having been bullied over the period of a month, or involved in a physical fight during the previous year, and shows that for many young people, the school environment is not a safe place, but a danger zone where they have to learn in fear. Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director, told UN News that these incidents have a negative impact on students' education and well-being, whether they live in rich or poor countries. "Every day, students face multiple dangers, including fighting, pressure to join gangs, bullying, both in person and online, violent discipline, sexual harassment and armed violence," she said. "In the long-term it can lead to depression, anxiety and even suicide. Violence is an unforgettable lesson that no child needs to learn." The report points to evidence of particular risk factors that increase a child's vulnerability to violence. These include disability, extreme poverty, ethnicity and HIV status. Those in institutional care or unaccompanied migrants are also vulnerable. In addition to facing dangers from peers, many young people risk beatings from their teachers. Nearly 720 million school-aged children live in countries where corporal punishment at schools is not banned, and where social norms give adults in positions of authority the justification to use violence to discipline children. The study highlights the strong influence that school exerts on children's lives and, in the best cases, can help to protect children from the risks of child labor, exploitation and child marriage. The report is part of UNICEF's ENDviolence campaign, which calls for urgent action to improve the school environment for students. This includes new legislation, prevention and response measures in the schools, community involvement in changing classroom culture and sharing best practice. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 06:48:32|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The EU bloc of the Security Council on Thursday expressed deep concern about the escalating military action by Syria and Russia in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. The bloc, known as EU8, comprises eight countries: France, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Germany and Italy. The first five are incumbent Security Council members, the following two are upcoming members, and Italy shares a seat with the Netherlands in the chamber. "The conflict in Syria has already caused unspeakable suffering to millions of people forced to live under siege or to leave that country," said Swedish UN envoy Olof Skoog, in capacity as briefer for the bloc for the month of September. He feared such a military action would cause "catastrophic humanitarian consequences for civilians," including risking more than three million civilians' lives and leading to renewed mass displacement. Moreover, Skoog stressed the use of chemical weapons is "unacceptable", addressing ongoing speculations that chemical attacks might happen in Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria. The West has accused the Syrian forces of planning such attacks, while Russia has said it was the Syrian rebels who were to stage them. The EU8 briefer noted that Idlib is the last remaining de-escalation zone in Syria which the Astana guarantors -- Russia, Iran and Turkey -- committed to safeguard. The Astana process, initiated in early 2017 in the neutral Kazakh capital, helped create four de-escalation zones in the war-torn country -- Idlib, eastern Ghouta, northern rural Homs, and southern Syria bordering Jordan. In view of the meeting of Astana guarantors in Tehran on Friday, Skoog said, "We call on the guarantors, in particular Russia and Iran, to uphold the ceasefire and de-escalation arrangements they have previously agreed." In conclusion, he expressed support for UN special envoy to Syria Staffen de Mistura in his efforts to reach a political solution in the country, saying "only a UN-led political process can bring a solution to the conflict that respects the freedom and dignity of all Syrian people." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 07:08:34|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department on Thursday imposed financial sanctions on four individuals and five entities, accusing them of having facilitated weapons or fuel transfers, or provided other financial or material support, to the Assad government in Syria. According to a statement released by the State Department, the sanctioned individuals were Syrian and Lebanese nationals, and the targeted entities included companies based in Syria, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. "Today's action shows that the United States will continue to take concrete and forceful action to cut off material support to the Assad regime and its supporters. The United States will continue to use all available mechanisms to isolate the Assad regime," read the statement. In a separate statement, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said the targeted were involved in transactions with the Assad government and with the ISIS, noting the fact that the Idlib province has been encircled by the government forces. All of the sanctioned individuals' and entities' assets within the U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked, and U.S. individuals and entities would be generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. 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 gear around Idlib in recent weeks, as a major battle against the rebels in Syria looms. Syrians use dirt to put out a fire at the scene of a reported air strike in the district of Jisr al-Shughur, in the Idlib province, on Sept. 4, 2018. (AFP Photo) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The EU bloc of the Security Council on Thursday expressed deep concern about the escalating military action by Syria and Russia in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. The bloc, known as EU8, comprises eight countries: France, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Germany and Italy. The first five are incumbent Security Council members, the following two are upcoming members, and Italy shares a seat with the Netherlands in the chamber. "The conflict in Syria has already caused unspeakable suffering to millions of people forced to live under siege or to leave that country," said Swedish UN envoy Olof Skoog, in capacity as briefer for the bloc for the month of September. He feared such a military action would cause "catastrophic humanitarian consequences for civilians," including risking more than three million civilians' lives and leading to renewed mass displacement. Moreover, Skoog stressed the use of chemical weapons is "unacceptable", addressing ongoing speculations that chemical attacks might happen in Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria. The West has accused the Syrian forces of planning such attacks, while Russia has said it was the Syrian rebels who were to stage them. The EU8 briefer noted that Idlib is the last remaining de-escalation zone in Syria which the Astana guarantors -- Russia, Iran and Turkey -- committed to safeguard. The Astana process, initiated in early 2017 in the neutral Kazakh capital, helped create four de-escalation zones in the war-torn country -- Idlib, eastern Ghouta, northern rural Homs, and southern Syria bordering Jordan. In view of the meeting of Astana guarantors in Tehran on Friday, Skoog said, "We call on the guarantors, in particular Russia and Iran, to uphold the ceasefire and de-escalation arrangements they have previously agreed." In conclusion, he expressed support for UN special envoy to Syria Staffen de Mistura in his efforts to reach a political solution in the country, saying "only a UN-led political process can bring a solution to the conflict that respects the freedom and dignity of all Syrian people." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 09:33:49|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was in grave condition after being hospitalized for a stab wound, local media reported on Thursday. Videos posted online showed Bolsonaro was being carried on his supporters' shoulders in a large crowd, when someone quickly stabbed him in the abdomen. Bolsonaro was then carried to safety, but appeared to be unconscious. Police promptly arrested the suspect identified as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, who was immediately grabbed by Bolsonaro's supporters. There were conflicting reports as to the seriousness of the injury. National news network Globo reported Bolsonaro required emergency surgery, while his son, Flavio, a candidate for the Brazilian senate, originally said on Twitter that his father's wounds were "only superficial." Flavio has since called on supporters to pray for his father. "Unfortunately it was more serious than we had expected. The perforation reached the liver, lungs and intestines. He lost a lot of blood, arrived at the hospital ... almost died. His condition now seems stabilized," he said. The other presidential hopefuls expressed their shock at the attack on Bolsonaro, who leads with some 20-percent support among 12 candidates, according to polls. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 09:53:52|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close YANGON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Three miners were killed and five others went missing in a coal mine blast in Saw township in Myanmar's Magway region, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Friday. The incident took place at Tun Yarzar coal mine, operated by a private company, shortly after 13 miners entered into the mine and reached a depth of 90 meters on Thursday morning. The cause of the explosion was unclear so far. Rescue work is underway for the five miners still trapped in the mine, according to local information office. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 10:08:53|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close YANGON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The empty Indonesian vessel standed in Myanmar waters will be removed and dealt with in accordance with law, Myanmar News Agency quoted the Marine Administration Department as reporting on Friday. The crew of the tugboat called Independence who were towing the vessel are being questioned in Kawthaung, Kayin state to determine if the incident was intentional or accidental, an official of the department said. The outcome of the questioning will be submitted to the Office of the Union Attorney General for further action. The container vessel SAM Ratulangi PD was found mysteriously grounded by local fishermen near the estuary of Sittoung River, 11.2 kms from the Thamaseikta village in Thongwa township, southern Yangon with no sailors and goods on it on Aug. 28. The vessel extends as 177.35 meters with a width of 27.91 meters weighing 26,510 tons. A salvage company called Smith initially informed the Myanmar Port Authority that the vessel was not destined for Myanmar but was being towed to Bangladesh. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Embassy to Myanmar has contacted the department to arrange a meeting with the Indonesian crew of the Independence. Moreover, the Singapore-based insurance company of the vessel First Capital will send a team of experts to Myanmar on Friday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 10:08:54|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close NAIROBI, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan police on Thursday apologized for storming and briefly arresting Chinese journalists at the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Nairobi. Kenyan police officers on Wednesday raided the CGTN's office in Nairobi and detained several Chinese journalists and staff members of the Chinese-invested organization over allegations that they were working in Kenya illegally. Charles Owino, Kenya police spokesperson, regretted the incident, saying the incident was based on wrong information on the status of the affected Chinese. "The raid on the broadcaster was based on false information on their immigration status. We sincerely apologize for the mishap. Those detained were released later," Owino told media in Nairobi. Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a briefing in the Chinese capital of Beijing that the Kenyan side apologized to China for its improper law enforcement behavior. It promised to strengthen management of its grassroots police officers as well as law enforcement norms and etiquette to avoid a recurrence. "We have learned that this raid was part of the Kenyan police's operation to crack down on illegal immigrants. It is not targeting or limited to Chinese nationals," she added. Hua said the Chinese foreign ministry also wants to avail itself of this opportunity to alert Chinese nationals overseas to properly go through legal procedures for their local business and residence in strict accordance with laws and regulations. A student holds a placard during a plantation campaign "Plant for Pakistan" in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Sept. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) by Misbah Saba Malik ISLAMABAD, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Absar Kazmi, an electrical engineer in Islamabad, brought his three kids to plant trees at a section of the famous Parade Ground in the city, invited by the government for planting saplings under the "Plant for Pakistan" campaign aiming at protecting the country from pollution and climate change. Kazmi said he brought his kids to plant trees to let them know the importance of saving the earth from the adverse effects of climatic changes. "I want them to know that we plant a tree today it will save their tomorrow," Kazmi told Xinhua. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has kicked off the drive "Ten Billion Trees Tsunami" recently by planting a sapling in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province himself. The campaign is of an effort to combat climate change by planting trees across the country during five-year tenure of the current government. The prime minister's advisor on climate change Malik Amin Aslam told local media that trees were planted and distributed freely across the country with an objective to motivate general public to make Pakistan greener. Irfan Nizai, environment director of the Environment Directorate Islamabad, said that for an ideal atmospheric condition it is important that 20 percent area of a country should be under forest, but in Pakistan it is less than 2 percent. "The government is now focusing on this issue to control the extreme weather conditions which are posing a threat to our agro-economy and also making living conditions harder for people," Niazi told Xinhua. He said that in the first step about 1.5 million trees will be planted in various areas of the country and in next step they will provide saplings to schools where each kid will plant one sapling. "It will make the kid guardian of the tree and he will water it and take care of it, giving him a sense of responsibility and motivating him to plant more trees," he said. Students plant a tree during a plantation campaign "Plant for Pakistan" in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Sept. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) Khalid Malik, director of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, told Xinhua that Pakistan is the seventh most vulnerable country to climate change in the world and one of the major reasons is deforestation. "A country's vulnerability to climate change is not only determined by changes in weather pattern but also the efforts which government and residents are making to control the affects of changing weather," he said. He said that deforestation in the country has taken a serious toll on climate and no one cared to plant new trees which resulted in harsh weather conditions. Uzair Qamar, a professor of water resource management and engineering in University of Agriculture Faisalabad, said that planting trees at individual as well as state level would help mitigate against climate change to a great extent. Qamar told Xinhua that recently extreme weathers are being witnessed in Pakistan for the lack of trees. When more trees are planted they will convert excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into healthy ecosystems, resulting in moderate weather condition. "It is a natural phenomenon that spring is followed by winter and autumn follows summer to give people some time to adapt themselves with the new weather, however, in Pakistan spring and autumn are almost going to extinct due to climatic changes mainly due to deforestation." He said that the results of plantation will become visible at least half a century later, so planting a tree today can save the future generation from the hostilities of the climate like drought and flooding. A student digs ground to plant a tree during a plantation campaign "Plant for Pakistan" in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on Sept. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) People participating in the tree-plantation drive in Islamabad said that the government should raise awareness about the importance of tree plantation in kids and include topics related to climate change in their curriculum. Asif Khan, a businessman in Islamabad, was planting sapling with his five-year-old daughter in the Parade Ground. In a conversation with Xinhua, Khan said that he came to know about the drive from social media and told his daughter to join him. "She doesn't know how important tree plantation is for her future. If teachers tell her and her class fellows about climate change in schools, they will participate more actively in the drive," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 10:23:56|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TOKYO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Kansai International Airport in Japan will resume some domestic flight services on Friday after it was paralyzed by a powerful typhoon days ago. On Tuesday, Typhoon Jebi flooded the airport's runways and terminal buildings which are located on a man-made island. The typhoon's powerful gusts also ripped a tanker from its moorings and flung it into a bridge that connects the airport and the mainland, leaving thousands of passengers and staff stranded at the airport. Having confirmed that both a runway and the second terminal are safe, the airport's operator, Kansai Airports, gave the green light for domestic flights to resume services on Friday. The airport said that 19 flights, including 17 by budget carrier Peach Aviation and two by Japan Airlines, are scheduled for Friday, with the first departing just before midday. This compares to the airport's regular daily capacity of around 70 domestic flights and some 200 international flights per day. The decision as to when the airport's international flight service will resume remains pending, local media reported Friday morning. As for the damaged bridge which connects the airport with the mainland, the airport said that while private cars are still being restricted, traffic by some vehicles has been resumed although train services remain suspended. Special shuttle bus services to and from the Nankai Electric Railway and the West Japan Railway stations on the mainland have been made available and the airport is encouraging passengers to use these. In addition, Kansai Airports is also advising passengers to use the high-speed ferryboats that connect it with Kobe Airport. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 10:38:59|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close MANILA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Philippine police have arrested 34 Filipino moviegoers for sitting out when the Philippine national anthem was played in a cinema, a police report released on Friday said. The report said the Filipinos went to see the screening of the movie "The House of Us" at a cinema inside a mall in Lemery, a town in Batangas province south of Manila, on Thursday. The national anthem called "Lupang Hinirang" is played before every screening in cinema but the 34 reportedly remained seated while the anthem was being played. The 34 were detained at the town's police station while appropriate charges were prepared for filing in a local court. Police said the 34 violated RA 8491 or an Act Prescribing the Code of the National Flag, Anthem, Motto, Coat-of-Arms and other heraldic items and devices of the Philippines. It is also known as the "Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines." "As a sign of respect, all persons shall stand at attention and face the Philippine flag, if there is one displayed, and if there is none, they shall face the band or the conductor," it said. According to the law, any person or judicial entity which violates any of the provisions of the law shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than 5,000 pesos (roughly 93 U.S. dollars) not more than 20,000 pesos (roughly 371 U.S. dollars), or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 10:54:01|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TOKYO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe filed his candidacy for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election slated for Sept. 20 on Friday and will go head-to-head with former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba. The ruling party's election will essentially decide not just the LDP's leader but also who will go on to serve as the nation's prime minister. If Abe, 63, who is most likely to win the race with five out of seven intraparty factions supporting him, does so, his third-term at the helm will all but ensure he becomes the longest-serving prime minister. The official campaigning for the LDP leadership was scheduled to begin on Friday, but both candidates have decided to postpone campaigning activities for a few days due to the deadly earthquake that rocked Hokkaido on Thursday. Abe, who has held the top spot since 2012, was reelected for his second consecutive three-year term in 2015. Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 61, officially declared his candidacy on Aug. 10 and has since said that if Abe were allowed to run unopposed again, it would undermine democracy here. Ishiba, 61, a lower house member, has in the past been outspoken about Abe and his policies and this will be the third time the veteran politician will attempt to win the ruling party's top post. Abe, however, is widely believed to win his third three-year term as LDP president and in doing so becoming the longest-serving prime minister. But Ishiba, who has the support of a powerful LDP faction and has held key posts in the party including defense minister, LDP secretary general and minister in charge of revitalizing local economies, may be able to take advantage of slumping support rate for Abe and his Cabinet following a slew of cronyism and document tampering scandals. While many believe Abe's success will be a foregone conclusion, some believe that Ishiba's "honest and fair" politics may be a refreshing change from Abe who has long been caught up in cronyism scandals. Ishiba has also been a vocal critic of Abe's plans to revise Japan's Constitution and actually rewrote his own constitution revision proposal in February. While acknowledging some of the positives of "Abenomics", Ishiba is also a proponent of introducing more methods to bolster regional economies. Ishiba, in light of the government's tardy handling of a spate of recent natural disasters, has proposed to set up a new ministry dedicated to taking charge of disaster prevention. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 10:59:02|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CANBERRA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Australia is failing to protect its threatened species, public servants working on endangered wildlife have warned. A survey of public servants working on threatened species management conducted by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) found that "staff thought the government's performance was poor or very poor." The survey was part of a seven-page submission the CPSU made to a Senate inquiry investigating fauna extinctions in Australia. "It is of little surprise that departmental staff felt the government was not doing enough," the submission, published by the Guardian Australia on Friday said. The survey revealed that 91.3 percent of respondents believed the government's attempt to fulfill domestic and international obligations to conserve threatened fauna was poor or very poor. Almost 90 percent said Australia's performance in protecting critical habitats was poor or very poor and 82.6 percent thought "that adequacy of the management and extent of the national reserve system, stewardship arrangements, covenants and connectivity through wildlife corridors were poor or very poor." Australia's environment laws were also condemned with 87 percent of staff saying they were poor or very poor. "Funding cuts have affected the department's ability to support programs that protect critical habitats for threatened fauna and enforce environmental regulations," the submission said. It added that biodiversity and conservation work needed investment worth at least 370 million Australian dollars (266 million U.S. dollars) to rectify the situation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 11:04:03|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed earlier on Thursday, sustained "extensive" injuries but is now stable, doctors said. The medical team who attended to Bolsonaro gave a press conference on Thursday evening to inform about the candidate's condition after the attack. According to surgeon Luiz Henrique Borsato, Bolsonaro had abdominal trauma and was in shock when admitted to the hospital. Borsato said the candidate had extensive internal hemorrhage, which was stanched in the surgery. He had three perforations on the small intestines and one in the colon, the doctor said, but no injuries in the lung or liver, as it was rumored earlier. Because of the injuries to the intestines, Bolsonaro was submitted to a colostomy, a procedure to put on a colostomy bag, which temporarily collects the feces of the patient while the intestines heal. He will have to use the bag for a couple of months, the doctors said. According to the medical team, Bolsonaro will not leave the hospital for another week or 10 days, and returning to the campaign in the streets is not on the line yet. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 11:09:04|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CARACAS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A group of 92 Venezuela citizens who migrated to Ecuador returned home on Thursday as part of a government's repatriation program. "Thanks to the #ReturntotheHomelandPlan 92 Venezuelans, arriving from Ecuador, have returned to their country," said the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on Twitter, referring to the Return to the Homeland program. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said that Venezuela will continue to facilitate the return of citizens who have left the country due to the economic crisis. The 65 adults and 27 children arrived at 04:00 local time (0800 GMT) at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, around 35 kilometers from Caracas. Eulalia Tabares, director of Consular Relations of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, was at the airport to welcome the weary travelers home. "Your homeland, your country, receives you with arms wide open," said Tabares. The Return to the Homeland program was initiated by Venezuela to repatriate citizens who had migrated to other countries and requested help returning. According to Venezuelan authorities, a total of 1,230 citizens have so far been repatriated from Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. New flights are expected from Peru and Argentina in the next few days, carrying other Venezuelans who have decided to return to their home country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 11:14:04|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The gunman who killed three people and wounded two others at a bank in downtown Cincinnati Thursday morning was identified as a 29-year-old Ohio state resident. Omar Perez, 29, acted alone when he opened fire at the headquarters of Fifth Third Bank inside a 30-story building near the Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, the city's Police Chief Eliot Isaac told reporters Thursday afternoon. Isaac said officers responded to a 911 call around 9:10 a.m. local time (0110 GMT Friday) about an "active shooter" at the bank. Perez, who resides in the town of North Bend, is not a former or current employee of the bank, according to the police chief. Police said the gunman opened fire at the loading dock of the building and then entered the bank's lobby where he exchanged gunfire with police. Five people were shot, including three who died from their injuries, Isaac said. One person died at the scene, and two victims died at the hospital, police said. A spokeswoman for a local medical facility said one victim remained in critical condition and another was listed as serious. Multiple officers then "engaged" the suspect, who was shot multiple times and is now dead, said Isaac. No officers were injured in the incident, and a weapon was recovered from the scene. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said in a statement posted on Twitter that "Random mass shootings, which plague our nation, are not normal and we as a country can't allow them to be normalized." The motive for the shooting was not yet known. Fifth Third Bank issued a statement Thursday afternoon offering thoughts and prayers for the victims. The bank operates some 1,200 banking centers in 10 U.S. states. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 11:14:04|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CANBERRA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), home of the nation's capital city Canberra, has been warned to brace for its worst bushfire season in 15 years. Dominic Lane, commissioner of the ACT Emergency Services Agency, warned that conditions in the lead-up to summer were comparable to those in 2003 when four people were killed and 500 homes lost in bushfires. "Make no mistake, in Canberra we face the same scenario going into this year," he told a national bushfire outlook conference on Thursday night. According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), two rainfall stations in the ACT recorded their lowest winter rainfall on record while a third recorded the lowest since 1982. Rainfall at Canberra Airport was only 19 percent of the average for July and 50 percent of the long-term winter average. Long-range BOM forecasts predicted that Canberra's spring would be warmer than average and that the city was unlikely to have its median rainfall. Lane said that while the city was better prepared to deal with fires than it was in 2003, residents could not afford to be complacent. "We're going to see a warmer than average summer and drier than average summer in the ACT," he said. The 2003 fires burned for five days between January 18 and 22, injuring more than 490 people and severely damaging almost 70 percent of the ACT's pastures, plantations and nature parks. The recovery cost was estimated at 350 million Australian dollars (251 million U.S. dollars). Anthony Clark, New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service communications director, said that the entirety of NSW and the ACT was at extreme risk as a result of the worst drought in 50 years. "Prepare yourself, prepare your home and prepare your family," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 11:19:05|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close CANBERRA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- One of the most senior female members of the Australian government has called for the nation's ruling party to implement quotas for female representation. Sussan Ley, who has served as the Minister for Health, Minister for Sport and Minister for Aged Care in her 16 years as a Member of Parliament (MP), on Thursday night called for the Liberal Party to follow the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in introducing female quotas. "We do need to do more to recruit female MPs without a doubt," she told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio. "If you look at our party, the picture tells its own story. "I've never been a fan of quotas, but I must say recently I've wondered whether we should consider them. "In what context I'm not sure, but we don't have enough women. But the issue has to start long before you get to parliament." Of the 85 current Liberal Party MPs, only 20, or 23 percent, are female. By comparison, 46 percent of ALP MPs are female; a figure that the party aims to raise to 50 percent by 2025. As of February 2018, Australia ranked 50th in the world for female representation in parliament. Ley's comments came the day after Julie Bishop, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 until August 2018, decried parliament's culture of bullying. In her first speech since resigning as a minister, Bishop said it was "unacceptable" that less than a quarter of Liberal Party MPs were female. "It's not acceptable for our party to contribute to the fall in Australia's ratings from 15th in the world, in terms of female parliamentary representation in 1999, to 50th today. There's a lot to be done," she said on Wednesday. Ley said though she had not experienced bullying in her political career, she believed that the party needed to implement a complaints process. "I believe we as a party need to put processes in place so that those who are upset about behavior or feel there is bad behavior in their workplace have somewhere to go, and somewhere to express those views and have something done about them," she said. Photo taken on Sept. 6, 2018 shows a damaged house after an earthquake in the town of Atsuma, Hokkaido prefecture, Japan. (Xinhua/Deng Min) TOKYO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Sixteen people have been confirmed dead and around 26 people still remain missing in the wake of a powerful earthquake that rocked Hokkaido Prefecture in northern Japan in the early hours of Thursday morning, the government said on Friday. As search and rescue efforts continue Friday after a 6.7-magnitude quake struck Japan's northernmost prefecture a day earlier, police, firefighters and thousands of Self-Defense Forces personnel used heavy machinery to remove rubble. In one of the hardest-hit towns of Atsuma where massive landslides buried numerous homes, rescue teams were combing through the rubble with their hands, looking for signs of those still unaccounted for. Whole mountain ranges in the hardest-hit regions had their landscapes altered owing to massive landslides, local media reported. Photo taken on Sept. 6, 2018 shows a damaged road after an earthquake in the town of Atsuma, Hokkaido prefecture, Japan. (Xinhua/Deng Min) Some 2.95 million homes were without electricity, as the entire prefecture suffered a power outage, with Hokkaido Electric Power Company initially saying it might take up to a week until power is fully restored in its service area. In addition, hundreds of thousands of households were reported as having no water supply, local utilities also said. But easing the pressure somewhat Friday, power was reconnected to 3 million homes in Hokkaido, the utility said. Nevertheless, according to prefectural officials, more than 6,400 people were forced to spend the night at evacuation centers in the prefectural capital of Sapporo. According to transport officials, Hokkaido's Shinkansen bullet train service will likely resume at noon on Friday and Sapporo's subway system will also resume services. According to local media reports, the local office of the transport ministry said that power has been restored to the terminal building at New Chitose Airport, the gateway to Hokkaido. Flight information that all flights to Sapporo cancelled is seen on a screen at a terminal of Chubu Centrair International Airport, Nagoya, Japan, on Sept. 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi) Airlines are now making arrangements to resume operations, but all Friday morning flights have been cancelled. At least 300 people have been injured as a result of the earthquake measuring the maximum 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale. This marked the first time a quake in Hokkaido has reached this intensity level since the seismic scale was revised in 1996, Japan's weather agency said. Hundreds of aftershocks have since followed and the JMA has warned that earthquakes over 5.0-magnitude could continue in the area for about a week. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 12:59:16|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close BRASILIA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian vehicle makers saw a year-on-year increase of 11.7 percent in August, with 294,400 units produced, said the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea) Thursday. These figures represents the best August since 2014, and an 1.6 percent rise on numbers recorded in July of this year, added the association. The increase was principally driven by the sale of 248,600 new vehicles in the internal market, a growth of 14.3 percent on July of this year and 14.8 percent on August of 2017. The figures mark the best monthly sales since January 2015 and the largest monthly production volume since October 2014. Anfavea President Antonio Megale welcomed the results, noting that August traditionally performs well, with sale numbers second only to December. The financial crisis in Argentina, which is Brazil's principal export market, has forced Anfavea to reassess its sale forecasts for the rest of the year, added Megale. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 13:19:18|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and more than 20 others injured after a bus skidded off the road and plunged into a gorge in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, police said Friday. The accident occurred near Mohanri in the state's Almora district. "The bus carrying some 30 people veered off a mountain road and rolled down into the deep gorge Thursday evening after its driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a curve," a police official said. While five people died on the spot, those injured have been admitted to a government hospital after being rescued by local people and a police team that rushed to the spot, he added. A probe has been ordered into the incident, the official said. "The bus driver has been booked for rash and negligent driving," he added. Road accidents occur in India mostly due to poor driving or badly maintained roads and vehicles. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 13:24:19|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council condemned Thursday the recent violence in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and protect civilians. In a press statement, the council reiterated that there can be no military solution in Libya. In the latest round of conflict that broke out on Aug. 26 between the government forces and armed militias, tanks and heavy artillery were deployed into residential neighborhoods, leaving more than 60 Libyans dead, injuring 159 others and displacing more than 1,800 families. On Sept. 4, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) led by Ghassan Salame succeeded in brokering a ceasefire between the warring parties. The council members expressed concern at the humanitarian situation in Tripoli and across Libya, urging all parties to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and underline the importance of safe and unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance. Voicing support for the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), the council members urged Libyans to "urgently and constructively" set the foundation for credible elections, including the equal participation and representation of women. Salame, who is also UN secretary-general's special representative for Libya, proposed an action plan in September 2017 aimed at ending the Libyan political crisis, including a proposal to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in the North Africa country by the end of 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 13:34:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Britain and Russia traded words at the UN Security Council on Thursday, with the former pointing the finger at two Russian agents behind the March nerve-agent attack in Salisbury and the latter rejecting the claim as anti-Russian hysteria. The meeting follows evidence Britain released on its investigation into the incident in the British city that left former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and a local police officer, seriously injured. In July, two additional people living in the Salisbury area were exposed to the chemical, and one died as a result. Britain alleged that the deadly chemical is the Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok. In April, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons agreed with that assessment. Britain's Permanent Representative to the UN Karen Pierce told the council that her country's investigation had identified two Russian nationals, who traveled under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, both members of the Russian military intelligence service, as those behind the attack and has issued international arrest warrants for them. Russia's Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia rebutted the investigation's findings, saying Britain had not provided any convincing evidence relating to the Salisbury incident, only lies instead concerning double agents, cyberattacks and military-grade chemical agents. "I am not going to go through the list of this unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts," he said. Russia had offered to help the investigation, he said, but "London has been refusing us this cooperation. London needs this story for just one purpose -- to unleash disgusting anti-Russian hysteria and to involve other countries in this hysteria." Citing several inconsistencies in the allegations, the Russian envoy said it remains impossible to know the real names of the suspects and therefore whether they are connected to the Russian Military Intelligence Service. He said that the charges were yet another part of the "post-truth world" crafted by Western countries, rejecting Britain's sensational disclosures, as well as all unfounded allegations about the Russian government's involvement in the Salisbury incidents. Several other council members, including the United States and France, extended their support for the British investigation and its findings, while countries like Bolivia called for restraint, warned against any "slinging allegations," and proposed the use of diplomatic channels to resolve the dispute over the incidents. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 13:39:21|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he aims to make an "irreversible advance" in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and settling peace by the end of this year. Moon made the remarks in an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas ahead of Indonesian President Joko Widodo's three-day state visit to South Korea from Sunday, according to the presidential Blue House on Friday. He said the three leaders of South Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States confirmed the common goal of the peninsula's complete denuclearization and the permanent settlement of peace through the inter-Korean summit in April and the DPRK-U.S. summit in June. "By the end of this year, (I) aim to make an irreversible advance" in the denuclearization and the peace settlement, Moon said, stressing that building trust among the countries concerned would be significant. He said it would be better if an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War is declared to end hostile relations on the peninsula in 2018, the year marking the 65th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, as part of practical measures to build trust. Moon's remarks indicated South Korea aiming to make the war-ending declaration by the end of this year. Moon's special envoys visited Pyongyang Wednesday, delivering Moon's letter to top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un. Kim reconfirmed his unwavering commitment to the complete denuclearization of the peninsula during his meeting with the special envoys, expressing his hope to realize the denuclearization and improve DPRK-U.S. relations within U.S. President Donald Trump's tenure. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 13:44:22|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Major Western nations on Thursday expressed firm support for Britain's accusations against Russia over the alleged poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter. According to a statement issued by the U.S. State Department, leaders of France, Germany, the United States, Canada and Britain reiterated their outrage "at the use of a chemical nerve agent, known as Novichok, in Salisbury" on March 4. "We welcome the progress made in the investigation into the poisoning of Sergei (Skripal) and Yulia Skripal, and take note of the attempted murder charges brought yesterday against two suspects," they said. Britain's analysis, independently verified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), indicated "the exact same chemical nerve agent was used in the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Charles Rowley as was used in the poisoning of the Skripals," they said. The leaders urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok program to the OPCW, and encouraged those with information about the attack in Salisbury, as well as the further poisoning in Amesbury, "to come forward to" the British authorities. "We have full confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level," the leaders noted. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that the police and intelligence agencies have identified two Russian nationals they believe were responsible for the attack in March which left Sergey and Yulia 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, reportedly as a result of the poisoning. On Thursday, Russia denied Britain's latest accusation. "Neither the top leadership of Russia, nor the leadership of lower ranks ... had anything to do with the events in Salisbury," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Peskov recalled that Russia offered to cooperate with Britain in the investigation into the Skripal case from the beginning, but Britain declined. Russia could only regret London's reluctance to interact with Moscow, Peskov said. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that May's latest remarks were "absolutely unacceptable," and "we strongly reject these insinuations." Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also said that Britain should provide fingerprints of the suspects to Interpol since the two must have received British visas. The poisoning case has triggered a diplomatic crisis with Russia and Western countries mutually expelling a large number of each other's diplomats. The United States has also imposed massive economic sanctions against Russia over the incident. Source: Chinaculture.org| 2018-09-07 14:03:42|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close [Photo provided to Chinaculture.org] An art tour featuring Chinese contemporary artworks on Africa will come to many major Chinese cities from September to December. The event, under the guidance of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is hosted by the Network of International Culturalink Entities. Last year, it sponsored eight young and middle-aged Chinese painters who traveled to African countries, such as Mauritius, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia, where they created 144 paintings. Through vibrant colors and vigorous brushwork, artists recreated the beauty of African landscapes and cultures, and deepened China-Africa mutual understanding using the language of art. The art tour will start in Chongqing and stop in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Weihai and Hangzhou. The works will be on tour in Africa during next year's Chinese Spring Festival. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 14:19:26|Editor: ZD Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Russia is expected to inject new impetus to the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, a senior official said Friday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Xi would attend the fourth Eastern Economic Forum from Sept. 11 to 12 in Vladivostok, Russia, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It will be the very first time for the Chinese head of state to attend the Eastern Economic Forum, marking the most important high-level exchanges between China and Russia in the second half of the year, assistant foreign minister Zhang Hanhui told a press briefing. The Eastern Economic Forum, proposed by Putin in 2015, represents Russia's efforts to push forward cooperation in the Far East, he said. According to Zhang, Xi is scheduled to attend several bilateral and multilateral events, among which will be the two presidents' third meeting this year, the signing of documents, a joint meeting with the press, and a banquet. "The two heads of state will also attend some activities to facilitate people-to-people exchanges and economic and local cooperation," Zhang said, adding that Xi will deliver a speech at the annual meeting of the forum, and have friendly communication with other state leaders. Depending on the situation, Xi may also attend some other activities of the forum, Zhang added. With the strategic guidance of Xi and Putin, Zhang said, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has progressed well and ushered in a new era featuring high level and remarkable development. Xi's upcoming presence at the forum signifies the continuation of the two countries' tradition of supporting each other in holding important international activities, the importance attached by the Chinese side to participation in cooperation in the Far East, and its firm determination to further development and prosperity in cooperation with other countries in the region, Zhang said. Xi's participation is expected to guide bilateral relations to maintain high-level development, promote bilateral all-round cooperation, promote bilateral cooperation in the Far East to yield new outcomes, jointly boost peace, stability, and development in the region, and bring benefits to people in various countries, he said. Zhang said he believes with the joint efforts of both sides, Xi's visit will be a complete success. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 14:29:29|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen will lead a high-level delegation to attend the 15th China-ASEAN Expo next week in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to a Foreign Ministry's statement on Friday. The expo, to be held in Nanning on Sept. 10-12 under the theme "Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Community of Innovation," will showcase various products from ASEAN and China and promote cooperation of private sectors in business, trade, investment and tourism, the statement said. The Cambodian leader will deliver his key remarks at the opening ceremony of the expo with an aim to promote trade and investment between ASEAN and China as well as to attract potential Chinese investors and tourists to the ASEAN region, it added. During his stay in China, Hun Sen will meet with some Chinese dignitaries and business leaders as well as grant an interview to the Chinese media, it said. Hun Sen's entourage will include Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak, Tourism Minister Thong Khon and other dignitaries of the government and business people. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. File Photo: Cao Heimao, a 94-year-old woman who was forced to serve as a "comfort woman" during the Second World War, sits in her house in Qidong Village of Yuxian County, north China's Shanxi Province, Aug. 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan) SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A photo exhibition opened on Wednesday here to honor the survivors of the Japanese military's sexual slavery atrocities during World War II, euphemistically known as "comfort women." The exhibition, featuring the portraits of 12 "comfort women" survivors and historical photos as well as an interactive installation, is on view at the lobby of the California State Building through Sept. 20. The portraits show Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Indonesian and Dutch "comfort women" survivors, who were among hundreds of thousands of girls and women confined in "comfort stations" -- where they were in captivity and being sex trafficked in 13 Asian countries by the Japanese military during the war. The survivors featured in the exhibition include the late Hak Soon Kim, who was the first "comfort women" to break her silence in 1991 and told the world what had happened to her. Cao Heimao, who died at the age of 96 in July, was the last of 127 known Chinese "comfort women" survivors who filed an unsuccessful suit against the Japanese government for their sexual enslavement. She was forcibly taken to a "comfort station" in Yuxian county in northern China to serve as a sex slave for the Japanese soldiers. As a result of her experience, she became infertile for the rest of her life. Julie Tang, co-chair of Comfort Women Justice Coalition, said it's a "breakthrough" to exhibit the photos at the California State Building. "California state supports us by sponsoring a photo exhibit on the 'comfort women' issue. The U.S. government recognizes the historical significance -- how this affects America, and how this affects Asia. We are very proud that we can push against the Japanese government," said Tang. In 1999, then California Assembly member Mike Honda helped the passage of Resolution AJR 27 in the California Assembly to urge the Japanese government to formally issue an apology for the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War II. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2001 adopted a similar resolution to urge the Japanese government to apologize for its wartime atrocities and provide just compensation for the surviving victims of its aggression. Honda, while serving as a U.S. Congressman, initiated Resolution HR 121 in 2007 to urge the Japanese government to "formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibilities in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force's coercion of young women into sexual slavery." However, the Japanese government has been denying and mitigating history despite documented evidence, and this photo exhibition aims to help people remember history, said Tang. "At this time in our country, it seems very challenging to even talk about facts and history, which is why this fight is so important," said Phil Ting, a Chinese American Assembly member, at the opening event. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 14:44:33|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SYDNEY, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese-built firefighting robot has stood out as a highlight of a fire and emergency management conference which concluded on Friday in Perth, Western Australia (WA). The three-day Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC) conference, the largest of its kind in Australasia, aims to bring together the latest in emergency response knowledge and research for organizations from around Australia and the world. "This conference is a great opportunity for emergency management professionals to come together to share their knowledge and skills and lessons learnt from recent emergencies," WA emergency services minister Francis Logan said. One of the stars of this year's conference was a robot created by Chinese company, CITIC Heavy Industries, which drew a lot of attention from attendees in what was its first public appearance in Australia. The RXR-MC80JD, which resembles a small, ultra-modern tank, is a firefighting robot designed to enter situations deemed too dangerous for humans in order to suppress fires and conduct reconnaissance. "Currently at the conference we are receiving a lot of interest from Australian state fire services, as well as from Australian distributors of fire fighting equipment," Edward Wang from Engytech, CITIC's Australian distributor, told Xinhua. Wang said that he hopes the robot will be implemented in Australian fire and rescue as he believes it can help local personnel conduct their operations more effectively and safely. According to Wang, the caliber of technology at the conference overall was impressive, as well as the way in which fire and emergency response groups are benefiting from advancement in that area. "It's good to see a lot of technology being shown this year in Perth with drones, with specific technology, and a lot of robots," Wang said. "It certainly gives us a lot of ways and a lot of paths that we didn't think were possible before." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 15:29:40|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) holds a welcome ceremony for Prince Albert II, head of state of the Principality of Monaco, before their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with Prince Albert II, head of state of the Principality of Monaco, pledging to further promote bilateral friendly ties with the European country to bear new fruits. Prince Albert II is paying a state visit to China from Sept. 5 to 8 at the invitation of Xi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 15:34:42|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in decided Friday to send his top security officials to China and Japan to explain the outcome of Moon's special envoys' visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) earlier this week. Kim Eui-keum, a presidential Blue House spokesman, told a press briefing that Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser who led the five-member special delegation to Pyongyang, will visit China on Saturday as Moon's special envoy to explain the outcome of the DPRK visit. Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service, the country's spy agency, will visit Japan as a presidential special emissary to explain the outcome of the DPRK visit. Chung and Suh visited Pyongyang Wednesday along with three other special delegates, delivering Moon's letter to DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 15:44:43|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close RIYADH, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition involved in a war in Yemen announced on Friday the interception of a missile shot by Houthi militias in Yemen toward border city Jazan. The missile was spotted on Thursday evening and intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi air forces without reporting any injuries, said Turki Al Maliki, coalition spokesperson, in a statement through Saudi Press Agency. The coalition announced on Wednesday that 23 civilians were injured after shrapnel of an intercepted missile fell on them in Najran. The two cities Jazan and Najran have been targeted by a total of 190 missiles since the beginning of the war in 2015. Most of them were intercepted without reporting injuries or damages. The spokesperson warned that the militias and those who transport missiles will not escape "punishment." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 15:44:43|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close SYDNEY, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Koalas are on track to be extinct by 2050 in the State of New South Wales (NSW), unless the destruction of their habitat reduce, according to research released on Friday. The study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia and the Nature Conservation Council (NCC), used satellite images to assess the reduction of habitat through land clearing and the effect that has on vulnerable and endangered species. "We see koala habitat disappearing at an alarming rate," the study author, conservation biologist Martin Taylor said. "If you project that forward, it could be mid-century by the time we may have no more wild koalas in NSW." Recent changes to land clearing laws prompted the study, with evidence showing that from 2016-17 to 2017-18, the rate of land that was either fully or partly cleared tripled from 2,845 hectares to 8,194 hectares. However, the NSW government has refuted the claims in a statement, accusing the WWF and NCC of "playing politics and scaremongering." Officials also pointed to a 32 million U.S. dollars strategy they put in place to secure populations of koalas in the wild. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 15:54:47|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in decided Friday to send his top security officials to China and Japan to explain the outcome of Moon's special envoys' visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) earlier this week. Kim Eui-keum, a presidential Blue House spokesman, told a press briefing that Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser who led the five-member special delegation to Pyongyang, will visit China on Saturday as Moon's special envoy to explain the outcome of the DPRK visit. Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service, the country's spy agency, will travel to Japan Monday as a presidential special envoy to brief Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the outcome of the DPRK visit. Chung and Suh visited Pyongyang Wednesday along with three other special delegates, delivering Moon's letter to DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un. During the meeting with the special envoys, Kim reconfirmed his firm commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, expressing his hope to realize the denuclearization and improve DPRK-U.S. relations within U.S. President Donald Trump's tenure. The Blue House spokesman said the Moon government planned to submit a bill to ratify the Panmunjom Declaration, which the current leaders of the two Koreas signed after their first summit in April, to the National Assembly after approving it at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The estimated costs to implement the declaration will be submitted together next week, the spokesman said. Under the declaration, the two Koreas agreed to completely denuclearize the peninsula, stop all hostile acts toward each other and increase inter-Korean exchange and cooperation. President Moon asked the unicameral parliament to ratify the declaration to push for the inter-Korean cooperation regardless of political situations in South Korea. Moon and Kim agreed to hold their third summit in Pyongyang from Sept. 18-20. It would become the third trip by a South Korean president to the DPRK's capital city. The first and second inter-Korean summits were both held in Pyongyang, in 2000 and 2007 respectively. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 16:29:52|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ANKARA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a tripartite summit on Friday in Tehran as part of Astana process which seeks solution to the civil war in Syria. The meeting comes amid accelerated efforts of international community, and it will be the third summit of the leaders after the previous ones in Russian resort city of Sochi and Turkish capital Ankara. Turkey recently has stepped up for diplomatic and military demarche as the Syrian government forces are planning a massive operation to eliminate all extremist groups in Idlib after the successful recapture of rebel-held parts of western and southern Syria. As a result, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Ankara on Aug. 29. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met his Russian counterpart two times in August, while Turkish intelligence and military chiefs paid a visit to Moscow as well. Ankara warns against a full-scale military operation that will risk the lives of over 3 million civilians. "A military solution here would be a catastrophe, not just for the Idlib region, but a disaster in terms of Syria's future," Cavusoglu told reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Turkey, Russia and Iran are guarantor countries of a cease-fire deal in Syria and their efforts are parallel to the Geneva talks sponsored by the United Nations, under which the three guarantors agreed to establish de-escalation zones in the northern province of Idlib and parts of neighboring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo. The cooperation among these three regional powers comes despite they support opposing sides in the Syrian conflict. Moscow and Tehran back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey is supporting Assad's foes since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. Turkey is emphasizing on the preservation of rules of engagement drawn up as per the Astana agreement, which is preventing any military offensive in Idlib. Under the Astana agreement, Turkey has established 12 observation points from Idlib's north to south in order to monitor and sustain the cease-fire deal, deliver humanitarian aid and to keep control of a mass influx. The trilateral summit in Tehran will prioritize the situation in Idlib, Serkan Demirtas, columnist of Hurriyet Daily News said. Erdogan will try to convince other leaders to avoid a military operation in Idlib, Demirtas said, stressing that if Russia paves the way for a military offensive in Idlib despite Turkey's concerns, the attack would de facto end the Astana process, as often warned by Turkish officials. Turkey is against the military operation in the rebel-hold province, located near the Turkish border, in order to reduce potential civilian losses, which can also trigger a new refugee influx from Idlib, where over 3 million people live, according to Demirtas. The summit will be a venue to offer a new effort between intelligence organizations to separate extremists from civilians so that pinpoint operations can jointly be carried out, he said. Ankara urges Moscow and Tehran to make more efforts to separate "moderate" opposition groups in Idlib, and to convince them to join the cease-fire of Astana deal. The Turkish government on Aug. 29 declared the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group controlling majority of Idlib, as a terror organization while updating its terror list through a presidential decree. For months, Ankara has been trying to convince the HTS to dissolve itself and join the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army. Thousands of rebel fighters have been relocated to the northwest Idlib under evacuation agreements. There is "full political understanding" between Russia and Turkey on the need to distinguish between the Syrian opposition and people described as "terrorists" in Idlib province, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Aug. 29. "It is necessary to disassociate the so-called moderate opposition from terrorists and at the same time prepare an operation against them while minimizing risks for the civilians," he said. The Syrian government has started to deploy troops and dropped leaflets over the rebel stronghold, urging locals to return to "state rule" and demanded the armed groups to surrender. Possibility of refugee influx is not the only concern of Turkey, but the real issue is further security matters of this kind of mass movement, according to Hasan Yalcin, an expert from Foundation of Political, Economic and Social Research. Turkey is alarmed by possibility of a sudden military operation in rebel-hold province because such a scenario could bring radical groups' entrance to Turkey and posing threat to the country, he said. The United Nations has recently called on the guarantor powers to forestall a battle in Idlib, and stressed a humanitarian corridor should be set up to allow civilians to leave the area. Around 3 million people are believed to reside in Idlib now, out of which "10,000 are Nusra Front and al-Qaida terrorists," the United Nations' Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 16:39:56|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Central Military Commission (CMC) has issued a document on the decision to strengthen Party building in the armed forces in the new era. The document noted that the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Party building are crucial to the building and development of the military, saying that work in these regards must be comprehensively intensified. The decision stressed that the absolute Party leadership over the armed forces must be reinforced and the system of the chairman of the CMC assuming full responsibility for military affairs should be fully enforced. The document called for efforts to eliminate the pernicious influence of former CMC vice chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. It said that the military should focus on its war preparedness and combat capability as its principal work. It also called for resolute efforts to win the battle against corruption in the military. Noting that strengthening CPC leadership and Party building in the military in the new era is a major political responsibility, the document underlined relevant duties for Party committees, disciplinary authorities and leading officials at all levels. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 16:39:56|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Masjed-e hazrat-e aboulfazl region in Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province at 10:53 a.m. local time (0623 GMT) on Friday. According to Iranian Seismological Center, the epicenter of the earthquake was at the depth of 10 km, 28.229 degrees north latitude and 59.481 degrees east longitude. The chief of Crisis Management of Sistan and Baluchestan, Abdolrahman Shahnavazi, told Tasnim news agency that there has been no casualties in the province following the quake. The assessment teams are in the site of earthquake to study the possible damage, Shahnavazi was quoted as saying. At least 10 aftershocks, ranging from 3.4 to 4.3 magnitude, have shaken the region so far, according to Iranian Seismological Center. The earthquake was also felt in the neighboring Kerman province, said the Tasnim report. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 17:05:02|Editor: zh Video Player Close KABUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Secretary for Defense James Mattis paid a surprise visit to Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, a local television channel Tolonews reported. According to the media outlet, the U.S. defense James during his stay in Kabul would call on Afghan leaders including President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to discuss the security situation in Afghanistan and the ongoing peace process and reconciliation with the Taliban group. Foreign dignitaries often pay an unannounced visit to Afghanistan mostly due to security reasons. Afghan officials have yet to make comments on Mattis's visit to Afghanistan and his talks with Afghan leaders. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 17:25:06|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday congratulated via a video on the opening of a forum in Kazakhstan to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. In the video, Xi also extended sincere gratitude to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and sincere regards to all the guests at the forum. After the initiative was put forward, it has gained extensive attention from the international community and active response from related countries, Xi said. The countries participating in the initiative have continued to enhance policy coordination, accelerated the implementation of major economic and trade projects, endeavored to form an infrastructure network, steadily promoted cooperation in industry and finance, and strengthened people-to-people exchanges, which have brought tangible benefits to people of these countries, he added. Kazakhstan is a firm supporter of and active participant in the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi said. In the past five years, with joint efforts of China and Kazakhstan, the two countries have obtained substantial fruits in the cooperation on the initiative, the Chinese president said. Sticking to the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, China is willing to work with Kazakhstan and other related countries to realize common development and prosperity with openness and inclusiveness, and build the Belt and Road into a road for peace, prosperity, openness, innovation and civilization, so as to make greater contribution to benefiting people of all related countries and promoting the building of a community of shared future for mankind, Xi said. He wished the forum a complete success at the end. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 17:25:06|Editor: zh Video Player Close SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Seven police officers lost their lives as Taliban insurgents stormed some security checkpoints in Mangajek district of Afghanistan's northern Jawzjan province on Friday, head of Provincial Council, Babir Eshci said. "A group of Taliban rebels attacked some security checkpoints in Mangajek district in the wee hours of Friday triggering gun battle which lasted for several hours and resulted in killing seven police personnel facilitating the militants to gain ground," Eshchi told Xinhua. Taliban militants have also suffered casualties in the fighting, the official said. However, he warned that the embattled Mangajek district would collapse if the government fails to send reinforcement. Meantime, Taliban outfit has confirmed the clash and asserted that the militants had captured two security checkpoints besides inflicting casualties on security personnel. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 17:35:10|Editor: zh Video Player Close LUANDA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Republic of Angola will convey its experience on the culture of peace and interreligious dialogue during the International Conference on Peace scheduled for Sept. 17-19 at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris. Angola's ambassador to UNESCO, Sita Jose, told the press on Thursday in Luanda that the meeting is an initiative of the permanent delegations to the organization, mainly of the African and Asian continents. The event will focus on intercultural and interreligious dialogue and education for a world of peace, harmony and tolerance. The country will once again have the opportunity to pass on its experience on the role of the church in the process of consolidating peace in partnership with the states, the diplomat said. The activity will serve as an opportunity of the countries for a profound approach to the contribution of churches in peace-building processes and dialogue among peoples, said the diplomat. "The aim of the event is to transmit the experiences of the countries in what concerns the promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue and the role of education in the consolidation and construction of peace, harmony and community life," he added. Angola was asked to intervene, mainly, by its experience in the process of reconciliation and pacification with the contribution of the churches, for the conquest and preservation of peace, according to the diplomat. Angola experienced a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 17:45:12|Editor: zh Video Player Close Ma Zhaoxu(C, front), the Chinese permanent representative to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 6, 2018. China's UN envoy spoke at a Security Council meeting on Thursday that all alleged chemical weapons incidents must undergo comprehensive, objective and impartial investigations, addressing the recent reports that hint at possible chemical attacks within Syria. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's UN envoy spoke at a Security Council meeting on Thursday that all alleged chemical weapons incidents must undergo comprehensive, objective and impartial investigations, addressing the recent reports that hint at possible chemical attacks within Syria. In response to reported possible chemical weapons attacks, Ma Zhaoxu, the Chinese permanent representative to the UN, reiterated "China resolutely opposes the use of chemical weapons by any country, organization or individual under any circumstances or for any purposes and advocates severe punishment of the perpetrators." He also stressed that all alleged chemical weapons incidents must undergo comprehensive, objective and impartial investigations so as to, based upon conclusive evidence, come up with conclusions that square with facts and can stand the test of time. "Until then we should not predetermine the outcomes," he said. He added China consistently advocates respect for the purposes and principles of the UN charter and opposes the willful use or threat of use of force in international affairs, noting Syria's sovereignty and territory integrity should be fully respected. "Political settlement is the only way out of the Syrian conundrum," Ma said. "We hope that all parties concerned will seek solutions through dialogue and consultation in a constructive manner, preserve the unity of the Security Council and help to push forward efforts to advance the political process in Syria." Against a backdrop of Syrian government forces' offensive on the northwestern province of Idlib, reports emerged that chemical attacks might happen in the last rebel-held stronghold. The West has accused the Syrian military of planning such attacks, while Russia has said it was the Syrian rebels who were staging the attacks and blaming them on the government instead. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 18:10:18|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday urged the United Kingdom to stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs after the UK government released its latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a routine news briefing, saying that Hong Kong affairs are China's domestic affairs and no foreign country has the right to interfere. "Since the return of Hong Kong, the principles of 'one country, two systems' and 'Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong' as well as Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy have been comprehensively implemented," Hua said, adding Hong Kong residents enjoy every right and freedom they are entitled to in accordance with the law. "We have expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the UK government's so-called six-monthly report on Hong Kong. We urge the UK to face reality and stop releasing such reports as well as interfering in Hong Kong affairs," said Hua. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 18:10:18|Editor: zh Video Player Close GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two Palestinians were moderately injured in an Israeli army missile attack on Friday, local media and medics said. Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement that two young men were injured by the shrapnel of an Israeli missile fired at the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, close to the border with Israel. An Israeli army spokesman said in a press statement that an Israeli army aircraft targeted a group of arson balloon launchers in northeast Gaza Strip close to the borders with Israel. Since March 30, the Palestinians have been launching arson kites and balloons from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, which had caused severe damage to large areas of agricultural fields and groves. On Friday, the Israeli media reported that more than 20 arson balloons were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel and caused large fires to the agricultural fields in southern Israeli farms. Meanwhile, Ashraf al-Qedra, Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, said that Amjad Hamdouna, 19, died of his sustained wounds Friday at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Hamdouna was shot by Israeli soldiers' gunfire and was critically wounded on July 14 during his participation in the protests and rallies called the "Great March of Return" in eastern Gaza Strip. Al-Qedra said that the death toll, since the beginning of the event on March 30, has climbed to 172, and more than 18,000 were injured. The highest commission of the event called on Friday the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to join the 24th Friday of the "Great March of Return" to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decisions against the Palestinians. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 18:15:19|Editor: zh Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the capital Tehran on Friday to attend a trilateral summit aimed to address crucial issues on Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin will also join Erdogan to discuss Syria with their Iranian counterpart. It would be the third summit within the Astana process which, the three states say, seeks to bring an end to the violence in the seven-year civil war in Syria. The meeting comes amid escalating tension over an impending military operation by the Syrian army into the rebel-held Idlib province of the war-torn country. The United Nations worries that the offensive could force 2.5 million people toward the Turkish border. Prior to the tripartite meeting, Erdogan is scheduled to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 18:15:19|Editor: zh Video Player Close ABUJA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen Boko Haram fighters were killed following an operation by government forces in Nigeria's northeastern neighborhood of Gwoza, a spokesman of the army said on Friday. Some 21 people taking into hostage by the Boko Haram terror group were also freed during the Thursday operation in Pulka village of Gwoza neighborhood in the northern state of Borno, said Texas Chukwu, the army spokesman. Chukwu said the troops swung into action after receiving a distress call that the Boko Haram fighters had laid an ambush for road users, during which they burned one passenger vehicle and abducted some travelers in the area on Tuesday. He said those rescued by the troops included 11 children and six women. Four men, rescued during the gunfight between troops and the terrorists, had sustained some injuries and are being treated at a military facility, he added. Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria, killing some 20,000 people and forcing displacement of millions of others. The resilience of the insurgent Boko Haram group in the Lake Chad basin since 2009 posed enormous security, humanitarian and governance challenges, according to the United Nations. Four countries caught up in the insurgency are Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. The United Nations said the Boko Haram had displaced nearly 2.4 million people in the Lake Chad sub-region. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 18:25:22|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIRUT, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A software error at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport led to flights delays, causing great congestion in the airport's departure halls on Thursday and Friday, local media reported. "Damage to a software belonging to Sita, a baggage management company, took place at around 11 p.m. on Thursday, causing great congestion at the airport," said Elnashra, an independent online newspaper. Sita is a company that works on managing the flow of baggage from airline to airline and airport to airport. The damage was fixed at 4:30 a.m. local time on Friday but it had already caused chaos at the airport with lots of flights being postponed. The Middle East Airlines announced that it has postponed all of its flights on Friday for reasons beyond its control, according to Lebanon 24, a local news agency. Officials have on many occasions voiced their concerns over the chaos taking place at Beirut's airport due to the old equipment and the increase of the number of passengers. Member of Lebanese Parliament Nazih Najm emphasized last month the need to expand the airport and update its equipment. "We need to expand the airport in a way that would increase its capacity to host 8 million passengers per year in addition to renewing its cooling systems, toilets, power generators and buying new baggage conveyers," he said. Earlier this year, Lebanese Finance Ministry approved 18 million U.S. dollars in funding for the expansion of the airport. Beirut airport's manager Fadi El Hassan announced Wednesday that renovation work will start in November. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 18:30:24|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng will attend the opening ceremony of the annual expo, business and investment summit between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday. The 15th China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held from Sept. 12 to 15 in Nanning, the capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Besides Han, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, several foreign leaders will also attend the opening ceremony, according to Hua. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 19:25:30|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) holds a welcome ceremony for Prince Albert II, head of state of the Principality of Monaco, before their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with Prince Albert II, head of the state of the Principality of Monaco, pledging to further promote bilateral friendly ties with the European country to bear new fruits. Hailing Prince Albert II and the Monaco royal family for their commitment to developing relations with China, Xi said Monaco has followed a development path with its own features. Though far away from each other, China and Monaco have set a model of friendship and common development between big and small countries as the two countries respect each other and treat each other on an equal footing, said Xi. "China has always said that no matter big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, all countries are equal members of the international community," said Xi, adding that it is something inherent in the building of a new type of international relations. He called on both countries to maintain close exchanges, discuss cooperation in areas of environmental protection, climate change, clean energy, low carbon and wild animal protection under the Belt and Road Initiative and further promote cultural and people-to-people exchanges. Prince Albert II is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and supported China in hosting the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, said Xi. "We welcome you to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics," he told Prince Albert II. Congratulating China on the just-ended successful Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Prince Albert II said he was touched as Xi invited him for a state visit despite his very busy schedule. He told Xi this was his tenth visit to China and each trip he sees new achievements in the social, economic and cultural areas in China. Prior to his arrival in Beijing, Prince Albert II went to northeast China's Jilin Province to visit bee-keeping and Siberian tigers protection projects and was "impressed by China's achievements in environmental protection." While hailing bilateral ties and China's role in international affairs, especially Xi's outstanding contribution to global governance and the fight against climate change, Prince Albert II said Monaco is willing to enhance win-win cooperation with China. He said he supports and wishes the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics a success. Xi briefed him about the FOCAC Beijing Summit and said China stands ready to work with countries including Monaco to support lasting peace and sustainable development in Africa. Before the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Prince Albert II at the Great Hall of the People. Prince Albert II is paying a state visit to China from Sept. 5 to 8 at the invitation of Xi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 19:35:31|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Ji Bingxuan (L), vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, meets with Trevor Mallard, speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, in Wellington, New Zealand, on Sept. 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Guo Lei) WELLINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ji Bingxuan, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, paid a four-day visit to New Zealand from Tuesday to Friday. Ji's visit was at the invitation of Trevor Mallard, speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. During the visit, Ji met with Mallard, and Deputy Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Anne Tolley, New Zealand China Council chief Don McKinnon, President of the New Zealand National Party Peter Goodfellow, Deputy Mayor of Auckland Bill Cashmore, as well as other New Zealand officials. Ji hailed the development of bilateral ties between China and New Zealand since the establishment of diplomatic relations 46 years ago. Ji expressed China's willingness to work with New Zealand to implement the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, and to enhance mutual trust, boost cooperation, strengthen friendship and promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. The New Zealand side said New Zealand attaches great importance to its relations with China and is willing to boost exchanges with China in various fields, expand mutual beneficial cooperation and continuously improve the bilateral relations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 19:40:32|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JUBA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Virginia Gamba, UN special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, has condemned rampant violence perpetrated against children in war-torn South Sudan. Gamba, who is on a four-day visit to the East African nation, said recruitment of children into armed groups, sexual violence, abductions, killing, attacks on schools and denial of humanitarian aid are rife as children continue to suffer the brunt of nearly five years of civil war. "I'm extremely concerned at the level of violence against children particularly in the Upper Nile and the Unity states. Either directly or indirectly, we are making children victims of our own greedy wars," Gamba told reporters on Thursday during a visit to the southwestern town of Yambio, where over 800 child soldiers were recently freed by armed groups. She said out of 20 global situations of children suffering violations, South Sudan is the second with extreme violence with at least 21,000 violations verified last year. The UN envoy urged all armed actors in the conflict to end the recruitment of children, and release all children in the ranks of all armed forces. "The time has actually come where violence has to stop against children particularly in South Sudan," Gamba said. "If you have privilege of governing a sovereign state, you have to be responsible and accountable for everything that happens in it." 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. According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, at least 19,000 children are still serving in the ranks of several armed groups in South Sudan. While in South Sudan, Gamba held meetings with government officials, religious leaders and aid organizations as well as members of the UN family to discuss opportunities to strengthen the protection and empowerment of children. "A lot of the children of South Sudan are alone, they have nowhere to go, they have been orphaned, and there are children in the streets in almost every state in South Sudan. Boys and girls, and babies are in the streets. Who owns them? South Sudan!" Gamba said. "The street children of South Sudan are the future of South Sudan. I have begged you to go out and reclaim the streets," she added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 19:55:35|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close KABUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis paid a surprise visit to Afghan capital Kabul on Friday and in meeting with President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani assured Washington's long-term support to Afghanistan, said a statement of Presidential Palace released here. Mattis also assured that his country would continue its security and economic cooperation for enhancing bilateral relations between the two countries. Heading a ranking delegation, which also includes Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, the Pentagon chief in meeting with the Afghan president also exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan and the region, the impact of U.S. strategy on Afghanistan and South Asia, the upcoming Afghan parliamentary and presidential elections, war on terror and talks with Pakistan, the statement added. The Afghan president, accompanied by Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, said that the Afghans and their government are thankful to the United States for its support to Afghanistan, according to the statement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:00:36|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close KIEV, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine spends about 5 billion U.S. dollars annually to service its outstanding foreign debt, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said here on Friday. "We have accumulated 50 billion dollars of external debts ... We should return that money," Groysman told the parliament. The continuation of the cooperation with foreign lenders is very important for Ukraine to serve the foreign debt, Groysman stressed. Last month, Ukraine's central bank said that Kiev hopes to obtain some 3.5 billion dollars from international lenders this year, including about 2 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF mission started its work in Kiev on Thursday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:10:42|Editor: ZX Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nepal and China have concluded the protocol of Nepal-China Transit Transport Agreement (TTA) which was signed in March 2016 after two-day talks in Kathmandu, Nepal's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply (MoICS) said on Friday. During the third bilateral consultative meeting on Sept. 4-6, the breakthrough was achieved, paving the way for the implementation of the TTA. The agreement enables the Himalayan country a vital access to China's sea and land ports for trading with third countries. Land-locked Nepal had been fully dependent on India which surrounds Nepal from three directions, according to Nepali government officials. "Two sides have finalized the protocol on Thursday mid-night and signed finalized draft," Rabi Shankar Sainju, joint secretary at the MoICS, told Xinhua on Friday. The MoICS said in a press statement on Friday that Nepal could utilize China's four seaports in Tianjin, Shenzhen, Lianyungang and Zhanjiang and three dry-ports in Lanzhou, Lhasa and Xigatse for trading with third countries. The TTA was reached between the two governments in March 2016 during Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's first visit to China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:15:44|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament agreed to hold a session on Saturday to discuss the deteriorated situation in Iraq's southern province of Basra after intensified protests over anti-corruption and water contamination, the parliament statement said on Friday. "At the request of 54 lawmakers, the eldest parliament member (temporary speaker) has agreed to hold a special session to discuss the problems, solutions and recent developments in Basra," the statement said. The meeting will be held at 11:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) with the presence of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and some of the cabinet ministers, the statement added. It came after days of intensifying protests in Iraq's southern oil-hub province of Basra, as hundreds of angry protestors burned offices of leading political parties and headquarters of some Shiite militias. Basra, the province's capital city which bears the same name, has long witnessed complaints among its more than 2 million residents about the collapsing infrastructure, power cuts and corruption. Water supply in the province is also widely criticized for high salinity, with thousands of residents having been hospitalized. The protesters also accused the influential political parties of being behind the wide-spread corruption, which led to high unemployment rate and failure in rehabilitation of the country's electricity, water and other basic services. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:20:47|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Dr. William Yu, a senior economist with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson Forecast, speaks at a trade seminar in Los Angeles, the United States, Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Ying) by Julia Pierrepont III LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of concerned business leaders have gathered here to attend a trade seminar aimed at shining a light in the long economic shadow cast by the China-U.S. trade frictions. "When Washington leadership is so uncertain, we need to work together to create our own bridges," Pin Tai, President and CEO of Cathay Bank -- one of the co-hosts of the seminar held Wednesday -- told Xinhua. In his keynote speech, Dr. William Yu, a senior economist with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson Forecast, delved into the current state of affairs in China-U.S. trade, a topic much on the minds of his listeners. UCLA Anderson Forecast is the leading source of economic analysis for business, government and the academic community and applies its expert economic modeling and analytic techniques to a wide-variety of projects. Yu ran through the laundry-list of issues that sparked the frictions, including the trade deficit, tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, China's domestic markets, intellectual property issues, and China's industrial policies. He counseled for a fair, negotiated approach to resolving these issues. "For the American people, I would say you probably need to prepare -- there will be bit higher prices in terms of consumer goods made in China. Eventually, maybe more of them will be made in other countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, but in a short run you will see a higher price tag," he warned. "For small businesses, if you are doing import-export, you really need to have a backup plan on how to adjust your supply chain," he added. Participants agreed that tariffs are a double-edged sword since, in this age of globalization, many U.S. business supply chains rely heavily on other countries' raw materials and labor to source and manufacture their own products, particularly China's. In California, the tariffs are reducing export and consumption of key U.S. commodities, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grain, wine -- all major exports for California and the U.S. Midwest. There were concerns among the business owners and bankers who attended, whose businesses will feel the brunt of the trade frictions. The two sponsoring entities of the seminar, China General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC) and Cathay Bank, are leaders in servicing the Chinese American business communities and fostering business ties between the United States and China. CGCC is touted as the largest and most influential non-profit organization representing Chinese enterprises in the United States. Its 1,500 members share a focus on renewable energy, trade, finance, real estate and aerospace, and include 54 companies ranked on the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list. Their website reports that CGCC Chinese member companies are collectively responsible for 120 billion U.S. dollars in investments and employ more than 200,000 people directly. Zhang Xuming, chairman of CGCC-Los Angeles, said: "Healthy trade between the U.S. and China is essential to the economic well-being of both countries. That is certain." CGCC's mission is to generate economic growth, create value, and enhance cooperation between U.S. and Chinese businesses, so Zhang views the trade dispute as a troubling development that will only unravel the enhanced levels of international cooperation his organization has worked so hard to foster. "China and the United States need to be friends," concurred Tai. "Global stability and economic prosperity depend on it." The bank Tai heads up was founded in Los Angeles in 1962 and expanded its network throughout California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada, Maryland, and Hong Kong, with representative offices in Shanghai and Taipei. The oldest operating Chinese American bank in the United States, now a subsidiary of Cathay General Bancorp, Cathay Bank has a long history of servicing the Chinese American community. Its rapid expansion was fueled by successive waves of immigration, burgeoning trade between America and Asia, and the economic development of the surrounding community. At the seminar, representatives of Cathay Bank's various departments advised their clients that they could help them to navigate the rocky shoals of disruptive tariffs and soften the blow to their businesses. Their CEO lobbied hard for a sensible and timely resolution of the trade frictions. "Globalization has tied the economies of our two countries more closely together than ever before, resulting in almost 600 billion dollars in U.S.-China trade annually," said Tai, adding that trade frictions, however, seek to buck the prevailing trend of globalization. He cautioned that history has shown that trade disputes result in losses for both sides. "This trade dispute will slow down the economic development of both countries." "The tariff increases the cost of enterprise and loss of American consumers. No one wants to see the escalation of the trade dispute between China and the United States," he concluded. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:30:50|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- India and the United States signed a security pact at a bilateral dialogue which is said to be the highest engagement after the summit-level interaction between the two countries, reports said. At the India-U.S. 2+2 dialogue that took place Thursday in Delhi, the two countries signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), which would pave the way for the transfer of communication security equipment from the United States to India thereby facilitating the "interoperability" between their militaries. The two sides also decided to establish a hotline between the Indian external affairs minister and the U.S. secretary of state, and another between the Indian defence minister and the U.S. defence secretary. The two sides discussed cross-border terrorism, India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the H1B visa issue and ways to deepen regional cooperation. The 2+2 dialogue, which India has had so far with Japan only, was held between Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on one side, and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis on the other. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:35:53|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan (R) meets with the First Vice President of Cuba Salvador Valdes Mesa in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Gao Jie) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Vice President Wang Qishan on Friday met with the First Vice President of Cuba Salvador Valdes Mesa in Beijing, calling on both sides to contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. China and Cuba are both socialist countries led by Communist parties, as well as good friends, comrades, and brothers, said Wang. Hailing the strong political mutual trust between the two countries and fruitful achievements of exchanges and cooperation in various fields, Wang said China has always placed Cuba in an important position of external relations and has been unswervingly implementing a friendly policy toward Cuba. "China is heading toward modernization under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and will continue to support Cuba for implementing a development path that suits itself," said Wang. Valdes said Cuba cherishes the traditional friendship between the two countries and thanks China for its long-term support for Cuba's development cause. He said the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban government will adhere to the policy to consolidate and develop relations with China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:45:55|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NAIROBI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on Friday decried the low use of regional payment and settlement system for intra-regional trade. COMESA clearing house executive secretary Mahmood Mansoor told Xinhua in Nairobi that the payment for the bulk of the 8 billion U.S. dollars in intra-COMESA annual imports is conducted through correspondent banks in the United States and Europe. "As a result, the region pays transaction fees of up to 400 million dollars to foreign banks annually due to lack of use of the regional payment and settlement system," Mansoor said. Currently, 21 African countries in East, South and North Africa are COMESA member states. The COMESA clearing house has been operating a regional payment system for the past five years that allows member states' central banks to guarantee payment for intra-COMESA trade and thereby eliminate the need for use of correspondent banks outside the region. Mansoor said only 5 million dollars of COMESA imports is conducted through the COMESA clearing house every year. Intra-regional trade remains expensive as traders involved prefer to use letters of credit, which attract a 5 percent transaction fee, he said. "Through the COMESA Clearing House, traders don't have to use letters of credit and hence it results in lower cost of trade," he added. The COMESA official noted that most of the bloc's member states have liberalized their economies and therefore central banks cannot dictate how payments for cross-border trade are conducted. The regional bloc plans to roll out a sensitization campaign to increase the use of the cost-effective regional payment and settlement system. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 20:55:57|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Almost all of the internally displaced people in south-western Ethiopia will return home soon as government rehabilitation efforts kick in, authorities have said. The UN migration agency said last month that since April some 970,000 people have fled their homes due to fighting between communities along the border of Ethiopia's Gedeo Zone in the Southern region and West Guji Zone in Ethiopia's largest Oromia region. More than 359,000 of the displaced have already returned to their respective localities as inter-communal clashes are contained and security situations improved, Ethiopia's state press agency quoted regional officials as saying. Communities involved in the conflict have settled the conflict through traditional mechanisms, they said. Following the escalation of conflicts and the eventual displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, various international aid organizations have been calling for concerted efforts to provide basic humanitarian support to those affected. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said last month that while aid has increased in recent weeks, "it is still insufficient to meet the needs of the displaced. With schools being used as shelters and so many children still displaced, it could also be difficult for students to return to school when the new academic year starts in September." "Schools, factories, and courthouses are just a few of the buildings that now act as shelters for displaced families in southern Ethiopia after a wave of inter-communal clashes along the border areas of Gedeo and West Guji zones drove nearly one million people from their homes," the ICRC said in a statement. According to a report published last month by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ethiopia stood at 2.8 million, up from 1.6 million at the beginning of the year. UNICEF also said that the east African country also hosts more than 920,000 refugees, mainly from neighboring Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:00:59|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China had signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with 37 African countries and the African Union (AU) on jointly developing the Belt and Road as of Thursday, an official said Friday. The number of African countries who signed the MOUs account for 70 percent of all the 53 African nations that attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that concluded Tuesday, according to Xia Qing, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Xia, who is deputy head of the NDRC's international cooperation department, noted that 28 African countries and the AU inked the MOUs during the summit while the other nine countries had signed before the summit. China aims to sign cooperation documents on the Belt and Road development with all African countries and will steadily push cooperation to achieve tangible results and benefit African people, according to Xia. So far, China has signed 123 cooperation documents on the Belt and Road development with 105 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the South Pacific region, and 26 such documents with 29 international organizations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:11:01|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chen Xiaoguang (2nd, L), vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), meets with Lebanese President Michel Aoun in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sept. 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Liangyong) BEIRUT, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China is looking forward to boosting ties with Lebanon on all levels, said Chen Xiaoguang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). "We hope to be able to increase the level of our cooperation with Lebanon in all fields while boosting bilateral ties," Chen said Thursday in a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun during a visit with a CPPCC delegation in Beirut. Chen gave an overview of the Lebanese-Chinese diplomatic relations since 1971, highlighting the cooperation between the two countries in different situations. "We highly support the stability, sovereignty and unity of Lebanon," he said. Chen added that there are over 400 Chinese soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon working on preserving Lebanon's security. Aoun appraised the bilateral relations and expressed Lebanon's will to increase visits of high-level officials and enhance practical cooperation in all sectors. Meanwhile, Chen also met with Lebanon's Prime Minister-Designate Saad Hariri and Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Hariri appreciated that China has helped Lebanon deal with the Syrian refugee issue, saying Lebanon will join hands with China under the Belt and Road Initiative so as to benefit the two sides and their people. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:11:02|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ACCRA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Reports here early Friday indicated that six people had lost their lives to massive flooding that engulfed parts of Ghana's second largest city Kumasi late Thursday. Local media reported that the victims, who were believed to be a family travelling in their car, got swept away by flood waters at Esereso Attafuah when the bridge they were riding on caved in due to the flooding following torrential rains. The floods resulted from a heavy downpour on Thursday which caused the Ankonim river to overflow its banks, blocking the only access route to residential areas, the reports explained. Ghana's capital recorded similar incidents in July with five deaths including the death of a female medical doctor. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:21:04|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here on Friday that Turkey would not allow bloodshed to take place in the northern Syrian province of Idlib. The parties involved in the conflict of Idlib should practice "patience and use wisdom" to solve the issue in Idlib, Erdogan said in an address to a summit in the capital Tehran attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Turkey understands the concerns of Iran and Russia over the presence of the terrorist groups in Idlib, he said, adding that "we also expect our friends to consider our concerns as well." "Any attack on Idlib will result in tragedy and the massacre of the civilians, ... and 3.5 million people will be affected," he said. Besides, many dislocated people will be flooded to Turkey's borders, which is out of Ankara's control, he warned. "We don't want Idlib to be turned into a bloodbath," he stressed. Ankara fears that an imminent military operation by the Syrian government in Idlib, to destroy terrorists, can trigger a flood of refugees to Turkey. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:31:06|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A Malaysian staff member (R) of China's CRRC Kuala Lumpur Maintenance Company works with a Chinese colleague in a maintenance facility in Seremban, Malaysia on Aug. 27, 2018. CRRC Kuala Lumpur Maintenance Company or CKM, provides Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) for local train services including Electric Multiple Units trains and light rail transit (LRT) vehicles. (Xinhua/Lin Hao) KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- When Mohd Mahizan Bin Mohd Nor joined a Chinese train maintenance company in 2011, he knew little about trains, let alone repairing them. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive, was also new to Malaysia. Seven-and-a-half years later, the 33-year-old Mahizan has long been a train expert. His company, now named CRRC Kuala Lumpur Maintenance Company or CKM, has become a major player in the field, providing Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) for local train services including Electric Multiple Units trains and light rail transit (LRT) vehicles. Mahizan works on the LRT line that travels through Kuala Lumpur. For him, CKM not only creates jobs for the locals, but also provides opportunities for Malaysians to learn the technology and know-how about trains. "I have gained a lot from the company, the main example is through the transfer of technology," said Mahizan. "In Malaysia, the locomotive industry is very limited. So when the Chinese company came here, it was very impactful and Malaysians could learn more about locomotives." Mahizan's feeling is not unique among CKM's staff. In a maintenance facility in Seremban, some 70 km from Kuala Lumpur, 25-year-old Wan Azhim Syammel Bin Wan Mohd Lutpi is trying hard to pick up knowledge and skills about trains. He has worked for the company for over a year after graduating from a local university and is now an assistant engineer. He has received training during the first months on the job, but he hopes to learn more from his Chinese colleagues. "The environment for working here is good. The specialists and workers from China are friendly and can transfer their technology to the locals," he said. The local staff and their growth are central to the company's strategy, explained Luo Wei, the business director. "We focus a lot on our local staff, on their wellbeing, on their skills, on their channel for promotion." The company provides on-the-job training, invites Chinese railway experts to Malaysia for training sessions, while sending company staff and even the staff of its customers to pursue higher degrees in China's renowned universities like Tongji University to further improve their skills, said Luo. The company attaches great importance to localization for long-term development, he added. CKM gave priority to the locals when recruiting, some 80 percent of its staff of around 115 people are local. "Many of our management including the chief operating officer are Malaysians," said Luo. "They have a better understanding on the law and the culture of Malaysia. Our company will be more efficient and competitive by bringing them into management." Luo said the company hopes to build a sense of belonging among its staff. "We hope that they would think this is not only a Chinese company but also a Malaysian company." Mahizan admitted that communication posed a challenge when he first started working with his Chinese colleagues, "but as time went by, chemistry emerged between our Chinese and local staff," he said. It's easier for Wan Azhim to get along with his colleagues, as many of them speak good English. "We also use online translation applications or simply show pictures on phones to communicate," he said. Apart from the maintenance company, CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive has a rolling stock center in Malaysia's Batu Gajah as its manufacturing base in Southeast Asia. Becoming fully operational in 2015, CRRC rolling stock center can now manufacture up to 200 carriages a year and conduct major overhauls. CRRC is eyeing further investment to expand the capacity of the rolling stock center, Luo said. The Malaysian government led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has repeatedly said that it welcomed foreign investment, including those from China, that could create jobs for the locals and transfer the knowledge of technology. "The increasing demand for railways in Southeast Asia including Malaysia, as well as the growth of the population and the economy will have a positive impact on the market and for our company," said Luo, "We are optimistic about the future of this market." Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:36:08|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIRUT, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese officials and experts refused Friday that the country's economy is collapsing. "We cannot say that the Lebanese economy is deteriorating and our duty is to adopt reforms that were endorsed in the 2018 budget," Ibrahim Kanaan, Head of Parliament's Finance and Budget Committee, was quoted by the National News Agency. Lebanon's Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said financial and monetary situation in Lebanon is normal. Kanaan and Khalil's remarks came after their meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Friday to discuss the economic situation in the country. Meanwhile, economist Louis Hobeika told local news agency Al Markazia that economic and social situation in Lebanon is not in a deteriorating stage. "Lebanon is surely going through a difficult period due to the delay in government formation while the purchasing power of citizens have dropped remarkably but we cannot say that the economy is deteriorating," he said. The government must be formed in a bid to adopt necessary reforms which will have a positive impact on people's lives, according to Hobeika. Lebanon's 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. Economic bodies in the country voiced their concerns about possible economic deterioration due to the delay in cabinet formation. File Photo: British Ambassador to the United Nations Karen Pierce (front, R) addresses a Security Council meeting on the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Major Western nations on Thursday expressed firm support for Britain's accusations against Russia over the alleged poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter, while Russia denied such accusations. According to a statement issued by the U.S. State Department, leaders of France, Germany, the United States, Canada and Britain reiterated their outrage "at the use of a chemical nerve agent, known as Novichok, in Salisbury" on March 4. "We welcome the progress made in the investigation into the poisoning of Sergei (Skripal) and Yulia Skripal, and take note of the attempted murder charges brought yesterday against two suspects," they said. Britain's analysis, independently verified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), indicated "the exact same chemical nerve agent was used in the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Charles Rowley as was used in the poisoning of the Skripals," they said. The leaders urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok program to the OPCW, and encouraged those with information about the attack in Salisbury, as well as the further poisoning in Amesbury, "to come forward to" the British authorities. "We have full confidence in the British assessment that the two suspects were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU, and that this operation was almost certainly approved at a senior government level," the leaders noted. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday that the police and intelligence agencies have identified two Russian nationals they believe were responsible for the attack in March which left Sergey and Yulia 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, reportedly as a result of the poisoning. On Thursday, Russia denied Britain's latest accusation. "Neither the top leadership of Russia, nor the leadership of lower ranks ... had anything to do with the events in Salisbury," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Peskov recalled that Russia offered to cooperate with Britain in the investigation into the Skripal case from the beginning, but Britain declined. Russia could only regret London's reluctance to interact with Moscow, Peskov said. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that May's latest remarks were "absolutely unacceptable," and "we strongly reject these insinuations." Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also said that Britain should provide fingerprints of the suspects to Interpol since the two must have received British visas. The poisoning case has triggered a diplomatic crisis with Russia and Western countries mutually expelling a large number of each other's diplomats. The United States has also imposed massive economic sanctions against Russia over the incident. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:51:15|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A group of diplomats from African countries on Thursday evening stressed the importance of the Sino-African relationship and expressed eagerness to see the relationship grow stronger in the future. Michael Moussa-Adamo, Ambassador of Gabon to the United States, told a reception at his residence that China's involvement in Africa has seen the construction of much infrastructure, and has improved the people's lives and yielded many win-win cooperations. The reception was held to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, which ended Tuesday. Ambassadors and dignitaries from over 30 African countries attended the reception. Serge Mombouli, Ambassador of the Republic of Congo and an organizer of the event, said in an address that the fact that 53 heads of states and governments or their representatives participated in the Beijing summit this year demonstrated the confidence and commitment the African continent has in furthering their ties with China. China's presence has been felt throughout the continent, according to diplomats at the reception, in the form of Chinese financed or constructed infrastructure, Chinese enterprises, and cooperation in agriculture, security, education, health and culture. "China is perceived very well in our country," Carlos Veiga, Ambassador of Cabo Verde told Xinhua. "China attracts many Cabo Verde students to study there, and these students are becoming civil servants. One of my staff at the embassy has studied in China," Veiga said, adding that cultural and education exchange has been a highlight of bilateral ties. Frederic Hegbe, Ambassador of Togo, told Xinhua that in addition to the numerous infrastructure China helped put in place, China also helped provide medical service to the country. "My grandfather was treated in a Chinese hospital in Togo when he became ill," Hegbe said. The diplomats fought back bias from some Western countries claiming that China has been taking advantage of its African ties, saying this accusation is far from the truth. "Our relationship is a very fair relationship. China is a big country, we are a small country, but China always treats us as equals and with respect," Veiga said. "We are very happy with our relationship with China, it has only brought us benefits," he said. Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai was invited to the reception. He said China will always be a good friend, a good partner and a good brother to Africa, and that he looks forward for Sino-African ties to grow with the newly-generated momentum from the FOCAC. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 21:56:16|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ATHENS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Greek leaders and visiting Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics urged on Friday for closer dialogue between the South and North in Europe to resolve cross border issues on the basis of common values. All those aspiring to occupy leadership positions in European Union (EU) institutions will be judged on the basis of a code of European values after the EU elections, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said while welcoming Rinkevics, according to a press release from the Greek Presidency. Greece and Latvia share common views regarding the future of the European Union, the strengthening of the EU's foreign and security pillar, and the implementation of economic policies which will boost social cohesion and tackle inequalities that fuel populism, Pavlopoulos said. On his part, Rinkevics also stressed the need for unity, solidarity and cooperation among EU member states on the basis of common principles. Latvia demonstrated with actions solidarity in the refugee crisis, by welcoming refugees at Riga and by contributing to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) forces in the Mediterranean Sea, he said. "We need to strengthen the dialogue between the South and the North on many issues," Rinkevics noted during joint statements to the press with Greek foreign minister Nikos Kotzias after their separate meeting, according to a Greek ministry press statement. "The South and the North have common interests and we want to enhance cooperation in all fields, from security to culture," Kotzias said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:01:20|Editor: ZX Video Player Close XIAMEN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in South China, Friday said he is optimistic about American investment prospects in China. "The future of business investment for American companies in China is bright," Seyedin said at a press briefing ahead of the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in the southeastern coastal city of Xiamen. China, now part of the global economy, has huge growth potential in the future, said Seyedin. "China represents opportunities for not just American companies, but for any foreign companies and foreign investment here," he said. China remains popular among international investors. For 53.3 percent of companies surveyed, China took the top spot in their global investment plans, Seyedin said citing a survey released in the first half of the year. The combined budgeted reinvestment of the surveyed firms for 2018 is expected to rise by nearly 12 percent in a bid to expand operations and grab larger market shares, he said. AmCham South China is attending the four-day CIFIT, which is to open Saturday, for a 16th consecutive year. Its delegation includes over 50 executives and representatives from companies including P&G and Citibank. Members of AmCham South China inked more than two billion U.S. dollars of investment deals on average in each of the past 15 CIFITs, according to Seyedin. With more than 2,300 members, AmCham South China provides dynamic, on-the-ground support for American and international companies doing business in south China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:01:22|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish coast guards rescued 13 illegal migrants off the Turkey's Aegean coast, the force said on Friday. The coast guards saved 11 migrants who were stuck in an inflatable boat. They also pulled out an unconscious child and a man from the sea near the Bodrum district in the southwestern province of Mugla. The two persons and a pregnant woman were rushed to a nearby hospital, the coast guards said in a statement posted on its website. The refugees, including 12 Palestinians and one Syrian, are believed to have tried to sneak into a Greek island, the statement added. The Aegean Sea was once a main route for migrants being smuggled into Europe via Turkey, but a deal signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 has reduced the flow of illegal migration. Since this year, a total of 17,464 migrants have attempted to reach the Greek islands via Turkey, up from 12,677 over the same period in 2017, according to figures released by the Turkish coast guards. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:11:24|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close HARARE, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday appointed a 20-member Cabinet. Mnangagwa had carried on with some of the old ministers, most notably former home affairs minister Obert Mpofu, former finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, former health minister David Parirenyatwa and former energy minister Simon Khaya Moyo. Former Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri becomes the first woman to head the defense ministry and will be deputized by war veteran Victor Matemadanda. Academic and entrepreneur Mthuli Ncube comes in as finance minister and will have to deal with an economic environment in doldrums and characterized by serious foreign currency shortages and cash shortages. The country's most successful Olympian Kirsty Coventry was among the surprise appointees, coming in as youth, sports, arts and recreation minister. Mnangagwa said he had discussed the size of Cabinet with his two Vice Presidents - Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi - and they had agreed on the size of the Cabinet. "I have discussed with my two vice presidents and we have converged on reducing the number to 20. Initially we were 33. We have agreed to run with a 20-member Cabinet and we believe it's ideal for our current challenges," he said. Two ministers of state were also appointed in the offices of the vice presidents. Mnangagwa also appointed 13 deputy ministers, with two falling under the minister of lands, agriculture, water, climate and rural resettlement Perrence Shiri. Mnangagwa said he appointed two deputy ministers in the ministry because it covered many portfolios. He also appointed nine ministers of state for nine of the country's 10 provinces and said the one for Harare would be appointed later. He said the new Cabinet should be development oriented and help take the nation to middle income status soon. "We want to grow, modernize and mechanize the economy," he said. He said government ministries would continue with 100 day cycles and publish achievements and failures on set goals. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:26:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NANNING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Anti-smuggling police in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have seized 70 crab-eating macaques, also known as long-tailed macaques, at the China-Vietnam border, local authorities said Thursday. According to the statement released by Nanning Customs, police intercepted a minibus, in which they found 70 live macaques in the city of Fangchenggang in late July. It was alleged that the wild animals were smuggled from Vietnam. The suspect fled the site but was arrested Thursday by police. The crab-eating macaques mainly live in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The global demand for animal test subjects is driving an illegal cross-border trade in wild macaques. They are under second-class state protection in China. According to Chinese law, those who smuggle 10 crab-eating macaques and above can face more than 10 years in prisons, plus fines. Police warned that smuggling wildlife and products will not only lead to the extinction of the animals and break the ecological balance, but it also poses a risk to human health as some wild animals may carry diseases that can infect humans. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:26:29|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Li Zhanshu (C), chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, speaks at a meeting on the committee's legislation work for the next five years at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Friday called on the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) to write a new chapter for the legislation work in the new era. Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the 13th NPC, made the comments at a meeting on the committee's legislation work for the next five years. The NPC Standing Committee must improve the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics, with the Constitution as its core, to cope with the need to modernize the country's system and capacity for governance, Li said. "We must be fully aware of the new circumstances, changes, tasks and demands in the new era," he said. "We must place the legislation work in the overall interests of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the country." Li also stressed that the NPC should uphold the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee over the legislation work. The NPC and its standing committee should play the leading role in the legislation work, he said, urging the NPC to speed up its work. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:41:35|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan (R) shakes hands with Chi Jae Ryong, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) ambassador to China, at the reception celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK jointly held by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the China-DPRK Friendship Association, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Vice President Wang Qishan said Friday that China will work with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to implement the important consensus reached by top leaders of the two countries and push for greater development in bilateral ties. Wang made the remarks at the reception celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK jointly held by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the China-DPRK Friendship Association. He congratulated the DPRK on the fruitful achievements it has made over the past 70 years in socialist revolution and construction. Noting that China and the DPRK are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, Wang said Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has held three historic meetings with DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un this year, charting the course for future development of bilateral ties. "No matter how the international and regional situations change, the firm stance of the CPC and the Chinese government on consolidating and developing relations with the DPRK remains unchanged, the Chinese people's friendship with the DPRK people remains unchanged, and China's support for the socialist DPRK remains unchanged," Wang said. Chi Jae Ryong, the DPRK ambassador to China, said DPRK-China friendship is a precious treasure forged by the old-generation leaders of the two countries. The DPRK stands ready to work with China to further promote the DPRK-China friendship in accordance with the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two countries, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:41:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DUBAI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash criticized on Friday the absence of Yemen's Houthi rebels' delegation at United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva. Gargash said in Arabic language in a statement released on twitter that Houthis were "elusive when they feel the political and military pressure." He added that the Houthi rebels' failure to attend the consultations stands "in contrast to the highlight position of the government in all its positive and responsibility toward the political solution." UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths met with the Yemeni government delegation, headed by foreign affairs minister Khaled al Yamani, Thursday morning and exchanged ideas on the expectations of the scheduled new talks in Geneva and relevant issues to the peace process. However, due to the absence of the Houthi delegation in Geneva, the scheduled peace talks, the first of their kind since the failure of the last talks in Kuwait two years ago, were stalled the very first day. The talks were intended to find a diplomatic solution of the three and half year war in Yemen which has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis. The UAE is part of a Saudi-led Arab military coalition in Yemen which has been fighting the Iran-backed Shiite Houthis since March 2015 to support the internationally-recognized government led by Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:46:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Hans-Georg Maassen, president of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), voiced doubts about the extent of the attacks on foreigners in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Friday. After the deadly knife attack on a 35-year-old German man in Chemnitz two weeks ago, there had been demonstrations in the Saxon city by right-wingers, neo-Nazis and opponents of the German refugee policy. Maassen told the newspaper "Bild" on Friday that he shared "skepticism about media reports on right-wing extremists hunting down people in Chemnitz". The BfV, said Maassen, had "no reliable information about the fact that such hunts have taken place". Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her government spokesman Steffen Seibert had previously spoken of "hunts" in the context of these protests. Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) contradicted this on Wednesday and also harvested sharp criticism for it. Maassen cautioned "Bild" about a video showing hunting scenes of foreign people near the Johannisplatz in Chemnitz: "There is no evidence that the video circulating on the Internet about this alleged incident is authentic." According to BfV president Maassen, "there are good reasons to believe that this is deliberate misinformation that might distract the public from the murder in Chemnitz." Bundestag Vice President Thomas Oppermann told Deutschlandfunk radio that he could not understand such statements. "We have seen pictures, we have heard witnesses. We saw how people there gave the Hitler salute openly on the street," he said. The social democrats (SPD) leadership has called on Maassen to present evidence for his doubts about the authenticity of corresponding videos. "If the head of the domestic intelligence service publicly contradicts the Chancellor, he must immediately present evidence for his allegations," SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil told the German Press Agency in Berlin on Friday. The head of the parliamentary group of the german green party, Anton Hofreiter, likewise demanded evidence. With his "imprecise statements", Maassen would give the impression that he wanted to play down the incidents in Chemnitz and distract from the problem of right-wing extremism, Hofreiter told the newspaper "taz" on Friday. Hofreiter referred to "more than 100 investigations, reports on criminal offences, attacks and Hitler salutes in Chemnitz". Katja Kipping, party leader of the Left (die Linke) called Hans-Georg Maassen an "AfD understander" and called for his replacement. Maassen was "no longer tenable in this office", said Kipping on Friday in Berlin. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:56:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LJUBLJANA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The city council of Ilirska Bistrica, a southwestern Slovenian municipality bordering with Croatia, has voiced their strong opposition to a proposed registration center for migrants. According to the Slovenian Press Agency STA on Friday, the city council decided unanimously on Thursday that it would hold a local referendum should the state decide to set up a center at the border crossing of Jelsane. The municipality is voicing their protest against the Jelsane registration center or any other facility for refugees or migrants on their territory, with the councillors urging the government to "boost security on the state border to protect locals and their property". In case the state fails to comply with the referendum outcome, the locals would resort to other measures such as protest rallies and civil disobedience, the STA reported citing the municipality sources. A few days ago two civil initiatives from the southeastern region of Bela Krajina held a protest in the border town of Metlika against a similar registration center. Between autumn 2015 and spring 2016, more than 480,000 illegal migrants entered Slovenia from the Middle East, who came along the Balkan route and proceeded further north. A total of 2,036 foreigners were apprehended in the regions crossing into Slovenia illegally on land between Jan. 1 and Aug. 19, up 248 percent from the same period last year. The majority of illegal migrants were from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and Algeria, according to the STA report. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 22:56:38|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday met with Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO. The healthy development of China-U.S. two-way investment is not only beneficial to both sides but also contributes to the stable development of world economy and the growth of international trade, said Li, calling on all countries in the world to jointly safeguard trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. Li said that China welcomes ExxonMobil to build a large-scale wholly-owned petrochemical project in China, expressing the hope that foreign companies, including ExxonMobil, seize the opportunity to cooperate with China to better achieve mutual benefits and win-win results in accordance with market rules and commercial principles. Li said that the achievements of China's development over the past 40 years benefited from reform and opening up, and China will continue to follow this path. The Chinese side will further relax market access, treat Chinese and foreign companies equally, better protect intellectual property rights, continuously optimize the business environment and provide more convenience for foreign companies to invest in China, in order for China to remain a hot investment destination for foreign companies, said Li. The Chinese premier hoped that U.S. companies, including ExxonMobil, will actively expand their investment in China and provide an objective and fair voice to promote people to positively and rationally consider China's reform, opening up and development. During Woods' visit to China, ExxonMobil discussed with the Chinese side on building a wholly-owned petrochemical project worth 10 billion U.S. dollars in China's Guangdong Province. Noting that ExxonMobil has a long cooperative relationship with China, Woods expressed the appreciation of China's recent measures on expanding opening up, optimizing the business environment and protecting intellectual property rights. Woods said such measures by China will not only help China achieve its development goals but will also provide a wide range of opportunities for enterprises such as ExxonMobil to conduct cooperation in China. Woods said that many of ExxonMobil's development goals fit with the China's development plan, and he is confident in the success of relevant cooperation projects. ExxonMobil is willing to use world-class technology to help China's manufacturing and carry out long-term cooperation with China. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:16:41|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Palestinian protesters and medics carry a wounded man during clashes with Israeli troops on the Gaza-Israel border, east of Gaza City, on Sept. 7, 2018. Hundreds of Palestinians joined on Friday the anti-Israel rallies, known as the "Great March of Return," close to the border with Israel. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar) GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Palestinians joined on Friday the 24th anti-Israel rallies, known as the "Great March of Return," close to the border with Israel. Gaza-based local radio stations and eyewitnesses said that the anti-Israel protesters demonstrated close to the fence of the borders with Israel. They waved Palestinian flags, burned tires and chanted anti-Israel and anti-United States slogans. Volunteering paramedics said dozens of Israeli soldiers were stationed behind small hills of sands at the borderline area between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel. They fired tear gas and also opened fire at the mass of protesters. The paramedics said that dozens suffered suffocation after inhaling tear gas but no injuries have been so far reported. Israeli media reported that dozens of arson balloons were released from eastern Gaza Strip into southern Israel, causing large fires in several agricultural fields. The highest commission of the event called on Friday the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to join the 24th Friday of the "Great March of Return" to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decisions against the Palestinians. The anti-Israel rally, which began on March 30 and has been going on every Friday, has so far left 172 Palestinians killed and more than 19,000 others wounded, Ashraf al-Qedra, Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:21:43|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Yang Jiechi (R, front), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, meets with the First Vice President of Cuba Salvador Valdes Mesa in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Gao Jie) BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with Cuban First Vice President Salvador Valdes Mesa Friday in Beijing. Yang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said the international landscape is undergoing profound changes, and the two countries should carry forward the tradition of maintaining close high-level exchanges. He called on the two countries to continue to enhance strategic communication and governing experience exchanges, help and support each other and deepen cooperation. Valdes said the Cuban government and people are firmly committed to developing friendly relations with China, as well as enhancing coordination with the Chinese side. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:26:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a visit to Russia next week, which will inject new impetus to the bilateral ties and set a new course for regional peace and stability, as well as mutual trust and cooperation. Xi will attend the fourth Eastern Economic Forum from Sept. 11 to 12 in Vladivostok, Russia, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Observers said against the backdrop of changing international situations, China has been upholding the concepts of win-win cooperation and common development, which have attracted the attention of the whole world. EXPAND REGIONAL COOPERATION The Eastern Economic Forum, proposed by Putin in 2015, represents Russia's efforts to push forward cooperation in the Far East. It has gradually developed into a new platform for Asia-Pacific countries to deepen economic cooperation and discuss international and regional issues. This year's forum, with the theme of "The Russian Far East: Expanding the Range of Possibilities," is expected to attract thousands of representatives from more than 60 countries. It will be the first time for the Chinese head of state to attend the forum. China's views on deepening regional cooperation and achieving common development and prosperity are expected to receive added attention as unilateralism, trade protectionism and anti-globalization moves are rising in the world. Xi's attendance at the forum demonstrates to the whole world that in order to promote regional economic development, it is the right choice to stick to the principle of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, improve cooperation arrangements of the regional economy, push forward trade and investment facilitation and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, said Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui. Xi and Putin have reached important consensuses on strengthening cooperation and exploration in the Far East. The two countries have set up a cooperation council at the vice premier's level, deepen cooperation in various fields and steadily promote construction of connectivity projects. China has become Russia's largest trade partner and the biggest source of foreign investment in the Far East. As the second largest economy in the world, China has great influence on the global economy and international circulation of commodities, said Andrey Ostrovsky, deputy director of Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Cooperation between Russia and China will, to a large extent, promote the economic development of Northeast Asia, he said. Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said Xi's attendance at the forum will definitely speed up the economic integration of the Northeast Asia and promote the Belt and Road construction to achieve substantial and concrete outcomes. GUIDE CHINA-RUSSIA TIES The upcoming trip of the Chinese president will be his seventh visit to Russia since 2013, and is also the most important high-level exchange between China and Russia in the second half of the year. The Russian newspaper, Izvestia, said Xi's upcoming visit will be a new milestone in the development of Russia-China relations. Xi and Putin are scheduled to meet in Vladivostok, which is the third meeting between the two presidents this year. With the strategic guidance of the two presidents, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is at the best period of development in history as the two countries have been increasing political mutual trust, upgrading cooperation in economy and trade, growing people-to-people exchanges and tightening coordination on international issues. China has been continuously consolidating its role as Russia's largest trade partner, the main source of foreign investment and the biggest source of international tourists. Since the beginning of this year, the China-Russia ties have been on a more active momentum of development, and ushered in a new era featuring high level and remarkable development. The bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to exceed 100 billion U.S. dollars this year. During his visit to Russia, Xi is scheduled to attend several bilateral and multilateral events, the signing of documents, a joint press conference, and a banquet. Given the complex and changing international situations, Xi's upcoming trip sends a clear signal to the world that China and Russia will further promote friendly cooperation and jointly bring stability to the world, said Gao Fei, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University. This photo taken on June 9, 2018 shows a bridge built with Chinese assistance in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. (Xinhua/Wang Teng) WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A group of diplomats from African countries on Thursday evening stressed the importance of the Sino-African relationship and expressed eagerness to see the relationship grow stronger in the future. Michael Moussa-Adamo, Ambassador of Gabon to the United States, told a reception at his residence that China's involvement in Africa has seen the construction of much infrastructure, and has improved the people's lives and yielded many win-win cooperations. The reception was held to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, which ended Tuesday. Ambassadors and dignitaries from over 30 African countries attended the reception. Serge Mombouli, Ambassador of the Republic of Congo and an organizer of the event, said in an address that the fact that 53 heads of states and governments or their representatives participated in the Beijing summit this year demonstrated the confidence and commitment the African continent has in furthering their ties with China. China's presence has been felt throughout the continent, according to diplomats at the reception, in the form of Chinese financed or constructed infrastructure, Chinese enterprises, and cooperation in agriculture, security, education, health and culture. "China is perceived very well in our country," Carlos Veiga, Ambassador of Cabo Verde told Xinhua. "China attracts many Cabo Verde students to study there, and these students are becoming civil servants. One of my staff at the embassy has studied in China," Veiga said, adding that cultural and education exchange has been a highlight of bilateral ties. Frederic Hegbe, Ambassador of Togo, told Xinhua that in addition to the numerous infrastructure China helped put in place, China also helped provide medical service to the country. "My grandfather was treated in a Chinese hospital in Togo when he became ill," Hegbe said. The diplomats fought back bias from some Western countries claiming that China has been taking advantage of its African ties, saying this accusation is far from the truth. "Our relationship is a very fair relationship. China is a big country, we are a small country, but China always treats us as equals and with respect," Veiga said. "We are very happy with our relationship with China, it has only brought us benefits," he said. Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai was invited to the reception. He said China will always be a good friend, a good partner and a good brother to Africa, and that he looks forward for Sino-African ties to grow with the newly-generated momentum from the FOCAC. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:31:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KIEV, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine plan to hold local elections, media reported on Friday. Elections are scheduled for Nov. 11 to elect both "presidents" and the "parliaments" of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") as well as the "Lugansk People's Republic" ("LPR") on the same day, according to the Unian Information Agency. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the issue. Last week, Alexandr Zakharchenko, the self-styled "president" of "DPR" was killed in an explosion in a restaurant in Donetsk. Earlier in the day, Denis Pushilin, the envoy of the "DPR" to the meetings of Trilateral Contact Group on the Ukraine crisis, was appointed the acting head of the self-proclaimed republic. The whereabouts of Ihor Pushilin, the chief of "LPR" still remains unknown. However, some reports claim that he fled to Russia in November 2017, according to Unian. Since April 2014, the insurgents in eastern Ukraine have been involved in armed confrontation with Ukrainian government troops. The fighting claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people so far. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:41:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A former election campaign member of U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in a court on Friday for lying to federal investigators. The case of George Papadopoulos, 31, is part of special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to making false statements to the federal investigators about the timing and the possible significance of his contacts in 2016 relating to U.S.-Russia relations and the Trump campaign. The former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to the Trump campaign could face several months in prison, though his lawyers are asking for probation, saying his lies were not meant to hurt the investigation. The former aide is said to have lied about the timing of when he received alleged dirt on Hillary Clinton, who, as Democratic presidential candidate, was running against Trump in 2016. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last fall to making false statements to investigators about that information and is cooperating with the authorities. He had initially claimed that happened before he joined the campaign, but later admitted it was once he was on staff. The special counsel has so far publicly initiated criminal proceedings against over 30 people, including several former Trump campaign aides. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was recently found guilty of financial crimes committed prior to his time with the Trump team. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:51:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN humanitarian operation director warned Friday that some three million people are at risk amidst the ongoing escalation of hostilities in northwestern Syria. "There are some three million people living in the Idlib de-escalation zone, which includes parts of Idlib, Aleppo, Lattakia, and Hama governorates," John Ging, director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council. The Idlib de-escalation zone is the last remaining of the four created by the Astana process, which is poised to be violated. The process, initiated in early 2017 in the neutral Kazakh capital of Astana, works in tandem with the Geneva talks with an aim to resolve the Syrian crisis. Ging pointed out that of the three million, 2.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 1.4 million people who are internally displaced. As a result of insecurity, he said schools in western Idlib around Jisr Ash-Shugur and surrounding communities have been suspended. Key crossing points between government and opposition controlled areas are also reportedly closed, he added, restricting freedom of movement for the population and contributing to rising food prices and shortages. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 23:56:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday mourned the colleagues who lost their lives in the line of duty while serving the cause of peace. "Their loss touches us all, and our duty is to carry forward their memory and their legacy," said Guterres at the opening of UN Staff Day and a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate fallen staff. "This year, our hearts are also made especially heavy by the unexpected passing of (former secretary-general) Kofi Annan. I will travel to Ghana next week for the funeral and we will have an appropriate memorial here in New York. I again offer my condolences to the family and to so many people here who had the privilege to work with him." The strength of the United Nations lies in the commitment and talent of its staff, he said. "Every day, your efforts save lives, instill hope, uphold universal values and advance progress on pressing global challenges." "I thank you for your dedication and hard work, and for bringing the ideals of the United Nations to life around the world," said the UN chief. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:06:53|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Xinhua writers Chen Wenxian, Du Zhen JERUSALEM, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The win-win cooperation between China and Israel will be more productive in the hi-tech industry, chief scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua. "China is the second largest economy in the world and it is very important to Israel," said Amiram Appelbaum, who also works as chairman of Israel Innovation Authority, during the annual DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival held on Sept. 5-6. The well-known festival gathered thousands of delegates from world's leading companies to promote and exchange hi-tech expertise in sectors including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, clean energy, autonomous and shared transportation, and mobility trends. China has a large number of talents, including highly-educated engineers, students and professors who are very strong in academy, said Appelbaum, adding that China also presents a huge market. According to the chief scientist, who has travelled a lot to China in order to push forward the bilateral hi-tech cooperation, there is a "very good match" between the two countries. "Israel knows well how to start product and business from zero to one, while China is good at making it from one to one hundred," added Appelbaum. Since the establishment of the innovative comprehensive partnership in March 2017, the China-Israel ties in the hi-tech field have improved increasingly. Bilateral cooperation has been carried out in wide areas such as information technology, life sciences and healthcare, cyber security, energy and advanced manufacturing. So far, more than 6,000 startups are active in the hi-tech industry in Israel and more than 350 research and development centers established by multinational companies are under operation in Israel. Leading Chinese tech companies, such as Huawei, Legend and Xiaomi, are also operating their research and development centers in Israel. Chinese companies investing in Israel are not only in information and communication technology, but also in bio-technology, medical equipment and precision farming, he said. "The opportunity is much larger and I hope it will grow more." He was excited to see now there are collaborations in the academia between China and Israel. "We should work together in every aspect including technology, high education, research and manufacturing." Appelbaum expressed his confidence for a better and wider collaboration to be achieved in the future. The chief scientist also expressed hopes that both sides should look for a "very productive" economy which will be based on basic research collaboration, applied research collaboration, technology transfer, and manufacturing. He said that there is a big culture gap in bilateral cooperation and cultural differences should always be considered, adding that he is glad to act as a "bridge" of helping each other with better understanding. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:06:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Few would pay more than scant attention to a pencil lead. But for Firas Abu Zour, a 19-year-old Palestinian artist, it becomes a good way to demonstrate his artistic talent and craftsmanship. Abu Zour, a law student at the Al-Azhar University in Gaza Strip, can carve breathtaking mini sculptures out of a pencil lead, including figures, logos, iconic buildings and even a map of Palestine. "For the majority of people, a pencil is a writing tool, but for me it is a piece of art," Abu Zour told Xinhua in an interview. Abu Zour has been practicing this unique kind of art for two years. Without receiving any training, he was inspired by Russian artist Salavat Fidai, who is considered to the most famous artist in this field. "I'm completely self-taught and I never had training anywhere," Abu Zour said. He explained that he once saw Fidai's sculptures online and really liked the art. So he started to learn the techniques from the Russian artist's videos on Youtube. Abu Zour said that he started with sculpting on chalk fingers because of their larger size, before gaining the ability to carve on a pencil lead. The young man, who is considered the first Palestinian to practice this kind of art, said this art requires much patience and steady nerves. With much concentration, Abu Zour can carve miniature figures out of pencil graphite, turning pencil leads into fine art works. His micro-sculptures have featured items representing love, peace, homeland and many world famous iconic buildings, including the Big Ben clock tower in London. One of his most loved works is a key for the return of the displaced Palestinian refugees due to the conflict with Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in Palestinian territories in 1948, when the state of Israel was established. The Palestinians have desired for their return to homeland once a peace deal is reached with Israel. Abu Zour's work is not easy, as it requires great precision and concentration. He also suffers from many difficulties, most notably the recurrent power outages in the Gaza Strip which has suffered from a blockade by Israel and the Palestinian Authority since the Hamas took over the enclave in 2007. The young man complained of lacking a magnifying glass to facilitate his work, especially in making some sculptures, such as faces, require a magnifying glass to shape small details such as eyes, eyelashes and facial wrinkles. It usually takes Abu Zour one to four hours to carve a single miniature piece. It sometimes takes longer, depending on the details of the work. He said the most difficult part of his work is the that pencils can be often broken while carving. "But even if it does, I can recreate another sculpture out of the broken pencil," he said. Abu Zour has now about 40 carved pencil tips in collection. He uses charcoal pencils, wood pencils used by school students, as well as some colored wooden pencils. He is always encouraged by his family and friends who help him promote his work through social networking platforms, where his art works are highly admired. Abu Zour aspires to participate in international exhibitions to showcase his talent. He is striving to own the largest number of artistic sculptures on pencil leads in order to demonstrate the evolution of his mastery of this unique art. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:06:53|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni government forces backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) resumed military offense against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in the Red Sea coastal city of Hodeidah. The two warring sides engaged in ferocious gun battles in Hodeidah and other provinces. The operations came just hours after a new round of United Nations-led peace talks on Yemen did not take place on Thursday as scheduled. On Thursday, the delegation of the Yemeni government gave the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels a 24-hour-deadline to attend the UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva and threatened to withdraw if Houthi delegates remain absent. Sources close to the government confirmed to Xinhua that the Yemen's Foreign Minister Khaled Yamani, who leads the negotiating team, agreed to grant Houthis additional time to show up in Geneva. However, fighting escalated as the UAE-backed Yemeni forces resumed anti-Houthi military operations and attacked Houthi-controlled areas in Hodeidah province, sparking fears about the fate of the UN-backed talks. A military source said that the pro-government Giant Brigades approached from seizing full control over a main road in attempt to cut supply lines of Houthis from the capital Sanaa. Fierce fighting was taking place around that strategic road, the source said. Several Houthi rebels were killed and injured. Some others were captured by the government forces in Hodeidah, according to the source. Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes against the naval college controlled by Houthis and other surrounding areas, causing a series of intensive explosions. Residents said that ambulances rushed into the targeted areas. Local Yemeni observers said that the Yemeni government forces backed by the coalition might advance militarily to expel the Houthi gunmen out of Hodeidah after stalling Geneva talks. "Sparking a real battle against Houthis in Hodeidah will be the expected response from the government and its allies," said Anis Abdulrahman, a political observer based in Aden. "Resuming the military operations particularly in Hodeidah will press and force Houthis to join the Geneva talks as soon as possible," the observer added. The UN-sponsored talks between the two warring rivals were scheduled to start on Thursday but the Houthi leaders decided to set new conditions before talks, including flying some of their seriously injured members to neighboring Oman for treatment. A Yemeni government official based in Aden said on condition of anonymity that the Saudi-led Arab coalition gave the Houthi delegation permission to depart from Sanaa airport before they put forward additional requests. However, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, chief of Houthi negotiating team, said in a statement on Thursday that they did not get a plane. The last UN-backed peace negotiations for Yemen were held in 2016 in Kuwait, which continued for several months in the Gulf country but no constructive results had been reached due to serious differences between the rival parties. Yemen has been locked into a civil war since the Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014. The United Nations and other organizations have listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with an estimated eight million of Yemenis remaining precariously close to famine. Palestinian artist Firas Abu Zour, displays small graphite sculptures, at his home in Gaza City. on Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Stringer) GAZA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Few would pay more than scant attention to a pencil lead. But for Firas Abu Zour, a 19-year-old Palestinian artist, it becomes a good way to demonstrate his artistic talent and craftsmanship. Abu Zour, a law student at the Al-Azhar University in Gaza Strip, can carve breathtaking mini sculptures out of a pencil lead, including figures, logos, iconic buildings and even a map of Palestine. "For the majority of people, a pencil is a writing tool, but for me it is a piece of art," Abu Zour told Xinhua in an interview. Abu Zour has been practicing this unique kind of art for two years. Without receiving any training, he was inspired by Russian artist Salavat Fidai, who is considered to the most famous artist in this field. "I'm completely self-taught and I never had training anywhere," Abu Zour said. He explained that he once saw Fidai's sculptures online and really liked the art. So he started to learn the techniques from the Russian artist's videos on Youtube. Abu Zour said that he started with sculpting on chalk fingers because of their larger size, before gaining the ability to carve on a pencil lead. Palestinian artist Firas Abu Zour, works in pencil carving at his home in Gaza City. on Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Stringer) The young man, who is considered the first Palestinian to practice this kind of art, said this art requires much patience and steady nerves. With much concentration, Abu Zour can carve miniature figures out of pencil graphite, turning pencil leads into fine art works. His micro-sculptures have featured items representing love, peace, homeland and many world famous iconic buildings, including the Big Ben clock tower in London. One of his most loved works is a key for the return of the displaced Palestinian refugees due to the conflict with Israel. Palestinian artist Firas Abu Zour, works in pencil carving at his home in Gaza City. on Sept. 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Stringer) Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in Palestinian territories in 1948, when the state of Israel was established. The Palestinians have desired for their return to homeland once a peace deal is reached with Israel. Abu Zour's work is not easy, as it requires great precision and concentration. He also suffers from many difficulties, most notably the recurrent power outages in the Gaza Strip which has suffered from a blockade by Israel and the Palestinian Authority since the Hamas took over the enclave in 2007. The young man complained of lacking a magnifying glass to facilitate his work, especially in making some sculptures, such as faces, require a magnifying glass to shape small details such as eyes, eyelashes and facial wrinkles. It usually takes Abu Zour one to four hours to carve a single miniature piece. It sometimes takes longer, depending on the details of the work. He said the most difficult part of his work is the that pencils can be often broken while carving. "But even if it does, I can recreate another sculpture out of the broken pencil," he said. Abu Zour has now about 40 carved pencil tips in collection. He uses charcoal pencils, wood pencils used by school students, as well as some colored wooden pencils. He is always encouraged by his family and friends who help him promote his work through social networking platforms, where his art works are highly admired. Abu Zour aspires to participate in international exhibitions to showcase his talent. He is striving to own the largest number of artistic sculptures on pencil leads in order to demonstrate the evolution of his mastery of this unique art. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:16:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close by Hummam Sheikh Ali DAMASCUS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- As the tide of the more than seven-year-long war in Syria has turned in favor of the Syrian army, government officials have started prioritizing the reconstruction process as the new phase in the country after all the achieved military victories. The topic of the reconstruction process has been recently making the rounds on the news as well in the statements made by the Syrian officials and their counterparts in "friendly countries" such as in Iran and Russia. Bringing up the issue of the reconstruction comes as the Syrian government forces, with the help of the Iranian and Russian allies, have succeeded to recapturing large swathes of the country and are about to launch one last big battle against the last major rebel stronghold in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. It seems like this topic will be mentioned more frequently in the coming days and months as after the battles settle, Syria will be a magnet for all the companies that want to invest in the reconstruction process in the country. Last month, the United Nations announced that the seven year war in Syria implied a destruction of nearly 400 billion U.S. dollars, which means that companies from around the world will show up to do business in Syria. The Syrian government officials have been clear about granting opportunities to the "friendly countries," basically those who have stood by the Syrian government side during the crisis, to invest in the reconstitution of Syria, where large swathes of areas are in ruins. On Thursday, the 60th Damascus International Fair kicked off in the Syrian capital Damascus, with the participation of 48 foreign countries and a "large number" of local and foreign companies. The fair is considered as the Syrian economy's window to the world. Several government officials have attended the opening ceremony of the trade fair and underscored the efforts exerted to bring back the Syrian economy as strong as it was ahead of the long-standing war. Samer Khalil, Syria's minister of economy, told Xinhua and other media outlets that there are many recovering Syrian companies and newly-established ones taking part in the fair in addition to the foreign ones. He said there are over 1,722 Syrian and foreign companies that are taking part in this fair on a space of over 93,000 sq meters in the Fairground. "This indicates that many companies have started working again or recovering in addition to the establishment of new companies in the sectors of industry, agriculture, and services in Syria and this is also a sign that all these sectors have started to recover and have started the wheels of production once again," he said. The minister, meanwhile, expressed optimism about the next phase for both the economy and the reconstruction process. "The indicators of the Syrian economy are boding well and today we are on the threshold of a very important stage, which is the reconstruction phase in Syria," he said. This stage, the minister continued "requires massive efforts and today we find more attention and desire by many friendly countries to have its companies participate in the fair and to get to know the investment opportunities in Syria." He said that the foreign companies can benefit Syria with their experience on the financial and technical levels. For his side, Abdullah al-Gharbi, Syria's internal trade minister, told Xinhua and other reporters that this time is the time of "economic victory" in Syria. "We have started the process of the economic victory with the launching of workshops and factories. The companies and businessmen are looking to get contracts to import Syrian products or to export products to Syria," he said. Al-Gharbi stressed that "this fair is a very big opportunity for foreign companies and businessmen to get together with the Syrian ones to discuss the development of the economic situation." The minister said the reconstruction process tops the priority list of the participants in the trade fair in Damascus. "Now the majority of the companies, participating in this fair, are specialized in the reconstruction process and everyone is looking for reconstruction contracts," he remarked. Mamoun Hamdan, the Syrian minister of finance, told Xinhua and reporters that the Syrian exporters are exempted from paying taxes to the government to encourage the trade and exportation of Syrian products abroad. In regard to the Western sanctions on Syria, the minister said the sanctions were unilaterally imposed and Syria has good relations with many countries around the world. "The exports are exempted from taxes," Hamda said, adding that Syria has worked to overcome the unilateral Western sanctions through self-reliance and cooperation as well as trade exchange with friendly countries. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:22:00|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close LHASA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The fourth tourism and culture expo kicks off in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China, on Friday. Officials, experts and representatives of companies from countries including Nepal, India, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as other Chinese provinces and regions, attended the Fourth China Tibet Tourism and Culture Expo, which will last untill Tuesday. Forums and exhibitions on Tibet's tourism, culture and the Tibetan medicine and mineral water industry, as well as investment and trade promotion will be organized during the expo. Tibet is promoting tourism, which has become a major driver of the region's growth. It currently contributes over 30 percent to the region's total GDP. In the first half of 2018, Tibet received about 11 million domestic and foreign tourists, up 29.6 percent year on year, generating tourism revenue of about 12.5 billion yuan (1.8 billion U.S. dollars). Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:27:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close VIENNA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Italy need to cut its structural deficit, having a budget to reduce its debt, said European Union (EU) Economic Affairs Commissioner on Friday. "It's in Italy's interest to remain what it is, a big country at the heart of the euro zone, at the heart of Europe and therefore to have a budget that allows it to reduce its public debt," Pierre Moscovici said in Vienna. Currently, Italy is one of the most indebted state among EU members, Rome needs a low enough budget deficit to bring down the public debt burden. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Pierre Moscovici both met with Italian finance minister. After the meeting, Dombrovskis made a positive comment, saying the meeting was a very good one. "We have a shared understanding of the economic situation and the objectives of the next budget to bring the debt on downward path and pursue an improvement of the structural deficit," he said on Twitter. The eurozone states including Italy are required to submit their draft budget for next year by mid-October. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 00:42:03|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close by Eric J. Lyman ROME, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) is upping the pressure on Italy to make next year's budget deliver on promises to reduce the country's debt, despite government proposals that could add billions to a balance sheet already in the red. The government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is required to submit its draft 2019 budget to the European Commission no later than Oct. 15. Meanwhile, media have repeatedly reported concerns that proposed spending measures for infrastructure, pensions, and minimum income could push government spending in 2019 to more than 100 billion euros (117 billion U.S. dollars), or around 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). With lower tax revenue stemming from slow economic growth and a proposed flat tax for corporations, the spending plan could push the deficit above the 3-percent of GDP cap for countries using the euro currency. The European Commission has said it not only expects Italy to stay below the 3-percent limit, but to pass a budget that will help reduce the government debt, which totals around 132 percent of GDP, the second-highest level in the eurozone after Greece. "If things continue as they are, at least one side will have to compromise," Javier Noriega, a macro-economist with Hildebrandt and Ferrar, told Xinhua. "But there are consequences if either side does it." Noriega said that if the Conte government backs down from some of its central pledges, it risks losing the support of either the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement or the anti-migrant League, the two parties supporting Conte. If either pulled its support, the Conte government would collapse. Meanwhile, if the EU lets Italy disregard fiscal rules, Noriega said, other European countries would cry foul and some might try to follow suit. This week, Austrian Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger said the EU should be prepared to sanction Italy if it fails to reduce the government debt with the measures proposed in the 2019 budget. "Up until now, the new Italian government has not shown a willingness to work with the European Union, or visa-versa," Noriega said. Because of EU rules, Italy's parliament will be working to refine and pass the 2019 budget at the same time the European Commission is evaluating an earlier draft of the document. The Parliament is scheduled to begin debate on the budget on Oct. 20, five days after Italy submits the budget to the European Commission. Parliament could make changes to the budget, but it must finalize and pass the measure by the end of the year. That is one month after the European Commission is set to rule on whether the budget plan is compliant with EU rules. "Every year there is a rush to finalize and adopt the budget at the same time commissioners are evaluating it for compliance," Marco Batti, a researcher with the Brussels watchdog group BTI, said in an interview. "But it is rare that the risks for a clash are as high as they are now." In what could be a move in an eventual compromise, both Labor Minister Luigi Di Maio and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini -- the heads of the Five-Star Movement and the League, respectively -- have promised to obey EU rules with their next budget. But both have said they expect the other party to give up some of its central promises in order to reach that goal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:12:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close VIENNA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The finance ministers of the 19 Eurogroup states convened here on Friday for informal talks on a range of topics including bad banks, the Austria Press Agency reported. President of the Eurogroup and Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno said discussions around the issue of bad banks include whether or not the eurozone's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), could be used as a common backstop (or last resort insurance) for the fund used to wind down bad banks, the Single Resolution Fund (SRF). Centeno said the important question in this issue is when this capacity should be activated, and whose decision it is to do so. Plans currently in place see the mechanism coming into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, though it was noted that the Eurogroup is presently pushing for an earlier implementation. The ministers also confirmed that several other issues related to a deepening of the currency union will be discussed in the lead-up to the European Council summit in mid-December, when concrete proposals are to be put forth. These include the winding down of bad banks, deposit guarantees, and the eurozone budget. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:17:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A statement issued at the end of the summit in Iran's capital Tehran on Friday underscored the significance of political solution to the Syrian conflict. "The Syrian crisis cannot have a military solution and can only be settled through a peaceful political procedure," the statement, endorsed by the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, read. The statement also stressed the commitment of the summit to help form a Syria's Constitutional Committee. The presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey held a summit in Tehran on Friday to discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib, where Turkey holds considerable sway over an array of rebel groups. The summit also sought collaboration of international humanitarian institutions and agencies to help Syrian displaced people return home and to regular life. Cooperation to annihilate militants of the Islamic State group, the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), or the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, was another major agreement in the summit. During the summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said operation in Idlib is part of the "fight against terrorism," but civilians should be protected from bloodshed. "The struggle against terrorism in Syria would be continued, particularly in Idlib," Rouhani said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not allow bloodshed to take place in the northern Syrian province of Idlib. "Any attack on Idlib will result in tragedy and the massacre of the civilians, ... and 3.5 million people will be affected," he said. Ankara fears that an imminent military operation by the Syrian government in Idlib can trigger a flood of refugees to Turkey. Turkey recently has stepped up for diplomatic and military demarche as the Syrian government forces are planning a massive operation to eliminate all extremist groups in Idlib after the successful recapture of rebel-held parts of western and southern Syria. As a result, President Erdogan met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Ankara on Aug. 29. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met his Russian counterpart two times in August, while Turkish intelligence and military chiefs paid a visit to Moscow as well. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:17:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BELGRADE, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic Friday met visiting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross. During the meetings, the Serbian officials said the country is willing to advance trade, investments, cooperation on infrastructure projects and overall economic cooperation with the United States to further boost its business environment. According to a press release of the government, Ljajic and Ross talked about possibilities to increase the scale of trade and cooperation in the area of tourism between the two countries, and also discussed Serbia's integration process into the World Trade Organization. Ljajic noted that the harmonization of the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement between Serbia and the U.S. is in progress, and estimated that its signing could be of great importance when it comes to increasing investments from the U.S. to Serbia. Ross told his counterpart that Serbia is an interesting destination for U.S. investors, and announced that companies in the area of information technologies and high-tech in general will start to arrive in Serbia in near future. Ross, who arrived in Serbia on Thursday, was on a two-day visit. He met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Minister of construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic on Thursday. In meeting with Prime Minister Brnabic, Ross talked about the importance of U.S. investors who already do business in Serbia, such as Microsoft and NCR - for the economic and technological development. U.S. companies employ 17,000 people in Serbia. The two sides agreed that there is room for more investments. Ross and Vucic Thursday attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the area of infrastructure between the two countries that envisages for Serbia to inform the U.S. about its priority projects, while in return, the other side pledges to promote participation of U.S. companies in implementing and financing those projects. Vucic told Ross after the signing ceremony that Serbia "will not give up on great projects and dreams to make it more successful, richer and stronger". He estimating that the newly signed memorandum will attract more investors from the U.S. and open doors for tighter cooperation between the two countries. "We can very soon expect the participation of U.S. companies in infrastructure projects such as the Morava Corridor (highway linking Preljina to Pojate in central Serbia) as well as the Nis-Plocnik-Pristina highway," he said. Vucic stressed the importance of improving economic relations between the two countries, while Ross expressed his belief that the growing presence of U.S. companies will promote Serbia's future European Union membership. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:17:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close JUBA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A tangible political solution is crucial to lift South Sudan from permanent humanitarian crisis and alleviate the ongoing suffering of its people, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) senior official said on Friday. Dominik Stillhart, ICRC's global director of operations, said that despite signing of a preliminary peace pact, violence against civilians in the East African country continues unabated and humanitarian needs continue to worsen. "What we see in this country unfortunately is continued and widespread attacks against the civilians. Villages are burnt down and there is also widespread sexual violence," Stillhart told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in Juba. Stillhart said the recent peace agreement signed by the various South Sudanese warring factions in neighboring Sudan provides a glimpse of hope for stability, but it requires serious implementation in order to achieve tangible results. "There is need for this current political process to lead to peace and stability because this is the only way to lift this country out of the crisis and to alleviate the terrible suffering of the South Sudanese," Stillhart 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. A peace deal signed in August 2015 broke down following renewed fighting in July 2016. The UN estimates that about four million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally, and the world's youngest nation has for the third year running been ranked as the deadliest for aid workers to operate. Stillhart said the current situation in South Sudan remains difficult, with 60 percent of an estimated population of 12 million depending on food aid. "Even if peace is implemented, South Sudan will need and require international support for many years to come and therefore, we as an organization remain committed whatever the situation may be to South Sudan and its people," Stillhart said. "There is definitely much to be done to respect the very basic rule of international humanitarian law, and that includes - indeed also the flow of aid to most vulnerable people on every side they may be living," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:22:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Deputy President David Mabuza on Friday reaffirmed the government's determination to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. South Africa will work with other countries and global partners to achieve this goal by 2030 in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, said Mabuza, who is also Chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC). The SANAC is charged with coordinating South Africa's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, bringing together stakeholders from government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society, activists, health workers as well as religious and community leaders. "In order to defeat the scourge of TB, it is of paramount importance that we provide leadership and work together to accelerate our national and global collective actions, investments, research and innovations urgently to fight this preventable and treatable disease of tuberculosis," Mabuza said. He was speaking as South Africa was preparing itself to participate in the first UN High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis in New York on September 26. Earlier on Friday, Mabuza convened a special consultative SANAC plenary meeting at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. After the UN High Level Meeting, it is crucial that South Africa immediately develops its own implementation plan that will take the meeting's resolutions forward, Mabuza said. Currently the government is seeking to screen and test 14 million people for HIV and TB annually over the next three years. According to the World Health Organization, TB remains among the top 10 leading causes of death globally. A handout picture taken and released on September 7, 2018 by the Turkish Presidential Press service shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R), Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) holding hands during a trilateral summit in Tehran. (AFP photo) TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A statement issued at the end of the summit in Iran's capital Tehran on Friday underscored the significance of political solution to the Syrian conflict. "The Syrian crisis cannot have a military solution and can only be settled through a peaceful political procedure," the statement, endorsed by the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, read. The statement also stressed the commitment of the summit to help form a Syria's Constitutional Committee. The presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey held a summit in Tehran on Friday to discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib, where Turkey holds considerable sway over an array of rebel groups. The summit also sought collaboration of international humanitarian institutions and agencies to help Syrian displaced people return home and to regular life. Cooperation to annihilate militants of the Islamic State group, the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), or the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, was another major agreement in the summit. During the summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said operation in Idlib is part of the "fight against terrorism," but civilians should be protected from bloodshed. "The struggle against terrorism in Syria would be continued, particularly in Idlib," Rouhani said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not allow bloodshed to take place in the northern Syrian province of Idlib. "Any attack on Idlib will result in tragedy and the massacre of the civilians, ... and 3.5 million people will be affected," he said. Ankara fears that an imminent military operation by the Syrian government in Idlib can trigger a flood of refugees to Turkey. Turkey recently has stepped up for diplomatic and military demarche as the Syrian government forces are planning a massive operation to eliminate all extremist groups in Idlib after the successful recapture of rebel-held parts of western and southern Syria. As a result, President Erdogan met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Ankara on Aug. 29. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met his Russian counterpart two times in August, while Turkish intelligence and military chiefs paid a visit to Moscow as well. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:37:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN Department of Political Affairs on Friday marked the official closure of its Nepal Liaison Office, the UN spokesperson's office said. The liaison office was established in 2011 following the closure of UN mission in Nepal. Since it joined the UN in 1955, "Nepal has undergone several historic transformations towards peace, stability and prosperity," said the spokesperson's office in a note to the press. For the past two decades, the UN has accompanied the government and Nepali leaders on the county's pathway to peace, it added. "The UN is committed to continuing to work with Nepali political leaders and civil society on consolidating the peace agenda, including on broader human rights and development goals, towards a future of sustained peace and prosperity," it said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 01:57:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ANKARA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkey and the Netherlands have appointed ambassadors to each other, in line with an agreement to normalize relations, Turkish Foreign Ministry announced on Friday. Saban Disli, a former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker, was named as Ankara's new envoy to The Hague, the ministry said in a statement. The statement added that foreign minister of the Netherlands will visit Turkey in the first week of October, which will contribute to the normalization of the two countries' relations. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Marjanne de Kwaasteniet was appointed as the new ambassador to Turkey. The appointments came after the two countries agreed in July to normalize bilateral relations as a fruit of bilateral leaders meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels. Relations between the two countries soured in March 2017 as Turkey was preparing to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments. Dutch authorities canceled the flight permit of a plane carrying Turkish foreign minister, and banned Turkish politicians from participating political rallies with Turkish community in the Netherlands. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 02:32:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Friday urged for more humanitarian support for the nearly one million people displaced by recent violence in south-western Ethiopia. The UN migration agency, IOM, said last month that since April some 970,000 people have fled their homes due to fighting between communities along the border of Ethiopia's Gedeo Zone in the Southern region and West Guji Zone in Ethiopia's largest Oromia region. "Displaced people, host communities and returnees are in dire need of assistance for basic necessities like food, water, blankets and cooking supplies. Shelter materials, especially plastic sheeting, are urgently needed before the heavy seasonal rains," the UN refugee agency said in a statement on Friday. "We and our partners urgently need resources to continue providing life-saving assistance. For the coming 12 months, we need USD 21.5 million for the IDP response," it added. Amid UNHCR's call for urgent support, the Ethiopian government has on Thursday stressed that almost all of the internally displaced people in south-western Ethiopia will return home soon as government rehabilitation efforts kick in. More than 359,000 of the displaced have already returned to their respective localities as inter-communal clashes are contained and security situations improved, Ethiopia's state press agency quoted regional officials as saying. Local government officials further affirmed that communities involved in the conflict have settled the conflict through traditional mechanisms. UNHCR, however, stressed for strong support for the returnees, saying that "UNHCR and partners are calling for all returns to be voluntary and conducted in safety and dignity." "Our teams observed many of the IDPs being hosted in schools, hospitals and other public buildings. Those who have returned home to their plots of land or farms often find that there is nothing left," it added. According to UNHCR, the recent violence that followed more than a year of drought and tension over resources has brought various challenges on the displaced people. UNHCR, which deployed two Emergency Response Teams on the ground in Gedeo and West Guji areas, said it is presently responding to the urgent needs of the displaced persons and returnees after requests by the Ethiopian government for humanitarian assistance. UNHCR also revealed the provision of 50,000 emergency kits comprised of kitchen sets, sleeping mats, blankets, plastic sheets and jerry cans, with funding from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). UNHCR's current support to Ethiopia's inter-communal crisis is in addition to providing assistance to some 854,000 refugees in the east African country, it was noted. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 02:37:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close VIENNA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- After talks between Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and European Union (EU) Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Vienna on Friday afternoon, Kurz's office said that the ongoing Brexit negotiations are now "90 percent" complete. According to an Austria Press Agency report, the chancellery confirmed that the two officials held talks on the status of the negotiations, with Kurz giving his "full support" to Barnier. He said a final resolution is required in autumn, and that while no "cherry picking" is acceptable, there should still be a "close, ambitious relationship" with London following the split. Barnier had earlier met with Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who later also confirmed that the negotiations are in their final stages, and could even be concluded in the coming weeks. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 02:47:32|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari (front) speaks at a Security Council meeting on the situation in Idlib at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 7, 2018. The UN special envoy for Syria said Friday that the situation there had all the "ingredients" for a "perfect storm" with devastating humanitarian consequences, urging all stakeholders to find a solution to avert a tragedy. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN special envoy for Syria said Friday that the situation there had all the "ingredients" for a "perfect storm" with devastating humanitarian consequences, urging all stakeholders to find a solution to avert a tragedy. Staffan de Mistura, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Syria, briefed the Security Council by videoconference on the situation in Idlib, where an eminent offensive by the Syrian forces, aided by Russia, is likely to take place. Speaking from Geneva, he pointed to the intensified military presence and increased airstrikes in the northwestern region, which have prompted fears of a potential humanitarian catastrophe in the last rebel stronghold. Idlib is one of the four "de-escalation zones" in Syria agreed under a deal reached last year by Iran, Russia and Turkey in Kazakhstan's capital Astana. The other three have all been violated. The UN estimates nearly three million people are trapped there, half of whom were displaced from other parts of the country. While most are civilians, terrorist organizations, foreign fighters and armed opposition groups have also gathered in Idlib. "I have laid out...all the ingredients for a perfect storm. The dangers are profound that any battle for Idlib could be, would be, a horrific and bloody battle," the UN envoy said, adding civilians are its potential victims, and there are ever-present dangers in the case of a full-scale assault of incidents, rapid escalations, involving regional and international players." "The Security Council cannot accept that the civilians of Idlib must face this type of fate. Efforts to combat terrorism do not supersede obligations under international law in the moral conscience of humanity. We must put the sanctity of human civilian life above everything else." De Mistura urged all stakeholders in the crisis to find a solution to prevent a tragedy in Idlib while also addressing the issue of terrorism. The three "Astana guarantors" -- Iran, Russia and Turkey -- met in Tehran on Friday and de Mistura will hold talks with them in Geneva starting Monday. He will also meet with representatives from Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States later in the week. "It would be the ultimate failure of imagination and of diplomacy if, with these efforts, we simply saw an increase of military activities," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 02:47:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Friday ordered the east African nation's environment watchdog to probe pollution allegations against Acacia Mining's North Mara Gold Mine, saying previous report that cleared the mine was tampered with. Addressing a public rally at Nyamongo village near the goldmine in Tarime district, Mara region, President Magufuli said an earlier report by the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) was questionable. For the past 10 years, residents in villages within the gold mine have been complaining that effluents released by Acacia Mining's North Mara Gold Mine were polluting water in Mara River and Tigite River, posing major health hazard to the residents. "I am a chemical engineer. I want NEMC to launch a fresh investigation to establish how the effluents are contaminating water in the rivers, and subsequently affecting people," he said. "People are being affected by using water that is contaminated by effluents released by mining activities. This is unacceptable and NEMC should do its investigations afresh," said Magufuli. In 2016, NEMC undertook an investigation and came up with a report saying results of the samples taken from various water sources including Tigite River, indicated that the water was not poisoned. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 03:22:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Friday strongly regretted protesters' attack on and burning of the Iranian consulate in Iraq's southern city of Basra. The attack "is an unacceptable development and is not in line with national hospitality for (diplomatic) missions," the ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub said in a statement. "Targeting the diplomatic mission harms the interests of Iraq and its relations with other countries, and does not relate to the slogans of demonstrations and their demand for services and water," Mahjoub added. Dozens of demonstrators stormed the Iranian consulate on Friday in Basra, some 550 km south of the capital Baghdad, and set fire to the building, a local security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, Iran-backed Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq fighters fired shots as dozens of demonstrators approached their headquarters in Basra, the source said. Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, or League of People of Righteousness, is part of the Hashd Shaabi brigades. The group was allegedly funded, trained and armed by Iran's Quds Force during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and later became allied to the Shiite-led government. A few hours after burning the Iranian consulate, the demonstrators headed toward the U.S. consulate, but the attempt was unsuccessful because of upgraded security measures, the source said. The demonstrations are part of days-long protests in the southern oil-hub province of Basra, during which hundreds of angry demonstrators burned the provincial government buildings and offices of leading political parties and headquarters of some Shiite militias in protest of wide-spread corruption and water contamination in the province. Basra, the province's capital city which bears the same name, has long witnessed complaints among its over 2 million residents about the collapsing infrastructure, power cuts and corruption. Water supply in the province is also widely criticized for high salinity, with thousands of residents having been hospitalized. The protesters also accused the influential political parties of being behind the wide-spread corruption, which led to high unemployment and failure in rehabilitation of the country's electricity, water and other basic services. Photo taken on Aug. 19, 2018 shows a part of the Reppie waste-to-energy facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The project, located in Addis Ababa, was constructed by China National Electric Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNEEC). (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde) UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which had its latest summit in Beijing earlier this week, was hailed by an African diplomat as an effective model for multilateral engagement with Africa. "The fact that China pursues the win-win cooperation and the 'five-no' approach in its engagement with Africa renders FOCAC a strategic importance not only as a model for South-South cooperation but also with the potential to transform it into an exemplary platform for international cooperation as well," said Semungu H. Gebrehiwot, minister counselor at the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations, in New York on Friday. The "five-no" approach is no interference in the development paths of individual countries; no interference in their internal affairs; no imposition of China's will; no attachment of political strings regarding assistance; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation. Once labeled as "hopeless continent," Africa is now on a path to transformation and change, thanks to the major role played by China, Gebrehiwot said. For nearly the past decade, China has been Africa's largest business and trading partner. The recent announcement of 60 billion U.S. dollars of financing package during the summit is another huge opportunity that has far-reaching positive impact on Africa's continued development and stability, he said. African leaders and African Union officials have expressed the view that the Beijing Declaration and the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan fully reflect the priorities set by Africans in Agenda 2063, a strategic framework that envisions creating an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, the Ethiopian diplomat said. China is putting a bulk of its fund on areas that matter most to African countries, hastening their development, which would also meaningfully contribute to addressing the root causes of conflicts in Africa, when seven out of eight of the major initiatives China launched during the FOCAC Beijing summit target socioeconomic and development issues, he said. FOCAC can serve as an important tool for preventing conflicts, a priority championed by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres since taking the UN's highest office in January 2017, Gebrehiwot said. He added that through FOCAC, China is complementing AU's Agenda 2063, UN's SDG 2030 and vision of the UN reform proposal that was recently endorsed by the General Assembly. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 03:42:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close by Gretinah Machingura HARARE, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe, which is targeting to become a middle-income economy by 2030, is seeking to boost educational cooperation with China in order to achieve its economic development goals. In recent years, an increasing number of Zimbabwean students have been going to China to further their education at various universities in the Asian country. While some are paying for their studies, a number of them are studying through scholarships granted by the Chinese government and firms. In 2016, Chinese firm Hengshun Zhongsheng Group started awarding scholarships to academically gifted but poor Zimbabwean students to study in China. The company has been sending 50 students each year to study in China under the Zimbabwean presidential scholarship program, and has to date awarded scholarships to 150 Zimbabwean students to study in various disciplines. The 50 students for 2018 are set to leave for China soon, after a farewell ceremony was held for them by the Zimbabwe government and the Chinese Embassy on Friday. In a farewell message, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged the students to go and harness their education potential in China for the benefit of the nation. "Go and acquire knowledge and skills that we do need so much. Work hard, be disciplined and represent us well. We want you to come back home when you finish your studies and join us in the economic revolution which the new dispensation is unraveling," the president said in a message read on his behalf by a government minister. Minister for national and presidential scholarships Christopher Mushowe said the main thrust of the new government was on specialization, skills and manpower development to enable the country to attain its 2030 economic vision. "In the new government we will make sure that research and development, innovation and technology development are given priority. We have yawning skills gaps in the critical areas of science, technology and engineering and we want to fill those gaps with a deliberate focus on those areas," Mushowe said. Director of political affairs at the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe Guo Jing said the sending of yet again 50 students this year to study at various universities in China was one of the many good examples of the successful China-Zimbabwe educational cooperation. "Our cooperation in educational exchange is a win-win job as this cooperation not only benefits the next generation of Zimbabwe and jump-starts the development of Zimbabwe, but also cultivates the young champions for China-Zimbabwe people-to-people and cultural exchanges," Guo said. She said Zimbabwe was at the dawn of a new chapter of development which requires a huge pool of critical skills to enable the country to push forward with its development agenda. "The knowledge acquired in China will serve as guidance for your work in Zimbabwe and toward the target of making Zimbabwe a middle income country by 2030," she said. She also urged the students to be practitioners of Zimbabwe-China cooperation that delivers fruitful win-win outcomes for the two sides. Hengshun Zhongsheng Group managing director Liu Baixue urged the students to work hard in their studies. "Do your very best in your studies so that you serve your nation with the knowledge you have acquired," she said. Nineteen-year-old Shalom Muguwe who will study a degree program in computer science and information technology at Ocean University of China said he was grateful to China for the study opportunity. "I am very happy to have been awarded this scholarship. I want to acquire knowledge in China that will help in building a better Zimbabwe and advance our country in terms of technology and development," he said. "I hope the Chinese government and other firms will increase the number of scholarships so that many bright but poor students benefit," he added. To Kudakwashe Meki, a 26-year-old university graduate who will pursue a Master's Degree in Environmental Science, said the study opportunity will help boost his chances to secure employment and contribute to the development of Zimbabwe. "I am happy that I will acquire practical education from China and I hope to come back and use those skills to develop my country," said Meki. The study opportunity came in handy for 19-year-old Heidrun Mvere whose dream of acquiring university education had been shattered following the death of her father and breadwinner last year. "Thanks to this scholarship I am now able to fulfill my dream of getting university education. On her own, my mother would not have managed to send me to university," she said. Twenty five-year-old Margeret Muskwe said she hoped not only to secure employment but to set up her company after completing her Master's Degree in Genetics in China. "I believe I should also do my own thing after university rather than simply look for a job. So I hope to improve the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe through animal and plant breeding," she said. The exponential growth of Chinese universities as world class institutions has resulted in the Asian country emerging as a popular overseas study destination among many Zimbabwean students. An official from Obepa Education and Scholarship Center said the dramatic increase in Zimbabweans seeking higher education in China can be explained in part by the Chinese government's commitment to higher education and China's technological advancements. "Technology in China is far much advanced, and students prefer to go where technology is more dynamic. Engineering programs are the ones that attract most students," said Pamhidzai Matambanadzo from Obepa Center. She said lower tuition fees and scholarships by Chinese universities also attract many students. In a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held on Sept. 3-4, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will train 1,000 high-caliber Africans, provide Africa with 50,000 government scholarships, sponsor seminar and workshop opportunities for 50,000 Africans, and invite 2,000 African youths to visit China for exchanges over the next three years and beyond. This is part of the eight major initiatives announced by Xi which China and African countries will implement in the next three years and beyond. The initiatives also cover fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 03:52:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday announced the appointment of Ingrid Hayden of Australia as his deputy special representative for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). With over 27 years of distinguished service with the UN, Hayden has served as the Acting Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (Political) in Kabul since January 2018. She has extensive experience working for the UN in the areas of peace and security, and management, including in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan and Timor Leste. Hayden has held senior positions in the UN Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Political Affairs, as well as the executive office of the secretary-general. Prior to joining the UN, she served with Price Waterhouse and Coopers Lybrand and News Corporation. Hayden holds a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Queensland, Australia, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 04:02:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Friday strongly condemned the attack on its consulate in Iraq's southern city of Basra. The attackers "brutally" set Iran's consulate ablaze, causing serious damage, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement. However, none of the staff members was hurt, he said, adding that the consulate had taken preemptive measures after it received threats a day earlier. The Iranian spokesman demanded the Iraqi government take responsibility for protecting Iranian diplomatic missions, and urged it to identify and punish the elements behind the "serious crime." Protesters torched the Iranian consulate in Basra amid mass local rallies against corruption and lack of basic services. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 04:42:57|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close The airplane carrying Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro prepares to take off at the airport in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, on Sept. 7, 2018. Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed in the abdomen at a campaign event on Thursday, was flown to Sao Paulo for further medical treatment on Friday, his family said. (Xinhua/Rahel Patrasso) RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed in the abdomen at a campaign event on Thursday, was flown to Sao Paulo for further medical treatment on Friday, his family said. Bolsonaro's son, Flavio, said through Twitter that his father was taken from hospital in the city of Juiz de Fora, in the southeastern Minas Gerais state, and flown to Sao Paulo. He will be given medical care at the Albert Einstein hospital, added Flavio. Medical sources speaking to Brazilian news outlet Globo said Bolsonaro was "totally stable" and no risk was posed to his health during the transfer between hospitals. The candidate will likely stay between a week and 10 days, added the sources. On Friday morning, Brazilian senator Magno Malta shared a video of Bolsonaro in hospital where the candidate declared that he had never hurt anyone and that he and his team had prepared for a moment such as this. According to medical teams, Bolsonaro received wounds to both large and small intestine, loosing a large amount of blood. He was operated on in Santa Casa de la Misericordia Hospital in Juiz de Fora, the city where the stabbing took place. The suspect was immediately apprehended and has been identified as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliviera. Oliviera told police that he was "following God's orders." The attack was immediately condemned by the 12 other presidential candidates and current Brazilian President Michel Temer, who has ordered all candidates' police protection to be increased. Bolsonaro leads with some 20-percent support among all candidates, according to polls. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 04:47:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIRUT, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said on Friday that he aims to turn Lebanon into a regional technology and innovation hub. "We will invest in our human resources to create skills capable of growing technology companies," he explained. Hariri made the remarks during the opening ceremony of the ChangeMaker Festival held at Grand Serail. The festival, running from Sept. 7-9, will include a variety of events to promote innovation efforts in Lebanon. Lebanon has launched many initiatives to promote new ideas in technology, entrepreneurship and creativity, Hariri said. Investment in technology companies in Lebanon reached 180 million U.S. dollars in the past five years, up from fewer than 10 million dollars in 2013 to more than 50 million dollars in 2017, he noted. According to the prime minister, his government has created a ventures fund valued at 50 million dollars to invest in technology companies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 04:58:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHICAGO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities closed mixed on Friday, with wheat futures falling on dimmed U.S. wheat export prospect as overseas supplies were able to fill much of global demand. The most active corn contract for December delivery rose 0.75 cent, or 0.2 percent to close at 3.67 dollars per bushel. December wheat delivery fell 2.5 cents, or 0.49 percent to close at 5.1125 dollars per bushel. November soybean delivery went up 4.75 cents, or 0.57 percent to close at 8.44 dollars per bushel. CBOT soybean futures firmed on technical buying but gains were kept in check by expectations for a bumper U.S. harvest in the coming weeks and concerns about exports, traders said. Corn futures settled in positive territory, with traders focused on good demand for the yellow grain. As for weather forecast for agricultural crop, flood warnings and flash flood watches are in effect for parts of eight states stretching from southern Arkansas to central Ohio, according to the National Weather Service. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 05:08:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CAIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Cairo-based Arab Parliament on Friday welcomed Paraguay's decision to move its Israeli embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. In his cabled thanks to the Paraguayan president, foreign minister and parliament speaker, Mishal bin Fahm al-Salami, Speaker of the Arab Parliament, commended the decision as complying with the UN resolutions and the historical and legal status of the occupied city. Less than a month after the swearing-in of Paraguay's new President Mario Abdo Benitez in August, the country decided to relocate its embassy back to Tel Aviv, reversing a decision by former President Horacio Cartes in May. Shortly after Paraguay's embassy relocation decision on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Foreign Ministry to recall Israeli envoy to Paraguay and close the embassy. "The Paraguayan decision came in response to Arab and Islamic diplomacy and the efforts exerted by the Arab Parliament in the aftermath of the disapproved U.S. decision to transfer its embassy to occupied Jerusalem," al-Salmi said in his cables. He also urged the countries which transferred their embassies to the disputed holy city, or intend to do so, to heed the UN resolutions backed by the international community. "The city of Jerusalem is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories as stipulated in the Security Council resolutions," he said. The United States, Guatemala and Paraguay moved their embassies to Jerusalem in May. Israel seized East Jerusalem, together with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed East Jerusalem shortly afterwards, claiming it as part of its "indivisible capital," a move never recognized by the international community. On Dec. 16, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, triggering escalating tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 05:48:14|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos (R front) arrives at the court in Washington D.C., the United States, on Sept. 7, 2018. George Papadopoulos was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for lying to federal investigators during the Russia probe. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide, was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for lying to federal investigators during the Russia probe. He was also handed one year of supervised release, 200 hours of community service and a fine of 9,500 U.S. dollars. Papadopoulos, 31, is the first former campaign aide to be sentenced in the ongoing Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. He pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to the FBI about the timing and the possible significance of his Russia-related contacts, including a professor who told him the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, who was running against Donald Trump in 2016. Before he was sentenced, Papadopoulos apologized for his actions, telling a judge at a courtroom in Washington D.C. that he was wrong, ashamed and regretful. "People point and snicker and I am terribly depressed," Papadopoulos said. "This investigation has global implications and the truth matters." "I am ready to accept my sentence," he added. Prosecutors sought a sentence of up to six months, while defense lawyers asked for probation, saying his lies were not meant to hurt the investigation. Papadopoulos is said to have lied about the timing of when he received alleged dirt on Clinton. Papadopoulos had initially claimed he had met two individuals with Russian ties before he joined Trump's team in March 2016, but later admitted he actually met them after joining Trump's campaign. Hour before Friday's sentencing, President Trump sought to distance himself from Papadopoulos, saying he doesn't know the former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to his campaign. "I see Papadopoulos today, I don't know Papadopoulos, I don't know," Trump told reporters aboard the Air Force One. "I saw him sitting in one picture at a table with me. That's the only thing I know about him." Papadopoulos was pictured in March 2016 sitting at a table with Trump, then-campaign adviser Jeff Sessions who later become U.S. attorney general, and other foreign policy campaign advisers. At that meeting, Papadopoulos reportedly proposed brokering a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a claim that Sessions disputed when testifying to Congress. Papadopoulos is also the second defendant to be sentenced as part of the Russia probe, after Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan got 30 days behind bars for lying to federal investigators. Mueller has so far publicly initiated criminal proceedings against over 30 individuals, including several former Trump campaign aides. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was recently found guilty of financial crimes committed prior to his time with the Trump team. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 06:13:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army on Friday night targeted positions of the al-Qaida-linked militants in the northern countryside of Hama Province in central Syria, according to the state TV. The army shelled the positions of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, otherwise known as the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), in the town of Latamneh and other rebel-held areas in northern Hama. The attack came after the militants in the northern countryside of Hama fired shells on the government-controlled town of Mahardah in Hama, killing nine and wounding 20 others, three of them in critical condition. The tension is brewing in the region, which is a triangle of rebel-held areas stretching from the northern countryside of Hama to the mountains of Latakia Province and the northwestern province of Idlib. The Syrian army is preparing to launch a wide-scale offensive on Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 06:28:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close DUBAI, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States seek to boost defense ties as the deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces met the U.S. secretary of defense on Friday, UAE state news agency WAM reported. The meeting between Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis discussed ways of enhancing cooperation and friendship between the two countries, especially in defense and military spheres. The two sides also discussed the current regional developments, and "exchanged views on efforts being made to address and tackle these challenges," the report said. They also reviewed mechanisms of joint cooperation and coordination "to counter extremism and terrorism," it added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 06:53:26|Editor: Li Xia Video Player Close Photo provided by Shandong Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd (SEPCO III) shows part of Morocco's NOOR III Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project in Ouarzazate, Morocco, on June 7, 2018. (Xinhua) RABAT, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Driving from Rabat, capital of Morocco, all the way south over the Atlas Mountains, it took eight hours to reach the city of Ouarzazate, the gateway of the Sahara Desert. Looking north from the downtown, a tower measuring 248 meters high shines in the sun. It is the tallest solar tower in the world, which is built by a Chinese construction company as part of Morocco's Noor III Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project. In order to reduce dependence on energy imports, the Moroccan government has been actively developing renewable energy, and plans to raise the proportion of renewable energy to the total energy consumption to 42 percent by 2020. Under the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013, Chinese builders came to Morocco to provide a solid fulcrum for the energy restructuring of this North African country. The initiative, formally known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Africa and Europe along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road. Since 2015, Shandong Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd (SEPCO III), a subsidiary of Power Construction Corporation of China, has undertaken the construction of NOOR II and NOOR III CSP projects in Ouarzazate. The NOOR Solar Complex, a four-phase project, is the world's largest CSP station under construction. The NOOR II project has already been put into commercial operation, while the NOOR III project recently achieved its first grid connection target. After completion of all four phases of projects, the NOOR station will provide clean energy for more than 1 million Moroccan households, and even export surplus electricity to Europe. According to the staff of the NOOR projects, the 200-MW Noor II has the world's largest installed capacity as a parabolic trough power plant, while the 160-MW installed capacity of the NOOR III is the largest among the world's tower power plants. Zhou Hejun, project director of the NOOR III, said CSP plants are more stable and cause less damage to the power grid compared with their photovoltaic counterparts. The CSP will be the main global trend of solar energy generation in the future, Zhou noted. Zhao Guangjian, project director of the NOOR II, the two NOOR projects created 5,500 jobs for Moroccans during the peak period. A total of 300 Moroccan engineers are currently in employment, while the later operation and maintenance will also largely rely on Moroccan technicians, Zhao told Xinhua. Mohammed Said Mulani, director of a construction subcontracting company in Ouarzazate, said his enterprise has grown rapidly and acquired expertise in constructing CSP stations through participation in the NOOR II and NOOR III projects. "SEPCO III ... shares relevant expertise to subcontractors without reservation ... allowing us to have the opportunity to learn the latest technology in the fields of renewable energy," Mulani told Xinhua. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-07 04:13:01|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn heading for the Marine One at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Sept. 6, 2018. Top aides to U.S. President Donald Trump rushed Thursday to deny authorship of an explosive and anonymous op-ed published by The New York Times a day earlier, which has revealed a "resistance" inside the administration against the president. (Xinhua/Ting Shen) WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Top aides to U.S. President Donald Trump rushed Thursday to deny authorship of an explosive and anonymous op-ed published by The New York Times a day earlier, which has revealed a "resistance" inside the administration against the president. The Times said in a note that the op-ed, titled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," was penned by a senior Trump administration official who has vowed to thwart parts of the president's agenda and "his worst inclinations." The piece has put Washington into a wild guessing game as to the identity of the author, and several top Trump administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, offered their denials Thursday. A spokesman for Pence said the vice president "puts his name on his Op-Eds." "The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed," spokesman Jarrod Agen said on Twitter. Pompeo said during a trip to India that he was not the author and condemned the Times for publishing the article, while Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said Defense Secretary James Mattis did not write it. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, budget director Mick Mulvaney and others denied authorship of the article. In the op-ed, an unidentified official wrote while many senior officials "want the administration to succeed," they are "working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda." "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 author wrote. The Times said it is publishing the anonymous piece at the request of the author whose identity is known to it 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," the note added. The author also denounced in the piece the president's "amorality" and described his impulses as "generally anti-trade and anti-democratic" and his leadership style as "impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective." Besides, the op-ed revealed that Trump's Cabinet originally speculated about invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president, but they did not go with it because "no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis." Former CIA Director John Brennan called the piece "active insubordination...born out of loyalty to the country." Trump questioned the existence of the author via Twitter on Wednesday. "Does the so-called 'Senior Administration Official' really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?" Trump wrote. "If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!" Trump earlier told reporters the article was a cowardly product of dishonest media. In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the person behind the op-ed chose to "deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States" and called on the "coward" to resign. Sanders also urged the Times to issue an apology. The release of the op-ed also came amid excerpts from an explosive book, titled "Fear: Trump in the White House," which painted a chaotic White House run under Trump. Trump said the book, written by U.S. veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward, "means nothing" and called it a "work of fiction." James Dao, who runs the Times op-ed page, told CNN he received the article through an intermediary several days ago, calling the timing of piece's publication and the Woodward book "a coincidence." The author's identity is known to the opinion page editors of the Times, the newspaper said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-08 04:53:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is expecting a "positive" letter from the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said that "I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me." "It was handed at the border yesterday," Trump said. "It's actually an elegant way... and I think it's going to be a positive letter." "The letter is being delivered to me ... I think it's being brought in by Mike Pompeo," he added. At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit 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. However, the current DPRK-U.S. talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences in the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration. Kim told South Korea's envoy on Wednesday that he firmly supports and will be devoted to completely removing the danger of armed conflicts and the horrors of war from the Korean Peninsula and turning it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from any nuclear threat. Trump tweeted later on Thursday in response, thanking Kim for making such a statement and noting that "we will get it done together," referring to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Also on Thursday, the U.S. State Department said that special representative for the DPRK issue, Stephen Biegun, will travel to the capital cities of South Korea, China and Japan on Sept. 10-15 to discuss the denuclearization of the DPRK. Biegun "will meet with his counterparts and continue diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore," the State Department said in a statement. On view until 27 October 2018, from Tuesday to Saturday between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. The Varfok Gallerys Autumn Season will begin with a solo exhibition of the work of the legendary, 97-years-old Francoise Gilot, to complement and coincide with the Taschen publication of the facsimile editions of her sketchbooks made in Venice, India and Senegal. The theme of the exhibition will be her journeys and will present her most recent works. The painting career of Francoise Gilot (b.1921, Neully-Sur-Seine, France) is a story of triumph. Her oeuvre has taken a long time to receive due appreciation. She has had to prove herself as an artist on many occasions until she was finally able to shrug off the label of "Picasso's muse" and establish herself professionally as a first-class artist in her own right Her art is rooted in the revolutionary golden age of 20th century art, when she came into direct contact with such eminent figures as Braque, Matisse, Juan Gris, Apollinaire, Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Aragon and Cocteau. Gilot, the last living witness of the 20th centurys artistic development, even after ninety seven years, continues both to work and attain international success as may be seen by the 2012 exhibition in one of the world's leading galleries, the Gagosian Gallery, New York, where her work was shown together with works by Picasso. Further evidence of her international standing may be seen in the results of auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's where her early artworks have realised figures in the region of $500,000 - $600,000. Francoise Gilots works are represented in numerous museums and galleries world wide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (USA), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (USA), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (F), the Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris (F), the Musee de Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv (ISR), Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (D) as well as in many prestigious private collections. Innovation and Technology Minister Laszlo Palkovics met David Cornstein, the United States ambassador to Hungary, to discuss chances to cooperate in the areas of energy, economic development and innovation. Palkovics said ensuring the security of Hungarys energy supply is a priority in the countrys energy policy, and an important part of this policy is diversifying gas supplies. Fully 95% of Hungarys gas imports are delivered from Russia through Ukraine, thus the goal is to ensure supply from other countries, for example from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the north or the south of Europe, he said. Cornstein agreed that achieving energy independence is an important goal and said Hungary could count on the support of the United States in this effort. Palkovics said that the US is Hungarys biggest investor outside of Europe, while Hungarian companies are active in IT, life sciences and biotechnology in the US. Doing business in Hungary is worthwhile, Cornstein said, noting the importance of strengthening economic, scientific and technological ties between the US and Hungary. Photo: Botar Gergely / kormany.hu A left-wing analyst accuses PM Orban of threatening the unity of the EU. A pro-government commentator, on the other hand, thinks that PM Orbans vision is increasingly accepted in the EU. In Vasarnapi Hirek, Janos Avar accuses Prime Minister Orban and Italian Interior Minister Salvini of declaring war on Europe as we know it, by criticizing pro-immigration EU politicians. The left-wing commentator thinks that Orban and Salvini want to lead the nationalist parties of Europe in their battle with the integrationists led by German Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron. Avar hopes that voters will realize that demagogues including Orban and Salvini, are bigger threat to Europe than migration, and they will vote accordingly in the 2019 European Parliamentary election. Magyar Idoks Zsolt Bayer contends that PM Orban is becoming an ever more important figure in European politics. The pro-government columnist recalls that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a recent interview acknowledged the failure of the migrant redistribution quota system, and also rejected the idea that the V4 countries, which reject immigration, should be punished by the withdrawal of EU funds. Bayer interprets all this as an acknowledgement that PM Orban was right in his vision concerning migration. This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online Click here to Share Your Story 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... Little Baby's Ice Cream, Philadelphia's odd-ball dessert maker, is unveiling its first Center City storefront on Friday. And to mark the occasion, it will offer up pints of an entirely vegan confection dosed with the hot health-food ingredient of the moment: CBD oil. Derived from hemp, CBD this year has found its way into candies, baked goods along with products as diverse as cocktails, coffees and dog treats. Also known as cannabidiol, CBD is produced by all strains of the cannabis plant, of which the best-known is marijuana. The compound is reputed to have a calming effect. But unlike its better known cousin, THC, CBD won't get anyone "high." "We're certainly not making any medical claims about it," said Little Baby's co-founder Pete Angevine, adding that the flavor of the CBD is barely detectable. "There's a bit of a tingle to it, but it's pretty subtle," Angevine said. "It's masked by the chocolate and the coconut in it. It does not taste like medicine or a chemical or anything like that." Other Little Baby's flavors include pizza, Earl Grey Sriracha, smoked cinnamon, absinthe poppy, and Irish potato. CBD recently was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for some rare forms of epilepsy. Little Baby's isn't the first to market with a CBD frozen dessert. Mikey Likes It, a cult brand in New York, debuted a CBD-infused pistachio ice cream called Merry Jane's Addiction in 2016. But it might be the first to be sold in Philadelphia when Little Baby's opens its shop at 12th and Ludlow Streets. Angevine said the idea for a CBD-infused flavor was born in a conversation with his friend Max Tuttleman, the Philadelphia philanthropist and entrepreneur who is concurrently launching his Bouquet brand of CBD products. "A month ago, we realized that his brand and our Center City shop were premiering at the same time. So this celebrates both." CBD, like other marijuana- and hemp-derived products, is categorized as an illegal substance by the federal government, which considers the compound to be equivalent to LSD and heroin. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Food and Drug Administration rarely, if ever, prosecute CBD manufacturers or distributors. "We have a pretty clear understanding and consent from the powers-that-be," Angevine said without going into detail. "Right now it's just an introductory batch. I don't anticipate any controversy or blowback. But we want to make sure no one is freaking out before we make it available more broadly." Each pint of Little Baby's Non-Dairy CBD Chocolate Ice Cream will contain 100 milligrams of CBD and cost $20. If sales take off, Angevine hopes to make it available in Center City by the scoop. Swastikas appeared last week in Comcast searches on Google. Google fixed the problem on Thursday, but swastikas inserted into Comcast brand images have been a recurring problem for the nation's largest cable-TV company because of a two-year-old anti-Comcast Reddit page that crowdsourced legions of the company's critics to click on an image of the symbol of Nazi Germany with an embedded Comcast logo. Because tens of thousands of people clicked on the image more than 60,000, according to the Reddit page the Google algorithm thinks it's popular and returns it in search results. "Love or hate Comcast, I'm sure they have nothing to do with the Nazi Party," Pennsylvania State University marketing professor Ralph Oliva said on Friday, adding that "clearly there is malicious intent. There are other channels to be an effective complainer." The lesson, Oliva said, is that "even a powerful company and brand like Comcast is vulnerable" on the internet. Inappropriate images also have been associated on Google searches with McDonald's, American Airlines, Spirit Air, Electronic Arts, and, in a highly publicized incident in May, the California Republican Party. Comcast says the swastikas are hate speech. "This use of a despicable symbol is in no way authorized by Comcast. It is an offensive image that someone has posted on the internet, and we are working with Google to address it immediately. We have again asked Google to permanently remove this image from their search algorithm as we have in the past," Comcast said in a statement. Comcast alerted Google to the issue but the swastikas continue to reappear, frustrating its marketing and public relations teams. The swastika image appears along with those of Comcast TV remotes, Xfinity routers, and the Xfinity logo. Swastikas have been inserted into "information panels" for Comcast on Google searches. Google said in a statement: "Search results are automatically generated based on information on the web and relevance to a user [search]. For some topics and entities, you may see a more structured result in the form of an information panel to help you get a snapshot of that topic. In instances where our systems incorrectly associate an image with a given entity in a panel, we work to fix the issue, which we have done in this case." Google typically improves searches to address broad issues. But in this case, Google "took manual action to disassociate" the swastika from Comcast, the company said. As a rule, it removes content from its index in limited circumstances, including legal removals, "a violation of our webmaster guidelines, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page." In May, a Google information panel displayed "Nazism" as an ideology of the California Republican Party. The search engine removed the phrase after being contacted about it by Vice News. At the time, the company said "vandalism" can surface in its panels when "people vandalize public information sources, like Wikipedia" impacting Google search results. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy a California Republican lashed out at Google on Twitter, calling the listing a "disgrace" and part of a "disturbing trend to slander conservatives." Staff writers Catherine Dunn and Craig McCoy contributed to this article. The at 1700 Market St. office building (on the left, in front of One Liberty Place). Read more Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company is relocating its Center City headquarters to 1700 Market St. in a move that will increase its office footprint and allow it to boost hiring. Reliance Standard, a unit of Japan's Tokio Marine Group specializing in group employee benefits and fixed annuities, plans to move into the roughly 150,000-foot space in the office tower in late 2020, spokesman David Gittelman said in an interview Friday. The move will allow the insurer to increase employment by 127 over three years, according to a release from Gov. Wolf's office, which is offering $631,000 in job-creation and economic development incentives in connection with the relocation. Reliance Standard currently employs more than 550 workers at the 141,000 square feet it leases over five floors in the Commerce Square office complex at 2001 Market St., its home for the past 18 years. Other relatively new tenants at the more-than-845,000-square-foot 1700 Market St. office tower, owned by San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties L.L.C., include the Tierney public relations firm, real estate services firm HFF Inc., and business-information provider IHS Markit. Protesters dressed as handmaids from "The Handmaid's Tale" protest outside the hearing room where Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill Sept. 4, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Read more I tried to pay attention to what Judge Brett Kavanaugh was saying during the hearings this week. For anyone as addicted to the Supreme Court as I am, a nomination hearing is more exciting than the return of Halley's Comet, and only slightly more common. This was one of the major reasons that I was disappointed by the Senate's refusal to give Merrick Garland a fair hearing in 2016, along with the fact that it was petulant, mean-spirited, partisan, and on the razor-thin edge of unconstitutional. But I've moved on, even if the Democrats haven't. That became very clear the moment the gavel came down on Tuesday morning. Before the nominee even had a chance to say, "My name is Brett, and I'm a judicial conservative," a band of screaming banshees filled the air with their guttural, desperate whelps. Oh, no, I thought, did an itinerant group of Women's March alums get lost on their way to Pat Toomey's office? Alas, no, they were exactly where they'd been paid to be, these professional mourners of soon-to-be abolished reproductive rights. Knowing that Kavanaugh is a fairly sure vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if he gets on the court (I mean, yadda yadda, it's precedent, yadda yadda, wink wink, yadda yadda, sorry Sen. Feinstein), the women and the men who support them had come to make life miserable for the nominee, even though they knew he'd be confirmed. And the reason he'll be confirmed is because Harry Reid decided to invoke the nuclear option back in 2013, when he ruled the Senate, and Democrats were in the majority. Angered by what he saw as GOP obstructionism in refusing to confirm President Obama's lower court picks, Reid decided to go all Hiroshima on his colleagues and eliminate the 60-vote super-majority that was once necessary to confirm federal judicial nominees. Now, only a simple majority of one vote is needed. And that useful filibuster? It's as dead as Kellyanne Conway's chance of being hired as the newest panelist on The View, or Sarah Huckabee Sanders' chance of getting any meal but takeout. But the screaming banshees aren't angry at Reid and his Democratic brethren. They're livid that a Republican president has once again found a way to put a conservative white Christian male within arm's length of the highest court in the land. Say what you will about him, Trump has been incredibly effective in reshaping the bench. His first pick, Neil Gorsuch, is in his 50s and has already placed himself next to Clarence Thomas as one of the two most conservative justices. If Kavanaugh, who is also in his 50s, is confirmed, he will be a formidable addition to the "starboard" side of the judicial ship. The protesters know this. They almost make you feel sorry for them with their hand-painted signs, their defiant chants, their cute little Handmaid's Tale get-ups and their Chicken Little warnings. You want to tell them that it will be OK, that it's possible to survive even when you feel as if your civil rights are being violated, and that adversity makes you stronger. We in the pro-life movement have been getting stronger every day for the past 45 years. Now it's time for the other side to enjoy that same sense of exhilaration as you fight against laws that violate your sense of humanity. Because even though I didn't get to hear much of Brett Kavanaugh's comments on Roe v. Wade, I heard enough to convince me that he's not as impressed with that "super-precedent" as the late, great Arlen Specter. Kavanaugh made all the right rhetorical concessions, but it's pretty clear that if the opportunity presents itself, he will vote to overturn our generation's Dred Scott. Precedent is only binding on the people who don't make it. And Kavanaugh is interviewing for a job that will put him squarely in the position of making it. The screamers know this. There are reasons to wish that this nomination process was cleaner, fairer, not so rushed. And the spirit of Merrick Garland, ironically a good friend of Kavanaugh's, hangs over the proceedings. I can't deny there's a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. But then I see the crazy people exercising their First Amendment rights between hits of Thorazine, and all that matters is the prospect of getting one vote closer to overturning Roe. Pennsylvania State Sen. Daylin Leach (left) recently lashed out at Katie Muth, a fellow Democrat running for the state Senate. He said "our 'truce' is over in an email to a Democratic Party official. Read more Running as a Democrat for the GOP-dominated state Senate is hard enough, let alone when an incumbent Democratic senator appears to threaten to derail your campaign. That's where Katie Muth found herself recently. Muth is looking to unseat Republican Sen. John Rafferty in the Philadelphia suburbs. Her unexpected nemesis: Sen. Daylin Leach. Their dust-up centers on an event last month at which Muth and Leach were to speak. Muth, a self-proclaimed feminist and rape survivor, preferred to not share the stage with Leach. After the Inquirer and Daily News reported that eight women had accused Leach of unwanted touching and sexually charged conversations, Muth demanded that Leach resign. She also criticized him for lashing out at several women on social media afterward; he called one "a human wrecking ball of hate." So Muth's campaign contacted the organizers of the event a high school Democratic organization to which Leach's teenage daughter belongs and told them exactly why she didn't want to appear with the senator. He was dropped. Shortly thereafter, Leach fired off an angry email to Joe Foster, chairman of Montgomery County's Democratic Party. He called Muth "a dreadful person" and "a toxic hand grenade." Leach told Foster in the Aug. 25 email that he had held up his "end of the bargain" and played nice. He hadn't said anything negative about Muth to donors or voters, he wrote. Leach also claimed that Muth soon would be "irrelevant to our lives," while he would be a senator fighting for progressive issues "for many years to come." "Our 'truce' is over," Leach proclaimed. "I will do all I can to make sure people know." In an email sent by a campaign aide, Leach said he was upset because his daughter was upset. And he was conciliatory, explaining that he "desperately" wants Democrats to win the Senate majority and has "offered Ms. Muth support and assistance." Muth who said she didn't know that Leach's daughter was involved is disappointed. "I think it signifies a complete disrespect," she said of Leach's letter. "What is so upsetting is that someone could be so selfish and destructive as to think that harming me was the only option that compromising my chances to succeed was somehow acceptable." With 2019 around the corner, Democrats eye Sheriff Jewell Williams seat Philadelphia Sheriff Jewell Williams hasn't faced a serious challenger since he first won election in 2011. With sexual harassment allegations hanging over the Democrat's head, that might change. Clout has learned that at least three Democrats are thinking about running for sheriff in the 2019 primary. Rochelle Bilal, president of the Guardian Civic League, said that Williams shouldn't run and that she would "elevate" the office "to a different level." Dan Stevenson, a SugarHouse Casino exec whose brother is a business representative for the Electricians union, announced on Facebook that he has "begun the process of forming an exploratory committee." Interesting. For one thing, the Electricians supported Williams before #MeToo issues surfaced. For another, so did the Guardian Civic League. Retired cop Nick DiDonato is also pondering. He said that Williams "has disrespected the office." Last year, the Inquirer and Daily News reported that three women had accused Williams of misconduct. Williams denies wrongdoing. Are the moves by Bilal and Stevenson a sign that Williams is losing allies? Or do they know something we don't namely, that Williams isn't running? We asked a spokeswoman for Williams. She said that she passed the inquiry "directly on to the sheriff." Sounds like an answer. But Maurice Floyd, a political consultant who's known Williams for decades, insisted that "he's definitely running." He added that Williams, a ward leader and former state representative, is "going to be tough to beat" because he "has a lot of ties." Were SEPTA top cops tweets insensitive, tongue-in-cheek, or both? SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel is known for his ironic persona on Twitter. But has he gone too far? During the Made in America festival last weekend, Nestel tweeted about performer Tekashi69, a/k/a 6ix9ine. "Mr. Tekashi is delivering his melodious and inspirational messages of love and harmony to the waiting masses. Sing it, Sir!" he wrote. Nestel also said that 6ix9ine's song "Kooda" is "my jam." The subtext, it seemed: Nestel was making fun of his dorkiness and doesn't actually like the 22-year-old rapper. Nestel failed to mention something about 6ix9ine that isn't funny at all: In 2015, the artist pleaded guilty to "use of a child in a sexual performance." There's a meta-irony here, given that Nestel has taken heat for going after turnstile jumpers on social media. And here he was making light of a sex offender. Did Nestel know that record before he joked about 6ix9ine? He didn't respond to our question. He called his tweets "totally tongue in cheek." And just as ill-advised, Chief. Former Pa. Lt. Gov. Mark Singel is the lone lobbyist who has tried to help victims of Catholic Church child sexual abuse press for new laws in Harrisburg. He's Catholic and sees his largely pro bono work as a moral duty, even though the other side is still winning. Read more I found the most moral man in Harrisburg. He's an ex-politician. An ex-lieutenant governor. An angry Catholic. His name is Mark Singel, and he is also my hero. Singel has been the lone lobbyist working in Pennsylvania for child victims of clergy sexual abuse. The only one who didn't turn victims down when they came knocking for a change in state law. The only one willing to go to bat for kids who were done so terribly wrong. Singel has knocked on doors and tangled with lawmakers largely pro bono, and against the ferocious lobbying might of the church in which he was raised, and the deep pockets of the insurance industry. He has done this even though or perhaps because victims' adversaries keep winning. Starting with church scandals after the Boston Archdiocese revelations of 2002, victims of past abuse have failed time and again to win the right to expand their lawsuit options in Pennsylvania. Most recently, in 2016, after an atrocious grand jury report found that even law enforcement had colluded with the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese to ignore priest abuse cases, Republican Senate leaders killed the key part of a House bill that would have let today's 40-year-olds sue for being raped at 14. Senate leaders sided with the bishops and hierarchical hack-underlings who hid the crimes while the statute of limitations expired. They sided with insurance actuaries, too. When I called Singel, he seemed surprised that I was interested in this little-known work by him and his firm, the Winter Group. He has stepped away, at least formally, from the victim lobbying work this year. Advocates, he said, are running things pretty much on their own. Still, I wanted to know: How many lawmakers and aides had he spoken to since being retained, some five years ago and for a reportedly modest fee by the Foundation to Abolish Child Sexual Abuse in Bryn Mawr? "Dozens," he said. Some exchanges were "tense," and others so heated that Singel refuses to talk about them in public. Once, he asked to meet with a bishop. He was given the bishop's lawyer instead. Singel initially worried about taking on work that "was going to tick off my own church." The Johnstown native is a product of Catholic schools. "But I was convinced from the beginning that I was on the right side of this." "I have some standing up there," he said. "I'm not just somebody up the street or just some political hack who's walking in doors. I was willing to spend a little bit of political capital and say: 'Look, I've sat where you are. I know it's easy to walk away from this fight, but it's immoral and I can't believe you'll be taking the side of people who are supporting predator priests.' " A half-dozen Harrisburg lobbying firms had turned John Salveson down before the executive recruiter and his Bryn Mawr foundation found Singel. The others already were under contract for the church. Salveson said he managed to pay Singel less than $20,000 a year, thanks to donations. "It was just, like, one more example of how powerless and outgunned we are," Salveson said. "It's not even bringing a knife to a gunfight. It's bringing a feather to a gunfight." When I found Singel in his office Thursday, his cellphone was ringing and pinging with texts. Still, he agreed to walk through the Capitol with me and talk. He and victim advocates first worked to change hearts in the House, where Republicans had stopped any real changes to the state's civil statute of limitations for over a decade. By 2016, when the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese grand jury report came out, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill giving victims the right to sue for past abuse. The church, I had heard at the time from insiders, was blindsided. READ MORE: >> READ MORE: Pa. legislators who backed abuse bill feel heat from church But then Senate Republican leaders President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati of Jefferson County, Jake Corman of Centre County, Judiciary Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf of Montgomery County at the forefront came to the church's rescue. They lined up in opposition to the legislation, claiming it was unconstitutional. In the wake of last month's statewide grand jury report on clergy abuse cover-ups in six more of Pennsylvania's Catholic dioceses, State Attorney General Josh Shapiro and advocates, with the backing of Gov. Wolf and GOP House Majority Leader Dave Reed, are bracing for a huge fight to revive that measure just weeks from now. Singel wishes he could be more hopeful. "I don't think the Senate is ready to defy the powerful interests that are holding this back," he said. "It's very disturbing to me. I don't think there's ever been an issue that's been this clear-cut to me." Let's hope, at least this one time, that this good man is wrong. President Trump is painted as unhinged and impulsive in excerpts released from Bob Woodward's new book, 'Fear: Trump in the White House.' Read more The headline on the anonymous op-ed that has shaken Washington reads: "The Quiet Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." Quiet resistance. That's exactly the problem. As the New York Times essay spells out, the United States has an ignorant, reckless president whose senior officials struggle to curb his worst foreign-policy instincts. "His impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back," writes the anonymous "senior Trump official." Those senior aides and cabinet members can probably prevent Trump from provoking a war. Yet, even short of war, the damage the president has already done and will do by 2020 is so severe that quiet resistance equals collusion. Unless the "adult" members of Trump's foreign-policy team along with those he's fired go public soon, preferably in unison, history will judge them as harshly as him. >> READ MORE: President Trump is not well. Congress must curb his power to start a nuclear war. | Will Bunch Yet the so-called adults in the room who seek to counteract Trump's preference for dictators over allies still refuse to challenge him openly. Almost Trump's entire leadership team including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have rushed to deny authorship of the New York Times essay and distance themselves from its critique. Ditto for the distancing from Bob Woodward's new book, Fear, which also recounts the frustrations of Trump's national security team at his lack of knowledge and refusal to learn. The book claims Mattis told close associates that the president acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader" (a claim Mattis denies). Moreover, it's no secret that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster opposed many Trumpian moves and that Trump treated them with contempt. Yet, having been ousted, they have kept silent about Trump's narcissism and ignorance in dealing with foreign leaders. At the moving memorial service for Trump critic John McCain, speaker after speaker praised the senator's principles in obvious contrast with the (unnamed) Trump, but that still hasn't inspired a show of Republican backbone. >> READ MORE: Meghan McCain's weaponized eulogy for her father | Christine Flowers Of course, the anonymous author self-servingly argues that the quiet resisters can keep Trump's "erratic behavior" in check and his "bad decisions contained to the West Wing." Indeed, the president's security officials and military commanders can probably restrain him from embroiling America in new wars. In large part that's because Trump's past "fire and fury" rage against Pyongyang, his past threat to invade Venezuela, and his other warlike blustering may never have been serious. The president rages for effect but has an attention span so brief it's hard to imagine him ordering the military into major combat. Yet, even if war is prevented, the "quiet resistance" has been unable to halt the Trump foreign-policy wrecking ball beyond the West Wing, as he aids our adversaries, and diminishes America's standing in the world. By now, most world leaders get it: This president doesn't understand his role or respect his office. They also grasp that he is so susceptible to flattery that any foreign thug can win him over with honeyed words. >> READ MORE: More than 20 top Trump officials deny writing New York Times op-ed; Fox News host claims he knows the author Look no further than Trump's current tweets to Kim Jong Un to see the consequence of ignorance. Just this week the president tweeted his thanks for Kim's "unwavering faith in President Trump." Perhaps that faith grows from the fact that Kim was so easily able to bamboozle Trump at the Singapore summit, where the president signed on to a vague statement calling for "demilitarization of the Korean peninsula." Despite Trump's claim that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat, Pyongyang does not define that term to mean that it will eliminate all its nuclear weapons. On the contrary, as any expert on North Korea will explain, the North Korean definition calls for the United States to withdraw its troops and nuclear protection from South Korea and endorse a peace treaty between North and South Korea, while Kim makes minimal concessions. At that point, Pyongyang hopes the world will accept it as a major nuclear power such as Pakistan. Despite the fact that there has been virtually zero progress toward eliminating North Korea's weapons, Trump appears blissfully ignorant of those differences, perhaps because Kim keeps up the effusive praise. >> READ MORE: At the Singapore summit, President Trump got played | Trudy Rubin More and more foreign leaders also grasp that Trump doesn't know how to behave with dignity. I just returned from India, where despite better U.S. relations with Delhi, officials are aghast at a video of Trump mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the president addressed a gathering of U.S. governors. And then there were Trump's insults to Germany's Angela Merkel, Canada's Justin Trudeau, and other allies. Meantime, more and more adversaries understand they can ignore the White House as it wrestles with internal turmoil. China is bucking U.S. tariffs and speeding ahead with militarization of international sea lanes; Russia's Vladimir Putin pockets Trump's undercutting of NATO, while ignoring U.S. requests to stabilize Syria. And rather than fold, Iran expands its hold on Syria and Iraq. Still, Trump crows of foreign-policy successes while "the quiet resistance" stays silent, and those Trump has dumped mostly do likewise. This is the moment for McMaster and Tillerson and Mattis and any official who cares about American security to stand up, preferably together, and confirm what the anonymous sources have told us. And to keep up the critique until the public grasps the need for change in the Congress and White House. Otherwise, the "quiet resistance" is just enabling Trump to remain Trump. Louis Lippa, 90, a longtime playwright, director, actor, and teacher, died Wednesday, Sept. 5. No cause of death was given. Within hours of his passing, the local theater world was issuing remembrances and celebrations of his legacy. "He absolutely loved working in theater," said his son, Christopher, "and was like a kid locked in a toy store with it his whole life. Writing plays was his drumbeat, but he could never get enough of being onstage, or using his skills as a director or a teacher." Born in Rochester, N.Y., Mr. Lippa grew up in South Philadelphia. He earned a bachelor's degree at Temple University and, after Army service in World War II, returned home to finish his master's degree at Temple. (In 1976, he would complete his M.F.A. in playwriting there.) Also in 1951, he became a member of the original Hedgerow Repertory Theatre company at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, where founder Jasper Deeter encouraged Mr. Lippa's efforts at playwriting. In fact, when the Hedgerow closed in the mid-1950s, Mr. Lippa and a friend raised the money to reopen it and put on Mr. Lippa's play A House Remembered. Reaction was good, and they raised enough money to take the play to New York and off-Broadway, where A House Remembered won the 1957 Obie award for best new play. Mr. Lippa supported himself with theater work, including acting in the celebrated off-Broadway production of Threepenny Opera with Lotte Lenya, Edward Asner, and other stars. But he was frustrated with not finding an actors' ensemble or repertory he could join. So he came back to Philadelphia, and worked for six years as artistic director with the Cheltenham Center for the Arts. After a stint at the Theatre of Western Springs in Illinois, in 1974 he became one of the first members in residence at the then-People's Light and Theatre Company in Malvern, where he would direct, produce, be a writer in residence, and mentor other actors for the rest of his working life. He also kept his ties with Hedgerow, as actor, director, and mentor; it was at Hedgerow that he met Nancy Metzgar, his future spouse. Peter DeLaurier, a longtime colleague of Mr. Lippa's at People's Light, remembered "a loyal, provocative, gifted and inspiring collaborator." He said he was grateful to have been part of plays by Mr. Lippa such as Sign of the Lizard and of his gifted adaptations, which included Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author. "Lou understood Luigi Pirandello like no American before him," DeLaurier said. An "In Memoriam" posted on the People's Light web page gives a snapshot of Mr. Lippa: "Lou liked nothing better than a good debate. His subject matter was wide ranging: Aristotle, Brecht, Marxism, marinara sauce, and the Phillies. His zest for passionate engagement was legendary, his belief in the power of theater to change hearts and minds unquenchable." Besides the Obie, his many honors included the Dramatic Publishing Co.'s National Award for The Stone House; the Kennedy Center's New Play Award for Sign of the Lizard, and a 2004 Barrymore Award for lifetime achievement. His translation of Six Characters won the 2008 Barrymore for best play. His last acting role was at People's Light as Knut Brovik in Ibsen's The Master Builder in 2011. Mr. Lippa's family lived in several towns locally, notably Springfield. Nancy Lippa died in 2008. In addition to his son, Mr. Lippa is survived by daughter Anita and two grandchildren. No memorial service has been announced, but People's Light is planning a celebration of his work for later in the fall. The Philadelphia Orchestra spent a good part of the day Thursday in Verizon Hall doing something it hadn't done before in recent memory: reading through new scores in rehearsal with no intention of performing any of them in concert and not knowing quite what it was going to get. One new piece, in eternal dusk, turned the orchestra into a cloud of sound that slowly morphed. Another, called All the While, wrapped itself in Americana. Yet another, The Saqqara Bird, with novel orchestral colors and a masterly sense of structure, explored the enigma of an Egyptian artifact whose function has long stumped the experts. There was something else exceedingly unusual about this day of score-reading: all the composers were women. The showcase is one in a number of initiatives rolled out after criticism of a 2018-19 season initially announced without a single female composer. Kensho Watanabe, the orchestra's assistant conductor, was on the podium, playing through six pieces and then turning to the six women to ask whether balance, dynamics, and certain orchestrations and instrumental techniques, now realized by a great orchestra, were what they were expecting. Notably, the orchestra's first rehearsal of the year also brought the first public appearance of its new president and CEO, Matias Tarnopolsky, who announced from the stage that the orchestra has decided to commission new orchestral works from these six composers. The group is starting a new mentoring program for emerging female composers. It has named Gabriela Lena Frank composer-in-residence through 2021. And in the 2019-20 season, more than half of the orchestra's programs will feature a work by a female composer. Among the new pieces that season will be one by Valerie Coleman, known to many as the flutist of Imani Winds, who at this point is mulling for her commission taking an existing piece and putting it into orchestral form extended with new material. The orchestra believes this is its first time commissioning an African American female composer, an orchestra spokesperson said. Thursday's event, a collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra, was not the first time these composers have heard their works played. Still, hearing your score with an orchestra of this caliber has great value, and the day came with fringe benefits. The public was invited in, and among the hundred or so in the audience were some listeners of influence. Among them: Nigel Boon, director of artistic planning for the National Symphony Orchestra; Peter Czornyj, vice president of artistic operations for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (representing that orchestra's Women in Classical Music Initiative); and Cristian Macelaru, formerly with the Philadelphia Orchestra and now music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. What they heard was diversity. Stylistic diversity, that is. Xi Wang's Above Light, a conversation with Toru Takemitsu, in itself covered great ground, moving from worried to menacing to sensuous within minutes. Likely Pictures in Haphazard Sky by Hilary Purrington was long on texture, starting with pizzicato strings and harp strikes that sounded like small bubbles popping. "Could it sound a bit more cautious?" Purrington asked Watanabe about one point in the score, "maybe bring it from mezzo forte to piano?" Could the attacks at bar #97 be crisper? Should bar #188 be marked down to pianissimo? "Wow, that was magnificent," Nina C. Young said after the orchestra played excerpts from her Agnosco Veteris. "I wish I could hear the rest of it," she said about the work, which had both a wonderful yearning and a bit of swashbuckling adventure coursing through its veins. in eternal dusk, by Chen-Hui Jen, was striking for its use of naturalistic elements (luminous harmonics, evocative atmospherics, the use of breathy air pushed through brass instruments). In All the While, Robin Holcomb took a broad brush to American ideals of goodness, warmth, and, perhaps, the value of a national tapestry. If part of this exercise was about exposing the scores to music critics, this critic was quite taken with Melody Eotvos' The Saqqara Bird. A dashing, energetic character sketch with a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor, it held a sustained, long-view narrative a sense of a story unfolding in tightly linked paragraphs. It emerged as a work of great artistic clarity. There's a paradox here, though: If the orchestra is successful in its larger initiative, there should be in a few years so many female composers in the pipeline, from girlhood aspirants to big names, that no one should have to resort to corrective measures to equal up the numbers. The ultimate goal of events such as these should be nothing less than planned obsolescence. Rel. Fox picked a very busy Sunday to give one of its new comedies a jump start on the fall. LilRel Howery (The Carmichael Show, Insecure) stars as Rel, who's trying to put his life back together after the breakup of his marriage, in a story drawn from the comedian's own life. Jessica "Jess Hilarious" Moore plays his best friend, Brittany, and Sinbad his father. Howery created the series with Carmichael Show writers Kevin Barnett and Josh Rabinowitz, who's a Penn grad. 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, Fox. The Bad Seed. Mckenna Grace (Designated Survivor) stars as Emma, the creepy child of the title, and Rob Lowe plays her increasingly suspicious father in a reimagining of the horror classic that's directed by Lowe. Subtract the heredity underpinnings and add in a scheming nanny (Sarah Dugdale) and this feels like the quintessential Lifetime movie. Look for Patty McCormack (General Hospital), who starred as the murderous child of the 1956 film, as Emma's psychiatrist in a cameo that's a broad wink to the original. 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, Lifetime. The Last Ship. Fifth and final season premiere finds the crew of the USS Nathan James brought together to face a new challenge. You'd think, after conquering plague and famine, the next threat to humankind might be locusts, but, no, this one sneaks up on us. And that's all I'm saying. 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, TNT. Masterpiece: The Miniaturist. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Petronella Brandt, the new, very young wife of a wealthy merchant (Alex Hassell) whose house, and life, is full of secrets in this three-part adaptation of Jessie Burton's best-selling novel, set in 17th century Amsterdam. I found the story, with its supernatural overtones, far less entrancing than the production itself, whose lighting and costumes made it seem as if paintings from the Dutch Masters had come to life. 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9-23, WHYY12. The Deuce. Second season of David Simon (The Wire) and George Pelecanos' drama about the rise of the porn industry in New York jumps a few years ahead to 1977, with Candy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) trying to take a more artistic, women-friendly approach to her productions while experiencing occasional pushback from her mentor, Harvey (David Krumholtz) and twins Vincent and Frankie Martino (both played by James Franco) still living life, and chasing success, in very different ways. As TV series about pornography and prostitution go, this one's best appreciated for its smaller moments and endlessly entertaining dialogue. 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, HBO. Kidding. Jim Carrey returns to television in a role it feels as if he were born to play. Jeff Pickles is a beloved, even revered, children's TV host think Mister Rogers with Fred Rogers' reputation but without his stability whose persona has become the center of a family business. His father, Seb (Frank Langella), produces the show and his sister Deirdre (Catherine Keener) builds the puppets. Judy Greer plays Jeff's estranged wife, whom he tries to impress in the premiere with an appearance on Conan. When Mr. Pickles, responding to a tragedy in his once seemingly perfect life, wants to bring some of his darker thoughts to his young audience, is the resistance he meets about protecting children or the brand? And is Mr. Pickles crazy, or correct about what his viewers need from him? Premiere follows the ninth-season opener of Shameless. 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, Showtime. You. You may think twice about everything you post on social media and invest in window treatments after you see Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley in action as Joe, a more than mildly stalkerish bookstore manager whose latest crush, Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), has no idea what he's willing to do to win her. Based on the Caroline Kepnes bestseller, it's the logical sequel to Gossip Girl or a smartphone addict's worst nightmare. Either way, it's very much on brand for Lifetime, television for women who enjoy being scared silly. 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, Lifetime. The Passyunk Avenue store Nice Things Handmade has an unconventional exhibition on display right now of handmade things: a series of textile pieces that depict vaginas, by South Philly artist Katie Nocella. Nocella, who grew up in South Carolina before relocating to Philly last year, said that she was inspired to create the series when she realized, while in college, that she didn't know how to draw a vagina. "I knew how to draw a penis," she said with a laugh. "Everyone does. But drawings of vaginas aren't as common, and I wanted to explore that." Using a mirror and her self as a life-model, Nocella drew at home for 28 days in a row the length of a menstrual cycle. She then converted the drawings into abstract designs and printed them onto napkins, embroidery hoops, and silk shirts, adding embroidery as a final touch. The pieces are all for sale at Nice Things Handmade, ranging from $20 to $120. The exhibit runs through Sept. 11. "When I was making these pieces, I didn't tell anyone about them," Nocella said. "I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what they were before going to Elissa, the owner, about the idea. I asked her if the subject matter was OK and she went right along with it." Nocella, who has been sewing since high school, studied anthropology and art at college. During her freshman year, an English class with a gender-studies theme sparked her interest in feminine roles. Nocella said her vagina series, called Debutante, is the most personal she's ever done. It's also her first art show. Needless to say, there's been pushback. "Some people look at the artwork and are empowered and excited by it," Nocella said. "Other people look at it and ask, 'Why is this here? This isn't art.' "But I just want to be able to create the space to talk about it, like question them, 'Why don't you think this is art? Let's have a conversation.'" The maker of the popular e-cigarette Juul has been sued in a Philadelphia federal court by users who allege the company has violated consumer protections laws, engaged in deceptive marketing and failed to include warnings about the level of nicotine the product delivers. The class action complaint was filed Aug. 31 on behalf of four plaintiffs and others in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and asks that Juul change its marketing and product, according to court papers. "We do anticipate amending the complaint to add many more state classes," said Russell Paul, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. "People are reaching out to us from all over." A similar lawsuit was filed in New York in July, the Washington Post reported. The Philadelphia lawsuit alleges the company markets on social media sites frequented by children including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It claims the company is aware youths "discuss and promote" the product through the use of hashtags and comments to ad campaigns on social media. "JUUL Labs does not believe the cases have merit and will be defending them vigorously," stated Victoria Davis, a spokesperson for the company. The San Francisco-based firm is a spinoff of Pax Labs, which is also named in the lawsuit. The company was founded in 2007 by two Stanford University design students and has seen the use of its trendy product skyrocket. Juul has captured about 68 percent of the U.S. e-cigarette market and is valued at $15 billion, Bloomberg reported in June. "We are not familiar with the lawsuit, but we are very concerned that Juul and other e-cigarette products are attracting young people into nicotine addiction," Thomas Farley, Philadelphia's health commissioner, said Friday. The digital-like design and tiny pods filled with flavored nicotine juice have caught on fast with the under-18 set. The device resembles a computer thumb drive, making it easily concealable,. Some school districts have even banned the use of real USB drives on campus. "Kids are smoking in class, that is how easy it is," said Aaron J. Freiwald, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. Parents are not even aware their children are using the product, he said One Juul pod delivers about 200 puffs or as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, the lawsuit states. One of the plaintiffs, David Lechtzin, was 17-year-old high school student in Huntingdon Valley, when he was introduced to the e-cigarettes at a party. Before he was able to buy them on his own, he got the pods from his older friends. He saw Instagram posts that portrayed Juul as "cool," according to the lawsuit. Lechtzin claimed that when he first began using Juuls he was not aware now much nicotine they contained. At that time, the device and packaging did not contain any warnings about nicotine. He now uses at least four pods a week and considers himself an addict. Lechtzin would not have tried Juul had he known they contained nicotine, according to the lawsuit. Juul recently has been advertising in newspapers, including The Inquirer, stating that its product is intended for adults. Another plaintiff, David Masessa of Chatham, N.J., began using Juul in 2015 in an effort to stop smoking cigarettes. He had been smoking up to a pack a day and saw claims in online publications and on the Juul website that using the pods would help wean him off cigarettes and other nicotine products. Masessa now believes he is addicted to using Juuls and uses one pod every two to four days. The suit states that Juuls deliver "dangerous toxins and carcinogens to its users," an assertion the company has disputed. Research on the products both on its possible dangers and on whether it helps people quit smoking cigarettes is ongoing. Exposure to nicotine increased the risk of coronary vascular disease and peripheral artery disease. In addition, the act of inhaling the vapors, or vaping, introduces foreign substances into the lungs and with prolonged use may result in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the suit claims. "There is a lot more science coming out as the product becomes more widely used," said Freiwald. "The claim that this is a safer alternative, is false." A study in the journal Tobacco Control, released Friday, looked at the nicotine exposure of 506 adolescent e-cigarette users, specifically those using Juuls and other vape pod systems. The researchers found levels of a byproduct of nicotine metabolism in the study group's urine that were higher than what has been reported among adolescent cigarette smokers. The finding "raises significant concerns about the risk of nicotine addiction and long term product use," said Rachel Boykan, a pediatrician at Stony Brook Children's Hospital in New York and the study's principal investigator. I met Sasha in 1971 at Moscow University, where I was on an exchange post-doctoral fellowship. He was a graduate student critical of Communism, and people like him kept exchange students sane. Having a serious conversation with most of the Russians educated under the decades of Communism was impossible. They thought differently about just about anything, and talking with them was like talking into a void, like solitary confinement or being marooned. I experienced an almost physical craving to share my ideas about life, love, happiness, and, of course, private property, and I felt I was losing my mind. But Sasha thought like me. I gave him old American magazines and free books from the American Embassy. He reciprocated by having me over for drinks. I was hoping for substantial conversations; instead, I got hangovers as he kept urging me on with "bottoms up." Eventually, I concluded that after each drinking bout, Sasha was interrogated by the KGB, and each time he could truthfully say that all he remembered were trite conversations between drunks. It ruined his health he was a diabetic but it saved me. The day after one of those nights when we drank way too much, I was to visit the grave of Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest authors ever, the writer of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. I should have postponed my visit, but I was still so sick that I lacked the mental flexibility to change plans. Somehow, I got to the bus, then to Tula, then to Tolstoy's old estate, Yasnaya Polyana. I arrived at closing time. A stern woman at the entrance told me I was an idiot. I could only agree and explained that I was still so hungover I just could not change my plans. The woman stared at me and called the director. The director came, opened the museum, and gave me a two-hour private tour. Throughout the tour, I kept thinking that if I hadn't been so drunk, I would remember what she told me, but then again, if I hadn't been so drunk, I never would have gotten this private tour. All I remember is the end, when we came to the valley where Tolstoy had wished to be buried. She told me his eldest brother Nikolai had told him about a little green stick buried there. On it was written how the world could live in love and universal happiness, which would happen when someone found it. When I tell people I studied Russian, some ask me how I could stand it: Ivan the Terrible? The Gulag? Then I tell them about Sasha, about the staff of the Tolstoy Museum, about the little green stick, and about the poet Aleksandr Blok, who, after writing down a laundry list of bad Russian behavior, told his countrymen: "I still like you best of all." Bert Beynen writes from West Philadelphia. Did a travel experience move you, change you, or give you great memories? Email us how, in about 500 words (include a photo, caption information, and daytime phone number): inquirer.travel@philly.com. Please put "Personal Journey" in the subject line. (Response volume prohibits our returning or acknowledging every submission.) Johnny Bobbitt Jr., the homeless veteran who gave $20 for gas for Kate McClure has been back on the streets with his brother Aug. 15, 2018. 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. Johnny Bobbitt Jr. will get his $400,000. GoFundMe and Cozen O'Connor, the Philadelphia law firm representing Bobbitt, announced Thursday evening in a joint statement that he will receive an amount equal to the balance of the funds he did not get from the online fund-raiser set up for him in November. The campaign was established to aid the homeless man whose story of helping a stranded motorist in Philadelphia inspired thousands of people to contribute. What happened to the actual donations is now under a criminal investigation made public in dramatic fashion Thursday when police executed a search warrant at the Burlington County home of Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico. They launched the online plea for Bobbitt, a 35-year-old North Carolina native living under an I-95 ramp, who spent his last $20 to help McClure when she ran out of gas in Kensington late one night last fall. "Johnny will be made whole, and we're committing that he'll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from. GoFundMe's goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets [the] support he deserves," said the statement, which was sent to reporters by Bobby Whithorne, director of North America communications for GoFundMe. "We'll continue to assist with the ongoing law enforcement investigation," the statement continued. Lawyers for Bobbitt and the couple have disagreed on how much of the $400,000 that was raised has already been spent on Bobbitt's behalf. Bobbitt's legal team maintains that he was given a total of about $75,000. The couple's lawyer, Ernest E. Badway, has said Bobbitt got $200,000 total. This week, Badway disclosed that none of the money remains. Earlier in the day, GoFundMe announced it was taking steps to make it easier for donors to the Bobbitt campaign to get their money back. However, it was unclear Thursday night how the company's pledge to make Bobbitt "whole" would affect the process. Whithorne said the crowdfunding platform, which has reported raising more than $5 billion from roughly 50 million donors since it was founded in 2010, was waiving part of its refund policy that would have prevented Bobbitt's donors from requesting reimbursements. >> READ MORE: Why do GoFundMe campaigns like the one for Johnny Bobbitt go viral? GoFundMe refunds individual contributions up to $1,000 if it determines that donations were misused, according to the company's guarantee policy. But typically, donors must submit claims within 30 days of donating. The campaign benefiting Bobbitt which raised more than $400,000 from roughly 14,000 people began accepting donations nearly 10 months ago. Whithorne said the 30-day policy will not apply to Bobbitt's donors. "This is an extremely rare situation, and we are working with law enforcement officials to get Johnny the money raised on his behalf, which means the 30-day policy does not apply in this case," Whithorne said in a statement issued earlier Thursday. The 30-day window to file a claim is restrictive, said Daniel Borochoff, president of the watchdog group CharityWatch. "Typically, you wouldn't even know the money was misspent, because there wouldn't be all of this reporting," he said. >> READ MORE: How to donate to charity and know where your money is going The Bobbitt case is an example of why donors are better off contributing to nonprofits that are subject to regulations and financial reporting requirements, he said. "GoFundMe is a business," Borochoff said. "Their biggest concern is not overseeing the legitimacy of all of these campaigns they're conducting, so there's very little in the way of regulations. It's easy pickings for a scammer." There are other limitations in GoFundMe's guarantee policy. Rather than offering refunds, GoFundMe may redirect donations to the intended beneficiary, or provide refunds in the form of credits redeemable for donations to other campaigns, according to the policy. Victims are more likely to get compensated if criminal charges are filed, said Stephen Stigall, a partner at the Philadelphia-based law firm Ballard Spahr LLP. "If the government can establish that your intent was to dupe people to provide you money, then that certainly is a crime," Stigall said, listing wire fraud and theft by deception as possible charges. "If there were charges and then a conviction, usually there is a mandatory restitution that goes along with that." GoFundMe's terms and conditions also include an arbitration clause, meaning users are largely required to resolve disputes with the platform out of court. And the service agreement makes it clear that GoFundMe does not guarantee donations will be used for fund-raising purposes. "All donations are at your own risk," the service agreement states. "It is your responsibility to understand how your money will be used." GoFundMe allows users to raise money to pay for a variety of causes and expenses, from medical bills to college tuition. Users create campaign web pages that include personal stories, photos, and fund-raising goals. The campaign pages can be shared on social media and donors can make contributions on GoFundMe's website. Campaign organizers can then withdraw donations by wire transfer or check. GoFundMe charges a 2.9 percent payment processing fee plus 30 cents per donation to cover "the cost of third-party card processors and the safe and secure transfer of funds," Whithorne said. He said the company no longer charges a separate "platform fee" as of December. >> READ MORE: Timeline of the Johnny Bobbitt saga When they established 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. The trusts were never established, D'Amico said. Instead, the money was put in their savings account. "Normally, the campaign organizer would never touch money, but in this unique situation the campaign organizer was permitted to withdraw the funds," he said. "Regardless, we have taken steps to prevent this extremely unique situation from occurring again." GoFundMe has given $20,000 to a bank account created by Bobbitts legal team to provide assistance during the investigation. Kathryn Sherlock, left, speaks outside the state Capitol after meeting with Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Her husband, Brian Sherlock, right, holds a photo of Kathryn's daughter and his stepdaughter, Kayden Mancuso. Read more HARRISBURG Relatives of 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, who was fatally beaten last month by her father in an apparent murder-suicide in his Philadelphia home, met Friday with Gov. Wolf to seek legislation that would better protect children from parents with documented histories of abusive behavior. "You're dealing with kids' lives here," Kayden's mother, Kathryn Sherlock of Langhorne, said at a news conference outside the Capitol. Sherlock, who had primary custody of Kayden, said she left the meeting hopeful that reform measures would be undertaken by the legislature early next year. Kayden was staying with her father, Jeffrey Mancuso, 41, during one of her every-other-weekend visits at his Manayunk home the weekend of Aug. 4-5, when authorities say he killed her and then hanged himself. Her body was found Aug. 6 by her stepfather, Brian Sherlock. The Sherlocks and other relatives met with Wolf in the governor's reception room. The family was seeking support for a "Kayden's law," which would prohibit a parent who has exhibited violent behavior from having unsupervised visits with a child in custody battles even if the parent had not previously abused the child. Wolf's office said in an email after the meeting that the governor "thought it was important to talk directly with Kayden's family to offer his sympathy and to hear their ideas to protect children and families. Members of the governor's senior staff joined the meeting and will continue to work with the family, with advocates, and with the legislature." In addition to mandated supervised visits with a child for a parent with a proved violent past, Kayden's family is advocating for legislation that would mandate that the abusive parent receive counseling, that a lawyer or other "skilled" representative be appointed to advocate for the child in a custody battle, that judges be mandated to incorporate recommendations by experts, such as psychologists, into their orders, and that judges receive increased training on mental-illness issues. Similar legislative efforts have not made much headway. Melanie Blow, chief operations officer for the national Stop Abuse Campaign, which encourages states to pass Safe Child Act legislation, said such bills have been introduced without being passed in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Utah. State Rep. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) earlier this year introduced House Bill 2058, which would suspend visitation rights for an abusive parent in domestic-violence cases or allow only professionally supervised visits. The bill remains in the Judiciary Committee and is not likely to be voted on before the legislative session ends in December. In Kayden's case, Bucks County Court Judge Jeffrey Trauger was aware of Mancuso's violent or aggressive behavior toward Kayden's mother, Mancuso's own mother, and other adults. Examples included Mancuso punching a gym teacher in high school; an aggravated-assault conviction stemming from Jan. 1, 2012, when he bit off part of a 52-year-old man's ear in a South Philadelphia bar; and when in November 2017 Mancuso began quarreling and making aggressive moves toward Brian Sherlock. The judge, in a May order granting Mancuso unsupervised visits, noted that Mancuso loved Kayden and had not been violent toward her. A July 2017 report by a custody evaluator, Eric Frajerman, a licensed psychologist, noted that Kathryn Sherlock had asked for Mancuso to have supervised visits every other weekend. But he also noted that he found it "confusing" that Sherlock had previously allowed Mancuso to watch Kayden unsupervised. Frajerman noted that although Kayden had witnessed her father getting into fights with his mother, punching a family dog, and hitting himself in the face, and although he had screamed at her, she wanted to spend time with him but not for "too long" because of the violence she had witnessed. He did not suggest to the judge that Mancuso's time with Kayden be supervised but noted that his recommendation was contingent on Mancuso's obtaining mental-health treatment. The judge, in his May order, encouraged Mancuso to immediately seek psychological care. According to Kayden's mother's family, Mancuso refused to seek treatment. Brandon Conrad, left, and Malik Page, right, pleaded guilty Thursday, Sept. 7, 2018, to fatally beating Kevin Cullen in Holmesburg in November 2017. A third co-defendant, Emmanuel Harris, is awaiting trial. Read more Two teens who had attended Abraham Lincoln High School pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally beating a 57-year-old homeless man last year in Holmesburg, a spontaneous attack against a transient neighborhood native described by his brother as "a gentle and harmless soul." Brandon Conrad, 15, and Malik Page, 17, admitted in consecutive hearings to participating in the deadly assault on Kevin Cullen, who grew up blocks away from where he was killed. Conrad pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy, and was sentenced to four years at a juvenile placement facility and 15 years on probation below the sentencing guidelines for adults charged with those counts. Assistant District Attorney Chesley Lightsey said Conrad's age influenced the recommendation, as did the fact that he threw an opening sucker punch but did not continue assaulting Cullen. Page, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to the same charges and received a prison sentence of 12 to 25 years for stomping and kicking Cullen in the head and face after Conrad's opening blow. A third codefendant, Emmanuel Harris, 18, awaits trial. Cullen's relatives said at Thursday's hearings that they were devastated by the crime. They said Cullen was an intelligent and well-liked son of Mayfair, one of six children, a graduate of Father Judge High School, and a valued neighborhood resident even as he struggled with mental health issues. "He was a gentle and harmless soul," said Cullen's brother, Thomas. "Kevin was not anonymous." Conrad, Page, Harris, and a teenage girl who later served as a witness and was never charged were wandering the neighborhood on the evening of Nov. 26, 2017, when they spotted Cullen on the 4200 block of Loring Street, according to Lightsey. The teens surrounded Cullen, Lightsey said, at which point Conrad threw a sucker punch, akin to a blow from the infamous "knockout game," knocking him to the ground, and Page stomped and kicked Cullen's body and head. Afterward, Lightsey said, the teens went through Cullen's pockets but found nothing to steal. Cullen was taken to Aria Torresdale Hospital, where he was declared dead the next day. The three teens were arrested in December. Police said afterward that a witness reported hearing Cullen's head hitting a brick wall during the attack, while others said the boys laughed after leaving Cullen behind. Both teens apologized to Cullen's relatives during their court hearings Thursday. Page, gripping his head in his hands, broke down after expressing his regrets. "I was just being stupid," he said. "I didn't mean to do it." Two former counselors at the Glen Mills Schools were arrested Friday in connection with a brutal attack on a 17-year-old boy from Philadelphia who was in their care. >> INVESTIGATION: At Glen Mills, leaders have used the schools prestige to silence abused students for decades Christopher Medina, 31, of Kennett Square, and Patrick Raquet, 34, of West Chester, have been charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and endangering a child's welfare. If convicted, each could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine for the attack on the teen, which was caught on surveillance video. "We entrusted the care of a juvenile to these two defendants, and rather than caring for him as witnessed by about 30 people, and recorded by several cameras they literally beat the breath out of him," said Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland. The charging documents, as well as a description of the attack from state police, backs up what the victim told the Inquirer and Daily News last week: Medina hit the teen repeatedly in the head, then threw him over a couch while choking him with his sweatshirt and punching him. The teenager repeatedly said, "I can't breathe." More than 30 boys looked on. Medina who is 6-foot-4 and weighs 320 pounds dragged the teen upstairs by the neck and tried to force him into a bathroom before sitting him on a couch. There, Raquet grabbed the boy's face and punched him. The attack was unprovoked, Copeland said: "The video clearly shows that victim this juvenile victim was assaulted without even raising his hand." At one point, she said, Medina's "full body weight" was on the boy's elbow. State Police Lt. James Hennigan said Glen Mills officials were cooperating with police. He would not comment on whether additional school staffers could face charges. Both Philadelphia and Delaware County have for now stopped sending boys to Glen Mills, a private residential program for male juvenile offenders. Of the 383 males at the school, 143 are from Philadelphia and two are from Delaware County. Both counties are conducting their own investigations into the school's operations and other jurisdictions are watching. Chester County has also decided to suspend intake at Glen Mills, "based on a combination of historical concerns and the current incident," said Rebecca Brain, a spokeswoman for the county. Lancaster County, which uses Glen Mills' Concordville location, is waiting to see what happens with the investigation "and factor that into future plans," said David Mueller, director of the county's juvenile probation office. Philadelphia Department of Human Services spokeswoman Heather Keafer said that while the investigation is ongoing, the agency supports the decision to bring charges. "It's a serious incident and sends a clear message that child abuse is not tolerated," she said in an email. Randy Ireson, executive director of Glen Mills Schools, declined to be interviewed Friday. Through a spokesman, he re-released a statement that the incident was "isolated" and "did not uphold our stringent ethical standards and protocols." Last week, Ireson told the Inquirer and Daily News that there was no evidence that staff members interfered with the boy's breathing something police contradicted on Friday. Both Medina and Raquet were fired from Glen Mills last week. Four more staff members were suspended. Leaving state custody on Friday afternoon, Medina declined to comment. Both he and Raquet were released on $200,000 bail. A preliminary hearing has been set for Sept. 20. Leonard Hill, an attorney for the teen, said the arrests were "vindicating." His client is in physical therapy for injuries to his back and neck, he said, and has nightmares about the attack. "A lot of the time, when children are in placement and they complain of abuse, there's no one who believes them because they're children who ran afoul of the law in the first place," Hill said. "But many of these children come from difficult situations and difficult circumstances black, poor whites, Hispanics," he said. "And these children, regardless of where they're from or what they've done, should still be able to enjoy the same rights as any other human being, as any other child." In an interview last week, DHS Commissioner Cynthia Figueroa said she had spoken with staff and was confident in the well-being and safety of children currently at Glen Mills. State records show that Glen Mills has fired at least 14 staffers and reprimanded nine more over at least 14 physical assaults on children in the last five years. City Councilwoman Helen Gym and Councilman Kenyatta Johnson have requested a full accounting of violence at Glen Mills from the school and the state, as well as a safety plan for the boys currently there. "It is my belief that we may not have seen so much action had this incident not come to public light through the diligent work of the press," Gym said Friday. "These recent events underscore larger concerns about state oversight and the suitability of residential youth placements. What happened at Glen Mills, she said, is not unique to that facility. Two months after thousands of Marriott workers across the country took to the streets to call for, among other things, greater workplace safety protections, the hotel company announced Thursday it will provide "panic button" electronic devices to its on-site workers in its 5,000 hotels across the U.S. and Canada. Marriott is one of a group of major U.S. hotel brands, including the Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Wyndham, who announced Thursday afternoon that they would offer the devices. The Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is the biggest hotel in the city, with 23 floors spanning a full block. The call for panic buttons, which alert security if a worker feels unsafe, and more housekeeper safety protections started in 2011, when a hotel housekeeper in New York accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then the head of the International Monetary Fund, of sexual assault. Since then, hotel workers union Unite Here has lobbied for the devices, and several cities, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, have passed laws requiring the devices. (The workers at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown are currently trying to unionize with Unite Here.) In May, a group of Marriott housekeepers, including Edith Santos, a longtime housekeeper at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, spoke at the company's annual stakeholders meeting, called on their employer to take action on workplace sexual harassment. Santos, 72, said she and her coworkers were constantly in fear of being harassed or attacked by guests. In an interview with BuzzFeed News in July, the national president of Unite Here, D. Taylor, said the #MeToo movement made the call for panic buttons more urgent. Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said the same to hospitality industry outlet Skift, referring to the "increased awareness of 'sexual harassment claims across a broad range of industries and, frankly, geographies'" as a reason to have a consistent approach around safety across hotel companies. Jasmine Walker's brick-face home in Camden's Waterfront South section appeared ordinary at first: A purple cutout of the alphabet was pasted to the wall, and a television set rested in the living room, which was cluttered with her kids' toys. But in the next room, dirty laundry lay in piles, the defunct sink overflowed with dishes, water containers of every size littered the tables and floor, and a putrid smell permeated the air. "I just feel hopeless," Walker said as she sat in her home, anxiously bouncing her 7-month-old daughter, Elaya, on her knee. "I can't seem to win." In July, American Water, the for-profit company that leases Camden's water system, stopped service to her home due to failure to pay, leaving Walker, 25, and her two daughters, newborn Elaya and 6-year-old Naja, without running water for months. That finally changed on Wednesday, Walker said, after she submitted a form detailing the symptoms of her severe epilepsy and American Water reestablished her water service. Throughout the city, there are more than 400 homes at risk of having their water shut off like Walker's under Camden's privatized water contract, according to a report acquired by the Inquirer and Daily News through the state's Open Public Records Act. American Water's records show that it halted service to 59 properties in 2018 nearly double the number of shutoffs in Camden in 2016 and 2017 combined. Of those properties, 36, including Walker's, were still without water on Aug. 10, according to American Water's data. Walker said she left her job as a cardiac monitor technician at Philadelphia's CardioNet in August 2017, although her former employer said records show she worked until May 2018. She's suffered from severe epilepsy her whole life, Walker said, and it caused her to have dangerous seizures at work. She said her doctor recommended that she leave work and apply for short-term disability benefits, "at least until I gave birth." "That's when everything started piling up," she said. "I paid what I could: a little here, a little there. I was just living like that until" she said, drifting off. Walker knew she was behind on her water bill, but chose to prioritize other costs like her daughter's tuition at Camden's prestigious private school, UrbanPromise, and her car payments. "What would you pay last?" she asked. Walker said she was in the hole with American Water by about $450 when they shut her service off. American Water charges residents $40 for a shutoff and another $40 to reestablish connection, according to American Water's website. American Water said they strictly adhere to the shutoff protocol established by the city. If payment has not been received within 33 days, the company issues a "reminder notice," according to city ordinance. Ten days later, if payment still has not been made, a shutoff notice is generated. Fifty-three days after the original bill, an employee will post a physical notice at the property, and 24 hours later, water is shut off. Walker said she never received any notice until American Water employees at her curb warned her days before the shutoff. She said she called American Water to try to negotiate a payment plan, but eventually realized she had been calling New Jersey American Water, which is a separate operation from American Water's service in Camden. "Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that?" Walker asked. Walker said she knows plenty of Camden residents who have higher outstanding bills than hers, but still have running water, so she didn't expect her water to be shut off. But on July 19, Walker said, she lost access to running water. "I try to make it so it doesn't affect my kids," she said. "Thank God I have friends and family right here." On Aug. 10, a notice of foreclosure from the Sheriff's Office was seen posted on her front door. It said Walker was $59,172.99 behind on her mortgage. Also posted was a bill of rights during foreclosure, which stated: "It is unlawful for anyone to try to force you to leave your home outside the court process, including by shutting off utilities." Camden city officials initially failed to produce water shutoff data despite formal inquiries by Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization. Instead, officials passed the questions on to American Water, the country's largest water utility company, according to the Wall Street Journal, but American Water, too, failed to respond. "The city was using their contract with a private entity to hide information that should have been public," said Food and Water Watch's senior New Jersey organizer, Lena Smith, who led the push to make Camden's water shutoff data public. "This just shows how residents lose out when municipalities privatize their water systems." Most of Camden's water system is owned by the city, but it's been run for decades by various for-profit utility companies that operate and maintain the infrastructure in exchange for a regular payout from the city. Against a backdrop of concerns from Food and Water Watch and other public advocates regarding accountability, City Council voted unanimously in December 2015 to hand over operations to American Water's Contract Services Group in a 10-year, $125-million contract. The contract was signed soon after American Water announced its plans to move its corporate headquarters to Camden's waterfront and received $164 million in tax incentives from the state. "Due to the collaborative efforts of American Water and the City of Camden, the number of shutoffs are very low," American Water spokesperson Joseph Szafran said. In 2016 and 2017, 33 households were shut off for nonpayment, according to American Water's data. "This represents a less than 0.2 percent shutoff rate." This year has seen an increase in shutoffs, 59 since January, according to the company's data. The city, however, produced data that showed 429 properties recently received a shutoff notice and are "at risk" of shutoff, according to assistant city attorney Ilene Lampitt. City spokesperson Vincent Basara declined to comment on the city's shutoffs, but added that "American Water has been a great community partner." American Water is New Jersey's largest water utility company. It owns a network of systems across 18 counties, the company says, and includes the Cramer Hill neighborhood of Camden, which it has served since the 1880s. In exchange for monopoly power in areas where American Water owns the facilities, such as Cramer Hill, the company's prices and operations are regulated by the state. But American Water's contract to run the rest of Camden's publicly owned system is a "market-based contract" not subject to state economic oversight. "Our partnership with the City of Camden is a competitive business like anything else," said American Water CEO Susan Story. The city's two systems are divided by the Cooper River; residents south of the river pay lower rates, but are not eligible for financial assistance from American Water. "We put a huge focus on reducing operation and maintenance costs, which has been very successful in Camden," Story said. But American Water's interest in its market-based contracts appears to have wavered except in New Jersey. American Water announced its intent to sell off or let terminate all of its market-based contracts except for four, three of which are in New Jersey: Camden, North Brunswick, and South Orange. Story said the decision was made to keep contracts only in areas familiar to American Water. In last year's annual report to shareholders, American Water explained that when it comes to market-based contracts like that of Camden, "historically, we have made minimal long-term capital investment under these contracts; instead, we perform our services for a fee." In Camden, the city pays American Water roughly $12.6 million per year to deliver drinking water and sewer services to residents, according to the contract. Revenue is collected and payment is enforced by American Water, according to city officials, but kicked back to the city, which retains ownership of the facilities and is responsible for upgrading them if necessary. "Municipalities may contract out because they lack sufficient scale to hire necessary expertise," said Daniel Van Abs, associate professor of practice for water, society and environment at Rutgers University, or "because they want to outsource headaches." Van Abs said that too often, municipalities like Camden sign operations of their water system over to a private company, but fail to monitor adherence to the contract. "Municipalities assume that they don't need expertise now, because the private partner has it," he said. "I see this as a problem waiting to turn into a fight." Michele Wellard and Rick Schubert prepare to anesthetize a cooper hawk at Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center in King of Prussia, Pa., on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Read more The Cooper's hawk, a juvenile, was skinny and dehydrated. He'd spent the morning in a box, where the dark and quiet might soothe him. As Rick Schubert, 47, pulled him out on a recent Tuesday, the bird became agitated, biting at the foreign hands now prodding at his mouth, searching for signs of disease or parasites. Michele Wellard, 47, slipped a small mask over the bird's face, administering anesthesia. Soon the bird lay still, and Schubert began feeling his way across the hawk's skeleton, searching for fractured bones and damaged tissue. "I close my eyes when I do this, because eyes are of no help," said Schubert, a certified wildlife rehabilitator of 21 years. He confirmed that the clavicle, scapula, coracoid, shoulder joint, and humerus were intact. "It's all sense of touch. Eyes just distract you." As he worked, the doorbell rang. Wellard, a wildlife rehabilitator of 10 years, left to greet the visitor as Schubert finished the exam. No fractures, diseases, or external parasites. Dehydration, definitely. Head trauma, likely. The bird would need fluids, pain medication, and close observation before being released into the wild. In the next room, Wellard ushered in Bob Gallagher, 62, an instructor at a nearby summer camp holding a Canada goose he'd spotted limping around the grounds. This was a typical 10 minutes in the life of the Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center, which treats sick and injured wild animals from Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties all in a King of Prussia apartment. Ten or 12 hours a day, seven days a week, Schubert and Wellard tend to a seemingly endless array of birds, mammals, and reptiles brought in by animal control, local police, and members of the public. More than 60 volunteers help feed, wash, and clean up after the animals. The phone rings constantly. A bird on a porch. A turtle in a net. A lone fawn, no mother in sight. It was hardly noon, and already five animals awaited treatment: a robin, cottontail rabbit, kestrel, mourning dove, and a house finch. "We just do this all day long," said Schubert, the clinic's executive director, placing the hawk back into his box and getting ready for the goose. The wildlife center operates out of a few rooms on the first floor of a small house off Route 202. Feathered and furry patients are first brought through an intake space, where Schubert or Wellard, the assistant director, take down as much information as possible from the human making the delivery. Off this room is a narrow examination space and ICU, lined by cages, a table, and anesthesia machine. Here, animals receive emergency fluids, medication, bandages, and stitches. In the back, a former living room, replete with fireplace and crown molding, there are incubators for baby songbirds and orphaned opossums, birdcages and snake tanks, and shelves containing every imaginable food supply and vitamin. Yogurt tubs, not nests At a table in the center, Bruce Bowers, 71, of East Falls, fed baby chimney swifts and robins. The tiny creatures, nestled against one another in yogurt containers, chirped shrilly as Bowers gently squeezed eyedroppers of formula into their gaping mouths. A retired teacher, Bowers began volunteering six year ago, when Schubert was head of wildlife rehabilitation at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education's wildlife clinic. Schubert was fired this January, after 13 years in the role. The circumstances of his departure were heated. Schubert contends he was retaliated against for testifying on behalf of a coworker in an employment lawsuit. "The Schuylkill Center strongly disagrees with Rick's allegation regarding his termination, but cannot comment further in deference to the privacy of third parties and in light of ongoing litigation," a spokesperson said in a statement to the Inquirer and Daily News. After Schubert's firing, his staff and volunteers resigned in protest, effectively closing the Schuylkill clinic. (In the same statement, the Schuylkill Center said it has hired a new director for the clinic, and "greatly looks forward to reopening the facility as soon as we can.") Meanwhile, Schubert's team searched for a new building. On April 1, the doors opened at 400 East Dekalb Pike, in King of Prussia. Within an hour, before every box had been unpacked, the first patient arrived: a great horned owl. Since then, Wellard and Schubert estimate they have received 1,500 animals. That's proportional to the 40,000 animals Schubert's team treated in the last decade, he said. "The need here is overwhelming," Schubert said. A huge diversity of wildlife resides in the habitat that the clinic serves. Coyotes, red foxes, raccoons, raptors, hawks, and all kinds of songbirds have been spotted in Fairmount Park. Hundreds of species make their home in the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, out by the airport. Deer, bears, and bald eagles live in the suburbs. Peregrine falcons nest at City Hall. This clinic works closely with Aark Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Bucks County, and others that service specific species, like Tristate Bird Rescue in Newark, Del. These are all organizations that step in when animals are hurt, injured, or orphaned because of human activity. "We don't take care of the bunny that gets attacked by the fox," said Wellard. "We take care of the bunny that gets attacked by a lawnmower." Veteran volunteers Volunteers are "the life of this place," Schubert said. Many have been around for more than 10 years, building up a bevy of knowledge in their own right. Bowers, for example, expertly alternates between wet food and berries and insects for the birds he feeds. At another table in the main room, Marianne Navarro, 69, was trying to tube-feed a baby possum more interested in climbing the syringe than eating. "My philosophy is you have to protect our wildlife, because we're part of nature," said Navarro, a Mount Airy resident, retired teacher, and volunteer of nearly 20 years. Next to her, Fay Stanford, 68, an artist and grandmother from Narberth, dabbed at another possum's belly, trying to stimulate its bowels. Rescued after their mother was killed, the babies are kept in an incubator, warm like the mother's pouch, and fed formula with the same balance of nutrients as mother's milk. Stanford began volunteering more than 10 years ago, after she brought in an injured bird. The best part of volunteering, she said, is releasing the animal at the end of its treatment. "You get to take it out and open the box or open a cage and watch it fly off or swim off or scurry off," she said. "That's the closest I come in my life to some kind of spirituality." Release is the "singular purpose" of rehabilitation, Schubert said. Proper preparation for that moment is both an art and a science. Poor rehabilitation leaves an animal too reliant upon humans, no longer able to survive in the wild on its own. "Once you let it go, it has to take care of itself, fend for itself, feed itself. There's no one else to take care of it." The task is made harder in a space so small. A volunteer committee is hunting for a permanent home for the organization, at least three acres preferably five in a natural area of Southeastern Pennsylvania, accessible to the metro area but surrounded by woods and fields and streams. In the meantime, they're building up capacity as a brand-new nonprofit. This year, their operating budget is $109,000, said development director Steve Wasserleben. They hope to boost that budget to $250,000 by next year, and hire more staff. The two rehabbers are licensed by the state, Schubert to work with all birds, reptiles, and mammals, including rabies-vector species, and Wellard for all birds. Wide-ranging skills are required for wildlife rehabilitation. Every animal requires an exam and diagnosis, and usually first aid, followed by a regimen of food, medication, caging, and activity that must match the specific needs of the species, according to its size, age, and the scope of its injuries or illness. But other needs crop up, too. Recently, Schubert used wire cutters and needle-nose pliers to surgically remove a fishing hook from the throat of a snapping turtle that "had probably been around since the Carter administration." The phone rings 50 to 100 times a day. Often, the caller is told to leave an animal alone. Baby rabbits and fawns found alone are nearly always meant to be that way. Young birds sometimes struggle to fly because they're learning, not because they're hurt. "A baby human on its own is wrong, but a baby animal on its own is very normal," Wellard said. If the animal is in trouble, the rehabbers instruct the person on how to safely transport it to their facility. (A box with holes cut out usually suffices, which may seem obvious, but they once received a kestrel stuffed into a Wawa cup.) No names, please A little after noon, Schubert received a phone call from someone inquiring after a rabbit he'd brought in. Schubert told the caller that the animal, mangled under a speeding car's wheels, had been euthanized. In accordance with a national code of ethics for this profession, euthanasia is used if an animal's suffering is beyond hope, or if it cannot be reintegrated into its wild existence. "We respect the dignity of wild animals in life and in death," said Schubert. The center takes pains not to impose human norms onto wild creatures. That's also why the animals don't get names. They're referred to only by case numbers. Still, an emotional current runs through the wildlife center. The volunteers are gentle with the animals, and jovial with one another. Schubert takes a moment before he examines each patient, doing what he calls a mental ritual with each animal that passes through his hands. "Whether I'm helping it or I'm putting it down, which is helping it, in my mind, I'm saying, 'You matter,' " he said. Two kestrels and two screech owls were due for release Tuesday. Philip Rush, a member of the clinic's five-member board, arrived with his two grandsons, Jackson, 10, and Weston, 7, to take the birds to Houston Meadow. A retired lawyer, Rush has volunteered his woodworking skills to the clinic since 2009. Releasing animals is "a special treat I get for building cages," said Rush. "There's something about their wildness," he said, of the moment he opens the cage doors. "All of a sudden they discover freedom again." Gin Sum, originally from Myanmar, speaks during a panel discussion about refugees and resettlement, as agency officials condemn the Trump administration's effort to reduce admissions. Read more Leaders of the three Philadelphia-area agencies that work to resettle refugees issued a dire plea for help Thursday. Not for themselves, but for the millions of people living overseas in often squalid camps, who look to the United States as a beacon of hope and opportunity. And, they said, for a nation that has long refueled itself through the continuing influx of immigrant expertise, energy and enterprise. "Refugees are assets," said Cathryn Miller-Wilson, executive director of HIAS PA. "They are investments in our economy. And in our global security." She spoke at an emotional Center City panel discussion on the endangered federal refugee program, as the Trump administration considers whether to essentially end the country's role as a haven for people fleeing war, genocide, persecution or natural disaster. Deadlines are close. By law, the president must set an annual cap on refugee admissions before the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1. President Trump set the current cap at 45,000, a nearly four-decade low, and less than half the 110,000 set by President Obama in 2016. Only about half of those 45,000 actually will be admitted by the time the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Word from Washington, say resettlement agency officials, is that Trump might drop the cap to 25,000, with perhaps only half of that number entering the country, due to bureaucratic slow-downs. >>READ MORE: After fleeing war in Syria, she's in Philly, speaking out for refugees Immigration advocates here and elsewhere want the administration to set a cap of 75,000, which has been roughly the annual average since the program was created in 1980 by the U.S. Refugee Act. They are urging people to contact their elected representatives, and to join a social-media campaign under the hashtag #Welcome75k. Refugees differ from some other classifications of migrants in that they hold a specific legal status. If chosen for resettlement in the U.S., they undergo extensive security checks, then must apply for permanent-resident status a year after being admitted. On Thursday, about 50 people gathered at the Arch Street offices of Nationalities Service Center, which with HIAS PA and Bethany Christian Services has resettled more than 2,000 refugees in the region during the past four years. Retired neuropsychologist and HIAS PA volunteer Dr. David Glosser asked the crowd: Is anyone in the room an indigenous person? Not one hand went up. That means, he said, that your people came here from somewhere else, voluntarily or involuntarily. His did, too fleeing violent anti-Jewish pograms in the village of Antopol, located in what is now Belarus, and reaching Ellis Island in 1903. His family history has become well-known because of Glosser's widely read Politico essay in which he excoriated his nephew, White House immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller, as a hypocrite. >>READ MORE: Immigrant advocates fear U.S. will no longer be a beacon for refugees There's no hope of persuading Trump administration officials to change their minds on immigration, because "they don't give a damn what you say" in terms of logic or morality, said Glosser, who lives in the Philadelphia area. "Any tyrant can make any laws, and declare the oppressed group to be violators of those laws," he said. "What they're trying to do is reduce the proportion of people in the U.S. who are not white." The only option for change, he said, is for people to exercise their political rights: Vote. Donate. Volunteer. Former refugees from Myanmar, Zaire and Syria told how admission to the U.S. saved their families. Sozi Pedro Tulante, the former Philadelphia city solicitor who now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, explained how his father took part in an attempt to overthrow the government in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. After that, his life was in danger. Under President Reagan, hardly a left-leaning liberal, his family was able to come to Philadelphia as political refugees in 1983. In this country, Tulante said, his father drove a cab and proudly wore a Harvard University cap after his son was admitted. "Refugees are often seen as 'the other,'" Tulante said. "These are real people. It may seem like numbers, but those are real people with real lives." Today, the world is facing its worst refugee crisis since World War II, with an estimated 25.4 million people currently forced from their homelands, according to the United Nations. At the same time, doors to the U.S. have closed. President Trump and his administration maintain that the nation has lost control of its borders, and have worked to reduce virtually every form of immigration, including admissions of refugees. "The program is on life-support," said Margaret O'Sullivan, executive director of Nationalities Service Center. "A program that has served as a point of pride for our nation for 40 years." Milan Sherry knows what it feels like to recite her final prayers while staring down the barrel of a gun. But as a black transgender woman and a former sex worker, she faces discrimination based on her gender identity on a daily basis. It's why she identifies closely with Shantee Tucker, a transgender woman who was fatally shot in Hunting Park early Wednesday morning. Sherry's now an advocate who works with the North Philadelphia-based Trans Equity Project and hopes the program that's organizing an October march to remember victims of violence can make a difference in the lives of transgender women who face disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination. But she's not naive. "Our sisters' lives are worth more when they become hashtags than when they are alive," she said. "Unfortunately, Shantee is not going to be the last girl who is murdered." Tucker, 30, is one of three black transgender women killed this week in the United States and one of at least five transgender women of color killed in Philadelphia since 2013. There has been a documented uptick in homicides reported against transgender women over the last five years, and 2018 could be the "deadliest" on record for the group, according to Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, which has counted 21 such homicides this year. The killing is particularly chilling for advocates in Philadelphia, where a robust network of activists has successfully lobbied the city to implement progressive policies meant to better protect transgender individuals from discrimination in employment and housing. Nationally, the New York City Anti-Violence Project counted 27 "hate-violence related" homicides of transgender and gender-nonconforming people in 2017, up from 19 reports in 2016. Of those 27 homicides, 22 were of trans women of color. Beverly Tillery, executive director of the nonprofit, said those figures are incomplete there is little nationwide accounting of violence against the LGBTQ community, and the group relies largely on media reports and its partner organizations to gather data. Deja Lynn Alvarez, a health system navigator in the city's Department of Public Health and an advocate for transgender people in Philadelphia, said violence against transgender individuals has always been disproportionately high but one reason it looks as if homicides have increased is that "it's being reported correctly." She explained that in the past, police or media may have incorrectly identified a transgender person by the gender they were assigned at birth. Today, Philadelphia police operate under a five-year-old directive that requires that they use pronouns and titles consistent with that person's gender identity. But that slow change in reporting procedures likely doesn't encapsulate all the reasons why there's an increase nationally in these numbers, said Sarah McBride, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest civil rights organization working on issues related to LGBTQ equality. She said there's been a large increase in overall hate crimes in America over the last two years, including anti-trans hate crimes. READ MORE>> Pa. expands protections for LGBT people, but hate-crime law still doesn't include them Added Tillery: "This is still a crisis of homicides and violence against trans women and, particularly, trans women of color. No amount of increased reporting can take that away." Last Thursday, Dejanay Stanton, 24, a black transgender woman, was shot and killed in Chicago, according to local media reports, and the same day, Vontashia Bell, 18, also a black transgender woman, was found shot and killed in Shreveport, La. In the case of Tucker, who was killed in the 4300 block of Old York Road, Homicide Capt. John Ryan said during a news conference Wednesday that she "wasn't targeted because of her gender affiliation or lifestyle." But activists and advocates say there's no way to be sure that's the case. "A crime might not qualify as technically a hate crime," McBride said, "but you look at the circumstances and you raise the question of: Was the violence emboldened or enhanced or escalated, even in some way, by the devaluation of trans lives that exists in our society?" That discrimination can manifest itself in assault and harassment. The NCTE released a report in 2015 showing the results of a national poll of 28,000 transgender people. Nearly one in 10 respondents said they were physically attacked in the last year because of being transgender, and transgender women of color were four times as likely as other transgender people to have been attacked with a gun. McBride blamed the violence in part on what she sees as "vitriol and cruelty" in rhetoric used by politicians, both in the federal government and in places like North Carolina, where lawmakers in 2016 passed a controversial "bathroom bill," which required people to use the facilities that match their gender assigned at birth. (That bill has since been replaced, but advocates say it still discriminates against LGBTQ people.) "If society communicates that trans lives are less important and lesser than others," she said, "then the implicit consequence is that people will be more likely to commit harm, discrimination, and even violence." New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that his country will not fight any other country's war. "Never wanted Pakistan to fight anyone else's war and I promise you that we will never fight anyone else's war now," he said. Imran Khan made the statement on Thursday while he was addressing the Defence and Martyrs Day ceremony organised by the Army at its headquarters in Rawalpindi. The event was attended by parliamentarians, diplomats, sportspersons, artists among others. He further added that his aim will be to stand by and work for the people of his country. Speaking during the ceremony, Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa said that his country learnt a lot from the wars of 1965 and 1971 and has made the defence impregnable by developing nuclear weapons. "More than 70,000 people have been killed and injured due to militancy in the country. The economic losses and burden on national exchequer is in addition to human losses," he said. The Army Chief General added that after making the defence strong, it is high time now to wage war against hunger and poverty. Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain said, "Sacrifices rendered by our valiant armed forces and the nation call for carrying on the spirit of September by forging unity among our ranks and fostering collective consciousness and wisdom as these traits are imperative to defeat the evil designs and conspiracies of the enemy." The day is being celebrated across the country with army leading the Defence Day activities. Defence Day was traditionally observed on September 6 to commemorate the steadfast defence of the country in the 1965 war with India. But from 2014, the day is being observed as Defence and Martyrs Day to pay tribute to all those killed in action. (With inputs from agencies) New Delhi: The government has decided to exempt electric vehicles (EVs) and automobiles run on alternative fuel from permit requirements in a bid to boost such vehicles in the country, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said Thursday. Urging automakers to focus in this direction, the minister said demand for EVs could also be created by mandating cab aggregators like Ola and Uber to induct a certain percentage of such vehicles in their fleet. "We have decided to exempt EVs and all vehicles including autorickshaws, buses, taxis run on alternative fuel like ethanol, biodiesel, CNG, methanol and biofuel, from permit requirements. "We have taken the decision to make these permit-free," the transport minister said addressing the SIAM annual convention here. He said the states have agreed to abide by it as the recommendations came from a Group of Ministers of states, headed by Rajasthan Transport Minister Yunus Khan. Urging automakers to come forward to tap the opportunity of EV production, Gadkari ruled out any financial incentive. "With GST at 12 per cent on EVs, I don't think there is any further need for subsidy. ... We need to think innovatively to bring in that environment. My ministry has prepared a detailed report to raise production of EVs through non-fiscal initiatives in the next five years," Gadkari said clarifying that the subsidy was not mandatory. His statement comes amid government's efforts to promote eco-friendly vehicles through Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) India scheme, which was launched in 2015. The second phase of FAME India scheme will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 7. According to official sources, FAME II offers incentives for mass adoption of EVs with an outlay of Rs 5,500 crore. Gadkari also said the ministry has done away with the requirement of local testing for initially bringing EVs into India for sale. "This will be available for limited number of pieces in the domestic market and if the customers' response is positive then these companies can start making the vehicles in India," he said. The minister also suggested automakers to diversify into water transport. "Why don't you diversify. From Allahabad to Varanasi we are maintaining a draft of 1.5 metre. Fifteen crore people will be gathering at Kumbha mela. You come and run 500-600 seater catamarans. I will give you all permissions in eight days," the minister said. He said the multimodal hub at Varanasi will be inaugurated soon and 60 river ports offered vast opportunities to automobile makers. Gadkari also announced that steps will be taken to do away with the requirement of speed governors saying that better highways were there and speed was not the only reason behind accidents. He also announced that the government will soon ensure two-wheeler taxis everywhere barring metro cities for single passengers, which in turn would generate employment. On biofuel, Gadkari said its production can cut on huge Rs 30,000 crore aviation fuel imports. Indigenous production of biofuel is not only import substitute but is cost-effective and checks pollution, he added. New Delhi: Superstar Salman Khan is known for speaking his mind without mincing any words. He is now gearing up for his next 'Bharat' with filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar and the movie has been in news ever since its inception. Everyone knows that desi girl Priyanka Chopra was the original choice to play the lead in 'Bharat' and was welcomed by the actor on social media after signing the project. However, in a shocking development, Priyanka made an exit from 'Bharat' and buzz about her wedding rumours with international icon Nick Jonas caught fire. After several speculations over the real reason on why PeeCee left her comeback project midway, Salman in an interview with Bombay Times opened up on the whole drama. He said, I told her, If you are getting engaged, what s the need (of exiting the project)? Then she said, Shaadi karni hai to which I said Toh shaadi kar lo . Priyanka s work was for 75-80 days. Shaadi ke liye chaar din ka preparation, aur chaar din ki shaadi, aath din ke andar ho gayi aur phir uske baad honeymoon. (It takes four days of preparation, four days for the wedding, it s done in eight days and then the honeymoon.) So, we said we will work it out. But she was very clear that she didn t want to be a part of the film. Adding more, It must have been very difficult for her to make this decision because she was very keen to work on this project. She has called up Arpita a thousand times, saying, I want to work with Salman. She has even called up Ali (Abbas Zafar, director) and told him, See if you can get me something in this film." He further elaborated, Not doing this had to be because of the wedding or because she doesn't t want to work with me anymore. It could also be because she doesn't want to work in humari industry (Bollywood) or wants to work only in Hollywood. Whatever she wants to do, I wish her all the best in life. We are glad that she is engaged and happy. Meanwhile, after Priyanka left the movie, 'Tiger Zinda Hai' actress Katrina Kaif was welcomed on board. The film is being produced by Atul Agnihotri and will hit the screens on Eid next year. New Delhi: The remake of Telugu blockbuster 'Arjun Reddy' is high on the buzzword. Shahid Kapoor will play the male lead in the film. Tara Sutaria, who is yet to make her Bollywood debut with 'Student of The Year 2' was supposed to play the female lead in the film but as per the latest reports, the actress has backed out of the project. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Tara had to quit the Arjun Reddy remake due to change in the release date of 'Student of the Year 2'. The film, that was supposed to hit the screens on November 23, 2018, will now release on May 10, 2019. Producer of Arjun Reddy remake, Murad Khetani, confirmed the news to Mirror and said, Yes, it is true Tara is not a part of our film anymore. Our shoot is on schedule and we should be locking our leading lady in the next couple of days. The film will be helmed by Sandeep Vanga, who also directed the original 2017 Telugu blockbuster. Talking about 'Student of the Year 2', the film also stars Ananya Panday and Tiger Shroff in lead roles along with Tara. It is the sequel to the 2012 hit 'Student of The Year' which marked debut of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. The film is backed by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and is helmed by Punit Malhotra. Financial data has been stolen from potentially hundreds of thousands of British Airways customers who made online bookings in recent weeks, extending a run of embarrassing technological mishaps suffered by the UK flag carrier. The thefts occurred during a data breach that affected bookings made on the airline`s website between Aug. 21 and Sept. 5, parent International Airlines Group said on Thursday. Around 380,000 card payments were "compromised", it said. In May 2017, the carrier suffered a massive computer system failure caused by a power supply issue near London`s Heathrow, which stranded 75,000 customers at Europe`s busiest airport over a holiday weekend. Its chief executive said at the time it would take steps to ensure such an incident never happened again, but in July it was forced to cancel and delay flights out of the same airport due to problems with a supplier`s IT systems. IAG said the data breach had been resolved and the website was working normally, and that no travel or passport details were stolen. It was communicating with affected customers but advised any others who believed they might have been affected to contact their banks or credit card providers. The airline had launched an investigation and notified police and other relevant authorities. Nagaon: A court here Friday awarded death penalty to Zakir Hussain, the prime accused in the gangrape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Assam's Nagaon district in March. District and Session Judge Rita Kar sentenced Hussain (19) to death for the murder and to life imprisonment for raping the minor girl under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court had convicted him and acquitted five other accused for lack of evidence on September 4. Two other minor accused were found guilty and sent to a correctional home for three years by a juvenile court earlier this week, Nagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Ripul Das, who was part of the investigation team, said. The girl, a class 5 student, was gang-raped and set on fire when she was alone at home in Dhaniabheti Lalung Gaon in Nagaon district on March 23. The youths fled after the crime and the girl was rushed to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital where she succumbed to injuries the next day. A case was filed in the Batadrava Police Station and the accused were arrested on charges of rape, house trespass, causing the disappearance of evidence and murder under the IPC. After a swift investigation, the police filed charge sheet on April 28 against eight persons. The incident had led to widespread protests across the state with the Assam government announcing in the Assembly that it will bring in a stringent anti-rape law in the next session of the House. The government also announced to recruit women Sub Inspectors through a special drive to have 30 per cent women in the police force. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had launched a toll-free helpline '181-Sakhi' for women in distress and the Gauhati High Court approved the proposal for setting up exclusive fast-track courts for trial of cases related to rape and murder of women and children in Assam. NEW DELHI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday extended its full support to Congress-led 'Bharat Bandh' called on September 10 over fuel price hike and a sharp decline in the national currency. The Sharad Pawar-led party also appealed to other political parties to support the 'Bharat Bandh' called by Congress. "The NCP appeals everybody for their cooperation and support to make this bandh a grand success," the party said in a statement. The NCP's offer of support came a day after the Congress party gave a call for 'Bharat Bandh' on September 10. Apart from NCP, other opposition parties including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have also announced their support to the nationwide shutdown. Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot told the media that the consensus to protest against the rising fuel prices and the rupee slump was reached after a meeting of all party general secretaries and the state leaders. He also said that while prices had hiked during the rule of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the then prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the government took essential steps to control the situation. Meanwhile, the Left parties have given a separate call for bandh on the same day on the hike in fuel prices, the problem of farmers and unemployment issue. Speaking to reporters, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said that the ''fuel price hike was mainly due to a depreciation of rupee against dollar. The minister stated that petrol and diesel should come under GST and accepted that the people are facing serious problems due to this. Oil producing countries like Iran and Venezuela had said they'll increase productivity but as per July-August report they didn't, Pradhan said. (With ANI Inputs) In a shocking incident, a retired commissioner and his wife were found dead under mysterious circumstances at their Buddha Colony residence near Patna in Bihar late on Thursday night, according to the police on Friday. At least four people have been taken into custody, including the driver and the maid, for questioning. The bodies of 82-year-old Harendra Prasad, a retired commissioner of Irrigation Department and his wife Sadhana Das Gupta were found lying in the drawing room of the house. Prima facie it appears to be a case of suspected murder as there were several injury marks on their bodies, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj. Injury marks were found on the heads of both the victims. According to SSP Maharaj, the bodies of the victims were taken to the hospital by their relatives but they were declared brought dead by the doctors at the hospital. An investigation is underway in the matter. The police have assured that they will try to solve the matter soon. The relatives are also being questioned to dig out details into the case. This incident has created a wave of fear amongst the residents of the area as people are in a state of shock. Congress leader and a former Maharashtra minister Subodh Saoji on Thursday allegedly announced a reward for anyone who "cuts off the tongue" of BJP MLA Ram Kadam, whose "would abduct the girl a boy has liked" statement triggered a huge controversy. In a video of an event at Buldhana district, Saoji was purportedly heard saying that Kadam's statement was unbecoming of a legislator. "...And therefore, I am announcing a Rs 5 lakh reward for anyone who comes forward and cuts off his tongue. I strongly condemn him saying girls should be abducted," he purportedly said. #WATCH: Former Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Subodh Savji says I am announcing a Rs 5-lakh reward for anyone who chops off BJP MLA Ram Kadams tongue. I strongly condemn him saying girls should be abducted.' (06.09.18) pic.twitter.com/Y3h8AR7Vd1 ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 The Maharashtra State Commission for Women has issued a notice to Kadam over his remark, seeking his reply. In a big embarrassment for the ruling BJP in Maharashtra, one of its lawmakers on Tuesday courted a controversy by saying that he will kidnap a girl even if she refuses a proposal from a boy and help him elope with her. The controversial comments were made by BJP MLA Ram Kadam, who came under severe attack from ally Shiv Sena and other parties. Kadam had made the controversial remarks at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai on Monday night. "You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he had told a huge gathering of youngsters there. A video clip of the event later surfaced in which Kadam can be seen saying that he was flooded with requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal. "I will help, 100 percent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he told the crowd in Marathi. Kadam also reportedly shared his mobile number with the crowd. However, when quizzed about his controversial statement, Kadam said that his remarks were distorted. ''If there was something objectionable, there were several journalists and they would've paid attention. They didn't because they heard entire speech and not just a small video. Opposition leaders are making a 40-second clip viral on Twitter. That's creating a wrong impression,'' Kadam'said. ''I said that every youth, whether it's a boy or a girl, should marry after taking their parents into confidence. After saying this, I took a long pause and from the audience said something. I repeated that on mike and after that also, I spoke some more,''Kadam told ANI. Demanding an apology from the MLA, the Shiv Sena asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state's home minister, what action would be taken against Kadam for making a statement that "threatens the safety of girls". The Congress also called for Kadam's arrest, while the NCP that said his comments exposed "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party. Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter to slam the MLA offering to marry off girls "against their will". "Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra- a land of culture & women liberty," he tweeted. "Not just an outright apology from him, but I'd want to know from the Home Minister of Maharashtra what action will be taken for openly making such statements that threaten the safety of girls and offering safety to those wanting to kidnap them," he added. Opposition Leader in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Kadam's remarks were unfortunate and condemnable. "The state government should immediately arrest him," he said. State NCP chief Jayant Patil said, "Cases should be filed against Kadam if a girl is kidnapped in Maharashtra as the MLA himself is encouraging their kidnapping." "He should apologise. I am sure women members of the Assembly will pose questions to him," Patil said. State NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking the language of abducting girls. NEW DELHI: Taking strong note of delay in submitting action report on cow vigilantism and mob-lynching by several states, the Supreme Court on Friday granted a week's time to file the compliance document. Eleven states have submitted their compliance report on lynching incidents so far, observed the SC. On July 17, the top court had observed that horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be allowed to become a new norm and has to be curbed with iron hands, adding that states cannot turn a deaf ear to such incidents. A three-bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud had directed the Central and state government to take preventive and remedial measures to stop lynching incidents in future and submit a report on preventive actions taken. If the reports are not filed on time, then home secretary of defaulting state will have to appear in person before the court, said the SC on Friday. Earlier in the day, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh governments assured the SC that it is coming down with a heavy hand on incidents of mob lynching. On Friday, Rajasthan government in its response stated that those accused in the Alwar lynching incident in which 28-year-old Rakbar had been brutally assaulted. And while there have been allegations that cops delayed taking him to the hospital - which in turn led to his death, the state government told the apex court that strict action had already been taken against erring cops. It also informed that a charge sheet has been filed in the case in a lower court. The UP government too has been in the eye of a storm due to incidents of mob lynching in the state. In its response, the government attempted to assure the top court that surveillance and preventive steps have been put in place to ensure such incidents are not repeated. The top court was told that the SPs in every district have been made Nodal Officers and that there is a task force which has been comprised. This task force will keep a check on people suspected of either inciting violence or of spreading rumours. With agency inputs NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough, the Special Cell of Delhi Police on Friday arrested two suspected terrorists affiliated to Islamic State of Jammu & Kashmir (ISJK). The two terrorists were operating in the Kashmir Valley for quite some time. The two ISJK terrorists, hailing from Kashmir, were arrested near the Red Fort area on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, a senior police official said. The two were arrested following specific intelligence inputs from the intelligence agencies. The two were being tracked by the security agencies for quite some time which finally led to their arrest. Lucknow: A major fire broke out on Friday at Bansal Drug Agency in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich. The reason for the fire break-out is said to be a short circuit. Bahraich: Fire breaks out at Bansal Drug Agency due to short circuit. Fire brigade present at the spot. pic.twitter.com/ZiT8rl6nWf ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 7, 2018 As many as five fire brigades are have rushed to the spot. Bahraich: Fire that broke out at Bansal Drug Agency due to short circuit earlier today hasn't been doused yet. Fire brigade and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) present at the spot. pic.twitter.com/hveSOuyjCq ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 7, 2018 The fire has not been doused yet. Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has joined the fire brigade team and are together conducting the rescue operation. More details awaited NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has released a video of first-ever mid-air refuelling of India's indigenously built fighter aircraft Tejas on September 4. The IAF successfully carried out the first ever mid-air refuelling of the indigenously developed Tejas MK 1 light combat aircraft from a Russian-built IL-78 MKI tanker on Tuesday, September 4. #WATCH: Indian Air Force successfully carried out the first ever midair refuelling of the indigenously developed Tejas MK 1 light combat aircraft from a Russian-built IL-78 MKI tanker on Tuesday, 4 September. (Video source: Indian Air Force) pic.twitter.com/sON9Fi9xEx ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 ''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. NEW DELHI: Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India is extending financial support to school going girls belonging to any minority community i.e. Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi for their continuous gap-free education. Through this scholarship, the girl students will be able to pursue their educational dream without any economic hassle. Students of class 9 and 10 will receive INR 10,000 and class 11 and 12 will be given INR 12,000, in two equal instalments towards their admission and tuition fee, under this call. Girl students belonging to any minority community, studying in class 9 to 12, can apply for this scholarship. The applicant must have secured minimum 50% or equivalent in aggregate in previous class with family income not more than INR 2L. Following are the required documents to fulfil the application procedure: * Printed application form (completed) * Income Certificate of parents/guardian to be issued by the Competent Authority declared by the State Govt./UTs Administration * Photograph of student attested by the Principal of present school/college * Institution verification form attested by the Principal of present school/college * Self-attested certificate of mark sheet of previous class as filled in form * Self-declaration of minority community certificate by the student * Photocopy of the 1st page of bank/postal account passbook in the name of applicant (either single or joint account with her parents) * Photocopy of Aadhaar Card of the student Students finding themselves fulfilling the mandated requirements can apply through this link: http://maef.nic.in/Instructions.aspx Applications are accepted till September 15, 2018. For any kind of technical assistance, one may reach out to these helpline numbers: 08448709545, 08527484563 NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough, the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested two suspected terrorists affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) organisation near the historic Red Fort. Their arrest assumes significance as it is likely to help the security agencies identify the entire network of Islamic State and its franchise in J&K and their links were other pro-Pakistan terror outfits active in the Kashmir Valley. Their arrest also points to the fact that the Islamic State through its affiliates is slowly but steadily spreading its wings in India. Though the Home Ministry and the J&K Police claims the negligible presence of the Islamic State in India, a loose group of young men has often waived black flags, used by the IS, in the Kashmir Valley. A large number of Indians were last year for their alleged links to dreaded global terror outfit, revealing the growing influence of the Islamic State terror group. Of the 75 persons held in 2017, Kerala accounted for 21, Telangana 16, Karnataka nine, Maharashtra eight, Madhya Pradesh six, Uttarakhand four, Uttar Pradesh three, Rajasthan two, Tamil Nadu four and Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal had one each. Apart from these, 10 suspected IS activists were held in multi-state raids on April 20, last year. The agencies believe at least seven IS terror modules are currently active in India, though the group has so far not carried out any major attack in the country. At least 75 Indians have reportedly gone to fight for IS in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, including some Indian-origin youngsters from other countries. Since 2014, some of them were arrested from airports while on their way to join Jihad, while several reportedly died in battle abroad. In light of the past developments, the arrest of two terrorists, who hail from Shopian in Kashmir, is a firm pointer that the IS is trying to spread its wings in India. The two ISJK terrorists arrested by the Special Cell were identified as Parvez (24) and Jamshid (19). Giving more information about the arrest of the two ISJ&K terrorists, PS Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said, ''They were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.'' The two terrorists were arrested following specific intelligence inputs. The two were being tracked by the security agencies for quite some time which finally led to their arrest Sharing more details, the DCP said the duo was on way to Kashmir when they were nabbed around 10.45 pm on Thursday. Parvez and Jamshid had no terror plans for Delhi and were using the national capital as a transit point. Delhi was not a part of their plan, they were just in transit here. They told us that the leader of the outfit (ISJK) is Umar Ibn Nazir and the number 2 leader is Adil Thokar. They were following the orders of Adil Thokar: DCP (Special Cell) on two terrorists arrested in Delhi pic.twitter.com/lgMWAu7eS1 ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 Out of the two men arrested by the Special Cell, Parvez is currently pursuing MTech from Gajrola in Uttar Pradesh. He is believed to have been inspired to take up arms by his brother a terrorist - who was killed in an encounter in Shopian on January 26 this year. While Jamshid is a final-year diploma student. He is believed to have facilitated Mohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the DC P said. This was their second trip to Delhi, they had gone from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through Delhi in May. A large cache of arms and ammunition were also seized from them, which they had acquired from some contacts in Uttar Pradesh. According to the information shared by DCP Kushwaha, two .32 pistols and four cell phones were seized from the duo. Speaking about their handlers, the DCP said that the duo was working on the instructions of Omar Ibn Nazir and Adil Thokar. DCP Kushwaha said their arrest assumes significance as it will lead the security agencies to crack and the entire network of the ISJK. The Special Cell of Delhi Police, which has taken the two terrorists under 5-day police remand is confident of getting more leads leading to arrest of the sleeper cell of the ISJK, which is still at a nascent stage. After neutralizing a large number of dreaded terrorists last year, the security forces have recently launched the 'Operation All Out 2' and released the list of most terrorists belonging to Pakistan-inclined terror outfits Hijbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and several others. Kolkata: In yet another attack on the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged discrimination against Bengalis and Biharis in the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC). The fire-brand TMC leader alleged that nearly two lakh Biharis were left out of the final draft of the NRC in Assam. "In Assam, around two lakh Biharis did not find a place in the NRC draft. Several Bengalis were also excluded from the list. Majority of those left out of the draft were people who did not hail from Assam," the Chief Minister said. For me, humanity is the most important thing. In Assam names of Biharis have been removed along with names of Bengalis&others. But I can proudly say that in Bengal this has neither happened nor will it ever happen: WB CM Mamata Banerjee at Hindi Mahotsav&Samman Samaroh in Kolkata pic.twitter.com/wyUQV5qDR3 ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 The West Bengal Chief Minister said this while addressing a programme hosted by the Rashtriya Bihari Samaj in Kolkata on Friday evening. During her speech, Mamata asserted that there would be no discrimination against Biharis in West Bengal. The controversial NRC draft, which was published on July 30, featured over 2.89 crore names out of nearly 3.29 crore applicants. Around 40.07 lakh applicants were left out of the final document, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity. The TMC chief urged people to wait for the declaration of the final draft of the register following the disposal of claims, objections and corrections. She, however, assured that there will be no ill-treatment against Biharis in her state West Bengal. ''Biharis will never be treated as outsiders,'' she said. "This kind of treatment was never meted out to Biharis in West Bengal in the past, nor will it be the case in future. Long live Bengali-Bihari unity," she stated. At several occasions in past, the Trinamool Congress supremo had slammed the BJP over NRC publication, stating that "Indian citizens have become refugees in their own land". She alleged that the exclusion of over 40 lakh people was an "attempt to evict the Bengalis and Biharis from Assam". A total of five FIRs have been registered against Banerjee for her comments on NRC exercise since its publication on July 30. (With PTI Inputs) NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. "India is on the move, our economy is on the move, we are the world's fastest-growing major economy," PM Modi said that Niti Aayog's first-ever global mobility summit - MOVE - that he inaugurated earlier in the day. "Our youth are on the MOVE. We are fast emerging as the start-up hub of the world. India is moving ahead with new energy, urgency, and purpose," he said. "Our cities and towns are on the move, we are building 100 smart cities. We are building infrastructure at a quick pace. Our services have picked up the pace, we have made India a better place to do business," he added. Speaking at the summit, he emphasised on the need for and importance of mobility. "Mobility is a key driver of the economy. Better mobility reduces the burden of travel and transportation and can boost economic growth. It is already a major employer and can create the next generation of jobs," he said. He also said that his vision for the future of mobility in India is based on 7 Cs. These are, he said: "Common, Connected, Convenient, Congestion-free, Charged, Clean, Cutting-edge." Focussing on the different aspects of mobility, he said: "Connected mobility implies integration of geographies as well as modes of transport. The Internet-enabled Connected Sharing Economy is emerging as the fulcrum of mobility. We must leverage the full potential for vehicle pooling to improve private vehicle utilization." He urged the business leaders present at the summit to pay heed to ensure that public transport is preferred over private modes of travel in the times to come. "Common Public Transport must be the cornerstone of our mobility initiatives. New business models driven by digitization, are reinventing the existing paradigm. Our focus must also go beyond cars, to other vehicles such as scooters and rickshaws," he said adding that such an ecosystem should be created in which people from villages are able to bring their produce to the cities with ease and convenience. He added that India should champion the idea of clean kilometres and focus on pollution-free clean drive. "Clean Mobility powered by Clean Energy is our most powerful weapon in our fight against Climate Change. This means a pollution-free clean drive, leading to clean air and better living standards for our people. We should champion the idea of clean kilometres," he said. NEW DELHI: Indian intelligence agencies, in collaboration with Mumbai police, will soon hand over a detailed report on world's 'most wanted' criminal mastermind Dawood Ibrahim and his properties in America to the Home Ministry. The ministry will share this report with Ministries of External Affairs and Defense, who will further share it will American agencies, sourced told Zee Media. The report will also consist of details Dawood's business operations and bank accounts in the US. Sources added the authorities have selected handful officers who are constantly monitoring the activities of D-Company, the organised crime syndicate of Dawood, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan. In a major development, United States agreed to help India track down the Mumbai serial blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim. The agreement between the countries was reached during the first-ever 2+2 dialogue that took place in New Delhi on Thursday. It also emerged that the Donald Trump-led US government has declared Dawood a global terrorist with a bounty of USD 20 million on his head. The British government has already confiscated several London properties belonging to Dawood. In August, a UK court denied bail to Dawood's top lieutenant Jabir Moti. The 51-year-old Pakistani national was arrested on charges of money laundering and extortion and faces extradition to the US following an FBI investigation dating back to 2005. New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh Friday accused the Narendra Modi government of "slowly but surely" undermining the values that a democratic polity should fiercely protect and called for a meaningful national debate on it as also the failure of ruling dispensation in fulfilling its promises made. Releasing a book titled "Shades of Truth" by former union minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, he hoped this is the beginning of the national debate that everyone needs. In a scathing indictment of the Modi dispensation, Singh said key national institutions vital for good governance are experiencing unprecedented new strains, India's neighbourhood is far less secured than it was in 2014 and its ties with neighbours deteriorated in the last four years. "The Modi government has slowly but surely undermined the values that any democratic polity should fiercely protect. Important national institutions vital for good governance are experiencing unprecedented new strains. "Our neighbourhood is far less secured than it was in 2014. Our relations with neighbours have deteriorated in the last four years. Modi government has failed to address issues relating to a creative use of science and technology for national transformation," he said. "Women, Dalits and minorities are increasingly living in an environment of insecurity," he said, adding that nothing concrete has been done to bring back the promised billions of dollars allegedly held abroad as black money. "Academic freedom is sought to be curbed, the environment in our universities is being vitiated. All this is a powerful indictment on the Modi government's performance and there has to be a meaningful national debate on issues raised by Kapil Sibal. So, I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of that national debate and we all need that and together with an alternative narrative that the country needs to study and adopt," he said. Singh said the book is a highly researched subject and a comprehensive analysis on the functioning of the Modi government in the last four years. "It highlights the failures of the Modi government to fulfilling important promises made to the people ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014," he said. This government, he said, has not constructively dealt with the agrarian crisis facing the nation and the indication of that is the farmers' protests across the country. Singh said farmers are still not assured of receiving remunerative prices of their produce and the youth are desperately waiting for the promised 2 crore jobs per year, while the employment rate is declining. He said people are not impressed by the figures that are being put out by the Modi government to justify the creation of a large number of jobs. While industrial production and exports are stagnant, programmes like 'Make in India' and 'Stand Up India' are yet to make a meaningful impact on growth. Singh highlighted that demonetisation and hasty implementation of the GST have badly hurt enterprises, which are yet to derive significant benefit from the ease of doing business schemes. When Congress President Rahul Gandhi posted pictures from his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, several questioned if he was actually there as none of the pictures featured him. Busting theories of him not undertaking the yatra, pictures, and videos of the Congress chief have been released. In the video, Rahul can be seen at a camp interacting with fellow pilgrims. He can also be seen in pictures with other people who are undertaking the yatra. The photos that Rahul had posted of his visit had prompted Twitter to question the authenticity of them being taken during his yatra. Several questioned if it was just a result of a Google search of Mansarovar images. Congress President Rahul Gandhi during #KailashMansarovarYatra with other pilgrims pic.twitter.com/hMLqL6KzOw ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 They had questioned why Rahul did not post any selfies if he was actually present at Kailash Mansarovar. People had been asking him for 'selfie' evidence to prove that he was undertaking the yatra. . @RahulGandhi Are you downloading pics from the internet and tweeting? Are you really at Mansarovar or some place else? pic.twitter.com/mkQuCJiXA2 Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) September 5, 2018 Posting a picture of Kailash Mansarovar, he had said on Twitter that there is no hatred there. "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 added that a man goes to Kailash when it calls him. His visit was earlier clouded in controversy over reports that he ate non-veg food before beginning the yatra. Local websites had quoted a waiter at a restaurant where he took a halt saying that Rahul had ordered Chicken Kurkure and momos before he embarked on the yatra. However, the restaurant later came out in defence of the Congress chief and gave a statement to clear the air. The Vootoo restaurant said: "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." Rahul left for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra on August 31 to seek blessings of Lord Shiva for "prosperity and success of the country and its people". He had in April expressed his wish to undertake the yatra after a mid-air accident was averted while he was flying to Karnataka for campaigning in assembly polls. NEW DELHI: Two suspected drugs peddlers were arrested here with heroin worth Rs Five crore, police said Friday. The accused - Teeka Ram (33) and Rajpal (47) - used to procure the contraband from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district and supply it to their clients in Delhi and the national capital region, they said. Acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid on September 4 at Machhi Market in Delhi's Kishan Garh area between 10.00 pm to 11.30 pm, where Ram had come on a scooter with his relative Rajpal to supply a huge consignment of the heroin, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Ajit Kumar Singhla said. Subsequently, the accused were arrested from the spot. During the search, 500 gram of fine quality heroin was recovered from their possession, the senior officer said. During interrogation, it was learnt Rajpal was addicted to drugs following which his wife left him. He used to procure drugs from a woman residing in the Mehrauli area. The alleged woman was arrested twice earlier for allegedly supplying drugs, the officer added. Accused Ram was also arrested earlier in connection with the case, the police said. A case has been registered and further investigation is underway, they said. At least three people were killed and one was critically injured on Thursday night in a firing between two groups in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, according to the police. The incident happened at the Aawas Vikas Colony around 8:30 pm, police said, adding the firing took place after an altercation between two groups near the Kallu Miyan`s Dargah. As the firing stopped, four people were seen bleeding profusely. Two brothers identified as Israr and Imran died on the spot while another youth, Musheer, died later, police added. Another youth Rahul aka Sonu was critically injured. He is being treated at a local medical facility. Musheer is relative of the district Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Tanveer Khan. Superintendent of Police (SP) S Chenappa said additional police force has been deployed at the spot and a probe is under way to find the reason behind the killings. He further said that action will be taken against the culprits. Investigation underway. Mumbai: Bollywood star Ranveer Singh has been signed on as brand ambassador for paint company Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd. With this association, the company aims to develop and foster its promise to celebrate the joy of beautifying one's home and life, read a statement. "It feels good to be associated with a brand that strongly believes in the journey of transformation by bringing colours into our lives. I have grown up watching this brand and I feel the connect is very natural. The iconic jingle is well embedded in my mind and still brings a smile to my face," Ranveer said in a statement as he looks forward to forging a "great relationship". Ranveer was found to be a perfect fit as "his versatility as an actor, coupled with his bold personality and effervescent energy, resonates well" with the brand, according to Anuj Jain, Executive Director - Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd. "Not only is he the embodiment of positivity and joy, he has an energetic and vivid personality - a trusted actor, who is a rare combination of youthful exuberance and intelligence," Jain added. CHENNAI: MK Alagiri, the expelled DMK leader and brother of DMK chief MK Stalin, is planning to erect a bronze statue of later party founder M Karunanidhi in the Madurai city. According to ANI, Alagiri has written a letter to Madurai District Collector and Commissioner seeking permission to erect a bronze statue in the Madurai city. #TamilNadu: Expelled DMK leader & son of M Karunanidhi, MK Alagiri has written a letter to Madurai District Collector & Commissioner seeking permission to erect a bronze statue of M Karunanidhi in Madurai city. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/FEpkcI0kIY ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 The move is seen as yet another attempt by Alagiri to stake claim to his late iconic father's political legacy. Though the national executive of the party had recently elected Alagiri's younger brother MK Stalin as the new party chief, the succession war in the southern party is far from over. On September 5, Alagiri had led a rally of his supporters in a show of strength to the mausoleum of his late father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at the Marina Beach in Chennai. Dressed in black, to condole M Karunanidhi's death, the rally began 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. 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. Former Union minister Alagiri, who wielded considerable clout in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu as the DMK organisation secretary for the region, 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. 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. In case of no truce between the two warring brothers, the open rebellion by Alagiri may upset MK Stalin's plan to revive the party. New Delhi: A team of the Election Commission will be visiting Telangana on September 11 to assess poll preparedness in the southern state, a day after the Governor dissolved the Assembly on the recommendations of the K Chandrashekar Rao-led cabinet. According to reports, the poll panel met on Friday and decided to send a team of officials to Hyderabad on September 11 for making an assessment of the poll preparedness of the machinery in the state where the ruling party has sought early elections by dissolving the assembly. A decision to this effect was taken at a full meeting of the commission chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat. "In view of the dissolution of the state legislative assembly of Telangana, the Commission has decided to send a team of ECI officials to assess the situation in the state regarding poll preparedness,'' an official press note issued after the meeting said. The ECI team will be headed by Umesh Sinha, senior Deputy Election Commissioner, who will be visiting Hyderabad on Tuesday, 11 September 2018 and will give the report to the election commission after the completion of the visit, it said. A team of Election Commission will be visiting Telangana on September 11 to assess the situation in the state regarding poll preparedness after the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly. The team will submit its report to the Commission after completion of the visit. pic.twitter.com/pw3EevDxMN ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 Earlier in the day, CEC Rawat rejected the claims made by sources that Telangana Assembly Elections may not be held along with four other states. The CEC said that the poll panel will assess the possibility of holding the polls along with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. Well assess if Telangana elections can be held with other 4 states. Any astrological predictions (over dates) made by anyone is notwithstanding, Rawat said while hitting out at the sources which claimed that Telangana Assembly Elections might not necessarily be held along with other four states. The Election Commission met a day after the Telangana government headed by K Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the assembly and the Governor acted on the cabinet decision to end the tenure of the assembly whose term was there till June next year. Hyderabad: After dissolving the Telangana Assembly on Thursday with an eye on early polls, state CM chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) is all set to kick-start his poll campaign with a massive public rally at Husnabad in Siddipet district on Friday. Thereafter, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief will go on district tours and cover 100 Assembly constituencies in the next 50 days. According to sources, KCR wants to begin his poll campaign on September 7, since this is the month of Sravanam and Friday is considered to be auspicious for starting any new venture. Nearly nine months before its term was to end, the Telangana Assembly was on Thursday dissolved by the Governor on a recommendation by the state cabinet. Governor ESL Narasimhan accepted a resolution of the cabinet recommending dissolution of the Assembly. He asked Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Council of Ministers to continue in office as caretaker Government. KCR had been giving strong indications of going for early polls in the last few weeks. The Election Commission of India (ECI) will hold a crucial meeting to consider all legal and logistical aspects to deliberate on next course of action after Telangana Cabinet decided to dissolve the Assembly for early polls. Sources in the poll body confirmed ANI that the commission has received the report and notification from Telangana Chief Electoral Officer regarding the state on Cabinet`s decision of dissolving Assembly for early polls. There's enough drinking water to provide the whole town with it, Pavlo Malykhin said Open source Even though harsh weather briefly impaired the water supply mechanism in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, currently, it's been getting back to normal again. Pavlo Malykhin, the head of the local civil and military administration said that in the commentary for 112 Ukraine TV channel. 'We've got stocks of drinking water. Currently, we've got enough water in the storage tanks, and there are drill holes with the technical water. We're getting ready to bring the technical water all over the city', he said. As a result of the bad weather in Donetsk region, three settlements were left without power, and water supply stopped in Avdiivka, as the press office of Ukraines Emergency Service reported. As at 7 am, due to the bad weather four settlements were left without power in Donetsk region. On September 6, at 7 pm due to the wind gusts power lines, which provides supply to Donetsk filtering station, were damaged. Therefore, water supply in Avdiivka was stopped, the message says. Storm alert was declared in Donetsk region. Ukraines Meteorological Center informed that wind gusts might reach 15-20 m/s. Open source As a result of the bad weather in Donetsk region, three settlements are left without power, water supply stopped in Avdiivka, as the press office of Ukraines Emergency Service reported. As at 7 am, due to the bad weather four settlements were left without power in Donetsk region. On September 6, at 7 pm due to the wind gusts power lines, which provides supply to Donetsk filtering station, were damaged. Therefore, water supply in Avdiivka was stopped, the message says. Storm alert is declared in Donetsk region. Ukraines Meteorological Center informed that wind gusts might reach 15-20 m/s. As it was reported, Donetsk filtering station in compliance with the demarcation line as of September 19, 2014 has to be controlled by the Ukrainian side. Kyiv asks Russia to fulfill this condition as soon as possible. Reportedly, an emergency situation of the local level was declared in Avdiivka due to the termination of Donetsk filtering station operation. It should be noted that the militants sometimes attack the filtering station. Earlier, several explosions occurred near the filtering station. Related video: Denunciation of Russia-Ukraine Friendship Treaty is not an instrument of combating the aggressor, but rather a trump card in the hands of the initiators of the process Open source Ukrainian modern politics seems to be unimaginable without loud pre-election statements. Everyone chooses "pillars" for themselves, leaning on which their pr-strategy will work. Actually, Presidents Administration decided to voice one such "pillars" geopolitical one. It is about denouncing the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, signed in 1997. This thesis was announced by the head of state at a recent meeting with Ukrainian ambassadors. In particular, he stressed that he expects from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a package of documents that are necessary to launch the whole process. However, the corresponding proposal is not new. The corresponding bill on denunciation has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada in 2014. However, it was not put to the vote at that time. There are no formal reasons for a delay. Let us not discuss the backstage issues. No one is surprised by the fact that from time to time government patrons are letting out a patriotic gin. All of us remember Tomos, or calls to consolidate in our Euro-Atlantic aspirations in the text of the Constitution. Of course, the burning of bridges with Moscow fits perfectly into the general context of patriotic rhetoric and, most importantly, it enjoys the support of the majority of Ukrainian citizens. It remains only to find a profitable format. Back in April during the 11th Kyiv Security Forum, Petro Poroshenko announced that he would propose terminating certain provisions of the Treaty. Now we are talking about its denunciation. As you can see, not all puzzles are combined into a single picture. Manuscripts do not burn From a legal point of view, the document itself contains a provision on the procedure for its termination. According to Art. 40, it "will then be extended automatically for subsequent ten- year periods if one of the High Contracting Parties does not inform the other High Contracting Party of its intention to curtail it by written notification not less than six months before the end of the current 10-year period." The treaty entered into force after the exchange of instruments of ratification in April 1999. For its termination, according to Art. 40, within nine years, Ukraine can at any time send a relevant statement to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and stop this "fraternal friendship". The question is precisely about the ground of such a decision. In accordance with paragraphs 5 and 32 of the first part of art. 85 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the adoption of decisions on the denunciation of international treaties of Ukraine refers to the powers of the Verkhovna Rada. This issue is resolved by submitting for consideration in the paliament of the relevant draft laws on the representation of subjects of the right of legislative initiative, which under Article 93 of the Constitution of Ukraine are the President of Ukraine, People's Deputies of Ukraine, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. That is, the Basic Law does not contain provisions that would rule out the possibility of people's representatives to submit to the parliament bills on the ratification and denunciation of international treaties of Ukraine. On the other hand, point 3 of the first part of Art. 106 KG provides that the conduct of negotiations and the conclusion of international treaties are attributed to the authority of the head of state. Also, paragraph 1 and paragraph 7 of Art. 116 determine that the implementation of foreign policy and the organization and provision of foreign policy activities are attributed to the powers of the Cabinet of Ministers. Therefore, logically, the corresponding bill on denunciation must be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by the president or the Cabinet. In particular, it would require an appropriate conclusion of the government, which, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine (Article 116) and the Law of Ukraine "On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine" (Article 20) ensures the implementation of the foreign policy of the state, decides on the conclusion and implementation of international treaties of our state. The key risks Many experts agree that denunciation will provide additional legal and political grounds for protecting Ukraine's national interests. In particular, it will increase our credibility as a self-sufficient, integral and independent country. In addition, at the legislative level, this will help to consolidate today's real state of international relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. However, there is an opinion that the termination of the Treaty is dangerous because it deprives Ukraine of access to the mechanisms of bilateral regulation laid down in the Treaty, as well as the right to invoke the violation of the Treaty while protecting its violated rights in international instances. From the legal point of view, it is rather difficult to say whether the termination of the Treaty will give Ukraine additional advantages in international lawsuits against the Russian Federation. As basically it depends on the professionalism of the specific lawyers who will represent Ukraine. However, it can be precisely stated that the termination of the Treaty will in no way influence the establishment of the international legal responsibility of the aggressor for violating its norms. "Mickey Mouse" document In order to understand that all this Treaty in the current realities is a complete absurdity, it is enough to look at several norms from the first articles of the document. This is an excellent illustration of the real attitude of the aggressor to the norms of the international document that he has signed. So, art. 1 stipulates that "the High Contracting Parties, as fraternal, equal, and sovereign nations, shall base their relations on mutual respect and trust, strategic partnership, and collaboration." Well, Moscow seems not to care about it. Art. 2 says that "The High Contracting Parties, in accordance with the provisions of the UN Charter and obligations under the Final Act of the Council for Security and Collaboration in Europe, shall respect each other's territorial integrity, and confirm the inviolability of the borders existing between them." Russia, having occupied part of Ukraine, automatically becomes a violator of the treaty. On occasion, the whole horde of "Putins" will not hesitate to break it again. Art. 3: "The High Contracting Parties shall construct their relations with each other on the basis of principles of mutual respect for sovereign equality, territorial integrity, the inviolability of borders, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the nonapplication of force, including economic and other means of pressure, the right of peoples to decide their own fates freely, nonintervention in internal affairs, the upholding of human rights and basic freedoms, collaboration among nations, and the conscientious fulfillment of international obligations assumed, as well as other generally accepted norms of international law." No comments. Art. 4 says that the parties shall take essential steps to promote the process of general disarmament and the creation and strengthening of a system of collective security in Europe, as well as to strengthen the peacekeeping role of the UN and increase the effectiveness of regional security mechanisms." Another daring and cynical violation by the Russian Federation. Art. 6 states that "each of the High Contracting Parties shall refrain from participation in or support of any actions directed against the other High Contracting Party, and is obligated not to enter into any agreements with any countries directed against the other Party. Neither of the Parties shall also permit its territory to be used to the detriment of the security of the other Party." It follows that our European aspirations, in particular, Ukraine's accession to NATO, can be viewed by the aggressor as an external threat. It is logical that such norms hinder the movement of Ukraine to the Alliance and should be abandoned. In addition, in Art. 7 provides that "in the event, a situation arises that, in the opinion of one of the High Contracting Parties, creates a threat to peace, disrupts the peace, or affects the interests of its national security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, it may propose immediate consultations to the other Party. The Parties shall exchange the appropriate information, and where necessary take coordinated or joint steps, in order to overcome such a situation." What kind of consultations can we talk about when the aggressor annexed part of the sovereign territory of the state and supports separatist militants in another part. The Russian Federation has violated virtually every undertaken norm under the Treaty, demonstrating complete disregard not only to the Treaty but also to international law as a civilizational property of the free world. Political component I also want to draw attention to the numerous speculations of politicians and experts on the issue of automatic extension of the Treaty and its termination six months before the expiry of the next 10-year period. It is worth explaining that, according to Art. 40 of the Treaty, it was indeed concluded for a period of ten years, and its validity should indeed automatically continue for the next ten-year periods. But further, the Treaty provides for a mechanism for the termination of the contract at the request of one of the parties, which must notify the other party of this intention six months before the end of the next ten-year period. So, not "six months before," but "not less than six months before" the end of the next ten-year period. It is important that the next ten-year period expires in April 2019, and its last six months is the period from October to March 2019. Now, as a result of delaying important decisions, lack of political will and search for political dividends from the leaders of the Ukrainian state and politics, an unfortunate situation has developed: if we do not inform the aggressor of the termination of the Treaty before the end of September, we will have to wait until April to return to this issue. Is this just a calculation or unprofessionalism? But this definitely does not meet the interests of the people. Unfortunately, I have to admit that the denunciation of the Treaty is not an instrument of combating the aggressor, but rather an internal trump card in the hands of those who are ready to plunge into the turbulent pre-election suffer, using this "pillar". At the international level, this situation does not fundamentally change. Everyone knows perfectly that any promises of Moscow, even if they are secured by international treaties, are not worth a dime. 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. German Chancellor Angela Merkel uncharacteristically interrupted her summer vacation to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 18, 2018, at Meseberg Castle, near Berlin. It was the second Merkel-Putin meeting within three months. Their meeting in Sochi last May triggered a flurry of bilateral German-Russian high-level discussions, which continue to this day. This development reflects a growing, if chimerical, belief within German government and business circles that Germany should seek a rapprochement with Russia in response to the United States policies under the Donald Trump administration. The overall assumption is that Russias cooperation is indispensable to achieving some of Germanys main policy objectives: ending the war in Syria (a generator of mass migrations to Europe, with disruptive effects inside Germany), bringing a political solution to the Ukraine crisis (Russias aggression there being a generator of divisive economic sanctions in Europe), and Russian long-term guaranteed energy deliveries to Germany. The notion that Germany needs Russia is an attitude described by its critics as a German Mantra (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 20). That belief seems to credit Russia with an interest in cooperative solutions to problems that Moscow in the first place created or exacerbated, with a view to gaining leverage through problem-solving on Russian terms. Berlin has become the proactive side in exploring possible joint solutions with Moscow, albeit not unconditionally. Moscow, however, maintains a wait-and-see attitude for now, content to see Berlin acting as the demandeur. Therefore, the Merkel-Putin meeting in Meseberg could not be expected to produce significant decisions. To keep expectations down, the two leaders had decided in advance that there would be no joint communique and no concluding press conference. Instead, Merkel and Putin each delivered a statement in a joint appearance at the start of their meeting, with no questions allowed from the assembled press. The Gazprom-led Nord Stream Two natural gas pipeline project, the war in Ukraines east, the fighting in Syria with its European implications (which seemed to command more time and attention than the other topics), and follow-up German-Russian contacts were the salient issues in Merkels and Putins remarks (Bundeskanzlerin.de, Kremlin.ru, August 18, 19). On Nord Stream Two, which is based on diverting gas flows away from Ukraines transit system, Merkel remarked that Ukraine must play a role in the gas transit to Europe even if Nord Stream Two does materializea position she had already expressed to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in April. This position is theoretically consistent with Moscows (see below), allowing room for negotiation on the practicalities. Merkel refrained this time from noting (as she had first admitted to Poroshenko in April) that Nord Stream is not entirely an economic project but also involves political aspects. Putin restated the familiar theses that Nord Stream is a strictly economic project, and one that does not exclude a continuation of Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine, provided that the Ukrainian transit route would correspond with commercial criteria. The latter point conforms with Gazproms and the Kremlins position ever since 2015 that some residual volumes of Russian gas could continue to transit Ukraine from 2020 onward, subject to negotiation on volumes and tariffs. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskovs readout of the Meseberg meeting, the two leaders agreed to defend the Nord Stream Two project from anti-competition and unlawful attacks by third countries (Interfax, August 19). This is the Kremlins understanding of the German governments resistance to possible US extraterritorial sanctions on German and other companies involved with the Nord Stream Two project. The existing transit agreement is due to expire at the end of 2019, coinciding with the planned start of operations on the Nord Stream Two pipeline. A replacement agreement on Ukrainian transit would have to be negotiated and signed by that time, if Russia were to continue using the Ukrainian route at all. However, the volumes that Moscow hints it might deliver to Europe via Ukraine would be far from sufficient for the economic viability of Ukraines gas transport system (Margarita Assenova, Europe and Nord Stream 2: Myths, Reality, and the Way Forward, Center for European Policy Analysis, Washington, June 2018). Merkel has tasked her confidant Peter Altmeier (currently economics and energy minister, formerly head of the Chancellors Office under Merkel) to negotiate with Gazprom toward a possible continuation of Russian gas transit via Ukraine after 2019. This is not only (if at all) a political gesture to Ukraine. It is, mainly, a hedge against possible delays to the start of operation on the Nord Stream Two pipeline. This is officially due by the end of 2019, but seems jeopardized by serious objections on varying grounds in Washington, Brussels, Copenhagen and elsewhere. Berlin and Moscow must be equally concerned about the possibility of missing that deadline. This prospect necessitates for Gazprom to prepare a transit contract with Naftohaz (for an as yet undeterminable duration) as a backup solution, before the existing contract expires, which is also December 2019. Altmeiers bilateral negotiation with Moscow runs in parallel with the trilateral negotiation that involves Gazprom, Naftohaz Ukrainy, and the European Commission as mediator, with the Commissions Vice President for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic chairing these talks. The Commission has insisted all along that Ukraine retain a significant transit role, at volumes commercially viable for its transit system, as well as tariffs commercially attractive to the Russian side. While the Commission seeks to integrate a reformed Ukrainian gas transit system with a unified European energy market, German policy on Nord Stream Two and its overland extensions into Germany runs counter to the goals of the EU-driven Energy Union. In effect, Altmeiers bilateral negotiation with Gazprom seeks a hedge for both sides to protect the Nord Stream Two project, circumventing the EUs common energy policy. Read the original text at The Jamestown Foundation. Related video: The war in Ukraines east was the topic that Merkel placed at the top of her remarks at the August 18 Berlin-Meseberg meeting with Putin (see Part One). Putin relegated this topic to the end of his remarks, as if to confirm Russias current tactic of feigning disinterest and playing for time. Nevertheless, in what seems to have been a prior arrangement, both leaders stopped short of even alluding to the matter of economic sanctions in their public remarks (Bundeskanzlerin.de, Kremlin.ru, August 18, 19). The European Union introduced and periodically prolongs the sanctions on Russia with Merkels decisive support. However, the lifting of sanctions is made conditional on the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements by both Russia and Ukraine, instead of registering the fact of Russias aggression in Donbas and conditioning the removal of sanctions on the cessation of that aggression. Both leaders reconfirmed, as usual, the indispensability or irreplaceability of the Minsk agreements and negotiations in the Normandy Group (Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France) and the Minsk Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), albeit from different standpoints. Putin does so because that setup (whether successful by Moscows criteria, or otherwise paralyzed by Moscow as it currently is) works in Russias favor in Donbas. For its part, German diplomacy professes allegiance to Minsk and Normandy because it is trapped in that setup, of which it is a co-author and could not come up with more creative ideas of its own. While Merkel pleaded for a stable ceasefire, or at least a ceasefire timed to the start of the school year in Donbas, Putin did not mention the desideratum of a ceasefire in his remarks. Low-intensity but unabated warfare with threats of escalation is Moscows pressure tool on Ukraine as well as on the Normandy negotiators (Bundeskanzlerin.de, Kremlin.ru, August 18, 19). Beyond Minsk and Normandy, the two leaders disagree over the proposed peacekeeping mission under United Nations aegis in Ukraines east. While Merkel suggested that they should discuss the possibility and the role a UN-led mission, Putin omitted any mention of the UN, reaffirming instead that he would only consider some additional support to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes existing Monitoring Mission (OSCEMM) in Ukraine. Merkel suggested that Russia and Germany should work together on peacekeeping in Ukraine when Germany joins the UN Security Council as a nonpermanent member for the 20192020 period. Putin, however, gave no answer to that offer. His performance confirms the Kremlins position of rejecting a full-fledged UN-led peacekeeping operation. Instead it proposes a lightly armed police escort mission for the OSCEMM, and only within the latters highly restrictive mandate, and furthermore conditional on Ukraines approval of a special status for the Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics (see EDM, September 22, 2017) Putins Berlin performance also presages a continuation of stonewalling by his assistant, Vladislav Surkov, in the informal consultations with the US State Departments special envoy, Kurt Volker, about the proposed UN-led peacekeeping mission. Surkov has been feigning disinterest in, or disengagement from, those consultations since January of this year. For his part, Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has ruled out any ministerial-level meetings in the Normandy format in the foreseeable future, citing the assassination of Donetsk republic leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko as an alibi (Interfax, September 1). Zakharchenko, however, did not participate in any negotiations and had no decision-making role in this regard. As she did with regard to Ukraine, Merkel also offered to work with Russia on a peace order in Syria at her joint press conference with Putin in Meseberg. Bowing to the facts on the ground, Berlin no longer links a political solution with the removal or departure of the Kremlin-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. This shift in Berlins position can be traced to Merkels meeting with Putin in Sochi in May (Bundeskanzlerin.de, Kremlin.ru, May 18), when the chancellor implicitly accepted a negotiated solution with al-Assads participation. In Meseberg, Merkel confirmed, As we already said in Sochi, the priority [in Syria] is, before anything else, getting started on a political process, constitutional reform, and possible elections (Bundeskanzlerin.de, Kremlin.ru, August 18, 19). Germany fears that a continuation of fighting in Syria (and Turkeys overcongestion with refugees from that war) would continue generating migration to Europe, where Germany is the destination of choice. Destabilizing Germanys political system and society, mass migration has become the most sensitive political issue in the country. Merkel and many other German politicians are keen to demonstrate a start to a process of repatriating migrants, at least symbolically in small numbers; but they cannot do this until the areas of those refugees provenance are stabilized and designated as safe. A start to repatriation is a short- to medium-term goal, however. In the immediate term, Berlin fears that a Russian-backed assault by Syrian government forces on Idlib (the major remaining opposition stronghold) could result in another exodus of war refugees. Berlin is therefore urging Moscow to prevent an escalation by acting as a moderating influence on Damascus (Bundeskanzlerin.de, August 27). Such a demarche implicitly accepts the Kremlin as arbiter in the theater, potentially crediting it with moderation, and petitioning it to exert its influence in line with such hopes, all while awarding it leverage. Exploiting the German vulnerability on this front, Putin asked Germany in Meseberg to support Syrias post-conflict reconstruction, so as to make possible the repatriation of millions of refugees from Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, as well as from Western Europe back to Syria. In the name of stabilizing that country, Putin asked in Meseberg for German inputs into rebuilding basic infrastructure, electricity, water supply and communal services in Syria. Overall, Moscow takes the position that international assistance to Syrias postwar reconstruction is a prerequisite to the return of Syrian refugees to that countryone in which Moscow now holds a major stake. Merkel and Putin have agreed to create an expert-level working group of four countriesRussia, Germany, France, Turkeyto deal with migration, reconstruction, and related problems posed by Syria, bypassing the United States. The Kremlin wants to upgrade the level of this expert group, and suggests holding a high-level meeting in this quadripartite format (Deutsche Welle, August 18). Germany is already a member of the small group on Syria, a format initiated by France that also includes the United Kingdom, Germany, the US, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Moreover, Germany intendsas Merkel told Putin in Mesebergto take up its share of responsibility on Syria when Berlin joins the UN Security Council as a nonpermanent member for the 20192020 period. The meeting of Putin and Merkel in Sochi in May (see above) triggered a flurry of bilateral German-Russian high-level meetings. That same month, Economics Minister Peter Altmeier (a Merkel confidantsee Part One) and Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas (Social-Democrat) held talks with their Russian counterparts in Moscow. In June, a Bundestag delegation conferred in St. Petersburg with Russian Duma members, who proposed creating a high-level Russian-German inter-parliamentary commission. On July 24, Merkel and Maas conferred in Berlin with Russias Foreign Minister Lavrov and General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Syria was the foremost topic in that meeting, but they also addressed the conflict in eastern Ukraine (Bundeskanzlerin.de, July 24). Upcoming actions this autumn include the St. Petersburg Dialogues and the Potsdam Encounters, annual high-level political events sponsored by economic interests via the Germany-Russia Forum. Berlins search for a rapprochement with Moscow is still in a tentative, exploratory stage. A German strategic design can hardly be discerned behind it. However, Germanys preexisting strategic dependence on Russian oil and natural gas supplies can lend further impetus to an incipient political rapprochementparticularly one as improvised as this one seems to be. The German government attempts this rapprochement from weak internal political positions, following painful electoral setbacks and left-right polarization, all exacerbated by migration-related clashes for the first time in this countrys history. Berlin seems to act as if needing Russia in reaching out to Moscow (see Part One). Still, Merkels government holds firmly to the European Unions economic sanctions on Russia, and it plays a key role in ensuring that sanctions are prolonged while Russias military intervention in Ukraine continues. At the same time, Berlins outreach to Moscow is a national sovereign policy, not one coordinated with the EU. The EU no longer has a coordinated policy (let alone a common policy) toward Russia, except on the Ukraine-related economic sanctions. Energy market legislation, centered on the EUs Third Package, could have (and can still) form the basis for a common European external energy policy in relation to Russia, but Berlin is instead acting bilaterally with Moscow in this area. For its part, Moscow seems prepared to respond by restoring Berlin to its earlier status in Russian foreign policy, that of a privileged European interlocutor. Read the original text here. Open source We are witnessing a unique political technology on the simultaneous rise of the gas tariff for the population and saving the future political perspectives. The current government is in a very complex political situation. On the one hand, there is Ukraine's population, many of whom just cannot afford to pay utility tariffs. On the other hand, there is the ubiquitous IMF, which is not satisfied even with the planned growth that was laid for the current year. Remembering the tricks of Ukrainian officials, the IMF representatives have taken a firm and win-win position: "rise the tariffs first, and then we will give you a tranche..." A very simple roadmap. But even simple ways have complex routes. You can, of course, act in the style of a "transparent office" and raise tariffs right now. But what would be the consequences? The IMF tranche is needed from October to November. In August - September, it is quite possible to do at the expense of internal reserves and on-lending for a record 9% for six months. And for the IMF, the increase in gas prices for the population is not important now, but during the heating season. So the interests of the main players have coincided: the increase in tariffs and the allocation of a tranche is planned for the October or November. In the meantime, the fulfillment of Naftohaz's social obligations for gas supplies to domestic consumers was continued until the end of September. The growth in prices was fully felt only by commercial consumers. For them, the price of natural gas has increased recently from 350 USD to 440 USD per 1 thousand cubic meters. Thus, at present, an excellent window has opened for all sorts of political manipulation. And a suitable background was found - the rapid devaluation of hryvnia (more than 28 UAH for 1 USD). Deep devaluation should show the surprised Ukrainian all the horror that would take place in case of termination of cooperation with the IMF. Here, the forecasts of the National Bank concerning the fact that, given the decline in world metal prices and the severance of the program with the fund, the exchange rate of the national currency might exceed 40 to 1 rate. The Finance Ministry has issued the program for managing external debt, which says that a "rate shock" is UAH 36/USD. The prerequisites are the same the termination of cooperation with the IMF. In this case, the Ukrainian should come to an uncomplicated conclusion: "Well, the exchange rate needs to be stabilized, otherwise it will not be possible to buy the planned one hundred bucks." In this scenario, the increase in tariffs must pass without any protests and with minimal electoral losses. Moreover, the reduction of subsidies is planned to be "sold" by the IMF already in the autumn of next year. The main blow from the increase in prices and tariffs would influence a conditional "middle" class, or it would be better to call it "tolerant" class... The general dynamics of the price increase for natural gas for the population is likely to be more than 115 USD per 1 thousand cubic meters. The increase in autumn this year may reach 15% (up to 300 USD per 1 thousand cubes), and 25% in the winter (370 USD). Although the IMF will be clearly dissatisfied: taking into account all the twists and taxes, the price should already rise to 425 USD per 1 thousand cubic meters, and next winter, taking into account the devaluation and the expected growth in world prices, by another 55 USD. This works if you count by import parity. In fact, there is more than enough gas of Ukrainian extraction for the population. And if the authorities want to stimulate economic growth by increasing the incomes of the population and maintaining effective demand, they should do what all responsible countries have done, I mean, reducing fiscal and other financial pressure from the ordinary people and increase the taxation of large corporations. But the current reformers are doing the opposite: the financial pressure for the population is growing, and the mega-corporations like Naftogaz have much money, so much so that it is enough for bonuses and for a great wage fund. As the investigations of the Antimonopoly Committee have shown, the current pricing methodology does not distinguish between imported gas and Ukrainian - all this substance is mixed in a common pipe. At the same time, the "total" price is determined based on the price parameters on the NCG hub (Germany), plus transportation costs and entry tariffs on the western border of Ukraine. Needless to say, just as Donetsk coal is not transported to Ukraine from Rotterdam, and the gas of Ukrainian extraction comes to us not from Germany, and it is not necessary to pay for the entrance to the western border for it. According to the Anti-monopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), the peg to imported parity led to an artificial increase in the price of Ukrainian gas from 60 USD per 1,000 cubic meters to 180 USD. The constant growth of tariffs for the population is an excellent gift for planning the future cash flow, in addition, the state system of subsidies is a very good bonus to the financial model of the project. And if we combine this idea with the future privatization of Ukrtransgaz, a major project might turn out, when Ukrainian gas will be exported to the EU, and it will be imported for the population needs. The price parity is then a prerequisite for the scheme to work out. 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. Calling the international partners to provide a clear estimate for the Kremlins actions and to increase political-diplomatic pressure on Russia, including the introduction of additional sanctions, Ukrainian MFA claimed Open source The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls the international partners to increase pressure on Moscow in connection with the intention of the occupational administration of the Russian Federation to hold so-called special elections on the territory of the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The press office of the ministry reported. In connection with the emergence in the Russian mass-media of messages about the intention of the occupational administration of the Russian Federation to hold so-called special elections of the leaders of militants and their illegitimate representative bodies on the territory of the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine notes that such actions of the Kremlin are flagrantly violating the obligations of the Russian Federation, as a side of the Minsk Agreements, reads the claim of the MFA. The message stresses that these provocative actions of Russia are purposefully undermining the Minsk Agreements and are able to wipe out all international efforts for the resolution of the situation, emerged, as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and its occupied territory. In case of holding fake special elections, their results will be void, will not create any legal consequences and will not be recognized either by Ukraine or the world community, Ukrainian MFA reported. Also, the Ministry says that all responsibility for the constant blocking and torpedoing of the process of the peaceful resolution is on the Russian Federation. Calling the international partners to provide a clear estimate for the Kremlins actions and to increase political-diplomatic pressure on Russia, including the introduction of additional sanctions to make them back to the fulfillment of its obligations, reads the message. The MFA claims that Ukraine from its side will remain loyal to the world resolution of the situation in Donbas based on the Minsk Agreements. 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. On September 2, Zakharchenko was buried in Donetsk next to pro-Russian militants "Givi" and "Motorola". Earlier, the political prisoner complained about the threats of chief doctor of the hospital. He promised to tie Sentsov up and force-feed him with artificial nutrition rejected hospitalization due to the absence of illness and satisfactory conditions Russian Ombudsman Tetiana Moskalkova claimed that Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov who is in the colony in Russian city Labytnangi rejected hospitalization due to the absence of illness and satisfactory conditions. He said that the condition of the filmmaker has not deteriorated; he is kept injecting internal entries. The Russian Ombudsman claimed this in reply to the request of Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament Lyudmyla Denisova, the Commissioner advised this on Facebook. Tetiana Moskalkova claimed that the health condition of Oleg hasnt deteriorated. He is kept injecting internal entries, and also providing the supporting mixture. Once again, Oleg rejected the hospitalization to the Labytnangi City Hospital. He is allegedly referring to the absence of an illness and the satisfactory conditions and treatment in the medical facility of the colony. Although, we all know the real reason for his refusal. Since he is treated awfully in the hospital. He is not provided a proper medical aid and being psychologically pressed. Sadly, that once more I have received a detailed information regarding the health condition of Oleg Sentsov and the other political prisoners with corresponding confirming documents, Denisova claimed. Also, the Ombudsman added that Moskalkova refused to facilitate the release of the political prisoners since it is outside her jurisdiction. Concerning the matter of the prompt exchange of the political prisoners, which I keep stressing on, Moskalkova once more claimed that she does not have such authority, Denisova reported. Reportedly, earlier, the chief doctor of the hospital was threatening Sentsov to tie him up and forcibly inject with medicines and artificial nutrition. Denisova has also proposed so doctors to be there with ombudsmen who could possibly examine the prisoners Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament Lyudmyla Denisova proposed Russian Ombudsman Tetiana Moskalkova to realize a visit to starving political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh in exchange for the possibility for the Russian Ombudsman to visit Kyrylo Vyshynsky. Denisova claimed this on Facebook. Cant wait anymore for the answers of my Russian colleague on my letters, this is why addressed her with the proposal. Since, the lawyer of Kyrylo Vyshynsky filed a petition for a medical examination of his client who is in the Kherson detention facility, thats why invited Tetiana Moskalkova to visit Kyrylo Vyshynsky at the same time of my visit to Volodymyr Balukh. But only on a parity basis, Denisova said. She claimed that she has information on the deterioration of the health condition of Balukh. He is continuing losing weight. He has a real pain in his liver and ear inflammation, Denisova claimed. Denisova has also proposed so doctors to be there with ombudsmen who could possibly examine the prisoners. Reportedly, as of September 5, Balukh is hungering for 171 days. He lost 30kg over the period of the hunger strike. As it was reported earlier the February 26 case is the infamous case of several Crimean Tatar activists detained by the Russian authorities of Crimea in 2014; the protesters are suspected of organization and participation in the mass disturbances in Crimea on February 26, 2014, when the Crimean Tatars tried to prevent the occupation of the peninsula by Russian troops and the overthrowing of the Ukrainian authority there. Ali Asanov and Mustafa Degermenji were arrested in April and May 2014, respectively. Earlier the court of Simferopol extended the detention period for Ali Asanov and Mustafa Degermenji. Thus, the detained Crimean Tatars will stay behind the bars until January 7, 2017. The Russian aircraft did not enter the U.S. or Canadian airspace; F-22s escorted Tu-95s until they left the identification area Open source U.S. Air Force fighters F-22 intercepted two Tupolev Tu-95s, the Russian strategic bombers off the coast of Alaska. NORAD, the HQ of North American Aerospace Defense Command, reported that, with The Washington Free Beacon quoting the agency. 'The bombers were detected flying near the Aleutian Islands, said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). "Two Alaskan-based NORAD F-22 fighters intercepted and visually identified two Tu-95 Bear' long-range bomber aircraft flying in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, south of the Aleutian Islands," the official told the outlet. The Russian aircraft did not enter the U.S. or Canadian airspace; F-22s escorted Tu-95s until they left the identification area. The Pentagon added that Ilyushin Il-78, the tanker aircraft, accompanied the bombers, which could mean they needed refueling during the long flight. The intercept coincided with Vostok, the military drills conducted by the Russian Armed Forces in the Far East, so the flight could be the part of the exercise. The U.S. side assumed the Russian bombers might intend to imitate a cruise missile strike on the Alaskan anti-aircraft defense system. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Skripal has met with people who worked in the intelligence service of Spain several times over past couples of years Ex-spy Sergei Skripal assisted the intelligence of Spain within the past years and met with its officers in Spain, as The New York Times reported referring to the sources. The news agency reports that the officer of the Spanish intelligence confirmed this information. His name was not mentioned. Moreover, the journalist and writer Fernando Rueda also confirmed this, he received the information from the sources in the countrys intelligence service. According to the information, Skripal has met with people who worked in the intelligence service of Spain several times over past couples of years. The source in Spain informed that the ex-spy could provide the authorities with data about Russian organized criminal activity. It is stressed that the British intelligence service recruited Skripal when he worked in Spain in the middle of 1990s. But he traveled to Prague in 2012, where he spent a boozy lunch with Czech intelligence officers. And he went to the Estonian capital, Tallinn, in 2016 to brief local spies. On each of the trips, which were organized and approved by the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, he shared insights into Russian spycraft and possibly contributed information that led to the expulsion of undercover operatives, the news agency reads. As we reported the Crown Prosecution Service of the U.K. called the names of the suspects in the poisoning of the ex-GRU officer Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia. As it was reported Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in British Salisbury. Later, Theresa May, British PM, stated that Russia was responsible for that, and the investigation has confirmed the use of the Novichok nerve agent, which is produced in Russia. Related video: The worshippers will head to Uman, central Ukraine, to observe the religious procedure and to pay tribute to their spiritual leader Rabbi Nachman, whose grave is located there The National Police expect up to 80,000 Hasidim to arrive in Ukraine for the celebration of the Jewish New Year. Joel Lion, the Israeli ambassador in Ukraine said that as quoted by the press service of the National Police. 'According to the information we're getting from tourist agencies and air companies, we expect from 50,000 to 80,000 worshippers to come to Ukraine. A consulate will be opened instantly to assist the Israeli citizens', he said. Head of the National Police Serhiy Knyazev added that even in conditions of the ongoing hybrid war, Ukrainian police workers put in maximum efforts for the worshippers to feel comfortable. Earlier, the administration of Boryspil airport decided to open B terminal to host the Hasids heading to Ukraine for the celebration of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. The airport's press service reported that as quoted by UNN. 'We expect the worshippers to begin to arrive on September 5. B terminal will be opened for that special purpose', the message says. 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. This year's Jewish New Year falls on this weekend, September 8 and 9. Until 2016, the plant paid at reduced charges due to the indication of the waste of the lower level in the documents The enterprise "Crimean Tytan" situated at the north of occupied peninsula Crimea, does not pay the environments fees to mainland Ukraine since 2016. Ihor Ponochovny, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea claimed this as Crimea.Reality reported. He claimed that the environmental fees are not paid for two years and before the plant paid at reduced charges due to the indication of the waste of the lower level in the documents. Due to this, the criminal case was opened. "The officials of the plant "Crimean Tytan" deployed the wastes at the territory of Kherson region the level of which is different from the level that was declared in the documents and according to which they paid the fees to the local budget of Kherson region. There are different levels of the wastes, so there are different types of fess for this or those level. "Crimean Tytan" declared one type of the level, and it was lower than the wastes they deployed and the fees for them are significantly higher, so the underpayment to the budget was much more higher," Ponochovny explained. These facts were established through the holding of the forensic analysis. Moreover, the economic losses are counted. 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. 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.4 Earlier it was reported that the hit of the shells at the technological tanks during the training of the detachments of the Armed Forces of Russia became the reason for the chemical emission at the plant Crimean Tytan. On September 6, it was reported that the plant on the production of the titanium dioxide, the subsidiary of Titanium investments in Crimean Armyansk will completely stop to work on Sunday, September 9. Related video: Donbas conflict zone, Sentsov in Russian prison, ecologic disaster in Crimea - news for the week on one page 112 Agency About Donbas: The amassment of armored vehicles and heavy weaponry in Donbas conducted by pro-Kremlin militants was perhaps the most disturbing news over the past week. At the same time, Russias FSB agents came to Donetsk to investigate the murder of Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-styled Donetsk Peoples Republic. Denis Pushilin to be his successor until the election of the new full-fledged leader takes place. Kremlin does not provide any information about these investigations neither to Ukraine nor the OSCE. *** About Oleg Senstov: Ukrainian film maker and political prisoner, continues his courageous struggle from behind the bars in the Russian penal colony. His friend, Ukrainian civil activist Oleksiy Hrytsenko quoted a letter from Sentsov, in which he said he would not surrender and asked fellow Ukrainians to act the same. Russia has once again refused to pardon Sentsov. Meanwhile, the petition in support for Sentsov gains 100,000 signatures, while two MPs of the Ukrainian Parliament nominated Sentsov for Nobel Peace Prize. *** About Armyansk ecologic disaster: Titanium plant in annexed Crimea stops work due to acidic emissions on August 23. It took Russia 2 weeks to evacuate children. Air contamination reaches mainland of Ukraine as well. 37 Ukrainian border guards poisoned. All facts here. *** About Red Terror: On September 5, 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. *** About Ukraines funds: The mission of International Monetary Fund (IMF) headed by Ron van Rooden has begun its work in Kyiv. Earlier, Ukraine returned $160,3 million of debt to IMF. *** About Ukraine and the United States: Ukraines friend, late Sen. John McCain will be replaced in the U.S. Senate by his friend Jon Kyl. *** About Skripals: the suspects in poisoning of Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia were named by the U.K. Crown Prosecution Service. Theresa May said they were two GRU officers. *** About summer time: On August 31, it was reported that the EU intended to cancel transition to summer and winter time. More than 80% of the respondents supported the cancellation. Later, the Ministry of Economic Development informed that it would ask the Cabinet of Ministers to introduce changes to the process of computation of time due to EUs decision. Petition Save Oleg Sentsov gained needed 100,000 signs on the website of the U.S. White House. European Parliament has already appealed to Vladimir Putin with a demand for immediate liberation of Oleg Sentsov and others. We urge our government to take a firm stance on this issue and use all leverage to demand immediate release of Oleg Sentsov and other Ukrainian political prisoner in Russia, the message said. As the petition was registered on August 9 and succeeded to gain the necessary amount of signs, the American authorities are obliged to consider it and give the official respond. The lawyers suppose that this issue will be passed to the U.S. State Department. 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. Related video: The pictures that became the favorites of the wildlife photo contest held by London Natural History Museum were announced. One of the nominees for the prizes is "Visit to school" by British photographer Adrian Bliss as the museum reported. "Visit to school" shows a fox that stands among the empty schoolroom in Prypyat situated in three kilometers from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. A lot of old gas masks are all around the floor of the room. Totally, more than 45,000 photos from 95 countries participate in the competition. The professional photographers and amateurs filed their applications. "We were surprised by the high quality of the photos sent for the competition. All of them showed the enormous passion to the wild nature shared by the authors all over the world. I am sure that these photos will inspire our visitors and will make them to treat the species on the verge of extinction more deliberately," Ian Owens, the Director of Science of the museum who entered the jury said. The winners of the competition will be called on October 16. 100 best photos will be presented at the exhibition that will be opened at the Natural History Museum on October 19 and it will last until summer, 2019. As we reported the finalists of a prestigious competition Rising Stars of Photography-2018 are announced. Adobe company carries out the competition. Ukrainian Iryna Hromotska is among the ten authors. A 23-year photographer from Lviv presented a photo which shows two women in traditional clothing from a Chinese province Yunnan. Earlier a Ukrainian-Italian movie IZI received Opera Prima award in Kineo Diamanti al Cinema program of the 75th Venice Film Festival and was declared the best debut film of 2017. Related video: As Volodymyr Groysman stressed, the Governor and city government are responsible for hot water supply, heating, power supply, clean streets and their lighting Ukraine is ready to start the heating season in time. The local authority is responsible for that, as Volodymyr Groysman, Ukraines Prime Minister, stated during the Hour of questions to the Government at the Verkhovna Rada. 112 Ukraine broadcasted the plenary meeting of the Parliament. Ukraine is ready for the heating season and the municipal government is responsible for that. I dont see any problems with that. Speaking of the price, you know that we are conducting difficult talks with the international partners, as many years ago Ukraine made certain commitments concerning the formation of a single price in Ukraine, and today gas costs $392,9 for industry and $250 for the population. We are trying to find the best solution, Groysman said. He stressed that the Governor and city government are responsible for hot water supply, heating, power supply, clean streets and their lighting. According to the Prime Minister, all these responsibilities are supported with tens of billions of hryvnias at the expense of fiscal decentralization. Therefore, the heating season begins in time, we have everything for that, gas reserves in particular, and I dont see any problems. No problems with the electric power, the entire system is working in a routine mode. Everything will be fine, its just important that everyone does their work locally, Groysman concluded. Earlier, on August 13, Hennadiy Zubko, Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Development, Construction and Housing, informed that 67% of the social structure objects (schools, hospitals, kindergartens) and Ukraines heating supply companies were ready to the heating season. Related video: Plumbing the Depths A committed opponent of medical marijuana access in Utah is engaging a multi-pronged offensive against Proposition 2, a statewide ballot initiative to legalize possession and use of medical marijuana for qualifying patients. As noted in Salt Lake Tribune coverage, a lawsuit filed by Mormon landlord and lawyer Walter J. Plumb, III, hinges on whether his property rights would be violated if he is compelled to rent property to cannabis users. Plumb, a former law practice partner of Sen. Orrin Hatch, initially filed the suit on religious freedom grounds citing enforced proximity and association with cannabis users and precedents set by federal cannabis law. LDS faith is no longer at the heart of this Prop. 2 lawsuit, but Utahns ability to vote on the initiative rests with the courts impending ruling on Plumbs suit. On Thursday, Aug. 23 the Mormon Church issued an official statement opposing the medical cannabis ballot initiative. Drug Safe Utah, a political action group that also opposes Prop. 2, was largely funded by a $100,000 contribution made by Plumb. An opposition ad created by Drug Safe Utah begin airing Wednesday, Aug. 29 on metro-area country radio station 101.5 The Eagle (KEGA) but was yanked off the air in response to 53 complaints received by the station that weekend, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. On Wednesday, Sept. 5 Utah Patients Coalition, a pro-Prop. 2 PAC, filed an official election complaint charging that Drug Safe Utahs ad uses false, misleading statements in an attempt to influence Utah voters. Lab-grown THC + CBD? As High Times reports , a strategic partnership between Boston biotech outfit Gingko Bioworks and Canadian cannabis conglomerate Cronos Group aims to sequence the cannabis plant genomes responsible for production of sought-after phytocannabinoids like tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The collaborations overriding goal is laboratory synthesis and production of these rare cannabinoids. That scientific breakthrough would allow manufacturers and growers to produce extracts and whole plants that feature cannabinoid quantities and combinations that are impossible to achieve by selective breeding alone. Gingko Bioworks likens these anticipated scientific and medical cannabinoid innovations to brewery economics, a reference to bioengineered improvements in commercial alcohol production. Potential agricultural and medical advancements range from the metaphorical holy grailhalting or reversing the growth of cancerous cellsto the discovery of wildly profitable recreational cannabinoid doses and combinations. As a metaphor, a Jurassic Park populated by towering cannabis plants with superpowered genetics fails to express the real-world potential of Gingko and Cronos research partnership. 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!) Armenias Special Investigative Service has told Hetq that it cant provide details at the moment as to why it has invited Levon Yeranosyan, the former commander of the internal police forces, in for questioning. It was at the urging of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that President Sarkissian fired Yeranosyan from the post. Armenias National Assembly today unanimously passed a bill that will increase penalties for those found guilty of electoral fraud, including bribing voters. Fines and jail sentences will be increased, and so will the time that suspects can be detained. A proposal made by Yelk Faction MP Edmond Marukyan, making it a crime to remove a ballot from the polling station, was rejected. Deputy Minister of Justice Artur Hovhannisyan argued that such an act is already regarded as a crime under the law. There are multiple factors to blame for degree inflation, but a big one is the unintended consequences of federal anti-discrimination law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employers from discriminating against workers or job applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It did, however, allow the use of professionally developed ability or employment tests, insofar as they were not designed, intended or used to discriminate. In Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971) , the Supreme Court unanimously interpreted this language to mean that when a selection process disproportionately affects minority groups (e.g. has a disparate impact) employers must show that any requirements are directly job-related and an accurate predictor of job performance. Why do so many jobs requires a college degree? Today, you need a college degree for a lot of jobs that used to be done by non-graduates. Why is that? Frederick M. Hess and Grant Addison highlight one source of credentialing inflation: Importantly, this disparate impact standard, which Congress wouldcodify into law in 1991, applies to any test or selection procedure used for employment decisions, including educational requirements. But while its been scrupulously applied to other, non-educational types of employment tests, it hasnt been tested in the case of the safe-passage papers issued by the college cartel. [...] For employers, whatever the real costs, college-degree requirements represent an easy, risk-free way to screen applicants while sidestepping legal culpability. And colleges, of course, reap the outsize benefits of acting as the gatekeepers to employment. Its an arrangement which allows campus bureaucrats to pull in six-figure salaries while tuition costs soar ever-higher and schools feast on billions in federal student loans and other taxpayer funds. The big losers here are workers and would-be workers; after all,only a third of U.S. adults have a four-year degree. Requiring a college degree summarily disqualifies non-credentialed workers with relevant skills and experience from the applicant pool. It bars young people from taking entry-level jobs and building the skills and experience that open up new opportunities. And it holds families and would-be workers hostage, forcing them to devote time and money to collecting degrees, whether or not those credentials actually convey much in the way of relevant skills or knowledge. [Frederick M. Hess and Grant Addison, Apple, Google, et al. Strike a Blow Against the College Cartel, American Enterprise Institute, August 29] The ground shook with the announcement, and the local field will likely change. Chicagos next mayor will not be an Emanuel or a Daley, though the possibilities are almost endless now. Thanks to Rahm Emanuel and the Illinois Supreme Court, residency requirements have been so watered down for this office that another carpetbagger with connections and bucks could easily move back from Washington like he did and run again, years after moving away. Chicagos Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a past congressman and White House chief of staff, unexpectedly announced this week that he is not running for a third term. Perhaps, unlike past occupants of the office, eight years was enough? Or perhaps his national ambitions would be better served by a voluntary departure from the office than by the possibility of a re-election defeat which polls were saying was more than a slight possibility? A fresh campaign will always be full of speeches and promises, as fresh candidates vow to solve the citys problems and set it back on course to the greatness that never really was because, to admit the truth, Chicago has been a corrupt disaster for virtually its entire existence. Even with the opportunity to rebuild after the Great Fire of 1871, the corrupt ways of the city were arguably the only elements of the city that didnt crumble in the flames. The next mayor will make many promises on the issues of the day, but what will the next mayor truly be able to solve? How much is out of his hands, and how much doesnt have to be, but will be unfixable because the obvious solutions are verboten to any modern big city Democrat politician? Consider: Schools: The Chicago Public Schools are notorious for three things; danger, cost, and quality swings. CPS has some very good schools if you can get into them, but many of the schools are hotbeds of gangland danger and educational incompetence. And the cost is horrendous, partially because of an utterly unsustainable salary-and-pension burden, and partially because of the vast economic challenge of a massive unemployed, unemployable, and illegal immigrant population. The city has been bleeding residents for a half a century, dropping from over 3.5 million in the 1950s to 2.5 million today. With a school system built for such a substantially larger population, recent years have had to see numerous school closings, forcing students into unavoidably more distant schools. Crime: The city is riddled with gang violence. Perhaps the old days of regular, independent home burglars and alley muggers have decreased, but the old days of organized crime have only gotten worse in recent decades. Most people would gladly return to the horrors of the mafia of the 1920s, having experienced the drive-by shootings, the gang warfare in public parks, and the outright gang domination of public schools that the city suffers today, thanks to both a native-born criminal class and an illegal alien criminal class that we have imported on purpose. There are solutions, but none that Chicagos political class would support. Unemployment: This issue is at its starkest today, because we can compare Chicagos continued suffering with a nation on the upswing. The economy is in recovery across the country, with national black unemployment, for example, at its lowest in generations. But Chicago isnt participating in this recovery, because as businesses thrive elsewhere, they continue to flee the state of Illinois in general, and Chicago in particular. While other regions shine as welcoming homes for new business and business expansions, Chicago continues to drive employers away with our taxes, our crime, our crumbling infrastructure, our regulatory hurdles, and most importantly, the impression that nothing will improve, that Chicago and Illinois are bound and determined to keep getting worse. For the truth is, all of these problems do have solutions. Some arent easy, others are but they all have solutions. Chicago, the County of Cook, and the State of Illinois as well, have all defined themselves as sanctuary for illegal aliens. They are therefore inviting in more problems from foreign gang members to perfectly decent willing workers, the illegal alien community brings with it distinct challenges, all of them avoidable. As a group, they increase the cost of healthcare, of welfare, and of education despite the fact that many are decent and generally law abiding, this large numbers of criminals in this group increase the crime level that impacts every other aspect of city life, from destroying property values to increasing drug addiction, from increasing healthcare costs to driving employment away. But will the next mayor take a stand against illegal immigration? Not likely. Chicago suffers from a longstanding hostile attitude toward capitalism. Despite being the location of tons of corporate headquarters, its tax and regulatory burden make it an undesirable location for new businesses and for the expansion of existing ones. But the politicians of the state particularly the likely incoming governor, JB Pritzker are committed to tax increases, which will make Illinois rocket past California, New York, and other tax hells in no time. That will only increase the citys and the states insolvency problems. And what a set of insolvency problems they are. Our neighbor Wisconsin addressed their public pension challenges eight years ago, while Illinois has just continued to kick the can down the road. From teachers unions to other public employee unions, the political power on the side of stubbornly refusing to address these issues is simply overwhelming in the politics of both the city and the state. Both desperately need to reform their public employee compensation approaches, and neither will. Even if there were no other challenges and there certainly are pensions alone would remain an almost fatal millstone around the necks of city and state alike. So what can we hope for? Barring some miracle, the next mayor will keep Chicago a sanctuary city, will keep Chicago a tax hell, will keep Chicago a danger zone for both employers and employees. No matter how well intentioned a mayor may be, these third rails of Chicago politics will make it impossible to deliver on even the most honest promises. You simply cannot reduce crime while importing criminals. You simply cannot decrease unemployment while driving employers away. You simply cannot improve schools while allowing a corrupt union to rule them. The most we can hope for from outside the city is an exciting campaign for us to watch from a distance, and a new mayor who does as little additional, intentional harm as possible. And the most that Chicagoans can hope for, frankly, is a ticket out of town to greener pastures somewhere far, far away. Copyright 2018 John F. Di Leo John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland based trade compliance trainer, writer and actor. His columns are found regularly in Illinois Review. Use the tool on the left margin of the web page to obtain a free subscription to Illinois Reviews article notices! CHAMPAIGN - Former President Barack Obama unleashed pent up frustrations about the current president's policies, behavior and temperament Friday while accepting an ethics award at the University of Illinois in Champaign. With the 2018 election weeks away, Obama urged the U of I students to passionately engage in political activism because "our democracy depends upon it." "You can be the generation that at a critical moment stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it," he said. But all his comments were not so altruistic. He criticized the Republican Party, saying "the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican party," Obama said. CHICAGO - First Lady Diana Rauner is featured in a new ad with hopes of touching suburban women for her husband's re-election. It's titled, "This Election is a Choice." And of course, Mrs. Rauner is "pro-choice." Watch it, and tell us - after watching it, are you more proned to vote for Bruce Rauner in 2018? "The (corresponding) investment is worth over US$1 billion," the official expressed. According to Oliva, this project is part of a series of reactivations within the mining sector. Said actions will help boost private investments in the next three or four years. "Less than a month ago, Quellaveco mining project , with investments worth over US$5 billion , started operations in Moquegua (region)," the minister underlined. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Russia has cancelled the international arrest warrant for former defense minister of Armenia Michael Harutyunyan on its territory, Interfax reported citing its sources. Harutyunyan was declared wanted by Armenian law enforcement agencies on charges of breaching constitutional order during the March 1 events in 2008. Upon studying the case against Harutyunyan, who is accused for the 2008 March 1 events which took place in Yerevan, a decision was made to drop the manhunt on Russian territory, the source said. The source said that nothing threatens Harutyunyan on Russian territory, but he still may get arrested and extradited to Armenia if he were to travel to any other CIS member state. The source also said that the red notice on Harutyunyan was received by Russia a while ago not from the general prosecution of Armenia but via international manhunt channels. According to the source, the arrest warrant also includes the residence address of the former minister in Moscow. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian visited today PicsArt, got acquainted with the IT companys activity and programs, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. During the tour PicsArt co-founder and CEO Hovhannes Avoyan and director general Mikayel Vardanyan introduced the President on the companys activity features, management system approaches, composition, general policy, as well as the opportunities of PicsArt app. It was reported that currently the app is available in 30 languages all over the world, in iOS, Android and Windows platforms. The app has more than 100 million users monthly. The President got acquainted with the company conditions, talked to the staff and was interested in their work. After the tour President Sarkissian met with the company leadership during which he touched upon the IT development trends and prospects in Armenia, the cooperation with the Armenian startups. The companys further activity directions, the current level of international cooperation and expansion programs were presented. President Sarkissian expressed readiness to assist the companys development as much as possible. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Representatives of a family guardian organization called Nidos will accompany Lili and Howick to Armenia, the justice ministry of the Netherlands told ARMENPRESS. As reported earlier, Lili and Howick, the two Armenian children who were rejected asylum by Netherlands, will be deported to Armenia on Saturday. Maarten Molenbeek, a representative for the press of the Dutch justice ministry, refused to provide other details on the deportation, including on what flight the children will arrive to Armenia. Asked to comment on the statement of the Childrens Ombudsman of Netherlands Margrite Klaverboer, who said that the deportation will be infringing on the fundamental rights of the children, Molenbeek refused. That is her opinion, he said. Asked who will accompany the children on the flight, Mr. Molenbeek said that an organization called Nidos is dealing with the issue. The Nidos website describes the organization as an independent family guardian organization, pursuant to the law, Nidos fulfils the guardianship task for Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers. Molenbeek said that representatives of Nidos are already in Armenia for further assistance. Nidos was unavailable at the moment for comment. Earlier the Dutch media reported that another organization, the Armenian Caritas, is also dealing with the issue in Armenia. But Armenian Caritas refused to comment. "At this moment, due to the mother's and the children's security concerns, Armenian Caritas is not authorized to provide any information," the organization told ARMENPRESS. A day ahead of the highly publicized deportation of two Armenian children from the Netherlands, the countrys childrens ombudsman Margrite Klaverboer says the Dutch government will be infringing on fundamental childrens rights if Lili and Howick are deported back to Armenia. Lili (12) and Howick (13), have been separated from their mother since she was sent back to Armenia in July 2017. Earlier in the week Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands personally added her voice to calls for the two children to be allowed to stay. 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 told NPO Radio 5, according to Dutch News. The children, aged 12 and 13, will be taken to an orphanage on their return and their mother, who was deported a year ago, is unable to take care of them, Klaverboer told television program Pauw on Thursday evening. I have read the file thoroughly and I know their mother is not capable of looking after them at the moment, she said. There is nowhere for them to live and they cannot go to school, the ombudsman said, referring to the fact that the children do not speak or write in Armenian. The children are set to be deported on Saturday. They were born in Russia and have lived in the Netherlands for over 10 years, during which their mother made repeated efforts to claim asylum. However, they have not qualified for the governments amnesty for child refugees. Kalverboer said the childrens future is clearly in the Netherlands and that she has discussed the problems with junior justice ministry Mark Harbers. He has the right of discretion to grant the children a residence permit. So far Harbers has refused to do so. The State Migration Service of Armenia earlier told ARMENPRESS that it will provide all possible assistance of integration to the children if the mother is unable to care for them. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan received on September 7 newly appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia Piotr Litvin who delivered the copies of his credentials. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, congratulating Piotr Litvin on the occasion of the appointment and wishing success in his important mission, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan expressed confidence that the Ambassador will have his own contribution to the further expansion and deepening of Armenian-Ukrainian friendly relations. Minister Mnatsakanyan and Ambassador Litvin discussed a range of issues of bilateral agenda, particularly emphasizing the importance of taking practical steps aimed at expanding cooperation in the spheres of science, culture and tourism. The interlocutors highly appreciated the role of the Armenian community of Ukraine in the countrys social-political, economic and scientific life. In this context the Armenian FM noted with gratitude the careful attitude of the Ukrainian authorities towards the Armenian community, Armenian cultural values and the respect towards the steps aimed at the preservation of the national identity. In the context of deepening trade and economic relations the interlocutors noted with satisfaction that trade turnover between Armenia and Ukraine has increased, but at the same time the sides shared the opinion that its necessary to take practical steps for fully utilizing the huge potential in the economic sphere. The Armenian Foreign Minister presented Armenias approaches and priorities over Nagorno Karabakh peace process, emphasizing that the artificial attempts to introduce other formats for the settlement hinder the efforts of the OSCE Minsk group Co-chairs to achieve a settlement. The sides shared the opinion that the peaceful settlement of the conflict has no alternative. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan had a telephone conversation with Children's Ombudswoman of the Netherlands Margriet Kalverboer over the deportation of the two Armenian children to Armenia. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, the Dutch Ombudsman assured that the issue of the Armenian children is in the center of his attention and he makes efforts to postpone the deportation so as to be able to examine the documents connected with the children in detail and the issues connected with the implementation of their rights. Arman Tatoyan thanked his counterpart and noted that in case the children are deported he is ready to take measures aimed at ensuring their in the limits of his responsibilities. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish-born American lobbyist, who was recently arrested in Yerevan after being declared internationally wanted by the United States for perjury, was engaged in criminal activities in the Armenian capital during his stay here, as it turns out. In response to an inquiry, the Prosecutor Generals office of Armenia told ARMENPRESS that Oksuzs The Sena Group, an event and destination agency based in Yerevan, is suspected in tax evasion. The Prosecutor Generals office said that the anti-organized crime department of police launched a criminal case on tax evasion committed by Kevin (Kemal) Oksuz, the founder and director of the company. Within the framework of the case authorized Armenian bodies are entitled to carry out investigative actions, the Prosecutor Generals office said. The criminal proceedings were launched under paragraph 1, Article 205 (tax evasion) of the Criminal Code. If found guilty, Oksuz might face up to five years behind bars or major fines. Earlier on August 31 a Yerevan court remanded into custody Kemal Oksuz for 30 days pending further proceedings. This is the period when authorized bodies of the US can file a motion for extradition for criminal prosecution, the Prosecutor Generals Office said, adding that they cant mention a specific date of extradition because in the event of receiving a motion it will first have to pass a deny/allow procedure, which in turn can be appealed in court as prescribed by law. The Prosecutor Generals Office also said that Oksuz is exercising his right to an attorney. Asked if Oksuz holds dual US and Turkish citizenship, the Prosecutor Generals Office said that according to the copy of the identification document of Kevin (Kemal) Oksuz currently available at the Prosecutor Generals Office, the latter is a US citizen. Karen Khachatryan, Stepan Kocharyan, Araks Kasyan Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan Read more: Yerevan Police catch huge fish: Kemal Oksuzs controversial past raises eyebrows Oksuz case, part 2: Top level anti-Armenian Gulenist lobbyist tied to infamous Azerbaijani Laundromat case The value and number of owner-occupier home loans increased modestly in July, leading to a modest increase in the total value of housing finance. The value of investor lending continued to fall, reflecting both tighter lending standards and recent declines in home prices in Sydney and Melbourne, previously favorite markets for investors. JP Morgan says recent out-of-cycle variable mortgage rate increases from major Australian lenders represents a "clear headwind to both owner-occupiers and investors". There were no sign of a "credit crunch" in Australia in July with both the value and number of housing loans to owner-occupiers increasing during the month. However, the value of housing loans to investors continued to fall, resulting in only a small increase in the total value of housing finance. According to Australia's Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the value of housing loans rose by 0.4% to $31.431 billion in July, leaving the decline on a year earlier at 5.1%, smaller than the 6.5% drop recorded in the year to June. Loans to owner-occupiers increased by 1.3% to $21.184 billion over the month. That left the increase on a year earlier at 1.1%, higher than the 0.6% pace recorded a month earlier. Excluding refinancing, the value of owner-occupier loans fell 0.5% to $14.765 billion over the month, and by 2.3% over the year. Refinancing of existing loan facilities increased by 5% to $6.419 billion from June, leaving the increase on 12 months earlier at 9.7%. Helping to explain the drop in total housing finance over the year, the value of loans to investors fell by 1.3% to $10.247 billion during the month. From a year ago, the value of investor finance skidded 15.7%, the seventh double-digit year-on-year percentage decline seen in the past eight months. The July total for investor housing loans was nearly $5 billion less than the record levels seen in early 2015. "Investor lending remains very weak in value terms, the accumulated response to tighter lending standards by the major banks," said Henry St John, Economist at JP Morgan. Story continues "The underperformance in investor relative to owner-occupier lending is consistent with what we would expect in response to a tightening in lending standards, the consequence of both the Banking Royal Commission, and macroprudential policies." Reflecting the increase in the value of owner-occupier lending in July, the number of loans to this cohort increased by 0.4% to 52,647 in seasonally adjusted terms. Loans to purchase existing dwellings increased by 0.6% to 44,098, the same increase as those to construct new homes which rose to 5,899. Loans to purchase new dwellings bucked the trend, falling by 2.2% to 2,650 over the month. Without seasonal adjustments, the proportion of owner-occupier loans going to first home buyer fell to 18.0% from 18.1%, continuing to pullback from the multi-year highs seen earlier in the year on the back of stamp duty discounts introduced by the New South Wales and Victorian State governments in 2017. The ABS does not release data on the number of loans issued to investors as part of the housing finance report. Despite the small lift in both the number and value of loans in July, St John says recent out-of-cycle variable mortgage rate increases from major Australian lenders represents a "clear headwind to both owner-occupiers and investors". "The last week has seen three of the four major Australian banks reprice standard variable mortgage rates around 15 basis points," he says. "In our view, mortgage rate tightening is a greater headwind for credit than a tightening in lending standards, and we expect to see early signs of a slowing in lending and refinancing behaviour in the coming months." Russia is preparing for what officials there have called the country's largest military exercise since the Cold War. China and Mongolia are also joining, both for the first time. The US plans to monitor the exercises seeing them as "strategic messaging" by Moscow and Beijing. On Friday, two US F-22 Raptor fighter jets intercepted two Russian nuclear-capable Tu-95MC strategic bombers flying over the Arctic Ocean, escorting them for part of their journey over the waters of the Arctic and the Bering and Okhotsk seas. The US planes tracked the Russian bombers until they left the area, flying west over the Aleutian Islands. A defence official told The Washington Free Beacon that the bombers may have been practicing for a cruise-missile strike on US missile-defence sites and radars in Alaska - which may be a feature of the Russia's upcoming massive Vostok-18 exercise that Russian officials have said will be the largest such drill since the Cold War. Russian armour Zapad-2017 Russian troops have already undergone "snap inspections" in preparation for the exercise, the active portion of which will take place between September 11 to September 17, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said this week, according to Russian state-media outlet Tass. Exercises will take place at five ground testing areas and four aerial testing areas over the Sea of Japan and the Bering and Okhotsk seas. "Aircraft have been flying maximum range sorties with refuelling in flight and practicing landings at tactical airfields. Naval ships have been performing combat manoeuvring and firing practices," Shoigu said, according to Tass. Shoigu said in late August that about 300,000 Russian personnel and 1,000 aircraft, including drones, would take part, adding this week that "up to 80 combat and logistics ships and up to 36,000 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles" will be involved. Valery Gerasimov, the head of Russia's general staff,said Thursday that 21 formations had been mobilized in 10 regions for the exercise, the main purpose of which, he said, "is to check the level of training that can be assessed only in an exercise of proper scale." Story continues "This exercise, to be held on the bilateral basis, will be the strictest test of combat skills and the military districts' readiness for ground, air and naval operations," he added. "Involved in the exercise will be forces from the Eastern and Central federal districts, the Northern Fleet, and Airborne Forces, as well as long-range, military transport and tactical aircraft of Russia's Aerospace Force," Gerasimov said, according to Tass. Gerasimov also said that Chinese and Mongolian personnel will take part "side by side" with Russian forces. Shoigu said this week that up to 3,500 Chinese army personnel would be involved "in the main scenario at the Tsugol proving ground" in Russia's Eastern Military District. China's involvement has elicited surprise, given that Vostok, or East, has long been seen as Moscow's preparation for a potential conflict with Beijing. China and Russia have done joint drills before, but this appears to be the first time Beijing has taken part in the Vostok exercise. China "is now being invited to join as a friend and even a quasi-ally," Alexander Gabuev, a China expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told The New York Times in August. The exercise is also expected to include simulated nuclear-weapons attacks, US officials told The Free Beacon. A Pentagon official said the US would watch the war games closely, calling them "strategic messaging" by both China and Russia. Mongolia is also participating for the first time, and contingents from there and China are "completing coordination and adjustment at the Tsugol proving ground," Gerasimov said, referring to an area near the eastern intersection of the three countries' borders - where Gabuev suggested they might be restricted so Russian troops elsewhere could train for a potential clash with China. NATO has also criticised the exercise, with a spokesman for the alliance saying it "fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its defence budget and its military presence." Russia's deputy defence minister, Col-Gen. Alexander Fomin said this week that the upcoming drills "lacked the slightest traces" of "anti-NATO bias or aggressiveness." Fomin also said Russian military personnel had been briefed on security and safety measures in accordance with Moscow's agreements with neighbouring countries, including the US. An Australian model who was found unconscious on a Mexican billionaires superyacht near the Greek Island last week called her family in tears just moments earlier. Sinead McNamara, 20, was found in critical condition at the rear of the Mayan Queen IV early last Friday local time while the vessel was moored in the port of Argostoli in Kefalonia. She died as she was being airlifted to hospital While initial evidence gathered by the coast guard suggested the Instagram influencer took her own life, the final cause of death will not be announced until lab tests are completed, which could take a month or more. Sinead McNamara was found hanging from rope at the rear of the superyacht off the Greek Islands last Friday. Source: Instagram / Sinead McNamara Her heartbroken family, who are now demanding answers, have released a statement through their lawyer, Haralambos Triandafylopoulos, who revealed that Ms McNamara reached out to her family before the fatal incident. (Sinead) had communicated by telephone with her mother and brother shortly before the unfortunate incident under investigation, the statement read. She was crying and referred to an incident that took place on the yacht with another crew member. The parents also state that Sinead was not having any problems, she often communicated with her family and she was happy. For these reasons, the family finds it crucial to thoroughly investigate both the conditions of death and the events and incidents that preceded this event in order to reveal the full truth and learn what actually happened and led their 20-year-old daughter to death. The 20-year-old shared images of her glamorous life travelling the world. Image: Instagram / Sinead McNamara The Port Macquarie resident had been working for four months as a stewardess on the six-storey vessel owned by billionaire mining mogul Alberto Bailleres. Valued at about $195 million, the superyacht was initially prevented from leaving until an investigation and autopsy were completed. However, local media have reported that the ship was granted permission to leave port on Sunday night. Mr Bailleres had left the yacht, leaving Ms McNamara on board with the rest of the crew, local media reports. She was on her last shift and was planning to meet up with her mother and sister the following day, who had been on their way to Greece at the time. Austria has had to take "trust building measurements" to retain cooperation with allied secret services, its interior minister said Friday in a grilling over government raids on the country's domestic intelligence agency. Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) told parliament that Austria had to explain itself or else face suspension from the so-called Bern Club, an intelligence sharing forum with members including EU states. "Cooperation between partner services is based on trust. Trust building measurements were necessary... I was informed on June 26, 2018, that a suspension would be the last consequence," he said, without giving further details. He made the statement during a special session called by the opposition to urge his resignation which was rejected as it did not receive majority support. Kickl's statement comes amid reports that Western secret services are increasingly wary of sharing information with their EU ally over concerns it could be passed to Moscow. Officially, the February raids of offices and homes of officials of the BVT intelligence agency related to an investigation into allegations of abuse of office. But unusually, the searches were carried out by a police street crime unit run by an official from the FPOe, which has a "cooperation pact" with President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. Files seized reportedly related to investigations into far-right extremist groups. The opposition has accused Kickl of endangering the country by jeopardising its relationship with other secret services. "It's just a question of time when he has to step down.... This is about our constitution and our security," opposition parliamentarian Peter Pilz told parliament. Kickl reiterated that based on "numerous conversations across different levels", cooperation with international partners continued to function, accusing the opposition of playing up the affair to score political points. Last week, a Vienna court declared some of the raids illegal because prosecutors had failed to explore other avenues to obtain the evidence they were looking for. A separate parliamentary enquiry, also called for by the opposition, on the raids started this week, hearing from those involved. Kickl is due to appear in front of the enquiry in November. The FPOe has governed in a coalition since late last year. FPOe leader Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache on Friday defended Kickl as an "excellent interior minister". Last month, Austria's FPOe-backed foreign minister raised eyebrows by inviting Putin to her wedding. Images of the two of them dancing circulated widely. Austria's Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, pictured at a press conference in July 2018, has expressed a need for more cooperation between partner services An appeals court in The Hague cancelled $9.5 billion in damages handed down by an Ecuadoran court against American energy giant Chevron for causing oil pollution in the Amazon jungle, Ecuador's public prosecutor said Friday. The original ruling dates back to 2011 and was twice upheld on appeal in Ecuador, but Chevron took its protest to The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, claiming it had already been exonerated of any wrongdoing. The Dutch court decided Ecuador was guilty of "denial of justice" and ordered it to annul its sentence against Chevron, prosecutor Inigo Salvador said. Chevron's lawyers had argued that the plaintiffs had "promised payments" to an Ecuadoran judge "in return for being permitted to draft significant portions" of the ruling against the American multi-national. "We are concerned that a court can ask a state to cancel a judgement by a national court in a case between private entities," said Salvador. The long-running saga stems from Chevron's acquisition of former rival Texaco in 2001. Although Chevron has never worked directly in Ecuador, Texaco Petroleum operated in the South American country from 1964 to 1990 and was accused of causing environmental damage. Thousands of indigenous villagers from the Lago Agrio region claimed they had fallen ill and even developed cancer from pollution in their water supply. An Ecuadoran court originally ordered Chevron to pay $19 billion in damages before the country's supreme court upheld the ruling but halved the amount. Chevron claimed it had already been cleared of responsibility and called the ruling "illegitimate." It filed a fraud case against Ecuador at a district court in New York, winning that and a $96 million award against the South American country. The Hague court's ruling was given on August 30 but did not include any damages awarded to Chevron, Salvador said. Protesters in Ecuador have accused Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, of polluting the environment An appeals court in The Hague has cancelled $9.5 billion in damages handed down by an Ecuadoran court against American energy giant Chevron for causing oil pollution in the Amazon jungle, Quito said Friday. The original ruling dates back to 2011 and was twice upheld on appeal in Ecuador, but Chevron took its protest to The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, claiming it had already been exonerated of any wrongdoing. The Dutch court decided Ecuador was guilty of "denial of justice" and ordered it to annul its sentence against Chevron, Ecuador's public prosecutor Inigo Salvador said. Chevron's lawyers had argued that the plaintiffs had "promised payments" to an Ecuadoran judge "in return for being permitted to draft significant portions" of the ruling against the American multi-national. "We are concerned that a court can ask a state to cancel a judgment by a national court in a case between private entities," said Salvador. The long-running saga stems from Chevron's acquisition of former rival Texaco in 2001, thus inheriting an existing litigation that has now lasted 25 years. Although Chevron has never worked directly in Ecuador, Texaco Petroleum operated in the South American country from 1964 to 1990 and was accused of causing environmental damage. Thousands of indigenous villagers from the Lago Agrio region claimed they had fallen ill and even developed cancer from pollution in their water supply. An Ecuadoran court originally ordered Chevron to pay $19 billion in damages -- one of the largest ever rulings against an oil company for environmental pollution -- before the country's supreme court upheld the ruling but halved the amount. Chevron claimed it had already been cleared of responsibility and called the ruling "illegitimate." It filed a fraud case against Ecuador at a district court in New York, winning that and a $96 million award against the South American country. Ecuador had already "freed the company of any responsibility for the same environmental claims" that formed the basis of the subsequent "fraudulent Ecuadoran sentence," said Chevron vice president R. Hewitt Pate in a statement sent to AFP. The Hague court's ruling, given on August 30 but only published in Ecuador on Friday, did not include any damages awarded to Chevron, Salvador said. The court's ruling, that covered 520 pages, found Ecuador responsible for "having violated" an investment protection treaty between Washington and Quito. It also ordered Ecuador to ensure no "new enforcement actions" were launched against Chevron to try to obtain damages. Villagers had previously launched bids in the US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina to seize Chevron assets in order to enforce payment of the Ecuadoran court's original ruling. Protesters in Ecuador have accused Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, of polluting the environment The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey were due to meet Friday in Tehran for talks on the future of Idlib province amid growing fears of a humanitarian disaster in Syria's last major rebel bastion. Two people were killed in the northwestern province by Russian air strikes, according to a monitor, even as Russian leader Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran shortly after his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erodgan. The two men, shown arriving by plane by Iranian state television, were due to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rohani. The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention which has eclipsed the Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the UN. Iranian and Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has shored up the Damascus regime, allowing it to regain the upper hand in the seven-year civil war which has claimed some 350,000 lives since 2011. On Friday morning, Russian air raids pounded rebel positions in the southwest of Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. Hundreds of civilians have already begun to flee Idlib as government forces and their allies ready for what could be the last -- and bloodiest -- major battle of the devastating conflict. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control. The province is home to some three million people -- around half of them displaced from other parts of the country, according to the United Nations. - 'Horrific scenario' - Neighbouring Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels, fears the assault could prompt a flood of desperate Syrians towards its territory. But regime backers Russia and Iran have sworn to wipe out "terrorists" and Assad has declared his determination to retake control of the entire country. Eight leading aid agencies warned Friday that "once again, it will be the most vulnerable who will pay the heaviest price". They appealed to world leaders to "urgently work together to avoid this horrific scenario". The Tehran talks could determine the scale and the timeline of the Idlib offensive, which the UN has warned may displace some 800,000 people. Iranian television reported the three leaders would each have "bilateral meetings" on the sidelines of the main summit. They are also due to hold a press conference. Just hours later, the UN Security Council will also meet, at Washington's request, to discuss Idlib. Russia wants Turkey, which borders the province, to use its influence to rein in the dominant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, as well as rival rebels. Turkey has limited sway over the jihadists who control an estimated 60 percent of the province, but it backs other rebel groups and has 12 military "observation points" across the area. Idlib's population has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories across the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed there. - 'Liquidation of terrorists' - Russia has said the Syrian army is preparing to solve the problem of "terrorism" in the rebel stronghold and reiterated Friday that its position had not changed. "A total and definitive liquidation of the terrorists across all of Syria's territory is necessary," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She stressed however that Moscow "is doing everything in its power to ensure that human losses and harm to Idlib's civilian population is limited as much as possible". Her Iranian counterpart, Bahram Ghassemi, assured Damascus of Tehran's support and willingness to "continue its role as adviser and help" for the Idlib campaign. Al-Watan, a Syrian newspaper close to the government, reported Monday the military operation could "immediately follow the summit". Analyst Sam Heller with the International Crisis Group said there was some hope of a deal. Any new flood of refugees towards Turkey would come at a time when Ankara is "vulnerable," he told AFP, adding it would be a "huge new burden on Turkey and would overwhelm its humanitarian capacities." "I don't think that either of these countries, or really anyone, has an interest in doing something which is genuinely destabilising to Turkey," he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they prepare to join a three-way summit hosted by Iran's Hassan Rouhani that is set to decide the future of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib Smoke rises after an air strike near the Idlib province village of Kafr Ain on September 7, 2018 as the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey prepared to meet in Tehran for a summit expected to decide the future of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control Territorial control in Idlib province, Syria, with data on the risk of a humanitarian crisis The Tehran meetings could determine the scale and the timeline of the Idlib offensive The foster parents of 2-year-old have shared their heartbreak, after his biological mother was charged with his murder. Florida boy, Jordan Belliveau, was found dead on September 4 after he was reported three days earlier. A day before he went missing, a case worker with the organisation Directions for Living saw him at home. Jordans biological mother Charisse Stinson was arrested for first degree murder on September 5. Jordan Belliveau (pictured) lived with foster parents. Source: Supplied to Tampa Bay Times Sam and Juliet Warren were foster parents to Jordan Belliveau (pictured). Source: WFLA Jordan was cared for by his foster parents Sam and Juliet Warren from January 2017 to May 31 2018, according to local outlet Bay News 9. The couple was planning to adopt little Jordan and paid tribute to his life in a public statement on Wednesday. Jordan was filled with joy. Most folks knew him as the Jordan who was laid back with an easy smile and a twinkle in his eye, Mr Warren said. He learned to roll over in our house. I remember my mom helping him learn to crawl. Charisse Stinson (pictured) is the biological mother of Jordan Belliveau. Source: Facebook/Largo Police Department He was our Mr. Chuckles. The Warrens rallied for improvements to the child protection system. The foster parents handed Jordan back to his mother after a court order, but wished to continue caring for him. Promises that were made to us about how he would be protected after his return were broken, Mr Warren said. We hope that Jordans loss will lead to a change to protect other children in the system. A man who has lived in Australia for three years has revealed his heartbreak at being denied a permit to visit his dying father in Colombia by Home Affairs Minister Peter Duttons office. The Sydney-based Dutch citizen was not granted an exemption to the rules of his temporary Bridging Visa E by Mr Dutton and ended up watching his dads funeral in Colombia via Skype. Jean Franco Vilaro Campos shared his story with Yahoo7 in the midst of Peter Dutton coming under fire this week over allegations he stepped in to help two European au pairs stay in Australia. Mr Vilaro (or Mr Campos as he was referred to by Mr Duttons office) moved to Sydney for an adventure in June 2015 and was put on a temporary Bridging Visa E, which restricted him from re-entering the country if he was to leave during the processing period of 27 months. But in August of last year, Mr Vilaro was told his father Salvador in South America was gravely ill after suffering a haemorrhagic stroke and that his final wish was to see his son one last time. Through a contact in former prime minister Malcolm Turnbulls office, he was able to get a message to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to plead for a two-week compassionate permit to say goodbye to his dad. Our application was denied within 24 hours and my father passed away on September 1 [2017], Mr Vilaro told Yahoo7. I attended his funeral over Skype. It was the most horrible and harrowing situation Ive ever had in my entire life. Jean Franco Vilaro Campos (pictured with his partner Robert Wills) was denied a permit from Peter Duttons office to visit his dying father in Colombia. Photo: Supplied/ Jean Franco Vilaro Campos He could have chosen to travel to Colombia and broken the terms of his visa, but would have not been able to return to Sydney unless he applied for another visa while outside of the country. My dad told me: I do want to see you, thats my last wish, but dont do anything you might regret, he said. It was the most difficult decision Ive ever made. A letter addressed to Malcolm Turnbull from Mr Dutton explains that his office acknowledges Mr Camposs difficult circumstances, before denying the request. Story continues You have asked that I consider an arrangement whereby Mr Campos could travel to Colombia to visit his father without compromising his ability to return to Australia, the letter, signed by Mr Dutton, read. My powers to intervene in migration matters are limited under the Migration Act 1958, and, unfortunately, these powers do not enable me to lift the restriction which prevents Mr Campos from applying for a further visa onshore. Mr Campos may, however, apply for a visa to return to Australia from offshore, and in light of the restrictions attached to his current visa, and his need to travel imminently, this is his only option. This photo was taken four years ago when Jean Vilaro saw his father, Salvador Vilaro, for the last time. Photo: Supplied/ Jean Franco Vilaro Campos Mr Vilaro was originally on a student visa, and applied for a same-sex partner visa after registering his relationship with Robert Wills in 2017. After a suggestion from his school, Mr Vilaro cancelled his student visa and was placed on the Bridging Visa E without realising the implications. The BVE is a temporary visa allowing the holder to stay in Australia lawfully while waiting on an immigration decision or finalising a matter. The holder is not allowed to re-enter Australia once leaving. Three months after his father passed away the couple were granted the partner visa. Visa applicant says he was discriminated against Mr Vilaro said he believes he was discriminated against for being in a same-sex couple. Last year was all the debate about same sex marriage and this all happened at the same time, he said. A letter addressed to Malcolm Turnbull from Mr Dutton explains that his office acknowledges Mr Vilaros difficult circumstances. Photo: Supplied/ Jean Franco Vilaro Campos A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said it does not comment on individual cases and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion or sexual preference. Same-sex relationships are recognised within the Migration Regulations for the purpose of applying for a Partner visa and are assessed against the same criteria as heterosexual relationships, the statement said. The Ministers power to intervene in migration matters is non-compellable and he is under no obligation to exercise, or to consider exercising this power. Mr Vilaro was eventually able to travel to Colombia to visit his fathers grave and last week marked one year since his passing. Its hard to believe my dad is not there anymore. I go to call him all the time, he said. Being able to say goodbye to him would have helped to have closure. Dutton claims au pair allegation based on fabricated evidence Mr Vilaros claim comes as the Home Affairs Minister was accused of intervening to ensure a favourable immigration outcome for two European au pairs . In November, 2015 a French au pair was given a tourist visa by Mr Dutton after AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, whose cousin employed the nanny, asked a member of his staff to speak to the ministers office. Since that news broke, former Australian Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg gave evidence to a Senate committee alleging Mr Duttons chief of staff Craig Maclachlan called him asking for help in June 2015. He told me that the ministers friend, who he referred to as the bosss mate in Brisbane, had encountered a problem with his prospective au pair who had been detained, Mr Quaedvlieg wrote in a letter to a Senate committee on Wednesday night. Mr Vilaro said he decided to speak out about his experience after the recent au pairs visa scandal accusing Mr Dutton of intervening. Photo: AAP Mr Dutton said Mr Quaedvliegs claims are fabricated and baseless. Workers at a camp for migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos said Friday they will go on strike to protest overcrowding, as the government conceded conditions were "near impossible". More than 8,300 people occupy the Moria camp, which has room for only 3,100, in conditions Migration Minister Dimitris Vitsas described as "very difficult, near impossible." In a statement, a staff committee demanded better police protection for both residents and personnel of the camp, among other relief. Occupants, it said, were made to endure "tragic life conditions unworthy of a European country" -- echoing similar warnings by NGOs and the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees. "The situation is fraught with dangers, whether it be the risk of epidemics, of deaths caused by inclement weather, suicides, or mutinies," the statement added. Lesbos has been a gateway to the European Union since the start of the bloc's migration crisis in 2015. At the height of the influx, some 5,000 migrants and refugees, many from war-torn Syria, landed on the island's beaches daily. With about 10,500 today, Lesbos has the highest concentration of migrants and refugees in Greece, with Moria infamous as the camp with the worst conditions. Most arrivals live for months in squalid conditions while waiting for asylum applications to be processed. Moria's workers said they would embark on work-to-rule action from Saturday, and down tools entirely next Monday. Camp management was trying to alleviate the situation by accelerating the transfer to Europe of migrants considered "vulnerable" and therefore eligible for asylum, deputy director Dimitris Vafeas told AFP. But continuing new arrivals from the nearby Turkish coast, despite an EU-Turkey pact meant to lessen the Europe-bound flow, prevents any long-term solution, he said. "From May 1 to August 30, 3,950 vulnerable people were brought to the continent, but 5,450 others arrived in Lesbos," he said, reiterating that Greece "insists on the need for a redistribution" of refugees throughout Europe. The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos is reputed to have the worst living conditions Indian media on Friday -- including some conservative outlets -- hailed a Supreme Court ruling to decriminalise gay sex whilst highlighting a "deafening" silence from Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government. Banner front page headlines such as "Love at First Right", "Rainbow Nation" and "Independence Day" greeted the verdict of the top court to strike down the heart of Section 377, a law introduced by British rulers in 1861. Many said the five justices may have opened the doors to demands for greater civil rights for long-marginalised gays and lesbians, including same-sex marriage. The conservative Hindu newspaper called the verdict "a reaffirmation of the right to love" and "a welcome depature from centuries of 'hetero-normative' thinking". The judges had "furthered the frontiers of personal freedom and liberated the idea of personal rights from the pressure of public opinion," it added in an editorial. The Hindusan Times warned that the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender community will still face condemnation from their families and colleagues. "Harassment and violence will continue to occur," it warned. "But if the long legal battle and the courage of queer people and communities are anything to go by, this fight for equal rights will not end. It will grow even stronger now that even the apex court has said there is no going back." Amid pictures of celebrating activists, Google India put out a rainbow flag on its homepage and Facebook changed its display picture to a multi-hued icon. The United Nations and rights activists around the world gave Twitter support to the Supreme Court ruling. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government has yet to make a comment on the ruling. Modi's administration had initially opposed dismantling Section 377, though in July government lawyers said they would give in to the "wisdom" of the top court. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the government should have taken a categorical stand one way or the other instead of being ambivalent, the Hindu newspaper reported the judge as saying. The Indian Express daily said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's silence on the issue was "deafening" and "deceptive". India's main opposition Congress and other small regional parties have welcomed the verdict. The BJP's ideological Hindu nationalist backer, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said it does not consider homosexuality a crime but it did not support same-sex relations. "Traditionally, Indian society does not accept such relations," it said in a statement. The Supreme Court's ruling caused jubilation among India's LGBT community The court ruled the colonial era law effectively making gay sex illegal was unconstitutional Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi faced calls to resign Saturday as his alliance with a populist cleric who won May elections crumbled over deadly unrest shaking the country's oil-rich south. The two leading groups in parliament called on Abadi to step down, after lawmakers held an emergency meeting on the public anger boiling over in the southern city of Basra. "We demand the government apologise to the people and resign immediately," said Hassan al-Aqouli, spokesman for the list of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr that won the most seats in the election. The announcement dealt a severe blow to Abadi's hopes of holding onto his post through a bloc -- described as the biggest in parliament -- unveiled just days earlier with Sadr and more than a dozen other groups. Ahmed al-Assadi, spokesman for the second-largest list in parliament, the Conquest Alliance, condemned "the government's failure to resolve the crisis in Basra", where 12 protesters were killed this week in clashes with security forces. The Conquest Alliance of pro-Iranian former paramilitary fighters was "on the same wavelength" as Sadr's Marching Towards Reform list and they would work together to form a new government, Assadi said. Abadi, whose grouping came third in the May polls, defended his record in parliament, describing the unrest as "political sabotage" and saying the crisis over public services was being exploited for political ends. His government has announced the allocation of an unspecified amount of extra funds for Basra, although demonstrators say that billions of dollars in emergency funding pledged in July has failed to materialise. - Anger over shortages - Calm appeared to have returned to the streets of Basra late Saturday. Friday evening's curfew held for the first time as soldiers and police manned checkpoints and patrolled the city. And no incidents were reported in the course of Saturday evening, leading authorities to lift the curfew. Basra had been rocked by protests since Tuesday, with demonstrators setting ablaze government buildings, the Iranian consulate and the offices of pro-Tehran militias and political parties. The anger flared after the hospitalisation of 30,000 people who had drunk polluted water, in an oil-rich region where residents have for weeks complained of water and electricity shortages, corruption among officials and unemployment. Hours before parliament met, four rockets fired by unidentified assailants struck inside the perimeter of Basra airport, security sources said. Staff at the airport, which is located near the US consulate in Basra, said flights were not affected. The attack came after a day of rage in the southern city where hundreds of protesters stormed the fortified Iranian consulate, causing no casualties but sparking condemnation. Abadi said he had instructed security forces to "act decisively against the acts of vandalism that accompanied the demonstrations". Iraq's Joint Operations Command, which includes the army and police, vowed a "severe" response with "exceptional security measures", including a ban on protests and group travel. - 'Neglect, corruption' - A spokesman for the consulate said that all diplomats and staff had been evacuated from the building before the protesters attacked, and that nobody was hurt. The wave of protests first broke out in Basra in July before spreading to other parts of the country, with demonstrators condemning corruption among Iraqi officials and demanding jobs. Since then a total of at least 27 people have been killed. "We're thirsty, we're hungry, we are sick and abandoned," protester Ali Hussein told AFP on Friday in Basra after another night of violence. Iraq has been struggling to rebuild its infrastructure and economy after decades of bloody conflicts, including an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, the US-led invasion of 2003 and the battle against the Islamic State group. In August, the oil ministry announced that crude exports for August had hit their highest monthly figure this year, with nearly 112 million barrels of oil bringing $7.7 billion to state coffers. Iraq, however, suffers from persistent corruption and many Iraqis complain that the oil wealth is unfairly distributed. "We do not want Basra to be seen as a huge barrel of oil" to be exploited, said Walid al-Ansari, who heads an association that looks after the families of people killed in the protests. "It's been 15 years since they did anything for the people," Ansari added. Saturday's talks among Iraqi politicians in Baghdad drew scorn in the southern city. "These meetings will never appease Basra residents", said Montazer al-Karkochi, coordinator of the Rally for Basra Youth. "Basra has received no money (and) no projects have been launched" since the government promised in July to spend billions of dollars on improving services, he added. Iraqi special forces patrol in a street in Basra on September 8, 2018, after Iraq's Joint Operations Command vowed a "severe" response with "exceptional security measures", including a ban on protests and group travel Map of Iraq locating Baghdad and Basra. This picture taken on September 7, 2018 shows the burning Iranian consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra which was torched by protesters during demonstrations over poor public services Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (R) is trying to hold on to his post by forming an alliance with popular Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, a former militia chief who demands greater political independence for Iraq from both Iran and the United States Lithuania on Friday urged American retail giant Walmart to stop selling T-shirts and hoodies with Soviet hammer and sickle symbols, insisting that the image insults victims of often deadly Soviet-era persecution. "We sent a letter to Walmart requesting the withdrawal of products with Soviet symbols and we are still waiting for a reaction," Lithuanian Ambassador to the US Rolandas Krisciunas told AFP. The hammer and sickle symbol is banned in Lithuania, a European Union member of 2.9 million that was the first republic to secede from the Soviet Union as it began to crumble in 1990. The Baltic state's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius tweeted: "You wouldn't buy Nazi-themed clothing, would you? "We trust Walmart's moral stance & call to withdraw products with the symbols of mass murders." Vilnius estimates that more than 50,000 Lithuanians died in camps, prisons, and during deportations in 1944-1953, while another 20,000 partisans and supporters were killed in anti-Soviet guerilla fighting. Walmart is selling red-hooded sweatshirts and T-shirts emblazoned with the yellow hammer and sickle symbol over the caption "CCCP", which means "USSR" in the Cyrillic alphabet. Hoodies described as "cool" on Walmart's website cost $29.95 (25.70 euros) while the T-shirts go for $18.00. The Soviet-inspired style has become trendy in recent years as Russian designers make their mark. Walmart did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP, but guidelines posted on its website prohibit the sale of products related to "any historical or news event" that could be considered "offensive". Politicians in neighbouring Baltic states Estonia and Latvia, where people also suffered decades of Soviet occupation, joined the call for the world's biggest retailer to pull the Soviet-themed merchandise from its shelves. Walmart is present in 28 countries, but not in the Baltic states or other eastern European countries dominated by the former Soviet Union. Lithuania, which joined both the EU and NATO in 2004, was a battleground between Nazi and Soviet troops during World War II. It was seized by Moscow in 1940 under a secret pact with Adolf Hitler, and within a decade, some 300,000 Lithuanians had been deported, mostly to Siberia, or killed in insurgent fighting. Lithuania is urging retail giant Walmart to stop selling apparel with the Soviet hammer and sickle symbol Many shops, banks and gas stations were closed Friday in a 24-hour strike in Nicaragua called by the opposition in protest at "political prisoners" and the rule of President Daniel Ortega's government. In Mercado Oriental, one of the capital Managua's main trade districts, most of the 20,000 shops and businesses were shut, while few people were out on the streets. "It's an excellent strike, this is how we are supporting those who were taken, who are being tortured, who have no business being in jail just for protesting," shopkeeper Geidy Areas, 38, told AFP. The normally busy road south from Managua to Masaya, where many shops operate, appeared more desolate than normal. Friday's strike, the first since July, was called by the opposition Civil Alliance for Justice and Democracy. More than 300 Nicaraguans have been charged with crimes for taking part in protests, including 85 who are accused of terrorism. The Alliance is demanding dialogue with Ortega's government after months of turmoil that left more than 300 people dead, according to rights groups. In Managua, most banks, gas stations, shopping malls and book shops were closed but there were more buses and public transport vehicles running than during previous strikes in June and July. In an important economic zone north of Managua, many hardware stores, shops and cafes remained open. "People have to keep struggling because they've got bank debts and need to feed their children," food vendor Johana Blandon, who works in a busy free trade zone to the east of Managua, told AFP. Government offices were operating as normal. Nicaragua's descent into chaos was triggered on April 18 when relatively small protests against now-scrapped social security reforms were met with a government crackdown, backed by armed paramilitaries. Catholic Church-brokered peace talks broke down in June after Ortega rejected a key opposition demand to step down and bring forward presidential elections. Last week, Ortega expelled the United Nations human rights mission after it published a report criticizing the "climate of fear" in the Central American country, one of the poorest in the region. The UN denounced a wide range of serious violations, including disproportionate use of force by police, which in some cases resulted in extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture. Ortega, a former guerrilla leader who has been in power for the last 11 years, denied the claims and described the UN as "an instrument of the policies of terror, lies and infamy." The United States condemned what it called the "arbitrary detention" of six prominent student members of the National Dialogue. "These students are the latest example of the thousands of citizens who are peacefully and democratically protesting government actions, only to be harassed, detained, disappeared or even killed," the State Department said in a statement, noting five of the students had since been released. "We will continue to stand by the people of Nicaragua and hold the Ortega government to account for its repression and violence." A security guard sits beside a closed shop in Managua's normally busy Mercado Oriente trade zone The Toronto International Film Festival launched on Thursday with a Netflix production -- the first time any major movie showcase has opened on a release not intended for theaters. Cannes, the world's largest film festival, issued a decree earlier this year banning movies from competition that do not have a theatrical release in France. But in an apparent rebuke, the 43rd TIFF opens with Netflix's "Outlaw King," which will be available only to subscribers of the streaming giant. "We went with the best film we could find that really fit the scale that we want for opening night," festival chief Cameron Bailey told AFP. "It's a big period epic, a really rousing story of Robert the Bruce -- a contemporary of William Wallace who audiences might remember from 'Braveheart,'" he said. Filmed on location in Scotland, "Outlaw King" reunites director David Mackenzie with his "Hell or High Water" actor Chris Pine, who plays the 14th century Scottish king. The epic story about Robert the Bruce's struggle to regain control of Scotland after England declares him an outlaw also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson -- also at the festival in "A Million Little Pieces" -- Florence Pugh and Billy Howle. Netflix pulled all its films from consideration at Cannes after the ban was announced on its non-theatrical releases. Bailey said however TIFF was "fully behind the theatrical experience." "I think people are going to be thrilled to see films in the finest possible way you can present them which is in a great big old theater, with incredible sound," he said. "But if the films come from a streaming service, that's just fine," he added. - More from Netflix - Bailey said online movie platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu were "supporting some of the best talent around these days." "And we really value not only the theatrical experience but the ability of filmmakers to make the films they want to make. So whatever is going to get those films made, we are supportive of." It is not the first time a Netflix film has screened at TIFF. Dee Rees's "Mudbound" and Angelina Jolie's "First They Killed My Father" premiered in Toronto last year, and Netflix also picked up the rights to several other films at the festival. This year TIFF will also screen Netflix's "Roma" from "Gravity" director Alfonso Cuaron, as well as Paul Greengrass's "22 July," about Norway's deadliest terror attack, and Jeremy Saulnier's thriller "Hold the Dark." All are likely to bypass movie theatres. "I cannot imagine a better place to have our world premiere," Mackenzie said in a statement. "Scotland and Canada's histories are bound together, forged in the crucible of the struggles of history, bringing this day an affinity and sensibility that I hope will translate to a profound, visceral, and riotously entertaining experience," he added. More than 300 feature and short films from 74 countries -- 31,300 minutes of film in total -- will be screened at TIFF, the biggest film festival in North America, which runs through September 16. - Hot documentaries - They include Xavier Dolan's much-anticipated English-language debut "The Death and Life of John F. Donovan," Steve McQueen's thriller "Widows," starring Viola Davis, and Claire Denis's "High Life" with Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche. Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 11/9" leads a hot documentary lineup that includes profiles of legendary music producer Quincy Jones, influential director Ingmar Bergman and soprano Maria Callas. "The Elephant Queen" follows the journey of an elephant herd, while "The Truth About Killer Robots" is described as an "eye-opening work of science non-fiction." Drake pulled out at the last minute Thursday from introducing "Monsters and Men," about a Brooklyn community rocked by the fatal police shooting of a black man. It was a blow to his fans, but also for TIFF, which was forced earlier this week to nix one of its Gala Presentations, "Galveston," because director Melanie Laurent could not make the screening, citing "work commitments." In past years, films such as "Spotlight," "Slumdog Millionaire," and "The King's Speech" went on from winning the Toronto festival's audience prize for best picture to take the top honor at the Oscars. But many of the films positioned for accolades this year -- including a remake of "A Star is Born" with Lady Gaga, Damien Chazelle's "First Man" starring Ryan Gosling as astronaut Neil Armstrong, and the western "The Sisters Brothers" starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix -- will have already premiered at the Venice or New York film festivals before they are screened in Toronto. Interior of Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall, pictured on September 5, 2018, after improvements completed for the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival What was supposed to be a dream holiday to Hawaii for many, has started in horrific fashion after passengers on-board an American Airlines flight were forced to urinate in bottles and plastic bags. When AA flight 663 took off from Phoenix on August 31, all the lavatories were reportedly in working condition but midway through the six-hour flight, something went very wrong. Cabin crew alerted the 187 passengers on-board the Boeing 757 aircraft that there had been a malfunction You could see the passengers looking at each other in disbelief. And they also locked two of the lavatories, as far as I can remember, so there was no access to those whatsoever, one passenger told Phoenix NBC. A video filmed by one passenger shows the flight attendant telling the passenger that men have been peeing in bottles. Image: Phoenix NBC There was one lady who, unfortunately she had a toddler that needed to use the restroom, and same thing. She was told she had to use a bag. Video taken on-board showed one flight attendant discreetly telling a passenger about their alternative options. What do you mean I have to pee in a bag? the woman can be heard asking in the video. Theyre overflowing. This one has like this much left, the flight attendant responded. I know, its horrible, guys are going in bottles. All the toilets were reportedly working on the flight when it took off from Phoenix. Image: Getty A spokesperson for the airline told Yahoo7 News they later discovered a nappy had been flushed down one of the toilets. We are very sorry for the trouble this caused Our customer relations team will be reaching out to all of the passengers on this flight to extend our apologies. If an American flight is in the air, and all lavatories become inoperative, the flight will divert to the nearest suitable airport in order for maintenance to rectify the situation. Due to the location of the aircraft, the flight continued to its intended destination. The spokesperson said every customer had been awarded 30,000 frequent flyer miles enough for a return trip. Pope Francis has hit out against our money-centred culture that promotes poverty and excludes humanity, in an interview with Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper published on Friday. "Whoever is excluded isn't only exploited but completely rejected," the pontiff said. "We can't ignore the fact that an economy structured like this kills because it makes money central and only obeys money," he said in what was described as his first-ever interview with a financial daily. "When people are no longer central, when making money becomes the one and only objective, then we're outside all ethics and that's how we get structures of poverty, slavery and waste," he said. Talking about unemployment in Europe, the pope decried "an economic system that is no longer able to create jobs, because it has put an idol in the middle, money." The Argentine pope has repeatedly criticised what he calls the "culture of waste" which, in the name of money, excludes the poorest, the weakest and the marginalised, while also destroying the environment. "There is still much work to do to reduce behaviour and choices that don't respect the environment and the planet," he lamented. It is imperative to promote "integral human development, reduce inequalities... and abandon consumerism," he said. The pope has repeatedly criticised the "culture of waste" which excludes the poorest, the weakest and the marginalised, while also destroying the environment Spain's Oscar Rodriguez, of the Euskadi team, stunned his peers to win the 13th stage of the Tour of Spain on Friday as compatriot Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) retained the leader's red jersey. Poland's Rafal Majka (Bora) and Belgian Dylan Teuns (BMC) completed the podium after seeing Rodriguez coolly ride away from their leading group inside the final kilometre of the climb to La Camperona. Herrada saw his lead over Britain's Sean Yates (Mitchelton) and Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) cut to 1min 42 and 1:50 respectively, with Movistar veteran Alejandro Valverde, the 2009 champion, still in fourth at a further four seconds adrift. But it was Rodriguez who left the biggest impression on the stage after a performance worthy of riders far more experienced earned him his biggest win to date, by far. In what is his first season in the professional ranks, the 23-year-old kept his composure within an earlier breakaway of 30 riders before playing poker with his rivals on the 8.8 km climb to the summit finish, where the gradient of some sections was a gruelling 20%. After Teuns and Majka had broken clear of the splintering chase group in the final kilometres, Rodriguez kept his cool before deciding to play catch-up. With one kilometre to go, Rodriguez played his ace card to perfection, leaving Majka and Teuns in his wake on his way to securing his maiden professional win. Majka was second and 19secs behind. The young Spaniard's previous best result was securing the mountains prize at the Tour of the Alps earlier this season. Herrada, meanwhile, could struggle to maintain his lead through the weekend. Having started the day with a 3:22 lead on Yates, the Spaniard will start Saturday's 14th stage with a 1:42 advantage on the Englishman. The 14th stage will prove an even tougher test than Friday's stage. Held over 171 km between Cistierna and Les Praeres, it finishes with a final climb featuring gradients of 15%. The 15th stage on Sunday is the third of three consecutive days in the mountains, a 178.2 km ride from Ribera de Arriba to Lagos de Covadonga. Lucky for some: Spaniard Oscar Rodriguez celebrates claiming his maiden professional win on the 13th stage of the Tour of Spain. Iran, Russia and Turkey were unable to overcome their differences at a Tehran summit on Friday as they held talks on an imminent offensive against the last rebel stronghold in Syria, amid warnings from the international community of a looming humanitarian disaster. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly disagreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a press conference in the Iranian capital and warned of a "bloodbath" in Idlib province, where an assault by Syrian government forces is expected any day. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who hosted the meeting, also warned against a "scorched earth" policy, but said "fighting terrorism in Idlib is an unavoidable part of the mission of restoring peace and stability to Syria." Russia and Iran are major allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs opposition fighters, including some present in Idlib, who are seeking his ouster. In front of the world's press, Erdogan criticised their joint statement for not including the word "truce", saying it would "strengthen and calm this process." Putin retorted that armed opposition groups such as the Islamic State group and al-Nusra front were not present at the talks to offer to uphold any ceasefire. "We cannot say for them... that they will stop shooting or stop using armed drones," Putin said. He also insisted Damascus "has a right and must eventually take under control all of its national territory". - 'Phased stabilisation' - The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's civil war launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention that has eclipsed Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the United Nations. Putin said they had spoken of a "phased stabilisation" in Idlib and hoped "terrorist organisations will have enough common sense to stop resistance and lay down their weapons." Iranian and Russian support has shored up the Damascus regime, allowing it to regain the upper hand in the seven-year civil war which has claimed some 350,000 lives since 2011. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control. It is home to some three million people. On Friday morning, Russian air raids pounded rebel positions in the southwest of Idlib killing five people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. Hundreds of civilians have already begun to flee Idlib ahead of what could be the last -- and bloodiest -- major battle of the devastating conflict. - 'Humanitarian tragedy' - Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels, fears the potential flood of desperate Syrians into its territory. "Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, massacre and a very big humanitarian tragedy," Erdogan said. But Russia and Iran have sworn to wipe out "terrorists" and Assad has declared his determination to retake control of the entire country. A statement released at the end of the talks on Friday was low on detail and merely reaffirmed their commitment to keep working together. The UN Security Council was also due to meet late Friday, at Washington's request, to discuss Idlib. Russia wants Turkey, which borders the province, to use its influence to rein in the dominant group HTS, led by the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, as well as rival rebels. Turkey has limited sway over the jihadists who control an estimated 60 percent of the province, but it backs other rebel groups and has 12 military "observation points" across the area. Idlib's population has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories across the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed there. Russia has said the Syrian army is preparing to solve the problem of "terrorism" in the rebel stronghold. "A total and definitive liquidation of the terrorists across all of Syria's territory is necessary," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Al-Watan, a Syrian newspaper close to the government, reported Monday the military operation could "immediately follow the summit". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R), Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) join hands during a three-way summit in Tehran on the Syrian conflict This picture taken in Kafr Ain on September 7, 2018, shows smoke rising as government forces target the city, 4 kilometers east of Khan Shaykhun in the southern countryside of Idlib province. Syrian protesters wave the flag of the opposition as they demonstrate against the regime and its ally Russia, in the rebel-held city of Idlib on September 7, 2018.Damascus has every right to take back all its territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a summit on September 7 expected to decide the fate of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib. The legitimate Syrian government has a right and must eventually take under control all of its national territory," Putin told Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the summit. Territorial control in Idlib province, Syria, with data on the risk of a humanitarian crisis The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday slammed its Istanbul-based rival for sending representatives to Ukraine and vowed to retaliate as the two churches are locked in negotiations over Ukraine's religious future. The jab comes a week after Russia's Patriarch Kirill met with Bartholomew I of the Constantinople Church, who is expected to rule in the coming months on a Ukrainian appeal to cut spiritual ties with Moscow. Patriarch Kirill, who has strong connections to the Kremlin and is seen as an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is determined to prevent this from happening. Writing on Russia's popular Telegram app, the Russian church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda called this "nothing more than an unprecedented brutal invasion of the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchy". "Such actions cannot remain unanswered," Legoyda said. He added that Constantinople did not inform Moscow prior to the decision. The Orthodox church in Ukraine is split between a branch whose clerics pledge loyalty to Moscow and one that is overseen by the unrecognised Kiev-based Patriarch Filaret. Ukraine's Moscow loyal church joined Legoyda's sharp criticism and put the blame directly on Bartholomew. "The responsibility for possible negative consequences of this step lies with the Constantinople patriarchy," it said in a statement published on its website. Earlier the Constantinople Church said it had sent two bishops "in preparation to gift the autocephaly (the right to form a church) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine." Ukraine's appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew comes against the backdrop of an ongoing, four-year conflict between Kiev and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine that made many Ukrainians turn away from the Moscow church. Kiev hailed last week's summit between Bartholomew and Kirill as a success, with the country's foreign minister calling the news from Turkey as "historic". Were Moscow to lose control of the Ukrainian church, it would be seen as a blow to the prestige of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian spiritual influence in general. Bartholomew I, known as Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, is regarded as the "first among equals" of the world's estimated 300 million Orthodox Christian believers. His term in office has been marked by rocky relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which usually gives short shrift to the idea he is the spiritual leader of Orthodox believers. Bartholomew I of the Constantinople Church met with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Istanbul last week A selfless 10-year-old boy who took it upon himself to raise much-needed funds for farmers affected by the drought has exceeded all expectations after surpassing the $1million mark. Jack Berne, a grade four student at St John the Baptist Catholic School in Freshwater, Sydney, was the instigator of a fiver for a farmer at the start of August. He was inspired to help out after learning about the struggles of those on the land in class. Jack Berne rallied Australian school kids and workers in August and they duly obliged. Source: Supplied I heard that there are kids that are skipping school to help out on their farms. Kids that are our age! Jack wrote in a letter to media outlets as he began his fundraising with classmates. He called on students and workers to unite on August 13 by dressing as farmers while donating $5 to the cause. Setting himself the target of $20,000, Jack has since blown that figure out the water and has reached a landmark seven-figure sum. Jack decided the best way to raise funds was a dress up day across the nation where everyone involved donated $5. Source: Sunrise Farmers will now benefit from Jacks fundraising in the shape of hay bales, counseling and care packages.. Source: Getty I feel really good, its so amazing, Jack told Sunrise on Friday. Jack now wants to split the funds between two charities Drought Angels and Rural Aid. With the funds the charities will be able to give struggling farmers care packages, hay bales and access to counsellors. Jacks proud mother, Prue, labelled her son a champ of a kid and labelled the response from schools right across Australia as overwhelming. Its been amazing, Ms Berne said. While Jack is among those raising cash for the farmers, others are doing what they can to help out. Notably one woman in New South Wales has sent over 400 knitted jumpers to help farmers keep their lambs warm during the drought. An ingredient in a popular pain killer could increase the risk of suffering a heart attack, new research has found. A study published in the British Medical Journal has examined the cardiovascular risk of taking diclofenac which is used in anti-inflammatory medications including Voltaren. The Danish nationwide study examined 6.3 million patients over the age of 18 on the Danish National Patient Registry between January 1996 until December 2016. More than 1.3 million of that sample took diclofenac after visiting a doctor, 3.8 million took ibuprofen. Others used paracetamol and naproxen, while 1.3 million took nothing after visiting their healthcare practitioner. The study monitored what cardiovascular events patients reported within 30 days of initiating their script. Patients in Denmark were excluded from the study if they had a previous history of heart, kidney or liver diseases, or had dementia or alcoholism related illnesses. The study, undertaken by Dr Morten Schmidt at Aarhus University in Denmark, found patients who took diclofenac had 50 per cent more likelihood of major adverse cardiovascular events within 30 days than those that took nothing; a 20 per cent more likelihood than patients taking ibuprofen or paracetamol; and 30 per cent more than those taking naproxen. A study in the British Medical Journal has examined cardiovascular risk of diclofenac, the key ingredient of anti-inflammatories including Voltaren. Source: 7 News Diclofenac should not be available over counter, study concludes The study concluded: Diclofenac poses a cardiovascular health risk compared with non-use, paracetamol use, and use of other traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. In concluding, Dr Schmidt wrote, treatment of pain and inflammation with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may be worthwhile for some patients, and diclofenac should not be available over the counter and should come with a warning label. Considering its cardiovascular and gastrointestinal risks, however, there is little justification to initiate diclofenac treatment before other traditional NSAIDs, he wrote. Story continues In Australia, some diclofenac anti-inflammatory products including Voltaren Rapid 25 do not require a prescription but come with a warning only be taken for a few days. Australian review of diclofenac In 2014, the Therapeutic Goods Administration did a full safety review of diclofenac in Australia. It found there was a need to raise awareness about cardiovascular issues associated with NSAIDs among medical professionals and consumers. The report also recommended consumers check labels and read instructions before taking diclofenac. A consumer healthcare spokeswoman from GlaxoSmithKline, which engineers Voltaren, told Yahoo7 in a statement diclofenac is generally recogonised as well-tolerated and effective when used via the labelling instructions. These medicines have a well-established safety profile and are approved as being an effective option for the short-term treatment of pain, she said. In fact, another recent study in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics that examined NSAID use found that, there is little cardiovascular risk when over-the-counter formulations of these agents are used as directed in their labels. The far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) on Friday said their leader Jimmie Akesson has received a letter with a death threat as the party is on course to win record support in Sunday's legislative election. "We hope that this threat is not real," party spokesman Oskar Cavalli-Bjorkman told AFP, adding they're awaiting the Swedish security and intelligence service Sapo's assessment. A copy of the threat letter, with the Islamic State group's flag at the top, was published by Swedish media. "We will behead you if you do not withdraw from the election by the end of this week," the letter reads, adding a similar threat against Akesson's four-year-old son. Sapo confirmed that it has launched an investigation into the incident. Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson has received a death threat according to the party The UN peace envoy for Syria on Friday proposed a plan for Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria's Idlib province to pull back from cities and other civilian-populated areas to avert a bloodbath in the rebel-held province. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster if Syrian forces, backed by Russia and Iran, launch an all-out attack in Idlib, the last major rebel bastion. Addressing the Security Council, Staffan de Mistura also called for evacuation corridors to be opened for civilians to voluntarily leave the war zone, under UN monitoring. The council was meeting as Turkey clashed with Iran and Russia at a summit in Tehran on how to address the crisis in Idlib, an enclave in northwest Syria where three million people live. De Mistura proposed that a deadline be set for all fighters -- in particular the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front -- to retreat from populated areas and that no military attacks would be launched during the pullback. "This would apply in particular for Al-Nusra, who should be notified by the guarantors, in particular Turkey, which still has the capacity to send messages," he said. A Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism, saying it was unclear where the fighters would go and whether Syria could be persuaded to halt military action. "There are challenges," he said. - Legitimate target - Russia told the council meeting that some 40 to 45 armed groups with up to 50,000 people were operating in Idlib. About 16,000 are fighting in the ranks of Al-Nusra and 11,300 others are members of hardline groups, said Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. Syrian civilians are "worn out by extremist tyranny" in Idlib, said Nebenzia, adding that armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda remain "a legitimate target for liquidation." Britain recalled that targeting civilians amounts to war crimes and warned that Syrian commanders and military units loyal to President Bashar al-Assad will be held accountable for any violations in Idlib. "There are more babies in Idlib than there are terrorists," said British Ambassador Karen Pierce. "I think this should give those engaged in military action pause for thought." US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned: "If Assad, Russia, and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire." "Syria is once again at the edge of an abyss," said French Ambassador Francois Delattre. De Mistura is to hold talks in Geneva next week with Russia, Iran and Turkey in Geneva, the three countries of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's war that has largely eclipsed the UN-led peace process. More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria's seven-year conflict. Smoke rises from buildings that were hit by reported Russian air strikes in the rebel-held Syrian town of Muhambal, southwest of the city of Idlib Seven months ago, the Auburn Police Department faced a dangerous situation. Now, U.S. Rep. John Katko is hoping to give them a mechanism to help if similar incidents occur. Katko, R-Camillus, announced on Friday that he has introduced the Protecting our Communities and Right Act, a bill that would encourage states to adopt so-called "red flag" laws. Red flag laws allow family members or police to seek a court order to temporarily remove guns from a person if they are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others. Under Katko's legislation, states would be given priority for federal Community Oriented Policing Services grants if they adopt red flag laws with certain provisions, such as ensuring due process rights for individuals who may be a threat to others and a clear and convincing evidence standard for removing guns from the individual. A state's red flags laws also must limit ex-parte orders to purchasing or receiving firearms, according to Katko's office, and there must be a clear expiration date of no more than one year after a judge issues an order removing guns from an individual. The state must also establish a way to "expeditiously return" guns to the owner once the order expires or is terminated. Katko first revealed his plans for a red flag bill during a telephone town hall meeting over the summer. There is bipartisan support for the legislation. The early cosponsors include U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat who also teamed with Katko to introduce a bill earlier this year that would establish a federal commission to examine mass shootings. Other cosponsors include U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, and Republican U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia. "With gun violence continuing to plague our nation, our constituents have demanded action, and rightfully so," Katko said in a statement. While Katko was motivated to explore a red flag proposal after mass shootings, most notably the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, he also wanted to take action following an incident that occurred in Auburn earlier this year. In February, a suicidal subject was reported after they called the Department of Veterans Affairs' crisis hotline and threatened to harm themselves, the public and police if they responded. The Auburn Police Department's emergency response and hostage negotiation teams responded to the residence and attempted to contact the individual. After more than two hours, they were able to communicate with the subject by phone. The individual, whose name was withheld, was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation and treatment, police said at the time. Katko has said in past public statements that Auburn Police Chief Shawn Butler contacted him after the incident. Guns were found in the home, but there was no mechanism in place for the police to have the weapons removed from the individual's possession. In a statement Friday, Butler praised Katko's proposal. "By sponsoring and hopefully passing this common sense legislation, it will give law enforcement another tool to hopefully prevent another senseless tragedy from occurring by giving police an avenue to petition the court for the removal of firearms from those exhibiting 'red flag' warning signs of potentially suicidal or other violent behavior associated with behavioral health issues," he said. Butler added, "Also, understanding that due process is a crucial component to this legislation ensures that the highest standards of proof are met prior to the removal of any such firearms possessed." States, including New York, have either adopted or considered red flag laws. Gov. Andrew Cuomo released his proposal this year to use extreme risk protection orders to temporarily confiscate guns from those who pose a threat to themselves or others. Katko's bill wouldn't establish a federal red flag law, but instead provide financial incentives to states that adopt such laws so long as they follow the provisions outlined in the proposal. "The bipartisan measure I've introduced today prioritizes the safety of our communities by giving local law enforcement the tools that they need to protect individuals who may be a danger to themselves or others, while ensuring constitutional due process rights are afforded," Katko said. U.S. Rep. John Katko and Democratic challenger Dana Balter agree there should be debates in the 24th Congressional District race. But that appears to be the only agreement as the campaigns continue to negotiate a debate schedule. Katko, R-Camillus, and his campaign team proposed a debate schedule that would include four "joint appearances" during the final full week before Election Day. According to a copy of the proposal provided to The Citizen, the schedule would consist of three televised debates hosted by CNYCentral, NewsChannel 9 and Spectrum News. The other proposed event would be a joint editorial board meeting with the Post-Standard. Balter, D-Syracuse, countered with a proposal to hold seven debates over a six-week period, according to a document supplied by her campaign. The debates would include the four proposed by Katko's campaign, a WCNY debate and two radio debates. One of the radio debates would feature a live audience at the Southwest Community Center in Syracuse. In addition to the debate proposal, Balter pitched a series of joint town hall meetings one in each of the district's four counties. Joe Farrell, Balter's campaign manager, said they were "willing to do whatever was necessary" to make the town hall meetings work for Katko's team. The proposal provided to The Citizen indicates that Balter's campaign wanted to hold the town hall meetings during weeks when the House of Representatives wasn't in session. However, Katko's campaign wasn't interested in participating in the town hall meetings and Farrell said they rejected Balter's debate proposal. Jeff Bishop, Katko's campaign manager, is standing by their debate plan. "Debates are a critical part of every congressional race and it is important to show voters in central New York the differences between Congressman Katko and his opponent," Bishop said in a statement Friday. "These four debates, accessible to constituents in all four counties of NY24, will clearly illustrate Congressman Katko's formidable record of being an independent voice in Congress and achieving results for our community." The debate schedule proposed by Katko's team is similar to the lineup for the 2016 campaign. In that race between Katko and Democratic challenger Colleen Deacon, there were five debates and joint appearances. There were televised debates on CNY Central, NewsChannel 9 and Spectrum News, a joint editorial board meeting with the Post-Standard and WRVO also hosted a debate on "The Campbell Conversations" program. But Farrell said Balter's campaign has concerns with the debate proposal for this year's campaign. They took issue with Katko's proposal to hold the debates during the last week before the election instead of spreading them out over a long period of time. Balter's campaign also thought there should be an audience for at least some of the debates. Katko's campaign agreed to open up at least one debate to an audience a televised debate hosted by Spectrum News. It's unclear whether it would be a town hall-style format where the audience members could ask questions. There was another problem for Balter's team. In the debate proposal provided by Katko's campaign, one of the provisions would preclude the campaigns from "agreeing to participate in any other joint appearance not listed above." Under those terms, Balter and Katko wouldn't make any other joint appearances on television or otherwise. For Balter, the ongoing stalemate raises questions about whether Katko wants debates, despite his campaign's public statements. "It seems that he's not really interested in engaging in the kind of public conversations that I think the voters are entitled to have," she said. "I think that by insisting that all the debates come in the last six days of the election, that is not allowing the voters enough time to really assess the differences between us and make up their minds." One potential debate that wasn't included in either candidate's proposal was the televised candidates forum hosted by Cayuga Community College and cosponsored by The Citizen. The college hasn't hosted a congressional debate since 2012, when then-U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, a Republican, and Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum participated in the discussion. The Democratic challenger at the time, Dan Maffei, declined the invitation. This week, Balter accepted an invitation to participate in an Oct. 16 debate at the college. But Katko declined the invitation. His campaign said he wasn't available that day. It's possible a debate could be held another day. Both campaigns have expressed interest in other dates, but nothing has been finalized. Katko is seeking a third term representing the 24th district, which is comprised of Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties, plus the western portion of Oswego County. Balter is a first-time candidate for elective office. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. 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 5 The Jordan-Elbridge Central School District will put forward a multimillion-dollar, security-focused capital project to voters next month. The proposed $3.8 million project was presented at a public hearing Sept. 5. District Superintendent Jim Froio said the project won't impact taxes, as the district will utilize $1 million in capital reserve funds for the project and the district's estimated building aid from the state is around 85 percent. The project involves updated secure entrances for each school building, the reconfiguration of each building's main office, a new PA system for each building and lighting upgrades. The initiative was inspired by a safety audit conducted in January by school security company Armoured One of Liverpool. Froio said the company made around 40 safety recommendations for each building. The recommended changes the district hopes to enact include adjusting each school to make visitors unable to reach students without going through the main office, with push button access control doors. The electronic main doors of each building would have a buzzer and a high-definition camera nearby, Froio said, so someone could determine if the visitor is allowed to enter. That person would enter a vestibule with another electronic door and camera before reaching the main office, which would include conference rooms and an office for a student resource officer, as the district has three officers as of last school year. Teachers will also be able to start a school lockdown if necessary, as they will be given a code on an app that would begin a lockdown. Froio said the district originally intended to save those reserve funds to replace the district's stadium turf in 15 years. It was later determined, though, that when considering "continued violence against schools," throughout the country, the money should be spent on security. He said he believes a lack of state aid for security projects means schools and communities must address school security themselves. "I think each community has to put school safety into its own hands, and I think (the topic) has become a bit political in Albany and Washington and if you want something to come down the pipe from either one of those avenues you're going to be waiting a long time," Froio said. The proposed project would also involve non-security issues, such as including a backup generator in Elbridge Elementary School, painting the middle school's gym walls and refinishing the gym's wooden floor. If voters approve the project in October, the district estimates it would submit the initiative to the state education department by February 2019, with estimated state approval that December and an eye to start construction May 2020. Froio said he is afraid the schools could be vulnerable while waiting around two years from now for the potential project to start. He plans to lobby within Albany to extradite the process for reviewing and approving school security projects. "It's a project that's designed to upgrade security for students and staff, and I don't want to have to sit around waiting for (state) approval for a year." The district finished a $9 million capital project last year that involved renovations to the high school stadium, new windows and bleachers for the elementary school and new roofs for the middle school and high school. Froio said he isn't worried about the community experiencing capital project burnout due to how long each project takes. That capital project which finished under budget by $1 million was approved in November 2016. Some of the planned security measures will be kept under wraps to avoid giving too much information to potential criminals. Froio said that while asking the community to approve undisclosed safety measures is a "leap of faith," he said taxpayers supported the district's other recent security efforts, such as adding more school resource officers last year. "I think when it comes to the safety of our kids and community, people don't want to cut corners," he said. "I don't either." Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 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. MISS: To drivers who fail to demonstrate caution around schools and buses. New York state announced this week that police would be increasing patrols to coincide with the opening of schools, with troopers looking for drivers passing stopped school buses, speeding in school zones or otherwise putting students at risk. We're all for stepped-up enforcement, because people need to learn that slowing down in school zones and stopping for buses are not an inconvenience, the rules are in place to save the lives of children. The state said that a one-day enforcement in April resulted in 850 drivers being ticketed for passing stopped school buses displaying a stop sign and flashing lights. We believe that one of those incidents is too many, so maybe a ticket and a fine will make careless drivers think twice about safety. HIT: To assistance in navigating "senior moments." The Cayuga County Office for the Aging is hosting its third Senior Moments Resource Fair next week to offer a wide variety of topics important to senior citizens and their caregivers. It will be a perfect opportunity to learn more about memory care, coping with eyesight and hearing loss, long-term care planning and much more. There will also be a public hearing giving people the chance to tell the Office for the Aging what they believe to be the most pressing needs in the community. The fair will run from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14 at Fingerlakes Mall in Aurelius. For more information, call (315) 253-1226. The Citizen editorial board includes publisher Rob Forcey, executive editor Jeremy Boyer and managing editor Mike Dowd. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 COLUMBUS, OHIOStormy Daniels was arrested during a performance at a strip club in Columbus, Ohio, on July 11 for supposedly violating a law that prohibited nude performers from touching audience members. But the charges were dismissed less than 24 hours after Daniels arrest, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, accused police of a setup and charged that they were politically motivated in their bust of the AVN Hall of Famer. Now, almost two months later, the Columbus Police Department has appeared to acknowledge that there may have been substance to Avenattis allegation by temporarily shutting down the departments vice unitthe unit responsible for the Daniels arreston a temporary basis while police authorities conduct a comprehensive review of the vice cops activities, according to USA Today. Two days after the arrest, Avenatti uncovered and posted on his Twitter account several posts by Columbus Vice Detective Steve Rosser that showed the vice cop to be a Donald Trump supporter. Daniels, of course, has filed two high-profile lawsuits against Trump, one seeking to be released from a hush agreement she signed over a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, and the other for defamation over dismissive comments made by Trump calling Daniels claim to have been physically threatened a con job. About two weeks after Avenatti revealed Rossers social media posts, a local news site, The Fayette Advocate, uncovered emails by an officer involved in the Daniels arrest. The emails appeared to show police celebrating the Daniels arrest. I got the elements we arrested Stormy this morning, she is in jail, Columbus vice cop Shana Keckley wrote in one of the emails. In another email Keckley appeared excited that the arrest of Daniels was all over CNN, and she told another cop, Youre Welcome!!!!! Thank me in person later. There are 20 officers in the Columbus vice squad. In addition to the Daniels arrest, the temporary shutdown and review of the unit was prompted by an August police shooting in which a vice officer fatally wounded a woman during a prostitution sting operation, according to the citys National Public Radio station, WCBE. Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs said that she is aiming to uncover bad cops in the vice unit, according to Cincinnati.com. "We do not tolerate bad cops here," the chief said. Photo by Michael Snipes / Wikimedia Commons AMSTERDAM, The NetherlandsStella Agapiou wanted new challenges after working for years at a mainstream company doing display advertising for renowned brands such as Coca-Cola and Volkswagen. A native of Cyprus who was living in London, Agapiou landed a position as Media Buyer Coordinator for LiveJasmin, one of the largest live webcam sites in the world. Now shes based in Luxembourgand shes happier. I think its better and its more fun, Agapiou told AVN Friday on the first full day of Webmaster Access 2018. I feel like the people are more open and nicer compared to the mainstream. Its an industry that makes everyone feel welcome. It feels like it was the right choice. Stationed at the AWE booth at the Doubletree by Hilton Central Station, Agapiou chatted with attendees as the minutes counted down to the annual Meet Market, one of the centerpieces of the four-day conference, presented by AgeID. AWE, also known as AdultWebmasterEmpire, is the official partner and exclusive affiliate program of LiveJasmin. AWEmpire is mainly for every affiliate who is willing to run CPA, CPL and white-label, Agapiou noted. Agapiou said her team also journeyed to the 14th annual conference to reconnect with their existing partners and introduce DoublePimp as their Agency of Record. In May, DoublePimp signed on to orchestrate all of LiveJasmins media buying in an effort to increase companies advertising ROI. So thats the main target, Agapiou continued. To bring more people on board and make our existing partners feel safe that this relationship is going to last and its just going to get stronger. Several seasoned professionals traveled from abroad to attend the adult industrys longest running webmaster show that attracts influencers from every sector of the multi-billion-dollar business of sex. The leader of the notorious VNA Army, Vicky Vette, made the trip to Webmaster Access for the first time in her AVN Hall of Fame career. Im just here to meet new people, said Vette, who oversees a network of more than two dozen highly trafficked solo girl sites. Weve never done any of the European shows before. Its sort of weird. Everybody knows us, but we dont know everybody Vette revealed VNA will soon be launching sites for Kendra James, Maxine X and Samantha Grace. I still believe in solo girl sites, Vette said. Speaking of first-timers, Texas Patti, the excitable star from Munster, Germany, turned up at the event wearing one of her signature colorsredalong with her business partner Patrick Mirror Man. Patti, who is also a producer that splits time between the U.S. and Deutschland, said she was excited about the October 9th DVD release of Texas Patti's Fucked in Hollywood from Sascha Kochs label AltErotic. We will have the DVD just in time for Venus [in Berlin], Patti told AVN, noting they also were in talks to have broadcast distribution through Germanys Beate Uhseshe has long been the face of the TV division. The parade of rookie WMA attendees spanned the spectrum of adult tech entrepreneurs. One U.S.-based executive from TEXEL made the trip to explore the possibilities of his teleporting service platform. Leveraging unique technological capabilities, TEXEL enables content providers delivery of VR-based immersive experiences with 360-degree video sharpness the company claims has never been seen before. The result is end viewers are teleported into the center of action with a virtual seat. Among the proven applications are live sporting events and concerts. William De Felice, the Rome, Italy-based sales director for Ericsson UDN network, said his first laps around WMA were fruitful. We do the streaming part of the business of anyone who has content and wants to reach end users, De Felice told AVN. His London-based sales colleague, Mark Kemp, said Ericsson is the new global video and streaming media platform for the next generation of content delivery. Were just rolling it out now, Kemp said. We have offices also in Spain and Germany and the head office is in the United Statesbased in Boston. As the Meet Market entered its second hour in the Eastwood Restaurant on the ground level of the 11-story hotel, Paxums Ruth Blair told AVN her company has added more than 20,000 customers in 2018 alone. Blair leads the one-year-old Paxum Bank marketing team from her home in Vancouver. Paxum Bank is not new but its still fresh, said Blair, noting Paxum also has offices in Montreal and Romania, along with a team in the camming hotbed of Colombia. Weve got quite a few clients and theyre using the bank because it allows them to receive and send third-party wires. They can just go on their Paxum Bank account and send everything from there. So it makes it a lot more streamlined, like a one-stop shop. And, were adult friendly. Thats a really big thing. David Beinicke, the sales manager for VXCash, the affiliate program for German live-cam juggernaut Visit-X, said his program is closing in on the 20-year milestone. Its really huge in the German-speaking marketGermany, Austria and Switzerland, said Beinicke, who is based near Frankfurt, Germany, and has worked for VXCash for the past six months. We also launched a new product this year, FlirtLife, for mainstream dating. We want to get deeper into the dating market also, and market it to cams. Dave, affiliate manager from XLoveCamwhose North American sister site is SexLoveCam traveled to The Netherlands capital from his residence in Curacao for his third WMA experience. Were just looking for affiliates here, Dave told AVN as he scouted the show floor. We have momentum behind us. Weve won three awards and thats bringing in a surge of affiliates. Were working extremely hard to generate new business opportunities for affiliates and models. Weve also started testing CPL with some affiliates. No matter where someone turned Friday, the diversity of the 2018 show was evident. Lukas Taylor, a native of Sydney, Australia, who recently moved to L.A., came straight from the airport to the Meet Market, where he was discussing the benefits of DMCA Force and DigiRegs, evangelizing for the regulation and protection of adult content. We offer video finger-printing service which is a lot more advanced than name search, Taylor told AVN. Video finger printing is an audio-visual recognition. So even if a watermark is removed we can detect the content. Taylor, whose career covers investment banking, corporate software and adult, will join Sundays anticipated Germany-Eastern Europe panel at 12 noon. He will be accompanied on the stage by German executive Christian Kreul, an independent consultant with 15 years experience in various industry verticals who helps companies that are interested in entering the European market. Kreuls Rolodex includes everything from billers to age verification providers to live cam insiders. I am analyzing cam sites, giving them ideas and suggestions how to improve it, said Kreul, who lives five minutes from both Switzerland and France by car in the southern-most part of Germany. Kreul is also well versed in the logistics of cryptocurrency ICOs and will be speaking on Saturdays blockchain technology seminar at 11 a.m. Meanwhile, Mindgeek Affiliate Sales Manager Adam Levy will make a special presentation at 4 p.m. Saturday on The Rise of Adult Gaming. Levy plans to share the success story of his companys groundbreaking gaming verticalNutaku, a Canadian hentai game portal that receives more than 25 million North American customers a month and close to 100 million visits per day. That makes it the most visited English-language adult gaming website in existence. Norman Hauwert, a popular Amsterdam local who is global business development manager for Reflected Networks, will lead the all-star live-cams panel at 1 p.m. Sunday. Hauwert said Reflecteds sloganemblazoned on his stylish "Beefcake" and "Geek" t-shirt giveaways this weekendis whatever it takes. We basically take care of the whole infrastructure problem for customers, Hauwert told AVN. Of course we have different products. We have the servers. We have the CDN network. We have storage, but its more the support that you get that gives the extra value. Despite almost two decades of business for the Boston-based firm, Reflected Networks did not used to attend industry conferences, according to Hauwert. They got their customers by word of mouth, he said. Webmaster Access attendees went in mass to the "Social Friday XXL" kickoff party at the Butcher Social Club as the weekend started, teaming with the Affiliate Business Club for what was beginning to look like an all-nighter for some at the iconic ADAM Tower. For additional WMA 2018 coverage, click here. For photos from the show, visit WMA on Facebook. Nurse midwives fear crackdown State investigators found significant problems during their investigation of a Cary birthing center where three infants died over the course of six months. Baby+Co , which runs a handful of natural birthing centers across the country, agreed to a voluntary review of their clinical standards and operations. The Division of Health Services Regulation at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a months-long investigation into the Cary location.DHSR released its findings on Monday, June 12, but because DHSR doesn't have the authority to regulate birthing centers, it can't impose fines or penalties on the company. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid services, which does have regulatory authority, is still reviewing Baby+CO's on-site laboratory.The DHSR report highlights significant concerns with "medical oversight and supervision of nurse midwives, criteria used to admit and discharge patients, after-hours staffing, lab operations, documentation, and staff orientation and training."While investigators looked into each case where an infant died soon after birth, the report doesn't conclude why the infant died. But the report does document several concerns including how hospital transfers were conducted during the emergencies leading up to the infants' deaths.The report claims Baby+Co doesn't have a consistent and formal orientation process to validate the skills of its certified nurse midwives. In one documented instance, a CNM left shortly after delivering a baby to attend to another delivery in a different room, but was unaware that the newborn was in distress.The mother and the newborn were left with another midwife, but state investigators voiced concern on whether the CNM handling all the deliveries is able to provide individualised attention to each patient.Baby+Co dismissed much of the report as a product of reviewers taking a crash course on the birth center model and obstetrical care in general.Baby+Co administration wrote in a statement Baby+Co sent a 13-page letter to N.C. DHHSAfter each infant death, Baby+Co conducted two separate case reviews along with partners WakeMed and EMS, and with its accrediting agency. Among the thousands of babies delivered at the Cary center, four have died since 2017 when it opened, three in a span of six months. After the most recent infant death in March, the center temporarily closed and sent all clients to WakeMed.The Cary location reopened in May after an internal investigation.Kate Condliffe, the chief operating officer at Baby+Co, said in the letter to N.C. DHHS that if their findings were left unaddressed or uncorrected, then they would mislead the public about the safety of Baby+Co.Condliffe said.While DHHS doesn't have regulatory authority over natural birthing centers, the N.C. Medical Board, the N.C. Board of Nursing, the Midwifery Joint Committee, and the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers all oversee the center and its staff.Even so, lawmakers have called for increased regulations over natural birth centers. Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, chairman of the House Health and Health Care Reform committees called for regulating the centers and requested the initial investigation into Baby+Co.Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell introduced Senate Bill 798 , which would establish licensing requirements for birthing centers to promote public health, safety, and welfare. The bill is in the Senate Rules committee.Neither Hise nor Dollar responded in time for publication.Birthing center advocates have cautioned lawmakers from overreacting to the recent tragedies at the Cary center and introducing onerous regulations.said Suzanne Wertman, president of the N.C. Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives told Carolina Journal My wife is angry at the government. No surprise there, I suppose - we do have a great deal in common.To be more specific, my wife is angry with the city of Charleston, South Carolina. For the better part of a year, she'd be planning a vacation to the historic city with her mother and sister. They'd lined up a beautiful and reasonably affordable place to stay - a private home offered online for rent.But earlier this year, Charleston adopted new rules governing short-term rentals. They are strict. The property owner has to file site plans, get costly inspections, live in the house full-time, and in fact can't vacate it during the rental period.Those offering Charleston homes for rent had hoped to get the rules loosened, or that the city wouldn't really enforce them. Their hopes have since been dashed. My wife's rental agreement, arranged months ago, went "poof."While some neighbors may complain here and there about parked cars or unfamiliar boarders, the true driving force behind municipal restrictions on short-term rentals, "granny flats," and other commercial uses of private homes is that existing providers - think hotels, bed-and-breakfast owners, apartment managers - resent the competition. It shouldn't shock you to learn that once Charleston restricted short-term rentals, prices for hotel rooms shot up.Protection of politically favored business is a familiar story. Every kind of government is implicated. In Washington, the protectionist lobby is currently experiencing a bit of a resurgence, thanks to a populist alliance of the labor-union Left and the Trump administration. At the state level, industries and professions routinely lobby for occupational licensing , which has the effect both of excluding competitors from the market and of creating demand for training services that just happen to be provided by very businesses lobbying for licensure.North Carolina is, unfortunately, worse than the average state when it comes to occupational licensing. We have dozens of regulatory boards plus relatively onerous training periods and licensure fees. We license twice as many occupations as Virginia does and three times as many as South Carolina. Of course, our consumers aren't two or three times safer. For most occupations, the only discernible effect of licensure is to raise prices.Across local governments, the protectionist impulse isn't confined to housing. The taxi industry resents and tries to squelch Uber and Lyft. Restaurants resent and try to quash food trucks.As infuriating as protectionism is, there are reasons for optimism. When it comes to services such as Uber and Airbnb, for example, I think incumbent industries and their political protectors will ultimately fail. The logic of the situation will prove inescapable. For decades, owners of homes and cars had valuable capital sitting vacant and unused. There were no practical means of discovering potential customers, coordinating schedules, or facilitating simple payment. Then the Internet showed up. I don't think the public will accept the idea of turning back this clock.Victims of protectionism also have legal remedies. In the coastal community of Carolina Beach, the government had prohibited food trucks unless they were owned and operated by brick-and-mortar restaurants. On August 21, the Institute for Justice announced a lawsuit on behalf of food-truck owners . It challenged the ordinance as a violation of North Carolina's constitution, including its anti-monopoly provision. A week later, Carolina Beach retracted its ordinance Incumbent businesses do have some legitimate grievances. Compelling hotels to jump through various governmental hoops and collect high occupancy taxes does hamper their ability to compete with short-term rentals. The answer, it seems to me, is to reduce significantly those regulatory and tax burdens before attempting to broaden their application.Suppressing competition only works for a time. Protectionism is a losing proposition in the long run. Adam Smith made this observation about international trade centuries ago, and he's still right. As for my wife, she remains angry at Charleston. But she's still excited about her coming trip with her mother and sister to an historic Southern city.They're going to Beaufort, instead. It's no surprise that every living N.C. governor agrees that the current governor and his successors should maintain their level of power within state government. That message emerged clearly from the five former governors' recent high-profile gathering at the State Capitol.What's more surprising about the first-of-its-kind meeting: Not one of the governors articulated a strong argument supporting their common cause.With all of their political savvy, collected wisdom, and decades of experience, they offered voters little reason to choose gubernatorial power over legislative power in a political tug of war.Make no mistake about it. The two proposed constitutional amendments that prompted the historic gubernatorial conclave address the balance of power in N.C. government. Lawmakers want to ask voters to reset that balance. Governors want voters to say no, if the amendments end up on the ballot at all.It's important to distinguish the merits of gubernatorial versus legislative power from the debate over potentially misleading ballot language. A three-judge panel agreed with the governors and other critics that the original versions of the proposed amendments did not present voters an accurate picture of what the amendments would do.But even if each amendment is presented as clearly as possible, as lawmakers argue they have done with a recent rewrite, the governors would continue to raise objections.One amendment would change the way the state fills vacant jobs among N.C. judges. At this point, the governor makes those choices. State law requires him to give "due consideration" to recommendations from lawyers in an affected judicial district. But the choice remains his.The amendment would boost the public's role in the process. Any person could recommend a new judge. Then a new merit commission would sift through those recommendations and determine which ones meet the job's qualifications. Those names would head to the General Assembly.Lawmakers would assume the critical role in the judicial appointment process. They would narrow the field of qualified candidates to two or more options to submit to the governor. The governor would appoint one of those nominees or punt the decision to the legislature.This change clearly shifts the bulk of the judicial appointment power from the governor to the General Assembly. But voters still retain the ultimate power. They would vote for or against the appointee in a future election. Voters also would preserve their right to punish an elected official for making poor judicial appointments. Since lawmakers are elected every two years, as compared to every four years for the governor, one could argue that the proposed change in filling vacancies would enhance the people's "power to punish."The second amendment would restructure the state board overseeing N.C. elections and ethics enforcement. Under current law, the governor appoints all nine board members. With the amendment, the board would shrink from nine to eight members. Republican and Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate would appoint all eight. Neither major party would hold a numerical advantage.Once again, this represents a clear shift of power from the executive branch to the legislative branch. But the amendment says nothing about the role or responsibilities of the elections and ethics board. Its duties would remain intact. (It's worth noting that the latest version of this amendment drops a provision that governors found particularly objectionable. The amendment no longer asks voters to give lawmakers power over all appointments to state boards and commissions created by law.)One cannot blame Gov. Roy Cooper or any of his predecessors for opposing both amendments. Governors like appointing judges. They also would prefer to have some say in membership of the state elections board.But the governors' political preferences do not address key questions in this debate.Is there compelling evidence that gubernatorial appointment leads to higher-quality judges than legislative appointment? Is a state board stacked with members acceptable to the governor better equipped to handle complicated ethics and elections issues than a board stacked with members selected by legislative leaders from both major parties?One might have hoped that the Aug. 13 gubernatorial gathering would have addressed those questions.Instead former governors of both parties spent much of their time taking rhetorical shots at lawmakers.said Republican Pat McCrory, Cooper's immediate predecessor.How could lawmakers hijack the constitution? Only voters can change it.Fellow Republican Jim Martin explained why he and McCrory spoke up against legislative leaders from their own party.Martin said.Why must it be stopped?Former Democratic governors emphasized the potential negative impact on people.said Mike Easley.How would the people suffer?Bev Perdue also focused on people.she said.Do gubernatorial appointments help your family? Children? Community? Do they make your life better?Democrat Jim Hunt is no stranger to shifts in state government power. Hunt pushed during his tenure for constitutional changes giving the governor veto power and the right to serve a second consecutive term. Hunt offered his own paean to the people.Hunt said.Bad in what way?Left unexplained by any of the governors: How exactly would these changes hurt "the people"? The people vote for governor. The people vote for legislators. Whether the governor or a legislative body controls appointments to other government posts, the people's role is limited. Their only impact on those appointees results from their votes for the officeholder making the appointment.In fact, the people exercise their greatest political power when they decide how much of that power to delegate among competing branches of government. That is exactly what the disputed constitutional amendments ask the people to do.Perhaps the governors can offer compelling arguments for preserving the current balance of power. So far, they've declined the opportunity.Instead, they've complained about legislative "power grabs" or echoed Hunt's vague pronouncement:Deciding on the future? Really? The vote for governor represents more than just a decision about who will lead the executive branch of state government for the next four years?Even those voters who do assign the governor such far-reaching influence over future events probably spend little time thinking about his role in filling judicial jobs or stacking the elections board.Unless Cooper and the former governors can come up with better justifications for the current balance of government power, voters might choose to shift that balance. Months after governor's secret fund came to light, it's unclear who controls the money or if any money will be paid Republican legislative leaders fear more lawsuits and constitutional showdowns with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will occur if, in their view, he keeps stepping on their control over state revenues.The concerns surfaced during a Wednesday, Aug. 29, meeting of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations. Lawmakers created an investigative subcommittee to probe Cooper's involvement with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, named to the panel Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, R-Onslow, co-chairman; Sens. Kathy Harrington, R-Gaston; Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth; Ben Clark, D-Hoke; Floyd McKissick, D-Durham; and Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus.The governor has been dogged by questions whether his creation of a $57.8 million discretionary fund was a pay-to-play scheme for Atlantic Coast Pipeline partners to get a required permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality.Cooper got a signed memorandum of understanding from the pipeline coalition the day before DEQ issued a permit. DEQ delayed the permit several times while Cooper negotiated the deal.Republican members say the deal raises serious constitutional, statutory, and policy concerns, and Cooper has stonewalled release of information.From committee debate, it appears nobody knows, or will say, whether the pipeline partners have paid or will pay the $57.8 million to the state.Cooper claims the money was a voluntary pledge to repair environmental damage from pipeline construction, and the General Assembly jeopardized the deal by passing a law taking control over it. Republicans say it is a settlement fund, and could have been a pressure play by Cooper.said Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Union, referring to earlier suggestions Cooper may use ACP money for economic development projects in competitive legislative districts.Tucker said. Cooper repeatedly has sued the General Assembly on separation-of-powers grounds over legislation he says encroaches on his executive authority, most recently challenging proposed constitutional amendments.Tucker said.Brown and Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, the top legislative budget writers, said the state constitution give the legislative branch sole power collect and appropriate money, and they know of no instance similar settlement funds didn't flow through the legislature.Brown said.Brown told Carolina Journal he was referring to a settlement Volkswagen made with the Environmental Protection Agency for Clean Air Act violations. Under the consent decree , North Carolina will receive $92 million. Cooper sued the General Assembly to prevent it from taking control of the settlement.Republicans say Cooper has no constitutional authority to receive and allocate the VW funds. In response to the pipeline fund, they passed House Bill 90 that shifted money from Cooper's care to General Assembly control.Cooper said he wanted to use the money to repair environmental damage from pipeline construction, for renewable energy projects, and for economic development. The General Assembly designated the money for school districts in eight counties through which the pipeline would pass. The 600-mile pipeline traverses West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina.Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, requested in March the legislature investigate Cooper's pipeline deal.During the Governmental Operations meeting Newton emphasized Cooper has failed for months to answer questions lawmakers submitted to him about the fund.Newton said. He challenged Cooper's contention the discretionary fund was based on good will.Newton said.The pipeline partners all have charitable foundations, he said.Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, said Cooper's actionArp reminded that DEQ officials told a joint legislative committee in March that the pipeline coalition paid $6 million during the permitting process to cover restoration of all environmental construction damage. DEQ staff said no further damages were expected, and no other mitigation payments were necessary.House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, D-Wake, said Republicans had since February to get answers about the pipeline.He also accused the GOP in March of election year politics said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham. He questioned if Republicans wereKristi Jones, Gov. Cooper's chief of staff, bristled at Republicans' contentions.Jones said. The Cooper administration has stringent conflict of interest and ethics laws, and other policies and procedures in place, she said.Cooper's office put out a statement after the meeting defending his actions.the statement said. If you think you got a good deal or a fair deal in the revaluation of your property for taxes this year, there is a very good chance you did not. Did you breathe easier when you saw your property value either did not go up or just went up a small amount?. If that is the case, just wait until you get your tax bill.Unless your property value went down twelve percent or more you will pay more taxes this year than you paid last year. Here is why. The revenue neutral increase of three cents applies to all property. All that revenue neutral means is that the tax rate was increased three cents so the County can spend the same amount of money they spent last year. Then there is the 3.5 percent increase in spending. Add the 3.5 cents to the 3 cents and divide by the 2017 tax rate of 55 cents and you get a 12 percent increase.Do not allow the boys at the Beaufort County funny farm try to convince you the 3 cents of revenue neutral is meaningless and does not apply. It is simple. If your property is valued at the same price it was last year, you are going to pay 61.5 cents for the same property that you paid 55 cents for last year. In my book that is an increase.Even more disturbing to me is the Board of Equalization and Review simply does not understand what their responsibility to the tax payers is. This board exists to adjust the value of incorrectly valued properties. The word "Equalization" means all properties are to are to valued on the same level playing field. That is fairly valued. No single category like undeveloped lots or developed commercial property is to be valued at a different standard than any other category.Tax laws having to do with how properties are valued for tax purposes are set out in the general statutes. They apply to every piece of land in the State of North Carolina.Here is the crash course. Residential property, raw land, and undeveloped lots are to be valued based on recent comparable sales. Commercial properties may be valued based on rental revenue, cost of construction, cost of replacement construction, or comparable sales. The method selected on commercial properties requires judgment and fairness. Comparable sales do not apply if properties are transferred in a distressed sale. A distressed or unfair sale is a forced sale such as a foreclosure or a bankruptcy or an unusually quick sale such as wwen the seller desperately needs cash. Now you know just as much as the board any Member of the Board of Equalization and Review.In Beaufort County the Board of Equalization and Review consists of the Board of County Commissioners. It does not have to consist of the Board of County Commissioners. We can appoint a board. Maybe the time has come to do just that? The deliberations of this board are open to the public. However, Beaufort County uses a system that allows the tax payer to present his case and then sending him away with the promise of him getting the verdict of the Board in two to three weeks. This has worked well until this year.In another article, I have written about the problem of systematic errors in the value of undeveloped lots and commercial properties across the entire county. I say systematic because I believe all un developed lots whether in Cypress Landing or other subdivisions across the county are valued for about double what they have been selling for. I believe most commercial properties are over valued.Several property owners have appeared before the board with the same claim. That claim is their undeveloped lots are valued too high. They have presented comparable sales that took place within the past two years to prove their case. We probably saw sales data on as many as one hundred lots.The same thing happened on commercial properties but with fewer examples simply because there are not may commercial properties.The Board of Equalization and Review had its last scheduled meeting for this year on Thursday June 21.The problems with undeveloped lots reared its ugly head again.I make no bones about it. I am pushing for another look at all undeveloped lots and another look at commercial properties. I heard some astounding arguments as to why we need o keep these values as high as possibleBear in mind this is a public meeting. I am not revealing confidential information.Gary Brinn argued that most property owners want their values to be high because it lets them get more money for their property.Jerry Evans argued the same thing. He and Frankie Waters believe we will do great damage to the Cypress Landing Community if "we allow real estate values to go down"All three, Brinn, Waters and Evans believe we have a duty to keep prices high.Three members of the Board argued that sales prices do not reflect the value of the lots and they are convinced the lots are worst more so they are valuing them higher.So, what did they do?They only addressed undeveloped lot values in Cypress Landing. After considerable discussion about how every lot is different, they voted to value all undeveloped non waterfront lots in Cypress Landing at $40,000 per lot. The majority of undeveloped lots in Cypress Landing are selling for between 20 and $30,000.They gave no consideration to undeveloped lots in the remainder of the County. One person complained that he had, within the last two years, purchased three lots in the eastern part of the county for less than $30,000 each. Theyare tax valued at $60,000. He got no relief.All of this in the face of the law requiring us to use marker valued to set tax values.The Board of Adjustment is not empowered to be a market maker. It is required by law to use actual sales prices to make judgments about the values of property. It is supposed to react to the marked after the market has made its decision. Not determine what the market should be.The only way the County can be a market maker would be for Beaufort County to start buying these lots at what we say they are worth. Beaufort County like the boys in Washington, D. C. are drifting into never never land.The attitude of this board seems to be the same as the Board of Commissioners during the past four years. We know what is best. We have not been elected, we have been anointed. We are going to do what we want to do. We know what is good for you, we are the government.. Illegal immigrants are opting out of government welfare programs out of fear of Trump Administration crackdowns coming done the pike, reported POLITICO on Monday Due to a proposed Trump Administration rule to deny legal status to illegals on welfare, both legal and illegal immigrants have been inundating health care providers with calls demanding they be dropped from federal assistance programs like WIC. "Agencies in at least 18 states say they've seen drops of up to 20 percent in enrollment, and they attribute the change largely to fears about the immigration policy," says the report.WIC, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is a federally-funded assistance program from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), providing health benefits and services for low income mothers and their children.Illegal immigrants are asking to be dropped from the welfare program because they are scared of being deported, while some legal immigrants apparently believe their legal status will be in jeopardy because of rumors circulating about potential Trump Administration rules, according to health officials speaking to POLITICO.There were some 7.4 million women and children enrolled in WIC when President Donald Trump first took office; that number declined to roughly 6.8 million in May. The drop-off in WIC enrollment is also being attributed to a bolstered economy and a decline in immigrant birth rates.WIC, created in 1974, is a "largely immigration-blind" program, notes POLITICO; "most of the infants it serves are citizens born in the U.S. regardless of their parents' immigration status."President Trump has continued his tough-talk from the 2016 election to the present when it comes to illegal immigration, threatening a government shutdown if a southern border wall is not soon funded. A retailer's guide to any time, anywhere customer service Many organizations have taken an omnichannel approach to meet changing customer needs, but it can still be challenging to know which channels you should be prioritizing. Explore this eGuide to learn how to choose the right channels to support your customers and execute successful implementations across your whole strategy. Modernizing Core Banking on AWS To meet evolving customer needs and take advantage of emerging market opportunities, many banks have already started their modernization journey with AWS to leverage machine learning, multichannel applications, and mobile platforms at speed and scale. In this eBook, take a look at 3 of the most common paths to bank modernization. Make data a strategic asset By embracing the power and agility offered by AWS, organizations around the world are turning themselves into data-driven industry leaders. Access this white paper to explore 5 success stories of organizations who turn data into success at scale with advanced analytics, democratized data-science, and cutting-edge data management tools. The importance of distributing market data in the cloud Financial services organizations are increasingly looking to utilize cloud-based market data to accelerate their modernization journey. In this paper, explore how market data provider FactSet, working alongside AWS, is benefiting the financial services sector by distributing its financial content in the cloud. Reinvention starts with cloud migration of your data infrastructure In this guide, explore the challenges of maintaining their data and analytics platform on-prem, 6 challenges of self-managed data infrastructure, and how an AWS cloud migration can reinvent your data infrastructure. The data-driven enterprise You might know the theoretical importance of becoming data-driven, but its crucial to establish two things: the financial value of becoming data-driven, and what it actually takes to be a data driven enterprise. Access this AWS white paper to learn how you can embrace a 6-step approach to becoming an agile, data-fueled business. 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A Strategic Playbook for Data Analytics, and Machine Learning As organizations process petabytes of data on architectures designed to handle gigabytes, its becoming apparent that a shift in data architecture is needed to handle this volume. Download this playbook to learn how a cloud foundation can help you embrace the technological and cultural shifts necessary to becoming a data-driven, agile company. Harness data to reinvent your organization This AWS white paper covers the 3 steps you need to take to become data driven and 5 considerations you need to make as you reinvent your organization. Read on to learn how organizations including Blackboard, Moderna, and Epic Games saw results including accelerated analytics processes, reduced database infrastructure costs and much more. Supercharge your VMware Cloud on AWS investment Hybrid cloud is rapidly becoming a leading cloud solution because it enables enterprises to allocate their data, applications, and other computing resources to either dedicated private cloud or to public cloud infrastructure like Amazon Web Services (AWS). Using VMware virtualisation to accelerate AWS cloud migration For organisations with complex technology environments that want toaccelerate their journey to the cloud, AWS has developed a range of cloud migration methodologies. VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services This paper is intended to guide you through many of thoseconsiderations, implications, and economic impacts whichmay apply to you. How to Get the Most from AWS In this exclusive resource, our experts examine AWS adoption in both small and large organizations, and review five key data migration techniques you can leverage to streamline the transition. Tackling Top Hybrid Cloud Management Challenges In this expert resource, take a closer look at 3 common hybrid cloud management pain points and discover key steps to take to eliminate these obstacles in your hybrid cloud environment. Migration, Workflow Fluidity Among Hybrid Cloud Challenges In this expert guide, access answers to a number of common hybrid cloud integration questions, such as, what are the biggest hybrid cloud challenges during integration, should enterprises move legacy apps to the public cloud, how to migrate data or workloads from one cloud to another, and more. Safeguard Your Hospital Against Ransomware to Protect Data, Patient Security In this e-guide, CIOs Keith Jennings and Andrew Rosenberg, M.D. share tips on what your organization can do right now to prevent a crippling ransomware attack. They explain new technologies, techniques and past experiences to help improve your healthcare organization's security posture. Former Healthcare CIO Talks Cybersecurity in Healthcare Gary Seay, former vice president and CIO of Community Health Systems, was one of the earliest victims of a healthcare data breach back in 2014. In this e-guide, Seay shares what he believes every healthcare organization should do to ward off cyberattacks and shares specific technologies involved in maintaining cybersecurity for healthcare. Healthcare CIOs Address Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities As breaches continue in healthcare, it's imperative that CIOs know what best practices and technologies they should be implementing to safeguard their organization. Discover the proven practices that best stave off healthcare cybersecurity vulnerabilities based on advice from four CIOs attending HIMSS 2016. How to guard secure data IT staffers should consider using additional applications to track all relevant devices and applications that could pose a security risk. Learn how to best protect patient data with simple security updates and ensure HIPAA compliance to lessen vulnerabilities. BYOD and mHealth: Navigating Security and HIPAA BYOD is almost the new norm for healthcare providers, and it has introduced the challenge of protecting devices and data without restricting employees' mobile capabilities. Find out how you can navigate the complex task of meeting HIPAA regulations while allowing the use of BYOD apps and devices, cloud services, and desktop virtualization. Brown University researcher Lisa Littman has become the latest cause celebre for academic freedom grifters after publishing an irresponsible article promoting "rapid-onset gender dysphoria," yet another disease model of gender identity and expression. Imagine a disease called "rapid-onset homosexuality" to understand the problem with "ROGD." Now all the usual suspects are defending her biased garbage. Via Science: On Monday, PLOS ONE announced it is conducting a postpublication investigation of the study's methodology and analysis. "This is not about suppressing academic freedom or scientific research. This is about the scientific content itselfwhether there is anything that needs to be looked into or corrected," PLOS ONE Editor-in-Chief Joerg Heber in San Francisco, California, told ScienceInsider in an interview yesterday. Also on Monday, Brown officials removed the university's press release highlighting the paper from its website. On Tuesday, Bess Marcus, dean of Brown's School of Public Health, wrote in an open statement that the university acted "in light of questions raised about research design and data collection related to the study." She added that people in the Brown community have raised concerns that the study's conclusions "could be used to discredit efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community." This kind of iatrogenesis is nothing new. The historical arc of bigotry like this toward sex and gender minorities generally follows this trend: Sin Crime Disease Trait Trans people have been stuck at Disease since last century, in part because a substantial cohort of trans people claim they ARE diseased, usually for financial or social reasons. Disease mongers capitalize on this, often because they want to be the one who creates or names a disease. In the case of Littman, she is possibly the first academic to publish about a term that bubbled up from anti-transgender forums and SEXNET, a secret online hidey-hole where anti-trans fringe sexologists concoct diseases and strategies for popularizing them. When researching oppressed minorities, academic freedom must go hand in hand with the highest levels of academic responsibility. The reification of garbage like "ROGD" is completely irresponsible, as it attempts to layer a disease (social contagion) over what might simply be an improvement in social acceptance. New paper ignites storm over whether teens experience 'rapid onset' of transgender identity (Science) Image: Wikimedia The Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion is missing $50,000 worth of bugs; the loss wasn't immediately discovered because bugs are small and the Insectarium often moves its specimens around for exhibitions, lendouts, etc. but when 80-90% of your collection goes missing, you notice. An examination of CCTV footage from the Insectarium showed employees working with outsiders to steal the bugs. What the thieves may not have understood is that some of the stolen bugs were actually evidence being held for federal law enforcement agencies who had seized them in smuggling cases, making the whole thing pretty fraught. For some unknown reason, the thieves left two employee uniforms pinned to a store-room wall by two long, sharp knives. According to Cambridge, at least five employees or people associated with the insectarium were caught on security footage taking the insects and some reptiles. Cambridge couldn't say much more about who was involved and the Philadelphia Police Department did not return our request for comment. The CEO did say that he didn't really want to get the police involved at all. His first thought was, "let's contact the people that did it and just [tell them] to bring the creatures back." But when he realized how many thieves were involved and the magnitude of the theft, he had no choice. It all happened in the open, without any forcible entry to the facilities. Cambridge couldn't say for sure exactly how many specimens were taken, but it was 80 to 90 percent of the institution's collection, a figure representing thousands of creatures. "So the thing is with the insect colonies, an insectarium is going to be displaying a couple individuals of a particular species out on the floor," Cambridge said. "But in order to use them in a stable exhibit, we need to have colonies of them in the back." If one colony of roaches is stolen, that's thousands of roaches. "We had lots and lots and lots of colonies of cockroaches taken," he said. Insectarium CEO Says $50,000 Bug Heist Was an Inside Job [Rhett Jones/Gizmodo] (via JWZ) - The Economic Freedom Fighters protested at the the Smokehouse and Grill restaurant in Braamfontein on Thursday - The political party chose to protest at this restaurant because of their link with Adam Catzavelos - Adam's racist video rant angered South Africans and they want him to face the consequences PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed! The EFF protested at the Smokehouse and Grill restaurant in Braamfontein because of their association with Adam Catzavelos. The protest happened on 6 September and the party shared their protest on social media. The self proclaimed revolutionaries decided to interrupt business at the Smokehouse and Grill by dancing and singing loudly. Apparently Adam has a 25% passive interest in the restaurant. It's believed his status as a shareholder has been revoked since the racist incident that had South Africa buzzing. PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app READ ALSO: David Mabuza was too sick to remember who was on Gupta jet David Mabuza was too sick to remember who was on Gupta jet The South African reported EFF members chanted Asinalo uvalo (meaning they no longer had fear in what they do). The protest led to the restaurant's operations being shut down momentarily. This protest comes after the EFF laid a criminal charge against Adam at the Bramley Police Station earlier in August, as reported on by Briefly.co.za. Do you have interesting news for us? Message 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. Watch the entertaining African Proverbs and Their Meanings video and take a look at what else is happening on Briefly South Africa's YouTube channel. Source: Briefly.co.za News / National by Staff reporter President Mnangagwa on Wednesday met with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping after the conclusion of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the two leaders signed fresh agreements.Sources close to the meeting said the Chinese President called for continuation of stronger political trust, cooperation and exchanges of governance experiences of the ruling parties. President Mnangagwa's high-powered, closed-door bilateral engagement with President Xi resulted in the signing of three significant agreements.In an interview, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo outlined the three agreements."The meeting between the two heads of state was very cordial. It was not surprising that the actual outcomes of the meeting were positive in a manner that will propel the economy of this country to greater heights," said Dr Moyo."FOCAC 2018 coincided with Zimbabwe's Vision 2030 and it was not surprising that we experienced a positive result. "Having done that, there were of course other side agreements which were done yesterday (Wednesday). The first agreement was that of immigration and that agreement was meant to have the possibility and provide a framework of exchanging prisoners who would have committed offences on either side," he said."The second agreement was to do with the commitment by the Chinese side to import citrus fruits from Zimbabwe."The obligation will obviously remain with our producers here in Zimbabwe to be able to generate adequate produce which should satisfy the demand of China. One of the issues that was discussed was a possibility of reverse investment integration, where the market itself, which is the Chinese, would come back here and support the producers in order to create capacity of products to be exported to China. We already have the precedence of contract farming in the tobacco sector," said Minister Moyo."The last agreement was that of 500 boreholes which were donated by the Chinese Government and these boreholes are meant to supplement water to areas which are experiencing a deficiency. We have had previous support of around 300 boreholes and now they have added 500 boreholes."During the course of the five-day visit to China, President Mnangagwa attended FOCAC, where a number of initiatives to enhance China-Africa partnership and cooperation were announced, including a $60 billion concessionary facility for African countries.The $60 billion facility will see China implement eight major projects with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation and green development.President Mnangagwa also met a number of Chinese company representatives that expressed interest to investing in Zimbabwe. Besides the hugely successful bilateral meetings, Zimbabwe stands in good stead to benefit from the $60 billion facility.In a meeting with the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, which is considered China's top legislative body, Mr Li Zhanshu on Wednesday evening, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe would benefit significantly from the $60 billion in view of the bankable projects that the Zimbabwean Government has already lined up for funding."We have several projects that we have put forward and this time around, we have bankable projects which meet the criteria for assessment by China," said the President.President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was committed to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as it will help the country achieve its goal of a middle-income economy by 2030.Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa and his delegation arrived back home yesterday morning, and was welcomed at Robert Mugabe International Airport by Vice Presidents Dr Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, as well as service chiefs and senior Government officials. News / National by Staff reporter THE enormity of the task of steering the country's economic revival requires that President Emmerson Mnangagwa appoints the best team at his disposal into Cabinet.The pool of possible Ministers available for selection into Cabinet includes those who were sworn into the Ninth Parliament of Zimbabwe on Wednesday and among these is a healthy mix of tried and tested hands and energetic youths from the ruling Zanu-PF party which enjoys a commanding two thirds majority in the August House.There are many considerations the President makes before appointing a Cabinet but the foremost qualification for a Ministerial job is competence for a particular portfolio. There is no room for passengers in Zimbabwe's next Cabinet because the nation expects Government to deliver on the electoral promises chief among which is stabilising and growing the economy.The incoming Government has an in-tray overflowing with pending matters and needs to hit the ground running. Already, the market is jittery following a wave of price hikes triggered by speculative activities.Saboteurs are hard at work to derail any progress President Mnangagwa might make with his Government and this has been reflected in the chatter emanating from the opposition which is still smarting from the July 30 electoral defeat.MDC Alliance activists and their sympathisers from the vanquished G40 cabal are relishing a situation where the Government will fail so that they seize the moment and say, "we told you so".Right now there is a growing fascination with artificial shortages of a few goods on the market such as cement with alarmists flagging it as a failure of the new Government which has not even been appointed. However, all that will come to naught once Cabinet is appointed in the next few days with indications that President Mnangagwa will deliver a telling blow to naysayers by putting together a winning team which will inspire the markets and stabilise the currency.In his last Cabinet following Operation Restore Legacy in November last year, the President opted for continuity by including members of former president Mr Robert Mugabe's last Government while infusing a number of technocrats and retired personnel from the military with specific expertise.Of the new entrants, the likes of Dr Sibusiso Moyo (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Air Marshal (Retired) Perrance Shiri (Agriculture), Winston Chitando (Mines) and Professor Amon Murwira (Higher and Tertiary Education) impressed in the short period they were in Government and it is our hope that they be allowed to continue their work.In the run up to the July 30 harmonised elections, President Mnangagwa said if he wins the presidential poll, 25 percent of his ministers would be youths as they are the country's future. He said young people had a role to play in shaping the country's development agenda, hence the need to include them in senior Government positions. "The youth are the future," the President said. "I will include the youth in my Cabinet and at least a quarter of my Cabinet will be young because the future belongs to the youth."We find this to be progressive and inspiring since young people have the zeal and energy to get Zimbabwe working again. There are many young parliamentarians from Zanu-PF with the requisite expertise for certain Cabinet portfolios and we feel the President should consider them. This will not only inspire the markets and international community but will send a strong message that Zanu-PF is a party which believes in leadership renewal and giving young people a chance.For certain portfolios requiring technical expertise, the President can even look beyond the party as there are many Zimbabweans of international standing and repute capable of assisting in turning around the economy.To maintain party unity and cohesion, the President can assign senior cadres, some of whom were in the old Cabinet, to the party headquarters on a full time basis so that they can help in maintaining a smooth running of the Zanu-PF machinery. For continuity, there are certain Cabinet Ministers from the previous one who have proved time and again that they are achievers notwithstanding the debilitating sanctions which have been in place for the past two decades.Their experience will come in handy in guiding the new appointees to settle down. The President will also be guided by the need to include women in his Cabinet as per requirements of the Constitution which calls for a certain quota to be reserved for women in various arms of Government. It is therefore a delicate balancing act for President Mnangagwa as he seeks to assemble a competent team capable of taking Zimbabwe to the Promised Land.What is certain is that there is no room for sentiment because a lot is at stake. Becoming a middle income country, with per capita income of $3 500, increased investment, decent jobs, broad based empowerment, free from poverty and corruption by 2030 requires a Cabinet of competent, honest, decent hard workers. News / National by Staff reporter THE tourism industry presents a huge opportunity for the City of Bulawayo to grow its economy and comple-ment efforts to revive the manufact-uring sector with significant impact on livelihoods.While the city is regarded as the manufacturing hub of the country, the demise of industry in recent years has taken a toll on economic activity with thousands of workers losing their jobs.As efforts to revive industries take centre stage, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Mr Karikoga Kaseke, says robust growth opportunities abound in the city's tourism industry despite its poor performance in recent years. He told journalists in Bulawayo that it was in view of such considerations that the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo was brought to the city to aid growth of the tourism sector and increase business activity.The specialised expo, which is in its 11th edition, began in the city on Wednesday and was officially opened yesterday with 325 companies and 150 buyers from 23 countries participating.Mr Kaseke said the tourism expo would continue to be hosted in Bulawayo until such a time when authorities were satisfied of its contribution to the city's economy. He indicated that since the return of the expo to Bulawayo two years ago, the tourism business has started re-gaining traction."Sanganai/Hlanganani will remain in Bulawayo for some time until we are very satisfied that the tourism economy of the city is equal to Victoria Falls," said Mr Kaseke."We call Bulawayo the City of Kings and Queens, a city we should all respect. The tourism economy of this city was once upon a time very vibrant."He said while other cities suffered a drop in tourism performance over the years, the level of impact was not comparable to Bulawayo from a tourism point of view."So, we want to restore the tourism legacy in this city. Bulawayo is the industrial capital of the country and we must ensure that this sector of the economy and industries are functioning well," said Mr Kaseke."We will not leave Bulawayo until Sanganai/Hlanganani delivers on this."Bulawayo is endowed with a diversity of attractive tourism heritage sites. The city and its surroundings are known for their unique tourism taste yet this market has not been fully exploited. Bulawayo offers a complete tourism package with its own cultural heritage, museums and monuments, parks and wildlife and nearby historic sites such as Khami Ruins and Old Bulawayo among others.Mr Kaseke said what was needed was to scale up marketing of the city's tourism products. He indicated that the tourism authority was considering organising cultural festivals involving regional and international players as part of measures to boost the sector."Culture in this region is the number one product," said Mr Kaseke. News / National by Staff reporter PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday congratulated National Assembly members and Senators who took their oaths of office on Wednesday and pledged to work well with them for the nation to realise its full potential.The President was away in China attending the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC), which ended on Tuesday.In a statement posted on his Facebook page yesterday, President Mnangagwa said: "Whilst I was away, our National Assembly members and Senators were sworn in, taking their oaths of office to serve the people of Zimbabwe. "I congratulate them all and look forward to working together to realise our nation's potential in the spirit of servant leadership!"President Mnangagwa described his visit to the Asian economic giant as "busy and highly productive" "This morning I returned home from a busy and highly productive visit to China," he said."We will continue to work with our international partners from all over the world to help transform our economy." At least 341 out of the 350 parliamentarians elected in the July 30 harmonised elections took their oaths of office at Parliament Building to begin the life of Ninth Parliament. Parliament is made up of the National Assembly and Senate, with the National Assembly made up of 270 members and the senate 80.In the National Assembly, 266 members were sworn-in, while 74 members took their oaths in the Senate. First to be sworn-in were members of the National Assembly who took their oaths in batches of 10 as they could not all fit in the Chamber.The Senators then took their oaths in the afternoon with their ceremony lasting just over an hour. The ceremonies were presided over by Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda and were done in terms of Section 128 (1) of the Constitution.Following yesterday's swearing-in, the two Houses of Parliament will choose their presiding officers on Tuesday next week. The National Assembly will elect the Speaker and his or her deputy, while the Senate will elect its president and his or her deputy.President Mnangagwa will then officially open the first session of the Ninth Parliament on a date to be advised. News / National by Staff reporter ZIMBABWE will not preoccupy itself with sanctions by some Western capitals but will continue to work with progressive friendly nations to grow its economy, President Mnangagwa has said. Further, President Mnangagwa reiterated that after the July 30 elections, focus now should be on economic development.The Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces made the remarks in an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation Summit held in Beijing this week."We, as Zimbabweans, should say what potential do we have, what resources do we have, how do we exploit these resources to help grow our economy, to help bring better life to our people rather that say oh let us cry and say those who have imposed sanctions must remove them," said President Mnangagwa."They have their own reasons but we are not going to sleep because those people have imposed sanctions on us. We must ourselves make sure we do that which is possible. The world is not one basket. There are so many baskets in terms of international economic environment. There are so many headquarters in the global picture who are very friendly to Zimbabwe. We are saying in our view everyone should be friendly but those who choose not to be, we have no cause to have trouble with them. We will continue to consolidate the goodwill which we are receiving from other capitals in the world and again I should say that there is now a transition to a new world order and those who don't see it are blind," he said.President Mnangagwa said his Government would continue to create an environment conducive for investment.Said the President: "Now the political struggle is over, that is in relation to elections. It's behind us. It must now take the back seat. What takes the front seat is the economic struggle. To do so, we need to institute various economic reforms in order to attract both global capital into Zimbabwe as well as to give confidence to all-weather friends who have stood with us throughput the two decades to continue to support us. And consolidate that relationship by also helping ourselves by creating an environment in the country where capital should feel comfort."President Mnangagwa continued: "I can assure you what is critically important is to be transparent, is to admit where policies in the past were constraining economic development and make legislative amendments to improve the environment in the economic sphere, for instance the area of indigenisation which was constraining (investment) into our country. We have already attended to that. The issue of the cost of doing business, the ease of doing business, the world is now very competitive in the area of attracting investment in to the country."Even at the level of domestic investment, we have done a lot to remove archaic legislation that was constraining economic growth in our country."President Mnangagwa said the fact that Africa had a young population was an advantage and Governments should optimise that and create an environment that empowers the youths. He said he was impressed by the quality of the current crop of African leaders whose emphasis was economic development."Political issues are necessary to keep unity in a country, to keep countries united and foster peace its important," said President Mnangagwa."But at the end of the day what is critically important is the growth of the economy, the uplifting of the standard of life of your people. The creation of a strong middle class in every economy is important. Those are my views. I believe with the statements that are coming out far different from before where political environment was important, the issue of independence, the issue of sovereignty was critical, now you see most of the leaders addressing economic issues, integration, initially at regional level but also we have to migrate to continental and international level. Yes, of course we have big economies who in my view are taking two steps backward, one step forward but we don't need to follow that."We need ourselves to continue with one step ahead without going back again as other big economies are doing." News / National by Staff reporter THE MDC Alliance yesterday blasted Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda for claiming that the opposition legislators in the last Parliament never moved any motion for electoral laws.Mudenda early this week told members of International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute Joint Zimbabwe International Electoral Observation Mission that he had always been ready to receive proposed electoral reforms, but nothing came from the opposition."The only approach in that respect was from the Zimbabwe Elections Support Unit and we met them as Parliament in Bulawayo, where they complained about electoral reforms and that they needed to be undertaken by Parliament," he said.But former MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese described Mudenda's utterances as misleading."That is not correct because for the past five years, the opposition has been talking about amendments to the electoral laws and alignment of their provisions to the Constitution and at that time, current President Emmerson Mnangagwa was the Justice minister and he even promised that there will be reforms," he said.Gonese said the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice was led by opposition member Jessie Majome for more than three years during the Eighth Session of Parliament which began in 2013, and the committee went for public hearings to try and reform the Electoral Act."What the Speaker said was unfortunate because we even went for public hearings on the Electoral Act where MDC legislators Majome, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and I were harassed and beaten up by Zanu-PF supporters who did not want reforms," Gonese said.He said during the debates on the Electoral Amendment Bill in the National Assembly in 2017, he initiated a lot of amendments to the Bill on behalf of the MDC-T to ensure it was in line, with the Constitution, but they were all rejected by Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi."I personally was sent by the MDC-T to make a lot of proposals to the Electoral Act, which included issues to do with voter education, voter registration, intimidation, printing of ballots and almost everything that we were unhappy about. The Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, dismissed all our suggestions. We even went home very late (while) debating the issues, but they were rejected one by one by Zanu-PF," he said. News / National by Staff reporter GOVERNMENT could abandon the controversial US$2,7 billion deal with Chinese firm Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group Limited (Afecc) for the dualisation of the Chirundu-Beitbridge highway after the company expressed concern over how it would recoup its investment, the Zimbabwe Independent can exclusively reveal.Afecc, the second highest bidder when the tender was first publicised in 2016, was later awarded the contract after government in April this year terminated its earlier agreement with Austrian company Geiger International (Geiger) at Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga's behest.Government had expressed frustration at the endless delays in project implementation by Geiger, although it later emerged that the move was aimed at pacifying the Chinese government and Afecc after it was controversially stopped from mining diamonds in Chiadzwa two years ago.The deal has, however, gone off the rails after Afecc financiers insisted they were not comfortable with the build, operate and transfer (BOT) arrangement, which they deemed to be unfeasible. Government, on its part, failed to convince the company on how it would realise the full benefits of the investment.As such, the Independent has learnt, Afecc told government that it could only do the 133km stretch from Harare to Chivhu under the BOT plan.Former Transport minister Joram Gumbo, who has been spearheading negotiations on behalf of government, confirmed the deal had run into problems."It may be that they are having difficulties with their financiers. Remember, it has been two years since they lost the tender and they could have put their money to other use. I think that is the major problem they are facing, but as government we had prepared a framework of agreement to guide us on the way forward," Gumbo said.He also said the document was ready to be presented to cabinet."If I get the chance to present it to cabinet, I will do so but, if not, someone else will do it," Gumbo said.Insiders said government is now considering raising funds through the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) to allow local companies to take over the project.Government is also considering re-tendering the project.This comes as it emerged that Afecc president Jiang Zhaoyao last week flew into Zimbabwe from his base in Hefei city, the capital of Anhui province of China, to try and salvage the deal, but there has been no headway.Highly placed government and diplomatic sources told the Independent this week that the deal with Afecc had virtually collapsed after the Chinese firm indicated that it was only able to dualise the 133km stretch from Harare to Chivhu.Government sources said meetings held between government and Afecc in the past two weeks could not produce results.This is despite the fact that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development had already drafted a framework of agreement which was to be signed between the two parties.However, Afecc could not commit itself to the agreement as it demanded full disclosure of how it would recoup its investment amid concerns government was not providing clear information. An official close to Afecc said the company had access to adequate funding. He said the decision of whether to award the tender to Afecc or not lies with the government."The Afecc boss was here now in Zimbabwe having discussions with the government but, so far, there is no deal. No decision has been made up to now," the official said. News / National by Stephen Jakes Mthwakazi Republic Party has expressed its disgust over the MDC's manipulative behaviour, meant to exploit the voice of the residents of Bulawayo.Party's President Mqondisi Moyo said the behaviour and media rantings by the two councillors, namely Batirai and Chigora of aligning the grievances of the residents of Bulawayo to a program of Mthwakazi Republic Party, is shocking."This strategy is teared from one of the Zanu PF pages on politicizing people's issues to justify political intervention. The MDC Alliance knows very well, that MRP is not involved in this mayoral fracas as a party. All that they are playing now is a game of creating a strategic political foe, to sway attention from their shortcomings," he said."For once we implore this party and its uncultured councillors to respect the decisions and intelligence of the residents of Bulawayo, and stop trivializing their issues to party politics. The insinuations of these councillors portrays the residents of Bulawayo as stupid and indecisive."He said like ZANU PF that used party politics to justify Gukurahundi, MDC has taken a good cue and want to reduce the residents' agenda to mere party politics."We warn Chamisa and his councillors to leave MRP out of their quagmire and address the genuine concerns of the residents of Bulawayo. We call upon our individual members, in their capacities as Bulawayo residents, to support the quest for justice, social and political order in our legendary city. Let's all resist the sinister motives of these wayward councillors of trying to discredit the people's program by reducing it to a party vindictive agenda," he said."Residents of Bulawayo, whether from MDC, ZANU, ZAPU, MRP or any party or organization, are capable of converging against any collective threat, without the influence of MRP. It is ironic that a party that lost elections, as purported by the two councillors, can be able to incite the broader Bulawayo to resist MDC's mediocrity. Bulawayo residents deserve to be respected. Bulawayo is not MRP. It is a city of Kings and Queens, and this time they are voicing as such." News / National by Stephen Jakes MDC Alliance official Discent Collins Bajila has said the nation has again experienced the repeat of the 2008 calamity arising from the just disputed harmonised elections."I have said it before and I am saying it again. The crime scene of our present calamities is rooted in 2007-2008. The Bhebhe incident has hit us again in Masvingo. If we want to understand our society well we must ask ourselves: WHAT HAPPENED IN 2008? Who became our MPs and how did they become MPs? it is in 2008 that we got our Elections Harmonized because Mugabe was afraid to face the electorate alone. Remember Presidential Elections were last held in 2002 and were due in 2008 but Parliamentary Elections were held in 2005 and were only due in 2010. Mugabe was scared of campaigning alone, more so after his lieutenants had attempted a coup code named Operation 1940 in 2007," he said."Harmonised Elections mean that voters mainly concentrate on the President, slightly on the MP and almost nothing towards the Councillors. 2008 was the first Election after the MDC split. In Matebeleland, the leadership had gone in one direction with the structures yet the sympathisers and supporters went in another direction. The leaders and the structures unsuccessfully tried to turn themselves into supporters yet the sympathisers whose previous role was just voting jumped in and made leaders out of one another. They became MPs and Councillors quite easily and inspired more like them to avail themselves for public office in 2013 and in 2018. They had their first cars as MP packages and/or their first title deeds as Councillor packages. They became an inspiration to more and more who have never had a decent job, a decent pay under a decent society. Thanks to 2008."He said in 2008, MDC MPs were induced to vote against their party's candidate for Speaker of Parliament."The culture of inducing people to defy their leadership was thus founded. Today it's MDC Alliance Councillors who have been induced to vote against their party's candidate for Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Masvingo. With only 3/10 Councillors, ZANU PF find themselves with a Deputy Mayor. In isiNdebele we say "imvama zibuya usulibele". The Bulawayo Mayor debate is also about the party leadership having made a decision that Mguni must be Mayor and Mlandu Ncube must be Deputy Mayor but some are being induced to defy," he said."2008 events, fear and tendencies are haunting us all. Let's go back to the crime scene and fix our problems." News / National by Staff reporter FORMER President Robert Mugabe Thursday made startling claims he had not been aware his then deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa harboured presidential ambitions.The 94-year-old veteran politician was addressing mourners who gathered for his late mother-in-law, Ambuya Idah Marufu's funeral.Mugabe took time to endorse his former aide's recent victory as the country's new leader.In his comments, the long serving former leader said his choice for successor was then Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi while denying he once had plans to install his wife Grace as President."What happed yesterday was wrong and that has been put aside by the election results. For today the winner is Emmerson Mnangagwa," Mugabe said while referring to the November 14 coup that ousted him.Mugabe said he had not known of any Mnangagwa presidential ambitions when he was still at the helm of the country."I didn't know Emmerson wanted to be the President," he said."I was of the wish that since we were going to the party (Zanu-PF) congress in December (2017), I wanted people to vote for Sekeramayi because he was senior to Mnangagwa.""So Sekeremayi was my successor, those who said I wanted to hand over power to Grace that was a lie."These are issues of the congress and even my idea of Sekeramayi succeeding me, I was going to put it on the December congress agenda."I even confided this in former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki."But everything changed when Emmerson approached the army and Chiwenga (then Commander Defence Forces) to assist him and when he heard that the army was in support of him, then we said they must help us at the congress." News / National by Staff reporter FORMER First Lady Grace Mugabe says the death of her mother has come as an opportune moment for her to mend bitter relations with her former Zanu-PF rival and now State President Emmerson Mnangagwa.She was addressing mourners who had gathered at the former first couple's Blue Roof Borrowdale mansion Thursday night for the late Ambuya Idah Marufu's funeral wake.Mnangagwa made a giant step to reach out to former state President Robert Mugabe and his wife when he chartered a plane to transport her from Singapore to attend her mother's funeral."If my mother's death is meant for our friendship to be back to where it was before, let it be so," Grace said tearfully while referring to the former first couple's long broken ties with Mnangagwa."I have said it before, we were great friends to an extent of sharing milk. Milk is a sensitive product but we shared it; that was the extent of our friendship." Opinion / Columnist "If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights." Screamed the headlines in The Sun April 1992, Britain's leading tabloid newspaper. Neil Kinnock, Labour, did not win the election. The headline has become the catch phrase to underline what people might do underline their displeasure with an election result.Zimbabwe has just had its harmonised elections which Zanu PF blatantly rigged, again, to claim a landslide victory. The results triggered street protests which the regime ruthlessly crash with soldiers ordered to shoot to kill. Seven civilians were short dead and hundreds were injured.In the past Zanu PF rigged elections have resulted in Zimbabweans leaving the country in droves, this set to happen as more and more people wake up to the reality that the much hoped economic recovery will never happen. By rigging the elections President Mnangagwa and his junta have just confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs. Investors and lenders, the country has been banking on to help kick start the comatose economy, are not coming. They do not do business with thugs.The most notable thing to happen since the 30 July 2018 voting is the shortage of cash, it bad before but has got significantly worse since, especially the US dollar. The second thing is the shortage of basic goods and/or prices going up. There two main reasons for the cash shortage and price increase/shortage of good:1) President Mnangagwa and the junta have haemorrhaged the cash out of the economy to squander it on new cars and bankroll the regime's many vote rigging schemes. They have been spending money as if there is no tomorrow. The regime 'won' the elections at the price of the shortages, tomorrow did come and the chicken have come home to roast! The country is running out of medicine, wheat, fuel, cash, etc., etc. and President Mnangagwa must now explain why buying all Zanu PF election candidates was more important than buying life-saving drugs for babies!2) President Mnangagwa needed to hold free, fair and credible election to confirm the message the Zimbabwe was no longer a pariah state. As noted above lenders and investors do not do business in pariah states. The country's economic prospects are clearly gloomy and the cash and good shortages is the market's response.President Mnangagwa has had no shortage of advisors as to what he must do to get out of the mess he now finds himself in."I hope wisdom can prevail, this country needs a dialogue, and Emmerson has to talk to Chamisa because Nelson holds the keys and that is fact," came the unsolicited advice from Tendai Biti, MDC Alliance MP for Harare South."We are not talking about the government of national unity its nothing close to that, they must be discussions around the issues on legitimacy, there has to be discussions about state departure on militarization issue, issues on national healing reconciliation and inclusivity because we hold the keys we simply hold the keys. Emmerson must find it in his wisdom to talk to Chamisa because Nelson holds the key."MDC leaders are just fishing for lucrative post on the gravy train; their presence will not change the direction of the regime. I do not see Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, pushing through the savage cuts in the bloated civil service and army demanded by IMF and WB, for example.As for MDC making to the junta "legitimacy" that is just nonsense. The Zanu PF junta is illegitimate because it rigged the elections it is only by holding free and fair election that legitimacy can be restored. The lenders and investors will not flood back into the country just because Nelson Chamisa has been appointed Prime Minister or some such position.President Mnangagwa is just another corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging dictator, Robert Mugabe in all but name; he confirmed this by rigging the elections. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by thugs the country will never know economic prosperity and political stability. Many more people will leave Zimbabwe in the coming months and years; if it was practical for everyone to leave, they would. The last man to leave Zimbabwe would not have to bother switching off the lights, ZESA power cuts took care of that years ago! Opinion / Columnist Enock JONATHAN is a scientist and technologist and can be contacted via email address enock10jonathan@gmail.com The introduction by His Excellence President ED Mnangagwa of the concept "Zimbabwe is open for business" which he continues to back-up with a raft of measures to open up the economy, continue to be well received by serious investors. To-date and still counting, the economic sectors whose leadership have embraced the concept include the energy sector, mining sector, and agriculture sector. It is time leadership of Zimbabwe's knowledge sector, comprising mostly of state universities, also declare their being open for business towards active participation in the economy starting at provincial level.Given that nearly every province in Zimbabwe boasts of a state university, such declaration by the leadership of state universities would be important to signal their being available for active participation in provincial councils of their host provinces. Provincial councils and therefore, the concept of provincial economies, are inline with the devolution agenda of the government of the second republic. While the mission of state universities had been accepted as mainly teaching with insignificant research, development and community service, now there exist an urgent need for state universities to project themselves as institutions that real matter to provincial innovative activity and ultimately sustainable economic development and growth in their host provinces.Following the advent of the knowledge-based economy, there is now global appreciation that production of knowledge transforms into economic enterprise. Therefore, if state university leadership transform their institutions to knowledge generators and exploiters then they will be quick to gain an understanding of their important role in the growth of their host province economy, as drivers and catalysts of provincial innovative activity.The recent announcement by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development that it is supporting the establishment of Science Parks and Innovation Hubs in state universities is most welcome. Indeed such developments only bolster the case for leadership about-turn or renewal in our state universities as advocated in this article. The state university leadership demanded in the second republic is one that must be able to cause and support the entrepreneurial marketing of knowledge, creation of spin-in and spin-off companies, as well as champion continual innovative activity in their provinces.The immediate focus of such a state university leadership will be to build institutional capacity in the main to produce or generate knowledge for the purpose to exploit, package or deploy the knowledge into products, processes or services that are readily absorbed into the provincial economy and / or "exported" to other provinces and beyond. Closely coupled with this focus is an urgent need for state-universities to align their mission to the needs of their host province economy.Provincial councils and residents must now demand from the leadership of state universities in their province technological research and development activities either leading to the creation of new business ventures in their province or that facilitate technological innovations to existing companies in the province, the ultimate deliverable being to create jobs and contribute to sustainable provincial economic development and growth. To emphasize further, the provincial councils must demand forthwith from leadership of state universities in their provinces university outputs that will positively impact province competitiveness in terms of productivity and business innovation, business start-ups, increased provincial capacity for sustained development, and continuing provincial creativity and innovation.The state university leadership renewal or rejuvenation demanded here would mark the beginning of the development of provincial technology-based economies in Zimbabwe towards success of the devolution agenda of the second republic. China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the 2018 Beijing Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation joint news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China September 4, 2018. Lintao Zhang/Pool via REUTERS BEIJING (Reuters) - African leaders attending this week's summit with China don't think that cooperation between the continent and Beijing has added to their debt burden, the Chinese government's top diplomat said on Thursday. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion (46 billion pounds) to African nations at Monday's opening of a China-Africa forum on cooperation, matching the size of funds offered at the last summit in Johannesburg in 2015. China has denied engaging in "debt trap" diplomacy, and Xi said this week government debt from Chinese interest-free loans due by year-end would be written off for the poorest African nations. In a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website, in the form of a question and answer, State Councillor Wang Yi said Xi's speech had met with a rapturous reception from the African leaders at the summit. "Some African leaders stated outright, certain Western countries only speak but don't act, but China takes actual actions," Wang, who is also China's foreign minister, said. "They said, China upholds putting righteousness first and is consistent in its sincere and selfless support for Africa's development, in stark contrast to the inequality of relations between some major powers and Africa, and that those who believe Africa-China cooperation aggravates Africa's debt burden are completely wrong," he added."There is no market for sowing discord between Africa and China!" Wang said, citing the unidentified African leaders. China has defended the latest promise of financing for Africa, saying China is helping the continent develop, not pile up debt. A wave of African nations seeking to restructure their debt with China has served as a reality check for Beijing's ties with the continent, though most of its countries still see Chinese lending as the best bet to develop their economies. Every African country attended the summit, with most sending their presidents, apart from eSwatini, self-ruled Taiwan's last African ally that has so far rejected China's overtures to ditch Taipei and recognise Beijing. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie) By Robin Pomeroy and Sarah Mills VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Jennifer Kent, who made her name with horror "The Babadook", returned on Thursday with a revenge thriller set in 1825 Tasmania, a penal colony where the abuse meted out to convicts is surpassed only by the cruelty suffered by the Aborigines. With brutal violence that would be at home in a Quentin Tarantino movie, "The Nightingale" plays like a bleak Western, but one set in a lawless Australian frontier land, where the indigenous people are enslaved and lynched. When Irish convict Clare suffers unspeakable crimes at the hands of her British captors, she sets off to hunt down the perpetrators, but realizes she needs a local guide to help her through the bush inhabited by brigands, thieves and murderers. When a friend suggests she hire an Aborigine called Billy, she replies with ingrained racism: "I'm not traveling with a black - I'll end up in a pot as someone's dinner." But she eventually finds common cause with the man who, like her, has seen his people and land ravaged by the British. "In this day and age, I feel that theres a great paucity of empathy, compassion, love, kindness, and I hope that people see the necessity of those things in their individual lives, so it's not: 'Oh wouldn't that be nice!', it's our key to survival." Kent, who learned her craft working under Lars von Trier on the 2003 revenge tragedy "Dogville", said she was not entirely comfortable to be the lone female among the 21 directors at Venice vying for the Golden Lion. "Its not an enviable position to be the only woman in competition and I really hope this is the last year," she said, adding that she wants one say to be seen as "just another filmmaker in competition". The festival's organizers denied gender bias in their selection of movies, but the sexism controversy blew up at a press screening of the film after which a man shouted in Italian: "Shame on you, whore, youre disgusting!". An online critic called Sharif Meghdoud apologized for the outburst. The Festival said it had revoked his press accreditation. The Golden Lion will be awarded at the end of the festival on Saturday. (Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The replacement of the main prosecutor in the trial of an American pastor in Turkey may be a positive change, the lawyer for the clergyman told Reuters on Thursday, though he said it would be wrong to expect it to herald his release. The case of Andrew Brunson, an evangelical pastor, who has lived in Turkey for decades and is being tried on terrorism charges, has been at the center of a bitter row between NATO allies Washington and Ankara. The crisis has prompted President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Turkey and double trade tariffs, exacerbating a slide in Turkey's lira which reverberated across global markets. After being detained for 21 months, Brunson was moved to house arrest in July with a travel ban. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to 35 years. He denies the charges. On Wednesday, the main prosecutor who has prepared the case against Brunson was removed from the case. No explanation was provided, although changes of judges or prosecutors mid-case are not uncommon in Turkey. "The prosecutor has had a negative impact on the direction of the trial," Ismail Cem Halavurt, Brunson's lawyer said. "He has constantly added fresh testimonies from anonymous witnesses who had nothing to do with my client," he said. "Now his removal might be a sign that the will about this case is changing," he said, but added: "It is not right to say that he might be freed based on this development. We will have to wait and see." While Turkish prosecutors are frequently replaced half way through a trial, the move has attracted attention given the high stakes in the case. Washington has turned the Brunson affair, one of several disputes it has with Turkey, into the central issue to be resolved as a condition to improve relations. President Tayyip Erdogan linked the cleric's release to Turkey's demand for Washington to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based imam and former AKP ally who Turkey says was behind the abortive putsch of July 2016. He denies the accusation. Trump last month demanded the unconditional release of Brunson, calling him a "great patriot hostage", after the collapse of a deal that might have freed him. Ankara has repeatedly said the case must be decided by the courts, slamming what it said was the United States' disregard for Turkey's legal process. Brunson's next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 12. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Alison Williams) Child sex abuse allegations have prompted pointed accusations of a coverup within the Catholic Church but also intense scrutiny over the actions of Pope Francis, with a former Vatican ambassador to Washington calling for his resignation. Francis has given no indication he has any plans to step down, and the decision to leave the papacy could be made only through his own volition, as there are effectively no other measures in which a pope can be ousted, say some theologians. "There are only two circumstances that can lead to him no longer being pope, and one would be his death and then the other would be his free resignation," said Monsignor Jason Gray, a canon lawyer and pastor based in Illinois. The Catholic Church has recently come under fire following the release of a grand jury report that claimed hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania committed sexual abuse against children since the 1940s. Powers of the pontiff In the wake of the grand jury report, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Vatican ambassador to Washington, called for the Pope's resignation. In an 11-page letter released to the Catholic media, Vigano accused Francis of having known of allegations of sex abuse by a prominent U.S. cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, for years and called on the Pope to set a good example and resign. The Pope has said he will not respond to the allegations, and Vigano has provided no evidence to substantiate the accusation. But the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which sets out rules and obligations for the Catholic clergy and faithful, including the powers of the pontiff. Canon 331, for example, states that by the virtue of his office, the pope "possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely." This means, quite simply, that the pope is the supreme authority in the Catholic Church, said Gray. 'The First See is judged by no one' Story continues Meanwhile, Canon 1404 states: "The First See is judged by no one." Based on that, "the short answer is that there is no authority in the Church that can order or compel the Pope to resign," Gray said. And that is true even if the pope were to become severely incapacitated, either through illness, or age, said Edward Peters, a professor of canon law at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Detroit. "There is an old saying, "The Church knows how to deal with a live pope, and she knows how to deal with a dead pope. But a sick pope, that is real trouble,'" Peters said. Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, said that John Paul II was incapacitated in the last months of his life, and it was well known that his personal secretary was making decisions on his behalf. 'The institution can run out of luck' But in general, popes have died in office before the papacy had to deal with "some very significant obstacles" in the pontiff's health or behaviour, Faggioli said. Pope Benedict was aware of this risk when he decided to resign because of his declining health, Faggioli said. "He knew the institution can run out of luck," he said. If a pope does decide to resign, then, according to Canon 332, "it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested." So, "if there is a reasonable doubt that the resignation of the pope has been made not in freedom by the pope then, in theory, according to the law of the Church, it is not valid," Faggioli said. A coup d'etat in the making? But a pope could conclude he must leave office for the good of the Church if media coverage and public perception of the pontiff becomes too negative, he said. Some observers, including Faggioli, have stated that Vigano's letter was more about conservative opposition to Francis's liberalization of the Church than his concern about abuse coverups. Faggioli suspects Vigano was attempting to engender public antipathy for the Pope that would effectively force him out. "That had all the characteristics of a coup d'etat. Not just asking the Pope to resign but also publishing that while the Pope is out of Rome, right in the middle of the summer." The only way, it seems, that a pope could lose his authority, is if he is determined to have committed heresy. According to the Code of Canon law, heresy is defined as "the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth that must be believed by divine and Catholic faith." "There is a sense that a person does lose their office by defecting from the faith," Gray said. "Now, the problem is when we talk about a mechanism, there's no mechanism to provide for that." Since canon law doesn't specify who would determine whether the pope has committed heresy but does state that the pontiff is the highest authority, not to be judged by anyone, the question of how he would be removed is a bit of a grey zone, says Peters. Still, in a 2016 post on his popular blog on canon law, Peters cited others who suggest a general council of bishops could make that determination and the pope would automatically lose power. "However difficult it might be to determine whether a pope has so fallen, such a catastrophe ... would result in the loss of papal office," Peters wrote. With files from Reuters Dozens of people protested Wednesday afternoon outside a downtown Toronto conference on the opioid crisis, upset with the Ontario government's decision to hold off on opening three overdose prevention sites. "What happens when there are bodies piling up on the streets because there aren't safe injection sites?" asked Akia Munga, a drug user and harm reduction worker. "No one can access these services when people are dead." Munga broke down in tears while speaking at the protest, which was attended by people, including doctors and nurses, who help people addicted to opioids. Some held a large banner reading "We Grieve Thousands." Federal government data shows 1,125 people in Ontario in 2017 died of suspected opioid overdoses hundreds more than the previous year. The three planned overdose prevention sites now on hold, in Thunder Bay, St. Catharines and Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood, had already been approved under the Liberals, but Ontario's new Progressive Conservative government has said it's conducting an "evidence-based review" and is also not accepting applications for other similar sites. The demonstrators also sent an open letter to Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott including the names of 862 health professionals who support opening the three sites. The noon-hour protest was held on the sidewalk outside a building on King Street East where a federal symposium on opioids was taking place. Neither Ford nor Elliott attended the symposium, though according to Elliott's press secretary, her parliamentary assistant was there. Provincial recommendation on overdose prevention sites expected in fall Ontario's health ministry says a recommendation from its review on how to deal with overdoses should be coming this fall. Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor left the symposium to talk with the protesters and said she'd also like to speak with her Ontario counterpart. Story continues "Overdose prevention sites [save] lives," Petitpas Taylor said. "We have the data and we are prepared as a department to make sure that the Ford government has access to that information." But the demonstrators want the federal government to go further. "You have the power to call a health emergency," Zoe Dodd, a harm reduction worker, told Petitpas Taylor. "We need you to do something." The minister responded by saying she is taking the issue seriously and wants to work with front-line workers and other levels of government on a solution. Earlier in the day, Toronto Mayor John Tory agreed with the federal government that the evidence is already there, indicating overdose prevention sites save lives. "I was convinced of that a long time ago," Tory told reporters gathered at a campaign event for his re-election. "I just hope that those who are reviewing these things will expedite those reviews and will come to the conclusion which I think is virtually inescapable that they're saving lives." By Sijia Jiang HONG KONG (Reuters) - Bullet Messenger, a Chinese messaging app, has racked up millions of downloads since its debut just a few weeks ago, using a stripped-down design to chip off a chunk of a sophisticated, billion-user market. The Beijing-based company launched its app on Aug. 20, and within a week became the most downloaded free offering on Apple Inc's App Store in China. Analysts say its rapid ascent, driven by Chinese internet users' craving for alternatives to the ubiquitous WeChat, underscores just how fast China's mobile internet landscape can change. "The cycle of disruption in the Chinese internet space is getting much, much faster," said Matthew Brennan, co-founder of tech consultancy China Channel. "There is an increasingly large amount of easy money chasing increasingly fewer opportunities, while there is also a very large pool of talented entrepreneurs now, so people know how to scale businesses fast - there is an established playbook," he added. Some analysts have described Bullet Messenger as a potential challenger to Tencent Holding's WeChat - although it lags far behind the Chinese super-app, which has more than 1 billion users. Bullet's minimalist design stands out, as does a feature that instantly turns voice messages into text as the user speaks, and sends each voice message with a transcript that can be edited. Users say the technology, supplied by Chinese voice technology firm iFlytek Co , allows them to chat faster without having to type or listen to voice recordings - a time-consuming act for the receiver that is considered impolite in WeChat etiquette in China. WeChat offers a similar voice input function, but it is hidden in the app's interface and not commonly used. It also does not allow voice messages and transcripts to be sent simultaneously, as Bullet does. Wang Guanran, a Shanghai-based senior analyst with Citic Securities, described Bullet's key advantage as being "lighter" than WeChat. For example, WeChat's extra functions include payment and gaming, while Bullet only offers messaging and a newsfeed, and its interface allows users to respond to messages in fewer steps. "In a time of information overload, it makes communication more simple," he said. CULT FOLLOWING Bullet, developed by Beijing Kuairu Technology, says it amassed 5 million registered users within 10 days of its launch. It is backed by Smartisan Technology, a niche smartphone maker founded by English-teacher-turned-entrepreneur Luo Yonghao. Kuairu said it has a team of just 36 people with an average age of 27, and raised 150 million yuan ($22 million) from venture capital within seven days of the app's launch. The company declined to give details and turned down a request for an interview. Company registration records show Kuairu was registered in May with capital of 100,000 yuan. Zhang Ji and Hao Xijie, both former Smartisan managers, are listed as its two directors, while Wang Li, chief operating officer of Chinese dating app Momo Inc was listed as the sole owner as of May 9. Momo said Wang is an investor in Bullet but did not hold any position at Beijing Kuairu. According to Chinese corporate database Tianyancha, Smartisan and two local venture capital firms, Chengwei Capital and Gaorong Capital, invested in August. Chengwei and Gaorong did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NEW COMPETITION The rapid rise of Bullet serves as a wake-up call for WeChat, analysts say, which has seen no serious challenger in China's mobile messaging world since it was launched in 2011. "The Chinese consumer is considerably more fickle than the global average," Brennan said. "There are always new consumers willing to try new products and platforms." Foreign services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are banned in China, where service providers are required by law to censor their content. The other mainstream option for messaging is QQ, with mobile and desktop versions, which is also run by Tencent and is popular among younger people. Liu Hai, 29, an auto engineer in Shanghai, said he downloaded Bullet in part out of curiosity, but also because he was frustrated with the number of work messages cluttering his WeChat account. "There are too many work group messages on WeChat. It feels like I am working all the time. I cannot even block it out on weekends," he said. Liu said he was impressed with Bullet's speed and voice-recognition technology, which was able to decipher his southern Chinese accent. But he said he lost interest after three days because "nobody is actually on it." "Also, when chatting at work, speaking to your phone looks kind of stupid," he added. Smartisan's Luo said on his Weibo account, which has 15 million followers, that Bullet is simply providing a niche alternative to WeChat for users seeking faster communication. "This is not a WeChat killer. Bullet is still tiny and has a lot to prove," said Brennan, who said it is "very, very difficult" to build a social network and make people stay. Fans of Luo and Smartisan, meanwhile, are cheering the app's success as a comeback for the struggling smartphone maker. Xu Kuo, 31, an entrepreneur who describes himself as a hardcore Smartisan fan, said via Bullet: "I am uninstalling WeChat to support Lao Luo." (Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Gerry Doyle) Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, Gispert, Hoyo de Monterrey, Punch, and Ramon Allones are all legendary Cuban brands. They are also brands being produced by AJ Fernandezs Tabacalera Fernandez in Esteli. While Fernandez is producing Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, and Gispert for Tabacalera U.S.A.; and Hoyo de Monterrey and Punch for General, when it comes to Ramon Allones it is a different story. Last year came word that Ramon Allones would also be produced by Fernandez. The difference with this brand compared to the others is that sales and distribution would be handled by AJ Fernandez Cigars. In a nutshell, General Cigar had made a decision to essentially license the brand to AJ Fernandez Cigars. While Ramon Allones has a storied history in Cuba, when it comes to the U.S. market, its been more of a struggle. Just before the 2018 IPCPR Trade Show, the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez was released. Today we take a look at this version of Ramon Allones in the Toro size. General Cigar originally produced a Dominican version of Ramon Allones. While General had success with marketing and producing non-Cuban versions of Cohiba, Hoyo de Monterrey, Partagas, and Punch, when it came to the Ramon Allones and Bolivar brands, they didnt seem to have the same momentum. In 2015, General was in the process of transitioning its small-batch Foundry brand and had decided to put the Ramon Allones and Bolivar brands into Foundry. Unfortunately, Foundry just never worked out for General and by 2017 and the brand pretty much started to be dismantled. The question became what would become of Bolivar and Ramon Allones. The answer to that question was they would move over to Fernandezs operation. When Ramon Allones was a part of Foundry, it was more of a value-priced cigar. At the same time, there was some controversy about the move toward a more contemporary packaging of the brand. These two things would change with the AJ Fernandez version. The AJ Fernandez version would return to a more classic packaging. Over the past four years, AJ Fernandez had definitely made an impact in the value-priced market. At the time of the release of the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez, it would become the most premium offering in the AJ Fernandez portfolio to date priced between $12.00 to $15.00. Without further ado, lets take a closer look at the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro and see what this cigar brought to the table. SPECIFICATIONS Blend and Origin The blend for the Ramon Alllones by AJ Fernandez is a Nicaraguan puro. The cigar is highlighted by a dark high priming hybrid-seed wrapper that is referred to as a Habano Oscuro Medio Tiempo grown on Fernandezs farm. Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro Medio Tiempo Binder: Nicaraguan Filler: Nicaragua Country of Origin: Nicaragua Factory: Tabacalera Fernandez Vitolas Offered The Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez is available in four sizes. Each is presented in 20-count boxes. Robusto: 5 1/2 x 50 Torpedo: 5 1/2 x 54 Toro: 6 x 52 Churchill: 7 x 50 Appearance The Habano Oscuro Medio Tiempo wrapper of the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro had a milk chocolate color. Depending on how the light hits it, it might give off a slight rosado tint. Upon closer examination, there was a slight mottling on the surface. The wrapper also had a light coating of oil on it. There were some visible veins. At the same time, the darker color of the wrapper did a good job at minimizing any visible wrapper seams. There were two bands on the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez. The primary band has a gold, yellow, dark red, and blue color scheme. Prominently toward the top center of the band is the text RAMON ALLONES in red font. Toward the lower center of the band there is a gold ribbon design with the text AJ FERNANDEZ in dark font. In between, the center of the band has various gold, blue, and red adornments. The left side of the band has the text NICARAGUA in small white font while the right side has the text ESTELI also in white font. The back of the band has an image of AJ Fernandezs signature. The secondary band sits just below the primary band. The band is red in color with the text AJ FERNANDEZ in gold font. The far right of the band has a red square with the AJ Fernandez AJ logo in gold. The upper and lower part of the band has a thin gold trim. Finally, there is a cedar sleeve that covers the lower half of the cigar. On the sleeve is the text RAMON ALLONES stamped on it. PERFORMANCE Pre-Light Draw After removing the cedar sleeve, the cap of the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro was removed with a straight cut. From that point, it was time to commence the pre-light draw. The cold draw delivered a mix of earth, cedar, and a slight dried fruit sweetness. Overall while it wasnt the most exciting pre-light draw, it still was enough to satisfy me. It was now time to light up the Ramon Allones Toro and see what the smoking phase would have in store. Tasting Notes The Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro started out with a combination of earth and white pepper notes. It didnt take long for the flavor profile to expand as notes of chocolate, cedar, and dried fruit surfaced. The chocolate notes became primary early on with the earth, cedar, pepper, and dried fruit keeping the flavor profile balanced from the background. The retro-hale delivered a mix of black pepper and cedar. Later in the first third, the earth notes joined the chocolate in the forefront. The second third of the Ramon Allonnes Toro saw an increase in the cedar and earth notes with the dried fruit varying in levels of intensity in the background. The retro-hale developed further as there was a definite chocolate sweetness with the pepper and cedar. The chocolate and earth alternated in intensity, but held in the forefront. By the latter part of the second third of the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro, the pepper and cedar closed in on the cocoa and earth. There also was a slight decrease in the dried fruit note. This flavor profile held throughout the final third of the cigar. The resulting nub was cool in temperature and slightly soft to the touch. Burn I found the burn to perform extremely well on the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro. This surprised me a little because I figured with a high priming wrapper, I would encounter some quirks with the combustion, but no such case with the Ramon Allones Toro. This cigar maintained a straight burn path and a straight burn line. The resulting ash was light gray. It wasnt an overly firm ash, but it wasnt a loose or flaky ash either. The burn temperature and burn rate were ideal except on one of the three cigars I smoked, the burn rate was a little fast but even that didnt result in any shortcomings other than a shorter smoking time. Draw As for the draw of the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernande Toro, it had a sweet spot between openness and resistance. There are no complaints here as it scored very nicely and allowed for flavor to be derived easily. This was also a cigar that had a nice amount of smoke. Strength and Body The Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro is a cigar that is going to satisfy you if you are looking for a bold and robust smoke. This is a cigar that started out medium to full in strength and body. Shortly before the final third, both attributes rapidly spike up easily progressing this cigar into full territory for strength and body. In terms of strength versus body, it seemed like the body had a slight edge early on, but by the midway point, both attributes balanced each other out. OVERALL ASSESSMENT Final Thoughts One thing about the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro its not going to smoke like the Cuban versions, nor is it going to smoke like the Dominican iterations that were previously released. This cigar is going to tell its very own story. If you want a bold and flavorful cigar, this is going to be the cigar for you. Given this is a bolder smoke, its one that I would steer to a more seasoned cigar enthusiast. As for myself, I found the Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez Toro to be one of the best cigars Fernandez has released in some time. At $13.00, this is not an inexpensive cigar, but its a cigar that certainly performs like I cigar I would expect at that price point. Its a cigar that I would definitely recommend splurging for and if a box purchase is within your means, then grab one. Summary Key Flavors: Chocolate, Earth, Dried Fruit, Cedar, Black Pepper Burn: Excellent Draw: Excellent Complexity: Medium Strength: Medium to Full (1st 2/3), Full (Remainder) Body: Medium to Full (1st 2/3), Full (Remainder) Finish: Very Good Rating Value: Box Purchase Score: 93 References News: Ramon Allones Heads into AJ Fernandez Portfolio Price: $13.00 Source: Purchased Brand Reference: AJ Fernandez Cigars Photo Credits: Cigar Coop JavaScript is disabled on your browser. CORDIS website requires JavaScript enabled in order to work properly. Please enable JavaScript. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram In its report released late last month, the U.N. Human Rights Council found that all groups involved in the Yemen conflictfrom the government-controlled south, with its militias propped up by the UAE-led coalition and loyal to the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, and areas held by the rebel Ansar Allah or Houthi movementwere responsible for widespread human rights abuses. The reports findings reflect what journalists still working in the war-torn region have told CPJthat there is no safe place and they remain under deadly pressure from all sides. Since the start of fighting in 2014, CPJ has documented kidnaps, attacks, arson, judicial cases, and killings. As independent journalist Sami al-Kaf told CPJ, Threats can come from all sides, without exception. Journalists critical of the Houthis said they cannot operate safely in areas under their control, but CPJ has found that those reporting in Aden and other areas of the south that were once considered relatively safe are also being attacked and harassed by militias backed by the UAE coalition, such as the Security Belt and the Hadrami Elite Forces. These groups put pressure on the media to not criticize the UAE or other countries supporting the Yemeni government, or report on issues that implicate the militias. The result, several Yemeni journalists told CPJ, is that they are forced to self-censor for their own safety. CPJ did not receive a response to its request for comment from the Yemeni government and armed forces. Neither the Emirati Embassy in Washington, D.C., Emirati Ministry of Defense, the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, responded to CPJs request for comment. Incidents involving forces under Yemeni or UAE-backed proxy rule, like the abduction that CPJ documented earlier this year of seven Akhbar al-Youm staff, whom Security Belt forces held for a month, are not isolated. Fathi bin Lazraq, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Aden al-Ghad, told CPJ the Emergency Battalion in Aden detained him for eight hours on July 1. Lazraq said that the battalion operates under the umbrella of the Security Belt forces. Lazraq said the group repeatedly beat him, and its commander, Samad Sunah, told him that he was being held because his paper reported allegations that militias had seized land in the Ummul Island area of Aden and denied residents entry to the area. General Yusran al-Muqtari, commander of anti-terror forces in Yemen ostensibly operating under Yemeni government command, eventually ordered Lazraq released and apologized for his treatment, the journalist said. In a separate case that CPJ first documented in February, the UAE-funded Hadrami Elite Forces detained Awad Kashmeem, former governor of the board of directors for the government-aligned newspaper November 30, for nearly a month. Kashmeem told CPJ on August 21 that Hadramouts Specialized Criminal Court charged him with incitement and spreading false news and that militias answering to the UAE forbade him from writing and imposed travel restrictions. Hadramout Governor Faraj al-Bahasni, the commander of the Elite Forces whom Kashmeem says ordered his detention, did not reply to CPJs email requesting comment. Others journalists described being put under direct pressure to toe the official line or risk having their outlets closed. After an attack against the Akhbar al-Youm printing press that CPJ documented in March, the non-profit organization Shomou Foundation, which runs the paper, was forced to relocate to Marib Governorate, Saif al-Haderi, the foundations president, told CPJ. He added that the staff who were abducted by Security Belt Forces, were released on condition that they stop working with Akhbar al-Youm or the foundation. Despite relocating, the paper continues to come under pressure over its criticism of Yemeni government policies, and the UAE. Al-Haderi told CPJ that the journalism secretary for Marib Governorate, Ali al-Ghelisi, called him and threatened to shut down the newspaper if it printed anything critical of the Saudi-led coalition, particularly the UAE. Al-Ghelisi did not respond to an email from CPJ requesting comment. Until this moment, there is still pressure to close the foundation in Marib governorate, al-Haderi said, [Despite that] we are the first newspaper to be issued from Marib, which is a big gain for the governorate. Al-Haderi said that the papers journalists continue to receive direct threats to their physical safety. Any journalist who criticizes the practices of the UAE in Yemen is threatened, arrested, and possibly killed, al-Haderi said. Other news outlets have faced different forms of censorship, with the same end result. Saeed Thabit Saeed, country director for Al-Jazeeras Yemen operations, told CPJ on August 27 that the Yemeni Government extended an existing ban on the channel in Taiz to apply to all government-controlled areas. The channel is also barred from broadcasting in Houthi-controlled of Yemen. Saeed said that the channel applied for a permit renewal in December 2017 but in January learned that the permit was denied. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Jordan have all blocked Al-Jazeera or shuttered its bureaus as part of a broader diplomatic standoff that erupted last year with Qatar, which funds the channel. In the wake of the standoff, Qatar troops were withdrawn from the coalition, Reuters reported. [Editors Note: Al-Jazeera Arabic host Mhamed Krichen serves on CPJs board.] Other outlets in government-controlled areas reported similar pressure. Ahmad al-Zurqa, director of the independent Yemeni satellite TV channel Belqees, told CPJ that the outlet ceased covering the western coastal region of Yemen, between the port cities of Mokha and Hodeida, after the channel received threats from Security Belt leadership whom, he said, answered directly to the UAE. The latter city is under Houthi control and the entire area is a principal theater for coalition military efforts against the rebel group. Al-Zurqa added that the coalition and militias under its umbrella threatened retaliation against the channel if it hosted independent journalists critical of coalition activities. According to a statement from the channel that Al-Zurqa forwarded to CPJ, Security Belt forces on July 31 ordered a privately owned studio that Belqees uses to film its show, to ban the independent journalist Sami al-Kaf from appearing. Al-Kaf, who has written for a number of publications and is editor-in-chief of the independent news website al-Malaab, told CPJ that he suspects the ban is related to appearances he made on Belqees program Yemeni Evening in which he criticized the Security Belt and other militias, as well as the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council for continued insecurity and fighting in Aden. In another appearance, he accused the Southern Transitional Council and its allied militias of staging a coup against the Yemeni government. Al-Kaf said colleagues have warned him he could be abducted or arrested for his opposition to the security forces in Aden. He added that the Yemeni government had not investigated the threats, and that his colleagues advised him to leave the country for his own safety. Despite the risks and threats, Al-Kaf continues to report from the southern Yemen, as do many other journalists. But as UAE proxies consolidate control in the region, their attacks against press freedom cast a steadily lengthening shadow over independent reporting. Any channel opposing the coalition or the Emirates is banned from the areas where they have influence, al-Zurqa told CPJ. Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD has officially decided to participate in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) after gap of nine years. It will send team of officers to Paris to negotiate Indias terms of participation in PISA 2021. Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) PISA is assessment test for 15-year-olds, organised every three years by Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), Paris, France. It was started in 2000 with about 43 states participating, and its latest edition in 2015 saw participation from 73 countries including China and Vietnam. PISA measures student performance in mathematics, reading, and science and even innovative subjects like collaborative problem-solving and money literacy. The test is designed by education experts around the world. It assess how students apply what they have learnt to real-world problems. PISA test results give insight into education systems around the world. The results are shown as a national mean score and not shown individually. Its objective is not to rank countries, but to see how education system can be improved. Countries willing to participate in PISA choose kids from different regions to represent sample of 15-year-olds in their country. In 2012 PISA test, schools of Shanghai in China topped reading, mathematics and science test, followed closely by Singapore. In 2015, Singapore, Japan and Estonia were ranked as top three countries, in that order. Indias boycott of PISA India had made its debut in PISA in 2009 with 16000 students from 400 schools across Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. However, students had performed miserably in 2009 test and India was placed at 72nd among 74 participating countries. Government had blamed out of context questions for the poor results in 2009 and decided it wont participate in 2012 and 2015. Revision of Boycott decision In 2016, HRD Ministry had revisited this decision and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) had set up committee to review matter and submitted its report in December 2016. The report recommended for participation in test in 2018. Similar recommendation was made in 2017 by group of secretaries on education constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, India had missed the application deadline for 2018 cycle of PISA test. PISA 2021 PISA 2021 test is likely to be administered in schools in Union Territory of Chandigarh. Apart from schools in Chandigarh, HRD Ministry also suggested that all Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVs), funded and run by Centre, shall take the test. Chandigarh was selected for its compact area, students are taught in Hindi and English (Government wants to keep number of languages in which test has to be administere) to minimum). Chandigarh has record of performing well in learning assessments. Jammu and Kashmir: Kashmirs endemic fish Snowtrout is vanishing, blame it on pollution by Ashiq Hussain September 07,2018 | Source: Hindustan Times Kashmirs endemic fish Snowtrout or Schizothorax is vanishing, fisheries biologists say and blame the introduction of exotic species and growing pollution for it. Experts say exotics like Common Carp and Trout, which were introduced in 1956 and 1900, have been thriving at Schizothoraxs cost. Schizothorax fish were found in abundance in snow-fed lakes, rivers, wetlands and canals until 30 years back. They have elongated and subcylindrical fleshy bodies and are known to be tastier and free of diseases. Their presence in water bodies would indicate that they were pollution free. Experts say over half of Schizothoraxs 12 species have disappeared. The Dal Lake has some Snowtrout presence while they are no longer found in polluted water bodies like Srinagars Khushalsar Lake. Biologist Jakob Heckel, who visited Kashmir in 1838, reported 16 fish species that he considered were new and wrote about them in his book Fische Aus Caschmir. Srinagars Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST)s fisheries department head Masood ul Hassan Balkhi said 12 of the species Heckels discovered were found to be those of Schizothorax. He said researchers and the fishermen are now able to find only five of them. ...the five species, still found in waters, are also in danger, Balkhi said. Zeba, who has been selling fish in Srinagar for decades, said most of her catch is Common Carp. She had managed to catch just a single Schizothorax fish last week. SKAUSTs fisheries resource management department head Faroz Ahmad Bhat said their research in 2005 found 15% of the total catch to be Schizothorax while 68% was Common Carp. In 2015, Schizothoraxs numbers reduced to 10%. Bhat said the biomass of the species has also been decreasing. One of them would grow as much as a healthy human child. Fisheries department joint director Mohammad Amin Mir said their priority has been overall fish production. West Bengal: Rain alert: Fishermen asked to stay on land September 07,2018 | Source: Millennium Post An alert has been issued for the fishermen to avoid venturing out in the sea for the next 18 hours from Thursday evening due to the formation of a low pressure trough. With the forecast alert from the Regional Meterological department, the state government has urged fishermen not to venture out in the sea for the next 18 hours. Fishermen warning (Meteorological department) for West Bengal coast reads: "Due to formation of a Low Pressure area over Northwest Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood, Fishermen those are in deep sea are advised to return to the coast by today (05.09.2018) afternoon and also advised not to venture out in the deep sea, along and off West Bengal and Odisha coast and towards Bangladesh coast from today 5th September evening till further notice." Nepal: Rising demand gives boost to fish farming by PAWAN YADAV, SIMARA September 07,2018 | Source: Kathmandu Post Fish farming is expanding rapidly in Bara district due to increased demand in both rural and urban markets. Chhadi fish is the most popular variety among consumers because it is comparatively cheaper, and most fish farmers in the district are raising this species. According to a survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2015, two types of Chhadi fishRahu and Nainiare produced in Nepal. The average price of the fish during the survey was Rs175 per kg for Rahu and Rs187 per kg for Naini. The taste of the fish is also one reason why many consumers prefer Chhadi, said Shyam Babu Yadav, a resident of Kalaiya. I always buy Chhadi due to its unique taste. Chhadi fish is worth Rs250-300 per kg in the market. Janga Bahadur Sah, president of the Fisheries Entrepreneurs Association, Bara, said that more and more farmers were raising Chhadi fish because of the high returns. Producing big fish takes time, and the cost of production is also high, he said, adding that Chhadi fish could be produced in little time and at less cost. We used to focus on producing big fishes in past years, but now we have shifted towards producing medium sized Chhadi fish as it yields higher profits, Sah said. As a result of growing demand for fish, the number of farmers and fish ponds in the district has increased. According to farmers, traders nowadays come to the farmers doors to buy fish. Simraungadh, Madhuban, Bodhban and Kalaiya are centres of commercial fish farming in Bara. Due to the ideal water temperature and soil in Bara, fish can be harvested thrice in a year. As a result, fisheries have become a major income generating activity for farmers here, said Nejamuddin Miya, a fish farmer in Simraungadh Municipality. We have not been able to supply fish as per demand. Farmers said that they were worried by the increasing price of fish feed. As Nepal does not produce enough feed, farmers have to turn to expensive imported feed from India, Miya said. As a result of the high cost of feed, fish prices have also gone up. The government has launched a special programme in Bara under the 10-year Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project declaring the district as a fisheries super zone. Fish farms in Bara cover 1,765 hectares. There are 4,340 fish ponds in the district. According to government statistics, the average productivity in pocket areas like Simraungadh and Pachrauta is 7-7.5 tonnes of fish per hectare. However, productivity outside the pocket areas is 6.2 tonnes per hectare. Bara produces fish worth Rs3 billion annually. The Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) have arrested 16,022 persons on charges of their involvement in terrorist activities in the country during last 5 years, of which 2525 were convicted and awarded punishment. The year-wise data of persons arrested on charges of terrorism, issued by Interior Division, showed on Tuesday that in Punjab10,993 were nabbed during last 5 years, out of which 1,419 persons were arrested in 2013, 2,342 persons in 2014, 2,965 persons in 2015, 2,379 persons in 2016 and 1,888 persons were arrested during 2017. In Sindh total 2,728 persons were nabbed during last 5 years, out of which 194 persons were arrested in 2013, 262 persons in 2014, 891 persons in 2015, 761 persons in 2016 and 620 persons were arrested during 2017. Total 147 persons were nabbed during last 5 years in Balochistan, out of which 17 persons were arrested in 2013, 40 persons in 2014, 29 persons in 2015, 42 persons in 2016 and 19 persons were arrested during 2017. Similarly, the data showed that in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) 1,967 persons were nabbed during last 5 years, out of which 321 persons were arrested in 2013, 243 persons in 2014, 526 persons in 2015, 453 persons in 2016 and 424 persons were arrested during 2017. In Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 61 persons were nabbed during last 5 years, out of which 20 persons were arrested in 2013, 20 persons in 2014, 06 persons in 2015, 07 persons in 2016 and 08 persons were arrested during 2017. Total 126 persons were nabbed during last 5 years in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), out of which 12 persons were arrested in 2013, 15 persons in 2014, 22 persons in 2015, 44 persons in 2016 and 33 persons were arrested during 2017. When contacted, the sources said, the reports about arrested persons on charges of their involvement in terrorist activities is still awaited from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Moreover, the year-wise statistics about number of persons who have been convicted and awarded punishments showed that of the total 2,525 persons, 328 of them were convicted and awarded punishment in 2013, 401 in 2014, 765 in 2015, 496 in 2016 and 535 such persons in 2017. The province-wise data showed that in Punjab 1970 persons were convicted and awarded punishment in last 5 years which included 252 in 2013, 351 in 2014, 609 in 2015, 318 in 2016 and 440 persons in 2017. In Sindh, 255 persons were convicted and awarded punishment in last 5 years which included 06 in 2013, 11 in 2014, 61 in 2015, 100 in 2016 and 77 persons in 2017. In Balochistan, 54 persons were convicted and awarded punishment in last 5 years which included 07 in 2013, 10 in 2014, 20 in 2015, 12 in 2016 and 05 persons convicted in 2017. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), 234 persons were convicted and awarded punishment in last 5 years which included 60 in 2013, 23 in 2014, 72 in 2015, 66 in 2016 and 13 persons convicted in 2017. In Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), only 2 persons were convicted and awarded punishment in last 5 years which included one each in 2013 and 2014 while no person was convicted in last 3 years. In Gilgit Baltistan (GB), 10 persons were convicted and awarded punishment in last 5 years which included 2 in 2013, 05 in 2014 and 03 in 2015 while no person was convicted in 2016 and 2017. The report regarding convicted persons is still awaited from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Moreover, the year-wise data showed that 376 persons were awarded death penalty in the country during last 5 years which included 53 persons in 2013, 81 persons in 2014, 133 persons in 2015, 71 persons in 2016 and 38 persons were awarded death penalty in 2017. The province-wise statistics showed that in Punjab 330 persons were awarded death penalty during last 5 years which included 47 persons in 2013, 79 persons in 2014, 124 persons in 2015, 46 persons in 2016 and 34 persons were awarded death penalty in 2017. In Sindh, 19 persons were awarded death penalty during last 5 years which included nil in 2013, 02 persons in 2014, 01 persons in 2015, 15 persons in 2016 and 01 person was awarded death penalty in 2017. In Balochistan, 15 persons were awarded death penalty during last 5 years which included nil in 2013 and 2014, 02 persons in 2015, 10 persons in 2016 and 03 persons were awarded death penalty in 2017. The number of persons awarded death penalty during last 5 years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) was 07 which included 01 person in 2013 nil in 2014, 06 persons in 2015, and no person was awarded death penalty in 2016 and 2017. In Gilgit Baltistan (GB), 05 persons were awarded death penalty during last 5 years which included 05 persons in 2013 and no person was awarded death penalty in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. The report regarding persons awarded death penalty is still awaited from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). In ICT no person was awarded death sentence during last 5 years. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde Pakistan Point News, September 5, 2018 Airline, part-owned by Etihad Airways, said last month it would inject funds and cut costs in excess of $278 million over two years to try to stem losses. Jet Airways (India) is in talks with its pilots to address delays in salary payments and other matters, its pilots union said on Thursday. The airline, part-owned by Etihad Airways, said last month it would inject funds and cut costs in excess of $278 million over two years to try to stem losses. Our issues such as the disbursement of salaries are being amicably addressed and we continue to resolve ongoing concerns through constant dialogue with the airlines management team, the National Aviators Guild (NAG) said in a statement. Earlier, the Times of India reported, citing news agency Press Trust of India that the pilots had threatened this week to stop cooperating with the company over unpaid wages. "Withholding salaries, that too without prior notice, is a serious matter and the management will bear sole responsibility for any repercussions ... failure to address the above points and not paying the salaries on time would lead to non-cooperation by pilots," the report here quoted Jet Airways' pilots as saying. Jet said it had paid salaries on time to 84 per cent of its employees and was committed to honouring its obligations. It also said in a statement to Reuters earlier that it was confident of resolving issues through dialogue. The NAG said management had been receptive to the cost saving initiatives suggested by the union. The ED has identified Bhansali as the 'second-in-command' in the Firestar Group after Nirav Modi. (Photo: File | PTI) New Delhi: Interpol has issued a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Mihir R Bhansali, a close confidante and senior executive of absconding billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, in connection with the alleged USD 2 billion PNB money-laundering case, officials said on Thursday. The notice, which acts as an international arrest warrant, states Bhansali (40) is required by Indian probe agencies on charges of "money laundering". The RCN against Mihir Rashmi Bhansali, CEO of Nirav Modi's jewellery firm in the US, Firestar International, was requested by the Enforcement Directorate, they said. The ED wants him to join the investigation in order to take the probe in the case forward, they added. It had told the global police body that Bhansali was "likely" to visit the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China or the UAE. In its RCN issued against a fugitive, the Interpol asks its 192 member countries to arrest or detain the person if spotted in their countries after which extradition or deportation proceedings can begin. The ED has identified Bhansali as the "second-in-command" in the Firestar Group after Nirav Modi, and that "he was actively involved in the diversion and laundering of the funds received from the alleged fraudulently issued PNB LOUs (Letters of Undertaking). "Bhansali was instrumental in rotation and diversion of the proceeds of crime generated in this case," an official privy to the probe said. ED's investigation found that with the help of other officials of the Firestar Group, Bhansali "inducted dummy partners in Solar Exports, Stellar Diamond and Diamond R US (Modi's firms in whose names LOUs were issued)." "He was instrumental in formation of overseas dummy companies in Hong Kong and Dubai, and employees/ex-employees of the Firestar Group were sent as dummy directors/owners in these entities at his directions," the agency charged Bhansali. The ED, as part of its probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), found that a "secure internal email communication system was developed at Bhansali's insistence and its server was deliberately kept in Dubai." "Fund transfer, rotation of goods, melting of metal, dismantling of jewellery and low quality jewellery production with high-value declaration were done on his instructions," the agency charged. The ED alleged that after the PNB fraud came to light, Bhansali "along with Nehal Modi (Nirav Modi's brother), took 50 kg gold and substantial cash from Dubai, and directed dummy directors not to reveal his name before the authorities." It is alleged that the businessman is also a director in few of the dummy companies which are "controlled" by Nirav Modi and are based in the British Virgin Islands. Bhansali is also said to have purchased a USD 7 million worth property in the US "from the funds believed to be generated from the alleged PNB scam". Sometime back, a similar Interpol notice was issued against Nirav Modi even as India is seeking his extradition from the UK. The case pertains to cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank through fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit worth over USD 2 billion (about Rs 13,000 crore) by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, both absconding since the first week of January. A senior Air India official said the aircraft 'VT EXL landed on an under-construction runway at Male'. (Representational Image) New Delhi: An Air India aircraft, carrying more than 136 people, on Friday landed on a wrong runway at the Male airport in the Maldives, and following the incident two pilots have been taken off duty, officials said. An Air India spokesperson said the plane landed at an "uncommissioned runway" and that all passengers are safe. A senior DGCA official said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has been informed since it is a serious incident. The A320 neo plane was operating from Thiruvananthapuram to Male. A senior Air India official said the aircraft "VT EXL landed on an under-construction runway at Male". The plane landed at Velana international airport at Male. There were 136 passengers and crew on board. Tyres of the plane were deflated and the aircraft was towed away to the parking bay, the official said. Citing a preliminary report, the spokesperson said two tyres of the aircraft were deflated. "It could be because the pilots applied brakes on realising that they landed on a wrong runway. The local authorities are conducting a probe," he added. The senior official at aviation regulator DGCA said both pilots of the plane have been "off rostered". Off rostering refers to pilots being taken off their flying duties. "Being a serious incident, the AAIB has been informed," the official added. In his speech as the host of the event, US Congressman Thomas Garrett Jr appealed to all countries in the world to treat their minorities with the respect and dignity they deserve and grant them equal rights. (Photo: AFP) Washington: Several US lawmakers have urged the new government of Pakistan, led by prime minister Imran Khan, to stop human rights violations, and treat its ethnic and religious minorities with equality and dignity. Addressing 'The Minorities Day on the Hill' organised by South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation (SAMAF) and Voice of Karachi (VOK) on Wednesday, the lawmakers urged the Imran Khan government to stop human rights violation of minorities in Karachi and other parts of the country, as well as in Balochistan. In his speech as the host of the event, US Congressman Thomas Garrett Jr appealed to all countries in the world to treat their minorities with the respect and dignity they deserve and grant them equal rights. He said that Mohajirs (Muslims who migrated to Pakistan from India during the partition in 1947) had left their homes hoping for a better life, but they were not welcomed in their new homeland. "I clearly understand the plight of Mohajirs who are the product of post-independence ethnic cleansing. They were forced to leave their homes hoping they are going to somewhere they'd be welcomed, but they weren't," he said. "They have a story that needs to be told. I am not advocating on behalf of any group to demand a radical change in policy except that we expect our allies to treat their minorities with equality and dignity they so much deserve," Garrett said. Congressman Scott Perry said that "we in the United States see and treat all ethnic and religious minorities equally and we demand that our allies do the same. We can all live together and practice our faith in peace and harmony. This is the way it is now in America, but that should be everywhere." The lawmaker from Pennsylvania said that America should take lead on this and demand all those countries the US does business with or have relations with to treat their citizens equally, so everyone could realise their full potential. Congressman Andy Harris said that "practicing one's religion is a basic human right, and as humans we should share this right. It doesn't matter which part of the world we live in, or which ethnic or religious group we belong to, we have the right to exist peacefully and enjoy our basic human rights." US lawmakers who attended the event and expressed their support for the cause of ethnic and religious minorities included Scott Perry, Adam Kizinger, Dave Brat, Morgan Griffith, Jeff Duncan, Raul Labrador, Gary Palmer, Rod Blum, Randy Huttgren, Jodz Rice, Andy Biggs, Tom Rice and Alex Mooney. Vietnams software industry is growing strongly with revenues of existing companies surging and Vingroup announcing its entry into the sector. Quang Trung Software City in Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys top information and technology hub, reported revenues of VND3.3 trillion ($142 million) in the first half of this year for the 155 businesses operating inside. This figure, which was up 25.5 percent year-on-year, included $93.4 million worth of software exports, up 36.5 percent. Revenues of Quang Trung Software City last year were worth over VND8 trillion ($344 million), a 25 percent rise over 2016. These growth rates are common for top software companies, including giant FPT Software, which has been reporting them since 2010. Last year FPTs exports were worth VND6.2 trillion ($266 million). It plans to increase that number to VND7.7 trillion ($331 million) this year, and to $1 billion by 2020. The high growth rates obviously mean increasing job creation by the sector. Data from VietnamWorks, a leading recruitment company, shows there were 15,000 new jobs in the information technology sector last year, 1.5 times the 2015 number. More than half of them were in HCMC, the countrys largest technology hub. Last month realty and retail behemoth Vingroup announced plans to focus intensively on the technology sector by establishing VinTech, which will focus on AI, software and new materials. Vietnams software exports last year were worth VND58.5 trillion ($2.5 billion), up 4.4 percent from 2016, according to the Ministry of Information and Technology. Vietnamese farmers offer coffee at around 32,500 dong-33,300 dong ($1.39-$1.43) per kg on April 6, the lowest since April 2016. Photo by Reuters Coffee prices in Vietnam hit their lowest in nearly 2-1/2 years following global cues, traders said on Thursday. Farmers in Vietnam, the worlds second-biggest coffee producer after Brazil, offered coffee at around 32,500 dong-33,300 dong ($1.39-$1.43) per kg in the province of Daklak, the lowest since April 2016, traders said. International markets recovered slightly on Wednesday but prices are still unattractively low, said Phan Hung Anh, deputy director of Anh Minh Co, a coffee-trading firm in Daklak province, Vietnams major coffee growing area. November robusta coffee settled up $26, or 1.8 percent, at $1,501 per tonne on Wednesday. The second-month contract had slumped to a 2-1/2-year low of $1,465 on Tuesday. Exporters offered Vietnams 5 percent black and broken grade 2 robusta at $40-$70 discount to Londons November contract, while importers sought a $60-$70 discount, traders said. Traders expected coffee exports this month to dip to 90,000 tonnes-120,000 tonnes from 135,000 tonnes in August, citing low prices and as Vietnam is heading towards the end of its crop season. The 2018/2019 crop season starts in October. In Indonesia, premiums for the grade 4 defect 80 robusta in the province of Lampung were at $90 to the November contract or $130-US$140 to the January contract, traders said. Last week, premiums were at $100 to the November contract. Prices are already stable, and this is predicted to continue for the next two weeks, one coffee trader told Reuters, adding trade was thin as harvest would end this month. Another trader said harvest was almost over in some areas like Bengkulu and Talang Padang, and Palembang. Indonesia exported 11,633.8 tonnes of robusta coffee beans from the Lampung province in August, down 67 percent from the same month last year, government data showed. There is a 40 percent staff shortage in the hospitality industry, Vietnam Tourism Association estimates. Photo by Ping Nguyen Upscale Vietnam hotels are struggling to hire and retain skilled staff, as even those with hospitality training switch careers. Nguyen Huu Tho, chairman of Vietnam Tourism Association, estimated a 40 percent staff shortage in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is booming as tourist arrivals increase year after year and hotels spring up all over the country to meet rising demand. This also means a high demand for more staff, but hotels are struggling to find them, says Kenneth Atkinson, executive chairman of Grant Thornton Vietnam, market research firm. HotelJob.vn, one of the leading hospitality search services, is currently inviting applications for over 9,500 jobs, from janitors to managers. In tourism hotspots like Phu Quoc Island and Sapa, hotels are unable to get the staff they need, he told VnExpress International. In fact, many hotels all over the country are experiencing challenges in sourcing skilled Vietnamese persons to fill vacant positions, he said, adding that the shortage often results from people not continuing to pursue a career in hospitality despite being trained in the industry. The shortage has resulted in strong competition between upscale hotels in travel hot spots that are having trouble retaining staff. The high labor turnover in the industry is making things very difficult for hotel managers. In Nha Trang, the famous beach city in central Vietnam, the CEO of 4-star Rosaka Hotel, Nguyen Anh Vu, said he had to recruit new staff every month as they switch easily to whichever hotel is offering better wages and benefits. Even lowering the standard doesnt help me to recruit enough people, Vo told local press. Nguyen Thi Hoa Le, chairwoman of the Peace Tour Company, said that even if staff at Phu Quoc are paid salaries 1.5 times higher than the average in other areas, it is very difficult to keep them. Low esteem One of the reasons for the skilled staff shortage is that the hospitality industry in Vietnam is not an attractive career path to many. Many Vietnamese people commence in hospitality and then leave for other industries, said Craig Douglas, chairman of the HR working group under the Advisory Board for the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. In many countries around the world, young people are excited and proud to work in hotels, but this is not generally the case in Vietnam, where service industries are somehow not regarded in the same way, he said. Douglas also said that there is a shortage of qualified training schools relative to the growth in staff requirement at existing and new hotels. The average staff per room required for upscale hotels is between 1.3 and 1.5, he said. That means almost 25,000 employees are needed to service all 4-star and 5-star hotels that are operating or being built in Phu Quoc alone, he added. But, Le said, there is only one training school for tourism on the island. Le said that to have enough employees in Phu Quoc, she has to recruit staff from all over the country and invite experts to come and train them. ASEAN employees When there are no Vietnamese candidates available, employers will look to other employees from ASEAN countries like the Philippines and Malaysia, who have better language skills and are more price competitive, Atkinson said. The Mutual Recognition Arrangements for Tourism Professionals under the ASEAN Economic Community, which was established in 2015, has made it easier for hotels to employ staff from those countries, he added. He said hotels have to hire good staff in all circumstances, because a lack of skilled staff will make it difficult to provide quality service to the guests, Atkinson said. If guests do not get the standard of service that they require then the industry will get a bad name internationally, which will negatively impact on the flow of foreign visitors and returning visitors to Vietnam, he added. Last year, there were over 68,200 upscale hotel rooms, accounting for 13.4 percent of the total, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). VNAT statistics also show a significant upsurge in the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam over the last few years. By the end of August this year, 10.4 million foreign visitors came to the country, up 22.8 percent year-on-year. Escaped inmates return to a rehab center in Dong Thap Province after a crackdown by local police on Wednesday night. Photo supplied by Dong Thap Police Of 38 drug addicts who escaped Wednesday night from a Dong Thap rehabilitation center, 22 have been caught. Police are looking for the other 16. Local reports say that around 100 drug users at the rehab center in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, 143 kilometers (88 miles) to the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, smashed through doors and fought with guards on Wednesday night. Thirty-eight of them broke the centers gates and escaped. Hundreds of police officers were dispatched to the scene to ensure security and track down the escapees. Bui Thanh Nhon, director of Dong Thap's department of social affairs, said Thursday that 22 drug addicts have been returned to the facility and police are still looking for the remaining 16 inmates. Wednesdays breakout took place just a month after 200 drug users busted out of at a rehab center in Tien Giang Province, a two-hour drive to the west of Dong Thap. The center in Dong Thap is home to around 243 inmates, including 15 women. Vietnam has 132 rehab centers in total, and there are around 220,000 drug addicts on official records. Several breakouts have occurred in recent years at rehab centers. Vietnam treats drug addiction as a social evil that can be cured with abstinence and re-education. Following international criticism, the government established a timeframe in 2013 to gradually replace compulsory detention centers with community-based, voluntary treatment regimens. The transition, however, has proven tricky given inconsistencies in the legal system, the widely-held belief that drug addiction stems from moral failure, and the lack of competent doctors, therapists and equipment. Joo Hyun Bahn (L), a nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, leaves a hearing in the federal court in Manhattan with his lawyer, Julia Gatto in New York City, New York, U.S. January 20, 2017. Photo by Reuters Joo Hyun Dennis Bahn was sentenced to six months in U.S. prison for a bribery scheme to secure the sale of a Vietnamese building complex. The former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moons nephew, a South Korean citizen living in the United States, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan for a bribery scheme that he thought would result in the sale of Hanois Landmark 72 building complex to a Qatari sovereign wealth fund. He had pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy and violating a U.S. foreign corruption law. A lawyer for Bahn could not immediately be reached for comment. In his guilty plea, Bahn admitted that in 2014 and 2015, he tried to arrange a bribe to secure the sale of Hanois Landmark 72 building complex, owned by Korean construction company Keangnam Enterprises Co Ltd. Bahns father, Ban Ki-sang, was an executive at the company. Bahn said he believed he was paying a $500,000 bribe to an official at Qatars sovereign wealth fund through a middleman, New York fashion designer and blogger Malcolm Harris. In reality, Bahn said, Harris had no connection with any Qatari official and kept the money. U.S. prosecutors have also charged Ban Ki-sang, who remains at large. Prosecutors have said he enlisted his son to arrange the Landmark 72 sale to help Keangnam deal with a liquidity crisis. Ban Ki-moon was long expected to make a bid for the presidency of South Korea but announced in February 2017 that he would not run, decrying fake news about him and his family. Bahns lawyers said in a court filing last month that Bahn did not have a close relationship with his uncle. Harris pleaded guilty to money laundering and wire fraud in June and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in October. There is compelling evidence that women in leadership in companies drives profits and gives businesses a competitive edge. Babeth Ngoc Han Lefur, Country Director of Oxfam in Vietnam As regional business leaders convene in Hanoi next week for the World Economic Forum on ASEAN, they have an opportunity to learn from Vietnams successes and shortcomings on promoting equality between men and women. Vietnam has among the most progressive gender equality laws in Asia. It was among the first countries to ratify the U.N.s CEDAW convention on womens rights in 1982, and Vietnamese womens labor force participation of over 73 percent is one of the highest in the region. And yet Vietnamese women are mostly found in unskilled and untrained labor-intensive sectors. They earn 33 percent less on average than their male counterparts in all fields, with the biggest difference of 43 percent found in agriculture and foreign companies. In government, only one out of 20 ministers is female, and 89 out of 1,048 department directors. Globally, more men than women own land, shares and other capital assets, men are paid more for doing the same roles as women, and men are concentrated in higher paid jobs. Social norms, attitudes and beliefs devalue the status and abilities of women, justify violence and discrimination against them, and dictate which jobs they can and cannot expect to hold. The unpaid care work that hugely contributes to the worlds economic prosperity is unrecognized and unrewarded, keeping women subordinate and restrained in their choices. In the social enterprise sector, Southeast Asia is leading the way on pay parity and leadership opportunities for women compared to all other regions, and yet women in Asia earn a fraction of mens wages and are more likely to be paid below the minimum wage. There is compelling evidence that women in leadership in companies drives profits and gives businesses a competitive edge. On a national level, greater gender equality in the workforce provides enormous macroeconomic opportunity. The McKinsey Global Institute asserted in 2015 that if women participated equally in the global economy, they could generate additional GDP worth $28 trillion by 2025. That amount is roughly equivalent to the size of the Chinese and U.S. economies combined. Women work at Xuan Hoa furniture factory in Xuan Hoa town, outside Hanoi, Vietnam, April 5, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Kham In order for government and business leaders to do better, they must begin by addressing three key barriers to economic equality. First, agree that the idea that our economic model is gender-neutral is a myth. Instead, the policy environment needs to revalue and redistribute care work to end the double burden that many women face. Second, womens economic empowerment is a practical selling point for companies and business, but is not enough to demonstrate a commitment to change corporate culture - the entrenched structures that undermine womens access to resources, assets, and leadership positions. Finally, the biggest barrier to change is often the deeply held social norms, beliefs and behaviours within companies and organisations own practices. Policies are important, but are valueless if not applied consistently. Pragmatically or even intuitively, Asian business leaders understand that economic equality can only be achieved by ending gender inequalities, but the how is evasive. A useful framework for companies diagnosis, planning and interventions, called the Rao-Kelleher framework, considers organisational strategy in four dimensions: individual attitudes, access to resources, cultural norms, and formal laws/policies. These dimensions relate to and build on each other. Change in formal rules and policies is necessary to put accountability mechanisms in place within the organizations mission and mandate, ensuring that gender equality is a priority in business decisions, as well as policies for work-family balance and to fight sexual harassment. Along with this, staff need access to resources, space and time to advance equality, with more women in leadership positions, training and capacity building opportunities for achieving gender equality goals. This is built on leaders and employees knowledge and commitment to gender equality and capacity for dialogue. Finally, change in informal norms and practices is a long-term process involving power sharing, acceptance of womens leadership, work-family balance, and inclusive organizational cultures that prioritize learning and prevent harassment and discrimination. In Vietnam, the legal environment provides a good foundation for companies to develop comprehensive gender policies within their organizations as well as in business operations. The bigger and more complex task is to enhance gender diversity thinking and culture at the workplace, such as discouraging gender stereotyping, penalizing gender discrimination, and promoting values and behaviors of equality and diversity. Businesses that genuinely strive for inclusion tackle the solution with a comprehensive inside/outside strategy, including good policies, a business culture that values womens leadership, and contributions to shared prosperity in society. Businesses competitive edge does not come only from the maximization of profits; it lies in gender diversity and environmental sustainability that drive business growth. *Babeth Ngoc Han Lefur is Country Director of Oxfam in Vietnam. Tran Hoang Nhat Tung and Dam Minh Quang are held at a police station in Khanh Hoa Province for robbing a bank. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc The two men who robbed a bank in Khanh Hoa and escaped with nearly $130,000 in cash have been arrested. Police in the central province of Khanh Hoa police said they arrested Tran Hoang Nhat Tung, 36, and Dam Minh Quang, 30, on Thursday night as the duo were traveling on a motorbike on the same street in Ninh Hoa Town where they robbed a Vietcombank branch. Tung and Quang are Ninh Hoa residents, police said, adding that they were tracked down based on camera footage at the bank. A search of the mens houses netted four handmade guns and dozens of bullets of the same kind found in the robbed bank. The duo had brought five guns with them when committing the robbery, police said. They also found more than VND3 billion (over $128,300) in cash that the robbers took from the bank. The cash was buried at an abandoned house not very far from one of the robbers house. Police said that one of the robbers was a drug addict. In the camera footage, both men had their heads, faces and hands covered when walking into the bank on Wednesday. Police arrest central Vietnam bank robbers Police after two male bank robbers in central Vietnam The two hurried out when an alarm bell went off in the bank. One of them threatened the staff, mostly women, and chased after the guards with his gun while the other took the cash. Eye witnesses said one of the men dropped his gun in front of the bank before the other one fired two shots in the air to threaten people around before they made their escape. One witness said the whole incident took little more than two minutes. It has been reported that Vietcombank is unlikely to suffer any loss as it is insured as regulated. Vietnam has overtaken China as the country with the largest number of foreign brides in S.Korea, according to the S.Korean Embassy in Hanoi. "In the last few years around 6,000 Vietnamese women got married to South Koreans every year, Lee Mi-yon, minister at the embassy, told VnExpress recently. "Since 2015, Vietnamese brides have accounted for the largest number of foreign brides in South Korea." In general the number of Vietnamese women marrying South Korean men has been increasing by around 20 percent per year, while the number of Chinese brides, who used to make up the biggest number, has been declining. Asked about the protection of Vietnamese brides' rights and interests, Lee said South Korea has strict laws on marriage brokering and appropriate punishments for violations. These organizations are required to meet certain criteria and provide accurate information to men seeking foreign brides, while Vietnamese women must also provide accurate information about themselves before moving to South Korea. In Vietnam, only organizations under the Women's Union are allowed to broker marriages, and any Korean entity found doing this in Vietnam would be reported to South Korean authorities and punished. "We are always trying to minimize risks to Vietnamese brides, so it is our responsibility to review and prevent illegal activities from taking place," Lee said. In Hanoi, to help Vietnamese brides enjoy a good life in South Korea, there are nongovernmental organizations that provide Korean language lessons and information about South Korean culture, society and legal aid. Vietnamese brides already in South Korea could learn about South Korean culture and how to handle marriage problems by seeking help from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's service centers. Asked about the number of Vietnamese applying for regular visas to South Korea, Lee said in the last three years the number has tripled to over 100,000. The number of student visa applications has increased by over 700 percent from 1,700 to 14,400, she said. Vietnamese women, many from poor rural families, have for long been marrying South Korean men hoping for a better life in the more developed nation. However, it is not always a fairytale ending for them though the number of suicides and fatal beatings have fallen in recent years. This handout photo obtained on September 6, 2018 courtesy of Jeremy Monahan via Twitter shows police responding to a shooting at a bank in Cincinnati, Ohio Photo by AFP/Jeremy Monahan A gunman opened fire at a bank building in the U.S. city of Cincinnati Thursday, fatally wounding three people before police shot and killed him. The incident occurred after 9:00 am local time (1300 GMT) at the lobby and loading dock of the 30-story Fifth Third Bank building in the city's downtown business district, authorities said. "An individual entered the loading dock area, began firing shots," Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said at a news conference. The gunman then went to the lobby of the building, where police engaged the suspect in a shootout and killed him, the chief said. "At least three or four of our officers did engage the suspect," Isaac said. Three people died of their wounds and two others remained hospitalized. The shooter's identity or motive were not released. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said the shooting could have been "much worse," had it not been for the quick response of police officers in the area. "He was actively shooting innocent victims it appears," Cranley said. "Police were there within seconds, literally." One unnamed eyewitness, a construction worker, told WLWT television that he heard at least six gunshots before police arrived. "I just seen people running out of the building," the eyewitness said. "There's guys with suits laying on the ground, hiding behind big flower pots," he said. The office tower where the shooting occurred remained on lockdown more than an hour after the incident, as police swept the building. Police cordoned off a portion of the city's downtown. "There was a senseless act of gun violence on the streets of Cincinnati this morning," Ohio Governor John Kasich said on Twitter. "I commend the law enforcement, fire and (emergency medical) personnel who swiftly responded to the scene and share my deepest sympathies with the innocent victims of this violent attack." Ukraine to spend about $7.1 bln on defense and security in 2019 PM Groysman Financing of security and defense at a level of at least 5% of GDP remains a government priority. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Farmers support program to be extended for next year - Cabinet According to PM Groysman, his goal is to create a real mechanism for supporting Ukrainian farming and to increase the number of farmers throughout the country. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukrainian farmers launch campaign to sow winter grain crops These are Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Chernihiv regions. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter LIVE. Heritage party's campaign to start from Aznavour square (video) The Heritage Party will start a campaign for Yerevan city council election on Charles Aznavour Square on September 10. Leader of the party Raffi Hovannisian stated this in a press conference. "On Monday, we'll deliver a program speech and present our proposals to our citizens," Raffi Hovannisian said. "Yerevan has to make a new methodological approach after new changes. We say that in case of being in the council and in the municipality, we will be above the party interests and will be civilized. There will be no question that will be solved without analysis of professional groups," Raffi Hovannisian said. Raffi Hovhannisyan mentioned that he proposed to take part in the elections with a single list, where all the revolutionary forces will be. According to Raffi Hovannisian, after many years Armenia has an opportunity to have fair and free elections, for which it will be possible to be proud of in the whole world. "We consider that a single team cannot solve the city's problems, and there should be gathered a team that will not be afraid to surround us with intelligent people," he said. 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 President Sarkissian introduced on PicsArts activity and programs President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian visited today PicsArt, got acquainted with the IT companys activity and programs. During the tour PicsArt co-founder and CEO Hovhannes Avoyan and director general Mikayel Vardanyan introduced the President on the companys activity features, management system approaches, composition, general policy, as well as the opportunities of PicsArt app. It was reported that currently the app is available in 30 languages all over the world, in iOS, Android and Windows platforms. The app has more than 100 million users monthly. The President got acquainted with the company conditions, talked to the staff and was interested in their work. After the tour President Sarkissian met with the company leadership during which he touched upon the IT development trends and prospects in Armenia, the cooperation with the Armenian startups. The companys further activity directions, the current level of international cooperation and expansion programs were presented. President Sarkissian expressed readiness to assist the companys development as much as possible. Political scientist: Russia has found the weak side of Armenia During a conversation with "A1 +" political scientist Armen Badalyan, referring to the upcoming Putin-Pashinyan meeting on September 8, expressed an opinion that Russia has found the weak side of Armenia: "We do not develop relations with other countries." "Despite the fact that the new authorities constantly state that Russia is Armenia's strategic partner and the course of its foreign policy has not changed, there are still questions in Russia. The more we declare that we are a reliable partner of Russia, the more doubts are in Russia. There are also bilateral questions as Russia, as we know, sells weapons to Azerbaijan, recently Turkish-speaking countries have adopted anti-Armenian resolution in Bishkek, and there is Kyrgyzstan there, which has been a CSTO member and has decided against its ally," Badalyan said. According to the political scientist, Russia has found the weakness of the Armenian authorities. It is that we do not develop relations with the EU, US and neighboring Iran, other influential countries as well as do not have a foreign policy conception. "The prime minister visits Russia for the third time in 100 days, and during this time he has been in Brussels once, has not visited the United States, Iran or Chine. Russia sees it, makes use of it and starts to intensify the pressure on the Armenian authorities," said the political scientist. He also noticed that the former authorities were trying to establish ties with the EU based on the PR, but the current government did not do it even at the formal level. Dubai-based flydubai on September 6 announced that it would move its existing operations from Kyiv Sikorsky International Airport to Boryspil International Airport with effect from October 28, 2018. "Ukraine remains an important market for the airline. From October 2, double daily flights will be available between Kyiv and Dubai," the company said in a statement on its website. flydubai launched its operations to Ukraine in 2013 and offers 17 weekly flights from Kyiv and Odesa to Dubai. "Through flydubai's expanded codeshare partnership with Emirates, Ukrainian passengers also are offered unmatched travel options via Dubai's aviation hub," the company said. According to the announcement, the company will use a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 on the Kyiv route. Emirates will codeshare on this route as part of the Emirates flydubai partnership announced in July 2017. "Another good news for Boryspil and its passengers. Terminal F will still be filled from next year," Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan commented on the announcement. flydubai carries out more than 1,700 flights per week to more than 90 destinations in 48 countries. DTEK, without waiting for an answer to the claim it made on the assets lost in the annexed Crimea, has begun preparing a suit to international courts, DTEK Director General Maksym Tymchenko has said. "We've made a claim, waited for an answer, but have not received it. Therefore now court hearings are being prepared," he told journalists in Poltava region. According to the director general, the damage is now being assessed as a result of assets lost in Crimea. DTEK Krymenergo was the largest electricity supplier in the Crimean peninsula. It provided more than 80% of electricity supplies in its territory. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said that the guarantor of Ukrainian independence is the Ukrainian army, and not international treaties. The president once again stressed that the Ukrainian Army is the guarantor of Ukrainian independence. "We used to say earlier that the Budapest memorandum is a guarantor, something else is. No. We are correcting these approaches. The guarantor of our independence is our army," the president said at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in Kyiv on Thursday. Poroshenko said that the Ukrainian defense industry developed cruise missiles, high-precision weapons with an increased range of volley fire systems, the latest armored vehicles, modern ships, the latest electronic warfare systems, the latest communications and much more achieved by selfless work of the Ukrainian defense industry over the last four years, including with the involvement of foreign partners. "Everything we saw on the military Parade must be immediately provided to the troops. Otherwise, it is a show-off. Otherwise, this is not necessary," he said. Ukraine's SBU Security Service has put a stop to the subversive activity of foreigners attempting to destroy PJSC Zaporizhia-based ZAlK aluminum mill and has proposed Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) impose economic sanctions against Russia's UC (United Company) Rusal, Judson Trading Limited and a number of foreign citizens involved in attempts to destroy the mill. "Thanks to the thorough work of the SBU, it was possible to stop subversive activities of foreign entities and return ZAlK to the state. Also, the only deposit of blue quartzite in Eurasia has been returned to the plant ... In addition, the SBU has proposed special economic sanctions against Russia's UC Rusal, Judson Trading Limited and foreign citizens involved in the destruction of the plant," the SBU press center said on Thursday. In addition, SBU investigators under Articles 113, 191, 255 and 364 of Ukraine's Criminal Code have served notices of suspicion to eight perpetrators involved in the attempts to destroy ZAlK, "including UC Rusal executives," the SBU's press service said on Thursday. The SBU said activities of "Putin-fed oligarchs" were intended to destroy one of the flagmen of Ukraine's metallurgical industrial sector ZAlK and are an example of the so-called aggressive "hybrid war" policy against Ukraine. Article 19 of the Law on Ukraine's National Security stipulates that one of the SBU's tasks to ensure security is counter-intelligence activity to protect the state's economy. Ukraine's SBU Security Service has stopped the activity of an international hacker group that specialized in stealing and legalizing funds taken from banking institutions in more than 20 countries. Members of the group live in Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Odesa, and Voznesensk. The SBU's press service on Friday said agents established that the hackers with the help of special programs had received access to personal data of legal entities at banks located in the European Union, South Asia and former Soviet states. The group then submitted false payment orders and withdrew funds from the business accounts. The SBU said legalizing the stolen money was handled through several fake financial operations with intermediary companies, some of which were controlled by Russian secret services. Each of the participants of the scheme received an agreed-upon percent from the stolen funds. During searches of the residences of group members in Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Odesa and Voznesensk, law enforcement agents seized financial documents, confirming the forgery of bank guarantees and illegal transfer of stolen funds through popular banking systems. SBU employees also found electronic correspondence showing how the funds were legalized, in particular, through intermediary companies associated with Russian secret services. Ukrainian agents detained the organizer of the group - a citizen of a country in the Middle East and his accomplice, who was responsible for technical aspects of the fraud. Expert analysis is now being carried out to confirm the fact of unauthorized interference in the operation of international electronic banking systems and the relevant information has been sent to foreign partners. The organizer and two persons involved in the case were announced suspicion under Part 2 of Article 200 (illegal actions with documents for transfer, payment cards and other means of access to bank accounts, equipment for their manufacture) of Ukraine's Criminal Code. Immediate investigative actions are underway to bring to justice all the members of the group and their foreign accomplices. The SBU indicated that their operation was conducted jointly with the Main Investigation Department of the National Police and Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO). Kuchma considers decision on elections in Donetsk and Luhansk to be threat to Minsk process Ukraine's second president, the country's representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, Leonid Kuchma, believes that the decision to hold elections in the so called DPR and LPR could jeopardize the Minsk process. "This decision completely contradicts the Minsk agreements. It is a very serious step that could put an end to the Minsk process," he told journalists in Kyiv on Friday. According to Kuchma, this decision could not be made without agreement with the Russian side. According to him, this decision "is not in the interests of Ukraine, not in the interests of Russia, not in the interests of those who participate in the Minsk process." Kuchma expressed hope that this decision could be revised. "There is still time, as quickly accepted, so quickly it can be cancelled," he said. Earlier on Friday the so called people's councils of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR decided to hold elections for the "heads" and "parliamentarians" on November 11, 2018. By RFE/RL Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia and Iran that an attack by Syrian government forces and their allies on Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the war-ravaged Middle Eastern country, would result in a "massacre." Erdogan spoke on September 7 at a summit in Tehran with Iranian President Hassan Rohani and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said Syria's government "has the right" to recapture the entire country and opposed Erdogan's call for a cease-fire in Idlib. The three leaders met to discuss the situation in the northwestern province amid concerns that an expected government offensive there would cause severe bloodshed, major civilian casualties, and a humanitarian catastrophe. "Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, a massacre, and a very big humanitarian tragedy," said Erdogan. "We never want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath." "If we can announce a cease-fire today here, I believe this will be one of the most important steps of this summit," he said. "This will bring comfort to civilians. I think making such an announcement will be a victory for this summit." Rohani said that the fight in Syria should continue until all extremists are "uprooted," especially in Idlib, but that the battle there should not harm civilians. Putin said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government "has the right to and must ultimately take control of all its national territory." He voiced opposition to Erdogan's call for a cease-fire, saying that the rebels were not at the talks and a decision on a truce could not be made for them. Hours before the presidents met, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that air strikes hit parts of Idlib province on September 7. Meanwhile, Idlib residents held mass rallies to protest against Assad and the anticipated government offensive. "Leave, Bashar!" hundreds of protesters chanted in Saraqeb, a town in eastern Idlib. "We will defend our revolution." Putin -- travelling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov -- met with Erdogan before the trilateral talks. There are tens of thousands of rebels in Idlib province, which borders Turkey. An estimated 10,000 Al-Qaeda-linked fighters are among those rebels, and Idlib is also home to about 3 million civilians nearly half of them displaced from other parts of Syria. Russia and Iran are both allies of the Syrian government, which has set its sights on retaking Idlib in what it sees as the next critical step to clinching a military victory in the seven-year civil war that has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions. For the Syrian government and Russia, the province is also strategically important because it borders Latakia province, Assad's main stronghold and the site of Russia's biggest air base in the country as well as its naval facility. Turkey backs many of the rebel groups in the province but recently moved toward its negotiating partners in declaring that the Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, is a "terrorist organization" that should be eliminated. Russian officials have said "terrorist" groups should be "liquidated," but the Russian military has also said it is seeking to separate out extremist fighters from other rebel groups supported by Turkey. As Putin and Erdogan were arriving in Tehran, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes were targeting positions belonging to rebel groups in the northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces. It said strikes on September 7 destroyed a building near the town of al-Habeet used by the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group, which is separate from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, resulting in a number of casualties. Assad's government has been massing thousands of troops in preparation for an assault. Russia, which has provided air support to the Syrian army since 2015, has made a big show of force by moving 10 warships and two submarines off the coast of Syria. A spokesman for the National Front for Liberation, a Turkey-backed rebel alliance, said the group's fighters are prepared for battle but are looking to Turkey for efforts to prevent the attack and "protect Idlib." The rebels expect a major humanitarian crisis, a large wave of displacement and heavy casualties if a Russia-backed offensive takes place, spokesman Najib al-Mustafa said. Western powers, which never formally entered the conflict other than to back Kurdish-led militias instrumental in ousting the extremist group Islamic State (IS) from its northern stronghold in 2017, have largely watched the brewing battle in Idlib from the sidelines. The United States, France, and Britain have warned, however, that they would take action if Assad uses chemical weapons in his assault on Idlib, as he allegedly has done in battles to retake other parts of the country. Russia and Syria and have denied planning a chemical weapons attack, but U.S. special adviser for Syria Jim Jeffrey told reporters on September 6 that "there is lots of evidence" that chemical weapons are being prepared by government forces in Idlib. He said that "any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation" of the war. Putin said in Tehran that "terrorists" were planning "provocations," in Syria, including the potential use of chemical weapons -- repeating a frequent Russian claim that has been dismissed by the United States and other Western governments. He did not provide evidence. The UN has warned that an all-out offensive in Idlib will lead to death and destruction even greater than that seen previously in Syria, including the displacement of another 800,000 civilians -- most of whom are likely to seek refuge in nearby Turkey, which already hosts 3.5 million war refugees. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, said the world is looking to Russia, Turkey, and Iran to find a "soft solution to the crisis." "There are indeed many more babies than there are terrorists in Idlib. There are a million children," he said. De Mistura's call on the negotiators -- in particular the main power broker, Russia -- to protect civilians was echoed by eight European countries in a joint statement on September 6. Iranian fighters have provided critical support for Assad throughout the war. The presidents of Turkey, Russia, and Iran have met to discuss Syria three times in less than a year. Their previous meetings, in Sochi and Ankara, established so-called de-escalation zones in several areas, including Idlib, that temporarily reduced violence. All these agreements were later violated, however, as Syrian troops backed by Russia and Iran moved to retake those areas after strafing them with artillery and air strikes -- a pattern which could be repeated in Idlib. In regaining control over other parts of Syria in the last year, Russian-brokered surrender deals offered safe passage for tens of thousands of rebels and their families to Idlib, which is why the province became the last bastion of the armed resistance. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa, Interfax, TASS, and Rossia-24 Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, an ultraconservative cleric and the spiritual father of the hard-line Paydari (Steadfastness) Party in Iran, says, "Iran has only less than a handful of real friends in the world." Speaking to a group of conservative university lecturers on September 5, Mesbah-Yazdi said, "I do not want to make disparaging comments, but most of the nations of the world are thirsty for our blood, and a few others are simply indifferent to us. They might speak softly, but they are our enemies." He suggested that Iranians should mobilize their forces against the world "as they are using economic and cultural tools against us," the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, quoted him as saying. Mesbah-Yazdi added, "When official authorities are not prepared to defend the people against the enemies, the people should be mobilized to enter the scene." Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke about "the enemies' economic and media war" against Iran in an address to the Assembly of Experts on September 6. Mesbah-Yazdi, who is chancellor of a major international academic institute in Qom that trains Muslim clerics from various countries, has been characterized by Iran's reformist media as the "theoretician of violence," and the mastermind of the murdering of Iranian intellectuals and activists killed by those former President Mohamad Khatami called "rogue elements in Iran's Intelligence Ministry" in the late 1990s. Most recently when hard-line clerics at the Qom Seminary implicitly threatened President Hassan Rouhani during an early August rally, moderate cleric Mohamad Javad Hojjati warned Mesbah-Yazdi, "Fingers are pointed at you and the Paydari Party," ISNA reported. The party supported ultraconservative President Mahmud Ahmadinejad but ceased to express support for him openly when Ahmadinejad fell out with Khamenei during the last years of his presidency. According to centrist daily newspaper Arman, Mesbah-Yazdi had charged in March that Western countries are encouraging Iranian women to abandon compulsory hijab. "This had gradually started from women refusing to cover their hair properly and has progressed to a point that women want to go to stadiums so that Western liberties would be enforced in our society," he said, warning that "this would leave no room for the Islamic rules." Arman said that there appears to be a conflict between Mesbah-Yazdi's attitude toward the West during the 1990s and what he is suggesting now. The daily noted that Mesbah-Yazdi was an advocate of sending young clerics to Europe, the United States, and Canada and has boasted of "having visited more than 40 countries." Former MP Morteza Aqa-Tehrani, a younger cleric who had studied in Canada, led the Paydari Party for a few years. Nevertheless, Mesbah-Yazdi criticized Rouhani for having studied in the West, and criticized others for having studied particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, Arman observed. "Unfortunately, those who have studied in the UK, the United States, and France have instigated the most important cultural deviations in Iran, as their mental structure was formed in those countries, " Arman quoted Mesbah-Yazdi as saying. The Rouhani administration allocated 28 billion tumans of the budget to Mesbah-Yazdi's academic institute, the Imam Khomeini Academic and Research Institute, for the current year, ISNA reported last December. Tehran, Sept 6, 2018 (AFP) Iran's supreme leader on Thursday warned against the spread of pessimism in the country, as people face mounting economic woes after the imposition of US sanctions. Addressing the Assembly of Experts, an elected body of high-ranking clerics tasked with choosing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for people's problems not to be overstated. "This exaggeration intensifies the anxiety of public opinion and causes the pessimism virus to spread," Khamenei said in comments published on his official website. "It is not correct to speak in a way that the audience is terrified and thinks that all is lost," he added, calling for both the good and bad aspects of state institutions to be highlighted. Khamenei was speaking as Iranians adjust to sanctions imposed by the United States last month, after Washington pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal with Tehran. The move by US President Donald Trump has exacerbated economic woes in Iran, with the Iranian rial losing 70 percent of its value in the past year. The currency crisis has led to huge price rises in the country and put pressure on President Hassan Rouhani, who has so far been defended by Khamenei. "No government can go on without the support and trust of the people, we must not act in a way that will deprive the government of the people's trust," the supreme leader said Thursday. The trade turnover between Iran and the United States rose 600 percent year-on-year in July, a month before the implementation of the first round of Washingtons sanctions on Tehran, targeting mostly the industrial and financial sectors. According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau on September 6, Iran increased exports to the United States by about 657 percent on the year to $25 million in July and imported $35.7 million from the country, which indicates growth of about 420 percent. Julys trade turnover shares about 40 percent of Iran-U.S. total trade during the first seven months of the current year, which stood at $155.5 million. U.S.-Iran trade turnover (million $) Irans exports mostly include Persian carpets, dried fruit, pistachios, etc. It imports mostly medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural products from the United States. Recently, Washington imposed sanctions on imports of Persian carpets from Iran. Traders had apparently attempted to purchase and import as many products as possible before the implementation of sanctions on August 6. In total, Tehran exported $60.2 million to the United States and imported $95.5 during January-July, which shows a $35.2 million positive balance in favor of the United States. The trade balance has been positive in favor of the United States since 2008. The second round of U.S. sanctions on Iran, which mostly targets oil exports, will come into force on November 4. Irans Non-oil Foreign Trade According to the latest official statistics released by the Trade Promotion Organization, Irans total non-oil exports during the first four months of its fiscal year (March 21-July 22) increased 14.7 percent year-on-year to $15.45 billion. Iran includes gas condensate, butane, propane, and other crude hydrocarbons in the non-oil export basket. Almost a third of what Irans official statistics consider non-oil exports are crude hydrocarbons. It also imported $15.18 billion products (excluding gasoline) during this period, which indicates a 4 percent decline. The countrys non-oil exports to the EU grew 12 percent to $462 million, while its imports from the continent declined 16 percent to $2.86 billion. China is Irans No. 1 trade partner, sharing about 23 percent of Irans total non-oil trade turnover. It is also Irans biggest oil client. Tehrans representative to the Iranian Parliament says that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenie has approved ratification of the bills related to money laundering. I have heard from a well-informed source that the leader has expressed his consent toward the approval of the bills concerning the fight against money laundering," pro-reform MP Mahmud Sadeghi tweeted on September 6 without further elaboration. President Hassan Rouhanis administration on November 8, 2017, tabled four bills (known as the Palermo Bills in Iran) for the parliaments approval -- the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crimes (UNTOC), Combatting Financing Terrorism (CFT), and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) -- in the hope of reducing international pressure on Irans deteriorating economy. The bills are proposed to mitigate increasing pressure on Tehran, while the 2016 Basel 2016 Basel Anti-Money laundering (AML) Index has identified Iran as the highest money-laundering risk out of 149 countries surveyed. Nevertheless, in an orchestrated response to the bills, Khamenei and his close allies on the Guardian Council (GC) and the influential Expediency Discernment Council (EDC) have repeatedly criticized the bills. Ten days after the parliament initially approved the bill concerning UNTOC, Khamenei personally stepped in on June 20 and called the bill unacceptable. According to Khamenei, UNTOC had been cooked up by foreign powers and the parliament should shelve it. It is not necessary to join conventions the depths of which we are unaware of, he said, proposing instead that the parliament create its own laws to combat money laundering and terrorism funding rather than join an international convention. State-run news agency IRNA cited GC spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei as saying on July 14, Irans membership in UNTOC is against both the security policies of the country and the resistance economy. Conservative allies of Khamenei believe that approval of the Palermo Bills might jeopardize Irans financial assistance to what they describe as the resistance front," including Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah. Though the bills are not directly tied to talks between the EU and Tehran to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal with world powers, alive, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, has admitted that approving the bills would help the Iranian side in its negotiations with Europe. The bills, if approved, would remove Iran from FATFs gray list and facilitate the countrys economic transactions with the world, state-run news agency IRNA reported. FATF, a G7 initiative to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, has placed Iran beside North Korea for nearly two decades at the top of the list of countries with the highest economic and financial risks. This has brought tough banking restrictions on Iran that could be eased if the country joined the UN convention and accepted other reforms demanded by FATF. While FATF does not have the authority to impose sanctions, a country blacklisted by the worlds financial watchdog will face severe pressure in its financial dealings with other countries. Iran has been on the blacklist of FATF since 2009, but the international organization has suspended Tehran from the list during the past two years, giving the country the chance to lay the groundwork for joining international conventions against money laundering and financial assistance to terrorism. FATF took a harder line on June 29. The group warned Iran of "appropriate and necessary actions" if it does not to enact amendments in full compliance with its standards. In order to get off the FATF blacklist, Tehran needs to pass the bill, but conservative MPs are concerned over certain limitations that the convention might impose on Irans ties with what they describe as resistance groups," including Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. Iran has until October to adopt the financial reforms proposed by FATF as part of efforts to improve Irans ability to interact with the international banking and trade system. Hundreds of protesters stormed and set on fire the Iranian consulate in Iraq's southern city of Basra on Friday, an AFP photographer said, as they vented their anger over poor public services. Thousands of anti-government demonstrators rallied outside the building while hundreds went inside the consulate and set it ablaze, the photographer said. An hour after the incident the Iranian foreign ministry confirmed the attack but said that all the consulate staff is safe and unharmed. But the foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi has said that the attack has caused huge material damage to the consulate. He added that there has been threats before the attack and this saved the lives of staff members. According to Iran's Tasnim news agency, Ghasemi also said that this was a pee-meditated act and the Iraqi government was negligent in allowing it to happen. He demanded an immediate and effective investigation by Baghdad to identify those responsible and bring them to justice. Basra has seen a surge in protests since Tuesday, with demonstrators torching government buildings as well as political party and militia offices, as anger boils over after the hospitalization of 30,000 people who had drunk polluted water. At least nine demonstrators have been killed since then in clashes with security forces, Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of Basra's human rights council, has said. Protests first broke out in July in oil-rich Basra province before spreading to other parts of the country, with demonstrators also condemning corruption among Iraqi officials and demanding jobs. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has scrambled to defuse the anger and authorities have pledged a multi-billion dollar emergency plan to revive infrastructure and services in southern Iraq. But Iraqis remain sceptical as the country remains in a political limbo after May elections with the formation of a new government still to be sealed. Iraq's parliament has meanwhile called for an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest at the request of populist cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose bloc won the largest number of seats in the May polls. With reporting by AFP Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Russia is enthusiastic about the development of bilateral relations with Azerbaijan, Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a press conference Sept. 7. The potential is huge, she said. A lot is being realized, a lot is being worked out." Zakharova stressed that the multifaceted cooperation of the subjects of the Russian Federation with the Republic of Azerbaijan is developing on the basis of the agreement of the Azerbaijani government with the governments of the Russian regions. "Presently, 17 such agreements are in force, a number of new ones are being prepared, she said. Several facts testify to the effectiveness of interregional relations with Azerbaijan. The representative offices of Dagestan, Tatarstan, Ural Trade House CJSC, Tatarstan Trade House, representative offices of a number of regional airlines, namely, Bashkirian Airlines, Perm Airlines, Pulkovo Airlines, Samara Airlines, Ural Airlines, some Russian business structures - official dealer of AvtoVAZ - Khazar-Lada, the group of companies "East Service" opened in Baku. Azerbaijani entrepreneurs invested in the construction of a sanatorium and spa center in Russias Yessentuki city, as well as food factories in the Krasnodar region, Zakharova added. Projects are being implemented in Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan." She added that the platform for discussion of the preparation of new cooperation projects is the annual Russia-Azerbaijan Interregional Forum, and presently, the next, the ninth forum is being prepared. ---- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The mechanism of discussing security issues between Azerbaijan and Russia works perfectly, Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a press conference Sept. 7, answering Trend journalist's question about the prospects for the intensification of cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan in ensuring regional security. "We have an appropriate mechanism, for example, consultations on various topics between foreign ministries, including those that involve discussion of security issues, she said. They [consultations] are held. I'm not sure that they should be intensified or vice versa, their number should be somehow reduced, etc. This mechanism works perfectly. There is a dialogue between other structures and state bodies of Russia and Azerbaijan, which are dealing with discussion of security issues, Zakharova said. It is also perfect. Our cooperation on these issues as part of international organizations is also fruitful, she said. Therefore, I think that it is not necessary to talk about any need to intensify the process because everything is already working quite intensively. But if any side voices the need to make any issue specific, it is always possible to do. Our dialogue with Baku is developing very well." ---- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: NATO welcomes Azerbaijans offer to host conference on Women, Peace, and Security during the NATO Week in Azerbaijan on 20 September, a NATO official told Trend. Azerbaijan is a valued partner of NATO, and we have a strong history of cooperation on common security challenges. NATO greatly values Azerbaijans ongoing contribution to our mission in Afghanistan, as well as its efforts to help NATO in training the Afghan National Security Forces, said the official. The official noted that cooperation between NATO and Azerbaijan is agreed in the 2017-2019 Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP). The IPAP covers a wide range of areas of cooperation, from energy security, to counter-terrorism, to scientific cooperation, to reform of the countrys security institutions and structures, to enhancing accountability and reducing the risk of corruption in defence and security structures, said the NATO official. It is a far-reaching plan, and adequately reflects the robust relationship between NATO and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has also signaled its willingness to deepen engagement on ensuring womens full, active, and meaningful participation in the security field. In this regard we welcome Azerbaijans offer to host a conference on Women, Peace, and Security during the NATO Week in Azerbaijan on 20 September. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.7 By Leman Zeynalova -Trend: Azerbaijan continues to show their dedication in supporting Afghanistan on its journey to stability and success, ambassador of Afghanistan to Azerbaijan Mohammad Taqi Khalili said at an event in Baku Sept. 7 dedicated to the National Day of Afghanistan. It is with great privilege that I welcome you all to the celebration of the 99th National Day of Afghanistan. Today I look forward to celebrating my last Afghan National Day in Azerbaijan. Honoring yet another year of the resilience and innovation within Afghanistan, aided by our regional friends and international allies. Within my residence, I have witnessed the fortifying Afghan-Azerbaijani relations, each year more abundant than the last. In December 2017, the Azerbaijani government hosted the Heart of Asia conference in Baku, attended by member countries and international organizations. On the sidelines of the conference 5 important documents were signed between our two nations; regarding security and law enforcement, education, trade and economics, promotion and reciprocal protection of investments, and air services cooperation. It was the first time since the establishment of our diplomatic ties with Azerbaijan, that we signed such monumental agreements. Which in its own is an accomplishment. The agreements signed are well on their way to realization, as within the scope of economics and trade we have formed a joint working group, which will hopefully commence its first round of meetings by the end of the year. This June, Azerbaijan yet again displayed their camaraderie by hosting the International Contact Group meetings for Afghanistan in Baku. In light of such brotherhood, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Azerbaijani government for hosting both the Heart of Asia conference and the ICG meetings. In whole it has been an eventful and promising year for the future of Afghanistan and its international allies. Finally, one cannot speak of our two nations fraternity and not mention the consistent cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan continues to show their dedication in supporting Afghanistan on our journey to stability and success, with increased deployment of Azerbaijani peacekeepers on Afghan soil. I am honored to have facilitated these initiatives and in the final month of my mission as ambassador it is my unshakable conviction that the diplomatic future of our two nations is thriving, said the envoy. As my term here is quickly drawing to an end, I would like to take this time to reflect on my dynamic experiences in Baku. From first meeting the Land of Fire as a young student, 23 years ago To today being an ambassador within this flourishing modern community. I can personally say that it has been enlightening to see Baku from the perspectives of essentially two different people. From having witnessed the hosting of the 1st European Games to 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, it is without doubt that the Azerbaijani people encompass a desire for progress and promoting peace. And I am grateful to have experienced this era. Before I bid farewell there are many people whom I must thank, firstly President Aliyev and the Azerbaijani Government and people for their hospitality. I would also like to thank my fellow diplomats and ambassadors for our many enriching interactions and valuable conversations, noted the ambassador. While delivering speech during the event, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Ramiz Hasanov said that the relations between the two countries are based on friendship and brotherhood. Relations between Azerbaijan and Afghanistan are developing both in bilateral and multilateral formats, Hasanov added. He said that Afghanistan supports the fair position of Azerbaijan in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Afghanistan supports the solution of the conflict on the basis of international law within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, he said. "All this attaches special importance to our relations. The operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will also give a special impetus to economic relations, Hasanov said. "Azerbaijan continues to contribute to the restoration of Afghanistan, he said. Today, the number of Azerbaijani peacekeepers in Afghanistan has reached 120. We have great potential for further development of our relations." Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov held a meeting with representatives of R-Pharm, one of the largest Russian hi-tech pharmaceutical companies. The meeting, which took place at BHOS, was attended by Head of staff training department Ekaterina Repkina, Head of internal communications and corporate culture department Mariya Teplova and HR Manager of the companys Azerbaijani branch Kemale Bayramova. At the meeting, the prospects for, and fields of, future bilateral cooperation were discussed. As Ekaterina Repkina reported, R-Pharm, which was founded in 2001, employs over 3,600 specialists and has over 60 branches around the world. In her words, the company management is aware of high qualifications of the BHOS graduates and is interested in learning more about the Higher School activities, its curriculum and recruitment experience. She invited BHOS professors and teachers to visit laboratories of the company in other countries and offered to provide them with information about R-Pharm staff training programs. The Head of internal communications and corporate culture department Mariya Teplova emphasized that the company needs capable and talented chemical engineers and process automation engineers. As HR Manager of the company branch in Azerbaijan Kemale Bayramova informed, these specialists are required to work at R-Pharm new chemical plant, which is expected to be put in operation in Azerbaijan by the end of the year. She suggested conducting meetings of the company representatives with the BHOS students and alumni and arranging training and internship programs for them with the view of their future employment. BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov extended his gratitude to the management of R-Pharm for their interest in developing partnership ties and establishing bilateral cooperation. Having said that cooperation with a pharmaceutical company is a new experience for the institution, he expressed confidence that it would be successful and mutually beneficial. The meeting participants also discussed main provisions of the memorandum on cooperation to be signed in the future, the opportunities to arrange meetings with, and presentations by, the company representatives at BHOS and other issues of common interest. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: The free trade regime between Georgia and Azerbaijan works with certain inaccuracies, and it needs to be expanded, said Mamuka Bakhtadze, the Prime Minister of Georgia, according to "Gruziya Online". Bakhtadze which was appointed as Prime Minister in July, visited Azerbaijan with the first official visit August 30. In Baku, he held talks with President Ilham Aliyev, with Prime Minister Novruz Mamedov and Parliament Speaker Oktay Asadov. "Azerbaijan is our strategic partner, I want to tell you that the meeting [in Baku] was very fruitful and we discussed very important joint projects that will give a new impetus to the economic relations of Georgia and Azerbaijan.You know that we have a free trade regime between us, However, our position is that we expand the existing framework of the free trade regime with Azerbaijan, and the sphere of services should be added to it, "Bakhtadze said. According to statistical data, Azerbaijan is one of the five major trading partners of Georgia. From January to July, the foreign trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan amounted to more than $ 584 million. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: Azerbaijan has very favorable conditions for the production of all products included in the country's food basket, former Minister of Agriculture of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Rajab Orujov told Trend Sept. 6. "First of all, we have a task to meet the need for strategic products. This mainly refers to wheat and soy. For example, Azerbaijan imports soybeans worth $60-70 million a year, which in turn means a serious waste of foreign exchange reserves," Orujov said. The ex-minister believes there are all the necessary soil and climatic conditions for growing wheat and soy in the country. "The effective temperature in the country, especially in the Kura-Araz lowland is quite high, which gives us the opportunity to reap a harvest twice a year. This method is already actively used in new agricultural parks and large farms. In such case the fodder (silage) corn, fodder soy, and other fodder plants can be sown as the second crops. Moreover, the Kura-Araz lowland accounts for 70-75 percent of the total area of the irrigated lands. There are optimal conditions for implementation of all these goals," Orujov said. The ex-minister noted that Azerbaijan needs to switch over to intensive development of agriculture with the use of new technologies in the near future. "I believe that the country needs to move from extensive to intensive development of agriculture, by using the innovative technologies and increasing the yields. Otherwise, given the increase in the population of Azerbaijan, in a few years, the area of land will no longer allow us to meet the needs of the population, which can create certain problems. As early as from now on, we need to increase yields by introducing the innovations," Orujov said. The ex-minister believes it is also necessary to improve soil quality in Azerbaijan. "We currently have a large areas of soils undergoing re-salinization. It is necessary to change holistically the approach to soil management, land reclamation and other issues in order to achieve production growth. All of the above measures must be taken together so that we can achieve sustainable agricultural production and food security. I believe that the policy of the government of the country aimed at the development of the agricultural complex will help to achieve good results," Orujov added. In January-July 2018, the volume of production of agricultural products in Azerbaijan in effective prices has amounted to 4.1 billion manats, which is 6.5 percent more than in the same period last year. During this period, the volume of production in the livestock breeding sector has grown by 2.5 percent (to 2.09 billion manats), and the volume of production in the sphere of crop farming has grown by 11 percent (to 2.01 billion manats). As of the beginning of August, almost three million tons of grain and leguminous crops (except for corn) have been harvested from the fields. Some 2920 kilograms of products have been harvested from every hectare of the cropped lands. In addition, during the reporting period, 14,000 tons of corn were harvested from the lands with an area of 3,100 hectares. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.7 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: More than 91 percent of pipes for construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) have been lowered into the ground in Greece and Albania, said a message from the TAP AG consortium. Construction work continues in full swing. Around 700km pipes now lowered into the ground in Greece and Albania (more than 91 percent out of 765km in total), said the message. TAP, the European leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, will contribute to energy security, diversification of natural gas supply and decarbonization, according to the consortium. TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU), and has already attracted 1.5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which approved the loan in early February 2018. Connecting with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network. The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016. Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe. TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). --- Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 7 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The delegation led by Andrei Rybakov, the Chairman of the Belarusian State Oil and Chemistry Concern has visited Turkmenistan, the Embassy of Belarus in Ashgabat said in a statement Sept. 7. The discussion touched on a wide range of issues, including cooperation in the field of petrochemical and mining-chemical industry. In particular, the negotiations have been held with the Chairman of the "Turkmenkhimiya" State Concern Nyyazly Nyyazlyev. The delegation of Belarus has taken part in the international exhibition entitled as "The main trends of development of the energy industry of Turkmenistan" held at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the country. The meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, Deputy Prime Ministers Kerim Durdymyradov and Dadebay Amangeldyev, the Minister of Energy of Turkmenistan Charymyrat Purchekov, Head of Administration of Ashgabat city Shamuhammet Durdylyev have been held on the sidelines of the exhibition. During the meetings and negotiations, constructive agreements have been reached on further expansion of mutually beneficial Belarusian-Turkmen cooperation in a number of topical areas, the message says. Turkmenistan is one of the key partners of Belarus in Central Asia. Belarus supplies to Turkmenistan mainly the goods with high added value: trucks, vehicles, tractors, road construction machinery, pharmaceuticals, products of woodworking industry, agricultural products, etc. Details added (first version posted on 11:45) Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 By Ilkin Shafiyev Trend: Countries of Central and Western Europe may join the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project in the future, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at the Azerbaijan Competitiveness Forum Sept. 7. He said the strategic importance of the project isnt limited only to Azerbaijan and the participating countries. The share of natural gas in the global energy balance is increasing, he noted. In this context, the work carried out as part of the SGC project plays a special role. This project will make it possible to link the gas infrastructure of the Caspian region with that of Europe and change the gas map of the whole Europe. Azerbaijans role in diversification of sources and routes of energy supply will increase even more. By attracting new suppliers, transit countries and consumers, the SGC project has prospects for expansion to Central and Western Europe, he added. This project gave the green light to new gas condensate projects in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, the commissioning of which is expected in the coming years. The SGC project brings together seven countries. A ceremony to launch the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor project was held in Baku on May 29. The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline. The Southern Gas Corridor, which costs more than $40 billion, is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyev Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has addressed the participants of the Kazakh-Chinese business forum in Astana, "Kazinform" reported. "The goods transported from Europe are delivered to China via Kazakhstan in about 15 days. While the shipping of the goods by sea would take 4 to 6 weeks. The logistics and related routes are being established," Nazarbayev said in a video message. "The joint program for cooperation in the field of industry and investment is being implemented. Within its framework, 51 Kazakh-Chinese investment projects totaling more than $27 billion are being implemented," the president added. "This is a sign of investor confidence and a testimony to the fact that Kazakhstan pays special attention to improving the investment climate. In the estimation of international experts, we are the best country in the region for doing business," Nazarbayev said. The resident continued to list the achievements and plans of Kazakhstan in the direction of development of business cooperation. "Kazakhstan is a member of the WTO, an associate member of the OECD Investment Committee, and also has joined the Declaration on international investment. The Council of foreign investors is functioning under the President of Kazakhstan, where the Chinese CNPC company plays an active role," he said. "It is an important strategic partner of Kazakhstan in the development of the oil and gas market of Kazakhstan, it conducts a large-scale campaign for the privatization of large state-owned enterprises," he added. "The large portions of shares of the companies of mining and metallurgy industries, oil and gas industry, energy, transport and communications, infrastructure and other sectors are offered for sale," Nazarbayev said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: More than 180 Kazakh companies have passed the Chinese inspection and have received the right to supply their products to the Chinese market, the Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Trade Chamber of Kazakhstan Nuraly Bukeikhanov said, "Kazinform" reported. "It is in Astana that Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the "One Belt, One Road" program, and it is symbolic that after 5 years, certain results are summed up here. Today we are holding a business forum, which involves 150 enterprises from the Chinese side, and more than 300 companies from Kazakhstan," Nuraly Bukeikhanov said at the Kazakh-Chinese business forum. "The trade dynamics between China and Kazakhstan are positive. Every year, the Chinese side opens for us more and more commodity items for trade. Already, more than 180 Kazakh companies have passed the Chinese inspection and have received the right to supply their products to the Chinese market," Nuraly Bukeikhanov said at the Kazakh-Chinese business forum. The representative of the Chamber of Commerce of Kazakhstan stressed that the Chinese market is one of the most promising markets in the world. "In the next five years, China will become the No. 1 market in terms of volume of sales. This year momentous events for Kazakhstan have taken place, it is planned to organize a national stand of Kazakhstan at the largest exhibition of China - the China International Import Expo exhibition to be held in Shanghai city in November. Our exports to China this year amounted to more than $5 billion 600 million", Nuraly Bukeikhanov said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: Tajikistan has established an Export Development Agency, according to the Tajik government decree, Sputnik Tajikistan news agency reported. It is expected that the agency will begin its work in a month and employ about 35 specialists. The agency was created to enhance Tajikistans export potential. The agency will seek partners and consumers for Tajik exports abroad. In addition, the agency will improve the skills of employees of exporting companies and develop proposals for improving legislation to step up exports. Tajikistans foreign trade turnover has had a negative balance for a long time, and imports into the country significantly exceed exports. The main trading partners of Tajikistan are Russia, Kazakhstan, China, the US and Turkey. In general, Tajikistan exports raw materials. About half of Tajikistans exports in the first quarter this year accounted for mineral products. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has allocated a loan in the amount of up to $6 million for the solution of transport problems in the city of Bokhtar (formerly Kurgan-Tyube), Sputnik Tajikistan reported referring to the press service of the EBRD Resident Office in Tajikistan. The loan agreement was signed by the Minister of Finance of Tajikistan Faiziddin Qahhorzoda and Head of the EBRD Resident Office in Tajikistan Ayten Rustamova. With this money, the city plans, in particular, to purchase 40 new buses. Also, these funds will be used for the construction of the bus station and the introduction of an integrated electronic ticket system that meets international standards. As specified, the state-guaranteed loan for a period of 13 years will be provided by the state territorial unitary enterprise (STUE) "Bokhtarnakliyotkhizmatrason" ("Bokhtar" transport services). The new buses have lower clearance level, which will allow disabled and elderly passengers to comfortably use this transport. The mentioned funds will also be used for construction of the bus station and the introduction of an integrated system of electronic tickets. It is especially emphasized that the project opens up new employment opportunities for women. This will be an innovation in a male-dominated sector. The EBRD has so far invested more than 608 million euros ($700 million) in various sectors of the economy of Tajikistan, the press release of the EBRD said. Earlier it was reported that 25 modern buses were delivered to Khujand city from Russia in order to solve transport problems with the financial backing by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Then, the EBRD allocated to the State Public Utility Enterprise (SPUE) "Khujand Public Transport" a credit in the amount of $17.5 million. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 7 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Ashgabat will host the Turkmenistan International Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition (OGT Expo 2018) on November 20-22, the Turkmenoil state concern and the Turkmen Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the organizers of the event, said in a message. Presently, fundamental changes are underway in the oil and gas sector of Turkmenistan. At the same time the infrastructure of industry is developing and diversification of export routes for delivery of the Turkmen oil and gas is taking place, the message said. The survey of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea is of paramount importance, as is the exploration of the Galkynysh super-giant gas field and the construction of the transnational Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. The development of huge fuel and energy resources in cooperation with major business partners representing world powers and leading companies, considering the favorable geographical location of Turkmenistan, opens up wide opportunities for further advancement, the organizers said. The last years similar conference in Ashgabat involved 328 delegates from 37 countries. The ministries of energy of Russia and Georgia, the European Commission, the US Department of State, the International Energy Charter, as well as Exxon Mobil, Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR, BP, Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd, Samsung, Dragon Oil, Petronas Carigali, CNPC, ENI, Axis, Total, ILF Consulting Engineers, Burckhardt Compression AG, Westport Trading Europe Limited, Capex, Albemarle Chemicals, Burintekh, Honeywell, Morinzhgeology, Wood Group, Inter State Gas Systems, Allen & Overy were represented in the forum. On the sidelines of the forum, business meetings were held between top managers of Turkmenistans fuel and energy industry and heads of foreign companies. Turkmenistan in the CIS ranks second after Russia in terms of natural gas reserves. At this stage, the main gas buyer is China. In accordance with the program for development of the oil and gas industry of Turkmenistan, it is planned to bring the annual production of gas to 250 billion cubic meters and oil to 110 million tons in 2030. In order to fulfill these tasks, large-scale work will continue on exploration, production, transportation, processing of oil, natural gas, provision of domestic market with oil products, as well as on the development of export routes for the supply of natural gas and oil products. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: International forum Agro Business Bukhara, organized jointly by Bukhara Regional Government and the Uzbek State Committee for Investments, will be held in Bukhara. The forum will be held on September 10-11, according to the Uzbek media. Investors from 25 countries and regions will take part in the forum. An exhibition will be held during the event, where business meetings will be organized with domestic and foreign investors. Also, working groups will be formed to familiarize the forum participants with the region's investment opportunities. On the second day of the event, it is planned to visit the free economic zone Bukhoro-Agro and familiarize the participants with the conditions there. Uzbekistan plans to create modern greenhouses, including hydroponics, in the free economic zone Bukhoro-Agro. The activities of Bukhoro-Agro will also be aimed at the integrated and effective use of the production and resource potential of the Bukhara Province. New jobs will appear in the territory of the free economic zone and the population's income will increase. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold talks with Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov in Moscow Sept. 7, the press service of the Russian Cabinet of Ministers said in a statement, TASS news agency reported. Aripov, who has been serving as Uzbek prime minister since 2016, will be in Russia on a working visit. The heads of government will consider a wide range of issues of bilateral trade and economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, the statement said. Special attention will be paid to intensifying cooperation in nuclear energy, industry, agriculture and education. After the prime ministers conversation, the 19th meeting of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan will also take place under their chairmanship. Following the talks, it is expected to sign intergovernmental documents, reads the statement. In the first half of 2018, Russia ranked first among the trade partners of Uzbekistan with a share of 16 percent of its foreign trade turnover, and Uzbekistan is also one of Russias leading economic partners in the CIS. The bilateral trade in the first half of the year grew 32 percent (to more than $2 billion), while Russian exports increased by 41.6 percent and imports by almost 10 percent. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: Singapores Exim Investments Pte LTD company will repair the Afrosiyob Palace hotel in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), says the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers "on measures to support the attraction of direct foreign investment for the reconstruction of the Afrosiyob Palace" State Unitary Enterprise (SUE) hotel, Sputnik Uzbekistan reported. The Singapore company will liquidate debts of the hotel to the state budget of Uzbekistan and state trust funds regarding the wages, as well as to other creditors with the fulfillment of investment and social obligations. The Singaporeans will invest $12 million in the project during the next two years. Until November 1, 2019, the place should be transformed into a four-star hotel with 280 rooms. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 Trend: Russian Cabinet of Ministers has approved the draft agreement on cooperation in construction of nuclear power plants in Uzbekistan, the website of the Cabinet of Ministers announced. The draft agreement provides for cooperation in designing, construction in the territory of Uzbekistan, commissioning and operation of a nuclear power plant consisting of two power units, designed by Russia, with the installed capacity of each power unit up to 1.2 GW. Tehran, Iran, Sept. 7 Trend: Iran plans to build its first Crystal Melamine Petrochemical Park in the south-western Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, the head of Iranian Investment Petrochemical Group Company announced. A contract worth 280 million euros has been signed with Irans private sector for the construction of the countrys first Crystal Melamine Petrochemical Park in the city of Dehdasht in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Rasool Ashrafzdeh told ILNA on September 6. He added that an Iranian contractor will finance the entire petrochemical project, which will have a capacity of 300,000 tons. One of the main reasons behind the construction of the park is to boost the value chain of Dena Ethylene Pipeline, located in west and southwest of the country, the official noted. Melamine is the organic compound with the formula C3H6N6. This white solid is a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. It is widely used in the production of certain plastics, e.g. Formica. Like cyanamide, it contains 67 percent nitrogen by mass, and its derivatives have fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred. Tehran, Iran, Sept. 7 Trend: Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Friday to attend a trilateral summit between the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey on the protracted crisis in Syria. President Putin landed in Tehran at Friday noon (at 1:45 pm local time) and was officially received by Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, Tasnim news agency reported on September 7. Iran's Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari also welcomed President Erdogan in the capital at 1 pm (local time). Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkish counterpart are slated to meet ahead of the summit. In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country. Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders. Tehran, Iran, Sept. 7 Trend: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks on Friday in Tehran ahead of a trilateral summit between the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey on the ongoing crisis in Syria. According to IRNA news agency, Rouhani and Putin exchanged views about the Syrian crisis, international developments, the Iran nuclear deal and issues of mutual interest. President Putin arrived in Tehran on Friday and was officially received by Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian. Rouhani also held a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two sides discussed bilateral political and economic ties. In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country. Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders. Tehran, Iran, Sept.7 Trend: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the ongoing crisis in Syria has no military solution and can be settled down only through peaceful means. He made the remarks on Friday in Tehran, addressing a trilateral summit between the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey on the protracted crisis in Syria, the official website of the Iranian president said. Todays summit is being held in continuation of the successful efforts of the three countries within the framework of the Astana Process to effectively confront terrorism and put an end to the Syrian crisis, based on the demands of the majority of the Syrians. This summit is also an opportunity to discuss our joint actions in the current and future stages, Rouhani said. Given the complexities of the Syrian crisis, it was very important for the three countries to achieve a common framework based on the fundamental principles of preserving territorial integrity and integrity of Syria and respect for national sovereignty and the right of the Syrian people to determine the future of their country in attempting to quell the flames of war in Syria, Rouhani said. From the outset, we have emphasized the inefficiency of a military solution to ending the Syrian crisis, and we are now pleased that after seven years of the Syrian crisis and based on the experience gained, the settlement of the Syrian crisis and other similar crises in the region through peaceful means has become a popular belief among the dominant players. Our efforts over the past years, especially after concentrating activities in the context of the Astana Process, have always been based on facilitating Syrian-Syrian dialogue and encouraging the government and the opposition to join the process. The Islamic Republic of Irans presence in Syria is at the request of the Syrian government and to fight terrorism in the country, and the continuation of this presence will be on this basis, Rouhani noted. At the same time, this presence, neither in the past nor in the presence, has not been -and will not be- aimed at imposing its opinion, and will support the will of the Syrian people as a friendly nation," said Iran's president. Rouhani went on to add that fighting terrorism is a common international demand, but when the implementation of these demands comes within the framework of the recognized borders of another state and nation, it will not be possible to do so unless it happens through explicit request and clear consent of that country. "We understand the concerns of some countries in the region about the threat of terrorism and separatism, but we consider cooperation with the Syrian government the most effective and lasting way to address these concerns, and believe that other solutions, including through direct intervention and without coordination with the Syrian government, will lead to the deepening of the crisis, he stressed. In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country. Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders. Iran has strongly condemned a brutal attack on its consulate in the port city of Basra in southern Iraq, and reminded the Iraqi government of its responsibility to protect diplomatic sites, Press TV reported. In a Friday statement, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi regretfully confirmed an attack reported earlier on the consulate, saying the attackers had set the building ablaze in their brutal raid, causing serious financial damage. However, he added, none of the staff members of the Iranian diplomatic mission had been harmed thanks to pre-emptive measures taken by the consulate after it received threats a day earlier. He described the attack as a violation of protocols and said the Iraqi government has a crucial responsibility to protect diplomatic sites. Qassemi at the same time warned about overt and covert efforts to undermine the friendly relations between the Iraqi and Iranian nations and governments, urging Baghdad to identify, arrest, and punish the culprits behind the serious crime as soon as possible. Iran had earlier informed and warned the Iraqi officials about the possibility of such an attack, and thus the Arab government is held responsible for any negligence in ensuring the consulates security, Qassemi noted. The Islamic Republic expects the Iraqi government to speed up its efforts to catch and severely punish the perpetrators, he added. Qassemis comments came after a group of assailants torched the Iranian consulate in Basra amid massive protests against corruption and lack of basic services. The Iraqi foreign ministry condemned the attack, saying that it harms the Arab country's interests. Ten people have been killed so far in these violent protests, which have been ongoing for five days. The Iranian consulates building was not the first to be set on fire. The angry demonstrators had earlier set government buildings ablaze as well. The buildings included the headquarters of the local government, the ruling Dawa Party, the Supreme Islamic Council and the Badr Organization. Some of the protesters also set on fire the offices of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia and the offices of the Hikma Movement about 100 km (60 miles) north of Basra, while storming the house of the acting head of the provincial council. The Armed Teachers Issue - Misrepresented By Phil Wallace. September 7th, 2018 Apart from 'School Resource Officers' (SROs), who might be made up from ex military or retired police, there is still the contentious question of having armed teachers. Unfortunately there is a persisting myth which seems to suggest that any arming of teachers could be made an actual requirement, which is a false premise and yet it seems to persist. The closest this has got is to see possible 'recommendations' being proposed. From The Trace : "The day that I have to carry a gun as a requirement for me to teach, I'm done. I'll find some other way to make use of my education and my background and experience. I didn't get into this because I want 'to teach, protect, and serve' to be my job description." Paranoid statements like this are based on the assumption that arming teachers might be mandated, which is pretty much jumping to conclusions and not going to happen. Instead this needs approached on the basis of a teacher being armed as being allowable, if a teacher has training and is willing to lawfully carry within the school environment. There seems to still be a very naive and large proportion of both teachers as well as students who insist that any guns in the learning environment can only be bad, without it seems stopping to consider just what would happen in the event of an armed attack, however thought to be unlikely. "Run-hide-fight' is a popular mantra taught to schools which frankly is at best only a feeble 'feelgood' factor and is most unlikely to ever save lives. Anti gun groups and the media happily pounce on anything, even if false, that might help their cause and so gain more support from the public - instead of realizing that the time has come to meet fire with fire and 'harden' places of learning such that a mass murder could be mitigated by an available armed response. By law of averages, and in some states more than others, there is every reason to believe that there are those in the teaching profession who already carry and have training. It is these in particular who are basically suitable and available and should be encouraged to volunteer their potential as guardians of school security, if of course the opportunity can be sanctioned . "You don't have to be Jewish to fight by our side." You just have to love freedom. 2018 JPFO All rights reserved. jpfo@jpfo.org 1-800-869-1884 Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership 12500 NE 10th Pl. Bellevue, WA 98005 USA "America's most aggressive defender of civil rights" We make the NRA look like moderates Join JPFO Back to Top Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 By Matanat Nasibova Trend: The meeting between the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan in Sochi was held in a rather interesting and historical period, Russian expert Stanislav Pritchin told Trend. Just three weeks ago the most important convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea was signed, Pritchin, who is also leading analyst at the Center for Central Asia, Caucasus and Volga-Ural Region of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said. But as the bilateral agenda is broader, another meeting was required to discuss cooperation programs and new agreements, first of all, in the sphere of economy between Russia and Azerbaijan, he said. The most interesting part of the meeting was devoted to planning, Pritchin said. Two documents were adopted, one of which envisages the continuation of the development of road maps of bilateral cooperation. "The second document envisages cooperation between the ministries of economy of the two countries for the development of more active contacts, he said. In my opinion, among the significant arrangements are the signing of an agreement on the assembly of GAZ vehicles and the beginning of joint development of one of the fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. According to the plans, the general implementation of all arrangements has clear time frame. Azerbaijan will reach one of the leading positions in the post-Soviet area among the most active partners of Russia in the economic sphere and at an interstate level, he said. This is quite interesting, because Azerbaijan is not a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, and the entire cooperation is built on a bilateral basis." On September 1, during the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Russia, 17 documents, covering the issues of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia in such areas as energy, transport, industry, tourism and others, were signed. Baku, Azerbaijan, September 7 By Azer Ahmadbayli Trend: Despite some skepticism of a number of politicians and experts regarding the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline (TCP) from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan through the Caspian sea, the chances of the projects implementation are now impartially much greater than before the signing of the agreement on the legal status of the Caspian sea in August. If the pipeline is ever built and Turkmen gas reaches the Western shore of the Caspian Sea, what route and in what volumes will it be delivered to Europe? One of the ways, let's call it classic, is through the 42-inch South Caucasus pipeline (SCP), which starts from the Caspian coast of Azerbaijan, passing through territories of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Georgian-Turkish border. The pipeline was built to transport commercial gas from the Stage 1 of the Azerbaijani offshore Shah Deniz field development to Georgia and Turkey. The annual transportation capacity of the pipeline is 7.4 billion cubic meters. As part of the implementation of the South Gas Corridor (SGC) project and development of Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz field, the SCP Expansion project has been completed. It implied the construction of a new 48-inch pipeline looping SCP at Azerbaijani and Georgian territories as well as the construction of two new compressor stations in Georgia. The new pipeline started operating on 30 June 2018. As a result of the expansion, SCPs throughput capacity is expected to reach approximately 23.4 bcma, which would triple the current overall transportation capacity of the system, according to SGC's official web-site. The pipeline has been linked to the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) at the Georgian-Turkey border, thus enabling the transportation of natural gas further to Turkey and Europe. Over the past five years, in the frame of the Stage 1 of the Shah Deniz field development, Azerbaijan annually exported to Turkey an average of about 6 billion cubic meters of gas. Add another 16 bcma from Shah Deniz Stage 2, exported to Turkey (6bcm) and Europe (10bcm), to this volume, plus a small amount to Georgia and you get just the same figure of 23.4 bcma, i.e. there is no spare capacity at the moment. The official website of SGC also indicates that SCPs capacity may be further expanded to 31 bcma, depending on demand. The TANAP capacity is also expected to expand to 31 bcma upon construction of the required additional compressor stations. If so, this will mean that about 7-8 bcm of Turkmen gas can be exported annually through SGC at the initial stage. It should be noted, however, that exploration and development of other Azerbaijani offshore gas fields Absheron, Shafag-Asiman, ACG deep-lying gas and some other perspective structures is in progress, and Azerbaijan itself will most likely need additional transportation capacity in a few years. No later than yesterday, following talks in Zagreb with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev actually confirmed this, saying that Azerbaijan will take additional steps to increase gas production and to expand the geography of exports. Therefore, those who will take on the task of delivering Turkmen gas to Europe will either have to expand capacity of the SGC elements to 60 bcm at the next stages, as it had been mentioned by various sources, or build a new, completely independent line, or use a combination of both. Another option for the delivery of Turkmen gas to the European market could be the AGRI (Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector) project. So far, the Black sea remains an untapped territory for LNG supplies. None of the Black sea littoral countries has an infrastructure that would provide the entire supply chain. Transportation of LNG from Qatar or Algeria to the region does not seem reasonable due to the congestion of the Turkish Straits. The AGRI project could be a pioneer in the region's LNG trade. The project involves transportation of Azerbaijani (and in theory Turkmen) natural gas to the Black sea coast of Georgia (presumably the port of Kulevi), where a liquefaction plant will be built. Further, the LNG will be transported by carriers to the Romanian port of Constanta for re-gasification and then will be delivered to consumers in Romania and Hungary (Interconnector Arad-Szeged), and probably further to a number of Balkan countries. The capacity of the project can vary from 2 to 8 bcm per year. Depending on this, its cost ranges from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion euros. It is clear that the matter is not just limited with the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline, and is much more complex than one could suppose, requiring heavy expenses and responsible decision making. The Gulf state of Qatar on Friday said it would invest 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in Germany over the next five years, including the possible creation of a liquefied natural gas terminal, Reuters reports. Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani announced the funding boost for its long-term trading partner and Europes largest economy at a bilateral investment conference in Berlin. Germany is Europes biggest energy consumer. The latest investment pledge comes on top of 25 billion euros Qatar has already invested in key German companies such as Volkswagen AG, Deutsche Bank and others. To express our trust in the strength of the German economy and the importance of investing in it, I announce the intention of Qatar to pump investments that amount to 10 billion euros into the German economy in the next five years, al-Thani said. He said the overall volume of German-Qatari trade had dipped slightly in 2017 after doubling to around 2.8 billion euros, but he expected further growth in coming years. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the energy sector offered promising opportunities to expand business ties, adding that Qatars LNG supplies would help diversify supply sources. From my point of view, the energy sector in particular offers considerable potential to expand our economic ties, Merkel told the emir and other conference participants. She said Germany was already linked with LNG terminals in the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland, but her government was working to expand the LNG network within Germany, and German companies were working toward a potential local LNG terminal. Qatars energy minister Mohammed al-Sada on Thursday threw his support behind the possible cooperation of Qatar Petroleum, the worlds top supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), in the project. On Wednesday Qatar Petroleum said it was in talks with Germanys RWE and rival Uniper about the potential LNG terminal. The German LNG Terminal consortium comprising Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, German tank storage provider Oiltanking and Dutch oil and chemical storage company Vopak are developing a plan with a funding decision due by the end of 2019. Saudi forces on Friday evening have intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militias toward the southern city of Najran, Al Arabiya reported. On Thursday evening also, Saudi forces had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthi militias toward the border Saudi city of Jazan. The Houthis have stepped up missile attacks on the Kingdom in recent months. Late on Wednesday, Saudi civil defense said the kingdoms air defense forces intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis on Najran, wounding 37 people due to shrapnel. Chinas cabinet has pledged sweeping tax reforms will not increase companies cost burdens, though analysts remain cautious as the government has yet to unveil specific measures, Reuters reports. Rising business costs are becoming a major concern for Chinas policymakers as companies face softening demand at home and a flurry of U.S. tariffs. Business surveys point to a steady string of layoffs as orders weaken and profit margins are squeezed. In a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday, the state cabinet said that it will accelerate research into how to lower the social security tax rate. Counting safety net contributions, the World Bank reckons Chinas effective corporate tax burden rate was 67.3 percent last year, much higher than in the United States. China announced in July that the powerful tax bureau will take over social security collection from the social security bureau in 2019, a move seen enforcing greater compliance by companies as the government frets over an aging population and rising pension deficit. However, the change has sparked concerns that many companies - especially small- and medium-sized enterprises - subject to stricter tax scrutiny will struggle to stay afloat. Only 27 percent of Chinese companies comply with the social security requirement and pay the correct amount for their employees, according to a private report published by 51shebao in August. The announcement is clearly responding to recent public concerns, which we view as positive, economists from Goldman Sachs Macro Economics Research wrote in a note. Nevertheless, whether these moves will lead to a lower burden for corporates and households remains to be seen. We would be more confident about the tax or contribution reduction if we see concrete actions to reduce public expenditure or expand the broad fiscal deficit target. China has announced numerous steps this year to reduce taxes and fees, including lowering the value-added tax rate on sectors such as manufacturing. Finance Minister Liu Kun told Reuters the cuts in taxes and fees would be beating government forecasts to reach more than 1.1 trillion yuan ($160.83 billion) this year. The state cabinet also said it will ensure venture capital firms do not shoulder more taxes in general - likely responding to fears that income tax on these companies partners is expected to be hiked. Austrian farmers hit by drought over the summer months are to receive government aid totaling 60 million euros (70 million US dollars), Xinhua reported citing the Austria Press Agency reported. The federal and state governments will each provide half of the total funding, which will take the form of direct aid to farmers, reforestation programs, and greater support for farmers in protecting against the elements. In addition, the assistance will include an increase in subsidies on insurance premiums, as well as the possibility for credit to be extended by a year. The lasting drought had in August been estimated by insurance authority Hagelversicherung to have caused a total damage of about 210 million euros (244 million US dollars). As the picture on the total becomes clearer, however, it is anticipated it will be significantly higher than that. Livestock farmers were particularly hard-hit, with up to 40 percent of grasslands in some regions affected by the drought, forcing them to buy food for their animals elsewhere. Crop failures were also a problem, estimated to have affected 10 to 15 percent of crop totals. Britains top markets regulator, backed by the United States, urged the European Union to soften its stance and grant broad access to UK banks after Brexit to avoid hitting investors and harming markets, Reuters reports. Britain and the EU are negotiating the outline of future trading terms and Brussels has said the best option for banks, insurers and asset managers is probably the blocs current system of market access known as equivalence. Under this, the EU alone decides if a foreign countrys rules are close enough to its own to grant access. It would be a mistake to move away from open financial markets as they are needed to support trade in goods and services, Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told a Eurofi conference in Vienna. Britain has said equivalence does not cover all activities and lacks certainty, leaving the country facing patchy access to its biggest export market for financial services in future. The EUs financial services chief Valdis Dombrovskis told the same event that Europe must be and will be the champion of an open and integrated international system, based on multilateralism. This is true whether you look at the global trading system, or at financial regulation and equivalence, Dombrovskis said. Earlier this week, Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, urged his counterparts in the EU and elsewhere to defer to each others rules when based on international standards. He criticised EU plans to supervise U.S. and other foreign clearing houses on their home turf under revised equivalence rules. Bailey said he strongly welcomed Giancarlos calls and urged the EU to back Britains proposal for a much broader form of equivalence, given that both sides will have identical rules when Britain leaves the bloc next March. And we should now work together to put in place the arrangements to achieve this in practise, Bailey said. Giancarlo told the Vienna conference it was time for the EU to expand the use of equivalence in a way that avoids rule-by-rule exactitude. Thus, EU can provide necessary legal and regulatory certainty to third country firms, and the EU should rely as much as possible on third country regulators and supervisors, Giancarlo said. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Friday he assumed all EU members would adhere to EU rules when asked about Italy, amid question marks about the new governments budgetary plans, Reuters reports. I think we all know that we in Europe have big tasks ahead of us. Everyone needs to sort out their own problems and I assume that everyone will adhere to EU rules, Scholz said. The European Union commissioner for the euro said on Friday he had a common understanding with Italys finance minister on the countrys fiscal targets for next year, Reuters reports. We have a shared understanding of the economic situation and the objectives of the next budget to bring the debt on downward path and pursue an improvement of the structural deficit, Valdis Dombrovskis said on Twitter after a meeting with Italys finance minister Giovanni Tria. He said the meeting was very good, in a positive signal to markets before Italy submits its draft budget to Brussels next month as part of the regular EU fiscal monitoring of its member states. Israel's fiscal deficit in the past twelve months has risen to 2.5% of GDP, according to budget spending figures released by the Ministry of Finance, Globes reports. Last month, the cumulative deficit amounted to 1.7% of GDP, but the Ministry of Finance warned that it expected the deficit to grow. The Ministry of Finance said in today's announcement that the trend of growth in the deficit figure would continue in the coming months because of exceptionally high tax revenues in September-October last year. The deficit target in the state budget is 2.9%, but the deficit is forecast to reach 3.2% or more by November, and to be at the target level or higher at the end of the year. Today's deficit reading reflects a trend seen since the beginning of this year: a halt in growth in state revenues and rapidly rising expenditure. By August, spending by government ministries had grown by 7.1%, which compares with planned growth of just 4%. Spending by civilian ministries grew by 7.5% (compared with a planned 5.3%), while defense and security spending grew by 5.6%, instead of shrinking by 0.5% as planned. The main reason for the growth in spending is that government ministries are working according to a two-year budget, and budget performance is more than 100%. Tax collection has grown by only 1.7% so far this year, although if one-time revenue items are excluded from the figures for August 2017, revenue growth is higher, and close to the average of the past few years. 347 women, children missing from Makwanpur: Report At least 347 women and children have gone missing from Makwanpur district in the last four years, the records of the District Police Office (DPO) in Hetauda show. Brazils front-running far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is in serious but stable condition in hospital following successful surgery after he was stabbed while campaigning on Thursday, his running mate said, according to Reuters. Flavio Bolsonaro, the candidates son, wrote on Twitter that his father had been wounded in the liver, lung and intestine. He lost a lot of blood, arrived at the hospital ... almost dead. He appears to have stabilized now, he said. General Antonio Hamilton Mourao, Bolsonaros running mate, told Reuters by telephone that the candidates condition was stable but still worrying. He underwent surgery, which was successful and he is doing OK, Mourao said. But his state remains delicate. A hospital spokeswoman in the city of Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais state, where the attack took place, confirmed to Reuters that Bolsonaro had been undergoing surgery but provided no details on his state nor his wounds. The attack on Bolsonaro is a dramatic twist in what is already Brazils most unpredictable election since the countrys return to democracy three decades ago. Corruption investigations have jailed scores of powerful businessmen and politicians, and alienated infuriated voters. Violence in Brazil is rampant - the country has more homicides than any other, according to the United Nations - and political violence is common at the local level. For instance, in the months before 2016 city council elections in Baixada Fluminense, a hardscrabble region the size of Denmark that surrounds Rio de Janeiro, at least 13 politicians or candidates were murdered before ballots were cast. Earlier this year, Marielle Franco, a Rio city councilwoman who was an outspoken critic of police violence against slum residents, was assassinated. But violence against national political figures, even in the extremely heated political climate that has engulfed Brazil in recent years, is rare. Guatemalas Foreign Minister said on Thursday that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should not interfere with the countrys decision to bar an anti-corruption prosecutor, Reuters reported. Mister secretary-general, you are at the service of the member states, it is unacceptable and against the purpose of the United Nations to try to be a supranational entity, Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said. Earlier this week, Guatemalan authorities barred Commissioner Ivan Velasquez of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) from entering the country. An independent international entity, the CICIG was established in 2007 to investigate criminal groups in Guatemala, and it can conduct independent investigations, act in conjunction with the countrys prosecutors and make public policy recommendations to help fight criminal groups. CICIGs mandate is renewed by the Guatemalan government every two years, but its head is appointed by the United Nations. Guterres said through a spokesman on Wednesday that the UN Secretariat had serious concerns about the decision, adding that it did not appear to be consistent with the agreement on the establishment of Commission. Jovel said on Thursday that the International Commission Against Impunity had meddled in Guatemalas affairs, pressured Congress to change laws and violated the presumption of innocence. A representative for the CICIG did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said the country had barred Ivan Velasquez, head of the CICIG, from entry and asked the U.N. to send a replacement. Guterres said on Wednesday that Velasquez would continue to run CICIG from outside Guatemala. Morales has been in a dispute with Velasquez, who has tried to impeach the president for corruption and has targeted members of his family over suspected graft. Morales has denied any wrongdoing and said on Thursday the decision to bar Velasquez was not taken for personal reasons. The United Nations is facing pushback elsewhere in Central America. Nicaraguas government ordered the expulsion of a United Nations human rights delegation soon after it released a report condemning repression and abuses by the government. At a Wednesday U.N. meeting, Nicaragua rejected an argument by the United States that recent unrest could threaten regional security. One protester has died and 11 more were wounded during demonstrations in Iraqs second biggest city Basra on Friday, local security and health sources said, Reuters reported. Eleven protesters have died and dozens more have been wounded, mostly in clashes with the security forces, since Monday in Basra. Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption and misrule that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water in the heat of summer. Moscow and Washington did not break off the contacts on Syria, including on political aspects of the situation there, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, TASS reports. "Moscow and Washington didnt sever the contacts on Syria," he said. "Communications continue not only through military channels on the so-called deconfliction in order to avoid unpredicted incidents, but also on political aspects of the situation." "That these contacts are not publicized is a different thing," Ryabkov said. "They dont need publicizing because the positions of the sides differ significantly." The diplomat added that that the Geneva process has stalled, but Russia expects it to resume. "What we did in Sochi, what we did in Astana together with the other guarantor nations - Syria and Iran - is not intended to replace Geneva. In this regard, our stance is open, we are trying to find points of coincidence with the United States, but the US goals in Syria are unclear to US," he said. In 2017, Russia, Iran and Turkey initiated a process of peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, which also involved representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition. The three nations undertook to guarantee the ceasefire. So far, ten rounds of talks were held in this format, the latest of them took place on July 30-31. In May 2017, the Syrian ceasefire guarantor nations signed a memorandum in Astana on setting up four de-escalation zones in Syria. Those zones are the Idlib Province, some parts of its neighboring areas in the Latakia, Hama and Aleppo Provinces north of the city of Homs, Eastern Ghouta, as well as the Daraa and al-Quneitra Provinces in southern Syria. In line with the agreements, the ceasefire in the Idlib zone is monitored jointly by the three nations, while the rest of the territories is monitored by the Russian military police. Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkeys ambassador to the Netherlands has been appointed, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a message Sept. 7. Saban Disli has become Turkeys new ambassador to the Netherlands, according to the message. Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke about the normalization of relations with the Netherlands. He said the normalization of relations serves the interests of the two countries. In July, it was reported that Turkey and the Netherlands decided to restore diplomatic relations. Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok wrote a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whereas Cavusoglu called his Dutch counterpart. During the phone conversation, the ministers agreed to normalize the diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey. To that extend the ministers agreed to reinstate ambassadors in Ankara and The Hague. The ministers also agreed that the Dutch minister of foreign affairs pays an official visit Turkey in the second half of 2018. The diplomatic row between Turkey and the Netherlands broke out as the Dutch authorities decided to, for security reasons, prohibit Turkish politicians from delivering speeches in the Netherlands in support of constitutional reforms in Turkey. On March 11, 2017, the Dutch government first canceled the Turkish foreign minister's flight permit to the Netherlands and then blocked a convoy carrying Turkeys family minister from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam. Protests erupted outside the consulate in Rotterdam, where Dutch police used guard dogs and batons to disperse a peaceful crowd gathering in support of Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya. In response, Turkey sent two notes to the Netherlands to protest blocking of Turkish ministers visits to the country and ill-treatment of Turkish citizens by the Dutch police. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu US President Donald Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has written him a letter that was transferred across the country's border and will soon be delivered to him by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sputnik reported. "I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong-un to me. It was handed at the border yesterday. I think its being brought in by Mike Pompeo," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, as quoted by the White House press pool. Trump said he believes the letter is "positive" and called the method of communication "very elegant." The US president said his relationship with Kim started on a bitter note and he, therefore, had to be rough on North Korea. He noted that his strategy has brought positive results in that there has not been a missile test since the US-North Korea bilateral summit in Singapore on June 12 and the United States received American hostages back from Pyongyang. Trump's comments came after a special envoy of South Korean president Moon Jae-in announced late Thursday that the third inter-Korean summit would be held on September 18-20 September in North Korea. KYODO NEWS - Sep 7, 2018 - 23:52 | All, Feature Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito arrived in the southeastern French city of Lyon on Friday for his first official visit to France to commemorate the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries. During the nine-day trip, he plans to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and attend a Japan-themed cultural event. It is expected to be his last foreign trip as crown prince as he is set to ascend the throne after Emperor Akihito abdicates April 30 next year. France invited the 58-year-old crown prince and Crown Princess Masako, but she did not accompany him as the Imperial Household Agency took heed of her health condition. After visiting a textile museum and other locations there, he will visit Paris, where he will meet President Emanuel at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday. He will also attend the Japonismes 2018 event in Paris and watch a Kabuki performance, as well as taking part in lighting up the Eiffel Tower. Prior to the official trip, he traveled to France when he was studying at Britain's Oxford University in the 1980s. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited France as a state guest in 1994. KYODO NEWS - Sep 7, 2018 - 20:34 | World, All, Urgent Senior officials in the North Korean government in charge of diplomatic affairs with Japan have declared as "invalid" a 2014 bilateral agreement that led to Pyongyang reopening an investigation into the whereabouts of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea, it was learned Friday. People who have recently visited Pyongyang and met with the senior officials concerned made the disclosure regarding the thorny issue that has dogged ties between Japan and North Korea for years. The stance appears aimed at sending the message to Tokyo that Pyongyang has no intention of making concessions on the abduction issue. The senior officials stressed the need to return to the "Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration" signed in September 2002 by then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. They also reiterated Pyongyang's official position that the abduction issue has been settled. Under the deal struck in Stockholm in May 2014, Tokyo and Pyongyang agreed on principles for negotiations toward settling the abduction issue, and that North Korea would comprehensively reinvestigate the fate of Japanese abducted by the North decades ago through its own panel. (Japan, N. Korea envoys' meeting in May 2014) The senior officials said that the Special Investigation Committee, which was established under the Stockholm agreement, comprehensively examined abductee victims, Japanese who stayed on the Korean Peninsula after World War II, Japanese wives and the remains of Japanese nationals, and notified Japan of all the results. "The Japanese government has not properly communicated (the results of the probe) to the people," one of the senior officials was quoted as saying. The agreement, they say, was effectively voided by the Japanese side as a result of its subsequent actions such as restarting sanctions in response to North Korea's continued nuclear and missile tests. Japan maintains that without settling the abduction issue, there will be no normalization of diplomatic ties. North Korea, on the other hand, insists that Japan must "settle the past," or compensate for the suffering of the Korean people under Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, before the two countries settle the abduction issue. "Sanctions and dialogue are incompatible," one of the senior officials was quoted as saying, indicating that the lifting of Japan's sanctions is a condition for the resumption of dialogue. It was recently reported that Shigeru Kitamura, head of Japan's Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, visited Vietnam in July in an attempt to make contact with Kim Song Hye, head of the united front tactical office of the North Korean ruling party's United Front Department. If Kim responded to the outreach, there is a possibility that the Unified Front Department, which is in charge of the country's negotiations with the United States, attempted to explore developments in Japan. In the Pyongyang Declaration, Japan apologized for its past colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula and promised to provide economic assistance to North Korea once diplomatic relations are normalized. Japan officially lists 17 nationals as having been abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s but alleges their involvement in many more disappearances. Five of the 17 were repatriated in 2002. KYODO NEWS - Sep 7, 2018 - 13:19 | All, World President Donald Trump has suggested to The Wall Street Journal that he will take on Japan next in his fight to cut trade deficits with U.S. trading partners, according to a column carried on the paper's online edition Thursday. Citing a phone call he received from Trump, James Freeman, a columnist for the paper, wrote that the president "described his good relations with the Japanese leadership but then added: 'Of course that will end as soon as I tell them how much they have to pay.'" Trade is likely to be a major topic when Trump meets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe around Sept. 25 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Even if Trump wraps up negotiations with Canada, Mexico and Europe, "the trade uncertainty won't necessarily end," Freeman said. "It seems that he is still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with Japan." During the call, he wrote, the president sounded "still very focused on eliminating trade deficits with America's trading partners" in line with his "America First" mantra. The Trump administration has pushed Japan to further open its automobile and agriculture markets as part of efforts to reduce the chronic U.S. trade deficit. (Abe and Trump in Washington in February 2017) The column drew measured reactions from Japan. Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso told reporters in Tokyo on Friday, "I don't know President Trump's relationship with The Wall Street Journal nor whether he actually said that." "We both have to do our part" to realize a fair trade relationship, added Aso, who doubles as finance minister. Toshimitsu Motegi, the minister in charge of trade talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, said he is aiming for an arrangement that benefits both Japan and the United States. Aathbiskot starts student loan plan Aathbiskot Municipality in Rukum district has started to provide education loans to the deserving students for higher technical education . KYODO NEWS - Sep 7, 2018 - 19:26 | World, All, Urgent Australia and New Zealand said Friday they are sending surveillance aircraft to Japan to assist in the enforcement of U.N. sanctions on North Korea. The aircraft -- two AP-3C Orion patrol aircraft from Australia and one P-3K2 aircraft from New Zealand -- are expected to be on the lookout for ship-to-ship transfers of goods by North Korean vessels, which are banned under the U.N. sanctions. The aircraft will be operating out of U.S. Kadena Air Base on Okinawa in southwestern Japan from mid-September, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Friday. Related coverage: Australia, Canada to join surveillance on N. Korea sanctions evaders "This deployment supports Australia's ongoing economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea," Australian Defense Minister Christopher Pyne said in a statement. "It is a continuation of our strong stand to deter and disrupt illicit trade and sanctions evasion activities by North Korea and its associated networks," he added. (A suspected sanction evading activity by a N. Korean tanker, left) [Courtesy of Japan Defense Ministry] New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement that while his country welcomes recent talks North Korea has held with the United States and South Korea, full implementation of U.N. Security Council sanctions is essential until Pyongyang abides by international obligations. Japan welcomed the involvement of Australia and New Zealand, with the ministry saying in a statement that such undertaking would help effectively enforce the U.N. sanctions. The aircraft are believed to conduct surveillance in waters around Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and in the East China Sea. North Korea is known to have resorted to illicit ship-to-ship transfers, particularly of petroleum products, in a bid to evade economic sanctions imposed by the international community for the country's nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches. There are are 115 wards in 77 local bodies across Kerala where the Weekly Infection Population Ratio is above 10 per cent. City Police gets shelter after 25 years Twenty-five years after its establishment, the City Police under the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has finally received its first barracks. The newly-established station, on the premises of the Environment Manage-ment Division (EMD) of KMC in Teku, has residence facilities for 52 constables36 male and 16 female. Dahal meets Indian Home Minister Singh Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is on a three-day visit to India, held a meeting with Indian Home Minister Raj Nath Singh on Friday. The 100-year-old general recalls historic years VietNamNet Bridge Having reached the milestone age of 100, Dang Van Viet still impresses with his gentle voice and vivid memories. His face is full or pride recalling the years he spent fighting the resistance war against French colonialists. Young fighter: This photo was taken when Dang Van Viet was serving in the Vietnamese Peoples Army. File Photo Viet left his prestigious family background to follow the revolution. He was born in Nho Lam Village in Dien Chau District in the central province of Nghe An in 1920. Both of his parents families were of noble descent his maternal grandfather was Cao Xuan Duc, a minister of education and the author of many historical and geographical works; while his paternal grandfather was Dang Van Thuy, who managed the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam. His father was Dang Van Huong who was a minister during the reign of King Bao Dai (1926-1955). Viet attended the Hue High School for the Gifted, and after graduation he studied at the Indochina School of Medicine (Ecole de Medecine de lIndochine) in Hanoi. In his third year, after the Japanese army coup detat against the French led to the closure of the school, he joined the Viet Nam Independence League in 1945. That same year, together with another comrade, he was assigned to lower the flag of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) and hang the Viet Minhs red flag with a gold star in the centre of Hue on August 21, 1945. From July 1947, Viets military career moved to Highway 4, the most dangerous route in the battle zones in Cao Bang, Bac Kan and Lang Son and the border between Vietnam and China. He became the commander of Regiment 174 at the age of 27. Over the course of three years, he organised ambushes and attacked enemy posts along Highway 4 until victory was achieved in October 1950. Regiment 174, under his direction, controlled the highway and won many resounding victories that frightened the French and earned Viet the alias the "Blue Tiger of Highway 4. As one of the first regiment chiefs of the Viet Nam Peoples Army, together with a top-ranking general, Le Trong Tan, Viet posed a big question for the enemy. Former French Colonel Charles de Pirey later wrote a letter to Viet, saying: We were taken by surprise to discover later that the most dangerous enemy to us, the person who upset us most on Highway 4, was a 30-year-old man To us, Dang Van Viet was an ingenious, dangerous and uncompromising rival but also a person who abided by international laws on prisoners of war... Losses "I survived many battles and difficulties but never felt fear," Viet recalled. Joining the revolution, the first person Viet lost was his lover. His second loss was caused by the land reform programme in which the land owned by landlords were confiscated and redistributed to poor and landless peasants while the landlords and reactionaries were executed from 1953 to 1956 in northern Vietnam. Viets family were mandarins for the Nguyen Dynasty, so his father was tied in front of the communal house, stripped of all possessions and land and died about two years later as his family had no money to pay for medicine. Viets life has been full of ups and downs. After finishing his military career, he worked for the Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Fisheries. In his new position as a vice director, he still set an example as an enduring striver. At the age of 40, he attended the Ha Noi University of Science and Technology and graduated after five years. In 1980, he retired and moved to a small apartment, growing fruit trees to make money for his family. With his rich cultural and practical knowledge, Viet has written a number of best-selling books, including his memoir entitled Nguoi Linh Gia ang Van Viet -- Chien Si uong So 4 Anh Hung (The Old Soldier ang Van Viet -- The Soldier of Heroic Highway 4) that has been translated into French, uong So 4 Ruc Lua (Flaming Hightway 4), and his most recent book Nguoi Linh Gia Ke Chuyen Dan Toc Viet Nam 4,000 Nam Chong Xam Luoc (The Old Soldier Tells Stories of Vietnamese Peoples 4,000 Year Fighting Against Invasions). Comrades: This photo was taken when Viet (centre) paid a visit and presented his book to Lieutenant General Khuat Duy Tien (right). VNS Photo Huyen Nguyen A hero with no title Summerising his military career, Viet recalled that he commanded 130 battles and won 116 of them. His highest military rank was lieutenant colonel and he has never been awarded the title of Viet Nam Peoples Armys Hero. If Ive been given the title, I think that Viet should have been awarded it five or ten times, said hero La Van Cau. Late General Vo Nguyen Giap also said: There is no question about Viets talent and morality: creative in the military, steadfast in politics and a productive literary capacity. Highway 4 is like a medal attached to Viets chest, confirming that he was good at fighting the enemy and minimising Vietnamese forces losses. He set an example of a noble spirit that moved us to the bottom of our hearts, Major General Cao Pha, who hung the Viet Minhs flag in Hue with Viet, commented on his comrade. Though the reason why Viet has yet to receive any honourable title has not been clarified, but people can still see the high spirit of the Blue Tiger of Highway 4. "Some may question why I dont feel discontent," he said. I do not feel I was disadvantaged because I could travel by car when I was still in my mothers belly, live in a big house, study at an international school and play with foreign friends while growing up. My biggest aspiration was to drive off the colonialists and regain independence for the nation. After joining the revolutionary front, I was determined to fight, but I couldnt have made it without President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party," he said. There would be both gains and losses, happiness and sadness, but I have gained more than I lost because I have had the whole nation and people with me. Like other Vietnamese, I sacrificed the small to gain the big things. My greatest happiness is being a general in the peoples hearts and the son of all kins, being honoured and recognised by the masses. by Huyen Nguyen Source: VNS European Commission unhappy over delay in creating law to split Caan The European Commission (EC) has indicated that it is not happy with the Nepal government for lack of progress on making a law to split the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) as envisaged, raising doubts that Nepali airlines will be removed from its air safety list any time soon, sources said. Joy for Nepalis as Malaysia increases minimum wage of workers to Rs29k Malaysian governments decision to increase workers minimum wage would benefit thousands of Nepalis working in Malaysia. The revised pay entitles a worker to receive basic monthly salary of Malaysian Ringgit (RM) 1,050 effective from January 2019. Love and longing in Lhasa Two works of fiction tell us more about the personal lives of Lhasa Newars Starbucks long-rumored expansion into Italy is finally reality. Its first Reserve Roastery in Europe is opening tomorrow in a opulent former post office on the Piazza Cordusio in Milan. The company describes the store as both an homage to the city of Milan and a celebration of everything Starbucks has learned about coffee in its 47-year history. The Reserve store will offer the coffee beverages that one would expect but also artisanal cocktails and baked goods from Rocco Princi. Photograph courtesy of Starbucks The 25,000-square-foot Reserve Roastery in Milan creates 300 new jobs and is to be followed by regular cafes operated with local franchisee Percassi. Photograph courtesy of Starbucks The Italian entry has been a long time coming. Howard Schultz, Starbucks longtime CEO and now chairman emeritus, mentioned Italy as a target market as early as 1998, telling The New Yorker that to open in the country would be to climb Mount Everest. That year, Starbucks did expand internationally to London, but Italy was still two decades away. Photograph courtesy of Starbucks During my first trip to Milan in 1983, I was captivated by the sense of community I found in the citys espresso bars the moments of human connection that passed so freely and genuinely between baristas and their customers, Schultz said in a statement. The opening of the Milan Roastery is the story of Starbucks coming full circle. Photograph courtesy of Starbucks After an invite-only gala tonight, the Reserve Roastery will open its doors to customers Friday at 9 a.m. Seattle and Shanghai have the only other Starbucks Reserve stores so far; more of the luxurious cafes are planned for Chicago, New York and Tokyo. SHASTA-TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) California is taking a financial wallop from unrelenting wildfires that have drained its firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. The disclosures came as a roaring blaze in a rural area near the Oregon state line closed 45 miles (72 kilometers) of heavily traveled Interstate 5, the main highway from Mexico to Canada. Fierce orange flames forced panicked truckers to abandon big-rigs and brought screams from motorists as they watched the advancing fire in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. A decision was expected Friday on when to reopen the highway. The wildfire flared just weeks after a blaze in the Redding area killed eight people and burned about 1,100 homes. California's insurance commissioner said Thursday that victims of that fire and one in the Mendocino area the two largest blazes in the state so far this year have filed more than 10,000 claims so far totaling $845 million. The two wildfires destroyed or damaged a combined 8,800 homes and 329 businesses. "The worst may be yet to come," Commissioner David Jones warned at a San Francisco news conference, noting that California wildfires are typically more destructive after Sept. 1. Last year, for example, wildfires that killed more than 40 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in counties north of San Francisco didn't spark until October. Also on Thursday, the director of the state's firefighting agency said in a letter to lawmakers that the agency only had about $11 million remaining in its annual budget and anticipates needing another $234 million to add firefighters and helicopters, and to cover other costs of fires expected later this year. Story continues The department had spent $432 million through the end of August, said Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Legislature budgets for firefighting costs based on historical averages. Cal Fire has requested extra money in seven of the past 10 years but never this early, according to the Department of Finance. In far Northern California, officials said they had no plans to re-open Interstate 5 on Thursday and would reevaluate early Friday a decision that slowed or stalled truckers who rely heavily on the highway to transport goods along the West Coast. They were advised to take an alternate route adding 100 miles (160 kilometers) that could take at least six hours. "If you don't need to make the trip, I wouldn't do it," Caltrans spokeswoman Denise Yergenson said. Truck driver Amit Sekhri said he saw flames and slowing vehicles along the freeway on Wednesday but his big-rig was too large to turn around and he decided against parking and fleeing on foot. He kept driving, with fire lapping at both sides of the highway and burning ash falling all around him. He felt the heat in his cab, despite the air conditioning. "It was picking up so fast. It was behind me, in front of me, left, right. It was all fire. I was surrounded by fire," he said, still shaken by the experience. When he finally saw daylight, he knew he had made it to safety. "It's one of the scariest things I've ever seen and been through," he said. The fire began Wednesday and nearly tripled in size overnight, officials said. By Thursday night it had grown to 34 square miles (89 square kilometers) and had damaged three buildings, although there was no confirmation of any homes being destroyed. It prompted mandatory evacuations and was moving rapidly but remained far from any large towns. David Steinberg and his partner Kim Mears were returning from a day hike when they came upon the wildfire and watched in awe. Steinberg says they were mesmerized by the fire, but eventually realized the danger it presented. "There's a moment when you're saying, 'This is really exciting.' Then you realize, 'Oh this could be really dangerous,'" he said. Elsewhere in the state, a fire burning in the Sierra Nevada had grown to more than 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) after shutting down stretches of U.S. 395, State Route 108 and the Pacific Crest Trail along the eastern spine of California. The Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, campgrounds and other areas were evacuated Wednesday. Ranchers were told to prepare to move livestock out of the area in Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. ___ Elias reported from San Francisco. AP writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento, Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, and Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report. On Sep 6, we issued an updated research report on B2Gold Corp. BTG. In 2018, the better-than-expected production from the new mine, Fekola is expected to help offset the negative impact of the political strife in Nicaragua on the La Libertad and El Limon Mines. The company is likely to remain focused on continuing its impressive operational and financial performance from existing mines, paying down debt, pursuing expansion opportunities at existing operations, and continuing with exploration and development programs. Sound Q2 - Earnings, Revenues Up, Record Production B2Gold reported adjusted net income of $46 million or 5 cents per share in second-quarter 2018 compared with $13 million or 1 cent recorded a year ago. Revenues were at $285 million, up 73% from the year-ago quarter. Consolidated gold production was a record 240,093 ounces in the reported quarter, marking a significant increase of 98% over the same period last year and 7% above budget. This was driven by continued strong performance by the Fekola Mine in Mali, Masbate Mine in the Philippines and Otjikoto Mine in Namibia. Fekola Mine Performing Better Than Expected The new Fekola mine's rapid and successful ramp-up has surpassed the company's expectations. On Sep 25, 2017, the construction was completed within budget and the company commenced ore processing at the Fekola Mine, more than three months ahead of the original schedule. Gold production from the mine in 2017 was 111,450 ounces more than double the upper end of its original 2017 guidance range (of 55,000 ounces) due to its early start-up, high-quality construction and faster-than-expected ramp-up. The mine, which is in its second full quarter of commercial operations, produced 112,644 ounces of gold in the second quarter or 11% above budget. Backed by its strong year-to-date performance, B2Gold hiked Fekolas annual production guidance to 420,000-430,000 ounces of gold from the previous 400,000-410,000 ounces. Story continues Unrest in Nicaragua to Affect Production Political strife in Nicaragua has led the company to lower production guidance for both the La Libertad Mine and El Limon Mine. Roadblocks related to the current national political unrest restricted the supply of key consumables (fuel and lime) during the month of June. During this time, the higher grade open-pit ore was replaced with lower-grade spent ore to reduce lime and fuel consumption. The company is now projecting to produce between 110,000 and 115,000 ounces in 2018 from the mine, down from the previous expectation of 115,000 and 120,000 ounces. The El Limon mine is now expected to produce between 50,000 ounces and 55,000 ounces of gold in 2018, down from the previous guidance of 55,000-60,000 ounces. Given that the timing of a resolution of political tensions is uncertain, it will affect the production for the time being. Guidance Still Upbeat Despite disruptions in Nicaragua, the company projects gold production guidance between 920,000 ounces and 960,000 ounces for 2018, higher than its previous expectation of 910,000 ounces and 950,000 ounces in 2018. The guidance also reflects an increase in annual consolidated gold production of approximately 300,000 ounces from the prior-year level. With the new Fekola Mine contributing to the production, the increase in production levels, along with low costs, is likely to boost B2Gold's production, revenues, cash from operations and cash flow in the years ahead. On an average, over the next three years, beginning in 2018, the company projects per annum gold revenues of approximately $1.2 billion, cash flow from operations of approximately $0.5 billion and a significant increase in free cash flow. Lower Costs to Sustain Margins Consolidated cash operating costs were at $474 per ounce in the second quarter, which was 15% below the budget and 25% lower than the prior-year quarter. Consolidated all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $721 per ounce was significantly below the budget by $146 per ounce (17%) and $253 per ounce (26%) lower than the prior-year quarter. Consolidated cash operating costs are expected to remain low in 2018. It is anticipated to be between $505 and $550 per ounce for the year. All-in sustaining costs are expected to be between $780 and $830 per ounce, reflecting a decrease of approximately 6% from 2017. Growth Drivers in Place B2Gold continues to focus on organic growth, unlocking potential value through the possible expansion of its existing mines, and development of opportunities at current projects along with further brownfields and grassroots exploration around the mines and existing properties. As part of its strategy to pursue organic growth, the company has created a budget of $56 million for exploration in 2018. Brownfields exploration will make up approximately 80% of this budget, focusing on drilling campaigns on existing projects. It also strives to maintain outstanding health and safety record and attain a strong financial position by reducing debt level. B2Gold will continue its long-term commitment to exploration as the cheapest source of growth by acquiring and funding exploration opportunities directly. It also considers potential exploration growth through joint-ventures as well as investing in junior companies with high-quality exploration projects. Over the past year, B2Gold has outperformed the industry it belongs to. The stock has dipped 19% compared with the industrys decline of 33%. Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider B2 Gold currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same sector are KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation KS, Celanese Corporation CE and Ingevity Corporation NGVT. All these 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 54% in a years time. Celanese has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10%. The stock has gained 19% in a years time. Ingevity has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10%. The stock has appreciated 61% in a years time. More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone! It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market. Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020. Click here for the 6 trades >> 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 Celanese Corporation (CE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ingevity Corporation (NGVT) : Free Stock Analysis Report B2Gold Corp (BTG) : 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 Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland takes part in a news conference at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, U.S., August 31, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie 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. Story continues 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) Chinas proposed plan to push consolidation in the fragmented auto industry has made the global automakers apprehensive. According to the draft policy, China seeks to cut down excess production capacity, whereas several auto giants desire to expand in the mainland. It has been proposed to clamp down the current capacity by one-third in the worlds largest auto market. In other words, the National Development and Reform Commission of China wants to control the ways automakers invest in new green field capacity to manufacture traditional gasoline-powered as well as electric vehicles. Instead, the Commission favors more orderly investments in forms of mergers and cooperation. Moreover, as per the proposed rules, vehicle manufacturers would now have to comply with several criteria before investing to manufacture vehicles in China. These criteria include working harder than its peers in existing factories, setting aside part of their profit for research and development, pledging to manufacture green cars and many others. Autos China Bumps In recent times, the auto industry of China has been growing by leaps and bounds. A host of factors, including doling out subsidies, government finance and attempts made by several provinces to create jobs, has aided this development. As an outcome, the presence of numerous auto manufacturers and excess capacity has been witnessed. According to a study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2017, around one-third of Chinas overall capacity in 2018 or 14 million of the 42.8 million vehicles a year capacity is estimated to be idled. This might have prompted the planners in China to come down hard on auto manufacturers. That said, the proposed rule has come at a time when several global auto giants including Toyota Motor Corporation TM, Nissan Motor Co. NSANY, Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. GELYY and BMW AG BAMXF are trying to expand their manufacturing capacity in China. In fact, foreign automakers are betting high on China and investing largely in green field manufacturing capacity. In 2017, foreign auto majors sold more than 3 million cars in China. Toyota has major plans for China and intends to manufacture 3.5 million vehicles every year there by 2030, up from a little over a million now. It is true that it would not be easy for the automakers to pay less attention to China. But, if this proposal comes into effect, even if in a diluted form, it can impede the global automakers route to China to some extent. Presently, while both Nissan and Geely have a Zacks Rank # 2 (Buy), each of Toyota and BMW carries a Zacks Rank # 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Among the four stocks, while Toyota has risen by 4.5%, the other three have declined over the past year. BMW, Nissan and Geely have declined by 6.8%, 8.8% and 20.1%, respectively over the past year. More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone! It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market. Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020. Click here for the 6 trades >> 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 Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. (GELYY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BAMXF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Miteri bridge in fragile state The Miteri Bridge at Birgunj-Raxaul border point is riddled with potholes and cracks. Elon Musk has had another bad day at the office. The eccentric Tesla CEO sparked controversy and added to his growing list of eccentric behaviour by smoking weed during a live YouTube interview. And his day went from bad to worse as his companys stock tanked by 9% after his chief accountant stood down less than a month in the role, citing the negative publicity surrounding the car maker. The billionaire has been plagued by controversy this week. He doubled down on earlier, unsubstantiated allegations that the British diver involved in the rescue of the boys trapped in a Thai cave is a paedophile. He said on Wednesday that Vernon Unsworth, who denies all claims against him, is a child rapist. The marijuana-smoking incident took place during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Bizarre Tesla founder Elon Musk has added to speculation over his behaviour by smoking a joint during a live interview (Picture: PA) The two-and-a-half hour interview, during which Musk sipped whisky and wielded a flamethrower, covered everything from artificial intelligence to his love life. Towards the end, Rogan lit what he described as a joint containing tobacco and cannabis which is legal in California and offered it to Musk. The podcast host asked his guest: You probably cant do this because of stockholders, right? but Musk asked, I mean its legal, right? and accepted awkwardly, taking a puff. During the interview, the pair discussed Musks ability to dream up ideas and inventions, with the billionaire comparing the way his brain works to a mutation, saying when he was a child he thought he was insane. Story continues Musk said: I dont think youd necessarily want to be me. I dont think people would like it that much. READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK: Boris Johnson surges forward as Conservative members favourite to lead party Everything you need to know about the British Airways data breach Operation Yellowhammer: Leaked document reveals details of Governments no-deal Brexit plans Up to three million British households at risk from Wi-Fi hackers, expert warns Uber brings in minimum ratings for riders (so be polite to your driver) They also discussed Musks public persona and social media activity. Musk admitted that he had made mistakes on Twitter. The vast majority of negative comments, I just ignore them, he said. Every now and again I get drawn in and its not good, you can make some mistakes. Elon Musk smoking a blunt for the first time on Joe Rogan's podcast is Internet gold pic.twitter.com/nx8zQ7HlyB gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 7, 2018 Musk described the negativity on Twitter, and later added: Be nicer to each other. Dont assume someone is mean. Its easy to demonise people. But the most noted part of the interview was the Tesla founders drag on the joint, with many seeing the move as the latest in a long list of eyebrow-raising behaviour. Musk denied he was a regular weed smoker, likening it to a cup of coffee in reverse. Chief Accounting Officer Dave Mortons departure comes as Tesla faces the prospect of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Musks aborted plan to take his company private. He is the latest in a long list of executive to have left over the past two years. Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future, Morton was quoted as saying in a company filing. Tesla shares, which were down 1 per cent after Musks appearance on the Rogan podcast overnight, fell another 7 per cent after Mortons resignation. If you are an income investor, then Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) should be on your radar. Exxon Mobil Corporation explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas in the United States, Canada/Other Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. Over the past 10 years, the US$344.46b market cap company has been growing its dividend payments, from $1.6 to $3.28. Currently yielding 4.0%, lets take a closer look at Exxon Mobils dividend profile. See our latest analysis for Exxon Mobil What Is A Dividend Rock Star? It is a stock that pays a stable and consistent dividend, having done so reliably for the past decade with the expectation of this continuing into the future. More specifically: It is paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers It has paid dividend every year without dramatically reducing payout in the past Its has increased its dividend per share amount over the past It is able to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings It is able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future High Yield And Dependable Exxon Mobils dividend yield stands at 4.0%, which is high for Oil and Gas stocks. But the real reason Exxon Mobil stands out is because it has a proven track record of continuously paying out this level of dividends, from earnings, to shareholders and can be expected to continue paying in the future. This is a highly desirable trait for a stock holding if youre investor who wants a robust cash inflow from your portfolio over a long period of time. NYSE:XOM Historical Dividend Yield September 7th 18 If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock youre eyeing out is reliable in its payments. XOM has increased its DPS from $1.6 to $3.28 in the past 10 years. It has also been paying out dividend consistently during this time, as youd expect for a company increasing its dividend levels. This is an impressive feat, which makes XOM a true dividend rockstar. Story continues Exxon Mobil has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 63.8%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect XOMs payout to remain around the same level at 60.2% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of 4.1%. Furthermore, EPS should increase to $5.08. If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio. Next Steps: Investors of Exxon Mobil can continue to expect strong dividends from the stock. With its favorable dividend characteristics, if high income generation is still the goal for your portfolio, then Exxon Mobil is one worth keeping around. However, given this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. There are three fundamental factors you should further examine: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for XOMs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for XOMs outlook. Valuation: What is XOM worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, its not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether XOM is currently mispriced by the market. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there strong dividend payers with better fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. In this analysis, my focus will be on developing a perspective on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limiteds (NYSE:TEVA) latest ownership structure, a less discussed, but important factor. Ownership structure has been found to have an impact on shareholder returns in both short- and long-term. Differences in ownership structure of companies can have a profound effect on how managements incentives are aligned with shareholder returns, and whether they adhere to corporate governance best practices. Although this is an important factor for long-term investors, many investors can also be impacted by institutional presence and their high-volume trading. Now I will analyze TEVAs shareholder registry in more detail. See our latest analysis for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries NYSE:TEVA Ownership Summary September 7th 18 Institutional Ownership In TEVAs case, institutional ownership stands at 68.6%, significant enough to cause considerable price moves in the case of large institutional transactions, especially when there is a low level of public shares available on the market to trade. These moves, at least in the short-term, are generally observed in an institutional ownership mix comprising of active stock pickers, in particular levered hedge funds, which can cause large price swings. For shareholders in TEVA, sharp price movements may not be a major concern as active hedge funds hold a relatively small stake in the company. Although this doesnt necessarily lead to high short-term volatility, we should dig deeper into TEVAs ownership structure to find how the remaining owner types can affect its investment profile. Insider Ownership Insiders form a group of important ownership types as they manage the companys operations and decide the best use of capital. Insider ownership has been linked to better alignment between management and shareholders. TEVA insiders may only hold a a minor stake in the company, but this is a relatively significant holding given it is a large-cap stock. A higher level of insider ownership has been linked to management executing on high-returning projects instead of expansion projects for the sake of apparent growth. In addition to this, it may be interesting to look at insider buying and selling activities. Keep in mind that buying may be sign of upbeat future expectations, but selling doesnt necessarily mean the opposite as the insiders might just be doing it out of their personal financial needs. Story continues General Public Ownership The general public holds a substantial 22.8% stake in TEVA, making it a highly popular stock among retail investors. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in major company policies that affect shareholders returns, including executive remuneration and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability. Private Company Ownership Another important group of owners for potential investors in TEVA are private companies that hold a stake of 0.3% in TEVA. These are companies that are mainly invested due to their strategic interests or are incentivized by reaping capital gains on investments their shareholdings. However, an ownership of this size may be relatively insignificant, meaning that these shareholders may not have the potential to influence TEVAs business strategy. Thus, investors not need worry too much about the consequences of these holdings. Next Steps: The companys high institutional ownership makes margin of safety a very important consideration to existing investors since long bull and bear trends often emerge when these big-ticket investors see a change in long-term potential of the company. This will enable shareholders to comfortably invest in the company while avoid getting trapped in a sustained sell-off that is often observed in stocks with this level of institutional participation. However, if you are building an investment case for TEVA, ownership structure alone should not dictate your decision to buy or sell the stock. Rather, you should be examining fundamental factors such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industriess past track record and financial health. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for TEVAs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for TEVAs outlook. Past Track Record: Has TEVA been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of TEVAs historicals for more clarity. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. AMD to benefit from launch of the new graphics card. Kinder Morgan, Inc. KMI signalled at a complete retreat from Canada, a week after completing the Trans Mountain Pipeline divestment. The midstream infrastructure provider divested the Trans Mountain Pipeline and associated properties to Canadian government on Aug 31. The transaction was valued at C$4.5 billion. At the Barclays energy conference, Steve Kean chief executive officer of Kinder Morgan announced that the unlevered balance sheet and potential properties of the midstream energy players Canadian arm were to back the expansion development of Trans Mountain Pipeline. Kean expects favourable market for the sale of its remaining assets in Canada. The company is intending to capitalize the opportunities in the near term. Investors should note that Kinder Morgan got rid of a big overhang with the Trans Mountain Expansion Pipeline sale. The company was compelled to suspend the expansion development following recurrent resistance from British Columbia. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Kinder Morgan is among the leading midstream infrastructure providers in North America. Over the past year, the stock has lost 7.7%, compared with the 9.3% collective decline of the stocks belonging to the industry. Presently, the stock carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Meanwhile, a few better-ranked players in the energy space are McDermott International, Inc. MDR, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras PBR and Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. HLX, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. McDermotts earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the last four quarters, the average positive surprise being 101.7%. Petrobras bottom line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 10.4%. Helix Energys bottom line exceeded the consensus mark in three of the last four quarters, the average earnings surprise being 66.7%. Story continues More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone! It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market. Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020. Click here for the 6 trades >> 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 Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (PBR) : Free Stock Analysis Report McDermott International, Inc. (MDR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (HLX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Like 2017, 2018 is turning out to be a pretty good one for pharma and biotech stocks as far as FDA decisions are concerned. The regulatory body approved 34 novel drugs till August. Last year, the FDA had given nod to 31 new drugs till August and approved 46 drugs in the full year. We remind investors that last year the FDA approved the highest number of drugs in over a decade. Looking at the trend this year so far, it appears that the number will increase further. With President Trump saying that the FDA will be streamlined and the drug approval process expedited, innovation has picked up pace in the sector, thus increasing the possibility of approvals. Landmark decisions this year so far include J&Js JNJ Erleada (apalutamide) for pre-metastatic prostate cancer; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporateds VRTX third medicine to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), Symdeko; Amgen AMGN & Novartis NVS calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) migraine treatment, Aimovig; AbbVies ABBV Orilissa for pain associated with endometriosis and BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Palynziq to treat phenylketonuria (PKU). The drug development process is lengthy and requires a lot of funds and resources. Consequently, pipeline events including data readouts and regulatory updates are of paramount importance and could act as major catalysts. Lets take a look at a few important regulatory events scheduled for the month of September. FDA Decision on Lilly & Tevas Migraine Treatments: The FDA is expected to give its decision on Eli Lilly LLY and Tevas TEVA CGRP antibodies for migraine prevention, Emgality (galcanezumab) and fremanezumab, respectively. While a decision on fremanezumab is expected on Sep16, the same on Emgality is expected later this month. Amgens CGRP antibody, Aimovig/erenumab was approved and launched in the United States in the second quarter of 2018 and will pose competition for Emgality and Fremanezumab, if approved. Story continues We remind investors that in May, the FDA postponed the action date for fremazumab from June to September. In 2018, Tevas manufacturing partner for fremanezumab, Celltrion, which makes the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), received a warning letter from the FDA, which delayed approval of the candidate. Lilly is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. FDA Decision on Pfizers Lung Cancer Drug: Later this month, the FDA is expected to give its decision on Pfizers regulatory application for dacomitinib. Pfizer is looking to get dacomitinib approved for the first-line treatment of advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR activating mutations. Dacomitinib is one of the four oncology medicines of Pfizer under FDAs priority review. Decisions on all four expected this month. New Indication for Glaxos Nucala: On Sep 7, the FDA is expected to give its decision on Glaxos supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for label expansion of its asthma drug Nucala for a new indication eosinophilic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In July, however, an FDA advisory committee voted against recommending approval of Nucala for COPD. The committee recommended that the risk-benefit profile of Nucala, demonstrated in studies, was not adequate to support its approval. Nucala is already approved for the treatment of severe eosinophilic asthma and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA). It is being evaluated in late-stage studies for nasal polyps. Antares Pharmas Xyosted and Insmeds ALIS Await FDA Nod: The FDA will give its decision on Antares Pharmas Xyosted injection, which has been developed to treat adult men with testosterone deficiency, on Sep 29. Antares Pharma had received a complete response letter for Xyosted in October last year. The CRL addressed FDAs concerns that Xyosted could cause a clinically meaningful increase in blood pressure and could also result in depression and suicidality. However, Antares Pharma was not required to conduct any new clinical studies to support the resubmission in April 2018. On Sep 28, the FDA will give its decision on Insmed Incorporateds NDA for ALIS (Amikacin Liposome Inhalation Suspension) inhaled therapy developed to treat a serious lung infection - nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung disease caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Conclusion Some key FDA decisions expected in the remaining three months of the year include Regeneron Pharmaceuticals/Sanofis cemiplimab for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; Acorda Therapeutics Inbrija for treating OFF periods in patients with Parkinsons disease (PD) and Jazz Pharmaceuticals solriamfetol for excessive sleepiness in narcolepsy & obstructive sleep apnea among others. Hence, investors are expected to keep a close watch on the FDAs actions through the rest of this year More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone! It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market. Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020. Click here for the 6 trades >> 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 AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) : Free Stock Analysis Report Novartis AG (NVS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Amgen Inc. (AMGN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Photo credit: NASA From Popular Mechanics NASA is no stranger to see people bash its plans for human spaceflight. The latest target: the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a new space station to succeed the ISS. The Trump administration has said this new station could be in place as early as 2024, and is expected to ask industry for power and propulsion ideas soon. NASA says the gateway will enable exploration of the solar system, but critics call it a colossal waste of money and effort. But what if there were a way to salvage the idea-and it involved forgetting about the astronauts? The Lunar Gateway Explained Photo credit: NASA Understanding the Lunar Gateway begins with its orbit. The station would cruise close to the moon, then whip into space before looping back. This six-day journey repeats on a strict schedule so that visitors could plan a rendezvous and ride the station to the moon. This orbit also keeps the gateway within Earth's line of sight. This way, the station can act as a communication relay between mission control and the lunar surface. Using lasers to transmit large amounts of information, the station could help establish commercial and scientific missions to the moon's surface. The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us explore the Moon and its resources, says NASA official William Gerstenmaier. We will ultimately translate that experience toward human missions to Mars. The space station would be smaller than ISS, and house 4 crewmembers for one to three month missions. The astronauts would ride NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, but the universal airlock would work with commercial and international spacecraft. This flexibility fits the Gateways position as an enabler of other missions, no matter who is running them. This is where NASAs fixation on having onboard astronauts begins. In NASA's idyllic view, the gateway is a place where its people learn valuable lessons about living off-world. Here, the agency could perfect life support systems and conduct exploration missions that would give NASA the confidence to put space boots on Mars. It would also be a service station for any other missions-NASA's or otherwise-on the lunar surface. NASA sees this as the big benefit of the Lunar Gateway. Story continues Save the Gateway, Drop the People Photo credit: JAXA/NHK The best arguments against the gateway, however, are those that question the necessity of a crew. That's because theres a better place for people to explore the moon: the lunar surface. The biggest reason is safety. Being in space means being exposed to radiation, so stations need additional shielding to protect inhabitants. The lunar soil (regolith) can be packed to make ideal protection for a moon base, and existing volcanic tunnels called rilles are ideal for occupation. Virtually every human activity proposed for the gateway can be covered from the lunar surface. The experiments with human space habitation are better off conducted safely in low earth orbit-not the moon's. Here's a thought: Transform the Lunar Gateway into a simpler and cheaper communication relay with an unending supply of power. Drop the 125 square meters of pressurized space in the gateway, and keep people safe in volcanic tunnels on the moon. The gateway could still dock with spacecraft to top off their batteries or deliver samples from the lunar surface that can be ferried closer to Earth, and the best part is more modules can be added as other missions come online. For example, future modules could include an automated fuel processor, making the gateway a depot for spacecraft on long duration missions. Emergency supplies could also be propositioned at the station. A lander could wait for the need for a new rover battery, an emergency shelter for stranded astronauts or anything else that can be 3D printed at the 's automated station. Congress can get behind the idea, since any gateway plan makes a strong case in support of NASA's new heavy rocket. The SLS's Block2 configuration only carries cargo and can lift more than 99,000 lbs to deep space. Building and supplying the gateway would give SLS purpose and preserve terrestrial manufacturing and spaceport jobs. NASA would also gain more experience in operating the SLS, making it far more likely to successfully deliver a manned Orion capsule to the surface of Mars in the not-too-distant future. Boon or Boondoggle? Photo credit: NASA The biggest issue with a manned gateway is that the mission lacks a "concrete human spaceflight goals," former ISS Commander Terry Virts recently wrote in Ars Technica. "Instead, there is simply a fuzzy promise of having an ecosystem of capability in orbit around the Moon that will eventually enable humans to go to Mars, he said. Its a fair point, in many ways, and a safe statement. NASAs human spaceflight has been adrift since the Space Shuttle retired. Various presidents have chased destinations-Bush had the moon, Obama wanted to visit an asteroid-but their plans died as expensive boondoggles. The SLS-NASA's much-delayed, big-budget, heavy-lifter that critics deride as a "rocket to nowhere"-appears to be the same example of hardware without a destination. Does the Lunar Gateway fit that model? To its credit, NASA has tried to veer away from the problems that doomed earlier spaceflight efforts when administrations and priorities changed. For example, the agency is using what's called a Broad Agency Announcement to solicit for space station ideas. This means the space industry bidders are free to develop their own designs and processes (in other words, this is not a hardware purchase where NASA decides the engineering). This may spur up ideas that commercial entities will use to make their own bases. Offloading the big plans to private space is risky but is also the natural extension of what we're seeing with companies like Blue Origin, Bigelow, and SpaceX. While NASA continues watching China and private companies like Blue Origin plan lunar landings, there comes a time when a smart settler should start selling picks instead of searching for gold. For NASA, it may not be a bad idea to set up a sophisticated cislunar satellite that is open for business-no matter what future is coming. ('You Might Also Like',) Donald Trump President of the United State negotiates NAFTA deal with Mexico and Canada trade tariffs The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took a back seat for the first half of 2018 as testy relations between the US and China dominated trade talks. However, the issue is now firmly front and centre for politicians, and stock markets. While on the Presidential election trail two years ago, Donald Trump called NAFTA the single worst trade deal ever approved in US history. In August 2017, he repeated that claim on Twitter as he began re-negotiation talks with Mexico and Canada. A year later following many threats to pull out of the deal entirely and there has been progress. Last week, it was confirmed that the US and Mexico had agreed, in principle, to new terms. Now, the onus is very much on the US to bring on board Canada, but that may well prove tricky. The two parties have had preliminary talks and, after a break over the long Labor Day weekend, negotiations resumed in earnest on Wednesday. It appears Mexico has ceded to some of Trumps demands; Canada arent guaranteed to do similar. Trump continues his abrasive approach on the issue, tweeting there is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. However, this does not seem to faze his North American neighbours, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seemingly taking a page out of Theresa Mays Brexit playbook, countering: No NAFTA is better than a bad BAFTA deal for Canadians, and thats what we are going to stay with." The New NAFTA The main changes are around automobiles. In the current agreement, companies must manufacture at least 62.5% of a passenger car or light trucks value in North America. That threshold will rise to 75%. Further, a new rule stipulates that at least 40-45% of a car must be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour. Thats more than five times the amount Mexican auto sector workers currently earn. On this point, economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch note comments by Mexican authorities that state 70% of vehicles produced in the region already satisfy the new requirements. For the other 30%, a two-year period will be given to comply and an interim Most Favourable Nation tariff of just 2.5% will be applied. Story continues Other areas the agreement updated were regarding agriculture and intellectual property. Alejo Czerwonko, director of emerging markets investment strategy at UBS Wealth Management, sees the development as a step in the right direction towards modernising an agreement that is 24 years old. The US has already allayed Canadian fears around the sunset termination clause. Trumps administration had initially wanted the agreement negotiated every five years, but has agreed a 16-year clause, which BAMLs economists reckon Canada will find acceptable. The US also wants to eliminate Chapter 19 of the agreement, an important resolution mechanism. This is the current main sticking point for Canada, but BAML also thinks this will be resolved acceptably for all parties. Mexico managed to preserve Chapter 20 and Chapter 11 and part of Chapter 19, the economists note. If the US shows flexibility in Chapter 19, Canada would have no big reason to remain outside the agreement. Timeframes are tight for bringing Canada back into the fold. The US and Mexico both want President Trump and Enrique Pena Nieto to sign the deal by 1 December, which is when Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, takes over as President of Mexico. This will ensure AMLO can focus on putting through the populist policies upon which he campaigned. Czerwonko expects the countries to eventually reach a trilateral deal. Still, any three-way agreement, or bilateral deal between the US and Mexico, will need to be agreed by Congress before it can come into force. Clearly, Canada being part of the deal will help on that front. How Will a New NAFTA Impact All Parties? For the US, this year has largely been about its trade skirmish with China. However, NAFTA is of great importance to the States, Edward Park, says investment director at Brooks Macdonald, as Canada and Mexico are its largest single country export markets. Its also more balanced than other relationships the US has, he adds. Canada, for example, represents $282.3 billion of exports and $299.3 billion of imports for the US. US exports to China, on the other hand, are just $129.9 billion; its imports from China, meanwhile, total $505.5 billion. This means if a trade deal does not materialise with Canada, there could be a more significant impact on US exporters and supply chains than negotiations with other trade partners, Park continues. There is, of course, still a worry that the US will dump NAFTA altogether as a worst-case scenario. This would not be good for Mexicos economy in the long run, says Verena Wachnitz, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Latin American Equity fund. While that is true, counters Park, the impact of no deal would be largely sector specific, as in many areas NAFTA trading terms are relatively close to WTO rules. Some areas would bear the brunt of no deal much more than others. Mexican light-trucks, for instance, can currently enter the US tariff-free; under WTO rules this would rise to 25%. But should a deal eventually be signed, first and foremost it will reduce uncertainty and remove a key tail risk for the Mexican economy, says Douglas Reed, global strategist and economist at Newton Investment Management. A good deal would benefit Canada, too, with the obvious positive being a reduction of uncertainty in US-Canada trade relations. Current uncertainty will likely keep Canadian asset prices volatile for the time being, says BAML. Will a NAFTA Deal Impact US-China Trade Relations? The next question is whether any deal between the North American countries will have a spill-over into trade talks between the US and China, which dont look like improving any time soon. One suggestion is it proves Trump is willing to be flexible around trade. BAML thinks the US-Mexico deal reduces the risk of escalation of global trade wars, as it provides a path for an eventual US-China agreement, even if in principle. But Czerwonko is more cautious, warning clients against extrapolating NAFTA optimism to the realm of US-China bilateral relationships. Trump administration documents demonstrate that current concerns about China reach beyond the narrow issue of trade, suggesting they are not going to dissipate easily. Lafferty sees little movement on the China front until President Xi Jinping visits the US in late autumn. The likelihood is trump will place tariffs on a further $200 billion of Chinese goods, possibly as soon as this week, with $60 billion in retaliation from China. Park also points out the US has far less to lose by embarking on a protectionist trade war, as the amount of imports China can levy tariffs on is more limited. Should Donald Trump start to gain traction in signing US friendly trade deals it is likely to solidify the harder line that the administration is adopting with China. Investor Positioning Wachnitz says Mexican assets performed modestly, but positively, last week the peso strengthened by less than 1% after the announcement and maintains an AMLO risk premium, which she doesnt expect to disappear anytime soon. This suggests the market was already discounting a high probability of a trade agreement. On a more global view, Janet Johnston, portfolio manager at active ETF provider TrimTabs Asset Management, says her firms TrimTabs All Cap US Free Cash Flow ETF (TTAC) recently took out a couple of semiconductor names where the supply chain is really complicated, to reduce exposure to the US-China trade war. Czerwonko says UBS recently reduced its overweight position in global equities, bringing its overall tactical asset allocation stance to broadly neutral. A key reason for our risk reduction was our view that the market was not pricing in the increased risk of the US-China tariff issue. House Speaker Paul Ryan joined other top conservatives in denouncing President Donald Trumps recent tweet lamenting Attorney General Jeff Sessions indictment of two Republicans ahead of midterm elections. But no Republicans have called for any action against the president for advocating the infusion of politics into judicial matters. Justice is blind. Justice should be blind, Ryan told reporters on Wednesday, ABC News reports, adding that the process is working its way as it should. On Monday, Trump had said two congressmen shouldnt have been charged because it hurt the Republican Party. His comment defied the Justice Departments requirement of impartiality, eliciting a criticism from both parties. 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 Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) were charged with unrelated crimes by the Justice Department last month. Hunter was indicted for misusing campaign funds, along with wire fraud, falsifying records, and other charges. Collins, meanwhile, was charged with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and lying in relation to an alleged insider-trading scheme. According to a 2016 Justice Department memorandum by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch that CNN cited, prosecutors may never select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party. Some Republicans called Trumps words appalling and not appropriate, The New York Times reports. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), a consistent Trump critic, tweeted: Story continues This is not the conduct of a President committed to defending and upholding the constitution, but rather a President looking to use the Department of Justice to settle political scores. https://t.co/E74YmhD4dB Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 3, 2018 While many top officials voiced concern about Trumps comments, they dont plan to take any action against him. Many simply doubled-down on their support for Sessions, who has endured withering criticism by Trump ever since Sessions recused himself from the special counsels Russia investigation last year. I hold Jeff Sessions in the highest regard. I appreciate his service to the nation, Vice President Mike Pence told a CNN reporter on Wednesday, marking a rare divide between Trump and himself. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the Times, I have no reason to believe these prosecutions are politically motivated. I think [Trumps] was a comment not designed to obstruct justice but in my view, not appropriate. NA Airbus 320 grounded after bird hit during landing A Nepal Airlines Airbus 320 has been grounded at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu after a bird hit during landing on Thursday night. By Joey Roulette (Reuters) - Russia's space agency said on Wednesday it hopes to announce the origin of a small hole found on a Russian module docked at the International Space Station in the coming weeks, including addressing whether the damage was deliberate. Crew members last week found the hole - roughly 2 millimetres in diameter - on the inner wall of Russia's Soyuz module on the orbital space station after ground operators reported slight dips in pressure levels. The current crew, consisting of three U.S. astronauts, two Russians and one German, were never in any danger, officials said. Russian cosmonauts patched the puncture with tape and sealant hours after its discovery, temporarily stopping an oxygen leak. Its origin, however, remains a mystery to U.S. and Russian space officials. Dmitri Rogozin, director of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, said on Monday that a person could have deliberately penetrated the wall using a drill either during manufacturing or while the craft was in orbit. Rogozin ruled out speculation that the hole was made by impact with a small meteorite. "There is another version that we are not ruling out; that this was done deliberately in space," Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Rogozin saying. He indicated there were "several attempts to use a drill" by an "unsteady hand," scraping the metal areas surrounding the hole, according to RIA Novosti. "We can cut short the idea that this was a technological mistake made by some specialist or other," he added. The Russian space agency said the commission's investigation will be completed in mid-September. Roscosmos and RSC Energia, the module's manufacturer, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), would not comment on the origin of the hole out of concern that doing so would intrude on Russia's investigation. "We are confident they will identify the cause of the leak," Stephanie Schierholz said in an email. However, she confirmed U.S. astronauts were aiding the investigation to "assess and ensure the safety of all crew members." (Reporting by Joey Roulette, additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; editing by Ben Klayman and Bill Berkrot) This is the CEO of a $47 billion company: (YouTube) A month ago, it was a $60 billion company. But that was before Tesla CEO Elon Musk went on a value-destroying bender that is shaping up as one of the worst streaks of any CEO in recent memory. Musk has always been a provocative, bad-boy CEOand largely gotten away with it. But his antics have now become manic, and they indicate hes not fit to run a public company in his current state. The craziness began on Aug. 7, when Musk tweeted that he was considering taking the electric carmaker private, and had funding secured. He did not have funding secured. Not even close. Musk has since abandoned the idea, but not without consequence. Teslas (TSLA) stock initially soared 11% on Musks fake news, but then plunged 36%, as lawsuits materialized and federal regulators swooped in. As analysts wondered about Musks competence and stability, the brash entrepreneur told the New York Times in an interview that hes had an excruciating year, with his health deteriorating, and friends worried. OK, fine, hes only humanbut its not encouraging that Musk tweets market-moving information while hes driving and doesnt even bother to inform his board of directors about a giant change hes considering. All the while, Musk has been ratcheting up his attacks on a British diver who assisted in the dramatic Thai cave rescue in July, repeatedly insisting hes a pedophile and encouraging the diver to sue him. As a reminder, Tesla is a car company that has nothing to do with diving or the social welfare of children. And Musk says he works so much that barely has time to sleep. Story continues Finally, on Sept. 7, Musk participated in a two-and-a-half hour YouTube interview with comedian Joe Rogan, at one point toking on a blunt Rogan told him was a mix of tobacco and marijuana. Thats what you see in the photo above. Giving more ammunition to Tesla critics Musk will likely defend the puff by saying, look, it was only one. Weed is legal in California, where the interview took place. And he didnt bring the pot, he just accepted when offered. But, no. Given mounting questions about Musks mental state, providing more ammunition to critics is precisely the wrong thing to do. It shows lousy judgment and disregard for shareholders, and makes you wonder if he even knows what is happening to his company. The day after the Rogan interview, Teslas chief accounting officer quit after one month on the job. The reason he gave: The level of public attention placed on the company. And guess where all that attention has come from: The antics of the CEO. Not from the companys performance, not from its numbers, not from some scandal within the ranks. At almost the same time, the companys personnel chief said she will be leaving the company, as well. Musk is driving away talent and incinerating value. And this comes as Tesla actually seems to be fixing the flaws in its manufacturing process for the new Model 3 sedan, and approaching production targets that have long been elusive. It might even be coming close to profitability. Any other CEO with Musks behavior would be long gone. Tesla, of course, is Musks own vision, and its hard to see the company operating without him. But the board doesnt need to fire Musk. What they need to do is hire a chief operating officer to manage the company day-to-day, and help the CEO reboot, whether he needs treatment, a new perspective or just a vacation. Its obviously facile for an outside observer to say somebody acting strangely should get professional help. But there are billions of dollars of shareholder value at stake, which is why the usual corporate remedy for a plunging stock is simply the axe. Musk may deserve better, for now. But money is money, and even Elon Musk can only burn so much of it. Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Click here to get Ricks stories by email. Read more: Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman Teslas shares have crashed after two top executives left the company and Elon Musk, its chief executive, was filmed smoking marijuana during an interview. Mr Musk, who announced and then abandoned a plan to take Tesla off the stock market last month, smoked the drug on a podcast hosted by the comedian Joe Rogan. Marijuana is legal in California, where the podcast was recorded, but its explicit use is atypical for the head of a major company. On Friday, Tesla revealed that its chief accounting officer Dave Morton had resigned after less than a month in charge, citing the intense public attention on the company. Tesla and its chief executive are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US markets regulator, over Mr Musks aborted plan to take it private. Elon Musk smoked the drug on a podcast hosted by the comedian Joe Rogan Separately, Bloomberg reported that HR chief Gaby Toledano was leaving the company, having been on a recent leave of absence. Teslas shares fell by as much as 10pc, before recovering somewhat to trade 5.3pc down. Fridays events are the latest in a rollercoaster ride for the company and its chief executive in recent weeks. Mr Musk has been embroiled in a public war of words with a British caver who was involved in this summers rescue effort of a group of trapped boys in Thailand, accusing him of being a paedophile. His tweeted claim to have funding secured for a buyout of Tesla appeared to quickly unravel, and the SEC is now investigating whether it broke stock market laws. Mr Musk had said Tesla could be bought out at $420 a share - a number strongly associated with cannabis culture - although the Tesla chief has said he was not smoking marijuana when he tweeted, claiming the drug is bad for productivity. Mr Musk has admitted to being exhausted and working long hours, with little sleep. His board of directors are reportedly pushing for the company to hire new executives to assist him. Mr Morton, who joined as chief accounting officer on August 6, resigned on Tuesday, Tesla said. He said: Since I joined Tesla on August 6, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. Story continues "As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting. Before smoking marijuana on Thursday night, Mr Musk asked: It's legal, right?" He also talked about his plans to build an electric plane, saying his design would include vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) technology, but that it was not a priority of his at the moment. Mr Musk said: The electric airplane isnt necessary right now. Electric cars are important, solar energy is important, stationary storage of energy is important. These things are much more important than creating electric supersonic VTOL. Mr Musk ended the interview by saying: "I think people should be nicer to each other. Later on Friday, Mr Musk sent Tesla employees an email in which he addressed the media flurry surrounding the controversial podcast. He warned that there will be a lot of fuss and noise in the media but that workers should just ignore them because we are creating the most mind-blowing growth in the history of the automotive industry and the most exciting new product lineup of any company in the world. Mr Musk also announced that he would be handing over responsibilities to Jerome Guillen, former worldwide sales and service executive, following pressure from the board to relinquish some of his responsibilities to avoid further publicity disasters. Mr Guillen left automotive company Daimler eight years ago to join Tesla as a Model 3 manager and recently played a critical part in ramping up Model 3 production. Mr Guillen lead employees in creating a makeshift assembly line erected in a tent outside the factory in order to get the cars to market by deadline, a feat almost all thought was impossible, he wrote in the email. Mr Musk welcomed Kevin Kassekert, who has been promoted from vice president of infrastructure to replace former HR chief Gabrielle Toledano. (Adds Delta response) Sept 6 (Reuters) - The National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday it was investigating an engine failure on a Delta Air Lines' flight, which was bound for Orlando, Florida on Wednesday. The crew of the Boeing 757-200 with 127 persons onboard, shut down the engine and safely returned to Atlanta without any injuries to the passengers, the U.S. safety board said in a tweet https://twitter.com/NTSB_Newsroom/status/1037737813511430146 on Thursday. Delta Air Lines said its flight 1418 experienced a maintenance issue with its right engine shortly after takeoff. The airline also said it was cooperating with the NTSB in its investigation of the engine. Shares of Delta were down 1.2 percent at $56.50 in extended trading. (Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Anil D'Silva) China allows Nepal access to its ports, ending Indian monopoly Nepals long dependence on India for third-country trading has ended, allowing Nepal to trade from the Chinese sea and land ports once the deal goes into effect. (Reuters) - Pakistan's new government canceled the appointment of a renowned Princeton economist to its Economic Advisory Council after a strong backlash against the choice of a member of the Ahmadi religious minority. The failure of Prime Minister Imran Khan's government to resist pressure to drop economist Atif Mian reflects the increasing clout of hard-line Islamists, whose parties won around 10 percent of the vote at the last election in July. Faced with a looming balance-of-payments crisis that may force the country to seek a fresh bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or other lenders, the government had picked Mian to join an 18-member council to advise Khan. Age 43 and a scholar in the field of finance and macroeconomics, Mian is regarded as one of the world's top young economists. The prime minister's adviser on media, Iftikhar Durrani, confirmed Mians appointment had been revoked, while the government's main spokesman alluded to the pressure the government had come under from religious quarters. "The government wants to move forward with the religious leaders and all segments of society, and if one nomination gives a different impression, then it's not appropriate," Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted on September 7. Chaudhry had previously defended Mian's appointment saying, "Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority." The government, however, changed course following a widespread social media campaign criticizing the appointment and protest threats by the emergent ultra-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik party. Under Pakistani law, Ahmadis are forbidden from calling themselves Muslims or using Islamic symbols in their religious practices. They face discrimination and violence over accusations that their faith insults Islam, including impediments blocking them from voting in general elections. The Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims but their recognition of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the sect in British-ruled India in 1889, as a subordinate prophet is viewed by many of the Sunni majority as a breach of the Islamic tenet that the Prophet Mohammad was Gods last direct messenger. "Whenever and wherever any Ahmadi is needed to serve the nation, they will be the first to offer their services," community spokesman Salim Ud Din told Reuters when asked to comment on Mian's removal from the council. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close After months of withholding the autopsies of Deputy Micah Flick and suspected car thief Manuel Zetina, both of whom were killed in a Feb. 5 shootout, the El Paso County coroner on Friday did an about-face and released both records. The reports detail examinations of both bodies less than 24 hours after the shooting, noting where bullets entered and exited the bodies and other injuries they suffered. Flick was shot once in his upper chest, beneath the neckline, his autopsy report says. The bullet pierced his aorta and lung, resulting in massive blood loss. The autopsy determined he had been shot at near-contact range. The bullet was not found. Zetina was shot three times in the chest, back and left arm. Bullets traveled through his heart, left lung, diaphragm and liver, also resulting in massive blood loss, his report said. One of those bullets struck him at close range, it said. Zetina also had methamphetamine in his system, consistent with reports hed been smoking meth before the shooting while sitting in a stolen vehicle in the parking lot of the Murray Hill Apartments. Details of the shootout and the mens deaths had been released in August when the 4th Judicial District Attorneys Office ruled the shooting justified. But Coroner Robert Bux persisted, even after the DAs ruling, with his petition to seal Flicks and Zetinas autopsy reports, saying their release would cause emotional distress for Flicks family. Particularly, Bux said Flicks widow, Rachael Flick, opposed the release as it would cause additional stress and grief to her family. Release of the autopsy report will stir community conversation and will provide details difficult for (Flicks) 7 year old children to process as well as other family members, and adds substantial stress to their mother to protect her children from the detailed autopsy description and location of Deputy Flicks injuries, Buxs petition said. This family is still grieving and the release of the report is not helpful for the healing process. The Gazette and the Colorado Springs Independent partnered with media agencies KOAA, KKTV, KUSA and KDVR in hiring legal counsel to fight for the records release. The sides had been scheduled to meet with a judge on the matter Thursday. Then, on Wednesday, Colorado Springs police released its 907-page investigative file on the shooting, which gave detailed statements from officers involved about how and where Flick and Zetina were shot. In releasing the reports Friday, the coroners attorney, Diana May, said Bux had determined there is no longer a substantial injury to the public interest, noting that the police report and DAs ruling already were public. May noted Rachael Flick continues to oppose the release of her husbands autopsy report, but did not again cite concern for Flicks family as a reason to seal the reports. May filed a notice Friday afternoon to withdraw Buxs petition to seal the reports, which was granted by 4th Judicial District Judge Michael McHenry shortly after. The Gazette and other media are opposing the move through attorney, Steven Zansberg, seeking for the Coroners Office to repay the collective attorneys fees on grounds Bux may have improperly shielded the records from the public. Bux has a history of denying The Gazette access to autopsy reports, which are public record under Colorado law, except in extraordinary situation(s) where release would cause substantial injury to the public. In the past two years, he has filed petitions to seal five other autopsy reports. Black Klansman author Ron Stallworth will speak and sign books at Pikes Peak Community College on Sept. 20. The former Colorado Springs police detective, whose story of infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1970s inspired Spike Lees recent blockbuster movie BlacKkKlansman, attended the former El Paso Community College, then a two-year college, for a few semesters starting in the fall of 1973 during his tenure with the police department. EPCC became Pikes Peak Community College in 1978. It was called police science back then. They were teaching theory, and I was living reality on the streets of Colorado Springs at night, Stallworth said by phone Thursday from Kansas, where he was touring in support of his book and the movie. Stallworth, 65, lives in El Paso, Texas but will visit PPCCs Centennial Campus, 5675 S. Academy Blvd., to make a public presentation to students and do a question-and-answer session from 11 a.m. to noon, with a book signing from noon to 1 p.m. The events are free, and no tickets are required. For more information, visit ppcc.edu/calendar. Stallworth earned an associates degree in 2005 and a bachelors in criminal justice from Columbia College-Salt Lake in 2007. I had promised my late wife that I would complete my studies, he said. I stopped for a semester or two to care for her while she was sick with cancer, and after she died I went back. By midday Thursday, 70 people had indicated they would attend the event, and more than 450 showed interest on a Facebook invite generated by the college. Stallworth was the first black detective in CSPD history. After a 32-year career in law enforcement in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming and Utah, he published his memoir, Black Klansman, in 2014. In June, New York-based Flatiron Books published a revised version in anticipation of the films Aug. 10 release. BlacKkKlansman is Showing at Kimballs Peak Three Theatre. Stallworth told The Gazette in June that hell ride the media wave surrounding his book and Lees movie for as long as I can. But I know who I am. I know who my mother raised me to be. I am not a celebrity. Stallworth, born in Chicago and raised in El Paso, moved in 1972 with his single mother, Betty, and siblings to the Springs to be close to an aunt. He joined the police force and became a detective in 1975. In the fall of 1978, he got a call from the Springs KKK leader, responding to a letter Stallworth wrote to the P.O. box listed in the groups newspaper ad. Stallworth thought he could snag an informational brochure or something, valuable intel. Instead, the call set in motion an eight-month undercover investigation, through April 1979. I found it more challenging to have a false identity, to literally put yourself in situations where your ability to survive is based on your ability to verbalize your intent, to communicate. It was thrilling to me, he said. As the voice over the phone, Stallworth could con the likes of Fred Wilkens, Colorados KKK grand dragon, and the national organizations then Grand Dragon, David Duke. He enlisted a white partner to represent Ron Stallworth at meetings. The investigation revealed the Klans connection with other hate groups. But Stallworth says his chief felt the situation was getting too hot. Following orders, Stallworth destroyed documents saving for future proof a David Duke-signed certificate proclaiming Ron Stallworth a Knight and the red card identifying Ron Stallworth in Good Standing for the Year 1979. As a black police officer, you live in two worlds, he said. The black community does not want to accept you, or they reject you, criticize you, find fault with you, because you have chosen to wear a uniform and badge of what they consider an oppressive, occupying force. The white community and in my case, some of the white officers at that time they rejected me because they felt I was too black to be amongst them. Youre too black for the white community and too blue for the black community. Stallworth said he has no plans to visit CSPD while in town, but would if they reached out to him. A year after the investigation, Stallworth left Colorado Springs, continued his career and finished it in Utah, where he helped establish a gang task force. He retired from law enforcement in 2006. [H]atred has never gone away, Stallworth writes in his revised memoir, but has been reinvigorated in the dark corners of the internet, Twitter trolls, alt-right publications, and a nativist president in Trump. Stallworth said hes very happy with how Lees movie turned out, but it was indeed a fictionalization of his memoir. Its a combination of the two. One week deadline to table rights laws The House of Representatives has issued week-long deadline to the respective parliamentary committees to finalise the bills related to fundamental rights, amid fears that the laws will not be readied within the constitutional deadline. A former employee is suspected of attempting to rob the downtown Clarion Hotel early Friday, Colorado Springs police said. Police said they responded to the hotel at 300 W. Bijou St. after Michael Barnes, a former employee, entered an employee area just before 3 a.m. Employees called 911 after Barnes allegedly tried to open a cash box behind the front desk, police said. Barnes cooperated with police at first, but began "yelling and acted erratically," prompting officers to use stun devices to contain him before his arrest, police said. Panel empowers lawmakers to inspect quake-hit homes A meeting of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Steering Committee decided on Thursday to designate rights of making recommendation and inspection of private home impacted by the 2015 earthquake to the local authorities. DALLAS and HOUSTON, Texas, Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Independent Energy Standards Corporation (IES) is pleased to announce the completion of the first transaction for a premium responsible natural gas product in the history of the oil & gas industry, using its flagship TrustWell Ratings. The transaction is part of IES TrustWell Responsible Gas Program and is contracted between Southwestern Energy Company and New Jersey Natural Gas, a leading local distribution company serving over half a million customers throughout New Jersey. This is an important precedent which demonstrates the growing demand from gas purchasers and end consumers for responsible gas and energy. For the first time, natural gas buyers have a credible, independent and comprehensive way to source responsibly developed natural gas as part of their energy mix via the TrustWell Responsible Gas Program, said Jory Caulkins, IES Chief Executive Officer. We are proud to be the innovator and play an important role in setting the market standard, which is the culmination of multiple years of hard work, iteration and collaboration from our team and our partners. TrustWell evaluates a wide range of impacts and risks, with a focus on four overarching categories: water, air, land and community. Within each of these categories is a range of topics, including emissions and methane, leaks and spills, well integrity, water sourcing, community engagement and multiple others. In order to be scalable and translate from the wide range of practices in the gas producer industry into a simple apples-to-apples score, the process uses data, technical libraries, and scoring systems developed together with a range of companies, industry experts, and environmental stakeholders over a number of years. The ultimate output is a TrustWell Rating, similar to a LEED rating for a building, that can be tied to produced gas via multiple high-fidelity mechanisms for gas purchasers and their customers. The TrustWell Ratings system ranges from 0-150, per producing well, and is segmented into Rated, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels. A TrustWell Gold Rating is intended to target the top 25% of producers, and companies which employ many best practices across a range of risks and impacts. The ratings combine an inherent risk profile per facility (including over 4.5 million benchmark facilities and risk data points such as proximity to communities and aquifer depth) with a score for operational controls for that facility (derived from over 20 technical rubrics and engineering libraries such as emissions controls and well integrity), to determine an overall performance score. Methane emissions and other environmental problems threaten the viability of natural gas in a competitive energy landscape where consumers have choices and expect energy to be both cheap and clean. Certification is not a substitute for regulation, but we would anticipate more companies coming forward to differentiate themselves through third-party assessments, like TrustWell, as a strategy for capturing customer demand, said Mark Brownstein, Senior Vice President, Energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, which is a participant in IES Cooperating Stakeholders Program. Participation in the IES TrustWell Responsible Gas Program is open to both natural gas purchasers and natural gas producers. IES plans to continue working hard to expand the program and its partnerships and expects to have a number of additional announcements over the coming months in this regard. About Independent Energy Standards Corp (IES) IES is the market-leading independent ratings and analytics provider for risk and responsibility in the oil & gas industry. The company combines deep technical expertise with market mechanisms to economically reward responsible actors. To learn more, visit www.ies.co or contact the company below. Contact: Independent Energy Standards Corp (IES) Cortney Piper info@ies.co mikeCoolBoy wrote: Polling data reveal that an overwhelming majority of 9 year olds can correctly identify the logos of major cigarette brands. However, of those 9 year olds who recognize such logos, less than 1% smoke. Therefore, there is little or no connection between recognition of cigarette brand logos and smoking. Which one of the following uses flawed reasoning most similar to the flawed reasoning above? A) The concern about the long-term effects on dolphins of small quantities of mercury in the ocean is unfounded. During a three-month period, 1,000 dolphins were exposed to small quantities of mercury in seawater, with no effect on the animal. B) Many ten-year-olds dream of becoming actors. Yet it is not likely they will seriously consider becoming actors, because most parents discourage their children from pursuing such a highly competitive career. C) Most dentist recommend using fluoride to reduce incidence of cavities, but few recommend giving up candy entirely; so, using fluoride is probably more effective in preventing cavities than is avoiding sweets. D) A large percentage of men exercise moderately throughout their lives, but the average life span of tose who do so is not significantly greater than of those who get little or no exercise. So there is little or no correlation between moderate exercise and good health. E) Most people cannot name their legislative representatives. Nonetheless, this is insignificant, for when queried, most of them displayed an adequate command of current political issues. 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 First note that the reasoning of the original argument is flawed. The reasoning of the correct option should be similarly flawed.Most 9 year olds can correctly identify the logos of major cigarette brands.However less than 1% of those who identified smoke.Conclusion: There is little or no connection between recognition of cigarette brand logos and smoking.What is the flaw? 9 yr olds are not allowed to/expected to smoke. So whether they know the brands or not will not tell us whether recognition and smoking are related. The point is the long term impact of recognition of brands. Are they more likely to smoke as adults? That will tell us whether recognition is related to smoking.A) The concern about the long-term effects on dolphins of small quantities of mercury in the ocean is unfounded. During a three-month period, 1,000 dolphins were exposed to small quantities of mercury in seawater, with no effect on the animal.This tells us that since no effect was observed during the 3 month period, there are no long term effects of Mercury. But this is flawed in the same way as our original argument. Only after many years will be come to know whether small amounts of Mercury have impact on dolphins or not.D) A large percentage of men exercise moderately throughout their lives, but the average life span of tose who do so is not significantly greater than of those who get little or no exercise. So there is little or no correlation between moderate exercise and good health.This logic is not flawed in the same way. If large % of men do exercise moderately throughout their lives and their avg life span is similar to those who do not exercise, then it seems that exercise has no impact on longevity. The problem is that the conclusion says that exercise has no correlation with good health. Now, lifespan and good health are not the same. What if men who exercise stay in good health throughout their lifespan but those who do not exercise suffer problems and take medications and are able to reach that lifespan but with struggle? So this argument is flawed too but in a different way.Answer (A)_________________ The disaster agency revealed to the press the power of the [ #permalink My reasoning: The disaster agency revealed to the press the power of the hurricane and the extent of its damage, and, with continuing rain preventing relief efforts , it expressed fear of the welfare of the survivors. (A) with continuing rain preventing relief efforts, it expressed fear of - meaning issue - you cannot really fear survivors' welfare ('fear of') (B) with continuing rain preventing relief efforts, they expressed fear for they - wrong pronoun for 'agency'/ 'with' doesn't really show the cumulative effect of rain that gets in the way of relief efforts (C) because continuing rain was preventing relief efforts, they expressed fear for 'they' not correct for agency (D) because continuing rain was preventing relief efforts, they expressed fear of 'fear of' (E) because continuing rain was preventing relief efforts, it expressed fear for uses 'it'for agency and 'fear for' the survivors well being So E is correct is all respects jeetmech152 wrote: egmat wrote: jeetmech152 wrote: Hi , Please explain what 'it' refers to in the opening modifier of correct choice. and why ans choice C is incorrect. Thanks, Hi, Thank you for your query. I will certainly help you understand the correct choice and the use of it in the same. However, before I do that, I would like to request you to kindly provide me with your meaning and error analysis of the original sentence along with your analysis of the correct choice. If your answer is different from the OA, kindly include in your analysis the reasons for marking the alternate choice as the correct answer. Your analysis will help me in addressing not only this particular doubt but also any possible conceptual gap in your understanding. Hope you'll appreciate the same. Regards, Neeti. Hi,Thank you for your query.I will certainly help you understand the correct choice and the use of it in the same. However, before I do that, I would like to request you to kindly provide me with your meaning and error analysis of the original sentence along with your analysis of the correct choice. If your answer is different from the OA, kindly include in your analysis the reasons for marking the alternate choice as the correct answer. Your analysis will help me in addressing not only this particular doubt but also any possible conceptual gap in your understanding. Hope you'll appreciate the same.Regards,Neeti. Hi Neeti, Here is the analysis: To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance Meaning: Long before a fashion to be an expatriate arrived, Josephine baker lived in paris(Which was her native place). During WW2 she lived in France as a performer and an intelligence agent for the resistance. Error analysis: cl1: To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate,and cl2: She remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance S - V pairs are fine , Verb Tense--> All events in the sentence are properly set in the past, Pronoun --> in cl1 'it' is missing an antecedent. , 'she' in cl2 clearly refers to J.B, Modifier-->' Long before....expatriate' is correctly telling us abt when was paris home to J.B. , Parallelism -List in cl2 is parallel, No Idioms, Meaning is clear, Others --> Her in cl1 is redundant , Subject of cl1 and that of cl2, which is not underlined, should refer to same entity i.e. J.B in this case, but the subject of cl1 is paris, which is an incorrect reference POE: A. To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate - Wrong : for the above mentioned reasons. B. For Josephine baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home - Wrong :This choice repeats the errors in choice A C. Josephine baker made Paris her home long before to be an expatriate was fashionable - Correct : All the errors in original choice are rectified. D. Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home - Wrong : Pronoun 'it' has no antecedent. E. Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker - wrong : J.B. should be subject of cl1, pronoun 'it' has no antecedent With the analysis above, I selected choice C as the correct answer. However, the OA is choice D. Please let me know where did I falter in my analysis. Thanks. Hi Neeti,Here is the analysis:To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the ResistanceMeaning: Long before a fashion to be an expatriate arrived, Josephine baker lived in paris(Which was her native place).During WW2 she lived in France as a performer and an intelligence agent for the resistance.Error analysis:cl1: To Josephine Baker,her home long beforewas fashionable to be an expatriate,andcl2:in France during the Second World War asandfor the Resistancepairs are fine , Verb Tense--> All events in the sentence are properly set in the past,-->, 'she' in cl2 clearly refers to J.B,Modifier-->' Long before....expatriate' is correctly telling us abt when was paris home to J.B. ,-List in cl2 is parallel, No Idioms, Meaning is clear,-->POE:A. To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate -: for the above mentioned reasons.B. For Josephine baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home -:This choice repeats the errors in choice AC. Josephine baker made Paris her home long before to be an expatriate was fashionable -: All the errors in original choice are rectified.D. Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home -: Pronoun 'it' has no antecedent.E. Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker -: J.B. should be subject of cl1, pronoun 'it' has no antecedentThanks. Your Meaning analysis: (Which was her native place) Intended meaning of the author: It says that she made Paris her home Gap between your meaning analysis and the intended meaning of the author: She considered Paris her home way before it was fashionable to be an emigrant Now how do you think the two pieces of facts (color-coded above) relate to each other? Why is the author saying that Paris was home to Josephine before it was fashionable to live outside ones own country (i.e. as an expatriate)? sentence structure break-up and the error-analysis presented by you This is how I would break the sentence in to various clauses: Paris was it was she remained Does it always refer to something? For example, in the sentence It is raining , does it refer to anything in particular? The answer is no! The it here is what we call a dummy or placeholder it and one should not look for a referent for a dummy it. Which one would you prefer? Accordingly, choice D has no error. Dear Jeet,I am really happy to see your in depth analysis of the question. It shows how committed you are to learning the concepts and acing GMAT.Lets discuss the analysis presented by you.Please contrast the meanings presented in the highlighted portions:Long before a fashion to be an expatriate arrived, Josephine baker lived in parisDuring WW2 she lived in France as a performer and an intelligence agent for the resistance.This sentence starts off by telling us about a person called Josephine Baker.. When did she make Paris her home? She did so long before it became stylish to live as an emigrant. The author then goes on to give us additional information about Josephine Baker. We get to know that she lived in France throughout the Second World War. She lived there as an artist and as an intelligence agent for an agency called The Resistance.The point that you have missed is that Josephine baker wasnt from Paris. Therefore, Paris couldnt have been her native place. How do we know this? We know this because the author gives us enough context to establish the same. Look at how author gives us information about Josephine Baker.Lets move on to analyzing thecl1: To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate,andcl2: She remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance To Josephine Baker,her homeo long beforefashionable to be an expatriate, andin France during the Second World Waro as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance.So in all there are three clauses in the sentence above. The subject verb pairs are highlighted appropriately. The subject of the second clause is it. Now you have mentioned in your error analysis that it here lacks a referent. Let me ask you a question here :Lets take a look at a couple of more sentences to where the dummy it has been used:1. It is wise to invest your money in mutual fund.2. Do you think it is important that we keep our promises?As you can see, in both the sentences, it does not refer to anything in particular.The second error, as hinted by you as well, is that here both the clauses can be made more structurally parallel. Ideally the sentence should have Josephine as the subject of the first clause and not Paris, since we are talking about her in both the clauses. In other words, Josephine is the focus of the sentence and not Paris.Moving on, you have marked choice C as the correct answer; however, choice C is extremely awkward in its structure and cannot be a contender for the correct choice. There is no reason for us to write this:long before to be an expatriate was fashionableLook at choices C and D from fresh eyes. You now know that it acts as a dummy it in the original sentence and choice D. Accordingly, which choice would you prefer structurally? To help you think in this direction, I would like you to consider the following two sentences.1. Long before to be an actor was fashionable, he started acting.2. Long before it was fashionable to be an actor, he started acting.Your analysis of other choices is OK, except at places where you have listed the lack of an antecedent for it as an error.Also, the word being as used in choice E is not appreciated by the GMAT. To check wheer the use of "being" is considered correct by the GMAC, please refer to our article here: https://e-gmat.com/blogs/?p=3544 Hope the above discussion helps!Regards,Neeti._________________ Haifa is on the "front line" in any action in the north but this blog looks at life in the shadow of danger to all of Israel PM Oli calls for Inter-State Council meeting on Sunday Amid the increasing grievances of the provincial governmentsespecially over jurisdiction, non-availability of civil servants, and taxationPrime Minister KP Sharma Oli has called for a meeting of the Inter-State Council on Sunday, marking this meeting to be the first time representatives of provincial governments will be sitting together with representatives of the federal government. The author is the director of dairy policy analysis at the Center for Dairy Profitability, Madison, Wis. I would be the first to tell you that forecasting milk prices is an imprecise science. But I do try to do more than wet my finger and stick it in the air to see which way the winds are blowing. I have economic models that I use to inform my opinions; I wait for the most recent data from reporting sources; and I try to keep abreast of the news articles that report on factors that may be important to the dairy industry. Forecasting still boils down to supply and demand. My most useful forecast tool is a supply and utilization table where I organize my information and build up things like milk production. If I think that there is a story about cow numbers or production per cow, then that will alter my production forecast. Of course, I also have to look at dairy product stocks the ballast tank for the dairy industry and see if there is a story there. What about our economy and changing consumer preferences for out-of-home dining or fluid milk consumption? Until about a dozen years ago, I didnt have to think about exports. Our dairy economy was large and mostly internal, with very little international trade to worry about. It is a different story today and export customers are a significant piece of U.S. dairy demand. It is hard enough to keep track of changing demand patterns for dairy products in countries like Mexico, China, and others. The size of the spreadsheets that I use to organize data has ballooned since I now keep an eye on competitors for world markets and digest what is happening in their dairy industries, too. I thought that I was getting on top of all of that, and I believed that my data set was large enough to accommodate domestic and foreign ripples in supply and demand. EVERYTHING CHANGED Until a little more than a month ago, I was feeling cautiously optimistic about a milk price recovery in 2018. Sure, we still had large stocks of powder in Europe to work down and our own stocks of cheese and powder were on the heavy side, but there were signs of purchases coming out of several countries and our domestic demand looked to be fairly strong. And, because of hot weather, gains in milk production in the European Union (EU) were even slowing down a bit. The markets looked ready to improve milk prices, not like 2014, but foreign and domestic product prices were strengthening and my colleagues in Europe and Oceania were optimistic. Our own futures markets confirmed the optimism. They are a wonderful sponge soaking up market information and wringing out prices. When the U.S. announced tariffs on aluminum and steel from several countries in June, Mexico and China two of our largest dairy product customers retaliated with tariffs on agricultural products including dairy. Almost immediately, futures markets reacted to the news by reversing the earlier gains and dropping somewhere between $1.50 and $2 per hundredweight (cwt.) in most months. This was devastating news to dairy producers who were well into the fourth year of relatively low milk prices. Markets dont like uncertainty, and the initial reaction to trade impacts was probably an overreaction to the likely outcomes. The USDAs estimate of the impact of tariffs on dairy trade seemed to confirm something less than that number. We still dont know all of the details of the trade relief package announced by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue, but insiders are saying that dairy accounts for about $1.6 billion of the $12 billion in aid. That $1.6 billion on a little more than half a years production is about a $1 per cwt. impact in 2018. A MORE ROBUST MODEL A colleague and I have been working for a couple of years on a fairly comprehensive dairy trade model. When we impose the tariffs from Mexico and China, we certainly do see an impact, but over time, its not as large as we are seeing in the short run. First of all, at current prices we are still likely to sell whey to China even with tariffs. This happens partly because there isnt another supplier with enough capacity to fill all of Chinas demands and partly because our whey prices are somewhat discounted compared to the European Unions anyway. We are still likely to be in the competitive range even with the imposed tariffs. Mexican tariffs are a bit different. We arent always in a competitive price range with cheese, and tariffs could make those sales even more difficult. However, we have developed strong customer associations over many years, and neither the buyer nor the seller want to give up those relationships over a short-term problem. And, given our proximity to Mexico, we can still service accounts more easily than our competitors can. Yes, the tariffs are a problem, and if they stay in place for a long period of time, they will create lasting damage to our export markets. We will find new overseas customers, and we hope that NAFTA negotiations might be completed quickly so that we can get back to business with our neighbors. I am forecasting milk price improvements through the rest of 2018 and through most of 2019. Not a meteoric climb, but a steady improvement to a 2019 average that should feel a lot like 2017. 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. Pokhara conclave to mull key issues In a first, chief ministers have gathered in Pokhara to chart out common agendas for the upcoming Inter-state Council meeting scheduled on Sunday in Kathmandu. The two-day Chief Ministers Meeting convened by Gandaki Province Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung will discuss the existing situation of their governments, problems they are facing and ways to resolve them. 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 Problems faced by migrant Nepalis in India will be resolved soon: Dahal Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the problems faced by migrant Nepalis for decades in India would be resolved in no time if the recent development in Nepal-India relations could be tapped. The report indicates that in February alone, the Trump administration denied the applications that had been filed by 87 different Iranians under the Lautenberg-Specter program, which specifically serves to facilitate the relocation of persecuted minorities, having been first put into place to assist Jews in fleeing form the Soviet Union. The Times describes the program as having an acceptance rate very near 100 percent, making the mass denials over the past year unprecedented. In the first quarter of 2017, the US admitted 1,061 Iranian nationals, but a total of just 35 have been admitted so far this year, according to the Refugee Processing Center. It is a situation that has been attributed partly to President Trumps travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries, and partly to his administrations failure or unwillingness to address changes in refugee processing procedures in order to prevent further slowdowns in the resettlement of asylum seekers. As the L.A. Times indicated, this flies in the face of Trumps assurances last year to the Christian Broadcasting Network that his administration would make a priority of providing assistance to Christians suffering persecution overseas. This speaks to the fact that the president and his foreign policy officials are certainly aware of the escalating religious persecution and the broader human rights concerns prevailing in the Islamic Republic. These concerns were, in fact, the focus of a recent Voice of America News video purporting to explain the rationales behind current US policies. The video highlighted public statements from such administration officials as UN ambassador Nikki Haley and State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, which called attention to daily human rights violations by the Iranian regime and called upon all of the United States global partners to join in exerting pressure on Tehran over this issue. But the administrations refusal of Iranian asylum seekers arguably has a detrimental effect upon the example that the US is setting for those partners, some of whom could be faced with the choice to either provide the assistance that is not coming from the US or else facilitate the return of refugees to a country where they could be imprisoned or executed because of their decision to flee. This situation could still be resolved, as the L.A. Times reports that a final decision on the 87 applications from February is still due this month. But in the meantime, the relevant individuals remain stranded in Austria for much longer than the three to six months usually associated with the process. Compounding the danger of potential deportation, the current location of these refugees may raise alarm bells in its own right, following the revelation in July that a leading Iranian diplomat in Vienna had served as the mastermind of a foiled plot to bomb the annual rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran just outside Paris on June 30. Although two Iranian nationals were recently indicted in the United States on charges of spying for Iran, the NCRI and other critics of the Iranian regime have argued that the danger of Iranian espionage and associated terrorism is greater in Europe, where the Islamic Republic continues to maintain diplomatic-cum-terrorist networks through its consular buildings, which were closed in the US at the outset of the hostage crisis in 1979. On the other hand, the maintenance of Iranian-European diplomatic relations arguably puts the European Union and its member states in a better position to exert certain types of pressure on the Iranian regime, in line with the Trump administrations calls to action. Furthermore, those calls are not emanating only from the White House but also from non-governmental human rights groups, some of which have been warning for years that key aspects of Irans domestic situation have only gotten worse since the 2013 election of so-called moderate President Hassan Rouhani. An article published on Thursday by Charity Today quoted Philip Luther, Amnesty Internationals Middle East Research and Advocacy Director, as saying that Iran is currently in the midst of a blatant attempt to silence those advocating for human rights in Iran. Luther was referring, in particular, to the arrests on Friday and Saturday of three human rights lawyers and a womens rights activist. The Charity Today report identified those arrests as part of a wider crackdown on persons with similar professions and political backgrounds, and it includes a timeline of related arrests, many of which are seen as targeting individuals who have attempted to defend anti-government and womens rights protesters in the wake of the nationwide uprisings that spanned the last days of December and the first two weeks of January. The report named seven prominent activists and lawyers who had been arrested between June and August. But this is by no means an exhaustive list of those who have been targeted as part of the ongoing crackdown. Additionally, their arrests are only part of the story, as a number of recent arrestees and longstanding political prisoners have faced new pressures in recent weeks. Such pressures include threats against detainees family members, as in the case of the renowned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose husband Reza Khandan was arrested on Tuesday when agents of the Intelligence Ministry raided his home. The Center for Human Rights in Iran confirmed that this was part of a broader pattern of behavior by regime authorities. Intelligence agencies in collusion with the judiciary are ratcheting up their harassment of family membersand trampling on the lawin order to silence any questioning of their actions, said the organizations Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi. Khandans arrest may be a direct response to his protests outside of Evin Prison or his outreach to independent media, or it may be part of an effort to compel Sotoudeh to end a hunger strike that began on August 26. While it bears noting that the harassment of her family and friends predates the protest and is one of the factors motivating it, it is also true that the regime has a long history of taking drastic measures to interrupt hunger strikes, since these have frequently proven effective in generating public sympathy and facilitating the further spread of activist measures. Although Sotoudehs domestic and international renown may make her hunger strike an area of particular concern for the regimes repressive authorities, there are others who may pose an equally serious challenge to those authorities because their protests have already been going on much longer. CHRI reported on Tuesday that Farhad Meysami, a physician who was arrested at the end of July for his participation in protests against the detention of other civil rights activist, is refusing to end his hunger strike more than a month after it began. Im on hunger strike out of respect for my own human dignity and that of all other individuals who have been detained on false accusations and interrogated without access to their own chosen lawyers, Meysami said of the protest action that began immediately after his arrest. He has since been transferred to the prison infirmary several times, although he was also held for 20 days in solitary confinement and was reportedly beaten during his interrogation, audio of which was played over anonymous phone calls to his mother. Solitary confinement, physical violence, and denial of proper medical treatment are all familiar tactics used by authorities in Iranian prisons, either as forms of extrajudicial punishment or in order to compel compliance from political prisoners. And in recent weeks there have been numerous examples of these tactics being used not only to further the crackdown on human rights advocates but also to expand the associated crackdown on religious minorities and other perceived threats to the hardline Islamist identity imposed on Iran by the clerical regime. Another CHRI report pointed out on Wednesday that guards in the Great Tehran Penitentiary had attacked about 30 imprisoned members of the Gonabadi dervish Sufi order who staged a sit-in on August 29. The violent incident resulted in broken bones as well as the transfer of several of the dervishes to solitary confinement, where they have now remained for more than a week. A source told CHRI, The authorities say if the dervishes want to return to their previous wards they have to express remorse, but they have refused to do so because they believe they did nothing wrong. In other cases, mistreatment at the hands of prison authorities has been used in order to put pressure on members of religious minorities to convert. These are the kinds of hardships from which Iranian Christians have been fleeing as they seek resettlement in the US under the Lautenberg-Specter program. And although the overall problem of persecution and human rights violations must be addressed inside the Islamic Republic via coordinated pressure from domestic activists and foreign diplomats, critics of current American policies might argue that such coordination is more attainable if the US is perceived as willing to open itself up to those who are seeking to lawfully escape the currently worsening conditions in Iran. Kanchanpur rape and murder case: Rights body points at flawed investigation The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found several flaws on the part of police while investigating into the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta in Kanchanpur district. The hungry and forgotten Malnutrition will continue largely unabated unless it is identified and approached Top cop Khanal vows action against guilty of Kanchanpur incident Inspector General of Nepal Police (IGP) SarbendraKhanal has remarked that the police personnel, who were negligent in the investigation of rape and murder of 13-year-old NirmalaPanta of Bhimdutta Municipality-2, Kanchanpur, and the guilty of the gruesome incident cannot get away from the law. - Crazy Rich Asians has just proven that it has the ability to dominate even the US movie scene - No wonder such splendor was reflected in the movie, after all, it's budget reached more than simply hundreds of millions of peso - Kris Aquino is still overwhelmed at how the movie turned out and she felt honored to have been part of it PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed! Aside from the fact that Kris Aquino, a Filipino, stars in the international movie Crazy Rich Asians, what makes the movie appeal to many is the fact that it was superbly done. The cast, the setting, everything seemsed to have blended perfectly. Why wouldn't it? Crazy Rich Asians has a budget that could leaves jaw-dropped (literally). KAMI learned that the whole movie budget was a whopping $30 million, roughly translated at P 1.6 billion! Now that amount could utterly build lots of infrastructures in the Philippines, not to mention the number of people it could feed! 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! But seriously, the budget takes the cake! No wonder the movie was like one whole perfect package all molded into one! Crazy Rich Asians is a movie which premiered in the international scene with an all-Asian cast. Kris Aquino played the role of Princess Intan in the movie. It was previously reported in KAMI that Kevin Kwan thanked the Filipinos who became super fans of Crazy Rich Asians. POPULAR: Read more about Kris Aquino Tricky Questions: Can you translate this into English? on Kami YouTube channel This video shows the ability of Filipinos to translate sentences hurled at them into the universal English language. Source: Kami.com.ph - Marian Rivera has just revealed that her partner in the new Canesten commercial couldn't believe that she is already married - She said that he even stalked her account and asked her if Dong is her husband and if Zia is her child - Of course, Marian told him "yes" as he simply couldn't believe she has a daughter PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed! Marian Rivera is undeniably one of the actresses in the Philippines who has a truly beautiful face and a great body, even after having given birth. Now, KAMI learned that the Kapuso Primetime Queen is working on a new commercial, Canesten. Since it would not only be made available in the Philippines, but also in other Asian countries, she worked with a handsome Thai model. Marian Rivera reveals her handsome Thai model partner in new commercial stalked her Source: Facebook Yan has revealed though that at first, the said model would not believe that Marian already has a husband and a child. "Sinasabi ko sa kanya, Im married. "Parang nag-stalk pa siya sa akin, tiningnan niya ang Instagram ko. Nakita niya." "Tinanong niya, 'Hes your husband, your child?' "'Oo nga ano,' ayaw maniwala sa akin," said Marian. Marian Rivera reveals her handsome Thai model partner in new commercial stalked her Source: Facebook While the actress is really taking care of her body, she is still ready to have her second child. 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! She said that Zia has been asking for a sibling every time she celebrates her birthday. Isa sina Dingdong Dantes at Marian Rivera na naiulat sa KAMI na mga couples na matagal nang nagsasama. Marian Rivera is an actress in GMA and the wife of Dingdong Dantes. They have a daughter, Zia. Her popularity soared for playing Marimar. POPULAR: Read more about Marian Rivera Cool set of exercises that you can do at work to keep fit from our coach Chrystalle - on Kami YouTube channel This video helps you to keep fit even if you're at the desk all day. These are exercises that are simply very easy to follow and do. Source: Kami.com.ph The eyewitness says the pair were shoved in a car despite resistance. Two underage girls were apparently kidnapped in Kyiv's Obolonsky district on September 6. An eyewitness says a group of teenagers sporting black masks pushed the two schoolgirls (judging by their appearance) into an Audi. The car drove off immediately, and the victims' whereabouts remain unknown, the Strana news outlet reported with reference to the sources in the interior ministry. The victims called for help and resisted the abduction, but the attack was so fast that bystanders did not have time to rescue the two, the report says, although the scene was rather crowded. Read alsoCivic activist shot at in Odesa The witness immediately called the police, which launched the "Interception" protocol. All police patrol units have been alerted. The owner of the car involved in the attack has already been identified. The police opened a criminal case under Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (kidnapping). Untangling the trade deficit In August this year, trade treaty review committees of Nepal and India sat down together in New Delhi to comprehensively review the Nepal-India Trade Treaty. The bilateral treaty was last revised back in Oct, 2009. The main agenda of the meeting was to discuss ways on how the two countries could narrow down Nepals increasing trade deficit with India. War games In a democracy, the army cannot take decision solely at its own discretion Decades-Old Case Revives African Demand For Stolen Lands When colonial powers redrew borders in Africa and picked choice lands for themselves and less desirable land for everyone else, some of those deals remained through this century. Few were undone. This week, a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will decide if colonial deals that redrew African borders can be declared illegal and, if so, if islands taken by the United Kingdom from the nation of Mauritius can be rejoined to Mauritius as before. ADVERTISEMENT Mauritius says it was illegally stripped by Britain of the Chagos Islands, now home to a major U.S. air base. The British decision to separate Mauritius from the archipelago in 1965 was a bargaining chip that forced Mauritius to choose accept the deal or never obtain independence. The deal was in breach of UN resolution 1514, passed in 1960, which specifically banned the breakup of colonies before independence, according to the Mauritian government arguing before the UN-backed court which specializes in territorial and border disputes between states. The four-day session will hear from representatives of 22 countries in a dispute over the rights of exiled islanders to return. The United States has leased the Chagos Islands biggest island, Diego Garcia, since 1966 and has built an air base there, while the entire population of around 1,500 people was forced to leave. Although ICJ opinions are not binding, they carry weight under international law. ADVERTISEMENT Arguing for Mauritius is elder statesman Anerood Jugnauth, 88, who served for nearly 30 years during four stints as prime minister or president of Mauritius from 1982-2017. The choice we were faced with was no choice at all: it was independence with detachment (of the Chagos archipelago) or no independence with detachment anyway, Jugnauth told the 14-judge panel. Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugees Group said What we are asking for our right to live on our island as sons of the soil. UK solicitor general Robert Buckland accepted that the removal of the Chagossians and their treatment thereafter was shameful and wrong and Britain deeply regrets that fact. Still, he claims, in 1982, a treaty was signed between the countries that reached full and final settlement of Mauritian claims to the archipelago. That deal has since been recognized by the European court of human rights. No date has been set for a decision. Former GOP Chair Steele Says He Knows Identity of Op-Ed Writer Former Republican Party National Chairman Michael Steele goes on the record with NNPA Newswire and it turns out there are more resisters inside the White House a high-level group of Republican resisters to President Donald Trump not a single individual, but a large and still growing group. In an NNPA Newswire exclusive, Steele said the damning New York Times op-ed by a senior Trump administration official was likely written by a team of the presidents trusted hierarchy and its a clear signal that America is now witnessing a White House in utter chaos. Steele, who served as party chair from 2009 to 2011, said Trump has devastated the party and has led Republicans to the brink of a midterm that could see a blue wave from sea to shining sea. ADVERTISEMENT I think the midterms are going to be a correction election. Voters will correct what they see in government not being about the peoples business or government thats more caught up in Donald Trump, Steele said. The voters may take the House from the Republicans in order to wake them up, he said. On Friday, Trump said he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate and uncover the identity of the senior administration official who penned the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times this week. Yeah, I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of this piece was because I really believe its national security, Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One. Trump has called the author gutless and a coward and the White House reportedly has a list of 12 people whom they believe could be the author of the piece which claimed theres a resistance within the administration. Steele said he believes he knows the identity of the author or, rather he said, authors. ADVERTISEMENT In many senses, its a cry for help, an acknowledgment within Trumps White House that, as the saying goes, Houston, we have a problem, Steele said. However, unlike so many others who believe its the work of one senior official, Steele said he thinks more than one staffer is behind the damning article. Its my take that this isnt the hand of or the handprint of one individual, he said. Ive read that and I can hear a lot of different voices that I know personally. He compared the matter to a group of employees all of whom are upset with the boss. No individual will want to go to the boss or go public, so they sit there talking and they write a letter together and give it to one person to take it in this case to the press, Steele said. That letter reflects the views and concerns of many individuals inside the White House. As to why he wouldnt reveal the identities, Steele likened it to journalists who maintain anonymous sources. You have contacts and I have contacts, Steele said. My contacts tell me a lot of things that was inspired in the books by Michael Wolf, Omarosa Manigult Newman and Bob Woodward, he said of the authors of recent books that paint the president as unhinged and out of control. Steele said he couldnt relate to those like Sen. Ted Cruz supporting Trump because of the nasty attacks the president made against Cruz and his family during the 2016 campaign. Im sorry, no election is worth my dignity, he said. When I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror for a shave, I want to like the guy thats looking back at me from the mirror. Ted Cruz is in a battle for his political life when he really should be walking away with this election. Steele said he believes the Republican Party has lost its soul. He said it was once the party that supported and advocated for Civil Rights and Voting Rights, but now the GOP has become infamous for demeaning and racist statements like referring to certain places as shithole countries. When you give [credence] to the idea that people from this culture are thieves, murderers and racist and come from shithole countries, I dont know how you come to them and say we want your vote, Steele said. Finally, he said the upcoming midterms will represent a challenge for Republicans because Trump has had two years in office and voters are now more likely to seek the anti-Trump. Before they had Trump against Hillary, someone they didnt like, Steele said. Now, its Trump by himself and instead of comparing Trump to Hillary, they are comparing candidates running for office against Donald Trump. A growing number of museums in Europe are turning thumbs down on oil company dollars when the companies not only contribute to global warming but fund the science that supposedly disproves it. Oil company funding also misleads public perception of environmental devastation as in Nigeria where billions of dollars were made extracting oil while highly toxic water and soil remain. A recent study published in the International Journal of Hydrology found that levels of Cobalt, Copper and Iron are so high in the communities of Gokana, Ogoniland, River State, as to render their water unsuitable for human consumption due to the potential adverse health effect at high levels. ADVERTISEMENT These reasons prompted three partners in the prestigious Manchester Science Festival to withdraw over the Museums taking of sponsorship from Shell Oil. We feel that a festival that promotes science and knowledge contradicts itself by endorsing companies whose contribution to global warming and its denial is so tremendously damaging to society and counterproductive to the pursuit of knowledge, commented one of the festival partners in emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the group Culture Unstained. The museums decision to take sponsorship from Shell is a betrayal of this, undermining its ability to inspire the next generation on what our future should look like. We know that were not alone in this view. More than 57,000 people have signed a petition demanding the Museum reject Shells money. Chris Packham, the wildlife presenter and naturalist, was among the petition signatories. A museum dedicated to science education should not be helping promote any company that is actively exacerbating this planetary emergency, until they show a serious proactive drive to switch to renewables. Museum director Sally McDonald replied, saying funding partners such as Shell support our mission to inspire futures by igniting a curiosity in science. ADVERTISEMENT Last week, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam announced it would end its long-running Shell sponsorship deal, with two other Dutch museums following suit. Tate recently ended its 26-year relationship with BP (British Petroleum), and Edinburgh International Festival did the same with its 34-year partnership. Meanwhile, in an article titled Shells Strangulation of Ogoniland, the author Fegalo Nsuke wrote: In reality, Shell has destroyed the lives of the Ogoni people. The health implications of the Ogoni pollutions have been very devastating Shell and our leaders do seem not to care about the fact that the fastest growing business in Ogoniland today is the production of caskets. Michael David Brownlee (dob 8/21/93) of Los Angeles pleaded guilty in a negotiated plea agreement to two felony counts of residential burglary, person present; one felony count of residential burglary; and one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure. He also admitted a 2014 conviction of first-degree burglary, person present. Brownlee was immediately sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Villalobos. ADVERTISEMENT On June 29, 2016, the defendant burglarized three residences, according to court testimony. In a separate incident, he exposed himself to a mother and her son near the intersection of Fair Oaks Avenue and Rollin Street. He was stopped by police and arrested later that day. Deputy District Attorney Presciliano Duran prosecuted case GA099173. The South Pasadena Police Department investigated the case. Michael Jacksons Thriller Still Reigns Supreme Recent sales numbers have erroneously suggested that the late Michael Jackson is no longer the King of Pop. Specifically, Jacksons Thriller album has been displaced by the Eagles greatest hit compilation, as the biggest selling record of all-time. However, several pieces of telling information is lost in mainstream medias reporting of this turning of the tide. ADVERTISEMENT One of the things everyone seems to be overlooking is that the Eagles album is a compilation of hits from 1971 to 1975 whereas Thriller is one studio album with nine instant classics, said Motown biographer and music aficionado Herb Livingston. Its like saying, they put four or five albums together, got their sales numbers and compared it to one album and its sales. Its not a fair comparison and that alone makes Thriller still number one, Livingston said. The Recording Industry Association of America told The Associated Press that the Eagles album Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is now certified 38x platinum, which means sales and streams of the album have reached 38 million copies. The album was released in 1976 and, by those standards, pushes Jacksons Thriller, which is 33x platinum, to second place. The last time RIAA tallied sales for the Eagles greatest hits album was in 2006, when it said it was 29x platinum. Sales and streams for Thriller were last updated last year, which could very well mean that it could leapfrog into the top spot again. RIAAs platinum status was once equivalent to selling one million albums or songs, but in 2013 the company began incorporating streaming from YouTube, Spotify and other digital music services to determine certification for albums and songs. ADVERTISEMENT Now, 1,500 streams of an album is equivalent to an album sale. Also, 10 song downloads equals 1 album sale. That also means Jacksons Thriller should remain on solid footing even if its just recognized as the biggest selling studio album of all-time. The RIAA compilation also only considers sales in the United States. With smash hits like Billie Jean, Beat It, and Wanna Be Startin Something, Thriller has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and no single artist has come close to achieving such a feat. Jacksons moniker as the King of Pop probably is earned in that many music lovers dont even consider Thriller to be his best work. His 1979, Off the Wall, is widely considered musical genius while his 1987 Bad sold more than 24 million copies. Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, won 24 American Music Awards, 13 Grammy Awards and was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 as a member of the Jackson 5, and in 2001, as a solo artist. His fans and there arent more loyal and dedicated fans in the world will make sure to go on a downloading and buying frenzy, Livingston said. The Thriller album will easily reclaim those tainted sales numbers and again shut up those who doubt. Ugandan Leader Tarnished By Torture Of Reggae Pop-Star Images of a popular reggae music star in a wheel chair holding crutches have raised questions of whether Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered the arrest and torture of the star-turned-parliamentarian, Bobi Wine, who attended a recent rally of the opposition in the town of Arua. Museveni was forced to release the star for treatment in the U.S. after an outcry by Wines supporters. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known professionally as Bobi Wine, arrived Sunday in Boston. Initially blocked from boarding his flight, he was briefly held in a government-owned hospital before finally being released. ADVERTISEMENT Spokesmen for the President dismissed Wines torture claims as fake news and said that Wine will be charged with treason for allegedly trying to stone a Presidential convoy during the Arua rally. Museveni had long left Arua when rioting broke out and rocks began to fly. Special forces responded with tanks, firing live bullets, raiding hotels, and violently arresting legislators, hotel guests and bystanders. Parliamentarian Francis Zaake was so grievously injured at the August 15 event that he was reportedly placed on life support. Efforts to transfer Zaake to India for treatment have been put on hold pending an exam by Ugandan doctors. Kassiano Wadri, a candidate for office who trounced the official candidate according to election returns, was arrested and remains in detention. Some 33 opposition figures have been charged with treason following the Arua clashes. ADVERTISEMENT Kyagulanyi, raised in one of Kampalas slums, styles himself the ghetto president. He was elected to parliament last year and has a large youth and international following. His supporters cite his success in helping candidates from the opposition win elections and have urged him to run for president in 2021. Museveni, who has held power since 1986, may be losing ground with voters, many of them under 30 who have never known another president. A controversial hydropower dam supported by the President is now called a big mistake since making electricity in Uganda unaffordable for many citizens. U.S. investors, the Blackstone Group, however, reaped a huge return, doubling their $120 million investment after selling their stake to a Norwegian company, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, against a background of hundreds of Bobi Wine fans, a CNN reporter observed: In a battle between the people and the President, the people have chosen their side. Indias Supreme Court has struck down the countrys long-standing ban on gay sex. In a decision announced Thursday, all five judges who considered the case agreed that the ban should be removed. In reading the courts decision, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the law had become a weapon for harassment against members of the LGBT community. The law barring sex between members of the same sex was first introduced by Indias British colonial rulers in 1861. The criminal act was punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The law was ended in 2009 by the Delhi High Court. But it was brought back in 2013 by the Supreme Court, making India one of the few countries that outlawed gay sex. But the latest Supreme Court decision found that sexual orientation is biological and should not be used to discriminate. Chief Justice Misra said, social morality cannot be used to violate the fundamental rights of even a single individual. Another justice, D.Y. Chandrachud, said while the court cannot change history, it can pave a way for a better future. India's conservative government had opposed ending the law. But officials said they were leaving the decision to the "wisdom" of the Supreme Court. However, the government had warned that judges should not change laws relating to marriage rights. Rights groups and members of Indias LGBT community had campaigned for the Supreme Court to end the gay sex ban. Some celebrated in the streets near the court in New Delhi -- cheering, dancing and waving flags. We feel as equal citizens now, activist Shashi Bhushan told the Associated Press. What happens in our bedroom is left to us. "I am speechless! college student Rama Vij told the French Press Agency. It's taken a long time to come, but finally I can say I am free and I have equal rights as others." One of the people responsible for bringing the case to the Supreme Court was Debottam Saha, who spoke to Reuters. Im so excited, I have no words, he said. The head of the Muslim-led JIH (Jamaat-e-Islami Hind) political group condemned the courts decision. In a statement, Muhammad Salim Engineer said ending the ban on gay sex had put India on a path toward moral degradation. The statement said the JIH believes in the fundamental rights of all citizens. However, legalizing gay sex ignores religious teachings, our culture and the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the people, it added. A leader of the conservative nationalist group RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) noted the organization does not believe that being gay should be a crime. However, the group said Indian society traditionally does not recognize gay relationships. Debottam Saha said Indias LGBT community will still likely face much discrimination. We are no longer criminals, (but) it will take time to change things on the ground -- 20 to 30 years, maybe, he said. Sukhdeep Singh is a gay rights activist and editor of the magazine Gaylaxy. He said the community still has a long way to go to be legally with your partner. But he added that the court decision has surely opened the door for more changes in the future. This is the first battle that has been won and there are many more battles that we are going to fight, he said. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and other online sources. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story gay adj. sexually attracted to someone who is the same sex harassment n. making repeated attacks against someone or something LGBT adj. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender orientation n. a main interest, quality, or goal fundamental adj. relating to the most important or main part of something pave a way for v. expression (v.) to make it easier for something to happen or for someone to do something degradation n. the act of damaging the quality of condition of something overwhelming adj. very strong or great in amount 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 Investor excitement for Chinas electric-car business gets a reality check next week. NIO Inc. will become the first major electric-car maker to have a U.S. initial public offering since Tesla Inc. in 2010, and its stock is set to start trading Sept. 12. The Tencent Holdings Ltd.-backed company seeks a valuation of USD6.4 billion to $8.5 billion even though its delivered fewer than 2,000 vehicles ever. Shanghai-based NIO wants to grab the pole position in the race to be Chinas homegrown answer to Tesla, competing with dozens of domestic automakers to capitalize on rising demand in the worlds largest market. Yet that battle also attracts the same type of intense scrutiny that Elon Musks company faces, as many of the fledgling companies need to convince investors they have the manufacturing capacity to deliver on their promises. The bull case for NIO is that it has the potential to be Chinas EV champion, said Robin Zhu, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in Hong Kong. The bear case is that the business burns cash at an alarming rate and hasnt demonstrated transformative demand levels. Teslas still-diminutive presence in China fewer than 12,000 of its vehicles were registered this year through July, according to LMC Automotive creates an opening for local startups. The Chinese governments quest to lead the world in EVs has created favorable policies and lured investors at least five local electric-car makers attracted $1 billion or more in backing with minimal production. In addition, there are several established electric-car makers in China with years of experience in manufacturing. Those companies including BYD Co. and Beijing Electric Vehicle Co., which is preparing for an IPO in China typically focus on cheaper, less flashy vehicles that dont directly compete with the likes of Tesla. NIO represents a different breed, targeting wealthier buyers through a focus on connectivity and performance. After breaking speed records with its EP9 race car, NIO is ramping up production of the ES8 SUV, its first commercial product, at a partners plant in the eastern city of Hefei. NIO founder William Li pledged to deliver 10,000 vehicles to customers by years end. One skeptic, He Xiaopeng, the chairman of rival Xpeng Motors Technology Ltd., said in a social-media posting in July thats a goal no Chinese EV startup, including his own, can reach. One early NIO backer, JD.com Inc. billionaire founder Liu Qiangdong, took 10 seconds to decide to invest, said Lius wife, Zhang Zetian. Liu made the decision immediately after NIOs founder made a presentation at Lius home, Zhang said at an event in December. He is so creative, Liu said in a January interview with Bloomberg. I am sure he will get a very successful IPO and make a perfect car for consumers. Like many peers, NIO hasnt secured an EV manufacturing license from regulators, so it tapped Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group to build its cars. That allowed NIO to start manufacturing while working to build a facility in Shanghai, but it also means many production-related hurdles are beyond its control. Anhui Jianghuai works with other carmakers and also has its own ambitions. Bloomberg A powerful earthquake yesterday on Japans northernmost main island of Hokkaido triggered dozens of landslides that crushed houses under torrents of dirt, rocks and timber, prompting frantic efforts to unearth any survivors. At least nine people were killed, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. Officials said at least 366 were injured, five of them seriously, and about 30 people were unaccounted for after the magnitude 6.7 earthquake jolted residents from their beds at 3:08 a.m. Nearly 3 million households were left without power by the quake the latest in an exhausting run of natural disasters for Japan. It paralyzed normal business on the island, as blackouts cut off water to homes, immobilized trains and airports, causing hundreds of flight cancellations, and shut down phone systems. In the town of Atsuma, where entire hillsides collapsed, rescuers used small backhoes and shovels to search for survivors under the tons of earth that tumbled down steep mountainsides, burying houses and farm buildings below. The areas deep green hills were marred by reddish-brown gashes where the soil tore loose under the violent tremors. Twenty-eight people remained unaccounted for in the town, Atsuma Mayor Shoichiro Miyasaka told public broadcaster NHK. We will carry on searching for them, he said. Miyasaka said the town had emergency meals for up to 2,000 people and that more than 500 had sought refuge in its emergency shelters. The landslides ripped through some homes and buried others. Some residents described awakening to find their next-door neighbors gone. The entire thing just collapsed, said one. Its unbelievable. The islands only nuclear power plant, which was offline for routine safety checks, temporarily switched to a backup generator to keep its spent fuel cool. Nuclear regulators said there was no sign of abnormal radiation a concern after a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011 that hit northeast Japan destroyed both external and backup power to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, causing meltdowns. Japans Meteorological Agency said the quakes epicenter was 40 kilometers (24 miles) deep. But it still wreaked havoc across much of the relatively sparsely inhabited island. Many roads were closed and some were impassable. NHK showed workers rushing to clean up shattered glass and reinstall ceiling panels that had fallen in the regions biggest airport at Chitose. Japan is used to dealing with disasters, but the last few months have brought a string of calamities. The quake came on the heels of a typhoon that lifted heavy trucks off their wheels and triggered major flooding in western Japan, leaving the main airport near Osaka and Kobe closed after a tanker rammed a bridge connecting the facility to the mainland. The summer also brought devastating floods and landslides from torrential rains in Hiroshima and deadly hot temperatures across the country. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that up to 25,000 troops and other personnel would be dispatched to Hokkaido to help with rescue operations. As Japans northern frontier and a major farming region with rugged mountain ranges and vast forests, Hokkaido is an area accustomed to coping with long winters, isolation and other hardships. AP Lisbon and Beijing signed a protocol for the strengthening of bilateral relations. Beijing wants Portuguese investment. Lisbon wants to be Chinas gateway to Europe. Strengthening economic relations in general, investing in the industry, commerce, and tourism areas and new business opportunities was the purpose of the Beijing-Lisbon Cooperation Forum, which was held this Wednesday afternoon in a hotel in the Portuguese capital. This was an initiative of the Cabinet of Investment Promotion in Beijing (GPIP) and the Portuguese Division of the Peoples Daily. At the occasion, the deputy director of GPIP highlighted some of the most important partnerships already developed, such as the one that brings together the Chinese electric company Three Gorges with the Portuguese EDP and the presence of the Fosun fund in the capital of BCP Millennium and the insurance company Fidelidade. He also noted that there are still many other business opportunities and called for the mobilization of Portuguese investors in projects in the area of the Chinese capital. With a population of 22 million people (roughly the double of Portugals population) Beijing has at this time a gross domestic product per head of 17,000 Euros and acts as the center of innovation and leader in the consumer market in China, explained Zhang Hua. Beijing has served as a gateway for entry and expansion to major international brands in the Chinese market, with more than 4,000 companies based in the city today, 56 of which are among the 500 largest in the world. He also stressed the importance of the most prestigious universities of the country being located in Beijing and a whole array of infrastructures that allow for a high quality of life for foreign investors. And for these there are plenty of investment opportunities, from service industries, where the Chinese capital is playing a pioneering role, to the cutting-edge technology sector. Zang Hua pointed out that Beijing-based companies have advantageous incentives, particularly those in the areas of new technologies, information technologies, education, tourism and financial services. The objective is to enable the establishment of important companies in the area of the Chinese capital, namely in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei triangle. The city of Huairou was shown as an example of the way China is investing in the future, here Artificial Inteligence, Smart devices, new generation technology, power supply alternatives and Health Investigation investment are privileged. In addition to these sectors, the head of the GPIP listed important future events such as the World Horticultural Exhibition in 2019 and the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, as investment opportunities open to Portuguese companies in areas such as infrastructures, hotels and leisure spaces. But Portugal is not only a target for Beijings strategy to raise foreign investment, it is also seen as a link with Europe in the framework of the New Silk Road, the Uma Faixa uma Rota Initiative project launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. The importance of Portugal and its relation with China was highlighted in a subsequent intervention by Rui Coelho, head of a body similar to GPIP, Invest Lisboa (a partnership of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the municipality of Lisbon to promote the Portuguese capital). For Rui Coelho, Lisbon has all the conditions to be the base of Chinese companies to be present in Europe and the Atlantic to be Chinas platform of trade and investment for Europe. As a sign of the importance of the Lisbon-Beijing relation and of the common strategy for the strengthening of this bilateral relationship, protocols were signed at the end of the Forum. The protocols signed are between the Chinese entity and Invest Lisboa and between GPIP and the Mandarin-written news portal about Portugal, Haiwainet. Other representatives of the GPIP and the Portuguese side also intervened. MDT/Plataforma A study conducted in the region shows that Filipino migrant workers meritocracy and faith in God are important factors that are causal for higher socio-economic mobility. Labor migration is one of the strategies used to acquire a higher socio-economic mobility, and data from the Philippine Statistics Authority indicates that there are some 2.2 million Filipinos working overseas in a bid to improve their financial status. These workers are usually dubbed as unsung heroes back home, as they are willing to be disconnected from their families to make a living outside the country. They have opted to leave home, which implies that their income from jobs in the Philippines are insufficient to support and provide for their families. In a paper titled Working for a better future: Social mobility beliefs and expectation of Filipino migrant workers in Macau, 246 Filipino migrants answered questions on their socio-economic status, mobility causal conceptions and goal attainment strategies. The study, whose respondents were primarily low-skilled workers, suggests that these workers expect that their work abroad will result in upward social mobility after a period of time. They also expect further financial improvement after 10 years. There are studies that show that the increased income flow to families of these migrant workers does not have an impact on overall the poverty gap, yet other research suggests that there have been observable improvements in the lives of these families. Although meritocracy was not the most highly endorsed causal factor for upward mobility, the study suggested that these workers endorsed both meritocracy and faith in God as important causal factors for mobility. This implies that there are a significant number of migrant workers in the city who hold a strong stance on religious belief. Causal conceptions that faith in God and social networks help towards upward social mobility represent primary control beliefs that involve a compensatory strategy on their part, the study, which scholars from the University of Macau and University of the Philippines Diliman, conducted. Both social-oriented coping and belief in God are important factors in how Filipino migrant workers deal with stress, [] suggesting that the factors are salient in the minds of Filipino migrant workers, it added. It stated that even if there are uncertainties as to whether working in a foreign country actually leads to improved socio- economic status for the families of these migrant workers, they still envision a better future for their families back home. As our results suggest, the expectation of a better future is related to whether they already see improvements in their familys current social status, the research suggested. The migrant workers belief that meritocracy leads to socio-economic mobility tends to be associated with goal engagement strategies such as being persistent in working towards their goals, which was associated with higher social mobility expectations, it noted. These workers high expectations for their families future socio-economic status are driven by their belief in the importance of their own efforts and abilities, and their tendency to persevere and to persist in their work. Further, the paper concluded that there is a need to contextualize such models within the cultural systems of individuals and point to the possibility of other meaningful pathways to seeing a better future for their families. LV Rhode Island is signing a reciprocal drivers license agreement with Taiwan. The Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles says a signing is planned for today [Macau time]. This is the first time the agency has signed this type of agreement. Many other states have similar agreements with Taiwan. Among them, South Carolina, West Virginia and Pennsylvania signed reciprocity agreements in 2015, followed by Massachusetts in 2016 and Virginia and Kentucky last year. Administrator Walter Craddock will host officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston for a ceremony. Under the agreement, Taiwanese immigrants living in Rhode Island can transfer their national drivers licenses to Rhode Island without having to pass written or road tests. Rhode Islanders can transfer their licenses to Taiwan without taking a test there. Scanning electron micrograph of a human T lymphocyte (also called a T cell) from the immune system of a healthy donor. Credit: NIAID Scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered that disease-fighting T cells, elicited from vaccines, do not require glucose for their rapid reproduction, a finding with major implications for the development of immunotherapies for cancer patients. In the study, published today in the journal Science Immunology, researchers from CU Anschutz, along with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pennsylvania, examined T cells that arose in the body's immune system after they received a subunit vaccinationa vaccine that uses just part of a disease-causing virus. They found that these critical white blood cells, which attack and kill infection, did not rely on glucose to fuel their rapid division which occurs every two to four hours. Instead, they used another cellular engine, the mitochondria, to support their expansion. "The knowledge that this magnitude of cell division can be supported by mitochondrial function has a number of potential practical implications for the development of future vaccines," said the study's senior author Ross Kedl, Ph.D., professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Kedl said T cells responding to infection usually depend on glucose for fuel. So do cancerous tumors. When T cells come up against tumors, they end up competing for glucose and the T cells often lose. But when a T cell doesn't need glucose, he noted, it has a better chance of defeating tumor cells. "T cells generated by subunit vaccination are ideally suited for use against cancer in conjunction with drugs that block aerobic glycolysis, a metabolic pathway to which the cancer is addicted," Kedl said. "Tumor growth can be inhibited while the T cells are free to attack the tumor instead of competing against it for access to glucose." Lead author Jared Klarquist, Ph.D., explained that scientists have historically studied T cell responses to infection with the idea that if they could understand how the cells respond, they could create better vaccines. Kedl and colleagues had already discovered a non-infectious vaccine method that could induce the same level of T cell immunity as those using infection. Since then, researchers in Kedl's lab have found that the rules governing T cell responses to an infectious agent are very different from the cell's response to a subunit vaccine. And the fact that T cells derived from subunit vaccines don't require glucose to reproduce is a major finding. "Prior to these findings, it was generally thought that whereas the mitochondria are good at making energy, T cells need glucose to produce the raw materials like proteins, fats and nucleic acids (like DNA) required to turn one cell into two," said Klarquist. "Knowing how the immune response is fueled after vaccination provides potential opportunities for metabolic or nutritional interventions for boosting a vaccine-elicited immune response." Kedl agreed. "Perhaps most intriguing, however, is the application of this knowledge to cancer immunotherapy," he said. The lab is currently exploring how these strategies might positively influence the outcomes of immune-based cancer treatments that are already in the clinic. Explore further Cancer cells hijack glucose, alter immune cells More information: "Clonal expansion of vaccine-elicited T cells is independent of aerobic glycolysis," Science Immunology (2018). Journal information: Science Immunology "Clonal expansion of vaccine-elicited T cells is independent of aerobic glycolysis,"(2018). immunology.sciencemag.org/look 6/sciimmunol.aas9822 Around half of prisoners have a substance dependence. Credit: Karanik yimpat/Shutterstock Prisons and drug use are closely linked. Two-thirds of Australian prisoners report using illicit drugs in the 12 months before they entered prison, compared with 12% of the general population in the previous 12 months. Around half of prisoners are likely to meet the criteria for substance dependence. Some 18% of detainees reported alcohol and 32% reported illicit drugs directly contributed to their crime. The relationship is complex but there's no doubt untreated alcohol and other drug problems are a key factor for reoffending. Our report, What works in alcohol and other drug treatment in prison settings, published today, shows some interventions currently used in prisons have little evidence to support them. Why is drug use so high among prisoners? A causal link between alcohol and other drugs and offending has not been established. It may be that people who are risky drinkers or who use illicit drugs are more likely to commit crimes. Or people who are at risk of criminal behaviour are more likely to be risky drinkers or use illicit drugs. Or there might be common underlying causal factors that make both more likely. But there is a clear relationship between drug use and involvement in criminal activity, particularly: offences related to illicit drug markets, such as illicit use, possession, selling or manufacturing offences committed to acquire drugs, such as theft offences related to being intoxicated on alcohol or other drugs, such as violent crimes. Reducing harms Harm reduction is one of the key strategies of Australia's official drug policy. We know from history there will always be a small percentage of the population who use illicit drugs. Most do so for a short period and either stop on their own or go into treatment. Harm reduction aims to reduce harms to the person using and the community. Surveys indicate around 10% of prisoners use illicit drugs while in prison, and 6% use drugs by injection while in prison. Harm-reduction measures, including prison needle and syringe programs and peer support, are effective in reducing overdoses. They also reduce the spread of blood-borne viruses, which in turn iprotects the public when prisoners are released. Effective treatment Individual or group cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) that addresses both offending and substance use has had the most success in reducing reoffending. CBT programs can reduce the risk of recidivism among prison participants by around 25%. Other well-supported interventions include: therapeutic communities, which are live-in treatment settings opioid substitution therapy such as methadone and buprenorphine exit preparation programs such as pre-release centres, which gradually reintegrate offenders back into the community by helping them develop life skills and find work. What's less likely to work? Twelve-step groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are often used in prisons but they do not have much evidence to support their use. In the community, the success rate is as low as 8%. Contingency management, a behaviour therapy that focuses on the use of rewards for meeting treatment goals (the same principle behind star charts for kids), are used in some parts of the criminal justice system, such as drug courts. Contingency management is effective in promoting abstinence in community settings, but there has been little evaluation of its success in prisons. Other interventions with limited evidence for prison populations include mindfulness-based relapse prevention, and specialist treatment programs for alcohol-related offending. The difficulty with treatment in prisons Prisoners typically have many risk factors and therefore complex needs, making treatment more complex. Custodial sentences themselves increase an offender's risk of recidivism. And prisoners have rates of mental health problems and personality disorders, and poor education levels. Prison is a highly monitored and controlled setting. This creates an artificial environment during treatment and it's difficult to know whether the skills learned in prison translate to the outside world, with its a broader range of temptations and stresses. Many ex-prisoners experience periods of unemployment or homelessness after release, which drastically increases their risk of relapse. Post-release therapeutic support is therefore essential. It's in the community's best interest to support people with alcohol and other drug problems in prison to reduce their substance use problems and their reoffending. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new way to assess the impact of normal ageing on bones, joints and muscles has been proposed that could provide a benchmark for how well older people are able to keep moving. The composition of the body changes as we get older, as muscle strength and bone density decline. But the challenge to date has been distinguishing between the normal effects of ageing and the first signs of disease. As a result there has been limited consensus on appropriate biomarkers of normal ageing. This has led to an unreliable picture of musculoskeletal health in older people as bone, joints and muscle have been looked at in isolation, not as a complete system. Assessment toolkit To address this, experts at the Medical Research Council-Arthritis UK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA) a collaboration between Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield universities have now proposed a set of measurements that can be used as a toolkit to assess bone, joint and muscle health. Publishing in the journal Age and Ageing, the CIMA team say that the new toolkit will provide a consistent and holistic way to measure the gradual loss of function that everyone experiences as we get older. In particular, they recommend the use of two biomarkers to assess bone condition PINP and CTX, both well-established indicators of bone turnover. High levels of these biomarkers are often associated with greater fracture risk and faster rates of bone loss, particularly in older women. The toolkit also proposes reliable indicators of cartilage damage, muscle mass, body composition and assessment of functional capability. Professor John Mathers, from Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing, said: "We know that when older people have limited mobility or stop being active altogether it can have a significant, negative impact on their cardio-vascular health, their neurological health and their quality of life overall, increasing the risk of disease. "This new toolkit will help us better understand how well the whole musculoskeletal system functions as we age so that we can help people stay physically active and healthy for longer." First step The toolkit is a first step towards a comprehensive framework that could be used by researchers and clinicians both with individuals as needed and, potentially, as part of a public health screening programme for older people. Over time, this could identify parameters for normal musculoskeletal ageing according to gender and age. To aid this, the CIMA team say that the toolkit could be used earlierwhen people are in their 50s and early 60s, before age-related disease or disability can occur in order to get a better picture of how the musculoskeletal system ages. Professor Eugene McCloskey, Professor in Adult Bone Disease, University of Sheffield, said: "The burden of musculoskeletal diseases on individuals and society is huge and increasing. "The ability to measure the impact of ageing and, equally importantly, of lifestyle and therapeutic interventions, on all of the tissues comprising the musculoskeletal system is an absolute necessity to make progress in this important area. "The publication of the CIMA Toolkit provides a strong base from which this research can be developed." Professor Graham Kemp, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, added: "This toolkit is the first systematic effort to evaluate methods for assessing the effects of ageing in the bone, muscle, tendons and cartilage, and to make recommendations for practical use." Explore further Higher inflammation in older age is linked to lower bone density More information: Graham J Kemp et al. Developing a toolkit for the assessment and monitoring of musculoskeletal ageing, Age and Ageing (2018). Journal information: Age and Ageing Graham J Kemp et al. Developing a toolkit for the assessment and monitoring of musculoskeletal ageing,(2018). DOI: 10.1093/ageing/afy143 NYS mandate for sepsis treatment and reporting may reduce mortality. Credit: ATS A New York State requirement that all hospitals report compliance with protocols to treat severe sepsis and septic shock appears to improve care and reduce mortality from one of the most common causes of death in those who are critically ill, according to a new study published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. In "Mortality Changes Associated with Mandated Public Reporting for Sepsis: The Results of the New York State Initiative," Mitchell M. Levy, MD, and co-authors report that patients treated according to three- and six-hour sepsis "bundles"a group of interventions designed to diagnose and treat sepsis and septic shock earlywere 15 percent less likely to die than those whose care did not follow the protocols. Patients who received the sepsis bundles also had shorter hospital stays. At hospitals with the highest rates of compliance with the three-hour bundle, length of stay was nearly three days shorter. At hospitals with the highest rates of compliance with the six-hour bundle, length of stay was more than a day shorter. Sepsis occurs when the body reacts to an infection with an overwhelming inflammatory response. Severe sepsis can lead to the failure of one or more organs. Septic shock is a form of severe sepsis accompanied by extremely low blood pressure that is, in itself, life threatening. The authors noted that the New York State mandate came about, in part, because of the tragic death in 2012 of an otherwise healthy 12-year-old boy named Rory Staunton from Queens, NY, who had undiagnosed sepsis. The case was widely reported in the New York and national media. "Governor Andrew Cuomo and then Commissioner of Health Nirav Shah responded to Rory's preventable death by mandating public reporting of sepsis process and outcomes, with the goal of improving earlier diagnosis and management of sepsis," said Dr. Levy, professor of medicine and chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "The reason the state adopted these particular bundles is that our group had published evidence that there was a strong association between compliance with these interventions and improved survival in sepsis." In April 2014, New York State became the first state in the nation to require its hospitals to report to the Department of Health whether sepsis protocols had been followed in treating patients, along with specific patient outcomes. The researchers looked at the medical records of 91,357 patients (median age 71) with either condition who were hospitalized at 183 hospitals over the first 27 months of the new reporting mandate. The researchers found that over the study period, the health care team increasingly initiated the sepsis bundles. Overall, the sepsis protocols were initiated in 81.3 percent of patients, most often in the emergency room. The risk-adjusted mortality of these patients was 24.4 percent, compared to 28.8 percent in those not receiving the bundles. The NYS Department of Health gave hospitals flexibility in developing their sepsis protocols, but required that The three-hour bundle for all severe sepsis patients include drawing blood cultures before administering antibiotics and starting antibiotics and measuring blood lactate levels within three hours of arriving at the hospital. The six-hour bundle for those with septic shock (systolic pressure < 90 mm Hg or lactate level ? 4mmol/l) include administration of intravenous fluids (30 cc/kg), vasopressors and re-measurement of lactate within six hours of bundle initiation. The authors noted that over the past three decades there has been a national movement towards public reporting of health care performance measures. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other states have followed New York's lead in sepsis reporting. Whether the overall trend towards this kind of reporting has improved health outcomes is a subject for debate, according to the authors. In the case of the sepsis requirement, they wrote that while their study cannot prove a causal relationship between implementation of the protocols and lower mortality, the evidence is nonetheless strong. "The New York State sepsis initiative provides strong evidence that compliance with sepsis performance measures is associated with improved survival in these critically ill patients," Dr. Levy said. "At least in sepsis, our study strongly supports the value of public reporting of outcomes." Explore further Completing sepsis bundle within an hour cuts pediatric mortality By Ssebuliba Samuel. Kyadondo east member of parliament Robert Kyagulanyi has castigated Ugandans government for alleged continued torture of its people using military machinery. Speaking to international media in Washington DC this afternoon, Kyagulanyi narrated the alleged torture he went through while in military detention in Uganda during his arrest in Uganda. He however said that its his honor for him to fight freedom and peace in Uganda at the cost of his life. He has promised to continue with the fight as soon as he completes medication in United States where he is now. However his international lawyer Robert Amsterdam asked America government to suspend all military assistance to Uganda. Kyagulanyi was arrested in the pre-Arua municipality electoral violence and charged with treason for allegedly having connection to the stoning of presidential car. Related Stories. Bobi Wine: I will win fight for freedom or die trying By Ritah Kemigisa. Kenyans have vowed not to back a political federation of the East African region with Ugandas President Yoweri Museveni as the political head of this community. According to the Executive director of the Kenya Human Rights commission George Kegoro Museveni is allegedly not a good example of a good leader because he no longer accepts advice from others. Kegoro adds that the problems Museveni has caused to Uganda are enough and thus cannot allow him to spread them to the East African region. He further alleges that the current developmets in Uganda including the torture of MPs and other civilians during the Arua by election set a bad precedent for the country and Museveni. However on his recent visit in Uganda, the Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto endorsed the need the need for a political federation with Museveni as its head since he has stood the taste of time. Huawei recently announced that it expects to launch its first commercial 5G smartphone before the end of 2019. The device will feature the manufacturers Kirin 980 chipset and upcoming Balong 5000 5G modem, which offers 5G capabilities in a package 1.3x the size of 4G modems. This is in line with global expectations from major smartphone manufacturers, with mobile networks also expecting the first 5G-capable smartphones to launch next year. However, while South Africans may be able to purchase these smartphones, they wont be able to leverage their high-speed 5G connections in the immediate future. Speaking in an interview with MyBroadband, Vodacom CTO Andries Delport said that mobile operators would not be able to deliver true mobile 5G at the time these devices release to the public. 5G support Delport said that while the physical portion of Vodacoms network is actively being prepared for 5G, the major obstacle to the rollout of the technology is the allocation of spectrum and the slow pace of digital TV migration. We are preparing the physical portion of our network for 5G, Delport told MyBroadband. By the time 5G smartphones arrive about a year and a half down the line, a decent part of the network will be 5G-ready. From a practical perspective, the spectrum part will not be there when 5G smartphones launch, he said. However, these devices will still be compatible with older technologies and will be able to leverage existing high-speed standards like 4G. When a device supports 5G, it is going to support other technologies, Delport said. He added that once additional spectrum currently locked up by TV broadcasters and the government is allocated, Vodacom will be able to deploy its 5G network at a rapid pace. Network development Delport said that while Vodacom was upgrading its 4G network to support 5G, there are also regulatory hurdles to overcome. You cannot install transmitting equipment unless you have the licence for the spectrum used by that equipment, he said. The dilemma is that we cannot go ahead and install this hardware before we have the spectrum available. He added that there may be a way around this limitation, though. Some suppliers are selling radios which cover multiple frequency bands such as 700MHz, 800MHz, and 900MHz, Delport said. If you are lucky enough to have some of these wide-band radios in the network you can circumvent this. Delport added that Vodacom would have some of these wide-band radios in its network by next year, but it is unlikely that digital migration would have occurred by then. The slow pace of migration to digital TV has had an adverse effect on the growth of the South African telecommunications industry, and is now actively limiting the rollout of next-generation technology. Mobile operators have been forced to refarm spectrum to optimise their 4G networks for the rapidly-growing amount of data moving through their networks, but this solution will not provide the resources required for 5G. Until the digital terrestrial television project run by the government has been completed, and more spectrum allocated, South Africans with 5G smartphones will be relegated to existing 4G infrastructure. OpenSignal has released its latest State of Mobile Networks report for South Africa. The September 2018 report tracks data from May to July 2018, and shows that Vodacom is at the front of the pack. Vodacom won six out of seven of our national awards, and it scored highly in all of our regional speed and latency categories. However, MTN topped our coveted national 4G availability metric, and dominated LTE reach in the regions, said OpenSignal. Vodacom has now firmly established itself as the dominant South African mobile operator in our metrics, showing its rivals a clean pair of heels in all of our national speed and latency categories. The report is based on 433 million data samples collected from nearly 40,000 devices, added the company. The tables below show the results of the report. Overall awards Vodacom won six of the seven awards on offer, including best download speeds, best upload speeds, and best latency. MTN won the 4G availability award. Top 4G, 3G, and overall download speeds Vodacom dominated the download speed categories across all the measured sectors. MTN was second, with Cell C and Telkom fighting for third. Top 4G upload speed Vodacom took top spot in the upload speed category, with MTN second. Best latency Vodacom won the latency tests, too, as shown below (the lower the latency, the better). MTN came in second, with Telkom and Cell C taking the bottom two places. 4G availability MTN took first place in the 4G availability category, however, beating Vodacom, Telkom, and Cell C. Regional performance Looking at the major metros in South Africa, Vodacom and MTN continued to dominate claiming the best download speeds and latencies among the major operators. Cell C, however, managed to pick up a win in Cape Town when it came to 4G availability in the city, tying with MTN. Click the table below to enlarge it. Now read: Vodacom showcases its 5G network with 700Mbps download speed AMERICAN CANYON COMMUNITY CHURCH Worship at 10 a.m. Programs for children and youth during worship service. 2 Andrew Road, American Canyon. ARBOR ALLIANCE Join us Sundays at 5 p.m. Why 5 p.m. worship? It is a good time for busy people and young families. Kids church and nursery available. 721 Trancas St., Napa. thearborchurch.org; 530-304-4704. BEIT ABBA Messianic Jewish ministry of The Fathers House is held the first and third Friday of each month at 7 p.m. Child care provided for ages infant to 7 years old. 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org/beitabba. CARMELITE MONASTERY Mass times: Sunday, 9 a.m.; Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. Confession Days for English and Spanish: Mondays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-noon; 3-5 p.m.; 8-9 p.m. First Saturdays: Confessions at 10 a.m. followed by Mass at 11 a.m. 944-2454. oakvillecarmelites.org. CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING Services are 9 and 10:30 with Teen Group at 10 and Youth Program at 10:30. Rev Jay Lang's topic is "How Do We Know the Truth?" Men's Spirit Group meets Saturday September 8 at 11 a.m. Spanish Meditation starts Monday September 10, 7-8 p.m. Rev Jay's 8 week series on "Self Mastery: Emergence of your True Self " starts Tuesday Sept. 11, 6:30-9 p.m. Open Meditation Wednesdays, 6:30- 7 p.m. Spiritual Cinema Night Friday Sept. 14 features "Miss Representation" at 7 p.m. One day workshop "Honoring the Divine Feminine" Saturday Sept. 15, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. will include Ho'oponopono opportunity, a Hawaiian forgiveness process. 1249 Coombs. 252-4847. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH Sunday service and Sunday school for youths up to age 20 at 10 a.m. The Wednesday evening service is at 7:30. Child care provided at all services. New hours for the Reading Room, located in our church building, open to the public weekdays except Wednesdays, 1-4 p.m. All current Christian Science literature, including the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the renowned Christian Science Monitor, are available to all to read or purchase; 2210 Second St., Napa; 255-5255; christiansciencenapa.com. CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, NAPA SECOND WARD Sacrament meeting is each Sunday at 10 a.m., followed by Sunday School at 11:15 and Priesthood and Relief Society at 12:10 p.m. Young mens and young womens programs are on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Corner of Trower Avenue and Dry Creek Road, Napa. 224-6496. *CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM Congregation Beth Shalom Sabbath Service on Friday, September 7, will be led by Rabbi Niles Goldstein at 6 p.m. followed by Oneg Shabbat at 7:00. There will be a Shorashim program for preschoolers with Isaac Zones. Join CBS for Erev Rosh Hashanah Worship on Sept. 9, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Family Services on Sept. 10 will start 10 a.m. Congregational Services are from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cast your "mistakes" into the water and start with a fresh New Year at Tashlich Services at Kennedy Park, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. For information about High Holiday Worship, contact Congregation Beth Shalom at 1455 Elm Street, Napa. www.cbsnapa.org, 253-7305. CORNERSTONE MINISTRIES Sunday service is at 10:15 a.m. Spanish Church begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday school and childcare are available at both services. Our midweek service is at 6:30 on Wednesday nights. There is childcare and childrens activities at this service. Middle school and high school study meets on Wednesday nights, as well, at 6:30 in the Youth Room. 3305 Linda Vista Ave., Napa; 252-2909. cmnv.org. COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH It is with great warmth that the congregation of Covenant Presbyterian Church opens its arms to our new pastor, the Rev. Jesse B. Larson. His first sermon, based upon the text from Mark 7:1-8 and James 1:17-27, falls a few hours after he rolls into north Napa from his cross-country drive. Its Communion so join us at the Table and meet the new face in the pulpit. As Rev. Larson says, quoting Francis of Assisi, Preach the Gospel wherever you can; when all else fails, use words. Well also use music this week to lift us up; the bluegrass tunes of the Pickle Creek String Band familiar and inspiring. Sing along, hear the Good News at 10:30 a.m. then stick around for coffee and chit-chat. Youll like it here. 1226 Salvador Avenue, www.cpcnapa.org. CREEKSIDE COMMUNITY CHURCH Weekly worship service is Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Services and attire are casual with a blend of fellowship, music and teaching. Child care and childrens church offered during service. 1050 Hagen Road, Napa. CreeksideChurchNapa.org; 255-7266. CROSSWALK COMMUNITY CHURCH New service times beginning, Sunday, September 9 will be 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. with children's programs available during the 10:00 service. Our new teaching series led by Dr. Peter R. Shaw, Senior Pastor is "Me. Free." Don't miss the beginning of this important series. You are also invited to join Pastor Pete for Praxis -- Integrating deep faith into real life -- on Wednesdays at 11 and again at 6:30. Our primary mission is to usher people into a growing, life-enhancing, world-improving relationship with God. Join us for service at 9:30 a.m. in the Courtyard. Childrens programs available during this time. 2590 First Street, 707 226-1812, www.crosswalknapa.org/ FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH We welcome you to come and experience church at First Christian and become part of our family. Our Sunday service is at 10 a.m. Kids Ministry offered for babies through fifth grade. 2659 First Street www.fccnapa.org. *FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Please join us this week for Aloha Sunday as we say goodbye to summer. Visitors are always welcome. We will have a single service at 10 a.m. and in addition to our Sunday message we will have Hawaiian music and dancing. At noon we will meet at Kennedy Park for our All Church Picnic. Bring a side or dessert to share. Look for our greeters near the front doors to answer any questions. Childcare for newborn to age 4 is available each week. Our Sunday School program this week is: The Path Sunday School for kids at 10 a.m. 1333 Third St., 224-8693, fpcnapa.org, facebook.com/fpcnapa, look for us on Givelify. FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Join us at either the 9:30 a.m. service in the Sanctuary or the 11 a.m. worship service in the Asbury Room. office@napamethodist.org, 253-1411. GRACE CHURCH OF NAPA VALLEY Worship service at 9 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. Adult Sunday school classes at 9 a.m. Childrens service at 9 and 10:40 a.m. Nursery and preschool care available. Junior high ministry meets Tuesday at 7 p.m.; high school meets Thursday at 7 p.m. at 3765 Solano Ave., Napa. 255-4033, GraceNapa.org. HIGHLANDS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP If youre a regular church attendee, never been or maybe its just been awhile, we invite you to come join us this Sunday and start the adventure with us at 10:30 a.m. Spanish speaking service on Sunday evenings at 6:30. Alcoholics Anonymous group meets weekly on Monday and Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. 970 Petrified Forest Road, Calistoga. HILLSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH We meet at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at 100 Anderson Road, Napa. 255-3036; hccnapa.com. HOLY FAMILY PARISH Holy Mass is celebrated at 9 a.m. on Sundays and in the traditional Tridentine Latin (Extraordinary) form of the Roman Rite, according to the 1962 Missal, at noon. Before Low Masses, there is a recitation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 11:30 a.m. Confession is available after every Low Mass. Holy Family Parish is a Catholic mission-parish of St. Joan of Arc in Yountville. 1241 Niebaum Lane, Rutherford. 944-2461. HOLY GROUND CHRISTIAN CENTER Sunday worship begins at 10 a.m., and Bible study is Wednesday at 7 p.m. 3860 Broadway, Suite 111, American Canyon. 373-2015. LIVING VINE CHURCH We meet every Sunday morning at 10. 3305 Linda Vista Avenue, Napa. 226-5551. MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT VETERANS HOME OF CALIFORNIA, YOUNTVILLE Sunday worship service 10:15 a.m. Coffee fellowship one hour before service. Bible study on Wednesday at 1 p.m., Fellowship Room, with refreshments served; prayer meetings Thursday at 1 p.m. The memorial chapel is on the Veterans Home at Yountville campus on California Drive, across from the administration building. 944-4840. The public is welcome. MONT LA SALLE CHAPEL Roman Catholic liturgical services are open to all in this chapel of the De la Salle Christian Brothers at 4401 Redwood Road, Napa. Sunday Mass is celebrated at 11 a.m. NAPA COMMUNITY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH Please join us on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. for Sabbath School and Connection Classes. Stay for the worship service at 11:15 a.m. Our Community Services is open on Tuesday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon. at 2110 Seminary St., 252-8552, Napacomm.com, 1105 G St., Napa, 252-2444. *NAPA METHODIST CHURCH Napa Methodist is a progressive church welcoming allpeople. At 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Pastor Marylee Sheffer's sermon will be, "Seeds, Weeds, and Good Soil" based on Luke 8:1-15, and at the 11 a.m. service, Mr. Dave Whitmer will give a sermon called, "Sowing Seeds of Joy," based on the same gospel text. 625 Randolph Street in downtown Napa. 253-1411. NAPA FRIENDS MEETING (QUAKERS) Sunday worship at 10 a.m. Silent meeting in the custom of Friends. Meet at the VOICES Youth Center, 780 Lincoln Ave., Napa. Enter at parking lot on left side of building, using door at end of wheelchair ramp. Quaker signs will be posted on Sunday mornings. We welcome visiting friends or those who are new to Quaker practice. Childrens Program available with advance notice. nvquaker@gmail.com; 253-1505. NAPA VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH Join us Sundays at 9:30 a.m. for Bible Study for all ages, 10:30 a.m. for worship service and a fun, interactive and energetic childrens program for preschool through fifth grade. Nursery provided for all Sunday services. 2303 Trower Ave., Napa. napavalleybaptist.org; 252-2100. NAPA VALLEY BIBLE CHAPEL David Vermillion will speak on Philippians in the 11 a.m. service on Sunday, Sept. 9. We start Sunday services by remembering the Lords death, burial and resurrection during a time of worship and thanksgiving at 9:30 a.m., followed by a fellowship and coffee time starting at 10:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., we enjoy a time of Bible teaching. On Wednesdays at 6 p.m., we meet for a brief Bible study and a time of prayer. 1559 Second St., Napa. napavalleybiblechapel.com. Free Bible course, "What the Bible Teaches," available upon request. Call 707-258-8606 or email info@napavalleybiblechapel.com. NAPA VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH One of the greatest fallacies of our age is that, I am my own man. We all believe at some level that the freedom we enjoy means we are free to be our own person. But is that really true? The Bible says that believers belong to God for we were bought with a price. What does it mean that I belong to God? Join us this Sunday at 10 a.m. as we open Gods Word to Romans 14 and learn what it means, That I Belong To God. Child care provided. Open Forum at 11:25 a.m. NapaValleyChurch.org. 4149 Linda Vista, Napa. NVCC is a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church. NAPA VALLEY LUTHERAN Sunday worship at 10 a.m. Includes childrens time. Fellowship time follows. All are welcome. The church is located at the corner of Jefferson and Elm, Napa. 226-8166, napavalleylutheran.org. NAPA VALLEY UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS The 9:30 a.m. service Sunday, Sept. 9 will be conducted by Margaret Kelso and Dale Craig. The service it titled "Spirit of Love: What Moves Us." George de Benneville, an eighteenth century Universalist, used a Christian mystical motif to describe his feeling of being unconditionally loved by Christ. By extension, he came to realize all humans are worthy. How does universal love inform twenty-first century Unitarian Universalism? Is love an emotional foundation of your own faith? Can you define it with examples? NEW LIFE TABERNACLE Sunday school at 10 a.m., followed by worship service at 11. Sunday evening service the first Sunday of every month. Bible study on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. 2625 First St., Napa. 255-1062; NewLifeNapa.com. ST. APOLLINARIS CATHOLIC CHURCH All masses are in English. Visitors are welcome. Sunday Mass times: 7:30, 9 and 10:30 a.m., noon, and 5:30 p.m., Saturday Evening (Vigil for Sunday) 4:30 p.m. Daily Mass Times: Monday-Friday: 7 and 8:45 a.m.; Saturday: 8:45 a.m . Confession: Saturdays: 3:30-4:15 p.m., Monday-Friday: 6:30-6:50 a.m., Monday-Saturday: 8:15-8:35 a.m. 3700 Lassen St., Napa. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST St. John the Baptist Church holds daily masses in English at 7:30 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. Weekend masses are Saturday at 5 p.m. (English) and 7 p.m. (Spanish) and Sunday 8 a.m. (Spanish), 10 a.m. (English), noon (Spanish), and 5 p.m. (English). Wednesday evening mass at 7 (Spanish). Corner of Caymus and Yajome streets in downtown Napa. ST. JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH Sunday services are at 8:30 and 10:15 a.m. The early service makes use of traditional Lutheran liturgy and hymns, with the singing led by the organ. The 10:15 service is more informal in style with the singing led by the band. Childrens church is offered during the 10:15 service for preschool through 4th grade. ST. MARYS EPISCOPAL CHURCH Worship on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. or Sundays at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. (organ and choir). Childrens Chapel (Sunday school) is at 9:50 a.m. Sunday. Nursery care is provided during the 10 a.m. service. Coffee hour follows the worship services on Sunday. 1917 Third St., Napa. 255-0991; StMarysNapa.org. ST. STEPHENS ANGLICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m., sung using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Refreshments and social time after the 10:30 service. 1250 Oakville Grade, Oakville. 944-8915; ststephensoakville.org. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH Mass times are Saturday at 4 p.m. (English), Sunday at 8 a.m. (English), 11 a.m. (English) and 1:30 p.m. (Spanish). Daily mass is at 9 a.m., except on the first Friday, which is at noon and in English. 2725 Elm St., Napa. 255-2949; stthomasaquinasnapa.com. SALVATION ARMY Join us for services Sundays at 10 a.m. 590 Franklin St., Napa. napasalarmy.org. THE FATHERS HOUSE Service times are Saturday at 6 p.m., and Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. Child care and Kids Church are available (ages infant through sixth grade). Youth ministry Encounter meets every Wednesday night at 7. Celebrate Recovery meets on Monday nights at 6:30. 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org. UNITY SPIRITUAL CENTER IN NAPA VALLEY Unitys guest speaker at the 10 a.m. service this week is Rev. Sonya Milton. Her message is entitled, Grace Happens! It is the activity of Spirit, Divine Mind operating as the transformative power in our lives, the natural flow of the creative process in each of us. She will explore what living in a state of grace might mean and how we always receive a little more than we earn. Our Sunday Service music is performed by our musical director, Lon Eakes. 11:40 a.m. Forum-Following a brief refreshment break. Rev. Sonya will facilitate a discussion group pertaining to her message.Sunday Service and Forum are held at the historic Grange Hall, 3275 Hagan Road, Napa. Parking next to the building. www.Facebook.com/USCNV www.UnitySpiritualCenterNapa.org, 255-6881. YOUNTVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCH The main church building is under repairs and we are meeting in our Sunday School classrooms on the north side of the church. Come join us for coffee, doughnuts, and an excellent study about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Sunday School is at 9 a.m. for all ages. We have an Adult Bible class, Youth Group (fiftheighth grades and high school students),and Childrens classes Jesus and Me, (Birth-Kindergarten) and first through fifth grades are offered. Office hours are Tuesday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. 6619 Yount St., Yountville, 944-2179. Want to have your church included in Worship Notes? Need to update your congregations information? Contact editor Kelly Doren at kdoren@napanews.com or 256-2263. For all three decades since Ronald Reagan left the presidency, California has been all but irrelevant at the top level of American politics. Sure, plenty of ultra-wealthy Californians are regularly among the top moneybags raising funds for candidates from elsewhere on all parts of the political spectrum. But no Californian has had a decent shot at becoming President since Reagan in 1980. This might change in 2020, as several significant Golden State figures are now looking like candidates, while the one person best situated to run denies having current interest in the job. Californias long run of irrelevance has a lot to do with the timing of primary elections, where this state has often voted long after the nominees of both parties were pretty well settled elsewhere in a clear-cut case of the tail wagging the dog. The cast of characters occupying the governors office has also not helped. Republican Pete Wilson staged a 1990s-era run that was completely stymied when he lost his voice for weeks. Democrat Gray Davis never had a real chance, in part because of scandals at home. The Austrian-born Republican muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger was ineligible. And many considered current Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, a two-time previous loser, too old for serious consideration. But plenty of Californian Democrats are running right now, while one major figure is not. Most prominent among the states active presidential possibilities is Democratic U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, a former state attorney general and San Francisco district attorney who might have trouble pointing to a significant achievement other than getting elected several times. Harris has acted like a candidate both in very vocal and confrontational Senate hearings and by helping out candidates in other states. Shell have a campaign-like book out in January with the wonky title The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. Shes even been attacked by President Trump via Twitter, offering prompt and pithy ripostes. There are also Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has spent time in both the early primary and caucus states of New Hampshire and Iowa without visibly inspiring anyone, and East Bay Congressman Eric Swalwell, once the youngest member of Congress and still only 37, just two years over the minimum age limit to become President. Swalwell, like Garcetti, has not inspired many, but may merely be setting himself up for the future. Then theres Pasadena-area Congressman Adam Schiff, who is not actively campaigning, but has won admirers nationally for the style and content of his opposition to Trump as ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee. But the best situated California presidential possibility is Gavin Newsom, the odds-on favorite to win the governors office this fall. Newsom keeps saying hes not interested in a 2020 run for president, but who knows what he might do a year from now, if hes had almost a year of governing California in potentially interesting ways that figure to make national headlines? That was how his time as mayor of San Francisco went, with Newsom delivering Americas first legally-recognized same-sex marriages and the first city with universal health care, a top Democratic priority here and in many other places. But Newsom, who started running for governor right after Brown was reelected in 2014, likes to begin his campaigns early, just like Harris, who declared for the Senate two years before her election, immediately after former Sen. Barbara Boxer announced retirement plans. Plus, Harris and Newsom are longtime political allies who share a campaign consulting firm and have never stepped on each others toes. So Newsom may bide his time. StillNewsom running in the 2020 primaries as Californias favorite son would have unique advantages. If he could dominate that scene as he has seemed to dominate the governors race, he could get virtually all Californias Democratic National Convention delegates, giving him more than 20 percent of the number needed for nomination before the primary season even starts. No one else begins with that kind of edge. And plenty of politicians have run after first denying their interest. So California may have much more of a role two years from now than it has in many years, which might make this states politics even more interesting after the November election than they are right now. Thomas D. Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column. He is author of the book, The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Governments Campaign to Squelch It. The New York Times published an extraordinary column Wednesday afternoon by an anonymous contributor identified as a "senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure." (In a tweet, and perhaps inadvertently, the Times also described its op-ed columnist as a man.) It's readily apparent why the writer's job would be threatened. His column describes a White House mired in subterfuge and scheming because President Donald Trump isn't able or fit to carry out his duties. "The root of the problem is the president's amorality," the columnist observes. "Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making." Confronted with that reality, Trump's own White House staff has apparently gone rogue. "Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," notes the columnist. "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 writer said he shares Trump's goals of building a strong military, cutting taxes and doing away with federal regulations - successes he says Team Trump has been able to pull off despite the president's dangerous ineptitude. To achieve their goals, they work around Trump and walk back - or simply thwart - "Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." "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," the writer adds. "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 - it's over." There is some good intent here. A group of people is trying to adhere to principle and make the executive branch function in a mature and responsible way - because Trump, the man elected to do just that, can't. They are so concerned about things going haywire that they ponder making use of an amendment to the Constitution that allows for replacing the president when he or she is "unable to discharge the powers and duties" of the office. Unless Vice President Mike Pence is involved with that decision, however, it's not up to White House officials to "invoke" the 25th Amendment by themselves. The amendment requires vice-presidential participation if it is invoked within the White House. And if Pence is involved with the group the Times columnist describes, well, the plot thickens. But all of that is an argument for another day. What seems more pointed to me is that the columnist says his troupe sought to avert a constitutional crisis. Think about that: White House officials were so concerned about Trump's lack of fitness that they considered dire measures, which they then dismissed to avoid a crisis. So these same unelected and unknown officials, all appointed by a president they see as unfit, are now running the country without oversight and accountability? If that's not a crisis, what is? The U.S. government is not supposed to function this way. A vibrant democracy rides on the back of voting, transparency and the rule of law. When unelected officials act unilaterally and in secrecy because they work for an inept executive who doesn't respect the law, then you have yourself a crisis. (Trump, always a model of probity, zipped out a video on Twitter Wednesday evening slagging the Times as "gutless" for publishing the anonymous column.) Similar things have happened before. In 1919, for example, President Woodrow Wilson became paralyzed and partially blind following a stroke. Wilson's doctor and his wife, Edith, covered up the president's condition and Edith administered his executive powers while keeping Wilson's cabinet and the Congress ill-informed and at a distance. Edith continued her stealth presidency until Wilson's term ended in 1921. It wasn't until the 25th Amendment was passed in 1967, 48 years after Wilson's stroke and four years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, that a clear procedure for replacing an incapacitated or dead president was put into place. Trump, of course, is neither incapacitated nor dead. He is merely tragicomically out of his depth (as Bob Woodward's upcoming book, and Trump's own history, have substantiated). As Woodward's reporting makes clear, some White House officials, like Defense Secretary James Mattis, have occasionally been able to ward off some of Trump's most perilous instincts. But Mattis, and the Times's anonymous columnist, haven't warded off a crisis. They're living in one. Timothy O'Brien is the executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. He has been an editor and writer for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost and Talk magazine. His books include "TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald." Family-owned Cakebread Cellars has announced the appointment, effective Oct. 1, of Mike Jaeger as its new president and chief executive officer. The current president and CEO, Bruce Cakebread, will remain on the winerys board of directors, along with his brother, Dennis Cakebread, who will continue as chairman of the board. Dennis Cakebread, who has long overseen sales and marketing efforts at the Rutherford winery will also relinquish these roles to his team. Bruce and Dennis, as owners, will now focus their efforts on Board oversight, being ambassadors for Cakebread Cellars and helping Jaegers transition into his role at the winery. Jaeger has extensive experience in the wine industry. He began his career in marketing, adding sales, operations and general management roles to his resume. For the past 20 years, Jaeger has led numerous wine businesses, including divisions of both family-owned and public companies. Raised in the Bay Area, Jaeger attended college in Northern California. He has worked in brand management and executive positions at a number of preeminent companies including Dole Foods, Joseph Seagram & Sons, Trinchero Family Estates and Constellation Brands. Most recently, Jaeger was CEO at C. Mondavi & Family and also served as chairman at Clos du Val Winery. The Cakebread Cellars success story is nearly five decades in the making, yet many great chapters are still waiting to be written, Jaeger said. I am truly honored and excited to work with the family and their dedicated employees to continue building on this success as we move forward. As Cakebread Cellars transitions into a new chapter for the winery, said Bruce Cakebread, I look forward to my role as an owner and board member, a champion of our wines and an advocate for Napa Valley. It is our intention that this step will allow us to improve upon our success over the last 45 years and to carry on our tradition of crafting high-quality wines. This transition process is one of the most crucial steps a family business can undertake. We have been planning this process for some time, said Chairman Dennis Cakebread. The family, in consultation with the board of directors, chose Mike because of his deep and diverse experience in the wine industry and his broad background with the great companies he has worked with over the years. We are confident he will be a strong leader for our talented team at the winery. Cakebread Cellars was founded in 1973 by Jack and Dolores Cakebread. Ive known Clark Smith since the 1970s and have written about his wine exploits often because he has always viewed wine as a challenge, not as a business. At any particular moment, he is a walking wine/news story. In some ways, he might best be described as a wine philosopher, not just a winemaker for more than 45 years. For Clark, the unconventional is normal. I first got wind of his unique look at wine when he wrote a letter in the 1980s challenging UC Davis Department of Enology to do more than simply teach fermentation science but to investigate style issues as well. It raised some academics eyebrows and led to some public debates. Next, Clark began to demonstrate how different wines tasted differently based on what sort of music was played at the time of the tasting. Again, some questioned his conclusions. Using his knowledge of chemistry, Clark invented several industry tools and procedures (including some that were patented) that helped revolutionized aspects of wine production. Many are still in use. And he has traveled extensively looking at grape varieties and wine cultures around the world. He researched innovative production techniques and has written about rare grapes unique characteristics and how they relate to where they grow. That led him a decade ago to become the lead investigator for the website AppellationAmerica.com, which dissects and analyzes U.S. wine grapegrowing regions. His winemaking exploits began in 1972 in the Napa Valley (he worked at the original Veedercrest Winery in Napa with the late Al Baxter) and recently has made wine under various labels, including his own Santa Rosa-based WineSmith Wines, which lately has focused on Lake County grapes. Three years ago, his book Postmodern Winemaking became popular with winemakers and wine geeks because it offered proofs that some conventional ideas that had long been passed off as gospel were faulty. Smith has often said Lake County fruit is as good as anywhere, and in many ways he finds more fascination with its red wine grapes because of their authentic varietal-ness. Often they display the minerality he prizes (notably in Merlot and Cabernet Franc). But Clark admits hes usually fighting an uphill battle to have his wines understood because retailers and restaurants want to try them well before theyre ready to consume. His thesis (that most fine wine is released too soon and needs time in the bottle) is one I have long believed as well. But the idea runs counter to the industrys current marketing mode of selling everything as fast as possible. Nearly two years ago, Clark and I had lunch and he poured me his 2011 WineSmith Merlot from Lake County ($30). I loved it, but said, Youll never sell it, its too euro in style. It needs two more years in the bottle. He agreed and shook his head. Well, you know how the market is, he said ruefully, noting that aging wine isnt as widely appreciated as it should be. Two weeks ago, we had the same wine. It was reaching a peak of enjoyment, and its still available. And its still $30! It just needed time, he said. The same goes for many of his wines, such as his 2010 Cabernet Franc (also Lake County), now nearly eight years old. It has such stellar mineral notes that it defines the variety. Its $199 per case! None of Clarks wines have oaky flavors because he uses barrels for the original reason they began to be used: for maturity, not flavor. As for WineSmiths pricing, Clark said he offers liberal discounts from his website (winesmithwines.com) for most wines and theres no charge for case shipments. And most cases (mixed cases too) qualify for a 36 percent discount. Especially intriguing is a 2013 WineSmith Meritage ($40) that spent more than four years in older barrels and is now perfect to consume without further aging. Smith is also a stage performer, singing in barbershop quartets and musicals; plays the guitar, and has taught chemistry for decades. He consults with wineries around the world, and conducts wine research projects in cutting-edge areas of winemaking. Among the wines he makes under his own label are a gorgeous dry rose of Grenache, and a unique red wine made from an extremely rare red grape that is the main varietal planted in the Czech Republic! See below. Discovery of the Week: 2015 WineSmith St. Laurent, Carneros, Ricci Vineyard ($40): I have never had a wine quite like this! The St. Laurent grape may be related to Pinot Noir, but is darker in color, so youll suspect its going to be tannic. It isnt. The aroma is like fresh blueberries, wild plums, and the wines intense fruit is offset by generous, softer tannins. Best served slightly chilled. Dan Berger lives in Sonoma County, where he publishes Vintage Experiences, a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com. He is also co-host of California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon on KSRO Radio, 1350 AM. Telecommunications and Information Technology (ICT) Minister Mustafa Jabbar has said that Bangladesh has made vast strides in the sector, and is now considering the launch of another satellite. A report published in the Dhaka Tribune quoted Jabbar as saying that, The country has had significant success in the ICT sector under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She had said that we should prepare for the construction of the Bangabandhu Satellite-2 after the launch of Bangabandhu Sattelite-1. We need skilled manpower to achieve the target of a Digital Bangladesh, and to compete internationally, he said. The report further stated that the minister made the remarks as the chief guest at the ceremony for the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) National ICT awards 2018, organised by BASIS at the Institution of Diploma Engineers in Dhaka on Thursday. The event was sponsored by UCB. A total of 76 projects were awarded in over 30 categories at the event for their outstanding contribution to the ICT sector, and 33 champions were declared. Of the 33 winners, 32 will participate at the APICTA Awards-2018, to be held in Guangzhou, China from October 9-13 next. The ICT minister further said: We succeeded at the APICTA Awards held in Taiwan last year. We would like to win APICTA in China as well. We are going to participate there with a team of about 70 members. Knowledge is most powerful than wealth, so we have to compete using skilled manpower. The next generation must come forward for this. Addressing the award ceremony as special guest, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said: About 2 million jobs will be created in the ICT sector by 2021. We are happy that we have a huge population who are still young. We will have to train them and make them skilled. Our earnings from the ICT sector has already crossed $800 million. We hope that it will cross $5 billion dollars in the next three years. A revolution is taking place in the ICT sector, thanks to policy support from the Government, he added. Praising the efforts of BASIS to accelerate the growth if Bangladeshs ICT Sector, Palak said: BASIS has organised this grand award for the second time in a row. They have gone through rigorous processes to gather judges and scrutinise projects from all over Bangladesh. The awardees should feel very proud, as this is the most prestigious ICT award in Bangladesh. Opposition 'Armenia' faction leader meets with German MP of European Parliament Artur Vanetsyan: Opposition 'With Honor' Alliance will participate in Nov. 8 rally Deputies to PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia: Criminal cases against opposition MPs are inadmissible Armenia finance minister: 11 programs planned to be implemented in 2022 within framework of EU collaboration Ruling faction MPs meet with PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia Armenia Deputy FM: This year EU has taken concrete steps to intensify dialogue with countries of the region Turkey ex-PM speaks about Zangezur corridor House burns in community of Karabakh's Martuni region, landlord dies ECHR: Baku violated right of Armenian captives to life OSCE Minsk Group has new French Co-Chair Deputy FM: Armenian Genocide recognition is matter of security of Armenia, Armenians Armenia and Georgia Constitutional Courts' presidents hold personal talks Baku says it is discussing '3+3' regional cooperation platform through diplomatic channels Premier: Investors are amazed by knowledge of engineers in Armenia PM on coronavirus situation in Armenia: No space in hospitals, people are dying State minister, US Congress members discuss Artsakh international engagement 2 more persons die of coronavirus in Karabakh Biden announces Covid-19 vaccination for children aged 5-11 Azerbaijan president complains about absence of Armenia response to border delimitation matter Armenia official: Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs may meet in near future MFA official: Armenia will be consistent in restoring, protecting rights of people of Artsakh The Need for a War Inquiry Committee: Post-War Recovery panel discussion being held in Yerevan Provincial governor of Armenias Shirak is dismissed Armenia has new representative at Georgia border section precinct 'Armenian Genocide Recognition Bill' to be debated in UK Parliament on November 9 2,330 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenia MFA to be allocated around $35M from 2022 state budget 9 on board cargo plane that crashed in Russia US man kills teenage daughters boyfriend who sold her to sex traffickers Newspaper: Armenia Judicial Department officials make deal with State Supervision Service, law enforcement Newspaper: Who did CoE co-rapporteurs on Armenia meet with? 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 30 probed in Turkey for Twitter posts suggesting Erdogan died 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 Armenian FM: Armenia stands for full resumption of Nagorno-Karabakh peace process 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 By Benjamin Jumbe. Foreign affairs state minister Henry Okello Oryem has castigated politicians seeking to discredit government abroad. This follows a press conference held by Kyadondo East Mp Robert Kyagulanyi and his American lawyer Robert Amsterdam in Washington DC yesterday where government was attacked for reported violation of peoples rights. Oryem said if the country is handed any sanctions, it will be the ordinary Ugandans to suffer, urging politicians to avoid pushing their selfish agendas at the expense of the country. He also attacked Bobi Wines lawyer over claims of the states torture of civilians advising him to start by investigating the same in his own country. US activists nationwide are urging their senators to ask the tough questions to President Donald Trumps nomination of career Foreign Service Officer Earle Litzenberger to serve as US Ambassador to Azerbaijan. As part of an Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) nationwide advocacy campaign, Armenian Americans, friends of Armenia, human rights activists, and advocates for peace are calling on their US Senators to carefully scrutinize this nomination, according to ANCA. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to begin consideration of Litzenbergers nomination to fill the currently vacant posting, a process that will include a hearing, responses to written questions, and then, potentially, votes in committee and by the full Senate. President Obamas nominee for the post, Matt Bryza, was twice denied Senate confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to Baku, over concerns regarding his evident bias on Azerbaijan, Turkish and Armenian issues, ultimately only serving one year in this position under a recess appointment. The ANCA website provides concerned individuals an opportunity to directly request that both of their US Senators ask questions during the Litzenberger confirmation process. Theres never been a more urgent need for clarity regarding the nature and scope of American relations with the Aliyev regime, said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. This confirmation process provides a much needed opportunity for substantive Congressional oversight of an increasingly troubled U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral relationship, characterized by escalating aggression against Armenians, a worsening crackdown on dissent, and a well-funded campaign to manipulate the American political process. Traditionally, US Senators have focused their questioning of US Ambassador-designates to Azerbaijan on an array of regional priorities, including the peace process, investigative mechanisms, and strengthening the cease-fire, as well as domestic concerns regarding the Aliyev regimes crushing of dissent. According to the White House, Litzenberger, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, currently serves as Senior Advisor in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the Department of State. During his career in the Foreign Service, he has served as Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund; Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States Mission to NATO; NATO Deputy Senior Civilian Representative to Afghanistan; Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia; and Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Litzenberger earned a B.A. from Middlebury College and M.S. from the United States Army War College. He is the recipient of the Matilda W. Sinclaire Language Award. He also speaks French, Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian. Childrens ombudsman Margrite Klaverboer says the Dutch government will be infringing on fundamental childrens rights if two Armenian children Lili and Howick are deported back to Armenia, Dutch News reported. She added that the children will be taken to an orphanage on their return and their mother, who was deported a year ago, is unable to take care of them at the moment. I have read the file thoroughly and I know their mother is not capable of looking after them at the moment. There is no where for them to live and they cannot go to school, Klaverboer told television programme Pauw. The children are set to be deported on Saturday. Kalverboer said the childrens future is clearly in the Netherlands and that she has discussed the problems with junior justice ministry Mark Harbers. He has the right of discretion to grant the children a residence permit. So far Harbers has refused to do so. Armina Hambartsjumianthe mother of Lily, 11, and Howick, 12 was depoted to Armenia last August. Earlier, the court ruled the Justice Ministry may not grant a residence permit for Howick and Lily. Children have never been to Armenia and do not speak Armenian. By Ritah Kemigisa. Development partners have refuted allegations made by government that they are funding illegal activities of some civil society organizations. According to the European Unions Head of section Governance and human rights Thomas Tiedemann, it is unfair for government to criticize the help they extend to CSOs yet they also benefit from their funding. Tiedemann says the EU supports activities that are implemented in collaboration with government agendas. He says they are not in the business of planting foreign ideas into the operations of these organizations as government alleges. The European Union response comes at the minister for presidency Esther Mbayoaccused development partners of funding illegal activities of some non-governmental organizations which are a threat to national security. YEREVAN. Ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia Piotr Litvin handed over the copies of his credentials to the Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. Armenian foreign minister congratulated the ambassador and expressed confidence that he will contribute to further strengthening and deepening of Armenia-Ukraine relations. The interlocutors discussed a range of issues of bilateral agenda, particularly emphasizing the importance of taking practical steps aimed at expanding cooperation in science, culture and tourism. They highly assessed the role of the Armenian community in the political, economic and social life of Ukraine. Mnatsakanyan emphasized with gratitude the careful attitude of the Ukrainian authorities towards the Armenian community, as well as the steps aimed at the preservation of the national identity and Armenian cultural values. As to the trade ties, the sides noted an increased in bilateral trade turnover at the same time pointing to the need to take certain moves to use the potential in economic relations. The Foreign Minister briefed the ambassador on Armenias approach and priorities over the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and emphasized that artificial attempts to transfer the peace process to other formats damages the efforts aimed at finding solution to the conflict. The interlocutors shared the opinion that there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of the conflict. Home | News | General | Just in: Controversy as APC members endorse 2 aspirants as Governor Amosuns replacement in 2019 It has been learnt that two geo-political blocs in Ogun state in the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Thursday, September 6, unveiled Abdulkabir Akinlade as their consensus aspirants for the governorship position. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while Ogun-West senatorial district picked Abdulkabir Akinlade, a member of the House of Representatives, the Ogun East, comprising nine local governments of Ijebu and Remo divisions announced it was settling for long-serving commissioner in the state, Bimbo Ashiru. The report said both blocs are claiming the right to produce a successor to Governor Ibikunle Amosun, going by the principle of power rotation in the state. The report added that Amosun is from Ogun central while his predecessor, Gbenga Daniel, is from Remo division of Ogun East. READ ALSO: A taxi driver gave me the information - Informant who led police to Edwin Clarks house speaks Chief Olusegun Osoba, who was governor between 1999 and 2003, is also from Ogun Central and the first civilian governor, Olabisi Onabanjo was from Ogun East, Ijebu division. It is not known yet if any of the aspirants has been anointed by Governor Amosun, who had earlier declared that he would announce his candidate for the governorship post today. The governor is in Osin state for the partys rally. The report said Olagbayi told APC members that Akinlade who is representing the Yewa-South/Ipokia Federal constituency at the House of Representatives, emerged among other nine aspirants from the region at a meeting on Wednesday, September 5. It was learnt that Adebiyi who received Akinlade on behalf of the APC recalled that the party had zoned the governorship seat to the Ogun-West in order to compensate the zone which had never produced a governor since the creation of the state in 1976. He assured members of the region that the party would work assiduously to ensure that Akinlade eventually emerged as the state governor. Responding Akinlade commended the elders from Ogun West for the wisdom displayed during the meeting, in which he emerged as the consensus candidate. He also commended other aspirants for their maturity and acceptance of his candidature Meanwhile, elders from the Ogun-East Senatorial District under the aegis of the Ijebu/Remo Governorship Agenda have described the development as good for democracy. However, concerning Bimbo Ashiru, the head of media, Tayo Mabeweje in Ijebu-Ode said: The decision of our brothers from the Ogun West senatorial district is long awaited and will further boost internal democracy in the ruling party, APC, as it goes into primary election in September to determine who becomes the partys standard bearer. Since its creation in February 1976, the bipolar nature of Ogun geo-politics was well established in the Egba/Egbado and Ijebu/Remo dichotomy reflecting in historical as well as political institutions and practices. It is only fair and equitable that the Ijebu/Remo zone produce the next governor as by 2019, the old Egba province would have been in the governorship saddle of the state for eight unbroken years due to Senator Ibikunle Amosuns rule. We believe that, in keeping with the principles of rotation and fairness, the governorship should revert to Ijebu province. Our position is not in any way an affront to His Excellency Senator Ibikunle Amosun. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app If anything, we acknowledge the giant strides of his administration in the last seven years in setting standard for infrastructure development and fully identify with his mission to rebuild Ogun. We appeal to the good people of Ijebu/Remo that make up Ogun East senatorial district to be calm in the belief that a level playing ground would be made available for all aspirants, including those of Ijebu extraction, to contest the governorship ticket of the state. Our people should not be in any way be disturbed by the development but rather be more united and unwavering in their support of Otunba Bimbo Ashiru in the gubernatorial primaries. This is the beauty of democracy when we have people from different zones aspiring to be governor of which only one will emerge as candidate. NAIJ.com earlier reported that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe, on Thursday, September 6, gave the outgoing governor of the state, Ibrahim Gaidam, the sole powers to anoint his successor and contest for Senate ahead of the 2019 election. News Nigeria Today: Who is Nigerias Smartest Politician? | Naij.com TV [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Ahead of 2019, PDP BoT warns members against campaigning supporting any aspirants - The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP says no campaign or support for any presidential aspirant on the party platform - The BoT says it will work to prune down the number of aspirants seeking to be presidential candidate on the platform of the PDP The BoT vows it will not force any aspirant to step down Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned its members against campaigning or supporting any of the 13 presidential aspirants on the platform of the party. The Punch reports that the BoT took the decision in Abuja on Thursday, September 6. The report said the chairman of the board, Senator Walid Jibrin, revealed the decision to journalists after the meeting adding that the members would look at the possibility of pruning the number of the aspirants. READ ALSO: A taxi driver gave me the information - Informant who led police to Edwin Clarks house speaks To do this, he said the BoT said it would set up a committee that would help to prune the number of aspirants without asking any to step down. The BoT deliberated on the current situation in the party. We also discussed about the number of our presidential aspirants. We are recommending that we have to manage the situation very well, so that it does not lead to crisis. The presidential aspirants are 13. We are trying our best to ensure that the number is reduced. But we are not forcing anybody. More consultations are ongoing among the elders. We are going to bring out a committee that will be best for Nigerians. We are forming a committee to meet with the aspirants. After that we will decide on what to do. We have decided to firm a special committee to advise the National Working Committee. If you are a member of BoT, you remain as a member of BoT and conscience of the party. They should not move about with any aspirant. If we are really conscience of the party, we should not move about with aspirants. That was what happened during the last national convention when we elected the national chairman. Some of us went and pitch camp with aspirants, taking them all over the place. This time, we will not allow that to happen. Anyone of us who move about with any aspirant should resign from the BoT. We are the one that will settle the complaint. But if we are involved it will not be fair. So we have told the members not to campaign with the aspirants; we are also the delegates. The 13 aspirants currently battling for the PDP ticket include: former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; a former governor of Kano state, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso; Aminu Tambuwal; Ibrahim Dankwambo and Attahiru Bafarawa. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Others are former minister of special duties and inter-governmental relations, Alhaji Kabiru Turaki (SAN); a former governor of Kaduna state, Senator Ahmed Makarfi; a former governor of Kano state, Ibrahim Shekarau; a former governor of Plateau state, Jonah Jang and Dr Datti Baba-Ahmed, amongst others. NAIJ.com earlier reported that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe, on Thursday, September 6, gave the outgoing governor of the state, Ibrahim Gaidam, the sole powers to anoint his successor and contest for Senate ahead of the 2019 election. Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on NAIJ.com [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | You have the sole power to pick your successor, contest for Senate - APC in Yobe state tells governor ahead of primaries - The APC in Yobe state gives sole power to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam to pick his successor ahead of 2019 - The party also gives Governor Geidam right to contest for Senate during the forthcoming election - The senatorial seat had been occupied by the governor's predecessor since 2007 The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe, on Thursday, September 6, gave the outgoing governor of the state, Ibrahim Gaidam, the sole powers to anoint his successor and contest for Senate ahead of the 2019 election. Premium Times reports that the partys members took the decision at meeting and agreed that its candidate for the 2019 governor election would neither be chosen through direct or indirect primaries. READ ALSO: A taxi driver gave me the information - Informant who led police to Edwin Clarks house speaks The report said a communique issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the state deputy governor, Abubakar Aliyu, announced that Governor Gaidam would be allowed to single-handedly decide who will be the APC governorship candidate. The meetingresolves that discretion is given to HE Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Gaidam to present a competent and acceptable person as the Gubernatorial Flag bearer of our great party (APC) in the forthcoming 2019 general elections for our dear state, the communique said. The communique added that the Yobe APC leaders also granted the governor an unchallenged ticket to contest the Yobe East senatorial seat in the coming election. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app The report said the Yobe East senatorial district is currently being occupied by a former governor of the state, Bukar-Abba Ibrahim. Ibrahim, who has been occupying the seat since he left the governorship office in 2007, was absent at the meeting. NAIJ.com earlier reported that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) reportedly reversed its earlier position on the mode of elections during its forthcoming primaries, saying that direct elections would be adopted for all its primaries. Briefing journalists at the end of the NEC meeting Thursday, August 30, in Abuja, Plateau state governor, Simon Lalong had said when the matter came up for discussion, most of the states opted to use indirect primaries. Street Gist: Will Nigeria be a better place with Trump as president? | Naij.com TV [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Just in: Heavy downpour reportedly sacks civil servants from Cross River governor's office Heavy downpour on Thursday, September 6, disrupted activities at the office of Cross River governor, Prof Ben Ayade. NAIJ.com regional reporter in Cross River, Nnanna Ugochukwu, reports that the downpour which caused flooding in many offices at the government house including the press unit and ministry of finance halted work as staff of both establishment were seen clearing water from their offices. READ ALSO: Clark petitions Buhari, NSA over police raid on his residence, urges investigation of incident Reacting to the incident, the special adviser to the governor on technical matters, Eric Apo, in a statement said structural repairs would be carried out to repair the damages caused by the floods. He said: "The flooding at governors office, ministry of finance and adjoining areas is caused by the blockade in its evacuation point that connects with the channel 1 drainage system around Big Qua axis and we as a government will work swiftly to ensure this is tackled. "For example, the drainage system around the CRUTECH gate at Ekpo Abasi were blocked which caused sustained flooding for some weeks, when these were opened alongside the connecting drainage to the Ekpo Abasi axis of the channel 1 system, the problem was solved." He pleaded with residents of Calabar to desist from dumping refuse in drainage as this often leads to their blockade thereby preventing the free flow of water. "The drainage systems in Calabar are designed in a way that the city can experience only flash floods as worse case scenarios. "Once again, we call on residents to desist from dumping refuse inside drainages to prevent situations such as this as such acts will not be tolerated any longer." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that a social media subscriber, Wale Alakija, on his Twitter page, shared videos and photos of a street in Jakande, Lekki, Lagos, overtaken by flood after the downpour on Monday, August 13 Alakija shared the videos and photos via his Twitter handle, @oladrunken. The flooding allegedly took place on Prince Kazeem Eletu Way in Lekki. Lekki Flood: Would you prefer to live on Mainland or the Island? - on NAIJ.com TV [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | After a failed governorship ambition, ex-PDP national spokesperson to contest for Senate under APC - Prince Adedayo Adeyeye, announced his plan to seek senatorial election on the platform of the APC on Thursday, September 6 - Adeyeye, a former PDP national spokesperson, says he is very sure Kayode Fayemi, the governor-elect of Ekiti, would not disappoint - The Adeyeye says he remains happy that Governor Ayodele Fayose was defeated The former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ex-minister of state for works, Adedayo Adeyeye, on Thursday, September 6, joined the list of aspirants eying the senatorial seat. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Adeyeye, who recently defected from the PDP after a failed governorship ambition, is contesting on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The report said Adeyeye, who made his intention known at his Ise-Ekiti country home during a meeting he hosted, said he was responding to calls to represent the people of Ekiti South senatorial district. READ ALSO: A taxi driver gave me the information - Informant who led police to Edwin Clarks house speaks Adeyeye promised to give the district the expected quality representation and meaningful democratic dividends if elected in the 2019 general elections. He said he had the support of the partys stakeholders for his aspirations just as he expressed confidence that the governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, would not disappoint the people of the state. I want to thank the youths, elders and leaders of the party for the way they mobilised during the July 14 election. I was the happiest man in Ekiti over the way the APC chased away Governor Ayo Fayose. I decided to return to APC because I was a foundation member of Alliance for Democracy. I was the Publicity Secretary of the party at a time and I remained in the party until Action Congress was formed. So I only returned home, not that I defected I want to assure you that I will do Ekiti South proud if given the ticket. I will not discriminate and the fact that you asked me to host this meeting confirmed that APC is not discriminatory. Let me assure you, the APC will win the next presidential election. President Muhammadu Buhari will return again as president. We will win the three seats in the senate, the six in House of Representatives and the 26 Assembly seats because APC is united. I will do well for our people, I will bring my varied and vast experiences to bear if elected. I will fight for Ekiti people in the Senate. We are sure of victory because our party is strong, focused and united, he said. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Adeyeye also commended those who shelved their ambition for him to contest, saying it was an indication of his acceptability in the party. I want to thank those who stepped down to prevent crisis in the party as this indicates that our party is united and we are committed to ensuring that we have a landslide victory in the elections, he said. NAIJ.com earlier reported how barely 24 hours after losing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket in Ekiti state, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who was the immediate past national publicity secretary of the PDP resigned from the party. Adeyeye who came second in the PDP governorship primaries on Tuesday, May,8 after scoring 771 votes was beaten to the ticket by the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Prof Kolapo Olusola. Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | NAIJ.com TV [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Return of pilgrims: NAHCON urges state officials to redouble efforts *Begins preparation for 2019 hajj *All pilgrims to wear same uniform *We recorded only 12 deaths By 1Haroon Balogun States Hajj handlers have been urged to re-dedicate themselves to the last phase of the hajj operations to ensure a smooth and hitch free airlift of their pilgrims back home. The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Barrister Abdullah Mukhtar Muhammad made the call during a meeting between the Commission and leaders of State Pilgrims Welfare Boards and Agencies at the headquarters of the Commission in Makkah. ARRIVAL: 301 Ulamas and officials and 2 Armed Forces pilgrims on board MEV3339 landed in Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport yesterday. To this end, a Committee has been set up, made up of NAHCON and some States Pilgrim Boards and Agencies officials to enter into negotiations with accommodation providers in Madinah and Makkah. The Committee which is made up of NAHCON officials, members of States Pilgrims Boards and Agencies will negotiate and secure accommodation with proximity to the Grand Mosque in Makkah. It will also ensure that all pilgrims wear the same uniform in 2019 Hajj. The Yobe State Pilgrims Board Chairman, Engineer Mai Sanda who briefed journalists at end of the parley said they have resolved to explore avenues to house the entire Nigerian Pilgrims in one cluster area in Makkah and closer to Haram like what obtained in recent years in Madinah. Earlier, in his opening remark, Barrister Muhammad praised the efforts of all stakeholders for a successful hajj operations asking them to redouble their efforts in sustaining the smooth airlift of pilgrims back home. So far, so good. The return flights are going steadily and the feeding arrangments and medical activities still moving on. I want to appeal to all of us to rededicate ourselves to this phase of the activities because whatever that is approaching its ending is normally difficult to manage. We are at this most critical aspect of the operation because the desire of our pilgrims is to go back home. They have finisshed the hajj rites, they are tired and getting unnecessarily agitated with the environment. They have been very patient and polite through various communication, and we will not allow this to be overstreached. So our duty is to make sure they get back home as quick as possible. The Chairman said more patience and tolerance must be exercised as virtually everyone has become home-sick after spending almost a month in foreign land. He commended all stakeholders for their cooperation, assistance and understanding which so far have ensured smooth Hajj operation, hoping same be replicated for everything to end well. Barrister Abdullah Mukhtar also appreciated the untiring efforts of the Saudi authorities in making the exercise a resounding success devoid of any major unpleasant incidents, crisis or outbreak of disease. He further stated that the meeting was convened to review, fine-tune and smoothen grey areas of the entire operation, as other civic responsibilities are still ongoing. Also speaking in a joint press briefing, the NAHCON Commissioner in charge of health matters Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar Kana said the meeting reviewed all health matters as they affected and continue to affect Nigerian Pilgrims during and after the just concluded Hajj exercise. He stated that though there were some unpleasant health incidences and challenges, nonetheless the situation this year, he said, was generally, mild compared to previous years. Dr. Ibrahim Kana said the Federal Medical Team has resolved to continue operation until the last Nigerian Pilgrim leaves the holy land back to Nigeria. The Commissioner further stated that a surveillance medical committee has been set up to monitor and to visit all hospitals, clinics and mortuaries to ensure that all Nigerian Pilgrims irrespective of their status of whether international Pilgrims or not, were fully accounted for, adding that this year recorded lowest death rate of Nigerian Pilgrims in recent years, with twelve deaths so far. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Pollution : Lagosians dump 450,000MT plastic wastes into ocean bodies annually GOVT By Monsuru Olowoopejo LAGOSTHE Lagos State Government, Thursday, disclosed that half of the plastic waste dumped into ocean bodies in Nigeria emanated from the state. Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, disclosed this at the launch of Lagos Waterfront Clean-up initiative at Ibeshe Waterfront in Ikorodu, Lagos. He said: It would be safe to infer that more than half of these quantities emanated from Lagos, being the most populated of the countrys Coastal States. The menace of plastic wastes and the attendant impacts on the aquatic environment has without doubt become a global concern which obviously was why the United Nations, this year, dedicated both the Earth Day and the World Environment Day celebrations to addressing plastic pollution. You will all agree with me that the Lagos Lagoon and the other Lagoons, rivers and streams have all had their shares of pollution and degradation ranging from deliberate dumping of wastes and untreated sewage to discharge of untreated effluents. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Edo Govt orders arrest of PUWOV official over extortion urges motorists to be guided by traffic rules The Edo State Government has ordered the arrest of one Kingsley Edebiri, an official of the State Public Works Volunteers (PUWOV), over alleged extortion from unsuspecting motorists in Benin City, Edo State capital. Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, addressing journalists at the State Police Headquarters, in Benin City, on the foiled robbery attack on a bank in Igarra, in Akoko Edo Local Government Area of Edo State, on Friday, August 10, 2018. Addressing journalists at the Government House in Benin City, the Coordinator of PUWOV, Mukhtar Yusuf-Osagie said he had been receiving calls from motorists over cases of extortion by volunteers with the programme, and had warned his men to desist from such act. Yusuf-Osagie noted that over 15 volunteers with PUWOV have been arrested, dismissed and charged to court, adding that some of them have even been imprisoned for flouting the law under the cover of PUWOV. He explained that he was contacted by some motorists who reported a case of extortion by a volunteer with PUWOV, after which he asked the motorists to come to the office and identify the suspects. Before the drivers came, I asked the volunteers, but none admitted to committing the offence. When the drivers came, they identified Kingsley Edebiri as the culprit who collected money from them. He said that Edebiri employed two other persons to extort money from unsuspecting motorists, noting, We have arrested him while a manhunt for the two others has commenced. He urged commercial vehicles drivers to park and pick passengers only from designated areas, appealing to drivers not to fight with volunteers but report any issue to the PUWOV office at Urhokpota Hall. We have a jacket and vest with an identification number to identify each of our men. If you find anyone who doesnt put on jacket and vest, such volunteer should be reported, he added. A motorist, Chika Dike, explained that Kingsley Edebiri and his group arrested about six drivers after the close of work for the day at Ezoti Street, where each of them paid about N4,000 to the group. Another motorist, who was also extorted by the Edebiri group, Onyekachukwu Aju, commended the Governor Godwin Obaseki led-administration and the leader of PUWOV, for the good work and restoring sanity to the city. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Globacom outperforms in new voice, data subscriptions NCC LAGOSTHE latest statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has shown that Nigerias digital transformation leader, Globacom outperformed other telecom players in the month of July 2018. Globacom-offices According to the newly released report, Globacom amassed 214,646 new subscribers in the month of July, taking its customer base to over 40.3 million. Globacoms addition of 214,646 subscribers constituted the largest gain by any operator in July. Airtel garnered the second most number of subscribers, as it added 149,880 new customers, growing from 39,898,448 in June to 40,048,328 in July. Two other operators, MTN and 9mobile, lost 999,891 and 246,221 subscribers, respectively. A further analysis of the NCC report showed that Globacom has added a total of 2,153,374 new subscribers this year. In terms of internet subscribers on mobile devices, Globacom accounted for most of the growth during the review period. The total number of data users in the country rose by 866,656, from 102.81 million in June to103.67 million in July. Globacom took the lion share of 574,821 new internet users, with its data subscription rising from 26.57 million in June to 27.15 million in July. The addition represents 66 percent of the total of 866,656 new internet users in the industry. Airtels gained 375,724 internet users in July, while MTN gained 134,197 new data users in the same period. On the flip side, 9mobile lost 218,086 internet users in July, as its subscription base fell to 10.37 million as against June when it recorded 10.59 million. Globacom has rolled out a number of customer-friendly initiatives recently which may have significantly helped to grow its subscriber base. The operator launched Glo Yakata which offers up to 2,200 percent bonus on every N100 recharge and above, and Oga SIM which offers 125 percent bonus on every data subscription. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | 2019: Political thugs, militants, kidnappers will be dealt with decisively Nigerian Army Abuja The Nigerian Army has warned that it will deal decisively with political thugs, kidnappers and other criminal elements caught with weapons during the 2019 general elections. Recruits undergo training at the headquaters of the Depot of the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna State in northcentral Nigeria, on October 5, 2017. It further warned that it would dealt with anybody who might attempt to breach the peace during the exercise. The Chief of Army Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, gave the warning on Thursday in Abuja, after he met with Principal Officers, General Officers Commanding GOCs and field Operational Commanders. Buratai said he met with them for consultation and review of ongoing operations. He assured that the army was prepared to ensure security before, during after the election. We must make it clear that all political thugs, militants, kidnappers and other criminal elements identified with weapons will be dealt with decisively. Our rules of engagement are very clear and they conform to international best practices. We are going to apply them to the letter, he said. On security, Buratai said that the Operation Lafiya Dole and other operations being conducted by the army across the country were being reviewed and reinvigorated to address identified challenges. The army chief, however, expressed satisfaction with the performance of ongoing operations to tackle various security challenges in different parts of the country. He promised that the army would strive to maintain the relative security and peace, and ensure that the confidence reposed in it by Nigerians was maintained. Buratai also hinted of upcoming operations like Crocodile Smile III in the Niger Delta and Python Dance III (Egwu Eke) in the South-East without specifying when they would be conducted. (NAN) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Work on 3050 Megawatts Mambilla Power Plant starts early 2019 Presidency Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday received assurances from the Joint Venture Partners handling the 3050 Megawatts Mambilla Hydro-electric Plant that arrangements had reached advanced staged for the commencement of the project early 2019. The Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said in a statement in Abuja, that Buhari received the assurance at a meeting with Prof. Lyu Ze Xiang, the President of CGCC, the construction company handling the project, in Beijing, China. Shehu said the President asked to be briefed on time lines for the commencement of work, following his highly successful meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The Nigerian President, who likened the Mambilla to Chinas Three Gorges Dam, said given the significance of the project to Nigerias socio-economic development, there was a need for its speedy completion. He said: I am very pleased with the concern you have shown for the significance of this project. I would like you to ensure its speedy completion. Xiang had earlier informed President Buhari that Nigerian officials and the project consultant would meet in two weeks to address the questions raised by President Xi for more detailed and updated feasibility and sustainability studies. He said a team had already been set up to work on the financing aspect. We fully understand the importance of this project to the economic and social wellbeing of Nigeria. In two weeks, we will sit down with the parties for the economic and sustainability analysis. It would take about four weeks to conclude the update, he assured. According to the lead contractor, `pre-commencement work will thereafter begin, dealing with access to site and putting in place the necessary support infrastructure such as power, water and transportation. Our target is to commence the project early next year, he told Buhari shortly before the Nigerian leaders departure at the conclusion of his six-day official trip to China. (NAN) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Atiku Reveals What Will Happen If Buhari Fails To Handover If Defeated In 2019 Polls Former Nigerias Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has aired his mind on what will happen should Buhari refuse to hand over power if defeated in 2019. Former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has revealed what will happen should President Muhammadu Buhari refuse to leave office in an event he is defeated in 2019, according to a report by Pulse. Atiku who is a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said if President is defeated at the polls, he will have no choice than to step aside. According to him, any refusal to step aside and handover power peacefully will plunge the country into political crisis, a situation the President may not want. Speaking on a short interview on Pulse TV, the ex-Vice President said, Buhari will have to leave power if he is voted out unless he wants to plunge this country into political crisis and I dont believe hell want to do that. But so far, he has done badly as far as electoral processes are concerned because there have been serious breaches of fundamental electoral processes. I felt there was a need for someone like me whos experienced in politics; experienced in governance; experience in business to try and restore and bring back the country on track as far as economic development was concerned. Watch Video Below: CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | 14 Boko Haram terrorists killed, 21 civilians rescued as Army carries out successful raid on insurgents hideout (photos) - Nigerian Army troop raided a Boko Haram hideout in Amdaga Madachi village, Gwoza LGA, Borno - During the successful raid, the troops killed 14 terrorists and rescued 21 civilians - The troops have been commended for their gallantry and urged to maintain the momentum Troops of the Nigerian Army have raided a hideout used by Boko Haram terrorists in Amdaga Madachi village, Gwoza local government area, Borno state. The development was made public in a statement signed by the director of Army public relations, Brig Gen Texas Chukwu. READ ALSO: Buhari-led FECs inexperience caused crisis in Senate - Saraki In the statement released to NAIJ.com, Chukwu disclosed that the troops killed 14 terrorists and rescued 21 civillians during the raid. The statement read: Troops of 192 Battalion of 26 Task Force Brigade of Operation Lafiya Dole in conjunction with Civilian Joint Task Force neutralised 14 Boko Haram terrorists in a village suspected to harbour terrorists that ambushed a civilian vehicle in Pulka on Wednesday 5th September 2018. The troops attained the feat on Thursday, 6th September 2018, during an early hours clearance operation to Amdaga Madachi village in Gwoza local governmnent area in Borno state suspected to habour the terrorists. The troops engaged and subdued the terrorists following a superior fire power of troops in the village. Their aggressive posture, tactics and marksmanship resulted in the following: (a) the troops neutralised 14 Boko Haram terrorists; (b) rescued 21 civilians (6 women, 11 children, 4 men who are being attended to at the military hospital). The acting general officer commanding 7 Division, Brigadier General Abdulmalik Bulama Biu, through the commander of 26 Task Force, Brigade Brigadier General Dahiru, has commended the troops for their gallantry, urging them to maintain the momentum by taking out all Boko Haram terrorists within the division area of responsibility. See photos from the raid: The gallant troops gather some of the rescued civilians (Photo credit: Facebook: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Depositphotos The troops pictured at the entrance to the hideout (Photo credit: Facebook: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Depositphotos Goats seen in the hideout (Photo credit: Facebook: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Depositphotos Some of the rescued civilians sit by the roadside (Photo credit: Facebook: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Depositphotos The victorious troop pictured excitedly making their way back (Photo credit: Facebook: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Depositphotos PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the Nigerian Army said it had unraveled a Facebook and other social media accounts allegedly used by a faction of the Boko Haram group to recruit new members. The artillery commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major Murtala Usman, who announced this at the Nigerian Army combat support training week in Maiduguri, said the social media accounts had 2,000 followers. Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV: [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Buhari-led FECs inexperience caused crisis in Senate - Saraki fires - Senate President Bukola Saraki says the lack of experience of the Buhari-led Federal Executive Council caused the crisis in the Senate - He said the country had never witnessed such division, as it is witnessing under the Buhari administration, since independence - According to the Senate president, the only way to get it right is by utilizing the opportunity of the 2019 elections to vote for leaders with the capacity to lead the nation Dr Olubukola Saraki, president of the Senate, has stated that the crisis rocking the upper legislative chamber was caused by the lack of experience of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC). Saraki made the assertion when he was received by the Ebonyi state governor, Engr David Umahi and stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the Banquet Hall, Ebonyi State Government House, on Thursday, September 6, Daily Trust reports. READ ALSO: ABUTH set to conduct first open heart surgery in Northern Nigeria NAIJ.com gathers that the Senate president said the country had never witnessed such division, as it is witnessing under the Buhari administration, since independence. He gave the assurance that he would address the problem of unemployment and insecurity ravaging the nation and restructure the nation, if elected as president. Saraki further appealed to the state PDP delegates to vote for him in the forthcoming party primaries, in order to enable him fly the partys presidential flag. He said: Today, we are at a crossroad trying to unite this country; were at a time to take important decisions for the future of this country. Having served as governor for eight years and now as Senate president where l equally provide leadership for the people, l have shown capacity. The cause of the problem that we are having at the Senate is because members of the Federal Executive Council lack experience; they forget that the executive and the Senate must work together. You all know that this country have never been divided like this before, you all know that security challenges is very high, you all know the issue of inclusion, you all know the challenges of freedom, injustice, and the inability to express our constitutional rights. According to Saraki, the only way to get it right is when we utilize the opportunity of 2019 elections and vote for leaders with the capacity to lead the nation. Saraki promised to create an enabling environment for business to strive in the south-east, if elected president in 2019, as he sought support from the people of the region. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that Senate President Bukola Saraki claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is scared of his possible emergence as presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Saraki, who recently left the APC for the PDP, also challenged his former party to a national debate. What are Bukola Saraki's chances against Buhari in 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 | Alleged defection of 6 governors: You are hallucinating - APC fires at PDP - The APC says the PDP is hallucinating for claiming that six of its governors were planning to defect to the opposition party - According to the ruling party, the PDP has assumed the role of comic relief ahead of the 2019 general elections - The party said while the PDP hallucinated on its members defection, it was consolidating to go into the 2019 general elections as a smarter, more united and stronger political fighting force The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)s claim that six APC governors and some senators have concluded plans to join its fold, as hallucination. The national publicity secretary of the party, Yekini Nabena, stated this in a statement on Thursday, September 6, in Abuja, NAN reports. NAIJ.com gathers that he said that by the PDPs claim, it is now clear that the party has assumed the role of comic relief ahead of the 2019 general elections. READ ALSO: 2019: I will rather lose than win through violence - Ortom Nigerians have rejected the PDP and all that it represents corruption, impunity, waste and greed." Nabena added that in the face of imminent defeat in 2019, the PDP had chosen to hide behind lies and false realities to save its face. He said that while the PDP hallucinated on APC members defection to its camp, the APC was consolidating to go into the 2019 general elections as a smarter, more united and stronger political fighting force. The APC spokesman said that while the PDP wallowed in its pains, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration was focused on improving the lives of Nigerians, addressing infrastructure needs and revamping the economy. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Recall that NAIJ.com previously reported that the Peoples Democratic Party confirmed that it was rounding up discussions with the All Progressives Congress governors and lawmakers, ahead of their defection to the opposition party. The disclosure was made in a statement released by the partys national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Wednesday, September 5. Ologbondiyan disclosed that the PDP had already concluded discussions with six APC governors and 27 APC members in the National Assembly, who had reportedly also drawn their consultations and secured the mandates of their constituents to move to the PDP ahead of the 2019 general election. 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 | Tension as NUPENG gives military 24-hour ultimatum - NUPENG has asked the military to vacate an oil and gas firm - It threatened that it will embark on a nationwide strike in 24 hours - They said the chief of army staff has been informed The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has given the military 24 hours ultimatum to vacate the premises of an oil and gas firm to avert a nationwide strike. At a media briefing in Lagos on Thursday, NUPENG President, Mr Williams Akporeha, called on the Chief of Army Staff to withdraw soldiers from the premises of Sterling Energy Exploration Company (SEEPCO) and its drilling arm, British Oil and Gas Ltd located in Warri, Delta. NUPENG as an organization has written to the Chief of Army Staff that soldiers be removed from the work site, that what we have on ground is not a terrorist situation but an industrial relations matter. READ ALSO: Suspected herdsmen allegedly kill Adamawa PDP chairman, flee with head Our prayers right now is that those soldiers that are there be redeployed within the next 24 hours or else we shall have no option but to embark on a nationwide industrial action, Akporeha said. He also called on the Delta State Governor to wade into the matter, adding that the union had directed its members in Warri to immediately shut down over intimidation by their employer and harassment by the military. Akporeha disclosed that over 2,000 of its members had been sacked by the oil and gas companies for active unionism, describing the action as oppressive and a height of high handedness on the part of the firms. He said the firm had seven land rigs drilling in Kwale, Warri but that only two of them belonged to the union, adding that efforts by the other five groups to be unionised was resisted by the multinational corporation. Akporeha said the union in an attempt to resolve the matter, issued a press statement but was shocked that soldiers were brought in forcing members to renounce their membership of the union in order to keep their jobs. He alleged that the firm owned by Indians, forced workers with the help of the military into accepting working conditions that were not in line with labour laws of Nigeria. He urged Nigerians to rise up against the practice as no Nigerian could do same in any other country. When the union decided to question why the company decided to continue to resist the rights of workers to unionize, what we saw was deployment of military troops to hound and evacuate those workers that agreed to be part of the union. We feel that there are some processes that are no more fashionable in a democratic and a decent society than bringing soldiers to intimate harmless workers who are asking for their rights and especially just mere rights to identify with a union. As we speak, soldiers are distributing new employment forms of none identification with union to members if they must remain on the job. We have directed our members in Delta State to withdraw their services in protest of this unfortunate situation and we using this opportunity to also ask the governor of the state to immediately intervene to avoid turning his state into a dance floor for industrial crisis, he said. Akporeha said that if the management of the oil and gas firms were not called to order, the union will embark on full scale nationwide strike. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Nigeria The NUPENG president noted that negotiations with the management of the companies failed because they came up with a fraudulent, unacceptable idea that they were ready to remit check off dues of workers to the union without allowing the workers to unionise NAIJ.com had reported that the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) on Tuesday, September 4, accused the management of an oil and gas company along with its drilling subsidiary of victimising its members for alleged union activities. Premium Times reports that NUPENG national president, Williams Akporeha, said Sterling Energy Exploration Company (SEEPCO) and its drilling arm, British Oil & Gas Limited (BOGEL) have displayed oppression and high handedness against members of the union in the companies, including illegal sacks. 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 | 11 cult members arrested after initiation goes wrong (photo) - An initiation ceremony into a newly formed secret confraternity turned sour, on Thursday, September 6 - The initiation turned sour when one of the recruits who couldn't endure the torture and other initiation rites he was subjected to - Items recovered from the suspects include one locally made shotgun, four live cartridges, three cutlasses, one sledge hammer, ten horse whips and assorted charms An ordinary initiation ceremony into a newly formed secret confraternity named " The New Black Movement of Africa" a breakaway faction of the AIYE cult group, turned sour, on Thursday, September 6. In a statement made available to NAIJ.com when one of the recruits who couldn't endure the torture and other initiation rites he was subjected, he bolted for his dear life and ran to his mother's house at Jakande estate, Ajah Lagos. Miffed by the apparent show of cowardice by the intending recruit and the fact that he may give them up to the police, the group chased him to his mother's residence and began to beat up everybody in sight, at same time, robbing residents of the estate who were woken up by their noise. READ ALSO: Troops raid Boko haram hideout, kill 14 terrorists, rescue 21 civilians Members of the Black Movement of Africa a breakaway faction of the AIYE cult group. Source: Original Unfortunately for the group, the mother of the runaway boy, sneaked out of the house and placed a distress call to the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ilasan division. CSP Onyinye Onwuamaegbu who led a contingent of policemen to the estate and arrested eleven members of the group, all males; namely, Godwin Victor, Benjamin Daniel, Saviour Anioffiong, Lawal Ibrahim, Shola Odekunle, Sodiq Olawuyi, Segun Fagbohun, Bashiru Lawal, Chinedu Francis, Wahab Adams and Ifarinde Adeniyi. The police team recovered the following items from the suspects, viz: one locally made shotgun, four live cartridges, three cutlasses, one sledge hammer, ten horse whips and assorted charms. In a related development, two notorious cultists, Rasheed Yusuf aka Radical and Abel Okwo, were arrested during a supremacy battle between the Aiye and Eiye confraternities at Akerele street, Oworonshoki. Notorious cultists, Rasheed Yusuf aka Radical and Abel Okwo. Source: UGC Meanwhile, the said Abel Okwo was charged to court two months ago by the Command for cult related offences only to come back to terrorise the town the more. The commissioner of police, Lagos State, CP Edgal Imohimi, vows that the Command will not relent in its efforts at ridding the state of members of these unlawful societies. He therefore calls on parents to hold heart to heart talks with their children, male and female alike, on the evil consequences of belonging to cult groups. He thanks Lagosians for always providing the command with information about the activities of these outlaws and solicits for more cooperation. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app NAIJ.com previously reported that about 200 suspected cultists in Ikorodu on Monday, February 12, renounced their membership and surrendered their weapons to the Lagos state Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgar. The repented cultists, mostly youths, converged at the palace of the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, where they formally surrendered. The weapons surrendered were 15 locally made long guns, 11 cutlasses, four double barrel guns, four axes, five locally made short guns, one sword and 30 bullets. Police Parade Over 50 Suspected Cultists in Lagos | Naij.com TV [embedded content] Subscribe to watch new videos Source: Naija.ng CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Breaking: Delta APC adopts direct primaries The Progressives Congress, (APC) Delta State Chapter led by Chief Cyril Abeye Ogodo has adopted direct primaries in the conduct of all party primary to elect it candidates ahead of 2019 general elements. (l-r) Delta State APC Leader, Olorogun Ortegar Emeror; Former APC Chairman, Chief John Oyegun; Former Delta State Governor, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan and Plateau State Governor, Mr. Simon Lalong during the APC Caucus meeting where Former Delta State Governor, Chief Emmanuel Udughan was presented to the leaders of the party at the State House Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 28/08/2018 The party reached this decision at the expanded State Executive Committee meeting of the APC Delta State Chapter led by Chief Cyril Abeye Ogodo, held on the 6th of September 2018, at Asaba. The meeting which was attended by members of the APC SWC, 25 LGA, Chairmen, secretary and youth leaders and the about 270 wards chairmen resolved to adopt direct primaries to give all aspirants level playing ground. In a communique issued and signed by the state party Chairman Chief Cyril Ogodo, Secretary Barr Silas Buowe, members of SWC and over 300 others resolved as followed: Arising from an expanded State Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Delta State Chapter led by Chief Cyril Abeye Ogodo, held on the 6th day of September 2018, the following resolutions were reached. To commend His Excellency, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomohle National Chairman and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great Party on their recent decision to entrench internal democracy in the Party through the approval for the use of DIRECT PRIMARIES in choosing our Flag Bearers. To commend the President and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, for repositioning Nigeria to greatness. The Delta State APC is excited like many other Nigerians across the Nation that Mr Presidents leadership style has rekindled our hope in democracy. That the Delta State APC hereby ADOPTS AND AFFIRMS the use of DIRECT PRIMARIES for choosing all our Flag Bearers. The above decision affirms our Partys disposition and desire to make our elections in 2019 and beyond truly reflect the will of the people as there cannot be democracy without the peoples participation. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Anthony Martial has pulled the plug, on talks over a fresh contract with Manchester United, as his frosty relationship with Jose Mourinho continues. Martial was set to be offered a lucrative new deal, however his relationship with Mourinho has soured to such an extent that he is reluctant to commit to a new deal. The France forward was desperate to leave the club in the summer, but Woodward blocked any move. Contract talks had been opened in May between Martial and the club, but he has now stepped back from negotiations, according to the Sun UK. Mourinho has only used Martial once this season and hauled him off during a 3-2 defeat to Brighton. The player is now waiting to see what happens with the managers future at the club, before committing his own. Martial only has one year left on his contract and while United have an option for a further year, they are determined not to reach next summer without him signing a new deal. Home | News | General | I want to unite Nigeria - Saraki speaks on presidential ambition - Senate President Bukola Saraki visited Enugu state chapter of PDP to campaign - Saraki, during his visit said his aim is to unite Nigeria - The Senate President urged members of the party to support him in the upcoming primaries Senate President Bukola Saraki, during his visit to Enugu on Thursday, September 6, to meet with his supporters in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said his main aim for running for presidency is to unite Nigeria. Saraki said PDP secretariat in GRA, Enugu, said Nigeria needs a politician who is aware of their plight and strive to give them a better life, Tribune reports. He said: I am here to tell you that we have a project. The country is not as it were three years ago. We are all concerned about the insecurity in the land, the unemployment, lack of job and hunger in the country. READ ALSO: List of PDP's presidential aspirants, why party wants to reduce number Many youths today, do not have any job and the future is not okay for them and we do not have time to continue to wait and things continue to deteriorate. For people to be able to exercise and express their views and opinions without any form of intimidation or oppression. We have gone through a lot, I and your son, Ike Ekeremadu, since we have decided to fight for what is right." He added that what Nigerians needed is a president who believe in them and understand the issues facing the country. He said: A president that understand the issues facing Nigerians, a president that will unite the whole country, that will create job and identify with the youths in their aspirations. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Without unity and working together we cannot build a progressive nation. A leader that will bring the public and private sectors together to create jobs, put food in homes of many families as well as increase wealthy in the land." NAIJ.com earlier reported that Bukola Saraki said the crisis rocking the upper legislative chamber was caused by the lack of experience of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC). Saraki made the assertion when he was received by the Ebonyi state governor, David Umahi, and stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the Banquet Hall, Ebonyi state Government House, on Thursday, September 6. What are Bukola Saraki's chances against Buhari in 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 | N1.7bn fraud: Court to resume trial of former President Jonathans aide Sept. 10 Lagos A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Friday, adjourned until Sept. 10, the trial of former President Jonathans aide, Waripamo-Owen Dudafar, who is facing a charge of N1.7 billion fraud. Waripamo-Owei Dudafa Dudafar, who was charged alongside former manager of Heritage Bank, Joseph Iweujo, had earlier pleaded not guilty to the 23-count charge of fraud preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They were alleged to have conspired to conceal N1.7 billion, proceeds they knew were from a criminal activity. At the resumed trial, EFCC Prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, continued the cross-examination of the first accused who was also first witness in his own defence. Dudafar was reminded that he was still on oath and Oyedepo began cross-examinating him, asking: you said in your statement, exhibit G, that you never had a contract with Bayelsa State Government? You signed all the pages of your statement, am I correct? The witness answered, I never had a direct contract with them. I did sign, but some of the words were not mine. They were dictated to me and I was asked to sign. Oyedepo later proceeded with the cross-examination, eliciting answers from the witness. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Dudafar was alleged to have siphoned the amount through different accounts in Heritage bank in the name of some companies. EFCC is accusing them of converting N1.7 billion, themselves through Sea Gate Property Development and Investment Ltd., Avalon Global Property Development Ltd., and Ebiwise Resources. The anti-graft agency claimed that the defendants received the money sometimes in 2016 through Pluto Property and Investment Ltd., Rotato Interlink Services Ltd., De Jakes Fast Food Restaurant Ltd., and Ibejige Services Ltd. The offences contravene Sections 17 (a) and 18 (c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and Sections 27 (3) of the EFCC Act, 2004. (NAN) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Presidential panel recovers 19 vehicles from former NPopC commissioners Abuja The Special Presidential Panel for the Recovery of Public Property in Abuja on Friday handed over 19 official vehicles it recently recovered for the National Population Commission (NPopC). The vehicles were retrieved from former commissioners of the NPopC who allegedly made away with them after their tenures in office. The Chairman of the panel, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, handed over the vehicles to officials of the commission at a brief ceremony. Obono-Obla said the recovery followed a tip-off by a member of staff of the commission to the panel in March. He noted that the commissioners were not supposed to leave with official property having benefited from the governments monetisation policy. But because Nigeria was a very corrupt country until the coming into power of President Muhammadu Buhari, they went home with those vehicles. If it were the Nigeria before May 28, 2015, they would have got away with it, thereby denying Nigerians their use. The vehicles were meant for operations of the National Population Commission, but some very unpatriotic public servants took them home. So, we swiftly commenced investigation and recovered the vehicles from all the previous commissioners of the NPopC, he said. The panel chairman said that should be a warning to all other public servants, including himself, to desist from converting official property to personal use. While noting that all public property belonged to the government and people of Nigeria, he said the Buhari government would not tolerate such acts. I commend that very patriotic staff of NPopC who gave us this information, and I urge Nigerians to take advantage of the whistleblower initiative of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. I call on all other patriotic Nigerians to give us information about those who have taken government property home. And I can assure them we will recover whatever has been taken away by unpatriotic public servants and other people, Obono-Obla said. Responding, the Director of Census in NPopC, Mr Liman Baba, who received the vehicles on behalf of the Chairman, Mr Eze Duruiheoma, commended the panel for its good job. Baba said the recovery would go a long way in easing the challenges of logistics facing the commission. The recovered vehicles are mostly Sports Utility Vehicles built by local auto maker, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company. (NAN) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Obaseki breaking new grounds, attracting investment Osagie says he hopes Orbih will be a free man to benefit from projects The Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, has said that the state is on the march towards more prosperity with the recent investment deals signed with Chinese investors in Beijing, China. Osagie Osagie noted that while the deals further validate the commitment of Obasekis administration to industrialise the state, he explained that on the flip side, the deals in China have dealt a final blow to the lies and falsehood peddled over time, by members of the dying Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The governors aide said: After several rounds of engagements with Chinese investors, Edo people received the heart-warming news few days ago, of the successful signing of the investment agreements on all three big ticket investments; the Benin Industrial Park, Benin River Port in Gelegele and the modular refinery projects which were successfully signed in Beijing, China, on the sidelines of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). He added that since the signing of the final investment agreement with the Chinese investors, Governor Godwin Obaseki, senior officials in his administration and well-meaning Edo people in their millions, residents and friends of the state, have been basking in the euphoria of the prospect of a state on its way to more prosperity. Unfortunately, some elements within the dying Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who have a brush with the law for alleged fraud, may be behind bars when these projects come on stream. According to Osagie, At various social gatherings of Edo progressives in the state and in the diaspora, the investment agreements with the Chinese companies have dominated discussions. While torrents of goodwill messages and phone calls are being exchanged across the world by people who believe in our dear state and the leadership of Governor Godwin Obaseki, many are toasting to what experts describe as an action that will turn Edo State from a landlocked state to one of Nigerias gateways to the international market. He explained that The combined impact of an industrial park, a seaport and a refinery will undo the drag in our socio-economic development, which has held us down for decades. While we await the congratulatory message of the Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the dying Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Dan Orbih, on this great feat that will benefit all Edo people, we urge him to salute the Godwin Obaseki-led administrations triumph in an area industrialisation where the dying Edo PDP failed abysmally, he said. He assured that The industrialisation of Edo State is a task that the Obaseki administration is committed to and we are reclaiming all the opportunities we missed under the self-serving PDP administration in Edo State. Osagie emphasised that Never again will Edo people allow charlatans like Dan Orbih, Chris Nehikhare and their co-travellers access to power and reverse our progress. On the fraud allegation case against Orbih, Osagie said: I wish Chief Dan Orbih a great day in court soon, as he faces justice over his N700 million fraud case and I hope he will be a free man to enjoy the benefits of an industrialised Edo State. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General 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 From Here to Eternity Old Movie Projectors Find New Home in Florida Photo: Chia-Chi Charlie Chang Photo: Chia-Chi Charlie Chang Photo: Chia-Chi Charlie Chang During recent demolition of the E-wing of Bldg. 10, workers came across two old movie projectors on the mezzanine level of the old 14th-floor auditorium. Recognizing that NIH might have objects of value, the Office of Research Facilities prevented the projectors from ending up in a dumpster and have located a home for them. You might say they are going From Here to Eternity (which won best picture in 1953, the year the Clinical Center opened). The movie projectors were used in the large auditorium for movie nights on the big screen, said Holly Parker, a recreation therapist at the Clinical Center. Arnold Sperling was the founder of the recreation therapy program at the Clinical Center and started the movie nights for patients. We used to get the movie reels delivered by mail. We also had a popcorn machine that was a favorite for patients. Parkers colleague Debbie Marcus, who has been a recreation therapist at the CC for 40 years, adds, The movies were ordered from a company called Swank Motion Pictures. Our movie nights were scheduled once a month. Marcus said that on the 14th floor, movies were run by a department that was a predecessor to the hospitals IT department. After the evening of the movies on the big screen in the 14th floor auditorium, the films were brought down to the patient units and shown in solariums and day rooms using a mobile projector to those patients who were unable to attend the general showing. The popcorn machine was one of those large industrial ones like you would find at a fair, she continued, and we made it fresh throughout the movie so patients also enjoyed the aroma of a movie theater as well. Back in those days, recreation therapy was part of the Patient Activities Department, under Sperlings direction. Today it is part of the department of rehabilitation medicine. Brad Moss, ORF communication director, searched for takers for the old RCA projectors and found a nonprofit called Coral Gables Art Cinema in Coral Gables, Fla., which collects antique film equipment. The transfer of the machines is due to take place soon.Rich McManus In this article, Im going to take a look at South Port New Zealand Limiteds (NZSE:SPN) latest ownership structure, a non-fundamental factor which is important, but remains a less discussed subject among investors. Ownership structure has been found to have an impact on shareholder returns in both short- and long-term. Different types of investors can have varying degrees of influence on a companys management team. For example, an active institutional investor may be more likely to hold a company accountable for certain actions whereas a passive fund will move in and out of stocks without regards to corporate governance. The implications of these institutions actions can either benefit or hinder individual investors, so it is important to understand the ownership composition of your stock investment. Now I will analyze SPNs shareholder registry in more detail. See our latest analysis for South Port New Zealand NZSE:SPN Ownership Summary September 5th 18 Institutional Ownership Institutional investors transact in large blocks which can influence the momentum of stock prices, at least in the short-term, especially when there is a low level of public shares available on the market to trade. A low institutional ownership of 5.3% puts SPN on a list of companies that are not likely exposed to spikes in volatility resulting from institutional trading. Insider Ownership An important group of shareholders are company insiders. Insider ownership has to do more with how the company is managed and less to do with the direct impact of the magnitude of shares trading on the market. SPN insiders hold a significant stake of 10.2% in the company. This level of insider ownership has been found to have a negative impact on companies with consistently low PE ratios (underperformers), while it has been positive in the case of high PE ratio firms (outperformers). Its also interesting to learn what SPN insiders have been doing with their shareholdings lately. While insider buying is possibly a sign of a positive outlook for the company, selling doesnt necessarily indicate a negative outlook as they may be selling to meet personal financial needs. Story continues General Public Ownership The general public holds a substantial 12.8% stake in SPN, making it a highly popular stock among retail investors. This size of ownership gives retail investors collective power in deciding on major policy decisions such as executive compensation, appointment of directors and acquisitions of businesses. Private Company Ownership Another group of owners that a potential investor in SPN should consider are private companies, with a stake of 5.2%. While they invest more often due to strategic interests, an investment can also be driven by capital gains through share price appreciation. This kind of ownership, if predominantly strategic, can give these companies a significant power to affect SPNs business strategy. Thus, potential investors should look into these business relations and check how it can impact long-term shareholder returns. Next Steps: Institutional ownership level and composition in SPN is not high nor active enough to significantly impact its investment thesis. However, if you are building an investment case for SPN, ownership structure alone should not dictate your decision to buy or sell the stock. Rather, you should be looking at fundamental drivers such as South Port New Zealands past track record and financial health. I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SPNs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for SPNs outlook. Past Track Record: Has SPN been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of SPNs historicals for more clarity. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. JUSTICE FOR FUEGO!! Reply Parent Thread Link I ONLY CAME INTO THIS POST TO MAKE SURE THIS COMMENT WOULD BE HERE. Reply Parent Thread Link the true winner! fuck the racist mess that won Reply Parent Thread Link The true winner !! Reply Parent Thread Link i still cant believe that she was robbed and that chicken song won Reply Parent Thread Link i hated that stupid chicken song, awful. at least this one was catchy. i would've preferred austria to win over the chicken song too. Reply Parent Thread Link Fuego sucked you are all crazy!! Reply Parent Thread Link This feels really late. I saw a lot of backlash against Russia during Eurovision the past few years, but not really against Israel so I don't think this will affect them. Reply Thread Link yeah lmao why a few months afterwards has this just started and not after it happened Reply Parent Thread Link There was backlash to them participating at all for sure. There was controversy when she won. It's a problem now, and this letter has come out now, because they have to start planning for 2019 and there's still time for the decision to be made to not host it in Israel. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link and before I leave let me show you tel aviv Reply Thread Link a bop Reply Parent Thread Link ngl I want Tel Aviv to be the host city just because of Nadav's song Reply Parent Thread Link Apparently it was confirmed today that it's Tel Aviv but the EBU insists no final decision has been made yet, but people are saying EBU is just bluffing and it's Tel Aviv. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link ngl if that song had won i would not have complained. that was a bop. but the chicken song? israel did not deserve the victory .JUSTICE FOR FUEGO. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I always thought that Eurovision was only for countries in Europe, why is Israel even allowed to participate? Reply Thread Link lol when you find out that Australia is also a part of Eurovision... Reply Parent Thread Link they're part of the EBU-European Broadcasting Union like many other middle eastern countries and its the EBU that run Eurovision Reply Parent Thread Link They're white Reply Parent Thread Link sometimes i wonder if you guys are serious with this... Reply Parent Thread Link disgusting Reply Parent Thread Link ahahahhahahaha Reply Parent Thread Link Ontd is antisemitic Reply Parent Thread Link well they're literally days/weeks from announcing the host city in israel so maybe yall should've geared up on this movement back in may Edited at 2018-09-07 09:08 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link but but how can EUROvision be hosted outside of europe? i get all that broadcasting shit but cmon even london would be a better option also damn alia you go girl i'm so happy i don't have to regret liking search party Reply Thread Link I support this, sorry for Israelis but their government sucks. Reply Thread Link All political talk aside, I am just fascinated that the only name I recognize on that list (out of continental Europe) is the one of a cartoonist (and technically a choir but just because it was named after a local WW2 hero). Reply Thread Link ngl Ive been waiting for this MJeatingpopcorn.gif Edited at 2018-09-07 11:23 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link What a random selection of signatories. This was always going to be extremely messy. Reply Thread Link they let russia host so eh Reply Thread Link that was 10 years ago Reply Parent Thread Link Two months before the U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports go into effect, Asian refiners and traders are beginning to line up their purchases for cargo loadings for November. On September 3, the crude oil trading cycle rolled to the month of November, and sentiment in the Middle East crude trade sharply changed. Asian buyerswhose oil purchases from the Middle East are priced off the Dubai and Oman benchmarksare anticipating tighter supplies of medium and heavy sour crude grades from November onwards, when the U.S. sanctions are expected to stifle at least part of those Iranian barrels flowing to Asia. The markets expectations of reduced flows of both medium and heavy sour grades from Iran lifted the Middle East crude structure at the start of September, sending the November Dubai cash and swap spread surging. This spread between Dubai cash and Dubai swapa monthly cash-settled swap based on the Platts daily assessment price for Dubai Crudeis generally viewed as an indicator of market sentiment in the Middle East sour crude market. The expected decline in Iranian sour supplies is a primary metric for traders in Middle East crude these days, S&P Global Platts says in an analysis, citing market sources. Demand for medium and heavy sour grades has risen sharply in recent weeks, resulting in narrower discounts of those grades compared to lighter grades. While Asia currently has a lot to choose from among the lighter and sweeter grades, including light oil from the United States, the North Sea, and West Africa, supplies of heavier and sour grades may tighten after the U.S. sanctions on Iran return. Related: Say Goodbye To Cheap Oil For Now Various analyst estimates point to a loss of 500,000 bpd or even more than 1 million bpd as Iranian exports are choked off thanks to the sanctions. Initial data from Irans August oil exports points to already diminishing sales, as some buyers cut their exposure to Iranian crude and seek alternative supplies. Others are scaling back their imports but are hoping to secure a waiver from the United States. Between August 1 and 16, Irans oil exports plunged by 600,000 bpd compared to July loadings, Platts preliminary tanker tracking data showed. According to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, Iranian oil and condensate exports fell below 2.1 million bpd in Augustthe lowest levels since March 2016, with crude oil exports at their lowest since January this year. Irans key customers in Asiano.1 China and no.2 Indiaare not expected to cut off their imports of Iranian oil, although India may reduce some of its Iranian intake as it tries to maneuver between cheap Iranian crude and the U.S. pressure to restrict Irans oil exports to zero. China has said that it would not stop buying Iranian oil, but Beijing is also said to have agreed not to increase its oil purchases from Iran. While initial estimates of Irans oil export losses were closer to 500,000 bpd, now more analysts are expecting that the losses could even surpass 1 million bpd. The market will lose well over 1 million bpd from Iran with the sanctions, and that cant be made up, John Kilduff of Again Capital told CNBC on Tuesday, expecting WTI Crude prices at the end of this year to reach between $85 and $90 per barrel, with Brent Crude between $95 and $100. RBC Capital Markets expects the losses of Iranian oil to exceed 1.2 million bpd in the first quarter of 2019, and Irans reaction to the U.S. sanctions in November could lead to some sort of unintended military escalation, which the markets are currently underestimating. Related: Oil Prices Inch Lower After API Reports Minor Crude Draw The fear price premium in the oil market could return later this year due to the Iran-U.S. standoff, according to RBC Capital Markets analysts led by Helima Croft. The sanctions on Iran, combined with Venezuelas plunging production and possible sudden outages in African producers Libya and Nigeria, could tighten the market in the latter half of the year, RBC said in note carried by CNBC. Referring to Iran and Venezuela, the RBC analysts said: These two producers alone represent a very real supply gap risk of nearly two million barrels, and we continue to caution that an additional 500 kb/d is credibly at risk for periodic outages in Libya and Nigeria, as the security situation in both countries remains fragile and upcoming elections could bring additional unrest. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A joint panel of OPEC and non-OPEC representatives will discuss next Tuesday how the group could distribute among them the 1 million bpd production increase that was agreed in June Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the plans. OPEC and its Russia-led partners of non-OPEC producers in the production cut pact agreed in June to ease compliance rates, in other words to boost production, to ease market and consumer concerns about an increasingly tighter market and higher oil and gasoline prices. Analysts had expected that Iran would not agree to any specific production boost, and therefore any official OPEC statementif Iran was to be convinced not to break up unanimity in the groupwould be vague about the production figures, which it was. While OPEC and allies report the overall compliance levels, the two archrivals in the Middle East and major oil producers within the cartelSaudi Arabia and Iranhave quite different views on what the vague June agreement actually means. The Saudis say that it implies a redistribution of quotas with individual caps out and a collective 100-percent compliance rate in, while Iran insists that no country can compensate for others. At the meeting of the so-called Joint Technical Committee next Tuesday, the panel will debate four proposals on how to share the production increase, one of Reuters sources said. Those proposals will come from Iran, Algeria, Venezuela, and Russia, the source added. One of the proposals is to share the production increase pro-rata among the countries. But this idea is unlikely to pass through the two leaders of the OPEC and non-OPEC groupsSaudi Arabia and Russia, respectivelybecause they would get a smaller production boost than they want: Saudi Arabia wants 400,000 bpd and Russia wants another 300,000 bpd, according to the source. Earlier this month, Iranfaced with a decline in production and exports from the U.S. sanctionswarned OPEC that no country can overtake the production and export quotas of other member states under any circumstances, while Irans Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying that Some members are interpreting the latest OPEC decision on oil output differently ... and are acting in accordance with the policies of the U.S. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The outcome of Brazils upcoming presidential election is astoundingly unclear, with scenarios that range from a winner from the far-right, center or left. The energy industry is certainly not at the core of the debate by any means, but there could be significant ramifications for Brazils oil and gas industry. Brazil has a two-round voting system in which the top two candidates in the first-round square-off in a second vote. The leading candidate is the far-right Jair Bolsonaro (at the time of writing, the Associated Press reported that Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed during an event on Thursday, his son and officials have come out saying that the injury was not life threatening), who has consistently polled at about 20 percent, more than any other candidate. Except Lula. Former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is very divisive in Brazil you either love him or hate him but he has led in the polls for months and would almost certainly win in a runoff against Bolsonaro. However, Lula was controversially barred from running over a corruption charge. That means that, as of now, it looks like Bolsonaro will advance to the second round against one of a series of other candidates who are locked in a dead heat. Center-left (or leftist, some say) candidate Ciro Gomes and environmentalist Marina Silva are tied in the latest poll at 12 percent, with centrist and business-friendly candidate Geraldo Alckmin at 9 percent. Lulas likely preferred candidate, former mayor of Sao Paolo Fernando Haddad, has only about 6 percent. Interestingly, Gomes, Silva and Alckmin are all on track to beat Bolsonaro in the second round, suggesting that the majority of the country will unite in a sort of anti Bolsonaro vote, although that is far from an inevitability. Still, this dynamic means that there is extra emphasis on who can win that second spot in the runoff against Bolsonaro. Related: A Bearish September For Oil The horse-race analysis aside, there are huge ramifications for Brazils oil and gas industry. The current government of President Michel Temer is one of the most unpopular in Brazils history, as it presided over a period austerity, economic recession and extensive corruption. Temers government also pushed through a partial privatization of Brazils energy sector, allowing international oil and gas companies to take the lead on pre-salt oil fields, which had previously been under the control of state-owned Petrobras. It is not clear how things will change under a new president. Bolsonaro, though he has a violent and angry platform on domestic security and social policies, has more fluid opinions on the economy, and has deferred to a team of free-market economists. As such, he favors privatizing a lot of state-owned companies, though he wants to hold off on strategically important companies, such as Petrobras. He would likely continue the status quo. Ciro Gomes has offered a clearer sense of his approach to energy. He is against privatizing Petrobras and has stated that he would re-nationalize oil fields and strengthen the control of the oil sector under the state. He warned investors earlier this year not to rush into the oil sector because he would shift course. What I want to say is: Dont buy. Wait a bit, Gomes said in March, according to Reuters. He said that companies that had obtained the rights to Brazils oil fields during last years auctions would be compensated, including Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Equinor and Total, for instance. His argument is that the privatization that occurred under the current government is illegitimate because it was only possible after the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (he and others say it was a coup). To be clear to the foreign investor, I am announcing and I will repeat to you: all Brazilian oil fields that were sold abroad after the coup and after the repeal of the [energy laws], shall be expropriated with due compensation, Gomes told Americas Quarterly in June. There are some echoes with Mexicos Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, although a lot remains to be seen. Marina Silva has based a large part of her career on environmentalism, so to some degree, she too would present a problem for the oil and gas industry. However, the leftists candidates likely will lack majorities the Congress to radically change Brazils energy laws, so the most likely outcome is a continuation of the status quo, although, like Mexico, perhaps the pace of new auctions could slow. Related: Is This The Riskiest Oil Frontier In The World? All of this is occurring against a backdrop of a poor economy. Brazils real, like other emerging market currencies, has lost a lot of ground this year and the people are fed up. "Whoever wins will preside over a polarized nation, with almost half the electorate viewing the new president negatively The near-term outlook for Latin America's biggest economy isn't great," Cliff Kupchan, chairman of Eurasia Group, said in a research note published Tuesday. At the same time, the international oil industry is eager to expand in Brazil. Equinor recently announced plans to spend up to $15 billion in Brazil over the next 12 years, a figure that includes oil, gas and renewables. The company, formerly Statoil, hopes to ramp up output from 300,000 bpd to 500,000 bpd by 2030. Brazil is a perfect match for Equinor with our operational, technical competence that we have built over decades on the Norwegian continental shelf, said Anders Opedal, Equinors head of operations in the South American country, according to Reuters. Our portfolio in Brazil will have high value, we see very good break-evens, Opedal said. Others, including ExxonMobil and Shell, are rapidly increasing spending in Brazils offshore sector as well. However, they may want to put their enthusiasm on hold and wait and see what happens in the upcoming election. By Nick Cunningham for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Qatar will spend US$11.6 billion (10 billion euro) on investments in Germany that will include participation in the construction of an LNG terminal, the kingdoms ruler, Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said at an investment conference in Germany, as quoted by Reuters. The investment will be made over five years. The emirate, which is the worlds top LNG exporter, has already poured US$29 billion (25 billion euro) in various Germany ventures, including investments in Volkswagen and Deutsche bank. The emir added that the new investment is a sign of Qatars trust in the strength of the German economy and the importance of investing in it. Reports about Qatari interest in building an LNG terminal in Germany emerged earlier this week, when the chief executive of Qatar Petroleum told Germany business daily Handelsblatt during the same investment conference. We have a serious interest in participating in a German LNG terminal and are talking to Uniper and RWE, Saad al-kaabi told Handelsblatt, as related by Reuters. However, a spokeswoman for RWE at the time said the talks with Qatar Petroleum concerned natural gas deliveries rather than any participation in an LNG terminal. Germany is the largest economy and also the largest energy consumer in Europe. It receives its gas by pipeline and recently attracted criticism from President Trump for its overreliance on Russias Gazprom, but there is an LNG terminal project in progress. Aptly named German LNG Terminal, the project is a partnership between two Dutch companiesNederlandse Gasuine and Vopakand German Oiltanking. German LNG Terminal this week signed its first capacity rights contract with RWE after an open season seeking to gauge energy companies interest in the facility that will have a capacity of 5 billion cu m of LNG. Commenting on the Qatari Emirs statement, Chancellor Angela Merkel noted the attractiveness of Germanys energy industry as an investment destination, adding that an LNG terminal will help the country diversify its gas supply sources. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The U.S. Department of Treasury announced sanctions against five Syrian companies and four individuals on allegations of facilitating crude oil shipments and financing to the Assad government, Reuters reports, citing a statement by the department. One of the targets of the sanctions are businessman Muhammad al-Qatirji and a trucking company he owns, that, the Treasury said, facilitated trade in fuels between the Syrian government and Islamic State, even though the government, with the assistance of Russia, is officially fighting this same Islamic State and most of it has been driven out of territories it occupied in Syria previously. According to the Treasury statement, Al-Qatirjis company was also involved in weapons shipments from Iraq to Syria. Another target of the sanctions is a fuel trade network that spans Syria, the UAE, and Lebanon, securing fuel supplies to the war-torn country. One of the companies participating in this network, Abar Petroleum Service SAL, last year took part in the sale of fuels worth US$430 million to the Syrian government. Two other companies in the network, Lebanon-based Nasco Polymers and UAE-based Sonex Investments were designated for facilitating shipments to Syrian ports by serving as consignees and chartering the vessels, the statement also said. The Syrian army is currently preparing for an offensive against Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold controlled by groups involving radical Islamists recognized as terrorist groups by the international community. The offensive once again put Washington at odds with Moscow, since Russian forces began bombing the town ahead of the Syrian offensive despite a warning from President Trump that the offensive could end in tragedy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred to Idlib, to where Russian and Syrian forces earlier in the conflict provided passage for militants from other parts of Syria that government forces took control of, as a pocket of terrorism and a problem that needs to be solved. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: China imported Iranian crude at an average daily rate of 874,000 barrels last month, S&P Global Platts data shows, and, according to the agency, these will start declining now, with the August number representing the peak. Loading data for delivery this month suggests that China imports of Iranian crude will average 581,000 bpd in September. Despite this expected decline, China has said it will continue to do business as usual with Iran, including in oil, despite a promise that Beijing officials made to a U.S. delegation last month that Chinese refiners will not increase their intake of Iranian crude further. In light of the escalating trade war between China and the United States, its anyones guess how willing the Chinese will be to keep this particular promise. As for how Chinese refiners would continue buying crude from Iran without attracting sanctions from the Department of Treasury, one way would be by using tankers owned and insured by the National Iranian Oil Company. Another, less public way would be to accept illegal shipments that Iran has suggested it could resort to under sanctions. Sinopec, Chinas and the worlds largest refiner, is one company that will continue buying Iranian crude despite sanctions because The company's business will be hurt if it has to suspend imports from Iran, S&P Global Platts quoted a Sinopec executive as saying last week. Whats more, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sinopec said "Since we have performance obligations under our Iran-related contracts in 2018, we are contractually required to continue our [purchases]." Sinopec is the biggest Chinese buyer of Iranian crude, utilizing two-thirds of the total. PetroChina is another big buyer, taking in about one-tenth of total Chinese imports from Iran, and it recently boosted its capacity for refining Iranian blends. The third-largest buyer of Iranian crude in China is a trader, Zhuhai Zhenrong, which then sells it on to local refineries. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russias second-largest oil producer Lukoil will spend more than US$1 billion on share buybacks by the end of 2019, as part of its recently announced US$3-billion buyback program, the companys first vice president for finance Alexander Matytsyn said on Friday. The buybacks as part of the program, which Lukoil announced last week, will begin as early as this month, Russian media quoted Matytsyn as saying today. Lukoil has picked Citi to handle the buybacks, the manager added. Last week, Lukoil announced the start of an open market repurchase of the shares and the corresponding depositary receipts for a total amount of up to US$3 billion. The sum is equivalent to 44 million common shares of Lukoil, or 5.2 percent of its share capital, at a closing price of US$68.16 per depositary receipt (representing 1 common share) on August 29, 2018, at the London Stock Exchange. The buyback will run between September 3, 2018, and December 30, 2022, Lukoil said. This is an important step which evidences our commitment to the delivery on our strategic plans, including the capital distribution policy, Lukoils CEO and President Vagit Alekperov said. The higher oil prices and the weakened ruble against the U.S. dollar have helped Russian companies boost profits this year, and now they have started to announce more returns to shareholders. The biggest producer by output and market capitalization, Rosneft, approved last month a share buyback program of up to US$2 billion that will run until December 31, 2020. Earlier this week, Rosneft appointed UBS as an independent agent to conduct the open market share buyback on behalf of the Russian company. In August, Rosneft reported record-high free cash flow and a near three-fold increase in net profit for the second quarter on the back of higher oil prices combined with a weaker Russian ruble, which reduces oil producers expenses. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom has intercepted an Argentinian survey ship that a Navy commander suggested had been snooping for oil on the edge of British territorial waters off the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, The Telegraph reports. HMS Clyde, which was patrolling the waters, saw off on Sunday Argentinas survey ship ARA Puerto Deseado that had switched off her satellite tracker and approached UK territorial waters, the Royal Navy revealed to The Telegraph. The Argentinian ship that had equipment to survey the ocean retreated swiftly after HMS Clyde approached it, in what navy officials and experts called a minor incident near the Falkland Islands that have been a long-standing territorial dispute between the UK and Argentina, who also staged a brief war over the Falklands in 1982. Commander Tom Sharpe, former captain of frigate HMS St Albans, told The Telegraph that the Argentinian ship had probably been snooping for oil. Earlier this decade, the waters off the Falklands were proved to contain a billion barrels of oil, but exploration plans were stalled by the oil price slump. Rockhopper Exploration, which found the oil, believes that the North Falkland Basin could have 1.7 billion barrels of oil in place. Rockhopper and partners are working to reach a final investment decision on the Sea Lion project in the basin toward the end of this year. Gross capital expenditure (capex) for first oil is estimated at US$1.5 billion, with gross annual production planned at 80,000 bpd. Gross project revenue per year at peak production and oil prices at US$65 a barrel is expected at US$1.8 billion. Rockhoppers partner in the Sea Lion project, Premier Oil, said in July this year that a pathfinder bank was appointed to assist with the development of the senior financing structure for the project. Premier Oil continues to focus on securing funding for the project ahead of a final investment decision, it said. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The governor of a southern Yemeni province pumping 100,000 bpdhalf of Yemens total oil productionthreatened on Thursday to suspend oil shipments from the region if the internationally recognized Yemeni government doesnt meet the demands of protesters in Yemens south who have been protesting against government policies as the economic and humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate and the local currency to plunge. Salmeen al-Bahseeni, the governor of the southern Hadramout province, made the threat in a radio-broadcasted speech, after protests in southern Yemen spread. Protesters have been protesting for two weeks against government policies after the Yemeni currency, the rial, has lost more than half of its value against the U.S. dollar since the civil war in Yemen began in 2015. Al-Bahseeni and other local politicians in Yemens south support the protests against the ailing economy and plunging currency. Southern Yemeni separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) control most of the southern provinces, including the Hadramout province, and have been at odds with the president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by Saudi Arabia. Separately, a Saudi Arabia-backed coalition is fighting in the civil war the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who control the capital city Sanaa and frequently claim to have launched attacks on oil facilities of Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia. Yemens oil reserves have been estimated at 3 billion barrels. Even before the start of the civil war, the country wasnt a major oil producer, especially compared to the other countries in the Middle East. Yemens production peaked at 441,000 bpd in 2001, according to EIA estimates. Since then, the natural decline of maturing oil fields and frequent attacks on oil infrastructure led to Yemeni production dropping to less than 150,000 bpd in 2013. The year before the 2015 civil war started, Yemens crude oil production was estimated at around 100,000 bpd in March 2014, EIA data shows. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Canada's armed forces issued orders Friday strictly limiting cannabis use among service members, just a month before the country legalizes the drug. Soldiers will be banned from smoking or otherwise consuming the drug up to eight hours before reporting for duty. The ban on usage will kick in 28 days before any deployment for personnel serving on submarines, planes or helicopters, or for those piloting drones, conducting high-altitude parachute drops or engaging in air traffic control. "Traces of cannabis may remain in the human body for up to 28 days or more following consumption," the defense ministry said in a statement detailing the restrictions. The ban on consuming the drug for eight hours before work at a military base applies both to uniformed and civilian members of the armed forces. Any personnel due to handle weapons or explosives, participating in emergency services or driving military vehicles will be prohibited from consumption up to 24 hours before duty. The statement on the armed forces website also listed signs of cannabis use that service members should look out for among their comrades, including "the smell of cannabis, glassy or red eyes, unusual talkativeness, slow reactions, inattention, lethargy, unsteady gait, poor coordination and anxiety." Canada is set to become the second country in the world to legalize cannabis on October 17, following the example of Uruguay which legalized it in December 2013. The military reminded its members that "cannabis consumption and possession remain illegal in most countries" and warned that service personnel "could be denied entry to these countries as a result of their cannabis consumption or involvement in the legal cannabis industry in Canada." Failure to conform to the rules could lead to administrative or disciplinary measures, the armed force warned. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Besides working as the engineering school's associate dean for undergraduate affairs, Peter Bogucki is a noted archaeologist specializing in Neolithic cultures of northern Europe. His recent book, The Barbarians, received the 2018 Popular Book Award from the Society for American Archaeology. The Barbarians examines the prehistoric cultures of Europe that existed before coming into contact with the Greeks and Romans as well as the societies that remained outside the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Bogucki uses the archaeologist's tools to demonstrate the sophistication of civilizations that are more typically treated as a backdrop for the story of Rome. Despite their skills in art, metalworking and farming, these cultures never developed writing. Because they left no written records, it is up to archaeologists like Bogucki to write their histories. Q. I know the book addresses this, but why did you choose Barbarians as the title? The cultures you describe are sophisticated and complex. A. I originally wanted to call it "Meet the Barbarians" or "The Barbarians Then and Now" but the publisher, Reaktion Books, has it as part of their Lost Civilizations series, so in the end, they said it had to be just "The Barbarians: Lost Civilizations" alongside The Etruscans, The Goths, The Indus, The Persians, and Egypt. We can also blame the Greeks for the use of the word "barbarian," which they used to refer to everyone who didn't speak Greek. Yes, the peoples of the Barbarian World were sophisticated and complex, on a par with the celebrated societies of the Mediterranean except for one big thing: they did not have a written language. Those of us who study ancient Europe often use the word "barbarians" in a certain ironic sense. Yes, violence was endemic and they probably had all sorts of practices that we'd frown upon, but the Greeks and Romans were no angels either. But since the pre-literate societies of Europe north of the Mediterranean are often dismissed as inconsequential, those of us who know otherwise embrace the barbarian identity. And calling the people you study "barbarians" also sounds cooler than "later European prehistory." It's a very broad use of the word "barbarian" since some would prefer that it be reserved for societies that were actually in contact with Greeks and Romans, but I think it makes sense to expand it, since they are part of a much larger geographical milieu and show continuity from previous millennia. Q. A fascinating aspect of the book is the critical role that literacy plays in history's assessment of cultures. It is almost like preliterate cultures cannot speak for themselves so they are overshadowed by the literate contemporaries. Do you feel that archaeologists can give voice to these cultures? A. Absolutely. Without documents written by the peoples themselves, the only way we know about them is through their archaeological remains: how they made things, what they threw away, what they ate, where they settled, the types of buildings they built, how they buried their dead, and all sorts of other information. Now we can tell how they moved around (with strontium isotope ratios) and to whom they were related (with ancient DNA). On the other hand, writing can give us insights about motivation and intent, which isn't really possible to get from the material remains alone. But as I stress in the book, written accounts always have an agenda, whereas people don't throw stuff away with a thought of how it will appear to an archaeologist in several thousand years. One of the best examples of archaeology giving a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves is what we know about the everyday lives of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and antebellum southeastern U.S. who were generally not allowed to learn to read and write. We know that they had to supplement plantation rations through hunting and collecting. We know that they maintained African traditions in the pottery they made. These facts are not known from contemporary accounts written by the literate people in the antebellum South. The same is true of ancient Europe, particularly the people who lived long before the Romans and Greeks as well as those who lived at the same time but far beyond the frontiers of the classical civilizations. Q. How did you first begin studying these barbarian cultures? What most fascinates you about them? A. I originally hoped to be a journalist, but my father encouraged me to take an anthropology course at the University of Pennsylvania. I did, and I was fascinated. Prehistoric archaeology is traditionally a subfield of anthropology in the United States, so as I took more anthropology courses I kept coming back to archaeology. Originally I was drawn to North American archaeology, but during the summer before my junior year at Penn, I went on a summer study program to Krakow, Poland. There was a young woman from Boston participating in the program, and she mentioned that an archaeologist had spoken at her school and she'd found the topic interesting. Seizing the moment, I suggested that we visit the Archaeological Museum in Krakow. There I saw stone tools and other artifacts that were just like in the textbooks. I came back to Penn that fall and began to take courses in European prehistory, and then I went up to Harvard for my Ph.D. And the young woman from Boston and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary this year. The act of unearthing something that was last seen by someone thousands of years ago is probably one of the biggest thrills of archaeology. But that's not all there is to archaeology. The practice of prehistoric archaeology also involves piecing together information from many different sites or applying various analytical techniques to figure out something about how people lived in the past. So we're not interested in the most beautiful artifact, or unique finds. They're interesting, don't get me wrong, but we can't do much with one-of-a-kind things. It's more important to look at patterns over time and space. Archaeology is the only field that can study the human experience over immense spans of time, many centuries or even millennia, going back millions of years. We're less interested in events and more about changes over time and interactions between different groups of people across space. I also personally am drawn by the environmental aspects of archaeology, since we need to know how they used the resources in the world around them, how they adjusted to changes, and how they had an impact on their environment. So it's also a soft way of doing environmental science for me. Q. Are there lessons we can learn from these cultures? Are there lessons we can learn from the relations between the Romans and the barbarians that surrounded them? A. Although the publisher wanted me to bring the barbarian story up into the present, I really stay away from drawing modern analogies to what we see in the Barbarian World and in its interactions with the Greeks and Romans. In Europe, that past is never too far below the surface, and it's often mobilized to make some modern point, often erroneously. For example, the modern preference of the French for wine and the Germans for beer is often attributed to fact that Gaul was part of the Roman Empire and Germania Magna was not. But we know that the barbarians loved wine when they could get it, so this reasoning doesn't hold up. I think that it's crucial to learn about prehistory to understand the totality of the human experience and that it didn't just begin with writing. If people choose to draw modern lessons from it, then that's fine, but they run the risk of making false analogies. Q. What do people tell you they find most surprising about these cultures? What do they seem to find most interesting? A. Everybody seems to focus on something different. For some, it's the way scientific methods like strontium isotope ratios have expanded our understanding of human mobility. For others, it's the exquisite Irish Bronze Age goldwork. Megalithic tombs have their fans. From reader reaction, I'm finding that in the course of their travels many people have visited an important site or monument in barbarian Europe, but they didn't find out about the broader context. And of course counteracting the bias toward the literate classical world in history books comes as a revelation for many who say they had no idea what else was there. Since the story I tell in The Barbarians is really just a highlight reel of the big picture of European prehistory, there's a lot more out there for readers to discover on their own. Explore further Bone trove in Denmark tells story of 'Barbarian' battle The drone sat alongside the silver 'dragon eggs' at the top of the Stromboli volcano in Italy. Credit: University of Bristol The University of Bristol is pioneering the monitoring of volcanic activity by developing a cutting-edge measurement system that can withstand the harsh conditions around the heart of an active volcano. Such extreme, hazardous and unpredictable environments present a very difficult challenge to reliably record volcanic behaviour for analytical models. For some volcanoes it is simply too dangerous for a human approach. To tackle this problem researchers from across the Faculties of Science and Engineering have developed highly specialised sensor pods, called "dragon eggs", that can be positioned in dangerous locations using a drone and provide valuable real-time data of volcanic activity that can be used to inform volcanic hazard assessments. The researchers envisage numerous applications for the technology they are developing, including remote monitoring of other natural phenomenon such as glaciers and geological faults, and man-made hazards, such as nuclear waste storage sites. The "dragon eggs" currently being developed are autonomous and intelligent sensor pods designed to monitor volcanic activity. They are being equipped with a range of state-of-the-art sensors for temperature, humidity, vibrations, and numerous toxic gases. A significant challenge is optimising the design to meet many different criteria. They must, be able to operate in the extreme conditions of a volcano, be light enough to be carried by a drone, and be ultra-efficient in power consumption since maintenance is not an option at the summit of an active volcano! These sensor pods are the result of an intense cross-faculty collaboration and incorporate remarkable new technologies invented and developed at the University of Bristol. Among these, the self-energising event detectors, known as "sensor-driven" detectors, are a vital part of this new device. They allow the eggs to remain dormant for prolonged periods of time, preserving power, until volcanic activity is detected when the dragon egg "hatches" into a full-featured remote monitoring station with a wireless transmitter. Credit: University of Bristol Designed by the Electrical Energy Management and the Digital Health research groups, the event detectors have the lowest stand-by power consumption in the world. They can be activated by pulses as low as 5 picojoules (which is about 100,000 times less than the energy released if a fruit fly collides with you). Therefore, sensor-driven detectors do not require battery power to remain operational, and instead use a fraction of the energy contained in the sensor signals. The eggs are placed on the slope of the volcano and they are designed to hatch when the sensor-driven module detects vibrations caused by volcanic tremors. In the future, the eggs will be engineered to respond to a range of different volcanic stimuli. Thanks to this detection circuit, the eggs can remain in service for many months without depleting their energy resources. These detectors have been licenced to and further developed by tech start-up Sensor Driven Ltd, and have already been field tested in a deployment at Stromboli volcano in Italy, marking the first attempt to use such a technology for monitoring an active volcano. With a powerful wireless transmitter, the dragon eggs can report data to a base station with a satellite uplink at a safe distance of up to 10 km; far away from the dangers of the volcano. The ultra-efficient sensor driven technology is key to maximising the life span of each individual egg. The eggs synergise together as an intelligent low power sensor network with a star topology, which enables the network to continue operation even after several eggs have been engulfed in lava and flames. Dr. Yannick Verbelen, Research Associate in the School of Physics, said: "It is the first time an autonomous system using zero-power listening technology has been deployed in this kind of hostile environment. We are pushing the limits of the sensor driven low-power monitoring in this application, but that's what research is all about." Credit: University of Bristol Due to the extreme conditions near the volcanic vents, the "dragon eggs" are designed to be deployed by flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Using a lightweight yet fast drop-off mechanism, a small drone with high agility can be used for the deployment missions, minimising the time spent by the UAV in the danger zone and limiting its exposure to highly corrosive volcanic gases. Dr. Kieran Wood, Senior Research Associate and UAV specialist in Aerospace Engineering, explained: "This is an exemplary application for using UAVs (drones). Approaching volcanoes is hazardous and logistically challenging. UAVs can efficiently place sensors at long-range to minimise risk and improve the efficiency of data collection". This pioneering research is being been funded through two complimentary UK Research and Innovation grants: ASPIRE, aimed at developing low powered sensors for extreme environments, and the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) aimed at developing advanced robotics and artificial intelligence technologies for nuclear industry applications. Recently, the project has also received support from the Cabot Institute Innovation Fund. Lead at Bristol for both grants, Professor Tom Scott, said: "Combining the cross-disciplinary expertise and technologies from several complimentary grants working together has allowed us to achieve something truly game-changing. Such an approach has enabled us to deliver results on a much shorter timeline and smaller budget than would usually be possible." Record set by Brazilian researchers can help make quantum computing feasible. Articles highlighted in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review A. Credit: Marcelo Martinelli (IFUSP) Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961), one of the giants of contemporary science, considered entanglement the most interesting property in quantum mechanics. In his view, it was this phenomenon that truly distinguished the quantum world from the classical world. Entanglement occurs when groups of particles or waves are created or interact in such a way that the quantum state of each particle or wave cannot be described independently of the others, however far apart they are. Experiments performed at the University of Sao Paulo's Physics Institute (IF-USP) in Brazil have succeeded in entangling six light waves generated by a simple laser light source known as an optical parametric oscillator. Articles about these experiments have been published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review A . The experiments are highlighted in a special news feature posted online. "Our platform is capable of generating a massive entanglement of many optical modes with different but well-defined frequencies, as if connecting the nodes of a large network. The quantum states thus produced can be controlled by a single parameter: the power of the external laser that pumps the system," said Marcelo Martinelli, one of the coordinators of the experiments. Martinelli is a professor at IF-USP and the principal investigator for the project. "Entanglement is a property that involves quantum correlations between distinct systems," Martinelli said. "These correlations are a major asset that can make quantum computers superior to traditional electronic computers in performing tasks such as simulations or prime number factoring, a critical operation for data security in today's world. For this reason, the creation of systems with multiple entangled components is an important challenge in implementing the ideas of quantum information theory." Faster processing In previous research, the IF-USP team entangled two and three modes with the optical parametric oscillator. Their latest experiments have doubled the space available for information to be encoded. This idea is easier to understand through an analogy. The classical bit is a two-state system that can be in only one state at any given timeeither zero or one. This is the basis of binary logic. The qubit (quantum bit) can represent a one, a zero or any quantum superposition of these two states, so it can encode more information than a classical bit. Entanglement corresponds to the nonlocal correlation of several qubits. Nonlocality is an intrinsic characteristic of nature and one of the key differences between quantum physics and classical physics, which recognizes only local correlations. Martinelli explained how this general principle is demonstrated in the experiments. "A laser supplies all the energy for the process. The light beam produced by this laser hits a crystal and generates two other fields, which maintain the characteristics of the laser: intense monochrome light with well-defined frequencies. The system therefore now consists of three intense fields. Each intense field couples a pair of extremely weak fields, so that the six fields are coupled to the main field. The correlations between them are stronger than the correlations that are feasible if independent lasers are used." The device that generates the entangled statesthe optical parametric oscillatorconsists of a small crystal between two mirrors. The crystal is 1 cm long, and the distance between the mirrors is less than 5 cm. However, because cooling is a necessary condition for the process, the crystal and mirrors are placed inside an aluminum box in a vacuum to avoid condensation and to prevent the system from freezing. The information that can be encoded by a single wave is limited by the uncertainty principle. In this case, the wave amplitude and phase behave as analogues of particle position and velocity, the variables considered by Werner Heisenberg (1901-76) in formulating the principle. "With entanglement, part of the information in each particular wave is lost, but the global information in the system is preserved, in a shared form," Martinelli said. "Sharing means that when we observe a single wave, we're informed about the other five at the same time. Each beam goes to a detector, and this distribution of the information into independent units boosts the processing speed." The six waves comprise a set. When information is obtained from one wave, information is obtained on the entire system. When one is changed, the entire system is changed. Explore further Tracking down the mystery of entangled particles of light There was a time when a major seductive force was American Brahmin values aka WASPville. There may or may not have been great wealth attached to that WASP ethos. And the power involved might have been minor. But to so many in immigrant America that was the model to be associated with, imitated, and socialize the next generation to become. Yeah, send the kid to Harvard or Smith to learn how to talk Lockjaw. That was then. Currently, the pull force is the extreme power of, yes, a U.S. president. To use the cliche: It was a like a moth attracted to the flame. And so many who had made it professionally in their own right went for it. They became employees, consultants, and allies of the Trump Administration. Then darkness fell so quickly. Don McGahn, Michael Cohen, Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, et al. are broken brands. So damaged are they that they might never recover, even in this nation of second, third, and fourth chances. For example. McGahn, the top White House lawyer, is exiting in the fall. The debate in the legal media is if he will ask for his old job back at law firm Jones Day and if Jones Day will say yes or no. Ironically, back on April 25, 2017, Joe Patrice at Abovethelaw.com trashed Jones Day for touting its White House access. Not only was McGahn inside. So were more than 10 other former Jones Day lawyers. Here is that now-iconic Patrice article. How badly the Jones Day brand can be hurt by the ongoing troubles of the Trump Administration no one knows, of course. Its leadership could also have become seduced by power. Of course, as with Watergate, more than branding will be damaged. Some of those in the loop will go to prison. A few of those who do go to prison can leverage that experience, as did Nixon lawyer Chuck Colson, for The Next. But most will have no career to return to. Will any lessons be learned? Probably not. How many human beings are secure enough to not chase after what society tells them will make them not only whole? But better-than? Attention is the currency of the 21st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission. Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com A military robot deployed with NATO troops in Latvia is inspected by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in July 2018. The Pentagon's research wing said Friday it was investing $2 billion to develop a new generation of artificial intelligence with "human-like communication" skills. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will use the money to fund around 20 existing projects over the next five years and launch new ones over the next 12 months seeking a higher level of machine learning, the agency's director Steven Walker told reporters near Washington. "We are making multiple research investments aimed at transforming computers from specialized tools to partners in problem-solving," said Walker, referring to the new generation of machines as "AI Next." "We want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them," he said in a statement. The current generation of smart machines and robots cannot be easily updated when new technology appears, and researchers want them to learn to update themselves, he said. The new smart machines will be designed to help speed up security clearance vetting or accelerated accreditation of software systems, the agency said. Most of DARPA's research, which is entirely funded by the Pentagon, is focused on technologies that can be used in combat, such as drones that are becoming ever more autonomous. Another use could be DARPA's Blackjack project, which aims to develop a constellation of low-orbit satellites that will communicate with one another and can continuously cover military operations. "We will be looking at, under that program, to help satellites be able to communicate and develop a corporate behavior," Walker said. 2018 AFP The majority of refugees have access to smartphones. Credit: Tur a Tur Digital Factory, 2017, Author provided Waves of asylum seekers emerging from conflict zones in Myanmar, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere are expected to add more than one million people to global resettlement needs this year. These refugees face a world of closing doors, but they also offer economic opportunities and cultural enrichment to countries that welcome them. While some refugees are integrating well in regional Australia, others still face significant challenges in the capital cities. As concerned researchers, we are interested in how information technologies could help refugees resettle. Our work with organisations assisting refugees has shown that having access to timely information about Australian life is essential. We're in the early stages of building an ecosystem of digital services that aggregates and delivers this kind of information to refugees and to the organisations involved in supporting, employing, educating and caring for them. To guide our work, and avoid reinventing the wheel, we've looked at comparable experiences in Germany, which has a high intake of refugees. Information chaos In Germany, there are a number of national and international agencies that provide assistance for refugees, each with regulations and responsibilities that differ from region to region. Accessing basic services, such as the internet, money transfer, health care and schooling, presents a new challenge to already traumatised people. The information refugees need is distributed among asylum counsellors, social assistance offices, youth welfare offices, local non-government organisations, volunteers and more. In some cases, this information is quickly outdated. Getting access to the right information in a timely manner is difficult given the multitude of information sources, language barriers and geographical complications. This situation encourages new refugees to seek information from those who have arrived earlier, leading to the spread of outdated or misinterpreted information. Credit: Shelley Hepworth. Source: BAMF Going mobile One difference between this refugee crisis compared to earlier ones is the ubiquity of information technology. Because the overwhelming majority of refugees have access to smartphones, a number of mobile initiatives have emerged to provide support. Hackathon volunteers in Germany built a mobile guide for refugees called Moin, as well as a tool that helps refugees with administrative processes called bureaucrazy. Unfortunately, these apps required volunteers to keep the information up to date, which was challenging over an extended period. Still, some initiatives have produced sustainable outcomes by eliminating the need for third-party updates. Instead, these apps allow information providers to update information themselves. For example, the Integreat project is a mobile application for refugees living in a particular German municipality. It provides information on the asylum process, local points of contact and aspects of daily life. The municipality and local NGOs maintain Integreat's information through a content management system accessible via web browsers. The platform's design means it can easily be extended to other municipalities, which can mirror existing content and reuse translations into different languages. This further reduces the effort required to gather and maintain relevant information, providing a helpful addition to asylum programs. Housing and employment matchmaking While applications such as Integreat can help refugees during their first few months in the host country, things get more complicated when refugees try to relocate to permanent housing. Information chaos faced by refugees. Credit: Schreieck et al. 2017 p.626, Author provided In Germany, language barriers, high demand for apartments among locals and resistance from some property owners who don't want to rent to refugees has made finding accommodation a significant problem. Some German municipalities invested a substantial effort to house refugees by contacting landlords directly. In some cases property owners would like to support refugees, but they do not know how to approach them. A digital platform that connects property owners and refugees, such as the Berlin-based digital platform Fluchtlinge-Willkommen (Refugees Welcome), could help alleviate such problems. Similar matchmaking services have been built to match German employers who have difficulty finding qualified employees with refugees who are looking for work.Workeer is available in Germany, and refugeetalent is a similar initiative operating in Australia. But matchmaking is only one side of the story. German and Australian labour regulations limit the options for refugees, who might not be legally eligible to work straight away or hold qualifications that aren't recognised in their new homeland. So digital platforms should also offer information for employers and refugees on labour regulations, vocational training and how to transfer qualifications. What else can be done? Everyone can help contribute to refugee resettlement solutions. Our work suggests the following actions would be helpful: governments should allocate more funding for IT projects that support the resettlement of refugees researchers, organisations and volunteers should collaborate to create an ecosystem of digital services that connect and improve current solutions information systems researchers should evaluate the impact of proposed solutions. The benefits of new technologies such as blockchain or machine learning, for example, could be evaluated with little risk universities should engage with nonprofit refugee organisations to create opportunities for refugees who want to further their studies or skills companies particularly those in the IT industry should engage in IT projects that support refugees, such as the Handbook Germany, which was initiated by German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. We take inspiration from stories like what happened in Eltham. In this Melbourne suburb, residents welcomed the arrival of Syrian refugees and supported them in settling into a different culture, getting a job and learning English. In doing so, Eltham's residents created a positive experience for both the refugees and the Eltham community. There is room for hope in our humanitarian responses and we believe we can and should do more. Explore further Support for refugees increases when refugees participate in integration programs This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. With moving target defense, uncertainty is increased and confuses the adversary, who has to expend more resources, such as time and/or computational power, to discover vulnerabilities of a target system. Credit: U.S. Army A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea have taken a step toward the development of moving target defense techniques in software-defined networks. This is a demanding cybersecurity research topic, scientists said. This collaboration grew out of efforts of ARL researchers Dr. Jin-Hee Cho (now at Virginia Tech in the Department of Computer Science), Dr. Terrence J. Moore and Dr. Frederica Nelson reaching out to researchers in Asia Pacific regions through the international collaborative program administrated by the U.S. Army International Technology Center-Pacific. Cyberattacks on computer systems are becoming more common. Any company with information on a computer system connected to the internet might become a victim from someone or some group who wants to steal or destroy the company's data for their own use, or for ransom. This is possible because of the way the Internet is set up, researchers said. In order to access content on a website, a computer needs to know where to ask for the information. Websites have an address, what is known as an internet protocol, or IP, address; however, these are not just used for websites. Every computer connected to the internet has an IP address. Cyber attackers have time to discover the IP addresses of the computers they think might have valuable information and attack them using code that is more commonly known as computer viruses or worms. If the computer or system being attacked has a security system, such as a firewall or anti-virus software, it might be able to recognize some code as being bad and prevent itself from being infected. What cyber attackers do is slightly modify their bad code so it is not recognized until the computer's security system is updated or patched. Essentially, the typical defensive response to these attacks is passive, the researchers said. The attackers have time to prepare, plan and execute their attacks, whereas the potential victims are left reacting only after an intruder breaks into a computer system. Recently, a new proactive type of defense is being considered to protect important information in computer systems. This approach is known as moving target defense, or MTD. "The concept of MTD has been introduced with the aim of increasing the adversary's confusion or uncertainty by dynamically changing the attack surface, which consists of the reachable and exploitable vulnerabilities," Cho said. "MTD can lead to making the adversary's intelligence gained from previous monitoring no longer useful and accordingly results in poor attack decisions." The basic idea as it applies to IP addresses on computer networks is this: Change the IP address of the computer frequently enough so the attacker loses sight of where his victim is; however, this can be expensive, so the approach taken by the researchers in the collaboration here uses something known as software-defined networking. This lets computers keep their real IP addresses fixed, but masks them from the rest of the internet with virtual IP addresses that are frequently changing. Moore added that as the adage suggests, it is harder to hit a moving target. "MTD increases uncertainty and confuses the adversary, as time is no longer an advantage," Moore said. "The adversary has to expend more resources, such as time and/or computational power, to discover vulnerabilities of a target system, but will experience more difficulty in exploiting any vulnerabilities found in the past since their location or accessibility is constantly changing." According to Professor Hyuk Lim at GIST in the Republic of Korea, this proactive defense approach provides defense services before attackers get into a target system. "Taking actions proactively requires extra overhead to add another layer of defense strength," Kim said. "Hence, deploying the proactive defense and security mechanisms is not for free, but brings a cost because the system needs to constantly change the attack surface such as IP addresses. This cost can be mitigated to some extent by leveraging the technology called 'Software-Defined Networking'. The SDN technology provides highly efficient programmatic and dynamic management of the network policy by removing the network control from individual devices in a network to a centralized controller. The network configuration can be defined by the SDN controller, enabling more reliable and responsive network operations under variable conditions." Nelson explained the reason why these SDN-based MTD techniques are critical to supporting the vision of the Army and warfighters. "The key technology of SDN-based MTD techniques, under development by the research team, is highly relevant to support the warfighters' mission execution by proactively thwarting potential attacks, which can protect the defense system so that the warfighters can properly execute the mission in the presence of highly dynamic, hostile and innovative adversaries within contested tactical environments," Nelson said. The UC team in New Zealand led the effort of developing the MTD technology called the Flexible Random Virtual IP Multiplexing, namely FRVM. "In FRVM, while the real IP address of a server-host remains unchanged but stays hidden, a virtual IP address of the server-host keeps being randomly and periodically changed where the IP mapping/remapping (i.e., called multiplexing/demultiplexing) is performed by an SDN controller," said Dilli P. Sharma, a doctoral student in Prof. DongSeong Kim's cybersecurity research group at UC, New Zealand. "This effectively forces the adversary to play the equivalent of an honest shell game. However, instead of guessing among three shells (IP addresses) to find a pea (a running network service), the adversary must guess among 65,536 shells, given address space2^16. This MTD protocol is novel because it provides high flexibility to have multiple, random, time-variant IP addresses in a host, which implies the adversary will require more time to discover an IP address of the target host." In this research, the team formulated the architecture and communication protocols for the proposed IP (de)multiplexing-based MTD to be applied in SDN environments. The team also validated the effectiveness of the FRVM under various degrees of scanning attacks in terms of the attack success probability. The preliminary results evaluating the FRVM were presented at the 17th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, or TrustCom'18, held in New York in August. "Our next step is to study the trade-off in the FRVM between the dual conflicting goals of system security and performance, as proactive defense may introduce adverse effects when running MTD techniques while achieving enhanced security," Kim said. Explore further Cybersecurity experts begin investigation on self-adapting computer network that defends itself against hackers Empty Ryanair check-in counters at Skavsta Airport in Sweden on August 10, 2018 Ryanair performed a U-turn Friday, saying it no longer planned to transfer jobs and planes to Poland after a deal with pilots, but nonetheless faced a fresh pan-European strike. In a joint statement Friday, unions across Europe threatened "the biggest strike action the company has ever seen" over their members' working conditions. The strike, so far organised by unions in Belgium, Holland, Italy and Spain, is scheduled for the last week in September, with an exact date due by Thursday. However the walk-out could be called off should a meeting of Ryanair shareholders on September 20 meet union demands, the statement added following a meeting in Rome. Separately Friday, Ryanair said it had decided "to restore six Dublin-based aircraft which were due to transfer to Poland in November". It added: "The related protective notices issued to 300 Dublin pilots and cabin crew in July have also been withdrawn." In July, Ryanair issued 90 days' notice to more than 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew under plans to cut its Dublin fleet from 30 to around 24 aircraft for the forthcoming northern hemisphere winter. Ryanair had blamed the move on a downturn in bookings and plane ticket prices in Ireland, partly owing to strikes by Ireland-based pilots. Since then, the pilots have voted to accept an agreement on improved working conditions. Ryanair last month faced a coordinated 24-hour strike by pilots, causing the cancellation of hundreds of flights across Europe, affecting thousands of passengers. While the carrier is for the first time recognising unions across Europe that represent its pilots and cabin crew, staff are unhappy that improvements have yet to be made on pay and other conditions. From Rome, the joint union statement said that "after a long summer of talks, meaningless meetings and an escalation of an industrial dispute that ended up in the first pan-European strike action in the history of Ryanair", unions had no choice but to hold the September walk-out. But a final decision on staging the biggest strike yet would hinge on the outcome of the September 20 meeting of shareholders, it said. Explore further Ryanair recognises cabin crew union in Ireland 2018 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain As the UK prepares to leave the EU, there are signs that some government ministers would be willing to sacrifice food standards to win trade agreements with non-EU states such as the USA. A new report by food policy experts shows that if the UK's food standards were weakened in exchange, for example, for lower tariffs on steel, one effect will be that beef from cattle given growth-boosting hormones could enter the UK food supply. If the standards were lowered, the meat will not be labelled to say how it had been produced. Meanwhile, hormone-produced beef would remain unlawful in the EU, on sound scientific grounds. It might even provoke a boycott of beef in and from the UK. The report co-authored by professors at the University of Sussex and City, University of London warns that legalising hormone-reared beef would introduce an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to public health. "Hormone-treated beef: Should Britain accept it after Brexit?" by Professors Erik Millstone and Tim Lang is published today by the Food Research Collaboration. The authors call on ministers to ensure that food safety standards in the UK will never be weakened, especially not as a bargaining chip in trade talks. The authors also urge UK farmers, supermarkets and butchers to make explicit commitments to consumers never to produce or sell hormone-treated beef. Erik Millstone, professor of science policy at the University of Sussex, said: "The idea that, once the UK leaves the EU, it will become a rule-maker, not a rule-taker, is illusory. Exporting to other countries requires accepting their standards. The choice is: Which rules to takethe EU's, the USA's or the World Trade Organisation's? If UK products don't match their standards, they won't buy them.Trade requires shared rules and minimum standards. Food standards in the EU are far higher than those in the USA, and US standards are far higher than WTO standards. The UK should at least stick to EU; the only changes allowed should be to make food safer, never less safe." Hormone use is permitted in cattle rearing by US, Canadian, Mexican and Australian authorities but beef from hormone-treated cattle has been banned in the EU since the mid-1980s. Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City, University of London, said: "The UK Government should ensure either that food standards remain fully aligned with EU standards, or that we adopt higher standards. There is a triple risk here: to health, to British beef farmers' livelihoods, and to the UK's ability to determine its own food safety standards. Hormone use is a test case for whether the UK seeks a more sustainable food supply. Hormone use would be a stupid step towards intensive beef feeding lots." The report warns that Public Health England, the Food Standards Agency and Environment Agency, whose role is to protect standards, will require a significant increase in funding to cope, something which no minister has committed to so far. A weakened state infrastructure is about to negotiate with much more powerful trading forces. The authors make the following recommendations: The UK Government should ensure either that food standards remain fully aligned with EU standards, or that higher standards are adopted. Food standards should not be sacrificed to facilitate trade in undesirable and/or unsafe products. The Government should explicitly acknowledge that any weakening of UK food standards, such as permitting the sale of hormone-reared beef, will result in barriers to UK food companies wishing to export their products to the EU's Single Market. The UK consumer movement should strongly resist moves to weaken current levels of consumer protection as part of future trade deals. UK food and farming industries should publicly commit themselves to producing and selling only beef from cattle never treated with synthetic hormones. Explore further Brexit food security risks assessed in new report More information: Hormone-treated beef: Should Britain accept it after Brexit? Hormone-treated beef: Should Britain accept it after Brexit? foodresearch.org.uk/publicatio ept-it-after-brexit/ Materials used(a), SEM-image (c) and application (b). Credit: ITMO University An international research group has improved perovskite solar cell efficiency by using materials with better light absorption properties. For the first time, the researchers used silicon nanoparticles. Such nanoparticles can trap light of a broad range of wavelengths near the cell active layer. The particles themselves don't absorb light and don't interact with other elements of the battery, thus maintaining its stability. The research was published in Advanced Optical Materials. Perovskite solar cells have become very popular over the last few years. This hybrid material allows scientists to create inexpensive, efficient, and easy-to-use solar cells. The only problem is that the thickness of a perovskite layer should not exceed several hundred nanometers, but at the same time, thin perovskite absorbs fewer incident photons. For this reason, scientists had to find a way to enhance light-harvesting properties of the absorbing perovskite layer without increasing its thickness. To do this, the scientists used metal nanoparticles. Such particles allow for better light absorption due to surface plasmon excitation, but have significant drawbacks. For example, they absorb some energy themselves, thus heating up and damaging the battery. Scientists from ITMO University, in collaboration with colleagues from St. Petersburg State University, Italy and the U.S., proposed using silicon nanoparticles to solve these problems. "Dielectric particles don't absorb light, so they don't heat up. They are chemically inert and don't affect the stability of the battery. Besides, being highly resonant, such particles can absorb more light of a wide range of wavelengths. Due to special layout characteristics, they don't damage the structure of the cells. These advantages allowed us to enhance cells efficiency up to almost 19 percent. So far, this is the best known result for this particular perovskite material with incorporated nanoparticles," says Aleksandra Furasova, a postgraduate student at ITMO's Faculty of Physics and Engineering. According to the scientists, this is the first research on using silicon nanoparticles for enhancing light harvesting properties of the absorbing upper layer. Silicon nanoparticles have already surpassed plasmonic ones. The scientists hope that a deeper study of the interaction between nanoparticles and light, as well as their application in perovskite solar cells will lead to even better results. "In our research, we used MAPbI3 perovskite, which allowed us to study in detail how resonant silicon nanoparticles affect perovskites solar cells. Now we can further try to use such particles for other types of perovskites with increased efficiency and stability. Apart from that, the nanoparticles themselves can be modified in order to enhance their optical and transport properties. It is important to note that silicon nanoparticles are very inexpensive and easy to produce. Therefore, this method can be easily incorporated in the process of solar cells production," commented Sergey Makarov, head of ITMO's Laboratory of Hybrid Nanophotonics and Optoelectronics. Explore further Researchers invent light-emitting nanoantennas More information: Aleksandra Furasova et al, Resonant Silicon Nanoparticles for Enhanced Light Harvesting in Halide Perovskite Solar Cells, Advanced Optical Materials (2018). Journal information: Advanced Optical Materials Aleksandra Furasova et al, Resonant Silicon Nanoparticles for Enhanced Light Harvesting in Halide Perovskite Solar Cells,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/adom.201800576 An Army scientist recently won a best paper award at the Association for Computing Machinery's 26th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization for discovering that most people cannot distinguish between liking a user interface and making good choices. Dr. James Schaffer, U.S. Army Research Laboratory scientist stationed at ARL West, and his collaborators at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Drs. John O'Donovan and Tobias Hollerer, received the best paper award at the conference held in July at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. So, does technology really enhance our decision-making ability? The paper, "Separating User Experience from Choice Satisfaction," addresses this question and furthers the theory that underpins the evaluation of recommender systems, which are designed to help users make good choices. Simply put, recommender systems are artificially intelligent algorithms that use big data to suggest additional products to consumers based off of things such as past purchases, demographic information or search history, for example. Think of the "people you may know" feature that exists on many of today's social media platforms. In recommender systems, it has been assumed that users form very complex mental models of user interfaces. This is reflected in current user experience measurements, which elicit subjective responses on a wide range of system features. However, ARL's new results contradict this assumption and even demonstrate that a person's subjective satisfaction with their decisions are all strongly influenced by their cognitive state and traits. "User experience and choice satisfaction can easily be conflated when good system design creates positive feelings about an experience, artificially leading participants to think good decisions have been made," Schaffer said. "This can lead to false positive situations, where researchers may assume good decisions are being made due to a system's appearance or ease of use." The authors drew from historic work on the cognition of happiness to generate a measurement strategy that can better account for this conflation. The Army continues to push for increased modernization of its forces, with notable efforts including the Android Tactical Assault Kit and allocating funding towards researching new AI and machine learning methods to assist command and control personnel. Recommender systems and other forms of AI are expected to play a key role in battlefield decision making, but academic and corporate approaches to designing such systems often fail when transitioned onto the battlefield due to the increased cost of failure. "The current state of the art in recommender systems likely would have led the U.S. Army's modernization in the wrong direction, and the results from the paper are a warning against any type of subjective evaluation being done at, for instance, military exercises," Schaffer said. Schaffer's research helps form the basis for evaluation strategies that can help the Army distinguish between technology that boosts performance and technology that simply has a wow factor. In fact, this research indicates we should see the opposite: frustration on the part of the decision makers likely means something is being accomplished. Schaffer expressed his satisfaction with the award and believes it shows the promise of the Open Campus initiative. "This research idea only matured due to chatting with an ARL scientist from the Human Research and Engineering Directorate, Dr. Benjamin Files, which I think really highlights the benefit of ARL's Open Campus initiative," Schaffer said. "This paper was also only possible due to a collaboration with UCSB, which shows good things happen when ARL collaborates with outside universities. I probably would not have had the discussion that highlighted the feasibility of this idea in a different environment." Credit: FATIMA EU-funded researchers have developed new mapping tools and services to help farmers better manage the application of nutrients and water to their fields and promote sustainable agriculture. Intensive crop production helps provide a secure supply of affordable food, but this consumes vast amounts of water and pollutes the soil. More sustainable crop management and production methods are urgently needed to continue feeding a growing population without compromising the environment or public health. Sustainable agriculture means optimising the yield and income of farms with a minimum of inputs like irrigation water, nutrients, energy, pesticides and herbicides. The FATIMA project addressed these challenges by developing operational large-scale precision farming tools and creating a dedicated stakeholder community. Precision farming for greater efficiency Researchers worked with farmers, managers and decision makers in the agribusiness sector, developing a series of maps ranging from the farm to river-basin scale. The project developed precision farming tools using Earth Observation data and wireless sensor networks tailored to local needs and deployed them on the ground. "We created high-resolution maps for determining nutrient and water requirements, so farmers can fine-tune the amount of inputs they actually need to avoid over-fertilisation and save water," says project coordinator Prof. Alfonso Calera. In arid La Mancha, Spain, for example, partners focused on ensuring efficient water and fertiliser use, while in Marchfeld, Austria a key concern was water quality problems due to intensive agriculture. Thessaly in Greece has been declared a vulnerable region due to groundwater nitrate pollution. An online geographical information system (or webGIS) provides stakeholders with access to the online tools. Comprehensive guides for crop monitoring, management zoning and nitrogen balance can also be downloaded. "The FATIMA webGIS is a platform with a dedicated app, AgriSat, for mobile phone, where SMEs can reach potential customers with new mapping tools, and farmers can find solutions tailored to their needs," explains Prof. Calera. A further interesting development is the farm-level cost benefit analysis, a complementary tool that helps farmers decide which technology to adopt or service to buy. The tool enables farmers to assess farm profitability on the one hand, and the economic feasibility of a specific FATIMA service on the other. New technologies adopted The developed multisensor constellation built by the COPERNICUS satellites Sentinel 2a and 2B, complementary with Landsat 8, offers a unique tool for providing 'intelligence' for implementing operational Variable Rate Fertilization. Its main characteristics include high temporal repetitiveness, which makes it possible to follow the vegetation during the critical stage revealing the soil/water/nitrogen interactions. In addition, its high spatial resolution (10 m) is adapted to the spatialised application scale of fertilisers and it has an interesting spectral content for the characterisation of the nitrogenous status of plants. FATIMA also explored farmers' preferences and willingness to adopt new mapping technologies in the short-term, as well new production methods over the longer term. According to Prof. Calera: "We conducted surveys and focus groups on seven pilot areas and analysed results relating to both short-term and long-term strategies." This led to the identification of specific conditions deemed essential for FATIMA services to flourish following project completion. "These include successfully demonstrating and validating tools by core users, achieving a critical mass of committed users as well as recognition and support by policy and decision makers," claims Prof. Calera. Ultimately, precision agriculture optimising input management according to nutrient and water requirements as championed by FATIMA is just the first step towards more sustainable agriculture. "In the long term, changes in agricultural practices such as crop rotation, conservation agriculture and transformation to more sustainable production systems are also required," Prof. Calera points out. Explore further How Africa can up its game on water management for agriculture Getting more out of lazy land, such as this community housing built over a Port Phillip City Council-owned car park, is a key strategy to reduce the shortage of affordable housing. Credit: City of Port Phillip Greater Melbourne officially became home to 5 million people last month that's almost 90% of the state's population. With these figures in mind, the state government is taking important steps to address the growing affordable housing crisis. According to the amended Planning and Environment Act 1987, affordable housing is "housing, including social housing, that is appropriate for the housing needs of very low, low and moderate-income households". And Victoria faces a dire shortage. Since the launch in February 2017 of Plan Melbourne, the metropolitan planning strategy, and Homes for Victorians, the affordable housing strategy, the Planning Act has included affordable housing as a crucial aim. This allows voluntary agreements with developers to provide 5-10% of new dwellings that will be affordable to households on very low, low and moderate incomes. An inclusionary zoning pilot on government land will result in "at least" 100 affordable housing units. The private development-led Public Housing Renewal Program will result in "at least" another 1,100 units. But, given the scale of the problem, how much difference will this make? To make a real difference to housing stress and the risk of homelessness, Plan Melbourne's commitment to using vacant or under-utilised government land needs to be scaled up and refocused. Our new report provides details on where, why and how government land could be used to boost affordable housing. We mapped 195 hectares of government-owned land across 255 sites (see map below). This map shows Victoria has the opportunity to gain much more social benefit from its public land assets. Getting more out of lazy land, such as this community housing built over a Port Phillip City Council-owned car park, is a key strategy to reduce the shortage of affordable housing. Credit: City of Port Phillip How big is the affordable housing shortfall? When the state government strategies were released, we argued that the affordable housing strategy's modest goal of 4,700 dwellings between 2017 and 2022 is a drop in the bucket. According to our report, Victoria faces a deficit of roughly 164,000 affordable homes for very low and low-income households and that's before accounting for population growth of over 2% a year. To highlight the sheer scale of the issue, we have compared the number of very low and low-income households with the availability of affordable units. Well-located unused and lazy land If we look at Vancouver in Canada, the city's 2017 Housing Strategy aims for the equivalent of 300,000 dwellings for lower-income households by 2027. An essential part of this strategy is using all suitable and well-located vacant and under-utilised government land. Map of well-located government land (based on HART scores) for social and affordable housing. Author provided In April 2018, Vancouver also committed to provide 600 units of modular supportive housing for homeless people on vacant government land. By August, half of these units were complete or being built. To identify such land in Melbourne, we started with a dataset of over 12,000 government-owned properties identified through title searches and Freedom of Information Act requests. We limited our search to government sites that were surplus, vacant or "lazy" "lazy" land already houses low-rise facilities like community centres, health clinics, libraries, government offices, car parks and childcare centres but is also compatible with accommodating affordable housing. We excluded parkland and green space. We then limited our search to sites that scored highly on our Housing Access Rating Tool (HART). This is a 20-point tool that measures critical amenities and social services within walking distance of each parcel of land. HART takes its inspiration from the 20-minute city concept in Plan Melbourne. We included public transport, childcare centres, public schools, parks, libraries, grocery stores, community centres and healthcare services. Making the most of scarce land It will come as no surprise that land costs are highest in the city centre and inner suburbs where existing transport and services are strongest. This makes it difficult for non-profits to develop social housing in these rapidly gentrifying areas. In fact, Australian research suggests land costs can consume up to 30% of the cost of development. Government can lease its land to non-profits for a nominal fee to eliminate this cost for housing providers. Construction and building permit exemptions, expedited planning permits, low-rate construction loans and mortgages as well as ongoing Commonwealth Rent Assistance subsidies attached to projects can all help to reduce affordable housing costs. Cause We Care House in Vancouver is an example of creative use of "lazy" public land. There's a library on the first floor, which is topped by five floors of housing for women escaping domestic violence. Through a combination of local government land, senior government subsidy and philanthropic donations, 21 mothers and their children have found stable and secure housing as a result of the project. We are working with the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation and the City of Darebin on an Affordable Housing Challenge to build philanthropically funded social housing on a local government car park close to Preston Market. The City of Port Phillip has already successfully trialled this kind of housing that sits above car parks. Non-profit housing providers, architects and builders have the expertise and experience to rapidly scale up affordable housing in fast-growing cities like Melbourne. So, what are we waiting for? Explore further How to beat the housing affordability crisis This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: South Ural State University Presently, more than 400 applications have been submitted via glosic-ru.susu.ru website from those willing to share their experience and learn the latest digital industry news. The focus of the Conference is on the following digital industry areas: Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Industry 4.0 Management; Human-machine Interaction in Industrial Systems; Security and Privacy Protection in Industrial Networks; Additive Manufacturing Technology; Cloud and High-performance Computing for Smart Factory; Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks; Sensors and Their Components; Virtual and Augmented Realities for Industry 4.0; Digital Twins Technology. "The Conference will emphasize the necessity of both fundamental and applied research," notes Vice-Rector for Informatization, D.Sc. (Physics and Mathematics), Prof. Leonid Sokolinsky. "The industry needs ideas that can easily be put into practice. Fundamental science should be oriented at implementation of important and useful tasks: this is a modern trend in the world science. Taking into account specificity of our region, as well as of our university which cooperates with the largest industrial corporations, we pay special attention to fundamental science. Without it, application of machine learning and artificial intelligence would become impossible for controlling production and solving many other important problems. Russia hasn't seen a Conference on digital industry of such scope yet. This is an important event not only for Russian science, but for global science as well." The Conference will bring together the leading scientists from Russia, USA, China, Germany, Italy, India, Poland, and other countries. Moreover, the event will be featuring representatives of the largest industrial companies, including Emerson, SMS group, etc. Program Committee of the Conference includes representatives of the leading foreign companies and universities: Manus Patrick Henry (University of Oxford, United Kingdom), Philippe Bertrand (National Engineering School of Saint-Etienne, France), Pino Teze (Vice President of Technical Services Division of the SMS Group Holding Company), and others. "Today, a big number of Ural enterprises push on to a new level of industry by actively introducing the technology of Industry 4.0," emphasizes Director of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Candidate of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics), Associate Professor Gleb Radchenko. "SUSU is the organizer of the Scientific Conference, and the initiative to hold this Conference was supported by Emerson Corporation, which is well-known all over the world for its high-tech inventions. Our university, in turn, is acting as a platform that brings together research resources, supercomputer computational systems and unique laboratory equipment which allows solving really difficult problems. This union becomes a good 'catalyst' for determining new directions towards Industry 4.0, as well as the opportunity for exchange of experience between the leading inventors of Russia and the world." Research projects of world-level specialists in the sphere of digital industry are to be presented at the Conference. The program includes the following reports: "Additive manufacturing in Industry 4.0" (Philippe Bertrand, Professor at the National Engineering School of Saint-Etienne); "IoE (Internet of Everything) security under conditions of unknown risks" (Andrei Tchernykh, Professor at the CICESE Research Center, Mexico); "From Digital Twin to Digital Twin Shop-Floor" (Tao Fei, Professor at the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, China) and many others. If you wish to take part in the Conference, please fill in the registration form until November 1 and pay a registration fee. Contacts Academic Secretary of the Conference: Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Natalia Yuryevna Dolganina. Tel.: (8-351) 267-90-06, add. 111 E-mail: [email=dolganinani@susu.ru]dolganinani@susu.ru[/email] More information: glosic.susu.ru/ Provided by South Ural State University Friday, September 7, 2018 A former candidate for judicial office has been charged with misconduct in a recent complaint filed by the Illinois Administrator Under Illinois law, the Resident Circuit Judge for a particular county and any candidate for election to that office must reside within that county. Under Illinois election law, a residence must be a permanent abode; and the elements of residency require (1) physical presence and (2) the intention to remain in that place as a permanent home. At all times alleged in this complaint, Respondent owned a home in neighboring Christian County, Illinois, in Taylorville; Respondent had a physical presence and resided in the Taylorville home with his wife and their two young sons; Respondent received mail at the Taylorville home; and Respondent used his Taylorville home address for his personal banking, financial and tax purposes. Until at least December 6, 2017, Respondents Illinois drivers license address and his Illinois voter registration address were his Taylorville home address. At all times alleged in this complaint, Respondents home in Taylorville was his residence and permanent abode. Respondent intended to keep the Taylorville home as his residence and permanent abode unless and until he would win the Republican nomination for Resident Circuit Judge for Shelby County and acquire a family home in Shelby County. Michael Locke and his wife Kristee Lee Locke ("the Lockes") were acquaintances of Respondent. In 2017, the Lockes and their two children lived in a large one-room loft apartment which they rented at 601 S. Vine Street, Shelbyville, Illinois, in Shelby County. On or shortly before December 6, 2017, Respondent asked the Lockes for permission to use their address in order for him to run for election to the office of Shelby County Resident Circuit Judge. Specifically, Respondent wanted the Lockes permission to state their address as his address on documents and for campaign purposes. The Lockes agreed. Respondent and the Lockes understood that Respondent would not move in, reside, or have a physical presence at their address. On December 6, 2017, Respondent and Kristee Locke signed a "lease agreement" that Respondent had drafted. The agreement provided that Respondent would pay the Lockes $50 per month as rent, and that Respondent would pay $200 for four months rent in advance. Also on December 6, 2017, Respondent submitted an application to the Shelby County Clerk to change his voting address to 601 S. Vine Street, Shelbyville. Respondent placed his signature on the application beneath a statement declaring that he "lived" in the election precinct for that address "at least 30 days from the date of the next election" and that the information he provided was "true to the best of my knowledge under penalty of perjury." Also on December 6, 2017, Respondent submitted a notice of change of address to the Illinois Secretary of State in which he gave the Lockes address as his new address. As a result, the Secretary of State issued a temporary drivers license to Respondent that stated that his address was 601 S. Vine Street, Shelbyville. At no time in 2017 and through the date of the primary election on March 20, 2018, was 601 S. Vine Street, Shelbyville, or anyplace in Shelby County, Respondents residence or permanent abode. At no time did Respondent reside or live at 601 S. Vine Street, Shelbyville. Respondents representations in the application for change of voting address which he submitted to the Shelby County Clerk and in the notice of change of address which he submitted to the Illinois Secretary of State were false, because Respondent did not live or reside at 601 S. State Street, Shelbyville, or in the election precinct for that address. Effingham Daily News reported that he withdrew from the race. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/09/a-candidate-for-judicial-office-has-been-charged-with-misconduct-in-a-recent-complaint-filed-by-the-illinois-administrator-u.html Friday, September 7, 2018 A Louisiana Hearing Committee proposes the permanent disbarment of an already suspended attorney for theft from his employer. He was working as an accountant. He defaulted on bar charges of theft and embezzlement, involving two unauthorized checks written on his employer's business account totalling $4,000. The checks were made payable to his girlfriend. When confronted by the employer, he denied the crime but "fled to parts unknown." He was arrested in Miami and extradicted to Mississippi. He now faces the criminal charges in Mississippi. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/09/a-louisiana-hearing-committee-proposes-the-permanent-disbarment-of-an-already-suspended-attorney-for-theft-from-his-employer.html 2 hours ago These 3 EV Charging Stocks Are Powering Up By the end of the decade, electric vehicle (EV) charging companies are likely to be household names. Like the Exxon or Chevron gas stations of today, itll become second nature for the newest generation of drivers to swing by their favorite charging stations. Allied Market Research estimated that the EV charger market will grow 27% per year and reach $25.5 billion by 2027. Read Article Friday, September 7, 2018 The Arizona Presiding Disciplinary Judge has accepted an attorney's consent to disbarment. Sonoran News reported on criminal charges Former Cave Creek Attorney Noel Hebets, 66, was arrested on Aug. 3 and charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor under the age of 15, a class 2 felony dangerous crime against children. Acting on a tip provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), detectives from the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of the Phoenix Police Department served a search warrant at the home of Attorney Noel Hebets on north 48th Street in Phoenix. The search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation that led to Hebets residence based on the IP address of his internet account. Numerous images were reported to NCMEC and forwarded to Phoenix police detectives depicting children being sexually abused and exploited being uploaded from Hebets IP address. According to the probable cause statement, several of the images depicted young, prepubescent female children either posing in the nude in an exploitative position or being sexually abused and/or assaulted by adult males. The Internet service provider was served with a subpoena for the subscribers information, which revealed Hebets residence on 48th Street. Numerous computers were located during the early morning raid and a forensic preview was conducted on the computers at the scene. The forensic preview located several image files depicting the sexual exploitation of prepubescent females. One of the photos described in the probable cause statement was a full-color image of an adult male engaging in anal intercourse with a prepubescent female child, with no breast development or pubic hair, who appeared to be in significant distress. Numerous other images were located during the forensic preview. Additional forensic analysis will be completed to locate all images and videos on all the various media sources and computers. During the search of the residence, numerous documents were located with the same email address and user names initially reported. The same software programs that were reported as being utilized to send images of children being sexually exploited were located on Hebets computer and images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors were located in folders associated with the software programs. Multiple bondage items were found during a search of the residence along with small dolls and childrens clothing. When Hebets was interviewed, he admitted to using a variety of programs found on his computer during the preview. The probable cause statement called Hebets, whom it said has access to children living in the area and images depicting young children being sexually assaulted, a danger to the community and requested bond be set at no less than $100,000. However, the court ordered Hebets released with an appearance bond of $5,000 but with the caveat he must have an electronic monitoring device installed before he could be released. The court also determined Hebets is not indigent and is financially able to pay for a lawyer. So far there has not been a notice of appearance by any defense counsel. Hebets financial information provided to Pretrial Services Agency reveales he owes delinquent back taxes to the IRS. Recorded documents reveal he owes over $120,000 in back taxes to the IRS. Hebets last appeared before Cave Creek Town Council in January 2016 representing Jim OToole and the Roadhouse, in an attempt to resurrect the patio the Roadhouse constructed in the towns right-of-way without permits or permission and was forced to remove. Hebets annoyed members of council when he repeatedly referred to the illegal construction as a trial period and said they just wanted permission to put it back exactly the way it was during the trial period. Irritated, Councilman Dick Esser finally said, What happened here was not a trial period. Hebets responded, I think trial period was a name I gave it. Sexual exploitation of a minor carries a prison term of 10 to 24 years. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/09/the-arizona-presiding-disciplinary-judge-has-accepted-a-convicted-attorneys-consent-to-disbarment-sonoman-news-reported-on.html September 7, 2018 in Disk Cataloging (E) [prMac.com] Bonn, Germany - Norbert M. Doerner today released NeoFinder 7.3, the third major update for NeoFinder 7. The new version adds more than 60 new features and enhancements, and is the most massive new version 7.x yet. The Gallery View shows photos in beautiful size, while keeping a list of the other items in the folder underneath it for navigation. The Display Filter allows to see only files of a certain kind, or name, label, or rating. Based on a lot of on-site feedback from clients, things like the cataloging of email contents have been added, or the search for duplicate folders. New features and enhancements of NeoFinder 7.3: * NeoFinder now has a Display Filter that you can use to filter items based on their kind, name, rating, label, or other attributes! That is highly useful when working with large amounts of data, and works in all five view types! * NeoFinder now has a cool Gallery View! Not just in macOS Mojavo, like Apples Finder, but in all Mac OS X and macOS versions since 10.7! * You can now update one or multiple media files in an existing catalog! * NeoFinder can now catalog the text from email messages! Currently, .emlx (Apple Mail) and .eml (MS Outlook) formats are supported * Many windows have a Help button that will open the suitable page in the NeoFinder Users Guide for you * Find Duplicates can now find Duplicate Folders! * In the Inspector, you can now Find Tags in Instagram by clicking on them * The Find Editor now autocompletes keywords for you, using the keyword list in the Controlled Vocabulary * You can copy and paste entire sets of XMP metadata from one file to another * NeoFinder catalogs Affinity Publisher documents, and of course allows you to edit the whole set of XMP metadata for these, too! * The XMP Editor in the Inspector now has a new Date editor, so you can change the XMP date for one or multiple items at once * The XMP Presets Editor now has a date field as well * NeoFinder can now of course catalog that XMP date field from existing files * A new Filefinder Text Importer allows you to import the text files from that abandoned old disk cataloger * You can now copy and paste GPS coordinates, and the XMP locations fields, separately * You can now sort the catalog LIBRARY by Volume Modification Date as well * The Movie Contact Sheet now has an option to turn off the time display in the thumbnails * Also, the Movie Contact Sheet can now automatically be saved next to the original file, even when multiple video files are selected. That is a great way of creating a lot of these at once * You can now duplicate Albums and Smart Folders, using the context menu * The file information that the Movie Contact Sheet displays is much more detailed and precise now * The Movie Contact Sheet now uses the modern AVFoundation in macOS for better results * The main window has a new button that will open the free NeoFinder Video Tutorials for you * NeoFinder can now catalog Aurora 2018 documents * NeoFinder can now catalog the BWF, or BEXT records from ProTools, with date and unique ID values for audio files * NeoFinder can now catalog thumbnails for Cinema 4D (".c4d") files, if that app is installed * NeoFinder can now catalog ICNS thumbnails * NeoFinder now catalogs thumbnails for stereoscopic MPO files * NeoFinder can now catalog the lens name of the EXIF record, and display it in the Inspector, and search it in the "any text" parameter or QuickFind * NeoFinder now catalogs the fps value of movies as floating point, allowing for values like 29.97 * Find Duplicates can now search for duplicate audio files by the BEXT record * A new button can now display and reverse the sort order in the navigation bar of NeoFinder * The Photo Contact sheet can now include a second line with details from each photo * You can now download an entire folder with all files and subfolders from the Backblaze B2 and a Dropbox catalog! * The LIBRARY sidebar now uses a more modern "view based" control from Apple. It will look better, and interactions are better with this * You can now open an Album in a separate window, too * Ejecting volumes now runs in the background, and won't block NeoFinder anymore * You can now double click one or multiple keywords in the Controlled Vocabulary list to add these to the one selected file * You can now remove files and folders from the Found Items list, to generate better reports * The number of items of albums is now displayed in green * Exporting a file using the Item menu will now also copy a possible sidecar XMP file to the target location * The Web Gallery now adds the media info to its Details page * The Web Gallery uses a lot less memory while generating the HTML pages for you * The folder list in the Batch Cataloging window is now always hierarchically sorted by name, even if your NeoFinder database is placed on a APFS volume * Date changes in the Auto Updater will now be used for all selected catalogs, not just one of them * Updated the code to read the Audio CD cover art from Coverartarchive.org * Cataloging certain malformed Sound Designer 2 audio files cannot crash NeoFinder anymore * Fixes a problem of reading CD-TEXT from certain Audio-CDs in macOS Sierra and newer * Fixes a problem cataloging EXIF date values in certain time zones * Fixes a problem with losing folder comments and color labels during updating of a catalog * Fixes a problem when exporting to XML with no thumbnails * Fixes a problem with the precision when cataloging and pasting GPS Geotags * Fixes a problem changing the XMP byline value in certain files * Fixes a problem cataloging certain malformed AIFF audio files * Fixes some problems in macOS Mojojava, but isn't yet completely certified due to the lack of the final macOS 10.14 version from Apple * Improved reading of audio tags in certain Apple AAC files * Improved reading of certain ID3 tags in MP3 and WAV files * Improved code for searching Ratings *I mproved code for the internal debug log feature * Works around a weird bug in macOS removing the contextual menus in NeoFinder immediately after opening them (only macOS High Sierra and macOS Mohava) * Many little improvements and fixes * Please note: This will be the last NeoFinder version to support Mac OS X 10.7. If you still use that old Mac OS X, please check this NeoFinder version very carefully, and if anything doesn't work for you, please let us know immediately! NeoFinder Highlights: * Cataloging - NeoFinder catalogs metadata of songs, movies, fonts, and photos, including the MP3-Tags of several audio file formats, EXIF, GPS, and IPTC data of photos. NeoFinder also edits Adobe XMP data, including keywords. All these are arranged clearly in the user interface, and can be extensively searched. For numerous photo and video formats, fonts, text files, and even audio files, NeoFinder generates thumbnails during cataloging, displaying them in all list and icon views. * Managing Metadata - The built-in XMP metadata editor with presets can edit and add keywords, ratings, descriptions, copyright information, and more to photos and videos. * Networking - Store your catalog database on a server for access from all Macs in the network, and with the sidekick product abeMeda (was CDWinder for Windows) even from Microsoft Windows. * Mobile - Keep your NeoFinder database with you on your iPhone or iPad with the separate NeoFinder for iOS app. * Integration - Offering a tight connection to major productivity tools, such as Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, Roxio Toast, FileMaker Pro, Apples Spotlight and Finder, and the extensive support of drag&drop into other applications, NeoFinder can support many workflow scenarios. The AppleScript support in NeoFinder allows custom integrations of all kinds. * Geotagging - Only NeoFinder offers the integrated GeoFinder, which searches for photos taken near a spot, or the KMZ export for coordinates and photo thumbnails as a way to give geolocated photos to friends. NeoFinder can even geotag photos itself, no other software needed. And only NeoFinder displays important facts about any geolocation in the truly unique Wikipedia Inspector. * Since the initial release of CDFinder 1.0 in 1996, more than 85,000 customers in 101 countries around the world are using CDFinder and now NeoFinder to organize their digital library, and manage their data archive and backups, including NASA, IKEA, BBC, Mattel, Rand McNally, Pfizer, Random House, Oracle, and Warner Bros. Language Support: German, English, French, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese System Requirements: NeoFinder 7.3 requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later (Mac OS X v10.7 thru macOS High Sierra 10.13). Previous CDFinder and NeoFinder versions for older Mac OS versions are still available. Separate app for iOS (iPhone and iPad) is available. Pricing and Availability: NeoFinder 7.3 is a free update to all NeoFinder 7.x users. NeoFinder 7.x is a paid upgrade to licensed users of NeoFinder 6.x and the old CDFinder, upgrade price starting at 19 Euros. The price for new users starts at 29,00 (EUR). Multiple user packs are available for network users. Cross-grades for users of similar applications (Cinematica, DiskLibrary, FileFinder, CatFinder, Canto Cumulus, Disk Tracker, DiskCatalogMaker, Atomic View, iView Media Pro, Extensis Portfolio, and others) are available. A free NeoFinder demo version can be downloaded from the NeoFinder website. Norbert M. Doerner is a computer scientist with a love for integration and cool products. He develops great Macintosh software since 1991. Popular products include the disk cataloger NeoFinder (was CDFinder), various plugins for the Finder, iPhoto and Aperture, and the audio transcription software F5.app. All Material and Software Copyright (C) 1991-2018 Norbert M. Doerner. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. ### Choose the local newsletters you want to receive in your inbox each week. Less than a week since U.S. President Donald Trump attacked social media giants (on social media) for being anti-conservativeor, more to the point, anti-Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been scheduled to meet with state attorneys general later this month to discuss those concerns. 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 DoJ said in a statement. Whoever cries free speech the loudest in this battle wins. And this is where media ceases to be media and becomes strictly partisan, with both sides playing the free speech card. Its a battle that no one can win and still live to see the tenets of democracy remain in place. The DOJ did not provide details or specific examples of how the social-media companies might be hurting competition, nor did it elaborate on the allegations of censorship or by what criteria would be investigating those companies. Last week, Trump targeted Google, suggesting the tech giant was manipulating search results to make him look bad and rigging the search engine so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Previously, Trump accused Twitter of silencing Republican voices and vowed to "look into this discriminatory and illegal practice. Twitter responded this week by permanently banning Alex Jones of Infowars fame, following a similar ban by Apple, Facebook and Youtube. In a statement , Googles spokesperson said the companys goal was to make sure users got the most relevant answers to their queries within seconds, and it was about speed, not petty politics. Related: Markets Open Flat As Investors Take Profits From Recent Rally Twitter has also said it does not make decisions based on political ideology. Jack Dorsey, Twitters CEO and co-founder, said that from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform. (Except Infowars, apparently). Facebook has similarly denied political bias but said it would bring in advisers to investigate whether it suppresses conservative voices. Media reported that the meeting with state attorneys general is set for September 25, but some speculate that it might be the last meeting Sessions attends as Attorney General due to a worsening relationship with Trump, who has most recently said Sessions will remain in his post until November, at least, according to Bloomberg. Also, the president has long criticized Sessions and DoJ over the ongoing probe into Russian election meddling by special counsel Robert Mueller. And earlier this week, Trump called out Sessions over charges his Justice Department brought against two Republican congressmen, one charged as part of an alleged insider-trading scheme and other accused of misusing campaign funds. (Click to enlarge) So while Sessions appears to be playing Trumps tune on the social media attack, all is not well. But then again, all is not well in the White House at large, with a recent anti-Trump op-ed appearing in the New York Times under anonymous authorship from a senior official tearing more rifts in the corridors of power. The DoJ announcement about Sessions scheduled meet came on the same day that Facebook and Twitter executives appeared on Capitol Hill to testify at a Senate hearing on how Russia (among other foreign powers) has used social media to spread propaganda and launch influence campaigns. The Senate wanted the CEO of Alphabet, Googles parent company, to testify, but Google wanted to send its own executive insteadan idea the Senate committee rejected. Trump has also called for amendments to libel laws, intended to lash out at anti-Trump contenta move that has been escalated in the aftermath of the release of excerpts from the new book by journalist Bob Woodward, entitled Fear: Trump in the White House. Trump suggested that libel laws should be changed even though he appeared to support at least one of the books themes, that hes harsh. (Click to enlarge) So far, there seems to be no support for changing libel laws, and for now, the issue is relegated to the realm of another Trump tantrum that is playing out on the very social media he is gearing up to attack. By Fred Dunkley for Safehaven.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com Education Reporter Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe. " " This close-up shows swirling clouds around Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot where scientists trained telescopes to learn more about the planet's water situation. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Images courtesy of NASA/JPL Many mysteries hide beneath Jupiter's beautifully chaotic clouds, but with the help of some clever astronomical techniques and NASA's Juno spacecraft, one of the giant planet's biggest puzzles may be closer to being solved. As we know, water is the key to life on Earth. Our efforts to seek out life on other worlds hinges on the detection of this important compound. Though scientists don't think that life inhabits Jupiter, finding a Jovian reservoir is one of the most pressing issues in planetary science. Locating this water will help us understand how the solar system, and Jupiter itself, evolved. Unfortunately, Jupiter has been notoriously bad at revealing any water deep in its thick atmosphere, leaving scientists and their models of planetary formation high and dry. Advertisement Before we sent spacecraft to investigate Jupiter, scientists assumed the gas giant would contain copious amounts of H2O. The logic was simple: Earth is covered in the wet stuff, and there's lots of water in the various moons that orbit the giant planets. Therefore, Jupiter, the most massive and most gravitationally dominant planet in the solar system, must have trapped the lion's share of the solar system's water as it formed billions of years ago. That logic was shattered in 1995 when NASA's Galileo mission dropped a probe into the planet's atmosphere to measure its composition. Much to everyone's surprise, there was an astonishing lack of water. As it turns out, the Galileo probe may not have detected water simply because it was dropped in the wrong place. It's as if the probe parachuted over a desert on Earth. It's not that there's no water on our planet, it's just that deserts aren't known for being awash with the stuff. Jupiter's atmosphere is dynamic, with jet streams, storms and a nonhomogeneous composition; the probe could only sample the atmosphere it was traveling through in that one location and that location might've been as dry as a desert. The situation changed, however, when researchers used the powerful W.M. Keck Observatory and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii's Mauna Kea to stare deep into Jupiter's biggest storm, the Great Red Spot. They released their water-filled news in an August 2018 study published in the Astrophysical Journal and led by astrophysicist Gordon L. Bjoraker, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "The moons that orbit Jupiter are mostly water ice, so the whole neighborhood has plenty of water," said Bjoraker in a NASA statement. "Why wouldn't the planet which is this huge gravity well, where everything falls into it be water rich, too?" To investigate, Bjoraker's team measured the infrared radiation leaking from deep beneath the clouds. Specifically they studied the infrared absorption spectrum of a certain type of methane that's known to exist in a vapor throughout the planet. This infrared radiation should leak through the clouds unimpeded, but should any clouds be present, this radiation will be blocked. During analysis of observations from Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the researchers found three distinct cloud layers were blocking this infrared signal from passing through the atmosphere, agreeing with theoretical predictions for the presence of water-rich clouds. They also detected large quantities of carbon monoxide, suggesting there's a lot of oxygen (O) available in Jupiter's atmosphere to chemically bond to molecular hydrogen (H2) to form water (H2O) if the temperature and pressure is just right. The next step is to use these data to complement Juno's observations of Jupiter. The spacecraft can make spectroscopic observations even deeper into Jupiter's atmosphere and it will do so for the entire planet, not just the Great Red Spot. But should Juno also detect this possible water cloud layer, the techniques developed by Bjoraker's team using telescopes on Earth will have been proven effective at finding water deep inside Jupiter, thereby solving the gas giant's watery mystery. These techniques could then be used to probe deep into the atmospheres of other planets. "If it works, then maybe we can apply it elsewhere, like Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, where we don't have a Juno," said study co-author and planetary atmospheres expert Amy Simon in a statement. Now That's Interesting NASA named the Juno mission after the Roman goddess Juno, who was married to Jupiter and had the handy ability to see through clouds. Beijing on Thursday protested against Britains move to send a warship close to islands it claims in the South China Sea, calling it a provocative action that infringed on Chinas sovereignty. China was responding to a report that the British Royal Navy sent the HMS Albion a 22,000-tonne amphibious warship carrying a contingent of Royal Marines on a freedom of navigation operation last month, passing near the disputed Paracel Islands. The group of more than 30 islands, known in Chinese as Xisha, is currently controlled by China but also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. The Albion was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where it docked on Monday following a deployment in and around Japan. Beijing dispatched a frigate and two helicopters to challenge the British vessel, but both sides remained calm during the encounter, Reuters reported on Thursday, quoting an anonymous source. Another source told Reuters that the Albion did not enter the territorial seas within 12 nautical miles around any features in the hotly contested region but sailed close enough to show that Britain does not recognise Beijings claims to the Paracels. Chinas foreign ministry expressed strong dissatisfaction over the move. The relevant actions by the British ship violated Chinese law and relevant international law, and infringed on Chinas sovereignty, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. China resolutely opposes this and has lodged stern representations with the British side to express strong dissatisfaction, Hua said, adding that Beijing urged Britain to avoid such provocative actions. Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said the Chinese military sent ships and planes to identify and warn off the British vessel, and that China would continue to take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and national security. In the recent period, through the joint efforts of China and Asean countries, the situation in the South China Sea has been stabilised and maintains a positive momentum, Ren said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Story continues But some countries outside this region choose to ignore it and continue to send warships to the South China Sea to stir up trouble, he said. This threatens the peace and security in the region, and goes against the collective will and efforts of the countries in this region. Chinas claims in the resource-rich waterway through which some US$3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Britain does not have any territorial claims in the area. Both Britain and the United States say they conduct freedom of navigation operations throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies. The operations have so far not persuaded Beijing to curtail its South China Sea activities, which have included extensive reclamation of reefs and islands and the construction of runways, hangars and missile systems. Additional reporting by Reuters This article China protests after British warship sails close to disputed Paracel Islands first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. United States law enforcement officials reaffirmed the Trump administrations claim on Thursday that synthetic opioids produced in China are fuelling an opioid epidemic in the US responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people every year. At the same time, though, they took pains to distance themselves from some of the recent heated talk on the issue and expressed cautious optimism that collaboration between US and Chinese drug control agencies would help counter the crisis. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid around 50 times more potent than heroin, is being shipped into the US via postal or express mail from China, said Paul Knierim of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), speaking at a hearing convened by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Trump blames China for outrageous fentanyl overdose epidemic Knierim, the deputy chief of operations at the DEAs Office of Global Enforcement, cited the influx of synthetic opioids like fentanyl from China as well as Mexico as the primary reason behind the increase in opioid overdoses the US has witnessed in recent years. Overdoses in the US attributable to fentanyl more than doubled between 2015 and 2016 to almost 19,500 deaths, compared to an overall rise in drug overdoses of 21 per cent over the same period, according to statistics from the National Centre for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year saw the drug kill roughly 29,500 people in the US, close to double the number of people who died from heroin overdoses. Knierims remarks came as lawmakers in Washington are seeking to push through new legislation that would strengthen screening controls of international packages arriving into the US to counter the influx of controlled substances and materials deemed a threat to national security. The Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act of 2018 (STOP Act), which passed the House in June 14 and awaits Senate approval, would require that incoming packages arriving via the US Postal Service are accompanied by advance electronic information detailing their contents. Story continues The act also lays out provisions for the US to provide technology to foreign entities to strengthen their outgoing postal-screening processes. Our fentanyl is very pure: deadly opioid for sale to UK users through Chinese websites But government witnesses at Thursdays hearing also struck a less confrontational tone than high-level remarks made between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks, led by a strongly worded statement US President Donald Trump issued on Twitter. It is outrageous that Poisonous Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl comes pouring into the US Postal System from China, Trump tweeted on August 20, before calling on the Senate to approve the STOP Act as soon as possible. It is outrageous that Poisonous Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl comes pouring into the U.S. Postal System from China. We can, and must, END THIS NOW! The Senate should pass the STOP ACT and firmly STOP this poison from killing our children and destroying our country. No more delay! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2018 Those remarks were shot down by senior voices within Chinas National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC), with commission member Yu Haibin calling them completely unacceptable and irresponsible, according to CNN. The United States has no proof that most fentanyl in the country comes from China, CNN quoted Yu as saying. Its highly irresponsible to draw such a conclusion based on some individual cases. At Thursdays hearing, government witnesses went out of their way to emphasise the existence of meaningful collaboration between the two countries governments, playing down confrontational dialogue. Leave your prejudice at home stop assuming Chinese dope There are plenty of red points in the rhetoric between the two governments, Kirsten Madison of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), acknowledged. But as long as were getting the cooperation we need out of [China], thats the most important thing, said Madison, assistant secretary at the INL, a State Department agency. Madison added that Chinese authorities were working collaboratively with their US counterparts on real-time law enforcement, the advancement of electronic data systems in shipping, and controls over more substances. On August 29, Chinas NNCC announced the inclusion of 32 new psychotic drug substances in the countrys list of controlled substances, bringing the total to 175. Also suggesting efforts to reduce the confrontational tone, the title of Thursdays hearing was changed in the days before the event from Tackling Fentanyl: Holding China Accountable to Tackling Fentanyl: The China Connection, a web archive showed. In June, the NNCCs deputy head, Liu Yuejin, said that the US domestic market, rather than Chinese suppliers, was at the heart of the countrys opioid crisis, though he emphasised his agencys commitment to collaborative efforts to stifle the transcontinental supply chain. Vietnamese child slaves toil in secret UK cannabis farms Despite those efforts, and despite fentanyls inclusion on Chinas list of controlled substances, suppliers of the drug can still be readily located with relative ease. An online search on Thursday for fentanyl providers based in China returned a number of vendors apparently capable of shipping synthetic opioids abroad. One company called Angel Pharmaceutical, whose website states it is based in Shanghai, purports to offer fentanyl to international sellers at over 99 per cent purity, along with scores of other drugs such as oxycodone and methylone. Offering the product for chemical research, the company says it can produce up to 500 kilograms of the synthetic opioid a month, and ships globally through a number of carriers such as EMS, UPS and FedEx. When contacted early on Friday morning, a company representative said that they produced the fentanyl in their own lab, and that one kilogram of the opioid would cost a customer US$5,500. One kilogram of fentanyl can produce as much as US$1.5 million in revenue on US streets, according to the DEA. This article Collaboration key to solving China-fuelled opioid epidemic, US officials say 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: By Prak Chan Thul PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's parliament on Wednesday held its first session since a July general election in which Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party claimed victory but which critics called a sham because of the lack of a viable opposition. The United Nations and Western countries have described the election as flawed after the Supreme Court last year dissolved the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) over accusations of plotting to topple the government. King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the opening session of parliament after Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the July 29 vote. "All members of parliament, who represent the whole nation, will expend more vigorous efforts helping people to enjoy equal access to religious belief, education, decent jobs," the king said in his opening speech. Also attending the session were representatives from China, Malaysia, Timor-Leste and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Absent were Australia, the European Union and the United States whose relationship with Cambodia has cooled considerably since Hun Sen and his allies launched a campaign aimed at silencing critics in the election run-up. "Given Australia's views on the flawed election process, Australia will not be represented at the inauguration of Cambodia's National Assembly," a spokeswoman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. EU Ambassador George Edgar said he was in Brussels and so unable to attend. It was "significant and alarming that democratically elected governments chose to be absent at the opening of the National Assembly", said Mu Sochua, deputy president of the CNRP. Its leader Kem Sokha, jailed on treason charges last September, remains in pre-trial detention. (Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia MANILA, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has selected three experts to form the Asian panel who will investigate the effects of the controversial vaccine, Dengvaxia. Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the information may likely be made public next week after the arrival of Duterte on Sunday (September 9) from his historic visit to Israel and Jordan. Malacanang mentioned before that the President will pick three among the recommended experts from Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. Part of the presidential directive is, those members of the panel, the experts, must come from the countries where the Dengvaxia immunization program was also implemented, said Duque. He added that the investigation by the Asian panel of experts on Dengvaxia is expected to be completed as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Health Department expressed gratitude to Congress for passing the P1.161 billion supplemental budget. We are very gratified and thanks to the House and the Senate for their most positive decision to pass and approve this bill, he said. This will be used to finance the medical needs of the children who were inoculated with Dengvaxia vaccine. Secretary Duque noted that around 900,000 people were injected with the anti-dengue vaccine and most of them are children. Rosalie Coz The post Duterte to name experts picked to probe Dengvaxia mess: DOH appeared first on UNTV News. Four more hidden spaces in Hong Kong express rail terminus revealed by officials Four previously undisclosed areas covering 27,300 square metres at Hong Kongs new high-speed rail terminus were revealed by the government late on Thursday night, days after media reports of a secret underground level became a political issue. The hidden floor, coded B5 in the design plan, is located under the B4 platform level of the West Kowloon terminus. To counter speculation that other such spaces existed in the station with opposition politicians suggesting they might be controlled by mainland Chinese authorities transport authorities issued a statement on the remaining back-of-house locations and what they contained. These levels housed offices, ventilation and air conditioning facilities, refuse collection and switch rooms, dining rooms and other such amenities, officials said. The concern over the spaces stems from an ongoing controversy over the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Links co-location immigration arrangement. Since Tuesday, a 105,000 square metre port area inside the station is under the complete jurisdiction of mainland Chinese authorities, except for six reserved issues, including maintenance of the terminal and safety of the 26km local section of the link. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday dismissed the idea of anything mysterious about the underground level. If youve stayed at hotels before, you would know hotels have [facilities] called back of house, where maintenance is carried out, she said. Later on Tuesday, the Transport and Housing Bureau issued a statement confirming the existence of the B5 level, where there are plant rooms for air conditioning, drainage and sewage systems. It is actually a back-of-house service corridor, the bureau said. This is not an area for passenger use and is not within the mainland port area. There is therefore no question of covering up the matter, the statement continued. Story continues At about midnight on Thursday, the bureau further revealed that other than B5, there were four more back-of-house areas in the terminus above each of the underground levels from B1 to B4. In the 14 public documents and reports on the high-speed rail submitted by the government to the Legislative Councils railways subcommittee over the past two years, the B5 level was mentioned only once, without elaboration, in a quarterly report in September 2016. The other four levels were never mentioned. The five interlayers add up to a total of 30,400 square metres, or about 28 per cent of the area of a typical floor in the terminus, according to the bureau. The areas are for use during rescue and evacuation only, and are not subject to the mainland authorities management or jurisdiction, the bureau said. All exits and entrances to back-of-house areas, including relevant passageways, doors and lifts that connect with the public areas or the mainland port area in the [West Kowloon terminus] are locked by security systems, the statement said. The West Kowloon terminus will officially open in 16 days, with the first rides on the HK$84.4 billion (US$10.7 billion) high-speed rail link commissioned for September 23. Frankie Yick Chi-ming, chairman of Legcos transport panel, said the committee sent a letter to the bureau on Tuesday requesting a meeting with officials before the terminus and the rail link are open for service. When the officials come to the panel again, I hope they will keep nothing up their sleeves any more, said Yick, who is also a member of the Legco railways subcommittee. How the government has been handling the case is not ideal, he added. All infrastructures have such back-of-house areas. There is nothing secretive. The bureau should disclose all the details as soon as possible. Tanya Chan, Yicks colleague on both the panel and the subcommittee, said she was highly doubtful of the MTR Corps capability to efficiently manage the back-of-house areas and the doors connecting them with the mainland port area. The MTR Corp has no experience in managing border lines at checkpoints, Chan said. There are hundreds of doors between the Hong Kong and mainland port areas, including those connecting the B5 and B4 levels. How can the MTR Corp make sure that all these doors will be watched closely around the clock? Chan described the way the government had disclosed the new information as contemptible. It didnt learn a lesson after the B5 level was reported on Monday at midnight. And it was pretending to come clean of its own accord last night after local media followed up on the level, she said. According to the transport authorities disclosures this week, the five back-of-house areas are: The 5,600 square metre B1M level above the B1 ticketing hall on the first underground floor. There are ventilation shafts, railway operator offices, air conditioning plant rooms and dining areas for the public. The 10,300 square metre B2H level above the B2 arrival level. There are ventilation shafts and a refuse collection room. The 7,200 square metre B3M/B3H level above the B3 departure level. There are passageways connecting Lin Cheung Road and the subway, as well as ventilation shafts. The 4,200 square metre B4M level above the B4 platform level. There are railway operator offices, switch rooms, air conditioning plant rooms, refuse collection and equipment maintenance rooms. The 3,100 square metre B5 level beneath the B4 platform level. There are plant rooms for air conditioning, drainage and sewage systems. This article Four more hidden spaces in Hong Kong express rail terminus revealed by officials first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Tanamduit provides self-learning facility for first-time investors in mutual funds to help them recognise their risk profile, and also recommend suitable products for users based on their characters and needs Tanamduit, an online mutual fund platform in Indonesia, has secured US$3 million seed funding from local venture capital firm RND Capital. The fintech startup will use the newly-raised capital to develop new features on its platform, as well as for hiring and digital marketing and relationship management, as per a DealStreetAsia report. Launched early this year, Tanamduit is a digital platform that assists users to plan, execute and monitor their mutual fund investments. It provides self-learning facility for first-time investors in mutual funds to help them recognise their risk profile, and also recommend suitable products for users based on their characters and needs. The company claims to have facilitated more than Rp 20 billion (US$134 million) of investment for 8,000 registered users so far. According to Tanamduit Co-founder and CEO Indra Suryawan, Indonesia is still in the early stages when to comes to mutual funds investments, particularly when compared to neighbouring countries. Only 0.25 per cent of Indonesians currently invest in mutual funds, compared to Thailands 30 per cent and Malaysias estimated 40 per cent. We still have many opportunities to expand market share and help the Indonesian economic movement, for this reason the funds must continue to expand. Increasing capital will help us realise that goal, Suryawan said. Tanamduit has formed partnerships with business like NU mobile and OJK Cooperatives and tech startups like Talenta to expand its user base. Recently, the company joined hands with lending startup Investree to roll out a mutual fund product on its peer-to-peer platform. The post Indonesias online mutual fund platform Tanamduit secures US$3M from RND Capital appeared first on e27. Experts do not expect the deferment of the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project to significantly affect property prices in Jurong... Artists impression of a High Speed Rail train. Market experts do not expect the deferment of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project to significantly affect property prices within the Jurong area, reported the New Paper. This comes as the HSR only forms part of the blueprint for the rejuvenation of Jurong, explained PropNex executive chairman and CEO Ismail Gafoor. Interested in buying property in Jurong? Check out our step-by-step guide to buying a condo. The Jurong Lake Districts blueprint was first released in 2008 as part of efforts by the Urban Redevelopment Authority to grow new employment centres beyond Singapores central area. Meanwhile, the government announced plans to build the HSR terminus in Jurong East only in 2015. In fact, shopping malls like Westgate and Jem had sprung up within the area even before the HSR developments, said Ismail. Prices in Jurong had started to move upwards in the last few years because of developments like the malls and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, he said. ZACD Group executive director Nicholas Mak said many offices are there because of the business park or because they want to be near the manufacturing spaces there The malls also serve the resident population. Looking ahead to the next five years, Ismail expects property prices in Jurong to be sustained as the west continues to be rejuvenated, with construction like the mega port. And since the HSR project is only postponed for around two years, he does not expect it to have a major impact on properties. If it is delayed for 10 years, maybe there would be a problem. Did you know that Jurong was once infested with crocodiles? Learn more about how Jurong East has developed over the years. Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale philosophy Professor Jason Stanley warns about rising neo-fascist tendencies around the world and related efforts to deligitimize universities. Of particular interest to readers of this blog, Stanley recommends against appeasing critics by hiring faculty members who will promote viewpoints that are popular with donors or political leaders. He instead advocates retaining a strictly merit-based approach to academic hiring, protected from outside influences. Professor Stanley writes: "In recent years, several countries across the world have been overtaken by a certain kind of far-right nationalism; the list includes Russia, Hungary, Poland, India, Turkey, and the United States. . . . [P]atterns have emerged that suggest the resurgence of fascist politics globally. Increasingly, attacks on universities and conflicts over their policies are a symptom of this phenomenon. . . [M]y interest is in fascist politics as a mechanism to achieve power. . . Honest politics needs intelligent debate. One of the clearest signs of fascist politics, then, is attacks on universities and expertise the support systems of discussion and the sources of knowledge and facts. Intelligent debate is impossible without access to different perspectives, a respect for expertise when ones own knowledge gives out, and a rich enough language to precisely describe reality. When education is undermined, only power and tribal identity remain. This does not mean that there is no role for universities in fascist politics. In fascist ideology, only one viewpoint is legitimate. Colleges are meant to introduce students to the dominant culture and its mythic past. Education therefore either poses a grave threat to fascism or becomes a pillar of support for the mythical nation. Its no wonder, then, that cultural clashes on campuses represent a true political battleground and receive national attention. The stakes are high. . . . Where speech is a right, propagandists cannot attack dissent head-on; instead they must represent it as something violent and oppressive (a protest therefore becomes a "riot"). . . . Fascist politics seeks to undermine the credibility of institutions that harbor independent voices of dissent. One typical method is to level accusations of hypocrisy. Right now, a contemporary right-wing campaign is charging universities with hypocrisy on the issue of free speech. Universities, it says, claim to hold free speech in the highest regard but suppress any voices that dont lean left. Critics of campus social-justice movements have found an effective method of turning themselves into the victims of protest. They contend that protesters mean to deny them their own free speech. . . These accusations also extend into the classroom. . . . a far-right activist who has been targeting universities . . . published a book, The Professors, naming the "101 most dangerous professors in America," a list of leftist and liberal professors . . . The goal of Students for Academic Freedom is to promote the hiring of professors with conservative worldviews, an effort marketed as promoting "intellectual diversity and academic freedom at Americas colleges and universities," according to Young Americas Foundation. . . . Some will argue that a university must have representatives of all positions. Such an argument suggests that being justified in our own positions requires regularly grappling with opposing ones (and that there was no room for those views in the first place). . . . Nevertheless, the general principle, upon reflection, is not particularly plausible. No one thinks that the demands of free inquiry require adding researchers to university faculties who seek to demonstrate that the earth is flat. Similarly, I can safely and justifiably reject ISIS ideology without having to confront its advocates in the classroom or faculty lounge. I do not need to have a colleague who defends the view that Jewish people are genetically predisposed to greed in order to justifiably reject such anti-Semitic nonsense. Nor is it even remotely plausible that bringing such voices to campus would aid arguments against such toxic ideologies. More likely, it would undermine intelligent debate by leading to breakdowns of communication and shouting matches. Universities should supply the intellectual tools to allow an understanding of all perspectives. But the best way to achieve that is to hire the most academically qualified professors. No method of adjudicating academic quality will be free from controversy. But trying to evade that difficulty by forcing universities to hire representatives of every ideological position is a particularly implausible fix, one that can perhaps be justified only by a widespread conspiracy theory about academic standards being hijacked by, say, a supposed epidemic of "political correctness." It comes as a surprise that only a few international players have taken over the countrys e-commerce marketplace traffic activity The Philippine e-commerce marketplace penetrates more Filipino consumers in terms of social media activity. However, it struggles to establish a strong hold in traffic activity as international players take a huge lead. It comes as a surprise that only a few international players take over the countrys e-commerce marketplace traffic activity. Based from our Philippines Map of eCommerce Q2 2018 findings, there are more local active players. However, its the international players that heavily fuel the market activity as its share in the overall traffic accounts 93 percent of the overall e-commerce marketplace traffic activity. Meanwhile, local players lead in social media activity as its share accounts 75 percent of the overall e-commerce marketplace social media activity (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). International Players Are The Main Driver Of eCommerce Market Activity There are only eight players that make up the international eCommerce share of traffic and these are the giant eCommerce: Lazada, Shopee, Zalora, eBay, Sephora, Sophie Paris, My Sale and Melissa Philippines. Out of the eight players mentioned, the four e-commerce: Lazada, Shopee, Zalora and eBay tops as the 1st to 4th most visited e-commerce marketplace in the country. Notably, Lazadas streak performance in the Philippines makes the majority of overall e-commerce marketplace traffic activity with 68 percent share. Also read: Philippines big e-commerce players highlight 3 gender diversity trends in top management In specific, Lazada Philippines lead in traffic at the least is triple the size of its closest competitor, Shopee. This trend is unique to the Philippine markets as its SEA counterparts namely: Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand markets are leading with less than half of the overall e-commerce marketplace traffic activity with 45, 20 and 47 percent, respectively. For Indonesia and Singapore markets, local players- Tokopedia and Qoo10 hails as the most visited e-commerce marketplace. Story continues The rationale behind our findings is that Filipino consumers online shopping preference is primarily based on brand familiarity. In fact, according to Kantar Worldpanel survey, 84 percent of Filipino consumers responded that they prefer to purchase from well-known and trusted brands despite the abundance of low cost alternatives available in the market. This specific Filipino consumer behaviour mainly affects the local players as majority of it have just started their respective operations in the digital marketplace. Local Players Begin To Attract More Followers From Social Media Platforms The local players total traffic share only accounts for 7 percent of the countrys overall marketplace traffic activity while there are more local players in the overall eCommerce share of traffic. The most visited local eCommerce in the country is BeautyMNL placing 5th overall with less than a million-traffic followed by Kimstore in 9th place. Galleon, O Shopping and Takatack which were previously in Q1 2018s top eCommerce all dropped one notch placing 7th, 8th and 11th respectively. Only Argomall managed to accelerate two notches placing 6th overall. Interestingly, our report found that majority of the local players experienced inconsistency in traffic activity as there are occasions of leaps and slips in traffic ranking. In specific the following e-commerce with the major leap in traffic are Seek the Unique, Apartment 8 Clothing, Zeus, Straight Forward Clothing, Great Value Plus, Bayan Mall, TV Shop, Mall Hallo Hallo and CesaPH which increased its traffic ranking for about 7 notches in average. Also read: [Infographics] E-commerce in the Philippines is a healthy mix between local and global While the following eCommerce with major slip in traffic are Adobomall, Watch Portal, Goods, Mommy Mundo, Bigmk, Abubot, which in averaged decreased traffic ranking for about 8 notches. Despite the local players low reception in website traffic, its social media activity for Instagram and Twitter attracted more followers with 70 and 51 percent of the overall e-commerce marketplace social media followers. Meanwhile, the social media activity for Facebook is mainly taken over by international players as it share of social media followers account for 77 percent of the overall e-commerce marketplace. As more local players are slowly increasing its market reach through social media platforms, it should also prioritize in building eCommerce branding. Currently, the Philippine government is aiding the industry by helping local players in venturing to digital marketplace however it lacks a definitive support to competitively perform against the international big players. Methodology The Map of E-Commerce ranks Philippines top 50 e-commerce players based on their average quarterly traffic, mobile application ranking and social media following. Quarterly Traffic Data was taken from Similar Web; Mobile App Ranking Data was taken from App Annie; Social Media Following Data was taken from their respective Facebook, Twitter and Instagram handles. - e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here. The post Local vs. international: Here is a look at the Philippine e-commerce scenes popular players appeared first on e27. Singapore State Courts (Yahoo News Singapore file photo) Worried that no one would care for his intellectually disabled daughter if he was not around, the depressed father fatally stabbed her before jumping from the eighth floor of his block in Pasir Ris. Just weeks before the tragic double deaths of the two Singaporeans, 69-year-old Tang Soh Ha had been fretting about the future of his 27-year-old daughter Tang Hui Yee, for whom he was the main caregiver. The worries would plague Tangs mind and he was also unable to sleep at night due to insomnia. He leaves behind his wife, a son and another daughter. A coroners inquiry into the deaths on Friday (7 September) ruled that Tang had perpetuated the unlawful killing of his daughter before committing suicide. On 20 August last year, Tang was found dead at the foot of Block 560, Pasir Ris Street 51 while his daughter was found with multiple stab wounds in the kitchen of the familys second-storey flat. Police were called to the scene and Tang was pronounced dead at 1.31pm. The police later used an iPhone found on him to contact his son. After Tangs son and wife arrived to identify the body, they led police to the familys second floor unit. When Tangs wife unlocked the gate, the group saw Tang Hui Yee lying face down in a pool of blood in the kitchen area outside the toilet with stab wounds to the back of her body. She was pronounced dead at 2.22pm. A kitchen knife, later linked to the wounds inflicted on Hui Yee, was found at the sink. A bloodied footprint near her body was later found to match Tangs right foot. According to the Tangs wife, Hui Yee had been suffering from autism spectrum disorder since she was around seven years old. She was schooled in the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore. In 2014, Hui Yee was referred to the Institute for Mental Health (IMH) following repeated toilet-going behaviour. She would also get agitated when her demands were not met and become violent. She was prescribed with medication but would relapse at intervals. Five days before her death, she was assessed at IMH for a relapse of her behavourial issues, including hitting out at others and playing with water while in the shower for hours. Story continues While her father was her main caregiver, it was not mentioned in court whether the other family members shared the responsibility. The elder Tang was first seen at IMH in 2008 for acute behavioural changes following a business failure in Thailand. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was treated with medicine for his condition. He was free of his symptoms afterwards. According to Tangs son, his father felt very sick about two weeks before his death. Tang developed suicidal thoughts and would remark that he was a burden to his family. State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam said in her findings, When he was unable to sleep, Mr Tang would lie awake worrying about Ms Tangs future. His declining health caused him grave concern about Ms Tangs care arrangements. Tang was referred to IMH on 5 August last year and diagnosed with insomnia and showing signs of depression. He was also prescribed sleeping pills. However, Tangs sleeping problems persisted. In a follow-up call with IMH personnel some two weeks after his first visit, he slept for only two to three hours each night with medication. He still had recurring suicidal thoughts, he told IMH. He was then advised to return to IMH. Around 3am on 20 August, Tangs son had returned home to see his father reading a bible. Tang left the house at 6am and was later seen playing with his granddaughter. That afternoon, Tang stabbed his daughter from behind in the neck, chest and head area in the kitchen before jumping to his death. CCTV footage revealed Tang entering the lift on the second floor at 1.30pm and heading to the eight floor, where he committed the act. In her findings, SC Ponnampalam said that there was no basis to suspect the involvement of a third party. Instead, evidence pointed to Tang deliberately causing himself to fall from height after having perpetrated the fatal assault on Ms Tang in their home. Regrettably, Mr Tang had seemingly decided that the joint demise of both him and his daughter was the solution to his concerns for his daughters welfare, said the SC. Other Singapore stories Singaporean father and son ghostbusters keep the faith Goh Chok Tong biographys first volume nearing completion, to be released in November Singapore Airlines to continue using grid girls at Grand Prix races after F1 stops practice MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has offered to send troops to Jordan to help combat Islamist militants, after agreeing to deepen military cooperation with the Middle Eastern nation to fight extremism. Both countries have been battling Islamic State's influence, with Jordan playing a key role in an international coalition, and the Philippines on alert after a five-month occupation of a city by Islamist rebels - its worst conflict since World War Two. "If there is anything that we can do, if you are short in your army, let me know," Duterte said on Thursday at a business forum in Amman in a comment to King Abdullah, who earlier lamented the "evil" both states were facing. "You need one battalion... I will send them to you. I will commit my government in the right side of history." King Abdullah is an important Middle East ally of Western powers, with Jordan playing a prominent role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, providing military, logistical and intelligence support. Earlier this year, Jordan announced it will provide the Philippines with two Cobra attack helicopters to help fight insurgents. Duterte is on a six-day visit to Jordan and Israel, and his activities have been broadcast in the Philippines. He has signed agreements with Israeli companies to buy small arms, armoured vehicles, and surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty and Christopher Cushing) RazerPay to roll out in Singapore in early 2019 The gaming accessories companys digital payments platform is already available in Malaysia Razer founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan (Credit: Razer) Singapore- and US-based gaming accessories company Razer has announced its plans to roll out its digital payments platform, RazerPay, in Singapore in Q1 2019. In a Facebook post published today, Razers Founder and CEO, Min-Liang Tan, cited a lack of third-party consumer e-payment providers gaining traction in the country as a reason for its early launch date. In respect of Singapore, while we have made strides in moving the country to a cashless economy, for example, SG QR national initiative and PayNow Corporate, we have hardly become a cashless economy, he wrote. Razer first outlined its plans to develop a national e-payments system for Singapore exactly one year ago, via a 10-page proposal to the Singapore Prime Minister Office (PMO). The company said it will commit S$10 million (US$7.34 million) to build this framework and set a target of 1 million e-wallet signups by May 2019. Also Read: 10 Things you should know about the Singapore startup landscape Since then, Razer has made several strides in bolstering its digital payments capabilities. It acquired the remaining stake in Malaysia e-payments platform MOL for US$61 million(it had previously acquired a 34.9 per cent stake in the company). Then in May, Razer signed a deal with Singapore telecoms conglomerate Singtel to unify their e-payment systems, allowing credits from each system to be transferable between each other. Last month, Razer partnered with the United Overseas Bank (UOB), allowing its bank customers to top-up their personal e-wallets using Razer Pay as well as allow Razer Pay merchants to process payments. The same month also saw RazerPay launch in Malaysia, with over 6,000 acceptance points installed in retail and F&B businesses across the country. Razer claimed that RazerPay logged 600,000 sign-ups and over 300,000 cashless transactions within just 8 days. Story continues Though Tan believes theres a lack of substantial competition among digital e-payment providers, the situation would likely be very different come next year. Grab is going full throttle with its everyday app ambitions, which will likely drive up adoption of its GrabPay platform; Malaysia-based O2o platform Fave, another competitor, recently clinched a US$20 million funding, allowing it to ramp up its FavePay service, which already has over 3 million users. Image Credit: RazerPay The post RazerPay to roll out in Singapore in early 2019 appeared first on e27. SKOPJE (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on Macedonians on Thursday to vote in a referendum to embrace a deal on its name with neighbouring Greece and join the defence alliance. "We are ready to welcome your country as NATOs 30th member," he said after meeting Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. Macedonia has set Sept. 30 for the referendum on NATO and European Union membership bids and on its agreement with Greece on the country's name. In June, NATO invited Macedonia to begin accession talks with the alliance, but to finalise membership talks it will have to adopt constitutional changes. "This is a historic opportunity," Stoltenberg said. "It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to join the international community, to become a member of NATO, to become a member of the EU, but for this you have to agree with the name agreement." Greece refused to accept the Balkan country's name, saying it implied territorial claims on the Greek province of Macedonia and amounted to an appropriation of its ancient civilisation. It had blocked the country's EU and NATO membership bids. Zaev's government, elected in 2017, pushed for an agreement with Greece to solve the name dispute and the two sides have agreed on the name Republic of North Macedonia. Nationalists, including President Gjorge Ivanov, oppose the deal saying it is against the constitution. "I believe that the real place for Macedonia is in the European Union and NATO. Ill continue to support our strategic goals. But, EU and NATO cannot be an alibi for a bad deal," Ivanov said in a statement after meeting Stoltenberg. (Reporting by Kole Casule; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Iran, Russia and Turkey were unable to overcome their differences at a Tehran summit on Friday as they held talks on an imminent offensive against the last rebel stronghold in Syria, amid warnings from the international community of a looming humanitarian disaster. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly disagreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a press conference in the Iranian capital and warned of a "bloodbath" in Idlib province, where an assault by Syrian government forces is expected any day. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who hosted the meeting, also warned against a "scorched earth" policy, but said "fighting terrorism in Idlib is an unavoidable part of the mission of restoring peace and stability to Syria." Russia and Iran are major allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs opposition fighters, including some present in Idlib, who are seeking his ouster. In front of the world's press, Erdogan criticised their joint statement for not including the word "truce", saying it would "strengthen and calm this process." Putin retorted that armed opposition groups such as the Islamic State group and al-Nusra front were not present at the talks to offer to uphold any ceasefire. "We cannot say for them... that they will stop shooting or stop using armed drones," Putin said. He also insisted Damascus "has a right and must eventually take under control all of its national territory". - 'Phased stabilisation' - The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's civil war launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention that has eclipsed Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the United Nations. Putin said they had spoken of a "phased stabilisation" in Idlib and hoped "terrorist organisations will have enough common sense to stop resistance and lay down their weapons." Iranian and Russian support has shored up the Damascus regime, allowing it to regain the upper hand in the seven-year civil war which has claimed some 350,000 lives since 2011. Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the final major chunk of Syrian territory still under opposition control. It is home to some three million people. On Friday morning, Russian air raids pounded rebel positions in the southwest of Idlib killing five people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among them were positions of the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, as well as of the hardline Ahrar al-Sham group, the Britain-based monitor said. Hundreds of civilians have already begun to flee Idlib ahead of what could be the last -- and bloodiest -- major battle of the devastating conflict. - 'Humanitarian tragedy' - Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels, fears the potential flood of desperate Syrians into its territory. "Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, massacre and a very big humanitarian tragedy," Erdogan said. But Russia and Iran have sworn to wipe out "terrorists" and Assad has declared his determination to retake control of the entire country. A statement released at the end of the talks on Friday was low on detail and merely reaffirmed their commitment to keep working together. The UN Security Council was also due to meet late Friday, at Washington's request, to discuss Idlib. Russia wants Turkey, which borders the province, to use its influence to rein in the dominant group HTS, led by the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, as well as rival rebels. Turkey has limited sway over the jihadists who control an estimated 60 percent of the province, but it backs other rebel groups and has 12 military "observation points" across the area. Idlib's population has swelled as the regime chalked up a series of victories across the country, reaching evacuation deals that saw tens of thousands of people bussed there. Russia has said the Syrian army is preparing to solve the problem of "terrorism" in the rebel stronghold. "A total and definitive liquidation of the terrorists across all of Syria's territory is necessary," said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Al-Watan, a Syrian newspaper close to the government, reported Monday the military operation could "immediately follow the summit". President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey meet in Tehran, Iran September 7, 2018. Cem Oksuz/Turkish Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to jointly look for ways to resolve the situation in the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, according to the text of a joint statement released after talks between the three countries' leaders in Tehran on Friday. The next round of Syria talks between the three countries' leaders will be held in Russia, the statement said. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn) The efforts to repeal an ancient law against gay sex in Singapore has never waned, but the issue was raised into the national spotlight once again following Indias historic Supreme Court ruling that decriminalizes homosexuality. Yesterday, the country decriminalized part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that outlaws consensual gay sex. The 157-year-old law prohibited consensual carnal intercourse against the order of nature, a rule that was enacted during the nations British colonial days. The Washington Post reported that a panel of five judges issued a unanimous judgment to strike down the provision. Singapore, on the other hand, still upholds section 377A of its own Penal Code, which criminalizes acts of gross indecency between two men. Similar to India, the law dates back to British colonial rule, and while sex between men remains a criminal act here, the statute is not being actively enforced. The difference between India and Singapore, however, is that the latter is still adamant about keeping the legislation, signaling that the government is not yet ready to stand alongside the growing number of people standing in solidarity with the countrys LGBTQ community. Speaking to the media earlier today, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam insists that a majority of Singaporeans are opposed to the removal of the controversial ruling, Channel NewsAsia reported. This issue relates to social mores, values so can you impose viewpoints on a majority when it so closely relates to a social value system? he said, echoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs sentiments that Singapore society is not that liberal on these matters. He reminded reporters that the LGBTQ community is free to express themselves in Singapore, and nobody gets convicted for being gay. Even so, the LGBTQ community views the existence of section 377A as one that also allows for discrimination, intolerance, and bigotry against them. This on top of the fact that a number of examples from the past couple of years indicate that the government refuses LGBTQ voices and culture to permeate the mainstream in Singapore. Relationships between same-sex couples are also not officially recognized in the city-state, while there are no laws that protect LGBT Singaporeans from discrimination in the workplace, housing or other areas. Back in 2014, the Singapore Supreme Court upheld the countrys ban on same-sex relations between consenting adult men after a legal challenge mounted on the constitutionality of the law failed. Nonetheless, the push for equality and acceptance for the LGBTQ community in Singapore has been going strong most visibly through annual gay pride rally Pink Dot, which celebrated its 10th anniversary here back in July. The post Singapore governments stance on laws against gay sex unchanged, even after India removes archaic ban appeared first on Coconuts. President Donald Trump threatened Friday to slap tariffs on all of the Chinese goods imported into the United States, ramping up the already tense trade relations with Beijing amid ongoing talks with Canada and the EU. His comments, which contradicted the more diplomatic remarks earlier Friday from his top economic adviser, sent the stock market plunging amid fears of the economic damage that could result from the multi-front trade war he pursues. The United States already has punitive tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in place and another $200 billion are "in the hopper" and "could take place very soon," Trump said. But he told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota that "behind that, there's another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want." That would cover virtually all the goods imported from the world's second largest economy. "That totally changes the equation," Trump said. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow just hours before said talks with Beijing were continuing to try to defuse the conflict, and that he was hopeful that a solution could be found. And there have been more positive signs in talks with North American partners as well as with the European Union. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held another day of meetings with Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, after reaching a deal last week with Mexico. However, Freeland left Washington without a deal in hand and the schedule for any future talks was uncertain. Lighthizer is due to meet Monday in Brussels with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to resolve the dispute ignited when Trump imposed steep duties on all steel and aluminum imports. And Freeland is due to attend a Liberal Party meeting on Wednesday and Thursday prior to the opening of Parliament. - China a 'bigger problem' - "China, right now, is a far bigger problem," Trump said. "I'm being strong on China because I have to be." The deadline for public comment on the next wave of punitive taxes on $200 billion of annual imports from China expired Thursday, so Trump could impose the tariffs immediately. He previously had threatened to hit 100 percent of imports from China if the country failed to address US concerns over theft of US technology and barriers to American goods and investments. Trump has had Beijing in his crosshairs since he took office and has applied increasing pressure to try to convince it to change its policies, allow more US imports and reduce the $335-billion US trade deficit with China. China so far has retaliated dollar-for-dollar with tariffs of its own on US goods but since it imports less than $200 billion in goods a year from the United States, it has run out of room to match the punitive measures. But businesses warn there are other ways China can strike back, through regulations and other administrative means, or even through sales of its large holdings of US Treasury debt. The last effort at a negotiated solution came in late August with meetings between low-level officials, but nothing came of it. In Beijing, China's Commerce Ministry said Thursday it was ready to retaliate. "If the US dogmatically implements any new tariff measures against China, China will have to take the necessary countermeasures," commerce spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. Those steps include slapping tariffs on $60 billion of US imports, Gao said. - NAFTA talks 24/7 - Trump said talks with Canada to revise the 25-year-old NAFTA were "moving along" but again called the agreement "one of the worst trade deals in history." "Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they've got to treat us fairly," he said, and again threatened to impose duties on cars produced in Canada. Last week, Washington reached a new deal with Mexico and is pushing to sign a revamped NAFTA before December 1, when the next president takes over in Mexico City. Following meetings on Friday, Freeland told reporters the issues were "complicated" but that officials were working "really at this point 24/7." However, she seemed to have a different position than Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on the relationship between the NAFTA talks and the US steel and aluminum tariffs. Guajardo said Thursday it would be "very strange" to sign a new NAFTA "when this trade war is pending." "So the idea would be to table a solution to these trade aggressions before signing," Guajardo said at a conference in Mexico City. But Freeland said on Thursday the metals tariffs and NAFTA talks "are entirely separate" -- although she again called them "unjustified and illegal." The NAFTA talks between Washington and Ottawa have been hung up over Canada's insistence on retaining a dispute resolution mechanism in Chapter 19 and US objections over Ottawa's tight controls over the dairy market. South China Morning Post China set another record on Wednesday in its latest wave of Covid-19 outbreaks, with 93 new symptomatic local cases reported from the day before. There were also 11 asymptomatic infections, according to the National Health Commission, which are not counted in the official tally. The country has now recorded 631 cases across 17 provincial areas since October 17, when a Shanghai couple on a road trip to north China tested positive for the coronavirus and became the first cases to be reported i The UN peace envoy for Syria on Friday proposed a plan for Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria's Idlib province to pull back from cities and other civilian-populated areas to avert a bloodbath in the rebel-held province. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster if Syrian forces, backed by Russia and Iran, launch an all-out attack in Idlib, the last major rebel bastion. Addressing the Security Council, Staffan de Mistura also called for evacuation corridors to be opened for civilians to voluntarily leave the war zone, under UN monitoring. The council was meeting as Turkey clashed with Iran and Russia at a summit in Tehran on how to address the crisis in Idlib, an enclave in northwest Syria where three million people live. De Mistura proposed that a deadline be set for all fighters -- in particular the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front -- to retreat from populated areas and that no military attacks would be launched during the pullback. "This would apply in particular for Al-Nusra, who should be notified by the guarantors, in particular Turkey, which still has the capacity to send messages," he said. A Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism, saying it was unclear where the fighters would go and whether Syria could be persuaded to halt military action. "There are challenges," he said. - Legitimate target - Russia told the council meeting that some 40 to 45 armed groups with up to 50,000 people were operating in Idlib. About 16,000 are fighting in the ranks of Al-Nusra and 11,300 others are members of hardline groups, said Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. Syrian civilians are "worn out by extremist tyranny" in Idlib, said Nebenzia, adding that armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda remain "a legitimate target for liquidation." Britain recalled that targeting civilians amounts to war crimes and warned that Syrian commanders and military units loyal to President Bashar al-Assad will be held accountable for any violations in Idlib. "There are more babies in Idlib than there are terrorists," said British Ambassador Karen Pierce. "I think this should give those engaged in military action pause for thought." US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned: "If Assad, Russia, and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire." "Syria is once again at the edge of an abyss," said French Ambassador Francois Delattre. De Mistura is to hold talks in Geneva next week with Russia, Iran and Turkey in Geneva, the three countries of the Astana process, a track of talks on Syria's war that has largely eclipsed the UN-led peace process. More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria's seven-year conflict. Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. 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The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a regional summit in Russia next week, officials said Friday -- a gathering that may include North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the heads of Japan and South Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Kim to participate in the September 11-13 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Kim has not confirmed his attendance, but his participation would mark another major step in his efforts to bring Pyongyang out of international isolation over its nuclear programme. At a press briefing to announce Xi's visit, Chinese officials would not comment on whether Xi planned to meet with other leaders during the summit. "Should we have any proposals from other countries, China will positively consider these proposals," assistant foreign minister Zhang Hanhui told reporters. Xi and Kim met three times in China this year as the two countries seek to repair relations frayed by North Korea's nuclear activities and Beijing's backing of United Nations sanctions against its Cold War-era ally. Xi is sending the head of China's rubber-stamp legislature, Li Zhanshu, to Pyongyang this weekend to attend celebrations marking North Korea's 70th anniversary, ending speculation that the Chinese president would use the occasion to make his first official trip to the neighbouring country. In the latest chapter in the roller-coaster diplomacy over North Korea, US President Donald Trump signalled on Thursday that negotiations on denuclearisation remain alive after weeks of an apparent deadlock. Xi will be in Vladivostok on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be the first time that a Chinese leader participates in the annual economic forum hosted by Russia. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also confirmed his attendance. Relations between China and Japan have warmed over the last few years following a disagreement over Tokyo's decision to take control of privately owned islets also claimed by Beijing in the East China Sea. In recent months, the two sides have been negotiating an exchange of top level visits. Scheduled peace talks in Geneva between Yemen's government and Huthi rebels hung in the balance Thursday as both sides traded ultimatums and a UN envoy scrambled to mediate. The rebel delegation, still in Sanaa, insisted the UN must meet a list of conditions before it will travel to Switzerland, prompting government representatives already in Geneva to give the Huthis a 24-hour deadline or it "will leave". UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who said the planned meeting offered a "flickering signal of hope" for an end to the years-long conflict, had to postpone the start of the talks. "He continues to make efforts to overcome obstacles to allow the consultations to go forward," his office said in a statement Thursday, adding that Griffiths remained "hopeful" the rebels would come. The Geneva talks are meant to be the first since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and rebels failed to yield a deal. The Huthis control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, while a Saudi-led coalition which backs Hadi's government controls the country's airspace. Led by Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani, a Yemen government delegation arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday. But on what was meant to be the first day of talks, the rebels issued an ultimatum from Sanaa Thursday, saying they would not join the talks until the UN meets conditions that include transporting their wounded to Oman for treatment and a guarantee they will be allowed to return home after the talks. The rebels accused the UN of failing to keep promises in this regard. According to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV, the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from the Saudi-led coalition for a plane to transport the rebel delegation, along with wounded insurgents, out of Yemen. Asked about the Huthi claims, Griffiths said Wednesday: "We are working on that." The government delegation said it would wait only another 24 hours, until midday (1000 GMT) Friday. "We have this scheduled meeting since two months ago ... Today we are alone," delegation member Hamza Alkamali told journalists, and claimed the rebels were making it clear "they don't want peace". "We want them to come, and we are pushing them to come," said Alkamali. However, "we will leave, if they dont come... in the next 24 hours." On Thursday, an AFP journalist saw the envoy entering the Geneva hotel hosting the Yemen government delegation. Griffiths had told journalists he would begin informal consultations" with the government team while the rebels make their way to Switzerland. When the two parties eventually meet, he said on Wednesday, there would be no "formal negotiations", merely exploratory talks on how to get the parties around a negotiating table. The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged both sides to "take a first step towards ending a conflict that has brought severe pain and humanitarian suffering to the Yemeni people". - 'Collateral damage' - All previous attempts to resolve the Yemen war have failed. Griffiths is the UN's third Yemen envoy since 2014, when Huthis overran the capital 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. The conflict has left nearly 10,000 people dead and pushed the Arab world's most impoverished country to the brink of famine. On Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition acknowledged there may have been "collateral damage" from August 23 strikes the UN said killed 26 children south of the port of Hodeida. A day earlier, Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile fired by Huthi rebels, with shrapnel wounding 26 people including two children, the coalition said. burs-apo/mlr/pvh Yoga ball murder trial: putting deadly gas in ball was extremely dangerous and a crazy thing for Malaysian professor to do, expert tells Hong Kong court Carrying carbon monoxide in a yoga ball is crazy, a medical scientist told the trial of a Malaysian professor accused of using the method to murder his wife and daughter. On Friday, pharmacologist Nicholas Buckley went on to half-jokingly warn lawyers, jurors, and spectators of the lethal consequences of releasing such a device inside the High Court courtroom where Khaw Kim Suns trial is taking place. It could wipe us all out, he said. Calling the idea extremely dangerous, Buckley went on to characterise the transporting of the deadly gas in such a fashion as a crazy thing to do. The University of Sydney professor, who flew in from Australia, was called as an expert witness by the defence, who are looking to rebut the prosecutions case that Khaw used a gas-filled yoga ball to kill his wife, Wong Siew Fing, 47, and daughter Lily Khaw Li Ling, 16, on May 22, 2015. Prosecutors have said Khaw, who denies two counts of murder, placed a yoga ball leaking carbon monoxide in Wongs yellow Mini Cooper on the day she and her teenage daughter were due to use it. The pair died of carbon monoxide poisoning, after they were found unresponsive in the car, which was parked at the Sai O Village bus stop in Ma On Shan. Khaw has not denied filling up the ball with the gas, which the court heard he obtained from his university. But, the anaesthesiologist argued he only took it back to his three-storey village house to kill rats, prompting prosecutor Andrew Bruce SC to cross-examine Buckley about its safety. The Australian doctor said he would expect anyone with a relevant qualification to appreciate the danger involved in such attempt. As effective as it sounded, he said, it would be unwise to eradicate rats this way, as the gas was also dangerous to other species. Khaws barrister, Gerard McCoy SC, used Buckleys testimony to challenge the credentials of medical scientists the prosecution had previously called. Story continues Prosecutors had put three doctors on the stand to establish that an experiment involving rabbits and carbon monoxide that Khaw conducted before the death of his wife and daughter was of no clinical value, and was simply a ruse to obtain the carbon monoxide. But, on Friday, Buckley said the prosecution witnesses had relied on controversial research to reach their conclusions, and that one of them was not an expert in the field of carbon monoxide poisoning. Earlier in the day, Khaws friend, Victor Cheong Mun Khan, a Malaysian plastic surgeon whom he met when they worked together at Chinese University, also testified on his behalf. Calling Khaw a well-mannered, devoted family man, Cheong described his friend as a very clever man who knows a lot, and he knows how to take care of things. However, Cheong said he discovered in 2007 that Khaw and his wife were no longer close, and said Wong had discovered Khaw was having an affair in 2013, from friends during a party at the couples holiday home. He said Khaw later admitted cheating on his wife with his student, Shara Lee, who started out by teaching his children Chinese. The friendship later turned romantic, Khaw told him. During a post-arrest interview with police, Khaw told officers that Lily, who knew about the yoga ball and carbon monoxide, had used it to commit suicide. But on the stand, Cheong remembered Lily as a cheerful and happy girl. Eunice Li Lok-ting, the daughters ex-schoolmate, remembered her as a clever and rebellious girl, who excelled in humanities subjects. She said when Lily, who enjoyed playing pranks on people, ran into trouble she was the type to ask others for advice before tackling something herself. The trial continues before Mrs Justice Judianna Barnes Wai-ling. This article Yoga ball murder trial: putting deadly gas in ball was extremely dangerous and a crazy thing for Malaysian professor to do, expert tells Hong Kong court first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. Shares of Chinese mining company Zijin Mining fell as much as 4.6 per cent on Thursday on concerns that it may be paying too much with its C$1.8 billion (US$1.39 billion) offer for Vancouver-based Nevsun Resources. Zijins offer of C$6 a share, its biggest overseas acquisition since it went public in Hong Kong in 2003, is at a 26 per cent premium and trumps a rival bid by Toronto-based Lundin Mining of C$4.75 per share. The acquisition, which is subject to a formal agreement, is not big enough to require Zijin shareholders approval. Nevsun owns 60 per cent of the Bisha copper and zinc mine in Eritrea, east Africa, and 60 to 100 per cent interests in two sections of the Timok copper and gold mine in Serbia, in eastern Europe. Zijins 26 per cent offer premium is high relative to the around 10 per cent premium seen in most deals worth US$1 billion and above, said Argonaut Securities analyst Helen Lau. It doesnt leave much room for earnings per share accretion for shareholders. The production cost of the Eritrea project is relatively high, while the Serbia exploration assets potential valuation of US$1.8 billion based on a copper price of US$3.15 per pound according to Zijins filing is too optimistic, she said. Bisha produced 95,000 tonnes of zinc last year, incurring total cash-based production costs of 97 US cents per pound, and 8,000 tonnes of copper at cash costs of US$1.72 a pound. The mine is expected to be economically viable for just over four more years, but nearby areas have large resources worthy of further development, Zijin said. The upper zone of the Timok mine, 245km (152 miles) from Serbias capital Belgrade, needs an estimated US$574 million to bring it to production, which could start as early as 2022. It is estimated to have 10 years of life, averaging 86,000 tonnes a year, at 92 US cents per tonne of copper in cash costs, according to a pre-feasibility report. The lower zone of the mine is under exploration. Story continues Nevsun posted a net loss of US$8.75 million in the years first half on revenue of US$183 million, and a loss of US$99.6 million last year due to exploration and asset impairment costs. Guotai Junan Securities analyst Kevin Guo said that while Zijins offer appeared aggressive, he expected its post-deal debt load would still be within acceptable levels. Likely lower interest loans from mainland Chinese banks under Beijings Belt and Road Initiative global trade development plan would also help cut its finance costs. Zijin shares closed 2.8 per cent lower on Thursday at HK$2.74. This article Zijin Mining falls on concerns it is paying too much in US$1.39 billion Canadian takeover 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: Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460858 09-07-2018 11:33 AM Post: #1 Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights Advertisement You just need to see who is doing all the winning !!!!!!!! ''With the Syrian Army poised to flush out militants active in the Golan Heights area, Damascus is close to wrapping up its campaign to free southern Syria. The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman believes that Washington could recognize the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of the Jewish state, the Israeli newspaper Hayom reported. In an interview with the Hebrew language daily, Friedman said that he expects the Golan Heights could remain under Israeli control forever. I cannot honestly imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is not part of Israel forever, Friedman said.'' Not hard to see who is behind all the worlds strife at present !You just need to see who is doing all the winning !!!!!!!!''With the Syrian Army poised to flush out militants active in the Golan Heights area, Damascus is close to wrapping up its campaign to free southern Syria.The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman believes that Washington could recognize the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of the Jewish state, the Israeli newspaper Hayom reported.In an interview with the Hebrew language daily, Friedman said that he expects the Golan Heights could remain under Israeli control forever.I cannot honestly imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is not part of Israel forever, Friedman said.'' LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 348173 09-07-2018 11:52 AM Post: #2 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights The guys a f ing wanker LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460858 09-07-2018 12:41 PM Post: #3 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israels capital , check . US moves Embassy there, check. Trump stops all Humanitarian Aid to the Palestinians, check . US attacks Syria for Netanyahu, check. US stops funding of the UN for voicing concern for the Palestinians, check. US sanctions Iran for Netanyahu, check . US breaks the Iranian deal that was hammered out by Obama and the UN, check. US to recognize SOVEREIGN Syrian territory as Israels, check. Wipe your mouth Trump ! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460868 09-07-2018 01:07 PM Post: #4 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights Thanks to hillary and odama, NY will be the next recognized state of israel. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 412063 09-07-2018 01:27 PM Post: #5 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 11:33 AM) Not hard to see who is behind all the worlds strife at present ! You just need to see who is doing all the winning !!!!!!!! ''With the Syrian Army poised to flush out militants active in the Golan Heights area, Damascus is close to wrapping up its campaign to free southern Syria. The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman believes that Washington could recognize the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of the Jewish state, the Israeli newspaper Hayom reported. In an interview with the Hebrew language daily, Friedman said that he expects the Golan Heights could remain under Israeli control forever. I cannot honestly imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is not part of Israel forever, Friedman said.'' go to stormfront with you hatred of people of a fake race LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 412063 09-07-2018 01:27 PM Post: #6 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:07 PM) Thanks to hillary and odama, NY will be the next recognized state of israel. almost half of all Jews on earth live in NYC almost half of all Jews on earth live in NYC LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460868 09-07-2018 01:32 PM Post: #7 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:27 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:07 PM) Thanks to hillary and odama, NY will be the next recognized state of israel. almost half of all Jews on earth live in NYC They are currently making new towns and villages all over upstate ny. Monroe...monticello...bloomingburg, liberty, sullivan, orande, ulster, green, rcountys are pretty much 'occupied'. They are currently making new towns and villages all over upstate ny.Monroe...monticello...bloomingburg, liberty, sullivan, orande, ulster, green, rcountys are pretty much 'occupied'. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 451040 09-07-2018 01:33 PM Post: #8 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:32 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:27 PM) almost half of all Jews on earth live in NYC They are currently making new towns and villages all over upstate ny. Monroe...monticello...bloomingburg, liberty, sullivan, orande, ulster, green, rcountys are pretty much 'occupied'. they may have to knock down some old structures to make way? they may have to knock down some old structures to make way? singing spider terrarising the 'hood User ID: 460870 09-07-2018 01:34 PM Posts: 21,289 Post: #9 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 11:33 AM) Not hard to see who is behind all the worlds strife at present ! You just need to see who is doing all the winning !!!!!!!! ''With the Syrian Army poised to flush out militants active in the Golan Heights area, Damascus is close to wrapping up its campaign to free southern Syria. The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman believes that Washington could recognize the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of the Jewish state, the Israeli newspaper Hayom reported. In an interview with the Hebrew language daily, Friedman said that he expects the Golan Heights could remain under Israeli control forever. I cannot honestly imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is not part of Israel forever, Friedman said.'' so if Russia had conquered Crimea with military violence it would be a legitimate part of Russia? so if Russia had conquered Crimea with military violence it would be a legitimate part of Russia? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY nobody starts at point zero (This post was last modified: 09-07-2018 01:35 PM by singing spider .) LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 451695 09-07-2018 01:35 PM Post: #10 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:27 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:07 PM) Thanks to hillary and odama, NY will be the next recognized state of israel. almost half of all Jews on earth live in NYC Jew York is their home away from home. Lots of money changing and usury to be done in that city. Its the financial hub of the world. A Jewish paradise. Tons of blood money being traded. Home of the Federal Reserve and Jew York Stock Exchange. Jew York is their home away from home. Lots of money changing and usury to be done in that city. Its the financial hub of the world. A Jewish paradise. Tons of blood money being traded. Home of the Federal Reserve and Jew York Stock Exchange. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 451695 09-07-2018 01:38 PM Post: #11 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 12:41 PM) Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israels capital , check . US moves Embassy there, check. Trump stops all Humanitarian Aid to the Palestinians, check . US attacks Syria for Netanyahu, check. US stops funding of the UN for voicing concern for the Palestinians, check. US sanctions Iran for Netanyahu, check . US breaks the Iranian deal that was hammered out by Obama and the UN, check. US to recognize SOVEREIGN Syrian territory as Israels, check. Wipe your mouth Trump ! Donald Trump is king shabbos goy. God it is so disgusting. This country is totally controlled by Israel. And these traitors are all too eager to do its bidding. Makes me sick. Donald Trump is king shabbos goy. God it is so disgusting. This country is totally controlled by Israel. And these traitors are all too eager to do its bidding. Makes me sick. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 442026 09-07-2018 01:47 PM Post: #12 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:35 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:27 PM) almost half of all Jews on earth live in NYC Jew York is their home away from home. Lots of money changing and usury to be done in that city. Its the financial hub of the world. A Jewish paradise. Tons of blood money being traded. Home of the Federal Reserve and Jew York Stock Exchange. lots of missing children lots of missing children LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460868 09-07-2018 01:49 PM Post: #13 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:33 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 01:32 PM) They are currently making new towns and villages all over upstate ny. Monroe...monticello...bloomingburg, liberty, sullivan, orande, ulster, green, rcountys are pretty much 'occupied'. they may have to knock down some old structures to make way? No..buying up foreclosed properties using asian realtors. No..buying up foreclosed properties using asian realtors. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459909 09-07-2018 01:54 PM Post: #14 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights Zionism has no future. Serving Zionist interests is Death.Zionism has no future. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460858 09-07-2018 01:58 PM Post: #15 RE: Envoy Says US May Recognize Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights Trump recognizing the Golan as belonging to Israel will see a huge chunk of "Greater Israel" come to fruition . The Saudis will give them another chunk and if Bibi gets his Cave Troll to take out Iran........................... Advertisement This recipe originally appeared on Food52. Mashups of otherwise perfect standalone recipes can get clangy and complicatedyou probably wouldnt want to meld grilled cheese with wedge salad or pulled pork with pizza. (Or would you?) Sometimes, however, their component parts overlap so naturally and harmoniously that bringing them together can only be additive, not muddying, making something that both honors the originals and gives you something distinctly memorable and new. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the path that led Marcy Ragana New Jersey-based caterer and personal chef who once lived in Perugia, Italyto combine some of the key elements and tricks from three Italian summer classics: panzanella, grilled bruschetta, and tomato caprese. The Venn diagram of all of these dishes, though born in disparate regions of Italy, have natural intersections that have led to plenty of mashups of two of the three (grilled panzanellas abound, as does the occasional panzanella caprese.) But Ragans recipe is the simplest and smartest combination of all three Ive seen. Advertisement Advertisement Panzanella, from Tuscany, is a salad meant to perk up stale bread by soaking it with, typically, tomato, basil, onions, vinegar, and olive oil. (Tuscan bread is traditionally unsalted so, flavor-wise, this is a big improvement). The thought of using stale bread to make panzanella never really appealed to me, Ragan says. So I fired up my grill and decided to grill the bread instead. If you dont have a grill, you can use a grill pan or broiler insteadyou just want a good toast and a little char. Next, she borrowed a trick from the simplest Roman form of bruschetta: toasted olive oildribbled bread gently swiped with a whole clove of garlic, which is both the easiest way to make garlic bread and the easiest way to garlic breadify anything else youre makingmore elaborate crostini, griddled sandwiches, fondue dunkers, six-minute egg soldiers, French (or Tuscan) onion soup croutons, and now panzanella. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Caprese salad, from the island of Capri, layers slices of mozzarella, tomato, and basil in a tidy, delicious interpretation of the Italian flag. Ragans recipe, already perfumed with basil, gets caprese-ed with the addition of cubed fresh mozzarellaa cold, creamy relief from the tang of tomato juice and vinegar, a little satisfying chew against squish and crunch. Advertisement The last trick that ties them all together is pre-salting the tomatoes while you prep the rest, both to season them well and to wick some of the juices (aka tomato water) away, to be re-deployed as dressing in exactly the amount you want. And thus grilled panzanella caprese is born from influences all over Italy, with just five ingredients from the market and three from the pantry. I dare you to show me another three-way mashup thats this simple, or this good. Serves 8 to 12 1 sourdough boule (14-16 ounces), sliced about 3/4-inch thick 1 pound fresh mozzarella, cubed into approximately 1/2-inch cubes 2 pounds fresh ripe tomatoes, cubed into approximately 3/4-inch cubes cup chopped fresh basil leaves 1 to 2 large cloves fresh garlic, papery skin off and left whole 1 cup good olive oil or extra virgin olive oil (you can use 1/2 cup regular olive oil for grilling and 1/2 cup good extra virgin for the salad if you prefer) sea salt or kosher salt, to taste 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar See the full recipe on Food52. More from Food52 The Crepe That Introduced Me to France When Grandpere Wasnt Around To A Traditional Chicken Dish from Lyon That Comes Together in Under an Hour The Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies Our Staff Is Obsessed With How to Turn 7 Eggplants Into a Week of Meals A Haunted, Crawfish-Filled Weekend in Savannahs Historic District When I Came Out to My Parents, Kimchi Fried Rice Held Us Together This post is part of Outward, Slates home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture. Read more here. When a population is emerging from under a cloud of fear that has hung over it for a generation, how is it best to discuss risks they face without appearing to shove them right back underneath again? Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report about an alarming rise in STI diagnoses over the past year. More than 200,000 more cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis were diagnosed last year than in 2016, which had previously held the record for the most diagnoses. Gonorrhea cases increased by 67 percent, and more than 1.7 million cases of chlamydia were diagnosed, 45 percent of which were in young women from the ages of 15 to 24. Of the more than 30,000 cases of syphilis, nearly 70 percent were in men who have sex with other men, aka MSM. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CDC data do not make clear if the increased rate of diagnosis is due to a surge in infections or an uptick in testing, which results in the identification (and treatment) of more cases. What is apparent is the need for medical providers to be much more vigilant in screening their patients for STIs. The new numbers shouldnt make anyone panic. They should convince doctors that in 2018, STI testing must be a part of routine care. Caught early enough, syphilis is reasonably easy to cure with common antibiotics. It usually presents with a sore near the site of infection or in a later stage with rash and fever. Left untreated for too long, though, it can cause severe organ damage, invade the nervous system, and has the potential to be fatal. It can also cause serious birth defects if untreated during pregnancy, a fact worth considering even when focusing on MSM, given that many also have sex with women. Advertisement "Among gay men, public health has done a great job of getting more people tested, hence we have this surveillance bias. Neal D. Goldstein While raising concerns about the number of STI cases, what the CDC report doesnt do is give any reasons to explain the rise. Its difficult to know what factor or factors may be having a significant effect on these numbers. An accurate discussion of the increasing rates on infection is complicated and defies easy explanation. Advertisement The CDC report unfortunately confirms anecdotal reports from the local health departments I work with. We have known about the trajectory of the increase in the big 3 bacterial STIs for several years, but it is still shocking and alarming to see these statistics, Neal D. Goldstein told me. Goldstein is an assistant research professor of epidemiology at the the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. While syphilis is particularly concerning among MSM, it remains very treatable. Advertisement We also need to recognize there is a large racial disparity in these numbers, and be careful that this doesnt get used to further marginalize and stigmatize any group, Goldstein continued. Data indicate that black and Hispanic MSM are more likely to screen positive for syphilis. But if you look at the behavior in these groups, especially among black MSM, they actually have fewer sexual partners and more condom use. This paradox can be in that smaller sexual networks and pools of sexual partners make it easier for STIs like HIV and syphilis to move around in these groups, through no fault of the men. Advertisement Kim Toevs, STD-HIVadolescent sexual health equity director for Multnomah County Health Department, agreed. When we look at mathematic modeling of disease transmission, completely agnostic of moral judgment, things that tip the balance to keep an infection propagating have to do with infectiousness of the microbe or virus, duration of infection, frequency of partner overlap or change, and number of partners, Toevs said. The Multnomah County Health Departments STD-prevention program runs the main full-service STI clinic for Oregon and southwest Washington. Toevs attended at the CDC conference where the new STI report was presented. Advertisement Advertisement The size of the sexual network can also concentrate and increase risk of disease, higher with a smaller sexual network like racial minority populations, she told me. Racial disparities remain egregiously high. These are a result of long term structural racism and inequities in terms of housing, education, health care, and criminal justice. We are going to have to work hard upstream and downstream to solve these inequities. In addition to racial disparities in syphilis rates, other factors behind the numbers in the CDC bear further consideration. Treatment as prevention is among the methods of preventing the spread of HIV that doesnt require the use of condoms. For HIV-infected people who take a combination of medications (commonly known as HAART) to lower the amount of virus in their bodies to levels undetectable in blood tests, there is no risk of passing the virus to sexual partners. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, a once-daily medication that is highly effective at lowering risk of infection when taken consistently by uninfected people, is an additional condom-free means of preventing the spread of HIV. Advertisement We have really effective ways to reduce HIV risk that dont involve condoms, but unfortunately they dont protect against bacterial STIs, said Toevs. There is a lot of safe sex going on vis-a-vis HIV, but not bacterial STIs. And in a community that has been so impacted for so long in such a deep traumatic way about HIV, it is really no wonder that folks cannot get the same level of motivation going for all condom all the time for things that can be treated with antibiotics. Advertisement Advertisement Many individuals see HIV as a chronic, manageable condition and are willing to forego using a condom, especially since the introduction of HAART, said Goldstein. However, attributing the rise in STI diagnoses entirely to complacency about HIV likely misses other contributing factors. Advertisement Among gay men, public health has done a great job of getting more people tested, hence we have this surveillance bias, Goldstein continued. Especially in the era of PrEP, as PrEP requires regular visits to the provider (every three months if you follow CDC guidelines) and STI screening. This may just be an artifact of more frequent testing. PrEP hasnt been linked to an increase of STIs, said Pierre-Cedric Crouch, director of nursing at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. In fact, recent research has shown that PrEP can help people identify and treat these infections quickly. Some researchers have raised concern that use of PrEP will lead men to engage in riskier sex than they have otherwise. But Crouch disagrees, citing new research showing that men taking the medication did not have an increase in other infections. Advertisement While syphilis is a serious infection, these increases are a call to action and not a call to panic, said Crouch. Prevention strategies making sex unpopular have never been effective, and condoms arent always feasible for people to use. There are more realistic interventions that we still need to explore, such as increased easy access to rapid testing, or using antibiotics after sex which have been shown to decrease syphilis and chlamydia rates. Advertisement Advertisement When I spoke to Crouch and other providers of medical care to MSM for an earlier article about PrEP, I heard a consistent message about the importance of avoiding stigma and helping MSM to recover from the trauma of the AIDS crisis and reclaim sex without the specter of disease. The Los Angeles LGBT Centers F*ck W/o Fear campaign was easily the most evocatively named PrEP awareness campaign I came across, delivering the message with refreshing clarity. (It appears to have been replaced by PrEPd AF, which is similarly frank.) Advertisement Advertisement Whats great about our bold F*ck W/Out Fear campaign: It encouraged medical providers to educate their clients not only about HIV but also about STDs, and it allowed everyone to discuss all things pertaining to sexual health in a sex-positive manner, said Jeffrey Rodriguez, the senior program manager of the centers Sexual Health Education Program. We have to educate and empower gay and bisexual men of all ages to make good sexual health decisions based on whats right for them. Everyone I spoke with viewed the new CDC report as an indication that too few people are aware of their own risks of STIs like syphilis, and too few providers are screening and treating for it appropriately. Advertisement Advertisement Most people do not know about syphilis, let alone how its contracted, said Rodriguez. Just as alarming, there are plenty of providers globally who dont know who should be tested for syphilis and how to treat it correctly. All men who have sex with other men should know what their risks are, and all providers who treat MSMwhich is to say, all providers who treat men, since you can never know if patients are telling you everythingshould recognize the illness and know how to manage it. But taking these new data and using them as a means of shaping behavior through fear or stigma is unlikely to do anything but make the problem worse. As Kim Toevs put it, Shame is worthless for motivating health behavior change. Want more Outward? Queer your ears with our monthly podcast, available via Apple, Google, and most other platforms. The investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has proceeded to a grand jury, which could be a prelude for criminal charges, the Washington Post reported. The grand jury has been in use for months, the Post said, an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified. The newspaper noted that the grand jury has called multiple witnesses. McCabe was fired in March after months of criticism from conservatives and President Trump for McCabes role in the Russia investigation and his wifes political connection to Clinton ally and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe when she ran for the Virginia Senate in 2015. This tenuous connection between McCabe and Clinton became one of the foundations of Trumps witch hunt or hoax narrative used to discredit the FBI and the special counsels probe of the Trump campaigns possible interactions with Russia. These feverish allegations from Trump and other conservatives, however, were not the reasons given by Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he fired McCabe one day before McCabe was due to retire. Instead, Sessions cited an inspector generals report that said McCabe had lied to investigators and misled thenFBI Director James Comey about information McCabe directed be disclosed to a Wall Street Journal reporter. The Department of Justices inspector general then referred the report to federal prosecutors to investigate for possible criminal charges. An anonymous New York Times op-ed written by a senior Trump administration official was published on Wednesday. The person says they are working to frustrate the president because he is amoral, unprincipled, inconsistent, and dangerous. This author described themselves as an unsung hero who is part of the resistance, and the damning essay comes on the heels of an explosive new book about the Trump White House from award-winning journalist Bob Woodward. Both the op-ed and Woodwards reporting were subjects of this weeks Political Gabfest podcast from Slate, hosted by Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine, John Dickerson of CBS This Morning and the Atlantic, and David Plotz of Atlas Obscura. Read a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, below. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Get the Political Gabfest free every week via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. David Plotz: John, lets start with you. Why has this op-ed in the Times so captured the imagination? Does it really represent any change? John Dickerson: I kind of feel like its basically a different form of what weve read in Michael Wolffs book and what we are reading in Bob Woodwards book. Instead of sitting down for an interview with an author and then having the author put it into a narrative, this person just sat down and wrote an op-ed. I think its worth noting that what this person is describing is an anti-democratic organization inside the White House to thwart the will of the people, by the way. Advertisement Emily Bazelon: A slow coup, effectively. Its something that does not appear to be constitutional or within the parameters of separation of powers in our governmental structure as we know it, and yet, perhaps, crucial. Plotz: Is this person an unsung hero or are they part of something? Is it heroic to undermine a very dangerous, unreliable, inconsistent president whos a threat to the nation, or is it cowardly to hide anonymously and to not confront the president directly? Advertisement Dickerson: David Frum wrote a strongly argued piece saying, basically, this person should have come out and named themselves [in order to] be the first step in a constitutional response to the argument made in the op-ed, and the one made off the record to various journalists and to Bob Woodward, which is that the president is unfit for the job. Advertisement Bazelon: This is the 25th Amendment fantasy. Dickerson: I hope Im not doing any injury to Davids argument, but his argument is that people have to stand up and be counted, because that would then initiate the proper response to an administration. To not do so is actually worse because it creates paranoia in the chief executive and it just muddles things. [Tom] Nichols point, in responding, was if this person had said who they were, the conversation would immediately goeven more sooner than it already hasto a dissection of where they came from, whom they worked for, whether they had voted for Republicans all their life, whether they were an elite, whether they were not elite. Advertisement Advertisement All of those questions would have taken away from the central point, which is that the president is morally unfit for the office, which is a central claim of the piece. I wonder what either of you thought about the fact that the piece basically says, Well, weve kept the president from doing all these horrible things, although it doesnt really say what those horrible things are. Ive heard that a lot in the course of this administrationofficials saying, Oh, if we could tell you what we stopped him from doing. I say, Well, OK, so tell me, and they dont. That actually, I find, incredibly underwhelming. Advertisement Bazelon: Well, isnt that the conundrum, if I may use the word, about this piece? In order to avoid all the personalizing you just laid out, John, it has to have this level of abstraction, which then makes it impossible to evaluate what we really think about what the person is doing. It seems like, look, weve had some sense all along that people arent obeying every order President Trump gives, that its to some greater extent than other presidencies, but this made it feel like we had moved into this notion of a coup, which seems to have crossed some line. Yet we still dont have the specifics to really know. Advertisement Plotz: Well, I disagree with you guys when you say we dont have the specifics. We do have a number of specifics. Bazelon: From Woodwards book and from Wolffs book. Plotz: We know that Jim Mattis has delayed the transgender ban that the president proposed. Woodwards book suggests that Gary Cohn at least made efforts to stop the president from withdrawing from NAFTA and from withdrawing from a South Korean trade agreement. Again, we dont know, but we think we know that Don McGahn prevented the president from firing, who, [special counsel Robert] Mueller? Advertisement Advertisement Bazelon: [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions. Dickerson: Mueller and Sessions. And maybe [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein too. Plotz: We do have at least a pretty decent knowledge of episodes that would have been damaging to the nation and damaging to our sense of how the countrys supposed to work. While its true the op-ed writer didnt say anything specific, we do have evidence from other places that suggest [that]. Advertisement Bazelon: How does that change the analysis for you? Does that make it feel like we already knew about this and we have essentially become comfortable with it as a way of containing the worst impulses of a very erratic and powerful man, or does it make you feel like this alarming? Plotz: Well, I come back to the point that a Republican friend of mine made to me the other weekthe White House should be filled with people who are loyally carrying out the presidents agenda and working to do what he was believed he was elected to do. These other branches of government, notably the legislature, should be working to monitor, check, limit what hes doing. Again, what is overwhelmingly terrible, and alarming and evident, is that the legislature, and in particular the Republicans who control both houses of Congress, have been absolutely unwilling to challenge the president, and that continues to be the principal problem in the country. Its not the problem in the White House. Its the problem in the legislature, to my mind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dickerson: I just want to go back and underscore something Emily said, which I think is just exactly right about the op-ed itself. Were trying to figure out what about the op-ed has a special magic or doesnt. I think the abstraction allows it to have some authority in the sense that the author is the everyperson, or can be. The more specific it gets, the less anonymity is protected, and therefore, it never gets to the final [point], which is, We stopped the president from doing X, Y, and Z. Advertisement Bazelon: They make it sound like a conspiracy of officials within the administration who are working together. Dickerson: Yeah. Its not just policy disagreements. Maybe Im imputing an argument that isnt in it, but the fact that the Times felt it was necessary to run this anonymous op-ed and the weight its being given suggest this is not just [about things like how the president] runs bad meetings or hes impetuous, but that we literally have been on the brink and been saved, which by the way, being on the brink is something Woodward quotes Rob Porter, the former staff secretary, as basically saying in terms of describing the chaos in the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Plotz: You dont think that blowing up the relationship with South Korea would be an absolutely catastrophic act, or to blow up NAFTA unilaterally would be a catastrophic act? Bazelon: If he really had a sustaining preference for blowing up NAFTA or the South Korea agreement, stealing one letter off his desk wouldnt take care of the problem. You could even argue that these conspirators in the administrationlets use that wordare fulfilling his will in some larger way, and theyve divined that his impetuous, momentary, whimlike proclamations are not supposed to be followed. Again, none of this is how we imagined the operation working. Dickerson: You cannot have a presidency that has a cabal inside that is keeping the country safe. Congressthey should maybe look into this. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, essentially in response to the Times op-ed, said, Yeah, this is what Ive been talking about for a long time. In fact, he has. Advertisement Plotz: Yeah, and he quit. Dickerson: Well, right, exactly. The point is like, OK, this is what youve been talking about, but your role is to do something. Whether youre pro-Trump and you think this is an anti-democratic cabal, or youre anti-Trump and you think, Gee, this is not a way to run a railroad, and its going to get America into a problem when it has to face a real crisis, somebody should get in and sort this out. Guess whose job that is? Thats Congress job. Advertisement Advertisement Bazelon: The other thing that really struck me from the Woodward book and this op-ed: Trumps humiliation hit a new level. Thats what feels different to me. Hes being publicly flayed and just embarrassed. I didnt feel sympathy for him in his response, but you could see it and feel it. Its like a bear being poked in a cage, and that is really unsafe to me. Advertisement What I feel deeply confounded by and suspicious of is the virtue of this supposed unsung hero publishing this piece. If the point that youre providing is this stealth, quietI am not using the word resistance; I think thats ludicrouscabal to contain the [presidents] worst impulses, announcing it, saying, You dont even fully grasp that this is happening is going to trigger all his worst paranoia. All I can conclude is that this person either just convinced himself or herself that people needed to know somehow, or is after a book deal in two yearslike theres some really craven, self-serving impulse behind the whole thing because it just seems like the opposite of helpful. Advertisement Dickerson: That does not help Gen. Mattis in his dealing withif you believe the premise of the op-ed, which is that there need to be these guardrailsthe adults in the room. Youre not helping those adults. One of the things that somebody who is very close to [former] Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson told me about his initial days was that Tillerson had been told and was trying to act out the idea that he could never be seen as the adult in the room with this president, or else that would immediately get you on the bad list with the president. Advertisement Advertisement The op-ed had a line that I found very powerful, which is in a sense offending the presidentthat the good things that have happened in the administration have happened in spite of the president and not because of him. What we know of this president is that he is very concerned about taking credit for things that hes done and things over which hes had no dominion, like the safety of U.S. airlines. Advertisement To hit him right there, because thats been his rebuttal to Woodward, is essentially, like, even if this were all true, it doesnt matterunemployment is low. Manufacturing jobs are up. Were talking to North Korea. Plotz: One point that Ezra Klein made is that this op-ed is not, in substance, that different from all the leaking that people in the White House are constantly doing to reporters, and from all the leaking theyve now done to Bob Woodward. Does it in fact represent something different than that ass covering and reputation protecting thats being done in these other cases? John, youre a deep scholar of Washington, and youve seen Woodward at work your whole life, essentially. What impact do you think this book might have, if any? Whats its value to history or to the present or to anything? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dickerson: We know [Woodwards] quite thorough. All these conversations are recorded. In speaking to administrations in the past whove had to deal with him when hes written books, what happens at first is they dont want to cooperate. Then he comes in and says, I have these documents and this memo and this thing, and hes able to paint the picture of a moment using authenticated documents and statements about what was happening. Then the administrations think, OK, hes got whats happened, so we need to participate in order to kind of try to shave off the rough edges. I think it has a powerful effect. I think that things that are said in the book, its not just hearsay. Advertisement Advertisement Theres a lot of this to come, and it will initiate a series of responses. I think you could argue the op-ed is maybe a response to the book. Maybe not; we dont know the timeline. I think that it will create its own set of reverberations. Its also happening in a context, which is that this is not the first time weve heard these stories. I think that it ends up, because of where it is and who wrote it, being a kind of definitive look, even though the presidents defenders would say, Absolutely not. Because of all thats come before, people are basically saying, This has the ring of truth. Advertisement Bazelon: What do we make of [John] Kelly and Mattis absolute denials in the context of all of this? Advertisement Dickerson: Well, the denials are so blanket. Sorry, theyre not so blanket. Bazelon: No, theyre specific. Dickerson: Right, so the truth of what is reported may be correct, but a word might be off, and that gives you the hole through which to make your denial. Bazelon: You think? I dont read denial like that. I think [a denial] is, I did not say these things, and I did not speak to this person. Dickerson: Your point is that the denial is not just the specifics, but the entire spiritI did not say this specific thing nor anything like that. Bazelon: I assumed that Kelly was lying, but I paused on Mattis just because I dont think we can tell that Woodward actually spoke to Mattis, right? Advertisement Dickerson: David Martin of CBS reported that they did not speak. Bazelon: Right. In that sense, it did make me wonder if it was possible that people hadnt misreported Mattis remarks, and if it seems like Mattis could have said things like that but they didnt actually come from him. I dont know how much it matters, but David, you think Im just being naive? Plotz: I dont know. Mattis continues to strike me as the most honorable person in this administration, and hes also been pretty quiet. There hasnt been a lot coming out from him. Bazelon: I could imagine hes had thoughts like that, but I actually do imagine its possible that he didnt say things like that out loud. Plotz: Was he the one who [compared the president to a] fifth- or sixth-grader? Bazelon: Yes, which also just seemed not like [him]I mean, youre the Mattis watcher. Plotz: Spoken like a man who doesnt have children because I have a fifth-grader who is so much more morally capable. Mattis has it wrong about what fifth-graders are like. This ones finally almost over, thank God. How many more months could we take of national media based in New York ferociously tweeting about transit policy? Its almost as bad as national media based in Washington tweeting about the rain. Next Thursday, New York state voters will determine whether they want to give Gov. Andrew Cuomo a third term or deport Cynthia Nixon to Albany instead. The scant public polling this summer showed Cuomo well clear of Nixon. Either that polling is wrong or Cuomo just enjoys lighting money on fire, because his campaign has spent more than $8 million in the last three weeks. The New York Times endorsed Cuomo this week, arguing that he may have been sort of corrupt and lousy these last two terms, but the third term? The third terms going to be different. As for his competitor: Nixons campaign, the Times wrote, has, at times, boiled down to a largely negative message that she is not Andrew Cuomo and while that can indeed seem an appealing truth, it is not, in the end, enough. That even a Cuomo endorsement admits its been fun to watch Cuomo get attacked is a good example of why this race, while probably not close, is still grabbing a top Hot Seats spot. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 6 Vote(s) - 1.67 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific spo snouou Vocem sine nomine audivit! User ID: 350320 09-07-2018 12:58 PM Posts: 67,593 Post: #1 Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific Advertisement Leaders of Pacific Forum Island countries call on United States to return to Paris agreement on climate change Quote: The first assertion of the strongly worded Boe Declaration says all Pacific nations, including Australia, reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific, and our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris agreement. Leaders reaffirmed the importance of immediate urgent action to combat climate change and called on countries, particularly large emitters, to fully implement their mitigation targets, including through the development and transfer of renewable energy, in line with committed timeframes. more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...ic-islands more: LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460868 09-07-2018 01:18 PM Post: #2 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific And they will address climate change as a priority to protect all of those people dying of disease outbreaks and murdered by capitalistic militaries? And they will address climate change as a priority to protect all of those people dying of disease outbreaks and murdered by capitalistic militaries? Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 441875 09-07-2018 04:22 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #3 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific AUSTRALIA: PARIS CLIMATE DEAL DOESNT STOP US BUILDING NEW COAL PLANTS Date: 07/09/18 The Guardian Australia does not need to quit the Paris climate agreement because our commitments are non-binding, and new coal plants can continue to be constructed, according to the resources minister, Matt Canavan. https://www.thegwpf.com/australia-paris-...al-plants/ Seems like the more the AC rants and raves, the more his global warming fraud collapses. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! At the same time Australia's new energy minister is going to build new coal fired power plants:AUSTRALIA: PARIS CLIMATE DEAL DOESNT STOP US BUILDING NEW COAL PLANTSDate: 07/09/18 The GuardianAustralia does not need to quit the Paris climate agreement because our commitments are non-binding, and new coal plants can continue to be constructed, according to the resources minister, Matt Canavan.Seems like the more the AC rants and raves, the more his global warming fraud collapses. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza spo snouou Vocem sine nomine audivit! User ID: 350320 09-07-2018 04:28 PM Posts: 67,593 Post: #4 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 452599 09-07-2018 04:29 PM Post: #5 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific Meanwhile in Fukushima... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 442041 09-07-2018 06:06 PM Post: #6 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific spo snouou Wrote: (09-07-2018 12:58 PM) Leaders of Pacific Forum Island countries call on United States to return to Paris agreement on climate change Quote: The first assertion of the strongly worded Boe Declaration says all Pacific nations, including Australia, reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific, and our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris agreement. Leaders reaffirmed the importance of immediate urgent action to combat climate change and called on countries, particularly large emitters, to fully implement their mitigation targets, including through the development and transfer of renewable energy, in line with committed timeframes. more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...ic-islands This sort of idiocy is what got ex-PM Trumbull booted. He was a closet warmunist. Morrison isn't quite as sensible as Abbott on "Globull Warming" but better than Trumbull or the Ranga. This sort of idiocy is what got ex-PM Trumbull booted.He was a closet warmunist.Morrison isn't quite as sensible as Abbott on "Globull Warming" but better than Trumbull or the Ranga. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 459078 09-07-2018 06:08 PM Post: #7 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific Fukushima, what? Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 441875 09-07-2018 06:08 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #8 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:06 PM) spo snouou Wrote: (09-07-2018 12:58 PM) Leaders of Pacific Forum Island countries call on United States to return to Paris agreement on climate change more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...ic-islands This sort of idiocy is what got ex-PM Trumbull booted. He was a closet warmunist. Morrison isn't quite as sensible as Abbott on "Globull Warming" but better than Trumbull or the Ranga. According to polls a majority of Australians are skeptical of global warming. It is no accident that the Liberal party booted Turdball. According to polls a majority of Australians are skeptical of global warming. It is no accident that the Liberal party booted Turdball. The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 447244 09-07-2018 06:10 PM Post: #9 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific I think Fukushima radiation has climate change beat LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453356 09-07-2018 09:33 PM Post: #10 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific spo snouou Wrote: (09-07-2018 12:58 PM) Leaders of Pacific Forum Island countries call on United States to return to Paris agreement on climate change Quote: The first assertion of the strongly worded Boe Declaration says all Pacific nations, including Australia, reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific, and our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris agreement. Leaders reaffirmed the importance of immediate urgent action to combat climate change and called on countries, particularly large emitters, to fully implement their mitigation targets, including through the development and transfer of renewable energy, in line with committed timeframes. more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...ic-islands USA the pulled out of the Paris agreement on climate change is the only country that has met it'd co2 goal. USA the pulled out of the Paris agreement on climate change is the only country that has met it'd co2 goal. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 445976 09-07-2018 09:35 PM Post: #11 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific Wait till China starts making a large island out of the barrier reefs. Climate change the cry... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 461491 09-11-2018 01:57 AM Post: #12 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:10 PM) I think Fukushima radiation has climate change beat Ah... I see a member of the intellectual "great unwashed" has stood up. Not only is it off topic - but the fear mongering about Fukushima is worse than Climate Change. Something like 99% of the Fukushima radioactivity released is gone. Yeah there is a hot reactor site to clean up. But with an ocean that is 12300 Becquerel per cubic meter and land that is 653 Giga-Becquerel for each 1 square mile by 1 foot piece of dirt (the dirt under that is hotter if anything) it is really hard to do a lot of long term damage to more than a tiny area. Ground zero at Hiroshima is less radioactive than Toyko. Ah...I see a member of the intellectual "great unwashed" has stood up.Not only is it off topic - but the fear mongering about Fukushima is worse than Climate Change.Something like 99% of the Fukushima radioactivity released is gone.Yeah there is a hot reactor site to clean up.But with an ocean that is 12300 Becquerel per cubic meter and land that is 653 Giga-Becquerel for each 1 square mile by 1 foot piece of dirt (the dirt under that is hotter if anything) it is really hard to do a lot of long term damage to more than a tiny area.Ground zero at Hiroshima is less radioactive than Toyko. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 461492 09-11-2018 02:02 AM Post: #13 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific In hot dogs Cars dieIn hot dogs LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 461492 09-11-2018 02:05 AM Post: #14 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific LoP Guest Wrote: (09-11-2018 01:57 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:10 PM) I think Fukushima radiation has climate change beat Ah... I see a member of the intellectual "great unwashed" has stood up. Not only is it off topic - but the fear mongering about Fukushima is worse than Climate Change. Something like 99% of the Fukushima radioactivity released is gone. Yeah there is a hot reactor site to clean up. But with an ocean that is 12300 Becquerel per cubic meter and land that is 653 Giga-Becquerel for each 1 square mile by 1 foot piece of dirt (the dirt under that is hotter if anything) it is really hard to do a lot of long term damage to more than a tiny area. Ground zero at Hiroshima is less radioactive than Toyko. Wrong See cesium half.life And original plume estimates That sh*t in tanks surrounding fuk'ma Aint ambergris WrongSee cesium half.lifeAnd original plume estimatesThat sh*t in tanks surrounding fuk'maAint ambergris spo snouou Vocem sine nomine audivit! User ID: 350320 09-11-2018 02:07 AM Posts: 67,593 Post: #15 RE: Australia signs declaration on climate change 'single greatest threat' to Pacific Natura Naturans Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:08 PM) According to polls make up any old sh*t, will do eh? for someone so sure the warming trend of planet and the changing climate isn't happening you sure do have to repeat your denialist talking points a hell of a lot. come on.. show us what poll? sky news? bolt report? one of the Murdochunt news corp newspaper monopolies we have in every state? make up any old sh*t, will do eh?for someone so sure the warming trend of planet and the changing climate isn't happening you sure do have to repeat your denialist talking points a hell of a lot.come on.. show uswhat poll?sky news?bolt report?one of the Murdochunt news corp newspaper monopolies we have in every state? Advertisement Much of Washington has spent the week focusing on whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. After the revelations of his confirmation hearings, the better question is whether he should be impeached from the federal judiciary. I do not raise that question lightly, but I am certain it must be raised. Newly released emails show that while he was working to move through President George W. Bushs judicial nominees in the early 2000s, Kavanaugh received confidential memos, letters, and talking points of Democratic staffers stolen by GOP Senate aide Manuel Miranda. That includes research and talking points Miranda stole from the Senate server after I had written them for the Senate Judiciary Committee as the chief counsel for nominations for the minority. Advertisement Receiving those memos and letters alone is not an impeachable offense. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No, Kavanaugh should be removed because he was repeatedly asked under oath as part of his 2004 and 2006 confirmation hearings for his position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit about whether he had received such information from Miranda, and each time he falsely denied it. For example, in 2004, Sen. Orrin Hatch asked him directly if he received any documents that appeared to you to have been drafted or prepared by Democratic staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kavanaugh responded, unequivocally, No. In 2006, Sen. Ted Kennedy asked him if he had any regrets about how he treated documents he had received from Miranda that he later learned were stolen. Kavanaugh rejected the premise of the question, restating that he never even saw one of those documents. Advertisement Advertisement Back then the senators did not have the emails that they have now, showing that Miranda sent Kavanaugh numerous documents containing what was plainly research by Democrats. Some of those emails went so far as to warn Kavanaugh not to distribute the Democratic talking points he was being given. If these were documents shared from the Democratic side of the aisle as part of normal business, as Kavanaugh claimed to have believed in his most recent testimony, why would they be labeled not [for] distribution? And why would we share our precise strategy to fight controversial Republican nominations with the Republicans we were fighting? Advertisement Advertisement Another email chain included the subject line spying. Its hard to imagine a more definitive clue than that. Another said Senator Leahys staff has distributed a confidential letter to Dem Counsel and then described for Kavanaugh that precise confidential information we had gathered about a nominee Kavanaugh was boosting. Again, it is illogical to think that we would have just given Miranda this confidential information for him to use against us. But this is precisely what Judge Kavanaugh suggested in his testimony on Wednesday. He is not that naive. In the hearing this week, Sen. Leahy also noted that the previously hidden emails showed that Miranda asked to meet Kavanaugh in person to give him paper files with useful info to map out [Sens. Joe] Biden and [Dianne] Feinstein, and others. The promised information included Biden-speak. Again, this would not have been a normal information exchange. Advertisement Advertisement In response to Leahys questions this week, Kavanaugh made the outlandish claim that it was typical for him to be told what Democrats planned to ask at these combative hearings over controversial nominees, and that this was in fact the coin of the realm. As a Democrat who worked on those questions, I can say definitively that it was not typical at all. Kavanaugh knows this full well. At the time, Kavanaugh was working with Miranda and outside groups to try to force these nominees through the Senate over Democratic objections, and it would have been suicide to give them our research, talking points, strategies, or confidential letters. The GOP senators, their staff, the White House, and outside groups were working intensively to undermine the work of Democratic senators to block the most extreme of President Bushs judicial nominees. Advertisement Kavanaughs actions were dishonorable and dishonest. The Leahy talking points given to Kavanaugh were from my in-depth research into why the Senate had compelling historical precedent for examining Miguel Estradas Department of Justice records, which the White House counsels office was refusing to surrender. Other confidential materials Miranda shared with Kavanaugh related to investigations Democrats were pursuing over how Judge Priscilla Owen had handled an abortion case involving parental consent and about the overlap between her funders and groups with business before the courts of Texas. We would never have provided that informationkey to our strategy to try to block what we considered extremist judicial nominationsto Miranda or to the White House. Advertisement Advertisement During his testimony, Kavanaugh conflated these adversarial proceedings with ones in which Democrats might have cooperated with the other side, like the Patriot Act and airline liability. But these werent hearings on some bill where senators would share their concerns across the aisle to try to get a bipartisan fix on problems in a piece of legislation. These were oppositional proceedings in committee and on the floor over controversial judicial nominees. Kavanaugh knew this just as intimately as I didour sides fought over those nominations intensely. Advertisement It was also an area where Kavanaughs judicial nominations alliance had taken a scorched-earth approach, attacking Democrats ruthlessly. The White Houses closest allies went so far as to call Leahy and other Democrats on the committee anti-Catholic, even running attack ads. Perhaps Kavanaugh was so blinded by his quest to get the most controversial Bush nominees confirmed in 2003 that he did not have any concerns about the bounty of secret memos and letters he was receivingthe full extent of which is not known because so many documents are still secret. But, surely, reasonable questions about what he had been party to would have been considered after the story of the theft exploded in the news, Miranda was forced to resign, and the U.S. Senate sergeant-at-arms began a bipartisan investigation into the files stolen from the Senate? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of November 2003, when the sergeant-at-arms seized the Judiciary Committees servers, Kavanaugh would have been on notice that any of the letters, talking points, or research described as being from Democrats that were provided to him by Miranda were suspect and probably stolen from the Senates server. But he did nothing. He did not come forward to the Senate to provide information about the confidential documents Miranda had given him, which were clearly from the Democrats. Advertisement Kavanaugh also apparently did nothing when the Senate referred the case to the U.S. attorneys office for criminal prosecution. (Miranda was never prosecuted.) Eventually, though, Kavanaugh went even further to help cover up the details of the theft. Advertisement During the hearings on his nomination to the D.C. Circuit a few months after the Miranda news broke, Kavanaugh actively hid his own involvement, lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee by stating unequivocally that he not only knew nothing of the episode, but also never even received any stolen material. Even if Kavanaugh could claim that he didnt have any hint at the time he received the emails that these documents were of suspect provenancewhich I personally find implausiblethere is no reasonable way for him to assert honestly that he had no idea what they were after the revelation of the theft. Any reasonable person would have realized they had been stolen, and certainly someone as smart as Kavanaugh would have too. Advertisement Advertisement But he lied. Under oath. And he did so repeatedly. Significantly, he did so even though a few years earlier he had helped spearhead the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for perjury in a private civil case. Back then Kavanaugh took lying under oath so seriously that he was determined to do everything he could to help remove a president from office. Now we know that he procured his own confirmation to the federal bench by committing the same offense. And he did so not in a private case but in the midst of public hearings for a position of trust, for a lifetime appointment to the federal judiciary. His actions were dishonorable and dishonest. This week, as part of his efforts to be elevated to the highest court in the land, he has calmly continued to deceive, falsely claiming that it would have been perfectly normal for him to receive secret Democratic letters, talking points, and other materials. And if this absurd notion were somehow true, it would not even be consistent with what he testified to 12 and 14 years ago. Back then, he didnt state it would have been normal for him to receive secret Democratic strategy materials. Instead, he explicitly and repeatedly went out of his way to say he never had access to any such materials. These objectively false statements were offered under oath to convince the committee of something that was untrue. It was clearly intentional, with Kavanaugh going so far as to correct Sen. Kennedy when the senator described the document situation accurately. Thats whywithout even getting into other reasonable objections to his nominationhe should not be confirmed. In fact, by his own standard, he should clearly be impeached. Lisa Graves is the co-founder of Documented, which investigates corporate influence on democracy. She is the former chief counsel for nominations for the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice. Read more of Slates coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Kavanaughs Refusal to Recuse Himself From Muellers Cases Tells You Everything You Need to Know Brett Kavanaugh Is Cherry-Picking the Cases He Says Count as Precedent Brett Kavanaugh Shows You Dont Have to Be a Sexual Harasser to Perpetuate a System of Abuse The Documents Cory Booker Released Dont Matter. His I Am Spartacus Moment Did. During Thursdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court, Sen. Cory Booker declared he was having an I am Spartacus moment. Booker said that, at the risk of potential ousting from Senate, he was releasing committee confidential documents regarding Kavanaughs opinions on affirmative action and racial profiling during his time working in President George W. Bushs White House counsels office. The documents themselves didnt reveal much we didnt already know about Kavanaughs views. They show that he took a strong stance against what he described as a naked racial set-aside in Department of Transportation regulations governing affirmative action, and that he also took part in a conversation that considered racial profiling in airport security immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Kavanaugh said he opposed racial profiling in the long-term, but seemed open to it in the short-term.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What was more instructive about Thursdays events was what they demonstrated about the process through which the committee has collected information about Kavanaughs time working in the Bush White House. The emails Booker released were not classified in any way and had no identifying information that could have reasonably led them to be labeled committee confidential. They were withheld from public view by attorney Bill Burck, a friend and former colleague of Kavanaughs who is managing the document request process for the Bush Presidential Library. Burcks potential conflicts of interest dont end there: He is representing Don McGahn, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of President Donald Trumps campaign. Questions in that case could easily appear before the Supreme Court. Further, McGahn was responsible for shepherding Kavanaugh through the confirmation process. Advertisement The documents Booker revealed show that Burck took an expansive approach to guarding information. After chastising Booker for going rogue, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley ultimately released the emails in question, as well as those requested by a number of other Democratic senators. Burck then issued a statement saying he had authorized the document release and mocking Bookers histrionics. Advertisement This would all seem to take some of the air out of Bookers Spartacus moment and eliminate any need for potential proceedings against him for violating Senate rules, which Booker dared his colleagues on the Republican aisle to begin, saying, Bring it on. During previous judicial nominations, the committee had allowed for documents to be designated committee confidential on the basis of bipartisan agreement. This time, that designation was controlled by Grassley, according to the Iowa senator, as part of a deal with Burck. So the lawyer for the current White House counsel, who also happens to be a close friend of the nominee, teamed up with the Republican committee chairman to decree that certain documents were not fit for public consumption, and they did so without any apparent rational basis. Burck himself seemed to concede as much when he stated that he had changed his mind and was allowing the emails to be public. Advertisement Advertisement While the Booker releases were not earth-shattering, Kavanaugh left a long paper trail during his years working in the White House, and some of that paper trail directly contradicts previous testimony Kavanaugh has given to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Progressive groups on Wednesday had called for Senate Democrats to go further and release all of the committee confidential documents to the public before the hearings were over, though theres no indication that Booker or anyone else on the committee plans to do so. Advertisement If the limited document production Democrats were able to induce suggests Kavanaugh has repeatedly misled the committee in the past, its no wonder that they are desperate to fight for the remaining documents. Grassley has not sought documents from Kavanaughs time as staff secretary for Bush, a period the judge has described as formative. Of the documents from his time in the White House Counsels office that were requested, the Trump administration has sought to privilege 100,000 of those without any challenge from the committee. The National Archives, which would normally manage this entire process, has said it has nothing to do with Burcks decision-making. Burck only took charge because the Archives needed until the end of October to complete the document review and Republicans, hoping to confirm the nominee before this Novembers midterm elections, insisted it go ahead outside of the normal schedule. As Booker said of one of the emails in question: The fact that there is nothing in the document thats personal information, theres nothing national security-related, the fact that it was labeled as committee confidential, exposes that this process, sir, is a bit of a sham. That sham will help Kavanaugh be elevated to a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. There can be no dispute that Brett Kavanaughs answers to Senate Judiciary Committee questions have been well rehearsed. As many committee members have observed, his answers to the senators subject areaspecific questions are so intentionally generic that they can be repeated, in toto, at least three area codes away. But while its easy to become hyperfocused on the case names Judge Kavanaugh pulls out time and time againHamdan, Youngstown, Morrison, Nixon, etc.there is a good deal we can learn from the case names Kavanaugh fails to cite, even when they are building blocks of the doctrine he is describing. Indeed, Judge Kavanaughs unnamed cases have proved to be almost as revealing as the decisions he continues to invoke. In at least two crucial areasabortion and marriage equalityits clear that his refusal to acknowledge important precedent tells us almost as much as the cases he can discuss. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the abortion context, Kavanaugh has insisted that he understands the real-world concerns of the groups that worry about Kavanaughs record as well as Donald Trumps promise to seat a justice who would end abortion rights. Senators have questioned him at length about some of his tells, including his use of the phrase abortion on demand; in a colloquy Thursday with Ted Cruz, the nominee also referred to contraception as abortion-inducing drugs. We also learned Thursday that in a memo Kavanaugh wrote in 2003, he acknowledged that the Supreme Court can always overrule Roe v. Wade, despite his claims that it represents settled law. I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level, he wrote, since Court can always overrule its precedent, adding that some conservative justices then on the court would do so. Advertisement Why, one might ask, does this case not enter into the pantheon of Roe and Casey, becoming, for all intents and purposes, precedent on precedent on precedent? Nevertheless, Kavanaugh has sought to reassure senators that he isnt apt to mess with Roe: As a general proposition, I understand the importance of the precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade, Kavanaugh told Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday. It has been reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years. He elaborated, repeatedly referencing 1992s Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, a case that he routinely cites when he talks about Roe as settled law. As he explained it to Feinstein on Wednesday, Casey specifically reconsidered [Roe], applied the stare decisis factors, and decided to reaffirm it. That makes Casey a precedent on precedent. Advertisement Oddly, though, Kavanaughs time clock pretty consistently stops at Casey, and he does not ever seem to mention the landmark 2016 decision in Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt, which not only reaffirmed the core holdings of Roe and Casey but also significantly bolstered the definition of an undue burdenthe kinds of speed bumps government may place in the way of a woman seeking to terminate her pregnancy. Advertisement Advertisement In Whole Womans Health, Justice Breyer, writing for a five-justice majority, struck down several Texas abortion restrictions on clinics in the state, explaining that the undue-burden standard demands that courts consider the burdens a law imposes on abortion access together with the benefits. A law whose burdens outweigh its benefits cannot pass constitutional muster. PostWhole Womans Health, it became clear that courts must assess whether an abortion restriction furthers any valid government purpose, rather than merely defer to a states vague claims that any justification sought for such a restriction is reasonable. For the first time, and in important ways, the mushy undue burden test laid out in Casey had real teeth. As University of CaliforniaIrvine law professor Leah Litman has explained, courts that have sought to erode that test in the years since Whole Womans Health have used all sorts of tricks and devices to pretend that the undue-burden test was some vaporous thing into which all the hopes and dreams of abortion opponents could be packed. In some instances, they have managed to distinguish or mischaracterize it. But in his notorious dissenting opinion in Garza v. Hargan, Kavanaugh simply ignored it. In a move that looks familiar after this week, he cited Roe and Casey and a slew of cases about parental consent. But the directive in Whole Womans Healththat reviewing judges take seriously the burdens placed before women and reckon with the asserted interests proffered by the governmentwent wholly ignored. Why, one might ask, does this case not enter into the pantheon of Roe and Casey, becoming, for all intents and purposes, precedent on precedent on precedent? Perhaps because it doesnt strike Kavanaugh as settled law. Or perhaps because reverse engineering Casey has become the road map to effectively ending legal abortion in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kavanaugh pulled a similar trick on Thursday in a colloquy regarding unenumerated rights with Republican Sen. John Kennedy. The Fifth and 14th Amendments bar the government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and the Supreme Court has long held that this constitutional liberty encompasses certain fundamental rights. In Casey, for instance, the court affirmed that a womens ability to terminate her pregnancy pre-viability is implicit in the meaning of liberty under the Constitution. When Kennedy asked Kavanaugh how the court determines which rights are protected under the Due Process Clause, the nominee cited not Casey but 1997s Washington v. Glucksberg. In that decision, the Supreme Court had ruled that physician-assisted suicide is not a constitutional guarantee. The court declared that only those unenumerated rights and liberties that are deeply rooted in this Nations history and tradition receive protection. And because states have, for centuries, prohibited doctors from hastening a patients death, they may continue to do so today. Advertisement Its painfully clear that Kavanaugh manipulates precedent to expand the reach of decisions he likes while smothering decisions he opposes. Glucksberg purported to announce a restrictive, backward-looking test for fundamental rights analysis. Yet just a few years later, in 2003s Lawrence v. Texas, the court struck down sodomy bans under the Due Process Clauseand failed to cite Glucksberg even once. Instead, the court deployed a more progressive analysis, declaring that times can blind us to certain truths, and that persons in every generation can invoke [the Constitutions] principles in their own search for greater freedom. As Justice Antonin Scalia noted accurately in his dissent, Lawrence significantly eroded Glucksbergs cramped conception of liberty. Advertisement Twelve years later, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the court struck down same-sex marriage bansand expressly limited Glucksberg to its facts, effectively neutering its stingy due-process test. While Glucksbergs history-based approach may have been appropriate for physician-assisted suicide, the court wrote, it is inconsistent with the approach this Court has used in discussing other fundamental rights, including marriage and intimacy. It continued: Advertisement Advertisement If rights were defined by who exercised them in the past, then received practices could serve as their own continued justification and new groups could not invoke rights once denied. This Court has rejected that approach, both with respect to the right to marry and the rights of gays and lesbians. Writing in Slate at the time, NYU School of Law professor Kenji Yoshino described these passages as a wholesale attack on Glucksbergs formulation. The notion that only those liberties deeply rooted in history and tradition are protected by the Constitution, Yoshino concluded, was quickly becoming a bare remnant of abandoned doctrine. And yet, on Thursday, that doctrine is precisely what Kavanaugh cited as the test to determine which enumerated rights receive constitutional safeguards. (He also praised it in a 2017 speech and told Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday that all roads lead to Glucksberg.) The courts approach to these fundamental rights, he declared, is reflected now in the Glucksberg test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No, it isnt. Its reflected in Obergefell, which is resolutely forward-looking, compelling judges to consider the new insights of future generations to protect the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning. Yet Kavanaugh declined to mention this ruling, except when he refused to tell Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris and Chris Coons whether he thought it was correctly decided. When Coons called out Kavanaugh for elevating Glucksberg above Obergefell, the nominee responded that Elena Kagan had also cited Glucksberg favorably during her confirmation hearing. Thats a non sequitur, since, at that time, the court had not decided Obergefell and, in the process, disavowed Glucksberg. Its already painfully clear that Kavanaugh manipulates precedent to expand the reach of decisions he likes (like pro-gun rulings) while smothering decisions he opposes (like Casey). Indeed its well-known that he has cited dissents when they serve his purposes. But the nominees refusalthroughout his hearingsto acknowledge the impact of Whole Womans Health and Obergefell on his analysis of the law takes this cherry-picking to a new level. Its one thing to be poised to take us back to a time before these seminal cases were even decided. Its affirmatively shocking to pretend that they are already wiped off the books. Democratic Sen. Tom Carper survived a rare primary challenge in Delaware on Thursday, in the process denying progressives another signature victory in a year in which theyd already knocked out two 10-term congressmen and claimed several nominations for governor. The Associated Press called the race with about two-thirds of the vote counted and the three-term incumbent up about 28 points, 64 percent to 36 percent, on challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris, an Air Force veteran and community activist making her first run for elected office. Harris entered the race as an underdog against Carper, whos represented Delaware for a combined 40-odd years as a senator, governor, congressman, and state treasurer. But following Ayanna Pressleys stunning upset of Rep. Mike Capuano this week, anything was starting to seem possible for the left. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before her, the 38-year-old Harris paired a progressive policy agenda with a lived-experience argument to try to unseat an older white man who had been a fixture in Democratic politics for decades. But Harris was trying to make historyas the states first female senator, first senator of color, and first openly LGBTQ senatorin a place that was far whiter and more moderate than either of the deep-blue, majority-minority districts where Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez won by double-digits. Ultimately, Delaware Democrats went for the familiar face, keeping the 71-year-old Carper on track for a fourth term. Carpers record as a centrist would have opened him up to a challenge from the left even if the question of identity and representation never came up. But his deep ties to the statemaintained with a Joe Bidenlike reliance on regular Amtrak commutes homehelped him avoid a competitive Senate primary until this year. The progressive case against him: He voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq, opposes Medicare for All, has backed offshore drilling, and has a long history siding with his home states banking industry. Harris, meanwhile, called for Medicare for All, the abolishment of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, legalizing marijuana, ending mass incarceration, and eliminating all student debt. Advertisement Advertisement In the end, Carper won by a sizeable margin. But viewing the results only through a win-loss binary misses the reality that Harris mounted a credible challenge despite being an underfunded first-time candidate up against a man whos been winning statewide races since 1976. Taking down an establishment-backed candidate, like Andrew Gillum did in Florida or Kara Eastman did in Nebraska, is difficult, but not nearly as difficult as taking down an incumbent. As remarkable as Pressleys and Ocasio-Cortezs victories were, the former had the time she spent on the Boston City Council going for her in Massachusetts, while the latter had the good fortune of facing an incumbent in New York who largely ignored her until it was too late. The Democratic establishment has gotten their preferred candidate far more often than they havent this year, and that was the case again on Thursday. That Harris wasnt able to claim a higher share of the vote confirms, once again, that there are limits to where the progressive formula for victory can work now. But the fact Harris made Carper sweat, however briefly, still tells us plenty about where the Democratic Party is todayand where it might head in the future. This man has foughtin more ways than onefor your state, President Trump said about Montanas Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte in a speech there Thursday. He is a fighter and a winner. This was an unmistakable reference to Gianforte body-slamming reporter Ben Jacobs of the Guardian the day before the Montana special election last year. Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him, according to a Fox News reporter who witnessed it. Advertisement After the assault, Gianforte told police that the liberal media is trying to make a story, according to police records uncovered by the Guardian, and Gianfortes spokesperson blamed Jacobs for starting the fight. Gianforte eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and said in a letter to Jacobs, Notwithstanding anyones statements to the contrary, you did not initiate any physical contact with me, and I had no right to assault you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps praise for Gianfortes violence was especially remarkable in light of another moment from Thursdays speech in which Trump predicted that his own impeachment would wreck the political stability of the U.S. Youll have a country thats going to turn into a third world country is what Trump said would happen if he were removed from office despite doing a great job. He speculated that there would be a continuing cycle of impeachments whenever an opposite party controlled the House of Representatives. If it does happen, its your fault, because you didnt go out to vote thats the only way it could happen. Advertisement Todays Democrat party is held hostage by haters left-wing haters, angry mobs, deep-state radicals, and their fake news allies, Trump said, energizing a crowd that had, minutes before, seemed puzzled by his praise for books about him by Fox News host Jeannine Pirro and Fox analyst Gregg Jarrett. Those angry mobs, Trump has said privately, will overturn everything that weve done and theyll do it quickly and violently, he told evangelical leaders during a White House meeting, the New York Times reported. They will end everything immediately. When you look at antifa and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people. When those are the stakes and thats how threatening your opponents are, of course Trump believes its conquer or be conquered. No wonder he thinks roughing up a journalist isnt so bad. On Thursday, Twitter permanently removed conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its platform. The website was the last of the major social platforms to remove Jones and his Infowars site, following Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, all of which gave Jones the boot last month, citing repeated violations of their community standards. Apple Podcasts and Spotify also removed a handful of Infowars podcasts in August, likewise saying that Jones content, which often includes rants on outright falsehoods or worse incitements to hate or violence. Advertisement Specifically, Twitter suspended the accounts @RealAlexJones and @InfoWars from both its core service and Periscope, its live-streaming app. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts previous violations, the company said in a tweet. Twitter says it will continue to monitor other accounts associated with Jones and his InfoWars empire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts past violations. https://t.co/gckzUAV8GL Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 6, 2018 Advertisement Alex Jones traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to sit in on a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about Facebook and Twitters content moderation practices and efforts to curb false news, with Facebooks Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifying. Dorsey then testified again at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Jones was live-broadcasting throughout both hearings and also made himself known in the hallways, all while using Twitter and Periscope. During that time, Jones attempted to commandeer a press interview with Sen. Marco Rubio. Their exchange became so heated that Rubio told Jones that if he didnt stop bothering him, hed take care of you myself. Jones called Rubio a frat boy. Advertisement Advertisement On Aug. 14, Twitter suspended Jones personal account and the Infowars account for a week, citing violations of Twitters policy against inciting violence, after Jones shared a link to a video imploring viewers to get their battle rifles ready to use against the media. Earlier that month, a series of videos and tweets were removed from Twitter after they were unearthed by CNN. Those tweets reportedly violated Twitters guidelines against hateful conduct and harassment. One of the tweets alleged Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivors were paid actors. Another compared David Hogg, one of the Parkland survivors who has risen to prominence as a vocal gun reform activist, to Nazis. The Nazis did wear armbands, David Hogg wears one. The Nazis were a youth movement, they didnt want the guns. And so if the shoe fits, wear it, that since-deleted video said, according to CNN. Advertisement Advertisement Dorsey previously defended his decision not to ban Alex Jones, but that was prior to Wednesdays congressional hearings and a day before the CNN report. We know thats hard for many, but the reason is simple: He hasnt violated our rules, Dorsey tweeted at the time. Well enforce if he does. And well continue to promote a healthy conversational environment by ensuring tweets arent artificially amplified. It appears that Twitter has finally decided that Jones has broken the rules enough times that a permanent ban was in order. Jones joins the ranks of infamous internet far-right provocateur and former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who was similarly banned from Twitter in 2016 after inciting a flood of racist abuse aimed at the actor Leslie Jones. Roger Stone was likewise permabanned by Twitter in 2017 after firing off a string of obscene tweets directed at CNN journalists. Its not clear what exactly Jones did this time to finally put the nail in his coffin. But he certainly has enough marks against him that Twitter should have no hard time justifying its actions. Twitters ban of Jones is permanent, which means the company will work to detect if the conspiracy theorist attempts to create new accounts. If he does, Twitter will likely suspend those, too. Music fans arent buying too many albums anymore, instead subscribing to steaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, which pay artists fractions of pennies per stream. Formats have always influenced how music is made, and the streaming era is no different: Artists are changing how they make songs and assemble albums to optimize for streaming, and theyve also become more reliant on touring and selling merchandise instead of selling their music. To catch up with the ways this landscape has changed, we recently spoke with music and tech journalist David Turner on Slates tech podcast If Then. Turner writes a weekly newsletter on the economics of music streaming called Penny Fractions. In our interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how new technologies have always impacted artists, how power has shifted in the streaming era, and what artists who dont want to depend on Spotify and Apple Music are doing to regain a measure of power. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read or listen to our conversation below, or get the show via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. April Glaser: So I want to start out with some definitions. I feel like I know how streaming works from the consumer perspective, which is I pay Spotify and Apple between $10 and $15 a month and then I have complete access to their expansive and growing music libraries. But from the artist perspective, its a little gray, and I was wondering if you could start by walking us through what streaming means for artists because it seems like it means people arent buying albums anymore, theyre just waiting until they show up on Spotify. David Turner: Most music fans, at this point, are not buying albums anymore, and the way that artists end up getting paid through this system is that with the $10 subscription that you might have to Apple Music or Spotify, around 30 percent of that goes to either company. Then 70 percent of that ends up being directed toward the music labels. This is where things get fairly complicated fairly quickly, because depending on the record-label deal that you sign, whether it was an independent label or a major label, youll end up getting a smaller or maybe a bigger chunk of the overall money that you potentially make per stream. Advertisement Advertisement So if youre signed to a major label, for every stream you get youre probably getting maybe 12 or 15 percent from that if youre an artist. For a lot of indie acts they can usually get 50 percent royalties, which is a significantly better deal than what you would get on a major. Obviously, the trade-offs are sort of the traditional trade-off between indies and major promotion[better] marketing and all that kind of stuff. This is for artists, we are not talking about producers or engineers or people like that who end up getting even smaller chunks of that pie. Advertisement Glaser: When we say per stream, what do you mean? How much is paid per stream? Advertisement Turner: That ends up varying per service. A platform like Apple Music I think right now pays $0.0007 per individual stream. Spotify, I think its reported to be about half of that. Tidal, Jay-Zs own streaming service, pays out significantly more than either one of those, but its still essentially fractions of pennies, which sort of begot the name of my newsletter, Penny Fractions. And in something like YouTube, which is one of the biggest music streaming services even though its not one of the more traditionally defined ones, pays even less, because all of the money that ends up being revenue that ends up being generated from YouTube comes from the overall advertising pull of YouTube, and not simply just the music side of it. Advertisement Advertisement Will Oremus: So if I heard your math correctly, that means that if Im an artist on Spotify somebody has to stream my song 10,000 times for me to make like a dollar? Turner: Around that. Its not its probably a little bit less than 10,000, but it requires thousands upon thousands or millions of streams to start making a decent income, which is one of the reasons why this particular model is beneficial toward labels. Not because they dont wish they could make more per stream, but because they have massive catalogs of music that are constantly getting streamedbe it in record stores and coffee shops or even in your own work places. They have such a large catalog of music thats constantly being streamed that the individual streams are not a concern for them, because they have so much catalog. Advertisement Glaser: So this means that instead of somebody buying an album and that money going to an artist, they depend on the streams. But it seems that the music itself as a commodity has become less valuable with streaming? Advertisement Turner: Instead of there being a physical product that you can buy, theres essentially nothing that you can buy for some artists. Most recently the example that Ive been going back to is the Atlanta rapper Future, who put out an album called Beast Mode 2. There was no physical version of the album, and there was no digital version. It was only for streaming. So for myself as a person who still likes to have MP3s, I ended up having to find through illicit means a version of the album that just didnt exist in any other form. Advertisement Advertisement Glaser: And so artists are touring more and more now, and thats kind of how theyre making money rather than kind of making this beautiful product and resting on that as they used to. Turner: Instead of just going through the traditional two-year album cycle of putting out an album, touring for a little bit, and then just sort of taking a little bit of a break, and then getting back in the studio and then sort of performing that for 10 to 20 years, now that artist will put out an album and theyll just keep touring, constantly touring. So for a rapper like Lil Baby, who is another rapper from Atlanta, over the last year and a half he has put out I think four or five mixtapes, which is a pretty high clip to be consistently putting out music. And then youll get an artist like Drake, whos one of the biggest pop artists in the world, and hes put out albums consistently year after year after year. And its like he has to sort of keep doing that to remain in the conversation and also to sort of buttress the giant, massive tours hes going be on, where hes going stadium to stadium to stadium. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Glaser: Bringing up Drake is a good segue because the albums that artists are putting out are different now. Its not just that people arent buying albums and that theyre streaming them, but the albums are being kind of refashioned to optimize for streaming services, right? I think Migos Culture II is a good example of this; Drakes recent album, Scorpion, I think has 25 tracks. Can you speak to how streaming services are actually morphing the way artists are trying to adapt to how their music is getting out? Turner: Those are two great examples of a more recent phenomenon from the last couple of years. Now that streaming has become the main way of revenue for the music industry overall, albums are becoming longer. On one end theyre becoming longer purely by the number of songs on it: As you mentioned, Drakes album had 25 songs, Migos Culture II had almost 30 songs. And then another album from late last year that was from Migos same label had 30 songs on it, which is less so an album than its sort of a playlist or collection of tracks. Even if you were to talk to those artistsI dont think they would say that you are meant to listen to it all the way through. Its just sort of a collection of songs that can get the most streams eventually. Advertisement Advertisement But on the other hand: Last year there was a Florida-based rapper named Lil Pump who had a really big song called Gucci Gang, which was under two minutes long. That two-minute song fits in with a trend across SoundCloud, where a lot of rappers are coming up nowadays, and a lot of their songs are like minute and a half, two minutes, two and a half minutes of just hook, verse, hook. That ends up being the way that people are producing music now, where the idea is you are constantly just clicking play on a new song because you arent buying it. And the only way they get money is for each additional play that you give to a song. Advertisement Advertisement Oremus: So in the 50s and 60s you had bands putting out artists all the time and you had to craft this perfect little pop gem that people would buy as a single record, and then in the 70s and 80s you got LPs and bands stretching out with these concept albums that are meant to be listened to from front to back in one sitting. It sounds like from what youre saying is that the idea of the cohesive album is eroding. Maybe theres some renewed emphasis on singles. How else has streaming changed the structure of songs and the focus of artists in terms of what type of song or what type of album gets rewarded? Advertisement Advertisement Turner: I think you made a very good point, which is that as technology changes music also always changes alongside it. Which I think is something that sometimes gets lost when talking about the sort of impact of streaming on music right now, which is, as you said earlier, that singles in the 50s and 60s were actually around this sort of incredibly short two-and-a half-minute, three-minute length and then as albums came up, which was not because artists I mean certain artists want to make longer albums and make more thoughtful albums, but for a lot of them its just sort of an economic reason that labels made more money when they sold albums rather than when they sold singles. And that is also why during that time period they also tried to reduce the number of singles that were being produced so you could have more albums being sold. Advertisement So whats happening in todays marketplace, one of the things you see are longer albums. You see shorter songs, but I also think it depends on genre. A genre that I follow a lot is indie rock. Indie rock is one of the ones that has not done as well in the streaming era, but still produces solid 10-, 12-song albums because their audience actually still wants to buy vinyl and buy CDs and even buy MP3s on sites like Bandcamp. So streaming is affecting different artists in different ways. Advertisement Advertisement Oremus: Now that you mention it, it makes sense that hip-hop artists seem to be on the forefront of gaming the algorithm so to speak because streaming is more important to their business than maybe other genres. But theres another thing that Ive read about recently in terms of an artifact of the way these platforms work, which is this idea of fake artists. Can you tell us whats a fake artist? Advertisement Turner: Last year, there ended up being a sort of a humorous controversy that ended up happening with Spotify, where the website Music Business Worldwide reported that there was a number of artists on particular Spotify playlists, particularly their mood playlist if you were to go to the Spotify app and open up playlists like Sleep, Deep Chill, and most of the ones that had chill in the name, where Glaser: Deep chill is fake, isnt it? Turner: Yeah. Glaser: Theres no such thing. Turner: What ended up happening was they ended up reporting that all these fake artists, which essentially ended up being revealed through reporting at Music Business Worldwide and a number of other outlets, that these were artists that were essentially musicians, most of them based in Sweden, that were just sort of producing music for Spotifys playlists that was never exactly the reporting never bore out the exact connection between Spotify and the company making the music, but it ended up having this sort of unnerving effect in the industry that there was a concern that Spotify was just filling their playlists with all of these artists that essentially werent artists you could ever go see live in concert, you couldnt buy their music, you couldnt become a fan of these artists, but you could just sort of hear their midi tunes, or a better phrase would be muzak, on their playlist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Which is something I trend ended up happening across dozens, maybe even 50 different Spotify playlists that have these kinds of acts sitting on them, even in 2018. Where if you actually look up an artist like Figgy Malone, youll be like, Oh, theres no Figgy Malone or Jeff Bright Jr. None of these artists are real, but you can still hear their music on Spotify and theyre getting millions of plays on all these top playlists. Glaser: I worry that the power of these platforms is kind of depreciating the value of fandom hereright? Because the idea is just to consume more music or just to give people what they want when they demand it. And that kind of brings into question the power of these platforms, because what were really talking about here are two platforms, maybe three if you want to count Tidal, and I subscribe to Tidal so I would. But they just have a tremendous amount of power to strongarm artists to kind of do whatever they want, right? Because if youre not on Spotify and youre not on Apple Music, then its really kind of hard to exist unless youre a big enough name like Beyonce. Advertisement Advertisement Turner: I think thats an interesting issue that extends beyond music and to platforms overall. It depends on who the audience youre trying to reach is and how are you trying to reach that audience. There are tons of artists that I follow that exclusively only put out their music on Bandcamp or SoundCloud that I could go to a concert and they sell out 500- to 600-seat venues. Their music might be on Spotify, might be on Apple Music, but the primary form of engagement is through Bandcamp or SoundCloud. Advertisement And I think thats something that should be encouraged and is actually kind of exciting about this moment is that while these other platforms are so massive, if you dont want to work in those places you do have the option to not work in them. Its just that when you dont work in them you are correct that you lose massive audiences. You lose so many potential people that could hear your music. I think one of the things for like an Apple Music or a Spotify is that the issue with those platforms isnt that Apple or Spotify have all the power, its that the major labels have all the power in this dynamic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because the early investors in Spotify are the major labels, which is why almost all Spotify playlists have an allotted amount of space that is dedicated only to major labels. So if youre a truly independent artist your chance of getting on some of the top Spotify playlists are essentially the same as your chances of getting on radio. Its not going to happen. Glaser: These platforms also have the power to kick people off. And we saw after Charlottesville that Spotify in particular took action to remove a number of bands that kind of affiliated with white nationalists or white supremacist thinking from its platform. Was R. Kelly removed as well? Turner: R. Kelly was not removed from Spotifys platform, but he was removed from their playlists so he would not be promoted on the platform. Advertisement Glaser: Right. And so these platforms also have the ability to take people off who are perhaps promoting a bad message or to censor them. Do you have any thoughts on that? Turner: I think this is sort of a double-edged sword. While I do think that platforms should exercise some amount of controlto look outside of music, theres example of Alex Jones, I feel like platforms should have acted years ago and removed him. But I do think that in the context of music, theres just been such a long history of censorship. And throughout the last century of American recorded music that censorship usually ends up skewing toward black artists far more than it happens to other races and other genres. And so the question ends up being: Who are the people who end up getting targeted? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this summer it was R. Kelly and the rapper XXXTentacion, who was recently killed, and the rapper Tay-K, who is right now being accused of murder, were removed from Spotifys official playlists. And on paper I have no issue with those artists being removed: The acts that they are accused of doing are reprehensible. But, I dont want to say its a slippery slope, but whos deciding what is allowed on the platform and whos deciding what isnt allowed? And why is it when we start removing things, the people that we start removing are the people that are already traditionally going to be the least advantaged of those? Not to say that R. Kelly has not benefited from the music industry in the last 30 years, but just traditionally going after exclusively black men in that kind of campaign sort of leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I start to think about it. Advertisement Glaser: Thinking about the history of radio, we used to have a constellation of owners all over the country, where every city had different radio station owners and they would decide who was and was not appropriate on their station, which is still a large lever of power. But then, when a lot of consolidation happened under Clear Channel, it became one company, or with Cumulus, two companies that could kind of pull those levers. Advertisement Advertisement And were seeing that type of consolidation here. Im curious what musicians are doing though to push back against these platforms. Weve been talking about how powerful they are, how they work, how little money is madeis there any effort now between artists to make it work better for them? Advertisement Turner: Thats a great question. There are different ways that artists are going about it. Some do what I said earlier where they focus primarily on platforms like Bandcamp. Theres a platform called Resonate, which is a music cooperative that does music streaming and also some form of digital music ownership that Ive seen some artists gravitating toward, which I think is very interesting in terms of finding a new way to understand and think about this phase. And I think one of the ways that artists are trying to buck the system is just trying to find other ways to monetize their content. Advertisement One of my favorite anecdotes about this is Lil Yachty, when his manager was profiled in the New Yorker he mentioned that [Lil Yachty] when he was just on Twitch one day and some kid paid him $1,000 to fart. Which is hilarious, but its not like its sustainable for a revenue model. But $1,000 that he got on Twitch that day is significantly more than the number of streams that one person could ever try to produce. So I think one of the ways artists can start trying to fight back is similar to how people can sort of fight back on social media is to disengage a little bit and start finding other platforms and other ways to connect with their audience that isnt just through these particular platforms. Advertisement Advertisement I just read a book thats from 1953 that was about the history of the American Federation of Music, where they ended up talking about some of the solutions that they found to issues of artists not getting paid or artists trying to struggle through these issues. The reason I mention that is because what happened in the 40s was the musicians all striked. They went on a more than a yearlong strike in 1942, and one of the things they ended up winning in that strike was that they were able to collect a percentage of the overall music industrys revenue. So by collecting a percentage of the revenue they were able to feed that back into not only into an overall strike fund for the artists, but ways to help artists through unemployment, through public works, through public concerts. And honestly, that seems like the best solution to me, is that as the music industry is seeing all these record profits again, that 10 percent, 5 percent of that just goes directly back into the artists. So even if they arent getting paid a great amount, at least they have health care, and they can have all the other basics that they actually could use. Oremus: David Turner, thank you so much for joining us. And I hope that everybody who listened and enjoyed it will go out and subscribe to your newsletter Penny Fractions. Glaser: And be weird on Twitch to make money. Turner: Please be weird on Twitch. Thank you guys for having me on today. A version of this piece first appeared on EdSurge. As college students head back to school, electric scooter companies want to help them get to class. Colleges and universities are among the latest points of interest for e-scooter operators, which have taken major cities across the country by storm after deploying the dockless scooterssometimes unannounced. Theyve developed a reputation for littering streets, creating safety hazards, and even threatening to call the police on riders who dont pay. San Francisco and Nashville both issued cease-and-desist letters until officials and scooter operators agreed on how the companies can operate. Advertisement The next battleground for scooter companies may be colleges and universities. Take Venice, Californiabased Bird, which recently launched a University Pop-Up Tour with the aim to introduce students and faculty to the scooters. The tour could reach up to 150 universities, and planned stops include Arkansas Tech University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Missouri. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It appears Bird is continuing its surprise launch tactics, and some colleges found themselves in the pop-up tour without knowing. Audrey Smith, a media relations manager at UNCChapel Hill, told the News and Observer that Bird did not coordinate their arrival with the university but that campus officials were aware of them. Cities and campuses on the university pop-up tour have already requested for the devices to be removed. Advertisement Trouble with the scooters on campus started before the pop-up tour. At the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles, campus police have begun cracking down on students who violate traffic rules while riding electric scooters on campus. Farther north at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley, Dave Sorrell, manager of the schools Alternative Transportation Program, told Berkeleyside that Skip electric scooters had showed up on campus without university permission. They were removed after the university contacted the company. This isnt the first uproar over electric transportation on campus. Remember the Segway? The electric scooter-like devices may be known these days as a chariot for tourists on guided tours, but they had a short stint on college campuses, too. That is, before several universities banned them. Scooters are much more friendly to the student budget, though: Segways cost about $6,000 and are privately owned, rather than the shared scooters which generally cost $1 to rent and 15 cents per minute to ride. Advertisement Advertisement Some campuses are embracing the scooter fad through formal partnerships with scooter companies. The University of Minnesota, for example, is gearing up to launch a pilot program with Bird and Lime that could start this month. Scooters havent yet debuted on the campusthe university is still finalizing an agreement with both scooter companiesbut Steve Sanders, the schools alternative transportation manager, says indications look good that the contract will come back signed. Hes optimistic about their role on campus. Everybody whos actually ever ridden one of these, of course, loves it, Sanders says. Theyre a lot of fun, and they serve a real transportation purpose, too. Advertisement But Sanders interest in the partnership isnt purely motivated by how fun the devices are. He thinks theyre inevitable, so hes preparing now to try to prevent visits to the university health center from scooter accidents. Weve definitely heard concerns, especially from pedestrians, about scooters operating on sidewalks, he says, adding that his office is expecting complaints as students return to campus this week. The actual [scooter] lends itself to potential issues. Its highly maneuverable, it goes fast. And the temptation will be for people to fit in small spaces. Advertisement Advertisement The University of Minnesota is situated along the Mississippi River a short distance away from downtown Minneapolis, where Bird and Lime both began operating fleets this summer. Shortly after, the scooter companies also arrived in nearby St. Paul. Knowing it was only a matter of time before the devices would show up on campus, Sanders quickly reached out to Bird. We talked to them when they launched [in Minneapolis], and we asked them not to deploy scooters here, says Sanders. But we understood that there would be scooters ending up on campus. The goal was not to keep the scooters away from the campus indefinitely, but rather to develop policies around what to do with them before they showed up. We werent worried about being overrun by scooters, he says. But we needed to figure out how we were going to handle it. Advertisement Bird and Lime agreed to the universitys request to delay deployment, Sanders says, and the companies and school have been working in recent weeks to design a pilot program that will roll out this fall. Officials at Bird, Lime, and other scooter companies contacted for this story did not respond to requests for comment about the campus deployments. In previous press interviews, Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden displayed ignorance about all the controversy he has caused, the New York Times reported. Anything any citys asked us to do, aside from shut down, we do, he told the Times. Advertisement Advertisement The University of Minnesota modeled its agreement with Bird and Lime after the city of Minneapolis license with scooter companies. As part of an ongoing four-month pilot program underway in Minneapolis, Bird and Lime will pay the city $20 per scooter, place no more than 200 scooters in the first two months, and will remove the devices by winter, according to the StarTribune. Advertisement If the agreements are signed, Bird and Lime will drop 50 scooters at destinations determined by the University of Minnesotas transportation officials, according to Sanders. The school will charge a fee to deploy the scooters on campus, though the price has yet to be determined. The university has also been rushing to work with Minneapolis officials to make sure that its arrangement with Bird and Lime do not conflict with the policies set in place between the city and the companies. Its been going at breakneck speed trying to get policies established and work with the city because we want to have a seamless experience, says Sanders. You dont want to have a bunch of rules that are only applicable on campus, because that just gets confusing for the user. Advertisement The universitys next hurdle will be to set up rules and guidelines around the electric scooters. The scooters currently fall under the same statutes that govern bicycles use on the campus, and scooter riders have to adhere to the same traffic rules that apply to bikers. But its hard to know what the scooter companies own strategies may look like come November, when the pilot wraps up. Recently, Birds chief legal officer told the Information that the company is opening up to the idea of installing locking systems to keep the scooters clear of pedestrian pathways. Or maybe electric scooters will go the way of the Segway on college campusesslowly, but surely, far away. The most notable thing about the QAnon conspiracy theory might be how close it keeps treading into the orbit of the man it is about: Donald Trump. Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory were all over a Trump campaign rally last month in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, sporting T-shirts and signs and apparently unworried that anyone consuming coverage of the event would know they believe in a revisionist version of current eventsnarrated by Q, a mysterious online figure claiming to be a high-clearance government officialin which special counsel Robert Mueller is in fact working with the president to arrest a vast conspiracy (and pedophile ring) of global elites. If their presence at the rally seemed strange, however, it was nothing next to the appearance in the Oval Office two weeks ago of one of QAnons biggest promoters, radio host and YouTuber Lionel Lebron, posing for a photo with President Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Q has been dropping clues, which he or she or they call breadcrumbs, for followers of the conspiracy theory to puzzle together via the /pol/ (for politically incorrect) channel on 4chan, the anything-goes message board where many of the most insidious far-right memes and misdeeds are hatched. These breadcrumbs are now feeding what looks like a not-exactly-minuscule audience of Americans: One of the larger Facebook pages has more than 23,000 followers, while comedian Roseanne Barr, known for her affinity for fringe-right thinking, has tweeted about Q at least four times. A recent Q post alleged that the late Sen. John McCain actually took his own life to avoid a trial by military tribunal. Q has laid out this narrative over several months, posting curious missives that often read like incomplete thoughts. Priority to clean out the bad actors to unite people behind the America First agenda. Many in our govt worship Satan, reads one of Qs stanzas. While some portion of the expanding universe of Q followers, who call themselves QAnons, have been wading through the difficult-to-navigate world of 4chan as well as 8chan, an even shadier message board where Q has been spotted, the bulk of them seem to be learning about Q through the internet most of us occupyin YouTube videos, in Facebook groups, and from Twitter accounts dedicated to republishing and analyzing new breadcrumbs from Q and highlighting details in the news that they claim support Qs legitimacy. Advertisement Advertisement What explains the migration and growth of the Q phenomenon? For one thing, perhaps the desire of this group of Trump supporters to live in a reality in which an unpopular president mired in self-made controversies is actually winning. And thanks to a report last month from NBC News, we now know that the theory can be traced back to two 4chan moderators and one YouTube personality who worked with each other in order to port the Q posts onto more mainstream channels. Their effort does not appear to be the only coordinated attempt to boost Q to a bigger audience. Qs journey from the cobwebby corners of 4chan into the mainstream likely wasnt entirely organic. Rather, it appears to have been amplified along the way by automated Twitter accountsthat is, bots. And they seem to have gotten their start very early in the life of the conspiracy theory. Advertisement Advertisement Using the tools Botcheck.me and Bot Sentinel, combined with data pulled and analyzed by Slate about how many tweets each account sent in a single day, I was able to determine whether many of the accounts tweeting about QAnon displayed behavior thats indicative of automated activity. One of the surest signs of bot activity is volume, according to Philip Howard, an Oxford University professor and director of the Oxford Internet Institute, where he studies automation in social media. If an account tweets more than 50 times a day about politics or an election, that usually denotes some level of automated activity, says Howard. Botcheck.me and Bot Sentinelboth of which were created by independent researchersuse machine learning to look for botlike activity, which, according to Botcheck.me, includes tweeting extremely frequently, gaining a large following in a short amount of time, retweeting other bots, being followed by other bots, and sticking to highly polarizing political messages. (The creators of Bot Sentinel and Botcheck.me report that their tools are able to identify bot accounts with about 94 percent accuracy.) Advertisement Advertisement Our analysis revealed a pattern that began very soon after Q started posting. The first breadcrumb on 4chan, which was posted on Oct. 28, alleged that an HRC extradition had begun the day before and the effort was being coordinated with multiple countries. The author, who wasnt yet going by Q, implored readers to keep a close watch on longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. On Nov. 4, a week after the first Q post surfaced on 4chan, Q appears to have posted a call to action to followers to arrange the crumbs into a single graphic in order to collect and post to spread the information appropriately. The same day, Qs posts started appearing on Pastebin, a text-only storage site for sharing. Until then, most tweets about Q with the #QAnon hashtag were from sharing a YouTube video or a few questions from early followers tweeted here and there. But on Nov. 5, the number of tweets with the #QAnon hashtag jumped from around three a day to about 20, with at least three accounts that appear to be either partially or entirely automated accounting for about half of those tweets. (The analysis was done this summer, months after the tweets were first sent, so some tweets could have been deleted and some accounts suspended or deleted.) Advertisement Advertisement By Nov. 6, there were at least seven more accounts that exhibited botlike or highly automated behavior tweeting about QAnon, according to our analysis. Some also used the #Pizzagate hashtag and others included #TheStorm, an allusion to the countercoup thats a main subject of Qs messages. While its hard to know if this effort was coordinated, either one individual or several individuals appear to have programed numerous bots to help seed the conspiracy theory on Twitter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Researchers who study the political activity of bots on Twitter say that automation has been in the arsenal of people trying to propagate conspiratorial news beyond their community of fringe adherents since before the 2016 election. In the wake of the 2016 Pizzagate disinformation narrative, the use of coordinated amplification, automated or semi-automated, has been used more often than not to push these stories into the mainstream, said Benjamin T. Decker, a research fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. With an understanding of platform algorithms, automation can be used to impersonate organic social engagement, in turn tricking users into believing a claim to be more popular than it actually is. Twitter has been particularly susceptible to this kind of activity. Since the platform allows for account automation, its relatively easy to buy puppet Twitter accounts that someone hoping to seed a conspiracy theory can fire up to send a hashtag or news topic to the sites trending topics. Whichever person or people decided it was time to amplify Q appears to have used this playbook. (Twitter announced new caps on heavy tweeting that will impact those who use Twitters developer tools to automate accounts, but those rate limits dont go into effect until later this month.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the Q conspiracy continued to snowball and collect followers, the amount of automated activity on Twitter about Q increased as well. A Twitter search for the hashtag #QAnon on Nov. 15 revealed more than 400 tweets about the conspiracy with the hashtag on that day alonea huge jump from earlier in the month, despite the fact that the bizarre conspiracy had not garnered the attention of the mainstream media at that point. Two of the likely bot accounts each tweeted with #QAnon more than 50 times on Nov. 15. At least 15 of the accounts tweeting with the hashtag that day displayed strong signs of automation, and none of those 15 were the same as the accounts I found that were tweeting at the start of the month. Advertisement Fast forward to March 31, 2018the day Barr tweeted about Q for the first time, when the conspiracy theory began to attract its first major wave of headlines. That day, thousands of tweets surfaced about the conspiracy theory, largely thanks to dozens of accounts that showed strong signs of automated activity. Journalists and real Q researchers were there too, but a look at the Twitter activity from that day shows an overwhelming deluge of accounts exhibiting signs of automation using the hashtag #QAnon. These days, #QAnon has become such a popular theme among bots and troll accounts that it has become a regular trending hashtag among the 600 bot and troll accounts monitored by the Alliance for Securing Democracy that are known to have ties to Kremlin disinformation campaigns. On the day after Trumps rally in Pennsylvania at the start of August, the network of highly likely bot accounts that Bot Sentinel monitors sent 3,490 tweets with hashtags about QAnon in one day alone. Advertisement Advertisement Automation on social media can make an issue or a person appear more popular than they actually are. During the third debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016, bots sharing pro-Trump-related content outnumbered pro-Clinton bots by 7 to 1, according to research from Oxford Universitys Project on Computational Propaganda. When a tweet gets hundreds of likes or retweets, it can suggest a groundswell of grassroots support, even if many of those interactions come from bots. Its also worth keeping in mind that not all accounts that display signs of automation are completely automated; sometimes a person may take back control of the account or decide to fire it up during a particularly heated political moment. A good bot-makers automation on Twitter can be particularly difficult to spot, especially if their timing is nuanced and their language isnt repetitive. Advertisement Advertisement And bots, obviously, arent the only boosters of QAnon. Whoever is behind the Q posts, there are signs that there has always been an effort to take the theory off the chans and onto more mainstream platforms. Q ostensibly didnt get its name until Nov. 1, when the 4chan user posting the message started calling itself Q Clearance Patriot, in reference to Q-level security clearance. Yet on Oct. 28the same day as the first post from the user who would soon be Q went up on 4chana WordPress blog titled QAnon News went live. The blog includes the text of Qs 4chan posts, links to tweets from President Trump, and detailed explanations attempting to break down the meaning of Qs posts line by line with citations. Either the person who made this blog is somehow connected to Q or knew enough about what was to come that they decided to start a blog with the same name. Whoever made this blog was a fast researcher, toounless they had the posts first. Advertisement Advertisement What does all of this tell us? We dont know if the flood of botlike Q tweets now has anything to do with the early attempts to amplify QAnon or what, if any, kind of coordination between bot accounts and any other efforts was happening then or now. But we do know that this kind of automated accountthe kind that was a menace during the 2016 campaign, thanks to a Russian disinformation effortoften tweets about issues, such as gun control and racial justice, that divide Americans and stoke sociopolitical tensions. Apparently, belief in QAnon is now one of those partisan issuesand it looks like some parties may have recognized its potential to rile up and divide Americans very, very quickly. Twitter announced Thursday that it was permanently banning conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media site Infowars from the platform, citing [t]weets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts past violations. A spokesperson further elaborated to the Daily Beast that an Infowars video of Alex Jones insulting CNN reporter Oliver Darcy was the last straw. Jones was at Congress on Wednesday to confront tech executives, elected officials, and journalists during back-to-back hearings about social media in the House and Senate. Both Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made the trip to Capitol Hill to testify on their efforts to stymie foreign misinformation campaigns. Jones, who at that point had been banned by Facebook and temporarily suspended by Twitter, apparently saw an opportunity to raise a fuss about the alleged suppression of his speech. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jones first ran into Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, interrupting the senator while he was talking with reporters and calling him a frat boy. Jones later approached Darcy, who has been covering Joness behavior on social media and the platforms responses to him. Jones decided to launch into a lengthy rant in which he barraged Darcy with insults, likening him to a rat, a sociopath, a possum that crawled out of the rear end of a dead cow, and the Hitler Youth. The interaction was livestreamed on Periscope, a video app owned by Twitter. Periscope has also removed Jones and Infowars from its platform. Jones tweeted and retweeted links to videos and articles of his confrontation. Advertisement Twitters abuse policy covers a range of objectionable behaviors, such as unwanted sexual advances and wishing bodily harm on someone. The company has not specified exactly which category Jones behavior falls into, but the prohibition against using aggressive insults with the purpose of harassing or intimidating others would seem to fit best. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 6 Vote(s) - 4.33 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 4 Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460890 09-07-2018 05:04 PM Post: #1 Russia warns US to get out of Syria Advertisement CNN's terrorist army will need a bigger guard dog. Link https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/politics/...index.html Two warnings so far.CNN's terrorist army will need a bigger guard dog.Link LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 443629 09-07-2018 05:10 PM Post: #2 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria should never have been there to begin with Roddy's Creed Registered User User ID: 450888 09-07-2018 05:20 PM Posts: 5,455 Post: #3 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria About f*cking time. Enough is enough. I do not label myself. What I stand for is based on my own convictions, and I don't care which box - the left one or the right one - they happen to belong. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460890 09-07-2018 05:36 PM Post: #4 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria http://www.voltairenet.org/article202751.html Ouch! All US forces encroaching inside Syria territory are fair game. No matter how many documents Jeffery Feltman churns out.Ouch! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 425853 09-07-2018 06:30 PM Post: #5 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria Roddy Wrote: (09-07-2018 05:20 PM) About f*cking time. Enough is enough. This^ Time for America to go home where it belongs. This^Time for America to go home where it belongs. Archangel Michael User ID: 441975 09-07-2018 07:22 PM Posts: 14,103 Post: #6 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria I'm done with America creating and fighting Israel's wars of aggression to steal more land. I'd like to see Russia make it stick. The Zionists running America making US plans have Russia and China both on their planned list of nations to plow under and turn into their own. I'd rather be Russian than live under the Jewish planned Genocide and totalitarian rule. If America can't grow a backbone and live by it's Constitution and stay free, then someone else will have to take it over. It should be us, but most of us, myself included are reluctant to get out of their computer chair and do it. fnord lop guest User ID: 337000 09-07-2018 07:46 PM Post: #7 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria Meanwhile Mr. Trump has said the US plans to stay in Syria. It appears he has caved completely to the neocons bolsheviks in his administration. Unless he does yet another about-face, it war with Russia Turkey China and Iran is coming into focus. Let's hope I'm wrong. There are no civil defense preparations in the US. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460890 09-07-2018 08:12 PM Post: #8 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria fnord Wrote: (09-07-2018 07:46 PM) There are no civil defense preparations in the US. There are some military bunkers and shelters for elites. They will have nowhere to go and no way to get there if they survive. The big shot secret government will be hunted for sport. There are some military bunkers and shelters for elites. They will have nowhere to go and no way to get there if they survive.The big shot secret government will be hunted for sport. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 458449 09-07-2018 08:31 PM Post: #9 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 05:04 PM) Two warnings so far. CNN's terrorist army will need a bigger guard dog. https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/politics/...index.html Link Everyone has the right to be stupid; you seem to have abused that privilege. Everyone has the right to be stupid; you seem to have abused that privilege. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 458449 09-07-2018 08:32 PM Post: #10 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:30 PM) Roddy Wrote: (09-07-2018 05:20 PM) About f*cking time. Enough is enough. This^ Time for America to go home where it belongs. This forum is literally flooded with Kremlin shills. This forum is literally flooded with Kremlin shills. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450243 09-07-2018 08:36 PM Post: #11 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 05:10 PM) should never have been there to begin with ^^^ ^^^ LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 460890 09-07-2018 08:36 PM Post: #12 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 08:31 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 05:04 PM) Two warnings so far. CNN's terrorist army will need a bigger guard dog. https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/politics/...index.html Link Everyone has the right to be stupid; you seem to have abused that privilege. CNN would go off the air if not for the funding it receives from the same sources as Al Qaeda and the rest. CNN is the media wing of international terror. CNN would go off the air if not for the funding it receives from the same sources as Al Qaeda and the rest.CNN is the media wing of international terror. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 425853 09-07-2018 08:38 PM Post: #13 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 08:32 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:30 PM) This^ Time for America to go home where it belongs. This forum is literally flooded with Kremlin shills. Only a retard or psychopath would want America fighting more unconstitutional and illegal wars. America needs to go home, where it belongs.. Only a retard or psychopath would want America fighting more unconstitutional and illegal wars. America needs to go home, where it belongs.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450243 09-07-2018 08:39 PM Post: #14 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 08:32 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-07-2018 06:30 PM) This^ Time for America to go home where it belongs. This forum is literally flooded with Kremlin shills. And soros shills and hilltard shills and trump shills. this place is a mecca of shills. And soros shills and hilltard shills and trump shills. this place is a mecca of shills. Eustace Muffins Banned User ID: 442047 09-07-2018 08:51 PM Posts: 11,088 Post: #15 RE: Russia warns US to get out of Syria Archangel Wrote: (09-07-2018 07:22 PM) I'm done with America creating and fighting Israel's wars of aggression to steal more land. I'd like to see Russia make it stick. The Zionists running America making US plans have Russia and China both on their planned list of nations to plow under and turn into their own. I'd rather be Russian than live under the Jewish planned Genocide and totalitarian rule. If America can't grow a backbone and live by it's Constitution and stay free, then someone else will have to take it over. It should be us, but most of us, myself included are reluctant to get out of their computer chair and do it. Advertisement A time of grape harvesting festivities Lets taste the local specialty, burciak, a slightly fermented grape juice at vinobranie. I would compare this year to the record year of 2000. Even in that year there was hot weather, but in contrast to the current year, there was a water shortage, said prominent winemaker Vladimir Mrva from the winery Mrva & Stanko, when assessing the wine-growing season so far. However, it is too early to assess the current wine harvest season. Autumn will be decisive, especially September. This years very hot summer caused the grapes to ripen two to three weeks earlier. The result is that the grapes have a relatively high sugar content and lack acidity. Nevertheless, Mrva believes the timely harvesting makes it possible to achieve harmonious wine. Grape harvesting festivities There are a number of vinobranie - grape harvesting festivities in the boroughs of Bratislava and in the towns in the foothills of the Small Carpathian mountains. Devinske vinobranie Friday and Saturday, Sept 7-8 below Devin castle winemakers from Devin and the Small Carpathian Wine Region Visitors will have a chance to taste currant wines produced by the local Thebener winery, which along with other winemakers resumed the local tradition of producing currant wine. Several of them have collected medals around the world. More info at the FB page of the event Day in vineyards Saturday, Sept 8, from 11:00 until 19:00, vineyards of the Small Carpathian region Visitors can taste the freshly ripened grapes in the vineyards overlooking Bratislava, along with burciak as well as wine, produced from the grapes of these vineyards. In total 53 vineyards will be open from Raca via Svaty Jur, Pezinok, Modra up to Dolany. A ticket costs 15, its part is a 5 bonus for purchase of wine Racianske vinobranie Friday-Sunday, Sept 14-19 in the Bratislavas borough of Raca Visitors can taste burciak as well as the wines of local winemakers including Ivan Holik, Rudolf Rakyta, Frantisek Krajcirovic, Milos Matus or the local winery Villa vino Raca There will be stands with typical refreshments like ciganska [a slice of bread with pork, onion and mustard], lokse [thin potato pancakes], roasted sausages, candy floss and merry go rounds More info at the FB page of the event Vinobranie Pezinok Friday-Sunday, Sept 21-23 on Radnicne Square and in the park of the nearby castle Apart from burciak, wine and local specialties there will be a competition of miners choirs and fireworks on Saturday Modranske vinobranie Friday-Sunday, Sept 28-30 Visitors can taste burciak, wines, including those that won a local wine competition as well as seeing how grapes used to be pressed in the past Day of Open Wine Cellars Friday and Saturday, Sept 23 and 24, Small Carpathian Wine Route Wine lovers can taste wines from the whole Small Carpathian Wine Region in places where they were produced and talk with their producers 160 wine cellars will be open Winegrowers and winemakers have learned a lesson from the previous hot years and they know now when to harvest grapes in a good technological maturity, said Mrva, adding that when assessing maturity of grapes winegrowers should not only look at the sugar content but at other parameters, especially PH and acid content. This year looks very good for blue varieties and white varieties that mature later. If September is warm and, more importantly, dry, and there will not be a significant increase in precipitation, this year has all the attributes of making a very good vintage, said Mrva. The winemaker Brano Bahna from Vinocentrum in Svaty Jur close to Bratislava confirmed the three-week advance in the ripening of grapes. Not only early varieties, but Muller-Thurgau, Veltlin or Dunaj varieties ripened at the end of August. This week they are harvesting Riesling. As for the quality of the future wine, it is necessary to preserve the acidity of the grapes. The mastery of a winemaker lies in the proper timing of the harvesting of individual varieties, and the winemaker must know beforehand what kind of wine he/she wants to produce, said Bahna. Martin Hrubala, the director of the Malokarpatske Museum in Pezinok, said that last weeks rains have not harmed the grapes so far. But if there is more precipitation, it may worsen the quality of the grapes. It will reduce the sugar content and the grapes may start growing mold. 7. Sep 2018 at 10:59 | Jana Liptakova The final of RUS Fair Series was conducted on Thursday (Sept. 6) at Monticello Raceway in conjunction with the New York County Fair Finals. This marks the fifth year that the RUS has held their unique events; over the course of the summer, eight RUS events were held through the state. The RUS fair series is sponsored by the NYSS and Agricultural and New York Breeding Development Fund via a $5,000 grant; Monticello Raceway & The Monticello Harness Horsemans Association donated $2,500 towards the $3,500 purse. A field of seven trotters went behind the gate monte-style. Funny Photo and rider Sophie Engerran lead from start to finish, winning by 18 lengths and establishing a new track record of 2:02.4 in the process. Funny Photo is owned, trained and ridden by Sophie Engerran. Flowing James (Vanessa Karlewicz) finished second, followed by Armbro Hall (Cathy Gearwar). Event organizer Michelle Miller could not have been happier after the race. I am so proud of the girls today, it has been challenging the last few years to organize the event, but on days like today, it is all worth it! The quality of the riders continues to improve, said Miller. We have been very fortunate to have partnered with Monticello Raceway who have been extremely gracious to our event since its inception. We would also like to thank all the many sponsors that have been so generous to us, The Meadowlands, Vernon Downs Tioga Downs, Batavia Downs, The Mark Ford Stable, Advantage Edge Equine, Morrisville State College, Triple Crown, Pure Country Campgrounds in New Berlin NY, T&K Harrington LLC, The Equine Tax Group, Preserving Gods Creation Taxidermy and Early Owego Antique Center. The High Point Rider Award was presented to Vanessa Karlewicz for earning the most points throughout the series. This years prize was donated by Carharts Harness Shop and the Feed and Pet Supply in Vernon, NY. (Monticello) Im praying for DuterteRobredo posted September 07, 2018 at 11:10 pm by Rio N. Araja September 07, 2018 at 11:10 pm Despite the attacks on her by President Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Leni Robredo on Friday said she is always praying for him. In Naga City, Camarines Sur for the feast of the Our Lady of Penafrancia, Robredo said aside from her personal intentions for her family, she always prays for the country and the President. My greatest prayer is that the Philippines could overcome the hardship our fellow countrymen are facing. I am always praying for the President, she said.I pray for him because we rely on his leadership. His failure is our failure, too, she added. The President recently reiterated his stance that Naga City was a hotbed of shabu. COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section. President Rodrigo Duterte cut short his visit to Jordan by a day and will arrive today, Saturday, in Davao City, according to Special Assistant to the President Bong Go. Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said despite cutting short his trip to Jordan, Duterte, who was originally scheduled to be back on Sunday morning, did not cancel any scheduled event. In other developments: Duterte has offered to send at least five battalions of Filipino soldiers to Jordan if the Middle Eastern country needed help to fight the Islamic militants in that country. He made the offer when he met with King Abdullah of Jordan II during the signing of five agreements covering labor and investment, among other things. If there is anything we can do, if you are short in your army, let me know, Duterte said in a speech before businessmen. Two, three, four, five [battalions], I will send them to you. I will commit my government in the right side of history, Duterte said. The Defense department thanked the Jordanian government for the two Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters it gave to the Philippines, saying those would be a big help in the militarys ongoing campaign against internal security threats.The DND thanks the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for supporting the ongoing capability upgrade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong told the Philippine News Agency on Friday. Roque said Duterte had attended all his appointments earlier. No scheduled appointment was canceled. One day shorter means one day less expense for the taxpayers, Roque said. Duterte and his entourage left Amman late Friday afternoon. Roque brushed aside allegations that politics was behind Dutertes decision to come home early. Before Duterte left for Israel and Jordan, he signed a proclamation order voiding Senator Antonio Trillanes IVs amnesty, which was granted by President Benigno Aquino III. China Economy Sneezed Will the World Catch Cold? The markets are getting downright ugly. If things dont turn up soon we could be at the point at which the Everything Bubble begins to burst. While US stocks have performed relatively well recently, globally things are looking worse and worse. Germanys DAX never reclaimed its former high established back in January. Instead its been carving out a massive Head and Shoulders pattern. Germany is the fourth largest economy in the world and heavily reliant on exports for growth. This chart pattern doesnt bode well for global trade or growth. South Korea is another export-focused economy that serves as a bell weather for global growth. This is particularly true given its connection to Asia (China accounts for 25% of SKs exports, while ASEAN countries account for another 14%). South Koreas stock market, the KOSPI, has lost its bull market trendline (blue line). It is now struggling to reclaim former support (red line). This again suggests global growth and trade have slowed dramatically. And finally theres China: the second largest economy in the world, and the primary driver for economic growth in the post-2008 business cycle. Here again, weve lost the bull market trendline (blue line). And China has since been rejected at former support (red line) multiple times. Just one of these charts would be a warning to investors but all three together suggest that global growth has completely crashed. All around the world, the peak was in January 2018 and since that time most markets have been in MAJOR downtrends if not outright bear markets. On that note, we are putting together an Executive Summary outlining all of these issues as well as whats coming down the pike when the Everything Bubble bursts. It will be available exclusively to our clients. If youd like to have a copy delivered to your inbox when its completed, you can join the wait-list here. Do NOT delay there are fewer than 67 slots remaining. https://phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/TEB.html Graham Summers Phoenix Capital Research http://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com Graham also writes Private Wealth Advisory, a monthly investment advisory focusing on the most lucrative investment opportunities the financial markets have to offer. Graham understands the big picture from both a macro-economic and capital in/outflow perspective. He translates his understanding into finding trends and unde74rvalued investment opportunities months before the markets catch on: the Private Wealth Advisory portfolio has outperformed the S&P 500 three of the last five years, including a 7% return in 2008 vs. a 37% loss for the S&P 500. Previously, Graham worked as a Senior Financial Analyst covering global markets for several investment firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. Hes lived and performed research in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. 2018 Copyright Graham Summers - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. Graham Summers Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, met with the delegation of the Government of Yemen, headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Khaled al Yamani Thursday in Geneva in a bid to reactivate the peace process. They discussed the expectations of these consultations and relevant issues to the peace process, in particular Confidence Building Measures, a UN spokesman said, adding that the Special Envoy acknowledged the efforts made by the Government of Yemen and the Coalition to facilitate the convening of these consultations. The meeting was held at the start of what were due to be the first peace talks involving both warring parties to be held in two years. Yet, according to news reports, the Houthi delegation was either unable or unwilling to leave the capital Sanaa to attend the consultations, and the Government has reportedly given a 24-hour deadline for them to arrive in the Swiss capital. The Special Envoy is mindful of the challenges associated with bringing the parties together to Geneva, bearing in mind that they havent met for two years. He was hopeful to see Sanaa Delegation present to expedite the political process. Mr. Griffiths vowed to overcome obstacles which have so far prevented the Houthi rebel delegation from showing up, and to continue to make efforts to overcome obstacles to allow the consultations to go forward. Fighting between the two sides, which escalated in 2015, has caused a humanitarian crisis, putting nearly eight million people on the edge of starvation, sparking the worlds worst cholera epidemic and leaving the vast majority of Yemenis in need of aid. The Special Envoy who reiterated the need to reach an inclusive political solution to the conflict in Yemen, said Yemeni people who live under dire humanitarian, economic and security conditions hope for a quick settlement of the conflict. For Dean Winslow, MD, one comment last fall served as an ending and a beginning. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, two days after the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the Stanford professor of medicine and retired Air Force colonel opined that it was insane that in the United States of America a civilian can go out and buy a semiautomatic weapon like an AR-15. He quickly fell out of contention for the post of assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. But the reaction from friends and colleagues in the medical community and his own subsequent reflection spurred Winslow to do something hed never before considered: spearhead a nonprofit organization for health care professionals working to address the dangers of gun violence. The group is called Scrubs Addressing the Firearms Epidemic, or SAFE, and aims to unify voices of physicians, nurses and medical students. The mission is to reduce gun violence by promoting firearm safety education for caregivers, supporting research and advocating for evidence-based policies that reflect responsible gun ownership and respect the Second Amendment. First national event Sept. 17 The organizations first national event, Stand SAFE, will take place on Sept. 17. Medical students and health professionals are encouraged to wear scrubs customized with the SAFE logo, convene briefly in a show of solidarity at noon local time, and hold gun violence-related education activities. Were looking at this from the perspective of people who care for victims of gun violence including children and as people who also have actually seen gun violence up close, Winslow said. And we really feel that our country can do better in terms of reducing the terrible toll. Stanfords SAFE rally will be held at noon on the Dean's Lawn, next to the Clark Center, followed by an educational event at 12:30 p.m. at the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge. Confirmed speakers include Winslow; John Donahue, JD, PhD, professor of law; and David Spain, MD, professor of surgery. First-year medical students also will receive training on how to respond to a life-threatening bleeding emergency before paramedics arrive. A common goal: Keep people healthy Recognizing the nations political deadlock on firearms, SAFE focuses on the public health aspect of gun violence prevention an area of agreement among numerous medical organizations. The idea, said SAFE co-chair Sarabeth Spitzer, is to emphasize a common goal of keeping people healthy. We need to do thorough, nationwide research to figure out what are the most effective ways to prevent these injuries, said the fourth-year Stanford medical student, who has published work on the cost of hospitalizations for firearm injuries. And once we have evidence to show certain policies are effective, we should implement those policies as soon as possible. We really feel that our country can do better in terms of reducing the terrible toll. The approach has resonated in the health care community, where projects with a similar focus have sprouted. SAFE intends to provide an umbrella for like-minded professionals: Many physicians, academics and students have signed on to the team and advisory board, and in a matter of weeks, three dozen medical schools have established chapters. The participation of future physicians, along with the nonpartisan, clinical focus, distinguishes the effort, said Michelle Sandberg, MD, a member of the SAFE advisory board who also was a founding board member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. What is really compelling to me is this passionate, engaged younger generation of doctors interested in bringing together a large group of health care providers to take a more active role in this issue, said Sandberg, a pediatrician and clinical instructor at Stanford. In the immediate future, plans for SAFE include coordinating with other entities to add firearms safety measures to medical education. Leaders also will gather soon to hammer out details of a long-term agenda. Winslow and Spitzer know that meeting their goals will be challenging, but they remain hopeful about making progress, even if it is slow to come. I really do believe the time is right for this, Winslow said. Im a Midwesterner, so Im congenitally optimistic about things. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has told Members of Parliament that he can abolish the Parliament, if he wants. The declaration comes ahead of an anticipated debate on the findings of a parliamentary probe into the Arua violence, which led to the brutal arrest and torture of MPs and other people. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the parliaments decision to institute an ad-hoc body to probe the incidents arising from a violent by-election campaign. President Museveni, opposed to such a debate, has reportedly suggested that the committee was a waste of time because it lacks capacity to summon soldiers for instance. He also wondered how diplomats had been allowed into military camps to visit detained MPs. Museveni who was speaking at Entebbe State House to the National Resistance Movement Caucus, said that he can get rid of the Parliament and be the sole confined power in the Republic. Between 1971 and 1979 there was no parliament. Dont think that you are in heavenYou should know where the power of that parliament comes from, Museveni, a retired army general, was quoted as saying. The Parliament was to debate the report compiled by an ad-hoc committee set up by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga on August 16 before the matter ran into headwinds. Museveni has been in power since 1986 and has repeatedly been accused by his opponents of rights abuses and the widespread use of security forces to suppress opposition to his rule. About five MPs including famous Bobi Wine and over twenty opposition supporters were detained by security agencies after Arua election chaos. The group known as Arua 33 have since appeared before a magistrate and have been granted bail. A number of MPs are on record to have challenged the president over his alleged comments. We want to tell you, Mr President; go ahead and dissolve parliament. We cannot be intimidated by your threats, the Observer newspaper reports. South Sudan government combatants have been convicted for murder and rape in the infamous Terrain Hotel raid in July 2016. The finding of a military court that 10 soldiers were guilty of committing violence against civilians at the Terrain Hotel in Juba, South Sudan, has finally delivered justice for the survivors and the family of the journalist murdered in the attack, UN said in a statement on Thursday. The victims and survivors of this horrific attack deserved justice and that has been served today, said UNMISS in a statement. The brutal assaults which included the murder of a local journalist and rape of five foreign aid workers occurred at the Terrain Hotel in July 2016, amidst heavy fighting between Government and rival forces which lasted three days and left dozens dead. The outcome of the trial also sends a powerful message to other would-be offenders, including members of the armed forces, that they will be prosecuted and punished for such violence, the UNMISS statement added. It is the first time that soldiers have been sentenced for atrocity crimes in South Sudan, where government and rebel soldiers have been accused of committing numerous atrocities against civilians since civil conflict intensified in 2013. The judgement delivered early Thursday, handed down lengthy prison terms to the guilty and also ordered the Government to pay damages to the victims. However, according to evidence raised during the trial, questions remain about whether accountability for these crimes reached high enough up the chain of command, added UNMISS. In the statement, the UN Mission also commended the witnesses and survivors for demonstrating true courage and patience by participating in the judicial process, which began in May 2017. There were some significant challenges throughout the process, including the detention conditions of the defendants, some impediments to the defendants access to counsel, and the trial of these crimes against civilians in a military rather than civilian court, it said. However, the UN Mission noted, as the trial progressed, there was a willingness to adopt new procedures, including allowing testimony to be given via video link and using closed sessions to protect the identities of witnesses. The UN Mission also underscored that despite bringing to justice the offenders in one particular case, the broader problem of widespread sexual and gender-based violence against South Sudanese women and children, continues to fester. The worlds youngest nation has remained mired in conflict and instability, with most cases of violence going unreported and there is widespread impunity across the country, added UNMISS. Seven News has promoted its US Correspondent Ashlee Mullany to US Bureau Chief, replacing Mike Amor who has returned to Melbourne as weekend anchor. Senior reporter Paul Kadak will make the move stateside, joining Mullany and US Correspondent Amelia Brace. Network Director of News and Public Affairs, Craig McPherson, said: Held in very high regard as one of the countrys foremost news correspondents, Mike has led this exceptional team for almost two decades, and that depth of skill, passion and news gathering experience will further bolster our Melbourne team. Ashlee has performed outstandingly in her time as US Correspondent covering all the major international events in recent years, and thoroughly deserves to take over this crucial position. While Paul brings to the bureau 23-years reporting experience, including reporting from three Olympic Games, major news events at all points of the globe and domestically. A true journalistic craftsman. EXCLUSIVE: Its a rolled-Gold tango for TEN with Grant Denyer & Amanda Keller about to be announced as hosts of Dancing with the Stars. Rumours of the shows revival have been circulating in recent months with Chief Content Officer Beverley McGarvey refusing to rule them out. TV Tonight understands the show will indeed return to television in early 2019 produced by Warner Bros. Australia. Gold Logie winner Grant Denyer, about to begin with Game of Games, will be joined by Gold Logie nominee and Living Room host Amanda Keller. Both are former contestants from the show during its long run on Seven. While the show does not come cheap, it should help the network to a larger slice of 25-54 year old viewers (and definitely 55+) and draw upon TENs stable of stars hitting the dance floor. Updated. Israel May Allow Georgians Work legally if Illegal Migration doesn't Rise By Gvantsa Gabekhadze The government of Israel may accelerate procedures to allow Georgian nationals work legally in Israel if the number of Georgians working illegally in Israel will not rise, as the country found that around 15,000 Georgians worked illegally in different cities and regions of Israel.I believe that negotiations over the legal employment will be accelerated in 2019. This issue is really on the agenda of the state of Israel, - Israeli Ambassador to Georgia Shabtai Tsur told the local media IPN.He said that if the number of Georgians illegally working in Israel does not increase, the process will be further accelerated by 2019." Everybody knows that in 2014 when the visa regime was abolished between Georgia and Israel, many tourists started traveling to Georgia. Unfortunately, we discovered that approximately 15,000 Georgian citizens had been illegally working in Israel for the past two years. A dialogue was held on this issue between the Israeli foreign ministry and Georgia.Even today there are people who try to work in Israel illegally, the ambassador said.Tsur claimed that it has been decided that if the number of Georgians illegally working in Israel does not increase, a dialogue will be held between the foreign ministries of Georgia and Israel about the legitimate employment of Georgian citizens in Israel.The statistics of 2018 are positive so far, said the ambassador.He said that the number of people illegally traveling to Israel has been decreased by 70percent recently and the contribution of Georgias Foreign Ministry was high in the process. A giraffe attack incident happened on Monday, when Katy Williams, 35, and her three-year-old son, Finn, were 150 meters away from their home in the Blyde Wildlife Estate in Hoedspruit, near Kruger National Park. The giraffe, accompanied by her two-month-old calf, trampled the pair. It seems they surprised her and her calf, leading to the female giraffe feeling threatened. It is being termed an unfortunate act of nature by husband Sam Williams. Both Katy and Finn are currently in a hospital. Both are stable, but in a critical condition after undergoing operations. Katy is a US citizen, while her husband, Sam, is a 36-year-old British scientist. Both have post-PhD experience in animal-related fields and are working in the wildlife reserve. Giraffe attack leaves woman and son in hospital Sam came across the incident while returning from his evening run. He managed to chase away the giraffe, but not before the attack had caused serious injuries to his family. Herald Online quotes Hannes Meiring of ER24 as saying both Katy and Finn received medical treatment at the scene from ER24 paramedics after Hoedspruit Medical Rescue arrived at the scene of the attack and assessed both patients. They were then airlifted in two separate helicopters to the Busamed Modderfontein Hospital in Johannesburg. The three-year-old boy required an operation to relieve pressure on the brain, while Katy received operations for a variety of injuries caused by the giraffe trampling them in the attack. Giraffe was protecting her calf in the incident Riaan Cilliers, the manager in charge of the Blyde Wildlife Estate, went on to say they are all still in shock over the very sad incident, adding that the whole Williams family is in their prayers. Cilliers confirmed the giraffe was accompanied by her two-month-old calf, which very likely influenced her attack on the woman and child, as she was trying to protect her calf. Sam Williams, 36, chased the animal off after he arrived home to find the attack under way https://t.co/joShLcMn8y The Times of London (@thetimes) September 7, 2018 Staying positive, taking things a day at a time As reported by the Independent, the family released a statement to say they are planning to stay positive and take things a day at a time. The Williams lawyer, Marina Botha, confirmed that Sam understands nature and animals, and as far as information on the attack goes, he believes the giraffe attack was a distressing and unfortunate act of nature. Sam Williams asked for privacy during what is a very difficult time for the family. People walk at the annual Damascus International Fair, Syria September 6, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki Thomson Reuters By Angus McDowall and Kinda Makieh DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria's government is showcasing its ambitions for economic recovery and engagement with foreign business at a trade fair, but glimpses of devastated districts nearby show how far off full-scale reconstruction remains. While companies from Syria's allies Russia and Iran are present in numbers, others are sparse, deterred by Western sanctions and continued ostracism of Syria as it prepares to attack the last rebel bastion in a seven-year-old civil war. "Today the Syrian army forces have gained a lot of momentum ... We think this year (the trade fair) will be very successful. A lot of companies that were not in Syria last year came," said Samer al-Debs, head of the Damascus Chamber of Industry, as the fair opened on Thursday night. Although South Korean cars are now trundling off assembly lines in Syria, and there is electricity in Damascus for 20 hours a day, whole towns lie in ruins and millions are sheltering abroad as refugees. While global attention focuses on northwest Syria, where the army is preparing to attack the last active stronghold of armed rebellion - at the risk of triggering a humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations - Damascus is experiencing its first peaceful summer in years. President Bashar al-Assad retook the last insurgent enclaves around the capital this spring through heavy bombardment after years of siege, ending frequent rebel mortar fire on the city center. Last year, one such mortar round struck the entrance to the Damascus International Trade Fair as it opened for the first time in five years, killing six people during an event the government had heralded as a move toward economic revival. SHRAPNEL MARKS The shrapnel marks are still visible, but the only sound of an explosion on Thursday came from distant de-mining operations in an area recaptured months ago. On each side of the road to the fair - the main highway from Damascus to its international airport - lie districts that were recently on the front lines, and where most buildings seem little more than concrete husks, their roofs caved in. Story continues Inside the trade fair, companies display goods imported from dozens of countries, including Japanese electronics and South Korean Kia cars assembled in Syria under licence. Still, in a sign of the fraught international realities surrounding the war, the countries with most companies present are Russia and Iran Assad's closest military allies, themselves also subject to Western sanctions. In the Iranian pavilion, stalls displaying delicate silk carpets stand next to others advertising industrial and agricultural equipment. "There is technical, scientific and industrial capability in Iran and it is in line with the demands present in the Syrian market," said Iranian Ambassador Javad Turk Abadi. Across the aisle in the Russian pavilion, one company was selling armored bulldozers for clearing unexploded bombs in city rubble, and another was seeking contracts for electricity cables in a country where the power network has been ruined. FLAGS The geopolitics are also clear in the flags along the highway which include not only those of Russia and Iran but also those of Venezuela and North Korea, two countries at odds with the United States and much of the West. Attending the opening ceremony along with Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis was the leader of Abkhazia, a breakaway Georgian republic recognised by few countries apart from Russia and Syria. Its flag, and that of another Russian-backed Georgian breakaway republic, South Ossetia, fly near the entrance. Western countries have said they will not aid reconstruction without a political solution to the conflict, but as Assad reclaims more rebel territory with Russian and Iranian backing, the prospect of any deal with opposition groups is receding. They have also said they will not ease sanctions; the difficulty of trading with Syria is a constant refrain among companies at the trade fair. Money transfers are very difficult, complicating payments for import or export, and foreign companies fear inadvertently doing business with sanctioned individuals or entities. Despite that, Syrian businesses appear to be finding ways around the sanctions and growing, as the past few years of army advances have brought Syria's most populous areas back into a large contiguous zone of government control. "Sanctions are always a problem. We're finding ways around it ... we adapted ourselves to the situation," said Fares Shehabi, head of the Aleppo chamber of commerce and industry, who is himself on a European Union sanctions list for his support for Assad. (Reporting By Angus McDowall and Kinda Makieh; writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Kevin Liffey) See Also: Is AI a bigger threat than terrorism? (Getty) Artificial intelligence is a bigger threat than antibiotic resistance, climate change or terrorism, the incoming head of the British Science Association has said. Professor Jim Al-Khalili pointed to the increasing impact of cyber risks in the form of Russian election hacking as evidence that the threat of AI is a pressing one. In the future, AI-controlled systems such as banks and power grids might mean our whole society is vulnerable, he said. Professor Al-Khalili said at a meeting in London in advance of the British Science Festival that AI will dominate other issues, even pressing threats such as climate change and terrorism. READ MORE ON YAHOO NEWS UK: BBC presenter Rachael Bland dies at 40 after cancer battle Two Salisbury Novichock attack suspects are Russian spies, Theresa May says Man, 66, has his wallet stolen as hes dying from heart attack Donald Trump hits out at fraud tell-all book written by Watergate reporter Japan typhoon: At least 11 dead and 600 injured after worst storm in 25 years He said, Until maybe a couple of years ago had I been asked what is the most pressing and important conversation we should be having about our future, I might have said climate change or one of the other big challenges facing humanity, such as terrorism, antimicrobial resistance, the threat of pandemics or world poverty. But today I am certain the most important conversation we should be having is about the future of AI. It will dominate what happens with all of these other issues for better or for worse. Is Russian cyber hackers were able to meddle with the 2016 US elections, then what is stopping cyber terrorists from hacking into any future AI controlled power grids, transport systems, banks of military installations. Our government has a responsibility to protect society from potential threats and risks. Drought-stricken New South Wales farmer Bron White was intrigued when she found an Australia-shaped puddle forming in her dried-up dam after some much needed rain fell on her parched Ulamambri property on September 4. She posted an image to the One Day Closer to Rain Facebook group, asking other farmers if they could see anything in the shape of the puddle. White later updated the post to say that Tasmania had been added. Our kids shetland pony added it late last night, she said of the hoof-shaped addition on the bottom right of the puddle. She decided to take it into her own hooves and put Tassie on the map. Commenters on the post agreed they could see the resemblance to our wide brown land, with one woman interpreting the image as Australia drying up. Others interpreted the puddle as a good sign. Its an omen of the best kind one commenter wrote, with another saying lets just treat it as a sign that it will rain all over Australia. White told Storyful her family had been transporting water for their livestock for over eight months of the drought. Just holding on telling ourselves it will break and we will have relief sometime soon, she said. Credit: Bron White via Storyful Newsflare A man found a cockroach in a bowl of ketchup when dining in a restaurant in eastern China. Video filmed in the city of Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province on November 2 shows a man holding a bowl of ketchup with a cockroach inside to argue with the restaurant staff. However, the restaurant owner suddenly grabbed the bowl away and said: "Are you looking for trouble?". The restaurant staff said they have already promised that the man's meal was free of charge and they could also pay for the fee for a hospital body check, but the man still wanted further compensation. Finally, police arrived to mediate. The restaurant decided to compensate the man but he was unwilling to accept it and left himself. The video was provided by local media with permission. FILE PHOTO: European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier attends a media briefing with Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, after a meeting at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium August 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir By Guy Faulconbridge and Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said in evidence published on Friday that he was willing to consider new ways to solve the Irish border issue, the toughest of remaining issues in Britain's exit negotiation. The United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on March 29, yet little is clear: There is, so far, no full exit deal, rivals to Prime Minister Theresa May are circling and some lawmakers are pushing for a rerun of the 2016 referendum. Barnier told British lawmakers that he did not agree with May's Chequers proposals on economic and trade policy which he said appeared to be suggesting Britain wanted a "kind of a la carte single market, a kind of cherrypicking approach". The 67-year-old Frenchman also said he was very concerned about the Irish border issue but that the EU was open to discussing different - possibly dispersed and new technological - ways of checking goods crossing the UK-Irish border. "We are ready to simplify these checks, to have them carried out at a number of different places and have checks, thanks to technical means, which could take different forms," said, according to a transcript released by the British parliament "They could be dispersed. They could take place in different places, on board vessels, in ports outside Ireland, they could be done using technological means, they could be dispersed, as I said, or simplified in technological terms." Sterling rose to a one-week high at $1.3029 after Barnier's testimony was reported while against the euro it touched a three-week high . The euro slipped as low as 0.8915 pence. On Tuesday, a leading EU lawmaker said the bloc could offer new guarantees to Britain to win London's support for a solution aimed at avoiding an Irish border after Brexit. TIME FOR DECISIONS If the worlds fifth largest economy left the EU without a deal outlining the divorce details, financial markets would be spooked and trade flows across Europe and beyond could be disrupted. Story continues Both the EU and Britain want to avoid a so-called hard border between UK's Northern Ireland and the EU's Irish Republic because such a border could undermine a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in the north. But it is still unclear how goods crossing between the EU and the UK in Ireland would be monitored if there is no border and if Northern Ireland, as a part of the UK, leaves both the customs union and the single market. Barnier repeated that 80 percent of the withdrawal deal was done but that negotiators might need a few extra days beyond the Oct. 18-19 EU Council meeting to get a deal. "Where we are now, to be frank, it is not extra time that we need; it is extra decisions," Barnier said. He also told the British lawmakers that if there was no deal then there would be no mini-deals done. "If there is a no deal there is no more discussion. There is no more negotiation. It is over and each side will take its own unilateral contingency measures, and we will take them in such areas as aviation, but this does not mean mini-deals in the case of a no deal," he said. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by James Davey and Alison Williams) MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines, one of the world's top suppliers of nickel ore, will this week start limiting the land that miners can develop at any one time as new rules to protect the environment take effect. The new curbs, backed by President Rodrigo Duterte, target 29 of 48 mines operating in the Philippines, which are nickel producers supplying ores to the world's leading market, China. Reuters first reported the new set of restrictions in April. Mining is a deeply contentious issue in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country after past examples of environmental mismanagement. The industry group Chamber of Mines of the Philippines said it supports the government order. Under the new rules, a 20-metre "buffer zone" will be established inward from the mining tenement boundary and near rivers and streams, where metals extraction will be banned. Nickel miners will be limited to a production area ranging from 50 to 100 hectares (123-400 acres) at any one time, depending on the size of production and whether they have a processing plant. The government order, which takes effect this week, will allow mines producing up to 1 million tonnes of nickel ore a year to work on 50 hectares at any one time. Those producing more can work on 60 hectares up to 100 hectares, while projects with a processing plant will be allowed up to 162 hectares. "If mining companies intend to open a new area, say 100 hectares, they should also progressively rehabilitate the same 100 hectares that they previously disturbed," Manila's Geosciences Bureau Director Wilfredo Moncano told Reuters on Thursday. Duterte told miners in April to reforest areas where they operate, warning he would revoke their permits if he doesn't see trees as tall as he is in six months. Miners will be required to put up a 5 million Philippine pesos ($93,370) performance bond every year as a guarantee that they will comply with the requirement on mine rehabilitation. The bond will be forfeited if they fail to comply. Story continues "Our member-companies are fast-tracking efforts to comply with the order, including the revegetation of mined-out and inactive mine areas," Rocky Dimaculangan, the Chamber of Mines' vice president for communications, told Reuters. Nickel ore output fell 10 percent in the first half of 2018 from a year earlier to 9.43 million dry metric tonnes, government data showed. Eleven of the nickel mines had zero output during the period because their operations were suspended or they were under maintenance status. (Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) See Also: @martindvassolo Before Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis and his newly selected running mate met with reporters Thursday night following a campaign event in Little Havana, a DeSantis ally issued a warning to the candidate. The press arrived here under one rule, said Marcell Felipe, founder of the Inspire America Foundation. Anything you say can and will be used against you. That was certainly the case during DeSantis primary campaign against Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who was repeatedly asked about past comments criticizing then-candidate Donald Trump for his vile and obscene language in an Access Hollywood van. But now its DeSantis running mate, Jeanette Nunez, a state representative with valuable ties to Cuban-American voters in Miami, who is being asked to reckon with critical comments she made against Trump in 2016, including charges that he supported white supremacy and was anti-Israel. Wake up Florida voters, Trump is the biggest con-man there is. #nosubstance #anti-Israel #supportsKKK #nevertrump VOTE @marcorubio #RUBIO, reads Nunezs now-deleted tweet from March 3, 2016. Read more here. By Radu-Sorin Marinas BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's justice minister nominated a little-known regional official, Adina Florea, for the post of national anti-corruption prosecutor on Thursday, following the controversial removal of Laura Codruta Kovesi from the post in July. Critics say the removal of Kovesi, praised by the European Union for her efforts to convict high-level politicians, is part of efforts by ruling leftists to undermine anti-graft policies and could leave prosecutors exposed to political interference. She was sacked by President Klaus Iohannis following a Constitutional Court ruling validating a request by the government. "I don't know of any big corruption-related cases solved by (Florea)," said independent political commentator Mircea Marian. "There is no link between proposing her and the fight against high-level corruption." In a document outlining her views on the anti-corruption office (DNA), Florea, a prosecutor in the port town of Constanta, wrote the institution has operated at times in a "dysfunctional" way. She accused some prosecutors of illegal activities in pursuing cases. In comments that sparked widespread protests in Romania earlier this year, justice minister Tudorel Toader had accused Kovesi of exceeding her authority and damaging the country's image abroad. Considered by government critics as a symbol of the fight against corruption, Kovesi has blamed politicians for attempting to block the functioning of justice by softening legislation to seek protection against prosecution for "past, present and future" deeds. Under Kovesi, the DNA had investigated lawmakers, ministers and mayors, exposing conflicts of interest, abuse of power, fraud and awarding of state contracts in exchange for bribes. Concerns over the rule of law in Romania follow similar issues in Poland and Hungary, where governments are under pressure for the EU over democratic standards. To become official, Florea's appointment will have to be approved by Iohannis, a centrist politician often at odds with the ruling leftists over corruption policy. (Editing by Catherine Evans) FILE PHOTO: President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un shake hands after signing documents during a summit in Singapore FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un shake hands after signing documents during a summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore, June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo By Steve Holland ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which he believes will be positive, is on its way to him, a day after expressing fresh optimism about a denuclearisation deal. "I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me. It was handed at the border ... yesterday," Trump told reporters on Air Force One. "It's being delivered. It's actually an elegant way... and I think it's going to be a positive letter." The two leaders have traded correspondence as they negotiate over North Korea's nuclear programme and Trump has also praised Kim on social media. On Thursday, Trump thanked Kim on Twitter for expressing "unwavering faith in President Trump" and added: "We will get it done together!" Trump's latest remarks came after South Korean officials said after meeting Kim in Pyongyang this week that the North Korean leader had given his first timeline for denuclearisation, in spite of widespread scepticism about his willingness to give up a nuclear weapons programme that threatens the United States. According to the South Korean officials, Kim said his faith in Trump was "unchanged" and he wanted denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and an end to hostile relations with the United States before Trump's first term ends in early 2021. However, there has been no indication that Kim has offered more concrete steps towards giving up his nuclear weapons and some U.S. officials privately doubt he is willing to abandon the arsenal. Both Kim and Trump have stressed their personal relationship since meeting in an unprecedented June 12 summit which sceptics say was big on fanfare but short on substance. Under discussion since has been whether North Korean denuclearisation or declaring an end to the Korean War should come first. The 1950-53 war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led U.N. forces are technically still at war with the North. Story continues Earlier on Friday, generals from the United States and North Korea met at the Korean border to discuss the recovery of the remains of U.S. service members killed in the Korean War, a senior U.S. official said. The talks between U.S. Major General Michael Minihan, the chief of staff for the United Nations Command (UNC) and U.S. Forces Korea, and North Korean Lieutenant General An Ik-san followed North Korea's handover of remains in July under an agreement reached by Trump and Kim at the summit. "While these talks are military-to-military and scheduled to be confined to the repatriation issue, having some progress on any front would be welcome," the U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "That doesnt mean theres much optimism about moving forward on the political front." The official said that there remained concerns that Kim's improved relationship with China and his planned summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in this month could encourage him in resisting U.S. demands. In previous, failed rounds of negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme, North Korea has said it could consider giving up its arsenal if Washington provides security guarantees by removing troops from South Korea and withdrawing its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from the South and Japan. The United States has 28,500 troops in South Korea and Trump has said in the past it should consider reducing the number unless Seoul shoulders more of the cost. South Korea has said American forces should stay even if a peace agreement is signed, while U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis assured Seoul in a June visit of an ironclad U.S. commitment to its security, including keeping U.S. troop levels unaltered. On Friday, North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted a statement from the obscure Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) denouncing the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea and calling them the "chieftain of aggression and division, and root cause of misfortune and pain." "The withdrawal of the U.S. forces, the end of the U.S. military presence and domination is the demand of the Korean nation and the irresistible trend of the times," it said. (Reporting by Steve Holland, David Brunnstrom and John Walcott; writing by Lisa Lambert and David Brunnstrom; editing by James Dalgleish) (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday declared Nicaragua's civil unrest a threat to the region's security, saying government repression of protests risked creating an overwhelming displacement of people akin to Venezuela or Syria. More than 300 people have been killed and 2,000 injured in crackdowns by Nicaraguan police and armed groups in protests that began in April over an abortive plan by leftist President Daniel Ortega's government to reduce welfare benefits. The protests soon escalated into broader opposition against Ortega, who has been in office since 2007. He also served a term as president during the 1980s when he was a notable Cold War antagonist of the United States during Nicaragua's civil war. In a speech before the United Nations Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said that if the situation in Nicaragua continued to worsen, it could cause a spike in migrants fleeing into neighboring countries. "When human rights are denied, the violence and instability that follow spill over borders," she said, comparing Nicaragua to Venezuela, which has seen more than 1.6 million people leave since 2015, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. "With each passing day, Nicaragua travels further down a familiar path," Haley said. "It is a path that Syria has taken. It is a path that Venezuela has taken." At the Security Council meeting, Nicaragua's government rejected Haley's contention. Later in the day Ortega reminded a cheering crowd of supporters that the United States had an "expansionist" history in the Central American country. "What do we say to the United States? That if they want to help the people of Nicaragua, if they want to contribute to peace, the best thing they can do, and should do, is not interfere in Nicaragua, and respect Nicaragua," Ortega said in the capital Managua. At the U.N. meeting, the representative for neighboring Costa Rica said that the country had seen a "significant increase" in requests for asylum from Nicaraguans since the protests began: a total of 12,830 in the first eight months of the year. Story continues That pales in comparison with war-ravaged Syria's estimated 5.5 million refugees, a number almost equivalent to the entire population of Nicaragua. "There is consensus in this (Council) that Nicaragua does not represent a threat to international peace and security," said Nicaragua's foreign minister Denis Moncada. The U.N. Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security. Representatives from Russia, Bolivia and Venezuela backed the Nicaraguan government in arguing that the situation in the country was not undermining the region's stability. Moncada called Nicaragua a model of security in the region in the battle against organized crime, and said that its inclusion on the agenda was a breach of international law. Last week, the U.N. human rights delegation released a report documenting human rights violations in recent months, including the disproportionate use of force and extrajudicial killings by the Nicaraguan police, disappearances, arbitrary detentions and instances of torture and sexual violence. Shortly afterwards, Nicaragua's government ordered the expulsion of the delegation. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) Police in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, pulled their guns out and handcuffed an 18-year-old black man on September 2, on suspicion of either robbing or attempting to rob a car, only to find that he was the grandson of the white woman who he was riding with. Grandmother Paulette Barr was driving with a friend, who was also white, with her black grandson in the back seat, when police told them to pull over. She was about to drop her grandson off at work, according to The Washington Post. Dashcam footage shot from the vehicle of Wauwatosa Police Officer Pat Kaine shows Kaine ordering the teen, later identified by media as Akil Carter, to exit the car, raise his arms, and walk backwards towards the police vehicle. Carter is then handcuffed and placed in the back of the police car. One of the women in the car is heard telling officers that the teen was her grandson. Kaine tells the woman police received a report of two black males attempting a robbery and said the person who made the report said one of the suspects was in the blue Lexus that Barr and her grandson were traveling in. Barr, responding to the officer, suggests assumptions were made about Carter. Well, Im telling you hes my grandson, the woman says. Im sure he saw two old white ladies in a car with a black kid and made some assumptions, she said. The Wauwatosa Police Department issued a statement on September 6 saying officers had performed the traffic stop and detained the teenager after receiving a report from a black man and a black woman that a robbery had just occurred and that a suspect was sitting in the back seat of a blue Lexus. The 18-year-old male was detained based on reasonable suspicion for approximately 6 minutes while officers investigated. The 18-year-old and other occupants were then allowed to leave. The original citizen who reported this to police did not stay in the area, as requested by officers, and has yet to be located to get a formal statement, police said. The officers acted professionally during the entire interaction. The familys attorney Joy Bertrand told KTLA 5 that the video showed officers violated Carters right right to be free from an unreasonable stop, the right to be free from an unreasonable seizure. Bertrand also raised questions over the police account, saying it was strange that the officers interaction with the people who made the report did not feature in the dashcam footage, CBS reported. Credit: Wauwatosa Police Department via Storyful By Bushra Shakhshir and Marina Depetris GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N.-mediated Yemen peace talks hung in the balance as the government delegation warned that it would leave on Friday if representatives of the Houthi movement had not shown up. The United Nations announced on Thursday night that U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths was not expected to hold any talks at its Geneva offices on Friday. Two sources in the government delegation told Reuters that they had given the international envoy additional time to noon on Friday to persuade the Houthis to come to the Swiss city. "By 12 pm if the Houthis don't leave Sanaa, I think the government delegation will decide to leave (Geneva)," said one. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen's war against the Iranian-allied Houthis in 2015 to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's internationally recognised government. Subsequent peace talks flopped. Since then the humanitarian situation has worsened sharply, putting 8.4 million people on the brink of starvation and ruining the already weak economy. U.N. Special Envoy Griffiths said in an earlier statement that he had discussed confidence-building measures with Yemen's foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani. The government delegation later met with Arab ambassadors who urged patience, a delegation source said. "Today should have been the first day of our consultation. We are here, the Houthis are not accepting to come ... We think that they are committing a huge mistake by not engaging seriously in these peace talks," Yamani told reporters. "We are not here indefinitely, we will not stay until the end of these consultations, we just wanted to prove to the Special Envoy that we are engaging. Tomorrow, in a few hours, we will take a decision on should we continue to stay in Geneva or should we withdraw," he added. Yamani said the Hadi government - which is backed by the coalition carring out air strikes on the country - was serious about pursuing peace. It was not giving an ultimatum to the Houthis, whom he described as divided between hardliners and moderates. Story continues Griffiths called for the Houthis to attend the talks, aimed at relaunching peace negotiations after nearly three years. He conceded there were "challenges" in bringing the parties together, but still wanted to see the delegation from the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa arrive. The world body wants the government and the Houthi movement to work towards a deal to end the war, remove foreign forces from Yemen, and establish a national unity government. An inclusive political solution is required to end the conflict in Yemen, where people live in dire humanitarian, economic and security conditions, Griffiths said. The Houthi movement's al-Masirah TV reported on Wednesday that the coalition had prevented the Houthi delegation from flying from Sanaa to Geneva. The Houthis have accused the U.N. of not keeping a promise to transport wounded on the flight. On Thursday, a source from Sanaa airport said there was no plane there yet for the Houthi delegation. Hamza al-Kamali, Yemeni deputy minister for youth, told reporters in Geneva earlier on Thursday that the flight clearance had been given three days ago. Saudi Arabia's air defence forces intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in the southern city of Najran, wounding 26 people with shrapnel, Saudi civil defence said on Wednesday. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Aden and Abdulrahman al-Ansi in Sanaa; writing by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by William Maclean and Toby Chopra) Amerisur Resources has spudded its Pintadillo-1 well in Colombia and has begun seismic acquisition at the Coendu prospect. The South America-focused oil and gas firm new well is targeting the N Sands anomaly to the north of the Platanillo field, with drilling running ahead of schedule at 5,000 feet measured depth. Elsewhere, Amerisur's 2D seismic acquisition at the Coendu prospect, where it has initiated the processes required for the preparation of the Drilling Environmental Licence, has been slated to wrap before the end of the month and will be followed by data processing and interpretation. Amerisur's chief executive John Wardle said: "After some delays, we look forward to a busy period of seismic and exploration drilling activity in the weeks and months ahead, with a focus on the OBA cluster acreage we have built up at low cost in the oil downturn." The AIM-listed firm told investors on Friday that it had completed the construction and installation works at the Chiritza Re-Pumping Station in Ecuador, which, when operational, will have a minimum throughput capacity of 9,000 barrels of oil per day. Amerisur turned in an unaudited production of 152,721 barrels of oil from its Platanillo and the Mariposa-1 operations in August. Average daily production stood at 4,927 bopd and peak daily production came in at 5,295 bopd. "Current production has stabilised and at the right time we may increase production rates at Platanillo-22 whilst preserving the long-term integrity of the well," said Wardle. As of 1045 BST, Amerisur shares had jumped 4.93% to 14.90p. Pan African Resources announced on Friday that its Barberton Mines operation has successfully concluded a three-year wage agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers and the United Association of South Africa. The AIM-traded company said the two organisations represented the majority of employees at Barberton Mines. The Agreement provides for an average annual wage increase of approximately 6.5% and 5.5% for NUM and UASA members, respectively, over the three years, Pan Africans board said in its statement. The negotiations were successfully concluded with no industrial action or work stoppages. The government would have to refocus its spending priorities if Brexit negotiations resulted in no deal, warned UK Chancellor Philip Hammond. He said the government would have to look at contingencies if the European Union and Britain could not reach agreement before Brexit next March. His comments came as it emerged government officials were working on a contingency plan in the event of a no-deal scenario codenamed 'Operation Yellowhammer'. In no-deal circumstances we would have to refocus government priorities so that government was concentrated on the circumstances that we found ourselves, he told the BBC. Departments have the funding for no-deal planning. What were beginning to discuss is now part of long-term contingency planning. The Operation Yellowhammer document was photographed in the hands of Treasury Minister John Glen in Downing Street and revealed that Whitehalls civil contingencies secretariat, which normally deals with emergencies such as natural disasters, was planning for spending changes. It said government departments should treat internal reprioritisation as their first objective. They would also have to bid for a share of the 1.5bn being made available for no-deal. From the moment the November ballot was set, Republicans message about Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillums platform has been consistent: Florida cant afford to adopt his socialist agenda Its a dubious theme, but one that the GOP has stressed since President Donald Trump called the Tallahassee politician a failed socialist mayor only hours after Gillum won the Democratic primary. Its a talking point that Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis and Gov. Rick Scott repeated Thursday in Orlando, and are guaranteed to broadcast until election day as Gillum pushes for a $15 minimum wage, Medicare-for-All and a 40-percent increase in the corporate tax rate to fund education. How that characterization ruled false Thursday by fact-checking website Politifact will play around the state is hard to predict. But its highly likely that the strategy will be effective in heavily Democratic Miami-Dade County, where Republicans are courting hundreds of thousands of exiles whove fled communist and socialist nations in an effort to keep Gillum from running up the score. Socialism would be a disaster for Florida, DeSantis said in Miami on Thursday night, drawing cheers from a crowd that packed the Manuel Artime Theatre in Little Havana to hear the conservative congressman speak. We cant let socialist policies win in this free land. Miami-Dade County is a Democratic stronghold, and turnout during the August primary was the highest in at least a decade, with nearly 300,000 ballots cast and Gillum scoring nearly 40 percent of the vote in a crowded and competitive field. Democrats, particularly those down the ballot in competitive races, are encouraged by Gillums ability to turn out unlikely voters during the August primary election. Click here to read the rest. Deutsche Bank 's largest investor may be headed out the door soon, according to reports. Under pressure from its own government, China's HNA Group was preparing to exit its remaining 8.8% stake in the German lender over the next 18 months, the Journal reported overnight. Straining under its own debt burden, HNA was also said to be looking to divest its stakes in Ingram Micro and Swissport International. Also according to the Journal, who cited unidentified people familiar with the matter, Beijing had asked the industrial conglomerate, whom it had helped to raise cash earlier in 2018, to focus on its travel business. The majority of the stake was held through financial derivatives contracts, Bloomberg said, which might limit the impact on the share price from any sale. Nevertheless, news of HNA's departure was expected to come as a heavy blow at Deutsche, whose share price had already plummeted by roughly 40% year-to-date as the lender struggled to right its situation. As of 1552 BST, shares of Deutsche Bank were 1.53% lower to 9.62. Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk joined podcaster and former UFC commentator Joe Rogan for almost three hours on Thursday night to discuss the "never-ending explosion" inside his head and what its like to keep the "very difficult" car company in business. Throughout the course of the podcast, the South African-born billionaire showed off one of his now infamous flamethrowers, brandished a Samurai sword and smoked marijuana while touching on a number of other hot-button topics. "I don't think you'd necessarily want to be me," Musk said. "I don't think people would like it that much." He said running Tesla, which has struggled to scale up production of its Model 3 sedan, was his "hardest" job, "It's very difficult to keep a car company alive," he said. Musk set social media ablaze after accepting a joint from Rogan on the California-based podcast. "I mean, it's legal, right?" he asked. "I'm getting text messages from friends saying, 'What the hell are you doing smoking weed?'" The entrepenuer stated he is "not a regular smoker of weed" as he "doesn't find it's very good for productivity." "It's like a cup of coffee in reverse," he added. Throughout the interview, Musk claimed he had come up with preliminary designs for a supersonic, electric plane that was capable of taking off and landing vertically but said he didn't plan to pursue the idea anytime soon. "I have a lot on my plate," Musk said. "An electric plane isn't important right now." He also reiterated his belief that his Boring Company's plan to dig tunnels under cities to whisk commuters around in high-speed pods was the best way to solve urban traffic congestion. When discussing his attempts to merge the human brain with machines as part of his Neuralink venture, Musk said he would have "something interesting" to announce in a few months. Musk stated his belief that merging humans with computers was "probably the best" for mankind. "If you can't beat it, join it," he said. As of 1300 BST, Tesla shares had dipped 1.41% in pre-market trading to $277 each. Brazilian politician and presidential hopeful, Jair Bolsonaro, has been stabbed at a campaign rally in the south-east state of Minas Gerais. Bolsonaro, who has been referred to as the "Brazilian Trump", was attacked in the middle of a crowd in the city of Juiz de Fora, reportedly suffering three injuries to his intestines. However, the controversial candidate for Brazil's Social Liberal Party, who has made a number of racist and homophobic remarks on the campaign trail, is expected to recover. Bolsonaro is currently the favourite to win next month's presidential elections if former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who is currently in prison following a corruption conviction, remains blocked from standing. Footage of the incident shows Bolsonaro being held up by supporters after being stabbed with what appears to be a knife before doubling over in pain and being placed into a car. Police arrested a suspect after he was manhandled and beaten by supporters of the far-right politician. Making a statement from his hospital bed, Bolsonaro, who once said Brazilian Congresswoman Maria do Rosario was "not worth raping" and that he would be "incapable of loving a gay son", claimed the attack was unprovoked and that he had "never hurt anyone". China's stash of foreign exchange reserves was roughly steady last month, but economists believed the monetary authority had likely found an alternate manner of propping up its currency, the yuan; namely by instructing state-owned lenders to sell some of their foreign assets. The People's Bank of China's foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.11trn as of the end of August, which was down from $3,119bn at the end of the prior month. Economists attributed that reduction to 'valuation effects' on its holdings of assets denominated in foreign currencies, with Freya Beamish at Pantheon Macroeconomics calling attention to the "marked" drop in the value of its euro denominated reserves. Beamish did see "some" signs in the figures of FX sales by the PBoC, with the monetary authority receiving yuan in exchange, which in turn increases the price of the currency relative to that of others. Indeed, the currency had strengthened a bit since hitting a fresh low in mid-August. Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics on the other hand said that it remained to be seen whether or not the PBoC had in fact intervened in FX markets. "The big picture is that the PBOC has not bought or sold FX in any meaningful amounts since early 2017," Evans-Pritchard said. Nevertheless, both consultancies believed that instead Chinese officials were leaning on state-owned lenders to do so on their part. Explaining the PBoC's motives for acting the way that it was, Evans-Pritchard added: "Declining FX reserves can raise questions over the sustainability of intervention, emboldening those speculating against the currency. FX sales also leave the central bank open to accusations of currency manipulation, even if it is acting to prop up the currency not weaken it." "Unless we see a further escalation of trade tensions, we think this quasi-official intervention should prevent the currency from weakening much further." Beamish was a bit more cautious, telling clients: "Overall, the authorities now seem to be aiming for stability on the RMB, with financial risks and trade negotiations in mind. "This aim will be tested in Q4 as the Fed continues its hiking programme, if anything becoming more hawkish." As of 11140 BST, the US dollar was eding higher by 0.09% to 6.8415 versus the yuan. Waterstones, which itself was bought by New York hedge fund Elliot Advisers in April, has picked up Foyles' four London shops - Charing Cross Road, Royal Festival Hall, Waterloo and Westfield Stratford plus stores in Bristol, Birmingham and Chelmsford. We are honoured to be entrusted with the Foyles business, and greatly look forward to joining forces with the Foyles bookselling team," said James Daunt, Waterstones' managing director in a statement on Friday. "Together, we will be stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazons siren call." Christopher Foyle, grandson and grand-nephew of brothers who founded the chain in 1903, said: My family and I are delighted that Foyles is entering a new chapter, one which secures the brands future and protects its personality. With 283 shops, including 220-year old London bookseller Hatchards, Waterstones is the largest chain in the UK, and also owns the 250-year old Dublin booksellers Hodges Figgis, plus shops in the Netherlands and Belgium. Sales topped 400m in 2017, with pre-tax profits increasing from 9.9m to 18m. Daunt, who told the Bookseller than he had been approached by Foyle family to acquire the company, said bookshops were "rediscovering their purpose in the fight back against online and e-reading". "At Waterstones, we see our future as responsible stewards of shops that strive to serve their customers each according to their own distinct personality. This is nowhere more important than with those shops Hatchards, Hodges Figgis and now Foyles that have such singular heritages." Daunt also told the Bookseller that Foyles would benefit from Waterstones' greater buying power and its centralised services, adding that he had received no pressure from Elliott to grow the business. Prior to Elliott's buyout, Waterstones was owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, who bought the chain from HMV in 2011. Mamut's Lynwood vehicle injected tens of millions of pounds into refurbishing the stores of the lossmaking business. Theresa May's Chequers plan unworkable in current form The European Unions chief negotiator Michel Barnier had told MPs he was open to discussing alternative Irish customs arrangements in order to secure a Brexit agreement, news that lifted the pound on Friday. Transcripts released on Friday from a meeting between Barnier and the Commons Brexit Committee on Monday revealed that Barnier made clear that Theresa Mays Chequers Brexit plan for customs and regulations was unworkable. He said, however, that he was prepared to discussing a new 'backstop' agreement and plans to simplify checks on the Irish border. Asked by the committee whether the Chequers plan was dead in the water, Barnier said, contrary to perfunctory reports of his comments to a German newspaper, he said Chequers deal had "lots of positive things, lots of useful things" and that he "did not just reject the White Paper outright; that is just not true". But he said there were "two major problems, two issues that we cannot accept" - the proposal on customs and the proposal on the common rulebook for goods, stressing that the EU customs union "cannot be undermined and we cannot split up the four freedoms of the single market", free movement of goods, services, capital and persons. Crucially he said: "We are prepared to discuss a customs agreement of some sort that simplifies customs arrangements between the United Kingdom and the EU. Customs co-operation could even be part of a free trade agreement, if it went that far, but we do have a problem with the way in which our customs controls and checks work at the moment." Disagreements over the Irish border had been the key blocking point to a final withdrawal agreement. It confirms our longer-term positive outlook, which is predicated upon the expectation that the U.K. and the EU will arrive at a mutually beneficial deal by the end of the year, said currency strategists at Credit Agricole. The Barnier comments are supposedly bringing us closer to that. That said, we are not out of the Brexit woods yet, and there are other thorny issues ahead that could cause market uncertainty. Analyst Neil Wilson at Markets.com said the pound's reaction was "super sensitive to good news as the pessimistic view has been well worn". He added: "Weve been here before with good news sparking a rally in GBP only for gains to be pared on the hard reality of it all. But the general tone looks increasingly more constructive." Ashmore reported steady full-year pre-tax profit on Friday and record net inflows, as it said it was in the process of establishing an office in Ireland ahead of Brexit. In the year to 30 June, pre-tax profit was steady at 191.3m while assets under management rose 26% to $73.9bn, reflecting net inflows of $16.9bn, which is the highest level delivered by the company in a financial year. Gross subscriptions doubled to $30bn, also at a record level, while gross redemptions of $13.1bn were little changed from the previous year but lower as a proportion of opening assets under management at 22%. Ashmore noted that there remains "substantial" uncertainty regarding the terms of the UK's divorce from the European Union and the implications for the financial services industry. The asset manager said that in order to ensure continued access to EU-based institutional clients, it is in the process of establishing an office in Ireland, subject to regulatory approval. "Therefore, notwithstanding the uncertainty, the operational impact of Brexit is expected to be manageable and the financial impact immaterial," it said. Chief executive officer Mark Coombs said: "While asset prices were more volatile in the final quarter of the financial year, this largely reflected nervousness about a small number of emerging countries with particular issues such as Turkey, with the market extrapolating these concerns across the broad and highly diverse emerging markets universe of more than 70 countries. This mispricing therefore presents another very appealing entry point for investors. "The combination of attractive emerging markets valuations with Ashmore's strong investment track record and underweight investor allocations means that the outlook remains positive." Philip Hammond has warned that the government would have to refocus its priorities if the Brexit negotiations resulted in no deal, as details emerged of a Whitehall contingency plan codenamed Operation Yellowhammer. After Treasury minister John Glen was photographed in Downing Street with a briefing document about planning for no deal, Hammond hinted other areas of public spending would have to take a hit if the UK crashed out next March without an agreement in place. Guardian Britains worst bosses will have nowhere to hide under plans to survey the quality of jobs in the UK by tracking how workers feel about their managers as well as their mental health and sense of job security. The government is considering measuring the quality as well as quantity of work, amid growing concern that the social and economic benefits of record high levels of employment are being undermined by poor quality, insecure jobs. Guardian The days of male colleagues sharing in an after-work pint are over because the tradition alienates female colleagues, according to the boss of the tech giant Uber. Dara Khosrowshahi said that drinking beer with the guys at work is wrong and unfair, something he realised after undergoing training to make Uber a more inclusive workplace. Telegraph British Airways has launched an urgent investigation and notified police after hundreds of thousands of customers personal and financial details were stolen. The airline said the hack continued for almost two weeks, between August 21 and September 5, with 380,000 payments compromised. Stolen information did not include travel or passport details. Telegraph About 2,000 executives of companies that went on to fail are in line for compensation payments and bigger pensions worth in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds after a landmark judgment on the UK pensions lifeboat. The European Court of Justice ruled yesterday that the cap that restricts pension payments to members of schemes rescued by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) to a maximum of 35,106 a year was unlawful. The Times An American activist investor is suing Elon Musk over allegations that he artificially boosted Teslas share price to burn short-sellers. Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research and a Tesla short-seller, has accused Mr Musk of using a series of false tweets to damage his short position and those of other investors. The Times London's FTSE 100 was down 0.7% to 7,264.82 in afternoon trade on Friday. Miners were under the cosh as copper prices fell, with Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American all in the red. International Consolidated Airlines flew lower after British Airways said that the credit information of at least 380,000 customers had been compromised in a data theft. Building materials group CRH was on the back foot even as JPMorgan said it remains its top pick in the sector. "The outlook for developed markets cement remains more positive while we note that CRH has been the only stock in the sector not seeing negative earnings revisions year-to-date. Looking into H2, we also find the hurdle rate for CRH undemanding. "Yet the stock is down 3% YTD, trading on a discount to its historical average and broadly in line with the European large-cap cement sector on 7.5x FY19E EV/EBITDA, while free cash flow yield remains attractive on 7.7%. Superior financial flexibility and the buyback should support the shares." Smith & Nephew was the top gainer as Morgan Stanley said in a note that it sees "significant upside potential" but awaits catalysts before making a more positive call on the equalweight-rated stock. DCC also gained after RBC Capital Markets initiated coverage of the support services group at outperform with a 9,500p price target, saying the valuation looks undemanding versus other distribution and defensive growth names in business services. "DCC should be a key holding given the strength of its operating model, consistent cashflow and return characteristics and earnings upside potential from consolidation opportunities in its fragmented end markets," RBC said. FTSE 100 - Risers Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,373.50p 1.40% BAE Systems (BA.) 616.20p 1.02% DCC (DCC) 6,784.00p 0.73% Vodafone Group (VOD) 165.08p 0.66% BT Group (BT.A) 221.40p 0.45% RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 616.00p 0.20% Sky (SKY) 1,543.50p 0.10% Unilever (ULVR) 4,223.00p -0.01% Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 327.40p -0.09% SEGRO (SGRO) 650.20p -0.09% FTSE 100 - Fallers Antofagasta (ANTO) 749.00p -3.53% Fresnillo (FRES) 836.20p -3.11% CRH (CRH) 2,470.00p -2.79% Glencore (GLEN) 295.65p -2.78% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 662.68p -2.72% Ocado Group (OCDO) 973.40p -2.50% Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,262.00p -2.46% Anglo American (AAL) 1,467.40p -2.30% Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,778.00p -2.27% Melrose Industries (MRO) 224.80p -2.26% Trump addresses a crowd in Billings, Montana on Sept. 6, 2018 | YouTube screen grab One supportive tweet from President Trump at the start of Ron DeSantis' campaign for governor was seen as pure gold for the Republican "underdog," now the party's nominee. Now, it seems Trump won't pass on any opportunity to mention DeSantis, whether it be on Twitter or at rallies in Florida or West Virginia. Thursday night in Billings, Montana, Trump again spouted support for the Palm Coast Congressman to Montanans, and disparaged his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum without mentioning him by name. "In Florida the Democrat nominee for governor wants to abolish ICE and release hundreds of criminals onto our streets," Trump told the crowd. "He wants to also take care of their Medicare and every other thing you can take care of. You name it, he wants to take care of it and Florida will be a disaster. "You have a great candidate in Florida. Its called the Republican candidate: Ron DeSantis," Trump continued. "Ron for governor. This election is a choice between Democrats who want to abolish ICE and Republicans who want to abolish MS-13. Its very simple." The remarks prompted a response from Gillum on Twitter. Heard @realDonaldTrump went after me again tonight in Montana but still didn't have the courage to @ me by name. Mr. President, my name is Andrew Gillum and I'm going to be the next Governor of Florida because lies and scare tactics don't vote, people do. Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) September 7, 2018 At another point in the speech, Trump pivoted to attack Democrats more broadly. However, his points strongly mirrored what DeSantis has said about Gillum and mentioned some of Gillum's specific proposals, such as "Medicare for All." "Now Democrats want to steal trillions of dollars form Medicare. They want to turn America into Venezuela. I dont think so," Trump said, echoing to the tee one of DeSantis' lines about Gillum. "Democrats would destroy Medicare with 'Medicare for All' Medicare for All until they run out of money which would be like on the third day and then itll be Medicare for none." Although Trump praising DeSantis has become more and more common, it is still extraordinary that the sitting president is following the same talking points about that candidates' rival, making him a powerful voice that reinforces the campaign's messaging. Meanwhile, Gillum is also using Trump's comments to his advantage, and mentioned the president's remarks in a fundraising email that went out to supporters Friday morning. As a University of North Georgia (UNG) freshman, Halee Stone knows she wants to work in the health care field, but is not sure which profession to pursue within the industry. To find a possible answer, the Ellijay, Georgia, resident attended the inaugural Regional Education and Economic Development (REED) Summit at the Convocation Center on UNG's Dahlonega Campus. Presented in partnership with Northeast Georgia Health System, the REED Summit connected prospective and current college students who want to work in the healthcare industry with an array of career opportunities in that field and exposed them to educational pathways and industry professionals. That worked for Stone. She met with a representative from Avita Community Partners, which have facilities in Dahlonega and Gainesville, Georgia. Avita is a resource for individuals and families in northeast Georgia experiencing the disabling effects of mental illness, developmental disabilities and addictive diseases. Its goal is to assist in the development of safe, stable and meaningful lives for all. Stone said she mentioned her desire to possibly earn a degree in music therapy. Allan Harden, human resources director for Avita, explained one of his licensed counselors has incorporated music therapy into a treatment. It was music to Stone's ears. "I thought 'Wow!' this is the perfect information that I need to hear," she said. "So coming (to the REED Summit) definitely will help me narrow down my career options." Stone was not alone. UNG freshman Pedro Antonio Perez from Gainesville has his doubts about majoring in nursing. "I want to find if another career in the medical field fits me as a bilingual person," he said. Perez got a possible lead from a vendor, who was part of the Resource Fair, which allowed attendees to meet with representatives of several companies and programs. "They told me how I can work with patients and help them find the resources they need," he said. UNG students were not the only students who benefited from the REED Summit. Officers in Lumpkin County High School's HOSA, formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America, attended. "I am interested in the business side of the medical field or the entrepreneur side," said Trey Wilks, a 16-year-old from Lumpkin County. "I think this could open my eyes to those possibilities." His classmate Olivia Gilleland was surprised by one thing in particular. "I didn't realize how big (the healthcare field) was within the government," she said. Vendors and sponsors also profited from the summit. Many networked with each other, including Aeon Global Health. "We had a lot of interest in our pharmacogenomics," said Salimah Shiraj Amirali, director of corporate communications and brand strategy for Aeon Global Health. In layman's terms, pharmacogenomics helps determine how a particular medication metabolizes in a person's body. "So we test to see if that particular drug works for you," Amirali said. The REED Summit also included speakers from the private and public healthcare industry as well as panel discussions from experts. For example, Joel Simon, executive vice president from the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, spoke during the lunch break about abilities to connect industry with partners and students for the public's well-being. "We work with communities and groups like this to try and develop a plan that is bigger and better," he said. Other speakers and panelists include Frank Berry, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health; Ben Hames, deputy commissioner of workforce for the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Amy Carter, deputy commissioner of rural Georgia for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Kay Keller, director of economic development and community engagement at UNG, was very pleased with the turnout and attendee participation. "With the REED Summit being successful this year, we plan to do another one next year on a different industry that has an important economic impact in northeast Georgia," she said. Pokemon Sun and Moon: After Necrozma possessed Solgaleo and returned to the Ultra Dimension in last week's episode, Ash and his friends decide to travel to the other side of Ultra Hole and rescue Solgaleo. Overall, the episode didn't really showcase any major battles, but we finally got to see Bebenom's evolved form. Recap of Ep 89 The episode starts with Team Rocket planning to capture Lunala at the Pokemon School. They intend to hand Lunala over to Giovanni, but Lunala, along with Ultra Guardians, departs from the School's secret base in order to rescue Solgaleo. Lusamine prepares to follow them as well, but Professor Kukui and Sauboh ask her to stay and they'll go instead because Team Rocket's Matori Matrix unit might appear again. Lunala opens an Ultra Hole and travels to the other side, Ultra Guardians follow as well. Meanwhile, Matori Matrix also prepares to enter the Ultra Hole in their aircraft when suddenly, they are attacked by Professor Kukui's Braviary. Professor Kukui and Sauboh tell them they won't let Team Rocket get in Ultra Guardian's way. The Ultra Guardians arrive at the other side of Ultra Hole and are suddenly attacked by someone. Kaki counters the attack with Charizard's Flamethrower attack. Ash and his friends find out they were attacked by a Horde of Bebenom because they were in a Bebenom nest. Ash's Bebenom explains to his friends that they are not their enemies. A giant Pokemon (Agoyon) comes out of the nest but falls down on the ground. Ultra Guardians exclaim that the giant Pokemon resembles Bebenom. Lusamine and Burnet try to find out more about the mural and see how UB: Black is related to the Radiant One. Ash and his friends try to help Agoyon and offer it Obon berries when suddenly they hear a voice which thanks them for their help. Discuss this news on Eunomia It turns out that Agoyon was using its telepathy ability to interact with them. Agoyon tells them that they should let Necrozma absorb Solgaleo's power because they really need it. Furthermore, it explains that Necrozma was once the Radiant One who filled this world with energy, but after stopping a massive meteor from destroying their land, it lost all its light and became UB: Black. The land has been barren since then and it could only be changed if UB: Black becomes the Radiant One again. Agoyon explains that Solgaleo and Lunala are their only hope now. If Necrozma absorbs their Ultra Aura, it'll become the Radiant One again. Lili mentions that this scenario is similar to the legend of the Radiant One. Lunala and Dusk Mane Necrozma appear again and start to fight. Gladio says that they'll have to stop the Necrozma, but Ash replies that Bebenom's world will never see light again if they stop Necrozma. He also says that they'll have to save everything. Mamane tells everyone that they could share their Z-Power with Necrozma and it might leave Solgaleo from its possession. On the other side of the Ultra Hole, Professor Kukui and Sauboh try to stop Team Rocket, but Gozu attacks them with his Mega Aggron and defeats their Pokemon in one hit. Jessie and the others watch them from their Meowth balloon and plan to capture the Pokemon as soon as they come out of the Ultra Hole. In this scene, James is drawn just like Goku and he also has a Super Saiyan aura around him. What? James looks like SSJ Goku in Pokemon Sun and Moon episode 89. pic.twitter.com/pyUWgJ0Ylz (@SaikyouNoHero) September 7, 2018 Lusamine and Burnet finally find that in order to fill Necrozma with energy again, humans and Pokemon, along with Solgaleo and Lunala will have to share their energy with Necrozma. On the other side of the Ultra Hole, Ash, Suiren, Kaki, and Gladio use their Z-moves to share their energy with Necrozma. Next episode preview The next episode is titled "Connect to the Future! The Legend of the Radiant One!" and is set to be air on September 13. Les lunettes de marque ne sont pas ce qui manque dans les commerces. Il y en a de toutes les sortes dont les lunettes de [] Guy Longworth at the TLS: Austin thought that philosophical perplexities were generated by failing to attend to such distinctions and, in particular, by failing to acknowledge the importance of the illocutionary act. One example arises from attempts to treat stating something as a locutionary rather than an illocutionary act, and so as something that is achieved just by uttering a meaningful sentence. The apparent variety of things we do in speaking would then be treated as mere differences in perlocutionary effects that arise from stating something in different circumstances. Thus, for example, uttering the sentence, I promise that Ill be home for dinner, would be treated as a way of stating something about oneself, rather than as a way of promising. Promising itself would be a perlocutionary effect of making such a statement about oneself. It would consequently be perplexing to try to understand what precisely one was stating about oneself, and how stating it could bring about promising. Furthermore, the locutionary treatment makes it too easy to state something, requiring only that one utter a meaningful sentence; whereas, in fact, stating, like promising, is dependent on propitious circumstances for its successful performance. The treatment leads to puzzlement about what was stated by the utterance of some meaningful sentence in cases in which absence of the required circumstances means that no such stating occurred. more here. Two Harvard scholars have recently contributed to the conversation on Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo, a previously unpublished 1931 manuscript by Zora Neale Hurston, and its significance for African-American history and literature. Published by HarperCollins this April, the much-anticipated book recounts the life of Cudjo Lewis, who was believed to be the last living survivor of the slave trade. Hurston is best known for her short stories and novels, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, but she originally studied anthropology at Barnard: she traversed the country to collect African-American folk traditions and published research on Haitian voodoo. Though billed as the last testament to the horrors of the slave trade, Barracoon is, at its core, an anthropological work: Hurston represents Lewis in his own voice, in a dialect that turned white publishers away from the novel in 1931. Lewiss storyof his capture in West Africa, transportation abroad the Clotilda in 1860 (the last vessel known to have carried slaves to the United States), enslavement, emancipation, and survival under the harsh Jim Crow laws of the Southis interwoven with the wealth of cultural knowledge Hurston elicited from him. To highlight the nuances of the text, Nicholas Rinehart 14, a Ph.D. candidate in English, and Marshall scholar Rebecca Panovka 16 have in separate articles drawn attention to the African folklore tradition Barracoon unearths, and the works tangled publication history. More here. 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 [] Higher prescription drug prices also increase costs for taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. This could mean higher taxes and cuts to other public programs that affect all Americans. Its no surprise that access to affordable prescription drugs is a key issue for older Americans. One of the main reasons prescription drug prices are so high is that pharmaceutical companies are allowed to set prices with no transparency. Thats how they like it. Meanwhile, those companies spend billions on advertising and lobbying to protect their monopolies and control the price of drugs to keep charging all of us more. This has to stop. AARP has identified numerous reforms that Congress and the administration can make that would help lower drug prices. There has been progress. Important Medicare Part D reforms to lower out-of-pocket costs for many older Americans, which AARP had urged lawmakers to adopt, were included as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Manfred Thurig / Alamy Stock Photo Poor Hawaii. It just cant catch a break. First it was the dramatic eruption of Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii the Big Island that began in May. Then it was Hurricane Lane, which turned into a tropical storm that dropped 3 to 4 feet of torrential rain, resulting in flooding and landslides throughout the islands. Visitors today will see little evidence of the storm, but the volcano's activity, which quieted in early August, has resulted in some changes for tourism on the Big Island. Here's what to know. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Most of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the must-see attraction on the Big Island, has been closed since May 11, when the eruption began. Two-thirds of it is still closed due to seismic activity, summit deflation and a possible steam explosion at the summit, which is in the park. You can't access the tourist favorite Halema'uma'u Crater. Eleven areas within the 333,308-acre park are expected to reopen on Sept. 22, including the Kilauea Visitor Center, Crater Rim Trail and Chain of Craters Road, pending a continued pause in volcanic activity. With so much fire damage and continuing tremors, though, officials say the park is unlikely to be back to normal anytime soon: There will be parts of the park that will not be open for many years or maybe never at all, Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando said. Lawmakers call for inquiry into Cammack COVID-19 grants South Dakota News Watch continues its investigation into COVID grants with an inquiry request on relief awarded to a lawmaker's son who operates out of state. Seven New Mexico chefs will battle it out to see who makes the best green chile cheeseburger. The Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown, now in its sixth year, will be held on Saturday, Sept. 8, at the The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Co. in Santa Fe. The event previously had been held the Santa Fe Farmers Market. They have an indoor space, but its all really going to happen outdoors, said Stephanie Cameron, publisher of Edible Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos. All seven chefs will come and set up their grills and be creating samples for 800 people. Anybody that buys a ticket comes in. They get a ballot to vote for the Peoples Choice, and then there is also a Judges Award and we have six judges that will also be judging the burgers. The winners get a $500 check and bragging rights and a trophy. One of the judges is Cheryl Alters Jamison, a four-time James Beard Award-winning cookbook author. She has judged the competition every year. The five other judges are involved in the culinary industry. Last years Peoples Choice Award winner David Sellers of Street Food Institute is returning to this years competition. Also coming back are Marc Quinones of MAS Tapas y Vino at Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque. This is his fifth year competing. Milton Villarrubia III, of Second Street Brewery in Santa Fe, is once again competing in the smackdown. He skipped last years contest but competed in 2016 and 2015. The other chef contenders are new to the competition. They are Marie Yniguez of Slow Roasted Bocadillos, Albuquerque; David Ruiz of Toltec Brewing, Albuquerque; Jen and Evan Doughty of the Palace Restaurant & Saloon, Santa Fe; and Shane Alexander of El Farol, Santa Fe. The winner of the 2017 Judges Award, Rocky Durham of Sunrise Springs Spa Resort in Santa Fe, decided not to compete this year. Judges will weigh a number of criteria when tasting the green chile cheeseburger entries. Some factors are burger ability, which means you can actually pick up the burger and eat it, Cameron said. Presentation also is important, as well as how the flavors combine together. Melding of flavor, so how does the cheese and the meat and the bun and all of that come together? And then, is the chile coming through? Cameron said of the criteria. Some chefs get a little carried away and too creative, and they wind up covering up their burger with a bunch of different ingredients, and the chile doesnt really shine, and thats the No. 1 factor: Does the chile shine and come through in the burger? And then quality ingredients, and since its Edible magazine that puts it on, we always put a focus on local ingredients, so thats another factor judges look for. The common theme of every young adult novel or film, the big issue beyond witchcraft or postapocalyptic chaos or serious illness or romance, is basic: How are things going to sort themselves out? What in this strange and confusing world is going to happen next? The Miseducation of Cameron Post makes very good drama of that confusion in terms of life, family, religion, relationships and sexuality. Dealing with those persistent mysteries is a recipe for anxiety under any circumstances. Told through the perspective of a hormonal girl in a community that disapproves of her desires, its like explosives in the head and heart. Chloe Grace Moretz shines as Cameron, a high school track athlete who cant quite outrun her self-doubt. She has a much happier time dancing with the prom queen than enduring the commonplace guy who pinned the corsage on her dress, but she still has many unanswered questions about who she is. But what junior doesnt? Holding hands, Cameron and the other girl disappear to the parking lot, where they kiss, passionately grope and are discovered, to the agonized embarrassment of all. Because the film is set in 1993, the locale is small-town middle America and the orphaned Camerons guardians are fundamentalist Christians, she is directly shipped off to Gods Promise, a gay conversion school designed to cure her. The curriculum includes Blessercize workouts and the spectacular shaming lectures of Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle), a cold, formal perfectionist who could drive Nurse Ratched to tears. Her new classmates are a watchable, emotionally diverse island of lost boys and girls. Some feel guilty and conflicted for veering from the common path; others are proud black sheep with no interest in changing anything about themselves. Director/co-writer Desiree Akhavan keeps our eye on Cameron as she cautiously finds her way among them, cautious about what she expresses. She is no pushover, but she is a sexually evolving child. Moretz underplays the role, building the character from the ground up and giving nothing away too fast. That gives us time to appreciate the auxiliary characters. Especially good is Emily Skeggs as Camerons roommate, who is happy to pray away the gay and more than anything wants to convert Cameron to supporting her beloved Minnesota Vikings. The issue first feels irrelevant, but its the setup for a worth-the-price-of-admission blast of comic relief involving a Norse helmet. Oddly for a film about a runner, Miseducation stumbles on its slow pacing. And like the widely criticized climax of Emily M. Danforths novel from which it is adapted, the finale plays like a transition to a new chapter that never arrives. Theres much to admire here, and a good deal that would benefit from polishing. The Fiesta de Santa Fe has faced controversy over the past year as community leaders struggled with what to do about the Entrada. But now its time to shout Que viva la Fiesta! The Entrada pageant, depicting the re-occupation of Santa Fe by Don Diego de Vargas and the Spanish 12 years after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, has faced growing protests from Native Americans in recent years. Its being replaced today with a religion-themed event on the Plaza that emphasizes peace and reconciliation. Meanwhile, all the fun stuff remains. Around noon today is traditionally when hundreds of Santa Feans come to the Plaza for a burrito, roasted corn or other Fiesta food and to meet up with old acquaintances after another year has passed. The food booths and music continue on the Plaza all weekend. Of course, there will be the Pet Parade on Saturday and the Historical-Hysterical Parade on Sunday. Heres the Fiesta schedule: TODAY 6-7 a.m.: Pregon de la Fiesta The official start of Fiestas de Santa Fe at the Rosario Chapel, 499 N Guadalupe St., during which the mayor will issue an official declaration for the beginning of the celebration, this year in a new version that emphasizes peace and reconciliation as the Entrada pageant leaves the schedule. Hot chocolate and bischochitos will be served. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Ongoing through Sunday, Sept. 9: Food booths on the Plaza Food vendors will line the Plaza throughout the course of Fiesta weekend starting today. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Ongoing until Sept. 9: Fiesta Fine Arts and Crafts Market A free, annual art market on the Santa Fe Plaza with booths selling jewelry, clothes, fine art, and more. 10 a.m.-10 p.m.: Ongoing music on the Plaza Bandstand 12-12:30 p.m.: Official opening of Fiesta featuring city, county and state officials 2 p.m.: Celebracion de la Communidad de Fe (Celebration of Community Faith) A replacement for the retired Entrada pageant, which depicted the re-occupation of Santa Fe by the Spanish 12 years after the Pueblo Revolt of 160, the new event is described as a celebration of shared religion with a focus on themes of peace and reconciliation. The event on the Plaza is scheduled to include prayers from pueblo leaders and Santa Fes Interfaith Leadership Alliance; a blessing from Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe; and the singing of hymns SATURDAY 9-10:45 a.m.: Desfile de Los Ninos (Pet Parade) Lineup for the annual downtown parade starts at the New Mexico School for the Arts, 275 E. Alameda. 10:45 a.m.-10 p.m.: Ongoing music on the Plaza Bandstand 3 p.m.: La Merienda (Fashion Show) The show exhibits preserved, traditional garments dating back to the 1880s. The event, attended by the Fiesta Court, is hosted by La Sociedad Folkorica de Nueva Mexico at the James A. Little Theatre, 1060 Cerrillos. Hot chocolate and biscochitos are served after the show. Entry is $10 cash or check at the door; free for children 12 and under. 7:30-11:30 p.m.: Gran Baile de la Fiesta featuring Perfect StrangR A celebration honoring Fiesta Royalty at the Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy. The evening features Tierra Amarilla-based Country Western band Perfect StrangR. Tickets are $20 at the Fiesta Information Booth. SUNDAY 9:30-10 a.m.: Solemn Procession A procession from the Palace of the Governors to the Cathedral Basilica featuring La Conquistadora (Our Lady of Peace). Free and open to the public 10 a.m.: Pontifical Mass An annual service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. The mass includes traditional and mariachi music, dancing from Native American community members and appearances from the Fiesta Court. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: Ongoing music on the Plaza Bandstand, with food booths 1-3 p.m.: Desfile de La Gente (Historical/Hysterical Parade) An annual parade on the Santa Fe Plaza featuring local marching bands, politicians, floats and local groups. Registration to participate in the parade starts at 7 a.m. the day of the parade at the corner of Paseo de Peralta and Guadalupe. Registration costs from $50-$200 depending on the use of a vehicle and the type of organization participating. See more details at santafefiesta.org. 5:15 p.m.: Closing Ceremonies on the Plaza 7-8:30 p.m.: Mass of Thanksgiving and Candlelight Procession Following a service at St. Francis Cathedral, there will be a candlelit walk to the Cross of the Martyrs on Paseo de Peralta between Otero Street and Hillside Avenue. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe is defending itself, mostly, against a Santa Fe mans lawsuit that says the archdiocese got it wrong when it listed him as among the Catholic clergy who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children in New Mexico. In a court filing, the church admits that Rudy Blea was in fact never an ordained priest in the archdiocese and says it doesnt know if he was ever ordained elsewhere, or that he was ever a Benedictine monk, as the list of credibly accused clergy published last year by the archdiocese suggested. It listed him as Br. Rudy Blea, with his order or diocese identified as Benedictines (OSB). OSB is short for Order of St. Benedict. The archdioceses response to Bleas lawsuit, though, denies that Rudy Blea was listed as a member of the Benedictine (OSB) Order. The archdiocese says in the court response to Bleas lawsuit that Blea was a seminarian in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and had been credibly accused of child sexual abuse that he committed under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe while residing at the Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, New Mexico. The archdiocese acknowledges that Blea never pleaded guilty and was never convicted of the crime. It also says that in correspondence with the archdiocese, Blea admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with a minor in 1970 and that the allegations were supported by sworn testimony of the accuser in civil litigation. The filing says, however, that Blea was not subject of a canonical conviction or finding that he had sexually abused a child. Bleas lawyer says the archdiocese still doesnt have the facts straight. Santa Fe attorney Pierre Levy said in an interview this week that in addition to never being a Benedictine monk, Blea never resided at the Pecos monastery. He said Blea didnt become a seminarian until 1974, years after the alleged sexual abuse. An updated list of accused clergy dated Aug. 24 and now posted on the archdioceses website says the list includes seminarians men in training to become priests as well as priests, deacons (and) religious accused of sexual abuse of children. The revised list now identifies Blea as Seminarian Rudy Blea and his religious order or assignments as In Formation for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe 1969 to 1976. Blea filed his lawsuit in state district court in Santa Fe in March, saying he was defamed when the Archdiocese of Santa Fe last year published the names of 74 men it said were Catholic clergy who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children in New Mexico. In the lawsuit, Blea said that the archdiocese by implication announced to the world that he was a Benedictine priest who was a child molester. He maintained that he has never been a member of the Benedictine order or employed by them or lived in residence with them at any time during his life. Nor has he ever been a brother, monk, deacon or priest in any diocese in the Catholic church, his suit states. The archdioceses list was published in the Journal and other New Mexico newspapers last September. At the time of the publication, Archbishop John C. Wester said in a statement that the list was a critical step in the archdioceses attempt to improve transparency and promote healing. When the list was published, Bleas suit states, he was horrified that his name was among those listed and that he contacted the archdiocese, but it never investigated his protest of being wrongly accused. The archdioceses court response maintains that Blea disputed his status as clergy or religious, but did not dispute his status as credibly accused of child abuse. Bleas lawsuit said that after the list was published, he was asked to cease and desist any contact with the parish of the Catholic Basilica of St. Francis in Santa Fe, whose church bulletins available online name him as a lay eucharistic minister or server, or any other parish within the diocese. The lawsuit states that the archdiocese made vile and harmful public accusations against him, but never made a proper investigation of any past allegations. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Direct spending into the state economy from New Mexicos film industry dropped by more than half and worker days decreased dramatically over the past year as the number of big-budget projects fell by about 25 percent. Recently updated figures from the state Film Office show that after three straight years of increases, direct spending fell from $506 million in fiscal year 2017 to $234 million in the 2018 budget year, which ended June 30. Meanwhile, the number of worker days dropped by 42 percent from 448,304 to 259,961. That can likely be explained by the fact that the number of film projects with budgets of more than $1 million fell from 52 in 2017 to 38 in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Nick Maniatis, director of the New Mexico Film Office, said its not because New Mexico is losing its marquee status as a preferred location to shoot film projects. He pointed out in a recent interview that while the number of $1 million projects dropped 27 percent from 2017 to 2018, the 38 projects were the second-highest in six years. Weve seen more projects with smaller budgets, he said, explaining why Fiscal Year 2018s direct spending and worker days are lower than what was a record-breaking 2017. Maniatis said he felt the decline was cyclical. We had the same issue in fiscal year 2014, he said. Fiscal year 2014 was the last time there was a decline in three measures the Film Office uses to track film production in New Mexico: direct spending into the New Mexico economy; the number of projects budgeted at over $1 million; and the number of worker days accumulated by film crews. Alicia Keyes, director of the city of Albuquerques film office, used the same word as Maniatis to describe the drop off. One thing about the film industry is it is super cyclical, she said. She said the incentives being offered by the state have been stable and support for them has not wavered. I think it all has to do with the ebb and flow of the industry, she said, adding that right now things are flowing. Were super busy right now. Maniatis predicts were now in the midst of a big bounce-back year. The pipeline for this year is looking to be a record year, or near record year, he said. A tax credit backlog? But Eric Witt, director of the city of Santa Fes Film Office, wonders if there may be other forces at play that account for the decline in all three measures. He fears New Mexico may be losing its grip on what has become an increasingly competitive, and lucrative, film industry. Were continuing to have success in attracting projects to New Mexico. Film companies like coming here because of the weather and crew, and vendors that we have here, he said. Were seeing the $70 million to $80 million (budget) films, but the $100 million to $200 million films those big monster tent-pole films we havent seen those recently. Those projects, like The Avengers, Thor and The Lone Ranger, spend big money at hotels, restaurants and local shops, which benefits the state economy and adds gross receipts tax revenues to the coffers of local governments, he said. Witt says the number of projects in Santa Fe doubled from 20 to 40 over the past year, but they arent the $100 million productions. Instead, they are smaller projects, like foodie or travel shows, PBS documentaries, commercials or fashion shoots. He thinks New Mexico may be a victim of its own success. Because the states film production tax credit program an incentive for production companies to shoot films, television shows and other film projects in the Land of Enchantment has worked so well, other states, and countries, have offered their own incentive programs that are taking business away from New Mexico. Also, Witt says the success of the program has created a backlog in paying out what is actually a tax rebate for film production, thus discouraging film companies from shooting here. The long and short of it is since 2011 theres been a $50 million limit on how many credits could be paid out. But there isnt anything concurrent to that for how many could be earned, he said. So, for example, if $80 million worth of credits were earned in a year and $50 million was paid out, that leaves a $30 million balance that cant be paid out and has to be carried over to the next year. The accrued backlog starts to build up over time, he said. By his math, that backlog could be as much as $150 million now. And if the state can pay out only $50 million per year, he says it may take years for a production company to receive its rebate. Film companies know that, he said, and so are discouraged from filming here. New Mexico used to offer a 15 percent tax rebate on spending by film companies. To stay ahead of other government entities offering incentive programs, that was increased to 20 percent and then to 25 percent for most direct, in-state expenditures. Some long-running television programs are also eligible for an additional 5 percent, or 30 percent overall. A big year in which qualified expenses for film production in New Mexico hit $500 million would mean rebates of at least $125 million well more than twice the $50 million annual rebate cap. Any year with more than $200 million in qualified expenses would exceed the cap. In an interview last week, Maniatis acknowledged there was a backlog, but he didnt know how big it was. He disputed that the backlog was hindering New Mexicos ability to attract film projects. We have the ability to pay out future debt, he said. He acknowledged film companies may experience a delay in getting their tax credit rebate. But instead of getting your payment Jan. 1, you get it July 1 of the next fiscal year, he said. How big, exactly, the backlog is may be unclear. Witt said hes asked the state Film Office about the backlog, but hes never gotten an answer. Maniatis said he doesnt have the records, but they are publicly available through the state Tax and Revenue Department. The Journal on Aug. 14 submitted a public information request to the state Tax and Revenue Department seeking records that would show how many tax credits were paid out and how many were accumulated each of the past five years. The department responded seven days past the legal deadline for providing the information or notification that more time to gather the information was needed, a department spokesman saying the lapse was due to a transition of personnel in the role of records custodian. In its response, the department said it could not legally release information regarding accumulated or unpaid film tax credits for claims that have not been filed or the names of the companies that have applied for the credits. It also said it would need additional time to provide the names of companies that have received credits. The department did confirm that it had paid the statutory maximum of $50 million in film tax credits each fiscal year since 2014. Good year coming? Witt says New Mexico was the first state to offer a viable incentive program for film production. Other states and countries caught on and started offering their own incentive programs. Meanwhile, New Mexico has scaled back. But the mounting rebates $96 million in a single year at one point became controversial as questions were raised about whether the state was giving out more than it was gaining from the film business. In 2011, Gov. Martinez signed legislation that enacted an annual limit on film rebate spending, capping it at $50 million and adding conditions for what types of projects could qualify for the rebate. Witt, who served as deputy chief of staff under Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, and was responsible for helping launch the states film incentive program, insists hes not being partisan when he talks about declining numbers under Gov. Martinez, a Republican. This is empirical. They (the Film Office) are providing the numbers, he said. Direct spending has fluctuated somewhat under the Martinez administration. In Fiscal Year 2008, which ended six months into her first term as governor, direct spending was was $275 million. It dipped moderately the next year and fell to $206 million in FY 2010, but rebounded to a record $278 million the next year. In has been above $200 million every year during her term, except 2014. Then set records each of the next three years, climaxing at $506 million in FY 2017. Worker days have remained fairly steady, above 150,000 every year except FY 2012. Records were set in fiscal years 2013, 2015 and 2017. Witt says the state of Georgia has now emerged as the default place to go film because of the generous incentive package it offers. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported earlier this year that film and television productions had a $9.5 billion economic impact in Georgia during Fiscal Year 2017. That includes $2.7 billion in direct spending, up from $67.7 million in 2007. Witt says thats an indication that New Mexico is missing out on billions of dollars. If we can fix the challenges, we could double production in 18 to 20 months, he said. Taking care of the backlog and simplifying the film tax credit program would be two steps in the right direction, he said. And a window of opportunity may be opening. He cited several things that could help turn the tide in favor of New Mexico. One is happening overseas. He says the United Kingdom is the biggest competitor for film projects internationally. The U.K. relies on sourcing with other European Union countries, but the Brexit decision could change the landscape. If they pull out of the E.U., no one knows what will happen, he said. Stateside, changes are coming in Georgia. A new governor will be elected in November. Push back from Georgia taxpayers who think the state is giving away too much similar to the debate in New Mexico before the rebate cap could lead the next governor to scale back its incentives, he said. New Mexico will also have a new governor. Witt said that both Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican Steve Pearce have both expressed support for New Mexicos film industry. In addition, changes to the U.S. corporate income tax under the Trump administration may make filming at home more appealing to U.S. film companies. So global forces may make producing films in the U.S. and New Mexico more attractive going forward, he said. Maniatis says New Mexico may be in for a blockbuster year, anyway. While hes sworn to secrecy about exactly what may be coming, he says the pipeline is full and may include a $100 million production or two. Were shaping up to have one, maybe two, this year, he said. In a year when that happens, everything goes up direct spend, worker days, everything. Winning was not something Taos resident Caroline Colonna even considered when she first decided to enter the Mongolia Bike Challenge. I thought it was a great way to appease my thirst for competition while discovering a new country, said Colonna, a doctor of Oriental medicine specializing in acupuncture and Chinese herbs. I thought I ought to take the opportunity to do it. I spent a year training for it. I knew it was going to be a whole lot of miles for six days in a row. Shes a veteran of local and even national mountain bike racing, but the Mongolia Challenge represented a new horizon for Colonna. It was something different, something different, said the 54-year-old. Everybody else told me it was crazy. At my age, I should never attempt to try something like that. She not only tried it, she owned it. Colonna was the 22nd overall finisher with a time of 31 hours, 48 minutes, 2.8 seconds. That was the best womens time in the race last month and it wasnt even close. She finished more than five and a half hours ahead in the event that covered 560 grueling miles with a total elevation gain of 45,900 feet, calculated from the various climbs over the course. At the end, if you completed it within the allotted time, you were considered a Khan, she said. For some reason, that appealed to me. Having read a little something about Ghengis Khan, I thought that would be very cool. That required finishing each of six stages within the allotted time frame. Not only did she accomplish that, but also Colonna was the top female finisher in every stage. And for Colonna there was a very real benefit to that honor because, much like the Tour de France, the general classification leader gets a new jersey each day, so she had a fresh racing outfit throughout the tour. Considering this was a race through the wilds of a very wild country with minimal support showers, for instance, were communal and filled with frigid water a fresh racing jersey was a downright luxury, she said. One of the biggest challenges was to stay healthy for six days in a row, she said. We were sleeping in yurts or tents, not in a hotel room. You share the common areas, share showers with other people of both sexes. The organizers wanted showers to be cold to cultivate that feeling of being close to nature. We camped one night by the river, its freezing, no bathrooms. And then youre racing the next day for another 80 miles. The challenge of living in a primitive sense and yet enduring such a long amount of miles and going as fast as you can go, so it was all to stay healthy. The course meandered through the Mongolian countryside, following a variety of trails ranging from Jeep roads to single tracks to open fields. Youre out there absolutely alone most of the time, Colonna said. But there are these beautiful, huge herds of goats and sheep, and horses and yaks. Its how they live. The animals would cross the path in front of you and you had to stop because some of those animals have big horns, but it was a nice break into the solitude. Because you ride by yourself, everything is on GPS tracks. The second stage, which included more than 9,000 feet of climbing, turned out to be the critical stage and also provided one of the highlights of the event. It was a monster day, Colonna said. Thats why they call it the queens stage. I realized I was so far ahead of the next woman. And there was a huge monument to Ghengis Khan. You can actually get into it. It looked a little like the Statue of Liberty, but it was for Ghengis Khan. The races results available on the web show that the Mongolian Bike Challenge is for a select group of hardy souls. There were 53 finishers. Colanna was the best among five women from around the world. Professional cyclist Ryan Standish, an American originally from Australia and who competed not too far from Colonnas Taos home at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., was the overall winner in a time of 24:20:32.8. When it was said and done, Colanna said, she was absolutely gratified to have participated. It was unbelievable, Colonna said. It was a life-changing experience. Youre aware the whole thing is definitely a physical race, but its way more than that. Its mental endurance. Fortunately, I did not get any mechanical problems, but I did have a really bad fall in one of those muddy, cow pile, moisture-filled pasture areas. It was kind of painful. And to win was simply unbelievable. It just opened my mind to a whole lot of things, she said. Wow, I did not know I could do this. I was able to surmount the obstacles of difficulty. I wasnt expecting to finish, but I did. I wasnt expecting to win, but I did. Its all possible. SANTA FE Republican congressional candidate Janice Arnold-Jones came under criticism Thursday after appearing to cast doubt on the authenticity of the Native American roots of her opponent, Democrat Deb Haaland of Albuquerque. During an on-air interview with Fox News, Arnold-Jones was asked about the fact that Haaland could be the first Native American woman elected to Congress. At least one other female Native American candidate Sharice Davids of Kansas will also be on the November ballot. Arnold-Jones responded to the reference about the potentially historical nature of Haalands campaign by saying, Thats what they say, yes. Asked to explain, Arnold-Jones went on to say: Theres no doubt that her lineage is Laguna, but she is a military brat, just like I am. I think it evokes images that she was raised on a reservation. She also said she was confused by Haalands stance on immigration-related issues, suggesting tribal groups might be vulnerable to relaxed border security because they have a limited law enforcement presence. Haaland, a former state Democratic Party chairwoman who won a six-way primary race in June, has touted her Native American roots and received hefty campaign contributions from tribal groups around the country. But the Laguna Pueblo member and former San Felipe Pueblo tribal administrator has also been forthcoming about frequent moves during her upbringing and the fact that her late father, a Marine Corps veteran, was a non-Native American of Norwegian ancestry. I went to like 13 public schools before I graduated from Highland High School (in Albuquerque), she said in a May 2017 interview. In response to Arnold-Jones comments, Haaland said Thursday that she is proud of her Native American background. My opponents assertion on Fox News that my parents military service, or not being raised on a reservation, means I am not Native American is racist, an assault on military families and wrong, she said in a statement. Several top state Democrats also issued statements backing Haaland, while state party Chairwoman Marg Elliston described the comments as Trump-style garbage. Former Cochiti Pueblo Gov. Regis Pecos described Arnold-Jones comments as disappointing. Its a very divisive application of a framework of identity, Pecos told the Journal. Where you were raised doesnt really determine your degree of lineage or devotion. New Mexico has one of the nations highest percentage of Native American residents 11.9 percent as of 2016 although that percentage is lower in the Albuquerque-based 1st Congressional District, where Arnold-Jones and Haaland are squaring off. Meanwhile, Arnold-Jones, a former state lawmaker and Albuquerque city councilor, told the Journal late Thursday that she was trying to point out that Haalands upbringing was similar to hers. I would never denigrate your heritage or her heritage or anyones heritage, Arnold-Jones said. The University of New Mexico volleyball team will try something new this weekend, taking on three programs it has never faced at the North Florida Invitational in Jacksonville. UNM (3-3) will meet host North Florida (1-6) Friday at 5 p.m., then battle Furman (1-5) and South Carolina Upstate (0-6) at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, Saturday. Furman may rate as the most dangerous of the sub-.500 teams. The Paladins were picked to win the Southern Conference and have faced a demanding early schedule that included Clemson and Georgia. The Lobos have won three of their last four matches but are coming off a 3-0 home loss to New Mexico State. Lauren Twitty (40 kills) and Tai Bierria (33) are the top scorers for UNM, but the Lobos have an overall attack percentage of .186. NMSU: The Aggies (5-2) host the SpringHill Suites Invitational today and Saturday at the Pan Am Center. New Mexico State will take on Montana (1-5) today at 7 p.m. and face Arizona (6-0) on Saturday. Both matches stream live on espn3.com. Then NMSU plays at UTEP (2-4) at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Aggies, who defeated Grambling State on Tuesday, have won 14 straight home matches dating back to last season. Savannah Davison (34 kills) and Tatyana Battle (31) have been go-to hitters for NMSU, which has a .220 overall attack percentage. Santiago Griego, a junior at Rio Grande High School, works about 35 hours a week. His classmate Yasmin Parra-Venegas sometimes misses class to go to doctor appointments for her seizure condition. And Reyes Calabaza, 17, knows getting to school is another hurdle, having to get on the bus by roughly 6:45 in the morning to make it to class on time. School isnt the only thing students have on their plates, and its not always their priority. Thats why the three teens were part of a panel Thursday, giving their perspective on absenteeism and speaking to a roomful of educators on the responsibilities students balance, some of the reasons kids arent showing up to class and what schools can do about the problem. Their panel was part of Mission: Graduates Every Day Matters Attendance Conference, held at the Albuquerque Convention Center, which addressed attendance issues and discussed solutions with teachers and school administrators from across the state. Axel Hielo, a 16-year-old at Rio Grande High, said lunch is a popular time for kids to leave campus, saying they may go get a bite to eat and never come back. Or some kids try to avoid bullying during lunch by skipping class. Its really easy to leave campus, Parra-Venegas said. Students on the panel said connection with teachers is key, adding that the instructors who have better relationships with kids can both notice when they dont show up and have the rapport to address the reasons. And some suggested offering incentives for kids who are chronically absent to get back to school. The Rio Grande juniors said one of their biggest motivators to attend classes is Kristine Moore, a teacher at the high school, saying she encourages them to come every day and connects with them. Im proud of what theyve done, Moore said. Thats how I measure my success. The conference, which more than 400 people registered for, is part of a goal by Mission: Graduate the education initiative of the United Way of Central New Mexico to get 60,000 new graduates with college degrees and certificates in central New Mexico by 2020. Last year, New Mexico students graduated from high school at a 71.1 percent rate, and Albuquerque Public Schools had a rate of 67.9 percent. Griego said that before the conference he didnt realize how widespread attendance problems were in the state. After the death in April of Jennifer Riordan, the Albuquerque banking executive known for her generosity, her family immediately set up a trust in her name that would benefit the community. On Thursday, the Jennifer Riordan Memorial Trust awarded $50,000 in grants to seven Albuquerque nonprofits. The recipients were: Junior Achievement ($10,000) for middle school programming; Working Classroom ($10,000) for Spark Kindness murals developed and painted by local artists and youth; Barrett Foundation Angel Fund ($10,000) to help women and children find stable housing; Galloping Grace Youth Ranch ($9,000) for Sparkle Tent to encourage acts of kindness among junior leaders during the annual pumpkin patch event; Crossroads for Women ($5,000) for a scholarship for formerly incarcerated women; Family Advocacy Center ($5,000) for a partnership with Deep Dive Coding and NM Legal Aid to provide women survivors of abuse with coding skills; and Annunciation Catholic School ($1,000) for water bottle fillers to promote sustainable water sources. Michael Riordan said hundreds of donations poured in from around the world in the days after the death of his wife. I wanted to make sure every dollar of that ended up back in the community, he said. The advisory team Riordan assembled to decide who would receive the funds comprised people who were close to Jennifer, he said, and identified four pillars the selected nonprofits would represent: financial literacy, childhood education, womens empowerment and Albuquerque vitality. Jennifer was killed April 17 when a window on her Southwest Airlines flight blew out, causing her to be partly ejected from the plane. The 80th New Mexico State Fair opened Thursday to a large crowd enjoying non-stop action and the enticing smell of foods under mostly cloudy skies that kept temperatures cool and pleasant. Im seeing more people today than Ive seen on opening day in recent years, said State Fair general manager Dan Mourning. The biggest thing we worry about is the weather. If that holds out, well be okay. What most people dont realize is that 80 percent of the fair, not counting the midway, is under some sort of overhead covering. Mourning said he was pleased that people were taking advantage of opening day discounts that included $2 admission, $12 unlimited ride bands and $3 graze days specials offered by nearly all the fairs food vendors. John and Kaye Wilbanks recently moved to Albuquerque from a small town in Arkansas. They were entertaining their 2-year-old great-granddaughter, Kayeson Frazier. Each of the great grandparents took turns sitting with the 2-year-old in the Tea Cup ride. Shes having a wonderful time. She was laughing the whole time, said Kaye Wilbanks, who was impressed with the large size of the New Mexico State Fair. Ive been to smaller county fairs in Arkansas, she said, but nothing like this. Ramona Perea, an assistant principal at the San Diego Riverside Charter School on the Jemez Reservation, had her hands full. She was accompanying 83 kids kindergarten through eighth grade on a school outing to the fair. If the school didnt do this, a lot of these kids wouldnt come to the fair, Perea said as a group of youngsters sat beside her licking their way through ice cream cones. With the price of parking, admission, rides and food, a family could easily spend over $100, and lot of these kids come from big families. For 25 percent of them, its their first time visiting the State Fair. Were opening a door for them to see whats outside the reservation. Felicity Jackson was inside the petting zoo with her daughters, Nala, 3, and Nova, 2, and about 60 animals, including goats, pigs, sheep, alpaca, llama, ducks, chickens, a donkey and a wallaby. We all love the animals and the petting zoo is our first stop, always, Jackson said as her children picked up brushes and began running the bristles across a baby goat. Zoo crew member Cheyenne Redden said she especially enjoys watching kids who come in and who are clearly scared. Then we show them a baby goat and they start petting it, and theyre like, okay, this is good, and suddenly theyre petting all the animals. Its very cute. In July, Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham introduced the Antiquities Act of 2018, designed to uphold the intent of the original Antiquities Act of 1906 and protect some of the best cultural heritage sites in New Mexico and the country from the onslaught of attacks from our current president. AA2018 mirrors a Senate bill introduced earlier this year by Sen. Tom Udall and co-sponsored by fellow N.M. Democrat U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan and 59 others in Congress. Missing from this bipartisan group: Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M. Adding insult to injury, Pearce then voted to strip funding from Ironwood Forest National Monument in Arizona, a proposal so preposterous it was soundly defeated in the House. New Mexico, and our country, is chock-full of historical sites that deserve our attention and care. I should know; I have dedicated my professional life to helping young people find their way outdoors and in life. Nature has a lot to teach us, young and old. It requires us to listen, which means spending unencumbered time outdoors, but it also requires the government to properly manage the land so that access is possible. Above all else, preventing the commercialization of public lands is how we can continue to protect the sacred places and rights weve been using traditionally for generations. I am blessed to be able to share a land-based learning curriculum with my students at NACA and hope that other schools realize and embrace how important this is for all New Mexicans. The assaults by the federal government on our public lands are quickly forgotten. Aside from a dedicated few, the country has largely forgotten what happened a few months ago when President Trump and Interior Secretary Zinke decimated the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments in Utah, removing critical protections for the Native American historical sites within the monument boundaries. This is our history, displaced in the favor of opening up our public lands for commercial development, diminishing our access to hunt, hike, be at one with nature, and threatening to destroy what we hold most valuable evidence of our past. Bears Ears was the linchpin, and we now know, from emails revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request, that the logging, mining and oil and gas industries were deeply invested in shrinking this monument in Utah and that Secretary Zinke tailored Interior Department surveys and reports to highlight those opportunities while downplaying historical sites. Trump is more interested in selling off our public lands to support industry than protecting whats important, and Pearce keeps voting right in line with this agenda. The Antiquities Act of 2018 would permanently protect and enhance our monuments by declaring Congress support for existing monuments designated by past presidents on both sides of the aisle. In New Mexico that includes Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, which has more than doubled visitation since it became a national monument; Rio Grande del Norte, a traditional use Mecca supporting a thriving outdoor recreation economy; and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, which preserves critical wildlife habits and cultural sights for Cochiti Pueblo and all New Mexicans. The people of New Mexico overwhelmingly support our national monuments. They are sources of pride and huge potential revenue for our state. More than that, they represent a commitment to protecting the record of our past, and keeping open a window that shows how we came to be in New Mexico. U.S. Sens. Udall and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Reps. Lujan and Lujan Grisham have stood up with the people of New Mexico for our national monuments. Its not too late for Pearce to also and co-sponsor the Antiquities Act of 2018 bill. I, for one, certainly hope he comes around before it is too late. Catch-22 a situation presenting two equally undesirable alternatives. Merriam-Webster Consider the following hypothetical: A man commits a horrific murder. A murder weapon undeniably proves his guilt. The weapon, however, is seized without a valid search warrant. The man moves to suppress the gun as evidence. With the gun, the state can convict. Without it, it cannot. The so-called exclusionary rule requires the presiding judge to suppress the evidence. The man walks free. The public is outraged. Not at the man who committed the murder. Not at the circumstance which warranted suppression. The public is outraged at the judge. Sound familiar? Judges find themselves in Catch-22s throughout their careers. If a judge refuses to follow the law, a higher court can remove that judge from the bench. However, if a judge does apply the law and angers constituents, that judge also can be removed from office either by election or recall. Whats a judge to do? When I was appointed to the Metropolitan Court bench in 2003, I took the following oath: I, Daniel Ramczyk, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of New Mexico and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of Metropolitan Court Judge, Division XII, Bernalillo County. I must enforce laws passed by the New Mexico Legislature, follow appellate decisions handed down by higher courts, and comply with the rules and orders issued by the New Mexico Supreme Court. Going into this job, my eyes were wide open. I realized inevitably and probably more than once I was going to render a decision that would be unpopular to my constituents but was required by my oath. No wiggle room. No ifs, ands or buts. I must honor my oath. Period. End of story. Any judge who reacts and responds to public sentiment when it violates his or her oath of office essentially is supporting a mobocracy form of government. Mobocracy is defined as rule or government by the mob or the masses. A mobocracy attempts to intimidate legitimate government authority. Think Salem witch trials. The lynching of black Americans following the American Civil War. Think McCarthyism. Mobocracy is synonymous with chaos, destruction and loss of freedoms. A mobocracy might be darkly satisfying to some people when they are members of the mob du jour. But what happens when any of them suddenly are the individual whom the mob is persecuting? They will be the first to insist upon the protection of their individual constitutional and legal rights. And who will they rely upon? The courts, of course. Though a judge should not allow public sentiment to influence his or her legally mandated decisions, judges nevertheless should avoid adding fuel to the fire of a mobocracy. I need to explain all my decisions clearly and cite those laws and rules upon which I rely. Then, if people are upset with my decision, they at least know to whom to petition for a change. Perhaps the Legislature needs to change a law. Maybe the Supreme Court needs to modify or strike a rule of procedure. This is key. Shooting the messenger solves nothing and changes nothing. I also need to avoid the appearance of being insensitive to the concerns of the people I serve. I have a responsibility to remain informed as to serious issues in my community and to find solutions within the parameters of my duties as a judge. Acting as though I am above and beyond of what people think will invite disrespect for the courts. I should never let this happen. And finally, if I make a mistake, I have a duty to change my decision. If I make a bad decision, I should not dig my heels in and try to justify that which cannot be justified. I am human. When I am wrong, I must admit and fix it. In the final analysis, serving as a judge is extremely challenging because the next decision I make may mean the end of my judicial career. That is the stark reality for people in my profession. But the focus of my job as a judge has never been about keeping my job as much as doing my job. Judge Daniel Ramczyk is a judge of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the judge individually and not those of the court. Elizabeth Bakewicz had been married just two years when she received her brain cancer diagnosis. She was also pregnant at the time, so she put off surgery in order to give birth to her daughter. Eventually, Elizabeth had a biopsy and doctors found that the cancer was malignant. Treatment began immediately, and through it all, Elizabeth and her husband continued to live their lives. They watched their daughter grow. Elizabeth gave birth to a second child, a son, and doctors who once worked to get Elizabeth to her daughters first day of kindergarten began working to make sure she was at her sons first day as well. Elizabeths daily life includes doctors visits, treatments, headaches and seizures. She needs help caring for the children, but even still, she will not give up fighting for every single moment. Why? Because Elizabeth knows that life is precious from the very first moment to the very last, and every second spent with her husband and children is an indescribable blessing. There is an ongoing debate in our state and nation right now over whether doctors should be given the ability to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to assist someone, like Elizabeth, in ending their life. Supporters often describe this effort as death with dignity. Sadly, the moment we label suicide an act of dignity, we imply that those who choose to fight for every moment of life are somehow not dignified. Is Elizabeth undignified because she wants as many moments with her family as possible? Despite the incredible advancements of modern medicine, we know that doctors do not always get it right. In Elizabeths case, the doctors correctly diagnosed her brain cancer, but told her she only had three to five years to live. She is now in year eight. The truth is, doctors develop prognoses based on averages, and no one can definitively determine when someone will die. Imagine if Elizabeth would have chosen to end her life after her first prognosis. She would not have made it to her daughters first day of school, her son would not have been born, and she would have missed years of memories and experiences with her family. Assisted suicide has been proposed in nearly every state, and it has been rejected by an overwhelming majority, including the New Mexico Legislature. In May, however, the Albuquerque City Council became the first jurisdiction in our state to endorse assisted suicide, and this month, the city of Santa Fe is scheduled to consider a similar resolution. This trend is troubling, to say the least, and it sends a grievous message to our children, the disability community, the elderly, and the ill namely, that when we lose autonomy and the ability to care for ourselves, our lives are no longer worth living. When it comes to providing care for those facing serious illness and/or the end of life, we can and should do better than simply abandoning them to death and hopelessness. Instead, we should work together to find solutions that bring real compassion and care to those when they need it most. No one deserves to be abandoned or left out. Every life is worth fighting for. Its been a long, drawn-out battle, but a ruling handed down by a district judge in Taos clears the way for public use of several roads across private property to access vast tracts of state trust land in northeast New Mexico. The White Peak area in Colfax and Mora counties is considered prime hunting territory for elk and other game. The battle over access to the area has been playing out in courtrooms and elsewhere for at least two decades. District Judge Sarah Backus ruling is a huge victory for all New Mexicans, although we should hold off on celebrating until we know whether the ruling will be appealed. Fighting for public access to the area was Attorney General Hector Balderas, who hailed the decision 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. New Mexicans have hunted, fished, camped and spent time on our public lands near White Peak for more than a century. Judge Backus decision reaffirms the right of every New Mexican to enjoy the natural beauty of our state. The case centered on whether roads to more than 50,000 acres of state trust land were public rights-of-way or under the control of rancher David Stanley. The AGs Office argued the roads in dispute are historical and protected as public under a 150-year-old federal statute, even if they are on Stanleys property now. Stanley and other ranchers have long complained of hunters and others trespassing on or trashing private property to reach the state trust lands. We agree thats a problem that needs to be addressed, but it simply does not equate with depriving the public access to public land and thus turning tens of thousands of acres into a ranchers private game reserve. Attorneys for Stanley also argued that ruling against Stanley would set a dangerous precedent and said 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. In the end, Backus agreed with the AGs office, finding that use of roads across Stanleys property is protected by a federal law dating to the 19th century that maintains for public use historically established routes if the roads or trails existed when the surrounding property was owned by the federal government. This dispute has dragged on for far too long, costing Stanley and taxpayers untold sums to litigate. For the good of all involved, the parties should move on down the road and allow Backus ruling to stand. 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 A Rio Arriba County Commissioner has been indicted on four felony charges related to public contracting and campaign financing. On Thursday, Barney Trujillo, 38, whose second four-year term on the County Commission ends Dec. 31., was indicted on three counts of unlawful interest in a public contract over $50 and one count of failing to disclose a campaign contribution. The indictments were handed up by a Rio Arriba grand jury Wednesday. The case is being prosecuted by the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office. In January 2017, investigators with the AGs Office raided Trujillos Chimayo home and collected items. The Rio Grande Sun weekly newspaper reported on the raid and published photos of agents at the house. The AGs Office also used a search warrant listing Trujillo as a target to collect records from the Espanola Public Schools offices, but the Attorney Generals office wouldnt confirm it was conducting an investigation at that time. The allegations stem from failing to provide required and correct information to the Secretary of State surrounding contracts with the Espanola Public Schools and failing to disclose campaign donations in the contracting process, AG spokesman David Carl said in an email Thursday. We are unable to comment beyond the filed indictment at this time. Prosecutors are unable share information about grand jury proceedings as they are secret as a matter of law. The indictment against Trujillo says he first took unlawful interest in a contract in August 2014. That year, Rio Arriba County government, with Trujillo sitting as one of three county commissioners, hired then-Espanola school board member Annabelle Almager as the countys human resources director. Alamager was hired about two weeks after she and others on the Espanola school board voted to award Trujillo a $50,000-a-year, no-bid contract to provide marketing services to Espanola Public Schools, according to reporting by the Sun. The fourth charge in Trujillos indictment alleges a violation of campaign contribution disclosure or prohibition. But the wording is unclear as to whether Trujillo, as a prospective contractor, made improper contributions related to a sealed bidding process or was the one who received the contributions. The contributions exceeded $250, and a transaction involved was greater than $50,000, the indictment says. The alleged crime took place on or about July 7, 2016, says the indictment. Trujillos lawyer, Dan Cron, said by phone Thursday, I havent seen the indictment yet or had the opportunity to look at discovery from the state, so were in the dark as to what the specifics are on these charges. We just plain dont know. The AGs office also filed a suit against Espanola Public Schools that sought documents related to Trujillos marketing contract. Public school funds should be used on the needs of students, said Attorney General Hector Balderas in a news release Thursday. I will continue to bring charges against candidates and officials who fail to serve our communities by pursuing or failing to disclose improper financial interests. The AGs Office also used the state Inspection of Public Records Act to get documents from Rio Arriba County regarding projects Trujillo was involved in, including construction of a park in Chimayo. The state Construction Industries Division brought charges against a local contractor who worked on the project for contracting without a license. Two others were indicted in June in an apparently related investigation. Married couple Joseph Torres and Liane Martinez are charged with 15 total counts, including fraud, making or permitting a false public voucher, racketeering and conspiracy. Their indictments say the couple bilked Espanola Public Schools out of thousands of dollars since January 2015. The Sun reported the charges are related to a contract the district had with Martinezs company, Enviro-Kleen LLC. Their house was raided by the AGs Office the same day Trujillos was, according to the newspaper. Trujillo ran unsuccessfully for the House District 40 seat in Democratic primaries in 2016 and again in June of this year. In May, for a report on the House race, Trujillo told the Journal no one had ever told him what he was being accused of and that the only time hed spoken to the AGs Office was when officers came to his house. Last I checked, we do live in America and Ive never been informed of what Ive actually done wrong, he said. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal In the year before the state Supreme Court implemented a set of rules telling New Mexico judges how to implement sweeping bail reform measures, 2,225 surety bonds were posted in the states busiest courthouse. Over the next 12 months, that number fell by 84 percent to 351, according to Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court officials. The drop comes as the state joins a growing number of jurisdictions around the country that are shifting away from a monetary bond system in favor of one that proponents say makes decisions about release based on the risk an individual poses. We dont keep people in jail because theyre low-risk and poor; we keep people in jail because theyre dangerous, regardless of what their means are, said 2nd Judicial District Chief Judge Nan Nash, summarizing the changes. Under a recent constitutional amendment, New Mexico judges can now detain defendants deemed dangerous or considered to be a flight risk, while landing, as Nash put it, on the side of release in most cases, with appropriate conditions. And after the new system has been in place a little more than a year, Nash said, there are signs that it is working. But the change is still controversial, and critics insist that judges are releasing too many suspects, often including those charged with violent felonies. Officials working in the justice system will provide an update on the changes today during a presentation to the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee. A risk-based system, proponents say, spares poor people from languishing in jail simply because they are unable to scrape together enough money to post bail. Nationwide data show that the less time a low- or medium-risk defendant spends in jail awaiting trial, the less likely he or she is to re-offend both in the immediate future and years later. Prosecutors in Bernalillo County agree the system is accomplishing that goal, but they question how many dangerous offenders are being released as a result. The state believes judges are detaining far too few defendants, some of whom might have been effectively detained under the money bond system. Opponents worried that without a bondsman on their tail, defendants would stop going to their hearings, but court officials say the rate of failure to appear has decreased. But another concern opponents voiced has materialized: The changes have decimated the states bail bond industry, forcing all but 10 bond companies to close shop. Voting for change In November 2016, New Mexicans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the constitutional amendment that would drive these changes. A series of Supreme Court rulings to help guide lower courts through implementing the new processes took effect in July 2017. The ballot measure proposed a change to protect community safety by granting courts new authority to deny release on bail pending trial for dangerous defendants in felony cases while retaining the right to pretrial release for nondangerous defendants who do not pose a flight risk. Were reducing the risk and we keep trying to find better ways of reducing the risk while at the same time were trying to honor the basic charter of our government: the Constitution, Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels said in an interview last month. The safest thing to do would be to jail all people at birth, and thats the end of it. The Constitution previously guaranteed the right to get out of custody to all defendants, with the exception of those charged in capital cases. Judges who set high bonds with the hope of keeping a person detained were violating the defendants rights and their own judicial oath to uphold the law, Daniels who was a driving force behind the amendment wrote in an article published in The Judges Journal this summer. Second Judicial District Court Executive Officer Jim Noel said posting a bond imposed no obligation on the bond company to supervise a defendant, only the obligation to produce a defendant who may have already failed to appear. In contrast, defendants sent to pretrial services are actively monitored. Between fiscal years 2015 and 2018, failures to appear increased in District Court by 2.8 percent, Noel said. In that same period, criminal case filings increased by 33 percent and the number of cases subject to monetary bonds fell by 85 percent. Thus, as a proportion of total new criminal cases filed, the FTA rate has actually gone down, Noel said. This corresponds directly to the time period in which the constitutional amendment was implemented and the use of monetary bonds substantially decreased. Too many released? As of the end of July, district judges in Bernalillo County have denied a majority of prosecutors requests to detain defendants prior to trial. Prosecutors asked judges for detention at the outset of 959 cases. Of those, 359 motions were granted, 503 denied and the rest were withdrawn by the state or were dismissed entirely, according to court officials. Thomas Outler, deputy district attorney with the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office, said he doesnt think the system is accomplishing its goal of keeping the right people in jail because the district judges who have the power to do so are detaining too few defendants. A handful of cases have made headlines after a detention motion was denied and a defendant went on to commit additional crimes. Its not fair to the public, because many more offenders are now being released and are able to re-offend or in some other way have the opportunity to be a danger, he said. They were being effectively held under the old bond system. He believes voters saw the amendment as a way to enhance public safety by giving judges a new and improved method for keeping more dangerous people in jail. What they didnt understand was there already was a constitutionally problematic, but still a mechanism in place to do that, he said. You put a high enough bond on somebody, unless theyre, you know, fabulously funded in some way, theyre going to stay in jail pending trial. Instead, he said, judges are using the amendment as a way to reduce the number of people being held. And, he said, a faster release may be alarming to people who see an arrest and then days later see the person around town, even if the suspect is eventually jailed when the case is resolved. Its beginning to seem to the average member of the public like theres no consequence to being arrested for committing a violent crime, Outler said. Legislative Finance Committee data confirms that since the summer of 2017, more arrestees are getting out of jail sooner. The number of inmates released from the Metropolitan Detention Center within 72 hours increased by about 20 percent since June 2017, when Bernalillo County started using an evidence-based risk assessment to help judges determine which defendants were good candidates for release. Soon after, the Supreme Courts rules went into effect. Lives derailed On the other hand, Matthew Coyte, former president of New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said prosecutors are filing frivolous detention motions and defendants normally spend several days in custody awaiting those hearings. He said district attorneys have a political incentive to file numerous motions, leading to unnecessary detention, which actually increases our crime rates. A faster release might mean a defendants life isnt derailed by an arrest. Coyte cited research commissioned by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation that found a low-risk defendants likelihood of new criminal arrest before trial increases by 39 percent when they are held for two or three days, as opposed to those held for a day or less. Those held for four to seven days are 50 percent more likely to be arrested again. Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur said that a persons life stops when theyre arrested. Their vehicle might be towed, a pet may be taken to the pound, bills go unpaid, they miss work. Every day that somebody is in custody disrupts their life to a point that it is harder for them to get back to normal, and therefore it is more likely that they will do things which will get them back in jail later, Baur said. The LFC reported that the likelihood of incurring a new felony arrest consistently increases for each extra day spent in jail until it levels off after about five days. New arrest likelihood doubles for inmates staying longer than five or more days as compared to those in custody for less than a day. Alternatively, according to the LJAF, a high-risk defendant is equally likely to reoffend no matter how much time he or she spends detained pretrial. According to data released by the University of New Mexico Institute for Social Research, the amendment has succeeded in reducing the number of MDC inmates in custody on a bond. That number fell from 402 in January 2017, shortly after the amendment went into effect, to 66 in May 2018. The amendment has been helpful in removing the toxic influence of the bail bonding industry, Coyte said. Now, poor people are much less likely to languish in jail waiting for their trial dates. Update on new system New Mexico justice system officials will provide an update on the states bail and pretrial detention system during a meeting of the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee. When: 9:15 a.m. today Where: Central New Mexico Community College, Student Resource Center Room 204 Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal The abrupt decrease in monetary bonds has left the men and women working within the industry searching for new careers. According to the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance, which oversees the states bondsmen, 48 business entity licenses were issued to bailbondsmen between 1992 and 2017. By June 30, 2017, only 23 still held active licenses. In late August, there were just 10. Gerald Madrid, the former president of the now-disbanded Bail Bond Association of New Mexico, said he had to lay off his 10 employees, and hes operating at a loss. Hes constantly fielding calls from people confused about the changes. Some wonder why they cant bail out a relative immediately, others ask why an offender was released so quickly. I dont have anybody ever come up and say, Wow, things are great now, Im really glad we switched, he said. Madrid used to reach family members of an arrestee who would obligate themselves to me and I obligate myself to the court to ensure court appearance. Madrid says that cutting back on surety bonds means the courts and taxpayers are taking on that responsibility. The government has decided that theyre going to take us out of the loop and theyre gonna go this alone, he said. He takes issue with the assertion that the poor were sitting in jail only because they didnt have access to money. Sometimes, he said, families made the decision not to bail out a loved one because they had grown tired of their bad behavior. People are in jail because they committed a crime, not because theyre poor, Madrid said. This idea that the bondsmen are leaving the poor people in jail, again, it sounds really good for their side. Thats not the case at all. If mom and dad and grandma and grandpa wont even bond him out, how can we bond him out? Frankly, they say theyre tired of these guys. Madrid, who has been in business for nearly 35 years, has no plans to close up shop any time soon and, for now, he posts what few surety bonds he can, on average one per day. Former clients visit occasionally, surprised that judges have agreed to release them without a bond. They come into my office laughing. I say, Whats so funny? He said, I just got released (on my own recognizance) again, Madrid said. TEHRAN, Iran The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet Friday in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action. Even before it began, an airstrike early Friday struck Idlibs southern edge, killing at least one person. Each of the three nations has its own interests in the yearslong war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighboring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilizing areas it now holds in Syria. And Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. The Tehran summit can produce peace and reconciliation in Syria or it can deepen the mess created by endless bouts of violence mainly instigated by the Assad regime, Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, wrote in the Daily Sabah newspaper. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russias longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias postwar reconstruction. The streets of Tehran were quiet on Friday, the second day of the Iranian weekend. The countrys state-run IRNA news agency described the summit as potentially offering an agreement on peace and security in Syria. A former Iranian diplomat, Ali Akbar Farazi, told IRNA the summit shows that solving regional issues in a fair way that agrees with the interests of all sides remains important for the three nations. For Turkey, the stakes couldnt be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing toward its border and destabilizing towns and cities in northern Syria under its control. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said Friday his fighters were prepared for a battle that they expect will spark a major humanitarian crisis. The least the summit can do is to prevent this military war, he said. Early on Friday, a series of airstrikes struck villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack. Turkey also doesnt want to see another Kurdish-controlled area rise along its border, as it already faces in northern Iraq. Cevik, a senior adviser to Erdogan, also didnt pull any punches in his piece in the Daily Sabah, saying: Assad bolstered by Irans land assets and Russian air power and his use of chemical weapons has punched his way into opposition strongholds and hence massive gains for the Damascus regime. You still need moderate opposition groups who represent the Sunni suffering masses in Syria to achieve a viable political solution and durable peace in this country, he wrote. Iran and Russia are the fighting forces in Syria and have brought blood and tears. All three nations face sanctions from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump. Although America has some 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. Americas ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has warned any military offensive in Idlib would be a reckless escalation. The U.S. will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday about the possible offensive. There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict, Haley said in a statement Wednesday. Assads brutal regime backed by Russia and Iran cannot continue to attack and terrorize Syrias citizens. ___ Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. TEHRAN, Iran The presidents of Iran and Russia on Friday backed a military offensive to retake the last rebel-held area of Syria as Turkeys president pushed for a cease-fire, perhaps the final chance to avoid what activists warn will be a humanitarian disaster. The trilateral summit in Tehran between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been viewed as a chance for a diplomatic solution before unleashing a full-scale assault on Syrias northwestern Idlib province. Instead, it further highlighted the stark differences between allies of convenience in Syrias 7-year-old war, the topic of a summit that did not see embattled President Bashar Assad directly represented. Putin pushed for a muscular military response to crush rebel fighters in Idlib, calling at one point for the total annihilation of terrorists in Syria. Rouhani focused on reconstruction and the need for Syrias displaced to return home, while also calling for the U.S. to immediately withdraw. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Rouhani said, while adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Erdogan, meanwhile, may have been the leader with the most to lose ahead of the offensive. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and the destabilization of areas it now holds in Syria. Idlib isnt just important for Syrias future, it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region, Erdogan said. Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience. We dont want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath, he added. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russias longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias postwar reconstruction. Russia also wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. We think its unacceptable when (someone) is trying to shield the terrorists under the pretext of protecting civilians as well as causing damage to Syrian government troops, Putin said. As far as we can see this is also the goal of the attempts to stage chemical weapons incidents by Syrian authorities. We have irrefutable evidence that militants are preparing such operations, such provocations. Putin offered no evidence to back his claim. The United Nations and Western countries have blamed Assads forces for chemical weapons attacks during the countrys civil war, something denied by Russia and Syria. Responding to Erdogans proposal for a cease-fire in Idlib, Putin said a cease-fire would be good but indicated that Moscow does not believe it will hold. We hope that we will be able to reach an agreement and that our call for reconciliation in the Idlib area will be heard, the Russian president said. We hope that the representatives of those terrorist organizations will be smart enough to stop the resistance and lay down arms. There was no immediate reaction from fighters in Idlib. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said before the summit that his forces were prepared for a battle that they expect will spark a major humanitarian crisis. Idlib is about a lot of international power play and everyone is looking after their interests, al-Mustafa said. Early on Friday, a series of airstrikes struck villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack. Already, close to half a million people have been killed in Syrias long, grinding war, which began first as a popular uprising against Assad and later devolved into a sectarian and regional conflict. Eight aid agencies warned Friday that in the coming offensive it will be the most vulnerable who will pay the heaviest price, with women, children, and the elderly in Idlib unlikely to be able to move to safety. Iran, Russia and Turkey all separately face sanctions from the U.S. under the administration of President Donald Trump. Although America has some 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. Americas ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has warned any military offensive in Idlib would be a reckless escalation. The U.S. will chair a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday about the possible offensive. There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict, Haley said in a statement Wednesday. Assads brutal regime backed by Russia and Iran cannot continue to attack and terrorize Syrias citizens. ___ Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut; Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. SEOUL, South Korea South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday he is pushing for irrevocable progress in efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons by the end of this year as he prepares for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was expecting to get a positive letter from Kim after South Korean special envoys traveled to Pyongyang this week to help resolve the nuclear stalemate and pave the way for the Sept. 18-20 Moon-Kim summit. South Korean officials say the summit in Pyongyang will focus on how to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula the goal that Kim and Trump agreed to at their own historic face-to-face meeting in Singapore in June. Diplomatic progress since then has been slow. After returning home from North Korea, the South Korean envoys said Thursday that Kim still has faith in Trump and reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, although he expressed frustration over skepticism about his sincerity. Chief envoy Chung Eui-yong said Kim wanted to denuclearize before Trumps current term ends in early 2021. On Friday, Trump was upbeat about the North Korean leaders overtures, describing as a very positive statement what he said about me and also what he said about he wants to denuclearize during the Trump administration. Trump said hes expecting to get a letter in the coming days that Kim is sending to him through Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It was a reference to the message from Kim to Trump that South Korea said Thursday it would be forwarding to the United States. During their visit on Wednesday, the envoys had forwarded a message from Trump to Kim. I know that a letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to a campaign event in North Dakota. I think its going to be a positive letter. Still, the next step in nuclear diplomacy is uncertain. Negotiators seem deadlocked over whether North Korea truly intends to denuclearize as it has pledged numerous times in recent months. North Korea has dismantled its nuclear and rocket engine testing sites, but U.S. officials want more serious, concrete action taken before North Korea obtains outside concessions. North Korea, which says its nuclear program is aimed at countering U.S. military threats, has demanded the United States jointly declare with that country and South Korea an end to the 1950-53 Korean War, which was halted by an armistice, not a peace treaty. During his meeting with the South Korean envoys, Kim said an end-of-war declaration wouldnt weaken the U.S.-South Korean alliance or lead to the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to prevent an North Korean attack, according to Chung. Kims stance appeared designed to allay U.S. concerns that the declaration could be used by the North to demand the removal of U.S. forces. Moons liberal government, which is eager to continue engagement with North Korea, also wants the declaration. In a written interview released Friday with Indonesian newspaper Kompas, Moon said he wants to see such a declaration made this year as part of trust-building measures. What matters is implementing with sincerity the agreements among the leaders, and our objective is producing irrevocable progress by the end of this year, Moon said, referring to denuclearization and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Two senior members of South Koreas delegation to Pyongyang are to fly to China and Japan to brief them on their meeting with Kim. Chung is to meet senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi on Saturday, and National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon, who went to Pyongyang with Chung, is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday, according to South Koreas presidential office. Chung, whose official title is presidential national security director, spoke with his U.S. counterpart, John Bolton, on the phone on Thursday about his trip to North Korea. ___ Thomas reported from Fargo, North Dakota. WASHINGTON The Trump administration is granting only partial loan forgiveness to the vast majority of students approved for help because of fraud by for-profit colleges, according to preliminary Education Department data obtained by The Associated Press. The figures demonstrate the impact of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos new policy of tiered relief, in which students swindled by for-profit schools are compensated based on their earnings after the program. Of the roughly 16,000 fraud claims approved thus far by the Education Department under DeVos, slightly more than 1,000 students received full forgiveness on their loans, according to an AP analysis of the data. DeVos has been pushing to ease regulations for the for-profit sector and raise the bar for students seeking relief for fraud. Critics say DeVos, who has hired officials from the for-profit sector to top positions in her agency, is favoring industry interests. But DeVos counters that the previous approach was unfair to taxpayers who ended up paying for those forgiven loans. She says the new process will enable students to get their claims considered more quickly and efficiently and will be more balanced instead of an all-or-nothing approach. More than 165,000 claims have been filed since the loan forgiveness program launched in full in 2015 under the Obama administration. A total of nearly 48,000 claims have been approved through the end of June. Since DeVos took over, the agency has reviewed more than 25,000 claims. Partial forgiveness awards have covered on average about 30 percent of a students outstanding loan, with the median loan of roughly $11,500 reduced to about $7,800, according to the data. The department computes the amount erased by comparing their income to peers in similar programs. The statistics were collected over the summer in preparation for a report on loan relief claims that the agency must submit to Congress. The department has previously not provided such information publicly. More than 9,000 loan forgiveness claims have been denied under DeVos, according to the data. The Obama administration didnt issue any denials, but DeVos Education Department has said many of the claims that it rejected had actually been identified for denial, but never acted on, by the previous administration. Of the total number of claims approved by the Obama and Trump administrations, about 31 percent have received partial relief, according to the data provided to the AP. However, the Obama administration didnt grant partial loan forgiveness on any of the claims it approved. Asked for comment, Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill pointed to DeVos remarks in December rolling out the partial relief program. No fraud is acceptable, and students deserve relief if the school they attended acted dishonestly, DeVos said at the time. She said the new process will allow claims to be adjudicated quickly and also protects taxpayers from being forced to shoulder massive costs that may be unjustified. Kimberly Fe, 53, studied medical administration and billing at a Corinthian college in California. She said she received poor quality education and was deceived into believing that her credits would transfer to four-year colleges, which wasnt the case. The Education Department recently notified Fe that it has forgiven some $2,000 out of $7,000 of her federal student loan. It was just a money- making machine, Fe said. I want my money back, I want my time back. The for-profit industry experienced a boom over the past two decades, with enrollment rising from around 230,000 in the early 1990s to a record 2 million in 2010. The sector benefited from federal student loans and the fact that the global financial crisis left many Americans jobless and eager to go back to school to master new skills and get new credentials. The schools recruited aggressively, often making deceptive statements about job prospects and delivering subpar education, which left many students with meaningless degrees and a mountain of debt. The Obama administration went hard after the sector, closing down two major for-profit chains, Corinthian and ITT, and spent $550 million to forgive students loans. Tens of thousands of students had their loans fully erased under the Obama administration, but an even bigger backlog remained. DeVos took a different approach. In December she announced a new system of partial relief that would be determined by how students fared financially after graduating or participating in a program. DeVos is also seeking to weaken or scrap Obama-era regulations meant to police for-profits and help defrauded students get their loans forgiven. Its very self-evident in the policies that they are proposing and implementing that they are there to look out for the for-profit colleges, said Clare McCann, a higher education expert with New America, a Washington-based think tank. The tiered system was challenged in a lawsuit filed by Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University, a legal aid clinic that is representing defrauded students. In June, a federal judge ordered the department to halt partial relief for students, ruling that the method that it used to calculate the amount was unacceptable. But Michael Dakduk of Career Education Colleges and Universities, the industrys largest trade group, hailed DeVos efforts to reform industry regulations. Unlike the previous administration, the current administration appears to more concerned with supporting students at all colleges and universities regardless of tax status, Dakduk said in a statement. Now is the time to move beyond ideological attacks on any one sector of higher education and establish a uniform commitment to transparency of outcomes that can stand the test of time. Preston Cooper, an analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the tiered system reflected DeVos attempt to strike a balance between protecting the interests of students and taxpayers. This partial forgiveness operation, its not perfect, its hard to come up with a perfect solution, Cooper said. I would say the administration is pursing partial relief and they are trying to find one way to negotiate this balance. WASHINGTON George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, was sentenced to 14 days in prison Friday after he told a judge he was deeply embarrassed and ashamed for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries. Papadopoulos, the first campaign aide sentenced in special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing investigation, acknowledged that his actions hindered an investigation of national importance, a move that the judge in his case said resulted in the 31-year-old putting his own self-interest above that of his country. I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption, Papadopoulos said. The punishment was far less than the maximum six-month sentence sought by the government but more than the probation that Papadopoulos and his lawyers had asked for. Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trumps campaign, has been a central figure in the Russia investigation dating back before Muellers May 2017 appointment. He was the first to plead guilty in Muellers probe and is now the first Trump campaign adviser to be sentenced. His case was also the first to detail a member of the Trump campaign having knowledge of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election while it was ongoing. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said Papadopoulos deception was not a noble lie and said he had lied because he wanted a job in the Trump administration and didnt want to jeopardize that possibility by being tied to the Russia investigation. In some ways it constitutes a calculated exercise of self-interest over the national interest, the judge said. Moss noted that many similar cases resulted in probation but said he imposed a sentence of incarceration partly to send a message to the public that they cant lie to the FBI. The sentence drew a quick response from Trump on Twitter, as he scoffed at the two weeks of prison time by comparing it to an unverified cost figure for the Mueller probe. 14 days for $28 MILLION $2 MILLION a day, No Collusion. A great day for America! the president tweeted. Memos authored by House Republicans and Democrats , now declassified, show that information about Papadopoulos contacts with Russian intermediaries triggered the FBIs counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. That probe was later taken over by Mueller. According to a sweeping indictment handed up this summer, Russian intelligence had stolen emails from Hillary Clintons campaign and other Democratic groups by April 2016, the same month Papadopoulos was told by a professor that Russian officials had told him they had dirt on Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Papadopoulos later used his connections with the Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, and other Russian nationals in an attempt to broker a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He admitted last year to lying to the FBI about those contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries, false statements that prosecutors say caused irreparable harm to the investigation during its early months. Prosecutors say those false statements, made during a January 2017 interview with federal investigators, led the FBI to miss an opportunity to interview Mifsud while he was in the United States in early 2017. In court Friday, prosecutor Andrew Goldstein said Papadopoulos cooperation didnt come close to the standard of substantial assistance. It was at best begrudging efforts to cooperate and we dont think they were substantial or significant in any regard, he said. He said Papadopoulos deception required investigators to scour more than 100,000 emails and gigabytes of data to reconstruct the timeline of his contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries. Even after his arrest and plea agreement last year, Goldstein said, Papadopoulos continued to be difficult, only providing information after being confronted with documents such as emails and text messages. In response, defense lawyer Thomas Breen said his client was remorseful that his lies impeded the investigation. Papadopoulos lied because he was torn between wanting to cooperate and wanting to remain loyal to a president whose administration he hoped to join, Breen said. His client was also affected by Trumps cries of fake news and his casting of the Russia investigation as a witch hunt just days before his FBI interview. The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could, Breen said. Breen described his client as a patriot, who wasnt trying to help Russia. But he acknowledged that Papadopoulos was unsophisticated, naive and even a fool for having made contacts with Russia intermediaries during the campaign. Breen said his clients primary interest was brokering a meeting between Trump and Putin, a move he believed the campaign supported. In court papers, Breen wrote that during a March 2016 meeting attended by Papadopoulos, Trump nodded with approval at the idea, and then-Senator Jeff Sessions appeared to like it and said the campaign should look into it. That clashes with what Sessions, a key campaign aide and now Trumps attorney general, told the House Judiciary Committee last November. In that testimony, Sessions said he resisted the idea of any Russia meeting proposed by Papadopoulos. Outside the courthouse Friday, Breen said Papadopoulos didnt recall ever telling anyone in the campaign about the fact that Russia had dirt on Clinton in the form of emails. Breen also rejected the idea that Papadopoulos was the victim of a witch hunt or prosecutorial misconduct. We have seen no such thing. We have seen no entrapment. We have seen no set up by U.S. intelligence people, he said, noting that he also had no reason to believe that Papadopoulos was the subject of a warrant obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Asked if Papadopoulos still remained loyal to Trump, Breen smiled wryly and paused for a beat. We dont talk politics, he said. ___ Follow Chad Day on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChadSDay Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report. ___ Read Papadopoulos sentencing memo: http://apne.ws/CY7Ul9Q Read prosecutors recommendation: http://apne.ws/YkyZTfC Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Nearly half a billion dollars in fresh money is headed to New Mexico state coffers after a record-breaking oil and gas lease sale this week by the U.S. Bureau of Land Managements Carlsbad Field Office. The two-day, online auction generated $972.8 million in bonus bids for 142 parcels in Eddy, Lea and Chaves counties, breaking all records for BLM lease sales across the nation, according to the agency. The amount generated is nearly three times the $358 million the BLM earned from all sales nationwide last year, and more than two times the agencys record year for lease-sale income in 2008, when it earned $408.6 million. New Mexico will reap about $467 million from the Wednesday and Thursday sale, because 48 percent of the revenue from such lease auctions goes to the state where the oil and gas activity occurs. The rest goes to the U.S. Treasury. The auction results drew praise from U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who said in a news release that the states robust oil and gas development has turned New Mexico into a centerpiece for the countrys all-of-the-above energy future. The people of New Mexico will see about half a billion dollars of this right back into their roads, schools and public services, Zinke said in a prepared statement. The lease-sale money will significantly increase the state budget for the current fiscal year. In August, the Legislative Finance Committee and executive economists projected a $900 million revenue surplus for fiscal year 2019, which began July 1. However, that projection was based on an estimate of just $200 million from the BLMs latest auction. The $467 million it actually earned would now push that surplus to nearly $1.17 billion. Apart from the lease sales record for total income, the auction also produced the highest bid ever for a single parcel and the highest per-acre bid ever received by the BLM in all its lease sales nationwide. That bid generated $101.5 million for a 1,240-acre parcel in Eddy County, representing $81,855 per acre. Thats up from BLMs previous record of $76.7 million for a single parcel set during an auction in New Mexico in 2016. And its double the BLMs previous $40,000 per-acre record bid, set during a 2017 New Mexico auction. The record-breaking auction reflects an unprecedented boom in oil and gas production in the Permian Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, particularly in the Delaware Basin, an oval-shaped shale rock formation that protrudes from southwestern Texas northward into Eddy and Lea counties. Modern drilling technologies have turned that zone into one of the most productive oil and gas fields in the world, which is sharply driving up prices for land parcels there. New Mexico oil production reached an all-time high of 171 million barrels in 2017, and output this year is on track to climb even higher. Production reached 87.5 million barrels as of May, up from 66.8 million barrels in the same period last year, according to the state Oil Conservation Division. New Mexico is at the forefront of the oil and gas industry, Ryan Flynn, executive director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, told the Journal. Well see more records being broken going forward. Unlike the boom-and-bust cycles of the past, the industry expects production to continue climbing for at least a decade, Flynn said. This is different than anything weve experienced before, he said. Were not only seeing record-setting production, but sustained growth that we expect to continue over the next five to 10 years. Before this weeks auction, environmental groups said the BLM was planning to include about two dozen parcels within 10 miles of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. But in late July, the BLM eliminated those parcels from the September auction. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal State lawmakers even within the same party clashed Friday over how to help prosecutors and judges carry out a 2016 constitutional amendment that reshaped New Mexicos bail system for defendants awaiting trial. Legislators heard from prosecutors who proposed changes aimed at making it easier to keep people in jail when theyre charged with certain crimes. They suggested amending the state Constitution again to shift the burden of evidence more squarely to the defense, not prosecutors, during court hearings to determine whether, say, a murder suspect should be held before trial. But a state Supreme Court justice and public defenders said that New Mexico should give the new bail system time to work and that it already strikes the right balance between allowing detention for dangerous suspects while also protecting peoples rights to be free if they havent been convicted. They disputed the notion that murder suspects are walking free under the current system. Our judges are not releasing people willy-nilly, as has been claimed, Supreme Court Justice Charles Daniels told lawmakers in Fridays legislative hearing at the Central New Mexico Community College. The 2016 amendment, approved by voters, allows a court to deny bail if a prosecutor proves by clear and convincing evidence that a suspect is too dangerous to be released, even with conditions. The amendment also says people who arent dangerous or a flight risk cannot be detained simply because theyre too poor to post bail. Under the old system, everyone was entitled to bail unless they were charged with a capital offense. In any case, no one seemed to dispute that the Legislature should act to address New Mexicos high crime rate. Lawmakers, however, were split over how far to go. Democratic Sen. Jacob Candelaria and Republican Rep. Bill Rehm, both of Albuquerque, suggested the state should make it easier for prosecutors to win approval to keep people in jail. Candelaria said that California, in its own bail overhaul this year, created a legal presumption that people charged with first-degree murder or certain other crimes should be held before trial, unless the defense has enough evidence to show that its safe to let them out. I find it concerning that New Mexico is far left of California that were more liberal than California, said Candelaria, whose district covers part of the West Side. But Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said its unfair to blame the constitutional amendment for the public safety crisis in New Mexico. The amendment actually helped matters, he said, by replacing the old bail system in which defendants with money just had to come up with enough cash to get out of jail, regardless of how dangerous they were. And poor defendants, Wirth said, would remain in jail awaiting trial even if they werent dangerous. Theyre closing prisons in Texas, he said, because they figured out that just locking everybody up is wildly expensive and isnt the way to deal with it. Wirth, one of the highest-ranking members of the Legislature, where Democrats control both chambers, said its now up to lawmakers to provide enough funding to allow prosecutors, judges and defense attorneys to handle their legal workload under the new system. And the states judiciary can make rule changes aimed at addressing problems, without requiring a new constitutional amendment. The solution, Wirth said, isnt redoing the Constitution. Its redoing the rules and working on the resources. After years of tight budgets, an oil boom in southeastern New Mexico is expected to help provide well over $1 billion in new money beyond this years spending levels. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say the new bail system created an extra burden on their already-stretched offices. They have to evaluate whether a new defendant is dangerous and, if so, prepare evidence to win a court order to detain the person before trial. Even if they win, it takes time and resources. Some prosecutors have compared the detention hearing to a mini-trial a characterization judges dispute. Public defenders, in turn, say the new system front-loads some of their work but that its a change everyone can adjust to. Rep. Rehm, a retired sheriffs captain whose district is in the Northeast Heights, said the public is tired of people being arrested and then let out to commit new crimes. My district is very upset, Rehm said. They want something done. Justice Daniels said the Supreme Court is already evaluating rule changes proposed by all parts of the criminal justice system and is likely to decide on changes before the Legislature meets in January. But he also defended the current system. The crime rate appears to be dropping, not going up, since the bail changes went into effect, Daniels said. Furthermore, he said, the judiciary hopes to hire someone who can provide statewide oversight of the programs that monitor defendants who are released before trial. Its become clear we need somebody overseeing the whole process, all the components, Daniels said. All these things need to fit together. Every pretrial justice system in the country has some kind of oversight statewide. The judicial branch submitted a budget request to lawmakers Friday that calls for about $179 million in spending, a 5 percent increase over this years appropriation. The extra money would boost staffing, cover increased health insurance costs and improve automation, among other priorities. In todays erratic and fast-paced lifestyle, irregular and inappropriate meals end up meddling with the acidic balance of the stomach leading to gastric issues, which can be annoying and uncomfortable. In fact, as per an IMRB (now known as Kantar IMRB) study, 61% of the population in urban India suffers from hyperacidity. Adding to the plight of the sufferer in this situation is the fact that every other individual seems to be an expert in giving advice in how to tackle hyperacidity, thereby confusing the sufferer even more with contradicting opinions. With this in mind, Abbott recently unveiled the #NoSecondOpinion campaign for Digene, one of its oldest antacid brands in India, with the aim that people should trust a doctors recommendation over unsolicited advice. Through the campaign, Digene, the number one doctor-recommended antacid, wants people to consider treating common issues such as hyperacidity seriously. The #NoSecondOpinion campaign narrates the experiences of hyperacidity sufferers, their dilemma and the solutions. While advice and opinions come from various people around us, Abbotts campaign encourages people to trust their doctors. Though hyperacidity is perceived to be an issue faced by the elderly population, in recent times, it has been witnessed by the younger generation as well. Their erratic eating habits, work schedules and lifestyle choices, combined with less physical activity makes them vulnerable to gastric troubles. The perception that antacids are only used by older people also needs to change. Commenting on the campaign launch, Ambati Venu, Managing Director, Abbott India Limited, said, At Abbott, we want to help people live their best lives through good health. In talking with doctors and consumers in India, we realized that people receive multiple opinions on how to treat hyperacidity. Our new campaign for Digene reminds people to trust their doctor. Digene, one of the oldest brands in the country, is a market leader in the gel and tablet formats. In addition to reducing acidity, Digene also protects the stomach lining against excess gastric acid due to its coating action. Well known for its cooling action and its presence in various Indian flavours, Digene is available as a gel, tablet, effervescent powder and Ayurvedic Pudina Pearls. The campaign highlights that the product can be taken in any format, depending on the need and comfort of the person whether at home or on the go. Young creative Soham Chatterjee, originally from India and now working in Chicago, was named a finalist for the global Young Guns 16 competition, celebrating international creative professionals age 30 or younger. Chatterjee was selected for his portfolio of work in the Advertising discipline. This marks the first time that live social video has been used to announce finalists for Young Guns, the industrys only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies todays vanguard of young creatives. Young Guns is part of The One Club for Creativity, the worlds foremost non-profit organisation recognising creative excellence in advertising and design. The 82 finalists consist of creatives originally hailing from 24 countries this year, two-thirds from outside the US. Submissions were judged by 61 top creatives from around the world, about half of whom are past Young Guns winners. This years winners will be announced at the Young Guns 16 awards ceremony and party on November 15, 2018 at the Highline Ballroom in New York. The evening will be hosted by Gemma OBrien (Young Guns 13 winner), acclaimed Australian artist and designer specialising in lettering, typography and illustration. Young Guns 16 winners receive a unique version of the iconic Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this years incoming class, and have their permanent profile page added to the Young Guns website. Winners also receive a complimentary one-year membership to The One Club for Creativity, permanent membership in Young Guns network, a chance to be featured in Young Guns events and an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from Young Guns sponsors. Young Guns is special because its incredibly difficult to make the cut as finalists, said Michael O'Rourke, Executive Director, ADC. Many of the best young creatives from around the world entered really strong portfolios across multiple disciplines, so its badge of honour to make it even this far. Past Young Guns include rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields, including advertising creatives Rei Inamoto (YG4) and Menno Kluin (YG6); graphic designers James Victore (YG1), Stefan Sagmeister (YG1) and Jessica Walsh (YG8); illustrators Christoph Niemann (YG2) and Deanne Cheuk (YG4); photographers Ryan McGuinness (YG2) and Jeremy Floto/Cassandra Warner (aka floto+warner, YG5); typographers Alex Trochut (YG6) and Gemma OBrien (YG13); film and video director Mike Mills (YG1), animation artist Todd St. John (YG1) and others. Programme branding is developed each year by a past Young Gun winner. Branding for Young Guns 16 was designed by New York-based creative studio and artist representation agency Sunday Afternoon, led by Young Guns 11 winner Juan Carlos Pagan, co-founder and executive creative director. 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. CAIRO A photo and a gay pride flag on a T-shirt has spurred controversy and eventually a legal case in Egypt last month, targeting actor Khaled Abol Naga and the international clothing brand Bershka. Lawyer Ahmed al-Ganzouri told Al-Monitor that both Abol Naga and Bershka risk facing legal charges under Article 294 of the Egyptian Penal Code. The article stipulates six months to three years of imprisonment for inciting adultery, immorality and prostitution, verbally, by implication, by signs or any similar means. The Egyptian law does not explicitly criminalize homosexual relationships, but prosecutors often use the terms "debauchery or adultery to bring up cases against homosexuality. Advocacy of gay rights are often taken under incitation for adultery by Egyptian courts. This includes carrying gay pride flags or logos in public spaces, as had been the case when a group of Egyptians waved a rainbow flag at a concert of Lebanese rock group Mashrou' Leila last year. In the case of Abol Naga, the whole controversy started with a photo posted on Instagram Aug. 10 by the actor himself. The photo showed Abol Naga lying in bed, next to Egyptian actor Tamer Hagras. Faced with accusations that he was gay and abnormal, Abol Naga wrote that this was an old photo taken by his photographer friend Youssef Nabil. He praised the photo as "one that told a story, even if some people saw in the photo a 'batihka'" a word that means watermelon in Arabic but is also slang to describe gays. The actor tweeted the next day that the photo proved to be the perfect opportunity to spread false rumors, implying that he was not gay. However, he went on to defend gay rights against the homophobic statements he faced. He tweeted Aug. 13, Discrimination against homosexuality is similar to race discrimination against people born with a dark skin. Gay people are born with an attraction toward the same sex, which is scientifically proven. In reply to a Twitter user who attacked him for his support for the gay community, on the basis that homosexuality is not in human nature, Abol Naga tweeted Aug. 25, Sadly, this nature you are talking about is the source of their sufferings. Homosexuality is not a choice. They are born with an attraction to the same sex instead of the opposite sex. For Gods sake, what else would ever make someone choose to become something that causes them pain, suffering and discrimination? Samir Sabry, a prominent lawyer in Egypt, filed a complaint against Abol Naga Aug. 14, before the Public Prosecutor. It is clear that the defendant is promoting immorality, adultery and prostitution, the complaint read. The Public Prosecutor had not yet responded whether the case would be pursued when this article was published. A source in Egypt's Cinematic Syndicate, who preferred not to be named, told Al-Monitor that several members of the syndicate called for a petition against Abol Naga because of his tweets. The source said that although he personally did not approve the statements posted by Abol Naga, he did not see how he could be expelled from the syndicate or be punished because there were no regulations in the charter against sharing posts of that kind. But, for many members, the artist should be a good example and a role model for young people who look up to him, he said. A source close to Abol Naga, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor that the posts on social media by the actor would not incite anyone to homosexuality they merely aimed to support the gay community, which is persecuted and discriminated against in the country. The source stressed this discrimination is unacceptable in any society, even in a conservative society such as Egypt. The source also noted that the Egyptian society has become more open to those who advocate for gay rights, but the old guard was ready to punish anyone who spoke out on homosexuality. He noted that the "systematic campaign" against the actor on social media was led by the "digital battalions of the Egyptian regime. Also in August, Bershka, the fashion store for women and men, which owns several branches in Egypt, faced a public reaction because of a T-shirt in its collection, after several social media users said that the T-shirt carried the rainbow flag. The campaign against the brand started when Omar Gunz, the host of comedy programs on social networking sites, posted on Facebook a video from a Bershka branch in Cairo showing a T-shirt with the gay pride flag, the universal symbol of LGBTQ rights. Gunz accused the brand of promoting homosexuality. This video was removed by the Facebook management on the grounds of "promoting hate speech," but Gunz posted another video Aug. 13 explaining why the first video was removed and reiterating his demand for a boycott of the brand. This prompted many Facebook users in Egypt and across the region to voice their anger on the official Bershka Facebook page. Bershka did not reply to any of the public comments. Speaking to Al-Monitor through Facebook Messenger, a Bershka representative said the company had no comment on the issue of the "rainbow flag," and that the T-shirt was no longer available in any Bershka branch in Egypt. Al-Monitor visited the two branches of Bershka in Cairo, to verify that the gay pride flag T-shirt was no longer sold. A manager at one of the branches, who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, said that the management of Bershka Egypt decided to remove the T-shirt from the stores in Egypt "out of respect for the feelings of Egyptian customers and to avoid losses." The source in the store pointed out that the international management of the Bershka brand is responsible for designing and exporting clothing to its branches worldwide. He noted that the Egyptian management wasn't aware of the significance of the flag. CAIRO Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi returned Sept. 5 from an Asian tour that included China, Uzbekistan and Bahrain and held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the Chinese prime minister, a number of representatives of Chinese companies and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. On Sept. 3-4, Sisi also participated in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Besides Egypt, several African countries including Ethiopia, Algeria, Eritrea and Somalia attended the forum. This is the fifth visit that the Egyptian president pays to China. His first visit was in December 2014, and he then visited China in September 2015, September 2016 and September 2017. Egypt has a strong relationship with China, as the country turned into Egypt's biggest trade partner in 2014 with a commercial trade value of about $12 billion. In addition, the number of Chinese tourists doubled in one year to more than 120,000 in 2015 and 180,000 in 2016, according to the website of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This increase is due to the efforts exerted by Egypt, which include the facilitation of Chinese tourist visas to Egypt and direct flights between a number of Chinese cities and Egypt, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing on June 10, 2015. Egypt imports cellphones, wireless devices, footwear and ready-made garments from China, while it supplies it with crude oil, marble and fruits. During his visit Sept. 2 to the headquarters of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, Sisi said, My fifth visit to China reflects the enhanced relations between the two countries. It also comes to confirm the need to ensure greater prospects of cooperation. Sisi added that the visit aims at enhancing our bilateral relations in various fields. We need to benefit from the Chinese experience in the fields of technology and industrial development all the while promoting trade and cultural relations. In this regard, Medhat El-Sherif, a member of parliaments Economic Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor that China is pursuing an unconventional method of managing its international economic and political relations. This method has been pursued in the context of a trade war between China and the United States and is based on the diversification of economic relations to include Africa and Egypt, among others. Sherif pointed out that the discussions and agreements that took place between Egypt and a number of Chinese companies during the visit will have a significant impact on the Egyptian economy, because these companies will provide funds for the implementation of several projects in Egypt. These projects include the logistics hub project in the Suez Canal, a good point of convergence for imports and exports to and from China. This, he said, will turn Egypt into a gateway to the African continent. On the second day of his visit, Sisi signed several agreements and contracts with a number of Chinese companies. These agreements aim at implementing various projects in Egypt with an investment value of about $18.3 billion, including the establishment of phase two of the Central Business District in Egypts new administrative capital, the pumping and storage station project at Mount Ataqa and the Hamrawein coal-fired power plant. Also, Mohab Mamish, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, signed three agreements with Chinese companies with total investments exceeding $1 billion. These agreements focus on textile, gypsum board, non-woven products and modern raw materials, as per a statement issued by the authority Sept. 4. Sherif noted that China is also seeking to establish a Silk Road to find alternative trade routes. Egypt can play a significant role in this project given its location, but this will ultimately depend on the agreements signed between the two countries. On Jan. 21, 2016, Sisi agreed to Egypt's accession to the Silk Road network, which China plans to build. This route will interconnect the Asian, African and European continents at a cost of $47 billion and will go through 56 countries. Tariq Radwan, the head of parliaments Foreign Relations Committee, told Al-Monitor, The Sino-African trade relations which amount to $170 billion will have a positive economic impact on Egypt, especially considering that Egypt is an important African trading partner for China and that there are joint projects between the two countries. Radwan said that among the projects that will be of great benefit to Egypt is the logistics hub of the Suez Canal, which will serve as a commercial and economic connecting point between Asia, Africa and Europe along with the Silk Road, which will contribute to opening new investments and boosting the international trade movement. Motaz al-Daremli, a leader in the Nations Future Party, told Sada Elbalad website Sept. 1 that the economic and political gains achieved by Sisi's visit to China will be felt over the next 30 years. China has become one of the most important trade and industrial partners for Egypt in light of its growing role in the global economy. He pointed out that the volume of Sino-Egyptian investments is on the rise. According to a report issued by the State Information Service Sept. 1 on the occasion of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China's direct investment in Egypt jumped by $106 million in the first half of 2017, an increase of 75% year on year. This led China to rank sixth in the list of countries investing in Egypt after it was ranked 15th in 2016. Meanwhile, Yomn al-Hamaki, a professor of economics at Ain Shams University in Cairo, told Al-Monitor that the relations between Egypt and China are good, as evidenced by the recent increase in the Chinese investments in Egypt. However, he added, these relations are yet to be optimally exploited by the state administrative apparatus, especially considering that China is the one benefitting the most from trade between the two countries. Hamaki said that the projects to be implemented between the two sides need greater attention from the Egyptian state administrative apparatus in order for the apparatus to develop clear plans aimed at hastily implementing the projects. Egypt also needs to provide incentives and sufficient information that would encourage Chinese investors to invest in other untapped areas such as mining. Egypt has significant mineral wealth and should open new avenues of investment to grease the Egyptian economic wheels and add new areas of investment to the ones that China is already investing in. In an interview with the Chinese Xinhua News Agency Aug. 27, China's ambassador to Cairo Song Aiguo praised China's close relations with Egypt as a model for Sino-African cooperation. He noted that in 2017, China maintained its position as the largest trade partner and import source for Egypt. A critical summit between the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey to find common ground on Syrias rebel-held province of Idlib descended into televised drama today, as Russias Vladimir Putin and Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan aired their differences before the cameras. On paper, the leaders reiterated pledges to seek a negotiated solution to Syrias seven-year conflict, to preserve the countrys territorial unity, to eliminate al-Qaeda-linked terrorists and to assure the safe return of millions of displaced Syrians. But a regime attack on Idlib will likely move ahead despite Turkeys appeals for more time to use carrot-and-stick diplomacy with the jihadis. Even as the leaders assembled in Tehran, Syrian fighter jets pounded militant targets in the province, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib in keeping with the provisions of the Astana process. The initiative was launched by Turkey, Iran and Russia last year to ease conditions for a cease-fire and eventual peace between the government and the rebels in designated de-escalation zones. In practice it has eased the regimes bloody comeback in rebel-held territories such as Daraa and Ghouta, and now imminently in the last militant stronghold, Idlib, where the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, dominates. Several thousand Turkish troops manning the observation points will likely find themselves in the crosshairs of the assault and tens of thousands of Syrians would likely flee toward Turkey. Erdogan said with some 3.5 millions Syrian refugees on its hands, Turkey could not take in any more. An attack on Idlib will result in disaster, massacre, tragedy, he warned. The Turkish leader even recited a verse from celebrated Iranian poet Saadi: If you have no sympathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain. But Turkey failed to convince fellow leaders to insert wording for a cease-fire in the summits final communique. Erdogans efforts to reverse this played out live with the leaders and their delegations assembled around a giant white table as the press cameras continued, inexplicably, to roll. A stony-faced Erdogan said the final statement ought to have made a reference to a cease-fire because it would bolster the Astana process, ease a solution and mark a victory for the summit. Putin icily retorted, The armed militants are not present at our table, are not taking part in our talks. The Turkish president is right, generally speaking. It would be nice [if they declared a cease-fire]. But we cannot speak on their behalf and [even less so on behalf of] Jabhat al-Nusra, IS terrorists, that they will stop their attacks, that they will stop using their drones. Irans President Hassan Rouhani could be seen smiling beatifically as Erdogan responded, We would be making a call on Jabhat al-Nusra, on HTS to lay down their arms. Analysts agree that the summit did not go well for Erdogan: Kerim Has, a Moscow-based analyst on Russian and Eurasian affairs, told Al-Monitor that the gathering revealed that a joint offensive carried out by Russia-backed regime forces and Iran-backed pro-regime militias is very near. The level of mutual trust between Turkey and Russia is very low, relations remain fragile and Idlib will present new challenges to them. Finally, it showed that Turkey needs to be ready for a fresh wave of refugees and that the threat of terrorism is no longer confined to Syria and will be felt on its own soil, up close and present. More broadly, Has observed, Disagreement over Idlib makes it unlikely that Russia and Turkey can agree on an extended presence of Turkish forces in Afrin, Jarablus and Azaz. Afrin is the mainly Kurdish enclave Turkish troops invaded with Russias blessings and rebel boots in March. A report from the Guardians Martin Chulov quoted a Kurdish leader as saying that a small number of the US-backed Kurdish Arab militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ostensibly Kurds had made their way to join Syrian forces in the impending fight for Idlib. The quid pro quo would be regime support to drive Turkey and its rebel proxies out of Afrin. But without Russian buy-in, that would be a highly risky move. Turkey would likely retaliate against the regime and the Kurds, leading to a further and unpredictable conflagration. Like Turkey, the United States is formally opposed to a regime assault on Idlib and Kurdish participation in it. But as Sam Heller, a senior analyst on non-state armed actors at the International Crisis Group, noted, Despite US official rhetoric, the United States still only seems to have drawn a line at the use of chemical weapons, which it's clear would prompt US military action. However, Heller added in emailed comments to Al-Monitor, with the exception of a few stray statements, it seems not to be promising any military intervention to halt an offensive. This suggests Turkey is increasingly isolated as it weighs its next move in Syria. A Western official speaking on condition of anonymity said, I dont think the summit was ever supposed to be anything other than a stalling tactic that would distract Turkey and make it look bad. The official added, Putin has mastered that tactic for Syria." BAGHDAD The governor of Anbar, the countrys largest and westernmost province, has called for the Iraqi military to go back to their bases to enable the return of normality to the province. Gov. Mohamed al-Halbusi, a candidate for parliamentary speaker, said that police should resume control of all checkpoints in Anbar. Despite relatively stable security in the Sunni-majority province the last Iraqi province to have all its major towns liberated from the Islamic State (IS), in late 2017 in recent weeks IS fighters have attacked checkpoints and infiltrated Iraqi territory only to be later killed by border police. Some sources are wary of discussing other security incidents, especially ones involving non-local Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). One such incident, as witnessed by members of a local PMU in al-Qaim on Aug. 23, involved several individuals being handcuffed and blindfolded after being arrested by Kataib Hezbollah. During an interview with Al-Monitor in Erbil, a security official from the area received a phone call detailing the incident, but he declined to comment. Al-Monitor followed up with the security official, but he had no additional details on what exactly had occurred. The security official also showed Al-Monitor photos of corpses of alleged IS fighters, some with Central Asian features and wearing military attire, who had been killed a few miles inside Iraqi territory in recent weeks by border forces. The local PMU have repeatedly told Al-Monitor in reporting trips to al-Qaim that there is a precarious balance in Iraq between international coalition forces and the Iran-backed armed groups that cross the Syrian border to fight alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime and allied militias. Meanwhile, a plethora of checkpoints manned by several different security forces are scattered throughout Anbar province, slowing movement and creating confusion regarding authorizations due to ineffective communication between the officers in charge. Al-Monitor witnessed this repeatedly at the Mohammedi army checkpoint into the Badia and Jazeera region. In late June, army officers at the checkpoint told this correspondent that she needed the authorization of the commanding officer of the region before they could let her pass. This was in spite of the correspondent being accompanied by regional police sent by the Anbar police chief and having written authorization to pass from the Joint Operations Command. They also could not give her the phone number of the officer nor could they call him, resulting in a wait of several hours and the involvement of many people before being allowed to pass. The proliferation of forces and excessive division of territory leads to confusion, additional expenses and waste in general, Gov. Halbusi said. I would like to open the road between Fallujah and Ramadi, for example, but now the two areas are split with different army officers commanding each area, he told Al-Monitor during an interview at his Baghdad home. The army officers each demand separate scanners, separate everything, despite the two checkpoints being very close to each other. Halbusi stressed that resolving this issue, soon after the formation of a new government, would be the key to much-needed investment in the area. I dont have enough policemen, he added, but I feel that the new Iraqi government will correct this. Al-Monitor has reported on a trend seen in the neighboring Salahuddin province of police joining local PMU to fight IS and then not rejoining the Interior Ministry forces. The leaders of the largest local PMU in al-Qaim, Aaly al-Furat and Kataib al-Hamza, were both former Interior Ministry employees: one in police intelligence and the other on the SWAT team. With so many different forces in Iraq, the governor lamented that he does not have the power to investigate some issues in his own province. Do you remember when we had the incident in Baghdadi?" he asked, referring to an airstrike that killed the towns police chief. "When I sent people there from my office, I was told this is a central government issue and that he should not ask further questions. He was told the same, he said, when various Iran-backed, Iraqi-led armed groups were attacked in Syria, allegedly by Israel, and the fighters including foreigners were brought across the border to the al-Qaim hospital to be treated. With regard to the incident in Razaza, we asked the prime minister and he said these groups are not on the official list of the PMU, he said. So where do they come from? The moon? I want to know who is on the ground. According to the Baghdad Post, Some reports put the number of those who disappeared from the Razaza checkpoint, which many Anbar internally displaced persons used to flee to Baghdad in 2015, at over 1,000. Nobody can tell us where they are. But we have heard that they are in Jurf al-Sakhar, in neighboring Babil province, he said, positing that Kataib Hezbollah has them or at least knows what happened to them. Meanwhile, political wrangling has been fierce on whether or not the Fatah Alliance, under which Shiite-led PMU leaders are running, will be part of the new government brought in by the May 12 parliamentary elections. Halbusi noted that in any case, the Iraqi-Syrian border situation was a unique situation and that we must make an agreement with the Syrian government and between the US and Russia about who will protect the line. We need Iraqi border forces but also international forces for a year or two. We need to cut the transfer [of armed fighters and weapons] from Iraq to Syria. He suggested something akin to what they did in southern Lebanon, in reference to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, buffer-zone troops. We need international forces for a year or two to ensure stability, given the multiple competing forces on the other side, he said. People are back from the camps and they are tired, Halbusi said, adding that the view toward foreigners had also changed. Now most people in Anbar want foreign investors. They want jobs. After 2003, we had conflict with the US and other countries. We felt they took our country. Now we want joint ventures, we want partnerships, we want economic relationships, he said, adding that Anbar has many projects to invest in gas, phosphates, cement, the highway and agriculture around the [Euphrates] river. He said the UN Development Program "has a budget of $90 million for the area. They told me by letter and we have many details and they got financing for $28 million but so far they havent spent more than $5 million, he said, despite his having spoken to them several times. But there needs to be normality, he said. I would like to see the police on the ground and the army on the bases, not at the checkpoints. This is the normal situation. Police on the ground and the army and special forces behind, he stressed, and not a plurality of forces that cannot effectively communicate with one another. In a toast at a Zionist Camp party ahead of the Jewish new year, Avi Gabbay stood on stage and announced that he will be the next prime minister of Israel, when just a minute earlier, we heard that a poll gave the Zionist Camp 11 seats." A Labor Knesset member told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "It was ridiculous. It was so detached from reality. The Sept. 5 event in Tel Aviv was supposed to be a festive occasion, but he described the mood as gloomy. Gabbay, the chairman of the Zionist Camp, delivered a long speech, full of praise for a party on the rise. He spoke of a grass-roots mobilization on the partys behalf and how before they knew it, he would be prime minister. The fact is that the state of the Zionist Camp could not be any worse. Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud is strong and stable. The second largest party, according to the polls, is Yair Lapids Yesh Atid, which is competing with Labor for the same voter base. While the Zionist Camp currently has 24 seats in the Knesset and is therefore the main opposition party, the political system has long treated it as a mid-sized party, if not smaller. Gabbay is the last thing to concern Netanyahu, laughed another Zionist Camp Knesset member in a conversation with Al-Monitor. Netanyahu is not even making any effort to defeat him. After all, Gabbay isnt taking anything away from the Likud. The Labor party constitutes the bigger partner within the Zionist Camp alliance, so ominous polls affect Labor Knesset members more dramatically. Low numbers in the election would mean that most of the Labor Knesset members wont keep their jobs. And so, they are already looking into ways to save their party from Gabbay at least thats what they call it. The idea of splitting the party is problematic. As one Knesset member who was exposed to the plan explained, Weve been through hard times before, but weve never been through anything like this. The predominant feeling is that someone took our party away from us. He came from outside the party and robbed us, plain and simple. If I thought that splitting the party would save us, I would go for it, but it could also bury us with the public. Following Gabbay's election as chair in July 2017, the traditional Israeli Labor its spirit, its institutions, its drive effectively ceased to exist. Gabbay is either feuding or on bad terms with most members, and his relationship with the partys chapters and base is shaky and detached. In any case, Gabbay continues to crash in the polls and is taking the party down with him. Weve been taken captive, one senior Labor Knesset member told Al-Monitor. Labor chose Gabbay, an otherwise anonymous figure who did not grow up in Labor, in an act of desperation after repeated electoral defeats. Too late, they realized that they had voted for a hostile takeover, as the anonymous lawmaker called it. A significant number of Labor Knesset members who spoke to Al-Monitor for this article on condition of anonymity claim that the current state of the party is the worst that it has ever been. Weve been taken over by a virus. Thats how I feel, said one. We elected someone because we thought he would he would restore our status as a viable alternative. We took a gamble and lost big. We are heading down a slope, and the question now is how much damage Gabbay will leave behind, and if we will manage to recover from this. Its not like he changed the partys DNA. Hes just taking it apart. So far, not a single Labor Knesset member has directly confronted Gabbay, each for his or her own personal reasons. Nevertheless, it is impossible to hide the unrest in the party anymore. The bubbling pressure cooker exploded on Sept. 4 during a birthday party for Knesset member Leah Fadida. At some point, an argument broke out between Avi Gabbay and Yossi Yonah over the six seats that were promised to Tzipi Livni, chair of Hatnua (the smaller partner within the Zionist Camp alliance) as part of the agreement she made with Gabbay that led to her appointment as opposition leader. These seats are in addition to the four seats reserved for Gabbay appointees according to the party constitution. Notably, the constitution was amended to include those seats at Gabbays request. What this means is that there is almost no chance for Labor representatives in the current Knesset to get elected to the next government while the polls continue to give the party 11 seats. Back to the birthday party: Yonah made a comment about this problem, and it infuriated Gabbay. According to people present, he lost control and started to shout: Ill do what I want! Yonah responded by calling Gabbay a bully. This wasnt just an internal feud. Yonah was one of Gabbays earliest supporters in the party. He helped Gabbay in his primary victory over Amir Peretz for the party's leadership, putting his own team at Gabbays disposal. Now he feels cheated. Yonah isnt the only Knesset member who supported Gabbay and now seems to regret it. One of the most important and most senior Knesset members to make the switch is Eitan Cabel. According to some senior Labor members, he is now a prime candidate to raise the banner of revolt. So far, however, even those who want to act havent come up with an effective plan. Also in that group of veteran Knesset members is Shelly Yachimovich, a former chair. She once covered Gabbays back, though their relationship has cooled recently. Yachimovich still supports Gabbay publicly. In closed-door conversations she says that despite any criticism she may have of him, she will not participate in any actions against him. A closer look at the situation seems to show that Gabbay has no reason to worry about a split. It doesnt look like there is anyone who can pull it off. But that does not change Gabbays standing in the polls or in the party, for that matter. Though Knesset members join him on visits to the local chapters and party offices and make a point of showing that it is business as usual, the fact is that none of them really feels that the party has a leader with whom they can storm the barricades in the next election. Were depressed. Its true, yet another lawmaker said in a moment of openness. Were all tense and suspicious of one another, because we realize that were going to crash in the elections unless a miracle happens. ALEPPO Mareas local council in the opposition-controlled Euphrates Shield area in the northern countryside of Aleppo has started a training program to help young men and women find employment opportunities in various fields. The project, announced Aug. 16, enjoys the support of the nongovernmental organization Orange and the Turkish Ministry of Education. Trainers program will be provided by Orange as well as the local councils education center in Marea. They are to be paid by Orange. Registration for the free training courses ran Aug. 16-28 at the headquarters of the Marea local councils education center. The training officially started at the same location on Sept. 2. Courses in solar panel installation, management skills and graphic design were the first to start, and other courses will begin in the coming days. Local councils in the Euphrates Shield area opened education centers in early July with the support of the Turkish government. Similar education centers also exist in Turkey. Ankara wishes to do the same in the Euphrates Shield area, where it has major influence, to fight unemployment and provide trained staff. Services provided by Turkish-supported local councils have already improved significantly in the area. Most of the trainees, 100 women and 75 men, have not finished high school. Head of Marea local councils education center Assem al-Saleh told Al-Monitor that the training program includes 48-day courses in graphic design, operating heavy machinery and management as well as 24-day courses in solar panel installation, pastry making and sewing. Saleh added, The training courses will be divided into a section for women and another for men. Women will receive training courses in sewing and pastry making, while the remaining fields will be restricted to men. Those wishing to participate need to meet certain criteria. They need to reside in Marea, whether they are locals or displaced persons from other Syrian areas. They need to be between the ages of 18 and 35 and have not participated in other training courses over the past year. Saleh noted, The training project came to light thanks to cooperation between our education center, Orange and Kilis education directorate. The project aims to empower unemployed youth and qualify them to find work. The trainees will be issued a certificate by Kilis education directorate. He pointed out, Four hours of training will be provided every day for the various programs and regular attendees will be granted transportation fees. Orange will grant top-ranking trainees proper equipment for each profession. Head of Qabasins education center Amer Maamo told Al-Monitor, The goal of establishing education centers is to rehabilitate young men and women who have not been able to continue their education due to the ongoing war and displacement. The centers will provide them with an opportunity to make their way into the labor market and escape unemployment through these training courses. Al-Monitor visited Mareas education center, which is located near the court building in the citys northern district, in prefabricated halls provided by Turkey. Sewing instructor Nisreen Mohammed told Al-Monitor, I offer my expertise to women wishing to learn how to sew. I have 25 women in my class. Some are married, others are single, but all of them want to learn and work so they can help support their families. Mahmoud Safi, 24, who is attending the solar panel installation training course in Marea, told Al-Monitor, I think this is an excellent profession and I believe I will find a good job once Im done with the training because many residents in the area are looking to install solar panels to get electricity. Safi is currently unemployed. He used to work in agriculture but it is no longer enough to support his family and he needs to acquire new skills, he said. A church that's older than Alabama will be celebrating its bicentennial this weekend. Jefferson County's oldest continuous church, Canaan Baptist Church on Morgan Road in Bessemer, will celebrate its 200th anniversary on Sunday at the 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. services. A covered-dish lunch reception will follow. "We're celebrating God's generosity to the generations that preceded us," said the Rev. Morgan Bailey, pastor since 2006. "God's blessed us." Canaan Baptist Church was organized on Sept. 5, 1818, the year before Alabama became a state, and in its early years provided seating for slaves of members. Slaves sat in the balcony during worship services. That practice ended with the emancipation of slaves. "At the time, most blacks worshipped in white churches," said Dr. Wilson Fallin, professor of history at the University of Montevallo. "The abolitionist movement in the north caused Southern whites to say that slavery was ordained by God to evangelize the slaves, so slaves were increasingly brought into white churches." The interracial services at pre-Civil War churches usually had barriers or seating arrangements based on race, with blacks being seated in balconies, behind a railing, or in an annex, Fallin said. "But black members were still members of the church," Fallin said. Blacks seldom were allowed to start their own churches during slavery because of fear of slave revolts; their worship services were usually supervised by whites who made sure that the sermon topics were not controversial. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the church started Canaan No. 2 in Bessemer as a place of worship for the former slaves. In 1888, Canaan No. 2 moved to its present location at 804 15th St. in Bessemer and played an active rule during the civil rights movement. Old Canaan and Canaan No. 2 have held joint programs and services, such as for the 150th anniversary of Canaan No. 2 celebrated in 2015-16. The original Canaan Baptist Church in Bessemer organized on Sept. 5, 1818, and helped plant many area churches and played a role in organizing Baptist associational work in the area. This historical marker explains some of the history of Canaan Baptist Church in Bessemer. In 1833, 10 churches met at the church to form the Canaan Baptist Association, which later became the Birmingham Baptist Association. The Bessemer Association formed in 1946. The Rev. Hosea Holcombe joined Canaan Church in 1821, became the pastor in 1822 and served for 18 years, the longest tenure in the church's history. Holcombe was an important figure in early Baptist work in the Birmingham area, starting the now-defunct Ruhama Baptist Church in East Lake in March 1819 and Mt. Hebron Baptist Church of Leeds in September 1819. Canaan No. 1 baptized its members in Shades Creek until the completion of its building in 1968 that had an indoor baptistry. Canaan Baptist Church has about 1,200 members on roll, about 800 to 900 of them resident members, Bailey said. The church has average attendance of about 400 on Sundays. In 2007, the church added a $3 million multi-purpose children's building to help expand ministry to youth. "It's harder than ever to do church in our culture," Bailey said. But more than 100 members go on mission trips each year, including two trips a year to a daughter church in Guatemala founded in 2010. Members helped build a sanctuary for the church in Guatemala. "Our folks have a heart for missions," Bailey said. One of the features at Sunday's celebration will be a hallway highlighting 200 years of history. Former members and staff have been invited to the program, along with various civic dignitaries. "There are a handful of Baptist churches that are older than the state," Bailey said. More than two dozen UAB Hospital pediatric interns were on a bus that crashed Friday in Winston County. Alabama State Troopers said the crash happened at 12:12 p.m. It was a single-vehicle crash on Valley Drive in Winston County, near Arley. The bus traveled down a steep hill, through an intersection, struck a large rock, then a tree, said Trooper Cpl. Mark Stone. UAB spokesman Tyler Greer said that 26 employees plus the bus driver were involved in the crash. The bus involved is a Blazer Express vehicle operated by transportation partner First Transit, and those on board are pediatric interns. Those not transported suffered minor injures, Greer said. There were 11 injured passengers transported from the scene. Seven passengers were transported to UAB Hospital in Birmingham, two with serious injuries, and four were transported to Cullman Regional Medical Center in Cullman. Dr Jeff Kerby, UAB's trauma director, said at a press conference late Friday afternoon there are no life-threatening injuries. Of the seven initially brought to UAB, Kerby said, five were at first believed to have very serious injuries. Some will require surgery but all are awake, talking and expected to recover. Kerby said the injuries include orthopedic and neurological issues. Later Friday, 16 more of the interns arrived at the hospital, mostly by private vehicle, to be evaluated. "As much of a tragedy as this is, we are certainly fortunate it wasn't even more serious," Kerby said. Eric Pendley, director of operations for Regional Paramedical Services, said there was a massive response to the scene. RPS sent 10 ambulances, Cullman EMS sent four ambulances and there were two life-flight helicopters. He said the two patients transported by helicopter to UAB were critical. The group was returning from a retreat at Camp McDowell. Dr. Mitch Cohen, the chair of pediatrics, said interns are first-year residents. The retreat, he said, is an annual event where the interns bond with each other and study leadership skills. The group had finished the retreat and was heading to spend the afternoon at the lake house of the pediatric residency program director. Dr. Selwyn Vickers, dean of UAB's Medical School, said they prepare for such mass casualty incidents but never expect it to hit this close to home with their colleagues and trainees. "We care about them and are concerned for their families," Vickers said. We have a lot of work to do to get them healed." Kerby said there were a few hectic moments. "Anytime there is a situation like this it is chaotic," he said. "When you arrive, you don't know what your injuries are so some of what we do is try to reassure them and let them know what is going on with their condition." At 11:30 p.m., UAB released an updated statement regarding the injured saying that a total of 23 patients had been treated there, including two transferred from Cullman Regional. Of the injured, 16 were treated and now released. The conditions of those still hospitalized ranges from good to serious. UAB officials referred all questions about the crash itself to state troopers. Troopers have not released any updated information. Some family members were arriving at the hospital to check on their loved ones. Kathy Crocker and her husband drove to Birmingham this afternoon from Dothan after getting the call their daughter Laura was injured in the bus crash. "It was very upsetting," she said, of the phone call, adding she was told the brakes went out on the bus. Crocker said her daughter, a pediatric intern, broke her arm in the crash. She said Laura sounded upbeat on the phone but was worried about her friends. Efforts to reach a spokesperson at First Transit Inc. about the claim the bus brakes went out were unsuccessful late Friday. Al.com reporter Erin Edgemon contributed to this report Brandon Lee Wilson Authorities have now identified a man who was shot to death in west Birmingham earlier this week. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Brandon Lee Wilson. He was 30 and lived in McCalla. The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. Wednesday in the 5100 block of Jenkins Street in Roosevelt City. Police said a resident in the area heard shots fired and then saw an SUV had crashed into a tree in the front yard of a home. Once police arrived on the scene, they found Wilson in the driver's seat. Birmingham Fire and Rescue pronounced him dead on the scene. Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said Friday that Wilson died from the gunshot wound, not injuries sustained in the crash. Wilson was the father of a young daughter he cherished, friends said. He worked as a mechanic and tow truck operator. "Brandon was a caring loving man.He would go out of his way to help others,'' said friend Wes Passmore. "He was a family man who loved his daughter, mother and two sisters. He will be missed by many." Police have not announced any arrests nor released any additional information about what led up to the shooting. Anyone with information in Wilson's death is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. A Center Point man has been arrested in the strong-arm robbery of an 85-year-old victim. The holdup happened Tuesday in the 1600 block of First Street N.E. Chief Deputy Randy Christian said the elderly man told deputies that as he was getting into his car, he was approached by a man who demanded his wallet. The suspect took the wallet by force, pushed the victim to the ground and then fled on foot. The victim was not seriously injured. Deputies checked the surveillance cameras from nearby businesses and identified the suspect as 49-year-old Dexter Keith Brock. When they found Brock at his apartment on Wednesday and questioned him, he admitted to taking the man's wallet. Brock is charged with third-degree robbery. He is out of jail on $5,000 bond. Supporters of Sen. Doug Jones, who oppose the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, rallied across the street from a pro-Kavanaugh rally in Huntsville on Sept. 7, 2018. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com) The target audience of one was about 700 miles away Friday from the rally in downtown Huntsville. But the message will travel to the office of U.S. Sen. Doug Jones in Washington, the message of the rally with bright yellow placards bearing the social media hashtag #ConfirmKavanaugh. Even as Senate hearings were ongoing Friday about Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, pro-Kavanaugh and anti-Kavanaugh Alabamians gathered on the sidewalks in downtown Huntsville - on opposite sides of the street, of course - to make their case. About 25 people rallied for each side, the pro-Kavanaugh crowd at a press conference organized by the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List and the anti-Kavanaugh protesting on the south side of Clinton Avenue and urging Jones not to back Kavanaugh. All the while, Jones was in Washington while the rallies took place outside the high-rise building that houses the senator's Huntsville office. "We understand he's not in his office but I know he's still hearing about what's going on," said state Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, who spoke at the rally. Across the street, Jones' supporters wanted their message heard, too. They chanted and chastised the pro-Kavanaugh crowd to the point that their message was almost drowning out the words of their opponents. This, of course, came as great satisfaction to the Jones crowd. "Usually they suck up all the oxygen in the room," said Cindy Allen, one of the anti-Kavanaugh rally organizers. "So if we did just one time..." But of all the voices spoken and all the messages sent, were they received? Was this an exercise in futility for both sides or could it really make a difference? "Absolutely would have noticed it," said Marilyn Musgrave, vice president of government affairs for the Susan B. Anthony List. Musgrave spoke from the perspective of having once been a Washington politician herself, having served three terms in Congress from Colorado from 2003-2009. The Susan B. Anthony List has also held rallies in Montgomery, Birmingham and Mobile as part of a seven-state, 32-stop effort to see Kavanaugh confirmed. "And especially when it's the folks, not a rent-a-mob," she said. "It's your constituents who show up. When people call those offices, whether it's offices in the state or the office in Washington D.C., they pay attention. And their staff, it's their job to let you know what's happened at the end of each day. It's very important to communicate. To be here today in front of this office and let him know - it will be in the news - he's getting a clear message." Jones is getting swamped with messages, in fact. The senator's office told AL.com that he has received more than 10,000 pieces of communication - whether through letters, emails or phone calls. And that's not including social media comments. That number is expected to only increase as the Kavanaugh confirmation process continues. The thrust of the Susan B. Anthony List message on Friday concerned the issue of abortion. "It's so important because senators have staff and they are in the state around the state," Musgrave said. "Their job is to connect with constituents and hear their concerns. Today has been very clear from a number of people what their concerns are. They want confirmation of Kavanaugh. Across the street, there are folks giving him another message." It might be easy to describe Jones as being in a bind. He's a Democrat in a Republican-leaning state whose polls show a strong adoration for Trump. To vote against the president's nominee for the Supreme Court could potentially be political suicide for Jones. Democratic leaders in Congress, however, have expressed contempt for Kavanaugh. Jones has given no indication of which way he is leaning on his Kavanaugh vote, though he said late last month that Republicans should "push a pause button" on the nomination process. "You have to appreciate the tough spot he's in as a Democrat," Musgrave said. "He'll have to decide to stand with (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer and (former Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi and the extreme abortion lobby because they've made this all about Roe v. Wade. "Alabama is a pro-life state. So I think (Jones) voted wrong (in opposing the) Unborn Child Pain Capable Act. Many people who call themselves pro-choice still thinks there ought to be restrictions on abortion, especially late-term abortion." That's one message. The other message from across the street is that Kavanaugh's confirmation goes beyond the single issue of abortion. Those encouraging Jones to vote against Kavanaugh point to the fact that they put his signs in their yards and knocked on doors across Alabama on his behalf. "We are his base that got him in office," said Susan Kirkpatrick. "We appreciate and understand that he represents the entire state. And he has to do that. But we certainly want our voice to be heard. We feel like the pro-life community is a minority community, just a very vocal and well-organized one." Alabama has the seventh lowest landfill tipping fees in the country and Mississippi is now the cheapest state in the country to bury trash, according to a recent report by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation. The authors collected data from 397 landfills across the United States, comparing the amounts each facility charged to accept household garbage, and calculating statewide averages. Mississippi had the lowest average tipping fees, charging on average $24.75 per ton for municipal solid waste. Alabama had the seventh lowest average fees at $33.49, ahead of Mississippi, Louisiana ($29.21), Utah ($30.19), Arkansas ($30.41), Kentucky ($31.47) and Montana ($32.06). The fees vary widely by region, with the Southeast and South Central regions among the least expensive places for landfills. The national average fee was $55.11. Alaska had the highest average fee at $151.19, followed by Hawaii at $96.33. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, New Jersey each had fees higher than $80 per ton. Connecticut was not included in the data, because the authors said they were unable to find any active landfills in the state. The full report is available on the EREF web site. Alabama makes changes Ten years ago, Alabama had by some estimates the lowest landfill tipping fees in the nation, leading to widespread concerns that the state was becoming a dumping ground for other states' refuse as multiple large landfills began springing up around the state. Since then, Alabama has enacted major changes to the way landfills work in the state. In 2008, the Legislature passed a law implementing a $1 per ton solid waste disposal fee that funds some land division programs at the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. In 2011, then-Gov. Robert Bentley ordered a moratorium to the permitting of new landfills, while a task force examined the issues. The bill recommended by that task force was signed into law in 2017 by Gov. Kay Ivey, increasing public notification requirements for new landfills, and ending a controversial practice of default approval, by which landfill permits were granted approval unless expressly voted down by county or municipal governments. The practice in theory could have allowed local officials to avoid controversial landfill votes, although members of the task force said no landfills in Alabama had been approved that way. A Morgan County teenager has been indicted on a murder charge for the killing of his mother, who died in a fire at their mobile home. Nicholas Lamons is charged in his mother's fire death. Nicholas Lamons, 16, remains in the Morgan County jail with bail set at $500,000. The teen was first arrested two days after the April 17 fire that killed his 32-year-old mother Kimberly Faye Lamons. Sheriff's deputies and firefighters responded to the family's mobile home on Alabama 67 in Joppa before 2 a.m. that Tuesday morning. Investigators said they later found Nicholas Lamons sleeping in the family's van in nearby Somerville. "Nicholas was questioned and admitted that he had started a fire in his bedroom prior to leaving the residence," Investigator Jeff Reynolds wrote in court papers. "Nicholas also stated that he came back by the house a short time later and saw the trailer burning but did not make an effort to notify anyone." The indictment accuses Nicholas Lamons of intentionally starting the fire and recklessly causing his mother's death. Defense attorney Robert Norman has asked for a bond reduction, writing in court records that his client can't afford $500,000 bail. The motion says Nicholas Lamons' family is willing to post his bail if it's lowered. Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson set a bond hearing for Monday at 9 a.m. A grand jury issues an indictment, which is a formal notice of criminal charges, if the jurors determine there is probable cause to send the case to trial. A trial date hasn't yet been set for Lamons. Beatrice Elachi was on Thursday ousted as the Nairobi County Assembly Speaker. Elachi was impeached after 103 members of the assembly on Thursday evening voted in favour of the impeachment, thereby achieving the two-thirds majority required. Two members voted no and two others abstained. According to Elachi, the MCAs were pressured to sign a petition for her impeachment. She alleges the ward reps were threatened that they would miss trips, be de-whipped or removed from committees. Speaking on Thursday in Malindi, Elachi denied allegations that she has an interest in tenders at City Hall. I sit on the County Assembly Public Service Board with both the leaders of majority and minority leader. If I was doing those deals, then I was doing with them. Who will be foolish to do so? Elachi posed. She further dismissed claims that she wrote to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate 19 members of the Labour Committee over alleged corruption. I know they are frustrated. They have loans, have not received their salaries but we cannot vent frustration this way. I want to plead with the members to look at the countrys financial situation, and the situation right now is that we do not have resources, she said. The MCAs removed her for causing great embarrassment to the county assembly. In a motion by Waithaka MCA Antony Kiragu on Thursday, Elachi was accused of gross misconduct. Her actions and omissions have caused embarrassment and brought the office of the speaker into disrepute, this assembly resolves to sanction, Kiragu said. In the motion, the MCAs want Elachi removed as a holder of the office of the speaker of the county on the following grounds; Conflict of interest, Undermining the Authority of the County Assembly Board, Abuse of Office/Gross misconduct, and Failure to show leadership. But hours after her ouster, Elachi obtained temporary orders suspending her impeachment. Through her lawyer, James Macharia Mwangi, Elachi argued before the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi that the impeachment was irrational. Justice Maureen Onyango certified the matter urgent and issued a conservatory order stopping the Assembly from removing her from office as speaker or appointing a new nominee until all the parties are heard. The respondents, their agents and/or persons acting under their direction are hereby restrained from interfering with the petitioners execution of the duties of her office as Speaker pending the inter partes hearing of this application, read in part the Court order. The case will be heard on Tuesday September 11, 2018. Alabama students using tax credit scholarships are performing about the same on standardized tests as their public school counterparts according to the latest report required under the Alabama Accountability Act. And that means proficiency levels are generally low, not only for scholarship recipients but also public school students, which isn't news to anyone who follows test score results. The report, posted on the Alabama Department of Revenue's website Friday afternoon, uses 2016-2017 test data, and was prepared by the University of Alabama's Institute for Social Science Research at a cost of $112,800, paid for by the scholarship granting organizations who collect donations and distribute scholarships to eligible students. The Alabama Accountability Act, originally passed by lawmakers in 2013, allows taxpayers to donate to scholarship granting organizations, known as SGOs, who then distribute scholarships to low-income students in Kindergarten through 12th grade to use in participating non-public and public schools. Donors can count the contribution as a credit against their Alabama income tax liability. Critics claim those tax credits represent tax revenue that could be used to support public schools while supporters claim the scholarships allow families an educational option beyond what is offered in their neighborhood public school. Students using tax credit scholarships must take standardized tests in English language arts and math. Scholarship students must take the ACT college entrance exam before they graduate. Those test results must be sent to the SGOs by each school. SGOs are then required to send results to the organization compiling the report. The Alabama Department of Revenue oversees the administration of the Alabama Accountability Act. According to the authors, the report has three objectives: for students receiving scholarships, describe achievement levels, compare learning gains to public school students, and assess achievement changes over time. In each area, scholarship recipients performed about the same as their public school counterparts. "On average, over time," the report states, "participating in the scholarship program was not associated with significant improvement on standardized test scores." Additionally, the report states, "The overall lack of change over time follows the same pattern seen in public school students in Alabama and is likely not attributable to participation in the scholarship program." Authors note that the most accurate way to determine the effects the AAA scholarship program may have on student achievement would be to "compare scholarship students' performance to the performance of students in the public school for which they were zoned, rather than aggregating across all schools in the state." However, they also note that information is not collected at the state level and it would be "time intensive and costly." According to the report, test results were obtained for 1,991 scholarship recipients attending 114 schools in 43 counties statewide. Those results represent three-quarters of the students that were required to be tested, according to the report. While more than 4,000 students received scholarships during that school year, only students in third through eighth and 10th grade and also in 11th grade were required to be tested. The authors cautioned against generalizing the results to the larger group of scholarship students because results for the 1,991 students might not be representative of the larger group. The report indicates the following about the students who were tested: 15 percent were first-time scholarship recipients, 11 percent were two-time recipients, 51 percent were three-time recipients, 22 percent were in their fourth year 90 percent were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, a measure that is used to indicate poverty, 34 percent were zoned to attend a failing public school, 62 percent of students are black, 20 percent are white, and 11 percent are Hispanic. The report lists several challenges researchers faced in compiling and comparing the results. A total of 21 different tests were used for scholarship recipients in 149 different schools. Because the number of students taking some of the tests was so small, 14 types of tests were eliminated from the report. Ultimately, researchers used results from seven tests. The breakdown, shown below, is in Table 1 from the report. Alabama's public school students took the ACT Aspire during the 2016-2017 school year, but changed tests for the 2017-2018 school year and are expected to change again for the 2019-2020 school year. Only 331 of the scholarship recipients took the ACT Aspire, leaving a small group that authors note may not be representative of the scholarship recipients as a whole. Another challenge mentioned is that not only are the tests different in name, but they measure different things. Norm-referenced tests, like the Stanford Achievement Test, measure how students perform compared to other students. Criterion-referenced tests, like the ACT Aspire, measure the percentage of students who reach proficiency. The authors go into detail about the performance of students on various tests but run into problems breaking down results by race, income level, and gender because of the small numbers of students within those groups. The first report, published in September 2016 using test results from the 2014-2015 school year, found similar test results between scholarship students and public school students. In that 2016 report, test results for 970 scholarship students were obtained, which represented 52 percent of the students in the grades that were required to be tested. Alabama Accountability Act - Academic results for the 2016-2017 school year by Trisha Powell Crain on Scribd Instead of filing a lawsuit, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is dropping one. Moore's attorney filed a motion on Friday morning seeking to dismiss a lawsuit brought in July by the former U.S. Senate candidate against several people and political action committees related to the final weeks of the Senate campaign. That's when Moore was fighting accusations of making unwanted sexual or romantic overtures from women when they were in their teens and he was in his 30s. Moore has repeatedly denied the accusations in public statements and court filings. Moore is involved in four other lawsuits connected to the Senate campaign - three of which he has filed himself. The motion to dismiss provides no insight into why Moore and his wife, Kayla, are asking the judge to drop the case. The Moores "hereby voluntarily dismiss this action against all defendants without prejudice," the motion said. Moore attorney Melissa Isaak did not immediately respond to a phone message and email from AL.com seeking comment on the case. The defendants named in the lawsuit included four men who worked with Longleaf Strategies of Montgomery, Highway 31 Super Pac and Bully Pulpit Interactive, Waterfront Strategies and Priorities USA, Washington, D.C.-based entities the suit says worked with Highway 31. Those entities were also named as defendants. Those men are Adam Muhlendorf, Edward Still, Jim Margolis and Josh Schewrin. Moore's motion to dismiss includes all defendants. The fact that the motion to dismiss asked for the case to be dropped "without prejudice" means that Moore could re-file it. Had the case been dropped "with prejudice," there would be no opportunity to bring it back at a later date. The lawsuit said the defendants ran or contributed to misleading and defamatory commercials related to allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore going back almost 40 years. The suit lays out what it says were television, radio, digital and mail ads which made allegations the Moores say led to his defeat in the special Senate election last Dec. 12. As of Friday afternoon, presiding Judge Albert L. Johnson had not issued a ruling on the motion. AL.com reporter William Thornton contributed to this report. After AL.com published a story on how doctors are disciplined in Alabama, readers wanted to know whether there were any plans to expand how much information the state makes available on Alabama doctors. Right now, Alabama is in the minority of states that does not publish things like a doctor's criminal convictions, hospital disciplinary actions and malpractice suit information in the doctor's public profile. And recent high-profile cases of doctor misconduct have pushed the discipline issue into the spotlight. AL.com spoke with stakeholders to get a sense of whether change is coming. In some cases, it might be. Changes Wilson Hunter, the Board's general counsel and spokesperson, told AL.com that the Board has been looking at including more information in the searchable doctor profiles on the Board's website. "It is my understanding that we are in the process of revamping the website, and the last version I saw had an expanded section for providing more information to both the public and the press," he said. In particular, he said, the Board is "investigating and planning to propose ways to better disseminate information regarding restrictions placed on doctors by the Board." Right now, if the Board or a rehabilitation program has disciplined a doctor by restricting how he can practice - such as requiring him to have a chaperone present when examining patients - patients may not know about those restrictions. "We are also putting the finishing touches on an internal policy proposal that will recommend significant changes to the way we disseminate information to the public," said Hunter. What it would take When the Board officially disciplines a doctor, that's public information. Legal documents related to that discipline are available on the Board's website. But doctors can avoid official discipline by entering a confidential treatment program like the Alabama Physician Program and, in some cases, continue to practice while in treatment. It's unlikely the public would know if a doctor has gone into an intervention program for behavior problems or substance abuse. "Multiple levels of privacy laws and regulations, including federal laws and regulations, control the disclosure of this information," said Hunter. "Changes in this realm would require the assent of multiple stakeholders." If a doctor is disciplined by a medical board in another state, that may be public but, said Hunter, "The difficult logistics of aggregating the data from other states, naturally, would present an issue." In other words, to put it on the Board's website could be costly or labor-intensive to gather and organize. "Whether or not to make the Board a clearinghouse for all physician-related information has not been discussed at this time," he said. Legislative action Sen. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, is a retired optometrist and chairs the Alabama Senate Health and Human Services Committee. He said the issue of improved patient access to doctor information hadn't been on his radar until reading the AL.com story that published late last month. "As a legislator, I'd like for our constituents and patients to have easy access to information that affects their health," he said. "Not too many years ago we had a lot of people frustrated with the (Alabama) legislature's website. It was revamped a few years ago and now appears to be easier to use." McClendon said he'd prefer to address issues by first approaching the Board of Medical Examiners, rather than jumping on legislation. "If there are some shortcomings, particularly when you compare citizens' (access to information) in surrounding states," he said, "the Board of Medical Examiners would look at that and formulate regulations that might bring us into alignment with other states." Following the numbers In the first seven months of 2018, the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission already issued more disciplinary measures than in all of the previous year, according to a review of the public files available on the agency's website. To know how many complaints turn into investigations, and how many of those result in badly behaving doctors being disciplined, let's look at 2016 numbers. The Board of Medical Examiners received 303 complaints against doctors in 2016, according to its annual report. Complaints can come from patients, other doctors, hospitals and people in the community. They can be about anything, from serious charges like sexual assault, to the relatively mundane, like not having enough continuing education credits. About 44 percent of all complaints in 2016 were resolved with no formal investigation. About 44 percent of complaints led to formal investigations. And out of those investigations, the Medical Licensure Commission took 74 disciplinary actions against doctors. Discipline ran the gamut from minor fines all the way to revoking licenses. Only 23 resulted in serious discipline. Here's a quick breakdown of the most serious: - Seven doctors entered the diversionary Alabama Physicians Health Program, a confidential program where doctors can be treated and monitored without the public's knowledge - One doctor's license was suspended by the Medical Licensure Commission - Seven doctors voluntarily surrendered their licenses. - Eight doctors were forced to surrender their licenses. So to recap, out of about 300 complaints filed in 2016 - plus a few extra carried over from previous years - 23 resulted in serious disciplinary measures. A Fairhope man is dead after a crash in Wyoming Tuesday, and his passenger was seriously injured. Donald Price, of Saratoga, was headed north on Wyoming Highway 130 around 4:35 p.m. Tuesday when he tried to pass a pickup truck and trailer. When he went around the vehicles, he collided with an oncoming pickup, according to KGAB. The station reported that the oncoming pickup then caught fire. Price died from his injuries at a local hospital. The driver of the oncoming pickup has been identified as 71-year-old Christopher Leigh, of Fairhope. He was pronounced dead at the scene, KGAB reported. The passenger in his car was injured and taken to a nearby hospital. Troopers told the station that all three people were wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash, and had to be extricated from their vehicles. Embattled U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spent some time on familiar and friendly ground Friday as he dedicated a new federal courthouse in Mobile, Alabama. Sessions' tenure as attorney general has been marked by a tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump, who appointed him. On Friday, all Sessions had to say about the president was that he liked his taste in judicial nominees, including the one whose nomination for a Supreme Court seat has sparked heated opposition. For the most part, Friday's ceremony took Sessions back to a happier time: The new building replaces one in which he prosecuted cases as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, and he said it was good to be home. "I can tell you after all my adventures that there's nothing I've been more proud of than serving in that United States attorney's office," said Sessions, who went on to become a U.S. senator before becoming attorney general. "We practiced every day before great federal judges. We took on corruption, fraud schemes, tons of drugs and violent criminals, and it was a glorious time. I refer to it as the 'Camelot' days. And so many of the people in this room were part of that." Mobile's new federal courthouse was dedicated on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com) It was a celebratory occasion and all the speakers were well received, including Chief U.S. District Court Judge Kristi K. DuBose, who had oversight of the project, and senators Richard Shelby and Doug Jones. But the ovations for Sessions were conspicuously warm and long, both before and after his remarks. Sessions has been at the nexus of Washington turmoil virtually his whole time as attorney general, and the controversies have intensified in recent months. Talk has abounded that President Donald Trump could fire Sessions after midterm elections; a book by Bob Woodward describes Trump as regularly insulting and belittling his attorney general; and Sessions has even been listed among possible authors of a New York Times op-ed in which an anonymous administration official wrote that he and others actively work to thwart the president's more problematic impulses. Sessions has denied it, and Trump has said he wants Sessions to investigate the author's identity. Sessions didn't touch on any of that overtly, instead focusing on the function of the new courthouse. "What is this day all about?" he said. "We are dedicating not just a structure, but our goal is to build on the unsurpassed legal heritage we have in this country. ... The rule of law, despite some of the comments you might hear in Washington -- we had to have a debate for a year or two about it, I think our side won, at least temporarily -- the rule of law is not about ideology. Ideology is not law. Whatever it is, it's more akin to politics but it's not law. It's an opposite of law, really. So that's why we celebrate judges who honor their oath to serve under the constitution." Sessions went on to praise Trump for the judges he's nominated, including current Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Sessions said Kavanaugh and others "symbolize qualities of integrity, legal skill and judicial restraint." Shelby, credited by Sessions and many others for his role in securing funding for the courthouse, said it was long overdue. "My gosh, the building next door is even older than some of us," he said, making light of his senior status. Jones, who took office last year, said he had relatively little to do with the development of the new building. But he said that as a former U.S. attorney himself, he knew that "what happens in these buildings is incredibly important." U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, center, warmly greets Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones after Jones' remarks at the dedication of a new federal courthouse in Mobile. At right is U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, who also spoke. (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com) Jones said such buildings symbolize the nation's commitment to justice, "where we recognize the independence of the judiciary, we recognize the importance of an independent Department of Justice." Afterward, Jones said that remark wasn't specifically about any pressure Trump might have put on Sessions or others at the Department of Justice. Sessions' decision to recuse himself from an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has been a particular sore point for Trump. "I wanted to make sure people understood ... I believe an independent Justice Department is vital to the justice system in this country, and I think that Attorney General Sessions has done absolutely the right thing with regard to everything he's been involved in," Jones said. "We disagree with a number of things, both political and in policies with the Justice Department, but I will tell you I've known him for a long, long time and he is dedicated to the Department of Justice, he is dedicated to the independence of that Department of Justice, and he will defend it to the hilt. And for that I am very very appreciative." Sessions, unlike Jones and Shelby, did not take questions from media after the ceremony. Asked about Trump's treatment of Sessions, Shelby said that he and Sessions were friends and had worked closely together for years. Woodward's book describes incidents in which Trump attacked Session's intelligence, his legal competence and even his Southern accent. Shelby offered an endorsement that seemed tailored as a direct response. "He's a man of integrity, he's well educated, he's a smart guy, he was a good lawyer, he was a good prosecutor, he was a good senator. And I know that he and the president have a strained relationship, I wish it were not so. But Sessions is a good man." "I think he should stay" as attorney general, Shelby said. "But that's not my job. He doesn't work for me. I'm very proud of him." The dedication of the courthouse, while a major milestone, doesn't reflect the end of the process. The $89 million contract, awarded in April 2015, covers the construction of the new building as well as the renovation of the older John Archibald Campbell Courthouse, built in 1932. That work will come after court employees and the U.S. Marshals Service move into the new building. According to information previously released by the General Services Administration, the new building, at 155,600 square feet, will house six courtrooms and nine chambers and features "a limestone facade sourced from Russellville, Ala." According to the GSA, "the new courthouse will house the U.S. District Court, U.S. Magistrate Court, U.S. District Clerk of Court and U.S. Marshals Service." The older building eventually will house "the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Court, U.S. District Clerk of Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Clerk of Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Administrator, U.S. Probation, Federal Public Defender's Office, U.S. Marshals Service, a Congressional Office, and GSA." According to the GSA, the construction contract went to Yates Construction, with design work done by Hartman-Cox and architectural services by URS/AECOM. The older building's namesake was a Mobile-based attorney nominated by President Franklin Pierce to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served from 1853 until the start of the Civil War. He was among the majority of the court in its decision on the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, in which the court held that people of African descent, including freed slaves, could never become U.S. citizens. The decision, often ranked as the most regrettable ever rendered by the court, has been widely blamed for accelerating the nation's slide toward civil war. According to various biographies, Campbell supported states' rights and the legality of slavery but opposed succession, which at the time led many in power to consider him a moderate. His mix of views also sometimes made him unpopular in the South. Nonetheless Campbell resigned as the war began and served as assistant secretary of war in the Confederacy. After the war he eventually returned to prominence as an attorney, sometimes arguing cases before the Supreme Court. According to information previously released by the GSA, the renovation of the John A. Campbell U.S. Courthouse is expected to be completed in fiscal 2020. Monita Soni is a physician from Huntsville. We had the singular opportunity to hear Amitav Ghosh, the acclaimed Indian novelist and author of "The Circle of Reason" present a lecture on his most recent book, "The Great Derangement," at the University in Huntsville recently. Are we deranged? Ghosh said that the future generations may well think so. How else to explain our imaginative failure in the face of global warming? Dr. Monita Soni with author Amitav Ghosh The extreme nature of today's climatic events, floods, tsunamis, earth quakes, Ghosh asserts, make them peculiarly resistant to contemporary modes of thinking. He strongly commends mainstream fiction to unravel the web of the most urgent narrative of our time. Ghosh took the podium and despite technical hiccups began his lecture in a resilient Indian style and soon we were hypnotized by his sweet Bengali voice, perhaps made more persuasive by a tickle in his throat (much to his chagrin). But he continued to hold the audience spell-bound between several sips of warm herbal tea, by an unexpectedly visceral presentation. Ghosh alluded to the actions of Western explorers and naturalists who came to the Southern parts of the globe and killed rare species like the Indian black whale and not one, but fifty, orangutans to document their anatomic descriptions in ponderous text books. But there was no communication between these experts and the indigenous people who tried to protect these animals. Ghosh points out that the Western notion of "humanization" has made the non-human and sub-human species (brutes) vulnerable on our planet and now when the emerging economies are becoming industrialized, the cause of global warming is being blamed on them! Although Ghosh has broached environmental issues in his award-winning fiction: "The Hungry Tide," and the "Ibis" trilogy, in "The Great Derangement" his research is focused on the Sundarbans- fresh water swamp forests or Mangroves in East India, partly in Bangla Desh or eroding habitat of many species like crocodiles and endangered Bengal tiger. He was very keen to show us a raw documentary on his visit to the Sundarbans, an early morning boat-ride with a local fisher man who pulled out crabs using whale-meat as bait. He said that if we rely on sight and not on the restrictions of our language, Nature might give us clues to solve the current crisis of melting polar ice caps! He emphasized the prevalence of unsophisticated human beings known as Shamans in South American and Indian cultures and how they could communicate with the animate and inanimate life. Ghosh showed us how the inhabitants of the Sundarbans, both Hindus and Muslims who collectively worship the Goddess of the Jungle or Bon Devi for existing in this extremely harsh environment where it is definitely the survival of the fittest and yet these simple beings live with other animals accepting what is offered to them. He showed pug prints of a tiger and also a picture of this magnificent King of the Sundarbans. Ghosh was not joking when he said: that the moment you sight a tiger may be your last one because most of the tigers are man eaters! I hope this will not be the last time I get to hear this brilliant yet reticent man speak in person. I told him about embarrassing my mother when I stepped off the school podium with a teetering tower of books in my hands in eighth grade (my scholastic achievement awards), she gently rebuked me by saying that I could have allowed another student to win at least one book. I did not study English beyond twelfth grade (went straight into medical school) but I told this Indian author celebrated with a Padma Shree, the highest Indian civilian honor that I would have gladly let him win a few and made my mother happy. He laughed his lunar laugh and said: Thank you but I did not win any prizes in school. Laura Lester and Carol Gundlach By Laura Lester and Carol Gundlach Lester is executive director of the Alabama Food Bank Association, which assists the food bank network in obtaining more food and funds, fosters public awareness of food banks' mission and creates partnerships to alleviate hunger in Alabama. Gundlach is a policy analyst for Arise Citizens' Policy Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of congregations, organizations and individuals promoting public policies to improve the lives of low-income Alabamians. The thought of a hungry child moves all of us to want to help. Alabamians are among the most generous people in the nation. We give generously to charities fighting childhood hunger, including food banks and food closets from which local agencies and churches distribute food to hungry families. But despite our generous communities and an improving economy, a recent study still found that one in five households in Alabama struggle to buy enough food for themselves and their families - a challenge known as food hardship. Alabama ranked fourth in the nation for food hardship, according to data collected by Gallup and reported by the Food Research and Action Center. Among Alabama families with children, 22 percent faced this challenge. Hunger can hide anywhere: a senior on a fixed income living next door, or parents in your own neighborhood who skip meals to protect their children from hunger. And hunger rates, which had been declining in Alabama and nationally since the end of the Great Recession, are now creeping up again. Wages have stagnated, many workers remain stuck in part-time jobs that don't pay enough to feed families, and the safety net that protects low-income families is under increasing attack. Alabama's high hunger rate hurts children across the state. Research has found that adults who received food assistance as children had better health and educational achievement on average than adults who grew up in households that were eligible for assistance but did not receive it. Children who eat meals at school perform better in the classroom than those who do not. They solve math problems more quickly and with fewer errors, have better school attendance and record fewer office referrals. We know there are policy solutions to hunger that work. The most important of these solutions are the federal nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), school meals and WIC. Unfortunately, both the Alabama Legislature and Congress have recently considered legislation that would cut nutrition assistance and make it harder for people to get needed help. Congress is working to reauthorize a Farm Bill that includes both SNAP and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which provides food to those in need of short-term hunger relief. Earlier this summer, Alabama's U.S. senators, Doug Jones and Richard Shelby, both helped pass a bipartisan version of the Farm Bill that would protect nutrition assistance. Unfortunately, the House version of the Farm Bill proposes to cut SNAP benefits by $20 billion over 10 years. We strongly urge the Alabama congressional delegation to support a final Farm Bill that protects SNAP benefits, especially for families with children, and TEFAP, an important source of emergency food assistance. Another important way to help hungry families in Alabama is by maintaining a strong school meals program, during both the school year and the summer break. That would help children stay ready to learn and get the nutrition they need to grow and succeed. Important steps toward that goal include: Community eligibility, which provides free meals to all students in schools where a large percentage of children live in low-income households. Breakfast served when children have time to eat, often during first period. Late-afternoon meals for children who stay for after-school programs. An expanded summer meals program, reaching the poorest counties in the state. Alabama has many accomplishments to take pride in, but the fourth highest hunger rate in the nation is not one of them. By acting now to ensure families can access critical food assistance, we can ensure that the next time Gallup asks if there have been "times you didn't have the money to buy the food that your family needs," far fewer Alabamians will have to answer "yes." Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders Originally Posted by You ignored what I said about the military. Let me explain again. If they are so determined to invade with the military there, it will not be considered a surrender, it will be a capture. There will not be a deportation hearing, they are now POW's and the few choosing to invade will be treated as POW's. The reason I say putting the military on the border will STOP 99% is because of the statement it makes. What % of the population jumps the fence at the WH? Probably less than 99.999999999% because they know it will not be tolerated. If these invaders knew their invading would not be tolerated, that also would STOP. Currently they know just the opposite, they know they are welcomed and catered to. Our military would not have to shoot unarmed civilians. They would guard the border with such force , very few would dare to enter. As Kenyans continue to sing the praises of the High Court in Bungoma County for issuing temporary orders stopping the new 16 percent Value Added Tax on petroleum products, Treasury CS Henry Rotich has said the government will soon find a solution to the impasse. This is after the CS on Thursday held a two-hour closed-door meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly led by Speaker Justin Muturi, leader of majority Aden Duale, and Attorney General Paul Kihara. The meeting was also attended by chairman Budget committee Kimani Ichungwa, his finance counterpart Joseph Limo, Njee Muturi and Clerk of the National Assembly Michael Sialai. Speaking to journalists, Speaker Muturi said the meeting was the first in a series of meetings that would be held in the coming days in a bid to find a solution to the controversial tax that has triggered a boycott by some oil marketers, resulting in fuel shortage across the country. Without divulging more details, Muturi said that the increase of VAT on fuel products was top of the agenda. We just want to assure you that we will address the issue. This is just the first meeting and we will have many more, said Muturi. According to a source at the meeting, the leaders proposed to reduce the VAT on fuel products to 12 percent among a raft of changes to the finance bill. However, a decision was not reached as parties agreed to engage further. Meanwhile, Justice Stephen Riech from Bungoma High Court issued the temporary orders on Thursday after a group of youths from the county sued the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary for effecting the new levy. The case will be mentioned on September 12. In Malawi, womens wombs are removed to stop infection, a life-changing operation that doesnt always work. Thyolo, Malawi In a hospital room in Thyolo, a southern Malawian town nestled in tea plantations, Ngellina Chikopa unwraps her sarong to reveal a long wound filled with pus. The cut stretches from her lower abdomen through her belly button and up past her stomach. The 18-year-old gave birth by caesarean section in April 2018, but the baby died of asphyxia after becoming stuck and suffering brain damage from lack of oxygen. While she was grieving, the wound became infected. She was given IV antibiotics but the wound started to release foul-smelling pus. The infection spread to her uterus. Doctors gave her more antibiotics but they didnt work. Next, medics performed a hysterectomy, an operation to remove her womb. But afterwards, she suffered another infection and was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Central, a big referral hospital in the city of Blantyre, where she had another two operations to clear the pus and close the wound. By removing her uterus, they have taken away the entire future clan away from us. Bester, father of patient Ngellina Chikopa She was discharged but is back at Thyolo hospital because her stomach is not healing. She shares a room with a young woman called Margaret, who also lost her baby to asphyxia. Chikopa fears she will be ostracised now she cannot have children. There is a stigma attached to being both unmarried and childless. I know that I will never ever have children in my lifetime, I have accepted it with a lot of pain as there is nothing I can do about my situation, she said. Some relations are aware of my situation and by now I know the social discrimination that I will be facing out there. She hopes to return to school when she recovers. Scores of women in Malawi face having their wombs taken out because of infections. Dr Martha Makwero, acting head doctor of the maternity department at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, said 36 women had had hysterectomies due to infection between March and May this year. At Zomba Central Hospital, around five women have their wombs removed every month, said Dr Maguy Kabeya, head of the maternity department, who carried out a three-month observation this year. He said they were referred from district hospitals and health centres where infection prevention is substandard. Some of the women died. Other central hospitals in Malawi did not provide figures on hysterectomies. Many hospitals in Malawi lack the facilities to treat infections, which has led to overzealous procedures and antibiotic resistance [Madlen Davies/Al Jazeera] In Malawi, malnourishment or diseases such as HIV which affects around 10 percent of the country suppress immune systems. Infection control in rural health centres and district hospitals is poor. Half the healthcare facilities lack clean water and sanitation. Electricity blackouts mean equipment used during labour may not be sterilised properly. Hospitals frequently run out of essential supplies such as chlorine, soap and antiseptic gloves. Women are also asked to bring certain items to the hospital for the birth: a plastic sheet called a macintosh, a razor blade to cut the cord and a plastic tub to bathe the baby. These arent sterile, which increases the chance of the mother catching an infection. Clearly getting the right antibiotics and blood cultures would be a better way of dealing with this. Pat O'Brien, consultant obstetrician at University College London Hospitals Florence Matandika, 18, cries out in pain at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Her mother Judith comforts her when she occasionally vomits. After a prolonged labour on May 10, she gave birth to a stillborn baby by caesarean section. The wound became infected and her stomach started to swell. The infection spread to her uterus and doctors were forced to perform an operation to remove it. She has been given two types of antibiotics but still has an infection. I have given up on the husband, says Judith, commenting on her daughters partner. I know he will marry another woman because my daughter cannot have children anymore. Im in pain but I will accept Gods will. To prevent infection, women can be given a dose of antibiotics before a caesarean section. This is not always practised in Malawi. A blood culture test could also be carried out if the mother does catch an infection technicians would identify which bacteria is causing the problem and which antibiotics might work. But blood culture facilities are expensive; they require sophisticated laboratory equipment and trained staff. Most hospitals in Malawi dont have the resources. Even Zomba, a referral hospital, sends samples to the lab at Queen Elizabeth in Blantyre, where blood culture facilities are provided by the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Centre, the research institution next door. The tests are prioritised for adult and paediatric patients and rarely sent for women on maternity wards. There is also a limited number of antibiotics available in most hospitals. Pregnant women with infections are usually given penicillin, gentamicin and ceftriaxone. Antibiotic resistance Rising antibiotic resistance, meanwhile, is another challenge. A study by Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Centre showed that while the number of bloodstream infections fell between 1998 and 2016, the proportion that were resistant to antibiotics increased. The data is for adults and paediatric patients. There are no statistics relating to resistance patterns in mothers. In Klebsiella, an infection causing bloodstream infections, resistance to the two major classes of antibiotics available in the hospital penicillin and cephalosporin rose from 12 percent to 2003 to 90 percent in 2016. In E. coli, a leading cause of sepsis, resistance rose from 2 percent to 30 percent over the same time period. Dr Makwero, acting head of the maternity department, believes resistance is hampering treatment of women with infections. The antibiotic ceftriaxone does not work for many, she said. It really affects our management. We tend to clear the infection through surgery but it is not always working It would be catastrophic if we could not use ceftriaxone any more, she said. She has to seek permission to use meropenem, an expensive antibiotic which the hospital doesnt always stock. There are also concerns over resistance with using it more frequently. Pat OBrien, a consultant obstetrician at University College London Hospitals, accepts that hysterectomies are sometimes life-saving, but says operations are more expensive and traumatic than a blood culture. If its truly the case that doing a hysterectomy is the only way to save someones life then clearly thats a better option regardless of all of this. But clearly getting the right antibiotics and blood cultures would be a better way of dealing with this, he explains. Women are being given hysterectomies in Malawi to stem infection, but the procedure is not always effective [Madlen Davies/TBIJ] Back in Thyolo, Ngellinas father Bester worries for his daughter. It was difficult to see her in pain and to shoulder the medical bills. Im concerned that she lost her baby and she had her uterus removed, he said. In our culture, this means a girl has no future at all as no man would be interested to marry her. By removing her uterus, they have taken away the entire future clan away from us. This story was written by Madlen Davies of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and edited and published in partnership with Al Jazeera. The summer months have seen a massive escalation in attacks on UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, centring on charges that he and his supporters are hostile to Jews and that a government headed by him would constitute an existential threat to the Jewish community in Britain. As a founding member of Jewish Voice for Labour and vice-chair of Chingford and Woodford Green Labour Party constituency, I believe such attacks are motivated by a determination on the part of the political establishment to undermine Corbyns left-wing leadership. His commitment to a solution to the conflict in the Middle East that guarantees justice and self-determination for the people of Palestine makes him a key target of attack by supporters of the Israeli state, both Jewish and non-Jewish. The real struggle against rising racism, including anti-Semitism, in Britain and elsewhere is seriously endangered by Corbyns enemies determination to define criticism of the Israeli state as motivated by hatred of Jews. Fighting anti-Semitism alongside all oppressed people of every race My family background is 100 percent Jewish. My four grandparents were refugees from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and eastern Germany. Growing up in the East End of London and as young adults in the north of the city, my parents experienced the anti-Semitism which was rife at the time. My father and his brother both anglicised their surnames, from Jewish-sounding Weinbaum to oh-so-English Wimborne. My mother told me many stories of being abused as a young schoolgirl by other children shouting You killed our Christ! and of being discriminated against when evacuated with her brother during the war. We know only too well what anti-Semitism is. {articleGUID} The Labour Party after the war was, by and large, a haven from any kind of anti-Jewish prejudice. My parents never experienced any form of anti-Semitism bigotry in the party and, as a member myself in the 1970s, nor did I. I worked abroad during the 1980s and did not resume membership upon returning to the UK until Jeremy Corbyn became its leader in 2015. The welcome I received from non-Jewish members by far the majority in my constituency showed not a hint of hostility towards me as a Jew. I have spent decades of my life explaining patiently to people who, on learning that Im Jewish, presume that I must, therefore, be a Zionist and a supporter of the state of Israel, that the two things are quite distinct. Most of my large family are not Zionists (though a few are). Our identity is not defined by our political beliefs about Israel. Most of us identify with the Jewish Labour Bund tradition adhered to by the majority of radical Jews in the Russian Empire and Poland before the Holocaust. Bundists had as their watchword doykayt or hereness the belief that Jews belong wherever in the world they live, that the fight against anti-Semitism has to be fought alongside all oppressed people of every race or faith. It is shameful that such a position is now condemned by self-declared Jewish community leaders as heretical and treacherous, that real Jews are only permitted to hold one view and that questioning Zionism and the Israeli state is treated as a form of anti-Semitism. To me and the many Jews I know who share my view, the suggestion that Jews can be regarded as an undifferentiated mass, as if we were genetically programmed to support a particular nation-state in which Jews dominate over the original non-Jewish population, is itself a racist, anti-Semitic, suggestion. Baseless accusations of institutional anti-Semitism Pro-Israel lobbyists have recently called on the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to brand the Labour Party as institutionally anti-Semitic. This charge can only be supported if opposition to Zionism is equivalent to hating Jews, which it clearly is not. For the party to be institutionally racist, there would need to be evidence that Jews are under-represented compared with their 0.5 percent share of the population as members, as office holders in branches and constituency parties, as councillors, as regional officers, as electoral candidates and as Members of Parliament. There is no such evidence. In fact, Jewish people are generously represented in parliament, with nearly four percent of members. Amidst the mounting wave of accusations about anti-Semitism being rife in the party, I was puzzled and alarmed and made serious efforts to find members who honestly felt unwelcome simply because they were Jewish, without any reference to arguments about the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. My search was almost entirely fruitless. Almost every story turned out to be related to upset caused by the very vociferous way some people furious about Israel had expressed their anger. I do acknowledge that some critics of Israel can be insensitive to the feelings of Jewish people who feel an attachment to the state. Some Jews feel offended by strident attacks on what Israel does to Palestinians now and what Zionists have done in the past. It would be better if we could have political debates without offending one another, but there is no such thing as a right not to be offended. We do have a right to express political opinions, even very robustly. It is no coincidence that the charge of institutional anti-Semitism emanates from an organisation called the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) which was set up in 2014 explicitly to defend Israel against opprobrium for its deadly assault on Gaza that year. It deliberately deploys accusations of anti-Semitism to try and shut down campaigns in support of Palestine. It is, for this reason, the subject of a complaint to the Charities Commission. {articleGUID} Of course, there are some people with anti-Semitic prejudices in the Labour Party. As the Institute for Jewish Policy Research said in its report on a survey of attitudes towards Jews last year, between three and five percent of the British population harbour a range of beliefs about Jews, such as their being greedy, rich, conspiratorial, in control of the media, which would qualify them as being anti-Semitic. About 30 percent hold one or two prejudices, which does not justify labelling them anti-Semitic, but can make Jewish people uncomfortable and create an atmosphere of unease. These proportions are naturally reflected within the Labour Partys considerable membership. Social media has unleashed the potential for nasty language to be hurled around unjustifiably, and sometimes people claiming to be supporters of the Left are responsible for this. There are cases of people ignorantly believing Israels supporters when they insist that the state represents every Jew, leading to unjustified abuse directed at Jews on the assumption that they support what Israel does. Such people need to be corrected and, if they prove recalcitrant, disciplined or expelled. However, there are too many cases of fake identities and robot accounts being used to discredit pro-Corbyn social media groups for all such allegations to be taken at face value. In two notorious cases, prominent Jewish activists were summarily excluded from the party following baseless allegations. Glyn Secker and Moshe Machover were both hastily reinstated. It is becoming increasingly clear to most observers of the British political scene that attempts to brand the Labour Party institutionally anti-Semitic form part of an orchestrated campaign targeting a party whose leader is probably the most principled anti-racist to serve in parliament. All British citizens, in particular those from minority ethnic and religious communities, will be the losers if this cynical campaign is allowed to succeed. This article is based on Naomi Wimborne-Idrissis submission to the EHRC about the calls by pro-Israel lobbyists for Britains Labour Party to be branded institutionally anti-Semitic. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Government says decision to relieve leading academic from economic advisory council was made to maintain unity. Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistans government has asked a leading academic to step down as an economic adviser, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) has announced after far-right groups objected to his appointment based on his faith. Atif Mian, an economist who belongs to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, had been appointed to the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) last week and has now agreed to resign, PTI senator Faisal Javed Khan announced on Friday. Atif Mian was asked to step down from the Advisory Council and he has agreed. A replacement would be announced later. Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) September 7, 2018 Fawad Chaudhry, the countrys information minister, confirmed the decision, saying it was taken because the government wished to maintain unity. The government wishes to move forward together with all religious scholars and social classes, he said. If one appointment creates a different impression, then that is not appropriate. Several hours after his resignation, Mian confirmed the news on Twitter, issuing four tweets in which he expanded on the decision. Mian said that he stepped down because of adverse pressure regarding my appointment from the Mullahs (Muslim clerics) and their supporters, adding he was always willing to serve his country. 1/ For the sake of the stability of the Government of Pakistan, I have resigned from the Economic Advisory Council, as the Government was facing a lot of adverse pressure regarding my appointment from the Mullahs (Muslim clerics) and their supporters. Atif Mian (@AtifRMian) September 7, 2018 Following Mians resignation, Asim Khwaja, a US-based academic on the council, resigned in protest. Khwaja said it the decision was painful and deeply sad, but said he could not justify staying on the council because his values were compromised. Have resigned from EAC. Painful, deeply sad decision. Grateful for chance to aid analytical reasoning but not when such values compromised. Personally as a Muslim I can't justify this. May Allah forgive/guide me&us all.Ever ready to help.Pakistan Paindabadhttps://t.co/j80LHEhfRK Asim Ijaz Khwaja (@aikhwaja) September 7, 2018 Pakistan is home to roughly half a million Ahmadis, a long-persecuted minority who are not allowed by Pakistani law to refer to themselves as Muslims, facing prison sentences for doing so. Draconian anti-Ahmadi law They are also frequently the targets of mob violence as well as targeted killings. Last month, at least one man was killed and several others wounded when a mob attacked an Ahmadi mosque just outside the central Punjab city of Faisalabad. Since 1984, when a draconian anti-Ahmadi law was passed, at least 264 members of the community have been killed in hundreds of incidents of targeted attacks, bombings and mob violence, according to data compiled by the community. We have a right to equal citizenship and we should be granted that right, said Saleemuddin, the Ahmadi communitys spokesperson. Mian is currently a renowned professor of economics at Princeton University in the United States, serving as the director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance. He has previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago. Far-right religious groups such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), led by firebrand scholar Khadim Hussain Rizvi, object to the Ahmadi belief that the sects founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a subordinate prophet, saying it violates a central tenet of Islamic doctrine. Last year, Rizvi and hundreds of TLP protesters blockaded a major highway into the capital Islamabad over a minor change in a parliamentary oath, accusing the government of having committed blasphemy by softening the language of the declaration against Ahmadi beliefs. During the election campaign in July, now-Prime Minister Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI, frequently raised the issue, saying his rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had committed blasphemy by changing the oath. Backtracking on appointment This is not the first time Khan has backtracked on appointing Mian to a senior position. In 2014, when he was in opposition, he named Mian as an example of the kind of academic expert he wanted in charge of Pakistans economy, rather than career politicians. On being informed that Mian was a member of the Ahmadi sect, however, Khan backtracked, saying he only meant his statement to apply to academic experts generally and Mian was just an example. Last weeks announcement that the Princeton professor was to serve on the countrys 18-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) came as a surprise to many, given the earlier controversy. At the time, however, the government defended the decision, with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry saying his government would not bow down to extremists. I dont think anyone should have objections [to Mians appointment], and those who do, they are basically extremists and we will not bow to extremists, he told reporters on Tuesday. His comment drew the ire of TLP and other far-right groups, who demanded that Mian resign and asserted that the governments decision to appoint a member of the Ahmadi sect to a senior position was unacceptable. Opposition legislators in parliament and the provincial assemblies, too, passed resolutions against the move, declaring that Ahmadi citizens should not be appointed to ay senior government posts. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim. Rebel group says it wants three guarantees from the UN before it will attend talks that have been postponed twice. Yemens Houthi rebels are prepared to attend UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva if three of their demands are met, a member of the groups delegation has told Al Jazeera. The talks, which would have been the first in nearly two years, were scheduled to take place in the Swiss city from Thursday but have been delayed twice in two days after the Houthi delegation failed to leave Sanaa. Hameed Assem, a member of the Houthi delegation that was supposed to fly to Geneva, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the Houthi groups three demands included transport of wounded rebels to Oman, repatriation of rebels who have already received treatment there and a guarantee that the Houthi delegation attending the talks in Geneva would be allowed to return to the rebel-held capital Sanaa after the talks end. The Saudi-UAE military alliance, which has been at war with the Houthis since March 2015, blamed the Shia group for its absence at the talks, saying it was acting recalcitrantly. Hamza al-Kamali, a spokesperson for the Yemeni government, added that the flight to take the Houthi group to Switzerland was given clearance three days ago. We are here to put an end to Yemens suffering but today we are alone. The Houthis prove that they dont want peace, they dont believe in peace, said al-Kamali on Thursday. We want them to come, and we are pushing them to come. [However] if they dont come in the next 24 hours, we will leave. A source in the Yemeni government delegation in Geneva told Reuters news agency that if the Houthis did not leave Sanaa by 12pm (09:00 GMT) on Friday, I think the government delegation will decide to leave. The Houthi-run Saba news agency defended the groups absence, reporting that the Saudi-led alliance was refusing to give required authorisations to an Omani plane in the capital Sanaa to transfer the [Houthi] delegation to Geneva. The news agency reported that the Houthis blamed the UN for failing to secure the authorisations from the alliance which controls Yemens airspace. Mohammad Abdul-Salam, the Houthis main spokesman who had previously held secret talks with the Saudi-UAE alliance in Oman, also blamed the UN, saying it should speak to the Americans, who he claimed control Yemeni airspace. The Saudi-UAE alliance has controlled Yemeni airspace since March 2015. F lickering signal of hope In a statement issued late on Thursday, Martin Griffiths, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, said efforts were being made to overcome last-minute obstacles. His office said it was hopeful to see the Houthi delegation present at the Geneva talks to expedite the political process. Griffiths said informal consultations with the government would begin immediately, and described the talks as a flickering signal of hope to end a war in which at least 10,000 Yemenis have been killed. {articleGUID} The Special Envoy is mindful of the challenges associated with bringing the parties together to Geneva, bearing in mind that they havent met for two years, Griffiths office said in a statement released on Thursday. The last UN-backed peace negotiations for Yemen were held in Kuwait two years ago. The talks continued for several months but no constructive results were reached due to serious differences between rival parties. Yemen remains wracked by violence since the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014. The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and allies who accuse the Houthis of being Iranian proxies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back rebel gains. Iran and the Houthis deny the accusations. Now entering its fourth year, the war has pushed more than 22 million people to seek humanitarian assistance. According to UNICEF, 11 million children, a number greater than the entire population of Switzerland, need humanitarian assistance every day. Idlib civilians reject reconciliation with Syrian government and fear use of chemical weapons during possible offensive. Antakya, Turkey For Ahmad, a father of two in Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria, there is not much he can do to protect his young family. Like many others across the northwestern province, the 29-year-old is fearful of a chemical weapons attack in the event of a large-scale Syrian government offensive. People here are afraid that chemical weapons would be used to put pressure on the armed groups and to facilitate the advance [of government forces], said Ahmad, who is from the village of Sararif and asked that his real name not be used in this article. That growing fear has led locals to start taking precautionary measures, added Ahmad. {articleGUID} Some people bought face masks, others [bought] heavy-duty gas masks that can protect against poisonous gases. But Ahmad possesses just one gas mask he bought for $40 a while back. The only other thing he has been able to do to provide at least some protection to his family was to seal off the bathroom of their house and transform it into an improvised shelter. More than 60 percent of the people in his village, in the south of the province, have already fled to the areas near the border with Turkey, fearing the imminent offensive, says Ahmad. A makeshift shelter in an underground cave in Idlib [Khalil Ashawi/Reuters] Growing concerns The United States has warned the Syrian government against the use of chemical weapons and has threatened another military response in April, Washington and its allies responded to the Syrian governments alleged use of chemical weapons against rebels in the town of Douma with missile attacks. On Thursday, Jim Jeffrey, special adviser on Syria to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said the US government has lots of evidence that the Syrian government is preparing a chemical attack on Idlib. {articleGUID} I am very sure that we have very, very good grounds to be making these warnings, he said. But Russian officials have rejected the US claims, maintaining that the Syrian government no longer has any chemical weapons. In 2013, after mounting international pressure following a chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, Assad governments surrendered what it claimed were all the chemical weapons it possessed. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly suggested that Syrian rebels are preparing to stage a chemical attack in Idlib in order to provoke Western intervention. We have warned our Western partners not to play with fire, Lavrov said during a press conference last week. According to Marwan Kabalan, director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, statements by Russian officials may indicate that Syrian government forces plan to use chemical agents in the looming battle for Idlib. Damascus is unable to amass enough troops to capture the province, which hosts at least 60,000 rebel fighters, he told Al Jazeera, adding that urban areas are particularly difficult to penetrate because of the networks of underground tunnels built by the rebel groups. The only way they manage to smoke people out of the tunnels is by using chemical weapons. Why did [Assad] use chemical weapons in Ghouta because that was his only way to win, Kabalan said. Protests and arrests in Idlib On Friday, Russian and Syrian fighter jets continued to bomb various areas of southern Idlib province, activists said. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some of the air raids targeted the local headquarters of rebel groups, including members of former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra) and moderate opposition formation al-Jabha al-Wataniya lil-Tahrir (the National Liberation Front). At least four people were killed and seven wounded in the air raids, local activists and rescue workers said. Earlier on Friday, as the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Tehran, thousands of people took to the streets of major cities across Idlib province to protest against the possible offensive and Russian pressure on the opposition to accept a reconciliation deal with the Syrian government. {articleGUID} Ahmad joined the protests in nearby Jisr al-Shaghour, which was pounded by air raids on Wednesday. I am worried about the talk of a forced reconciliation and the Russians and the regime entering [Idlib]. Today we protested against [this possibility] says Ahmad. There are two possibilities: it is either the Russians [entering], which would mean I lose my land and my house forever, or the Turks take control which means stability and a return back to normal. Ahmad fears that the armed opposition could be cornered and forced into surrender, similar to what happened in Eastern Ghouta in the spring and in Deraa and Quneitra provinces in July. To preclude support for a reconciliation deal from taking root in Idlib, local armed factions have resorted to arresting people suspected of supporting the idea, sources on the ground say. According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, hundreds have been arrested so far by the two dominant armed groups in Idlib HTS and al-Jabha al-Wataniya lil-Tahrir. One Syrian media activist, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, told Al Jazeera that he knows personally at least eight people who were arrested by the HTS in the past week. The activist says the accusations are often false and HTS is using the arrests to extort money from the families of the detainees. According to Kabalan, the idea of reconciliation is not very popular in Idlib and it is unlikely that local people will accept such a deal. More than half of Idlibs population of three million are internally displaced people, most having either fled the advance of government forces elsewhere or decided to leave the areas under al-Assads control, he said. They came from [all over the country] because they didnt want to accept such a situation [reconciliation], added Kabalan. At least two people dead as protesters set ablaze government buildings, political party offices in oil-rich province. At least two people have died in Iraqs oil-rich province of Basra as protesters targeted and set fire to government and political party buildings in a fourth consecutive night of violent unrest. Protesters angry over poor public services clashed with security forces in the southern city of Basra on Thursday and hurled Molotov cocktails at the regional government headquarters there. Iraqs Human Rights Commission said two protesters died during the violence, taking the death toll to 11 since the weeks-long protest escalated on September 3. One protester died on Thursday night from burns sustained during the torching of the government headquarters, health and security sources said. Crowds attacked the offices of the state-run Iraqiya TV and set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Dawa Party, the Supreme Islamic Council and the Badr Organisation, whose leaders are all vying to form Iraqs ruling coalition. Protesters also torched the offices of a powerful Shia armed group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and those of the Hikma Movement, and stormed the house of the acting head of the provincial council. Thousands of people took part in the protest. The violence has prompted the temporary head of Iraqs parliament to call an emergency session on Saturday. Legislators would discuss the problems, the solutions and the latest situation in Basra, a statement said on Friday. The southern city has been the epicentre of protests that have rocked Iraq since July, with anger fuelled by pollution of the water supply that left 30,000 people in hospital. Government does not care Rights activists have accused security forces of opening fire on the demonstrators, while the government has blamed provocateurs in the crowds and say the troops were ordered not to use live rounds. The people protest and the government doesnt care, treats them as vandals, said Ali Saad, a 25-year-old at the rally Thursday in Basra. Nobody [here] is a vandal: the people are fed up, so yes they throw stones and burn tyres because nobody cares, he told the AFP news agency near the building littered with debris. Ahmed Kazem, who was also at the protest, urged leaders to respond to the demands of the demonstrators so that the situation doesnt degenerate. The 42-year-old said their demands included public services, water, electricity and jobs. The headquarters of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (pictured) was among the buildings set on fire by protesters [Essam al-Sudani/Reuters] Public anger has grown at a time when politicians are struggling to form a new government after an inconclusive parliamentary election in May. Residents of the south complain of decades of neglect in the region that produces the bulk of Iraqs oil wealth. Mortar attack in Baghdad Meanwhile, in Baghdad, three mortar shells landed inside the citys heavily fortified Green Zone just after midnight on Friday, according to the Iraqi military. The mortars landed on an abandoned lot, resulting in no casualties or physical damage, said a military statement. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The mortar attack is the first such attack in several years on the Green Zone, which houses parliament, government buildings and many foreign embassies. Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption and misrule that allowed infrastructure to collapse. Protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in southern Iraqs city of Basra, setting it on fire as part of deadly demonstrations against lack of services and jobs in which several government buildings have been ransacked and torched. Demonstrators on Friday broke into the consulate building in Basra, shouting condemnation of what many Iraqis perceive as Tehrans interference in their countrys politics. The consulate was reportedly empty when the crowd burst in. In comments to Iranian state news agency Fars, Bahram Ghassemi, Irans foreign ministry spokesperson, denied that Iranian nationals were being told to leave Basra. Curfew Iraqi security officials announced a citywide curfew in Basra, a city of two million people, warning that anyone present in the street would be arrested. Several protesters have died, mostly in clashes with the security forces, since Monday. Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption and misrule that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water in the heat of summer. According to Marwan Kabalan, director of policy analysis at Doha Institute, the protests show a growing dissatisfaction with Irans influence in Iraq. Those who have been running the country for the last 15 years have actually been Iranian allies, Kabalan told Al Jazeera. The people are protesting against these elites that are backed by Iran and theyre protesting against Iranian influence in the south of Iraq, he added. Iran has also cut the electricity supply recently, claiming Iraq has not been able to pay for the electricity, which is another reason people have directed their anger towards Iran, Kabalan said. Iraq parliament to meet Public anger has grown at a time when politicians are struggling to form a new government after an inconclusive parliamentary election in May. Residents of the south complain of decades of neglect in the region that produces the bulk of Iraqs oil wealth. The storming of the consulate on Friday came hours after Iraqs most revered Shia cleric called for a political shakeup in capital Baghdad, and a halt to violence against the protesters. Ayatollah Ali Sistani placed blame for the unrest with political leaders and said a new government should be formed. The failings of Iraqi political leaders in recent years have caused the anger of people in Basra, Sistani said. This reality cannot change if the next government is formed according to the same criteria adopted when forming previous governments. Pressure must be exerted for the new government to be different from its predecessors. The Iraqi parliaments interim leader, meanwhile, has summoned legislators to an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest. {articleGUID} Basra has been the epicentre of protests that have rocked Iraq since July, with anger fuelled by pollution of the water supply that left 30,000 people in hospital In recent days, crowds have attacked the offices of the state-run Iraqiya TV and set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Dawa Party, the Supreme Islamic Council and the Badr Organisation, whose leaders are all vying to form Iraqs ruling coalition. Protesters also torched the offices of a powerful Shia armed group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and those of the Hikma Movement, and stormed the house of the acting head of the provincial council. Rights activists have accused security forces of opening fire on the demonstrators, while the government has blamed provocateurs in the crowds and say the troops were ordered not to use live rounds. For the first time in decades, a presidential candidate in Brazil has suffered an assassination attempt. Sao Paulo, Brazil The stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right frontrunner in Brazils presidential race, has added an extra layer of chaos to an already turbulent and polarised election campaign. Brazilians will head to the polls to pick their next president on October 7, in what has been described as the most uncertain vote in the countrys recent history. While campaigning on Thursday on the streets of Juiz de Fora, a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen by a man wielding a kitchen knife. The 63-year-old former army captain was rushed to hospital where he underwent surgery for injuries to his small and large intestines. On Friday morning, Bolsonaro was transferred to Sao Paulos Albert Einstein Hospital, where he is expected to remain in intensive care for the next seven days. Police identified the attacker as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, a 40-year-old man from the town of Montes Claros in Minas Gerais. According to the police report, while being carted away, Oliveira claimed he was fulfilling an order from God. Officers at the scene expressed doubts over his psychological integrity. Violent year The knife attack on Bolsonaro represents an escalation in what has already been a violent year in Brazilian politics. For the first time in decades, a presidential candidate in Brazil has suffered an assassination attempt, with recent incidents of violence largely being restricted to local politics. In March this year, left-wing councillor Marielle Franco was assassinated in Rio de Janeiro. Less than two weeks later, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvas campaign bus was shot at in southern Brazil. Jose Alvaro Moises, a political scientist and scholar of global democracies, argued that Brazil is witnessing the reintroduction of violence into its politics. There is growing intolerance in Brazil and an enormous difficulty of its principal political actors in accepting the legitimacy of their opponents, he told Al Jazeera. These factors generate violence. Solidarity Following the stabbing attack, Bolsonaros presidential opponents were quick to condemn the attempt on his life. Marina Silva, a centrist politician and a former environment minister, characterised the incident as a two-pronged attack: against [Bolsonaros] physical integrity and against democracy. Centre-left candidate Ciro Gomes, of the Democratic Labor Party, expressed solidarity with Bolsonaro, renouncing violence as political discourse. Both Silva and Gomes, as well as centre-right candidate Geraldo Alckmin, suspended their campaigns after the incident. In a tweet, Fernando Haddad, the soon-to-be Workers Party presidential candidate following the recent barring of Lula by Brazils electoral court, repudiated all acts of violence and wished Bolsonaro a speedy recovery. In an interview with Brazilian online magazine Crusoe, Hamilton Mourao, Bolsonaros vice-presidential candidate and retired army general, blamed the attack on what he called a Workers Party militant. The Workers Party has incited violence on the streets. This is not good. If they want to use violence, we [the military] are the professionals of violence, he said. However, Brazils highest electoral court confirmed that the Oliveira, the suspect, was not currently affiliated to any political party and that he was a member of the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party until 2014. Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist and professor of international relations at Rio de Janeiro State University, said the reaction of the presidential candidates was quick, precise and unambiguous. It was a very civilised moment in the campaign, something which weve rarely seen, he told Al Jazeera. Now would be a good time for all of the candidates to get together and make a political pact of non-aggression and transmit this message to the electorate, added Santoro. However, it is worrying that the response of Bolsonaros party was very violent, he noted, referring to Mouraos comments. It gives an insight into the political atmosphere we can expect in the coming weeks. Impact on election Its not yet clear how soon Bolsonaro will able to return to the campaign trail. Following the barring of Lulas candidacy, opinion polls show Bolsonaro as the clear frontrunner, with a projected 22 percent share of the vote. Silva and Gomes are tied for second place at 12 percent each. Santoro predicted that the popularity of Bolsonaro, who has managed to present himself as a credible outsider candidate despite a track record of homophobic, racist and sexist statements, is unlikely to be altered by Thursdays attack. We have seen many people condemning this incident, but it hasnt strayed into any growing sympathy for Bolsonaro, he said. On the contrary, often these condemnations of violence were suffixed with criticisms of Bolsonaro, suggesting that he is to blame for this violent atmosphere in Brazils current moment. Still, the campaigns of Bolsonaros opponents are expected to undergo changes as they battle it out for a place in the expected runoff vote on October 28 against the former army captain. The immediate effects of the attack on Bolsonaro will be known next week, after two of Brazils leading pollsters release their latest opinion polls on Monday and Tuesday. A day after ICCs unprecedented ruling, Myanmar says it has no obligation to respect it. Myanmar has resolutely rejected a ruling from the International Criminal Court (ICC) which said that the body had jurisdiction over alleged deportations of Rohingya to Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity. Through an unprecedented ruling on Thursday, the ICC empowered itself to probe alleged crimes against the Rohingya, even though Myanmar is not an ICC member. In response, the office of Myanmars President Win Myint on Friday dismissed the ICC ruling, calling it the result of faulty procedure and of dubious legal merit and saying the country was under no obligation to respect it. Furthermore, allegations consisting of charged narratives of harrowing personal tragedies which have nothing to do with the legal arguments in question were permitted, thereby putting emotional pressure on the Court, the presidents office added in a statement. Tug of war with the ICC {articleGUID} Last year, about 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape a brutal crackdown by security forces in Myanmars Rakhine state. In August, an independent UN fact-finding mission concluded that Myanmars military last year had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with genocidal intent. The report said Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar army, and five other generals should be prosecuted. Myanmar has denied committing atrocities against the Rohingya, saying its military carried out justifiable actions against a Rohingya armed group. The ICCs decision was intended to pave the way for prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to further examine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case. The Court has jurisdiction over the crime against humanity of deportation allegedly committed against members of the Rohingya people, a three-judge panel said in a written summary of their decision on Thursday. The reason is that an element of this crime (the crossing of a border) took place on the territory of a State party to the Statute (Bangladesh), the ruling said. While Myanmar is not a member of The Hague-based court, Bangladesh is and the cross-border nature of deportation was sufficient for jurisdiction, the ICC said in its ruling. On Friday, Amnesty International welcomed the ICCs ruling, calling it a clear signal to the Myanmar military that they will be held accountable. This decision is a significant step in the right direction which opens up a clear avenue of justice for the Rohingya who were driven out of their homes, often as soldiers opened fire on them and burned down their villages, said Biraj Patnaik, the rights groups South Asia director. Myanmar has come under intense pressure in recent weeks over its crackdown on the Rohingya, a group it denies citizenship to. The ICC ruling followed international outrage triggered by the sentencing on Monday of two Reuters news agency journalists both Myanmar nationals to seven years in jail under a draconian state secrets act. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of Rohingya villagers when they were arrested in December last year. Iran, Turkey and Russia meet in new diplomatic efforts as Syria plans offensive in rebel-held Idlib. Tehran, Iran The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have met in Tehran to talk about how to shape the future of a country torn apart by years of civil war amid a possible military offensive to retake the last rebel-held bastion of Idlib. At Fridays summit, Hassan Rouhani, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan were expected to sign an agreement about ongoing military cooperation in Syria, the right of return for refugees displaced by the conflict, and the creation of a committee to investigate the fates of people arrested by the government or who went missing during the conflict, according to Irans foreign ministry. In its eighth year, Syrias civil war has seen more than half a million Syrians dead and 11 million more than half the countrys population either internally displaced or living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Europe. While Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has the military advantage, he now presides over a country where large areas more closely resemble fields of rubble than cities or towns. On Monday, just days before the trilateral summit in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a surprise visit to Damascus where he looked ahead to reconstruction. Reconstruction of Syria and Iraq is a good opportunity for the presence of Iranian companies, said Zarif. God willing, we will have talks with the three members of the Astana process on Friday to prevent any harm to the Syrian people and pave the way for the process of purging extremists. But even though world leaders are talking about returning refugees and reconstruction, Syrian lives are still at risk. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi appealed to Iranian leaders to prevent more bloodshed in the Syrian conflict. It is clear that the risks of a military confrontation causing massive loss of life is very high and I told Zarif that my appeal, just like the UN Secretary-General and others, is for them to minimise the loss of life, Grandi told Al Jazeera. I also pointed out that the government of Syria wants people to go back. Other governments, like Russia, want people to go back. The refugees are watching how the war will continue. Grandi added that world leaders were not doing enough to stop the conflicts that result in large refugee crises and that the circumstances for civilians displaced by war were getting worse every year. While he commended Irans long-continuing help for Afghan refugees, he said leaders in Tehran are also in a position to speak for the rights of Syrian refugees. Iran already shoulders a very heavy responsibility with Afghan and some Iraqi refugees on its own territory and I think it would be unfair to ask Iran to do more, said Grandi. But certainly, were asking Iran to add its voice to those that request more support for Syrian refugees, for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to ask for more support and to ask for solutions to those conflicts that determine the flight of these populations. Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho wants to be the next president of Kenya. Speaking to Citizen TVs Nimrod Taabu on Thursday, Joho stated that he would be seeking to take over from president Uhuru Kenyatta on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party ticket due to his current position as the partys deputy leader. He observed that he has sufficient experience as a public servant to become the next Head of State. I have served as an MP, I have served in the Ministry of Transport, and I have served as governor for ten years I want the presidency, said governor Joho. Our country gives anyone a chance to try, we will talk to Kenyans and sell our agenda. It doesnt have to be that you come from a larger tribe or a certain religion so that you become president. Governor Joho further stated that ODM leader Raila Odinga has not asked him to shelve his presidential ambition in his (Railas) favour. My party leader has always been Raila Amollo Odinga and Im sure that will continue until the day I retire from politics because of what he stands for. And so my party leader has not told me not to run for presidency he hasnt, stated Joho. The Mombasa county boss added that if Raila Odinga declares his intentions to seek the top seat in 2022 then they will sit down as a party and deliberate on the way forward. Joho also extended his support for the Building Bridges initiative by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. He downplayed his previous differences between himself and Uhuru Kenyatta saying they were caused merely by disagreement in ideologies. Why would I fight someone who is on his last term while I am also on my last term as governor? posed Joho. Dakar saw off bids from Nigeria, Tunisia and Botswana to win hosting rights of the first Olympic Games in Africa. Senegal is set to become the first African country to host an Olympic event. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday said its executive board picked Senegal in a four-nation hosting contest for the 2022 Youth Olympic Games. Botswana, Nigeria and Tunisia were the other bidders. It is time for Africa. Africa is the home of many successful and prominent Olympic athletes, IOC President Thomas Bach said. Africa is a continent of youth. Senegals nomination is expected to be formally approved by the IOC during its meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October. The West African nation will host the fourth edition of the Summer Youth Games in its capital Dakar, the new city of Diamniadio and the coastal resort of Saly. According to the IOC, Senegals project is tied in with its overarching development strategy, notably the national governments Emerging Senegal plan, which envisions major economic and infrastructure improvements. After Senegal officials sign a host contract in Buenos Aires, they will begin a co-construction phase with the IOC, the Olympic body said. The choice of Senegal followed a unanimous vote by the IOC earlier this year during the Winter Olympics in South Koreas Pyeongchang to award the Youth Games to the African continent. Ugandas Bobi Wine says he still stands for justice Wine was speaking in Washington where hes been treated for injuries he suffered while in custody. White South Africans protest against discrimination Around 3,000 employees at the plant are unhappy that only black workers have been offered company shares. In Wyoming's recent primary, Republican voters didn't get to choose their own candidate. Democrats in the 21st century don't believe in having two-party elections. In California, they try to shut out Republican voters by having a system where the two highest polling candidates win, even if both are Democrat. In Wyoming, they believe they should get to choose their primary candidate and ours because they will choose more wisely and more "moderately" than Republican voters. They get away with it, because Wyoming was forced by the federal government under Clinton to allow cross-over voting in the primary. Democrats pretending to be Republican for primary day just chose the next Republican candidate for governor in America's reddest state. Wyoming gave President Trump his biggest victory in the entire presidential election, with sixty-seven percent of the vote. Because the state is so red, the Democrats' choice will definitely win the general election and become the next governor of Wyoming. A red state like Wyoming has a double problem come election time. Democrat politicians don't have a chance to be elected, so at all levels of local, state, and federal office, they masquerade as Republican candidates, lying to the voters about their true political affiliation. The double whammy is that Wyoming voting law allows people to register or change their party affiliation at the polling place on voting day and vote in whichever primary they choose. So RINOs are chosen in the Republican primary by Democrat voters pretending for a day to be Republicans. It makes a travesty of the two-party system and cheats Republicans of getting to select their own candidates. Wyoming is small in population but economically one of our most important states and a key part of President Trump's pro-energy agenda. It is famous and beloved for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks; it should be equally beloved for its contribution to the nation's economy. Wyoming is surpassed only by giant Texas as an energy powerhouse. Wyoming's Powder River Basin is one of the greatest coal fields in the world. It produces more coal than the next six coal-mining states combined. If Wyoming stopped producing fossil fuels and uranium, 30 states would go dark. This year, a few days before the hotly contested gubernatorial election, Democrat supporters mounted a campaign called Switch for Wyoming urging their voters to switch their affiliation to Republican in order to push the most liberal GOP candidate for governor over the top. They pulled it off. Their preferred candidate, Mark Gordon, beat the conservative frontrunner, Foster Friess, by approximately 6-9,000 votes (the official count isn't in yet), well within the margin provided by Democrat voters. Comparing this year's primary to the last two, as many as 13,000 Democrats "disappeared" many presumably masquerading as Republicans. At one polling place in Teton County, according to a volunteer checking in voters, all but four registered Democrats asked for Republican ballots. The Democrat choice for our next Republican governor, Mark Gordon, believes that "global warming is a critical issue for our time." The man who will now be governor of the largest coal-producer in our nation believes in what is euphemistically called alternative energy. While he makes speeches about protecting the coal industry, he makes political donations and even served on the board of groups that fight fossil fuels. Mark Gordon made political contributions to the DNC, John Kerry, and Democrat candidates for Congress in 2004 and 2006. In 2012, The Nature Conservancy listed him as a donor in the 10,000-to-99,999-dollar category. In 2018, a Friends of the Earth website (later removed) listed him as a "notable donor, Treasurer of Wyoming." While he has campaigned against federal restrictions on coal, in the recent past he contributed to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). RMI is working toward a U.S. economy "needing no coal, no oil." In a state where he beat Hillary Clinton by 46%, President Trump has just been cheated of an ally among the governors, and Wyoming's voters have been cheated of a true conservative candidate. Gordon's win was also used by President Trump's opponents in the media to embarrass him, because on election day, the president tweeted his support for the conservative frontrunner, Foster Friess. These Democrat primary shenanigans have happened before, and the state legislature does nothing about it, despite the best efforts of the legislature's handful of actual conservatives. That the powers that be want to allow Democrats to select the Republican candidate is extremely frustrating to Republican voters in the state. This year, the Democrat tide almost swept away some beloved conservative incumbents. Perhaps the answer is simple: business as usual in Wyoming is bloated government and corruption. True conservatives would rein in the overspending that has emptied the state coffers. Wyoming has the highest ratio of government employees to citizens of any state in the nation and the highest ratio of government supervisors to workers and ranks lowest in transparency on financial matters. Runner-up candidate Foster Friess, a staunch Christian conservative and outspoken supporter of President Trump, is also a businessman who understands finance. No wonder he was the target of the Democrats' crossover scam. Mr. Friess told me his "number-one focus" right now is the scandal that Wyoming has an F ranking by the Center for Public Integrity. That's an F in executive accountability, civil service management, procurement, lobbying disclosure, ethics enforcement, and management of the state pension fund. "We can wait until the legislature gathers in January to decide the best method of conducting Wyoming's primary elections, however, first we must address the much more important issue and focus all our efforts on that, and that is the disclosure of the entire state's checkbook to the Wyoming citizens. Wyoming is one of only three states that does not make its checkbook available. This will be my number-one focus," said Mr. Friess. Wyoming's state legislators have a ready excuse to do nothing to protect the integrity of their elections. Crossover voting is actually required in the state, thanks to the strong-arm tactics of the Clinton administration. Wyoming refused to adopt Clinton's 1994 "motor-voter" law, a partisan Democrat initiative to boost registration by under-motivated voting blocs. The law proved to be a disaster that led to widespread corruption of the country's voter rolls in some cases, 100% of the new voter registrations were fraudulent. Motor-voter raised the cost of keeping election rolls free from fraud to twice the "Election Division's entire annual budget" for some states. Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno sued three states to force them to comply. Wyoming was given a waiver only by agreeing to same-day registration and allowing primary day "crossover" voting. Both those provisions have been used by Democrats in recent elections to enter the state, register, and vote all on the same day, and to flood the Republican primaries with Democrat voters. Because it is a deal with the federal government, Wyoming cannot stop same-day registration and cross-over voting unless the state's attorney general is "willing to fight the feds," something the state has been unwilling to do for 16 years under the last two governors, one a Democrat and one a Republican, according to conservative state representative Marti Halverson. Representative Halverson proposed legislation last year to require voter registration to end two weeks before candidates file, but the Legislative Service Office, dominated by progressive bureaucrats, ensured the bill's failure with a "you can't do that" four-page memo. Unfortunately, voters in a state this red are so complacent that they do not bother to inform themselves. Few bother to vote in the primaries. They simply assume that if someone claims to be Republican, it means he will vote based on conservative principles. The number of actual principled conservatives in the State House is low, indeed. Harriet Hageman, a sterling conservative and clean government advocate who ran a strong campaign to be the Republican candidate for governor, told me, "Our current system, which provides for same-day crossover voting, stifles debate between conservatives and liberals by allowing the Democrats to pick both of the candidates for the general election. While small in number, the Democrats have found a way to exercise an outsized influence in Wyoming. In this case, they did it by branding themselves as 'Independent Republicans of Wyoming,' despite the fact that they are committed and avowed liberals. They are, in other words, willing to use their dark money and distort their affiliation to improperly influence the Republican primary. That is wrong and corrupt." Idaho had the same problem with crossover voting by Democrats. Fed up Republicans went to court and won. According to Newsweek: It wouldn't be the first time Democratic voters had tipped the scales by participating in Republican elections. In 2011, Idaho's Republican Party sued to close its primaries to voters who weren't registered Republicans, citing a study that said as many as 40 percent of Democrats admitted to crossover voting. The judge presiding over the case later estimated that it was likely a much smaller percentage but still ruled in favor of the GOP and closed the primaries to party-affiliated voters only. Wyoming voters the few who are paying attention want this to be the last time Democrats chose who runs on the Republican ticket. They are being cheated of a fair election in which they, not their political opponents, choose their own party's candidate. In the words of Teton County's Tea Party's letter to its members: There is clear evidence that the recent Vote Switch-A-Roo is a concerted effort, NOT to support a good candidate, but instead to block a good candidate from the party the voter does not like. This attitude could be called many things: Dirty Pool, Not Kosher, Gaming the System and Unethical are some that come to mind. Some Republican voters are hoping Foster Friess will use his considerable moral courage and energy to mount a campaign on this issue. If Friess can reform Wyoming's unfair crossover voting law, his entry into Wyoming politics will not have been in vain. It remains to be seen if enough citizens will galvanize themselves to correct this abuse of fair elections. With that in mind, know that this kid voted for McCain in two presidential primaries and in the 2008 general election and doesn't regret having done so, despite some of McCain's policy positions. In fact, I now think Republicans should have run McCain for president in 1996. Think of how different politics would have been had McCain been elected president in '96 and had there been a woman or a minority in the number two spot. The nation would have been far better off. But Republicans tend to fall in line, and Sen. Dole was next. John McCain's funeral at the National Cathedral brings to mind an admonition some will have heard in the cinematic recreation of a memorial at St. Paul's Cathedral in London for T.E. Lawrence: " Well, nil nisi bonum " "Of the dead, [say] nothing but good." The differences between T.E. Lawrence and John McCain were stark. For one thing, Lawrence died at the age of 46, while McCain lived to just a week shy of his 82nd birthday. Also, Lawrence never became an elective politician. Even so, Lawrence had a well attended funeral, which included Winston and Clementine Churchill, author E.M. Forster, and Lady Astor (historical clip). But would the D.C. swamp have honored McCain with such a grand sendoff had he not been a member of Congress? I think we know the answer to that. Yet McCain's service and sacrifice in the military were his more important contribution to America, not his time in Congress, even had his votes been more reliably conservative. The press remarked that two of the speakers at McCain's funeral, Bush and Obama, had both defeated him. Being defeated by another man is, for example, being sprawled out on the canvas after getting KOed by the man still standing. Is defeat when voters select someone else? If so, then if anyone defeated John McCain in his bids for the presidency, it was the American voter. Not only that, but when one includes Robert Dole and Papa Bush, the American voter has recently "defeated" three American heroes in their runs for the presidency, electing less well tested nominees instead. Unfortunately, politics reared its ugly head at McCain's funeral. It was nothing like the horrendous funeral of Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002 (short video), but it was there. And of course, there were the obligatory calls for bipartisanship. One can say this for McCain's idea of "reaching across the aisle": one of his best bros was Joe Lieberman. Joe is one of the few decent Democrats of the last 50 years, which is why Democrats shunned him, forcing him to run for re-election as an independent. Joe was one of the three amigos, and McCain asked him to be his running mate. That ticket would have won. Republican members of Congress should forget about bipartisanship. Democrats don't care about bipartisanship. Democrats' idea of compromise and reaching across the aisle is "you come over to us." What the Dems really want is hegemony; they must be in control. They don't want there to be an effective opposition party. Reasonable people think America needs two effective parties, one slightly to the right of center and one slightly to the left of center. But it should now be apparent to everyone that the Democrats are way out on the far left. If they adhered to any positions that were more statist, more extreme, they'd be bumping up against authoritarianism. After the splendid 2016 elections, now is the time for voters to punish the Democrats in the coming midterms so that others can rebuild the party into something decent and American. Only in ruin will the Democrats ever reform. Unfortunately, certain "conservatives" have been advising that Republicans do the opposite and vote Democrat this fall. Their "Trump derangement" is so far gone that they no longer can identify the true domestic enemy of everything American. It's especially disappointing when revered conservative columnists urge such destructive tactics, for now is the time to crush the Democratic Party so that it can become decent and American. This writer has been reading and appreciating the columns of George Will since at least the eighties. So it's disappointing to read his Washington Post column of June 22: "Vote against the GOP this November." Despite the ugly headline, there's actually some good stuff in the short piece. But the point of the article, what Will is urging Republican voters to do, is monumentally ill advised: The congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution's Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use against the current wielder of Article II powers. They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have atrophied because of people like them. If Mr. Will is urging voting for Scandinavian-style socialists today, will he be advocating voting for National Socialists tomorrow to give Republican members even more "leisure time" to think on their sins? Perhaps Will was having a "senior moment" when he wrote that column. Let's hope Will will soon come to his senses, compose a mea culpa, and advise what this kid is advising: vote out the rest of the Dems now to give them the "leisure time" to recreate their party with real Americans, and fix the Republican Party later. It's true that our current GOP Congress has disappointed. Those congressmen weren't able to repeal Obamacare (thanks to Sen. McCain). Ending the "individual mandate" was a consolation prize, but it can easily be stuck back in if Democrats take over Congress and then use reconciliation. The main Republican successes in Congress have been the tax cuts for corporations and the Senate's approval of Trump's stellar judicial nominations. The pendulum no longer swings back and forth over the political center; instead, the pendulum swings from just left of the center over to the far left. If the pendulum swings far enough left, it may not swing back. This is just one reason why Will's voting advice is so dangerous. (I can't believe I'm taking on George Will, one of my heroes. Maybe the Post's owner, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, made him an offer he couldn't refuse.) Sen. McCain was not a "movement conservative," he had a mix of positions, and some were faulty, like the idea of bipartisanship, whose time is long gone. Since McCain was the "Lion of the Senate," he should have known that you can't be bipartisan with hyenas. Out on the veldt, lions despise hyenas with all their being. Hating hyenas is what lions do; it's in their DNA. With the loss of John McCain, the Senate will be a less virtuous place and a lot less interesting. If Arizonans want to honor Senator McCain, they should vote in November for another fighter pilot: Martha McSally. Jon N. Hall of ULTRACON OPINION is a programmer from Kansas City. No, You Can't Get an 'Amen' Last Friday, entertainers, activists, and politicians gathered in a Detroit church to remember Aretha Franklin at a funeral lasting more than eight hours. Bill Clinton was there along with Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, and Maxine Waters, lots of others, and the media. The media knew they had all the ingredients for a #Resistance meeting (which is exactly what The New Yorker called the next day's memorial service for Senator John McCain) that is, they had leftists, microphones, and TV cameras. They couldn't wait for the scathing attacks on Donald Trump. None of the reported insults was noteworthy. Take this silly example from Michael Eric Dyson, possibly plagiarized from Daffy Duck: "You lugubrious leech, you dopey doppelganger of deceit and deviance, you lethal liar, you dimwitted dictator, you foolish fascist." No one would allow Maxine Waters anywhere near a microphone, so the best she could manage was a "Wakanda" salute. Ho-hum. But then Reverend Jasper Williams, Jr. gave his eulogy (worth seeing in its entirety, at 8:39 in this video of the entire service). That's when the headline became "Dog Bites Man." In 1984, Williams had delivered the eulogy for Ms. Franklin's father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, and she recently asked Williams to deliver hers. After a tribute to Aretha Franklin's title as "Queen of Soul," Williams went on to explain what the Bible means by "soul" and then asked the crowd, "Have you lost your soul? If we're truthful, honest, and fair, we have to say black America has lost its soul. ... As I look in your house, there are no fathers in the home no more." He went on to say that "as proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot do, a black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man. She can't do that. She can't do that." Citing statistics on black-on-black murders, Williams spurned the Black Lives Matter movement: It amazes me how it is when the police kills one of us we're ready to protest, march, destroy innocent property. We're ready to loot, steal whatever we want, but when we kill 100 of us, nobody says anything, nobody does anything. He implored Black America to "come home to God." Simply put, his message was the direct opposite of what's preached by so many black clergy Sunday after Sunday: that all problems in the black community are the result of social forces and systemic racism, that the answer is faith in the secular promises of race-hustlers and the Democratic Party and in what jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron sarcastically referred to as "the train from Washington." As an outsider to the black church, I don't know how many pastors share Reverend Williams's fairly traditional Christian message to return to God, accept His design for family and children, and take responsibility for keeping unambiguous commandments such as "Thou Shalt Not Murder." I do know that the liberal media hate this message, as they hate all authentic Christian messages; that's why they use highly selective reporting to screen out preachers like Williams, preferring to show only those black churches whose religious authority rests on commitment to progressive causes. So it wasn't bad enough that Reverend Williams's message was full of politically disapproved content, but it was also heard by millions of people who are never supposed to hear black pastors talk this way. When an outlawed message gets out to the masses, the media promptly respond by mashing the "outrage" button, sending forth an army of incensed experts to destroy both the message and the messenger. When Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, for all his faults, recently displayed remarkable courage by calling out the violence in Chicago as a moral and spiritual problem, liberals instantly threw him under the wheels for being tone-deaf and blaming the victims. The CEO of the Chicago Urban League flatly said about any explanation for Chicago's violence other than racism, "I won't accept it." Emanuel, obviously, is white, and in spite of his association with the Clintons and Obamas, he is no longer a popular enough Democrat to be of any use to the cause. He can be destroyed. It's not so easy with Reverend Williams. Aretha Franklin chose him, for one, which means slamming him looks like questioning her. Typically outspoken progressive clergy show little enthusiasm to denounce Williams, except a few incoherent non-responses to media goading. Detroit NAACP president Reverend Wendell Anthony, when asked about Williams's hard-hitting eulogy, said, "Part of the issue yesterday was the need to elaborate and to put a holistic approach to certain points he was making." Translation: "I have absolutely no response." Not to worry: The media were able to find much more direct outrage on social media. The Detroit Free Press reported that "social media, especially the Twittersphere, exploded in criticism over Williams' remarks. They accused him of being sexist and demeaning to other black people." Wrote the Associated Press: "Twitter user A'Ja Lyve, who uses the handle @ajalyve," called Reverend Williams "'a homophobic, sexist, misogynist, ableist, uneducated bigot who is disrespecting Auntie Aretha Franklin at her funeral. She wasn't about nonsense." (That's right: the A'Ja Lyve!) To further amplify the reaction they wanted to report, the Free Press cited headlines from other news outlets as if they were reporting actual facts: "headlines characterized Williams' nearly 50-minute eulogy as 'antiquated,' and 'controversial.' One said he had a 'bleak view' and the message 'provoked fury.'" Read those articles, and see that they're also sourced back to social media a neat trick if all you want is to buttress leftist dogma and not report facts. Social media offer a wealth of harsh put-downs, none of it has to make any sense, and the invectives punch up your copy without the need to put reluctant public figures at risk of saying something profoundly stupid. Yet there had to be outrage among liberal black clergy. Reverend Williams preached a message that revealed all their Democrat talking points for the specious nonsense they are. They're not willing to challenge Williams's points directly, because his message just made so much obvious sense. What can his critics say? That the prevalence of poor single mothers having to raise sons without their fathers is a cause for cultural pride? Are they going to prove Williams wrong with an argument that the murder rate of black men by other black men is less of a threat than police shootings or Klan lynchings? Even Jesse Jackson knew better than that, once upon a time, just as he once knew, and said, that the argument that "the right to privacy is of a higher order than the right of life ... was the premise of slavery." There was a time when the moral authority of the black church, personified in Reverend Martin Luther King and a band of lesser known clergymen, was able to convict white America of racism and change a country's heart. Now, if a black pastor dares use his pulpit to call lost souls back to God, today's hirelings call it a male-centered "theological insult" or mumble that their colleague just wasn't "at his best." How things have changed since "Respect" hit number one. T.R. Clancy looks at the world from Dearborn, Michigan. You can email him at trclancy@yahoo.com. Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Harris, and Booker, the four horsemen of the Democrat apocalypse The Senate Kavanaugh hearings have been instructive, to say the least. The four names above were the most tellingly obnoxious Democrats at the event, the worst offenders. To name the others would be redundant. The Democratic Party's left what amounts to a far left these days cares about nothing beyond ending the Trump presidency, by any means necessary. These people have sold their souls to accomplish this feat. That was on display for all to see these past few days. They set out to destroy Judge Brett Kavanaugh with all sorts of accusations, innuendo, and insults, but they didn't lay a hand on him, not one of them, no matter how malicious their interrogation. Not one of these Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee showed the judge an iota of respect. They did expose for all to see their contempt for the president and all things conservative. They apply very different rules to those nominated to the SCOTUS by Republicans from what they apply to those nominated by Democrats. Non-answers by Democrat-nominated candidates are heralded for their evasion of how-would-you-rule questions. This is not allowed for those nominated by Republican presidents. Supreme Court justice nominees such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, etc. were celebrated for their refusal to answer certain questions. Kavanaugh, more judicious and more experienced than Ginsburg or Kagan ever were, has been eviscerated by these same Democrats and the press for his handling of the questions asked. The left is behaving as if its members' very lives depend on defeating Kavanaugh's nomination to the court. Republicans have never resisted a Democrat-nominated justice so vehemently. Most of them have been confirmed almost unanimously. Yet Democrats do not grant a sitting Republican his choice. Why? It's because they count on the SCOTUS to advance the far-left agenda they cannot get done legislatively. They view the Court as their ace in the hole, their way to achieve their ends. It has worked through the years. When they are foiled, they become very, very angry. Think Citizens United. Democrats take their power over the citizens of this nation very seriously. They behave badly when it is challenged or proscribed. Those on the Judiciary Committee have demeaned themselves these past few days. Rather than accord Judge Kavanaugh the respect he has earned, they set out to trap the man, somehow, some way, in a lie or a politically incorrect word uttered at any time in his life. Violate a diktat of political correctness, and you will feel their wrath. But the leftists never accurately assess their opponents. They always assume they are smarter than everyone else, us deplorables. It is this mistake that leads them in the Senate to make fools of themselves, as the odious Richard Blumethal, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Sheldon Whitehouse, among the rest of them, did. Senators Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, etc. were almost equally intellectually underwhelming, and as foul. All of them simply want to find a way to overturn the results of the 2016 election. Bottom line? They are all sore losers. They have yet to accept the results of that election. No Republican has ever conducted himself this poorly. It is as though there are two sets of rules of conduct one for Democrats, one for Republicans. Democrats can be, and are expected to be, cruel, vicious, and vindictive. Republicans must be passive, kind, and considerate. Make no mistake: even when Republicans act in a civilized manner, they will be accused of all the dreadful things Democrats do. Democrats are masters of projection. The Kavanaugh hearings have been even more instructive than the Judge Neil Gorsuch hearings earlier in President Trump's term. Blumenthal, Harris, Booker, and Whitehouse are the poster people for the American left today. They are a sad commentary on what was once a pro-American party. They all seem to loathe America now. They are proving correct the apocryphal quote of Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev from long ago: "You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of communism until you'll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won't have to fight you." Our Democratic Party today is fulfilling whoever it was who made prophecy, Khrushchev or not. They are the apocalypse, destroying us from within. We must all pray that Republicans and independents vote Republican in November. If they do not, we are lost. The only problem: The emails had already been reviewed and released, and he knew it. Senator Cory Booker had already scripted what he hoped would be his break-out moment in yesterday's confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, so he wasn't going to let facts get in the way of TV exposure. He portrayed himself as risking martyrdom in the cause of...I suppose he would say "transparency." He would risk expulsion from the Senate by releasing confidential emails sent by Judge Kavanaugh, insinuating that damaging material would go unread but for his courage. Shannon Bream of Fox News: The New Jersey Democrat vowed to sacrifice his seat and even compared himself to Spartacus during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, so important did he deem the 16-year-old emails from Kavanaugh discussing post-9/11 racial profiling as a White House lawyer. Booker pronounced the move an act of "civil disobedience" and said he was ready to face punishment, including the loss of his Senate seat. "This is about the closest I'll probably ever have in my life to an 'I am Spartacus' moment," he said. Shortly after 1 p.m., it was announced that the restrictions on releasing the emails, which had been labeled "committee confidential," had been waived in the morning. Nothing that Booker released was marked "committee confidential" at the time of its release. As Bream notes, the mainstream media ignored the reality and celebrate the purported bravery of the New Jersey senator: Nearly two hours after Booker's dramatics were proven cynical at best, CNN's home page announced, "Cory Booker releases confidential emails." NBC News went with, "Democrats force release of previously confidential Kavanaugh documents." CBS News' headline stated that "Cory Booker releases 'classified confidential' documents during Kavanaugh hearing." Not to be denied an ex post facto claim of legitimacy: Hours after the initial fiasco Thursday, Booker released a new string of documents that did appear to be marked "committee confidential." Richard Baehr emails me what is really going on: Blacks make up 25-30% of all voters in Democratic primaries, and over 50% in some Southern states and Maryland. In a large candidate field for the presidential nomination in 2020, Booker seems to have decided that his best chance is to play race warrior #1, and the biggest bravest fighter against the threat of a white supremacist court. Which is what we would have if a terrible person like Brett Kavanaugh joined the court. Kamala Harris, former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, and Eric Holder are all considering running, but only Harris competes on the national stage with Booker. Booker currently is overshadowing Harris by being more hysterical in this hearing. It is not a bad strategy, but it is indicative of what a chameleon he is he would play any role that would advance his career. One lesson from Hillary Clinton's loss that I believe many Democrats have embraced is that the party needs a black nominee on the national ticket, preferably president, in order to get black turnout and support back up into the 90s. The party's embrace of identity politics already predisposes it in the direction of a constituent identity group a minority or a woman or both on the ticket. White males need not apply. The only exception might be for a white male like Bernie Sanders, who could stand as the champion of socialism. I don't think it is a recipe for electoral success, but the Dems obviously do. Dems know how to be mean. Republicans should learn. I was privileged to be invited to the annual White House conference call with rabbis, which is held annually before the start of the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It was terrific to hear firsthand from President Trump about his commitment to the values shared by traditional Judaism and America, including justice and security, and to listen to President Trump's words of great friendship. The White House graciously included other political and communal leaders of the Jewish faith on the conference call, such as Senator Norm Coleman, chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Professor Alan Dershowitz, who has staunchly defended and advocated for numerous policies and actions of President Trump in the face of left-wing opposition. During the conference call, President Trump and Senator Coleman reviewed the very many accomplishments of the current administration. It was refreshing to hear as well as surreal, for we are bombarded 24-7 with anti-Trump media stories. If one takes a step back, he immediately realizes that these stories are divorced from the reality that America is getting better by the day in so many ways (security, economic growth, employment, global influence, war on terrorists and gangs, and much more). It is precisely the policies of the current administration that, with God's help, have steered America back toward its upward course. And it is totally ironic that the primary beneficiaries of these dramatic improvements in America are precisely the people who most oppose President Trump, such as those in the inner cities, those who were previously jobless, and those who live in areas most at risk for compromised security. One of the messages of the High Holidays is that of returning to proper values and facing the truth. Life is full of deception and distortion, coming at us from all sides, dragging us down and tarnishing our wholesomeness. We return to God and recalibrate ourselves with His values and vision, shedding the falseness with which we have associated during the course of the previous year. It is a spiritual and mental cleansing, and hopefully, it will impact on our actions as well. I felt that it was providential that the White House conference call with rabbis occurred during the Senate's confirmation hearings for Judge Kavanaugh, and in particular on the day that Senator Cory Booker illegally released confidential emails from Judge Kavanaugh in an attempt to have his nomination for the Supreme Court rejected. Booker, with excessive flair and overdramatized martyrdom, alleging that his collection of classified emails demonstrated Kavanaugh's problematic positions on race and abortion, daringly leaked the emails and proved: nothing, absolutely nothing. Read the emails for yourself, on the CNN link, which is servile to left-wing interests, and you will find nothing suggesting or supporting Booker's false claims. On the contrary, the emails depict Kavanaugh as being very deliberate and sticking to the rules. Those who bother to read the emails will realize they actually support Kavanaugh's nomination. Booker's hyped up scheme was an embarrassing flop; it is no wonder that CNN moved the story off its home page within a few hours of its release and failed to post anything that explained exactly how the emails were damaging for CNN realized that the whole thing was a non-story. Or, to be more honest, it was a false alarm and a hoax. We read the anonymous New York Times article by an alleged White House senior staffer about presidential chaos. While anonymous articles should not be assumed to be true, let's for a moment assume that the Times article is accurate. Although it may make some people feel good and vindicated for attempting to take Trump down at every turn, it is an exercise in delusion, for every single accomplishment of this administration, each of which massively benefits even the harshest detractors of President Trump, reflects the direct policies of President Trump, and more importantly his bravado personality and unconventional approach were the critical ingredients for that which was accomplished. Other Republicans, with their gentlemanly and mild approach, rarely got much done. Only Ronald Reagan, who was willing to frontally challenge the system and give it a kick in the pants, made a serious imprint. Taking a step back from the fray and assessing the reality, so much has been accomplished, by God's graces, through the unconventional, cheeky and often "in your face" approach of President Trump. I fear to think what would have been with America's security, economy, employment numbers, and more had someone else been elected, or had a more mild-mannered Republican been the GOP nominee two years ago. Divorcing ourselves from the distortion and hype are key themes for me and my community this holiday season. Taking a quick look at the smoke-and mirrors falsehoods being promulgated by the detractors of the current administration ironically affirms and adds to this inspirational message. Rabbi Gordimer is chairman of the Rabbinic Circle at Coalition for Jewish Values and is a frequent contributor to various publications, including Cross-Currents and Israel National News. He is a member of the New York Bar, and he works for a Jewish communal organization in New York. Mwanaume ni Akili, these are the words of Kenyas hip hop star Octopizzo after graduating from the private Ivy League research university, University of Pennsylvania. The Kibera rapper has been all bought that education over the last few months taking his undergraduate programme in Social Impact Strategy. Octo, who inspired Kenyan youths a while back after revealing how he had been rejected by tons of universities before the UPenn admission, graduated on Wednesday, September 5. And on Thursday, Octopizzo finally broke the news on his social media handles and continued to serve as an inspiration to young Kenyans. He wrote: Thanks to @uofpenn for the knowledge, happy to be a graduate in 2018, something that I already gave up on after high schoolbut education has no age limit. Never in a hundred years would I thought of even attending UPenn even as a tourist, thanks to the lecturers, thanks to my new friends, thanks to my family for the support and patience during my every now and then travels. Cant wait to go for my Masters next and & where life takes me after that. So for my masters Ill put it out there if you got any scholarships links hit me up. So what exactly are the standards that the Times applies when calling an anonymous person a "senior" official when the story being spun fits the narrative the Times is pushing? Phelim McAleer, writing in Townhall , takes a trip down memory lane and reminds us of an incident in which the Times was caught exaggerating to a startling degree, in service to its agenda of demonizing fracking. The anonymously written New York Times op-ed purporting to be written by a "senior official in the Trump administration" was artfully written to suggest that the author is Cabinet-level. Senator Elizabeth Warren seems to think so . The contention that "there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment" seem to be sort of thing that could come only from one of the whisperers, but of course, it easily could be third- or fourth-hand gossip overheard by a person many layers lower. In a lengthy anti-fracking article they [the NYT] claimed that senior industry experts and insiders believed the industry to be little more than a "Ponzi scheme" ... "set up for failure". They even had the emails from a series of senior insiders where these doubts were expressed. According to the New York Times, one "energy analyst" wrote, "Am I just totally crazy, or does it seem like everyone and their mothers are endorsing shale gas without getting a really good understanding of the economics at the business level?" Another "federal analyst" said in an industry email, "It seems that science is pointing in one direction and industry PR is pointing in another." Here is the article in question. McAleer continues: [U]nfortunately for the New York Times, the emails were from the Energy Information Agency a government organization so this meant Senate investigators were able to find the original emails and work out the identity of all these different senior experts. It turns out the federal analyst, the energy analyst and the officer turned out to be the same person who was actually an intern when he wrote the first email and in an entry level position when he wrote the other comments. Yes, that's right, the "Paper of Record" misrepresented an intern/junior employee as a senior official to push an agenda. It was bad enough that the Times had an internal conflict: Was the New York Times embarrassed when their [sic] deception was uncovered? The Senate investigation did attract the attention of the New York Times Public Editor Arthur S Brisbane. "Can an intern be an 'official'? It doesn't sound right to me," he stated. Well it sounded fine to the New York Times editorial board. They stood by their mislabeling of the intern/low level employees as a senior official. As McAleer notes, the position of public editor has since been eliminated at the Times. If and when the identity of the anonymous writer is uncovered, if the person involved turns out to be someone the public has never heard of a deputy assistant undersecretary in the Department of Interior, for instance, if not an actual intern the backlash will be intense. This story has a way to go. The crazed, rabid left is back again, this time stabbing and seriously wounding the leading presidential candidate in Brazil, just weeks before the Oct. 7 first round of the election. JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil (Reuters) The leading candidate in Brazil's presidential election is in serious but stable condition after being stabbed by an assailant at a campaign rally on Thursday, doctors said, pushing an already chaotic campaign into further disarray. Far-right firebrand Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a controversial figure who has enraged many Brazilians for years with divisive comments, but has a devout following among conservative voters, could take two months to fully recover and will spend at least a week in the hospital, said Dr. Luiz Henrique Borsato, who operated on the candidate. "His internal wounds were grave and put the patient's life at risk," Borsato said, adding that a serious challenge now would be preventing an infection that could be caused by the perforation of Bolsonaro's intestines. Yes, it was a leftist. And yes, the candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, 63, pretty well parallels President Trump in his rise to power. Brazil, it turns out, had its equivalent of Barack Obama, in the persona of Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, who, like Obama, came in as someone never before elected a dark-skinned working man in his case, holding far-left views the press never acknowledged, and disguised as hipsterliness, who shoveled pork to the poor, got rich on the side, and left the broader economy in shambles. The corruption scandal in Brazil known as the "car wash" (centered on contracts to Brazil's state oil company and a construction company called Odebrecht) hit Brazilians hard and left them disillusioned. The fall in oil prices (great when times were good and President Obama was asking to be their best customer, but awful when times were bad) hit Brazilians hard, too, given that it gave Brazilians what the Economist called their worst ever recession. The failure of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics (remember the green diving pools?) was a psychological blow, as was the recent burning of the national museum in Rio. There's also the failure of public transport, the rising violence in the streets, the arrogance of the elites, and the monster refugee crisis rolling in from Venezuela, so it's not surprising that the country was in the market for something new and the left was screaming. It's also important to know that Brazil, isolated from much of Latin America by both its Portuguese language and the vast Amazon jungle, has always felt kind of different, often in good ways. It is, after all, a country whose jets, the Embraers, are seen on U.S. airline runways. Its car operations are world-class. It's also a leader in design and has a vibrant tech sector. Its health care can be first-rate, curing as it did several Latin American presidents of their cancer. Had Hugo Chavez taken up Brazil's instead of Cuba's offer of a cure, he would still be alive. Up until recently, it's been a powerful innovator in deepwater drilling. The country does have a sense of being special, similar to the U.S., and with the shambles described above, it saw that specialness eclipsed and smothered by the rule of the left. It's obvious that the country was looking for an outsider and it found one, in Bolsonaro, whose slogan was "guns up" and who has vowed to wipe out drug-dealers the way President Trump has vowed to halt illegal immigration. He's also defended the Brazilian military junta of the 1970s and 1980s, which, up until now, with the aid of the Castro propaganda machine, has been painted as completely evil, when in remembered reality, it was a mixed bag. Bolsonaro's been the frontrunner in Brazil's polls since Aug. 9, and he's very much an outsider, given that he can't even get state money for televised campaign ads and has to do all his campaigning by social media and in person. Sound familiar? Check out the social media presence of Bolsonaro on this Economist chart, and note that Trump's social media presence was just as prominent. Note also that Trump did high-energy in-person rallies during his campaigns as his rival, Hillary Clinton, stumbled around with health problems and ignored warnings from her own successful husband Bill that she had to get to rallies in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the left screamed about how unacceptable it all was, and what a clown these rightward populist outsiders were and assumed its rice bowl was safe. The press, meanwhile, billed the populist candidate as "far right" to create the impression that his views had no currency with sane people. Sure enough, at its fringes was the equivalent of a Bernie Bro who was ready to kill. We've seen these people in the U.S., as the little-remarked-upon shooting of leading House rep. Steve Scalise showed. Somehow, as the leftist press continually warns about the dangers of the "far right," the violence always shows up on the left. In both the U.S. and Brazilian cases, the violence-perpetrator has been excused from the responsibility of the left, because he was supposedly "insane." Yet violence is pretty much what the left is about, especially if one can go back to the left's origins, in the French and Russian revolutions. Couple a will to rule and a belief that all power comes from the state, throw in a "by any means necessary" street attitude, and the crazies come out. I can't say for sure how the election will come out now. Will the inability of the badly wounded Bolsonaro to campaign with Trump-style rallies affect the election outcome? Will it lead to a sympathy vote, which up until now Lula, running for president from jail, has held a monopoly on? Or will it lead to a stronger response from Brazil's angry voters? There is one non-parallel worth noting, which may make the outcome of the Brazilian election different from America's: Lula got punished for his crimes. No one in the Obama administration ever did. So it could be that the anger will dissipate more easily in Brazil. On the other hand, the scandals, trauma, and bad economy were far greater than in the U.S. Also, the trend is our friend these days, and nearly all of Latin America (save Mexico, which nevertheless elected an outsider from the left) has pretty well absorbed the Venezuelan horror and swung rightward. The winds seem to be blowing in Bolsonaro's direction, but nothing is certain except that this is an election to watch. What it does show for us in the states is that President Trump is far from physically safe. Every effort from citizens and law enforcement agencies alike should be mobilized against the crazies who would do him harm, because we know they are out there especially because (as the Bolsonaro and Scalise cases show) they are on the left. Some laws are more settled than others We've heard over and over about "settled law" from Democrats. Of course, this is their way of defending Roe v. Wade. For the record, I don't think Supreme Court opinions are law. They are opinions that can be changed by future justices. Unlike laws, they can be overturned by a single justice. Laws, on the other hand, have to be repealed, requiring a vote and presidential signature. Nevertheless, the Democrats have a funny way of practicing their "settled law" dogma. We learned this week that California has not accepted the Janus decision about public-sector unions. This is from Eric Boston: In June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down longstanding precedent by ruling that public sector unions could not force workers to pay dues if those same workers decline to join the union. The ruling significantly reshapes the role that public sector unions play in American politics, so it's pretty difficult to imagine that there were any labor unions not watching the case. Yet months later, some unions seem not to have gotten the message. Several California unions, the SEIU in particular, have continued to collect dues from non-members in defiance of Supreme Court decision. Have the Democrats in California heard about "settled law"? So here is a crazy idea. Judge Brett Kavanaugh should respond to Senator Kamala Harris of California this way: Senator, you want me to talk about settled law. Do you believe that Janus is settled law? PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. The Ahabs of the left Desperate Democrats appear fixated on two narrow issues, which they regard as viable conduits in their vengeful desire to destroy Donald Trump: impeachment and abortion. Now, incredibly, we hear that old liberal warhorse Robert Reich has hysterically confused the two. In essence, he wants to abort Trump! Not impeach him, mind you. That would involve some sense of recognition of Trump's almost two years in office. By annulling ("aborting") the president, it would somehow seem as though his term as our national leader did not exist, period. It's like the TV commercial for a crack clean-up crew that claims to repair even the worst damage "as if it never even happened." Reich's statement is even more appalling considering his purportedly prestigious place in academia. The prospect of his delusionary whims being promoted to graduate students in his occasional courses makes the situation even more hazardous. Robert Reich was a buddy of Bubba Clinton at Oxford. Over the long years, he forged deep personal and political ties with Bill and Hillary. Reich has been riding the academic gravy train ever since he served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration. Perhaps he was hoping his days of Cabinet service were not yet over. Professor Reich made a blip on the political landscape last year when he commented on the mayhem that took place at his beloved Berkeley. Antifa had used the occasion of protesting conservative speakers on campus as a pretext for smashing windows, setting fires, and otherwise destroying property belonging to the State of California. Perhaps some of the mayhem might have been prevented had the Berkeley campus police not been told by the administration to "stand down." Actually, they were standing up lined motionless along a second-story balcony while a band of marauding thugs wreaked havoc, unopposed. Reich wasn't around for the ruckus, but that did not prevent him from afterward insinuating himself on national TV to strongly suggest that the real culprits had been agents of the treacherous right. After all, none of the villains looked at all familiar to him. He had, in fact, never seen them on his campus before. So they must have been a wild pack of conservative intruders associated with Andrew Breitbart. The fact that the rioters had their faces and bodies completely covered would have made any positive identification impossible. Robert Reich was conveniently delusional then, and he is even more so now. He is one of those Kool-Aid-guzzling liberals, driven to drink by the unanticipated results of the 2016 election. He had assumed that his pals would be back in the White House. Now reliving the glory days of the Clintons seems beyond his tantalized grasp and his mind has snapped like a harlot's garter. He is not alone in his deep state of utter despair. Watching the way liberals "handle" disappointment is a clear warning that they cannot be trusted in a crisis. They could no more be expected to sanely steer our Ship of State than Captain Ahab was to take proper charge of his whaling vessel. In fact, Moby-Dick is the prototype for what is happening to the obsessed minds of the liberal establishment. Like Ahab, who lost a leg to a Great White Whale, the crazed swamp-dwellers lost an election to a Great "Orange" Creature who seems to have come out of nowhere. He has not only crippled them; he has blinded them with rage and plunged them into a vast sea of obsession from which they cannot seem to rescue themselves. The lasting popularity of Melville's novel speaks to the self-destructive power of obsession. To visit vengeance on Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab would destroy everything not just his seaworthy nemesis, but his entire crew and, indeed, what is left of his vengeful self. In the same manner, the all-consuming vendetta that grinds away at the leaders of the Democratic Party could end up destroying them and it. The last that readers of Moby-Dick see of Captain Ahab, he is lashed helplessly to the body of his mortal enemy. That is the risk fools take when they are unable to cut the punishing ropes of obsession. I saw the known liar John Brennan on the Today Show talking about how dangerous Trump was and how this opinion piece was credible. The media are again having a collective orgasm because an anonymous writer has penned an opinion piece scathing to Trump. This writer is said to be credible because other anonymous sources have told the media the same things in the past. Bob Woodward has a new book with a lot of anonymous people supposedly quoting what others have said about Trump. Woodward's quotes are said to be credible because the media have heard these anonymous sources and quotes before. The fact that Kelly and Mattis said they didn't utter those words is irrelevant, because that just doesn't fit the agenda. In July, CNN ran a story from a credible anonymous source saying Cohen had the goods on Trump on Russia and was willing to squeal. Journalists wet their pants as they repeated this credible story. A few days later, the anonymous source, Lanny Davis, came forward to say he just made the stuff up. Lanny Davis was the mouthpiece of the Clintons. The retractions to the story were pretty quiet, and Bernstein and CNN still stand by the false story. Ben Rhodes admitted that the Obama administration used the media to spread false stories on the Iran deal. Jonathan Gruber admitted that the Obama administration continually lied to pass Obamacare, and the media willingly spread those lies. The media willingly spread the fictional "hands up, don't shoot" narrative that ginned up racial hate, hate of cops, and violence. The Duke rape case was fictional and used to gin up racial hate against rich white kids. The Rolling Stone magazine ran a fictional rape case story that destroyed people's lives, and other media outlets repeated the story. The NYT had a reporter who for years wrote false stories: Jayson Blair, a young Times reporter, lied and faked and cheated his way through story after story scores of them, for years. He fabricated sources, plagiarized material from other publications, and pretended to be places he never went. CNN seems to have a problem with truthful reporting. Three prominent journalists at CNN resigned on Monday after the cable news network was forced to retract and apologize for a story on its website involving a close ally of President Trump. While CNN is willing to make up lots of stuff about Trump, the network was also willing to hide true stories about Saddam Hussein to keep its Iraq Bureau open. CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan yesterday sent a memo to his staff defending his decision to withhold information about how Saddam Hussein's regime had intimidated, tortured and killed Iraqis who had helped the cable news network over the years. Which stories are they hiding today that don't fit their agenda? Dan Rather and Brian Williams were both fired for just making stuff up, but now they are back, trashing Trump, because that is what it takes today to get a job in most of the media. Journalists caught fabricating, embellishing or simply not fact-checking have lost their careers. Dan Rather left CBS News in 2006 after a controversial story that relied upon false National Guard documents. Jayson Blair was fired from the New York Times in 2003 for stories that were invented or plagiarized, a travesty that also cost then-executive editor Howell Raines his job. Journalist Stephen Glass was fired from The New Republic in 1998 for fabricating, in parts or in whole, 27 of 41 articles for the magazine. While the lies and fabricated stories of the media are too numerous to mention, one of the biggest lies of all relates to the fake Russian dossier. It is still being used today to help push the fake Russian collusion story. Anything that goes against Trump is acceptable. Isn't it amazing that Democrats, Hillary, and the media searched far and wide for dirt on Trump to defeat him, and yet they thought they had to spend millions to create a false dossier, which was also used as an excuse to spy on Trump and those who surrounded him and as an excuse to insert informants into his campaign? All Trump had to do to beat Hillary was tell the truth about her. This Deep-State bureaucrat who wrote the anonymous piece trashing Trump, along with most journalists, Democrats, Brennan, and others, says he is concerned about the nation's security, but we know that that is not true. These people are clearly worried about maintaining their power. If they were actually worried about the security of the United States, they would have been out during Obama's eight years as he: Backed out of our commitment to Poland and the Czech Republic to put up missile shields in order to appease Russia. Said he would be flexible with Russia if he was re-elected and laughed at Romney when Romney said Russia was dangerous. Called ISIS the J.V. team. Concocted a lie about Benghazi to protect his political power. Continually lied in order to give hundreds of billions to Iran, which pledges "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," along with spreading terrorism throughout the world, and would not even enforce his self-imposed red line in Syria. If they were worried about security, they certainly would have gone after Hillary, her aides, and Obama for their flagrant disregard of laws on classified documents. They would not have tolerated the FBI, Justice, and intelligence agencies spying on political opponents and unmasking names while protecting the guilty Hillary. The clear reason everyone is going after Trump is because he is trying to reduce the power of government as fast as he can and give it back to the people. The next time over 350 newspapers get together to coordinate anti-Trump editorials about how reliable and honest they are and how dangerous Trump is, they should look at all the willing lies they publish and how many true stories they refuse to run to protect people they like. Meanwhile, the economy continues to soar. I am impressed with all of Trump's accomplishments, as he is under attack each day, and I encourage him to continue tweeting, especially against garbage opinion pieces in the NYT, made up stuff on CNN, and gossip books like Woodward's. It turns out that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has not been asleep at the wheel of the Department of Justice, allowing Robert Mueller to be the only federal prosecutor investigating the potential criminality around the 2016 election. News has been leaked to the Washington Post that a grand jury has been working for months, hearing witnesses in its investigation of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Federal prosecutors have for months been using a grand jury to investigate former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified, two people familiar with the matter said. The presence of the grand jury shows prosecutors are treating the matter seriously, locking in the accounts of witnesses who might later have to testify at a trial. But such panels are sometimes used only as investigative tools, and it remains unclear if McCabe will ultimately be charged. ... The allegations against McCabe come largely from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, whose office concluded in a detailed report McCabe lied at least four times, three of them under oath, and he approved a media disclosure to advance his personal interests over those of the Justice Department. Andrew McCabe (credit: Wikimedia Commons). [Cough!] I wrote this almost half a year ago: While there have been calls for a special counsel to investigate the DOJ and FBI scandals, and many conservatives have been outraged at the seeming passivity of "Gentleman Jeff" Sessions (aka Sessionzzz in some quarters), it now is clear (as I have already figured) that a grand jury far outside the Beltway already is hearing evidence dug up by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, whose report is now believed to be coming in April. Following release of that report, expect heads to explode all over the media, all over the Deep State, and among NeverTrumps. The first hint that the wheels of justice already are turning came on March 7, when A.G. Sessions revealed to Shannon Bream: I have appointed a person outside of Washington, many years in the Department of Justice to look at all the allegations that the House Judiciary Committee members sent to us; and we're conducting that investigation. This effort outside D.C. appears to be a separate investigation from that being carried out by the "person outside D.C." that Sessions revealed but that the national media ignored. Clarice Feldman comments: If the WaPo has the news on the McCabe GJ, it must be almost at its conclusion. And if it is, there's no reason to keep from releasing the unredacted FISA materials. Nor for any further delay on the next Horowitz report, I love it when a plan comes together. I have long stressed that President Trump, as the master of reality television, understands the importance of a story arc. In long form drama, a Big Reveal that comes later in a narrative can shock audience members into realizing they have been looking at the situation in question through the wrong end of a telescope. They experience the revelations as especially full of meaning because they personally bought into the fiction for a while, before all the facts were made evident. At some point, the phony storyline that Trump conspired with Putin to steal the election will be replaced by the storyline that a cabal of high Obama administration officials conspired with Russian sources for the phony dossier and illegitimately utilized the electronic monitoring capabilities of the NSA to spy on the Trump campaign, transition team, and first months of the administration. Last night, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columba Joe DiGenova revealed on Fox News that sources had told him that McCabe is not alone in being under investigation. The target he revealed: Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein. (Hat tip: DC Whispers.) Stay tuned. The declassification process is underway for documents that will change everything. Sixty years ago the United States took upon itself a challengeeradicate malaria from the entire country, all 3.8 million square miles of it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nations leading public health institute, was borne out of this plan, and for the next four years the CDC devoted itself to the cause spraying DDT in millions of homes across the country. In just three years, malaria cases dropped from 15,000 in 1947 to only 2,000 in 1950. By the end of the next year, malaria was considered eliminated. DDTs effectiveness in killing mosquitos wasnt known until 1939 when the Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Muller discovered the chemicals insecticidal action. Before that, controlling malaria was limited to proactive measures such as eliminating mosquito breeding grounds by drainage or poisoning with Paris green or pyrethrum. Photo credit: Sangaroon/Shutterstock.com At the turn of the last century, before malaria became a serious endemic threat to the United States, one Texas physician began experimenting with bats to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes. In the beginning, Campbell tried to create nests for bats using boxes of assorted sizes and shapes. But after years of unsuccessful experimentation he realized that unlike birds, bats needed something bigger. With a personal investment of $500, Campbell built the first bat housea 30-foot-tall tower, he called the monumentin 1907 at the U.S. Experimental Farm near San Antonio. Inside, a series of inclined shelves provided the bats to roost upon, and 20 yards of guano saturated cheesecloth were hung on the inside walls so that the bats could feel at home. To further attract the nocturnal creatures, he left slices of ham inside. Unfortunately, for all his effort, not a single bat took the bait. Campbell spent the next three years making improvements to his bat tower out of his personal savings, but still no bats came. In desperation, he captured around 500 bats from another location and imprisoned them within the tower, hoping their squeaking would attract passers-by. That failed too. In outrage, Campbell tore down the tower and drove off the hundreds of English sparrows that had taken roost there instead. Dejected with failures, Dr. Campbell went into recluse, suspended his medical practice and left his family to spend time alone in the mountains. There, he spent months studying bats in the wild, their behavior and their habitats. Armed with a wealth of information, Campbell returned and proceeded to build his next bat tower. Municipal Bat Roost, erected by the City Council of San Antonia, Texas, March 17, 1916. Campbell learned that bats preferred to roost near water, so he built his tower near Mitchell's Lakea swampy low land where all of the citys sewage flowed into creating the perfect mosquito breeding ground. From spring through fall, such is the onslaught of mosquitos that farmers from the surrounding land are forced to flee, leaving their crops to ruin and their livestock to suffer. In the spring of 1911, the year Campbell's new bat tower was built, seventy-eight of eighty-seven adults and children living around the lake had malaria. Campbell finally got a taste of success. That summer, he returned to Mitchell's Lake and watched with satisfaction as hundreds of bats flew out of the tower in a long column taking a full five minutes to leave. Knowing that his bat tower had room for hundreds of thousands more, Campbell turned his attention to a bat-populated hunting lodge about 500 yards away. His goal was to drive all the bats out of the hunting lodge and into his tower. Campbell sought to achieve this by making the hunting lodge acoustically unfit to leave. With the help of a friend, Campbell waited until the bats had left their roost for the night, and just before their scheduled return at the crack of dawn, he played a cacophony of clarinets, piccolos, trombones, drums and cymbals from a record at full volume. The bats with their sensitive hearing found the building too noisy, and as Campbell predicted, flew away. Campbell repeated the same musical performance at a nearby abandoned ranch house occupied by bats with similar results. The following evening, Campbell went to his bat tower by the lake and timed their exit with his watch. This time the bats took nearly two hours to leave. Campbell was convinced he had succeeded in bringing the entire population of bats from both the hunting lodge and the abandoned ranch to his bat tower. In 1914, four years after the Mitchell's Lake roost was built, Campbell didn't find a single case of malaria among the families living around the lake. As word of his experiments spread, inquiry about bat towers began to come from all around the country and even as far away as Italy. Recognizing the tremendous results Campbell managed to achieve with meager costs, the City Council of San Antonio passed an ordinance making it unlawful for anyone to kill a bat within the city limits. The same year, the first city-funded Municipal Bat Roost was built in San Antonio. Killing bats eventually became illegal all across Texas. The original Mitchell's Lake bat tower became a tourist attraction, and people began to arrive every evening to watch the bats leave. Picnic benches and seats were soon set up allowing visitors to watch the show in comfort. At its peak, the Mitchell's Lake roost contained over a quarter of a million bats. From 1914 to 1929, a total of 16 towers were erected from Texas to Italy. Only about two or three survive, currently on private property. The Mitchell's Lake bat tower was pulled down in the 1950s when rabies hysteria gripped Texas and bats were taken off the State's protected species list. One surviving bat tower, erected in 1918, stands near the town of Comfort, in Texas, at the country home of the former mayor. The shingled pyramid-shaped tower is 30 feet tall and raised on a concrete foundation, about seven feet off the ground, that allows guano collection from underneath. Guano is a great fertilizer, and a useful byproduct of the bat towers. In fact, the Mitchell's Lake bat tower averaged about two tons of guano a year. The tower in Comfort is named Hygieostatic Bat Roostthe word Hygieostatic was invented by the mayor, Albert Steves, based on the Greek words hygiea (health) and stasis (standing). About a thousand bats currently reside there, although its population was once said to be around ten thousand. The Hygieostatic Bat Roost near Comfort, Texas. Photo credit: Larry D. Moore/Wikimedia A less successful bat tower at Sugarloaf Key in Florida. It was destroyed by a hurricane in 2017. Photo credit: donielle/Flickr Uber is set to utilize its driver and passenger rating system to institute a ban on riders in New Zealand and Australia who have a score at or below 4-stars, according to a recent report from the BBC. The move follows the implementation of a similar policy in Brazil which was put in place earlier in 2018 but that doesnt necessarily mean its going to become widespread. Uber says that each of the ban policies is based on driver policies and that the two new locales will benefit the most from restrictions to rude or abusive riders. It also clarified that bans on an account will remain in place for a total of six months from being enacted. Meanwhile, the policy itself is set to go into effect on September 19 and a spokesperson also said that several thousand users are likely to be impacted. Although banning passengers may seem to be a somewhat drastic measure, Uber users typically need to be given several one-star ratings from drivers before their score will drop that low. In general, the company says that most such instances where that occurs involve situations where riders create unsafe circumstances for drivers when organizing pick-ups or are impolite to drivers. It also tends to happen when riders leave garbage behind for the Uber driver to clean up after the trip is over. Putting a policy in place to ban riders is seen as a way to promote respectful behavior towards drivers, which would have the knock-on effect of making the service safer and the drivers happier. With that said, riders who are using the service and behaving in ways that will result in low ratings will receive several warnings before their account is banned. Presumably, riders who show improvement upon receiving a warning will not be banned. However, the company hasnt clarified how many warnings will be received or under what circumstances a ban might be contested. There also isnt any information currently available with regard to whether those riders who already have lower ratings will be banned immediately. So Uber may or may not give riders who already have a low rating the opportunity to bring that up before removing their access to the service. Apparently, there is a bug going around on third-party Google Assistant speakers that is breaking Routines on those speakers. Routines are still working perfectly fine on the Google Home, Home Max and Home Mini, but as for third-party speakers like the Insignia Smart Speaker, or the Sony LF-S50G, they arent working at all. And it doesnt seem to be acting the same, for everyone. Some will get the chime at the beginning of the routine, but Google Assistant will only do one task. Others will get the I dont know how to help with that yet message, or the Good Morning routine will work but others like the Good Night routine wont. Google has not yet commented on the thread on its support forums, so its unclear whether they are working on a fix or not. But it would be very surprising if Google was not working on a fix for this issue. Especially since it is effecting all third-party speakers and not just a handful of users. Its a really strange issue for Google Assistant, and it only seems to have started in the past two weeks. So perhaps there was an update that was pushed out (perhaps on the server side of things) that broke routines for third-party speakers. Routines hasnt actually been out all that long actually, so its kind of surprising to see this type of issue come up. Routines allows users to create a routine of different commands it might give Google Assistant at a particular time of day. For example, for a Good Morning routine, you could set Google Assistant to tell you about the weather for the day, whats on your calendar that day, give you the latest traffic conditions and finish up with the latest news, while you are drinking your coffee. Routines are very customizable, and you can create your own, although Google does have a few ready-made routines that you can enable. Google has officially sent out invites for an event on October 9. Its the companys annual hardware event, where we expect to see the Pixel 3, as well as plenty of other hardware from the search giant. The October 9 date had been circling around for a couple of weeks, and it turns out that is the date that Google will unveil its latest smartphones. The company is also doing the unveiling in New York City this time around, instead of San Francisco where it unveiled the latest Pixel smartphones the previous two years. There are a ton of rumors on what Google is going to be announcing at this event, though we do know for certain that the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will be there. Those two smartphones have been leaked quite a bit already, and Google could literally walk on stage and say that all the leaks were true, then turn the press loose in the hands-on area. We also know that the Pixel Watch will not be making a debut this year, as the head of WearOS has already stated that the team is not working on such a device right now, and that it is working with partners more than its own smartwatch. In previous years, Google has unveiled new Google Home hardware, as well as new headphones, new Google WiFi hardware and much more. This event is typically where Google releases all of its hardware that it has been working on all year. With Google I/O being more of a software/sneak-peak event on what Google is working on, this fall event is more about finished products that will be on store shelves before the end of the year. Its possible we could see a new Google Home device, seeing as the Google Home Max and Home Mini were released at last years event. But we can speculate all we want, we wont know for sure what Google has to announce until October 9, which is just over a month away. Here are links to the biggest stories today. Trump sees treason from within Its impossible to know in the moment when a presidency begins to dissolve. But after a devastating 48 hours, its already clear that Donald Trumps will never be the same. Trump slams damning New York Times op-ed as gutless An unnamed senior Trump administration official assailed President Donald Trumps amorality and reckless decision-making in a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday and said he or she is part of a resistance working to thwart Trumps worst impulses. The story behind the New York Times anonymous op-ed blasting Trump Through the go-between, the senior official expressed interest in writing an explosive piece for the paper, describing a resistance to President Trump within the government that works overtime to protect the United States from the presidents worst impulses. The result, published on the New York Times website on Wednesday, prompted speculation all across Washington about who the official is. John Kerry: This is a genuine constitutional crisis Former Secretary of State John Kerry said the country faces a genuine constitutional crisis following Bob Woodwards reporting on President Donald Trumps dysfunctional White House and the unnamed senior administration officials op-ed assailing Trump in The New York Times on Wednesday. Indias top court decriminalizes gay sex in landmark ruling Indias Supreme Court has struck down a colonial-era law criminalizing consensual gay sex, overturning more than 150 years of anti-LGBT legislation. Influenza may be cause of sickness for handful of crew, passengers on Emirates flight to JFK Federal health officials met a plane landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport after passengers reported feeling ill, according to sources. Judge orders couple who started GoFundMe for homeless man to appear at deposition A judge wants to speak to the couple who started a GoFundMe account for a homeless Philadelphia man and find out what happened to the $400,000 raised. Burberry bans destroying unsold goods and using fur Written by Bard Wilkinson, CNN British fashion house Burberry said Thursday it will stop burning unsold goods and using real fur in response to criticism on social media and from environmental activists. The ban on burning unsold products comes into immediate effect, Burberry said in a statement. Worlds largest offshore wind farm opens in Irish Sea The worlds largest offshore wind farm, located off the northwest coast of England, begins generating energy on Thursday. Toyota is recalling 1 million hybrids at risk of catching fire The automaker said Wednesday that the safety recall covers its Prius, Prius plug-in hybrid and C-HR SUV models and is intended to repair a problem with their electrical systems, which in some cases can cause fires. More than half of the affected vehicles are in Japan, while just under 200,000 are in the United States. S Sudan soldiers guilty of rape and murder A military court in South Sudan has convicted 10 soldiers of raping foreign aid workers and murdering a local journalist. The crimes were committed during a rampage in the Terrain Hotel in the capital, Juba, in 2016. UN peacekeepers who were nearby were accused of failing to respond to pleas for help. Chinese racist rant sparks Kenya fury A Chinese man will be deported after a video emerged of him making racist comments, Kenyas immigration department says. The man, indentified as Liu Jiaqi, was captured in a video calling all Kenyans, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, monkeys. Mr Liu and his representatives have yet to comment on the situation. Twitter admits unfairly hiding accounts Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has told US lawmakers the companys algorithms have not always been impartial. He said the platform unfairly reduced the visibility of 600,000 accounts, including some members of Congress. But he was unable to immediately say whether a majority of them were Republican, Democratic or otherwise. Woman charged twice for 18,000 Mercedes A woman paid 36,000 for an 18,000 Mercedes because of a glitch that saw thousands of people charged twice for debit card payments. Francesca Brady and her mother bought the car on 29 August the day the error occurred due to an issue with a card terminal run by Cardnet. Donald Trump Calls Anonymous New York Times Resistance Op-Ed Gutless President Donald Trump on Wednesday reacted to an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times purportedly written by a senior White House official. Trump responded angrily to the op-ed by calling the article a gutless editorial. The Times piece details a concerted internal effort to derail the president from causing damage to the country, citing his unpredictable urges and anti-democratic ideas. Trevor Noah Nails Most Terrifying Thing About NYTs Anti-Trump Op-Ed The New York Times anti-Donald Trump op-ed purportedly penned by a senior White House official has Trevor Noah spooked. On Wednesdays broadcast of The Daily Show, Noah said the pieces anonymous writers claim that he and others were keeping Trumps wilder impulses in check had led him to draw a scary conclusion. Homosexuality Is No Longer A Crime, India Supreme Court Rules NEW DELHI (AP) Indias top court on Thursday struck down a colonial-era law that made homosexual acts punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a landmark victory for gay rights in the worlds largest democracy. Hannity Guest: Science Proves Trump Is The Most Sound-Minded President Ever Excerpts from Bob Woodwards upcoming book, Fear, claim that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly described President Donald Trump as unhinged and an idiot. An op-ed by an anonymous senior official published in The New York Times on Wednesday called Trumps instability has prompted talk in the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. Is There Such A Thing As Eating Too Many Avocados? Ah, the mighty avocado. When eaten at the perfect moment after it ripens, but before it turns brown and mushy there are few things more delicious. In fact, one Australian millionaire said overpriced (and addictive) every day for six months. Thats the dream! Trumps TREASON? tweet instantly becomes a meme Trump responded to a very public exposure exactly how youd expect. The New York Times published a wild op-ed anonymously written by a senior official on Wednesday that detailed the quiet resistance within the administration to stop Trumps worst inclinations. In response, Trump appeared to accuse the anonymous writer of treason by tweeting, in all caps, TREASON? Twitter CEO Jack Dorseys hearing on conservative shadowbanning was a mess It was round two of a doubleheader for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Capitol Hill this afternoon. After providing testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg earlier in the day, Dorsey steeled himself for another hearing one just for him and Twitter in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Crypto market is crashing hard, heres why The cryptocurrency market is bleeding for the second consecutive day, with prices of most popular coins down double digits in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 12.4% in this period according to CoinMarketCap and is currently trading at $6,426. This week Purism announced it plans to start shipping its Librem 5 smartphone to those who pre-ordered starting April, 2019. This is a smartphone that has been in development for some time and it had initially been expected to start shipping in January, 2019. Although that date had evidently now been pushed back by a few months. The Librem 5 is an interesting phone for number of reasons, one of which is how the company is looking to displace the Google and Apple duopoly by offering an option that runs on something a little different PureOS. While that in itself might appeal to some, the company is further counting on advanced security and privacy features to entice consumers over to the new open source operating system. For example, one of the big security-focused features is the addition of hardware kill switches for many of the phones major (and potentially most intrusive) elements, such as the camera, the microphone, and WiFi/Bluetooth/cellular connections. As for the reason behind the delay, Purism notes that it has recently found two bugs that affect the NXP-manufactured CPUs power management and consumption. To the point where it is capable of causing a significant negative impact on battery life. Along with the update announcement, Purism has provided a fuller posting which explains the issue in more detail stating that in its present form, the bug is capable of draining a full battery within an hour. Purism also says that its working closely with NXP to fix the issue, although the knock-on effect of the bug, combined with calendar events (such as the holiday season and Chinese New Year) has led to the company opting for an April launch. The Librem 5 started life as a crowdfunded project which quickly reached its goal resulting in the project moving to a firmer state of development. Fast forward to now and although the phone has been delayed, the company is still accepting pre-orders for those who want to be one of the first to test-run the new smartphone, and to do so will currently cost you around $599. A price the company argues is ultra competitive considering the unprecedented control and security it will offer its owners. Rumors and leaks mentioning Nokias handset with five cameras have been rather frequent lately, and a real-life Nokia smartphone with five cameras has just surfaced online as well. If you take a look at the provided image, you will be able to see the phone, and its rather interesting setup on the back. This phone seems to be made out of metal and glass, while five cameras are included on its back, along with some additional sensors. As you can see, three cameras are placed in the same row, while the remaining two are put off on the side, one on each side, and above them, youll notice an LED flash, and an additional sensor, which seems to be a laser autofocus sensor. Having said that, this image also reveals that the physical keys will be included on the right, while ZEISS branding is also included on the device, so ZEISS optics will be a part of the package as well, as expected. This rear-facing camera setup is somewhat different than the one that surfaced a couple of days ago, though thats not surprising, as yesterdays leak only showed a sketch of a phone, so its probably one of Nokias prototypes, and its possible that the company opted for the one that just leaked, as the rear-facing setup looks much better, and more organized. Now, you will also notice that the phones model number is included on the back as well, TA-1094, which suggests that this is the upcoming Nokia 9 flagship, as that model number has surfaced a number of times thus far in connection to the Nokia 9, and a phone with that model number even got certified by MIIT authority in China. Having said that, the Nokia 8 was announced back in September last year, so its possible that its successor, the Nokia 9, will land before the end of this month, or October at the latest. The device is expected to be fueled by the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core processor, while it will probably ship with at least 6GB of RAM on the inside, and Android 9 Pie out of the box, as the phone will be a part of Googles Android One project. Advertisement UPDATE: image re-uploaded. Snap is looking to capitalize on the popularity of its updated Spectacles 2, launched back in April, with two new variants called Veronica and Nico. The latest camera-enabled wearables build on the original with changes that bring the devices more in line with designer eyewear while keeping all of the features users love. As the names imply, Veronica is tailored with a more feminine fashion sense in mind, while Nico is aimed at men. Both follow modern trends in the sunglasses fashion and feature large frames in a squared-off styling and polarized lenses. However, Snap isnt offering a lot of options in terms of colors and personalization with Veronica and Nico since each new style is only available in a black-on-black configuration. The new Spectacles 2 styles are now available at select retailers and online in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, and Italy. Another aspect that is decidedly more designer is in the pricing. Nico and Veronica are more expensive than their rounder and more obvious counterpart at $199 instead of the usual $150. That added cost doesnt just include the modern aesthetics though. The price also includes a semi-soft protective case in addition to the usual accessories. Meanwhile, buyers in the US will have the additional option to buy prescription polarized lenses thanks to a partnership between Snap Inc. and Lensabl. Doing so will bring the cost up significantly, with a base price of $389.99 including prescription lenses designed to work with the frames. But that does mean that they can be used by those who need corrective lenses rather than the wearables being limited to users that dont. Those are available in multifocal or single vision prescriptions and with either impact-resistant polycarbonate or high-index options. Setting that aside, the new Spectacles styles work exactly like the prior Spectacles 2. That includes HD-quality only Snap transfers, videos are captured at 10-second or 30-second lengths, and photos can be captured too. Up to 150 videos or 3,000 photos can be stored on-device and roughly 70 videos or between 210 to 280 photos can be shot and transferred on a single charge. Those can be saved in a horizontal or square format as well as in a circular option and later this fall, the new designs will be capable of saving Snaps in a Highlight Story in Snapchat. Advertisement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2W-c5ApgqA&feature=youtu.be Verizons head of Media & Advertising (also known as the head of OATH, the company formed by the AOL and Yahoo acquisitions), is reportedly in talks to leave the largest wireless carrier. Tim Armstrong was successful in completing the acquisitions of those two companies AOL and Yahoo but has not been successful in getting Verizons Media and Advertising strategy up and running. Verizons streaming TV service, Go90, was a pretty big failure when it launched. This was mostly because the company wanted original content on the service, and did not include any popular channels, like AT&Ts DIRECTV NOW has. Armstrong has a strong history in the world of advertising. He worked at Google in the early 2000s, and then AOL poached him in the second half of that decade after he had proved himself with the outstanding ad revenues he brought in at Google. Armstrong was at AOL until it was purchased by Verizon in June 2015. After AOL was acquired by Verizon, Armstrong would take over as their head of media and advertising, which later turned into OATH, and became a subsidiary inside the company. OATH has had its struggles since forming a little over a year ago. And in fact, many analysts believe that Armstrong should spin OATH out of Verizon and take it public. That would likely give Armstrong and his team a bit more freedom to do what they want. According to a report out of The Wall Street Journal, however, Armstrong is looking to leave the company. He hasnt left just yet, so there is a chance that he does stay on-board at Verizon as CEO of OATH. But it looks very likely that he is heading out the door. And its unclear what would happen to OATH if he did leave Verizon, considering the company is already floundering. BarcelonaIn a press release issued this Thursday at noon, Carles Puigdemont and the former ministers who were sacked during Madrids direct rule called for "A huge turnout, a spirit of non-partisan concord, and an unwavering commitment to non-violence" during this years National Day on September 11, thus underlining the "exceptional" circumstances the nation finds itself in. "Due either to prison or to exile, most of us will not be able to join you in person. But we will be there more than ever, and you will feel our presence more than ever", they remarked. The statement goes on to say that "We are well acquainted with the strategy of provocation employed by those who throughout this period have striven to defeat the Catalan peoples civic, peaceful spirit; they have tried it by means of elements of the state apparatus, by means of powerful propaganda, by means of powerful financial backers, and now they are trying to stir up a confrontation to end peaceful coexistence". According to the the statement, "The opponents of democracy are planning on us giving in to such temptations, in their attempts to take away our voice and impose the use of force. We refuse to deviate even one millimetre from an attitude that the whole of Europe can see for itself and which it respects. In the text, Puigdemont and his former ministers recognize that the path to the Republic is "long and complex." A path that draws energy from October 1, the day on which "a new era began" and that on this National Day ought to be strengthened by the "values of the Republic". The launching ceremony of the Port-Said Gowind corvette, the first warship built in Egypt, took place on September 6th, 2018 in Alexandria. This launching constitutes a success for Alexandria Shipyard team. It also reflects the effectiveness of Naval Groups industrial cooperation schemes. This industrial achievement demonstrates the strength of the strategic partnership between Naval Group and Egypt. The launching ceremony of the Port-Said Gowind corvette, the first warship built in Egypt, took place on September 6th, 2018 in Alexandria. This launching constitutes a success for Alexandria Shipyard team. It also reflects the effectiveness of Naval Groups industrial cooperation schemes. This industrial achievement demonstrates the strength of the strategic partnership between Naval Group and Egypt. (Picture source ) The launching of the Port Said corvette shows the capabilities of the Alexandria shipyard, as it is the first warship built in Egypt. This launching ceremony celebrates the rise in competences of the Alexandria Shipyard team which is now able to build civilian boats as well as state-of-art military vessels. Along with the first ever delivered Gowind corvette, El-fateh, already deployed by Egyptian Navy on many operational theatres, it will contribute to increase the Egyptian Navy Power. The corvette is part of a strategic and long-term partnership with Egypt. It is the fifth ship designed by Naval Group, operated by the Egyptian Navy, after the already delivered FREMM frigate Tahya Misr in 2015, the two Landing Helicopter Docks Nasser and Sadat in 2016 and the first Gowind corvette, Elfateh, in 2017. Herve Guillou, Naval Groups CEO declared: Naval Group is very proud to be part of this longterm partnership with the Egyptian authorities and industry. This ceremony is an opportunity to reiterate our strong commitment to execute all the programs and to equip the Egyptian Navy with an homogeneous fleet. In addition, Naval Group is pleased to participate in the maintenance and modernisation of this fleet. Naval Group has a long-term presence in Egypt and will remain involved for many years to come in Alexandria as partner of the Egyptian Navy to secure their operations. Naval Groups commitment to support customers through transfer of technology at each stage of the construction process is reaffirmed. Port Said, the first ever Egyptian made warship, is a proof that industrial cooperation works. The corvette manufactured in Alexandria has identical features and possesses the same performance level than the sea-proven Elfateh, which was built on Naval Groups site in Lorient and delivered to the Egyptian navy last autumn. 10 Gowind corvettes sold around the world The modular design of the Gowind corvette enabled Naval Group to meet the specific requirements of the Egyptian navy in the shortest time scale possible. The Gowind corvette, ordered in ten units, meets the challenges faced by navies in changing war environments and offers a complete, multi-mission combat ship for sovereignty operations, the fight against illicit trafficking or maritime protection. The Gowind corvette is a concentrate of the latest technological advances developed and mastered by Naval Group in naval defense. It integrates the latest generation of combat systems developed by Naval Group, SETIS, the "Panoramic Sensors and Intelligence Module (PSIM)" - a combination of the integrated mast with its various sensors and the Operational Centre and associated technical premises - and the high level of integration, automation and user-friendliness of the Naval Group systems. In addition to the Egyptian contract; Malaysia bought Gowind corvettes in 2012. 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. A Man's Guide To Drinking Rose A Gentleman's Guide To Drinking Rose Like A Boss The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. Aperol spritzes may had had their moment in the sun this season, but rose still remains the king of summer. Enter any rooftop bar in the US and youre bound to be swarmed by a sea of blushed beverages concocted from the finest grapes on the planet. Guys have even gotten past that whole 'oh, its pink and fruity, Im not drinking that" stigma and are opening up their palate to more flavorful wine, champagne, hard ciders, and even beer options. Contrary to what hecklers and internet trolls want you to believe, rose is and always was a gender-neutral spirit. Its completely cool to drink pink, and for those with no shame in knocking back a few glasses on a hot summer day, its OK to admit youre still getting the hang of this, while keeping your manhood intact. We get it. To give you better insight of how guys can enhance their rose experience, we enlisted the services of several industry experts to break it all down from different angles. Meet the team: Alexander LaPratt (Master Sommelier & Principal of Atrium DUMBO and Beasts + Bottles) Renaud Butel (US Vice President of Moet & Chandon) Charles Ford (General Manager & Wine Director of S.K.Y. Restaurant) Ryan Burk (Head Cider Maker at Angry Orchard) Giuseppe Marrone (Executive Chef & Owner of Acqua Restaurant) Thats a serious clique right there. Working with these fine gentlemen, weve managed to create this primer on the dos and donts of rose everything from the key characteristics to the popular styles, the perfect food pairings to the dummy-proof selection process. Pull up a stool because were about to school you in Rose 101. Related: 20 Distinguished Sipping Tequilas You Should Try At Least What Makes For a Great Rose? It doesnt take a certified wine steward to pick out a premium rose. Picking up on the basics is enough to ensure your next pour is a flavorful one. Several factors make up a great rose and we got LaPratt to break down each one. Color: The darker the color oftentimes means its a fuller bodied (more alcohol) and fruitier wine. The paler it is, the lighter in body (less alcohol) and more refreshing (acidic) it is. This is a big generalization, with quite a few exceptions. The darker the color oftentimes means its a fuller bodied (more alcohol) and fruitier wine. The paler it is, the lighter in body (less alcohol) and more refreshing (acidic) it is. This is a big generalization, with quite a few exceptions. Dry or sweet: It's a relationship of acid to sugar. If there is a ton of sugar and a lot of acid, it may taste relatively dry. If there is a bit of sugar, but no acid, it can be quite sweet. The more acid there is the less any sugar is noticed. Theyre both necessary to create a balanced wine, but in the right proportion. It's a relationship of acid to sugar. If there is a ton of sugar and a lot of acid, it may taste relatively dry. If there is a bit of sugar, but no acid, it can be quite sweet. The more acid there is the less any sugar is noticed. Theyre both necessary to create a balanced wine, but in the right proportion. Price: You can score some great roseIs around the range of $10-$45. You can score some great roseIs around the range of $10-$45. Region: South of France (Provence), Bandol Central France (Loire Valley), Northern France (Champagne), North/Central Spain (Rioja, Basque), and Mendocino County (California) are all considered top areas across the globe for exquisite rose. South of France (Provence), Bandol Central France (Loire Valley), Northern France (Champagne), North/Central Spain (Rioja, Basque), and Mendocino County (California) are all considered top areas across the globe for exquisite rose. Varietal: Any red grape can make rose. Some of my favorites include Grenache (very common in the south of France), Pinot Noir, Tempranillo (often blended with Grenache in Spain) and my favorite a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay (in Champagne!) Any red grape can make rose. Some of my favorites include Grenache (very common in the south of France), Pinot Noir, Tempranillo (often blended with Grenache in Spain) and my favorite a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay (in Champagne!) Vintage: A general rule is most roses are best drunk in their youth, so to enjoy them while they're fresh and fruit forward. This does not apply to champagne roseI, which can age incredibly well! It doesn't go down smoother than that. From here, it's all about your preference, and there is an endless amount of options to choose from. Regan Coule Rose Wine Wine in general is an incredibly broad category. Let's not overcomplicate things. When it comes to rose, you have dry, sweet, and semi-sweet expressions. In most cases, it can be very sweet, or bone dry just like a white or red wine, says LaPratt. Many roses are simple wines to be enjoyed on their own, but there are others out there that are just as complex, just as refined and just as academic as other styles of wine. Good to know. Those fancying a specific type of rose wine will want to know which ones fall under what taste profiles. Trust us, this will make life more chill when exiting work and entering the liquor store. Dry: Cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, grenachie, mourvedre, pinot noir, sangiovese, syrah, and tavel Cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, grenachie, mourvedre, pinot noir, sangiovese, syrah, and tavel Sweet/semi-sweet: White merlot and white zinfandel How to Select a Rose Wine "For me, the idea of rose is to get the refreshing qualities of a white wine with the fruit characteristics of a red wine! The best of both worlds really! So, cool climate roses are usually higher in acid, which makes them more refreshing, and still have those lovely strawberry, watermelon, and cherry flavors." LaPratt "If you're just starting to explore the world of wine, compare it to the beverage you're already used to drinking. The most important advice I can give is to start a relationship with your local wine shop. Find and develop a relationship with someone there that you trust, then enjoy discovering new wines from all over the world. As far as choosing the right wine for him, or a date? Buy one you've never seen before. Get curious about what's out there and expand your horizons a little bit." Ford Regan Coule How to Enjoy a Rose Wine "Rose is good all year round, and to be honest, as the year goes on I think it gets better. This gives it a little bit more time to relax in the bottle. Some roses upon release are wound so tight that it just feels like drinking razor blades. Although it's natural to want a big and sturdy (maybe higher alcohol) wine during the colder months of the year, it's perfectly natural to crave something a little bit lighter." Ford Made from several grape varieties grenache, cinsault, syrah, and mourvedre this Provencal wine is praised as one of the best in its class. A well-balanced composition consisting of aromatic fruit and floral notes complements the rose's fresh, crisp finish. Domaine OTT BY.OTT, $26.99 at Wine.com The only thing more inviting than the sexy contours of the bottle is the creamy flavor this of dry rose. Candied, fruity, and minerally notes provide a vast flavor profile that you wont taste from any other rose in its price range. Chateau Minuty 'M' Cotes de Provence Rose, $21.00 at Drizly.com A lighter blend of dry and fruity, Miraval is an ideal rose for beginners. Its infused with some of the finest grapes and floral aromas, creating an equal balance of salinity and sweetness. Miraval Provence Rose, $17.99 at Drizly.com For the fruit lover, we recommend one of Frances finest. Whispering Angel is rich in varietals and leaves your mouth bursting with pleasant flavors such as white peach, mango and white cherry. Its a light option that works perfectly for brunch or dinner. Chateau d'Esclans Whispering Angel Rose, $14.99 at Drizly.com Chef Giuseppe Marrones recommendation for pairing a rose wine: "A nice seafood stew, seafood linguine or an octopus stew. The wine's acidity complements the acidity of these dishes very well." Related: The Gentleman's Guide To Drinking Scotch (The Right Way) Sparkling Rose Rose in itself is a statement drink, but a sparkling rose, that is a classier statement. As Butel suggests: I think it shows someone who is sophisticated with a touch of playfulness. When looking into a sparkling rose, there are three categories to consider: champagne, cava, and sparkling wine. LaPratt simplifies it for us. Champagne : A great rose champagne must be made from very ripe grapes, which are sometimes difficult to obtain in the Champagne climate. : A great rose champagne must be made from very ripe grapes, which are sometimes difficult to obtain in the Champagne climate. Cava : This is Spain's answer to France's champagne. Its aged within 9 to 30 months, comes relatively cheaper than other sparkling roses, and usually features pinot noir. : This is Spain's answer to France's champagne. Its aged within 9 to 30 months, comes relatively cheaper than other sparkling roses, and usually features pinot noir. Sparkling wine: It's considered wine with carbon dioxide for more bubbly action. Regan Coule How to Select a Sparkling Rose Choosing the right Rose Champagne for the occasion is one way to make an impression. Rose champagne also lends itself well to the craft cocktail scene. Find one that has the structure and body to complement the flavors of meat and savory foods, which will allow you to enjoy both your dish and the champagne without one overpowering the other. - Butel How to Enjoy a Sparkling Rose "Everyone can understand the appeal of rose being one of the best wines for the popular summer season its light, refreshing, and looks great in a glass in the sunlight for the perfect photo moment. But I also believe that as more people enjoy rose, theyre truly seeing the wines appeal in new ways through versatile food pairings. - Butel Moet offers the most flavorful collection of rose champagnes at affordable price points. The Nectar Imperial expression is excellent for all occasions and social settings with its irresistible and seductive taste of strawberries and cream. If you seek something more grandeur, theres always the 2008 Grand Vintage Rose or the currently popular Ice Imperial to keep up your summer vibes. Moet & Chandon Nectar Imperial Rose Champagne, $59.99 at Drizly.com Crisp and light, this sparkling cava balances citrus notes with tropical flavors that make for a refreshing sip. Its pink-bottled sibling is just as tasty with strawberry tones, as well as fine and persistent bubbles that make it elegant and light on the palate, as described by LaPratt. Anna de Codorniu Brut Rose , $9.99 at Wine.com Heres a rose that comes from one of the best sparkling estates in the country. L'Ermitage comes recommended by LaPratt courtesy of its "great complexity and smoothness. One can't help but fall for its crisp acidity, subtle apricot flavors, and sensual aroma. Roederer Estate L'Ermitage Rose, $69.99 at Wine.com Laurent-Perrier Brut Rose has remained a celebratory staple for the past four decades. Elegant notes of cherry, strawberry, and raspberry pop the moment you uncork the bottle, which features a striking design inspired by King Henri IV. Laurent-Perrier Brut Rose, $79.99 at Wine.com Chef Giuseppe Marrones recommendation for sparkling rose: "Oysters and/or raw seafood are the perfect pairing for a bubbly rose. The yeast of the sparkling rose cuts the saltiness of the raw seafood." Rose Beer & Cider Believe it or not, rose has found its way into the brewing market. More and more suds-makers are experimenting with the wine type, giving beers and ciders a much juicer taste than were accustomed to. Cider is an evolving drink here in the US and people are learning more about it and discovering it as a refreshing alternative to their normal drinks repertoire, says Burk. The popularity of Angry Orchards latest pink-colored cider is living proof of this. Maybe the time has come to switch up your cooler rotation. Regan Coule How to Select a Rose Beer/Cider You cant tell how sweet or dry a rose wine is by looking at it, and the same applies to rose cider and beer. So, the best way to figure out what you like is to experiment with a variety of styles! Focus on brewers and cider-makers who use quality, natural ingredients. - Burk How to Enjoy a Rose Beer/Cider Id choose a rose cider for places rose wine might not be as appropriate, like at the beach, over a grill or hanging around a campfire with friends. It also has a lower ABV than wine, so you can kick back and enjoy a few. - Burk A dynamic blend of rose hops and raspberry puree, this sour-flavored beer is for the tangy lover who doesnt mind a bit of sweetness in their gose. The hibiscus-inspired aftertaste is one worth sharing with your partner. Anderson Valley Framboise Rose Gose, $9.99 at Drizly.com How do you take your rose cider: can or bottle? Doesnt matter. Angry Orchard doesnt discriminate, offering its flavorful concoction of red-fleshed apples and hibiscus in either packaging. Angry Orchard Rose Cider, $1.60 at Drizly.com Aged in French oak barrels and infused with locally-grown raspberries from Paso Robles, CA, this Berliner Weisse-style ale delivers an acidic, fruity punch to leave your tongue salivating for more. Firestone Walker Bretta Rose, $13.75 at Drizly.com Chef Giuseppe Marrones recommendation for rose cider: "A roasted Cornish hen or pizza will pair great with the zingy fruitiness of the cider, which will contrast the salt and crunch of these two dishes beautifully." Rose Subscription Services One of the best way to explore wines, let alone roses from across the globe, is by signing up for an alcohol subscription service. They do the best job of curating bottles based on your personal taste, plus provide the convenience of delivering them directly to your front door. Regan Coule Rose remains a popular choice amongst with Winc confirming that theyve seen a 30% increase in the number of men purchasing rose through their service within the past two years. Not every at-home wine delivery service specializes in rose or carries a quality options, but the ones that do offer some tasty bundles and standalone bottles. Winc customizes each box to satisfy the customers needs based on their palate profile or allows them to populate a box with as much rose as they desire. The companys rose-only Summer Water Societe subscription, which provides magnums and mini bottles of its signature product Summer Water, is so popular right now that theres a waiting list to join. Still, the service offers the option of loading up on Summer Water and other popular bottles in the category. Winc, Learn more at Winc.com Vinley Market offers a Bubbles & Rose subscription box with two professionally-curated selections each month, along with pairing tips and taste notes to learn the details of each bottle. Memberships are flexible and can be either be updated to skip a shipment or take a bigger shipment. Vinley Market, $59.99 at Vinleymarket.com Nine glasses of handcrafted wine sounds dope to us. Well, thats exactly what you get in VineBoxs Shades of Summer package. Six exquisite roses, two reds and one white slip right into this attractive portable package, allowing you to enjoy a few sips in discrete fashion. VineBox, $76.00 at Getvinebox.com Chef Giuseppe Marrones recommendation for rose wine at home: "If youre planning a home-cooked meal, an easy oven-baked salmon fillet with asparagus and fingerling potatoes is an easy-to-make dish that pairs amazingly with a nice rose." Can I Enjoy Rose Past the Summer? It's a fair question to ask. After all, rose is a drink most associated with the year's warmest season. Despite what the naysayers might think, no, its not a sin to enjoy a glass of pink wine past the summer. Regan Coule "IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TABOO TO DRINK ROSE WHEN IT'S COLD," stresses Ford. LaPratt can relate, stating that sparkling works anytime, anywhere for any reason rose or not. Remember that when the clock strikes midnight come New Years! You Might Also Dig Best Gifts For Wine Lovers Best Alcohol Subscription Services Five Whiskies That You Should Just Drink Straight AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service. To find out more, please read our complete terms of use. The bodies of at least 166 people have been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, prosecutors said on Thursday, the latest in a string of grim discoveries made in the eastern region in recent years. State attorney general Jorge Winckler told a news conference investigators discovered the bodies in 32 graves in the central part of the state after an Aug. 8 tip from an unidentified person that they had been dumped there. "After 30 days of work, the human remains of at least 166 people have been found, that is the minimum number of individuals identified on the basis of skulls that have been discovered in 32 different parts of the search area," the state attorney general's office said in a statement. Veracruz has long been racked by violent crime and is an important trafficking route for drug gangs moving narcotics north towards the U.S. border. Lawlessness in Veracruz spiked under former governor Javier Duarte, who governed the Gulf coast state for President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party until 2016. Duarte is in jail awaiting trial on allegations of involvement with organized crime and siphoning off millions of dollars during his tenure. He denies any wrongdoing. Winckler did not reveal the precise location of the graves, citing the safety of personnel still working at the site. "Aside from human remains, we have found more than 200 items of clothing, 114 pieces of identification, as well as different accessories and personal items," he said. Analysis of the remains indicated the bodies had probably been there for at least two years, he said. Winckler called on residents whose family members have disappeared to come forward to have DNA tests performed in the hope shedding light on the identity of the remains. In March 2017, Winckler announced the discovery of more than 250 skulls in unmarked graves in the state. There were more than 30,000 murders across Mexico last year, the highest in records going back to 1997, as rival drug gangs splintered into smaller, more blood-thirsty groups following more than a decade of a military-led campaign to battle the cartels. REUTERS (Daviles/Bigstock.com) (Daviles/Bigstock.com) Australia's new look government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison looks set to introduce a new visa that would encourage more skilled professionals to move to regional areas of the country.It has long been argued that too many people who move to Australia to work want to live in the bigger cities like Sydney and Melbourne, denying other cities of important skills.The Morrison Government is expected to forge ahead with new skilled and family visas, which means that migrants will be compelled spend years in regional areas before they can move to a city like Sydney or Melbourne.Australia already has a number of visa programmes aimed at encouraging people from overseas to move to regional cities including the Skilled Regional and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visas.But businesses have pointed out that once people become permanent residents they often move to the bigger cities when what these areas need are skilled professionals who want to stay and make their life in the area.Official figures show that more than 90% of permanent arrivals choose to settle in the big cities on Australia's East coast and there is little that employers in cities such as Adelaide, Darwin, Perth and Hobart can do about it.However, it is unclear how the new visa programme would work in terms of compelling visa holders not to move. Labour politician Richard Marles has already questioned how the visas would function.'I'm not sure that mandating new immigrants living in regional Australia is going to work. I'm not actually sure there is the power to put that in place, to actually mandate that they do live there,' he told Sky News.However, former deputy Immigration Minister Alan Tudge, who is the new Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population, is a supporter of the idea. He has already said that one of his greatest challenges in his new job is finding the right incentives to encourage more migrants to move to smaller capital cities in regional areas where there are lots of jobs on offer.'We always make sure the immigration settings are in the national interest. Where we can do better is to try to get a broader distribution of migration rather than nearly all migrants going to Melbourne and Sydney,' said Tudge.He added that he has visited regions across Australia where they are 'crying out for any warm body to do the job'. Hello! What kind of proof will i need? Im quiet worried as we don't have joint bills loans etc! My partner lives in Ireland and i live in Aus! He sends money too me, we talk everyday via Facebook. I have receipts from us living together in Ireland, plane tickets as proof of visits, plus us leaving Aus together when he was deported. We have a 7 month old boy together. I have receipts of Valentines, Fathers day and birthday presents. Plus photos etc Will this be enough? Fortunately, the Neunelfer-engined special is almost ready to make its debut, which could take place this fall, at the Paris Motor Show.The German automotive producer has confirmed the fact that the 718 Cayman GT4, as well as the 718 Boxster Spyder, will maintain the naturally aspirated flat-six tradition.And since the only such engine left in Porsche's stable is the 4.0-liter flat-six that debuted on the 991.2 GT3, we're expecting this to be used for the newcomers. Nevertheless, while the unit delivers 520 hp on the GT3 RS and 500 hp on the non-Rennsport model, its output should sit closer to the 400 hp border.The rumor mill, at least its optimistic side, also talks about the GT4 being offered with a PDK tranny. Then again, we see no reason for which Porsche would change its mind on cannibalization matters.As it has been the case with the previous GT4, the 2019 model should come in manual trim only. Those aiming for the dual-clutch setup might have to aim for the GT4 Clubsport, which is the customer racing version of the sportscar - by the way, Porsche is already testing the 718 GT4 Clubsport.Until Porsche introduces the 2019 GT4, we've brought along a rendering of the driver's delight, which sits below, with this being based on the spyshots (you can find a set of spy photos in the image gallery above).In case you're looking for the 2019 Porsche 718 Boxster Spyder, you'll find a recent spy video here , with the footage showcasing the open-air delight on the Nurburgring (that's right, you'll also get to checkout its soundtrack, manual shifts included). EV Hyundai's luxury sub-brand has weird concept car game. They've only made three cars and three concepts since splitting off, but weirdly, the 2016 New York Concept, which was their first product, looks like the 2019 G70, which is their latest production model.And somewhere in between all that, there was the GV80 concept. Though not very well received, it was undoubtedly a preview of future design lines. Those narrow, straight twin LED headlights won't be to everyone's liking, but that's what we're getting on the G80.But we shouldn't be surprised by these similarities. After all, the GV80 probably belongs in the same class as the G80... like the 5 Series and X5, plus the man in charge of the concept's design was Genesis chief designer Luc Donckerwolke.In the same way as a Lexus, the 2020 Genesis G80 will be controversial. But playing safe in a competitive segment like premium sedans is impossible. With a large beak-like grille, it reminds us of the ugly old Lancia Thema sedan. of course, this Genesis isn't really meant for the Europeans.Based on a brand new platform, the G80 will be powered by a combination of familiar and brand new engines. For example, we expect the 3.3-liter twin-turbo V6 to live on since it did such a good job in the G80 Sport and Stinger GT.It will be joined by a new 2.5-liter four-cylinder turbo producing somewhere between 250 and 300 horsepower. It's a flexible unit that could power anything from a front-wheel-drive sedan to a mid-engined bespoke track toy.The G80 will have at least one hybrid version. However, for even more greenness, the model is expected to get a purewith a theoretical range of 500 kilometers (310 miles). This year alone, we saw the introduction of four, all-new Hyundai models in the country. These are the Kona, Santa Fe, Veloster, and the hybrid Ioniq. It's exciting times indeed for the Korean automaker but we are left with one question: Why don't we have the all-new Accent yet? The fifth-generation Hyundai Accent made its debut back in February of 2017 and it's already in showrooms in the US, Canada, Russia, China, and India. The ASEAN market, which includes the Philippines, is noticeably absent. So why is that the case? Speaking to Hyundai Asia and Pacific's non-technical trainer Sivitha Nakula, there is no advise whether the Philippines (or other ASEAN markets) will be getting the all-new model just yet. Locally, there is also no word on whether we'll be getting the all-new version of the popular small sedan. A source from HARI said that the current market for the Accent is the TNVS crowd and an all-new model will mean a price increase in the price-sensitive segment. However, there is a glimmer of hope if you do want the all-new Accent to arrive in the country. There is a chance that the 2019 Accent will arrive here and, if so, the units will be sourced from India. The current ASEAN-spec model will come from either South Korea or the Czech Republic. Getting units from India might drive down prices as a result, meaning we might not see much of a price increase if ever the all-new Accent makes its debut here. Hyundai isn't confirming anything yet, but they're not denying anything either. Given that the Accent is one of Hyundai Philippines' major sales drivers, it makes sense to bring in the fifth-generation model to the country. There are also loads of all-new competitors that entered the B-segment sedan market, which makes it all the more vital for the all-new Accent to be launched locally sooner, rather than later. Today, appending A, M and G to a Mercedes-Benz is a badge of honor of sorts. The emblem speaks of a higher performance that sets it above the rest of the Mercedes line up. That special badge for factory-tuned Mercs, however, is celebrating a special anniversary: this month, Mercedes-AMG marks 25 years since the first successful collaboration that resulted in the C 36 AMG in 1993. Contrary to popular belief, the AMG badge wasn't actually initially exclusive to Mercedes-Benz. The brand started out as a tuning house founded by Hans Verner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher in 1967. That's what the letters stand for: A and M for Aufrecht and Melcher, and the G for the town of Grossaspach where they lived. After years of successfully working together on the German touring car series known as DTM, Mercedes and AMG came out with the C 36 AMG at the 1993 Frankfurt auto show. The 280 horsepower C 36 AMG based on the W202 kickstarted the AMG revolution for Mercedes-Benz, showing the performance potential that can be achieved if specialists worked on the engine, the chassis, and the suspension. That same year, Mercedes and AMG rolled out the AMG versions of the W124 E-Class saloon and the R 129 SL-Class. The E 60 AMG and SL 60 AMG were both powered by a 6.0 liter V8 and developed 381 horsepower. Since 2005, AMG has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler and continues development of high performance variations of their models, all of which are now known as Mercedes-AMG. Amazon has concluded its 14-month search for a second global headquarters and selected Crystal City, Virginia, and Long Island City, Queens, New York, to host the split HQ2. But the search has yielded more than just that. The big picture: When Amazon invited cities to compete for HQ2, it got reams of data from the 238 entrants enough to learn details of the cities' future plans that a lot of their residents don't even know. Why it matters: The information effectively provided Amazon with a database chock-full of granular details about the economic development prospects of every major metropolitan area in the United States (and some in Canada). For a rapidly expanding tech behemoth like Amazon, that database could help it make expansion decisions that go way beyond the new headquarters. Companies have conducted site searches in the past, but none have come close to the scale of the Amazon HQ2 search. That's because Amazon is "not just looking for HQ2," says Joe Parilla of the Brookings Institution. "They're looking for where they're going to put the next data center, the next logistics center, the next R&D facility." Amazon's warehouses are within 20 miles of 31% of the U.S. population, while Walmart its competitor owns stores within 20 miles of 98% of the population, says Cooper Smith, an industry analyst at Gartner L2. are within 20 miles of 31% of the U.S. population, while Walmart its competitor owns stores within 20 miles of 98% of the population, says Cooper Smith, an industry analyst at Gartner L2. "Given they are siting new facilities like mad, this is a huge gift provided by taxpayers," Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto, tells Axios. Much of the quantitative data that Amazon picked up from cities is publicly available, Parilla says. What matters is the qualitative data cities offered up they let Amazon in on their wildest dreams. The sort of details that might be in a typical HQ2 application include plans for new train stations or shopping complexes information the city's own residents wouldn't have, he says. After an initial wave of glowing publicity around Amazon's plan to bring 50,000 jobs to the winning city through HQ2, the search was criticized for lack of transparency around what exactly cities are offering the company to win. Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper won the partys nomination Thursday night as he seeks a fourth term, reports the AP. Why it matters: He fended off community activist and progressive challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris, who sought to become the latest candidate to topple an incumbent amid a liberal insurgency. Go deeper: Live results from the Delaware primaries Xi Jinping and his colleagues spent the last week feting the leaders from 53 of 54 African nations at the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit. What's happening: Xi promised another $60 billion in financing to Africa along with eight initiatives for PRC-Africa cooperation. The $60 billion amount was the same as promised in 2015, but with changes to the composition, as Yun Sun wrote in Brookings Institution note. The volume and composition of China's 2018 FOCAC financial pledges to Africa indicates China's commitment remains strong, Sun writes, but it also appears to be "more cautious and calculating" than past pledges. What we're hearing: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke to reporters after the summit, telling them China's relationship with Africa has "now entered a golden age," according to Caixin. Quick take: Much of Western media coverage about the summit has been critical, but we shouldn't forget that the African leaders have agency. Plus, there doesn't seem to be a better offer/plan for them coming from the West. Nauru, an island nation that has formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, hosted the Forty-Ninth Pacific Islands Forum this week. Why it matters: It's rare to see any foreign leader take such a strong stance towards Beijing and its growing diplomatic assertiveness. The South Pacific is a focus for Beijing as part of its efforts to pick off Taiwan's few remaining diplomatic allies. Importantly, it's also because the People's Liberation Army is looking for ways to extend beyond the first island chain into the broader Pacific Ocean. The details: First, the country refused to stamp the official diplomatic passports of the PRC diplomats. Then Nauru President Baron Waqa prevented the PRC representative from speaking out of turn at the forum, leading to the Chinese diplomat walking out, ABC News Australia reports. What we're hearing: In an interview after the forum, Waqa did not mince words when speaking about the PRC representative. Here are some excerpts, per RNZ: "His behaviour in front of our leaders, ministers and officials was uncalled for. ... He disrespected the Pacific and its leaders and our dialogue partners who had come to join us in our own meeting." "Look at him, he is a nobody. He is not even a minister and demanding to be recognised and to speak before the Prime Minister of Tuvalu. Is he crazy?" "We will not only ask for a formal apology, we will actually take it up to the United Nations. Not only that, I will mention it at the UN and every international meeting to raise our concerns about this incident." Go deeper: The Australian reported Friday that Australia "successfully blocked China from funding a major regional military base in Fiji, a move that reveals intensifying concern in Canberra over strategic competition in the South Pacific region." An international incident that resulted in one of the largest diplomatic expulsions in history began with a perfume bottle. The latest: The leaders of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Canada declared in a joint statement today that Russian military intelligence officers used a banned chemical weapon in an assassination attempt on British soil. "This operation," they added, "was almost certainly approved at a senior government level." Now, after a painstaking six-month investigation, we know how it happened. According to British authorities. Two operatives using the pseudonyms Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov traveled from a budget hotel in East London on the morning of Sunday, March 4, to the scenic town of Salisbury, approached the doorway of Sergei Skripal a Russian former double agent and sprayed the contents of the perfume bottle on the door handle. Four hours later, Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a park bench. Theyd been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent. By that time the Russian agents who arrived in London the previous Friday and made a reconnaissance trip to Salisbury the day before the attack were back to London. Later that evening, theyd board a flight back to Moscow. The pair disappeared, but not quite without a trace.Novichok was detected in their hotel room. They also left behind the perfume bottle, which made its way into the possession of Dawn Sturgess via a charity bin. She died in July of exposure to Novichok. All along their journey in train stations, outside shops, and steps from the Skripals home the agents were captured on CCTV. Ellen Barry writes in the NYT... Britain is one of the most heavily surveilled nations on earth, with an estimated one surveillance camera per 11 citizens. It has cutting-edge technology for visually identifying criminals, and software so sensitive it can scan an airport for a tattoo or a pinkie ring. And then there is that team of genetically gifted humans known as super-recognizers. Its almost impossible in this country to hide, almost impossible, said John Bayliss, who retired from the Government Communications Headquarters, Britains electronic intelligence agency, in 2010. And with the new software they have, you can tell the person by the way they walk, or a ring they wear, or a watch they wear. It becomes even harder. Whats next: The Trump administration formally accused Russia of illegally using chemical weapons last month, triggering automatic sanctions and starting the clock on a 3-month period to decide from a menu of further punishments, some of which like cutting off nearly all trade are quite severe. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows told Politico Playbook Thursday that a number of unnamed congressional Democrats have contacted his office about investigating the anonymous New York Times op-ed trashing President Trump. The big picture: The piece, attributed to a "senior administration official," has taken Washington by storm. Meadows told Politico that the apparent bipartisan outreach came about because "what many of us do agree on is that efforts within the White House to anonymously sabotage a duly elected president is an act of cowardice and does not serve American taxpayers well." Eight Roman Catholic diocese in New York were subpoenaed by the state's Attorney General Barbara Underwood on Thursday, the Associated Press reports. Why it matters: Since the bombshell report from a Pennsylvania grand jury, there's been widespread backlash toward the Catholic Church's long-standing history with sexual abuse. According to the AP, the new subpoenas "seek documents relating to sexual abuse allegations, financial payments to possible victims or the findings from internal church investigations." Update: New Jersey's Attorney General has also launched an investigation into clergy sex abuse in the state, establishing a hotline to report allegations. US President Donald Trump has pressured Japan to reduce its trade deficit with the US. Trump told reporters on Friday that Japan knows "it's a big deal" if the two countries cannot reach an agreement in trade talks. Japan and the US began a new round of talks last month, but little progress has been made due to wide differences. Trump said the only reason he isn't in talks with Japan quite yet is that he's still dealing with China. Trump's remarks are apparently an attempt to use the threat of higher tariffs on Japanese vehicles, and push Japan to open its agricultural market. A leading US newspaper reported earlier that Trump is very focused on eliminating trade deficits with US trading partners, and that he is bothered by the current terms of US trade with Japan. - NHK 1 big thing: Diplomatic crisis in a bottle An international incident that resulted in one of the largest diplomatic expulsions in history began with a perfume bottle. The latest: The leaders of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Canada declared in a joint statement today that Russian military intelligence officers used a banned chemical weapon in an assassination attempt on British soil. "This operation," they added, "was almost certainly approved at a senior government level." Now, after a painstaking 6-month investigation, we know how it happened. According to British authorities... Two operatives using the pseudonyms Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov traveled from a budget hotel in East London on the morning of Sunday, March 4, to the scenic town of Salisbury, approached the doorway of Sergei Skripal a Russian former double agent and sprayed the contents of the perfume bottle on the door handle. Four hours later, Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a park bench. Theyd been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent. By that time the Russian agents who arrived in London the previous Friday and made a reconnaissance trip to Salisbury the day before the attack were back in London. Later that evening, they boarded a flight back to Moscow. The pair disappeared, but not quite without a trace. Novichok was detected in their hotel room. They also left behind the perfume bottle, which made its way into the possession of Dawn Sturgess via a charity bin. She died in July of exposure to Novichok. All along their journey in train stations, outside shops and steps from the Skripals home the agents were captured on CCTV. Ellen Barry writes in the NYT... Britain is one of the most heavily surveilled nations on earth, with an estimated one surveillance camera per 11 citizens. It has cutting-edge technology for visually identifying criminals, and software so sensitive it can scan an airport for a tattoo or a pinkie ring. And then there is that team of genetically gifted humans known as super-recognizers. Its almost impossible in this country to hide, almost impossible, said John Bayliss, who retired from the Government Communications Headquarters, Britains electronic intelligence agency, in 2010. And with the new software they have, you can tell the person by the way they walk, or a ring they wear, or a watch they wear. It becomes even harder. Whats next: The Trump administration formally accused Russia of illegally using chemical weapons last month, triggering automatic sanctions and starting the clock on a 3-month period to decide from a menu of further punishments, some of which like cutting off nearly all trade are quite severe. Barack Obama re-entered the political arena today, declaring himself a "fellow citizen" rather than former president. Why it matters: The most successful Democratic politician of his generation is breaking with precedents from a more civil era. It's highly unusual for a former president to criticize a current one in such blunt terms. In a fiery speech at the University of Illinois, Obama directly criticized President Trump, linking him to a "darker aspect" of the American story. "Each time we painstakingly pull ourselves closer to our founding ideals ... somebody somewhere has pushed back. The status quo pushes back." to our founding ideals ... somebody somewhere has pushed back. The status quo pushes back." "It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause." He is a symptom, not the cause." "He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years." The big picture: Obama's message to America is that Trump isn't normal, and shouldn't be accepted as normal. "[W]e do not pressure the Attorney General or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents." to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents." "Or to explicitly call on the Attorney General to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up." of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up." "[W]e don't threaten the freedom of the press... because they say things or publish stories we don't like. because they say things or publish stories we don't like. "[Y]ou never heard me threaten to shut [Fox News] down , or call them enemies of the people." , or call them enemies of the people." "And we're sure as heck supposed to stand up ... to Nazi sympathizers. ... to Nazi sympathizers. "How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad." Between the lines: Obama didn't forget Republicans in Congress: "Republicans who know better in Congress ... are still bending over backwards to shield this behavior from scrutiny or accountability or consequence." backwards to shield this behavior from scrutiny or accountability or consequence." "None of this is conservative... It sure isn't normal. It's radical." Trump's response to Obama's speech, per the AP: "Im sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep... I found hes very good for sleeping. The bottom line: Buckle up. This is just the beginning for Obama. Former President Barack Obama made his official pitch to voters today ahead of the 2018 midterm elections: "You need to vote because our democracy depends on it," he said at a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Why it matters: Democrats hope Obama is their secret weapon to really push Americans to turn out in November. And it could work his post-presidential approval rating is 63%, per Gallup. One big thing: Obama mentioned President Trump. "It did not start with Donald Trump," he said. "He is a symptom, not the cause" for what's going on in American politics. Obama will be in California on Saturday and Ohio next Thursday as he hits the campaign trail. Be smart: Obama's message could be most successful for Democratic voters looking to embrace activism in the final two months of the election, but it could also remind those Obama-Trump voters what they liked about politics before President Trump ran for office. Islamabad Pakistan's government has asked a leading academic to step down as an economic adviser, the ruling PTI party announced Friday, after far-right groups objected to his appointment based on his faith. Why it matters: Atif Mian, a renowned professor of economics at Princeton University who belongs to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, had been appointed to the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) last week and has now agreed to resign. Pakistan is home to roughly half a million Ahmadis, a long-persecuted minority who are not allowed by Pakistani law to refer to themselves as Muslims, facing prison sentences for doing so. They are also frequently the targets of mob violence as well as targeted killings. Last year, hundreds of protesters blockaded a major highway into the capital Islamabad over a minor change in a parliamentary oath, accusing the government of having committed "blasphemy" by softening the language of the declaration against Ahmadi beliefs. During the election campaign in July, now-Prime Minister Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI, frequently raised the issue, saying his rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had committed "blasphemy" by changing the oath. This is not the first time Khan has backtracked on appointing Mian to a senior position. In 2014, when he was in opposition, he named Mian as an example of the kind of academic expert he wanted in charge of Pakistan's economy, rather than career politicians. On being informed that Mian was a member of the Ahmadi sect, however, Khan backtracked, saying he only meant his statement to apply to academic experts generally. Last week's announcement that the Princeton professor was to serve on the country's 18-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) came as a surprise to many, given the earlier controversy. At the time, however, the government defended the decision, with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry saying his government would not bow down to "extremists." Go deeper: Read the full Al Jazeera report. Social Capital arrived in Silicon Valley seven years ago with a charismatic co-founder, former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya who also owns a piece of the Golden State Warriors. It raised more than $1 billion and made early bets on companies like Slack. Why it matters: The firm is imploding and nine sources blame Palihapitiya for its demise. Here is Silicon Valley's Icarus story. The first outward sign of trouble came in August 2017, when co-founder Mamoon Hamid left to join rival venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. It was Hamid who led the Slack deal, and many of Social Capital's limited partners viewed him as the firm's "top rainmaker." Soon after came the resignation of Social Capital's third co-founder, Ted Maidenberg. Like Hamid, Maidenberg was frustrated by Palihapitiya's push to prioritize data in the VC investment process, which is traditionally based on a more high-touch, personal approach. Limited partners also weren't happy, but they were a bit stuck because Palihapitiya was the only "key man" listed on Social Capital's venture funds. Plus, shortly before Hamid and Maidenberg's departures, the firm recruited: Former Skype CEO Tony Bates to raise a new growth equity fund. Wall Street veteran Marc Mezvinsky (husband to Chelsea Clinton) as vice chairman. Longtime private equity investor Phil Deutch as president. Facebook HR exec Eimear Fischer as chief people officer. As one Social Capital investor explains: "We were suddenly invested in something with a different team and strategy from what we signed up for, but at the time it appeared to be an issue between three guys rather than something deeper." Palihapitiya in February filed for divorce from his wife Brigette Lau, a partner with Social Capital and co-owner of its management company. Soon he began showing up less often to the office, with many employees speculating that he was in Europe with his new girlfriend, an Italian pharmaceutical executive. Palihapitiya was also absent from other parts of Social Capital. Multiple sources say that he repeatedly didn't appear for investor meetings, sending his regrets shortly before they were to begin. He is said to have promised to spend significant time in London with hedge fund manager Carl Anderson, who had relocated there with his family at Palihapitiya's request, but rarely showed. Current and former Social Capital employees say it could take days or weeks to get email replies from Palihapitiya. Neither Palihapitiya nor a Social Capital spokeswoman returned multiple requests for comment. By early June, Axios heard that Tony Bates and Marc Mezvinsky were planning to leave. Sources said they had come to believe that Palihapitiya was no longer putting the firm first in his life, and that he was unable to execute on the ambitious course he had set for Social Capital. In short, he was no longer the same sort of leader that some former Facebook colleagues still talk about in glowing terms. Palihapitiya made the departures official on June 18 via a Medium post, which later had to be updated to explicitly state that Bates and Mezvinsky left voluntarily. In that post, Palihapitiya suggested that Social Capital was refocusing on its core business, leaving things like growth equity and a new credit platform behind. But even the core business was hemorrhaging talent: Venture capital partner Arjun Sethi resigned just before Bates and Mezvinsky, and soon created his own firm called Tribe Capital alongside Ted Maidenberg and Social Capital's chief data scientist, Jonathan Hsu. Tribe has begun investing in select Social Capital portfolio companies, while both Sethi and Maidenberg have retained some of their Social Capital board seats. resigned just before Bates and Mezvinsky, and soon created his own firm called Tribe Capital alongside Ted Maidenberg and Social Capital's chief data scientist, Jonathan Hsu. Tribe has begun investing in select Social Capital portfolio companies, while both Sethi and Maidenberg have retained some of their Social Capital board seats. Firm president Phil Deutch left just weeks later. left just weeks later. Mike Ghaffry , who joined as a VC partner just last year, departed last month. , who joined as a VC partner just last year, departed last month. Eimear Fischer , the chief people officer recruited from Facebook, also left in August. , the chief people officer recruited from Facebook, also left in August. So did Ashley Mayer , the firm's VP of marketing, and Alex Chee, its head of product development, also left. , the firm's VP of marketing, and Alex Chee, its head of product development, also left. The firm's public equities managers, Carl Anderson and Sakya Duvvuru, are winding down Social Capital's hedge fund, sources said. The firm's limited partner advisory committee meets later this month, and members expect much more information than they've received so far. "There has really been no communication," one investor says. "Most of what we know is what we read in the press." Palihapitiya has hinted both internally and externally that he could just fund Social Capital himself, relying on algorithms to do much of the deal-sourcing and due diligence work. But not everyone is sure he has the financial resources to do so in any large-scale way, at least not until the firm realizes its investment in Slack, or if his wealthy Valley friends would step up given the past year's problems. Some Social Capital alumni think he might just shut the whole thing down, although he's not communicated any such intentions. The firm does continue to be affiliated with a blank check acquisition company, which aims to acquire and manage a large tech company, on which Palihapitiya serves as CEO and Tony Bates continues to serve as vice chairman. Bottom line: Social Capital appears to be done, at least as a major venture capital investor. Get more stories like this by signing up for our daily venture capital and private equity newsletter, Pro Rata. U.S. envoy to Syria Jim Jeffrey said on Thursday that there is "lots of evidence that chemical weapons" are being prepared by the Assad regime to use in Syria, NPR reports. Why it matters: The U.S. said this week that chemical weapons are a red line, and will be met with a response "swiftly and appropriately" if used. Presidents from Iran, Russia, and Turkey are meeting today to discuss steps forward in Idlib, which is the last major opposition stronghold in Syria, and could devolve into another major humanitarian disaster. Bob Woodward's newest book unveils a letter that former Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn removed from President Trump's desk that, if the president had signed, would have ended the United States-Korea Free Trade agreement, CNN reports. Why it matters: Had Trump signed the agreement, a program that can detect a nuclear missile launch from North Korea in seven seconds may have been jeopardized. CNN explains the letter "is an example of how top White House aides would steal and hide documents from Trump that they believed to be a danger to national security." Photo: CNN Go deeper: Furious Trump trapped by hundreds of Woodward tapes President Trump plans to evaluate public comments before deciding on the latest proposed tariffs on Chinese imports, according to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow Friday morning, dimming speculation that they could announce the next round as early as today. Why it matters: Maybe the Chinese will eventually cave, but the White House should be preparing for a much longer and more protracted trade war as China appears to be digging in. Driving the news: The comment period for the next round of U.S. tariffs ended Thursday, collecting 5,914 individual comments, Reuters reports. The president himself, we will evaluate the comments and we will make a decision regarding the $200 billion, Kudlow said on Bloomberg Television. Well make a decision on the volume, on the rate, on the timing, I dont want to get ahead of that curve, its out there. There's still no clear pathway to resolving the disputes. Bob Davis and Lingling Wei of the Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. may be counting on deals with Japan, EU, Mexico and Canada to provide more leverage: Relaxing trade tensions with Mexico and Canada, plus a preliminary trade agreement with the European Union, have made it easier to forge a multilateral front to oppose Chinese trade practices. The U.S., EU and Japan have already held meetings on such a strategy. A trade detente also blunts criticism from Congress and U.S. industry that the administration has erred by picking fights with friendly countries at the same time as it battles with China. Additionally, officials say, it helps recruit allies to stop Chinese exporters from skirting U.S. tariffs by shipping goods to third countries, which then send the goods to the U.S., say officials. On the other side: Chinese officials continue to give no public indication they will make the kinds of structural concessions the Trump administration is demanding. The latest issue of Qiushi, an authoritative theoretical journal under the Communist Party Central Committee, has a commentary defending China's economic system and arguing that America's real goal in launching the trade war is to thwart China's rise. My thought bubble: There's a school of thought that the increasingly repetitive messaging (that Americas real goal is China containment) is just propaganda posturing for negotiating leverage. I think the fact that this line keeps appearing in the most authoritative publications for Communist Party members and officials, not foreign audiences, likely undermines that view. The U.S. and India agreed Thursday to open a secure military communications hotline. The move could allow the U.S. to sell India sensitive defense technology, including armed surveillance drones, reports Reuters. The big picture: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are in New Delhi for "2+2 talks" with their Indian counterparts. Per Pompeo, the agreement marks a major "milestone" in the bilateral relationship, as both the U.S. and India seek to counteract shared threats posed by militant groups in Pakistan and the rising influence of China. Russia has removed former Armenian defense minister Mikael Harutiunian from the list of wanted suspects applied in its territory. This information was reported to RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) by the Armenian Police. Armenian law-enforcement officials said they received a corresponding letter from their Russian counterparts. They did not clarify on what grounds the Russian side made such a decision, citing confidentiality of some of the information stated in the letter. In Armenia Harutiunian, who served as defense minister during the deadly post-election events in 2008 and issued a controversial order barracking the troops days before the crackdown on opposition supporters in central Yerevan, is charged with overthrowing the constitutional order. Under Harutiunians order, which was declassified recently, special groups were set up and armed with service weapons. Andranik Kocharian, a member of the former fact-finding group investigating the events of March 1-2, 2008, during which 10 people were killed, once personally questioned Harutiunian as part of his mission. He insists that without the former defense minister it would be impossible to disclose the case fully. Harutiunian would provide more extensive explanations to the investigation body than he gave to the fact-finding group, he said. And when during a televised interview ex-president Robert Kocharian, [who is also charged with breaching the constitutional order during the 2008 events], said he had nothing to do with the troops barracking order, perhaps he was sure that Mikael Harutiunian would never be questioned by the investigation body. I get the impression that it is more important to bring Harutiunian to Armenia and interrogate him, the former member of the fact-finding group added. After lieutenant-general Mikael Harutiunian was charged with overthrowing the constitutional order on July 3 and arrest was chosen as a measure for restraint in his relation, his wife told the Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak that her husband had gone to Moscow for medical treatment. While the Armenian general has been removed from the wanted list in Russia, he is still on the list of wanted suspects applied in other former Soviet countries. According to the Russian Interfax news agency Harutiunian has a Russian passport. Last month head of the Armenian Special Investigation Service Sasun Khachatrian, however, said that Harutiunian is only a citizen of Armenia. By Sara Israfilbayova Despite all promises of current Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan about the bright future of Armenia and the economic development of the country, the events taking place in the country prove the opposite. The other day, a group of employees of the Arinj Mall held a protest action outside the building of the Armenian government. The prices for transportation of goods imported to Armenia increased, as a result of which small and medium-sized enterprises faced a problem. One of the participants of the protest Armen Nersisyan said that the price hike will not lead to anything good. Was it necessary to raise prices in such a deplorable situation? He also noted that traders are not able to carry out import, since the prices for transportation are very high. Now the participants are waiting for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meet them. The government of Georgia decided to ban the import/export of wheat or wheat-rye flour on road transport since September 15. The biggest blow from the decision of the Georgian side was received by Armenia, as a country that isolated itself from the region by the occupation of the territories of a neighboring state and as a result lost all other exits to the world, in particular the Russian market. Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper writes that according to the decree of the Minister of Transport of Georgia, wheat and flour must be transported by sea and rail transport on the territory of Georgia from September 15. At the moment, wheat and flour imported to Armenia are almost completely transported by trucks, since it is cheaper. Now, everybody in Armenia wonders, how much will cost the transportation by sea and rail? It is also noted that the price may change due to prices in southern Russia. These days there is a rise in prices due to high demand, importers are rushing to import as much wheat as possible before the decree of the Georgian minister comes into force, which in turn raises demand. Price rise against the background of falling incomes of the population in Armenia can lead to an economic catastrophe. Does Armenian government understand that the collapse of the economy and the mass outflow of the population from the country are only consequences, and not the cause of the troubles? Armenia needs to fight not with consequences, but with the underlying causes of the problems and the reasons are Armenias aggressive foreign policy and the unsettled Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. These are the only reasons that caused Armenias economic isolation in the region. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova A seminar entitled Issue of the historical monuments in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the problems of its delivery to the world community was held in Azerbaijan on September 6. Addressing the event, MP Elman Nasirov noted that today, along with the occupation of our lands, the countrys material and historical monuments are facing the occupation. Destruction of Azerbaijani monuments by Armenians is vandalism. We must convey this vandalism to the world community. The world community should know the truth about Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as its historical monuments, Nasirov underlined. The MP added that tourists coming to Azerbaijan should also be informed about the destroyed monuments. Taking his turn, Doctor of Philosophy Azad Zeynalov said that today dozens of monuments of Azerbaijan are under occupation. One of them is the Azikh cave, the oldest inhabited place in the former USSR, with a universal history. He went on to say that the international conventions, archaeological investigations cannot be carried out in the historical monuments located in conflict zones, adding that unfortunately, Armenia ignores the international conventions it joins, making illegal archaeological investigations in our monuments and attracting foreign scientists to the researchers. During the Nagorno-Karabakh war in early 1990s, the Armenians seized 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, and all the monuments in those lands are now under Armenian occupation. Many cemeteries, mausoleums, monuments, mosques, temples, burial mounds and other samples of Azerbaijans cultural heritage in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan regions are being destroyed. Overall, since the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Armenian aggressors ruined 1,200 historical and architectural monuments, looted 27 museums and exported to Armenia over 100,000 items. Moreover, the Armenian occupiers destroyed 152 religious monuments and 62 mosques, as well as 4.6 million books in 927 libraries. In 2005 and 2010, the OSCE fact-finding missions confirmed Armenias vandalism against Azerbaijans Islamic heritage in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. By Trend Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's visit to Russia will be a chance to prove his loyalty, Azerbaijani political analyst Fikrat Sadikhov told Trend Sept. 6. Pashinyan will visit Russia on September 8. "Yerevan's relations with Moscow have never been equal partnership, he said. For Russia, Armenia has always been an instrument for using for certain political purposes. Today, Armenia has virtually no opportunities to enter European markets. It has been deprived of the opportunity to participate in all projects that are being implemented in the South Caucasus. Today Yerevan hopes only for Moscow, Sadikhov added. Russia has always been the main sponsor, donor and guardian of Armenia. Pashinyan's visit is to a certain extent connected with panic in Yerevan amid the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Russia and the documents signed during this visit. Pashinyan perfectly understands that there are a lot of questions addressed to him, he said. He should answer them and prove that he has not changed his political orientation. This is a big question whether he succeeds or not. It is no secret that the level of Armenia-Russia relations has greatly decreased. Amid this situation the level of Azerbaijan-Russia relations is growing. "The reality is that there is long-term strategic partnership between Baku and Moscow," he added. During the visit of President Aliyev to Russia, many documents confirming and expanding bilateral cooperation in many spheres have been signed. "Some Russian experts and MPs openly declare that Azerbaijan is a true ally of Russia in the South Caucasus, which testifies to the importance of bilateral cooperation, Sadikhov added. Amid this situation Pashinyan will visit Russia as a guilty child." --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is interested in buying the state-owned shares of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA). Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov told reporters that in order for the deal to take place, a consultant should be attracted and a business strategy should be prepared. For now, work continues in this direction. A business strategy is very important, because investors make decision based on the strategy. EBRD is showing interest in the IBA shares, but first of all a new business model of the bank should be compiled, the minister underlined. Sharifov said that creation of the new IBA business strategy is also one of the conditions of the EBRD. The IBA, founded in 1992, has been at the stage of recovery since July 2015, which is associated with the preparation for the privatization of state-owned shares of the bank. To restore the banks financial position, its distressed assets were transferred to the Aqrarkredit non-bank credit institution. In exchange for distressed assets, the Aqrarkredit provides the IBA with liquid funds. At the same time, the restructuring of IBAs foreign obligations has recently been completed. Over 95 percent of the Bank's shares are owned by the government. Further, he touched upon the issue of execution of the state budget and said that for January-September the figure amounteto 98 percent. He went on to say that the financing of the Southern Gas Corridor project continues in the normal mode. Funds for the implementation of the project are being phased in. Currently, negotiations are underway with a number of international financial institutions, but a concrete result will be in 2019, he stressed. The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union, which aims to diversify routes and sources of energy supplies and thereby improve the energy security of the EU. The Southern Gas Corridor is intended to deliver gas from the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz to Europe. Gas as part of the second stage of the field development will be exported to Turkey and the European markets through the expansion of the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of the TANAP and TAP gas pipelines. The cost of the Southern Gas Corridor project is estimated at $41.5 billion. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova The art of carpet weaving is a treasure which is passed on from generation to generation. Weaving is very hard work requiring geometrical precision, supreme skill and creativity. The basic principles and techniques of rug weaving have changed little since ancient times. The materials most commonly used to weave rugs are wool, cotton or silk. Azerbaijan has been known as a center of many crafts since ancient times. For many years, Azerbaijani carpets have captured millions of people from around the world, and still continue to do so. The country has long been known as the center of rug production. The ancient history of carpet weaving is evidenced carpet weaving tools (the 4th-3rd millennium BC.) discovered during Gultapin excavations, a clay figure of a horse with its horse-cloth decorated with flowers, found in Maku city in Southern Azerbaijan (dates to the 2nd millennium BC) as well as a golden plate picturing a lion with a decorated cloth found in the hills near Hasanulu on the coast of Lake Urmiya (1st millennium BC). Moreover, archeological excavations in Mingechevir unearthed the remnants of palases (carpets without pile) and carpets in catacombs dating back to the 1st-3rd centuries. Bright, colored and incredibly beautiful Azerbaijani carpets are well-known all over the world for their quality and a great range of styles. Each carpet narrates an extraordinary story is depicted beautifully in these pieces of art. By their technical peculiarities Azerbaijani carpets are divided into fleecy carpets and carpets without pile. The weaving of the carpets without pile dates to the earliest period of the art of weaving. Men shear sheep in spring and autumn, while women collect dyestuffs and spin and dye yarn in the spring, summer and autumn. The carpets were usually woven by women and girl in winter. In the second half of the 18th century in the northern part of Azerbaijan there were small feudal khanates - Sheki, Baku, Guba, Garabagh, Irevan, Ganja, Nakhchivan, and Shirvan. At this time, the production of carpets greatly expanded. Each khanate had its own carpet workshop. As a result, various carpet schools appeared in the territory of Azerbaijan. The Land of Fire has seven carpet producing regions including Baku, Shirvan, Guba, Tabriz, Karabakh, Ganja and Gazakh and each of them had its own technology, typical patterns and colors. According to their technical aspects, Azerbaijani carpets are classified as flat-woven (pileless) and knotted (pile). The flat-woven carpets are linked to the earlier period of carpet weaving. There are several kinds of pileless carpets such as Shadda, Verni, Jejim, Zilli, Sumakh, Kilim and Palas. Shadda is a flat weave carpet, made primarily in Nakhchivan, Agdam, Gubadly, Agjabedi. The artistic composition of shadda made by complicated whipping, as well as its constituents have a complex form. One of the most widely spread type of the flat-weave carpet is "verni". The key pattern of "verni" is the S-element. Its shape varies, it may resemble both figure 5 and letter S. This element means "dragon" among the nomads and water among the village people. According to the ancient believes, a dragon featuring carpet would protect the family from foul weather. Agjabedi, Barda, Aghdam, Nakhchivan are the centers of this type of pileless carpets. Jejims are woven on simple horizontal looms by narrow stripes 3035 cm wide and 1510 cm long. The resulting product is a cloth to be used as a wall carpet, a bedding coverlet, or curtains. The major jejim production centers are Barda, Nakhchivan, Zangilan, Shusha, Shamakha. Zilli carpet is characterized by stylized forms of animals and vegetal elements. In terms of their composition and pattern the Azerbaijani zillis are very diverse. They feature the images of large elements in the shape of big lozenges, paired horns, various stylized elements. The Sumakh carpets have become widely spread and recognized over the last few centuries. Since the 18th century, they have been made in country's Guba and Gusar regions. The Sumakh carpets feature the diverse stylized vegetal motifs, various geometrical elements such as large hexahedral, square, rhomboid medallions. Kilim is the most widespread type of flat-woven carpets. They are made by passing the weft through the warp using the technique of compound interweaving. Kilim is characterized by a slot-like gap (opening) around the geometrical patterns. The technique of kilim weaving predetermines the pattern shapes in the form of a lozenge, triangle, and trapezium. Images of animals, birds and humans are geometrized in kilims. Kilims of different regions are distinguished by their composition, pattern, and colors. In terms of their technical peculiarities kilims can be classified into five major groups based on the area of production: Kazakh, Karabakh, Absheron, Shirvan and Tabriz kilims. Palas is one of the widely spread flat-weave carpets. The palas weaving process consists in passing the weft through the warp by a simple technique. The weavers decorate the palas by traditional patterns in the form of horizontal stripes commonly used throughout Azerbaijan. As a rule, the palas is not framed by a border. Today Azerbaijani carpets are saved and stored at the world museums and private collections. Thanks to the care of the country, on November 10, 2010, the Azerbaijani carpet art was included into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. Azerbaijan Carpet Museum provides a fascinating history of carpet weaving art. Established in 1967, it became the first carpet museum in the world is the very place that can familiarize all the interested with the unique examples of the national carpets. During its 50 years of existence, the museum has organized more than 30 exhibitions in different countries throughout the world. The main purpose of the creation of the museum was to store, research, and demonstrate unique examples of the carpet weaving art, which are the Azerbaijans national heritage. The initiator of the museum was Latif Karimov an outstanding scientist and carpet weaver, the founder of the science of Azerbaijan Carpet Weaving Art, artist and teacher, author of the fundamental work Azerbaijani carpet. In 2007, the President Ilham Aliyev, signed a decree for the creation of a new building for the museum in the territory of Seaside National Park. A new carpet museum, designed in the form of a rolled carpet, opened in the Baku Seaside Park in 2014 and all carpets were transferred to this museum. Today museum hosts many events, such as exhibitions, international symposiums, and conferences. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Naila Huseynli The remains of Bayil Castle, also the castle known as lost fortress, are visible as a small island in the shore of Baku. The mystical castle was constructed under architect Zejnaddin ibn Abu Rashid Shirvani in accordance with the order of Shirvanshah Fariburz III, in 1232-1235, in order to protect Baku from the sea. Later, it became Bayil Castle, also known as Sabayil Castle, Shakhri Saba, Shakhri Nau, "submerged city", or "Bayil Stones". Azerbaijani historian Bakikhanov said that there is a stone-lined road below the sea surface. Constellations, walls and 72 gravestones approve that an ancient city founded 400-500 years ago drowned in water. The Russian geologist Gubkin said that one of the reasons of drowning of this city is related with a strong and destructive earthquake in the southern part of the Caspian Sea in 1306. In the painting of the German traveler Kempher, the scattered tops of several constellations appear in the bottom of the water near the end of the wall of the castle extending to the sea. Over the 100 past years, sea level fluctuated significantly. The castle has been drowned due to the expansion of the water, and the remains of the castle appeared with the decreasing of sea level. At present, only a small bit of the fortress is visible from the coastline. During excavations, the foundations of nine buildings were found. The western wall is adjacent with the destroyed platform, and the basis of the central tower which was used simultaneously as a watchtower and a lighthouse. Researchers also believe that there was a temple belongs to fire-worshippers. The upper parts of the fortress are completely destroyed, only the bottom parts of the wall have survived. Throughout the first investigation in the construction in 1939, the coin with the name of Shirvanshah Fariburz III was found in the constellations. Inscriptions in Arabic and Farsi, images of human faces and imaginary animals were illustrated along the entire upper part of the Bayil Castle. The total length of the wall is about 400 meters. Moreover, the figures of various animals designate the years of Shirvanshah rulers and the text which is the genealogy of Shirvanshahs Mazjadids dynasty, described in the images of crowned busts. The historians also believe that it is first time that figure of animals and the images of human face were described in the Muslim Monument. Recently, the inscriptions are held in the courtyard of the Shirvanshah Palace. The remains of this historical monument were included in the list of Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, which is in Need of Urgent Conservation, on October 24, 2001. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Naila Huseynli Large concert program was held in the Senate with the participation of Azerbaijani musicians with the invitation of the California State Senate. The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles said that Azerbaijani vocalist Marziya Huseynova, pianist Aida Elkhanzade, violinist of Sacramento Youth Symphonic Orchestra Lida Gafar performed Azerbaijani and European classic music at the concert. Representatives of state legislative bodies, science, education and culture attended the concert which was organized by California State Senator Richard Pan and the Azerbaijani community in Sacramento with the support of Azerbaijan's Consulate General in Los Angeles. Before starting the concert Senator Richard Pan expressed his satisfaction with the organization of such an important cultural event in the California Senate. Consul of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles Orkhan Rustamli talked about the country, ancient history of the people, rich culture and music. Then Concert program was presented. The concert was welcomed by the audience. This event was the first concert in California State Senate with the participation of Azerbaijani musicians. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov Moscow is hosting the 31st International Book Fair (MIBF), where the pavilion of Azerbaijan arouses great interest of visitors, Azerbaijan Culture Ministry told Trend on September 6. More than 300 publishers from over 30 countries are presenting their books, literature and publications at the exhibition. More than 100,000 books of all genres are presented at the fair. Azerbaijans pavilion exhibits over 150 books and literary publications about the countrys ancient history, culture, science, national traditions and Karabakh realities. The pavilion aroused great interest of visitors, and negotiations on cooperation were held with representatives of various organizations, agencies and publishers. In particular, a meeting was held with Margarita Almukhametova, the Chairman of the Literary Council of the Eurasian Peoples Assembly, on the preparation for the Eurasian Literature Festival, which will be held within the Baku International Book Fair in 2019. The Moscow International Book Fair is the oldest and largest book fair in Russia, which has been held since 1977. The organizer of the exhibition is the General Directorate of International Book Exhibitions and Fairs of Russias State Committee for Press. The motto of the fair is Book in the service of peace and progress. Largest Russian and foreign publishing and printing houses and many others take part in the exhibition. Various meetings with authors, presentations of novelties, conferences and seminars are organized there. The exhibition will run until September 9. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Naila Huseynli The National Academic Drama Theater will represent the country at the international theater festival in Kazakhstan with the organization of the Ministry of Culture and Azerbaijan union of theater figures. The press service of theater said that the Academic National Drama Theater will take part with Judas spectacle in the Second International Theater Festival of the Caspian littoral states in Aktau city, on September 12-16. Along with Azerbaijan, theaters from Iran, Turkmenistan, Bashkiria, Tatarstan and Kazakhstan will also participate in the international theater festival. The festival is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Kazakhstan's famous theater and cinema actor Nurmukhan Zhanturin. The mono performance "Judas" of the Academic National Drama Theater will be shown to theater lovers on September 16. The performance of Anar Babali was prepared on the basis of the monograph of the honored artist Ayshad Mammadov, who will perform at the stage. The artist of performance is the honored cultural worker Ilham Elkhanoglu, light artist is Rafael Hasanov, and director's assistant is Konul Kerimova. The play of Judas is dedicated to human treason. Judas is not able to escape the suffering of conscience because he betrayed his master Jesus Christ. The scene shows the inner world of Judas, an attempt to justify himself and the human motives that led him to take such a step. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov Azerbaijan has made serious progress on the agenda of the negotiation process for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, former ambassador of the president of Armenia for special assignments David Shahnazaryan told Armenian media on September 6. He noted that after coming to power, the new government of Armenia began to pursue the time-out policy in the negotiation process, which was the maximum delay of meetings and negotiations in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. But it seems that it failed: the co-chairs paid a visit to Armenia, and then there was a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, Shahnazaryan said. He added that if we pay attention to the statement of the co-chairs after the Brussels meeting, we can see that there is the wording substantive talks, which was a demand of Azerbaijan for a long time, and which Baku has repeatedly stated. In this regard, during this time Azerbaijan has made serious progress on the agenda of the negotiation process for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and this is the most important point. This, in fact, means the main, substantive negotiations purely on the conflict settlement, which means purely the return of territories for Baku, Shahnazaryan noted. The former ambassador further added that Azerbaijan is pursuing a very active foreign policy, diversifies its political-military and diplomatic sphere and has recently expanded the space for its cooperation with Russia. Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic have had a working dinner. The Croatian prime minister welcomed President Aliyev. The Azerbaijani president signed an honorary guest book at the state residence. President Aliyev and Prime Minister Plenkovic posed together for photographs. The development of strategic partnership ties and successful cooperation between the two countries in political, economic, energy and other areas was stressed at the meeting. The sides emphasized good opportunities for further expansion of economic relations. The prospects for cooperation in agricultural, pharmaceutical, transport and other fields were also discussed. The successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union was highlighted. Azerbaijans role in energy security of Europe, the significance of the Southern Gas Corridor were hailed, and the sides exchanged views over other issues of mutual interest. Then, the Azerbaijani president and the Croatian prime minister had a joint working dinner. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia Gordan Jandrokovic. Jandrokovic welcomed President Aliyev. President Aliyev and Speaker Jandrokovic posed together for photographs. The Azerbaijani presidents official visit to Croatia was hailed as successful, and the sides emphasized fruitful discussions held during the visit. The development of strategic partnership ties and successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Croatia in political, economic, energy and other areas was stressed at the meeting. The importance of increasing trade turnover was underlined. Azerbaijans role in energy security of Europe, the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor were pointed out. It was said that high-level reciprocal visits play a special role in expanding the bilateral relations. The importance of Azerbaijan's participation in the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan was highlighted, and Azerbaijan's successful cooperation with the European Union was hailed during the meeting. The sides emphasized good opportunities for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Croatia in transport, pharmaceutical and tourism spheres. The sides noted the importance of expanding inter-parliamentary relations, and emphasized that friendship groups can make a significant contribution to this. Other issues of mutual interest were discussed during the meeting. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov Russia is enthusiastic about the development of bilateral relations with Azerbaijan, Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a press conference on September 7. She noted that the multifaceted cooperation of Russias subjects with Azerbaijan is developing on the basis of the agreement of the Azerbaijani government with the governments of the Russian regions. At the moment, there are 17 such agreements, and a number of new ones are being prepared. The effectiveness of interregional relations with Azerbaijan is evidenced, in particular, by the following facts: representative offices of Dagestan, Tatarstan, Ural Trade House CJSC, Tatarstan Trade House, representative offices of a number of regional airlines Bashkirian Airlines, Perm Airlines, Pulkovo Airlines, Samara Airlines, Ural Airlines, some business structures of Russia the official dealer of AVTOVAZ Khazar-Lada, group of companies East Service were opened in Baku, Zakharova noted. The spokeswoman also mentioned that Azerbaijani entrepreneurs have invested in the construction of a sanatorium and spa center in the Russian city of Yessentuki, as well as food production plants in the Krasnodar region, and projects are being implemented in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan. She added that the annual Russia-Azerbaijan Interregional Forum is the platform for discussing the preparation of new cooperation projects, and presently, the next, 9th forum is being prepared. Russia is enthusiastic about the development of bilateral relations with Azerbaijan. The potential is huge. A lot is being implemented, a lot is being worked out, Zakharova said. Speaking of the prospects for the intensification of cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan in ensuring regional security, the spokeswoman noted that the mechanism of discussing security issues between Azerbaijan and Russia works smoothly. We have an appropriate mechanism, for example, consultations on various topics between the foreign ministries, including those involving discussion of security issues. The consultations are held. I am not sure that they should either be intensified or, vice versa, their number should be somehow reduced, etc. This mechanism works perfectly, Zakharova said. She added that there is a dialogue between other structures and state bodies of Russia and Azerbaijan, which are directly responsible for the discussion of security issues, and it also works smoothly. We also fruitfully cooperate on these issues as part of international organizations. Therefore, I think that it is not necessary to talk about any need for intensifying the process because everything is already working quite intensively, the spokeswoman said. But if any side voices the need to make any issue specific, it is always possible to do. Our dialogue with Baku is developing very well. Azerbaijan is one of the main economic partners of Russia among the CIS countries. The trade turnover between two countries amounted to $2.14 billion in 2017. This kind of cooperation plays an important role in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations and in the increase of the trade turnover. At present, enterprises of more than 70 regions of Russia cooperate directly with Azerbaijan. Fifteen regions of Russia have relevant agreements with Azerbaijan on trade and economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Despite some skepticism of a number of politicians and experts regarding the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline (TCP) from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan through the Caspian sea, the chances of the projects implementation are now impartially much greater than before the signing of the agreement on the legal status of the Caspian sea in August. If the pipeline is ever built and Turkmen gas reaches the Western shore of the Caspian Sea, what route and in what volumes will it be delivered to Europe? One of the ways, let's call it classic, is through the 42-inch South Caucasus pipeline (SCP), which starts from the Caspian coast of Azerbaijan, passing through territories of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Georgian-Turkish border. The pipeline was built to transport commercial gas from the Stage 1 of the Azerbaijani offshore Shah Deniz field development to Georgia and Turkey. The annual transportation capacity of the pipeline is 7.4 billion cubic meters. As part of the implementation of the South Gas Corridor (SGC) project and development of Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz field, the SCP Expansion project has been completed. It implied the construction of a new 48-inch pipeline looping SCP at Azerbaijani and Georgian territories as well as the construction of two new compressor stations in Georgia. The new pipeline started operating on 30 June 2018. As a result of the expansion, SCPs throughput capacity is expected to reach approximately 23.4 bcma, which would triple the current overall transportation capacity of the system, according to SGC's official web-site. The pipeline has been linked to the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) at the Georgian-Turkey border, thus enabling the transportation of natural gas further to Turkey and Europe. Over the past five years, in the frame of the Stage 1 of the Shah Deniz field development, Azerbaijan annually exported to Turkey an average of about 6 billion cubic meters of gas. Add another 16 bcma from Shah Deniz Stage 2, exported to Turkey (6bcm) and Europe (10bcm), to this volume, plus a small amount to Georgia and you get just the same figure of 23.4 bcma, i.e. there is no spare capacity at the moment. The official website of SGC also indicates that SCPs capacity may be further expanded to 31 bcma, depending on demand. The TANAP capacity is also expected to expand to 31 bcma upon construction of the required additional compressor stations. If so, this will mean that about 7-8 bcm of Turkmen gas can be exported annually through SGC at the initial stage. It should be noted, however, that exploration and development of other Azerbaijani offshore gas fields Absheron, Shafag-Asiman, ACG deep-lying gas and some other perspective structures is in progress, and Azerbaijan itself will most likely need additional transportation capacity in a few years. No later than yesterday, following talks in Zagreb with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev actually confirmed this, saying that Azerbaijan will take additional steps to increase gas production and to expand the geography of exports. Therefore, those who will take on the task of delivering Turkmen gas to Europe will either have to expand capacity of the SGC elements to 60 bcm at the next stages, as it had been mentioned by various sources, or build a new, completely independent line, or use a combination of both. Another option for the delivery of Turkmen gas to the European market could be the AGRI (Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector) project. So far, the Black sea remains an untapped territory for LNG supplies. None of the Black sea littoral countries has an infrastructure that would provide the entire supply chain. Transportation of LNG from Qatar or Algeria to the region does not seem reasonable due to the congestion of the Turkish Straits. The AGRI project could be a pioneer in the region's LNG trade. The project involves transportation of Azerbaijani (and in theory Turkmen) natural gas to the Black sea coast of Georgia (presumably the port of Kulevi), where a liquefaction plant will be built. Further, the LNG will be transported by carriers to the Romanian port of Constanta for re-gasification and then will be delivered to consumers in Romania and Hungary (Interconnector Arad-Szeged), and probably further to a number of Balkan countries. The capacity of the project can vary from 2 to 8 bcm per year. Depending on this, its cost ranges from 1.2 billion to 4.5 billion euros. It is clear that the matter is not just limited with the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline, and is much more complex than one could suppose, requiring heavy expenses and responsible decision making. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The World Bank Group (WBG) and the Uzbek State Committee for Investments signed an agreement aimed at advising the Uzbek authorities on the modernization of the national civil aviation sector, Podrobno.uz reported. For the first time in the history of bilateral cooperation between the WB and the Uzbek government, an agreement on the provision of advisory services on a reimbursable basis was concluded. Unlike the World Bank loan products, advisory services on a reimbursable basis (RAS) are a tool designed to assist clients who need specific services that cannot be fully funded under the WBG program in the country concerned. Within the framework of RAS programs, the bank works with countries at their request, providing technical assistance, analytical services and support to governments in the implementation of activities. At the same time, the bank receives reimbursement of costs incurred by it in connection with the provision of these services. In accordance with the agreement, the WBG will formulate recommendations for the development of public policy in the civil aviation management sector and improve a number of aspects of its functioning, including institutional, financial and organizational structures. The recommendations will also touch upon the involvement of the private sector in the development of the infrastructure of airports in Uzbekistan and their management. To fulfill these tasks, the bank will work in close cooperation with the National Air Company, Uzbekistan Airways, interested ministries and departments, as well as the private sector. The limited capacity and high costs of airport infrastructure make flights to Uzbekistan and back very costly for passengers. These factors prevent the emergence of foreign air carriers in the local market. Since 2010, Uzbekistan's air transportation sector has grown by only 2 percent annually. This indicator is the lowest in the region in comparison with neighboring countries. To compare, the air transportation sector in Kazakhstan has been increasing annually by 10 percent. In Uzbekistan, 15 international air carriers operate. However, the national air company serves 75 percent of the entire passenger flow in the country, the WB experts noted. In order to benefit from its strategic location in the heart of Central Asia, Uzbekistan needs to significantly improve transport interconnectedness with neighboring countries and other regions of the world. High transportation costs and remoteness from the world's major economic centers have limited Uzbekistan's ability to realize its large agricultural potential, and also limit exports of its products to major markets in Europe and China. Despite the size of the country's territory and the attractiveness of its historical cultural heritage, the tourism sector still does not function at sufficient capacity. This is also connected with the lack of an effective system of air services, which can provide a convenient and affordable transportation of foreign tourists. So, about 2.8 million visitors came to Uzbekistan using air transportation in 2017. For comparison, Georgia with a population of 3.5 million people, which is almost 9 times less than the number of people living in Uzbekistan, annually receives the same number of travelers by air. The civil aviation sector is one of the priorities for the government of Uzbekistan, given its significant role in stimulating economic growth and opening up the country's tourism potential. With the abolition of the visa regime for a large number of states, the growth of the tourism industry is expected. The country is also eliminating barriers to international trade. However, the current volume of air transportation does not meet the growing demand due to the lack of a competitive environment in the civil aviation sector, noted Hideki Mori, the World Bank Country Manager for Uzbekistan. According to him, the first-of-its-kind agreement between the WBG and the Uzbek government testifies to the firm intention of the country's leadership to bring the management of the civil aviation sector in line with international standards. The World Bank implements 18 projects for a total of more than $ 3.3 billion in Uzbekistan. They contribute to the implementation of macroeconomic reforms, the development of agriculture and water management, energy, transport, health, education, urban development, water supply and sanitation. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Tajikistan has established an Export Development Agency, according to the Tajik government decree, Sputnik Tajikistan news agency reported. It is expected that the agency will begin its work in a month and employ about 35 specialists. The agency was created to enhance Tajikistans export potential. The agency will seek partners and consumers for Tajik exports abroad. In addition, the agency will improve the skills of employees of exporting companies and develop proposals for improving legislation to step up exports. Tajikistans foreign trade turnover has had a negative balance for a long time, and imports into the country significantly exceed exports. The main trading partners of Tajikistan are Russia, Kazakhstan, China, the US and Turkey. In general, Tajikistan exports raw materials. About half of Tajikistans exports in the first quarter this year accounted for mineral products. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold talks with Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov in Moscow Sept. 7, the press service of the Russian Cabinet of Ministers said in a statement, TASS news agency reported. Aripov, who has been serving as Uzbek prime minister since 2016, will be in Russia on a working visit. The heads of government will consider a wide range of issues of bilateral trade and economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian cooperation, the statement said. Special attention will be paid to intensifying cooperation in nuclear energy, industry, agriculture and education. After the prime ministers conversation, the 19th meeting of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan will also take place under their chairmanship. Following the talks, it is expected to sign intergovernmental documents, reads the statement. In the first half of 2018, Russia ranked first among the trade partners of Uzbekistan with a share of 16 percent of its foreign trade turnover, and Uzbekistan is also one of Russias leading economic partners in the CIS. The bilateral trade in the first half of the year grew 32 percent (to more than $2 billion), while Russian exports increased by 41.6 percent and imports by almost 10 percent. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has addressed the participants of the Kazakh-Chinese business forum in Astana, "Kazinform" reported. "The goods transported from Europe are delivered to China via Kazakhstan in about 15 days. While the shipping of the goods by sea would take 4 to 6 weeks. The logistics and related routes are being established," Nazarbayev said in a video message. "The joint program for cooperation in the field of industry and investment is being implemented. Within its framework, 51 Kazakh-Chinese investment projects totaling more than $27 billion are being implemented," the president added. "This is a sign of investor confidence and a testimony to the fact that Kazakhstan pays special attention to improving the investment climate. In the estimation of international experts, we are the best country in the region for doing business," Nazarbayev said. The resident continued to list the achievements and plans of Kazakhstan in the direction of development of business cooperation. "Kazakhstan is a member of the WTO, an associate member of the OECD Investment Committee, and also has joined the Declaration on international investment. The Council of foreign investors is functioning under the President of Kazakhstan, where the Chinese CNPC company plays an active role," he said. "It is an important strategic partner of Kazakhstan in the development of the oil and gas market of Kazakhstan, it conducts a large-scale campaign for the privatization of large state-owned enterprises," he added. "The large portions of shares of the companies of mining and metallurgy industries, oil and gas industry, energy, transport and communications, infrastructure and other sectors are offered for sale," Nazarbayev said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Friday to attend a trilateral summit between the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey on the protracted crisis in Syria. President Putin landed in Tehran at Friday noon (at 1:45 pm local time) and was officially received by Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, Tasnim news agency reported on September 7. Iran's Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari also welcomed President Erdogan in the capital at 1 pm (local time). Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkish counterpart are slated to meet ahead of the summit. In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country. Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Naila Huseynli Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held talks on Friday in Tehran ahead of a trilateral summit between the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey on the ongoing crisis in Syria. According to IRNA news agency, Rouhani and Putin exchanged views about the Syrian crisis, international developments, the Iran nuclear deal and issues of mutual interest. President Putin arrived in Tehran on Friday and was officially received by Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian. Rouhani also held a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two sides discussed bilateral political and economic ties. In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country. Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the ongoing crisis in Syria has no military solution and can be settled down only through peaceful means. He made the remarks on Friday in Tehran, addressing a trilateral summit between the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey on the protracted crisis in Syria, the official website of the Iranian president said. Todays summit is being held in continuation of the successful efforts of the three countries within the framework of the Astana Process to effectively confront terrorism and put an end to the Syrian crisis, based on the demands of the majority of the Syrians. This summit is also an opportunity to discuss our joint actions in the current and future stages, Rouhani said. Given the complexities of the Syrian crisis, it was very important for the three countries to achieve a common framework based on the fundamental principles of preserving territorial integrity and integrity of Syria and respect for national sovereignty and the right of the Syrian people to determine the future of their country in attempting to quell the flames of war in Syria, Rouhani said. From the outset, we have emphasized the inefficiency of a military solution to ending the Syrian crisis, and we are now pleased that after seven years of the Syrian crisis and based on the experience gained, the settlement of the Syrian crisis and other similar crises in the region through peaceful means has become a popular belief among the dominant players. Our efforts over the past years, especially after concentrating activities in the context of the Astana Process, have always been based on facilitating Syrian-Syrian dialogue and encouraging the government and the opposition to join the process. The Islamic Republic of Irans presence in Syria is at the request of the Syrian government and to fight terrorism in the country, and the continuation of this presence will be on this basis, Rouhani noted. At the same time, this presence, neither in the past nor in the presence, has not been -and will not be- aimed at imposing its opinion, and will support the will of the Syrian people as a friendly nation," said Iran's president. Rouhani went on to add that fighting terrorism is a common international demand, but when the implementation of these demands comes within the framework of the recognized borders of another state and nation, it will not be possible to do so unless it happens through explicit request and clear consent of that country. "We understand the concerns of some countries in the region about the threat of terrorism and separatism, but we consider cooperation with the Syrian government the most effective and lasting way to address these concerns, and believe that other solutions, including through direct intervention and without coordination with the Syrian government, will lead to the deepening of the crisis, he stressed. In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria. The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country. Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Joseph Luiz can be reached at 395-7368 or by email at jluiz@bakersfield.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @JLuiz_TBC. J. Joseph Moakley Professor of Political Science Kay L. Schlozman is the first woman to be selected for the American Political Science Associations Warren E. Miller Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors an outstanding career of intellectual accomplishment and service to the profession in the field of elections, public opinion, and voting behavior. APSA is the leading professional organization for the study of political science, with more than 13,000 members from more than 80 countries. Warren E. Miller, the awards namesake and its inaugural winner, was a pioneering political scientist best known as the co-author of the groundbreaking book, The American Voter, one of the first comprehensive studies to use survey data to understand how voters think and act. Other Miller Lifetime Achievement Award winners have included Philip E. Converse, who, along with Miller, was a co-author of The American Voter and an innovative figure in the field of public opinion, survey research, and quantitative social science; Robert Putnam, whose works include Bowling Alone and Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis; and Larry Bartels, author of Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. I am in awesome company as a recipient of the Miller Lifetime Achievement Award, said Schlozman, a faculty member since 1974 who is a widely hailed expert on citizen participation in American politics. I am very grateful and humbled by the honor. Schlozman has received multiple honors from APSA: the Samuel J. Eldersveld Career Achievement Award, which recognizes a scholar whose lifetime professional work has made an outstanding contribution to the field of political organizations and parties; the Rowman and Littlefield Award for innovative teaching in political science; and the Frank J. Goodnow Award for distinguished service to the political science profession. She also shared the APSA Philip E. Converse Book Award with long-time collaborators Sidney Verbaanother Miller Lifetime Achievement Award recipientand Henry Brady for Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism and American Politics, and the Victoria Schuck Award with Nancy Burns and Sidney Verba for their co-authored book, The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Appointed as the Universitys first Moakley Professor in 2002, Schlozman researches broad areas of American political life, parties and elections, interest groups, voting and public opinion, political movements, money in politics, and the gender gap in citizen political activity. She is the co-author of six books, including her latest with Verba and Brady, the recently released Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the Peoples Voice in the New Gilded Age. She is also the editor of Elections in America and co-editor with Gary King and Norman Nie of The Future of Political Science. Looking back, Schlozman said, exposure to Millers work piqued her interest in political science, although she wasnt aware of it at first. When I learned about the Constitution as a junior in high school, I naively asked my history teacher, Are the people we elect supposed to do what we want them to do, or are they supposed to do what they think is best? Turns out that is a question with which political philosophers have grappled for generations. Schlozman, however, started out as an English major during her undergraduate years at Wellesley College. Then I took a sociology course, and it was clear I understood how to think as a social scientist, so I became a double sociology/English major. And I got As in everything except English. As she took courses related to her sociology major, including in economics, Schlozman found that I kept gravitating toward questions with political dimensions. Later on, as I continued to explore political science as a discipline of choice, I encountered the classic article in which Miller and his co-author, Donald Stokes, subjected to the light of data the question of how members of Congress represent the policy views of their constituents. I was fascinated. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with many talented colleagues over the years to address such issues, which are critical to understanding the state of our democracy. She received the award at the annual APSA meeting in Boston in September. Sean Smith | University Communications | September 2018 Houston's Kinder Morgan and Midland-based EagleClaw Midstream said they've authorized the proposed $2 billion Permian Highway Pipeline project to transport natural gas from West Texas to Houston and other hubs. The project is part of the race to build gas and oil pipelines from the booming Permian Basin to refining and port hubs near Houston and Corpus Christi. Permian production is currently stalling from pipeline shortages to carry the oil and gas out of rural and landlocked West Texas. RECOVERY: Offshore oil production shows signs of turnaround The 430-mile Kinder Morgan project is backed by customer support from Exxon Mobil and Houston-based Apache Corp., which also has the option of buying a one-third stake in the pipeline through its proposed spinoff company, Altus Midstream. For now, Kinder Morgan and EagleClaw are 50-50 partners. The 42-inch pipeline is slated for completion by the end of 2020 and would stretch from Waha in West Texas' Pecos County to Katy near Houston. From Katy, the natural gas could flow to U.S. Gulf Coast and Mexican markets via existing pipelines. The project is designed to transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. "With the continued growth in drilling activity in the Permian Basin, this project will help to provide key infrastructure for producers to move natural gas to the best premium markets along the Gulf Coast and South Texas," said EagleClaw President Jamie Welch. Some of the main uses of the Permian Highway Pipeline are to supply gas for electricity generation in Texas and Mexico and for new liquefied natural gas export complexes under construction in Freeport and Corpus Christi. Kinder Morgan just proposed the project in June in the new partnership with EagleClaw, a private firm that's financially backed by the New York private equity giant Blackstone Group. GROWING: EagleClaw Midstream acquires Houston's Caprock for $950M Earlier this week, EagleClaw said it's buying another Permian pipeline company, Humble-based Caprock Midstream, for $950 million to expand its West Texas footprint. Back to Kinder Morgan, the Houston firm already is leading the construction of the $1.7 billion Gulf Coast Express Pipeline that would stretch farther south from the Permian to just west of Corpus Christi in Agua Dulce. Apache also is an anchor customer on that project, slated for completion in fall 2019. As for crude oil, Exxon Mobil said in June it plans to create a joint venture with Houston's Plains All American Pipeline to construct a multibillion-dollar pipeline stretching from west of Midland to the Houston and Beaumont areas that would carry oil and condensate. SACRAMENTO Californias firefighting agency is running out of money in the midst of a disastrous and deadly fire season and needs another $234 million to make it through the middle of next year, officials said Thursday. The request came as a new round of major wildfires erupted around the state, including a blaze near the Sacramento River in Shasta County that grew to 22,000 acres Thursday night, forcing mandatory evacuations as the flames threatened structures. Ken Pimlott, director of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said in a letter to legislators that the agency is down to its last $11 million after spending $432 million in July and August alone. The budget year doesnt end until June 30, 2019. The request means the state will probably dip into budget reserves for the eighth time in 10 years to cover the cost of putting out wildfires. This is the earliest Cal Fire has ever had to ask the state for more money. Pimlott wrote in the letter Thursday that climate change-driven extreme weather conditions continue to drive intense and large fires, leaving the agency short on cash. Last year, the state budgeted $427 million. The fires in the North Bay and elsewhere in October, and then in Southern California in December, forced the state, local governments and the federal government to come up with another $470 million to cover costs. H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said Cal Fires request shows the wisdom of Gov. Jerry Browns push to increase the states budget reserves. This years state spending plan included an additional $2.2 billion for unexpected expenses like wildfires and floods. Pimlott said given new wildfires in recent days, he hopes the state will approve the emergency funding as soon as possible. Browns office can dip into the emergency funding after notifying legislative fiscal committees. Government firefighting budgets will be further taxed by the Delta Fire in Shasta County near Interstate 5 just north of Lakehead. Rough terrain made it difficult to contain the 300-foot flames, and low humidity spread the blaze by rates of 1 mph as it consumed mixed conifer and timber with no recent fire history, the U.S. Forest Service said. The agency said the blaze was caused by someone, but did not provide further details. The Shasta County Sheriffs Office issued mandatory evacuations for residents along I-5 just north of Lamoine to the Shasta-Siskiyou county line. Elsewhere in California, the North Fire at the Emigrant Gap area of Tahoe National Forest near Interstate 80 was 17 percent contained and grew by nearly 200 acres to 1,274 acres on Thursday. Melody Gutierrez and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com, sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez @SarRavani State regulators moved to revoke the licenses of two Santa Rosa senior housing facilities Thursday after finding that employees abandoned dozens of elderly and disabled residents during a confused and frantic evacuation amid the deadly Tubbs Fire last year. Investigators with the California Department of Social Services concluded that the staffers at the Varenna and Villa Capri apartments were untrained and ill-equipped to handle evacuations, and that supervisors in both facilities left residents alone at the peak of the crisis. Two dozen residents of Villa Capri would have died in the fire if not for the actions of family members and emergency personnel to get them out before the building went up in flames, according to a complaint filed by the department. It cites the licensed operator of the facilities, Oakmont Senior Living, as well as its management group and the executive directors of the centers, Deborah Smith and Nathan Condie. The licenses will be revoked in 15 days unless an appeal is filed requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge. Based on evidence gathered during the investigations and the statements of witnesses, the department has determined that Oakmont Senior Living failed to protect the health and safety of residents at Varenna and Villa Capri, Michael Weston, the spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, wrote in a statement. The Department served Oakmont Senior Living with legal notice to revoke the licenses of Varenna and Villa Capri and to exclude the administrators of both facilities for life. Oakmont representatives denied the allegations in a statement Thursday, saying all 418 residents were safely evacuated and thanking families, neighbors and emergency personnel for their help. The night of the Tubbs fire, we voluntarily began evacuating residents after we were repeatedly unable to reach emergency authorities on clogged 911 phone lines. We never received an official evacuation order from emergency authorities, the statement said. Our residents and their safety have been, and always will be, our first priority. Oakmont officials said earlier this year that emergency personnel prevented staff from returning to the buildings to evacuate the rest of the residents. None of the residents of the two high-end assisted-living facilities died in the fire, but the complaint describes confusion, inattention and breakdowns in communication among the managers as the fire crackled toward the building the night of Oct. 8 and early morning Oct. 9. Smith, administrator of Villa Capri, failed to train the four staffers on duty that night in emergency and evacuation procedures, according to the complaint. They were responsible for 62 residents, 25 of whom were in the memory care unit and unable to exit the building unassisted, the report said. The employees did not know where flashlights, batteries or keys to the facilitys vehicles were, and two of them were incapable of moving or assisting residents because they could not lift more than 10 pounds or use both hands, the document said. One staffer searched for an hour that night, checking four rooms in the building, but could not find keys to any vehicles, the complaint said. Outside was a large bus that could have been used to evacuate all the residents, but nobody knew where to find the keys. Sometime between 3 and 3:30 a.m., as the fire raged outside, a supervisor, who did not call 911 or notify anyone about the situation, left two untrained staffers with 30 elderly and infirm residents. They subsequently evacuated six residents in their personal vehicles, leaving 24 infirm patients alone in the building as flames approached, the complaint said. Smith knew about the emergency at 11:30 p.m., but never made it to the facility and eventually arrived at an evacuation center at 6 a.m. the next day. The residents were saved by family members, who flagged down a police cruiser and helped their stranded relatives down from the second floor and out from behind a locked door in the lobby, the report said. A 92-year-old woman who suffered from blindness, dementia and hearing impairments reportedly was injured with a broken hip while being rescued by a good Samaritan. If these family members and emergency responders had not evacuated Villa Capri residents, more than 20 residents would have perished when Villa Capri burned to the ground after all staff left the facility, the report stated. The situation at Varenna, where 228 residents were living, was equally chaotic, according to the report. It said Condie, the administrator, had failed to train the two health care workers and two maintenance staffers on duty that night in emergency procedures. When Condie arrived sometime between 12:30 and 1 a.m., he was unable to articulate an evacuation plan and instead directed the staff to return the residents to their rooms, the report said. He left the facility in his car with a small number of residents at about 3:30 a.m. and did not tell the staffers where keys to a large bus owned by Varenna were located. All the other staffers later departed, leaving the residents asleep in their rooms as the fire raged toward the facility. They were eventually evacuated by their families and friends, who reported spending hours pounding on doors, waking up and assisting residents, many using walkers and wheelchairs, to the lobby, according to the report. When emergency responders finally arrived at 4:15 a.m., no staffers were available to identify residents or provide a list of those who were evacuated, the report said. They said they had to kick open locked doors throughout the facility to locate and alert sleeping residents. Besides revoking the licenses of the facilities, the complaint would also ban Smith and Condie from ever again working at a care facility. Were very pleased that the state of California has held Oakmont accountable and sent a very strong message that it needs to spend money on residents and not just pretty buildings, said Kathryn Stebner, the attorney for former Villa Capri and Varenna residents, who settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of the residents Aug. 17 for an undisclosed sum. They said they had training and had an evacuation plan, and we found that they did not have training and they did not have an evacuation plan, and we also found that the residents were abandoned, she said. These people would have been dead if not for the heroic acts of family members. The state investigated another care facility, Fountaingrove Lodge, but no wrongdoing was found. Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite CHICAGO A judge on Thursday told a Chicago police officer charged with murder in the shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald that his media interviews violated a court order not to talk about the case but rejected prosecutors motion to lock him up in jail in favor of a small bond increase that the officer was able to post immediately. Officer Jason Van Dyke was taken into custody by sheriffs deputies after Judge Vincent Gaughan ordered him to pay 10 percent of the $2,000 bond increase or $200 but Gaughan allowed Van Dyke to pay the money from the courthouse instead of forcing him to return to the jail for processing as typically is done. During the hearing before Gaughan issued his order, a prosecutor argued that the interviews Van Dyke gave last week to a newspaper and to a television station added up to nothing more than a trial tactic of informing the jury pool that he was justified in shooting the 17-year-old McDonald in 2014. In telling the media that he would not have shot McDonald if he didnt fear for his life and the lives of other officers at the scene and that he acted as he was trained to, Van Dyke was trying to testify in the press without being cross examined, Joseph Cullen said. But one of Van Dykes defense attorneys, Randy Rueckert, said Van Dyke was trying to protect himself against the avalanche of media coverage in which he has been portrayed as the white cop who shot a black teenager. Further, he said, he was reacting to recent interviews done by the McDonald family that were given in an effort to spoil the jury pool. He noted that, until recently, Van Dyke had given no interviews since 2015. For his part, the judge said he would not discuss whether Van Dykes interviews contaminated the jury pool. Instead, he said Van Dyke clearly had violated his order to the parties in the case not to discuss it publicly. On Wednesday, prospective jurors were called to court, where they were given questionnaires to fill out. Attorneys are expected to begin questioning the prospective jurors early next week. 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. The Jefferson County Democratic Party is calling for the resignation of an interim constable who took the job stipulating he would not seek re-election. Charlie Wiggins, a Republican, was appointed July 30 to fill the final two years of Democrat Earl White's term in Precinct 1 when White left to become Beaumont's fire chief. Jefferson County Commissioners Court records show that Wiggins agreed not to seek election to the office in November. But Wiggins said he changed his mind after learning that the Democrat he had favored would not be the party nominee. With his name now on the GOP ballot, Wiggins said he has no plans to resign unless he is found to be breaking the law. "You can't just have anyone in as constable and expect the job to get done," he said. "I just feel like I'm more qualified than my opponent." Wiggins, a former constable who began his law enforcement career in 1982, said he worried about staff turnover and other changes that "could be a disaster to the county." He said he changed his mind "to try to maintain what has been set forth in that office." "I think most people would understand that," said Wiggins, who served as constable from 2004 until he lost a re-election bid in 2012. Local Democratic Party chairman Cade Bernsen said Wiggins "went back on his word." "It's not right," said Bernsen, who said he believes Wiggins should resign and instead focus on his campaign for the next two months. In a letter addressed to the Commissioners Court, Bernsen wrote that he believed allowing Wiggins to run would be giving him "the power and advantage of the incumbency." "This is especially important when that office was previously held by a Democrat," Bernsen said. If elected, Wiggins would be the first Republican constable in Precinct 1. "I wish it wasn't more about party. It's a nonpartisan office," said Wiggins, a former Democrat who lost a bid for re-election in 2012. "I think you should put qualified persons in all positions, not depending upon what party." The Democratic nominee is Jevonne Smith Pollard, a Precinct 2 deputy who began her career in law enforcement with Beaumont police in 2001, worked for the Chambers County Sheriff's Office for four years and has been a deputy constable with Precincts 8 and 2 since 2013. "All I'll say about him (Wiggins) is that he's my opponent and I look forward to running a great campaign," Pollard said. Early voting begins Oct. 22. Election Day is Nov. 6. Bernsen wrote that Wiggins' decision to run was "wrongful and this Court has a duty and responsibility to address the issue." He called on the Commissioners Court to replace Wiggins with someone not seeking political office. Fred Jackson, assistant to County Judge Jeff Branick, said the Commissioners Court would discuss Wiggins' appointment at Monday's afternoon meeting. This isn't the first time an interim official in Jefferson County has changed their mind. Wiggins recalled former county clerk Debbie Usoff, who was appointed to the job in 2003 with no intentions of seeking election. However, like Wiggins, Usoff changed her mind, according to a December 2003 Enterprise article. Usoff lost the Democratic runoff election to the current county clerk, Carolyn Guidry. Guidry was elected in 2004 and is up for re-election this November. Phoebe.Suy@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/PhoebeSuy Some 30,000 motorists cross the Neches River between Port Arthur and Bridge City every day. The southbound travelers are driving over a piece of Southeast Texas history known as the Rainbow Bridge. Once the tallest in Texas, the critical span turns 80 years old today. "It's held up better than I think anyone thought it would," said Sarah Bellian of the Museum of the Gulf Coast. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed off on the project as a way to create jobs during the Great Depression. Workers on the project made between 50 cents and $1.25 per hour. Bellian said people lined up for miles just to cross on the day it opened. "They had a high diver and celebration," she said. "It was quite the event." Originally named the Port Arthur-Orange Bridge, the Rainbow was completed in 1938 and dedicated on Sept. 8 of that year. A sister span, the Veterans Memorial Bridge, was added in 1990 to accommodate northbound traffic. The Rainbow Bridge was constructed to allow what was the tallest ship in the Navy, the USS Patoka, to pass freely beneath it. (The passing never happened.) The 7,760-foot-wide bridge stretched over the Neches River with a clearance of 177 feet and a main span of 680 feet, it held the title as the tallest bridge in south for years. A defining feature of the Rainbow Bridge is its steep incline, a 5 percent grade for every 100 feet. By comparison, the Veterans Memorial has a 3.6 percent grade for 9,440 feet. The Rainbow Bridge was constructed to replace the unreliable ferry that connected Port Arthur and what was, at the time, known as Prairie View. After the completion of the bridge, the town changed its name to Bridge City. The bridge itself was renamed after 6-year-old Christy McClintock submitted "Rainbow" in a 1957 contest. She got $50 when her choice was picked from among more than 8,000 entries. She said she'd always seen the bridge as a "mechanical rainbow." The bridge gets a fresh coat of paint every 20 years and it was rededicated in 1997 after a nearly six-year, $15 million dollar renovation. (The bridge originally cost $2.7 million to build, although that translates to roughly $47 million in today's market.) Christy McClintock and Mary Elizabeth Mills Harle, who cut the ribbon at the original dedication, attended the celebration in '97. The Rainbow Bridge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and has survived multiple hurricanes. "It's done really well in the storms," Bellian said. Haley.Bruyn@BeaumontEnterprise.com Flip through the slideshow above to see photos from the start of construction through now. Our cameras were at the LIT Foundation's "A Salute to the Real American Heroes" dinner at Wesley United Methodist Church on Thursday evening. Did we see you there? We've come a long way from the notoriously illegible, handwritten doctor's note. Does it read "sepsis" or "sinus"? The implications of choosing one versus the other are enormous. When I became an emergency medicine physician over a decade ago, finding a way to streamline medical documentation was slowly becoming an imperative for physicians and patients. Communication among physicians improved, as did care quality once Electronic Medical Records grew in popularity. By 2015, all public and private healthcare providers were required to adopt and demonstrate meaningful use of EMRs in order to maintain full reimbursement from CMS. The new legislation created a universal language for medical professionals and marked a sea change in healthcare delivery. As with many innovations, the unintended consequence soon became evident. Although being rid of the handwritten note lessened confusion, and the streamlined documentation process added a level of standardization, the adoption of EMRs created new, time-consuming and tedious clerical work for the physician. Requiring physicians to complete the documentation in charts added a level of administrative burden never before seen in the practice of medicine or taught in medical school. And tying reimbursement to documentation translated into long hours spent at the office working on suspended charts. The upside was streamlined care, the downside burnt out physicians. Today, physicians are leaving the medical profession in record numbers due to the burden of documentation that has led to decreased job satisfaction. The doctor's decree, Primum non Nocere, or "First, to do no harm," must be evoked to protect the providers themselves. Yet, with the proposed policy recently released by CMS in July, the pendulum has swung back too far. While I commend CMS Administrator Seema Verma for confronting this enormous challenge, I fear reducing the levels of documentation needed for accurate patient care and reimbursement will have unintended adverse consequences. Under the current payment policy framework, when patients visit their doctor, the physician reviews the symptoms, and the interaction is given a code Level 1 to 5 to be input into the patient's medical chart. The evaluation and management codes determine the reimbursement level for the physician's services and resources used to treat the patient. Level 1 is used for non-physician care team members, when the presenting problems are minimal, while Level 5 denotes more complex care. In order to be reimbursed accurately by CMS, doctors must provide documentation that reflects the level of Medical Decision Making and time spent face-to-face with the patient to assess next steps. In an effort to correct the epidemic administrative burden threatening to derail an industry in critical condition, CMS has proposed physicians no longer document beyond Level 2 payment. Physicians would be allowed to document up to Level 2, or base reimbursement, solely on face-to-face time spent with patients, with a set minimum time for physicians who choose to code the visit by time alone. The hope is that a reduction in the number of documentation levels would curtail a growing trend of physicians leaving the profession, unwilling to spend their careers inputting patient data, instead of practicing medicine. While the proposed rule reduces the E/M documentation burden and thus could save physicians time, scaling back too far by conflating four levels of documentation into a single documentation level is a drastic move that may be fraught with peril. Burnout is real, and we do need a streamlined process, but at what cost and to whom? Can you imagine the potential for mistreatment or misdiagnosis by referring physicians down the care continuum if the original provider documents to the level of a common cold when in fact the patient had chest pain? Thin documentation could also increase costs to patients and payers. If tests such as an MRI were ordered and not documented, referred physicians may re-order the tests again unnecessarily. In addition to the attendant risks noted above, the new rule, like a time warp, instantly moves us backward in time to the days of inadequate documentation. What's next, go back to ICD-9? In one fell swoop, the new rule could unwind many of the strides that we've made over the last 20 years. In addition to patient harm, the new rule would have legal ramifications for physicians. How will such a light note be defended in a legal trial? And if the enhanced patient risk, legal risk and an anachronistic approach weren't enough, the new rule will likely introduce fraud into the system. If we reduce documentation, will providers honestly spend more time with their patients, or will some simply utilize the time savings to see more patients to keep revenues the same or higher? As the CEO of HealthChannels, an organization working on the front lines of healthcare to alleviate the clerical burden doctors face to allow them to work top-of-license, I have seen how effective a medical scribe program can be when scribes are paired elbow-to-elbow with providers. From work RVU's to technology-based solutions, optimizing care teams to support providers doesn't have to be financially onerous. Our clerical programs routinely result in providers having more time with patients (and for themselves) with the use of medical scribe support. Another solution is to implore EMR companies to streamline their product as an imperative: less clicks is a good thing for all providers. Patient documentation became burdensome when EMRs were mandated. The problem is not the E/M Levels themselves, but a broader need for better designed EMRs. What if CMS told the EMR vendors to streamline their product by 20 percent fewer clicks by 2020 or face a hefty penalty? Also, mandating interoperability so that EMR systems share data between providers and hospitals would modernize the current, frustratingly siloed documentation experience. Finally, CMS should allow other members of the care team to place orders, do medication reconciliation and perform other ancillary duties so physicians can be relieved of these burdens. If a pendulum swings too far in one direction, what we know from experience is that it is only a matter of time before it swings back. Delivering accessible, quality and affordable care is a shared goal for those of us in the medical profession. Though I am glad CMS is keen on protecting physicians and the profession, I remain unconvinced the new rules will do no harm. In celebration of National ASC Month last month, Surgical Information Systems asked several ASC administrators and industry leaders to share their thoughts on how to raise awareness of ASCs The project participants included Jon Van Valkenburg, the executive director of East Syracuse, N.Y.-based Upstate Orthopedics Ambulatory Surgery Center; Gabriel Figueroa, COO of New York City-based Gramercy Healthcare: Cheryl Carpenter, administrator of Orchard Park, N.Y.-based Sterling Surgical Center: Ann Geier, chief nursing officer of Surgical Information Systems; and Daren Smith, senior clinical solutions specialist of Surgical Information Systems. Here are the insights they shared: 1. Mr. Figueroa said it's important to promote awareness of the role ASCs play in the healthcare system because the ASC model is "the wave of the future" due to lower infection rates and advances in technology and techniques. He said society still associates surgery will hospitals, so it's important ASCs continue to reach out to their communities about the services they provide. 2. Ms. Geier said ASCs need to be visible through having open houses, achieving media coverage and doing charity work. 3. Mr. Van Valkenburg said that through awareness raising efforts, communities will learn ASCs provide patients with surgery options that are both more convenient and affordable. After a Vermont mental health advocate urged healthcare regulators to establish a one-year freeze on hospital administrators' salaries if they make more than $500,000 a year, regulators said they won't get directly involved in executive pay, VTDigger reports. Kevin Mullin, chairman of the Green Mountain Care Board, which is charged with reducing the rate of healthcare cost growth in Vermont, said it won't "micromanage" hospitals by getting directly involved in executive pay or personnel issues. Mr. Mullin was responding to Ken Libertoff, former director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health, who asked the board to consider putting a one-year pay freeze on the salary of any hospital administrator making over $500,000. Mr. Mullin also said the care board is applying cost-control pressure to hospitals in other ways, partially by limiting hospitals' revenue and rates during the annual budget review process and through the board's dissemination of hospital salary information. "I think that we have started that process of shining the light on it," Mr. Mullin said. "These are nonprofit hospitals run by their local communities. I think that board members are hearing from their community members that maybe it's time to take a pause [on compensation]." Hospital executive pay in Vermont has gotten more attention recently due to a labor dispute between Burlington-based University of Vermont Medical Center and its unionized nurses. The union took issue with the hospital paying two top executives over $3 million in 2016. Mr. Libertoff also petitioned the board to take on a study of increases in UVM Medical Center and UVM Health Network administrative salaries "as compared to salary increases in other components of the hospital system." Open Source EHR Association launched an initiative to create an international version of VistA, the Department of Veterans Affairs' homegrown EHR. Former VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, released the agency's plan to scrap VistA for a systemwide Cerner EHR during a news briefing in mid-2017. However, providers outside the VA have also implemented the VA's legacy system VistA has periodically been released to the public, and developers in the Open Source EHR Association build on these updates to create an open-source product. The Open Source EHR Association, a nonprofit that hosts software repositories to help government agencies manage IT applications, aims to expand VistA's capabilities under an international effort dubbed Plan VI. The project focuses on developing an EHR capable of displaying information in any language using Unicode, including Korean, German, Arabic and Chinese dialects. The Open Source EHR Association is creating a workgroup to carry out Plan VI. So far, the workgroup comprises IT vendors and universities from South Korea, China and Jordan. "We are seeing substantial interest in open-source EHR solutions from the international community," Seong Mun, PhD, president and CEO of the Open Source EHR Association, said in a news release. "Economically, leveraging high quality open-source code and community collaboration can dramatically reduce both implementation and maintenance costs." Here are 12 hospitals and health systems with strong operational metrics and solid financial positions, according to recent reports from Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings. Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Hospital and health system names were compiled from recent credit rating reports and are listed in alphabetical order. 1. St. Louis-based Ascension has an "Aa2" senior debt rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The health system has a large diversified portfolio of sizable hospitals and strong liquidity. Moody's expects Ascension's margins to improve in fiscal year 2019. 2. Prince Frederick, Md.-based CalvertHealth System has an "AA-" rating and stable outlook with Fitch. The system has a leading market share, a favorable payer mix and stable cash flow, according to Fitch. 3. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has an "Aa2" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The health system has a dominant market position, strong margins and ample liquidity, according to Moody's. 4. Cleveland Clinic has an "Aa2" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. Cleveland Clinic has strong brand recognition, exceptional fundraising ability and healthy cash flow, according to Moody's. 5. La Crosse, Wis.-based Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center has an "AA-" rating and stable outlook with Fitch. The hospital has a leading market position, solid balance sheet metrics and a favorable payer mix, according to Fitch. 6. Inova Health System has an "Aa2" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The Falls Church, Va.-based health system has consistently strong cash-flow margins, a leading market position and a good investment position, according to Moody's. 7. Philadelphia-based Main Line Health has an "Aa3" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The system has a strong market position, healthy balance sheet metrics and a light debt burden, according to Moody's. 8. Dallas-based Methodist Health System has an "Aa3" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The health system has a favorable liquidity position, consistent operating results and a growing market population, according to Moody's. 9. Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine has an "AA-" rating and stable outlook with Fitch. The system has strong operating margins and a light debt burden, according to Fitch. 10. Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth (Kan.) Health System, which does business as SCL Health, has an "Aa3" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The system has a good market position in a favorable service area, strong operating margins and limited capital spending, according to Moody's. 11. Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital has an "Aa2" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The hospital has strong brand equity and is a national leader in pediatric services, which will continue to generate revenue growth, according to Moody's. 12. Chapel Hill-based University of North Carolina Hospitals has an "Aa3" rating and stable outlook with Moody's. The health system has an excellent market position, strong patient demand and healthy financial performance, according to Moody's. More articles on healthcare finance: California health system's bankruptcy challenged by employee union Oklahoma hospital on brink of closure gets taxpayer infusion to make payroll This week's 5 must-reads for hospital CFOs The following hospital and health system credit rating and outlook changes and affirmations occurred in the last week, beginning with the most recent. 1. Moody's affirms 'Baa1' rating on Catholic Health System, maintains negative outlook Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa1" rating on Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health System and maintained its negative outlook. 2. Moody's revises Indiana Regional Medical Center's outlook to negative Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Ba1" rating of Indiana (Pa.) Regional Medical Center, affecting $23.6 million of debt. Concurrently, the medical center's outlook was revised to negative from stable. 3. Moody's revises Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System's outlook to stable Moody's Investors Service revised Baton Rouge, La.-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System's outlook to stable from negative. Concurrently, the credit rating agency affirmed the health system's "A2" rating. 4. Moody's downgrades Integris Health to 'A1' Moody's Investors Service downgraded Oklahoma City-based Integris Health one notch, to 'A1' from "Aa3." The action affects $226 million of outstanding debt. 5. S&P assigns 'BBB+' rating to CHI's bonds S&P Global Ratings assigned its "BBB+" rating to Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiative's $250 million series 2017A revenue bonds. 6. S&P assigns 'AA' rating to Mayo Clinic's bonds S&P Global Ratings assigned its "AA" rating to Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic's $200 million series 2018 revenue bonds. 7. S&P affirms 'CCC' rating on Coalinga Regional Medical Center S&P Global Ratings affirmed its "CCC" long-term rating on Coalinga (Calif.) Regional Medical Center's certificates of participation. The outlook is negative. El Segundo, Calif.-based Verity Health filed for bankruptcy in August, just 13 months after billionaire entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, bought a majority stake in its management company with a promise to revitalize the health system. Here are seven things to know about Verity Health's financial situation. 1. The health system filed for bankruptcy Aug. 31. It secured a $185 million loan to remain operational during the bankruptcy, which CEO Richard Adcock told Reuters could last at least a few years. 2. Verity is still seeking a buyer for all or some of the hospitals. Mr. Adcock told Reuters the system has been contacted by more than 100 potential buyers since July 9, when it announced it was exploring strategic options due to nearly $500 million in long-term debt. "We are exploring a number of options to deleverage our balance sheet and address challenges our hospitals face after a decade of deferred maintenance, poor payer contracts and increasing costs," said Mr. Adcock. 3. The system's financial issues pre-date Dr. Soon-Shiong's investment but have not improved since. Mr. Adcock told Reuters that Verity has been hemorrhaging $175 million per year on cash flow basis. Verity has operated at a loss for at the least the past three years. Executives had planned to break even in the 12 months ended June 2018, however, the system reported its operating performance compared to the budget was unfavorable by $116 million, according to a report from Politico. In the 12 months ended June 2017, the system saw losses of $37 million, and the year prior marked nearly $200 million in operating losses. 4. Prior to filing for bankruptcy, Verity stopped all capital improvement projects, Politico reported in the same article. However, the system needs millions of dollars in updates to meet California's seismic standards by 2019. Approximately 94 percent of California's hospitals already comply with this major legal requirement, according to the report. Verity Health needed an estimated $66 million in improvements. Since November, the system has put $5.1 million toward compliance. If Verity does not meet deadlines for compliance in 2019, its hospitals can no longer be used for patient care. 5. The health system's spending on charity care declined 28 percent at five of its six hospitals in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same period the year prior. The sixth hospital reported an error in its financials. Dr. Soon-Shiong updated the health system's financial assistance policy in December to exclude services from more than 50 hospital departments, according to Politico. Preliminary data from the second quarter of 2018 suggests this trend has continued. 6. The health system is spending millions on an Allscripts EHR implementation. Dr. Soon-Shiong served as interim CEO of Verity in 2017, during which the system signed a contract to implement a new Allscripts Sunrise EHR by 2019. Verity spent $12.8 million on the EHR through June, according to Politico. Sources told Politico the final cost could range from $20 million to $100 million. 7. The EHR investment faces scrutiny due to Dr. Soon-Shiong's close ties to Allscripts. Dr. Soon-Shiong bought a $100 million stake in Allscripts in 2015, and Allscripts had a $200 million stake in NantHealth, his precision medicine company, Politico reported. Allscripts and NantHealth also had an agreement to work together to promote precision medicine technology. This agreement was restructured in 2017, when the value of NantHealth's stock was down, according to the report. Allscripts returned NantHealth's stock, and in return, NantHealth transferred ownership of some of its software to Allscripts and agreed to deliver $95 million worth of business to the EHR vendor. Allscripts President Rick Poulton told Politico the Verity Health EHR deal does not count against the $95 million in promised business, and the health system had already been considering Allscripts before Dr. Soon-Shiong assumed leadership. More articles on finance: California hospital files for bankruptcy, owes $250K to employees Navigating patient payment challenges across new healthcare delivery models 10 hospitals seeking RCM talent Three Nashville (Tenn.) General Hospital leaders spent $401,419 in credit card purchases over two years, but the hospital does not have documentation for 85 percent of the transactions, The Tennessean reported, citing a new city internal audit. Six things to know: 1. The audit pertaining to the financially struggling safety-net hospital is dated Aug. 28. It revealed hospital CEO Joseph Webb, executive assistant Dawn Thomas, and director of marketing, Cathy Poole, made the credit card purchases in 2016 and 2017, according to The Tennessean. 2. The credit card purchases reportedly include nearly $32,000 for airfare, which the hospital said was hospital-related; $22,000 to Jason's Deli, which the hospital said was for catering; and $20,000 spent at Regal Cinemas; which the hospital said was for gift certificates for employee birthdays. 3. Nashville General was unable to provide auditors with credit card statements, transaction receipts or other documentation for 40 out of 47 of the transactions, The Tennessean reported. Auditors could see how much was spent via the website of a J.P. Morgan Chase credit card, but the hospital does not have documentation to determine whether the purchases supported the hospital's mission. 4. Ms. Poole, the hospital's spokesperson, attributed the lack of documentation to high turnover in the hospital's finance department. She told The Tennessean: "We are aware that some of the receipt files were misplaced during staff transition. Our new approach will ensure this will no longer be an issue." 5. According to the report, the hospital has seen the audit and accepted auditors' recommendations. In doing so, the hospital is working on a new credit card policy. Ms. Poole told The Tennessean the hospital will also reroute credit card usage to Mr. Webb's executive assistant. She said the audit, which the Metro Audit Committee is scheduled to discuss next week, did not identify any expenses deemed inappropriate. 6. The Tennessean reported the audit indeed found the hospital's payments not counting the credit card purchases for which there was no documentation are "generally" in keeping with its mission, but also found the hospital authority's purchasing policy was inconsistently practiced in departments. Read the full story here. Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville, Tenn., is looking to privatize its debt structure, The Daily Times reported. Six things to know: 1. The hospital seeks to privatize $75.3 million in debt backed by Blount County taxpayers, the report states. It plans to do so by reaching a refinance deal with Pinnacle Financial Partners. 2. Hospital CFO Jonathan Smith told The Daily Times the $75.3 million represents 96 percent of Blount Memorial's debt structure. 3. The hospital, a governmental entity, is looking at its taxpayer-backed debt structure after it was made public that Blount Memorial Foundation Executive Director Jane Andrews embezzled $186,655.57 from the nonprofit foundation between October 2007 and April 2016. According to The Daily Times, the hospital did not notify Maryville police about the embezzlement. Instead, it told the Blount County District Attorney's Office, which did not press charges but required Ms. Andrew to pay the money back with interest. The report states the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation got involved this year after the county requested police involvement and completed its own probe. District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway, of the 13th Judicial District of Tennessee, will decide whether charges are filed in the future. 4. The hospital also decided to look at its taxpayer-backed debt structure since its existing loan, held by JP Morgan Chase & Co., expires in 2019. 5. Blount Memorial spokesperson Josh West told The Daily Times: "With the hospital's debt set for renewal in late 2019, we decided it would be an opportune time for us to evaluate our options. We're also aware that there has been some discomfort in the community with regard to the hospital's county-backed debt structure. As always, it is our goal to be good citizens and maintain the confidence of the people of Blount County, so we began exploring options that would be independent of taxpayer liability." 6. The hospital plans to continue negotiations with Pinnacle. More articles on healthcare costs: AMA releases 335 coding changes for 2019 Pediatric group director pens book on navigating the patient financial experience This week's 5 must-reads for hospital RCM leaders More articles on healthcare finance: Nashville General has no documentation for $400K in credit card purchases by leaders, audit finds Arizona man billed for surgery he never had after name, birthdate mix-up RCM tip of the day: Target smaller subsets of claims to boost collections Here are eight recent news updates from technology and health IT companies: 1. 23andMe is reportedly looking to offer a new, more expensive premium service for users who want more information about their health. 2. Apple is seeking an engineering manager with a background in health data to support its health business. 3. Apple told early participants of its joint heart study with Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine that the company had completed collecting their data over Labor Day weekend. 4. Zane Burke, the president of Cerner, sold 151,818 shares of the company Aug. 28. 5. Indianapolis-based Indiana University School of Medicine entered into a research agreement with Fujifilm, a Japanese photography company, to bring artificial intelligence to medical imaging. 6. Meditech integrated access to state-regulated electronic prescription drug monitoring programs into its newest EHR and patient administration system, a web-based platform called Expanse. 7. Teladoc Health rolled out free telehealth visits Aug. 28 to residents of the Hawaiian Islands hit by tropical cyclone Hurricane Lane. 8. Tempus, a company focused on personalized oncology care, raised $110 million in a Series E financing round, increasing its total funding to $320 million. Bain Capital and Elliott Management have teamed up as the frontrunner in the race to acquire athenahealth, the New York Post reports. Elliott, an activist investor known for its aggressive pursuits of companies it wants to acquire, made an unsolicited takeover bid to buy the health IT company in May. UnitedHealth and Cerner were reportedly two of the second-round bidders to express interest in acquiring athenahealth, but they have opted to pass, bankers told the Post. Now, Elliott and Bain, which owns healthcare technology company Waystar, have joined together for a bid and are favored to acquire the $6 billion company. Athenahealth Executive Chairman Jeff Immelt said during the company's second-quarter earnings call in July that the board was considering a sale, merger or keeping the company an independent entity. New signs have emerged that the company may be leaning toward selling itself. A Sept. 5 SEC filing revealed athenahealth's ousted founder and CEO Jonathan Bush would receive $4.8 million if the company completed a sale. Mr. Bush, who resigned in June after Elliot's bid, will receive an additional $2 million in early 2020 if he upholds a noncompete agreement with the company, according to Bloomberg. He reportedly forfeited equity awards worth $17.8 million when he resigned. The filing also showed Mr. Immelt earns $150,000 a month in salary and $150,000 in restricted stock. Athenahealth will take second-round bids which are expected to be around $160 per share Sept. 17. Cerner, UnitedHealth and athenahealth declined the Post's requests for comment. A former nurse at Tyler, Texas-based Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital and Christus Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler accused of injuring patients, some fatally, was indicted on capital murder and three more aggravated assault charges, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reports. William George Davis faces three additional charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one charge of capital murder, according to judicial records. Mr. Davis, a former nurse at the two Tyler hospitals, was arrested in April and charged with murder linked to the August death of patient who was recovering from a heart procedure at the hospital. Officials said they believe Mr. Davis intentionally injected air into arterial lines of patients recovering from heart surgery, making them have strokelike symptoms. Hospital officials initially told police about seven unexplained/suspicious incidents involving the nurse. Mr. Davis was terminated from Christus Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler Feb. 15, about a week after hospital officials told police their concerns. The incidents in the arrest warrant affidavit all happened at Christus Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler. The hospital is working with the Tyler Police Department to review patient files since the start of Mr. Davis' employment. The CDC quarantined a plane in New York City Sept. 6 after numerous passengers reported feeling ill, triggering what Martin Cetron, MD, director of the CDC's global migration and quarantine division, called the country's "hidden safety net," against infectious diseases, according to STAT. Here are three things to know: 1. Health officials first developed these protocols in the early 1990s. Dr. Cetron, who joined the CDC in 1996, has helped create comprehensive infectious disease containment strategies for air, land and sea vessels. "The system [Wednesday] worked, but not because you can pull that off as a one-off event in the heat of the moment," Dr. Cetron told STAT. "It's because there have been port preparedness plans for years that have been written and revised and iterated in partnership with state and local health departments, with other federal partners at ports, with the local EMS response system, with communications officers." 2. In most cases, the CDC does not receive advanced warning about potential outbreak concerns and must later track down travelers at risk of infection. During the Sept. 6 incident in New York City, the agency did receive advanced notice, and a mobile specimen collection site rushed to John F. Kennedy Airport to test passengers right after the quarantined plane landed. The agency also pre-designated hospitals in the area to admit passengers requiring immediate care. "So we had a contingency plan for 'What if it's 50 or 100 [sick people] versus what if it's just 15 sick people?'" Dr. Cetron told STAT. "All of those things are laid out in advance. And executing against a pre-planned and pre-exercised scenario really helps things go smoothly." 3. Some airports are better prepared to handle infectious disease threats than other possible, based on how often they run practice drills, according to Josh Greenberg, who co-authored a 2017 report for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine titled "Preparing Airports for Communicable Diseases on Arriving Flights." "Larger, better resourced airports would be more likely to have practiced and stress-tested their response protocols than smaller or medium-sized airports," Mr. Greenberg told STAT. "But even then, they don't get opportunities to do it enough." More articles on clinical leadership and infection control: Walgreens, in partnership with drugmaker Kaleo, will be the first retail pharmacy to offer Auvi-Q, an alternative to EpiPen, in an effort to combat the nationwide shortage of the lifesaving allergy drug, according to The Wall Street Journal. The retail pharmacy will stock Auvi-Q, an epinephrine auto-injector manufactured by Kaleo, which was previously only available through its mail delivery program. The list price for Auvi-Q is steep at $4,500; however, a spokesperson for the company said eligible patients with commercial insurance, including those with high deductible health plans or whose insurers don't cover it, can get Auvi-Q for free. Those who pay cash at the pharmacy counter will be charged $360 for two auto-injectors. Auvi-Q's introduction into Walgreens retail pharmacy comes as the nation faces a shortage of EpiPens sparked by manufacturing delays. Drugstores across the U.S. have run short on supply, and families have been scrambling to find EpiPens during the back-to-school season. Television ads from both sides of the proposed November ballot initiative to mandate nurse staffing ratios in Massachusetts hospitals feature arguments from nurses, The Boston Globe reported. One ad from opponents of the proposed mandate features a nurse saying a "one-size-fits-all to nursing" is "not good for patients." A different ad, from the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which sponsored the proposed ballot measure, features a nurse saying, "Patient limits mean more time with your nurse and better care for you." Question 1, proposed by the union, calls for one nurse to be responsible for no more than four pediatric patients and no more than five psychiatric patients at a given time. Different guidelines would apply with sicker patients, according to the Boston Globe. Staffing ratios would also differ by unit. A penalty of up to $25,000 for each violation would apply to hospitals. Supporters of the initiative, including the MNA, are part of a group called the Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, while opponents of the initiative, including hospitals, are part of a group called the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety. The Coalition to Protect Patient Safety has already spent more than $2 million on ads, with the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association as one of the primary funders, the Boston Globe reported. More ads from the group are expected in the next couple of months. Kate Norton, a spokesperson for the union's ballot campaign, has described the opponents' ads as having "a disingenuous quality, because we know the hospital executives are behind it," while Dan Cence, a spokesperson for the coalition that opposes Question 1, said its intention "is to educate people, to educate the voters about the dramatic negative effects this ballot question could have." More articles on workforce: Healthcare job growth continues; hospitals added 8K jobs in August California nurse practitioners face challenges in filling primary care gap, study shows Massachusetts nurse staffing regulations did not reduce patient mortality, complications in ICUs, Beth Israel study finds The deserted stretch of Royal Avenue cordoned off since the Primark blaze A campaign to draw more shoppers and revellers into Belfast to boost trade following the devastation of the Primark fire will be launched in coming weeks, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal. It emerged last night that meetings were taking place between Belfast City Council, Visit Belfast and other parties about a campaign to urge shoppers to keep visiting the city's shops, bars and restaurants. A safety cordon thrown around the site close to Bank Buildings on Royal Avenue has left 14 businesses unable to open, with Belfast City Council confirming that it will remain in place for at least four months. That is likely to mean restrictions on retailers in Royal Avenue and the surrounding area in the run-up to the key Christmas trading period. Already, retailer Emma Best, the owner of a Mace on Castle Street, said her trade has almost dried up. The Backin' Belfast campaign of 2013, which was launched to draw shoppers back into the city after the Union flag protests, which began in December 2012, could provide a template for the drive to get shoppers into Royal Avenue and the other nearby areas affected by the fire. As well as the 14 businesses within the cordon, many more traders in the surrounding area are suffering. One businessman said his footfall had fallen by up to 90% since the fire on August 28. Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Retail NI - which represents independent traders - said: "Retail NI is very keen to help support efforts. "People shouldn't forget that Belfast city centre is an integral part of the Northern Ireland economy and effectively the driver of our entire retail sector. Expand Close The exclusion zone around Primark's Bank Buildings. Graphic Raymond Esteban / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The exclusion zone around Primark's Bank Buildings. Graphic Raymond Esteban "Even without Primark, Belfast City Council still has a fantastic retail and hospitality offering, but we do need to start a campaign to reach out to shoppers to ensure we continue to have footfall in the run-up to Christmas, which really is harvest time for the retail sector." Secretary of State Karen Bradley is expected to visit traders on Monday to offer her support. A spokesman for Visit Belfast, the body responsible for drawing visitors to the city, said: "Visit Belfast is working with Belfast City Council and other partners to deliver a marketing campaign for the city that will support businesses by driving footfall into the city centre. "It will rally support and restore confidence, showcasing everything Belfast has to offer. "The campaign is under development and will be activated in the coming weeks to support businesses in the city while the cordon remains in place." Belfast Chamber of Trade will also be part of the campaign, along with Hospitality NI, the organisation which represents bars and restaurants. Speaking at an event in London on Wednesday, Secretary of State Karen Bradley said she had seen the severely damaged building for herself during a visit to Belfast last weekend. And she said Heritage Minister Mike Ellis had texted her to draw her attention to the fire. "I am concerned now about the people employed there and for the businesses around there," the Secretary of State explained. "I saw it myself at the weekend and it's a horrible site to see - a beautiful historic building looking like that." In March 2013, the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau released figures showing that the #backinbelfast message had reached millions of people through social networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook and more. John Keane, managing director of Ardmore Advertising, described it at the time as "one of the island of Ireland's most successful civic social media campaigns". Businesses outside the Primark cordon are urging Belfast City Council and the retailer itself to do more as footfall continues to drop. Emma Best, the manager of a Mace on Castle Street, indicated that footfall to her store had almost stopped, forcing the shop to operate with one staff member because that is all she can afford to pay. She said: "I would say our footfall has dropped a good 80 or 90%. I normally have four staff. I have managed to get three of them hours in other shops. There is really only enough to pay one person, and that's if we are lucky. "Honestly, I would like them to knock it down and get everybody back into work. We have two rents. We were leaving here and moving in next door to a bigger shop with a deli, and we have no choice now but to try and get it open quick and get out of here to take one of the rents away. "Some days I am so angry and the next day I could cry because it is so quiet and it's just not the shop it used to be." She said Primark's work on an extension close to her shop had also caused her difficulties, claiming that the retailer could have done more to help. "We have had a terrible time. We went from a brilliant business and they cut our footfall and our sales by half when they started working," she added. "Now they have cut it again by half and we just haven't had any help from anybody." A Primark spokesman said: "Our team is committed to working with the authorities, the business community and our contractors following the fire." Patrick Boyd, manager at the Money Shop on Castle Street and Royal Avenue, urged the council to put out signs to let consumers know businesses are open. He said the building of the extension had also affected Castle Street. "We depended on the footfall of people coming up and down Castle Street, but now the footfall has gone down by at least 40%," he added. "There is nothing happening. I might as well just turn off the lights and lock up the shop for four months. Expand Close The exclusion zone around Primark's Bank Buildings. Graphic Raymond Esteban / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The exclusion zone around Primark's Bank Buildings. Graphic Raymond Esteban "We need clear banners all around the place with the business logos to say that we are open. The council are trying their best, but its not enough. Castle Street was bad enough with them shutting down to one lane to build the place. Now they've shut us down to none. "They said they will set up some clinic for compensation, but that's about another two, three or four years down the line. That is not good enough for us." Michael Conner, owner of Conway Opticians, said he was taking on 50 new customers a month from people walking in, but in the past 10 days there had been none. He added: "I would say we are 80% down on footfall. Appointments are turning in, but that is about it." From left to right, Connor Morgan of Oh So Lean, Tara Mullan from Refuge Hot Chocolate, Joel Kerr from Curious Farmer and Rebecca ONeill of Lidl Discount supermarket chain Lidl is set to embark on a major development in Strabane worth a reported 6m. The German firm recently bought a retail outlet in the Co Tyrone border town, next to the main A5 bypass, for around 3m. The units currently house Argos, New Look, Menarys and Peacocks. The out-of-town shopping centre, which sits next to a large Asda supermarket, has proved a significant draw for cross-border traffic. Lidl's plan, revealed by SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan in the Strabane Chronicle, could see the four standing units demolished to make way for a supermarket. It is understood that all leases expire by 2022. Lidl already has a store in Strabane's Bradley Way, which is close to the new site. The plan would see a significantly larger store in the town, including an in-house bakery and modern facilities for staff. The chain has also acquired nearby land from Co Tyrone motor group Pat Kirk, which looks set to be the site for two or three new retail units. Mr McCrossan, who recently met with some of the figures involved in the plan, said while the investment was to be welcomed, there were fears for the staff in Argos, New Look, Menarys and Peacocks. "My concern is to try and ensure that the jobs are protected and they're rehoused," stressed the MLA. "We certainly don't want a situation where we lose businesses as a consequence of one business moving. "I have requested meetings with New Look, Menarys and Peacocks to find out what their intentions are." It is understood that Lidl will submit a planning application by the end of the year. A spokesman said development plans for the site were at an early stage and a number of options were being considered. He also said the total investment earmarked for the site would be aligned to these plans and would likely run into "several million pounds". News of the major investment came as Lidl announced it was expanding its number of locally sourced products. Artisan products made by 11 Northern Irish suppliers are set to go on sale in all 195 Lidl stores on the island from September 17 for a limited period. The range includes bacon jam from Enniskillen, Rhuberry gin from Saintfield, chilli beef craft peanuts from Newtownards, pesto from Ballymena and pulled pork from Newry. A director at London City Airport has said it hopes to certify the passenger plane A220-300, the wings of which are made in east Belfast by Bombardier, for flights using the airport. (Victoria Jones/PA) A director at London City Airport has said it hopes to certify the passenger plane A220-300, the wings of which are made in east Belfast by Bombardier, for flights using the airport. The east London airport already uses the smaller A220-100, originally developed by Bombardier as the C Series, for Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) flights to Zurich and Geneva. Liam McKay, the airport's corporate affairs director, said it hoped to certify the larger A220-300 for use. He said the-then CS100 had been crucial to its campaign for its 344m City Airport development programme, which went on to win planning permission in 2016. While developed and launched by Bombardier, the C Series is now part of Airbus after it bought a majority stake in the programme, renaming its two products the A220-100 and A220-300. Mr McKay said: "When we were going for planning permission, the C Series was front and centre of that campaign because it was the embodiment of the next generation of aircraft that were quieter and more fuel-efficient - all those things from a community perspective that are so vital to the expansion." The CS 100 - now the A220-100 - was "performing wonderfully" on its SWISS routes to Zurich and Geneva, he said. And Mr McKay said its qualities would be a selling point for other airlines as London City adds more stands to accommodate more airlines and planes. "For us, as we grow and we start to physically add more stands to accommodate next generation aircraft, we will be saying to airlines that this is what these airlines do and this is how they are performing." Looking ahead, he said the airport was preparing for certification of the A220-300. "Because we have a short runway, planes need to go through some testing to be certified to fly safely in and out due to the steep ascent and descent into the airport. There has to be extensive testing to make sure they can safely fly. "One of our aspirations would be to get the 300 certified. We are promoting the 100 and its ability and looking to get 300 certified over next few years. "If we do that, that's really positive mood music for Bombardier in Belfast and also really positive for City Airport." Mr McKay said the airline also hopes to add a further daily rotation on its Belfast City Flybe route to London. He said the route - which allows a 20-minute connection into central London on the Docklands Light Railway - was increasing its numbers of leisure travellers. He said the route has so far attracted 120,000 passengers this year - around the total across the whole of last year. London City Airport and airline Flybe - which flies to 15 destinations including London City from George Best Belfast City - this week supported a Westminster reception calling for a "new deal" on the economy here. The reception was organised by Hospitality NI, Retail NI and Manufacturing NI. Mercedes has lifted the covers on its first-ever all-electric SUV - and it comes with a stunning 279-mile range. The car - Mercedes-Benz EQC - will be officially unveiled at the Paris Motor Show this month, and lays down a marker as a serious contender to the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla Model X and the upcoming Audi e-tron all-electric SUV. The launch of the EQC marks another move by a key German manufacturer into the EV (electric vehicle). This was previously dominated by innovative newbies like Tesla but, as the launch of the Jag I-Pace shows, is increasingly becoming the mainstream battleground of the future. The EQC launch is also the first salvo by Mercedes in a new product and technology brand called EQ, standing for Electric Intelligence and derived from the Mercedes-Benz brand values of Emotion and Intelligence. The investment in this branding means we can expect to see a whole range of EQ electric models, many based upon existing Mercs but others likely to be innovative electric-only models. The Mercedes EQC is powered by two electric motors at the front and rear axles with a combined output of 300 kW. By virtue of its muscular proportions, the EQC is classed as a crossover SUV. The extended roofline and window layout with a low waistline and the coupe-like roof recess at the rear visually position it between an SUV and an SUV coupe. A striking feature at the front is the large black-panel surface enclosing the headlamps and grille. The black panel is bordered at the top by an optical fibre as a visual link between the torch-like daytime running lamps as a typical Mercedes-Benz feature. At night this creates an almost uninterrupted, horizontal light band. The inner housings and tubes of the standard MULTIBEAM LED headlamps are in high-gloss black. To reduce power consumption and increase dynamism, the electric drivetrains are configured differently: the front electric motor is optimised for best possible efficiency in the low to medium load range, while the rear one determines dynamism. Together, they generate an output of 300 kW and a maximum torque of 765 Nm. The lithium-ion battery, which has an energy content of 80 kWh powers the vehicle. The EQC supports its driver with five driving programs, each with different characteristics: COMFORT, ECO, MAX RANGE, SPORT and an individually adaptable program. In the more economical driving modes, a haptic accelerator pedal prompts the driver to conserve power plays an important role. The driver is also able to influence the recuperation level using paddles behind the steering wheel. An ECO Assist system gives the driver comprehensive support when driving predictively: by prompting the driver when it is appropriate to come off the accelerator, e.g. because the vehicle is approaching a speed limit, and by functions such as coasting and specific control of recuperation. For this purpose, navigation data, traffic sign recognition and information from the intelligent safety assistants (radar and stereo camera) are linked and processed. As standard the EQC is equipped with a water-cooled onboard charger (OBC) with a capacity of 7.4 kW, making it suitable for AC charging at home or at public charging stations. Mercedes says charging at a Mercedes-Benz Wallbox is up to three times faster than at a domestic power socket. Even quicker is DC charging at special units In around 40 minutes, the battery can be charged from 10 - 80%, it is said. The claimed official range of 279 miles is made under newer, tougher rules. It may not stand up to real world conditions, but if Mercedes can keep real world range to around 250 miles it will give the car a significant boost over rivals like the Tesla (around 200 miles in real world conditions). Where can you enjoy a holiday that allows you to experience the unique culture of five diverse and beautiful countries? When it comes to travelling, people have flocked to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea for years, but its now time to take another look at the Adriatic Sea and the wonderful destinations to discover there. From classic cities such as Venice to undiscovered gems such as Budva on the magnificent Montenegro Riviera, the Adriatic Sea will give you access to exciting ports of call from Italy, Slovenia and Croatia to Montenegro and Albania. Whether you want to concentrate on one or two areas, do a more comprehensive trip or take it all in on a cruise, here are 6 unmissable, culturally rich gems to discover along the Adriatic Sea. 1. Venice and the Veneto A Dreamy Destination Venice is probably the most spectacular city in the world and must be visited at least once. Set in the Veneto region which stretches from the Dolomite mountains all the way to the Adriatic sea, the delightful rolling landscapes and picture-book towns and villages have inspired generations of artists, travellers and painters. The best way to explore Venice is by foot, so wander around the piazzas, bridges and quaysides and literally get lost in the magic of it all. A gondola ride is a must-do for every visitor, as well as a visit to St. Marks Square, the gothic Ca dOro and the marble Palazzo Ducale. Other highlights of the wider region include Padua, famed for Galileo and St. Anthony and Bologna, one of Italys most beautiful cities. Discover holiday suggestions to Venice and the Veneto here. 2. Contrasting Countries: Slovenia and the Gulf of Trieste A trip to the hauntingly beautiful Trieste in Italy will give you plenty of topics for conversation when you return home, as this city is one of the most talked about destinations of the past few years. A guided walking tour is the best way to discover this historic city with its pretty piazzas, impressive monuments and churches. There is no shortage of bustling cafes with delicious seafood and wines. On the doorstep is the neighbouring country of Slovenia, famous for its astounding natural beauty and if youre interested in culture and architecture, this is the place for you. Highlights here include the charming coastal resort of Lucija-Portoroz; a trip from here to Izola with its whitewashed bell-towers, taking in the coastline and of course the capital city of Ljubljana and its majestic castle. Its a great way to combine the very best of two beautiful countries. Discover holiday suggestions to Slovenia and the Gulf of Trieste here. 3. Discover Dubrovnik A Jewel on the Adriatic Coast Dubrovnik is the city of choice for most visitors to the Adriatic region its rich history dates back to the 7th century and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. The pearl of the Adriatic is a serious alternative to traditional Mediterranean destinations. Its a place to discover at your own pace, whether you just want to relax and enjoy the beautiful views and seafood or you prefer to get going and explore the historical marvels, enjoying breathtaking views of the Old City from the cable car along the way. Dubrovnik is a great base for a boat trip to the unspoilt Elaphite islands or an excursion into the neighbouring country of Montenegro. After crossing the border, theres a chance to travel across the fjord-like bay of Kotor to visit one of two artificial islets off the coast of Perast, Our Lady of the Rocks and a winding coastal route to the Old Port fortified with walls from the Venetian period. Discover holiday suggestions to Dubrovnik here. 4. The Walled City of Budva and the Montenegro Riviera So where is Budva? This beautiful walled city is not your traditional choice for a holiday, which makes it a much more exciting option to explore. This historical coastal town is on the Montenegro Riviera and offers sandy beaches, forest-cloaked mountains, crystal clear lakes and beautiful old towns ranging from Ottoman to Venetian. Budva has a remarkable history and a walking tour will reveal stunning medieval catholic and orthodox churches and charming small squares. Other highlights of the Montenegro Riviera include the old royal capital Cetinje and King Nikolas Palace; Njegusi village, the birthplace of the Petrovik dynasty and the spectacular Serpentine Mountain Road and Boka bay by boat. Discover holiday suggestions to Budva and the Montenegro Riviera here. 5. Off the Beaten Track in Montenegro Stunning Skadar When visiting the Montenegro Riviera, a relatively undiscovered day-trip well worth embarking on is a visit to Lake Skadar. This stunning lake borders Montenegro and Albania and is surrounded by low hills and has amazing wildlife. Its the largest lake in Southern Europe and is shaped like a dolphin! Its popular for nature lovers and those that want to escape the heat of the cities. Its a photographers dream with steep mountains, clear waters and island monasteries. If youre lucky, youll get to spot the floating meadows of water lilies and there are timeless exotically named towns such as Virpazar and Vranjina. Legend has it that the lake was created by the tears of a pixie and whether or not you believe in fairy tales, this area has a magic of its own! Discover holiday suggestions to Montenegro Riviera here. 6. Puglia The Time is Now On the heel of Italys boot, the beautiful region of Puglia boasts some of the most stunning landmark cities in Europe. These highlights include the baroque city of Lecce which has been described as The Florence of the South, as well as the sea port of Bari and the heritage towns of Trani, Ostuni and Martina Franca. If youre interested in food, youre in the right place with specialties including orecchiette pasta and fresh burrata cheese, in addition to wonderful wines and olive oils. Discover holiday suggestions to Puglia here. Explore these unmissable experiences and more with Belfast Telegraph Travel who offer a great selection of guided holidays, in association with Travel Department. Travel Department is one of Europes leading guided holiday companies with over 20 years experience organising fantastic tours to over 100 destinations worldwide. Our holidays are fully guided, which means that they include return flights, hotel accommodation, guided transfers and expert local guides for all excursions that are included in the holiday. These holidays are truly great value and are competitively priced. To learn more about planning your trip to the Adriatic Coast, please visit bt.traveldepartment.co.uk Northern Ireland is close to a dystopian state of governance, the High Court heard. Counsel for survivors of historical institutional abuse also claimed the Secretary of State is attempting to "stymie" their challenge to an ongoing failure to provide compensation. With no Stormont Executive in place since January 2017 to implement the redress scheme recommended by a major inquiry, Barry Macdonald QC claimed Karen Bradley is breaching a legal obligation to call fresh elections. In an announcement to the House of Commons on Thursday, Mrs Bradley ruled out a new Assembly poll and said she is to bring forward legislation enabling civil servants to make decisions in the absence of devolution. However, Mr Macdonald argued that she is required to set a date for elections - irrespective of her views on whether it would help the political impasse. "It's as clear as a pikestaff, in legislation that is a duty, not a discretion," he said. "The Secretary of State has been breaking the law for 20 months, but she is now going to ask Parliament to change the law so she doesn't have to set a date." The barrister also referred to the current situation where the courts have ruled civil servants lack power to take controversial decisions without a minister in post. Since then, he contended: "Executive government in Northern Ireland has moved from being merely dysfunctional to being completely non-functional, bordering on the dystopian." His comments came amid an application to adjourn the abuse survivors' challenge due to be heard next week. Tony McGleenan QC, representing the Secretary of State, claimed her announcement in Parliament addressed central issues in the case. "The legal landscape is likely to change fundamentally," he said. Following submissions Mr Justice McCloskey said he will decide on Monday whether the hearing should proceed as planned. The case has been brought on behalf of those abused in children's homes. In 2017 the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry concluded there should be a public apology to those who suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse between 1922 to 1995, and compensation ranging from 7,500 to 100,000. Inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Hart has since made repeated pleas to politicians to act on his recommendations and provide the financial, social and educational support as a matter of urgency. Earlier this year the head of the civil service in Northern Ireland revealed work was underway on draft legislation aimed at implementing the inquiry's proposals. But legal action is being taken in a bid to compel the Secretary of State and Executive Office to take immediate steps and ensure compensation is fully provided. Lawyers representing one of the victims granted anonymity contend that despite Stormont's collapse there can be "no vacuum in government". They also claim there is a legal obligation to propose an early date for Assembly elections. The Secretary of State maintains, however, that the redress issue is a matter for the devolved administration. An American man accused of trying to kill three people while honeymooning in Northern Ireland had his bail varied yesterday to allow him to return home. At Ballymena Magistrates Court, district judge Nigel Broderick allowed 31-year-old Nicholas Keith Warner to go back to South Carolina, on condition that he lodge a 4,000 cash surety and surrender his passport to US police within three days. Electrical engineer Warner, who appeared in court on crutches having broken his leg in the incident, is accused of attempting to murder three men in Ballycarry on August 11. The 31-year-old is also accused of having a knife in a public place, affray and causing a fourth man actual bodily harm. The charges arise after three men, two aged in their 30s and one aged in his 60s, sustained stabbing injuries in an incident outside a bar on Main Street. A previous court heard that Warner denies the charges but admits he did have a knife. A detective constable said police were objecting to Warner and his wife being allowed to leave the jurisdiction amid fears they would not return. The court heard there had been an initial incident inside the bar with Warner and his wife leaving by the front door while the three complainants left by a rear door. When a barman went to retrieve the couple's hire car, CCTV footage showed the men running after it, Warner going to ground and one male circling him while kicking at his head. The footage also shows, the court heard, Warner getting up and stumbling away pursued by a group of men and the police officer confirmed the defendant's own phone had been used to contact the emergency services. At the scene, Warner "complies and co-operates and makes a self-defence case," Judge Broderick heard. Handing up a sheaf of character references, defence solicitor David Jones revealed that Warner had already instructed an attorney in his native United States and repeated his intention to come back to NI in order to clear his name. Judge Broderick said he could vary bail but that Warner could only leave once 4,000 had been lodged and must also surrender his passport once he returns to the USA. Warner is also prohibited from entering Ballycarry or contacting the complainants. The case will be heard again next month, but the defendant was excused from attending court. Catherine Kelly Sinn Fein I welcome the reduction in MLA pay today but it should have happened months ago. Sinn Fein told Karen Bradley that on several occasions but it is clear she was reluctant to move because of resistance from the DUP. Sinn Fein MLAs have never taken our full wage but have always and will always work hard for our constituents every single day. The British Governments reliance on the DUP remains a central problem and if any process around restoring the institutions is to be credible, Karen Bradley must begin prioritising the rights of citizens over Tory Party self-interest. Stewart Dickson Alliance Cutting MLA salaries is a long overdue decision that the Secretary of State had no option but to take, given the growing sense of anger and frustration. This is a fair move. It was May last year when my party leader Naomi Long was the first to call for this move and it has been something Alliance has regularly asked Mrs Bradley to move on since then. On top of that she has had the report from Trevor Reaney for some time, yet had so far failed to act. Elections are only another delaying tactic and the Secretary of State had to take this action and the others outlined yesterday to prove she is serious about restoring devolution to Northern Ireland. While I and my Alliance colleagues want to be back in Stormont, working for everyone, it is two parties who are blocking this progress. It remains to be seen if the political will is there to carry the actions outlined today forward. Gerry Carroll People Before Profit I very much welcome the MLA pay cut but for me, its about more than just the stalemate. I have only ever taken an average workers wage, as per People Before Profit policy. Ive never believed that elected representatives can adequately represent the least well off in their constituencies while being so far removed from their living standards. That being said, I dont think that this pay cut will automatically resolve the stalemate. For real progress, we need to see an end to the Tory party giving cover to the DUP and their anti-equality agenda. Its more than clear by now that people want to see a better standard of living here and rights that are respected, including by law. We wont get that with a return to the same old, same old at Stormont. The big parties need to sit up and listen to people. Rosemary Barton Ulster Unionist There has been too long of a delay by the Secretary of State in taking any decisions. Since the Reaney report the Ulster Unionist Party has been telling her that she should get on with implementing the recommendations from it. While it may not be fair to those parties who want to get on with governing Northern Ireland, it is an inevitable consequence of the political impasse between Sinn Fein and the DUP. The cut to pay should be linked to a meaningful and productive talks process. Karen Bradley has been sitting on the Reaney recommendations for some time and we have said since the publication of the report that implementation of the recommendations should happen. The same political problems continue to be in the way, so its unlikely this will speed up a return to government. Until the political problems are resolved I dont see that an election would assist any resolution to the situation. Claire Sugden Independent I think its important the Secretary of State finally took action. Following Trevor Reaneys report at the beginning of the year I expected a pay cut and prepared myself for that outcome. Personally, I will have less income and I will adjust my finances in response. I could seek better paid employment given my qualifications and work experience, but Im fortunate to work in a job that makes positive difference to peoples lives. I wont walk away from that on the basis of the cut announced today. Not having a government is not fair, cutting MLA pay pales in comparison. I dont expect yesterdays announcement will satisfy public frustration and anger. Fundamentally, people want a functioning government and NI Assembly and Im not sure a pay cut will deliver that. During the two-day event at Titanic Belfast, holidaymakers can savour dream destinations offered by world-class cruise companies Travel fans are setting sail for Belfast today and tomorrow for the Oasis Travel Cruise Fair. During the two-day event at Titanic Belfast, holidaymakers can savour dream destinations offered by world-class cruise companies, as well as taking advantage of deals and value-added offers on all the great oceans and rivers of the world plus a taste of the glitz and fun associated with cruising. Oasis, which has branches in Bangor, Holywood, Lisburn and Belfast, has also taken on the role of key cruise provider for Belfast Telegraph Readers' Cruise Holidays. Vice president of International Sales with Carnival Cruise Line, Iain Baillie paid a visit to Oasis yesterday ahead of the fair. Carnival will be providing exclusive offers for Belfast Telegraph readers to the Caribbean, Mexico and Cuba. Sandra Corkin, managing director of Oasis Travel told the Belfast Telegraph: "We feel really privileged to have struck this deal and look forward to being able to share it with readers who can come along to the Cruise Fair this afternoon and sign up to receive our offers. "For both cruising veterans and those about to step on board for the very first time, we are the source of expertise, choice and superb value for river and ocean cruising. "Our cruise specialists can launch travel fans on that momentous journey of a lifetime; help find the perfect family vacation or wave people off on an incredible maritime adventure trail. "The cruise market has experienced massive growth in the last 10 years and continues to grow at a staggering rate every year. "A few years ago cruising only accounted for 10% of our business. Now it's risen to 35% and has become the fastest growing sector of the travel industry, appealing to all ages." The fair opens at 11am. The daughter of an 89-year-old woman injured at a Co Antrim care home has denied claims that the family wanted their mum to remain at the facility. Fiona ONeill said she was horrified at a claim by Runwood Homes, the company that owns Rose Court in Ballymena, that her mother had turned down alternative accommodation as she wished to remain at the facility. Margaret ONeill remained in hospital last night where she is receiving treatment for pneumonia. She was taken by ambulance to Antrim Area Hospital in the early hours of Monday morning after she was found lying on the floor at 1.30am. Mrs ONeill, who has diabetes, had earlier been left sitting in a chair in the residential unit of the home as she was unable to sleep. Ms ONeill said the accident followed a series of problems with her mothers care, including failing to respond to dangerously high blood glucose levels, prompting her family to make the decision to move Mrs ONeill to another home. Responding to a list of complaints about the care received by Mrs ONeill, a spokeswoman from Runwood Home said earlier this week: For legal and professional reasons, we cannot go into the specifics of care for individual residents. However, we can say this resident was made several offers of alternative accommodation and has turned them all down because she wishes to remain at Rose Court. However, in an astonishing U-turn yesterday, a spokeswoman from the company said it was the Northern Trust that said Mrs ONeill had turned down offers of alternative accommodation. She said the trust would be best placed to respond to concerns raised by the ONeill family about the claims. A spokesman from the Northern Trust last night said the organisation has only issued one statement, which did not make specific reference to Mrs ONeill. Mrs ONeills daughter said: Im disappointed but not surprised. Thats completely obvious from the way they rang us when mum was in A&E after falling at their home and telling us that they had discharged her. They didnt even have the courtesy to ask about my mums welfare. Theyve no regard for our family who have been horrified at how my mother has been treated or the distress they have caused all of us. Ms ONeill said it was wrong to say that her mother turned down any offers of accommodation because she wanted to remain in Rose Court. She added: I have the email I sent to them on July 25 saying we wanted to remove her from the home and I have their reply. As for finding my mum alternative accommodation, there has been one real possibility but the other home assessed said that they could not cater to her needs so that was never a real offer. Apart from that, it is none of Runwoods business what offers were made to my mum, it certainly wasnt for them to comment. Believe you me, if we had been able to find mum suitable alternative accommodation we would have had my mum out of Rose Court, before she was left in a chair overnight and was injured while in their care. It is not the first time Runwood Homes has refused in recent months to comment on the controversy facing the company. It issued a statement on the day the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland (COPNI) published his stinging findings into the conditions of Dunmurry Manor, another home owned by the Essex-based firm. Apologising for the failings in the home, it said the managing director, Logan Logeswaran, had in fact resigned his position from Runwood Homes Group UK. However, Mr Logeswaran contacted the Belfast Telegraph to deny he had left the company over the COPNI report. Runwood Homes finance director Martin Cooper later said: I can assure you Logan has left for his own personal reasons and he has left on completely good terms with us. We wish him the best going forward. When asked to explain the conflicting accounts given for Mr Logeswarans resignation, a spokeswoman declined to comment. Police have issued a warning to 'budding importers' after illegal drugs were advertised for sale on a Co Armagh buying and selling Facebook page. (Gareth Fuller/PA) Police have issued a warning to 'budding importers' after illegal drugs were advertised for sale on an Armagh-based buying and selling Facebook page. A post on the Buy, Swap, Sell in Portadown and Co Armagh Facebook page by an account with the name called Njoh Clinton advertised a host of prescribed and illegal drugs for sale, including Valium, Tramadol, Codeine, cannabis, MDMA and oxycontin. The post includes a number of pictures of the produce, and is posted under the header 'hard drugs for sale'. Potential buyers are asked to contact a WhatsApp number with a Cameroonian dialing code. Expand Close Credit: PSNI / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Credit: PSNI In a post on the PSNI Craigavon Facebook page, a police spokesperson said: "Just a reminder to all you budding drugs importers out there, that if on the off chance Njoh actually sent you something after you paid him, you're more likely to get grass cuttings and a box of Jelly Beans than anything else. You have no clue what he's put into anything he sends. "That of course is if he sends anything. Bearing in mind that the following phone call won't go well for you, he's more than likely going to take your money and send you nothing: "Hello, police? I've been scammed. How did it happen? Aw funny story, so I tried to import drugs into the country. I sent money and all and the wee rascal didn't send me a thing back. I want him done..." "No, that's not going to work." The spokesperson warned scammers usually register a UK online number and contact potential targets through WhatsApp. Police have asked that the administrators of similar types of Facebook pages to block potential criminals, advised users to report the posts, and emphasised that if someone does attempt to buy drugs in this fashion they should not "expect sympathy or complain when you lose it or get arrested for conspiracy to import drugs offences". Police issued an updated photo of John Clifford in their appeal to help track him down. Gardai are assisting in the search for escaped child killer John Clifford, who absconded from custody last Sunday. The notorious criminal failed to return to Maghaberry Prison after being temporarily released to attend an appointment. On Friday a spokeswoman for An Garda Siochana said: "An Garda Siochana are assisting the in the PSNI in their investigation into man unlawfully at large." He had been released from Burren House on the Crumlin Road, a facility housing 22 inmates nearing the end of their sentences and is a satellite unit of Maghaberry. He is believed to possibly be in the Republic after being spotted boarding a train at Lanyon Place Station - formerly Central Station - on Sunday just after 1pm. He was last seen using a distinctive three-wheel mobility scooter with the registration plate EXZ4974, which has since been found. 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. The 56-year-old killer was originally jailed in 1989 for murdering his niece Sue Ellen. Clifford 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. A Belfast man was allegedly stopped in a stolen car as part of an investigation into INLA activities, a court has heard A Belfast man was allegedly stopped in a stolen car as part of an investigation into INLA activities, a court has heard. Officers from the Paramilitary Crime Task Force arrested 39-year-old James Carlin and a second man, aged 42, on the Malone Road on Wednesday. The operation is connected to the suspected theft of a BMW car during a burglary last month. Carlin, of Clonfaddan Street, appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court accused of taking a motor vehicle without authority. He faces further counts of driving while disqualified, having no insurance, and using false number plates. Carlin is not charged with any burglary offences. Opposing bail, a detective sergeant claimed there was a risk of re-offending. He said the case was part of an investigation into INLA activities. Defence solicitor Pearse MacDermott stressed Carlin was never questioned about any suspected links to illegal groupings. Mr MacDermott also pointed out his client has not been charged with paramilitary membership and strenuously denies any involvement. Bail was refused, however, due to the risk of further offences. Deputy District Judge Joe Rice remanded Carlin in custody to appear again by video-link on September 20. An astrophysicist from Northern Ireland will donate a $3m (2.3m) prize in an effort to increase diversity in science. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was awarded the lucrative Breakthrough Prize for her work on the discovery of pulsars and a lifetime of scientific achievement. She was overlooked for the Nobel Prize, but male colleagues involved in the work were awarded the honour in 1974. Dame Jocelyn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she did not need the "shocking" financial reward from the Breakthrough Prize, and hoped the money would instead be used to support female and ethnic minority physicists. The prize will go to the Institute of Physics to establish research studentships for people from under-represented groups. "I think diversity is very important, and I hope this might increase the diversity a bit," Dame Jocelyn, who is from Lurgan, said. "One of the under-represented groups in physics is women, so that is one that interests me. "But groups with various ethnicities could well be included. It would be wonderful if we could find a refugee or two." Dame Jocelyn said her background had pushed her to work harder at university studies, which included the discovery of pulsars, a form of rotating neutron star that emits pulses of electromagnetic radiation as it spins. "In the late Sixties, early Seventies, when all this was happening, science was very male-dominated, and in Britain white male-dominated. I came in as a female and came into Cambridge from the north and west of the UK - I had never been that far south before. "I was really scared. I thought they had made a mistake admitting me. I reckoned they were going to throw me out in due course, but I decided to work my very hardest so that when they threw me out I wouldn't have a guilty conscience. I was being incredibly thorough." Asked if she felt she should have been awarded the Nobel, she said "they don't often give it to students" and "it's perceived as a senior man's prize". Dame Jocelyn, born in 1943, was originally educated at the Lurgan College Preparatory Department. She failed her 11-plus and went on to a Quaker boarding school in York in England, where her flair for physics grew, encouraged by her "really good" physics teacher, Mr Tillott. She went on to study physics at Glasgow University before getting her PhD from Cambridge. She is a former President of the Royal Astronomical Association and of the Institute of Physics. A Co Antrim family forced from their flat after it was flooded amid a neighbour dispute have been offered alternative accommodation. It is believed the flat above the family was deliberately targeted in an anti-social incident. It happened on Wednesday September 5 at the property in Beechview Courtyard in Crumlin, after a tap in the uninhabited flat was left running. The flats, both of which are social housing properties, were seriously damaged in the incident. In a statement to the Belfast Telegraph, Clanmil Housing, which is responsible for Beechview Courtyard, said it was "committed to providing a safe and peaceful environment at our housing schemes. "We are aware of the incident in question and the distress that it has caused our tenant. We are supporting her throughout this time," a spokeswoman said. "Our team immediately removed the damaged ceiling and have made arrangements to assist with a clean-up, and to have damaged areas redecorated, once the tenants insurer has visited the property. "Although the tenants apartment remains habitable we have offered her temporary alternative accommodation." Clanmil said it had been dealing with "a related neighbour dispute at Beechview Court" and that it takes "all reports of anti-social behaviour seriously". "All are fully investigated and we work closely with those involved and with statutory agencies, including the PSNI, to find a resolution. We take appropriate action against individuals who are in breach of their tenancy agreement," the spokeswoman added. "We will continue to work with tenants, local community groups and the PSNI to ensure that Beechview Court is a safe and welcoming place to live. Sinn Fein councillor for the area Anne Marie Logue told the Belfast Telegraph the family had been "left destitute". She said those "responsible for terrorising our community" needed to be faced down for the sake of the law-abiding and hard-working Crumlin community. The PSNI said it was investigating. A convicted paedophile priest yesterday refused to publicly apologise for sexually abusing a boy more than 20 years ago. The 68-year-old disgraced former priest Daniel John Curran, was in Downpatrick Crown Court facing sex abuse charges for the sixth time. Yesterday, he was due to be sentenced for indecent assault. Freeing Curran on bail until Thursday of next week, Judge Piers Grant said he wanted to "take time to consider the matter". The judge declared however: "This is just another example of the long, serious abuse that will be heard at the hands of members of the clergy such as this and the damage that has been caused is quite disgraceful." At an earlier hearing Curran, from Bryansford Avenue in Newcastle, pleaded guilty to a single charge of indecently assaulting a male child on a date unknown between January 2-6, 1991. Opening the Crown case, prosecuting lawyer James Johnston told the court that following a similar pattern to his previous offences, Curran had taken his victim, who was then just 12 years-old, and two other boys to his family cottage near Tyrella in Co Down. At the time Curran was the parish priest for St Paul's in west Belfast and although that was not the victim's parish, Mr Johnston said the family "recognised" Curran. He told the boy's parents that one of the other boys was refusing to go along with him unless their son went too, and the court heard that "against his father's wishes, the victim's mother gave her consent" for the boy to go along. The lawyer described that at the cottage, the victim was given a "glass of whiskey" by Curran and that all three, along with the defendant, slept in one double bed "with their clothes on". The victim got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and when he came back inside, Curran was waiting for him "naked from the waist down," save for socks. The priest took the boy's hand and put it on his private parts said Mr Johnston, adding that according to the victim it felt "slimy" and that the incident "seemed to go on for ages as I froze". Having pulled away, the victim and one of the other boys left the cottage and were "wandering country roads for some time" until they went back at around 6am. It was then that the victim uncovered a "snuff box which was filled with Vaseline". The court heard the victim did not make any complaint to the police until 2015 and that was when Curran was questioned about the allegations. Curran told police he was a "hopeless alcoholic" at the time and couldn't specifically remember the victim being at the cottage. He did however say that he had "deepest regrets" for the numerous bouts of sexual activity that he indulged in at that time but that he had not had a drink since July 1994. Mr Johnston said it was the prosecution submission that Curran's criminal record was an aggravating factor, as was the breach of trust which had been placed in him as a priest, the age of the victim at the time, and the damage the incident caused the victim. Revealing that Curran has been a registered sex offender since 1994, the lawyer said there had been convictions for offences committed in 1977, '82, '86, '88, '90 and 1991 and that while Curran had been subject to a "significant period of imprisonment", the last time he was before the court in 2015 he was given a suspended sentence. Defence barrister Noel Dillon argued that as Curran had undergone counselling, is assessed as posing a low risk of harm and low risk of committing further offences, coupled with the fact that his other convictions pre-date this offence, the court could impose another suspended sentence. He added that, to date, he has been handed more than 15 years of jail sentences both immediate and suspended. Describing how Curran is "very much socially isolated", the lawyer asked the judge to reflect the delay in the case coming to the court, revealing how the victim had originally approached another priest in 2008 but had not felt ready to go to police. Judge Grant told the lawyer however, that it was "very common" in cases such as this because "these people have been abused and have been seriously, seriously damaged and the harm that's been caused is often the explanation for the delay". Belfast's Lord Mayor has issued a rallying call to the public to get back into Belfast and support those businesses affected by the devastating Primark Bank Buildings fire as it was announced a dedicated task force has been set up to focus on the immediate response and long term recovery of the city. A dedicated free shuttle service has also been set up to ferry people around the exclusion zone and CastleCourt has cut car parking charges in an effort to encourage people into the city. Fourteen businesses - including major retailers which drive huge numbers of people into the city - have been forced to close because of the safety cordon around Primark. There is no quick fix, and whatever solution is determined, including the option of demolition, will require a complex engineering operation. The council has said the cordon will be in place for at least four months. A list of vacant properties those affected could use has been drawn up, Land and Property Services has issued advice on rates and the Department of Communities is helping with employment benefits while PricewaterhouseCoopers is offering advice on insurance. And next week the council will begin working with traders to allow them access to their properties. A dedicated phone line (028 9027 0483) has also been set up. Meanwhile, Primark has said all its staff will be paid up to the end of the year and they will relocated to other stores while it looks for alternative accommodation as its structural engineers assess the options for the historic Bank Buildings. The firms says it wants the exclusion soon reduced as soon as possible. Read More Expand Close The exclusion zone around Primark's Bank Buildings. Graphic Raymond Esteban / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The exclusion zone around Primark's Bank Buildings. Graphic Raymond Esteban While no lives have been lost or injuries sustained as a result of this major incident, there remains a very serious risk to the livelihoods of those working and trading nearby, and all partners are committed to continue to work together with urgency to help those affected," said Belfast Lord Mayor Deirdre Hargey. The safety of the public continues to be paramount, along with the economic resilience of the city. A City Recovery Planning Group has been set up to co-ordinate actions in immediate response to the fire, and to develop a plan for building longer term recovery in the city centre. We will working proactively with all our partners to restore the city to the very vibrant place that it is and we are making progress. It is vital that as a city, we continue to rally round to support those affected by this event both directly and indirectly. The impact of the fire will be felt for many months to come, but I want to reassure our business community that they have our support and we will be with them every step of the way providing whatever support and assistance we can in the weeks and months ahead. "I also want to encourage people to continue visiting our city centre and continue to rally round to support retailers." Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Firefighters tackling Primark fire. Credit: NIFRS Public safety paramount along with economic resilience of the city. Councillor Hargey said all options for encouraging people into the city were being explored with a marketing campaign urgently in the works, including putting in place better and clearer signage and having Belfast ambassadors in place to help visitors. An external agency is also being sought to examine how best to drive people to those areas worst hit by the drop in footfall. "The Primark building is in a very dangerous condition and the council has served a dangerous structures notice. Structural assessments are ongoing by Primark and independent professionals," continued councillor Hargey. What is immediately clear from initial assessment of the site is that there is no quick fix, and whatever solution is determined, including the option of demolition, will require a complex engineering operation. Vehicular access may be required to ensure this work is done in a comprehensive manner. Everyone remains committed to considering every opportunity to reduce the size of the cordon and the length of time it is in place, providing the safety of the public can be guaranteed. " Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Compsite showing the fire from 11:06 am to 4:35 pm Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service are attending an incident in Belfast city centre. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service are attending an incident in Belfast city centre. Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Firefighters deal with a major blaze at Primark in Belfast on August 28th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) A free shuttle service begins on Saturday. It will connect St George's Market, City Hall and Royal Avenue with a new stop on North Street. And shopping centre Castlecourt has announced it will be cutting the price of parking from 1.80 to 1 an hour in the effort to bring more shoppers into the city centre. Bank Buildings was destroyed in a fire on August 28 after fire broke out on the fifth floor of the building. A Co Tyrone man who built a fuel laundering plant in a shed had been handed a suspended prison sentence for excise fraud. HMRC officers discovered the laundering plant in June 2017 in a shed owned by Barry McGirr, 43, at his home address in Garvallagh Road, Fintona, along with 400 litres of residue the by-product of the laundering process. McGirr was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for two years when he appeared at Omagh Magistrates Court on Tuesday 4 September 2018. The plant consisted of two intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) and a pump. Officers also found bleaching earth and cat litter which were used as laundering agents. All equipment was removed from the site. Steve Tracey, Assistant Director at Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: Fuel fraudsters are stealing millions of pounds every year in Northern Ireland. We will continue our fight against the illegal fuel market, which threatens the legitimate fuel traders and gives criminals an unfair advantage over honest businesses. HMRC will work to level the playing field for the tax paying majority. If you have information on suspected tax fraud, dont let the dishonest few prosper and report it to online to HMRC or call our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887. Three older people from Northern Ireland have been scammed out of almost 30k in a single day. Police are urging members of the public to be vigilant. On Wednesday in North Down, police received a report of a man who had taken a call stating that he was entitled to a refund and to provide bank details to receive the money. The fraudster then accessed the computer remotely and was able to remove over 10,000 from the victims business account. The money was sent to an address in Scotland and has been subsequently withdrawn. Later that day, an man in County Tyrone was targeted by online scammers who managed to access 9,000 from his bank account. The victim was told there was a problem with his internet connection and subsequently asked to access his online banking account at which stage the sum of money was removed. Police are also investigating a report of an man in the North West who had 7,000 removed from his bank account on Wednesday afternoon. The man was informed by the fraudsters that his internet had been hacked and needed to be fixed. Remote access was gained to the victims computer and the money was taken from his account. Over the course of a few hours, almost 30,000 was stolen from three vulnerable individuals. Those who carry out this criminality target communities, causing a devastating and lasting impact to their victims," Chief Superintendent Simon Walls said. Our advice is always be wary of any individual who cold calls you. Dont allow any cold caller remote access to your computer. Be especially suspicious of anyone who asks for personal details, money, banking or credit card information via the telephone. "Once a scammer is in a victims computer and personal details are given by the victim, their online bank accounts can be accessed and significant amounts of money lost; money they may well never get back. Guarding your personal and banking details is essential. Never disclose them to any unauthorised person or allow anyone access to them via your computer." If you have received a call of this kind or are concerned by the intent of unsolicited calls, emails or letters then please report it to Action Fraud via their website www.actionfraud.police.uk or by phoning 0300 123 2040, or call police on the non-emergency number 101. Further advice and information can also be obtained by visiting www.nidirect.gov.uk/scamwiseni or the ScamwiseNI Facebook page @scamwiseni . Hundreds of mourners have bid an emotional farewell to a mother-of-three killed as she returned from the All-Ireland final. Joanne Tracey (36) from Greencastle, Co Tyrone, died in the early hours of Monday morning after her car collided with another vehicle on the M1 near Drogheda. She was travelling back from Dublin where Tyrone lost to Dublin at Croke Park in the All-Ireland final. Yesterday members of the county's GAA fraternity were among those at St Patrick's Church in Greencastle for Requiem Mass. Mrs Tracey's three young sons, Daire, Shea and Dannin, walked behind their mother's coffin with their father Kevin as it was carried into the church. Inside, parish priest Fr Eddie Gallagher assured them of the support and prayers of everyone present. Mrs Tracey's passion for Gaelic sport was poignantly noted before Mass when Daire brought his mother's camogie jersey and stick to the altar. In his homily Fr Gallagher recalled the shock that ran throughout the county on Monday as the news of Mrs Tracey's death spread through the community. He said: "On Sunday evening past many from Tyrone were dealing with their disappointment at the result at Croke Park on Sunday. "It was all put into perspective when Joanne's family started to get the phone calls in the early hours of Monday and the rest of us woke up to texts and messages on WhatsApp and messenger telling us the terrible news." Speaking directly to Mrs Tracey's three boys, Fr Gallagher told them not to be afraid to cry "tears of love" for their mother. He added: "One of the first thoughts to have crossed our minds when we heard that Joanne had died was, what about her three sons? "Last night the four of us had a little chat after the prayers at the wake and I promised them that we would have a message for them this morning. "The first message is from God himself - they are the words in front of me here. In the times when we feel alone or sad remember Daire, Shea and Dannin, these words from Jesus, 'Fear not, for I am with you'. "God is with you and the second message is actually one from all of those gathered here with you this morning. "We want you to know that we are praying for you and that those times when you might cry, your tears are not a sign of weakness. They are tears of love for your mummy." Fr Gallagher reminded the congregation that each of them will have their own special memories of Mrs Tracey to comfort them in the time ahead. He added: "Every one gathered here have their own memories. You boys will always remember most recently the trip to Croke Park for the semi-final (against Monaghan) and the excitement there and the sense of achievement when a couple of weeks ago you all climbed Croagh Patrick together as a family. "Joanne's brothers and sister can recount many memories of growing up here with their little baby sister and how Joanne could claim to be the only true Irish one in the house, born and bred in Tyrone as the rest of you were born in Leeds. "They recall Joanne as full of fun, life and adventure. On one holiday Joanne and her late cousin Kelly went all-in for the skydiving while the brave men sat on the sea wall watching the girls. "Jimmy and Phyllis (Mrs Tracey's parents) will remember Joanne, their youngest who was more than a daughter but as Jimmy said, a best friend." Following the Mass, Mrs Tracey was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery. Earlier this week an influential think tank recommended that Northern Ireland should be allowed to raise its own taxes, help administer a 10bn fund to boost regional economies and run its own immigration policy. It would be interesting to know if the IPPR Commission on Economic Injustice, which includes the Archbishop of Canterbury among its members, still stands by that judgment today. Close study of the RHI inquiry suggests an urgent re-think. The inquiry has lifted the lid on what really happens behind closed doors between ministers, their special advisers ('spads') and senior civil servants. It would be hilarious but for the money involved and the questions it raises about competence, cronyism and ethical behaviour at the highest levels of government. We had allegations that former minister Jonathan Bell had tried to break his spad's finger and swung a punch at him. We heard that his former spad Timothy Cairns told him "Listen to me, big b***s" during a row witnessed by senior civil servants. There were lurid suggestions of sexual misconduct made about two of Mr Bell's ministerial colleagues. There was evidence that Mr Bell was unable to adequately discharge his duties the morning after a late night in New York. There were claims that Mr Cairns answered to other spads rather than his ministerial boss and that some of them had families who stood to gain from RHI. All this, before we even consider Mr Bell alleging that the Executive's spin doctor David Gordon characterised him as a "monster" who needed to be put to sleep and that a senior journalist was advising the DUP about how to attack him. The former permanent secretary of his department stated that colleagues at Invest NI had complained of Minister Bell's "limited contribution to Northern Ireland's interests regarding foreign direct investment and trade" and the risk of him "making inappropriate or unhelpful comments". After a trade delegation he was due to lead to the US on St Patrick's Day was dropped, it was further stated that he delayed providing routine information to OfM/DfM and travel authorisation for Invest NI staff out of pique. Most of those settling in to watch the live feed were expecting to hear a Northern Irish version of Yes Minister. What they got sounded more like a particularly fractious episode of the Jeremy Kyle Show with the DUP family at war. During the hearing it appeared that Mr Bell's memory of key events and grasp of detail is far from perfect, that he made secret recordings of conversations with civil servants and party colleagues, and that spads rather than he made key decisions. Regardless of the veracity of any of the claims, the rest of us are left wondering about the ethics and integrity of those who govern us. Sadly, the civil service does not emerge well either. The people running the RHI scheme appeared not to be able to spot basic flaws. The unit was under-resourced, no staff had specialist knowledge of a complex field and personnel changes meant that there was no continuity as the crisis unfolded. Most people will be shocked and bewildered by all of this. Of course, the media can distort and sensationalise stories. But this one gets worse if you follow the live coverage and read all the documents. We have no government. But if and when we do, there is no case for dancing in the streets. Civil servants and ministers will have much to prove. We need to trust that civil servants have the competence to manage large budgets, ministers the ability to lead them, and that unelected party officials are controlled by ministers, not the other way around. Until that confidence is restored, providing Stormont with yet more power would be unthinkable. Nick Garbutt runs Nick Garbutt PR Attending the Addressing The Legacy Of Northern Irelands Past conference last month were (from left) Raymond McCord, Tracey Coulter, Michael Monaghan, Michael Gallagher, Cat Wilkinson and Nicola McGowan The extension of the Northern Ireland Office's consultation, Addressing the Legacy of Northern Ireland's Past, is welcome and will increase the number of people who can respond. The Government should make use of the additional period to outline more proactively the content of the proposals. The Democratic Unionist Party has engaged extensively with victims and the wider public over recent months, and found consideration of the Government's document tending to be instilled with ongoing dissatisfaction at the state of affairs following a catalogue of shameful actions over the last two decades. The failures of the Belfast Agreement, including the early release of terrorist prisoners, caused immense hurt to victims. This was followed by the Government formally abandoning attempting to extradite IRA prison escapees, efforts to grant a terrorist amnesty at Westminster and then comfort letters for those on the run. The clearest example of that same unfairness today remains the definition of a victim. We have met with a number of individual victims and several groups representing victims' organisations during the course of the consultation, and the victim definition was raised with us as their key issue almost universally by those we engaged with. The 2006 definition of a victim and survivor is indefensible. There is a clear distinction in law between a terrorist perpetrator and their innocent victim, and to equate the two is morally untenable. A perpetrator of an unlawful act cannot at the same time be a victim of the act they have perpetrated. Extremely powerful testimony at our meetings and discussions further reinforced the depth and rawness of hurt and insult victims' families feel at their loved one being placed in the same category as terrorist perpetrators. The DUP has previously tabled legislative proposals to change the definition of a victim. The Government should bring forward plans now for a new UK-wide definition of a victim with a clear distinction between perpetrator and victim. We believe this could improve the existing climate and context and offer the best prospect of new legacy bodies proving successful. It is important we tackle the ever-growing promotion of a state vs non-state tale of the 'Troubles' which ignores that the overwhelming view of all sections of the community, including governments, politics, civil society and churches, was that the violence was morally unacceptable. Setting the terrorist campaigns in proper context is essential. One way to assist in this could be through the Government taking forward the development of an authoritative, evidence-based account of the period. This is an area in which my DUP colleagues and I have been carrying out some work over recent months, and will consult more widely on shortly. The current definition of a victim and past government actions are overshadowing progress made in the Stormont House talks, such as establishing in law a credible definition of collusion and unburdening the Police Ombudsman's Office of its legacy role, as well as the DUP's key objective of securing full criminal investigations for all outstanding cases. The status quo for investigating the past is totally unacceptable. There is a disproportionate focus on the activities of the armed forces and police. This includes the work of the Legacy Investigation Branch of the PSNI, the various ongoing inquiries, the Police Ombudsman, the Public Prosecution Service and the so-called legacy inquests. While little progress has been made in bringing to justice the terrorist organisations responsible for 90% of the deaths, hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money and innumerable hours of police time have been devoted to pursuing investigations against veterans of our armed forces and retired police officers. The PSNI Legacy Investigation Branch devotes a wholly disproportionate level of its resources to investigating the small number of killings linked to the security forces and an inadequate amount to the thousands of unsolved terrorist murders. The status quo is not an option. As things currently stand, innocent victims are the only group not seeing some level of progress on investigations. Arlene Foster is a former First Minister and leader of the DUP Sinn Fein MPs who choose not to take their seat in Westminster should face similar pay sanctions to Assembly members, the DUP has said Sinn Fein MPs who choose not to take their seat in Westminster should face similar pay sanctions to Assembly members, the DUP has said. The call came after Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley announced she would be cutting MLA pay. Ms Bradley justified the cut by telling MPs that the MLAs were not "performing the full range of their legislative functions". DUP MPs asked the Northern Ireland Secretary whether the same logic could be applied to Sinn Fein MPs who refuse to take their seats in the House of Commons. Speaking in the Commons, DUP MP Gregory Campbell asked Ms Bradley: "Does she not apply the same logic then to abstentionist Members of Parliament? They claim hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money for not performing their full legislative function." Fellow DUP MP Jim Shannon added: "If you're going to hit the pockets of the Northern Ireland Assembly members, which is right to do, would the Secretary of State agree that the same principles for Northern Ireland Assembly members should now apply to those who refuse to do their work in this House?" Ms Bradley responded by saying that the matter of pay and allowance was "a matter for this House and therefore not one that it would be appropriate for me to comment on". Irelands president has hit out at the worlds most powerful countries for being behind the mass export of weapons of death across the world. Michael D Higgins criticised the five members of the UN Security Council who are responsible for the bulk of the worlds arms exports. Speaking at an address to mark the 50th anniversary of aid agency Concern, Mr Higgins warned of the role the five members China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States have in what he described as the arms race. Referring to findings by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, he said that the five UN members who are entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security account for three-quarters of global arms exports. The failure of those who profess to defend a rules-based international order to ignore those rules when it becomes inconvenient only serves to undermine international peace and security, and to threaten the lives of vulnerable people in conflicts around the worldMichael D Higgins Speaking at Dublin Castle on Friday, Mr Higgins said: In 2016, 2.23% of global gross domestic product (GDP) was devoted to military expenditure, the lowest since 2000, and far below the heights of the Cold War. Yet that has begun to rise as some of the permanent members of the Security Council embark on a new arms race, and the arms industry now exports weapons of death and destruction for use in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen. The self-defeating rhetoric of the arms race, and the immorality of the arms trade, only serve to fuel current and future wars. That is most evident today in Yemen. He told the audience that UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that 22 million Yemenis are in desperate need of humanitarian aid and protection. But he added that while the UN was seeking a peaceful political solution, the conflict in Yemen was sustained by the sale of arms and by the support of Security Council members. The president added: It is a stark example of the triumph of the diplomacy of transaction, and of narrow national interest, over the diplomacy of the common good embodied by the Charter of the United Nations. He went on to say, however, that the UN needs worldwide support as it is the best alternative to war. Through 50 years of action and advocacy, Concern has stood for a different vision of the world, one in which power yields to justice, one which recognises that we are all part of a common humanity, owing to ourselves and to others not only of compassion, but of solidarity, he said. Expand Close Michael D Higgins applauds Amina Mohammed (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michael D Higgins applauds Amina Mohammed (Brian Lawless/PA) Among those attending the Resurge 2018 conference in Dublin Castle was UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed, Nigerias former environment minister. When asked about Mr Higginss comments on the Security Council, she said: Lets hope that we can turn that around. You would have seen in the secretary-generals recent speech on nuclear disarmament, that is taking hold. More people are thinking of better ways to reduce armed conflict and therefore there will be a reduction in the production and need for weapons. We should really be looking to the resolutions to peace, dialogue and mediation. Simon Coveney said he did not agree with Mr Trump on a number of policy areas (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Irelands deputy premier has said US president Donald Trumps visit to the country will cause controversy. Simon Coveney said the Irish Government was a little taken by surprise when Mr Trump made the announcement he was going to visit Ireland in November. The US leader is expected to visit the country after he attends the Armistice Day commemoration in Paris. Mr Coveney said: It will be controversial because everything Donald Trump does these days is controversial. Expand Close Mr Trumps announcement caught ministers by surprise (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Trumps announcement caught ministers by surprise (AP) The Tanaiste added that the fact the Government was facilitating the visit did not mean the Government was endorsing US policies. We dont agree with Donald Trump in terms of his approach to climate change, we dont agree with his approach on migration, we dont agree with his approach in terms of international trade and the imposition of tariffs, he said. Mr Coveney also said he did not agree with former premier Enda Kennys description of Mr Trump as a racist. I dont say hes a racist, but as Ive said before I disagree with many of the policies that he advocates, Mr Coveney said. Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary partys think-in event in Co Galway on Friday, the deputy premier said the negotiations on the UKs withdrawal from the EU had intensified in recent weeks. Expand Close Mr Coveney welcomed more business-like dealings over the effect of Brexit (Simon Coveney/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Coveney welcomed more business-like dealings over the effect of Brexit (Simon Coveney/PA) He said: When Michel Barnier talks about the ticking clock, and a lot of work to do, and not much time to do it in, you know, its not a bluff. He means it. Mr Coveney said he was more confident about the negotiations than he was prior to the summer break. The engagement is now much more serious, much more business-like, Mr Coveney said. Both sides I think are determined to deliver an outcome, because no agreement and a potential for a no-deal Brexit is an outcome where everybody loses in particular the UK and Ireland, but the EU as well. Nobody wants that outcome. He added: With some more flexibility on all sides I think a deal can be done, hopefully by the end of October. The Taoiseach has said Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy cannot be held personally responsible for the problems in the housing market. Mr Murphy has come under sustained criticism in recent weeks over the worsening homeless situation after a woman and six of her children had to sleep at a Garda station last month. Government figures show there are 9,891 homeless people in Ireland, about a third of whom are children. Leo Varadkar said: I do not think any reasonable person can hold Eoghan Murphy, who has been in office for over a year now, personally responsible for all the problems in our housing market. I think that sort of criticism is unfair. The Taoiseach made the comments in support of Mr Murphy at the end of the Fine Gael parliamentary partys two-day think-in meeting in Co Galway. It shouldnt be about blame, it should be about solving the problemLeo Varadkar Mr Murphy has written to a number of local authorities telling them that he would remove their powers if they did not implement housing policies. Mr Varadkar said the Government and local authorities needed to share responsibility for the issue. Its not good enough for them not to accept their share of responsibility, he said. It shouldnt be about blame, it should be about solving the problem. Mr Varadkar took aim at Sinn Fein and left-wing members of local authorities for not doing enough to prioritise homelessness. He added that the Government was absolutely serious about solving the housing crisis and it was committed to building 20,000 new homes this year. The Taoiseach welcomed the decision by the Supreme Court on Friday not to hear an appeal on the outcome of the abortion referendum. The court refused to hear a challenge taken by a Dublin woman on the result. In May, people voted overwhelmingly in favour of liberalising the countrys strict abortion laws. Mr Varadkar said the courts ruling on Friday had paved the way for the Government to bring forward the legislation to allow for abortion services when the Dail returns later this month. Stormont's former chief spin doctor described DUP minister Jonathan Bell as a "monster" created by the "Frankenstein" Peter Robinson. Ex-journalist turned head of communications for the Executive Office, David Gordon, sent an email to DUP special adviser Richard Bullick asking why the former First Minster hadn't disputed Mr Bell's claims to the BBC on the cash-for-ash scandal. Read More The Belfast Telegraph has seen details of the correspondence which supports the DUP minister's extraordinary claim yesterday to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) inquiry. However, a source suggested it was intended as a joke as opposed to something more sinister. It is understood the email will soon be published by the inquiry. In his correspondence on December 18, 2016, David Gordon wrote: "Isn't it time Frankenstein put the monster he created to sleep?" It's understood Mr Gordon was asking why Mr Robinson hadn't refuted Mr Bell's version of events. Mr Bell had given an explosive interview to BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan three days earlier. Mr Gordon, a former editor of the Stephen Nolan Show, declined to comment on the matter last night. Mr Bell has previously claimed he was over-ruled by DUP figures when he tried to close the cash-for-ash scheme. He was minister at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) which oversaw RHI. The former minister made a series of shocking allegations when appearing before the RHI inquiry yesterday. He said his special adviser Timothy Cairns had told him "in garish and lurid detail" about "the sexual misbehaviour of two DUP ministers". In his evidence, Mr Bell accused Mr Gordon of briefing "that I was a monster that had to be put to sleep". Mr Bell also alleged that Sky's Ireland correspondent David Blevins was providing advice to the DUP on how to "destroy" him by attacking him "on his Christian faith". Sky News: "The suggestion by Jonathan Bell that David Blevins advised the DUP on anything is completely and utterly untrue." Mr Bell choked with emotion as he claimed he was "just one boy" standing against multiple attempts to smear him. He denied that he swung a punch at Mr Cairns or threatened to break his finger after he wagged it during a breakfast meeting with the minister. Mr Bell said the allegation was "untrue, completely without foundation and has no basis whatsoever in fact". He added: "I have never tried to break anybody's finger and never would." He claimed text messages Mr Cairns sent to DUP leader Arlene Foster and another former special adviser Timothy Johnston, who is now the DUP's chief executive, revealed he "would fit his story to whatever the party narrative was to be". Mr Bell claimed the DUP offered a newspaper an exclusive story about him being a bully if they used the headline 'Bully Boy Bell'. He told the inquiry: "I have to say to you, I am just one boy, I can't operate against the Executive Office. I fear I have been the victim of a massive smear campaign and I fear this is part of the smear campaign." Mr Bell spoke of his at times difficult relationship with his special adviser whom he claimed deliberately attempted to restrict his powers. He said Mr Cairns had told him: "Ministers come and go, spads remain." He claimed his special adviser felt more responsible to DUP spads Timothy Johnston and Richard Bullick than to him as minister. After a blazing row in London in June 2015 over the extent Mr Bell as minister was free to make his own decisions without consulting the DUP, Mr Cairns took an early flight back to Belfast and was off work for a fortnight. However, after a meeting to clear the air, relations improved, Mr Bell claimed. While Mr Cairns' evidence to the inquiry is that he was unhappy with the outcome of the meeting, Mr Bell said they "worked together far more constructively" afterwards. "We regularly had coffee together, we socialised together ... enjoyed ourselves ... (I) built sandcastles with his children on beaches in Portstewart." Mr Bell claimed other DUP advisers viewed Mr Cairns as "a Walter Mitty character that aspired to be like them". He alleged his spad was intimidated by the others whom he frequently deferred to. Allegations that the DUP camouflaged how it appointed spads were raised. Mr Bell said he was ordered to appoint Mr Cairns in May 2015 by the DUP. According to a code of conduct, ministerial advisers should be appointed by ministers and several candidates should be considered. Mr Bell said DUP ministers previously had a "free choice" until a minister appointed a spad the party didn't like. Mr Bell admitted he signed a "pre-written" letter saying he had considered several candidates and found Mr Cairns the most suitable and was choosing him. He wrote that Mr Bell believed Mr Cairns pay should be in the upper band, which goes up to 92,000, and suggested 80,000 - although he was eventually given a salary of around 76,000. Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin said this "represented a false situation", and suggested that despite the situation Mr Bell faced, "perhaps a little integrity could creep into it somewhere". Sir Patrick also said there was a "very real concern" that the appointment process for advisers was being camouflaged. Mr Bell responded: "That's exactly right." Mr Bell told the inquiry he first became aware of issues with RHI on August 24, 2015. The next month, he signed an order for cost control measures with a four-week delay. He insisted he would have authorised the action earlier had he been made aware of the situation. He said he was told the delay was necessary to get measures through. There was a surge in applications for the scheme before the cost-cutting tariffs took effect in November. Almost 1,000 boilers were accredited to the scheme between August and November. In a statement to the inquiry, Mr Cairns has claimed he gave the minister an RHI briefing on July 8 before Mr Bell went on holiday. The former spad also alleged Mr Bell had limited availability that summer because of a family trip to China in July and a holiday in Portstewart in early August. Mr Bell yesterday rejected that claim. "I was available for every meeting, every photocall, every business ... (civil servants) could've contacted me at any time ... but there was no attempt to contact me, I believe," he said. Mr Bell told the inquiry he had not been made aware of budget concerns about RHI until that summer. He couldn't remember the exact date. "I honesty can't precisely recall," he said. "It was not a formal meeting, it was a conversation." Deti's permanent secretary Dr Andrew McCormick had first raised it with him, he added. Mr Bell claims DUP advisers worked against him to stop the addition of cost controls. In a written statement to the inquiry, he alleges Mr Cairns told him that Timothy Johnston was "not allowing the issue to be progressed as he and his brother-in-law John Robinson", who was then also a spad, "had interests in the chicken industry". In his political and Ministerial career, Jonathan Bell had always come across as a snappy dresser, sporting well-cut suits,silk ties and radiating a sense of hail-fellow-well-met bonhomie and gregariousness. But yesterday's session of the long-running Renewable Heat Incentive inquiry got under way, the former Deti Minister - who is in his second day of giving evidence at the former Senate Chamber at Stormont - looked tired, puffy, and often uncomfortable. Read More He wore a pair of staid spectacles that - in the homely Ulster saying - put years on him, and under the questioning of the RHI Inquiry officials he sometimes seemed ill at ease with the proceedings. At one point he choked with emotion as he described how he had fought alone as "just one boy" against what he said were multiple attempts to smear him. At some of the forensic questioning from the RHI's legal experts, Mr Bell was forced to admit that he could not recall important details in respect of the administration of the bungled RHI scheme which is costing the taxpayer millions of pounds. This was a performance far from the polished, confident, affable Jonathan Bell of his Ministerial heyday. Mr Bell is to appear again at the RHI Inquiry on Friday. Tough times for MLAs. They'll soon be receiving a mere 25% more than the average UK salary for not turning up for work. Karen Bradley's belated adoption of the Reaney proposals for salary reduction offered an overdue response to farce. It was also a minimal response - and one which simply ignored legislation which requires her to call an Assembly election. Such a contest would of course be pointless and possibly counter-productive - but it is the correct legal position, one usurped at ministerial whim. Of much greater significance than the cash crowd-pleaser was the Secretary of State's announcement of legislation to allow civil servants to take the decisions MLAs ought to be making. Indirect rule. If I was a civil servant I'd be asking for a cut of the 13,000 being taken from one of those poor MLAs. Civil servants will soon be effectively moonlighting as Executive ministers. And we all thought double-jobbing had ended. Bradley's actions are an obvious attempt to keep Stormont open as a bit more than a tourist attraction. Allowing civil servants to make decisions avoids the dreaded direct rule label. It keeps alive the possibility of a return to devolved government until there really does have to be an election, in 2022. And even then, we could have a fantasy election to an Assembly that doesn't exist: 2003 all over again. Rule by civil service decree is profoundly undemocratic. Those elected by no-one will be making important decisions that affect everyone. Governance transfers to the unelected and unaccountable. The main means of citizen redress will be via the courts. 'First Minister Sterling' - a job he does not seek and in which he ought not to be placed - will take decisions without democratic mandate. Whether the quality of civil service rule will improve matters is unclear. A fair chunk of the RHI evidence suggests a body struggling with the complexities of the legislation - even if it ought to have been mainly a cut-and-paste from the Westminster model - and failing to warn hapless ministers as trouble developed. In its defence, the civil service appeared short-staffed and overworked - problems now multiplied several-fold by the Secretary of State's promise of more roles. The costs of a full Assembly dissolution would be personal as well as political. When the Assembly was created in 1998-99, it was not the main source of livelihood for many MLAs. Few had expected its formation and many had other jobs. After years of relative stability from 2007-16, it has become the main source of income for most members (and their staff). So sympathy is due to those MLAs who are blameless in the institutional collapse and diligent in their constituency duties. As my Liverpool colleague Sean Haughey has shown in the Journal of Legislative Studies, MLAs spend a big proportion of their work (more than 25 hours per week) on constituency activity. There's also much to be said for working from home. But when the university term starts, I wouldn't get 35p let alone 35K for long if I played truant. And members of a legislative assembly need to be just that. Reducing salaries can concentrate minds but not change them. It may make MLAs thrifty with the weekly shopping but paying people 13,000 less will not alter their views on an Irish Language Act, same-sex marriage, abortion, Brexit, blame for RHI, whatever. Ultimately political will not fiscal rectitude will determine the Assembly's future. There remains the strong suspicions that the DUP is, for now, comfortable with political arrangements - no worries for the DUP nine, erstwhile 10, given their prospering at Westminster - whilst Northern Ireland's institutions are not Sinn Fein's ultimate concern anyway. Logically, there is no reason why the Assembly cannot be reconstituted to deal with schools, hospitals and other matters, even if its members are still arguing over the dead-end of identity politics and wrestling over social issues. An incremental way forward would be for the Assembly to revive but confine legislation initially to agreed ring-fenced issues - baby steps back to the full model. But don't expect anything prior to the RHI verdict anyway. Public support for the Assembly - but not the current fake one - remains high, despite the cynicism over MLA pay. Credible immediate alternatives remain in short supply. Direct rule? Non-runner for nationalists. Transfer of powers to local councils? 11 mini-Stormonts. Joint authority or unity? Unionist uproar. At its brief best, the Assembly was passing nearly as much legislation as its counterparts in Scotland and Wales. Yesterday's nod towards a 'pay-per-legislation' model will not, alone, restore its fortunes, but at least a potential Guinness World Record - for Secretary of State indecision - has been avoided - for now. Jon Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool The FCO has written about alcohol laws in the UAE (Katie Collins/PA) Travellers heading to Dubai or Abu Dhabi have been warned they could face arrest if they consume alcoholic drinks on the flight to the Middle East. The British Embassy in the United Arab Emirates posted the message about drinking in the federation on its Facebook page, weeks after a mother was detained in Dubai after drinking a complimentary glass of wine on a flight from London. Alcohol licences are required for residents while tourists are restricted to consuming alcohol in a hotel or a licensed premises. Consular Thursday: Alcohol Licence If you hold a residence permit it is illegal to purchase or consume alcohol without... Posted by UK in UAE on Thursday, September 6, 2018 It said: If caught carrying or drinking alcohol without a licence or with alcohol in your blood, you can be arrested. It is a punishable offence to be under the influence of alcohol in public including when transiting through the UAE. It can result in custodial sentences and/or a fine. The post appeared to be part of a series on the UK in UAE page about consular matters. Expand Close Ellie Holman was detained in Dubai for three days (Detained in Dubai/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ellie Holman was detained in Dubai for three days (Detained in Dubai/PA) Swedish dentist Ellie Holman, who lives in Sevenoaks in Kent with her English partner Gary and their three children, was detained on July 13 having drunk one glass of wine on her eight-hour Emirates Airline flight to Dubai from London. The charges were later dropped. Radha Stirling, chief executive of human rights group Detained in Dubai, said: In light of the FCOs announcement, we will be contacting all airlines who transit to or through the UAE to clarify their position on serving alcohol to passengers. Either the UAE will need to reform their laws urgently, or the airlines will need to update their policy to ensure the safety of customers. The pensioner is stable in hospital after the crash in Ayrshire (David Cheskin/PA) An 81-year-old woman has been airlifted to hospital after her car crashed into a tree. The pensioner was driving on the A76 in East Ayrshire when the grey Vauxhall Corsa came off the road. The collision happened at around 9.20am on Friday on the stretch between Cumnock and New Cumnock. Police Scotland is appealing for information after a road traffic collision involving one car on the A76 this morning. https://t.co/mYQHOJn0Tk pic.twitter.com/JR7rb1PCCX Ayrshire Police (@AyrshirePolice) September 7, 2018 The woman was airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and treated for non-life threatening injuries, Police Scotland said. She remains in a stable condition at the hospital. Sergeant Ian Thornton, from the divisional road police unit, said: We are appealing for anyone who was travelling on the A76 this morning who may have seen this vehicle prior to the incident, or witnessed the incident take place, to come forward. You may have encountered this vehicle without realising and have dash-cam footage that can help us. Anyone with information should contact police via 101, quoting incident number 0823 of Friday 7 September 2018. Yonatan Eyob received almost 87,000 in funds after falsely claiming he lived in Grenfell Tower (Metropolitan Police/PA) A drug dealer who received almost 87,000 in funds after falsely claiming he lived in Grenfell Tower in the wake of the fire has been jailed for more than six years. Yonatan Eyob, 26, who was described as homeless but uses an address in Notting Hill, west London, was put up in a hotel and given a food allowance and pre-paid cards. Drugs, including MDMA and cocaine, and seven mobile phones were found in his hotel room, along with around 3,000 in cash, designer clothes, jewellery and credit cards. Eyob, who claimed he had been lodging with a friend in Flat 182 home to a family of five who died in the blaze pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in June. At Isleworth Crown Court on Friday, Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh sentenced Eyob to three years and four months for the fraud, and three years and four months for possession of drugs with intent to supply. You were profiting from the deaths of those people and the fact that they were in effect silencedJudge Giles Curtis-Raleigh The judge described the fire as a disaster which shocked the nation, and said Eyob was treated as a bereaved survivor and given top priority. He said: You were profiting from the deaths of those people and the fact that they were in effect silenced. The judge said Eyob had decided to enrich himself by plundering the funds that were put aside for the victims, adding: It was a claim false and dishonest from the start. The Crown Prosecution Service said it is the largest known convicted Grenfell fraud so far. Eyob received 15,918.20 on pre-paid cards, 60,945 in hotel accommodation and 9,968.36 for laundry and parking a total of just over 86,831. He was given emergency accommodation at the Holland Park Hilton between July 2017 and June 2018. The court heard he had the use of a white convertible Mercedes and had asked for more money, claiming that he was finding it difficult to eat the food at the hotel. Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly also said that Eyob had complained about the WiFi signal in the hotel. Eyob was charged with dishonestly making a false representation for accommodation and subsistence between June 2017 and June 2018. The court heard there was a piece of paper with a list of names and numbers in the hotel room, and there were text messages found which related to drug dealing. A fire ripped through the west London tower block in June 2017 leaving 72 people dead. Hannan Wahabi, the sister of Abdulaziz El-Wahabi who lived in the flat, said what Eyob did was a stain on all those who died in the terrible incident. Reading a victim impact statement, she said the fraud was another unwelcome extra heartache and stress to deal with, adding: The actions of this individual have caused me sleepless nights. Ms Wahabi said the fact that someone had taken advantage of the distress felt by those left behind for their own personal gain really hurts. A rich portrait was painted of the El-Wahabi family, who died at each others side in the tower, at the public inquiry into the fire. Parents Faouzia and Abdulaziz, 42 and 52, died alongside their children, Yasin, 20, Huda, 16, and Mehdi, eight, on the 21st floor of the block. Catherine Gould, from the CPS, said: Yonatan Eyob took advantage of a terrible tragedy for his own greed. He carried on his fraud for nearly a year, diverting funds from those who genuinely needed it and betraying the trust of everyone who gave him assistance. If his deceit had not been discovered he would have been eligible for a council home with free rent and council tax until July 2019. When someone lies in this way it is only right they are held to account. Key elements of Prime Minister Theresa Mays Chequers plan for Brexit are not acceptable to Brussels, the EUs chief negotiator has told MPs. But a transcript of Michel Barniers evidence to the House of Commons Exiting the EU Committee showed that he did not describe the blueprint agreed at the PMs country residence in July and set out in the Governments Brexit White Paper as dead, as Labour MP Stephen Kinnock claimed earlier this week. In a hearing of the committee in Westminster on Wednesday, Mr Kinnock broke into French to tell Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab that the EU negotiator had told them les propositions sont mortes the proposals are dead. I can tell you absolutely, unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt that Chequers is dead in the water, the Labour committee member told Mr Raab. Michel Barnier made it crystal clear that Chequers is completely unacceptable to the EU. Your proposal does not seem workable to usEU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier But a transcript of Mondays meeting, held behind closed doors in Brussels, shows that, in response to repeated questioning over whether the proposals were dead, Mr Barnier insisted he was not rejecting them outright. Asked by committee chairman Hilary Benn whether the Chequers plan was dead in the water, Mr Barnier replied: In the White Paper there are lots of positive things, lots of useful things, just to make that absolutely clear. I did not just reject the White Paper outright; that is just not true. I hope that you will understand that. However, he made clear that Brussels will not accept Mrs Mays proposals on customs arrangements, as well as her suggestion that the UK and EU could have a free trade area with a common rulebook for goods but not services. In a translation of his comments released by the committee, Mr Barnier said: The proposals made in the White Paper on two points are not acceptable as they are, they are not acceptable to the EU that is the White Paper proposal on customs and the White Paper proposal on the common rulebook for goods. On Mrs Mays suggestion that the UK could carry out customs checks on its borders on the EUs behalf, he said: Your proposal does not seem workable to us. Expand Close Theresa Mays blueprint for Brexit was agreed by her Cabinet at a meeting in Chequers in July (Joel Rouse/Crown Copyright) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Theresa Mays blueprint for Brexit was agreed by her Cabinet at a meeting in Chequers in July (Joel Rouse/Crown Copyright) Mr Barnier said that agreement on the UKs withdrawal deal and a political declaration on the future relationship must be reached by the start of November in order to have time for ratification by the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29. Asked whether the deal would be ready by the deadline of October 18s European Council summit, he told MPs: We might need a few extra days. I have always said that give or take a day or a week, the essential thing to do is to get a good result, even if it takes a few days longer. But he added pointedly: It is not extra time we need now. It is decisions we need now. Mr Barnier said that the future of the Irish border remained the main obstacle to a withdrawal agreement, telling MPs he was very concerned about Ireland. He dismissed as too easy the suggestion put forward by some Brexiteers that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic could simply be kept open, arguing that this would not allow either the EU or the UK to protect their consumers and businesses. But he said that the EU was open to discussing other backstop arrangements for Northern Ireland than the Brussels proposal for it to remain within the European customs area, which has been roundly rejected by Mrs May. Expand Close Mr Barnier insisted that he hoped the UK does well out of Brexit (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mr Barnier insisted that he hoped the UK does well out of Brexit (Niall Carson/PA) Mr Barnier insisted that the EU wants to establish the closest relationship possible with your country an unprecedented relationship following Brexit. But he said that Mrs Mays proposals for a facilitated customs arrangement under which tariffs gathered at the border on goods heading for continental Europe would be passed on to Brussels were impossible, technically speaking, for us to implement. The proposal would create extra cost and bureaucracy, risk a major distortion in competition to the disadvantage of EU companies, and call into question the very integrity of our single market, he said. Mrs Mays White Paper appeared to be suggesting a kind of a la carte single market, a kind of cherry-picking approach, and we do not agree, he said. We cannot agree to that. Mr Barnier rejected a suggestion from prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg that the divorce bill of around 40 billion agreed by Mrs May represents a payment for a future trade deal and could be withheld if the EU failed to come up with terms acceptable to the UK. There was no question of going back on the financial settlement, which related only to commitments made by the UK during its time as an EU member, he said, telling Mr Rees-Mogg: That figure is settlement for the past. You want to leave the European Union. That is your decision, so we settle the accounts. Mr Barnier indicated that he expects the economic consequences of Brexit to become clear in the UK within a few years. We will see in a few years time where we are, where the advantages and disadvantages are, said Mr Barnier. We will see by then whether it is better to have a common trade policy or to go it alone. We will see then. I hope you do well. I hope you are successful, quite frankly, but I think myself in negotiating with Mr Trump, in negotiating with the Chinese, it is better to be in a big group and to be sitting on a big single market and a common trade policy In todays world I think it is better to be strong together when it comes to negotiating with the other major powers that are not going to wait for us. Ruth Davidson is pressing for more rights for victims of crime and their families (Jane Barlow/PA) The family of a man who was bludgeoned to death in his own home were told of his killers temporary release from prison on the anniversary of his murder, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said. She told MSPs Mike Moseys relatives were given the news in a letter from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) just six weeks after the authority wrongly told them John Mackie would not be let out of jail. Speaking at First Ministers Questions at Holyrood, Ms Davidson said the case alongside others demonstrates the need for ministers to act decisively now to show victims and their families that we are listening. She urged Nicola Sturgeon to provide details of her plans to improve the information and support available to victims and families when prisoners are released, and to increase the transparency of the parole system. The Conservatives have already been pressing for change, backing the relatives of Michelle Stewart, whose Michelles Law campaign includes calls for an explicit requirement for the safety and welfare of victims and their families to be taken into account when parole and early release are considered. Expand Close Michelle Stewart was murdered in 2008 (handout/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michelle Stewart was murdered in 2008 (handout/PA) Michelle was just 17 when she was stabbed to death in the street in her home village of Drongan, Ayrshire, by John Wilson in 2008. Her family have received an SPS letter indicating Wilson had been approved for first grant of temporary release despite the judge who jailed him in 2009 making clear he should serve 12 years before he could apply for parole. They said they had little input into the release process, and have been unable to restrict his relocation to exclude their local area. Over the summer we were contacted by other families including the Carsons from Harthill, Ms Davidson said. Their dad Mike Mosey, a former policeman, was bludgeoned to death in his kitchen. The killer was sentenced to 18 years, which was then reduced to just 13 years on appeal. This June, after being told of rumours that he was to be released early, they wrote to the SPS and were told that that wasnt the case. But then just six weeks later they received another letter informing them that he had in fact already been approved for temporary release. A letter that coincided with the anniversary of Mikes murder. The family have been left traumatised and they feel that the system has totally let them down. Expand Close Nicola Sturgeon said the Government is looking to make improvements (Andrew Milligan/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Nicola Sturgeon said the Government is looking to make improvements (Andrew Milligan/PA) She added: The Stewarts and the Carsons and families like them are not asking for the world, theyre just asking to be heard when the killers of their loved ones are being released. They feel that criminals have more rights than victims and they want the law changed so that victims are put at the heart of the justice system, which is where they should be. Ms Sturgeon said the case involving the Carson family was unacceptable. She added: I know the Justice Secretary would be happy to meet with the family if they want to do so. Were actively considering the Stewart familys proposals, and indeed other calls for improvements, in detail. Do you agree with us that victims should have more opportunities to input meaningfully into the parole process and that their concerns should carry greater weight? Sign our petition for Michelle's Law:https://t.co/ex1HxmETPS pic.twitter.com/ut3bglejqB Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) September 6, 2018 Were already in discussion with the parole board on further reforms and possible development of their rules of procedure, and of course that has to include whether any changes are necessary following the Warboys case in England. She said the Government would consult on changes both by the end of this year and early next year. We do think we need to look at what more needs to be done to ensure that victims and families of victims are given proper notice and, where appropriate, are properly consulted when these decisions are taken, she said. An SPS spokeswoman said: Temporary release, including home leave, forms an important part of the reintegration process as it allows for an individual to be tested on how they cope in the community. The Parole Board for Scotland expect the Scottish Prison Service to rigorously test individuals with access to the community prior to release as this evidence helps form the Parole Board decisions. Where appropriate, conditions excluding an individual from a certain area can be imposed, however such decisions must carefully balance the rights of both the individual and the victims. If a victim has registered on the Victim Notification Scheme, they will be given information regarding temporary release. Nikolai Glushkov was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden (Metropolitan Police/PA) A murdered exile believed he had previously been poisoned by mystery Russians who brought him Champagne, a paramedic who treated him said. Former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolai Glushkov was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden, south-west London, a week after the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals. Paramedic Keith Carr on Friday told how he treated Mr Glushkov in November 2013 for suspected poisoning, after the exile shared drinks with two men from Moscow in a Bristol hotel. Expand Close Counter-terrorism police led the murder inquiry after Mr Glushkov was found dead on March 11 (Yui Mok/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Counter-terrorism police led the murder inquiry after Mr Glushkov was found dead on March 11 (Yui Mok/PA) The suspected poisoning came some six months after Mr Glushkov accused the Kremlin of murdering his friend and Vladimir Putin critic Boris Berezovsky. The Guardian reported that detectives are now reinvestigating that night in the Grand Hotel as part of the murder inquiry. Mr Carr, then working with South Western Ambulance Service, said he responded to a report that Mr Glushkov had collapsed on the carpet the morning after the drinks. He had been visited by two Russians the night before, Mr Carr, now 71, told the Press Association. They (the visitors) brought Champagne. They drank the Champagne together. He woke up on the carpet the next day. He had carpet burns to his face and he was unsteady. Mr Carr said his patient had an abnormal heart rhythm, which was very fast. In 47 years as a paramedic Ive never had anybody deliberately poisoned so it wasnt foremost in my mind until he said, I think they poisoned me, Mr Carr, of Bristol, said. I thought it was a bit far-fetched but when I saw the cardiac dysrhythmia I thought somethings wrong, its not like any normal heart rhythm, so somebodys got to him. Mr Glushkov was treated in Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital. The disclosure comes after police named two men said to be Russian military intelligence agents as suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal. Counter-terrorism police led the murder inquiry after Mr Glushkov was found dead on March 11. Mr Glushkov claimed political asylum in the UK after Russia accused him and Mr Berezovsky, who died in March 2013, of a criminal conspiracy in relation to Aeroflot. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the incident in Bristol in 2013 was a matter for Avon and Somerset Police, and added: We are not prepared to discuss specific lines of inquiry in regards our investigation. An Election Court found former mayor Luftur Rahman guilty of a litany of corrupt and illegal practices (Rui Vieira/PA) A 1.7 million police inquiry into electoral fraud during the 2014 Tower Hamlets mayoral election has ended without sufficient evidence to charge anyone, Scotland Yard said. Operation Lynemouth was launched in May 2017 to determine whether criminal charges should follow after an Election Court found former mayor Luftur Rahman guilty of a litany of corrupt and illegal practices. Mr Rahman was forced to step down, but had not faced prosecution. A fresh investigation into the voided mayoral election came amid concern that police were failing to prosecute what a court deemed to be corrupt. The Metropolitan Police announced on Friday that the inquiry had unearthed prima facie evidence of a serious offence not directly linked to election fraud. But, it said, the year-long probe involving 20 detectives and police staff has not identified sufficient additional evidence or investigative opportunities to enable the Met to request the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider the charging of any individual in relation to offences of electoral fraud and malpractice arising from the 2014 mayoral election. Explaining the decision, commander Stuart Cundy said rules concerning the admissibility of evidence meant the Election Court would necessarily examine a different case to a criminal court. Evidence related to the new offence has been passed on to City of London police due to its nature, according to the Met. Changes to how police officers are trained and deployed during elections and how criminal investigations into election fraud are conducted have come as a result of the inquiry, it added. Scotland Yard said the investigation had four strands, including a review of 27 files of documents from the 2015 Election Court hearing and an assessment of all evidence of electoral fraud and malpractice relating to the vote. Detectives examined evidence relating to 169 separate allegations plus the newly-identified offence, trawling through 2,450 documents and statements, 28 days of election court transcripts and several thousand pages of digital material. Mr Mawrey QC was clear that the rules and procedures for the admissibility of evidence in an election court is quite different to criminal proceedingsCommander Stuart Cundy Prosecutors were handed the forces findings, but they advised it was very unlikely that the Code for Crown Prosecutors test would ever be passed in respect of the potential offences that had been identified. The Met revealed 66 of the 170 allegations concerned behaviour that was not found to be criminal, nine were duplicates of offences previously recorded by police, 16 related to ghost voters which were found to be errors and 18 concerned postal votes rejected due to suspicious signatures, none of which were found to be criminal. It also re-investigated 61 allegations and found the previous police conclusions were apt, namely one criminal charge over a false statement on a nomination paper, two police cautions and six written warnings. The one charge was dismissed when it reached court after prosecutors offered no evidence. Scotland Yard said the third strand of its investigation was a reassessment of criminal allegations against Mr Rahman and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. One allegation is still being investigated by the Met Police, three form part of a wider City of London investigation, two had already been through court and two had been dealt with by the relevant investigative or regulatory body, it said. There was insufficient evidence in six of the allegations against the two parties and in four cases it was found allegations did not warrant additional investigation. Finally, Scotland Yard was itself being reviewed by the City of London Police over its investigation into grant funding for the Communities, Localities and Culture Youth Project. It was found all reasonable lines of inquiry had been explored, but areas for training and learning were identified. Mr Cundy, who led the investigation, said: The MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) undertook this new investigation because it recognised there were concerns about the previous police investigations, and it was important to identify any immediate matters for action in advance of the 2018 mayoral election in Tower Hamlets. I know some will remain concerned as to why the criminal investigation has not led to persons being convicted of a criminal offence. As explained in his judgment, Mr Mawrey QC was clear that the rules and procedures for the admissibility of evidence in an election court is quite different to criminal proceedings. In reaching its conclusion that there is insufficient evidence to seek any new charging decision for a criminal offence, our re-investigation has robustly considered all the evidence that is available. The Met is absolutely committed to effectively investigating criminal allegations of electoral fraud and malpractice, which is why despite the significant operational challenges facing the MPS we have thoroughly re-investigated all matters relating to the 2014 mayoral election in Tower Hamlets. Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspected the Mets investigation, publishing four interim assurance reports. Meghan chose sleeveless dress by designer Jason Wu and then themed the dress with a Dior clutch and divine slingback heels by Aquazzura. The show, presented by the Royal Armouries museum, will raise money for three charities supporting veterans with mental health issues - Help for Heroes, Combat Stress and Heads Together. For the gala, both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex opted to wear blue, a colour often linked to mental health as it symbolises depth and stability as well as healing and tranquillity. During the evening, Harry and Meghan will meet some of the concert performers, including Sir Karl Jenkins, one of the most performed living composers in the world, who will conduct his internationally-acclaimed The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. It's a busy week for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with the cople attending the Wellchild Awards on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the couple attended The WellChild Awards, honoring gravely sick children and their caregivers. Harry and Meghan, who recently welcomed a black Labrador into their family, have been enjoying time for rest and relaxation as their summer ends and they prepare for an even busier fall. They are now preparing for their first major Royal tour visiting Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga on behalf of Queen Elizabeth and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have begun a summit on Syria as a bloody offensive on Idlib province looms, despite warnings from the US and others against the attack. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the north-western Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about three million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hardcore fighters, including al Qaida-linked militants. Expand Close Vladimir Putin (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vladimir Putin (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) The three leaders each held bilateral talks before the meeting began in Tehran. As photographers took pictures of the three leaders Mr Rouhani, smiling, reached for their hands. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Mr Rouhani said, adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Mr Erdogan appealed for a reasonable way out to avoid a bloodbath in Idlib. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have competing interests over Syria, and all also face US sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. Iran wants to retain its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and further destabilisation of areas it holds in Syria. Meanwhile, Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Early on Friday, a series of air strikes struck villages in south-west Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Mr Abdurrahman said suspected Russian planes carried out the attack. Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is taken on the shoulders of a supporter moments before being stabbed during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora (Antonio Scorza/Agencia O Globo via AP) A leading presidential candidate in Brazil has been stabbed at a campaign event, suffering serious abdominal injuries. Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery, said on Thursday night that right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro was in serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for at least seven days. The first round of Brazils presidential election is October 7. The doctor said the two-hour procedure stopped serious internal bleeding and repaired most of the damage from the knifing. Expand Close National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) The candidate will need further surgery within months for a part of his intestines that was temporarily fixed with a colostomy, the surgeon said. We cant say when he will be able to leave hospital, Dr Borsato said. But in the first hours after the surgery his recovery has been very satisfactory. Numerous videos on social media showed Mr Bolsonaro, who has promised to crack down on crime in Latin Americas largest nation, being stabbed with a knife to the lower part of his stomach while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, a city about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. At the moment of the attack, Mr Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand. After the attack, he is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who was apparently the suspect. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed to The Associated Press that 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira had been arrested in connection with the incident. Mr Bolsonaros son, Flavio Bolsonaro, initially posted on Twitter that the injury was superficial and his father was fine. However, an hour later he posted another tweet saying the wound was worse than we thought. He arrived at the hospital almost dead, Mr Flavio wrote. His condition now seems stabilized. Please pray. A statement from federal police said the candidate had bodyguards. In the videos, Mr Bolsonaro does not appear to be wearing a protective vest. Such measures are rare for candidates in Brazil. This episode is sad, President Michel Temer told reporters in Brasilia. We wont have a rule of law if we have intolerance. Mr Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is second in the polls to jailed ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been barred from running but continues to appeal. Despite being a congressman since 1991, Mr Bolsonaro is running as an outsider ready to upend the establishment by cracking down on corruption in politics and reducing crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. While Mr Bolsonaro has a strong following, he is also a deeply polarising figure. He speaks nostalgically about the countrys 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. Earlier this week, Mr Bolsonaro said during a campaign event that he would like to shoot corrupt members of the leftist Workers Party, which made da Silva its candidate. The comment prompted an immediate rebuke from the attorney general, who asked Mr Bolsonaro to explain that comment. His vice presidential running mate, Hamilton Mourao, is a retired general who blamed leftists for the knife attack. Other presidential candidates quickly denounced the stabbing and many of them decided to suspend their campaign events on Friday. Politics is done through dialogue and by convincing, never with hate, tweeted Geraldo Alckmin, former governor of Sao Paulo who has focused negative ads on Mr Bolsonaro. Fernando Haddad, who is expected to take da Silvas place on the Workers Party ticket, called the attack absurd and regrettable. It was not immediately clear how the attack on Mr Bolsonaro might reshape a presidential race very much up in the air with the front-runner, da Silva, in jail. A handful of Bolsonaro supporters held a vigil in Sao Paulo on Thursday night, and briefly exchanged insults with leftists. They made Bolsonaro a martyr, said Jonatan Valente, a student. I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro. The stabbing of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarisation in Latin Americas largest nation. Far-right Social Liberal Party congressman Jair Bolsonaro was seriously injured after a man stabbed him in the abdomen during a campaign event in Juiz de Fora. The former army captain has promised to crack down on crime, and has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand. After the attack, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the incident supports Mr Bolsonaros assertions that the country is off the rails, or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Expand Close National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery on the candidate, said Mr Bolsonaros recovery is satisfactory so far. He said the candidate would remain in hospital for at least a week after a two-hour operation to stop serious internal bleeding. In videos of the moment of the attack posted on social media, Mr Bolsonaro could be seen on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs-up sign with his left hand. Expand Close Adelio Bispo de Oliveira is suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Adelio Bispo de Oliveira is suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro (AP) He is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who appears to have been the attacker. A suspect, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, was arrested within seconds. Police did not identify a motive, but one official said the man appeared to be mentally unstable. After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazils political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this poll would see huge changes. But no true outside candidate has emerged. Instead, Mr Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot to kill while on duty. The publics anger is partially responsible for making this years campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. The man leading the polls, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Mr Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the October 7 presidential ballot. In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Mr Bolsonaros supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. They made Bolsonaro a martyr, said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Mr Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro. However, it is unknown when the candidate can get out again on the campaign trail or if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. Firefighters battle the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (AP) Authorities are determining whether it is safe to reopen a major road that has been closed for two days by a raging Northern California wildfire. The 45-mile stretch of the Interstate 5 route below the Oregon state line was closed on Wednesday as fire erupted on both sides. Fire service spokesman Brandon Vacarro said work crews have cleared away burned and abandoned trucks that littered the road after the swift-moving blaze broke out. Expand Close Embers fly above a firefighter as he attempts to control a backfire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Embers fly above a firefighter as he attempts to control a backfire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (AP) They must also determine whether charred 70ft trees along the road are in danger of falling. The Delta Fire has burned more than 34 square miles and prompted evacuation orders for scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around Shasta-Trinity National Forest. More than a thousand far-right supporters have gathered for a rally over the fatal stabbing of a man in the German city of Chemnitz, for which two migrants have been arrested and charged with manslaughter. The flag-waving crowd rallied under the motto security for Chemnitz and behind a banner proclaiming we are the people. The number marching was far smaller than the estimated 6,000 who assembled the day after the August 26 stabbing of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig. Expand Close Protesters marched under a banner reading we are the people (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protesters marched under a banner reading we are the people (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Around 500 counter-protesters gathered nearby shouting slogans like theres no right to Nazi propaganda, while another opposition protest featured an open-air performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony as a sign against xenophobia, hate and violence. Local media reported one far-right supporter was arrested after being identified as having given the stiff-armed Nazi salute at a previous rally, which is banned in Germany, but police headquarters said they had no details on the report. Since the killing of Mr Hillig, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has sought to mobilise support with its anti-migrant message. But after a brief bump, polling suggests little change. An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges over Mr Hilligs death, which has also put a renewed a focus on Chancellor Angela Merkels welcoming migrant policies and revealed disagreements between her and top security officials. Expand Close An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Interior minister Horst Seehofer expressed sympathy on Thursday for the protesters who were provoked by the killing. If I were not a minister, Id have gone to the streets as a citizen, Mr Seehofer said, quickly adding: Naturally, not together with the radicals. Mr Seehofer, who heads the Bavarian sister party to Mrs Merkels centre-right Christian Democrats, has long been to the chancellors right on immigration, but his rhetoric has toughened as polls show his party struggling ahead of an October state election. He told the Rheinischen Post newspaper that voters were linking their concerns to the issue of migration, which he called the mother of all political problems in this country. Mrs Merkel responded in an interview with Germany TV network RTL late on Thursday that she saw it differently. Migration presents us with challenges and here we have problems, but also successes, she said. Mrs Merkel added that she was working with Mr Seehofer to solve those problems. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are meeting to discuss the future of Syria as a bloody military operation looms in the last rebel-held area of the war-ravaged nation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a ceasefire and an end to air strikes in the north-western province of Idlib, something that was not immediately accepted by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Mr Putin warned that militants in Idlib planned provocations, possibly including chemical weapons. The Syrian government has been repeatedly accused of using such weapons in the long conflict. Mr Putin added that it is unacceptable to use civilians as a pretext to shield terrorists in Idlib. Expand Close Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) Mr Rouhani demanded an immediate withdrawal of American forces in the country. The US has 2,000 troops in Syria. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Mr Rouhani said, adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Each of the three nations has its own interests in the years-long war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilising areas it now holds in Syria. Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Expand Close Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) North-western Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about three million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. There are an estimated 10,000 hardcore fighters, including al Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after government troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Mr Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalising, and could hurt Moscows longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias post-war reconstruction. Expand Close Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) For Turkey, the stakes could not be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing towards its border and destabilising towns and cities in northern Syria. Early on Friday, a series of air strikes struck villages in south-west Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing one fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said suspected Russian planes carried out the attack. Angry protesters in Iraq have stormed and set fire to the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra. At least 10 protesters have died in clashes with security forces since Monday, including three who were shot dead by security forces on Thursday night. The protests in Basra and other cities, the most serious to shake Iraqs oil-rich southern Shiite heartland in years, have since July been calling for an end to endemic corruption, soaring joblessness and poor public services. Clashes erupted earlier this week, leaving several civilians and police dead. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into the violence which shows no sign of abating. Expand Close The protests are demanding better public services and jobs (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The protests are demanding better public services and jobs (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) The violence prompted the temporary head of Iraqs parliament, the eldest lawmaker, to call an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the snowballing protests. The protesters shouted anti-Iranian slogans outside the Iranian consulate on Friday evening, including Iran, out, out! before they stormed it and set a fire inside. Smoke could be seen rising from the building. Protesters also burned an Iranian flag. Many residents of the predominantly Shiite city accuse Iranian-backed political parties of interfering with Iraqi politics and some hold them responsible for mismanagement and the poor services in the city. Irans foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, condemned the attack on Irans consulate in Basra and said none of the staff have so far been hurt, Irans state TV reported on Friday. Mr Ghasemi added the attack caused significant damage to the consulate building, and he called for maximum punishment for the assailants. Elsewhere in the city, protesters tried to attack the headquarters of Assaib Ahl Al-Haq Shiite militia and the guards stationed there opened fire. Other protesters set tyres on fire on main streets and highways, ignoring the curfew imposed by the authorities. "Our policy is as you say not to publish pieces anonymously", the Post's editorial page editor Fred Hiatt told CNN, adding that he has "no comment on the current situation". House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters that "if you're not interested in helping the president, you shouldn't work for the president as far as I'm concerned". Interestingly, the statement about the op-ed came from the first lady herself. Vice President Mike Pence. "@stevenmnuchin1 is honoured to serve @POTUS & the American people". He feels it was irresponsible for @nytimes to print this anonymous piece. Trump is quoted as likening former chief of staff Reince Priebus to "a little rat", and telling his 80-year-old secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, "I don't trust you". "The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going insane - & they don't know what to do", Trump said in tweet early Thursday. "If a person is bold enough to accuse people of negative actions, they have a responsibility to publicly stand by their words and people have the right to be able to defend themselves", she said in a statement. US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Trump is engaged in a furious quest to find out who wrote The New York Times op-ed. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said it was "patently false" to claim he had written the piece. But the Republican Party risks losing momentum ahead of the Nov 6 mid-terms, in which the Democrat Party will try and seize back a majority in the House of Representatives - something which historically, and on current polling, it has a good chance of doing. He told CNN he had spoken directly with its author, but did not elaborate. Trump called Woodward's book "total fiction", and Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly have denied that they bashed the president. Reinforcing Woodward's account, a "senior official" in the administration penned an unsigned opinion piece for The New York Times, describing himself as part of a secret inside "Resistance" to Trump. She said the press should be fair, unabashed and responsible. "It was not him", said Caitlin Oakley, spokeswoman for Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. "The root of the problem is the president's amorality", wrote the official. "Secretary DeVos is not a Washington insider and does not play Washington insider games". She said the writer should resign from the administration. "Neither Secretary Wilkie nor anyone else at VA wrote the op-ed", said Curt Cashour, spokesman for Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie. Almost every Cabinet member issued a statement or told reporters that they didn't pen the op-ed. "When you give someone anonymity on this, you are putting your credibility on the line", Marcus said. "Nearly 62 million people voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2016, earning him 306 Electoral College votes - versus 232 for his opponent". Invoking national security concerns, Trump said the paper should publish the official's name, before encouraging reporters to investigate the matter. An early political lesson I learned: "never send an anonymous op-ed", tweeted Andrea Kalan, spokeswoman at the US Embassy in Moscow, quoting US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman. Anything sent out by me would have carried my name. Serbias president has refused to meet his Kosovo counterpart at European Union-backed talks, dashing hopes of an imminent improvement in long-strained relations between the two countries. Hopes of a breakthrough had been relatively high after a territory swap had been suggested as part of a package to normalise relations between Serbia and its former province. The two sides must patch up their differences to stand a chance of becoming members of the EU. However, after separate meetings on an array of issues with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said difficulties remain. There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina todaySerbian negotiator Marko Djuric Without elaborating, she said she trusts that both leaders will continue the process and reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalisation of relations, in line with international law. Behind the scenes in Brussels, there were few signs of a change in the rhetoric. Marko Djuric, a leading Serbian negotiator, said Mr Vucic refused to meet Mr Thaci because of recent threats and deceits from Kosovo. There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina today, he said. .@FedericaMog hosted @predsednikrs @avucic @HashimThaciRKS in context of #EU facilitated dialogue: Trust full commitment of both Presidents to continue work to reach legally binding agreement. Next high level dialogue to take place later this month. https://t.co/X0cx8909Kx pic.twitter.com/k7GKq9oFcy European External Action Service - EEAS (@eu_eeas) September 7, 2018 The dispute between Serbia and Kosovo dates back to 1998-99, when former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic ordered a bloody crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict before Nato forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognised as a nation by more than 100 countries, but Serbia does not recognise it, and neither do five EU countries Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Tensions remain high in northern Kosovo where many ethnic Serbs still live. Serbia and Kosovo have been told to sort out their differences if they hope to join the EU. Officials from both sides have suggested a land swap could work, but the idea has been criticised locally and internationally. Expand Close The town of Presevo is at the centre of the idea (Zenel Zhinipotoku/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The town of Presevo is at the centre of the idea (Zenel Zhinipotoku/AP) The proposal could see a part of southern Serbia centred on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Some fear any border changes might trigger similar demands elsewhere in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, which like Serbia and Kosovo, were part of the former Yugoslavia. Germany, Austria and Luxembourg have warned that any land swap could open up old wounds in the region. Other EU countries, such as Belgium and Romania, believe it is up to the two sides to sort things out. Zoran Ostojic, an analyst from Belgrade, said Mr Vucic and Mr Thaci are testing the ground, primarily with the international community by floating the swap idea. Who knows where that could end? he warned, echoing fears of a chain reaction throughout the Balkans. Ms Mogherini is due to chair further high-level talks in Brussels between the sides later this month. Donald Trump wants attorney general Jeff Sessions to investigate who was behind the anonymous op-ed (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Donald Trump has said the US Department of Justice should try to identify the writer of an anonymous New York Times opinion piece supposedly written by a senior member of his own administration. Mr Trump cited national security as he called on attorney general Jeff Sessions to open an investigation to unmask the author of the piece who claims to be part of an administration resistance movement straining to thwart the presidents most dangerous impulses. Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe its national security, Mr Trump said. If the person has a high-level security clearance, he said: I dont want him in those meetings. Though it was strongly critical of Mr Trump, no classified information appears to have been revealed by the author or leaked to the newspaper, which would be one crucial bar to clear before a leak investigation could be contemplated. But Mr Trumps call is the latest test of the independence of the Justice Department, which is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without political interference from the White House. A day earlier, Mr Trumps top lieutenants stepped forward to repudiate the op-ed in a show of loyalty to their incensed boss, who has ordered aides to unmask the writer. By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials flooded in from cabinet-level officials, including vice president Mike Pence. The NYT op-ed has 2 huge, future implications. If the author is truly senior, a cabinet secretary or top aide, its a blow to Trump (& the aide). However, if theyre a relative no one who the NYT puffed up into a senior official, its a devastating blow to journalism at the NYT Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 7, 2018 Senior officials in key national security and economic policy roles charged the articles writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against Americas interests in harsh terms that mimicked the presidents own words. In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump said the author may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time. However, there is a long list of officials who plausibly could have been the author. Many have privately shared some of the articles same concerns about Mr Trump with colleagues, friends and reporters. With such a wide circle of potential suspicion, Mr Trumps men and women felt they had no choice but to speak out. The denials and condemnations came in from far and wide: secretary of state Mike Pompeo and secretary of defence Jim Mattis denied authorship on a visit to India; interior secretary Ryan Zinke chimed in from American Samoa. Yesterdays NYT op-ed sparked a debate about whether its author should resign, but few questioned its veracity. That the author chose to remain anonymous illustrates the dilemma facing anyone working in the Trump Administration: How do you ethically serve a deeply unethical man? Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) September 7, 2018 In Washington, denials came from Mr Pences office, from energy secretary Rick Perry, ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other cabinet members. The author professed to be a member of that same inner circle. The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance working diligently from within the administration, 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. It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room, the author continued. We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do whats right even when Donald Trump wont. Embattled Philippine Sen. Antonio Trillanes talks to reporters during a news conference in the Senate building in Manila, Sept. 7, 2018. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte backed down Friday from his order instructing security forces to arrest an opposition senator whose amnesty he had revoked, saying he would abide with the rule of law by obtaining a warrant first. Dutertes decision to strip Sen. Antonio Trillanes of an amnesty, which shielded the lawmaker and former navy officer from prosecution over his past role in two military rebellions, sparked a political crisis after the presidential proclamation was made public on Tuesday. During a visit to the Middle East on Friday, Duterte met with top aides to discuss what to do about the senator, a leading critic of the presidents bloody war on drugs. After a long discussion, the president says he will abide by the rule of law, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a nationally televised news conference from Jordan. He will allow the judicial process to proceed and he will wait for the issuance of [an] appropriate warrant of arrest before Senator Trillanes is arrested. At the same time, the Defense Department and military issued separate statements saying they would respect the civilian courts. The development signaled a temporary victory for Trillanes, who had holed himself up in the Senate building in defiance of Dutertes proclamation and arrest order. The latest presidential move came a day after Trillanes filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking an injunction against the proclamation. In his proclamation, Duterte cancelled a presidential amnesty granted to Trillanes by his predecessor, Benigno Aquino, saying Trillanes had failed to submit documents required for the legal protection. Trillanes rejected those allegations and made public documents that supported his amnesty application. Earlier on Friday, Trillanes said he had met with some military officers who told him that they wanted to be apolitical. The senator declined to name names, but claimed the officers were aware they were being used as pawns in a game pitting him against Duterte. While there were no plans to break away from the chain of command, Trillanes said, the officers were conflicted by the issue even as they expressed loyalty to their constitutional mandate. Trillanes application for amnesty, which was shown to reporters, stated clearly that the senator had admitted guilt and remorse for joining in or leading mutinies. The amnesty was for two bloodless uprisings that Trillanes, now 47, had played a key role in. In 2003, he along with 300 other officers and men took over the luxurious Oakwood Hotel in Manilas Makati financial district to protest what they claimed was massive corruption in the armed forces. The rebellion ended swiftly when then-President Gloria Arroyo vowed to look into their complaints. Four years later, in 2007, Trillanes and the other officers walked out of a civilian court that was hearing their case for the earlier mutiny. They holed up at the Peninsula Hotel, but again the mutiny quickly fizzled out when the military drove a tank into the hotels lobby. On Friday, Trillanes said he had told his former colleagues in the armed forces to stay on the sidelines, arguing that it was a political move on Dutertes part. I have had engagements with some active members of the armed forces and they expressed concern about what was happening, Trillanes said. They do not want to be a part of this political exercise by Mr. Duterte. They want to be professional. They know that I am just being singled out. He declined to name the officers, or say how influential they are in the force. He said he had the support of active officers within the military, and that they would come out in public when the time is ripe. The unnamed officers also did not need to go out because they already have representatives in us, Trillanes said, adding that the officers were helping provide him with critical information. Our democratic institutions are being destroyed, by Duterte, the senator said. The one who applied extra-constitutional means was Duterte. This is against the constitution. The Supreme Court is America's highest and has the final word on many contentious matters. Kavanaugh refused to answer questions about Trump or commit to stepping aside from any case about the Russian Federation investigation that might come to the Supreme Court. Asked this week if a sitting president would be required to respond to a subpoena, Kavanaugh declined to answer. Republicans embraced the evaluation, though they have at times sharply rebuked the ABA for giving low ratings to some of President Donald Trump's other judicial nominees. Some documents have been withheld altogether. As a whole, the documents at the center of the dispute, which started before the hearing even began, are not classified but are marked with the "committee confidential" designation, meaning committee members have access to them but that they aren't available to the public. Bill Burck, the former Bush administration lawyer overseeing the production of Kavanaugh's documents, said so in an email, adding he was surprised by Booker's histrionics. Cornyn said he hoped Booker "will reconsider his decision, because no senator deserve to sit on this committee or serve in the Senate, in my view, if they decide to be a law unto themselves and willingly flout the rules of the Senate". Hirono here and the documents released by Sen. Besides an airport security check, every passenger traveling overseas must pass through customs control, which includes checking passengers' travel documents, interviewing them and searching both their belongings and person. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley jumped in on Thursday and implied Booker was grandstanding: 'Can I ask you how long you are going to say the same thing three or four times?' But, he said, "we will never give up". But Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called Booker's actions "theatrics", saying Booker had been told hours earlier that he could use the documents he wanted publicly. "We are releasing these photographs of them, from the travel documents they used to enter the country", Metropolitan Police said. Booker's announcement on Thursday, made in front of cameras and with an air of theatrics, was slammed as a stunt by Republicans who pointed out that the documents in question had already been cleared for public release. He maintains that the emails have "nothing to do with national security" and should not have been marked confidential in the first place. Any Senator of employee of the Senate who shall disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business of the committees, subcommittees and offices of the Senate, shall be liable if a Senator - to suffer expulsion from the body. "And he'll keep releasing them because Republicans are hiding Brett Kavanaugh's record from the American people".referred to the emails when he questioned Kavanaugh Wednesday. Kavanaugh was arguing for doing all that is possible to make policies and procedures "race-neutral". Others in the White House suggested racial profiling might be legally justified if it enhanced security. He also criticizes Department of Transportation affirmative action regulations. "The fundamental problem in this case is that these DOT regulations use a lot of legalisms and disguises to mask what in reality is a naked racial set-aside", he wrote. "We see on an all-too-common basis that racism still exists in the United States of America", Kavanaugh said. But, pressed by Sen. Kavanaugh signaled respect for the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion nationwide, calling it an important legal precedent that had been reaffirmed by the justices over the decades. "I have no agenda in any direction", he said. Richard Blumenthal of CT to pledge to step aside from any Supreme Court cases dealing with Trump and Mueller's investigation. Harris said late on the second day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing. I care about who's on there. The committee's ranking member, Sen. Barring unforeseen developments, Kavanaugh could join the eight other justices on the bench around the time of the October 1 start of the Supreme Court's new term. Philippine Army members board a military plane at Villamor Airbase in Manila to augment security forces on the southern island of Mindanao amid clashes with pro-Islamic State insurgents in the volatile region. Philippine security forces clashed with a band of militants linked to the extremist group Islamic State, leaving four gunmen and two civilians who were caught in the crossfire dead, the military said Friday. The clash occurred Thursday in a remote town in the southern province of Lanao del Sur between army troops and a group believed to be led by Humam Abdul Najib (alias Abu Dar), a senior militant who helped plan and carry out the takeover of Marawi city last year, regional army commander Col. Romeo Brawner said. We wish to convey our condolences to the families of civilians caught in the crossfire, Brawner said. It was very unfortunate. Rest assured your military will do everything to capture or neutralize the perpetrators of the killings of the civilians, he said, adding that soldiers recovered assorted weapons and homemade bombs after the encounter. The fighting erupted near a small village in Sultan Dumalondong, a known bailiwick of the militants and about 76 kilometers (47 miles) south of Marawi. Brawner said troops were deployed to the area on Thursday evening to follow up on reports that Najib was seen in the area. They ran into a wall of resistance, receiving heavy gunfire, he said. According to Brawner, Najibs trusted lieutenant, Mubarak Manalo, was among those killed. The military in June doubled the bounty for any information leading to the capture of Najib to six million pesos (about U.S. $113,207). Najib is believe to be among the likely successors to Isnilon Hapilon, the IS commander in the Philippines who led the siege in Marawi last year. Hapilon, along with several top leaders of another pro-IS local group, were killed in October last year, effectively ending the five-month siege that left the formerly scenic city in tatters and killed 1,200 people, most of them militants. Najib, however, had escaped from Marawi and is believed to be trying to revive the support for the IS in the south, military officials said. Apart from Abu Dar, authorities said Najib also uses several names, including Humam Abdul and Ustadz Humam, to confuse the military. His wife, Nafisa Pundug, was arrested in the southern city of General Santos in April. Born in Mindanao but studied at an Islamic school in the northern Philippines, Najib was reported to have undergone explosives training in Afghanistan in 2005, before returning to Mindanao in 2012, when he founded the militant group Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao, which operated in areas near Marawi, about 1,500 kilometers (937 miles) south of the nations capital Manila. Before the Marawi siege last year, Najib facilitated the entry of foreign fighters, including an undetermined number of extremists from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, into the southern Philippines, officials said. Jeoffrey Maitem from Cotabato City contributed to this report. Thai Police Maj. Gen. Surachet Hakpan (second from the left) and members of his investigation team visit Koh Tao Island, where a British tourist claimed she was drugged and raped three months ago, Aug. 28, 2018. Thai authorities released 12 people on bail Friday after arresting them for sharing a Facebook post about a British tourist who claimed that she was drugged and raped while on a beach holiday in southern Thailand, a lawyer said. Attorney Winyat Chatmontree said police arrested his clients this week and accused them of violating the nations Computer Crime Act by sharing false information that threatened Thailands security. The charge carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison, he said, adding that all of his clients who were arrested in several provinces were released after their relatives posted bail of 60,000 baht (U.S. $1,875) per person. To commit a crime, one must have intent. But the accused shared the posts without knowing that the information was false and they thought it was just a report by foreign entities, Winyat told BenarNews. The 19-year-old tourist, who has since returned to her home in England, claimed she was raped in June when she visited Koh Tao Island in Surat Thani province. In her Facebook post, she alleged that Thai police refused to accept her rape complaint. But police denied her allegations and said evidence they had gathered did not support her version of events. The multiple arrests and the womans rape claim threaten to revive the controversy that engulfed the nation four years ago, when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha apologized for his bikini remarks in the face of an international outcry over the brutal murders of two British holidaymakers on the same island. The murders of British tourists Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in 2014 tarnished the image of Koh Tao, a famous destination for foreign backpackers. But the prime minister provoked outrage after suggesting that beautiful girls visiting the country should not expect to be safe while wearing bikinis. They think our country is beautiful and is safe, so they can do whatever they want, they can wear bikinis and walk everywhere, Prayuth, who is also the junta chief, told top government officials during a policy address. [But] can they be safe in bikinis ... unless they are not beautiful? His remarks, which drew widespread condemnation, came just two days after the battered bodies of Miller, 24, and Witheridge, 23, were found on the southern island. I want to apologize for everything if my remark was too harsh and caused misunderstanding, Prayuth said then, explaining that he did not intend to insult or blame anyone and was just trying to warn people to be more careful when travelling. No sexual assault took place, police say During a news conference on Thursday, Maj. Gen. Surachet Hakpan, deputy chief of the tourist police bureau, said his team of investigators had determined that no sexual assault had taken place, as alleged by the 19-year-old British woman. Our initial investigation concluded that there is no evidence to prove that the incident has happened, not a drug claim or a rape claim, Surachet said, adding that his investigators were still awaiting evidence from British authorities. Other than the 12 Thais, police have also issued arrest warrants on the administrator of a Facebook page and the British editor of the Samui Times, who left Thailand in 2015, after they allegedly criticized the police for not taking the womans formal complaint, officials said. Critics say Thailands Computer Crime Act is a broadly worded law that has been used by the military junta to curb free speech. On Friday, Human Rights Watch urged Thai authorities to immediately drop what it called bogus charges against the 12 suspects. Thai police appear to be using computer-related crime charges against anyone who questions their shoddy investigation of the Koh Tao island rape case, Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Habitat for Humanity of Berkeley County and Bank of America formed a partnership to construct a new home for a local father and his two children. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the woke vs. the awakened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices In a highly unusual situation, the author was identified only as "a senior official in the Trump administration". The Trump administration was rocked by the publication of an anonymous New York Times op-ed that claimed key administration officials were secretly working against President Donald Trump. The author declares that he and his co-conspirators are being "unsung heroes" fighting on the inside to "preserve our democratic institutions". In fact, they are doing precisely the opposite. Jarrod Agen, communications director for Vice President Mike Pence, wrote in a tweet. No, he (or she) has not. They traced the Resistance! Press offices often release statements or offer background briefings and ask that the information be attributed to a senior administration official. Sabato pointed to the cumbersome nature of that process, which requires a notification to Congress explaining why the cabinet sees the president as unfit to serve, and a two-thirds vote by both chambers, to oust the president and replace him with the vice president. It is an assault on democracy. "@stevenmnuchin1 is honoured to serve @POTUS & the American people". "There are no precedents to this in USA history", James Thurber, a government professor and presidential studies expert at American University, told AFP. As striking as the essay was the long list of officials who plausibly could have been its author. Indeed, like hundreds of other reporters in Washington, the Times' news staff is trying to find out the writer's name. Donald Trump on Friday slammed investigative journalist Bob Woodward's damning portrayal of the inner workings of the U.S. president's administration as a "scam", alleging that it includes made-up quotes. John Dowd, the former White House legal counsel, allegedly told Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, that he did not want the president to testify because he would embarrass himself and the country. It would be a awful decision to withdraw from those trade agreements. Speculation over the author's identity was not limited to the White House - much of Washington was buzzing with rumours and speculation. Trump also said that the author must be "fairly low level", and suggested that he or she could be a "deep state person". As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. In our system of checks and balances, there are a number of options at the disposal of officials concerned about the president's fitness for office. They said that some parts of the presidency had been successful, such as tax reform, however they were 'despite - not because of - the president's leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective'. Current and former members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet are pictured in this Oval Office photo taken on March 13, 2017. It doesn't matter we will impeach him! Schoolmarmishly sighing about the president on Twitter is meaningless. Many conservatives have made that decision. "You may be the paper of record, but it's a broken one". Thiessen served as chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush and to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. For Immediate Release, September 7, 2018 Contacts: Clare Lakewood, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 316-8615, clakewood@biologicaldiversity.org Jeff Kuyper, Los Padres ForestWatch, (805) 617-4610 x 1, jeff@LPFW.org Trump Administration Urged Not to Reopen California Public Lands to Drilling, Fracking BAKERSFIELD, Calif. Seventy-two environmental, public-health and community groups sent a letter today to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke opposing the Trump administrations plans to reopen more than a million acres of public land and mineral estate in central California to oil drilling and fracking. Todays letter responds to the Bureau of Land Managements Aug. 8 request for comments on the harms of fracking on 400,000 acres of public land and an additional 1.2 million acres of federal mineral estate in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties. That BLM request was the first step in a process that could end a five-year-old moratorium on leasing federal public land in the state to oil companies. These beautiful California landscapes are priceless, but Trump and Zinke want to sell them off to their oil industry buddies, said Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Fracking these wild places would threaten our health, fuel the climate crisis and push endangered species like the San Joaquin kit fox to the brink of extinction. In 2015 the Center for Biological Diversity and Los Padres ForestWatch, represented by Earthjustice, successfully sued the BLM for approving a resource-management plan allowing oil and gas drilling and fracking on vast stretches of Californias public lands without adequately analyzing and disclosing frackings threats to air quality, water and wildlife. As a result of the groups legal victory, the BLM agreed to complete a new analysis of the pollution risks of fracking before deciding whether to allow drilling and fracking on public land across Californias Central Valley, the southern Sierra Nevada and in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. The BLM has not held a single lease sale in California since 2013, when a federal judge first ruled that the agency had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by issuing oil leases in Monterey County without considering frackings environmental dangers. Fracking is an extreme oil-extraction process that blasts toxic chemicals mixed with water underground to crack rocks. The public lands at stake encompass numerous groundwater systems that contribute to the annual water supply used by neighboring areas for agricultural and urban purposes, a federal judge noted in 2016. A 2015 report from the California Council on Science and Technology concluded that fracking in California happens at unusually shallow depths, dangerously close to underground drinking water supplies, with unusually high concentrations of chemicals, including substances dangerous to human health and the environment. San Luis Obispo residents, concerned about the harms fracking poses to their county, placed a voter initiative on the November election ballot. If passed, Measure G will ban fracking and new oil and gas wells in San Luis Obispo County. Residents throughout central California are concerned about the impacts of drilling and fracking near our treasured forests, wildlife refuges, national monuments, nature preserves, schools and trails, said Los Padres ForestWatch executive director Jeff Kuyper. Together were telling the Trump administration loud and clear that were not willing to pollute and industrialize these iconic landscapes. For Immediate Release, September 7, 2018 Contact: Patrick Donnelly, (702) 483-0449, pdonnelly@biologicaldiversity.org Legislative Committee Votes to Oppose Oil Drilling, Fracking in Nevada's Ruby Mountains CARSON CITY, Nev. A Nevada legislative panel today voted to oppose fossil-fuel development in the Ruby Mountains and ask Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to prevent oil and gas leasing there. The Nevada Legislative Committee on Public Lands agreed to send a letter to Perdue that recognizes the irreplaceable scenic, biological, cultural, and recreational values of the Ruby Mountains and urges the secretary to prevent the Forest Service from leasing there. The panel approved sending the letter as part of its work session. This vote shows that legislators are listening to the broad coalition of Nevadans who oppose turning our precious Ruby Mountains into an oilfield, said Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director at the Center for Biological Diversity, who proposed the measure. Our representatives agree that drilling and fracking in the Rubies would destroy what makes them so special. In the face of overwhelming opposition, the Forest Service has no choice but to deny this destructive proposal. The committees 5-4 vote comes after almost a year of public outcry over the Forest Services plan. More than 10,000 comments opposing the proposal have been submitted to the Forest Service. The Elko Daily Free Press and Reno Gazette Journal have published a stream of letters reflecting opposition from a variety of perspectives. Thirteen conservation and sportsmens groups, along with outdoor retailer Patagonia, took out a full page ad in the Elko Daily urging the Forest Service to oppose leasing in the Rubies. In addition, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) has repeatedly voiced opposition to the plan, stating in the Reno Gazette I will fight like hell to protect Nevadans right to enjoy the Rubies. And Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) tweeted that the proposal is misguided and that she will stand with those fighting to protect the #RubyMountains. This vote is a powerful message of resistance to those who want to industrialize our public lands and wreck wildlife habitat for corporate profits, Donnelly said. We commend the leadership of Assemblywoman Heidi Swank in ushering this proposal through. The Trump administration plans to lease 54,000 acres of the Ruby Mountains for oil and gas development, according to public records. Lease sales have not yet been scheduled. Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital, Bengaluru, observes National Eye Donation Fortnight by organizing a Walkathon in which 200 people pledge to donate their eyes. Even if just 1% of Indian population pledged to donate its eyes, the supply of corneas would be enough to completely cure the incidence of eye blindness in the country. Though as many as 80 lakh blind people currently live in India, less than 15,000 eyeballs, or corneas, are donated in a year in the entire nation! These startling figures were shared by eye specialists of Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital on occasion of the ongoing National Eye Donation Fortnight. Said Dr. Raghu Nagaraju Senior Consultant, Cornea & Refractive Surgery, Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital, Bengaluru: Eye donation is extremely popular even in a small country like Sri Lanka which harvests more cornea than it needs and sends the surplus to other nations. In India, however, it is a different story, with supply not able to meet even 10% of the demand. Many myths continue to persist against eye donation, such as that dead people whose eyes have been harvested will not be able to attain salvation. This is sad because at least 15 lakh people are currently waiting for corneal transplants in India, but only about 7,000 to 8,000 transplants take place every year. We need a big push to increase the number of eye donations in India. Added Dr. Amod Nayak, Regional Head, Medical Services Director, Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital, Bengaluru: Government currently gives more importance to promoting cataract surgery than corneal transplants. Even though funds are allotted for corneal blindness in Government of Indias National Programme for Control of Blindness, the utilization of funds and execution of the project are not satisfactory. Cornea harvesting from tier 2 and 3 cities in Karnataka and rural areas is very less compared to big cities like Bengaluru and Mysuru because of lack of eye bank units. To tackle the problem of blindness, all government-run district hospitals must have a corneal specialized surgeon. More ophthalmologists are needed in tier 2 and 3 cities. Additionally, infrastructure required for corneal transplantation must be created in government-run medical colleges. The main causes of blindness include cataract, refractive error, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and corneal blindness (opacity of the cornea which leads to blurring). Corneal blindness is the 4th leading cause of blindness globally. Corneal transplants are an effective solution to restore eyesight in such cases. Said Dr. Archana S- Senior Consultant, cataract, Cornea & Refractive Surgery Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital, Bengaluru: Cornea has to be collected at the right time, stored promptly and transplanted as soon as possible. The less time between harvesting the tissue and the transplant, the better the outcome. We need to increase the number of eye banks to reduce transportation duration. Even after harvesting, however, only about half of the number of donated corneas get used for transplants. The rest are used for medical research and academic purposes. Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital, Bengaluru, also organized a Walkathon to raise awareness regarding eye donation from Coles Road to Goodwill School. About 200 students from Goodwill Girls High School, Hospital staff and other members of the public participated and pledged to donate their eyes. The Walkathon was flagged off by Chief Guest Dr Sujatha, DIGP, Composite Hospital, CRPF Bengaluru along with Mr.U M Subramani, DIG, BSF. A police officer in Dallas fatally shot a man after mistakenly entering his apartment, thinking it was her own residence, police said. The officer who is a five year veteran, according to sources was going home after a 12- hour shift when she walked into the wrong apartment and shot the man inside. The officer called police dispatch for help, and the responding officers administered aid to the man at the scene He was then taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. She told responding officers that she "entered the victim's apartment believing that it was her own" and at some point "fired her weapon striking the victim", police said in the statement. The victim has been identified as 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean. "Botham Jean was a member of the PwC family in our Dallas office and we are simply heartbroken to hear of his death". Police say the officer was not injured and will be placed on administrative leave during the investigation. "I won't go into that information right now", Sgt. Warren Mitchell told reporters during a news conference. She also said the Texas Rangers will conduct an independent investigation. The officer involved in the incident was the one who reported the shooting. 'We still have a lot to do in this investigation, ' he said. Residents of the apartment complex said they can access their units with a key or through a keypad code. "It was, like, police talk: 'Open up!" Yazmine Hernandez, 20, was studying with Simpson when they heard the commotion. Investigators are still working to piece together the events leading up to the shooting that claimed the life of Jean, a St. Lucia native and employee at PricewaterhouseCoopers' risk assurance department. She called 911 afterward, police said. This Is The Story Of Two Sisters Image Source Christine was born in 1905 and Lea Papin in 1911. Both the sisters had utterly lost their temper in the most horrendous way, and as a result, this ended the lives of two people for whom they were working. The Story Heads Back To 1933 Image Source According to reports, the incident had taken place in Le Mans, France on February 2, 1933. When the sisters killed their masters, they were found naked. The Sisters Had A Disturbed Childhood Image Source These sisters had a very complicated childhood as they had an alcoholic father and had been through severe abuse. When the girls were old enough, they decided to find a home that would allow them to carry out housework and provide them with accommodation. They Got The Job Image Source In the year 1926, Rene Lancelin and his wife Leonie hired them for the job. The couple lived with one of their two daughters, Genevieve. During their stay in the mansion, the girls received a decent payment for their work, apart from the accommodation. They Developed A Strange Behaviour Image Source Over the years, it was noticed that the sisters had developed a strange behaviour of isolation. They would rarely speak with the owners of the house. As a result, they developed feelings for each other. Their bond was evident, and people even assumed that the sisters had carnal approaches. An Argument That Lead To A Chilling Murder Image Source The chilling murder took place on a winter morning in February 1933. The argument started on a bitter note as the sisters were upset with the reduction of the salary. The argument led the elder sister to hit her mistress on the head with a heavy jug. When The Daughter Tried To Save Her Mum Image Source The daughter of the owner (Genevieve) tried to save her mother. In response, Christine attacked her by removing her eyes from the eye orbit and told her sister to do the same with Madame Lancelin. They Were Not Satisfied Image Source Not satisfied with what they had done, they both went to the kitchen and extracted several tools, that included a mallet and a knife and began to cut off the inner body organs of the mother-daughter duo. They Confessed To Their Crime Image Source When the police arrived at the place a few hours after the murder, they were surprised to see the sisters lying naked together in their room. The crime scene was horrifying. They Suffered From "Folie A Deux" Image Source During the trials, both sisters were diagnosed with a medical disorder known as "folie a deux", which means madness of two. Christine was sentenced to capital punishment which later got changed to life imprisonment. On the other hand, Lea was sentenced to forced labour for ten years. 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 Military sources say the attacks are mostly aimed at preventing Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria. The official noted that they have been closely monitoring what the Israeli might do. "We were told by the army's 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. Shortly before the attack, Israel's military admitted that it had conducted raids against more than 200 Iranian and Hezbollah targets including military bases and advanced weapons shipments in Syria over the past year in an attempt to curb Iranian military entrenchment in the war-torn country. That left another 100 in the time since, according to the official Israeli accounts issued on Tuesday - roughly two attacks per week. The revelation about IDF missions in Syria came just hours after Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman stressed that the Jewish state would act to counter all Iranian threats "no matter where [they] come from". 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. Iranian forces are being kept at least 80 kilometers from Israel's border, as per a promise made to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces provide major backing for the Assad regime. Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013. Reuters reported over the weekend that Iran has been transferring missiles to Shia proxies in Iraq over the past few months and that it is building missile manufacturing facilities in Iraq and Syria. The Israeli satellite imaging company ImageSat International released satellite images of a destroyed site in Syria, south of the city of Masyaf, which seem to correspond with the location of a reported strike in Hama on Tuesday. Morocco has opted for the promotion of the manufacturing and use of generic drugs to expand health coverage from 63 pc to 90 pc by 2021 as the local pharmaceutical production enables the country to meet currently 60 of its needs. To prepare the legal grounds for this undertaking, a draft decree has already been passed to ensure access to medication to all citizens within the frame of a comprehensive strategy seeking to close the social gap and combat poverty. The decree sets the legal framework for bioequivalence in pharmaceuticals, defining the rules and conditions for conducting studies on both domestically produced and imported generic medications. Moroccan health authorities have lowered lately the prices of several medications including some used to treat common chronic diseases and pin high hopes on generic medicines to widen further medical coverage to include all citizens. Moroccos decision to encourage generic drugs by amending local legislation will attract investment to the sector. Moroccan pharmaceuticals account for 2 pc of the countrys GDP, and this is expected to grow to 2.2 pc by 2020, according to forecasts of the Moroccan Pharmaceutical Industry Association. The global generic drug market accounted for around $200 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach approximately $380 billion by 2021. Although generic drugs are bioequivalent to branded drugs, they are sold at the significant discount from branded drugs prices, making them accessible to low-income patients. But before gaining the approval from the health safety agencies, generic drugs should contain the same active ingredient as their branded counterparts; should be bioequivalent and should meet batch requirements for identity, quality, purity, and strength. they should be identical on the route of administration and dosage form and be manufactured under the same rules and regulations of manufacturing required for branded drugs. Generic drugs manufacturing companies are capable of selling generic drugs at lower prices because they are not required to repeat costly clinical trials and pay for marketing and promotion strategies. If the author believes Trump is dangerously unhinged, why provoke him unnecessarily? Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images Is there anything we know now that we didnt know, say, a month ago? Or a year ago? Or two years ago? The Bob Woodward book has some astounding details including evidence of outright insubordination by senior officials but in its essence, its just a much more reliable confirmation of the basic thrust of Michael Wolffs picture of complete chaos and near-insanity in the cockpit of the worlds most powerful nation. The New York Times anonymous op-ed falls into the same camp. From the moment very early on when we learned about the content of the deranged conversation between the president and Malcolm Turnbull, then prime minister of Australia, we knew that people in the White House had leaked it, in both an astonishing betrayal of confidence, and a clear attempt to warn the country of the unique danger this unfit president poses. Almost all the excellent reporting of the last year and a half has also been fed by constant distress signals from within the White House, where grown-ups have had to contend with a psychologically disturbed, delusional, and hugely ignorant president, who has no capacity or willingness to learn. We also know that the president is unfocused, inarticulate, prone to tantrums like a 5-year-old, incapable of reading a memo that doesnt have big pictures or graphics on it, that he insults everyone, often explosively, as his mood fits, spends hours watching cable news, tweets like a distracted animal, and has lied and lied so much fact-checkers are close to exhaustion. And we know he is incapable of admitting a lie, issuing a correction, or adjusting to reality. We know he just makes things up all the time. We know all this because we have eyes and ears. You could see he was mentally unwell from his first day in office, when he made those surreal assertions about the size of his Inaugural crowd. (We now find out he actually had the photographs doctored subsequently to fit his own reality thats how deranged he is.) This emperor has had absolutely no clothes from the very beginning. The only thing in doubt all along has been the Republican Partys complicity. And that complicity remains. If anything, it is intensifying. As Jim Fallows constantly points out, any single Republican senator Sasse, Corker, Collins, Graham, Paul, Murkowski could check this president by voting against him, on any number of issues, including the protection of Robert Muellers investigation. Instead, they are now happily supporting a Supreme Court nominee whose deference to executive power is near-total, whose partisanship is profound, and who will reliably back Trump in any constitutional crisis the Supreme Court may find itself having to resolve in the near-future. In the looming conflict between Trump and the rule of law, the GOP has already told us whose side it is on. For good measure, it is now openly preparing to acquiesce in the appointment after the midterms of a new attorney general whose primary goal will be the complete politicization of the Justice Department, as an instrument for the president to punish his enemies, real and imagined, and, more importantly, to protect his criminal friends and allies. And in this situation, Kavanaugh wont even commit on a presidents ability to pardon himself! The Times Mr. (or Ms.) Anonymous is part of that complicity, knowing full well what a nightmare this president is, and yet sticking with him for policy gains he prefers. For that, he is part of the problem rather than the solution. But, in his defense, he is in a very tough spot. The shrinking GOP base is more committed to this mad king than to any other Republican president at this point in his term. Almost every Republican senator knows that the president is profoundly unfit, a danger to the republic and the world, a madman child in charge of Crazytown and does absolutely nothing at all. If left to his own accord, our country would look somewhat like Venezuela, Senator Bob Corker said this week. It shocks me, some of the things as if you treat your friends in one way and your political enemies in another way. Most presidents understand their role is different than this one does. Hes remarkable in his lack of appreciation for democratic values and institutions. And I think thats where some of the greatest damage is being done to this country. If this is true as it manifestly is and Corker will nonetheless do nothing within his constitutional power to stop it, even though hes fricking retiring this year and has nothing to lose, what is a patriotic public servant supposed to do? If Anonymous quits, he will only empower the presidents worst anti-democratic instincts, and make way for someone else who will likely enable authoritarianism. If he stays, he is undermining the very democracy he is trying to protect, by conducting what is effectively a soft coup on behalf of the steady state and that part of the GOP that decisively lost to Trump in the primaries. Its lose-lose, and some of the condemnations of the op-eds author seem blind to what is a real dilemma. If you know the president is amoral and dictatorial, there is a real and defensible case for staying. When a president reacts to a chemical attack in Syria by ordering the assassination of Assad and screaming Lets fucking kill him! Lets go in! Lets kill the fucking lot of them! you can see why a patriot may want to restrain him from the inside, as Mattis reportedly did. Unfortunately, there is no case for publicizing any of this anonymously in the New York Times. Far from helping his cause, Anonymous has undermined it. Worse, he has triggered this president which was completely predictable into exactly the kind of unhinged behavior Anonymous is so worried about. Maybe the op-ed was designed to buttress Woodwards portrayal of a dangerous two-track administration. Maybe it was a way of salving his own conscience in the wake of McCains death. Maybe it was a misbegotten attempt to calm those of us horrified by what Trump is doing to the office and liberal democracy. But as a political act, it was indeed gutless as well as pointless. Woodwards Mattis quotes particularly the defense secretarys assessment of Trumps intelligence as that of a fifth- or sixth-grader will likely mean the end of Mattis as a stabilizing force in foreign and military policy. If Sessions and Kelly are also purged after the midterms, as seems likely, it will mean the last vestiges of adulthood will disappear from the administration, just as it nears its constitutional moment of truth in the inevitable showdown with the special counsel. It will also doubtless intensify the presidents paranoia and willingness to violate more democratic norms. And indeed Trumps response has been deranged. TREASON? he tweeted. And: If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once! In his public comments on the matter, he went delusional again: The poll numbers are through the roof! More fatally, it will embolden Trump to ignore advice from those with experience in government, overrule his Cabinet members, and increase his already perilous reliance on his gut instincts, which bear a striking resemblance to Vladimir Putins. Sometimes I think its useful to think of this presidency as a hostage-taking situation. We have a president holding liberal democracy hostage, empowered by a cult following. The goal is to get through this without killing any hostages, i.e., without irreparable breaches in our democratic system. Come at him too directly and you might provoke the very thing you are trying to avoid. Somehow, we have to get the nut job to put the gun down and let the hostages go, without giving in to any of his demands. From the moment Trump took office, we were in this emergency. All that we now know, in a way we didnt, say, a year ago, is that the chances of a successful resolution are close to zero. Pope Franciss Unacceptable Silence There was something quite poignant about Pope Franciss release of some white doves in the Vatican four years ago. Its a familiar ritual symbolizing peace and hope rooted in the Bibles account of Noahs Ark. (A dove appeared bringing an olive branch to Noah in the flood, a sign that the inundation was receding.) Almost immediately, the doves were attacked by a giant seagull and a hooded crow, and they were chased violently from Saint Peters Square, feathers flying. The giant, mutant seagulls, the New York Times informed us this week, now rule the roost in Rome. If you think of Franciss papacy as those white doves, its a pretty good analogy to the reactionaries seeking, from the very beginning, to destroy it. I have to say Ive been a little shocked by the viciousness of the onslaught. (If you want to get a flavor of the bigotry, check out this Rod Dreher post and the responses of his commenters below.) Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganos open letter, accusing Francis of knowingly bringing sex abuser and child rapist Cardinal McCarrick back into the limelight from which Benedict XVI had banished him, was a doozy. It portrayed Francis as an abetter of a lavender mafia at the Vatican and the upper echelons of the church, allied with sinful clerics in a willful attack on the Churchs teachings on sexuality. Its factual basis is, however, somewhat strained. The key charge the one that leads Vigano to demand Franciss resignation is that McCarricks crimes and sins were well known in the Vatican long before the recent revelations, and that because of this, Benedict XVI had canonically sanctioned McCarrick, and ordered him to stay out of the public eye. Francis, in contrast, in order to advance his liberal agenda, reversed this sanction, despite knowing of McCarricks abuse, and made liberal McCarrick a close adviser. The trouble with this story is that the public record contradicts it. Commonweals editors lay out the facts: Journalists uncovered ample evidence that from 2009 or 2010, when Vigano claims such sanctions were imposed (he cannot remember the exact year), until Benedicts resignation in 2013, McCarrick continued to maintain a robust public profile that included television appearances, trips to an array of countries, and participation in ordinations. He was photographed being greeted warmly by Benedict at the Vatican. At a 2012 gala dinner honoring McCarrick, Vigano himself lauded the former cardinal as being loved by us all. As even Viganos allies concede, there were no formal sanctions of McCarrick by Benedict, and the only actual measure that punished McCarrick was Franciss recent order that stripped him of his position as cardinal and told him to spend the rest of his days in silence, penance, and prayer. Still, Vigano does have a broader point. He insists that he had warned the last three popes of McCarricks abuse of seminarians, and they did next to nothing. He says he specifically told Francis of a thick dossier on McCarricks abuse in 2013 and yet Francis elevated McCarrick into his circle of advisers. Its perfectly clear that Vigano and his allies are profoundly homophobic, as are so many of his supporters. But its also true that homophobes can sometimes be telling the truth. And Franciss response has been, well, pathetic, if not outrageous. He refused to dignify the accusations with any rebuttal on his flight back from Ireland. In a homily since, he has spoken of the virtues of silence: With people lacking goodwill, with people who only seek scandal, who seek only division, who seek only destruction, even within the family: silence, prayer. To put it mildly, this is not a denial of the very serious charges made by a papal nuncio who had every reason to know what was going on. Vigano may have an ax to grind he was fired as nuncio by Francis, after all but that doesnt disprove his more general point about the Vaticans knowledge of sexual abuse by one of its cardinals and its refusal to remove him from his position. I began with high hopes for Francis on the question of rooting out sexual abuse in the church. They are much lower now. His initial response to horrific accusations of sex abuse in Chile was to accuse the victims of being liars. Only later did he apologize for this callous response and acknowledge the abuse. Now he refuses to rebut the charge that he tolerated McCarricks abuse, despite knowing about it. Now its possible that Francis had heard rumors of McCarricks seminary shenanigans, but never knew of the child abuse, and attributed the rumors to clerical infighting or the homophobia of McCarricks enemies. He may have been prepared to live with McCarricks homosexuality, and misunderstood the nature of the case. But if thats what happened, he should tell us. Equally, if Vigano has actual evidence, proof, documentation of his charges, he should also provide them. Whats intolerable is the blatant dismissal of credible claims of corruption. I dont think Francis should resign if he did know about McCarrick. But I do think, given what we now know about the extent of Catholicisms sex abuse crisis, that if he did know, he should confess to ignoring it, apologize (as he did in the Chile case), and pledge a real purge of abusers and their enablers in the church hierarchy. Personally, I suspect the corruption around sexual abuse and the clericalism that empowers it is profound. It implicates Benedict XVI and John Paul II as well. It suggests that the stain of abuse with its countless victims was facilitated and enabled by the papacy itself. And if Francis believes that is something lay Catholics are prepared to just keep silent about, hes very much mistaken. The Joy and Hope in Indias Gay-Rights Ruling To read Indias media on the decriminalization of gay sex in that country this week is to re-experience a revolution. For 158 years barring a four-year period in which the law was temporarily overturned Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which imported a colonial Victorian ban on sodomy, had loomed over India. It had even been upheld by the Supreme Court as recently as 2013. And then, in one ruling on Wednesday, nearly a fifth of all the gay people in the world were liberated from being deemed criminals by the state. The impact took many of them by surprise. Section 377, we told ourselves, was outdated anyway. It had not prevented us from living, loving and marching, one activist wrote. Gay life is stubborn. It exists despite a Section 377. I was over the angst. I was done with the coming out stories. But when the news finally came, I felt a lump in my throat. I am what I am said the judge. This simple truth is something profound, something so many of us have struggled with all our lives, trying desperately to be what we are not, to fit into boxes that we were never meant to inhabit. There was dancing in the streets. The ruling was expected after the way the hearings had gone and after the government had said it wouldnt oppose decriminalization. What wasnt expected was the scale and rhetoric of the decision. We thought the Chief Justice would write a narrow verdict with a couple of other judges concurring, and the remaining two, who we knew were likely to be supportive, writing much more expansive judgements that would send nice signals, but that was it, an Indian activist emailed me. Instead the Chief Justice has written a very strong judgment, striking down the earlier Supreme Court verdict that re-criminalised homosexuality and essentially restoring the wonderful Naz verdict of 2009 that had first struck the sodomy ban down (and given us rights beyond that). One justice concurred with him and the remaining three wrote verdicts that highlighted other aspects of the harm caused by 377. One judge said there should be police sensitization courses. Another said that LGBT people and their families deserve an apology from history. And a third wrote strongly about the need for dissent and alternative views a hardly very coded signal to a government that doesnt seem to want to hear dissent. And indeed when you read the judges comments, theyre quite something. Heres how they begin: Not for nothing, the great German thinker, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had said, I am what I am, so take me as I am. And similarly, Arthur Schopenhauer had pronounced No one can escape from their individuality The emphasis on the unique being of an individual is the salt of his/her life. Denial of self-expression is inviting death. In that last sentiment, you could almost feel the impact of the countless suicides of the past, including the joint suicide of two lesbian women this past June in Gujarat, with the note: We have left this world to live with each other. The world did not allow us to stay together. Now, perhaps it will, for others. There are now 73 countries in the world that criminalize homosexuality, along with a few non-countries, like Gaza, and the recently diminished Islamic State. The Indian precedent matters because in 35 of these countries, especially in Africa, its the same British colonial law that still governs gay sex. For a country as big as India to take this step means others might follow, and repudiate the Victorian legacy. And it says something about the resilience of liberalism in this illiberal age that a court in a still-developing country cited John Stuart Mill as one of its inspirations. Yes, its not all grim out there, is it? See you next Friday. The only thing he finds disheartening is people questioning Trumps dedication to judicial independence. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Derrick Watson, one of the federal judges who ruled against President Trumps executive order imposing an entry ban on Muslim nationals, began receiving death threats and had to be given round-the-clock protection in the wake of his rulings. The chief instigator was president himself, whose habit of berating judges who dont rule as hed like has created the equivalent of a hostile work environment for them yet another collateral consequence of the toxicity emanating from Washington. But dont bother Brett Kavanaugh with any of this. As the Supreme Court nominee faced his second and third rounds of questions on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he declined, even as he professed judicial independence, to stand up for his brothers and sisters in the federal judiciary. Among them was U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge who presided over legal challenges to the presidents fraudulent Trump University, and was once the target of racist rhetoric from Trump. When asked by Connecticuts Richard Blumenthal if he condemns questioning a judges impartiality on the basis of his or her ethnicity, as Trump did with Curiel during the presidential campaign, Kavanaugh chose to dodge and save face rather than display judicial courage. The way we stand up is by deciding cases and controversies without fear or favor, he replied. On this score, Kavanaugh is a notch below the last addition to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, who drew Trumps ire when it came to light that he told Blumenthal privately that he found the presidents attacks on the courts disheartening and demoralizing. The White House reportedly had to scramble to convince Trump to not pull Gorsuchs nomination. That slip of the tongue did not happen with Kavanaugh, who held steadfast to his view that commenting on a federal judiciary under siege is somehow commenting about politics. We stay out of politics, we dont comment on comments made by politicians, he told Hawaiis Mazie Hirono, who had suggested that Kavanaugh was bending over backwards to not bite the hand that gave him the nomination. For all his credentials and judicial record, which hes repeatedly defended as worthy of a Supreme Court seat, Kavanaugh hasnt done a good job explaining his sycophancy toward Trump. Near the close of Thursdays 12-hour session, Dick Durbin of Illinois tried to understand the provenance of Kavanaughs introductory remarks to the American public on the day of his prime-time unveiling. Throughout this process, Ive witnessed firsthand your appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary, Kavanaugh said of Trump on the day of his nomination, all but kissing the ring of his benefactor. What did you witness about this presidents appreciation for the vital role of the judiciary? asked Durbin, clearly in disbelief that Trump even knows the meaning of respect for the courts. Kavanaughs answer can be distilled to this: I met with him a few times and couldnt wait to get the nod. I witnessed his discussion with me in my interview. His discussion with me the night he announced me at the White House. His discussion on that Sunday night when I went to the White House, [and] he and Mrs. Trump met with me, Kavanaugh said. Thats it. A few courtesy meetings was all the evidence Kavanaugh took into account when he concluded the president is a paragon of justice. But Kavanaughs obsequiousness doesnt end there. During the same prime-time address, Kavanaughs groveling bordered on untruth the size of Sean Spicers inauguration crowds: No president has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people from more backgrounds to seek input about a Supreme Court nomination. What? Blumenthal seemed taken by this outlandish statement, and so he asked the judge for the factual basis for those talking points. Kavanaugh said they were entirely his: Those were my words. Then he added that he knows a lot about the process, past presidencies, and the mind of Bill Clinton, who at one point also made his own consultations on his Supreme Court nominees. The answer made little sense. I did look into it the best I could, thinking about the technological developments. I did think about very carefully. [Trump] talked to an enormous amount of people, based on my understanding of those 12 days, Kavanaugh said, referring to the period between Justice Anthony Kennedys retirement announcement and the nomination. At Wednesdays session, Kamala Harris had already harped on this point, asking the nominee straight up if somebody had told him to parrot those exaggerations about Trump. Kavanaugh insisted it was all him. It is possible that Kavanaughs own partisan conception of presidential authority is what is driving much of this outward subservience toward Trump. In his infamous memorandum to Kenneth Starr and his team suggesting a slew of sexually explicit questions for Clinton, Kavanaugh was adamant that the president had to be held to account for bringing disrepute to the presidency. The President has has disgraced his Office, the legal system, and the American people by having sex with a 22-year-old intern and turning her life into shambles, Kavanaugh wrote in 1998, days before Clinton was set to testify. During Thursdays session, that abiding commitment to the integrity of the White House occupant was nowhere to be found. When Cory Booker of New Jersey asked Kavanaugh if he still believes that character matters for the president of the United States, the judge didnt have a straight answer. I need to stay so far away from any political controversy, Kavanaugh said. Can you say if you have great respect for Donald Trump? Booker followed up. Again, no real answer. Wheres the Brett Kavanaugh who demanded vindication for the presidents worst sins? One can forgive the nominee for refusing to commit, as he has, to voting to enforce a subpoena or invalidate a presidential self-pardon, each a reasonable, unresolved controversy that may reach the Supreme Court in this most unreasonable of times. But refusing to stand on principle or for your fellow judges those on the receiving end of endless complaints and recriminations, and all thanks to the head of a coequal branch of government is not exactly a model of judicial courage. This failure to rise to the occasion tells you more about Kavanaughs self-interest in not seeing his nomination pulled out of spite a risk Gorsuch endured but survived than about his self-ascribed independence, either as a judge or from the president hes worked so hard to impress. President Obama speaking to students at the University of Illinois. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images Republicans, and many naive journalists, liked to attribute the hysterical right-wing backlash against Barack Obama to a sudden upsurge in fiscal conservatism. All these terrified tea party activists, and the Republican leaders warning of profound social transformation, were really just concerned about the budget deficit. From this profound analytical error has followed a second one: that Donald Trump represents a sudden departure from the Republican Partys character. After all, if you think Republicans were mainly reacting to excessive debt rather than engaging in a racialized backlash, then the emergence of Trump as the partys standard-bearer after four years of putatively serious fiscal conservatism is a sharp change. The most interesting argument in Obamas speech in Illinois today was that both these conclusions are wrong. It did not start with Donald Trump, said the former president. He is a symptom, not the cause. He is just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years. To be sure, Trump is an extreme and unusual manifestation of the Republican Partys extremism. If Jeb Bush currently occupied the White House, the president would not be publicly ordering his attorney general to rough up the opposing party or equivocating about the merits of Nazis. Still, as Obama pointed out, it is this Congress that has systematically attacked voting rights to make it harder for young people and minorities and the poor to vote, and which embraced wild conspiracy theories, like those surrounding Benghazi, or my birth certificate, rejected science, rejected facts on things like climate change, embraced a rising absolutism, from a willingness to default on Americas debt by not paying our bills, to a refusal to even meet, much less consider, a qualified nominee for the Supreme Court. Trumps demagoguery, anti-intellectualism, paranoia, and willingness to flout democratic norms all spring from fertile soil watered by decades of right-wing extremism. The Republican Partys refusal to compromise with Obama on health care, climate, deficit reduction, and so on was not because Obama treated them too arrogantly or refused to address the deficit seriously. As Obama noted, the supposed fiscal conservatism that Republicans cited as the reason they couldnt compromise disappeared overnight when they took power: This is supposed to be the party of fiscal conservatism. Suddenly, deficits dont matter, even though just two years ago, when the deficit was lower, they said, I couldnt help working families or seniors because it was, the deficit was, in existential crisis. In reality, as he noted, it was fundamentally an expression of social revanchism. As he told the young audience of students, even though your generation is the most diverse in history, with a greater acceptance and celebration of our differences than ever before, those are the kinds of conditions that are ripe for exploitation by politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into Americas dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division. Much of the debate about the meaning of Trump has revolved around the meaning of normal. When most Republican elites who are skeptical of Trump use the word normal, they have in mind the policy agenda supported by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Obamas point is that this, while less abnormal than Trumps deranged-emperor routine, is not normal, either. Its not conservative. It sure isnt normal. Its radical, said Obama. Again, he didnt say this about a description of Trumps peculiar ravings. He said it immediately after a description of the Republican Partys party-wide agenda of making voting more difficult for marginalized constituencies, rejecting science, or encouraging the Benghazi-birtherism mania that flourished under his watch. Obamas speech castigated Trump as the product of a party that long ago went mad. Family and friends of Americans who overdosed on OxyContin protest at Purdue Pharmas in Stamford, Connecticut. Photo: Jessica Hill/AP/REX/Shutterstock In recent years, Americas pharmaceutical industry has taken it on the chin. Populist demagogues have savaged drug companies for jacking up the price of life-saving substances like insulin (a.k.a. honoring their fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value). These boisterous neo-Bolsheviks will point to the fact that pharmaceuticals are several times more expensive in the U.S. than in other countries, and conclude that our governments exceptionally strong patent laws and aberrant refusal to push down drug prices through direct negotiation are meant to enrich Big Pharma at the working Americans expense. But such cretinous critiques ignore a simple fact: In exchange for paying exceptionally high drug prices, Americans enjoy exceptionally high rates of pharmaceutical innovation. And when we give entrepreneurs the incentive to patent new medicines by holding out the promise of windfall profits our whole society benefits. To see the beneficent effects of encouraging free enterprise in the pharmaceutical trade, consider the career of Dr. Richard Sackler. In the 1990s, few drug companies saw growth opportunities in the opioid space. Sure, centuries of evidence suggested that the substances had viral appeal but for that very reason, low-cost generic versions of the painkiller were already widely available. Whats more, conventional wisdom held that such medicines came with a high risk of abuse and addiction. But where others saw a dead end, Sackler spotted an opening. As a high-level executive at his familys firm, Purdue Pharma, Sackler helped imagineer a revolution in prescription analgesics. Like most revolutions, his began with a powerful idea: What if opioid painkillers were only addictive because they took effect instantly which is to say, what if one could safely treat chronic pain with a patentable, extended-release opioid drug? If Sackler lived in a country that did less to encourage pharmaceutical innovation, his familys idea might have remained nothing more than a hypothetical. After all, Purdue failed to convince the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that their signature opioid OxyContin came with little risk of abuse. Instead, the FDA merely signed off on the companys claim that the drugs extended-release formula was believed to reduce (as opposed to eliminate) its appeal to addicts, who presumably favored a more immediate high. But Sackler didnt let the skeptics hold him back. He moved fast and broke things (specifically, the law). Recognizing the time-honored truth that its easier to ask for forgiveness (once youre rich enough to buy off the legal system) than get permission, Purdue launched a massive advertising campaign centered on the claim that OxyContin posed little-to-no risk of abuse or addiction. On Sacklers watch, the firm organized conferences with doctors, where it implored Americas medical community to overcome its opiophobia and give chronic-pain sufferers the relief they deserved. From the beginning, there were setbacks. As early as 1997, Purdue was confronted with the prospect that its signature product would fail. Academic researchers found that OxyContin was actually more popular among opioid addicts than other pain pills while some pharmacies refused to stock it for fear of being robbed by junkies. These developments appeared to stem from a fatal flaw in Sacklers thinking: Making a long-duration painkiller meant concentrating more narcotic into each individual pill and since opioid addicts do not typically use pills as directed, but rather, crush them up for snorting or injecting, OxyContins patented formula actually made it a more appealing street drug than any of its rivals. Nevertheless, Purdue persevered. The incentives fostered by the American patent system inspired Sackler & Co. to keep calm and carry on. And the rest is history. Purdue ultimately paid a $635 million fine for misbranding its opioids, but made more than $35 billion in revenue from selling them. Thus, Sackler created immense value for his shareholders while providing the American people with a product they value so greatly, demand for it has remained robust, even as opioids began killing upwards of 40,000 Americans a year. To appreciate how much consumers appreciate Purdues work (as measured by their revealed preferences), consider this: To keep up with demand, drug companies shipped a whopping 21 million opioid painkillers to the 2,900-person town of Williamson, West Virginia, between 2006 and 2016! After success like this, you might think that Richard Sackler would be content to rest on his laurels (and/or retire to spend more time with his defense attorneys). But the opioid billionaire isnt done disrupting just yet. While Sackler was proud of all the good OxyContin had done, he recognized that the product isnt for everyone. Which is to say: He realized that the opioid craze (or, as the haters call it, epidemic) hed helped start had birthed a booming market for addiction treatment. So, after creating billions of dollars in value by selling patented opioids, hes poised to make millions selling an innovative form of buprenorphine, a mild opiate that reduces cravings for harder opioids like OxyContin. As the Financial Times reports: Last year, the leading version of buprenorphine, which is sold under the brand name Suboxone, generated $877m in US sales for Indivior, the British pharmaceuticals group that makes it. Dr Sacklers patent, which was granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office in January, acknowledges the existence of the opioid crisis The patent describes a new, improved form of buprenorphine that would come in a wafer that disintegrated more quickly than existing versions perhaps in just a few seconds. Drug addicts sometimes still try to divert these sublingual buprenorphine tablets by removing them from the mouth, the patent application stated. There remains a need for other abuse-resistant dosage forms. Can you believe that some people consider conscious capitalism a contradiction in terms? A man shot during a 2016 altercation told court on Thursday he thought he had simply bumped himself on the back of a truck while diving for cover until his knees buckled and he realized he was bleeding. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/9/2018 (1154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us A man shot during a 2016 altercation told court on Thursday he thought he had simply bumped himself on the back of a truck while diving for cover until his knees buckled and he realized he was bleeding. "When I pulled my hand out, I saw blood on my hand," Darren Henry testified in Brandon Court of Queens Bench. "I said, Im hit." Henry walked the court through his recollection of the sequence of events on Sept. 24, 2016 the day he was shot after his friend, Thomas (Tommy) Leonard Hunter, got in a fight with Tsolaye Joseph Okorodudu outside C.R.E.A.M. Clothing on 10th Street. Okorodudu, 26, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and intentionally discharging a firearm, reckless to the life or safety of another individual. Hunter pleaded guilty to attempted murder for his role in the altercation and was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year. A publication ban in place pending Okorodudus trial limited details as to what exactly he admitted to doing that day. Henry testified he went with Hunter to C.R.E.A.M. Clothing, adding Hunter was "really angry" at the man whose wife owned the store. When they got to the store, Hunter confronted the man about "putting a hit on him" and threatened to "knock him around." "(Hunter) did say something about shooting up (the mans) place before, and said something along the lines of doing it again," Henry said. "He was looking at him really, really angry or whatever. We left that place and I thought that was the end of it." Henry and Hunter grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant, Henry said, where Hunter met up with a group of men who lent him a car. Henry said that Hunter asked him to drive him home, but requested Henry make a stop on 10th Street first. After parking the car across the street from C.R.E.A.M. Clothing, Henry said that Hunter jumped out while he remained in the vehicle. Hunter was talking with someone outside the store, Henry said, when all of a sudden he saw Hunter grappling with Okorodudu. "I jumped out of the car I was trying to tell Tommy, Lets go, but he kept fighting with this guy," Henry said. Hunter started backing up and grabbing for his leg, Henry said, as if he was trying to pull out a gun. "I remember thinking, This guy brought that frickin thing," Henry said, adding later that Hunter had shown him two guns earlier that day but thought he had left them at home. "The accused here (Okorodudu) was saying, Theres no need for guns, theres no need for guns." At that point, a man from a truck that was parked on the other side of the road shot a gun in the air, Henry said, at which point he started running back to the car. The man then threw a gun to Okorodudu, Henry said, who seemed to accidentally shoot a bullet onto the ground as he was fumbling to grab it. Henry said he believed he heard two more shots, one of which struck him on the left side of his back near his rib cage. Two girls who were with Hunter and Henry dropped him off at the emergency room, he said, where he required surgery to remove the bullet. Crown attorney Kaley Tschetter asked Henry if he ever saw Hunter with a gun, to which he responded that hed only seen him gesturing as if he was going to pull out a gun. However, defence lawyer Gerri Wiebe challenged Henrys claim in cross-examination after showing Henry a surveillance video taken from in front of C.R.E.A.M. Clothing, where Hunter can be seen carrying a gun. "Tommy Hunter can be seen walking across the street toward the store holding a gun in his hand," Wiebe said. "Hes got a gun and hes trying to load it." "I didnt see no gun (at the time) I couldnt see it from where I was sitting and I didnt see him take out a gun in the car," Henry said. Wiebe also pointed out that Henry can be seen in the video closer to the altercation than he had originally implied. "Youre standing right there and he pulled a gun out right in front of you," Wiebe said, gesturing to the video paused on a projector screen. "I didnt see it," Henry replied. As Wiebe pointed out in the surveillance video, Henry can be seen falling in line with Hunter as he advanced on the other party, at which point Henry became emotional, insisting he was only trying to get Hunter to leave. "I wasnt advancing against them I would never do that," Henry said, sobbing into his hands. "I didnt know he was going to do that. I didnt know he was going to do that s---. I would never do that to a person." Wiebe asked Henry if he had a gun that day, to which he responded that he did not. Okorodudu also took the stand, during which he described feeling "traumatized" and shaken by the incident he stumbled into. On the day in question, Okorodudu said he visited C.R.E.A.M. clothing as he usually did. He added that he had a good relationship with the owner of the store and her husband and would often go in for a visit and to check out the sale rack. Okorodudu said that he noticed the atmosphere was unusual that day, and that the owner told him "a thug" had come by and threatened them. The owner left the store briefly and came back in saying "Tommys out there and hes got a gun," Okorodudu said. "I didnt really know Tommy she looked so scared; she was terrified," Okorodudu said. "My first instinct was to help." Okorodudu said he went outside and saw Hunter attacking the store owners husband while menacingly holding a gun in his pocket, so he yelled at them to get them to stop. "At first he was shocked; he didnt expect any interference He pointed the gun at me and I kept screaming, trying to be more authoritative I was scared and he saw that fear in my eyes," Okorodudu said. "He was hellbent on shooting me, he was trying to load one in the chamber He pistol-whipped me, slapped me in the face and said, Im going to kill you, you f------ n-----." After trying to slap the gun out of Hunters hand, Okorodudu said he eventually lifted up his hands and was shuffling to get out of the line of fire when a weapon fell to the ground from either Hunter or Henry. "Miraculously, there was a weapon on the floor as it dropped it blasted off and everyone scurried off, so I picked it up," Okorodudu said. In assessing the situation, Okorodudu said he saw Hunter take aim at him from behind one of the vehicles and fire the gun. "I was aiming high I just wanted the sound to scare them away," Okorodudu said. "My intention was to drive away the wolves; drive away the vultures." After firing two shots, Okorodudu said he ran away through a back lane, accidentally firing the gun again and almost shooting himself in the foot. He ditched the gun in a dumpster and went to a nearby church. "I needed to be somewhere safe I was cold, I was shaking. This was scary it was terrible," Okorodudu said. "I was feeling really traumatized, I was feeling really sad Ive never fired a gun in my life." Crown attorney Grant Hughes asked Okorodudu if he was aiming in the direction of the group of people across the street, to which he said he was not. "I was shooting in the direction of Tommy Hunter," Okorodudu said, adding that he did so because Hunter was aiming at him. "Im kind of surprised that Mr. Henry got (shot) because I never took any aim at him." Hughes also questioned Okorodudu as to why he would ditch the gun after testifying that he wanted to leave the gun somewhere police would be able to find it later. "Why wouldnt you just give police the gun?" Hughes asked. "I was thinking I wouldnt want the police to find me, a black person, with a weapon in my hand. Theyd shoot me on site," Okorodudu said. "You didnt tell them right off the bat You said you told them right away," Hughes said, describing how police told Okorodudu they wanted to get the gun off the street and Okorodudu did not volunteer information as to its location. "I just went through a life-threatening ordeal I was traumatized," Okorodudu said. "I provided accurate information .. the very first time they spoke to me There was no attempt for me to hide the location of the weapon." When asked if he pulled the trigger on purpose, Okorodudu said he did. "Of course I pulled the trigger on purpose. I had someone pointing a gun at me," Okorodudu said. "There was never a time when I pointed the gun at Mr. Henry and shot at him." The Crown and defence will present their closing arguments today. edebooy@brandonsun.com Twitter: @erindebooy Solid plan, glad I thought of it. Photo: The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images In the wake of an anonymous senior White House official claiming in a New York Times op-ed that theyre part of an anti-Trump resistance within the administration, the president has reportedly been fretting over the lack of convincing pushback from top staffers, and has taken to grousing about whether his new communications director Bill Shine is doing enough to shape public perception. Meanwhile, theres more to add to the mounds of evidence that Trumps staff doesnt listen to him, and it has nothing to do with the op-ed or Bob Woodwards forthcoming book. Five months after Trump said the U.S. would be leaving Syria very soon, and two months after he and Russias Vladimir Putin suggested they could be partners in handling the situation in Syria, U.S. officials said the military effort there is being extended indefinitely, due partly to concerns about Russia. Back in March, President Trump seemed to announce a new Syria policy without notifying anyone else in government. Were coming out of Syria, like, very soon, he said. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon very soon were coming out. When top officials pushed back, saying they needed time to ensure that ISIS wouldnt reemerge in the region, Trump reportedly relented, saying they could have five or six months to wrap up the mission. Sources said he cautioned that he didnt want to hear in October that the military hadnt been able to fully defeat ISIS and needed to stay. Trump shifted his public tone on Syria within a matter of weeks, as the U.S. and its allies launched missile strikes against Syria in April over a chemical attack against civilians in the city of Duoma. Yet the goal remained to have the roughly 2,200 U.S. troops in Syria exiting sometime this fall. On Thursday James Jeffrey, a retired senior Foreign Service officer who was recently named Secretary of State Mike Pompeos representative for Syria engagement, told reporters theres been a change of plans. The new policy is were no longer pulling out by the end of the year, he said. As the Washington Post explains, the Trump administration has adopted a broader mission that could keep troops in Syria indefinitely: Although the military campaign against the Islamic State has been nearly completed, the administration has redefined its goals to include the exit of all Iranian military and proxy forces from Syria, and establishment of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community. Part of the motivation for this change is uncertainty about whether Russia is willing or able to help get Iran which along with Russia is Syrian President Bashar al-Assads closest ally out of the country. Jeffrey said there will be a major diplomatic initiative to stabilize conditions in Syria in the coming weeks, but he would not describe the military mission, other than to say that they must ensure an enduring defeat of ISIS. That means we are not in a hurry, he said. As for Trumps take on the reversal, Jeffrey said, I am confident the president is on board with this. While its hard to be sure of the depth of Trumps engagement on Syria policy considering his quick reversals in recent months, he was part of an effort by U.S. officials this week to warn the Syrian regime and its allies not to use chemical weapons or target civilians as they prepare for an assault on Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold. Russian warplane were already bombing the region, which holds about 70,000 opposition fighters and 2 million Syrian civilians, in recent days. If its a slaughter, the world is going to get very, very angry. And the United States is going to get very angry, too, Trump said Wednesday. Russia, which has been building up forces in the region, said its only targeting al-Qaeda fighters, and accused the U.S. of preparing to fake a chemical attack to justify new intervention. Jeffrey said the U.S. is taking a tougher stance and will not tolerate an all-out attack on the region. Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation he said. You add to that, if you use chemical weapons, or create refugee flows or attack innocent civilians, and the consequences of that are that we will shift our positions and use all of our tools to make it clear that well have to find ways to achieve our goals that are less reliant on the goodwill of the Russians. Its unclear if Trump approves of such tough talk about the Russians, or if it matters. By Padraig Hoare Russian firm, Rusal, which owns Aughinish Alumina in Limerick, will be avoided by customers when the industry meets in Berlin next week to seal 2019 metal-supply agreements, industry sources predict. Rusal is majority-owned by En+, a company controlled by Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, who was targeted by the US for sanctions, because of his purported ties to the Kremlin. A total of 450 staff and 220 contractors are employed at Aughinish Alumina, which has been described as one of Limericks best employers. The jobs have been under a cloud as Rusal struggles with the sanctions. The US Treasury has extended the deadline to investors to divest interests in Rusal to October 23. Mr Deripaska has been told he must relinquish control of his stake. The Berlin event is known as the mating season and takes place alongside a conference run by industry publication, Metal Bulletin. Negotiations typically agree quantities and premiums paid above the London Metal Exchange, benchmark aluminium price. We cant agree a deal with Rusal, on the basis that sanctions will be lifted by October 23, a Rusal customer in Europe said. Anyone that has a relationship with Rusal will be preparing for the sanctions to remain in place for now. - Additional reporting Reuters By Eamon Quinn Spending and tax watchdog, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) has told Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to stick to his summer plan for a 800m budget package next month, or else raise taxes to fund any additional spending projects. Assessing that the 800m in additional spending as set out by the Government in its summer statement will keep Ireland within its EU spending limits, Ifac chairman Seamus Coffey said any further spending plans would need to be funded, as the finance minister did last year by raising tax revenue from other areas in his budget day measures. They did it last year with stamp duty increases and corporation tax increases on intangible assets, Mr Coffey said. Overall, the budget is worth around 3.5bn but an awful lot of that has been accounted for in public sector pay, capital spending, and for the increase in population. In its pre-budget report, as by tradition, the watchdog does not specify budget changes it might favour, such as the local property tax. But its latest assessment is hard-hitting in warning the risks are mounting of the economy overheating. Ifac has weighed in with Central Bank governor Philip Lane, who has advised the Government to pay down the countrys large debt burden by running annual budget surpluses at a faster pace. Any unexpected increases in tax revenues or lower interest costs that arise this year or in 2019 should not be used to fund budgetary measures beyond those currently planned, Ifac said, citing the many risks facing the economy. Those risks include Brexit, rising protectionism, and the international tax environment. It is inevitable that adverse shocks will occur in coming years, it says. Mr Coffey said the Governments plan to put aside money into a so-called rainy day fund were still ill-defined. Mr Donohoe has pledged to inject 500m into the fund next year. Predicting continued economic growth, Ifac said the Government should inject any further bounties from corporation tax receipts to increase contributions to the rainy day fund or to pay down debt at a faster rate. Tom Carper has been in statewide office since 1976. Looks like hell have another six years. Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images As the 2018 primary season nears its end, the dueling narratives on the Democratic side of the barricades have been the Year of the Woman and the Year of the Young Diverse Progressive Insurgency. The Senate challenger in Delaware, Kerri Evelyn Harris, showed the potential to reinforce both. Shes a gay, biracial 38-year-old Air Force veteran and community organizer, who is personally and ideologically close to 2018s preeminent Democratic giant-killer, New Yorks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Harris, moreover, had a rationale for his primary campaign that transcended the Sandernista staples of Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage: her incumbent opponent, 71-year-old Tom Carper, is not only the epitome of the career politician (he has served continuously in a series of statewide offices dating back to 1976), but has for decades embraced the Clintonian centrist, New Democrat brand that is currently in wide disrepute in party activist circles. Indeed, Carper has drawn particular fire from progressive activists for his support over the years for the financial services interests that play a large role in Delawares economy, as the Intercept acerbically noted: [B]anks reflect a significant chunk of the economy and dominate campaign contributions [in Delaware]. Carper has faced no serious opposition from within his party over the years. Its just been the way business is done in Delaware. But Kerri Evelyn Harris, Carpers opponent in the September 6 Democratic primary, is trying something different, highlighting victims of predatory banking practices, which even in Delaware outnumber those who benefit. A Harris victory would signal an end to the home-cooking bank lobbyists have received from Delaware politicians since the 1980s. Many political analysts smelled an upset in Delaware, with Carper following Joe Crowley of New York and Michael Capuano of Massachusetts as old-school pols who hung around too long and wore out their welcome with Democratic voters who wanted fresh, diverse faces in the fight against Trump. And despite the states reputation for bipartisanship and moderation, there was a recent precedent for strange things happening in Delaware primaries: the 2010 defeat of Rep. Mike Castle by right-wing political neophyte Christine ODonnell in a GOP Senate contest. Castle was very much the Republican counterpart to Carper: a proud centrist, he had been in statewide office since 1980, and the two men actually pulled off a job-switching gambit in 1992 when Carper succeeded Castle as governor while Castle took over Carpers U.S. House seat. But those who looked at Carper as the north end of a southbound political dinosaur didnt fully account for Delawares particular brand of small-state retail politics, where the incumbent had met a significant share of the electorate in years of work in the state, or in daily commutes from Delaware to DC. He also had an overwhelming financial advantage over Harris from the get-go. His sometimes quirky personality (he used to begin talks in DC by discussing the overwhelming ratio of chickens to people in Delaware) probably helped him overcome the stereotype of a long-serving ally to the very rich. In any event, Carper beat Harris by nearly a two-to-one margin, interrupting the march of the narratives. The incumbents campaign went to great lengths to deny they were going to be submerged by some national wave, as CNN reported: Carper and his supporters had been quick to underline the differences between him and Crowley, a Queens Democrat with a home in Virginia who Ocasio-Cortez cuttingly alluded to in her viral campaign ad as someone who doesnt send his kids to our schools, doesnt drink our water or breathe our air. They had also gently, but consistently over the last couple of days, sought to portray the Harris campaign as a front for out-of-state progressives. My gut tells me that they believe that Kerri is the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and they believe that Im somehow the next Joe Crowley, Carper said in an interview at a Labor Day picnic in Wilmington. They think that Delaware is New York City. And I think theyre mistaken on all three counts. And he was right on all three counts. Carpers now almost sure to win a fourth Senate term. Harris is certainly young enough to win future races if she wants, particularly in a place like Delaware where familiarity does not seem to breed contempt. But for the moment she will not join her friend Ocasio-Cortez as one of the faces of 2018s big trends. Ryanair have confirmed that it is to restore six Dublin-based aircraft which were due to transfer to Poland in November for the winter 2018 schedule. It means the protective notice which was served on 300 Irish-based pilots and cabin crew has also been withdrawn. Donald Trump's sexist attitude must be raised when he visits Ireland former Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald has said. The US president has confirmed that he will travel to Ireland in November where he is expected to pay a visit to his Doonbeg resort as well as meeting the Taoiseach and president. Speaking at the Fine Gael think-in in Galway where the party this morning discussed the challenges around the promotion and inclusion of women, Ms Fitzgerald said there is "no reason" why tough issues should not be raised with President Trump. "I do believe that sexist attitudes wherever they exist, whether it's in those who occupy positions such as president or prime minister or anything else they have to be challenged wherever we see them. "And clearly we have heard sexist attitudes and comments from the President." But she added that politicians much respect the office of the president. "We can make our point of view very clear on the issues that are of concern to people in relation to his presidency, I see no reason for us to do that," she said. Ms Fitzgerald who resigned as Justice Minister last November over the whistleblower email scandal remained tight-lipped on whether she would like to return to ministerial office. "I have no comment on that at this stage, I am involved in politics and I will continue to be involved in politics." Meanwhile, the Tanaiste Simon Coveney has said US president Donald Trumps visit to the country will cause controversy. Simon Coveney said the Irish Government was a little taken by surprise when Mr Trump made the announcement he was going to visit Ireland in November. The US leader is expected to visit the country after he attends the Armistice Day commemoration in Paris. Mr Coveney said: It will be controversial because everything Donald Trump does these days is controversial. Mr Trumps announcement caught ministers by surprise (AP) We dont agree with Donald Trump in terms of his approach to climate change, we dont agree with his approach on migration, we dont agree with his approach in terms of international trade and the imposition of tariffs, he said. Mr Coveney also said he did not agree with former premier Enda Kennys description of Mr Trump as a racist. I dont say hes a racist, but as Ive said before I disagree with many of the policies that he advocates, Mr Coveney said. Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary partys think-in event in Co Galway on Friday, the deputy premier said the negotiations on the UKs withdrawal from the EU had intensified in recent weeks. Mr Coveney welcomed more business-like dealings over the effect of Brexit (Simon Coveney/PA) He means it. Mr Coveney said he was more confident about the negotiations than he was prior to the summer break. The engagement is now much more serious, much more business-like, Mr Coveney said. Both sides I think are determined to deliver an outcome, because no agreement and a potential for a no-deal Brexit is an outcome where everybody loses in particular the UK and Ireland, but the EU as well. Nobody wants that outcome. He added: With some more flexibility on all sides I think a deal can be done, hopefully by the end of October. - Additional reporting by Press Association President Bill Clinton said today that inclusive tribalism, as witnessed in Northern Ireland and in other parts of the world, is key to creating a greater global peace. The 42nd US President was speaking to a packed hall at Dublin Castle for Concern Worldwides 50th anniversary conference, Resurgence of Humanity: Breaking the Cycle of Conflict, Hunger and Human Suffering. President Clinton, who said he had witnessed Concerns work in Haiti and on the African continent, said: The Irish peace process and the work of Concern is rooted in both our common humanity and our notion of what I would call inclusive tribalism. We are all tribal. Our common humanity is the most important thing. In an interdependent world, we have to decide which is more important, our differences or our common humanity. We must expand the definition of us and shrink the definition of them. When you think about Concern, its basically Ireland at its best, even though it is increasingly global Its about inclusive tribalism, inclusive economics, inclusive social policy, inclusive politics. Average people who feel stuck in their own lives dont have enough space left to be generous to others. Its not a good time. There is literally no final defeats or victory. This is a demon you have to battle your whole life. President Clinton praised Ireland for its overseas humanitarian work and the multicultural diversity of its capital, Dublin. He said: Ireland is the only country in the world that every single day since the United Nations was formed after World War Two, has had a citizen in some country trying to help people who needed help because they were poor or repressed because of conflict. No other country in the world can say that. There is something in your DNA that makes you feel connected to the rest of the world. You go down a street in Dublin and its so diverse that you may as well be in a street in Manhattan. And yet you dont feel anything like the sense of uncertainty you see in some parts of America or some places [in the UK] where they voted for Brexit. In the end, like the songs you sing and the things you live should not be defined by the colour of your skin, the creed you worship or anything else. Concluding the conference, Concerns Chief Executive, Dominic MacSorley, thanked all attendees and said: In order to see real change there must be a fundamental shift of thought and action. Twenty million people facing starvation is not fake news, it is an obscenity, especially because it doesnt have to be the way. We have the knowledge, the technology and the early warning systems to prevent it happening. When the status quo is wrong, it is always right to be radical. I dont just mean our voice. Denunciation is easy, but radical in our way of thinking, our ambition and our action. "If we are to see an end to hunger we must challenge the inevitability of violence, and deliver on the promises to those most in need of a safer, fairer world. He added that Ireland was in a prime position to mobilise action for a much-needed international resurge of humanity: One that prioritises diplomacy over militarisation, the hard graft of negotiation over dropping bombs. Mr Clinton went on to urge politicians in Northern Ireland to take a breath and keep working towards restoring the devolved powersharing Assembly. The former US president also said that the ongoing negotiations around Brexit were hampering the restoration of Stormont, as politicians do not know what the terms of the withdrawal agreement will be. .@BillClinton emphasises the importance of shared humanity & the value of diversity in reaching peace #Resurge2018 #Concern50 pic.twitter.com/bMl0VZ0ZIO Concern Worldwide (@Concern) September 7, 2018 Northern Ireland has been without a Government for 20 months following a row over a failed green energy scheme. There have been a number of failed negotiations between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists, however fresh talks are due within weeks. Addressing the audience at Dublin Castle on Friday, Mr Clinton said: If you were a Northern Irish politician you probably wouldnt want to go into Government either if you didnt know the details of Brexit and how it will affect Northern Ireland or how it will affect the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic, because how would you know what the terms of the agreement would be. There are still cranes up in Belfast and nobody wants to go back to the bad old days, so I think everybody should take a deep breath, and keep working. Bill Clinton with businessman Denis OBrien (second left) after speaking at the conference (Brian Lawless/PA) If people are smart enough to realise that you didnt have to have a document that would solve every problem, that would permit some solutions to emerge. The most important thing to me is that the Irish peace process and the work of Concern is rooted in both our common humanity and our notion of what I call inclusive tribalism. Mr Clinton first visited Northern Ireland in 1995, when he switched on the Christmas tree lights at Belfast City Hall, a little over a year after the paramilitary ceasefires, and when the peace process was still in its fledgling stages. He added that Brexit has created uncertainty on the island of Ireland and how it will impact on the ongoing process of peace and reconciliation. Therefore it is a good time to be reminded of first principles and I think the example of the GFA is as good a place to start as any, he added. He said that what made the peace process work in Northern Ireland was people willing to compromise, as well as the persistence of ordinary people and the courage of local leadership. For me, the understanding of what the world should become starts with the Good Friday Accord and ends with the movie, the Black Panther. The Good Friday Accord worked first because it came from the bottom people desperately wanted peace and the citizens werent just expressing their wants, they were doing things. I still dont think the womens groups involved in the Northern Ireland peace process have got the credit they deserve. Speaking about the legacy of Concern, he described it as Ireland at its best. Its about inclusive tribalism, inclusive economics, inclusive social policy and personal empowerment. You cant expect a pat on the back every day, you have to do it because its right, because you know its right and understand what you are dealing with. Mr Clinton was presented with a Dublin Gaelic football jersey by footballer Michael Darragh Macauley following their All-Ireland win on Sunday. Details about Concern Worldwides 50th Anniversary Conference, Resurgence of Humanity: Breaking the Cycle of Conflict, Hunger and Human Suffering, are available here Since its foundation in 1968, Concern has gone on to work in over 50 countries, responding to major emergencies as well as implementing long term development programmes. Today, with more than 3,900 staff of 50 nationalities, Concern operates in 26 of the worlds poorest countries, helping people to achieve major and long-lasting improvements in their lives. - Digital Desk & Press Association EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has reiterated there will be no cherrypicking for Britain over Brexit, but that he is optimistic a withdrawal agreement can be negotiated. Speaking as he arrived at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Wexford, the Irish commissioner conceded though that it was not easy for British prime minister Theresa May amid internal pressures in the Tory party. Mr Hogan today will give a key speech at the summer school, discussing Brexit, US president Donald Trump and other issues. Arriving, he said the proposed backstop agreement, guaranteeing no hard border in the North, was still the EU's position. The Agriculture Commissioner said there were other issues still not resolved, including citizens rights, movement of people and the single market. He added: There will be no cherrypicking. There would be intense negotiations in the coming weeks and there was talk of a second summit, aside from the October one planned for leaders. He conceded it was not easy for British prime minister Theresa May to keep all factions content in the Tory party. I think it is unthinkable for the UK not to have a deal, therefore you have to optimistic. It's common sense eventually that will prevail. Mr Hogan also said that Ireland respected the office of the United States president, irrespective of who held that role. That would be the position regarding Donald Trump's visit to Ireland in November, he told reporters: Ireland has a very strong relationship with the United States of America. Irrespective of who is president, there is 40 million people in the US who call themselves Irish. We respect the office of president and of course the EU and the president of the United States had a very difficult discussions on trade matters over the last year. President Michael D Higgins has warned that new arms race by permanent members of UN Security Council will fuel current and future wars. In a speech at Concern Worldwides 50th-anniversary conference at Dublin Castle today, President Higgins spoke of the role of UN members in the new arms race, where the arms industry now exports weapons of death and destruction for use in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen. The self-defeating rhetoric of the arms race, and the immorality of the arms trade, only serve to fuel current and future wars, he said. The conflict in Yemen is actively sustained by the sale of arms and by the support of some members of the Security Council. "It is a stark example of the triumph of the diplomacy of transaction, and of narrow national interest, over the diplomacy of the common good embodied by the Charter of the United Nations. The United Nations needs global support." President Higgins acknowledged the role of Irish humanitarian agency Concern Worldwide in tackling the fallout of such action. Through fifty years of action and advocacy, Concern has stood for a different vision of the world, one in which power yields to justice, one which recognises that we are all part of a common humanity, owing to ourselves and to others, not only of compassion, but of solidarity. He said the reduction of famines in recent times is testament to the success of United Nations agencies such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF, now under severe threat through underfunding, working in partnership with humanitarian organisations such as Concern. Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed, also addressed the conference this morning when she urged countries to commit to the overseas aid commitment of 0.7% of gross national income. "Without rapid and sustained investment, pockets of stability will disappear and conflict will continue to spread." "We must find ways to steer greater private and public investments towards these countries and areas where the risks and needs are greatest and we have to do that rapidly," she said. President Bill Clinton is due to make his keynote speech about peacebuilding this afternoon. The conference, Resurgence of Humanity: Breaking the Cycle of Conflict, Hunger and Human Suffering, has brought together key policymakers and humanitarian practitioners to identify concrete actions that are needed to address conflict, hunger and human suffering. - Digital Desk Revenue officers seized almost 700 litres of wine in two separate operations at Rosslare Europort today. Officers seized more than 600 litres of wine when they stopped and searched a car that had got off a ferry from Roscoff in France. An Irish man in his 60s was questioned. In a second operation, officers seized 90 litres of wine when they stopped and searched another car that had disembarked from the same ferry. A man in his 50s was questioned. The seizures have a total retail value of around 10,000 and a potential loss to the Exchequer of almost 5,000. Investigations in relation to both seizures are ongoing. - Digital Desk Presidential hopefuls struggling to win county council support are set to be thrown a contest lifeline after 17 Independent TDs and senators said they will nominate an agreed candidate - and six said they may follow suit in the coming days. The figures were revealed tonight by unaligned Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice, who has called for Independent Oireachtas members to join together to nominate a candidate in order to ensure the Aras race is not limited to mainstream options. Amid concern last month the presidential contest could be limited to a small number of established candidates, Mr Fitzmaurice called for Independent TDs and senators to explain if they want to nominate a non-party choice by Friday at 5pm. In order to do so, at least 20 of the 23 Independent TDs and 14 Independent senators would have to give their support to a candidate. And, while the 20-person figure has yet to be reached, Mr Fitzmaurice said 17 Oireachtas members have formally told him they will back an agreed candidate, with two more saying they will do so if there is more support and four saying they will reply next week after returning from their holidays. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said this means there is a strong likelihood Independent members of the Oireachtas will be able to nominate a candidate for the presidential race - opening up the contest further for previously unlikely contenders. Should three more Independent TDs and senators lend their support in the coming days, Mr Fitzmaurice said he will organise a meeting with all interested presidential candidates within a fortnight so that politicians can hear their pitches. During this meeting, TDs and senators will be asked to vote using the proportional representation system for their favoured candidate, at which point an agreed contender is likely to emerge. The backdoor into the presidential race is likely to interest businessmen Sean Gallagher and Gavin Duffy who are competing for council support, as well as Independent senator Joan Freeman, who until recently has been focussing on local authorities. However, it will also be seen as an unexpected opportunity for journalist Gemma O'Doherty, artist Kevin Sharkey and others who are currently trying to convince councillors to back their rival Aras bids. The support of Independent TDs and senators could be a crucial, and until recently, unexpected lifeline for the less favoured candidates to enter the presidential race, in part because of Independent senator Padraig O Ceidigh's decision this week not to contest the presidency. Interest from Independents in the race has increased recently due to Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail's official decision to back Michael D Higgins' presidential re-election bid, and Sinn Fein's decision to run its own candidate, there is the risk that potential contenders could be blocked from entering the contest. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has denied he is seeking to shift blame for the housing crisis to local authorities. Speaking on RTE Radio this morning, Mr Varadkar made it clear that some councils are not acting fast enough to deal with the crisis, despite having the policy and the resources to do so. He also insisted that there is no quick fix to the crisis. We never said we could fix this overnight, the construction industry was destroyed and there is no quick fix to housing crisis, he told Morning Ireland anchor Rachael English. "We have not succeeded yet. To accept failure is to give up. We are not giving up," he said. When pressed that local authorities built only 780 homes last year, Mr Varadkar accepted not enough is being done but said his criticism of them was not an attempt to spin away our responsibility on housing crisis in central government. Mr Varadkar was however swiftly criticised by Dublin-based councillors. Labour Fingal Councillor, Duncan Smith said Mr Varadkar's attacks on councils was utterly disingenuous. Utterly disingenuous and deflecting attack by @campaignforleo on Local Authorities. Yes, delivery of housing is nowhere near quick enough BUT the Govt have not resourced LAs with enough resources and expertise. Desperate stuff from Taoiseach, he said on Twitter. Mr Varadkar also gave a cautious response to a proposal from Central Bank Governor Philip Lane for a new SSIA scheme. He said he would prefer to see a scheme which would be related to pensions as the previous SSIA scheme merely only saw a flood of money into the economy at the worst possible time a decade ago. He said his preference would be to see a saving scheme linked to the government's auto enrollment pension scheme. Mr Varadkar also revealed that US President Donald Trump simply told him he intends to come to Ireland in November. He told us when he was coming, we didn't agree a date, he said adding that he still doesn't know the exact date as to when Mr Trump will come. However, he did stress that Mr Trump had a standing invitation from him as Taoiseach to come to Ireland. Mr Varadkar also said he welcomed the decision of the High Court to agree to appoint investigators to Independent News and Media, saying a government organisation, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforement (ODCE), felt something was amiss. Fr Peter McVerry His comments follow claims that half a million people in Ireland either have no home or are seriously distressed about their housing situation according to anti-homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry. That has to be a matter of concern for our Government, said Fr McVerry when he joined trade unionists, housing advocates, community and campaign leaders to call for a radical shift in housing policy. He reckoned there were tens of thousands of people, particularly families, living in overcrowded accommodation because they did not want to be included on the homeless register. There were three-bedroomed houses with four generations of one family living there. Adults who had now reached their 40s were living with their parents because they could not afford to move out. Fr McVerry said there was an unknown number of people living in appalling quality private accommodation who feared they would be thrown out if they complained. People were struggling to pay their rent and worried sick that it would increase to a level they could no longer afford while those with hefty mortgages were too afraid to talk to their lenders. I would guesstimate at a very conservative level that there are half a million people who either have no home or whose housing is causing them serious distress, he said. There were 43,000 mortgages in arrears of more than two years and in the short or medium term many of the houses were going to be repossessed and the occupants evicted. If even a fraction of those people become homeless this country will not be able to cope. We will end up with families living on the streets, he said. We have a crisis today that I believe could get much, much worse and the Government have their head in the sand. They dont have a policy that is actually working. Irish Congress of Trade Unions president Sheila Nunan said three-quarters of young workers had little or no confidence in being able to buy a home in the future should they wish to. That is an inter-generational inequity that none of us can live with, said Ms Nunan, when she launched the Raise the Roof initiative in Dublin yesterday. Ms Nunan said ICTU had organised a special rally on Wednesday, October 3 outside Leinster House to support an opposition party motion due to be debated in the Dail on the same day. She said the motion supported by Sinn Fein, People before Profit, the Labour Party, Solidarity, the Social Democrats, Green Party and Independents4Chang reflected ICTUs Charter for Housing Rights. Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin said about 40 TDs had worked on the cross-party motion that calls on the Government to declare a housing emergency, substantially increase investment in social and affordable housing, and establish a legal right to housing. ICTU general secretary Patricia King said Congress had contacted every TD and senator about their Charter but some did not want to engage with them. There are people in the Oireachtas who thought it was quite acceptable not to speak to a very large representative group about the housing crisis, she said. Additional reporting by Evelyn Ring and Digital Desk The four Moroccans who were at the centre of a major search of Cork Harbour earlier this week are withdrawing their applications for asylum. They are to be held in the training unit at Dublin's Mountjoy prison while arrangements are made to send them home. Is that a cigar? asked Elon Musk shortly before accepting a blunt from Joe Rogan while appearing on his podcast. Photo: YouTube Elon Musk decided to go on Joe Rogans podcast, where he checked out Joe Rogans swords, talked about his plans for an electric plane, and smoked weed on camera after being offered it by Rogan. Rogans podcast, filmed in Rogans garage, is insanely popular, and Rogan is well known for his enthusiasm for drugs, particularly psychedelics. The majority of the podcast is an exercise in watching Rogans jock bro vibe bounce off Musks giggly dweebishness, the two coming off like a pair of mismatched college roommates. Musk talked about his belief that the only way to beat AI is to join it by melding the human mind with computers, admired Rogans samurai sword, and emotionally described using fossil fuels a crazy experiment where we take trillions of tons of carbon from underground and put it in the atmosphere and oceans. About an hour into the podcast, Musk describes his idea for a supersonic VTOL electric plane, which he says hes only previously discussed with friends and girlfriends. The plane, which Musk says is purely a backburner project for now, would use a need a lot of energy to get airborne, but not much once at cruising altitude, and then be able to use gravity to descend back down. However, the electric airplane isnt necessary right now, said Musk. Electric cars are important, solar energy is important, stationary storage of energy is important. These things are much more important than creating electric supersonic VTOL. About an hour later, Rogan lights up a blunt and offers a hit to Musk, who accepts. And it must be said: Musk smoking weed is pretty funny. Is that a joint or is that a cigar? asks Musk earnestly as Rogan lights up the blunt, which causes Rogan to laugh. You probably cant [smoke] because of stockholders, right? says Rogan, which seems to be enough to goad Musk into taking a hit. Musk then pulls the classic nerd trick of not inhaling, instead just holding the weed smoke in his mouth briefly and puffing out with his lips. Another classic Musk Meme Moment! Elon Musk smoking a blunt for the first time on Joe Rogan's podcast is Internet gold pic.twitter.com/nx8zQ7HlyB gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 7, 2018 Were hardly ones to tsk-tsk someone for engaging in entirely legal behavior (recreational pot use is legal in California), but Musks appearance came just three weeks after Musk told the New York Times he was working 120 hours a week (or more than 17 hours a day). Yet Musk still took time to travel to Joe Rogans garage in Bell Canyon and chat for two-and-half hours. Doing Rogans podcast was probably good for the intense cult of personality around Musk; one imagines the Venn diagram of Elon Musk fans and Joe Rogan fans is overlaps pretty well. But his appearance likely didnt do much to boost investor or shareholder confidence in a CEO seen as increasingly erratic, or do much to help out Tesla, a company that will likely need to find new ways to raise money to continue to survive as it continues to struggle to produce enough cars to meet demand. Some others seemed to realize this. Shortly after accepting the blunt from Rogan, Musk glanced at his phone. Im getting text messages from friends saying, What the hell are you doing smoking weed? Eamon Dunphy has reiterated his call for Roy Keane to be removed as Republic of Ireland assistant manager after last night's 4-1 hammering against Wales. Although the pundit believes it'd be unfair to say Martin O'Neill should go, he says Keane casts a "shadow" over the Ireland team. Harry Arter and Jon Walters were involved in an altercation with Keane during the last international break. Arter has since made himself unavailable for a call-up. Dunphy labelled Keane a "celebrity assistant'' and ''prize joker" earlier this week, and he repeated his call for Keane's removal on The Tonight Show. "We are being damaged by Roy Keane as assistant manager," Dunphy said. "Virtually every time we play, he's in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Sometimes it's a row, this time it's the Harry Arter row, which has cost us a Premier League player, a young player, a good player. "I think it probably isn't right to keep Roy Keane as assistant to Martin O'Neill. "It would be unfair to say O'Neill should on the basis of a defeat to Wales with four or five players missing. "But I think the Keane shadow that comes with him for every international week is bad. "It's bad for the players, it's allegedly cost us a player in Harry Arter and it may have influenced Declan Rice, who I'm told, by a very good source, witnessed the altercation." Dunphy was the ghostwriter for Keane's first autobiography in 2002, but has since fallen out with the Corkman. Good for preparing late-night snacks or apple pies. Photo: Courtesy TriStar Pictures If youve ever made apple pie, tarte tatin, apple crisp really, any recipe that calls for a pound or more of fresh, peeled apples you know how tedious peeling and coring fruit can be. Its a task only made more challenging when you dont have the right tools, specifically a good, sharp apple peeler. To find the best way to peel an apple, I spoke with six New York Citybased bakers and pastry chefs known for their apple pies and other fruit-forward desserts about the tools they use to peel apples, both in their shops and at home. Here are five of their favorite apple peelers and techniques to make your fall baking a little easier. Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Translucent Peeler (3-Pack) $12 The standard peelers in most professional kitchens are the Kuhn Rikon Swiss peelers; as chef Jordan Andino told us back in 2016, a Kuhn peeler was one of the must-have kitchen tools he needed while working at the French Laundry. And though theyre real multitaskers in the kitchen, theyre especially good for apples. These peelers are inexpensive as little as $3 each when you buy in packs and theyre readily available at most restaurant supply stores. That doesnt mean theyre low-quality, though. They are easy to use, clean, and replaceable when the blade wears down, says Nina Brondmo, owner of Bakeri in Williamsburg. Because theyre so cheap, you can just toss the peeler when its dull and start with a new one. Theyre also fast, says Neil Kleinberg, chef and partner at Clinton Street Baking Company, and make quick work of apples, which is important in a restaurant where youre dealing with bushels of fruit at once, or at home when you want to get through peeling as fast as possible without slicing yourself. $12 at Amazon Buy $12 at Amazon Buy OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler $11 For home use, Kleinberg prefers the classic OXO peeler with black rubber handle. Its sharp and comfortable, and lasts a long time, he explains. Unlike the Swiss peeler, which you pull toward you in order to get the skin off the fruit, this swivel-head one can be used by pushing the blade away from you, making it a slightly safer option for those intimidated by sharp objects or worried about nicking fingers. It is a little slower going, though. $11 at Amazon Buy $11 at Amazon Buy Johnny Apple Peeler by VICTORIO VKP1010, Cast Iron, Suction Base $27 The next type of apple peeler are the stand-alone machines, like the Johnny Apple Peeler, which are surprisingly inexpensive when you consider how sturdy they are. At Bubbys, where we make so many apple pies, the thing lasts a couple years. So it will probably last the average person two generations, which is always nice, the restaurants chef and owner Ron Silver explains. But just because its a big hunk of metal doesnt mean its hard to use. With one turn of the handle, it can core, slice, and peel, though Silver mostly uses the peeling and coring functions and then hand-cuts chunks for pies. The Little Pie Companys owner and creator Arnold Wilkerson recommends a similarly styled machine called the Peel Away (which is now discontinued), also made of cast iron with a suction cup on the bottom to prevent it from slipping and sliding. For him, the benefit of this kind of dedicated apple corer and peeler is how fast it works. With the little Peel Away device, we were able to peel and core a full case in about 30 minutes, he said in an email. It takes about five pounds of apples for the homemade apple pie, with the Peel Away machine that task can be completed in less than ten minutes. $27 at Amazon Buy $27 at Amazon Buy VonShef 3 in 1 Black Aluminium Rotating Apple Peeler If youre looking for something even cheaper than the Johnny Apple Peeler, but with the same functionality, Paige McMahon, pastry chef at Meyers Bageri in Grand Centrals Great Northern Food Hall, recommends this one from VonShef. This peeler takes all the tedious work out of pies, so you can turn your attention to getting your crusts just right, she says. Most importantly, if you take care of this peeler, it will take care of you. Clean it well, and there is very little other maintenance needed. However, she warns, Make sure the suction cup on the bottom is well-locked or your peeler and apples are going flying. Buy at Amazon Buy Buy at Amazon Buy For the folks who are really trying to maximize their speed, pastry chef Dominique Ansel has created a wild device to do just that, by connecting one of these old-school hand-crank peelers to a standard power drill. It will work with any hand-crank peeler and standard power drill, says Ansel. You attach the drill head to the front of the peeler, and when you start drilling, the peeler will start turning and peeling your apple. Theres no name for this jury-rigged device, its just something he thought could help his team peel apples faster for Dominique Ansel Kitchens annual (and already sold-out) Pie Night, where they serve unlimited slices of ten different types of pies. 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. Flat retail sales and looming competition from Amazon are not denting the appetite of wealthy investors for Melbourne's suburban shops, which are selling on record low yields. A frenzy of recent deals has seen investors pour millions into retail outlets in the city's tightly held shopping streets, often paying a premium above the reserve price and pushing yields to historic 2 per cent lows. Melbourne businessman and property investor Trevor Spencer has added another premium shopfront to his growing portfolio, snaring a single-level Albert Park store leased to booming cosmetics brand Mecca Cosmetica. A final $3,855,000 bid at a well-attended auction saw 125 Dundas Place change hands on a sharp 2.7 per cent yield. Knight Frank's head of retail, Paul Pellegrino, said the shop was sold by a family who had held it for more than 50 years and once ran it as a Polkinghorne butcher store. New York has lost its crown as home to the most ultra-rich people, beaten out by the rising tide of extreme wealth in Asia. Hong Kong surpassed the Big Apple as the city with the highest population of people worth at least $US30 million ($42 million), according to a new report. The former British colony saw its number of ultra-wealthy increase 31 percent last year, to about 10,000, research firm Wealth-X found, higher than the nearly 9,000-strong population of the US's largest city. Tokyo came third, while Paris beat out London to take the European crown as Brexit weighed down the UK capital. Hong Kong is the ultra rich capital of the world. Credit:Shutterstock The number of ultra-rich worldwide rose 13 per cent last year, according to Wealth-X, totaling about 256,000 people with a combined assets of $US31.5 trillion. Asia saw the fastest growth, driven by mainland China and Hong Kong, the study's authors wrote. Reflecting the region's rise, its share of the global population of people with at least $US30 million rose to just over one-fourth, up from around 18 per cent a decade ago. "Asia-Pacific is forecast to close the ultra-wealth gap with other regions over the next five years, but is expected to remain behind Europe, the Middle East and Africa in absolute terms," the report's authors wrote. The number of ultra-wealthy in Asia-Pacific is expected to rise at a compound rate of 8.3 percent a year, they said. "Its a hellscape," said one of the workers, who spoke directly to Fairfax Media but declined to be identified for fear of losing their current jobs or damaging future work opportunities with labour hire firms. The inside of Amazon's fulfillment centre in Dandenong South. "Ive never worked anywhere as harsh, and its frustrating because the head of Amazon is the richest man on the planet." The relationship between workers bargaining power, casualisation and Australias stubbornly low wages growth is a hot topic in policy circles. Labour hire is commonly used in the warehousing industry, but National Union of Workers national secretary Tim Kennedy says it is "unprecedented" for the arrangement to make up 100 per cent of a workplace, which workers say is effectively the case at Amazons facility in Dandenong South, with only a handful of senior managers employed as staff. Ive never worked anywhere as harsh, and its frustrating because the head of Amazon is the richest man on the planet. Amazon worker Amazon started operating out of a second, larger, facility in Sydney's Moorebank last month, where it is understood workers are engaged on the same terms. "Amazon is introducing a very concerning employment practice to Australia," Mr Kennedy said. The NUW says that casual workers at Amazons Melbourne warehouse got a starting pay rate of $25.36 an hour (before weekend or other penalties), which could increase once they had worked for several months. That compares with casual rates of between $30 and $37 an hour at nearby warehouses where workers have been able to negotiate collective agreements, the union says. The minimum casual rate under the Road Transport and Distribution Award is $25.05 an hour. 'Success! Quality!' Workers - or "associates", as Amazon calls them - have described a cult-like corporate culture at the warehouse, where each day begins with group stretching exercises and workers having to share an "Amazon success story". Managers then lead a team chant, such as "Quality!", "Success!", "Amazon!", or "Prime!", sometimes while jumping in the air. Warehouse pickers are issued with handheld electronic scanners that direct them to different aisles of the warehouse to collect products, and load them onto carts to be dispatched to customers. An Amazon worker at its Melbourne fulfillment centre with one of the handheld scanners. As soon as one item is scanned, a solid bar on the bottom of the screen immediately starts to count down, showing how much time they have to reach their next item, which could be anywhere in the 24,000-square-metre warehouse. If an item is not scanned within the required time, the workers "pick rate" is marked down. At the centre in Dandenong South, pick rates are handed out to workers once or twice a day, and those falling below benchmark targets have to explain to their managers why. "You always have KPIs [key performance indicators] but the line on that gun, Ive never had that before," said one experienced warehouse worker. "You end up not being able to function because youre so nervous and stressed out." Workers told Fairfax Media they thought Amazon used casual employment and demanding KPIs to push workers productivity to the limits. Another said workers who did not meet performance targets would leave for the day and then be sent a text message telling them their next shift had been cancelled. "You notice people just disappear if they dont reach their pick rates," a worker said. "You just have one bad day and youre gone. Everyone works hard anyway but sometimes you have a bad day, and you could lose your job for that." An employee enters Amazon's Melbourne warehouse on the day its local website went live. Credit:Pat Scala An Amazon spokeswoman said the company "set productivity targets objectively, based on previous performance levels achieved by our workforce", and that workers' performance was evaluated over a "long time". But workers who spoke to Fairfax Media said there was a palpable fear of falling behind performance targets. Loading One worker said a colleague advised them not to drink water before or during a shift because going to the toilet outside designated break times would affect their pick rate. "Theres a water cooler in the corner, but nobody uses it," they said. Amazon said workers were allowed to use the toilet "whenever needed". Two workers said employees were reluctant to report injuries for fear of not getting shifts on the physically demanding job, where workers are told to operate at "Amazon pace" - just below running speed - as they cover 20 kilometres on foot each shift. "My manager told me [jokingly] we got a free gym membership with the job," one of the workers said. Worker who spoke to Fairfax Media say there is a pool of about 200 workers engaged at the factory in Dandenong, with about three-quarters of those being recent migrants to Australia. Amazon said it had a "mixture of permanent and agency staff" at its warehouses "to enable us to move quickly, access talent and manage variations in customer demand", but would not give specific numbers. Documents lodged with the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), show that Amazons retail business in Australia had just 89 staff at the end of December, including across management, sales, marketing, IT and engineering support. The workers who spoke to Fairfax Media said it was common for shifts to be cancelled at short notice depending on how many orders had been placed, leaving workers expecting to work five shifts a week having to survive with only two. Meanwhile, managers routinely called staff at 7.30am and asked them to come in to the factory as soon as possible when it needed more people to fulfil the day's orders, they said. Amazon became the history's second ever trillion dollar company this week, and its founder Jeff Bezos (pictured) is the world's richest person. Credit:AP Amazon said it was not usual practice to cancel shifts at short notice, but that as a new business it needed to "manage significant variations in customer demand". Amazon's spokeswoman said the company had a culture based on safety and a positive working environment. A spokeswoman for Adecco said it took the health and safety of its "associates" seriously, and that their welfare was its "number one priority". ACTU president Michele O'Neil said: "The use of labour hire to deny people fair pay rises and rights at work is not new, but Amazons behaviour is particularly outrageous." Global model The NUW's Mr Kennedy said that people "should have a job that provides leave when you are sick, financial security to get a home loan and the ability to collectively bargain with your workmates to improve wages and condition". Questions about Amazons treatment of workers have followed it as it has expanded across the world, and in July staff at warehouses in Germany, Spain and Poland walked off the job to protest their pay and conditions. Self-efficacy, self-esteem and good old Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, provided the popular momentum to turn the focus inward. However, at least in the 1970s, there were still big causes that united us beyond ourselves such as the threat of nuclear holocaust and the battle of ideas between free market economics and communism. Time was called on the beer ration, and then, by the 1970s, the rum ration dried up. Was it a coincidence that this occurred at the precise moment that the celebrated self became a fully fledged superstar? I think not. There was probably not much time left over to ponder ones self, and ones needs. Those lucky enough to be serving in her Majestys Navy were far too busy enjoying their ration of a gallon of beer a day. We are living in the century of the self. Throughout history people have been vaguely aware of their presence on the planet. Descartes for instance linked his own capacity for thought to his very existence. However, the outside world was clearly far more interesting to most people, with lots of infectious diseases to catch, wars to attend to, and earning enough to spend time quite literally making a crust. In the background we had a bunch of European philosophers so far up their own selves that they doubted that anything else existed. The ultimate for the selfishly inclined the belief there is nothing beyond oneself or solipsism. It must have caused them tremendous difficulties on their tax returns, when their university salaries dropping into their accounts could only be a construction of their own thinking, therefore making them self-employed. They could get a fine for that from the imaginary tax office. Technology got in on the act. Despite fancy cameras having self-timers for many years, anyone using this feature would have to go to beyond arms length to get into the focal range of the camera, it was all too hard, and then too expensive to get the pictures developed. Polaroid instant pictures changed that, but was still achingly expensive. Fast forward 20 years, and the selfie is ubiquitous. One of the few changes in measured personality dimensions over the last 60 years has been an increase in narcissism. Business more broadly jumped on the bandwagon, by encouraging customers to believe that your opinion matters. Survey companies rose up to measure our reactions to everything, and the ludicrous total quality management movement got so nuts that companies had survey teams measuring the reaction of employees to other survey teams. Satisfying the self has become the most important goal. Ideas that do not accord with our own are dismissed as fake news, and the messengers mercilessly decried and diminished. The shift from the battle of the ideas to the battle of the selves. This can be seen in our politics no longer a battle of ideology just a battle for self-advancement covered by the equally self-focused fig leaf of saving ourselves at the next election. The ultimate outcome of years of striving to satisfy the self is to become self-satisfied. It is an ugly look. Now wheres my beer ration! The Nightingale, by writer-director Kent, is about a woman who seeks revenge after her family is killed and she is raped. It has its world premiere on Thursday, but was screened to journalists a day earlier. Venice: The only female-directed movie in the main competition at the Venice International Film Festival has been heckled by blogger who called Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent a "whore", reigniting concerns about sexism at the festival that has been accused of overlooking female work. After social media lit up with reports of the heckle, a man called Sharif Meghdoud, who writes online movie reviews in Italian, said it was him. "To avoid any speculation about what I might have said, I repeat it here: 'Shame on you, whore, youre disgusting!'. Something that just came out of my mouth, without thinking about what I was saying or of the consequences," Meghdoud posted on his Facebook page. Loading Reuters attended the press screening, where there was applause when Kent's name came up on the credits. Witnesses said that was when they heard the offensive heckle. Kent, known for the acclaimed psychological horror The Babadook, was asked at a news conference how such abuse should be dealt with. Most parents would be understandably nervous to change their newborn's nappy for the first time. But for Jodie Harris, seeing her premature baby wreathed in tubes and drips inside an incubator, she felt frightened. "I was scared to touch her; Georgia was tiny and covered in wires and the thought of fumbling my way through and lifting up her bottom was too much," she said. Jodie Harris with her baby daughter Georgia at The Royal hospital in Randwick. Credit:Louise Kennerley It was only when nurses at the Royal Hospital for Women's Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) laid pink-skinned Georgia born at 32 weeks and weighing just 975 grams on Jodie's chest for "kangaroo cuddles" that her fears disappeared. "As soon as she felt me, she stopped crying and curled up into her foetal position. She just knows the voices, the heartbeat, and that's what they need to grow, not just nutrients, but love." There are only 13 certified Lego masterbuilders in the world. Australia's Ryan McNaught happens to be one of them. Unsurprisingly, he also happens to be his kids' favourite thing to bring for show and tell. How many people can say their full-time grind is building with Lego? Based in Melbourne, McNaught leads a team of seven craftspeople in some of the world's largest Lego builds and for the first time, he's bringing it to Canberra. Ryan McNaughts Brickman Experience one of the largest touring exhibitions of Lego in the Southern Hemisphere. Credit:Elesa Kurtz 'The Brickman Experience' will arrive just in time for the school holidays, showing at EPIC from 28 September through to 14 October 2018. "I am actually really struggling with it, I cant believe its been a year already,'' Amy said, of losing Connie. Friend Amy English was a constant support to Connie, a Canberra mum-of-two who ran Love Your Sister with her brother Samuel Johnson. "She had such an incredible impact on my life and I miss her so much. I went from spending every day with her to her being gone. I wasnt ready to let her go.'' Amy said she would spend some quiet time thinking about Connie on the first anniversary of her friend's death. "I will probably just have a cheeky Guava Vodka Cruiser - her fave drink - and read through my countless texts and look at photos of us,'' she said. "We had an amazing experience at Jamala Wildlife Lodge with [Connie's] two boys and I have lots of beautiful videos and photos from that day and night that I will reminisce with.'' I made a commitment to myself very early on in my career that if an opportunity arose, even if it was something I hadn't seen myself doing or thought I had the skills or attributes to do, that I would do it. "It's through saying yes that I've had the extraordinary career that I have, which has brought me back to my roots in probably the best job I could have ever done. She says nothing quite compares to her experience in New York, where she went into her first meeting, and realised that her new title would simply be Australia. I sat down at that table, and no longer was I 'Commander Justine Saunders', no longer was I a member of the AFP, I was now Australia, and I felt the weight of that, she says. When I joined the ACT as a young constable, walking the beat in uniform around Canberra, did I ever dream I'd be sitting at a table and referring to myself as 'Australia'? Of course, back then, in 1989, she had no inkling of where the job would lead her. She found herself quickly moved to the sexual assault and child abuse unit, where she worked with victims as they navigated the police and court systems. It was a really challenging area to work in, and the privilege to work with those victims, for them to share the most traumatic experiences, and therefore the relationships that you build from those disclosures will stay with me forever, she says. Making a difference in someone's life in a positive way - it didn't get any better than that. But looking back on what was an impossibly blokey workplace in the late 1980s and 1990s, she can see that while it was work she found fulfilling, she was placed in the unit largely because she was a woman. It was all I knew. I was a young woman, so to be honest, I just accepted that this is the way it was. But it was absolutely a male bastion, it was very difficult to manoeuvre your way through as a young policewoman, she says. I wasn't a trailblazer. I went to that unit because that was the one area within criminal investigations that a woman could go and work in. There was recognition that women had the skills to better support victims of crime, child abuse and sexual assault. So that was really the one area that opened the door into criminal investigations, which is where I had an interest. And it wasnt as though she had any female role models; for the first 15 years of career, she was usually the only woman in the room. You just had to gain an appreciation of the environment you were operating in and manoeuvre your way through it, she says. To be honest, I accepted this is the environment I was operating in and I did the best that I could in it. "When I reflect on my early career, I did make a common mistake for women at that time, and that was to gain credibility I felt I needed to fit in, so absolutely I did adopt some male traits. I used to swear, I used to drink beer, I still do. But she always knew she was a good cop. She remembers a case in the mid-1990s involving a fatal shooting in Wanniassa. The victim, a man, was dead by the time she and her colleagues arrived, and, as was often the case for young detectives, they worked through the night to put the case together. By the morning, they had three people in custody. When I look at the diversity within the organisation, it's vastly different to the organisation that I joined. Justine Saunders It came to interviewing those that we suspected were responsible, and we brought in a sergeant, a very experienced person, who joined the investigation after having a good night's sleep, she says. I understood that that person would take over the interview and I would corroborate, take notes and so on. So in many ways, I relaxed a bit. But within 10 minutes, the sergeant had drawn a blank, and handed the interview over to her. When I reflect on that murder investigation, it was probably at that point that I realised I could actually be myself, because it was the work that was going to speak for me, it wasn't going to be whether I had that beer at the end of the shift, or whether I bought into the blokey jokes, she says. Justine Saunders when she was appointed Chief of Police Credit:Karleen Minney If I did a good job, I could get ahead and I could make a career of this. I did learn that, but it was the case of, you are working in a male-dominated environment, and therefore you adapt to that environment. I think it does shape you, it changes how you communicate, it did have a big impact. Today, of course, things have changed considerably, and not just because theres a woman at the helm. When I look at the diversity within the organisation, it's vastly different to the organisation that I joined, she says. I find it really rewarding to hear about women's experiences in joining the AFP today, and the fact that they do feel that it's an inclusive workforce, and they do feel valued, and they don't feel or see the barriers that certainly I had when I started. The nature of policing has also changed irrevocably in the decades since she was on the beat. I had 10 years in ACT policing, then worked nationally and internationally for 20 years before I returned, and I saw in some ways, some things hadn't changed at all, she says. The basic principles of policing hadn't changed, what our objectives are insofar as solving problems, enforcing the law, providing a service the community - that hasn't changed. But certainly the nature of crime has changed, the complexity of the environment police are now operating in, and of course, let's be honest, the increased dangers to policing that we certainly didn't see when I was a young constable here. A man has been charged over an alleged arson attack at a massage parlour in Phillip. The 37-year-old man faced ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with arson, accused of setting fire to Jenny Magic Massage. Investigators look through the rubble to determine the cause of a fire that destroyed Jenny Magic Massage in Phillip. Credit:Elesa Kurtz ACT Fire & Rescue attended the blaze about 11pm on August 14 and extinguished the fire. Police were called to the Chinese massage parlour and later determined the fire to be suspicious Like retinols, but not as intense. Photo: Courtesy of vendors Retinol is widely considered the gold standard for treating a plethora of skin-care issues, such as the appearance of fine lines, sun damage, and acne. But it comes with considerable downsides: Retinol can be harsh, leading to irritation, flaking skin, peeling, and redness. Thats why it comes with a suite of warnings about using it only two or three times a week and remaining diligent about wearing sunscreen. Still, a lot of peoples skin cant tolerate it. In particular, anyone with rosacea or eczema. Which is why dermatologists, aestheticians, and skin-care companies have been looking for alternative ingredients that can still yield the same results as retinoids, with several products coming out this year. But first: Retinol products work because theyre derivatives of vitamin A. And because the terminology gets confusing: Retinoids cover a broader category of chemicals and products; retinol is a more specific kind of vitamin A, and the one most often seen in over-the-counter products. Retinol the active form of vitamin A in the body works to increase cell turnover, build collagen, improve discoloration, hydrate skin, and reduce acne, says New York dermatologist Dendy Engelman. Any alternative product would need to do something similar, and bind to retinoid receptors just as actual retinols do, which kick-start the production of key proteins in skin to do all those magical things mentioned above. A few such alternates exist already: Retinol alternatives can be other types of retinoids, like retinyl aldehyde, retinyl palmitate, or Hydroxypinacolone Retinoate, says cosmetic chemist NiKita Wilson. Or they can be plant-based ingredients with retinol-like activity, like bakuchiol. Bakuchiol, an extract of the Babchi plant long used in Ayurvedic medicine, is promising for two main reasons: Bakuchiol is one of the few alternatives for which studies back up the pseudo-retinol effects of anti-aging and skin brightening. One study in the British Journal of Dermatology found that it could reduce signs of sun damage equally as well as retinol, while another paper in International Journal of Cosmetic Science reported improvements in lines and wrinkles, skin elasticity, and pigmentation. Raja Sivamani, a clinical dermatologist at UC Davis who led a recent study comparing bakuchiol and retinol, says these results are because bakuchiol seems to be activating the genes that regulate collagen and elastin production the same ones retinol activates. The second reason is that so far, bakuchiol doesnt seem to irritate and redden skin the way retinol often does. We do have to presume that they are gentler since there hasnt been any irritation that I can find reported so far, says Loretta Ciraldo, a dermatologist in south Florida. (Doctors I spoke with also say that bakuchiol is so far reportedly safe during pregnancy. But as with anything related to pregnancy, ask your doctor.) She adds that she thinks that could also mean the results will be less dramatic than actual retinoid products. Thats reasonable the redness retinol causes has to do with all that cell turnover. But for those who use them just to experience uncomfortable flaking and redness, an all-natural alternative should be welcome news. Four new products, below. Retinol alternatives with bakuchiol Olehenriksen Glow Cycle Retin-ALT Power Serum $58 Bakuchiol is combined with alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs, which smooth and brighten skin) in this new serum. Joshua Zeichner, director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital, is a fan of AHAs in general, which have tons of research to back up their benefits. In addition to exfoliating cells on the surface of the skin, theyve been shown to help stimulate collagen, he explains. $58 at Sephora Buy Isdinceutics Melatonik $150 Bakuchiol and vitamin C means this product has extra brightening properties. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that boosts collagen in your skin, which helps to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, says aesthetician Shani Darden. It will also help to decrease pigmentation. If your primary skin concern is dark spots or dullness, this is the one for you. $150 at Isdin Buy Omorovicza Miracle Facial Oil $120 To protect aging skin, this oil combines bakuchiol and antioxidants. The bakuchiol helps maintain collagen production, while the antioxidants, which neutralize the skin-damaging free radicals produced by stressors like UV light and pollution, help keep that collagen intact. $120 at Saks Fifth Avenue Buy And one alternative thats technically a retinoid Shiffa Rose Maroc Night Elixir $175 This blend of botanical oils also contains granactive retinoid which, yes, is a retinoid. But unlike retinol (which has to be converted before it starts working) it goes straight to the target. Granactive retinoid binds directly with the retinoid receptors in the skin, thus producing similar benefits to retinol, but without the negative side effects, Wilson says. If youre prone to sensitivity, this is also infused with soothing chamomile to keep redness to a minimum. $175 at Nordstrom 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. Suspected MDMA tablets allegedly found by police during a search in Petrie Plaza. Credit:ACT Policing Two men accused of drug trafficking will be summonsed to face the ACT Magistrates Court. Police said officers were conducting a mobile patrol in central Canberra early on Sunday morning when they were alerted to two men acting suspiciously. Police spoke to and searched the men in Petrie Plaza, allegedly finding 96 suspected MDMA tablets, cash and drug-dealing paraphernalia. A further search of the area uncovered another 22 tablets suspected to be MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy. Two women have been charged after police shut down three illegal brothels in Reid as part of a joint operation with the Australian Border Force. The Chinese nationals, aged 45 and 50, have been charged with operating a brothel other than in a prescribed location. They are on bail and are expected to appear in the ACT Magistrates Court on October 12. The arrests of the women came after police and Border Force officers, acting on information from the public, raided an apartment complex in Reid on Tuesday. That would allow a third party restaurateur Adam Marshall (whose premises include Foys Kirribilli and The Sandy Bear at Clontarf marina), to invest in the club with new catering facilities. "There is grave concern within the membership that the RMS is trying to bleed us dry," Mr James said. "It is refusing to provide any term for the lease and in so doing has prevented the club from any opportunity to seek investment. "There are many clubs of this nature [on the harbour], sailing clubs, sea scouts and rowing clubs. Are they all going to find themselves, upon the end of their leases, with the RMS saying we will now go out to the market. That is an alarming precedent that appears to be being set here." The sum of $100,000 had been pledged by members to pay creditors and Mr James was confident another $50,000 could be raised through means currently under way. Mosman Rowers Club is now a community club - with no rowing. Credit:Wolter Peeters He said he had $7000, which covers $3300 rent for the extra 23 days and insurance and the ongoing costs of the administrators. The lease expired in 2014 and the club was on a month-by-month lease, the court heard. Defendant Michael Callanan, solicitor for the administrator, said that rent hadn't been paid for the last two years, a claim Mr James denied. The Mosman Rowing Club in April 1956. Credit:Fairfax Mr Callanan said extending the administration period would result in costs of $20,000, a figure that Mr James conceded went beyond the authority he had from members. After more than two hours of submissions, Justice Ashley Black decided to extend the administration period until September 28 on proviso that the club members pay the ongoing costs of $13,500 by 4pm on Thursday. The RMS in a letter to Mr James on August 29 stated: "Roads and Maritime cannot agree to a 20-year lease term, substantial rent relief or rent-free periods sought in the Deed of Company Arrangement." It said the club owed rent arrears, had allowed the property to fall into disrepair and that it was not financially viable. It said if the club goes into liquidation it would conduct an expression of interest tender process. Angus Mitchell, executive director maritime, said: "We have given financial concessions over many years and offered very generous terms in relation to an on-going tenure. "Despite this specific club not offering any actual community water-based activities, this is not a decision we have taken lightly. Roads and Maritime will ensure the heritage of this property is maintained into the future and our commitment and support for the boating community and clubs will continue. Mr James said on Friday that the administrator had agreed to the earlier costs figure of $7000. "We will go back to court to seek consent orders and I will arrange a bank cheque," he said. "We look to have survived another near-death experience. This will lock in the extension of time until 5pm on September 28. We'll have 21 days to get RMS back to the table. "This will be positive news for our fundraising efforts this weekend and beyond. For the next three weeks many members of the club will be out there rallying and raising money to give it every chance to enter into a new era." Members of the Sea Scouts prepare for their annual regatta at Mosman Rowing Club in 1959. Credit:Harry Martin It was a year and 33 days since the 51-year-old was arrested at Sydney Airport for smuggling a commercial quantity of cocaine into Australia. It will be at least another three-and-a-half years until she is able to go home. In April 2011, Woodrum came to the Adorers wanting to become a Sister. Though it wasn't to be, two years later she inquired about, and became, a "Sojourner", a lay associate of the Adorers who went to prayer sessions and retreats, and learned about the order's founder and its values. The drugs weighed just over one kilogram. Credit:Australian Border Force Sister Fran Schumer was Woodrum's mentor in the Adorers. "Denise struck me as a person ... I think she had been very much hurt as a result of a bad marriage and she was looking for connections with people," Sister Fran said. She, like others, believed that Woodrum had been duped into bringing illegal drugs into the country, and that she was under the mistaken belief she was importing artefacts. Loading "She regrets what she did. She had no idea what was going on," Sister Fran said. But, after weighing up the evidence available to her, Judge Wass saw it differently. "How much did they find?" Woodrum asked Australian customs officials X-raying her luggage on the morning of August 4, 2017. This, as Judge Wass pointed out during the sentencing, was before they told her what they'd found. "The offender knew that there was something in the shoes that had been put there by others," she said. Woodrum had been texting a man throughout her multi-legged journey from the US to Sydney. It was the same man she had been in contact with for months. His name - or the name he had given her - was Hendrik Cornelius. "My love we would both sit down and decide where [we] would live and settle down for the rest of our lives," he'd told her in April. "I will always protect you and take care of you. I will shelter you and be by your side always," she had texted him in June. The packages of drugs as seen on the X-ray at the airport. Credit:ABF For all the perceived romance they shared, she had never met him face to face. Loading According to an agreed set of facts tendered to the court, Woodrum flew from Missouri to Texas, then to Trinidad and Tobago on July 18, 2017. The next day she travelled to Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, in South America. On July 25, she texted someone named "Stacie": "This whole trip is paid for and will get additional payment for work." On July 30, Woodrum texted Cornelius: "Riding in his car to get stuff no signature needed." That same day she returned to the US via Trinidad and Tobago. On August 2, she texted Cornelius a list of expenses, including for hotels and flights, and departed Miami for Sydney, via Los Angeles. On August 3 she texted: "Baby setting suitcases full of clothes without you sucks" and "Doggie sniff check went through our section". After telling Cornelius she'd "just landed" she told him, "It's been a pleasure serving together". Woodrum told customs officers she'd come to Sydney to see the Harbour Bridge and the aquarium and that the shoes were a gift for her mother. She later said the shoes were a gift for her friend Vincent, who she was meant to meet at the airport. "It was supposed to be just clothes," Woodrum had told Australian Federal Police after just over a kilo of cocaine was found secreted in the heel of one of the shoes, a wallet and buttons on clothing within her suitcase. She told them she'd been on vacation in South America, that people she'd met up with in Paramaribo had given her gifts and clothes, that a man had helped her put gifts in her luggage, and that her itinerary was emailed to her by an "unidentified African man". The drugs were found stuffed inside the heels of a shoe. Credit:ABF Woodrum's lawyer, Rebecca Neil, previously told Judge Wass that her client was "groomed to provide a financial gain for this person, Hendrik Cornelius, whatever person or persons it was behind this identity." But Judge Wass said Woodrum knew prior to leaving the US that she wasn't importing artefacts. She referred to an exchange that took place between Woodrum and another person involved in the illegal operation when she became aware that she was bringing in clothes. "The clothes are worth more than you know," Judge Wass repeated what had been said to Woodrum. Judge Wass said Woodrum wasn't genuinely contrite, rather "sorry for the situation she now finds herself caught in". "She continues to blame others for her own reckless actions and appears to have little or no insight into her offending." She described Woodrum's explanations as "self-serving", "inherently unbelievable", and, even up to this point, hadn't given authorities a full account of what had occurred. "I am also mindful that I am sentencing a 51-year-old woman who was otherwise vulnerable and socially isolated, who had no prior convictions and who otherwise led an exemplary life," Judge Wass said. Back in St Louis, Missouri, Sister Fran and other associates of the Adorers write regularly to Woodrum. The cocaine was found in her luggage after Woodrum's bags were screened. Credit:ABF "We still love her and who she is," Sister Fran said. Woodrum's father, Tom Rozanski, also speaks to his daughter every week - sometimes on varying subjects: "We talked about you guys getting a new Prime Minister." The deaths of Charissa Tsouvallas in 1999, Stephen Sanig in 2001, Rebecca Calverley in 2002 and Gabrielle Coventry in 2007, and subsequent inquests exposing significant failings, meant Central Coast hospitals should be best placed to respond to meningococcal because of lessons learnt, Mr Harris said. Once or twice (to have problems leading to meningococcal deaths) then maybe its the nature of the condition itself, but those four cases show we think it does need to be looked at more carefully after this latest tragic case. Mr Sanig said he was a bit shocked to learn of Ms Rhodes death under circumstances similar to his sons death 17 years ago. Shattered: Sue-Anne and Michael Sanig established a foundation to educate the community about the symptoms of meningococcal disease after their son Stephen's death in 2001. Credit:Anita Jones The young woman has apparently presented with certain symptoms and was sent home. If somebody presents with symptoms severe enough that they go to a hospital emergency department then you should say theres a possibility it might be meningococcal so lets err on the side of caution, Mr Sanig said. You would have thought by now everybody would err on the side of caution. Why wasnt she given antibiotics as a precautionary measure? Second Central Coast meningococcal death this year Ms Rhodes is the second Central Coast person to die of meningococcal this year after a woman, 38, died of the meningococcal W strain during an overseas trip. A third Central Coast person has also recovered from the disease in 2018. Loading A NSW Health spokesperson said there have been 41 meningococcal cases across NSW in 2018, and 91 cases in 2017, with meningococcal B the most dominant strain. Despite public concern about the relatively high meningococcal mortality rate it remains very uncommon in NSW because the bacteria is not easily spread from person to person, Central Coast Local Health District director of public health Dr Peter Lewis said. A National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance report to NSW Parliament in 2016 found there were 26 deaths in NSW children aged 15 or younger between 2000 and 2007, during a period that largely predated most meningococcal vaccinations. There were 12 meningococcal child deaths between 2005 and 2014 after meningococcal C vaccinations were available from 2003 but before meningococcal B vaccinations in 2014, and combined ACWY strain vaccinations. Inquests into the deaths of the four Central Coast children and teenagers found disturbing communication breakdowns and difficulties between hospital staff, between staff and parents and between hospitals and general practitioners. It also found warnings were missed because staff were busy. Devastated: Julie and Craig Calverley after an inquest into their daughter Rebecca's death in 2002 from meningococcal disease. Credit:Ben Rushton Julie Calverley urged parents to Dont worry about looking stupid. Just get up and shout, This is my kid. Fix it, after she waited for six hours with daughter Rebecca in a busy Wyong Hospital emergency department in July, 2002 until rashes on the childs body showed meningococcal. Mrs Calverley said she sat quietly for hours after arriving at the hospital at 8.30pm because she assumed if doctors were slow to attend to her daughter it must have meant her illness was not serious. Gabrielle Gabi Coventry died in Gosford Hospital in December, 2007 despite her mothers desperate appeals for help and was doomed because of a cascading series of systematic and individual errors, a coroner found after her inquest in 2011. She died after inexcusable failures at the hospital, including doctors who became fixated on a diagnosis linked to a single sexual incident, and despite eight doctors being involved in her care in the final 15 hours of her life. Her hospital notes showed her mother was distressed and appealed for antibiotics for her only daughter. Terry Tsouvallas and daughter Charissa. Mrs Tsouvallas said she would never get over a coroner finding her daughter's death from meningococcal disease was preventable. Charissa Tsouvallas, 18, died at Gosford Hospital in July, 1999 more than a week after blood tests ordered by the hospital showed an excessively high white blood cell count that should have rung alarm bells but of a serious bacterial infection, her inquest was told. A Gosford Hospital doctor did not give the tests even a cursory glance when Charissa returned to the hospital with worsening symptoms. She died only days after her 18th birthday. Her mother Terry was devastated when a coroner concluded her daughters death was preventable. It is really hard for me to go past those words, Mrs Tsouvallas said. Michael and Sue-Anne Sanig were shattered after a coroner found doctors who clearly made mistakes in the treatment of their son Stephen in June, 2001 refused to accept they were wrong despite being challenged at his inquest. While hindsight is a wonderful thing, clearly in the case of Stephen Sanig mistakes were made at Gosford Hospital which should not have been made, coroner Michael Morahan said. Number of deaths statistically average, doctor says Central Coast Local Health District chief executive Dr Andrew Montague said Ms Rhodes death was an absolute tragedy and the hospital was communicating with her family as it reviews management of her treatment. The Central Coast has had 33 reported cases of meningococcal disease between 2009 and 2018 and four deaths during that period, including a woman who died of the condition while travelling overseas this year. The number of cases and deaths was statistically average, Dr Montague and Dr Lewis said. The Central Coast Local Health District chief Gosford Hospital was communicating with Ms Rhodes' family as it reviews management of her treatment. Credit:Google Maps The Central Coast health service and NSW Health in general had not only learnt from the tragic Central Coast deaths between 1999 and 2007 but had made significant changes to protocols and procedures for managing patients, including formal clinical handovers to ensure clear lines of responsibility for patients, they said. Central Coast Health has also doubled emergency department staff and provides round-the-clock pathology services at Wyong Hospital, after staff resourcing was raised at the earlier inquests. The Central Coasts meningococcal immunisation rates for babies, children and teenagers is also high, with more than 95 per cent of babies immunised and more than 70 per cent of teenagers in school programs for years 10, 11 and 12. Immunisation was one of the major reasons meningococcal numbers are falling across the state, Dr Lewis said. Dr Montague said the hospital agreed that transparency was necessary to ensure public confidence in the health system. A freshly-cut orange that turned deep purple overnight has been sent for testing in just the second Queensland incident on record, with experts hopeful they can solve the mysterious colour change. Brisbane mum Neti Moffitt cut up an orange on Tuesday for her two-year-old son, feeding him half and leaving the remaining quarters on the bench. The left-over orange piece turned purple overnight. Credit:Neti Moffitt The next morning, to her amazement, she noticed the remaining orange quarters had turned bright purple. Digging into the rubbish bin, she found the pieces eaten by her son were also purple, even more so than the pieces that hadn't been eaten. Liberal women are, finally, and spectacularly, rebelling. They are not, as Kelly ODwyer put it this week, petals or princesses. They are pissed off. And female corporate leaders are regarding the belated eruption with a mixture of disgust at the sexism women MPs face, an embarrassed concern at how little has changed, and gratitude that they chose careers in business, not politics. Federal MP Julia Banks has spoken out about the lack of women in the Liberal Party and the difficulties she's faced. Credit:Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media This week, the contrast between the two worlds could not have been sharper. On Thursday night 1400 people gathered for the Chief Executive Womens dinner in Sydney, the room jammed with powerful, successful broads. (And by broads I mean Jane Mills definition of a woman tolerant, unconfined and not limited or narrow in scope). The kind of woman who strides across a room and exudes authority and competence. The kind of women we dont see enough of in federal politics. The kind of women who would rather mow the lawn with their teeth than enter Parliament only to be monstered by the media, sexually ridiculed by opponents and bullied by colleagues who have less talent but more factional support. Hunter did his best to protect his students from the spectacularly inept but equally erratic Eastwood, who seemed more interested in headlines than getting away with his idiotic crime. More than 40 years later, the recently retired Hunter has written a riveting account in the self-published book Day 9 at Wooreen, his personal recollections of what began on Monday, February 14, 1977. Even then I thought I should put down on paper what happened in those staggering series of events, but it was in early 2016 I thought I better get on with it, he told us. Hunter refused to be defined by the kidnapping and continued to teach around Victoria, retiring earlier this year after 44 years in education. The key, he says was to let go of his anger towards the kidnapper and reject his desire for revenge. He now delivers those kidnapping lessons in school lectures, entitled Health After Hurt, to teach kids about mental resilience. Rob Hunter, who has written a book about his kidnapping. Credit:Jason South Back in 1977 Hunter slipped into his new role, having been welcomed into the Wooreen dairy township with a local barbecue a few days earlier. The children - six girls and three boys from six families - ranged from seven to 11 years old and grade six to grade two. They were, according to Hunter: A dream - cooperative and well-behaved, from families who loved them dearly ... All different in their own ways, all full of potential. They were all so keen to please, eager to impress, willing to work and hungry to learn. Today he says, some of them are grandparents, and all were affected by the kidnapping. Four did not return to Wooreen Primary, leaving him with just five students for the rest of the year. He remembers Eastwood as nervous, distracted and sweating profusely when he initially grabbed them. When a grade five girl asked Whats your name? the gunman eventually responded Ted - failing even to attempt to provide an alias. Eastwood always craved the spotlight - even if it was held by armed police. His planning was so poor that he tried the kidnapping at another country school earlier before randomly choosing Hunters class. His ransom note had the name of his original target, Allambee, crossed out and replaced with Wooreen. Concerned parents and friends outside the Wooreen Primary School. Credit:The Age Trying to remain outwardly calm for the sake of the children, Hunter managed to unplug the electric clock to leave a clue to the time of the abduction. It stopped at 11.10am. Eventually Eastwood produced a 10-metre dog chain to bolt the kids together. As he made Hunter lie on the floor to chain his wrists, one of the grade six girls asked: Ted, what are you going to do with us? Where are you going to take us? How long are we going to be away for? When will we get back? "He answered, Youll only be away until I get what I want'," Hunter writes. "'Dont worry, just do what I say and I wont hurt you. But if you do anything silly, Ill shoot the teacher. Under unimaginable stress, Hunter was angered by the most trivial matters. Eastwood had a sign prepared to give him breathing space. On a torn piece of cardboard he had printed: HAVE GONE ON A NATURE STUDY TRIP, WILL BE BACK IN ONE HOUR! This annoyed me," Hunter recalls. "He had written a notice, making out that it was me who had written it. It made me angry. How dare he? Despite the crazy circumstances, I was also irritated by the way it was written. His use of capital letters was wrong. "Any primary teacher worth his weight uses every opportunity to model and teach the use of correct upper and lower-case letters. I would not have written that note in capital letters. What did the kidnapper want? His ransom demand was as stupid as his initial plan. In a note to education minister and deputy premier Lindsay Thompson, he demanded the release of 17 of the states most dangerous criminals, an arsenal of weapons, $7 million in US currency, 100 kilos of cocaine, 100 kilos of heroin and a late-model car with a full tank of petrol (with $US7 million he couldnt buy his own juice?). Eastwood gagged and blindfolded Hunter before taking his chain gang to his stolen Dodge truck. The kids were put in the back while Hunter was forced onto the front passenger-side floor. He yelled at the children, all crammed in the back cabin, You kids keep down. When were passing any cars, keep your heads right down or bullets will be flying. You mongrel! Theyre my students youre yelling at, Hunter recalls. How dare you threaten them like that? Eastwoods plan was doomed from the start. Not only was he a bad kidnapper, he was a bad driver, hurtling along gravel roads and throwing the chained children around the floor of the truck, leaving them frightened and one bleeding. The gunman called out to the children, Keep your heads down or watch out! If I see you waving to anyone Ill shoot someone. The stolen Dodge that Eastwood crashed during the kidnapping. Credit:The Age Then he ran into a truck. Eastwood jumped from his disabled vehicle and took the two men in the logging truck hostage: Dont try anything f---ing smart or Ill blow your heads off. He had 12 hostages, but another truck rolled around the corner and he grabbed the two men on board, bringing the number to 14. When a Kombi van pulled up with two women on board, he added them to the list - 16. He jammed all these people in the van and eventually drove to his campsite for the night, where they shared tinned ham and stolen chocolate. That night Eastwood openly bragged about the Faraday kidnapping and declared that this time if confronted by police he would shoot it out with them; he wouldnt be going down alone, he would shoot some of them too. Hunter saw that when news of the kidnapping broke on the radio, Eastwood was delighted. It was like he was sitting back getting ready to enjoy the unfolding of the story, with the essential ingredient of the media giving him publicity. In the darkness, truck driver Robin Smith slipped his chains and crept out of the campsite. Im sure that if Eastwood had woken up at that moment he would have shot Robin, wrote Hunter. Smith then jogged more than 10 kilometres to a farmhouse to raise the alarm. By 6.45am Eastwood, the prison escapee, realised he had let one of his prisoners escape. He bundled his remaining 15 hostages into the underpowered van and took off. Almost immediately police were on his tail. February 15, 1977: Edwin John Eastwood is carried from a plane at Essendon Airport after being shot in the leg and captured. Credit:The Age Children living near a creek contaminated by toxic chemicals following last week's West Footscray factory fire have since suffered migraines, nose bleeds and sore throats, parents have told a community meeting. Authorities conceded the business at the centre of last Thursday's 17-hour inferno, which caused thick black smoke to billow across the western suburbs, had not been on their radar for storing dangerous goods. Emotions ran high at the community meeting at Footscray Town Hall on Thursday night, where residents spoke of ill-health and confusion around the risks to public safety throughout the week since the fire. The fire in West Footscray last week. Credit:Channel 7 Parents living along Stony Creek told the meeting their children had been suffering all week from migraines and sore throats, while others reported bleeding noses and respiratory problems from toxic fumes associated with chemicals leaking into the creek, particularly around popular Cruickshank Park. The revelations come as the mother of the 48-year-old labourer killed struggles to come to terms with the traumatic circumstances of her son's death. Loading One of the two other injured men remains in a critical condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The construction union's occupational, health and safety manager Dr Gerry Ayers said the worker fighting for his life is believed to be suffering from severe internal injuries and two broken arms. The 28-year-old Caroline Springs man was also struck by the tub when it fell. Dr Ayers said the man who died was a 48-year-old labourer from Melbourne. He did not have a wife or children, but his mother was severely distressed by the circumstances surrounding his death. "She is extremely traumatised. She's lost her son," he said. "He was a general labourer and helped look after OHS things, he was working with the company for a little while ... he worked directly for the builder." The crane dropped its load of concrete into a pit where three men were working. Credit:Channel 7 Dr Ayers said the union would continue to do unannounced spot checks at work sites to monitor safety breaches, despite a renewed push from the federal government to roll-out tougher laws aimed at reducing their powers. "We do and will continue to go onto sites unannounced despite the federal government making it even more difficult for people like us to do our jobs," he said. One of the injured men was an excavator driver, and the other was a "doggie" who helps direct the crane from the ground. Mr Clark extended his sympathy to the victims, their families and the workmates of those involved in the accident. He said preliminary inquiries into the accident suggested it was due to an "unprecedented failure in a part of the crane that is not normally subject to any form of inspection of maintenance particularly given its age". "In the normal course of events these cranes can be expected to operate safely and reliably for many years," he said. Firefighters in the pit where one man was killed and two were injured. Credit:AAP Loading The crane was operating on a CRC Group site where an apartment block is being built. Clark Cranes is the same company involved an incident in Richmond in July where a crane bent backwards in strong winds, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents. But the company stressed the two incidents were unrelated. "At the time of that [Richmond] incident the crane had been used and operated by a builder for several months. No Clark Crane personnel had been involved with the use of the crane over this period." However, the union has accused the company of refusing to accept industry wide safety standards, saying Clark Cranes has been resistant to using the "green sticker" program, a safety accreditation standard which is run by the Crane Industry Council of Australia. "It's to see if they are 'roadworthy'. They check cranes and documentation and servicing is done correctly and the physical checks, and give them green stickers," said Dr Ayers. "Clark Cranes, when they are made to do it, they will, but [on] some sites ... we often find those cranes haven't got green stickers." He also accused the company of having a "history of having mechanical issues". He called on the company to do a stringent, forensic audit of all their cranes as soon as possible and has called on those working with Clark Crane's equipment to ask their employers whether they are up to standard. Chief executive of the Crane Industry Council of Australia Brandon Hitch said the green sticker program was "very common" for crane companies to use. "It's not correct for me to say Clark Cranes has not used the sticker program, we have examples of them using it, what I don't know is the percentage," he said. "I don't know what the motivation is not to use it. "The green sticker in Victoria and nationally is the leading independent inspection program it's very common for crane companies to use it ... a majority of companies in Melbourne use the program." Mr Hitch said he did not believe the incident was indicative of a wider safety issue in the industry. "I think any incident of this magnitude should have us concerned in a remorseful sense, in feeling for the family and those that are grieving, but I think we will learn something from it as an industry," he said. "Am I concerned about cranes in Melbourne? I think we operate a safe industry. That is not to diminish the incident that happened, the fatality, or the gentleman recovering as well." WorkSafe acting executive director of health and safety, Paul Fowler, said it would take time for the exact cause of the incident to be established. "However, if attacked, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend U.S., coalition or partner forces", a defense official told CNN. "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. Instead of a full-scale assault, Russia, Turkey and Iran could agree to a piecemeal approach that would see government forces taking off bites of the province, including cities like Jisr al-Shughour, close to Assad's coastal heartland in Latakia province, and Maaret al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun, which lie on the M5, a key highway that runs through Syria's major cities. The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran will meet on Friday in Tehran, as part of the trilateral efforts on finding a solution to the Syrian civil war. On August 30, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that Syria would push ahead with the operation to retake Idlib regardless of whether Washington and its allies might stage an attack on the pretext Damascus had allegedly used chemical weapons. Jeffrey said a USA response to a Russian assault would involve "all of our tools", but did not elaborate further. Turkey, Russia and Iran past year designated Idlib a so-called "de-escalation zone", but that deal did not cover former Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS. The Syrian regime has recently announced plans to launch a major military offensive in the area, which is controlled by various armed opposition groups. The Turks are trying to find a way out. "We have absolutely advised them to stay out of At Tanf", one United States official said. Shahid Kapoor and Mira's dinner outing in Bandra Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput welcomed their second bundle of joy, a baby boy, at the Hinduja Hospital on Wednesday (September 5). Shahid Kapoor's mother Neelima Azeem and brother Ishaan Khatter reached the hospital an hour ago after the baby was delivered. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said Wednesday that he hoped to use the meeting to reach a deal and prevent an all-out attack on the border province. He said the United States had repeatedly asked Russian Federation whether it could "operate" in Idlib to eliminate the last holdouts of Islamic State and other extremist groups. Meeting Wednesday with the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, President Donald Trump called the situation in Idlib "very sad". Russian Federation has called on the United States to reveal the list of the targets that it will attack in response to what it claims to be an upcoming chemical attack by the Syrian government. There was a "a new commitment" by the administration to remain in Syria until Islamic State militants were defeated, while ensuring Iran left the country, he added. The eight security council members who support Turkey's efforts are Italy, Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. He said Assad "has no future as a ruler" in Syria, but it was not up to Washington to get rid of him and it would work with Moscow on a political transition. A small group of protesters set up on the footpath, with some holding placards with the words "get Nazi scum off our streets" and "Melbourne says no to fascism". They chanted no fascism, no fear, Nigel youre not welcome here as they approached about 50 police who had formed a barricade at the entrance of the hotel. A single right-wing protester stormed through the protest but he was quickly restrained by police and dragged out of the crowd. Police search a man outside the Sofitel Hotel ahead of the protest. Credit:Chris Hopkins A woman was also arrested by police and dragged into Collins Place by officers as tensions flared. Mr Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party, which led the Brexit campaign, is on a national speaking tour. The shows promoter, Damien Costas, who publishes Penthouse Magazine, defended the show and Mr Farages right to free speech. Mr Costas said hed been working with police in the months leading up to Mr Farages engagement to ensure safety measures were met. Penthouse Magazine also bank-rolled alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos Troll Academy speaking tour which saw violent clashes erupt outside his Melbourne show in Kensington last year. I dont think there will be violence again ... these things usually happen when two ignorant groups come together, Mr Costas said ahead of the show. So far our intelligence says theyre [the protesters] a pretty harmless group. Theyre just here to spread their message the same way Nigel is. He also dismissed claims he would be footing the bill for security at the event. I dont expect them [police] to charge me at all. Weve discussed no fees whatsoever and I would actually think that its an international disgrace on Victoria if police were to charge a member of the European Parliament for protection, he said, adding that he believed Mr Farage should have been given federal police protection ahead of Fridays show. Police gather outside the Sofitel Hotel on Friday. Credit:Justin McManus The Campaign Against Racism and Fascism planned the protest against Mr Farage. We want to have an anti-racist, loud vibrant protest, after which were going to go over and march over to where Chelsea Manning is due to be doing a live cross, protest organiser Chris Di Pasquale told radio station 3AW. If youre going to go and support the far-right, you need to know that people are going to oppose that, because the far-right is beyond the pale. Ms Manning, who is best known for leaking classified military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks, was speaking via satellite to an audience at the convention centre. Just before 8.30pm, about 40 people staged a protest in support of Ms Manning outside the hotel with protesters holding red placards that read solidarity with Chelsea. Protesters had cleared the area by about 9pm but a strong police presence remained outside the venue. A man is searched by police in the CBD. Credit:Justin McManus In a statement, police warned protesters that violent or antisocial behaviour would not be tolerated. They also warned the public that officers would be stopping pedestrians and drivers in the area bounded by Spring, Bourke, Flinders and Russell streets in the CBD to conduct searches without warrants as is standard police practice for large-scale events, including protests. That zone remained a "designated area" until 1am Saturday. The designated area where police will stop and search people without a warrant. Credit:Victoria Police "Public safety is our number one priority," the statement read. "We are equipped and well-prepared to deploy resources, respond and intervene where needed. Individuals have the right to lawfully attend events and protests, however, we ask that people do so peacefully and respectfully without impact on the rest of the community." Promotional material for the visit described Mr Farage as the man who positioned the Brexit referendum "as the start of a global populist wave against the political establishment" and the "great disrupter of British and European politics". Nigel Farage is on an Australian speaking tour. Credit:Chris Ratcliffe The European Union MP is now mainly a media commentator, with a daily show on LBC, Londons main commercial talk radio station, plus regular slots on Fox News in the US. Mr Farage appeared at campaign rallies with Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign and claimed the Brexit result was the "inspiration" behind the President's win. A strike at Alcoa's WA aluminium operations is likely to drag on after employees voted against the company's proposed Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. Unions had been arguing for "job security provisions", but the company had rejected claims it was attempting to casualise the workforce, insisting union negotiators wanted an "absolute guarantee that employees can never be made redundant involuntarily". An Alcoa spokeswoman said the company was concerned about the impact the industrial action was having on its workers. Unionists and striking Alcoa workers protesting outside parliament house in August. Credit:Nathan Hondros "We invite them back to work so they can restore their livelihoods while we work to bring this matter to a resolution," she said. To force this change, the proposals in the North-East Sub-regional Planning Framework part of the Perth and Peel@3.5million plan would see rural-residential developments largely a thing of the past. The framework is a road map which lays out the urban, industrial and green footprints for the region and will guide future development. "Rural residential areas provide alternative lifestyle and housing opportunities and may also provide a transition between urban and rural areas," the document reads. "However, rural residential development is a relatively inefficient form of development, places additional demand on community and service infrastructure that is difficult to meet and can prejudice other future planning options." These tree-change blocks would be limited to the 16,000 hectares already zoned rural-residential in the region, with no more to be approved. City of Swan councillor Andrew Kiely said market demand for these big blocks wasn't what it used to be. Government services and infrastructure such as the accessibility of health care and public transport was a growing consideration for prospective residents. "There seems to be a demand for inner-city living more and more," he said. "Your medical and health services are much better, your cost of petrol, there's a whole range of driving factors for individuals, it could be that you're closer to your grandchildren. "There's a number of factors that drive people closer, it's not necessarily that the government has just decided that we don't want to push people out to those blocks." About 1.4 million people are expected to make Perth home over the next 30 years. Credit:Fairfax Media Concerns over habitat, public open space But it's not just pressure to reduce the size of the Perth's urban sprawl that has put tree-change blocks in the crosshairs. Planners are worried about growing fire risks on the outskirts of the city and the destruction of natural habitats. "There are issues with flora and fauna, there's fire risks in rural areas that are associated with climate change," Mr Kiely said. "My personal concern is the loss of habitat for fauna, that's a concern for me as a councillor in those areas with greater intrusion into areas of natural habitat. "The sprawl, it can't go on forever, for biodiversity reasons, for loss of habitat, and it can't go on forever because of the cost of service provision and it just doesn't suit people's needs going into the future." People are also after public open space, a contentious issue in the City of Swan, after a public outcry over the development of Midland Oval. Tempers flared so hot City of Swan mayor David Lucas was assaulted at a public meeting about the development. Safe and enjoyable public open space needs to be a serious part of the mix if the government is determined councils meet their urban infill targets, according to planners. City of Swan to carry bulk of population boom City of Swan acting chief executive Jim Coten said his local government would home 60 per cent of the infill required in the north-east. The City of Swan's New Junction precinct near Midland will deliver between 750 and 1000 new dwellings, providing homes for an estimated 2000 people. Credit:City of Swan "While we continue to work toward meeting our infill targets, its important to note that there are factors out of the Citys control that continue to influence infill results," he said. "For example, the property market is a big factor in influencing infill. "While house and land prices continue to be relatively affordable in greenfield outer metropolitan areas, the market will continue to contribute to urban sprawl. "Infill is also driven by appropriate public transport infrastructure, and we are starting to see this come to fruition in the City with projects such as Northlink and Metronet, which will bring improved transport infrastructure to our Urban Growth Corridor and provide some development in the area between Ellenbrook and Midland." The City of Swan has rezoned 13,580 properties as part of a new housing strategy, which will contribute toward meeting infill targets. "Midland Town Centre is a major strategic centre for the City of Swan and surrounds," Mr Coten said. "The New Junction project in Midland ties right in with the Citys infill requirements and aligns with Midlands role as a strategic centre. "The 11-hectare precinct will deliver a diverse new range of housing, business and retail opportunities together with new public and community spaces that make up more than one fifth of the precinct. "Between 750 and 1000 new dwellings are set to be established, providing homes for an estimated 2000 people." Back to the future: Railways in vogue The history of the north-east of the city was dominated by rail and, to some extent, its future will be, too. The Midland Rail Workshops, which closed in the 1990s, were a major driver of employment in the eastern suburbs. But several recent announcements have made rail relevant again for the region, with new projects on the horizon. The Morley-Ellenbrook rail link, which the government plans to start building in 2019, will lead to affordable housing development along its route. A 220-hectare development in Brabham will provide 3000 new homes about 23 kilometres from Perth's CBD. Loading "The project will focus strongly on creating a diverse and inclusive community that will enable all groups to be an active part of their local neighbourhood," Housing Minister Peter Tinley said. "Residents will enjoy a vibrant community connected to Perth through the Whiteman Park rail station, which is planned for construction by 2022." While the rail line will be an opportunity for affordable housing development along its route, it has been driven by the growth of Ellenbrook and urban sprawl. "Not that we would want to change that, or could change it," Mr Kiely said. "But if we see similar developments happening in the future, then it puts pressure on the state government in terms of providing infrastructure for those areas." Earlier this month the state government announced it had chosen Bellevue, near Midland, as the preferred site to assemble 246 new railcars to meet demand from the Perth's expanding rail network. Eventually the Midland line will run to a new station in Bellevue. Guildford's heritage attraction and unanswered development questions Mr Kiely is also secretary of the Guildford Association, which wants to preserve the heritage of the settlement-era suburb, which he said would be an attraction for developers keen to build around it. But he said infill development just wouldn't work in Guildford. Loading "We trying to create distinct areas with character around Guildford, but we don't want to homogenise the whole of Perth," he said. "On the back of Guildford, to the north, south-east and -west you can put greater infill, because you have greater character that provides relief." Labor leader Luke Foley was eager to paint Labor as an outside chance, while sheeting home a Liberal loss as a catastrophic outcome for the Premiers leadership. The Liberals should never lose a seat like this. They've never looked like losing it since Eisenhower was president of the United States. The Liberal campaign has been firmly parked in the realm of expectations management since the byelection was called in August, triggered by the disgraced exit of former MP Daryl Maguire following a corruption inquiry. It was then rocked by the federal government's implosion and the spectacular toppling of Malcolm Turnbull's prime ministership midway through the byelection campaign an almost comical spanner in the works for a party seeking to repair its relationship with a disgusted electorate. Independent candidate for Wagga Wagga Joe McGirr is seen as the Liberals' biggest threat in the seat. Credit:Emma Hillier "Yes, helpful," Mr Ham said, facetiously, in a moment of levity at the pre-polling station. "I think most people realise the Liberal party has done a lot of good in the region, and were very far removed from federal politics," she added. The government's attempt to seduce the electorate with more than $100 million worth of promises appears not to have resonated, with some recent polling showing the Liberals' primary vote has plummeted as low as 24 per cent less than half what Mr Maguire polled at the 2015 election. ABC election analyst Antony Green said if the polling proved correct, the Liberals would almost certainly lose the seat, making it the second safe Coalition seat lost in a byelection in two years. Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Liberal candidate Julia Ham walk the streets of Wagga Wagga on Friday. Credit:Nick Moir The Nationals got 32 per cent [primary vote] in Orange [byelection] and lost. So the Liberals have got to get into the low 30s or they cant win, Mr Green said, predicting that the outcome would not be known on Saturday night. To try and win it from under 30 per cent is pretty damn hard. Loading Around 10,000 people had already cast their vote by close of pre-polling on Friday the first chance for voters anywhere in Australia to register their anger with the federal government. Robyn, a lifelong Liberal voter aged in her 70s who did not wish to use her surname, said she had decided to "do something new" and had voted for Dr McGirr. "It's the internal fighting. They've let us all down" she said, referring to the very public factional war among the federal Liberal party. Mark Murphy, who also voted early on Friday, said he had backed the independent candidate "because of the Daryl Maguire situation". "I didn't like it, it was pretty shonky what he did," Mr Murphy said. Over the course of the campaign, a cavalcade of fly-in-fly-out ministers have descended on Wagga some of them coming multiple times to announce big-ticket items, including $50 million to redevelop Tumut Hospital, $10 million for a new conservatorium of music, and $30 million for a new multi-story free car park for the Wagga base hospital. Ms Berejiklian's visit on Friday was her fifth to seat in as many weeks. Thousands of pages of documents relating to Opposition Leader Matthew Guy's botched rezoning of farmland on Phillip Island were removed from the State Parliament website on Friday morning after it emerged that sensitive personal information had also been published. The Andrews government on Monday ordered the highly unusual release of the 80,000 documents from the former Coalition government. The farmland in Ventnor at the centre of Matthew Guy's controversial planning decision. Credit:The Age, Eddie Jim The documents showed Mr Guy's decision as planning minister to settle the dispute over Phillip Island land out of court cost taxpayers $3.5 million. It was despite senior lawyers at the time telling the government it would have cost taxpayers about $250,000 if the case had gone to trial. The story of the vanilla trade in Madagascar is one of dangers and rewards, and can be told through three vital links in the chain that delivers the flavour from the fields to port, where it is exported to the world. The Peasant: Gruelling Work, Always on Guard Most vanilla still comes from small farms, like Oclin's, where the work is backbreaking. Vanilla plants need to be nurtured for three to four years before bearing pods. The flowers bloom once a year for 24 hours and must be immediately pollinated. Ripe vanilla pods stamped with the owners initials in Antsahalalina, Madagascar. Credit:New York Times Melipona bees in Mexico, where the Aztecs first used vanilla, originally did this job, but the insects never existed in Madagascar. So each season, about 40 million vanilla plants are fertilised by hand using a toothpick-sized wooden needle. Once pollinated, a flower produces green beans within two months; the vanilla fragrance is tucked inside in thousands of little black seeds and an oily film. The beans begin fermenting once picked, so growers must quickly find buyers. The hard work does not bother Oclin. "The problem is security," he said, explaining that thieves will attack and kill farmers for their vanilla pods. Men armed with fishing spears, clubs and machetes guard a vanilla plantation in Madagascar's north-eastern Sava region. Credit:New York Times So not only does he patrol his plot of about 3000 vanilla vines, he pays three men to stand guard every night during the four months before the summer harvest. The men are armed with double-pronged fishing spears and clubs, plus Oclin's rifle. Each night, a vigilante group patrolling local plantations stops by with a half-dozen men armed with clubs and machetes. "Every vanilla plot will be guarded," Oclin said. With little public trust in a corrupt police force and justice system, mob justice often prevails when a suspected thief is caught. In April, a local militia captured a thief with freshly picked vanilla. He was beaten with sticks until he collapsed, then hacked to death with machetes, according to residents. It was just one of dozens of similar "vanilla murders" over the past two seasons. But arrests do happen. On one day this year, "we had 33 convictions", said Volozara Sakina Mohamady, director of the prison in Antalaha, one of the Sava region's main ports. "Mostly for vanilla." Despite the risks, Oclin has seen a small payoff from the vanilla trade. He now has a smartphone and a Facebook account, and his one-room home has a TV and satellite dish powered by solar energy. The Middleman: 'With Vanilla, Life Is Sweet' In Sambava, in the shade of a mango tree, Pascale Rasafindakoto, 44, a "commisionnaire", or middleman, waits with dozens of his peers for lower-level sellers to arrive from the countryside with small plastic bags of vanilla beans. The aroma, texture and bean size - bigger is better - are examined and a price negotiated. Sometimes, Rasafindakoto ventures into the countryside in a battered car in search of deals. His trip back might include a forced stop at one of the frequent roadblocks, where police expect a payoff to pass. Pascale Rasafindakoto, a commisionnaire, or middleman, lies at home in bed with his son, in Sambava, Madagascar. Credit:New York Times "I've never had any problems with gendarmes," he said smiling. "I work with them. I have to give them something so they are my friends." With beans spoiling so quickly, growers have little bargaining power. They often get much less money for their beans than middlemen like Rasafindakoto receive when selling the beans to a central curing facility. "We've been poor for too long," said Dominique Rakotoson, 55, a longtime farmer in Sambava who represents 100 families of vanilla growers. "Despite the price hike, most farmers remain poor because they sell their crops right away, or too early." Tales of commissionaires swindling growers abound. They are also widely accused of lowering overall quality by mixing good and bad vanilla. "The middlemen is where the shady business goes on," Rakotoson said. Commissionaires trade vanilla from a vehicle in Sambava. Credit:New York Times Rasafindakoto shrugs off talk like this. His family now has a new house with a flat-screen TV and makes frequent trips to the beach to barbecue with friends. The vanilla trade is hard work, he said, so why not enjoy the good times while they last? "With vanilla, life is sweet," Rasafindakoto said. "It has sped up and we can live it fully." The Exporter: 'It's Like Cocaine in Latin America' Michel Lomone presides over his warehouse in Antalaha, watching a small army of aproned women curing, sorting and packing tonnes of dried vanilla into boxes for export to multinational flavouring and fragrance companies. Michel Lomone smells cured vanilla pods at his warehouse in Antalaha. Credit:New York Times While wealthy by local standards, Lomone's biggest concern is the same as Oclin's: theft. "There is no security of goods or of people," Lomone said. "The system of justice is rotten. There's total impunity. It's like cocaine in Latin America. They get the little guys, but not the head." Lomone said he was concerned about the boom's effect on local culture, with people doing whatever they can to get rich quick. Employees sort cured vanilla at a warehouse owned by Michel Lomone. Credit:New York Times "Now in Madagascar, it's not a problem of poverty to eat, but of social poverty," he said. "It's about the competition to keep up with others making fast money. It's not good. We can't keep going like this." Delhi: As India's Supreme Court unanimously struck down one of the world's oldest bans on consensual gay sex on Thursday, a groundbreaking victory for gay rights buried one of the most glaring vestiges of the country's colonial past. After weeks of deliberation by the court and decades of struggle by gay Indians, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the law was "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary." LGBT people and their supporters celebrate in Bangalore after the India's top court struck down a colonial-era law that made homosexual acts punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Credit:AP News of the decision instantly shot around India. On the steps of an iconic courthouse in Bangalore, people danced, kissed and hugged tightly, eyes closed. In Mumbai, India's pulsating commercial capital, human rights activists showered themselves in a blizzard of confetti. The justices eagerly went further than simply decriminalising gay sex. From now on, they ruled, gays are to be accorded all the protections of the Indian Constitution. Boris Johnson, the pro-Brexit former foreign secretary who is widely believed to be after Prime Minister Theresa Mays job, has announced he is getting a divorce. The revelation prompted speculation he is 'clearing the decks' of bad news for an imminent leadership bid. In a short statement issued by Johnson and his wife Marina Wheeler, a senior human rights lawyer and author, the pair announced that "several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate". The front page of The Sun revealed that former foreign secretary Boris Johnson had separated from his wife of 25 years "We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead." During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control. More recently, the US military itself sought to develop microwave arms that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people's heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare. Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen US diplomats and their family members in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Havana and Washington. 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 Smith, the study's 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. Los Angeles: Australian boxer Shaun Haywood, accused of the attempted murder of a security guard outside model Miranda Kerr's Malibu home, has finally been cleared to stand trial in Los Angeles. Haywood has been locked up in the California jail system for almost two years. Miranda Kerr was not at home when an intruder allegedly attacked her security guard while trying to deliver a letter to her. Credit:AP At numerous court proceedings doubts remained whether Haywood, 31, who allegedly went to Kerr's home to give her a letter, was mentally fit to be prosecuted. A shackled Haywood, dressed in a gold LA County Jail jumpsuit, appeared briefly in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday. News Story not available This story has been published on: 2021-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. The HMS Albion was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City, where it docked on Monday following a deployment in and around Japan. Details of the challenge have not been made public, but both sides are said to have remained calm during the encounter on 31 August. They said the move was to demonstrate that Britain did not recognise China's excessive claims to Paracel Island which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Around $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes through the hotly disputed area each year with China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei all staking a claim. China's navy warned the British vessel to leave Chinese territorial waters. "The Chinese side strongly urges the British side to immediately stop such kinds of provocative actions", China's Foreign Ministry told Reuters on Thursday. The Royal Navy said it was conducting a freedom of navigation exercise "in full compliance with global law". The China Daily said Britain was trying to "curry favor" with the United States, which has been pushing for more global participation in Freedom of Navigation Operations in the strategic waterways. The Royal Navy has sailed close to the disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, ) several times in recent years, but not within the 12 nautical mile limit, regional diplomatic sources have said. Inspirational BBC presenter Rachael Bland loses cancer battle, aged 40 She has also put together a collection of handwritten notebooks, perfume, and other personal items for Freddie . I do not want to know about statistics and prognosis. "Our hearts are with you Steve and Freddie x". China said the issue of independence had nothing to do with freedom of speech and was a serious violation of China's constitution and Hong Kong law. "China and the United Kingdom had agreed to actively explore the possibility of discussing a free trade agreement after Brexit, but any act that harms China's core interests will only put a spanner in the works", the paper said. "But China will be displeased as it suggests that US allies are responding to Washington's appeals". FONOPs, which are largely symbolic, have so far not persuaded Beijing to curtail its South China Sea activities, which have included extensive reclamation of reefs and islands and the construction of runways, hangars and missile systems. The British vessel was reportedly asserting its right to freedom of navigation in the region, when it sailed past an island in the Paracel chain which is occupied by Chinese forces. A second source -who asked not to be named - said the Chinese confronted the Brit ship, even though it hadn't entered Chinese territory. Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, said in June that deployment of the three ships was meant to send the "strongest of signals" on the importance of freedom of navigation. It followed warnings to China by US Secretary of Defence, James Mattis, of "consequences" if it continued to militarise the South China Sea. In April, warships from Australia had a close "encounter" with the Chinese navy in the contested sea. Urbana: Former US president Barack Obama assailed President Donald Trump and Republicans on Friday, urging Democrats to restore a "semblance of sanity" to politics by voting in November's elections. In an unusually blistering attack on his successor, Obama said Americans were living in dangerous times and accused Republicans of threatening democracy, dividing the country, undermining global alliances and cozying up to Russia. "In two months we have the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics," he said in a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Trudeau said Tuesday during a press conference to announce funding for transit in Surrey, B.C., that Canada would not sign onto a North American Free Trade Agreement that does not include a dispute resolution mechanism and exemptions for cultural industries. The two lead ministers on NAFTA held lengthy meetings in Washington on Wednesday. USA and Canadian negotiators started a second day of talks aimed at rescuing NAFTA as the deadline for a deal this week, set out by Trump, inched closer. But Canada's dairy industry - backed by Quebec politicians of all stripes - is adamant that it won't stand for the government allowing the US any more market access, saying it has compromised enough on past trade deals with the European Union and Pacific Rim countries. "There are a number of things we absolutely must see in a renegotiated NAFTA", he told reporters in the Pacific province of British Columbia. The Trump administration views it as an infringement of USA sovereignty. "I think the relationship between Canada and the USA is so close and deep", he says, "that it will take more than one president to destroy it". After consulting with Mulroney over the weekend, Trudeau made clear he shares that view. In fact, since the start of NAFTA talks in August 2017, Trudeau's government set out three "no-go" zones: Canada's quota system that controls dairy, poultry and egg production, a dispute settlement system to resolve complaints about unfair anti-dumping and counter-vailing duties, and the so-called "cultural exemption". "Analysts say that could be very bad for the USA auto industry, which makes cars and sources parts across all three countries". "We have red lines that Canadians simply will not accept", Trudeau said. Lighthizer's report said American networks had concerns about the CRTC policy: "U.S. suppliers of programming believe that the price Canadian networks pay for Super Bowl rights is determined by the value of advertising they can sell in Canada, and that the CRTC's decision reduces the value of their programming". If they don't reach an agreement by the end of the week, President Trump has threatened to cut Canada out of the deal and forge ahead with a new pact with Mexico alone. US Open tournament director says courts were slowed down this year But he broke back in the match's next-to-last game, then served out the victory at love. "I think it would be really cool". Djokovic's first serve of his second violation was then ruled as a fault when serving at a crucial moment in a match. Trump has threatened to push ahead with a bilateral deal with Mexico, effectively killing the nearly 25-year-old three-country NAFTA pact, which covers $1.2 trillion in trade. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pivoted during high-stakes negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement this week; saying he can't sign-on to any deal that doesn't protect Canada's "culture" and history. The talks are scheduled to resume Wednesday in Washington. Which of these should Canada compromise on to save NAFTA? The two sides broke off talks Friday as Trump formally notified Congress of the deal with Mexico, saying Canada might join later. Lorna Dawson, director of the Canada Institute at Washington's Wilson Center, watched all of the consultation hearings Congress held a year ago prior to the start of the NAFTA re-negotiation. 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. Anyone who followed the 2016 US presidential election knew that Donald Trump was determined to terminate NAFTA. On August 15, the three countries began talks in Washington on overhauling the agreement, seeking to address, apart from Trump's demand for a "better deal" for the United States, issues around labour, environment, and changes necessitated by the expansion of new online businesses. Lawrence Herman, an global trade counsel, said it prevents US takeovers, restricts USA ownership and ensures Canadian artists - such as authors, actors and musicians - get certain preferences. 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. 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Digital Editor US retail giant Walmart on Friday said that it has complied with the tax obligations of its $ 16 billion acquisition of India's largest online retailer Flipkart but did not say the quantum of taxes it paid. The tax authorities had set September 7 as the due date for depositing a withholding tax on the deal amount it paid to shareholders of Flipkart. Withholding tax, or retention tax, is an income tax to be paid to the government by payer of the income rather than by the recipient of the income. The tax is thus withheld or deducted from the income due to the recipient. In case of Walmart-Flipkart deal, the withholding tax pertains to the capital gains made by the shareholders of Flipkart. "We take our legal obligations seriously, including paying taxes to governments where we operate. Following our Flipkart investment, we have now completed our tax withholding obligations under the guidance of the Indian Tax authorities," a Walmart spokesperson told PTI. However, the company did not disclose the tax amount deposited with the I-T authorities at the time of the story going to wire. US-based retail giant Walmart Inc had completed acquisition of 77 per cent stake in Flipkart for about $ 16 billion in mid August. As per the provisions of the I-T law, Walmart has to deduct withholding tax on payments made to sellers and deposit it with the Indian authorities on the seventh day of the subsequent month, which in this case is September 7. Of the 44 shareholders of Flipkart who have sold stake to Walmart, the significant ones include SoftBank, Naspers, venture fund Accel Partners and eBay. Also co-founder has sold his stake to the US retail major. As per domestic tax law, long-term capital gains tax is levied at 20 per cent for shares sold by foreign investors after 24 months of purchase. However, the I-T law also provides for a taxpayer to pay taxes at a lower or nil rate if he is eligible to claim the benefits under the double taxation avoidance agreement between India and the country from where the investment was routed. The I-T department has been reviewing Section 9 (1) of the I-T Act, which deals with indirect transfer provisions, to see if the benefits under the bilateral tax treaties with countries like Singapore and Mauritius, could be available for foreign investors selling stakes to Walmart. Singapore-registered Flipkart Pvt Ltd holds majority stake in Flipkart India. According to sources in the department, the tax officers would now look into the taxes deposited by Walmart for every shareholder who sold shares in Flipkart. If any discrepancy is found, then it would write to Walmart seeking its response for failing to deposit the taxes. India's second-largest software services exporter Infosys Ltd said on Friday it formed a joint venture with Singapore state investor Temasek as it expands its presence in Southeast Asia. Temasek looks to enhance its IT services through the venture in which Infosys will hold a 60 per cent stake and Temasek 40 per cent, Infosys said in a statement. The joint venture will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temasek's unit in Singapore, Trusted Source Pte Ltd, which currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients. Headquartered in ... Insurance regulator Irdai will set a timeline for the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on how it must go about reducing its stakeholding from 51 per cent to 15 per cent eventually in IDBI Bank, said Subhash Khuntia, Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai). He did not specify when the regulator will announce the timeline. Once the proposed acquisition of the bank is completed in the coming months, the insurance regulator will provide a timeline for LIC to scale-down its holding in the bank back to 15 per cent. LIC currently has a ... The long-drawn battle for Essar Steel has just gotten longer. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal today ruled that Russia's VTB Capital-backed NuMetal and Lakshmi Mittal-led ArcelorMittal are both eligible to bid for the beleaguered company. However, while Numetal's second bid will be eligible, the same by ArcelorMittal will qualify only if it clears all outstanding dues of the defaulting firms it was previously associated with. The two-member bench of NCLAT headed by Chairman Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya further set a deadline of September 11 for ArcelorMittal to clear the Rs 7,000 crore dues of Uttam Galva Steel and KSS Petron in other to remain in the race. After six months of painstaking insolvency proceedings and due diligences, these two players had been the only bidders for Essar Steel back in February. The company, incidentally, was among the initial 12 companies identified by the RBI for insolvency proceedings. According to The Economic Times, ArcelorMittal has offered Rs 30,000 crore in the first round while NuMetal had offered Rs 18,000 crore. But the Committee of Creditors (CoC) had rejected both bids on the grounds that they were ineligible under the provisions of Section 29A of the amended IBC and called for a second round of bidding. Numetal's first bid was rejected due to the 25% share owned by Rewant Ruia, the son of Essar Steel founder Ravi Ruia, since he was deemed a related party. ArcelorMittal's ineligibility stemmed from the fact that it had sold its 29% stake in Uttam Galva, which was also facing insolvency proceedings, just weeks before submitting its bid for Essar. Though both companies challenged the lenders' decision at the NCLT soon after they were disqualified, they also submitted fresh bids. Though the tribunal did not give any relief to the bidders, it asked the CoC to take another look at the original bids before disqualifying them while giving ArcelorMittal and Numetal 30 days to rectify grounds of rejection. Though they challenged the NCLT decision - as well as each other's eligibility - in NCLAT, both parties took the time to work their way out of the roadblocks. ArcelorMittal sought out and successfully bagged classification as a non-promoter in Uttam Galva. Furthermore, in May the steelmaker placed Rs 7,000 crore in an escrow account of State Bank of India (SBI) to clear the debt of its associated companies, with the condition that lenders disqualify Numetal's bid. Meanwhile, at Numetal, JSW Steel bought out the contentious 25 per cent stake held by Ruia. With the NCLAT's latest ruling, the CoC will now open the second round of bids, which also saw participation from Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group. Significantly, the bench also granted more time for Essar's resolution process, deducting the litigation period of April 26 to September 7 from the 270-day deadline prescribed under the IBC. The NCLAT also said that the lenders are allowed to further negotiate bids for Essar and decide expeditiously. Despite the fact that Essar Steel boasts the third biggest debt pile (around Rs 49,000 crore) among RBI's Dirty Dozen, it is a big prize to land. Steel tycoon Mittal has wanted to build a steel plant in the country since 2005 but has been repeatedly thwarted by regulatory hassles. Essar's 10 million tonne steel plant in Hazira, Gujarat - India's largest single-location flat steel plant - fits neatly into the company's plan to create a sizable footprint in the Indian steel market. Numetal, likewise, stands to gain much from the acquisition since India is expected to overtake Japan to become the world's second largest steel producer soon. In fact, the government expects domestic production in India to double by 2031, with growth rate expected to go above 10% in FY18. Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to start road tests of its electric vehicles (EVs) in India next month as a precursor to launch of EV in 2020, its chairman Osamu Suzuki said Friday. Suzuki said the company has decided to launch EV in India around 2020 in cooperation with Toyota Motor Corporation. It will commence production of lithium-ion batteries, used in electric-vehicles, at its Gujarat plant in 2020. "I am pleased to announce today that we will start road running test using fleet of 50 EV prototype vehicles in India from next month for developing safe and easy-to-use EV for Indian customers in line with Indian climatic and traffic conditions," Osamu Suzuki said at the Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE' in New Delhi. For increasing the penetration of EVs in India, it is obvious that it cannot be done without sufficient charging infrastructure development, he noted. "In this regard, we look forward to proactive leadership from the Government of India," Suzuki said. He said that in India there is significant number of people who are eagerly waiting to have their own car. It is said that EV will be around 30 per cent in 2030, which means huge population of vehicles would still be using non-EV at that time, Osamu said. "In order to answer to the need of better lifestyle and meeting expectation of Indian customers, as well as resolving environmental challenges at the same time, I think it would be essential to promote not only EV but also hybrid and CNG vehicles too," he noted. "In this sense, we seek the kind support of the government in terms of policy formulation," he added. Osamu said various issues like building a safe and efficient mobility using information technology also need to be taken care of going ahead. "We will continue to make our best effort for resolving all those issues in order to realise sustainable mobility society in India," Osamu said. Suzuki Motor Corporation has around 56 per cent stake India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India. Speaking at the event, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) chairman Anand Mahindra suggested creating a universal application, a digital platform encompassing multi-modal mobility under a public-private partnership run by an autonomous body. Toyota Motor Corporation CEO Takeshi Uchiyamada said the company will make efforts for electrification of its vehicles in India, for which it is working with Suzuki to introduce EVs in the country. Tata Motors MD Guenter Butschek said the company will continue to harness its core competence of bringing solution that country needs. "We are open to building new partnerships and business models to leverage the best competitive advantage in this constantly changing mobility space," he said. SAIC President Chen Zhixin said the company will also bring its new energy vehicles in India through its arm MG Motors India. The company has announced investment of $500 million by 2020 in India. Ford Global Vice President (Mobility and Growth) Brett Wheatley said globally the company is working aggressively on hybrid and electric vehicles and plans to introducing such vehicles in India is under consideration. Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Euisun said the company is looking to introduce vehicles with green technology in India. Even as the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) plans to encourage private industries to enter the field of space research, start-ups in this domain are finding it difficult to raise funds, apart from being bogged down by issues relates to policies. This, despite the fact that some of them have good solutions for both satellites and launch vehicles. Globally, over $18 billion has been invested in start-ups since the year 2000, of which $2.7 billion was came in last year alone. Investors are generally bullish about the market which is expected to increase to $1,104 billion ... It took a woman Judge, Indu Malhotra to get the Supreme Court to man-up and apologise for allowing Section 377 to stay on the statute books. An apology was long overdue. The Courts previous ruling in Koushal v Naz (2013) had upheld the constitutionality of the provision. That Judgment was an abomination both for its effect on the lives of citizens and its (spectacular lack of) legal reasoning. It turned the clock back on more than four years of equal citizenship that had been confirmed by the Delhi High Court. More significantly, it seemed to be the end of ... There is no relief for the common man from skyrocketing fuel prices. A litre of petrol is retailing at Rs 79.99 in the national capital while the same is selling for Rs 87.39 in the financial hub of Mumbai. This marks yet another all-time high in petrol and diesel prices. In one of the biggest jump on a single day ever since the government moved to daily revision in fuel prices, the price of petrol was hiked by Rs 0.48 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 0.52 per litre in Delhi. A litre of diesel now costs Rs 72.07 in Delhi and Rs 76.51 in Mumbai. Fuel prices were raised for the second consecutive day on Friday after they were kept unchanged on September 5. The recent hike in fuel prices has been attributed to a sharp rise in international crude prices and a dramatic fall in the exchange value of the rupee against the US dollar. While the prices of fuel are on a continuous rise, the government has blamed the 'external factors' behind the spike and called the movement 'temporary'. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said, "there is no straight line movement of global crude oil prices. They go up, they come down. In April and May, there was a lot of pressure. In June, they came down. In July, they came down and in August, there is again (an upward) movement. However, these arguments have cut no ice with a huge section of people. Opposition parties who have been demanding excise duty cut on petrol and diesel, will launch nationwide strikes and protests next week over record-high fuel prices, looking to tap rising public anger to hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of elections. Meanwhile, the government has so far not given any indication to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel as it has limited fiscal space available to take any dent in revenue collections. According to reports, the government believes that the current account deficit will overshoot the target if it goes for excise duty cut on petrol and diesel. Fuel prices in Delhi are the cheapest in all metros and most state capitals due to lower sales tax or VAT. Diesel price had previously hit its highest level on May 29 when it reached Rs 69.31 a litre mark in Delhi. Petroleum prices may continue to go up as the international markets are under pressure due the US sanctions on Iran and Saudi Arabia's decision to cut oil production. Iran - which is the second biggest oil exporter to India and the third-largest oil producer in the OPEC Group - is set to plunge into crisis once the United States' sanctions come into effect on November 1. This year in May, Bank of America Merrill Lynch observed that the deteriorating conditions in Iran may push the crude oil prices to $100. State-owned oil firms had in mid-June last year dumped the 15-year practice of revising rates on 1st and 16th of every month in favour of daily price revisions. 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). 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. The central government had raised excise duty on petrol by Rs 11.77 a litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in nine installments between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs 2 a litre. This led to its excise collections from petro goods more than doubling in last four years - from Rs 99,184 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,29,019 crore in 2017-18. States saw their VAT revenue from petro goods rise from Rs 1,37,157 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,84,091 crore in 2017-18. As the decade of retirement in (PSBs) nears its end, a parliamentary committee has called for increasing the retirement age of their chief executive officers (CEOs) to 70 years from the current 60. This comes after PSBs raised with the panel the prospect of a leadership vacuum in the near future. With a view to utilising the expertise of senior bankers, the retirement age of CEOs of PSBs can be raised to 70 years as in the case of their private sector counterparts, the Standing Committee on said in its latest report. In September 2014, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) capped the retirement age for CEOs and whole-time directors of private sector at 70 years, as there was no age limit for these posts earlier. In PSBs, however, the retirement age for CEOs is capped at 60 years, even though the Union government can extend their tenures. Logically, if private have a higher retirement age, it can be argued that their public sector counterparts should also have the same. Besides, the government faces difficulty in filling the top slots. It will be difficult for the government to have a separate policy for PSBs and other public sector units, said Karthik Srinivasan, senior vice-president at Icra. ALSO READ: PSBs reduce their NPAs by Rs 641.06 mn via actual recoveries in FY18: RTI Noting that the present decade till 2020 is a decade of retirement for a large number of experienced executives in PSBs a term coined by the RBI a few years ago the committee said the pinch of the loss of officers with professional depth and experience is already being felt. While recruitment at the junior level is taking place, there has been a slowdown in hiring recently, coupled with the attrition of officer staff, which has led to a shortage at the middle and senior levels. The Indian Banks Association (IBA), in its submission to the committee, termed the issue of succession planning as a very big challenge for PSBs, fuelled by competition from other banks, non-banking financial institutions and fintech companies, and lower remuneration. In PSBs, 95 per cent of the general manager (GM)-level employees, 75 per cent of the deputy GM-level employees, and 58 per cent of additional GM-level employees are going to retire by 2019-20, the committee noted. These senior employees carry with them exposure, experience and wealth of knowledge about clients and other business-related information. The retirement of these employees will create vacuum unless an institutionalised framework is put in place to pass on this wealth of knowledge to the next level, the IBA said. ALSO READ: PSBs should have operational freedom like private lenders: G Padmanabhan Several PSBs under the RBIs prompt corrective action (PCA) highlighted the retirement of executives at various levels as one of the major challenges before them. While Allahabad Bank said huge retirements were leading to loss of experienced employees, Bank of Maharashtra submitted that these were causing a wide gap in the middle and senior management grades. The absence of middle management could lead to adverse impact on banks decision-making process, as this segment of officers played a critical role in translating the top managements strategy into workable action plans, IDBI Bank said. The tenure of B Sriram, who was earlier managing director at State Bank of India, is set to end in September. The committee, chaired by Congress leader Veerappa Moily, presented its report, Banking Sector in India issues, challenges and the way forward including non-performing assets, stressed assets, financial institutions, to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on August 31. As many as seven PSBs are without CEOs at present. While Andhra Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, and Dena Bank have not had a CEO since January, Central Bank, Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra are also headless. Besides, more than half a dozen CEO positions and 20 executive director posts will fall vacant this year. In June, the Banks Board Bureau recommended 15 people to fill up the post of MD and CEOs and 22 candidates for EDs in PSBs. A senior ministry official said a clearance from the vigilance department was pending at this stage, following which the names would be recommended to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a final call. A parliamentary committee has urged the (RBI) to relax the capital-adequacy norms for at least nine out of 21 public sector (PSBs) that may free up capital up to Rs 5.34 trillion, helping the expansion of lenders. The standing committee on finance, in its latest report, has criticised the capital-adequacy requirements set by the and termed them stringent. The committee noted that the Basel framework required the application of capital standards to internationally active Nine PSBs Central Bank of India, Andhra Bank, (OBC), Corporation Bank, Vijaya Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, United Bank of India, Dena Bank, and Punjab and Sind Bank are not internationally active, it said, making a case of easing capital-adequacy norms for them. are required to maintain a minimum capital, in terms of capital-to-risky asset ratio (CRAR) and common equity tier (CET)-1, to ensure they do not lend all the money they receive as deposits and keep a buffer to meet future risks. Capital adequacy ratio of banks is considered to be one of the key indicators of banks health. Basel-III, an international regulatory framework for banks, is being implemented in India in phases since April 2013, and will be fully implemented by March next year. The requires banks to maintain CRAR, including capital-conservation buffer, at 11.5 per cent 1 per cent higher than global Basel norms. The CET-1 of banks must be at least 5.5 per cent of its risk-weighted assets 1 per cent higher than the global norms. Such stringent norms stipulated by the for our banks who are not internationally active at all, is unrealistic and unwarranted, the committee noted. ALSO READ: Indiscriminate lending led to banking crisis, says FM Arun Jaitley The committee called for easing the additional capital requirement set by the RBI over the global norms which will obviate the need for additional capital infusion into these nine PSBs from the Union Budget. These nine banks had aggregate risk-weighted assets of around Rs 9.93 trillion, which means the banks would require additional capital of around Rs 350 billion. If waived, (it) will release huge funds to the extent of approximately Rs 5.34 trillion, representing 51 per cent growth in the loan book of these banks, generating additional interest income of around Rs 500 billion annually, the committee further said. The committee further asked the government and the RBI to defer the time frame for full implementation of Basel-III norms from March 2019 looking at the financial position of PSBs. In the first quarter of this financial year, PSBs posted a collective loss of over Rs 166 billion, with only seven out of 21 state-owned banks posting profits. However, the RBI did not favour deferment of timeline in implementing the Basel-III norms, in its submission to the panel as it seeks to address a lot of shortcomings. It is imperative these regulations are implemented within the laid-out timelines. As a leading and globally interlinked emerging market economy, India can ill-afford to be seen as lagging behind in implementation of globally accepted norms on regulation. In several areas, the implementation has been deferred in alignment with deferment by the Basel committee on Supervision, the RBI said. The CRAR of the system had marginally improved to 13.80 per cent till December 31, 2017, from 13.66 per cent till March 31, 2017, the committee noted. In the case of PSBs, however, the average CRAR had declined from 12.14 per cent to 11.77 per cent during this period. RBI Governor Urjit Patel told the panel it is expected that the banks will have sufficient avenues to raise additional capital in fiscal year 2018-2019 so as not to face any capital constraints. Official sources said the government is also in talks with the RBI to relax the minimum capital norms for banks in a bid to free up capital to meet the lenders growth requirements. US President Donald Trump pledged Thursday to complete a deal on denuclearising the together with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, signalling that negotiations remain alive after weeks of an apparent deadlock. " of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.' Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Trump wrote on Twitter. of North Korea proclaims unwavering faith in President Trump. Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2018 The tweet came hours after Kim renewed his own commitment to the goal of denuclearisation in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in scheduled for September 18-20 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. "The north and the south should further their efforts to realise the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-Yong, who met with Kim, said the North Korean leader also emphasised that his "trust in Trump remains unchanged," the comment which led to the US president's tweet. Chung added that Kim expressed his intention to work closely with the United States to achieve denuclearisation "in the first official term of President Trump," which ends in January 2021. The enthusiastic comments came 12 days after Trump summarily cancelled a trip to by his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, which was aimed at getting the discussions on North Korea's nuclear talks back on track three months after Trump's landmark summit with Kim in Singapore. ALSO READ: Donald Trump accuses China for stalled nuclear talks with North Korea In a statement on August 24, Trump said he was scotching Pompeo's trip "because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearisation of the " He also slammed China as not helping with the effort to convince to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme. "Additionally, because of our much tougher trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearisation as they once were," Trump said at the time. Thursday's statements by the two leaders appeared to paper over differences the two sides have over what the current talks should focus on. Pyongyang apparently wants to first achieve an official end to the seven-decade state of war with South Korea, while Washington wants to start immediately on the long process of denuclearisation. Stephen Biegun, the newly-appointed US envoy for the North, said last month Kim had promised "final, fully verified denuclearisation" at the Singapore summit. But Pyongyang has slammed Washington for its "gangster-like" demands for complete nuclear disarmament. Trump's statement came hours before the US Justice Department unveiled criminal charges against a North Korean government-linked hacker involved in several major cybercrimes, including the hacking of Sony Pictures and the theft of USD 81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh. Pyongyang had no immediate comment on the charges, which it has denied responsibility for in the past, and it was not clear whether they would impact the nuclear negotiations. The State Department announced Thursday that Biegun would travel to South Korea, China and Japan next week for talks on North Korea. In New Delhi Thursday, Secretary of State Pompeo, the former US intelligence chief who heads the US negotiating effort, struck a sober note, saying there is still much work to do. North Korea "is the only country that has commitments under resolutions," he told reporters. "It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We haven't had any nuclear tests, we haven't had any missile tests, which we consider a great thing." "But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make the strategic shift which we talked about, for a brighter future for the people of North Korea, continues," Pompeo added. Exports of Indian shrimps to the United States are likely to slow down, with growth narrowing to about seven per cent to 230,000 tonnes in 2018. Between January and December 2017, India exported about 213,981 tonnes of the seafood, about 39 per cent more than the figure clocked in 2016. Indonesia, the second largest exporter of shrimps to the US, is expected to grow by 15 per cent during the calendar year, according to an industry report. Indonesias exports will touch 135,000 tonnes during 2018 from 118,057 tonnes shipped to the US in 2017. Over the past five ... The benchmark indices ended higher on Friday aided by strong gains in automobiles and metal stocks after the rupee firmed against US dollar. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 38,390, up 147 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,589, up 52 points. Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Auto index settled 2.2 per cent higher led by a rise in the share prices of Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Tata Motors. Nifty Metal index, too, rose 1.9 per cent led by MOIL and Jindal Steel & Power. Firm rupee The rupee was trading ... 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 At least 18 people have been killed in a powerful earthquake that struck Japan's northern island of Hokkaido in the wee hours of Thursday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was quoted by The Japan Times as saying that there were 18 confirmed fatalities, while 24 others are still missing. In Atsuma, rescuers searched manually and used heavy machinery to dig through the rubble to find survivors. The Japanese government said that all the missing people are located in the town. The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned of heavy rain, with chances of mudslides in Hokkaido on Saturday. The weather department added that aftershocks of a similar intensity to yesterday's 6.7 earthquake may occur again. Casualties could rise in the disaster, as rescue operations are still underway. 300 people were injured in the quake, leaving thousands stranded without power and water facilities. Over 10,000 people were forced to spend the night at evacuation centres, the report said. Transportation is slowly becoming available in the region, with some air and rail services already being operational on Friday. Meanwhile, Japanese industry minister Hiroshige Seko urged homes and offices with power to limit their use as much as possible. The quake, which originated at a depth of 40 kilometers below southern Hokkaido, was recorded between 6 and 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in the town of Abira and in the lower 6 in Chitose city. Both cities are southeast of Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. Several incidents of house collapses and landslides have also been reported from various parts of the island. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expelled Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and son of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister late M Karunanidhi, MK Alagiri has written a letter to Madurai District Collector and Commissioner seeking permission to erect a bronze statue of the former Chief Minister in Madurai city. Alagiri was ousted from the DMK in March 2014 for slanderous attacks on senior party members and anti-party activities. On August 13, the former DMK leader had sparked rumours of a succession battle with Stalin at Karunanidhi's memorial in Chennai's Marina Beach by saying that all his father's relatives were on his side. Alagiri had said, "My father's true relatives are all on my side. All the supporters in Tamil Nadu are on my side and are encouraging me. Only time will give the answers; that is all I am willing to say now." However, on Tuesday morning, the DMK general council elected Stalin as the party president, after a total of 1907 party leaders and workers either proposed or seconded Stalin's name for the post. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Salman Khan has been yet again dragged to court along with others associated with his home production Loveratri. An advocate on Thursday filed a complaint alleging the title of the film hurts Hindu sentiments and also demeans the festival of Navaratri. Loveratri is Salman Khan's brother-in-law Aayush Sharma's and newcomer Warina Hussain's debut film. Loveratri is an upcoming romantic drama, filmed at the backdrop of Navaratri. According to PTI, an advocate named Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed a complaint against the makers of Loveratri in a Bihar court alleging that the film is promoting vulgarity and denigrating Goddess Durga. He said that the title will hurt Hindu sentiments as the film is scheduled to release on October 5, which is close to Navaratri festival. Sudhir Kumar Ojha further stated in his complaint that his impression about the yet-to-be-released movie is based on the promos and teasers being broadcast on YouTube and other such channels. Recently, during the launch of Big Boss 12, when Salman Khan was asked to comment on this complaint filed against Loveratri, he said, "Some people, I don't know who they are, have some problem with the title of the film. It is a beautiful title. There is nothing more beautiful than love, so it is called Loveratri. It is not demeaning any culture. Our prime minister is from that culture. So, when you play a character like I played a Sardar in a film or I played a Haryanvi in 'Sultan', I do it with a lot of respect." He added, "We are making the film with Navaratri in the backdrop. We have made this beautiful film celebrating the music, colour, love and the fun of the festive season. We don't need any publicity like that. Once the film is released those people will know there is nothing." Salman Khan said he is confident that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) will pass the film with a 'U' certificate. He further said, "The Censor Board is the right body to decide. I am sure it will get a 'U' certificate. And if the censor board has given the certificate then I don't think anybody has the right to say anything." The complaint will be heard by sub-divisional judicial magistrate Shailendra Kumar on 12 September. Sudhir Kumar Ojha filed the complaint against Salman Khan under IPC sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship), 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), 153 (want only giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153B (assertions, imputations prejudicial to national integration) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy). Edited by Anneshwa Bagchi Andhra Pradesh cabinet has approved the allotment of 15,091 houses in 2018-19 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) - NTR (Urban) Nagar scheme. In a cabinet meeting held on Thursday afternoon at the state secretariat, it was also decided that if the houses allotted in rural areas of the state from 1993-94 to 2006-07 are in dilapidated condition, they will be allotted new houses under NTR rural housing program with some conditions. The state government also decided to pay dearness allowance at the revised rates to the state government employees and pensioners. The revised rates will be applicable from 7.1.2017 and will cost Rs 627crores to the state exchequer. A draft bill to set up AP maritime board, for development of seaports in the state and to look after their administration was also approved along with the proposal of revising exclusive limits of Kriahnapatnam port. Andhra Pradesh cabinet also took important decisions to provide a boost to aviation sector in the state and approved incentives for Indigo airlines to run two return flights per week in Vijayawada Singapore root. The Vijayawada Puttaparthi flight services were granted approval along with nine seated aircraft in Vijayawada Nagarjuna Sagar root The cabinet also sanctioned the proposal to revise the terms and conditions of earlier agreement to get a credit of Rs 1385 crores from open market for development of Machilipatnam deepwater port and industrial corridor thereof. It also decided to give one-year subsidy of Rs. 2 per unit in power tariff to the aqua farmers with effect from 1st of August. The subsidy is expected to benefit 94,913 farmers. To further boost the education sector in the state, the cabinet also gave a nod to making "International Institute of Digital Technologies" as section 8 company and allocating 97.5 crores for next 2 years for investment and investment expense. Rangaraya Medical College, Kakinada was also allotted a paediatrics section and it was decided that Andhra Pradesh Medical and Dental Institutions will be given semi-autonomous status. The NTR Cancer Care Project to be set up with Tata Trust was also granted approval. During the meeting, the government also announced that an unemployment allowance scheme will be launched on September, 14 and list of beneficiaries will be finalized by October 2. Cabinet also decided to set up an Arya Vysya Welfare and Development Corporation for giving loans to the Vysya community for self-employment, financial aid and foreign education. Time limit for exporting red sanders to Patanjali Ayurved was also extended for three more months. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Avoid complex technical terms or use negligibly for official purposes, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 31st Meeting of Central Hindi Committee while stressing on the need to spread Hindi language through day-to-day purposes. The meeting was held in Delhi on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Modi. The Prime Minister also emphasized on the need to reduce a gap between the use of Hindi in government and in society and said that an educational institution can help in leading this campaign. He also said that the country is proud of the world's oldest Indian language like Tamil and that all the languages in the country can enrich Hindi. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal and other dignitaries were also present during the meeting. All the members expressed their views on the issues related to the propagation of Hindi language. Prime Minister Modi congratulated all the members of the committee for creative and practical suggestions. On this occasion, Prime Minister Modi also released Gujarati-Hindi Fund published by Central Hindi Directorate. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday extended its support to Congress-led Bharat Bandh call on September 10 over fuel price hike and fall of the currency. "The NCP appeals everybody for their cooperation and support to make this bandh a grand success," the party said in a statement. On Thursday, the Congress party gave call for a Bharat Bandh on September 10. Apart from NCP, other opposition parties including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) gave their consents of support to the nationwide shutdown. Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot told the media that the consensus to protest against the rising fuel prices and the rupee slump was reached after a meeting of all party general secretaries and the state leaders. He also said that while prices had hiked during the rule of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the then prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the government took essential steps to control the situation. Meanwhile, the left parties have given a separate call for bandh on the same day on the hike in fuel prices, the problem of farmers and unemployment issue. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was on Thursday stabbed in the abdomen during his campaign event in the state of Minas Gerais. Supporters were carrying Bolsonaro in the city of Juiz de Fora when he was stabbed by a person; the New York Times reported citing local media. Flavio Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro's son, took to Twitter to report that the injuries are superficial and that his father is doing well. He later informed that his father had been wounded in the liver, lung and intestine, but was in stable condition. A study by Brazilian research company IBOPE puts 63-year-old Bolsonaro in the lead in the elections with 22 per cent voter support. His closest opponents are at 12 per cent, according to the study released this week. Bolsonaro, a right-wing politician, has garnered loyal support among several segments of Brazilians. He has condemned immigrants, promoted gun ownership in the country, and promised to reduce the violence in the country by making it easier for the police to kill criminals. However, many in Brazil are against Bolsonaro for his alleged sexist, racist and homophobic stance. According to New York Times, he once allegedly told Maria do Rosario, a fellow legislator in Brazil's Congress, that she was not worthy of being raped by him. In another incident, the Social Liberal Party leader said that "I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I prefer that he die in an accident." He also publicly praised Col. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a former colonel in the Brazilian Army, who was recognised by a Sao Paulo civil court as being a torturer during the military dictatorship of the country from 1964 to 1985. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cybercrimes were posing a big challenge to the security establishment, opined Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday. Singh, who inaugurated a three-day Defence and Homeland Security Expo and Conference 2018, said, "Security agencies are trying to obtain new software and improved face-recognition technology to enable them to dig deeper into social media about a criminal whose record is unavailable in the police database." He further said that terrorists have been detected by the security agencies to be using dark internet for recruiting operatives. "Big criminals use it for buying and selling confidential information," he added. The Home Minister also detailed about the new tech-edge that the country's security agencies are looking forward to obtaining. Speaking about the concept of utilizing social media for the identification of criminals, he said, "We can track criminals through the CCTV cameras. But at times, it is very difficult to identify and recognize them. We are trying that face recognition technology is better improved so that if a criminal is not identified by CCTV cameras, there should be a technology to get his face recognized. This is what we are trying... We are also trying that if there is no information about criminals in the CCTNS (crime and criminal tracking network system), we should have such software that can dig into the social media network and collate information about such elements." Singh also spoke eloquently about effectively securing India's 15,000-kilometre long land and 7000-km sea border and talked of a soon to be inaugurated pilot project for laser fencing of Jammu and Kashmir border. He said, "We are testing laser fences, radars and non-physical barriers at other border locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Assam. The country's borders need to be effectively secured. Organised crime and terrorism are the biggest challenges for us. We know that these elements are using new technology and sophisticated weapons. That is why technical upgrade and modernisation of the central and state police forces are necessary and these two should go together." The Home Minister also applauded security forces and agencies for their work and stated that it was an achievement for the Central Government that not even one major incident of terrorism has occurred in the country in past four years. He further recounted the efforts taken by his ministry to simplify the weapon, equipment and gadget sale for security forces to a two-tier system and said that in future if need be, more financial powers will be delegated to service chiefs as well. Singh also urged the defence manufacturing industry to hold discussions for simplifying and streamlining the process for obtaining production licenses. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The newly formed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government has axed economist Atif R Mian from the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Economic Advisory Council (EAC). Senator Faisal Javed Khan put out a tweet informing that Dr Mian "was asked to step down from the Advisory council." Observers believe the decision to remove the Princeton University economist reflects the country's strong bias against minority Ahmadi community. Dr Mian is an Ahmadi, whose appointment to the country's top economic body raised eyebrows of several religio-political leaders, particularly from the Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat Movement and the Majlis-i-Ahrar Islam. Ahmadis or Ahmadiyya are a minority sect, which identifies itself as Muslim. But most Pakistanis reject them as blasphemous for believing there was a prophet after Muhammad. The community faces persecution in the country and is a target of violence and widespread discrimination, especially from religious fanatics. The removal comes close on the heels of PTI-led government defending the academic's nomination to the EAC, stressing that it will "not bow to extremists". According to the Dawn, Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhary had told media persons on Tuesday that "Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority." He added, "What should we do with the minorities in the country? Should we throw them out?" Three days later, Chaudhary took a U-turn. He tweeted, "The government wants to move forward alongside scholars and all social groups, and it is inappropriate if a single nomination creates an impression to the contrary." 43-year-old Dr Atif R Mian is a Professor of Economics in the University of Princeton, United States. In an op-ed titled 'Dr Atif Mian the pride of Pakistan' Busharat Elahi Jamil writes, "International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranked him (Dr Mian) amongst the top 25 economists of the He has taught in reputable universities like the University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley and now is proudly teaching in the Princeton University." The op-ed further mentions, "Pakistan's external debt and liabilities have increased to $ 92 billion, out of which $14 billion were borrowed last year. Reportedly, public-debt has increased about 43 per cent to $23 billion during last five years." Imran Khan's government constituted the EAC, with 11 national and international economists, to fire-fight this financial crisis. "He belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, living in US and is a true patriot of Pakistan. But regrettably, fundamentalists and radicalised religious stratums are against his selection because of his sect," Jamil says in the article. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Special Cell of the Delhi Police arrested two suspected terrorists, who are allegedly linked to terror outfit Islamic State of Jammu & Kashmir (ISJK). According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Kushwaha, the duo identified as Parvez and Jamshed, hailing from Kashmir, were arrested from Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort area on Thursday night. "Two pistols, 10 cartridges and four mobile phones were seized from them. They had acquired weapons from Uttar Pradesh and were going to Kashmir. The weapons were to be used for terrorist activities," Kushwaha said while briefing the media. Confirming that the capital was not part of the terrorist's plan and was being used as a route to get into Jammu and Kashmir, Kushwaha told ANI, "During the investigation, we also found out that they were following instructions of the number two leader of ISJK, Adil Thokar and the leader of the outfit is Umar Ibn Nazir." The two suspected terrorists are in police custody for five days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin on Friday extended his support to the 'Bharat Bandh' called by the Congress on September 10 over rising fuel prices. Tagging Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Twitter, Stalin urged party workers to make it a big success. "DMK will extend complete support to the #BharatBandh call by the Indian Congress protesting against the BJP government for steep rise in prices of petrol-diesel," the DMK president tweeted He also wrote, "I urge the people and party cadres to make the bandh on 10th Sept a big success #FuelPriceHike @RahulGandhi." Fuel prices have once again gone up on Friday morning in Delhi and Mumbai, increasing the demand for government intervention among commuters. On the one hand, petrol in New Delhi is being sold 48 paise higher at Rs 79.99 per litre, while the price of diesel has been increased by 52 paise to Rs.72.07 per litre. On the other hand, petrol is being sold at Rs 87.39 per litre and diesel at Rs.76.51 per litre in Mumbai. The constant surge in fuel prices has led the opposition parties to blame the Narendra Modi government for not doing enough for citizens. However, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said the surge in fuel prices was a result of the rise in crude oil prices in the international market, and declining value of the Indian Rupee against the US dollar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on a bunch of petitions seeking the transfer of investigation of the Elgaar Parishad case to the Investigative Agency (NIA) to September 17. The hearing was adjourned after the lawyer of an accused said that the Supreme Court will hear a plea on the transfer of probe to an independent agency on September 12. Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court had extended the house arrest of Varavara Rao (Revolutionary Democratic Front president), Sudha Bharadwaj (Indian Association of People's Lawyers vice president), Gautam Navlakha (People's Union for Democratic Rights leader), Vernon Gonsalves (former secretary, Maharashtra State Committee of CPI-Maoist) and Arun Ferreira (former member, Maharashtra State Committee of CPI-Maoist), who were allegedly involved in the Bhima Koregaon violence, till September 12. In an earlier order on August 29, the apex court had directed the Pune Police to keep the activists under house arrest till September 5. During the last hearing, the Maharashtra government, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, stated that they "were members of the banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist)." The action by the Maharashtra Police was taken in connection with the violence that erupted in Pune during an event which marked 200 years of the Bhima Koregaon battle, in January this year. 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.) After regaining access to his Instagram, Shahid Kapoor is also back on his Twitter handle. The 'Padmaavat' star, whose social media accounts were hacked on Thursday, took to Twitter to inform fans that he is back on the micro-blogging website. "Hey guys, finally I am back on twitter. Yes it was hacked. Kindly ignore any communication that came from my handle in the last 24 hours," he said. The actor's accounts were allegedly hacked by 'Pro-Pakistan' Turkish cyber army Ayyildiz Tim. A series of absurd tweets were posted on the actor's timeline, including messages praising Alauddin Khalji. Earlier this year, Anupam Kher and Abhishek Bachchan's Twitter accounts were also hacked by the same outfit. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Washington will consider waivers for Iranian oil buyers such as India but they must eventually halt imports as sanctions are imposed on Tehran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday. Pompeo, who is in Delhi with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for talks with their Indian counterparts, told reporters some buyers of Iranian oil would take a "a little bit of time" to unwind their trade with Iran. The United States is pushing all countries to halt oil imports from Iran after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from a 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers and ordered a re-imposition of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Some sanctions came in effect on Aug. 6 and the rest, notably in the petroleum sector, will take hold on Nov. 4. Trump has warned that anyone trading with Iran would not do business with the United States. "We will consider waivers where appropriate but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country or sanctions will be imposed. So we'll work with the Indians, we committed that we will do that," Pompeo said. Despite Trump's efforts, government officials in India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and Iran's top oil client after China, say that it would be difficult to fully halt supplies from Tehran. "Many countries are in a place where it takes a little bit of time to unwind and we'll work with them I'm sure to find an outcome that makes sense," Pompeo said, adding that the United States would be 'happy' if Iranian oil is replaced with American products. Nevertheless, India's August oil imports from Iran plunged by a third as the state refiners waited for government permission to buy oil using Iranian tankers and cover. In a sign of New Delhi's desire to keep buying Iranian oil, Reuters reported this week that India had allowed its state refiners to use Tehran's tanker and insurance cover after western and Indian shippers started winding down their Iran operations ahead of the Nov. 4 deadline. To lure Indian buyers and protect is oil revenue, Iran has been offering extended credit terms and almost free shipping. "But our mission set is to ensure that Iran doesn't engage in malign behavior with wealth that comes from countries around the world. Thus the purpose of the sanctions," Pompeo said. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari on Friday called the urgent attention of automobile companies towards the need for an efficient public transport system in the country, run on electricity or alternate fuels. Addressing CEOs of Indian and global automobile companies as part of MOVE: Global Mobility Summit 2018 here today, Gadkari urged them to actively think about diversifying into the public transport sector, and focus their research and innovation efforts in this direction. "Private vehicles are proliferating rapidly on Indian roads," he said, and highways expansion cannot feasibly keep pace with this growth. "We, therefore, need to encourage people to shift to public transport, and for this we have to put in place systems that are efficient and convenient, comfortable and safe," he added. Gadkari further emphasised the need to bring down the huge cost of petroleum imports that the country bears, and reiterated his appeal to the automobile sector to shift to electricity or alternate fuels like ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel or hybrid. He assured the companies that the government was committed to developing all kinds of fuels - anything that brought import-substitution, was cost-effective, environment-friendly and indigenous. The minister also appealed to the industry to explore inland waterways and coastal shipping as alternate and cheaper means of transportation. He said the ongoing Jal Marg Vikas project on River Ganga was readying the river for transport, and this route, which will link further to Brahmaputra, will make it possible to transport goods from India right up to Bangladesh and Myanmar through waterways. He called upon automobile companies to use this route for transporting their vehicles. CEOs/ MDs / Representatives from various Indian and global companies including TATA Motors, TATA Power, Mercedes Benz (India) , Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Honda India, Ford and Spicejet attended the Session with CEOs at the summit today. They deliberated on the challenges and opportunities that their companies faced with regard to the mobility sector in India and especially in context of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call earlier today to focus on the three C's of Common, Connected, Convenient, Congestion-free, Charged and Cutting -edge when talking of the mobility solutions in the country. Gadkari also chaired the session on Reinventing Public Transport at the summit today, where he appealed to stakeholders to give highest emphasis on introducing cost-effective and pollution free public transport systems based on new technology. He invited the industry to invest in water transport especially for ferrying pilgrims between Allahabad and Varanasi during Kumbh. Road Transport and Highways Secretary Yudhvir Singh Malik underlined the need to shift concentration towards developing more public transport in intercity travel. He said, we need to substitute personal vehicles with public transport. For this public transport requires reliability, timeliness and comfort. Indicating that while highways are carrying about 40 per cent of total traffic, and highway construction has picked up speed, last mile connectivity still remains a matter of concern. He said, there is over 10 times growth in number of vehicles in the last 25 years. Number of two-wheelers has exploded, share of cars is lesser, and that of the buses is down hugely. This has necessitated re-inventing public transport system in the country. The two-day Global Mobility Summit has been organized by Niti Aayog in New Delhi as a platform to rethink and deliberate upon ways to move people and goods more efficiently. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP), S P Vaid, who was transferred from his post on Thursday, said he was exiting with "a lot of good feelings." In an exclusive interview with ANI, Vaid appealed to the Kashmiri youth to shun the path of violence and cycle of deaths in the Valley. "End the violence; end the cycle of deaths. Whatever are the differences, one should maintain peace and talk it out," he said. Recalling the challenges he faced while serving as the DGP of Jammu and Kashmir, Vaid said, "When I joined post-Burhan in 2016 things were very bad. I am glad that the situation has improved to a very large extent. I am grateful to the Almighty that I got a chance to serve my people and country. My only concern is, the youth were dying and there is unnecessary loss of human life. The sooner it ends, it will be good news for me." The senior cop also thanked his team and people of the state for their support during extreme situations. "For any police chief, the situation is very difficult. I must thank my whole team including the BSF (Border Security Force), the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), the Intelligence Agency and all other security forces for their support. I got a lot of love and affection from people of Jammu and Kashmir. People of the country have appreciated the role of Jammu and Kashmir," he stated. Known for his 2017 'Operation All Out', Vaid is succeeded by Director General of Police (Prisons) Dilbagh Singh and will now serve as Jammu and Kashmir's transport commissioner. The transfer of the high ranking polieman comes days after AG Mir was shunted from the post of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). B Srinivas, a 1990 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, replaced Mir. Earlier, there were rumours that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was not happy with the state police and was considering a rejig. However, the ministry denied the speculations and said, "On more than one occasion, MHA has commended the work done by J-K police and the valiant sacrifices made by the men and officers of J-K police. There is no question of any dissatisfaction." Vaid also brushed aside the buzz, saying that the state police have been fighting a proxy war for decades and any speculative reporting, which can affect the morale of the cops, should be avoided. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, J.P. Nadda, on Friday visited Kerala to review the relief and rescue measures. He was accompanied by Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health) and other senior officers from the ministry. Nadda interacted with patients at Chalakkudy Taluk Hospital and visited the relief camps at VR Puram and Mullassery. To meet with the situation, 50 doctors have been kept on standby to be deputed in the affected areas at short notice. 12 public health teams -- each comprising of a Public Health specialist, Microbiologist and an entomologist - have been kept ready and 48 essential emergency drugs have been kept for immediate dispatch. According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on the request of the State Government, the first tranche of 48 essential emergency drugs, weighing about 73 MT, was airlifted by the Indian Air Force. This included one crore chlorine tablets which was augmented by another 1.25 crores of chlorine tablets (total 2.25 crores). Besides, 58 items of essential drugs including medicines for managing non-communicable diseases were delivered to the State. In the wake of increase in number of cases of Leptospirosis, Kerala has been provided with 18,00,000 capsules of Doxycycline-drug used for prophylaxis and treatment of leptospirosis. In addition, 20 MT of bleaching powder was made available to the State, which was further scaled up by another 60 MT (total 80 MT). The ministry said that a request for the supply of four lakh sanitary napkins was received from the State which has been delivered at Trivandrum. Insecticides, larvicides and fogging machines too have been delivered to the State. The ministry said that norms have been relaxed to provide an approval for additional Rs 18.71 crore to the State through Health Mission (NHM). A 40-member psycho-social team have been deployed from NIMHANS, Bengaluru, for rapid psycho-social assessment and community based Psycho-social care. These teams have so far sensitized 5353 volunteers on community-based psychosocial care; 65155 survivors of disaster have been supported through psychosocial first aid program; 17140 individual sessions and 2335 group sessions were carried out. 396 subjects were referred for psychiatric care/ psychological counselling to higher centres. The Health Ministry said that 30 specialist doctors, 20 General Duty Medical Officers and 40 Malayalam speaking nurses too have been deployed to flood affected districts for providing medical care. These doctors are posted in Palakkad, Malappurum, Kozhikode and Ernakulum Districts. Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) and its State branch is also providing assistance in Kerala. About 5000 volunteers of IRCS participated in search and rescue operations and have supplied tents (300), tarpaulins (2500) and utility items such as sarees (3000), blankets (3500), bedsheets (4000) etc. including three water treatment units (capacity 700 litres/ hr). Ministry said that the Centre for Disease Control is monitoring the outbreak situation and an event based daily reporting for epidemic prone diseases is followed from 21st August. The Strategic Operation Centre has also been activated. The EMR division is monitoring the situation arising due to spurt of cases from Leptospirosis, Dengue, Chickenpox and Acute Diarrhoeal Disease (ADD) on daily basis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several Hollywood celebrities expressed their grief over the demise of their good 'friend' Burt Reynolds. The 82-year-old star died after suffering a cardiac arrest on Thursday in America's Florida state. Hollywood veteran Arnold Schwarzenegger took to Twitter to condole Reynold's death and said that he derived inspiration from the actor, who was one of his heroes. Schwarzenegger tweeted, "Burt Reynolds was one of my heroes. He was a trailblazer. He showed the way to transition from being an athlete to being the highest paid actor, and he always inspired me. He also had a great sense of humor - check out his Tonight Show clips. My thoughts are with his family." 'Transformers' actor Mark Wahlberg too remembered the legend and tweeted, "Rest in peace to a legend and a friend. #BurtReynolds" 'This is 40' star Lena Dunham remembered Reynolds as the perfect definition of a "golden man". Hollywood's funny man Adam Sandler remembered Reynolds and offered his condolences to the family of Reynolds. "Burt Reynolds. True legend. Our hero. Funny as hell and a for-real badass. So many great movies. So many great stories. Such a great Dad. Will be missed by all. Deepest condolences to his family," Sandler tweeted. Hollywood veteran Sylvester Stallone also expressed his sorrow over Reynolds' death and posted a picture with him on Instagram. He captioned, "A sad day, my friend BURT REYNOLDS Has passed away. I remember him back in 1979, he always reminded me that I should've cast him as Colonel Trautman in FIRST BLOOD, I said that's impossible, because you're too expensive and too famous, and probably tougher than Rambo! He laughed, He had a great sense of humor and I enjoyed his company so much... (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Bangladesh on Friday agreed to bring down casualties on the borders while taking strong measures for prevention of illegal border crossing and human trafficking. During the 47th Border Co-ordination Conference between India's Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guard Bangladesh held from September 3-8, the two sides also agreed to take several steps together to take prevent killings on the International Border. It was agreed that willful violation of the sanctity of the IB would be dealt with as per respective law of the land and inadvertent crossers would be handed over to the concerned border guarding force immediately. Md. Shafeenul Islam, Director General, Border Guard Bangladesh (DG BGB) led the Bangladesh delegation to India while the Indian delegation was led by K K Sharma, Director General (DG), BSF. Appreciating the steps taken by BSF in bringing down casualties on borders, DG BGB Islam expressed his concern to bring it down to zero. Responding to him DG BSF Sharma stated that BSF uses non-lethal weapons on borders, with utmost restraint and minimum possible force is used even in the face of dangerous assaults by armed criminals. He added that violence on the border could be brought down to zero level only when the criminals/ offenders are stopped from crossing the International Border illegally and persecuted as per law of the land. Appreciating the cooperation extended by BGB and other security agencies of Bangladesh against Indian Insurgent Groups (IIG's), Sharma sought further cooperation from BGB to eliminate remnant IIG's. DG BGB informed that there is no IIG's hideout inside Bangladesh and clarified that "Bangladesh does not allow its soil to be used by any entities or elements hostile to any country". Both sides agreed to take strong measures for prevention of illegal border crossing and human trafficking. Both the delegations agreed to aid victims of human trafficking and facilitate their early rescue and rehabilitation. During the talks, Sharma expressed concern about increase in smuggling of Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN). He appreciated the efforts of BGB and other security forces of Bangladesh against smuggling of fake currency note and sought further cooperation in detecting such units in Bangladesh and legal prosecution of defaulters. Responding to Sharma, Islam said that Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) of Bangladesh are taking actions against Fake Currency Note(FCN) racketeers and side by side government has already placed FCN detecting machines in all Integrated Check Posts(ICPs) and many other places across the country. Both sides appreciated each other's efforts to curb the smuggling of FICN into India and smuggling of phensedyl and other psychotropic substances to Bangladesh. The two sides lauded the results of crime free zone which had been introduced in South Bengal Frontier/ South West Region and agreed for its further expansion in other Frontiers/ Regions. They appreciated the efforts made to improve mutual relations through various agreed upon Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). Both sides agreed for expeditious implementation of the decisions taken in the conference. It was decided that next DG-level conference would be held in Dhaka in the month of March/ April 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prague [Czech Republic], Sept 7 (ANI): India and the Czech Republic on Friday agreed to jointly cooperate in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. In a joint statement, President Ram Nath Kovind thanked his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman for his support for an early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the United Nations. "President Zeman and I shared our concerns on global and regional challenges. We emphasised the importance of cooperation in Defence and security. We committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," President Kovind said. The President also expressed his gratitude to the Czech Republic leadership for supporting India's claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Speaking on Defence cooperation, President Kovind elucidated, "There is immense potential for India-Czech Defence collaboration to meet the growing requirements of the Indian Defence industry. I invite Czech Defence company to take advantage of the opening of Defence manufacturing sector in India and set-up joint ventures in India both to produce for the domestic market and for the rest of the I thank the Czech side for recognising the need to enhance the mobility of Indian professionals and students into the Czech Republic to upscale our economic partnership. We look forward to the launch of Special Procedures for Highly Qualified Employees meant for India in October." He further said that five Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were finalised, out of which three agreements have been signed -- between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India and the Czech Academy of Sciences on work plan for support of Indo-Czech projects in diverse areas of science and technology, on visa waiver agreement for diplomatic passport holders and between ELI Beamlines and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in the field of laser technology. "In addition, we also look forward to initiating co-operation for peaceful use of nuclear energy between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, India and a relevant institution on the Czech side. These agreements would step-up our ongoing research and innovation partnership," President Kovind added. Terming Czech Republic as an important trade, technology and investment partner, the President underscored that Prague's strengths in manufacturing and advanced technology make it a natural fit to partner Indian growth and next-generation development. He announced that Czech automobile organisation, Skoda Auto and its parent company Volkswagen have announced plans to invest USD 1 billion in India under the 'Make in India' initiative. President Kovind stated that the annual bilateral trade is a little over USD 1 billion, which is way below its potential. He further said, "Given the economic strengths of the two countries, this is way below potential. President Zeman and I committed today to write a new chapter in our trading relations. The India-Czech Joint Economic Commission meeting to be held next month at the ministerial level, will deliberate in detail and take steps to enhance trade and investment cooperation and diversify our partnership into new areas." While addressing the Indian community here on Thursday, President Kovind said that the Czech Republic, which is a manufacturing "powerhouse" with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for India's development initiatives such as 'Start-Up India', 'Digital India' and 'Make in India'. He also appealed to the people living here to participate in Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Varanasi in January next year. Earlier in the day, President Kovind received a guard of honour at the Prague Castle, ahead of the bilateral talks with his Czech counterpart. This is President Kovind's first visit to Czech Republic in 22 years after former President Shankar Dayal Sharma had visited the European nation in 1996. Both India and Czech Republic share close cultural and trade ties, as thousands of businessmen from Bohemia used to trade spices and silk from India. President Kovind's trip is expected to further deepen the bilateral relations between both the countries in the field of high technology, nanotechnology and industrial development. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Iranian Consulate in Iraq has been set on fire by agitated protestors on Friday after they protested against unemployment and the poor state of communal services escalated. The violent protest resulted in the death of several protestors, as told by Iraq's Human Rights Commission, reports Sputniknews. Sputnik quoted Kurdistan 24, which reported that the United States consulate was, also attacked by the protestors. According to reports, protestors had attacked several government buildings, along with the offices a state-funded TV channel on September 6. Protestors also set ablaze headquarters of local authorities and political parties. Umm Qasr, Iran's biggest port has also been blocked, as reported by Sputnik news. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after attending the inaugural 2+2 talks in India, United States Secretary of Defence James Mattis on Friday made an unannounced visit to Kabul. Mattis, who is on his second visit to Afghanistan, is slated to meet with the new Commander of Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan, Army General Scott Miller and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo named Zalmay Khalilzad as the new State Department special envoy to Afghanistan. Explaining the latter's role, Pompeo said that he would be "focused full time on developing the opportunities to get the Afghans and the Taliban to come to a reconciliation," CNN reported. In the inaugural 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi, Pompeo, Mattis and their counterparts - External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman - "reaffirmed their shared commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous, and peaceful Afghanistan," as per a joint statement. On his brief stopover to Pakistan on Wednesday, Pompeo held talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and other high-ranking officials in a bid to "reset" the stalled bilateral ties between Washington and Islamabad. Pompeo stressed for ending the decade-old conflict in Afghanistan, adding that "the work that we all know that we need to do to try and develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan, which benefits certainly Afghanistan, but also the US and Pakistan." The Secretary of State had himself made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan in July and said that Washington was fully willing to assist Ghani's efforts on resuming peace negotiations with the Taliban. Washington has accused Islamabad of harbouring terrorists and granting them safe havens to carry out attacks in Afghanistan, which Pakistan has repeatedly denied. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Friday said that the idea of demonetisation, adopted by the Government in 2016, had crippled the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. "The great leder after 2014 gave us demonetisation where we lost 1.5 per cent of GDP. In any country he would have had to resign. Here is a man with a majority in the Parliament and what has he done for the last four years, in terms of economic growth and liberalisation," Sibal said. Sibal also allayed charges by Prime Minister Modi that the policies adopted by then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government under former prime minister Manmohan Singh stalled India's progress. "He charged us that because of the policy paralysis, we couldn't take India forward. But, this 'policy-paralysis' brought 8.2% of the GDP which never happened in the history of this country. Was this a result of policy paralysis? Then, where is the GDP today," Sibal asked as he addressed a press conference during his book launch 'Shades of Truth - A Journey Derailed'. The book launch held at Teen Murti Bhawan in New Delhi was attended by Dr. Manmohan Singh and former Vice-President Hamid Ansari. The other guests of honour included P Chidambaram, Sitaram Yechury, Chandan Mitra and Sharad Yadav. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is facing flak from various political leaders for calling Congress president Rahul Gandhi 'buffoon'. Congress party leader Anand Sharma condemned Rao's statement and said that the Telangana Chief Minister, who is also known as KCR, is a thankless person. "The choice of the word is distasteful. KCR is also an ungrateful person. Instead of thanking the Congress leadership, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and chairperson of UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Sonia Gandhi, who withstood all pressure to create Telangana, he has behaved in a manner which is unbecoming of a chief minister. It is his wishful thinking if he wishes that they are going to win, the voters know that he has presided over a government which has been a miserable failure. He has plundered the state's resources and betrayed them," he told ANI. Nationalist Congress Party of India (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar said KCR's statement reflected his "squalid thinking". "It is very unfortunate that these harsh statements are coming from a person who holds a very responsible position. Such grotty statements clearly show that KCR has a very squalid thinking," he added. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja also disapproved of the language, which KCR used for the Congress party president. "In public life, one should not use this language. Rahul Gandhi is the president of the Indian Congress, which is the oldest party in the country. This is not the language one should use. Earlier, BJP was calling him Pappu and now they (TRS) are calling him a buffoon, what kind of language is this?" he questioned. Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's gesture in the Parliament towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, KCR on Thursday described the Nehru-Gandhi scion as "the biggest buffoon in the country", while addressing a press conference after the dissolution of the Telangana Assembly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Google has sent out media invites for an event on October 9 where it is expected to take the wraps off the next-generation Pixel smartphones as well as some more hardware offerings. The tech giant will host its annual 'Made by Google' event in New York where the much talked Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL could be presented before the world along with some other devices by Google. Many are expecting a new Pixelbook and a lot more to be part of the itinerary. The invite is a GIF with white background with 'I <3 NY' written in the first frame and the Google logo on the second frame. The '3' could only be indicative of the Pixel 3 series of smartphones. With its third generation of smartphones, Google is changing the launch venue and date. Google has hosted its earlier hardware launches in San Francisco, closer to its headquarters in Mountain View, California. The date for the Google event has also been changed to October 9 from the usual October 4. While the Pixel 3 smartphones, especially the Pixel 3 XL, have been all over the news, Google has been tight-lipped about the devices all along. It was recently spotted on the US FCC site. Pre-production units of the Pixel 3 XL even came up on the Russian black market where it was being sold for $2000 during the last week of August. Several high-quality leaks and even full-fledged reviews followed, with Google assuring to look into it. The leaks showed the Pixel 3 XL with a massive notch and chin. The notch will house two selfie cameras along with a speaker and other sensors. The Pixel 3 has also had its fare share of leaks, which show the device without a display cut-out and a 5.5-inch screen. The Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. Since the Pixel 3 smartphones are going to give the 3.5mm audio jack a miss, speculations are that Google might introduce the second generation of Pixel Buds during the Made by Google event. A smart display powered by the Google Assistant could also be in the offing, counter the Alexa-powered Echo Spot and Echo Show by Amazon. Rumours also indicate that Pixelbook 2 might make an appearance at the New York event. Meanwhile, a new Chromecast has been spotted on the US FCC and could be unveiled by Google at its event. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has asked United States President Donald Trump to restart the talks on denuclearisation in a positive and goodwill manner and reiterated that Pyongyang is willing to fulfill the commitment of abandoning its nuclear weapons programme. Kim made the comments while meeting with Chung Eui-yong, the special envoy of South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday. He said that he never talked anything negative about Trump even to his closest aides. "Chairman Kim especially stressed that he has never talked bad about President Trump to his staff or anyone else. And he said he hoped to end 70 years of a hostile relationship between North Korea and the US, and realise denuclearisation by improving the North-US relationship within Trump's first term," Chung was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying. Reacting to the same, Trump on Thursday thanked Kim for his "unwavering faith" in him and said that the two will work together. He tweeted, "Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.' Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Chung added that the North Korean leader insisted that his government had taken various steps for denuclearisation and urged others to consider the efforts as significant and meaningful. "(Kim) said North Korea has pre-emptively taken necessary measures to denuclearize and that he hoped such goodwill measures would be considered goodwill," he further said. The special envoy stated that Kim had dismantled its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, along with its only missile engine test facility in Dongchang-ri as part of his commitment. Kim and Trump had signed a post-summit joint declaration on June 12 in Singapore, according to which the North Korean leader committed for "complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula", while the latter pledged 'security guarantees' to North Korea. Chung said that the third inter-Korean summit between Moon and Kim would take place in Pyongyang between September 18 to September 20, adding that another round of high-level negotiations would be held early next week to prepare for the meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday stressed on strengthening economic ties between India and the Czech Republic during his three-day visit to the central European country. Addressing an Indian business delegation in the capital city of Prague, Kovind said, "We are keen to strengthen and diversify our relations with the Czech Republic. Tomorrow, I will have discussions with President (Milos) Zeman on taking forward our bilateral relations, particularly, our economic ties." The President underlined trade, technology and investment as a few of the numerous opportunities for businesses in the two countries to grow. He also expressed his delight over the Indian community's contributions to the Czech society, saying, "I am pleased to learn that the Indian Community in the Czech Republic, though small in number, is making a significant contribution to the progress of this country. As professionals, scientists, entrepreneurs and students, you also serve as a living bridge between the two countries." While saying that the two countries have been engaged in trade for thousands of years, Kovind hailed the Czech Republic for bolstering the cultural connection with India by honouring Indian writer and poet Rabindranath Tagore. "Eminent Czech scholars brought the works of Rabindranath Tagore to the Czech people and helped foster a deep cultural connect with India. The installation of the bust of Rabindranath Tagore, in Prague and naming a tram station after him, is homage to Gurudev and to his poetic genius," Kovind said during his address. He also stated that the founding of the Indo-Czech Association by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Prague in 1934, and the popularity of the shoe-manufacturer Bata; that was started by a Czech Thomas Bata; in India as factors that have strengthened ties between the two countries. Later, the India-Czech Sinfonietta Orchestra performed a rendition of several Hindi songs at the Indian community reception in Prague for President Kovind. In the final leg of his visit to three European countries-Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, three-President Kovind will hold bilateral meetings with his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and several other political leaders over the course of the next two days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Health insurance player, Max Bupa has announced various initiatives and measures to support its customers and partners in Kerala, to cope with the aftermath of the devastating floods. In this critical time, Max Bupa stands by its customers and the Govt. of Kerala to take every step possible to support the flood victims. In compliance with the IRDAI directive/regulatory, Max Bupa has taken swift action to expedite the claims process. All reimbursement claim requests from Kerala are being processed within 48 hours to ensure the customers get timely medical assistance. Further, keeping with Max Bupa's 30 minutes cashless claims promise, all the eligible claims from Kerala are being processed on a cashless basis and on priority. In sync with the latest IRDAI guidelines, Max Bupa will provide 60-days grace period in respect of all health insurance policies due for renewal up to September 30, 2018 in Kerala and flood affected districts in Karnataka. It has also appointed Nodal care officers in the flood affected regions to speed up the claims process, help the customers to connect with doctors and provide medical help in every possible way. Additionally, Max Bupa has accelerated the pre-authorization claims process through faster verification and is accepting queries and approvals through both WhatsApp and preauthorization email ID for quicker closure. Further, Max Bupa has launched 'WeCare for Kerala' initiative to address the health needs of its customers, partners and community in the state. Under the initiative, Max Bupa has launched a dedicated 'WeCare' helpline no (+917290044780) to provide free telephonic doctor consultations on infectious or vector borne diseases including rat fever which has affected many in the state. Max Bupa is proactively calling and sending messages to all its customers and partners in Kerala, to notify them about the helpline number. In addition, a team of medical experts is also organizing complimentary health camps at selected network provider locations and distributing emergency health kits. "Kerala is battling one of the biggest catastrophes in recent times and we stand by our customers in the state to extend help and support in every way that we can. As per IRDAI's guidelines, we have already alerted our teams to expedite all Kerala flood related health claims and provide assistance in every way possible to our customers," said MD & CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance, Ashish Mehrotra. "Over the last 15-20 days, we have received 5-10 claims daily from Kerala, and they are on our highest priority. As a customer-centric company, we will continue with our efforts and ensure that we pay all legitimate claims in the quickest possible turnaround time," added Ashish Mehrotra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fugitive diamantaire and Punjab Bank (PNB) scam accused Mehul Choksi had appealed to Interpol against Red Corner Notice (RCN), which has not yet been issued. As per sources, the Indian agencies countered the objections raised by him. Further, the Interpol committee in France's Lyon will decide on the red corner notice in October. India, on September 1, had submitted a second extradition request to Antigua and Barbuda Government for the extradition of Choksi, who has acquired Antiguan citizenship. Indian High Commissioner in Guyana Venkatachalam Mahalingam visited St. John's for the third time to meet senior government officials on Choksi's extradition. This came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 27, through the Ministry of External Affairs, wrote a letter to the Antigua government asking them to arrest Choksi. The probe agency, in the letter to the Antiguan government, asserted that India could seek extradition of Choksi without issuing an Interpol Red Corner Notice as it is not mandatory in the said process. It added that the notice is needed to locate a fugitive. "A Red Corner Notice is not necessary for the arrest of (Choksi) as it is only required to identify the location of the fugitive. Since the location and nationality of Mehul Choksi are already known, he should be arrested and Antigua government should begin with his extradition process, "the CBI said in the letter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the Mohalla clinic facility as the "best and most systematic form of healthcare." Ban, along with former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, paid a visit to a Mohalla clinic in West Delhi's Peeragarhi area earlier in the day. After the visit, Ban hailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's vision of ensuring a strong primary healthcare and said that the Mohalla clinics and polyclinics are the best forms of providing good healthcare. The former UN Secretary-General said, "I have been to different parts of the world, but what I saw today is the best and systematic form of healthcare in the form of Mohalla clinics and polyclinics. Chief Minister Kejriwal has a great vision when it is about primary healthcare. I deeply appreciate it." Stressing on the need for providing better healthcare facilities in India, Brundtland elucidated, "It is great to be here visiting the Mohalla clinics in Delhi. These clinics help in securing the prevention of diseases and promotes well being and good health. It is important that proper healthcare facilities should be provided in nutrition, child immunisation, pregnancy and maternal and child health in India." She called for countries in South Asia, including India, to increase their spending in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to pay more attention to improving the healthcare sector. Meanwhile, Kejriwal said that the Delhi government has set up 189 mohalla clinics in the last 2.5 years, adding that it would set up 1,000 such clinics in the next few months. "We had several problems in setting up these clinics. There were several political interventions and obstructions. 189 mohalla clinics have been set up in the last two-and-half years. We will set up 1,000 such clinics in the next few months," he said. The Delhi Chief Minister underscored that the government is now spending more than 12 per cent from its budget to strengthen the healthcare sector in the state. Requesting the Centre to increase their budget for healthcare, Kejriwal further said, "The central government should increase their GDP spending from 1 to 2.5 percent. The reach of these mohalla clinics has to spread across the country. In Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, work on constructing such clinics have begun." The Mohalla Clinics and Polyclinics are flagship projects of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), where medicines, diagnostic tests, and consultation are provided free of cost. These clinics also serve as the first point of contact for the local population and aim to reduce the load of referrals in big hospitals. Many international organisations and world leaders have hailed the Mohalla Clinics idea, saying that such facilities should come up all over the world to help those who cannot afford basic medical facilities, access quality healthcare and improve their health. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday extended the judicial custody of Kashmiri separatist Asiya Andrabi and her two associates till October 1. They are currently lodged in Tihar jail. Asia Andrabi, chief of banned outfit Dukhtaran-e- Milat, was arrested by the NIA along with two of her associates, Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen, for allegedly waging war against the country with support from Pakistan. The NIA had stated in the court that the investigation conducted against them found links with a conspiracy to severely destabilise the sovereignty and integrity of the country. Several mobile numbers used by the Dukhtaran-e-Millat members were also collected and analysed as part of the investigation. The investigation revealed that they were in regular contact with associates in Pakistan and were embroiled in anti-India activities. The NIA also told the court that they were allegedly running a social media campaign to gain support from Pakistani establishments, including terrorist entities. The Dukhtaran-e-Millat is a banned outfit under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) KK Sharma on Friday asserted that there has not been any large-scale influx of Rohingyas into India. Sharma, while speaking at the ongoing 47th DG level talks between the BSF and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) in Delhi, said that there were attempts by small groups to enter into the Indian territory but security forces stopped them. "There has not been any large-scale influx of Rohingyas in India. Rohingyas who are already in the country, are also under pressure at some places. So they are going to West Bengal, that is slightly friendly with them and has created camps for Rohingyas coming from within the country, not from Bangladesh," he said. The DG BSF stated that smuggling of fake Indian currency has also come down considerably after demonetisation. "The quality of the (fake) currency is not good so they can easily be detected. We find that Bangladesh territory is mostly being used as a transit. This year the seizure was Rs 11 lakh only," he added. On July 31, Home Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Lok Sabha that security forces were deployed to stop further infiltration of Rohingyas, a Muslim minority ethnic group in Myanmar, who are considered to be illegal immigrants. A large number of Rohingya refugees have taken shelter in India and Bangladesh and they are staying in refugee camps, after fleeing a brutal campaign launched by the Myanmar Army in August last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After weeks of criticism, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has now officially decided not to introduce the new 'popular' category at the 91st Oscars, which is slated to take place in 2019. According to the Variety magazine, AMPAS in a statement opined that adding a new category would only go on to add more "challenges for films that have already been released." The AMPAS board of governors, however, promised that they will continue to discuss the possibility of presenting this award in future. The Academy's CEO, Dawn Hudson while speaking to Variety said that due to were mixed reactions due to "the introduction of a new award, and we recognize the need for further discussion with our members". In August, filmmaker Adam McKay, producer and late Oscars producer Craig Zadan, was one of the few celebrities who objected the decision of the Academy. However, 'Transformers' actor Mark Wahlberg came out in support of the new category. The upcoming 91st Oscars will be held on February 24, 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Railways' initiative 'Plan Bee' to prevent trains from hitting elephants crossing tracks has turned out to be successful. In a bid to save elephants from accidents while crossing tracks, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) adopted 'Plan Bee' last year. Under this, a device which costs around Rs 2,000 was installed first at the level crossings near Guwahati railway station. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal shared a video which showed that the device amplifies the buzz of swarming honeybees, which is considered as a natural nemesis of elephants and is audible to an elephant 600 meters away. A number of cases have been reported from several parts of the country, where elephants have collided with trains at railway crossings. Minister of state in the Ministry of Railways Rajesh Gohain in the Lok Sabha last year informed that 35 elephants were killed on railway tracks during 2014 to 2016 and five elephants were killed till July 2017. A number of measures had been taken by Railways in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Forest, he further said. In April this year, four elephants were hit by the Howrah-Mumbai Express at the double-crossing railway tracks near Telidihi village of Jharsugida district in Odisha, killing all four on the spot. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Air India plane mistakenly landed at a non-operational and under construction runway at the Male Velana International Airport in the Maldives on Friday. The flight, AI 263, carrying 136 passengers, including crew onboard the plane, was flying from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala to Male. The two main wheels of the plane were deflated, according to flight tracking website, Flightradar 24. All the passengers are safe and the aircraft has been towed to the parking bay. Terming the incident as 'serious', the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that it informed the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and both the pilots have been off rostered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese FM is reaching Islamabad on Friday ISLAMABAD: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is reaching Islamabad on Friday (today) on a three-day official visit. The state-run news agency APP quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying as saying during a regular press briefing in Beijing that the Chinese foreign minister would be visiting Pakistan from Sept 7 to 9 at the invitation of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Besides meeting his Pakistani counterpart, Mr Wang is likely to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan and president-elect Arif Alvi during his stay in Islamabad to have discussions on bilateral issues with focus on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects. Wang Yi will also meet the main leaders of Pakistani side and exchange views on bilateral relations, regional as well as international issues of mutual interest, the spokesperson said without elaborating. It is not clear if the Chinese minister also plans to have meetings with the leaders of opposition parties, including the PML-N and PPP. Hua Chunying said China and Pakistan were all-weather, strategic and cooperative partners and their bilateral ties had been developing at sound momentum. We have seen frequent high-level exchanges and political cooperation is also moving forward and there are rich outcomes from CPEC, the spokesperson reportedly said. The visit of the Chinese FM has acquired significance as it is taking place days after a similar visit by top US officials in which both countries agreed to reset their ties and reached an understanding that the Trump administration and the new Pakistani government would try to deliver on each others expectations. One of the accused of the Punjab Bank (PNB) fraud, Nitin Shahi has filed an application in a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court to book PNB as an additional accused in the case. The hearing on the matter is scheduled to be held on September 21. The application filed by Shahi stated that, although the PNB has not been charge sheeted on the fraud case, there are materials available for prima facie proceeding against the bank. "The court should also pass further orders as it may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case and do complete justice in the matter," the application filed by Shahi further added. On July, the CBI court granted bail to Shahi, who was the assistant finance office of Gitanjali Gems Limited, a firm owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi. Choksi along with his nephew, Nirav Modi, another prime accused is allegedly involved in the over USD 2 billion Punjab Bank scam. India has been trying to bring back Choksi from Antigua under the provision of a law of the island nation which provides for extradition of a fugitive to a designated Commonwealth country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Calling mobility a "key driver" of the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that his government will soon issue a policy on electric vehicles and those based on alternative fuels. Addressing the first edition of 'MOVE: Global Mobility Summit' here, the Prime Minister said, "We will soon put in place a stable policy on electric vehicles and other alternative vehicles. We will do whatever it takes because it is our commitment to heritage and our future generations. India has inherent strength and comparative advantage. We have fewer vehicles per capita than other economies. We do not carry the legacy of other economies which were built on private car ownership." Calling upon the young entrepreneurs for strides, the Prime Minister said, "Mobility is a key driver of the economy. Better mobility reduces the burden of travel and transportation and can boost economic growth. It is already a major employer and can create the next generation of jobs." "Indeed, India is on the MOVE. Our economy is on the MOVE. We are the world's fastest-growing major economy. Our cities and towns are on the MOVE. We are building 100 smart cities. Our infrastructure is on the MOVE. We are speedily building roads, airports, rail lines and ports," he added. Praising the Goods and Services Tax (GST) implemented in the country last year, Prime Minister Modi said, "Our goods are on the MOVE. GST has helped us rationalise supply chains and warehouse networks. Our reforms are on the MOVE. We have made India an easier place to do business. Our lives are on the MOVE. Families are getting homes, toilets, LPG cylinders, bank accounts, and loans." Prime Minister Modi also shared his vision for the future of mobility in India, based on seven Cs: Common, Connected, Convenient, Congestion-free, Charged, Clean, Cutting-edge. The Global Mobility Summit is the first of its kind, with over 2, 200 participants expected from across the world including leaders from the government, industry, research organisations, academia, think tanks and civil society. Components of the summit include the core conclave, digital exhibition, mobility week with featured events and a variety of stakeholder consultations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first-ever picture of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is currently on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, was shared on Friday by a fellow pilgrim. The Gandhi scion, who is on a 12-day pilgrimage to the holy shrine, can be seen sporting a pair of dad jeans and a jacket from The North Face, an American apparel brand. He also wore a pair of sunglasses and a snapback cap. A video was also shared by a pilgrim, wherein Gandhi can be seen interacting with other pilgrims at a location, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Since the beginning of his Kailash Yatra, the Congress chief has been tweeting photos and videos from his much-awaited trip. Gandhi, who is likely to cover a distance of 60 kilometres on foot, shared a video of Kailash Mountain on Twitter today and wrote, "Shiva is the universe." Two days prior to this, Gandhi expressed contentment on his trip to Kailash Mansarovar and said that "a man goes to Kailash when it calls him." He also described the waters of the Mansarovar Lake as "gentle, tranquil and calm." Gandhi also tweeted two photos of the Rakhas Tal lake and captioned it as "The stunning beauty of lake Rakhas Tal." Gandhi's trip to Kailash Mansarovar has been constantly questioned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who even accused him of being China's ambassador. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Harendra Prasad, a retired officer of the Bihar government, was found dead with his wife Sadhana, at their home in Buddha Colony late on Thursday. The 82-year-old retired commissioner of the state's irrigation department and his wife lived together in the house. The old couple has left behind a daughter and two sons. The police suspect a case of murder and are investigating the matter. "It appears to be a case of suspected murder. We have suspicions on several people. An investigation is underway in the matter," said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Launching a scathing attack on Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday invoked Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu's recent visit to Pakistan. Speaking to the media, Irani said, "Congress chief's silence is understandable, as on one side there is Sidhu who goes and hugs Pakistan Army General, who is speaking against India and on the other hand, it is Mani Shankar Aiyar whose candidature cancellation during Gujarat polls was just an eyewash." "Congress chief kept mum on Sidhu sahab's trip to Pakistan. Now, what will Congress chief say after Sidhu has returned from Pakistan and Pakistan is speaking against India? Irani asked. Last month, Sidhu visited Pakistan to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Irani's statement comes after Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa on Thursday asked his troops to "avenge the blood of its soldiers being shed on the border." "Our troops have made great sacrifices to the nation. I laud the people of Kashmir who have stood firm in such testing times. Our nation will not forget our troops who laid down their lives for this nation. We will avenge the blood of our soldiers being shed on the border," General Bajwa said while addressing the Defence Day function in Pakistan. He added that Pakistan had learned a lot from the 1965 and 1971 wars and developed its defence system. General Bajwa's latest statement is in contradiction with his own government's diplomatic position. Speaking at the same event, Imran Khan reiterated his goal of achieving peace and said that the country would not fight anyone else's war and his government's main aim is to work for the welfare of the people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scores of South Asian experts, members of the US Senate and House of Representatives flocked Capitol Hill to urge Pakistan to stop the persecution of ethnic and religious groups. The delegates expressed their views during the 'Minorities Day' event organised by South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation (SAMAF) and Voice of Karachi (VOK) on Wednesday. In his speech, the host of the event, US Congressman Thomas Garrett Jr., said that Mohajirs (Muslims who migrated to Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947) left their homes hoping for a better life but they weren't welcomed in their new homeland. "I clearly understand the plight of Mohajirs. They were forced to leave their homes hoping they are going somewhere they'd be welcomed, but they weren't. They have a story that needs to be told. I am not advocating on behalf of any group to demand a radical change in policy, we expect our allies to treat their minorities with equality and dignity they so much deserve", he said. Echoing Garrett's contention, Gilgit-Baltistan rights activist Sange Sering said that every ethnic and religious group in Pakistan is suffering at the hands of the "Punjabi-dominated military elite". "Pakistani ruling elite does not believe in co-existence at all and is taking away everything away from minority groups". The activist also assured that people of Gilgit-Baltistan will extend their support to organisations which are fighting this unjust vexation by the Pakistan authorities. Speaking at the event, another US Congressman, Scott Perry, also urged the Imran Khan-led government in Pakistan to treat all ethnic and religious minorities equally. "We can all live together and practice our faith in peace and harmony. This is the way it is now in America, but that should be everywhere," he said. The US Congress member from Pennsylvania also added that the Trump administration must take South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation's (SAMAF) lead on this and demand all its trading partners to treat their citizens equally. "We could not remain silent and we have to stand up to exercise the power and the authority to stop injustices, and we would do what we are expected to do." Pulitzer Prize winner journalist Pir Zubair Shah also highlighted the plight of all persecuted ethnic and religious groups and claimed that Pakistan has not taken any meaningful action against any terrorist, whether it is the so-called 'good terrorist' or 'bad terrorist'. "The lack of action is because of lack of interest. Pakistan Army decides such policies. Civilian government and civilian institutions have no say even in drafting of Pakistan's foreign policy, let alone its implementation. When the US launched action in Afghanistan soon after the 9/11 tragedy, many in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) region, had hoped something good could come out this tragedy, such as removal of terrorist's groups operating in the region and introduction of a plan similar to the Marshall Plan. Unfortunately, this didn't happen," he noted. "People of Pakistan have suffered enormously mainly due to the way the country conducted its role in the war against terrorism. Millions of people have been displaced, tens of thousands have died in terror attacks, tens of thousands have gone missing, and yet the terrorists continue to operate in the region. It is because of the current state of miseries that the people of KP are facing that Pashtun Tahffuz Movement (PTM) has emerged and is enjoying massive grassroots support," Shah added. A number of US Congressmen, a high-level representative on behalf of Ambassador-at-Large Sam Brownback and member of President Trump's Asian advisory board, Puneet Ahluwalia, also attended the event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the turmoil in the Donald Trump administration since the revelations in Bob Woodward's book, followed by a berating op-ed in the New York Times, former Secretary of State, John Kerry on Thursday said that the US is facing "a genuine constitutional crisis." "We have a presidency which is off the rails. We have a President who is not capable of doing the job, who clearly has these temper tantrums, doesn't know enough to be making many of the decisions he makes," Kerry was quoted by CNN as saying. In the New York Times op-ed, an anonymous senior Trump administration official has blasted the US President for his "amorality" and his imprudent decision making, while saying that he/she was part of the "resistance" working against an impulsive Trump and his agenda. Veteran journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book titled, "Fear: Donald Trump in the White House," which made headlines around the after excerpts were released by the Washington Post on Tuesday, gives an in-depth peek into the "crazytown" White House under Trump. "We see the evidence of people stealing a presidential document off his desk. We see a general, the secretary of defence, ordered to kill another leader, a leader of another country, who turns to everybody after the phone is hung up and says, 'I'm not gonna do that. We're not gonna do that,'" Kerry said, making references to Kerry's book. Trump responded to the book on Wednesday by saying, "The book is fiction." He took to Twitter to tear into the anonymous New York Times op-ed, saying, "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!" Also, a number of officials in the White House have denied authoring the op-ed and have defended Trump in the wake of the furore. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Defence Secretary James Mattis are among the top officials to have denied authoring the op-ed. Kerry slammed the Republicans defending Trump saying that it "unbelievable" that the senators were defending Trump instead of "the Constitution." "Not the institution of the Senate, they're defending party and the President, who simply doesn't know what he's doing," Kerry said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday embarked on a two-day visit to the United States. During the visit, Naidu is slated to deliver an address at the 2nd Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago on September 9. He will also interact with the Indian community residing in the country. The WHC, which is scheduled 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 will offer 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 will 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, said the website. 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.) Police in the Philippines have arrested 34 people for not standing while the national anthem was being played at a movie theatre, an official report said on Friday. The report said the incident took place on Thursday in the theatre inside a mall in Lemery, a town in Batangas province, reports Xinhua news agency. The national anthem called "Lupang Hinirang" is played in every theatre across the Philippines before the screening of a movie. The police said the 34 people violated RA 8491 also known as the "Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines". "As a sign of respect, all persons shall stand at attention and face the Philippine flag, if there is one displayed, and if there is none, they shall face the band or the conductor," the Act says. According to the law, any person or judicial entity which violates any of the provisions, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than 5,000 pesos ($93) but not more than 20,000 pesos ($371), or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four members of a family were hacked to death here in Uttar Pradesh early on Friday, police said. The murders took place in Bigahiya in Madhavnagar. The dead include two women, a child and one man. The deceased have been identified as Kamlesh Devi, 52, her son-in-law Pratap Narayan, 35, her daughter Kiran, 32 and five-year-old grandson Virat. The throats of all the victims have been slit. The murders were discovered in the morning by the neighbours. Senior Superintendent of Police Nitin Tiwari said a police patrol party was in the area till 1.30 a.m. and there was no such incident till that time. A forensic team has been at the spot. --IANS md/in (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Court resumed hearing Al-Azizia corruption reference against Nawaz Sharif The Accountability Court-II on Thursday resumed the hearing of Al-Azizia corruption reference against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. As the hearing went underway, Khawaja Haris, counsel for Nawaz, continued cross-examining the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) witness Wajid Zia. Zia told the court that the report under question was made on the basis of the financial statements that were not audited by Aldar Audit Bureau. The JIT did not contact any officer of the Aldar Audit Bureau to obtain financial statements, he said. The Aldar audit report for Nawaz Sharifs son Hussain is from 2010-2014. Contact details of the person who has prepared the report are present in the document, Zia told the court. Haris then questioned Zia about the date when Hill Metal Establishment became operational. In response, the latter said he could only answer the question after looking at the record. After a short break, the defence lawyer, Haris, cross-questioned the prosecution witness regarding the Hill Metal Establishment. During the proceedings, NAB Prosecutor Wasiq Malik and Haris got into a heated debate. After the defence lawyer stopped Malik from interrupting, the NAB prosecutor said that he and his witness were talking to each other and not Haris. Judge Malik then remarked that the prosecutor and his witness should step back when speaking to one another. Around 600 food and beverage (F&B) importers from about 50 countries are likely to participate in Indusfood-II, touted as the world's food supermarket, in January 2019, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Friday. "The Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) is expecting around 600 global buyers from 50 countries and over 350 Indian exporters and producers to participate at this World Food Supermarket in Indusfood-II," the Ministry said in a statement. The second edition of Indusfood will be held on January 14-15, 2019 in Greater Noida in the National Capital Region (NCR). Indusfood-I, held in early 2018, saw importers from 43 countries generating an estimated business of $650 million, it said. Following a recent meeting between TPCI Director Ashok Sethi and India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce (IBCCI) President Abdul Matlub Ahmad in Dhaka, IBCCI has confirmed its participation with a strong contingent at the F&B trade fair. "Bangladesh is already doing business with North Eastern states of India and in Indusfood-II, their contingent will be looking forward to meeting new exporters from the North East region, including the horticulture departments of these states," it said. Some of the key products that Bangladesh is likely to source from India are fruits, spices, confectionary, agri produce, dry fruits and mustered and soya oil. "TPCI is working to attract maximum buyers from the SAARC countries to source their food and beverage-related requirements from India," the Commerce Ministry said. Some big buyers, including supermarket chains, from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries including Iran and Russian Commonwealth countries (or CIS) have already pledged their presence in Indusfood-II, the statement added. "(At Indusfood-I,) international buyers and Indian sellers from 12 categories of F&B industry experienced a unique opportunity of a B2B dialogue and insight into the large basket of brands, private labels and bulk purchase of raw items that India could offer to the world," the Ministry said. --IANS mgu/qd/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Air India flight on Friday landed on a runway which was not commissioned at Velana International Airport, Male, Maldives. According to an Air India official in New Delhi, the flight operating from Thiruvananthapuram to Male landed on the runway which was under construction at 3.55 p.m. and that all 136 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A320neo aircraft were safe. However, two tyres of the aircraft got deflated while landing and the plane had to be towed back to the parking bay. The official added that the aviation regulatory authority of Maldives is investigating the incident. --IANS rv/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was in a serious condition after being hospitalised for a stab wound, the media reported. Videos posted online showed Bolsonaro on Thursday was being carried on his supporters' shoulders in a large crowd, when someone quickly stabbed him in the abdomen. Bolsonaro was then carried to safety but appeared to be unconscious, Xinhua reported. Police promptly arrested the suspect identified as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, who was immediately grabbed by Bolsonaro's supporters. There were conflicting reports as to the seriousness of the injury. National news network Globo reported Bolsonaro required emergency surgery, while his son, Flavio, a candidate for the Brazilian senate, originally said on Twitter that his father's wounds were "only superficial." Flavio has since called on supporters to pray for his father. "Unfortunately it was more serious than we had expected. The perforation reached the liver, lungs and intestines. He lost a lot of blood, arrived at the hospital ... almost died. His condition now seems stabilized," he said. Brazilian President Michel Temer described the attack as "intolerable." The other presidential hopefuls expressed their shock at the attack on Bolsonaro, who leads with some 20-percent support among 12 candidates, according to polls. Up to last week, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was leading with some 30-per cent support, but election authorities disqualified him from running due to his conviction of corruption charges. Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party called the attack "barbaric," and said that he rejects "violence as a political language and is in solidarity with his opponent." Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party, who was Lula's running mate and a substitute candidate, said he opposes "any act of violence." Meanwhile, Geraldo Alckmin of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party said " is made with dialogue and conversation, not hate ... any acts of violence are deplorable." The attack against Bolsonaro "represents a double attack against his physical integrity and against democracy," said Marina Silva of the Brazilian Sustainability Network. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to return Rs 2 million submitted as surety bonds in the 2006 murder case of Balochistan nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The former military chief was indicted in the case in January 2015, but was acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in 2016. In the petition, filed by the former leader's lawyer, Musharraf contended that he was acquitted in the case and therefore should be returned the bond money. The apex court constituted a three-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam and the petition's hearing was fixed for September 12. Musharraf had submitted two bail bonds worth Rs 1 million each, following which, his bail was approved. Bugti, former Chief Minister of Balochistan, was killed in an explosion in a cave where he had taken refuge during a military crackdown ordered by Musharraf, who was the country's President and Army Chief at that time. His killing sparked nationwide protests. Two co-accused -- Musharraf's then Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and former Home Minister of Balochistan Mir Shoaib Nowsherwani -- were also indicted in the murder case. However, they were also acquitted later. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Friday launched a marine satellite to help improve understanding of maritime waters and climate change. A Long March-2C rocket carrying the HY-1C satellite took off at 11.15 a.m. from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province, reports Xinhua news agency. The satellite will help monitor ocean colour and water temperatures, providing basic data for research on the global oceanic environment, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence. Its data will also be used in the survey of the resources and of China's offshore waters, islands and coastal zones, marine disaster relief and the sustainable utilisation of ocean resources, said the administration. With a design life of five years, it was developed by the China Spacesat Co., Ltd. under the China Academy of Space Technology. China launched its first marine satellite, HY-1A, in May 2002, laying the foundation for a ocean monitoring system. Then the HY-1B satellite was launched in April 2007. HY-1C is expected to improve China's ocean remote sensing capability, along with HY-1D, which is planned to be launched in 2019. HY-1C can detect chlorophyll and suspended sediment concentrations and dissolved organic matter, which can affect ocean colour, as well as temperatures on the sea surface, said Wang Lili, chief designer of the satellite. The data will help survey fishery and aquaculture resources and environments, offering a scientific basis for reasonable exploitation and utilization of marine resources, experts said. Scientists will also use the data to study global environmental changes, the role of the oceans in the global carbon cycle and the El Nino phenomenon. --IANS ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with 37 African countries and the African Union (AU) on jointly developing the Belt and Road, an official said on Friday. The number of African countries who signed the MOUs account for 70 per cent of all the 53 African nations that attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which concluded on Tuesday, according to Xia Qing, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Xia, deputy head of the NDRC's international cooperation department, noted that 28 African countries and the AU inked the MOUs during the summit while the other nine countries had signed before the summit, Xinhua news agency reported. China aims to sign cooperation documents on the Belt and Road development project with all African countries and will steadily push cooperation to achieve tangible results and benefit African people, Xia said. So far, China has signed 123 cooperation documents on the Belt and Road development with 105 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the South Pacific region, and 26 such documents with 29 international organizations. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Even as it condemned Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa for "vowing to avenge bloodshed on the border", the Congress on Friday endorsed Pakistans move to open Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims. Reacting to General Bajwa's offensive, Congress spokesperson R.P.N. Singh wondered why the Modi government was not able to give a befitting reply to Pakistan's continuous rants. "We condemn it (Bajwa's remarks) in strong words. Pakistan continues to make such statements, but one should ask the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) about the Government's response to these statements," Singh told the media. "The government must give a befitting reply to Pakistan whenever it points fingers and tries to condemn the sacrifices of our soldiers and citizens," he said. Addressing the Defence Day ceremony in Rawalpindi Bajwa said: "We will avenge the blood flowing on the border." Reacting to Pakistan's opening the religious corridor, Singh said it was good move for the people of India. "If Sikh pilgrims are allowed to visit the holy shrine, it is something which is very good for the people of India," said Singh. Singh's remarks follow Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu thanking his "friend" Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for enabling the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. "I thank you Khan Saab (Imran Khan) a million times for doing this," Sidhu said on the opening of the corridor which will allow pilgrims from India to go to a gurdwara in Pakistan, close to the India-Pakistan border, which is associated with Guru Nanak Dev. Sidhu, however, drew flak from the BJP, which said the praise was an "insult to India and Modi". "This has become a habit with the Congress to insult our Prime Minister and praise that of the neighbouring country," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.--IANS and/sid/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Odisha government has submitted the required documents for getting the Geographical Indication (GI) status to 'Odishara Rasagola', MSME Minister Prafulla Samal said on Friday. Replying to a written question, the Minister told the Assembly that they have complied with 14-point checklist sought from the office of the Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai. The Minister said all required documents have been submitted on August 17. Notably, the Geographical Indications Registry, in the last week of June, had sought detailed information on 14 questions including submission of documentary proof that substantiates the origin of Odishara Rasagola in the state. The Odisha Small Industries Corporation of state government had applied for the GI tag for 'Odishara Rasagola' in February. The state moved the GI Registry for its own version of the popular sweet after West Bengal was awarded the GI tag for its own variant 'Banglara Rasagulla' in November,2017. --IANS cd/anp/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao, better known as KCR, is known for taking decisions which surprise his political opponents but the dissolution of Telangana assembly is his political masterstroke. With nearly nine months still left for the assembly to complete its term, he dissolved the House and the same day announced candidates of his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for almost all the 119 seats. His move baffled all as there was no crisis or political instability in the state to have warranted such a move. There are hardly any takers for his argument that 'political fragility' and 'unlimited idiocy' of the opposition prompted him to go to the people's court. Opposition parties making allegations of corruption against those in power is quite common in every state. KCR choose to go for early assembly polls when the Lok Sabha elections are anyway scheduled in April-May next year. In 2014, simultaneous polls to assembly and Lok Sabha had paid rich dividends to the TRS, fresh from the success of movement for separate state. A shrewd politician he is, KCR plans to achieve many objectives with his political gambit. Delinking the assembly and Lok Sabha polls will ensure that TRS' prospects to retain power in the state are not marred by other factors in general elections. KCR apparently feels that several welfare schemes implemented during last four years will be overshadowed in simultaneous elections. KCR, who led the Telangana movement, has hinted that he will seek fresh mandate on the slogan of 'self-respect'. He appealed people not to become slaves to Delhi, an obvious reference to Congress. The dissolution was also to deny time to the opposition parties to regroup. Congress, the main opposition party, is trying to form a grand alliance with Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Left parties and Telangana Jana Samithi (TPS), a new party floated by Kodandaram, KCR's friend-turned-foe. KCR is so confident of retaining power that he wasted no time in announcing candidates for 105 seats. Psychologically, this will give him an upper hand over opposition. In 2014 elections, the TRS had bagged 63 seats in 119-member assembly to form the first government in Telangana. Its tally swelled to 90 with legislators from Congress, TDP and other parties switching loyalties. The Congress, which had secured 26 seats, remained KCR's number one enemy in the state. The TDP, which had finished third with 15 seats, has weakened and is left with just two members in the dissolved assembly. The YSR Congress Party, which had three MLAs, is decimated. The BJP, which had five seats in the dissolved Assembly, is trying to strengthen itself in the state but it is not likely to see any dramatic change of fortunes. Confident that there is no anti-incumbency and opposition offering no strong alternative, KCR opted for early polls. This is expected to give him sufficient time to plan his strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. For several months, TRS circles are abuzz with the talk of KCR's plans to anoint his son K.T. Rama Rao as his successor. KTR, as the cabinet minister is widely known, is number two in both the government and the party and is seen by many as the defacto Chief Minister. By going for early polls, KCR apparently wants to pave the way for KTR to take over. The TRS chief may contest Lok Sabha polls shift to national There is also talk that those reluctant to accept KTR may be sent to the Lok Sabha. KCR, in recent months, was seen warming up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As any understanding with the BJP may antagonise Muslim voters and his ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), KCR is going for early polls to Assembly. He is thus keeping the door open for a possible alliance with the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. (Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in) --IANS ms/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission on Friday decided to send a team of officials to Hyderabad on September 11 for making an assessment of the poll preparedness of the machinery in the state where the ruling party has sought early elections by dissolving the assembly. The decision was taken at a full meeting of the commission chaired by Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat. An official press note issued after the meeting said: "In view of the dissolution of the state legislative assembly of Telangana, the commission has decided to send a team of ECI officials to assess the situation in the state regarding poll preparedness. A team of ECI officials headed by Umesh Sinha, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, will be visiting Hyderabad on Tuesday, 11 September 2018 and will give the report to the election commission after the completion of the visit." The commission met a day after the Telangana government headed by K. Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the assembly and the governor acted on the cabinet decision to end the tenure of the assembly whose term was there till June next year. --IANS mak-sar-vsc/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Major changes in budget 2018-19 based on ground realities: EAC ISLAMABAD: Government on Thursday pledged to introduce major changes to the federal budget 2018-19 to make it realistic. The first meeting of the recently reconstituted EAC was presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan which could not be attended by three international economists of Pakistani origin because of technical reasons. They could not make it because our web-link was down, an official said. The three members were Dr Atif R. Mian of Princeton University and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, Dr Asim ljaz Khawaja, Sumitomo-FASID professor of Member International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Dr lmran Rasul, professor of Economics at University College, London. The meeting was told that there would be major changes to the budget 2018-19 based on ground realities and realistic revenue and expenditure projections. The question of approaching the International Monetary Fund for a bailout did not come under discussion, the sources said. The meeting decided to set up three working groups on debt, fiscal challenges and current account deficit and have separate meetings with Finance Minister Asad Umar over the next week based on which another follow-up meeting would be held with the prime minister. Most of the participants told the government to make best use of its political and social capital to take tough decisions, wherever required, without taking into account political repercussions within first two months. They believed it would get difficult day by day if the government delayed major decisions. Some of the members also advised the government to review a major tax relief, particularly relating to income tax exemptions and discounts offered by the PML-N government because that could provide more than Rs90bn cushion. This should be given a serious thought to undo popular and pro-rich decisions of the previous government instead of increasing electricity and gas rates for all because energy costs burden the lower and middle income groups the most. Informed sources said the finance minister responded that it would be a very difficult decision to withdraw tax relief. He said once given a facility could not be withdrawn. Likewise, it was also proposed not to expand subsidies, particularly for the big fish like textile sectors basic products and instead value-addition sectors should be supported because that was where the big return could be secured. Majority of the participants advocated expanding the tax net and strengthening budgeting besides taking long-term steps to long-term development challenges like job creation, developing the education sector, enhancing productivity and improving the performance of the government sector. The prime minister assured the participants that the EAC should come up with recommendations and the government would fully implement them irrespective of the political cost provided they were in the long-term economic interest of the people and the country. The participants also recommended institutionalising the role of EAC for better coordination and continuous policy advice and complained it used to be a debating club in the past governments. It was in this background that the prime minister desired a follow-up meeting next week of the EAC on the basis of initial consultations of the working groups on financial, debt and current account related matters. Imran Khan welcomed the participation of members of the council and hoped their experiences and recommendations would be fruitful for addressing immediate and long-term challenges facing the national economy besides improving reform agenda of the PTI-led government. Those who attended the meeting from private sector included Dr Farrukh lqbal, Dean and Director of the Institute of Business Administration; Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan of National University of Sciences and Technology; Dr ljaz Nabi of Lahore University of Management Sciences; Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri of Sustainable Development Policy Institute; Dr Asad Zaman of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics; Dr Naved Hamid of Lahore School of Economics; Syed Salim Raza, former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP); and Sakib Sherani, former principal economic adviser. After becoming infamous for helping the controversial British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica harvest tens of millions of Facebook users' profiles, a psychology researcher with the social networking giant has left the company, the media reported. A Facebook spokesperson declined to explain when or why the researcher, Joseph Chancellor, had left the company, or to detail the results of any investigation into his work, Fast Company reported on Thursday. Before leaving Facebook, Chancellor worked as a quantitative researcher on its User Experience Research team. "I can confirm that Joseph Chancellor is no longer employed by Facebook, and we wish him all the best," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying. Although Cambridge University lecturer Aleksander Kogan became a focus of the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal as he officially led the data harvest, Kogan said he "did everything with" Chancellor, the report said. The two were co-founders of Global Science Research, or GSR, the company that Cambridge Analytica hired to gather the user data and analyse it for psychological traits, it added. Facebook has been under the scanner of lawmakers around the world ever since the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal became public. Appearing before the US Congress in April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Zuckerberg told the lawmakers that his own personal data was part of 87 million users' that was "improperly shared" with the British political consultancy firm. The data was gathered via a quiz app, "thisisyourdigitallife," developed by Kogan, then a psychology researcher with University of Cambridge, and his company GSR which pulled out Facebook users' data in 2014-2015. Facebook continues to face tough questions from lawmakers about Chancellor, although he was not mentioned on Wednesday, when Senators questioned Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at a hearing on Capitol Hill, the Fast Company report said. --IANS gb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his wife Marina Wheeler announced on Friday that they have separated and are in the process of a divorce. Johnson and the senior lawyer, both 54, have been married for 25 years. They made the announcement in a joint statement after a story appeared in the Sun newspaper detailing claims that Johnson was "unfaithful", the Guardian reported. "Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate," the joint statement read. "We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way... As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further," it said. Johnson, who has four children with Wheeler, resigned from the government in July over his opposition to Prime Minister Theresa May's Chequers Brexit plan. He has since written a series of articles criticising the government, which have been viewed as attempts to position himself as an alternative Prime Minister. Wheeler is a human rights lawyer who became a Queen's counsel in 2016. Johnson credited her as a key voice in his decision to support Brexit before the referendum. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Goa police arrested a 35-year-old man on Friday for allegedly breaking into homes in his underwear, at an apartment complex here at night, staring at women and occasionally stealing cash. The accused, Tulsidas Shirodkar, 35, a resident of Taleigao, a Panaji suburb, was arrested after residents of the apartment complex, located close to the private residence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, complained to the police. "The accused has been booked under sections 457 (trespass), 380 (theft), 354(c) (voyeurism)," a police spokesperson said. "In three cases, complainants have said that money was also missing from the house so we have also booked the accused for theft," the police official said. In a collective complaint filed by the residents of the Adwalpalkar Horizon apartment complex, some of the residents whose homes had been broken into, alleged that the accused would break into the house in his underwear and with oil smeared on his body. "In one case, I woke up for some reason and saw him just staring at me. I shouted in alarm but he had disappeared by the time someone could arrive," a woman victim said. Another woman said that he was lying next to her and her relative, who were sleeping on the bed. "I felt something next to me and I shouted when I felt another person sleeping next to me. But at that time I thought it was a dream, because when I put on the light there was nobody there." --IANS maya/mag/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel was on Friday rushed to a hospital on the 14th day of his indefinite fast as he complained of difficulty in breathing, even as he tweeted soon after that the BJP Government remained indifferent to the demands of the farmers and Patidars. He was admitted to the Government Civil Hospital in Sola a day after he gave up taking water in protest against the government ignoring his demands. Minutes after he was hospitalized, the 25-year-old leader tweeted in Hindi that, "I am having difficulty in breathing. I have been admitted to hospital. The BJP (and its government) are ignoring farmers' woes and demands of Patidars." His associates in the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), who had given a 24-hour ultimatum till Thursday to the Bharatiya Janata Party government to hold negotiations with him, rushed him to the hospital. "Hardik was not willing to go to hospital and was adamant with his fast. But today when he went to washroom, he fell on the ground. After that all of us decided to rush him to hospital and brought him her forcibly," Geeta Patel, a close associate and member of Patel's core team, told reporters. A three-member team of doctors, including a nephrologist, are treating Patel in an Intensive Care Unit. Patel's blood and urine samples have been taken and the reports were awaited. The firebrand leader has lost over 20kg in the past two weeks. His kidney and liver had been affected by his continuous fast, PAAS leader Manoj Panara told reporters. Patel is on indefinite fast since August 25 demanding reservations for his community, debt waiver to farmers and release of his associate Alpesh Kathiria, who is in jail on sedition charges. --IANS desai/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Friday reproached Shiv Sena's Telangana Unit President for using objectionable words in his plea for de-registration of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM as a political party. Justice Siddharth Mridul while issuing notice to Election Commission of India (ECI) and Central government observed that the petitioner has made a "scandalous statement" in his plea for quashing the registration of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen as a political party. The plea was filed by Tirupati Narasimha Murari through his advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain. "It is noteworthy to mention that Muslims came from Arab countries and ruled for considerably long time, causing serious damage to the life, property, cultural heritage of the country and forced Hindus to embrace Islam at large scale, adopting most barbaric methods," the plea read. "In 1946-47, the disruptive elements forced the then thinkers and persons at the helm of political affairs to accept the demand of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of Muslim League, for giving major portion of India to Pakistan as they did not want to live with Hindu community." The Court said: "You can't make such scandalous statement. This is not history. This is your view which is not desirable and irrelevant." The Court warned the counsel and said that these allegations are neither necessary nor permissible and said 'do not use the courtroom as a platform' for such propaganda. The AIMIM's counsel told the Court that it was ironic that the petition was filed by a Shiv Sena leader. The HC asked the AIMIM to file its response and listed the matter for further hearing on December 3. The Court was hearing a plea against the June 19, 2014 order of the ECI granting recognition of state party of Telangana to the AIMIM. The petitioner pleaded that the constitution and working of party was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court and AIMIM 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, 1951. The petition said the English translatation 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 and goddesses". It alleged that several FIRs have been lodged against them. --IANS akk/qd/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to the Delhi government on a plea seeking filling of vacant posts of teaching and non-teaching staff in schools across the national capital. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao asked Delhi Government to file its response and listed that matter for further hearing on November 2. The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate Shashi Bhushan and Shashank Deo Sudhi who have sought direction to the Delhi Government to form a committee for the assessment of the number of vacancies for teaching and non-teaching staff in government schools in the city. The advocate has cited an RTI report, according to which the sanctioned posts for teaching and non-teaching staffs is 14,743 out of which only 9,366 are filled. The rest are lying vacant. The counsel also said that basic amenities are missing in government schools. The counsel has also sought guidelines for transportation mechanism of government school students on the lines of private schools and explore the feseabilties and possibilities for budgetary transportation of the students. The plea further sought to explore the possibilities of nursery and kindergarten in the government schools. --IANS akk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US Senator has said that it was time to use constitutional powers to remove President Donald Trump from office if top officials thought he was unfit for the job. "If senior administration officials think the President of the US is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren told CNN on Thursday. "The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the Vice President and senior officials think the President can't do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the President -- take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds... Everyone of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the US. It's time for them to do their job." The hard-charging comments by Warren, a potential 2020 Democrat presidential candidate, comes in the wake of a shocking New York Times opinion piece where an anonymous official raises deep concerns about Trump and contends that there were some initial conversations to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office. The White House has aggressively slammed the piece, calling the author a traitor and a coward. Warrren dismissed questions that invoking constitutional remedies would provoke a constitutional crisis. "What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the President can't do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution?" Warren told CNN. "They can't have it both ways. Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do." Warren, who is running for a second Senate term in Massachusetts this year, would not say when she would ultimately decide whether she will run for the White House. "Right now I'm running for re-election in Massachusetts in 2018," Warren said. "I'm taking nothing for granted." Warren is viewed as a likely presidential candidate against Trump, who rarely holds back when criticising Warren, derisively calling her "Pocahontas" because she had claimed a Native American heritage during her career as a law professor. --IANS ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Board of cash-strapped IL&FS has sought immediate financial support from its key shareholders, sources said. Accordingly, the Board met here on Friday and sought around Rs 3,000 crore loan from key shareholders including Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Besides, sources said the Board informed the shareholders of the brewing financial crisis at the company and the need to raise additional funds. As per an earlier statement of the company, the Board had approved a plan to approach shareholders for support to the extent of Rs 9,000 crore. On August 29, the company's board, among other fund-raising plans, approved a Rights Issue of 30 crore equity shares at Rs 150 per share aggregating to Rs 4,500 crore to shore up its capital and the process would be completed by October 30, the company had said in a statement. "As on March 31, 2018, IL&FS net worth was Rs 7,400 crore. In addition, the Board approved the re-capitalization of Group companies to the extent of Rs 5,000 crore in IL&FS Financial Services, IL&FS Transportation, IL&FS Energy, IL&FS Environment, and IL&FS Education," the company said. "The Board also approved the Company's specific asset divestment plan based on which IL&FS expects to reduce its overall debt by Rs 30,000 crore. Out of a portfolio of 25 projects identified for sale, firm offers have already been received for 14 projects." The August 29 statement had also said that the company expects to complete its divestment plan over the next 12 to 18 months in a systematic and professional way to fulfil its commitments. The group has around Rs 1 lakh crore worth of debt on its books. As on March 31, 2018, LIC and ORIX Corporation Japan were the largest shareholders in IL&FS with their stake holding at 25.34 per cent and 23.54 per cent respectively, while Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), HDFC, CBI and SBI stake holdings are at 12.56 per cent, 9.02 per cent, 7.67 per cent and 6.42 per cent respectively. Last month, ICRA had downgraded the long-term rating for IL&FS. "The rating revisions take into account the company's elevated debt levels owing to the funding commitments towards Group ventures," ICRA had said in a note on August 7. "While IL&FS has recognised opportunistic asset monetisation as a key strategic initiative, the actual progress on the same has hitherto been slow, resulting in high gearing for the company, albeit within the regulatory limit." --IANS rv-rrb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian activist Vidya Dinker, Bolivian Martin Vilela and Zimbabwean Mela Chiponda live in different continents but suffer a common problem of climate change, which they denounced before the UN in Bangkok. The three are among many activists and civil society representatives attending the UN climate change conference on Friday that will run till Sunday, Efe news reported. As delegates discuss percentages and technicalities regarding climate change at the UN building here, members of non-profits speak about their concerns on ecological damage from coal, intense droughts that destroy entire communities, as well as activists who end up dead for their environmental activism. Activist Dinker recalled a march from Tamil Nadu to New Delhi in 2017 by farmers with rats in their mouths, symbolizing food shortages, and carrying the skulls of debt-ridden farmers who committed suicide amid severe droughts. The activist from Mangalore rued that the farmers' widows were left to take care of the children while facing increasingly mounting debts. Extreme climate conditions were also observed in India, where severe floods in Kerala left several hundred dead, while thousands were rendered homeless in Assam this year. Dinker told Efe that climate change also affects the pollination of flowers, which in turn could affect the day to day lives of humans in many other ways. Activist Chiponda, from the Zimbabwean province of Manicaland, has been working for the last three years against the extractive economy and empowering women in several African countries through the non-profit WoMin. Chiponda alleges that global warming causes heat waves and extreme droughts in Zimbabwe, compelling men to migrate or commit suicide due to debts, while coal mining pollutes farmland. Chiponda said that there was food scarcity and diseases among children that earlier were not seen. She added that there was an urgent need for countries to give up fossil fuels and for the people to change their consumption habits in order to not pollute the Activist Vilela, a resident of La Paz and member of the Bolivian Climate Change Platform, said that climate extremes in Bolivia cause floods in the Amazonian region and droughts that dry up large lakes such as Poopo. Vilela said that climate change has been affecting many poor communities that face adverse situations every day, adding that the negotiations in Bangkok were not addressing structural solutions and not even taking little steps against climate change. Other victims of climate change have been vocal about the increasing frequency of landslides and floods in northern Thailand, proliferation of coal-fired power plants in the Philippines, as well as the loss of arable land due to sea erosion and salinization in Bangladesh. Activists fighting against the polluting companies have reportedly been killed in Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines. Climate change has also affected Australia, which is suffering one of its worst droughts, and Europe, where lack of water has affected crops in Poland. UN negotiators in Bangkok seek to prepare a document with guidelines and standards for approval at the forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in Poland in December, with the aim of keeping temperature change this century within 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. Moreover, the NGOs have urged keeping in mind the poorest communities, who often end up losing their lives to the effects of global warming. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian youth was among the three people who were killed when a gunman opened fire at a bank in the US state of Ohio. Pruthviraj Kandepi 25, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, and two others, Luis Felipe Calderon, 48, and Richard Newcomer, 64, were shot dead on Thursday by the gunman identified as Omar Perez, 29. Perez was later shot dead by the police. Five others were also injured in the incident that took place on Thursday morning at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square, Cincinnati. Kandepi was working as a consultant with the bank. His family in Tenali town of Guntur district was shocked when his friends informed them about the incident over the phone. Officials of Indian consulate in New York were also in touch with Kandepi's family. The Telugu Association of North America (TANA) was making arrangements to send the body home. Meanwhile, Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said Perez acted alone and he entered multiple businesses before going to the bank, reports ABC News. He opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Isaac added. Thursday's incident is the second this year where an Indian was shot dead in the US. In July, Sharat Koppu, 26, from Telangana was shot dead by an unidentified person at a restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri. Last year, Hyderabad techie, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed in a race-triggered attack at a bar in Kansas state. --IANS ms/ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indonesian journalists on Friday gathered outside the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta to protest the conviction of two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in prison for violating a state secrets law. The protesters taped their mouths shut and wrists together, and laid down their cameras and recorders on a poster that read "Defend Press Freedom", Efe news reported. A Myanmar court on Monday sentenced journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, to jail for breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The pair were investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims at Inn Din village in northern Rakhine state as part of an offensive last year by the Myanmar Army after Rohingya rebels launched a series of attacks on security posts in the region. The offensive led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in overcrowded refugee camps. The two journalists were arrested in December after meeting police officers who the pair said handed them papers. The journalists, whose report was published in February and led to the conviction of seven Myanmar soldiers to 10 years in prison, had claimed they were set up by Myanmar authorities. One police witness testified the meeting was a set-up to entrap the reporters, the report said. "We know we did nothing wrong. I have no fear. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom," Wa Lone said after the verdict. Kyaw Soe Oo said: "What I want to say to the government is: You can put us in jail, but do not close the eyes and ears of the people." The conviction of the reporters spurred an international outcry from rights groups, governments and news organizations. "The outrageous convictions of the Reuters journalists show Myanmar courts' willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities. These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Aung San Suu Kyi's government," Human Rights Watch's Asia Pacific Director Brad Adams said. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The pending Red Corner Notice (RCN) against fugitive Indian diamentaire Mehul Choksi will be taken up in the internal committee meeting of the Interpol next month, officials said here on Friday. "The issue of Choksi would be taken up in the Interpol's internal committee meeting in October in United Kingdom's Manchester," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told IANS. According to the CBI official, the internal committee meeting is a quarterly meeting to discuss the applications Interpol receives about the fugitives from 192-member countries. The official also said that the RCN request for Choksi, which was put on hold by the Interpol after he made a representation stating that the case against him was politically motivated and that the state of the Indian jail was very poor, would be discussed in the meeting. The official also said that the Indian investigative agencies, CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), have made a strong case against him. On July 2, the Interpol had issued an RCN against Nirav Modi on the basis of money laundering charges levelled by the ED. On August 2, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh informed Parliament that the government had sent a request to the UK for extraditing Nirav Modi. Nirav Modi along with his uncle Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Group, is under probe in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank fraud being probed by both the CBI and ED. The ED had on May 24 and 26 filed prosecution complaints or chargesheets against Choksi and Modi. The court took cognisance of the chargesheets and issued non-bailable warrants against both. Nirav Modi left India along with his family in the first week of January, weeks before the scam was reported to the CBI. His wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and Choksi on January 4. Choksi was last traced to Antigua, where he has been granted citizenship. The Antiguan government is believed to have cleared his application for citizenship in November 2017, for which he may have paid around Rs 1.3 crore. Choksi had taken the oath of allegiance as a citizen of Antigua on January 15 this year. Days later, on January 29, the CBI filed a case and started investigating Choksi and Nirav Modi. --IANS aks/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian elections are based on ideologies and not personalities, said key opposition leaders on Friday and stressed that 2019 general elections will be a "Modi vs India" affair. Speaking at the launch of Congress parliamentarian Kapil Sibal's new book "Shades of Truth - A Journey Derailed", they said that "a very broad-based strategic coalition" would be formed in "at least 25 states" to take on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2019 polls. After a brief address by former Vice President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. Charting the "all-round failure" of the government, Singh charged that the country is facing "an agrarian crisis, economic turmoil and deteriorating ties with neighbouring countries". He accused the Modi government of ignoring the plight of farmers, which has resulted in numerous protests in state capitals as well as the national capital. Singh, Ansari and Sibal together unveiled the book to a packed house at the Nehru Memorial Museum Library here. The book launch was followed by a panel discussion participated by Sibal, P. Chidambaram, Sitaram Yechury, Chandan Mitra and Sharad Yadav. They discussed the prospects of a joint opposition front for the 2019 general elections. The panelists agreed that the opposition unity would be vital in the coming elections, with Sibal asserting that in "at least 25 states" a "very broad-based strategic coalition" would be worked upon to counter the BJP. Chidambaram recounted that even in 2014 general elections, despite the wind in its favour, the BJP failed to attract the masses in several states like Punjab, West Bengal, Kerala and Odisha. Sibal also noted that the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, both currently ruled by the NDA, would have a decisive role to play in the next elections. On the question of who will be the prime ministerial candidate of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) against Modi, all panelists, except Chandan Mitra of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), maintained that a prime ministerial face is not important. Yadav recounted a series of elections where a joint coalition had formed the government without declaring their prime ministerial candidate in advance. "But, much water has flown through the Yamuna since the time you are talking about," interjected Mitra, who recently quit the BJP to join its adversary in West Bengal. He said the voters are much more aware today and therefore a prime ministerial candidate is important. Mitra maintained that the prime ministerial candidate of the UPA must be from a regional party, whose credentials are well established. Responding to an audience question, Sibal said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that he is ready to take on Modi, so there is no question of "whether or not he is up for it". "He is up for it and he has said that publicly," Sibal quipped, adding that a prime ministerial face is not important before the elections. He recalled that there was a debate before 2014 general elections that the country needs a strong leadership and a prominent face. "The great leader (Modi) has given us demonetisation," he said. "It will be Modi vs India," said Yadav, as the panelists nodded in affirmation and loud claps by opposition leaders resonated in the packed hall. On their projections for the 2019 general elections, the panelists reiterated that the coming together of the opposition parties at state level would result in their victory. The attendees included opposition leaders across political parties, including Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI-M, former JD-U members Sharad Yadav and Pavan Varma, TMC member Chanadan Mitra and a host of senior Congress leaders such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Saman Khurshid and Shashi Tharoor, among others. --IANS ss/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Even as the Kerala government has appointed a team of experts to study the damage caused to the biodiversity due to torrential rains and floods, the Centre on Friday reiterated its commitment to extend all possible help to the battered state. A 100-member expert team under the Kerala State Biodiversity Board has been appointed to study the damage caused to Kerala's biodiversity and submit its report in a month's time, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. Meanwhile, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda again assured the state of central help. "It's a moment of sorrow, and the government of India has stood by the state. Whatever we can do, and what more needs to be done, will be done," said Nadda, who visited the Chalakkudy Taluk Hospital on Friday and a relief camp. The hospital had suffered considerable damage in the floods, the worst to hit the state in nearly a century. The Union Minister's visit comes amid an alert in the state against leptospirosis (rat fever), with authorities urging 20 lakh persons to take preventive steps after more than 100 persons tested positive. Over a dozen persons have died in Kozhikode, which is the worst affected. Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan, the de facto Chief Minister after Vijayan left for the US for treatment, told IANS on Thursday that there are 2,267 families still housed in 146 camps in the state. The maximum camps are in Alappuzha district. Congress legislator V.D. Sateeshan from Paravoor in Ernakulam said on Friday that there were around 125 families in two camps in the district. "We provided relief kits to 50,000 affected families when they left the camps. Those lodged in the camps now have no homes to return to since these were completely damaged by floods," said Sateeshan. Vijayan told the Assembly on August 30 that torrential rains and subsequent floods from May-end till mid-August had claimed 483 lives whereas 14 persons were reported missing. The worst affected districts were Alappuzha, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Wayanad, besides parts of Kannur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kottayam and Kollam. Kasargode district remained virtually untouched, while Thiruvananthapuram recorded miniscule damage. --IANS sg/tsb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The death of Pruthviraj Kandepi, who was among the three people killed by a gunman at a bank in the US state of Ohio on Thursday, has left his parents distraught. The parents were grief-stricken at their house in Tenali town of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh after the family received the shocking news of his killing. The 25-year-old was working as a consultant with the Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. He, along with two others, Luis Felipe Calderon, 48, and Richard Newcomer, 64, were shot dead by the gunman identified as Omar Perez, 29. Perez was later shot dead by the police. Five others were also injured in the incident that took place on Thursday morning at the headquarters of the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square, Cincinnati. The only son of Kandepi Gopinath and Kandepi Sudha Rani, Pruthviraj had gone to the US six years ago and after completing his education joined the bank as a consultant. The parents and his sister were shocked after they were informed about his death. The parents were inconsolable. Relatives and friends poured in to meet the couple. Gopinath is Deputy Engineer in Andhra Pradesh Housing Development Corporation and is currently serving in Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati. According to Pruthviraj's relatives, his parents had plans to get him married and were looking for a suitable alliance. The family is in touch with relatives and friends, officials of the bank and representatives of Telugu associations in the US and is requesting them to make arrangements to send the body home as early as possible. --IANS ms/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the Indian government's call to store data locally, experts here said on Friday that the consumers should be free to choose jurisdiction in which data can be stored and it might not be prudent to force data localisation. According to Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, The Software Alliance, consumers should be free to choose jurisdiction in which data can be stored, and "different options could appear as a drop down menu to enable consumer choice". Shagufta Kamran from the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), a non-proft, observed that Indian information technology and enabled industry has traditionally benefited from cross border data flow and it might not be a good idea to restrict such flows. Amitayu Sengupta from the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) pointed out that setting up data centres is resource intensive and requires significant capitalisation and consequently has been avoided in the past. The experts were speaking at a roundtable organised here by the advocacy group Consumer Unity & Trust Society CUTS) International. It saw participation from different stakeholders, including government, industry, consumer groups, academia and data protection experts. According to Dr Usha Ramanathan, Legal Researcher and Consumer Rights Activist, basis for government to demand data localisation is not clear as the government is unlikely to provide heightened security and data protection standards to consumers. "Mandatory data localisation provisions are likely to create artificial distinctions between large and small businesses and adversely impact the latter," pointed out Nikhil Pahwa, Founder, Medianama, adding that India does not have necessary infrastructure to support large-scale data centres in the country. According to GV Srinivas, Joint Secretary, Cyber Diplomacy, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the data protection bill by Srikrishna Committee has made genuine efforts to be sensitive to consumer rights. "Access to important data by law enforcement agencies is likely to be made easier under the proposed regime," he said, adding that the industry will need to adjust to increased cost of data mirroring mandate as its greater benefits are likely to follow. Ashim Sanyal from VOICE said data localisation is anti-consumer from the point of view of quality and cost of services and it is unlikely to help in data protection. --IANS na/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Ray Diaz, who starred in the show "Lopez", has been charged with domestic violence after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. The Los Angeles City Attorney's office has charged Diaz with domestic battery, false imprisonment, dissuading a witness and vandalism, reports tmz.com. According to a source, his case was originally heading for a city attorney hearing, until prosecutors re-examined the evidence and decided to file charges. The incident between Diaz and the woman went down earlier this summer. He allegedly got into an argument with his girlfriend and grabbed and pulled her. She claims the attack was so severe she suffered bruising on her leg and scratches on her neck. A source connected to the couple said the girlfriend attempted to call 911, but he grabbed the phone from her. --IANS nn/sim/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of Defence James Mattis arrived here on Friday on a surprise visit to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at a time when Washington is trying to make headway in Kabul after 17 years of war. Mattis' visit, in the middle of his tour of the region, comes unexpectedly as is usual owing to security concerns, and no details about his activities or the duration of his stay in the Afghan capital have been revealed, reports Efe news. "US Defence Secretary Mattis and General (Joseph) Dunford the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Kabul. And will be having meeting with President (Ashraf) Ghani. Details will be shared later," Afghan presidential spokesperson Haroon Chakhansuri tweeted. The information office of the US and UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed Mattis' arrival but did not disclose any details about his agenda. The arrival of Mattis coincides with the recent takeover by Austin Miller from John Nicholson as NATO's Resolute Support Mission and US Forces Afghanistan. Mattis, who came to the Afghan capital on Friday morning from New Delhi, had, along with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, discussed with their Indian counterparts, Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj respectively, the importance of both India and the US in Afghanistan. New Delhi and Washington reiterated their support for an Afghan-led peace process in a joint statement on Thursday, in which the latter acknowledged the former's longstanding and ongoing contribution to Afghanistan as well as India's role in its neighbour's development and stability. The same subject was addressed by Pompeo and Mattis during their stopover in Pakistan, where the Secretary of State stressed the need for Pakistan "to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan". --IANS ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of Defence James Mattis made a surprise visit to the Afghan capital on Friday and in a meeting with President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani assured Washington's long-term support to Afghanistan. Mattis also assured that his country would continue its security and economic cooperation for enhancing bilateral relations between the US and Afghanistan, according to a statement released by the Presidential Palace. Heading a ranking delegation, which also included Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, Mattis in the meeting with Ghani also exchanged views on the impact of US strategy on Afghanistan and South Asia, the upcoming Afghan parliamentary and presidential elections, the war on terror and talks with Pakistan, it said. The Afghan President, accompanied by Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, said that the Afghans and their government were thankful to Washington for its support to Kabul, the statement added. Mattis arrived here at a time when Washington is trying to make headway in Kabul after 17 years of war. The arrival of Mattis coincided with the recent takeover by Austin Miller from John Nicholson as NATO-led Resolute Support Mission and US Forces Afghanistan commander, Efe news reported. Mattis, who reached Kabul in the morning from New Delhi, had, along with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, discussed with their Indian counterparts, Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj respectively, the importance of both India and the US in Afghanistan. New Delhi and Washington reiterated their support for an Afghan-led peace process in a joint statement on Thursday, in which the latter acknowledged the former's longstanding and ongoing contribution to Afghanistan as well as India's role in its neighbour's development and stability. The same subject was addressed by Pompeo and Mattis during their stopover in Pakistan, where the Secretary of State stressed the need for Pakistan "to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan". --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As... Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has joined actors Claes Bang and Elizabeth Debicki in director Giuseppe Capotondis thriller "The Burnt Orange Heresy". Jagger will portray an English art dealer-collector and patron of Jerome Debney, the reclusive J.D. Salinger of the art world, reports pagesix.com. Set in present-day Italy, "The Burnt Orange Heresy" centers on an art world scam that goes terribly wrong. Bang plays an art critic who begins a romance with an American tourist, portrayed by Debicki. The new lovers travel to the lavish Lake Como estate that's the home of Jagger's character, who offers a seductive deal: in exchange for a career-transformative introduction to Debney, he must steal a new masterpiece from the artist's studio. "The Burnt Orange Heresy" is adapted by Scott B. Smith from the novel by Charles Willeford. Jagger previously starred in the 2001 film "The Man From Elysian Fields" and also appeared in the 2008 movie "The Bank Job". --IANS nn/sim/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rapper Nicki Minaj has offered her support to the former "The Cosby Show" actor Geoffrey Owens saying that she wants to give him $25,000. Since the world learned Owens was working at a grocery store between acting gigs, he has been inundated with support and even offered a job by actor Tyler Perry. And on Thursday, Minaj also offered her support to Owens, reports people.com. "This man is a whole f-- legend," the rapper said during her latest episode of "Queen Radio". "That man is now getting so many opportunities, I personally want to donate $25,000." Minaj also called out Karma Lawrence, the woman who took Owens' photograph at a Trader Joe's store in New Jersey where he was bagging groceries. Calling Lawrence a "stupid f-", the star accused her of "trying to embarrass this hardworking man", who played Elvin Tibideaux in "The Cosby Show" from 1985-1992. --IANS nn/sim/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged American investors to step up their investment in India, saying the country offers enormous investment potential. Modi made the remarks to board members of United States India Business Council (USIBC) who called on him. An official release said they briefed Modi on the outcomes of the India Idea Forum held in Mumbai earlier this week. The business leaders expressed their desire to prepare a roadmap to achieve the target of $ 500 billion in bilateral trade and expand meaningfully their Corporate Social Responsibility activities in India. Interacting with the members, Modi mentioned various reforms undertaken by his government. "He also spoke of the enormous investment potential in India and encouraged the American investor community to step up investment in the country," the release said. He also called for greater people-to-people exchanges between the two countries mentioning the shared values between India and the US. --IANS ps/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jharkhand government on Friday announced that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Centre's flagship Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission from here on September 23. "It's a matter of pride for us that world's biggest health scheme Ayushman Bharat will start from Jharkhand on September 23 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi" a state government press release quoted a tweet from Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who is on a visit to China. "The people of the entire country along with 3.25 crore people of Jharkhand are eagerly awaiting for this historic moment," Das added. Modi will also lay foundation stone for medical colleges at Koderma and Chaibasa, a Tertiary Cancer Center in Ranchi, restoration and renovation work at Birsa Munda Jail and conservation work at Birsa Munda Museum while golden records (e-cards) will also be distributed among the beneficiaries. --IANS ns/anp/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first 'Namaste in Namaste London came ten years back. It was an honest sweet gentle film about a NRI London-bred girl Katrina Kaif's attempts to adjust in marriage to a Punjabi rustic man Akshay Kumar who adores her to death. Director Vipul Shah wanted to make the sequel with the same pair but things didnt work out. Shah's long-standing association with Akshay Kumar ended abruptly. It is a setback that he doesn't talk about at all. It took the producer-director ten years to direct another film. He is happy with the way "Namaste England" has shaped up. Looking at the trailer, so are we. It seems to take us into a quaint universe where the dramatic complexities are created by cultural rather than emotional conflict between the lead pair. This time it is Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, who made their joint debut in Habib Faisal's "Ishaqzaade" violent brutal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet rooted in the fiercely internecine caste and communal system. This time in "Namaste England" there is little opposition or tension in their relationship from the outside. Says Vipul, "I wanted to make a gentle romantic film where the conflicts are very basic, very relatable. I think I've succeeded in doing that." Vipul took ill recently and had to be hospitalized. But the film didn't suffer on account of his health. "I had finished all my work on the film when I took ill.So there has been no setback due to my health.We are ready to release on 19 October." The trailer shows Parineeti's Jasmeet fleeing to London to escape the stifling patriarchal bastion of Punjab. Arjun Kapoor playing the devoted duty-bound husband follows her to London to bring her back. But the lady has other plans. While reveling in the rites of a traditional rural Punjabi family the film seems to suggest that the female population of rural India desperately needs to find its voice. A supportive spouse helps. This is not the first time that Arjun Kapoor plays a caring empathetic husband willing to relinquish the traditional role in a marriage to let his spouse take the lead. But this is the first time that Arjun plays a husband with a hygiene problem. On two occasions in the trailer he is heard talking about his lack care for basic hygiene. Maybe it's just joke. Then again maybe it's not. Either way we don't want kids telling their mothers, "Why should we brush our teeth when Arjun Uncle doesn't." --IANS skj/nv/vm (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) has asked US retail major and e-commerce major to explain their way of doing business in NCLAT, which is also an appellate authority over the (CCI), has asked Wal-Mart International Holdings Inc to file its reply before it by September 20, 2018. It has also asked trader's body CAIT, which has filed an appeal before NCLAT challenging the go ahead by fair regulator CCI on Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of home-grown Flipkart, to file its understanding over the Walmart's business model in "Before going into the merit of the appeal, we intend to know the manner in which Wal-Mart International Holdings, Inc. and Private Ltd do their business in the relevant market in India," said an NCLAT bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya. The tribunal further said: "The appellant (CAIT) may file relevant list of dates and their understanding of sales by Respondent No 2 (Wal-Mart International) by way of an additional affidavit within a week thereof." NCLAT has directed to list the matter on October 5 'for admission' of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) petition opposing approval granted by the CCI on August 8 to the Walmart- deal. Last month, while clearing Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart, the CCI opined that complaints about the deal violating FDI rules "may merit policy intervention" but do not fall under its ambit. The CCI had said it is "not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India and therefore, the same is hereby approved." It had observed that the complaint about Flipkart's discounting practice or preference to select e-tailers is not specific to this merger deal and is "already prevalent" in the market. Earlier, on August 18 had informed that it has completed deal with Flipkart and holds 77 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce major. Besides, the Bentonville giant's investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding to help accelerate the growth of the Flipkart business. India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc, owns and operates 21 Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in eight states in the country. Wal-Mart International Holdings, Inc is a subsidiary of Walmart Inc. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Friday asked renowned economist Atif R. Mian, who belongs to the persecuted and minority Muslim sect Ahmadi, to step down from the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) following mounting pressure from religio-political parties against his appointment. Atif Mian, a Princeton University economist, had been appointed to the EAC last week and has agreed to resign, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted on Friday. A replacement will be announced later, he said. "The government wants to move forward alongside scholars and all social groups, and it is inappropriate if a single nomination creates an impression to the contrary," the minister tweeted. The appointment of Atif Mian of Princeton University to the 18-member EAC set up to advise the government on economic policy was opposed by some individuals and groups, including Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, who objected to his Ahmadi faith, Dawn online reported. The news of his removal from the body came as a surprise since the Imran Khan government three days ago defended the academic's nomination, saying in categorical terms that it will "not bow to extremists". "Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority," Chaudhary had said earlier this week, amidst a vicious online campaign targeting Atif Mian for his faith. A social media smear campaign had erupted against the economist's appointment, with many calling for his removal. On the other hand, there were a large number of supporters who defended Atif Mian's appointment on the social media, saying that one's religion should not factor into their professional qualifications or employment. Atif Mian served as a professor of economics, public policy and finance at Princeton University and as director of The Julis-Rabinowitz Centre for Public Policy and Finance at Woodrow Wilson School. He is the only Pakistani to be considered among the International Monetary Fund's "top 25 brightest young economists". Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in Pakistan through a constitutional amendment passed on September 7, 1974 during the tenure of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This measure was later followed with General Ziaul Haq making it a punishable offence for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to refer to their faith as Islam. --IANS soni/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Border Security Force (BSF) Director General K.K. Sharma on Friday launched a veiled attack on Pakistan accusing it of using Bangladesh as a transit route to smuggle fake Indian currency into India. However, he claimed that the menace has come down since demonetisation. Only 11 lakh Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) have been seized so far this year and these were easily detectable because of its poor quality, Sharma said while addressing a joint press briefing with his visiting Bangladeshi counterpart Major General Shafeenul Islam, Director General, Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Islam is heading a 14-member BGB delegation to India since September 3 to attend a five-day 47th DG-level bi-annual conference. The Chiefs of the two forces also signed a joint record of discussion on Friday before the BGB delegation left for Bangladesh. Appreciating the efforts of BGB to curb the menace, the BSF DG said: "The BGB is also very alert and whenever they seize the FICN they try to find out where it is coming from. Mostly we find that Bangladesh territory is being used as a transit route for FICN smuggling. And, these fake notes come from our other friendly neighbour on the western side." "The quantum of smuggled FICN has come down since demonetisation and the quality also is not very good. Only 11 lakhs FICN has been seized this year so far. If we see the entire economy of the country, it is nothing. Earlier, the seizures in the entire years used to be in crores," Sharma said. He also sought Islam's further cooperation in detecting FICN units operating in Bangladesh and launching legal prosecution against the culprits. Acknowledging that FICN is a concern in Bangladesh too, Islam said: "We have installed our vigilance all along the borders, including machines to detect such notes. We have been constantly able to reduce the transaction of FICN". On Rohingya status, the BGB Chief said "we are keeping them confined to some specific areas allocated for them but yet there are some cases in which they are found slipping out and located at some other places in Bangladesh". The BSF DG, however, said a large number of Rohingyas were there in Bangladesh and from time to time some groups did try to enter India. "We did not let them in," he said. "So, there has not been any large scale influx of Rohingyas into India," he said. "Whatever Rohingyas are already there in the country, they are also under pressure at some places. So they are going to West Bengal which is likely (to be) friendly with them. They (West Bengal) even created camps for the Rohingyas coming from within the country not from Bangladesh." Both the the Chiefs of the two forces, during the DG-level talks, also expressed their satisfaction in approval of almost all pending developmental works and lauded the results of crime free zones which had been introduced in South Bengal Frontier, South West Region and agreed for its further expansion in other frontiers. They also agreed to take strong measures for prevention of illegal border crossing and human trafficking, and providing aid to victims of human trafficking and facilitating their early rescue and rehabilitation. They agreed to bring down violence on the border to zero level, take preventive measures against wilful violation of the sanctity of the International Boundary (IB) which would be dealt as per law of the land. Inadvertent crossers would be handed over to the concerned border guarding force immediately. The BSF Chief said as his force was asked by the Indian Government to use non-lethal weapons to avoid deaths "there has not been a single death on the borders this year so far". On the issue of trafficking, he said 1,522 illegal Bangladeshi migrants have been caught in India and handed over to the police. Of them, 166 were inadvertent crossers. On migration of Bangladeshis into India, BGB DG said: "There is no large infiltration from Bangladesh. Some people migrate because some of their relatives are residing across border. But they all come back after visiting their relatives. We have apprehended around 100 in the last six months. But we are very alert in maintaining the sanctity of the India-Bangladesh border." DG BSF sought cooperation from BGB to eliminate rampant Indian insurgent groups while the BGB DG informed there was no hideout of such groups inside Bangladesh. He clarified that his country "does not allow its soil to be used by any entities or elements hostile to any country". Both sides appreciated the efforts made to improve mutual relations through various agreed upon Confidence Building Measures and decided that next DG-level conference would be held in Dhaka in the month of March-April 2019. --IANS rak/vsc/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Film: "Paltan"; Director: J.P. Dutta; Cast: Jackie Shroff, Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Gurmeet Choudhary, Harshvardhan Rane, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Rohit Roy, Abhilash Chaudhary, Nagender Choudhary, Abdul Qadir Amin, Esha Gupta, Sonal Chauhan, Dipika Kakar, Monica Gill; Rating: **1/2 Based on a true story, this J.P. Dutta's film opens with a scene of high tension that soon transports the viewer exactly where he or she would never want to be, in a war zone on the Indo-China Border. After an intense prologue, which shows the Chinese aggression during the 1962 and 1965 attacks on the banks of the Namka Chur River in Arunachal Pradesh, the narrative settles on the Nathu La and Cho La clashes of 1967. The film depicts the series of military clashes between India and China alongside the border of the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim, then an Indian protectorate. Paltan is the tale of the platoon from the Rajputana Rifles, under the command of Major General Sagat Singh (Jackie Shroff). On the ground level the platoon is led by Lieutenant Colonel Rai Singh Yadav (Arjun Rampal). He is seconded by Major Bhishen Singh (Sonu Sood) and Major Harbhajan Singh (Harshavardhan Rane) and they are assisted by Captain Prithvi Singh Dagar (Gurmeet Chaudhary). Each one of them have their moments of on-screen glory. The watch-keepers living on the barren land, march in single file whenever they have a scuffle with their Chinese counterparts. Their face-offs seem legendary, which always seem to end on a dubious note, with "Hindi-Chini bhai bhai". Designed in a formulaic manner, the narrative of this war film is interspersed with the personal lives of the protagonists. Each one has his share of onscreen personal moments, either with their parents, wife or fiance. So if you have seen any of J.P. Dutta's earlier films, then this is no different. The novelty in the treatment is missing. What's more, the film seems to have been lazily packaged. There are several instances that makes you want to reject the film. For one, the English dialogues which Jackie Shroff frequently breaks into. Two, the plot meanders for the better part of the film. Probably, that's what gears us to the third act, which is something bad is going to happen and that takes too long to come. And thirdly, you crack up when Colonel Rai Singh Yadav's wife essayed by Esha Gupta in an emotional parting scene turns up with false eye lashes and baby in arms to bid farewell to her husband who is going to join his posting. The dialogues too are run-off the mill and uninspiring. Except for the finale action sequences, the better half of the film is drab. But what comes out strongly is the delay in the response from the high command. It's pathetic to hear, the Major General pleading to his higher-ups, "We delay, we lose men. I hope you understand", when he is seeking permission to use the Artillery to combat the Chinese. The film is packaged with excellent production values, but overall, this is just another derivative of Dutta's film Border in a fresh avatar. (Troy Ribeiro can be reached at troyribeiro@yahoo.com) --IANS troy/qd/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Having drawn flak from several quarters, the Kerala CPI-M on Friday said the party is looking into allegations levelled by a woman against P.K. Sasi, the party legislator from Shornur in Palakkad district of the state. In a statement, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a section of the media are making baseless allegations to malign the party. "It was on August 14 that the state party unit got a complaint from the woman against Sasi. He was immediately summoned by the party and his explanation was taken. "On August 31, a two-member committee of the party comprising state Minister for Culture A.K. Balan and Kannur Lok Sabha member P.K. Sreemathi was asked to look into it. Once the committee submits its report appropriate action will be there," said the statement. Sreemathi, a former State Health Minister, told the media that they are on the job. "It's too early to say anything about it now as we have to meet the woman." The Congress has been critical of the government and also the Kerala State Women's Commission (KSWC) Chairperson M.C. Josephine, a CPI-M Central Committee member, after she said since there is no complaint from the woman, nothing can be done. State Youth Congress activists on Friday marched to the office of the state police chief here. --IANS sg/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ghana will supply Burkina Faso with 100 megawatts of electricity daily after the completion of the 225 kilo volt (kv) Bolgatanga-Ouaguadougou interconnection project. Even though the project has not been completed fully, Ghana has managed to export around 50 to 65 megawatts of power to Burkina-Faso through its existing 161 KV network. Whenever the interconnecting project is fully completed, Ghana should be able to supply 100 megawatts of power or more to Burkina-Faso. Mr Abdul Samed Ibrahim, principal Electrical Engineer at the Ghana Grid Company limited (GRIDCO), made this known when the World Bank Country Director Mr Henry Kerali visited the Aboadze Thermal Plant. The World Bank Country Director and his team are in the Western Region for a three day visit, during which they would inspect some World Bank funded projects. The 225kV Bolgatanga Ouagadougou Project, which is part of the West African Power Pool Project (WAPP), expected to create a power grid system across West Africa. The project is being funded by World Bank, French Development Agency, European Investment Bank, Burkina Fasos National Electricity Company (SONABEL) and GRIDCo with an amount of $111 million. The World Bank has also built a 330 kilovolt (KV) sub-station at the Aboadze Thermal Plant in the Western Region to help carry bulk electricity power at a much higher voltage from the enclave to the main load centres in Accra. The initiative by the World Bank has helped in the reduction of loses in electricity supply, since the previous161 kV lines from Aboadze were old and carried power in smaller capacity from the enclave to Takoradi through Cape Coast, Winneba and then to Accra. With the higher voltage substation in place, electricity power is carried in bulk straight to the country's capital from the Aboadze Thermal Plant. This is to help meet the increasing demand for electricity power in the country. The Volta River Authority (VRA) has therefore tied its existing 161 kV sub-station to the much higher 330kv voltage substation to carry the bulk power to the country's capital and the main tie-in point at Tema. Abdul Samed Ibrahim revealed that Ghana was able to meet the purchase demand by Burkina Faso because currently electricity supply in the country far exceeded the demand. "Currently we have more generation capacity than we actually need in the country so we can continue to supply Burkina-Faso so long as we have enough capacity in the country", he added. He disclosed that because there were expertise in Ghana more power generating companies preferred to site their plants in Ghana because they would get people to manage and operate them. "We have lots of generating capacities coming to Ghana so what we need is the interconnecting lines which we are currently building to be able to supply power to Burkina-Faso for a long time", he stressed. The World Bank Country Director, Mr Kerali described Ghana's ability to export electricity to Burkina-Faso as a great achievement. "We are here to look at some of the physical infrastructure put in place to allow the transmission of power from Ghana to Burkina-Faso" He noted that the project was implemented within the framework of the West African Power Pool mandate to develop a unified regional electricity market. 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 Bestselling author Preeti Shenoy will be coming out with a new book, "The Rule Breakers", later this month. The announcement was made by publisher Westland, which said that the book will release on September 17 and is currently on pre-order. "Weaving a thought-provoking narrative of a woman's journey towards self-discovery, in this emotional roller-coaster of a novel, Preeti Shenoy treads new grounds once again and brings together a powerfully liberating book, a read crucial for our times. Complex themes like women's equality, gender diversity and inclusion, a path to find one's inner purpose are deftly explored in a gripping tale, set in the nineties in Joshimath and Pune," the publisher said in a statement. "The Rule Breakers", Westland added, will be "an inspirational tale for those who find it difficult to stand up for what they want in life". --IANS ss/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Despite a largely volatile session on Friday, the key Indian equity indices ended on a positive note supported by a recovery in the rupee. A healthy pick-up in auto, metal and healthcare stocks also supported the gains, said analysts. The rupee strengthened during the day following an intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), they said. Index-wise, the Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 11,589.10 points, higher 52.20 points or 0.45 per cent from its previous close of 11,536.90 points. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 38,314.55 points, closed at 38,389.82 points, higher 147.01 points or 0.38 per cent from the previous close of 38,242.81 points. It touched an intra-day high of 38,421.56 points and a low of 38,067.22 points. Among the global markets, major Asian markets closed on a negative note, barring the Jakarta and Shanghai indices, and the European indices including FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 traded in the red, according to Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities. On the currency front, the Indian rupee settled at 71.73 against the US dollar, stronger by 26 paise than its previous close of 71.99 per greenback. The central bank intervened heavily in the foreign exchange market on Friday, aiding the recovery in the domestic currency, Jasani told IANS. In the broader markets, the S&P BSE Mid-cap rose 1.15 per cent and the S&P BSE Small-cap ended 0.55 per cent higher from its previous close. The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1,533 advances against 1,202 declines. The total number of stocks traded on the exchange are 2,907 and 172 scrips ended unchanged. Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrips worth Rs 37.56 crore and domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 942.45 crore. Among the sectors, the S&P BSE Auto index gained the most 501.93 points. It was lifted by strong gains in Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Motherson Sumi and Mahindra and Mahindra stocks during the day. The auto index was followed by the metal index which rose 269.39 points and the healthcare, which ended 143.80 points higher than its previous close. As for declines, only three indices on the BSE ended in the negative territory with marginal losses. The S&P BSE Banking index slipped 13.28 points, the power index 1.68 points and the finance index ended 1.19 points lower from their respective previous close. The top gainers at the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp, up 5.27 per cent at Rs 3,327.45; Bajaj Auto, up 5.06 per cent at Rs 2,924; Bharti Airtel, up 5.06 per cent at Rs 2,924; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 4.12 per cent at Rs 973.45; and Tata Steel, up 3.09 per cent at Rs 619 per share. The majors losers were Yes Bank, down 4.59 per cent at Rs 323.45; Adani Ports, down 1.89 per cent at Rs 377.10; Sun Pharma, up 1.84 per cent at Rs 664.20; Power Grid, down 1.73 per cent at Rs 195.75; and State Bank of India, down 1.62 per cent at Rs 291.85 per share. --IANS ravi-rrb/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The supreme court on Friday asked the Centre and States to give wide publicity on radio, television and other media platforms to its direction that lynching and mob violence of any kind will invite serious consequence under the law. The top court by its July 17 judgment had directed the Central and the state governments to "broadcast on radio and television and other media platforms including the official websites of the Home Department and Police of the states that lynching and mob violence of any kind shall invite serious consequence under the law." The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed the Centre and the state governments to carry out its July 17 direction as Attorney General K.K. Venugopal informed the court that a Group of Ministers (GoM) is considering the nature of legislation to be brought to deal with the crime of lynching by the vigilante groups. The top court by its July 17 judgment had recommended to Parliament to create a separate offence for lynching and provide adequate punishment for the same as a special law would instil a sense of fear for law among the people involved in vigilantism and lynching. Directing all the state governments and Union Territories to comply with its July 17 direction that provides for preventive, remedial and punitive steps to deal with the lynching crime, the court said that the home secretaries of the states and the UTs that would fail to file report on the compliance of its direction would be directed to appear before the court in person. The court order came as senior counsel Indira Jaising told the court that only nine States and two Union territories have filed the compliance report. Besides this, the court sought report from Rajasthan on the steps taken backed with documents against the police officials for delay in taking Rakbar Khan, a victim of lynching to hospital resulting in his death. Rakbar Khan, 28, was beaten to death by suspected cow vigilantes in Lalwandi village of Ramgarh district in Rajasthan on July 24. Rajasthan on Thursday informed the court that SHO of the police station concerned has been suspended. The court was also informed that three constables of the police station have been transferred to police lines. --IANS pk/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Sukhdev Singh Bhaur was on Friday arrested from Mohali town, adjoining Chandigarh, following a case registered against him for hurting religious sentiments of a community, police said. He was booked by the Punjab Police in Banga town in Nawanshahr district, around 85 km from here, following a complaint from the members of Ravidassia community who alleged that Bhaur had hurt their religious sentiments by saying unwarranted things against the community's religious leader Sant Ramanand. Sources said that Bhaur, who made the comments in a recent speech, took to social media to regret his utterances and apologised to the community members. Sant Ramanand, who headed the influential Dera Ballan in Punjab's Doaba belt, was killed in an attack at a shrine in Vienna in Austria in 2009. His killing had brought Punjab to a standstill due to violence by the Ravidassia community in Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts. Bhaur had even remained acting-President of the SGPC earlier. He fell out with the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership in 2015 following sacrilege incidents in the state. The SGPC, considered mini-parliament of Sikh religious affairs, is a cash-rich organisation with an annual budget of nearly Rs 1,200 crore. It manages gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, including the holiest of Sikh shrines "Harmandir Sahib", popularly known as Golden Temple, in Amritsar. --IANS js/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP on Friday slammed Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for praising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the issue of opening of the Kartarpur corridor to enable devotees pay obeisance at a gurdwara associated with the first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev. The praise was an "insult to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi". "This has become a habit with the Congress to insult our Prime Minister and praise that of the neighbouring country. The entire country is watching this. (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi should clarify the issue," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told a press conference here. Hussain said that Sidhu's remarks came at a time when Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa has vowed to avenge the blood shed on the border by his country's soldiers. "On one side, Pakistan's Army chief is speaking of 'khoon ka badla khoon' and in India a Congress leader is thanking Pakistan. It is very sad and unfortunate," he said. "We reject Bajwa's statement. India is capable of responding to them," he added. Seeking to know if it (praise) was the Congress statement or of Sidhu, he said that until the opposition party clarified, the BJP will consider it a statement by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. "Sidhu is not an individual. He is a Congress leader and a Cabinet Minister in Punjab," the BJP leader said, adding that his statement thanking Pakistan is an indication of what the Congress feels about that country. He said that India and many of its Prime Ministers had tried many a time to improve bilateral relations but to no avail. Addressing reporters in Chandigarh, Sidhu earlier in the day thanked his "friend" Imran Khan for enabling the opening of the corridor that would allow pilgrims from India to go to the gurdwara close to the international border in Pakistan. "Ajj meri zindagi safal ho gayi (today, I have succeeded in life)," Sidhu told the media. --IANS bns/tsb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress and other opposition parties will enter into strategic political alliances in states to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, feels former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who says a pan-India alliance may be difficult before the polls. He also asserted that the issue of who will be the Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition will be sorted out by the parties at the right time. The BJP's alliance partners have fallen out, he said and does not see the ruling party securing enough numbers even to think of forming the government. "People of India are connecting with us because the people have realised that this sort of tsunami of jumlas (rhetoric) has not taken India anywhere. The dreams that were promised have come crashing down. The communications revolution is a great benefactor in many senses. "But in the context of this Prime Minister, the communications revolution has ensured that whatever he said in the past can be repeated to him, haunt him. This was not so when the communications revolution had not taken place because it is in electronic mode, whatever speeches he made and whatever he said is going to haunt him. Public memory is refreshed by repeating those promises that he made," Sibal told IANS in an interview. His book 'Shades of Truth -- A Journey Derailed' published by Rupa Publications releasing on Friday analyses the four years of NDA rule under Modi, the weaknesses that undid the UPA regime, the 2G and coal "scams" among other things. Replying to questions, the former HRD minister said any attempts by BJP to polarise people before elections would not pay. "It would not matter. I think the people of India, their eyes have been opened to the reality of this leadership," he said. Asked about his view which he has written in the book that Congress would have a dilemma in West Bengal on whether to tie with the Left or the ruling Trinamool Congress, he said, "That we will see. I don't decide these issues. I have said what I said in the book." To a question whether there will be pan-India alliance or state-specific alliances, Sibal said, "I have said in the book that a pan-India alliance is difficult." Asked if he was confident about an opposition alliance against BJP, he said "100 per cent". When pressed to answer whether it would be a grand alliance, Sibal said, "There certainly will be strategic alliances because there are common interests. So there is the lowest common denominator at work." Sibal, who was elected from the Chandni Chowk constituency of the national capital in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sasbha elections said in reply to another query whether Congress should partner with AAP in Delhi that "I don't think we have asked for alliance but they (Congress leadership) will decide". Asked about the problems that could emerge in the opposition alliance over the Prime Minister's post, the Congress leader shot back, "that (prime minister) will emerge". When told about Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) riposte as to "who is the alternative to Modi", Sibal hit back saying "what has this great Prime Minister done for India? Forget who. If you look at the record of this country, the history of the country since 1991, the greatest things have happened in coalition governments. Strong majority in 2014 has in fact resulted in belittling the future of India. Let us not go into that debate." He said the situation will throw up a candidate. "Always. It always does. It happened in 2004 also." Asked whether the Prime Minister candidate will be from Congress, he said, "I don't know. We will see whatever emerges at that point of time. That is something people will decide." When told about the reservations among some opposition leaders over Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Sibal said, "Anybody may have reservations. The point in time is if and when that situation arises somebody will emerge and I think the people will decide who that somebody is going to be." Asked about reports that the BJP may not get majority but still could form a coalition government next year, Sibal said, "It's all speculation. What are the numbers you are talking about. BJP is not there in Tamil Nadu. BJP is not there in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Hardly it is there in West Bengal and Odisha. Where are they going to get the seats? "They got all seats in Rajasthan, Gujarat, almost all seats in Haryana... where are they going to get the seats? I am not on numbers. If you look at the map of India and the fact that alliance partners have fallen out, I don't see the BJP securing enough numbers even to think of forming the government," he said. When asked whether the opposition was simply hoping to cash on the anti-incumbency against the Modi government, the Congress leader said: "This is not about anti-incumbency. This is destroying the very fabric of India." "See a disruptive mindset will indulge in disruptive and disruptive economics. What we have seen in the last four years are disruptive mindsets who have indulged in disruptive and disruptive economics," he said attacking the BJP government. Sibal said this has nothing to do with anti-incumbency. "Destructive mindsets have resulted in destroying the peace and tranquility of India. It has destroyed the economy of India starting November 8, 2016. He alleged that such a mindset has created levels of unemployment the country has not seen. "We have seen violence in the streets when Dalits and minorities are attacked. We have seen institutions being destroyed, seen the media, specially the electronic media collaborate with the government. We talked about CBI as caged parrots. These are caged and singing parrots (to government's tune). We have seen distress in the agricultural sector and fear among people that we have not seen before. "We have seen businessmen losing heart and small businesses being destroyed. We have seen the informal sector starved of credit. This is nothing to do with anti-incumbency. It is something to do with impact that this government's policies on the lives of people," Sibal added. (Prashant Sood can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in and V.S. Chandrasekar can be contacted at chandru.v@ians.in) --IANS ps-vsc/aks/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Film: "The Nun"; Director: Corin Hardy; Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Demian Bichir, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, Charlotte Hope, Michael Smiley, Ingrid Bisu, Sandra Teles, August Maturo, Jack Falk, Lynnette Gaza; Rating: ** "The Nun", is yet another spin-off of a horror film that's not exactly inventive or frightening. Set in 1952, the narrative beings with the para-psychologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who had famously invented the so called Amityville hauntings of "The Conjuring" series, reveal that one of the paintings, hanging on the walls of their Connecticut home, is spooky. Lorraine discloses: "I had a vision in Amityville, I had a premonition of your death. The demon in the painting, is real." With not much ado about the painting or how the demon got into it, we are transported to remote Romania, where in a haunted cloister convent, a nun hangs herself after being chased by a maleficent spirit. After her body is spotted by Frenchie (Jomas Bloquet) a resident of Biertan, a village close to the convent, the Vatican is perturbed. So, they send a Spanish priest Father Anthony Burke (Demian Bechir) and a young novitiate Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to investigate the happenings there. The three along with the nuns are subjected to trauma by a series of sub-standard iteration of horror tropes with no cause and effect sequences but just effects, random and unjustified. The bulk of the narrative is taken by the apparent killings of the nuns who live in the monastery. Some are burnt, blown or thrown off in a series of oddly timed events. Add to that, the falling of the skulls and the presence of ghastly zombie-like spirits, make the entire narrative more amusing than horrifying. Between the screaming of the nuns, banging of the walls, creaking sound of the doors and the gushing sound of the wind that creates the haunting crescendo, you tend to hear the yawn of the audience and squeaking of the restless chairs in the auditorium. Seriously, all scares are shallow, dismissible and lack credibility. The story line has more holes than the plot. The three lead performers are all convincing in their histrionics. But it is the charming Bloquet who lightens up the screen with his suave presence and much needed comic timing. While technically the film is astutely mounted with excellent production values, camera work, sound design and art direction, the devil in the film is missing. (Troy Ribeiro can be reached at troyribeiro@yahoo.com) --IANS troy/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Kevin Hart starrer comedy drama "The Upside" will release on January 11, 2019. The film, that was premiered a year ago at the Toronto International Film Festival when the movie was still owned by the Weinstein Company, is a remake of the popular French film "The Intouchables". Helmed by Neil Burger, "The Upside" also stars actors Bryan Cranston, and Nicole Kidman. Hart portrays a recently paroled ex-convict who strikes up an unusual friendship with a paralyzed billionaire, played by Cranston. --IANS sim/nv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a fresh case of street justice in Bihar, three suspected kidnappers were on Friday beaten to death by a mob in state's Begusarai district, police said. The incident took place near Goriya Dharamshala in Narain Pipar village under Chhaurahi block of the district. According to district police officials, three armed criminals, who were suspected to be kidnappers in search of a girl student to kidnap her from the village school. As the word spread about their presence in the village, they were surrounded and caught hold of by the angry villagers, who beat them to death with bamboo sticks, bricks and iron rods, the officials said. The police have registered a case in this regard and investigating the case. --IANS ik/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fourteen female tourists have claimed that they were sexually assaulted by a guru at a yoga retreat in Thailand's picturesque Koh Phangan island, a media report said on Friday. Agama Yoga embraced ancient tantric teachings under its charismatic leader, the guru Swami Vivekananda Saraswati whose real name is Narcis Tarcau, the Guardian report said. Tarcau, who is from Romania, set up Agama in the island in 2003 after leaving Rishikesh in India when it is understood his visa was revoked. The 14 victims from the UK, Australia, Brazil, US and Canada, along with two other men said that for 15 years the retreat facilitated sexual assault, rape and misogynistic teachings, allegedly "brainwashing" hundreds of women into having sex with the Swami in the name of helping them achieve enlightenment. Three women claimed they were raped by Tarcau under the guise of spiritual healing while the others alleged he sexually assaulted them in private consultations held in his office. The victims told the Guardian that they felt a "sex cult" was operating inside Agama. After 31 women submitted testimonials alleging abuse at Agama, the school first tried to deal with it internally, but have now launched an independent inquiry. Tarcau is understood to have left Koh Phangan in July, when several women went public with the abuse allegations. A statement issued by Agama apologised for the "suffering expressed by many women". "People are purposefully defaming Agama and spreading lies (even when contradicted by evidence of the truth), which is a crime in Thailand," the statement said. Since 2003, Agama has grown into the world's biggest tantric yoga school, offering Yoga Alliance-certified courses and yoga teacher training to thousands every year. Besides the main centre in Thailand, it also has schools in India, Colombia and Austria. --IANS ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump has proposed to indefinitely extend the detention period for undocumented migrant children by abandoning a judicial agreement establishing a limit of 20 days after being apprehended. The government initiative would entail ending the so-called Flores Settlement, approved in 1997 and setting a limit of 20 days as the maximum period authorities may detain children entering the country illegally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Thursday. The decision seeks to respond to the problems facing the administration as a result of the controversial "zero tolerance" policy pushed by the Justice Department, which had allowed the separation of immigrant families detained at the border with Mexico, reports Efe news. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in the statement that the current protocol - which Trump wants to abandon - allows for "legal loopholes... (that) significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country". She added that altering the rules would standardise the way in which minors entering the country alone or who are removed from their parents or guardians are treated. Nielsen claimed that the new rule would allow the federal government to implement the immigration laws as they were approved in Congress, the same argument she had used when the administration started implementing the zero tolerance policy last April. The government said that abandoning the Flores Settlement is an important step toward regaining control over the country's border. "It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer," said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project. Although the new rule will be implemented on Friday, its legal viability will have to wait to be tested in court. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twitter said it has permanently banned US conspiracy theorist Alexander Jones and accounts associated with his website Infowars for "abusive behaviour". "Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope," Twitter said on Thursday on its Safety account, Xinhua news agency reported. The world leading social media site said it took the action "based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behaviour policy, in addition to the accounts' past violations." The ban will cut Jones and Infowars from its 1.5 million followers on future interaction on Twitter's platform, and Twitter vows to "take action" if the latter attempts to circumvent the prohibitive measure. "We will continue to evaluate reports we receive regarding other accounts potentially associated with @realalexjones or @infowars and will take action if content that violates our rules is reported or if other accounts are utilized in an attempt to circumvent their ban," @TwitterSafety said in one of its tweets. The social media firm said it will increase transparency in implementation of its rules and actions, but it declines to "comment on enforcement actions we take against individual accounts, for their privacy." Twitter is one of the latest major tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple that has permanently banned Jones and his associated accounts. It imposed a week-long ban on Jones as a warning for his bellicose behaviour last month. In August, Google-owned YouTube, Apple and Facebook removed or restricted Jones' activities on their platforms for hate speech. Jones is a controversial American radio show host and conspiracy theorist, who runs the website Infowars.com that is devoted to conspiracy theories and fake news. He is notorious for accusing the US government of planning the Oklahoma City bombing that killed at least 168 people and wounded more than 680 others in 1995. Jones also doubted the government's role in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US that left 2,996 people dead and over 6,000 injured. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The upcoming Assembly elections in four states that will set the trend for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are likely to figure prominently in the two-day BJP National Executive meet beginning here on Saturday. "The National Executive will discuss the current political situation in the country," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters. The meeting is likely to adopt political and economic resolutions. He said before the inaugural session of the meeting, national office bearers, state BJP chiefs and state's General Secretary (organisation) will hold a meeting with party President Amit Shah to finalize the agenda and the resolutions to be taken up in the meeting. The party is likely to reiterate its commitment to welfare of the poor and marginalised sections of the society by highlighting initiatives like higher MSP (minimum support price) for farmers, passage of OBC Commission Bill giving it a constitutional status and restoration of the provision for immediate arrest under the SC/ST Act. The National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Citizens Amendment Bill will also come up for discussion as the party ups the ante on identity At the same time it will also seek to assure the upper castes, the traditional voters of BJP, which are agitated against the amendments made by Parliament to restore the provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, of thier rights, sources said. The executive meeting of the ruling party comes ahead of the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram due in December. The BJP, which is ruling in three states excluding Mizoram, is leaving no stone unturned to retain power. A new election angle has been added with the dissolution of the Assembly in Telangana, which could also see early polls. "The main focus of the executive will be on Assembly polls of three states where we are ruling. If the party wins these polls, a momentum for 2019 could be easily built in favour for 2019," a senior BJP functionary said on the condition of anonymity. He said a separate session for the election-bound states will be held where the preparations for the polls will be reviewed. The party will also review the status of various organisational activities it undertook to reach out to the people through Modi government's ambitious schemes such as Ujjawala, Swachha Bharat Abhiyan, Saubhagya, Aawas and Ayushmaan Bharat. The two-day meet, the first after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's demise, will be attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, union ministers, Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of the states ruled by the party and in coalition with allies. Amit Shah will give inaugural remarks while the Prime Minister will deliver the valedictory speech on Sunday. --IANS bns-aks/vsc/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the commitment made by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "The Secretary-General commends the continued momentum and efforts by both Koreas to further trust-building and reconciliation, in line with the Panmunjom Declaration," said Guterres on Thursday in a statement issued by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, Xinhua reported. "He looks forward to further progress at the inter-Korean summit later this month towards sustainable peace, security, and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions," said the spokesman. Kim reconfirmed his firm commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy said in a press briefing after visiting Pyongyang on Wednesday. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN refugee agency UNHCR and the UN development agency UNDP are prepared to begin assessment of Rohingya villages in Myanmar, an official said on Friday. UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said at a press conference in Geneva that the Myanmar government had informed the two UN agencies that the assessment tasks could begin, but were yet to give individual authorization for the international officials to travel in the country, Efe news reported. These assessments were a part of a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh, agreed between the agencies and the Myanmar government, and which even three months after being signed is yet to be implemented. On June 6, UNHCR and UNDP signed the MoU establishing a framework of cooperation aimed at creating conditions for a safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingyas to their places of origin. More than 800,000 Rohingyas, mostly from Rakhine state, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since the end of August last year following a crackdown by Myanmar security forces. Besides the MoU, another important step towards creating appropriate conditions for the safe return of the refugees were to allow access through Rakhine to UN inspectors. The assessment will cover 23 villages and will be the "initial step only -- with the expectation being that access will then be expanded to allow for the larger-scale comprehensive assessments that continue to be needed," said the spokesperson. However, Baloch said that, beyond the authorizations, the Myanmar authorities needed to implement what was included in the MoU, especially access to all parts of Rakhine, freedom of movement for all communities and solving the primary causes of the crisis. Regarding access, the UN agencies called for their officials to be allowed to enter all parts of the state and interact with local communities regularly and without restrictions. Moreover, they also called for basic services to be distributed to all communities in the state, irrespective of their or ethnicity. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will go on a two-day visit to United States of America from September 8 to participate in 2nd World Hindu Congress (WHC)in Chicago. The Vice President will address the 2nd World Hindu Congress being held in Chicago on the occasion of 125th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's Historic Speech at the Parliament of World Religions in 1893, Vice President's Secretariat said in a statement. The two-day visit on September 8-9 is a "global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good" according to its website. "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, the site added. On September 8, Naidu will also participate in a programme organised by 14 Telugu associations of the US at the Community Christian Church, Plainfield of Greater Chicago. He will also address a programme organised by the Indian diaspora. --IANS sm/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The shifting at midnight of the chief, S P Vaid, has triggered an interesting debate in the state. The replacement surprised many although a few in the bureaucratic and police circles had been expecting the change sooner rather than later. An order issued by the state home department around midnight on Thursday said, "Dr S P Vaid, IPS (JK:1986), DGP J&K is transferred and his services are placed at the disposal of General Administration Department for further posting as Transport Commissioner, J&K." "Dilbag Singh, IPS (JK:1987), DG (Prisons) shall hold the charge of DGP J&K in addition to his own duties, till a regular arrangement is made." The very drafting of the order indicated that the governor's administration wanted to see Vaid's back even if his shifting had to be achieved through an interim arrangement. The central point of debate in administrative and police circles is what went wrong with the functioning of the outgoing Police chief? Transfers and postings are the prerogative of the administration and there is nothing that should normally raise eye-brows about these developments. Yet, some administrative changes happen in a manner that controversies about such changes become unavoidable. Former Chief Minister reacted at length over Vaid's shifting. Taking to his widely followed twitter handle, Abdullah said: "There was no hurry to replace @spvaid. He should have been changed only when a permanent arrangement had been worked out." "@JmuKmrPolice has enough problems without having to deal with confusion of leadership. "Changing the DG is the prerogative of the administration but why a DG as a temporary arrangement? The current DG won't know if he's going to stay & others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. None of this is good for @JmuKmrPolice," Abdullah noted. There is no denying the fact that anti-militancy operations are the top priorities of the state police and no police chief can remain comfortably saddled if he is seen lagging on that front. Vaid had been proactively engaged in anti-militancy operations. He tried to remain in the forefront of patting his boys, announcing out-of-turn promotions for taking part in anti-militancy operations and announcing scholarships for children of police personnel and monetary relief to families of martyred policemen. There is a growing belief in bureaucratic and police circles that something somewhere went drastically wrong that cost Vaid his job and resulted in his unceremonious removal. Militants in south Kashmir areas abducted 11 persons, including three policemen, and eight family members of police personnel during two days last month. There was panic among the families of policemen, especially in the south Kashmir districts of Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama and Anantnag. Two days before the militants began their abduction spree, police had detained the father of the most wanted Hizbul commander, Riyaz Naikoo. The abductions of members of police families were believed to be a revenge act for the detention of Naikoo's father. It was not for the first time that Naikoo's father had been taken in for questioning by the police about his son's whereabouts. The fact that the militants could retaliate in such a big way and afford abductions of policemen and their families without the state police having any idea about the hideouts where the abductees were being held dented the image of the police chief. What made matters worse was that the police released Naikoo's father from custody and within the next 10 hours of this release, all the 11 persons abducted by militants were safely released. There was no official word about it, but it was obvious that Naikoo's father had been released to secure the safe release of the abducted persons. Nobody even hinted at the probable swap that had taken place, but top sources said the central intelligence agency filed a report to the ministry of home affairs (MHA) that there had been a deal through which the safe release of the abducted members of police families was ensured. It is generally believed that the fate of the outgoing police chief was sealed the day the MHA received this report. The Goa Congress on Friday took exception to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar going to the US for indigestion treatment and sought Governor Mridula Sinha's intervention to prevent the collapse of governance in the state. State Congress chief Girish Chodankar said the state was facing a "constitutional crisis" due to the repeated absence of Parrikar and two other cabinet ministers, who are also suffering from severe ailments. Chodankar, who met the Governor, said since the medical expenses of the three were being met at the expense of the state exchequer "the people of Goa should be made aware of the exact nature of ailments." "It cannot be believed that the state is being burdened with hefty bills for mere treatment of 'indigestion'. Also, this does not bode well for the medical care facility and the medical fraternity available in Goa. "Does the government desire to claim that its reputed Goa Medical College is unfit to treat a case of 'indigestion'?" Chodankar said in his petition to Sinha. On Thursday, Parrikar returned to Goa from the US -- his third visit in six months -- where he is being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer in a New York medical facility. The Chief Minister's Office, however, maintained that Parrikar was suffering from a pancreatic ailment and went to the US (for the third time) because he had been experiencing indigestion. Chodankar said the state administration has "collapsed" due to the series of illnesses which have crippled the cabinet. He has decried the fact that Parrikar has not even bothered to delegate responsibility in his absence. "While the Chief Minister has been away, he has not even found it necessary to hand over acting charge of the Ministries held by him to any of his cabinet colleagues. "It is not only unprecedented but surely most high handed, autocratic and undemocratic which has only led to the complete collapse of the state's administration," Chodankar said, alleging that Parrikar did not trust his own cabinet. While the Chief Minister is reportedly ill, two of his cabinet colleagues -- Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar and Urban Development Minister Francis D'Souza -- are also ailing. "D'Souza is reportedly in the US and Madkaikar is in a Mumbai hospital. The state administration cannot afford to keep cabinet colleagues on ventilators and continue to pay for their medical expenses. "Surely the cabinet status is not a launch pad to get free medical aid at the cost of the state," Chodankar added. Urging Sinha to be proactive, the Congress leader said: "Since you are constitutionally the repository of power in the state, it requires that you take affirmative action as the Governor. "As being done by your counterparts in several non-BJP ruled states..., Else, silence would not only mean that you are tacitly giving your approval to this sordid state of affairs but also failing to uphold the Constitution and its values". --IANS maya/in/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A court here Friday awarded death penalty to Zakir Hussain, the prime accused in the gangrape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Assam's Nagaon district in March. District and Session Judge Rita Kar sentenced Hussain (19) to death for the murder and to life imprisonment for raping the minor girl under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court had convicted him and acquitted five other accused for lack of evidence on September 4. Two other minor accused were found guilty and sent to a correctional home for three years by a juvenile court earlier this week, Nagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Ripul Das, who was part of the investigation team, said. The girl, a class 5 student, was gang-raped and set on fire when she was alone at home in Dhaniabheti Lalung Gaon in Nagaon district on March 23. The youths fled after the crime and the girl was rushed to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital where she succumbed to injuries the next day. A case was filed in the Batadrava Police Station and the accused were arrested on charges of rape, house trespass, causing disappearance of evidence and murder under the IPC. After a swift investigation, the police filed charge sheet on April 28 against eight persons. The incident had led to widespread protests across the state with the Assam government announcing in the Assembly that it will bring in a stringent anti-rape law in the next session of the House. The government also announced to recruit women Sub Inspectors through a special drive to have 30 per cent women in the police force. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had launched a toll free helpline '181-Sakhi' for women in distress and the Gauhati High Court approved the proposal for setting up exclusive fast track courts for trial of cases related to rape and murder of women and children in Assam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "We want to radicalise the entire world," Jamsheed Zahoor Paul, one of the alleged terrorists arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, told the interrogators, sources said. Paul, along with Parvaiz Rashid Lone alias Shahid (24), was arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop, near the Red Fort, on Thursday night for their alleged links with the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (IS-JK), a terror outfit influenced by the ISIS ideology. The investigators said the two, who belonged to Shopian in Jammu and Kashmir, were highly radicalised and the cell phones seized from them had videos, adding that some notebooks were also recovered, which were being studied by the police. Lone had completed his B.Tech in civil engineering in 2016 from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh and was currently pursuing M.Tech from Gajrola in the same state, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah said. In September 2016, his younger brother Firdous had first joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, before joining the ISJK, the DCP said, adding that in January this year, Firdous was killed in a shootout with the security forces at Shopian in Jammu and Kashmir. Firdous had idolised Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, who was killed by the security forces in July, 2016. Firdous was carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh and was brainwashed by the radical elements, the police said, adding that his elder brother was deeply affected by his killing and joined the IS-JK. Paul is a final-year diploma student of electrical engineering in Jammu and Kashmir. In April 2017, at the cremation of Sabzar Bhat, who succeeded Wani as the operational chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen, he had met one Shaukat, a resident of Tral, whose brother-in-law Syed Owais Shafi (later killed in an encounter) was an active militant at that time, the police said. Shafi had further introduced Paul to Asif alias Omar Ibn Nazir, the current IS-JK chief, they said, adding that he was in regular contact with the latter for the last eight months through encrypted mobile messaging apps. In late June, Paul met Nazir and Aadil Thoker, the deputy chief of the IS-JK, respectively on the outskirts of Panchgaam village in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir for chalking out the modalities of transporting an arms consignment to the IS-JK cadre, the DCP said. Paul and Lone had joined the ISJK this year and were involved in transporting weapons from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, he added. In April, Lone had delivered a 9 mm pistol to a contact of Nazir, the officer said, adding that the accused had brought the pistol from Didauli in Uttar Pradesh through his contacts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two minors were allegedly raped in separate incidents in Gautam Buddh Nagar, following which a man was arrested and a teenager was detained, officials said Friday. The man abducted a nine-year-old girl from her village in Jewar area on the pretext of taking her on a motorcycle ride Thursday, a police official said. "The accused then took her to an isolated spot in Tappal area here and raped her," the official said. Based on a complaint lodged by the victim's parents, the accused identified as Lokesh Sharma (25), a resident of Khoda colony in Ghaziabad, was arrested Friday morning. "The CCTV footage from the toll plaza near Tappal helped police identify Sharma," he said. Sharma, who works for a private firm in Delhi, was booked under Section 376 of the IPC and Section 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. In another incident, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a teenager, the police said. The incident occurred when the girl was returning from her school in Jarcha area. "The girl lives in a village in the adjoining Bulandshahr district but was enrolled at a school in Jarcha. When she was returning home, the teenager offered her a lift on his motorcycle to her village but instead took her to an isolated spot and raped her," the police said. The teenager was detained for questioning, an official at the Jarcha Police Station said. A case was registered and a probe was underway, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided not to go ahead with its proposed new 'popular film' Oscar category at next year's awards ceremony. The proposal, announced just a month ago, was met with a backlash from the movie industry and film reviewers, who said it would create a two-tier system of 'popular' and 'unpopular' films. "There has been a wide range of reactions to the introduction of a new award, and we recognize the need for further discussion with our members. We have made changes to the Oscars over the years, including this year, and we will continue to evolve while also respecting the incredible legacy of the last 90 years," Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement. Changes to the 91st Oscars include restructuring and shortening the length of the telecast to three hours. To honour all 24 award categories, six to eight categories will be presented live, in the Dolby Theatre, during commercial breaks. The winning moments will then be edited and aired later in the broadcast. Selected categories will be rotated each year. The Academy will collaborate with the show producer(s) to select these categories. The 2019 Oscars ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on February 24. Also the 2020 Oscars are moving to an earlier date on the calendar. Instead of taking place toward the end of February, the 92nd Oscars will be held on February 9, 2020. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a scathing attack on Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Friday likened him to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who had jailed his father. There is a character in history who kept his father in jail. This is the reason why no Muslim names his son Aurangzeb, he said. I think something like this has happened with the Samajwadi Party. History repeats itself, and the repetition is taking place, the chief minister said at the 'Nishad Sammelan' here. Adityanath did not directly name the SP leader, but made clear that he was alluding to the manner in which Akhilesh Yadav had edged out his father Mulayam Singh Yadav to take charge of the party. Somebody who could not remain loyal to his father and uncle is now talking about connecting with you, he said. Adityanath's remarks come amid fresh trouble in the first family of the Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh Yadav's estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav has just floated his separate Samajwadi Secular Morcha and announced plans to contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 elections. Shivpal Yadav has said he will unite all sidelined leaders and workers in the party, and accused the SP leadership of ignoring him for the past one and a half years. He has also accused the party leadership of not giving enough respect to SP founder and his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav had on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Patrty of igniting caste in the state and said Adityanath's days as chief minister were numbered. He said the monk-turned-CM will not remain on the post in 2019. Yadav blamed Adityanath for creating a mess" in the state with caste "After stoking communal passions, now these people are whipping up passions on the reservation issue," he had said. Uttar Pradesh was among the northern states which saw protests Thursday by anti-reservations groups. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad organised the third edition of its HR leadership conclave on 'TheFuture of Work, Workforce and Learning here Friday. The theme of the meet was 'Disruptions and Learning.' Director of the institute Errol DSouza spoke on the history and evolution of education of business schools and the current challenges for a modern organisation, said a press release here. He emphasised on organisational requirements of leadership skills, integrative and systems thinking and importance of communication, the release said. "The institute does research on on these aspects to help organisations find tangible solutions. Some of the research come back as a part of the executive education programs," the release quoted him as saying. Experts shared their opinion on 'Building a Design Thinking Culture in Organisations' and 'Leadership Development for Successful Digital Transformation,' it said. Faculty chair of IIM-A HR Leadership Conclave Biju Varkkey said it focused on the emerging and latest practice in learning and development globally and how it can be applied in the organisations. "Keeping the fast-changing developments globally in mind, the conclave offered a platform for leaders of various organisations and from the government to discuss and explore options through the discussions, the release quoted Varkkey as saying at the meet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Air India aircraft, carrying more than 136 people, Friday landed on a wrong runway at Male airport in Maldives, according to an airline official. The A320 neo plane was operating from Thiruvananthapuram to Male. A senior Air India official said the aircraft "VT EXL landed on an under-construction runway at Male". There were 136 passengers and crew on board. Tyres of the plane were deflated and was towed away to the parking bay, the official said. An Air India spokesperson confirmed that the aircraft landed on a wrong runway at the airport but did not provide specific details. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) City-based business conglomerate Amalgamations Group Friday said it has donated Rs two crore for relief and rehabilitation in Kerala that was ravaged by floods. Representing the group, president and chief operating officer of TAFE T R Kesavan and its executive vice-president R Jayaraman and whole time director of India Pistons Gautam Venkataramani presented a cheque for the Rs two crore to Kerala Industries Minister E P Jayarajan in Thiruvananthapuram recently. As many as 491 people have died in the neighbouring state in torrential rains and floods since May 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hollywood star Anne Hathaway is set to be honoured with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Equality Award. The 35-year-old actor will be given the prestigious honour at the 22nd annual HRC National Dinner on Saturday, September 15, in recognition of her continued charity work, particularly with women and the LGBTQ community, reported Variety. "Through her incredible talent and bold activism, Anne Hathaway uses her global platform to stand up for the LGBTQ community. ''From speaking out against discriminatory legislation targeting the LGBTQ community to her leadership on workplace equality for women, Anne is making a real difference in the lives of countless people around the globe," said HRC president Chad Griffin. Hathaway and her husband sold their wedding photos and donated proceeds to organisations working to achieve marriage equality. She also joined an HRC-led petition in 2016 to protest a Georgia bill that would allow discrimination of LGBTQ individuals. Same year Hathaway was appointed as UN Women's Global Ambassador, where her work involves supporting women's equality in the workplace. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twenty years after and set out to organise all of the internet's information, the search engine they named has morphed into a dominating force in smartphones, online video, email, maps and much more. That resounding success now has regulators and lawmakers around the world questioning whether the company has become too powerful as its ubiquitous services vacuum up sensitive information about billions of people hooked on its products. Google's search engine remains entrenched as the internet's main gateway, and its digital advertising business is on pace to generate about $110 billion in revenue this year. Much of that revenue now flows through Google's Android operating system, which powers 80 per cent of the world's smartphones. also runs the biggest video site in YouTube, the most popular web browser in Chrome, the top email service in Gmail and the maps that most people use to get around. Not bad for a company that started 20 years ago Friday with an initial investment of $100,000. and its sibling operating under the umbrella of Alphabet Inc. are now worth $800 billion. Although Google wouldn't comment for this story, the company has repeatedly pointed out that its mostly free products are so widely used because people like them. Google's success often draws comparisons with Microsoft. By 1998, the year Google started, US regulators had become so concerned about Microsoft's power through its Windows operating system that they had begun to explore a forced breakup. Although Microsoft remained intact, the multiyear battle with the US government and other disputes with European regulators hobbled and distracted Microsoft, helping to propel the rise of Google and Apple. Google is now confronting the same potential fate. "Google is in the government's crosshairs," said Ken Auletta, who was given inside access to the company while writing his 2009 book, "Googled: The End of the World As We Know It." ''This company once had a certain glow to it, but it is losing its halo." Just this past week, Google raised hackles in Congress by refusing to send Page or its current CEO, Sundar Pichai, to a hearing on Russian manipulation of internet services to sway US elections. Congressional officials left an empty chair while top executives from Facebook and Twitter appeared. Offended lawmakers derided Google as "arrogant." The European Commission already has imposed fines totaling $7.8 billion after concluding the company had unfairly used its search engine to highlight its own services and illegally bundled together its products in Android. Google has denied any wrongdoing, but that hasn't discouraged European regulators from looking into other possible abuses. US President Donald Trump and some US regulators are now raising the possibility of opening new investigations into Google's business and privacy practices five years after the Federal Trade Commission decided the company was mostly complying with the laws. It all paints a picture of a company that may spend the next decade fighting to protect the empire it built during its first two decades. (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.) : Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland Friday inaugurated a new electric vehicle facility at its Ennore plant near here to commemorate the company's 70th anniversary. Design, prototyping, testing, and solutions design can be carried out at the commercial vehicle major's first integrated facility. "In our 70th year, we are laying the foundation of our future. The EV Centre in Ennore will give us the edge throughout the evolution of eMobility", company, Managing Director, Vinod K Dasari said. "Our plan is to start working on new product platforms in electric vehicles such as eLCV (light commercial vehicle), low floor city buses, last mile connectivity and power solutions products," he said. The in-house facilities cover testing for motors, battery modules and packs, power electronics laboratory. The facility is equipped with digital tools for manufacturing and field tracking. The centre along with the eMobTech centre located in IIT Madras Research Park in Adyar would be generating and implementing all the services and solutions contracts that are related in eMobility for Ashok Leyland. Commenting on the setting up of the facility, Ashok Leyland, Electric Vehicles and eMobility, Business Unit, Head, Karthick Athmanathan said, "the focus is on a massive number of internal initiatives for safety, reliability and optimising the total cost of ownership." "We are committed to exploit new opportunities in terms of efficiency, energy, geometry and business models which electric drive trains offer. At present, we have a capacity to take care of about 5,000-10,000 vehicles per annum with different battery and charging options", he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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 Senior Congress leader P Chidamabaram Friday predicted a broad alliance of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that will bring a coalition government, while his colleague Kapil Sibal said there is no way the BJP can retain power if opposition parties unite. Speaking at a discussion after the launch of Sibal's book "Shades of Truth", opposition leaders exuded confidence that a non-BJP government would be in place in 2019 while calling for the need of a coalition of like-minded parties. Among those present at the launch included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former vice president M Hamid Ansari and a host of opposition leaders. Leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the DMK and the Bahujan Samaj Party were not there. "I never predict the future. I will predict a step ahead of the election results. I think there is a very very good chance that there will be a broad coalition of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states. That I will predict today. If that happens, then I think night falls day, or day falls night, the result is foretold," Chidambaram said when asked about what will happen in 2019. Sibal, however, said, "I think everything will depend on two key states - Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And if Gorakhpur, Kairana and Phulpur are any indication, and when the opposition unites then the BJP cannot win. If we can replicate that in Bihar and in Uttar Prades, I think there is no chance for the BJP." Former JDU leader Sharad Yadav said "It is impossible to get everyone together, but even if there is possible unity, this government will have to go." He said all sections of society are being suppressed and the entire country will defeat the BJP in 2019 and the country's Constitution and its values will be restored after that. CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury while refusing to predict election result, said "what we will work for is to make sure that this government does not return to power and to strengthen India through a coalition of all the progressive secular forces." Trinamool Congress leader Chandan Mitra, formerly a BJP MP, however, struck a discordant note saying while the opposition is expected to win, there will be a regional leader leading it, as the rules will be changed now. Yechury retorted saying, "The Trinamool Congress will correct the historical blunder committed by the CPI-M." Former prime minister Singh, however, refused to make any prediction for the next Lok Sabha polls. Sibal noted that India is a nation of coalitions and coalitions with compromises can only take this country forward. "I think it is time to understand that India as a nation is a coalition. Coalitions with compromises can only take this country forward. Since 2014, the nature of our polity has changed and the difference between the party and the government has ended. It is the party that runs the government and not the government, that runs the country. Parties have infiltrated in a democracy and that balance has been disturbed," Sibal said. Chidambaram, however, said since 1989 the Lok Sabha elections have been a collection of state elections as no longer one leader will sway the elections in the country. "2019 would not be different and it would be a state-specific election. In every state a non-BJP coalition will be formed defeat the BJP. It is wrong to assume that India's election will be a presidential election and a state leader will be pitted against the other state leader," he said. Asked if Rahul Gandhi was up to the job of taking on prime minister Modi, Sibal said, "The prime minister sold dreams to India in 2014. Has he been up to his job?" For the first time, Chidambaram also acknowledged publicly that the party was divided and he was against impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, a move that finally failed, while Yechury said the move was delayed and much time was lost in bringing about consensus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale Friday rooted for 25 per cent reservation to the poor among the upper castes by enhancing the quota limit to 75 per cent. "I believe if a bill is passed to ensure 25 per cent reservation for the poor among the upper castes, it will be beneficial to all... the upper castes think Dalits get reservation while they are deprived of it...," Athawale told newspersons here. To a question, Athawale said, "I think that all will benefit if the reservation limit is enhanced to 75 per cent from the present 50 per cent... all political parties will have to help the government in this regard." The Union minister said the government could consider the issue of reservation in promotions for other backward castes and Dalits in the winter session of Parliament. On recent amendments to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Parliament to overturn a Supreme Court judgment, Athawale said that no changes would be made now. He said he would like to assure all sections of the society that this act would not be misused and stressed that instead of demanding change in the act, the upper castes needed to change their mindset towards the Dalits. On yesterday's "Bharat Bandh" in the BJP-ruled states, he said it was actually a design of the opposition parties to defame the government. Athawale, who is the president of Republican Party of India, said he wanted to contest three-four seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh for which he would talk to BJP chief Amit Shah. Claiming that some important leaders of the BSP are in touch with him, he said the BJP will benefit in the state with the coming together of the RPI. He also said the BJP could win around 300 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australia and New Zealand said Friday they are sending three maritime patrol planes to Japan as part of the effort to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea. Japan has been monitoring offshore ship-to-ship transfers of oil allegedly involving North Korean ships, which would violate UN sanctions imposed over the North's nuclear and missile programs. New Zealand Defense Minister Ron Mark said in a statement it would coordinate efforts with partners to counter North Korean activities that breach sanctions, in particular ship-to-ship transfers. Australian Defense Minister Christopher Pyne said his country would deploy two Orion aircraft to put economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea. "Australia continues to work with partners to enforce sanctions to pressure North Korea to take concrete and verifiable steps to denuclearize," Pyne said in a statement. "A stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific remains Australia's priority." New Zealand will deploy one Orion plane. New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said in a statement he welcomed the recent dialogue North Korea has had with the US and South Korea, but said that until North Korea abides by its international obligations, it was essential to fully implement the UN Security Council sanctions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) will pay compensation to customers whose data was stolen in a "sophisticated" and "malicious" hacking attack, its boss said on Friday. The carrier had revealed that the personal and financial details of customers making bookings on the BA website and mobile phone app between August 21 and September 5 had been stolen. "We are 100 percent committed to compensate them," BA chief executive Alex Cruz told BBC radio. "We will compensate them for any financial hardship that they may have suffered." BA has launched an urgent investigation into the data breach which involved 380,000 bank cards. The stolen data comprised customer names, postal addresses, email addresses and credit card information. The 15-day hack did not involve travel or passport details and the breach has now been fixed. BA took out full-page adverts in the UK newspapers on Friday to apologise, while shares in parent group IAG slid three percent in early morning London deals. "We're extremely sorry for what has happened," Cruz said Friday. "There was a very sophisticated, malicious, criminal attack on our website." He added that the company first became aware that something had happened on Wednesday evening. "The moment we found out that actual customer data had been compromised, that's when we began an all out immediate communication to our customers. That was our priority." Police and relevant authorities have meanwhile been notified. The National Crime Agency said it was assessing the matter, while the Information Commissioner's Office added it would also be making enquiries. Anyone who believes that they may have been affected is advised by BA to contact their bank or credit card provider and follow their recommendations. The airline added that customers due to travel could check in online as normal. IAG also owns Spanish carriers Iberia and Vueling, as well as Irish airline Aer Lingus. The Mohalla Clinic project of the Aam Aadmi Party government drew huge praise Friday from former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland after they visited a health facility built under the initiative. "I am deeply impressed by what I have seen," Moon said after visiting the Peeragarhi Mohalla Clinic and a polyclinic in the Paschim Vihar locality. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain accompanied them during the visit. Brundtland said the Mohalla Clinics project should be replicated across the country. "We are very happy to see the impressive work being done here. it should be replicated all over the country," said Brundtland, who has also served as the director general of World Health Organisation (WHO). Moon and Brundtland are in the country as part of a delegation from The Elders, a London-based organisation of independent global leaders who pool their collective experiences and resources for promoting peace, justice and human rights. Kejriwal said 189 Mohalla Clinics were operational in the city currently and the number will be raised to 1,000 in coming months. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Bengaluru based construction companies together made an offering of Rs two crore Friday to the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at nearby Tirumala. The companies, Iconica Constructions and Cyber Homes, requested that half the amount be given to a trust run by the management for providing medical facilities at the temple run super speciality hospital here, a temple official told PTI. This amount would be used by the S V Pranadana Trust to treat those suffering from life threatening diseases, while the balance amount of Rs one crore would be used by it to provide pilgrims meals free of cost, he said. The representatives of the firms, after offering prayers at the temple, handed over the Demand Draft for the amount to K S Srinivasa Raju, Joint Executive Officer, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams,which manages the hill temple, the official said. Earlier this week, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) had donated Rs 1.1 crore to the Pranadana Trust. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Bangladeshi national has been arrested for allegedly trafficking minors and women as well as sending money to the neighbouring country through hawala routes, Palghar police said Friday. Palghar police spokesperson Hemant Kumar Katkar said that Mohammad Saidul Muslim Shaikh (38) hailing from Bangladesh was arrested from Manpada in Dombivali area of neighbouring Thane district. Shaikh has cases registered against his name in Nagpada and DB Marg police stations in Mumbai as well as in Virar, Tulinj and Palghar, he said. Shaikh is accused of bringing women as well as minor girls from Bangladesh under the pretext of getting them jobs and then pushing them into the flesh trade as well as using hawala routes to transfer money, the official said. The accused has been charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, the official informed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Belgium's media and political class on Friday called for change after two high-profile cases of racism rocked the kingdom, raising troubling questions about white attitudes a few weeks before local elections. The incidents involve Cecile Djunga, a weather presenter with state broadcaster RTBF, who published a video online this week after more than a year of racist abuse; and a report by VRT television about a Flemish far-right group whose leader has warned members to "be ready for combat." Both made headline across online media and in the national press on Friday. The daily Le Soir's front page was black, with white text denouncing white attitudes to people of different ethnic backgrounds and foreigners. Its chief editorialist wrote: "We can't kick this into the long grass anymore. Cecile Djunga's cry for help and the VRT report make it clear: great danger lies ahead and it's urgent to respond." Djunga, who is also a comedian, explained that she decided to go public after a woman called her at work to tell her that she does not look good on television, that she's "too black." Her employers say they are taking a stand against racism, too. VRT's report focused on the Flemish nationalist "Schild en Vrienden," or Shield and Friends in English. Photos of leader Dries Van Langenhove holding an automatic weapon have appeared on social media. Van Langenhove, who has made references to a "war of races," has also appeared in pictures online alongside Belgium's hard-line migration minister, Theo Francken. Francken told RTBF Friday that he was shocked by the report. He said he knew of the group, "but I didn't know that there were such extreme elements in this organization." Asked whether his migration policies contribute to such attitudes, Francken said: "Racism is for idiots and all those people who think I'm a hero and who do these kinds of things, write these kinds of things, are idiots." Prime Minister Charles Michel said he condemns "all forms of racism and extremism. There's no place in our society for this kind of attitude. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, was Friday conferred 'Honoris Causa' by the University of Engineering & Management (UEM) here. "There is a difference between getting a degree acquired through learning in the course of the career of a researcher and getting an honorary degree like Honoris Causa," Debroy said after getting the distinction. Debroy, also the Member, NITI Aayog, said "Honoris Causa is something that you have achieved through your efforts which comes at a later phase in life. But a degree acquired from learning comes during your studies and research, at a much earlier phase in life." He said both the honours are significant, which acknowledge the effort of the recipient individual. In his convocation address, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi called upon the students to be adaptive to new ideas. Stating that engineers were needed in the development of a country, particularly in countries like India, Tripathi said, "We need to give encouragement to young technocrats." Tripathi said premier private institutions were also performing an important role in moulding students. Apart from Debroy, two other top corporate figures were given Honoris Causa. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of the opposition Congress' Bharat Bandh on September 10, the ruling BJD Friday launched a three-day state-wide agitation against the fuel price hike. The BJD's protest will end on September 9, a day before the Congress's Bharat Bandh, protesting against the fuel price hike. Party members across the state will hold peaceful demonstrations before petrol pumps in their respective areas for two hours from 10 am to 12 noon, said BJD leader Sanjay Dasburma. On the opening day of the agitation, the party activists including members of the youth, students and women's wing, distributed leaflets and staged peaceful demonstration at all petrol pumps in the city. Many lawmakers also joined the protest in the state capital in a rally from the Assembly to the petrol pump near Ram Mandir here. The BJP-led central government had come to power with promises of Acche din but the increasing petrol and diesel prices have over-burdened the common man, said Dasburma. BJD MLA Arun Sahoo also said that the prices of petrol and diesel have skyrocketed. Earlier, when the rate of oil per barrel was USD 135 in global market, the petrol prices in India was Rs 54 per litre. Now, when the global rates have fallen to USD 78, petrol is Rs 80 a litre, he said. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was in the city, however, dubbed the BJD's agitation as the sign of ruling party's "mental bankruptcy". BJD is suffering from mental bankruptcy. Odisha collected the maximum revenue in petroleum products during the period 2014-18, said Pradhan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP on Friday took a dig at Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu thanking Pakistan for reportedly allowing Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara across the border, saying leaders admiring the neighbouring country were on a rise in the Opposition party. It has become a habit of the Congress to praise Pakistan, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters as he asked the Opposition party to make it clear whether Sidhu's comments reflected its official stand. Congress leaders heap insults on the prime minister of India, but praise the prime minister of Pakistan, he said. Hussain also sought a clarification from Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the matter, noting that Sidhu was a minister in the Congress-led Punjab government and also a good friend of the party president. Referring to Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa's "hostile" comments against India, the BJP leader said on one hand he (Bajwa) makes such remarks and on the other, a Congress leader praises Pakistan. Bajwa should not nurse any illusion, Hussain said, adding India was fully capable to give a befitting reply to any misadventure by Pakistan army. Sidhu claimed Friday that Pakistan has decided to allow Sikh pilgrims direct access to the historic Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara across the border. The Congress leader's claim, based on a media report, came on a day when television channels showed the Pakistan army chief hailing militancy in Kashmir and vowing to avenge the deaths of his (Bajwa) country's soldiers. "I thank my friend Imran Khan for this noble goodwill gesture. He has not walked two steps but miles and opened the doors for infinite possibilities. I am indebted forever," Sidhu said in Chandigarh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The body of a Kerala-based trader was exhumed at a village near here Friday after he was allegedly kidnapped and killed by a rowdy, police said. The crime, committed on August 15, was a fallout of an illicit relationship the man allegedly had with the rowdy's wife, the police team from the neighbouring state said here. The history-sheeter was arrested in Kerala and brought to the scene of the crime, the team said. The rowdy with the help of five of his associates, known to the deceased, had invited him to join a party, offered him drinks before abducting him and killing him, they said. The body of the man, hailing from Kollam in Kerala, was buried, but it was not known where he was killed, the police said, adding that he was involved in selling pigeons and parrots. The post-mortem has been conducted and the body is being taken to Kollam, police said. A search is on for the five associates. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Boris Johnson, Britain's former foreign secretary and his Indian-origin wife, Marina Wheeler, on Friday announced they plan to divorce amid claims that the flamboyant politician had cheated on his lawyer wife of 25 years. The couple made the announcement in a joint statement after a report appeared in the Sun newspaper around the couple's separation over Johnson's alleged unfaithfulness. "Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate," the statement said. "We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further," it added. Wheeler, a respected human rights lawyer, is the daughter of former BBC journalist Charles Wheeler and his second wife Dip Singh. Johnson has often made reference to his wife's Indian roots to categorise himself as the son-in-law of India. During his term as London Mayor in 2013, he branded himself the "first and only mayor of London with real live relatives in India". The 54-year-old couple have four children together. The Sun reported that their fashion journalist daughter, 25-year-old Lara, said her mother will "never take him back" after a latest fling. Johnson is known for his affairs in the past, including fathering a child with a former art consultant lover. In 2004, he was removed from the Conservative party frontbenches after lying over an affair with British journalist and writer Petronella Wyatt. As a Brexit frontrunner within the ruling Tory party, Johnson has credited his wife as a key voice in his decision to support Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) before the June 2016 referendum. The senior Conservative party MP had resigned from the Cabinet in July over his opposition to British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit strategy and is widely seen as eyeing an entry into Downing Street. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Boyd Holbrook, who plays the lead role in the new "Predator" film, is a fan of the original that came in 1987. The original film featured action star Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of an elite military rescue team who encounter an extraterrestrial monster. Holbrook, best known for starring in Hugh Jackman's "Logan" and in the hit Netflix series "Narcos", considers Schwarzenegger's film as one of the great thrillers. "I think it came out when I was six, and I probably watched it when I was about 12 or 10. I thought it was terrifying. Yeah, it's pretty terrifying," Holbrook said in a statement. "I think it was also just one of the great thrillers like Bloodsport, Rambo, all those sorts of macho films of that time," he added. The 37-year-old actor also shed a light on his character Quinn McKenna in the Shane Black-directed film. "McKenna, he's ex-Special Forces. He's basically doing contract work. Probably not a lot really to live for in the sense that he's very detached from his son. He's estranged from his wife. We find him in Mexico and he's got these objects on him after a mercenary job has gone wrong. He's found all this Predator gear, these gauntlets, and these de-cloaking things," Holbrook said. "He has to team up with these guys who in some ways have been kind of rejected and are all suffering from some form of PTSD. They call themselves 'the Loonies' and they're a throwback to the team from the 1987 movie," he added. "The Predator", which is being distributed in India by Fox Star Studios, will release on September 13, one day before it hits the theatres in the US. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Commuters had a harrowing time making their way to the city centre and other parts of the metropolis on Friday, as a part of the arterial Diamond Harbour Road remained closed following the collapse of a section of the Majerhat bridge. The Kolkata Police said it is trying to cut down travel time and mitigate problems faced by the commuters. Long queues of buses and other vehicles moved at a snail's pace in large parts of south and west Kolkata, owing to the closure Diamond Harbour Road at Majerhat. "We are trying our best to shorten travel time," Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police, Vineet Goyal told reporters here. He said the traffic police has issued travel advisories on alternate avenues, which are lesser known and less congested. Goyal said Kolkata Police is coordinating with neighbouring districts for better movement of goods vehicles, without congesting the major roads that link the city with the national highways. Serpentine queues of goods vehicles were reported at various entry points to the city. Goyal said that entry-exit time of trucks to and from the metropolis has been shortened by a few hours to ensure smoother movement of passenger vehicles in the affected parts of the city. People travelling in the south-western parts of the city and South 24 Parganas district said they faced an average delay of one hour to two-and-a-half hours in reaching their destinations. "It took me two-and-a-half hours to travel only five kilometres from my residence at New Alipore to Calcutta High Court this morning," said lawyer Billwadal Bhattacharyya. "We will have to live with this problem for a long time now till the bridge is rebuilt," he said. Office-goers and students were late, too, owing to the traffic snarls that extended to Rashbehari Avenue and Tollygunge Circular Road-S P Mukherjee Road crossing in south Kolkata. Meanwhile, Metro Railway will run additional services on weekends to alleviate the woes being faced by commuters in Behala and adjoining areas, a Metro spokesperson said. On Saturdays, 250 services will be run instead of 224 and on Sundays, it will be 136 instead of 110, the spokesperson said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The crime branch of Odisha police, which was entrusted by the Orissa High Court to investigate into four cases registered in connection with the lawyers and police standoff, began its probe Friday. A crime branch team went to the house of advocate Devi Prasad Pattnaik and questioned him. Pattnaik was allegedly assaulted by police on August 28 following a series of road accidents involving his car. Protesting against the police assault on Pattnaik, the lawyers of the city are boycotting the courts and tribunals, including the High Court since August 29. At least four cases were registered in this connection at different police stations of the city, including a case pertaining to torching of a police vehicle parked in front of the gate of the High Court and another case filed by Pattnaik himself. Even as the Commissionerate police have suspended three policemen for misconduct, two PILs were filed in the High Court by the lawyers seeking judicial inquiry into the incident. Adjudicating over a PIL, the High Court earlier this week had directed for crime branch police to investigate into all the cases registered in this connection. The lawyers are, however, demanding arrest of the erring policemen. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI filed a charge sheet against journalist Upendra Rai and his associate Rahul Sharma for allegedly extorting Rs 15 crore from a Mumbai-based builder,officials said Friday. It is alleged that Rai portrayed himself as a "power broker" in the Income Tax Department and threatened action against the builder if payment was not made, they said. The agency has not named any tax department official in its charge sheet and has kept the probe open, the officials said. The agency had registered the case on the complaint of one Balvinder Singh Malhotra, director of Mumbai-based M/s White Lion Real Estate Developers Pvt Ltd. Rai had approached Kapil Wadhawan, a relative of the promoters of the company, in September last year as a "power broker" of the tax department, Malhotra had alleged. Putting his influential journalist card ahead, Rai had claimed that he had sensitive information from the tax department relating to the companies associated to White Lion, and had threatened that action may be taken against the company under the Benami Act as well. When Wadhawan met Rai at his GK-1 Delhi residence during which Rai showed him a bunch of documents of the IT department wherein action was contemplated against various companies, including White Lion, for which he demanded Rs 15 crore to settle the issue. A consultancy agreement was signed to route the payment demanded by Rai, the agency has alleged. A sum of Rs 15 crore was paid by the company to Rai's HDFC Bank account between October 2017 and April this year, the CBI has alleged. The Central Bureau of Investigation has chargesheeted Rai and Sharma for alleged criminal conspiracy and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fair trade regulator has approved the merger of industrial gas firms and Praxair, subject to certain conditions. The deal, announced in June 2017, is worth over $70 billion, according to reports. "@CCI_India approves combination of and Praxair, subject to compliance of certain modifications," the regulator said in a tweet Friday. The approval comes following a public scrutiny launched into the deal in earlier in May by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The regulator places a deal for public consultation if it is of the "prima facie opinion that the combination has, or likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition". Similar public scrutinies were launched by the in the case of merger deals such as Monsanto-Bayer, Ranbaxy-Sun Pharma and Holcim-Lafarge. As per a notice submitted to jointly by Aktiengesellschaft and Praxair, Inc in January 2018, the transaction relates to a proposed combination of the two multinational industrial gas under a newly incorporated holding company, Linde Plc. After completion of the proposed transaction, Linde Plc will be owned by the two companies' current shareholders, according to the notice. Munich (Germany) headquartered Linde is primarily active in industrial gases and medical gases, specialty gases, helium and the related engineering and services sectors. Headquartered in Connecticut, US, is an international industrial gases company. A five-member inter-ministerial team, deputed by the Centre to conduct spot assessment of the damage caused by the rains in Nagaland, concluded their four day visit today. The team was led by Joint Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs KB Singh. Speaking to nediapersons before leaving for Delhi, Singh said that during the past three days, the team assessed damaged caused in four districts - Kohima, Dimapur, Wokha and Phek. The state government had pegged the damage at around Rs 800 crore. Singh said that the team would prepare the final report after receiving the reconciled memorandum from the state. He, however, declined to comment why there was a delay in sanctioning immediate central relief to Nagaland, despite the passage of a month since the disaster struck, while relief for other states were sanctioned promptly. The Nagaland government on August 6 had submitted a memo to Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju seeking relief of Rs 800 crore. However, sources in Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) said that the requirement needs to be reconciled as there have been more damages in the entire state after the Union ministers visit. NSDMA sources said that during the briefing of the visiting teams held in Kohima yesterday, the Nagaland government presented a fresh memorandum for relief fund to the team. However the amount was not revealed. On behalf of the state government, Advisor for Food and Civil Supplies and NSDMA, Pukhayi expressed hope that the team would present a favourable report to the Central government for early release of relief fund. Making a power-point presentation, Chief Engineer of Roads and Bridges Department, Limatongdang Jamir highlighted the damages of roads and bridges in every district. He said that an amount of Rs 22.8 crore is required immediately for temporary restoration work while Rs 117.2 crore would be required for permanent repair works. Deputy Commissioners of Phek and Kiphire also highlighted the extent of damages caused in the respective districts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre Friday assured all possible support including more financial assistance to flood-ravaged Kerala to rehabilitate the affected people. Union Health Minister J P Nadda said during his visit to flood-affected areas in Thrissur district that the Central government understands the sensitivity of the situation in Kerala. "Fund is no problem, funds have been always there and we have been always giving it. All possible support has been given as far as the rehabilitation part is concerned and re-development part is concerned," Nadda said. The minister said he would evaluate with the state government the rehabilitation and rebuilding work being carried out in the affected areas. "We just want to have an evaluation and whatever best we can do and what more we can do, that is what we are going to discuss," he added. Nadda, who is accompanied by Health and Family Welfare secretary Preeti Sudan, expressed satisfaction over the work being done to restore medical facilities in affected areas. He said the central team's visit was to see how the relief work is going on, and evaluate what more is required to assist Kerala. Kerala state Health Minister K K Shailaja Teacher also accompanied the minister to affected areas. "We feel very much disturbed. The people of Kerala had to face a lot of problems because of the natural calamity and we are all with them," Nadda said. He said medical experts including doctors sent by the central government and state governments including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were working in flood-affected areas. The deluge last month triggered by torrential monsoon rains had left a trail of destruction in the state and claimed 491 lives since May 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police Friday filed a chargesheet against three Alwar villagers arrested for beating a man to death in July after accusing him of smuggling cows. Dharmendra Yadav, Paramjeet Singh and Naresh are accused of murder in the chargesheet filed before an Alwar court, Ramgarh SHO Chauthmal Jakhad said. Earlier, the Rajasthan government had also ordered a judicial inquiry amid allegations that policemen delayed taking Rakbar Khan to hospital. An assistant sub inspector was suspended and three constables sent to police lines for negligence. A post-mortem report had suggested that Khan of died of shock caused by his injuries. The National Human Rights Commission and the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission had issued notices to the state government, seeking a report on the killing. Khan and his friend Aslam had reportedly bought two cows from Ladpura and were taking them to their village in Haryana through a forested area near Lalawandi in Alwar district when they were attacked. Aslam managed to flee but Khan was seriously injured. When the police brought him to hospital, allegedly after a long delay, he was already dead. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Friday agreed to allow Nepal to use four of its seaports and three land ports for third-country trade reducing the landlocked country's dependence on India to conduct commerce. Nepal will be able to access Shenzen, Lianyungang, Zhanjiang and Tianjin, the latter being the nearest seaport at a distance of around 3,300 kms from the Nepalese border, according to foreign ministry sources. Similarly, Nepal has been allowed to use Lanzhou, Lhasa and Xigatse land ports (dry ports) as well. This will provide alternative routes for Nepal to carry out trade. Chinese authorities will provide permits to trucks and containers ferrying Nepal-bound cargo to and from Xigatse in Tibet, as per the new arrangement. The deal has paved the way for Nepal, which had been relying on Indian ports as of now, to diversify its access to seaports and alternative routes for third-country trade. Nepalese traders will be allowed to use any mode of transport - rail or road to access to seaports for third-country trade, said Ravi Shanker Sainju, joint secretary at the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies, who led the Nepalese delegation during talks at the meeting of Nepalese and Chinese authorities on Wednesday and Thursday for the finalisation of the protocol of Transit and Transport Agreement (TTA) with China. At the meeting, both sides decided to access Chinese territory from six checkpoints Rasuwa, Tatopani (Sindhupalchok), Korala (Mustang), Kimathanka (Sankhuwasabha), Yari (Humla), Olangchung Gola (Taplejung). Joint secretary Sainju and Director General of Transport Department of China, Wang Suiping, signed the agreement on Friday morning. It has been agreed that the protocol will be exchanged during upcoming high-level visits between the two countries. The Transit and Transport Agreement with China, signed in March 2016 during Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's China visit, will come into force once the protocol is exchanged, officials said. The Madhesi agitation in 2015 had forced Nepal to explore trade links with China and reduce its long-term dependence on India. A wary China on Friday welcomed the first 2+2 Dialogue between India and the US but remained silent on the landmark security pact under which Indian military will have access to critical and encrypted American defence technologies. The Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA) was signed on Thursday after the 2+2 talks External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis. The COMCASA will allow India to receive high-end military communications equipment from the US and will also help get real-time encrypted information from the US. Asked about China's reaction on the Indo-US talks and COMCASA agreement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "I have seen the reports about the 2+2 consultation between the United States and India." "China is happy to see the normal development of bilateral relations between the US and India and hopes that they will do more to contribute to regional peace and stability in the process of developing bilateral relations, she said. She, however skirted any response to the question on India and US signing the COMCASA. On the India-US call for maritime freedom in the Indo-Pacific region Hua said, "About the security navigation in the sea, we uphold the legal rights entitled in the international law and we also hope parties can do real things to ensure freedom of navigation." During the the 2+2 talks, India and the US expressed commitment to work together and in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. The 2+2 Dialogue took place at a time when China's People's Liberation Army was flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region. 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 has 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived here on Friday on a three-day official visit during which he is expected to hold talks with the country's new leadership on bilateral and regional issues, including the CPEC. Diplomatic Officials said Wang will meet his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi and call on Prime Minister Imran Khan and president-elect Arif Alvi. "Bilateral issues including progress on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and regional issues will be discussed during meetings," according officials. Officials said that the key meetings of Wang with top leaders were scheduled for Saturday. Wang's visit comes close on the heels of a brief trip by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on September 5. Wang's visit also comes amidst reports of unease in Beijing over how the new PTI government would approach over USD 50 billion Chinese investments in various projects under the CPEC connecting China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Pakistan. Khan in the past criticised former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the lack of transparency and corruption in the CPEC projects. Newly-appointed Finance Minister Asad Umar has promised to bring about transparency to the CPEC projects whose details remained closely guarded secrets. India has protested to China over the CPEC, which is being built through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CleanMax Solar Friday said it has partnered with Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) to set up 602 kV rooftop solar plant spread across 14 buildings in the campus. The project is expected to generate 8,90,000 kWh of clean energy annually, thereby abating 731 tons of CO2 emission per annum for the next 25 years helping the university save Rs 35.5 lakh per annum on its electricity bills, the company said in a statement. ******************** HRAWI elects Gurbaxish Singh Kohli as president * The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) Friday said it has elected Gurbaxish Singh Kohli as its president at the 68th annual general meeting held in the city. Kohli is the director of Pritam Hotels, HRAWI said in a release here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 2,200 kilometres of streets and footpaths have been encroached upon in the national capital, whose length is almost like travelling from here to Kanyakumari, the Supreme Court said today, observing it reflected the magnitude of the problem. Taking serious note of the massive encroachments on public lands in Delhi, it observed it was a "matter of great distress" that 2,280.43 kilometres of roads, streets and footpaths were encroached upon. "You see the extent of encroachment ... You see how serious the problem is," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta observed and asked the statutory authorities to take the matter seriously. The observations came after the bench was informed that 844.33 kms, 811.01 kms and 601.2 kms of encroached roads and streets were cleared by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and those in South and East Delhi respectively as on August 31. Similarly, 11 kms in the New Delhi Municipal Council and 12.44 kms of streets in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) area were cleared from encroachment. The bench then observed that over 2,200 kms of streets were encroached upon in Delhi and the length of road was "almost like travelling from the national capital to Kanyakumari." An advocate assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter said the encroachments were due to the inaction by the statutory authorities in Delhi. The bench also dealt with issues relating to encroachment of forest land and water bodies here which was raised by the court-appointed monitoring committee in its report filed in the court. The committee told the court that several water bodies in Delhi have dried up and encroached upon, which was a matter of grave concern. The counsel, appearing for Delhi government, said they would file an affidavit giving full details of actions taken by its forest department to re-claim the encroached land and also by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on water bodies. The bench made it clear that once the special task force (STF), constituted on April 25 following the court's order to oversee enforcement of laws on illegal constructions here, clears the encroachments, the statutory authority would have to ensure that there was no more encroachment on the area. The monitoring committee said they have been doing their best to comply with the directions of the apex court but they were not getting adequate support from executing agencies like the DDA and other local bodies. The bench said it was expected from the statutory authorities as well as the police to extend full cooperation to the committee so that they could do their work properly. On the point of issuing advance notice of sealing to defaulters, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, said they would sit with the amicus and make out agreed course of action to be taken in this regard. The bench said it would hear the issue on September 12. During the hearing, the amicus claimed that the STF was not sharing their reports and steps taken by them with the monitoring committee. The bench asked ASG Maninder Singh, who was appearing for the DDA, to ensure that the STF reports were uploaded on its website so that all concerned could be aware about it. "We expect the STF and monitoring committee to work together for the purpose for which both of them have been set up so that there is no confusion," it said. The bench also observed that it appeared from the report of the monitoring committee that the STF was "working in conflict" with the panel. "Monitoring committee is a committee constituted by this court. If you are treating the monitoring committee in this manner, it means you are treating the court like this," the bench said. The apex court had in July directed that there would be "no stopping of sealing or demolition" of unauthorised constructions in Delhi after the Centre had said it had not given any instructions to the civic bodies to go slow or stop the sealing drive against offending structures. The top court is dealing with the issue of validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislations which protect unauthorised constructions from being sealed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Describing the fight against TRS in the coming assembly polls in Telangana as a "war for righteousness," state Congress president N UttamKumar Reddy Friday said various opposition parties, including TDP, and civil society organisations should join forces with Congress. The state Assembly was dissolved Thursday as per the recommendation of the TRS government, paving way for early polls. The assembly elections were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year. "We call upon all political, non-political forces in Telangana, NGOs, civil society organisations, students bodies, employees organisations, all political parties, including Telugu Desam, to join forces to defeat this corrupt government by treating these elections as a Dharma Yuddham (war for righteousness)," Reddy told reporters here. There has been speculation about an electoral alliance between the Congress and TDP in Telangana. The TDP has been anti-Congress since its inception in 1982. Reddy said the coming elections is not a fight between congress and TRS but a fight between "the family of TRS president and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the four crore people of Telangana." Taking strong exception to Rao's attack on Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi, Reddy said "the caretaker CMs comments are unbecoming of a Chief Minister." Rao has described Gandhi as the "biggest buffoon" in the country. On September 12, party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad would address a public meeting near here on minorities issues. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today strongly condemned Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa statement on "avenging the blood of its soldiers shed at the border" and demanded that the government respond to it in a befitting manner. Congress spokesperson R P N Singh also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his claims of having a "56-inch chest" to respond to Pakistan which was made by him during campaign of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. "We condemn this statement of Pakistan Army Chief in very very strong words. But this is a question you should be asking the prime minister of this country that Pakistan continues to make these kinds of statements, what is the response of the central government to the statements. "Where is that 56-inch chest that we heard of in 2013 and 2014. The central government must give befitting reply to Pakistan whenever it points fingers and tries to condemn the sacrifices of our soldiers and citizens," he told reporters. On the issue of reported move of the Pakistan government to open Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh pilgrims, Singh said if the Sikh pilgrims are allowed to visit the holy shrine, it is something which is very good for the people of India if they go and pray there. "If that is being allowed, that will be something very good for the people who have faith in that shrine. Millions of Indians have faith in that holy shrine. If they get a passage to it, that will be a good move," Singh said. On the Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism of Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu that he will 'bow his head' before the Pakistan government on the issue of opening the border with India for access to the Sikh pilgrims to visit the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara, he said Sidhu had gone to Pakistan and had urged the Pakistan president to allow passage to Kartarpur corridor for Sikhs. On Kashmir, Singh said India's stand is very clear that there can be no interference of any third party in discussion between India and Pakistan. "That is the stand the Congress party started and we stand firm on that ground," he said. The Pakistan Army chief has reportedly said, "We will avenge the blood of Pakistan martyrs shed at border. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Goa Congress Friday urged Governor Mridula Sinha to act against what the party claimed were "sanatani" organisations operating in the state. The party claimed that several people arrested recently in connection with the murder of rationalists and activists (in Maharashtra and Karnataka) were connected to such right-wing organisations. "There are sanatani groups which operate in Goa and whose followers have been arrested in connection with the killing of rationalists. We demand that the Governor take suo motu action against such organisations," Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar said Friday. A Congress delegation Friday met Governor Sinha here. The Maharashtra and Karnataka police, and the Central Bureau of Investigation, over the past few weeks have arrested several persons who they claim are linked to the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare and journalist Gauri Lankesh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Posing a challenge to "haters" of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Friday asked whether they can "keep up" with its president saying he has clocked over 46,000 steps while travelling more than 34 kms during his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. The party also posted a picture of a smiling Gandhi posing in front of the Mount Kailash, considered the abode of Lord Shiva, on Twitter along with details of his trekking details compiled by popular fitness mobile app 'fitbit'. The fitbit data showed Gandhi having travelled 46,433 steps, 203 floors, 34.31 kms over 463 minutes, while burning 4,466 calories. "Leaving all the haters behind, Congress President Rahul Gandhi sets the pace during his Kailash Yatra. Can you keep up?," the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. Gandhi is expected to be back from his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra by end of this week. The Congress chief also tweeted a video of the hills on his official Twitter handle and said, "Shiva is the Universe". On Thursday as well, Gandhi had posted a picture of Mount Kailash, saying, "It is so humbling to be walking in the shadow of this giant." He had earlier put out pictures of the "tranquil and calm" waters of the lake and said there "is no hatred here". "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 had said on Twitter. The 48-year-old leader is undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in accordance with a wish he expressed in April when his plane plunged hundreds of feet during the campaign for the Karnataka polls. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. The plane dipped steeply with violent shuddering, but soon recovered and landed safely. Three days later, on April 29, Gandhi announced during a rally that he wanted to undertake the pilgrimage. The arduous pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which is considered the abode of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology and is in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. Gandhi left the national capital on August 31 for the Yatra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Consumer and SME lending will be thrust areas for Tata Capital Financial Services Ltd due to high growth registered by these segments, a top official of the company said Friday. "Consumer finance sector is growing at 20 per cent, followed by SME lending which is showing expansion of around 15 per cent. We will definitely focus in these sectors," Kusal Roy, Managing Director of the company said. He was in the city to participate in a roadshow for the company's maiden non-convertible debenture (NCD) sale from September 10. The Tata Capitals flagship lending arm also said it can raise up to Rs 7,500 crore including over-subscriptions of Rs 5,500 crore from the NCD issue. The company has consumer finance assets worth Rs 16,080 crore and SME assets of about Rs 14,146 crore as on March 2018, accounting for 43 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, of the total assets under management. The company is keen on even higher share of its assets from the consumer finance segment in the future, Roy said. He said though all sectors of operation are important, it is good to exercise caution in commercial lending as the sector continues to face stress. Deputy VP, Sandip G Joshi said average cost of fund for the company is around 8.2 per cent. With compounded annual growth of assets under management at 15 per cent for the last three years, profitability of the company stood at 35 per cent, he said. The company is offering a coupon rate between 8.70 per cent and 9.10 per cent, depending on the investor class and tenor for the NCDs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Czech Republic, a manufacturing "powerhouse" with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for India's development initiatives, President Ram Nath Kovind has said, referring to footwear major Bata, a brand with which all Indians have grown up. Addressing the Indian community here on Thursday, the president said India has some very interesting connections with this city and this country. "Many of you would know that Bata, a brand with which all Indians have grown up and which all of us consider our own, has its roots in this country," he said. "A great son of the Czech Republic, Thomas Bata founded the Bata shoe company in a town not far from Prague. And from here it spread to every nook and corner of the world including Batanagar, close to Kolkata in India. Bata shoes today walk in every village, every town and every city in India," President Kovind said. Recalling other connections with this city, he said, "Our great leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose visited Prague and spent some time here. In his quest for freedom for his motherland, he founded the Indo-Czech Association in Prague in 1934." He said India is keen to strengthen and diversify its relations with the Czech Republic as there are numerous opportunities for businesses to grow both ways be it trade, technology or investment. "This is not just a beautiful country, but a country with a large heart for India and for Indians. We have warm and friendly relations with the Czech Republic. Our ties go back a thousand years when traders from Bohemia bought spices and silk from India," the president said. "Both our countries have inherited a rich cultural heritage, which has gained vibrancy over the years. The Charles University here is the oldest centre of Indology in Europe. Eminent Czech scholars brought the works of Rabindranath Tagore to the Czech people and helped foster a deep cultural connect with India." The installation of the bust of Rabindranath Tagore, in Prague, and naming the tram station "Thakurova after him, is homage to Gurudev and to his poetic genius, he said. He said, "the Czech Republic, a manufacturing powerhouse with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for our Make In India, Digital India, Start-up India and other national programmes." "We seek your support in this endeavour. Your professional experience, convening power, and entrepreneurial spirit can make this partnership blossom," he said. President Kovind arrived in the Czech Republic Thursday on the final leg of his three-nation European tour. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Employees of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) have donated their one day's salary for assisting flood-affected people of Kerala, the urban body said Friday. The amount raised to the tune of over Rs 1.2 crore has been sent to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, the DDA said. "The DDA employees have donated their one day's salary for helping flood-affected people in Kerala," it said in a statement here. The payment for an amount of Rs 1,20,13,744 has been sent through cheque, it said. The deluge triggered by torrential monsoon rains had left a trail of destruction in the state and has claimed 491 lives since May 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Friday said a special task force, set up pursuant to its order to oversee enforcement of laws on unauthorised constructions and remove encroachments in Delhi, appeared be under some kind of "pressure". A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta referred to the report filed by the court-appointed monitoring committee which has claimed that the STF was neither communicating with them, nor keeping them informed about their actions. "It is a very unfortunate thing. Obviously, somebody is putting pressure on the STF. We do not know whether its builders or others. From the report, it appears that the STF is under pressure," the bench said. The counsel representing the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) said the STF has been sharing the reports with the monitoring committee. "The monitoring committee says that not even a single communication has been received from STF except two," the bench said, adding that the panel was "a committee constituted by this court. If you are treating the monitoring committee in this manner, it means you are treating this court like this." The bench also observed that the STF officials were not like "school children" that they were required to be told about this. The court initially said it would call the vice-chairman of DDA to explain on this issue. Later, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh, appearing for DDA, said the reports of STF were shared with the monitoring committee and assured the court that the needful would be done in the matter. "You have to work for the people of Delhi and not for some section of people of Delhi," the bench said, adding that instead of passing the blame, the authorities should work together. The monitoring committee, comprising K J Rao, former advisor to the Election Commissioner, Bhure Lal, chairman of Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority and Major General (Retd) Som Jhingan, was set up on March 24, 2006, by the top court. At the hearing today, the bench also dealt with the issue of depletion of groundwater level in Delhi. ASG A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, said he would file an affidavit on the NITI Aayog's report which had said that 21 cities, including Delhi, might run out of groundwater by 2020. The bench also dealt with Delhi government's application seeking its nod to issue a notification with regard to 279 roads under mixed-use guidelines of Master Plan of Delhi-2021. Delhi government's counsel said the monitoring committee had nothing to do with this issue and its judicial review was not necessary at this stage as it could be done after these roads were notified. "We want to notify these roads. If there is something wrong in it, anybody can challenge it. Stage of judicial review has not come now. We are doing it as per the Act," the lawyer said. To this, the bench observed, "either we have the jurisdiction or we have no jurisdiction. If you say that we have no jurisdiction, then do whatever you want to do." The bench asked the Delhi government to provide the latest status of these roads in three weeks. The apex court had earlier come down heavily on the Centre, the Delhi government and the civic bodies here for not taking any step to tackle the "serious problem" of groundwater depletion in the national capital. In May, the court had expressed grave concern on "over-exploitation" of groundwater in most parts of Delhi and asked the authorities to avert a crisis, saying the situation was "semi-critical". The top court is dealing with the issue related to validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislations which protect unauthorised construction from being sealed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dilbag Singh took over as the new Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Friday after his predecessor S P Vaid was shunted out and posted as Transport Commissioner Thursday night. Immediately after taking over as the new police chief, Singh, a 1987-batch IPS officer from the state, told PTI that his priority was to stamp out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest, while protecting the interests of common people. A 1986-batch IPS officer, Vaid, who was unceremoniously removed as police chief late last night, passed on the baton to Singh at a simple ceremony held at the police headquarters here this afternoon. In a related development, the state government informed the Supreme Court about its decision of appointing Singh as an acting police chief. State government counsel Shoeb Alam said the government was seeking modification of the July 3 order by which a state was required to send the names of three senior IPS officer well in advance to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for clearance before appointing an officer to the post of DGP. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submission of the state government and posted the matter for hearing on September 10. The 55-year-old Singh, who has served the state police in various capacities, said he would also work for the welfare of police personnel, who have been at the forefront of anti-militancy operations. The new police chief said it is a daunting task but he is sure the Jammu and Kashmir Police will pass all tests with flying colours. "My priority as of now is to deal with terrorism firmly, while protecting the interests of innocent common people. I have held a meeting with my senior officers at the police headquarters after taking over and will be interacting with district superintendents, range DIGs and Zonal IGs in the evening to have a brief on the ground situation and our priorities," he said. Calling the responsibility a great honour, he said due attention would be paid to the welfare of the all police ranks, especially the jawans. The state government is seriously concerned about that, he said. "The JK Police has earned a name for itself and it is duty for all of us to take it to greater heights," he added. Vaid, who has been made transport commissioner, is believed to have been removed because of continuous friction over interference in the police work by the state's bureaucracy. He has been shifted as Transport Commissioner, a post which was held by Saugat Biswas, a 2006-batch IAS officer. The post has been upgraded from Additional Secretary to the rank of Secretary. It will be headquartered in Jammu. Before demitting office, Vaid expressed satisfaction that he was able to serve the people of the state. "I'm thankful to God that he gave me the opportunity to serve my people and my country. I'm grateful to police, security agencies, and people of state for their support and their faith in me. My best wishes to the new DGP," Vaid said. "My only concern is the youth which is dying and unnecessary loss of human life. The sooner it ends, the better it would be," he said. Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah criticised the timing of changing the state DGP, saying there was no hurry to replace Vaid and the state police could do without having to deal with the confusion of leadership. "Changing the DG is the prerogative of the administration but why a DG as a temporary arrangement? The current DG won't know if he's going to stay and others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. None of this is good for @JmuKmrPolice," Omar tweeted. The state government removed Vaid as the DGP late Thursday night and handed over the charge to DG (Prisons) Dilbagh Singh till a permanent appointment is made. However, officials privy to the development said that Singh would continue as the Director General of Police and all necessary formalities including seeking permission from the UPSC was being taken. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police officials of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Chhatisgarh along with that from central forces Friday held discussion on various issues, including rooting out naxalism within a time frame. Officials from CRPF, SSB, IB and ED joined them at the eastern regional police co-ordination meeting here. The meeting discussed about co-ordination among bordering states and launching aggressive campaign against extremists, sharing information, knowing and arresting inter-state crime organisations involved in bank and jewellery robberies, controlling cyber crime, liquor and drug peddlers. A press statement quoting Jharkhand Director General of Police D K Pandey said stress was laid on underlining anti-naxal campaign along the border, controlling extremism and rooting them out phase-wise within a time frame. He also called upon to curb cyber crime, organised crime and illegal SIM cards on the bordering areas. Pandey also suggested a meeting of eastern cyber crime co-ordination committee on the lines of eastern regional police co-ordination meeting. Giving details on the border area development plan, the Jharkhand DGP suggested technical change for impactful action against naxalites. He stressed upon co-ordination between police SPs, Dy SPs, inspectors and police station in-charges and keeping a strong vigil on naxal activities and free-flow of information. The DGP also stressed upon setting up of joint inter-state interrogation team. The Jharkhand DGP suggested to organise the next eastern regional police co-ordination meeting" by Kolkata police in the first week of December. Kuldip Singh, the Special Director General, Central Zone, Kolkata, stressed upon strengthening information mechanism at the local level and inflicting impactful action against the left-wing extremism. For this, he said co-ordination between inter-states along with CRPF was required. Alok Raj, Additional Director General (Law and Order), Bihar, commended Jharkhand police for joint operations along with Bihar on border areas and hurting naxalites financially. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The commerce ministry should direct the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) to provide liberal insurance coverage to consignments with a view to promote overseas shipments, FIEO said Friday. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta said the claims made by exporters should be settled on time and not rejected outrightly. "We have asked the commerce ministry to direct ECGC on this issue. Exporters are facing huge problem at this front. Proper insurance cover is important to boost the country's exports. ECGC should work with exporters to address all the issues," he said. Gupta said the liberal insurance cover for markets such as Africa and Latin America would help promote shipments in these regions. In June, the government approved capital infusion of Rs 2,000 crore to ECGC to enhance insurance coverage to micro, small and medium enterprises exports. Insurance coverage from the corporation will help improve competitive position of Indian exporters in international markets. ECGC offers credit insurance schemes to exporters to protect them against losses due to non-payment of export dues by overseas buyers due to political and/or commercial risks. India's exports grew 9.78 per cent to USD 302.84 billion in 2017-18. Since 2011-12, exports have been hovering at around USD 300 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eight people, including a woman were arrested Friday and sent to jail in connection with the lynching of a man in Palamu and injuring two others on the suspicion of being thieves and obstructing police from rescuing them, the police said. They were produced before a local court which remanded to 14 days in judicial custody, Superintendent of Police, Indrajeet Mahatha said. Stating that more arrests were likely in the incident, he said six persons including the woman were arrested in connection with the lynching and the rest two for obstructing the police. Three men had gone to the house of a prospective bride at Tisibar village, about 200 km from Ranchi, for marriage negotiations on Wednesday evening. They were dragged out the house and beaten up by the mob after a member of the woman's family apparently spread a rumour that that they were thieves, Mahatha had said. The deputy SP had reached the spot with a police team and rescued the three men but not before firing four rounds in the air to disperse the mob which stiffly opposed the force, he said. The three men, all in their twenties, were rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors referred them to another one, about 15 km away. One of them succumbed to injuries after arriving at the hospital, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The NCLAT Friday ruled that Numetal's Rs 37,000 crore second-round bid for Essar Steel is valid, but asked rival bidder ArcelorMittal to clear Rs 7,000 crore dues of its previously associated firms within three days to qualify for the acquisition. A two-member bench of NCLAT headed by its Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya in a 68-page order asked lenders, who are auctioning Essar Steel to recover over Rs 49,000 crore of unpaid loans, to consider the second round bid of Numetal and mining baron Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta. ArcelorMittal's bid will be considered if it pays dues by September 11. For ArcelorMittal India (AMI), which was the only other bidder besides Numetal in round-1, the NCLAT held that it needs to remove the "stigma of defaulter" attached to it because of its previous 29 per cent stake in Uttam Galva Steel and KSS Petron. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal held that the first round of bid by Russia's VTB Group-backed Numetal in February was ineligible as the firm was 25 per cent owned by Rewant Ruia, scion of Essar Steel's promoter Ruia family. But, he exited the firm before the second round of bid was submitted in March, making Numetal eligible. NuMetal and steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal-led ArcelorMittal had in February submitted separate bids to takeover Essar Steel. The Committee of Creditors (CoC), however, disqualified both bids saying their promoters were tied to companies, which were bank loan defaulters and so ineligible under Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The second round of bids was called where JSW Steel joined NuMetal to put in a bid of Rs 37,000 crore, while Vedanta Ltd entered the fray as a third bidder. AMI too put in a bid. Both NuMetal and Essar Steel had challenged disqualification of the first round of bids in the Ahmedabad-bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which did not give any relief to the bidders but has asked the CoC to take another look at the bids before disqualifying them. CoC sought a second round of bids by April 2. The NCLT order was challenged by both the bidders in NCLAT. After the NCLT order, AMI had offered to repay any outstanding loans owed by Uttam Galva Steels Ltd, where it held promoter stake, and KSS Petron. The steelmaker had placed Rs 7,000 crore in an escrow account, with the condition that lenders disqualify Numetal's bid. "The amount has not been deposited with the financial creditors," the NCLAT order said. "AMI had made a conditional deposit of Rs 7,000 crores in its own current account (escrow account). Such depositation of the amount in its own escrow account does not qualify as a payment of overdue amounts. A conditional offer to pay the over dues amount cannot be accepted till it is complied in the light of proviso to clause (c) of Section 29A unconditionally". It asked AMI to clear NPA dues of KSS Petron, although it has divested its shareholding in KSS Global BV (100 per cent owner of KSS Petron) on February 9, 2018, which is three days before submission of the Expression of Interest of Resolution Plan for Essar Steel. Crinium Bay, a wholly owned direct subsidiary of VTB Bank, holds 40 per cent stake in Numetal Ltd and Rewant Ruia's AEL held 25 per cent stake. At the time for first bid, Russian firm JSC Vo Tyazhpromexport (TPE) held 9.9 per cent and the remaining 25.1 per cent was with Indo International Trading FZCO (INDO). Before submitting the subsequent 'Resolution Plan', AEL sold its shareholding to INDO and TPE. Thereafter INDO held 34.1 per cent and TPE 25.9 per cent. "As on March 29, 2018, as the AEL was not the shareholder of Numetal Ltd and all the three shareholders aforesaid being eligible, we hold that Numetal Ltd in respect of Resolution Plan dated March 29, 2018, is eligible," the order said, asking the Committee of Creditors to find out its viability, feasibility and financial matrix. For AMI, the appellate tribunal said it is giving "one opportunity to make payment of all overdue amount with interest thereon and charges relating to Non-Performing Accounts (NPAs) of both the Uttam Galva and the KSS Petron in their respective accounts within three days i.e. by September 11, 2018". It further added: "If such amount is deposited in the accounts of both NPA of Uttam Galva and KSS Petron within the time aforesaid and is informed, the CoC will consider the Resolution Plan submitted by AMI along with other Resolution Plans, including the Resolution Plan submitted by Numetal on March 19, 2018". Commenting on the judgment, NuMetal spokesperson said: "This vindicates NuMetal's conviction that they are an eligible bidder and has given a compelling offer to the creditors for the Essar Steel's resolution plan under IBC". ArcelorMittal said: "We note today's NCLAT judgment and await the full order, which we will review before determining our next steps". The appellate tribunal has also directed CoC to take "an early decision" over the bids and place the final selected resolution plan before the adjudicating authority (NCLT) "immediately", who would pass an order regarding its fianlisation. "The Successful Resolution Applicant will take steps for execution of its Resolution Plan and deposit the upfront money if proposed," said NCLAT while awarding some more time for resolution process by deducting the litigation period of April 26 to September 7 from the 270 mandatory days. NCLAT also pulled L N Mittal group firm for adopting the tactics of selling its stake in both Uttam Galwa and KSS Petron, before filing its resolution plan saying the same is not a procedure known to law to efface itself of the ineligibility. It declared AMI a connected person in KSS Pteron despite selling its stake and observed that its control over it will be "evident" from the fact that it has nominee directors, who also resigned on February 9, 2018, which is three days before submission of the expression of interest. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, told a judge Friday that he was "deeply embarrassed and ashamed" for lying to the FBI and acknowledged that his actions could have hindered their work. "I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption," Papadopoulos said at his sentencing hearing. The judge has not yet announced his punishment. Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is pushing for a prison sentence of up to six months, while defense attorneys are asking for probation. Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, has been a central figure in the Russia investigation dating back before Mueller's May 2017 appointment. He was the first to plead guilty in Mueller's probe and is now the first Trump campaign adviser to be sentenced. His case was also the first to detail a member of the Trump campaign having knowledge of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election while it was ongoing. Memos authored by House Republicans and Democrats, now declassified, also show information about Papadopoulos' contacts with Russian intermediaries triggered the FBI's counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. That probe was later taken over by Mueller. According to a sweeping indictment handed up this summer, Russian intelligence had stolen emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign and other Democratic groups by April 2016, the same month Papadopoulos was told by a professor that Russian officials had told him they had "dirt" on Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." Papadopoulos later used his connections with the Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, and other Russian nationals in an attempt to broker a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He admitted last year to lying to the FBI about those contacts. In court papers filed ahead of the sentencing, prosecutors say those lies caused irreparable harm to the investigation during its early months. Prosecutors wrote that those false statements, made during a January 2017 interview with federal investigators, caused the FBI to miss an opportunity to interview Mifsud while he was in the United States. "The defendant's lies undermined investigators' ability to challenge the Professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States," they wrote, noting that Mifsud left the US in February 2017 and hasn't returned. Defense lawyer Thomas Breen said his client was affected by Trump's cries of "fake news" ahead of the interview and was torn between wanting to cooperate with investigators and wanting to remain loyal to the president. "The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could," Breen said. Even after his arrest and plea agreement last year, prosecutors say Papadopoulos continued to be difficult with investigators, only providing information after being confronted with documents such as emails and text messages. Overall, they say Papadopoulos did not provide "substantial assistance." In response, Papadopoulos' attorneys have acknowledged his offense was "unquestionably serious," but they downplayed any damage he caused. His attorneys, Robert Stanley and Thomas Breen, say their client lied to save his career and to "preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master," a reference that is not fully explained in court papers. Stanley and Breen also argue that their client "cooperated fully." He participated in four proffer sessions, they say, and "was willing to answer any questions posed." "His arrest and prosecution served as notice to all involved that this was a serious investigation," the attorneys wrote. "He was the first domino, and many have fallen in behind. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Thursday urged the society and NGOs to join hands with the government in the fight against malnutrition and starvation deaths. He made the appeal during his visit to Sanjeevan Bal Upachar Kendra run by Sri Vithu Mauli Charitable Trust founded by Vivek Pandit at Jawhar in Palghar district of Maharashtra. Fadnavis said the root cause behind various ailments prevalent among the children and their mothers in Palghar district was malnutrition. "Instead of treating the patients for the illnesses, we need to treat them for malnutrition and provide nutritious food to them," he said. "The government is doing its best to tackle this problem. We have taken several positive decisions. But time has come to take some more effective decisions and expedite the process," Fadnavis said. Fadnavis, who inspected the Kendra before giving his speech, said he was shocked to see the level of malnutrition in the district. "Even if one child is malnourished it is our duty to save that kid," he said. The CM said, although Jawhar is gifted by nature, it has a dubious distinction of malnutrition deaths. "We have to work towards building up a new identity for the region...Members of the society and NGOs should join hands with the government in the fight against malnutrition deaths," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria on Friday said the new government there under Prime Minister Imran Khan has opened a political window and India is "filled with cautious hope". He also said that India is pushing hard on humanitarian grounds for the release of prisoners of the two countries in each other's jails. "Bilateral relations received a setback after the (terrorist) attacks on Pathankot and Uri. But after the new government came in Pakistan, a new political window opened up and we are filled with cautious hope," he said at IIM Calcutta here. Bisaria, an alumnus of the institute, said the Indian government hopes that ceasefire would prevail at the international border, which is necessary for bilateral conversation to begin. "Both the prime ministers (Narendra Modi and Imran Khan) had conversations over phone which had been very positive," he said. Noting that relations between India and Pakistan solely rest on the issue of terrorism, he said, "Terrorism is the deal-breaker. What is important is a bilateral conversation. That will happen when terrorism ends." Bisaria was delivering a lecture on 'Managing a tough neighbourhood: India's approach to its region'. The Indian diplomat also said efforts are being made to secure the release of every Indian prisoner in Pakistan and to bring them back on humanitarian grounds. Another important "stakeholder" which could play a key role in the relations between the two countries is the booming bilateral trade, Bisaria said. "Increased bilateral trade will create more stakeholders and may lead to absence of conflict", he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Finance Ministry has shortlisted about a dozen companies, including Coal India, NTPC, and NMDC, for a possible buyback of shares in the ongoing financial year. The other companies which are in the list include NLC, BHEL, NHPC, NBCC, SJVN, and Hindustan Aeronautics, officials said. Earlier this week, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) discussed buyback option with these companies, following which the list has been drafted. These have been asked to buyback the shares following the capital restructuring guidelines set out by on May 27, 2016. Officials however said in view of the business plans of CPSEs, not all in the list would be able to buyback the shares in 2018-19. As per the guidelines, having net worth of at least Rs 20 billion and cash and bank balance of above Rs 10 billion have to mandatorily go in for share buyback. It had also asked every CPSE to analyse in the first board meeting after the closure of a financial year the cash and bank balance, expansion plans, borrowing plans, net worth and market value of shares and explore option for buying back of shares. Share buybacks offer a route for companies to return some wealth to their shareholders, while potentially boosting their stock prices. In a share buyback, a company will absorb or retire the repurchased shares, and rename them treasury stock. Buying back stock is also a route to make a business look more attractive to investors. By reducing the number of outstanding shares, a company's earnings per share ratio is automatically increased. The mountainous state of Sikkim would join the aviation map of the country on October 4 with the launch of the first flight by SpiceJet between Pakyong and Kolkata, the airline said Friday. The no-frills carrier will operate daily direct flights on the Pakyong-Kolkata sector from October 4 and the Pakyong-Guwahati sector from October 16, it said. The airline will be deploying its Bombardier Q-400 aircraft on the route. SG 3324, operating on the Kolkata-Pakyong route, will depart from Kolkata for Pakyong at 9:30 am, whereas SG 3325 operating on the route of Pakyong-Guwahati route will depart at 11.15 am, a statement by the airline said. SpiceJet was awarded the routes under UDAN II. The greenfield Pakyong airport, close to Sikkim's capital Gangtok, had received the aerodrome license from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in May for commercial operations. It will be the 100th functional airport in the country. Sikkim is the only state without a functional airport at present. The airport was approved by the Centre in 2008 and was constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 350 crore. The project is being billed on an engineering marvel, built at an height of 4,500 feet in an inhospitable terrain. On March 10, SpiceJet had successfully operated a test flight to Pakyong, making it the first civil fixed aircraft to land at the airport. The announcement about the launch of the service was made in the presence of Sikkim Chief Miniser Pawan Kumar Chamling, a SpiceJet statement said. Senior SpiceJet officials handed over the first ticket to Chamling, thereby marking the formal announcement of the launch of the new flight service, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Flipkart aims to account for over 30 per cent of the phone sales this festive season as it lines up new launches through handset partners and dishes out more financing options to woo Indian shoppers. The Walmart-backed company, which is locked in a fierce competition with US-based Amazon, claimed that about 25 per cent of the total phones sold in the country are through its platform. "We are confident that we will be able to expand our leadership further and by the end of the festive sales (Big Billion Days or BBD), we should have 30-32 per cent share," Flipkart, Senior Director (Smartphones), Ayappan Rajagopal told PTI. The company had, in April, said it aims to touch 40 per cent market share by 2020 as part of its 'Mobiles 40by20' strategy. "Our platform will have a number of new launches in alliance with our handset partners (during the festive sale). There will be devices across price points...we expect strong volumes coming especially in the Rs 10,000-15,000 category as well as the entry-level smartphones (Rs 4,000-7,000)," he said. The company is working with a number of brands, many of them exclusively, including the likes of Informix, Realme, Panasonic and Asus, he added. Rajagopal noted that as per industry reports, about 39 per cent of the mobile phones sold in the country are through online platforms. "Online sales is about 39 per cent in the country, which is the highest so far. It is also the highest globally for any country. In China, for example, about 29 per cent phones are sold online," he explained. Stating that its mobile phone vertical has been growing steadily, Rajagopal said the company has started offering EMI option for debit card holders to help more people transact on its platform. It is also with offerings like mobile protection services. Flipkart is yet to announce the dates of BBD, but the sale is likely to take place in October. Both Flipkart and Amazon India are betting big on mobile phones to drive growth. Mobile phones are one of the most popular items sold through e-commerce sites in the country. Over the last few years, a number of new handset companies, including the likes of HMD, Xiaomi, Motorola and CoolPad have partnered players like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal to enter the Indian market. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fortis Healthcare Friday said its step-down subsidiary RHT Health Trust Manager has sold 15 lakh shares in RHT Health Trust to Fortis Healthcare International Ltd (FHIL) for SGD 11,70,000. FHIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL). The acquisition of RHT units was completed on September 5, 2018, FHL said in a filing to BSE. The object of the sale was to "keep the holding of FHIL in RHT above 25 per cent," it added. There will not be any change in FHL's total interest in RHT, the company said. RHT has a portfolio of 12 clinical establishments, and operating hospitals across India. Shares of FHL were trading at Rs 146.50 per scrip on BSE, up 0.41 per cent from the previous close. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari Friday asked the auto companies for a "little change in mindsets" by giving more priority to future, while assuring them of government support with clear policies. Speaking at the MOVE, global mobility summit, the minister said the government was clear with its policy to reduce import of oil and end pollution, for which it is encouraging alternative fuel technologies such as biofuels and electric mobility. "Our policies are clear. We want to encourage you, we want to support you... but there is a small requirement on your part for a little change in mindsets and give more priority to future," Gadkari said. He was responding to comments from auto industry leaders, who wanted clear policy road map for future mobility. Citing example of fixing 12 per cent GST for electric vehicles, Gadkari said the government is clear with its policies to encourage alternate fuels such as ethanol, methanol, besides electric vehicles. The minister said the auto industry has been doing well, playing a big role in India's economic growth with its existing business model but it needs to look beyond the present keeping in mind the future mobility requirements. He said while the ethanol economy will have a good future, electric vehicles also hold a lot of potential, specially for public transport. For electrification, Gadkari said it would be easier to first target two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Asking the auto industry to convert problem into opportunities, he said more emphasis must also be given to public transportation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar stressed on signing of social security agreements among G-20 countries at the meeting of labour and employment ministers of the grouping held in Argentina, according to a labour ministry release. "Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour & Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar led a delegation to Mendoza, Argentina for the G-20 Labour & Employment Ministers' Meeting,held on September 6-7, 2018," the ministry said. Applauding the Argentine Presidency for holding the joint meeting of education and labour ministers, Gangwar said that the coordination between these ministries is needed to strike a right balance between the supply and demand of the labour in a country. He also stressed on inclusive development and signing of Social Security Agreements amongst the G-20 countries for ensuring portability of social security benefits to workers. He stressed on design and implementation of policies for greater and easier participation of women in the labour market. The minister reiterated that India is committed to job security, wage security and social security to all workers in the country. All round efforts have been made to promote job creation in India over the last few years through various schemes and programmes. He highlighted India's initiatives for promoting skill development likePradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and setting up of Sector Skill Councils and for employment creation like the Start Up India and the MUDRA scheme. Gangwar said, We are implementing policies and programmes that ensure their education, training, skilling, entrepreneurship, minimum wages and social protection for women. Such measures include providing skills that enable women to become self-employed or entrepreneurs;creating online platform for women to sell their products; enhancing paid maternity leave, promoting flexible working hours and opportunity to work from home. G-20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration and Joint G-20 Education and Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration were adopted and will be presented in the next summit of Leaders/ Heads of the state later this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Patidar leader Hardik Patel was Friday shifted to a hospital after his health deteriorated on the 14th day of his indefinite fast here, a Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) functionary said. According to PAAS spokesperson Manoj Panara, Hardik agreed to be shifted to Sola Civil Hospital after his supporters requested him to do so in view of his failing health. Following the end of a 24-hour ultimatum by the PAAS to the Gujarat government to begin talks with the protesting leader, Hardik had Thursday evening stopped intake of water, he said. "Hardik's agitation will continue. But, since his health has deteriorated due to the 14-day fast, we requested him to get hospitalised," Panara told reporters at the fast venue near the city. Another PAAS leader, Dharmik Malaviya, said that Hardik's "fight will continue". Hospital authorities said Hardik was in the ICU and a team of doctors was treating him. He was shifted to the hospital shortly after senior Patidar community leader and president of Khodaldham Trust, Naresh Patel, met and advised him to call off the strike or take medical treatment. "Hardik has not taken water since the last 18 hours. I told Hardik that everyone is worried about his health and that he should call off the hunger strike as soon as possible. He told me that he will inform me soon about his decision to call off the fast," said Naresh Patel. During the meeting, Hardik asked Naresh Patel to mediate with the Gujarat government and hold talks on three of the former's demands. "Hardik asked me to be a mediator. As per his wish, representatives of Khodaldham, along with of another Patidar body Umiya Dham Sansthan, will try to talk with the government to break the deadlock. Our priority is to see that Hardik's health does not deteriorate," Naresh Patel said. "If needed, we will pressure the government to accept Hardik's demands. Though the issue of reservation may take longer, we hope that the state government shows a positive attitude towards the two other demands," he said. Hardik went on the indefinite fast on August 25 demanding reservations in government jobs and education for the Patidar community and waiver of farm loans. Later, he added another demand that his close aide Alpesh Kathiria, who was recently arrested in a 2015 sedition case by the city Crime Branch, be released. The government had, in the last 14 days, not made any attempt to negotiate with Hardik, his supporters claimed. However, Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said that "doors are open" for anyone who wanted to talk to the government. The state's Congress leaders, in a show of support for Hardik, Friday observed a 24-hour fast. While Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani protested outside the collector's office here, Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda sat on a hunger strike in Anand. Chavda, speaking to reporters, questioned why no one from the state government had met Hardik despite the latter observing a fast for the past 14 days. Hitting out at the BJP-led government, Chavda said, "It is matter of shame for this government that someone has to sit on a fast for the welfare of his community as well as farmers." Dhanani called Hardik's demand for a farm loan waiver legitimate and claimed that Gujarat farmers were reeling under debts as they were not getting the right prices for their produce. "In such a scenario, the government must waive loans of farmers. Even the past UPA government had waived farm loans worth Rs 71,000 crore" Dhanani said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The father of seven-year-old boy, who was murdered at a private school in Gurgaon last year, Friday approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking de-affiliation of the school branch by the CBSE. The writ petition, which was admitted by the court, also urged that the school should be de-recognised by the Haryana government. The court has given six weeks time to the respondents to reply, including the school management, the CBSE and the Haryana government. The high court issued notice to the private school through its trustees, the Central Board of Secondary Education and the State of Haryana in a writ petition filed by the father of the seven-year-old boy, said Advocate Sushil Tekriwal, representing the victim's family. Tekriwal said the petitioner has brought to the notice of the court that the facts finding committee set-up by the CBSE has found several lapses against the school and made adverse observations against its management. He said the petitioner has submitted in the court that the boy was killed due to negligence of the school authority as no provision of safety and security was taken by it. The next date of hearing has been fixed for October 31. Earlier in June this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed the bail plea of the 16-year-old student, accused of killing the seven-year-old boy. The victim's body with the throat slit was found in the washroom of the school. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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. Chinese consumer durables maker Haier Friday signed an MoU with the government for a 123-acre land parcel to set up its Rs 30.69 bn industrial park at in The new facility would help the company expand its market share and reach in India, a top company official said. The company would invest the entire amount over the next four years in two phases and the production would start by mid of 2020 from this proposed unit. "Total investment in this project would be Rs 3,069 crore. This would be spread over four years in two phases and generate a direct employment of 4,000 persons," Haier Eric Braganza told PTI. "This would be the largest industrial park in our industry (consumer durables)," he claimed. The new plant would have the capacity to produce two million units of refrigerators, one million units of LED TVs, one million units of washing machines and air conditioners in a year when fully completed. Haier in November last year added additional capacity at its plant at Ranjangaon in Pune built with an investment of Rs 600 crore. "This would support our expected growth in the country... We are seeing pressure on supply because of growing demand. That's why we are starting this new unit," Braganza added. Pune has the capacity to roll out 1.8 million units of refrigerators, 0.5 million units of LED TVs, washing machines and air conditioners. Earlier, in September Haier had said that it is eyeing 30 per cent increase in sales this year on the back of higher demand during the festive season. The company, which reported sales of Rs 1,700 crore last fiscal, has set a target to become one of India's top three brands by 2018 and increase its revenue to USD 1 billion by 2020. Patidar leader Hardik Patel was admitted to a hospital here Friday after his supporters claimed that his health deteriorated on the 14th day of his indefinite fast. Doctors at the Sola Civil Hospital, however, said his vital health parameters were normal. The Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), which Hardik Patel leads, said he will continue his fast from the hospital. PAAS spokesperson Manoj Panara said that Hardik agreed to shift to the Sola Civil Hospital after his supporters requested him to do so in view of his failing health. After the 24-hour ultimatum given by the PAAS to the government to start talks with him ended, Hardik stopped taking even water Thursday, Panara said. "Hardik's agitation will continue. But as his health has deteriorated due to the 14-day fast, we requested him to get hospitalised," Panara told reporters. Later in the night, Panara said they planned to shift Hardik to a private hospital on SG Highway. Hardik tweeted from his hospital bed that his fast will continue. "My indefinite hunger strike is still on and it will continue until our demands are met. I am being administered glucose. I will continue to abstain from taking food and water. I will fight but will not bow down," he tweeted. A bulletin issued by the Sola Civil Hospital said, "All the parameters of Hardik such as pulse, blood pressure and oxygen level are found to be normal. He has been administered glucose which will help him overcome weakness." The hospital authorities said Hardik was in the Intensive Care Unit and a team of doctors was treating him. The state government said Friday that it was always open to talks. "Hardik got himself admitted to the hospital today of his own will. Our doctors are giving best treatment to him so that his health is restored," Energy Minister Saurash Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar. "Our doors are open to everybody for talks. We will talk with anyone who wishes to raise any issues with the government. But if somebody tries to play on the quota issue, our response will also be political," the minister said. Hardik was shifted to the hospital shortly after senior Patidar leader and president of Khodaldham Trust Naresh Patel advised him to call off the hunger strike or at least take medical treatment. "Hardik has not taken water for the last 18 hours. I told him that everyone is worried about his health and he should call off the hunger strike as soon as possible," said Naresh Patel. "Hardik asked me to be a mediator (with the government). So representatives of Khodaldham, along with another Patidar body, Umiya Dham Sansthan, will try to talk with the government to break the deadlock. Our priority is to see that Hardik's health does not deteriorate," Naresh Patel added. "If needed, we will pressure the government to accept Hardik's demands. Though the issue of reservation may take longer to resolve, we hope that the state government shows a positive attitude towards the other two demands," he said. Hardik launched his indefinite fast on August 25 from his house here, demanding reservations in government jobs and education for the Patidar community and loan waiver for farmers in Gujarat. Later, he added another demand -- that his close aide Alpesh Kathiria, recently arrested in a 2015 sedition case against Hardik and others, be released. Meanwhile, Gujarat Congress leaders, in a show of support for Hardik, Friday observed a 24-hour fast. Leader of Opposition in Assembly Paresh Dhanani protested outside the collector's office here, while state Congress chief Amit Chavda sat on a hunger strike in Anand. Chavda questioned why no one from the government side met Hardik. Dhanani called Hardik's demand of farm loan waiver legitimate, claiming that Gujarat farmers are reeling under debt as they are not getting the right price for their produce. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court on Friday ordered the Tamil Nadu government to provide a single-window clearance for installation of Lord Ganesha idols and processions for the Vinayaka Chathurthi festival on September 13. Justice R Mahadevan passed the interim order on a batch of petitions, including one filed by Hindu Munnani founder Ramagopalan, challenging a government order imposing various conditions on installation and immersion of the idols. The petitioners had opposed the conditions that included obtaining separate permissions from different authorities such as the police and electricity departments. Earlier, Advocate General Vijay Narayan pointed to the dismissal of a PIL challenging the government order specifying the conditions, while the counsel for the petitioners contended that it could not be a bar on entertaining other similar pleas. The judge then said such issues shall be considered during the hearing of the petitions and added that considering the sentiments of the Hindus, "this court, as an interim measure, is inclined to pass the order". He directed that the applications for installing the idols should be submitted to the jurisdictional Deputy Superintendent of Police in rural areas and Assistant Commissioner of Police in cities by 5 pm on Saturday. The applicants should submit the necessary undertakings on payment of the commercial tariff for electricity consumption and the consent of the land owners, among others, the court said, adding that the police officers should consider the applications and communicate their order by 5 pm on September 10. They should ensure compliance of the directions issued by a division bench of the court last year for installation of idols and immersion processions, it said. The date, time and place for the processions and immersion should be fixed by the authority concerned as per their procedure, the court added. The representatives of the organisers should co-operate with the officials in ensuring a peaceful celebration of the festival, the judge said and posted the petitions after three weeks for further hearing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court deprecated Friday the practice of people writing directly to the prime minister, the president or chief minister making wide allegations against certain persons instead of following due process of law. A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar said this tendency of bypassing procedure laid down in the law and writing directly to top constitutional functionaries seems to be aimed at seeking publicity. The bench made the observation while hearing petitions pertaining to the January 2018 violence at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district. While one petition filed by Pune resident Satish Gaikwad, who claims to be a victim of the violence, sought an inquiry by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the case, another plea by social activist Abdul Malik Chaudhary demanded a state CID probe. Referring to Chaudhary's plea, the bench noted earlier the petitioner had written a letter to the prime minister, president of India and Maharashtra chief minister. "In the letter, the petitioner has made wide allegations against several persons and has in fact even involved a neighbouring country. This is very unfortunate that people write letters to prime minister and president instead of following due process of law," Justice Shinde said. The law permits a person to approach the police or a magistrate to lodge a complaint and get their grievances addressed, the court noted. "It seems like these persons only want publicity and popularity," Justice Shinde said. The bench adjourned hearing on the petitions till September 17 after observing that a similar plea pertaining to the June arrest of five activists for their alleged links with Maoists would be heard on September 12. The police had arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut in June while probing the alleged Maoist connection with the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave held in Pune on December 31 last year. "Inflammatory" speeches delivered at the event had led to the violence at Koregaon-Bhima the next day, the police had alleged. On August 28, the Maharashtra Police arrested five more Left-wing activists -- Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha -- in multi-city raids for their alleged Maoist links. The five activists are under house arrest till September 12 according to an order of the Supreme Court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) HCL Technologies on Friday named Prateek Aggarwal as the company's new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from October 1, 2018. Aggarwal will replace Anil Chanana, who will step down from his position on October 1 and would retire from the company on December 31, said in a statement. "The company constituted a committee of the Board to review internal and external candidates and selected Aggarwal as a successor to Chanana," the statement said. A graduate in commerce from SRCC, Delhi, Aggarwal holds an MBA degree from IIM, Calcutta. This is his second stint at HCL Tech, the statement said. ALSO READ: HCL Technologies aims to overtake Infosys in revenue over the next 5 years Overall, Aggarwal has over 27 years of industry experience in finance. He has worked with Hindustan Unilever, GECIS/Genpact, among others. "Prateek has been a key leader at HCL Technologies and has led various strategic initiatives driving the business growth over the years," HCL Founder and Chairman Shiv Nadar said. Following are the top stories from the northern region at 5 pm CHANDIGARH DEL27 PB-SIDHU-PAK Chandigarh: Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed Friday that Pakistan has decided to allow Sikh pilgrims direct access to the historic Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara just across the border. SRINAGAR DEL26 JK-DGP-INTERVIEW Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir's new police chief Dilbag Singh Friday said his priority was to stamp out terrorism from the state at the earliest while protecting interests of common people. NEWDELHI DEL28 DL-TERRORISTS 2NDLD ARREST New Delhi: Two suspected terrorists, affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) organisation, were arrested from near the Red Fort by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, police said on Friday. LUCKNOW DES7 UP-ATHAWALE Lucknow: Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale Friday rooted for 25 per cent reservation to the poor among the upper castes by enhancing the quota limit to 75 per cent. JAIPUR DES6 RJ-LD-HOUSE ADJOURNED Jaipur: The Rajasthan Assembly was adjourned twice during the pre-lunch session Friday as the opposition Congress raised the issue of soaring fuel prices, farm loan-waiver and attacked the government over cane-charging of its youth activists during a protest. NEWDELHI DES8 DL-MOHALLA CLINIC-LD MOON New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party's Mohalla Clinic initiative drew huge praise Friday from former secretary-general of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland during their visit to a health facility built under the project here. SRINAGAR DES1 JK-DGP-OMAR Srinagar: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has criticised the timing of changing the state DGP, saying there was no hurry to replace S P Vaid and the state police could do without having to deal with the confusion of leadership. IN THE PIPELINE Moga: Akali Dal and Congress supporters clash while filing nomination papers for panchayat polls, police lob tear gas shells to disperse them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On the first day of monsoon session, Haryana assembly Friday paid rich tributes to late Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, describing him as a "statesman and an "ardent champion of the weaker sections' causes." The House also made obituary reference to other leaders, who died in the interregnum since the House met last in March this year, besides the people, who lost their lives in the floods that ravaged Kerala and other parts of the country. The departed leaders who were paid rich tributes included Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, former Chattisgarh Governor Balramji Dass Tandon, former MP Ramchandra Bainda and former Haryana ministers Shyam Chand and Jai Singh Rana. The House made obituary references to Jind MLA Hari Chand Middha, and former legislator MLA Gauri Shanker also. It also paid tributes prominent Hindi poet Gopaldas Neeraj, veteran journalist and parliamentarian Kuldip Nayyar and martyrs of Haryana in Army and other central police organisations and observed two-minute silence as a mark of respect to all the departed souls. The session began with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar reading out obituary references. Paying Homage to Vajpayee, Khattar emotionally recalled his poems saying "his poetry was marked by nationalistic fervour and human values and inspired a sense of duty and social responsibility." He said Vajpayee, by adding 'Jai Vigyan' to the 'Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan' slogan after the five nuclear tests at Pokharan in May 1998, he signalled India's rise as a global power. Recalling his steps for the welfare of farmers, Khattar said Vajpayee initiated Kisan Bima and Kisan Credit Card schemes for peasants and gave new direction to the rural development. "He had a strong sense of self respect, discipline and was straight forward," said the Chief Minister. "Despite reaching the zenith of his political career, he stayed rooted to the ground and lived a life of simplicity," said Khattar, adding "He struggled selflessly for fulfilment of the needs of the common man.... he was a man with no enemy." Paying tributes to Vajpayee, Congress legislature party leader Kiran Chowdhary said, "He was not only a great statesman, a wonderful poet, but also a gracious host and a very humble human being, which endeared him to the masses." Former Chief Minister Hooda recalled with pride that three generations of his family, including his late father, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, he himself and his son Deepender Hooda had the luck of being Vajpayee's colleagues in the Parliament. "He was a statesman. Both Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Vajpayee commanded great respect and popularity in their own parties and the Opposition," Hooda said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and France have signed an agreement under which three pilot cities-- Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad will be provided support to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in urban transport, an official statement said Friday. According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under the 'Mobilise Your City (MYC)' programme, the European Union will provide 3.5 million euros to help Indian cities reduce their GHG emissions and achieve a "sustainable transport policy". The pact was signed on Thursday evening by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) OSD Mukund Kumar Sinha and Agence Franaise de Developpement (AFD) Regional Director Nicolas Fornage in the presence of HUA minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Ambassador of France in India Alexander Ziegler. "Delighted to receive French Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler & his delegation to my office for the signing of MoU between MoHUA & @AFD_en. Their investment of 3.5 million Euros will help in reducing Green House Gas emissions & help us achieve a sustainable transport policy," Puri tweeted. According to the ministry, based on a proposal made by AFD in 2015, the European Union has agreed to provide 3.5 million euros through the AFD to contribute to specific investments and technical assistance components within the MYC in India. "The MYC aims at supporting three pilot cities viz. Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad in their efforts to reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions related to urban transport by implementing urban mobility plans at local level and to help India at national level to improve their sustainable transport policy," stated a statement issued by HUA. The pilot cities selected as well as the MoHUA will benefit from the technical assistance activities, it added. "The main components of the proposed assistance are to support planning and implementation of sustainable urban transport projects besides strengthening institutional capacity for regulating, steering and planning urban mobility," it stated. It also includes learning and exchange formats with other cities across India for exchanges on best practices, it added. The details of the project activities will be worked out by AFD in consultation with MoHUA and the three partner cities including institutions such as the respective special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for smart cities, the municipal corporations and any transport authority or transport related SPV, it stated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday invited Czech defence companies to take advantage of the opening of defence manufacturing sector in India and set-up joint ventures to produce for the country and for rest of the world. President Kovind after holding talks with his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman said there is immense potential for India-Czech defence collaboration to meet the growing requirements of the Indian defence industry. During the meeting, they took stock of the ongoing defence co-operation, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. The two countries signed five MoUs including between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India and the Czech Academy of Sciences; on work plan for support of Indo-Czech projects in diverse areas of science and technology; on visa waiver agreement for diplomatic passport holders and between ELI Beamlines and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in the field of Laser Technology. President Kovind, who arrived here Thursday on the final leg of his three-nation European tour, said India values the Czech Republic as an important trade, technology and investment partner. "The Czech strengths in manufacturing and advanced technology make it a natural fit to partner Indian growth and next-generation development," he said. He said Czech major Skoda Auto and its parent company Volkswagen have announced plans to invest USD 1 billion in India under the 'Make in India' initiative. "President Zeman and I committed today to write a new chapter in our trading relations," he said. He said India-Czech Joint Economic Commission meeting to be held next month at the Ministerial level, will deliberate in detail and take steps to enhance trade and investment cooperation and diversify the partnership into new areas. "India and the Czech Republic share historical, warm and friendly relations. My state visit is aimed at deepening our economic relations spread over trade, technology and investment collaboration. In our discussions, President Zeman and I, reviewed progress in our bilateral relations and discussed the roadmap for the future," he said. "I sense high enthusiasm in the business community on both sides to engage and build robust partnerships in sectors such as defence, high-tech manufacturing, heavy engineering, automotive industry and civil aviation," he said. The president said there is high enthusiasm in the business community on both sides to engage and build robust partnerships in sectors such as defence, high-tech manufacturing, heavy engineering, automotive industry and civil aviation. "I thank the Czech side for recognising the need to enhance the mobility of Indian professionals and students into the Czech Republic to upscale economic partnership. We look forward to the launch of Special Procedures for Highly Qualified Employees meant for India in October 2018," he said. He said the two countries look forward to initiating co-operation for peaceful use of nuclear energy between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, India and a relevant institution on the Czech side. "We emphasised the importance of cooperation on defence and security. We committed to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. I thank President Zeman for his express support for an early adoption of Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the UN. We also agreed to further deepen our multi-lateral partnership." He thanked the Czech side for supporting India's claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior officials of India and the US Friday held detailed deliberations on ways to resolve trade related issues and boost economic ties. "India - US Commercial Dialogue Intersessional meeting held. Indian delegation led by Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan and US side by Gilbert Kaplan, Under Secretary, USDOC," the Department of Commerce said in a tweet. The meeting assumes significance as India has announced hike in customs duties on as many as 29 products, including pulses, iron and steel products, imported from the US as a retaliatory action against the tariff hikes by Washington. The meeting follows a visit by Indian officials to the US last week. It was the first meeting of the two sides after India deferred its retaliatory tariffs by 45 days to September 18. US Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asian Affairs Mark Linscott and Deputy USTR Jeffrey D Gerrish are likely to visit India next week to continue the talks. India is pressing for exemption from high duty imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products and resumption of export benefits to certain domestic items under their Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). As many as 3,500 Indian products from sectors such as chemicals and engineering get duty-free access to the US market under the GSP, introduced in 1976. India's exports to the US in 2017-18 stood at USD 47.9 billion, while imports were USD 26.7 billion. The trade balance is in favour of India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 25-year-old Indian man was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in a bank building in the US city of Cincinnati before police shot him dead on Thursday. Pruthviraj Kandepi, who hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, police said. India's Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told PTI that the Consulate is in touch with the police, Kandepi's family as well as members of the community. An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added. The other two victims were identified as Luis Felipe Calderon, 48 and Richard Newcomer, 64. Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, they said, adding that the gunman felled in a shootout with officers. According to the Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call around 9:10 a.m. local time about an "active shooter" at the bank. The gunman was shot multiple times as four police officers approached him and he died at the scene. He had a pistol and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, Isaac said, adding that the gunman was not a former or current employee of the bank He had gone to several businesses before going to the bank, he said. Perez had opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Isaac told reporters at a televised press conference. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian-origin woman described as a "bogus immigration lawyer" has been jailed for five years' imprisonment after being found guilty of six counts of fraud by false representation. Harvinder Kaur Thethi, from the West Midlands region of England, had been convicted by Southwark Crown Court in London in July for falsely claiming to be a barrister, solicitor and a UK Home Office official with the ability to progress immigration applications. Despite being unqualified in any of these fields, she went on to obtain GBP 68,000 from vulnerable people in payment for immigration related services, which were promised but not delivered, the court was told. At a hearing on Thursday, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith sentenced the 46-year-old to five years behind bars for each of the six counts, to run concurrently. "You decided to embark on a fantasy life, when you claimed to be a successful lawyer earning a large income. You were nothing of the sort," the judge said during the sentencing hearing this week. "The large amounts of money you obtained came entirely from money you had stolen from people you had befriended and cheated," he noted. The judge observed that people whose immigration status is precarious are "very, very vulnerable", which would make them susceptible to somebody they thought was a family friend and could be convinced to part with large sums of money they could ill afford. Thethi was found to have ingratiated herself to her victims and was, in many cases, treated as a daughter or sister. Her prosecution was the result of an investigation led by the UK's Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC), in partnership with Immigration Enforcement and the Metropolitan Police Service. "You preyed on their vulnerability again and again the investigation was thorough, fair, and it is clear from the Victim Personal Statements kind. I commend both officers in this case," the judge concluded. The offences took place between June 1, 2013, and September 8, 2014 in Hounslow, west London. Thethi had been remanded in custody pending a sentencing hearing in July. Ian Leigh, Deputy Immigration Services Commissioner, said his team was delighted with the outcome of the case, which they hope would send a clear deterrent message to anyone considering acting similarly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's second largest IT services firm Infosys Friday said it has teamed up with Temasek to form a joint venture that will support the Singapore-based company's digital transformation journey. The joint venture -- in which Infosys Consulting (Infosys subsidiary) holds 60 per cent stake -- will be headquartered in Singapore, Infosys said in a statement. The remaining stake will be held by Temasek through Franklin Investments, it said adding that the agreement was signed by the parties last night and is effective immediately. The JV will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temasek's wholly owned subsidiary - Trusted Source - that currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients. As part of the transaction, more than 200 employees and contractors from Trusted Source will be part of the JV, in addition to Infosys staff who will join over time, the statement said. Infosys, in a regulatory filing, said the consideration of investment is "up to SGD 12 million excluding adjustments for working capital, cash and net debt on closing". "Infosys gains significant capacity in terms of workforce as it focuses on strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia, while Temasek will see a rapid enhancement of its IT services through the augmented capabilities of the joint venture entity," the statement said. Trusted Source will provide Temasek and its other clients in the region solutions and technologies across cloud, data and analytics, cybersecurity, digital experiences and artificial intelligence and automation among others. "The joint venture will support Temasek's digital transformation journey, managing a complex Cloud migration program that will enable Temasek to host its applications on a cloud platform," the statement said. Infosys and Temasek have named Shveta Arora, Vice President at Infosys, as the Chief Executive Officer of the JV. "Our joint venture with Temasek will accelerate our efforts in the region, enhancing our existing presence, as we help clients navigate the next journey in their business transformation," Mohit Joshi, President, Infosys said. The partnership will help unlock new capabilities and technology platforms that help Temasek, Jon Allaway, Chief Technology Officer at Temasek, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madhya Pradesh Police Friday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of dacoits allegedly involved in killing 19 truck drivers and cleaners and looting goods from 12 vehicles. Three members of the gang were arrested and a truck loaded with goods was seized, police added. "The gang's modus operandi was to befriend truck drivers and cleaners. Later, the gang leader would throw a party for them during which drinks laced with sedatives were served. Once the drivers and cleaners fell asleep, they were killed," explained Jaideep Prasad, Bhopal Range Inspector General of Police. He said the bodies of the deceased used to be dumped in far-off places or thrown into water bodies while the goods were sold in the grey market and the trucks dismantled and disposed of in parts. While the goods were sold in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, the parts of the vehicles were sold in Bihar, he said. Prasad said a probe team was formed after several such crimes spread over different districts of the state came to light. Investigations led to the arrest of gang leader Aadesh Khamra (50) along with Jaikaran Prajapati (30) and Tukaram Banjara (48), said Deputy Inspector General Dharmendra Choudhry. The police claimed that the arrested accused have confessed to committing such crimes in Bhopal, Mandideep, Misrod and Bilkhiria in the past four months in which 11 people were killed. Prasad said the gang committed similar crimes in Hoshangabad, Guna and Nagpur (in Maharashtra) between 2010-14 in which eight people were killed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five suspected drug peddlers were arrested and intoxicants seized from their possession in separate searches in this region of Jammu and Kashmir, police said Friday. A police party intercepted two persons in the Supwal area in Samba district Thursday night and seized around 150 intoxicant capsules from them, they said. The duo was arrested and a case has been registered, police said. Balvinder Singh was arrested following a tip-off at Tikri-Katra link road in Udhampur district, they said, adding that over 500 intoxicant capsules were seized from him. A police team intercepted a man, identified as Jaswant Singh, during checking in the Nagri area of Kathua district Thursday night. Around 170 intoxicant capsules were found in his possession, police added. Another police team nabbed drug peddler Anwar-ul-Amin in Thannamandi belt of Rajouri district and seized drugs from him, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir government today sought modification in the Supreme Court order which makes it mandatory for all states to send the list of three senior most IPS officers to the UPSC for clearance before appointing the DGP. The state government had yesterday appointed In-Charge Director General of Police (DGP) without following the procedure in view of "complex security concerns". A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submission of the state government that in view of the upcoming panchayat polls and security situations incumbent DGP S P Vaid has been replaced by in-charge DGP Dilbagh Singh. Lawyer Shoeb Alam, representing the state, said the government was seeking modification of the July 3 order by which a state government was required to send the names of three senior IPS officer well in advance to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for clearance before appointing an officer to the post of DGP. The bench agreed to hear the plea of the state government on September 10. The apex court had earlier passed a slew of directions on police reforms in the country and had restrained all states and union territories from appointing any police officer as acting DGPs to avoid favouritism and nepotism. It had said that all states were required to send their proposals in anticipation of the vacancies to the UPSC well in time, at least three months prior to the date of retirement of the incumbent on the post of DGP. The UPSC will then prepare a panel as per the earlier directions of the court and intimate to the states about the selected IPS officers, it had said. The state, in turn, will immediately appoint one of the persons as DGP, it had said. The state government, in its plea, said: "It may be pointed out that in view of the complex security concerns of the state, the peculiar ground situation prevailing therein, the upcoming panchayat and local body elections, insurgent and terror related activities, the unique law and order requirements, it is essential to have a head of the police force in the State of Jammu and Kashmir at all times. "As such, as a purely ad-interim measure, the State Government has been constrained to appoint the Director General, Prisons of State of Jammu and Kashmir, Dilbagh Singh... as the In-Charge Director General of Police 'till a regular arrangement is made.'" The apex court guidelines, which envisaged the role of the UPSC prior to the appointment of the DGP in a state, could not be followed as the "present case is not that of an 'anticipated vacancy' which would have enabled the state to forward a panel to the UPSC and comply with the other rigors of the applicable procedure," it said. It said that in view of the guidelines, the state government has now already approached the UPSC and has forwarded a panel of senior most officers from the state. Earlier, the apex court had passed a slew of directions on police reforms in the country. The top court's direction had come on an application filed by the Centre in which it claimed that certain states have been appointing acting DGPs and then making them permanent just before the date of their superannuation to enable them get the benefit of an additional two-year tenure till the age of 62 years. The apex court, while deciding the PIL filed by two former DGPs Prakash Singh and N K Singh in 2006, had issued several directions, including that state police chiefs will have a fixed tenure of two years. It had also directed setting up of a state security commission, to ensure that the government does not exercise unwarranted influence on the police. It had said the appointment of DGPs and police officers should be merit-based and transparent and officers like DGPs and Superintendents of Police (SPs) should have a minimum fixed tenure of two years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Assam Rifles jawan and a cadre of the Manipur-based People's Liberation Army (PLA) were killed on Friday, during an exchange of fire between security forces and the proscribed militant outfit, police said. The firing took place at around 5 am in the interior area of Zoupi in Chandel district bordering Myanmar, a senior officer told PTI. Following the incident, the nearby Assam Rifles Battalion has been alerted, the officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jharkhand government will give a maximum 50 per cent subsidy to investors in the food processing sector, government officials said Friday. This was announced by Industry Secretary Vinay Choubey and Agriculture Secretary Puja Singhal at a press conference here. They said that the state government is inviting investors from the country and abroad for the Global Agriculture Food Summit which will be organised at Khelgaon in Ranchi on November 29 and 30 this year. Choubey said the state has possibilities in the food processing sector and increase in food processing units would increase income of farmers, adding the government is making efforts with commitment to double the income of the farmers. The officials launched brochure of the Global Agriculture Summit, 2018 and website. Stating that the food summit is being organised on a large scale and preparations are underway, Singhal said a meeting has been convened on September 19 in connection with the November 29/30 summit and brand ambassadors of 12 countries are scheduled to attend it. About 10,000 farmers and other related people will take part in the summit with more than 5000 from Jharkhand, she said. She said that pavilions will be made by all the 24 districts based on their respective special produce or food.From farmers to investors will share the stage. Singhal said that special focus will be on technical transfer, equipment related to agriculture, organic agriculture, horticulture, start up, dairy, poultry, feed and fodder. A road show relating to food processing will be organised in all the districts from the last week of October, Singhal said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir government approached the Supreme Court Friday to explain the reason behind appointing an interim Director General of Police in the state without consulting the Union Public Service Commission as mandated by the apex court in July this year, officials said. Standing counsel for the state Shoeb Alam mentioned about the application before Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, they said. The matter is likely to be taken up on Monday. The state government last night removed S P Vaid as police chief and appointed Director General of Prisons Dilbag Singh as an interim head of the force contrary to the guidelines of the Supreme Court, which had ruled in July that there will be no ad hoc arrangement for the post of police chief in the states. In its application, the state informed the apex court that Jammu and Kashmir police, which has been fighting militancy for the last three decades, cannot be left headless for a minute and therefore, the decision was taken by the administration on Thursday night, they said. In July, the top court had taken note of an application filed by the Centre in which it claimed that certain states have been appointing acting police chiefs and then making them permanent just before the date of their superannuation to enable them get the benefit of an additional two-year tenure till the age of 62 years. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud passed slew of directions for appointment of state police chiefs. "None of the states shall ever conceive of the idea of appointing any person on the post of Director General of Police on acting basis, for there is no concept of acting Director General of Police...," the bench had said. Chronicling the steps to being taken for appointment of the police chiefs, the apex court had said, "All the states shall send their proposals in anticipation of the vacancies to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) well in time, at least three months prior to the date of retirement of the incumbent on the post of Director General of Police". It said the UPSC shall then prepare a panel as per the earlier directions of the court and intimate it to the states, which in turn shall immediately appoint one of the persons from that list. "An endeavour has to be made by all concerned to see that the person who was selected and appointed as the DGP continues despite his date of superannuation," the bench said and added that the extended term beyond the date of superannuation should be a reasonable period. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Motors-owned (JLR) Friday reported a 4.9 per cent decline in global retail at 36,629 units in August. of Jaguar brand were up 7.7 per cent at 11,802 units last month, while those of Land Rover stood at 24,827 units, a decline of 9.9 per cent, the company said in a statement. "We are continuing to see challenges in our key markets. The China is seeing uncertainty following tariff changes and trade tensions although lower tariffs on imports should be beneficial over the full year," Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam said. Concerns over diesel and continue to weigh on the industry in the and although August were encouraging, he added. The Rs 45,000 crore non-tyre rubber products market is facing the heat of flooding in Kerala as price of the commodity has shot up by 20 per cent and may soar further impacting the SMEs most, officials said Friday. "Kerala contributes about 80 per cent to the country's natural rubber production. The flood will affect the (natural rubber) production by about 15 per cent. Natural rubber production in India is around 6 lakh tonnes, while our consumption is around 10 lakh tonnes," All India Rubber Industries Association president Kamal Kishore Chowdhury said. The shooting prices of natural rubber will impact profitability owing to rising input costs, said Vikram Makar, senior member of the association and chairman of India Rubber Expo 2019. The expo will be held in January next year in Mumbai. The yield for natural rubber has been stagnant while consumption has been growing by around 10 per cent annually, they said. They also said domestic rubber products like tube and tyre for bicycles and rickshaws, conveyor belt and footwear could face threat of losing market to imported finished products. "We urge the government to rationalise import duty on raw materials in order to make domestic manufacturing competitive. Imported raw materials including natural rubber, attract 20-25 per cent duty while up to 10 per cent duty is imposed on imported finished products, the association said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra's law and justice department has recommended prosecution of Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire for allegedly obstructing demolition of an illegal temple in 2015, the state government informed the Bombay High Court on Friday. Khaire, a Lok Sabha member from Aurangabad, had allegedly abused a tehsildar and prevented a demolition squad from razing the illegal shrine in Walunj on October 29, 2015, as per a plea filed by a social activist before the court. The demolition was part of a statewide drive to raze illegal shrines in accordance with a Supreme Court order. During a hearing into the matter by a bench of Justices A S Oka and M S Sonak, the state government Friday sought time till Monday to take a decision on the law and judiciary department's recommendation on Khaire' prosecution. The government's sanction for prosecution would pave the way for the police to file a charge sheet against Khaire. The high court is monitoring compliance of directions given in its October 2016 judgement in a PIL filed by Society for Fast Justice and activist Bhagwanji Raiyani. The PIL has sought implementation across the state of the Supreme Court's 2009 order on acting against illegal shrines in public places. The high court, during earlier hearings, had observed that the Maharashtra government was yet to take a decision on granting sanction to prosecute Khaire, though the incident involving him took place on October 29, 2015. Shiv Sena is part of the BJP-led ruling alliance in the state, but has often been critical of the NDA governments at the Centre as well as in Maharashtra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Friday took a stern view of the fact that only 9 of the 29 states and 2 of the 7 union territories (UTs) have so far complied with its July 17 order giving a slew of directions to deal with mob violence and cow vigilantism incidents across the country. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra gave the last opportunity by granting one more week to the remaining states and UTs to do the needful and warned them that any default would be viewed seriously and their home secretaries will have to appear personally before it. "We direct the remaining states and UTs to file the compliance reports in a week. If the reports are not filed, the home secretaries of the defaulting states will have to appear personally," the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said. Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, informed the bench that in pursuance of the apex court verdict, an empowered Group of Ministers has been set up to consider framing a law on mob violence. The court also directed the Rajasthan government to file a report within a week giving details of action taken by it in the alleged lynching of farmer Rakbar Khan on July 20 in Alwar district of the state. Earlier, it had issued notice to the state government on the plea of Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Rajasthan officials, including the Chief Secretary and the police chief, for alleged violation of the top court's verdict in the lynching case. Poonawala, in his plea, had said the 28-year old dairy farmer Rakbar Khan was attacked by a group of cow vigilantes in Lalwandi village of Ramgarh district in Rajasthan on July 20, three days after the apex court had delivered a detailed verdict. Khan, a resident of Haryana and his friend Aslam, were transporting two cows to Kolgaon through a forest area when a mob had attacked them on the alleged grounds they were taking the animals for slaughter, the plea said. While Aslam managed to survive by hiding in the fields, the crowd killed Rakbar, it said, adding that there was a considerable delay in taking the deceased to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. Today, lawyer Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for Uttar Pradesh government, informed the court that 11 states, including two UTs and Uttar Pradesh, have filed their compliance reports. Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for Poonawala, said that 23 states were yet to file their reports. The court then granted the last opportunity to all the states for filing their reports. It also directed the Centre, the states and UTs to give wide publicity to its directions given on the verdict on mob violence. It asked them to put the information on measures to curb the mob violence on their websites so that people know the recourse available to them. The apex court had on July 17 said that "horrendous acts of mobocracy" cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism, besides asking the Centre to consider enacting a new law to sternly deal with such cases. The court had issued a slew of directions to the government to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism. It had asked the state governments to designate a senior police officer, not below the rank of Superintendent of Police, as nodal officer in each district to take steps to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching. The officers were asked constitute a Special Task Force to procure intelligence and information about those likely to commit such crimes or were involved in spreading hate speeches, provocative statements and fake The judgement was delivered on a batch of petitions including Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar Gandhi and Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla seeking formulation of guidelines to curb incidents of mob violence and lynching in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau Friday arrested two civic officials here for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe, a senior official said. ACB Deputy Superintendent of Police Nitin Deshmukh said that one of the arrested officials, Chabulal Mhatarji Abhang, was the chief of the Anti-Encroachment department of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation. "Abhang and his subordinate, Sachin Dube, had seized equipment belonging to a person during an anti-encroachment drive. They demanded a bribe of Rs 75,000 from the man for returning the equipment," Deshmukh said. The man approached the ACB following which a trap was laid Friday evening in which the two were caught while taking Rs 50,000 from the complainant, Deshmukh said. A case has been registered against the two persons and further probe was underway, the deputy SP informed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mexican authorities discovered at least 166 bodies at a mass grave site in Veracruz state, prosecutors said Thursday, the latest horrifying find in a region hit by bloody drug cartel turf wars. Home to the city of Veracruz, one of Mexico's largest ports, the eastern state has a history of corrupt politics and grisly power struggles between rival cartels -- a toxic mix that has caused an explosion of violence. "The remains of at least 166 people have been found" in the latest mass grave site discovered in Veracruz, state prosecutor Jorge Winckler told journalists, making it one of the largest such sites so far. The grave is located in central Veracruz, but authorities are not releasing the exact location for security reasons, he said. Forensic specialists are still working at the scene. Winckler said investigators had also found 200 articles of clothing, 144 ID cards and other personal belongings at the site since exhumations began on August 8. An informer told authorities that hundreds of people in all were buried at the site, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement. "Based on forensic analysis of the discoveries, it had been determined that these are clandestine burial sites which are at least two years old," it said. Authorities have used drones and ground-penetrating radar to help them locate the bodies. They released photographs of investigators combing through the thick vegetation at the site, wearing white protective suits and gloves. There are at least 32 separate grave sites, they said. Activists accuse the state's jailed ex-governor, Javier Duarte, of presiding over a rash of human rights abuses in Veracruz. Two former state police chiefs and a string of ex-officials have been charged with running hit squads that abducted and presumably killed unwanted individuals during Duarte's administration, from 2010 to 2016. Duarte himself is in jail awaiting trial on corruption charges. Investigators accuse him of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to buy luxury properties, Miami vacation homes and thoroughbred horses, leaving the once-wealthy state on the verge of bankruptcy. Some 3,600 people have gone missing in Veracruz since 2006, according to the new government. Families of some of Veracruz's legions of missing persons are still digging at another mass grave found in 2016, where 280 bodies have been discovered so far. They recently announced they had received a tip-off from drug traffickers about another mass grave near that site containing as many as 500 bodies. It was unclear whether the grave described by prosecutors was the same site. Mexico has been hit by a wave of violence since deploying the army to fight the country's powerful drug cartels in 2006. Since then, more than 200,000 people have been murdered, including a record 28,702 last year. Another 37,000 people are reported as missing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis landed in Kabul on Friday for an unannounced visit to war-torn Afghanistan, adding his weight to a flurry of diplomatic efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. His trip comes a little more than a year after President Donald Trump unveiled a revamped strategy for Afghanistan that saw him commit thousands of additional US forces to the country on an open-ended basis. Mattis, on his second visit to the country in recent months, will meet with President Ashraf Ghani and the new US commander for American and NATO forces, General Scott Miller. His arrival in Kabul comes at a sensitive time in the 17-year war. The grinding conflict has seen little progress by Afghan or US forces against the Taliban, the country's largest militant group. Afghan and international players have been ratcheting up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001. An unprecedented ceasefire in June followed by talks between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July fuelled hopes that negotiations could bring an end to the fighting. But a recent spate of attacks by the Taliban and the smaller but potent Islamic State group that left hundreds of security forces and civilians dead has severely dented that optimism. A twin bomb attack on a wrestling club in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on Wednesday was just the latest in a long line of devastating assaults, killing at least 26 people and wounding 91. The attack underscored the challenges facing Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces that have been beset by corruption and low morale. Trump's strategy, announced in August 2017, increased the US troop presence in the country and now includes a renewed push to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But there are fears that Trump is growing frustrated with the pace of progress in the country, spurring US diplomats and other officials to intensify their efforts. The Taliban have long insisted on direct talks with Washington and refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, which they see as illegitimate. There is speculation that another meeting between US and Taliban representatives could be held this month. Mattis arrived in Kabul from Delhi where he and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with their Indian counterparts. Pompeo also visited Islamabad on Wednesday where he held talks with new premier Imran Khan and other senior officials. Pompeo said he was "hopeful" of resetting the troubled relationship with Pakistan, a key player in the Afghan conflict. Miller, who took command of US and NATO forces at a handover ceremony in Kabul on Sunday, replaces General John Nicholson, who rotated out of the role after a more than two-year deployment. Nicholson told reporters last month that the warring parties now had an "unprecedented" opportunity for peace, and insisted Trump's strategy for the country was working. But his optimism belied recent setbacks on the battlefield. The Taliban last month launched an extraordinary attack on the provincial capital of Ghazni -- just a two-hour drive from Kabul. Militants held large parts of the city for days and Afghan forces needed US air power to push them back. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A minor fire broke out at a pub near the Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai Friday morning, a civic official said. The incident took place at Tamasha pub located on the ground floor of a building near the Kamala Mills compound around 11.30 am, a senior official of the Disaster Management Cell of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. The blaze, which was triggered by short-circuit, was extinguished within minutes, the official said. "The fire was doused even before the fire brigade team arrived," he said. The incident brought back bitter memories of the devastating blaze at the Mojo's Bistro and 1 Above pub at Kamala Mills which killed 14 persons and injured several others on December 29 last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former prime minister Friday accused the of "slowly but surely" undermining the values that a democratic polity should fiercely protect and called for a meaningful debate on it as also the failure of ruling dispensation in fulfilling its promises made. Releasing a book titled "Shades of Truth" by former union minister and Kapil Sibal, he hoped this is the beginning of the debate that everyone needs. In a scathing indictment of the Modi dispensation, Singh said key institutions vital for good governance are experiencing unprecedented new strains, India's neighbourhood is far less secured than it was in 2014 and its ties with neighbours deteriorated in the last four years. "The has slowly but surely undermined the values that any democratic polity should fiercely protect. Important national institutions vital for good governance are experiencing unprecedented new strains. "Our neighbourhood is far less secured than it was in 2014. Our relations with neighbours have deteriorated in the last four years. has failed to address issues relating to a creative use of science and technology for national transformation," he said. "Women, Dalits and minorities are increasingly living in an environment of insecurity," he said, adding that nothing concrete has been done to bring back the promised billions of dollars allegedly held abroad as black money. "Academic freedom is sought to be curbed, the environment in our universities is being vitiated. All this is a powerful indictment on the Modi government's performance and there has to be a meaningful national debate on issues raised by So, I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of that national debate and we all need that and together with an alternative narrative that the country needs to study and adopt," he said. Singh said the book is a highly researched subject and a comprehensive analysis on the functioning of the Modi government in the last four years. "It highlights the failures of the Modi government to fulfilling important promises made to the people ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014," he said. This government, he said, has not constructively dealt with the agrarian crisis facing the nation and the indication of that is the farmers' protests across the country. Singh said farmers are still not assured of receiving remunerative prices of their produce and the youth are desperately waiting for the promised 2 crore jobs per year, while the employment rate is declining. He said people are not impressed by the figures that are being put out by the Modi government to justify the creation of large number of jobs. While industrial production and exports are stagnant, programmes like Make in and Stand Up are yet to make a meaningful impact on growth. Singh highlighted that demonetisation and hasty implementation of the GST have badly hurt enterprises, which are yet to derive significant benefit from ease of doing business schemes. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Friday termed as false state government's data on vacancy of doctors' posts and claimed that over 3800 posts of doctors are now lying vacant. OPCC President Niranjan Patnaik said total approved number of cadre post of doctors in Odisha including Community Health Center (CHC), Primary Health Centre (PHC), sub-divisional Headquarter hospitals and district headquarter hospitals is 6719. This was announced in 2016 December after cadre restructure, though the state needs more than double the number of doctors, he said adding now the number of doctors working in primary and tertiary level is around 2800. "Approximately 3800 number of doctor posts are lying vacant in the state," Patnaik claimed in a statement. However, as per health and family welfare minister Pratap Jena's version in the state assembly, now 1609 doctors and 275 dentist posts are lying vacant, the PCC chief claimed and said "this is based on false data. The government is misleading people by giving false data." There are only around 2800 doctors working in the state and many of the MBBS who were posted through OPSC, have gone for PG or remaining absent since long. But government is calculating their numbers as working doctors, he claimed. As per World Health Organization (WHO) norms, there should be minimum 1 doctor for every 1000 patients, but in our country this ratio is 1:11082 and in Odisha it is worse, Patnaik said. Taking a dig at Odisha government, he said though many medical colleges are being set up in the state, there are no lecturers, tutors, associate professors and professors for the medical students. While the government is announcing schemes after schemes in health care sector, people are not getting basic health care facilities, Patnaik said accusing the Government of not trying to fill vacant doctor posts. Around 400 to 500 out patients are being attended in each district headquarter hospital every day, while 350 to 400 are attended daily in each sub divisional hospitals, he said adding similar is the situation in PHCs and CHCs. "But not a single doctor is there in many of the PHCs and CHCs, where either pharmacists or paramedical staff are providing service. This is the real picture of health care system in the state," he said. Though huge amount is being spent to provide health care to all, patients are going to private hospitals and nursing homes as the government is compelling poor patients to be exploited, alleges Patnaik. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Members of Parliament, whose constituencies fall in the Delhi Division of Northern Railways, met senior officials of the zone on Thursday and listed their demands for their constituencies, a statement from the NR said. Minister of State for External Affairs General V K Singh (Retd), Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Meenakashi Lekhi, Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Rajendra Agrawal, Ramesh Chander Kaushik, Sardar Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar along with the representatives of some other MPs met the General Manager, Northern Zone, Vishwesh Chaube and other senior railway officials of the zone. Chaube briefed the MPs regarding the various developmental activities and new initiatives taken up by the zone within the jurisdiction of the Delhi Division. A presentation in this regard was given showcasing various completed, ongoing and planned works relating to passenger amenities, infrastructure and services at stations and trains over the Delhi Division, the statement said. "As per the directives issued by Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal, a meeting was held by general manager, Northern Railway today with MPs whose parliamentary constituencies come in the jurisdiction of the Delhi Division. "The MPs, while appreciating the good work being done by NR in general, put forward the various requirements and demands of passengers/rail users of the stations/areas of their respective constituencies," it said. The MPs were assured that the railways would resolve the public grievances and issues put forth by them as early as possible. Senior officials of the railways said that Goyal has instructed senior officials of each division to meet the local MPs and listen to their requirements and issues. Such meetings were carried out in every division of the railways on Thursday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Friday to return Rs 2 million submitted as surety bonds in the murder case of veteran Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, citing his acquittal in the case. In January 2016, an anti-terrorism court acquitted 75-year-old Musharraf in the 2006 Bugti murder case. Dubai-based Musharraf's lawyer in the petition in the Supreme Court said since the former army chief has been acquitted in the case, the bond money should be returned, Geo reported. The Supreme Court constituted a three-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam. The petition's hearing was fixed for September 12. Musharraf had submitted two bail bonds worth Rs 1 million each, following which, his bail was approved. Musharraf has been residing in Dubai since March 2016 after leaving the county on medical grounds. He is facing a high-profile treason case and has been declared absconder due to his persistent failure to appear before the special trial court set up to try him in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Myanmar on Friday "resolutely" rejected a ruling by the International Criminal Court empowering the tribunal to probe alleged crimes against the Rohingya even though the Southeast Asian nation is not a member of it. In an unprecedented ruling on Thursday the ICC said it had jurisdiction over the crisis because of the cross-border nature of the alleged "deportations" of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh. But in a stinging response Myanmar's government said the decision was "of dubious legal merit", according to a statement released by the president's office late Friday, adding the country was "under no obligation" to respect the court ruling. "The decision was the result of manifest bad faith, procedural irregularities and general lack of transparency," the statement said, adding the country "resolutely rejects" the court ruling. Myanmar has come under intense global pressure in recent weeks over its crackdown on the Rohingya, a group it denies citizenship to. The ICC upped the ante on Thursday ruling that it had the power to investigate the forced deportations, even though Myanmar has not signed the statute underpinning the tribunal. Bangladesh is a signatory, however, and the judges said that the deportation of the Rohingya amounted to a cross-border crime, thereby giving the court the right to pursue the issue further. Its ruling means that the ICC's chief prosecutor can now open a preliminary investigation that could lead to a wider probe and eventually a trial. Last week a damning UN report called for military chief Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals to be prosecuted for "genocide", which was swiftly followed by Facebook pulling down the profile pages of several military top brass. Besieged by criticism from the outside, Myanmar has denied abuses but has barred journalists and diplomats from independently visiting Rakhine state -- the epicentre of the crackdown -- except on short, military-chaperoned trips. The ICC ruling followed international outrage triggered by the sentencing of two Reuters journalists -- both Myanmar nationals -- on Monday to seven years in jail under a draconian state secrets act. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, had been investigating the extrajudicial killing of Rohingya villagers when they were arrested in December last year. Rights groups decried the case as a sham trial in a country where press freedom is shrinking. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fishermen can now be alerted about natural disasters and position of the International Maritime Boundary Line while they are at the sea using the NaVIC system, a home-grown GPS, a senior ISRO scientist said Friday. This will help in loss of lives of fishermen and alert them from entering the waters of the neighbouring countries, he said. The system was developed after the Kerala government approached the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) following the Cyclone Ockhi that claimed lives of fishermen who did not get timely information about the approaching disaster in December last year. Nilesh Desai, Deputy Director of the ISRO's Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad said the low-cost device can also give information about the location of fish available in the sea. "There is no mobile network coverage in the deep seas. The gadget that is to be mounted to the device will have a bluetooth connectivity and through our NaVIC messaging feature, we will give more information on prospective storms," he said at a panel discussion organised at the Bengaluru Space Expo. The bluetooth will be connected to mobile phone that will display messages. If there are possibilities of a cyclone, the fishermen can be alerted on time. During the Kerala cyclone, they could not come back from the sea in time. "This device will also alert the fishermen if they cross the International Maritime Boundary Line," Desai said. He said Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have also approached the ISRO in this regard. These two states witness fishermen from their states getting arrested by the maritime security agencies of Sri Lanka and Pakistan respectively. "If they venture (in the waters of the neighbouring countries), they get caught. It can alert them when they are nearing the international water. It will be in the local language," he said. Desai said they are also adding a feature in the device that will enable them to send messages to a hub. The message from the hub will be then passed on to their families while they are at the sea. The ISRO also plans to give this device through its commercial arm and PSU Antrix as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He said some 2,000 units have been built. Each device costs around Rs 3,500. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three Indian naval ships reached Trincomalee for the sixth edition of the SLINEX 2018 -- a bilateral naval exercise between India and Sri Lanka -- which began on Friday. The inaugural ceremony of the exercise was held on board Sri Lankan Navy's SLNS Sayurala and was attended by Rear Adm Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, Indian Navy's Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, and Sri Lankan Navy's Rear Adm S A Weerasinghe, Commander Eastern Naval Area and Rear Adm Ananda Kumar Guruge, Flag Officer Commanding Naval Fleet, a statement by the Indian Navy said. Earlier, Indian naval ships Kirch, Sumitra and Cora Divh entered Trincomalee to participate in the sixth edition of the SLINEX 2018 from September 7 to 13, it said. In addition to three ships, one ship-borne integral helicopter and two maritime patrol aircraft Dornier are participating from the Indian side, while the Sri Lankan Navy is represented by SLN Ships Sayurala, Samudra and Suranimala. The exercise is being conducted in two phases. The first is the 'harbour phase' from September 7 to 10 at Trincomalee during which the participants will engage in professional, sporting and social interactions, the statement said. The 'harbour phase' will be followed by the 'sea phase' from September 11 to 13 in the Bay of Bengal off Trincomalle and will include gun firings, communication procedures, seamanship as well as navigation evolutions and helicopter operations. The SLINEX series of bilateral maritime exercises were initiated in 2005 and since then five successful engagements have been conducted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York prosecutors are subpoenaing each Catholic diocese in the state as part of investigations into clerical abuse after at least 1,000 victims were recently identified in neighbouring Pennsylvania. All eight Catholic dioceses have either been or are in the process of being subpoenaed by New York's state attorney general, confirmed Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference. There are an estimated seven million Catholics across New York, which is the fourth most populous state in the country. Prosecutors are investigating whether and how Catholic dioceses and other church entities potentially covered up allegations of sexual abuse of children. New York has also set up a clerical abuse hotline and online complaints form, and on Thursday urged victims, witnesses and anyone else with any information on abusive clergy to come forward. All allegations will be reviewed, and victims' and witnesses' identities will be protected, officials said. The announcement comes just over three weeks after a grand jury revealed that more than 300 priests abused at least 1,000 children across seven decades in Pennsylvania and that the Catholic Church engaged in a systematic cover-up. "The Pennsylvania grand jury report shined a light on incredibly disturbing and depraved acts by Catholic clergy, assisted by a culture of secrecy and cover ups," said New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood. "Victims in New York deserve to be heard as well -- and we are going to do everything in our power to bring them the justice they deserve," she added, urging "all victims and anyone else with information to contact our hotline." Underwood wants New York to tighten the law, allowing victims to file civil suits until the age 50 and to seek criminal charges until the age of 28. Currently, victims can only file civil cases or seek criminal charges for most types of child sexual abuse until the age of 23. There is no time limit on bringing criminal charges for the most serious child sex crimes in New York, but only if those crimes occurred in 2001 or later. The Pennsylvania report was the most comprehensive to date in the United States since The Boston Globe exposed church abuse in 2002 in Massachusetts. It increased calls to tighten laws across US states, giving victims more time to come forward to seek redress, and for bishops to be held accountable. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Investigation Agency Friday filed a charge sheet in the special NIA court in Mumbai against five Bangladeshi nationals who were arrested from Pune for "aiding and harbouring" members of a terrorist organization. The five people -- Mohammed Habibur Rahman Habib, Ripen Hossain, Hannan Anwar Khan, Mohd. Hassanali Mohd. Amirali and Azarali Subhanalla Islam -- had helped members of the Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a front organisation of al-Qaeda. The charge sheet was filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the Foreigners Act, 1946. The Pune Police had arrested the five Bangladeshi nationals from the city in March. The probe into the case was later transferred to the NIA. The NIA probe revealed that all they were staying in India without valid documents and were working at various construction sites in Pune. They had fraudulently obtained PAN, Aadhaar, voter IDs and ration cards in "fictitious names by providing fake/forged documents", the NIA said in a statement. "The five used Aadhaar and PAN for procuring Indian SIM cards for opening bank accounts and for seeking employment in India," it said. The investigation also revealed that in 2017, they had provided shelter and money to one Tushar Bishwas, a member of the ABT, against whom a charge sheet had been filed earlier under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed Friday a charge sheet in a special court against five Bangladeshi nationals arrested in March for alleged illegal stay in India and providing help to members of a terror outfit. On March 17 this year, the Pune unit of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested five Bangladeshis, who were allegedly living in Pune illegally. They were suspected to have provided logistical and financial assistance to members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), considered a 'front organisation' of the terror outfit Al Qaeda, the NIA said in its charge sheet filed before a special court in the city. The accused -- Mohd Habibur Rahman Habib, Ripen Hussain, Hannan Anwar Khan, Mohd Hasanali Mohd Amirali and Azarali Islam -- were charged under Sections 120 (b) and 471 of the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy and forgery, respectively, the NIA said in a press statement. They were also charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). After the arrest by the Pune ATS, the case was transferred to the central agency for further probe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There is no large-scale infiltration or migration of people from Bangladesh into India as residents of that country now "enjoy a very good life" and the few who cross-over do so due to old cultural and family ties, the chief of Bangladesh's border guarding force said Friday here. Visiting DG of the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) Maj Gen Shafeenul Islam said they have intercepted only about 100 such crossers in the last six months along the 4,096-km border that the two countries share. "There is no large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh. As you know that the development curve in Bangladesh...we are having a GDP of 7.1 and the people enjoy a very good life now in Bangladesh. "So, there is hardly any migration in an organised way or in large-scale," Islam told reporters at a BSF camp here. He held a press conference with his counterpart BSF Director General (DG) K K Sharma at the end of a six-day visit and bi-annual meeting between the two sides here. The people (Bangladeshis) that are mostly crossing, the BGB DG said, because of the cultural ties and historic relations that they have just across the border. "Many of the relatives are there (across the border in India) and they are still staying and they are visiting in that connection. So, mostly the illegal crossing is taking place due to these reasons. But, they come back after visiting their friends and family who are still living across the border. We have found out that this is mostly the case," he said. Border Security Force (BSF) DG Sharma, on his part, said they have apprehended a total of 1,522 illegal Bangladeshi migrants this year till now and they were subsequently handed over to the local police. Out of these, 166 were inadvertent crossers while some were victims of human trafficking, the BSF DG said. "We are sensitising our troops to differentiate between the victim and the perpetrator of the crime of human trafficking," Sharma said. Both the chiefs, at the end of their bi-annual talks here, said incidents of cattle smuggling across this border have gone down over the years. "Cattle smuggling (incidents), off late, has come down. There are many reasons for this, one being that we are more vigilant. Another is that there is less demand on the other side (Bangladesh) as they have stared dairy farming, and animal husbandry is a very important economic activity now and lots of loans are being given in Bangladesh (to people who want to rear cattle). "I am not saying it has been completely stopped but since ages the local population is dependent on that and there are a number of riverine and 'nallah' gaps on that border and it is comparatively easy to push animals and receive them on the other side," Sharma said. So, physically at times, curbing the cattle smuggling crime becomes very difficult, he said. The visiting BGB chief also agreed and said the number of killings of Bangladeshi people at the hands of the BSF along the 4,096-kms shared border has come down as a number of them were involved in cattle smuggling. "Bangladesh has more concern about border killings and this is mostly happening with those who were associated with cattle smuggling. Having understood that, both the forces have worked together on this front...we were able to take down (the figure of border killing) to only one. "We have agreed to take it down to zero level. We are alert at the border so that it (cattle smuggling) does not take place. This is also impacting the economy of Bangladesh and we have seen that we are almost self-sufficient with regard to cattle. We also want that this should completely stop at the border and having that objective in mind we are closely working with BSF," Islam said. However, BSF DG Sharma was at variance with the BGB DG on this and said, "I am very happy to say that this year there has been not a single death (of any Bangladeshi) on this border." The two forces also decided to open five more 'crime free' zones on the border, on the lines of the one that was launched along the India-Bangladesh frontier in March in West Bengal. A crime-free zone is a selected border location that is clear of illegal, anti-social and criminal activities by integrating the efforts of the BSF and the BGB, with assistance from the district administration, NGOs and border population of both the countries, the BSF officer explained. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around two lakh Biharis were left out of the complete draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Friday. Addressing a programme hosted by the Rashtriya Bihari Samaj here Friday evening, she asserted there would be no discrimination against Biharis in West Bengal. "In Assam, around two lakh Biharis did not find a place in the NRC draft. Several Bengalis were also excluded from the list. Majority of those left out of the draft were people who did not hail from Assam," the chief minister said. The NRC draft, published on July 30, featured over 2.89 crore names out of nearly 3.29 crore applicants. Around 40.07 lakh applicants, however, did not find a place in the document, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity. Banerjee asked people to wait for the declaration of the final draft of the register following the disposal of claims,objections and corrections. In Bengal, Biharis will never be treated as outsiders, Banerjee maintained. "This kind of treatment was never meted out to Biharis in West Bengal in the past, nor will it be the case in future. Long live Bengali-Bihari unity," she stated. Earlier, too, the Trinamool Congress supremo slammed the BJP over NRC publication, stating that "Indian citizens have become refugees in their own land". She alleged that the exclusion of over 40 lakh people was an "attempt to evict the Bengalis and Biharis from Assam". A total of five FIRs have been registered against Banerjee for her comments on NRC exercise since its publication on July 30. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With 27 per cent of Odisha's sitting MLAs having criminal cases, Odisha Election Watch and ADR Friday appealed all political parties in the state to refrain from giving party tickets to persons with criminal background in the next elections. "Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch (OEW) have analysed the affidavits of all 168 sitting MPs and MLAs from Odisha. While 27 per cent of sitting MLAs have declared criminal case against themselves, the same figure at the national levels stands at 21 per cent," OEW state convenor Ranjan Kumar Mohanty told reporters here. Mohanty said if people with criminal records are allowed to contest elections, they may use unethical means and coercion to force persons to vote for them. This will increase violence in elections and create chllange for free and fair elections, he said this is violation of very fundamental basis of democracy. Apart from denying tickets to persons with criminal cases, OEW also urged political parties to disclose the criteria on which candidates are given tickets. Mohanty said out of these 168 MPs/MLAs in Odisha, 54 (32 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Among these 54 MPs/MLAs, 41 (24 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Mohanty said the OEW and ADR will soon start a massive voters awareness programme. OEW will also launch the campaign My Vote My Country : My Vote not for Sale soon in the state. The campaign shall be conducted in different villages and cities covering all the 30 districts of Odisha through Mobile van campaign using audiovisual materials, folk media, street play, different cultural actions, posters, pamphlets, workshops, awareness meeting. OEW also appealed media to join hand to create a conducive environment for ensuring free and fair elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police investigating an alleged plot to kill leaders of some Hindu outfits in Tamil Nadu arrested one more person Friday, taking the total number of those detained to seven. Anwar was arrested from Malumichampatti near here and produced before a local court which remanded him to judicial custody till September 18, police said. Based on an Intelligence Bureau tip-off, the city police had on Sunday arrested five people -- R Ashik, S Ismail, Jafar Sadiq Ali, S Shamsuddin and Salauddin -- on their arrival at the railway station here. Their interrogation revealed that they had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to kill Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath and Hindu Munnani's Mookambikai Mani among some others here and led to the arrest of "Auto" Faisal two days ago. A search was on for Anwar. Tracing his cellphone, a special team arrested him Friday, police said. All the seven have been booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 2.25 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at Machail Mata shrine in Padder hills of Kishtwar district, an official spokesman said Friday. Braving inclement weather, people from across the country visited the holy place and had 'darshan' till September 5, he said. According to official figures, 2,26,725 pilgrims visited the temple shrine. Of these, around 25 per cent people availed Heli services from Gulabgarh-Machail, he said. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner in Kishtwar Angrez Singh Rana expressed his gratitude and high appreciation towards officers who had put in their best efforts for the smooth conduct of the Machail Yatra. He also expressed his thanks to security agencies viz. the Army, CRPF, J&K Police besides members of the Sarva Shakti Sewak Sanstha and all local stakeholders for their unwavering contribution. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Raking up the Kashmir issue, Pakistan Army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa has reaffirmed Islamabad's support for "self-determination" in Jammu and Kashmir. He also said the Pakistan Army learnt a lot from the 1965 and 1971 wars with India and has made the country's defence impregnable by developing nuclear weapons. Addressing the Defence and Martyrs Day ceremony organised at the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday, attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Bajwa said Pakistan supported the people in Jammu and Kashmir in their "struggle for the right to self-determination". Pakistan observes September 6 as the Defence and Martyrs Day to mark the anniversary of the 1965 war with India. "We have learned a lot from the wars of 65 and 71. We were able to further strengthen our defence forces in the wake of these wars. Despite difficult economic times, we were able to become an atomic power," Bajwa said. "September 6, 1965, is an important day in the history of our nation," he said, adding that Pakistani soldiers jumped into the fiery pits of warfare but did not let the country be harmed. "The bravery shown by our nation during the 1965 war serves as an important lesson and an inspiration to our youth even today," he said. Prime Minister Khan, in his address, said Pakistan will never fight any other country's war in future and his government's foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation. "We will not become part of a war of any other country (in future)...Our foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation," he said, apparently referring to the country's involvement in neighbouring Afghanistan. Pakistan was the ally of the United States during the Cold War as it fought the American war with the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Khan also praised the Pakistani armed forces for combating terrorism. "No other nation has fought the war on terror like the Pakistan Army," he said. He said role of the security forces and intelligence agencies in making the country safer against all threats was unparalleled. Khan also talked about investing in human capital by sending children to schools and building hospitals and system of merit so that everyone is treated equally on the pattern of first Muslim state of Medina. "The government will bring meritocracy and transparency in all sectors by following the golden principles of state of Medina," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan Friday accused the opposition of fuelling misconceptions about the SC/ST Act that triggered 'Bharat Bandh'. The bandh was called by some upper caste-OBC groups to protest against the recent amendments to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by Parliament to overturn a Supreme Court judgment. The Lok Janshakti Party chief questioned opposition leaders' "silence" on the shutdown. He also scoffed at the Congress' promise of 10 per cent quota for upper castes if it came to power. Paswan, an ally of the BJP, stressed on the need for removing misgivings about the Act which was diluted by a recent Supreme Court judgement, but restored in its original form by a bill passed later on in Parliament. "There may have been organisations with local influence in the forefront of the Bharat Bandh. But something of this magnitude is not possible until some political forces fan the fire. We would like such political forces to come out in the open," Paswan told reporters. Asked which political forces he was pointing at, the Union minister evaded a direct reply but said, "I would like to know where leaders like Congress president Rahul Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati stand on the issue." "After all, they had supported the Modi government when it brought the bill in Parliament. Earlier, they had charged us with being anti-Dalit when the apex court gave its judgement," he pointed out. The LJP chief said, "Altogether 47 offences are covered under the SC/ST Act. Some of these were brought under the law's ambit in 1989 itself, while the remaining were included in 2015, a year after Modi assumed power." "The bill introduced by the government and passed by Parliament did nothing new. It merely restored the Act in its original form, doing away with various conditions laid down by the apex court which had made the law lose its teeth," he pointed out. To a query about promises made by the Congress of introducing a 10 per cent quota for the upper castes if it came to power, Paswan remarked "our party is in favour of 15 per cent. What is so great about their promise. And what had they been doing for the six decades they ruled the country". "Merely promising would not do. It would involve a constitutional amendment and ways to overcome the hurdle that lies in way in the form of the apex court's restriction that quotas must not exceed 50 per cent," he said. Paswan also said, "We are in favour of a judicial services commission with provision for reservation so that SC/ST and OBCs have adequate representation in the judiciary. It must be noticed that these social groups are still not sufficiently represented in most important offices." "There need not be any controversy about the recent advisory by the Centre on use of Scheduled Castes in place of Dalits. The former is a constitutional term and appropriate for any type of official communication. Dalit is a general term which can, and will be, used informally," he said. "The advisory does not impede free functioning of bodies like the Dalit Sena, which is a wing of our party, or the Dalit Panthers," he clarified. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 35-year-old man, allegedly having a fetish for sneaking into people's homes and watching women sleeping, was arrested by Goa police Friday. Tulsidas, a resident of Taleigao on the outskirts of Panaji, was arrested on a tip-off, police said. Several residents of Taleigao and Caranzalem villages and surrounding areas had complained that an unidentified man broke into their house late at night. "He would enter the bedroom and watch women sleeping, sometimes stealing women's undergarments from washing lines or cupboards before running away," said police inspector Siddhanth Shirodkar. He was booked under IPC sections 457 (house trespass) 380 (theft) and 354 (sexual harassment) and further probe was on, the inspector said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A lawyer Friday lodged a complaint against noted playwright and Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad for holding a placard 'Me Too Urban Naxal' during an event organised to mark the first death anniversary of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh on September 5 in the city. In his complaint, advocateAmruthesh N P said Karnad sported a placard around his neck declaring himself as an urban Naxal. "Urban Naxals are those who spread insurgency against the nation," he said in his complaint and demanded that Karnad be arrested immediately. By holding such a placard, "Karnad has tried to promote/abet and propagate the violent and criminal activities of Naxalism," the advocate said. Talking to PTI, Amruthesh said how can somebody carry a banner of a banned organisation and support it. Vidhana Soudha (state secretariat) police said they have transferred the complaint to the Halasuru gate police station under whose jurisdiction the incident took place. Karnad along with many other activists took part in an event organised outside Lankeshs residence on Wednesday. The participants also staged a protest against the house arrest of five activists from across the country for their alleged links with Maoists. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after the dissolution of the Telangana assembly, the TRS president and caretaker chief minister Friday launched the party's campaign, hitting out at the Congress for its "misrule" for 50 years. The state Congress, meanwhile, pitched for a mega alliance to oust the "corrupt" TRS government, saying opposition parties, including TDP, and civil society organisations should join forces with it. Rao, who Thursday announced candiates for 105 of the 119 assembly seats at stake, at an election meeting in Husnabad in Siddipet district accused the Congress of having heaped misery on the people of Telangana in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. "Congress ruled this country for 50 years. Because of their useless and corrupt rule, not just Husnabad and Telangana, but entire country is in poverty," he charged. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N UttamKumar Reddy described the fight against TRS in the coming assembly polls as a a "Dharma Yuddham" (war of righteousness). "We call upon all political, non-political forces in Telangana, NGOs, civil society organisations, students bodies, employees organisations, all political parties, including Telugu Desam, to join forces to defeat this corrupt government by treating these elections as a 'Dharma Yuddham'," he told reporters here. Preliminary discussions were held on the issue of alliances within the party, he said. President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu attend the General Body meeting of TDP's Telangana unit as the Chief Guest Saturday. Naidu is expected to guide the party leaders on the assembly polls in Telangana. The BJP's national executive beginning Saturday in Delhi is expected to discuss the party's strategy for the polls. State Minister K T Rama Rao, son of Chief Minister Rao, alleged that the TRS' rivals in Telangana appeared to be joining hands for an opportunistic alliance for the polls. "It appears that some rather desperate efforts are being made in Telangana to stitch up a 'Maha Ghatiya Bandhan'. TRS party has fought the 2014 elections alone and is ready yet again to face any opportunistic alliance. Bring it on," Rama Rao said on Twitter. The Election Commission Friday said in Delhi it will send a team to Hyderabad next week to assess poll preparedness. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha will head the team, which will "assess the situation in the state regarding poll preparedness", the poll panel said in a statement in Delhi. The state assembly was dissolved Thursday as per the recommendation of the state cabinet, a move driven by the TRS's hope that Chandrashekar Rao's charisma and a fragmented opposition will help the party retain power. The elections in Telangana were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the polls next year. (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.) Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu Friday proposed to double bilateral trade with Iran in the next five years from the current level of USD 13.8 billion, an official said. The official also said Prabhu's scheduled visit to Tehran on October 2 has been postponed for some reasons. He was to attend the ministerial meeting of the International North South Transport Corridor. Ways to boost trade and investment between the two countries were discussed during a meeting between Prabhu and Iranian Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi here. The meeting assumes significance as the US has imposed sanctions on the Persian Gulf country. The US has also told India and other countries to cut oil imports from Iran to zero by November 4 or face sanctions. After the meeting of the two ministers, Prabhu tweeted: "Our discussions were centered on expanding bilateral ties between India and Iran beyond the energy and security sector." Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta had recently said the government needs to look into the problems being faced by exporters shipping consignments to Iran in view of the US sanctions. Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iran supplied 18.4 million tonnes of crude oil between April 2017 and January 2018 (first 10 months of fiscal 2017-18). Bilateral trade between India and Iran increased to USD 13.8 billion in 2017-18 from USD 12.9 billion in the previous fiscal. However, India's exports goods worth only USD 2.65 billion to that country, while the imports stood at USD 11.11 billion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress met Friday Goa Governor Mridula Sinha and demanded her intervention to stop "collapse" of the administration in the BJP-ruled state in view of frequent absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and hospitalisation of his two Cabinet colleagues. The main Opposition party said Parrikar should provide a fitness certificate before joining work. The party said while the nature of CM's illness is not known, two other ministers are in hospitals with "serious" ailments. Parrikar returned home Thursday from the US, where he had gone for medical treatment in the last week of August. The 62-year-old was earlier in the US for nearly three months for treatment. While there has been no official word on the nature of his illness, it is said he is undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment. A delegation headed by All India Congress Committee secretary A Chellakumar, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar, Congress Legislature Party chief Chandrakant Kavlekar and other leaders met Sinha in the afternoon at Raj Bhavan here. Emerging from the meeting, Chellakumar said there has been a "total collapse" of government in the state, where a BJP-led coalition is in power. In such a situation, the governor is expected to intervene and restore normalcy in functioning of the state administration, he said. Chellakumar said the CM has been frequently flying to the USA for treatment, but the exact nature of his illness has not been disclosed to the public by the state government. Two other ministers Pandurang Madkaikar and Francis DSouza are admitted in hospitals with "serious" ailments, the Congress leader said. While D'Souza is undergoing treatment in the US, Madkaikar has been admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai. Chodankar said the Congress had earlier submitted two memorandums on April 16, 2018 and May 9, 2018 asking the governor to intervene, but she did not take any step. The state Congress chief demanded that Parrikar provide a fitness certificate before resuming work. Chodankar said there is "complete collapse" of the administration due to frequent absence of the chief minister from the state. "When the chief minister was away (in the US), he did not find it necessary to even hand over acting charge of the ministries held by him to any of his cabinet colleagues. "This act is not only unprecedented but also autocratic and undemocratic which has led to complete collapse of the state's administration," the GPCC chief said. The Congress leader said when Parrikar was undergoing treatment in New York, officers were deputed to take files there to obtain his signatures. In the prevailing circumstance, the governor, as the repository of the executive powers of the state, should intervene and restore normalcy in the administration, said Chodankar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An unidentified person fired gunshots during filing of nomination papers for Zila Prashid and Panchayat Samiti elections outside the sub-divisional magistrate office at Patti near here on Friday, injuring two policemen. Patti Station House Officer Rajesh Kakkar along with his gunman was injured in the firing, police said, adding that they were discharged from a hospital after treatment. Police said the situation took an ugly turn when Shiromani Akali Dal candidates insisted on entering the SDM office along with their supporters to file nomination papers. An alleged supporter of a SAD candidate fired gunshots, they said. SAD activists, however, claimed that police prevented them from entering the SDM office. They alleged that the gunshots were fired by some ruling Congress supporters to "terrorise" the SAD workers. In the melee, some scribes were roughed up by supporters of both the political parties, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in Berlin on Friday his country would invest some 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in Germany, as he battles a policy of isolation by neighbouring states. "We are announcing Qatar's desire to invest 10 billion euros in the German over the coming five years," the Gulf state leader said as he opened a German-Qatari business forum alongside Chancellor plans to invest in the car, high-tech and banking sectors -- three traditional strengths of the German Business daily Handelsblatt reported that Doha is especially interested in Germany's dense network of small- and medium-sized firms known as the "Mittelstand". In recent years its German investments in larger industrial or financial firms have often soured, including in the country's troubled largest lender Deutsche Bank. For more than a year, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt have cut off ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting "terrorist" movements, cosying up to Iran and undermining stability in the region. The cold shoulder from its neighbours has prompted Qatari leaders to fall back on more distant allies, with Germany now its third-weightiest trading partner after the US and China. Bilateral trade has more than doubled since 2011, to around 2.8 billion euros. Also Friday, Merkel confirmed German plans to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in Germany. is the world's largest exporter of the fuel. Both capitals also have a common interest in Turkey, with announcing $15 billion of investments there last month. Meanwhile Berlin is bound to Ankara by Germany's millions-strong Turkish diaspora community and an agreement for Turkey to hold back refugees from the Middle East from reaching Europe. Turkey's lira currency has been weakened recently as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump engage in a diplomatic face-off with mutual sanctions. BJP MLA Ram Kadam, under fire over his "will kidnap girl" remarks, was caught on the wrong foot again Friday after he tweeted that Bollywood actor Sonali Bendre was no more, only to retract it after realising that the was not true and facing massive backlash. Bendre is currently undergoing treatment for cancer in the US. Kadam tweeted in Marathi that "Bollywood and Marathi diva" Sonali Bendre "has passed away in America" and condoled her demise. After he was trolled for believing a baseless rumour, he deleted the message. He posted another tweet, saying, "About Sonali Bendre ji, it was rumour for the last two days. I pray to god for her good health and speedy recovery." Bendre revealed in July that she has been diagnosed with a "high grade cancer" and is undergoing treatment in the US. On Monday, Kadam sparked off a storm of protest with his remarks at a Dahi Handi (Janmashtami) celebration in Mumbai. A video clip showed him saying that youngsters often seek his help after girls reject their proposals. "Come with your parents. What will I do if your parents approve? I will kidnap the girl and hand her over to you," he was heard telling the crowd. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN chief Antonio Guterres reiterated his appeal to eight nations, including India and the US, to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, saying the failure to bring it into force undermines global efforts to ensure a world free of atomic weapons. Although more than 180 countries have signed the CTBT, and mostly ratified it, the treaty can only enter into force after it is ratified by eight countries with nuclear technology capacity, namely China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States. "Every effort must be made to bring about the immediate entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, CTBT. Yet, more than 20 years since its negotiation, the Treaty has yet to enter into force," the Secretary General said at a high-level meeting on Thursday, commemorating the International Day against Nuclear Tests. He said the failure to bring the treaty into force prevents its full implementation and undermines its permanence in the international security architecture. "I reiterate the appeal made when I launched my disarmament agenda for the remaining eight States whose ratifications are required for the CTBT to enter into force to commit to sign the Treaty and complete their ratification processes. I urge all not to wait for others to act before moving forward," he said, adding that the complete and verifiable cessation of all nuclear tests is a vital pillar of a world free of nuclear weapons. He said CTBT has an essential role within the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. Moreover, the UN chief pointed out that nuclear testing inevitably has a "catastrophic impact" on the environment, human health, food security and economic development. "That is why we should all welcome the robust norm against nuclear testing that has developed since the end of the Cold War, including through the voluntary moratoria implemented by most States that possess nuclear weapons," he stressed. Since the turn of the century, only the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, has broken this norm, leading to condemnation from the Security Council and repeated imposition of sanctions. What these tests have shown is that "no ad hoc measure can replace a global, legally binding ban on nuclear-testing," he underscored. By constraining the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons, the treaty puts a brake on the nuclear arms race and serves as a barrier against States that might seek to develop, manufacture and use acquire nuclear weapons in violation of their non-proliferation commitments. Taking the podium, General Assembly President, Miroslav Lajcak, spoke of how nuclear testing escalates tensions. "They create openings for political miscalculations. And they bring us closer to the brink," he said. Turning to the CTBT, he bemoaned the fact that it has yet to become active. "We need a legally binding system; we need a clear verification mechanism; we need the CTBT to enter into force," he stated, urging the eight States required to ratify "to do so urgently." He hoped to see "tangible" disarmament action on the Korean Peninsula, noting that "verification is crucial for progress." On the annual observance of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, Guterres highlighted the "inextricable connection" between testing and eliminating nuclear weapons across the world. "Last month I visited Japan and met with survivors of the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki," Guterres said. "Through the testimony of the survivors, the 'Hibakusha', we are reminded of the need to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again." Hibakusha is the Japanese word for the surviving victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The word literally translates as "explosion-affected people" and is used to refer to people who were exposed to radiation from the bombings. Guterres also stressed the need to "remember the victims of the disastrous era of widespread nuclear testing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has imposed a Rs 10 million penalty on of India for failing to detect and report fraud on time. "This is to inform that Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 million on the bank for delay in detection and reporting of fraud. The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in under ... Act," of India said in a regulatory filing Friday. had issued a show cause notice to the bank on January 15, 2018 asking why a penalty not be imposed on of India under the Act. Subsequently, the bank had replied to the regulator on February 1, followed by representations on oral submission during personal hearing on April 14 before the Committee of Executive Directors of the "The reply, as well as oral submission made by the bank in the personal hearings and also additional documents furnished, have not been found adequate by RBI leading to imposition of penalty of Rs 10 million," UBI said. However, the bank said that the amount of the penalty is not material considering the size of the bank. The bank further said it received communication from RBI on imposition on penalty on September 6. The bank has taken necessary preventive measures and has implemented a comprehensive corrective action plan to strengthen internal controls and to ensure that such incidents do not recur, it added. Stock of Union Bank traded 0.06 per cent up at Rs 83.15 on BSE. The Reserve Bank has imposed a total penalty of Rs 3 crore on three state-run banks of Union Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra for delay in detection and reporting of fraud in some accounts. The central bank in three separate releases Friday said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore each on the three banks of Union Bank of India (UBI), Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra The RBI on August 30 "imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 10 million" on the banks for contravention of the instructions contained in Master Circular on Fraud Classification and Reporting issued by RBI, according to the releases. The penalty has been imposed taking into account delay on the part of the bank to detect and report fraud in an account, it said. "This is to inform that Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 million on the bank for delay in detection and reporting of fraud. The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under ...Banking Regulation Act," Union Bank of India said in a regulatory filing Friday. The bank has taken necessary preventive measures and has implemented a comprehensive corrective action plan to strengthen internal controls and to ensure that such incidents do not recur, the bank added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Relaxation in cabotage rules that were prohibiting foreign flagged vessels from ferrying domestic cargo will help transferring transshipment activity to Indian ports and can help save forex and also create jobs opportunities locally, a trade body said today. Easier cabotage rules is expected to halve Indias exim cargo handling at ports in the vicinity like Colombo. The cabotage rules are considered one of the biggest hindrance preventing Indian ports to act as transshipment hubs, where a mother ship discharges goods at a port to be distributed by other liners. "Transshipment will never go down to zero, but will come down 50 per cent in the next three years," Deepak Tewari, chairman of Container Shipping Lines Association said at an industry event here. Earlier, Jibu Kurien Itty, the chief executive of Gateway Terminals said Colombo handles 65 per cent of the total exim trade of the country. Once the mother ship discharges cargo at a transshipment port, which gets distributed on smaller vessels doing scheduled calls on pre-designated routes. Tewari said Mundra on the west coast and Krishnapatnam on the east have undertaken efforts to cater to transshipment, but was critical of state-run JNPTs apathy towards this segment. He pointed out that one of the reasons why transshipment cannot grow at JNPT is the charges levied to transfer goods between its four terminals, which was blamed by the industry on a lack of coordination and competitive nature of the business. "Indian major ports will have to compete with the private sector players in order to develop transshipment capabilities," he said. Meanwhile, Cotton Textile Export Promotion Councils executive director Siddharth Rajagopal said the cabotage relaxation will help get a 5-7 per cent cost saving for his industry as it will help export goods from domestic ports. Bangladesh Freight Fowarders Association president Mahbulbul Alam also welcomed the changes in Indian policy framework, saying it will help its exports. He said at present, Bangladeshi garments exported to the west travel east to ports in Singapore or Malaysia first before they are trans shipped to bigger vessels that take them to destinations. Stating that his country will never be able to make deep draft port that can handle bigger vessels, he said having a transshipment port on the east or the west coast of India will reduce time taken for the garments to travel to their markets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajasthan Assembly was adjourned twice during the pre-lunch session Friday as the opposition Congress raised the issue of soaring fuel prices, farm loan-waiver and attacked the government over cane-charging of its youth activists during a protest. The House was adjourned first for 45 minutes till 12 noon during Question Hour. When the members reassembled during Zero Hour, it was adjourned again till 2pm by the Speaker Kailash Meghwal as Opposition members trooped into the well. As soon as the Question Hour began, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Rameshwar Dudi and Congress deputy whip Govind Singh Dotasara raised the issues of rising fuel prices and police action on Youth Congress workers Thursday, when they were protesting against alleged corruption in the Rafale deal and unemployment. Dotasara said the government cane-charged the Youth Congress activists, who were protesting peacefully. The Congress legislators then trooped into the well of the House and shouted slogans against the government. Ruling BJP accused the Congress of disrupting the Question Hour. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore said the people of the state are watching the conduct of the Opposition. Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari said the government wants to answer the members' questions but the Congress doesn't want the House to function. The Speaker also appealed to the members to go back to their seats. But, when they did not heed to the request, he adjourned the House. As the members reassembled for Zero Hour, Congress legislators again trooped into the well after Meghwal refused to accept their adjournment motion on crop loan-waiver. Both ruling and Opposition members exchanged barbs over the issue which led to pandemonium for almost 30 minutes. Cooperative Minister Ajay Singh Kilak said 19.24 lakh farmers have received aid from the crop loan waiver fund in their bank accounts and the remaining beneficiaries will get the benefit by October 31. While Kilak continued comparing BJP's works and schemes with those of the previous Congress government, members in the Opposition, including a few independent legislators, kept demanding discussion on crop loan-waiver issue. The speaker refused to accept the motion. The Opposition stayed in the well forcing the speaker to adjourn the House for a second time till 2pm. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat gave a clarion call on Friday to the Hindu community to unite and work for the betterment of the mankind. Addressing a gathering of some 2,500 delegates attending the second World Hindu Congress here, Bhagwat said the Hindu society has the largest number of meritorious persons. "But they never come together. Coming together of Hindus in itself is a difficult thing, Bhagwat said in his inaugural address to the conference inspired by the Hindu principle 'Sumantrite Suvikrante' or 'Think Collectively, Achieve Valiantly'. He noted that Hindus had been suffering for thousands of years because they forgot to practice its basic principles and spiritualism. "We have to come together," Bhagwat said, noting that all the people need not to register under one umbrella. "We have to learn to work together separately," he said. The Hindu society will progress and prosper only when it will work as a society. Some organisations, or parties working alone will not suffice, Bhagwat said, calling for bringing the spirit of teamwork towards the common goal of betterment of the mankind. The second World Hindu Congress marks the commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's historic speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 in Chicago, said Abhaya Asthana, coordinator of the event. "As a Hindu, it pains me deeply to see how half knowledge and ignorance are trying to destroy the oldest religion of the world," said actor Anupam Kher. Among those who addressed the gathering were Illinois Lt Gov Evelyn Sanguinetti, S P Kothari, chairperson, organizing committee of the World Hindu Congress, Ashwin Adhin, vice president of Suriname and Raju Reddy, vice-chair the WHC. Kothari categorically rejected allegations levelled by opponents of the event that the participants of the Congress have divisive agenda. "They have lack of complete understanding of the World Hindu Congress," the top MIT professor said. Participants observed a minute of silence in honour of former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and author V S Naipaul, who died recently. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Friday said balance needs to be maintained when using consumer data to ensure that individual privacy does not get compromised and asserted that sanctity of data is crucial in the Indian democracy. "...we need to have a blend of balance of data availability, of data utility, of data innovation, of data anonymity and data privacy," he said at the Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE' here. He further stated that India being a democracy, the sanctity of data is important, and so is the use of data for different purposes. "...therefore while we are very proactive in the use of data analytics and are clear that India must become a very big centre of data analytics...but this must blend (with) the sanctity of data, blend with the rights of the owners of the data," he said. "How do you do it, is the larger question," he noted. Prasad highlighted that data analytics offers huge potential for India as the country has the required human resource, capabilities and capacity. The minister said data is needed to improve business but that data must be anonymous, objective and taken with consent. He said that while data analytics is projected to become "big and lucrative", the process needs to have well-defined principles and adhere to stipulated standards with focus on fairness and transparency. The issue of abuse of user data on technology platforms has been under scanner in India over the last few months and the government has resolved to take tough action to prevent any such misuse. Earlier this year, social networking giant Facebook came under fire after data of its millions of users was improperly shared with another firm Cambridge Analytica. Taking a strong view of the issue, the Indian government had shot off notices to the two companies seeking explanation. In fact, the CBI has recently initiated a preliminary enquiry against British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook. Prasad, during his recent visit to the US, had stated that India has taken "serious note" of reported data misuse of social media platforms and such tools will never be allowed to abuse the election process for extraneous means. Also, a data protection framework is now being formulated to safeguard personal information, defining obligations of data processors as also rights of individuals, and mooting penalties for violation. Public feedback on this draft data protection bill has been sought. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UK authorises Merck's coronavirus treatment, the first pill shown to be effective at treating COVID-19. (AP) VM Countries across the globe which paved the way for equality and justice for the LGBT community were cited by the Supreme Court while striking down part of Section 377 of IPC this week, and quoted liberally from the judgements delivered by their courts on the issue. A five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malohtra on Thursday unanimously struck down part of the section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalised gay sex, saying that it violated the constitutional right to equality and dignity. CJI Misra and Justice Khanwilkar, who wrote the main 166-page judgement, mentioned the constitutional courts of United States, Canada, South Africa, Republic of Philippines and European court of Human Rights which have passed similar verdicts. Referring to one of the judgements of the Supreme Court of the United States on the issue, they said that the court wrote, "LGBT were entitled to respect for their private lives and that the State could not demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime, because their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without the intervention of the State". In "Roberts versus United States Jaycees", the US top court observed that the choices to enter into and maintain certain intimate human relationships must be secured against undue intrusion by the State, CJI Misra and Justice Khanwilkar wrote. They further said that the Constitutional court of South Africa, in one of the cases related to LGBT community, observed the "stigma attached to a significant proportion of our population is manifest". "As a result of the criminal offence, gay men are at risk of arrest, prosecution and conviction of the offence of sodomy simply because they seek to engage in sexual conduct which is part of their experience of being human," it had said. The Constitutional court of South Africa drew parallel between the discrimination faced by homosexuals and the apartheid system that was in place in the African countries. "Just as apartheid legislation rendered the lives of couples of different racial groups perpetually at risk, the sodomy offence builds insecurity and vulnerability into the daily lives of gay men." The CJI and Justice Khanwilkar noted that the Supreme Court of Canada in Delwin Vriend case had observed that the most important outcome is the psychological harm which may ensue from the state of affairs as the fear of discrimination would logically lead them to concealment of true identity. They said that the European court of Human Rights, had observed that homosexuality cannot be criminalised owing to public opinion. "Although members of the public who regard homosexuality as immoral may be shocked, offended or disturbed by the commission by others of private homosexual acts, this cannot on its own warrant the application of penal sanctions when it is consenting adults alone who are involved," the court had said. Similarly, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Philippines, too had observed that the court cannot impose its views on the populace. Justice D Y Chandrachud, who also wrote a concurring judgement, said according the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, "74 countries criminalize same-sex sexual conduct, as of 2017. Most of these countries lie in the Sub-Saharan and Middle East region. Some of them prescribe death penalty for homosexuality". He wrote in his judgment about another breakthrough for LGBTQ rights that came from the Supreme Court of Nepal, in Sunil Babu Pant versus Nepal Government. Pant, the first openly gay Asian national leader had filed a PIL before the Supreme Court of Nepal praying for the recognition of the rights of lesbians, gays, and third gender persons. "The issue of sexual activity falls under the definition of privacy. No one has the right to question how do two adults perform the sexual intercourse and whether this intercourse is natural or unnatural, the court had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a plea against the decision of the Chhattisgarh High Court which had rejected the findings of a committee on the caste of former chief minister Ajit Jogi. A bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Sanjay Kishan Kaul upheld the high court decision which had ordered a fresh constitution of the high-powered committee and examine Jogi's caste status afresh. Chhattisgarh Advocate General Jugal Kishore Gilda said the high court had rightly held that the scrutiny committee constituted by Chhattisgarh was not in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Chhattisgarh. The top court's order came on a plea filed by Sant Kumar Netam challenging the decision of a high-powered committee which had held that Jogi had obtained the certificate of tribal status "Kanwar" to which he was not entitled. The high court had held that the reconstitution of the scrutiny committee itself was not proper and smacked of institutional arbitrariness. The committee had given its decision as per the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe And Other Backward Classes (Regulation Of Social Status Certification) Act, 2013. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a plea challenging the Patna High Court order restraining the media from reporting about the investigation into Muzaffarpur shelter home case where several women were allegedly raped and sexually abused. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud posted the case for hearing on September 10 after the matter was mentioned by advocate Fauzia Shakil. 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 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 SC judgment allowing consensual gay sex is a "landmark verdict" and a "call to action" for all countries in the Commonwealth which use the "regressive" colonial law, NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said Friday. In a statement, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) hailed the judgment, noting that it had immense transnational relevance across Commonwealth states, where not less than 36 of 53 members continue to criminalise same-sex acts. "CHRI believes that it is imperative for the Commonwealth to set a new trend for law based on the Section 377 verdict, and calls on the UK as the current chair of the Commonwealth and Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary general, to take a lead on this matter," said Sanjoy Hazarika, CHRI's International Director, in a statement. He noted that at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2018, British Prime Minister Theresa May's opening address had emphasised that discriminatory laws criminalising same-sex relations "continue to affect the lives of many people" and which "were often put in place by the UK during its colonial rule". "The Commonwealth must spread awareness and design the architecture of societies where prejudice and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation does not take place," said Hazarika. Same sex relationships are banned, among other countries, in Pakistan, Singapore, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica. A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a part of the 158-year-old law under Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalised consensual unnatural sex. The LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer) community welcomed the verdict that also said the society cannot dictate a sexual relationship between consenting adults. Many cut cakes and waved the rainbow flag -- which has come to be associated with the gay pride movement and is often used during marches held by the community to reflect its diversity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The idea of a "land swap" between Serbia and Kosovo to settle their long-running dispute once and for all has stirred passions ahead of a new round of talks between former war foes. The notion would likely see a part of southern Serbia centered on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo's Hashim Thaci are expected to meet Friday in Brussels as part of efforts to normalize relations in the region still riven by tensions from the 1998-99 war. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognized as a nation by more than 100 countries. But Serbia does not recognize it, and neither do five EU countries Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Serbia and Kosovo have been told that they must sort out their differences if they want to advance toward EU membership, Officials from both nations have suggested a land swap could be a good idea, but there is opposition both inside the countries and internationally. There are concerns that changes to the borders could trigger similar demands in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, also nations formed from the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Germany and some of its EU partners also have voiced fears this could open up old wounds in the Balkans rather than resolve their longstanding differences. US President Donald Trump's administration has signaled it would accept any agreement between the two sides. Although there are no fixed proposals on the table, the most commonly mentioned ideas always involve the so-called Presevo Valley area of Serbia, to be swapped for Kosovo's Serb-populated north. Zoran Ostojic, an analyst from Belgrade, believes that the meeting in Brussels on Friday won't result in an immediate breakthrough despite heightened expectations. Serbia's Vucic and Kosovo's Thaci are "testing the ground, primarily with the international community" by floating the idea, he said. "Who knows where that could end?" Ostojic warned, echoing fears of a chain reaction throughout Balkans. Vucic, a former hardline nationalist who now says he wants to settle the Kosovo problem so Serbia can move forward, has supported an unspecified "demarcation" with Kosovo. But many Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of their history and culture, and Vucic could face stern opposition from nationalists to any proposal that includes giving up claim on any part of the territory. Liberal Serbs have warned that joining Kosovo's north with Serbia proper would probably prompt an exodus of minority Serbs from the rest of Kosovo. Reflecting the tensions, Kosovo's parliament has been blocked for days in a dispute over who should conduct the talks with Serbia and how it should be done. The opposition has sought to strip Thaci of any authority to discuss Kosovo's territory in the talks with Vucic. The 1998-99 war erupted when Kosovo separatists launched a rebellion to split from Serbia after Belgrade had stripped the region of its self-rule. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict before NATO forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. EU officials are hoping that the prospects of membership in the bloc will encourage the Balkan nations to leave the past behind, but when it comes to Serbia and Kosovo, there is a long way to go. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood star Shahid Kapoor is back on Twitter a day after his official account on the microblogging site was hacked. The 37-year-old actor, whose account was reportedly hacked by a Turkish hacker group, asked his fans to ignore any kind of communication from his handle in the last 24 hours. "Hey guys, finally I am back on twitter. Yes it was hacked. Kindly ignore any communication that came from my handle in the last 24 hours," Shahid tweeted on Friday. Cyber group, named Ayyildiz Tim, posted a series of tweets in Turkish language and in one of them, it criticised the portrayal of Alauddin Khilji in Shahid's film "Padmaavat" which released in January this year. Shahid played the role of Raja Ratan Singh while Khilji was portrayed by Ranveer Singh. The Twitter handle was restored after an hour during which the group posted close to 20 tweets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira, who welcomed their second baby recently, have named him Zain Kapoor. The couple welcomed their second child, a son, on Wednesday at the Hinduja Hospital here. Before her delivery, Mira was visited by Shahid's brother Ishaan Khatter, mother Neelima Azim and father Pankaj Kapoor with his wife Supriya Pathak. Shahid, 37, who already has a daughter, two-year-old Misha, with Mira, revealed the name of his son on Twitter. "Zain Kapoor is here and we feel complete. Thank you for all the wishes and blessings. We are overjoyed and so grateful. Love to all," the "Padmaavat" actor wrote. Shahid on Friday came back on Twitter, a day after his official account on the microblogging site was hacked. The actor, whose account was reportedly hacked by a Turkish hacker group, asked his fans to ignore any kind of communication from his handle in the last 24 hours. "Hey guys, finally I am back on twitter. Yes it was hacked. Kindly ignore any communication that came from my handle in the last 24 hours," Shahid tweeted on Friday. Shahid's Twitter handle was restored after an hour during which the group posted close to 20 tweets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A leading farmer outfit in Maharashtra led by Lok Sabha MP Raju Shetti has indicated it is open to an alliance with the Congress for the 2019 general elections provided the latter supports it on two key agrarian issues, sources said Friday. The Shetti-led organisation, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), is also keen on contesting six of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, they said. The sources said the SSS would insist on contesting the Lok Sabha polls from six seats: Kolhapur, Hatkanangale (also in Kolhapur district), Madha (in Solapur district), Wardha, Buldhana and Sangli. At present, Shetti is the lone representative attached to the SSS in the Lok Sabha. He was elected from the Hatkanangle constituency. "We want the Congress to support a private member's bill that Shetti will move, seeking provision of fair prices to farmers. "We also want the Congress to back our demand of implementing the report of the Swaminathan Commission (which has suggested a slew of measures to address farm distress). These are long-standing demands," a leader of the organisation told PTI. According to him, the Congress has asked its leaders Harshvardhan Patil and Satej Patil, both former state ministers, to hold negotiations with Shetti. The SSS, which had backed the ruling NDA in the 2014 general elections, quit the BJP-led coalition in August last year. The Congress has already started reaching out to like- minded parties to forge a "grand alliance" in Maharashtra as part of its larger effort to dislodge the BJP-led NDA from power at the Centre. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Damascus has every right to take back all its territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a summit Friday expected to decide the fate of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib. "The legitimate Syrian government has a right and must eventually take under control all of its national territory," Putin told Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the summit. The Russian leader said it was important to begin work on a political settlement in Syria "as soon as possible" and urged Iran and Turkey to ramp up their coordination with Russia of their countries' foreign and defence ministries and security services. Putin said "terrorist elements" continued to "stage provocations" and use drones in Idlib. "We cannot ignore this," the Russian president said. "We should solve this problem together." The three leaders are expected to determine the future of Idlib amid growing fears of a humanitarian disaster. The three countries are guarantors of the so-called Astana process, a track of talks launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention which has eclipsed the Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the UN. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tajikistan ambassador to India Jalolov Mirzosharif Friday pitched for more bilateral trade in sectors like garment and tea. Speaking at a session organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, the envoy said the ties between the two countries had been nurtured through the ages. The economic relationshup between India and Tajikistan was elevated to Strategic Partnership in 2012 making Tajikistan the third central Asian country to sign such agreement with India, he said. On bilateral trade with India, he said in 2016, the Tajik Chamber of Commerce and Industry and FICCI formed a joint business council to carry forward trade. Also there are regular exhibitions of Indian exporters in Tajikistan, he said. He said there is also regular air freight between New Delhi and Dushanbe and Delhi-Moscow-Dushanbe apart from rail traffic between Mumbai-Bandar Abbas-Dushanbe. However, the envoy said that Indian products like jackets, T shirts and boots had great visibility in Tajikistan some years back. "Others like China took up the opportunity but Indian producers and exporters perhaps could not keep pace," Mirzosharif said. On the prospects of Indian tea, he said, "Indian tea used to have a good reputation in Tajikistan which is still there. But we are not getting Indian tea," he said. Mirzosharif said Tajikistan has a virgin landscape and there are a number of tourism projects in his country. FIEO Eastern Region Chairman Nari Kalwani said the bilateral trade between India and Tajikistan rose from USD 20.44 million in 2016-17 to USD 23.97 million in 2017-18. Kalwani listed some of the potential areas as textiles, tea and coffee along with pubolishing equipment and materials. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) IT company Friday announced partnership with Avaamo to develop and deliver conversational (AI) platform for global enterprises. "Conversational AI is the next frontier of enhanced intelligence as humans and machines harmonise to enable connected experiences. Virtual assistants are already disrupting the customer experience space. Avaamo and have a shared vision - to implement cutting-edge AI solutions, specifically in the banking, telecom, retail and healthcare industries," Jagdish Mitra, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Tech Mahindra, said in a statement. This partnership will include developing and delivering conversational AI solutions for global enterprises. " will evangelise Avaamo's enterprise products and build solutions around platforms in areas such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning," the statement said. The collaboration will help Tech Mahindra harness newer enterprise, technologies and serve global markets in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Malaysia, Israel, Philippines, and Indonesia amongst many others, it added. "We began collaborating early in 2017 and are delighted with our successes so far. Tech Mahindra is truly a global player in the tech space. As we continue to work together, we will help businesses around the world re-imagine what is possible with conversational artificial intelligence," Ram Menon, Founder and CEO Avaamo said. Shares of Tesla Motors tumbled Friday as a pair of executive departures raised fresh concerns for the electric automaker already in turmoil over the erratic behavior of its mercurial chief executive Elon Musk. Tesla shares sank 7.0 per cent to USD 26.34 in mid-morning trading after chief accounting officer Dave Morton announced his exit after only a month on the job, citing the company's frenetic pace. Separately, human resources chief Gabrielle Toledano told Bloomberg she planned to exit the company, not returning from a leave of absence. Morton's departure further roiled the company which has been under heightened scrutiny since Musk's chaotic announcement on August 7 on Twitter that he was considering taking Tesla private, a plan that was reversed two weeks later. The ill-fated effort has prompted a US securities investigation and a class-action lawsuit alleging Musk was trying to punish investors who bet against the company. Morton's brief tenure with the company coincided with the aborted go-private push. "Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations," Morton said in a securities filing. "As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting." Musk, meanwhile, turned heads with a more than two hour podcast interview with comedian Joe Rogan in which he drank whiskey and appeared to try a marijuana-and-tobacco cigarette proffered by the comedian as he mused about artificial intelligence and colonizing space. At one point, Musk described the constant barrage of ideas in his mind as being "like a "never-ending explosion," and said he wondered as a young boy whether he might be insane because it didn't seem to happen to other people. The appearance was the latest unorthodox move by Musk, who has often surprised investors with brash and unpredictable behavior as Tesla has sought to live up to lofty manufacturing targets for its Model 3 electric car. Long a polarizing figure because of his swashbuckling style, Musk's champions see him as an entrepreneurial genius with the potential to remake the transportation system, while his detractors see him as an egotistical blowhard whose outsized promises have driven unjustified gains in the company's values. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Director Shane Black has apologised for casting a registered sex offender in "The Predator" saying he is "deeply disappointed" in himself. ?On ?Thursday, The Times published a report that 20th Century Fox had deleted a scene from the upcoming sci-fi thriller that featured Steven Wilder Striegel, Black's friend of 14 years. The studio decided to omit the scene from "The Predator" after actor Olivia Munn, one of the film's stars, learned that in 2010, Striegel pleaded guilty to allegations that he tried to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship online. Black originally defended casting Striegel, who has previously appeared in the filmmaker's "Iron Man 3" and "The Nice Guys" saying "I personally chose to help a friend". But after the Times story, Black said Thursday, "it has sadly become clear to me that I was misled by a friend I really wanted to believe was telling me the truth when he described the circumstances of his conviction. I believe strongly in giving people second chances but sometimes you discover that chance is not as warranted as you may have hoped. "After learning more about the affidavit, transcripts, and additional details surrounding Steve Striegel's sentence, I am deeply disappointed in myself. I apologise to all of those, past and present, I've let down by having Steve around them without giving them a voice in the decision." "The Predator" is set to be released in the US on September 14. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trinamool Congress on Friday said it supported the issues that had led to the Opposition parties to call the September 10 Bharat Bandh like the spiralling fuel prices, but ruled out its support to the shutdown. Instead, the TMC plans to take out protest marches across the state on the day against the increasing prices of essential commodities like petrol, diesel, cooking gas and the falling value of rupee, party secretary general Partha Chatterjee said on Friday. "We don't support the bandh as it results in loss of mandays and impacts the ongoing development process in the state. But we have full support for the issues that have led the Opposition parties to call for Bharat Bandh," Chatterjee said. "We are not opposing the strike, but neither will we participate in it," Chatterjee told reporters. Elaborating on TMC's protests against the "anti-people" policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chatterjee said a march would be taken out on the 1.5 km stretch between Moulali to Dorina crossing in the city along with all the districts of the state. However, the TMC does "not want life to be paralysed" in the state, he clarified. "The country's economy is at stake and the entire situation is heading towards disaster under the BJP Rule," Chatterjee, also a senior cabinet minister in West Bengal said. Rising prices of essential commodities, including petrol, diesel and LPG has made the life of the common man miserable. The situation is worsening with the daily weakening of the rupee, he added. On Thursday, the Congress and Left parties called for a countrywide shutdown to protest against rising prices of essential commodities, hike in fuel prices and the economic policies of the Modi government. However, cracks seemed to have appeared in the Left Front with the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) deciding to stay away from the shutdown, accusing major partner CPI(M)'s central leadership of not consulting it before taking the call. Playing down the suspected tiff, CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra alleged "some mis-communication" and stressed that the AIFB was not "opposing the strike". He further appealed to the people of Bengal to come out in support of the Left Front's 12-hour shut down from 6 am. On TMC's decision to stay away, Mishra said if the party was serious about opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its policies, it should join the shutdown. Meanwhile, a West Bengal finance department notice said all state government offices, including those getting grants-in-aid will remain open on September 10 and all the employees should report for duty on that day. "It has also been decided that no casual leave for absence either in the first-half of the day or in the second-half or the for the whole day nor any other leave shall be granted to any employee on the said date," the notice said. Employees who are on leave on Friday should report for duty on Monday and no extension of leave would be allowed, it added. The absence of employees on that date will be treated as 'dies non' and no salary will be admissible unless such absence is for their hospitalisation or bereavement in their family. "Or severe illness and absence and continuing prior September 7, 2018. And employees who had been on child care leave or medical leave and earned leave sanctioned before Friday," the notice said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today expressed concern over a section of college students allegedly carrying weapons instead of books and advised them to focus only on "The future of the country lies in the hands of students and many social issues around us should be dealt with intellectually not emotionally," he said. "Students' complete focus should be on education, but it is regrettable that some of them carry weapons in hands that should carry books," he said during the post-centenary diamond jubilee celebrations of the University of Madras. "Students should shun violence," he added. Though he did not refer to any specific incident, Palaniswami's remarks come close on the heels of instances of college students on buses and trains, wielding weapons like knives and machetes, drawing concern from various sections of society. He recalled late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's advice to students saying they had a social responsibility which cannot be easily wished away. He said she had urged them to contribute to the state, country and institution that help their growth. The Chief Minister also pointed out to the various sops offered by his government in the educational sector and said the state was fairing better than the national average in the Gross Enrollment Ratio. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Chennai police commissioner S George Friday denied the charge that he received bribe in the Gutka scam and claimed the scandal was 'blown out of proportion' to prevent him from becoming state police chief. "It is a total falsehood," he told reporters when asked about the charge that the gutka firm had paid him a bribe. CBI had carried out searches at 35 locations in the state Wednesday, including the residence of police chief T K Rajendran and health minister C Vijayabaskar, besides George. An IPS officer of the 1984 batch, George, who retired in September last, had three separate stints as Chennai Police Commissioner from 2012 and 2017. He was also promoted to the rank of Director General of Police. Following income tax raids in July 2016 at the premises of a gutka manufacturer, the state government was apprised by the tax department in August 2016 of entries in a 'book of record' (of the gutka firm) that claimed payoffs to officials, including two police officials and the Health Minister. On the charge that the money was paid ahead of Christmas in 2015 to an "ex-commissioner," (when he headed the Prison department) George said this was to make the allegation look credible since he was a Christian. Somebody may have misused his name and falsely claimed that the money was for the police commissioner and taken it for themselves, he said. Quoting the CBI's FIR, George said he was not the Police Commissioner when the alleged payoff was made by the Gutka firm on three specific dates in 2016 (April, May and June). He clarified that he was not casting aspersions on the police officer who led the city police at that time. To a question if he felt targeted, he said,"100 per cent ...this applies to T K Rajendran (incumbent DGP) as well... the whole scam was brought out at a time when either me or Rajendran was about to become the DGP." George said the "whole thing was blown out (of proportion) and put in the papers to prevent me or Rajendran becoming the DGP." He, however, said "I am not saying there is no Gutka scam. There is a scam. There is somebody (behind)... something has happened."The former top official sought to know who leaked out official information and confidential reports (about the scam vis-a-vis enquiry), just days before the DGP was to be named. In connection with the case, he claimed that even some documents and files were "not there" in the DGP's office. On the CBI searches, he said the sleuths had only taken a sale deed of a housing board plot allotted to him in 1994 and certain lease documents and insurance policy of his car. Defending himself, he quoted from a "court judgement", saying even persons of high integrity could be targeted on the basis of irrelevant and inadmissible entries made by unscrupulous persons or criminals on random papers. "It is happening to me and I am experiencing it now," he said, adding making fictitious and false entries on some papers with an ulterior motive by unscrupulous elements should be guarded against. George said he had written to the Home Secretary (December 2016) after assuming charge and again as Police Commissioner in September 2016 on the scam, underscoring the need for a probe after holding an initial inquiry. He himself did not choose to hold an inquiry as the charge was "against the commissioner." Indicating there was something 'fishy' in respect of some police officials, vis-a-vis the scam, he said an official did not report about the scandal to his superior officers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu is looking to attract investments in 12 sectors including auto, textiles, renewable energy, petrochemicals among others, during its second edition of global investor meet, the state's industries minister MC Sampath said Friday. "Tamil Nadu is going to organise the global investors meet for the second time on January 23 and 24, 2019 in Chennai. We have many competitive strengths and attractive packages like land allotment, good infrastructure support, single window facilitation portal for investment," he said. The state had attracted investments to the tune of Rs 2.42 lakh crore during its first global investors meet in 2015, with 98 MoUs. Of this, it has realised Rs 73,000 crore through 63 projects which are under various stages of implementation. For the second edition, it is looking at surpassing the quantum which it achieved in 2015 and is looking at investments in textiles and apparel, pharmaceuticals and biotech, agro and food processing, aerospace and defence, automobiles and auto components, renewable energy, infrastructure, heavy engineering, chemicals and petrochemicals, heaving engineering, electronic hardware, and IT and ITeS. It contributes 27.45 per cent of the national automobile output. The state government has identified over 200 infrastructure projects, targeting to attract investments to the tune of USD 250 billion. The minister met with some of the corporates like Tata Group, Mahindra and Mahindra, Godrej Group, Hinduja Group, RPG, BASF among others. He added that the state is looking at attracting investments in its southern districts and that the company is one of the top states in attracting foreign direct investment and last year saw inflows worth USD 3.6 billion. Tamil Nadu has 38 Special Economic Zones and 22 Industrial Parks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A tribal woman in labour pain and being carried on a makeshift 'dholi' down hill to a hospital due to lack of road connectivity delivered a baby girl on a slushy road in a forest area of Andhra Pradesh. A video of the woman's trek for about 3-4 kms from one of the ten hamlets on a hilltop in Salur mandal in Parvatipuram tribal belt of Vizianagaram district on Thursday has been posted on social media by a youth, who wanted to highlight the issue of lack of road connectivity faced by the villagers. On coming to know that the woman was being carried in the traditional 'dholi' (a palanquin made using a cloth tied to a bamboo pole) to the hospital in Salur, the Integrated Tribal Development Agency authorities in the plains sent a medical team but she gave birth to the girl baby midway late Thursday. "By the time our staff reached, the woman delivered a baby girl with the help of women accompanying her. Our medical team provided necessary post-natal care. The woman and the new born baby are fine," ITDA Project Officer G Lakshmisha said Friday. The girl baby is the fifth child for the tribal woman. "It's only in recent years that these villagers started coming down to the plains for institutional deliveries. There is no road connectivity to these hilltop villages but we always send medical teams in advance when we know about such cases," the official said. In fact, the government has made available a palanquin for the villagers but they have not been using it "since it was heavy" and prefer the traditional dholi. The government has sanctioned Rs 5.5 crore for providing road connectivity to these villages under the Centre's connectivity scheme Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), but no contractor bid for the work because of the difficult terrain, sources said. A youth shot the video of the trek of the pregnant woman on his mobile phone and posted it on social media, saying he wanted to highlight the misery suffered by people of the tribal villages. The ITDA acknowledged the road connectivity problem and said it was taking steps to build the roads. "Some road works are tendering stage, some in sanctioning stage. The process is on," Lakshmisha said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A truck driver transporting paper rolls was arrested Friday after it came to light that he had kept the cargo hidden with a design to sell it later and pocket the proceeds and concocted a story of being robbed, police said. Police received information in the early hours of the day that a truck laden with paper rolls was snatched by unknown miscreants near a roadside eatery on the highway in Rajpura near here, officials said. A search operation was launched and the truck was recovered from an isolated place near the focal point here, they said. During interrogation, truck diver Bhagat Singh confessed to have concocted the story of the loot to sell the paper rolls in the market, officials said. Singh was arrested, they said, adding that the approximate cost of truck, including bundles of papers, was nearly Rs 23 lakh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Where Persecution Comes From In Ethiopia, Christian persecution stems from multiple sources: the government, Islam, secularism and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC). Government regulations restrict the freedom of religion, while in some parts of the country, conservative Muslims pose challenges for believers, especially converts. Secularism, particularly government bans on religious broadcasting and religious activities within schools, restrict the freedoms of Christians to worship, teach and preach. Meanwhile, those who leave the EOC denomination face persecution from family members, communities and government officials that are members of the denomination. How Christians are Suffering While all Christians in Ethiopia face persecution, different denominations experience it in varying degrees. Protestants outside of traditional denominations experience the worst persecution at the hands of the government and the EOC denomination. Arrests and disappearances of believers are common in the country, and those who leave Islam or the EOC face harsh mistreatment, sometimes being denied access to community resources. In some cases, Christians are cut off from society completely. Examples In the WWL 2017 reporting period, there were more than 100 violent incidents against Christians recorded in Ethiopia. In July 2017, a Muslim mob attacked a 27-year-old man in his home with machetes after first attacking and partly damaging a local church building in Hirna, a rural town. The mob was incited over evangelism taking place in the area. Donald Trump has called on the New York Times to reveal the name of the "coward" who wrote an explosive, anonymous article that has plunged his presidency into its worst crisis yet. The White House has been convulsed by a fevered hunt for the senior official who declared, in an unsigned article for The New York Times published Wednesday, that "unsung heroes" were quietly working within the administration to frustrate the president's "worst inclinations." "Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she," Trump told supporters at a rally in Billings, Montana, on Thursday adding: "Unidentified deep state operatives who defy voters to push their secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself." Invoking national security concerns, Trump said the paper should publish the official's name, before encouraging reporters to investigate the matter. "That would be a good scoop!" he said. On the internet and in Washington, a guessing game has raged over who the author might be, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the government to deny it was them. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were among those who issued denials. "The Vice President puts his name on his Op-eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed," Pence's spokesman Jarrod Agen wrote on Twitter. "Our office is above such amateur acts." The manifesto followed the release of excerpts from a bombshell book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, who portrayed Trump's White House as an out-of-control "crazytown." Trump responded with a furious volley of tweets that asked if the author had committed treason while First Lady Melania Trump condemned the decision to publish. "To the writer of the op-ed -- you are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions," she said. The Woodward book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," reported that senior aides lifted documents from the Oval Office desk to keep the president from acting on his impulses, reinforcing the assertions in the Times article. The firestorm caught up with Mattis and Pompeo in New Delhi, where the Secretary of State denounced the Times' decision to publish as "sad" and "disturbing." "I come from a place where if you're not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave," he said. Both men denied involvement, while Coats, who as intelligence chief has at times been publicly at odds with Trump, said in a statement speculation that he or his deputy had written the op-ed were "patently false." When asked if she wrote it, UN envoy Nikki Haley responded with a curt "no" on her way to a Security Council meeting. James Dao, who runs the Times op-ed page, told CNN he received the article several days ago through an intermediary, but had spoken directly with its author. In one eye-opening passage, the writer says cabinet members initially considered invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution, which provides for the president's removal if he is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." They decided against the move, fearing a constitutional crisis, but Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took to the airwaves on Thursday to revive the idea. "If senior administration officials think the president of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment," Warren told CNN. Trump meanwhile has called for the article's author to be unmasked. "Are the investigative 'journalists' of the New York Times going to investigate themselves - who is the anonymous letter writer?," he tweeted ahead of a rally in Montana. The Times acknowledged the "rare step" of publishing an anonymous editorial but said the official's job would be jeopardized if they were identified. The piece described a "two-track" presidency in which Trump says one thing and his staff consciously does another, citing the president's alleged preference "for autocrats and dictators." "The root of the problem is the president's amorality," the official said, denouncing Trump's "impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective" leadership style. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump threatened Friday to slap tariffs on all of the Chinese goods imported into the United States, ramping up the already tense trade relations with Beijing. The US has punitive tariffs on $50 billion in goods already in place, and another USD 200 billion "in the hopper" that Trump said "could take place very soon." But he told reporters in Fargo, North Dakota that "behind that, there's another USD 267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want." That would cover virtually all the goods imported from the world's second largest economy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ankara has drawn up a plan to offer armed rebel groups safe conduct out of the Syrian province of Idlib in a bid to avert the bloodshed of a major assault by Damascus, a pro-government newspaper reported on Friday. As the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran meet in Tehran Friday to try and find a solution to the seven-year Syrian conflict, Ankara -- which is wary about an attempt by Bashar al-Assad's forces to retake the last rebel bastion of Idlib -- has drawn up a plan to avert an assault, the daily Sabah reported. According to the plan, 12 armed groups -- including the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Idlib -- would lay down their arms and be evacuated from the province, the newspaper said, without revealing its sources. The groups would be offered safe passage to a buffer zone, under the surveillance of the moderate opposition on condition they hand over weapons to a loose coalition of rebel groups backed by Ankara, it continued. Foreign fighters in the group would be allowed to return to their home countries if they wish, Sabah said. But the groups who refused to disarm and be evacuated would be targeted by the counter-terror operations. As in other regions taken by Ankara-backed rebels, Turkey will later train a rebel force to ensure Idlib's security. The plan will also secure the Russian Hmeimim military base in Latakia province, as well as mineral deposits in the region, it said. Turkey, which has already listed Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda as terror groups, added HTS to the list last month. Ankara fears a major assault on Idlib could spark an influx of refugees across its borders, and warned a military solution would only cause "disaster". It has carried out intense negotiations for weeks with Russia. Analysts say Ankara could be prepared to accept a limited Russian-backed regime offensive against extremist groups, even if it leaves the question of the long-term control of the province open for now. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday of a "bloodbath" in Syria's last rebel-held bastion of Idlib if a much anticipated government offensive goes ahead. "We never want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath," Erdogan told a Tehran summit with his Iranian and Russian counterparts that is expected to determine the province's fate. "Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, massacre and a very big humanitarian tragedy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twitter on Thursday said it had permanently banned Alex Jones, the far-right conspiracy theorist best known for calling the 9/11 attacks an inside job and describing the Sandy Hook school massacre as a hoax. The social network had been under pressure to remove Jones following similar moves by fellow tech giants Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Apple last month. In a series of tweets from its @TwitterSafety account, it said: "Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. "We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts' past violations." Infowars is the website run by Jones. The ban came after Jones traveled to Washington to attend congressional hearings involving Twitter's chief executive officer Jack Dorsey and Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. He later posted videos showing himself verbally confronting a CNN reporter as well as Republican Senator Marco Rubio in a hallway. Reacting to his removal on Infowars, Jones said: "I was taken down not because we lie but because we tell the truth," adding that the incident involving the journalist, Oliver Darcy, may have been the cause of the ban. Jones harangued Darcy for 10 minutes during the confrontation, calling him a "virus to America" and comparing him to a "possum that climbed out of the rear-end of a dead cow." Darcy had written an article listing incidents where Jones had violated Twitter's rules. The ban came a day after President Donald Trump's administration warned of a possible legal crackdown on big technology companies over political bias in a bombshell announcement that came as the Senate hearing concluded. Trump famously granted Jones an interview during his presidential campaign, telling him: "Your reputation is amazing" and "I will not let you down." Twitter had previously resisted calls to remove Jones, who had nearly 900,000 followers, though in August it prevented him from posting on his account for a week. Once dubbed "the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jones has claimed the September 11 attacks were carried out by the US government, and promotes the idea that ethnic minorities are attempting to eradicate the white race. He has also called the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre an elaborate hoax involving "crisis actors" as part of a plot to discredit the gun lobby. Gunman Adam Lanza killed 26 people, including 20 children, when he launched his rampage at the Connecticut school. Several of the families have sued the 44-year-old Texan, accusing him of using their suffering to expand his audience. Jones has counter-sued, demanding in turn that they pay his court expenses. The non-profit Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog, welcomed Twitter's move. "Media Matters has monitored Alex Jones longer than anyone and has dozens of documented incidents of him violating the rules with impunity, so the most important thing to be said about his removal from Twitter is: 'Good. It's about time.' "Twitter was the last major tech platform to see what is obvious -- Jones used Twitter in clear violation of the rules to perpetuate hate speech and harassment," it added. Jones' ban from the last major social network to host him could also heighten conservatives' fears that their viewpoints are being censored online. The Justice Department's announcement Wednesday that it would probe Big Tech over competition or political bias appeared to escalate a war between the administration and Silicon Valley after a series of attacks by Trump claiming tech firms were biased against him and others on the right. 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 announcement came at the conclusion of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at which Dorsey and Sandberg testified in a largely collegial atmosphere and spoke of the need for further efforts to thwart foreign influence campaigns on social media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid signs of unrest among the upper castes over its push for pro-Dalit laws, the BJP will hold a two-day meeting of its key decision-making body here starting Saturday, in which the ruling party is likely to highlight the Narendra Modi government's steps for "social justice" and "economic successes". The national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party is also likely to respond to concerns over the rise in oil prices and refer to the previous UPA government's "mismanagement of the economy" as it meets ahead of the Assembly polls in five states, with the Lok Sabha election less than eight months away, party sources said. BJP president Amit Shah will deliver the inaugural address in the presence of the party's top leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, on Saturday afternoon, while the latter is scheduled to give the valedictory speech on Sunday. Significantly, the saffron party has chosen the Ambedkar International Centre, which works to promote the works and ideas of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, for hosting the meeting, a symbolism for its Dalit outreach. However, it will have to do a balancing act as groups claiming to represent the upper castes, its core vote bank, have been protesting the government's decision to restore the original and stringent provisions of a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals, after the Supreme Court had relaxed those. The groups had called a "Bharat Bandh" on Thursday. Senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra has gone on record seeking a rethink on the law, which non-Dalits/tribals claim is often misused. The issues of the National Register of Citizens, passage of key bills -- including the one to restore the original provisions of the law on atrocities against Dalits and another that accorded constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) -- in Parliament will also come up for discussion at the national executive meet, the sources said. BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters that the executive will discuss all the topical issues. He, though, did not elaborate further. It will be the first such meeting of the party following the death of its stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The executive will pay tribute to the former prime minister, Hussain said. The sources said the hike announced by the government in the Minimum Support Price for a number of farm produce and the rise in the economic growth in the last quarter to 8.2 per cent would also find a mention, besides the ongoing "Gram Swaraj" campaign to cover the poor with a host of welfare programmes. Modi has often cited his government's pro-poor programmes and push for laws to empower the Dalits and Other Backward Classes as an evidence of its work for "social justice", a theme likely to be picked by the BJP national executive. The BJP is likely to present itself as a party that has promoted the interests of the backward classes -- a constituency it has constantly been wooing to big electoral successes since 2014. Party leaders said the government's "honest" image and "successful" handling of the economy, besides the Hindutva credentials of the organisation, would keep its core constituency tethered to it in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. They added that the likely alliance of its rivals such as the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and other regional parties would be a red herring for the upper castes. The BJP national executive is meeting almost after a year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two suspected terrorists associated with Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) have been arrested here by Delhi Police's Special Cell, said a senior police official on Friday. The duo, hailing from Kashmir, was arrested near the Red Fort area on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, he added. The were associated with ISJK, the terror outfit influenced by Islamic State ideology, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two suspected terrorists, affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) organisation, were arrested from near the Red Fort by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, police said on Friday. The duo, from Shopian in Kashmir, were identified as Parvez (24) and Jamshid (19). They were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort, said P S Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell). They were boarding a bus to return to Jammu and Kashmir when they were nabbed around 10.45 pm on Thursday. The officer said the duo was using Delhi as a transit point. Parvez's brother was a terrorist, who was killed in an encounter in Shopian on January 26 this year, he said. Parvez is currently pursuing MTech from Gajrola in Uttar Pradesh and was inspired by his brother. Jamshid is a final-year diploma student. He had also facilitatedMohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the officer said. This was their second trip to Delhi, they had gone from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through Delhi in May. Two .32 pistols and four cell phones were seized from the duo, who were working on the instructions of Omar Ibn Nazir and Adil Thokar, he added. The officer said that they had no plans to carry out terror activities in the national capital and were using Delhi only as a transit point. He said the ISJK organisation is at a nascent stage. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladeshi police on Friday shot dead two suspected members of an Islamist group blamed for several attacks in the Muslim-majority country, including the murder of progressive writer-publisher, officials said. The suspects were killed in what police described as "gunfight" in Sreenagar upazila of Munshiganj, bdnews24 reported. Both men in their early 30s were the members of the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militant group, said Nazrul Islam, a district intelligence officer of Munshiganj police. The JMB is said to have links with the Islamic State. The police had signalled two motor cyclists to stop around 2am on Sreenagar Highway which they ignored and entered the nearby Chashara KC road, said Additional Superintendent of Police Kazi Maksuda Lima. "Police chased them and they opened fire forcing the police to retaliate. At one point, both of them were shot dead." Two sub-inspectors and a constable of police were also injured in the incident, according to the police. The law enforcement agencies seized 11 handmade bombs, a pistol and two machetes from the scene. "We had information that both of them were involved in the murder of blogger Shahjahan Bachchu." Abdur Rahman, the key suspect in the murder of Bachchu, died in a shootout with the police in June. On June 11, four unidentified assailants on two motorcycles gunned down Bachchu in the Upazila. The 55-year-old former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh's Munshiganj district unit was a publisher of Bishaka Prokashoni. He was known as a free-thinking writer in his ancestral village Kakaldi. The killing of Bachchu, 60, was the first Islamist attack on a prominent secular figure in two years. Police filed a case against four unidentified persons over the murder. The police said to have retrieved the information of the involvement of two more persons in the murder after interrogating Abdur Rahman, the report said. The JMB was also blamed for the 2016 attack on a cafe in an affluent Dhaka neighbourhood, in which 18 foreigners and four other hostages were killed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BY REUTERS YDNEY, Sept 7: Pacific island nations declared climate change to be their single greatest threat, urging Washington to return to the Paris Agreement on climate, just as Western powers seek to check Chinas rising influence in the region. Australia, which has backed away from its own commitment to Paris without exiting the pact, was among the 18 nations of the Pacific Islands Forum that made the call at a meeting of leaders on the tiny island state of Nauru. Climate change presents the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and well-being of Pacific people, the leaders said in a communique, asking the United States to return to the climate pact. Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga told a news conference: The aspiration is for the U.S. to be in the Paris Agreement again because we cannot have comprehensive robust emission reduction unless the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas is there in the process, we cannot leave the U.S. out. However, participants said one country would not agree to even stronger language in the communique and Sopoaga made clear which it was, although he stopped short of naming it. The name of the qualifier (started with) alphabetical A, capital A, Sopoaga told Wednesdays news conference, held after the leaders meeting. No forum members name, apart from Australias, begins with the letter A. Australias representative at the meeting, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, declined to answer questions about Sopoagas comments. It is not appropriate to discuss the internal talks of the private Leaders Retreat, Payne said in an emailed statement. Australia understands the importance that Pacific Countries place on effective global action to combat climate change, she said. The demand for action over the low-lying islands of the Pacific, seen as the front line of global climate change, comes as rising sea levels and other climate-related crises force residents to move to higher ground. Against this backdrop, Chinas vocal support for tackling global warming aids its drive to win allies and influence in the strategically significant and resource-rich area. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, saying it favored other countries and put the United States at a disadvantage. Climate change is domestic political dynamite in Australia, one of the worlds largest coal exporters which has also sought to push back against Chinas influence in the Pacific. Wednesdays communique endorsed with qualification a separate, stronger statement from seven small Pacific Island states seeking urgent resolution of Paris rules to cap the rise in global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius. If that cap is not reached, there are going to be serious problems on islands like Tuvalu, Sopoaga said, citing an estimate of island submergence by 2030 from the U.S. Geological Survey. The Friday said the proposal of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which runs the scheme, to hire a agency to monitor such platforms was contrary to its earlier submissions. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to assist it in the hearing of the plea on the issue filed by Mohua Moitra, an MLA of the Trinamool Congress. "It (monitoring) is directly against the submissions made by the during the hearing of the matters," the bench said, adding that what the was proposing was contrary to "what it had argued while seeking validity of Aadhaar". The UIDAI, during the hearing of a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of scheme, had told the apex court that it did not want to monitor the online activities of citizens holding Aadhaar cards. Moitra's plea said the UIDAI, as per its bid document, was seeking to hire a agency that will employ 'online reputation management' and 'social listening' tools to monitor and influence conversations related to Aadhaar on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. She had alleged that the move of hiring a monitoring agency aimed at "mounting surveillance on social media platforms". "Such action of the government violates her right of privacy. The scope of work of the Social Media Agency intended to be selected through the impugned request for proposal (RFP) is in the teeth of the judgment laid down by this Court in K S Puttaswamy case, wherein a bench of nine judges of this court recognised privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution," the plea said. The petition claimed that the aim of employment of a "Social Listening Tool" by the social media agency of the in accordance with the RFP on the pretext of raising awareness about Aadhaar is nothing but an attempt to "overreach the jurisdiction" of the apex court. "Despite the fact that the constitutional validity of various aspects of Aadhaar is under challenge before this Court in a batch of petitions and judgement has been reserved by a Constitution Bench of this Court in the matter, the Respondents (Centre, UIDAI) have issued the RFP to identify 'top detractors' and 'neutralise negative sentiments' in relation to Aadhaar. It is therefore clear that the Respondents have no respect or regard for proceedings before this Court," the petition said. The legislator alleged that the haste with which the RFP was being pushed through with the bids scheduled to be opened less than two weeks after the publication of the RFP itself demonstrated the mala fides of the Centre and the UIDAI. The plea said that weekly and monthly reports are to be prepared by the Social Media Agency, indicating the most discussed topics, top detractors, top influencers and the net sentiment related to Aadhaar. "The entire surveillance architecture is to be placed in the hands of private persons employed on a contract basis who will be on the rolls of the service provider who emerges successful in the tender process. "While surveillance by agents of the State is itself violative of the right to privacy, in this case, the privacy of the citizens of this country is sought to be placed at the mercy of non-State actors which reeks of manifest arbitrariness," the plea alleged. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it will undertake a complete review of social media policy and withdrawn its notification proposing a social media hub for the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry. The decision had then led to the disposal of an earlier plea against the hub filed by Moitra against the notification of the I&B Ministry. Western officials say the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, poses a growing menace around the world. Increasingly alarmed by the agency's foreign forays, Western nations are scrambling to protect themselves and to strike back against a shadowy organisation British Prime Minister Theresa May calls "a threat to all our allies and our citizens." This week Britain charged two alleged GRU agents in absentia with the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who were left critically ill after being exposed to a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury. Moscow denies any involvement, and Britain and its allies won't find it easy to counter an organization with strong ties to the Russian leadership and a seeming disregard for international laws. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's commitment to continue working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Kim on Wednesday pledged to denuclearise North Korea by the end of Donald Trump's first term in 2021, officials in the South Korea said. It comes as Kim and South Korea's president Moon Jae-in have agreed to a summit in North Korea from 18-20 September - the third between the two leaders this year. "The Secretary-General commends the continued momentum and efforts by both Koreas to further trust-building and reconciliation, in line with the Panmunjom Declaration," his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement released on Thursday. Dujarric added that the UN chief "looks forward to further progress at the inter-Korean summit later this month towards sustainable peace, security, and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions." North Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, said that Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang to discuss denuclearisation measures marking the first time that the North Korean leader has offered a potential timeline for fully dismantling his country's nuclear weapons programme. In June, after the summit in Singapore, Kim pledged to work toward the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula in return for security guarantees from the US, as Trump wrapped up the meeting with outcomes that could ease tensions and reshape the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN peace envoy for Syria on Friday proposed a plan for Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria's Idlib province to pull back from cities and other civilian-populated areas to avert a bloodbath in the rebel-held province. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster if Syrian forces, backed by Russia and Iran, launch an all-out attack in Idlib, the last major rebel bastion. Addressing the Security Council, Staffan de Mistura also called for evacuation corridors to be opened for civilians to voluntarily leave the war zone, under UN monitoring. The council was meeting as Turkey clashed with Iran and Russia at a summit in Tehran on how to address the crisis in Idlib, an enclave in northwest Syria where three million people live. De Mistura proposed that a deadline be set for all fighters -- in particular the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front -- to retreat from populated areas and that no military attacks would be launched during the pullback. "This would apply in particular for Al-Nusra, who should be notified by the guarantors, in particular Turkey, which still has the capacity to send messages," he said. A Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism, saying it was unclear where the fighters would go and whether Syria could be persuaded to halt military action. "There are challenges," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US on Thursday expressed concern over "continued democratic backsiding" in the Maldives and warned of "appropriate measures" against key officials if the upcoming presidential elections were not held in free and fair manner. The presidential elections in the tropical Indian Ocean island nation is scheduled for September 23. "The United States is concerned about continued democratic backsliding in Maldives, particularly as the country prepares for a presidential election on September 23," US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said. She said that the US join the international community in calling for the release of falsely accused political prisoners, full implementation of the February ruling of the Maldives' Supreme Court overturning the convictions of opposition members. "An end to executive interference in the Parliament and judiciary; respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and holding a free and fair election that reflects the will of the Maldivian people," Nauert said. The restoration of democratic institutions and practices, to include a free, fair and inclusive election held on its scheduled date of September 23, is of critical importance to Maldives" future, the spokesperson said. "Absent Maldives' return to a democratic path, the US will consider appropriate measures against those individuals who undermine democracy, the rule of law, and a free and fair electoral process," Nauert said. Known for its beaches, blue lagoons, luxury resorts and extensive reefs, Maldives became a multi-party democracy in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule. Meanwhile, the US Senate on Thursday confirmed appointment of Alaina B Teplitz as the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several US lawmakers have urged the new government of Pakistan to treat its ethnic and religious minorities with equality and dignity. Addressing 'The Minorities Day on the Hill' organised by South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation (SAMAF) and Voice of Karachi (VOK) on Wednesday, the lawmakers urged the Imran Khan government to stop human rights violation of minorities in Karachi as well as other parts of the country, including Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. In his speech as the host of the event, US Congressman Thomas Garrett Jr appealed to all countries in the world to treat their minorities with respect and dignity they deserve and grant them equal rights. He said that Mohajirs (Muslims who migrated to Pakistan from India during the partition in 1947) had left their homes hoping for a better life but they were not welcomed in their new homeland. I clearly understand the plight of Mohajirs who are the product of post-independence ethnic cleansing. They were forced to leave their homes hoping they are going to somewhere they'd be welcomed, but they weren't, he said. They have a story that needs to be told. I am not advocating on behalf of any group to demand a radical change in policy except that we expect our allies to treat their minorities with equality and dignity they so much deserve," Garrett said. Congressman Scott Perry said that we in the United States see and treat all ethnic and religious minorities equally and we demand that our allies do the same. We can all live together and practice our faith in peace and harmony. This is the way it is now in America, but that should be everywhere. The lawmaker from Pennsylvania said that America should take lead on this and demand all those countries the US does business with or have relations with to treat their citizens equally, so everyone could realise their full potential. In his speech, Virginia Congressman Rob Wittman highlighted the geo-strategic importance of Karachi, particularly in the wake of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China's One Belt, One Road initiative and Karachi port's importance in providing logistical supplies to Afghanistan. He assured minorities in the region his full support and promised that he would continue to work in this direction as a member of the influential Armed Services Committee. Congressman Andy Harris said that "practicing one's religion is a basic human right, and as humans we should share this right. It doesn't matter which part of the world we live in, or which ethnic or religious group we belong to, we have the right to exist peacefully and enjoy our basic human rights." US lawmakers who attended the event and expressed their support for the cause of ethnic and religious minorities included Perry, Adam Kizinger, Dave Brat, Morgan Griffith, Jeff Duncan, Raul Labrador, Gary Palmer, Rod Blum, Randy Huttgren, Jodz Rice, Andy Biggs, Tom Rice and Alex Mooney. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Various aspects of Hindu philosophy can help find the solution to several problems that plague the world today, Prime Minister said on Friday and called for using to connect more people with the thoughts of In his message to the second World Hindu Congress here, Modi said that digitising various treatises and ancient epics can deepen their connect with the younger generation. "This would be a great service for the coming generations," he said. "Living in the era of technology, I particularly call upon the esteemed delegates of this conference to think about ways in which can connect more and more people with the thoughts of Hinduism," Modi said. The inaugural session of the conference was attended by 2,500 delegates and Hindu leaders from more than 60 countries. In his message, Modi hoped that the meeting would deliberate upon how better India can engage with the world, based on its ancient treasure trove of knowledge, intellectually and culturally, to help build a future of understanding, acceptance, sharing and caring for "our future" generations to live and thrive. The message was read by eminent Indian-American Bharat Barai. "The manner in which this Conference has brought together thinkers, scholars, intellectuals, eminent thinkers and other participants is commendable," Modi said. Noting that is among the oldest beliefs in the history of humankind, Modi said, "It is in the various aspects of Hindu philosophy that we can find the solution to several problems that plague the world today. Modi said that he is glad that the conference is being held in Chicago, which reminds every Indian of one proud moment when Swami Vivekananda addressed the 'Parliament of the World's Religions' in 1893, in the same month of September 125 years ago. Modi said the Indian community across the world is catalyst of the resurgence that Swami Vivekananda spoke of contributing to a better future for the whole world. The board members of the United States India Business Council (USIBC) Friday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which they expressed their desire to prepare a roadmap to achieve the target of USD 500 billion in bilateral trade, a statement issued by the PMO said. They also briefed the prime minister on the outcomes of the India Idea Forum held in Mumbai earlier this week, it said. "The business leaders expressed their desire to prepare a roadmap to achieve the target of USD 500 billion in bilateral trade and expand meaningfully their CSR activities in India," it said. Interacting with the members, the prime minister mentioned various reforms undertaken by his government. He also spoke of the enormous investment potential in India, and encouraged the American investor community to step up investment in the country, the statement said. Mentioning the shared values between India and the US, he also called for greater people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Around 150 million school children aged 13-15 are the victims of violence from their peers, says a new report from the UN Children's Fund. The study published on Thursday, measures the number of students who report having been bullied over the period of a month, or involved in a physical fight during the previous year, and shows that for many young people, the school environment is not a safe place, but a danger zone where they have to learn in fear. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore says that these incidents have a negative impact on students' and well-being, whether they live in rich or poor countries. "Every day, students face multiple dangers, including fighting, pressure to join gangs, bullying both in person and online violent discipline, sexual harassment and armed violence," she said, adding that: "In the long-term it can lead to depression, anxiety and even suicide. Violence is an unforgettable lesson that no child needs to learn." The report points to evidence of particular risk factors that increase a child's vulnerability to violence. These include disability, extreme poverty, ethnicity and HIV status. Those in institutional care or unaccompanied migrants are also vulnerable. In addition to facing dangers from fellow students, many young people risk beatings from their teachers: nearly 720 million school-aged children live in countries where corporal punishment at schools is not banned, and where social norms give adults in positions of authority the justification to use violence to discipline children. The study highlights the strong influence that school exerts on children's lives and, in the best cases, can help to protect children from the risks of child labour, exploitation and child marriage. systems can enable communities to promote social cohesion, equality and peace. The report is part of UNICEF's #ENDviolence campaign, which calls for urgent action to improve the school environment for students. This includes new legislation, prevention and response measures in the schools, community involvement in changing classroom culture and sharing best practice. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal College and University Teachers' Association (WBCUTA) has donated Rs 5 lakh to the Kerala Chief Minister's Flood Relief Fund. The 92-year-old association has donated the amount in three instalments to the 'Kerala Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund', WBCUTA General Secretary Srutinath Prahraj said in a statement on Friday. The deluge last month triggered by torrential monsoon rains had left a trail of destruction in Kerala and has claimed 491 lives since May 29. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Women and Child Development Ministry has invited nominations for this year's 'Nari Shakti Puraskar', the highest civilian honour for women in India. The coveted award is conferred on those exceptional women and institutions who have been working incessantly towards the cause of women empowerment. The president confers the 'Nari Shakti Puraskar' on International Women's Day every year. Now in its 19th year, the award recognises the par excellence contributions of women in society, celebrate those who have carved a niche for themselves in the community and have also ensured women's financial stability. "We have been conferring the 'Nari Shakti Puraskar' since 1999 and have collated an extensive database of zealous women achievers, who rise above barriers, venture into unexplored sectors and make a lasting contribution to society," said Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi in a statement. "This year too, I urge those women and institutions to come forward and nominate themselves, who have made outstanding contribution towards upliftment of women in society," Gandhi said. The nominations for this year's 'Nari Shakti Puraskar' are open till October 31. The desired documents for nomination are to be submitted to the deputy secretary (WD & IC), MWCD, Room No- 632, 6th Floor, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi- 110001, the statement said. Applicants are requested to read the award guidelines at: http://www.wcd.nic.in/award. Self nominations for the awards are also considered. The selection committee may at its discretion also consider individuals other than those recommended by the state governments and central ministries, it said. "A screening committee will scrutinise and short-list the nominations received for the awards and a selection committee constituted for the purpose will then consider the achievements of institutions and individuals nominated or recommended for the Awards by the prescribed authority," the statement added. The outstanding contributions in the field are of primary consideration in identifying the recipients of awards, it said. The final selection of the awardees are made by the National Selection Committee which takes into account the recommendations of the screening committee. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal is "slightly friendly" to the Rohingyas and has set up special camps for about 70 such families, BSF Director General (DG) K K Sharma said Friday, asserting he has got an inquiry conducted to ascertain their numbers. The chief of the border guarding force, which guards the 4,096-km-long India-Bangladesh frontier, said they are alive to the issue and there has not been any large-scale influx of these Myanmar-based migrants into India. "We are alive to the situation. We are aware that a large number of Rohingyas are assembled there in Bangladesh and from time-to-time some small groups did try to enter India, but I am very happy to say that we did not let them succeed. "So, there has not been any large-scale influx of Rohingyas into India. Whatever Rohingyas are already there in the country... In fact, they are also under pressure at some places; so they are going to West Bengal, a state which is slightly friendly with them. "They have set up camps for Rohingyas coming from within the country and not from Bangladesh," Sharma said at a press conference he held with his visiting Bangladeshi counterpart. We got it (Rohingyas presence in West Bengal) inquired, the DG said, and there were about 70 odd families who had come from various places within India. "So, I am very happy to say the BSF has successfully contained the influx of Rophigyas and we have not allowed any intrusion so far. This has also been verified by our sister security agencies," Sharma asserted. Border Guards Bangladesh DG Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam was also asked the same question and he replied that they are "very much alert" to prevent unauthorised movement of Rohingyas in their country and towards the border areas. "There are large number of Rohingyas along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and all the security agencies including BGB are keeping them confined to the area allocated to them. But yet, in very few cases, they are slipping out of the camps and we are finding them in some other parts of Bangladesh. "Our security forces are very much alert and as we detect them, we get them back to our camps again. We are very keen on keeping them in the designated camps," the BGB chief said. He said any decision on the this subject is the prerogative of the Bangladeshi government. "This (Rohingyas movement from Myanmar) is not migration. They have been forcibly displaced. This is a political decision and at the political level, the Bangladesh government is trying to resolve the problem with help of the international community," Islam said. A high-level delegation of the BGB, led by Islam, today concluded their six-day visit and bi-annual meeting with the BSF on various border-related issues. At a press conference in November last year, the BSF DG had said there were about 36,000 Rohingyas in various parts of the country and the paramilitary force had upped its ante against their illegal influx into India, "as their links with terror organisations cannot be ruled out". He had said the BSF had not come across any specific case where a Rohingya they caught possessed arms, ammunition or had terror connection. "But, the threat that they have some links with terror organisations is a very serious one and has been given by our sister agencies and I don't doubt them," Sharma had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Ayushman Bharat initiative which aims to provide insurance cover of Rs five lakh per annum to 50 crore people, calling it a "great commitment". The ambitious healthcare scheme, touted as the world's largest, aims to benefit more than 10 crore poor families in the country. "Very impressed with India's initiative on Ayushman Bharat or universal Health Coverage! Thank you Prime Minister @narendramodi. Great commitment! Thank you Minister of Health, @JPNadda, for meeting me today!," Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus tweeted Thursday night. Thanking the WHO DG, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said it was Prime Minister Modi's vision to make healthcare "accessible and affordable" to all. "Thank you for your kind words @DrTedros & a very fruitful meeting. Our PM envisions to make healthcare accessible and affordable for all. Under #PMJAY, an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh will be extended to 50 Cr people- "equal the size of the population of America, Canada, Mexico"," the minister tweeted in response. During his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort this year, Modi had said his government would launch the scheme on September 25, the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. The scheme aims to target the poor, deprived rural families and it identified an occupational category of urban workers' families, 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas, as per the latest Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking whether petrol prices would hit the century mark under his government and if the rupee was in hospital. Congress spokesperson R P N Singh said all political parties will take to the streets to protest against the rising prices of petrol and diesel that are hitting the common man hard and questioned the prime minister's silence on the issue. He said the September 10 'Bharat Bandh' protest is "not of the Congress but of the common man". "The prime minister during the UPA's tenure had said that the rupee is in hospital. The rupee has touched an all-time low against the US dollar, where is the prime minister now? He is neither tweeting nor giving any speech. "Never has the rupee touched such low levels in the history of the country. The country wants to ask him why is he silent? Is the rupee in hospital today?" he asked. Singh alleged that this government has failed on all fronts, including "economy, employment, welfare of the youth, farmers and every section of society". The Congress leader said the party has called a "Bharat Bandh" on September 10 to protest against the rising fuel prices and all opposition parties will take part in it. He said petrol has touched the Rs 80 mark in Delhi and has breached the Rs 90 mark at places like Bhiwandi and asked if it will "cross the century mark under this government". Singh said the government has earned Rs 11 lakh crore through taxes on petrol and diesel. The common man, who has paid the taxes, should take to the streets to protest. He said the Congress will organise state-level press conferences in over 90 cities to highlight the fuel price rise and urged people to make the bandh a success by participating in it. The Congress will organise a nationwide protest on September 10 over rising fuel prices, party leaders had announced Thursday and asked other opposition parties and civil society groups to join the shutdown against the central government. Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel, Motilal Vora, Mallikarjun Kharge and Randeep Singh Surjewala had said the common man was bearing the brunt of escalating prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas as well as of other essential commodities. Patel had said most opposition parties have given their consent to support and Congress leaders have talked to the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and others, who have extended their support to the Congress on the issue. On Trinamool Congress, he said the party has agreed to support but won't give a call for bandh as they are in government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A women's organization in Arunachal Pradesh has expressed disappointment at the reinstatement of a tainted official at a top post in the state's tax and excise department. Tani Jongkey, who was booked by police under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, has been reinstated as tax & excise joint commissioner recently as per court orders. The Arunachal Pradesh Womens Welfare Society (APWWS) said in a statement today that Jongkey was able to rejoin the department because of non-submission of the inquiry report on time. Jongkey was booked for alleged sexual assault on an 11-year-old schoolgirl on June 2, 2017 and put under suspension on November 22 last year. He had faced charges under sections 341, 354 and section 8 of the POCSO Act for alleged sexual assault on the minor girl. The Itanagar Permanent Bench of Gauhati High Court on March 7 this year had noted that even after the expiry of 90 days, the suspension order of Jongkey was not revoked or modified by the review committee of the department as per the provision of the Central Services Rules. The court had directed the state authorities to revoke the suspension order and reinstate Jongkey in service from November 22 2017, the day he was suspended. The court further directed the government to pay all consequential service benefits, including arrears of pay and allowances, due to the officer. In an order issued on August 6, Tax & Excise Commissioner Anirudh Singh said that the officer had been reinstated because of serious lapses on the part of the officers and officials of the department as the file and the proposal for extending the suspension order were not submitted on time to the competent authority. Tax & Excise Deputy Commissioner Ando Pangkam has been appointed to ascertain the procedural lapses that led to the delay in review of suspension order and fixation of responsibility against the negligent officer." In another directive, the commissioner had further directed that no specific duty may be assigned to Jongkey as long as the departmental inquiry was pending. Meanwhile, the report of the government-constituted two-member panel to inquire into the charges against Jongkey is yet to be submitted. Calling for the constitution of a fresh committee consisting of representatives from NGOs for an impartial inquiry, the APWWS said the reinstatement of Jongkey reflects that a person of social standing has enormous influence and can manipulate and twist the case in their favour. Meanwhile, the APWWS has urged the state government to establish an independent child rights commission for taking up cases involving childrens rights. It also appealed for the early constitution of the APSCW with members from the empanelled list prepared by the outgoing commission. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Stephen Nellis(Reuters) - A "wide range" of Apple Inc products including the Apple Watch would be affected by proposed U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, the company told U.S. trade officials, but gave no sign of an impact on its iPhone cash cow.Apple did not disclose specific revenues for most of the affected products, but of those the Apple Watch may be the biggest seller. It brought in about $6.1 billion in revenue last year, according to an estimate from analyst firm Bernstein. That represents a small portion of Apple's $229 billion in overall sales.Apple laid out the impact on its ... By Rajendra Jadhav and Vijaykumar VedalaMUMBAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Physical gold buying picked up pace in major Asian centres this week as lower prices fuelled appetite for the metal, with India seeing healthy demand ahead of the festive season despite a rise in domestic rates to a two-month high.In India, the world's second-biggest consumer of the metal after China, gold futures rose to 30,700 rupees ($428) per 10 grams on Thursday, a peak since July 9.Demand in India usually strengthens in the final quarter as the country gears up for the wedding season and major festivals such as Diwali ... By Paul SandleLONDON (Reuters) - British Airways apologised on Friday after the credit card details of hundreds of thousands of its customers were stolen over a two-week period in the most serious attack on its website and app.The airline discovered on Wednesday that bookings made between Aug. 21 and Sept. 5 had been infiltrated in a "very sophisticated, malicious criminal" attack, BA Chairman and Chief Executive Alex Cruz said. It immediately contacted customers when the extent of the breach became clear.Around 380,000 card payments were compromised, the airline said, with hackers obtaining ... By David LjunggrenWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada is increasingly optimistic it can reach a deal with the United States to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement, although it may take until the end of September, a source with direct knowledge of the talks said on Friday.U.S. and Canadian officials resumed their negotiations this week to modernize the 1994 pact, which governs $1.2 trillion a year in trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. President Donald Trump has struck a trade deal with Mexico and threatened to push ahead without ... By David LjunggrenWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canada's top trade negotiator said on Friday she and her U.S. counterpart were making "very good progress" in talks to save the North American Free Trade Agreement amid increasing Canadian optimism that a deal could be reached, even if a conclusion did not appear imminent. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland repeated her upbeat assessment of the negotiations, again terming them constructive, as she spoke to reporters after a meeting in Washington with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. "We are certainly making very good progress at ... Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Friday it would work with the Indian government to compensate patients who suffered from artificial hip implants the US healthcare company recalled eight years ago. Last month, a government panel recommended that J&J pay compensation of at least Rs 2 million ($27,812) to each patient who received an ASR hip implant in India, an estimated 4,700 people. The federal government has asked states to help the patients get relief soon. "We have always been and continue to be fully committed to supporting all ASR patients in India, and the rest of the ... By Rania El Gamal and Alex LawlerDUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - An OPEC and non-OPEC technical committee will later this month discuss proposals for sharing out an oil-output increase, sources familiar with the matter said, a tense topic for the producer group after it decided in June to ease supply curbs. A panel called the Joint Technical Committee will on Sept. 17 consider proposals on distributing the agreed output increase of 1 million barrels per day, the sources said. The discussion had earlier been planned for next Tuesday."The talks will look at various mechanisms" to reach the required ... BERLIN (Reuters) - Qatar's energy minister on Thursday called for oil-producing countries to boost investment in the oil and gas sector given a recovery in the price of oil, but said he did not back setting any specific targets for such investment.Energy Minister Mohammed al-Sada said he expected the issue to be addressed during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Algeria at the end of the month."While the oil price has been recovering, the only thing now is to see an adequate level of investment going back to the oil sector," Sada told Reuters ahead of a bilateral Qatar-German ... By Christoph Steitz and Tom KackenhoffFRANKFURT (Reuters) - Swedish power utility Vattenfall is making a push into the German market for electric vehicle (EV) services and is in talks with carmakers to further its efforts to secure a place among the leading players.Vattenfall board member Tuomo Hatakka, who drives an all-electric BMW i3, said the energy company aims to provide charging solutions for private customers and corporate fleets, adding that public infrastructure is also a possible revenue source.The state-owned group has so far installed between 9,000 and 10,000 charging points in ... By Jonathan Stempel and Sweta Singh(Reuters) - The prominent short-seller Andrew Left has sued Tesla Inc and its Chief Executive Elon Musk, saying Musk fraudulently engineered his since-abandoned plan to take Tesla private to "burn" investors hoping the electric car company's stock price would fall.Left, whose reports at Citron Research often push stock prices lower, said in his proposed class-action complaint on Thursday that Musk's issuance of materially false and misleading information harmed short-sellers like himself, as well as those hoping Tesla's stock price would rise.The shareholder ... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC on Friday the United States was continuing to talk with China about a number of trade issues, but so far, China had not met U.S. requests. "We are still talking with China on a number of issues... Those talks will continue to go on. We want lower (trade) barriers across the board," he said.Specifically, Kudlow said, the United States was seeking "zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, zero subsidies, stop the IP theft, stop the technology transfer, allow Americans to own their own companies.""Those have been our asks ... Travelling by ferry to the Andamans on holiday or going to work in an electric bus during the rush hour, technology is always at hand. Not only can it forecast weather disturbances or other problems that could spoil your travel, it can also resolve much of it remotely. Technology is changing the way people move, and its intervention in mobility will only increase. Electric chargers, for instance, can operate at power of up to 350 kilowatts. ABBs Terra High Power charger adds up to 200 km of range to an electric vehicle in just eight minutes. Digital and IT tools, ... Spearmint Resources Inc. Spearmint Renews All of its Lithium Claims in the Clayton Valley of Nevada ID: 1540875 (firmenpresse) - Spearmint Renews All of its Lithium Claims in the Clayton Valley of Nevada Spearmint Resources Inc. (SRJ or the Company) (SRJ-TSX.V)( SPMTF-OTCBB) (A2AHL5--FSE) wishes to announce that it has renewed all of its lithium claims in the Clayton Valley of Nevada with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These claims directly border Cypress Development Corp. (CYP.v), who on September 6, 2018 released positive results from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Cypress'' Clayton Valley lithium project in Nevada representing a Net present value of $1.45-billion (USD). http://www.irw-press.at/prcom/images/messages/2018/44515/SRJ NR - Sept 7 2018 Renews Nevada Lithium ClaimsPRcom.001.jpeg James Nelson, President of Spearmint stated, We applaud the positive PEA results reported by our neighbor Cypress Development Corp and we are very pleased to renew all of our claims in Nevada. We had drill results as high 1670 ppm lithium on our property which directly borders that of Cypress and appears to share the lithium clay formation (please refer to map). With work programs currently underway on Spearmints strategically located properties in the Golden Triangle, and operations about to get started on our Vanadium Prospects in Quebec, we are working diligently to increase shareholder value and we are optimistic about the companys developments in the near and long term. About Spearmint Resources Spearmint''s current projects also include three areas of focus on gold in British Columbia; the Golden Triangle Gold Prospects comprising of four separate claim blocks totaling 4,095-acres bordering GT Gold Corp (GTT.v), the Gold Mountain Prospects comprising of three separate claim blocks totaling 1,245-acres bordering Barkerville Gold Mines (BGM.v), and the 3,972 acre Neba Prospects bordering Aben Resources Ltd (ABN.v). Spearmints 8,482 acre EL North Nickel-Copper Prospect is a contiguous land package that includes the EL North, EL North 2 and the BUDDY claims in the Eskay Creek Camp bordering Garibaldi Resources Corp (GGI.v). Spearmints 10,300 acre WHY WEST Magnesium project near Rossland, BC directly borders West High Yield Resources (WHY.v). Spearmints current projects include a portfolio of lithium prospects. The ''Clayton Valley Lithium Prospects'' in Nevada comprise of two claim blocks totalling 800-acres bordering Pure Energy Minerals (PE.v) & Cypress Development Corp. (CYP.v). Spearmints Chibougamau Vanadium Prospects comprise of four separate claim blocks totalling 9,735-acres bordering, or in the direct vicinity of, the vanadium deposit of BlackRock Metals (private) Ilmenite vanadium project, Vanadiumcorp Resource Inc. (VRB.v) and Vanadium One Energy Corp. (VONE.v). If you would like to be added to Spearmints news distribution list, please send your email address to info(at)spearmintresources.ca. Contact Information Tel: 1604646-6903 www.spearmintresources.ca James Nelson President Spearmint Resources Inc. SPEARMINT RESOURCES INC. Suite 1470 - 701 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V7Y 1C6 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc.) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Juristisches zu dieser Pressemitteilung Weitere Pressemitteilungen von Spearmint Resources Inc. Bereitgestellt von Benutzer: irwDatum: 07.09.2018 - 03:02 UhrSprache: DeutschNews-ID 1540875Anzahl Zeichen: 11051contact information:Contact person:Town:Phone:Kategorie:Typ of Press Release:type of sending:Date of sending:Anmerkungen:Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bishermal aufgerufen.Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung vonBeachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschlu (gema TMG - TeleMedianGesetz ) und dem Datenschutz (gema der DSGVO ). India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart, has big plans for this festive season, which will likely kick-start from October. The e-tailer is not only working on ways to boost sales by roping in more handset makers but is also planning to rollout its in-house brands. A major part of Flipkart's sale strategy is the sale of handsets -- mobile phones amount to its 50 per cent sales. The company is also planning to invest heavily to promote its in-house labels such as MarQ (appliances like washing machines and ACs), Perfect Homes (furniture brand), SmartBuy (electronics and accessories), etc. Other offerings from Flipkart like flexible EMI option through both debit card and credit card and mobile protection services will drive in more sales. Experts say a major benefit of focusing on private label is high margin value, which can really create a difference in the gross sales of a company. Investing on its private label will also help Flipkart in inching closer towards its 2020 goal of capturing 40 per cent of the online market in India. "Private label is a very big chunk of our plan for BBD (Big Billion Sales) this year. The three categories where our private label play will be aggressive are large appliances, furniture and electronic accessories," Adarsh Menon, head of private labels at Flipkart told the Economic Times. Handset is a category that has never disappointed the e-tailers. Companies like OnePlus, Motorola, HMD, Xiaomi were all initially launched on online platforms like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. "We are confident that we will be able to expand our leadership further and by the end of the festive sales (Big Billion Days or BBD), we should have 30-32 per cent share. Our platform will have a number of new launches in alliance with our handset partners (during the festive sale). There will be devices across price points...we expect strong volumes coming especially in the Rs 10,000-15,000 category as well as the entry-level smartphones (Rs 4,000-7,000)," Flipkart, Senior Director (Smartphones), Ayappan Rajagopal told PTI. The Walmart-backed company has already captured over 25 per cent online mobile phones sales in India. Having more resources at hand, the company plans to raise it to over 30 per cent. The company has partnered with brands like Informix, Realme, Panasonic and Asus to launch products on its platform. As soon as Supreme Court announced its judgment on Section 377 on Thursday, social media erupted with joy. Conversations around decriminalisation of Section 377 was already dominating social media before SC's historic judgment but Indian netizens took over after the apex court quashed the archaic law. To celebrate the momentous occasion individuals as well as companies from media to tech changed their display pictures to the pride flag and kept the conversation running. From Google's display of the LGBTQIA pride flag on its homepage to Uber's routes lighting up with the pride colours, here's how companies showed their support to SC's judgment of decriminalising homosexuality: 1. Google Google was one of the first companies to show its support. The tech giant displayed the pride flag on its homepage. Google also tweeted its support and said "Love is Love". 2. Facebook Social networking giant, Facebook, changed its display picture on the platform to honour the pride flag and show its support. 3. YouTube Google's video sharing platform, YouTube changed its display picture to show the LGBTQIA flag. It also tweeted, "We're beaming with pride." 4. Microsoft IT major Microsoft, showing its support, said, "Come as you are. Do what you love." Come as you are. Do what you love. #377 pic.twitter.com/dcvqluATgc - Microsoft India (@MicrosoftIndia) September 7, 2018 Infosys also changed its display and cover pictures to rally behind the SC decision. 5. Flipkart Indian e-commerce giant, Flipkart, said, "Here's to celebrating the cancelled order that has delivered dignity, equality, individualism and freedom." 6. Uber Uber started lighting up its routes with the pride colours when booking a cab. It said, "Move forward, ride with pride." 7. Swiggy Food-delivery app, Swiggy, reminded how the struggle for the LGBTQIA community has not been a piece of cake, but we still got there. Swiggy also changed its logo to the pride colours. India just witnessed a sweet victory for love! #Section377 pic.twitter.com/34UoGxV9A7 - Swiggy (@swiggy_in) September 6, 2018 8. Zomato Swiggy's rival Zomato shot sharp and said, "Let's get one thing straight. Love is Love." Not only the companies, everyone was talking about the judgment. It was the top trend on Thursday in the country. To give a taste of how the conversation assumed gigantic proportions, witness the GIF shared by Twitter India. Notice how India lights up. Over 300,000 Tweets discussing #section377 and #LGBTQ in the past 12 hours and the conversation is still on the rise! Congrats to the #LGBTQ community in !! #LoveWins via @Trendsmap https://t.co/ZfMmJa3Ydl pic.twitter.com/2cx4NH2NPH - Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) September 6, 2018 The path-breaking judgement held that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised consensual gay sex was "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary". While a constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the 158-year-old law had become an "odious weapon" to harass the LGBT community by subjecting them to discrimination and unequal treatment, Justice Indu Malhotra said that history owed an apology to the community and their families for the delay in providing redressal for the "ignominy" and "ostracism" they have faced through the centuries. The Supreme Court said Section 377 was a product of Victorian-era morality and there was no reason to continue with it as it enforced Victorian morale on the citizens of the country. While concluding the historic 493-page verdict, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it was time to move from "darkness to light" to herald a New India which would be a more inclusive society. (With PTI inputs; edited by Anwesha Madhukalya) Hindustan Times This is what real freedom feels like. It is what it felt like many monsoons ago in 1947 when it made its tryst with destiny. by Menaka Guruswamy What is freedom? Does it smell different, or feel different from a time lacking it? A new freedom is a sparkle in the eye, that spring in the step, that confidence of being recognised as a citizen worthy of the protection of a supreme court, a Constitution and a country. On Thursday, the Supreme Court, through a unanimous decision, said that LGBT Indians were entitled to equality and equal protection, protection from discrimination, freedom of expression and liberty a in short, the full range of fundamental rights that our Constitution secures. Importantly, all four judgments make it clear that it is constitutional morality, and not societal or majoritarian morality, that would be legally definitive in India. Justice DY Chandrachud explains that constitutional morality will impact any law that deprives LGBT individuals of their entitlement to a full and equal citizenship. Each of the four judgments has their own particularly memorable moments. The Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, starts with quoting Goethe:aaI am what I am, so take me as I am.a This perfectly captures much of what the human quest for acceptance and love is a be they from a minority and majority. But, it is not only at a conceptual level that the justices proceed. They also look to the practical. For instance, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman directs the government to initiate sensitisation of their officials, especially the police, in light of the judgment. Finally, Justice Indu Malhotra rounds off the judgments, saying that history owes an apology to the members of the LGBT community and their families for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered. That members of the LGBT community were compelled to live a life of fear, because of the ignorance of the majority to recognise homosexuality as a natural condition. With these four judgments, the Supreme Court has fulfilled some of the many promises of Indiaas radical and reparative constitution for LGBT Indians who had been left out of its embrace for long. By doing so, the SC also upturned what it had done in 2013 when a smaller panel of judges upheld the constitutionality of the now infamous colonial-era unnatural sex penal provision. With its judgment, the Supreme Court has distinguished itself not only as an institution invested in the protection of all Indians, but also a deeply introspective one. In a swift five years from 2013 to 2018, India has gone from being the worldas largest democracy, which criminalised its LGBT citizens to one which not simply decriminalised them, but also affirms their constitutional rights of equality, dignity, life, liberty and protection from discrimination. What accounts for Indiaas swift five-year turn around? The journey of the court case began in April 2016, when five brave LGBT Indians led by nationally acclaimed Bharatnatyam dancer, Navtej Singh Johar, his partner of over two decades, the journalist Sunil Mehra, renowned chef, Ritu Dalmia, hotelier, Aman Nath, and businesswoman, Ayesha Kapur, came together and agreed to fight the law. Their courage in the face of a recently upheld sodomy law was exemplary given that by becoming petitioners they were proclaiming their own criminality. They put at risk their reputations, their businesses and their safety. They believed it was most necessary for them to speak in their own voices, using that most classic of all constitutional remedies, a writ petition filed under Article 32, alleging violation of oneas constitutionally protected freedoms. Dr BR Ambedkar, the chairman of the Drafting Committee of Indiaas Constitution, himself the son of a so-called untouchable, knew well the potential of this reparative Constitution. He called this provision the soul of the Constitution. For a petitioner could trigger this instrument to tell her story, asking for emancipation by the court. It is the most intimate way to approach the constitutional court of your land. Five other petitions would follow in 2018. These petitions would herald the beginning of a journey to freedom for LGBT Indians, who would now and forever take their stories to their court in their names. It indicated a confidence in not only their court, but also a commitment to being visible as constitution rights holders and constitutional agitators. Hotelier Keshav Suri, one of the few prominent Indian corporate figures who is openly gay, petitioned the court and told his story of being rejected when he first came out to his family. LGBT students and alumni of Indiaas reputable Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) came to court. Jawaharlal Nehru, the countryas first prime minister, and a key drafter of Indiaas Constitution, would call the IITs, a temple of modern India. LGBT Indians were asking their court for a long overdue emancipation. What a story they enabled telling in court. From Johar and Mehra who had been together for over two decades, who loved each other so strongly that they opted to be unconvicted felons rather than give up on each other, to these young IITians, who entered elite institutions of higher education for whose 2,000 seats over one million Indians apply every year. It made sense to ask our court, how would these expected builders of modern India a its scientists, its teachers, its researchers and its inventors a discover and invent when they themselves were fearful of who and how they love? If litigation is storytelling, then we lawyers had our perfect protagonists, to move and inspire this tale of freedom. This jurisprudence of freedom will have resonance all over the Commonwealth, in the many countries that the colonial raj left behind unnatural sex laws inspired by Victorian, not local, morality. For the judgment in the Navtej Singh Johar case will hopefully inspire introspection in Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Pakistan and Malaysia, among others. What does this freedom feel like in India today? It is the incoming monsoon, the smell of wet soil; it is the colourful kurtas and blue jeans of our young scientist clients amid the sea of black and white lawyersa gowns. It is the twinkle in their eyes as they bob up and down in expectation of their lives to come. It is what India feels like today. It is what it felt like many monsoons ago in 1947 when it made its tryst with destiny. Menaka Guruswamy practises law before the Supreme Court of India, and is also Dr BR Amebdkar Research Scholar and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. She represented multiple petitioners in the case against Section 377. At a time the Indian banking sector is battling an unprecedented bad loans crisis, Paytm, India's largest digital financial services provider, hopes to step in with a solution soon. The buzz is that the company's team in Toronto is actively working on a system that will track users' digital transactions to ascertain their "credibility score". The latter can then help banks judge whether it would be safe to grant a loan to an individual. "The credibility of an individual can be ascertained from the nature of his digital transactions, which tell you a lot about his behaviour," Paytm CEO Harinder Takhar told The Economic Times. "If a reliable system is evolved, which can predict with sufficient accuracy about the capacity and willingness of an individual to return his/her loan, it would tremendously help the lender," he added. According to Takhar, "access to capital" is pivotal to growth. As an example, he cited small-level entrepreneurs unable to grow their business due to non-release of loans by banks. The algorithm that Paytm's Toronto office - housing nearly 100 employees from diverse backgrounds - is working on will, hence, be a boon for both credit-worthy customers and banks. Significantly, he told the daily that the "fraud prevention" team at the Toronto office has nearly 10 data-crunching experts keeping a close eye on digital purchases being made through Paytm. Any suspicious activity by a client is immediately red-flagged to the team in India. This development comes just 10 months after Paytm acquired a stake in CreditMate, a Mumbai-based fintech startup focussed on enabling its dealer partners to seamlessly assess, approve, process and distribute two wheeler loans to customers with no formal credit history. At the time, the company had said that it hoped to leverage CreditMate's proprietary credit and asset valuation technology to create a loan management system. Paytm certainly appears to be getting there fast. The company, meanwhile, is making a bigger play for the Canadian market, where reportedly 30% of the citizens still don't make digital payments. The Paytm Canada app, which allows Canadians to pay their bills online, hopes to win this chunk over. Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Many banks have reportedly expressed their disgruntlement over UIDAI's threat to impose penalty if they do not meet the target of minimum number of Aadhaar enrolments in each stipulated branch. The Aadhaar-issuing body on July 1 had set a timeline of at least eight enrolments or updations in each branch daily from July 1, 2018, scaling up to 12 per day from October 1, and 16 from January 1, 2019 onwards. Last month, the UIDAI had revised the deadline of the first stage of implementation to November 1. "Banks who achieve the target. It will be exempted from financial disincentives up to October 2018," the UIDAI said, adding that in case of failure to comply, "financial disincentive in respect of uncovered branches as on last day of the month will be levied from the month of July 2018 onwards". UIDAI wants banks to set up Aadhaar enrolment and updation facilities within their premises in one out of every 10 branches to make the verification process for bank accounts convenient. But the diktat means that as many as 23 banks, public and private alike, may face penalties with retrospective effect if they are unable to ensure eight Aadhaar enrolments or updations per branch per day from November. According to The Economic Times, before the extension, ICICI Bank topped the list of defaulters for July and was facing financial disincentive of Rs 82 lakh, followed by Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 68 lakh), Canara Bank (Rs 64.2 lakh) and Uco Bank (Rs 57 lakh). No wonder senior bankers across the board are an agitated lot. "This trend of setting daily targets is ridiculous. Our designated branches are ready with the Aadhaar enrolment facility but we can't force customers to do it," a bank CEO told the daily. Many others are questioning how the UIDAI can threaten to penalise banks - bypassing the RBI - when it is not a regulator. "Enrolling Aadhaar is not our core job. We are already constrained with lack of manpower. Hiring is also freezed in several banks which are placed under prompt corrective action by RBI. This is a difficult situation," said a senior executive with a state-owned lender. The UIDAI, on the other hand, claims it is well within its rights. "UIDAI is free to take action as per provisions of the Aadhaar Act 2016," the body said in one of its recent communications. Among state-owned entities, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, United Bank of India and Vijaya Bank may have to cough up penalties retrospectively if they fail to adhere to direction from November. Among private lenders, Bandhan Bank, DCB Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Federal Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank are listed as defaulters. Of course, there are banks that don't need to worry about penalties. An internal list detailing the banks' Aadhaar enrolment data shows that State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are fully compliant with the target given to them. "To further incentivise banks for setting up Aadhaar enrolment centres in their identified branches and provide convenience to their customers, it has been decided that the banks which meet the minimum Aadhaar enrolment/update targets shall continue to avail UIDAI's authentication and eKYC service free of cost," the UIDAI said last week. However, banks that miss the targets will be required to pay for the same, it warned. With PTI inputs LIC's plan to acquire 51 per cent stake the NPA-hit IDBI Bank may be nearing competition but insurance regulator IRDA could soon ask it to submit a stake-reducing timeline. While IRDA had granted permission to the state-owned insurance company to acquire 51 per cent stake in IDBI Bank in June, it had indicated that LIC will have reduce its stake to 15 per cent over time. The centre government gave its final nod to LIC on increasing its stake in July. "We will look at their (LIC's) business plan (post acquisition of 51 per cent stake in IDBI Bank) and then decide on reduction of its stake in IDBI Bank (to 15 per cent)," IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) Chairman SC Khuntia told reporters on the sidelines of an insurance Assocham summit in Mumbai on Friday. He added that LIC, which is India's largest insurance company, will have to protect the interests of its buyers. "LIC will have to safeguard the interest of policyholders while reducing its stake in the bank," he said. LIC currency holds 7.98 per cent stake in IDBI, while the government controls a majority stake of 85.96 per cent. In addition to increasing its stake to 51 per cent, the company also wants to acquire additional stake of 7 per cent in IDBI through preferential shares. The state-run company, which is working on the modalities of increasing stake in IDBI Bank to 51 per cent, is expected to invest up to Rs 13,000 in several tranches in IDBI Bank. Interestingly, though the permissible limit for insurance companies to hold stake in any listed entity is 15 per cent, the IRDA is of the view that permission can be granted in "specific cases". The All India IDBI Officers Association has challenged the move in the Delhi High Court, urging the court to issue a direction to the insurance regulator to withdraw its approval. "We have responded to the court. The IRDA has the powers to give relaxations in specific cases if they are justified. Here, the LIC has requested that in interest of their expansion they would like to have a synergy with a bank. Some relaxation has been given for this specific case," said Khuntia, reported PTI. The government is planning to merge at least four state-run banks, including IDBI Bank, as part of a larger consolidation plan, which is triggered by rising bad loans. The bank has been put under the RBI's prompt corrective action plan, which is triggered when a bank financial health worsens. IDBI Bank's total non-performing assets soared to 27.95 per cent in March compared to 21.25 per cent a year earlier. Like many other state-owned lenders, IDBI Bank also posted a net loss of Rs 5,662.76 crore in Q4, largely on the back of NPA provisions. (Edited by Manoj Sharma) 07 Sep 2018, 6:07 PM Uber in talks with Indian regulators to understand modalities of aerial taxis Ride-hailing app Uber, which is considering India among five global locations for its futuristic aerial taxi service, said it is in talks with regulators in the country to gauge the modalities and constraints of offering such a service. Last week, the Softbank-backed Uber had said it is considering India along with countries like Japan and France to be a part of Uber Elevate -- its aerial taxi service that could be launched in the next five years. Electric vehicles, green automobiles to be exempted from permit requirements: Nitin Gadkari The government has decided to keep electric vehicles and automobiles running on alternative fuels out of the ambit of permit requirements in order to boost public interest in them. Vehicles using electricity or, ethanol, biodiesel, CNG, methanol and biofuel need not apply for permits, said Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Demand for eco-friendly vehicles can be created by mandating cab aggregators like Ola and Uber to induct a certain percentage of such vehicles in their fleet. HDFC Bank is India's most-valuable brand according to a WPP-Kantar Millward Brown report HDFC Bank Ltd., India's largest private bank by market value, remained the country's most-valuable brand for the fifth straight year in a list of 75 companies compiled by advertising and marketing firm WPP and global research agency Kantar Millward Brown.Life Insurance Corporation of India and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. made a debut among the top 10 on the Brandz list at No. 2 and 3, respectively. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the country's newest telecom operator, entered the list at No. 10. US, India seal military communications pact, plan more exercises India and the United States signed a breakthrough accord on secure military communications yesterday, possibly opening the way for sales of sensitive U.S. military equipment to India. The pact was signed after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for talks aimed at deepening security ties. Banks to refer 11 power companies to NCLT over loan default Failing to find resolutions for stressed power sector companies, lenders have decided to refer 11 companies, including Prayagraj Power Generation, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy and Jaiprakash Power Venture, to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), banking sources said. After crossing the August 27 deadline, banks have 15 days time to refer all stressed accounts to NCLT. There are 34 stressed power accounts, with a combined value of Rs 1.74 trillion. PNB scam: Interpol issues red-corner notice against Nirav Modi's key man The Interpol has issued a red-corner notice (RCN) against one of the close aides of Nirav Modi, Mihir Bhansali, in connection with the Punjab National Bank scam. Mihir, who was the CEO of Modi's Firestar International, is wanted by the Enforcement Directorate as part of its probe in the biggest bank scam. Interestingly, it was Mihir Bhansali, Director of Firestar Diamond, who filed an appeal before the US court for bankruptcy in February, just days after the PNB scam was detected. The government on Friday appointed Anshula Kant as Managing Director of State Bank of India. The bank said that Anshula Kant will serve as the MD till she attains the age of superannuation on September 30, 2020, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. With her appointment, the India's largest public sector bank has total three MDs, including PK Gupta and DK Khara. "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of Kant as the Managing Director (MD), SBI till the date of her superannuation i.e. September 30, 2020," an order from the Personnel Ministry said. Her name was recommended by the Bank Boards Bureau for the post. The seat fell vacant after SBI MD B Sriram resigned from the SBI MD post on June 30, days after he was appointed to lead the IDBI Bank as its MD and CEO for three months. Anshula has been serving the bank as its Deputy Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since May 2014 and June 2015, respectively. Anshula Kant, a graduate in Economic Honours from Lady Shri Ram College for Women and a Post-Graduate in Economics from Delhi School of Economics joined State Bank of India as a probationary officer in 1983. She has handled many crucial assignments over three decades in the bank. She has an extensive experience in retail banking, corporate credit, cross-border trade and banking in developed markets - both retail and wholesale. Within four years of entering the Indian market, Chinese smartphone maker Vivo India has clocked in a phenomenal rise of 78 per cent in its overall revenue. Vivo's rise to the fame in India marks a growing dominance of the Chinese smartphone makers in India, which collectively account for over 60 per cent of the smartphone market. Though Vivo's net losses have decreased in the past two years, its overall revenue has actually doubled. The company posted a net loss of Rs 113.96 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 120.45 crore in 2017-18 but its revenues rose to Rs 11,179.3 crore in FY 18 from Rs 6292.96 crore the year before. Experts suggest the company's real strategy is long-term investment, which may take years to shows its full impact but they will surely make its position stronger in India, the world's biggest mobile phone market. Now like Oppo's Realme and Xiaomi's Pocophone, Vivo is also planning to launch a new brand to drive in more online sales. The company also plans to hire more local executives to better understand the domestic mobile phone market. "Like these two brands (Oppo and Xiaomi), Vivo's upcoming online exclusive brand will be specification-focussed with an aggressive pricing. Vivo's online foray last fiscal helped the brand to gain sales and this strategy will help it to maintain growth this fiscal too," an executive told the Economic Times. According to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, Vivo and Oppo were the fastest growing brands followed by Huawei. Counterpoint research found out that Vivo recorded its third highest shipments at 12 per cent in India during Q2 2018, while other top two brands, Samsung and Xiaomi, accounted for 28 per cent shipments each. The Chinese handset maker had roped in Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as its brand ambassador for the Indian market in March. Khan has been signed for future brand and product communication initiatives of Vivo India. The company's latest offering in India is Vivo V11 Pro at Rs 25,990. The smartphone comes with a waterdrop notch and an in-display fingerprint sensor. It was recently unveiled in Thailand, without the 'Pro' suffix. The device is available for pre-order on Flipkart and Amazon India and will go on sale for the first time on September 12 via online and offline channels. The Vivo V11 Pro will be sold across India in two colour options - Dazzling Gold and Starry Black. (Edited by Manoj Sharma) Ireland is preparing regulations governing short-term rentals let on homesharing sites like Airbnb similar to those introduced in Toronto, in a bid to ease a severe supply shortage, the country's housing minister said on Thursday. Like many countries around the world, Ireland is grappling with the effect that the rising popularity of home sharing is having on tight housing supply, a decade after the spectacular bursting of a housing bubble. The Toronto city council approved regulations in December that required operators to register with the city, restricted the properties they can rent to their principal residence and banned the listing of income properties. "If you looked to what is happening in Toronto, you'd have a good idea," Irish Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who is coming under political pressure over sharply rising homelessness and rental costs, told reporters regarding the planned regulations. "What we don't want to see is people removing long-term lets from the market and getting an unfair advantage in an unregulated short-term market," Murphy said, adding that he hope to bring plans to cabinet very shortly. Murphy added that while he wanted to get long terms lets back on the market, he did not want people to lose the ability to home share in circumstances like when they go on holidays, rent out a bedroom to help pay the bills or let their homes in rural areas where there are not enough hotels or bed and breakfasts. The regulations in Toronto, which took effect from June, allow homeowners to list up to three bedrooms within their principal residence, or their entire home when on vacation, for up to a total of 180 days per year. While Ireland was left with a surplus of houses after a 2008 property crash that halved values, homes have become especially scarce in cities like Dublin as an economy and population that is growing faster than anywhere else in the EU fuels demand. Just under 8,000 new homes were completed in Ireland in the first six months of the year, up 30 percent year-on-year but still set to fall well short of the 35,000 analysts say are needed annually just to keep up with demand. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Emerging markets-focused asset manager Ashmore said on Friday it was in the process of setting up an Irish subsidiary to ensure it could continue to serve clients after Britain leaves the European Union. Many UK-based asset managers and other financial services firms are setting up offices elsewhere in the EU as part of preparing for Brexit, with Dublin vying with Luxembourg, Paris and Frankfurt for business. "Our objective is to make sure that, in the worst-case scenario, if there is no deal, it has no impact on our operations," Chief Financial Officer Tom Shippey said. "We're some way through the regulatory approval to get an entity approved by the regulator, established and operational early in 2019, ahead of the end of March." Ashmore was in the process of finding premises and the office would likely be staffed by a mix of local hires and, potentially, some secondees from London, he said, numbering between 5 and 10 employees. Ashmore has around 250 staff globally, of which around 150 are based in Britain. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie DataSolutions, the specialist IT solutions distributor, today announces results from its survey* of Irish IT decision-makers on data privacy cyber security. The findings reveal that 98% of respondents do not trust social media providers to manage their personal data carefully. The majority of IT decision makers feel that 87% of retailers, 65% of Government bodies, 63% of utility providers and 53% of banks are all not to be trusted to protect their personal data. The only group that is trusted by the majority (53%) of professionals is their own employers. The survey discovered that trust and reputation are important factors for both users and providers when it comes to the security of personal data. Reputational risk facing businesses was cited as the biggest motivating factor for investment in new cybersecurity infrastructure for 36% of respondents. Other motivating factors included the risk of an attack occurring (24%) and financial risk (20%). Commenting on the research, Security Specialist at DataSolutions, Dave Keating said, "It is clear from the findings that when it comes to managing personal data, trust in most organisations is at an extremely low ebb and considerable work needs to be done to rebuild trust with users. With the frequency and volume of data breaches over the past several years, it is not difficult to explain the trust issues." DataSolutions will host its sixth annual Secure Computing Forum in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Thursday, 20th September 2018. It is one of Irelands largest cybersecurity events and more than 400 IT and business professionals are expected to attend. This years forum will investigate whether the development of AI presents a silver bullet for cyber-security and look at new emerging threats. Source: www.businessworld.ie The cat is out of the bag: Google LLC is reportedly working on a trial version of a filtered search app for China after a hiatus of eight years. Although Google subsequently reiterated that it was not close to launching a search service in China, this is still big and deeply divisive news. Googles previous foray into providing search services to Chinese netizens was besieged with setback after setback. This wasnt for a lack of trying, though. The company secured Lee Kai-fu, a prominent tech personality and ex-Microsoft executive, to run its shop. It even took the product localization strategy to a whole new level by launching a filtered Chinese search engine. But all this was to no avail, and it pulled the plug on its search services in China in 2010. Googles decade of setbacks in China came in various forms but the crux of its predicament is whether it should adopt self-policing in return for unfettered market access. In view of tightened control on internet and media, what makes Google think it can do a better job this time around? Here are six takeaways from Googles playbook in China. 1. In-market presence. Google knew very well the risk of being out of sight, out of mind. So, despite terminating its flagship search engine, it continues to maintain a presence in China. Of course, it has to tread carefully even in less-sensitive areas: the Android operating system and advertising services, and an artificial intelligence (AI) research and development center (its first in Asia). Last year, Googles headcount in China was about 700 employees, primarily made up of engineers and salespeople. This is a small team by Googles standards, but it served a pivotal function by ensuring continued engagement with the Chinese market, and more importantly, key stakeholders such as regulators and potential partners. 2. Chinese partners and alliances. China is a unique market, and in sensitive industries, a well-aligned Chinese partner can be an effective hedge against risks. In its previous attempt, Google leveraged on the strength of its far-superior search engine and opted for the go-it-alone approach to take market share. Googles recent developments are an about-face in strategy: It has been actively taking strategic stakes in and/or forging alliances with Chinese companies. Spanning across various sectors of strategic importance, these Chinese partners include marquee names like Tencent, No. 1 social media and games; JD.com, No. 2 in e-commerce; and Inspur, a leading cloud computing and big-data services provider. 3. Home field advantage. For years, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) were largely one-way traffic heading into China. No more. Last year, there were more than 350 Chinese outbound M&A deals, the second-highest year on record. Chinese companies are increasingly looking to tap on the competencies and resources of foreign companies for international markets. Think of this development as providing foreign companies with a home field advantage to level the playing field in China. The tech industry is an active outbound M&A segment, and Google is now in an enviable position to leverage its home field advantage. Its recent global alliance with JD.com, the No. 2 e-commerce player in China, is a case in point. 4. Competencies and diversification. During its China hiatus, Googles portfolio of services expanded significantly and it also developed new competencies in cutting-edge areas such as AI. At the same time, the array of online-offline services in China has also exploded to permeate many aspects of daily life. Consequently, Google has more time, space and flexibility to maneuver in China now a mix and match luxury that it didnt have the last time. Google can diversify its overall risks with a portfolio of services, each with a different level of risk from low to medium; and where the risks are high, it can apply its competencies (as opposed to provide services per se) and work with Chinese companies as the shop-front interface for Chinese consumers. There are already some early indications of Googles mix-and-match approach: a translation app, a file-management app, an AI-driven game on WeChat, and an alliance to jointly develop technologies with Tencent. 5. Baidu: the competition. Any discussion on Google in China isnt complete without Baidu, the default search engine in China with a market share of more than 70%. Baidu will be ruffled, no doubt. But knocking Baidu off its perch will not be easy because it has become too deeply ingrained in Chinese internet behavior during Googles absence in China. In any case, it doesnt look like this is an immediate China priority for Google now: The internet has changed drastically since Google and Baidu slugged it out, and the battles are now being fought on a much more connected global stage and in the technology and online-to-offline arenas, rather than search or the internet per se. 6. Content restriction: keep the status quo. Content restriction represents a fundamental rift between Chinese and Western ideologies, and this is so deeply entrenched that there is little room for compromise, let alone resolution. Finding a permanent solution to this rift, if done at all, will be a matter for future generations, and the most pragmatic interim solution is to maintain the status quo a point that is not lost on the political leadership on both sides and this means that Googles predicament will not be going away anytime soon. Rather than trying to change the content-restricting situation in China, Google kept the status quo, and put in motion a strategy to reduce its overall risk profile. This way, history will not repeat itself for Google, and doing business in China can then become a viable and sustainable strategic option. The ongoing U.S.-China trade war is a tricky and fluid situation, and Google could potentially become an inadvertent victim of a U.S.-China political power play. Notwithstanding, if common sense prevails, and the U.S. and China bring the world back to its orbit, Googles odds for cracking China (with or without search) have never looked better for the reasons set out in this article. L.B. Chong is director of C Consultancy Ltd. (www.c-consultancy.com) and he has worked with Chinese entrepreneurs, Chinese joint ventures and foreign companies in China since 1993. He also is the author of Managing a Chinese Partner: Insights From Four Global Companies and a number of published articles on China. Between the year 2000, when the first Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) summit was held, up to the most recent summit, China has moved from a bit player in Africas economy to its largest trading partner, surpassing the United States in 2009. China-Africa trade has ballooned from $10.5 billion in 2000 to over $200 billion this year. The most recent edition of Chinas flagship summit around its Africa policy has come and gone and with it an investment, loan and grant package of $60 billion. The 2018 FOCAC summit also appears to have had the highest participation for such a gathering, with about 48 African heads of state and government participating, but the summit also attracted significant attention and scrutiny of the China-Africa relationship both from the domestic Chinese audience and the international one. This is an opportunity for the relationship to move to the next level. The sheer volume of trade and investment flows cannot be the only measure of the success of the relationship. This FOCAC can and should be a departure point. The 2018 FOCAC summit came at a time of friction in the Chinese policy cycle as the trade war with the United States continues unabated. By end of this week, the same week as the FOCAC summit, up to 50% of Chinese exports to the U.S. could face tariffs of 10% or 25%. Tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods are going to have a substantial impact on Chinas economy. A significant part of Chinas policy response will include preparation for the next trade war and taking actions to reduce its exposure to U.S. tariffs. We can expect to see China increase its engagement with Latin America and Africa in search of new markets for its products. We should also expect the Chinese to diversify the source of imports, replacing American suppliers where possible. The FOCAC summit seems to suggest such a move. The $60 billion Chinese package includes $5 billion to support African exports to China. Carlos Lopes, former executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, posted on Twitter that FOCAC launched an ambitious initiative to promote non resources-based imports from Africa, presumably referring to minerals, oil and gas. It will not come as a surprise to see substantial Chinese investment in African soybeans, pork, animal feed and other agricultural products previously sourced in the U.S. This is an excellent opportunity for the non-natural resource segment of African economies and an opportunity for China to source those imports from a more-reliable partner. China has already stopped importing American crude, and Beijing is expected to impose tariffs on U.S. crude imports and replace them with crude from West Africa and the Middle East. The trade war and FOCAC financing provides an opportunity for Africa to leverage its trading relationship with China and provide an alternative source for Chinese imports. China has also pledged to provide up to $5 billion per year over the next three years in grants, concessional and interest free loans to Africa. According to Deborah Brautigam, at the China Africa Research Institute at Johns Hopkins University, this is the highest level ever. These interest-free and concessional loans present an opportunity to Africans attempting to reassess and rebalance their debt stock while still borrowing for indispensable capital investment. The Chinese have largely invested in sectors that traditional partners have avoided. China is the only partner with the appetite and resources to invest in the area of Africas greatest need infrastructure. This has been of great benefit to Africa, but such a monopoly position comes with costs. The financial sustainability of both partners needs to be matched, and China can play a bigger role here because of its leverage. The availability of these preferential lending instruments, however, is not itself a substitute for the quality of governance. If these loans were deployed in pursuit of a countrys industrial policy, undergirded by competent project selection, then planning and execution could deliver significant benefits to African citizens. This seems to be the point that Nigerias former education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, attempted to drive home in her comments on Twitter and in a Nigerian newspaper. She was withering in her criticism of African leaders, whom she claims exchanged their national patrimony for risky loans, as opposed to the Chinese, who she said tightly cover their exposure. As she tells it, African leaders naively, gleefully and with a huge dose of inferiority complex, sign on to bad deals. The ad hominem attacks notwithstanding, she has a point. Many African leaders have failed to institute the reforms that would grow their private sector and enable domestic resource mobilization. It appears that their strategy is to borrow their way out of poverty. Massive public investment, absent coordination with the private sector or a concomitant growth in private sector investment will not deliver sustainable growth. In a new IMF book on Senegal, this seems to be the point, that Growth in Senegal has been driven mainly by public investment and remittance-fueled private consumption. The performance of investments and exports in Senegal during this period, relative to that of the fastest-growing countries helps explain why Senegal has had low per capita GDP growth for 30 years. Domestic scrutiny of Chinese lending will compel Chinese policymakers to demonstrate the effectiveness of their lending policy. Criticism of Chinas lending practices abroad, which China was repeatedly forced to address at the FOCAC summit, will further constrain Chinese lending to its African partners. In Africa, the rising debt will soon impose hard limits on fiscal policy and ultimately close off borrowing, regardless of how favorable the terms. Chinas no strings attached lending policy will be tested by the criterion of ensuring that projects are sustainable. The FOCAC 2018 summit presents a significant opportunity to transition the China-Africa partnership to the next level. Failure to make the hard choices will come at great cost to all involved especially Africa. Gyude Moore is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. He previously served as Liberias minister of public works and headed Liberias construction and maintenance infrastructure from 2014-18. Chinas relationship with Africa has now entered a golden age, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters after the closing of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit in Beijing on Tuesday. Ramaphosa made his comments after China pledged an additional $60 billion worth of loans, aid, and investment in Africa. This follows an initial $60 billion promised at the previous FOCAC summit in Johannesburg three years ago. Africa has lately begun pivoting toward China and away from its historic main trading partners Europe and the United States. The value of trade between China and Africa rose from $10 billion in 2000 to $169.7 billion in 2017. Meanwhile, trade between Africa and the EU, which remains the continents largest trading partner, has fallen. But South Africa has a structural trade deficit with China, South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies told Caixin on Monday. South Africa mainly exports primary agricultural products, while it imports high value-added products such as cellphones from China. The key to narrowing this deficit lies in overall industrialization across Africa, Davies said. Chinas growing relationship with Africa has recently come under fire, with critics saying that Chinas loans to the continent are miring already poor countries in debt traps, and are essentially a form of modern-day colonialism. Theres no new colonialism, Ramaphosa told reporters on Tuesday, on his first trip to China as South Africas president. His comments echoed those of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who said on the first day of the summit on Monday that Chinas investment in Africa came with no political strings attached. We were all engaged in struggle against the colonialists from the Northern Hemisphere, he said, referring to the long-standing relationship between South Africas ruling African National Congress party and the Communist Party of China. Ramaphosa, born in 1952, began his political career as an activist and union leader and was a significant figure in South Africas anti-apartheid movement. Ramaphosa was voted secretary-general of Nelson Mandelas African National Congress party in 1991, and was expected to succeed Mandela as party leader. But after Ramaphosa lost the competition for leadership to Thabo Mbeki, the second president of South Africa, he retreated from politics and moved into business. Ramaphosa is now one of South Africas richest people, and the founder of multi-industry conglomerate The Shanduka Group Pty. Ltd., as well as a board member of many other companies. Ramaphosa returned to politics in 2017, and was elected president of South Africa. His major policies since taking office have been land reform and an investigation into government corruption, including alleged collusion between his predecessor, Jacob Zuma and the Guptas, a prominent local business family. In an interview with Caixin and other media outlets after the summit, Ramaphosa talked about South Africas historical ties with China, and Chinas changing policy toward Africa. Caixin: What do you think about recent criticisms of Chinas loans to African countries? A number of people have accused China of making politically motivated investments on the continent. Ramaphosa: The $60 billion that was announced in 2015 went to investments and infrastructure. Many countries have taken that up. They are now improving their infrastructures, improving a whole lot of areas that impact their own economies. So, even if it is debt-based, you are able to invest in your economy and generate sufficient funding to be able to pay back whatever loans they have. And this time round, President Xi announced that China is going to be putting out another $60 billion, which will be composed of categories of funding. Some of it will be grant funding, some of it will be assistance programs, and some of it will be debt. It will be loans that will be given out. It depends on various countries, on the strength of their own economies, and their own capability to pay back the debt. Now, in some cases, these are going to be investments, investments in a number of projects. So the categorizations should be left to the countries themselves. I would say that rather than stand on the rooftop of some tall building somewhere in the world and criticize, it should be left to those respective countries themselves how they want to participate in this funding that has been made available. Because some of it could be investments, Chinese companies could be investing in a number of projects. It could be loans. It could be grants. It could also be assistance. So, I say to those who are critical of this, they should first look at precisely how the categorization is going to work. Yes, many countries have debt. Even the very rich countries are also debt-laden. It depends on how you manage your debt. What President Xi also announced is that there are certain countries that are not able to keep up with their debt. They are poor, and those countries will have their debt forgiven. So I think were facing a situation that is quite progressive, in which a number of countries will be able to choose. This year marks the 20th anniversary since China and South Africa established diplomatic relations. Can you comment on the two countries relationship so far? The 20 years of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa have been really positive. There have been years of great partnerships being formed between South Africa, as a democratic state, and the Peoples Republic of China. You must remember that the governing party of South Africa had long-term relations with the Communist Party of China over many years. So the bonds of friendship were formed in struggle, where the Communist Party of China supported the ANC in its struggle. So, once South Africa became a free and democratic country, it was easy to have that transition of beginning diplomatic relations. And that has been based on South Africa having a One China principle, recognizing the Peoples Republic of China as the government of China. Recently, the Peoples Republic of China supported us to be a member of the UN Security Council, a non-permanent member. And weve agreed that we are going to work together because our political orientation and perspective is very similar on a number of issues. We both come from a revolutionary type of approach. The way we look at the world is very, very similar. What do you think will be the most important driver for Chinas relationship with South Africa over the next five years, especially in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative and South-South cooperation? We have a good partnership with China now because China has become our biggest trading partner outside of the continent. The trade between China and South Africa is booming and rising, but at the moment, it is skewed in favor of China. We have a deficit, and weve discussed this. What is pleasing with the Peoples Republic of China, and President Xi himself, is that we want to ensure that the trade between our two countries develops in a way in which we will have market access and be able to bring in value-added products into China. Because that will help us to balance our trade so that we no longer are a country that is just exporting raw materials or resources to China. They want a win-win outcome. And that is what is most pleasing with us dealing with a trusted friend like the Peoples Republic of China. Can you comment on President Xis statement that China does not intend to interfere in local politics through its Africa investments? The notion that was put forward by President Xi about non-interference is an important one. Its the same political perspective that we have. It is born out of a revolutionary approach to development, to relations with other countries. No interference is an important consideration in our case, and we discuss things on a mature basis, where advice is sought, it is given, but there is just no interference. Because there is no need for any country to interfere in the affairs of any other country. Because the minute you want to interfere, it means that you are being patronizing. You are paternalistic. You look down on others. The relationship that weve always had with China, right from our own struggle days, when we were struggling against apartheid, was based on no interference. How do you think Chinas strategy in Africa has changed in recent years? It appears to have shifted from mostly trade and economic cooperation toward security and military cooperation. I dont really see China really changing policy. Its beginning to address issues that are important, like security and peace. China is big in peace-monitoring and all that on the African continent. And so peace and security is very important on the African continent, and we welcome the fact that China wants to play a role, and continues to play a role in that. But China goes beyond that. It goes into areas that I call solidarity. Solidarity, for instance, when many other countries were running away from outbreaks of diseases like Ebola, China was sending people into Africa. And why were they doing it? They were doing it for solidarity. It debunks this notion that some people have, that Chinas looking at Africa as a place where it just gets resources and it just wants to make money. But China is rolling out a number of assistance programs solidarity, health, security, and many others. Property-to-pharmaceuticals group Sanpower Group is the latest privately owned conglomerate to run into trouble after loading up on 63 billion yuan ($9.2 billion) of debt to finance an aggressive expansion strategy at home and overseas that included the purchase of House of Fraser, the British department store operator. The companys financial position has grown so precarious that the banking regulator and local governments in Jiangsu province have stepped in to set up a creditors committee to resolve its debt problems, sources close to the matter have told Caixin. Bank of Nanjing, one of the biggest creditors, is leading the negotiations. The committee, which held its first meeting on Wednesday, is made up of officials from the Jiangsu provincial government; the municipal government of Nanjing, where Sanpower is based; local financial regulators; institutional creditors; and representatives from the company, Caixin has been told. The intervention comes as Sanpower, controlled by local tycoon Yuan Yafei, is struggling to repay its debts amid a crackdown on risky lending and shadow banking activities that have ensnared many highly leveraged conglomerates. Growing caution among bond investors is also making it more difficult for many businesses to refinance their borrowings. This year we have felt an evident change in the fundraising environment away from easy money to a much more cautious stance, even for private enterprises, Sanpower Senior Vice President Yue Lei told Caixin in an interview in mid-August. The deleveraging campaign has led to a breakdown in off-balance-sheet funding, and the milk of funding has totally dried up. Debt time-bomb Of immediate concern to creditors is the looming repayment of a 600 million yuan bond due in October. But Sanpower has 11 bond issues outstanding totaling 5.02 billion yuan and 3.01 billion of asset-backed securities. Jiangsu Hongtu High Technology Co. Ltd., a Shanghai-listed company controlled by Sanpower, has five bonds outstanding totaling 2.7 billion yuan. As of the end of June, the group had used 18.3 billion yuan of a 22.3 billion yuan line of credit. Sanpower has also pledged almost its entire 21.5% stake in Jiangsu Hongtu to brokerages in exchange for loans and put up 83% of its 27% stake in Shanghai-listed Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co. Ltd., exchange filings show. According to Yue, the fuse that lit the debt time-bomb came in June, when Sanpower missed a payment on a 550 million yuan debt that had it guaranteed for Nanjing-based Yurun Group Co. Ltd., the parent of troubled Hong Kong-listed Yurun Food Group Ltd. Yurun defaulted, leaving Sanpower on the hook. Although Sanpower later managed to repay the debt, the default triggered panic among Sanpowers creditors, Yue said. Creditors and financial institutions became increasingly concerned about the companys financial health, and some asked the courts to freeze some of its assets. Although Sanpower hasnt defaulted on its debts yet or missed repayments, creditors that include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Hengfeng Bank and Daye Trust have sought court orders to prevent shares in listed companies pledged as collateral by Sanpower from being dumped into the market and further depressing their prices. Yuan, the company chairman, admitted in July that the group was facing cash flow problems, and the group announced a plan to raise 10 billion yuan by the end of 2018 by offloading assets. So far, sales have included its stake in House of Fraser. Also on the block are real-estate projects in China, and businesses in retailing, electronic gadgets, and finance. The group now plans to focus on its core assets in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Yue told Caixin. Sanpowers liquidity crunch has been exacerbated by the sharp fall in Chinas stock market the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has been one of the worlds worst performers this year, slumping 18.6% as of Sept. 6. Having pledged most of its holdings in its two Shanghai-listed subsidiaries as collateral for loans, it has suffered significant losses through having to pay margin calls as the value of the shares dropped. The double whammy of bearish market sentiment and Sanpowers debt crisis sent shares of Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store plummeting by the 10% daily limit for eight straight days in June, losing two-thirds of their value. The stock closed at 11.38 yuan in Shanghai on Friday, down from 35 yuan in mid-June. Yuan, who quit his job as a low-ranking official with the Nanjing government more than two decades ago to sell computers, built Sanpower into a sprawling conglomerate with assets of more than 80 billion yuan. He first made headlines outside China in 2014 when Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store paid 450 million pounds for 89% stake of the historic British department store operator House of Fraser. An overseas acquisition spree from 2014 to 2016, which Israeli health care group Natali and American pharmaceutical firm Dendredon, saw the group transform into a health-care-to-property conglomerate with a total assets of 88 billion yuan at the end of 2017. Contact reporter Leng Cheng (chengleng@caixin.com) CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: Between Private and Political Justice. As a response to two articles on private justice- Cameroun - Cour supreme/Daniel Mekobe Sone (Premier President de la Cour supreme): La justice privee est une derive intolerable dans un Etat de droit-and Jean Francois Belibi : Cameroon, justice populaire, ces derives qui derangent- the issue of private justice is in need of further debate that begins with the necessity to make some much needed clarification on the state of justice and the balance of power between, the executive, legislative and judicial branch in Cameroon.1 At present, its important to make a clear distinction between the separation of power between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary in Cameroon. The Cameroonian vast and bloated executive branch through its repressive police state intrudes into virtually every aspect of Cameroonian life and shut down internet right of Cameroonian when it see fits. The executive branch regulates almost everything in the country. The executive branch is staffed by legions of bureaucrats who enjoy job security and can do very well if they know the right people to please. The executive branch is de facto the legal authority that write and interpret its own governing statutes and expand the scope of its own authority. In its own spheres of influence, the executive branch acts as legislator, prosecutor, and judge. In this regime called presidentialiste au pouvoir reinforce which basically means the president as monarch with absolute right. Within this context, the legislative serves as a recording chamber and the judicial has no independence. The executive branch is known to work not from the public good but its own self-preservation which means that the whole bureaucracy is geared toward the pleasure and satisfaction of the president. The only law is the law of self-preservation. As such, Marafa Hamidou Yaya is sitting in prison because, in his own words, he wrote that he had asked the president not to run in the latest masquerade that is being called election in Cameroon. Many others high ranking officials and elite member of the business class such as Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara and Yves Michel Fotso are languishing in jail sacrificed for the president failed plane The Albatross which never managed to fly. The president as the instigator of this failed plane acquisition in violation of the International Monetary Fund never had to explain his role in this failed business enterprise. Now, regarding the lynching or private justice running amok in the country. The government is responsible for the security of its citizen, Security is an unalienable rights. It is welcome that the president of the Supreme Court mentions private justice but the president of the Supreme Court is not a policeman. His role is to interpret and judge the law not to get down on the streets and arrest lynches himself. For time and time again, the executive branch has called for the justice to deal with its own incompetence and political conflicts which have nothing to do with embezzlement as the Marafas case. If we have an entire government in prison, the president has to explain why this situation is happening but he never does so and without consequence and, in the process, legalizing the incompetence he pretends to be fighting against. Thus, in practice, making corruption inconsequential by keep passing the buck. Here, the executive, legislative and judicial branch have to accept accountability. As a matter of policy, for examples, the legislative branch has to stop abdicating authority. That begins by casting hard votes such as term limits for the president. Nomination of high ranking officials have to be vetted by the Senate as in the United States to make sure competent people are in place to do the job and real civil service reform takes place. The judicial has to judge the law and not getting into the business of resolving political conflicts or problems of private justice when the government is abdicating the responsibility to ensure ordinary people safety. 1-Cameroon-info.net, Liliane J. Ndangue feb, 2/23/2017 and Camer.be feb/24/2017 Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Step 1 Log on to the BOB Financial Solutions Limited official website. Step 2 Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link that reads, Work With Us. Step 3 Click on the button that reads, Current Openings. Step 4 The list of openings will be displayed on the screen. Click on the link of the post that you want to apply for. Step 5 The detailed advertisement will open. Read the details carefully. Step 6 Send your applications to careers@bobcards.com. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Visiting Medical Officer (VMO). Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates will be provided with a remuneration of INR 600 per visit. The last date to apply for the government job is Oct 1, 2018. Accentuate Your Medical Expertise, 1585 Senior Residents Wanted At Bihar Health Dept BEL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) Organisation Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) Educational Qualification BAMS or BHMS from a recognised university Experience Desirable Job Responsibilities Providing medical services and consultation Skills Required Clinical judgement Job Location Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh) Salary Scale INR 600 per visit Industry Electronics Application Start Date September 7, 2018 Application End Date October 1, 2018 Maximum Age Limit: 65 years Also Read: Become A Specialist Doctor At National Health Mission How To Apply For BEL Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for BEL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1 Log on to the BEL official website. Step 2 Hover over the Careers tab. Step 3 Select Recruitment - Advertisements. Step 4 The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen. Step 5 Click on the link against the text that reads, Recruitment of Visiting Medical Officers for Machilipatnam Unit. Step 6 The detailed advertisement will be displayed on the screen. Read the details carefully. Step 7: Send your details to BEL. BEL Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Visiting Medical Officer" and send it to: Manager (HR), Bharat Electronics Limited, Ravindranath Tagore Road, Machilipatnam - 521001. Follow the link - http://bel-india.in/Documentviews.aspx?fileName=doctor-web-adv-30818.pdf to read the detailed official notification. Step 1 Log on to the Bihar Government Health Department official website. Step 2 Click on the link that reads, For the purpose of contractual appointment in Medical Colleges of state. Step 3 The registration form will open on the new screen. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 4 Upload your photograph and signature. Step 5 Read the declaration and click on the checkbox to agree to it. Step 6 Click Submit and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process. Step 7 Go back to the home page and enter your credentials in the login form. Step 8 Enter the captcha code. Step 9 Click Login and complete the application process. Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Assistant Conservator of Forests. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 50100. The last date to apply for the government job is Oct 9, 2018. The application process starts on Sep 10, 2018. You may apply and pay the fee online. The application fee is INR 600. There are 24 vacancies available. Relaxation in age and allocation of seats will be provided for reserved categories as per government norms. Indian Railways Recruitment 2018 For Dressers At ICF KPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Assistant Conservator of Forest Organisation Karnataka Public Service Commission Educational Qualification BSc in forestry or science/engineering graduates Experience Freshers can apply Job Location Karnataka Salary Scale INR 28100 to INR 50100 Industry Civil services Application Start Date September 10, 2018 Application End Date October 9, 2018 Age Limit: 18 to 30 years Also Read: Indian Army Recruitment 2018 For Soldiers How To Apply For KPSC Recruitment 2018 In order to apply for KPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps: Step 1: Log on to the KPSC official website. Step 2: On the home page, click on the link that reads, Apply Online - Admission Ticket Download. Step 3: The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen. Step 4: Click on the link to apply for Assistant Conservator of Forest. (The link will be active from Sep 10 only.) Step 5: The application form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 6: Submit your details and complete the application process. Follow the link - http://www.kpsc.kar.nic.in/acf NOTIFICATION.pdf to read the detailed official notification. Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) has released a recruitment notification for the post of Dental Surgeon in Group A (Jr) of Odisha Medical Services (Dental) Cadre under the Health and Family Welfare Department. The notification was released for a total of 61 vacancies. The selection of the candidates will be based on the written examination. The selected candidates can earn up to INR 39,100 per month. Eligible candidates who meet all the prerequisites set by the commission can apply between September 12 and October 10, 2018. SEBI Recruitment 2018: Apply For 120 Officer Grade A Assistant Manager Vacancies CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Dental Surgeon Organisation Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) Educational Qualification Bachelor's degree in dental surgery (BDS) or equivalent Job Location Odisha Salary Scale INR 39,100 per month Industry Health Application Start Date September 12, 2018 Application End Date October 10, 2018 Age Limit The minimum age limit for the post is 21 years and the maximum age is 32 years as on January 1, 2018. However, the upper age limit is relaxed as per applicable rules. Click here for the official announcement. Click here to apply online. How To Apply Step 1 Candidates should visit the official website of Odisha Public Service Commission - http://www.opsc.gov.in/. Step 2 Visit the "Apply Online" tab. Step 3 The "On-Line Application Submission System" will be displayed. Step 4 Click on the relevant link to apply online. Step 5 Fill in all the mandatory fields. Step 6 Submit the details. Step 7: Take a printout of the application form for future reference. Career As A Dental Hygienist: Scope And Career Opportunities Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), a government of India undertaking, has released a recruitment notification for the post of Mining Sirdar/Shot Firer. The notification was released for a total of 333 vacancies. The selection of the candidates will be based on the written examination. The selected candidates can earn up to INR 31,852 per month. Eligible candidates who meet all the prerequisites set by the organisation can apply before September 27, 2018. WCL Recruitment Vacancy Details General: 157 vacancies OBC: 101 vacancies SC: 50 vacancies ST: 25 vacancies CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Mining Sirdar/Shot Firer Organisation Western Coalfields Limited Educational Qualification A Mining Sirdar certificate of competency issued by DGMS Skills Required Valid gas testing certificate issued by DGMS Job Location Maharashtra Salary Scale INR 31,852 per month Industry Coal Application Start Date September 5, 2018 Application End Date September 27, 2018 Age Limit The minimum age limit for the post is 18 years and the maximum age is 30 years as on August 30, 2018. However, age relaxation is provided to SC, ST and OBC candidates. Click here for the official announcement. Application Fee Candidates have to pay INR 100 as the application fee. They have to pay it through the demand draft in favour of ''Western Coalfields Limited Nagpur'' payable at Nagpur. However, candidates belonging to SC or ST candidates are exempted from fee payment. How To Apply Step 1 Candidates should visit the official website of Western Coalfields Limited - http://westerncoal.in/. Step 2 Visit the "Recruitment" tab. Step 3 Click on "Notification inviting applications for recruitment for the post of Mining Sirdar in T&S Gr - "C" as per Xth Wage Agreement Pay". Step 4 The recruitment notification will be displayed. Step 5 After scrolling down, candidates will find the application form. Step 6 Fill in all the mandatory fields. Step 7 Mention the DD details and sign the declaration. Step 8: Send the application form to the General Manager, (P/IR) WCL, Coal Estate, Civil Line Nagpur-440001. SSC Recruitment 2018: Apply Online For Over 1000 Vacancies Photo: CTV UPDATE 8 a.m. Bombardier says a suspicious package delivered to one of its Toronto facilities was sent in error. The transportation company offered no further details on what it called a "misdirected" delivery, but CTV reported the package contained four military-grade guns labelled "property of the U.S. government." Toronto police say they were called to Bombardier's aerospace facility in a northwest part of the city on Aug. 30 for what they called a "suspicious incident." Sgt. Jenifferjit Sidhu says police took possession of the package and have determined the incident was non-criminal. ORIGINAL 5:17 a.m. Police say they're investigating after a suspicious package was delivered to one of Bombardier Inc.'s Toronto facilities. CTV reports that the package contained four military-grade guns labelled "property of the U.S. government" and that Bombardier received the shipment in error. Toronto police Sgt. Jenifferjit Sidhu did not confirm the contents of the package, but says police were called to Bombardier's aerospace facility in northwest Toronto on Aug. 30 for a "suspicious incident." She says police took possession of the package and are still investigating the incident. Bombardier did not immediately respond to request for comment. Photo: Colin Dacre Police in Penticton have executed a search warrant Thursday at Green Essence dispensary, located at 409 Martin Street. The Penticton RCMP's Community Support & Enforcement Team investigated and entered the facility, which they determined did not have a legal license to sell marijuana, regardless of whether the patron had a medical marijuana license. Police said that the business owner has been given several warnings over the past few months, informing them they needed to cease selling the drug. Approximately 15 pounds of bud marijuana was seized, which according to RCMP was being sold openly to anyone walking in off the street. Numerous types of edible marijuana products, such as honey, cookies and waxes, were also taken by police. An undisclosed "large" amount of cash was also seized. Many of the products discovered were infused with potent amounts of THC, known as "Shatter." Even if marijuana was legal today, the kinds of THC infused products they were openly selling would not be legal even in that framework," said Cst. James Grandy. Staff and patrons at Green Essence at the time were identified, and subsequently released. Police say charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are being considered, although two previous raids on South Okanagan dispensaries have not resulted in charges. It promises low-cost train travel in the UK from 14.90, which is less than half of the prices currently charged.... Investigation and Findings Case ascertainment. A suspected cholera case was defined as the occurrence of acute watery diarrhea in any person aged 2 years seen at a camp health facility on or after November 18, 2015, or in a child aged <2 years who was epidemiologically linked to a confirmed cholera case. Stool specimens were collected from one of every 23 patients with suspected cholera and tested using standard microbiological methods*; cholera isolates were tested for antimicrobial resistance by disc-diffusion. Suspected cases with a stool culture positive for V. cholerae were considered to be laboratory-confirmed (3). Demographic and clinical data were recorded for all suspected and confirmed cases. Characteristics of cholera cases were described, and case fatality rates calculated. Geographic information system software was used to map the calculated cumulative attack rates by age, sex, and residential block in each of the five subcamps. Spatial clustering of cholera cases by block, adjusted to the blocks population density, was evaluated using the softwares Average Nearest Neighbor function (4), which indicated clustering in some blocks. During November 18, 2015June 6, 2016, a total of 1,797 cases of cholera, including 1,548 suspected and 249 confirmed, were reported among the camps 348,781 residents (Figure); 20 cases that occurred in persons from the host community and were treated in the camp health facilities are included. Males accounted for 904 (51%) cases. The overall attack rate was 5.1 per 1,000 residents, with the highest attack rate occurring in children aged 24 years (16.9); attack rates varied by subcamp (Table 1). Fourteen deaths were reported (case fatality rate = 0.79%). After identification of the two index cases on November 18 and 19, the outbreak quickly spread in the subcamps of Hagadera (attack rate = 8.0 per 1,000; peak = December 1827), Dagahaley (7.7; November 28December 7), and Kambioos (5.3; December 28January 6) (Table 1); among 252 residential blocks in these three subcamps, 195 (77%) reported at least one case. Fewer cases were reported in Ifo (attack rate = 0.6 per 1,000) and Ifo2 (1.7), where only 10%30% of residential blocks reported at least one case. Incidence among affected residential blocks ranged from 0.1% to 20%; spatial clustering of cases occurred in all the subcamps within the residential blocks (p<0.01). Identification of risk factors. In December 2015, the Kenya Ministry of Health conducted a case-control study in the subcamps most affected (Dagahaley and Hagadera) to identify risk factors for cholera. Persons with suspected or confirmed cholera (one per household) clinically evaluated before December 31, 2015, were eligible for inclusion. Eligible controls were Dagahaley or Hagadera residents aged 2 years with no history of acute watery diarrhea during the same period. Each case-patient was frequency matched to two controls by subcamp and age group (24 years, 514 years, 1524 years, and 25 years). A standardized questionnaire was developed that adopted some questions from previous efforts, and it was administered to case-patients and controls (or their caregivers) to collect demographic and exposure information. Partially adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Unconditional logistic regression using stepwise forward selection was used for building a multivariate model. Independent variables with pvalues 0.2 in univariate analysis were considered for inclusion. Adjusted ORs (aORs) and 95% CIs were calculated from the final multivariate model. From a calculated sample size of 38 cases and 76 controls, 32 case-patients and 64 controls were enrolled in the case-control study (Table 2). Identified risk factors for suspected or confirmed cholera included observation by interviewer of 1) human fecal and solid waste in a compound, 2) soiled communal latrines or self-reported open defecation, 3) swimming in rainwater pools, 4) sharing of food from a common plate, and 5) reported sharing of a latrine with someone with diarrhea. Always washing hands with soap and water after using a latrine and household latrine ownership were protective. Living in a compound with visible human and solid waste (aOR = 7.7; 95% CI = 2.030.0), self-reported open defecation (13.0; 3.061.0), and sharing food on a common plate (5.9; 1.523.0) remained significant in the final multivariate model. No evidence of disease clustering by ethnic background or geographic origin was found. Assessment of outbreak control measures. In late January 2016, as the outbreak waned, CDC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees conducted site visits in four subcamps to assess outbreak control measures. Residual chlorine levels were below outbreak standards in various water sources, including tap stands (outbreak standard = 1.0 mg/L) and households (outbreak standard = 0.5 mg/L), and handwashing facilities in schools, markets, and eateries were insufficient. Pools of stagnant water where children played were observed near affected residential blocks in Dagahaley and Ifo2 subcamps. Although the average number of persons per latrine in Dadaab met the international standard for refugee camps (one latrine per 20 persons) (5,6), in some subcamps, up to 60 persons were observed to be sharing one latrine. In addition, at the outbreak onset in November 2015, only 168 community health workers were in the camp (approximately one per 2,000 residents), one quarter of the internationally recommended standard of one per 500 residents (5). Some households anecdotally reported cases of cholera in multiple household members, although this information was not systematically collected. Assessment of antibiotic susceptibility of cholera isolates. V. cholerae serogroup O1, serotype Ogawa was isolated from 312 (39%) of 791 stool specimens. All isolates were sensitive to tetracycline, ceftriaxone, cotrimoxazole, gentamycin, and chloramphenicol; 97% were sensitive to ciprofloxacin. All isolates had intermediate sensitivity to erythromycin and were resistant to furazolidone and nalidixic acid. The content on the Web page you requested is currently under review. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Please contact the Superintendents Initiatives Office to request information regarding the page you are trying to access. Page Title: CA Adopts First-Ever Computer Science Standards Web Address: http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr18/yr18rel56.asp Back to Previous Page Zimbabwe's cement demand outpaces supply 07 September 2018 Zimbabwe is facing a cement shortage due to demand temporarily outpacing supply. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has demanded answers from the country's cement producers regarding the shortages. "We met the cement producers yesterday and they all said they are operating at full throttle. Sales are going on. Usual informal traders were taking advantage of the situation and hoarding cement for speculative purposes," said Sifelani Jabangwe, president of the CZI. As a result of the speculation, cement prices in some retail outlets have surged from US$10/50kg bag in 2017 to US$15/50kg in the past few weeks and finally to USD17/50kg this week. However, Mr Jabangwe explained that despite the supply challenges with cement, "official retailers and wholesalers have not increased the price of cement". In the large formal retail and wholesale outlets most of which have run out of cement stock - prices of the commodity have remained around US$11/50kg. PPC Zimbabwe managing director, Kelibone Masiyane, clarified that the current cement shortage is temporary, adding that PPC had capacity to "supply the existing market" demand. "With regards to escalated cement prices in the market, PPC Zimbabwe can assure customers and other stakeholders that our factory prices have not increased," added Mr Masiyane. According to reports, Lafarge Zimbabwe has imported SupaSet cement from Mozambique to counter the shortage. "We have been clearing Lafarge Cement this week. They have a consignment of about 5000t of SupaSet cement that we have processed," said an official with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority on Wednesday. Alongside foreign currency and liquidity constraints, the lack of cement is amongst several factors which have slowed the countrys construction industry. "The shortage has slowed down activity as projects have slowed down. The cost of completion has gone up. There has been a serious slowdown in construction activity in the past few weeks," said Shingi Nyamhandu, managing director at Harare-based Canistron Construction. Published under "Mitigation is Difficult: A Moral Evaluation of a Mitigation Practice at Sentencing" | Main | US House passes broad rewrite of the federal definition of "crime of violence" without any hearings As reported in this Hill article, headlined "Former Trump adviser Papadopoulos to be sentenced Friday," a high-profile defendant is due to be sentenced in federal court this afternoon by Judge Randolph Moss. Here are some of the terms of the sentencing debate: George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty nearly a year ago to lying about his Russia contacts, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Friday. His sentencing will mark a milestone in Robert Muellers Russia investigation as the special counsel makes headway on several other fronts, including interviewing individuals linked to former Trump adviser Roger Stone and readying for the Washington, D.C., trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Papadopoulos admitted to lying to FBI agents in October about the extent, nature and timing of his contacts with Russian individuals who he tried to use to broker a meeting between the campaign and the Russian government. Government prosecutors are asking that Papadopoulos be jailed for up to six months and that he face a $9,500 fine for his crime, arguing in a recent court filing that his false statements caused damage to the governments investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The defendants false statements were intended to harm the investigation, and did so, prosecutors wrote in an Aug. 17 sentencing memorandum. Papadopoulos defense attorneys, meanwhile, are challenging the notion that their client did deliberate harm to the investigation, writing in a filing on Aug. 31 that Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master. They argue he should face one-year probation. The Papadopoulos case is noteworthy because he was the first Trump associate to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors in Muellers investigation. There is no indication that he played more than a minimal role during his months as a foreign policy adviser on the campaign. The White House aggressively sought to downplay his involvement last year, with the president dismissing him as a low-level volunteer in a tweet following his guilty plea. The sentencing of Papadopoulos, 31, will tie up one loose end in the special counsels sprawling investigation, and signals his cooperation is no longer needed in the investigation. His guilty plea created a media firestorm last October, revealed the same day Mueller charged Manafort and Rick Gates, another former Trump campaign aide, in an elaborate illegal foreign lobbying scheme unrelated to the work they did during for the campaign. Court filings told the curious story of a young aide who misled FBI agents during a January 2017 interview about his contacts with a professor, later identified as Joseph Mifsud, who claimed substantial connections to the Russian government and who told Papadopoulos that the Russians possessed dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails months before hacked Democratic emails began to leak on the web. The New York Times later reported that it was Papadopoulos discussions with an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer, about those emails in May 2016 that helped trigger the FBIs inquiry into Russian interference the following July. Papadopoulos also misled FBI investigators about his contacts with other Russians, including a woman believed to be a relative of Putin, who he sought to use to broker a meeting between the Trump campaign and Moscow lies that the government says were damaging to an investigation in its infancy. Prosecutors have suggested his cooperation did not bear much fruit, writing in August that he did not offer substantial assistance to the investigation and that much of the information he provided came only after the government confronted him with his own emails, text messages, internet search history, and other information it had obtained via search warrants and subpoenas. The Papadopoulos defense attorneys tell a different story. They say that, since his guilty plea, he has provided government investigators with critical information about his contacts with members of the Trump campaign. In the recent filing, they referenced a key meeting in March 2016 during which he allegedly broached the subject of arranging a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.... Papadopoulos will be the second individual sentenced in the Russia investigation. Dutch lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan was handed 30 days in prison and slapped with a $20,000 fine in April after pleading guilty to making false statements relevant to the governments investigations into foreign lobbing by Manafort and Gates. Papadopoulos wife, Simona Mangiante, had signaled in recent weeks that her husband was mulling walking away from the plea deal with Mueller, though she backed down from those suggestions late last week. For Subscribers 9 inductees representing two classes will go into GPSA Hall of Fame The Greater Pueblo Sports Association will induct two classes that include nine individuals with its 2020 and 2021 classes. 2 California Senators Declare War on the Christian Faith Christian Post Contributor | 07 September, 2018 by Michael Brown As California's AB 2943 is about to become law, some senators are announcing their real sentiments loudly and clearly: Christians do not have the right to practice their faith. To Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi and to Senator Ricardo Lara, I ask you plainly: Who appointed you God? For those who are unaware, AB 2943 would make it illegal for anyone with unwanted same-sex attractions or gender identity confusion to get professional help. In other words, the bill would tell Christian counselors that they cannot love their neighbor as themselves. It would tell Christian pastors they cannot offer professional services to parishioners who want to get to the root of their unwanted same-sex desires. That's why, in April, I dubbed this the "Must Stay Gay" bill. Of course, all kinds of counseling and professional services would remain available if you want to go in the pro-LGBT direction. So, you could get counseling to help you embrace your homosexuality. Or you could get a doctor to prescribe hormone blockers for your 10-year-old daughter who thinks she's a boy trapped in a woman's body. But counseling that would go in the opposite direction (such as helping your daughter feel whole as a girl) would be illegal. In fact, such counseling is already illegal for minors in California. Now the outrage goes one step farther, which is why I and other have called on Christians throughout the state to prepare for civil disobedience to an unrighteous law. On August 16, the Senate passed AB 2943 by a vote of 25-11, and the bill is scheduled to go the Assembly this coming week. Then, it will be almost definitely be signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, despite a steady stream of protest. What gives these legislators the right to restrict the freedoms of millions of Californians? Who gave them the authority to limit counselor-client relationships? Who told them to determine what people of faith can believe and practice? When the Senate approved the bill, a byline on a pro-gay website explained that, "AB 2943 Would Make Clear in California Law that Dangerous, Discredited Practice Is Consumer Fraud, Now Heads to Assembly for Concurrence Vote." Really? Consumer Fraud? Like offering someone a bogus cure to cancer? The problem is that: 1) there are countless thousands of ex-gays, some of whom testified before these very legislators; 2) there are peer-reviewed studies indicating that change is possible; 3) there is no definitive, scientific evidence that professional counseling to help people with unwanted same-sex attractions is dangerous; and 4) the Bible expressly commands followers of Jesus (along with traditional Jews) not to practice homosexuality. How, then, do some of these legislators respond? It's simple. They attack the Christian faith. In the words of Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, "The faith community, like anyone else, needs to evolve with the times. The science is clear. The claim that the First Amendment can be used as a defense for promoting fraudulent conduct is a fallacious argument." There you have it. The faith community must "evolve with the times." Perhaps that also means that: 1) We should no longer believe in a Creator, since Darwinian evolutionists deny His existence. Or, 2) We should no longer believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation, since the world has become so pluralistic. Or, 3) We should remove all biblical passages prohibiting homosexual practice, since the Supreme Court redefined marriage. Or, 4) We should no longer quote from the Bible, since so many millennials find it bigoted and antiquated. The list could go on and on. No thanks, Mr. Muratsuchi. The biblical faith was here long before you and I were on this planet, and it will be here long after you and I are gone. Times change; God's Word does not. Not only so, but your claim that people are hiding behind the First Amendment to practice something fraudulent is both false and none of your concern. Read more about 2 California Senators Declare War on the Christian Faith on The Christian Post. Megachurch Pastor Chris Hodges: Church Is Not Just for Christians Christian Post Contributor | 07 September, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov The church is not an exclusive place for "church people," Alabama megachurch pastor Chris Hodges said. "We've got to make sure the church understands what the church exists for," the pastor of Church of the Highlands told Premier while at a Hillsong Conference last month. "We don't exist to be a little club that we have just for us too many people think the church is for church people." Hodges, who leads a congregation of over 45,000 people in Birmingham, maintained that church was never supposed to be a place just for believers. "I personally believe the church is a place where people who don't agree with us can come," he said. "We've had to train our church people and teach them how Jesus lived his life and how He ministered to people." He stressed that God's heart is with the "lost" (nonbelievers) moreso than those who have been found (are already Christians). "[God's] not thinking about His found kids, He's thinking about His lost kids," Hodges said. And the best way to love God is to love the people He loves. "God loves the lost," he stressed. When it comes to reaching out to the community with the Gospel, the megachurch pastor likes to go by this saying: Connect before you correct. "Jesus connected before He corrected," he pointed out, citing biblical examples such as when Jesus approached Zacchaeus the tax collector. When Hodges received a gift certificate to get a custom-made suit, he found himself in a shop with a Hindu tailor whose gods were displayed in the store. During his visit as he was measured and picked out fabrics, neither mentioned their faith, though the tailor was aware Hodges was a pastor, and they had a pleasant conversation. They enjoyed their time together. At the end of the visit, the tailor told Hodges he was "very different" from other pastors who would visit his store and tell him his Hindu gods were false and that he would be going to Hell. The tailor then said he wanted to visit Hodges' church. Though Hodges agrees with the other pastors, that type of approach turns people off, Hodges noted. "They (the other pastors) were correct but they weren't helpful," he said. "Jesus didn't call us to be right. He called us to be effective." "Just by connecting with him first, not correcting him first there's a place for correction; I'm not saying be soft on the Scriptures. I think you can stand firm and love well at the same time but you have to get the order right (connect before you correct)," he explained. "Neither do I condemn you. Now go leave your life of sin," he said, citing Jesus' words to the woman caught in adultery (John 8). "The order is important." "That's why I wrote the book most people feel ill-equipped and don't know how to both stand firm and love well." Hodges' book, The Daniel Dilemma: How to Stand Firm and Love Well in a Culture of Compromise, was released late last year. It examines tough questions for believers, namely how to hold firmly to biblical beliefs "without becoming obnoxious, insulting, or mad," a synopsis for the book says. "We can stand strong while loving others well. Because standing for truth isn't about winning the argument; it's about winning hearts. And when we learn the secret of connecting before correcting, we discover that we can respond to today's hard questions without compromising grace or truth." Read more about Megachurch Pastor Chris Hodges: Church Is Not Just for Christians on The Christian Post. The Problem of Village Atheism Christian Post Contributor | 07 September, 2018 by Randal Rauser I have been blogging for a decade now, primarily on topics in theology, current events, and apologetics. During that time, I have noted the extensive presence of village atheism within the "infidel" blogosphere. While the blogosphere also has its share of "village Christians", what is particularly ironic about the proliferation of village atheism is the fact that the online atheist/skeptic community persistently tries to brand itself as being especially rational, critical, and objective. And yet, the widespread and vocal opinions of the village atheists directly contradict this aspirational branding. First, a word on terminology. So far as I can see, the term "village atheist" was first popularized in the 19th century to refer to an atheistic individual within a religious community who vocally (and provocatively) expresses his/her dissent from the religious consensus of the community. For example, G.K. Chesterton identified Thomas Hardy as a village atheist (see Kevin Taylor, Hans Urs Von Balthasar and the Question of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, p. 168). However, in more recent literature the meaning of the term has evolved to identify a type of popular atheism that is often brash in presentation and lacks critical nuance. (In other words, minority status within a wider religious community is no longer essential to the term.) One sees this use in Peter van Inwagen, The Problem of Evil, p. 178 when Inwagen juxtaposes the unlettered popular opinions of the "village atheist" over against the more sophisticated opinions of the "atheist". In this article I will be using the term "village atheist" in the broad sense used by Inwagen. If you want to see how widespread village atheism is (and how virulent in expression), just consider the success of atheist Peter Boghossian's book A Manual for Creating Atheists. As I pointed out in my review, the book is a poorly written screed that makes a litany of claims that range between the patronizing and the absurd. For example, Boghossian asserts that any theist who fails to respond favorably to an atheist's explanation of their beliefs must be brain damaged. Apparently only a brain damagedperson could fail to see that atheism is true. A Manual for Creating Atheists is a terrible book. But it has also been a very successful book, selling thousands of copies and amassing more than 400 reviews on Amazon.com averaging 4 1/2 stars. That's a lot of village atheists. So what exactly is a village atheist? As I define it, this individual is characterized by several traits including the following: The proliferation of binary oppositions: Perhaps the most common (and troubling) hallmark is the simplistic categorization of people into two groups: the irrational, delusional religious "faith-heads" and the rational, irreligious skeptic. Boghossian's book is a disturbing example of this opposition. A claim of righteous indignation: Village atheists frequently claim the moral high ground. They are angry at biblical atrocities, the problem of evil, God, intelligent design, the Discovery Institute, Answers in Genesis, Muslims, hijabs, the Crusades, etc. Unfortunately, this alleged righteous indignation often provides a cover for them being overly emotional, rude, xenophobic, and moralizing. Lack of prior theoretical reflection: Village atheists frequently make bold assertions without a theoretical framework to back-up those assertions. For example, they will claim "Belief in God is irrational" without a defensible theory of rationality to justify the assertion. Or they will claim "You're a Christian because you were born in Kentucky" without a defensible theory of why social location defeats one class of belief (e.g. "religious") but not another (e.g. "non-religious"). Short attention span: This becomes especially evident when you challenge the village atheist to provide a theoretical framework to back-up their various incendiary assertions. Instead, if any response is forthcoming, it is typically the invocation of some new red herring or rabbit trail. Unresponsiveness to criticism: You can spend the afternoon arguing with a village atheist, carefully deconstructing some point they've made, only to have them repeat the very same point (perhaps in slightly amended form). This is indicative of doxastic closure. Caricaturing the opinions of others: Village atheists tend to caricature the views of other people, setting up and knocking down strawmen. (See for example, how Boghossian defines "faith".) The proliferation of tribalism: Village atheists tend to look askance on internal criticism (i.e. one atheist critiquing another), instead insisting that efforts must be focused on attacking Christians and other "religious" people (i.e. the out-groups). Read more about The Problem of Village Atheism on The Christian Post. Why Is Christianity Booming Outside Europe and North America? Op-Ed Contributors | 07 September, 2018 by John Stonestreet And Stan Guthrie Why is Christianity booming in the global South, but seemingly stagnant in the global North? A new fascinating book offers an answer. Dr. Glenn Sunshine is a long-time Fellow at the Colson Center, and he's that rare sort of historian who sees the sweep of intellectual and cultural history, and then brings it all together in a way that not only explains the past, but advances our understanding of the here and now. His new book, co-authored with Jerry Trousdale, is called "The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus' 1st-Century Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church." In the book, by telling compelling stories of God at work through ordinary peopleboth today and throughout historySunshine and Trousdale counter the prevailing myth that Christianity is in decline around the globe. Take, for example this story from Africa. Hassan, president of a ministry to Muslims, "reached out to one particularly resistant Muslim community that had martyred six Christian evangelists a few years ago." Hassan saw the community needed a school, so he "approached the Muslim leaders and offered to send a qualified teacher (who was also a trained church planter) if the community provided the necessary resources." This practical assistance opened the door to these closed communities. In two years, Sunshine and Trousdale describe, seven churches were planted. But there's more to this story. Some of the local Muslim leaders, upset by the spread of Christianity, hauled Hassan before the Muslim governor of the state. He used the opportunity instead to speak about the grace of God, and how God had helped the ministry provide this community with mobile medical clinics, dentists, safe water programs, seed banks, and schoolsall to serve Muslims. As Sunshine and Trousdale conclude, "Many of the Muslim clerics who had entered that meeting burning to have Hassan deported walked away with his business card or plans for further conversation." And that's just one story of what's happening in the global South. Here are some amazing statistics: In 1900, there were only nine million Christians in all of Africa; by 2000, there were 335 million. In Latin America, there were a mere 50,000 Protestants in 1900; today, there are more than 64 million, and most of them since the 1960s. Read more about Why Is Christianity Booming Outside Europe and North America? on The Christian Post. (RNS) Last month, after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro unveiled a bombshell 1,300-page grand jury report detailing the alleged sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children in his state by hundreds of Catholic priests, American Catholics called for more investigations into church documents. Some even demanded the federal government step in. Now law enforcement officials in at least seven states New York, New Jersey, Nebraska, New Mexico, Florida, Missouri and Illinois appear to be launching their own inquiries or reviews of Catholic dioceses, often focusing on what Shapiro called secret church files thought to contain decades of allegations of child sex abuse by priests. On Thursday (Sept. 6), The Associated Press reported that New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has subpoenaed all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state to investigate the churchs handling of sex abuse allegations. New York Archdiocese spokesperson Joseph Zwilling later confirmed to Religion News Service that that diocese has received the subpoena and is ready and eager to work together with (the attorney general) in the investigation. Previously, the Diocese of Buffalo told RNS it will cooperate with any investigation initiated by the New York State Attorney General or District Attorney, and the Diocese of Albany invited the local district attorney to review its files on Thursday. The New Jersey attorney general also announced on Thursday the creation of a new task force to investigate Catholic dioceses of New Jersey. According to NJ.com, the body will have subpoena power through a grand jury to compel testimony and demand documents from church officials. The (Pennsylvania) report revealed that sexual assaults on children and efforts to cover up such assaults were far more widespread in Pennsylvania than we ever thought possible, read a statement by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. We owe it to the people of New Jersey to find out whether the same thing happened here. If it did, we will take action against those responsible. Due to differing legal systems from state to state, the investigations promise to be tailored to the varying powers of the states attorneys general and the states history of investigating abuse claims. Some states dioceses have already been investigated or have long-standing agreements with law enforcement. Nebraskas attorney general also sent a letter to the states three dioceses requesting records going back 40 years, to Jan. 1, 1978. When RNS contacted the Archdiocese of Omaha last week asking about a hypothetical inquiry, the diocese said it would allow the attorney general to review our files. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas unveiled his offices inquiry on Wednesday evening, sending 10-page letters in contemplation of litigation and legal demands to dioceses asking to review any church records related to past or present allegations of sexual abuse. (Balderas) has sent investigative demands to all three dioceses in New Mexico requiring full disclosure and full transparency, David Carl, a spokesperson for the attorney generals office, told RNS in an email. 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. One of those dioceses, the Diocese of Gallup, has already pledged to work with the attorney general. We look forward to cooperating with the Attorney General to ensure the safety of all the members of our diocese, read a statement from the diocese. In Florida, Attorney General Pam Bondi told RNS in August that my statewide prosecutor is reaching out to all of the state attorneys to explore the matter. Bondis office declined to comment further this week, saying it would not remark on an ongoing matter. But at least one Florida diocese indicated that the effort has moved past the exploration phase and into a full inquiry. The Diocese of St. Petersburg has been contacted by the statewide prosecutor from the Attorney General and will cooperate with the inquiry, a diocesan representative told RNS in an email. The dioceses of Venice, St. Augustine, Pensacola-Tallahassee and Palm Beach also confirmed they would cooperate with any inquiry made by Florida law enforcement or the attorney general. A representative from the Archdiocese of Miami did not mention any ongoing investigations but said state attorneys had already reviewed all of the Miami and Broward County dioceses clergy files in 2002. In Missouri, the Archdiocese of St. Louis voluntarily offered up its files on Aug. 23 for inspection by state Attorney General Josh Hawley. The proposal was unusual: The jurisdiction for child sex abuse crimes in Missouri technically lies with an elected local prosecutor. But since the archdiocese offered up the files voluntarily, Hawley agreed, and he announced a formal independent review of the files by his office. The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, another diocese in the state, promptly declared it would also cooperate with any review the attorney general requests. The trend spread: A spokesperson for the Diocese of Jefferson City told RNS it is working with the Missouri attorney general in having a review of our files, along with the other three Missouri arch/dioceses, which include St. Louis, Kansas City-St. Joseph and Springfield-Cape Girardeau. Meanwhile, in Illinois, Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced plans last month to meet with the Archdiocese of Chicago and reach out to the other dioceses in Illinois, saying she expect(s) the bishops will agree and cooperate fully. She said in a press release that if dioceses refused to comply, she would work with states attorneys and law enforcement throughout Illinois to investigate. A spokesperson for the attorney generals office said the probe was triggered by the Pennsylvania grand jury report. It really is in direct response to the report that named at least seven priests that had a direct connection to Illinois at some point, the spokesperson said. Madigan, who last year initiated the elimination of Illinois statute of limitations on child sex abuse crimes, also created a hotline specifically for allegations of clergy abuse. The Archdiocese of Chicago said it plans to meet with the attorney general but claimed law enforcement officials reviewed its clergy files three times in 1992, 2002 and 2015 and noted that files detailing allegations of abuse by priests are already published on the archdioceses website. We have been contacted by the Illinois Attorney General and look forward to discussing our policies and procedures related to misconduct issues with her and her office, read a statement from the archdiocese. We have worked cooperatively with the Cook County and Lake County States Attorneys for many years. Other Illinois dioceses offered similar answers but declined to comment further for fear of interfering with the attorney generals effort. It remains to be seen whether any of the state-level inquiries will produce the kind of bombshell that came out of Pennsylvania, and its unclear what, if any, new allegations will surface. But for now, the broader trend of investigating the American Catholic Church seems far from over. READ THIS STORY AT RELIGIONNEWS.COM Original article published by Religion News Service. Used with Permission. Photo courtesy: RNS/AP Photo/Matt Rourke Ive never seen this much furor caused by an op-ed, much less one whose author we dont know. But thats partly the point. The New York Times chose on Wednesday to publish an op-ed from what it called a senior official in the White House who makes extremely disparaging claims against President Trump. Speculation regarding the identity of the writer has escalated in the days since. Some think Vice President Mike Pence is the writer. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had to deny authorship. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on the coward who wrote the piece to do the right thing and resign. Many are focusing on the truth or falsity of the writers defamatory descriptions of the Trump White House. Others are working to identify the author. Heres a question Ive not seen debated: Why did the Times choose to publish the op-ed in the first place? The Times editor who made the decision has said, We felt it was a very strong piece written by someone who had something important to say and whos speaking from a place of their own sense of personal ethics and conscience. That was our main focus. But its worth asking whether the liberal New York Times would have made the same decision if the op-ed had been written about Barack Obama when he was in the Oval Office. Or whether Fox News would have published last Wednesdays op-ed, given the opportunity. The danger of confirmation bias According to one psychologist, confirmation bias occurs when we have formed a view and then embrace information that confirms that view while ignoring, or rejecting, information that casts doubt on it. Such bias is obvious every day in the media. We should not be surprised that liberal and conservative commentators are reacting according to their previous opinions of the president. Our divided media reflects our divided nation. When Judge Kavanaughs Senate hearings began this week, 38 percent of Americans thought he should be confirmed to the Supreme Court, while 39 percent did not. Our country is so divided politically that we care even about the party of the person our child marries. In 1958, 33 percent of Democrats wanted their child to marry a Democrat, while 25 percent of Republicans wanted their child to marry a Republican. In 2016, this sentiment was held by 60 percent and 63 percent, respectively. Of all the reasons we could offer for our divided culture, consider one: the fall of the Soviet Union. Unified by our enemies Heres my reasoning: America was founded on a creedAll men are created equalrather than for a specific ethnic or socioeconomic class. We were defined by what we were (an egalitarian democracy) and by what we were not (subjects of England). Our fragile unity was shattered by the forces that led to the Civil War, a conflict that, according to acclaimed historian James McPherson, forged a nation. That nation was tested by wars with Mexico and Spain before winning two world wars. We were resolved to defeat our enemies, a commitment that focused our patriotism and strengthened our unity. Our nation continued to be united by our enemies during the Cold War and the aftermath of 9/11. However, radical Islam is less a threat to our nation today and the Soviet Union is no more. Today, we are a country without a clear enemy. No longer unified by external threats, many Americans are now committed to subsets of the culture. For some, loyalty to a political party means vociferous and unconditional opposition to the other party. Bipartisan cooperation seems a thing of the past, a commitment for which leaders like John McCain are often more criticized than praised. Many are following this threefold strategy for political success: (1) Convince voters that they have an enemy. (2) Convince voters that they cannot defeat their enemy. (3) Convince voters that you will defeat their enemy if they elect you (or give you money or do whatever else you want them to do). George Washingtons prayer Caricaturing and vilifying fellow Americans because we disagree with some of their beliefs is both popular and dangerous. Here are biblical steps toward unity tempered by grace. One: Renew our personal commitment to biblical absolutes. The apostles were willing to die rather than cease preaching the gospel (Acts 4:18-20). Know what we believe and why we believe it. Two: Build bridges rather than moats. Our purpose on earth is not to win arguments but to win souls. We are to defend biblical truth with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). Three: Set an example by speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Gods word is clear: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person (Colossians 4:6). We should never say about people what we will not say to them (Matthew 18:15). If we reflect the spirit of Jesus, we are more likely to draw people to Jesus. In 1783, after leading the American forces to victory, Gen. George Washington resigned his military commission. In a circular letter to the governors of the American states, he offered his earnest prayer for the new nation that God would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without a humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. What would the father of our country think of the country he helped create? What will you do today to help America be a happy nation? For more from the Denison Forum, please visit www.denisonforum.org. The Daily Article Podcast is Here! Click to Listen Publication Date: September 7, 2018 Photo Courtesy: Unsplash/Reynier Carl Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Like many in my generation, I grew up with a copy of Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict (henceforth, Evidence) on the bookshelf. Over the years, I frequently consulted Evidence to quell doubts and provide ammunition to fire back at the skeptics on topics like evolution and the authorship of Daniel. Apparently, a lot of people had Evidence on their shelf because the original 1972 edition was revised in 1979 and again in 1999 (xvii). Now that we have a third extensive revision, one that adds Josh McDowell's son Sean as a coauthor, I thought it time to return to Evidence for a closer look at the latest edition. Henceforth in this review, I will refer to McDowell and McDowell as M&M. I have titled this review "Fundamentalist Apologetics Comes of Age". That title reflects two facts. First, Evidence has indeed come of age in the sense that it reflects an advanced state of development: this is a massive book (798 pages plus a 74-page introduction) and it covers a dizzying array of topics in an accessible and engaging manner. For that, it should be lauded. That said, the reader should also be aware that Evidence continues to exhibit the characteristics of Protestant fundamentalism. For some people, that may be a boon to be celebrated. But for others, it is an unfortunate fact, one that significantly qualifies the book's otherwise laudable achievements. Apologetics Come of Age Let's start with the positives. As an apologetic work approaching nine hundred pages, it should be no surprise that Evidence covers an enormous range of material. Following an extensive seventy-page introduction, the main text includes four parts: Part I: Evidence for the Bible; Part II: Evidence for Jesus; Part III: Evidence for the Old Testament; Part IV: Evidence for Truth. But before launching into some plaudits, I must say that I find this structure deeply idiosyncratic. To begin with, the introduction includes not only a personal testimony and an introduction to the field of apologetics, but also a section defending the existence of God. On the contrary, I would think a defense of the existence of God (i.e. theistic apologetics) properly belongs as the first major section of the text proper. After all, a defense of God's existence is not prolegomenal to Christian apologetics: rather, it is a critical part of the apologist's work. Meanwhile, Part IV includes foundational material on topics such as the nature of truth and the concept of knowledge which arguably do belong in the prolegomena of the introduction: after all, every subsequent argument depends on a concept of truth and the accessibility of rational belief and knowledge. I also find the text's treatment of key biblical issues as idiosyncratic, but since those further points are indicative of the fundamentalist biblicism of the text I will return to discuss them below. But now it's back to the good news. And let me begin with the fact that the book is, for the most part, very readable. This is a feat in itself because Evidence has always been distinguished by a large number of extended quotations from other sources. In my experience with earlier editions of the book, that rendered the text better suited as a reference work for various topics rather than a unified book that one might read straight through. But that was not my experience with this latest edition. Indeed, at times I found this latest edition of Evidence to rise to the level of a bonafide page-turner. Hats off to M&M for that! One of the great attractions of the book is that it boasts an encyclopedic breadth of various apologetic topics and persons. For example, it includes an excellent survey of the biblical manuscript evidence, succinct rebuttals to leading skeptics like Richard Carrier (280-84) and Bart Ehrman (Appendix), and concise summaries of controversies both recent (e.g. the Talpiot Tomb: 293-300) and old (the mystery religions). While we're on the topic of mystery religions, I especially appreciated M&M's treatment of this old canard. According to this old objection, core Christian claims of Christ's death and resurrection are anticipated in so-called mystery religions of dying and rising gods. Hence, Christianity is best explained as a further development of these venerable legendary motifs. In reply, M&M first point out that evidence for the mystery religions is all second-century and thus after Christ. As a result, if there is influence here, it flows from Christian belief and practice to that of the mystery religions. Further, even if the mystery religions did precede Christ, that hardly shows they explain Christ's death and resurrection. To make the point, M&M give an analogy. In 1898 a novel was published about a passenger ship called the Titan which sinks in the Atlantic. The novel famously bears several uncanny parallels with the later sinking of the Titanic. But nobody would think that provides a reason to question the historicity of the latter event (311). Finally, M&M cite Tolkien's argument that anticipations of death and resurrection could be interpreted by the Christian in terms of general revelation as "God ... using the images of their 'mythopoeia' [story-making] to express fragments of his eternal truth." (314) Indeed! And so, in a few pages, they offer a succinct and satisfying rebuttal to a bad (but persistent) argument against Christianity. This mystery religions example illustrates the strength of Evidence: generally brief, clear, and reliable summaries of various arguments and responses to various objections (exceptions will be noted below, however). Among the many other topics treated we find a helpful summary of cosmic fine-tuning (lxvi-lxx), a quick refutation of the miracles of Apollonius (350-1), a survey of first-principles that one can know by rational intuition (626-30), and a summary of the Moorean shift as a fitting rebuttal to skepticism (659-60). And of course, that is but a brief sampling of the extensive list of topics addressed. And here's the really amazing thing. This eight-hundred-page encyclopedic survey of apologetic topics is currently a mere $20 for hardback at Amazon.com. Even more incredibly, as I write, the Kindle version is $2.42. In other words, you can have all this on your smartphone for less than a Starbucks latte! With that in mind, I don't mind saying that despite the significant caveats that I will summarize below, Evidence is surely one of the biggest bargains in Christendom. Everything that I've said thus far is sufficient reason for you to buy the book, period. Fundamentalist Apologetics While Evidence is most surely worth the purchase price (and then some), it is important that the reader understand the book reflects some common Protestant fundamentalist hallmarks and thus, in that sense, can be properly deemed a fundamentalist apologetic. Too often, the word "fundamentalist" is tossed around with no definition. (As Alvin Plantinga once wryly observed, people who apply the label to others often mean nothing more than "more conservative than me.") But fundamentalism should not be treated as a mere insult. When I use the term, I intend to signal a position that evinces a particular set of characteristics commonly associated with the Protestant fundamentalism that arose a century ago and which has remained a significant force among North American Protestants for the last several decades. These characteristics include biblicism, biblical literalism, rationalism, triumphalism, and binary oppositionalism. Biblicism Before we turn to consider the charge of biblicisim, we should begin by establishing the intended scope of Evidence. In the introduction, Andy Stanley writes: "For over forty years, Evidence That Demands a Verdict has been the go-to resource for Christ followers desiring to equip themselves for the task of presenting and defending the claims of the Christian faith." (xv) This is an important statement since it makes clear that the intent of Evidence is not simply to summarize some particular beliefs about the Bible; rather, the purpose of the book is to present and defend the entire Christian faith and to do so in a sprawling work of close to nine-hundred pages. With that in mind, we face a puzzle. You see, while the book is purportedly concerned with defending the entirety of Christian faith, it has an inordinate focus (70% or 600+ pages) devoted to explicating and defending the Bible. While some of these points e.g. the historicity of Jesus and his resurrection are certainly core to Christian belief, others are not. Consider, for example, the fact that entire chapters are devoted to relatively arcane topics like the authorship of Isaiah and Daniel. Not only is the book largely devoted to the Bible, but incredibly enough, the authors devote fewer than five pages to discussing the most central doctrines of Trinity, incarnation, and atonement. Now this is a puzzle: why hundreds of pages on the Bible but almost nothing on essential Christian doctrines? The answer, so I believe, is found in the influence of biblicism. I understand biblicism to represent a view that eschews the critical role of communal tradition in articulating Christian faith in favor of a belief that the Bible alone remains the source and norm of theological belief and Christian life. The biblicist tends to downplay the post-biblical development of doctrine within the church as well as the extent to which extra-biblical sources (e.g. reason, tradition, experience, community, culture) played in the articulation of doctrine. On the contrary, the biblicist tends to understand the core doctrines that define Christian identity as existing in latent form in the Bible. And thus, the relevant verses only need to be identified and their implications unpacked in order to have a sufficient definition of various Christian doctrines. This biblicist mindset is famously illustrated in the methodology of Gordon Lewis, Decide for Yourself: A Theological Workbook. And so, for example, in order to articulate the doctrine of the Trinity one can bypass the history of doctrinal debate and creedal development and instead focus simply on the exegesis of a narrow set of biblical texts. If you can defend the Bible (and the chapters on Isaiah and Daniel are devoted to defending the traditional authorship so as to retain the veridical force of their future-prophecies) then all the rest, including major Christian doctrines unfolds naturally. As M&M write, the doctrine of the Trinity is "Rooted deeply in the pages of Scripture" (7). But the reality is far more complicated. Christian doctrines are not simply read out of the Bible. Nor are they derived from the Bible by some theological analogue to Baconian induction. Rather, they are theoretical interpretations of scriptural data that unfolded over centuries as the church wrestled with the biblical text and their own communal and individual experience in light of the best philosophy and culture of their day. Perhaps Evidence might be forgiven for failing to exposit major Christian doctrines: after all, it is an apologetic book, not a work of theology. But then, the book also omits any apologetic defense of major Christian doctrines despite the fact that each of them is subject to significant objections. For example, critics have argued that the doctrines of the Trinity and incarnation are incoherent; they've insisted that atonement is immoral; they've claimed that divine foreknowledge is inconsistent with human free will; they've warned that an eternity in heaven would be insufferably boring and an eternity in hell inexplicably cruel. These and countless other objections have been offered to specific Christian doctrinal claims, and yet Evidence, an eight-hundred-page book ostensibly devoted to defending "the claims of the Christian faith", discusses none of them even as it devotes entire chapters to the authorship of Isaiah and Daniel! Biblical Literalism The second theme that I want to highlight is biblical literalism. This is is a distinctive hallmark of fundamentalism according to which the default interpretation of a biblical text is a literal interpretation. And what exactly is the literal interpretation? The concept is commonly associated with a plain or straightforward reading of the text. So far as I can see, M&M never explicitly endorse literalism as a formal hermeneutical principle (though many fundamentalists have). Nonetheless, I believe that the fingerprints of biblical literalism are found throughout the book. Consider, for example, these passages: "The straightforward way of reading the Bible is that Adam was a historical person." (441) "a straightforward reading of the details in the book of Exodus leads a reader to recognize the text is being presented as an authentically historical account, not mythology." (462, emphasis in original) I understand why a modern reader would assume that particular readings of the biblical text are obvious or plain or straightforward and thus how any interpretation which deviates from this obvious, plain, straightforward reading is automatically suspect. However, too often the fundamentalist assumes that plain and straightforward to the ancient Israelite or first century Christian is just the same thing as plain and straightforward to the twenty-first century North American fundamentalist. It isn't. And who decides what is straightforward? Is six 24 hour days the straightforward reading of Genesis 1? What about a literal thousand year millennium in Revelation 20? Chapter 17 and its discussion of the historical Adam is particularly illuminating. The chapter is deeply influenced by the Zondervan book Four Views on the Historical Adam which features a debate between a young earth creationist, an old earth creationist, and two theistic evolutionists (John Walton and Denis Lamoureux). To their credit, M&M engage with Walton and Lamoureux. Nonetheless, their engagement struck me as superficial and perfunctory, a necessary stop on their way to affirming old earth creationism. This is particularly unfortunate because this topic could have provided an ideal basis to challenge benighted Bible readers to come to terms with the extent to which the cosmology of the biblical authors assumes obsolete categories such as the raqia (firmament), the chaos monsters, and the three-storied universe itself. (For further discussion, see my review of Robin Parry, The Biblical Cosmos.) To sum up, M&M could have done their readers an enormous service by equipping them with a sophisticated and nuanced concept of divine accommodation rather than retaining the awkward concordism that so often characterizes fundamentalist approaches to the Bible and science. Rationalism The word "rationalism" can mean many things. Here I am using it to flag two themes in Evidence: a commitment to biblical propositionalism and biblical inerrancy. Propositionalism reflects the idea that the essence of biblical revelation is found in the communication of propositions, in other words, statements about God and our relationship to him. In short, for the propositionalist, the Bible is primarily an information transfer rather than an experiential, transformative text. M&M write: "We ... believe that Scripture certainly conveys propositional truths, and symbolic truths at times, through texts that are factually correct." (587) While there are many literary expressions in Scripture that are not propositions (e.g. commands, questions), nonetheless, M&M cite Geisler and Roach as saying that "all truth in the Bible is propositionalizable." (Cited in 587) This notion of Scripture as a mere repository of facts was famously defended by Carl Henry, but to non-fundamentalists it reflects a gross reductionism. Scripture is, first of all, a transformative encounter and the reading of and submission to it should not simply convey facts but yield transformation (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Hence, we have Karl Barth's famous invitation to the strange new world in the Bible. Given their commitment to the Bible as a repository of propositions, it is no surprise that M&M also affirm biblical inerrancy. Indeed, they apparently believe that inspiration entails inerrancy: "Since we believe that the Bible is God's Word and are therefore committed to the inerrancy of Scripture, we believe that alleged contradictions are not real, and that the Bible truly does harmonize when properly understood." (586; see also their endorsement of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, 122-23) The inerrantist may be able to reconcile the two seemingly contradictory accounts of the death of Judas (70), but how do they propose to reconcile Ezekiel 18:23 with Psalm 37:13? No doubt, they will try. But what if this entire approach to the Bible misses the point (Gen. 32:28)? Triumphalism According to apologetic triumphalism, there are no major unanswered objections to Christian faith and there is rationally compelling evidence for Christian belief. Fundamentalist apologetics have a long history of triumphalism which is often buoyed by the assumption that those who disagree with them are irrational and/or immoral. (See, for example, my discussion in Is the Atheist my Neighbor? as well as chapter 1 of my book Theology in Search of Foundations.) I do want to give M&M some credit here as early on they have a good discussion on the importance of character and conduct (liv-lvii). So even if they are triumphalistic, they're not going to rub it in! At the same time, as I read through Evidence I found that M&M often overplayed their hand. For example, at several points, they move from mere possibility to plausibility (see, for example, their discussion of the virgin birth). At the same time, they completely skirt some of the most troubling objections to the Bible (e.g. biblical violence) and Christian faith more generally (see my comments above on Christian doctrine). Particularly revealing is their discussion of prophecy in chapter 9: "Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ." Fundamentalist apologists have a very bad history of naively prooftexting biblical prophecies to establish allegedly rationally compelling evidence for the supernatural origins of the Bible. Initially, it seems that M&M are going to avoid these perils as they acknowledge the literary/typological function of prophecy (e.g. 211). But then everything changes with the section: "Summary of Old Testament Predictions Literally Fulfilled in Christ" (229-31). Here they quote a fellow named Peter Stoner who does some mathematical calculations on fulfilled prophecy. Stoner concludes, "We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157. This is really a large number and it represents an extremely small chance." (231) Um, yeah. In other words, the cautionary hermeneutical lessons from earlier in the chapter are suddenly forgotten as we fall back into the worst of fundamentalist bad Bible reading and misbegotten triumphalism. Binary Oppositionalism Fundamentalists have a long history of drawing stark binary oppositions between the in-group (i.e. conservative Protestant Christians) and the out-group (i.e. "the world"). M&M provide fodder for those regrettable tendencies. Notably, they frequently invoke language which seeks to sow mistrust in the reader of all scholarship that is not adequately conservative. For example, they warn that "One must recognize that presuppositions and biases exist in the scholarly world. Not infrequently, these predilections create blind spots and gaps in research and publication...." (418-19) I don't disagree with this caveat: scholars can have biases. The problem is that M&M repeatedly warn about the biases of so-called liberals. As they say, "the anti-Bible bias is so strong in current academia...." (419) However, it is clear that for M&M "anti-Bible" reduces to opposition to their fundamentalist and inerrantist reading of the Bible. Consider, for example, the historicity of the Exodus (including the notion that more than a million Israelites departed Egypt): "Throughout most of Jewish and Christian history, the exodus as a literal event has not been questioned. However, in contemporary scholarship, especially among archaeologists whose theology tends toward liberalism, the historicity of the exodus has been doubted or even disbelieved entirely." (460, emphasis added) Of these "liberal" scholars they write: "We discover that often a different standard of evidence is applied to the Bible as opposed to other ancient manuscripts." (461) The irony is that if there is evident bias here, it is most surely with M&M and their fellow conservative (i.e. evangelical and fundamentalist) scholars. Note that M&M frequently endorse highly idiosyncratic positions because of their theological conservatism including Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch (5), Isaian authorship of Isaiah (chapter 24), and Pauline authorship of Hebrews (32; but see 183). Not surprisingly, they offer no caution to the reader to look for the biases that underlie their own approach to the data. Instead, we are only given warnings to be suspicious of the majority opinions of "liberal" scholars. This tendency of M&M to impugn bias and nefarious motives to non-conservatives is an example of poisoning the well. Perhaps the ugliest expression of the practice occurs when M&M attempt to tar the Documentary Hypothesis with the brush of anti-Semitism (540). To be sure, anti-Semitism is an ugly thing but whether or not Wellhausen was anti-Semitic has precisely no bearing on assessing the veracity of the Documentary Hypothesis. At the end of the book, M&M devote chapters to discussing postmodernism and skepticism. However, rather than explore how one might critically engage these ideas with charity and nuance (e.g. by considering how the postmodern incredulity toward metanarratives may illumine a Christian epistemic humility), they feel compelled to offer unqualified rebuttals. And so we get confrontational chapter titles: "Answering Postmodernism" (645) and "Answering Skepticism" (662). Perhaps the very worst example of binary oppositionalism in the book is found in M&M's concluding comments on skepticism: "All versions of skepticism have a similar goal: calling knowledge into question. Note that this intellectual goal is not the same thing as biblical discernment, which is 'the ability to judge wisely and objectively.'" (662) This is absurd. As Anthony Kenny once observed, reason itself is the golden mean between skepticism (i.e. the tendency to doubt) and credulity (i.e. the tendency to believe). And the same goes for discernment. It is no substitute for skepticism. Rather, it is an expression of reason which includes skepticism. So why do M&M demonize skepticism in all its expressions? I suspect this reflects a tendency to retrench belief within the conservative Christian community. Alas, this kind of binary oppositionalism sustains conformity of belief at the cost of critical thinking. Fundamentalist Footnotes Not every vestige of fundamentalism evident in the book can be explicated as a running them. At several points, M&M evince other common characteristics of fundamentalism. For example, in their efforts to strengthen their position, fundamentalists frequently caricature or otherwise misrepresent the beliefs of others. As a case in point, consider M&M's claim that according to Judaism, people are saved by "the Law" (xlv). Fundamentalists have also tended to be hostile to and dismissive of the Roman Catholic Church. I wouldn't accuse M&M of hostility, but they most certainly are woefully dismissive, most obviously in their trite rebuttals to the Apocrypha (38-40). For example, M&M quote the following argument from Ralph Earle for rejecting Second Esdras: "Second Esdras (AD 100-200) is a collection of three apocalyptic works containing seven visions.... Martin Luther was so confused by these visions that he is said to have thrown the book into the Elbe River." (38) That's it: the sole reason for rejecting Second Esdras. This is a bald case of special pleading. If we are to reject Second Esdras because Martin Luther found it confusing, then why keep Revelation? Next up, we have the fundamentalist commitment to tract-based conversionist evangelism: believe it or not, the final four pages of Evidence (795-98) are devoted to a summary of Bill Bright's Four Spiritual Laws. Finally, fundamentalists tend to be complementarians and to employ patriarchal and gender-exclusive language. With that in mind, note that M&M employ "man" and "mankind" throughout the text (e.g. 10; 199; 224; 384; 387; 425; 428; 429; 430, etc.). This might seem like a small matter to the lay reader. But within the academy, the use of gender-inclusive language (e.g. humankind; humanity) has been de rigueur for more than twenty years. Set against that backdrop, the persistent use of widely rejected gender-exclusive language is insensitive at best and an affront to gender-inclusion at worst. The Verdict As I observed above, not everybody is opposed to fundamentalism. To those folks, I can recommend this book without qualification, at least in the sense that I think they will find it to be beneficial without qualification. But I don't share that rosy picture of fundamentalism. I think its distinguishing features like biblicism, literalism, rationalism, triumphalism, and binary oppositionalism are false and harmful. And in that sense, my own commendation of Evidence most surely comes with a qualification. Nonetheless, the virtues of the book clear writing; encyclopedic scope; bargain price are undeniable and that is sufficient for me to give Evidence a robust, if qualified, endorsement. You can visit Amazon for those bargain prices here. And my thanks to Thomas Nelson for a review copy of Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Earlier this month, Refinery29 released a survey of more than 2,000 Millennial women, in collaboration with CBS News, polling them on a range of political issues. Most of the media coverage has focused on the fact that a low percentage of Millennial women (ages 18-35) say they support President Donald Trump. The poll also contains some interesting findings on the attitudes of Millennial women toward feminism and abortion. For instance, the poll found that only 46 percent of Millennial women identify as feminists, and Refinery29 published a subsequent story on this part of the poll, including follow-up interviews with some of the women surveyed. One woman said she believes feminists place too much emphasis on issues such as abortion and contraception, while others said they disapprove of the way some feminists accept provocative clothing choices and promiscuous lifestyles. One woman said she feels that modern feminists ignore the needs of minority women. Other respondents said they believe that most women are doing well economically, and thus that feminist complaints are dated. The poll also found that only 28 percent of Millennial women believe abortion should be available for any reason, while 72 percent think there should be some legal protections for the unborn. Interestingly, both Pew and Gallup have asked similar survey questions about abortion and have found comparable results among the general public. Contrary to the views of many pundits, the attitudes of Millennial women toward abortion are broadly consistent with those of society at large. Furthermore, the poll found that the most important policy issue for Millennial women was actually health care not abortion. The polling results also indicated, though, that only 29 percent of Millennial women are either "happy" or "satisfied" with Donald Trump's presidency. Similarly, only 30 percent feel that the country is going in the right direction and, by a two-to-one margin, Millennial women want the Democratic party to take control of Congress in 2018. Overall, the Refinery29 poll is consistent with most survey data, which find that the current generation of young adults is skeptical toward feminism and sympathetic to instituting some protections for the unborn, even as young adults are less likely than other demographic groups to support Republican political candidates. Identifying strategies to effectively engage young people remains both a challenge and an opportunity for conservatives and pro-lifers. Originally posted at nationalreview.com Michael J. New is a Visiting Associate Professor at Ave Maria University and an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_J_New CofE facing 'unrelenting decline' as number of Brits identifying as Anglican halves in 15 years There is an 'unrelenting decline' in Church of England and Church of Scotland numbers, particularly among young people, according to the latest figures from the British Social Attitudes survey. Results released today show that the number of Brits who identify as Church of England has more than halved in the last 15 years, from 31 per cent to 14 per cent. The sharpest decline is among 45 to 54-year-olds, from 35 per cent in 2002 to 11 per cent in 2017. Other traditions have remained stable, with Roman Catholics and 'non-Christian faiths' each on eight per cent and 'other Christian affiliations' on 10 per cent. Fifty-two per cent say they have no religion, compared with 41 per cent in 2002. Young people are least likely to be religious, with 70 per cent of those aged 18-24 saying they have no religion a rise from 56 per cent in 2002. Older people are also less likely to say they belong to the CofE, with 34 per cent of those aged 65 and over saying they have no religion, compared with 18 per cent in 2002. There is also a significant gap between religious affiliations when it comes to church attendance, with 21 per cent of respondents who affiliate themselves with the Church of England saying they attend church apart from special occasions, such as weddings and funerals at least once a month. This is compared with 42 per cent of Roman Catholics. The majority of Brits who follow either religion attend church less than once a month. The number of Scots who say they belong to the Church of Scotland has fallen overall, from 31 per cent in 2002 to 18 per cent in 2017. Fifty-six per cent of Scots now say they have no religion. All age groups have seen a decline in religious identity of between 11-17 per cent in the last 15 years, which has gone hand in hand with a gradual decline in church attendance at Church of Scotland services. Roger Harding, head of public attitudes at the National Centre for Social Research, said: 'Our figures show an unrelenting decline in Church of England and Church of Scotland numbers. This is especially true for young people where less than one in 20 now belong to their established church. While the figures are starkest among younger people, in every age group the biggest single group are those identifying with no religion. 'We know from the British Social Attitudes survey that people's views are becoming more socially liberal on issues like same sex relationships and abortion. With growing numbers belonging to no religion, faith leaders will no doubt be considering how to better connect to a changing society.' Dave Male, the C of E's director of evangelism and discipleship, said: 'It has been clear for some time that we have moved from an era of people automatically, and perhaps unthinkingly, classifying themselves as Church of England or Anglican to one in which identifying with a faith is an active choice. 'Yet research, especially among young people, shows an increase in willingness to engage in faith. Our experience is that people of all ages haven't stopped searching for meaning and answers in their life. 'Ultimately the church exists to share the good news of Jesus Christ. That was never meant to be easy and that work goes on whatever the figures may say.' Government planning changes to make divorce easier The Government is about to embark on a consultation to shake-up the country's divorce laws, Buzzfeed News reports. In the first major changes to divorce laws in half a century, couples in England and Wales would be able to seek a no-fault divorce. Plans being drawn up by the Government would also remove the right of either spouse to contest the breakdown of the marriage. Under current laws, couples in England and Wales who want to divorce must be able to demonstrate that there has been one of the following: adultery, unreasonable behavior, desertion, they have lived apart for more than two years and both consent to the divorce; or have lived apart for at least five years, even if one spouse disagrees with the separation. Justice Secretary David Gauke, who is set to launch a consultation on the proposals, said the current system created 'unnecessary antagonism' for couples. Buzzfeed News reports that the consultation will also consider the length of time it takes for a divorce to be processed, with a timeframe of at least six months on the table. The consultation comes on the heels of a controversial Supreme Court ruling this summer against a woman from Worcestershire who wanted to divorce her husband of 40 years against his will. Tini Owens, 68, wanted to divorce her husband on the grounds that she was unhappy in the marriage, but the Supreme Court ruled that she must remain married to her husband, Hugh, until 2020. The Christian Institute is among those cautioning against any changes to the law to make divorce easier. It instead argues that the law should support reconciliation. 'Given the devastating effects of divorce on adults, children and society, even those who do not hold to a Christian view of divorce should be opposed to measures which make divorce even easier,' it said. 'The statistics clearly show that every time the law on divorce has been liberalised, the number of divorces has increased.' UN secretary-general praises evangelicals' work with refugees The head of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has praised the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, for his 'careful and measured response' to the global issues of war and famine that have faced him during his first two years in office. WEA secretary general Bishop Efraim Tendero met Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York to talk about their shared concern for human rights, religious liberty and social issues. Welcoming Tendero and the WEA delegation Guterres expressed his appreciation for WEA and acknowledged the role evangelicals play in serving the needs of refugees coming to Europe. Tendero said Guterres has often provided the world with a careful and measured response to the global issues he has faced, bringing to the many players a thoughtful plan to override our human propensity to violence. He spoke of his own experience in the Philippines when at a critical moment in Mindanao, he challenged the parties, both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to 'try peace instead'. He said that as a global body of evangelical Christians 'we affirm our commitment to inter-faith dialogue and peace building'. 'After all, Jesus provides not only the model of peace, but by his very presence and power, induces in the hearts of us an inclination to follow him and not our own self-interest.' He also spoke of WEA's concern for Christians whose rights are being violated and how WEA's Religious Liberty Commission responds to such issues. Tendero also outlined the work of WEA's Human Trafficking Task Force and its collaboration with both Christian and civil society groups, especially in countries where young people are trapped by modern forms of slavery, such as prostitution. He outlined plans for the forthcoming Jesus Global Youth Day, in August 2019 in Manila, scheduled to coincide with the UN's International Youth Day. He said those gathered will be mobilised to adopt certain agenda items of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). What does the British Social Attitudes survey really say about Anglican decline? So, it's all up with the poor old Church of England. That's the take-away from the latest British Social Attitudes survey that points to its 'unrelenting decline', anyway. It's even worse in the Church of Scotland. The number of Brits who self-identify as Anglicans has halved in the last 15 years, and our national church now claims the allegiance of only 14 per cent of us. Among young adults, it's only two per cent. At current rates of decline, etc, etc. However, it's quite important to be clear about what these figures actually tell us, and it may be that they don't tell us very much. They are not evidence of someone's religious practice; they are an untestable statement of affiliation. (Ask me if I play the guitar and I'll say 'yes', though I haven't picked it up all year.) There is a question about how often people go to church, but the BSA doesn't actually count them. In fact in 2017 it was reported that the number of Anglican worshippers though it had declined dramatically overall since 1983 had actually risen 'gently' during the last three years. What the survey does tell us is that when it comes to box-ticking, people are far less likely to tick the one that says 'CofE' for so long the default position for much of the country. 'When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England,' says the combative Parson Thwackum in Tom Jones (1749). It took a long time for that to change, but the change has come. Partly it's from being exposed to so many more spiritual options thanks to multi-culturalism and to the internet, home of the weird and wonderful. Partly it's from the New Atheist assault that for a while made it uncool to believe anything. Partly, too, it's because people have less need of the church for their social networks and as a community resource even as somewhere to get married so the points of contact between them are fewer. Church, and clergy, have become alien rather than normal. Another contributing factor to this is the heightened religious temperature of our day. Religion seems to matter more than it did. Tim Farron is hounded out of office because of his religious beliefs. Boris Johnson jokes about burkas and faces calls for his resignation. If you are not particularly religious and have just never really thought about it all, ticking that 'CofE' box starts to look like less like clicking 'I agree' to a website cookie request and more like picking a side in an existential struggle. And, of course, the rise of evangelicalism in the Church is part of this phenomenon too. It's not the old vague, middle-of-the-road, wishy-washy, doctrine-lite thing it used to be: these people mean business, and that too can be off-putting. For evangelicals, it's important to know which side of the saved/unsaved line you stand, in a way that other traditions are not nearly as interested in. Forcing someone to face the question, 'Are you a Christian?' is, more often than not, quite likely to elicit the answer, 'Actually, no' and that's not necessarily a bad thing. All in all, then, the BSA survey does not indicate that the curtain is coming down on the CofE any time soon; and there's plenty to be optimistic about, in fact. The number of young people wanting to be priests has soared; it's planning 100 new churches. Most people involved in church life can point to something good happening, even if times are hard in places. How, these figures do underline something important. The Church is becoming less and less embedded in the public consciousness as representative of their own spiritual identity. It has become strange. It has to decide how much of its strangeness is down to an artifical and fixable alienation from the wider population those hats bishops wear, for instance and how much is inseparable from its very nature as the body of Christ, a very strange thing indeed. Faithful Christianity will never fit comfortably into society. If it seems to, it's because it has gone wrong. 'Woe to you when all speak well of you,' Jesus said (Luke 6:26). There's not much danger of that at the moment, and perhaps the CofE should be thankful. Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods Why Christian subculture makes it hard to follow Jesus I work for a Christian organisation, I have done umpteen Christian internships, I found my flat on a Christian accommodation website. I start my day with Christian music, I hang out in a Christian coffee shop, I 'ooh' and 'ahh' when someone namedrops a Christian celebrity. If it has the prefix 'Christian', I've done it, bought it, read it. And sometimes it feels like I can't breathe. Even worse, sometimes it feels like I've lost sight of Jesus. I began my faith journey in a quite unusual way, without an Alpha-style course or evangelistic talk in sight. I just rocked up at a church, calling myself a Christian, by which I meant 'I've heard about this grace thing, and I want in.' But what I think people heard was 'I think and feel and know all the things you do' (I didn't. I still don't). So instead of being discipled in the essentials of the faith, I learned from social cues. In other words, I learned what we really believe in our hearts as essential, even if we know in our heads that it isn't. I learned, for example, that 'Jesus' was the right answer to 80 per cent of Bible study questions, which Christian authors were basically canonised and which were treated as heretics, which professions were elevated above others. Singleness (a noun I had never encountered before coming to faith) I realised, was a gift everyone was looking to return by their mid-20s and so I should swiftly become this 'Proverbs 31 woman' of which people spoke. I noted what led to someone being given a platform, and why others were barred from serving the church publicly. And so I modified my behaviour accordingly. After all, these people were close to the God I wanted to understand. If I looked, thought, dressed, spoke and acted like they did, maybe he'd love me as much as they did. And every time we sang Amazing Grace or I read John 3:16, I wished it were that simple. I wished what people said about grace being impossible to earn was how we all lived. But if I had had a bracelet imprinted with letters to remind me of how to live out my faith, it would have read BWWCT instead of WWJD: But What Will Christians Think? What will they think if you go into the industry you love? (After a few raised eyebrows, I changed track and broke my own heart.) What will they think if you don't serve on a mission trip over the summer even though travel makes you anxious? (I always did). What if you don't go to the Christian festival, even though you know God is extra present there? (I never have it will take an audible voice from heaven for me to sleep in a tent but I still feel guilty.) What if they find out you like films that aren't rated PG-13? (I bought headphones and watched them by myself.) Being a Christian soon became about evading anything that could be observed as sinful, rather than living out an ethic of proactive and wholehearted love. My mental energy was taken up with risk avoidance rather than stepping out. After all, it was more likely that someone would ask if I was dating a non-Christian than if I was withholding forgiveness from someone. I learned how to conform, but I was so busy living in the shadows of some ideal Christian woman that I lost track of Jesus' footsteps. An easy come-back might be that I should not have worried about what others think and just done my own thing. But I've never found disregarding the attitudes and beliefs of other people especially those I care about to be realistic, let alone biblical. And as for the 'you do you' mentality, it strikes me that before there was a New Testament, there was a community and a way of life established for Jesus' followers. Christianity was 'the way' before it was recognised as a religion. Before there was evangelistic literature, there was a relational ethic that was meant to be contagious. We will rub off on people. The question is are we imparting salt and light or adding new burdens? Jesus died, partly, to set us free from the law so that we could prioritise love and live in line with the spirit of the law rather than the letter. Of course focusing on rule compliance, since we cannot know a person's heart, makes it easier to work out who is in and who is out. But that's exactly why we are called not to judge: relying on externalities to figure out who was in and who was out was the Pharisees' forte. It is not my wish for Christian communities to be hollowed out of all the resources that help us live out our faith. But I hope we keep in mind that we are stewards of a message, not members of a club. I hope the wood of the cross is always visible through the trees of Christian subculture. [September 06, 2018] Enghouse Releases Third Quarter Results MARKHAM, ON, Sept. 6, 2018 /CNW/ - Enghouse Systems Limited (TSX:ENGH) today announced its third quarter (unaudited) financial results for the period ended July 31, 2018. Third quarter revenue increased to $86.7 million, compared to revenue of $82.8 million in the third quarter of the prior year. The revenue increase primarily reflects contributions from acquisitions. Income from operating activities was $26.7 million compared to $22.6 million in the prior year's third quarter, an increase of 18.1%. Net income for the quarter was $16.1 million or $0.58 per diluted share compared to $11.2 million or $0.41 per diluted share in the prior year's third quarter, an increase of 43.6%. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $27.4 million or $1.00 per diluted share, compared to $23.4 million or $0.86 per diluted share last year, with the increase being attributable to contributions from acquisitions and operating cost synergies. On a year-to-date basis, revenue was $257.0 million compared to revenue of $241.1 million in the prior year, an increase of 6.6%. Income from operating activities was $75.9 million, compared to $66.6 million in the prior year-to-date, an increase of 14.0%. Adjusted EBITDA for the year to date increased 13.1% to $78.1 million or $2.86 per diluted share compared to $69.0 million or $2.53 per diluted share last year. Net income for the year to date was $38.2 million or $1.40 per diluted share compared to $31.9 million or $1.17 per diluted share last year. Operating expenses before special charges related to restructuring of acquired operations were $34.1 million compared to $35.0 million in the prior year's third quarter and reflect operating cost savings, net of incremental operating costs related to acquisitions. Non-cash amortization charges on acquired software and customer relationships from acquired operations were $7.2 million for the quarter compared to $7.4 million in the prior year's third quarter. On a year-to-date basis, operating expenses before special charges were $102.3 million or 39.8% of revenue compared to $98.9 million or 41.0% of revenue last year. The Company generated strong cash flows from operating activities of $29.3 million compared to $25.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2017. On a year-to-date basis, cash flows from operating activities were $74.2 million compared to $54.1 million in the prior year, an increase of 37.1%. As a result, Enghouse closed the quarter with a record $178.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, compared to $130.3 million at October 31, 2017. The cash balance was achieved after year-to-date payments of $13.5 million in cash dividends, $9.7 million (net of cash acquired) for acquisitions concluded in the current fiscal year and $6.9 million for acquisitions closed in prior periods. Today, the Board of Directors approved the Company's quarterly dividend of $0.18 per common share, payable on November 30, 2018 to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 16, 2018. A conference call to discuss the results will be held on Friday, September 7, 2018 at 8:45 a.m. EST. To participate, please call +1-416-204-1042 or North American Toll-Free +1-888-504-7961. No PIN required. About Enghouse Enghouse Systems Limited is a leading global provider of enterprise software solutions serving a variety of distinct vertical markets. Its strategy is to build a diverse software company through strategic acquisitions targeting the Contact Center, Networks (OSS/BSS) and Transportation/Public Safety sectors. Enghouse shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "ENGH". Further information about Enghouse may be obtained from the Company's website at www.enghouse.com. Non-GAAP Measures The Company uses non-GAAP measures to assess its operating performance. Securities regulations require that companies caution readers that earnings and other measures adjusted to a basis other than GAAP do not have standardized meanings and are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Accordingly, they should not be considered in isolation. The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of operating performance. Therefore, Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as results from operating activities adjusted for depreciation of property, plant and equipment, foreign exchange gains and losses, and special charges for acquisition related restructuring costs. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA to evaluate operating performance as it excludes amortization of software and intangibles (which is an accounting allocation of the cost of software and intangible assets arising on acquisition), any impact of finance and tax related activities, property plant and equipment depreciation, foreign exchange gains and losses, other income and restructuring costs primarily related to acquisitions. Adjusted EBITDA: The table below reconciles Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, Results from operating activities: Three Months ended Nine Months ended July 31, 2018 July 31, 2017 July 31, 2018 July 31, 2017 Total Revenue $ 86,743 $ 82,756 $ 257,023 $ 241,139 Results from operating activities 26,724 22,622 75,901 66,597 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 540 619 1,869 1,828 Special charges 152 133 333 614 Adjusted EBITDA $ 27,416 $ 23,374 $ 78,103 $ 69,039 Adjusted EBITDA margin 31.6% 28.2% 30.4% 28.6% Adjusted EBITDA per diluted share $ 1.00 $ 0.86 $ 2.86 $ 2.53 Enghouse Systems Limited Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Financial Position (in thousands of Canadian dollars) (Unaudited) July 31 2018 October 31 2017 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 169,765 $ 120,608 Short-term investments 8,674 9,737 Accounts receivable, net 66,829 71,894 Prepaid expenses and other assets 9,502 8,528 254,770 210,767 Non-current assets: Long-term deposits and accounts receivable, net 1,295 1,002 Property, plant and equipment 5,178 5,322 Intangible assets 67,042 79,714 Goodwill 157,154 150,687 Deferred income tax assets 5,830 14,345 Total assets $ 491,269 $ 461,837 Liabilities Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 45,550 $ 54,656 Income taxes payable 1,355 6,018 Dividends payable 4,899 4,319 Provisions 277 1,521 Deferred revenue 69,956 59,104 Current portion of long-term loans 202 468 122,239 126,086 Non-current liabilities: Non-current portion of income taxes payable 9,218 - Deferred income tax liabilities 14,651 21,449 Deferred revenue 2,421 3,337 Net employee defined benefit obligation 2,398 2,328 Long-term loans 1,785 2,238 Total liabilities 152,712 155,438 Shareholders' Equity Share capital 77,312 71,422 Contributed surplus 4,823 4,715 Retained earnings 245,866 221,775 Accumulated other comprehensive income 10,556 8,487 Total shareholders' equity 338,557 306,399 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 491,269 $ 461,837 Enghouse Systems Limited Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except per share amounts) (Unaudited) Three months ended July 31 Nine months ended July 31 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue Software licenses $ 26,213 $ 24,480 $ 76,724 $ 72,469 Hosted and maintenance services 44,783 43,411 131,319 122,487 Professional services 14,123 12,979 42,972 41,799 Hardware 1,624 1,886 6,008 4,384 86,743 82,756 257,023 241,139 Direct costs Software licenses 1,740 1,749 5,467 5,311 Services 22,990 22,211 69,335 67,060 Hardware 1,058 1,027 3,727 2,653 25,788 24,987 78,529 75,024 Revenue, net of direct costs 60,955 57,769 178,494 166,115 Operating expenses Selling, general and administrative 21,884 22,870 64,432 63,644 Research and development 11,655 11,525 35,959 33,432 Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 540 619 1,869 1,828 Special charges 152 133 333 614 34,231 35,147 102,593 99,518 Results from operating activities 26,724 22,622 75,901 66,597 Amortization of acquired software and customer relationships (7,245) (7,397) (21,763) (22,365) Foreign exchange gains (losses) 659 (806) (465) (3,027) Finance income 90 32 278 131 Finance expenses (50) (65) (134) (137) Other income (expense) 504 (50) 1,940 101 Income before income taxes 20,682 14,336 55,757 41,300 Provision for income taxes 4,620 3,154 17,564 9,358 Net income for the period $ 16,062 $ 11,182 $ 38,193 $ 31,942 Items that are or may be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss: Foreign currency translation (loss) gain from foreign operations (3,929) (12,097) 1,331 (4,119) Unrealized gain (loss) on available for sale investments 625 5 851 (2,440) Deferred income tax (expense) recovery (83) (1) (113) 323 Other comprehensive (loss) income (3,387) (12,093) 2,069 (6,236) Comprehensive income (loss) $ 12,675 $ (911) $ 40,262 $ 25,706 Earnings per share Basic $ 0.59 $ 0.41 $ 1.41 $ 1.19 Diluted $ 0.58 $ 0.41 $ 1.40 $ 1.17 Enghouse Systems Limited Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Changes in Equity (in thousands of Canadian dollars) (Unaudited) Share Capital -number Share capital $ Contributed surplus $ Retained earnings $ Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) $ Total $ Balance November 1, 2017 26,993,212 71,422 4,715 221,775 8,487 306,399 Net income - - - 38,193 - 38,193 Other comprehensive income (net of tax): Cumulative translation adjustment - - - - 1,331 1,331 Unrealized gain on available-for-sale investments - - - - 851 851 Deferred income tax expense - - - - (113) (113) Comprehensive income for the period - - - 38,193 2,069 40,262 Employee share options: Value of services recognized - 1,171 - - 1,171 Proceeds on issuing shares 222,500 5,890 (1,063) - - 4,827 Dividends - - - (14,102) - (14,102) Balance July 31, 2018 27,215,712 77,312 4,823 245,866 10,556 338,557 Balance November 1, 2016 26,906,962 69,555 3,875 187,649 7,469 268,548 Net income - - - 31,942 - 31,942 Other comprehensive income (net of tax): Cumulative translation adjustment - - - - (4,119) (4,119) Unrealized loss on available-for-sale investments - - - - (2,440) (2,440) Deferred income tax recovery - - - - 323 323 Comprehensive income for the period - - - 31,942 (6,236) 25,706 Employee share options: Value of services recognized - - 809 - - 809 Proceeds on issuing shares 53,750 1,000 (187) - - 813 Dividends - - - (12,397) - (12,397) Balance July 31, 2017 26,960,712 70,555 4,497 207,194 1,233 283,479 Enghouse Systems Limited Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands of Canadian dollars) (Unaudited) Three months ended July 31 Nine months ended July 31 2018 2017 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities Net income $ 16,062 $ 11,182 $ 38,193 $ 31,942 Adjustments for: Depreciation of property, plant and equipment 540 619 1,869 1,828 Amortization of acquired software and customer relationships 7,245 7,397 21,763 22,365 Stock-based compensation expense 236 265 1,171 809 Provision for income taxes 4,620 3,154 17,564 9,358 Finance expenses and other income (454) 115 (1,806) 36 28,249 22,732 78,754 66,338 Changes in non-cash operating working capital 6,041 4,595 6,608 (2,290) Income taxes paid (5,016) (2,218) (11,141) (9,904) Net cash flows from operating activities 29,274 25,109 74,221 54,144 Cash flows from investing activities Purchase of property, plant and equipment, net (607) (106) (1,538) (1,025) Purchase of other software - (255) - (1,475) Acquisitions, net of cash acquired of $1,235 (2017- $3,637) - - (9,675) (16,170) Purchase consideration for prior period acquisitions (1,866) (579) (6,945) (1,023) Net sale (purchase) of short-term investments 1,754 (196) 2,486 (1,526) Net cash flows used in investing activities (719) (1,136) (15,672) (21,219) Cash flows from financing activities Issuance of share capital 2,699 244 4,827 813 Repayment of loans (334) - (735) (1,667) Payment of cash dividend (4,880) (4,312) (13,523) (11,850) Net cash flows used in financing activities (2,515) (4,068) (9,431) (12,704) Effect of currency translation adjustments on cash and cash equivalents (1,890) (3,571) 39 (1,419) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents during the period 24,150 16,334 49,157 18,802 Cash and cash equivalents - beginning of period 145,615 80,904 120,608 78,436 Cash and cash equivalents - end of period $ 169,765 $ 97,238 $ 169,765 $ 97,238 Enghouse Systems Limited Selected Segment Reporting Information (In thousands of Canadian dollars) (Unaudited) For the three months ended July 31 For the nine months ended July 31 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue: Asset Management Group $ 39,194 $ 35,949 $ 113,525 $ 99,701 Interactive Management Group 47,549 46,807 143,498 141,438 Total $ 86,743 $ 82,756 $ 257,023 $ 241,139 Asset Management Group: - Segment profit before special charges $ 14,114 $ 10,962 $ 38,670 $ 28,978 - Special charges (152) (133) (333) (477) Asset Management Group profit $ 13,962 $ 10,829 $ 38,337 $ 28,501 Interactive Management Group: - Segment profit before special charges $ 15,724 $ 13,926 $ 45,921 $ 43,767 - Special charges - - - (137) Interactive Management Group profit $ 15,724 $ 13,926 $ 45,921 $ 43,630 Corporate expenses (2,962) (2,133) (8,357) (5,534) Results from operating activities $ 26,724 $ 22,622 $ 75,901 $ 66,597 Amortization of acquired software and customer relationships (7,245) (7,397) (21,763) (22,365) Foreign exchange gains (losses) 659 (806) (465) (3,027) Finance income 90 32 278 131 Finance expenses (50) (65) (134) (137) Other income (expense) 504 (50) 1,940 101 Income before income taxes $ 20,682 $ 14,336 $ 55,757 $ 41,300 SOURCE Enghouse Systems Limited [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] Truth comes when one is totally involved in the act of painting Red Square (1959) by Helen Frankenthaler Offered in November at Christies to benefit a new scholarship initiative from Bennington College the artists alma mater this large-scale work exemplifies the unique form of abstraction for which Frankenthaler would become famous Across a groundbreaking career, Abstract Expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler would upend the male-dominated New York School and forge a form of visual expression that changed the way artists conceived of and used colour. Combined with her fervour and expertise, the sheer visual impact of her work cemented her legacy as a pillar of 20th-century American painting. Born in New York City in 1928, Frankenthaler attended Bennington College in Vermont, where she studied art under the direction of Paul Feeley. For Frankenthaler, who would describe her time at Bennington as brilliant and inspiring, Feeleys instruction provided a foundation that would prove fundamental to her artistic development. In his classes, Feeley taught his students how to dissect and analyse the work of painters such as Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne and Kandinsky. We would really sift every inch of what it was that worked; or if it didnt, why, Frankenthaler later explained. Along with his great sense of elegance, style, humour, there was a raw, rough, risk-taking, dare-devil quality [to Feeley], all reflected in his teaching. He was instrumental along with others in bringing contemporary art and artists to the College; so that one could get the magic and reality from the source. Bennington became a kind of link of the avant-garde, and people from all over were eager to participate. Frankenthalers studies at Bennington, from which she graduated in 1949, provided a foundation for much of her subsequent work. But her artistic trajectory took a major turn when in 1950 she came upon the paintings of Jackson Pollock at Betty Parsons New York gallery. As she later said, It was as if I suddenly went to a foreign country but didnt know the language, but had read enough and had a passionate interest, and was eager to live there, she recalled. I wanted to live in this land; I had to live there, and master the language. In time Frankenthaler was introduced to Pollock by the critic Clement Greenberg, and visited the artist at his Long Island studio on a number of occasions. Although she never watched Pollock work in person, she learned from her visits how to take canvas off the easel, abandoning traditional painting techniques in favour of the pouring and dripping that she subsequently began to pursue in her own work. Truth comes when one is totally involved in the act of painting using everything one knows about painting materials, dreams, and feelings Helen Frankenthaler Executed in 1959, Frankenthalers large-scale work, Red Square, perfectly exemplifies the unique form of abstraction for which she would become famous. An important early example of her revolutionary painting style, which celebrated the elemental nature of painting, Red Square was included in her retrospective at The Jewish Museum in New York in 1960, and was later donated by the artist to Bennington College. In this monumental canvas, Frankenthaler assembles a vast array of painterly forms: mysterious dark washes, dramatic lines, and pools of colour that spread across the white surface. Her signature poured-paint technique is used to introduce large areas of pigment, which are then manipulated with a dry brush. Equally important to the overall composition are passages of white, which open up the surface. As she told Artforum magazine in 1965, When you first saw a Cubist or Impressionist picture there was a whole way of instructing the eye or the subconscious. Dabs of colour had to stand for real things. It was an abstraction of a guitar or a hillside. The opposite is going on now. If you have bands of blue, green and pink, the mind doesnt think sky, grass and flesh. These are colours and the question is what are they doing with themselves and with each other. Sign up today Christie's Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe Each year we hear about the headaches and gripes related to Burning Man, and yet roughly 70,000 participants make the trek to the Black Rock Desert each year. For those that have never been, the rationale behind setting up camp outside of Gerlach, Nevada for a week can be a bit of a mystery. But a "Doc Team" of volunteer photographers and videographers tries to demystify the event for the uninitiated and chronicle it for those who want to relive the memories. Professional photographer Sidney Erthal is one of those photographers. He attended his 14th burn this year and is co-creator of the best-selling photo coffee table book Burning Man Art on Fire. He has provided SFGATE with photographs of the event in the past, and shared many of his best 2018 shots in the gallery above. The Brazilian-born Erthal found his way to California to study English. After earning a degree in tourism, he "accidentally" ended up in Sausalito, where he had the opportunity to meet people who introduced him to the art of photography. One of the principles of Burning Man is to welcome everyone, Erthal noted. He hopes sharing his photos will help acculturate prospective participants about what to expect from the event. The art theme of this year's burn was "I, Robot," which focuses on the many forms of artificial intelligence that permeate our lives. Burning Man Doc Team photographer Jane Hu contributed her photographs as well this year. "This was my 9th year on the playa," said Hu. "I first started hearing about Burning Man well before that, but it took a few years for me to get over my initial preconceived notions of the event. With the help of some amazing friends, I made the first trip in 2010 and have been heading back there ever since." "I try to go into each year with a different perspective in mind. This year I kept the word "transition" in my head and focused on experiences that better allowed me to process some major life transitions, experiences like flying over Burning Man to see the scale and temporary nature of what we all built together," added Hu. "The art is new, the interactions are new, even the weather conditions are new. Not to mention every year, despite my attempts to see as much as I can, I probably only cover a single digit percentage of what there is to experience." ______________ Douglas Zimmerman is the Online Photo Editor of SFGATE and oversees SFGATE's Instagram. View his latest stories and send him news tips at dzimmerman@sfgate.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. Mexicos next president said he will continue with oil auctions in the first signs that he is backtracking on plans to scale back the countrys historic 2014 energy reforms. We are preparing the rescue plan for the oil industry that will consist of producing more crude oil soon, and we will need these companies that have experience, most of them national companies, President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters on Thursday in Mexico City. We are already preparing tenders for the drilling of wells, and we are getting ready because we are going to launch those tenders from the first days of December. A conflagration north of Redding an area already devastated this summer by the deadly Carr Fire continued to rage Friday morning as the Delta Fire grew overnight to 24,000 acres in total with no containment in sight. Firefighters are bracing for the worst this weekend, as a dry cold front is expected to bring gusts that could fan the flames, officials said. A roughly 45-mile stretch of I-5, the states main trucking route, and a vital link between California and Oregon, will remain closed throughout the weekend. Wind directions differ along the large perimeter of the Delta Fire, posing another problem for responders who cant predict how itll change. Were not taking advantage of anything that could be a problem if conditions change, said Captain Brandon Vaccaro, a Cal Fire spokesman for the Delta Fire. Other large fires still burning in the state include: the Hirz Fire, northeast of Redding; the North Fire near Interstate 80 at Emigrant Gap; and the Ranch Fire, the larger of the two Mendocino Complex blazes. Firefighters are battling 17 wildfires across California even as Cal Fire, the states firefighting agency, said Thursday it is running out of money in the midst of a disastrous and deadly fire season and needs another $234 million to make it through the middle of next year. The Delta Fire erupted Wednesday afternoon, closing Interstate 5 and stranding motorists. Some truck drivers abandoned their rigs on the freeway, and several were destroyed by the fire. Authorities said the fire was started by a person but have not said whether it was accidental or intentional. The Hirz Fire, burning in the Shasta National Forest, has consumed 46,150 acres near Shasta Lake and is 80 percent contained. By Saturday, temperatures in the area should drop while humidity levels increase. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that responders will fully contain the wildfire by Sunday. In the Tahoe National Forest, along I-80, the North Fire has charred 1,274 acres and is 43 percent contained. The fire stayed relatively quiet overnight and fire officials are optimistic theyre close to stopping the spread of the fire, even with an expected temperature increase. While few residences are threatened, the blaze has forced the closure of several campgrounds and endangered the Union Pacific railroad tracks, I-80 and a recreational vehicle park. The Ranch Fire has burned more than 410,000 acres since it started in early July. At 98 percent containment, firefighters expect to fully encircle the inferno by Sunday. This article has been updated to include comment from Cal Fire. Michael Cabanatuan and Gwendolyn Wu are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Twitter: @gwendolynawu When you walk into a beautiful home or flip through pages of gorgeous shelter magazines you known when an interior designer has gotten it all right. Every inch is picture perfect. But can you dissect those rooms down to the essential elements to upgrade your own home? Probably not. Award-winning interior designer Marie Flanigan of Marie Flanigan Interiors spoke recently at the Houston Design Center/Houston Chronicle-sponsored Access Design event and offered up five design tools that anyone can use to refresh or enhance your home. Flanigan urges people to use shelter magazines, Pinterest and other media for inspiration, but to make their homes personal. In other words, don't let someone else tell you what to like -- know what suits you and your family best. 1. Architectural details Her training is in architecture, so details that help define spaces also make them feel cozy and welcoming. One example is a home with a busy wall full of built-in shelving and art niches. For a more visually restful space, consider going with one larger wall of shelves rather than one broken down into sections. Wooden ceiling beams are another example of a small detail that can help define a room as well as add some Old World charm. Another option for your ceiling is to open it up. If there's a potential for a vaulted ceiling it will instantly make your room feel larger. And in a study or library, trim can be used to create a paneled effect on a single, accent wall. It's an inexpensive option and, if you're handy, you can even do it yourself. Acadian style: New Orleans inspires one Houston family's Memorial home. 2. Color Color will determine the mood of a room faster than anything. White brings a sense of calm and is a great canvas to let everything else in the room shine. You can even use white paint to freshen up an old piece of furniture that may not feel like it fits in a more contemporary setting. But you can also use saturated hues of bold colors to express yourself. Find a palette and carry it throughout a home in varying percentages. For example, full color for one room, but maybe 50 percent saturation in another or on cabinets. Flanigan said that one easy rule of thumb is to think of color as 60-30-10. Sixty percent of the color in the room should be your dominant hue; 30 percent is a secondary color and then 10 percent is your accent color. Colorful accents can include fresh flowers, accessories and books. 3. Light Light affects the way you see everything -- colors, textures and finishes, Flanigan says. Natural light is what you get through windows and doors, and you're lucky if you've got plenty of them in your home. Even then, you need a variety of artificial light: general light that helps us see, task light that helps us get things done and accent light, the kind that's both functional and beautiful. Window treatments help you manage natural light, and task light -- such as lamps or strategically placed recessed light, help us read, cook and live. You can also harness light with mirrors, which bounce light around your room and make it feel larger. Coastal makeover: Galveston vacation home gets a light, bright design treatment. 4. Scale Size really does matter. We generally think of scale as being about using smaller furnishings in smaller rooms and larger pieces in bigger spaces. That's true, but scale is about so much more. Swap out an average size chandelier for a larger one and you'll get a dramatic difference. Sometimes, too, an oversized piece of furniture in a small-ish space can be a pleasant surprise. Make lower ceilings look taller by extending kitchen cabinets all the way to the ceiling or by placing drapery hardware just below the crown. These are tricks every designer knows. Weight factors into this category, too. Sofas and chairs with legs instead of skirts help lighten things up, and tables of glass or acrylic take up less visual space. 5. Texture Here's where things get interesting. Flanigan uses unexpected juxtapositions in design such as contrasting textures and finishes. She uses the analogy of great dance partners, each makes the other dance better. Combining textures can mean shiny against organic, high-gloss paint or grasscloth wall covering, leather tiles or Venetian plaster. Plants can add texture, too; consider fresh flowers, a fern or even a potted olive tree. BETHEL Town officials walked Thursday evening through the nearly finished police station, taking notes on what needs to be improved before the building opens later this month. Most of the work on the $14.4 million station has been completed, but a myriad of other tasks are expected to take another two to three weeks. Downes Construction Co. was under contract to finish by Aug. 31, so Bethel will not need to cover the delay, town officials said. Members of the Public Site and Building Committee, police department and architect and construction companies toured the two-level station, checking out the offices, unfinished dispatch center, detective wing, training room, evidence room, cells and more. Its phenomenal, said Selectman Rich Straiton, who has been sitting on the committee as an ex officio member during the project. Its a gorgeous building thats going to last a long time. The building committee members pointed out little concerns, such as a dip in the sidewalk where puddles and ice could accumulate, and the height of the ventilation system in the gun-cleaning room. Members had worried this system was too low, but the architect said it was just right. Capt. Stephen Pugner said officers will likely move in one to two weeks after the building is complete. He, the chief and lieutenants will need to be trained on how various systems, including air conditioning and security, work. The department is still working out how to smoothly transition the communication system from the old to the new station. At some point, the department plans to hold an open house for the public. Its looking great, Pugner said. We cant wait to get in it. Ive waited 17 years to work in a nice building. But Selectman Paul Szatkowski, who walked through the building two weeks ago, said the station is almost too nice. At Wednesdays Board of Selectmen meeting, Szatkowski questioned whether the town needed to spend so much money on the high-quality furniture and carpets in the station, comparing these luxuries to something he would see in an executive office. The only thing were missing is Mercedes police cars, he said at the meeting. Residents have been especially critical of the cost of the project ever since the town overran its budget by almost $889,000 earlier this year. Officials blamed the overruns on poor estimates for HVAC and plumbing work. Nancy Ryan, vice chairwoman of the building committee, told Szatkowski the committee worked to cut costs throughout the design and building process, including by reducing the size of the building by a square foot. Ryan said the size and features in the building were necessary. They deserve a good building to work out of, Ryan said at the meeting. They've been operating out of a little hole in the-wall for quite a long time. The new station is at least double the size of the existing building. The section where the department will process and store evidence is much bigger, for example. The processing room includes equipment to dry evidence and a refrigerator where officers can store items such as rape kits. The evidence rooms drug closet will be kept ventilated, so the smell of marijuana does not permeate through the area, as in the existing station, officers said. Features include a training room with treadmills and weight-lifting equipment. A firing range has also been built, but voters still need to approve money for specialized equipment before the facility can be used. The $13.5 million voters had approved in December 2015 to build the station did not budget for the the target and air-handling systems for the range. The town plans to ask voters for money for this equipment after the building is complete. BRIDGEPORT Housatonic Community College will offer an Ophthalmic Assistant Program starting on September 17. The new program is designed to help address a shortage of ophthalmic medical personnel. The program requires no college course prerequisite requirements, and consists of two courses that will prepare students to become part of an eye-care team. Students will receive entry-level knowledge and skills to assist an ophthalmologist in the diagnosis and care of patients. Dr. Scott Spector, founder and director of Spector Eye Care and New Vision Cataract and Laser Center in Connecticut, will be the instructor. The two 14-week course meets one evening a week from 6 to 9:30 p.m., and one Saturday a month spent in an ophthalmologists office. Students must also complete 500 hours in an ophthalmologist office before taking the certification exam. Information sessions about the Ophthalmic Assistant Program will be held Monday, September 10 at 6pm and Tuesday, September 11at 10am in the Continuing Education Department, room 116 in Beacon Hall on the Housatonic campus, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. To learn more about the program, visit www.Housatonic.edu/OA or contact Rosalee Creighton-Fuller, RCreighton-fuller@housatonic.edu or 203.332.8525. On the first page of If You Leave Me, a teenage girl named Haemi sneaks out of the modest home she shares with her mother and ailing younger brother, heading to a rendezvous with her longtime friend Kyunghwan. He and I were celebrating, she explains. We celebrated every night. They dont have much to celebrate. The characters in this debut novel, set after the start of the Korean War, are refugees, forced out of their town to a village on the southeast edge of their country by the invading Communist army from the north. If You Leave Me is an uneven novel but one that does a good job exploring the ravages of war, poverty and mental illness. Author Crystal Hana Kim, 31, was born in Queens, N.Y., and grew up in Jericho. Haemi and Kyunghwan arent lovers, although they have strong feelings toward one another. They meet as often as possible, sneaking into bars, Haemi flirting with the boy with whom she wants to be more than friends. Kyunghwan rejects his friends advances but is still annoyed when his cosmopolitan cousin, Jisoo, starts courting her: I didnt understand him, Haemi muses. He acted jealous of Jisoo, and still he refused me. Frustrated by Kyunghwans tentativeness, Haemi decides to marry Jisoo. Shes still in love with his cousin, but her mother, taken by Jisoos social standing and charisma, urges her to compromise, advising: Affection grows between a woman and a man. You cant expect it from the beginning. Kyunghwan and Jisoo eventually join the South Korean army; both survive the war, but Jisoo loses the use of an arm. The rest of the novel plays out over the ensuing several years, as Haemi and Jisoo raise a family, with the former battling depression and the latter trying to drink and philander his postwar trauma away. Kyunghwan, meanwhile, works a series of jobs in Seoul, pining after Haemi the whole time. Kims novel switches points of view among the main and supporting characters. Its a technique that can be effective in fiction but doesnt work here all the characters narrate with the same voice, and the only one who feels fully fleshed out is Haemi. Thats a shame because shes fascinating. Kim depicts her struggle with depression, and her stormy relationship with her husband, beautifully. In one stark passage, Haemi describes coming to terms with the marriage she never really wanted: So I fell in love with Jisoo. I didnt run away. When his nightmares turned him around, I didnt imagine covering his face with a heavy buckwheat pillow. I stopped all that and loved him. But the chapters that take the focus off Haemi seem extraneous, a distraction from the real heart of the story, and they result in a book thats a bit longer than it needs to be. If You Leave Me By Crystal Hana Kim William Morrow 417 pages, $26.99 See More Collapse Its difficult to pull off a novel with a love triangle at its center; its well-worn territory, and to keep readers interested, authors have to bring something new to the table. Kim doesnt quite do that Haemi and Kyunghwan are star-crossed in familiar ways, and their longing for each other frequently comes across as maudlin. Kims prose, though often pretty, turns florid a bit too often. Its a novel that needs more restraint and more editing. Still, Kim is a gifted storyteller, even if the story shes telling doesnt break new ground. She has a great instinct for pacing, and her dialogue mostly rings true. If You Leave Me isnt perfect by any means, but theres much to admire in it. Its a promising, if flawed, debut from a clearly gifted author. The Houston Astros souvenirs have been plentiful this year, with bobbleheads, posters and giant rings flashing at Minute Maid. But one special Astros-branded souvenir that fans will want to get their hands on isn't free, and it's aimed only at adults. And it promises to help you cheer on your boys of summer even louder. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on September 7, 2018 2018/09/07 The 15th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held in Nanning, Guangxi from September 12 to 15. Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council Han Zheng and the leaders of the relevant countries will attend the opening ceremony and other events upon invitation. At the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam, Vice Premier of the State Council Hu Chunhua will attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in Hanoi, Vietnam from September 11 to 13. Q: The ROK side said that ROK National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong will come to China on September 8 and talk with Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs. Can you confirm it? A: Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi will hold talks with ROK National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong in Beijing on September 8. This is a routine exchange of views where the two sides will discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula, bilateral relations and other issues of mutual interest. Q: According to reports, Cambodia's new National Assembly was established on September 5, which approved the new Cabinet headed by Hun Sen on September 6. What is your comment? A: As Cambodia's best friend and close partner, China is glad to see that the new National Assembly and government have been formed in Cambodia in a smooth way. Premier Li Keqiang, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Li Zhanshu and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi have sent messages of congratulations to Prime Minister Hun Sen, President of the National Assembly Heng Samrin and Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn respectively. We are convinced that with the concerted efforts of the new National Assembly and government as well as all the Cambodian people, Cambodia will achieve new and greater progress in its national development. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and Cambodia. It is an important year for our bilateral relations to build on the past achievements and usher in a new future. China and Cambodia will continue to offer mutual support and mutual assistance to each other. The Chinese side stands ready to continue to help the Cambodian side develop its economy and improve people's livelihood to the best of its capability and work with Cambodia to build a community of shared future that is of strategic significance. Q: On September 6, the British government issued its latest biannual report on Hong Kong. What is your comment? A: Since the return of Hong Kong, the policies of "one country, two systems", "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy have been earnestly implemented. The basic rights and freedom enjoyed by the Hong Kong residents in accordance with law are fully guaranteed by the Constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law and the local laws of Hong Kong. This is an undeniable fact. It is ridiculous for the UK to pose itself as a supervisor and make irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong affairs. The Chinese side can by no means accept that. China has stressed many times that Hong Kong affairs fall within China's domestic affairs, which brook no interference from any foreign country. The so-called "responsibility" that the British side claimed for Hong Kong does not exist. We are strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the British government regularly issuing the so-called biannual report on Hong Kong and making presumptuous remarks on Hong Kong affairs. We urge the British side to face the reality squarely and stop issuing such reports and interfering in Hong Kong affairs. Q: Recently Typhoon Jebi hit Japan. Also, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Hokkaido, causing casualties and losses of properties. Has China expressed its condolences to the Japanese side? A: We have noted that recently Japan has been hit by typhoon and earthquake. The Chinese side has expressed its sympathy to the Japanese side. We hope and believe that people in the affected areas could resume their normal work and life and rebuild their homes at an early date. Q: China Daily recently published an article, saying that the British navy ship entering the territorial sea of the Xisha Qundao could impact the negotiations for a free trade deal between China and the UK. What is your comment? A: With regard to the British navy ship entering the territorial sea of the Xisha Qundao without permission, I made clear the Chinese government's position on it yesterday and the Chinese side has lodged stern representations with the British side. As to China Daily's viewpoints you mentioned, I will not comment on that. But one thing is certain: what the British side did is wrong. It obviously runs counter to the consensus and spirit put forth by the leaders of our two countries that we are willing to join hands to build a "golden era" of China-UK ties. It will have a negative impact on the development of China-UK relations. We hope that the British side can recognize the severity of this issue and take concrete actions to correct their mistake. Q: Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Li Zhanshu will visit the DPRK and attend the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK. According to some reports, it is because of the trade disputes between China and the US that the Chinese side made such kind of arrangement. What is your comment? A: I do not know what is the source of the reports mentioned by you? I do not think that the arrangement the Chinese side made for this visit has anything to do with the current China-US trade issues. Like I said yesterday, as friendly and close neighbors, China and the DPRK have the tradition and practice of sending messages of congratulations to each other on the occasion of important festivals. Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Li Zhanshu, 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. This special arrangement showcases the great importance the Chinese side attaches to China-DPRK ties as well as the sincere congratulations China extends to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK. Q: I have a question related to the earthquake in Hokkaido in Japan. At this point, is China considering providing any support to the Japanese side for this earthquake? A: The Chinese side has expressed its sympathy to Japan over the Hokkaido earthquake and typhoon disasters. We believe that people in the affected regions could resume their normal work and life and rebuild their homes at an early date. According to my information, the Japanese side has not said that they hope the Chinese side could offer assistance by far. Q: India and the US yesterday held their 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue and signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement. The two sides also called for ensuring maritime freedom in the Indo-Pacific region. What is your comment? A: We have seen relevant reports on the US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. China is glad to see the two countries develop normal bilateral relations. We also hope that while moving forward bilateral relations, they could contribute more to regional peace and stability. As to the two sides calling for ensuring the freedom of navigation you mentioned, China always upholds the freedom of navigation enjoyed by all countries in accordance with international law and hopes that all sides could make earnest efforts to ensure real freedom of navigation. If at first you don't succeed.... You know how the rest goes, and so does Hotel ZaZa, which recently took the adage to heart by improving the menus at its restaurants across its Texas hotel portfolio. The hotel, which opened its newest property, Hotel ZaZa Memorial City, in December recently created a new position of corporate director of food and beverage for all three of its hotels (one in Dallas and two in Houston) as it readies the opening of its fourth in Austin in spring 2019. That new director, Jacob Weaver, was tasked with creating food and drinks menus that would offer a consistent experience. Those menus went up only weeks ago, including at The Tipping Point, the new restaurant and lounge at the Memorial City property, as well as at Monarch, at the ZaZa in Museum District. ZAZA's PARTY PEOPLE: At ZaZa's VIP opening fete Weaver described the previous restaurant offerings as "chef driven" compared to the new menu which he calls "customer driven." "We're giving people what they want with our ZaZa spin on it," he said. And what is it that the ZaZa customer wants? An American bar and grill menu that is familiar, Weaver said. That means a dinner menu that includes pan-seared ribeye with blue cheese twice-baked potatoes; spaghetti Bolognese; buttermilk-dipped chicken breast with cheddar mashed potatoes and green beans; grilled salmon over shaved cauliflower, golden raisins and pine nuts. There's also a burger, lobster roll, crab cakes, wedge salad, Caesar salad, tuna taco appetizers, and cheese and meat boards. "It's familiar. None of it is the type of food where we have to tell people what it is and how to eat it," he said. "It's food people are comfortable with and that we can execute well on a consistent basis." Weaver said that the menus at the three restaurants varied widely, something that customers might have found jarring. The Tipping Point was an example of a menu that he found incompatible not just with the ZaZa brand but for the customer base. "It was clear that it just wasn't the right direction for us and our neighborhood," he said. "It wasn't the right vibe and the right fit." At the same time he praised the restaurant chefs at each property who he said retain their culinary voice and create a unique identity via dishes such as market fish, pizzas and daily specials. And through working with local purveyors. Weaver comes to the ZaZa from the Juliet Italian Kitchen in Austin where he was executive chef. Originally form Corpus Christi, Weaver is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Austin. "Jacob brings with him a wealth of experience and talent," said Matthew Nuss, president of hotel operations for Z Resorts. "His natural ability to lead in both front and back of house processes is unique." Hotel ZaZa Dallas (Dragonfly Restaurant), 2332 Leonard St., 214-468-8399; Hotel ZaZa Houston Museum District (Monarch Bistro), 5701 Main, 713-526-1991; Hotel ZaZa Houston Memorial City (The Tipping Point), 9787 Katy Fwy., 832-993-3961; hotelzaza.com Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Follow him on the podcast BBQ State of Mind to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. As four adults were arrested and two children removed from a squalid San Jacinto County home Wednesday, more than 100 animals also were rescued from the property by the Houston SPCA. Eight dogs were emaciated and in need of treatment. More than 100 hens and roosters and one malnourished horse also were taken away, said Julie Kuenstle, spokeswoman for the Houston SPCA. First, an electrical fire destroyed Nikki LeCompte's family home in Missouri City. Then, days later, a shooting in Prairie View claimed the life of her 24-year-old son Darius. Nikki LeCompte has been staying at a local hotel with her two daughters and grandson as police search for the people who left her son dead in a pickup truck on Tuesday night near the Prairie View A&M University campus. Darius LeCompte had recently transferred to the school. Prairie View Police Chief Anthony Solomon said witnesses saw two people fleeing the scene at the time. The Texas Rangers are still investigating the incident with Prairie View detectives. "We want to know why why they would take my son," Nikki told Chron.com. RELATED: Prairie View A&M student found fatally shot in truck identified Police said Darius was driving the pickup truck on Dooley Street when the vehicle crossed University Drive and crashed into a minivan in a Subway parking lot. Police responded to the accident around 9:15 p.m. Investigators believe a botched drug deal likely led to the shooting after they found marijuana and about $200 in the vehicle Darius was driving. But Nikki and another family member reject any inkling that Darius put himself in that position. "I know my son, and that's not his lifestyle," she said of his alleged involvement in a drug deal. "My son is a prankster. He's a joker. He's always the helpful one. He's the one who will stop on the side of the road to help someone change a tire." Darius' god-sister, Jada Thomas, echoed those sentiments, saying he was known as a goofball who was fun to be around. "He wasn't involved in any drug sale, and he wasn't with any gangs," she said. "He was in school, and he was almost done." Darius, a biology major, had been living near the Prairie View A&M campus since transferring from Texas Southern University a few weeks ago. His family said he only needed a few more semesters of classes to graduate. RELATED: Shooting that killed Prairie View A&M student likely a botched drug deal, police say Before the move to Prairie View, he worked for a railroad company and lived with his mother in Missouri City, Nikki said. She said she raised Darius in the home after moving there from Louisiana when he was two months old. She had most recently been living there with her two daughters and grandson. Then, last Thursday, Aug. 30, the fire left all of their belongings destroyed beyond repair. "I don't have anything from inside my house," she said. Despite the damage to the home, Nikki said she is trying to organize a candlelight vigil in the driveway around 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening. The home is located in the 6600 block of Laughlin Drive. "In spite of what has been insinuated, my son was a good kid," she said. "He was a church-going Christian and motivational ... he was wise beyond his years." 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 Montgomery County Jail Texas Children's Hospital says it has fired a respiratory therapist who was charged this week with possession of child pornography. Carlo Carreon, 49, was arrested at 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, according to Montgomery County Jail records. The location of his arrest was not identified. The most recent address for Carreon was in Hebbronville, Texas. A local resident who filed to run for The Woodlands Township Board of Directors in November has been removed from the ballot. Luis Granados, who had filed candidate papers to challenge incumbent John Anthony Brown, will not appear on ballots for the Nov. 6 election after he incorrectly filled out the official candidate paper work, a township spokesman said.. According to township spokesperson Nick Wolda, Granados did not enter how long he had been a resident of both Texas and The Woodlands, which nullified his application. The township sent the document to the Secretary of State who administers election laws set by State and they said the township must reject the application under Section 141.032 (e) of the Texas Election Code, Wolda said in an email to The Villager. Granados said he learned his name had been removed from the ballot after he attended what he described as a ceremony at the township offices the last week of August that was intended to determine the order of all the candidates names on the ballot. Last week, when I went to the offices for a ceremony see see whose names goes first and second on the ballot, at that moment, the assistant to the (township) president came to me and said my name would not be on the ballot due to an irregularity, Granados said. I requested an appeal and a meeting with Don Norrell. Granados claims he asked for the township to reconsider accepting his application, but after several days he received a letter informing him he could not appear on the ballot. I have lived in Texas for 32 years. I have lived in The Woodlands for 30 years. I filled out (the candidacy form) as much as possible except those blocks. I thought this would be filled in by the notary. She said to leave it blank, Granados claimed. Then I received a letter from (township officials) that said the Secretary of State told the township that the application could not be accepted. Wolda refused to answer questions about the specific nature of Granados claims about the notary in question, and he referred all questions to a letter sent to the township from the law firm Schwartz, Page & Harding L.L.P. that detailed case law regarding the issue. The letter includes information about when a candidate does not fill out the residency information and how that omission mandates the candidacy application be rejected. The letter also explains that, by law, township officials are prohibited from providing, legal or administrative advice or assistance to candidates or prospective candidates. Granados said he is very disappointed about being removed from the ballot. A lifelong engineer who formerly worked for General Electric, the 67-year-old said he now owns a private engineering consulting firm. His platforms for seeking office, he added, included slowing down development of residential and commercial sites in The Woodlands as well as opposing any roadway expansion projects. Nobody ever opposes the (Board of Directors). They do whatever they want. I just wanted to do something good, he said. I liked or I used to like this community. They are destroying the forests. They are expanding the roads. This is going to be a nightmare. I tried to do something good. After the removal of Granados name from the ballot, his opponent incumbent John Anthony Brown will now run unopposed. The two seats being contested are those of incumbents Brian Boniface and Bruce Rieser. Boniface is being challenged by Treva Taglieri and Rieser is being challenged by Francis Frank Dargavage. Township board Chairman Gordy Bunch is also seeking re-election, but he is running unopposed. Dozens of Shenandoah residents filled the citys council chamber and lined up out the door of City Hall Wednesday night for a townhall meeting on transportation issues plaguing the city. Public Works Director Joseph Peart presented an updated thoroughfare plan aimed at reducing congestion in the small city. We want to keep it up to date with present conditions and keep it forward looking, as well, Peart said. Under the newest iteration of the plan, city officials made several changes to major and minor arterial roads and feeder, including adding access roads to MetroPark Square, the scaling down of David J. Vetter Road from a collector road to a local road, increasing the potential size of Six Pines and Pinecroft drives from collector roads to minor arterial roads and revised a segment of Grogans Mill Road from a major to a minor arterial a clear sign to the county and to developers that the congestion on that street is getting out of hand, Peart explained. If youve been down that area, you know traffic is increasing, Peart said. Major and minor arterial roads are designated to carry larger amounts of traffic to interstates and freeways, and are often fed into by collector and local roads. The potential for an overpass at Grogans Mill and Research Forest or the more likely city council-supported underpass drew ire from the residents in attendance who claim safety and mobility has been compromised as the population of The Woodlands and Shenandoah grow. According to a Montgomery County mobility study, the intersection rates as the worst for accidents in The Woodlands and the second worst county-wide. Shenandoah Mayor Mayor Ritch Wheeler said a redesigned intersection at two of the areas busiest roads would, in theory, ease both passing traffic and woes for residents of Shenandoahs six subdivisions along Grogans Mill Road. Peart said the estimated $14 million cost of the underpass would be funded by Montgomery County Precinct 3 and The Woodlands Road Utility District 1. (Montgomery County) has been looking at this intersection, its in dire need of improvement, Peart said. The intersection doesnt lie within Shenandoah city limits, Wheeler said, but should the cheaper option be built an $8.5 million overpass over Research Forest Drive the landing would lie just inside the city on Six Pines Drive. That option, he said, would create noise pollution and make it difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the roadway. Shenandoah City Administrator Kathie Reyer said the project is still very much in its conceptual stages, but the Texas Department of Transportation and the officials with Montgomery County are working on short-term relief for the congestion at the intersection of Grogans Mill Road and Research Forest Drive, which renders the intersection nearly impassable during rush hour. These projects that were talking about, especially the underpass, are at least a decade out, if they happen at all, Reyer said. Peart also spoke on potential road extensions though there is currently no plan to extend David J. Vetter Road further to the east, the city is actively working with the entities involved to extend David Memorial Drive one mile north to Highway 242 in an effort to provide an alternative route north or south should the Interstate 45 feeder road prove unusable. Phase 1 of the road was completely in May 2017, but the difficulty, Peart said, comes from the three separate and independent jurisdictions through which the extension would run the city of Shenandoah, Montgomery County Precinct 4 and the city of Conroe. The $9 million project could take up to a decade to complete because of the swampy terrain through which it would run that requires federal permitting. Thats why its taking so long, Peart said. Most of that is because of the wetlands. mrincon@chron.com What began as one mans charge to start a church in small but growing area has turned into a 13,000-member congregation that hosts eight live services per week in five different formats. Ed Robb, the senior pastor of The Woodlands United Methodist Church, simply knocked on doors 40 years ago to seek out congregation members and is still at the helm of the ship. Hes witnessed each step of the churchs growth, and he sat down with The Villager to talk about his involvement along the way. QUESTION: Tell us the story of how you got to be where you are today. ROBB: I graduated seminary. I worked for a Christian magazine for a couple of years, a year and a half, trying to figure out what exactly I should do with my life. I felt too young to be a pastor, not knowing that I really felt called to be a youth minister. But I knew I liked journalism, so I worked for this small Christian magazine, and then the bishop of the Texas Conference said they were starting a number of churches in the Houston area. I had met this bishop, and he said he thought Id do a good job, and hed like to appoint me to one (of the churches). I said, Well I dont know anything about starting a church, and he said Youll learn. And thus, we arrived in January 1978, and we began. So its been 40 years. QUESTION: Your church is celebrating 40 years this year. What has it been like to see the growth over those four decades? ROBB: Gratifying. A bit overwhelming. Weve grown all along the way. The early years were slow growth. There werent many people in The Woodlands or in the surrounding area. But we continued, and as the growth of south Montgomery county increased, we had more opportunities, and our growth accelerated along with it. QUESTION: What is it like for you to be here after 40 years? ROBB: I never set out to stay in one place, it just happened. Perhaps it was providential, but it wasnt by design on my part. We do have deep roots here. Our children grew up here, and went to preschool through high school graduation, and now are back and they have children. Weve grown up with The Woodlands and have been very involved in the community, not just the church. QUESTION: You said you werent sure what you wanted to do at first. Did you always feel called to ministry? ROBB: I think I did. But, my father was a pastor. That being the case, I had a true struggle (I thought) am I just doing the easy thing that Ive seen modeled before me, or am I really supposed to do this? But looking back, I always had a very keen interest in church matters and theology. Now, I know its not just growing up in a parsonage. I have two sons who grew up in a parsonage and neither one felt the least bit interested (in pursuing this path). QUESTION: Do you primarily preach now, or do you have a different role? ROBB: We have 13 ordained pastors, appointed by the bishop. A large percentage of my time is spent in administration. I do preach, but I have good help because we have a number of other pastors who are good preachers. QUESTION: Whats been the most exciting part of a church that started out so small and grew so big? ROBB: Its very pleasing to see, having been here now 40 years, the generations. We have four generations babies, parents, grandparents and some great-grandparents all in the same congregation. Its been pleasing over the years to welcome so many new people, by the thousands, to get to know them and to hear how much the church means in their lives in terms of their own personal growth and their relationships (theyve met) people who become true, lasting friends, to the extent that they consider this home and dont want to move. We relocated in 2001, from our original campus on Panther Creek Drive. Being able to relocate with enough acreage to continue to grow and build the kind of buildings that we need, weve been very blessed in that sense. QUESTION: Whats been the most challenging thing? ROBB: Staff development is always a challenge. You need to get the right people in the right positions. Of course, when you have a large staff, at times, you have complications, and you have to make adjustments. Always developing and maintaining a high-quality staff is of prime importance. QUESTION: Your church also has different worship venues contemporary, traditional and modern how did you develop that model? ROBB: When we began in January of 1978, I knew nothing but traditional worship. Thats about all any church did that I knew of. So thats of course the way we started. But by the 90s, contemporary worship was beginning to gain a foothold. And people were responding to it, and very welcoming of that style of worship. I thought, if were going to continue reaching people, we need to have not just vanilla ice cream, but chocolate ice cream, too. Our style of worship is not dictated by scripture, its just custom. Its cultural, and we need to adapt to the times, and so we did. We began a (contemporary) service called Harvest. We were fortunate that our first worship leader for that was Chris Tomlin. So he was with us about five years, and now is really the most-recorded music artist in the world, I suppose. All along the way, weve had extraordinarily good worship leaders and people engaged in the music. Then, we had an opportunity in 2005 to buy the property adjacent to us, which had a warehouse. It was a medical supply warehouse, and in contemplating how we might use that 70,000 square foot building, we thought it could house our youth ministry. We thought we could start a counseling center, or it could be the home for our recreation ministry. Then, the idea came to me that we could start another contemporary service. The Harvest meets here at the main campus. It has a dome, it looks rather formal, even though The Harvest itself is not formal. There might be people who are unchurched who might be reluctant to come to what looks like a starchy, formal church setting. We thought, in the warehouse, we might be able to attract more people who are unchurched, perhaps even more young adults. Thats been successful. On the weekends, we have three services at the Loft, two on Sunday morning and one on Saturday evening. The Harvest has three each weekend, two on Sunday morning and one on Sunday evening. We have three traditional services. Then we have our Woodforest Campus as well. QUESTION: Youve just raised about $30 million in a capital campaign. What is the plan to use those funds? ROBB: As we have in previous campaigns, our first million we dedicated to missions, both local and international. We have a robust and very generous missions budget, still this gives us the opportunity to do more. In terms of our own campus, about $7 million of that goes toward our Woodforest campus, building the first facility on the approximately 12 acres of property there. Construction will commence in September on that project. Were all excited about that opportunity, because that congregation, which is part of our church, has grown rapidly. We have our own pastor and staff for that. Here on our Woodlands Campus, we are converting our original gym into additional space for children and adults. It may surprise people, because as large as our church is, we still need more space. Were replacing that gym with a new gymnasium, which is adjacent to our Family Life Center. That will house our recreation ministry, which is vibrant and thriving. So, that will bring us back to three gyms. QUESTION: Do you plan to stay here until you retire? ROBB: Well at this point, yes, I would think so. I have no immediate plans for retirement. QUESTION: What is the most surprising thing that you never would have expected when the church was started 40 years ago? ROBB: When we began in January 1978, there were less than 3,000 people in The Woodlands. Today, we have over 13,000 resident members. How could anyone have imagined that? Over the years weve been able to accumulate 40 acres how could we have ever planned or expected it? It was a gift from God. QUESTION: In what ways are you involved in the community? ROBB: Over the years, Ive had the privilege of serving on the boards of a number of our local institution. The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Center for Performing Arts, I was board of director there for several years. South County YMCA, Interfaith, where I serve now and have served previously several times. And (The Woodlands Township) government. Its been a privilege to help shape our town government as we know it today. Ive served every elected office we have: treasurer, secretary, vice chairman, chairman. I retired two years ago from that and was pleased to say I was never defeated. I now serve as a director, a trustee of the Houston Methodist hospital system, which is over all their hospitals. QUESTION: What do you like to do in your free time? ROBB: I like to try to improve golf, breaking 100 is always a happy day for me. We love traveling, my wife, Beverley, and I. We travel frequently abroad. Of course, reading and grandkids, too. This summer, Conroe Independent School District requested public submissions for the names of two new schools set to open in the coming years and the community responded. The district received more than 800 suggestions for the two new schools. For Flex 19, a Kindergarten through sixth grade facility in the Oak Ridge feeder zone that is to open in August 2019, a total of 302 names were submitted. For the new junior high facility, there were 501 naming submissions. The campus is in the Conroe feeder zone and will open in August 2020. According to district policy, junior high schools, intermediate schools and elementary schools may be named after geographical areas, prominent figures or officials who have served the district or community or those recognized in education or the arts. Criteria also includes those who donated land or money for the facility as well as national or state heroes. There were several names that received multiple votes, however. Here are a few of note, as well as the publics reasoning for the suggestion. Ruben W. Hope Jr., 183 votes Hope was a Houston-born attorney who practiced in Montgomery County and had a passion for education, according to his obituary. He served on the CISD Board of Trustees and was also a state representative, in addition to serving on several committees and organizations. Many submissions praised Hopes public service for both the school district and county. Virginia Tamborello, 162 votes Known as Mama Tiger, Tamborello worked at Conroe High School for 34 years, eventually as the associate principal. While she began her career teaching biology there in 1978, when she retired in 2012 she was met with a standing ovation for her service, as reported by the Courier of Montgomery County. Public reasoning cited Tamborellos devotion to not only education as a whole in CISD, but the students as well. Herbert W. Kix Lamp, 158 votes Lamp graduated from Conroe High School in 1943 and taught in the district for 22 years, eventually becoming the principal of Anderson Elementary before he retired in 1989, according to his obituary. He was also involved in the community for decades. Community suggestions claimed Lamp was a dedicated educator and friend in the area for many years. At an August meeting of the disrtrict Board of Trustees, when the names were presented, Deputy Superintendent Chris Hines said that the board may select a submitted name, but they may also select a different name. Additionally, the quantity of votes one name receives does not guarantee that name will be chosen. Sarah Blakelock, the districts communications director, said in an email that it is anticipated that the board will reach a naming decision for the two schools at their Sept. 18 meeting. The two projects are both on schedule according to Easy Foster, CISDs administrative director of planning and construction. jane.stueckemann@chron.com In her most extensive comments since her husband's death, Cindy McCain is urging Americans to "get into the arena and fight" and support a think tank bearing the name of the late senator John McCain, R-Ariz. "The McCain Institute for International Leadership is now my home, and my mission," Cindy McCain wrote in an op-ed published Friday morning in USA Today. "With your support we will pay his legacy forward." In her piece, McCain said the institute will strive to fulfill her husband's mission of "serving a cause greater than ourselves," a theme that was highlighted during memorial services last week. The institute, which is based in Washington and is affiliated with Arizona State University, was created in 2012 with an $8.7 million donation in unused funds from John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Its fundraising practices generated controversy in 2016 after a report that the Saudi government had donated $1 million to the nonprofit's fundraising arm. The senator sought to distance himself from the institute after the report, telling reporters, "I'm proud that the institute is named after me, but I have nothing to do with it - except that they use my name." A spokeswoman later explained that McCain meant to express that he had no ties to the Saudi donation. The institute's mission statement says it is "guided by values that have animated" McCain's career and his family. It has run an internship program and holds events focused on issues such as human trafficking and national security. McCain died Aug. 25 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. "John McCain fought for others every day of his life, whether he was wearing a uniform or standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate," Cindy McCain wrote in her op-ed. "With his passing, America inherently understood that this is the kind of leadership we want. That this is the kind of country we want to be," she said. "And that it is now up to us - all of us - to get into the arena and fight." - - - The Washington Post's Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this report. Dariens Monuments and Ceremonies Commission invites the public, first responders and town officials to an 8:30 a.m. memorial service Tuesday at the 9/11 monument, located on the grassy area behind Middlesex Middle School on Hollow Tree Ridge Road. Carved into the granite stone is the inscription, May We Never Forget, with the date September 11, 2001. The memorial is flanked by two tall trees on either side symbolizing the twin towers. Phil Kraft, former chairman of the Monuments and Ceremonies Commission has agreed to conduct this ceremony. An Eagle Scout project conceived, funded and installed by then-Darien High School freshman Josh Doying who belonged to Boy Scout Troop 53, the memorial was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2003. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, citizens displayed the American flag everywhere. Doying cut out a flag from the newspaper and taped it to his bedroom wall. He noticed how it faded and he was concerned the memory of this tragedy might fade as well. Doying wanted an enduring memorial and selected the location so that students would see the stone and ask about its meaning. Doying drew the plans, approached then -First Selectman Bob Harrell and the Monuments and Ceremonies Commission for approval, raised the funds and oversaw the installation of the project. Doying even left a residual fund so that the trees could be replaced if necessary. Everyone is encouraged to attend this years ceremony. $34K grant awarded to Pacific House Pacific House received a grant from the Community Fund of Darien in the amount of $34,000. These funds will support the Pacific House emergency shelter, and the organizations efforts to provide safe shelter to homeless men while getting them back to self-sufficiency as quickly as possible. We thank the Community Fund of Darien for their generous gift and continued support, said Rafael Pagan Jr., Pacific Houses executive director. This grant will go a long way in helping those that are experiencing homelessness to have a warm, safe place to sleep and the support they need to take steps towards rebuilding their lives. In 2017, Pacific House aided 335 clients, served almost 50,000 meals and provided roughly 20,000 shelter stays. Pacific House is the only regional mens emergency shelter, serving Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan, Darien and the rest of Fairfield County. Since 1982 the organization has served 1 million meals, provided over 850,000 bed-nights, secured housing for 1,500 people, and secured employment for 3,700 clients. Sport shop to donate portion of sales to agency Through the end of September, Darien Sport Shop will donate a percentage of sales in their childrens department to Family & Childrens Agency as part of their Back to ... Community promotion. Darien Sport Shop and their customers will help FCA continue to serve more than 13,000 of our neighbors in need each year through high-quality services for children, families, adults, and seniors. For Darien Sport Shop President Gina Zangrillo, working with FCA runs in the family. Her mother, Yolanda, was an active volunteer for Childrens Aid, an auxiliary of FCA. Zangrillo remembers spending time with her siblings and mother sorting donated items for the organizations tag sale fundraiser. My mother cared deeply about this community and she was passionate about the work FCA does. Now, more than 40 years later, Im thrilled to be able to support FCA as well, Gina said. We are so proud to be teaming up with Darien Sport Shop an incredible long-time member of the Darien community and dedicated supporter of our work, said Rob Cashel, president and CEO of FCA. 3rd turtle fatality prompts renewed call for boater awareness With a third sea turtle killed by a boat in six weeks in Long Island Sound, the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is again urging boaters to slow down and be aware of the endangered animals. A dead loggerhead sea turtle was found on Aug. 29 on Long Beach in Stratford with apparent propeller slashes in its shell. This death follows similar fatal boat strikes of loggerheads discovered off Norwalks Sheffield Island on Aug. 9 and in Stratford on July 15. Three turtle deaths in the Sound is highly unusual and completely unacceptable, said Dr. David Hudson, research scientist for the Maritime Aquarium. Boaters need to know that, as Long Island Sounds water quality improves, animals like sea turtles and dolphins and even humpback whales are returning. And so boaters can no longer race around the Sound at full throttle but only at half attention. Hudson recommended boaters reduce their speeds, especially in comparatively shallower waters and anywhere near sea grasses, where some turtles feed. He discouraged the use of autopilot and encouraged assigning a passenger to serve as a spotter. Four species of sea turtles may visit the Sound in the summer: loggerhead and green, which are both listed as threatened; and Kemps ridley (the smallest sea turtle) and leatherback (the largest), both endangered. Sea turtles are most vulnerable to boat collisions when they come to the surface to breathe and/or warm themselves in the sun they are cold-blooded. At the surface, Hudson said, the turtles are least able to make avoidance maneuvers. If a boat strike occurs, or if an injured or dead turtle is found, boaters should call Mystic Aquarium, which is the federally designated responder to marine mammal and sea turtles strandings and entanglements in Connecticut. The number is 860-572-5955, ext. 107. Ecuadorian Foreign Trade and Investments Minister Pablo Campana expressed his intention to have an economic partnership agreement with Japan during an interview on Thursday on his visit to Tokyo. "We are looking forward to having an EPA with Japan," the minister stressed. According to the minister, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno talked with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and discussed an EPA at a meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday. "We need equipment, machinery from Japan, vehicles, heavy vehicles, technology, and of course Japan needs our products from agriculture and fisheries," the minister said about the economic benefits of an EPA in the future. Sitting at last weeks city commission meeting feeling frustrated and tired, the first news on the primary election made me sit up and feel a bit of wonderment. About two thirds of the way through the meeting, Mayor Gary Resnick announced that the first round of election results were being posted on the Internet. Let me just take a moment to side track and wonder if the mayor and others are routinely surfing the web as they sit upon the dais looking very fastidious, maneuvering on their iPads. Perhaps they are shopping online rather than scanning the back-up material to the meeting. That material should be read and studied way before the meeting anyway, since they receive the information four to five days prior. However, I will remain thankful for the good news that the mayor shared with those present that night. That good news was that Andrew Gillum was ahead in the early election results in the race for the Democratic primary for governor. Wow, could it be? What happened to the favorite, Gwen Graham, or the wealthy businessman Jeff Green, or Philip Levine? We all had to endure weeks of expensive campaign ads flooding the airways, campaign signs littering every street corner, and mailboxes overflowing with more and more political flyers based on lies and innuendos. How could it be that Gillum could be in the lead? My long-shot favorite racing past the finish line! I needed to know more. Not bothering to stay for the commission discussion on the Pride Centers proposed project that will most likely deplete our Affordable Housing Fund, use a good amount of flex units, and create a challenge for surrounding residents to the already manic daily operations of the centers campus, I gathered up my belongings and headed out the door. No need to sit around listening to the same old song and dance byR Boo and associates labeling anyone who questions their secretive project as just another one of those NIMBY reactionaries when I could go home and find out more about this enormous upset in Florida politics. Let me just quickly say that the toned down version of the Pride Centers 48 units of senior supportive housing project is a far cry from the originally proposed two phase construction of over 100 units. Having been reduced, having taken parking concerns into consideration, and having to deal with an overwhelming involvement by the surrounding community, this project has now reached a point that is much more acceptable to many in the community. However, there are still many unanswered questions and concerns that need to be addressed. Our mayor and city commission will have the final say. Election years have strange effects on our elected officials, so it will be interesting to see the final outcome. Now lets move on to Gillum. I am still processing his election surprise. This young, progressive, community activist and mayor of Tallahassee is now the Florida Democratic Partys nominee for the office of Governor of the State of Florida. I was impressed with him early on in the campaign, listened to him speak at a Dolphin Democrats event, and longed for such a person to actually win and serve our great state after eight horrific years of Rick Scott. Many thought he did not stand a chance. Many thought that Gwen Graham was the favorite due to her family history, or that late comer to the race Jeff Greene was the best choice due to his ability to spend so much of his own money on the campaign. Philip Levine looked like a good choice to many. These front-runners spent millions on campaign ads, political flyers, and attack ads. The one likely not to be elected, Andrew Gillum, attended community functions, showed up at local events, went to churches, ran on a solid progressive success record, and had the power of youthful volunteers and believers that helped him to victory on Primary night and hopefully on to Novembers Election Day. Bravo! Now the hard work begins. President Trump, Ron Desantis and the Florida Republican Party will not take this huge victory sitting down. The attacks and scare tactics have already begun and will only get worse before Election Day. As Desantis puts it, Lets not monkey this up, is just a nice way of saying we dont want this youthful black male progressive in charge. Thats unfortunate, because many Floridians are tired of the lies, tired of the false campaign promises, tired of the connection with Trump and tired of business as usual. This new wave of discontent, especially among younger voters, is shaking up the political status quo in a way not seen in years. Its about time. Andrew Gillum needs our help getting to the governors mansion. I have already ordered my Gillum yard sign and donated to his campaign. Please check out his website at AndrewGillum.com, learn more about this amazing candidate, and become active in this election for our next governor. We need a change. We need proactive new leadership to make life here in Wilton Manors and throughout our state just better here. CINCINNATI - A gunman entered a busy downtown Cincinnati skyscraper through a loading dock Thursday morning and then opened fire in the lobby, killing three people and injuring up to five others before police officers shot and killed him. One official said the attack "could have been a bloodbath beyond imagination" if police hadn't responded so quickly, as the shooting took place at the beginning of the work day inside the Fifth Third Bank building, a 31-story tower that houses more than 3,000 employees. It sits above bustling Fountain Square a few blocks from Great American Ball Park and the riverfront along the Ohio River. Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac identified the suspect as Omar Enrique Santa Perez, a man in his late 20s who lived in an apartment on Cincinnati's west side. Police said the circumstances surrounding the violence and a motive are thus far elusive. Perez's family members could not be reached Thursday. Several witnesses said the gunman was wearing a suit during the attack, and law enforcement officials said he had hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Laura Trujillo, a spokeswoman for Fifth Third Bancorp, said the gunman "was not a former employee or current bank employee," and authorities could not say what, if any, connection Perez had with the bank or the building. Isaac called the rampage "very horrific;" it was the deadliest shooting in the Cincinnati region since 2013. It joins the growing list of apparently random shootings across the United States that have claimed lives in everyday places, from churches to schools to concert halls. "These are things we see happening across the country, and we all have to be vigilant and prepared," Isaac said. Police found victims in and around 511 Walnut St., including one who was severely wounded and ended up at an ice cream shop steps from the building. Witnesses said they heard volleys of gunfire, and one said that a woman was shot as she entered the bank building's lobby. There were people screaming "shooter! Run-leave!," in Fountain Square, a park that often hosts concerts, dancing, and food trucks. Police did not say much about Perez. They cordoned off a 22-unit brick apartment building in a quiet working class subdivision, across the street from the Ohio River, as they searched Perez's apartment. Records indicate that Perez had lived at times in Florida and South Carolina. His Cincinnati neighbors said they didn't know much about Perez, who they believed often worked from home and kept to himself. Neighbor Karen Rose said Perez's car recently broke down, leading him to take the bus; she said he seemed "standoffish" and often had ear buds in. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, D, said in an interview with The Washington Post that the gunman appeared to be actively shooting at random inside the bank building when officers confronted him, and they "were able to kill him and stop the threat." "This should never be a normalized thing. We have innocent people going to work and getting shot," Cranley said. "This is an epidemic of gun violence. These kinds of mass random things are similar to inner city violence that rip apart low-income communities, and both those and the ones we are seeing all across the country - in churches, in schools, in nightclubs - are so tragic. This is an American problem. We have to put human lives before ideology." Richard Newcomer, 64, a construction supervisor who was doing a project at the bank, was killed there Thursday morning. Wes Cotter, a spokesman with Gilbane Building Co., said Newcomer was at the skyscraper to gather details for ongoing work when he was shot. "It's such a tragedy," Cotter said. "There are no words to describe how we're feeling." The other victims were Pruthvi Raj Kandepi, 25, and Luis Felipe Calderon, 48, according to the Hamilton County Coroner's office. Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco said in a statement that she had actually met Kandepi, who is from India, before at the Hindu temple in Cincinnati. "It is with great sadness that I announce this. How do you tell parents who live 10,000 miles away that they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country?" she wrote. "Rest in peace to the other victims as well." Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said the gunman had several hundred rounds of ammunition with him when he was killed. "This could have been a bloodbath beyond imagination," Deters said. An official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is just getting underway said police are investigating the gunman's mental health record. One witness, Leonard Cain, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he was going inside the bank when someone yelled that he shouldn't because of the shooting. He said a woman also was walking into the bank at the same time, but she had headphones on and apparently couldn't hear their warnings. "She walked in the door and he shot her," Cain told the Enquirer. Bank manager Greg Harshfield, who on the 29th floor of the building when the shooting began, said he heard multiple shots and saw police arrive almost immediately. "We could see there was a large police presence that seemed to come quickly and could see them blocking Fountain Square," Harshfield told reporters. "We knew immediately something was wrong. We're of course rattled." Television footage showed bodies being carried out on stretchers and police surrounding the area around the Fifth Third Center skyscraper, which is the bank's corporate headquarters. Three men and one woman were transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, hospital officials said. One has died, two are in critical condition and one is in serious condition. Each had gunshot wounds, officials said. Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived on the scene to sweep the building, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Dabkowski said. By lunchtime, the normally bustling area was quiet and the Red Cross was handing out water and snacks to displaced workers in the 90 degree heat. The Cincinnati Reds announced that the team planned to have a moment of silence "in honor of the victims" before the national anthem at Thursday night's game against the San Diego Padres. "It's heartbreaking," Cranley said. "This is not normal, and it shouldn't be viewed as normal. This is abnormal. No other industrialized country has this level of active multiple shooting on a regular basis. . . . I think there's something deeply sick at work here, and we as a country have got to deal with it." - - - Williams is a freelance reporter based in Ohio. Wax reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report. Sweden's two traditional political blocs are running neck-and-neck ahead of Sunday's election, with neither close to a majority amid growing support for the nationalist Sweden Democrats. The four-party center-right opposition Alliance is staging a late comeback, seeing its support climb to 38.1 percent in the latest pollofpolls.se, which combines the results of eight surveys. Support for the center-left red-green bloc, made up of the ruling Social Democrats and the Greens as well as their Left Party ally, is at 40.8 percent. But with the rise of the nationalist and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats neither of the two blocs look likely to be able to form a majority government. The most likely scenario is that the side with the most votes will instead attempt to form a minority cabinet, but will need the backing of SD or parties across the aisle to enact legislation and push through budgets. Based on the latest poll of polls, the red-greens would control 146 seats in parliament versus the Alliance's 137. Still, since the Alliance and the Sweden Democrats want to boot Prime Minister Stefan Lofven out of power and as the nationalists typically side with the center-right opposition, the Alliance may still be the ones to form a government. While the biggest party or bloc is usually asked first to try to form a government, all new prime ministers are put to a vote in parliament and will be blocked from governing if there is a majority of the legislature against them. In Skop's latest poll, support for the red-greens fell to 38.3 percent and backing for the Alliance rose to 38.4 percent. In the recent Ipsos survey, the red-greens were at 40.8 percent while Alliance backing rose to 39 percent. A Novus poll on Friday showed the red-greens at 39.9 percent versus the Alliance's 38.5 percent. That increases the likelihood that Sweden's next prime minister will be Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson, whose group is the biggest in the four-party Alliance. Even so, his party is struggling to get the same backing it did in the 2014 election and is polling at around half of the electoral support it enjoyed at the start of this decade. His conservatives may even be overtaken by the Sweden Democrats as the country's second-largest party. In Demoskop's final poll ahead of the election, published Friday afternoon, the difference between the blocs was within the margin of error, Expressen reported. The poll registered an increase for the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Green Party, and a drop for the Sweden Democrats. The Social Democrats are struggling, heading for the worst election result since general voting started in 1921. In the latest poll of polls, it's backed by only 25.1 percent of voters, down from 31 percent in 2014, after losing voters both to the Sweden Democrats and the Left Party. In the Novus poll, it only got 24.9 percent. "The Social Democrats seem to be heading toward a catastrophic election," Novus Chief Executive Officer Torbjorn Sjostrom said in an interview. "They will have their worst result ever if this trend continues." As for the Moderates, Sjostrom said any outcome where the Sweden Democrats overtake them as the second-biggest party will be problematic. "Is it really possible to be prime minister if you are only the third-biggest party?" he said. "It's going to be a weird situation if the Sweden Democrats become the second-largest party but won't be considered becoming a part of a government or even as a support to the future government. And what are the Social Democrats going to do with the Left Party, considering their size?" "There are many factors making things very complicated after election day," Sjostrom said. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu planned on a career in music. But since the 36-year-old, better known by his stage name, Bobi Wine, ran for parliament last year, he has been thrust into the spotlight of the resistance against the longtime president of Uganda - a country that has emerged as a key security partner for the United States. Experts say Wine, a pop star turned lawmaker, may pose the greatest threat to President Yoweri Museveni's rule since the former revolutionary took power more than 30 years ago - and Museveni seems to sense that, too. Wine was campaigning for a parliamentary candidate in northern Uganda last month when protesters allegedly stoned Museveni's convoy. In the event's aftermath, Wine said security forces opened fire on his vehicle and killed his driver. He was arrested and accused of inciting violence against the president; he was eventually charged with treason. Last weekend, while out on bail, Wine managed to leave the country to seek medical treatment in the United States, carrying with him stories of alleged torture at the hands of Ugandan special forces. And his accusations raise uncomfortable questions about Washington's longtime strategic alliance with Uganda. The United States considers Uganda a key ally in East Africa and provides some $970 million in development and security assistance to the country each year. Ugandan troops are crucial participants in the African Union Mission in Somalia, where the threat of terrorist group Al Shabaab looms large. But on Thursday, Wine's lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said the U.S. government should "immediately suspend military funding to Uganda." "We want the American taxpayer to know that the American taxpayer is funding this," Amsterdam said at a news conference in Washington. "The military equipment we are supplying to Uganda is being used in a war of terror against Uganda's citizens." Human Rights Watch's Maria Burnett, who runs the organization's work in East Africa, tweeted that in 2014, the United States gave $12 million in equipment, weapons and vehicles to the Ugandan special operations forces command - the same unit that Wine said tortured him. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to request for comment on whether it will reassess assistance to Uganda. Some in Washington are concerned about what they see as an authoritarian backslide in Uganda. "It's clear that there's a worsening trajectory of poor governance and human rights violations in Uganda," said one congressional staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the issue freely. One Africa analyst in the U.S. government, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Washington's dependence on Uganda for security in the region "has created the perception here in Washington that, frankly, the Ugandan government has more leverage over us than we do over them." The analyst raised the possibility that Wine's case could encourage the United States to take another look at its relationship with Kampala, Uganda's capital, but it is too early to tell whether his case alone would be enough for Washington to make major changes. Nevertheless, Wine will use his time in the capital to share his torture allegations with government officials. On Thursday, he met with officials at the State Department and visited Capitol Hill. In sub-Saharan Africa, uprisings across the continent over the last few years have sparked questions about whether the region will see its own version of the "Arab Spring." In recent years, street protests have rocked a number of countries, including Burkina Faso, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo and Burundi. Such movements have often started because of presidents' attempts to solidify their hold on power, including by effectively eliminating term limits, just as Museveni is now. A number of those uprisings failed to gain enough traction to create long-lasting change, but some have worked. In 2017, longtime Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh stepped down and left the country - a remarkable development after he lost an election and threatened to stay anyway. Longtime Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, now 94, was also forced out of power last year, and his elderly replacement, 75-year-old former spy chief Emmerson Mnangagwa, has also faced some popular anger. In an article for the Wall Street Journal this week, Nicholas Bariyo wrote that "the standoff between the pop star and the president is the latest episode in a generational battle playing out in several African nations." And Nicholas Opiyo, another of Wine's lawyers, said that there is now tremendous pressure on Wine, as a young and highly charismatic politician, to stand up to Museveni's government. "The hopes and aspirations of the young generation seem to rest on his shoulder," Opiyo said. "The question is: Is his shoulder broad enough to carry the hopes of our generation?" But Wine said he didn't enter politics to focus on Museveni. "I do what I do looking at the future generation," he said. "I've always told my fellow young people that we are the country, we are the future, and we are the change that we badly need. ... We are the people that are going to be in Uganda in the future so it's upon us to decide what kind of country we want to live in." WASHINGTON - Democratic attorneys general from key states said they have not yet been invited by the Justice Department to its upcoming review of tech companies, prompting criticism that the Trump administration's inquiry is a politically charged attack on the tech industry. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions first announced on Wednesday that he was gathering state attorneys general to examine whether companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter are "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas" online. The goal of the meeting, DOJ said in a statement at the time, is to follow up on a hearing that had just taken place on Capitol Hill with Facebook and Twitter and consult with "a number" of states to figure out if Silicon Valley's conduct is "hurting competition." The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 25 in Washington. Democratic attorneys general from California and New York -- two tech hubs -- as well as officials from Connecticut and Washington, which are active on issues related to technology, consumer protection and antitrust, so far have not been invited, spokespeople for each state confirmed this week. The Democratic Attorneys General Association said it "had not heard any Democratic attorneys general [are] invited" as of Friday morning, according to communications director Lizzie Ulmer. Only Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, has said he will participate at the event, slated for later this month, a spokesman said. The Justice Department has received inquiries from a number of Republican and Democratic attorneys general, according to a person familiar with the planning, who said that the discussions are still ongoing about who will attend and the details of the meeting have not yet been finalized. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment. The potentially partisan nature of DOJ's meeting raised deep suspicions among some tech experts, particularly against the backdrop of President Donald Trump's recent comments attacking social media sites as biased against conservatives -- and threatening regulations and investigations in response. "This type of meeting, in a highly politically charged environment, will have no credibility if all the participants come from the same political party," said Gene Kimmelman, a former top official at the Justice Department who is now the president of Public Knowledge, a consumer group. The Washington Post this week reached out to all 50 states' attorneys general. By Friday, 10 Democrats and five Republican state attorneys general said they had not received an invitation. The lack of clarity led Bob Ferguson, the attorney general of Washington, to write Sessions on Friday to ask him to explain who was invited, why they were invited and if Trump's tweets last week accusing tech companies of ideological bias played a role in Sessions' announcement. The Justice Department was working on the issue before lawmakers convened their hearing Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly. "Normally, you'd want to invite all the state AGs because you don't want to leave uncoordinated some of those relationships," said Jeffrey Blumenfeld, a former DOJ antitrust official and a partner at the law firm Lowenstein Sandler. "I don't know of a time, ever, where there was picking and choosing among state AG offices at the invitation level." The announcement represented the latest escalation from the Trump administration and its Republican allies who claim Silicon Valley is biased against conservatives. Trump himself has led the charge, describing Twitter's behavior earlier this year as "illegal" and later suggesting Google has "rigged" search results to show negative stories about him. His top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, initially said the White House is exploring possible regulation before Trump walked it back. Days later, though, the president said that companies like Google find themselves in a "very antitrust situation." On Friday, Kudlow took to Fox Business Network to stress that he "never said the word regulation" with respect to search results -- but did note that the tech industry has "a lot to be accountable for. . . with respect to withholding conservative searches and conservative tweets." "I don't want to get ahead of it with respect to legal or regulatory actions," he said. But the attorney general's interest in how social media allows or blocks content left many in the tech industry uneasy and drew sharp rebukes from free speech advocates, who said the government should leave the matter up to private businesses. Even conservative groups expressed their dismay. "Antitrust laws exist for the good of American consumers, not to further the political interests of public officials," David Barnes, the policy manager for Americans for Prosperity, said in a statement Thursday. "The Justice Department should not wield its authority to subjectively pick winners and losers in the tech industry or to police free speech." - - - The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett contributed to this report. Some school officials and state leaders raised concerns Thursday over an apparent dip in student enrollments across the greater Houston area, particularly among Hispanic students. State Sen. Sylvia Garcia, several law enforcement officials and trustees from Houston ISD, Aldine ISD and Goose Creek CISD said at a news conference that while firm enrollment numbers for the new school year will not be available for at least another week, anecdotal information from principals and others shows a dip in the number of Hispanic students attending local schools. Garcia, a Houston Democrat, worried that a combination of students still displaced by Hurricane Harvey and fears over immigration actions may have led parents to keep their students home rather than enrolling them in local schools. SANTA FE: Parents warned of threat against students Whether its because of confusion or fear, please do not allow your child to fall behind in their studies, Garcia said. Schools are a safe place for students and families, and the education of all our children is critical to the future of our community. Houston ISD trustee Sergio Lira said he is still waiting on firm enrollment numbers from the district but said some principals of predominantly Hispanic schools in southwest Houston reported a 3-5 percent dip in enrollment. In a statement, the district said preliminary numbers gathered Thursday showed a less than 2 percent dip in student enrollment across the board when compared to last year, and that decreases are evident across several ethnic groups. The most recent data from the Texas Education Agency shows the proportion of Hispanic students in statewide and local schools decreased slightly in the 2017-2018 school year for the first time in at least seven school years, although the raw number of Hispanic students has continued to rise. In Harris County, Hispanic enrollment at traditional and charter schools dropped from 55.47 percent of all students in 2016-2017 to 55.41 percent in 2017-2018. Even though the proportion of Hispanic students dipped, raw numbers show 300 more Hispanic students enrolled in Harris County schools over that same time period. HISD: Bus woes continue despite changes, according to HoustonChronicle.com report The numbers are similar statewide. The share of Hispanic students dropped from 52.42 percent to 52.37 percent over the same time period the first decrease in the share of Hispanic students logged over a seven-year period. Still, the raw number of Hispanic students statewide grew by nearly 20,000 from 2016-2017 to 2017-2018. The slight decrease in the rates of Hispanic students enrolling in Texas public schools comes as President Donald Trumps administration has cracked down on legal and illegal immigration across the southern border. The administration has flagged anyone here illegally as a priority for deportation, compared to the Obama administrations focus on migrants who committed dangerous crimes. Immigrants who have lived here illegally for decades have been deported after appearing at regular check-ins with immigration agents and at green card interviews. The White House briefly separated immigrant parents and children at the southern border, before suddenly rescinding the controversial policy amid outrage this summer. The administration has also sought to make it harder for legal immigrants, including finalizing a new proposed rule that would make it more difficult to obtain a green card or any type of visa if immigrants or their dependents, including their American children, have used an expanded range of public benefits from food stamps to the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for most benefits, but their U.S.-born children are. Those actions have led to considerable fear among immigrants nationwide. A 2017 survey by the Los Angeles Initiative found that 37 percent of that countys residents worried about being deported. Of those who expressed concern, 80 percent said they, a friend or a family member would be at greater risk of being deported if they enrolled in government-provided education, health or housing program. Another factor in lower rates of Hispanic enrollment could stem from demographic changes, said Stephen Klineberg, a demographics expert and sociology professor at Rice University. He said growth rates among Hispanics of all ages has slowed in Texas and elsewhere as fewer immigrants come to the country and as birthrates among Hispanic mothers fall. The Institute for Family Studies found that birth rates among Hispanic women fell from about 2.85 per woman to 2.1 between 2008 to 2016, and the Pew Research Center found that growth rates among Hispanic people nationwide has remained relatively flat since 2016. Its a slowing growth or a slight decrease, its not a big dramatic thing, Klineberg said. But its part of an evolving reality of life in America these days. Still, in Harris County, Klineberg said the vast majority of younger people are either black or Hispanic, and folks over the age of 60 tend to be disproportionately white. Garcia said she has not seen data to suggest that population growth among Hispanic people has slowed or decreased. Lira with Houston ISD said Hurricane Harvey may be the most obvious culprit of enrollment declines but still worried parents may be keeping their students at home out of fear of immigration actions. He said national rhetoric disparaging immigrants and Hispanic citizens may have driven families into the shadows. I do want to stress the importance to all families and community members that our schools are safe and we do not give out any information to any government agency, Lira said. Students have a right to a free public education in our country. Data reporter Jordan Rubio contributed to this report. shelby.webb@chron.com twitter.com/shelbywebb Three men identified as members of the transnational MS-13 street gang were charged with murder after strangling a man to death in Galveston in June, Galveston police officials confirmed Thursday. Two of the men, Luis Carbajal, 26, of Houston, who also goes by the name Luis Ernesto Carbajal-Peraza, and Christian Rene Chavez-Chavez, 23, of Galveston, were arrested on Aug. 7 for allegedly strangling and beating a man named Christian Hernandez Funes Escobar, 17, to death in Galveston on June 7. A grand jury voted to indict Carbajal for murder. The murder charge for Chavez-Chavez is new; the grand jury previously indicted him only for tampering with a human corpse. BRUTAL SLAYINGS: MS-13 gang members arrested in five Houston-area murders, including machete death of informant Another man, Jairo Licona-Cardenas, 21, was arrested in Houston on Aug. 29 and also charged with the Galveston slaying, according to Harris County court records. Licona-Cardenas has also been charged with murder for a killing in Houston on August 4. In that case, a man got into an argument at the La Union restaurant at 9598 Wilcrest and was fatally shot after leaving the business. Licona-Cardenas and a juvenile, along with the female getaway driver, Elida Lucia Jovel Medrano, have been arrested and charged with murdering the man. My understanding with MS-13 is its not like a drive-by shooting with random killings; they target their victims and know who they want to kill and why they want to kill them, said Galveston Police Chief Vernon Hale. Theres typically a reason behind it and we believe thats the case here. Investigators determined Escobar was murdered by MS-13 members in Galveston hours after he was last seen on June 7, the day before his 18th birthday. Escobar was strangled to death in the area of Seawall Boulevard and Boddecker Drive, and his body was then transported to the 5300 block of West Fuqua in Houston and buried in a wooded area. On Aug. 1, the Galveston police and Homeland Security investigators, with the help of other agencies, located the clandestine grave in Houston where Escobar was buried and exhumed his body. He was identified through medical records. Galveston Police Detective Derek Gaspard said that investigators are still looking at people of interest in the Escobar killing. Carbajal, Chavez-Chavez, and Licona-Cardenas are all citizens of El Salvador, where the street gang originated. All three men are undocumented immigrants and were detained on immigration holds. Gaspard said that while he does not believe there is any danger right now as it pertains to MS-13 he noted that this is the first MS-13-related death in Galveston in at least six years the gang does have a small presence in the region. Well clearly by the arrests that we made of (Galveston) residents that are members of MS-13, there is a presence, Im not gonna say that theres not, Gaspard said. We believe its very incremental. EDITORIAL: Fearmongering on MS-13 resembles the embarrassing Summer of the Shark. Carbajal and Chavez-Chavez are being held in Galveston County Jail. Licona-Cardenas is being held in Harris County Jail, but is expected to be extradited to Galveston County in the coming days. Carbajal's bail is set at $500,000, while Chavez-Chavez's bail is $350,000. Licona-Cardenas' bail is set at $250,000. Carbajal pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge in 2017, according to court records. Chavez-Chavez has no previous criminal charges in Galveston County. Licona-Cardenas plead guilty to a misdemeanor trespassing charge in 2016. Both Carbajal and Chavez-Chavez have been appointed Galveston-based attorneys. Carbajal is being represented by Margaret Hindman, while Chavez-Chavez is being represented by Mark Diaz. Carbajal's next court appearance is set for Sept. 10. Licona-Cardenas was appointed a Houston-based attorney, Elihu Dodier. His arraignment date is scheduled for Oct. 17. Brian Rogers contributed reporting. A man believed to have led police on a chase in southwest Houston shot and killed himself Thursday night, police said. The pursuit started near Blue Ridge Drive near Hillcroft Street around 9:35 p.m. after the man ran a red light, police said. An officer tried pulling over the man's vehicle, a white SUV, for a traffic violation but the driver allegedly sped off. A 16-year-old girl charged with capital murder in last years fatal stabbing of a Richmond man has been certified to stand trial as an adult. Dalena Nguyen was 15 when officials say she and Terrell Derrick Funches, 20, were involved in the slaying of 44-year-old Altaf Hussain Malik. Police said Malik was attempting to sell his car in Houstons Third Ward when he was stabbed to death. Maliks body was discovered Dec. 7 next to a dumpster, covered in trash bags. Houston police arrested Nguyen and Funches in February. Nguyens case was referred to the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, but an order made public Thursday said that a juvenile district court judge had waived jurisdiction over the case. Nguyen is being held in jail without bond. Investigators said Malik had planned to sell his 2009 Audi A8 to an unknown person at the intersection of Bellaire Boulevard and State Highway 6. Quratulain Malik, Altaf Maliks widow, later told a Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office deputy that Altaf had left their residence Dec. 5 at about 8 p.m. On Dec. 6, members of Maliks family told the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office that he was missing, according to a Houston police report. When Maliks body was discovered the next day, at 3019 Truxillo St. near Texas Southern University, officers and paramedics found he had been stabbed in the torso, back and chest. They pronounced him dead at the scene. An autopsy would later reveal Malik was stabbed 49 times in the front of his body and 13 times in the back. Detectives from the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office and Houston Police Department jointly investigated the case and discovered several connections between Malik and Nguyen. They found that Malik was selling his car with an app called Letgo, a marketplace for second-hand goods that includes a chat feature. Investigators obtained Maliks Letgo message logs and found he had corresponded with an account using the name Brad Williams. One of the IP addresses associated with that account was linked to Nguyen. Investigators also visited the Houston address linked to the two IP addresses and found Nguyen there. And through a search warrant, they discovered that Nguyen owned the phone number Malik last texted and called before he went missing. When investigators visited Nguyens residence, she told them she was not familiar with Malik and was unaware he had gone missing, according to a criminal complaint filed against Funches with the Harris County District Clerks Office. About an hour after investigators left the house, Fort Bend deputies found Funches and Nguyen in Maliks Audi and caught them in a car chase. One of three phones discovered in the car was assigned to the number Nguyen had previously claimed when questioned at her residence. The phones YouTube application included searches on Dec. 5 titled How to get rid of a body, How to get rid of a died body and How to know if a car is stolen. Investigators also found that Nguyens stepmother kept surveillance recordings inside the residence. Images and video files showed that Nguyen and another person wearing an American Eagle jacket had left the house Dec. 5 at about 8 p.m. Police said Malik later met with the two suspects in a Sams Club parking lot, where surveillance footage showed Malik meeting with someone also wearing an American Eagle jacket. Nguyen faces a life sentence if convicted of capital murder. The Supreme Court has banned capital punishment and life without parole sentences for juveniles. The Legislature in 2013 passed a law setting life with parole as the only option for minors who are charged with capital crimes. They become eligible for release after 40 years in prison. The Islamic Society of Greater Houston started an online GoFundMe fundraiser for Maliks wife and four children soon after he disappeared. It raised more than $235,000. jasper.scherer@chron.com | Twitter: @jaspscherer You may not think this column has anything to do with real estate. But it does. In the last couple weeks we have had a primary election. Undoubtedly some are pleased with the results; others, less so. In addition, we have grieved the passings of two iconic figures in our civic life. But the situation on the local front and the national stage remains, shall I say, stormy. The title of this column comes from more than two centuries ago. A Virginian statesman named John Page largely forgotten in our history wrote them to Thomas Jefferson about two weeks after the Declaration of Independence was signed. You would have to agree, that was a very stormy time in our history. The outcome of the impending war was far from certain. Last time I issued a plea for more visionary thought, visionary leadership, from the Realtor community and from the government at large, because the effects of a whirlwind are indeed being felt here in South Florida, right now. Have we placed too much faith in large and remote institutions? What happens when there is a problem do you think a clerk (or politician) in an office thousands of miles away will be inclined to treat you better than would a person in your community? Consider the plight of a real estate purchaser known to me, who was the victim of wire fraud in part due to the negligence of one of those large, distant impersonal institutions. An institution that, perhaps not surprisingly, denies any responsibility for the effects of their actions. He is in the whirlwind right now, his hopes and dreams dashed (at least temporarily). Think also about what happened the last time your health provider prescribed a medication not on a formulary designed and approved by nameless, faceless bureaucrats far away people you do not know and will never meet. And we have now seen the algal blooms begin to afflict waterfront areas in Fort Lauderdale, as the politicians point fingers and refuse action. How could we use these situations to catalyze creation of more resilient communities here in South Florida? For starters, we could solve our own insurance problems. More than six million people live between the Keys and Jupiter. Consumer-owned health cooperatives could be formed to take care of our own, by our own rules and own means. If we do that successfully, it would make South Florida an ideal place to start and grow the kinds of mid 21st-century businesses that require and attract high skilled and high wage employees. And who want high-value homes in which to live. We can vigorously assert our control over our environment. And yes, investments will have to be made, whether by borrowing funds, re-configuring existing programs, or increasing revenues. But the benefits of preserving our lifestyle and serving as a guidestar for the nation would far outpace any increase in costs. They would also, in the long run, increase real estate valuations. And what of my friend who was the victim of a tragic crime? Do you suppose he would get better treatment from a bank owned by customers right here, that invests in our community, or from a bureaucrat in a skyscraper as she looks at the Golden Gate? Sometimes, for many of us, things may seem bleak. Do we have the courage to take action, to seek change in the way our Founders did? We are not sheep who must accept the status quo. Money earned here in our community, that recirculates and stays here, has a multiplier effect and makes our community more resilient and more welcoming to all. We can create our own future, and by doing so make South Florida an even better place to live, a better place to own real estate, and a better place for future generations. If we act, the Angel will step from the whirlwind, end her ride, and live among us. James Oaksun, Florida's Real Estate Geek(SM), is Broker-Owner of New Realty Concepts in Oakland Park. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI). A traveler tested positive for measles after flying through Hobby Airport twice last month for a pair of connecting flights between Dallas and the border town of Harlingen, according to Houston Health Department officials. The traveler was contagious at the time of travel for two days in August and is feared to have spread the disease to other passengers, the officials said. Southwest Airlines confirmed that the passenger was on Flight 5 from Dallas Love Field to Hobby and Flight 9 from Hobby to Valley International Airport in Harlingen on Aug. 21. The passenger returned to north Texas the following day on Flight 665 from the airport in Harlingen to Hobby and Flight 44 from Hobby to Dallas, according to the airline. LOST JOB: Texas Childrens Hospital fires nurse who posted about boy with measles A spokesperson for the Dallas-based airline said the company is working with the U.S. Center for Disease Control to reach the passengers on the four flights. Our entire fleet is subject to rigorous and regular cleaning programs and every aircraft utilizes hospital-quality HEPA filtration that improves overall quality of the air in the passenger cabin, the spokesperson said. The Houston Health Department is calling 27 passengers in the Houston area to warn them of the possible exposure, spokesman Porfirio Villarreal said. At least 17 passengers already have been contacted as of Thursday night and have not reported any symptoms linked to the disease, he added. The symptoms which include rash, high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes could manifest as late as Sept. 12, Villarreal said. The passenger did not leave the airport during the connecting flights at Hobby and is believed to have only visited an airport waiting area for about an hour each day. For a handful of travelers, some found out about the measles case only after landing on Thursday night. As a parent, Id be worried about people not vaccinating their kids, said Patrick Dupree, a father of four who was traveling with his family. Im not sure how much you can safeguard. This is the second confirmed case of measles in the Houston area since 2013. Last month, a little boy who recently traveled outside of the country fell ill with the disease and was being treated at Texas Childrens Hospital. A nurse at the hospital was fired after she wrote about the boys illness on a Facebook page for the anti-vaccination group Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children-Texas. No known connection between the two cases has been found, Villarreal said. Measles is eliminated here in the United States, but we do get cases from people who have traveled abroad, Villarreal said. It was not immediately known where the traveler in the latest case contracted the disease and if they had recently left the country. Jay R. Jordan contributed to this report. nicole.hensley@chron.com @nkhensley Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing back against a suggestion to remove from Texas school books the word "heroic" to describe defenders of the Alamo. In August, a Texas Education Agency advisory group released recommendations for the state's social studies curriculum, which includes Texas history. One of the suggestions was the removal of the phrase "all the heroic defenders who gave their lives" in the battle at the Alamo. "Stop political correctness in our schools," Abbott tweeted. "Of course Texas schoolchildren should be taught that Alamo defenders were 'Heroic'!" "I fully expect the State Board of Education to agree," he wrote. "Contact your SBOE [State Board of Education] Member to complain." According to Texas Monthly, authors of the suggested changes said "heroic" is a "value-charged word." The advisory group behind the suggestions comprises educators and historians. TEA Land Commissioner George P. Bush followed suit and called the recommendations "politically correct nonsense." The State Board of Education is scheduled to meet next week at a public hearing to discuss the proposed changes. Education officials will not vote on the recommendations until November. You can read other recommendations to the Texas social studies curriculum here. Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93 An off-duty Bexar County deputy was arrested Friday on a drunk driving charge, according to the sheriff's office. Kailin Kruger, 26, was arrested by San Antonio police at about 2:40 a.m. on the Class B misdemeanor charge and was subsequently booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $1,000 bond. RELATED: Sheriff: Arrested BCSO jailer challenged inmate to fight, threatened him She is the 17th deputy to be arrested in 2018, and the second deputy to be arrested this week, following the arrest of jailer Ta-Vian Gloeckler who is accused of challenging an inmate to a fight and threatening him. Kruger also is a detention corporal and has been employed with the sheriff's office since May 2015. She will be placed on administrative leave pending further criminal investigation by the San Antonio Police Department and a concurrent investigation by the Bexar County Sheriff's Office's Internal Affairs Unit. "We constantly remind our employees through literature, training, and mass communication of the senselessness of the crime of DWI," said Sheriff Javier Salazar. "There are so many other choices to avoid putting the public and yourself at risk." RELATED: Mugshots: 55 arrested on felony DWI charges in August Salazar said his administration will handle the case "as swiftly and severely as possible" and that the sheriff's office will assist the police department with the investigation as needed. "The Bexar County Sheriff's Office and area law enforcement vigorously enforce DWI laws," Salazar said. "Anyone who chooses to drive while intoxicated is making a horrible, dangerous decision." Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns Thao Nguyen, For San Antonio Express-News U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz used an interview with FOX News personality Sean Hannity to lament the amount President Donald Trump is having to fight Democrats buried deep in his administration. Prompted by the New York Times anonymous opinion piece from a senior White House official, Cruz said there have been Democrats "burrowed" in every Republican administration trying to stop conservative policies. But what is happening to Trump is worse, he says. City commissioners are mulling the idea of allocating $200,000 from Wilton Manors Affordable Housing Trust Fund for a proposed LGBT-friendly affordable housing project for seniors. The project, slated to be built at The Pride Center at Equality Park, at 2040 N. Dixie Highway, is expected to cost $15 million. The county will contribute $900,000 towards the project, according to Commissioner Julie Carson. Wilton Manors currently has $306,265 in its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Carson said she has requested a copy of the 65-year-lease that would be signed by Carrfour Supportive Housing Inc. should the Commission move forward with the project. I encourage my colleagues to think about this and give direction so we can hopefully move forward and give funding to help bridge that gap, Carson said at the August 28 City Commission meeting. The Commission has taken no action on the project yet. The complex will include low-income housing tax credits from Florida Housing Finance Corporation, already secured by Carrfour. Carrfour has been building affordable housing in Florida since 1993 and currently oversees more than 1,700 housing units in Miami-Dade County. The proposed project at the Pride Center would be its first in Broward County. Commissioner Scott Newton said the complex is a positive thing for Wilton Manors but he needs answers to several questions. I havent really seen any plans on this, Newton said. Do I have questions? Absolutely. Do I want to see it move forward? Absolutely. Its conducive to have a project like that there. I just need a few more questions answered. Vice Mayor Justin Flipped echoed similar sentiments. I love the fact that its LGBT-friendly, Flippen said. I support the project in concept. I have the same questions my colleagues raised with respect to the request for funding: we have never given any amount anywhere near this to any organization. This would be a major, major grant for us so we need to do our due diligence to make sure it will be a benefit to our community. Flippen said he would like to see the audited financial statements for both the Pride Center and Carrfour for the past three years before making a decision. Pride Center CEO Robert Boo said the project is the culmination of six years of planning. We are committed to being a good neighbor to all those around us, Boo said. Efforts to reach Boo by phone after the meeting were unsuccessful. The Carrfour proposal includes 48 affordable senior housing units, of which 34 would be set aside as housing for disabled seniors. All units would be affordable and available to adults age 55 or older. The 48-unit, four-story building would be constructed on 5.16 acres on the northwest corner of the property, with parking. Units would include a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments of varying sizes. The project would include a club room, a library/computer room, a gym, laundry and an administrative office. The main lobby would physically connect with the main Pride Center building. The development would be managed by Crossroads Management LLC. Chris Caputo, the new board chair of the Pride Center, urged city officials to support the project. I think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It is an exciting opportunity that I think is going to open doors to more opportunities like this, Caputo said. James Carras, a Fort Lauderdale resident and chairman of the Broward Housing Council, which advises the Broward County Commission on affordable housing issues, also urged the city to support the project. This is a great project, Carras said. The challenge is this is not easy to do. Its that festive time of year when manufacturers prepare for the holiday crush, and organizations roll out ambitious strategic plans for the New Year. Companies expecting to launch smart connected products, acquire new customers or hit big financial targets may be shocked when their plans fall short. Companies frequently fail to inventory what they need to deliver against strategy. Its like having a holiday party and forgetting the food. Technology, the overlooked item on strategic wish lists, provisions almost every corporate initiative. Why on earth are technology leaders not invited to the table? The reality is, most business executives dont have the technology acumen to see the ripple effect that a strategy can have on the companys infrastructure. For example, if a digital commerce business wants to leverage the popularity of visual and voice search, the company could redesign its website and mobile app with the goal of growing revenue by 30 percent within three years. Ask an executive to outline the digital and technology strategy for making it happen, and you might get a blank stare. Thats okay, because you can ask those in the know. Get in sync with technology leaders CIOs, CTOs, enterprise architects (EAs), and capability and technology managers know your companys technology landscape and can anticipate the changes required to deliver new capabilities. This contingent can provide a reality check on technology-enabled strategies, from digital transformation initiatives that could leapfrog your competitors, to Internet of Things (IoT) products that will dazzle customers. You can bring technology strategy to the forefront of the planning process by engaging with your technology decision makers early and often. If you engage too late, you will likely incur huge costs to upgrade legacy systems, rework underperforming applications or discard work that doesnt meet industry or customer requirements. Instead, get an early read on how an initiative aligns with the technology stack, how much funding it would take and what resources would be required. Find out whether regulatory or security issues could affect outcomes, when an initiative could realistically deliver and what dependencies could derail it. When you include technology experts in business strategy discussions up front, theyll ask and answer hard questions about the triple constraints of time, cost and scope. The right tools connect strategy to delivery Gartner predicts that for every $1 invested in digital innovation through 2020, businesses will spend another $3 to modernize legacy infrastructure. Having an active technology strategy and roadmap may help reduce that cost. Strategic roadmaps make your plan actionable and track its execution enterprise-wide. Roadmaps illustrate what your organization needs to accomplish to deliver strategic goals. Each strategy statement cascades to the technologies that must be in place, along with the projects that must be executed to make it happen. By visualizing the work to be done, technology roadmaps bridge the communication gap between technology leaders and their business counterparts. An integrated roadmap that connects strategy, business capabilities, technology and investments can be a powerful tool for enabling better prioritization, trade-offs and alignment. The initiatives required to achieve a strategy can be grouped into a portfolio and managed for contingencies, dependencies, capacity, risk and other factors. What-if analyses demonstrate what happens to delivery timelines if one or more initiatives are delayed, making downstream risks immediately apparent. The right tools can help you avoid the cost of reactionary decisions and architect your companys evolving technology landscape. Its not just about strategy Planning for transformative change is also about identifying the capabilities and technologies you need to thrive and be profitable. If your organization lacks a foundational capability that is essential to achieving the strategy, such as cross-functional collaboration, its better to find out early. Capability and technology managers are positioned to leverage company strengths, strengthen the weaknesses and identify capability gaps that could undermine execution. Executives are infamous for asking loaded questions like, How soon can we move IT to the cloud without impacting work and resources? Only the technology guy knows that such requests come from a lack of understanding about how things work. PwCs 10th annual Global Digital IQ Survey suggests that companies need to address the skills gap at the top: Educate executives about technology, and encourage collaboration with technology specialists. Otherwise, the disconnect could stall digital transformation initiatives. Its tempting to aim high, especially without a clear picture of an initiatives implications, but the rapid pace of digital innovation may require you to adjust your strategies. Let your technology leaders provide the gut check you need to set a sustainable pace for transformation. They can help architect the strategy for building your companys digital infrastructure, and together you can create a roadmap that connects strategy to delivery. The healthcare industry is in the midst of a perfect storm. As our population grows and ages, healthcare costs are rising at unsustainable rates. Against that backdrop, we have too few physicians, a problem that is expected to become more acute over the coming decade. A study conducted for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts that the U.S. will face a shortage of 42,600 to 121,300 physicians by 2030. This shortage is expected to be particularly large in specialty-care fields.[1] All of this points to the need to improve the efficiency of our healthcare processes and the productivity of our physicians. One of the keys to meeting these goals is the use of artificial intelligence to assist physicians in the diagnostic process. As an editorial in the journal Nature notes, AI diagnostics have the potential to improve the delivery and effectiveness of health care. Many are a triumph for science, representing years of improvements in computing power and the neural networks that underlie deep learning.[2] A case in point In the United States alone, each year about 1 million people seek care in hospitals due to pneumonia, and around 50,000 people die from the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).[3] Millions of other Americans are living with emphysema and other forms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).[4] Better diagnostics, assisted by AI, could help stem this deadly tide. Thats a key takeaway point from a study conducted by a team of data scientists from Dell EMC with support from Intel. In this study, the research team demonstrated the potential of deep learning algorithms to assist professional radiologists in the detection of pneumonia and emphysema.[5] For the study, the research team developed models for using AI to diagnose pneumonia, emphysema and other thoracic pathologies from chest X-rays. Using a Stanford University neural network called CheXNet for inspiration, the team explored ways to develop accurate diagnostic models with fast parallel training on a compute cluster based on Intel Xeon processors. The team conducted the training on the Zenith supercomputer at the Dell EMC HPC and AI Innovation Lab. As summarized in an IDG white paper, sponsored by Dell EMC and Intel, Tests showed that the model the Dell EMC team built not only performed better than the original CheXNet model, but also outperformed baseline tests in 10 out of 14 different categories, including diagnosis of emphysema, a lung condition that afflicts an estimated 3.5 million Americans. [6] A physicians assistant AI studies often prompt the question of whether artificial intelligence will replace the work of humans, in this case radiologists. The quick answer is not at all. AI systems will instead serve as assistants that help physicians make better and faster diagnoses, freeing up time for them to help more patients. Ultimately, its about technology enhancing human performance, IDG says in the white paper. While some people debate whether AI-powered machines will eliminate jobs, professionals in the chronically short-handed healthcare field welcome the assistance. Faster and better image diagnosis enables radiologists to work on the problems that machines still cant tackle, extending care to a greater number of people. For the full story, read the IDG white paper Dell EMC AI Researchers Achieve Diagnostic Accuracy Rates that Match Human Radiologists. And if youre of a mind to dive down into the technical details of the teams study, read the white paper Fast and Accurate Training of an AI Radiologist on Intel Xeon-based Dell EMC Supercomputers. [1] Association of American Medical Colleges, GME Funding and Its Role in Addressing the Physician Shortage, May 29, 2018. [2] Nature, AI diagnostics need attention, March 13, 2018. [3] U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Pneumonia. [4] National Emphysema Foundation, COPD and Emphysema afflict millions of adults and children today. [5] IDG Communications white paper, Dell EMC AI Researchers Achieve Diagnostic Accuracy Rates That Match Human Radiologists. [6] IDG Communications white paper, Dell EMC AI Researchers Achieve Diagnostic Accuracy Rates That Match Human Radiologists. Peter Avsenew, convicted of killing a Wilton Manors couple days before Christmas 2010 and stealing their car to escape to north Florida, who told a jury in January that he had no regrets and a judge in March that he had killed before and would again, has been sentenced to die. He is the first defendant in Broward to receive a death sentence since a new law was passed in 2017 requiring juries to be unanimous in finding an execution is warranted. Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes considered pleas for mercy from a court-appointed attorney who found Avsenew suffered trauma in his childhood the murder of his sister and his alleged sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Holmes could have overturned the jurys January death recommendation, but Avsenews crime could be punished only by death, she decided. It seemed to be the result Avsenew wanted after his conviction last fall for the murders of Stephen Adams and Kevin Powell, a Wilton Manors couple who took him in after he posted a sexually suggestive classified ad on Craigslist. Adams and Powell had been together for nearly 30 years. But Avsenews comments about them, in his letter to Holmes, were without mercy. It is my duty as a white man to cull the weak and timid from existence, Avsenew, 33, wrote. Homosexuals are a disease to mankind and must be put down. Theres an old adage in the legal world: when the facts are against you, pound the law; when the law is against you, pound the facts; when the law and the facts are against you, pound the table. That about sums up the Democrats approach to Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings. They cant find anything to impugn his qualifications, which are equal to that of any recent Supreme Court nominee. Nor do they have a coherent theory of jurisprudence to challenge Kavanaughs textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional law. But to give credit where its due: Democratic senators excelled at pounding the table. On the first day, traditionally given over to remarks that put the nomination in historical and constitutional perspective, the Democrats spent their time demanding an adjournment until documents from Kavanaughs time as staff secretary in the George W. Bush administration were produced. Never mind that these documents are of limited relevance, given that the staff secretary is the White Houses document-traffic cop, tasked with summarizing the views of others and packaging them for the president. In past hearings, executive documents far more probative of legal views were withheld on the basis of confidentiality, including Antonin Scalias memos as assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel and Elena Kagans as Solicitor General. But arguing about documents rather than Kavanaughs qualifications or his judicial philosophy has a political purpose. It reframed the confirmation hearing in a way that would appeal to the Democratic base, while not causing difficulties for red-state Democrats pursuing reelection. Making a circus of the first days hearing signals Democratic opposition to Kavanaugh without taking substantive stepslike walking outthat would discredit the party with the broader public. Left-liberal groups helped, too, by sending in protesters to get arrested and continually disrupt the proceedings. The Democrats continued to skirt substantive questions of law in favor of innuendo on the second day. Senator Patrick Leahy focused on an incident from the Bush administration, in which a Republican staffer got unauthorized access to emails of the Senate Judiciary Committee. No evidence exists that Kavanaugh knew about this breach of norms, though partisans tagged the event as a digital Watergate. Senator Dick Durbin complained that Kavanaugh had misled the committee when he told them that he knew nothing about a program of extraordinary interrogation, because as staff secretary he did know about debates concerning a signing statement on the practice. But these are distinct issues: one concerns an operative program, while the other involves the presidents constitutional prerogatives. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse complained about the Federalist Societys involvement in Kavanaughs nomination and about advertisements run on his behalfmatters outside Kavanaughs control or knowledge. These desultory lines of questioning permitted senators to sound righteous while avoiding a debate about judicial philosophy. And when it came to judicial philosophy, the Democrats were consistently on the defensive. Republican senators repeatedly invited Kavanaugh to nail his colors to textualism in statutory interpretation and public-meaning originalism in constitutional interpretation. He happily did so. The Democrats notably did not challenge him on these responses. Thus, the most important message from the hearings on constitutional lawas opposed to political theateris that formal approaches to law, textualism, and originalism have become mainstream legal philosophies outside of the legal academy. A few senators contested some Kavanaugh decisions, but they generally were not able to make their attacks stick, though they did their best to attribute opinions to Kavanaugh that he did not hold. For instance, Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of the most substantive questioners, insinuated that an opinion of Kavanaughs might invalidate the Social Security Administration, when in fact the opinion suggested, at most, that the agencys chief could be fired by the president at will, rather than for causea matter of concern only to beltway bureaucrats. Senator Richard Blumenthal claimed that Kavanaughs use of the phrase existing precedent about Casey v. Planned Parenthood was an attempt to signal that he would overrule Roe v. Wade. But as legal commentator Jonathan Adler points out, the phrase is the opposite of a specific signal, having been used 1,400 times by other judges. Running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 evidently requires outrageous conduct to make one stand out from the field. Senator Cory Booker grilled Kavanaugh about a few words in a 15-year-old e-mail, without giving him the e-mail to review. Senator Kamala Harris interrogated Kavanaugh about whether he had ever discussed Robert Mueller or the Mueller investigation with any employee of a 350-person law firm, and pounced when he said that he wouldnt know if someone he spoke with worked there. Our political environment turns such low behavior into badges of high partisan honor. The only reasonably effective Democratic member of the committee was Senator Christopher Coons, who interrogated Kavanaugh on executive power. It wasnt his questions themselves that likely resonated with the public, but rather their context, with a sitting president whose conduct has exacerbated concerns about this very issue. Thus, the Kavanaugh hearings also underscored the great paradox of the Trump presidency: while most of the administrations nominations and many of its policies have been excellent, Trumps behavior contributes to a climate that endangers their success. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Its tempting to say that the closing of the Village Voice marks the end of an era, but its true era, that of 1960s alternative journalism, ended long ago. After all, a history of the weekly, The Great American Newspaper: The Rise and Fall of the Village Voice, was published in 1978! But as one inspired to become a journalist by The Voice, I see the papers era as continuingand in many ways, not for the better. The Voice and other alternative newspapers, including The Boston Phoenix, for which I was a staff writer in the early 1970s, provided a forum, for the first time, for topics and styles that richly deserved one. But they alsoespecially in their news coveragehelped American journalism take the hard turn toward merging reportage and advocacy, which by now has infected the mainstream media. I know, because I was part of it. The Voice first reached me as a teenager in my lower-middle-class, Levittown-like Cleveland suburb. My father, in contrast to our neighbors, subscribed to a range of thought magazines: the Reporter (Max Ascolis brilliant liberal anti-Communist periodical), the Nation (though he canceled because he thought it soft on Red China), Harpers (in the Willie Morris era), and Esquire, then in its Harold Hayes era of the new or narrative journalism of Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer. It was a back-of-the book Esquire classified ad that led me to subscribe to my own first periodical, The Village Voice. That I did so is a reminder of how alluring the emergent counterculture was, even for those geographically distant from its centers. The Village! Bleecker Street! A weekly would deliver it all to me, direct from the setting of The Freewheelin Bob Dylan album cover. To this day, I admire many of those Voice writers, who changed the way I saw the world. Nat Hentoff moved effortlessly between his appreciations of jazz and blues to his defense of the First Amendment (and, later, courageously, opposition to abortion). Vivian Gornick not only helped to chart feminism but also did it in a tone that helped one appreciate the often-tragic complexity of the relationship between men and women. (Memorably, she wrote of how women should appreciate the existential aloneness of men.) Robert Christgau not only listened to rock music but also heard it (per the argument about Jimi Hendrix in the movie White Men Cant Jump). Less well-known figures made a difference for me, too; the African-American music critic Carmen Moores column on James Cleveland and Shirley Caeser pointed me toward the gospel music that became a passion of mine (and now of my musician sons). Paul Cowan (whose wife Rachel died this week) wrote subtly on Jesse Jackson, noting his social conservatism (at the time). Then there was Jack Newfield, the reporter of that era who became my role model, bringing to life the politics of New York. He was the chronicler of the New Left (A Prophetic Minority) who would write, with tears on the page, about Robert Kennedys rise and murder. Newfield was first to report on the problem of lead poisoning among the poor. I determined to follow in his footsteps, following the countercultures magnetic field to Boston and Cambridge and a vibrant alternative-journalism scene that boasted not one but two lively papersthe Phoenix and the Real Paper. Those of us who were there at the time have our own alumni group: film critic Janet Maslin, later of the Times; Paul Solman, the news editor whos now business reporter at the PBS News Hour; Joe Klein, the Anonymous chronicler of the early Clintons; Laura Shapiro, the brilliant food historian; David Denby, film critic for The New Yorker; Peter Guralnick, who would write the definitive Elvis Presley and Sam Cooke biographies; and Sid Blumenthal, who would go on to a much different public role through his relationship with the Clintons, and later described the era to me nostalgically as our Bloomsbury. I took up the Newfield mantle, publishing work of which Im still proud on corrupted federal-housing programs, racial violence in Bostons changing neighborhoods, and politicized hiring in a major federal jobs program. (A personal high point came when Leonard Downie of the Washington Post included me in his book The New Muckrakers.) Nonetheless, I look back on all that Voice-inspired reporting with ambivalence. The Voice and those it inspired minted advocacy journalism. The essential tone was one of good guys and bad guys, not tough issues and imperfect people. When the Phoenix covered the mass demonstrations aimed at closing a New Hampshire nuclear power plant, there was no discussion of trade-offs, of who would pay the bills for the facilitys construction if it were closed. Newfield wrote regularly about New Yorks worst slumlords but would never have linked rent regulation to their disinvestment in their own properties. And, of course, Vietnam was an imperialist war and nothing else. We provided play-by-play and color commentary for the counterculture and antiwar and anti-draft movements. It was all supported by ads for movies, recordsand sex, in the classifieds. It should all be familiar today to readers of, say, the New York Times, which diligently chronicles the Trump resistance. The Voice has closed but its era continues, and has gone mainstream. Just as the Left consolidated its hold on the university, so has it completed its long march through the mainstream media. Good fact-based reportingits telling that this has become a phrasecontinues, of course, including in the New York Times and Washington Post. But theres also lots of advocacy journalism: good guys versus bad guys, crusades to be mounted, victims to be celebratedand complexities to be overlooked. Much of it started with The Village Voice. It will not end with The Voices demise. Photo: Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia Commons When patients come to see me, they normally have a problem that physicians call the chief complaint. In investigating and treating that complaint, I must obtain informed consentcommunicating the risks and benefits of any proposed tests, procedures, treatments, and alternative treatments to ensure that my patient makes an informed decision about how to proceed. Gone are the days that a physician could dictate care without such consent. In contrast, when I recommend a screening test, Im not treating a known problem. Rather, Im seeking out a healthy person and proposing a medical procedure to discover unsuspected disease before the patient develops symptoms. To be effective, the screening test must be sensitive enough to detect the presence of the disease and specific enough to identify people who dont have it. There must also be effective treatments, so that catching the disease early, before it becomes clinically apparent, leads to better outcomes. Thus, screening is not directed at individuals with specific complaints but rather at large populations in an attempt to lessen their mortality risk from specific diseases. Screening differs from traditional treatment in another important way. Unlike patients with specific problems, who must give informed consent to treatment, healthy patients are often pressured to undergo screening and are rarely provided with the knowledge needed to make an informed decision. Many medical organizations and patient-advocacy groups oversell the benefits of screening but almost never mention that screening tests, like other medical procedures, have potential harms. One-third of men undergoing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer, for example, dont recall being told that the test was being performed, let alone hearing about the risks and benefits. Yet Americans have enthusiastically embraced screening. The United States performs screening, particularly for cancer, more commonly than other advanced countries. We spend tens of billions annually on cancer screening, including $8 billion for breast cancer, over $6 billion for cervical cancer, and $3 billion for prostate cancer. For some cancers, screening expenditures nearly equal the amount spent on treatment. Why do we encourage large numbers of healthy people to undergo testing that may reveal some future problem, without informing them of the efficacy of these tests and their possible harms, while insisting that people who actually need medical intervention give informed consent? The reasons are more political than scientific. Patient-advocacy groups attract donations, gain prestige, and accumulate power by pushing screening for particular diseases. Physician-specialty groups promote screening in their areas of expertise. Most important, politicians of both parties garner support by funding screening programs for important constituent groups. Yet the effectiveness of screening is overrated: many screening programs mislead the public, waste scarce medical resources, and harm the people they are supposed to help. The Stanford Prevention Research Center, in a comprehensive review of 39 screening tests for 19 diseases, found that reductions in death due to screening are rare. Nevertheless, patients routinely undergo overly intensive, low-value tests. About half of women who had a hysterectomy and no longer have a cervix, for example, are still getting PAP tests for cervical cancer screening. Despite the absence of evidence supporting screening in these older populations, cervical and breast cancer screenings are performed in 38 percent and 50 percent, respectively, of women over 80; and more than 50 percent of men over 75 report that their physicians continue to recommend PSA screening. It is nearly certain that these older men and women will die of some cause other than occult breast, cervical, or prostate cancer. One study found that significant numbers of Medicare patients with a known advanced cancer and a short life expectancy were still being screened for other cancers. Most patients are unaware of screenings side effects. False-positive results lead to additional testing, anxiety, and unnecessary and invasive diagnostic procedures. Screening can overdiagnose disease and lead to needless treatment by uncovering cases that would never have become clinically apparent, let alone life-threatening. Finally, screening generates false negatives as welldeluding patients into a sense of security and encouraging them to ignore signs of disease that they would otherwise bring to medical attention. The contentious debate over mammography screening for breast cancer illustrates the problems surrounding screening. Following publication of several randomized trials assessing breast cancer screening over 30 years ago, U.S. medical groups recommended starting annual mammograms at age 40. Forty-two states enacted laws between 1987 and 2000 requiring insurers to cover mammography screenings in their insurance plans, and patient-advocacy groups such as the Susan Komen Foundation sprang up, supporting screening. Today, barely a week passes without a celebrity revealing her breast cancer diagnosis and urging women to get screened. Male and female politicians pledge unwavering support for mammography programs. Yet the success of mammogram screening in preventing breast cancer deaths is greatly exaggerated. If such screening were effective, it would pick up cancers early, leading to a reduction in cancers diagnosed at advanced stages (those most likely to kill) and reduced breast cancer mortality. A recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine compared different rates of screening, breast cancer incidence, and breast cancer mortality in 16 million woman 40 years and older residing in 547 U.S. counties. The women were screened for breast cancer in 2000 and tracked for ten years. The JAMA study found a positive correlation between the extent of screening and breast cancer incidencethat is, more screening finds more cancersbut no correlation between the extent of screening and ten-year breast cancer mortality. Screening mostly discovered small cancers (less than two centimeters) and early-stage cancers. The study found no reduction in the numbers of larger cancers or in the incidence of more dangerous, locally advanced cancers and cancers that had already spread through distant metastases. These new findings mirror a 2012 New England Journal of Medicine review of 30 years of mammography screening showing a 109 percent increase in the incidence of small, early-stage breast cancer but only an 8 percent decrease in the incidence of advanced cancers, with virtually no reduction in the most advanced, metastatic cases. What explains the lack of success? We have been screening the wrong womenthose younger than 50 and older than 75and screening all women too intensely. Breast cancer incidence rises with age, with the highest rates found in women over age 60. Mammography is less accurate in younger women, whose breasts are denser. As a result, the net benefit of annual screening is less for younger women, who have a lower absolute risk of breast cancer, a greater risk of false positive (and false negative) findings on mammography, and an increased risk of overdiagnosis. Among women who get regular mammograms over ten years, the number whose lives will be saved because of screening will be five of 10,000 40- to 49-year-old women; ten of 10,000 50- to 59-year-old women; and 42 of 10,000 60- to 69-year-old women. Over those same ten years, 61 percent of 40- to 50-year-old women who have annual mammograms will get a false positive, leading to more tests and anxiety and, for about 20 percent of these women, an unneeded biopsy. Mammograms will also miss about 20 percent of breast cancers, falsely reassuring many women and some physicians, who will disregard signs and symptoms of cancer, such as a breast mass. Finally, an estimated 19 percent to 31 percent of the cancers found prove to be overdiagnosesearly cancers that would never become life-threateningleading to overtreatment with surgery (with young women increasingly selecting unilateral or even bilateral mastectomies rather than lumpectomies), radiotherapy (which adversely affects the heart and lungs), and toxic chemotherapy. A recent study in Health Affairs estimates that false positives and overdiagnosis in women 40 to 59 costs $4 billion annuallyhalf the annual expenditure on mammogram screening. A report from Yale researchers in JAMA Internal Medicine found that 40 percent of Medicares annual billion-dollar expenditure on mammogram screening pays for screening women over 75, for whom nearly all cancers detected likely represent overdiagnosis. These older women are far more likely to die of some other ailment than they are of an early, mammographically detected breast cancer. Much of this information is not new, yet mammogram screening remains popular. In fact, questioning its efficacy is a political third rail. When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a respected, independent panel of primary-care and preventive-medicine experts, advised in 2009 that mammography no longer be routinely recommended for 40- to 49-year-old women and that women between 50 and 74 have mammograms every other year rather than annually, the reaction from official medicine and womens groups was swift and fierce. Legislators, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and various womens groups condemned the recommendations as dangerous. President Obamas Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was being negotiated during this time, requires health plans to cover preventive services, including screening, without any cost sharing (such as co-payments, deductibles, or coinsurance), where the USPSTF has found high certainty of substantial or moderate net benefit (grades A or B). In response to political pressure, the ACA was amended to cover annual mammogram screening at no cost, starting at age 40, though the USPSTF had given only a C grade (moderate certainty of small net benefit) to screening in the 4049 age range. Updating its guidance in 2015, the USPSTF issued draft screening recommendations (finalized in January 2016) that echo its 2009 call to raise the starting age for mammographies and decrease their frequency. The task force acknowledged that screening reduces the risk of dying from breast cancer but found that the benefit for the 4049 age group is small, while the risks of overdiagnosis and false-positive tests resulting in unnecessary procedures are high. Balancing the risks and benefits, the USPSTF recommended against routine screening for average-risk, 4049-year-old women and suggested that women consult with their physicians to determine if they bear greater-than-average risk of cancer that would warrant earlier screening. As it had in 2009, the USPSTF again advised biennial screening for women aged 50 to 74, rather than the annual screening that most cancer groups propose, because published randomized trials indicated no clear trend for greater benefit from annual screening versus biennial screening. Modeling studies predicted minimal benefit when moving from biennial to annual mammography but a large increase in harms (false positives, unnecessary breast biopsies, and overdiagnosed breast cancers). In May 2015, the American College of Physicians (ACP) High Value Care Task Force published identical recommendations. Similarly, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has reaffirmed its 2002 handbook recommending mammography screening only for women between the ages of 50 and 69. These recommendations follow most other countries practices, where screening starts later, ends earlier, and gets done at less frequent intervals than in the United States. European women under 50 are rarely offered screening. The United Kingdom screens women 50 to 70 years old every three years. Last year, the Swiss Medical Board recommended that no new mammography screening programs be initiated and that existing ones be phased out. In 2015, as in 2009, the reaction to the USPSTF was immediate and intense. The medical-specialty societies again condemned the USPSTF guidelines and reiterated their support for annual screening starting at 40. Only the American Cancer Society, which had initially rejected the USPSTF update, has budged: on October 20, 2015, it recommended splitting the difference between its old guidelines and the USPSTFs, suggesting that annual screening start between ages 45 and 54, with biennial screening thereafter. Writing in the Washington Post, Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed that deferring mammograms until after age 50 is dangerous and will result in needless deaths. More than 60 lawmakers of both parties wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services, urging that it not jeopardize access to these screenings. Republican senator David Vitter warned that we shouldnt let bureaucrats in Washington limit access to prevention and early detection resources. These decisions should be left to women and their doctors. Scientific evidence, not political considerations, should determine health-insurance coverage and payment policies. Leaving the decision to women and their doctors is precisely what the USPSTF was proposing. Both the USPSTF and the ACP emphasized that younger women should make the decision to screen only after consultation with their doctors, weighing the potential benefit against the possible harms, and noted that women who have a first-degree relative with breast or ovarian cancer or other risk factors, such as a known genetic predisposition, should consider early testing. The suggestion that the guidelines will cause needed mammograms to be deferred is simply incorrect. On the contrary, the unneeded, sometimes harmful, mammograms currently being performed on younger women are the ones that will be deferred. Its the politicians who, despite all the evidence, are urging younger women to undergo screening without discussing their individual health needs with their physicians. Women should be informed of the significant risks of overdiagnosis, false positives, and false negatives that most independent review bodies feel outweigh the benefits of mammogram screening in the 40- to 49-year-old age group. Instead, a bipartisan group of lawmakers inserted the Protecting Access to Lifesaving Screenings (PALS) Actplacing a two-year moratorium on implementing the USPSTF recommendationsinto the December 2015 Omnibus Spending Bill. The PALS Act ensures that women will continue to be routinely subjected to screening that starts too early and is conducted too frequently, without having the discussions they need to make informed decisions. Screening advocates also claim that the USPSTFs C grade for screening younger women and the recommendation for biennial rather than annual screening for women over 50 will lead insurers to stop covering screening mammograms without out-of-pocket costscausing women to put off testing. This is unlikely to prove a serious problem. For women who dont need these tests, limiting coverage is a good thing. For women whose risk factors justify screening before age 50 and annually thereafter, insurers will probably continue to cover screening without cost sharing. Even if some women become responsible for some out-of-pocket costs, these costs are unlikely to be a barrier to indicated screening. Poorer women will be covered without expense by Medicaid or the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and administered by the states. Wealthier women already pay some out-of-pocket costs for nearly all their medical care. Few of these women will defer a mammogram that their physicians suggested because they have to share the relatively modest cost. The anomaly in this debate is that screening advocates insist that tests of dubious value and known harms for healthy people be provided free of charge and with minimal or no informed consent, while tests and treatments for people with known illnesses are subject to out-of-pocket expenses. The advocates policy prescription seems designed to lead to overuse of screening and underuse of therapeutic testing and treatment. Scientific evidence, not political considerations, should determine health-insurance coverage and payment policies. If were serious about getting greater value for our health-care dollar, we should rethink our obsession with cancer screening. The $4 billion expended annually on breast cancer screening that leads to false positives and overdiagnoses and the billions more that could be saved by curtailing spending on dubious screening for other diseases (e.g., the USPSTF recommends stopping PSA screening for prostate cancer at any age) would be better directed to cancer research and treatmentand to providing the information that people need to make informed decisions about cancer screening. Research has found no correlation between the extent of screening and ten-year breast cancer mortality. (GARO/PHANIE/THE IMAGE WORKS) Last weeks news underscored growing concerns over the politicization of tech companies. With his inimitable style, President Trump claimed on Twitter that Google shows political bias by skewing the news found in online searches. Relatedly, a group of some 100 conservative-leaning Facebook employees formed an online community to escape the strictures of a political monoculture and provide themselves a safe place for ideological diversity among their 25,000 co-workers. Its a truism that Silicon Valley leans left, but the average tech millionaire is not easy to pigeonhole ideologically. A revealing, if little-noted, 2017 study from Stanford University compared more than 600 elite technology company leaders and founders, 80 percent of them millionaires, with more than 1,100 elite partisan donors of both political persuasions. The distinctions are revelatory for anyone interested in mapping the future of American politics. Increasingly, technology entrepreneurs are using their personal wealth and firms power to exercise political influence, the surveys authors observe. For example, recent federal candidates have referred to Silicon Valley as a political ATM. The study found that 80 percent of tech millionaires overwhelmingly donate to Democrats over Republicans; hardly a surprising finding. But the key reveal of the Stanford analysis is not about party alignment in donations: its in what can only be called a kind of political schizophrenia around the core ideologies associated with each party. On one hand, the study showed that Silicon Valleys titans are firmly aligned with Democrats on social issues, what the survey calls liberal redistributive, social, and globalistic policies. But on the other hand, the survey shows that the ideologiesif not the financial supportof tech millionaires solidly align with Republicans on issues relating to the regulatory environment, specifically around such topics as drones, data storage, self-driving cars, and employee policies. This ideological rift prompted the Stanford researchers to conclude that techs business elites are donating politically against their self-interest. For analysts and political operatives, the question is whether thats an immutable or malleable political reality. After all, its not just Republicans like President Trump attacking Silicon Valley; Senator Bernie Sanders, the standard-bearer of the Democratic Partys progressive wing, is one of many in that caucus taking on the tech giants on fairness issues surrounding income inequality in general and Amazon CEOs Jeff Bezoss uber-wealth in particular. Its risky for companies to become identified with a specific political orientation. The recent evidence of a political tilt at numerous Silicon Valley firmsor at least among their leadershas ignited controversy, not just in Washington but also in the tech community itself. At least one Valley executive worries that political correctness could hurt innovation, the mothers milk of the tech sector. Googles firing of engineer James Damore for raising questions about gender differences on an internal discussion board showed the willingness of tech companies to police political expression. There is a real existential risk for tech companies to be found in the historical propensity of governments to declare new tech enterprises, especially new means of communication, as inherently monopolisticand thus inherently unfair. Back in 1949, on the theory that radio broadcast companies had monopolistic control of that medium, Congress ordered broadcasters to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance. The Fairness Doctrine would survive for nearly four decades, before it was revoked in 1987. Some Democrats sought to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine a decade or so ago, in response to the rise of talk radio, which became overwhelmingly conservative after 1987. Now, some Republicans (and Democrats, too) are looking again at the notion of fairness in the context of the dominant market share enjoyed by the likes of Facebook or Google. Googles global share of search has reached 90 percent, and Senator Orrin Hatch has already sent a letter to the FTC to request an investigation of anti-competitive practices at the company. When it comes to issues surrounding access to accurate and fair news and information in particular, the challenging question is whether anyone can easily see if there is (or isnt) an algorithmic finger on the scale of fairness. In the history of the news business, this is an unprecedented concern. The designers and coders of the algorithms respond that the Webs interstices are arcane and not easy for the layman to understand. In effect, the experts are saying: its complicated, so trust us. From a technical perspective, it would indeed be difficult to come up with a user interface that provided credible transparency about how news and information are curated or accessed on Web platforms. But one could have said the same thing, circa 1990, about converting the Arpanets technically arcane TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) into a Web system so simple that preschool children can use it now. As Steve Jobs famously said two decades ago, simple can be harder than complex. But conquering complexity used to be what animated Silicon Valley. That is, in fact, how Google got started. Its time to revive that zeitgeist, and make the power of news on the Internet not just easy to use, but easy to trust. Photo: mariusFM77/iStock On the national level, conservatives are a driving force behind legislation and legal battles aimed at weakening public-sector labor unions. In New York, however, many Republican lawmakers are allies of the labor movement. In a Q&A with City & State, state Sen. Fred Akshar, the Republican chairman of the state Senate Labor Committee, says that he joined efforts to protect unions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Janus case. Akshar also weighed in on workers compensation and the tip credit and emphasized the importance of balancing labor and business. What are the current priorities of state Senate Labor Committee? As chair of the Senate Labor Committee, my goal is to bring people together on issues or concerns that we can find common ground on. I think all too often in Albany things are stymied by bureaucracy because people are drawing deep lines in the sand. I know that specifically in the compromise we were able to come to in terms of workers compensation reform and really that was done by collaborating and bringing people together and I insisted that labor was at the table and they had a voice. At the end of the day, I think that that is why we were successful in that particular issue. And I would like to take that same tact as we move forward in the next legislative session to still address issues that are important to both labor and the business community and try to advance those issues. Photo courtesy New York Senate Do you have a prediction about how the U.S. Supreme Courts Janus decision is going to affect New Yorks public sector unions? In my opinion, I think what Janus has done is reinvigorated public sector unions. I think that the unions have always been incredibly strong in this state, and as a former member of law enforcement, I understand their necessity. I understand that theyre there to protect hardworking employees. I think what the decision has done is really brought all of the public sector unions together and refocus their efforts on protecting their employees. I joined my colleagues in the Senate Republican conference, so we signed onto the amicus brief arguing clearly in favor of the states rights in lieu of what we thought was going to happen with Janus. We took some proactive steps in the state Senate to protect public sector unions and their employees. I bring this unique perspective as the chair of the Labor Committee in that I have been, in my short tenure in Albany, very pro-business and I have focused the vast majority of my time on trying to create a better economy and a better business climate in the state. I think its very important to note, and Ive said this to labor leaders, that while Ive taken that approach in terms of being pro-business and pro-economy, you can also be very supportive of unions and public sector workers and I think that perspective I bring to the table will in fact allow us to advance issues where we can find compromise and collectively advance issues. Youve taken a stand on Gov. Andrew Cuomos proposal to eliminate the tip credit, which would stop employees from getting a lower wage for tipped positions. Do you see a conflict between the interests of small business owners and the workers? I think that this is really the governor interfering in the lives of hardworking people. This is an issue where business owners and employees are both in lockstep with one another saying, Dont interfere with the way this is. This is working. So Im opposed to it because you have seen other states go down this path and then have to walk back from that. I stand in solidarity with, with not only the business owners on this particular issue, but the people who are working every single day in this particular industry that are clearly opposed to this. And again, I think if you look at the minimum wage issue that we dealt with a couple of years ago, we were very clear to delineate how we should be dealing with this particular issue in New York City and how we should be dealing with it upstate. Cookie Preferences Cookie List Do Not Sell My Personal Information When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. 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If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page. Front door of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport The government has announced that 22 projects will receive support from the final tranche of the Life Chances Fund, which supports charities with social impact bonds. The largest amount, 6.6m, went to Kirklees Council in Yorkshire and Humber, for a service supporting vulnerable people into independent living. The funding also includes 4.2m to West London Zone, a charity founded by an adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which provides early intervention services. The charity was co-founded in 2014 by Danny Kruger, who is the governments expert adviser on the Civil Society Strategy. Kruger resigned as a trustee of West London Zone in April, shortly after joining DCMS. West London Zones latest accounts for the year to March 2017 show it had an income of 1.2m and spending of 670,000. This is the third and final tranche of funding from the 80m Life Chances Fund. Projects are funded through a social impact bond with each one having secured upfront funding from external funders, who will only be reimbursed if the projects meet their targets. Tracey Crouch, minister for sport and civil society, said: We are committed to building a fairer society that works for everyone and social impact bonds are already having a transformational impact on peoples lives. Other successful applicants include Age Concern South Gloucestershire and Peterborough Council for Voluntary Service. The full list is in the table below. Friday greetings, dear readers. As the country's politicians return from summer recess to reassure us once again that an increasingly likely No Deal will not be the end of the world, and while Donald Trump and Kim Jong Uns bromance reaches Bill and Ted proportions, let us take solace in the one thing that will always be there to lift our spirits in times of despair: Jeff Goldblum. This week, the man of a thousand slightly smug facial expressions had his full range on display in a suspiciously unlocated charity shop which had put a photo of Goldblum in every one of its picture frames. The evidence was posted by a Twitter user based in Cardiff this week, which went viral, but was later claimed by Australian charity chain Salvos to be at one of its stores in Victoria. Whether the shop is in the UK or not, the Spice Daddy has been gracing the country with his presence this week to accept GQ magazines Haig Club Icon award (Nope, Diary neither) and promote his new jazz album. He announced the record by casually playing an impromptu set on that piano near the Eurostar departure lounge at St Pancras station. His record label kindly recorded a clip of the man charming the pants off passing commuters. It is a sensational watch as Goldblum appears to, as usual, be going through an intensely rapid change of emotions while wearing an excessive number of rings. Goldbluming marvelous! Not only did Jeff Goldblum announce his new album today, he also stopped by at London's St Pancras station to give a surprise performance! Limited amount of Signed CD albums available here! https://t.co/LFnvr0FcvO pic.twitter.com/c6iBR46fzq Decca Records (@DeccaRecords) 5 September 2018 Diary gets the impression the audience was expecting Goldblum to start singing at some point as they nervously started a chorus of the national anthem at the end. This is exactly what Brexit day in March next year is going to look like, but with Jacob Rees-Mogg playing cor anglais. Special delivery A charity shop in Florida received a very generous donation this week in the form of a 2kg bag of marijuana. Pines Thrift Store in Sarasots found 4,200 worth of houdini wrapped in a brown paper bag while sorting through clothing donations. An employee of the store noticed the bag last week but only called the police days later after cutting a small hole in the parcel to see what was inside. Diarys mind has been racing about how the package got there. Here are a few options: A mid-level drug dealer had 2kg of magic smoke and an old pair of trainers in identical brown paper bags and mistakenly delivered his scuffed Nike Air Maxs to a stash house instead of the product The dealer had arranged a pick up at the thrift shop but the pick-up boy misread the memo and spent hours fruitlessly searching through Bines Thrift Store for the jazz cabbage package instead Someone just thought a lovely big bag of bhang would be a nice thing to donate to a charity shop. We may never hear the results of the police investigation but Diary hopes justice is served and the Aunt Mary reaches its intended recipient. Unwanted assistance Six people who are not in need of further intoxication are the group of drunk children in Morecambe who refused to be rescued from the sea by RNLI volunteers. HM Coastguard saw the kids, aged between 11 and 16, swimming near in the sea near a clocktower. It called the charitys lifeboat volunteers to assist but by the time they arrived the children had swum back to shore. HM Coastguard still insisted the RNLI attend to the children who were suffering from the effects of cold. But a spokesman for the charity said its volunteers were greeted by abuse and threats of violence from the children, all of whom were clearly heavily intoxicated by alcohol. The BBC reported that when volunteers went to their aid, one was told: "Come near me and I'll hit you." Diary is full of admiration for the volunteers who showed outstanding professionalism by continuing to discharge their duties in the face of unnecessary abuse. But Diary cant help feeling a pang of hope in an age of technology that children are still making the effort to go out and experience the real world: the sweet smell of sea air, the comforting roar of the ocean, underage drinking and threatening well-meaning strangers with violence. Vagina museum And finally, the Charity Commission has been accused of dragging its heels by the Vagina Museum, which is the process of trying to register as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Director of the in-development museum Florence Schechter complained to the regulator on Twitter that it had been over 16 weeks since it had applied without no reply. The Commission then invited Schechter to slide into its DMs. Diary looks forward to welcoming the museum, set to be the first of its kind when it opens, to the charity sector. The organisation already has a better-than-average website and a strong selection of merch. Part of the inspiration for the vagina museum came when Schechter discovered there already is a penis museum in Reykjavik. In fact, the Icelandic Phallological Museum has been open since 1997, although it only obtained its first human penis in 2011 one of four promised would-be donors. In an interview with the AFP news agency, curator Sigurdur Hjartarson said the peniss detachment from the donor's body did not go according to plan and was reduced to a greyish-brown shrivelled mass that pickled in a jar of formalin. The donor was 95-year old pioneer in Icelandic tourism and famous womaniser Pall Arason, a friend of Hjartarson. But he said the museum continues to search for "a younger and a bigger and better one." Harsh words from Hjartarson there about his dead mates member. A colleague of Diarys has actually visited the penis museum, which she said was bizarre and mainly full of embalmed whale penises, a photo of which she kindly offered to share. Have a great weekend! Social media is a powerful weapon in the right hands. During the Windrush scandal earlier this year, David Lammy MP used his Twitter and Facebook presences to campaign against the deportation of Commonwealth migrants, ultimately leading to the resignation of the home secretary and the government issuing a formal apology. In this day and age is social change even possible without social media? Thats the message for our sector as we open nominations for the sixth Social CEOs awards. We are proud that last years winners included Deborah Alsina of Bowel Cancer UK, Matt Hyde of The Scout Association and Peter Wanless of NSPCC, with the awards reaching 2.5 million people on Twitter alone. Once again our judging panel will choose an overall winner from the top 30 CEOs. Their aim is to recognise charity leaders who are excelling online, and they will be making individual awards for the best trustee, senior leader, and rising star on social media. Following the successful introduction of two new awards last year for Best Digital CEO and Best Digital Leader (who could be a trustee, director, or head of), we will be introducing two new awards for Best Digital Trustee and Best Digital Champion. The digital category awards are for those whose leadership has helped their charity take strides forward in digital. For the Best Digital Champion award the judges are also looking for nominees who have championed the role of digital across the sector they work in. The panel are keen to see stats and examples to support this, as these are more holistic than the social categories. Nominations are open to leaders from registered charities of any size or cause, and we would like to have a diverse range of applications. We asked 2017s winners how social media has helped them. Heres what they told us. Think engagement first Matt Hyde, chief executive of The Scout Association, told me that building relationships with volunteers, members, donors and supporters is a key part of any chief executive's role, and using social media for this can be an efficient way to achieve multiple goals. Social media allows you to both broadcast organisational messages and transforms dialogue with stakeholders. It can be used to thank and champion people as well as dispel myths, he told me. Telling stories and making it personal demonstrates your human side as a leader and can be more persuasive than a corporate message. Here's an uplifting story to start the day - well done Toky #skillsforlife 'Boy, 10, comes to the rescue after his dad collapses and has a seizure' https://t.co/2OvGAYqBsc Matt Hyde (@matthyde) August 30, 2018 Build networks and collaborate Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, believes that CEOs must be visible online given that charity leaders are under scrutiny, stating that there's a responsibility to be transparent and authentic, particularly at a time when a lot of people are asking what on earth charity CEOs do for their money. The answer to this should not be a mystery. Being visible has unlocked the benefits of social media for Neate: I have made countless contacts, many of which have led to exciting projects and innovation, and have discovered funding opportunities (which have translated into actual money!). It's also helped me to develop my support network and find people in similar roles who think as I do. This is vital because the CEO role can be quite isolated sometimes Varied & fascinating days like this are a huge privilege of a job like mine @Shelter - discussing housing crisis with @Barratt_Homes then our new internal activist training from @Bryn__Phillips and last stop a meeting on the #lobbyingact with other concerned #civilsociety CEOs Polly Neate (@pollyn1) September 3, 2018 Kirsty Marrins, 2017 winner of Best Trustee on social media has also found these channels useful in her role on the board of the Small Charities Coalition. Marrins told me that, I love how social media is borderless, meaning I can chat to peers around the world. Having those different perspectives is not only refreshing but also really helpful. Keep your ear to the ground All the charity leaders I spoke to enthused about how social media helped them stay on top of the latest news in their field and develop their thinking. Michelle Hill, chief executive of Talk Listen Change, and Andy Broomhead, head of volunteering at Diabetes UK feel that this has saved them time and increased their confidence. 1)Social media has helped by: keeping me updated with new policy developments & fundraising opportunities (both of which are hard to do as a small charity CEO), widened by network of contacts (Ive met people I only knew in the twittersphere in real life & realised wed already Michelle Hill (@TLCCEO_Michelle) August 15, 2018 I've learned I'm not the only one in the boat sometimes and that being more open about some of the challenges means I can sometimes help those in the sector with that they're trying to achieve too Andy (@BroomOwl) August 15, 2018 Digital is upping the ante As our wider digital awards show, digital is changing the way charity leaders work. Neate believes digital requires the capacity and capability for swift decision-making and action, and that means your underlying systems, rules and frameworks must be very clear and understood at all levels in the organisation. For example, delegated authorities must allow for flexibility and rapidity. That means boards and senior execs need confidence that wise decisions can and will be made without their sign-off in some cases, and will require them to be available and quick-thinking in others. Social networks have been involved in controversy over harmful and misleading and content this year, but surely this means that charity leaders need to be more prominent, not less. Being ambitious online and using these channels to achieve their charitys goals could help the sector grow its role as a bold, brave voice in uncertain times. Nominations can be made here - www.socialceos.org/nominate Nominees will be judged by a panel of voluntary sector leaders and the results will be announced on Wednesday 7 November. All entries must be received by midnight on Friday 28 September. Civil Society is the media partner for the awards. The Charity Technology Conference takes place on 7 November 2018. For more information and to book click here. As Brett Kavanaugh prepared to sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his confirmation looked inevitable. After three days of testimony, that consensus still holds. Coverage of Kavanaughs hearings, focused largely on the theatrics of Democratic objections, have told less about the future of the Supreme Court than the presidential election to come in 2020. There is no time like a stately, nationally televised Supreme Court nomination hearing to grab the attention of the news media and amass valuable footage for future campaign commercials, Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote in The New York Times. Democratic Senators Kamala Harris (CA), Cory Booker (NJ), and Amy Klobuchar (MN), all judiciary committee members and potential presidential candidates, have seized upon the opportunity to question Kavanaugh before a national audience. The hearings have been something like a campaign audition, not to mention the criticism that goes along with it, Stolberg added. RELATED: Reporters should out Kavanaugh Question, here, is a loose term, given the speechmaking that has often superseded queries to Kavanaugh. Harris and Booker have been especially confrontational, making the most of their airtime. On Wednesday evening, Harris asked Kavanaugh whether he had discussed the Robert Mueller investigation with anyone working for a law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, President Trumps personal lawyer. A C-Span clip of the exchange has been viewed more than 6 million times on Twitter. On Thursday, before questions started, Booker dramatically announced that he would be releasing secret emails from Kavanaughs time in the George W. Bush Administration, even if it resulted in his expulsion from the Senate. This is about the closest Ill ever come in my life to an I am Spartacus moment, Booker said. Reports later in the day revealed that the emails to which Booker referred had been cleared for public release the night before; Booker was coy about whether he knew that to be the case. The forceful resistance to Kavanaugh makes for good television, but it doesnt appear to be changing minds in the Senate. Republicans hold a 51-49 majority. Maine Senator Susan Collins, viewed by many as the Democrats best hope, still seems solidly in favor of confirmation. But as in presidential contests, the press (and its audience) is drawn to drama, and if the vote wont provide it, Democratic senators seem happy to fill the stage. Below, more on the Kavanaugh coverage. Eyes on 2020: The 2020 presidential campaign came roaring into Judge Brett M. Kavanaughs confirmation hearings this week, writes The Washington Posts Sean Sullivan in his recap of Thursdays session. The jockeying by [Harris and Booker] came amid a clamor by a liberal base demanding resistance to Trumps agenda and nominees at all costs and under a glaring national spotlight exposing every stumble. The 2020 presidential campaign came roaring into Judge Brett M. Kavanaughs confirmation hearings this week, writes The Washington Posts Sean Sullivan in his recap of Thursdays session. The jockeying by [Harris and Booker] came amid a clamor by a liberal base demanding resistance to Trumps agenda and nominees at all costs and under a glaring national spotlight exposing every stumble. Drowned out: Lis Power, of Media Matters, reports that White House chaos is overshadowing broadcast news coverage of Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings. Since the end of the first day of hearings, network broadcasts have spent far more time on Bob Woodwards book Fear: Trump in the White House and the anonymous NYT opinion piece than on Kavanaugh coverage. Lis Power, of Media Matters, reports that White House chaos is overshadowing broadcast news coverage of Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings. Since the end of the first day of hearings, network broadcasts have spent far more time on Bob Woodwards book Fear: Trump in the White House and the anonymous NYT opinion piece than on Kavanaugh coverage. Going nuclear: It was kitchen-sink day at the Senate Judiciary Committee, and from the beginning Democrats seemed intent on demonstrating that they were going big, write The Daily Beasts Jackie Kucinich and Andrew Desiderio of Thursdays hearing. If that meant some theater was necessary, so be it. It was kitchen-sink day at the Senate Judiciary Committee, and from the beginning Democrats seemed intent on demonstrating that they were going big, write The Daily Beasts Jackie Kucinich and Andrew Desiderio of Thursdays hearing. If that meant some theater was necessary, so be it. Real questions: The documents covering Kavanaughs time in the Bush White House raise legitimate questions about Kavanaughs views on abortion rights, affirmative action, and executive power, write the Timess Charlie Savage and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. But the disclosure of some of those documents, they write, did not appear to set off a revolt among the Republicans who control the Senate, meaning that Judge Kavanaugh still appears very likely to be confirmed. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Other notable stories: ICYMI: Why did The New York Times grant anonymity to the op-ed writer? Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon. Democratic state Sen. Gary Farmer easily won his primary battle against former state Rep. Jim Waldman, taking 70 percent of the vote. More than $200,000 was spent on attack ads calling Farmer sexist and obnoxious, but a poll showed that attack backfired, making Farmer more popular, Florida Politics reported. Outside groups also spent money blasting Farmer for voting against a school safety bill that included gun control measures, but Farmer said he did so because the National Rifle Association supported parts of it, the Sun Sentinel reported earlier this month. Farmer won the endorsement of LGBT rights organization Equality Florida. Farmer was first elected to the Florida Senate in 2016, where he also beat Waldman. Georgia Woman Charged With Arson, Insurance Fraud A Georgia woman has been charged with firstdegree arson for allegedly setting fire to her home and one count of insurance fraud for submitting a fraudulent insurance claim, according to an announcement by Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner Ralph Hudgens. Rebecca Lynn Abernathy was arrested on August 29 and booked into the Habersham County Jail. The charges are the result of an investigation by an Arson Investigator in Hudgens State Fire Marshal Division, with assistance from the Habersham Fire Department and Sheriffs Office. Investigators allege that on January 21, around 12:30 a.m., Abernathy intentionally set fire to the home located at 4195 Cannon Bridge Road, Demorest, Ga., Abernathy would later file an insurance claim with State Farm with the potential to receive up to $240,000 in insurance proceeds from the loss. If convicted, Abernathy could face up to one to 20 years in prison and could be ordered to pay restitution and up to $50,000 in fines. Washington Women Ordered to Pay Restitution to Insurers They Defrauded Two women were sentenced in King County Superior Court to serve community service and pay restitution to insurance companies after investigations by Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidlers Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU). Taylor Morgado, of Seattle, pleaded guilty to first-degree theft, a felony. She is ordered to serve 232 hours of community service, pay $15,738 in restitution to Safeco Insurance and $600 in court fees. Morgado filed two fraudulent insurance claims with Safeco in 2015. In April, Safeco paid her $6,424 for jewelry, electronics and cash she claimed were stolen during a burglary. In May, Safeco paid $20,790 for her car, a 2013 Nissan Juke, she said had been stolen. Police later recovered the car being driven by a suspected drunken driver, whom Morgado told police she had given the car to before she reported it stolen. Timisha Short, of Federal Way, was found guilty on Aug. 24 to one count of filing a false insurance claim and one count of second-degree attempted theft. She will serve 240 hours of community service and 12 months of probation, pay restitution to be determined at a later date and $500 in court fees, and is ordered to not drive without insurance. Short purchased auto insurance from Progressive after she was in a collision, then filed a $12,088 claim for her totaled 2012 Hyundai Sonata with a falsified collision date and circumstances. $50,000 Florida Workers Comp Fraud Scheme Put Employees at Risk Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced the arrest of Vanessa Arreguin, owner of V&G Concrete, Inc. for workers compensation fraud. Over the course of two years she conducted more than $7.5 million in business, but claimed she made less than $50,000. By doing so, she deliberately evaded paying $51,000 in workers compensation premiums. Arreguin was charged with three felony counts of concealing payroll to avoid workers compensation premiums and two felony counts of application fraud. Arreguin surrendered to insurance fraud detectives at the Palm Beach County Jail and was released on bond. If convicted on all charges, Arreguin faces up to 20 years in prison. EUCLID, Ohio - More than 100 labor union demonstrators disrupted the ceremonial groundbreaking for the newest stage of the city's waterfront improvement project Thursday. Shouting "Union first," and "we voted you in, we'll vote you out," members of Laborers Local 860 caused Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail to depart from prepared remarks at the event, held on the fishing pier at Sims Park. "We're not going to be able to do a program if you all won't let me speak," she said, raising her voice to be heard over jeers. "I appreciate the presence of the union and we'll be happy to meet with you and talk about our projects." Euclid's new $8.9 million project, for which it has raised $7.2 million, is the second phase of an estimated $30 million waterfront plan. The trail, which has attracted national attention, is considered innovative because the city is rebuilding 3/4 of a mile of shoreline to control erosion in exchange for easements allowing public access across private lakefront residential lots. The city ultimately plans to build a marina at the eastern end of the trail, north of Lakeshore Boulevard at East 248th Street. Prior to the demonstration, Anthony Liberatore Jr., business manager and secretary-treasurer of the local, said the union objected to Euclid's selection of Mark Haynes Construction of Norwalk, in Huron County, as the general contractor for the project. "You're bringing in out-of-towners here in a community that is fully capable of performing this work," he said. Norman Edwards, executive director of the Black Contractors Group, which had about 20-plus members at the ceremony, said his organization also objects to the selection of Haynes. He said the firm "has a history of not hiring African-Americans." Why would you hire them in a city with 65 percent African Americans? Euclid's population of 47,201 was 59.5 percent black and 37.3 percent white in 2017, according to the U.S. census. In remarks during a private reception at Henn Mansion at Sims Park before the ceremony, and during the event, Gail said that Haynes was the lowest bidder on the lakefront project by $1 million, and that the firm adheres to state equal employment opportunity regulations. She also said that Haynes would pay prevailing wages on the lakefront project and that all subcontractors would be union members. The shouting laborers made it difficult at times to hear Gail and other speakers at the event, which drew an audience of roughly 50, whose members sat on folding chairs under the fishing pier canopy. Wearing bright yellow T-shirts, the union members packed the landward side of the pier, bottling it up like a cork. On a hill just to the south of the pier, they had placed a large inflatable gray rat, roughly 15 feet tall, with bright red eyes and a sign saying "Haynes Construction" on its chest. Overhead, a single engine plane circled the site, trailing a banner that said "Union Yes!!" After posing for a photo with city officials holding shovels on the pier, Gail said she had first heard complaints about the project from Local 860 on Tuesday, and from the black contractors group on Wednesday. "I would have much preferred that we were able to have a conversation about this prior to a protest," she said. Roy Larick, an archaeologist and activist whose Bluestone Heights organization conducts ecological tours in Euclid and surrounding communities, said the protest didn't mar the day. His objection, he said, was that the city had taken too long to start the lakefront trail project after decades of discussion. "There have been so many obstacles," he said. "This," he said, referring to the union demonstration, "it's not an obstacle, let's say. It's a protest, it's a small protest." BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Failure to comply with lawful order, Hummel Road: A Fairview Park man, 60, was arrested at about 10:30 a.m. Aug. 25 after he refused to stop his vehicle for police. The vehicle pursuit started in Fairview Park, where police in that community checked the man's license-plate number and determined that he was wanted. Fairview Park police chased the car onto Interstate 71. The man exited in Brook Park, where Brook Park police joined the pursuit. The man finally stopped in the parking lot of UAW Local 1250, 17250 Hummel. Sudden illness, Holland Road: A Brook Park man, 36, was taken to Southwest General Health Center in Middleburg Heights at about 2 a.m. Aug. 22 after police saw him walking in the middle of Holland. The man flagged down police and said he was walking to a party at the recreation center. Police said he was "extremely intoxicated." When police told the man it was 2 a.m. and that the rec center was closed, he requested a ride to the hospital. Narcotic equipment possession, Snow Road: A Brook Park man, 33, was arrested at about 9:10 a.m. Aug. 23 after police found him with hypodermic syringes, tie-off strings, a sock and a folding knife. Police stopped the man's car on Snow near Giant Eagle because he was speeding in a school zone. Counterfeiting, Glenway Drive: A Glenway resident called police at about 7:10 p.m. Aug. 24 after finding two $5 bills in his outdoor trash can. The resident believed the money was fake, and police determined that he was correct. BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Now THAT was a storm! Sept. 5 started out so calmly, but blistering hot. It wasn't expected to be rainy until Thursday. Just as the family was sitting down to eat dinner, it began to thunder. Then came an increase in the wind and torrential rain and lightning. Limbs began to fall, and by the time it had abated, we had three large limbs in the front yard and you could see fallen leaves, twigs and branches all over the neighborhood. My brother-in-law, who had arrived from Florida last week, was really worried about his dogs, because these huge animals are scared of thunder. They had squeezed themselves between his bed and the wall, but it turned out fine. It will be a lot easier when he's in his new home. Right now, he's in a recreational vehicle. You can't say we're not making his move interesting. The school bus drivers encountered another storm on Thursday morning. The bus that picks up my great-grandson had to detour a couple of times just in our neighborhood because of low-hanging wires and tree parts across the roads. Proud mom: Spotted a message from Sheryl Boyer about her son, Nathan, who left this week for Dallas to take a position as an assistant band director and percussion director. As she said, "What a bittersweet moment." What a great opportunity for Nathan -- all of his Blue Devils band family certainly wish him well. Where have you been? Got a call from Grace Ruf, who wants everyone to know about the fantastic music played from 6 to 8:30 p.m. each Wednesday in the party room at Winking Lizard in Brunswick. It really is a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours if you love live music. A whole group of musicians of all ages sits in a kind of semi-circle and, one at a time, go to the microphone and say -- this is in the key of (whatever it might be) and begin to play. Soon all of them are playing along, and it's a wonderful jam session. And, it's free. Winking Lizard hosts the group, and you don't have to buy a thing if you don't want to (but of course, the food is also great). So, give it a try. Grace and I don't think you'll be disappointed. Medina student at Trine U: Katie Patterson of Medina was among the 28 members of the Trine University Master of Physician Assistant Studies Class of 2020 welcomed by Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D., Trine president; John Shannon, Ph.D., vice president for academic affairs; and Max Baumgartner, Ph.D., dean of the Rinker-Ross School of Health Sciences. Trine University in Indiana welcomed this first Master of Physician Assistant Studies class, and each member then received a stethoscope from the MPAS faculty. Alan's dad passed away: I was sorry to see that Alan Penn's 94-year-old father, Albert L. Penn, passed away Sept. 4. An educator in Ohio at the high school level, he retired with over 40 years of service. His final education role was as a career and technical education educator at Kent State University. Albert was a World War II veteran who received a Purple Heart for his injuries in action on Okinawa. He and his wife, Thelma, were missionaries in Costa Rica and Honduras. They moved to Lakeland, Fla., in 1985 from Wooster. They have three sons, nine grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. Crafts in Hinckley: The Fall Craft Fair is set for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, 1605 Center Road in Hinckley Township. Lunch and homemade pies will be served, and there will be a bake sale and more than 35 raffle baskets. The fair will feature handmade crafts, jewelry, pottery, cards, wood items, soap, watercolor prints, fused and stained glass, and other crafts. Race to get your tickets: The 50/50 raffle for the Medina County Amazing Race is under way. The MC Chamber Charities 50/50 raffle is being held in conjunction with the After Party for the very exciting Medina County Amazing Race event on Sept. 22. Tickets are being sold at business locations such as Kelly's Cafe at 1661 Pearl Road in Brunswick during open business hours, and will also be available for sale during the Brunswick Farmers Market at Heritage Farm, 4613 Laurel Road, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. The Amazing Race After Party begins at 2 p.m. at the Winking Lizard, 3634 Center Road in Brunswick. The winning ticket will be drawn promptly at 4 p.m. Winner does not need to be present to win. The winning cash prize will equal 50 percent of the tickets sold. Tickets also available for sale the day of the drawing, up until 3:30 p.m. Funds raised through the Amazing Race event and the 50/50 Raffle will be distributed by MC Chamber Charities to further the education of Northern Medina County traditional and non-traditional students through internship and scholarship opportunities. If you'd like more information about the Medina County Amazing Race event, visit nmccalliance.com/ or call the Chamber office at 330-225-8411, info@nmccalliance.com or reach out to Suzie Muniak directly at muniak@mcdl.info. Eat to benefit team: The Medina High School rugby teams will be hosting a fundraiser at Chipotle at 899 N. Court St. in Medina between 5 and 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13. Tell the cashier that you are supporting Medina Rugby to make sure that 33 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the Medina High School boys and girls rugby teams. The money raised will go toward bus transportation to away matches and for team equipment. Nominate "Agent of Change": The Medina County Branch of the American Association of University Women is seeking nominees for its ninth biennial Agent of Change Award, to be given to a person who has been an "agent for positive change" in the county on behalf of women and/or children. Individuals or organizations may nominate a person who is -- or has been -- a Medina County resident and who has consistently and effectively used resources, talents and influence to help women and/or children achieve their potential; or been a community volunteer or a professional whose achievements went beyond the requirement of the position; or accomplished positive change for women and/or children who are residents of Medina County Candidates could include a long-time volunteer who has initiated programming to impact women and/or children; a member of a service organization or business who has influenced positive changes; or an individual who has served on the local, state-wide or national level to accomplish positive change. AAUW members are not eligible for the nomination. Medina County Commissioner Patricia Geissman and Rhonda Wurgler, executive director of the Children's Center of Medina County, are the most recent Agent of Change honorees. The Medina County Branch of AAUW has recognized outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to our community since 2002. To nominate a candidate for the award, go to medinacounty-oh.aauw.net/ to download the form or contact Nancy Wellener at 216-408-6896, nwellener@gmail.com. Deadline for nominations is Oct. 1. Nominations should be sent to: 2018 Agent of Change Award, c/o Mary Gresca, 4330 Pine Lake Drive, Medina, OH 44256. The Agent of Change selected will receive a specially chosen award and be honored at a luncheon on Nov. 8 at Rustic Hills Country Club. Spaghetti dinner time: A spaghetti dinner is next up at Remsen Christian Church, 1500 Remsen Road, Medina, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 22. Your freewill offering will be accepted for the always-wonderful food served at the church, which is a quarter-mile south of Interstate 271 and a quarter-mile east of Ohio 94 (Ridge Road). You can learn more about the church, which is celebrating 125 years of service, at remsenchristianchurch.com/. Enjoy Music in Familiar Spaces: The Medina County Board of Developmental Disabilities invites families to enjoy "Music in Familiar Spaces" at 6 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Medina County Achievement Center, 4691 Windfall Road, Medina. This is a free community concert that mixes classical music with familiar tunes for a fun-filled, family-friendly event. "Music in Familiar Spaces" concerts are presented by well-established professional musicians who come together to reach out to new audiences through easily accessible community concerts. This allows the audience to experience music through innovative and engaging programs that are specifically designed to appeal to audiences that include children, teens and adults. Musicians Rebecca Redd, from the Oberlin Community Music School; Abigail Foster, from Celebration Strings; and Patrick Miller, of the Akron Symphony, will perform a wide range of musical selections. The program will include everything from variations of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to classical pieces by Schubert and even a selection of fiddle music. This event is designed with specific attention to providing a supportive experience for people who have developmental disabilities. "This is a great opportunity for our community to come together to relax and enjoy some wonderful music from some very talented musicians. It is also a great opportunity for our agency to help individuals with disabilities and their families to experience a concert in an environment that promotes their success, not only at this event, but at any future community events they may want to attend," said Jon Bluebond, MCBDD superintendent. "We are happy to be able to work with our community partner, Harvest Presbyterian Church, to provide this program for our entire community," Bluebond said. Families are invited to bring a blanket and a picnic dinner to enjoy this outdoor concert. In case of any weather-related concerns, the concert will be moved inside the Achievement Center. For more information or updates, visit mcbdd.org/ or call 330-725-7751. Don't forget the show: The Medina Needlework Guild is holding its 36th annual Needle Art Show Sept. 15 and 16 at the Brunswick Library, 3649 Center Road. Categories include cross stitch, needlepoint, quilts, crochet, knitting, jewelry and beadwork. Call Linda (330-220-6971) or Fran (330-483-4134) for more details. He earned it: At a recent Rotary Club of Brunswick meeting, Bill Wilkinson was surprised when he was presented the Unsung Hero Award by District Gov. Beverly Skrzywski. The unsung hero is someone who gives without reservation -- unselfishly and seeking no credit or recognition, only wishing to make this a better world through their service. Perfect description of Bill. Congratulations! Also, congrats to Marsha Pappalardo, because her club voted to award her another Paul Harris Fellow honor. They even had a cake in her honor, which is cute because Marsha is always baking for others. Save the date: St. Patrick Episcopal Church will hold its 20th annual Blessing of the Animals from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 7 at the church, 146 Marks Road. Individual pet blessings will be given (and even stuffed animals and pictures of your animals will do). Donations are accepted to help local animal shelters. There will be food vendors, and it's a rain or shine event. Speaking of animals: The 5K Paws for the Cause will be held Oct. 20 at the square in Medina. You can walk, skip, run, hop -- or whatever -- and support the work being done for injured and abused animals by the Medina County SPCA. Learn more on Facebook at facebook.com/MedinaSPCA/. Contact Boyer at samboyersunnews@yahoo.com. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The first-ever wind farm in Lake Erie cannot be financed, say developers, if the state insists on keeping the farm's six wind turbines shut down overnight for most of the year while experts determine if bird and bat monitoring equipment is effective. The proviso is one of many unusually stringent preconditions the staff of the Ohio Power Siting Board included in its recommendation in July that the OPSB approve the project. "This condition...is a serious problem and in my opinion makes financing the project virtually impossible," said David Karpinski, vice president of operations for the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp, or LEEDCo, in testimony submitted Thursday to the OPSB. Karpinski noted an even more draconian condition would kill the project before it even begins -- that the siting board, working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, retain broad authority to "prescribe" how the wind farm operates if its operation has a significant impact on any "wild animal." "This condition grants seemingly unlimited authority to [OPSB] staff and ODNR to order [the wind farm] to comply with any measure they specify, without limits, at their sole discretion, with no requirement to justify the measures or explain the rationale, and with no due process," he said, adding that some might consider a mosquito a "wild animal." His testimony was among hundreds of pages of written comment submitted by LEEDCo and experts it has retained, in preparation for what could be an adversarial hearing at the siting board later this month. The testimony came a day after LEEDCo filed a with the OPSB aimed at convincing its voting members to approve the project, which could begin in 2021 and cost well over its initially estimated $126 million. LEEDCo negotiated the agreement with the Sierra Club, the Ohio Environmental Council, the Business Network for Offshore Wind and the Regional Council of Carpenters for Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The four organizations formally intervened last May. None of the four has opposed the project. The agreement does not include the staff of the OPSB, though LEEDCo noted that the OPSB staff took part in July and August discussions about the staff's proposal following its generally supportive report issued July 3. That report recommended the OPSB approve the project, providing it could meet nearly 50 conditions, many of them the typical bureaucratic requirements included in every wind farm project the siting board approves. LEEDCo has agreed to those conditions. While not an absolute demand, the recommended shutdown of the turbines at night for 10 months out of the year, at least initially but longer if necessary, is one of several conditions that have stalled the project, which would be financed largely by private investors. IceBreaker Windpower, Inc. a for-profit company incorporated by Fred. Olsen Renewables, of Norway, would build and own the pilot project. LEEDCo is a non-profit organization. The proposed nocturnal feathering, or shutdown, of the turbine blades would run from March 1 through the following Jan. 1, until the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the OPSB staff could determine if bird and bat "collision monitoring" equipment IceBreaker has agreed to install on the turbines is effective. Proving the collision detection equipment effective is only part of the staff provision. Coming up with techniques to reduce bird and bat kills if they are occurring and proving their effectiveness is the larger staff condition for approving the project. Another provision that has rankled LEEDCo is a request for additional radar studies both before and after construction of the wind farm. LEEDCo has agreed to radar studies before construction at the site. The radar would be installed on a large, flat-decked barge that would be towed and anchored on-site. The OPSB staff wants "viable" radar data collected during at least 80 percent of the time the equipment is operating, even during heavy rain and when waves exceed 6 feet. LEEDCo's advisors say reaching the 80 percent mark is not a problem except during heavy rain or high seas when the barges would have to be towed to shore. The OPSB staff also wants two years of spring and fall studies after the wind farm begins operating. "Radar must collect data for at least two spring and fall migratory seasons post-construction to determine behavioral changes that make collision more or less likely," the staff wrote. LEEDCo wants the OPSB to give the ODNR the "sole discretion" to end the studies after the first year if the first-year study "demonstrates to the ODNR's satisfaction" that a second year of studies "is unlikely to result in the collection of additional data to inform the question of avoidance-attract effects." CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Federal prosecutors say a group of people worked together to launder more than $2 million in drug money from shipping a ton of marijuana from California to warehouses in Lake and Cuyahoga counties. Those charged include: Aaron Eisenberg, 39, of California and formerly of Lake County. Jack Morgan, 53, of California. Jacob Lesiak, 40, of Chardon. Margaret Garcia, 40, of Chardon. Gary Baldwin, 43, of Huntsburg. Trevor Marlyne, 32, of Cleveland Heights. Robert Ross, 47, of Florida. Brian Teachout, 38, of Mentor. Richard Warren, 43, of Willoughby. Prosecutors say Eisenberg, Morgan and others used Specialized Transportation Inc., a freight company, to send pallets with packages of marijuana from California to warehouses on Anderson Drive in Wickliffe, Airport Parkway in Willoughby and Tungsten Road in Euclid. The operation began in 2014 and involved Lesiak, Garcia, Baldwin, Warren and others receiving the packages of marijuana in Ohio, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Lesiak, Teachout, Warren, Marlyne and Ross then sold the marijuana throughout Northeast Ohio, prosecutors say. Many of the conspirators pooled their proceeds and sent them back to Eisenberg and Morgan in California on pallets through the same freight company. The pallets were intentionally mislabeled, saying they contained computer parts or had the names of companies that did not exist, officials say. All nine are charged with money laundering conspiracy, with several defendants face charges for possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Teachout, who has a previous conviction for marijuana trafficking, also faces a charge of being a felon in possession of firearm. Two others, Corrie Lesiak, 40, of Chardon, and Cynthia Hounshell, 61, of Concord, also face money laundering charges. The indictment was filed Aug. 29 but was unsealed Wednesday following the arrest of several defendants. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man punched by a now-fired Euclid police officer in an August 2017 traffic stop that was caught on video has filed suit against Euclid and the officer, saying his constitutional rights were violated. Richard Hubbard III and Yolimar Tirado, his girlfriend and the passenger in the car that day, said in the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court that they were "brutally assaulted and menaced" by officer Michael Amiott. (You can read the lawsuit here or at the bottom of this story.) Videos of the traffic stop, which was first released by a witness and later through dashcam footage by Euclid police, were widely shared online. The violent arrest led the city to fire Amiott. Christopher McNeal, an attorney representing Hubbard and Tirado, said the beating was "one of the most egregious examples of police brutality captured on video" since footage emerged in 1991 of Los Angeles police officers beating motorist Rodney King. The lawsuit seeks at least $3.8 million, the amount of money a jury awarded King for his lawsuit, McNeal said. He noted that cases like his usually settle, but said that's his demand amount. Hubbard, who appeared with his attorney for a brief news conference outside the Justice Center in Cleveland on Friday, said he feels depressed as a result of the incident and that he does not currently feel comfortable driving. Also named in the lawsuit are the city of Euclid and officers Matt Gilmer and Kirk Pavkov, both of whom were on scene that day. Euclid Law Director Kelley Sweeney said the city does not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit says Hubbard, 26, was ordered out of the car after being pulled over on East 228th Street and that Amiott told him to "face away." Before Hubbard finished turning, Amiott pushed Hubbard against the car, causing Hubbard to lose his balance, the lawsuit states. Amott grabbed Hubbard's neck and tried to trip Hubbard. He then kneed and kicked Hubbard repeatedly, according to the suit. During the struggle, Gilmer used his Taser on Hubbard, and then both Hubbard and Amiott went to the ground. Amiott repeatedly punched Hubbard in the face while Gilmer held Hubbard down, according to the suit. Amiott also hit Hubbard's head on the pavement and choked Amiott with his arms. "After completing the arrest, members of the Euclid Police Department were observed by eye-witnesses fist-bumping one another, and laughing about the assault afterwards," the lawsuit says. "One Euclid Police Officer, Daniel Ferritto, was recorded on the dispatch radio stating: 'I didn't know we would be having this much fun.'" Hubbard was initially charged with resisting arrest, driving without a license and a traffic signal violation, but prosecutors later dropped them. Tirado also faced charges that prosecutors later dismissed. Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail fired Amiott in October. His record in law enforcement is littered with disciplinary incidents for losing his temper, losing evidence and hitting a suspect with his gun, according to records in his personnel file. The Mentor Police Department allowed Amiott to resign in 2014 after he conducted a traffic stop without probable cause and lied about it, records show. Ryan Miday, a spokesman for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, said Friday that a criminal investigation into the incident is ongoing. The Hubbard case drew greater attention to several problems within Euclid's police department. There was at least one other high-profile incident involving police use of force in recent memory, in which an officer shot and killed Luke Stewart in March 2017. The city recently settled another use-of-force lawsuit against Amiott, though the terms were not immediately available. U.S. District Judge James Gwin also criticized the city of Euclid in July for what he considered insensitive images in a PowerPoint presentation used to train police officers on force. He also said there appeared to be a lackadaisical attitude toward the issue, which has led to protests and calls for reform nationwide. Gwin made his comments in a ruling for a lawsuit filed against the city by Stewart's family. The judge ruled in favor of the defendants, saying that officer Matthew Rhodes' actions were reasonable given the circumstances immediately before the officer fired his weapon. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section. AKRON, Ohio - Barren wine crates are scattered throughout West Point Market. Shoppers, as if they have lost a loved one, express remorse to workers. Bankruptcy proceedings are under way. And as the Akron institution prepares to close its doors, Bill Krauss can only be thankful. "I just want to thank all my customers because they've been loyal," said Krauss, who has worked on and off at the market for 10 years. "They've trusted us to give them good wine and the time to talk about good wine." As owner Rick Vernon was in proceedings Thursday to shift from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, Krauss and other staffers were dealing with the remnants of the wine shop in the market on Shiawassee Avenue. The store's final day, Krauss said, "depends on when we run out of things. For wine, it could be this weekend." "We did everything we could do," he said. "It was too little, too late." The beginning of the end for the Akron store, co-founded in 1936 by Vernon's grandfather, actually came in 2015. Whole Foods bought the store in the city's Wallhaven neighborhood, on Ohio 18 near N. Hawkins Avenue and W. Exchange Street. West Point, which had been at the location since 1940, was demolished. Whole Foods and a line of other businesses and restaurants came in. And West Point prepared to move. The idea was to create a smaller footprint, to focus on wine, cheese and other products that the store became known for. Skip the produce customers could buy elsewhere. They leased a building at 33 Shiawassee Avenue, just off Ohio 18. In theory it was a good idea. But there was one problem in reality. Time. It took a year for West Point to reopen. And in that year customers created other habits. The market sits only two miles from its previous location, but in that span Whole Foods, Acme and Giant Eagle are among the options for shoppers. It was shoppers' habits that Rick's father, Russ, homed in on when he ran the store. He had an eye for details; he chose a specific shade of exterior brick to resemble the inviting color of chocolate. He envisioned specialty foods long before they were fashionable. He knew the names of customers. Not long after Great Lakes Brewing Co. opened in Cleveland, the brewery's founders learned that West Point did not have a cooler for their non-pasteurized beer. So Pat and Dan Conway bought one for the market. "West Point Market has always held a special place in our hearts because they were our first account but also because Russ Vernon celebrated quality merchandise throughout the store and was obsessed with exceptional customer service," Pat Conway said Thursday after learning about the state of the store. "It was those attributes that attracted us to them to begin with." In addition to customer service, some things remained from the old place. Light classical music still played as shoppers munched on a multitude of cheese samples. Killer Brownies remained a top seller. But in the year and a half since the smaller store has been opened, hours were cut. Wine inventory dipped from about 3,300 labels (about 10,000 bottles) in the waning years of the Wallhaven location to about 1,400 on Shiawassee. And the bankruptcy proceeding is a pivotal harbinger. While a company can operate under Chapter 11, Chapter 7 means assets can be sold off to pay lenders. Krauss pushed for the new space to have a wine and beer bar. While "Beside the Point" did not stay open late, it offered a well-culled wine selection and rotation of craft beers. It also would list the dates tap lines were cleaned. "It was a place to chill and taste wine," he said. When word got out this week that the closing looked imminent, Krauss said the market sold $4,000 worth of wine in an hour. He and his workers regularly helped customers with choosing wines for all price and palate points. Wine will remain in Krauss' future. The gregarious oenophile said Thursday he wants to open a wine store in the region. More coverage We spent time with Russ Vernon in the waning days of West Point's Wallhaven location in December 2015. GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio - A Garfield Heights man accused of killing his girlfriend's two teenage children during a domestic incident made his first court appearance on Friday morning. Matthew Nicholson, 29, is charged with two counts of murder and three counts of domestic violence in the fatal shootings that led to a SWAT standoff late Wednesday at a home on East 86th Street near Garfield Boulevard. Nicholson argued with his girlfriend before he shot her children Giselle Lopez, 19, and Manuel Lopez Jr., 17, police said. The fight began after Nicholson became angry over text messages his girlfriend received from an ex-boyfriend, police said. Nicholson waived his right to a preliminary hearing during his initial appearance Friday in Garfield Heights Municipal Court. The case was bound over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury. Judge Deborah J. Nicastro set his bond at $500,000. Nicastro also imposed a temporary protection order that prohibits Nicholson from contacting the girlfriend. Several of Nicholson's relatives were in the courtroom Friday, but they declined to comment after the hearing. Nicholson's attorney, Michael Goldberg, also declined to comment. Neighbors told cleveland.com that Nicholson regularly fought with his girlfriend, but Garfield Heights police said he did not have a prior record of domestic violence. Nicholson became angry on Wednesday evening about the texts his girlfriend received from her ex-boyfriend. The argument turned physical, and Manuel Lopez Jr. tried to defend his mother. Giselle Lopez arrived home from work at roughly the same time and also intervened, according to police reports. Nicholson threatened to kill everyone before the mother and her two children walked out the front door. He then grabbed a handgun and fired at them, hitting both children, police reports say. The mother then ran to a neighbor's home and asked her to call 911, saying "he shot my babies," the neighbor told cleveland.com. Garfield Heights police officers arrived just after 9:30 p.m. and found both teens shot in the driveway outside the home. Manuel Lopez Jr. was pronounced dead after being taken to Marymount Hospital. Giselle Lopez was taken to MetroHealth, where she died during surgery. A SWAT team was called to the home because Nicholson barricaded himself inside. He was wearing body armor when he surrendered about 1:40 a.m., police said. Garfield Heights police Chief Robert Byrne said Thursday that Nicholson worked as a private security officer contracted by the United States Department of Homeland Security. He was employed by Paragon Systems, a Virginia-based company contracted to provide security for federal buildings, police said. Giselle Lopez graduated from Garfield Heights High School last year with a 4.13 GPA, and was studying at Cuyahoga Community College to become a nurse. Manuel Lopez Jr. also attended Garfield Heights High School. The teens' father, Manuel Lopez, told cleveland.com on Thursday that he remained close with them after he divorced their mother in 2011. He described them as good, hard-working kids. To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments page. Featured stories Two men in custody in Oklahoma may be connected to Elyria stabbing (Elyria Chronicle-Telegram) Jackson Township man accused of beating child to death (Canton Repository) Man charged in shooting deaths of Garfield Heights teens worked with Homeland Security (cleveland.com) Father remembers two killed in Garfield Heights shooting: 'They wanted to be somebody' (cleveland.com) Everything we know about the deadly domestic dispute, SWAT standoff in Garfield Heights (cleveland.com) Crime Cleveland summer's violent end: Seven killed in city over stretch including Labor Day weekend (cleveland.com) Gunfire during large Cleveland brawl hits two people, several cars and houses (cleveland.com) Man kills armed robber in shootout after his gun is stolen in Cleveland (cleveland.com) Man attacks woman in her Akron home, police say (cleveland.com) Man granted clemency by President Obama sent back to prison for drug violations (cleveland.com) Akron police believe same suspects robbed 2 banks (cleveland.com) Former Lorain County Emergency Management Agency employee indicted on theft charges (Elyria Chronicle-Telegram) Elyria man indicted in connection to July shootings (Lorain Morning Journal) Painesville man accused of vehicular theft (News-Herald) Painesville woman accused of stealing car, cell phone (News-Herald) Cleveland / Cuyahoga County Serial in Cleveland: Here are some details of the case featured in the trailer for season 3 of the popular podcast (cleveland.com) Data sharing and strike forces: Conference on opioids posits solutions for scourge (cleveland.com) The eagles have landed: Long-gone Public Square statues find new downtown home (cleveland.com) Cuyahoga County opens new archive location (cleveland.com) Local news East Police investigating crash between pickup and semi in Geauga County (WEWS Channel 5) Local news West What the hell is going on in Middleburg Heights? Unpaid overtime, spy-novel snooping, bitterness underlie lawsuit (cleveland.com) County billing blunder leaves Brecksville on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars (WKYC Channel 3) Akron / Canton area Anti-abortion group to show graphic videos on Jumbotron at University of Akron (cleveland.com) International Institute of Akron to move offices to Summa St. Thomas Campus (cleveland.com) West Point Market closing imminent in Akron (cleveland.com) State Danny O'Connor has more than 10 times Troy Balderson's money going into November rematch (cleveland.com) Mike DeWine reports outraising Richard Cordray in August, Cordray has more individual donations (cleveland.com) Grad student sues Ohio State University, accuses head of Center for Automotive Research of sexual assault (cleveland.com) Rep. Bob Gibbs introduces bill to require citizenship proof for voter registration (cleveland.com) 4 dead, including gunman, in Cincinnati bank shooting (Associated Press) September is scheduled to be a busy month for the Expedition 56 crew aboard the International Space Station. Japan is preparing to launch its seventh resupply mission and three astronauts are gearing up for two spacewalks next month. Today, a pair of astronauts familiarized themselves with the robotics maneuvers they will use when they capture Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) on Sept. 14. The HTV-7, also called the Kounotori, will launch Sept. 10 from the Tanegashima Space Center loaded with crew supplies, new science hardware and critical spacewalk gear. Commander Drew Feustel will be supported by Flight Engineer Serena Aunon-Chancellor inside the Cupola as he controls the Canadarm2 to reach out and grapple the HTV-7. Robotics controllers on the ground will then take over and install Kounotori on the Harmony module's Earth-facing port. NASA TV will broadcast live all of Kounotori's launch, rendezvous and capture activities. A pair of spacewalks will take place soon after the Kounotori arrives when robotics controllers begin removing new batteries from the Japanese resupply ship. The six lithium-ion batteries, replacing 12 older nickel-hydrogen batteries, will be installed on the space station's Port 4 truss structure power channels during the two spacewalks on Sept 20 and 26. Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst will participate in both spacewalks. Commander Drew Feustel will join him on the first spacewalk. Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold will go out on the second spacewalk. Gerst and Feustel began inspecting and resizing their U.S. spacesuits this morning. Feustel then moved on checking spacesuit gloves and helmets before finally collecting spacewalk tools. On-Orbit Status Report ExPRESS Rack (ER) 5 Payload Isolation: On August 23rd, the ER5 Subsystem Valve was removed and replaced (R&R'd) after a Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) leak had been isolated to ER5. Earlier today, the crew disconnected the supply and return lines to the Space Automated Bioproduct Laboratory (SABL) and Plant Habitat facilities after JAXA specialists determined a leak is still present. Today's activities, which isolated both payload facilities from the ER's MTL interface, will assist experts in determining the source of the JEM MTL slow leak. Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) Operations for the German Space Agency (DLR) Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS): Last night the JEMAL Slide Table was extended to the exterior of the ISS and the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) were used to remove DESIS from the Slide Table and install it on the Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES) external facility. Today the Slide Table was brought back into the JEM and the Payload Mounting Assembly (PMA) hardware removed from it. The DESIS investigation is expected to verify and enhance commercial space-based hyperspectral (from the visual to near infrared spectrum) imaging capabilities for Earth remote sensing. Requested images are transferred to a hosted cloud that provides user access. DESIS has a number of commercial and humanitarian applications. Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME): The crew opened the Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) and replaced two ACME controllers. The ACME experiment series being performed in the CIR includes five independent studies of gaseous flames. The primary goals of ACME are to improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollutant production in routine fuel combustion activities on Earth. Its secondary goal is to improve spacecraft fire prevention through innovative research focused on materials flammability. Rodent Research-7 (RR-7): Today the crew restocked the rodent habitats. They also stowed fecal pellets and food bar/Habitat swabs in a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The RR-7 investigation examines how the space environment affects the community of microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract of mice (also known as the microbiota). It also looks at microgravity's effects on multiple physiological systems known to be affected by the microbiota, including the gastrointestinal, immune, metabolic, circadian, and sleep systems. These studies should help explain mechanisms underlying interactions between these systems and the role of the microbiota in these interactions. Tropical Cyclone: The crew configured the camera settings in the Cupola to support the capture of untended images of Tropical Cyclone Lane. The Tropical Cyclone investigation is normally used to capture images of tropical cyclones and hurricanes that are rated at Category 3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A pseudo-stereoscopic method is used to determine the altitudes of the cloud tops near the center (eye) of a cyclone by precisely tracking the apparent positions of cloud features with respect to the Earth and how those positions change over time as an observer (the ISS in this case) passes over the storm. The photographic images will be used to demonstrate that pseudo-spectroscopy can be used to measure the cloud altitudes to sufficient precision so that, when combined with other remote-sensing data, an accurate determination of the intensity of hurricane or cyclone can be made. Grip: The crew completed the second of three Grip operations in the seated position today. ESA's Grip investigation tests how the nervous system takes into account the forces due to gravity and inertia when manipulating objects. Results from this investigation may provide insight into potential hazards for astronauts as they manipulate objects in different gravitational environments, support design and control of haptic interfaces to be used in challenging environments such as space, and provide information about motor control that will be useful for the evaluation and rehabilitation of impaired upper limb control in patients with neurological diseases. US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Resize: Today the crew resized EMU 3003 and 3004 in preparation for the upcoming EVA. Each EMU contains exchangeable components allowing each astronaut to adjust EMU fit to their individual preference. EMU 3003 was resized for Drew Feustel and EMU 3004 was resized for Alexander Gerst. Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: Today the crew gathered and configured various tools and tethers needed for the upcoming H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)-7 Battery R&R EVAs in September. They also verified that the EMU Glove heaters were functional and that the EMU TV Camera as receiving power from the Rechargeable EVA Battery Assemblies (REBAs). The first EVA in the pair is scheduled for 20 September while the second planned EVA is scheduled on September 26th. Eye Exams: Today the crew completed the first of four days of routine eye exams using a Fundoscope. Eye exams are performed regularly onboard in order to monitor crewmembers eye health. Eyesight is one of the many aspects of the human body that is affected by long-duration stays in a microgravity environment. Completed Task List Activities: None Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. LAB MCA Zero Calibration Two-Day Look Ahead: Wednesday, 08/29: Payloads MSRR Master Controller R&R BEST 4th experiment session Payload Control Box installation in Ryutai Rack laptop Team Task Switching (TTS) survey SpaceTex2 & Metaspace session Grip supine session BCAT camera alignment and focus Systems Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Fundoscope Eye Exams EMU Swap HTV-7 Prep: JEM Stowage Consolidation HTV-7 Prep: PROX System Checkout N3 MCA Activation Part 3 (Ground) Thursday, 08/30: Payloads Atomization syringe replacement GRASP seated configuration PCG 13 microscope operations Sextant Navigation session 5 Systems Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Fundoscope Eye Exams Eye Ultrasound Imaging EVA Tool Config HTV-7 Prep: PROX System Checkout Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Combustion Integrated Rack Doors Open JEM Airlock Press SM Internal Wireless Instrumentation System (IWIS) Remote Sensing Unit (RSU) s/n 1027 power cycle Regeneration of Micropurification Unit () cartridge 2 (start) Combustion Integrated Rack Front End Cap Open GRIP science performance in seated position SPHERES Rechargeable Battery Install PROFILAKTIKA-2. Preparation for the experiment. ACME Controller Replace 2 JEM Airlock Leak Check JEM Airlock Slide Table (ST) Extension to JPM Side PROFILAKTIKA-2. Operator Assistance in Preparation for the Experiment DESIS Slide Table Remove Battery Charge Deactivation for MetabolicSpace US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tools Gather PROFILAKTIKA-2. -2 Treadmill Experiment Ops (Individual strategy test) Combustion Integrated Rack Front End Cap Close PROFILAKTIKA-2. Closeout Ops Passive Capture Mechanism Installation to JEM Airlock (AL) Slide Table Combustion Integrated Rack Doors Close Repairs and Installation of Overlay Panels in SM, Preparation. Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Resize JEM Airlock Slide Table (ST) Retraction from JPM Side Rodent Research Lab Camcorder Video Setup Rodent Research 7 Habitat Restock PROFILAKTIKA-2. Hygiene Procedures Dismantling of the old and installation of a new Mass Measurement complex from KMA-01. Test Activation. Progress 439 (DC1) Cargo Transfers and IMS Ops Tropical Cyclone Untended Operations Rechargeable EVA Battery Assembly (REBA) Installation Delta file prep SPHERES Rechargeable Battery Charge and Stow Rechargeable EVA Battery Assembly (REBA) Powered Hardware Checkout Rodent Research MELFI Insert Water Refill Kit Habitat H2O Fill PLETHYSMOGRAPH Functional Check Filling (separation) of () for Elektron-VM or - Health Maintenance System (HMS) - ESA Nutritional Assessment Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config JEM Setup PAO Preparation Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) - JEM On Board Training (OBT) ROBoT T&C Self Study Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA) Fill maintenance US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tools Gather SPHERES Rechargeable Battery Charge and Stow Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System (NORS) Oxygen Transfer to Low Pressure O2 Tank On Board Training (OBT) ROBoT T&C Self Study Rodent Research 7 Habitat Restock Scheduled monthly maintenance of Central Post Laptop. Tropical Cyclone Hardware Closeout Nikon still camera sync with station time MSRR Payload Overview ISS HAM Service Module Pass Fundoscope Setup Rodent Research MELFI Insert Dust collectors C1, 2 filter cleaning by vacuum cleaner in FGB (panels 203, 403) MSRR Hardware Gather Fundoscope Prep SPHERES Rechargeable Battery Charge and Stow Rodent Research Access Unit Clean Eye Exam - Fundoscope Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tool Configuring Fundoscope Tear Down and Stow Regeneration of Micropurification Unit () 2 Absorber Cartridge (end) Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. MACEDONIA, Ohio -- A man armed with a handgun robbed an Ohio Savings Bank on Thursday morning, according to the FBI. The suspect escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash after demanding money from the tellers just before 9:30 a.m. at the bank at 8210 Macedonia Commons Blvd. The FBI says the male suspect is in his 40s or 50s, about 5-foot-10, and between 170 and 190 pounds. His face was covered and he wore dark clothing. Anyone with information can contact the FBI at 216-522-1400 or Macedonia police at 330-468-1234. Tips can remain anonymous. Information that leads to an arrest and prosecution could be eligible for reward money. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Heights police fired shots at a suspect who led state troopers on a car chase, according to Cleveland police. The incident happened about 11:30 a.m. Friday on East 185th Street and Schenley Avenue in the city's Collinwood neighborhood, Cleveland police said. The Cleveland Heights officers fired shots at the suspect following the car chase, according to police. It is unknown if anyone was injured by the gunfire and the man was arrested, Cleveland police said. A SWAT team, along with dozens of officers, state troopers and Cleveland police homicide detectives are at the scene. The homicide detectives investigate all uses of force in the city. Cleveland Heights Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams are also at the scene. Cleveland police said a suspect is barricaded inside a home on Schenley. A Shaker Heights police SWAT tank is in the driveway of the home with state troopers in SWAT gear. Cleveland police officers led a shirtless man in handcuffs to the back of an ambulance. The man had a bandage on his chin and the ambulance took him to a nearby hospital for treatment. No other information was immediately available. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 40-year-old man with a history of violence is accused of beating a 33-year-old man to death. Cory Moorer of Cleveland is charged with murder in the Aug. 18 death of Ricky Williams. Moorer is not in police custody and a warrant was issued Thursday for his arrest. Williams died from blunt force trauma to his head and complications of an enlarged heart, according to court records. Williams confronted Moorer about 11:30 p.m. at a home on East 85th Street near Superior Avenue in the city's Hough neighborhood. Williams, who was visiting the home, confronted Moorer in the driveway, police said. They did not say why the two argued. Moorer then attacked Williams, who was driven to University Hospitals, where he died. Moorer ran off after the fight. Moorer's history of felony convictions dates back to a 1997 attempted robbery conviction in which he stole money from a man's hands at a grocery store on East 105th Street. Moorer spent four days in jail for a domestic violence conviction in 2016 that included the victim refusing to show up for court. Moore had two other cases for violent crimes dropped because victims refused to show up for trial. He was sent to prison for a year in a 2011 domestic violence case and he spent two years in prison for a 2006 case in which he put a rifle to his girlfriend's head and threatened to "blow her brains out," according to court records. In 1999, he punched a woman in the face, stole her car and money. Cleveland police stopped his car for a traffic violation and Moorer initially stopped. The officer got out of his car and Moorer drove at the officer, hitting him. He sped off and later crashed his car. He was sentenced to three years in prison in that case. Moorer has several other felony convictions for drug trafficking and possession. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section. AKRON, Ohio -- A woman managed to escape after a man broke into her home Wednesday night, hit her with a pipe and bound her hands while demanding money, police say. Police spokesman Lt. Richard Edwards says police responded to a woman calling for help at the home near the intersection of Lafollette and Inman streets in East Akron at about 9 p.m. Wednesday. Police searching the area found the woman when she emerged from a wooded area behind the house. Her hands were bound with red tape and she was bleeding from her forehead, Edwards says. The woman told police the suspect, identified as Jack Godfrey, 32, is a neighbor. Godfrey is accused of kicking in the back door of her house and demanding her wallet. Edwards says Godfrey hit the victim in the head with a lead pipe and used the tape to bound her hands. She managed to run from the house but Godfrey chased her down in the driveway and attacked her, Edwards says. Godfrey ran away when a neighbor began yelling at him. The victim was taken to Akron City Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Warrants for aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, and abduction have been issued for Godfrey, who is 5-foot-11 and 250 pounds, according to police. Anyone with information can call Akron detectives at 330-375-2490; the Akron Police tip line at 330-375-@tip; the U.S. Marshals Service at 1-866-4-WANTED; or the Summit County Crimestoppers Inc. at 330-434-COPS. Tips can be sent by text to 274637 (Crimes). Callers can remain anonymous. BROOK PARK, Ohio - The threat of heavy rain has moved a "Never Forget 9/11" ceremony, scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday, indoors to the Brook Park Recreation Center, 17400 Holland Road. A memorial motorcycle ride that was planned to follow the event was canceled. Doors will open at 10 a.m. for the free ceremony honoring those lost in the terrorist attacks of 2001. It will feature speakers including retired New York firefighter John Murphy; James Boskovitch, father of Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Boskovitch, who was killed in action in 2005; and Warrant Officer John Mincey of the 3rd Regiment 25th Battalion Marine Reserves, based in Brook Park. GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A private security officer contracted by the United States Department of Homeland Security has been charged in the death of a teenager and a woman following a fight, Garfield Heights police said. Matthew Nicholson, 29, is charged with murder and domestic violence in the shooting death of Manuel Lopez Jr., 17, and Giselle Lopez, 19, Garfield Heights police Robert Byrne announced during a Thursday afternoon press conference. Nicholson and his girlfriend, America Polanco, got into a fight over text messages she received from an ex-boyfriend, police said. Manuel Lopez heard the two fighting and tried to protect his mother, police said. Investigators are unsure what happened next, but Nicholson shot the siblings several times with a .45 caliber handgun, police said. They were both found in the driveway of the home with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. Police recovered what was described as "numerous handguns" from the first floor of the home, according to a police report. Nicholson was also wearing body armor when police took him into custody after a prolonged standoff with authorities. Neighbors described Nicholson as volatile. Authorities said he worked as a security officer for Paragon Systems. The Virginia-based company is contracted to provide security for federal buildings, police said. Messages left for Paragon Systems were not immediately returned. Manuel Lopez was taken to Marymount Hospital, where he died of his wounds. Giselle Lopez was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center where she died while undergoing surgery, police said. Their mother was treated at MetroHealth for minor injuries. Polanco told police that their argument turned physical, and her son tried to defend her, a police report says. The daughter had just returned home from work during the fight and got involved in the argument. Nicholson threatened to kill everyone, and Polanco and her children walked out the front door, the report says. Nicholson followed and fired at the mother and children with a pistol. His gunshots struck the children, the report says. Polanco screamed to neighbors that "he killed my babies," according to a neighbor's account of the incident. Police arrived to find the children lying in the driveway near the entrance to the home. Nicholson's mother came to the home and told investigators that she spoke with her son on the phone from the time the shooting ended. Nicholson threatened to shoot any officers who tried to enter the home, the report says. This prompted the arrival of a SWAT team that set up a perimeter around the home, and in the front yard of the home. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish is a lucky politician. The Democrat, who is seeking re-election in November, has only a nominal opponent, Republican Peter J. Corrigan. Corrigan has a good ballot name. But that's about it. Corrigan, 59, recently stopped by the offices of cleveland.com to remind us that he's running against Budish. But he ultimately reminded us that the Cuyahoga County Republican Party has missed an opportunity to potentially weaken the Democrat's stranglehold on county politics. Despite his prowess for raising campaign money in the Democratic-leaning county and a solid list of accomplishments, Budish is vulnerable. He's proving to be a mediocre manager and a terrible communicator - things that could be easily exploited by an adroit opponent. I've long opined that voters deserve more competitive races to force incumbents to present better policy and be more transparent. Unfortunately, the GOP has given Budish a pass by fielding a candidate who is a nothingburger. The GOP was unable to recruit a real candidate earlier this year. After the deadline passed to qualify for the primary ballot, Budish started to earn some negative headlines. This made the GOP wistful. So, it looked for someone to run as a write-in candidate in the primary to secure a spot on the Nov. 6 ballot. The party settled on Corrigan - the only guy who agreed to do it. Even Corrigan knows he's being used. "I might not have been their first choice," said Corrigan, who told me more than 5,000 people wrote his name on the primary ballot. Corrigan said he was inspired to run by headlines about the county's troubled IT Department, which is a focus of a corruption probe by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. He also mentioned the county's Department of Children and Family Services, which has come under heavy criticism for its investigation into reports of abuse involving 4-year-old Aniya Day-Garrett, who prosecutors say died at the hands of her mother and her mother's boyfriend. Corrigan, a semi-retired former chief operating officer and business consultant, has an MBA and a degree in physics. He's earnest and worldly. But as a candidate, his business-speak is near indecipherable. He lacks a deep knowledge of how county departments operate. His plans and visions for economic development are broad and generic. His pie-in-the-sky vision includes leading a coalition to push for making Cleveland a stronger port destination by widening canals and locks to improve access between the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean. "Right now it [the Port of Cleveland] is a hobby; it's not a port," he said. Corrigan, who once ran unsuccessfully for Congress, is not cut out for campaigning. He told us that his campaign is just warming up. (At his pace, he'll be ready in 2028.) To be fair, the GOP is not doing much to help him. He recently has seized on frustrations of some homeowners, who are complaining that the county's recent property assessments have overvalued their homes. During one radio interview, he suggested that senior citizens who have seen double-digit increases in home values could be forced out of their homes by skyrocketing taxes. It's highly unlikely and some of his statements suggest he doesn't fully understand how taxes are calculated. The issue is nonetheless a good one for him because Budish is not managing the narrative. Budish is not personally addressing the misinformation or making the case that the higher values reflect a stronger local economy and an increase of wealth for homeowners. He's also not pointing out that the county has long been receptive to adjusting property valuations. Instead, Budish is running from cameras. And that's been the story of Budish's administration this year. Even with a large communications team to guide him, he's taken a bunker mentality as his administration has tripped over self-inflicted mistakes. Here's an abbreviated list: His administration improperly paid overtime to salaried employees; Budish allowed his first chief of staff to earn an MBA on county time and then she left for a private-sector job; County Council said publicly that it lacks confidence in the administration's ability to tie county computers and technology systems together; the administration has been lax in its oversight of delinquent county loans; and Budish wants to spend tax money on a lawyer who can advise his administration on how to keep draft audit reports secret from the public. Alan Melamed, a spokesman for Budish's re-election campaign, said Budish's record of accomplishments far outweighs these controversies. He noted, among other things, that Budish landed new and inventive tenants for the previously underused Global Center for Health Innovation (Med Mart); helped reduce infant mortality rates in the county by 20 percent; invested 10 million in pre-kindergarten education and raised an additional $12 million from private and philanthropic donations; and helped attracted two Amazon distribution centers. He said Budish's path to re-election has nothing to do with chance. "The reality is that on substance, Budish is not a candidate you want to go up against," Melamed said. The GOP seems to agree, which indeed makes Budish lucky. Ashley Kilbane Republican Bradley Hull IV, a lawyer in private practice, and Ashley Kilbane, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who won the Democratic primary in May, are competing to succeed retiring Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Stuart Friedman for a six-year term that begins Jan. 2 Hull, 37, who has his own Beachwood-based law firm, says he wants to be a judge in part to "help those addicted to drugs to seek treatment," to introduce more efficiencies in court operations and "always carry out the concept of equal justice under the law for all persons." He's built his law firm from a single-lawyer office in 2008, when he was licensed to practice law in Ohio, to one employing two other lawyers. His practice appears concerned mostly, if not exclusively, with civil litigation. Kilbane, 35, who litigated civil cases at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur for about four years before joining the prosecutor's office in 2013, wants to start a domestic violence docket in Cuyahoga County and has studied how such dockets work in other courts. She also advocates for measures to improve fairness on the court, including partnering with other agencies to provide more GED opportunities and career training/job assistance for those convicted of nonviolent, economically motivated crimes, to reduce recidivism: "I believe that crime is a symptom of a greater problem, and we need a long-term approach to solve our community issues." Kilbane's broad range of experience and thoughtful perspective on the interplay of social conditions and criminality make her the superior candidate in this race. However, Hull is not a zero, despite the rating accorded him by the Judge4Yourself coalition, in which all four local bar associations - the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association and the Ohio Women's Bar Association -- rated Hull "not recommended." (Kilbane got a "good" rating from all four.) Hull, who is making his first run for office, said he was floored and embarrassed by the "not recommended" rating, and said his repeat business from old clients and positive ratings posted online show that at least those who pay for his legal services are satisfied. Asked about the zero rating for Hull, Deborah Coleman of Judge4Yourself wrote in an email that "we speak only through our ratings, which greatly limits anything I could say regarding Mr. Hull or any other candidate. How the candidate's experience compares to the demands of the particular office sought is important, but other factors may be equally or more significant. I'm glad to talk with you any time about some of the things that can go into a rating, but cannot speak about any specific rating." That's a distinctly unsatisfying response. Overall, Kilbane's range of Justice Center experience gives her the clear edge over Hull. We recommend voters elect Ashley Kilbane in this race. But Hull, while not the most animated of candidates, is not a zero, as his legal practice shows. He should consider running for judge again. Early in-person and absentee voting begins Oct. 10. For more resources on judicial races, besides Judge4Yourself, consult Judicial Votes Count at the University of Akron and the League of Women Voters' voters' guide. Ashley Kilbane and Bradley Hull IV were interviewed by the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer as part of its endorsement process on Aug. 21, 2018. Listen to full audio of this interview below: 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, OHIO -- The big northerly winds rolling through Lake Erie in recent days seem to have had a good affect on the walleye and yellow perch fishing, bringing cooler waters to the Ohio shoreline and encouraging fish to bite. This weekend's cooling temperatures should perk up the inland lake fishing for bass, panfish and catfish, as well. CENTRAL LAKE ERIE The Gold Coast area west of Cleveland Harbor was a top spot for walleye this week, with anglers trolling diving planers, especially Tru-Trip 40 divers, and a variety of spoons colored in purple, pink and chartreuse. The best depth in that area has been about 35 feet. Diving plugs are finally starting to come into play again, as well, and anglers are catching steelhead trout with regularity. Off Lorain, the best catches of big walleye have come from waters in the 54- to 68-foot range. There aren't a lot of large schools of walleye to focus on, so fishermen should keep a sharp eye on their fish finders to find the small, productive pockets of fish. Anglers had been running to deep water for steelhead trout, but the silver bullets seemed to have moved closer to shore with the big winds cooling things down. Some of the best Lorain fishing has been 3 to 6 miles north of the harbor. The Fairport Harbor walleye fishing has been tremendous, with good numbers of fish hanging all around the area. Steelhead trout in good numbers have joined them. Walleye are being caught in 38 to 60 feet of water, suspended at about 30 or 40 feet, while the steelhead trout are suspending at about 20 feet. WESTERN LAKE ERIE The boat ramp at Catawba State Park is closed for the rest of 2018 for repairs, and the Mazurik Launch Ramp on the Marblehead Peninsula will be closed from Sept. 10-13 to resurface the parking lot. The walleye fishing had slowed a bit, most likely because of exceedingly warm waters and air temperatures in the 90s. The best reports have been coming from the Lake Erie Islands and off Cedar Point, Huron and Vermilion in 25 to 45 feet of water. Limit catches are coming in again, though, with most walleye in the 17- to 22-inch range. Trolling divers and spoons has been the best bet, and some decent catches are being reported by drift-and-cast anglers targeting the shallower reefs and rock piles. The windy weather has chased away many of the yellow perch fishermen in smaller boats. The top perch reports have come from D Can off Camp Perry and around Green and Rattlesnake islands. INLAND LAKES AND RESERVOIRS Mosquito Reservoir is in the spotlight, with walleye and largemouth bass fishing both very good. Walleye are being caught in 7 to 8 feet of water on small spinners tipped with live bait, jigs tipped with minnows or worms and while drifting with a crawler harness weighted with split shot. The Mosquito trophy bass fishing has been best along the weed edges in 6 to 7 feet of water, while larger numbers of smaller bass are being caught in shallower 3-foot waters on spinnerbaits, topwater frogs, small swim jigs and Rat-L-Traps. Bass anglers should focus on the deeper weeds at East and Turkeyfoot reservoirs in the Portage Lakes. Nimisila Reservoir bass are hiding in deeper waters, where drop shot rigs and shaky worms are a good bet. The hot weather kicks up the metabolism of muskies, and the big fish should be aggressively feeding at Pymatuning, West Branch, Clear Fork and Leesville reservoirs. A rocket carrying Japan's seventh H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) is poised to launch next Monday on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. The Expedition 56 crew members trained for the HTV-7's arrival, conducted eye checks and prepared for a pair of spacewalks. On Sept. 10, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is launching a cargo craft, exactly nine years to the day JAXA launched its first HTV mission, to the space station. The HTV-7 will take a four-day trip before reaching a point just 10 meters away from the orbital lab. Commander Drew Feustel will then grapple it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm as Flight Engineer Serena Aunon-Chancellor backs him up inside the cupola. The duo practiced for next week's approach and rendezvous of the HTV-7 then turned their attention to eye exams and ultrasound eye scans. Their cosmonaut crewmates, Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev, also participated in the eye exams using Optical Coherence Tomography for detailed views of their retinas. After the HTV-7 arrives, robotics controllers will begin the work of removing six new lithium-ion batteries from the HTV-7's External Pallet and storing them on the Port 4 (P4) truss structure. They will replace a dozen older nickel-hydrogen batteries on the station's P4. Nine of the older batteries will be stowed inside the HTV-7 for disposal and the other three stored on the P4. Three astronauts will then install and hookup the battery adapter plates over a pair of spacewalks planned for Sept. 20 and 26. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst will participate in both spacewalks, with Feustel on the first and NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold on the second. NASA TV is broadcasting live the HTV-7 launch and rendezvous activities as well as both spacewalks. On-Orbit Status Report Binary Colloidal Alloy Test - Cohesive Sediment (BCAT-CS): On Sunday, the crew checked the camera alignment and focus by viewing the latest BCAT images on a laptop. TheBCAT-CS investigation studies the forces between particles that cluster together by using sediments of quartz and clay particles. Conducting the research in the microgravity environment of the ISS makes it possible to separate the forces acting on the particles over a short range (adhesive forces) versus those acting over a long range (cohesive forces). The quartz/clay system is commonly found in a wide variety of environmental settings (such as rivers, lakes, and oceans) and plays an important role in technological efforts related to deep-sea hydrocarbon drilling and carbon dioxide sequestration. Sextant Navigation: Yesterday the crew performed a repeat of the fifth session for the Sextant Navigation investigation. In this repeat session, the operator and assistant roles were reversed in order to gain proficiency on both crew members. The crew collected the data and recorded the results for ground evaluation and this was reported to be the most productive session to date. This session focused on sighting position evaluation. Astronauts onboard the ISS test a hand-held sextant that is intended for use on future Orion exploration missions. The results from this investigation can aid in the development of emergency navigation methods for future manned spacecraft. Historically, Gemini missions in 1965-66 were the first to exercise sextant sightings from a spacecraft. A sextant was built into Apollo vehicles as a navigation backup in case of lost communications. Neuromapping: A crewmember set up the Neuromapping hardware yesterday in order to perform the Flight Day 90 tests in both "strapped in" and "free floating" body configurations. The NeuroMapping investigation studies whether long-duration spaceflight causes changes to brain structure and function, motor control, and multi-tasking abilities. It also measures how long it takes for the brain and body to recover from possible changes. Previous research and anecdotal evidence from astronauts suggests movement control and cognition can be affected in microgravity. The NeuroMapping investigation includes use of structural and functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (MRI and fMRI) to assess any changes that occur after spending months on the ISS. Material Science Research Rack (MSRR): Today the MSRR was activated for the first time following the removal and replacement of the Master Controller on August 29th. The activation was nominal and ground teams were able to successfully checkout the new Master Controller. MSRR requires a successful software update to the Master Controller and a Vacuum Resource System (VRS)/Vacuum Exhaust System (VES) leak check before being used to support science runs. Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Loop Scrub: Earlier today, the crew performed the 90-day maintenance loop scrub and iodination task on EMUs 3006, 3008, and the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garments (LCVGs). This was the first use of the newly designed Airlock Cooling Loop Recovery (ALCLR) hardware. The ALCLR system is a suite of water processing hardware that is used to service the transport water loops in the EMU and airlock water systems. ALCLR removes ionic, organic, and particulate contamination and provides long-term microbial control through injection of activated iodine. Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations: Today the crew completed initial configuration of the tools and hardware that will be used during the upcoming H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)-7 Battery R&R EVAs in September. Spread across several days, today's activity completed configuration of Safety Tether Packs and EVA Wire Tie Caddies as well as ensure all EVA tools are in the proper config. The first EVA in the pair is scheduled for 20 September while the second planned EVA is scheduled on 26 September. H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Rendezvous & Capture Computer Based Training (CBT): In preparation for next week's launch of HTV-7, the crew completed on-board CBT this morning. This comprehensive review covered the HTV-7 mission profile, rendezvous crew procedures, and the crew interfaces used to both monitor and command to the HTV spacecraft. HTV-7 is scheduled to launch on 14 September from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. On Board Training (OBT) Soyuz Emergency Drill: Today the 55S crew performed an Emergency Egress Drill. During this drill, the 55S crew reviewed procedures needed during off-nominal situations before using the onboard trainer to practice the actions required in the event of an emergency egress and Soyuz descent. The crew also completed self-study reviews of various nominal procedures to include Sokol suit donning and leak checks. This training is scheduled every 12-14 weeks and ensures the crew is adequately prepared to respond to an on-orbit emergency. Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event: Alexander Gerst participated in the European Space Agency DLR "Time Capsule" event in Berlin, Germany. The audience included more than 1000 pupils (9 to 14 years) gathered together with media and high-ranking representatives of the German federal government plus local authorities. Nacho Service Pack: Today ground specialists reloaded Crew Space Station Computers (SSCs) 1, 3, 14, 19, 20, and 21 with the Nacho Service Pack. Tonight, they are scheduled to reload Operations SSCs 4, 5, 9, 15, 17, 18, and 22 during crew sleep. One of the many updates included in the Nacho Service Pack are crew accounts for the 56S and 57S crewmembers as well as an upgrade to Microsoft Office 2016. Completed Task List Activities: WHC KTO Replace [Completed GMT 244] Toilet Funnel Evaluation [Completed GMT 244] Food Relocate, part 6 [Completed GMT 244] Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Solar Array Maximum Power Output test (Channels 3A, 2B, 4B and 4A) LEE A FMS Coarse Characterization on Redundant String [In Work] JEMRMS EFU Adapter Unstow [Planned overnight] MCC-H ISS Step Up [Planned 248/02:00 GMT] Two-Day Look Ahead: Wednesday, 09/05: Reboost [248/00:50 GMT] Payloads Atomization syringe removal EXPRESS Rack 5 Payload Valve Replacement MetabolicSpace and Spacetex-2 experiments Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutrons (RADI-N2) deploy 8 detectors Installation of next generation High Speed Camera Controller into EML Airlock unstow and hardware gather in prep for Airway Monitoring Airlock session Systems Clean Bench (CB) Valve Checkout MAS/SSK sample gather Nacho Service Pack deploy, continues Periodic Health Evaluation Fundoscope Eye Exam Ground SSRMS Ops: External Survey of Columbus MDPS (Part 1) Thursday, 09/06: Payloads Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST) Experiment 3 RNA Run Rodent Research Habitat Camera Clean Team Task Switching Experiment Survey Airway Monitoring US Airlock setup Systems JEM Exposed Facility High Definition TV Camera Unit install on EFU Adapter on JEM AL Slide Table HTV Prep: HTV ROBOT training session 1 EVA Prep: EVA DOUG review, CWC-I degas, EVA Tool Configuration, Extravehicular Activity Mobility Unit (EMU) Enhanced Caution and Warning System (ECWS) On-Board Training Ground SSRMS Ops: SSRMS Walkoff to Node 2, SPDM Relocate and maneuver to HTV offset grapple position Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Check and report the results of laptop anti-virus scan, Photo TV Battery Charge Initiation Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT Setup Nacho Load Prep JEM Airlock Depressurization OTKLIK - hw monitoring and reboot Wireless Compose SD Card Data Copy Acoustic Monitor Data Transfer and Stow On-board Training (OBT) HTV Robotics Review GRASP stow OCT Exam Crew Choice Event On-board Training (OBT) HTV Rendezvous Review Repairs of SM Interior Panel 128 by Installing Overlay Plates - Day 2 131). Restow of Columbus Bays 2 and 3 Microscope Reposition Post Ops PROFILAKTIKA-2. Experiment setup. Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis PROFILAKTIKA-2. Assistance with -3 Test Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cooling Loop Maintenance Scrub Initiation Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT Stow Photo TV Battery Charge Swap Ultrasound 2 HRF Rack 1 Setup And Power On Alternate Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Scan PROFILAKTIKA-2. Experiment Ops on -2 Treadmill (MO-3 Test in Passive Mode). PROFILAKTIKA-2. Closeout Ops. JEM System Laptop Terminal Reboot JEM Airlock Vent PROFILAKTIKA-2. Hygiene procedure Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) in Columbus JEM Airlock Vent Confirmation Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Post Scrub Cooling Loop Water (H2O) Sample Preparation and activation of Crew On-orbit Support System [] camcorder in SM for onboard simulator video shooting in MPEG2 format during Soyuz 739 emergency descent OBT Binary Colloidal Alloy Test - Battery Changeout Daily Electro-cardiogram registration (start) ISS Emergency descent drill. MSRR Quick Disconnect Inspection Photo TV Battery Charge Swap 24-hour ECG Holter Monitoring - start maintenance ZBook Client Swap (SSC5 - LAB) IMS Update Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Sample Data Record EVA Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cooling Loop Scrub Deconfigration Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tool Configuring Deactivation of camcorder, TV System monitoring equipment and closing applications CALCIUM. Experiment Session 9 US SSC Wireless to Wired Rad Detector Rotate Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA) Fill Photo TV Battery Charge Deactivation SSC Load Preparation for Nacho Service Pack ECON-L. Observation and Photography Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. SOLON, Ohio -- The fate of the proposed Solon to Chagrin Falls Trail has yet to be decided. The city is hoping to receive a grant through the Clean Ohio Trails Fund, which can make as much as $500,000 available for individual "rails-to-trails" projects. "We will probably know (if the grant is awarded) in October," Solon Mayor Ed Kraus said. "Having the funds would make a huge difference." If the city receives the grant, the matter will likely go before Solon's City Council, which would approve or reject construction of the trail. The estimated construction cost for the 2.1-mile, 10-foot-wide section of trail in Solon is $1 million. City officials learned earlier this year that the city would receive $300,000 from Ohio's capital budget should the project proceed. Kraus says the Solon business community has interest in supporting the trail, as well. The approximately 4-mile hiking/biking trail along the former and partially abandoned Chagrin Falls and Southern Railroad would extend from the Carter Lumber property next to the Sears site in Solon, into Bentleyville, through the Cleveland Metroparks and on to Chagrin Falls. Officials believe that if the trail is approved, construction could begin around the middle of next year. Kraus and other proponents of the proposed trail believe it would bolster nearby businesses and provide opportunities for exercise and to observe nature. Numerous homeowners whose properties bound the proposed trail, though, are opposed to its construction. Mark Presser, president of the Solon Homeowners Association, says homes on more than a dozen streets in Solon would be directly affected by the trail. "The trail is so close to homes that it would be an invasion of privacy," he said. "There won't be parking for the trail, so people will park on our streets and walk through our yards to get to it. People are concerned for their safety. There would be a loss of wildlife and forestry." Presser, whose own home is within less than 50 feet from where the trail would run, says six homes on his street are within 19 to 35 feet of the trail. Kraus and other city officials have met with residents to hear their concerns. Kraus said the city is considering "screening" to aid privacy. Trees would be planted along portions of the trail to screen trail users' vision of peoples' homes. "We're going to show people various trees that could be used for screening for privacy," Kraus said. "We're doing mock-ups of some of the screening and will meet with property owners who are close to the trail. So much is contingent upon the funding." Presser doesn't think that would resolve residents' concerns. "Any type of screening, whether it be trees or a fence, would not be acceptable," he said. Some homeowners along the trail enjoy a pond or small lake that borders their yards. Presser says liability insurance costs are already high because of the water, and homeowners are also concerned that property values would decrease if the trail is built. Solon currently has three trails: the Hawthorn Parkway; the Pettibone/Liberty Road Trail; and the Solon Community Center Trail. UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council is going back to the drawing board when it comes to inspections of rental homes. Council heard loud complaints from rental property owners after it voted to increase the frequency and cost of home inspections on May 22. For single-family rental units, inspection fees were increased from $300 every two years to $600 annually. For two-family homes, the fees went from $400 every second year to $800 annually. On June 18, two days before the new rate schedule was to go into effect, several landlords voiced their opposition at a council meeting. This opposition prompted Councilman Mark Wiseman to say he would "revisit" the legislation in council's Building Committee, which he chairs. It also was the impetus for Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan to put a freeze on the new rates until the committee again met to discuss possible revision to the ordinance. That freeze is set to expire on Sept. 14, but council is not yet sure which direction it wants to go in revising fees within the ordinance. "The Building Committee met last month, and they are exploring ideas for a replacement rental permit and inspection ordinance," Brennan said at Tuesday's council meeting. "However, it will not be done before Sept. 14. "As part of the postponed implementation, the city Building Department has continued rental inspections, and have issued temporary rental permits (at no charge) that expire on Sept. 14. However, our Building Department has not collected any rental permit application fees in the meantime," he said. Since becoming mayor in January, Brennan has made it a goal to strengthen the rental housing market in University Heights. Increased inspections, he has noted, require more manpower. Brennan prefers that landlords -- some of whom live in the city and some who don't -- pay for the increased costs, rather than residents. At Tuesday's council meeting, Wiseman said the Building Committee will look at forming a new fee structure for inspections. Wiseman, the committee and Brennan have agreed to allow the freeze to lapse on Sept. 14 then, at the regular council meeting on Sept. 17, repeal the portion of the ordinance calling for the new fee structure. "We'll then discuss at the next (committee) meeting what the new fee structure will look like, keeping in mind the suggestions the landlords gave us," Wiseman said. A new fee structure, he said, should be in place by year's end. Home demolition Council passed legislation Tuesday that will allow for the demolition of the city-owned white house at 3950 Silsby Road. The city had been using the home for storage, but Community Development Coordinator Patrick Grogan-Myers said that the house has fallen into disrepair and that city personnel do not often enter the house. The city acquired the property in 1998. It's driveway, Brennan said, is often used by police detectives because of its proximity to their offices in a neighboring house. The legislation allows for the city to transfer the property to the Cuyahoga Land Bank, which will demolish the house and its garage at no cost to University Heights, then return ownership of the property to the city. The property will be restored to a green lot. Getting to know you In an effort to get better acquainted with the residents they serve, the University Heights Police and Fire departments have scheduled first-time events. Coffee with a Cop will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 3 at Jack's Deli, 14490 Cedar Road. "The event is a relaxed, informal discussion about the issues residents find important," Brennan said. "The goal is to build trust and improve relationships, one cup of coffee at a time." The Fire Department will host an open house from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7, at its location in City Hall. Residents can tour the fire station and get close-up looks at the trucks. There will be demonstrations, a safety presentation and activities for youngsters. New hires Tuesday's council meeting was the first for University Heights' new Economic Development Director Susan Drucker and for Mike Cook, the city's new communications and civic engagement coordinator. Drucker is the former mayor of Solon who was hired in early August as the city's first economic development director. Cook is also the first person to be hired into his new position. He previously worked for Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the Ohio General Assembly and the American Red Cross. Cook will be responsible for media, outreach, constituent services and the promotion of quality of life in University Heights. "Mike brings experience, as well as energy and creativity, to city hall," Brennan said. "He will be working closely with me, our city departments, and City Council to help us raise the overall responsiveness of city government to our residents, and with that, the quality of life in University Heights." The Expedition 56 crew members conducted maintenance work on a variety of advanced science gear today to ensure ongoing space research aboard the International Space Station. The crew also continued a pair of exercise studies and trained to capture a Japanese cargo craft before tonight's orbital reboost of the station. Commander Drew Feustel spent Wednesday afternoon inside ESA's (European Space Agency) Columbus laboratory module working on the Electromagnetic Levitator (EML). He installed a new storage disc and a high speed camera controller inside the EML. The space furnace enables research and observations of the properties of materials exposed to extremely high temperatures. Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold worked in JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Kibo laboratory module during the morning replacing valves inside the EXPRESS Rack-5. The science rack, which was delivered to the orbital lab in 2001, can host a variety of experiments operated by astronauts on the station or remotely by scientists on Earth. Astronaut Alexander Gerst of ESA has been contributing to a pair of German exercise studies for a few weeks to help doctors maintain astronaut health. Today, he continued testing a custom-designed thermal t-shirt and researching a wearable device for real-time cardio-pulmonary diagnosis during a workout. Gerst and Feustel wrapped up the day with Flight Engineer Serena Aunon-Chancellor reviewing next week's arrival of JAXA's HTV-7 resupply ship. The HTV-7's launch is planned for Monday at 6:32 p.m. EDT and its capture with the Canadarm2 set for Sept. 14 at 7:40 a.m. NASA TV will cover both activities live. Finally, the orbital lab is due to raise its orbit tonight in the second of three planned maneuvers to prepare for a crew swap in October. The Zvezda service module will fire its engines for 13 seconds slightly boosting the station's orbit in advance of a pair of Soyuz crew ships departing and arriving next month. On-Orbit Status Report Airway Monitoring: Today the crew performed preparatory activities for the GMT 250 Airway Monitoring US Airlock Session. These activities include review of big picture words, hardware location, etc. The Airway Monitoring investigation aims to determine in detail the pulmonary nitric oxide turnover in weightlessness and in combined weightless, hypobaric and hypoxic environments as well as determining the lung diffusion capacity for nitric oxide. With dust particles present in the ISS atmosphere, this investigation studies the occurrence and indicators of airway inflammation in crewmembers, using ultra-sensitive gas analyzers to analyze exhaled air. This will help to identify health impacts and support maintenance of crewmember well-being on future human spaceflight missions, such as to the Moon and Mars, where crewmembers will have to be more self-sufficient in identifying and avoiding such conditions. Atomization: Today the crew successfully removed the used syringe and water trap from Atomization Operation Equipment (AOE). The Atomization experiment investigates the disintegration processes of a low-speed water jet for various jet issue conditions in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) to validate the new atomization concept by observing the process using a high-speed camera. The knowledge gained can be applied to improve various engines utilizing spray combustion. Electro-Magnetic Levitator (EML): Today the crew installed a new (next generation) High-Speed Camera Controller in EML which is located in the European Drawer Rack (EDR). They also installed a new hard disc with more storage capacity. The activity was not fully completed, however, due to incompatible threads between the fasteners of the electrical connectors and the camera controller; the facility was placed in a good temporary configuration while ground teams considering the forward plan. The EML is a multi-user facility is designed for containerless materials processing in space. It supports research in the areas of meta-stable states and phases along with the measurement of high-accurate thermophysical properties of liquid metallic alloys at high temperatures. EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments for Space Station (EXPRESS) rack 5: Today the crew successfully replaced the EXPRESS Rack 5 lower payload valve. This is the second EXPRESS Rack 5 valve that was replaced following indications of a leak from the Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM); the first valve was replaced successfully on 23-August. Of note, a successful recovery of EXPRESS Rack 5 will allow installation of the Plant Habitat Science Carrier #2 and subsequent resumption of science in the facility. Radi-N2 Neutron Field Study (Radi-N2): Today the eight detectors were retrieved from the Russian crew and deployed in the JPM1D5 area. This Canadian Space Agency investigation measures neutron radiation levels in the ISS. These bubble detectors are designed to only detect neutrons and ignore all other radiation. SpaceTex-2 and Metabolic Space: A crewmember donned Thermolab equipment, a heart rate monitor, and a SpaceTex material 3 shirt for ESA's SpaceTex-2 investigation. He also donned Metabolic Space equipment and completed an exercise session using the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS). SpaceTex fabrics provide a higher rate of sweat evaporation and a corresponding higher evaporative heat loss compared to conventional cotton fabrics used by astronauts on the ISS. Metabolic Space provides a technology demonstration for a measurement system worn by astronauts that supports cardio-pulmonary diagnosis during physical activities of astronauts living onboard the ISS, while maintaining unrestricted mobility. Service Module (SM) ISS Reboost: Tonight at 7:50 PM CT, the ISS will perform a 13-second reboost using the SM main engines. This reboost is the second in a series of three burns to set up proper phasing for 54S landing on October 4th and 56S launch on October 11th, which will use the 4-orbit rendezvous profile. ISS velocity will be increased by 0.20 meters per second (m/s) during tonight's reboost. Environmental Health System (EHS) Microbial Air and Surface Sampling: Today the crew took surface and air samples for microbial analysis using the Microbial Air Sampler (MAS) and Surface Sample Kit (SSK). Both samples will be placed into a Petri Dish and allowed to incubate approximately five days for future analysis. The EHS monitors the ISS environment for gaseous contaminants from off-gassing, combustion products, and propellants as well as microbial contaminants from crewmembers and ISS activities. Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) Operations: Last night, the Robotics Ground Controllers (ROBO) performed the Mobile Base System (MBS) Payload/Orbit Replaceable Unit (ORU) Accommodation (POA) checkouts on both string and diagnostics on only the prime string as required to meet H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) 7 Launch Commit Criteria. Then, the ROBO performed a checkout of the SSRMS Force and Moment Sensor (FMS) for Wrist Roll compensation. Finally, the SSRMS was maneuvered to the start position of the Columbus Survey, to be performed later today. The European Space Agency (ESA) has requested an optical impact survey of the outer surface of the Columbus module with emphasis on the forward-and zenith-facing areas. This status check will verify the status of the Columbus meteoroid and debris protection system (MDPS) and obtain information on the space debris and meteoroid environment of the ISS. MSS performance remains nominal. Nacho Service Pack: Yesterday, ground specialists successfully reloaded various Space Station Computers (SSCs) with the Nacho Service Pack. Controllers will continue reloading additional SSCs during crew sleep tonight and are scheduled to complete installation of the Service Pack tomorrow during the workday. One of the many updates included in the Nacho Service Pack are crew accounts for the 56S and 57S crewmembers as well as an upgrade to Microsoft Office 2016. Completed Task List Activities: None Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Solar Array Maximum Power Output Test (Channels 3B, 1A, 2A, 1B) SSRMS Ops: Columbus Zenith MDSP Survey Part 1 [Planned overnight] Reboost [Planned at 249/00:50 GMT] Two-Day Look Ahead: Thursday, 09/06: Payloads Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST) Experiment 3 RNA Run Rodent Research-7 Habitat Camera Clean Team Task Switching Experiment Survey Airway Monitoring US Airlock setup Systems JEM Exposed Facility High Definition TV Camera Unit install on EFU Adapter on JEM AL Slide Table HTV Prep: HTV ROBOT training session 1 EVA Prep: EVA DOUG review, CWC-I degas, EVA Tool Configuration, Extravehicular Activity Mobility Unit (EMU) Enhanced Caution and Warning System (ECWS) On-Board Training Ground SSRMS Ops: SSRMS Walkoff to Node 2, SPDM Relocate and maneuver to HTV offset grapple position Friday, 09/07: Payloads Airway Monitoring US Airlock session MSG Setup for Rodent Research-7 Session 2 Systems HTV Prep: Offset Grapple Training EVA Prep: Initiate Long Life Battery (LLB) charging Ultrasound Eye Exams JEM Airlock Depress and Vent Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Periodic Health Status (PHS) Evaluation Setup Airway Monitoring Big Picture Words Read Check network settings on Laptop RSK2. T2 SSC Wired to Wireless Periodic Health Status (PHS) Evaluation Metabolic Space equipment connection and calibration Atomization syringe removal Nacho Load Prep Periodic Health Status (PHS) Stow Hardware Thermolab instrumentation for Spacetex-2 Verification of -1 Flow Sensor Position Surface Sample Kit (SSK) Collection/Incubation FGB Gas Analyzer Vacuum Cleaning EXPRESS Rack-5 Rotate Metabolic Space instrumentation CEVIS exercise session for MetabolicSpace and Spacetex-2 experiments BIOCARD. Experiment Session ER5 Payload Valve R&R MetabolicSpace de-instrumentation Thermolab de-instrumentation for Spacetex-2 T61p installation for Metabolic Space Metabolic Space data transfer and equipment stowage Configuration for MRM1 comm SEPARATSIYA. Flushing Centrifugal Multi-Purpose Vacuum Distiller () and Urine Circulation Loop. Auto distillation of water with pre-treat solution. T61p stowage MATRYOSHKA-R. Prep and Initialization of Bubble-Dosimeter Detectors EXPRESS Rack-5 Rotate Up On-Orbit Hearing Assessment (O-OHA) with EarQ Software Setup and Test [Deferred] EXPRESS Rack-5 Plant Habitat Photo Clean Bench (CB) Valve Checkout Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutrons Hardware Handover US SSC Wireless to Wired MATRYOSHKA-R. Handover of BUBBLE-dosimeter detectors to USOS Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutrons MATRYOSHKA-R. BUBBLE-dosimeter initialization and deployment for exposure Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) Test Microbial Air Sampler (MAS) Kit Sample Collection Food Acceptability Questionnaire Installation of new High-Speed Camera Controller Installation of next generation High Speed Camera Controller into EML in EDR Comm reconfig for nominal ops Handover of 5.5 mm Screwdriver from Russian to USOS crew for EML HSC Installation Airway Monitoring Big Picture Words Read Lighting Effects Light Meter Setup Food Acceptability Questionnaire Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Cylinder Flywheel Evacuation Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Airlock Unstow Filling (separation) of () for Elektron-VM or - Lighting Effects Light Meter Readings 24-hour ECG Recording (termination) 24-hour BP recording (terminate) maintenance Lighting Effects Light Meter Stow VIZIR. Experiment Ops using - PL. Airway Monitoring PPFS reconfiguration Airway Monitoring Hardware Location Deploy PS-120 JUNCTION BOX into Air Lock to support Airway Monitoring activity. On-Orbit Hearing Assessment (O-OHA) with EarQ Software Setup and Test Configuration for MRM2 ALBEDO. Prep, photo and closeout operations Metabolic Space data transfer and equipment stowage Nacho Load Prep reconfiguration in MRM2 Handover from USOS to Russian Crew of 5.5 mm Screwdriver used for EML HSC Installation Fundoscope Prep On-Board Training (OBT) HTV OBT Conference Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Platform Grip Tape Trim and Pulley inspection Fundoscope Setup USOS Window Shutter Close Eye Exam - Fundoscope Fundoscope Tear Down and Stow ECON-L. Observations and photo Monitoring shutter closure on windows 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Blankets, checked luggage, seat assignments, early boarding, Wi-Fi. Is there anything else airlines can charge passengers for? U.S. carriers began charging passengers to check their luggage about a decade ago, as fuel costs surged. Since then airlines started charging for other things, such as seat selection, which once came with the cost of a ticket, along with add-ons like early boarding. Air travelers paid an estimated $57 billion in such add-ons last year, nearly triple the sum airlines collected five years earlier, according to airline research firm IdeaWorks Company. Airlines are now shifting their focus on how to generate more from the existing fees and products beyond the base fare of a ticket than coming up with brand-new things to charge for, industry members say. Some airlines remind travelers throughout the booking process about more expensive seats that offer more legroom, while others sell bundled perks like early boarding and lounge access. American Airlines' president, Robert Isom said at an industry conference on Wednesday that add-ons are a "unique opportunity for American that, quite frankly, our competitors are ahead of us on, and this is our ability to really attract business after the purchase of tickets." "It really amounts to being able to allow a booking to happen and then offer amenities that customers want and want to pay for as we go forward," he said. The ancillary revenue is key to airlines' bottom lines they struggle with a profit-crimping rise in fuel costs. Ancillary revenue, including that from lucrative frequent flyer programs, are close to 11 percent of airlines' revenue, up from about 5 percent in 2010, according to IdeaWorks. "The magic is retailing and not creating new [fees]," said Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks. "When you retail better, the profit margin should be higher." Where airlines could improve is in changing fees based on demand for a certain service, said Ben Baldanza, who led low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines for a decade through early 2016 and last month was named to JetBlue Airways' board. He said airlines could consider more dynamic pricing, charging more to check a bag during peak travel times like Christmas and less when planes are emptier. "There are planes full of bags and [airlines] probably could have charged a $1 more [to check] bag and everyone would have paid the fee," he said. Another issue that airlines need to tackle is "fee leakage," he said, when employees don't enforce certain policies such as baggage fees, particularly if staff are rushing to get a plane to depart on time. When asked whether Spirit could add new types of fees, Chief Executive Robert Fornaro told reporters at an industry conference last month that the carrier could instead do a better job of increasing revenue from its credit card and frequent flyer program and better sell its Big Front Seat, seats with 36 inches of pitch that can cost an additional $12 to $175, depending on when the seats are booked and how long the flights are. The airline has also started sending travelers emails to alert them about declining availability of these larger seats as their travel dates approach and is working with gate agents to try to sell these more expensive seats to travelers about to board the aircraft. Spirit generated close to $51 per passenger in ancillary revenue last year, the most worldwide, IdeaWorks report said in a July report. Several airlines are increasing existing fees or adding fees that other airlines already have. United Airlines last week raised the price to check a bag by $5 to $30, a move that followed the same increase by JetBlue, which also increased ticket-change fees. In June, Alaska Airlines raised ticket cancellation and change fees. United is planning later this year to charge for seats closer to the front of the plane, something American and Delta already do on some flights. The airline, as well as Spirit, offer bundled packages to get passengers to pay for other services such as early boarding and access to lounges. That began in early 2016 with two add-ons and last summer they increased that to 14 options. But airlines have to tread carefully to avoid a backlash from travelers who can opt to fly on a more lenient airline. "There's obviously the idea of charging for a carry-on," said Brett Snyder, who writes the Cranky Flier airline blog. "It seems like the third rail." American on Tuesday started allowing passengers on its most restrictive tickets to bring a full-size carry-on bag that fits in the overhead bin, bringing it more in line with Delta's competing product. Last month, Southwest Airlines started to charge passengers between $15 and $25 to check in for their flights early, depending on demand and flight length, up from a rate of $15. CEO Gary Kelly said on an earnings call in July that the airline is not thinking about adding fees for checked baggage, to change a ticket, or assigned seating. Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in the district of Ceilandia. Jair Bolsonaro, a leading presidential candidate in Brazil, was stabbed during a campaign event on Thursday, though officials and his son said the injury was not life-threatening. Numerous videos on social media showed Bolsonaro, whose far-right platform includes cracking down on crime in Latin America's largest nation, being stabbed with a knife to the lower part of his stomach. At the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand. After the attack, he is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed to The Associated Press that Bolsonaro had been stabbed and that his attacker was arrested. Santiago said Bolsonaro was taken to a hospital in Juiz de Fora, a city about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro, and was in good condition. Santiago said the attacker was identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, and that he was beaten up badly by Bolsonaro supporters after the attack. More information about de Oliveira wasn't immediately available. Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro posted on Twitter that his father is doing fine. The wound "was superficial and he is OK," wrote Flavio, who also asked for prayers for the family. A statement from federal police said the candidate had bodyguards. In the videos, Bolsonaro does not appear to be wearing a protective vest. "This episode is sad," President Michel Temer told reporters in Brasilia. "We won't have a rule of law if we have intolerance." Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, is second in the polls to ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been barred from running but continues to appeal. Despite being a congressman since 1991, Bolsonaro is running as an outsider ready to upend the establishment. While he has a strong following, Bolsonaro is also a deeply polarizing figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays. He also speaks nostalgically about the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His vice presidential running mate is a retired general. Earlier this week, Bolsonaro said during a campaign event that he would like to shoot corrupt members of the Workers' Party. The comment prompted an immediate rebuke the attorney general, who asked Bolsonaro to explain that comment. Other candidates quickly denounced the attack. "Politics is done through dialogue and by convincing, never with hate," tweeted Gerado Alckmin, former governor of Sao Paulo who has focused negative ads on Bolsonaro. Fernando Haddad, who is expected to take da Silva's place on the Workers' Party's ticket, called the attack "absurd and regrettable." Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Sao Paulo contributed to this report. Chahid El Hafed, Sept 05, 2018 (SPS) - The Ministry of the Occupied Territories and Abroad Community has strongly condemned the European Union's efforts to include the Western Sahara illegally in trade agreements with Morocco pointing out the agendas of the meeting of the human rights components in the occupied areas with the European Commission's fact-finding mission on agricultural and fisheries products in Western Sahara, in a statement a copy reached SPS The Sahrawi human rights components emphasized to the said mission that the Frente POLISARIO is the unique and legitimate representative to the Sahrawi people, recalling the EUCJ ruling which stipulates clearly the sovereignty of the people of Western Sahara over their natural resources submitting to it reports reveal the systematic human rights violations, media blockade, plundering of natural resources and the Moroccan authorities attempts to erase Sahrawi people cultural identity in the Occupied Territories, the statement states The Moroccan authoritys pressure leads EU Parliament's mission to hold the meetings with the Sahrawi activities in the Bardour Hotel, besieged by Moroccan police and intelligence services and equipped with espionage and surveillance techniques, the ministry statement adds. The Ministry praises highly the efforts of the Sahrawi human rights activities who courageously challenge the Moroccan military and intimidation policy to reach out to their European interlocutors, reaffirming that Morocco has an illegitimacy authority to negotiate any trade agreements on behalf of the Saharawi people as an occupying power SPS 125/090/TRA Of all the ways scammers can steal your money, experts agree the most difficult frauds to combat are the ones that seek to turn your own faith against you. Law enforcement officials call them affinity frauds targeting victims through a common bond, most often religion. While nationwide statistics are hard to come by because the scams are so widespread, it's fair to say that affinity fraud losses run into the billions of dollars per year. "People want to trust," Jenice Malecki, a New York securities lawyer who specializes in affinity fraud cases, said in an interview with CNBC's "American Greed." "Especially in affinity situations, where people feel more comfortable for one reason or another, be it a church or an ethnic community, they tend to not look as hard as they should at what's in front of them." Few were better at targeting people of faith than Ephren Taylor, who fleeced some $16 million from members of church flocks in 43 states by preaching so-called "prosperity gospel." "Biblical principles (are) investing wisely, responsibly, and for the purpose of furthering the kingdom. But also, God wants us to be prosperous," said Anita Dorio, who, along with her husband, Gary, heard Taylor's pitch at the giant Lakewood Church in Houston. The Dorios invested their life's savings of $1.3 million with Taylor, who professed to be a self-made multimillionaire, having created a video game as a teenager. Appearing at churches across the country, often at the behest of the pastor, Taylor sold promissory notes that he claimed were backed by socially responsible ventures like small businesses and affordable housing projects. But it was all a Ponzi scheme. The Dorios and hundreds of other investors lost everything. Taylor is serving a 19-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to a single count of fraud. "So many people were just devastated by this," Gary Dorio told "American Greed." "Families destroyed, dreams destroyed." Holy war Affinity frauds persist despite a widespread crackdown in recent years that intensified after Bernard Madoff's epic Ponzi scheme blew up nearly a decade ago. Madoff's fraud, in which investors lost nearly $20 billion, focused on the Jewish communities in New York and Florida. The FBI says it is investigating $2 billion worth of affinity fraud in Utah alone, where an estimated 60 percent of the population belongs to the Mormon church. The church itself has issued warnings to the faithful, the Utah Legislature has increased penalties for financial fraud and the state attorney general is making it easier for residents to check out prospective investment advisors and business partners. The Utah White Collar Crime Offender Registry, a first-of-its kind program launched by the attorney general's office in 2016, is a searchable database of people convicted of a range of financial crimes in the previous 10 years. Just enter the person's name, and if he or she is in the registry, you will find the nature of the offense, and when and where it occurred. You will even get a picture of the offender. For now, the registry lists only Utah offenders convicted of state crimes. Officials there say it could be a model nationwide. "I think any time you can give investors more information, that is a very good idea," Malecki said. Experts agree that government efforts like the registry, stepped up enforcement and investor education programs are important weapons in the fight against affinity fraud. But investors themselves need to take up arms as well. Articles of faith Affinity scams are so powerful because they harness the same thing that draws us to religion faith. Malecki says one of the keys to not being taken in by a religious-based affinity fraud is to separate your faith in a higher power from your faith in an investment advisor who shows up at your place of worship. "First of all, you have to ask yourself, 'Why am I being solicited to invest by someone whom I have a different type of relationship with,'" she said. "If you're getting information about investments at a church, that should be the first red flag that something isn't right." But if you are still considering an investment pitch that comes through your place of worship, be at least as skeptical as you would be of a pitch you got someplace else. "What are this person or these people's credentials to actually make this investment successful?" Malecki said. "I always tell my clients, 'You're a squirrel in the woods with your nuts, and if you don't keep them close to you someone will take them.'" Just as you would for any investment advisor, run the person's name through the proper database to check them out. While the Utah registry only includes those convicted of state crimes, investors elsewhere can use the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)'s Broker Check to learn a broker's employment and disciplinary history. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investment Advisor Public Disclosure site will search federal and state registrations to help determine if the advisor you are considering is legitimate. Do not forget to search the advisor's firm as well. "Those brokerage firms, especially the large ones, will likely be there, and you can actually do due diligence on the broker dealers as well," Malecki said. "Are they small companies and underfunded?" If your prospective advisor or their firm does not come up in your search, that could be a warning sign as well. "You shouldn't be in a faith-based belief system institution getting investment advice about hard dollars that you've earned your whole life," Malecki said. Wise teachings Activist investor Daniel Loeb's hedge fund Third Point is looking to replace Campbell Soup's entire board, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Such a campaign would shine an unprecedented spotlight on the three descendants of Campbell's founder who sit on the soup company's board. Two of those descendants, Bennett Dorrance and Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, together hold a 33 percent stake in Campbell. The fiercely private siblings, whose father served as Campbell chairman, have resisted past pressure to sell the company. The third family member on the board is Archie Van Buren, nephew to Bennett and Mary Alice. Van Buren is a trustee in the Campbell Voting Trust, through which other descendants together hold a combined 7.9 percent stake in the company. Campbell requires two-thirds shareholder vote approval for a deal. The company announced last week it is selling its international and fresh food businesses, as the 149-year-old condensed-soup maker struggles to regain its financial footing and refocus on its signature packaged foods. The announcement came after a three-month critical review, propelled by disappointing earnings and the surprise departure of Campbell's CEO. Last week's announcement, though, was underwhelming to Third Point, the Journal reported. The hedge fund believes a fresh slate of directors would put all options for Campbell back on the table. WeWork, the shared space company, describes its annual summer camp as a place to de-stress, meditate and go off the grid. But at its most recent festival, a comment by WeWork founding partner Rebekah Neumann left some people scratching their heads. At the three-day extravaganza, Rebekah made an appearance alongside her husband, WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, and co-founder Miguel McKelvey, recounts attendee and journalist Thomas Hobbs in a recently published article for Property Week. Rebekah took the stage and pointed to her husband's sister Adi who was sitting in the front row, says Hobbs. She then started to cry while thanking Adi for helping Adam get his start when he moved to New York. "I'm so grateful you took care of Adam," Hobbs recalled Rebekah saying. "You helped him create the biggest family in the world. A big part of being a woman is to help men [like Adam] manifest their calling in life." Perhaps surprisingly, Hobbs reports, people in the crowd did not react to the idea that a large part of a woman's success would be tied to a man's achievements and not their own. "There were points where I said to myself: Are they really saying these things?" Hobbs told Make It. However, the comment rankled several women on social media today when Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Ellen Huet tweeted Rebekah's quote and said it "sent my eyebrows into the stratosphere." Other Twitter users responded, "Think I'm failing as a woman," and "Naw, just naw." TWEET "[Rebekah] might have been trying to make a wider point," Hobbs said, "but it got a little lost to be honest." WeWork declined to comment but emailed an additional quote from Rebekah's summer camp remarks to provide some context. She also said at the event: "The reality that I see today is that there is nothing bigger that women can do, in my opinion, than empower their partners and that can be a man, a woman, a friend, it doesn't matter, but empower others." Adam has publicly credited his wife for helping to transform his life and mindset. He told TechCrunch in 2017 that his decision to embark on a business career was at first motivated by money and a fun, fast-paced lifestyle. That changed when he met Rebekah. "She told me that if I brought passion and intention together, it would lead me in the right direction and I would become genuinely happy," said Adam. "And then, the money would follow." His sister Adi also provided a seamless transition to the U.S., which helped propel Adam's business career. When the CEO first moved to New York City from Israel, Adam lived in her apartment for five years, while taking business classes and managing her income, Forbes reports. A number of other execs have attributed their success to the female figures in their lives, including former president Barack Obama and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. But few, if any, have said a woman's role was to support a man's calling. Nor is this the only time Rebekah has shared similar sentiments. In a wide-ranging 2016 interview with Porter magazine, the entrepreneur discussed how she's helped her husband, saying: "Women need to get to the right level for men to even have the opportunity to get there." "We create a place for them to rise to," she continued. "We have a really important role to play." Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! Don't miss: 6 ways to convince a skeptic the pay gap is real In 2015, Florida surfers Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze embarked on a post-college trip to Bali in search of big waves. What they found were beaches buried in garbage. But the friends also came home with a big idea for a multimillion-dollar business to help clean the world's oceans. A pollution solution Cooper, 28, and Schulze, 27, first met as college students at Florida Atlantic University, where they both studied business and graduated in 2014. The following year, the two friends set off for a three-week surfing trip to Bali, Indonesia an island in the Indian Ocean that's a mecca for the sport. In addition to being popular with tourists, Indonesia is also second only to China among the world's biggest polluters. When Cooper and Schulze arrived, they were immediately struck by the massive pollution that chokes Bali's beaches with trash that washes up from the ocean. "Pretty much right when we got [to the beach] the first thing we saw was an overwhelming amount of plastic," Cooper tells CNBC Make It. It was a vista strewn with everything from plastic bottles and bags to used food containers and other refuse. Kedonganan beach, Bali, Indonesia Muhammad Fauzy | NurPhoto via Getty Images Cooper and Schulze saw so much plastic that they approached a lifeguard: "I said, 'Hey, man, how come there's all this plastic on the beach and no one's doing anything about it?'" Cooper recalls. The lifeguard responded that the government cleaned the beaches every morning, only to watch more and more trash wash up with the tide throughout the day. "That was a real eye-opener for us," Cooper says. The world's 8 million-ton problem It was on that trip that Cooper and Schulze first had the idea that led them to found 4Ocean, a for-profit business that pulls plastic and glass waste from oceans around the world in order to repurpose it by making bracelets out of those recycled materials. 4Ocean sells each bracelet for $20 with the promise that the money from each purchase will fund one pound of trash removal. BraceletTweetPic In July, Boca Raton, Florida-based 4Ocean announced that it had pulled more than 1 million pounds of plastic, glass and other trash from the ocean since the company launched in January 2017. Cooper and Schulze say 4Ocean has sold just more than $30 million worth of recycled bracelets to fund their ongoing cleanup efforts. They still have a long way to go. Roughly 8 million tons of plastic waste is dumped in the world's oceans each year, according to one study, and Indonesia accounts for more than 10 percent of that total. At the beginning of 2018, Bali's government declared a "garbage emergency" after local cleanup efforts on the island of more than 4 million people failed to mitigate the coastal trash problem despite workers sometimes hauling away as much as 100 tons of garbage per day. 4Ocean co-founders Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper. Source: 4Ocean The biggest reason for the massive amount of refuse that enters the world's oceans is a swelling global population that produces more and more waste, while a whopping 91 percent of the world's plastic waste has never been recycled, according to a study published in 2017. Pollution problems are especially bad in developing countries such as Indonesia, which can lack the necessary infrastructure to handle it. Before they visited Indonesia, Cooper and Schulze were already aware of the country's trash problem. Both men are avid surfers, fishermen and licensed boat captains who have spent their lives on the waters of Southern Florida. The two literally "met on a boat" one day amid a group of surfers and mutual friends in the waters near their college in Boca Raton. "When you spend that much time on the water you really have an affinity for the ocean and an appreciation for it," Schulze says. An entrepreneurial answer But it wasn't until they visited Bali themselves that Cooper and Schulze had an epiphany about an entrepreneurial method of attacking the problem. Despite the garbage on Bali's beaches, the surf breaks were still crowded with surfers when Cooper and Schulze visited in 2015, they tell CNBC Make It, so they paid a local to take them to a private surfing area. Out on the water, they watched Balinese fishermen navigate their boats around masses of floating plastic and pull up fishing nets bulging with plastic bottles and trash. The fishermen simply tossed all of the rubbish, everything but the fish, back into the water, Cooper and Schulze say. "They're pulling the nets back in and taking the plastic out of their nets and throwing it back overboard, and the boats are driving around these islands of plastic," Cooper says. Cooper asked one fisherman: "'How come you guys aren't taking this plastic back and recycling it? You're just throwing it back in the water where it doesn't belong.' And, they simply responded, 'Well, we don't get paid to pick up plastic, we get paid to pick up fish.'" That response was another eye-opener for the two Americans, who say at that moment their business sense kicked in. "Well, there's a demand for seafood, there's not a demand for plastic, so you can't get mad at him," Cooper says. "And, that's when we really came up with this light bulb idea of 'Can we shift the demand from seafood to plastic?'" It was just a kernel, but Cooper and Schulze couldn't stop thinking about it when they returned home. "We told our families we had this crazy idea," Cooper says, adding that the pair knew they wanted to manufacture and sell a product made from recycled marine waste they just weren't yet sure what the product would be. "We knew that we wanted it to be gender neutral," Cooper says. "We knew that it didn't need to be too much of a statement of your personality or your outfit very subtle and subliminal but still a talking point. And, the bracelet just kind of evolved itself out of all that." Cooper and Schulze spent most of 2016 laying the groundwork for the launch of 4Ocean. They designed a logo and a prototype for the bracelet and found a local manufacturing partner who could make it, giving them something to put on social media as well as the website they designed to lay out their mission and solicit orders. The pair had already started doing their own cleanups at the beaches near Boca Raton to get the materials for the first batch of bracelets, which feature clear beads made from recycled glass and a colored cord made from recycled plastic. The cords are available in a range of colors, from the original deep sea blue to dark red or bright green. The initial reactions Cooper and Schulze got from their family and friends was "'you guys are crazy mad scientists. This is never going to work, but I hope it does!'" Cooper says. But after they saw the first prototype of the bracelet and the 4Ocean website, they started to believe. Getting off the ground For more than a year between their trip to Bali and the January 2017 launch of 4Ocean, Cooper and Schulze continued to work their respective day jobs. Both men had obtained their boat captain's licenses while in college, taking gigs on the water to help pay their way through school. After graduating, Cooper remained working as a tow-boat captain with the Florida company Sea Tow, while Schulze led chartered fishing tours for tourists and sport fishermen off the coast of Southern Florida. The two co-founders saved all the money they could roughly $2,500 apiece initially to get the company started. The capital went toward the bracelet prototypes as well as a year-long lease for office space in Boca Raton at about $500 a month. But it didn't take long before enough people started visiting 4Ocean.com and pre-ordering $20 bracelets, with the promise that each purchase would pay for one pound of garbage being removed from the ocean, to allow the pair to quit their jobs and work on 4Ocean full-time. "I think we said if we sell 20 bracelets a day, that's all we need to do," Cooper says. "'I'll wake up in the morning, I'll walk to beach, I'll pull 20 pounds and we'll quit our jobs and we'll do this full time.' And, we were selling 20 bracelets a day before we knew it." In fact, 4Ocean sold 20 bracelets on its first day of online sales and enough to pick up over 250,000 pounds of ocean garbage over the course of 2017. Cooper and Schulze place the credit for 4Ocean's rapid growth on their ability to be "really scrappy." 4Ocean got off the ground with Cooper and Schulze themselves picking up pieces of trash from beaches and waterways in Florida, and the company now employs over 180 people around the world, including cleanup boats and crews that work full-time pulling trash out of the ocean. A 4Ocean boat Source: 4Ocean 4Ocean employees have pulled over 1.1 million pounds of garbage from the waters around Florida, Indonesia and Haiti since the company launched. Cooper and Schulze did not reveal how much their crews are paid, but they tell CNBC Make It it's a "considerable amount" and that all of the 4Ocean employees are full-time workers with full medical benefits. (For what it's worth, the minimum wage in Bali is currently just more than $140 per month, and the Indonesian government introduced a universal health care system in 2014 for the country of 250 million people. In 2017, the median pay for fishermen in the United States was $28,530, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.) BALI TWEET More than 40 percent of the profits 4Ocean sees from selling bracelets (which are now made in Bali) is spent on the company's cleanup operations, with another roughly 10 percent going to 4Ocean's various charity partners, including non-profit organizations focused on marine life like the Coral Restoration Foundation and Project Aware, according to Cooper and Schulze. The two co-founders take salaries of $50,000 per year apiece, with the rest of 4Ocean's profits getting invested back in the business to continue expanding the cleanup operations. 4Ocean has also recently put other items up for sale, from t-shirts to reusable steel water bottles, that also make money to fund the company's cleanup operations. It has never taken on outside investment. 4Ocean products Source: 4Ocean Next stop: 10 million Cooper and Schulze started 4Ocean with the goal of making a dent in the billions of pounds of marine waste that litter the world's oceans, but they still say it's hard to believe that their company has already managed to remove more than a million pounds of marine waste. "It literally is unbelievable to think that just a year-and-a-half ago, Andrew and I were sitting in that office just ourselves," Schulze says. "I mean, you know, every single day you've got to kind of pinch yourself." Over the past few years, one thing that has been cemented in the minds of Cooper and Schulze is that ocean waste is such a global problem. "The strange thing is just seeing trash that comes from all over the world," Cooper says. "In South Florida, we've gotten trash with Chinese letters, trash from Haiti and the island of Hispaniola. And, then vice versa. In Bali you'll get trash from India, Sri Lanka, China." In that way, part of 4Ocean's mission is to help prevent people around the world from contributing to the problem of marine waste. "I think the craziest thing about it is you see this trash that's come in and it's gone through this incredible journey, literally traveling the world, and it ends up right on our doorstep" Schulze says. "People don't realize that it really does travel the world and ends up in people's beaches [and] coastlines and it doesn't break down." Amazon has poached Project Runway's Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn for a new fashion show, according to several news outlets including The Hollywood Reporter. The two Project Runway stars have been connected to the show for all of the series' 16 seasons, the Hollywood Reporter said, and will help create an "untitled global fashion competition series" for Amazon. Both stars confirmed the move in statements to the publication. It's a big win for Amazon, as it builds out a content studio and funnels money into original content. The e-commerce giant has been expanding its streaming offerings as it seeks to compete with fellow tech giants Apple, Netflix and Facebook. Representatives for Amazon didn't immediately return request for comment from CNBC. Read the full Hollywood Reporter story. Italy withdrawing from both the European Union (EU) and the single currency would be extremely painful for the world's banking system, an investment chief told CNBC on Friday. Italy's coalition government is poised to present its 2019 budget next month, setting out its economic and financial plans for the coming year. The event is likely to be closely monitored by investors, with many concerned Italy's euroskeptic leaders will stick to contentious spending plans and exacerbate the country's growing budget deficit and massive debt pile. "An Italian exit from the EU and an Italian exit from the euro would be a very, very painful event for the European and therefore world banking system. It could require the biggest bank recapitalization ever bigger than the U.S. in 2008," Jim McCaughan, CEO of Principal Global Investors, told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy on Friday. "(But) with public opinion in Italy remaining pro-EU, so long as that stays, I think they are not going to get into that kind of tension," he added. Recapitalization refers to a company restructuring its debt and equity mixture to make its capital structure more stable. During times of financial crisis, such as in 2008, governments can also intervene when the solvency of banks and the broader economic system come into question. Motorcycles for the take-out delivery service of Meituan.com, stop outside a Beijing residential district. China's Meituan Dianping, an online food delivery-to-ticketing services platform, confirmed it had filed for an up to $4.4 billion Hong Kong IPO, and said it will focus on its domestic business instead of overseas expansion in the near future. It set an indicative price range of HK$60 to HK$72 ($7.6-$9.2) per share for its IPO, confirming a Reuters report over the weekend and valuing itself at up to $55 billion. That could make it the world's biggest internet-focused float since e-commerce giant Alibaba Group's $25 billion New York listing in 2014. Beijing-based Meituan, which offers services ranging from movie ticketing, food delivery to hotel and travel booking as well as ride-hailing, will make its market debut on Sept. 20. The firm was valued at around $30 billion in a fundraising round late last year. "There are plenty of opportunities in the overseas markets but we have a very good customer base in China ... We would like to be rooted in China and focus on the domestic market first," Meituan's co-founder and chief executive, Wang Xing, said at a news conference in Hong Kong on Thursday. Founded in 2010, Meituan which used to be likened to U.S. discounting platform Groupon, in 2015 completed a $15 billion merger with its then main rival Dianping, akin to U.S. online review firm Yelp. Currently, its competitors include Alibaba-backed food-delivery platform Ele.me and leading ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing, backed by Japan's SoftBank Group. This year, Meituan invested in Indonesian ride hailing firm Go-Jek and Indian online delivery service provider Swiggy. Co-founder and senior vice president Wang Huiwen said as the company's core strategy is "food plus platform", it does not plan to increase its investment in the car-hailing business. Other business segments such as its merchants' management system and food supply chain are more worthy of investment, Wang Huiwen said, as they are more relevant to Meituan's core food delivery business than car-hailing. Meituan's float is among the latest on a packed Hong Kong listing calendar for the coming months, including an up to $1 billion IPO from top movie ticketing platform Maoyan Weying and an at least $3 billion listing from bitcoin mining equipment maker Bitmain. Hong Kong has seen a pickup in interest for listings after the introduction of new rules this year designed to attract tech companies with dual-class share structures. Meituan's IPO will be the city's second multibillion-dollar tech float in 2018 after smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp's blockbuster $4.72 billion IPO in June. Xiaomi fully exercised a 15 percent "greenshoe", or over-allotment, option in July, taking total proceeds from the IPO to $5.4 billion. Meituan said it will sell about 480 million primary shares. Including a 15 percent "greenshoe" option, the deal size would be $5.1 billion. The price range represents a multiple of 23.5 times to 28.2 times its 2020 profit forecast from its underwriting syndicate, according to Thomson Reuters publication IFR. Meituan has lined up $1.5 billion from five cornerstone investors for its IPO. Its main backer, tech giant Tencent Holdings, has committed $400 million; global asset manager Oppenheimer $500 million; UK-based hedge fund Lansdowne Partners $300 million; U.S fund Darsana $200 million and state-backed China Structural Reform Fund $100 million. JAKARTA, INDONESIA - APRIL 22: Royal Naval Vessel HMS Albion arrives at the port of Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 22, 2018. A British Royal Navy warship that sailed close to islands in the South China Sea claimed by China risked hampering any talks about a free trade agreement after Britain leaves the European Union, a major Chinese state-run newspaper said on Friday. China and Britain agreed last month to look at the possibility of reaching a "top notch" post-Brexit free trade deal which, if struck, would be an important political win for Britain's Conservative government. "China and the UK had agreed to actively explore the possibility of discussing a free trade agreement after Brexit. Any act that harms China's core interests will only put a spanner in the works," the state-run China Daily newspaper said in an English-language editorial. Britain has long courted China for a post-Brexit trade deal and talked up a "golden era" in ties, although any talks could not begin until Britain officially leaves the European Union and typically take many years to conclude. The HMS Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship, sailed near the Paracel Islands claimed by China last month, Reuters reported on Thursday, prompting an angry reaction from China which called it a "provocation." The Paracels are occupied entirely by China but also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. China's claims in the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Britain does not have any territorial claims in the area. The China Daily said Britain was trying to "curry favour" with the United States, which has been pushing for more international participation in Freedom of Navigation Operations in the strategic waterways. "Now that it is eyeing the U.S. as an economic lifeline after it exits the European Union the United Kingdom is no doubt eager to seize whatever opportunity it can to get into Washington's good books," the paper said. Tesla CEO Elon Musk's marijuana "stunt" during a live interview was ill-advised and casts serious doubts on his ability to run the electric automaker, CNBC's said Friday. "[This is] the behavior of a man who should not be running a public company," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." Late Thursday night, Musk smoked weed and drank whiskey during an interview on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast. Cramer said the morning after, "I don't think anyone should be in a situation where there are companies completely under a cloud, where he is completely under a cloud and he does something that I regard as being unstable." Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Cramer's remarks. Shares of Tesla were sharply lower Friday after more bad news in the form of two high-level executive departures, including Dave Morton, the company's chief accounting officer, who was only on the job for a month. Cramer said Morton's quick resignation Friday morning was "such a red flag." Tesla stock, down as much as 10 percent in early trading, was now on pace for worst day since June 22, 2016, when it lost nearly 10.5 percent. Tesla started to garner lots of negative attention after Musk's tweet last month about possibly taking the electric car maker private stunned Wall Street and Washington regulators. The take-private idea has since been abandoned. At the time, Cramer urged investors to listen to comments by billionaire investor Mark Cuban on CNBC who defended Musk. Cuban said, in part, "When you invest in an entrepreneur, you get the personality." "We keep expecting a certain level of convention, and [Musk's] not going to give it to you," Cramer, host of "Mad Money" said in August. "Therefore, you should stop looking for it." Musk had been acting erratically for months even before the take-private tweet and the subsequently bizarre interviews with The New York Times and Rogan. In May, Musk rudely cut off analysts on Tesla's first-quarter earnings call, something he apologized for on the second-quarter call in August. Musk was also launching tweetstorm after tweetstorm all summer long as he was dealing with production problems for the automaker's new, less expensive sedan, the Model 3. KABUL, Afghanistan U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Kabul on Friday to meet the new commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan and discuss progress on talks with the Taliban, despite deteriorating security and turmoil within the Afghan government. The United States is a year into its latest attempt to step up pressure on the Taliban by increasing air strikes and sending thousands more troops to train and advise Afghan forces, but the effort has yet to make Afghanistan more secure and stable. The 17-year-old war is America's longest conflict. Mattis is accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Joseph Dunford. The surprise visit is Mattis' fourth time in the country since becoming defense secretary, and it's part of a larger trip including stops in San Diego and India. U.S. Army General Scott Miller assumed command of NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday, arriving as Washington faces growing questions over its strategy to force the Taliban into talks to end the grinding conflict. Speaking with reporters this week, Mattis said he was hopeful about peace talks with the Taliban. "Right now, we have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage," Mattis said. "It now has some framework, there's some open lines of communication," Mattis added. Over the summer, a top U.S. State Department official met Taliban officials in Qatar to try to lay the ground work for broader peace talks. The U.S. government has pointed toward the Taliban accepting a temporary truce in June, as a sign of why the talks should be viewed with hope. "The most important work that has to be done is beginning the political process and reconciliation," Dunford told reporters travelling with him. "What we are trying to do in the military dimension is convince the Taliban that they cannot win on the battlefield and that they must engage in a peace process." Privately, however U.S. officials and experts are more cautious. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was unclear how much influence the Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, had over the group's leadership. "I think that both the U.S. and Afghanistan have perhaps exaggerated the good news in Afghanistan," Michael Kugelman, with the Wilson Center think-tank in Washington. Two insurgent commanders have told Reuters that the Taliban rejected a second ceasefire offered this month by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Mattis' visit to Afghanistan comes amid recent attacks. A U.S. service member was killed and another wounded Monday in "an apparent insider attack" in eastern Afghanistan, according to a statement from the Resolute Support, the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, 20 people were killed in twin bomb attacks in Kabul. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. There are approximately 14,000 Americans in Afghanistan. CNBC's Amanda Macias contributed to this report. Five divisions of the $30,000 third and last leg of the Kentucky Sires Stakes for two-year-old trotters took place on Thursday evening at The Red Mile on a pleasant but overcast evening with the track rated good to start the card after a brief shower just before the 7:00 post time and deteriorating slightly as the evening wore on. The team from Lindy Farms led by trainer Domenico Cecere and driver Scott Zeron enjoyed another terrific night in the KYSS series with three winners and a pair of thirds in five starts on the card, all with homebreds. The Antonacci family also bred a fourth KYSS winner in Run Lindy Run under the KR Breeding stable name. Two of those wins were in filly divisions with the last stake on the day another stage for the fearless Taylor Swiftly to perform, leaving her competition wondering why shes gotta be so mean with another effortless win, her third consecutive in the KYSS series. Beginning from post 7, Taylor Swiftly was three wide through much of the :28.1 opening quarter to make the lead, relinquished it to eventual second place finisher Whispering Oaks (Yannick Gingras) until head stretch where Zeron found room to fan wide for the drive and she rolled on by for the 1:56.1 win. Nomo Volo (Kruger) closed to get third. Taylor Swiftly is from the first crop of Trixton out of the Valley Victory mare True Diva, was bred by and is owned by Lindy Farms of Connecticut. The greatest threat to Taylor Swiftlys KYSS supremacy also resides in the Cecere barn in the improving Lindy Pearl. That filly became a double leg winner for Zeron when she shrugged off the constant hounding of a very game Strip It Down AS (Elliott Deaton) through fair fractions then trotted away impressively to a 4-1/4 length score through a :28.2 end to the 1:56 mile. Made the even money favourite off her 1:55.1 score in leg #2, Lindy Pearl has demonstrated a great fondness for the Bluegrass. Strip It Down AS, in a particularly gritty effort, held for part of a place dead-heat with Hyperbole (Yannick Gingras). The winner is by Muscle Hill from the mare Possessed By Lindy. Lindys Crazy Hall kept the Lindy name in lights when he went gate to wire in 1:56.1 for Zeron in a colt division. The slight 2-1 favourite left sharply to an immediate lead, put Reign Of Honor in the pocket then rated friendly fractions, kicking home in :28.4 to hold off a serious late bids from both Shake N Bake (Deaton) and Memo (Kruger), second and third respectively by three parts of a length. Lindys Crazy Hall is a product of more Lindy Farms home cookin, by Cantab Hall out of the mare Lindys Gone Crazy. The first of the two colt divisions opened the card and Forecast (Corey Callahan) parlayed a lovely second over trip into a career best 1:55.3 win for trainer John Butenschoen. The favourite players fell prey to immediate disappointment when the 1-5 favourite Dont Letem broke well before the start and was out of the race before it began. Seizing the moment was driver Matt Kruger who put longshot High Into The Sky on the lead and set hasty fractions that left him unmolested through the 56.4 half until Signore Cardin (Zeron) rolled up uncovered by the 1:27.1 third panel with Forecast drafting just off his back. High Into The Sky battled valiantly, deflecting Signore Cardins bid but could not resist Forecast who closed into the 28.2 final quarter for his second win in the stakes series. The winner, a son of Cantab Hall from Downpour, was purchased by Butenschoen on behalf of his long-time owners William Wiswell, Jean Goehlen and Eugene Schick from breeder Diamond Creek Farms at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale (LSYS) for $70,000. Run Lindy Run, having flashed great speed but undone herself with breaks in several prior efforts, rewarded her faithful followers with a front end masterpiece at 7-1 for Corey Callahan (a stakes double for the driver) in 1:56. Trainer Ron Burke has been looking for answers with the talented Cantab Hall-Tough Girl Lindy lass and found the right one tonight as she led unchallenged all the way, holding off Asiago (Gingras) and the late trotting Mother Teresa (Zeron) for her first pari-mutuel score. Run Lindy Run was a Harrisburg bargain at $25,000 for Burke, who owns the filly alone under the Burke Racing Stable, LLC banner. KR Breeding is the breeder. The freshman KYSS pacers take to the track on Saturday night in the last of the preliminary legs for that group. The top-10 point-earners in each of the eight divisions will return for the $2 million KYSS finals on Sunday (Sept. 16), with a special afternoon post time of 3 p.m. The eight $250,000 finals will be the centerpiece of the new Fayette County Fair, which will take place that day from noon to 6 p.m. The fair will include food trucks, local craft breweries, bourbon tastings and an arts and crafts market. Also, several musical acts will play on two stages (one inside and one outside), with rising country star and Lexington native Walker Montgomery among the performers. The racing program will be kicked off with a horse parade of various breeds and the Harness Horse Youth Foundation will offer hands-on equine experiences. (The Red Mile) If politicians were better at science, tech companies could probably innovate better, according to Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO appeared on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast called "The Joe Rogan Experience" late Thursday where he spoke on a wide range of topics including artificial intelligence (AI). "You know, I wish politicians were better at science. That would help a lot," Musk said when Rogan asked him about bottlenecks at the companies he runs and the things that were holding back innovation. Musk agreed with Rogan that there are not incentives for American politicians to be good at science. "Actually, they're pretty good at science in China, I have to say," Musk said, adding, "The mayor of Beijing has, I believe, an environmental engineering degree, and the deputy mayor has a physics degree. I met them." Beijing's mayor, Chen Jining, is a "doctor of engineering" and a professor, and obtained a master's degree in civil and environmental engineering from Imperial College, London. Beijing has multiple vice mayors and it wasn't immediately clear whom Musk was talking about. "And the mayor of Shanghai is really smart," Musk said about Ying Yong, who holds a masters degree in law, according to the government's website. The role of government in the technology sector is a frequently debated topic around the world. Many argue that if governments come up with heavy-handed regulations against tech companies, or push for unfavorable policies, it could potentially stifle innovation. Recently, U.S. lawmakers grilled Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey over what the tech giants are doing to fight abuse on social platforms and online election meddling. Other American tech names are worried about the impact of a potential new round of U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Dell, Cisco, Juniper Networks and Hewlett Packard Enterprise reportedly sent a last minute letter to the U.S. Trade Representative's office asking for an exemption, worried that it could increase their costs and potentially lead to job losses. For his part, Musk is facing a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission on whether he violated securities laws after he claimed in a tweet that he had the funds to take Tesla private. Musk has since posted that, based on the feedback he received, it was apparent that most of Tesla's existing shareholders believed it was better off as a public company. Some states like California, where Rogan's podcast is recorded, have legalized the plant for recreational use. However, marijuana is still illegal according to U.S. federal law. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled back President Barack Obama-era policies in January that previously dictated the Justice Department would not pursue cases against those who violated federal marijuana laws in states where pot had been legalized. Tesla also asks that you do your part by following safety and health rules and practices and reporting (either openly or confidentially) accidents or any unsafe equipment, behavior (such as use of illegal drugs) or conditions to your manager, supervisor, Human Resources or the Legal Department. Violence and threatening behavior are not permitted, and under no circumstances should you bring a weapon to work. Employees should report to work without being under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol. The use of illegal drugs in the workplace will not be tolerated. One could argue Musk was representing Tesla as its CEO during the interview. By imbibing alcohol and marijuana, he was "under the influence" while at work. In an email to The Guardian, Musk said, "Our policy allows trace amounts of THC [an ingredient of cannabis] during work times, provided they are below the safety limit (much like a minimum alcohol level)." This isn't the first time there's been concern about Musk's drug use. Tesla board members have also raised concerns over Musk's consumption of recreational and prescription drugs, according to The New York Times. In particular, sources told the publication that Musk's use of sleeping aid Ambien may be having a negative effect, causing him to ramble on Twitter. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's shares were down as much as 9 percent on Friday morning and closed down 6 percent. Italy is unlikely to have new elections in 2019, despite ongoing questions about the future of its government; a former Italian prime minister told CNBC Friday. "I don't think 2019 will be the year of a new national vote," Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister, told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum. The two-party coalition that took power in Italy last May is shaking financial markets with promises to increase public spending. But their inexperience at the national level and the fact that they are two populist parties from opposite sides of the political spectrum have led many analysts to consider until when they will manage to stay in government. "But at the same time I think the European vote will be in any way an earthquake at the European level and I think the national level too," Letta, who served as prime minister between 2013 and 2014, said. Italy's former prime minister, Enrico Letta Elisabetta A. Villa | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images In the Spring, voters in Europe will be called to the polls to choose new representatives for the European Parliament. According to Letta, these elections "will be a turning point" for Europe. "Because the big changes today and the big troubles in the public opinion will be there in the European vote...We had 20 years of stability, we had two pillars, left and right, cooperating at the European level. Next year, the fragmentation will be total, it will be very complicated to find majorities," he said. In the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis, many Europeans have become fed up with the political system. The many years of lackluster economic growth and high unemployment have led to a widespread frustration, which has been exacerbated by an ongoing migrant crisis. All of these issues combined has contributed to a surge in public support for populist parties. These have gained more space in politics in the last couple of years through the various national votes a phenomenon that is likely to hit European institutions next year. Italian spending plans could spell out problems Republicans aiming to push through another tax plan are wasting their time, GOP Rep. Leonard Lance told CNBC on Friday. House Republicans hope to hold a floor vote on the second stage of its tax reform later this month. The legislation will aim to make individual cuts, which were passed last year, permanent. But the most controversial aspect is the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, which would also become permanent. Lance, a moderate Republican who represents the 7th district in New Jersey, is against that cap and did not vote for the GOP bill the first time. New Jersey has some of the highest taxes in the nation. "I favor lowering corporate taxes. We have to be competitive with the rest of the world and I also favor complete deductibility of state and local taxes," he said on "Power Lunch." "If we were to pass that here in the House it would be an exercise in futility because it could never pass in the Senate," he added. The measure needs 60 votes to pass the Senate and therefore would require at least nine Democrats to back it. "That is not going to happen," said Lance. The latest plan, known as tax cut 2.0, comes just months before the midterm elections. Republicans are trying to hold onto their majority in the House. In order to flip the chamber, Democrats would have to win at least 23 Republican-held seats. Lance's district is considered a toss-up. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., also voted against the GOP tax reform bill and called the move to make the state and local tax cap permanent a "terrible idea." Before Trump's tax reform, those so-called SALT deductions were unlimited. "I support cutting corporate tax rates but the problem is it was done on the backs of state like ours in Jersey, where it's had a significant impact," he told "Power Lunch." "It's been a tax hike on our residents." Gottheimer, who represents the state's 5th district, said average taxes in Bergen County are $24,000. That's why he had proposed a workaround: allow residents to declare property taxes as charitable donations. Earlier this year, it became law in New Jersey but the Treasury Department and IRS recently issued new rules to block attempts to circumvent the SALT cap. "We knew they were going to go to court over this," Gottheimer said. "Now we got to fight it out. I think we win. The courts have been clear about this. This is a deduction we should be able to take." Voters have yet to embrace tax reform, the GOP's signature achievement. About 37 percent of registered voters approve of the law, versus roughly 42 percent who disapprove, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls. CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report. The populist coalition government in Italy will disappoint their voters over spending plans for 2019, the previous Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told CNBC Friday. The leftist Five Star Movement and the right-wing Lega are currently working on the 2019 budget. This document has drawn a lot of attention following promises from both parties to increase public spending next year an idea that questions the stability of the Italian economy, given its 2.3 trillion euros debt pile. "I think that they raised, frankly, too many expectations on the people. So people that voted for the Five Star Movement and for the Lega are expecting some of the fantastic promises they received in the electoral campaign, they will not have it. They will not have it, because if they will have it, Italy will be in a very dangerous position," Gentiloni told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy. The populist government has promised to reduce taxes, give a citizens' income, change previous reforms to the pension system and to stop a VAT increase that was scheduled for next year. UBS analysts said these measures could up between 4.5 and 7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). But according to the former Italian Prime Minister, the government "will try a form of compromise between their promises and what they will deliver." "The risk is that we have an enormous difference between what was promised in the electoral campaign, from the two populist parties that are now governing Italy, and what they are able to deliver with a budget law maintaining a balance in the European framework," Gentiloni, who governed Italy from December 2016 until last June, told CNBC. The threat of auto tariffs is back on the agenda, and Japan could be President Donald Trump's new "number one target." In a recent conversation with the Wall Street Journal, Trump described his good relations with the Japanese leadership but then added: "Of course that will end as soon as I tell them how much they have to pay." "The president likes to pick trade fights," said Derek Scissors, Asia economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy think-tank based in Washington D.C. He added that, if a new NAFTA deal is signed with Canada and Mexico, then those countries would be exempted from the ongoing American auto investigation. Given that the European Union has already won an exemption on such tariffs, that would make Japan a key U.S. ally in Asia "the number one target." "There's a U.S. investigation into auto imports on the grounds of national security, which is a little strange. But, if you take Mexico, Canada and the EU out of it, Japan is the obvious target of that investigation into autos," he told CNBC's "The Rundown." Although Trump may have been referring to other costs he could hit Japan with, Scissors said autos is the most likely course of action: "We have an investigation open on Japanese cars and other cars, but we haven't taken any action along those lines." The Trump administration launched a national security investigation into car and truck imports in May, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. The United States is threatening to push tariffs of up to 25 percent on imported cars and parts, on top of a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent on aluminum already announced. The U.S. administration is still deciding whether to impose the measures as part of its efforts to protect American automakers and drive down the trade deficit. Larry Kudlow, the White House's top economic advisor, said China may feel more isolated if trade talks with the U.S. fail. Kudlow shared his views on the economy and the jobs report on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Friday. "I think the Chinese, you know, may find themselves more isolated if they don't come into the global process and if they don't provide new information and begin to say yes to the asks of President Trump." The U.S. is continuing to try to work with China to lower trade barriers. "They've got to show some action," Kudlow said. A public comment period on the possibility of new U.S. tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese goods ended Thursday, Reuters reported. "China has, I think, taken some missteps and I don't think they've really joined the conversation with the kind of intensity I'd like," Kudlow said. On the ongoing talks with the European Union, Kudlow said he was "mildly optimistic." There are a number of transactions on the table, he said, including soybeans, liquified natural gas, beef and military sales. "The relationship is growing between the U.S. and the EU, and I like the good will." The U.S. also continues to negotiate with Canada on a revised North American Free Trade Agreement after reaching a deal with Mexico, but Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the Canada talks aren't likely to end this week despite blowing past a U.S.-imposed Aug. 31 deadline. The new owner of the LA Times told CNBC on Friday that he is prepared to publicly support news media rivals, amid another wave of fierce criticism from President Donald Trump. Speaking to supporters at a rally in Montana on Thursday, Trump accused media outlets of ignoring his political successes and waging a campaign to delegitimize him. It follows an explosive op-ed published in the New York Times on Wednesday. An unidentified Trump official said in the column that an internal "resistance" is actively working to thwart the U.S. president, taming his most destructive policies. Speaking to CNBC's Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy on Friday, Patrick Soon-Shiong of the LA Times said he would be happy to stand up for news industry rivals amid repeated attacks from Trump. "I would absolutely defend them I think we need to defend the whole area of democracy in which these newspapers are really another Fourth Estate," Soon-Shiong said. "And by the way I don't see them as rivals. I see them as industry compatriots, we all need to survive and we all lift each other's boats, right?" he added. The U.S. manufacturing sector is booming adding 350,000 jobs since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. But while a strong economy is helping to bolster the industry, it's also being crunched by an increasingly tight labor market, leaving companies in short supply of workers they desperately need to meet capacity. Due to a combination of economic expansion and baby boomer retirements, a study from the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte projects that by the year 2025, some 2 million jobs within the industry will go unfilled. The National Association of Manufacturers said about 500,000 manufacturing jobs are open. The problem, experts say, is a severe skills gap. "One of the biggest challenges facing our sector right now is the lack of that skilled workforce to fill open jobs," said Carolyn Lee, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute, NAM's social impact arm. "Part of the reason for this challenge is that people don't understand what modern manufacturing is all about so perception is a big issue. People think of manufacturing as old and antiquated when it's not." The evolution of manufacturing can be felt instantly at Rockwell Automation's Twinsburg, Ohio, facility which is sleek and outfitted with a connected enterprise system, helping to automate procedures for workers and increase efficiency. Rockwell, headquartered in Milwaukee, provides products that help companies in nearly every industry from pharmaceutical giants to automakers and even amusement parks to streamline their operations by integrating control and information across their systems. In the U.S., Rockwell is hiring for some 140 manufacturing roles right now and is willing to take on unskilled workers to train and get them up to speed. Eric Crump, director of Manufacturing, North American Operations at Rockwell, says the company wants to hire workers it can train and hopefully retain throughout their careers. Kate Rogers | CNBC "We want to bring people in that we can train," said Eric Crump, director of Manufacturing for North American Operations at Rockwell. "We have a robust training process, so we can bring people in who are unskilled, have them get certification through various processes within the plant, and allow them to grow in their career." The company has new hires work with a mentor during their training, which can take up to 12 weeks. The training allows workers to be certified in various manufacturing procedures. Rockwell also offers a competitive benefits package that includes health insurance on day one and tuition reimbursement at accredited colleges and universities. Nationally, manufacturing workers have average annual pay of around $80,000 along with significant benefits, according to NAM. "The best workers you can have are your current workers," said Lee. "So companies are investing in upskilling and reskilling their existing workers giving them new skills, providing them with opportunities and allowing them to grow into that next job." Tuition reimbursement and company culture at Rockwell helped to attract Taylor Williams, 24, who serves as team leader in Twinsburg. The company paid for her bachelor's degree from Tiffin University in Ohio. "They invested in me, and that means a lot to me they taught me leadership skills, time management skills and collaboration skills," Williams said. Taylor Williams has worked her way up at Rockwell's Twinsburg facility and says the company invested in her by paying her college tuition at Tiffin University. Kate Rogers | CNBC Being an automation company doesn't mean skilled labor isn't needed at Rockwell, or that people are being replaced by machines. "Even though we are an automation company, people are in fact our most valuable asset," said Blake Moret, Rockwell Automation's chairman and CEO. "It's people working in close concert with technology but still using what people know best using their ingenuity and decision-making skills to be able to add additional productivity on top of basic technology." Trade and tariffs impact on the sector Depending on the industry and the company's import and export relationships, manufacturers stand to be hit with varying impacts from trade policy. Rockwell is moving forward with hiring plans while uncertainty looms with both tariffs and potential renegotiations to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The company said it supports a "thoughtful refresh of NAFTA that sustains and grows higher-paying U.S. jobs and increase in U.S. manufacturing production, exports and competitiveness. At the same time we have to recognize and continue to support the strong and deep commercial relationship between the U.S., Mexico and Canadian businesses," adding it will continue to monitor ongoing negotiations. On tariffs, Rockwell notes its flexibility in global sourcing capacities as an international manufacturer with customers in more than 80 countries. But like many, it's waiting to see what impact new trade policies stand to have. "The uncertainty around tariffs is certainly not helping us and our customers make plans for the future," Moret said. "But we haven't seen it have a material impact on our operations at this point. The larger impact would be what it does to our customer spending." CLARIFICATION: Following Friday's August jobs report, this article was updated to show the U.S. manufacturing sector has added 350,000 jobs since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. Also, that a study from the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte projects that by the year 2025, some 2 million jobs within the industry will go unfilled. Watch: The lowdown on hiring new vs 'upskilling' employees Michael Moore attends the 'Farenheit 11/9' premiere during 2018 Toronto International Film Festival at Ryerson Theatre on September 6, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. Filmmaker Michael Moore compares U.S. President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler in his provocative new documentary, "Fahrenheit 11/9" that got its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday to a sold-out audience. The documentary examines the forces Moore believes contributed to Trump's election victory in November 2016, drawing parallels with the rise of Hitler in 1930s Germany. The White House could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. At one point, the film superimposes Trump's words over videos of Hitler's rallies, as a historian talks about the rise of strong men to positions of power. "We explore the question of how the hell we got in this mess and how do we get out of it," the liberal activist told reporters ahead of the film's screening. "He's (Trump) been around for a long time and we've behaved in a certain way for a long time and when you look back now you can see how the road was paved for him," Moore said. The new film was a call to action for Americans, said Moore, who won an Oscar in 2003 for his gun violence documentary "Bowling for Columbine." "We are in a war to get our country back," he said. "Anyone who doesn't understand that is going to be sorely disappointed in the results of what's about to happen in the next few years with Donald Trump." "Fahrenheit 11/9" takes its title from the early hours of Nov. 9, 2016, when Republican candidate Trump was officially declared the victor over Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Jordan Stratton put together a memorable Thursday evening at Yonkers Raceway thanks to a six-win performance. Stratton won six races from his eight drives. One of wins came in a dead-heat, while two were part of the $168,499 New York Sire Stakes Mike Cohen Pace for three-year-olds fillies. Stratton won the first ($55,833) division with a pocketed Line Dancer ($12.40) in a life-best-matching 1:54.2. The daughter of Art Major, co-owned by (trainer) Ricky Bucci and Blue Meadow Farm, has won five of her 18 seasonal starts. Stratton doubled his sire stakes pleasure in the second ($55,833) Cohen event, when a first-up Newsday (S7.20) matched Line Dancers 1:54.2 effort. The At Major miss, co-owned by (trainer) Richie Silverman, Mary Kinsey Arnold, Edward McEnery and Michael Gluckman, is 4-for-13 this season, including a pair of NYSS wins here. It was one of those nights that everyone I drove raced well, Stratton said. Wisdom Tree (Matt Kakaley, $2.70) continued her statebred dominance in the nights final ($56,833) Empire grouping thanks to a down-the-road nights-fastest 1:53.2. Her sire stakes resume reads six wins (including two here) and a second in seven tries. The daughter of Betterthancheddar, co-owned by Tom Pollack & Jeff Cullipher and trained by Ed Hart, has won 10 of her 13 18 tries. Shes smart and shes fast and I love her, Hart said. Every so often Im entitled to one of these, Kakaley said. New York Sire Stakes continue Tuesday night, with Yonkers Trot winner Six Pack in the $172,000 Milt Taylor Trot (three-year-old colts/geldings). (With files from Yonkers) Foreign policy advisor to US President Donald Trump's election campaign, George Papadopoulos, arrives at US District Court for his sentencing in Washington, DC on September 7, 2018. George Papadopoulos, a former campaign advisor on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, was sentenced Friday to 14 days in jail for lying to investigators during their probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Papadopoulos, 31, who was also sentenced to one year of supervised release, is the first member of the Trump campaign to be sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation. "I made a terrible mistake," Papadopoulos said at his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Papadopoulos' lawyers had argued that Trump's constant attacks on Mueller's probe as "fake news" and a "witch hunt" hindered the investigation "more than George Papadopoulos ever could." Trump's bellicose stance on the probe had influenced Papadopoulos' decision to lie, his lawyer argued. Defense lawyers had asked Judge Randolph Moss for a sentence of probation. Mueller's prosecutors, however, sought a sentence between zero and six months in prison. The prosecutors had argued in court filings that Papadopoulos' lies to the government were "material to the investigation" of Russian election interference that preceded the appointment of the special counsel. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his contacts with London-based professor Joseph Mifsud, who told Papadopoulos in late April 2016 that Russians had "dirt" on Trump's campaign rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump had weighed in before the sentencing Friday, connecting Papadopoulos' experience with the special counsel to his own tug-of-war over a potential in-person interview with investigators. "I see Papadopoulos today. I don't know Papadopoulos. I don't know him. I saw him sitting at one picture at a table. That's the only thing I know about him. I don't know him. But they got him on, I guess a couple of lies," Trump said. Trump was referring to a March 2016 foreign policy in which he shared a table with Papadopoulos and other advisors. In an interview with The New York Times, Papadopoulos said he informed then-candidate Trump and the other officials during that meeting that Mifsud was interested in scheduling a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Trump was at least open to this," Papadopoulos said. "Though he wasn't committed either way, but he nodded and deferred to [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions who I remember being actually quite enthusiastic about a potential meeting between then-candidate Trump and Putin." The Justice Department did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Former president Barack Obama Scott Olson | Getty Images With just two months before the pivotal midterm election, former President Barack Obama will headline a rally Saturday to campaign for seven Democratic congressional candidates in closely watched contests in California. Obama endorsed 81 candidates last month for state and federal offices, but the Orange County event will represent the former president's first major political rally focused on the 2018 midterm election. Obama also is expected to campaign in several other states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, before the November election as part of the Democratic Party's nationwide push to retake control of the House. Candidates scheduled to attend Saturday's rally include Josh Harder, T.J. Cox, Katie Hill, Gil Cisneros, Katie Porter, Harley Rouda and Mike Levin. The seven are from Republican-held congressional districts that Democrat Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election. "Trump is pretty much unpopular, especially in the seven districts that Hillary won," said Ben Tulchin, a San Francisco-based Democratic pollster. "Obama coming out here will only make a good situation even better." Event near Disneyland The Obama rally, organized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center near Disneyland. Organizers expect the campaign event to draw nearly 800 people. "The real value of Obama coming is to motivate Democrats who live in those districts who are typically outnumbered to turn out in larger numbers than normally would," said longtime Republican strategist Dan Schnur, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications. "There are plenty of swing districts around the state and around the country that used to be red and are now blue. These are still 'red' districts, but they don't necessarily like Donald Trump." The GOP has a 23-seat majority in the House. However, Democrats are hoping to pick up enough GOP-held seats in California and other close races around the nation to wrestle back control of the chamber they lost in the 2006 midterm elections. Retiring GOP stalwarts Some of the seats Democrats are targeting involve House seats being vacated by GOP stalwarts from Southern California. They include the seats held by retiring Rep. Darrell Issa in the 49th Congressional District and departing Rep. Ed Royce in the 39th. Levin, an environmental attorney, is in a tight race to beat Republican challenger Diane Harkey, a conservative state official, for Issa's seat. Harkey was endorsed last month by President Donald Trump. The district hugs the coast from southern Orange County to northern San Diego County. Issa, a nine-term congressman, announced plans to retire in January after facing weekly protests outside his district office and narrowly winning the seat by less than 1,650 votes in 2016. "It is an incredible honor to be endorsed by President Obama and to have him do an event for us here," Levin said. "His was a presidency that, as he said, placed hope over fear, and unity of purpose over conflict and discord." Harkey told CNBC she was "very happy with some of the economic policies" of Trump but added she hasn't always agreed with Trump's other stances, pointing out she's against his push to increase in offshore drilling. Democrat's 11-point lead The race to fill Royce's seat is a contest between Cisneros and Young Kim, a Republican former state Assembly member. Kim, who worked for Royce for about two decades, has been endorsed by the retiring lawmaker. Cisneros, a Navy veteran and philanthropist, made his fortune winning the California lottery in 2010. His campaign released an internal poll last month conducted by Tulchin Research that showed the Democrat holding an 11-point lead over Kim. The district includes portions of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. Clinton carried the district in the 2016 election by nearly 9 percentage points. "It is going to be an election in which turnout is really important, and anything that helps to mobilize folks on your own side is going to be valuable," said Gary Jacobson, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. "And I think that Obama will have an effect to some degree but who knows how much." Tight race in Orange County Meantime, Republican Rep. Mimi Walters is in a fight for her political life in California's 45th Congressional District against Porter, a consumer advocate and law professor at University of California, Irvine. A Tulchin Research poll released this week and funded by the DCCC shows Porter with a lead of 3 percentage points over Walters. Prior to entering politics, Walters worked as an investment executive for Drexel, Burnham & Lambert. Another closely watched race pits 15-term GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher against real estate developer and Democrat Rouda. One issue has been Rohrabacher's criticism of the Russia-Trump probe and the Republican congressman's close ties to the Kremlin. California's 48th Congressional District in Orange County remains largely Republican in terms of registration with the GOP having more than a 10 percent point advantage, according to state data. Regardless, Rouda has a 3-point lead over Rohrabacher, according to a July poll released by Monmouth University. In the 25th District in northern Los Angeles County and portions of Ventura County, two-term GOP Rep. Steve Knight is facing a challenge from Hill, who recently ran a nonprofit helping the homeless. Central Valley races Airline fuel is overpriced, and the underlying cost of oil should sit around $52 per barrel, Tim Clark, President of Emirates told CNBC Friday. "I am one of these people that says it is hugely overpriced. If you are at $77 or $83 dollars (per barrel) it should be at $52. That's where it needs to be," Clark said in an interview with CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche on the side-lines of The Aviation Festival in London. "Those people, those countries, those entities that say they can't make money on $52, they need to be doing something else," he added. The oil price has risen about 20 percent in 2018, and on Friday morning, Brent crude futures traded at around $76.48. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures sat at $67.76. Clark added that as spot prices for oil were now roughly matching the futures price, the market had sensed the oil price was unlikely to rise further from this point. "I think fuel is now capped out. The forward curve is flat," he said before adding "There's a certain amount of flakiness going forward that fuel will rise above where it is today. That's my view," Clark said. Emirates, which employs approximately 25,000 cabin crew staff around the world, has seen growth hampered by a prolonged period of lower oil prices in recent years a key driver of wealth in the Gulf region. Clark said fuel prices for his airline were now running at roughly 44 percent higher than the same time last year. However, he warned however that many oil producers weren't exhibiting a traditional response to a higher price. "As the oil producing countries, largely in the Middle East get a benefit of that, historically there was an uptick very rapidly in demand, but we are not seeing that," Clark said. He added that many emerging markets and Middle East countries were struggling to match the performance of the United States and global growth looked uncertain. "One has got to worry a little bit about what is driving all of this. Whether it is an inordinate amount of debt creation and that is likely to take its toll. We saw that ten years ago," he said. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (L) arrives at a federal courthouse with his attorney Kevin Downing, November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Getty Images Paul Manafort might have even more to worry about the second time around. Prospective jurors in Washington began filling out questionnaires this week for the federal trial of the former chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. It's the 69-year-old Manafort's second trial against special counsel Robert Mueller in as many months. While Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Manafort's charges in both cases relate to his consulting work for a pro-Ukraine political party years before he took the helm of the Trump campaign in May 2016. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing this trial, ruled that Mueller's election collusion investigation was "wholly irrelevant to the charges in this case." Mueller's attorneys won guilty verdicts against Manafort on eight criminal counts of tax and bank fraud in the August trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Prosecutors are still deciding whether to ask for a retrial on the 10 remaining charges in which the jury couldn't reach a consensus. The second trial, in which opening statements are scheduled to begin Sept. 24, is also centered around Manafort's alleged financial crimes. But with a less optimal location, a less sympathetic judge and charges that could require a more robust defense, the second court battle is hardly expected to be a repeat of the first. The courthouse The location of Manafort's second trial could affect his case as much as the charges against him. Mueller had lodged indictments against Manafort and his longtime business partner, Rick Gates, in Alexandria and Washington, but gave them the option to meld all the charges into a single case in Washington. Manafort, however, refused to combine the charges a move that surprised some legal experts. Some speculated that Manafort's attorneys believed they would find a more sympathetic jury outside Washington, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Suburban Alexandria still voted handily for Clinton, but by a slightly slimmer margin, according to exit polling data from The New York Times. Securing an acquittal in Alexandria nicknamed the "rocket docket" for its speedy trials might have given Manafort some much-needed momentum ahead of a tougher D.C. trial. But the jury in Alexandria convicted Manafort on Aug. 21 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to file foreign account reports. In D.C., Manafort is charged with conspiracy to launder money, witness tampering, lying to the Justice Department and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. In both cases, Manafort's lawyers had asked the court to move the trial venue to U.S. district court in Roanoke, Virginia, more than 200 miles from the nation's capital, where a much larger percentage voted for Trump in the 2016 election. But in both cases, the judges denied the requests. Manafort's lawyers had every reason to fight hard for the best jury pool available. If just one of the 12 jurors refuses to convict on any of the seven charges, the judge will declare a mistrial on those counts. That's what happened in Alexandria. A single member of the 12-person jury did not find Manafort guilty on 10 of the 18 counts against him in that case, according to one of the jurors. Judge T.S. Ellis declared those counts a mistrial. Prospective jurors for the September trial started filling out questionnaires this week. Selection will begin in earnest, with potential jurors being questioned individually, Sept. 17. The judge In Alexandria, Ellis generated headlines even before the case went to trial for his aggressive, sometimes accusatory remarks toward Mueller's prosecutors. Jackson, however, has appeared to be more focused on keeping Manafort and his lawyers in check. In June, for instance, U.S. attorneys lodged a superseding indictment against Manafort, as well as Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, alleging the two men attempted to tamper with potential witnesses in the trial. A week later, Jackson revoked Manafort's $10 million bail, ordering him to jail, where he has remained pending the two trials. "I cannot turn a blind eye" to the ways Manafort has "abused the trust" of the court, Jackson said, even after acknowledging that her decision was "extraordinarily difficult." Jackson has also pre-emptively warned Manafort's lawyers to watch their behavior in court. At a hearing on Aug. 28, Jackson told defense attorney Kevin Downing: "I just want to let you know that you are an expressive human being, and how you feel about what is being said in the courtroom is a big part of your demeanor and your physical demeanor. That doesn't upset me particularly, but it will upset me enormously if there's a jury in the box. So just keep that in mind." Ellis, on the other hand, repeatedly locked horns with prosecutors over their conduct in court, the presentation of their case and even their intentions in charging Manafort with crimes. "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," Ellis told prosecutors during a pretrial hearing. "You really care about what information he might give you about Mr. Trump and what might lead to his impeachment or prosecution." Throughout the trial, Ellis badgered Mueller's team to speed through the case and warned them against potentially prejudicing the jury by highlighting examples of Manafort's lavish spending habits. Prosecutors in the Virginia case were censured numerous times by Ellis for their emphasis on Manafort's opulent taste on items such as a $15,000 jacket made of ostrich, bespoke suits at ultra-pricey men's shops and sprawling home renovations costing millions of dollars. But Jackson appeared to take a more lax stance on dredging up the ways Manafort spent his allegedly laundered money. "You can show how it was spent, but I'm talking about emphasis, and how much time is spent," Jackson said, according to The Washington Post. The defense Among other things, he led the design of the Semi prototype, and struck early partnerships and other business deals that have seen large corporations pre-ordering the all-electric class 8 truck. Musk also announced a slew of other promotions, which follow reports earlier in the day of executive resignations, including Tesla's chief accounting officer, Dave Morton. Kevin Kassekert will now become vice president of people and places. His responsibilities will include human resources and facility developments. Musk said Tesla's chief people officer, Gaby Toledano, had been on leave and has decided to "continue doing so for personal reasons." Shares of Tesla ticked higher in after-hours trade Friday, after falling 6 percent in the normal trading session. The stock has shed 30 percent in the past month amid intense scrutiny over Musk's take-private tweet. A month ago, Musk shot off a controversial tweet saying he was "considering taking Tesla private." Musk floated a take-private price of $420 roughly a 20 percent upside from the stock's levels at the time and claimed he had the "funding secured." Company updates and news reports in the weeks that followed poked holes in Musk's proposal, though, and Tesla formally called off the take-private talks in late August. Late Thursday, Musk spurred a new round of criticism after he smoked marijuana and sipped whiskey during his appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast. Read the full email to employees below: First, I'd like to thank you for your incredible efforts and contribution as we enter the final few weeks of this quarter. This is a very exciting time for Tesla, to say the least, and you are the reason for the tremendous progress we've made in a relatively short period of time. It is easy to forget that our company was almost unknown 10 years ago and didn't even exist until after the start of the 21st century! We are about to have the most amazing quarter in our history, building and delivering more than twice as many cars as we did last quarter. For a while, there will be a lot of fuss and noise in the media. Just ignore them. Results are what matter and we are creating the most mind-blowing growth in the history of the automotive industry. Even the Ford Model T, which held the world record for the fastest growing car in history, didn't grow as fast in sales or production as the Model 3. Moreover, we also have the most exciting new product lineup of any company in the world. There is the Model Y, the Tesla (pickup) Truck, the Semi and the new Roadster. Then there is the Solar Roof, which is spooling up in production, and continued advancements in Powerwall and Powerpack. And that's just what people know about To help achieve our goals, after discussing this in-depth with the Tesla board of directors and executive staff over the past several weeks, I am excited to announce a number of management changes: Jerome Guillen has been promoted to President, Automotive, reporting directly to me. In his new role, Jerome will oversee all automotive operations and program management, as well as coordinate our extensive automotive supply chain. Jerome has made major contributions and acquired deep knowledge of Tesla's operations over the past eight years at our company, from being the first Model S Program Manager to managing all vehicle programs, then all vehicle engineering and worldwide sales & service. Recently, Jerome played a critical role in ramping Model 3 production, leading what almost all thought was impossible: creation of an entire high-volume General Assembly line for Model 3 in a matter of weeks. Before coming to Tesla, Jerome was responsible for creating and running the most successful semi truck program in history at Daimler's Freightliner division. Kevin Kassekert has been promoted to VP of People and Places, with responsibility for Human Resources, Facilities, Construction, and Infrastructure Development. Kevin has been with Tesla for 6 years and was previously VP, Infrastructure Development. Kevin led the construction and development of our Gigafactory in Nevada, turning what was a pile of rocks in the Sierra Nevada mountains into a factory employing 12 thousand people with greater output than the entire rest of the world's battery factories combined, in roughly three years. That is insanely badass. Prior to joining Tesla, Kevin engineered and built multi-billion dollar production plants in the semiconductor industry. As many of you know, Tesla's Chief People Officer Gaby Toledano has been on leave for a few months to spend more time with her family and has decided to continue doing so for personal reasons. She's been amazing and I'm very grateful for everything she's done for Tesla. Chris Lister joined Tesla last year and was key to solving our production problems at the Gigafactory and ramping Model 3 production. He is being promoted to VP, Gigafactory Operations. In this role, he leads our production and manufacturing engineering at Giga. Before Tesla, Chris ran several ultra high volume factories at PepsiCo. Felicia Mayo, Sr. HR Director and head of our Diversity and Inclusion program, has been promoted to VP, reporting to both Kevin and me. Felicia has done great work promoting the importance of having one of the most diverse workforces in the world and ensuring fairness across hundreds of roles and Tesla operations in over 50 countries. She previously worked in senior HR roles at PwC and Oracle, and, most recently was Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition and Diversity for Juniper Networks. Laurie Shelby, Tesla's VP, Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) will also report directly to me. Your safety and just generally making sure that you love coming to work is extremely important, which is why EHS will report directly to me. We are working hardcore on having the safest (and most fun) work environment in the automotive industry by far. Laurie came to Tesla last year after a 25+ year career at Alcoa, where she made tremendous progress in workplace safety. Since joining, she has already overseen a reduction in our employee injury rate, as well as major improvements in our EHS program. Cindy Nicola, VP of Global Recruiting, will report to both Kevin and me. Cindy has overseen the company's global recruiting efforts since 2015, bringing on tens of thousands of highly talented people. Prior to Tesla, Cindy led worldwide Corporate Recruiting at Apple, and before that was VP, Global Talent Acquisition at Electronic Arts. Finally, Dave Arnold has been promoted to Sr. Director, Global Communications, overseeing Tesla's communications team. Dave was previously Director of Corporate Communications at Virgin America. Thanks again for your incredible work in making Tesla successful. What you are doing is vital to achieving an amazing and sustainable energy future for all of humanity and life on Earth. Elon The trade war between Washington and Beijing won't have a huge effect on the Chinese economy, the former People's Bank of China (PBOC) governor Zhou Xiaochuan told CNBC Friday. "We used a mathematical model to calculate the negative impact of the trade war. It is not very large, it is not significant. It is less than half a percent (of an) impact to the Chinese economy," Zhou told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick at the Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. President Donald Trump has said he's ready to erect tariffs on all $506 billion worth of Chinese imports to the U.S. So far, Washington has slapped duties on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, and a fresh $200 billion more is threatened this month. China can't match the tariff threats because of the mismatch in trade. Zhou said China's response would be to quickly re-route goods to other countries and this is what the PBOC has also advised President Xi Jinping. "The worst case scenario is that China is no longer going to export $500 billion of goods to the U.S. market and then its dependent how quickly you can diversify those export goods to the other countries. Actually I think China could act quickly," Zhou added. President Donald Trump said he won't consider a government shutdown over funding for his proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border until after the November midterm elections. In an interview with "Fox & Friends" that aired Friday, Trump said he doesn't want to hurt the Republican party's chances during midterms. If it were up to him, Trump said, he would "shut down the government over border security." "We need Republicans elected in the midterms," Trump said. "We are getting the wall done. But I've had so many people, good people, great people, [say] they would rather not do [it] before [the midterms], they'd rather do it right after the election." 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. 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. In the Fox interview, Trump said he expects his party will do well during the elections, citing the "strongest economy we've ever had" and the tax cuts passed last year. Trump said the administration will focus on the wall immediately after the midterm elections, adding he's has a "commitment" from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and "from everybody." The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report. President Donald Trump said Friday that he has started trade talks with Japan, the latest country he has turned his focus to as he seeks new deals with major partners. "If we don't make a deal with Japan, Japan knows it's a big deal," the president told reporters aboard Air Force One. Trump's comments come a day after he suggested to The Wall Street Journal that he would target Japan next. The president told James Freeman, a writer at the newspaper, that his good relationship with Japanese leaders "will end as soon as I tell them how much they have to pay." President Donald Trump said Friday, "I don't want to be set up with a perjury trap" by special counsel Robert Mueller, the prosecutor who is investigating possible obstruction of justice by the president. But Trump also said he is willing to sit down for an interview with Mueller who also is probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election "under certain circumstances." Trump's comments aboard Air Force One came a day after his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, gave conflicting comments about whether Trump would answer certain questions from Mueller. Trump has repeatedly called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt." The president referred to the fate of former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, who is scheduled to be sentenced later Friday for lying to federal authorities in the Russia investigation. "They got him on, I guess a couple of lies," Trump noted. He then added that former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who likewise has pleaded guilty in Mueller's probe to making false statements, "said he didn't lie, but Mueller's people said he did lie." "So I don't want to be set up with a perjury trap, No. 1," Trump said. "No. 2, there was no obstruction and there was no collusion." Giuliani told The Associated Press on Thursday that Trump would refuse to answer questions about obstruction of justice, either in person or in writing. Mueller is looking at whether the president obstructed justice in the Russia investigation by firing FBI Director James Comey last year, and by criticizing his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the case in early 2017. Mueller was appointed special counsel after both Sessions' decision and Comey's firing. "That's a no-go. That is not going to happen," said Giuliani, who was a federal prosecutor before becoming mayor of New York. "There will be no questions at all on obstruction." But shortly after the AP ran its story on that ostensibly hard line, Giuliani told NBC News that such questions are "not ruled in or out." "We have said we would agree to written questions on Russia after we review questions but no further commitment on interviews," Giuliani told NBC News. "After we finish this we will assess it with no agreement to any post-presidential questions." A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. Rookie pacers will take the spotlight for five divisions of the Champlain Stakes on Friday evening (Sept. 7) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. A total of 24 colts and geldings have been split into three $70,107 divisions, while 18 fillies have been separated into a pair of $95,738 divisions. Undefeated Captaintreacherous colts Captain Crunch (PP1, Scott Zeron) and Captain Ahab (PP5, Andrew McCarthy) will clash in the evenings eighth race. Captain Ahab has been dominating at Mohawk with three consecutive victories, including the final of the Dream Maker and most recently a division of the Nassagaweya. The Tony Alagna trainee is five-for-five overall and has three sub-1:52 victories. Were surprised that he came as good as he did as quick as he did because hes such a tall colt, said Alagna following Captain Ahabs Nassagaweya score. Hes just doing everything he is doing now on raw ability and its funny to say, but Im even more excited about what he can do next year at (age) three. Captain Crunch is three-for-three and entering off a Nassagaweya victory. The Nancy Johansson-trained colt posted back-to-back wins at Pocono before making his stakes debut at Mohawk. I find every very good horse you drive, everything is effortless and its just so easy for them to do and he covers the ground so well I thought he had the potential to be this kind of caliber said driver Scott Zeron of Captain Crunch. Hes very well-mannered, very good to drive and I think he can do good anyway. Both colts are from the first-crop of Captaintreacherous. Captain Ahab was a $100,000 yearling purchase at the Lexington Selected Sale, while Captain Crunch was an $85,000 purchase at Harrisburg. A pair of Ontario Sired standouts will headline the other two Champlain splits for the boys. Bronx Seelster headlines the evenings first division (Race 2) and will be taking on Grand Circuit foes for the first-time. A son of Big Jim, Bronx Seelster (PP5, Trevor Henry) has won five of eight starts and comes into Friday off an impressive win on August 28 in 1:51.4, with a :26 final quarter. The Wayne McGean trainee captured the Battle of Waterloo in early August and already has two OSS Gold trophies. McGean plucked the colt from the London Selected Yearling Sale for $22,000 last October. Casie Coleman trainee Stag Party (PP1, David Miller) has been racking up the victories and making statements along the way. The son of Bettors Delight most recently won a division of the Nassagaweya by 10 lengths, which came on the heels of a Canadian Record performance (1:52.3) at Grand River in an OSS Gold on August 15. Stag Party ($125,000 Harrisburg purchase) is four-for-five with his only loss being a disqualification from first to second for interference. He is expected to be the heavy favourite in the evenings third division (Race 9). The Champlain Stakes for two-year-old pacing fillies features a matchup between Eternal Camnation division winners Key West (PP1, Brett Miller) and Quebec Blue Chip (PP7, Jody Jamieson). Alagna trainee Key West held off rivals in her Eternal Camnation score to improve her record to three wins and two runner-up finishes in five starts. The daughter of Captaintreacherous was a $130,000 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale purchase and is making her fourth consecutive start at Mohawk. Quebec Blue Chip, a $40,000 Harrisburg yearling buy, will be searching for a fifth straight victory in Fridays contest. The Dave Menary-trained daughter of Sportswriter has victories in the Battle of the Belles (elimination and final) and an OSS Gold to go with her Eternal Camnation score. The Alagna barn could be poised for a big Friday, as they will send out the top-two choices on the morning line for the second Champlain Filly division. Tall Drink Hanover (PP6, McCarthy) is three-for-five entering the Champlain with all three victories coming at Mohawk. The Alagna trained daughter of Captaintreacherous was a $35,000 Harrisburg purchase. Odds On St Lucie is a daughter of Sweet Lou, out of a full-sister to Captaintreacherous. The Alagna trainee started her career with back-to-back victories before finishing second to Quebec Blue Chip in the Eternal Camnation. She was a $110,000 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale purchase. The Champlain divisions for pacing fillies have been carded as Races 3 and 4. Post time for Fridays stakes-filled program is 7:10 p.m. To view the entries for Friday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Friday Entries - Woodbine Mohawk Park. (Woodbine) Science Photo Library / Getty Images A proposed U.S. development finance institution with a lending cap of $60 billion is aiming to be "a clear alternative" to China's controversial Belt and Road program, according to stakeholders. The proposed entity, known as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), looks to consolidate existing U.S. agencies in charge of public and private capital in less developed countries. Lawmakers introduced the idea earlier this year through the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act, which is currently pending approval from the Senate. The effort is part of Washington's strategy to counter rising Chinese influence abroad, especially within Asia. In July, the White House announced $113 million in infrastructure spending for the Indo-Pacific region amid widespread worries of Beijing using investments as a way to achieve geopolitical objectives. IDFC vs Belt and Road Speaking at an event hosted by think tank The Stimson Center in Washington on Thursday, advocates for the BUILD Act said it can facilitate economic progress in poor countries in a way that Chinese investment doesn't. Through its capacity to team up with other development finance organizations around the world, the IDFC "will be a counter to China's One Belt, One Road," according to Ted Yoho, a U.S. congressman for Florida and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. Beijing's apparent efforts to position itself as a regional hegemon have sparked fears of economic imperialism, but the U.S. has a more free and fair vision for Asia, he said in prepared remarks. "The U.S. is increasingly concerned about China's efforts in the region, the types of investments they are making, what it's doing to different economies and what it's doing for China's strategic interests," echoed Clete Willems, special assistant to the president for international trade, investment and development at the National Security Council. "We want to find a way to provide a clear choice and a clear alternative and that's really what this is all about." The IDFC's size is set to be more than double the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the current instrument for development finance that has a ceiling of $29 billion. Unlike its predecessors, the IDFC would boast the ability to make equity investments abroad. The proposed institution looks to employ local workers and catalyze private sector money in a transparent fashion that will boost economic growth. Its model is a clear response to some of the biggest criticisms behind Belt and Road: a reliance on Chinese workers and unsustainable loans that many participating nations cannot afford in the long term. If unable to pay, indebted countries may be forced to sell strategic state assets to Beijing, as was the case with Sri Lanka a phenomenon that's been dubbed debt-trap diplomacy. Such problems arise from China's use of government-to-government agreements, said Conor Savoy, director of policy and advocacy at investment firm Global Innovation Fund. Private investment, as promoted under the IDFC, is more sustainable, he added. [The stream is slated to start at 2:05 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak Friday at a campaign event in North Dakota to raise money for Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer's Senate bid. Cramer's campaign said the high-profile campaign event featuring the president has helped raise more than $1 million, multiple news outlets reported. Incumbent Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is fighting to defend her seat against Cramer in the November midterm elections. Heitkamp, who represents a heavily Republican state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2016 election, has established herself as one of the most moderate Democrats in the Senate. She was one of just three Democrats to vote for Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and has received support from the fiscally conservative Koch political network. The joint fundraising committee reception will be held at a Delta Hotel in Fargo. The rise of Chinese influence, sanctions on Iranian oil and India's plan to build a deep water port in Afghanistan were likely some of the major geopolitical concerns addressed during the ministerial meeting on Thursday between India and the United States, experts told CNBC. The "2+2" ministerial dialogue featuring Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and their Indian counterparts were held in New Delhi this week to forge political and military ties between both nations. The series of meetings between Indian and American officials was an important step for the strategic dialogue between the United States and India, said Dhruva Jaishankar, a fellow in foreign policy studies at Delhi-based research center Brookings India. "The very fact that it is taking place is one of the most significant aspects of all of this," he added. On Thursday India and the United States signed an accord on secure military communications that both sides hailed as a breakthrough. Pompeo said the agreement was a "major step" forward that officials have previously said would allow the U.S. to transfer high-tech equipment such as armed surveillance drones. New Delhi has been seeking the drones to monitor the Indian Ocean where China, a close ally of Pakistan, has been making repeated forays in recent years. While China's increasing influence in the region is not the only concern likely raised at the talks, it does play a significant role in bringing the U.S. and India together on security matters said Jaishankar. India might push for American political assistance for it to be a viable alternative to host infrastructure projects, as China has in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and East Africa, he explained. Another issue of strategic importance to the world's two largest democracies is the deep water port that India plans to build in Afghanistan. "That port is important because it provides India's overland access into Afghanistan and that is important because India is Afghanistan's fifth-largest bilateral donor and a very, very important development economic assistance partner. President Trump asked India to do more in Afghanistan on economic assistance as a part of his South Asia strategy," said Alyssa Ayres, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S.-based think tank. "I'm very bullish on U.S.-India ties. This is the one bilateral relationship that has broad bipartisan consensus in the United States as well as in India. I think that the trajectory is positive," she added. Reuters contributed to this report. It makes sense that women would dive into the gig economy with enthusiasm. Side hustles and gigs are perfect when you want flexibility, the chance to control your own destiny and get a taste of entrepreneurship. And that is exactly what three CEOs found when they joined forces to poll 1,000 of their female workers. They conducted their survey online in July to get a better understanding of how women feel about the gig economy. "It's not a competition between traditional work and a side hustle," said Anna Zornosa, CEO and founder of the shapewear and fashion site Ruby Ribbon. The company has had year-over-year growth of 60 percent to 100 percent since starting in 2012, Zornosa says. Anna Zornosa Source: Anna Zornosa Most of the survey respondents already work full-time or part-time the side hustle is for extra income. And nearly half of the women who answered make $19 or more per hour. "A lot of women simply want to work in a flexible fashion they can control," Zornosa said. Most of the providers on Fran Maier's baby gear rental site are moms. "The No. 1 reason they have a side hustle is so that they can have more time with their children, while also earning a rewarding income," she said. BabyQuip is available in more than 250 markets, and Maier says the company's revenue is in the millions of dollars over the past year. Fran Maier Source: Fran Maier Running a business through an existing site is a chance to become an entrepreneur, Zornosa says. Some people will continue on with a gig, and some may want to strike out on their own. Making the leap to CEO and founder is big, but others have done it and offer up tons of useful advice. It's natural to pick something you're passionate about. Lynn Perkins, CEO and co-founder of UrbanSitter, a platform that connects babysitters with parents through community recommendations, loves matchmaking. "I was frequently introducing my mom friends to nannies and sitters," she said. Lynn Perkins, CEO of UrbanSitter UrbanSitter was the natural result of Perkins' search for a more efficient way to connect parents and childcare providers, while building in recommendations from friends. Revenue for the last two years is around $270 million, based on 3 million hours of babysitting, according to Perkins. In some ways, it's never been easier for women to start businesses. With organizations like Women's Startup Lab in Silicon Valley, Girls in Tech and W2.0, support and resources are plentiful. You probably don't need to spend a ton on so-called executive clothes. Maier said. "It's OK to be more casual," Maier said. "It can signal that you are working hard and that you are more confident. Certainly the boys don't dress up." Watch out for other roadblocks that can trip you up some of these are attitudes that may come more easily to men. From convincing male investors that your product and idea are valuable to presenting yourself in the best possible light, Maier, Perkins and Zornosa have great advice on navigating what is still predominantly a male world. Don't apologize Maier credits another entrepreneur, Margot Schmorak, CEO of Hostfully, with this bit of advice. "She doesn't say, I'm sorry," Maier said. Of course you should apologize in your personal life. But in business, no. Women say it a lot, and it can cut into their standing. Whether you're late to a meeting or you've slipped up on your numbers, don't apologize. "It's really powerful to take that out of your vocabulary," Maier said. How you speak and present yourself matters. Even emails can make a difference. "Women write longer emails justifying [business decisions]," Maier said. But that need to over-explain can come off as insecurity. "Men write shorter emails: boom, send," Maier said. Don't forget your top investor Here's a common question from young women who want to start a business: "What data do I have to have to get an investor?" Wrong question, Zornosa says. Since you're the one who will have to cancel trips and go without sleep, "the biggest investor is you," she said. In other words, frame the question and answer with yourself at the center. "What data do you need to have to make sure that year after year, this is the right investment for you to make?" Zornosa said. Ask what has to happen for the investment to pay off, and ask what it will cost you. Don't be a tightwad Don't get hung up by perfection "Aim for excellent, not perfect," said Perkins of UrbanSitter. If she stopped to nail down every single aspect of how her platform would work, Perkins says she would have missed a key metric. Perkins knew she wanted recommendations from friends to figure into choosing child care providers. But it turned out that contacts from the provider turned out to be good substitutes. "By starting with 'good' we wound up with a better product," she said. "If you put out something incomplete you can learn more." It's a tough lesson, but you need to take in feedback and fold that into your model. Don't flinch Standard Newswire is a cost-effective and efficient newswire service for public policy groups, government agencies, PR firms, think-tanks, watchdog groups, advocacy groups, coalitions, foundations, colleges, universities, activists, politicians, and candidates to distribute their press releases to journalists who truly want to hear from them.Do not settle for an email blasting service or a newswire overloaded with financial statements. Standard Newswire gets your news into the hands of working journalists, broadcast hosts, and news producers.Find out how you can start using Standard Newswire to CONNECT WITH THE WORLD GCHQ plots retaliation against Russia Nerve agent was strong enough to have killed 4,000 people The Times Putin ultimately responsible declares Wallace The Sun Nelson: Salisbury poisonings exposed the weakness of the West The head of GCHQ has vowed to retaliate against the brazen Kremlin for Russias nerve agent attack on Salisbury. Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, said the Governments top secret cyber intelligence agency would deploy the full range of tools to counter the threat posed by Vladimir Putins regime. Mr Flemings intervention part of the UKs coordinated response to the Novichok attack orchestrated by Russian military intelligence further ratcheted up the pressure on the Kremlin. Whitehall sources said Britain possessed the offensive cyber capability to target the GRU and individuals linked to it. Daily Telegraph The Kremlin has again demonstrated that it will not play by the Wests rules, reneging on a spy swap deal in a way even the Soviets never dared to do. This Salisbury attack also puts other potential defectors on notice: you may run to a country like Britain, but they can never properly protect you. Theresa May can expel some Russian diplomats, and ask her allies to do the same. But beyond that, theres not a lot she can do apart from protest at Putins new rules. Nelson Fraser, Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: Bob Seely on Comment: Ten steps to defend our country against the aggression and subversion of Putins Russia Hammond scraps a tax cut for the self-employed Paul Davies is the new Leader of the Welsh Conservatives The Chancellor has decided to scrap a tax break for 3.4million self-employed people, in a move that has been branded a stealth tax. Philip Hammond has announced he is going back on the Governments pledge to abolish Class 2 National Insurance contributions (NICs), in a move which will raise an extra 435 million a year for the NHS. The change will scrap a tax Paul Davies has won the battle to lead the Conservative opposition in the Welsh Assembly. He beat Suzy Davies by a two-to-one margin in the contest to take over from Andrew RT Davies, who stepped down in June after seven years in charge. The Preseli Pembrokeshire AM had been interim leader of the 12-strong Senedd group, the second largest after Labour. BBC >Yesterday: MPsETC: Welsh Conservatives choose their new Leader Brexit 1) Raabs threat over the Irish border left Barnier furious EU sees positive elements BBC Doubts persist about Raabs sway over Brexit talks Financial Times Negotiators risk sleepwalking into crisis warns former UK ambassador to the EU The Guardian Brexiteer MPs want to allow EU staff into UK ports to prevent a hard border with Ireland Daily Express Dominic Raab has threatened Michel Barnier with the prospect that the EU will be forced to order the Irish government to reinstate the border in Northern Ireland in the event of a no deal Brexit, the Telegraph can reveal. The Brexit secretary confronted the EUs chief negotiator over the border issue at a highly-charged meeting in Brussels last month, leaving Mr Barnier absolutely furious, according to a senior European source. The angry encounter came in only the second Raab-Barnier meeting and was confirmed to the Telegraph by three separate official sources drawn from both sides of the Channel, and points to sharp souring of the Brexit talks behind the scenes in recent weeks. Daily Telegraph >Today: ToryDiary: The thrills and spills of seeking the EEA port in a storm >Yesterday: Brexit 2) Dorries is backing Johnson My own choice for leader is Boris Johnson. Yes, many MPs nurturing their own political ambitions dont want him, because like Churchill, he will run and run. But he was the man who delivered Brexit. (Sorry, Nigel Farage, it really wasnt you). And it matters to Boris that the promises made in that campaign especially on NHS spending and immigration control are met as quickly and fully as possible. His loud critics who say theyll leave the party if he succeeds Mrs May remind me of celebrities who insist theyll leave the country if a general election result isnt to their liking. Most end up staying. Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail Johnson has separated from his wife The Sun >Yesterday: Brexit 3) Halfon warns the Remainers favour a coup against the people Why are our troops wearing EU flag? asks Andrew Bridgen MP Daily Express Brexit 4) Labour has no position on a second referendum Former Conservative Deputy Chairman Robert Halfon MP forecasts turmoil if Remainers continue to fight Brexit. He tells us how the UKs relationship with democracy has changed, and explains his own journey from Remain voter to Brexiteer. Mr Halfon, a former minister, tells Choppers Brexit Podcast: For the first time, its not a coup against the leader, its a coup against the people. Daily Telegraph Jeremy Corbyn has claimed Labour has no position on a second Brexit poll, his clearest signal yet that the party will back a re-run. The Opposition leader has repeatedly ruled out support for another ballot but will face grassroots calls for a U-turn at his partys conference later this month.Just last month he said Its not our policy to have a second referendum, its our policy to respect the result of the referendum. But speaking in Hull he told reporters: We dont have a position on it yet. The Sun Brexit 5) Prepare for spending cuts says The Treasury Stop trying to scare the public says Farage Daily Express Brexit 6) May given two month stay of execution Government departments have been warned to prepare for public spending cuts to pay for a no-deal Brexit in a secret Whitehall plan codenamed Operation Yellowhammer. Details emerged yesterday after a photographer took a shot of a confidential Treasury document detailing civil contingency planning. The plan, named at random after the small yellow songbird, has been established to co- ordinate government preparations. Led by the Cabinet Offices civil contingencies unit, it is distinct from no-deal planning by the Department for Exiting the European Union (Dexeu). While Dexeus work encompasses preparations needed to be taken before Brexit day in case there is no deal, Yellowhammer would come into effect only should no-deal become a reality. The Times Theresa May has until November to ditch the Chequers deal before Brexiteers would consider ousting her, senior Conservative figures have claimed. The Brexiteers have in effect ruled out a leadership challenge at the Tory conference. They are happy for the prime minister to stay in post beyond March if she embraces a Canada-style free-trade deal rather than force through her existing plan, which keeps Britain more closely tied to the EU. Brexiteers accept that Mrs May will defend her plan at the conference but those in favour of getting rid of the Tory leader believe her continued support for Chequers will make her toxic in the eyes of party activists. Tory MPs who support Brexit believe that the Chequers blueprint will be undermined by the EU in late October or November. The Times Davis and Farage join forces for Leave mean Leave rally Daily Express ERG pulls back from publishing alternative plan City AM Theres a way out from Chequers for Mrs May Liam Halligan, Daily Telegraph Bradley cuts salaries of Northern Ireland Assembly members Northern Ireland Secretary did not understand voting patterns BBC Fury as amnesty for Troubles soldiers branded a bad idea The Sun as DUP call for Sinn Fein MPs at Westminster to have a pay cut too Members of the dormant Northern Ireland assembly are having their salaries cut by more than 13,000 to try to force all sides back to the negotiating table. The Stormont assembly was suspended 20 months ago. Negotiations convened by the British and Irish governments have failed to persuade the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein, former coalition partners, to reconcile their differences. Mrs Bradley has decided not to call new elections and will bring forward legislation to allow civil servants to make decisions as public reforms have stalled. Public services have suffered because no ministers are in place to make decisions. The Times Sinn Fein MPs who choose not to take their seat in Westminster should face similar pay sanctions to Assembly members, the DUP has said. The call came after Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley announced she would be cutting MLA pay. Ms Bradley justified the cut by telling MPs that the MLAs were not performing the full range of their legislative functions. DUP MPs asked the Northern Ireland Secretary whether the same logic could be applied to Sinn Fein MPs who refuse to take their seats in the House of Commons. Belfast Telegraph Blair doubts Labour can be taken back Labour moderates long for a Tory victory Philip Collins, The Times If MPs dont like what Jeremy Corbyn has done to Labour, one word: Leave Rod Liddle, The Sun Far left protesters disrupt Council meeting The Sun as Ryan loses confidence vote Tony Blair says he is not sure it is possible for Labour moderates to take the party back from the left. The former Labour leader told the BBCs Nick Robinson Labour had been through a profound change under Jeremy Corbyn. It is a different type of Labour Party. Can it be taken back? I dont know, he said. He said the British people would never elect Mr Corbyn as prime minister and hinted at the emergence of a new progressive, moderate party. Speaking on Nick Robinsons Political Thinking Podcast, Mr Blair said: I dont think the British people will tolerate a situation where, for example, the choice at the next election is Boris Johnson versus Jeremy Corbyn. I dont know what will happen and I dont know how it will happen. BBC Joan Ryan, a leading pro-Israel MP who has been a member of the Labour Party for 34 years, has lost a vote of no confidence over her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn in the anti-Semitisim row within the party. Ms Ryan, the MP for Enfield North who chairs Labour Friends of Israel , was targeted for deselection by members of her local party, who claimed she had smeared Mr Corbyns character and fuelled the anti-Semitism storm that has engulfed the party this summer. After narrowly losing the confidence ballot by 94 votes to 92 on Thursday night, Ms Ryan said she would not resign and blamed her defeat on Trots, Stalinists, Communists. Daily Telegraph Cable to announce plans to quit A Momentum for moderates The Times UKIP could allow Tommy Robinson to join Struggling Lib Dem boss Sir Vince Cable is today expected to announce plans to quit just a year after getting the job. The 75-year-old will lay out his timetable for stepping down alongside a major overhaul of party rules to attract tens of thousands of Remain supporters to vote in leadership contests. A new Supporters Scheme will allow anyone to vote in leadership contests in a bid to mirror the Labours change of rules that attracted more than half a million new members. The Sun UKIPs annual conference could debate whether to lift a ban on the anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson becoming a member, a move which, if approved, would further indicate the partys move to the far right. Under long-established party rules, former members of the English Defence League, which was formed by Robinson, are banned from joining, along with people who belonged to the British National party. But UKIPs leader, Gerard Batten, has strongly backed Robinson, a self-styled freedom-of-speech activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, likening him to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The Guardian Trump pledges to hunt down White House traitor Brazilian Presidential front runner stabbed at rally The hunt is on for the senior official behind the anonymous New York Times op-ed that labeled Donald Trump amoral as the president demanded the paper name the author for national security reasons. Top White House aides cancelled meetings on Wednesday to come up with a list of roughly a dozen people they suspect of writing the incendiary piece, according to The Washington Post. As officials launched the fight back, Trump announced on Twitter he was draining the Swamp but the Swamp is fighting back. Dont worry, we will win! he added. The president reacted to the column with volcanic anger and was absolutely livid at what he considered an act of treason, two sources told the Post. Daily Mail The frontrunner in Brazils presidential election has been stabbed while campaigning in the state of Minas Gerais. Jair Bolsonaro, 63, a far-right candidate, was being carried aloft by jubilant supporters at an event in the city of Juiz de Fora yesterday when the attack took place. Video of the incident shows him flinching and grabbing his abdomen in pain, before falling backwards into the arms of those around him. The former army reserve captain was taken to a local hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for a perforated liver, lung and intestine. His son, Flavio, said that his father was almost dead when he was admitted, but his condition was later reported to be stable. The Times Mordaunt: Lets end the brutal scourge of landmines for good News in brief I support Johnson to be Leader says Rees-Mogg The Spectator The West Midlands is Britains unsung cultural hotbed, as Mayor I invite you to come and surprise yourself Andy Street, Huffington Post The West must see Russia for what it is: a rogue state that needs to be contained Oliver Kamm, CapX Michel Barnier was offering a Canada-style deal all along , now we should snatch it John Longworth, Brexit Central Cabinet ministers are plotting for a harder Brexit if Chequers Plan fails Alex Wickham, Buzzfeed Lack of Ofsted inspections at hundreds of schools is unacceptable, MPs say Independent We are using technology to increase the speed at which we can clear land to make demining safer. Robust, super-efficient machines, like the MineWolf, a tracked vehicle operated by remote control, can clear up to 12,000 square metres of contaminated land a day. Today I can announce that we will step up our work with Halo, and the mine clearance charity Mines Advisory Group, another great British organisation. The 46m we are committing to this fight today will protect 820,000 people across Asia and Africa. It will save lives, prevent disability, and bring land back into use to grow crops and provide homes and livelihoods. Children can go to school in safety, businesses can flourish and economies can become sustainable and resilient. Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, The Guardian Nola Leach is the chief executive of CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) This week is Organ Donation Week 2018. Its a chance to encourage people to register to become donors and to talk about their wishes with their families. During last years equivalent, 34,000 people joined the organ donation register. This is something we can all celebrate not least because there are currently more than 6,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. The obvious demand for organs has generated public debate about how best to meet the shortfall. The Government has decided to legislate to shift England from an opt-in system of organ donation to an opt-out system (also known as presumed consent). Although this policy seems to garner support from across the political spectrum, is it really as harmless as it is presented by much of the media and some consensus-seeking politicians? Under closer scrutiny, it is very strange that a Conservative Government should be so intent on pursuing such a statist policy. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that there are very good reasons to oppose this approach. First, the problem in principle with presumed consent is that it develops the idea that it is acceptable for the state to presume your consent when you have not given it. Inevitably, there will be people who wont actively opt-out of the presumed consent system, but will still not be content to donate their organs. These people may mean to do nothing, but by doing nothing they will, courtesy of presumed consent, be deemed by the state to have done something very significant. This formalises a statist precedent with disturbing longer-term implications for the relationship between the citizen and the state. It does not sit well with the British constitutional tradition with its historic focus on liberty from Magna Carta onwards. It reflects the idea that the interests of the community should be deemed more significant than individual liberty. Surely there is something inherently contradictory about a Conservative Government pursuing this policy? Another reason to oppose presumed consent is because the evidence from Wales (and internationally) suggests that this policy is more of a placebo than an effective means of increasing the number of organs being made available for transplantation purposes. The Welsh Government claimed that presumed consent would result in increased organ donation rates from deceased persons by approximately 25 to 30 per cent. This has not materialised. Rather the data from Wales presents a mixed and confusing picture. In 2013/14, there were 54 deceased donors in Wales and 157 deceased donor transplants occurred. Although by 2018/19 the number of deceased donors had increased to 74, the number of deceased donor transplants had fallen to 137. Moreover, for most of the period (the first four years) after the introduction of the presumed consent system, there was only a marginal increase in the number of deceased donors (averaging 59.7), and the number of deceased donor transplants varied from year to year with 128 in 2014/15, 168 in 2015/16 and 135 in 2016/17. Whether the increase in the number of deceased donors is owing to the introduction of the new system or to other factors is far from clear. Moreover, the fact that the number of deceased donor transplants varies so much from year to year and shows no sign of an overall upward trend casts doubt on the claimed benefits of introducing presumed consent. A third reason to oppose presumed consent is because it entails the waste of scarce resources which could be far better spent in other ways within the NHS. In order for presumed consent to work, there needs to be regular publicity campaigns funded by the Government to ensure that the public are aware of the new system. That costs a considerable amount of money which would be better spent investing in specialist nurses. Evidence from other countries shows that where specialist organ donation nurses are employed, organ donation rates increase. Last year, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published research which found that the rates of family consent were 68.6 per cent when a specialist nurse in organ donation approached the family, but just 27.5 per cent when the approach was made by other staff without the specialised training. There are three good reasons, therefore, why the Government should abandon its plans to introduce presumed consent for organ donation. First, because it institutes an alarming relationship between the state and the individual, which could have far reaching implications for basic liberties if it becomes enshrined in law and applied across the board. Second, because there are serious doubts about its effectiveness in meeting its stated aims. It represents more of a placebo than an effective means to increase the number of organs available for donation from deceased donors. Finally, it does not provide good value for money as there are much more effective and efficient ways to increase the numbers of organs available for transplant from deceased donors. Shifting to an opt-out system might seem attractive on paper. But such a system raises serious ethical and practical concerns. This Conservative Government would do better to leave it well alone. Peter Franklin is Associate Editor at UnHerd.com. Youll have seen the shock headlines the number of young people in England and Wales being treated for Type 2 Diabetes is up by over 40 per cent in just three years. It should be said that the numbers involved are small hundreds rather than thousands. Nevertheless, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is worried. Professor Russell Viner, the Colleges president, said that A rise in Type 2 diabetes of this magnitude is alarming and shows that the childhood obesity epidemic is starting to bite. The political reaction to this kind of story always plays out in the same way: The Government claims to be on the case, pointing, for instance, to the sugar tax that came into force this year. Health campaigners, celebrity cooks and left-wing commentators insist that ministers need to go further, faster and spend more money. And certain right-wing pundits, especially those associated with free market think tanks, defend the right of every freeborn Englishman to drink themselves stupid on a cocktail of Tizer and Jamie Olivers blood. But why is the free market right so vehemently opposed to any government attempts to curb our sugar intake? Well, that in itself, is a divisive issue. The most common retort to the libertarian assault on the sugar tax isnt a counter-argument, but a question: Who funds you? From what I can gather, the answer is two-fold: Firstly, none of your business; and, secondly, the funding we get follows the beliefs that we have, not the other way round. The Left needs to accept this at face value. Doctrinaire socialists are not the only ideologues in the village; free market fundamentalists are allowed to play, too. If your whole political outlook revolves around maximising individual freedom, then of course youre going to be against government attempts to interfere in personal choices. Conservatives dont have to be on the hard right of the party to be believe this. For instance, this is what Ruth Davidson said in 2015 when asked about calls for a sugar tax: I was watching Jamie Oliver and thinking You rocket-munching millionaire, telling people theyre not allowed a bloody Curly Wurly! The libertarian in me was like, Actually, sod off, just sod off. If folk want a Twirl, let them have a Twirl!' Poor Jamie Oliver! He just cant catch a break these days. Having earned the ire of the right for wanting children to have healthy food; hes now also a hate figure on the left for his cultural appropriation of, er, Caribbean seasoning. I, however, have come to the deeply controversial conclusion that Oliver is not in fact historys greatest monster. We need to take a more objective view of the issues too. For a start, the state is not about to ban the Twirl or any other form of a sugary snack. Also, theres no such thing as a health fascist. If youre comparing public health policy in a democratic country to the dictates of a totalitarian state then perhaps youve had too much orange squash. Indiscriminately accusing people of fascism is an activity befitting the toddler left, not grown-up conservatives. Of course, theres no denying that a sugar tax imposes a cost on those who end up paying it. Furthermore, its a cost just like any other non-progressive tax that falls hardest on the poor. But then obesity is a cost that falls hardest on the poor as do the costs of smoking, excessive drinking, problem gambling and other social pathologies. And its not just those who choose to indulge who pay the price, but their dependents too. All sin taxes take a bigger bite out of lower incomes than higher ones. However, theyre easier to avoid than general consumption taxes like VAT that also hit the poor hardest. If those opposing sin taxes on the grounds of social justice were that concerned about the poor, then they ought to be arguing for a general shift in the burden of taxation from consumption to income. So lets get to the heart of the libertarian argument the principle of personal responsibility. To have a grown-up debate about public health policy, theres couple of things we all need to accept. For a start, no one is being banned from eating sugar (see above) but, equally, no one is being forced to eat it either. Some people argue that healthy food is more expensive and less available than unhealthy food. But that all depends on what comparisons you choose to make. To take just one example: you can buy a two litre bottle of fizzy water for 25p (try Sainsburys). A fresh lemon or lime to flavour it might cost another 25p. Two litres of Coke, even without the sugar levy, will be a multiple of that. The fact is that almost everyone in this country has affordable access to healthy options. So is that where we should leave the matter with the freely-made choices of the individual? No, because this is a drama played out at many levels not solely that of the individual. The industries who supply us with our food from field to plate arent primarily concerned about the decisions made by any one person. What they care about are the aggregate outcomes of all those choices. Furthermore, they know how to influence these outcomes. When a supermarket fills an entire aisle with bottles of sugared water, theyre reasonably certain about how much of it theyre going to shift, how fast and at what price. After all, its literally their business, and if they werent good at it then theyd soon go bust. This is more than a matter of meekly responding to consumer demand. Manufacturers and retailers have ways of making us want things its called marketing and the reason why they spend so much money on it is because it works. Sometimes, individual choice doesnt come into it at all. For instance, it wasnt consumers who insisted that palm oil be used in so many products. And no one ever went the shops in the hope of getting more high fructose corn syrup into their lives. These are producer decisions taken in the producer interest. It suits that interest to locate all responsibility for public health in the individual and to portray the market as some kind of impersonal force of nature, with no more moral accountability than the wind or the rain. The reality, however, is one of high level decision-making with high-level consequences. The flow of sugar that the food industry sets up from the corn fields of Iowa, or the beet fields of Belgium, to supermarket shelves in every town and city does not stop at the check out: it continues into the guts and arteries and fat cells of the nation into overweight, unhappy children; into overstretched public health services; and eventually into mortuaries and graveyards. Again, its not that a single consumer has been robbed of free will in the process in theory, we could, every one of us, decide to stop drinking sugary water tomorrow. In all likelihood, however, we wont. Push a particular kind of product to the public and, overall, therell be a certain take-up the manufacturers and retailers are banking on it. In fact, theyre doing everything in their power to manipulate the aggregate outcomes in their favour. The libertarian narrative around non-interference in personal choice has a lot of missing ingredients. It ignores corporate agency, overall effect and public interest. But the fact is that commercial companies are making decisions that have a significant impact on the health of the nation, which is something which impacts upon us all regardless of what we each personally choose to eat. On a micro-level, the sugar libertarians are arguing for non-interference in personal decisions. However, at the macro-level this amounts to a policy of uncontested corporate agency a monopoly position for short-term commercial interests whose concerns extend no further than the cash register. Government, as a representative of long-term public interests, is to be left powerless, both hands tied behind its back. This is not so much a pro-market position as an anti-democratic one. There is more to politics than market versus state. There is also the nation and faced with long-term threats to public health we have the right and responsibility to take back control. Syed Kamall is Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and is an MEP for London. Next week sees one of the EUs set-piece events, when Jean Claude Juncker makes his last State of the Union speech before stepping down in 2019. It is an opportunity for him to define his legacy, highlight what he sees as his successes and spell out the path that he believes the EU should take in the future. He is expected to talk about the big issues of trade, migration, climate change, security, the EUs role on the global stage and how to increase turnout in the European elections. On a personal level, I have always found Juncker to be courteous and, while we often disagree, he is a man I am able to work with. Without doubt, he is a skilled politician. But when he stands up before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, MEPs from our European Conservatives and Reformists Group will be interested to hear what he believes the EU has learned from one of the defining moments of his presidency the UKs decision to leave the EU. If, indeed, he mentions it at all. The gossip around Brussels is that the subject was not even raised during the commissioners away-day to discuss the speechs contents. In a meeting this week with myself and fellow European Parliament political group leaders, Juncker was pressed to spell out the consequences of a no-deal scenario and if and how the EU was preparing for no deal. As the deadline for negotiations to conclude approaches, politicians from more EU countries, as in the UK, are becoming increasingly concerned by the prospect of no agreement. While most fellow MEPs regret the decision by the British people to vote to leave the EU, they understand the frustration with an EU that does not listen to their concerns, which fails to keep its promises and often behaves as though Brussels knows best. Other electorates have taken up the theme and eurosceptic parties are set to make gains in next Mays European elections, making next weeks State of the Union the most important for years. Yet it all started so well. In 2014, Juncker stood before MEPs and declared it to be a new start for the European Union. He promised a pragmatic approach and an end to divisive ideological debates; policy-making by consensus; budget responsibility and greater transparency. It was the right agenda but, over the past four years, Juncker has failed to deliver in some key areas. Instead, the Commission stands accused of pursuing a federalist agenda regardless of what citizens want; championing the most divisive and unsupported migration policies of the past 20 years; proposing an increase in spending for the new seven year budget, despite the departure of the UK, one of its biggest net contributors; and the EUs own ombudsman this week found the Commission guilty of four instances of maladministration in the secretive appointment of Martin Selmayr Junckers former Chief of Staff as Secretary General. No wonder voters are increasingly willing to take risks at the ballot box if there is a chance of electing someone who shares their vision. I have spent more than a decade trying to work constructively with colleagues across the political spectrum to make the EU a better, more prosperous, more open place. I am excited by Britains post-Brexit prospects but will not stop caring about the EU when I close my Brussels office door for the last time in March. As a current member and a future neighbour, I hope a prosperous, outward-looking, global Britain will continue to trade and cooperate with our EU neighbours So the European Conservatives and Reformists would suggest a few things to Juncker as to what he could say next week to avoid being remembered solely for losing one of its largest member states and for being in office while the rules were bent to secure a top job for a close associate. Firstly, he should promise to spend his last six months in office listening, really listening, to what electorates are saying. Then he needs to return to his 2014 pledge to create an EU that does less but does it better, which is big on the big and small on the small things, not one that seeks to replace national governments. Those big things must include a firm but fair, consensual immigration and asylum system, continuing to prepare for the digital revolution, creating a business-friendly environment, effective security co-operation and cutting waste. Finally, while he will be remembered as having been in office as the UK leaves the EU, he can also be if he so chooses the Commission President who laid the ground for a constructive, co-operative and more honest relationship with the UK as we cease to be uncommitted tenants and become good neighbours. All this is possible, but it will probably not happen. Which is one reason why British MEPs will not be in Strasbourg to hear the State of the Union speech in 2019 For Britain to join or rather stay in the EEA, while also leaving the EU, would honour the referendum result. The four EFTA countries, all of which bar one are EEA members, are not in the EU. But it isnt quite as simple as that. It was a peculiar feature of the referendum campaign, and of the run-up to it, that senior players on both sides played down the option. Michael Gove, Vote Leaves co-convenor, said that were Leave to win, Britain would leave the Single Market, hence ruling out EEA membership. The most senior figure on the Remain side, no less senior a figure than David Cameron himself, made more or less the same argument. In short, both campaigns waved away the table dhote menu, and stressed that a Brexit Britain would dine a la carte. This was also the thrust of Change or Go, the epic report drawn up by Vote Leaves predecessor, Business for Britain. By the time Theresa May came to set out her Brexit policy at the Conservative Party conference of 2016, the die had been cast. So it is not going to a Norway model. Its not going to be a Switzerland model. It is going to be an agreement between an independent, sovereign United Kingdom and the European Union, she said. It is going to be an agreement between an independent, sovereign United Kingdom and the European UnionWe are not leaving the European Union only to give up control of immigration again. The Government committed itself to seeking a bespoke agreement. All this presents a peculiar obstacle to taking the EEA route post-Brexit. The Prime Minister criticised the Canadian option, pre-Chequers, as well as the EEA one most notably in her Mansion House speech earlier this year. But she has been strikingly insistent that Norway, as the EEA option is often described, cannot be part of our future after next March. In particular, she has stressed that free movement must end. So while it is possible to imagine her chucking Chequers, and reverting to Canada Plus Plus Plus, as David Davis labelled her previous policy, it is very hard indeed to imagine her being able execute an even more drastic U-turn, and seeking to take the EEA route. So were the Government to seek to do so, therefore, a new Prime Minister would probably be required. One can go on to argue that, given the referendum campaign and whats happened since, a general election would be necessary to endorse the new policy. This is the background against which the campaign for the EEA should be viewed or, rather, the two campaigns. For it is necessary to distinguish between those who want to stay permanently in Norway, so to speak, and those who want to park there for a while before moving on to Canada. James Cartlidge has made the latter case on ConservativeHome. So did Nick Boles last year. He had another push last Sunday. A day later, he was joined by George Trefgarne, who set out his stall on this site this week. And while either route might require a new Prime Minister, and the risk of an election that the Conservatives might lose, the transitional one poses special questions. After all, it is not very flattering for the EFTA countries to be told that Britain wants to join their club, in the EEA context, for a few brief years until it can find somewhere better to move to. Might they turn the request down? Furthermore, why would a few extra years change the EUs negotiating stance? What would happen if Britain approached the end of a temporary EEA period, only to find that the EUs negotiating stance was much as now? What if the EU were still be to digging its heels in about the UK-Ireland border? Would it really be willing to drop regulatory alignment after a few years? All the familiar arguments about the perils of a No Deal exit would be re-heated. These questions morph into wider ones about the EEA option as a while. Most crucially: is there time to pursue such a policy now, even were May able to pursue it, given the closeness of Brexit Day? Then there is the ferocious scrap between pro and anti-EEA Brexiteers about whether or not the EU has, in effect, the power to veto our continued EEA membership post-Brexit. In either case, the Commission would presumably press for Britain to pay the 40 billion divorce bill agreed in principle last December. Handing over the money and then staying in the Single Market could be a bridge too far for voters. (One can begin to see why a new mandate would probably be required.) Now it is important to stress that there are potential answers to at least some of these questions. Like Canada, Norway is a tried-and-test model for the Commission. So why would it seek to hold up the latter were Britain to pursue it? Boles argues that in exchange for an interim customs union, the EU might be willing to drop the 40 claim for a lower one-off payment. (It is worth noting that we are evidently in no condition, due to the Government gambling on a deal, and hence on the proposed transition period applying, simply to quit the present customs dispensation next April.) The disagreements between pro and anti-EEA Brexiteers about what Norway would mean stretch wider. (For example, there is a continued dogfight over whether the EFTA court is in effect independent of the ECJ.) On some of them, the pros have the edge. It is plus for the EEA option that it would give us freedom to strike our own trade deals, once we have our customs ducks in a row. On others, the antis are out in front. It is a minus that the so-called safeguard measures on migration are hedged about with problems. For example, they must be applied after consultations with the EEA joint committee with a view to finding a commonly acceptable solution. On one point, we side with the EEA advocates. The claim that Britain will become a vassal state if we take the Norway route post-Brexit is overblown. As Daniel Hannan pointed out on ConservativeHome three years ago, Norway is not excluded from the EUs own decision-making process. As Anne Tvinnereim of Norways Centre Partyexplains: We are not there when they vote, but we do get to influence the position. Most of the politics is done long before it gets to the voting stage. Supporters of the Chequers scheme will argue that it offers a superior solution on services, because we would write our own rules, and on immigration, because we would have more flexibility. This site is where we were before. The most elegant solution to a negotiating impasse is a Canada Plus Plus Plus scheme, as revealed on this site by way of David Davis Alternative White Paper. Expect more soon on the same theme from the former Brexit Secretary and the ERG. None the less, the months ahead, as March 29 next year approaches, will not be the forum for an academic debate on the best future for Britain. Rather, they will be shaped by governmental and parliamentary rough-and-tumble, amidst the most momentous months for this country perhaps since the Suez crisis, arguably since the Second World War. If a deal is not agreed, or is voted down in the Commons, the question will not be: is the EEA the perfect port in which to seek to dock? Rather, it could become: is the risk of No Brexit at all; or of an unmanageable No Deal, greater than the disadvantages of EEA membership even at the risk, as we would see it, of being stuck permanently in the arrangement? We do not have an answer to that last question yet. Dominic Raab has further announcements on preparations to make. And we await more assessments of the consequences of No Deal might bring with it for example, from Open Europe later this month. But during the interim, one thought is worth dwelling on. Not so long ago, the bulk of the Eurosceptic movement would have embraced Norway (with its greater room for manoeuvre on farming, fishing, home and foreign affairs and, up to a point, on migration too) with arms wide-open. Is it wise now to wave it away and rule it out altogether even if new leadership is required? A new Netflix documentary investigating the medical device industry ends on a particularly devastating note for Ana Fuentes, a single mother in California who received a permanent birth control implant when she was still married. The film shows her struggling to make ends meet and searching for cheap hotels with her daughters after she loses the apartment. She cant hold a job because she is constantly in the emergency room, in so much pain that she can barely walk to the entrance. In her final scene, she is visiting her daughters in a strangers home; the children eventually were placed in foster care. Director Kirby Dick said that it was clear through his reporting that Fuentes and her daughters were extremely close, even after they could no longer live together, and he wanted to be sure that message was conveyed in the film. In an interview with ConsumerAffairs, Fuentes provided more details about the domino-effect that the botched procedure had on her family. Though Fuentes is pleased with how her story is validated and portrayed in the film -- she says she watched it three or four times after it aired -- her sense of betrayal from the medical community is still raw. It was really hard for me to accept that he didn't care about me, she says of her doctor. Because he took care of me with my last pregnancy and my last baby. I trusted him so much when he told me about Essure." Before the procedure When Fuentes agreed to be implanted with Essure back in 2011, she was living in an apartment with her husband and their four daughters in southern California. She took care of the girls while he worked. She received health coverage through Medi-Cal, the Medicaid program offered in California. Fuentes recently had a baby and did not want more children. She asked about getting her tubes tied, the more common and older sterilization procedure. Her doctor told her it wasnt a good idea because she had a family history of ovarian cancer. He said a permanent medical implant called Essure was the better option. Like thousands of other patients who have filed complaints to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Fuentes says she suffered sharp pains and heavy bleeding immediately after the procedure. The symptoms persisted. She went back to the same doctor who implanted her. He kept telling me it was in my head, Fuentes remembers. She would learn much later that her doctor had admitted to accepting thousands of dollars from Bayer via government disclosure websites. The financial incentives that device companies provide doctors are well-documented in the film and in medical research, but it wasnt the only factor hindering her care. As Fuentes recounts in the film, her doctor also blamed the fact that she was a Latina woman for the bleeding, claiming that they simply have heavier periods than other woman. In an interview, Fuentes says she also remembers her doctor telling her that it had to do with "you guys [having] so many kids, referring to Latina women. Fuentes recollection comes at a time when researchers are increasingly calling attention to racism and sexism in medicine. Struggling through it Sometimes she felt a jolt travel through her body when she plugged electronics into the wall socket. It was a strange, unsettling sensation. Like everything else that was happening to her, she didnt have an explanation. She never told her husband why she could no longer be intimate with him. They simply stopped talking about it. He just looked at me and he would walk away, Fuentes recalls. The next year, he left the family without saying goodbye. Fuentes learned from her landlord that he didnt pay that month's rent before fleeing. The landlord gave the family 16 days to pack their bags. Trying to work Fuentes looked for work when her older daughters were in school and slept with them at a homeless shelter or in their car in the evenings. She found a daycare center for her youngest child, still a toddler at the time, and worked three different jobs when she could. She took 900 milligrams of ibuprofen each day, but on some days the symptoms were still too much to handle. One afternoon, while crossing the street with her toddler, the pain suddenly flared up again. She could feel blood soaking through her pants. She could barely make it to the other side of the street. People were just honking, calling me crazy lady, what are you doing? But I couldn't move. I couldn't walk. The pain was so strong, Fuentes says, crying at the memory. I just kept walking slowly. Nobody got out of the car to help out or anything. On another day, while carrying a tray of food during her shift at a restaurant, she suddenly passed out. She asked coworkers not to call anyone and drove herself to the hospital. The restaurant cut her hours. In 2013, Fuentes found the E-sisters, the activists who have convinced regulators to scrutinize Essure and who share their stories on a popular Facebook page called Essure Problems. It was through the women that Fuentes learned how common her symptoms were. She consulted with new doctors thanks to the Medi-Cal coverage and learned that tubal ligation surgery isnt actually dangerous for women with a family history of ovarian cancer, as her implanting doctor had claimed. "I already felt betrayed, and then hearing all these options from other doctors, You could have done this," she says, trailing off. Like other women in the group, Fuentes learned that removing Essure is difficult and she that she would need a hysterectomy, followed by weeks of recovery in which she would not be able to work. Still, she relented and agreed to undergo the procedure in 2014. She was recovering in the hospital when a social worker showed up and told her to find a home for the children. "I think the hospital reported me, because they asked me where I live, and I gave them my brother's address, Fuentes says. The social worker warned her to "find a solution or we'll jump in. Because you need to take care of your health. Through her church, Fuentes found a nonprofit that allowed her to keep her children with other Christian families. As the film shows, the families often invited her to visit the girls, even though they were not required to do so. All of the families have been a blessing, Fuentes says. Participating in the documentary was an easy decision. The E-Sisters told her that sharing her story would help other women. Though the film ends with Fuentes leaving her children in foster care, Fuentes says their situation has become more stable since then. She is now reunited with her daughters thanks to a nonprofit program that assists with partial rent each month. A GoFundMe page that Fuentes set up following the films release in late July, asking for $5,000 to cover living expenses, has since raised nearly five times that amount from people all over the world. Still, medical expenses could quickly eat those donations away. Even after the hysterectomy, her symptoms remained. Fuentes began losing her back teeth several years ago, and Medi-Cal insurance doesnt cover dental work beyond regular cleanings. On a new doctor's advice, she underwent another surgery in March, this time to have her ovaries removed. He told her to wait at least three months before trying to work again. One day you feel like superwoman and the next day you don't want to get out of bed, Fuentes says of the symptoms she and other women still live with. She is only 36-years-old. Shortly before the film aired, Bayer took Essure off the market in the United States, the one country where it was still for sale. But Bayer maintains that the implant is safe. As the documentary shows, Essure is only part of the problem. The medical device industry generally faces a low barrier to prove that its products are safe before they can be used on patients. Conceptus, the company that originally developed Essure, was not required to conduct long-term studies on the device. Little is known about what will happen to women like Fuentes when they reach middle-age and beyond. Fuentes says that her legs are covered in small red dots that didnt exist before the procedure. She is also starting to lose her hair. Because Essure is made from nickel, other women who are experiencing similar symptoms suspect that they have a metal allergy. Numerous women say that they were never tested for metal allergies before receiving the device. I just wish they could have done more studies on this, Fuentes adds. The three often-discussed three Ds of robotics are "dull, dirty, and dangerous." They relate to the question, which is not asked often enough, "Do you want to build an automated system to do that task?" The reason the question is not asked enough is that it needs to be asked whenever anyone looks into designing a system (whether manual or automated) to do anything. The possibility that anyone ever sets up a system to do anything without first asking that question means that its not asked enough. When asking the question, getting a hit on any one of the three Ds tells you to at least think about automating the task. Getting a hit on two of them should make you think that your task is very likely to be ripe for automation. If you hit on all three, its a slam-dunk. Ready for automation When we look into developing automated vehicles (AVs), we get a hit on "dull" and "dangerous." Driving can be excruciatingly dull, especially if youre going a significant distance. Thats why people fall asleep at the wheel. I daresay everyone has fallen asleep at the wheel at least once, although we almost always wake up before hitting the bridge abutment. Its also why so many people drive around with cellphones pressed to their ears. The temptation to multitask while driving is irresistible for many. Driving is also dangerous. Tens of thousands of people die every year in car crashes. Its safe to say nearly all those fatalities involve cars driven by humans. The number of people who have been killed in accidents involving driverless cars can (as of this writing) be counted on one hand. For AVs to be safer than manually driven vehicles, the technology will develop until they are. Its not a matter of if, but when. This is the analysis most observers (if they analyze it at all) come up with to prove vehicle driving should be automated. Yet, opinions that AVs are acceptable, let alone inevitable, are far from universal. In a survey of 3,000 people in the U.S. and Canada, Ipsos Strategy 3 found 16% of Canadians and 26% of Americans say they "would not use a driverless car," and a whopping 39% of Americans (and 30% of Canadians) would rarely or never let driverless technology do the parking. Why would so many people be unwilling to give up their driving privileges? It has to do with a parallel consideration every bit as important as the three Ds when deciding whether to automate a task: Dont automate what humans enjoy! Predatory animals, especially humans, like to drive. Its fun. Just ask any dog who has a chance to go for a ride in a car. Almost universally, theyll jump into the front seat as soon as you open the door. (In fact, if you leave dogs in the car unattended for a few minutes [watch the temperature, please], theyll be behind the wheel when you come back!) Humans are the same way. Leave em unattended in a car for any length of time, and theyll think of some excuse to get behind the wheel. The Ipsos survey also found 61% of Americans and Canadians identify themselves as "car people." When asked, "What would have to change about transportation in your area for you to consider not owning a car at all, or owning fewer cars?" 39% of Americans and 38% of Canadians responded "There is nothing that would make me consider owning fewer cars!" Thats pretty definitive! The excuse for getting behind the wheel is largely an economic one: 78% of Americans claim they "definitely need to have a vehicle to get to work." In more urbanized Canada (Canadians cluster more into cities) that drops to 53%. Whether those folks claiming they have to have a car to get to work is based on historical precedent, urban planning, wishful thinking, or just what they want to believe, its a good, cogent reason why folks, especially Americans, hang onto their steering wheels for dear life. Driving is something humans like to do, and getting them to give it up will be a serious uphill battle for anyone wanting to promote driverless cars. Yet, development of AV technology is going full steam ahead. Certainly, spending tons of money for the latest technology has some appeal. I submit, however, the appeal is short lived for some applications. Dull driving For a wide range of applications, driving a vehicle is no fun at all. For example, the first use of drone aircraft was as targets for anti-aircraft gunnery practice, which is a very practical application. Most commercial driving jobs could stand to be automated. For example, almost nobody actually steers ships at sea anymore. They generally stand around watching an autopilot follow a pre-programmed course. Why? Veteran boat pilots will say the captain has a lot more fun than the helmsman. Piloting a ship from, say, Calcutta to San Francisco has got to be mind-numbingly dull. Theres nothing going on out there on the ocean. Boat passengers generally spend the most time staring into the wake, but the helmsman has to spend time scanning a horizontal line separating a light-blue dome (the sky) from a dark-blue plane (the sea) in the vain hope something interesting will pop up and relieve the tedium. Flying a commercial airliner is similar. It has been described (similar to many tasks) as: "Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror!" While such activity is very Zen, its not top-of-the-line fun. Im convinced that humans ability to meditate was developed through cave dwellers having to sit for hours, or days, watching game trails for the next meal to wander along. Sometimes driving is fun, and sometimes its not. Advanced AV technologies can cover those tasks where its not. C.G. Masi, writer with Technology Communications and former Control Engineering senior editor, has a blog on technology topics. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media, mhoske@cfemedia.com. KEYWORDS: Automated vehicles, robotics Consider robotics for two out of three of dull, dirty, and dangerous. Exception might be for applications where people like the task. Automation may help if tedium leads to unintentional slumber. CONSIDER THIS Dull, dirty, and dangerous, sure, but what other criteria do you use for automation? ONLINE extra When to automate: Conventional and robotic applications Related topic from another source, NPR: Self-driving cars need to learn how humans drive We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. 100% Website findaproperty.com uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of 53 bytes (0.05 kb uncompressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-09-20, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The picturesque Olden is welcoming another record cruise year as 165,000 cruise guests and 98 ship calls are on the books. Among the highlights are nine AIDA calls as the German brand has added Olden to its deployment. There are also maiden calls from both the MSC Preziosa and the Costa Mediterranea, scheduled on the same day. According to a spokesperson from Nordfjord Havn, the ports slogan is Raw Wilderness Made Accessible, highlighted by the Norwegian fjord landscape, the Briksdal glacier, and one of the worlds steepest cable cars in the Loen Skylift. With one pier available, Olden added a new tender jetty for the 2018 season, allowing tenders to dock at the center of the village. With the new tender jettyin place, we will have the possibility to divide cruise traffic into three nearby, but still, different locations, said the spokesperson. Regarding competition in the Norwegian region, we find this positive to be able to secure good itineraries for the cruise lines in our region, the spokesperson continued. Competition between ports is for us a good incentive to work even harder to obtain satisfied guests and cruise lines visiting our destination. Down the road, the port has its eyes on the eventual addition of a second cruise pier to help double its cruise capacity. Union Savings Bank has filed an application with the Connecticut Department of Banking to reorganize into a mutual holding company in a move that would give the bank flexibility in the future, according to president and CEO Cindy Merkle. The reorganization will have no impact on the banks customers or employees, Merkle said. Customers will have the same accounts with the same numbers and the same commitment from us, she said. Reorganizing into a holding company allows banks more options to raise capital while remaining a mutual and community-oriented bank. We dont have plans to do anything at the moment, but the time to plan is now, not when we need to, Merkel said regarding the ability to raise capital through additional avenues. The time to do this is in a good economy. Union Savings Bank, a state-chartered mutual savings bank, filed the application Aug. 20. It would reorganize as a capital stock savings bank, according to a filing with the states Department of Banking. Merkle said the move will be put to a vote with the banks corporators and then depositors later this fall. She hopes to have the reorganization completed by the end of the year. Newtown Savings Bank filed a similar application in the summer of 2016 and became a holding company in January of 2017. It received unanimous approval by its board of directors and majority support from its depositors. It is a source of comfort to know that the bank now has all the tools it needs to remain an independent mutual organization for generations to come, then Newtown Savings Bank President and CEO John Trentacosta wrote in the banks 2016 Annual Report. Merkle said the reorganization would not affect Union Savings Banks commitment to the greater Danbury community. Union Savings Bank sponsors several events each year, including this weekends Taste of Danbury. Earlier this year, the bank held a community fair on Main Street in Danbury where nonprofit groups set up booths and Union Savings Bank employees talked with representatives to see which organizations they may want to become involved with. United Savings Bank was founded in 1866. The Union Savings Bank Foundation, which was established in 1998, distributed more than $140,000 in grants to 14 nonprofits last year. The writer may be reached at cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338 BRIDGEPORT City officials are accustomed to developers seeking public subsidies and promising, in return, to put locals to work. An effort now is under way to ensure qualified city residents, including those with criminal records, are first in line for those new jobs. An ordinance making its way through the City Council and supported by Mayor Joe Ganims administration encourages developers who receive tax breaks, land sale deals or other incentives to make 20 percent of the resultant workforce Bridgeport residents, and an additional 5 percent individuals with criminal records. The goals would be written into all future development deals. Even before this language, we would hope the companies that come to Bridgeport and do business in Bridgeport would hire people from Bridgeport, said Councilman Ernest Newton, himself an ex-felon, who has been spearheading the proposal. This spells it out, though. ... We want to make it up front this is what we want. Ganim, too, has a criminal record and has sought ways to make Bridgeport friendlier for individuals who have served their time. But Newton and other city officials emphasized the jobs ordinance does not force developers to meet the listed hiring goals. We think its very important to be accurate about what the program is so folks will understand it as a proactive program, said William Coleman, deputy director of planning and economic development. Its not a requirement. Its a good faith effort. This is not youre forced to do it, said Council President Aidee Nieves, acknowledging the City Attorneys Office worked with Newton on fine-tuning the language. The point, Nieves said, is to encourage developers who receive subsidies from the city to, in return, be proactive when it comes to providing work to locals and ex-felons by advertising, working with unions, hosting job fairs and collaborating with existing Bridgeport agencies that help the unemployed including Career Resources Inc. where Newton works. There are no stated penalties. But if the ordinance passes, developers before applying for their building permits shall meet with the citys contract compliance officer to show they sought to hire locally, or to seek a waiver for not doing so. The language was very important to make it friendly, not aggressive and overly assertive, Nieves said. Were not trying to scare companies from doing business here, Newton said. To do so would fly in the face of other efforts by the Ganim administration and economic development department to make Bridgeport more business-friendly. Last fall, for example, the council placed limits on the scope of tax breaks the city offers, but, at the urging of the economic development staff, also relinquished its power to vote on those individual deals. That latter change was controversial. Proponents promoted it as sending a signal to investors that the politics was being taken out of the awarding of subsidies. Critics like Newton argued the council was giving up its authority. Legal hurdles Stronger language that required developers to hire locally might score some political points with voters but could also face legal challenges. The National Cooperative Highway Research Program in a 2013 study concluded that local hiring preference programs may run afoul of constitutional provisions and of federal requirements if federal funds are part of a projects financing. That study also found that traditional local hire statutes, local ordinances and regulations have been subject to successful legal challenges. Donald Shubert is president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, which represents large commercial contractors, union and non-union. Shubert said there is a big difference between an ordinance forcing the hiring of residents versus one that encourages it. Requirements may present both legal problems and will present practical implementation problems, Shubert told Hearst Connecticut Media. Shubert praised one section of Newtons proposed ordinance that emphasizes the residents and ex-felons must be qualified applicants. So it doesnt mean you have to hire just anybody, Shubert said. The ordinance also specifies that the developer will not replace any of its current workforce in order to meet the citys stated local hiring goals. Theyve got all the right language in there, said Shubert. Lisa Trachtenberg, a lawyer for the city who helped draft the jobs ordinance, noted that it is separate from Bridgeports Small and Minority Business office and related regulations aimed at helping local business owners get work on big development projects. They are separate and distinct issues, Trachtenberg said. We have Bridgeport residents who deserve (job) opportunities just because they are residents. This is racial neutral. FAIRFIELD The painting hanging in Fairfield Probate Court is only a few months old, but it was nearly a century in the making. The picture the handiwork of Bill Lee, 95, of Trumbull depicts a group of people enjoying a beautiful summers day in front of a row of cottages on a section of Fairfield Beach, circa the 1920s. There are men playing horseshoes, friends and families congregating along the seawall and a gaggle of folks taking in the nice weather under an umbrella on the sand. Fairfield Beach at that particular time was really developing into what it is now, Lee said. Lee, the former Fairfield historian, based the painting on a photo that he believes was taken by his mothers sister Ruth. That would explain why the figures in the picture include Lee, who was 4 or 5 at the time, and his mother, both sitting along the seawall. The photo was turned into a popular postcard, and it has always held an appeal for Lee, an accomplished artist whose work hangs in buildings throughout Fairfield and surrounding towns. He said the area depicted in the photo was developed by four separate real estate owners, and comprised what were known as courts. Each court was named for its owner and contained cottages rented to families for the summer. Lee said his family rented a cottage at Thorpe Court in the mid-1920s. He still has fond memories of that time, which go beneath the surface of what is depicted in the photo. For instance, Lee said, the horseshoe players in the picture look like a group of affable gents just having fun at the beach. They were really playing for money a practice Lee said wasnt legal at the time. What has really stuck with Lee is that a lot of the cottages that were there when he was a boy are still around. Most of them are no longer part of courts and have changed ownership, but the houses are there. All these years, and they have survived, he said. That longevity gets more meaningful to the nonagenarian with every year. Im still around, too, he said. A few months ago, he decided to paint his version of the photo, adding his own touches. For instance, the pair of bathing-suit-clad young walking along the beach in Lees work arent in the original photo, and are based on a pair of twins he once knew. The painting now hangs in the probate court building, which is home to several other of Lees works. But this one stands out, said Kate Maxham, staff attorney at the court. Everybody comments on it, she said. Its really a beautiful painting. Anybody who spent any time at the beach recognize that area. Indeed, Maxhams mothers uncle, John McGarry, owned McGarry Court. Maxham said the horseshoe contest in the picture was actually between residents of McGarry Court, and Thorpe Court, where Lees family lived. The painting is a natural fit for the probate building, Maxham said. We are the keeper of records, she said. All of us here love history. This is a little piece of history. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is edging closer to the biggest escalation yet in its trade war with China. The U.S. Trade Representative closed the books at midnight for comments about 25 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports. That's probably the last hurdle the Trump team needs to clear before declaring its intent to move ahead with the duties. Trump could announce as soon as today that he is imposing the tariffs. The move would constitute a fourfold increase over the 25 percent duties his administration has slapped on $50 billion worth of imports from China. That country on Thursday renewed its pledge to retaliate by targeting $60 billion of U.S. goods. Lobbyists close to the matter say they don't expect Trump's decision to come until next week at the earliest. There is little suspense, however, about whether he will follow through: All signs point to the president making good on repeated threats to dial up the conflict in a major way. "There came time when I couldn't delay it anymore because it's too much money that they drain out of our country. Just too much money," Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview last week. "That's where we are now." And James Freeman, a Wall Street Journal opinion editor, writes that in a Thursday phone call, the president sounded "very stable but unfortunately also still very focused on eliminating trade deficits with America's trading partners." Business interests are preparing to fight back. The Consumer Technology Association, for one, will weighing whether to sue to block the tariffs if they go into effect. The group - which counts Amazon, Uber and Walmart among its members - believes the administration lacks the legal authority to impose the duties. Their argument: The Trump team justified its first tariffs on Chinese imports by invoking its power under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The statute allows the administration to police violations of American intellectual property. But Trump is aiming to escalate in retaliation for China's response to the initial U.S. salvo, grounds the group says are not justified under the law. "We are reviewing all options," a CTA representative tells me. Others are hoping to head off the tariffs through last-minute lobbying appeals. "On Thursday, Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co., and other technology companies sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer urging the administration to avoid imposing more tariffs," Bloomberg News's Andrew Mayeda, Mark Niquette and Shawn Donnan write. "By increasing duties on telecommunications networking gear, the administration would raise the cost of accessing the Internet and slow the roll-out of next-generation wireless technologies, the companies said." More from Bloomberg: "Manufacturers and small and mid-sized firms, in particular, can't quickly adjust and the tariffs imposed so far haven't led to any meaningful concessions, a coalition of the National Retail Federation and 150 organizations said in separate comments to Lighthizer. The administration should cease further tariffs actions and give another shot at talks for a trade deal with China, it said." And still others are making the case that the administration shouldn't move precipitously to put the tariffs in force. "Companies had been preparing for the tariffs based on the cadence of the last two" rounds, Jake Colvin of the National Foreign Trade Council tells me. "If they come sooner, it will complicate fourth-quarter planning. A surprise announcement would be even worse than it already is." Negotiations between the U.S. and China last month left little hope for a last-minute detente. From the Wall Street Journal's Bob Davis and Lingling Wei: "The August trade talks revealed chasms between Washington and Beijing. Chinese negotiators focused on their efforts to live up to World Trade Organization obligations, say people briefed on the talks, and offered 'conceptual' ideas for a deal. But Trump administration negotiators were looking for much more concrete offers. Even in an administration divided on trade issues, the U.S. side this time was fairly unified, U.S. officials say. The U.S. position has shifted more toward the view of Mr. Lighthizer, who has been pressing for deep changes in the Chinese economy, including reduction of subsidies and other industrial policies favoring domestic firms." Looming over the wait for the announcement is the turmoil roiling the White House this week, as the president and his top staff appear consumed by the forthcoming Bob Woodward book and a New York Times opinion piece from an anonymous administration official. "Certainly the Chinese are looking for signs of weakness and pullback, and certainly others the U.S. is negotiating with will be looking for indications the president is on his heels," one source close to the process says. "To the extent the president wants to change the subject and show he's in charge, it probably makes it more likely that he takes a significant action." Welcome to Green Entrepreneur's video recap of the cannabis news you might have missed this week, hosted by our dope correspondent Conrad Martin. Weed stocks soared on Tuesday as Billion dollar Cannabis company Cronos Group, made a whopping $122 million dollar deal with US based GinkoBioworks. The intent of the partnership is to produce lab-created THC instead of extracting cannabinoids from the plant itself. Related: US Cannabis Businesses Look Northward Doctors warn breastfeeding mothers not to toke up The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a warning to breastfeeding mothers to avoid cannabis. This comes off of the heals of a recent study that showed THC could be detected in breastmilk for up to 6 days after use. Oregon lowers medical marijuana allowances Oregon recently released new regulations limiting medical purchase limits from a pound and a half to just an ounce. The move is an attempt to stave off thos abusing the system and selling the product on the black market. Related: Legal Marijuana a 'Powerful Force' in Oregon Economy Be sure to keep up with all things cannabiz by checking out the newly launched GreenEntrepreneur.com If you missed last week's episode, check it out here: South Koreans can't get high, Denver issues a new license, and "budtenders" unionize Related: This Week in Weed (September 3-7) This Week in Weed (August 27-31) Video: This Week in Weed (August 20-24) Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved If you wanted further proof that Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., severely damaged the Senate, look no further than this week's confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanagh. With no filibuster and no interest in fairness or acting as a rigorous check on the executive, Republicans ran roughshod over the process, withholding documents and allowing Kavanaugh to give zero assurances on Roe v. Wade, executive power or much of anything else. At this stage there are a number of important aspects of the hearings worth noting. First, Kavanaugh played the dutiful student, taking what seems to be clear direction from his administration handlers that he could be as un-forthcoming as he pleased. If Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., isn't going to hold out, they figured, so there's no need to give concrete answers about executive power. If red-state Democrats keep saying "No problems so far!" Kavanaugh need not even go as far as Justice Neil Gorsuch to defend the Supreme Court's integrity. The Washington Post reported, "The president's second nominee for the Supreme Court demurred, for example, when asked whether it was appropriate for Trump to say that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's 'mind is shot' when he called for her to resign. 'I'm not going to get within three Zip codes' of answering that question, he replied." Alas, he shirks his obligation as a sitting judge to defend untoward attacks on the judicial branch. His docility is not comforting. Second, Democrats essentially caught Kavanaugh red-handed, using his own email to demonstrate that "settled law" is a meaningless fig leaf to provide pro-choice GOP senators cover for their votes. Kavanaugh disingenuously claims he was reciting others' views, but it is a view with which he certainly seemed to be in agreement. A senator truly worried about the availability of safe abortions would have been alerted that Kavanaugh is one of the "pro-life" judges President Donald Trump vowed to appoint to eviscerate Roe. Republicans need not fret. When Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is ready to rationalize whatever he says to allow her to confirm the fifth vote to undercut Roe, Kavanaugh gets away with soft-pedaling his views. ("I am told that he was editing an op-ed for clarity and was merely stating a fact that three judges on the court were anti-Roe," Collins said. "If that's the case then, and it's not expressing his view, then I'm not sure what the point is." The point is, senator, he's telling you he can gut abortion rights because "settled law" is meaningless.) Third, what comes out in the emails Democrats have released from Kavanaugh's time in the George W. Bush White House is that Kavanaugh was a movement, hard-core conservative. That was entirely appropriate for the job he then held. However, when it came time for his confirmation hearing in 2004 for the U.S. appeals court, he felt compelled to scrub his record, denying participation in controversial, overtly partisan endeavors. (In retrospect it was unnecessary; he could have made clear he was dropping his partisan hat when he put on the judicial robes.) Now when it comes to his knowledge of purloined emails, the post-9/11 surveillance programs and involvement in vetting controversial judges he looks like he played fast and loose in his previous confirmation hearings. He will strain to insist his original testimony was complete and honest. But the net result, for those who have not made up their minds, is the appearance of a man trying to disown his partisanship. That unfortunately makes him look more partisan. Fourth, Kavanaugh has given the Senate nothing to reassure them that he would enforce a subpoena against Trump as the Supreme Court did against Richard Nixon, find a self-pardon ineffective, foreclose the argument that a president cannot obstruct justice, or defend the courts against egregious attacks from the president as even Gorsuch was willing to do. If this area of executive power was Flake and other senators' deepest concern, they are refusing to see what is in front of their noses: the most deferential judge Trump could have gotten through the Senate. (The solution here would be for Flake and one other Republicans to join Democrats such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut in insisting that Kavanaugh recuse himself from cases stemming from the investigation already underway.) Fifth, we will see a group of right-wing donors and activists involved in the Federalist Society who can rightly claim they got him on the court. After all, it was the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo who prepared the short list of judges for the president and essentially chose who would be nominated. Kavanaugh owes his dream job to the group and by extension its donors; he knows it and they know it. So when card-carrying Federalist Society lawyers come before the Supreme Court or the donors who support the Federalist Society (and who gave $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee) come before the court (or when the group's and/or its donors' direct interests come before the court) Kavanaugh will . . . do what? I have no doubt he will sit on these cases and likely rule in favor of the people who all but picked him for the court. The stench of corruption and the power of unidentified donors and activists has wafted into the Supreme Court. It will hover for as long as Kavanaugh and Gorsuch (who also got the blessing of Leo and the Federalist Society) are on the court. That is deeply disturbing and will only undermine the credibility and stature of the court. For Subscribers A $13.50 minimum wage in Pa.? Who is eligible Gov. Tom Wolf's minimum wage order could impact thousands of workers and raise average salaries at companies taking state incentives to more than $50,000. In a country that thrives on conspiracy theories, the book most often quoted these days by business executives and CAs pretending to be economists is Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. Pakistans new finance minister, Asad Umar, never tires of quoting from Perkins book to explain the economic bankruptcy staring Pakistan in the face, and how Pakistan has been deliberately indebted by his corrupt and incompetent predecessors to foreign creditors who will now squeeze it dry to extract not just their money but also political and strategic concessions. Textbook model Ironically, even as Umar and others of his ilk keep parroting the Perkins line to paint the West as the evil force that has ensnared Pakistan in debt, they conveniently gloss over the fact that the one country that today represents the textbook model of the Perkins conspiracy theory is Pakistans "all-weather friend" China. In the second decade of the 21st century, China has steadily replaced the US and other Western countries as Pakistans principal patron and partner. China is today Pakistans largest trading partner, main weapons supplier, biggest investor, and top most lender. Diplomatically, politically, economically and to an extent even militarily, China is virtually underwriting Pakistan. Although the Chinese plead a degree of altruism in their treatment of Pakistan, there is a major strategic dimension to the relationship, not the least of which is the utility of Pakistan is keeping India tied down. This serves not just Chinese interests but also Pakistans, and is in many ways the glue that binds the two together. The CPEC increasingly appears to be a trap for Pakistan. (Photo: Reuters) In recent years, however, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has added an economic dimension to the relationship. On the face of it, the Chinese investments in CPEC is a win-win for both countries. But increasingly it is becoming clear that the price tag attached to the CPEC might actually be unaffordable for Pakistan and could bind it into a trap from which it will find it difficult to extricate itself. Already there are signs of growing disquiet inside Pakistan over the financial implications of CPEC. The Pakistan Senate has been asking tough questions on the revolving fund of 22 billion dollars to ensure timely payments to Chinese power firms that have set up plants under CPEC. A number of other projects have got stalled, some because the Chinese are going slow on account of political uncertainty and others because Pakistanis have run out of funds to finance their side of some road projects. The new government is also promising to make public the CPEC contracts and not only re-negotiate but also review some of these projects, something that isnt likely to go down well with the Chinese. While the Pakistanis are continuing to give a positive spin to the CPEC and projecting it as a game-changer, the brave face they are putting to the mounting current account deficits, rising indebtedness and the ever-widening financing gap isnt really convincing anyone. The bottom line is that the sums are not matching and there is something seriously wrong with the Pakistan economy which cannot be fixed by merely pumping more money into the economy in the hope of tiding over the looming payments crisis. Many Pakistanis claim that the current account deficit is the result of machinery imports under the CPEC. This is projected as being something positive for the economy, the temporary crisis notwithstanding. But the problem is that machinery imports are not the primary driver behind the rising trade deficit. Major drag More intriguingly, while Pakistanis claim that machinery imports are rising, this isnt being reflected either in a commensurate rise in foreign direct investment or even in overall investment in the economy. With the productive capacities of the Pakistan economy not rising in tandem with the rising debt obligations, servicing the debt (or even providing an attractive return on the investments) will remain a major drag on the Pakistan economy. The Pakistanis are for now going around with a begging bowl to the Chinese and the Saudis and hoping that an infusion of funds will help them tide over the immediate crisis. But the crisis confronting the economy is not a stock issue that can be addressed with a one shot injection of funds. This is a structural crisis, one that will persist over the next few years at the very minimum. Unless the Chinese are ready to inject billions of dollars year after year to foot the bill for Pakistanis propensity to live beyond their means, the Pakistanis will have no choice but to approach the IMF once again. This will mean a major structural adjustment which will be not only painful but also bring down the debt-fuelled growth rates. With growth rates falling, the premise on which Pakistan was taking loans will collapse, and will in turn push them further into the vice-like grip of China. Is Pakistan slowly becoming a Chinese colony? (Photo: Reuters) Contradictions The Pakistani playbook is to threaten the rest of the world to bail them out to prevent them from getting ensnared by the Chinese. Some Indian strategists are even suggesting that India reach out to Pakistan and do what it can to prevent Pakistans inexorable slide into becoming a virtual client, if not a colony of China. But frankly, this is a specious argument because nothing that India or the US does is going to prevent Pakistan from becoming a Chinese vassal. More importantly, there is nothing that either India or the US should do to prevent Pakistan from becoming a Chinese colony. This is for two reasons: one, there are bound to be glaring contradictions between China and an Islamic state of Pakistan and these will manifest themselves sooner rather than later if Pakistan gets caught into the debt trap of the Chinese; second, neither India nor US exercise the influence required to change Pakistani behaviour. China might be the only country with the heft to do this. If as a result of the contradictions between Godless and infidel China and an Islamised Pakistan, the nexus between these two countries starts fraying, it suits India. On the other hand, if for their own interests, China exerts influence to normalise Pakistan and gets it off its Islamist hobby-horse by nudging, pushing and shoving it to clean up its act, it also suits India. (Courtesy of Mail Today) Also read: Why the case against Robert Vadra will boomerang on the BJP POSOCO BAGS AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN HR Power System Operation Corporation Ltd. (POSOCO) has been adjudged amongst Top 50 Organisations for following Innovative in HR practices. Meenakshi Davar, Director (HR) received this Award in 17th Asia Pacific HRM Congress held in Bangalore recently. PDIL installs dustbins under Swachchhata campaign Projects & Development India Ltd (PDIL), Noida installed Dustbins ( Blue and Green colour) and provided Plants in Rajkiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, New Ashok Nagar, Delhi on September 5, 2018 under Swachchhta IEC Campaign of Swachchhta Pakhwara 2018 in presence of Chairman & Managing Director (CMD), PDIL, DS Sudhakar Ramaiah alongwith Principal & teachers of the School and Officials of PDIL. Suresh Prabhu lauds AAIs CSR initiatives Airports Authority of Indias Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) of Rs 7.73 crore recently with Varanasi Municipal Corporation for solid waste management under Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of AAI. On this occasion, a cheque of Rs 3 crores was also presented to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for plantation on National Highway. Suresh Prabhu, HMC Aapplauded the efforts made by Airports Authority of India and Varanasi Airport. NTPC-NETRA Signs MoA with CIPET NETRA (NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance), the R&D arm of NTPC Ltd, signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) recently with Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) to accelerate the renewable drive by establishing the technology framework for development & production of floaters for Multi-MW Floating photovoltaic (PV) plants. NHPC and BHEL sign MoU NHPC Limited has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BHEL for Consultancy and Co-operation in Hydroelectric Projects on 3rd September 2018 at its Corporate Office, Faridabad. SEMINAR FOR ASIAN STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES! R Vikraman, Director/HR, NLC India Limited, delivers a speech on behalf of Indian Public Sector Enterprises. R Vikraman, Director/HR, NLC India Limited, Neyveli represented the Public Enterprises of India at a 2 day International Seminar conducted on the theme - Responsible Business Conduct in State-owned Enterprises at Hyderabad on 06-07th September, 2018. BHEL celebrates Learning Week BHEL Learning Week was inaugurated by Atul Sobti, CMD, BHEL, at the companys Corporate Office in New Delhi. Directors on the Board and other senior employees of BHEL were present on the occasion. The week is being celebrated as a festival of learning and will witness a series of managerial/functional seminars, programmes, competitions, technical symposiums and brainstorming sessions, emphasizing on the overall development of employees. Flipkart aims to account for over 30 per cent of the phone sales this festive season as it lines up new launches through handset partners and dishes out more financing options to woo Indian shoppers. The Walmart-backed company, which is locked in a fierce competition with US-based Amazon, claimed that about 25 per cent of the total phones sold in the country are through its platform. "We are confident that we will be able to expand our leadership further and by the end of the festive sales (Big Billion Days or BBD), we should have 30-32 per cent share," Flipkart, Senior Director (Smartphones), Ayappan Rajagopal told PTI. The company had, in April, said it aims to touch 40 per cent market share by 2020 as part of its 'Mobiles 40by20' strategy. "Our platform will have a number of new launches in alliance with our handset partners (during the festive sale). There will be devices across price points...We expect strong volumes coming especially in the Rs 10,000-15,000 category as well as the entry-level smartphones (Rs 4,000-7,000)," he said. The company is working with a number of brands, many of them exclusively, including the likes of Informix, Realme, Panasonic and Asus, he added. Rajagopal noted that as per industry reports, about 39 per cent of the mobile phones sold in the country are through online platforms. "Online sales is about 39 per cent in the country, which is the highest so far. It is also the highest globally for any country. In China, for example, about 29 per cent phones are sold online," he explained. Stating that its mobile phone vertical has been growing steadily, Rajagopal said the company has started offering EMI option for debit card holders to help more people transact on its platform. It is also with offerings like mobile protection services. Flipkart is yet to announce the dates of BBD, but the sale is likely to take place in October. Both Flipkart and Amazon India are betting big on mobile phones to drive growth. Mobile phones are one of the most popular items sold through e-commerce sites in the country. Over the last few years, a number of new handset companies, including the likes of HMD, Xiaomi, Motorola and CoolPad have partnered players like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal to enter the Indian market. The government is mulling strategic sale of Air India subsidiary AIATSL to raise funds and help cut debt of the national carrier, according to official sources. Strategic sale of Air India Air Transport Service (AIATSL), which provides ground handling services, is being planned as part of the turnaround scheme for Air India which is reeling under a debt burden of Rs 48,000 crore at end of March 2017. The official sources said strategic sale of AIATSL is in the works. "The Expression of Interest (EoI) for bidders would be floated soon after the GoM clears the EoI," the sources told PTI. The stake sale plan follows the decision of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley led ministerial panel in June to make the airline competitive, but cutting down debt and raising resources by selling land assets and other subsidiaries. The Group of Ministers (GoM) had decided to revive Air India after the government's offer to sale 76 per cent stake in the airline failed to attract any bidder earlier this year. The government had originally proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players. The buyer would have had to take over Rs 24,000 crore debt or the carrier along with over Rs 8,000 crore of liabilities. However, the stake sale failed to attract any bidders when the bidding process got completed on May 31. In June, the GoM then decided not to go ahead with Air India stake sale in an election year. As per latest data, in 2016-17, two subsidiaries of Air India AIATSL and Air India Express Ltd posted profits. While AIATSL earned Rs 61.66 crore profit in 2016-17 fiscal, another subsidiary AI Express earned Rs 297 crore as profit. Some of the other subsidiaries of Air India include Air India Charters Ltd, IAL Airport Services Ltd, Airline Allied Services Ltd, Air India Engineering Services Ltd and Hotel Corporation of India Ltd. Besides, catering services provider AISATS a 50:50 joint venture between Air India and SATS Ltd too posted profit of Rs 66.06 crore in 2016-17. AIATSL was incorporated in June 2003 with the objective of carrying on the business of providing all types of services at airport. Under the administrative control of Ministry of Civil Aviation, AIATSL is 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India. The company is engaged in the business of providing repairing, maintaining, servicing, refurbishing providing engineering services of and for aircraft. Industrial / Business operations of AIATSL include rendering airport ground handling services, including passenger, ramp, security and cargo handling for Air India. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has called upon the Bengali speaking population of Assam to rise up against the Central Governments nefarious designs to throw them out of the north-eastern State. She was speaking against the alleged victimization of Bengalis in the name of preparing the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Assuring all cooperation if they hit the streets against the NRC regime she said has told a Bengali newspaper that the Bengali-speaking people of Assam will have to generate a countrywide public opinion against the harassment they are being subjected to in the name of NRC. Indicating that NRC would become one of the counter electoral issues for the TrinamHit the streets against NRC: Didi tells Assam Bengalis TMC in Bengal particularly in places (read border districts) where the BJP has been trying to rouse passion against alleged infiltration from Bangladesh, Banerjee said the Bengalis of Assam should come out in the open. We will remain by their side. Take out rallies and tell the people of the country what ordeal you are being subjected to in the name of NRC. Questioning the motive behind NRC authorities petitioning the Supreme Court seeking reduction in the number of requisite documents to prove ones Indian citizenship from 15 to 10 Banerjee wondered why the Bengali leaders of Assam were not taking the initiative and assured all legal help if the victims needed the same. There is a need to strongly resist this dirty move in the Supreme Court, she said. Pushing lakhs of Bengalis to a political precipice in the name of NRC has to be resisted at all cost, she said showing how the already people of bordering districts of Coochbehar and Alipurduar were protesting the move. The Chief Minister had earlier sent a delegation of MPs and a senior Minister from Bengal to Silchar in Assam to understand the problem of the victims of an alleged faulty NRC regime. However the Assam Government refused to let them into Assam and they were forced to return from Silchar Airport. Subsequently FIRs were lodged against the leaders and the Chief Minister. I tried to send my fact-finding team there but they were not only prevented from entering that State but also they wrongly lodged FIRs against me, Banerjee said adding she would leave no stone unturned and continue to fight for the Bengali-speaking population of Assam. Three days after it pulled up the Pune Police and State police top brass for holding media briefings to share information relating to five arrested human rights activists, the Bombay High Court on Thursday upbraided the investigating agencies for leaking vital information relating to the ongoing investigations in the sensitive case like the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and CPI leader Govind Pansare. After pursuing the investigations report submitted by the CBI and State CID into the murders of Dabholkar and Pansare, a HC bench division bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and BP Colabawalla lamented that everyday vital information was being leaked to the media by the investigating agencies. Expressing his displeasure over the information leaks to the media in sensitive murder cases like that of Dabholkar and Pansare, Justice Dharmadhikari said: Such self-praise and self-patting on the back by the police machinery is not advisable. We see daily there is information in the Press regarding such sensitive cases. At whose instance information is being given to the media?". This (kind of) over-enthusiasm could be fatal. In such sensitive cases where investigation is in crucial stages it is not advisable for the police to rush to the media. This shows total lack of maturity (on the part of the investigating officials concerned), Justice Dharmadhikari noted. The HC Bench observed that by disclosing information to the media, the investigators were alerting the accused persons. Alluding to the Press conferences Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh and the Pune police officials on the arrest of five human rights activists with alleged Maoist links, Justice Dharmadhikar said: There is so much hue and cry about this media briefing and the disclosures made by them. During the Press conference, Singh had claimed that the Pune police had conclusive proof against the arrested human rights activists for their alleged links with the banned organisation CPI (Maoist) and had read out the letters carrying references linking the arrested activists with the functionaries of the banned organisation. The HC bench asked Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for CBI, to convey to the concerned senior police officials that it was not happy with the press conference and disclosures made by them about the ongoing investigations. "Ask those police officials, who took the media briefing, to go to the trial court and see how difficult it is to prove the case against an accused person," Justice Dharmadhikari said. Defence counsel Ashok Mundargi sought to distance the State CID from the controversy over the media briefings by telling the court that his client had not held any press conference regarding Pansares murder till date."Our investigation is on. We are now waiting to interrogate the two persons arrested by CBI in the Dabholkar case," Mundargi told the court. The high court, which had on several occasions in the past pulled up both the CBI and State CID over the delay in the investigations into the murder of Dabholkar and Pansare, told Mundargi that the ongoing CID probe should not come to a standstill just because the investigating agency was awaiting to interrogate the accused persons who are in CBI custody. "Do not abandon your (CID) past theories. CID should continue to look into the involvement of other accused persons too. Both the cases (Dabholkar and Pansare killings) have different repercussions," Justice Dharmadhikari said. The HC bench, which is hearing the petitions filed by the family members of slain Dabholkar and Pansare, later scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 10 when both the both the CBI and State CID have been asked to submit fresh progress reports in the investigations into the two cases. It may be recalled that on April 19 this year, after the investigating agencies accepted their inability to achieve much in their field probes into the Dabholkar- Pansare murders, the high court had passed a stinging comment that the growing perception abroad about India of being a country of crimes and rapes and the liberal and secular people are not safe here. Prompted by the admissions openly made by the counsels for the Maharashtra CID and CBI told the court that they were not getting any evidence in their field probes into the cases, a HC bench of Justices SC Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre had expressed serious concern over the denting image of India abroad about its inability to check crimes and rapes across the country. Earlier, after expressing its displeasure over the failure of the State CID and CBI to take the two cases to their logical conclusion, the HC bench had asked: "How do we then take the case to its logical conclusion?..."Can we allow for the case to reach a dead-end when similar crimes are on the rise?" CPI leader Govind Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) had been shot from a close range, near their residence Ideal Housing Society at around 8.30 am on February 16 2015, when the couple was returning from a morning walk from the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur. Four days later, Pansare succumbed to injuries sustained in the shoot-out, while his wife Uma survived the attack. Pansares murder, it may recalled, had come on the heels of a gruesome murder of 69-year-old Dabholkar, who was shot dead him from a point blank range by two motor-bicycle riding gunmen aged between 25 and 30 years, while he was taking a morning walk on the Omkareshwar bridge located in the heart of Pune, on August 20, 2013. India and France signed an implementation agreement on Mobilise Your City (MYC) programme in which three pilot cities will be provided support to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in urban transport. Under the programme, three Indian cities Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad will get grant to the tune of 3.5 million Euros as part of the EUs commitment under the Paris Climate agreement to achieve a sustainable transport policy. These cities are the part of the 100 cities selected under the smart city mission in the country. The MYC agreement was signed by Mukund Kumar Sinha, OSD and ex-officio Joint Secretary in the Urban Affairs Ministry and the Regional Director of Agence Francaise de Developpement (AfD), Nicolas Fornage. It was signed in the presence of Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Alexander Ziegler, Ambassador of France in India. MYC aims to extend help to 100 cities globally to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by promoting sustainable urban transport and to promote sustainability in urban spaces. More funds would be provided to India as loan to take forward the smart city and sustainable transport initiatives in the three cities on pilot basis, said officials of HUA ministry. According to the ministry, based on a proposal made by AFD in 2015, the EU has agreed to provide 3.5 million euros through the AFD to contribute to specific investments and technical assistance components within the MYC in India. The pilot cities selected as well as the MoHUA will benefit from the technical assistance activities The programme includes learning and exchange formats with other cities across India for exchanges on best practices. The details of the project activities will be worked out by AFD in consultation with MoHUA and the three partner cities including institutions such as the respective special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for smart cities, the municipal corporations and any transport authority or transport related SPV, the Ministry officials said. According to the MoU, the MYC is an initiative combining urban mobility objectives and climate considerations. It aims at providing solutions in a fully integrated manner, analysing different modes of transportation within the urban fabric, with the objective of providing people long-term, sustainable, adequate, reliable and cost-efficient transportation opportunities. Not content with his sharp criticism of his political and ideological opponents, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi seems to have overplayed his hand with his utterances on the party's claimed non-involvement in the 1984 massacre of Sikhs. This, however, is in sharp contrast to his words in 2014 when during an interview, he first hesitated to admit his partys role in the massacre but later admitted that his party was probably involved in the violence against Sikhs in 1984 in the aftermath of Indira Gandhis assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. He cannot be right on both occasions. The narrative ever since Gandhis utterances has followed predicted lines: There has been a hullabaloo in political circles with demands for an apology from him. It must be remembered that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his tenure at the head of the UPA Government, had apologised for the party's role in the anti-Sikh pogrom. Of course, neither Singh nor Rahul Gandhi were involved in the massacre; in fact, the latter was a school kid at the time, so his party leaders are right in protecting him from personal culpability. But there is no way the leadership can absolve the party of being complicit in the killing of around 8,000 Sikhs across the country, nearly half of that number in Delhi alone. Rajiv Gandhi never apologised for not being able to at least punish the culprits even after committees and commissions were set up which clearly established the Congress role in the massacre. Rahul has reopened old wounds with his comments. He should not be in denial. With social media doubling up as agony aunt ever since Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra and American pop star Nick Jonas broke the news of their relationship, what s apparent is that their engagement is the talk of the town. While some netizens gave them albeit unsolicited marriage tips, others had nothing better to do than troll the duo. On top of that, the age-difference issue --- Priyanka is 36 and Nick is 25 --- made these loser trolls get nasty. Several celebrity couples with an age difference greater than between PeeCee and Nick have escaped such trolling perhaps because it is usually the man who is older and we live in a deeply misogynist society. The buzz in the celebritydom, however, is that Nick digs the idea of being with an older lady so nobody rose to the trolls bait. From winning the Miss World crown in 2000 to becoming one of the most acclaimed Indian actresses globally, Priyanka Chopras career graph has always been on a steady rise. She was nominated as one of the most powerful woman in the world by the Forbes magazine. This should be a lesson for those who feed on celebrity gossip. Priyanka and Nick fought all odds and broke all stereotypes of a woman being more successful than a man. Two suspected terrorists, affiliated to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Jammu & Kashmir (ISJK) organisation, were arrested from near the Red Fort by the Special Cell (anti-terror unit of Delhi Police). The duo hailing from Shopian in Kashmir Valley were identified as Parvez (24) and Jamshid (19). They were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort, said PS Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Special Cell. They were boarding a bus to return to Jammu & Kashmir when they were nabbed around 10.45 pm on Thursday. Intelligence inputs provided by Central security agencies and subsequent investigation by Delhi Police revealed that the duo was using Delhi as a transit point, Kushwah said. They were arrested from Jama Masjid bus stop near Red Fort around 10.45pm on Thursday. They had arrived in Delhi on September 4 and were planning to return back to Jammu. The accused identified as Parvaiz Rashid Lone and Jamsheed Zahoor Paul, residents of Shopian, Jammu & Kashmir claimed to be procuring weapons from Uttar Pradesh on the instructions of ISJK chief Omar Ibn Nazir and transporting it to Jammu, the DCP stated. In a way, Delhi was a transit from which they were intercepted. During interrogation, it was revealed that Parvaiz, an M-Tech student from a college in Uttar Pradesh, is the elder brother of Firdous Rashid Lone who along with one Sameer Ahmed Lone was killed by security forces in an encounter in Shopian, J&K on January 24, 2018. Brainwashed by the radical elements, Firdous joined militancy on September 5, 2016. Parvaiz Rashid in turn was influenced by the killing of his younger brother Firdous Rashid and joined the ranks of ISJK, the DCP revealed. Jamsheed Zahoor Paul got involved with the terrorist outfit when he met his friends brother-in-law Owais who introduced him to Omar Ibn Nazir, the ISJK chief. Jamsheed also facilitated the stay and onward travel of terrorist Abdullah Basit, an ISIS suspect who was arrested by the NIA in Delhi on the directions of Omar Ibn Nazir, the DCP said. Two sophisticated pistols and 10 cartridges were recovered from the accused persons. This was their second trip in procuring weapons from Uttar Pradesh. The ISJK is in nascent stage and is a close knit group of trusted and verified members. Recently, four members of the ISJK were killed in an encounter in J&K. Further investigation is underway, the DCP added. A 70-year-old man was duped to the tune ofRs 10000 by miscreant in the name of counting the cash at Berasia on Thursday. Police said that the victim Prabhlal Shah had gone to withdraw money from his bank account at Bank of India in Berasia where he was duped to the tune of a miscreant. In his complaint victim stated that he withdrew Rs 15000 from his bank account where the miscreant helped in filing the withdrawal slip and later told that he knows the victims village and would drop him on his way to home. The victim got assured and accepted the ride and on their way to village miscreant stopped the bike and told the victim that he had received call from bank and was informed that few notes are less in the cash provided by the bank official. After the preliminary investigation the police have registered a case under section 420 of the IPC and started further investigation. Based on the details provided by the victim, police have started search for the absconding miscreant. Meanwhile, Nishatpura police have nabbed an absconding accused having a reward of Rs 3000 and was wanted in several cases of attempt to murder; accused was arrested on Friday. Acting on a tip off accused was nabbed and identified as Talib Ali (22) of Bhanpur. The nabbed miscreant was booked under sections 147, 148, 149, 353, 332 and 307 of the IPC. The nabbed accused was absconding for long and was wanted in several cases. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday demanded deployment of central defence forces for the panchayat elections in Punjab, besides videography of all the polling booths, both from the inside and outside. The party apprehended that there were high chances of election rigging, booth capturing and bogus voting by the Congress-ruled Punjab Government, while also listing some of the incidents which goes to prove that ruling party is using its influence on government officials in the memorandum submitted to the State Election Commissioner by the partys Punjab unit co-president Dr Balbir Singh. The memorandum stated that AAP candidate for Zila Parishad Naushehra Pannuan in Tarn Taran districts, failed to get the no objection certificate despite several attempts to meet the Panchayat Secretary Hardial Singh indicating that the officer was acting under the direct influence of Congress party. In another case, AAP candidate from Baghapurana in Moga district, Deepak Arora, was manhandled by Congress workers led by local Congress MLA Darshan Brar, when he approached the BDPO complaining about the behaviour of Panchayat Secretary. Police also remained a mute spectator and failed to protect our candidate and has not even registered any FIR in this regard. Dr Balbir said that he had received various complaints on daily basis pertaining to refusal of grant of NOCs by the Panchayat Secretaries under the influence of ruling party. These problems clearly prove how the ruling party is buried neck deep in unleashing a vendetta against the opposition and is trying its level best to stop AAP from taking part in these elections. These instances also create a reasonable doubt regarding impartiality of police forces in fulfilling their duty to provide a conducive environment on polling day, he said. Dr Balbir demands that there should be compulsory video recording of all polling stations and polling booths on the polling day, so that if any unscrupulous person try to intimidate the voters or indulge in booth capturing or rigging, his acts will be caught in the camera and his identification will be ensured and established. Instead of State police officials, CRPF must be deployed within the polling stations as well as the polling booths. This is because of the reason that the State police is directly under the control of the ruling Congress party which is running the State Government and like Municipal Corporation elections, police will be misused by the ruling dispensation causing unfair and unwarranted conduct in elections, he said. We have given a complaint to Election Commissioner that the Congress Government is trying to take control over the elections and there should be proper action taken against the goons of the Congress Government who are trying to take over booths even before elections. The nomination papers of AAP candidates are not being accepted and are even torn away at various places in Punjab, said Dr Balbir, after submitting the memorandum. He said that if no action is taken against these persons, AAp will go to the High Court for immediate action against the culprits. Election Commissioner has called deputy commissioners of various districts so that elections can become fair and any inappropriate happenings against candidates could be stopped, he added. The State Assembly was adjourned till 3 pm on Friday as ruling BJD members strongly protested fuel price hike and Congress and BJP members continued shouting slogans against the Governments apathetic attitude in fulfilling teachers demands. As soon as the House met for the day, BJD members stood at their chairs and shouted slogans against the Union Government for steep hike in petrol and diesel prices. On the opposition side, BJP members stood at their benches and demanded fulfilment of teachers demands at the earliest. Congress members rushed into the Well of the House and shouted slogans against the State Government for not resolving teacher issues for which teaching has been affected in the State. Amid sloganeering and protests, Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat adjourned the House at 10.32 am till 3 pm. When the House reassembled in the afternoon, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra expressed deep concern over the way the House was adjourned till 3 pm and no business conducted. We (Congress members) had raised fuel price hike issue in the House on September 4 and the ruling members remained mum. You suspended the House till 11.30 am that day. But today, as the ruling members raised the issue, you immediately adjourned the House till 3 pm. It seems that the House is being run at the whims of the Government, alleged Mishra. He even wanted to know whether the Chair would adjourn the House for the day on September 10 as Congress members might not join the House for the scheduled Bharat Bandh that day. Raising the teacher issue, Mishra said, It is most unfortunate that the State Government is not holding talks with teachers to resolve their demands while teaching has been severely affected due to the strike. Besides, he slammed the Government for lawyers strike. The lawyers have been on strike against police excesses for which common people have been facing problems in getting justice. Similarly, lawyers in western Odisha have been staging cease-work demanding a Permanent High Court bench in western part of the State. While the justice system has been paralysed, the State Government has sat silent, lamented Mishra. He demanded that the Chief Minister make a statement on the teacher and lawyers strike issues in the House soon. On the suggestion of members, the Speaker adjourned the House at 3.14 pm till Monday. Cases pending in court under various sections of the Electricity Act against the registered labourers of Sambal Yojana along with Karmakars registered under the Bhavan evam anya Sannirman Karmakar Kalyan Mandal Portal and farmers are being withdrawn in the Lok Adalats to be held on September 8. The Department of Energy has appealed to the registered labourers, karmakars and farmers, who could not attend the previous Lok Adalat to attend the lok adalat being held on Saturday. It may be noted that on the initiative of the state government, special Lok Adalats were organised all over the state on August 25 for withdrawal of cases. But those consumers who could not attend the special lok adalat on August 25 have been appealed to attend the lok adalat to be held on September 8. This will enable withdrawal of electricity cases registered against them. The process of withdrawal of cases registered under Section 135 and 138 of Electricity Act-2003 against labourers, karmakars and farmers is being undertaken in the Lok Adalats. A crucial Election Committee meeting of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) was held here at State Congress Office Rajiv Bhawan on Friday. Senior leaders of the party deliberated in the meeting in detail about the list of ticket aspirants for the upcoming Assembly polls. The meeting agreed on preparing a single name panel on several seats to be sent to the partys Central Election Committee (CEC). The meeting was later followed by one-to-one talk by the Screening Committee Chief Bhubaneswar Kalita with senior leaders of the party. Veteran Congress leader of the State and AICC General Secretary (Administration), Motilal Vora was especially present in the Election Committee meeting along with AICC In-charge of Chhattisgarh, P.L. Punia, CGPCC Chief Bhupesh Baghel, Leader of Opposition T.S. Singhdeo, President Election Campaign Committee, Charandas Mahant, Members of Parliament, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Chhaya Verma and other senior office bearers CGPCC. The meeting was presided over by CGPCC Chief Bhupesh Baghel, sources informed. Party sources further informed that the CEC will finalize the first list by mid month while a complete list would be released by the month end. The story of Delhi, its history and culture was told through the Hindi film Dilli Ki Kahani. The film was screened on Thursday at Madhya Pradesh State Tribal Museum. The film screening was a part of the regular childrens film screening Ullas is being held at tribal museum every Thursday. Directed by Rajendra Sharma the movie brilliantly showcases the history of Delhi. The movie was made in year 1960. Delhi, the capital city of India has a history and tradition that spans thousands of years and is the confluence of innumerable races and cultures. The movie was made keeping in view the kids as their audience. The interactive direction of the movie made it more interesting to watch. The fun filled movie with huge piece of knowledge also won All India Certificates of Merit for Childrens Film State Awards for Films for year 1960. Rajendra Prasad, the President of India when this film was made, talks to a group of children about the citys great panoramic past. A highly learned and philosophical man, Prasad, combines a rare simplicity with deep insight into the various aspects of Indian history through the story of this great city. This helps kids understand the rich heritage of this great nation. It is to be noted that Rajendra Sharma graduated in law and went to Calcutta to work in films. Working first as assistant director, he later secured a job as production controller in Ranjit Studios. He went on to make many films. He then joined CFSI and on their behalf wrote, produced and directed several films. Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Friday paid tributes to prominent personalities including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, several State leaders and martyrs who lost their lives during the inter-session period. The members of the House observed a two-minute silence to pay homage to the departed souls. On the first day of monsoon session of Haryana Assembly, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal, who is also the leader of the house, paid tributes to former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chhattisgarh Governor Balramji Dass Tandon, former Speaker of Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Dr M. Karunanidhi, former MP Ramchandra Bainda, senior journalist and former member of Rajya Sabha, Kuldip Nayyar, former Minister of Haryana, Shyam Chand, former Minister of State, Jai Singh Rana, Haryana MLA Hari Chand Middha, former MLA Gauri Shanker, Jain Muni Tarun Sagar, prominent Hindi poet Gopaldas Neeraj among others. Paying rich tributes to Vajpayee, the Chief Minister read out few lines of his famous poetries and said that his poetry was marked by nationalistic fervor and human values. His poetry always inspired a sense of duty and social responsibility, he said. Manohar Lal said, Despite reaching the zenith of his political life, Vajpayee stayed connected to its roots and lived a life of simplicity. He was also a staunch supporter of constitutional values and principles and an ardent champion of the cause of the weaker sections. Our nation shall always remember his distinguished services with gratitude, the Chief Minister said. Vajpayee was a man with no enemy. In his death, the country has suffered a great loss and a link with the Gandhian age of idealism, selfless service, struggle and sacrifice has been snapped, he added. Vajpayee, a Bharat Ratna, died on August 16 in New Delhi. He breathed his last at 5:05 pm at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He was 93. Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that during BJPs one-vote defeat in 1999, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke for around an hour, exhibiting his masterful oratory. In his long and illustrious career, Vajpayee left an indelible imprint as a diplomat and statesman, Hooda said. After Independence, there have been no leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We should learn from Vajpayees life, he added. Speaker Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Kanwar Pal also read out the obituary resolutions and paid tribute to the departed souls. Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala, Leader of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) Kiran Choudhry, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prof Ram Bilas Sharma also read obituary resolutions on behalf of their parties. The State Assembly also paid tribute to Jind MLA Hari Chand Middha, who died on August 25. The House also placed on record its deep sense of sorrow on the sad and untimely demise of those persons who died in the massive floods in Kerala in August this year. The House also paid homage to 24 martyrs of Haryana who have made supreme sacrifices of their lives while safeguarding and protecting the unity and integrity of the motherland. The House was later adjourned for the day as a mark of respect to departed souls. Indira Gandhi never ceased to be mystifying during her tempestuous political career spanning close to two decades, swept incessantly by political seesaw, personal tragedy and a grim fight within which often tore her asunder, something her close confidantes revealed. Once a towering Congress leader who later became the President jocularly said that one on whom the lady beamed with a charming smile got sure that something ominous was in the offing. Even the Opposition stalwarts tasted the riddle the lady personified. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was one of them. The colossal tragedy that struck Indira Gandhi on fateful June 23 1981 brought to fore a queer trait of the iron lady of India which left Vajpayee mystified. It was a hot day in Delhi. The mercury soared. Sanjay Gandhi came to his mothers study where she was early in the morning. He was usual self, buoyant, confident bubbling with superabundance of energy as ever. Indira had remained worried as her younger son was reckless with a light two-seater plane on which he flew in the air. She had warned Sanjay on it repeatedly as she had been warned by many, including his wife and her special assistant R K Dhawan who tasted the danger of flying with Sanjay. But he had been in no mood to see reason as he loved to fly with it. He was to fly that morning with Madhavrao Scindia. But he changed mind and took Captain Subhash Saxena with him instead. The information of the crash reached Indira Gandhi at 8.20 am. V P Singh, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, was waiting to meet her. He jumped up nervously as he saw her rushing past him with a wild, vacant look on her face. Singh followed her car. They reached the site of the crash. The plane lay wrecked. Bodies of the two fliers were mutilated beyond recognition. She saw her younger sons crushed face. Her eyes were about to well up in tears when she controlled herself. She ordered the bodies to be put in an ambulance. She reached Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. As the news had spread around like wild fire leaders across the political spectrum rushed to the hospital to comfort the bereaved mother in her grave distress. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chandra Sekhar were among the opposition leaders who rushed. Indira Gandhi was wearing dark glasses evidently to shield her emotions from being reflected in her eyes. She was found standing alone. Vajpayee was moved. He sighed, came forward slowly and muttered in a deeply commiserating tone, Indiraji. You have to show great courage in this hour of your great tragedy. She turned her face on him. But she did not reply. Her face wore a quizzical air, as if she was wondering what to say. Astute Vajpayee thought he had committed some grave mistake with his words uttered emotionally. While he stood looking abashed she took Chandra Sekhar aside and said placidly that she had been waiting to discuss the dragging Assam turmoil with him. The situation in the northeastern State was very grim and warranted some drastic action to douse the flames, she said in a worried tone. Chandra Sekhar looked baffled, at a loss. It had not been in his wildest imagination that the mother who had just been bereaved could have talked about Assam when the mutilated body of her younger son was lying in the next room in the hospital she was in. He stammered awkwardly, Indiraji. We will talk about it later But she cut in curtly. No, no. The matter is very important. We must talk to find out a solution to the unrest. It cannot wait. Chandra Sekhar looked dazed. He must be wondering how things could have been so. They left the hospital, stupefied. Later in the evening of the day, when Vajpayee, Chandra Sekhar and Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna met the BJP stalwart seemed to be still turning the matter over and over in his puzzled mind. His eyebrows were puckered. He sought to explain the riddle frowningly. Either Indira Gandhi had transcended sorrow or she must be a woman made of stone, he muttered. Or had she tried to prove that she was more concerned with Indias problems than with the monumental tragedy fate struck her? He asked half to himself. He then said musingly that that was the impression she had wished to create. And this was a part of her personality, he opined. However, many close to Indira Gandhi confided that the death of her younger son was the most soul-destroying amidst all the highs and the lows the lady, known worldwide for her steely nerves, had weathered in course of the trials and tribulations of her tumultuous public career. She was devastated, many said. She had ceased to be Indira Gandhi as she had become very fragile, very bitter, consumed as she was with a helpless grief, after what happened to her on June 23 1981, they said. Vajpayee was mystified; the nation and the world were mystified. The mystery remains a mystery. The mystique of Indira Gandhi endures. UHBVN to resolve consumers grievances Panchkula: Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigams Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum (CGRF) chairman, along with its members, would take the proceedings of the Forum in the office of XEN OP Division Panchkula to redress the grievances or to hear complaint of the consumers and to entertain new complaints from 11 am to 2 pm on dated September 12. Hry police arrests two in two separate NDPS cases Chandigarh: In two separate cases, Haryana Polices Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) have nabbed two accused in drug peddling case in Sirsa and recovered 3.690 kilograms of ganja and 24.27 gram heroin from their possession. Spokesperson said that CIA officials have arrested Sirsas JJ Colony resident Vijay with 3.690 kg ganja, while second arrest of Rajkumar was made by CIA sleuths during patrolling with 24.27 gram heroin. Both accused have been arrested under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. No case of artificial ripening detected in mandis Chandigarh: In a statewide check for quality fruits and vegetables, 22 teams of District Mandi Officers checked Punjabs main fruit and vegetable markets, and checked nearly 9,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables that arrived on Friday in the mandis. No case, whatsoever, of artificial ripening was found in any of the mandis, informed Mission Tandrust Punjab director KS Pannu, adding that fruits ripened with calcium carbide are known to be carcinogenic. A series of surprise checks coupled with awareness seminars and training sessions on ethical ripening were held. Over 4,000 benefitted from PGIMERs welfare fund Chandigarh: As many as 4,115 people have been benefitted from the PGIMERs poor patient welfare fund in which Rs 1.42 crore (1,42,06,083) have been donated by the people in past two fiscal years. The PGIMERs authorities on Friday conveyed its thanks to the regular donor including BS Bhullar, who has donated Rs 21 lakhs, Vardhaman Group for donating Rs 25 lakhs, Harbans Kaur for Rs 10 lakh doination, among others. The donations are accepted either through cheque (in favour of Director PGIMER) or cash at the poor patient cell near the main reception, Nehru Hospital under section 80G of the income tax act. Taco Bell launches first store in Mohali Mohali: Taco Bell, the Mexican-inspired quick service restaurant brand is all set to open its doors for consumers in Mohali. Located in VR Mall, the brands all-new 1810 square feet outlet has a capacity to seat 64 people and will be open from 11 am till 11 pm through the week. Gaurav Burman, Director, said, We are delighted to continue the expansion of Taco Bell in India with the launch of the new Mohali outlet. Himalayan Spiti Escape Expedition from Sep 8 Chandigarh: This edition of CEAT Himalayan Spiti Escape, will start from Chandigarh on September 8 and will be led by legendary off-roader, Hari Singh. The picturesque expedition begins at Chandigarh and focuses on the Lahul-Spiti region of the Himalayas. Over the course of 10 days, participants will explore the scenic route from Chandigarh to Shimla, Narkanda, Sangla Valley, Nako, Tabo and Kaza before returning to Chandigarh via Manali. The participants will experience the thrill of off-roading at an altitude of 14000 feet. NITTTR celebrates its 51st annual day Chandigarh: All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi (AICTE) chairman Professor Anil D Sahasrabudhe on Friday said that we should create a support system for students, including more internship programme or skill programme,, to hone the student skills. He emphasised to bring students into start-up culture and bring students a platform where they can convert their bright ideas into innovation. He was addressing the media on the occasion of National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) 51st Annual Day at the NITTTR campus in Sector 26. He said that AICTE is not just a regulator but also a facilitator committed to improving the quality of technical education. Haryana to start Jagriti Yojna Chandigarh: Haryana Women Development Corporation will start the Jagriti Yojna to create awareness among rural and urban women and involve them in the schemes implemented at local level under which 7350 women will be benefitted. Spokesperson said that the main objective of the Jagriti Yojana is to ensure involvement of women in the schemes being run at the local level. Under this scheme, one day awareness camps would be set up at districts and block levels. College representatives to get training in PFMS Chandigarh: Haryana Higher Education Department will provide training for Public Financial Management System to the representatives of the colleges in Panchkula on September 13. Spokesperson said that the Department gives stipend to the welfare of Scheduled Caste students pursuing higher education in the Government colleges under Consolidated Stipend Scheme. This amount will be transferred online in the accounts of students through DBT. For this, Principals of the Government colleges and a Data Entry Operator of the colleges of district Rewari, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Gurugram, Mahendergarh, Mewat, Palwal and Sirsa would be provided training. Stir staged demanding City Bus to Athagarh Athagarh: Members of the Athagarh Press Club (APC) staged a dharna in the premises of the Sub-Collectorate here on Friday protesting the delay by the administration in introduction of City Bus service to Athagarh from the district headquarters city of Cuttack. They said, On August 15, we gave a ten-day deadline to the Athagarh administration to sort out the problem. But it failed to meet the demand. Athagarh Sub-Collector Amiya Kumar Sahoo and SDPO Prakash Chandra Pal discussed the issue with the APC members at the dharna site and assured to solve it soon. Scribe Sachidananda Panda felicitated Athagarh: Senior journalist Sachidananda Panda of Khuntuni was felicitated by Athagarh Sub-Collector Amiya Kumar Sahoo on Friday as the best scribe of the year. Panda was felicitated with a citation, a bouquet and a shawl in the presence of local journalists and public relations officers. Kput entrepreneurship meet concludes Koraput: A 12-day entrepreneurship development programme organised by the District Industries Centre (DIC), Jeypore and sponsored by the Directorate Industries concluded here on Wednesday. Nabard AGM Murali Mishra attended as chief guest and distributed certificates to 30 successful young entrepreneurs. Among others, DIC Koraput General Manager Udaya Chandra Tripathy and Lead Bank Koraput district Manager Raghu Nath Pattnaik were present. Jeypore Industries Promotion Officer Pritish Kumar Behera coordinated the programme. Jindal School holds Teachers Day Angul: The students of OP Jindal School (OPJS) celebrated the Teachers Day on Wednesday by paying floral tribute to the former Indian President and celebrated teacher Dr S Radhakrishnan. On the occasion, Jindal Company HR and ES Head Alok Malhotra attended as chief guest and lighted the lamp in presence of school Principal Chhanda Charan Das, teachers and other staff members. Malhotra advised students to remain grateful to the teachers as they are the backbone of the nation. NTPC, Kaniha holds Prajamandal Diwas Talcher: The NTPC along with the Talcher Swadinanata Sangrami Memorial Trust, Kaniha, celebrated 81st Prajamandal Diwas on Thursday. Company GM AK Tripathy attending the event as a guest said that Prajamandal Diwas is a day to remember the contributions of our freedom fighters. As many as 60 freedom fighters were honoured in the programme. A souvenir Ame Sangrami was inaugurated. Among others, the MCL Personnel Director, the Technical Director and the Kaniha Tehsildar and BDO were present. The police Friday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of dacoits allegedly involved in killing 19 truck drivers and cleaners and looting goods from 12 vehicles. Three members of the gang were arrested and a truck loaded with goods was seized. While talking to media persons Bhopal IG Jaideep Prasad said, "The gang's modus operandi was to befriend truck drivers and cleaners. Later, the gang leader would throw a party for them during which drinks laced with sedatives were served. Once the drivers and cleaners fell asleep, they were killed. He said the bodies of the deceased used to be dumped in far-off places or thrown into water bodies while the goods were sold in the grey market and the trucks dismantled and disposed of in parts. While the goods were sold in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, the parts of the vehicles were sold in Bihar, he said, adding that a probe team was formed after several such crimes spread over different districts of the state came to light. Investigations led to the arrest of gang leader Aadesh Khamra (50) along with Jaikaran Prajapati (30) and Tukaram Banjara (48), said Deputy Inspector General Dharmendra Choudhry. The police claimed that the arrested accused have confessed to committing such crimes in Bhopal, Mandideep, Misrod and Bilkhiria in the past four months in which 11 people were killed. Prasad said the gang committed similar crimes in Hoshangabad, Guna and Nagpur (in Maharashtra) from 2010 to 2014 in which eight people were killed. Upcoming food and agriculture summit scheduled to be organised at Khelgaon in State Capital on November 29-30 this year is eying to attract investors from all over the country and the world. Informing about the summit, Agriculture Secretary Pooja Singhal said that the mega event would attract more than 10,000 farmers and their organisations. The summit is going to be grand in the sense of investment coming and information disseminated. More than 10,000 farmers, of which at least 5000 would be from Jharkhand, would be attending the summit. As many as 24 pavilions for each district of Jharkhand would be set up, where specialisation from that particular area would be showcased, said the Secretary addressing a press conference here on Friday. The departments together are in touch with ambassadors from 12 different countries, who would be invited to attend the summit along with experts and delegations from their countries. We want that the farmers of the State can get knowledge about the best technologies available in the field of farm sector. Besides, the countries would also get equal opportunity to explore investment possibilities in Jharkhand which is immense yet untapped, said Industry Secretary Vinay Kumar Chaubey. Singhal added that the State is focusing more on technology transfer relating to farm equipments, organic farming, horticulture, startups, dairy, poultry, feed and fodder. We have unmatched possibilities in these sectors and the Government wants to bring more number of investors and entrepreneurs. This is going to help farmers of the State in short term as well as long term and in raising their income level up to double. Along with that the State would help budding entrepreneurs in getting hold of latest technologies and setup startups and other units locally, she said. The departments would be organising road shows covering all 24 districts in the month of October. Road shows would be carried out all over the district headquarters in the last week of October in order to generate awareness about the food processing summit and programmes going to be organised there so that more number of participants in the form of farmers and business people can come here, said Chaubey. The Government at the same time would also publicise its related policies in the food processing which are related to subsidy, land loan and other incentives. The officials on the occasion also released brochure and launched website for the summit. Three unidentified criminals shot dead a man Budhu Das near Ranchi Police Line in front of CMs official residence here on Friday evening. The murder took place in a high security area where Gonda police station and the police line are located nearby. The crime sent shock waves across the State capital and many people gathered at the spot after the crime. Police said that criminals chased Das and shot at him. The victims wife Sukarmani who was injured in the incident escaped unhurt in the incident. Das was rushed to the hospital but he died. Ranchi SSP said that the police across the city have been alerted adding that exit and entry points were sealed to nab the criminals. The Cyber Cell of Madhya Pradesh police has nabbed an employee of a finance company from Chhatarpur on charge of creating fake Facebook profile and posted her obscene photographs to defame her. Police said that the complainant, a resident of Chhatarpur lodged a complaint with the cyber cell regarding creating a fake facebook profile and posting indecent photographs over the profile. The victim lodged a complaint with the Cyber-crime cell regarding the accused who was threatening her for marriage and when she refused fakebook profile having indecent photographs to defame her was posted. The victim was not aware regarding the accused who had created the fake facebook profile. In the initial investigation it was found that the facebook profile was operated from Chattarpur. Later in the investigation the police narrowed down to relatives of the victim and found that Akhilesh Choubey was operating the fake facebook profile. During the investigation police found that the Akhilesh is married and is brother-in-law of the victim. He wanted to marry the victim and offered to marry her several times but she refused over mobile phone after which the accused created fake facebook profile. He posted indecent photographs of the victim. Based on the complaint after the preliminary investigation the police have registered a case under section 66 C and 66 D of the IT act and nabbed the accused. Cyber crime branch of Madhya Pradesh police nabbed seven persons from Indrapuri on the charge of their involvement in duping Amercian citizens in the name of settling loan amounts by posing as Law Enforcement Officials. The fraudsters duped around Rs 20 lakh from the victims and data of 12 lakh American citizens was recovered from their possession on Thursday. A network of 7 youths operating a call center to target American citizens to settle loan dues was unearthed by cyber crime branch in Indrapuri area of state capital. The accused have created fake e mail id of Law Enforcement agency which was used to e mail the victims. They bought software from ebay and Amazon and would used to collect money through Bitcoin wallet and Moneygram. Abhisek Pathak of Ahmedabad along with his friend Rampal Singh was operating a call center and hired four youths on salary to message and mail the victims in America and ask to contact on the same mobile numbers, in case if the victim fearing action would revert the calls were diverted on Abhisek and Rampals mobile numbers who used to speak with the victims in American accent posing as Law Enforcement Official. Further if the victim agreed to pay money was collected through Moneygram and Bitcoin. The call center is operational for the past one year in the same flat. Abhisek used to collect money through his ZebPay Bitcoin wallet or Moneygram. Rampal used to work as manager and used to recurit youhts for operating the nexus. He used to support in running the nexus and would also collect money from the victims. He used his two bank accounts in the fraud. Abhisek and Rampal have worked in Ahmedabad in a call center where they were taught to speak in American accent to speak with the customers which helped the two in the crime. The data was bought from Vatsalya Deepesh Bhai Gandhi who owned data of 12 lakh American citizens. Mohammad Farhan Khan, Morya Shrawan Kumar, Shubham Geete and Saurabh Rajput used to send messages and email victims. The accused were identified as Abhisek Pathak (22), Rampal Singh(29), Vatsalya Deepesh Bhai Gandhi(25) of Ahmedabad while Mohammad Farhan Khan (19), Morya Shrawan Kumar (19), Shubham Geete (19) and Saurabh Rajput (19) of Madhya Pradesh. His Holiness Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin TUS, the 53rd al-Dai al-Mutlaq and head of the Dawoodi Bohra community, arrived in Indore on Thursday to conduct Ashara Mubaraka sermons in the city. He was received by government officials, dignitaries and members of the community. Accompanied by a government security protocol, His Holiness TUS arrived by car at Sanghi Ground ManikBagh Road where thousands of Dawoodi Bohras accorded him a warm welcome. Syedna addressed the audience briefly and thanked the Madhya Pradesh government for inviting him as State Guest to Indore. He also acknowledged the warm welcome and the arrangements made for his visit. During his stay in the city to conduct the Ashara sermons, Syedna will also inaugurate three mosques in the city. He is also slated to interact with local community members and look into their affairs. Senior government officials of the State and leaders of other faith communities are also expected to meet with Syedna and discuss topics pertaining to the betterment of the city and society at large. Ashara Mubaraka refers to a period of ten days at the beginning of the Islamic year dedicated to the remembrance of the Prophet Mohammed SAW and his Ahle Bayt AS (family and kin), specifically his grandson Imam Husain AS. The tenth day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, is known as Ashura and marks the day on which Imam Husain AS was martyred along with his family members and companions. This year the event will run through. Although Dawoodi Bohra centres across the world will host this event locally for members in their cities, the gathering led by His Holiness, which varies from city to city each year, will attract thousands of community members. In Indore this year, over 1.7 lakh individuals from over 40 different countries have already registered to attend. Hotels near Indores commercial centre where the Bohra communitys central Saifee Masjid is located, are completely booked. In a scathing attack on Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath likened him to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, saying one who does not belong to his father and uncle cannot be loyal to the people. There is a character in Indian history who had put his father behind bars for power. People hate that character to such an extent that no parent names his child Aurangzeb. The Samajwadi Party leader replicated Aurangzebs act. The person who back-stabbed his father and uncle cannot belong to anyone, Yogi said while addressing a caste-based sammelan (conference) here on Friday. The Chief Minister further said: When a son ditches his father and uncle for his own vested interests, how can he serve the people without any interest. This is one of the most vicious attack on Samajwadi Party president as recently in the Vidhan Sabha, the Chief Minister had equated Samajwadi Party leaders as saanp (snakes), a comment which was objected to by the SP leaders. Incidentally, it is not the first time when Aurangzeb tag has been given to Akhilesh. In September 2016, when the feud within the Yadav clan had come out in the open and Akhilesh, as Chief Minister, had gone to inaugurate the Hajj House in Ghaziabad, the venue had pictures of senior SP leaders but the picture of Mulayam Singh Yadav was missing. A newspaper, quoting a SP MLC, had said on September 22, 2016 that he (Mulayam) has been a dotting an indulgent father who was not ready to play Shah Jahan. Then also the issue had raised a political storm. The attack on SP president revived the old story, particularly at a time when Akhileshs uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav has floated his Samajwadi Secular Morcha and Mulayam has gone public saying he might get respect he deserves after his death. Yogi used this family rift to say: History has repeated. People of the country know how a prince put his emperor father in jail just for the throne. The attack came a day after Akhilesh said that after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Yogi Adityanath would not remain the Chief Minister of UP. Meanwhile, speaking at the caste sammelan, Yogi said that Nishads, Binds and Kashyaps should get the benefit of reservation. The Samajwadi Party government has wilfully taken the issue to court and we are trying to see how reservation benefits can reach this section of society, he said as the members of these communities shouted Yogi, Yogi. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in his speech said that the government would install a big statue of Lord Ram embracing Nishad Raj. The Nishad got the best deal in Ram raj and now Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will ensure that Nishads gets the basic facilities, he said. Maurya also asked the parents to send their children to school as education is the only way a family can uplift itself and it is the key to all development. The conference was attended by hundreds of members of Nishad, Bind, Kashyap and Mallah communities. Egyptian security officials say four policemen and four terrorists have been killed during clashes in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula. The officials said that terrorists armed with explosives and RPGs attacked a checkpoint at the entrance to el-Arish city on Saturday. They said another 10 policemen were wounded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. Egypts state-run MENA news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying that police thwarted the attack and confirmed the militants death. It didnt report any casualties among the police. It also said other militants fled after the attack. In February, Egypt began a nationwide anti-militant operation mainly focused on the turbulent Sinai. A 25-year-old Indian financial consultant was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in a bank building in the US city of Cincinnati before police shot him dead on Thursday, in the latest mass shooting incident in America. Pruthviraj Kandepi, who hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, police said. Indias Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told PTI that the Consulate is in touch with the police, Kandepis family as well as members of the community. An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added. Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco knew Kandepi, she said on Facebook, when she announced the names of the victims. She met Kandepi at the Hindu temple of Cincinnati, Cincinnati.Com reported. How do you tell parents who live 10,000 miles away that they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country? she wrote. The other two victims were identified as Luis Felipe Calderon, 48 and Richard Newcomer, 64. Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, police said, adding that the gunman was killed in a shootout with officers. It appeared the victims had no connection to each other. It was not immediately clear if any knew the gunman, media reports said on the latest mass shooting incident in the US. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. The following companies are subsidiares of BorgWarner: B80 Italia S.r.l., BERU AG, BW El Salto S.A. De C.V., BWA Receivables Corporation, BWA Turbo Systems Holding LLC, Borg Warner Europe Holdings (PDS) B. V., BorgWarner (China) Investment Co. Ltd., BorgWarner (Reman) Holdings L.L.C., BorgWarner (Thailand) Limited, BorgWarner Aftermarket Europe GmbH, BorgWarner Alternators Inc., BorgWarner Arden LLC, BorgWarner Arnstadt RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Asia Inc., BorgWarner Automotive Asia Limited, BorgWarner Automotive Components (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Automotive Components (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Brasil Ltda., BorgWarner Chungju Co. LLC, BorgWarner Comercial e Distribuidora de Pecas para Veiculos Automotores Ltda., BorgWarner Comercializadora PDS S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner Componentes PDS S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner Cooling Systems (India) Private Limited, BorgWarner Cooling Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Diversified Transmission Products Services Inc., BorgWarner Drivetrain Engineering GmbH, BorgWarner Drivetrain Management Services de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Drivetrain de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Electric Motors L.L.C., BorgWarner Emissions Systems (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Emissions Systems (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Emissions Systems Holding LLC, BorgWarner Emissions Systems India Private Limited, BorgWarner Emissions Systems LLC, BorgWarner Emissions Systems Portugal Unipessoal LDA, BorgWarner Emissions Systems Spain S.L.U., BorgWarner Emissions Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner Emissions Talegaon Private Limited, BorgWarner Engineering Ketsch RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Engineering Kibo RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Esslingen GmbH, BorgWarner Europe GmbH, BorgWarner Europe Holding S.a. r. l., BorgWarner Gateshead Limited, BorgWarner Germany Holding GmbH, BorgWarner Germany Holding Services GmbH, BorgWarner Germany REH GmbH, BorgWarner Germany REM GmbH, BorgWarner Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, BorgWarner Global Holding S.a. r. l., BorgWarner Heidelberg I RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Heidelberg II RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Heidelberg REH GmbH, BorgWarner Heidelberg REM GmbH, BorgWarner Holding Inc., BorgWarner Holdings Limited, BorgWarner Hungary Kft., BorgWarner IT Services Europe GmbH, BorgWarner India Holdings Inc., BorgWarner Investment Holding Inc., BorgWarner Ithaca LLC, BorgWarner Ketsch Plant RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Ketsch REH GmbH, BorgWarner Ketsch REM GmbH, BorgWarner Kft., BorgWarner Kibo RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Korea Holdings (PDS) B.V., BorgWarner Korea Holdings LLC, BorgWarner Korea LLC, BorgWarner Limited, BorgWarner Ludwigsburg GmbH, BorgWarner Ludwigsburg RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Markdorf Plant RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner Markdorf REH GmbH, BorgWarner Markdorf REM GmbH, BorgWarner Massachusetts Inc., BorgWarner Mauritius Holdings Ltd., BorgWarner Mexico Holding BV, BorgWarner Mexico Holdings II LLC, BorgWarner Mexico Holdings LLC, BorgWarner Morse Systems India Private Limited, BorgWarner Morse Systems Italy S.r.l., BorgWarner Morse Systems Japan K.K., BorgWarner Morse Systems Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner Muggendorf RE GmbH & Co. KG, BorgWarner NW Inc., BorgWarner Netherlands Holdings (PDS) B.V., BorgWarner Oroszlany Kft., BorgWarner PDS (Anderson) L.L.C., BorgWarner PDS (Changnyeong) LLC, BorgWarner PDS (Indiana) Inc., BorgWarner PDS (Livonia) Inc., BorgWarner PDS (Ochang) LLC, BorgWarner PDS (Thailand) Limited, BorgWarner PDS (USA) Inc., BorgWarner PDS Brasil Produtos Automotivos Ltda., BorgWarner PDS Irapuato S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner PDS Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., BorgWarner PDS Technologies L.L.C., BorgWarner Poland Sp. z o.o., BorgWarner Pyongtaek LLC, BorgWarner Romeo Power LLC, BorgWarner Rzeszow Sp. z o.o., BorgWarner Shenglong (Ningbo) Co. Ltd., BorgWarner South Asia LLC, BorgWarner Southborough Inc., BorgWarner Spain Holding S.L.U, BorgWarner Sweden AB, BorgWarner Systems Lugo S.r.l., BorgWarner Thermal Systems Inc., BorgWarner Thermal Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner TorqTransfer Systems Beijing Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Tralee Ltd., BorgWarner Transmission Products LLC, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Arnstadt GmbH, BorgWarner Transmission Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Korea LLC, BorgWarner Transmission Systems Tulle S.A.S., BorgWarner Trustees Limited, BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions Systems France S.A.S., BorgWarner Turbo Systems Engineering GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems LLC, BorgWarner Turbo Systems Worldwide Headquarters GmbH, BorgWarner Turbo Systems of Michigan Inc., BorgWarner Turbo and Emissions Systems de Mexico S.A. de C.V., BorgWarner UK Financing Ltd., BorgWarner UK Holding and Services Ltd., BorgWarner US Holding LLC, BorgWarner USA Industries L.L.C., BorgWarner United Transmission Systems Co. Ltd., BorgWarner Waterloo Inc., BorgWarner Wrexham Limited, Cascadia Motion LLC, Creon Insurance Agency Limited, Delphi Technologies, Dytech ENSA, Gustav Wahler GmbH u. Co. KG, Haldex, Kuhlman LLC, Kysor Europe Limited, M. & M. Knopf Auto Parts L.L.C., NSK-Warner (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., NSK-Warner K.K., NSK-Warner Mexico S.A. de C.V, NSK-Warner U.S.A. Inc., New PDS Corp., Old Remco Holdings L.L.C., Old Remco International Holdings L.L.C., Remy International, SeohanWarner Turbo Systems LLC, Sevcon, Sevcon New Energy Technology (Hubei) Company Limited, and Transmission Systems AutoForm LLC. 4 hours ago 3 Stocks Under $10 With Two-Bagger Potential With the holiday shopping season upon us, people are getting in the mood for a good bargain. If youre an investor, you may also be rummaging through the bargain bin for a low-priced stock that can provide a little extra holiday cheer. Despite the stock market climbing to new highs this week, there are still some names to put on the shopping list. Read Article Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (CBII) ,along with its subsidiaries, is an international marketer and distributor of bananas and pineapples sold under the Chiquita and other brand names in 70 countries, and packaged salads sold under the Fresh Express and other brand names primarily in the United States. The Company operates in three segments: Bananas; Salads and Healthy Snacks, and Other Produce. The Bananas segment includes the sourcing (purchase and production), transportation, marketing and distribution of bananas. The Salads and Healthy Snacks segment includes ready-to-eat, packaged salads, and other value-added products, such as healthy snacking products, fresh vegetable and fruit ingredients used in food service, processed fruit ingredients. The Other Produce segment includes the sourcing, marketing and distribution of whole fresh produce other than bananas. The primary product of the Other Produce segment is pineapples. Read More 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 EAFE 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 MSCI EAFE Growth ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. United Technologies Corporation provides technology products and services to building systems and aerospace industries worldwide. Its Otis segment designs, manufactures, sells, and installs passenger and freight elevators, escalators, and moving walkways; and offers modernization products to upgrade elevators and escalators, as well as maintenance and repair services. The company's Carrier segment provides heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration, fire, security, and building automation products, solutions, and services for commercial, government, infrastructure, residential, and refrigeration and transportation applications. This segment also offers building services, including audit, design, installation, system integration, repair, maintenance, and monitoring. Its Pratt & Whitney segment supplies aircraft engines for commercial, military, business jet, and general aviation markets; and provides aftermarket maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as fleet management services. The company's Collins Aerospace Systems segment provides electric power generation, power management, and distribution systems; air data and aircraft sensing systems; engine control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; engine components; environmental control systems; fire and ice detection, and protection systems; propeller systems; engine nacelle systems; aircraft lighting, seating, and cargo systems; actuation and landing systems; space products and subsystems; avionics systems; flight controls, communications, navigation, oxygen, and training systems; food and beverage preparation, and storage and galley systems; and lavatory and wastewater management systems. The company offers its services through manufacturers' representatives, distributors, wholesalers, dealers, retail outlets, and sales representatives, as well as directly to customers. United Technologies Corporation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. 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 Wall Street analysts have given North American Palladium 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 North American Palladium 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 Barclays: Adler Toy Holding Sarl, Aequor Investments Limited, Alymere Investments Limited, Alynore Investments Limited Partnership, Analog Analytics, Analog Analytics Inc, Analytical Trade Holdings LLC, Analytical Trade Investments LLC, Analytical Trade UK Limited, Archstone Equity Holdings Inc, Ardencroft Investments Limited, B D & B Investments Limited, B.P.B. (Holdings) Limited, BB Client Nominees Limited, BBAIL SAS, BCAP LLC, BIFML PTC Limited, BMBF (No.24) Limited, BMI (No.9) Limited, BNC Brazil Consultoria Empresarial Ltda, BNRI ENG 2013 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG 2014 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG GP LLP, BNRI England 2010 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2011 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2012 Limited Partnership, BNRI Limehouse No.1 Sarl, BNRI PIA Scot GP Limited, BNRI Scots GP LLP, BPB Holdings SA, BVP Galvani Global S.A.U., Barafor Limited, Barclay Leasing Limited, Barclaycard Funding PLC, Barclaycard International Payments Limited, Barclays (Barley) Limited, Barclays Aldersgate Investments Limited, Barclays Alzin Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Asia Limited, Barclays Asset Management Limited, Barclays BR Investments S.a r.l., Barclays BWA Inc., Barclays Bank (Suisse) S.A., Barclays Bank Delaware, Barclays Bank Ireland PLC, Barclays Bank Ireland Public Limited Company, Barclays Bank Mexico S.A., Barclays Bank PLC, Barclays Bank UK PLC, Barclays Bayard Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bedivere Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bordang Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Brasil Assessoria Financeira Ltda., Barclays CCP Funding LLC, Barclays Cantal Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Capital (Cayman) Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Limited, Barclays Capital Canada Inc., Barclays Capital Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V., Barclays Capital Derivatives Funding LLC, Barclays Capital Effekten GmbH, Barclays Capital Energy Inc., Barclays Capital Equities Trading GP, Barclays Capital Finance Limited, Barclays Capital Futures (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., Barclays Capital Japan Securities Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Capital Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.2) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.3) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees Limited, Barclays Capital Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Capital Real Estate Finance Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc., Barclays Capital Securities Client Nominee Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Trading Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Claudas Investments Partnership, Barclays Claudas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Commercial Mortgage Securities LLC, Barclays Converted Investments (No.2) Limited, Barclays Corporation Limited, Barclays Direct Investing Nominees Limited, Barclays Directors Limited, Barclays Dryrock Funding LLC, Barclays Electronic Commerce Holdings Inc., Barclays Equity Holdings Limited, Barclays Equity Index Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Europe Client Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Firm Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Executive Schemes Trustees Limited, Barclays Financial LLC, Barclays Financial Planning Nominee Company Limited, Barclays Funds Investments Limited, Barclays Funds and Advisory Japan Limited, Barclays Global Service Centre Private Limited, Barclays Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Group Holdings Limited, Barclays Group Operations Limited, Barclays Group US Inc., Barclays Index Finance Trust, Barclays Industrial Development Limited, Barclays Industrial Investments Limited, Barclays Insurance Guernsey PCC Limited, Barclays Insurance Services Company Limited, Barclays Insurance U.S. Inc., Barclays International Luxembourg Dollar Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Investment Management Limited, Barclays Investment Solutions Limited, Barclays Investments & Loans (India) Limited, Barclays Korea GP Limited, Barclays Lamorak Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Leasing (No.9) Limited, Barclays Leto Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Long Island Limited, Barclays Luxembourg EUR Holdings S.a r.l, Barclays Luxembourg Finance S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg GBP Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Global Funding S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings SSC B, Barclays Marlist Limited, Barclays Mauritius Overseas Holdings Limited, Barclays Mercantile Business Finance Limited, Barclays Merchant Bank (Singapore) Ltd., Barclays Nominees (George Yard) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Manx) Limited, Barclays Oversight Management Inc., Barclays Payment Solutions Inc., Barclays Pelleas Investments Limited Partnership, Barclays Pelleas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Pension Funds Trustees Limited, Barclays Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Private Asset Management (Monaco) S.A.M, Barclays Private Bank, Barclays Private Clients International Limited, Barclays Receivables LLC, Barclays SAMS Limited, Barclays Securities (India) Private Limited, Barclays Securities Japan Limited, Barclays Security Trustee Limited, Barclays Services (Japan) Limited, Barclays Services Corporation, Barclays Services Jersey Limited, Barclays Services LLC, Barclays Services Limited, Barclays Shea Limited, Barclays Singapore Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Switzerland Services SA, Barclays Tenedora De Immuebles SL., Barclays Term Funding Limited Liability Partnership, Barclays UK Investments Limited, Barclays US CCP Funding LLC, Barclays US Funding LLC, Barclays US GPF Inc., Barclays US Investments Inc., Barclays US LLC, Barclays Unquoted Investments Limited, Barclays Unquoted Property Investments Limited, Barclays Wealth Management Jersey Limited, Barclays Wealth Nominees Limited, Barclays Wealth Services Limited, Barclays Wealth Trustees (India) Private Limited, Barclayshare Nominees Limited, Barclaytrust Channel Islands Limited, Barcosec Limited, Barsec Nominees Limited, Blossom Finance General Partnership, Branchcall Computers (Pvt) Limited, Braven Investments No.1 Limited, CP Flower Guaranteeco (UK) Limited, CP Newco 1 Limited, CP Newco2 Limited, CP Newco3 Limited, CP Propco 1 Limited, CP Propco 2 Limited, CP Topco Limited, CPIA Canada Holdings, CPIA England 2008 Limited Partnership, CPIA England 2009 Limited Partnership, CPIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, CPIA Investments No.1 Limited, CPIA Investments No.2 Limited, CRE Diversified Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe LLC, Calthorpe Investments Limited, Capton Investments Limited, Carnegie Holdings Limited, Central Platte Valley Management LLC, Chapelcrest Investments Limited, Charles Schwab Europe, Claudas Investments Limited, Claudas Investments Two Limited, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Cobalt Investments Limited, Compania Regional del Sur S.A., Compania Sudamerica S.A., Condor No.1 Limited Partnership, Cornwall Homes Loans Limited, Crescent Crown Land Holding SPV LLC, Crescent Legacy LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential L.P., Crescent Plaza Residential LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential LP LLC, Crescent Real Estate Member LLC, Crescent Resort Development LLC, Crescent TRS Holdings LLC, Crescent Tower Residences GP LLC, Crescent Tower Residences L.P., Curve Investments GP, DBL Texas Holdings LLC, DMW Realty Limited, Desert Mountain Development LLC, Desert Mountain Properties Limited Partnership, Develop Training Group Limited, Dorset Home Loans Limited, Durlacher Nominees Limited, EWRD Summit LLC, Eagle Financial and Leasing Services (UK) Limited, East West Resort Development V L.P. L.L.L.P., East West Resort Development VII LLC, Equity Limited Partnership, Equity Value Investments No.1 Limited, Equity Value Investments No.2 Limited, Erimon Home Loans Ireland Limited, Expobank, FIRSTPLUS Financial Group Limited, Finpart Nominees Limited, First Assurance, Foltus Investments Limited, Full House Holdings Limited, Gallen Investments Limited, Global Dynasty Natural Resource Private, Globe Nominees Limited, Gracechurch Services Corporation, Grays Station LLC, Grupo Financiero Barclays Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hawkins Funding Limited, Heraldglen Limited, Holding Stuttgarter Strae GmbH, Hurley Investments No.1 Limited, Imalivest Mineral Resources LP, Investors In Infrastructure Limited, J.V. Estates Limited, JV Assets Limited, Kirsche Investments Limited, LTDL Holdings LLC, La Torretta Beverages LLC, La Torretta Hospitality LLC, La Torretta Operations LLC, Lagalla Investments LLC, Leonis Investments LLP, Liability Partnership, Long Island Assets Limited, Long Island Holding A LLC, Long Island Holding B Limited, MK Opportunities GP Ltd, MK Opportunities LP, MVWP Investors LLC, Maloney Investments Limited, Marbury Holdings LLC, Menlo Investments Limited, Mercantile Credit Company Limited, Mercantile Leasing Company (No.132) Limited, Meridian (SPV-AMC) Corporation, Mintaka Investments No. 4 Limited, Mira Vista Development LLC, Mira Vista Golf Club L.C., Mountainside Partners LLC, Murray House Investment Management Limited, Naxos Investments Limited, Nile Bank, North Colonnade Investments Limited, Northstar Mountain Properties LLC, Northstar Trailside Townhomes LLC, Northstar Village Townhomes LLC, Northwharf Investments Limited, Northwharf Nominees Limited, OGP Leasing Limited, Oakes Millers Ltd, Ownership Trustee Limited, PIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, Palomino Limited, Pecan Aggregator LP, Pelleas Investments Limited, Pelleas Investments Two Limited, Pippin Island Investments Limited, Preferred Liquidity LLC, Preferred Liquidity Limited Partnership, Procella Investments LLC, Procella Investments No.1 LLC, Procella Investments No.2 LLC, Procella Investments No.3 LLC, Protium Finance I LLC, Protium Master Grantor Trust, Protium Master Mortgage LP, Protium REO I LP, R.C. Grieg Nominees Limited, RVH Limited, RVT CLO Investments LLP, Razzoli Investments Limited, Real Estate Participation Management Limited, Real Estate Participation Services Limited, Relative Value Holdings LLC, Relative Value Investments UK Limited, Relative Value Trading Limited, Roder Investments No. 1 Limited, Roder Investments No. 2 Limited, Ruthenium Investments Limited, SPM GP Limited, Securitized Asset Backed Receivables LLC, Servicios Barclays S.A. de C.V., Societe Civile Immobiliere 31 Avenue de la Costa, Solution Personal Finance Limited, Southern Peaks Mining LP, Standard Life Aberdeen, Surety Trust Limited, Surrey Funding Corporation, Sussex Purchasing Corporation, Sutton Funding LLC, Swan Lane Investments Limited, TPLL LLC, TPProperty LLC, Tahoe Club Company LLC, Tahoe Club Employee Company, The Logic Group Enterprises Limited, The Logic Group Holdings Limited, Third Energy Holdings Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No. 2 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.1 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.3 Limited, US Secured Investments LLC, Union Center LLC, United Counties Bank, Verain Investments LLC, Walbrook Group Ltd, Wedd Jefferson (Nominees) Limited, Wessex Investments Limited, Westferry Investments Limited, Wilmington Riverfront Receivables LLC, Woolwich Homes Limited, Woolwich Plan Managers Limited, Woolwich Qualifying Employee Share, Woolwich Surveying Services Limited, Woori BC Pegasus Securitization Specialty Co. Limited, and Zeban Nominees Limited. Aetna Inc. operates as a health care benefits company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Health Care, Group Insurance, and Large Case Pensions. The Health Care segment offers medical, pharmacy benefit management service, dental, behavioral health, and vision plans on an insured and employer-funded basis. It also provides point-of-service, preferred provider organization, health maintenance organization, and indemnity benefit plans, as well as health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans. In addition, this segment offers Medicare and Medicaid products and services, as well as other medical products, such as medical management and data analytics services, medical stop loss insurance, workers' compensation administrative services, and products that provide access to its provider networks in select geographies. The Group Insurance segment offers life insurance products, including group term life insurance, voluntary spouse and dependent term life insurance, group universal life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance products; and long-term care insurance products, which provide the benefits to cover the cost of care in private home settings, adult day care, assisted living, or nursing facilities. The Large Case Pensions segment manages various retirement products comprising pension and annuity products primarily for tax-qualified pension plans. The company provides its products and services to employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. Aetna Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut. Read More Thomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, national, and international news to professionals through desktop terminals, media organizations, and industry events, as well as directly to consumers. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation is a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Teledyne Technologies: Alia Corporation Inc, Bolt Technology Corp, Bowtech Products, CARIS, CDL do Brasil Equipamentos e Servicos Submarinos Sociedade Empresaria Ltda., CETAC Technologies, DALSA, Demo Systems, Detcon Holdco Inc., Ensambles de Precision S.A. de C.V., Falcon Analytical, Frontline Test Equipment, GMI Group Holdings Limited, Hafmynd ehf, Hanson Research Corp, IST Oldham Instruments India Private Limited, Industrial Control Machines, Intelek, Intelek Limited, Intelek Pension Trustees Limited, Intelek Properties Limited, LeCroy (Beijing) Trading Co. Ltd., LeCroy Corporation, Lidar Aviation Services Inc., Maple Imaging LLC, Micralyne Inc, Ocean Design Ltda., Oldham Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Oldham Simtronics SAS, Oldham-Winter GmbH, PDM Neptec, Reynolds Industries Limited, Rhombi Canada LP, Rhombi Holdings Limited, Rhombi Netherlands B.V., Rockwell Scientific Company, Simtronics AS, TDY Jersey Limited, Teledyne Advanced Pollution Instrumentation, Teledyne Australia Pty Ltd, Teledyne BlueView, Teledyne Bogatin Enterprises LLC, Teledyne Bowtech Limited, Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Teledyne C.M.L. Group Limited, Teledyne CARIS B.V., Teledyne CARIS Inc., Teledyne CARIS UK Ltd., Teledyne CARIS USA Inc., Teledyne CDL Inc., Teledyne CDL Limited, Teledyne Catalyst Enterprises Inc., Teledyne Computer Access Technology Corporation, Teledyne Controls LLC, Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne Czech s.r.o., Teledyne DALSA (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Teledyne DALSA Asia-Pacific Ltd., Teledyne DALSA B.V., Teledyne DALSA GmbH, Teledyne DALSA Inc., Teledyne DALSA Industrial Products Inc., Teledyne DALSA K.K., Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor Inc., Teledyne Dalsa, Teledyne Defense Electronics LLC, Teledyne Denmark A/S, Teledyne Detcon Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging US Inc., Teledyne Energy Systems Inc., Teledyne Europe Holdings C.V., Teledyne France, Teledyne France SAS, Teledyne Gas Measurement Instruments Limited, Teledyne Gavia ehf., Teledyne Germany GmbH, Teledyne Hanson Research Inc., Teledyne ICM SA, Teledyne ICM SPRL, Teledyne Innovaciones Microelectronics S.L.U., Teledyne Instruments Inc., Teledyne Instruments Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Teledyne Japan Corporation, Teledyne Korea Ltd., Teledyne Labtech Limited, Teledyne LeCroy AB, Teledyne LeCroy Delaware LLC, Teledyne LeCroy GmbH, Teledyne LeCroy Inc., Teledyne LeCroy India Trading Private Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy Japan Corporation, Teledyne LeCroy Korea Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy OakGate Inc., Teledyne LeCroy S.A.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy S.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy SA, Teledyne LeCroy Singapore Pte. Ltd., Teledyne Limited, Teledyne Micralyne Inc., Teledyne Monitor Labs, Teledyne Monitor Labs P.R. Inc., Teledyne Netherlands B.V., Teledyne ODI, Teledyne Optech Inc., Teledyne Paradise Datacom Limited, Teledyne RD Instruments, Teledyne RD Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne RESON, Teledyne RESON A/S, Teledyne RESON B.V., Teledyne RESON GmbH, Teledyne RESON Holding B.V., Teledyne RESON Inc., Teledyne RESON Pte. Ltd., Teledyne RESON UK Limited, Teledyne RISI Inc., Teledyne Rad-icon Imaging Corp., Teledyne Redlake MASD LLC, Teledyne Reynolds Inc., Teledyne SG Brown Limited, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC, Teledyne Scientific Imaging GmbH, Teledyne Scientific Imaging Limited, Teledyne Signal Processing Devices Sweden AB, Teledyne Singapore Private Limited, Teledyne TSS Limited, Teledyne Taiwan Company, Teledyne Technologies (Bermuda) Limited, Teledyne Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne Technologies International Corp., Teledyne Technologies Israel Ltd., Teledyne Tekmar Company, Teledyne UK Limited, Teledyne VariSystems, Teledyne VariSystems Inc., Teledyne Wireless LLC, Teledyne e2v, Teledyne e2v (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Teledyne e2v (Overseas) Holdings Limited, Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited, Teledyne e2v Limited, Teledyne e2v Semiconductors SAS, and The Oceanscience Group Ltd.. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Read More Zalando SE operates as an online fashion and lifestyle retailer. It offers a range of products, including shoes, apparel, accessories, and beauty products for women, men, and children, as well as free delivery and returns services. The company also sells its products through its Zalando Lounge; and brick-and-mortar stores in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig, Hamburg, Hanover, MAnster, Stuttgart, Mannheim, and Ulm. It serves in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The company has a strategic partnership with Sephora SAS to create the online prestige beauty destination. Zalando SE was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Read More Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sport shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Anvil by Gildan, Alstyle, Prim + Preux, and GoldToe brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks, as well as sheer panty hoses, tights, and leggings under the brands of Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, PowerSox, GT a GoldToe Brand, Silver Toe, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, Kushyfoot, Therapy Plus, All Pro, Secret, Silks, Secret Silky, and American Apparel. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brand names; and ladies' shapewear, intimates, and accessories under the Secret and Secret Silky brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, or embellishers, as well as to retailers and consumer brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Read More Carol Jones is the retired Director of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, now volunteering her time. The GCBO is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the birds and their habitats along the entire Gulf Coast, and beyond into their Central and South America wintering grounds. C&J Energy Services, Inc. provides well construction, well completion, well support, and other complementary oilfield services and technologies to oil and gas exploration and production companies throughout the continental United States. It operates through Completion Services and Well Support Services segments. The Completion Services segment provides hydraulic fracturing; cased-hole solutions comprising cased-hole wireline, pumpdown, wireline logging, perforating, pressure pumping, well site make-up and pressure testing, and other complementary services; and well construction and intervention services, which include cementing, coiled tubing, rig services, fluids management, and other completion and well support services. This segment also engages in the engineering and production of various parts and components, such as perforating guns and addressable switches, which are used in the completion process. The Well Support Services segment offers rig services, such as providing workover and well servicing rigs that are primarily used for the routine repair and maintenance of oil and gas wells, re-drilling operations, and plugging and abandonment operations; fluids management services, including storage, transportation, and disposal services for fluids used in the drilling, completion, and workover of oil and gas wells; and other special well site services, such as fishing, contract labor, and tool rental services for the completion and workover of oil and gas wells. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Read More Ameriprise Financial, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm provides financial planning, asset management and insurance services to individuals, businesses and institutions. It operates through the following business segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice, as well as full service brokerage and banking services, primarily to retail clients through the company's financial advisors. The Asset Management segment provides investment advice and investment products to retail and institutional clients. It also provides products and services on a global scale through two complementary asset management businesses: Columbia Management and Threadneedle. The Columbia Management business primarily provides U.S. domestic products and services and Threadneedle primarily provides international investment products and services. Its international retail products are primarily provided through third-party financial institutions. The segments retail products include mutual funds and variable product funds underlying insurance and annuity separat Read More Raymond James Financial, Inc., a financial holding company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the underwriting, distribution, trading, and brokerage of equity and debt securities, and the sale of mutual funds and other investment products in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Private Client Group, Capital Markets, Asset Management, RJ Bank, and Other segments. The Private Client Group segment provides securities brokerage services, including the sale of equities, mutual funds, fixed income products, and insurance products to their individual clients; and borrowing and lending of securities to and from other broker-dealers, financial institutions, and other counterparties. The Capital Markets segment offers securities brokerage, trading, and research services to institutions with a focus on sale of the United States and Canadian equities and fixed income products; and manages and participates in underwritings, merger and acquisition services, and public finance activities. The Asset Management segment engages in the operations of Eagle, the Eagle Family of Funds, Cougar, the asset management operations of Raymond James & Associates, trust services of Raymond James Trust, and other fee-based asset management programs. The RJ Bank segment provides corporate loans, SBL, tax-exempt loans, and residential loans. The Other segment engages in private equity activities, including various direct and third party private equity investments; and private equity funds. Raymond James Financial, Inc. was founded in 1962 and is based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Read More First American Financial Corp. operates as an insurance company. It provides title insurance and settlement services to the real estate and mortgage industries. The company operates its business through the following segments: Title Insurance & Services and Specialty Insurance. The Title Insurance & Services segment provides title insurance, escrow, closing services and similar or related financial services domestically and internationally in connection with residential and commercial real estate transactions. It also maintains, manages and provides access to title plant records and images and provides banking, trust and investment advisory services. The Specialty Insurance segment issues property & casualty insurance policies and sells home warranty products. It also provides title plant management services, which include title and other real property records and images, valuation products and services, home warranty products, property and casualty insurance and banking, trust and investment advisory services. First American Financial was founded in January, 2008 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, CA. Read More 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 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 The following companies are subsidiares of Colgate-Palmolive: 887357 Ontario Inc., COLGALIVE S.A., CP GABA GmbH, CP International Holding C.V., CP West East Investment Limited, Cleaning Dimensions Inc., Colgate (BVI) Limited, Colgate (Guangzhou) Company Limited, Colgate (U.K.) Limited, Colgate Business Services of the Americas S.C., Colgate Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Colgate Global Business Services Private Limited, Colgate Holdings, Colgate Inc., Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals Inc., Colgate Palmolive Ghana Limited, Colgate Palmolive Holding S.Com.P.A., Colgate Palmolive Nouvelle Caledonie Sarl, Colgate Palmolive Tanzania Limited, Colgate Sanxiao Company Limited, Colgate Venture Company Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Asia) Pte Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Blantyre) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Brunei) Sdn Bhn, Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc. y Compania Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive (Centro America) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (China) Co. Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Costa Rica) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominica) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominican Republic) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (East Africa) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Eastern) Pte. Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Egypt) S.A.E., Colgate-Palmolive (Far East) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Fiji) Pte Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Gabon) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Guyana) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (H.K.) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Hellas) S.A. I.C., Colgate-Palmolive (Hong Kong) Holding Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Kazakhstan) L.L.P., Colgate-Palmolive (Latvia) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Middle East Exports) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Myanmar) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (New York) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive (Proprietary) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Research & Development) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Romania) SRL, Colgate-Palmolive (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Uganda) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Vietnam) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Zambia) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Zimbabwe) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive A.B., Colgate-Palmolive A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Adria Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Treasury Services Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Belgium S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Bolivia Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Caricom Service Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Central European Management Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Chile S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cia., Colgate-Palmolive Comercial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Commercial (Hellas) SP LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Commerciale S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive Commericale S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive Compania Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive Company Distr. LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Cote dIvoire S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cyprus Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Development Corp., Colgate-Palmolive East West Africa Region (Pty) Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Enterprises Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Espana S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Europe (Holdings) Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Europe Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Finance (UK) plc, Colgate-Palmolive Global Trading Company, Colgate-Palmolive Holding Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Holding Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Hungary Kft Limited Liability Company, Colgate-Palmolive IHQ Services (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Inc. S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Industrial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Industriel S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive International Holding LLC, Colgate-Palmolive International LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Investment Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (BVI) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (PNG) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Investments Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Israel Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Italia S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive JSC, Colgate-Palmolive Lanka (Private) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Latin America Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Marketing Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive Maroc S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Mocambique Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive NJ Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Nederland B.V., Colgate-Palmolive Norge A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Participacoes e Investimentos Imobiliarios Lda., Colgate-Palmolive Peru S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Philippines Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Pty Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Retirement Trustee Limited, Colgate-Palmolive S.A. de C.V., Colgate-Palmolive S.p.A., Colgate-Palmolive Senegal S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Services (Hellas) LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Services CEW GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Services S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Slovensko s.r.o., Colgate-Palmolive Support Services, Colgate-Palmolive Temizlik Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticart S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Transnational Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Ukraine LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Unipessoal Lda, Colgate-Palmolive de Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive de Puerto Rico Inc., Colgate-Palmolive del Ecuador S.A.I.C., Colgate-Palmolive del Peru (Delaware) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Eeska republika spol. s r.o., Colpal CBS S de R. L. de C. V., Consumer Viewpoint Center Inc., Cotelle S.A., Dimac Development Corp., Dominica Coconut Products Limited, EKIB Inc., ELM Company Limited, Elta MD Holdings Inc., Elta MD Inc., EltaMD, Filorga Americas Inc., Filorga Asia Limited, Filorga Benelux SA, Filorga Cosmetiques Polska, Filorga Middle East DMCC, Filorga Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Filorga RU Limited Liability Company, GABA Europe Holding GmbH, GABA International, GABA International Holding LLC, GABA Schweiz AG, GABA Therwil GmbH, Gamma Development Co. Ltd., Global Trading and Supply LLC, Hamol Ltd., Hello Products, Hello Products LLC, Hills Funding Company, Hills Pet Nutrition (NZ) Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Asia Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Canada Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Denmark ApS, Hills Pet Nutrition Espana S.L., Hills Pet Nutrition GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Holding B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Indiana Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Italia S.r.l., Hills Pet Nutrition Korea Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing s.r.o, Hills Pet Nutrition Norway AS, Hills Pet Nutrition OOO, Hills Pet Nutrition Pty. Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition S.p.A., Hills Pet Nutrition SNC, Hills Pet Nutrition Sales Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition South Africa Proprietary Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition Sweden AB, Hills Pet Nutrition Switzerland GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Taiwan Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition Trading (GZ) Co. Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hills Pet Nutrition de Puerto Rico Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition s.r.o., Hills Pet Products (Benelux) S.A., Hills Pet Products Inc., Hills Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Hills-Colgate (Japan) Ltd., Hopro Liquidating Corp., Hygiene Systemes et Services SA, IES Enterprises Inc., Inmobiliaria Colpal S. de R.L. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Hills S.A. de C.V., Innovacion Creativa S.A. de C.V., Kolynos Corporation, Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Espana S.L.U., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Italia S.R.L., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques S.A., Laser Brand Toothpaste, Lournay Sales Inc., Mennen Company, Mennen Interamerica Ltd., Mennen Limited, Mennen South Africa Ltd., Mennen de Chile Ltd., Mennen de Nicargua S.A., Mission Hills Property Corporation, Mission Hills S.A. de C.V., Norwood International Incorporated, Olive Music Publishing Corporation, PCA SKIN, Paramount Research Inc., Penny LLC, Pet Chemicals Inc., Physicians Care Alliance LLC, Productos Halogenados Copalven C.A., Purity Holding Company, Purity Music Publishing Corporation, Refresh Company Limited, Samuel Taylor Holdings B.V., Sanex, Sanxiao Company Limited, Services Development Co. Ltd., Societe Generale de Negoce et de Services (GENESE) S.A., The GDN - The Global Distributive Network SAS, The Lournay Company Inc., The MPDP - The Medical and Pharmaceutic Distributive Platform SAS, The Murphy-Phoenix Company, Tom's of Maine, Toms of Maine Holdings Inc., Toms of Maine Inc., Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Vipont Pharmaceutical Inc., and XEB Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO ENERGY, XTO Energy Canada, and XTO Holdings LLC. 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 PetroChina Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in a range of petroleum related products, services, and activities in Mainland China and internationally. It operates through Exploration and Production, Refining and Chemicals, Marketing, and Natural Gas and Pipeline segments. The Exploration and Production segment engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. The Refining and Chemicals segment refines crude oil and petroleum products; and produces and markets primary petrochemical products, derivative petrochemical products, and other chemical products. The Marketing segment is involved in marketing of refined products and trading business. The Natural Gas and Pipeline segment engages in the transmission of natural gas, crude oil, and refined products; and sale of natural gas. As of December 31, 2020, the company had a total length of 31,151 km, including 22,555 km of natural gas pipelines, 7,190 km of crude oil pipelines, and 1,406 km of refined product pipelines. The company is also involved in the exploration, development, and production of oil sands and coalbed methane; trading of crude oil and petrochemical products; storage, chemical engineering, storage facilities, service station, and transportation facilities and related businesses; and production and sales of basic and derivative chemical, and other chemical products. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. PetroChina Company Limited is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation. 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 [email protected]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. Wall Street analysts have given iShares S&P 500 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 S&P 500 ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Novan, Inc., a clinical development-stage biotechnology company, provides nitric oxide-based therapies to treat dermatological and oncovirus-mediated diseases. Its clinical stage dermatology drug candidates include SB204, a topical monotherapy for the treatment of acne vulgaris; SB206, a topical anti-viral gel for the treatment of viral skin infections; SB208, a topical broad-spectrum anti-fungal gel for the treatment of fungal infections of the skin and nails, including athlete's foot and fungal nail infections; and SB414, a topical cream-based gel product candidate for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases. The company also develops SB207, an anti-viral product candidate for the treatment of external genital warts; WH602, a nitric oxide-containing intravaginal gel to treat high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV); WH504, a non-gel formulation product candidate to treat high-risk HPV; and SB019 for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Novan, Inc. has a license agreement with Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; and a strategic alliance with Orion Corporation. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina. Read More Nuveen Connecticut 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 Connecticut. The fund invests into undervalued municipal securities and other related investments the income from which is exempt from regular federal and Connecticut income taxes. It seeks to invest in investment grade securities with an average maturity of around 17 years. The fund employs fundamental analysis with a focus on bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against Standard & Poor's (S&P) Connecticut Municipal Bond Index and Standard & Poor's (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen Connecticut Premium Income Municipal Fund. Nuveen Connecticut Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on January 12, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States. 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. First BanCorp (Puerto Rico) is a holding company, which engages in the provision of personal, commercial, and corporate banking services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Commercial and Corporate Banking, Consumer (Retail) Banking, Mortgage Banking, Treasury and Investments, United States Operations, and Virgin Islands Operations. The Commercial and Corporate Banking segment consists of the company's lending and other services for large customers represented by specialized and middle-market clients and the public sector. The Consumer (Retail) Banking segment includes consumer lending and deposit-taking activities conducted mainly through FirstBank's branch network in Puerto Rico. The Mortgage Banking segment focuses on the origination, sale, and servicing of a variety of residential mortgage loan products and related hedging activities. The Treasury and Investments segment deals with treasury and investment management functions. The United States Operations segment represents all banking activities conducted by FirstBank on the United States mainland. The Virgin Islands Operations segment includes all banking activities conducted by FirstBank in 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 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. Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Japan ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Japan ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. The following companies are subsidiares of The Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. 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. Yext, Inc. is an emerging growth company engages in software development. It offers a cloud-based digital knowledge platform, which allows businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud such as financial information, resources and performance of these resources on a consolidated basis and sync it to other application such as Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. It offers the Yext Knowledge Engine package on subscription basis, which has an access to Listings, Pages, Reviews and other features. The Listing feature provides customers with control over their digital presence, including their location and other related attributes published on the used third-party applications. The Pages feature allows customers to establish landing pages on their own websites and to manage digital content on those sites, including calls to action. The Reviews presence enables customers to encourage and facilitate reviews from end consumers. The company was founded by Howard Lerman, Brent Metz, and Brian Distelburger in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Read More All Day Join the Dalhousie Office of Sustainability for a month long challenge designed to teach you how to take action and incorporate sustainability into your life while you win prizes! When was the last time you looked at your bank account balance? According to a survey, over 60% of Americans check their balance at least once a week. This habit, if practiced the right way, can put you on the path to achieving your financial... 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. Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to start road tests of its electric vehicles (EVs) in India next month as a precursor to launch of EV in 2020, its chairman Osamu Suzuki said on Friday. (Photo: Reuters) New Delhi: Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to start road tests of its electric vehicles (EVs) in India next month as a precursor to launch of EV in 2020, its chairman Osamu Suzuki said on Friday. Suzuki said the company has decided to launch EV in India around 2020 in cooperation with Toyota Motor Corporation. It will commence production of lithium-ion batteries, used in electric-vehicles, at its Gujarat plant in 2020. "I am pleased to announce today that we will start road running test using fleet of 50 EV prototype vehicles in India from next month for developing safe and easy-to-use EV for Indian customers in line with Indian climatic and traffic conditions," Osamu Suzuki said at the Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE' here. For increasing the penetration of EVs in India, it is obvious that it cannot be done without sufficient charging infrastructure development, he noted. "In this regard, we look forward to proactive leadership from the Government of India," Suzuki said. He said that in India there is significant number of people who are eagerly waiting to have their own car. It is said that EV will be around 30 per cent in 2030, which means huge population of vehicles would still be using non-EV at that time, Osamu said. "In order to answer to the need of better life style and meeting expectation of Indian customers, as well as resolving environmental challenges at the same time, I think it would be essential to promote not only EV but also hybrid and CNG vehicles too," he noted. "In this sense, we seek the kind support of the government in terms of policy formulation," he added. Osamu said various issues like building a safe and efficient mobility using information technology also need to be taken care of going ahead. "We will continue to make our best effort for resolving all those issues in order to realise sustainable mobility society in India," Osamu said. Suzuki Motor Corporation has around 56 per cent stake India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India. Speaking at the event, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) chairman Anand Mahindra suggested creating a universal application, a digital platform encompassing multi-modal mobility under a public-private partnership run by an autonomous body. Toyota Motor Corporation CEO Takeshi Uchiyamada said the company will make efforts for electrification of its vehicles in India, for which it is working with Suzuki to introduce EVs in the country. Tata Motors MD Guenter Butschek said the company will continue to harness its core competence of bringing solution that country needs. "We are open to building new partnerships and business models to leverage the best competitive advantage in this constantly changing mobility space," he said. SAIC President Chen Zhixin said the company will also bring its new energy vehicles in India through its arm MG Motors India. The company has announced investment of USD 500 million by 2020 in India. Ford Global Vice President (Mobility and Growth) Brett Wheatley said globally the company is working aggressively on hybrid and electric vehicles and plans to introducing such vehicles in India is under consideration. Hyundai Vice Chairman Chung Euisun said the company is looking to introduce vehicles with green technology in India. Trai, last month recommended reserve price for the next round of spectrum auctions, fixed a reserve price for 5G band at Rs 492 crore per mhz. New Delhi: An expert committee, set up by the department of telecommunications (DoT), to look into the Trai proposals on spectrum, including 5G, and auction timings will submit its report on September 10. After receiving the report, DoT will take a call if more discussions with the regulator on key issues, including revision of prices of 5G radio waves, would be required. The committee, comprising members from our finance, licencing and wireless spectrum wings, was to suggest the quantum, timing and roadmap for of spectrum sale. Trai, last month recommended reserve price for the next round of spectrum auctions, fixed a reserve price for 5G band at Rs 492 crore per mhz. It would have cost an operator Rs 9,840 crore as not less than 20 mhz could be bought for pan-India rollout. The industry termed it steep considering that in South Korean auctions in July the price per mhz was just Rs 130 crore. We find that it would be difficult as the quantum of spectrum required for 5G would be 100 mhzs. When you talk about 100 times the Rs 492 crore per mhz, the numbers become staggering. Even if the industry would have been in a better financial position that would be an extremely high number, said COAI director general Rajan Mathews. Our prices are 30-40 per cent higher than the globally auctioned or indicated prices for 5G spectrum, he added. Trai had to reduce the price of 700 mhz band in its latest recommendations by 43 per cent from Rs 11,484 crore per mhz. Since these spectrum licences are for 20 years , one needs to really have a fairly good understanding of the revenue streams that are attached, otherwise how can you put for a reasonable bid for these spectrums, he said. On the timing of auction, he said, we are saying wait for some time before we are able to understand underlying factors like the cost of a 5G handset. In case of 4G, we learnt it in a hard way. Also, the 3G PP standards and operational parametres of 5G wont be ready till 2019. The equipment manufacturers will wait for those standards to be finalized. The new operating standards and parametres for operationalising 5G wont be done till 2020. Online sales is about 39 per cent in the country, which is the highest so far. New Delhi: Flipkart aims to account for over 30 per cent of the phone sales this festive season as it lines up new launches through handset partners and dishes out more financing options to woo Indian shoppers. The Walmart-backed company, which is locked in a fierce competition with US-based Amazon, claimed that about 25 per cent of the total phones sold in the country are through its platform. "We are confident that we will be able to expand our leadership further and by the end of the festive sales (Big Billion Days or BBD), we should have 30-32 per cent share," Flipkart, Senior Director (Smartphones), Ayappan Rajagopal told PTI. The company had, in April, said it aims to touch 40 per cent market share by 2020 as part of its 'Mobiles 40by20' strategy. "Our platform will have a number of new launches in alliance with our handset partners (during the festive sale). There will be devices across price points...we expect strong volumes coming especially in the Rs 10,000-15,000 category as well as the entry-level smartphones (Rs 4,000-7,000)," he said. The company is working with a number of brands, many of them exclusively, including the likes of Informix, Realme, Panasonic and Asus, he added. Rajagopal noted that as per industry reports, about 39 per cent of the mobile phones sold in the country are through online platforms. "Online sales is about 39 per cent in the country, which is the highest so far. It is also the highest globally for any country. In China, for example, about 29 per cent phones are sold online," he explained. Stating that its mobile phone vertical has been growing steadily, Rajagopal said the company has started offering EMI option for debit card holders to help more people transact on its platform. It is also with offerings like mobile protection services. Flipkart is yet to announce the dates of BBD, but the sale is likely to take place in October. Both Flipkart and Amazon India are betting big on mobile phones to drive growth. Mobile phones are one of the most popular items sold through e-commerce sites in the country. Over the last few years, a number of new handset companies, including the likes of HMD, Xiaomi, Motorola and CoolPad have partnered players like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal to enter the Indian market. The object of the sale was to keep the holding of FHIL in RHT above 25 per cent. New Delhi: Fortis Healthcare Friday said its step-down subsidiary RHT Health Trust Manager has sold 15 lakh shares in RHT Health Trust to Fortis Healthcare International Ltd (FHIL) for SGD 11,70,000. FHIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL). The acquisition of RHT units was completed on September 5, 2018, FHL said in a filing to BSE. The object of the sale was to "keep the holding of FHIL in RHT above 25 per cent," it added. There will not be any change in FHL's total interest in RHT, the company said. RHT has a portfolio of 12 clinical establishments, and operating hospitals across India. Shares of FHL were trading at Rs 146.50 per scrip on BSE, up 0.41 per cent from the previous close. Airtel Payment Bank, India's first payments bank, has announced that its customers can now make card-less cash withdrawals at over 100,000 ATMs across India. New Delhi: Airtel Payment Bank, India's first payments bank, has announced that its customers can now make card-less cash withdrawals at over 100,000 ATMs across India. Airtel Payments Bank has partnered with Empays, a global provider of cloud based payment solutions, under which it will enable Airtel Payments Bank's savings account holders to withdraw cash using just their mobile phone through the card-less cash technology of Empays, called IMT (Instant Money Transfer). The technology can be used for self-withdrawal or for sending money to an intended recipient for ATM cash withdrawal. "We believe in digital India. We are making this a reality by providing innovative digital solutions that enhance banking," said MD and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Payments Bank, Anubrata Biswas. "Our tie-up with Empays is an important step that enables our customers to realize digital, phone based cash withdrawals at over 100,000 ATMs, through either USSD or the MyAirtel App," added Biswas. Over 100,000 ATMs belonging to some of the largest banks in the country such as State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Punjab National Bank are linked to the IMT system for card-less cash withdrawals. The network is licensed by the Reserve Bank of India as a payment system and is the only one of its kind in the country. "We are delighted that Airtel Payment Bank has enabled the IMT capability for its customers. IMT is the largest cardless cash ATM network in the world. We believe IMT will provide an additional convenience to Airtel Payment Bank's consumers," said Ravi Rajagopalan, founder & CEO Empays Payment Systems. On the gross basis, the government plans to borrow Rs 6.05 lakh crore in FY19, which included Rs 2.88 lakh crore borrowed in the first six months. New Delhi: The finance ministry and the RBI will around month end to finalise borrowings for the second half of this financial year, which is expected to be lowered by Rs 50,000 crore to approximately 2.67 lakh crore from the slated Rs 3.17 lakh crore. In May, the government had said it planned to reduce borrowings for October-March by trimming bond buyback programme. But the situation has changed drastically since then. GST revenues are still below Rs 1 lakh crore, the rupee continues to slide, current account deficit is widening due to flaring crude oil prices and trade war fears are intensifying. In this situation, the government has decided to stick to this austere measure of less borrowing to not let the other deficit fiscal deficit slip below the target, said finance ministry sources. In our cash flow management plan for 2018-19, a provision of Rs 1 lakh crore of cash management bills (CMBs) is there, they said and added the key weapon would be to scale down the bond buyback programme. CMBs are short-term money market instruments, issued by RBI on behalf of the government to meet immediate cash needs. On the gross basis, the government plans to borrow Rs 6.05 lakh crore in FY19, which included Rs 2.88 lakh crore borrowed in the first six months. In FY18, the government had cut additional borrowing to Rs 20,000 crore from earlier notified Rs 50,000 crore after bond yields soared and RBI paid extra dividend of Rs 30,656 crore to the government. RBI in August decided to pay Rs 50,000 crore dividend to government in line with the budget provisions, helping the Centre stick to its fiscal roadmap. Earlier in March, RBI had paid interim dividend of Rs 10,000 crore at the insistence of the government to support fiscal position. RBI, which follows July-June financial year, paid Rs 30,659 crore as dividend, which was 63 per cent more than FY17. Officials said to lower market borrowings and save costs, the Centre could also dip into the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), which has a corpus of Rs 1.2 lakh crore . The government in H1 used larger inflows from small savings schemes to fund its fiscal deficit of 3.3 per cent during the year. The government had Rs 1 lakh crore from NSSF against budgeted Rs 75,000 crore, an extra Rs 25,000 crore already available to it. The buyback of bonds is optional, and the government may choose not to do it, DEA secretary Garg said in May remarking, We have scope of reducing our buyback programme further, which might lead to reduction in borrowing programme in H2 rather than increasing it. The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on Union Bank of India for failing to detect and report fraud on time. New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on Union Bank of India for failing to detect and report fraud on time. "This is to inform that Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 million on the bank for delay in detection and reporting of fraud. The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under ...Banking Regulation Act," Union Bank of India said in a regulatory filing on Friday. RBI had issued a show cause notice to the bank on January 15, 2018 asking why a penalty not be imposed on Union Bank of India under the Act. Subsequently, the bank had replied to the regulator on February 1, followed by representations on oral submission during personal hearing on April 14 before the Committee of Executive Directors of the RBI. "The reply as well as oral submission made by the bank in the personal hearings and also additional documents furnished have not been found adequate by RBI leading to imposition of penalty of Rs 10 million," UBI said. However, the bank said that the amount of the penalty is not material considering the size of the bank. The bank further said it received communication from RBI on imposition on penalty on September 6. The bank has taken necessary preventive measures and has implemented a comprehensive corrective action plan to strengthen internal controls and to ensure that such incidents do not recur, it added. Stock of Union Bank traded 0.06 per cent up at Rs 83.15 on BSE. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday asked the auto companies for a "little change in mindsets" by giving more priority to future, while assuring them of government support with clear policies. New Delhi: Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday asked the auto companies for a "little change in mindsets" by giving more priority to future, while assuring them of government support with clear policies. Speaking at the MOVE, global mobility summit, the minister said the government was clear with its policy to reduce import of oil and end pollution, for which it is encouraging alternative fuel technologies such as biofuels and electric mobility. "Our policies are clear. We want to encourage you, we want to support you... but there is a small requirement on your part for a little change in mindsets and give more priority to future," Gadkari said. He was responding to comments from auto industry leaders, who wanted clear policy road map for future mobility. Citing example of fixing 12 per cent GST for electric vehicles, Gadkari said the government is clear with its policies to encourage alternate fuels such as ethanol, methanol, besides electric vehicles. The minister said the auto industry has been doing well, playing a big role in India's economic growth with its existing business model but it needs to look beyond the present keeping in mind the future mobility requirements. He said while the ethanol economy will have a good future, electric vehicles also hold a lot of potential, specially for public transport. For electrification, Gadkari said it would be easier to first target two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Asking the auto industry to convert problem into opportunities, he said more emphasis must also be given to public transportation. Chennai: As rates of petrol and diesel touched new highs on Friday, the Tamil Nadu government ruled out a tax cut citing welfare measures and put the onus on the Centre to give any relief to the common man. Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said the state government was delivering various welfare measures to the tune of Rs 77,000 crore and hinted that lowering taxes on petroleum products may cause difficulty for continued delivery of sops. "For the central government, which collects tax from many sources, it is not a big thing at all (to effect a tax cut). The central excise duty of about Rs 16 per litre (on diesel) can be halved to Rs 8 which will be a big relief," he told reporters here. "This is the plea of the Amma government," he said referring to the Tamil Nadu government. On Friday, one litre of petrol in this city was being sold at Rs 83.13 while diesel cost Rs 76.17. The rising fuel prices have triggered a political debate, with the Congress announcing a nation-wide shutdown on September 10 against the spiralling rates. The Centre has said it will not cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to cushion the spiralling prices, citing limited fiscal space available to take any dent in revenue collections. To a question on the Supreme Court directing the state Governor to consider the mercy petition of A G Perarivalan, a convict in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the minister reiterated the state government stand for the release of all seven convicts in the case. Further course of action will be decided after going through the judgement copy, he added. He also hit out at DMK President MK Stalin for seeking a Cabinet resolution for their immediate release, asking what his party had done on the matter despite being a part of the Centre for many years, including in UPA I and II. All efforts in this regard were taken only by the "Amma government," he added. Mumbai: Richa Chadha who is currently shooting in Bangalore for the Shakeela Khan biopic, in which she will be seen playing the 90s South Indian icon, is geared up for the release of her critically acclaimed film, Love Sonia. Directed by Tabrez Noorani, who has produced Academy Award winning movies like Slumdog Millionaire, Zero Dark Thirty and Life of Pi, the story of Love Sonia follows a young girl who gets sucked into the ugly world of sex trafficking and the global flesh trade. Starring Mrunal Thakur in the lead, the film also brings Manoj Bajpayee, Freida Pinto, Rajkummar Rao, Adil Hussain, Anupam Kher and Saiee Tamhankar playing pivotal characters in the quest of Sonia and is slated for release on 14th September, although it has premiered at several International Film Festivals and has also won awards for tackling such a sensitive issue so beautifully. As the film depicts how a young girl is brought into the flesh trade from a small town, Richa wants to hold screenings of the film in small towns across the country to create awareness on sex trafficking and how to prevent the heinous crime from being committed. The Fukrey actress, who recently won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and the award for Outstanding Performance at the London Indian Film Festival earlier this year, believes that in order to eradicate the awful practice of flesh trade, it is extremely important to educate the masses at the grass root level. On the topic, Richa said, "Cinema still lacks access to a vast audience and Love Sonia and its theme matters. Its time girls should be aware from a young age of a dark reality that exists. An education is a must for girls from their high school and colleges. I thus upon release, plan on showing the film to girls in smaller towns and conducting screenings to help create a wider awareness and begin a conversation." The talented actress will soon be seen on the web reprising her role of Zarina Malik in Amazon Primes original web series, Inside Edge 2. As the 42nd edition of the 10-day-long Toronto International Film Festival 2018 (Tiff 2018) kicked off on Thursday with the Scottish drama, Outlaw King, production behemoth Netflix must have felt warm after the cold shoulder it experienced at Cannes. In May this year, the high-brow Cannes had banished Netflix from its sight for not adhering to its rule of having a theatrical release of all its films showing at the festival in France. But then, warm embrace of the outlier, the other, the refugee is in Torontos DNA. Just one half of Toronto is white, the other half a rainbow of colours and ethnicities. Out of every 100 people in Toronto 12 are South Asian, 11 Chinese, 5 Filipinos, 9 Blacks, 2 Arab, and at least 1 Korean, Japanese, Latin American each and most are foreign born. As if thats not enough, theres much excitement in one section of the press in Toronto that the man who could be a real challenger to Justin Trudeau for the post of Prime Minister in next years national elections is Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal. The 39-year-old leader of the New Democratic Party, Canadas third largest party in terms of MPs, is the son of immigrant parents his mother is from Ludhiana and father from Barnala and at this years meet the press, he took to the stage after Mr Trudeau mostly to show him how to do bhangra right. That he did it in a room full of journalists, with his turban tied high with pride, and his kirpan bouncing with his bhangra steps seems to have only added to his charm. Given this very unique behaviour for a city, by now Toronto should have acquired a reputation on its own for being the most diverse city in the world. The BBC says it is. That it hasn't, tells another story, perhaps. Of Toronto, and Canadas, grace with which it embraces diversity, without flaunting or bragging. In a post-Harvey Weinstein era and a year when the worlds oldest film festival is still grappling with old world problems just recently Venice Film Festival has had to defend its decision for having just one film in the competition section out of 21 by a woman 34 per cent of films showing at Tiff 2018 are made by women, and 136 films showing at the festival have female leads. That graceful inclusivity is visible not just in the choice of films, but also in the press room and the journalists still arriving from all over the world to cover the festival. This year Tiff decided to expand its accredited media list by 20 per cent, but it decided that the new lot of writers will come from under-represented groups women, people of colour, people with disabilities, and people from the LGBTQ communities. Change like this is always a collective effort. When we announced our Media Inclusion Initiative, we got overwhelming support from industry colleagues and individual donors. With this help, we will accredit almost 200 new journalists from under-represented groups. Its fantastic news, but access is only the first step, Cameron Bailey, artistic director of Tiff, said. The questionnaire Tiff sent out to journalists attending the festival reflected its gentle determination to foster diversity. Writers, bloggers, journalists, critics were asked to indicate the gender and sexual orientation they identified with transgender (male), transgender (female), non-binary, male, female, two-spirited, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, queer, heterosexual. Or anything else Tiff may have missed out. For a festival that has, since 1981, acquired a reputation for predicting the main Oscar winners with its own Peoples Award, and where films jostle to have their world premieres amongst its 343 films this year, 147 movies will have their very first public screening at Tiff 2018 thats an incredibly warm embrace, with grace. And the voices that will now emerge around cinema at Tiff will, over time, shift how we view films, and talk about them. After Baahubali, actor Prabhas is only choosing high budget films and is keen to release them in multiple languages. His current film Saaho, directed by Sujeeth, is releasing in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam apart from Telugu. Now, the actor has officially started another film directed by K.K. Radhakrishna of Jil fame. According to a source, the story is a period drama and they are planning to shoot most of it in Italy. Pooja Hegde is the female lead and this film will also be releasing in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi simultaneously. Prabhas is eager to cash in on his Baahubali fame and wants to release his films in other languages too. Like Saaho, the budget for this upcoming film is also very high, says a source. The actor is apparently keen to start shooting for this film along with Saaho. His uncle Krishnam Raju is producing the film along with U.V. Creations, which is also owned by Prabhas cousin. The shooting will commence from next month. HT04 They say behind every successful man is a woman. This adage never gets old. Today, most stars have a strong social media following, thanks to the relentless hard work of their PR teams. And now, one cant ignore the new trend of star wives helping turn their husbands into highly profitable brands. From Upasna (Ram Charans wife) to Namrata (Mahesh Babus wife) and Sneha Reddy (Allu Arjuns wife) to Samantha (Naga Chaitanyas wife), todays star wives boost the commercial worth of their husbands by forging a close bond with their followers. How do they do it? They cash in on their own strong social media influence by giving the followers sneak peeks into the unseen side of their husbands. And the fans lap it up. Scroll down Upasnas social media posts and youll realise that shes transforming into the perfect Konidela bahu. Her account is peppered with tidbits of Charans life from his adventurous acts to light moments and even throwback pictures. Upasna uploaded this video of Charan with the caption: Dearest babai, Uve always inspired me to do daring things in life & films, this is for u did it with some help the first time ... (sic) One day Upasana posts: Dearest babai, Uve always inspired me to do daring things in life & films, this is for u did it with some help the first time have a great birthday & keep inspiring us. #HappyBirthdaypowerstar #HBDPSPK #RamCharan (sic) And another day its All set for the @Azerbaijan schedule of #RC12 its going to be rough & raw (sic)! Upasna, who calls her husband Mr C, keeps tweeting about him on a daily basis. And the actors fans lap it up. I love sharing fine moments with my best companion and it sort of keeps me going. His work schedules are different, and it is difficult for me to map my to-do list with that of his. So I try to work my way around it, says Upasna. Another proud wife is Namrata whos feed has a large serving of her husbands pictures from holidays and birthday celebrations to precious moments with their children. Despite having her hands full, she finds the time to do a little bit of work for Mahesh. Namrata captioned the picture, #The pic of the week... everyones talking about (Ranveer Singh) Says Namrata, Its about a healthy companionship and my contribution would be the balance I have tried to provide in his life. Both of us relish sharing touching moments and I believe it adds vigour to our relationship. After all, which happily married woman doesnt want to flaunt her husband to the world? Actress Samantha doesnt wait for an opportunity to tell the world what her husband means to her. Meanwhile, Sneha Reddy loves to keep her followers updated on her husbands life. Sneha Reddy posted this picture of her son with the caption, #Chitti Chitti Babu, Cherrymama #fan #rangastalam Im lucky to have such a woman who gives a sneak peek about my latest happenings to my fans. She keeps spreading the cheer and makes it easy for me to strike a work-life balance, explains the actor. Sneha Reddy uploaded a picture with the caption #Chateau de #versailles (sic) It takes effort to maintain an engaged fan base but these ladies seem to do it with so much ease. Anil Mohanty, a digital media expert, says that constant posts on social media can be a big boost to the stars. Constant posts help them engage with their fans and establish a personal rapport. Moreover, the Internet (read Google) picks up content from the social media first. And based on the traction these posts generate, Google will display them in the trends category, thus keeping the buzz about the star alive, he signs off. HT01/03 DEAD SEA, Israel: A ballerinas tutu, submerged in the Dead Sea and frozen by accumulated layers of salt into a 200 kg (440 lb) crystal-like sculpture, will soon go on international display, part of a unique artistic project at the lowest point on the planet. Israeli artist Sigalit Landau, 49, has used the high salinity that makes aquatic life in the Dead Sea impossible to create a collection of shiny white sculptures that seem to come out of a fairy tale. They include a ballet dancers costume and shoes as well as musical instruments. Landau and her team secure their submerged objects with metal frames, weights and strong cords. She said she selects them based mainly (on) memories and materials which Im attracted to, but also that the sea really likes. The artist, who has visited the Dead Sea regularly since childhood, said she embarked on the project after noticing the crystal formations along its shores that happen spontaneously. Landau has been creating the sculptures for the past 15 years at the Dead Sea, a site that has been popular for millennia among health seekers and tourists who come to float in its mineral-rich waters. Wearing straw hats and long sleeve tops to protect them from the sun and temperatures that can reach 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees F), Landau and her team examine each item. Some, she said, crystalise quickly while others take more time, depending on the heat. The Jerusalem-born artist and her team regularly document the process before and after the items are extracted, either by hand or by crane, and brought to a nearby hanger where a collection of sculptures is preserved. Her new works will go on display in the Museum Der Moderne Rupertinum in the Austrian city of Salzburg next year as part of a project entitled Salt Years. Landau is publishing a book about her project next year. These new findings suggest that ApoA-IV is a blocker of platelet surface glycoproteins GPIIbIIIa. (Photo: Pixabay) Washington DC: Turns out, food high in unsaturated fat may protect against cardiovascular diseases. Levels of ApoA-IV increase after the digestion of foods, particularly foods high in unsaturated fats, such as olive oil. Higher levels of ApoA-IV in the blood have been reported to be associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease. Apolipoprotein A-IV, known as ApoA-IV, is a plasma protein. New research from the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science (KRCBS) of St. Michael's Hospital demonstrates that ApoA-IV is an inhibitory factor for platelets, which are small blood cells that play a key role in multiple diseases, particularly in bleeding and cardiovascular diseases. These new findings suggest that ApoA-IV is a blocker of platelet surface glycoproteins GPIIbIIIa. Platelet aggregation can cause vessel occlusion that blocks blood flow, leading to thrombosis, which is the most common cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Principal investigator of the study Dr. Heyu Ni said, "Platelet aggregation can save lives because it can stop bleeding in damaged vessels. But we usually don't want platelets to block blood flow in the vessels. This is thrombosis, and if vessel occlusion occurs in the heart or brain, it can cause heart attack, stroke or death." The researchers also examined ApoA-IV's interaction with food. After every meal, platelets are stimulated, which makes it easier for them to bond together or bond to white blood cells. ApoA-IV increases in circulating blood almost immediately after meals containing unsaturated fats and decreases platelet hyperactivity and bonding, thus reducing the inflammation after meals and the risk of heart attack and stroke. The study also found that ApoA-IV has its own circadian rhythm. It is most active overnight and least active in the morning. "Mother Nature wants us to sleep well," said Dr. Ni. "So we are protected by this protein while we sleep, and most likely to experience a cardiovascular event after waking up in the morning." Dr. Ni and his team are excited about these findings because they show that foods with high unsaturated fats, along with appropriate sleep patterns, create the perfect combination for the protein ApoA-IV to play a positive role in reducing the chances of cardiovascular disease in the form of atherosclerosis, heart attack, or stroke. The full findings are present in the journal- Nature Communications. More than one-third of U.S. Army soldiers who attempt suicide dont have a history of mental health problems, a recent study suggests. Attempted suicides have become more common among enlisted soldiers since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, researchers note in JAMA Psychiatry. While a history of mental illness has long been linked to an increased risk of suicide among military service members and civilians alike, less is known about the risk among soldiers who havent been diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. For the current study, researchers examined data on 9,650 active-duty Army soldiers who attempted suicide between 2004 and 2009 as well as a control group of more than 153,000 soldiers who didnt attempt suicide. Overall, 3,507, or 36 percent, of the soldiers who attempted suicide had no previous diagnosis of mental illness, the study found. Soldiers without a mental health diagnosis may have had mental health problems but had not reported them to their medical care teams, said lead author Dr. Robert Ursano, director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. This can be because they do not think they have a problem, they are concerned about stigma associated with mental health care - which is true in both military and civilian settings - or they felt even if they reported their problems to their physicians that nothing would help, Ursano said by email. Some factors unique to military service did appear to influence the odds of a soldier with no prior mental illness diagnosis attempting suicide. For example, even without a history of mental illness, soldiers in their first year of military service were six times more likely to attempt suicide than people in the Army for longer. And soldiers without a prior mental health diagnosis who had previous deployments were 2.4 times more likely to attempt suicide than those without prior deployments. Work stress might also play a role. Soldiers with no history of psychiatric problems who had a promotion delayed for up to two months were twice as likely to attempt suicide as those who didnt experience delayed promotions. And they were 60 percent more likely to attempt suicide if they were demoted in the previous year. Previous combat injuries were also associated with a 60 percent higher risk of suicide attempts among soldiers without a history of mental illness. The study wasnt designed to prove whether or how a prior mental health diagnosis might directly impact the risk of suicide, and its impossible to know what proportion of people without a prior diagnosis might have been suffering from untreated mental illness. Women soldiers were also 2.6 times more likely than men to attempt suicide, and soldiers treated in the past month for a physical injury were 3 times more likely than those not recently treated for an injury to make a suicide attempt. Army suicide rates were lower in the 2000s than in the general population, Mark Reger of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle and colleagues point out in an accompanying editorial. Mental health care for soldiers has also shifted from being provided primarily in mental health clinics to being offered in other settings, Reger and colleagues note. Since soldiers without a mental health diagnosis are unlikely to be seen in mental health clinics by definition, a focus on prevention in other settings appears warranted, they write. Behavioral health services are more widely available today, and mental health clinicians may deploy with units or be available within walking distance of barracks to make it easier for soldiers to access care, they write. Reger and a spokesperson for the VA declined to comment. On Wednesday evening, the teenager was spotted talking to the girl by her boyfriend who called his other friends and assaulted him, resulting in his death. (Representational Image) Kanpur: A teenager was allegedly beaten to death by a group of boys for talking to the girlfriend of one of the accused persons in Kidwai Nagar locality, in Kanpur, the police said on Thursday. The victim, a student of Class 11, was beaten up on Wednesday, said Anurag Mishra, the station house officer of Kidwai Nagar police station. The 16-year-old boy was rushed to the Lala Lajpat Rai hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. The victim was friends with a girl living in his neighbourhood, but her boyfriend did not approve of girl talking to the boy frequently. The girl's boyfriend had warned the victim many times in the past to stay away, the SHO said. On Wednesday evening, the teenager was spotted talking to the girl by her boyfriend who called his other friends and assaulted him, resulting in his death, the SHO added. A case has been registered against the accused persons, he said. Chennai: The Chennai police on Thursday slapped the Goondas Act on the 17 men allegedly involved in the repeated rape of an 11-year-old girl in an apartment complex at Ayanavaram over a period of seven months. The Act enables the police to detain the accused in jail up to one year without bail. Chennai Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan has ordered that the 17 accused be charged under the Goondas Act. All 17 accused who had gangraped a 11-year-old differently-abled girl were detained under the Goondas Act on Thursday. Following the order of city police commissioner A.K. Viswanathan, the detention would make it difficult for the accused to be bailed out. The police arrested 17 people, including the buildings security guard and water supplier, between the ages of 25 and 66. The residents association of the building cancelled the entry of the men, after being identified were produced in Mahila court. Three men have confessed to their crime, a senior police officer said. The girl was allegedly sedated by giving spiked soft drinks and was also blackmailed, police said. The offenders were booked under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault), 10 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) and 12 (Punishment for Sexual harassment) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The incident came to light on July 13, when the victim, a Class VII student, informed her elder sister that she was suffering from stomach pain. She told her sister that she was raped, sometimes even gang-raped, by the men working in the apartment they lived in. Subsequently, the sister informed the parents who lodged a complaint with the police, said a police officer. In the complaint, the victims mother said the assault began when the lift operator, Ravi, took the child to an isolated place in the apartment complex and raped her. A few days later, he brought two other men from outside, who were under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and raped her, the complaint says. The mother alleged that the men took the girl to isolated places in the complex, including the basement and public washrooms and raped her. After getting an alert Kadugodi police rushed to the spotand took the man to the police station. Bengaluru: High drama prevailed in Kadugodi, Whitefield, when a mentally challenged man, suspected to be child lifter, was at the receiving end of mob fury. Police said the local residents of Patalamma Layout tied him to the tree, thrashed him and even videographed the assault. According to the police, the incident took place on Wednesday evening, around 4.30 pm. The 25-year-old man, hailing from Odisha, had entered one of the houses in Patalamma Layout. People mistook him to be a child lifter and soon this rumour spread throughout the locality. The residents came out in large numbers to thrash the man. A police official said that one of the residents told people that he had received a WhatsApp message stating that a gang of child lifters had entered their area and he might be among them. The people got worked up and thrashed him. The video went viral on social media. After getting an alert Kadugodi police rushed to the spot and took the man to the police station. After interrogation, they learnt that he is mentally disturbed and admitted to hospital. Abdul Ahad DCP (Whitefield) said no child lifters have come to city and no such incidents were reported in the city. One has to verify whatever videos they get on WhatsApp and in social media, he added. The police have registered an FIR against people who had assaulted the man and instructions were given to Kadugodi inspector to initiate action against them. Despite various awareness programmes advising people not to pay heed to rumours, such mob attacks over child lifting rumours continue to happen. On August 27, a minor boy was beaten up by a mob on suspicion that he was a child lifter and later handed over to Hennur police. The village is home to 35 families. Its school, the "School of Tires", has 170 pupils, many from nearby areas. Other schools are too far away and the road is dangerous. Israel wants to move residents next to a garbage dumb. Two Comboni sisters describe the situation. Jerusalem (AsiaNews) The residents of the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank are about to be evicted after Israels Supreme Court gave the green light to an order to remove them and tear down their village. Sister Azezet Kidane and Sister Agnese Elli, who are close to the community, have been witnesses to the residents anguish. "People are anxious, said Sister Azezet, because they do not know when they [the army] will come: in a week, a day. Children are constantly tense, as soon as they hear a car, a noise from outside, they get scared. They are upset." Sister Agnese agrees. "The people in the village cant sleep; tensions are running high. This morning, whilst we were there with some Italians, there was a constant flow of consuls, Palestinian and non-Palestinian officials and various journalists. "The demolition order was first issued in 2009, when the school was built. People hung on for a year, then for another, until last year when the situation got worse. Since then, the children have had a very traumatic year. The teachers say that the childrens educational performance got really worse. The village is located in the West Bank, about eight km from Jerusalem, near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim and Route 1, which connects East Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. The village has a school, a clinic, a mosque and some houses, mostly shacks made of metal, for 35 families or about 180 people. The school is called School of Tyres because it was built with tyres in 2009 thanks to the help of the Italian NGO Vento di Terra (Wind of Earth), the Comboni Sisters, Rabbis for human rights and other NGOs. It has nine classes for 170 pupils, boys and girls, 35-40 from the village, whilst the others come from the surrounding areas. For the two nuns, the Israeli government plans to move the residents to a place near al-Jabal, the hill, a garbage dumb. "It's very, very narrow. It raises the question of where the residents small herds will go. The new site should include a prefabricated school but for residents only. So "Where will the other children go? Sister Agnese asks. For them it would mean going to school in Ramallah, Jericho . . . but they are far away, there is no school bus service, and the road is very dangerous, because it is a very busy highway." NGOs like B'tselem have slammed the decision, because it was based on the idea that the Bedouins built without a permit when in fact it is impossible for them to get one. The Palestinians cannot build legally and are excluded from the decision-making mechanisms that determine how their lives will look, B'tselem said. In light of the situation, many outsiders have expressed solidarity towards the villagers, Sister Agnese and Sister Azezet said. At present, many Israeli and Palestinian activists are here, Sister Agnese said. They have been coming for months to sleep here so that the community does not feel alone, to make them feel that they have support. Police investigate the scene after a shooting at the Fifth Third Bank building on Fountain Square on Thursday, in downtown Cincinnati. (Photo: AP) New Delhi/New York: A 25-year-old Indian man was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in a bank building in the US city of Cincinnati before police shot him dead on Thursday. Pruthviraj Kandepi, who belonged to Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district, was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, police said. India's Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told news agency PTI that the consulate is in touch with the police, Pruthviraj Kandepi's family as well as members of the community. An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Pruthviraj Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added. The two other victims were identified as 48-year-old Luis Felipe Calderon and 64-year-old Richard Newcomer. Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, they said, adding that the gunman was killed in a shootout with the police. According to Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call at around 9:10 am local time about an "active shooter" at the bank. The gunman was shot multiple times as four police officers approached him and he died at the scene. He had a pistol and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, Eliot Isaac said, adding that the gunman was not a former or current employee of the bank. He had gone to several businesses before going to the bank, he said. Omar Enrique Santa Perez had opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Mr Isaac told reporters at a televised press conference. The note reportedly was written by him mentioning that two persons had taken Rs 3 lakh from him but they were not giving the money back and harassing him by postponing the payments. (Representional Image) Hyderabad: A 40-year-old police constable posted at the Chief Ministers Camp Office in Punjagutta committed suicide by consuming insecticide at his house in Meerpet on Thursday night. The policeman reportedly left a note in which he expressed grief that two persons who had taken a loan of Rs 3 lakh from him were not clearing the debt and were also harassing him. Santoshnagar inspector P. Satish Kumar said, Upender worked in Santoshnagar police station for 13 days. On his request, he was posted to Punjagutta police station, where he worked for 10 days and then was absent for over 25 days. He was addicted to alcohol and was not regular. On Thursday night we received a call from his family members stating that he was lying motionless. When the police went to his house in Meerpet, he was found dead. Meerpet sub-inspector H. Raghavender said A note was recovered from his (Upender) home at Gayatri Nagar in Meerpet. The note reportedly was written by him mentioning that two persons had taken Rs 3 lakh from him but they were not giving the money back and harassing him by postponing the payments. Depressed about it, the constable ended his life by consuming insecticide. The inspector said based on a complaint from his family a case of abetment to suicide was filed under section 306 of IPC. The 2 terrorists were associated with ISJK, the terror outfit influenced by Islamic State ideology, police official said. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: Two suspected terrorists, affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) organisation, were arrested from near the Red Fort by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, police said on Friday. The duo, from Shopian in Kashmir, was identified as Parvez (24) and Jamshid (19). They were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort, said P S Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell). They were boarding a bus to return to Jammu and Kashmir when they were nabbed around 10:45 pm on Thursday. The officer said the duo was using Delhi as a transit point. Parvez's brother was a terrorist, who was killed in an encounter in Shopian on January 26 this year, he said. Parvez is currently pursuing MTech from Gajrola in Uttar Pradesh and was inspired by his brother. Jamshid is a final-year diploma student. He had also facilitated Mohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the officer said. This was their second trip to Delhi, they had gone from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through Delhi in May. Two .32 pistols and four cell phones were seized from the duo, who was working on the instructions of Omar Ibn Nazir and Adil Thokar, he added. The officer said that they had no plans to carry out terror activities in the national capital and were using Delhi only as a transit point. He said the ISJK organisation is at a nascent stage. CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami makes a detailed presentation at a meeting of the 15th Finance Commission held at the secretariat in the city on Thursday. The meeting was attended by a delegation led by 15th Finance Commission chairman N. K. Singh, state ministers and officials. (Image: DC) Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has conveyed the state governments opposition to the use of 2011 population data by the Fifteenth Finance Commission for devolving funds to Tamil Nadu. It would punish progressive states like Tamil Nadu which have achieved success in population control through their own efforts, he told the 15th Finance Commission on Thursday. Speaking at a meeting with the delegation led by its chairman N. K. Singh, at the secretariat here, Palaniswami recalled his previous letter to the commission expressing the serious concerns over its terms of reference. He recalled that the 14th Finance Commission had erred seriously in making its projections relating to Tamil Nadu which had a debilitating effect on the states fiscal stature. As a result, Tamil Nadu has not benefited from the increase in share of Central taxes from 32 per cent to 42 per cent by the 14th Finance Commission because of the drastic cut in the horizontal share among states. Instead, Tamil Nadu has lost Rs 6,000 crore per annum in the 14th Finance Commission alone, Palaniswami said. Hence, realistic projections which anticipate economic trends are essential, if the 15th Finance Commission is to enable a fair distribution between the Union and the states of the net proceeds of taxes, a just allocation amongst the states of such proceeds, and a reasonable set of recommendations on grants to the states, he stressed. Failure to meet investment needs in progressive states like Tamil Nadu would choke growth in the very states which are most capable of pulling the nation upward. The present trend in transfer of resources of rewarding those who use resources inefficiently and do badly, and punishing those who use resources efficiently and do well has to be reversed. The flow of resources to states like Tamil Nadu has to increase substantially, not only on grounds of fairness, but also to sustain growth in India as a whole and thereby help all states. He argued social welfare schemes like the Puratchi Thalaivar MGR noonmeal programme for school children, in the state were designed with specific socio-economic objectives and these could not be termed populist. Now the government of India has made Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Noon Meal programme part of the National Food Security Act, he said. Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam, ministers and heads of departments participated in the meeting. Bengaluru: Less than a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement on 'Gaganyaan,' the manned space flight programme, India and France on Thursday announced the formation of a working group to combine their expertise for fruition of the project and for a variety of experiments by a three-member crew during the journey through outer space. India plans to send three humans to space before 2022. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s mission is significant as it would catapult the country into an exclusive league of four nations including Russia, the United States and China to launch a manned space flight. The crew would conduct micro-gravity experiments during the flight. As part of the Indo-French collaboration, ISRO and CNES, the French space agency, would combine their expertise in several fields including space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support, protection from radiation and personal hygiene systems, as part of the collaboration. Engineering teams have commenced discussions and it is envisioned that infrastructure such as CADMOS centre for development of microgravity applications and space operations or the MEDES space clinic would be used for training of future Indian astronauts, as well as exchange of specialist personnel, according to Mr Jean-Yves Le Gall, President, CNES. "France has a long heritage of the human space programme. Today we have the expertise including training the crew so we will discuss specifics of an umbrella agreement signed earlier. CNES is especially proud to be working on this endeavour alongside ISRO to share the experience it has acquired from the first French human spaceflights to Thomas Pesquet's Proxima mission, and to hone our own expertise by learning from ISRO's innovative developments in the field of crew transport," while Dr K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO, remarked "France is our best friend, so we will seek their expertise," while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the inaugural of sixth edition of Bengaluru Space Expo today. The initial spadework for today's announcement on Indo-French collaboration commenced with India and France released a joint vision statement of space cooperation during the visit of President Emmanuel Macron's visit to New Delhi in March this year. Under the vision statement, it was agreed that ISRO and CNES would jointly develop capabilities and critical technologies, addressing radiation shielding solutions, personal hygiene and waste management system and design of man-in-loop simulators for human space flight as well as bioastronautics. The Indo-French pace cooperation encompasses areas of climate monitoring, with a fleet of satellites devoted to research and operational applications, innovation through a joint technical group tasked with inventing launch vehicles of the future. The two space agencies also plan to work on Mars, Venus and asteroids. Earlier, addressing the inaugural session, Mr Sivan said ISRO plans to roll out smaller rockets for launch of satellites weighing 500 to 700 KG into orbits 500 KM from the earth "The demand for small satellites is growing. Small satellites are going to be used for communication purposes in an enormous way. To catch up with the small satellites market, ISRO is in the process of developing a small satellite launcher," he said adding that the private sector would have a major role in manufacture of these satellites and rockets. The 28-year-old man identified as Eshwar, a native of Nalgonda district, was taken into custody as soon as poured kerosene over his body, a senior police official said. (Representational Image | PTI) Hyderabad: In an apparent suicide bid, a man doused himself with kerosene near the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Thursday accusing the Telangana government of dissolving the state assembly before fulfilling its poll promise of providing employment to the unemployed youth, police said. The 28-year-old man identified as Eshwar, a native of Nalgonda district, was taken into custody as soon as poured kerosene over his body, a senior police official told PTI. During questioning, the man, who has completed his degree course and is presently unemployed, accused the TRS government of going ahead with dissolving the Assembly before fulfilling its election promise "to provide lakhs of government jobs to unemployed youth," police said. Police said he told them that he resorted to the step as he did not have a job. Also Read: Stage set for early polls in Telangana; KCR dissolves state Assembly Ending weeks of speculation, the Telangana government recommended dissolution of the state assembly on Thursday. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Friday slammed Centre on issues like demonetisation, implementation of GST and job creation in the country. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Friday slammed Centre on issues like demonetisation, implementation of GST and job creation in the country. Our youth are desperately waiting for the promised 2 crore jobs. Employment growth rate has been declining in the last 4 years. People aren't impressed with the figures being put out by Modi government to justify the creation of large number of jobs, Manmohan Singh said. The former prime minister further said that schemes such as Make in India and Stand Up India are yet to make a significant impact on industrial growth. Programs such as Make in India and Stand Up India are yet to make a meaningful impact on industrial production growth. Small and marginal enterprises are yet to derive significant benefit from the ease of doing business schemes. Demonetisation and GST's hasty implementation has hurt enterprises, he added. This is not the first time that ex-prime minister has taken on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the notes ban and GST. Last year, he had said that these "coercive steps" cost the nation hugely and severely affected businesses. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao submits to Governor ESL Narsimhan his government's recommendation for dissolving the Assembly, and his resignation as chief minister, in Hyderabad. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Election Commission will meet on Friday noon to discuss the timings of elections in Telangana, a day after the state Telangana cabinet, headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao, decided to dissolve the legislative Assembly before its term, paving a way for early polls. The term of the Telangana assembly was till June, 2019. The Election Commission will also look at the possibility of clubbing Telangana elections with other state assembly polls due this year end. The term of assemblies in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Rajasthan are due to end between December 15, 2018 and January 20, 2019. The poll panel meets every Tuesday and Friday to discuss a variety of issues and the matter of holding elections in Telangana may come up for discussion during today's meeting, a senior Election Commission official said. "Issues like festivals, examinations and weather conditions will be discussed before arriving at a final conclusion," the official said. Elections must be held in a state within six months of the assembly being dissolved. According to reports, the poll panel will assess the availability of EVMs and VVPATs, state of electoral rolls and other preparations before taking a decision on the Telangana poll schedule. The ruling party in the state, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, headed by K Chandrasakhar Rao called for an early poll to avoid a clash with the Lok Sabha elections due in early 2019. Also Read: Stage set for early polls in Telangana; KCR dissolves state Assembly While KCR cited "political fragility" in Telangana as a reason for early polls, reports quoting sources close to the TRS chief said that he wanted to ensure that the focus during the state polls is on his role and his government's achievements, rather than on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday called a cabinet meeting before announcing his decision to dissolve the assembly and call for early polls. Chennai: The State government on Thursday expressed its commitment to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and said it would take a decision after going through the Supreme Court order on a plea by one of them. It is the stand and desire of late Amma (former CM J. Jayalalithaa) that all the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assasination case should be released. Our government is firm on releasing them. A decision in this regard would be taken after receiving the Supreme Court order, State Law Minister C. Ve. Shanmugam said reacting to the apex court's order directing the Tamil Nadu Governor to consider the mercy petition of A G Perarivalan, one of the seven life convicts in the case. Speaking to reporters here, the Minister said Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami would take a decision after a thorough study of the Supreme court's judgment and after consulting legal experts. Expressing in similar vein, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said the government was committed to releasing the seven life convicts. There is no second opinion on this, he added. A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and K M Joseph disposed of the Centres petition regarding a Tamil Nadu government's proposal for the release of the convicts. The Centre had on August 10 told the apex court that it does not concur with the Tamil Nadu government's proposal to release the seven convicts, saying remission of their sentence will set a dangerous precedent and have international ramifications. Perarivalan, 47, had told the apex court that no decision had been taken as yet on his mercy petition filed before the Tamil Nadu Governor on December 30, 2015 seeking remission or pardon under Article 161 of the Constitution. Perarivalan's mother Arputhammal expressed joy over the ruling and appealed to the state government to take steps for the expeditious release of her son and six others too. Hailing the court order, DMK president M K Stalin said the state Cabinet should be convened and a resolution adopted facilitating the release of all the seven convicts. Noting that late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi had appealed for their release several times, he said all of them should be released immediately. TNCC chief Su Thirunavukkarasar, however, struck a different note. The death of Rajiv Gandhi on Tamil Nadu soil is still a wound in the hearts of the people," he told reporters in New Delhi. He, however, said party president Rahul Gandhi had made it clear that he did not hold any grudge against anyone. PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, MP, too urged the government to immediately release the seven convicts. He said the Centre should not come in the way of the convicts' release by filing new petitions against it. The CPI, CPI (M) and VCK too hailed the verdict. Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur near here by an LTTE woman suicide bomber. Vijaywada: A 25-year-old youth from Tenali, Pruthvi Raj Kandepi, was shot dead in a shootout in the Fifth Third Centre in Cincinnatis Fountain Square in the state of Ohio, USA on Thursday. According to reports, a man opened fire in the lobby of the Fifth Third Centre killing three people and wounding two others. Dozens of police officers rushed to the scene and exchanged gunfire with the suspect as a crowd of people who had been on their way to work scattered across Fountain Square to safety. Those killed were identified as Pruthvi Raj Kandepi, 25, Richard Newcomer, 64, and Luis Felipe Calderon, 48. The police said the gunman, Omar Santa Perez, 29, was shot and killed by police officers after a brief gun battle. The family members of Raj got the information of the shooting early Friday morning through friends of Raj. Pruthvi Raj completed his B. Tech from VIT, Vellore and did his MSc from the University of California in the USA. He was working as a financial consultant in the head office of the Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. His father Gopinadh is a deputy executive engineer in the AP Housing Corporation at Vijayawada. He and his wife Sudharani live in Tenali in Guntur district. Their daughter Manogna is a third year BTech student at K.L. University. The parents were too shocked to speak. Manogna said the family was planning Pruthvi Rajs marriage and had told him to return to India in a few months. Other family members said that Telugu Association of North America (TANA) is making arrangement to bring the body to India after completion of formalities in the USA. Find an interpreter for the Czech Republic, you can explore sites on the Internet in search of the .Uslugami translation in the Czech Republic and Prague in particular need to use very carefully, unpreparedness ninety-five percent of all interpreters to use legal terms, the lack of basic skills of drawing up the Russian text by using the rules of spelling says that the interpreter must seek an accredited, reputable and knowledge of the business. 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A retired high school teacher, Mr Sharanabasavaraj Bisarahalli of Koppal, wrote the entrance exam along with students young enough to be his grandchildren. Born in 1929, Mr Bisarahalli had participated in the Freedom Movement as a schoolboy and fought against the Nizams rule and for unification of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region with the Union of India after Independence. He started teaching in 1951-52 at Kavalur near Koppal and retired in 1992 after working in many village schools. But retirement to him clearly meant acquiring more knowledge as he did a PG degree in Kannada Literature from Dharwad University and then a law degree later. Having published many books on Kannada literature, he is now keen on doing research on Vachana Literature. While he wrote his Ph.D entrance exam at the Hampi University last year too, he failed. But not letting this deter him, he attempted it a second time this year. This time, I have done well and am confident of clearing the exam, he said. While students usually do their teachers proud, it is his students, who are taking pride now in Mr Bisarahallis achievements and his never say die attitude. Said Mr Hanumanthappa Angadi Chilavadagi, president of the Koppal district Chutuku Sahitya Parishad, whom he once taught, I am proud that my teacher wrote the exam along with me. He has proved that age is no bar for those who seek knowledge! Bengaluru: Leaders of the state unit of BJP are squirming in discomfort as they have been rendered defenceless by an indifferent attitude of top leaders of the Union government with regard to relief and rehabilitation of victims of recent floods in Kodagu. These leaders are embarrassed as the Union government has neither released funds to aid reconstruction of the devastated district nor dispatched a team of officers to assess the damage wrought by floods though Kodagu constitutes part of the Lok Sabha constituency represented by its leader Mr Pratap Simha. They are at loss about the cold response from leaders in New Delhi though repeated appeals were sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and Union home minister Rajnath Singh for release of funds to provide succor to thousands rendered homeless by floods and landslides. The pleas of state unit leader president B. S. Yeddyurappa, and Union ministers H N Anant Kumar and and D.V. Sadananda Gowda to Mr Modi have not yielded any results. In fact, the Union governments callous attitude has rendered local leaders defenceless and the target of ire of other political parties and local residents. On Friday, law and parliamentary affairs minister Krishna Byregowda came down heavily on the Centre and state BJP leaders. Both Central and state unit leaders of BJP have no moral right to speak on relief work in Kodagu. Not a single penny has been released by the Centre for relief work. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Kodagu to oversee relief work of defence team, but no Central team visited the district so for. In spite of us submitting a memorandum to the Union Home Minister, the Centre has not responded, alleged Mr Krshna Byre Gowda. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, BJP MLA Appachu Ranjan, said: We once again request the PM and Union home minister to release funds for taking up relief work. Along with Union Ministers D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar, BJP MLAs and MLC of Kodagu will meet the PM on Wednesday, and request him to send officers to Kodagu. Mr. Ranjan blamed the state government for slow relief work in the district. The Centre has released Rs 85 crores under NDRF and state has released only Rs. 30 crores. According to our estimation, the total loss of including loss of plantation around six to seven thousand crores. Rehabilitation work has to be completed on a war footing, he added. New Delhi: More trouble seems to be brewing for Mehul Choksi, as an internal committee of the Interpol will take up the pending Red Corner Notice (RCN) request against the fugitive billionaire next month. According to sources, Indian investigative agencies have made a strong case against Choksi and urged the Interpol to issue the pending RCN against him at the earliest. The RCN request was put on hold by the Interpol after a representation by Choksi during which he had alleged that the cases against him were a result of a political conspiracy, sources said. Choksi had also raised questions about jail conditions in India, his personal safety and health among others, they added. A five-member Inte-rpol committees court, called the Commission for Control of Files, which will next month examine contentions of both the sides and give its ruling on the RCN issue, sources said. The Interpol had already issued an RCN against Choksis nephew Nirav Modi who was allegedly his partner-in-crime and has been located in the United Kingdom after he fled from India in the first week of January this year. After his location was confirmed, Indian investigative agencies sent an extradition request against Nirav Modi to the authorities concerned in the UK through the diplomatic channel. Meanwhile, the Interpol recently issued an RCN against Mihir R. Bhansali, a right-hand man of Modi, in connection with the PNBs money-laundering case. The RCN, which is as an international arrest warrant, states Bhansali, CEO of Modis jewellery firm in the USA, Firestar International, is wanted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering. The ED had informed the Interpol that Bhansali was likely to visit the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China or the UAE. Jnanpith award winner Girish Karnad with actor-activist Prakash Raj at the Gauri Day rally to mark the first anniversary of her death. Karnad is seen sporting Me Too Urban Naxal placard Bengaluru: In a clear pushback against the case against right-wing groups implicated in the murder of outspoken journalist Gauri Lankesh, a lawyer who is pleading the case for all the accused in the murder case on Friday lodged a complaint against noted playwright and Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad for holding a placard 'Me Too Urban Naxal' at an event organised to mark the first death anniversary of the journalist-activist on September 5 in the city. Members of Sri Rama Sene and Hindu Jan Jagruti Samiti also filed a complaint with the city police commissioner, T Suneel Kumar on Friday against the noted writer, accusing him of abetting Naxalism. They have asked the police to take legal action against him. In his complaint, advocate Amruthesh N.P. said Karnad sported a placard around his neck declaring himself as an 'Urban Naxal'. "Urban Naxals are those who spread insurgency against the nation," he said in his complaint and demanded that Karnad be arrested immediately. By holding such a placard, Karnad has tried to promote/abet and propagate the violent and criminal activities of Naxalism, the advocate said. Amruthesh said "how can somebody carry a banner of a banned organisation and support it." Vidhana Soudha (state secretariat) police said they have transferred the complaint to the Halasuru gate police station under whose jurisdiction the incident took place. Karnad along with many other activists took part in an event organised outside Lankesh's residence on Wednesday. The participants also staged a protest against the house arrest of five activists from across the country for their alleged links with Maoists. Warangal: Taking strong objection to the allegations levelled by AICC general secretary K. Jayakumar that the NDA government was involved in a scam regarding purchase of Rafale fighter jets, BJP Warangal Urban president Rao Padma said the Rafale deal was a trade agreement between India and France. The Bofors scam that took place during the Congress rule had middlemen from Italy benefitting. But this deal is completely different from it, she said. Ms Padma said that the Manmohan Singh government in 2007 struck the deal with France to purchase only the basic fighter jets but the Modi government in 2015 rethought the deal and decided to purchase 36 fully armed fighter jets. According to the deal, all the jets would be manufactured in France. The price of each jet now costs nine percent less than what it cost 10 years ago, she said. She ridiculed the Congress leaders saying hearing the party make an issue out of the Rafale deal is like a thief calling out thief thief after a burglary was committed. Several scams that took place during the Congress rule were brought to light and proven. The party is notorious for scams. As the Congress leaders allege, there is no connection between Ambani and this deal. Ambanis company has taken up a sub contract from this deal. AICC president Rahul Gandhi himself is not sure how much the Rafale deal is worth. His figures differ between `520 crore, `526 crore, `540 crore and `700,she said. Elsewhere in Karimnagar, BJP leader Bandi Sanjay too criticised the Congress Tamil Nadu MLAs allegations against the BJP-led NDA government. Hubballi: The infighting in the Belagavi Congress has subsided, at least for now, following the intervention of KPCC working president, Eshwar Khandre. The PLD bank elections therefore passed off peacefully with Mr Mahadev Patil being elected unopposed as president and Babusaheb Jamadar as vice president on Friday. Although the Jarkiholi brothers have suffered a setback as the two elected men are loyalists of the state Congress womens wing president, Laxmi Hebbalkar, they appear to have stopped flexing their muscles on the issue. Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had threatened of action against the state government if her loyalists won the poll, left for a darshan of goddess Mahalaxmi to Kolhapur in Maharashtra. But in a token protest, supporters of the Jarkiholi brothers raised slogans against Ms Hebbalkar. Mr Khandre had rushed to Belagavi from Bengaluru after the Congress infighting grew serious in the few hours preceding the PLD bank elections and met both Ms Hebbalkar and Mr Satish Jarkiholi to broker a truce. The latter is said to have finally relented after Ms Hebbalkar agreed to replace her candidate, Bapugouda Patil for the post of PLD bank president. The minister reportedly had the knives out for Mr Patil as he had switched his loyalty from the Jarkiholis to Ms Hebbalkar a few years ago. Speaking to reporters later, Mr Khandre blamed the infighting in the district unit of the party on lack of proper communication. The PLD bank election was postponed due to the infighting, but now both the president and vice-president have been elected unopposed. There is no threat to the state government either, he maintained. Sources said Mr Khandre had also assured Mr Satish Jarkiholi of a possible berth in the Cabinet when it was next expanded. Meanwhile, Ms Hebbalkar , who was clearly jubilant at the victory of her loyalists in the elections, claimed she had not engaged in any horse-trading to woo the banks directors. I will not react to the ministers personal criticism of me as God will take care of everything, she asserted. Hyderabad: An alliance between the Congress and the Telugu Desam for the coming Telangana assembly elections is a possibility. TPCC leaders are going to discuss the matter with TDs national president and AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday. Sources said TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and Telangana TD president L Ramana held discussions on this issue on Thursday night. Mr Ramana told Mr Reddy that Chief Minister Naidu will be in Hyderabad on Saturday to discuss the matter with his own party and if he gives them time on Saturday TPCC leaders will meet him to discuss on alliance. In Telangana, Congress and TD leaders are showing an interest in an alliance, but in AP some TD and Congress leaders are opposed to any such move. However, the AP TD leaders told Mr Naidu that they have no objection to the TD having an alliance with the Congress in Telangana. The TPCC has constituted a committee to discuss alliances with other political parties as well. The Congress affairs in-charge R.C. Khuntia, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, TPCC working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, former opposition leader in the assembly K Jana Reddy and opposition leader in Telangana legislative council Shabbier Ali are in the committee. Speaking to the media on Friday, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that to end the TRS dictatorship his party is ready to have an alliance with the TD. He said that all opposition parties should come onto one platform. Along with opposition parties, intellectuals and people's organisations should also support the Congress to end the TRS rule in Telangana. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the TD won 15 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat. In their discussions the Congress and the TD will confine themselves to the sharing of Assembly seats only. The Congress wants to give 15 assembly seats to the TD, a majority of which were won by the TD in the previous election. The TD wants 20 to 25 assembly seats, arguing that it has a strong cadre in 40 assembly constituencies. Bengaluru: Deputy chief minister G. Parameshwar on Friday directed his cabinet colleagues and KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao to take steps to forge a coalition in all districts wherever the Congress failed to secure majority in just concluded Urban Local Body (ULB) elections. In absence of Congress legislature party leader, Siddaramaiah, Dr Parameshwar convened the meeting of cabinet colleagues along with Mr Rao over breakfast at his residence here on Friday. He has invited party legislators on Saturday for a breakfast meeting at his residence to discuss poll strategies. Dr Parameshawar reportedly directed district in-charge ministers to take steps to win back rebels who have won in various districts in order to strengthen the party and enthuse party workers in their respective districts ahead of Lok Sabha polls in 2019. The Deputy Chief Minister also reportedly directed ministers to expedite relief measures across the various districts ravaged by floods and ensure supply of drinking water wherever the drought seems looming. Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, these issues do matter, he reportedly told his cabinet colleagues. Congress leader K. Jana Reddy addresses the media at his residence, along with Komatreddy Venkat Reddy, Shabbir Ali and D.K. Aruna on Friday. (Photo:Gandhi) Hyderabad: TS senior Congress leader K. Jana Reddy on Friday said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had dissolved the Assembly in an undemocratic way without any reason. He said the CM had claimed that the ruling party was sacrificing nine months of its tenure, but the real sacrifice was made by the Congress. He said the Congress-led UPA government had approved the demand for Telangana state while being fully aware that it would not win power. He said the Congress high command had approved the statehood demand to respect the sentiments of the people of the region. Mr Jana Reddy said the Chief Minister had opted to dissolve the Assembly to cover up his failures. He said Mr Rao failed to give a reason for going for early elections. Condemning the comments made by Mr Rao on then Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Mr Jana Reddy said it was the TRS which was a party of buffoons. He criticised the Chief Minister for telling the media on Thursday that there was political instability in the state because of the Congress. He said the political instability was caused by the TRS encouraging defections to poach leaders from other parties. Homosexuality is still subject to the death penalty in many countries, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, while others allow gay marriage and adoption. (Photo: PTI) The Supreme Court decriminalised homosexual activity between consenting adults in a landmark 5-0 judgement on Thursday. And we now move to the next stage. What about gay rights? Gay sex is decriminalized, but gay rights and discrimination towards LGBT+ people still are in a grey zone. This outcome in itself does not expand to wider issues of acceptance and genuine equality encompassed in the concepts of companionship, either via civil unions or marriage, including inheritance, family health insurance, hospital visitation rights and so many other less romantic yet important aspects of life that contribute to a holistic picture of domesticity with regards to gay rights. Possible Backlash: Backlash to progressive steps against discrimination has been seen in the developed world as well. Anti-sodomy laws impacted gay people in so many southern states of the USA, including Georgia, until the Supreme Court struck down the Texas law thereby negating all of the others. Then, it wasnt until years later that gay marriage became the law of the land, once again thanks to an enlightened US Supreme Court ruling and supported by a government that sought to expand civil liberties. But these and other socio-cultural gains ended up triggering a violent counter-reaction, the fruits of which are being manifested under the current Trump administration, with a new ultra-conservative jurist about to be approved by the Senate for a lifetime appointment at the Supreme Court in all probability endangering civil rights gains, including those that apply to women, ethnic minorities and LGBTIQ people. A possible backlash is possible from religious and ultra right congregations of all varieties in India too. Unsolved Socio-legal Challenges: "In protecting consensual intimacies, the Constitution adopts a simple principle: the state has no business to intrude into these personal matters. Nor can societal notions of heteronormativity regulate constitutional liberties based on sexual orientation," the Supreme Court verdict notes. But this judgment, though very welcome, stops from criminalizing any act of discrimination by the State, its agencies like the Police, or any citizen towards homosexual partners. SC recognizes the freedom to make sexual choices, but stops short form declaring this as rightful love that which cannot be legally questioned by any institution, social or legal. There is no legal clarity on demands of marriage among homosexual couples, which still remains unsocial and illegal. Ramdev, the yoga teacher and entrepreneur has voiced his views against homosexuality repeatedly. The Hindutva ideologue and BJP leader BP Singhal, among others, openly opposed gay rights. In 2009, soon after the earlier Delhi high court ruling against Section 377, Suresh Kumar Kaushal, along with the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, Trust God Missionaries and Krantikari Manuwadi Morcha, filed a petition in favour of re-criminalising gay sex. So, the religious persecution of gay rights remains. It will be interesting to note now how religious institutes react to demands of homosexual couples to marry through the religious process, which they resisted after the earlier Delhi High Court ruling. Justice had earlier many times fallen victim to social prejudices and intolerance towards sexual minorities. Today, SC ruling alters it to an extent, but social stigma remains. The landmark verdict received political kudos from some centrist and leftist parties, but not from the BJP, or the Muslim right wing. The RSS accepted the judgment cautiously and noted homosexuality was unnatural, and strongly opposed same sex marriage. Subramanyam Swami even found US conspiracy behind LGBT rights movement in India! Herein lie the biggest unfinished challenge of mainstreaming sexual choice diversity. LGBTQ+ community in India has had to battle prejudice, indifference and cowardice of politicians cutting across many political parties who saw no reason to remove from the statute books a law that was a clear violation of the right to equality enshrined in the constitution. Interestingly, as the SC decriminalised homosexuality, Joyita Mondal, a transgender judge in Lok Adalat in West Bengal, was joyous, but also cautious. She is today looking beyond Section 377 towards the broader issues of adoption, employment and elections concerning the LGBTQ community. It was about time sexual minorities were granted rights legally and with social sanction over time on par with other citizens. The next steps need to be openness in employment for the transgender community and contesting assembly and general elections. Justice Chandrachud of this Bench says human sexuality cannot be reduced to a "binary formulation". He asks the medical community to sensitise itself about rights of the LGBTQ community, instead of trying to change what is not a disease, extending the battle against discriminating mindset, as the medical community has a huge impact on public perceptions on this. The SC in this ruling noted that the choice of whom to partner, the ability to find fulfilment in sexual intimacies and the right not to be subjected to discriminatory behaviour are intrinsic to the constitutional protection of sexual orientation of citizens. The extended interpretation of this is that any sexual relationship between two consenting adults is not the subject of State or social inquiry. This by interpretation also means that no discrimination towards LGBT+ persons can be done in regards to employment or any socio-economic benefits provided other requisites for the same are in place. The Global Lessons on Gay Rights: Homosexuality is still subject to the death penalty in many countries, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, while others allow gay marriage and adoption. South Africa is a bright example, being the sole nation in the African continent to allow gay marriage, which it legalised in 2006. It also allows adoption, medically assisted procreation and surrogacy for homosexuals. In Middle East, Israel leads the way in terms of gay rights, recognising same-sex marriages that are performed elsewhere although not allowing such unions in the country itself. Gay couples can adopt children. Lebanon is also more tolerant than other Arab countries. Much of Asia is tolerant of homosexuality. Taiwan is set to become the first place in the region to allow gay marriage after its highest court ruled in May 2017 that preventing same-sex unions was unconstitutional and gave authorities two years to legalise them. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry in a civil ceremony. Fifteen European countries have followed, including Britain -- although not Northern Ireland, France and Germany, with Austria due to join in next year. Several western Europe countries also allow same-sex couples to adopt children and 10 permit medically assisted procreation for lesbian couples. The incomplete tasks of gay rights and non-discrimination in India need to be taken up in right earnestness, next, taking cues from the progressive nations of the world and their approach to this issue. 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. Looking at the significance of sleep in todays fast-paced lifestyle, Sumnox sounds like a weird yet handy device. Technology has silently crept into our lives over the past few years and made us dependent on it. It not only makes our lives overly easier but it is also just another way of making us lazy. From smartphones to voice-assisted home appliances, most of the technological inventions have become an inseparable part of our daily routine. However, with boffins across the world toiling themselves 24 x 7, innovative devices come up almost every day. And, some of them, along with being useful, are quite bizarre in nature and here are five of them we have come across. Pavlok smoke-quitting wristband Not only a large number of people smoke, many of them even struggle to quit the deadly habit. In case you are serious about the thought of quitting cigarettes, the Pavlok wristband might help you, tad painfully though. The sensors integrated into the Pavlok wristband detect whenever you are smoking and gives a good dose of 150 volts of electric shock. With that kind of torture, youll surely throw every cigarette you light or, in some cases, the wristband itself. Modius headband for losing weight Cardio workouts and jogging were the only limited ways of losing weight but with the induction of accessories such as Modius headband, burning fat has become easier than ever. The working mechanism of Modius headband involves neuroscience as it manages to make your brain believe that you are less hungry by stimulating the hypothalamus. Its been developed by British neuroscientist Jason McKeown. As the creator explains, the device tweaks the property of our body to maintain constant weight which helps in reducing it with time. Sumnox robotic pillow For various reasons, many people find it difficult to sleep alone and need someone to be around. They either need a person to cuddle or someone to sing soothing songs for helping them fall asleep. The Sumnox pillow is what such people should embrace while they are struggling to get a good night sleep. Apart from hugging it, one can intake comforting lullabies and can feel a humans presence as it also makes breathing sound. Looking at the significance of sleep in todays fast-paced lifestyle, Sumnox sounds like a weird yet handy device. Selfie toaster by Vermont If posting selfies on Instagram and Facebook has become too mainstream for you now, how about getting your selfie inscribed on your toasts? Yes, thats possible. Vermont Novelty Toaster Corporation makes such toasters on orders which will churn out every toast with your face carved on it. Wouldnt it attract more attention in public than a newly launched premium smartphone? NASAs Zeno acne banishing device While we know NASA for innovations in space and satellite sector, their researchers have also rolled out such jaw-dropping devices which assist in getting rid of acne and pimple. Developed in collaboration with Tyrell, the Zeno gadget not only destroys acne and pimples but it also kills the bacteria which are the root cause of them. What sounds like a useful device, especially for women, has also won various awards and certification from FDA. (Source) 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. Since Apple unveiled the iPhone X almost a year ago, the craze for facial recognition systems has been extremely high, with rival companies offering the technology even on budget smartphones. However, Apples FaceID system is extremely high-tech and is therefore very secure but expensive. On the other hand, the Android universe has noticed mostly front camera-based recognition systems, followed by IR sensor setup on some premium phones. However, MediaTek thinks it can offer Apples FaceID levels of security without burning holes in pockets. A recent report from Chinese media suggests that MediaTek has figured out a way to use its existing technology to offer higher levels of security. MediaTek uses Active Stereo Depth Engine on its chipsets for enabling front cameras on smartphones for capturing depth information for bokeh and beauty effects. MediaTek claims the algorithms are so capable that when paired with an infrared projector and two infrared lenses, the system can offer similar levels of biometric security that Apple is able to offer with the FaceID system presently on the iPhone X. The IR projector and lenses are built by Himax while the software side of things is developed by Vision Technology Face++. The Active Stereo Depth Engine is already used on the Helio P22 and P60 chipsets for enhancing front camera performance. It is even claimed that the system is secure enough for verifying online payment transactions. MediaTek says the whole system is cheaper to manufacture than Apples FaceID, thereby making it easier for companies to offer 3D facial recognition on budget smartphones in the future. We can expect the first iterations of this system by 2019 going commercial. 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. 2018 has been the year for innovation and implementation. We saw the Huawei come sporting three rear camera sensors on the P20 Pro and more recently there are rumours flying around which claim Samsung is working on an A Series smartphone that features 4 rear shooters. Now, a leaked image has popped up that show an unnamed Nokia handset that boasts of not three, not four but five rear cameras, taking innovation to a whole new level. Rarely do we get so excited about optics but a phantom Nokia handset sporting five rear shooters are leaving us in anticipation for its launch. As per a report by GSMArena, the person who leaked this handset refers to it as the Nokia 9, however, it could also be called the Nokia 10. But one thing is for certain this will be the brands flagship handset. The camera array appears to be odd-looking and it also comes with two additional circles, one for the LED flash and the next for IR focusing. We can also see the Zeiss branding and the handset appears to have the TA-1094 model number. From the leaked image, we can also gather that the handsets rear will be made from glass that curves towards the edges. This could also indicate that it should feature wireless charging. The report goes on to state that if the handset does indeed launch this year, it will feature Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 chipset. Back in March, Nokia promised that the device would have a best-in-class camera and it appears that the brand will be delivering on that front. We can also expect the handset to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor since there is no traditional fingerprint sensor on the rear. Disclaimer: The above report is completely based on online rumours and leaks from the respective sources. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Deccan Chronicle and/or other staff and contributors to this website. 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. Boris Johnson, Britain's former foreign secretary, said on Friday that he had separated from his Indian-origin wife Marina Wheeler and the couple will divorce, the Press Association reported. Johnson is the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May and is seen as someone who would lead Britain to a more radical departure from the European Union after being the figurehead of the "Leave" campaign in 2016. In a joint statement, Johnson and Wheeler said they separated some time ago and divorce proceedings had started amid rumours that he has been cheating his wife. Johnson's former adviser confirmed that a statement had been issued to the Press Association. The statement came after the Sun newspaper ran a front-page story saying the couple, who have four children, had separated. "Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate. We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is underway," the statement said. Wheeler, a respected human rights lawyer, is the daughter of former BBC journalist Charles Wheeler and his second wife Dip Singh. Johnson has often made reference to his wife's Indian roots to categorise himself as the son-in-law of India. During his term as London Mayor in 2013, he branded himself the "first and only mayor of London with real live relatives in India". The Sun reported that their fashion journalist daughter, 25-year-old Lara, said her mother will "never take him back" after a latest fling. Johnson is known for his affairs in the past, including fathering a child with a former art consultant lover. In 2004, he was removed from the Conservative party frontbenches after lying over an affair with British journalist and writer Petronella Wyatt. Reuters attempted to contact Johnson, a former mayor of London, directly through phone calls to his office and by email. Johnson is one of the most recognisable figures in British politics thanks to his shock of blonde hair and colourful turn of phrase. Advocates of Brexit say he is the man who should succeed May, and he is popular with the party's grassroots. "He's still the favourite," said bookmaker William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly, commenting on the odds of Johnson being the party's next leader. "Over the years Boris has been very Teflon ... we think he's got more than a couple of lives left yet." Johnson served as foreign minister under May for two years until July, when he quit in protest at her Brexit negotiating strategy, saying it would leave Britain as a "colony" of the European Union. Since then, he has repeatedly criticised the strategy in parliament and through his regular newspaper column. May's future and the direction the country will take at its most significant strategic juncture since the end of World War Two is subject to intense scrutiny as Britain enters the final phases of Brexit negotiations ahead of a March 2019 EU exit. Her plan has little support in Brussels, which says she needs to agree to further concessions to make the plan workable, and within her party, where eurosceptics say she has already conceded too much ground by seeking a "common rule book" to permit free trade in goods. "I think if the government was to fall then he would probably prosper at the point of maximum chaos but if she gets through Brexit I cannot see him becoming leader," Giles Kenningham, a former adviser to 2010-2016 Prime Minister David Cameron, told Sky News. Asserting that there has been no large-scale influx of Rohingyas into India, BSF Director General K K Sharma on Friday said more and more people from Myanmar move to West Bengal as it is a state perceived to be "slightly friendly" to them. His comments came at a press conference he attended along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Maj General Mohd Shafeenul Islam after the conclusion of the 47th Border Co-ordination Conference between Director Generals of Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Sharma said that they are aware that a large number of Rohingyas are assembled in Bangladesh and small groups try to enter India. However, he said, the BSF has not allowed them to succeed in their ventures. "There has not been any large-scale influx of Rohingyas into India. Whatever Rohingyas are already there in the country. In fact, they are also under pressure at some places; so they are going to West Bengal, a state which is slightly friendly with them. They have set up camps for Rohingyas coming from within the country and not from Bangladesh," Sharma said. The BSF got an inquiry done on the presence of Rohingyas in West Bengal and it was found that there were about 70 odd families who had come from various Rohingya camps within India. Shafeenul Islam said there are a large number of Rohingyas along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border but the BGB and other agencies are keeping them confined to the area allocated to them. "But yet, in very few cases, they are slipping out of the camps and we are finding them in some other parts of Bangladesh," he said. "Rohingyas' movement from Myanmar is not migration. They have been forcibly displaced. This is a political decision and at the political level, the Bangladesh government is trying to resolve the problem with help of the international community," he said. To another question, Shafeenul Islam said there is no large-scale infiltration or migration of people from Bangladesh into India as residents of that country now "enjoy a very good life" and the few who cross-over do so due to old cultural and family ties. The BGB has intercepted only about 100 such people in the last six months. Officials of Income Tax Department on Thursday conducted raids at the residence of Rekha Modi, sister of Bihars Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi. The raid, which started at 12 noon, was going on till the time of reporting. The IT sleuths have carried out search operations at her SP Verma Road residence as well as a business establishment Jalan Shop. Rekha Modi was in the news recently after her name cropped up in the Rs 2000-crore Srijan scam. Former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav had, of late, released documentary evidence to show how Rekha Modi and Urvashi Modi (niece of Sushil Modi) were paid crores by the Srijan scam accused. Incidentally, Sushil Modi has an estranged relationship with his sister for the last few years. But the Opposition has dragged his name in the Srijan scam on the plea that as Bihars Finance Minister from 2005 till date (barring 2013-17), Modi should be held accountable for embezzlement of the fund to the tune of around Rs 2000 crore. WHAT IS SRIJAN SCAM? Srijan scam came to light on August 3, 2017, when it was detected by Bhagalpur District Magistrate Adesh Titarmare that there has been pilferage of government fund to the tune of around Rs 500 crore by a Bhagalpur-based NGO, Srijan. An investigation by top cops indicated that around Rs 355.7 crore were fraudulently transferred from three heads land acquisition (Rs 270 crore), urban development schemes (Rs 70.7 crore) and district administration (Rs 15 crore) into the account of the NGO, Srijan Sahyog Mahila Samiti. Srijan was run by a social worker Manorama Devi, who reportedly flaunted her connections with politicians and bureaucrats and helped Srijan spread its tentacles. Altogether 17 persons, including Prem Kumar, the personal assistant (PA) of Bhagalpur District Magistrate, were arrested after nine FIRs were lodged by the police. Later, when it was found that the embezzled fund had crossed Rs 1000 crore, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered a CBI probe into the scam. The CBI investigation is on. And so is the Income Tax raid. Two Kashmiri students, one pursuing MTech and another doing diploma in electrical engineering, suspected to be members of the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) were arrested near the Red Fort with arms, police claimed on Friday. MTech student Pervez Ahmed Lone (24) and Jamshed Jahoor (19), a final-year-diploma student, were apprehended by the Delhi Police's anti-terror unit special cell at around 10:45 pm on Thursday when they were to leave for Jammu, a senior police official said. Two sophisticated pistols, which the arrested claimed was bought for Rs 50,000 each, 10 cartridges and four mobile phones were allegedly recovered from them. Police claimed the duo, who hail from Shopian, bought the weapons from Uttar Pradesh's Amroha and were headed to Jammu when they were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort. "The ISJK is a nascent terror outfit in Kashmir. Pervez's younger brother Firdous, who was earlier with Hizbul Mujahideen, had joined the ISJK last December and was killed in an encounter in Shopian on Republic Day this year. Pervez was influenced by Firdous," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P S Kushwaha said. Jamshed has allegedly facilitated Mohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Hyderabad recently. Kushwaha said this was their second visit to Delhi. "They had gone from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through Delhi in May," he said adding that they were acting under the instructions of Omar Nazir and Adil Tokkar, who are allegedly part of the ISJK. The money was allegedly handed over to the duo by Nazir, who arranged it through hawala twice. Investigators said they had no plans to carry out terror activities in the capital and were using Delhi only as a transit point. The State Cabinet on Thursday gave its approval for Compete with China scheme under which various skill-based industrial clusters will be set up in nine districts. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Law Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the scheme envisages promoting sunrise industries like those manufacturing electronic components, solar panels and integrated circuits among others to compete with China-made goods. An initial fund of Rs 500 crore has been earmarked for the scheme and the clusters in various sectors will come up in Kalaburagi, Chitradurga, Hassan, Koppal, Mysuru, Ballari, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru and Bidar. Skill-based training programmes will be organised at the clusters, he said. For instance, bathroom floor tiles cluster will be set up in Hassan to compete with China-made bathroom floor tiles. To compete with Chinese toys, a manufacturing cluster will be established in Koppal. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had announced the scheme in the budget for 2018-19. The Cabinet also decided to set up Semiconductor Fabless Accelerator for research and development in electronic hardware in Bengaluru. It will be developed as a centre of excellence and will come up at a cost of Rs 56 crore. The centre will be the first of its kind in the country, Byre Gowda said. The government has entered into a tie-up with India Electronics and Semiconductor Association for the purpose. The Cabinet gave its approval for Vasavadatta Cements to purchase 650 acres directly from farmers in Sedam taluk to set up a cement plant. Approval was also given to Varada Solar Limited to purchase 44 acres in Yelaburga, 282 acres in Aurad and 275 acres in Vijayapura again directly from farmers to set up solar power plants, Byre Gowda said. In another decision, the Cabinet decided to upgrade Government Tool Room and Training Centres (GTTC) at Challakere, Haveri, Madikeri, Gauribidanur and Humnabad at a cost of Rs 49.35 crore. He said crop assessment will be taken up across the state using a mobile-based app at a cost of Rs 25 crore. Youth will be actively involved in the process. A Rs 457-crore project to provide drinking water supply to Ramanagara and Channapatna towns was approved by the Cabinet, Byre Gowda said. The cabinet also gave its approval for a MEMU train conversion facility at Banaswadi in Bengaluru a cost of Rs 23.24 crore. MEMU stands for Mainline Electric Multiple Unit and the trains will be operated by Indian Railways as part of Bengaluru suburban train service, Law Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said after the Cabinet meeting. Protesting against the constant increase in petroleum product prices, 28 like-minded organisations will take out a march, in Mangaluru, said MLC Ivan DSouza. The protestors would include farmers, auto & bus owners & drivers, students unions, Bar association members and women organisations . Speaking to reporters in Mangaluru on Friday, D'Souza said that an awareness programme on the price rise would be held at the Railway Station, Kudroli Circle (6 pm), near KMC Hospital in Attavar (7 pm), Mahakalipadpu (8 pm), Valencia Circle (8.30 pm) and Kankanady Maidan (9 pm) on September 8. Awareness-cum-protest rallies were held at Urwa Market, Urwastore, Kudroli Jodipalli, near Bunder Police Station and Kandak Pete on Friday. Support bandh on Sept 10 The 28 organisations would also support to the nation-wide bandh call given by the Congress on September 10. The daily rise in petrol and diesel prices, would impact the transport sector. This in turn, would spike prices of essential commodities, D'Souza added. His statement comes in the wake of a fresh hike in petrol and diesel prices on Thursday midnight. Fuel prices continued their upward trend with petrol sold at Rs 82.03 per litre and diesel at Rs 75.18 per litre in Mangaluru-- the highest ever. D'Souza urged the NDA government to include petroleum products under the goods and services tax (GST) umbrella. "If fuel is brought under the GST umbrella, then the prices will come down by Rs 20 to Rs 22 per litre," he noted. Centre blaming states is an unwise move. The BJP forgets its brag that it is ruling a majority of the states in India. The Centre and states must act together to include petrol and diesel under GST, he remarked. He said the crude oil prices in the international market in 2014 was USD 108.26 and price of petrol in India was Rs 65 per litre. Now, the price of crude oil in the international market had reduced to USD 63 but the price of petrol in India had touched Rs 82.03 per litre. Similarly, diesel price which was Rs 48 per litre, has increased to Rs 75 per litre in 2018. The Centre which capped the quantum of kerosene supply in 2014, increased LPG prices to Rs 813 in 2018. The excise duty on petrol and diesel had increased 12 times in the last four and a half years, D'Souza pointed out. Handbills opposing the price rise, were released on the occasion. Nearly 10,000 handbills will be distributed among the public. We have spent much of the past week pondering American greatness, or at least what we used to consider greatness. And the unfortunate other end of the spectrum: The dismal current state of American politics. We struggle to live up to the words of Sen. John McCain. We are better than this. America is better than this. We lament the current state of our political discourse. The coarseness. The meanness. The pettiness. The raised voices, once an anomaly, now part for the course. The craven way we go about some of our most important civic dialogues. We mourn a great man, a true American hero. And one who reminds us what we can be at our best. We wonder who will pick up the slack in this gaping loss of statesmanship. Who will become the new mentors, who will be our next political role models. We trip on our words, exasperated at how easily those words are now used as weapons, dragging politics into that dreaded swamp. Drain the swamp? Hardly. Instead we swim in it. We long for a more honorable discourse, and honorable men and women to take up that banner. Maybe thats why so many people packed the Springfield Country Club Wednesday night. They were there to say a fond farewell to a giant in Delaware County politics, longtime county Republican Party Chairman Tom Judge Sr. More than 350 people packed the room. They heard from state and national figures saluting this icon as he officially retired from his position at the Delaware County Courthouse. Judge Sr. was appointed as Recorder of Deeds in 1992. Of course, he also was the head of the Delco GOP from 1975 until 2009. You could say Tom Judge Sr. was old school. He was also something else. Every person who ever met or had the opportunity to talk to Tom Judge Sr. always mentions the same word. Gentleman. Yes, it applied to the man who ruled the Delco GOP for many of its glory years. We would be tempted to alter it just a tad. Gentle. Man. Those familiar with the inner workings of the legendary Delco GOP saw Judge as the glue that held what many referred to as the machine together. Andy Reilly, the man who succeeded Judge Sr. as the head of the party, quoted another GOP icon, the late, legendary Upper Darby leader John McNichol, who slapped that label on Judge Sr. But McNichol also was quick to liken the county leader to an anchor on a ship or the foundation to a structure. Tommy did serve that purpose but he was much more than that. It was something else about Judge that struck the woman who is now the countys top law enforcer. Katayoun Copeland joined those hailing Judge Sr. as the very definition of what it means to be a gentleman and a leader. But she noted something else that every person who ever met Tom Judge Sr. can confirm. He would always say hello, ask about you and about the people and things important to you. He cares and he can instantly feel it, Copeland said. Judge is now entering his ninth decade. He has lived in Delaware County for more than six decades. After graduating from Saint Josephs College (before it attained university status), he served as the countys first director of the Solid Waste Authority. In addition to his courthouse job as recorder of deeds, he also has served on the county Planning Commission since 1972. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, speaker of the state House, reminded those on hand that Judge Sr. meant to the Delaware County community, and the party statwide. Sometimes you labor in politics, you go through the ups and downs, you wonder, Was it worth it?' Turzai told the crowd. Tom, let me tell you as speaker of the House, please know in your heart it was worth it cause you have impacted the community and this state far more than you think. Tom Judge Sr. struck everyone who encountered him as a kind, caring, gentle man. In sum, a gentleman. We could desperately use more like him today. He will be greatly missed. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New York and New Jersey launched new investigations into the Roman Catholic Churchs handling of clergy sex abuse allegations Thursday as the number of similar inquiries around the country continues to grow. In New York, the states attorney general issued subpoenas to all eight of the states Catholic dioceses seeking any and all documents pertaining to allegations, findings from internal church investigations and payments to victims, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly. In New Jersey, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced a new task force that will look at how abuse allegations were handled in the seven dioceses in that state. The investigations come three weeks after a grand jury report found rampant sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by about 300 priests in Pennsylvania since the 1940s. The report accused senior church officials of orchestrating a systematic cover-up to protect the church from scandal. Attorneys general in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri have since announced investigations into allegations of clergy abuse or cover ups in local dioceses. Church leaders in New York confirmed receipt of the subpoenas Thursday, and vowed to work with Attorney General Barbara Underwoods civil investigation as well as any potential criminal investigations to come. The subpoenas were issued to the Archdiocese of New York in New York City as well as the dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Ogdensburg and Rockville Centre. It is not a surprise to us that the attorney general would look to begin a civil investigation, and she will find the archdiocese of New York, and the other seven dioceses in the state, ready and eager to work together with her in the investigation, New York archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said. Underwoods office is pursuing a civil investigation into the churchs response to abuse reports and has also reached out to local prosecutors, who are authorized to convene grand juries or pursue criminal investigations. In New York the attorney general doesnt have that power, so the involvement of local district attorneys would be critical to any criminal prosecutions. Im elated, but my elation is tempered by how long it has taken to get here, said Steve Jimenez, a leading advocate for survivors in New York who says a Roman Catholic brother repeatedly assaulted him when he was a child attending Catholic school in Brooklyn. Jimenez said he hopes investigators can answer a question thats haunted him for decades: What did the diocese of Brooklyn know and when did they know it? Even if investigators do find evidence of past abuse, many victims in New York may have little legal recourse. Thats because the state currently has one of the strictest laws in the nation when it comes to allowing victims to sue or press criminal charges. Jimenez and other advocates have for years urged lawmakers to relax the states statute of limitations and create a one-year window for civil suits now barred by the law. The bill has repeatedly been blocked by the Republican leaders of the state Senate, but Jimenez said he and others will keep trying to get legislation passed. Underwood and Grewal also announced hotlines for individuals to report allegations of clergy abuse. The numbers are 855-363-6548 in New Jersey and 800-771-7755 in New Jersey. New York has also set up a confidential online complaint form that can be found at ag.ny.gov/ClergyAbuse. The Pennsylvania grand jury report shined a light on incredibly disturbing and depraved acts by Catholic clergy, assisted by a culture of secrecy and cover ups in the dioceses, Underwood, a Democrat, said in a statement. Victims in New York deserve to be heard as well and we are going to do everything in our power to bring them the justice they deserve. Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger proactively asked Albany County District Attorney David Soares to review his dioceses records on Thursday, before the subpoena from Underwood was received. We have to do what is right, even if it is not easy, Scharfenberger wrote in a letter to parishioners announcing his request. Florida attorney Michael Dolce is an expert on abuse cases and successfully pushed lawmakers in his state to relax the statute of limitations on civil and criminal child sex abuse allegations. He summed up Underwoods decision to subpoena the states dioceses as huge and welcomed. Dolce, of the firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, is also abuse survivor. It shows a determination to see if what happened in Pennsylvania also happened in New York, he said. I shudder to think about what they will find. New Jerseys task force will be led by Robert Laurino, a former Essex Country prosecutor. The panel will have the power to establish a grand jury and issue subpoenas. The states Catholic Conference said it welcomes the investigation and would fully cooperate. The conference, which represents the states bishops, stressed that since 2002 the church has complied with a memorandum of understanding with the attorney general and all 21 county prosecutors in New Jersey that every abuse complaint would be forwarded to law enforcement. One thing I want to emphasize is that New Jersey is not Pennsylvania more than the Delaware River separates us, said conference executive director Patrick Brannigan. ___ Associated Press reporter Michael Catalini contributed to this report from Trenton, New Jersey. The Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman once observed that conscience has rights because it has duties. There is no greater example of the duty to follow conscience than that of Newmans fellow Englishman, St. Thomas More. Thomas More lost his head when he refused to take an oath of allegiance pursuant to the Act of Succession passed by Parliament, which required every adult male in England to declare that King Henry VIIIs first marriage to Catherine of Aragon was void and that his second marriage to Anne Boleyn was valid. Failing to take the oath was an act of treason and More would not yield to the coercion of secular power: I shall neither be foresworn nor swear against my conscience. Thomas More was no ordinary Englishman. At the time the Act of Succession was passed by Parliament, and the Treason Act, which asserted the Kings supremacy over the Roman Catholic Church, More was the retired Lord Chancellor of England, the equivalent of the U.S. Attorney General. Indeed he was the first layman to hold this office, having succeeded Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was ousted because of his pursuit of personal profit, his failure to reform abuses in the church, and most notably for failing to gain an annulment for Henry VIII from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Cardinal Wolsey should also be noted for taking a concubine, Joan Larke, and for fathering two children with her. Sadly, one might say that Cardinal Wolsey was, at times, off on a Larke. With the recent release of the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals grand jury report on clergy abuse, and the revelations about ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarricks abuse of a minor and violations of his vow of celibacy, there are renewed efforts in the Pennsylvania Legislature to revise the statute of limitations to allow victims of clergy abuse to have their day in court. The church hierarchy in Pennsylvania, and their insurers, have vigorously resisted efforts to toll the statute of limitations. There is certainly legal support for that position, especially a provision of the Pennsylvania Constitution that proscribes such ex post facto legislation. However, there are many lay Catholics sitting in the pews who are questioning the collective moral conscience of the Pennsylvania bishops. The late 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John T. Noonan, who was not only a Harvard-educated lawyer, but also held a doctoral degree from The Catholic University of America and was a prolific author on the interaction of Catholic moral doctrine and the law, stated that he was careful to judge actions and not to judge people, which really is an incorporation of Christs admonishment to hate the sin but love the sinner. But one might not be so sure when it comes to judging clergy. Despite the admonitions of Pope Francis to the contrary, we are judging. Many of us in the pews are concerned that the revelations concerning Theodore McCarrick are merely the tip of a very big iceberg. Is there more to come? Justice Louis Brandeis said that sunlight is the best of disinfectants. We need to see a lot of disinfectant, or else there will be a continuous exodus from the pews. It is no small irony that Thomas More rejected the secular law while Pennsylvanias hierarchy is hiding behind a law that unjustly protects it. The bishops and clergy in the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania would be wise to re-examine the example of Thomas More. Instead of fighting efforts to toll the statute of limitations, shouldnt they be asking themselves what would Christ do? Shouldnt they be unconcerned about protecting assets and rather be more concerned about trying to make the victims of sexual abuse whole? Shouldnt they voluntarily lift the statute of limitations, with or without their insurers? So what if the church is bankrupted? The perception from the pews is that the hierarchy and clergy are morally bankrupt. The new evidence, from the grand jury and regarding Theodore McCarrick, is tragic and repulsive There are, to be sure, many good bishops and clergy. They need to stand up. Do the right thing. They need to demonstrate to Pennsylvania, and the world, that there is a higher law in play here. We are tired of the Wolseys. We simply demand More. John Bateman is an attorney in Philadelphia. He resides in Media. SALT LAKE CITY Utahn Karson Voiles has made it through Stage 1 in the Las Vegas Finals of NBC's "American Ninja Warrior" three times now, including on the episode aired Aug. 27. But in past years, he's always failed on the second to last obstacle in Stage 2. It's yet to be seen how Voiles will do on Stage 2 this season which will take place on Monday, Sept. 10 but the West Haven gym owner said he felt confident going into Stage 1. The only issue with being a returning veteran to "ANW's" competitive obstacle courses is that viewers now expect him to do well, and that puts the pressure on, Voiles said. But even though he's no stranger to "ANW," every year and every course bring with it its own set of challenges, and this year brought one that Voiles never expected: While Voiles' wife, Kami, supported him in the audience as always, this time she did so with a tumor in her head. Although not cancerous, the tumor is sitting on her pituitary gland and causes headaches and hormonal imbalances. For the most part, Kami Voiles is able to function normally and is, for now, taking medications to see if the tumor will go away without radiation or surgery. "It's always tricky to try and balance home life and training, especially on a competitive level," Karson Voiles said in an interview. "At the same time, it's extra motivation for me too." By channeling the stresses of his home life into his training, Voiles has so far been able to compete on "ANW" without a hitch. When Voiles first started competing on "ANW," he built a big training obstacle course in his backyard. Then, his home course was featured on the show and random strangers started showing up at his house asking to train with him. "I'm not that hard to find. It's a landmark," Voiles said. "Anybody in West Haven can tell you where I live, where the ninja course is. They all know." People's interest in his home course led to Voiles opening up a gym in his town, which he called Ninja Warehouse. He used money from his financial education company to fund his gym since, he said, back then no one wanted to give out a loan for a ninja gym. One of the earliest gyms to open exclusively for ninja obstacles, Voiles' gym has since become a mecca for "ANW" devotees. Surprisingly, most of Ninja Warehouse's patrons are children, although Voiles said that's largely because "adults are lazy. They have excuses." He's found his gym attracts the kids who don't fit in to traditional sports, and often they show up reserved and low on confidence. "After coming to Ninja (Warehouse) for a while, they realize, 'I'm worth something. I am valuable. I am awesome. I can do this obstacle,'" he said. "Their confidence goes up and that's a reward for me to see that transformation." And because Ninja Warehouse is "one of the best places to train in the country," according to Voiles, he has young athletes who come from as far as Minnesota to experience the place "where the big boys train," he said. Those adults who do commit to training are a "special kind of crazy," Voiles said. Voiles isn't the only one "crazy" enough in Utah to compete on "ANW." His fellow Utahn and "ANW" competitor Eric Middleton also completed the Stage 1 course this season. Middleton, who is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota studying entomology, has a record of completing his Stage 1 courses, much to the consternation of the "ANW" hosts. It's not that they don't want Middleton to do well, but when Middleton completes a course, they have to eat bugs. And true to form, when Middleton hit the buzzer with 16.16 seconds left on the clock, hosts Akbar Gbajabiamila and Matt Iseman both crunched their way through crunchy scorpions. "ANW" is about people willing to push themselves to do seemingly impossible things even if that means the hosts have to eat bugs but Voiles loves it. He called himself "forever a competitor," stating that he doesn't like to be defeated by anything. With that kind of grit, viewers can expect that as long as he can, Voiles will keep returning to conquer "ANW's" nearly impossible obstacle course. "American Ninja Warrior" airs on NBC Mondays at 7 p.m. Stages 2, 3 and 4 will air Sept. 10. Smith's employees toasted with milk and treats after kicking off the Pour It Forward Milk Drive at Smith's in Woods Cross, where the grocery chain donated one pallet 216 gallons of milk to the Utah Food Bank on Thursday. During the drive, which runs through Sept. 28, customers of Smiths have the ability to round up their grocery bill to the nearest dollar and donate the difference at checkout. Every donation will be provided to Utah Food Bank to help deliver milk to a local family facing hunger that might otherwise miss out on it. Food bank officials say nutrient-rich milk is one of the most requested items among families in need. See the world through the eyes of award-winning photojournalists. Click through the gallery above to view the unique images our visual storytellers captured today. Don't forget to follow the official Deseret News Instagram account for more photographs and videos from the staff. SALT LAKE CITY Less than a year ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was working as a bartender. But in late June, the 28-year-old democratic socialist unseated Joe Crowle, the fourth-most powerful Democrat in the U.S. House in a race for New Yorks 14th Congressional District. Her victory by a substantial margin sent shock waves through the Democratic party, prompting a debate about whether her win was a fluke, or an indicator that the partys success lay in moving farther to the left and embracing socially progressive causes. Ocasio-Cortezs immigration platform was especially influential, calling for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency tasked with enforcing the immigration laws of the United States. ICE has come under fire for its role in enforcing border policies, which intensified in June when the Trump administration instituted a policy critics say separates families. Her victory inspired other Democratic elected officials, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, to demand the elimination or reform of ICE. With increasing numbers of politicians speaking openly about eliminating the agency, and the hashtag #AbolishICE exploding on Twitter, it seems the Abolish ICE movement could become an important part of the Democratic platform for the midterm elections. Or maybe not. A new pollshows that the majority of Democrats arent in favor of abolishing ICE. Just 24 percent of the public supports abolishing the agency, while 40 percent opposes and 34 percent have no opinion, according to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center of Public Affairs Research, which was released last week. There was little difference across partisan lines, with similar minorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans favoring abolishing the agency. It was interesting to assess where the public is on this issue and reconcile that with the position that a few Democrats were taking on the campaign trail, Jennifer Benz, deputy director of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Sean McElwee, founder of the liberal think tank Data for Progress, was the first person to use the hashtag #AbolishICE on Twitter in February 2017. McElwee said he isnt particularly concerned about the poll results. He says the fact that a majority of Democrats dont support #AbolishICE right now does not take into account the fact that the movement is growing and its popularity is increasing over time. It clearly hasn't prevented progressives from winning primaries, he says. As the elimination of ICE becomes a point of view more closely associated with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party it will become a position that more Democrats will embrace. Nevertheless, with midterm elections on the horizon, the poll results raise important questions: Will the #AbolishICE movement continue to gain steam and remain a centerpiece of liberal campaign platforms? Should America indeed abolish ICE? And would doing so change America's immigration system? What is #AbolishICE? ICE came into being after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when Congress pressured the George W. Bush administration to create a department responsible for domestic security. The backlash against the agency has emerged only recently, coinciding with immigration policies adopted by the Trump administration. Since being elected, Donald Trump has returned to a policy that President Obama originally embraced but ultimately rejected that of treating any undocumented immigrant as a priority for removal. Though actual deportation numbers thus far are lower than those of the Obama years, which involved a record-breaking number of expulsions, the number of ICE arrests has increased substantially rising42 percent between 2016 and 2017. These sometimes highly visible arrests have generated media attention and sparked outrage among many Americans. McElwee with Data for Progress says he believes ICE should be abolished because of what he describes as the racism of the agencys enforcement priorities, focusing on people of color and perpetuating the notion that immigrants are criminals and terrorists threatening our society. It is an agency that violates everything we believe about what it means to be a liberal democracy, he says. #AbolishICE or #AbolishTrump? Others say the #AbolishIce movements demands are misplaced. John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE and as acting general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, says he sympathizes with protests against the zero tolerance immigration policy that resulted in families being separated at the border. But, he says, the blame should be placed on the Trump administration not on ICE, which he says is simply carrying out the directives of the president. People who are saying abolish ICE, what they're really saying is that we should get rid of Trump, says Sandweg. Blame should be placed not on ICE but on the policies of this administration. Doris Meissner, who was commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (the agency previously responsible for immigration enforcement) from 1993-2000, agrees. The real grievance here ... is the way ICE is going about its work, and thats a matter of policy and priorities that have shifted dramatically from the prior administration, says Meissner, currently senior fellow and director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute. The shift shes referring to is the change from targeting only those immigrants who pose a threat to public safety to any illegal immigrant residing in the United States. Both Meissner and Sandweg say this new approach wastes limited resources and promotes fear. The real grievance here ... is the way ICE is going about its work, and thats a matter of policy and priorities that have shifted dramatically from the prior administration. Doris Meissner, who was commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1993-2000 There are 11.5 million immigrants living in the United States illegally, says Sandweg, but ICE only has the resources to deport around 2,000 of them each year. He says because of these constraints, ICE under previous administrations focused on only the most dangerous individuals, those who posed a real and present danger to public safety. ICE is now burning resources that otherwise should be spent on arresting criminals, and that means more criminals are going to stay in the United States, Sandweg argues, adding that the politicization of ICE makes it harder for officers to do their jobs which actually involve far more than just deportations. There is a real risk and a real cost to the administrations policies, which drive down public perception of the agency and hinders the ability of the agency to do its job, says Sandweg. Sandweg points out that ICE is the nations second largest criminal investigative agency, responsible for uncovering everything from child sex trafficking, the sale of weapons to North Korea and Iran, to international pornography, fraudulent document rings, stolen art and rare bird smuggling. ICE does some incredible work for the country, says Sandweg. But when ICE loses legitimacy or respect in the eyes of the public and law enforcement, it can no longer be as effective, he says. In Sandwegs view, the politicization of ICE has put pressure on local law enforcement and political leaders in large urban areas like Los Angeles or New York City to refuse to cooperate with ICE. That means if ICE is actually investigating the presence of MS-13 gang members in a certain area, local law enforcement wont assist, he says. The perception that ICE is looking to deport all undocumented immigrants also hurts ICEs ability to work with immigrant communities during their investigations, he adds. You need someone in the community to give you valuable information about gang members, and when youve given the impression that no one is shielded from deportation including potentially your own informants whos going to talk to an ICE officer? he says. "When you start using ICE as a political tool, then really it's public safety and national security that suffers." A realistic movement? Meissner says the abolition of ICE would have little practical impact, as other parts of the government would simply assume the agencys responsibilities. And Meissner sees McElwees call for an end to all deportations as an unrealistic notion, saying its unlikely that our laws would be rewritten in such a way as to make it impossible to deport someone who is in the country illegally and commits a serious violent crime. The rhetoric supporting the ending of all deportations backfires, Meissner says. In pure political terms that point of view hands the issue to the other side," she says. Meissner argues that Trumps popularity with his base can be partially attributed to tap into the belief that there needs to be more stringent immigration law enforcement and that the lefts ideology of open borders makes it unwilling to give an inch on reasonable immigration restrictions, she says. Nevertheless, she says, the symbolic importance of #AbolishICE should not be ignored. It is capturing a very legitimate outrage at the way in which ICE is currently carrying out its mission, she says. And, says McElwee, Democratic candidates calls for the abolishment of ICE will likely have a detrimental effect on the agencys ability to secure funding from Congress, depriving the agency of the financial and political capital necessary to execute its vision on society. Nevertheless, McElwee doesn't know if the movement will change the political makeup of the House in November. Its not clear yet whether #AbolishICE is going to change the 2018 midterm elections, he says. By Trend To ensure stable and reliable supply of energy resources for foreign consumers is one of Turkmenistans priority goals, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said in his message to the participants of the international exhibition-conference entitled "Main Directions for the Development of the Energy Industry of Turkmenistan" which opened Sept. 6. Implementing large-scale energy projects, we pay great attention to international energy cooperation, the message says. In accordance with the national program of social and economic development of Turkmenistan for 2011-2030 and the concept of development of the electric power industry for 2013-2020, the volumes of electricity generation will be greatly increased. The distribution systems, transformers and substations will be overhauled in the countrys villages, settlements soon. "The accelerated rates of development of the energy sector that have been achieved so far allow to systematically increase the volume of electricity exports that are in great demand in foreign markets, the president said. The capacity of this sector greatly increased thanks to the construction of powerful power stations in a short time, the laying of new transmission lines. Transnational power lines have an important economic and geopolitical significance, contributing to the strengthening of peace and sustainable development in the region, the expansion of partnership among countries, the message says. Gas turbine power plants, which will later be built in the regions of the country within the "Concept for the development of the electric power industry of Turkmenistan for 2013-2020", are expected to greatly increase the national energy capacity. Presently, large-scale projects, aimed at modernizing existing gas turbine power stations and building new ones, are being implemented. "New power transmission lines are being built, the message said. Distribution systems are under construction. The work is underway to modernize the energy infrastructure and outdoor lighting systems in the capital and regions. When implementing projects in the energy industry, energy-saving technologies and highly efficient equipment are used. I am sure that the current international exhibition and scientific conference will provide you with opportunities for acquaintance with the achievements of the energy sector of Turkmenistan, exchange of information, discussion of new promising projects, topical issues of effective use of energy-saving technologies and renewable energy sources, will help to outline the vectors of mutually beneficial cooperation, the message says. Presently, Turkmen electricity is exported to Afghanistan and Iran. A project is being implemented to build a high-voltage 500-kilovolt power line in the direction of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan. Earlier it was reported that the total volume of electricity generated in Turkmenistan by 2024 is planned to be increased to 33 billion kilowatt-hours, which is 27.2 percent more compared to the plans for 2018. SALT LAKE CITY A Price man who apparently sent messages to the White House and expected the Secret Service to arrest him is behind bars after he allegedly talked about killing the president during a traffic stop. A Carbon County sheriff's deputy stopped William Scott Wheeler, 56, on Aug. 25 because the pickup he was driving had a blanket draped over the hood that was obscuring the headlights, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. The deputy noticed several guns on the seat of the truck as he approached the driver's side. Wheeler told him he was driving his mother's truck and she put the blanket on the hood to keep the cat's paw prints off it, the complaint says. Wheeler told the deputy he thought he would have made it further without being arrested. When asked why, "Wheeler stated that he sent messages to the White House and was expecting the Secret Service to find and arrest him," according to the complaint. Asked about the guns, Wheeler said "they need to fix the problem or I'm going to fix the problem," the complaint says. The deputy reported detecting alcohol on Wheeler's breath and conducted a field sobriety test. The deputy told him he was too drunk to be driving and asked what he thought about that. "I think I'm going to kill the president," Wheeler allegedly replied. During the booking process for DUI, Wheeler continued to talk about killing the president, according to the complaint. Authorities confiscated three handguns, two rifles and a shotgun from inside the truck. Wheeler has previous felony convictions for vehicle theft in California and theft in Iron County. Federal prosecutors charged Wheeler with possession of firearms by a restricted person. He is being held in the Tooele County Jail. A federal magistrate judge found him to be a danger to the community and ordered him detained pending resolution of the case. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted of the charge. SALT LAKE CITY In an effort to give voice to Utah public school students, the Utah State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to create a student advisory council to provide input to the board. The council, to be made up of 15 high school juniors and seniors, will represent the same geographical areas as the elected State School Board members. The board makes better decisions when we hear many different points of view, and the students viewpoint is one that we have been missing. Their perspective is incredibly valuable, said board member Linda Hansen, who proposed the council to the board after Kate De Groote, a senior at Skyline High School, presented the idea to her. When the education community listens to all voices, it is more cohesive and that is when we see the very best things happen in education," Hansen said. The council is expected to meet at least six times this school year, three of the meetings in person and three electronically. De Groote said she was excited that the board policy passed unanimously and that the board appreciates the value of student representation. "I think the student advisory council is vital and will bring a unique perspective to the board, while enabling them to make the best decisions for all the students in Utah," she said. Applications will be accepted through Oct. 5. To apply, students should visit the following link for more information: https://schools.utah.gov/board/participation/advisorygroups/sac. Although the board approved the student advisory council unanimously, some board members questioned whether it would be a more meaningful experience to create a position in which a nonvoting student member of the State School Board would attend its monthly meetings. "I personally have some hesitation about this," said board member Carol Lear. "I felt like one student participating in a board meeting (who) didn't vote would be a really meaningful contribution." De Groote said she had initially suggested a nonvoting student member of the board "but it was decided that students would have a bigger influence if there were more of them because each student has a perspective and experience that is all their own." One option may be to have a student liaison from the council report directly to the State School Board "so board members can hear directly from the (council) and not just a report delivered by an adult adviser," she said. Across the country, states take varying approaches to student participation in state school board processes ranging from advisory groups to students who are appointed by the board by their governor and have full voting rights. In Maryland, the student board member is appointed by the governor and the appointment is confirmed by the state Senate. The student can vote on most matters except disciplinary actions or certain appeals. The student advisory council adopted by the Utah State Board of Education will be made up of eight 11th-graders and seven 12th-graders. The seniors will serve one term while the juniors would be asked to serve two to help with the continuity of the council. Students served on some local school boards in Utah but the state-level student advisory council is the first of its kind in the state, according to spokesman Mark Peterson. The Salt Lake City Board of Education, for example, has had a nonvoting student member who serves for one year each for at least 25 years. SALT LAKE CITY The Utah State Board of Education on Thursday gave a West High School social studies teacher the title of Teacher of the Year. Kellie May, of Murray, also teaches classes for Advancement Via Individual Determination, a nonprofit that helps prepare students for college. In addition, she teaches at Urban Institute for Teacher Education at the University of Utah, according to a news release from the State School Board. "To say that she is a student advocate is an understatement. In her classroom, Ms. May provides traditionally underrepresented students with opportunities that allow them to achieve the academic success necessary for college access," said Mary Burbank, director of the Urban Institute for Teacher Education. For one of those students, Martina Martinez of West High, "Ms. May has urged me to continue with higher education. She has motivated me at my darkest points to never give up on my dream," she said in the news release. "She is an amazing teacher who inspires her students to thrive and become the best they can be," Martinez added. As part of the award, May received a $10,000 check and will get to compete with other states' teachers of the year in a national competition, according to the release. First runner-up for the award was Anjanette McNeeley, a kindergarten teacher at Layton Elementary School. Archer Birrell, a fourth-grade teacher at Hillside Elementary School, was named second runner-up, officials said. The Walt Disney Company wants to give you a free vacation as long as you work for it. Disney has kicked off its 12th annual search for experts for its Disney Parks Moms Panel, which will have 40 Disney buffs serve as resources for those wanting to plan their dream Disney vacation. Panelists who get the job will complete 10 to 20 responses per week as part of the job. They are expected to be experts on a Walt Disney park. The panel job is unpaid, but the panelists will receive a free trip to a Walt Disney Resort of their choice, according to CNBC. 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, CNBC reported. Such questions panelists will answer include: Does the Lightning McQueen character from "Cars" sign autographs? How much do cabanas cost at the Disneyland Hotel? What will traffic will be like at the Disney water parks during the week of Easter? This might seem like a dream job, but its no joke. To earn the job, applicants will go through a three-round process in which they will answer a question and provide a video submission and phone interview, and they need to have visited a Disney park in the last 12 months. The program is not unlike the other programs available to those interested in working at the park, according to Bustle. One is the Academic Exchange Program, which works with universities and colleges to help students gain academic training at Walt Disney World Resort. Theres also the Cultural Exchange Program, which gives students a chance to work at the park during their school breaks. SALT LAKE CITY A man who Salt Lake police have arrested multiple times over the past month including for a child kidnapping investigation was arrested again Thursday night for allegedly attacking a woman at random. Ousmane Camara, 28, of Salt Lake City, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of kidnapping and assault. A woman was walking on Redwood Road near 1000 South just after 10 p.m. when Camara ran across the street and hit her several times in the face, said Salt Lake police detective Greg Wilking. He then allegedly dragged the woman across Redwood Road to the parking lot of the African Market, 1878 S. Redwood. People outside the market "observed what was occurring and stopped the abduction," according to a jail report. Wilking said Camara then went inside the market and seemed to just wait for police to arrive. The woman was treated for "serious facial injuries" at a local hospital. Thursday was not the first time police Salt Lake police have dealt with Camara allegedly displaying violent and erratic behavior. Wilking said police are frustrated that Camara was even on the street at all on Thursday. "It's frustrating we continue to deal with the same individuals over and over again. We know that behaviors don't go away and people tend to escalate in acting out. So this is a concern for us," he said. On Wednesday morning, he was arrested and accused of trespassing, lewdness, drug possession and failing to stop for police. Officers were called to the same area where Thursday's assault was reported and found Camara naked and "hitting the ground with his pants," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report. Police said they told Camara to stop, but he continued to walk away from them into an abandoned building. Officers followed and arrested Camara inside. They also found his wallet which contained "a recent citation for trespassing and a ball of tinfoil with a crystal-like substance blue in color. The substance tested positive for meth," the report states. After he was booked into jail, he was later released because of overcrowding, according to jail administration. On Aug. 17, Camara was arrested for investigation of child kidnapping. On that day, police were called to a brewery near 2100 S. Highland Drive where Camara had followed a couple and their 1-year-old child from the parking lot to the brewery, saying odd things as they walked, according to a report. "(He) asked the couple if they got the child from the park, and told the couple that they poisoned the child and that the child was actually (his) son," officers wrote. The couple asked the brewery staff to call police. Camara then followed them inside the business and "touched the child's face, and then attempted to take the child from one of the couple's arms as they were carrying the child. It was described that (Camara) attempted to pull the child from the couple's grasp without their permission," the report states. Camara continued to tell police the child was his and even suggested doing a DNA test, according to the report. Officers also noted that Camara was "seen by mental health professionals at a nearby hospital a few hours prior to being arrested, and again after being arrested," and that he "made numerous threats on a different case prior to being arrested." Formal charges had not been filed in that case as of Friday, and Camara was given a pre-file release, according to the jail, meaning jail administrators are required to release a person after a certain amount of time if no charges or requests for extensions are filed. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday that his office never received a screening packet from police, making it impossible for him to file charges. If the police report never makes it to prosecutors, charges can't be filed, he said. As for inmates being released due to jail overcrowding, Gill said he shares the concern from the jail. "That is a resource issue, but we cant file charges if the police officers dont get us the police reports. People get released rightfully under our Constitution if people dont follow through." On Sept. 1, Camara was charged with trespassing, a class B misdemeanor, for an Aug. 25 incident, according to court documents. On June 29 he was charged with battery, a class B misdemeanor, for an incident in April. SALT LAKE CITY Students and their families across the state can rest a little easier knowing they have food thanks to Maceys, Lins, Dans, Dicks Market, Fresh Market and Honey Bee Produce Co. The Utah-based grocery stores donated $150,622 worth of kid-friendly food to Utah Food Banks Mobile School Pantry. The donation took place at Edison Elementary School Thursday as a wrapup to the 2017 Season to Share food drive. Were grateful for the opportunity to help the youngest members of our community, Gary McCloud, operations manager for Associated Retail Operations, which owns the six stores, said in a statement. This donation wouldnt be possible without the great support of our community and were so thankful for their generosity. Team members from Associated Retail Operations partnered with Utah Food Bank to pass out food including peanut butter, tuna fish, fruits and vegetables to students after school. The donation totaled over 340,000 pounds and will provide around 285,000 meals to students and their families at risk of food insecurity across the state. SALT LAKE CITY The First Presbyterian Church, 12 C Street, will host its annual Scottish Festival the last weekend in October. The two-day family friendly event kicks off Saturday, Oct. 27, at 10 a.m. with a highland dance competition featuring dancers from the Heather Glen School of Highland Dance. At noon, there will be bake sale and a party for kids featuring a bounce house, a magician and crafts. Tickets to the kids' party, which includes a hot dog lunch, are $6 per child or $12 per family. At 6 p.m., the Salt Lake Scots Pipe Band will perform traditional bagpipe music during a free concert. On Reformation Sunday, Oct. 28, the church will host the Kirkin' o' Th' Tartan, which loosely translates to "Blessing of the Clans," at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. During the services, representatives from each Scottish clan in the Salt Lake area will present their clan's tartan to be blessed by the pastor. The service also features bagpipe music, celebratory hymns and Psalms recited in Old Scots' tongue. The services are identical and all are welcome to attend. The church is also looking for volunteers for the festival. Opportunities include decorating the church, food prep, bake sale donations and event setup. For more information or to volunteer, call 801-363-3889. SALT LAKE CITY Republican Rep. Mia Love has just a three-point lead over Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams in the 4th Congressional District, according to a new UtahPolicy.com poll. With Love at 49 percent support and McAdams close behind at 46 percent in the poll for the online political news source released Friday afternoon, the race that's already considered the most competitive in the state appears to be getting tighter. Because the poll of 400 likely voters in the district, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates Aug. 22 to Sept. 6, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent points, the results suggest it's too close to call. The poll follows a Utah Debate Commission survey announced earlier this week that gave Love just over a nine-point advantage over McAdams, 47.5 percent points to 38.3 percent points. A previous UtahPolicy.com poll in June found just a four-point difference between Love and McAdams. McAdams' campaign recently said its internal polling showed him within two points of the two-term congresswoman. "Every public survey and our internal polling show Rep. Love winning," said Scott Riding, managing partner of Y2 Analytics, which has served as Love's pollsters since 2014. Riding declined to share Love's internal numbers, but said they are closer to the debate commission results than the latest poll. "We see this race moving her way. So this (UtahPolicy.com poll) is at odds with what we have." Andrew Roberts, McAdams' campaign manager, said he hopes the Love campaign believes she's further ahead than the latest polls shows. "It makes my job easier," he said. The UtahPolicy.com poll "mirrors what we're seeing internally. It also shows what we've known all along the independents who are going to decide this race prefer Ben's bipartisan approach to problem-solving," Roberts said. Unaffiliated voters backed McAdams over Love in the poll 62 percent to 31 percent, according to UtahPolicy.com. There are about three times as many unaffiliated voters as Democrats in Utah, a state dominated by the GOP. Love lost her first bid for the then-new seat in 2012 to longtime Rep. Jim Matheson, the last Democrat from Utah to serve in Congress. She went on to win in 2014 after Matheson retired, and again in 2016. The race has been labeled a toss-up by RealClearPolitics.com, while other national ratings give Love the edge. Both campaigns started airing TV commercials last month. University of Utah political science professor Matthew Burbank said until the campaign heats up, it's too soon to say what voters will do. "It's not clear to me there's any obvious trend here," Burbank said. "In all honesty, I don't think there's a whole lot going on in that race that would be making anybody be changing their mind." Paltan: A War Film That Is Stuck Back In Time. Movie: Paltan Rated: 2.0/5.0 Cast: Harshavardhan Rane, Arjun Rampal, Gurmeet Choudhary, Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Sonal Chauhan, Esha Gupta, Rohit Roy, Siddhanth Kapoor Director: J.P. Dutta In 1997, when Border released, the Indian audiences found one of the best war films of that time. Then came L.O.C Kargil, another film by director J.P. Dutta that released in 2003. And now it has been 15 years since and the problem with Duttas latest war film is that it is stuck in the Border era! The film is about the 1967 Indo-Sino standoff that resulted in a 3-day war. The film has its own high points- or rather a high point, but the number of disappointing moments weighs heavy and you may consider sitting through the film post the first half. The first half gives a backstory of the 1962 wars and then focuses straight on the 1967 and the troupe posted in Nathu La to fight the invading Chinese Army. Alls well in the border, so thinks the director. There are face-offs that end in Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai, a number of Chowmein and Chinese soup remarks, Chinese Army trying to encroach the border and Indian army preventing it, and talks about the hauwa that the Chinese Army has. Yes, the first half was in fact, unintentionally funny at so many parts that it takes the feel away. Looks like Bollywood still wants to play a 4ft Chinese cards in 2018. But if you can sit through the first half, there is an engrossing climax in the second half. J.P. Dutta is a master when it comes to filming emotional scenes and war sequences. Here too, the war sequence is compellingly shot. But except this and the two amazing songs in the background sung by Sonu Nigam in the second half, there isnt really anything the film can boast about. The cast falls weak in the film. The actors are earnest, but the performances still remain incomplete and had scope for so much more. Once again, like all other war films, the women in the film are just there to miss their men and take care of the household. What is more off-putting is the strained accent that each actor has, except for Luv Sinha maybe. In fact, the technicalities of the film were way too weak, especially since this is a J.P.Dutta film. What was with the drum roll and quintessential Chinese tune for the background score throughout the first half and parts of the second half. They were jarringly distracting. So were the camera angles and the rapid zoom in zoom outs happening in most part of the film. The editing was also poor since much of the first half could have been easily shortened. The film, to be honest, isnt worth your time and money. A rerun of Border would be more engrossing! Ahead of their now completed merger, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular reportedly reduced their combined workforce by nearly a third. Data cited in Indian newspaper Business Standard notes that the operators had around 25,000 employees between them when their proposed merger was announced in March 2017. The deal finally closed last week, and in the intervening 17 months this number had dropped to 17,000. Indias Economic Times reported in April this year that the merger would likely lead to around 5000 members of staff being laid off by the two operators. However, they had estimated the original employee base at 21,000 significantly lower than the 25,000 claimed by Business Standard. However, not all of these employees have necessarily been made redundant Ideas former parent company Aditya Birla Group is active in many industries across India. Staff cut from Idea Cellular have reportedly been transferred to subsidiary units of the group active in different sectors. Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have now merged to create Vodafone Idea, the new Indian market leader. The final hurdle in the process was a demand from Indias Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for a payment of INR73 billion ($1 billion) related to unpaid spectrum charges from Vodafones 2015 merger of its local units. The Economic Times has separately reported that Vodafone Idea will launch a legal challenge against the DoT in an attempt to win back this fee indeed, they only agreed to pay the sum on the basis that they would have the right to contest it in court. By Trend International forum Agro Business Bukhara, organized jointly by Bukhara Regional Government and the Uzbek State Committee for Investments, will be held in Bukhara. The forum will be held on September 10-11, according to the Uzbek media. Investors from 25 countries and regions will take part in the forum. An exhibition will be held during the event, where business meetings will be organized with domestic and foreign investors. Also, working groups will be formed to familiarize the forum participants with the region's investment opportunities. On the second day of the event, it is planned to visit the free economic zone Bukhoro-Agro and familiarize the participants with the conditions there. Uzbekistan plans to create modern greenhouses, including hydroponics, in the free economic zone Bukhoro-Agro. The activities of Bukhoro-Agro will also be aimed at the integrated and effective use of the production and resource potential of the Bukhara Province. New jobs will appear in the territory of the free economic zone and the population's income will increase. Thai operator True has confirmed that it intends to challenge a THB94 billion ($2.9 billion) fine that it has been issued by a tribunal relating to a dispute with rival operator TOT back in 2005. The fine arose from an arbitration claim filed in October 2005 by TOT, which claimed that True had failed to meet its end of an agreement to deliver high speed ADSL internet services that could be used by both TOT and other parties. According to True, the sum effectively represents the lost revenue from ADSL services between September 2001 and January 2018. True has stated that the case is not final, adding that it will file a legal challenge in the next 90 days. TOTs claim is not the only penalty facing True Thai regulator NBTC has issued its subsidiary TrueMove with a fine of THB3.4 billion, claiming that the unit has breached the usage terms of 1800MHz spectrum. True has confirmed that it plans to contest this fine as well. True is Thailands second largest operator, and is not the only major player in Thailand currently embroiled in legal difficulties. Number three dtac yesterday stated that it could sue the NBTC if it was prevented from delivering services over the 850MHz band after its concession with CAT Telecom expires on 15th September. However, the regulator is likely to dismiss the appeal to avoid accusations of favouritism as these could lead to further legal action. IV Global Securities analyst Rattana Leenutaphong told Bloomberg: Legal cases are hurting confidence in the industry. For True, the company must fight every way it can to defend the case as the money is so big. Court cases tend to drag on for a long time and will add to uncertainty over the stock. Earlier this week, an image of the rumoured Nokia 9 smartphone were leaked on the internet. The grainy image showed a smartphones rear panel having Nokia branding and six cutouts. It was speculated that of the six cut-outs, five are for cameras. But a new, much clearer image shows the back panel of the device with a total of seven cutouts. Five of these cutouts house cameras inside, one is an LED flash and the seventh is apparently the IR focusing apparatus. The image shows Zeiss written in the centre of the whole camera module, suggesting that the smartphone will come with Carl Zeiss optics. Previous reports said three of the five cameras will feature Zeiss optics. The hands-on image has a white tape on the lower end of the back panel where the previous image showed the Android One marking. The latest leaked photo also shows the model number (TA-1094) of the phone. There is still no clarity on the name of the smartphone. While the name of the smartphone is speculated to be the Nokia 9, previously it was reported that HMD Global will launch the Nokia 10 smartphone with five cameras on the rear panel. The report also noted that the Nokia 10 will go into mass production by mid-2018. Image courtesy: IThome The UAE's non-resident deposits out-valued their loans by Dh61 billion ($16.6 billion) during the first seven months of the year driven by the increasing deposits by expat clients into local banks, reported state news agency Wam citing the UAE Central Bank figures. The growth in non-resident deposits with local banks reflected the high confidence in the banking system whose indicators yielded significant positive results since the beginning of 2018, it stated. Figures showed that the accumulated balance of non-resident deposits by the end of July rose to Dh196.1 billion, the highest level in two years. The CBUEA noted the steady growth of non-resident deposits since the commencement of the current year. Non-resident deposits constitute 11.5 per cent of gross deposits of DH1.7 trillion with banks, said the Wam report. On the credit side, total lending to non-residents stood at Dh124.7 billion by the end of July as compared with Dh132.9 billion for the corresponding period in 2017, it stated. Loans extended by banks to non-residents accounted for 8.3 percent of the total balance of credit which was valued at nearly Dh1.6 trillion, it added. Nissan to launch new products, expand dealership network in India Nissan has announced its strategy for India that will see the company launch new products, strengthen the Nissan and Datsun brands, expand its dealership network, optimise flexible manufacturing and strengthen R&D facilities together with its Alliance partners in the country. Under the strategy for India market Nissan aims to launch a product offensive, bringing Nissan worldwide lineup, including the electric vehicle Leaf, to India and building on Nissans technological leadership in electrification and connected cars. Nissan plans to build on its SUV heritage, especially in the premium mainstream brands - both Nissan and Datsun - with wide appeal, starting with the Nissan Kicks, to reinforce its market in India. The focus is on enhancing Nissans brand image with products, equipped with connected technologies, offering high value to customers. Nissan will expand its regional marketing and sales operations teams to four key regions across India - doubling its sales and service touch points and strengthening dealership network in the next three years, from 270 today. Further Nissan plans to develop its design centre in Chennai to ensure cars meet the rapidly changing expectations of Indian customers. Nissan will also further expand its first Global Digital Hub in Kerala, hiring 500 employees in FY 2018 with focus on innovations in mobility to enhance Nissans products to meet the expectations of customers worldwide and in India. It will also hire 1,000 more engineers at RNTBCI to further enhance the Alliances number one position in R&D in India, besides addressing issues like improving customer service and satisfaction, and expanding access to Nissans products and services, through digitisation and eCommerce. Nissan is committed to India and has built the foundations to succeed. said Peyman Kargar chairman of Nissan in Africa, the Middle East and India, and senior vice president. Our strategy will strengthen both our brands for our customers across India. The Nissan brand will bring the best of global Nissan products and technology to our customers in India, starting with the Nissan Kicks. For Datsun we aim to offer compelling products across segments offering value, connectivity and Japanese engineering. According to Nissan, Alliance has invested Rs6,100 crore in India since 2010, and continues to focus on the Indian market to further develop its engineering, research and development and manufacturing operations in India. The Alliance is already Indias largest automotive research and development employer through the Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre for India in Chennai. Further the Alliances plant in Chennai is a global manufacturing hub exporting to 106 countries, says a company release. Turkey calls for truce as Russia, Syria seek to regain control of Idlib Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for a ceasefire in the rebel-held region of Idlib in northwest Syria, in a push to regain control of all territory and get rid of the insurgents holding on against government forces in the area bordering Turkey. Turkey, which fears a flight of the insurgents into its territory, however, said an anticipated government assault on insurgents there could result in a massacre. Speaking at a summit in Tehran aimed at charting a way to end the conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed a truce, and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory. The operation in Idlib is crucial for President Bashar al-Assad as the government forces backed by Russia and Iran prepare for what could be the conflicts last decisive battle. The United Nations also warned of humanitarian catastrophe from such an assault, even as Russian and Syrian warplanes hit rebel-held parts of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said. Tehran and Moscow have helped Assad turn the course of the war against west-backed rebels and Islamist militants, while Turkey is a leading opposition supporter and has troops in the country. The decision made at the meeting of the three presidents could be a turning point in the seven-year-old war that has killed more than half a million people and forced 11 million to flee Syria. Erdogan said a ceasefire agreement would be a victory for the summit, even as Putin responded saying that he opposed a ceasefire because Nusra Front and Islamic State militants located there were not part of peace talks. Syria should regain control of all its territory, he said. India, France sign pilot project agreement on `Mobilise Your City' India and France on Thursday signed an implementation agreement on `Mobilise Your City (MYC),which aims at supporting three pilot cities - Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad - for reduction of green house gas (GHG) emissions related to urban transport. Mobilise Your City (MYC) is part of an international initiative which is supported by the French and the German governments and was launched at 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) meeting in December 2015. Based on a proposal made by AFD in 2015, the European Union has agreed to provide funds of Euro 3.5 million through the AFD to contribute to specific investments and technical assistance components within the Mobilise Your City programme in India. The MYC will support three pilot cities - Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad- in their efforts to reduce their green house gas (GHG) emissions related to urban transport by implementing urban mobility plans at local level and to help India at national level to improve their sustainable transport policy. The three pilot cities selected under the programme as well as MoHUA will benefit from the technical assistance activities. The main components of the proposed assistance are: Support planning and implementation of sustainable urban transport projects, Support to strengthening institutional capacity for regulating, steering and planning urban mobility; and Learning and exchange formats with other cities across India for exchanges on best practices. The MoHUA will work out details of the project activities with AFD in consultation with and the three partner cities, including institutions such as the respective special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for smart cities, the municipal corporations and any transport authority or transport related SPV. Isro wants industry to play partner in space business The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has called upon the country's industry to invest in space business in a big way, in order to create the much-needed dynamism in the Indian space ecosystem and thereby enable new space players in India. Isro, on its part, will be setting up six incubation centres across the country to promote start-ups and small-to-medium sized enterprises in the space business, K Sivan, chairman of the space agency said while addressing the Bengaluru Space Expo on Thursday. The sixth edition of the Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX-2018), with the theme, `Creating dynamism in the Indian space ecosystem, provided a single platform for the interaction of hundreds of delegates with specialists, entrepreneurs and space industry heavyweights. More than 700 delegates are participating in this event, being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and Antrix Corporation Limited. It is also the largest such event on Space, Satellites and Launch Vehicles in Asia. "We (Isro) are not satisfied with the current level of participation of the Indian industry in the space business, as they have only been vendors. We want them to be our partners," the Isro chairman said. "Isro will require a minimum of two launches each month to meet the requirements, which gives industry a huge opportunity to partner with us," he added. India currently has 45 satellites in space, but needs at least another 59 satellites in space over three years for communication, defence and other civilian needs, he said. The Expo, being held from 6 to 8 September, saw participation of Indian industry, space agency representatives from France, Russia, Taiwan and over 600 delegates. As much as 85-90 per cent of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) cost lies with the industry, Sivan said, urging the industry to step up participation. Of the Rs10,400 crore allocated for 40 planned satellite launches, including 30 PSLVs and 10 Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles, by Isro over three years, the industry can tap business of about Rs9,000 crore, he said. "By 2020, we want the industry on board to produce PSLVs and Small Satellite Launch Vehicles, so that Isro can focus on the proposed human space mission by 2022," Sivan said. The agency is setting up six incubation centres across the country to promote start-ups and small-to-medium sized enterprises in the space business. At a time when the $330-billion global space market is looking at huge growth opportunities and newer technologies, India has a huge role to play, said Isros commercial arm Antrix's chairman and managing director S Rakesh. "As a major space-faring nation, India has a larger role to play in the growth of space business, and it requires the industry to step in," said Rakesh. The conference on space technologies, with a theme of 'creating dynamism in Indian space ecosystem' will see the participation of over 100 exhibitors, 50 speakers and 600 delegates from countries like France, Russia, US, UK, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. It will see panel discussions by industry and space experts on Indian space ecosystem and launch vehicles, opportunities for industry, space transportation and space infrastructure. The total trade between Abu Dhabi and Oman reached some Dh1.7 billion ($462.80 million) during the first five months of 2018, with a 54.5 percent increase, compared to the same period in 2017. The registered trade between Oman and Abu Dhabi from January to May 2018 accounts for 56.6 percent of the total trade between the two sides in 2017, a Wam news agency report said quoting official figures. Oman is among the most active GCC countries, in terms of trade with Abu Dhabi, after Saudi Arabia, which occupies the first position, reports the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (SCAD). According to the details of the trade exchange between the two sides, imports to Abu Dhabi from Oman reached around Dh1 billion in the first five months of the current year, compared to Dh456 million in the same period in 2017. The value of re-exports reached Dh113 million, while exports totalled Dh620 million. Non-oil trade between the two countries reached some Dh3 billion in 2017, according to SCAD. Towards animal-friendly machines Machine ethics is a young, dynamic discipline, which primarily targets people, not animals. However, it is important that animals are kept from harm when encountering these machines since animals cannot make informed decisions or react as humans would. Several prototypes of semi-autonomous and autonomous machines that do not startle animals in the wild have been developed at the FHNW University in Brugg-Windisch, Switzerland. The prototypes are a ladybird-friendly robot vacuum cleaner, a self-driving car, a drone study for nature photography and advanced driver assistance systems. The article "Towards animal-friendly machines" by Professor Oliver Bendel of the FHNW School of Business, published in De Gruyter's open access journal Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics, describes how annotated decision trees for animal-friendly moral machines are being developed and compared while making the moral justifications transparent. The modelling for the drone, for example, was presented in 2015 and instructed it to ignore humans, to avoid harming flying birds and to identify skittish animals and only photograph them from an appropriate height. The robot vacuum cleaner was programmed to identify ladybirds by their colouring, and stop vacuuming until the insect had moved on. Furthermore, the owner could control the morality of the machine by presetting it to spare ladybirds, but vacuum other invasive or undesirable species. This may not seem animal-friendly, but absolute moral rules need not be enforced consistently if, for example, a vermin-free house is justified. Programming advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in terms of decisions they can make with respect to animals is the main focus of the Robocar design study. The study posits that ADAS should recognise warning signs for toad migration, hedgehog populations or deer crossings and adapt the car's reactions (emergency brake, reduced speed, etc) accordingly. In short, ADAS systems should identify such animals and animal species directly and react appropriately. "Both robotics and computer science must be sensitized to animal protection and advocates for animal ethics should follow developments in robotics and artificial intelligences and should be involved in both," said Professor Bendel. A Dublin-based Donegal teacher is to seek a top job in the Irish National Teachers Organisation when it becomes vacant next year. John Boyle from Mullaghduff, Kincasslagh and current president of the INTO, has thrown his hat in the ring for the position of general secretary of the union. Mr. Boyle confirmed to the Democrat this week that he will contest the position after initially mooting the idea on his Facebook page last week. Yeah my hat is in the ring and I have been greatly encouraged by the support I have received since declaring my intentions, he said. The position is currently held by Sheila Nunan, who is due to step down from the position next year. She has been general secretary since 2009 after taking over from another Donegal man, John Carr, from Downings who held the position for the previous nine years. A lifelong union activist, Mr Boyle plans to launch his election manifesto on October 1 followed by a countrywide tour of branches during the month of October. Branches around the country will nominate their preferred candidates by the end of October at the latest. Balloting will take place in December with the result of the election to be announced on the Wednesday before Christmas. Mr. Boyle was elected president at last Aprils INTO congress in Belfast. He is the principal at St Colmcilles NS, in Knocklyon in Dublin. Killybegs couple Gary and Mairead Anderson of the Killybegs Seafood Shack are now proud holders of the title of best Seafood Chowder in Donegal, after a record number of voters chose their chowder at the annual Hooked Fesitival in Killybegs last week. With ten businesses competing for the title, competition was always going to be tough as each business tried to impress members of the public who were the ultimate judges on the day. In the end over 600 votes were cast, with the Seafood Shacks recipe getting the nod over the other amazingly high-quality entries. The win means that Gary and Mairead will now head to Kinsale in 2019 to represent Donegal in the All-Ireland Chowder Cook-Off. A delighted Mairead Anderson said they were thrilled to have won. We are absolutely delighted to have won the competition and we are really looking forward representing Killybegs and Donegal in the All Ireland chowder competition in Kinsale next year. The Donegal Chowder competition is organised by Local Enterprise Donegal through the Food Coast the good food initiative and Mairead was extremely grateful to them for all their hard work in helping to organise the contest. Id have to say a huge well done to the Local Enterprise Office, Donegal County Council and Killybegs Community Council for organising an amazing event and thank you to Eve Ann McCarron in particular, who made sure we had everything we needed on the day. Michael Tunney, Head of Enterprise in Donegal says The Food Coast is about helping businesses work together to highlight the developing food culture in the county. The Food Coast Initiative gives new and existing food businesses in Donegal the opportunity to connect with fellow businesses while building the profile of Donegal. The ambition for the Local Enterprise Office is to encourage new food start-ups and the development of established businesses." He added that for anyone working in a food related business in the county, the Food Coast encourages businesses to collaborate and work towards a common goal of making Donegal famous for good food. Events like the Donegal Chowder Cook-Off are great fun, but they also have a serious role to play in helping us share Donegals food story with a wider audience. Year on year the competition gets tougher and the public interest has grown following previous Donegal successes on both the national and international stage. While Gary and Mairead will have their sights set on the All-Ireland in Kinsale next year, Mr. Tunney urged Donegal businesses to keep next years Donegal competition in mind. He also urged any Food businesses interested in finding out more about the Food Coast or seeking to join Donegal's Food Coast Network to visit the Food Coast website www.donegalfoodcoast.ie They can also call the Local Enterprise Office 074-9160735 or visit the Local Enterprise website www.localenterprise. ie/donegal Impending post office closures has ignited strong reaction across communities in recent weeks resulting in community groups being established in efforts to counter the recent decision by An Post to consolidate seventeen post offices in the county. Community More meetings are planned to take place and the Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, Seamus O'Domhnaill has said that he, along with the Cathaoirleach of the Glenties Municipal District, Councillor John Sheamais O' Fearraigh are hosting the meetings as a show of cross-party support for the rural communities affected. A meeting will be held on September 17 in Gortahork and on September 21 in Dunfanaghy. A meeting took place in recent weeks in Dunkineely where the people of the area vowed to fight back against the impending closure of their local post office. http://www.thomaspringle.ie/2018/08/10/donegal-democrat-dunkineely-post-office-closure-call-made-for-joint-approach-with-other-post-offices/ Meeting in Dobhair An Post recently announced that seventeen post offices in the county have been listed for consolidation by the national organisation, as part of a nationwide policy to close 159 offices in total within the state. A meeting which was held in Ionad Phadraig Dhobair on Wednesday night resulted in protests being organised outside the post office in the Bun Beag and Bun na Leaca post offices on September 15 at 11.30 and 12.30. Many people attended the meeting in Ionad Pobail Dhobhair on Wednesday night where Independent Deputy Thomas Pringle and Independent Councillor Micheal Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuic addressed the community on the issue. Danny Brown was appointed as chairperson of the committee. Irish language There are fears that the closure of the post offices would adversely effect the Irish language. Coiste na Gaeilge of Donegal County Council has said that they will communicate the issue to both the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Gaeltacht Minister Joe McHugh. A spokesperson for Conradh na Gaeilge has said that they will also support the campaign to retain the vital community service. Burtonport Meanwhile, a letter of appeal will be posted to An Post by the recently-established Burtonport-based committee on Monday. Cllr ODomhnail said he hopes all parties can unite in a stand against An Posts decision to close the post offices in Dunfanaghy and Gortahork. https://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/home/333360/special-meeting-to-discuss-future-of-postal-services-in-burtonport.html Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has successfully concluded the first level of the 5th Future Engineer summer camp. The camp, which included more than 60 training hours of a comprehensive and intensive study plan, was organised for employees children between 12 and 15 years of age at the Reading Tent in Zabeel Park in Dubai. The second level of the camp will begin this December after which the participants will graduate. This supports the utiliy's vision to become a sustainable, innovative world-class utility, and its efforts to foster creativity and innovation within the community. Students participating in the first level of the programme acquired many technical skills, which contributed to expanding their perceptions and enhancing their creativities. They also learnt about the basic principles in electrical engineering, basics of robotics, how to build and develop smartphone programmes and applications, and other scientific and practical applications that establish the love of science and engineering in young people, it added. 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. A new mega-attraction in Dubai will soon send residents and visitors on a dizzying spin as the famed Museum of Illusions gears up to open on September 12, a report said. Set to open in the Al Seef development near the Dubai Creek, the museum will boast of the largest collection of optical illusions in the Museum of Illusions' worldwide portfolio and will house 80 exhibits of all shapes and sizes, said a report in Khaleej Times. The museum concept, which first debuted in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2015, has already spread to several cities around the world including Oman, Austria, Germany, Malaysia and more. "Museum of Illusions Dubai exhibits have been carefully selected to ensure the widest possible appeal to the city's uniquely cosmopolitan residents and international tourists," the report cited Varvara Svischeva, manager at the Museum of Illusions Dubai, as saying. "The human brain is an incredibly complex computer that perceives and interprets reality through an elaborate process of gathering information from each of our senses. When engaging with our illusions, the mind will combine some details and exclude others to create a sensory experience that defies logic. It's always incredible seeing the universal human response to Museum of Illusions exhibits - it's the same reactions all over the world," Svischeva said. The full line-up has yet to be unveiled but will include a vortex tunnel featuring a rotating cylinder that tricks the mind into thinking the ground is shifting. The Ames Room will also allow guests to appear in different sizes depending on their position. Visitors to the attraction are encouraged to interact with the exhibits and take photos. The tickets for the museum will be priced at Dh80 ($21.7) for adults and Dh60 ($16.3) for children, the report said. - TradeArabia News Service 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. ShipBob, which offers Amazon-type fulfillment services to small and mid-sized businesses, on Thursday announced it had raised US$40 million in a Series C funding round led by Menlo Ventures. Existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels and Y Combinator also participated in the round. Menlo Ventures partner Shawn Carolan will join ShipBob's board of directors. ShipBob's end-to-end fulfillment solution involves a drop-ship model that lets clients deliver packages in one to two business days. Partners include Amazon, BigCommerce, Shopify and other e-commerce platforms that fully integrate into its proprietary software platform, which runs its fulfillment centers. The centers -- in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco -- provide clients with same-day delivery at ground shipping prices. "We love how ShipBob lets smaller, creative merchants affordably offer fast shipping across the country," Menlo Ventures' Carolan said. ShipBob has "a great product and a smart approach to the market," said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research. "SMBs have a dire need to compete head-on with the Internet tech giants," he told the E-Commerce Times. ShipBob on Thursday also announced the opening of its largest fulfillment center to date, with 105,000 square feet of space, in Chicago. Located next to the BNSF rail yard, the new facility is six times the size of ShipBob's current Chicago location, and more than double the size of its other fulfillment centers. The center will store more than 3 million units -- a unit is a single item -- for thousands of customers by December. It will continue to offer same-day shipping to select merchants' customers in the greater Chicagoland area. Where the Money Goes The fresh funds will be used to "hire more people in various departments that will help us create tools commerce merchants need to run their business," said ShipBob COO Divey Gulati. ShipBob will add more capacity to its fulfillment centers, he told the E-Commerce Times. "Amazon has set the customer expectations for two-day and same-day delivery," Gulati noted. ShipBob will launch new fulfillment centers to house inventory close to customers nationwide, "so we are able to provide same-day and two-day shipping at reasonable costs." The company also will expand its proprietary software platform, which combines order and inventory management, customer communication, predictive data and insights, and optimized shipping across multiple sales channels for e-commerce companies. "Fulfillment alone cannot make e-commerce businesses more successful," Gulati said. "They need more tools for managing their business." ShipBob will create tools to make merchants more successful, "and fulfillment is just the beginning," he added. "We are a customer-obsessed company, not a competition-obsessed one." The company has shipped more than 4 million packages since it was founded in 2014, and its business has grown 300 percent from last year, according to Gulati. "Prior to that it was five times," he said. However, he declined to supply additional details. "You can't have successful e-commerce without fulfillment," Wang pointed out. "Campaign to commerce is the front end; order to cash is the back end." ShipBob's revenue reached eight figures last year, and its headcount has grown from 60 employees since its Series B funding round last summer to more than 400 employees, almost all full-time, Gulati said. He would not say whether the company was profitable. Speed Is the E-Commerce Black Speedy delivery has become increasingly important. Seventy-eight percent of logistics companies expected to provide same-day delivery by 2023, and 40 percent expected the delivery window to be two hours by 2028, in a worldwide survey Zebra conducted last year. More than 2,700 professionals in transportation and logistics, retailers and manufacturers responded to the poll. Mobile online shopping has made three-day delivery standard, and those looking to provide a premium service must be even faster, noted Evan Tennant, national director of ecommerce at Adtaxi. As "the speed of shopping increases, the speed of delivery needs to increase, in the consumer's mind," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Google recommends retailers try a 90-second checkout test. Can shoppers checkout in 90 seconds on your site?" Recently, searches for products nearby "have seen a drop after increasing hundreds of percent in the last two years," Tennant pointed out. "I view that drop as the consumer mindset reaching the point where they don't even think they need to search for [an item] near them because it will be shown to them. Mobile has made that a reality." Same-day delivery will become commonplace in the next 18 months," Tennant predicted. Merchants will shift that responsibility to third parties, and "a hybrid of showroom and warehouse is one trend I think we'll see materialize. Variety and the ability to offer the logistical setup for same-day delivery will become more common." Same-day turnaround for last-mile delivery is the expectation, Constellation's Wang observed, but "Getting to two-hour delivery windows requires both density and volume. This will be possible in the next seven to 10 years." ShipBob's Potential ShipBob will fare well, Tennant suggested. "As this [faster delivery] trend takes hold, many retailers will need to shift resources to growing their inventory offering or expediting internal processing, leaving space for a third party to handle more inside and outside logistics." "The big powers in shipping won't be far behind, but having that technology in place could put ShipBob in a position to be bought, or corner the market on new solutions and new expectations," Tennant said. "The pitch will be, 'you get the products and the people to sell it and get it out the door in one hour -- we'll take it from there." ShipBob's customers "help us shape how we dominate this market," said Gulati, "where a true end-to-end solution doesn't exist that helps promote commerce merchants' own brand identity." 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. The Education Week Research Center developed the Chance-for-Success Index to gauge the education-related opportunities available in each state at different stages in a lifetime, from cradle to career. This third installment of Quality Counts 2018 examines the data behind the nations C-plus letter grade (a score of 78.5) on the index and sheds additional light on the wide disparities among states that have remained consistent over a decade of research-center analysis. Many factorsboth within and beyond the K-12 education systemcan contribute to a persons success throughout a lifetime, including state and local economic and social conditions. And while formal education is a driving force, key building blocks for success, including family income and education and access to early-childhood resources, start before students enter school. In addition, returns on a high school diploma or postsecondary degree can vary widely by state. To rate how these factors come together in the case of a particular state, the Chance for Success Index combines 13 distinct indicators that together capture three broad stages of an individuals life: early foundations, the school years, and adult outcomes. The metrics in the early-foundations stage examine factors that help children get off to a good start and to enter the P-12 system ready to learn. Reading and math scores, along with high school graduation rates, are standard benchmarks of school performance in the index. Adult educational attainment, employment, and income represent key markers of adult success. Results are based on the research centers analysis of 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureaus American Community Survey, the 2017 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and adjusted cohort graduation rates from 2015-16 published by the U.S. Department of Education. Grades are calculated using a best-in-class approach, which compares a states performance on each of the indexs indicators with the top-ranked state on that particular metric. The top state receives 100 points with other states earning points in proportion to their performance as gauged against the national leader. The resulting A-F letter grades reflect the average of numerical scores on a traditional 100-point scale. In addition, this years Chance-for-Success grades, first published in Januarys Quality Counts report card, have now been updated based on new reading and math scores from NAEP, which were released by the Education Department in the spring. Differing Opportunities A look at the nation as a whole shows consistent standouts Massachusetts and New Hampshire continuing to top the list in this category with grades of A-minus and scores of 91.7 and 90.1, respectively. New Mexico (67.3) and Nevada (68.2) are at the bottom of the rankings with D-plus grades. Nearly half the states (23) post mediocre grades between C-minus and C-plus. Those states results reflect a mix of strengths and weaknesses. Only a handful of states are strong or weak across the board. Massachusetts finishes in the top 10 states in eight of the indexs 13 indicators. New Mexico, by contrast, falls in the bottom 10 states on 11 of the metrics. Consider the opportunities available in Massachusetts, the leading state on the index. Children typically live in families with adequate incomes and often have well-educated parents. More than 6 in 10 children in the state have a parent with a postsecondary degree, compared with just under half of children in the nation as a whole. And the majority (58 percent) of the states 3- and 4-year-olds enroll in preschool, compared with just 47.7 percent nationally. Students in the Bay State are also more likely to be proficient in reading and math, graduate from high school, and enroll in postsecondary education than in most states. As adults, graduates often enter well-educated communities with opportunities for employment and solid pay as a result of the states economy. By contrast, residents in Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, and other states that rank low on the index are less likely to have such opportunitiesmaking initiatives to boost their communities, economies, and education systems all the more important. A closer look at each of the three life stages captured by the index can provide insights into states results and identify areas for improvement. Early Foundations: Poverty and other factors in early childhood, such as parental education level, can be barriers to subsequent academic progress in K-12 schooling. The nation earns a B-minus (81.4) for early educational foundations. New Hampshire (98.7), North Dakota (95.7), Minnesota (94.3), and Utah (93.1) post grades of A. New Hampshire ranks first for both family income and parental education levels. New Mexico (71.1) and Nevada (72.3) get the lowest grades at C-minus. New Mexico finishes last in family income and 48th in parental education. The School Years: Although early educational foundations and workforce opportunities are part of the index, roughly half the indicators examine the school years. When evaluated based on school participation and performance, the nation receives a C-plus (76.6). Massachusetts posts the only A (93.2), followed by New Jersey with the only A-minus (90.8). New Mexico (63.0), Alaska (64.5), and Nevada (65.5) get grades of D, the lowest in the nation. Massachusetts ranks fifth in preschool enrollment and leads the nation in both 4th grade reading and 8th grade math test scores. New Jersey is third for preschool enrollment and second in high school graduation. Overall State Grades Catch up on how the nation and states fared on a broad range of K-12 categories, including school finance, as reported in this years first installment of Quality Counts, published Jan. 17. Adult Outcomes: The nation receives a C-plus (78.3) for indicators measuring adult educational attainment and workforce outcomes, such as annual income and steady employment. The District of Columbiawhere opportunities to serve in government are often a magnet for highly educated employees from across the nationgets the only A in the adult-outcomes category, with a score of 99.3. Massachusetts finishes a distant second with the only A-minus, at 89.5. On the other end of the scale, West Virginia (68.4), Nevada (68.4), Arkansas (69.3), and Mississippi (69.4) receive the lowest scores and grades of D-plus. Fewer adults in those states have earned postsecondary degrees or have incomes at or above the national median. Little Change Over Time In the midst of rapid economic and technological change, results on the index havent budged much since 2008, the year it made its debut with its current scoring format. The national score increased by just 0.1 points during that period, going from 78.4 in 2008 to 78.5 in 2018. The lack of improvement in the nations score over timesignifying a lack of growth in opportunityis perhaps the most disconcerting finding from this analysis. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia increased their Chance-for-Success scores by a point or more since 2008. The District of Columbia improved the most, boosting its score by 6.5 points. That gain was fueled by the nations largest increase in preschool enrollment. Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Wyoming also improved their scores by more than 2 points. By contrast, 13 states saw their scores decline by a point or more during this span. Maryland fell the most, dropping by 3.3 points. It lost ground in family income and 8th grade math test scores. On certain individual metrics, some states made progress while others regressed. In the District of Columbia, for example, the percent of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool increased by 14.6 percentage points between the 2008 and 2018 reports. In North Carolina and Hawaii, preschool enrollment declined by 5.0 and 5.1 points, respectively. BA hacked: 380,000 card payments 'compromised' in breach British Airways (BA) says the credit card information of at least 380,000 customers has been "compromised" in a data theft. The airline said people using BA.com and its mobile app for flight bookings were targeted by hackers between 21 August and 5 September. Information stolen includes customer names, email addresses, home addresses and payment card information - but not travel or passport details. BA added: "The breach has been resolved and our website is working normally. "British Airways is communicating with affected customers and we advise any customers who believe they may have been affected by this incident to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice. "We have notified the police and relevant authorities... [and] will continue to keep our customers updated with the very latest information. We will be contacting customers and will manage any claims on an individual basis." BA is the latest major UK company to report such an attack - seemingly the largest since the owner of Currys PC World, Dixons Carphone, admitted in early summer that nine million of its customers had been hit by a data breach. The theft is also likely to lead to a union backlash after criticism of the airline's decision to outsource IT work to India. The issue came to the fore after a costly IT failure last year that left 75,000 passengers stranded. The company's chairman and chief executive, Alex Cruz, said: "We are deeply sorry for the disruption that this criminal activity has caused. "We take the protection of our customers' data very seriously." Person cut from wreckage on Bray Hill Fire Officers cut the casualty from the wreckage A person had to be cut free from a car following a crash in Douglas earlier today (Thursday). The collision happened at just after 3pm on Bray Hill. Firefighters were called out to rescue the driver who'd become trapped. They used hydraulic cutting equipment to release them. They were handed over to paramedics. Crews were at the scene for 30 minutes. Six international researchers to receive up to 1.65 million each and develop their own research group in Berlin, Bochum, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Saarbrucken and Wurzburg The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has singled out six international researchers between 31 and 36 years of age for one of Germany's most valuable science awards: the winners will each be granted up to 1.65 million EUR. With the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, young researchers receive risk capital for innovative projects during an early stage in their careers. The Sofja Kovalevskaja Award allows them to conduct research at a German university or research institute for a period of up to five years and develop their own research groups for this at their host institutes. The award is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Sofja Kovalevskaja Awards will be presented to the recipients on 22 November in a formal ceremony in Berlin. The recently selected award winners, their respective home country / last country of residence, research focus and host institute are: Aydan Bulut-Karslioglu: How developing life is shaped Turkey / USA, Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Department of Genome Regulation Kenji Fukushima: The evolution of carnivorous plants Japan / USA, Evolutionary Biology, Julius-Maximilians-University Wurzburg, Julius von Sachs Institute of Biosciences Milica Gasic: How computers can understand us better Serbia / United Kingdom, Artificial Intelligence, Image and Language Processing, Saarland University, Department of Language Science and Technology Hitoshi Omori: Don't be shy of contradictions Japan / Japan, Theoretical Philosophy, Ruhr-University Bochum, Chair of Logic and Epistemology Paola Pinilla: Insights into the formation of new planets Colombia / USA, Astrophysics, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Planet and Star Formation Department Fritz Renner: Fighting depression with imagination Germany / United Kingdom, Clinical Psychology, University of Freiburg, Department of Psychology ### The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 29,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 140 countries worldwide - including 55 Nobel Prize winners. A blood test that quickly and easily detects whether a person is at risk of a secondary heart attack is being developed by scientists at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. The Baker Institute's head of metabolomics, Professor Peter Meikle and his team have identified plasma lipid biomarkers (fats in the blood) that improve upon traditional risk factors in predicting heart disease and stroke. He says the revolutionary blood test is proposed to be trialled in Australia over the next 2-3 years as part of a broader personalised precision health program currently under development. Eventually a GP will be able to order this test in order to better assess a patient's risk of developing heart disease. "The test was developed after a study looked at 10,000 samples to find the bio markers that will determine whether a person is at risk of having another heart attack," said Prof Meikle. "We hope to identify those individuals who are at greatest risk of a second heart attack so that they can be closely monitored and treated accordingly. "While there are thousands of lipids in the blood, our challenge is to identify which ones best predict disease outcomes." To date, a prototype of this test has been trailed in America, yet the prototype only provides GP's and patients with limited information on the basis of 2 lipid markers, and it is not yet available in Australia. The test will be a simple blood test, similar to the process and cost of having a cholesterol test, and could be operated out of hospital pathology laboratories that already contain the necessary equipment. "Our test will use up to ten lipid markers to better diagnose heart disease. It's a challenging, yet very exciting time. We effectively have the information and are in the process of refining the technology," said Prof Meikle. "Once the protocols for a diagnostic heart disease blood test are in place; it will be possible to additional markers for the test to also be used in predicting diabetes and potentially Alzheimer's disease as well. The test will reclassify a patient's risk of heart attack and stroke. It will better identify who within the 'intermediate' risk category are in fact, at higher risk, and help guide physicians in the appropriate treatment of patients." ### The findings have been published in JCI Insight. For further information or to organise interviews please contact: Suzana Talevski T: 03 8532 1240 M: 0439 977 203 E: Suzana.talevski@baker.edu.au Tracey Ellis T: 03 8532 1514 M: 0433 781 972 E: tracey.ellis@baker.edu.au Boulder, CO, USA: GSA has announced three 2018-2019 Fellows who will assist with efforts to increase efficacy in serving society through science. The 33rd GSA-USGS Congressional Science Fellow (CSF), Caitlin Keating-Bitonti, will spend a year, beginning this fall, working as a staff member for a Member of Congress or congressional committee. Caitlin is excited to have this opportunity. "Recognizing that the geosciences are of vital public concern but are rarely included in a typical high school curriculum, I became committed to geoscience education and outreach," said Keating-Bitonti. During her graduate career, she mentored more than 10 high school students and teamed with two other graduate students to develop and teach a climate change science course at a preparatory school in Palo Alto, California. After receiving her Ph.D. from Stanford University, Caitlin joined the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, where she continued her research and also participated in museum outreach. "My time in D.C. solidified my desire to be involved in the policy-making process, and to advocate that our practices and policies be informed by scientific knowledge," she said. Keating-Bitonti's area of expertise is paleontology. Her research integrates paleontology, geology, oceanography, physiology, and statistical models to examine how ancient marine organisms responded to past environmental perturbations and how these climate shifts shaped their evolutionary history. Laura Szymanski is excited to serve as the 2018-2019 GSA Science Policy Fellow in Washington, D.C. As such, Szymanski will serve as the "in-house" fellow, working with GSA's Director for Geoscience Policy to bring science and scientists into the policy process. This position acts as a science policy liaison, keeping GSA members informed, involved, and represented in national policy, including research funding, energy and natural resource assessments, climate change policy, and natural hazard mitigation and response. The fellow also works closely with GSA's Geology and Public Policy Committee on geoscience initiatives, including developing Society-wide position statements on national issues. Concurrently, Szymanski is a Ph.D. candidate in the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studies the potential of carbon in buried soils to contribute to atmospheric carbon dioxide with land disturbance and changes in climate. Her research will help determine how sensitive the carbon in deep, buried soils is to two potential climate change scenarios. Szymanski has extensive expertise in the field of geoscience and was previously an instructor and taught Earth system science courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Szymanski completed a Master of Science in Geography, where she studied the effects of alternative biofuel cropping systems on soil carbon dynamics to contribute to assessing the sustainability of renewable fuels and products. Sarah Derouin is on board to serve as the 2018-2019 GSA Science Communication Fellow, and eager to practice her skills as a science translator working within GSA. Sarah is passionate about communicating the value of geoscience to society and showcasing the awesome research that geoscientists do every day. She lives in San Jose, California, and is active in the Northern California Science Writers Association, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Earth Science Women's Network. Derouin earned her Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cincinnati. She spent six years working as a geologist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation identifying and assessing geologic hazards in the western U.S. and Puerto Rico and has experience working as a consulting geologist, an instructor, a GIS contractor, and as a Geoscientists-in-the-Parks program participant. Sarah is also a graduate of the University of California-Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) Science Communication program, where she honed her writing and multimedia skills. As an intern at the Stanford News office, and later as a contractor for the Stanford Woods Institute, she wrote press releases on a range of topics from flexible electronics, to soil health after fires, to investigating how close domestic water supplies are to natural gas wells. Since graduating from the UC Santa Cruz program, Sarah has worked as a freelance science writer and editor with a number of publications and news outlets, including Eos, Scientific American and Science. Her writing formats have included news, features and longer-form informational pieces, as well as profiles. Most recently, Sarah served as an acting associate editor at EARTH Magazine. ### The Geological Society of America, founded in 1888, is a scientific society with members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, USA, GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education. http://www.geosociety.org One of the great puzzles of evolutional biology is what induced certain living creatures to abandon solitary existence in favor of living in collaborative societies, as seen in the case of ants and other social, colony-forming insects. A major characteristic of so-called eusocial species is the division of labor between queens that lay eggs and workers that take care of the brood and perform other tasks. But what is it that determines that a queen should lay eggs and that workers shouldn't reproduce? And how did this distinction come about during the course of evolution? Evolutionary biologist Dr. Romain Libbrecht has been considering these problems over the past years and in cooperation with researchers at Rockefeller University in New York City has found a completely unexpected answer: one single gene called insulin-like peptide 2 (ILP2), which is probably activated by better nutrition, stimulates the ovaries and triggers reproduction. "It may seem almost inconceivable that just one single gene should make all the difference," Libbrecht pointed out. The researchers drew their conclusion from a comparison of 5,581 genes in seven ant species in four different subfamilies that differ from each other with regard to numerous characteristics. But in one thing are they all alike: there is always a greater expression of ILP2 in the brain of reproductive insects. Queens thus have higher levels than workers. A further finding indicates that this peptide is found only in the brain, where it is produced in a small cluster of just 12 to 15 cells. Division of reproduction and brood care as the basis of social colony formation It is postulated that the origins of social behavior in insects are to be found in wasp-like ancestors that alternated between reproduction and brood care phases. A female wasp would lay an egg and take care of the larva until it pupated. However, these two phases were separated and their associated duties assigned to different individuals, namely queens and workers, during the evolution of eusociality. Libbrecht and his colleagues in New York City investigated the ant species Ooceraea biroi to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying this division of labor. O. biroi is a small species of 2 to 3 millimeters in length that originated from Asia but has spread throughout the tropics. The insects live in underground passages, attack the nests of other ant species, and feed on their brood. The unusual thing about the O. biroi species is that there are no queens, only female workers. However, every female worker can reproduce through parthenogenesis. This means that a female produces another identical female - the insects in effect clone themselves. And they always follow a specific cycle: all female workers lay eggs during an 18-day period, after which they spend 16 days gathering food and feeding the larvae. The cycle then begins once again. This cyclical behavior is comparable to that of the solitary wasp-like ancestors and is controlled by the presence of larvae. When the first larvae hatch at the end of the reproductive phase, their presence suppresses ovarian activity and triggers brood care behavior. When the larvae begin pupation at the end of the brood care phase, ovarian activity is scaled up and foraging scaled back. "What we did was break this cycle," explained Libbrecht. The researchers synthesized the peptide ILP2 and injected it into the ants. This caused the ants to lay eggs in the presence of larvae. Libbrecht used a brood substitution approach to investigate what happens when larvae are introduced into the colony during the reproductive phase and, conversely, when they are removed during the brood care phase. "What we see is that gene expression in the brain changes in both phases and the ants change their behavior and physiology accordingly. This response, however, happens at a faster rate if we confront egg-laying ants with larvae." The insects then stop laying eggs and start to care for the brood. "This does make sense. It is, after all, important for survival to quickly start feeding the larvae," he added. This experiment also revealed that the expression of ILP2 in the brain changed quickly and significantly in response to the change in social conditions. From asymmetry in nutrition to asymmetry in reproduction The researchers also considered the relevance of nutrition, which is known to be of importance when it comes to the differentiation between queens and workers. A large quantity or a good quality of nutritional protein favors the development of female larvae into queens. In colonies of the species O. biroi, a small proportion of the ants are so-called intercastes. These insects are slightly bigger, have eyes, and are more reproductive. Because of this, they can be compared to some extent with normal queens. The probability of a larva becoming an intercaste increases if it receives better nourishment. Fluorescence imaging shows that these intercastes have more ILP2 in their brains than normal workers. "Something comparable may well have taken place in the case of the ancestors of eusocial insects," Dr. Romain Libbrecht suggested. "Perhaps a minor asymmetry with regard to nutrition of larvae led to asymmetry in the reproductive behavior of adults developing from those larvae." The assumption that the division into queens and workers might therefore have commenced with one single difference is supported by experiments conducted in a total of seven different ant species. Further research is to be undertaken to determine whether the findings also apply to other social insects and how ant colonies as superorganisms control the overall supply of nutrition. ### Romain Libbrecht joined Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 2016 and heads the Reproduction, Nutrition, and Behavior in Insect Societies group at the Faculty of Biology. Prior to his appointment he worked as a Marie Curie postdoc together with Daniel Kronauer at Rockefeller University. Publication: V. Chandra et al., Social regulation of insulin signaling and the evolution of eusociality in ants, Science, 27 July 2018, DOI:10.1126/science.aar5723 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6400/398.full R. Libbrecht, P. R. Oxley, D. J. C. Kronauer, Clonal raider ant brain transcriptomics identifies candidate molecular mechanisms for reproductive division of labor, BMC Biology, 13 August 2018, DOI: 10.1186/s12915-018-0558-8 https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-018-0558-8 NASA's Aqua satellite obtained a visible image of Hurricane Norman northeast of the Hawaiian Islands and found the storm weakening and battling wind shear. NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at Norman as it continued weakening and moving northwest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is not close enough to the islands to generate any watches or warnings, however, a large swell generated by Norman peaked across the main Hawaiian Islands overnight on Sept. 6, causing large and potentially dangerous surf along east facing shores. The surf is forecast to diminish on Friday, Sept. 7. The Aqua satellite image taken from the MODIS instrument showed the storm was being tilted from strong vertical wind shear. The eye was covered by clouds which made the center difficult to locate. At 5 a.m. EDT on Sept. 7 (11 p.m. HST on Sept. 6) the center of Hurricane Norman was located near latitude 22.5 North, longitude 151.7 degrees west. That's 290 miles (470 km) northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Norman is moving toward the northwest near 8 mph (13 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue through Saturday, remaining east of the main Hawaiian Islands. Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph (140 kph) with higher gusts. Weakening is forecast through Saturday. ### For updates on Norman, visit: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc Whether an individual develops a neurodevelopmental disorder like autism or ADHD and the severity of that disorder depends on genetic changes beyond a single supposedly disease-causing mutation. A new study led by researchers at Penn State reveals that the total amount of rare mutations -- deletions, duplications, or other changes to the DNA sequence -- in a person's genome can explain why individuals with a disease-associated mutation can have vastly different symptoms. A paper describing the study appeared today in the journal Genetics in Medicine. "Genetic sequencing tools can reveal a large number of mutations in a person's genome, but diagnosis typically focuses on identifying one primary mutation as the cause of a disorder," said Santhosh Girirajan, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and of anthropology at Penn State and senior author of the paper. "However, this strategy does not explain why many individuals with the same primary mutation have very different features or symptoms. For example, when a parent and child have the same primary mutation but only the child develops the disorder. Our work reveals that the primary mutation likely sensitizes a person to a disorder, but the amount of other mutations elsewhere in the genome is what actually determines the cognitive ability and developmental features in that person." The research team considered genetic, cognitive, and developmental information from individuals who contained one of two known disease-associated mutations, and of their families. Both mutations are deletions of genetic material on chromosome 16 -- one in a region referred to as 16p11.2 and the other 16p12.1 -- and are detected in a global screen for children with developmental delays. These primary mutations provide a frame of reference to study the additional mutations that make up an individual's "genetic background." "Ninety-five percent of children who have the 16p12.1 mutation inherit it from their parents, so any difference in clinical features between the parent and child is due to what they have in the genetic background," said Girirajan. Individuals with one of the primary mutations who expressed clinical features had significantly more mutations in the genetic background than their parents or siblings who did not express clinical features. The researchers also linked the number of mutations in the genetic background to head size, a feature of cognitive development, in individuals with the primary 16p11.2 deletion and to IQ scores in individuals with one of the two primary mutations or one of several other disease-associated primary mutations. "This suggests that a child with a higher number of mutations in the genetic background is more likely to develop intellectual disabilities," said Girirajan. "The more mutations you have, the more different types of combinations you have that can potentially produce clinical features. Most of these mutations in the genetic background are passed on by the parents, and when the parents' mutations come together in a combinatorial way, the child ends up having more than what either parent had individually. The primary mutation is usually only passed on by one of the parents, and it turns out that the parent who does not pass on the primary mutation actually passes on more mutations in the genetic background. This tells us that getting information about family history, about the parents' genetic profile, is incredibly useful when trying to make a diagnosis." The researchers suggest that the primary mutation sensitizes an individual to a particular disorder and that the genetic background sets the trajectory for potential clinical features. "Some primary mutations may sensitize an individual to a lesser degree, requiring large numbers of mutations in the genetic background to produce symptoms associated with the disorder," said Lucilla Pizzo, graduate student in the Molecular Medicine program at Penn State and first author of the paper. "For example, an inherited mutation that has been passed on for many generations may not have produced strong symptoms in the parents or grandparents, but large numbers of mutations in the genetic background of the child could lead to clinical features. Other primary mutations may sensitize the genome to a greater degree, with fewer additional mutations required to produce symptoms associated with the disorder." This study focused solely on genetic changes that occurred in the protein-coding portions of the genome. The researchers plan to expand their investigation to the rest of the genome. Ultimately, the researchers hope this knowledge -- and continued studies of how mutations affect specific, measurable traits such as IQ and head size -- will change how clinicians obtain genetic data and offer diagnoses to their patients. "We need more-thorough screens when a patient comes into a clinic so that we can consider more than just one mutation," said Girirajan. "With knowledge about the family history and genetic background, we can get closer to a more accurate prognosis and provide rehabilitation sooner. For example, a patient could start speech therapy or physical rehabilitation before the developmental delay hits." ### In addition to Girirajan and Pizzo, the research team includes Matthew Jenson, Andrew Polyak, Jieun Yoon, Emily Huber, and Vijay Kumar at Penn State and more than fifty clinicians from the US, Europe, and Australia. This work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI). Additional support was provided by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, the Fulbright Commission Uruguay, the Italian Ministry of Health, the Jacobs Foundation, and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Researchers from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum and the University Hospital of Gieen and Marburg, in collaboration with colleagues from Bonn, the Netherlands, and the UK, have analysed what happens in the brain when humans want to voluntarily forget something. They identified two areas of the brain - the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus - whose activity patterns are characteristic for the process of forgetting. They measured the brain activity in epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in the brain for the purpose of surgical planning. The team headed by Carina Oehrn and Professor Nikolai Axmacher outlines the results in the journal Current Biology, published online on 6 September 2018. "In the past century, memory research focused primarily on understanding how information can be successfully remembered," says Nikolai Axmacher, Head of the Neuropsychology Department in Bochum. "However, forgetting is crucial for emotional wellbeing, and it enables humans to focus on a task." Rhythmic brain activity and word test The researchers recorded the brain activity of 22 patients, who had electrodes implanted either in the prefrontal cortex or in a deeper structure, the hippocampus. They presented the participants with a number of words, asking them either to remember or to forget them. A test showed that the participants did indeed remember the words that they were supposed to forget less well than the words they were supposed to remember. As they conducted the analysis, the researchers payed close attention to the synchronous rhythmic activity in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. During active forgetting, oscillations in both areas of the brain showed characteristic changes in specific frequency bands. In the prefrontal cortex, oscillations between three and five Hertz were more pronounced, i.e. in the so-called theta range. They were coupled with increased oscillations at higher frequencies, namely between 6 and 18 Hertz, in the hippocampus. The forgetting frequency "The data showed us that during active forgetting, the activity in the hippocampus, an important region for memory, is regulated by the prefrontal cortex," explains Carina Oehrn, who was initially involved in the research project in Bochum and now works at the University Hospital in Marburg. "The activity in the hippocampus is not just suppressed; rather, it is switched to a different frequency, in which currently processed information is no longer encoded," continues the neuroscientist. Potential therapy approach for posttraumatic stress disorder The team believes that research into voluntary forgetting might constitute the basis of potential new therapies of posttraumatic stress disorder, which causes patients to relive negative emotional memories again and again. "The prefrontal cortex, i.e. the brain region that exerts active control over memory processes, may be activated for therapy purposes through non-invasive magnetic or electrical stimulation," as Oehrn outlines an initial idea. "Still, the benefits of this treatment will have to be tested in future studies." ### ADELPHI, Md. (Sept. 6, 2018) -- A team of researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea have taken a step toward the development of moving target defense techniques in software-defined networks. This is a demanding cybersecurity research topic, scientists said. This collaboration grew out of efforts of ARL researchers Dr. Jin-Hee Cho (now at Virginia Tech in the Department of Computer Science), Dr. Terrence J. Moore and Dr. Frederica Nelson reaching out to researchers in Asia Pacific regions through the international collaborative program administrated by the U.S. Army International Technology Center-Pacific. Cyberattacks on computer systems are becoming more common. Any company with information on a computer system connected to the internet might become a victim from someone or some group who wants to steal or destroy the company's data for their own use, or for ransom. This is possible because of the way the Internet is set up, researchers said. In order to access content on a website, a computer needs to know where to ask for the information. Websites have an address, what is known as an internet protocol, or IP, address; however, these are not just used for websites. Every computer connected to the internet has an IP address. Cyber attackers have time to discover the IP addresses of the computers they think might have valuable information and attack them using code that is more commonly known as computer viruses or worms. If the computer or system being attacked has a security system, such as a firewall or anti-virus software, it might be able to recognize some code as being bad and prevent itself from being infected. What cyber attackers do is slightly modify their bad code so it is not recognized until the computer's security system is updated or patched. Essentially, the typical defensive response to these attacks is passive, the researchers said. The attackers have time to prepare, plan and execute their attacks, whereas the potential victims are left reacting only after an intruder breaks into a computer system. Recently, a new proactive type of defense is being considered to protect important information in computer systems. This approach is known as moving target defense, or MTD. "The concept of MTD has been introduced with the aim of increasing the adversary's confusion or uncertainty by dynamically changing the attack surface, which consists of the reachable and exploitable vulnerabilities," Cho said. "MTD can lead to making the adversary's intelligence gained from previous monitoring no longer useful and accordingly results in poor attack decisions." The basic idea as it applies to IP addresses on computer networks is this: Change the IP address of the computer frequently enough so the attacker loses sight of where his victim is; however, this can be expensive, so the approach taken by the researchers in the collaboration here uses something known as software-defined networking. This lets computers keep their real IP addresses fixed, but masks them from the rest of the internet with virtual IP addresses that are frequently changing. Moore added that as the adage suggests, it is harder to hit a moving target. "MTD increases uncertainty and confuses the adversary, as time is no longer an advantage," Moore said. "The adversary has to expend more resources, such as time and/or computational power, to discover vulnerabilities of a target system, but will experience more difficulty in exploiting any vulnerabilities found in the past since their location or accessibility is constantly changing." According to Professor Hyuk Lim at GIST in the Republic of Korea, this proactive defense approach provides defense services before attackers get into a target system. "Taking actions proactively requires extra overhead to add another layer of defense strength," Kim said. "Hence, deploying the proactive defense and security mechanisms is not for free, but brings a cost because the system needs to constantly change the attack surface such as IP addresses. This cost can be mitigated to some extent by leveraging the technology called 'Software-Defined Networking'. The SDN technology provides highly efficient programmatic and dynamic management of the network policy by removing the network control from individual devices in a network to a centralized controller. The network configuration can be defined by the SDN controller, enabling more reliable and responsive network operations under variable conditions." Nelson explained the reason why these SDN-based MTD techniques are critical to supporting the vision of the Army and warfighters. "The key technology of SDN-based MTD techniques, under development by the research team, is highly relevant to support the warfighters' mission execution by proactively thwarting potential attacks, which can protect the defense system so that the warfighters can properly execute the mission in the presence of highly dynamic, hostile and innovative adversaries within contested tactical environments," Nelson said. The UC team in New Zealand led the effort of developing the MTD technology called the Flexible Random Virtual IP Multiplexing, namely FRVM. "In FRVM, while the real IP address of a server-host remains unchanged but stays hidden, a virtual IP address of the server-host keeps being randomly and periodically changed where the IP mapping/remapping (i.e., called multiplexing/demultiplexing) is performed by an SDN controller," said Dilli P. Sharma, a doctoral student in Prof. DongSeong Kim's cybersecurity research group at UC, New Zealand. "This effectively forces the adversary to play the equivalent of an honest shell game. However, instead of guessing among three shells (IP addresses) to find a pea (a running network service), the adversary must guess among 65,536 shells, given address space2^16. This MTD protocol is novel because it provides high flexibility to have multiple, random, time-variant IP addresses in a host, which implies the adversary will require more time to discover an IP address of the target host." In this research, the team formulated the architecture and communication protocols for the proposed IP (de)multiplexing-based MTD to be applied in SDN environments. The team also validated the effectiveness of the FRVM under various degrees of scanning attacks in terms of the attack success probability. The preliminary results evaluating the FRVM were presented at the 17th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, or TrustCom'18, held in New York in August. "Our next step is to study the trade-off in the FRVM between the dual conflicting goals of system security and performance, as proactive defense may introduce adverse effects when running MTD techniques while achieving enhanced security," Kim said. ### DP Sharma, D-S Kim, S Yoon, H Lim, J-H Cho, TJ Moore, "FRVM: Flexible random virtual ip multiplexing in software-defined networks," 2018 17th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications, New York City, July 31- August 3, 2018, p. 579-587. Sharma DP, Kim DS, Yoon S, Lim H, Cho JH, Moore TJ. FRVM: Flexible Random Virtual IP Multiplexing in Software-Defined Networks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.09343. 2018 Jul 18. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. The five-year trial, led by Dr Emily Henderson, a Geriatrician at the Royal United Hospital in Bath and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol, will see the implementation of a new integrated care model designed specifically for people with Parkinson's disease across two health hubs in Bath, UK and Nijmegen, Netherlands. The Bristol Randomised Controlled Trials Collaboration (BRTC) with Prof Ben-Shlomo, will lead on the methodology and evaluation for the project with the innovation for patients delivered through the Royal United Hospitals, Bath. Although many different care providers play a role in supporting people with Parkinson's, the collaboration between providers can be fragmented. Patients can struggle therefore to access the right services at the right time to tackle what can be very troublesome and debilitating symptoms of the condition. This project aims to bridge that gap by developing and evaluating a new model of proactive and integrated care that addresses the patients' needs. This model, will capitalise on the experience and infrastructure already present in both the UK and the Netherlands. It is anticipated that, around 1,000 patients with Parkinson's will be recruited for the trial from the RUH catchment areas, with simultaneous innovations being implemented in the Netherlands. Dr Emily Henderson, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with The Gatsby Foundation and Radboundumc to design and deliver this exciting innovation in Parkinson's care in the United Kingdom. Both the University of Bristol and The Royal United Hospitals Foundation Trust NHS Bath look forward to developing ideas to further improve the care we offer people living with Parkinson's. "The robust design and evaluation of this new conceptual model will ensure that any positive findings can be widely implemented to ensure that people living with the condition will benefit. We are extremely grateful for Gatsby's generous support as we embark on this ambitious project and look forward to building on our successful collaboration. " Professor Bas Bloem of Radboudumc and co-PI of the new study: "The only way to overcome the current impasse in healthcare is to have two critical components at your disposal: firstly, adequate funding to cover the gap between the ideal model of care and what is currently reimbursed by national healthcare systems or insurers ; and secondly, a sufficient amount of time to scientifically demonstrate that the new concept works, as reflected by an improved quality of life for patients as well as cost savings for society. We are extremely grateful to the Gatsby Foundation that we are now offered the unique opportunity to implement and evaluate this exciting new model of care for people with Parkinson's." The project, entitled Proactive and Integrated Management and Empowerment in Parkinson's Disease (PRIME-PD), will be rigorously evaluated to determine the extent to which health can be improved and health care costs can be reduced. ### The University of Bristol is pioneering the monitoring of volcanic activity by developing a cutting-edge measurement system that can withstand the harsh conditions around the heart of an active volcano Such extreme, hazardous and unpredictable environments present a very difficult challenge to reliably record volcanic behaviour for analytical models. For some volcanoes it is simply too dangerous for a human approach. To tackle this problem researchers from across the Faculties of Science and Engineering have developed highly specialised sensor pods, called "dragon eggs", that can be positioned in dangerous locations using a drone and provide valuable real-time data of volcanic activity that can be used to inform volcanic hazard assessments. The researchers envisage numerous applications for the technology they are developing, including remote monitoring of other natural phenomenon such as glaciers and geological faults, and man-made hazards, such as nuclear waste storage sites. The "dragon eggs" currently being developed are autonomous and intelligent sensor pods designed to monitor volcanic activity. They are being equipped with a range of state-of-the-art sensors for temperature, humidity, vibrations, and numerous toxic gases. A significant challenge is optimising the design to meet many different criteria. They must, be able to operate in the extreme conditions of a volcano, be light enough to be carried by a drone, and be ultra-efficient in power consumption since maintenance is not an option at the summit of an active volcano! These sensor pods are the result of an intense cross-faculty collaboration and incorporate remarkable new technologies invented and developed at the University of Bristol. Among these, the self-energising event detectors, known as "sensor-driven" detectors, are a vital part of this new device. They allow the eggs to remain dormant for prolonged periods of time, preserving power, until volcanic activity is detected when the dragon egg "hatches" into a full-featured remote monitoring station with a wireless transmitter. Designed by the Electrical Energy Management and the Digital Health research groups, the event detectors have the lowest stand-by power consumption in the world. They can be activated by pulses as low as 5 picojoules (about 50,000 times less than the energy of a single flying mosquito). Therefore, sensor-driven detectors do not require battery power to remain operational, and instead use a fraction of the energy contained in the sensor signals. The eggs are placed on the slope of the volcano and they are designed to hatch when the sensor-driven module detects vibrations caused by volcanic tremors. In the future, the eggs will be engineered to respond to a range of different volcanic stimuli. Thanks to this detection circuit, the eggs can remain in service for many months without depleting their energy resources. These detectors have been licenced to and further developed by tech start-up Sensor Driven Ltd, and have already been field tested in a deployment at Stromboli volcano in Italy, marking the first attempt to use such a technology for monitoring an active volcano. With a powerful wireless transmitter, the dragon eggs can report data to a base station with a satellite uplink at a safe distance of up to 10 km; far away from the dangers of the volcano. The ultra-efficient sensor driven technology is key to maximising the life span of each individual egg. The eggs synergise together as an intelligent low power sensor network with a star topology, which enables the network to continue operation even after several eggs have been engulfed in lava and flames. Dr Yannick Verbelen, Research Associate in the School of Physics, said: "It is the first time an autonomous system using zero-power listening technology has been deployed in this kind of hostile environment. We are pushing the limits of the sensor driven low-power monitoring in this application, but that's what research is all about." Due to the extreme conditions near the volcanic vents, the "dragon eggs" are designed to be deployed by flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Using a lightweight yet fast drop-off mechanism, a small drone with high agility can be used for the deployment missions, minimising the time spent by the UAV in the danger zone and limiting its exposure to highly corrosive volcanic gases. Dr Kieran Wood, Senior Research Associate and UAV specialist in Aerospace Engineering, explained: "This is an exemplary application for using UAVs (drones). Approaching volcanoes is hazardous and logistically challenging. UAVs can efficiently place sensors at long-range to minimise risk and improve the efficiency of data collection". This pioneering research is being been funded through two complimentary UK Research and Innovation grants: ASPIRE, aimed at developing low powered sensors for extreme environments, and the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) aimed at developing advanced robotics and artificial intelligence technologies for nuclear industry applications. Recently, the project has also received support from the Cabot Institute Innovation Fund. Lead at Bristol for both grants, Professor Tom Scott, said: "Combining the cross-disciplinary expertise and technologies from several complimentary grants working together has allowed us to achieve something truly game-changing. Such an approach has enabled us to deliver results on a much shorter timeline and smaller budget than would usually be possible." ### Further Information 1. ASPIRE Project The Advanced Self-Powered sensor units in Intense Radiation Environments (ASPIRE) project is an EPSRC-funded collaborative grant aimed at developing a solution using advanced diamond materials to harvest energy from radioactive decay to power small, portable devices containing multiple sensors that pass data over wireless networks. The grant abstract is available here: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FP017436%2F1 2. National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) The NCNR is a major Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research hub, one of four set up in late 2017. It aims to develop advanced robotics and AI technologies for nuclear industry applications. These are required to help deal with nuclear waste and alleviate the need to send humans into hazardous environments. The grant abstract is available here: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FR02572X%2F1 3. Contributors Outside of the University of Bristol team, credit and acknowledgement also goes to: Dr Emma Liu, Leverhulme Research Fellow in Volcanology, University of Cambridge Dr Tom Pering, Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield 4. Media: Image credit; University of Bristol A video Explainer can be found here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrN4o9_418k&list=PLAYkuocX05TCzTT0E_MjveMLvk_xgACgm&index=12 Extra footage of the drone and Dragon eggs can be found here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiICgsQI1Qg&feature=youtu.be 5. Press Contact Issued by University of Bristol Press Office on Thursday 5th September 2018. For more information, interview any of the researchers involved in this study please email: Robin.Knowles@bristol.ac.uk or call +44 (0)117 428 2489 The reason Pluto lost its planet status is not valid, according to new research from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union, a global group of astronomy experts, established a definition of a planet that required it to "clear" its orbit, or in other words, be the largest gravitational force in its orbit. Since Neptune's gravity influences its neighboring planet Pluto, and Pluto shares its orbit with frozen gases and objects in the Kuiper belt, that meant Pluto was out of planet status. However, in a new study published online Wednesday in the journal Icarus, UCF planetary scientist Philip Metzger, who is with the university's Florida Space Institute, reported that this standard for classifying planets is not supported in the research literature. Metzger, who is lead author on the study, reviewed scientific literature from the past 200 years and found only one publication - from 1802 - that used the clearing-orbit requirement to classify planets, and it was based on since-disproven reasoning. He said moons such as Saturn's Titan and Jupiter's Europa have been routinely called planets by planetary scientists since the time of Galileo. "The IAU definition would say that the fundamental object of planetary science, the planet, is supposed to be a defined on the basis of a concept that nobody uses in their research," Metzger said. "And it would leave out the second-most complex, interesting planet in our solar system." "We now have a list of well over 100 recent examples of planetary scientists using the word planet in a way that violates the IAU definition, but they are doing it because it's functionally useful," he said. "It's a sloppy definition," Metzger said of the IAU's definition. "They didn't say what they meant by clearing their orbit. If you take that literally, then there are no planets, because no planet clears its orbit." The planetary scientist said that the literature review showed that the real division between planets and other celestial bodies, such as asteroids, occurred in the early 1950s when Gerard Kuiper published a paper that made the distinction based on how they were formed. However, even this reason is no longer considered a factor that determines if a celestial body is a planet, Metzger said. Study co-author Kirby Runyon, with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said the IAU's definition was erroneous since the literature review showed that clearing orbit is not a standard that is used for distinguishing asteroids from planets, as the IAU claimed when crafting the 2006 definition of planets. "We showed that this is a false historical claim," Runyon said. "It is therefore fallacious to apply the same reasoning to Pluto," he said. Metzger said that the definition of a planet should be based on its intrinsic properties, rather than ones that can change, such as the dynamics of a planet's orbit. "Dynamics are not constant, they are constantly changing," Metzger said. "So, they are not the fundamental description of a body, they are just the occupation of a body at a current era." Instead, Metzger recommends classifying a planet based on if it is large enough that its gravity allows it to become spherical in shape. "And that's not just an arbitrary definition, Metzger said. "It turns out this is an important milestone in the evolution of a planetary body, because apparently when it happens, it initiates active geology in the body." Pluto, for instance, has an underground ocean, a multilayer atmosphere, organic compounds, evidence of ancient lakes and multiple moons, he said. "It's more dynamic and alive than Mars," Metzger said. "The only planet that has more complex geology is the Earth." ### Co-authors on the research included Mark Sykes, of the Planetary Science Institute; Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute; and Runyon of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Before joining UCF, Metzger worked at NASA's Kennedy Space Center from 1985 to 2014. He earned his doctorate in physics from UCF in 2005. University of Central Florida. Founded in 1963 with a commitment to expanding opportunity and demanding excellence, the University of Central Florida develops the talent needed to advance the prosperity and welfare of our society. With more than 66,000 students, UCF is one of the nation's largest universities, offering more than 200 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando and more than a dozen other locations in Central Florida and online. UCF was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as among the nation's top 25 most innovative universities along with Harvard, Stanford and Duke, and has been described by The Washington Post as "part of a vanguard that is demolishing the popular belief that exclusivity is a virtue in higher education." For more information, visit ucf.edu. You may soon be able to spot UCF drones collecting data all along the Pacific coast - from Baja California to Alaska. Timothy Hawthorne, assistant professor of GIS in the Department of Sociology, and his collaborators at the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University and the University of California-Davis recently received a $1.25 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to look at eelgrass health along North America's Pacific coast. Eelgrass is a type of coastal vegetation critical in providing fisheries habitat, controlling erosion, storing carbon and capturing nutrient runoff. Since it plays a crucial role in managing coastal ecosystem health, it can be an important biological indicator of when something is amiss. Marine pathogens, though microscopic, could be unrecognized key species capable of having massive impacts on other species and habitats, such as crabs, herring and steelhead trout. This comparative survey will use an interdisciplinary team of researchers to understand what environmental factors play a role in the spread of wasting disease in eelgrass communities from an ecological and geospatial perspective. "What I would find most exciting is if the different parts of the project that we have going here allow us to build a model that can really help predict where and when disease is going to be important and contribute to more effective management," says Emmett Duffy, the Director of Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. That's where Hawthorne's Citizen Science GIS team comes in - working with Smithsonian Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO researchers from the Tennenebaum Marine Observatories Network. They will use drones to provide high-resolution mapping and drone imagery of eelgrass communities along the coast. GIS, which stands for Geographic Information Systems is a framework in which data of spatial locations can be collected, managed, and analyzed to create layered maps and other visualizations. As part of the GIS Research Cluster, Hawthorne runs Citizen Science GIS - a research organization working with communities and researchers across the globe to create visualizations of social and environmental inequalities using GIS, maps, apps and drones. The sampling they will do for this project will quantify changes in eelgrass extent and habitat quality at a much higher resolution than most satellites can provide. One of the more innovative parts of this work is how they will be using the drone to engage with the public. Hawthorne and his team will train community partners to operate the drones when the team is unable to be onsite. This kind of citizen science allows for monitoring during specific timeframes, such as during major environmental events. Hawthorne's portion of the grant will provide a new post-doctoral position as well as a number of opportunities for undergraduates in hopes of engaging the next generation of scientists. "We really wanted to ensure that we had that representation of the student body to provide them with that first research experience in what's truly a huge interdisciplinary project," Hawthorne says. "They'll get a lot of hands-on training in drone flying, but more importantly they will get a lot of hands-on training in how to communicate across disciplines and how to then communicate those findings to a general audience, to the public, and to the greater society as well." Working in partnership with the Smithsonian has Hawthorne excited for future partnerships between UCF, the Smithsonian and other international institutions. "To work with Cornell, UC Davis, the Smithsonian and us at UCF, that's huge and it speaks to reach and the international presence of UCF and the work that we do at Citizen Science GIS," Hawthorne says. Michael Johnson, dean of the College of Sciences is also enthusiastic about this partnership: "This is a fascinating opportunity to bring Dr. Hawthorne's expertise in drone mapping and community-based GIS applications - and his passion for citizen science - to help sustain ecosystem health in an important region." The grant will fund three years of study; the team hopes to begin field work in early 2019. "No one field or no one researcher can solve the challenges related to this global issue," says Hawthorne. "To work with these world-renowned scientists in the marine bio world is just incredible. I'm not a biologist by training, so to be a social scientist with expertise that can enhance that team, that's cool. I don't think I ever dreamed that was possible." ### University of Central Florida. Founded in 1963 with a commitment to expanding opportunity and demanding excellence, the University of Central Florida develops the talent needed to advance the prosperity and welfare of our society. With more than 66,000 students, UCF is one of the nation's largest universities, offering more than 200 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando and more than a dozen other locations in Central Florida and online. UCF was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as among the nation's top 25 most innovative universities along with Harvard, Stanford and Duke, and has been described by The Washington Post as "part of a vanguard that is demolishing the popular belief that exclusivity is a virtue in higher education." For more information, visit ucf.edu. A new system capable of probing microscopic environments inside cells has been installed at the University of Exeter's Bioimaging Centre. The technology, the latest addition to the university's arsenal of world-class microscope systems, makes possible a number of new pioneering techniques, and can scan samples at more than ten times the rate of conventional systems. Professor Gero Steinberg, Director of the Bioimaging Centre, said: "This technology is a highly sophisticated imaging system. It complements existing state-of-the-art facilities and will help us to deliver further world-leading research." To investigate how a cell functions, scientists often fluorescently label particular proteins, which act as microscopic cellular machines each with unique functions. The behaviour of the protein can then be monitored using this fluorescent tag. Professor Steffen Scholpp, who won the BBSRC award for the purchase of the system, said: "This system allows the precise quantification of fluorescent proteins by two new techniques. Having access to such advanced technology puts us in a leading position in the UK." The new technology - TCS SP8 FALCON, made by Leica Microsystems - will facilitate "fast fluorescence lifetime imaging" and "fluorescence correlation spectroscopy", allowing scientists to investigate the environment of proteins in specific areas of a cell. Dr Christian Hacker, imaging specialist in the Bioimaging Centre, added: "The speed and ease of acquiring data will enable users to study molecular interactions, investigate the environments of multiple proteins simultaneously and detect changes in metabolic state and microenvironments with a high degree of accuracy." The School of Biosciences in Exeter covers many aspects of biomedical research, reaching from fungal-related plant disease research to signaling biology in embryonic development. Professor Scholpp states: "The FALCON is a game changer for protein biology - in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals. "With this system, it is now possible for researchers to generate dynamic maps of protein interactions in living cells." ### Young Muslims with immigrant background also have a strained relationship with the culture of their parents' country of origin In his doctoral dissertation to be publicly defended at the University of Helsinki on 15 September, Teemu Pauha studied the identity construction of young Muslims in Finland from the perspective of the social psychology of religion. "In the data collected from young Muslims, being Finnish and Islam are described as clearly separate and at times even opposite or exclusionary phenomena," explains Pauha. Defining themselves as Finnish or non-Finnish is not a permanent characteristic of young Muslims, but national identities vary by situation. "Within the scope of a single interview session, the same study subject could talk about both "those Finns" and "us Finns", depending on the connotations linked with Finnishness in each case. Many considered themselves Finns when abroad and foreigners in Finland," the doctoral candidate describes. In the research data, Finnishness was typically connected to Christianity, substantial alcohol consumption, as well as certain ethnic traits, such as fair skin colour and blue eyes. On the other hand, the doctoral candidate points out that there are aspects of Finnishness with which young Muslims find it easier to identify. "Finnishness is associated with customs such as going to sauna, as well as virtues such as modesty, honesty and reliability, unifying traits between Finnishness and Islam according to the study subjects." Pauha says that the findings are revealing in terms of the overall status of religion in Finland. "Although Finland is officially non-denominational and Finnish citizenship requires no affiliation with any religious group, my research demonstrates that on a notional level, Finnishness and Christianity are tightly connected." "My doctoral dissertation supplements earlier research on attitudes where Islam is often seen as an un-Finnish religion or even a threat to Finnish culture and lifestyle," Pauha continues. Young Muslims with immigrant background also have a strained relationship with the culture of their parents' country of origin Pauha finds it interesting that young Finnish Muslims have a particularly critical attitude to regional Islamic traditions practised in the country of origin of their parents. "The young people who participated in my study think there is only one true Islam, common to all the people in the world, leaving no room for national or ethnic religious differences. According to them, the traditions characteristic of a certain geographic region or ethnic group do not actually fall under the scope of religion, but 'culture'." Similar aspirations towards Islam purified of cultural variation have been detected also in studies conducted elsewhere in Europe. "By defining certain religious customs of the previous generation as 'culture', young people are able to distance themselves from them and justify their own religious notions that don't conform to those of their elders," explains Pauha. The dissertation is based on interviews of socially active young Muslims, prayers posted on Facebook by young Muslims and letters written during Islamic lessons at school in which young Muslims describe life in Finland to an imaginary Muslim friend. ### Teemu Pauha, PsM, TM will defend the doctoral dissertation entitled "Religious and national identities among young Muslims in Finland - A view from the social constructionist social psychology of religion" in the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, on 15 September 2018 at 10:00. The public examination will take place at the following address: Paarakennus, Auditorio XIV, Fabianinkatu 33 (kayntiosoite: Unioninkatu 34). Professor Jonas Otterbeck, University of Lund, will serve as the opponent, and Professor Teemu Taira as the custos. The dissertation is also available in electronic form through the E-thesis service. Jet-air hand dryers in hospital toilets spread more germs than disposable paper towels and should not be used, say researchers. Writing in the Journal of Hospital Infection, they argue that the official guidance about how to prevent bacterial contamination in hospital buildings needs to be strengthened. At the moment, the official Department of Health guidance says air dryers can be placed in toilets in the public areas of a hospital but not in clinical areas: not because of the risks they pose for cross contamination but because they are noisy. Mark Wilcox, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Leeds who supervised the international study, said the guidance needs to focus on the infection risks given new evidence. The new study looked at bacterial spread in a real world setting - in two toilets in each of three hospitals, which were in the UK, France and Italy. Each of the toilets had paper towel dispensers and jet-air dryers, but only one of these was in use on any given day. Professor Wilcox said: "The problem starts because some people do not wash their hands properly. "When people use a jet-air dryer, the microbes get blown off and spread around the toilet room. "In effect, the dryer creates an aerosol that contaminates the toilet room, including the dryer itself and potentially the sinks, floor and other surfaces, depending on the dryer design and where it is sited. If people touch those surfaces, they risk becoming contaminated by bacteria or viruses. "Jet-air dryers often rely on no-touch technology to initiate hand drying. However, paper towels absorb the water and microbes left on the hands and if they are disposed of properly, there is less potential for cross-contamination." The study, led by researchers from the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, was the largest of its type to investigate whether the way people dry their hands has an impact on the spread of bacteria. This research follows a previous laboratory-based study led by the same team, which found that jet-air dryers were much worse than paper towels or traditional warm air hand dryers when it came to spreading germs. The hospitals used in the study were the Leeds General Infirmary in Yorkshire, the hospital of Saint Antoine (Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris) in France, and the Hospital of Udine in Italy. On each day, over 12 weeks, levels of bacterial contamination in the toilets were measured, allowing comparisons to be made when either paper towels or jet-air dryers were in use. Samples were taken from the floors, air and surfaces in each of the toilets. The main target bacteria were: Staphylococcus aureus : responsible for a range of conditions from minor skin and wound infections to life-threatening septicaemia. : responsible for a range of conditions from minor skin and wound infections to life-threatening septicaemia. Enterococci: bacteria that can cause difficult-to-treat infections, including in immunocompromised patients. Enterobacteria: including Escherichia coli. These bacteria cause a wide range of infections, including gastroenteritis, pneumonia and septicaemia. Across the three hospitals, bacterial counts were significantly higher in the toilets on the days that jet-air dryers were in use. In Leeds and Paris, at least five times more bacteria were recovered from the floors when jet-air dryers were in use, compared with paper towels. In Leeds, Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA) was found three times more often and in higher amounts on the surface of the jet-air dryers compared with the paper towel dispensers. Significantly more enterococci and multidrug resistant bacteria were recovered from either the floors or dust of toilets when the jet-air dryers rather than paper towels were in use. In Italy, the researchers found significantly fewer bacteria on the surface of paper towel dispensers compared with the jet-air dryers, although no significant difference on the floors. Professor Wilcox said: "We found multiple examples of greater bacterial contamination on surfaces, including by faecal and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, when jet-air dryers rather than paper towels were in use. Choice of hand drying method affects how likely microbes can spread, and so possibly the risk of infection." Frederic Barbut, Professor of Microbiology at Saint Antoine (Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris), said: "The higher environmental contamination observed when using jet air-dryers compared with paper towels increases the risk for cross-contamination. "These results confirm previous laboratory-based findings and support the recent French guidelines regarding hand hygiene, which discourage using jet-air dryers in clinical wards". ### The study was funded by the European Tissue Symposium, a trade organisation representing companies that manufacture paper towels. However, the research was independently conceived, designed, conducted and interpreted, and was peer-reviewed by experts not involved in the study. Notes to editors For further information and to request interviews please contact Simon Moore, Press Officer at the University of Leeds, on 0113 34 38059 or s.i.moore@leeds.ac.uk. The paper 'Multicentre study to examine the extent of environmental contamination by potential bacterial pathogens, including antibiotic resistant bacteria, in hospital washrooms according to hand-drying method' is published in the Journal of Hospital Infection on 7 September. University of Leeds The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 33,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2019. Additionally, the University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk Follow University of Leeds or tag us in to coverage: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram September 7, 2018 - Clinical practice guidelines play a critical role in promoting quality care for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). A new set of guidelines for rehabilitation of patients with moderate to severe TBI - incorporating insights from the rehabilitation professionals responsible for providing care from initial assessment through long-term follow-up - is introduced in the September issue of the The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR), official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "The novel approach of consulting and working with end users to develop a clinical practice guideline for moderate to severe TBI should influence knowledge uptake for clinicians wanting to provide evidence-based care," according to an introductory article by Bonnie Swaine, PhD, of Universite de Montreal and the Center for Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Research (CRIR) and colleagues. Unique Focus on Responding to Needs of Professionals Caring for TBI The guidelines were developed by a collaborative effort of researchers, clinicians, and policymakers from Ontario and Quebec. The complete, bilingual (English and French) guidelines can be accessed at http://braininjuryguidelines.org. The guidelines were sponsored by the Quebec Institut national d'excellence en sante et en services sociaux (INESSS) and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation (ONF). Several sets of guidelines for TBI have been developed in recent years - so why develop a new clinical practice guideline now? "Because clinicians told us that they need specific features and tools," Dr. Swaine and coauthors write. Updated guidelines are also needed to reflect the trend toward community-based rehabilitation, as well as the context of the Canadian healthcare system. From the outset, the guideline development process assessed the needs and expectations of "end users": the clinicians and managers providing rehabilitation care for patients with moderate to severe TBI. A study by Marie-Eve Lamontagne, PhD, of Universite Laval, Quebec City, and colleagues found that rehabilitation professionals expressed positive perceptions of clinical practice guidelines - however, only a small proportion of respondents used them in everyday practice. The professionals identified several key topics to be covered in guidelines, including the intensity and frequency of rehabilitation services, managing behavioral disorders and cognitive function impairment, and social participation and community life. A separate survey asked professionals their views on how well guideline recommendations were implemented into the care of patients with TBI. While a high percentage of recommendations were considered "fully or mostly implemented," several gaps in implementation were recognized, both in acute care and rehabilitation settings. An article by Dr Mark Bayley, MD, of University of Toronto and colleagues highlights the unique features of the INESSS/ONF guideline development process that address user's needs, including providing prioritization of recommendations for implementation, implementation tools, indicators to measure uptake, system implications and background rationale and evidence supporting the recommendation. The final clinical practice guideline includes 71 recommendations related to the components of the optimal TBI rehabilitation system, including the intensity/frequency of interventions, rehabilitation mechanisms, duration of interventions, and mechanisms for promoting continuity of care; and 195 recommendations pertaining to assessment and rehabilitation of the sequelae of brain injury, including behavioral disorders, cognitive dysfunction, fatigue and sleep disturbance, and mental health. The vision behind the guidelines encompasses the whole "knowledge to action cycle," including measures to define and support implementation of the recommendations across Ontario and Quebec. Drs. Swaine, Bayley, and Lamontagne and colleagues conclude: "Only time will tell whether our attention to user needs and expectations will positively influence the uptake of knowledge using the clinical practice guideline and, ultimately, patient outcomes following moderate to severe TBI. " ### Click here to read the new guidelines in the September issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation is a leading, peer-reviewed resource that provides up-to-date information on the clinical management and rehabilitation of persons with traumatic brain injuries. Six issues each year aspire to the vision of "knowledge informing care" and include a wide range of articles, topical issues, commentaries and special features. It is the official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America About the Brain Injury Association of America Brain Injury Association of America is the country's oldest and largest nationwide brain injury advocacy organization. Our mission is to advance awareness, research, treatment and education and to improve the quality of life for all individuals impacted by brain injury. Through advocacy, we bring help, hope and healing to millions of individuals living with brain injury, their families and the professionals who serve them. 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. this news is not available 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. From: American Evaluation Association (AEA) For Immediate Release: Dateline: Washington , DC Friday, September 7, 2018 Anthony Oboh, an I/O Psychology Doctoral candidate at Keiser University and Consulting Research Intern, and Sy Islam, Principal Consultant with Talent Metrics, a data-driven consulting firm. It is often said, a picture is worth a thousand words and that means using visuals can help people understand data more effectively. At Talent Metrics, we help professional organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their meetings. Visualizations can help professional organizations evaluate the quality of their meetings. Data visualization is an easy way for people to understand and interpret information. The simpler and more dynamic the visualization, the easier it is for people to interpret. Often, professional organizations evaluate their meetings based on content, relevance, and the satisfaction of the participated members. Such data can be presented in a simple yet powerful data visualization that can help these organizations evaluate their events more effectively. Hot Tip: Use data visualization to report multiple pieces of data in a concise and simple manner. A data visualization like a bar chart or stacked graph such as the one below is an easy way of presenting and communicating information about participants experience of a meeting or events. Most meeting feedback is collected after the meeting and can be presented in a simple visual like the stacked bar chart. However, more meaningful findings could be discovered by using longitudinal data. Professional organizations can evaluate how effective different subjects or meeting topics are over time. Hello, were, an I/O Psychology Doctoral candidate at Keiser University and Consulting Research Intern, and, Principal Consultant with Talent Metrics, a data-driven consulting firm. It is often said, a picture is worth a thousand words and that means using visuals can help people understand data more effectively. At Talent Metrics, we help professional organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their meetings. Visualizations can help professional organizations evaluate the quality of their meetings. Data visualization is an easy way for people to understand and interpret information. The simpler and more dynamic the visualization, the easier it is for people to interpret. Often, professional organizations evaluate their meetings based on content, relevance, and the satisfaction of the participated members. Such data can be presented in a simple yet powerful data visualization that can help these organizations evaluate their events more effectively.: Use data visualization to report multiple pieces of data in a concise and simple manner.A data visualization like a bar chart or stacked graph such as the one below is an easy way of presenting and communicating information about participants experience of a meeting or events. Most meeting feedback is collected after the meeting and can be presented in a simple visual like the stacked bar chart. However, more meaningful findings could be discovered by using longitudinal data. Professional organizations can evaluate how effective different subjects or meeting topics are over time. Stacked Bar Indicating Members Reactions/Outcome of a Meeting A survey conducted at the end of a networking event, used to understand how well the event was, particularly to have a better understanding of the impact the event had made on the attendees. You can use a simple line graph to track these same results over time. Review the line graph below. From this line graph we can evaluate the effectiveness of meetings on these criteria over time and provide appropriate content curation for future professional meetings. Lessons Learned: Using a longitudinal data such as the line graph above is extremely beneficial to understand how the content of professional networking events is perceived by audience members. Rad Resources: Check out these resources to learn more about data visualization! Data visualization: The top Five Advantages of Data Visualization Data visualization: What it is and why it Matters Check out Dr. Evan Sinars post about data visualizations you should be using more often Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. Offshore oil production is showing signs of a turnaround as crude prices rise and operations become more efficient, giving energy companies the confidence to resume deep-water projects stalled during the oil bust. The sectors recovery, which has lagged the broader industry rebound, is concentrated in regions including Scandinavia, West Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where new discoveries and lower costs of production have piqued the interest of companies looking to make money outside of shale, according to a recent analysis by researcher IHS Markit. Regardless of location, a global offshore renaissance would solidify the recovery of Texas oil and gas industry and further strengthen an economy already propped up by the shale boom in West Texas. Houston is the center of the worlds offshore drilling sector. Its where leading global companies including Transocean, TechnipFMC and Diamond Offshore Drilling maintain major operations and employ thousands. READ ALSO: San Antonio home prices continue swift rise while market remains tight This the last stage of the recovery, said Patrick Jankowski, senior economist with the Greater Houston Partnership. When you start to see activity in this sector, you know the bust is over. IHS Markit expects that demand for mobile offshore drilling rigs will grow by 15 percent through 2020, driven largely by activity in international waters. The company expects that demand will average 521 rigs in 2020, up from 453 this year. Oil companies also have made several discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico recently, but the recovery there is expected to progress more slowly as domestic producers focus on more accessible and lower-cost shale basins in West Texas and elsewhere. Onshore projects require less time and money to complete than those developed in ocean waters thousands of feet deep, which has made them particularly attractive to U.S. oil and gas companies under pressure from investors to spend less and deliver higher profits. Usually the activity starts in the Gulf and spreads out around the world, West said. This time, its the opposite. The oil and gas industry in general recovered slowly from the recent oil bust, which in less than two years drove prices from more than $100 to $26 a barrel in early 2016. Only in the last year or so have companies begun to report consistent profits as prices pushed above $60 a barrel. Much of those profits have come from the Permian Basin, which accounts for about half the nations active drilling rigs and nearly one-third of U.S. production. READ ALSO: Ponzi scheme leader who toppled career of ex-Sen. Carlos Uresti gets 15 years Even as shale drillers returned to profitability, offshore drillers continued to file for bankruptcy to shed billions of dollars in debt acquired before the last boom went bust. The sector is also consolidating as bigger, stronger players buy weaker, smaller ones. With the U.S. benchmark for crude hanging around $70 a barrel and many offshore operators cutting production costs, the outlook for the sector is much improved, analysts said. Ian Macpherson, senior energy analyst at investment researcher Piper Jaffray & Co., said the offshore industry is on track to have its first profitable year since the bust. Were still bouncing along the bottom in terms of activity, he said, but theres little debate the direction from here is positive. In a bet on the sectors comeback, Transocean agreed Tuesday to spend $2.7 billion to buy rival Ocean Rig, sealing its rank as the worlds largest offshore drilling contractor and giving it a greater foothold in promising areas including Brazil, Norway and West Africa. CEO Jeremy Thigpen, speaking Wednesday at a Barclays energy conference, said he believes that the recovery is already well underway. We are far more bullish on the recovery than we have been historically, he said. Were seeing new contract awards across all of our customer bases. The North Sea has proven especially resilient, particularly in the waters off Norway. Christian Brown, president of the oil and gas division for Canadian engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin, said there is widespread consensus among his customers that oil is trading well above the cost of drilling there. He expects the sectors momentum to build as oil prices rise. READ ALSO: Bexar commissioners unanimously approve $1.7B spending plan Youre starting to see customers, particularly the international oil companies and the independents, building some capacity offshore because they believe the market will be there for bigger developments, he said. The Gulf also is seeing signs of life, despite a marked decline in drilling activity in the years since crude oil topped out at $100 a barrel four years ago. Only 16 drilling rigs operate there, down from 63 in the summer of 2014, according to the Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes. Royal Dutch Shell, however, recently launched its multibillion-dollar Appomattox platform in the Norphlet region of the Gulf. Its the companys first major deep-water project after the bust. Earlier this year, the company joined Chevron, BP and Frances Total in announcing deep-water discoveries in the Gulf. Smaller companies including Talos Energy and Fieldwood Energy are also expanding there. Robin Jerstad /Contributor Ride-hailing company Lyft is expanding its presence in San Antonio with the opening of a new driver support center and a partnership with Hertz. The new center at 8610 Broadway St. will host trainings, dispense supplies and help with driver needs. It will also serve as Lyfts headquarters in San Antonio, housing the companys local marketing and operations employees. Glory days may pass you by, but what follows can be pretty great, too. Take Texas music star Pat Green. Greens album Wave on Wave, a high-water mark for the Texas music scene, is 15 years in the rearview mirror, and its been almost a decade since he released his last album on a major label. But tonight, hell play a sold-out show at The Rustic, a sprawling drinking, dining and music venue he co-owns. Hes still reaching fans with new music, though albums may be a thing of the past. And earlier this year, an all-star roster of Texas country acts paid tribute to him on the album Dancehall Dreamin. That was a wonderful experience and humbling, Green said in a phone interview Monday morning after feeding his dogs. You should be a little older than me or maybe even dead before you get a tribute album. The album features many of the stars of the Texas music scene who emerged around the turn of the century, people like Jack Ingram, Kevin Fowler, Cory Morrow and Aaron Watson, musicians who revered Robert Earl Keen and Townes Van Zandt and Joe Ely but also grew up listening to rock music. Pat Green When: Doors open at 6 p.m. Friday Where: The Rustic, 17619 La Cantera Parkway Tickets: Sold out. therustic.com Opening act: Roger Creager Before and after The fun for Pat Green fans won't be contained to The Rustic on Friday. Here's what's happening Pre-party: 5-8 p.m. at The General Public. Live music and happy hour drink specials After-party: Free bowling on select lanes at Bowl & Barrel until 2 a.m. Kitchen open until 2 a.m. See More Collapse I do think the Texas music scene is unique, like the Seattle grunge scene was unique, Green said. There are very specific moments in time where a kind of music landed in a place of prominence. Listen to the kind of music I was making and compare that to what was happening in Nashville at the time. Its a very different sound, a folk rock version of country. Green was an undisputed star of the scene. Wave on Wave debuted at No. 2 on Billboards country albums chart, as would two more of his albums. It was certified gold, for sales of 500,000, and the title track hit No. 3 on the country airplay chart. Its a time Green looks back on in Drinkin Days, a dance hall-ready song he released last year. There was a time in my life where I know in the state of Texas I was top of the pile, he said. I had a wonderful time then; I dont have any regrets. I worked as hard as I could, took it as far as I could on the national scene. Looking back on those days does feel really good. While Drinkin Days recalls his glory days, Green references Bruce Springsteens Glory Days when he talks about his latest song, Fridays Comin, about a stressed-out dad holding out for the weekend. I think I was trying to write an everyman kind of song, he said. Green said hes planning on recording a couple of new songs a couple of times a year. At my stage of my career, being independent, putting out 12 songs really doesnt do much good for anybody anybody thats not going to sell 100,000 records, he said. When we were kids, if an album didnt sell 500,000, it was not necessarily a success. Now thats almost unheard of. Coming up next: A cover of U2s Trip Through Your Wires with Joe Ely. Songs by Ely, such as Me and Billy the Kid and All Just to Get to You, have been staples of Greens live sets for years, but this will be the first time they have recorded together. When asked what it was like to play a venue he has a stake in, Green referenced another moment from his past. Jack Ingram, he said, told him when they were younger that whether the audience was 10 or 10,000, its the same show. I think the pro part of me says, Yeah, its the same show, he said. But when The Rustic came online, its your baby, you do want it to go well. Either way, its a dance-hall dream come true. From her bed at a skilled nursing facility in San Antonio, Laura Corso writes out her pain one line of poetry at a time. Primary progressive multiple sclerosis, a rare form of MS, has robbed the 40-year-old of all mobility save for her neck and left hand, which she uses to tap out words on a laptop when she isnt dictating them to a Google Docs speech recognition add-on. Corsos poems often bear witness to her anguish. She writes about madness and insanity, indirect nods to her bipolar diagnosis. Anxiety and a previous eating disorder. A bout with endometriosis, a painful uterine condition, captured in what Corso calls one of her favorite poems, where each stanza begins with Death to all its attendant agonies. Corso said she doesnt consider her creative efforts a way to cope with her struggles. But whenever she shares one of her finished poems, she adds, she rises above those aches, no matter how much they ground her. Thats the ultimate high for me, unlike anything I have ever experienced, she said. It just brings me to amazing heights that I cant compare to anything else. More Information Words by Laura Corso Words Flow but not Seemingly so But yet it does An unexpected design An abstract construct Yet a simple silhouette I grasp but is not mine They are words Something not to hold Yet printed and signed So be it to a higher reason Some are further than others A traipse or a steady gait with words They came to be And gave us life Our lives in hearkened images They are the breath What makes us who we are Evolved from love Words See More Collapse Corso figures shes written more than 100 poems since she started in earnest more than 20 years ago. Her mother, Anita Lunde, included some of her poetry in a letter she sent to Jim LaVilla-Havelin, the Express-News poetry editor. He chose the poem, Words, which is running with this story. It is Corsos first published poem. LaVilla-Havelin called Words a good free-verse poem, and echoed its lines in his appraisal: A traipse or a / steady gait with words that are the breath / What makes us who we are. I would call it a poets poem, LaVilla-Havelin said. Many of us are accused regularly about writing about writing. I think its certainly more than that. I think that for Laura there seems to be a solace in writing. And those of us who write know that the process itself is healing. This is the dilemma and the joy of it. That doesnt even account for Corsos ties to poetic greatness. Shes the niece of the late Gregory Corso, the youngest of the Beat poets of the 1950s, which included Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Gregory Corso died in 2001 at age 70. Lavilla-Havelin said he considers Gregory Corso the most accessible of the Beats, and in that regard sees a similar openness and clarity in the work of the late poets niece. Corso never met her acclaimed uncle, but she said shes a fan and holds some of his poems close to heart. She also relishes the work of the lyrical German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the American poet E.E. Cummings, and the American poet and satirist Dorothy Parker. But Corso said none of these talents really influence her. Rather, she exorcises her personal demons with her own poetic voice. I feel like I have a style on my own and kind of hold to that, she said. And while it may sound counterintuitive, tackling such dark and personal suffering in her work can also result in a better state of mind, according to Constanza Roeder of Hearts Need Art, a San Antonio nonprofit program that uses art to help patients cope with the traumas of cancer. Thats such a great sign that someone is really processing and facing some of the hard stuff theyre dealing with, said Roeder, who has not met Corso. Actually, a lot of what we do is get (patients) back into their minds and their bodies. Because thats kind of where that creative power comes from, to transform suffering into something beautiful. Corso has long used her words to defend the art of torment. Back in 1992, when she was a teenager, she penned a defiant letter to Spin magazine taking a reviewer to task for his less than glowing assessment of the album Wish by the alternative goth band the Cure. The Cure is anything but dark, Corso wrote then. Our world is a very cold place, and most relationships dont have happy endings. Corso would start to pour such passions into poetry around the time of her bipolar diagnosis in her late teens, soon after she dropped out of MacArthur High School. (She later got her GED.) Lunde champions her daughters treatment as well as her work. Last year, she raised more than $29,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to fly Corso to San Antonio from Sacramento, California, so she could receive care closer to family. Lunde lives just 11 miles away from Corso, while Corsos older brother Richard Corso lives in New Braunfels. Lunde sees themes of nature, emotion and love in her daughters poetry, along with distraught feelings about her health. And given her daughters physical limitations and debilitating condition, she also sees Corsos poetry as a veritable lifeline. Her writing is her livelihood, Lunde said. Thats what drives her. Thats what motivates her. Indeed, another of Corsos poems begins: I am disabled / Not unabled / To sing you a tune / A rhyme / Beneath the / Invisible moon. It goes on to say, Writing is my love / No apologies. Corsos poetry isnt all about pain. Another of her favorite poems is one called My Love, which she dedicated to Robert Wilson, her significant other of more than a decade who lives in Sacramento. Wilson also was Corsos primary caregiver after she was diagnosed with MS in 2007, but a combination of health issues would later prevent him from providing further care. Wilson and Corso maintain a long-distance relationship. Still together, but separate, Corso said. Corso said she hopes her poems can reach more readers, if only to let them know theyre not alone in their own pain. Perhaps her poem I lament, O I lament best illustrates that desire. The poem leads with a mention of her writing being crushed by recent depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, only to conclude with that challenged passion once again giving way to liberation: Truth it prevails / A blustery passion / But / always with / tender sails. Rene A. Guzman is a features writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rguzman@express-news.net | Twitter: @reneguz The University of Texas at San Antonio will receive $70 million from the states Permanent University Fund for a pair of buildings that will further position the city and university as a national information security hub, officials said. Approved unanimously by the UT System Board of Regents on Thursday during an Austin-based telephone conference, the money will develop homes for a National Security Collaboration Center and a School of Data Science, both to be located on the universitys downtown campus. The center will focus on cybersecurity research and collaboration between the university, government agencies and private sector partners in a $33 million, 80,000-square-foot building. The school will consolidate existing programs and 70-plus faculty members in cybersecurity, cloud computing, data and analytics and artificial intelligence in a $57 million, 138,000-square-foot building. The intent is to put them close to each other to create a central hub. UTSA President Taylor Eighmy told regents he expects to settle on their locations in the next few weeks and announce where the remaining $20 million needed for the project will come from. He said he hopes to complete construction within two years. I do believe we can become a Sillicon Valley equivalent for this focus on data science, information management, information technology and cybersecurity, Eighmy said in an interview after the meeting. While some classified activity will take place in the center, undergraduate and graduate students will have opportunities to learn there from potential future employers through training and collaborative work, Eighmy said. Currently, about 3,500 undergraduate and 400 graduate students at UTSA are pursuing degrees in such fields. It has 10 partnerships with private firms and about a dozen federal partners, including the National Security Agency, U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Secret Service, said Bernard Arulanandam, interim vice president for research at UTSA. The partnerships include contracts, collaborative research and agreements to place students and faculty in remote facilities. The closer you get people together in collaboration, the faster innovation happens, Eighmy said. The whole purpose of the center is to pack densely bright people into one space. Such collaboration is the only way we can move at the speed of relevance in the 21st century, said Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, the commander of the Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, in a prepared statement. The model UTSA is creating will help the entire community move forward faster together to create economic opportunity and protect national security. Global cybersecurity employers report a shortage of employees to address current threats, according to a study by the business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan for the Center for Cyber Safety and Education. A need for 1.8 million professionals in information security and technology is expected in the United States by 2022, the study said. The UTSA programs will help us immeasurably in building a sustainable workforce pipeline, said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and chief executive officer of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. Having a vibrant downtown campus with dedicated entities focused on data science and cybersecurity supports our targeted growth strategy in IT and cybersecurity to recruit and retain quality employers, she said. Last month, Eighmy released a plan to create a bigger downtown university presence integrated with the citys landscape. In a nutshell, I believe great public research universities have a wonderful opportunity to shape the future and those that are situated within an urban environment will have the best chance for that, he said. You might even say UTSA is a perfect example of what a future-urban serving university will look like. Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva South San Antonio ISDs board interviewed five finalists this week to replace outgoing Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra, according to the districts consultant. Thirty-two people from eight states applied for the position and submitted videos answering questions provided by search firm JG Consulting, owner James Guerra said. The board interviewed three candidates Wednesday and two Thursday night during closed meetings at Palo Alto College. Saavedra, 67, who came out of retirement to lead the district in 2014, announced in June that he would not seek renewal of his contract, which ends in March 2019. He plans to return to a teaching position at Texas A&M University, he said. When he was hired, Saavedra became the fifth person to run the district in less than three years, and its board was under investigation by the Texas Education Agency. He has been credited with restoring stability to the district during his tenure. READ ALSO: Regents approve $70 million for UTSA cyber expansions Guerra said South Sans board was looking for candidates familiar with the Lone Star Governance system, a training initiative created by the TEA that the board attended in January 2017. The TEA cited the boards adoption of the governance model as its main reason to remove the conservator assigned to oversee the district. Guerra, whose firm was hired by the board in June, said the trustees are also looking for a superintendent who understands the complexities of South San ISD, and said a bilingual candidate would be ideal. He declined to comment on whether any of the applicants were internal candidates from within the district. Under state law, the district must wait 21 days between naming a lone finalist and voting on the new hire. The board is scheduled to name a lone finalist on Sept. 12 or 13, according to a timeline from the search firm, though they could make a decision earlier if they decide not to hold a second round of interviews early next week. The leaders of the South Sides only community college and only university told more than 100 local business and education representatives Thursday that they plan to dedicate more resources and work together to increase economic opportunity in the area, and by extension, all of San Antonio. We are on a promising path in south San Antonio and throughout the city, and it has to do with the power of partnerships, said Mike Flores, the president of Palo Alto College, who will take over next month as chancellor of the Alamo Colleges District and its five community colleges. Flores and Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of Texas A&M University-San Antonio, spoke at the second annual Economic Exchange luncheon sponsored by the Southside First Economic Development Council, which formed last year to advocate for equity and responsible development there. About 350,000 people live south of U.S. 90 in San Antonio, where the average per capita income is about $15,000 per person, said Andrew Anguiano, the groups executive director. At the luncheon, Flores presented data from 2014 showing about one-third of high school graduates in nine Bexar County school districts, including the three largest, did not enroll in college and earned poverty-level wages. Of those, graduates from the Southwest, South San Antonio and East Central independent school districts were the lowest earners. RELATED: UTSA to receive 2 new downtown buildings at $70 million Flores started the academic year last month by bringing Richard Reeves, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, to talk to his faculty about social mobility, a topic Flores intends to focus on as chancellor. If socioeconomic status is divided into five levels, or quintiles, about 27 percent of Alamo Colleges students move up at least two quintiles, according to last years Brookings data. Palo Alto College has more early college high school partnerships with school districts than any other higher education institution in the city, and Flores has affirmed his commitment to dual credit programs, although theyve contributed to budget shortfalls in the community college district. He said at least 85 percent of eligible seniors in early college high schools affiliated with the Alamo Colleges have graduated with associates degrees. Teniente-Matson said her university is competing with top schools to recruit talented faculty and pour more money into scholarships for high-schoolers in the top 10 percent of their graduating classes, encouraging San Antonios best to stay local. SA Tomorrow, the citys long-range growth and development plan, identified A&M-San Antonio and Palo Alto College as critical partners to contribute to balanced growth, she noted. RELATED: Texas manufacturers lower standards, offer more training to find applicants There is a spotlight shining on the higher education sector south of San Antonio, Teniente-Matson said. Anguiano said the universitys rapid expansion and Palo Altos status this year as a Top 10 finalist for the Aspen Prize, the nations highest honor for community colleges, prompted the council to plan Thursdays event with a focus on higher education. These are both South Side institutions that are creating a lot of change, not only on the South Side, but in San Antonios economy, Anguiano said. Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN The City Council formally embraced a task forces recommendations Thursday on how to best increase housing opportunities for everyone in San Antonio, a move that Mayor Ron Nirenbergs office described as historic. Most council members voted to support a resolution adopting five policy recommendations issued by the mayors Housing Policy Task Force seeking to make housing more affordable and accessible. We have made a bold first step in making housing truly a top priority for our city, Nirenberg said. This will allow the city to get ahead of a crisis that too many cities are facing in the United States, he added. If we do not take action, an affordable housing crisis looms large. Nirenberg pointed to the citys booming population, which is expected to surge by 1 million people over the next 25 years. Housing prices have risen faster than incomes inside the city limits during the past decade, he noted. One in three San Antonio households living in homes they own spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, while half the households in rented dwellings are similarly cost burdened, according to data provided to the city earlier this year. Nirenberg formed the task force last summer to develop what he called a comprehensive and compassionate housing strategy for the city. He has argued that housing policy is as important for the citys economic development as energy, water and transportation policies. The panel spent a year investigating the citys housing needs, reviewing trends and data and hosting a series of public meetings that drew comments from more than 500 residents before making its recommendations. The group urged the city to develop a coordinated housing system; increase its investment in housing; ramp up production, rehabilitation and preservation of affordable housing; protect and preserve neighborhoods; and ensure accountability to the public. A task force report proposes a 10-year funding plan relying on public and private funds to expand affordable housing. That blueprint suggests that the city dedicate $485 million from its general fund toward such needs during the next decade, while generating an additional $250 million through two separate five-year general obligation bonds. The plan also suggests using other sources of funding and leveraging private funds. The 10-year investment could begin with the proposed fiscal year 2019 budget, which the council is expected to vote on next week. That budget seeks to commit $25 million to housing programs next year. Most of that money $17 million is new funding. The council voted 8-1 to adopt the task forces five recommended action priorities but hasnt yet acted on any funding strategies. Most council members voiced eager support for the task forces recommendations, as did many residents and housing activists who spoke publicly Thursday. Councilman John Courage noted that tens of thousands of families in San Antonio live in substandard dwellings that are poorly maintained, lack air conditioning or heat or have leaky roofs. They live in such places because they have no choice, he said. If we dont help them find safe, livable places, then theres going to be continued growth in crime and poverty and poor educational outcomes and people not finding work ... and people getting sick and spreading illness and disease, Courage said. That is what we will all end up paying for in the long run if were not willing to invest in affordable, safe housing for all of our citizens. City officials must ensure that new generations can live in the same neighborhoods where their families have resided for decades, Councilman Roberto Trevino said. The councils No. 1 responsibility is to improve the quality of life and protect the dignity of all residents, he said. Councilman Clayton Perry was the only one to vote against the resolution. Councilman Greg Brockhouse was away from his chair during the vote, but he indicated he could not support the measure. Both expressed concerns about the financial demands the policies will place on the city. Perry said that while he agrees with many of the recommendations, were putting an additional drain on the general fund. I dont really see an end in sight for this requirement. If were patient, the market will adjust. ... Whenever the government gets involved in market forces, things tend to not always turn out the way you expect them to, Perry said. Brockhouse questioned why the city needs to hire more people to address its housing issues. The task force has suggested creating a housing executive position in the city managers office to enact a coordinated housing system across city departments and with outside partners. Were trying to build rooftops, not build the size of government, Brockhouse said. Were increasing the bureaucracy. He suggested that the city could better stimulate housing development by charging lower fees and reducing regulations. Councilman Manny Pelaez was not at Thursdays meeting. Former Mayor and former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said it makes sense for the city to proactively address its housing needs. This is so vital for economic development, Castro told council members before they voted. Companies as they decide where theyre going to locate more and more are weighing the affordability of housing, the overall cost of living to their employees, as an important factor in their decision. Peggy OHare is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare U.S. Rep. John Carter hasnt held a town hall in five years and hes kind of acting as if he wants to retire. M.J. Hegar on Aug. 21 in an interview on Spectrum Cables Capital Tonight Has Rep. John Carter of Round Rock not hosted a town hall meeting for half a decade? Democrat M.J. Hegar of Round Rock says as much about the eight-term Republican shes challenging to represent the states 31st Congressional District, which is north of Austin and sweeps in Williamson and Bell counties. A decorated Air Force veteran, Hegar has promoted her candidacy with a video in which she says that she once tried but failed to land a meeting with Carter about lifting the ban on women to participate in ground combat. Well show him tough, Hegar says in the video. Then well show him the door. READ ALSO: Why primary voters shouldn't pick party county chairs Merriam-Webster defines a town hall as an event at which a public official or political candidate addresses an audience by answering questions posed by individual members. The dictionary makes clear that such a gathering doesnt have to enable anyone to ask anything. Merriam-Webster follows the definition with this sample sentence: Town halls have lost some of their spontaneity. The 80 or so undecided voters chosen for Tuesdays event must submit their questions in advance and moderator Candy Crowley of CNN will decide which people to call on. Christian Walker of Hegars campaign pointed to a Texas Observer article describing a 2013 town-hall meeting where Carter faced critical questions. Walker also singled out a February 2017 Austin American-Statesman news story in which Round Rock resident Felicia Miyakawa said Carters staff had told her and others that Carter hadnt hosted live town-hall meetings since the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., at a public meeting with constituents in 2011. Carter spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer responded at the time: I wouldnt say that is the reason, but it would be correct to say it contributes to the many reasons. Mostly town halls are not nearly as effective, and you cant reach nearly as many people as a tele-town hall. One alternative: Mass conference calls. The American-Statesman story said: Many members of Congress prefer the safety of tele-town hall meetings, which offer interaction with constituents but in a controlled setting essentially large-scale conference calls in which hundreds or thousands of people can listen in and queue up to ask a question with no booing, no signs with clever slogans, no bad headlines, no viral videos. READ ALSO: O'Rourke campaign blames 'impostor' for illegal voting texts Carter held an hourlong tele-town hall on March 22, 2017, according to an American-Statesman news blog post. More recently, an Aug. 11, 2018, news story said Carter had reached out to residents through Facebook Live events. When asked about Hegars claim, Carter said that hed held multiple events attended by people asking questions. Ive been all over my district now, for 12- to 14-hour days, which is pretty typical of my work in Augusts each year. I would say Im way ahead of my opponent in the Man-of-the-People category, Carter said. Regarding Carters formal schedule, Emily Taylor, who works in his office, listed four events last month where she said Carter took questions from constituents on topics including federal pensions, Fort Hood and the legalization of marijuana. The events, Taylor said, were hosted by the Temple Kiwanis Club (Aug. 7); American Legion Post 133 (Aug. 14); Military Officers Association of America (Aug. 17); and Killeen Chamber of Commerce (Aug. 23). An Aug. 14 Temple Daily Telegram news story on the American Legion event includes a section titled Town Hall stating that Carter took a few minutes to discuss congressional business and field questions from the audience. When asked if Carter had held public town halls open to all constituents, Taylor replied that Carter had hosted 25 telephone town halls in five years, the latest one on June 18. The last four alone have reached 71,471 constituents, according to Taylor. Also, Taylor said, Carter holds Facebook Live town halls, where constituents can tune in online and ask real-time questions or submit questions on our website if theyre unable to tune in during the live event. She pointed us to a nearly 20-minute Facebook Live event that Carter held July 2. Such events are publicized, Taylor wrote, through Carters electronic newsletters. Our ruling Hegar said Carter hasnt held a town hall in five years. As Hegar maintained, it looks like Carter hasnt hosted a traditional in-person town hall any time recently. Yet he holds tele-town halls, makes Facebook Live appearances and talks at meetings hosted by local groups. We rate this claim Mostly True: The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. AUSTIN A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a Texas law requiring fetal and embryonic tissue from failed and aborted pregnancies to 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. Opponents argue the forced interment is another example of government officials enacting laws to shame women and create more hurdles for them to get abortions. The law created substantial obstacles for women, doctors and abortion clinics while offering absolutely no health benefit in return, Ezra explained from the bench. There are far, far more women who miscarry in the state of Texas every year than there are women who seek an elected abortion, and those women would be dramatically impacted in a significant way by this legislation, Ezra said. 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 an undue burden on women and health care providers. 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, a Republican up for re-election, 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. Paxtons office has spent half a million taxpayer dollars putting pro-life advocates on the stand as expert witnesses to defend Texas abortion restrictions, a Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News analysis found. Judges often dismissed or gave little to no weight on the states experts, according to court rulings and transcripts. 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. More than 40 days after a deadly apartment complex fire in San Marcos, one of the survivors is fighting for his life after 15 surgeries in San Antonio. Zachary Sutterfield, 20, of San Angelo, has a 50 percent chance of surviving, according to statements released by his family. He is being treated in the intensive care unit at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center at Fort Sam Houston. Sutterfield suffered head trauma and third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body as he tried to escape the blaze early July 20 at Iconic Village Apartments, near Texas State University. Sutterfield is the most severely injured survivor of the fire, which killed five people. People outside of the burning building who saw Sutterfield on fire hollered at him to stop, drop and roll to extinguish the flames, his father, Karl Sutterfield, said in a statement. They helped Zachary and then guided him to a nearby ambulance. Zachary was able to communicate with paramedics and asked them to knock him out, Karl Sutterfield wrote. First responders and two survivors who helped Sutterfield have since met with his parents. The paramedics said he was polite and answered their questions with Yes, sir and No, sir. How to help Mail donations to: Crockett National Bank Benefit for Zachary Sutterfield, 502 S. Koenigheim San Angelo, TX 76903 Use PayPal to send money to: zacharysutterfieldlove@gmail.com Mail cards of encouragement and gift cards to ERA Newlin and Co. Benefit for Zachary Sutterfield 1722 W. Ave N San Angelo, TX 76904 See More Collapse We are so thankful for them. Hearing how difficult that time was for them was a big part of the healing process for all of us, Karl Sutterfield wrote. Sutterfield is heavily sedated much of the time to minimize pain. In lucid moments he has tried to say I love you to his parents, according to the family statement. His surgeries have included skin grafts, optometric surgeries, neurosurgeries, and plastic surgeries on his face, according to the statement. We know we arent out of danger, but we hold on to his improvements, Karl Sutterfield said. Doctors were wary about Zachary Sutterfields chances of surviving the first 72 hours after the fire and expected his feet would need to be amputated. But, so far, doctors have not had to do that. Zachary Sutterfield was staying with a friend at Iconic Village Apartments while he prepared to transfer to Texas State from Angelo State University in San Angelo. He was scheduled to meet with a Texas State advisor the Monday after the fire. His parents have filed a lawsuit against the owners and managers of Iconic Village Apartments. We need to educate, and we need to change laws. We dont want this to happen again. I sent my son to college never expecting to be sitting here wishing the laws were different, Zacharys mother, Deona Jo DJ Sutterfield, wrote. The familys lawyers said they want laws in place that could prevent similar tragedies. One of them, Bruce Steckler of the Dallas-based firm Steckler Gresham Cochran, suggested landlords should educate tenants on fire safety. That, to me, is one of the greatest failings of our laws today, Steckler said. I can only wonder if everyone had been properly educated ... how many lives would not have been lost. Our clients cant help but think about that. The lawsuit claims apartment owners and managers were negligent for failing to provide a fire sprinkler system, failing to adequately inspect and test fire alarm systems and warn people that the apartments were unreasonably dangerous, among other things. San Marcos ordinances didn't require the apartments built in 1970 to be retrofitted with sprinklers unless they underwent significant renovations. A separate lawsuit has been filed by other survivors and the father of James Phillip Miranda, 23, of Mount Pleasant, who died in the fire. That suit includes survivors who jumped from second-floor windows, resulting in broken bones and other injuries. The defendants have denied the claims in court documents, saying the fire was caused by acts or omissions of others. Investigators haven't yet determined how the fire started and are still waiting on test results, which may not be complete until October. In addition to Miranda, the people found dead after the fire were Haley Frizzell, 19, of San Angelo, who was a friend of Sutterfield; Dru Estes, 20, of San Antonio; David Angel Ortiz, 21, of Pasadena; and Belinda Moats, 21, of Big Wells. While the Sutterfields have declined requests to be interviewed, theyve released periodic statements about their sons progress. An aunt of Zachary Sutterfield has tried to appeal to celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey, to seek help while the family relocates to San Antonio from San Angelo to stay with Zachary during his recovery. Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva The City Council approved an $18.3 million contract Thursday for the construction of the controversial Hardberger Park land bridge, which is expected to be completed by the spring of 2020. Voters approved $13 million in funding for the project in the 2017 bond program, split between the parks and streets propositions. The Hardberger Park Conservancy leveraged the bond dollars to gather an additional $10 million, including $1 million from Bexar County, $2 million from a Texas Parks and Wildlife grant, $4.2 million in private donations and $2.8 million from the conservancy. The council approved the construction contract with an 8-1-1 vote. Councilman Greg Brockhouse cast the lone vote against funding the voter-approved project and Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran abstained. Councilman Manny Pelaez was absent. RELATED: Photos: San Antonio's Confluence Park looks breathtaking from the sky Since the idea of a one-of-a-kind land bridge was floated, its been met with opposition from people whove deemed it the critter bridge. Theyve objected to spending tax dollars on the a project for animals when there are so many pressing needs in San Antonio. Officials routinely note that theres not nearly enough money in the annual budget to cover all the needs across the city. Mayor Ron Nirenberg said just before the Thursday vote that great cities pursue not only function but also beauty and aesthetics. When we look at Hardberger Park, whether you live on the South Side, on the North Side, the West Side or the East Side, you are one of the thousands of people who visit that park every single day, you can rest assured that your feet in that park are not just a testament to that hard work but are also proving up the point that it doesnt matter where you live in this city you should have high-quality, healthy and equitable green space, he said. As the District 8 councilman during the lead-up to the 2017 bond, Nirenberg said he spent ample time asking residents what they wanted in the massive program. One of the constant responses he said he received was a completion of the original vision for the bifurcated, 300-acre park: a land bridge connecting the two. 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 By early 2020, pedestrians, bicyclists and animals will be able to use a land bridge to access both sides of Hardberger Park, the massive green space divided by Wurzbach Parkway. Since the idea of a pricey, one-of-a-kind land bridge was conceived, some people have opposed it, dubbing it the critter bridge and painting it as the epitome of wasteful spending. But in May 2017, voters overwhelmingly approved an $850 million bond program, which included a total of $13 million from the parks and streets propositions to help fund the bridge. The Hardberger Park Conservancy amassed an additional $10 million in private funds and contributions from Bexar County and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to fulfill its portion of the funding obligation. The bridge has been heralded by its supporters as what will become a world-class attraction on the North Side. On Thursday, the City Council voted 8-1-1 to approve an $18.3 million construction contract. Work is to begin next month. Councilman Greg Brockhouse cast the lone dissenting vote, and Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran abstained after raising concerns about the project. Councilman Manny Pelaez was absent. Brockhouse positioned himself as the voice of the residents, and challenged the notion that the project had substantial support. As the bond funding for the project was split between two separate propositions, voters would have had to reject 136 other projects in order to kill the land bridge. That is not going to happen, he said. So the fact that it was passed by an overwhelming majority means that on the whole, the parks and the streets bond projects were considered worthy as a grouping, not as individual projects. He also asked the council to imagine how the funding for the bridge could hypothetically be used on the citys push for affordable housing under recommendations from the Mayors Housing Policy Task Force. He noted that the City Charter currently prohibits spending bond proceeds on housing, but imagine what $15 million, or $12.5 million could have done. Brockhouse previously has called the citys foray into affordable housing the single greatest overreach of government spending in the history of the city. Its a grand vision, voter-approved, Brockhouse said of the land bridge, conceding that its going to look great. But I just want to point out that I have a park and were fighting all we can to get $30,000 for fences around the park. This does not sit well with residents. And someone has to be the voice for that. Councilman Rey Saldana, whod been applauded for his work in bringing to life the marquee Pearsall Park in his District 4, warned the council about devolving into district-by-district factions and picking apart single projects based on geography. I think what we need to do is try to move away from this sort of division, tribalism, my border ends here and I cant support it past this piece. I think what we are trying to get to, and weve been very clear on this council, is to the kind of approach for public investments that are equitable in nature, he said. And were doing that with our city resources that go to streets and go to drainage, he continued. Were doing that with our bond projects. But Im not, at the end of the day, going to start quantifying every single piece and say, Thats something I cant support, even though I know when this land bridge is completed in 2020, youre going to have families from the South Side and you're going to have families from the West Side and East Side and North side pour into it because they want to see this great new feature thats been brought to the public. That message carried on after the vote, when Mayor Ron Nirenberg asked the parks namesake, former Mayor Phil Hardberger, to address the council. He offered profuse gratitude to the full council for its efforts, along with folks at the parks conservancy and those private donors who made major financial contributions. He also told council members whod lamented the lack of green space in their districts that theyre right Our city greatly needs more parks. Every single district. Theres not a single district that more money should not go into their parks, he said. But you do have to start somewhere. The somewhere in this case occasions itself when a big piece of land that had a lot of uncut trees on it came onto the market totally happenstance. As he appeared poised to wrap up his comments, Hardberger offered a final anecdote. A decade ago, a different City Council faced similar controversy over plans to renovate the San Antonio River. It hadnt had improvements, he said, since 1968, and politicians since hadnt had the political will to spend big to make something special. At the time, Hardberger told opponents of the river project that it would cost millions of dollars and would, in turn, bring in billions more. Others pushed back on the spending because they wanted the southern portion the Mission Reach done first. During his remarks, he encouraged council members to take a good look at whats happened along the river since the investments were made there a decade ago. The project could have never gotten started because of fighting over which side would go first, he said. Its better to start somewhere and then move somewhere, rather than to sit and think about, Well, if it isnt coming to my district, then its no good, he said. We have to work as a whole, and not individual units, to have a great city. 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 The City Council took municipal government a step closer to consolidating in the old Frost tower Thursday with the approval of a $59.5 million contract to renovate the building it purchased in December 2016. Frost Bank is still occupying the facility as it continues construction on its new office tower just northwest of the existing 22-story building. The glass structure is the first addition to the San Antonio skyline since 1989. Its the latest step in a complex public-private partnership that began when Frost Bank and its development partner, Weston Urban, approached the city with the plan in 2014. The deal involves the citys purchase of the existing Frost tower, the sale of three city properties including the upper floors of Municipal Plaza, which will become housing units and the development of the new Frost headquarters. By 2021, two dozen city departments will move out of their spaces across the city, many in leased facilities, and consolidate in the old Frost tower. City staff has been working on the plan since 2014, conducting studies and analyses that included a determination that it would be less costly to enter into this deal than building a new facility. Despite past council approvals, Councilman Clayton Perry balked at the deal during a protracted exchange Thursday with Assistant City Manager Lori Houston and City Manager Sheryl Sculley. Perry spent several minutes picking at the financial structure of the deal, which is at worst cost neutral for the city. (Im) looking at briefing that was given back in 2015 that talks about a net savings of $1.2 million to the city not cost neutral, but we were going to save money on this, he said. Where did that go off track? Houston responded that the anticipated $1.2 million in savings was over a three-decade period (that averages out to about $40,000 annually), and that number would adjust as the project develops. The councilman then asked about a recommendation from a firm that city had hired, which suggested there were about $6.7 million in necessary upgrades to the Frost building. Houston explained that a portion of that amount was taken off the sale price of the building, and another portion was given to the city as rent credits. Perry later asked how much it would have cost the city to build its own structure on city-owned property. As Houston asked for her colleagues to find that number, which had already been shared through a memo with the council, she noted the other benefits of the project. Something else that we need to consider is that this project facilitated more housing development in the downtown area and the construction of the first office tower in the downtown area since 1989, Houston said. And were able to retain Frost Bank headquarters in San Antonio. All in, the city will have spent $127.6 million on acquisition and renovation of the Frost building. According to Mike Frisbie, director of the citys Transportation and Capital Improvements Department, building a structure to meet the citys needs would have cost $220 million. Perry ultimately voted against the funding Thursday because he believed that the project should have been a part of the 2017 bond program. So why wasnt this included in the 2017 bond? he asked Houston. She replied: City Council had already authorized the project in 2015. But that answer wasnt good enough for the councilman, who said theres a difference between authorizing and funding a project. Then City Manager Sheryl Sculley weighed in. She offered a detailed explanation of how the public-private partnership works and reminded the councilman that the citys cost is neutral its going to use money it would otherwise spend on leases to cover the costs associated with moving into the consolidated tower. He asked if the city was using certificates of obligation, bonds that dont require voter approval, to fund the project. We are, Sculley said. Perry responded that it seemed like there was plenty of time to plan for the project and ask for voter approval. The council, however, had to make a decision on whether to proceed with the deal long before voters went to the polls in May 2017 to vote on the bond program. The city closed on the Frost tower in December 2016. Had Perry been able to convince a majority of his colleagues to renege on the deal, the city would still own the old Frost tower. But not even Councilman Greg Brockhouse, who often finds himself in council arguments only aligned with Perry, could be persuaded to make a protest vote. 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 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his South Korean counterpart will meet later this month to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, his state-controlled media reported Thursday. Kim also expressed faith in President Trump efforts to settle a nuclear impasse, despite recent bumps in the diplomacy., the report said. As Fox News writes in the article North Korea's Kim Jong Un expresses faith in Trump, reaffirms commitment to nuclear-free peninsula, Chung Eui-yong, a special envoy from South Korea, told reporters that Kim stressed that "he has never talked negative about President Trump to his staff or anyone else," South Korea's Yonhap News reported. Chung reportedly said North Korea expressed hope to improve the "North-U.S. relationship within Trump's first term." The statement comes after a South Korean envoy met with Kim to set up the inter-Korean summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. KCNA said Kim and the South Korean delegation reached a satisfactory agreement over the planned inter-Korean summit. Kim was paraphrased as saying it was 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." The dates of the summit were expected to be released sometime Thursday. Kims commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula comes amid an impasse with the United States and growing skepticism of his intent to dismantle his nuclear weapons program. His statement raises hopes that talks can get back on track following his meeting with President Trump in Singapore. To overcome increasing dispute between Pyongyang and the U.S., Seoul is trying to persuade both countries to proceed with the denuclearization process simultaneously. In addition, the South is aiming for a four-nation summit that would include China, to declare a formal end to the Korean War. Many see the peace declaration as a precursor to the North calling for the removal of all U.S. troops in the Korean Peninsula. U.S. officials have insisted that the North must first takes steps to abandon its nuclear weapons before any peace declaration. Steps include allowing outside inspections, giving up some nuclear weapons during the early stages of negotiations and providing an account of components of its nuclear program. Experts believe an end-of-war declaration could make it easier for North Korea to move toward discussions of a peaceful regime, diplomatic recognition and security concessions. The North has routinely accused the United State of holding back the end-of-war declaration and making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands for denuclearization. On Tuesday, North Koreas Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement where it said an end-of-war declaration would be a necessary trust-building step that would "manifest the political will to establish the lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula." The declaration would be among several issues discussed, South Korean officials said, between North Korean officials and South Korean envoys. Nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have settled into a stalemate since the summit meeting between Kim and Trump. Citing a lack of progress in denuclearization, Trump called of a planned visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month. Im about to make an anti-democratic argument. Im going to make the case against entrusting voters with the power to fill a particular political office. Its something that I hate doing, because I always want to believe that our institutions work better when more people are empowered. But its impossible to look at the dysfunctional operations of both the Bexar County Democratic and Republican parties and conclude that the system for selecting their leaders is working. On the Democratic side, we have an ousted chairman, Manuel Medina, whose loyalists are thwarting all attempts by the newly elected chair, Monica Ramirez Alcantara, to establish control. READ ALSO: Rules floated by local Dems On the Republican side, we have a new chair, Cynthia Brehm, who neglected to inform primary voters that her husband, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, pleaded guilty to indecently exposing himself two decades ago to Brehms then 14-year-old daughter. (Army criminal investigators also found probable cause to believe that he committed multiple acts of sexual assault against children.) With the GOP party organization rebelling against her, Brehm already has been reduced to a figurehead leader, less than four months after her election. As a result, both local party organizations enter this midterm election with serious questions about their ability to mobilize the troops to get out the vote. Down-ballot candidates on both sides have reason to worry. Even if we put aside Brehms disturbing family history, she has none of the qualities that one would seek in the leader of a political organization. At party meetings, she seems confused and tentative. She did, however, lend her primary campaign $40,496 and distributed campaign signs all over the county. When 55,364 local Republicans went to the polls for this years primary, its safe to assume that most of them knew nothing about the candidates for party chair or the inner workings of the party organization. But they knew Brehms name from her signs. Consider the case of Robert Morrow, a bomb-throwing homophobe from Austin. Despite a history of bizarre tweets and statements including his reference to former Republican Gov. Rick Perry as a rampaging bisexual adulterer Republican primary voters elected him Travis County GOP chair in March 2016. With Travis County precinct chairs in full mutiny mode, Morrow was forced out five months later when he filed as a write-in candidate for president of the United States. The Texas Election Code requires political parties to elect their county chairs in primary elections. But its a law that should be changed. At the county level, a political party is an organization composed of precinct chairs. In Bexar County, the Republican Party currently has about 200 filled precinct chair positions while the Democrats have about 260. READ ALSO: 'It's a wake-up call.' Sen. Ted Cruz backers react to Beto O'Rourke challenge Those precinct chairs are best equipped to determine who should run their organization, because theyre the people who will be working with the county chair. It makes no sense to let 50,000 primary voters decide on the inner workings of an organization that 99 percent of those voters know nothing about. At both the national and state levels, the major parties let organization members not primary voters select their leaders. The DNC and RNC let national committee members pick the national chair. At the state level, the state convention delegates make that choice. When you put this kind of a decision in the hands of primary voters, youre imposing on the organization a leader that the precinct chairs may not want or even know. And that creates instant dissension. The 2012 primary election for Bexar County chair offers an illuminating example. A year earlier, veteran party activist Choco Meza had taken over a party in tatters. The party was still reeling from the embezzlement of more than $200,000 in party funds by former treasurer Dwayne Adams. It also had endured the ugly tenure of Dan Ramos, who brought the party the wrong kind of media attention when he equated gays with Nazis and termites. Meza restored financial stability and organizational cohesiveness to the party. That made little difference, however, when she faced a primary challenge in 2012 from Medina. A deep-pocketed consultant who had minimal connection to the Bexar County party organization, Medina spent more than $100,000 of his own money on the race and defeated Meza. Medina recklessly mixed his consulting work with party business and used the partys headquarters as the base for a 2017 mayoral campaign in which he courted tea-party support. He also consolidated his strength by filling key party posts with his followers and they continue to create mischief within the party. Just this week they opened a new party headquarters on the East Side without the approval of Alcantara. Like Brehm, Ramos and Morrow, Medina is a mess that primary voters created and precinct chairs had to try to clean up. Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 AUSTIN Thousands of additional children will soon be eligible for special education services after state officials eliminated an illegal cap that artificially tamped down Texas special education rolls for a decade. But even if the state fully funds the estimated $3 billion cost of providing that extra instruction, educators say one big question remains: Where will schools find up to 9,000 new special education teachers? Schools already have a hard time recruiting special education teachers, so much so that the state offers incentives such as student loan forgiveness programs. But those incentives arent enough to meet the demand, leaving schools across the state struggling every year to find enough teachers to provide specialized services to students. Now as the number of students needing extra services is expected to rise dramatically, finding educators will be even more difficult, state education officials and advocacy groups say. Nationally, we do not have enough special education teachers in the country, said Penny Schwinn, the Texas Education Agencys deputy commissioner for academics. Texas is no different. We have shortages at the local level and in almost every state, and that's because it's a very high needs field. It's a very challenging job. A 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation and a subsequent federal audit found that the Texas Education Agency illegally set an 8.5 percent benchmark that was a de facto cap on the number of students receiving special education services. The cap was in place for more than a decade, and was well below the national average of 13 percent. READ MORE: Houston Chronicles "Denied" investigation into a special ed cap In eliminating that cap, state officials estimate that it will cost the state up to $3.3 billion to provide special education to more than 150,000 additional students by 2021 about a 30 percent increase. The Legislature also needs to find $50 million more to provide compensatory services to students who were wrongly denied special education services in the past. It has to happen In the 2017-18 school year, there were 32,000 teachers serving nearly 500,000 special education students, about one teacher for every 16 special education students. Since state and federal law requires special education students to spend as much time as possible in a regular classroom, many of these teachers are not dedicated special education teachers. If the state were to keep its current teacher-to-student ratio, Texas would need to hire more than 9,000 teachers by 2021 to keep up with the estimated increase in special education students. Kristin McGuire, the director of governmental relations of the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education, said meeting staffing demands remains an open question, but it has to happen. Our members always find a way to make it happen, but I have no idea how itll happen. We are already in a shortage, McGuire said. Even with the money, I dont know where we are going to find the teachers. Right now what districts are going to have to do, as they always do, is look at their staffing models and adjust. State hopes to boost retention TEA and the Department of Education have already declared a teacher shortage in special education. Several statewide studies show special education teachers leave the profession or take other jobs at higher rates compared to other subjects. That leaves districts having to find replacements, often opting to hire educators without all the state-required certifications. In the 2016-17 school year, about 15 percent of all special education teachers were not certified. IN DEPTH: Texas needs to find up to $3.3 billion to bring special education services up to national standards The state also has shortages in teachers of high school math, high school career and technical education and English as a second language. As part of its plan to boost special education services, TEA is awarding grants to schools that need staff to meet requests for new special education evaluations. But Schwinn could not say how exactly the state will find more special education teachers, and instead said the agency is establishing policy forums to discuss how to incentivize and retain teachers. We havent established a fail-safe to ensure we have enough teachers in that area, Schwinn said. It is something that we are actively considering and talking about. The Marriott San Antonio Northwest hotel that overlooks the intersection of Interstate 10 and Loop 410 was sold at foreclosure auction earlier this week, four years after Los Angeles company Laurus Corp. bought it and announced ambitious renovation plans. Latitude Real Estate Investors, a company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, foreclosed on the 296-room hotel at the Bexar County Courthouse on Tuesday, according to local foreclosure listing service RexReport.com and Brett Mayer, the companys managing director. Laurus Corp. defaulted on a $21.3 million mortgage loan that it took from Latitude in 2014, county property records show. The trustee for the foreclosure sale opened the bidding at $18 million, and no one submitted any bids, so Latitude automatically took ownership of the property. The hotel will stay with the Marriott brand, Mayer said, but he wouldnt disclose any more information about the foreclosure or Latitudes plans for the property. Representatives of Laurus and Marriott didnt respond to requests for comment. READ ALSO: Council moves forward on Frost building renovation contract The foreclosure comes after three contractors filed lawsuits against the subsidiary that Laurus formed to buy the hotel in 2014, alleging they werent paid for nearly $500,000 worth of work they did as part of a $16 million renovation that Laurus undertook. Several mechanics liens have been filed against the hotel over the last few years, including one for $266,116 by Michigan company GMI-NRC LLC last month. The hotel, which was built in 1984, was assessed at $24.8 million this year by the Bexar Appraisal District. Upon buying the hotel in June 2014, Laurus announced a top-to-bottom renovation to bring it up to Marriotts current standards. The hotel also features 8,500 square feet of meeting space and a 6,084-square-foot ballroom, according to a news release from Laurus. Given San Antonios status as the second largest city in Texas and one of the fastest growing in the nation, we saw this acquisition as a highly-attractive opportunity to implement a value-add strategy and maximize revenue by bringing back its past glory, Phil Cyburt, Lauruss CEO, said in a news release from 2014. Three years later, a company named Hotel Rehab Specialist sued Lauruss subsidiary, SAT NW Hotel Partners, claiming it wasnt paid $313,569 it was owed for helping renovate the hotel, and it attempted to foreclose on a mechanics lien it had put against the property. READ ALSO: Regents approve $70 million for UTSA cyber expansions Another company, Moore Supply, sued the subsidiary for breach of contract that year, alleging it wasnt paid for $6,844 worth of work. The two parties reached a settlement, filings show. In March of this year, local company Texas Chiller Systems sued, saying it was owed $174,615 for its share of the renovations. The company withdrew the lawsuit after a settlement. Laurus also owns the 384-room Hilton San Antonio Airport hotel, which underwent $12 million of renovations, including the addition of an Asado Seafood & Grill restaurant, after Laurus bought it in 2012. In June, local company Service Mechanical Group sued another subsidiary that Laurus formed to buy that hotel, claiming it was owed $19,680 for renovations. In response to the new set of sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran on August 7, Tehran is now vigorously seeking to expand its stakes in the non-oil trade, energy and engineering markets of neighbouring Iraq. As Aljazeera writes in the article How US sanctions on Iran will harm Iraq's economy, this was a widely expected move by Tehran, as Iraqi non-oil imports from Iran already amount to more than $6bn and Tehran has significant influence over the federal government in Baghdad. Moreover, Iranian traders have long enjoyed relatively easy access to Iraqi markets. The actions of other regional powers, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are also pushing Iran to increase its trade share in Iraq. While a substantial increase in trade with Iraq may help revitalise Iran's worsening economy, it will probably stifle Iraq's economic development. Flooding Iraqi markets with cheap products Iran has already been flooding Iraqi markets with cheap products for over a decade, and the latest round of US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration are expected to further exacerbate the problem. If a pro-Iran coalition government is formed in Iraq in the coming days, it would mean minimal implementation of US sanctions and it would pave the way for Iraq to become the most important market for Iranian exports. Last month Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, met Iraqi trade officials to discuss the prospects of higher economic cooperation and Iranian private sector investment in the country. Moreover, trade with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) is booming again after Iran lifted a temporary embargo imposed in the aftermath of the Kurdish independence referendum last year. After the reversal of punitive measures in January 2018, the KRG started to renovate its border-crossings with Iran, and both sides agreed on allowing to drop duties on certain commodities. Today, one-third of Iran's non-oil exports to Iraq are destined for the KRG. First Deputy Chairman of Erbil Chamber of Commerce Ibrahim Muhammad Kanabi told me in a phone interview that he expects some Iranian manufacturers to relocate to the KRG to overcome the obstacles caused by the US sanctions. As a result, low-cost Iranian products are likely to overwhelm the KRG market, despite the fact that they are of relatively poor quality, compared with their Turkish equivalents. The water crisis The water crisis in Iraq is also providing Iran with an opportunity to further increase its trade share in the country. Both climate change and the upstream dams Turkey built on the Euphrates and Tigres rivers, which supply Iraq with most of its water needs, caused the country to become more and more dependent on agricultural and foodstuff imports from Iran and Turkey. Iran's exports of agricultural products and foodstuffs to Iraq are worth more than $2bnannually. Due to the increasing severity of the water crisis and the inability of local producers to compete, this dependency is likely to increase in the coming days, giving Tehran (and Ankara) more leverage to grow its share of the market. This is despite the fact that Iran is also suffering from a water crisis of its own. However, to maintain and ramp up its exports to Iraq, it is resorting to more sophisticated trade strategies such as re-exporting raw products such as wheat in the value-added form of flour. Turkish officials see this as an Iranian attempt to emulate Turkish trade strategies in Iraq. Nevertheless, it is unclear to what extent a water-scarce Iran can continue to export agricultural and foodstuff products to Iraq at the current rate. The role of Turkey and Saudi Arabia The strengthening of Turkey's trade links with Iraq is also encouraging Iran to invest more in trade with the country. Turkey's trade with Iraq has long been dependent on the cooperation of the KRG, as most goods are transferred between the two countries through the Ibrahim Khalil border-crossing on its border with the Kurdish region. However, after Erbil proceeded with its plans for an independence referendum despite its neighbours' vocal opposition in September 2017, Ankara felt the need to end its dependency on the KRG. In August 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime MinisterHaider al-Abadi, reiterated their commitment to building a new, "direct" border-crossing between Turkey and Iraq in Ovakoy -Faysh Khabur, bypassing the KRG. This border crossing would not only allow Turkey to circumvent the KRG in its trade relations with Iraq's federal government, but it will also allow Turkey to increase its market share in Iraq. At a time when Iran is hit by a new set of US sanctions, it is logical to assume it will do everything in its capacity to prevent a loss in its trade revenues in Iraq. Over the past months, Iran has already been building new border markets with Iraq to increase religious tourism-driven trade activity. Saudi Arabia is another driving force behind Iran's economic expansion towards Iraq. Riyadh has a new engagement policy, with trade cooperation at the top of its agenda, and it wants to increase its market share in Iraq. It does not have the accumulated geo-economic experience that Tehran has developed over the past decade in Iraq, but it appears to be targetting economic areas where Iraq and Iran have disputes, including energy. Saudi Arabia is offering to supply Iraq with triple the amount of electricity it is getting from Iran at a significantly lower price (if the contribution of Iranian natural gas exports to power generation in Iraq were to be excluded). With these soft power moves, Riyadh is attempting to cripple Iran's economic leverage over Baghdad. To counter Saudi Arabia's soft power strategies and help neutralise the impact of US sanctions, Iran has no option but to increase its trade with Iraq. To achieve this, it will likely engage its loyal Iraqi paramilitary networks in business and reconstruction efforts, transforming them into a lobbying force against Riyadh's trade and investment schemes. By doing so, Tehran would seek to relieve itself of some of its financial commitments to them and turn them potentially into economically self-sufficient proteges. The latest wave of protests in Iraq that commenced in July 2018 reflects, in part, how Iran's strategy of exporting cheap products have harmed Iraq's economic development. The latest set of sanctions imposed on Iran and the ambitions of other regional actors will only intensify its negative impact over the development of the Iraqi economy in the coming few years. Alexander Soule / Hearst Connecticut Media Farmington Bank is cutting 95 jobs as it undergoes an acquisition by Peoples United Financial, according to a regulatory filing with the Connecticut Department of Labor. Bridgeport-based Peoples United reached the $544 million deal in July, with Farmington Bank parent First Connecticut Bancorp having entered the year with a workforce of 350 people under CEO John Patrick. WASHINGTON In his second round of questioning appeals court Jude Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Richard Blumenthal used the case of Ridgefields Conner Curran to examine the Supreme Court nominees views of the Affordable Care Act Obamacare and President Trumps power to not enforce it even though it remains the law of the land. Curran, now 7, suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a debilitating disorder that could cost his parents up to $54,000 a year to treat if they did not have health insurance. On the third day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Blumenthal, D-Conn., displayed Conners picture on an easel and asked Kavanaugh: Should Conners family be afraid? Kavanaugh, 53, picked by Trump off a list of reliable conservative jurists, insisted he understood the individual consequences of decisions that judges make on health care and a multitude of other issues. I understand the real-world impact of the Affordable Care Act, Kavanaugh told Blumenthal. Blumenthal based his questions on Kavanaughs history as a staff lawyer in the White House of President George. W Bush, where he helped formulate signing statements designed to help the president lay out how he would enforce the legislation he was signing into law. In 2013, Kavanaugh told an audience that presidents may reserve the right to state that certain provisions of laws are unconstitutional and they will not follow them. That is a traditional exercise of power by the presidents, Kavanaugh said at the time. Kavanaughs views of presidential power have spawned a variety of questions from senators of both parties during three days of confirmation hearings, particularly on his views of Trumps ability to resist subpoenas and grand jury testimony as legal clouds continue to gather around him. But the issue of presidential power has also proved important in the continuing battle over Obamacare, the main legislative achievement of Democrats and former President Obama that Republicans have attempted to scuttle. In June, the Trump administration announced it would not defend ACA provisions requiring health insurance providers to cover patients with pre-existing conditions. The decision came in a filing in a case in which Texas and 19 other states are seeking to have Obamacare declared unconstitutional. Arguments in the case began this week in a federal courtroom in Fort Worth. Blumenthal and other Democrats including Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut have countered that undercutting the pre-existing-condition requirement could make insurance unaffordable for the family of Conner Curran, as well as for pregnant women and those who suffer from diabetes, high-blood pressure, or cancer. In Connecticut, about 522,000 people have pre-existing conditions, according to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Late Wednesday, Murphy said confirmation of Kavanaugh would cloud the future of the Affordable Care Act. Make no mistake, this is a careful, coordinated, judicial assault on (Obamacares) protections for people with pre-existing conditions, Murphy said at a news conference. Murphy accused the Trump administration of attempting to scuttle the ACA after failing to do so through congressional action. In nominating Kavanaugh, Trump is attempting to prod the court to do what he could not do here in Congress, Murphy said. The Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, finding it was a legitimate application of the power of Congress to levy taxes. Kavanaughs own views of Obamacare are contradictory. In a 2011 case in which the appeals court upheld it, Kavanaugh dissented on technical grounds having to do with taxes. In a second case in 2015, he voted to rehear a failed challenge to the ACA based on the Constitutions stipulation that all revenue-raising legislation must originate in the House. But Kavanaugh wrote that he agreed that the ACA could not be challenged under the Constitutions origination clause. dan@hearstdc.com BRIDGEPORT The woman who mistook an explosive device for a candle suffered serious injuries to her hand and face when what police called a quarter stick of dynamite exploded Thursday night. The 30-year-old was initially treated at Bridgeport Hospital and then was transferred to Yale New Haven Hospital, police spokesman Av Harris said Friday. The fire marshal ruled the explosion a tragic accident in an initial investigation, Harris said. The woman, her husband and their two children were in their home in the 1200 block of Lindley Street when they lost power amid severe storms that hit the city around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The family remembered that when they purchased their home two years ago, there were a couple of what they thought were candles, left in the basement by the previous residents of the home or (previous) homeowners, Harris said. The woman, who was not identified by police, lit one of the objects, Harris said. It exploded in her hand, blowing out at least one window in the home, Assistant Fire Chief Michael Caldaroni said at the scene Thursday night. She suffered extreme injuries to one of her hands ... she also suffered serious injuries to her face, Harris said. On Thursday night, Caldaroni said the woman lost several fingers. Harris said no one else in the home was injured in the blast. Caldaroni said one of the womans children called 911. Fire and police units found another dynamite device when they searched the home, Harris said. Caldaroni described it Thursday as a makeshift firework. First responders evacuated the two homes on either side of the residence as a precaution, Harris said. The device was removed by Bridgeport fire personnel with the help of the state police bomb squad. Harris said the device was detonated and disposed of by state police. In Connecticut, possession of dynamite, fireworks or firecrackers is illegal. Since this appears to have been an accident (and) the residents of this home had no prior knowledge that what they had in their home were explosive devices not permitted by law, the Bridgeport police will not be pressing any charges as a result of this incident at this time, Harris said. The United State Bomb Data Center Explosives Incident Report, which reviews bombing and explosive-related incidents in the U.S., reported 67 people were injured by explosives in 2017. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives describes on its website a so-called quarter stick of dynamite also known as an M-1000 as one inch in diameter and about six inches long. ATF said this specific explosive device can have anywhere from 25 to 30 grams of explosive mixture inside it and can cause extremely severe bodily injuries. ATF said such explosions have caused death in some cases. Harris said residents should always contact the local fire department if they find something in their home they are unfamiliar with, that looks possibly flame- or fire-related. A contractor working in the backyard of a Cornell Street home on Aug. 18 found a World War II-era hand grenade buried under the ground, Harris said at the time. The state bomb squad removed and safely detonated the device. And, in the case of power outages, officials urge residents to avoid lighting candles to reduce the risk of fire damage. Always have backup auxiliary lighting, Harris said. The lighting should be battery-operated, glow stick or hand-crank lighting. FAIRFIELD Police are looking to link two New Jersey men busted with Ecstasy Thursday to a fake FedEx scam that almost bilked an Ohio woman out of $12,000. Officers were able to recover $8,000 of the elderly victims money. According to police, a Sterling Street resident received a package via FedEx Wednesday. The address and last name were correct, but no one at the home was expecting a delivery. Inside the package was a little more than $4,000 in cash. A short time later, a man wearing a FedEx uniform knocked on the door and said he was there to retrieve the package that was delivered in error. The return address was for a woman in Columbus, Ohio. The resident handed over the package, but when she looked out the window, she saw the man get into a regular car, not a FedEx truck. She called the police to report the incident. On Thursday, another FedEx package was delivered, again with the correct address and last name. And like the first package, the return address was the same woman in Ohio. While on the phone to report this new delivery, the resident saw a car pull up and a man get out. She yelled out the window that he shouldnt come to her house because she was on the phone with police. According to the report, the man did not look up, but kept on walking down the street and was picked up by the driver of the car. Police arrived, located the car, and began to follow. The car started to pick up speed before the officer pulled the car over. Each man told police that he was in Connecticut to pick up his daughter, but got lost. The officer noted that both men had working cell phones which could have been used to get directions. The two men gave the officer permission to search the car, and wedged under a seat was a bag with Ecstasy. Detectives believe it is likely the two are connected to the scam, and that investigation continues. They are wiring the $8,000 found in the recovered package to the victim. Jose Mercedes-Sanchez, 29, and Carlos Morel-Abreu, 31, both of Patterson, N.J., were each charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance and released after posting $450 bonds. They are scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Bridgeport on Sept. 17. Turkey is in the process of constructing a site for a Russian missile system despite warnings from the United States to not buy the platform, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of an intelligence report covering the subject. The assessment, published a month ago, included satellite imagery of a concrete launch facility as well as bunkers, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The new construction fits the pattern for Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missile system, the source indicated. As CNBC writes in the article Turkey begins constructing site for Russian missile system despite US warnings, last year, Ankara signed an agreement with Moscow for S-400 missiles, a deal reportedly worth $2.5 billion. Since then, Turkey's march toward procuring the Russian missile system has raised concerns among NATO partners, who are wary of Moscow's increasing military presence in the region. The S-400 system is believed to have a larger range than the American-made THAAD missile system and is estimated to cost significantly less. Turkey is slated to receive the S-400 next year and is expected to have the system ready for war by 2020. Meanwhile, all of that comes as Congress is inching closer to blocking the transfer of two F-35 jets to Turkey. The stealth fighter jets that hang in the balance Turkey, an F-35 program partner, is currently slated to receive two of the jets. That delivery of Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation jets is the start of what Ankara hopes will eventually amount to 100 of the stealth aircraft. In June, the U.S. defense giant held a formal hand-off ceremony at its F-35 facility in Fort Worth, Texas. After the ceremony, Lockheed ferried the aircraft to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona where Turkish pilots began training alongside U.S. airmen. The Russian-made S-400 missile system, which is equipped with eight launchers and 32 missiles, is capable of targeting stealth warplanes like the F-35 fighter. In the colossal $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act, Congress tasked the Pentagon to deliver a report in 90 days outlining the potential risks associated with Turkey's purchase of the S-400 missile system. "We are going through this current issue between us, and we are engaged in, I would call it, frequent, right now, very frequent, discussions at very high levels to try to sort this out," Defense Secretary James Mattis said Tuesday when asked about the F-35 sale to Turkey. "I believe that there is sincerity on both sides to try to work this out. So we're engaged in it right now, and I you know, I need to work with them directly on this, as does Secretary (of State Mike) Pompeoand others on our side," he added. Pastor as a bone of contention What's more, tensions between the U.S. and Ankara have intensified over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. In October 2016, Turkey detained Brunson on accusations of spying and attempting to overthrow the government. Brunson has denied all charges. In August, the Department of the Treasury issued sanctions to Turkey's ministers of Justice and Interior for the arrest and detention of Brunson. "The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being," U.S. President Donald Trump wrote in a tweet. "He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!" Vice President Mike Pence doubled down on Trump's tweet, issuing a similar threat. "To President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and the Turkish government, I have a message on behalf of the president of the United States of America: release Pastor Andrew Brunson now or be prepared to face the consequences," Pence told a religious freedom conference hosted by the State Department. At the time, neither Trump nor Pence elaborated on what kind of sanctions they could impose. The tweets prompted an angry response from Ankara and further escalated tensions between the two NATO allies. A spokesman for Erdogan said in August that Ankara will retaliate against any U.S. sanctions. NORWALK Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff will face a rare challenge for his leadership position from a fellow Democrat hoping to push the party in a more progressive direction. Sen. Gary Winfield of New Haven has been gathering support for his bid to take the Senate majority leader position, which Duff has held for three years. Winfield, who is black, would be the first person of color ever elected to state Senate leadership if he is successful. Theres a feeling that we dont always know where we are going, what is at the core of what we are doing, said Winfield in an interview Thursday. We need to be more clear about how progressive we are. He has been calling senators, door knocking on behalf of other candidates, and raising money for the party through his PAC to build support. Duff said Thursday that he was completely unaware of Winfields challenge and surprised because he, too, considers himself a progressive. Duff was part of a group of Democratic leaders that announced a joint Democratic value agenda during the 2018 legislative session, which included support for earned family medical leave, a liveable wage, tuition-free community college and protecting health benefits. Winfield said he agreed with this years agenda but that in the past a clear Democratic platform was missing. The party as a whole, not just here but nationally, has not been talking about the issues that affect working people, he said. You look at the elections this year and the surprises weve had across the country and what is evident to me is these people are back to talking about our core issues for our party. And thats something that people who consider themselves progressives should be pushing. The Senate Democrats will vote on their caucus leadership immediately following the November election. If Republicans seize a majority in the Senate now tied 18-18 Winfield said hes not sure what would happen to his leadership bid. The Senate majority leader runs the Senate floor, directing which bills should be called for debate and negotiating with the minority party on the agenda, Duff said. Only the majority leader and the Senate president pro tempore can coordinate with the campaigns of Senate Democrats and spend party money to benefit them. The combination allows the majority leader to influence both law and politics. Duff, Norwalks five-term state senator, said he expects to keep his leadership position. Im going to continue to work hard for the caucus and build our majority, he said. I feel very confident in the support I have within the caucus and also within the candidates and challengers that are running on the Democratic line. Winfield has been a key voice calling for the Democratic party to become more diverse this year. Winfield at the state Democratic Convention backed newcomer Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, a Latina union organizer, for lieutenant governor after dropping his own bid for the post. With tears in his eyes, he urged the party to elect candidates of color so his young children can see the rhetoric matches the reality. Winfield, also a union organizer, chairs the legislatures Banking and Energy and Technology Committees; Duff chaired those committees before Winfield. Both legislators were a state representative prior to his election to the state Senate. Duff, who grew up in Norwalk, works as a realtor when not at the Capitol. emunson@hearstmediact; Twitter: @emiliemunson An analysis by governor-hopeful Ned Lamont that showed skyrocketing property taxes in face of his rivals proposal to eliminate the state income tax has some bracing for financial devastation and others questioning Lamonts reasoning. Bob Stefanowski, the Republican candidate for governor, lambasted the town-by-town property tax calculation that showed property taxes could increase by as much as 104 percent. Stefanowski called the analysis fake math and reiterated that his plan, endorsed by Reaganomics guru Arthur Laffer, would phase out the income tax over eight years, not eliminate it overnight. Our tax plan includes revenue triggers that will be set in accordance with the budget, said Stefanowski spokesman Kendall Marr. Using this method, we can cut taxes as we can afford it. Economic growth would offset the loss of tax revenue, his campaign said. The Stefanowski plan to cut taxes will generate explosive growth and will increase revenues from sales and use tax collections, in addition to ending the downward spiral of people and jobs leaving the state all which will have a positive impact in future revenues, Marr said. Growth is the key to success. Stefanowski, a Republican, has not said he would cut state aid to cities and towns in order to make up for his proposed tax cuts he hasnt said at all what would be on the chopping block but revenue from the income tax makes up roughly half of the states $20 billion budget. Lamont, a Democrat, made the leap that if revenues arent coming from state taxes, there will have to be cuts somewhere and state municipal aid would be a likely target. In Lamonts assessment, released Wednesday, towns would raise property taxes to make up for lost state aid. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who challenged Lamont for the Democratic nomination, said cutting municipal aid would no doubt result in higher property taxes, which would devastate his already fragile city. This is not something people shouldnt even be playing around with when the need is even greater than what is being met right now, Ganim said. I dont hear Stefanowski saying he is going to protect property taxes, protect the education cost sharing formula. Hes just talking about slashing and burning. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who lost his bid for governor to Stefanowski and also campaigned on a promise to eliminate the state income tax, scoffed at Lamonts estimations. I said all along that you cant eliminate the income tax without reorganizing state government, Boughton said. This is the opportunity to redesign state government and you wont need $9 billion to redesign the state. Its good politics but not accurate ... I think you have to free up local leaders, mayors and first selectmen to make those decisions and stop passing unfunded mandates. Its not a binary choice, which is what Neds making it. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt Guyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Read More Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and creditor and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its field sales force, advice centers, and online, as well as through independent insurance advisors and affinity relationships. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset, cash management, transaction banking, and treasury services to institutional clients; correspondent banking and trade finance services for financial institutions; and short-term funding and liquidity management services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, governments, and central banks. Royal Bank of Canada has a strategic partnership with Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons Of Canada to support the needs of Canada's medical specialists. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Rector of the Shchukin Theater Institute, People's Artist of Russia, Yevgeny Knyazev, discussed theatrical cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza. - In 2017 Mehriban Aliyeva visited the Vakhtangov Theater and invited its troupe to tour Baku. When will this tour take place? - We haveplanned tours, and we hope that this proposal won't be forgotten and we will visit Azerbaijan. We have great relations with Azerbaijan. For example, a group of Azerbaijani students is currently studying at our Shchukin Theater Institute. They're in their third year, and in two years they will join theaters of Azerbaijan. We're extremely happy about it, because we want them to succeed. In addition, we're very close with the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, we're invited to all events that are held in this country. There will be a huge forum in Baku in early November, where we were invited. I would like our cultural ties to continue and become even stronger. - Do you plan to visit Baku in November? - I have a very busy schedule, and it's very difficult for me to find free time, but I would love to visit Baku again. And it's not just about forum that I mentioned, I just really like this city. I would love to visit this city again, because it's very beautiful, very authentic. Baku is special, it's not like any other city. So I'll try to visit it. - You mentioned Azerbaijani studio operating in your university. What can you tell about their work? - Azerbaijan has strong Russian theater school, and when they decided to sent actors to our institute, I was very happy. These contacts are very important for us, since we expand our presence in the international market. Azerbaijani students are developing here, they study really hard, because we expel those who don't study and don't develop. And if you haven't been expelled, then then you really are learning here. - Recently you mentioned that there are many applicants, your university is very popular. How many students from the South Caucasus republics - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia - want to study here? - First of all, I would like note that, and I think it's amazing, Azerbaijani government pays for Azerbaijani students. If students don't have such financial support, they pay for their education themselves, so we have Armenians, but they're all citizens of Russia. As for the North Caucasus, we have a lot of students from there, including Kabardians, Ossetians, and Karachays. Ormat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV. Read More Place Your Advert Thousands of Active jobseekers are looking for new agricultural positions in 2020. Call us now to discuss the options for advertising your vacancy in our job section. Eight suspected modern day slavery victims have been rescued in a raid on a Cambridgeshire farm. A multi-agency operation was carried out in Cambridgeshire on Friday (7 September). The Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) carried out a warrant at a farm business premises in Old North Road, Kneesworth in conjunction with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Gangmasters Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA). Eight people were found at the farm and were taken to a centre where they received safeguarding support. They are believed to have worked at the premises for little or no money, living on-site in cramped and poor conditions. No-one has been arrested in connection with the investigation at this stage, however enquiries remain ongoing. Detective Chief Inspector Lee Davies from ERSOU said: Modern day slavery can come in many forms and is happening in plain sight across the country every single day. Protecting vulnerable victims from any type of exploitation is always at the heart of what we do, and we will continue to work alongside our partners to keep people safe across the eastern region. Chris Hogben, head of the NCAs Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit said: Tackling the threat of modern slavery and human trafficking, including the safeguarding of the vulnerable, remains a priority for UK law enforcement and multi-agency operations such as this are key to improving our intelligence picture. A West Midlands farmer was in Brussels this week to take his message about safe use of pesticides directly to lawmakers in the European Parliament. John Chinn's business Cobrey Farms in Coughton, Ross on Wye, is Britain's biggest asparagus producer. Mr Chinn, who also grows berries, beans and other crops, addressed the parliament's Special Committee on Pesticides at the invitation of West Midlands Conservative MEP, Anthea McIntyre. He spoke about the work of the Centre for Crop Health and Protection, one of four agri-tech innovation centres set up by UK Government, which he chairs. The farmer warned MEPs that the world population of 7.6 billion people would reach 10 billion by 2050, and the great challenge of the 21st century was to produce more food from the same area while protecting biodiversity. He said the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the European Crop Protection Association estimated that without crop protection tools farmers could lose 80 per cent of their harvests to damaging insects, weeds and plant diseases. However, he outlined how developments such as targeted chemistry, use of biological control agents, targeted application technologies and progress in plant breeding and genetics could combine to ensure the production of safe, healthy, nutritious, affordable food with ever better care for the environment. 'Rigorous testing' Mr Chinn described the EU approval process for plant protection products as one of the most stringent in the world. He said that it took over 11 years, an average of 200 scientific studies and more than 250 million euros to bring a product to the EU market. And he warned MEPs: "Rigorous testing and application protocols are very effective in protecting the public and the environment. "However, little attention has been given to its other aims of effectively supporting productive and competitive agriculture and horticulture," Mr Chinn explained. "The fact that the regulation has just started its eighth year and it has only brought to the market the equivalent of about one new active substance per year, including low-risk substances, demonstrates the approach is failing to deliver for growers. "For a regulation committed to help innovation and support the industry, this is a categoric failure that stifles the availability of safer, more effective and lower risk pesticides," he told the committee. Cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan has huge potential, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said today, responding to question from Vestnik Kavkaza about significance of President Ilham Aliyev's visit to Russia. "We look at development of bilateral relations with enthusiam, there's huge potential, a lot of projects are being implemented, we work on many things," she said. Maria Zakharova also spoke about the inter-regional ties between the two countries, stressing that Azerbaijan cooperates in a lot of areas with many Russian regions on the basis of agreements between Azerbaijani government and governments of Russian regions. Right now there 17 agreements, a number of new similar documents are being prepared for signing, diplomat noted. "Azerbaijani entrepreneurs have invested in construction of a sanatorium-resort center in the city of Yessentuki, there are also food factories in the Krasnodar Territory, as well as projects with Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan," she stressed. "Annual Russian-Azerbaijani interregional forum is a platform where we discuss and prepare new cooperation projects. Ninth forum will be held next. We will provide more detailed information later, when it will be prepared, when we are ready to announce it," Maria Zakharova concluded. Farmer and wildlife expert Johnny Kingdom has been killed in an accident involving a digger on his farmland. Mr Kingdom, who specialised in his local area of Exmoor and north Devon, died on Thursday night (6 September). Police were notified just before 9pm of a single vehicle collision in a field near Wadham Cross, Knowstone. It was reported that a digger had rolled over in a field. Emergency services attended the scene where the 79-year-old was pronounced deceased. A magical friend has tragically died in an accident. Johnny Kingdom, we had so much fun together, you taught me so much about life. RIP. pic.twitter.com/L8sR2X9baf richard taylor-jones (@rtaylorjones) September 7, 2018 His family has issued a short statement: "Unfortunately a legend has been lost. "Johnny would want you all to continue with his love for Exmoor as you all meant so much to him. "As the loving man himself would have said 'Farewell to all you lovely people'." Sad news today, Johnny Kingdom has passed away following an accident on his land, enthusiasm on tap, and a legend in his own way, and Im sure inspired a lot of wildlife watchers, me included, thoughts with his family. Mark brown (@Marksperegrine) September 7, 2018 Officers in attendance carried out an examination of the scene and enquires are ongoing. A four week pilot to have Scotch Lamb included in school meals in a bid to back local farmers and promote fresh food has been deemed a success. The pilot campaign introduces a different lamb meal onto Tayside school meal plans, every week, for the last four weeks. The initiative has commenced in a bid to promote the procurement of fresh, local lamb. The results of the lamb pilot activity in schools has timed with Love Lamb Week, a national push to encourage people to try out different lamb dishes. Spearheaded by NFU Scotlands Vice President, Martin Kennedy and Perth & Kinross Councillor Mike Williamson, the pilot looked to give school children the opportunity to have local lamb as a regular dietary option. Versatile product When asked if they would like to see the dishes added to the menu on a regular basis, pupils at Inch View Primary in Perth said they would. NFU Scotland Vice President, Martin Kennedy said: We are delighted that the pilot has gone down so well with the children, many of whom will not have eaten very much lamb outside of the traditional chops or roast Scotch Lamb PGI is such a versatile product and the success of this pilot proves there is great potential for it to be used more regularly in school meals across Scotland. He added: It is no surprise that the meals have gone down a storm with the children who had them, with so many delicious ways of cooking it there is something for everyone on the menu. Naturally produced Having Scotch lamb on the menu in schools is seen as a boost to the sheep industry in Scotland. Farmers work tirelessly to provide a high quality product from sheep that are maintained under the highest animal health and welfare standards, according to NFU Scotland. Naturally produced Scotch Lamb is not just a locally produced tasty product, it also makes a serious contribution to maintaining our cherished environment, Mr Kennedy said. Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is currently running a campaign to highlight how simple and versatile lamb is as an ingredient. The Scottish Government has committed 200,000 to promote Scotch lamb and the work of farmers to ensure meat is of the highest quality. 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 critic's rating: 2.0/5 Trailer : The Nun Set in 1952 and placed in Romania, this The Conjuring prequel has a Catholic priest Father Burke (Demian Bichir), being assigned by the Vatican to investigate the mysterious suicide of a nun at the CarEAa Monastery. A novice nun, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), joins him in his quest, as does a handsome rake Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), who at first flirts with Irene and later becomes a quasi-Indiana Jones like figure, spouting one-liners, opening dungeons and killing demons with equal ease.The latest trend in Hollywood is to make cinematic universes and then cash-in on their popularity till kingdom come. The Conjuring turned into Annabelle and now we have this prequel as well. Marvel or DC can keep adding members to their superhero teams, they can even go for complete overhauls and keep engaging the viewers in newer ways each time. The problem with replicating the same formula in a horror universe is that you can only use a set number of tricks when it comes to scaring people. You kill their power with over-familiarity. Another classic rule of horror is that less is more. You set up the atmosphere, keep showing us glimpses of the evil haunting the protagonists and then scare us shitless with a big reveal. But director Corin Hardy certainly doesn't subscribe to this sane idea. He has put every horror movie trope there is in the film. So you have a floating nun popping up every ten minutes to scare you, there are inverted crosses, creepy crawlies coming out of orifices, undead people showing up, tortured nuns praying feverishly, an exorcist filled with guilt over an exorcism gone wrong, visions guiding people to safety and because we're in Romania, a creature which looks like a bat out if hell making the briefest of cameos. After a while, you kind of stop counting.Another reason The Conjuring worked because it was set in the real world. You got scared because you saw strange things happening to normal people. Here, the pseudo Gothic setting kind of puts you off Not that a Gothic setting is a bad idea. It has its own charm but has to be milked properly. Director Hardy, however lacks the patience and makes a hash of it.Taissa Farmiga would make for a nice Princess Leia if they ever cast her the Star Wars franchise. The big-eyed beauty is the best thing about the film, showing both vulnerability and strength in equal measure but even her heroic efforts aren't enough to save the film.The Nun is like a Ramsay Brothers film with better production values. Even the Ramsays never churned out this level of drivel in the name of horror. You lose interest after the first couple of jump cuts and just wish for the silliness to end soon... Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in September and October this year, aide to Russian president Yury Ushakov told "Izvestiya", AzerNews reported. "President Vladimir Putin will pay a visit to Azerbaijan at the end of September and September 27-28, the head of state will attend a meeting of CIS leaders in Tajikistans capital Dushanbe. Vladimir Putin's visit to Uzbekistan is planned for October," Yury Ushakov said. In addition, he said that by the end of the year Russia will host a trilateral summit with the participation of the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. "It's our turn to hold a meeting, we'll discuss it with colleagues when it is convenient for them," Yury Ushakov added. Professor of the Western Caspian University, Fikret Sadykhov, stressed in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that frequency of visits between presidents of the two countries show high level of strategic partnership between Russia and Azerbaijan. "This was stated during meeting in Sochi on September 1, and it's proved by numerous documents signed during visit of president Ilham Aliyev to Russia. We follow our commitments, and I think that Russian president demonstrates importance of development of our bilateral relations with this visit." "Today, during period of geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West, such close relations are very important in world politics. We have always attached great importance to top-level meetings between heads of state, where key issues of our bilateral cooperation are being discussed," he pointed out. "I think that during talks in Baku presidents will talk about political processes and bilateral economic and energy projects. I believe that the Karabakh issue will be one of the most important on the agenda. As far as I know, many Russian experts praise our cooperation, especially in terms of searching new elements of mutually beneficial contacts in various fields, including military-technical cooperation," he noted. A Self-made Megastar He is a self-made star in the purest sense of the word. The son of a farmer, Mammootty became a household name thanks to his limitless talent and strong determination. In other words, the living legend richly deserves every bit of success he has attained in life. Mammootty Is A Family Man! Mammootty is a complete family man and an extremely caring father. His son/ Mollywood actor Dulquer Salmaan had once revealed that the Big B star has always encouraged him to fulfil his passions. DQ had further added that being a caring father, Mammootty is unable to sleep whenever he goes out for his biking expeditions. He Is A Pan-India Star Contrary to popular perception, Mammootty is a pan-India figure and has acted in several languages in addition to Malayalam. He became an inseparable part of Kollywood thanks to his performance in Thalapathi. Similarly, he made an impact in Tollywood with his beautifully restrained performance in Swathi Kiranam. Similarly, he has acted in a few Hindi films and an English movie as well. Dhartiputra and Sau Jhooth Ek Sach are his most notable Bollywood films while Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar is his only English film. It's no secret that the Kamal Haasan-hosted Bigg Boss Tamil Season 2 is one of the most controversial and keenly followed shows on TV today. It has remained the king of the small screen for nearly two months and that too for a variety of reasons. Just like the much-loved first season, the current one too is quite explosive and features several wild twists. However, the action seems to be a lot more explosive this time around. Now, here is some shocking news for the show's die-hard fans. The latest promo for the September 7, 2018 episode of Bigg Boss Tamil Season 2 has been released and it is bound to leave the fans stunned. In it, best friends Yashika and Aishwarya Dutta can be seen having a heated argument over some serious issue. While the reason behind this confrontation is not known, this seems to the beginning of the end for Yashika and Aishwarya's friendship. In case you did not know, Aishwarya is no stranger to tantrums. She has, previously, fought with Sendrayan and Thadi Balaji and proved to be a pain in the neck for them. However, no one expected her to turn on the Punjabi lady. Yashika and Aishwarya were always best friends and shared a lovely rapport. This makes their fight even more shocking. Bigg Boss Tamil Season 2 is heading towards the finish line and one should expect the unexpected in the days to come. In other words, no one is safe and anything can happen. Ekta Seeks Devi's Blessings Ekta captioned her picture as, "At MA s feet! May we glow n grow in the DEVI's aura ! @balajitelefilmslimited @starplus @shivangisinghchauhaan @iam_ejf @the_parthsamthaan JOI MAAAAA KAALI" - (sic) . Late Night Outing A few hours before going to the temple, Erica was seen having a good time with her team on the streets of Kolkata. Seems like the actors went out hunting for food in them middle of the night. Erica Bonds With The Team In another picture that Erica shared, she's seen with her co-actors Parth, Shubhaavi Choksey, Pooja Banerjee and others. She captioned the image as, "Post packup bonding over foooood ! #aboutlastnight #foodie #kasturi #kolkatafood #kzk #kasautiizindagiikay #ejf" - (sic) Erica Explores Kolkata Erica is in love with the beautiful city Kolkata and its evident from her Instagram posts. Recently, she shared a picture of vehicles waiting at a signal on her Instagram handle. In the caption she calls the city colorful. Fans excited to see Erica in Kolkata commented, "riyaadakWelcome to my city Prerna... Kolkata loves u..." and "nivedita.das95Lovely...my city .. inspite of many odds feel proud for super hospitality and rich cultural heritage...thanks for capturing its beauty not odd". - (sic) Are You Excited? A few days ago, the maker of Kasautii Zindagi Kay 2, Ekta Kapoor announced that the show will be airing on September 25, 2018, which is only a few days away. We are extremely excited to see the remake of the famous love saga. What about you? The emerging green sector in China offers investors an alternative investment destination. But even within the green sector, some investments are more mainstream than others. Private equity has taken its time to enter the green finance space, but a two-year-old China-focused fund has quickly found its feet in the burgeoning market. As well as focusing on electric vehicles and more traditional green ventures such as solar power, the US-China Green Fund has an altogether more left-field route into the growing green sector. Since January 2017, the fund has invested in one company, AIpark, that offers smart parking to bust traffic jams and another,... SINGAPORE, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New entity to support Temasek's Digital Transformation Journey Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced the formation of a joint venture with Temasek, the global investment company headquartered in Singapore. The joint venture will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temasek's wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Trusted Source Pte Ltd ("Trusted Source" or the "joint venture"), which currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg ) As part of the transaction, Infosys will acquire a 60% stake in the joint venture and Temasek will hold 40%. The agreement was signed by the parties last night and is effective immediately. Infosys and Temasek see important synergy and strategic alignment in the joint venture. Infosys gains significant capacity in terms of workforce as it focuses on strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia, while Temasek will see a rapid enhancement of its IT services through the augmented capabilities of the joint venture entity. Trusted Source will provide Temasek and its other clients in the region solutions and technologies across Cloud, Data & Analytics, Cybersecurity, Digital Experiences and AI & automation, and more. The joint venture will support Temasek's digital transformation journey, managing a complex Cloud migration program that will enable Temasek to host its applications on a cloud platform. Infosys and Temasek have named Shveta Arora, Vice President at Infosys, as Chief Executive Officer. The joint venture will be headquartered in Singapore, and more than 200 employees and contractors from Trusted Source will be part of it on establishment, in addition to Infosys staff who will join over time. In line with Infosys' commitment to invest in advanced technologies and skills for its workforce, employees of the joint venture will have access to the company's world class education and training capabilities that will enable them to provide excellent professional services and have rewarding career paths. Mohit Joshi, President, Infosys, said, "Infosys will leverage its digital skills, learning capabilities and transformation experience to help enhance operations across Temasek's global business. Our joint venture with Temasek will accelerate our efforts in the region, enhancing our existing presence, as we help clients navigate the next journey in their business transformation. This development is a key element of our continued efforts to invest and have a presence in the regions in which we operate." Jon Allaway, Chief Technology Officer, Temasek, said "We warmly welcome the opportunity to build this joint venture with Infosys, and provide those who support our business, at Trusted Source, the ability to further develop their careers with one of the world's leading technology service providers. The partnership will also help unlock new capabilities and technology platforms that help Temasek as the organization continues our growth as a Singapore-headquartered investor, with a global presence." About Temasek Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by a network of international offices in 11 locations in Asia, Americas and Europe, Temasek is the owner of a US$235 billion (S$308 billion) portfolio as at 31 March 2018, with two thirds underlying exposure to Singapore and the rest of Asia. Its investment activities are guided by four key themes and the long term trends they represent: Transforming Economies; Growing Middle Income Populations; Deepening Comparative Advantages; and Emerging Champions. Temasek has offices in Singapore; and in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Sao Paulo and Mexico City in the Americas; London in Europe; Beijing and Shanghai in China; Mumbai in India; and Hanoi in Vietnam. For more information on Temasek, please visit http://www.temasek.com.sg. Connect with Temasek on social media: Facebook (Temasek); Twitter (@Temasek); Instagram (@temasekseen); LinkedIn (Temasek) and YouTube (Temasek Digital) About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is mentioned at the beginning of the release, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. PRESS RELEASE NAGRA's OpenTV Signature Edition to power Eutelsat CIRRUS offering World-first launch of OpenTV Signature Edition for hybrid satellite/OTT service OpenTV Signature Edition's powerful user experience and backend platform deliver a brand-new experience to Eutelsat customers Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - September 7, 2018 - NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and the world's leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, today announced that Eutelsat Communications, one of the world's leading satellite operators, selected the OpenTV Signature Edition user experience to power Eutelsat CIRRUS, Eutelsat's new video service for satellite and OTT. Leveraging NAGRA's powerful OTT platform, the solution was customized for Eutelsat to meet the needs of the hybrid satellite/OTT Eutelsat CIRRUS offering. CIRRUS is available "as a service" to Eutelsat TV broadband customers. The announcement also marks the first deployment of an integrated OpenTV Signature Edition. "Eutelsat selected NAGRA as it was clear that their OpenTV Signature Edition solution would meet the Eutelsat customers' requirements - a sophisticated service with advanced features that can continuously evolve to meet the needs of their viewers," said Bruno Cattan, Director for Terminals and Solutions at Eutelsat. "We look forward to rolling out the service and working with NAGRA in the months ahead to develop new features and enrich our product portfolio." "We're delighted to be selected by Eutelsat to power the new Eutelsat CIRRUS platform through our OpenTV Signature Edition product," said Holger Ippach, SVP, UEX Product Unit, NAGRA. "In selecting NAGRA, Eutelsat has a strong and committed long-term technology partner for a solution that was designed to scale across multiple tenants in different geographies. We applaud Eutelsat on this exciting launch and are committed to supporting them as they extend the Eutelsat CIRRUS service to their customers during this next development phase of their business." As an "all-in-one" solution, OpenTV Signature Edition brings the best of linear satellite TV content and streaming services to consumers through a simple and intuitive user experience underpinned by a powerful OTT platform. It is designed to assist new entrants into the OTT market, as well as traditional pay-TV operators looking to complement their existing satellite services with compelling OTT services. Eutelsat CIRRUS powered by NAGRA OpenTV Signature Edition will be on display on the Eutelsat Stand 1.D59 and NAGRA Stand 1.C81 at the IBC Show in Amsterdam, from September 14 to 18, 2018. For more information on NAGRA's IBC presence, please visit dtv.nagra.com/ibc (https://dtv.nagra.com/ibc). About NAGRA NAGRA, a digital TV division of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), provides security and multiscreen user experience solutions for the monetization of digital media. The company provides content providers and DTV operators worldwide with secure, open and integrated platforms and applications over broadcast, broadband and mobile platforms, enabling compelling and personalized viewing experiences. Please visit dtv.nagra.com (https://dtv.nagra.com/) for more information and follow us on Twitter at @nagrakudelski (https://twitter.com/nagrakudelski?lang=en). Contacts Ivan Schnider Marketing Communications +41 21 732 09 40 ivan.schnider@nagra.com Christine Oury Marketing Communications +1 415 962 5433 christine.oury@nagra.com STOCKHOLM, Sept. 07, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On 3 September 2018, Invuo Technologies AB (publ) announced that an extraordinary general meeting will be held on 1 October 2018. The company announces today that the extraordinary general meeting will be held on 9 October 2018. The information was distributed for disclosure at 08:50 CEST on 7 September 2018. For additional information contact: John Longhurst, CEO, john.longhurst@invuo.com +46-8-564-878-00 Martin Schedin, CFO, martin.schedin@invuo.com +46-8-564-878-00 About Invuo Since 2001 Invuo has been providing its proprietary solutions and systems for mobile phone transactions. Invuo operates in two main business areas; mobile phone payment solutions provided through the brand MeaWallet and distribution of eproducts. www.invuo.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/invuo-technologies-ab/r/new-date-for-extraordinary-general-meeting-2018-in-invuo-technologies-ab--publ-,c2610672 The following files are available for download: STOCKHOLM, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The shareholders of Invuo Technologies AB (publ) ("Invuo" or the "Company") are hereby summoned to the extraordinary general meeting (the "Meeting") to be held on Tuesday 9 October 2018 at 10.00 CEST at the premises of Advokatfirman Vinge on Smalandsgatan 20 in Stockholm, Sweden. Right to participate at the Meeting To be entitled to participate at the Meeting, shareholders shall - be recorded in the register of shareholders maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB (the Central Securities Deposit) on Wednesday 3 October 2018, and - notify the Company of their intention to attend the Meeting no later than at 12.00 CEST on Wednesday 3 October 2018. The notification must be sent in writing to Invuo Technologies AB (publ), Kungstensgatan 60, 113 29 Stockholm, via e-mail to info@invuo.com or per facsimile to +468-564-878-23. When notifying the Company of its intention to attend the Meeting, shareholders shall provide their name, social security number/company registration number, shareholding, address, daytime telephone number and, where applicable, information regarding advisors (a maximum of two allowed) and, where applicable, information regarding proxy. Proxies Shareholders who are represented by a proxy must authorise the proxy by issuing a dated power of attorney. The power of attorney is valid one year from issuance, or such longer period as specified in the power of attorney, however maximum five years from issuance. If such authorisation is issued by a legal entity, a certified copy of a certificate of registration or similar must be attached. The original power of attorney and certificate of registration, where applicable, should be sent to the Company well in advance of the Meeting to the address stated above. A proxy form is available on the Company's website www.invuo.com or is sent to shareholders who so request. Nominee registered shares Shareholders whose shares are registered in the name of a nominee through the trust department of a bank or similar institution must, in order to be entitled to participate in the Meeting, request that their shares are temporarily re-registered in their own names in the register of shareholders maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB. Such registration must be effected on Wednesday 3 October 2018. Shareholders are requested to inform their nominees in good time prior to this date. Number of shares and votes Per the date of this notice there are in aggregate 82,084,955 issued shares and votes in the Company. Proposed agenda 1. Opening of the Meeting 2. Election of the chairman of the Meeting 3. Drawing-up and approval of the voting list 4. Approval of the agenda 5. Election of at least one person to approve the minutes 6. Resolution on whether the Meeting has been duly convened 7. Resolution on amendment of the articles of association 8. The Nomination Committee's proposal a. Resolution on the number of members and deputy members of the Board of Directors b. Resolution on the remuneration that shall be paid to the members of the Board of Directors c. Election of new members of the Board of Directors 9. Closing of the Meeting THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS' PROPOSAL Resolution on amendment of the articles of association (item 7) The Board of Directors proposes that the Meeting resolve on amendment of the articles of association of the Company, whereby the limits for the number of members of the Board of Directors of the Company will be changed so the Board of Directors shall consist of three to eight members with no deputy members. THE NOMINATION COMMITTEE'S PROPOSALS Invuo's Nomination Committee, consisting of the chairman David Cohen (representing Simcah), Tomas Jalling (the Chairman of the Board of Directors), Lars Rodert (representing OstVast Advisory) and John Longhurst (representing himself), proposes the following. Resolution on the number of members and deputy members of the Board of Directors (item 8(a)) It is proposed that the Board of Directors shall consist of four members without deputy members. Resolution on the remuneration that shall be paid to members of the Board of Directors (item 8(b)) At the annual general meeting 2018, it was resolved that remuneration for ordinary Board work for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting should be SEK 350,000 to the Chairman of the Board of Directors and SEK 300,000 to each of the other members of the Board of Directors. The remuneration, which was resolved at the annual general meeting 2018, to the resigned member of the Board of Directors shall be paid in proportion to the length of the member's term-of-office. The Nomination Committee proposes that remuneration to each of the members of the Board of Directors elected at the Meeting shall be SEK 300,000 (on a yearly basis), and that remuneration to these members for the period from when their appointment takes effect until the end of the next annual general meeting shall be paid in proportion to the length of the their term-of-office, respectively. Further, it is proposed that the newly-elected members of the Board of Directors are to be reimbursed for reasonable travel expenses in connection with meetings of the Board of Directors. It is proposed that no remuneration shall be paid for committee work. Election of new members of the Board of Directors (item 8(c)) The Nomination Committee has the intention to present its proposal regarding election of the new directors of the Board of Directors prior to the extraordinary general meeting. However, it was noted that Petra Sas resigns as member of the Board of Directors and that the other members of the Board of Directors, Tomas Jalling and Robin Saunders, are elected for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting. Shareholders' right to request information The Board of Directors and the CEO shall, if any shareholder so requests and the Board of Directors believes that it can be done without material harm to the Company, provide information regarding circumstances that may affect the assessment of an item on the agenda. Processing of personal data For information on how your personal data is processed, see www.invuo.com under the heading "General Meeting" under the section "Share". Proposal for the new articles of association will be available as of 7 September 2018 at the Company's office on Kungstensgatan 60 in Stockholm and on the Company's web page, www.invuo.com as well as will be sent to the shareholders who so request and inform the Company of their postal address. Stockholm in September 2018 Invuo Technologies AB (publ) The Board of Directors For further information, please contact: Martin Schedin, CFO/IR martin.schedin@invuo.com +46-8-564-878-00 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/invuo-technologies-ab/r/notice-of-extraordinary-general-meeting-in-invuo-technologies-ab-publ-,c2610660 The following files are available for download: The newly opened facility will add 130 jobs in 2018, provide local support to Invisalign trained doctors in Spain and Portugal MADRID, Spain and SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Align Technology, Inc. (NASDQ: ALGN), a global medical device company engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of the Invisalign system and iTero intraoral scanners and services for orthodontic and restorative dentistry, announced today the launch of the new digital treatment planning facility and education centre in Madrid, Spain. The new launch reflects the dynamic growth of Spain and Portugal (jointly known as Iberia) in the EMEA region and beyond. Iberia is the third largest Invisalign market worldwide (after North America and China), growing dynamically year on year. The second of its kind in Europe and the fourth worldwide, the treatment planning facility in Madrid aims to increase the company's commitment to Invisalign trained doctors in Spain and Portugal, and will play a key role in Align Technology's strategy to be closer to its customers and support them in digital treatment planning. The new facility, which will also act as education centre for doctors, will bring together current commercial teams representing Iberia and the new treatment planning team to provide Spanish and Portuguese doctors with first-hand support from the local staff. The new 3,500 square meter office will host 185 employees by the end of 2018 - a significant increase from the 10 employees employed in Spain since 2013. "Since we launched our operations in the country 17 years ago, we have seen continuous growth and have played an important role in expanding Align's operations in the EMEA region," explained Juan Manuel Frade, Align Technology general manager, Iberia. "The city of Madrid offers a vibrant ecosystem for innovative companies, while our new facilities support Align's efforts to offer first-hand local support to Spanish and Portuguese dental professionals, helping them achieve the clinical results they expect and deliver effective, cutting-edge dental options to their patients." The state-of-the-art facilities in Madrid will serve as commercial and operations site for the entire Iberia business. Align Technology, as a global medical company, works directly with doctors across both countries to provide them with the Invisalign system of clear aligners that doctors prescribe to their patients to straighten their teeth. The new facilities will provide Invisalign trained doctors with closer, more personalized support to ensure they in turn can offer improved service to their patients. "Our newly opened facility in Madrid is an important step forward in bringing our technology closer to Invisalign doctors, in a time of growing demand for clear aligner therapy from both consumers and doctors," said Emory Wright, senior vice president, global operations. "This facility will allow us to directly support the orthodontists in Iberia in their effort to continue to achieve greater clinical outcomes in teeth straightening. The in-region expertise and localization of services in strategic markets is necessary for us to be able to serve the growing needs of the doctors for local support." The treatment planning facility will be equipped with the latest technology, including Align Technology's proprietary software which makes it possible to create a customized treatment for each patient. The new treatment planning facilities are part of the 100 million dollar global investment that the company expects to make this year, and will enable the Madrid site to offer some of the most innovative orthodontic solutions in the region. "We are extremely proud to be launching our second European treatment planning facilityin Madrid. Itspearheads the technological innovation within the clear aligner field, placing Spain and Portugal at the forefront of the digital future of orthodontics in Europe," said Simon Beard, Align Technology senior vice president and managing director, EMEA. "Iberia continues dynamic business growth, being the strongest contributor to Align Technology's 38% growth across EMEA last year. I am confident our expansion of the infrastructure and the geographical coverage will continue to deliver exceptional results and will help us strengthen our relations with Invisalign trained doctors in the region." The company officially opened the new facility today during a ceremony attended by Invisalign trained doctors from Spain, media and dental associations. Clear aligners are a removable and transparent teeth-straightening solution produced using digital and 3D technologies. This type of solution differs from other orthodontic devices in that they are more comfortable and can be easily removed for eating or drinking. Used to treat minor to complex types of malocclusions, clear aligners are replaced every one or two weeks, depending on a doctor's recommendation, gradually moving teeth towards the projected final position. Digital treatments are created at Align Technology's treatment planning facilities by CAD designers, following doctors' guidelines and instructions. The new treatment planning facility represents a milestone in Align's expansion in Iberia that will ensure that doctors in the region, which are already supported by local clinical and customer support teams, also benefit from the presence of local CAD designers, enabling doctors to offer an improved service to their own patients. About Align Technology, Inc. Align Technology is a global medical device company engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing the most advanced clear aligner system in the world and intraoral scanners and services for orthodontic and restorative dentistry. Align's products help dental professionals achieve the clinical results they expect and deliver effective dental options to their patients. Visit www.aligntech.es or more information. Media Contact: Edelman Oier Llinas Oier.llinas@edelman.com 934881290 Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust Limited (an authorised closed ended companyincorporated in Guernsey with registration number 41959) LEI Number: 549300ZIJJTMTIIQJP67 Renewal Date- 12/12/2018 (The "Company") 7 September 2018 RESULT OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING At the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 7 September 2018, all Ordinary Resolutions set out in the Annual General Meeting Notice sent to Shareholders dated 21 May 2018 were duly passed. Details of the proxy voting results which should be read along side the Notice are noted below: Ordinary Resolution For Discretion (voted in favour) Against Abstain 1 259,531,617 2,394 65,087 245,456 2 259,639,863 2,394 202,297 0 3 259,780,245 2,394 11,916 50,000 4 258,712,322 2,394 1,055,338 74,500 5 259,442,431 2,394 325,229 74,500 6 259,754,506 2,394 13,155 74,500 7 258,929,642 2,394 651,649 260,869 8 259,754,222 2,394 87,939 0 9 259,830,245 2,394 11,916 0 Special Resolution For Discretion (voted in favour) Against Abstain 1 259,653,332 2,394 121,088 67,741 2 255,955,472 2,394 3,886,689 0 Note -A vote withheld is not a vote in law and has not been counted in the votes for and against a resolution. The Special Resolutions were as follows: Special Resolution 1 That the Company be authorised, in accordance with section 315 of The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008, as amended (the 'Companies Law'), to make market acquisitions (within the meaning of section 316 of the Companies Law) of ordinary shares in the capital of the Company ('Ordinary Shares'), provided that: a. the maximum number of ordinary shares hereby authorised to be purchased shall be 14.99% of the issued ordinary shares on the date on which this resolution is passed; b. the minimum price which may be paid for an ordinary share shall be 0.01; c. the maximum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for an ordinary share shall be the higher of (i) 105% of the average of the mid-market value of the ordinary shares for the five business days immediately preceding the date of the purchase; and (ii) that stipulated by the regulatory technical standards adopted by the European Union pursuant to the Market Abuse Regulation; d. such authority shall expire at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2019 unless such authority is varied, revoked or renewed prior to such date by Ordinary Resolution of the Company in general meeting; and e. the Company may make a contract to purchase ordinary shares under such authority prior to its expiry which will or may be executed wholly or partly after its expiration and the Company may make a purchase of ordinary shares pursuant to any such contract. Special Resolution 2 That the Directors of the Company be and are hereby empowered to allot ordinary shares of the Company for cash as if the pre-emption provisions contained under Article 13 of the Articles of Incorporation did not apply to any such allotments and to sell ordinary shares which are held by the Company in treasury for cash on a non-pre-emptive basis provided that this power shall be limited to the allotment and sales of ordinary shares: a. up to such number of ordinary shares as is equal to 10% of the ordinary shares in issue (including treasury shares) on the date on which this resolution is passed; b. at a price of not less than the net asset value per share as close as practicable to the allotment or sale; provided that such power shall expire on the earlier of the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held in 2019 or on the expiry of 15 months from the passing of this Special Resolution, except that the Company may before such expiry make offers or agreements which would or might require ordinary shares to be allotted or sold after such expiry and notwithstanding such expiry the Directors may allot or sell ordinary shares in pursuance of such offers or agreements as if the power conferred hereby had not expired. Enquiries: Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited The Company Secretary Trafalgar Court Les Banques St Peter Port Guernsey GY1 3QL Tel: 01481 745001 Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 7, 2018) - Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX) ("Benton" or the "Company") is pleased to announce encouraging results from its recently completed trenching program on the Bolton Bay project located 100km west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Company completed a total of 8 mechanically-stripped areas over a 3.5km strike length in locations of previously known gold mineralization and newly identified prospective zones. A total of 137 channel samples was cut and 72 grab samples collected and submitted for assay. Results from Benton's sampling at the historical 'West Zone" range from trace to 20.2g/t Au in grab samples, as well as up to 0.90g/t over 17m in channel sampling. The stripping of overburden at the West Zone uncovered a vertical quartz breccia pipe hosting the gold mineralization. The vertical nature of this structure may have negatively affected the drilling strategy carried out by historical exploration. The sporadic nature of the higher grade gold concentrations makes the West Zone a good candidate for bulk sampling and future diamond drilling. Of particular interest to the Company is a new deformation/shear zone containing green mica (fuchsite or roscoelite), quartz and quartz carbonate within a silicified volcanic over 16m containing 0.42g/t Au over 7.5m including 1.2g/t over 1m. More channel sampling in this area will be completed shortly to determine the full width of the zone. Each trench had channel samples containing anomalous gold assays associated with deformed rock related to shearing. Historical work completed on the property identified quartz-rich, mineralized zones over 9km across the property, which included the following highlights: East Zone - 13g/t Au (grab samples) West Zone - 4.46g/t Au over 7m (historic drilling) Zones 1 &2 - 11.6g/t Au (grab samples) Clear Lake East - 17.21g/t Au (grab samples) 1925 showing - 15.47g/t Au (grab samples) Island Zone - 3.57g/t Au (grab samples) Recent logging in the area has provided excellent access to the mineralized zones, which historically were only accessible by water or air. Stripping and channel sampling had been recommended in many previous reports but lack of access prevented the work from being completed. In addition, after some research, Benton's management has budgeted to conduct some follow-up exploration on some of their 100%-owned projects, namely the Panama Lake and Saganaga Gold projects. In light of Great Bear Resources Ltd.'s ("Great Bear") new discovery in the Red Lake district (see Great Bear's press release dated August 22, 2018), Benton will spend a number of days prospecting their Panama Lake gold project which lies 60km east of Great Bear's Dixie Project. Benton has staked a number of cell claims enlarging the Panama project slightly to 3,500 hectares. The Panama Lake gold project is hosted in the Red Lake mining district, 55km northeast of the town of Ear Falls and is accessible by road. Historical work is minimal and the last diamond drill campaign on the property was completed by Noranda Exploration Ltd. in 1988 where 8 widely spaced diamond drill holes over a 1.4km strike-length yielded results of up to 2.8g/t Au over 4.5m within a 20-30m wide mineralized shear zone. In addition, a glacial till sampling survey (Geological Survey of Canada, 1999 - Open File 3038) collected a sample on the Panama Lake gold project, which contained 107 gold grains, the highest count in the survey. The Company has initiated further till sampling along with prospecting along prospective trends. The Saganaga gold project has had a number of gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies which had not been followed up on by the Company. During the course of this summer, Benton personnel completed several days of prospecting these anomalies as well as new areas outside of the known showings. The Saganaga project is 100%-owned by Benton and is located at the southwest extension of the Shebandowan-Greenstone belt, 100km west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Recent logging operations have provided new clear-cuts and therefore offer many new opportunities for prospecting on the property. Benton will continue to examine the existing database and will model the diamond drilling data to work towards outlining a deposit. Benton also continues to evaluate their GNP project located in the Northern Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland near White Metal Resources Corp.'s Gunners Cove gold discovery, however, to-date the Company has only encountered moderately anomalous gold values. The Company believes that the Gunners Cove style of gold mineralization could potentially represent an important new discovery in a unique geological environment similar to other large gold deposits hosted in black shale environments around the world. Finally, the Company would like to acknowledge and thank the government of Newfoundland and Labrador for providing funding assistance under the JCEAP program. Nathan Sims (P.Geo.), Senior Exploration manager for Benton Resources Inc., is the qualified person responsible for this release and has prepared or supervised the preparation of or reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release. About Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX) Benton Resources Inc. is a well-funded Canadian-based project generator with a diversified property portfolio in Gold-Silver, Nickel, Copper, and Platinum group elements. Benton holds multiple high grade projects available for option which can be viewed on the company's web site. Most projects have an up to date NI 43-101 report available. Interested parties can contact Stephen Stares using the contact information found below. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Resources Inc., "Stephen Stares" Stephen Stares, President THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS 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 projections 684 Squier Street, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 4A8 Phone (807)475-7474 Cell (807)474-9020 Fax (807)475-7200 www.bentonresources.ca sstares@bentonresources.ca For further information contact Stephen Stares @: - The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. - INTERIM RESULTS FOR THE HALF YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 SALEM, NH / ACCESSWIRE / September 7, 2018 / ProPhotonix Limited ("ProPhotonix" or "the Company") (OTC PINK: STKR) (AIM: PPIX), a high technology designer and manufacturer of LED illumination systems and laser diode modules, with operations in Ireland and the United Kingdom, today announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2018. Financial Highlights Revenue increased 3.9% to $8.8 million (H1-2017: $8.5 million) Gross profit decreased 9.7% to $3.4 million (H1-2017: $3.8 million) mainly due to a reduction in gross margin of 38.6% (H1-2017: 44.4%) Operating loss of $0.4 million (H1-2017: $0.6 million operating income) excluding stock compensation expense and operating income of $0.1 million (H1-2017: $0.7 million) Net loss of $0.5 million (H1-2017: $0.6 million net income) Adjusted EBITDA of $0.2 million (H1-2017: $0.7 million). Please see the reconciliation of net income to adjusted EBITDA below. Order bookings of $9.0 million (H1-2017: $8.8 million) Book-to-Bill ratio of 1.03 (H1-2017: 1.01) Percentage revenue by market sectors: 81% industrial, 16% medical and 3% security & defense (H1-2017: 75% industrial, 22% medical and 3% security & defense) Percentage revenue by geography: 56% Europe, 31% North America and 13% Rest of World (H1-2017: 43% Europe, 44% North America and 13% Rest of World) Recent Operational Highlights Vision Systems Design 2018 awarded ProPhotonix its Innovators Silver Award in April 2018 Expansion of product offering and market applications with new high powered 405nm and 638nm laser diodes and 3 meter COBRA RGB line light New four year 0.7 million term loan secured for additional machinery and equipment and expansion of the Company's manufacturing operations Ed Dolan appointed as CFO in March 2018 Tim Losik, President & CEO, commented: Financial "Sales in the first half of 2018 were up 3.9% primarily due to an increase in Laser & Diode product sales offsetting a modest decline in LED sales. Gross profit margin fell to 38.6% compared with 44.4% for the same period in 2017, mainly due to a shift in product mix. Gross margins are expected to range between 40-45% going forward but this depends on the mix and volume of sales. In the first half of 2018 we experienced an operating loss of $0.4 million compared to operating income of $0.6 million in 2017. The operating loss mainly resulted from increased stock compensation expense as well as lower profit margins from a shift in product mix and continued investment to support future growth of the business." "On June 14, 2018, the Company announced it had entered into a 700,000 four-year term loan facility with SQN Secured Income Fund PLC ("SQN"). The proceeds from the loan are to provide additional working capital and capital expenditure investments in support of our growth initiatives. Also, as of June 30, 2018, the Company had $382,000 borrowing availability on its Sales Finance facility through Barclays Bank. The Directors are comfortable with the cash flow of the business considering its plans and available credit facilities." Strategy "The strategy of the Company remains established in its OEM heritage as well as the development of products directed at specific markets. ProPhotonix has made and will continue to make investments in commercially attractive OEM opportunities and product development including UV LED, multi-wavelength devices and laser technology advances. We continue to concentrate our engineering capacity in these defined projects and areas that we believe are poised for fast market expansion." "The first of these is the UV LED and laser market for various applications including: printing, curing, bonding, 3D printing, bio-luminescence, medical microscopy and other applications. The Company has launched several versions of its COBRA CureTM product and continues to work with many potential customers in their applications using this technology. We plan to continue to launch new higher power products while continuously enhancing our current product lines to serve this market during 2018 and beyond." "ProPhotonix also continues to focus on market requirements for multi-wavelength devices and systems, both laser and LED solutions. Increasingly, customers are seeking multi-wavelength solutions requiring innovative optics, complex electronics, on-board sensing capabilities and sophisticated software control. We see opportunities which include a broad range of applications in printing, microscopy, industrial inspection and sorting, solar simulation and security markets." Enquiries: ProPhotonix Limited Tim Losik, President & CEO Tel: +1 603 893 8778 ir@prophotonix.com Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (Nominated Adviser and Broker) Tel: +44 (0)207 894 7000 David Foreman Richard Salmond Please click on, or paste the following URL into your web browser to view the full announcement; http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1534A_1-2018-9-7.pdf SOURCE: ProPhotonix Limited Raising money in shirts and suits on classic motorbikes: On September 30 th , bikers in 650 cities around the world will meet up in aid of a good cause. Delticom's online shop Moto-tyres.co.uk is sponsoring the event in ten European cities. The biker who raises the most money in each city will receive a set of Metzeler tyres free of charge. On September 30th, 2018, when tens of thousands of bikers around the world don their finest threads for the "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride", there's a good reason for it: events in more than 650 cities are aiming to raise money for a good cause. The organisers expect to raise around 6 million, which will be spent on fighting prostate cancer and raising awareness of depression and suicide in men. This would be about 20 times as much as was raised five years ago. The first time the Ride took place in 2012, participants raised 277,000. It has been an annual event ever since. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005226/en/ Moto-tyres.co.uk will once again be sponsoring the "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" (Photo: Business Wire) It goes without saying that Delticom's two-wheel division with its online shop Moto-tyres.co.uk will once again be sponsoring the "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" this year. The online motorbike shop from Europe's largest online tyre retailer is sponsoring events in Hamburg, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, London, Copenhagen, Milan and Madrid with a total of $ 5,000. But it's not just companies that can raise money: each and every biker can donate by registering and supporting the event with a donation of their choice. Or simply by mounting their bikes and raising money themselves by taking part in one of the many Rides. As an additional incentive: In each city where Moto-tyres.co.uk is sponsoring a Ride, the biker who raises the most money will receive a set of (front and rear) Metzeler tyres from the online shop free of charge. For more information, go to https://www.moto-tyres.co.uk/gentlemans-ride-2018.html. The "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" is also interesting for spectators, as the bikers wear smart clothes such as silk waistcoats and tweed suits, and ride elegant motorbikes such as choppers, cafe racers and classic scooters. Australian Mark Hawwa, creator of the event, also requests good manners on that day. While around 2,500 drivers participated in 2012, by 2017 this had grown to 94,000. This year, organisers are expecting 120,000 men and women to actively participate in the campaign. Currently, about 40,000 participants have already registered and a quarter of the target sum has been raised. The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride is not only about fighting prostate cancer, but also about preventing suicide, which has been on the increase in many countries for several years. "This is a very serious, important topic. We are happy to be able to raise awareness of it as part of the campaign this year, and to raise money for a good cause together with tens of thousands of bikers," says Oliver Pflaum, Head of Sales for motorbike tyres at Moto-tyres.co.uk. For more on the "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride", information about local campaigns, and to register or donate, head to: https://www.gentlemansride.com. Go to www.gentlemansride.com/rides for a world map showing all the cities where a charity ride is taking place. About Moto-tyres.co.uk Whether you're looking for chopper, sport-touring or scooter tyres: bikers will find everything their heart desires in this renowned online store's range. Accessories such as bike tubes and motor oil complete Delticom's bike range. The two-wheeler tyre specialist's portfolio includes all established premium bike tyre manufacturers such as Metzeler, Pirelli, Continental, Dunlop, Bridgestone and Michelin, as well as renowned quality brands such as Heidenau, Avon, Maxxis and Mitas. Online store for end users: www.moto-tyres.co.uk Further online stores in Europe: www.motorradreifendirekt.de (DE), www.motorradreifendirekt.at (AT), www.motorradreifendirekt.ch (CH), www.pneus-moto.fr (FR), www.motorbandenmarkt.nl (NL), www.moto-pneumatici.it (IT), www.neumaticosdemoto.es (ES) and more. Online store for dealers: www.yourtyres.co.uk About the company: www.delti.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005226/en/ Contacts: insignis Agentur fur Kommunikation GmbH (GPRA) Henning Jahns Tel.: +49-511-132214-14 Fax: +49-511-132214-99 delticom@insignis.de or Delticom AG Anne Lena Peters Tel.: +49-511-93634-8909 Fax: +49-511-93634-8301 anne.lena.peters@delti.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CROP Infrastructure Corp. (CSE: CROP) (OTC: CRXPF) ("CROP" or the "Company") announced today that it has completed the member interest purchase agreement with Elite Ventures LLC, of Nevada, to acquire a 49% member interest in the Nye County agricultural property. The company has agreed to pay $1,350,000 USD in cash and has currently loaned $1,697,148 USD for the property and equipment expenses, with no more than $200,000 in additional expenses expected for this first harvest. The Nye County agricultural property is in central Nevada and was selected for its temperate climate which is ideal for greenhouse and outdoor growing. The property totals over 315 acres and includes 300 acres of private water rights, with 240 acres under automatic irrigation pivots that also have automatic fertilizer injection systems installed. The previously announced 240 acres of CBD Hemp has been planted and is currently 2.5-3 feet tall and growing under pivot with the resulting harvest expected within 45 days. A recent plant count suggests 3,000 healthy plants per acre or 720,000 plants under pivot. All harvesting equipment has been secured for the resulting hemp biomass. The cost of production was not expected to exceed $700,000, with $350,000 incurred to date, and no more then $200,000 in additional costs expected to prepare our tenant for this harvest. CROP Infrastructure Director and CEO, Michael Yorke, stated: "We are pleased to have completed this acquisition and see our operations coming in under budget for this first harvest. This further demonstrates that our tenant and brand licensee was the correct choice for our Nevada farm. The next phase of development will be a state-of-the-art extraction facility to make high-value CBD isolate." About CROP Crop Infrastructure Corp. is publicly listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange and trades under the symbol "CROP" and in the US under the symbol "CRXPF". CROP is primarily engaged in the business of investing, constructing, owning and leasing greenhouse projects as part of the provision of turnkey real estate solutions for lease-to-licensed cannabis producers and processors offering best-in-class operations. The Company's portfolio of projects includes cultivation properties in California and Washington State, Nevada, Italy, Jamaica and a joint venture on West Hollywood and San Bernardino dispensary applications. CROP has developed a portfolio of 16 Cannabis brands and has US and Italian distribution rights to a line of over 55 cannabis topical products from The Yield Growth Corp. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this press release related to the Offering, the securities issuable thereunder and the Transaction are forward-looking statements and are prospective in nature. Forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events, and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the expected yield from The Nye Property; the technological effects of The Nye Property on production; the intention to expand its portfolio; and execute on its business plan. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding the regulatory and legal framework regarding the cannabis industry in general among all levels of government and zoning; risks associated with applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules relating to the cannabis industry; risks associated with maintaining its interests in its various assets; the ability of the Company to finance operations and execute its business plan and other factors beyond the control of the Company. Such forward-looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such factors, and the Company is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release. Company Contact: Michael Yorke CEO & Director E-mail: info@cropcorp.com Phone: +1-(604)-484-4206 Website: http://www.cropcorp.com PALM BEACH, Florida, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketNewsUpdates.com News Commentary Dually listed U.S. and Canadian cannabis companies rallied this week as analysts cheered the latest link-ups in the sector and remained bullish on a market expected to grow quickly once Canada fully legalizes the substance on Oct. 17. Many are expecting Canada-based cannabis stocks to follow trends seen in the U.S. states where recreational cannabis has been legalized, where strong demand for cannabis products and oils are only growing. All eyes are on Canada as it prepares to legalize recreational marijuana in October, becoming only the second country to do so after Uruguay. Meanwhile Americans continue to change their minds about marijuana. In less than a generation, public opinion has turned sharply away from prohibition and penalties in favor of legalization which is expected to only push the industry to levels in the future. Active cannabis stocks in the markets today include: CROP Infrastructure Corp. (CSE:CROP) (OTC:CRXPF), MedMen Enterprises Inc. (CSE:MMEN) (OTC:MMNFF), Aphria Inc. (OTC:APHQF) (TSX:APH), Liberty Health Sciences Inc. (CSE:LHS) (OTC:LHSIF), Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX:WEED) (NYSE:CGC) CROP Infrastructure Corp. (CSE:CROP) (OTCPK:CRXPF)) BREAKING NEWS: CROP Infrastructure announced today that it has completed the member interest purchase agreement with Elite Ventures LLC, of Nevada, to acquire a 49% member interest in the Nye County agricultural property. The company has agreed to pay $1,350,000 USD in cash and has currently loaned $1,697,148 USD for the property and equipment expenses, with no more than $200,000 in additional expenses expected for this first harvest. The Nye County agricultural property is in central Nevada and was selected for its temperate climate which is ideal for greenhouse and outdoor growing. The property totals over 315 acres and includes 300 acres of private water rights, with 240 acres under automatic irrigation pivots that also have automatic fertilizer injection systems installed. The previously announced 240 acres of CBD Hemp has been planted and is currently 2.5-3 feet tall and growing under pivot with the resulting harvest expected within 45 days. A recent plant count suggests 3,000 healthy plants per acre or 720,000 plants under pivot. All harvesting equipment has been secured for the resulting hemp biomass. The cost of production was not expected to exceed $700,000, with $350,000 incurred to date, and no more than $200,000 in additional costs expected to prepare our tenant for this harvest. CROP Infrastructure Director and CEO, Michael Yorke, stated: "We are pleased to have completed this acquisition and see our operations coming in under budget for this first harvest. This further demonstrates that our tenant and brand licensee was the correct choice for our Nevada farm. The next phase of development will be a state-of-the-art extraction facility to make high-value CBD isolate." Read this full announcement and more news for CROP Infrastructure at: http://www.marketnewsupdates.com/news/crop.html Additional cannabis industry related developments from around the markets: The MedMen of Nevada 2 LLC, located at 10115 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232, announced this week that on September 5, 2018 it disposed of, by way of distribution in accordance with its constating documents to the members of the Securityholder, 16,574,460 Class B Common Shares of MM Can USA, Inc., a subsidiary of MedMen Enterprises Inc. (CSE:MMEN.CN) (OTCQB:MMNFF), which is located at 10115 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232. Pursuant to the articles of incorporation of PC Corp and the Support Agreement dated as of May 28, 2018 between the Issuer, PC Corp and MM Enterprises USA, LLC, and subject to the terms and conditions thereof, such distributed Class B Shares may be redeemed from time to time by the holders thereof for cash or an equivalent number of Class B Subordinate Voting Shares of the Issuer, with the form of such redemption consideration being at the option of PC Corp. Aphria Inc. (TSX:APH.TO) (OTCQB:APHQF) this week announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement with a group of buyers, each acting individually and not in concert, including a member of the Serruya family, and has completed the sale of 64,118,462 shares (the "Shares") in Liberty Health Sciences, Inc. ("Liberty"), representing 100% of the Company's outstanding investment in Liberty. As part of the transaction, Aphria retains an irrevocable option to repurchase the Shares or any replacement securities from the buyers for a period of up to five years, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions as further described below. As a result of the transaction, Aphria has divested its remaining U.S. cannabis assets from its balance sheet in accordance with the staff notice and requirements of the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX"). As a result of this divestiture, the Company has significantly improved its liquidity position while it continues to focus on the many opportunities within Canada and in other legal cannabis markets around the world. Liberty Health Sciences Inc. (CNQ:LHS.CN) (OTCQX:LHSIF), a provider of high quality cannabis, announced this week that they experienced a 95% increase in sales revenue in the three-month period ended August 31, 2018 compared to the previous three-month period which ended May 31, 2018. Liberty's recent quarterly revenue totaled $2.2 million compared to $1.1 million for the previous quarter, a 95% increase. The growth in revenue reflects the wider recognition of the Liberty brands in terms of quality and consistency as well as the patient-centric approach that the Company uses. The corresponding patient count increased to almost 10,000 patients at the end of August from 4,600 at the end of May, a 112% increase over this time period. "We are proud of our operational successes and as we move into the next quarter and we will focus on continuing to lead the way in the legal cannabis space with our portfolio of high-quality cannabis products, all while increasing shareholder value," said George Scorsis, CEO of Liberty Health Sciences. Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX:WEED.TO) (NYSE:CGC) and Hiku Brands Company Ltd. (CNQ:HIKU.CN) (together, the "Companies") recently announced the closing of the previously announced acquisition of Hiku by Canopy Growth (the "Transaction"). The announcement follows Hiku's special meeting of shareholders held on August 30, 2018 where holders of the common shares of Hiku (the "Hiku Shares") voted to approve the Transaction. "Leaves begin to turn. Canopy adds bold new brands. Ready for retail," commented Bruce Linton , Chairman & Co-CEO, Canopy Growth. "The Tweed and Vert brands we've built are now complemented with the likes of DOJA, Tokyo Smoke, Maitri, and Van der Pop , placing the taste-makers of tomorrow's cannabis industry on the same team."Since day one we've believed in a singular vision - that recreational cannabis is a consumer product and that consumers will ultimately choose brands they identify with from exceptional retail environments," said Alan Gertner , CEO, Hiku. "Today is a pivotal moment in our journey as it represents the chance to tell our story on the biggest stage with the greatest cannabis company the world has ever seen. We could not be more honoured to bring best in class brands and retail to consumers alongside Canopy Growth." DISCLAIMER: MarketNewsUpdates.com (MNU) is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. MNU is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. MNU and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. MNU's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. MNU is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed MNU has been compensated forty nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press release issued above by CROP Infrastructure Corp. by a non affiliated third party. MNU HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. 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Media Contact: email: info@marketnewsupdates.com +1(561)325-8757 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. A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" of Abu Dhabi National Takaful Company P.S.C.(ADNTC) (United Arab Emirates). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. The ratings reflect ADNTC's balance sheet strength, which A.M. Best categorises as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). A.M. Best considers the regulatory environment in the UAE to be sufficiently strong, given the protection it provides to policyholders. Consequently, ADNTC's risk-adjusted capitalisation is assessed on a combined basis, integrating policyholders' and shareholders' funds. The company's risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), is assessed at the strongest level and prospective capitalisation is expected to be sufficient to support the company's business plans. An offsetting rating factor is ADNTC's moderate reliance on reinsurance. However, the credit risk is mitigated by the company's reinsurance panel, which is considered to be of good credit quality. Whilst the company's asset base is concentrated in the UAE, it operates a low-risk investment portfolio that supports an excellent liquidity position. ADNTC reported profit before tax of AED 54 million for 2017, equivalent to a return on equity of 18.5%. The company's overall earnings are driven by its underwriting operations, which have generated strong results and historically have exhibited a relatively low level of volatility. The company's five-year average combined ratio is excellent at 71.6% (67.3% in 2017), with the majority of profit derived from its family takaful products. A.M. Best expects the company's strong operating performance to continue, given its effective underwriting controls and experienced management team. Despite a small decrease in gross written contributions, the company's profit at half-year 2018 increased by 7.3% to AED 37 million, compared with the same period in 2017. The company has a modest profile in the UAE insurance market. Nevertheless, ADNTC benefits from a strong reputation as one of the most successful takaful companies in the market, which is complemented by its strong relationships with local Islamic banks. Following the strong operating performance of the company, ADNTC has reduced its dependence on Qard Hasan (i.e., an interest free loan from shareholders' fund to the policyholders' fund) turning the life technical account into a surplus position. Furthermore, in 2018, the company is proposing a distribution of policyholder surplus, a first among UAE takaful operators, which should provide the company with a unique value proposition for customers. Corporate medical and family takaful lines of business drove strong growth of 16.5% in 2017, with gross written contributions climbing to AED 374 million. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best press releases, please view Guide for Media Proper Use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best Rating Action Press Releases A.M. Best is a global rating agency and information provider with a unique focus on the insurance industry. Visit www.ambest.com for more information Copyright 2018 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005323/en/ Contacts: A.M. Best Thomas Bateman, CFA +44 20 7397 0329 Financial Analyst thomas.bateman@ambest.com or Mahesh Mistry, +44 20 7397 0325 Senior Director, Analytics mahesh.mistry@ambest.com or Christopher Sharkey, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159 Manager, Public Relations christopher.sharkey@ambest.com or Jim Peavy, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644 Director, Public Relations james.peavy@ambest.com 7 September, 2018 U.S. Oil & Gas Plc. ("U.S. Oil" or the "Company") OPERATIONS UPDATE AND LEASE ACQUISITIONS Highlights: Preliminary testing of Eblana-3 set to begin Equipment and personnel onsite Up to two zones to be tested initially Additional downhole operations pending regulatory approvals Further leases secured During drilling operations at the Eblana-3 well in April 2018, at least eight potential hydrocarbon-bearing zones were identified from cutting samples, mud logs, and geophysical wire-line logs. After a review of all available data, six zones indicating a high potential for hydrocarbons were selected for perforation. Downhole operations using a workover rig were conducted between June 18 and June 30, 2018. However, perforation equipment failures led to significant delays in the program, curtailing swabbing and preventing preliminary flow testing of the perforated zones. The Company duly announced that it would recommence testing operations when equipment and personnel could be reassembled. During the last hours of operations, promising zones identified earlier, zones 5 and 6 (3856-3866 ft. and 3580-3590 ft.), were jointly subjected to limited swabbing and produced some crude oil. Insufficient rig time remained for further operations. The rig was stood down, and the well was plugged pending testing at a later date. Data analysis and planning Analysis of downhole data by Baker Hughes, as well as additional reservoir engineering studies and laboratory testing, indicated that of the six perforated zones, two (zone 5 at 3856-3866 ft. and zone 6 at 3580-3590 ft.) could be tested without further operations to clear debris from the formations, while the remaining four zones would benefit from clearing by water injection methods. The latter programme required detailed planning, modelling and additional regulatory approvals. The Company therefore decided to press on with preliminary testing of zone 5 and zone 6, while working with regulatory authorities to finalize plans for the remaining zones and for other operations including water disposal. Preparations To prepare the well for testing, a workover rig was deployed to Eblana-3. During these operations, light hydrocarbons flowed to the surface, and samples were collected. The completion rig was then stood down and a rod pump installation with advanced automatic control for fluid lift was deployed. Pumping has now commenced from zones 5 and 6 combined, initially to further clear the two zones of perforation debris and drilling fluid residue, and will continue for as long as is required to prepare the zones for testing. Oil separation apparatus and tankage is also being commissioned. For testing, a workover rig will again be deployed. Operations will initially focus on zone 6 possibly moving to zone 5 depending on results and the work schedule. Subject to regulatory approvals, the Company may also carry out its planned perforation clearing operations on some or all of the four additional zones of interest. The Company wishes to emphasise that the planned tests are preliminary. No attempt is being made at this stage to maximise flow. A considerably longer production test will be required before definitive statements can be made about long term flow rates or commerciality. The Eblana-3 well is located on Lease 87414 in Hot Creek Valley, Nevada, USA. US Oil has a 100% interest in the lease through its wholly owned subsidiary Major Oil Intl. LLC. Additional acreage acquired In competitive and non-competitive auctions held by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in June and July 2018, the Company successfully bid for an additional acreage contiguous to its existing holdings in Hot Creek Valley. The Company's total acreage position, through its wholly owned subsidiary Major Oil Intl LLC will shortly be confirmed on receipt of final documentation. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS The statements in this communication reflect the current thinking of the Board and the Company's present plans. The Company reserves the right to alter plans in the light of developing knowledge and circumstances. Shareholders' attention is drawn to the note below concerning Forward-looking Statements. This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information". Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: business plans and strategies of US Oil and Gas; operating or technical difficulties in connection with drilling or development activities; availability and costs associated with inputs and labour; drilling and exploration costs; the speculative nature of oil exploration and development; diminishing quantities or quality of reserves; synergies and financial impact of completed acquisitions; the benefits of the acquisitions and the development potential of properties of US Oil and Gas; the future price of oil; supply and demand for oil; the estimation of reserves; the realization of reserve estimates; costs of production and projections of costs; success of exploration activities; capital expenditure programs and the timing and method of financing thereof; the ability of US Oil and Gas to achieve drilling success consistent with management's expectations; net present values of future net revenues from reserves; expected levels of royalty rates, operating costs, general and administrative costs, costs of services and other costs and expenses; expectations regarding the ability to raise capital and to add to reserves through acquisitions, assessments of the value of acquisitions and exploration and development programs; geological, technical, drilling and processing problems; treatment under governmental regulatory regimes and tax laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements THE DIRECTORS OF THE COMPANY ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENTS OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT Neither this announcement nor the information contained herein constitutes an offer or solicitation by U.S. Oil and Gas Plc for the purchase or sale of any securities nor does it constitute a solicitation to any person in any jurisdiction where solicitation would be unlawful. For further information contact: Brian McDonnell, Chief Executive Officer +353 (1) 631 9022 About U.S. Oil & Gas: U.S. Oil & Gas plc is an oil and gas exploration company with a strategy to identify and acquire oil and gas assets in the early phase of the upstream life-cycle and mature them. The Company's main asset is in Nye County, Nevada where it holds the entire share capital of US-based company, Major Oil International LLC ("Major Oil"). Major Oil has acquired rights to exploration and development acreage in Hot Creek Valley, Nye County, adjacent to the oil and gas rich Railroad Valley area of Nevada, both of which are part of the Sevier Thrust of central Nevada and western Utah, USA. LONDON, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- St Kitts and Nevis' government announces that 900 families have benefited from assistance through the Hurricane Relief Fund - the brainchild of Prime Minister Timothy Harris. A cash injection worth $11.5m has so far helped those affected by Hurricane Irma and Maria restore their homes. The funds come from the country's popular citizenship by investment (CBI) programme - a concept introduced to the world by St Kitts and Nevis in 1984 whereby investors can obtain the citizenship of this well-connected twin-island nation in exchange for a significant contribution to the country's economy. Until recently, one such route was an investment into the Hurricane Relief Fund - a 6-month initiative that proved extremely popular among investors wishing to support the country through the challenging hurricane season. Following the success of the Hurricane Relief Fund, Prime Minister Timothy Harris introduced the Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF), which aims to enhance the quality of education on the twin-islands, boosts St Kitts and Nevis' already booming tourism sector, supports indigenous entrepreneurship, and helps develop many other socio-economic initiatives to benefit its citizens. "Many investors prefer making a contribution to the Sustainable Growth Fund, which is the faster and more affordable route to St Kitts and Nevis' citizenship," says Paul Singh, Director of CS Global Partners, an international, industry-leading, award-winning legal advisory firm specialising in citizenship and residence solutions. For an investment of US$150,000 per main applicant or US$195,000 for a family of four, the Sustainable Growth Fund is especially attractive for larger families looking for stability and businesspersons seeking hassle-free travel to over 150 countries and territories, including the Schengen Area and business hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong and London. St Kitts and Nevis is renowned for forging extensive diplomatic ties and its efforts have paid off, as highlighted in the latest CBI Index - an independent study published by the Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management. St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme, considered the Platinum Standard of the industry, earned its place on the CBI podium, ranking number one with respect to ease of processing, convenient travel and residence requirements, and due diligence. As political turmoil creates ever more uncertainty around the world, it seems the concept of acquiring dual nationality through investment offers a solution to both St Kitts and Nevis' current nationals and its newly adopted economic citizens. Contact: pr@csglobalpartners.com AngloGold Ashanti Australiahas awarded an extension for a five year contract to Barminco Holdings for Sunrise Dam in the northern Goldfields.Based on the current mining schedule, the contract extension is worth approximately $700 million.Leading global hard-rock underground mining services provider Barminco has partnered with AngloGold Ashanti at Sunrise Dam in the northern Goldfields since the start of underground operations in 2003.Barminco is joint venture partners in African Underground Mining Services with Ausdrilland are potentially merging in a deal that will make Ausdrill the second biggest mining services company in Australia.Shares in AngloGold Ashanti Australiaflat at $2.20. Bhushan Steel and Power was among the 12 non-performing accounts referred by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for NCLT proceedings. New Delhi: Tata Steel on Thursday submitted before the NCLAT that the lenders of the debt-ridden firm Bhushan Power & Steel permitted rival JSW Steel to change the basic parameters of its bids after submission. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Tata Steel, submitted before the appellate tribunal that it was against the interim order passed by NCLAT on 6 August. While, Tata Steel following NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) order of the appellate tribunal 6 August order, has filed one additional plan. Passing an order on August 6 order, the NCLAT had allowed all three contenders -- Tata Steel, Liberty House and JSW - to file additional unconditional 'resolution plans' by August 13, 2018, improving their financial offer without compromising the basic parameters of the 'resolution plans' already submitted by them. However, the Committee of Creditors allowed JSW to change basic parameters of its resolution plans. A two-member NCLAT bench headed by Chairperson Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has listed the matter on 24 September for next hearing. In July, NCLAT had vacated its stay and asked the CoC to consider resolution plans submitted by three firms -- Tata Steel, Liberty House and JSW Steel. The tribunal on July 20 gave a go-ahead to the CoC meeting, directing it to finalise a bid for the company. However, JSW Steel revised its offer from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore ahead of the CoC meeting. Tata Steel put in a bid of Rs 17,000 crore. Bhushan Power and Steel owes about Rs 45,000 crore to its lenders. Earlier on 17 July, the NCLAT had stayed the meeting of CoC when they were going to vote for finalisation of the highest bidder (H1) for BPSL. Bhushan Steel and Power was among the 12 non-performing accounts referred by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for NCLT proceedings. British Airways advised anyone who believed they may have been affected to contact their bank or credit card provider and follow their recommendations London: British Airways said that the personal and financial details of customers making bookings between 21 August and 5 September had been stolen in a data breach involving 3,80,000 bank cards. The almost two week long hack did not involve travel or passport details, the airline said, adding that it had launched an urgent investigation into the theft of customer data. "The personal and financial details of customers making bookings on our website and app were compromised," it said. "The breach has been resolved and our website is working normally. We have notified the police and relevant authorities." British Airways said the breach took place between 2158 GMT on 21 August and 2045 GMT on 5 September and that around 380,000 payment cards were compromised. British Airways advised anyone who believed they may have been affected to contact their bank or credit card provider and follow their recommendations. In terms of compensation, British Airways said they would be in touch with customers "and will manage any claims on an individual basis." "We are deeply sorry for the disruption that this criminal activity has caused," the airline said. It said customers due to travel could check in online as normal as the incident had been resolved. British Airways customer Daniel Willis, 34, who booked a flight on Monday with the airline, said he had not been contacted by the airline despite being affected by the data breach. "I've not heard anything from them on this and I've just had to cancel the card I used. They're a shambles," he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Another British Airways customer, Stephanie Jowers, said she contacted the airline hours before the hack was announced to query a suspicious charge on her account but was not informed it could have been compromised. "I asked repeatedly for an explanation. None was given," she told the Daily Telegraph. The National Crime Agency said: "We are aware of reports of a data breach affecting British Airways and are working with partners to assess the best course of action." The NCA is set up to tackle the most serious and organised crime posing the highest risk to public security in Britain. British Airways apologised in July after technology issues caused dozens of its flights to and from London Heathrow Airport to be cancelled. The airline said the problem was down to an incident with an IT system. And in May 2017, British Airways suffered a major computer system failure triggered by a power supply issue near Heathrow which left 75,000 customers stranded. IAG, which owns British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, said last month that first-half profits more than doubled. Earnings after taxation flew to 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in the first six months of 2018 compared with 607 million euros a year earlier, IAG said in a results statement. The London-listed group, which is also the owner of Irish airline Aer Lingus and Spanish carrier Vueling, added that total revenues swelled three percent to 11.2 billion euros. British Airways announced last month that it will halt flights to Tehran in September, citing low profitability as the US reimposes sanctions on Iran. Media company CBS Corp's board is in talks with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Les Moonves to negotiate his exit, according to several media reports. New York: Media company CBS Corp's board is in talks with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Les Moonves to negotiate his exit, according to several media reports. These discussions are occurring as the company and its controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and National Amusements Inc are also hammering out a settlement to a legal dispute over the control of CBS. The two sides would agree to a two-year standstill on any discussions of a CBS and Viacom Inc merger as part of the settlement, sources close to the talks told Reuters. The board has offered a roughly $100 million exit package, CNBC reported earlier on Thursday, citing people familiar with the negotiations. The number could not be independently verified. A New Yorker report in late July featured claims against Moonves from six women spanning different time periods over two decades, from 1985 to 2006. The allegations included sexual assault and unwanted advances. The board has asked for autonomy from its controlling shareholder, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. If granted, CBS could be free to pursue a sale. CBS shares rose more than 3 percent. Moonves will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Joe Ianniello as interim CEO, CNBC reported. Long viewed as a successor to Moonves, Ianniello was instrumental in CBS's success following its split from Viacom in 2006. He has overseen the company's transformation from traditional TV and radio broadcaster to a supplier of shows to digital platforms and the launch of its own streaming TV service. As of Wednesday's close, CBS stock had risen by more than 120 percent from a close of $24.04 on 30 December 2005, a day before the company split. Viacom stock has fallen more than 28 percent from $41.15 in the same period. "CBS will be in very good hands with Joe Ianniello running the company and allow for a smooth transition," analyst Craig Huber of Huber Research Partners said. CBS declined to comment. Representatives of the board and representatives for the investigations into Moonves declined to comment. Moonves, who joined CBS in 1995 and became CEO in 2006, has been locked in a legal battle over control of the company with National Amusements, owned by Shari Redstone and her father Sumner who also control media company Viacom. Viacom shares traded flat on Thursday. Moonves received total compensation of $69.33 million in 2017, making him one of the highest paid US executives. Under his contract, he is entitled to up to $180 million in severance. According to the CNBC report, the board wants to reserve the ability to claw back some of the compensation depending on the results of investigations into sexual harassment allegations against Moonves. It was not immediately clear if this could mean Moonves receives less than $100 million or anything at all. CBS in August said it had retained two law firms and the board had set up a special committee to probe the allegations. According to a filing from CBS in April, if Moonves is terminated for cause, or in the event of resignation without good reason, no incremental payments and benefits would be made. One of the definitions for "cause" include "willful and material violation of any Company policy that is generally applicable to all employees or officers of the Company, including, but not limited to, policies concerning insider trading or sexual harassment," according to the filing. Moonves had earlier said he "may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances", which he called mistakes he regretted immensely, but that he understood "'no' means 'no'" and never used his position to harm anyone's career. A big payout could open the company to shareholder litigation, experts said. "Theres an established legal doctrine that says you can potentially be sued for overpaying your CEO to go away," said Eric Talley, a Columbia Law School corporate governance professor. "If you authorize payment of a big exit fee, you have to be acting in good faith to further shareholder interests." The precedent came out of shareholders suing over Michael Ovitzs exit compensation from Walt Disney Co as president, claiming the board breached its fiduciary duty, Talley said. Shareholders ultimately lost but the legal battle established the standard boards and companies must meet when dealing with executive departures. HDFC Bank retained its top spot in the `WPP and Kantar Millward Brown's BrandZ 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands' ranking, with a rise of 21 percent in its brand value to $21.7 billion. Mumbai: HDFC Bank retained its top spot in the `WPP and Kantar Millward Brown's BrandZ 75 Most Valuable Indian Brands' ranking, with a rise of 21 percent in its brand value to $21.7 billion. The new 2018 ranking has grown from 50 to 75 brands to reflect the strength of India's growing economy and a marketplace in which more local brands are emerging to present consumers with increased choice, the report, released here on Thursday, said. HDFC Bank earned the top spot having built a reputation for its sustainable livelihood initiative by introducing smaller loans worth as little as $175 that can be accessed through its bank branches, it said. Insurance brand Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) comes in at the second spot ($19.8 billion) due to the key role played by its pension plan business, while Tata Consultancy Services ranked third ($15 billion), having leveraged digital technologies to drive growth and business transformation. Other new high-ranking brands include e-commerce retailer Flipkart (No 11, $4.1 billion), e-commerce payment wallet Paytm (No 12, $4.1 billion) and Zee TV (No 15, $3.8billion). Since its launch five years ago, the total value of the top 50 Indian brands grew 110 percent to $146.1 billion, outpacing the 76 percent rise for the top 50 Chinese brands and 60 percent growth for the global top 50 over the same period, it said. "A booming economy and an increasingly digital world are re-shaping India's brand landscape and creating new opportunities. Brands that get it right, regardless of whether they are established players or newcomers are reaping the rewards," said David Roth, chief executive officer EMEA and Asia, The Store WPP. "However, there is no room for complacency in this fast-paced environment where so many ambitious companies are ready to rise to the occasion," he added. Trust is an important key driver of brand value, with its impact on corporate performance a key theme in this year's ranking, according to the report. Highly trusted brands in the 2018 ranking have a value that is 86 percent higher than those low in trust, and the opportunities for brands to compete on this parameter have risen as greater access to online information and social media have led to increased consumer knowledge, it noted. The Anil Ambani promoted Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd (RNAVAL) is the first private sector company in India to obtain the license and contract to build warships. New Delhi: IDBI Bank has moved NCLT against Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd to recover its dues from the company. The company has been informed that IDBI Bank Ltd, a lender of the company, has filed an application before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad, seeking debt resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Reliance Naval and Engineering said in a regulatory filing Thursday. Besides, long-term infrastructure lender IFCI had also filed a similar application in November 2017, which is pending since last 10 months for admission, it said. The Anil Ambani promoted Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd (RNAVAL) is the first private sector company in India to obtain the license and contract to build warships. The company had said its net loss widened to Rs 347.21 crore in the quarter ended 30 June from Rs 230.42 crore in the year-ago period. The company, which was earlier known as Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering, was bought over by Anil Ambani-group in 2016 and renamed it as Reliance Defence & Engineering. It owes over Rs 9,000 crore to over two dozen banks, mostly state-run, led by the troubled IDBI Bank. Also, the company had issued a corporate guarantee for loan availed by its subsidiary Reliance Marine and Offshore Ltd (ROML), further to which IFCI had issued a loan recall notice in 2017-18 and subsequently had applied for the insolvency petition under IBC due to continued default in repayment of loans against ROML and the company. Subsequent to loan recall by IFCI, Reliance Naval and RMOL had asked the lender to liquidate the securities to meet the obligations by RMOL. A Jet Airways' spokesperson said the management is in dialogue with the pilots and other members of its team to resolve some issues, including disbursement of salaries Mumbai: Crisis-hit Jet Airways Thursday told senior employees that salaries will be paid in two instalments till November. With pilots warning of "non-cooperation" over the delay in pay, the airline has assured them that 50 percent of their August salary will be paid by 11 September, sources said. "The disbursal of salary for GMs and above, cockpit crew and AMEs will be postponed for the month of August 2018, and shall be disbursed in 2 instalments 50 percent by 11th September and balance fifty percent by 26th of September 2018," Jet Airways human resources head Rahul Taneja said in a circular. For the months of September and October 2018, the same disbursement schedule will be followed, he added. The Naresh Goyal-promoted full-service carrier, in which Gulf airline Etihad holds 24 percent stake, is grappling with acute financial crunch after two back-to-back quarterly losses. "Withholding salaries, that too without prior notice, is a serious matter and the management will bear sole responsibility for any repercussions," Jet Airways' pilots said in a communication to the management earlier this week. "We would like to advise that failure to address the above points and not paying the salaries on time would lead to non-cooperation by pilots," they warned. The salaries for the month of August have been delayed. In a statement, a Jet Airways' spokesperson said the management is in dialogue with the pilots and other members of its team to resolve some issues, including disbursement of salaries. Significantly, Jet Airways had delayed payment of July salaries to its staff. "Our issues such as the disbursement of salaries, are being amicably addressed and we continue to resolve ongoing concerns through constant dialogue with the airline's management team," the National Aviator's Guild (NAG) said in a statement. The NAG, a grouping of around 1,000 pilots of Jet Airways, also said the management has been receptive of the cost-saving initiatives suggested by it. In June, the airline proposed up to 25 percent cut in salaries of its employees, but deferred the plan following opposition from its pilots' union -- National Aviator's Guild (NAG) -- and engineers. "(Earlier) it was agreed that, henceforth, salaries would be paid on time and, if there were to be a delay, the same would be communicated to the pilots well in time," the pilots said. "We are deeply disappointed over both these conditions being violated by the management and the pilot body would be sure to share our disappointment," they said. Last month, the pilots had written to airline's CEO Vinay Dube expressing their displeasure over the "unnecessary" increase in expenditure in recent times. In the fresh communication, they have also demanded that "all unnecessary positions and committees/ groups created in the last three months be dissolved with immediate effect and the hiring of the expensive expats (vis-a-vis domestic pilots) be stopped forthwith". "We trust you will treat the above with the urgency it deserves and take immediate steps to resolve the situation," they said in the communication. The airline spokesperson said that in line with the mandate received from the board of directors, the management is undertaking definite steps to turn around its business and is evaluating various funding options on priority to resolve the interim challenge. The management is confident of resolving these challenges, he added. While stating that the airline is committed to honour its obligations towards employees, the spokesperson claimed that it has "already paid salaries on time to 84 percent of its employees". The airline reported a loss of Rs 1,036 crore in the three months ended March this year and the same widened to Rs 1,300 crore in the June quarter. In a communication to employees, the airline has said that disbursal of salary for "general managers and above, cockpit crew and aircraft maintenance engineers will be postponed for the month of August 2018". The amount shall be disbursed in two instalments 50 percent by September 11 and balance by September 26, as per the communication. "For the months of September and October 2018, the same disbursement schedule will be followed," it added. Mutual funds' asset base touched a record Rs 25 lakh crore in August-end, a surge of 8.41 percent over the previous month, on the back of robust inflow in liquid funds and strong participation from retail investors. New Delhi: Mutual funds' asset base touched a record Rs 25 lakh crore in August-end, a surge of 8.41 percent over the previous month, on the back of robust inflow in liquid funds and strong participation from retail investors. According to Amfi data, the asset under management (AUM) of the industry, comprising 42 players, was Rs 23.06 lakh crore at the end of July. The total asset base of all the fund houses put together was Rs 20.6 lakh crore in August last year. The monthly rise in the asset base is mainly due to the industry body's investor awareness campaign and strong participation from retail investors, Amfi chief executive N S Venkatesh said. Besides, Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) continue to be the fancy of retail investors and people continue to invest through the route as it allows investors to invest in small amounts periodically instead of lump sum, he added. He further said that SIP helps in rupee cost averaging and also in investing in a disciplined manner without worrying about market volatility and timing the market. The industry's AUM had crossed the milestone of Rs 10 lakh crore for the first time in May 2014 and in a short span of about three years, the asset base had increased more than two folds and crossed Rs 20 lakh crore in August 2017. Now, the industry AUM stood at an all-time high of Rs 25.2 lakh crore at the end of August. The surge in the asset base could also be attributed to the staggering inflow of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in mutual fund schemes last month. This included Rs 1.71 lakh crore in liquid funds or money market segment which invest in cash assets such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial paper for the shorter horizon. Besides, equity schemes attracted over Rs 7,700 crore. However, income funds saw an outflow of over Rs 6,500 crore. In addition, gold ETFs continued to see a net outflow of Rs 45 crore. The industry, which has been witnessing months of continuous inflow, is set for a healthy growth with the proactive regulation from markets regulator Sebi and favourable macro-economic situation, he said. Amid an increasing Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, India and the US on Thursday vowed to work together towards advancing a free, open and inclusive region. Amid an increasing Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, India and the US on Thursday vowed to work together towards advancing a free, open and inclusive region. The two sides vowed to work closely for the peace and prosperity of the region as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held wide-ranging deliberations with US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis during the first 2+2 dialogue. Here is the full text of the joint statement Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis to India on September 6, 2018 for the inaugural India-U.S. Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue. They welcomed the launch of the 2+2 Dialogue as a reflection of the shared commitment by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump to provide a positive, forward-looking vision for the India-U.S. strategic partnership and to promote synergy in their diplomatic and security efforts. They resolved to continue meetings in this format on an annual basis. Celebrating over 70 years of diplomatic cooperation, the Ministers reaffirmed their view that India and the United States, as sovereign democracies founded on the values of freedom, justice, and commitment to the rule of law, must continue to lead global efforts to promote peace, prosperity, and security. Recognizing their two countries are strategic partners, major and independent stakeholders in world affairs, the Ministers committed to work together on regional and global issues, including in bilateral, trilateral, and quadrilateral formats. The two sides further decided to establish secure communication between the Minister of External Affairs of India and the U.S. Secretary of State, and between the Minister of Defence of India and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, to help maintain regular high-level communication on emerging developments. Strengthening the Defense and Security Partnership The Ministers reaffirmed the strategic importance of Indias designation as a Major Defense Partner (MDP) of the United States and committed to expand the scope of Indias MDP status and take mutually agreed upon steps to strengthen defense ties further and promote better defense and security coordination and cooperation. They noted the rapid growth in bilateral defense trade and the qualitative improvement in levels of technology and equipment offered by the United States to India in recent years. They welcomed the inclusion of India by the United States among the top tier of countries entitled to license-free exports, re-exports, and transfers under License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA-1) and also committed to explore other means to support further expansion in two-way trade in defense items and defense manufacturing supply chain linkages. They welcomed the signing of a Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) that will facilitate access to advanced defense systems and enable India to optimally utilize its existing U.S.-origin platforms. The Ministers also announced their readiness to begin negotiations on an Industrial Security Annex (ISA) that would support closer defense industry cooperation and collaboration. Recognizing their rapidly growing military-to-military ties, the two sides committed to the creation of a new, tri-services exercise and to further increase personnel exchanges between the two militaries and defense organizations. The Ministers reviewed the recent growth of bilateral engagements in support of maritime security and maritime domain awareness, and committed to expand cooperation. Toward that end, the Ministers committed to start exchanges between the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the Indian Navy, underscoring the importance of deepening their maritime cooperation in the western Indian Ocean. Acknowledging the unique role of technology in the India-U.S. defense partnership, the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to continue to encourage and prioritize co-production and co-development projects through the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), and to pursue other avenues of defense innovation cooperation. In this regard, they welcomed the conclusion of a Memorandum of Intent between the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Indian Defence Innovation Organization Innovation for Defence Excellence (DIO-iDEX). Welcoming the expansion of bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, the Ministers announced their intent to increase information-sharing efforts on known or suspected terrorists and to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2396 on returning foreign terrorist fighters. They committed to enhance their ongoing cooperation in multilateral fora such as the UN and FATF. They reaffirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that will advance and strengthen the framework for global cooperation and reinforce the message that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism. The Ministers denounced any use of terrorist proxies in the region, and in this context, they called on Pakistan to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries. On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, they called on Pakistan to bring to justice expeditiously the perpetrators of the Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, and other cross-border terrorist attacks. The Ministers welcomed the launch of a bilateral dialogue on designation of terrorists in 2017, which is strengthening cooperation and action against terrorist groups, including Al-Qaida, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul Mujahideen, the Haqqani Network, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, D-Company, and their affiliates. The two sides further reaffirmed their commitment to ongoing and future cooperation to ensure a stable cyberspace environment and to prevent cyber-attacks. Partners in the Indo-Pacific and Beyond The Ministers reviewed cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, noting that the common principles for the region articulated in the India-U.S. Joint Statement of June 2017 have been further amplified by President Donald Trump at Danang, Vietnam on November 10, 2017, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1, 2018. Both sides committed to work together and in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, based on recognition of ASEAN centrality and on respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, rule of law, good governance, free and fair trade, and freedom of navigation and overflight. Noting the importance of infrastructure and connectivity for the Indo-Pacific region, both sides emphasized the need to work collectively with other partner countries to support transparent, responsible, and sustainable debt financing practices in infrastructure development. The Ministers reaffirmed their shared commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous, and peaceful Afghanistan. The two sides expressed support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. The United States acknowledged Indias longstanding and ongoing contributions of economic assistance to Afghanistan and also welcomed Indias enhanced role in Afghanistans development and stabilization. India welcomed the recent U.S.-North Korea summit. The two sides pledged to work together to counter North Koreas weapons of mass destruction programs and to hold accountable those countries that have supported them. The United States welcomed Indias accession to the Australia Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement, and the Missile Technology Control Regime and reiterated its full support for Indias immediate accession to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Promoting Prosperity and People-to-People Ties The Ministers recognized the importance and the potential for increasing bilateral trade, investment, innovation, and job creation in both countries. Both sides committed to further expanding and balancing the trade and economic partnership consistent with their leaders 2017 joint statement, including by facilitating trade, improving market access, and addressing issues of interest to both sides. In this regard, both sides welcomed the ongoing exchanges between the Ministry of Commerce of India and the Office of the United States Trade Representative and hoped for mutually acceptable outcomes. Both sides looked forward to full implementation of the civil nuclear energy partnership and collaboration between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Westinghouse Electric Company for the establishment of six nuclear power plants in India. Observing the strong ties of family, education, and business, and the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that unite their people, the Ministers highlighted the unmatched people-to-people ties between their countries and recognized the benefits to both nations and the world from these ties, including the free flow of ideas and collaboration in health, space, oceans, and other areas of science and technology. The next 2+2 meeting is to be held in the United States in 2019. The entire text has been taken exactly as posted by the official website of the Ministry of External Affairs and has not been edited by Firstpost India will remember the morning of 6 September, 2018 for a long time to come, when at 11.30 am, in a matter of half an hour, the Supreme Court decriminalised consensual intercourse between persons of the same sex and read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code Mumbai: India will remember the morning of 6 September, 2018 for a long time to come, when at 11.30 am, in a matter of half an hour, the Supreme Court decriminalised consensual intercourse between persons of the same sex and read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, thus providing a huge boost to the LGBTQ community of India. In its historic ruling, the Supreme Court said parts of Section 377, which criminalised consensual unnatural sex, were "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary", thus making India the 126th country in the world where homosexuality is legal. The court recognised sexual orientation as a natural and inherent biological phenomena, and not a matter of choice. Celebrations across country and the world followed the verdict, with activists, celebrities and people from the LGBTQ community dubbing it a historic victory for equal rights. Over 12,500 kilometres away in California, Hrishi Sathawane, who normally went to bed at 10 pm, was up late till midnight, eagerly following the courts proceedings. When the five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law, Sathawanes elation knew no bounds. It feels awesome. It is like the burden of shame being lifted for people in the community, he said, in a conversation with Firstpost. Sathawane, an openly gay man and a US-based techie, was in the news in early 2018 when he married his partner in a commitment ceremony in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district on 30 December. Commitment ceremony was a legally safer way to say it, he chuckled. Meanwhile, back home in Bengaluru, 29-year-old drag performer Alex Mathew could not stop weeping when the judgment was pronounced. When I heard the verdict, I just started crying. I just couldn't stop the tears because it was the whole hurt that I had gone through I had to let it out, he shared. Mathew, who identifies as gay, felt the courts decision to decriminalise Section 377 was the first step in a long journey. Earlier there was a point where I was scared to even hold a guy's hand in public. Now, at least I can do that. I mean, I don't know if we are that progressive to indulge in PDA (public display of affection) like that, but slowly, we're taking baby steps, he said optimistically. Mathew has been performing drag since 2014 and uses his art to educate people about the LGBTQ community. The masses dont know anything about the LGBT community. Most of them have a Bollywood stereotype of being gay. I lost out on jobs and performance spaces because I'm gay. There is so much hurt, rejection and dejection. There were several times I went through depression. But every night I performed, I said that Section 377 will go and finally it has gone, said a joyous Mathew. For Mumbai-based Ankit Bhuptani, the head of the Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava Association in India, he felt he was finally a free human being. I was considered a criminal from the day I was born just because my sexual orientation was different from other (heterosexual) people. Today, I'm no more a criminal. For the first time, I'm breathing in a free India, he expressed. While the judgment was being read out in the court, CJI Misra, in support of the LGBTQ community said, I am what I am. So take me as I am. No one can escape their individuality. The apex court also held that decriminalisation was the first step, and that the LGBTQ community had a fundamental right to equality before the law. When the highest court of the land gives you that right and tells you, 'Hey, what you're doing is not wrong, irrespective of what your family or society says,' at least the law of the land isn't against you. That's a great place to start discovering our confidence, Romal L Singh (32), a Bengaluru-based human rights activist who is openly gay, said. In its judgment, the Supreme Court also directed the Centre to take all measures to publicise the verdict. Justice RF Nariman said that the Centre, through sensitisation programmes for the society, government and police officials, must reduce and finally eliminate the stigma associated with such persons by making them aware of the plight of the LGBT people. Even if the government doesn't do it, we will do it, says Singh. For those of us working, our job is not done. Now that the court is on our side, we will go ahead and sensitise people. We will barge into public service offices and say, 'Hey, we want to talk to you about who we are, so that you know how to treat us.' And we won't be scared because we are not criminals anymore. We can finally have that conversation without being in the constant fear of getting arrested, he explained. The court also spoke about the concept of constitutional morality versus social morality and said that majoritarianism cannot override the countrys founding document. It also discussed the collective plight of the LGBTQ community and said the nation owes them an apology, considering all that they went through. That is a very big thing from them, said Ashok Row Kavi, co-founder of the NGO Humsafar Trust and one of the petitioners in the case. And it is true. Out of all the antediluvian laws that were there from the British time, this was horrendous. (In the 2013 judgment) they said the LGBT community is a minuscule minority. It shows the last judge had a total lack of diligence in looking at the data and evidence presented before him. What is a minuscule minority? No minority is minuscule. They are a minority because they are smaller in number, explained the 71-year-old gay activist, adding that regarding the number of people in minority in terms of sexuality in India, there is still not a clear picture of how many there are. The infamous 2013 Supreme Court judgment, which overturned the 2009 Delhi High Court ruling and re-criminalised homosexuality, was pronounced by Justice GS Singhvi a day before he was set to retire. Though consensual sex between adults has been decriminalised, the court said non-consensual intercourse and bestiality remain an offence under Section 377. While POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act) is there for young children, the definition of rape is still very heterosexual, explained Singh, adding that the LGBT community never wanted the entire law to be struck down. Rape within homosexuality has no space anywhere. The law doesn't understand how to look at a man raping another man. For that small reason we need Section 377. While the judiciary has struck down the punitive sections against homosexuality under the archaic law, activists agree the real work has to begin now. The real work is, of course, towards marriage, inheritance, sex education, mental and sexual health of the LGBT community; all this now on the cards, said Kavi. There is no sex education in schools. Effeminate children are often bullied. Those in rural areas, run away to cities like Mumbai. There is also lot of alcoholism in the LGBT community, especially among transgenders, he added. Activists also believe laws against discrimination based on gender and sexuality, civil partnership rights and adoption rights for people from the LGBT community are of utmost importance. When the fight against Section 377 began, all the communitys energy and resources were spent on fighting the law, said Kavi. Now that that (Section 377) is out, we need to meet and strategise again. Speaking about equal marriage rights, Kavi said it is not an easy road ahead. Religion plays a crucial role in marriages in India as they are governed under personal laws by religious communities, which recognise matrimony only between a man and a woman. "(Gay marriage) is seen as a sin by, both, the Church and in the Quran. So a same sex marriage cannot be consecrated in a church nor under Islam. Now, will a special marriage Act for same sex marriage be recognised?" asked Kavi. Giving another example, he said Muslim sharia law doesn't accept adoption. "Suppose a same sex couple adopts a child and they are Muslims, the child has no recognition in the state, at least under Islamic sharia laws." Even though many in the community feel that it might take as long, if not longer, to achieve equal civil rights, there is a strong sense of hope and optimism. Bhuptani dreams of marrying his partner and adopting a girl child someday. "I have already decided that her name would be Katha. I hope 'Katha' is turned into reality soon, he said. The prime minister made the suggestion at the 31st meeting of the Central Hindi Committee chaired by him. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday stressed on the use of Hindi language for official purposes and suggested to government officials that they avoid complex terms to make the communication simple. The prime minister made the suggestion at the 31st meeting of the Central Hindi Committee chaired by him. He stressed that Hindi should be spread through day-to-day conversations and complex technical terms should be avoided or used negligibly for official purposes, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office. Emphasising the need to reduce the gap between the usage of Hindi in government and the society, Modi said educational institutions can help in leading this campaign. Referring to his experiences around the world, the prime minister told the members of the committee that India can connect with the world using all Indian languages, including Hindi. The chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, participated in the meeting. Ban Ki-moon and Gro Harlem Brundtland appreciated the Aam Aadmi Party's Mohalla Clinic project and said such projects should be replicated across the country. Arvind Kejriwal and Satyendar Jain were also present. New Delhi: The Mohalla Clinic project of the Aam Aadmi Party government drew huge praise Friday from former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland after they visited a health facility built under the initiative. "I am deeply impressed by what I have seen," Moon said after visiting the Peeragarhi Mohalla Clinic and a polyclinic in the Paschim Vihar locality. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain accompanied them during the visit. Brundtland said the Mohalla Clinics project should be replicated across the country. "We are very happy to see the impressive work being done here. it should be replicated all over the country," said Brundtland, who has also served as the director general of World Health Organisation (WHO). Moon and Brundtland are in the country as part of a delegation from The Elders, a London-based organisation of independent global leaders who pool their collective experiences and resources for promoting peace, justice and human rights. Kejriwal said 189 Mohalla Clinics were operational in the city currently and the number will be raised to 1,000 in coming months. Two Bihar politicians, JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak and Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan, faced angry mobs while travelling. Protesters pelted stones at Rajak's car, he told reporters in Patna. Patna/Lucknow/Bhopal: Protesters stopped trains and blocked highways in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and shopkeepers downed shutters in some other northern states during a Bharat Bandh Thursday against the recent amendment to the SC/ST Act. Shops, schools and other commercial establishments were closed in parts of Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab but the shutdown call by anti-reservation bodies had little impact elsewhere in the country. There were scattered incidents of violence in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Two Bihar politicians, JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak and Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan, faced angry mobs while travelling. Protesters pelted stones at Rajak's car, he told reporters in Patna. Bandh supporters stormed Patna's Rajendra Nagar terminus and disrupted the movement of trains for about 30 minutes, officials said. They also disrupted train services in Rajgir. Some organisation had called the one-day bandh to protest against the amendment last month to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The amendment bill passed by Parliament had overturned the Supreme Court order which barred arrests without a preliminary inquiry. Commercial establishments remained closed in many parts of Bihar, particularly in capital Patna. But banks and government offices functioned normally. Protesters gathered before the Bihar BJP headquarters in Patna, raising slogans over the "betrayal by the party. Some of them also headed towards the office of the Janata Dal (United), a BJP ally. The shutdown had a strong impact in Muzaffarpur, where bandh supporters blocked traffic in the town and on the national highway. They also burnt tyres at many places and clashed with policemen who tried to stop them. Cases of arson were also reported from Biharsharif town. Traffic was disrupted in Begusarai. Six policemen were hurt in Uttar Pradesh's Ballia's district when they confronted people blocking traffic. Protesters briefly stopped a train in Kanpur and the Varanasi highway was blocked for three hours at Gorakhpur, officials said. In Etah, protesters gheraod the house of Jalesar MLA Sanjiv Diwakar who had to call in the police. But officials said apart from such scattered incidents of violence, the state remained by and large peaceful. The bandh call evoked a strong response in Rajasthan where many shops and businesses, schools and other educational institutions remained closed on Thursday. Shops were shut in Jaipur, Karauli, Pratapgarh, Udaipur, Pali, Nagaur and other districts in the state. The police detained at least three leaders of the Samta Andolan Samiti, which is against caste-based reservation, as a precautionary measure. In Madhya Pradesh, there were scattered incidents of stone-pelting. Police lobbed teargas shells at Aron in Guna district to disperse protesters. "In Rewa, Satna and Chhatarpur districts, thousands of protesters took to the streets. In Shadora area of Ashok Nagar district, some protesters squatted on the railway tracks, while in Rewa they tried to stop a train," a police official said. People set tyres on fire at some places in Rewa and Satna districts. In rural Ujjain, members of the Dalit community and the upper castes came face to face, the official said. Some people tried to storm into Rewa district police control room, but the attempt was thwarted. Most private schools and petrol pumps remained closed in Madhya Pradesh. Markets and business establishments in parts of the state were also shut. Brahma Samagam Sawarna Jankalyan Sangathan's national president Dharmendra Sharma said about 150 organisations of the upper castes and Other Backward Classes participated in the bandh in the state. He claimed the bandh was effective in almost the entire state, particularly in the major towns of Katni, Vidisha, Sehore, Dewas, Indore, Gwalior, Jhabua, Chhattarpur, Mandsaur, Sagar and Ujjain. In Chhindwara, the Lok Sabha constituency of Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, markets remained shut."Local residents wore black clothes in protest and business establishments remained shut," Vyapari Sangh president Mahesh Chandak said. In Punjab and Haryana, there was little response to the bandh with people keeping their businesses open in most areas, reports said. But in Punjab's Phagwara, shops and commercial establishments remained shut. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan appealed to the people, saying, "Madhya Pradesh is an island of peace. I pray that we all progress and no one should try to disrupt the peace in the state. In Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said, People have their feelings. In a democracy everyone has the right to express themselves." "The law is to protect the downtrodden. The government will ensure that it will not be misused," Adityanath told reporters in Gonda. Earlier this year, the apex court had removed the strict provision of mandatory arrests under the SC/ST Act. But the decision had triggered nationwide protests by Scheduled Caste organisations, forcing the Centre to bring an amendment to the Act to overrule the SC order. Manisha Khopkar, a 40-year-old graphics designer from Maharashtra's Thane district in her testimony said that people carrying saffron flags were not the ones to pelt stones at her and 48 others who travelled to Bhima Koregaon on 1 January. A two-member judicial commission, set up to probe the Bhima Koregaon violence at Pune in Maharashtra, began its proceedings by recording evidence of witness. The state governments special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray on Thursday claimed before the commission that the incident on 1 January could have been caused by a "third group". Manisha Khopkar, 40, whose daughter was injured in the violence testified in front of the committee that people carrying saffron flags were not the ones to pelt stones at her and 48 others who travelled to Bhima Koregaon on 1 January. Khopkar, a graphics designer from Maharashtra's Thane district, said that a mob attacked them when their bus was stopped near Sanaswadi and were looking for shelter, reported The Wire. According to The Indian Express, Hiray in the cross-examination asked Khopkar if it is possible that stone pelting could have be caused by a third group other than people holding saffron and blue flags. Is it possible that the agenda could be to create conflict between two groups to spread anarchy? Hiray asked. To this, Khopkar said yes, stating that she was not making allegations against any group. Hiray also asked her if people carrying blue flags assaulted the group or threw stones at them. She confirmed that they did not and they just passed by. Hiray then submitted before the commission that there was a possibility of a third group with a different ideology being behind the violence, the report added. The two-member committee is headed by former Calcutta high court chief justice JN Patel and former state chief secretary, Sumit Mullick, as a member. Khotkar was also asked by Niteen Pradhan, the defence lawyer of the prime accused Milind Ekbote, why she had never been to the place before and if it was a part of a larger conspiracy to cause commotion and disruption in the city. To that, Khotkar said, This was the 200th year. I was aware a large number of people visit the place. I too wanted to go there. We were only simple travellers who went there to pay our homage to those who died in the war, reported The Wire. Pradhan also asked her if the violence was initiated and instigated by Naxalites, which she denied. She told the commission she knows nothing about the Maoist and Naxal issue. The rural police, under whose jurisdiction the riots transpired, is probing the role of two Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide based on 22 FIRs. The FIRs include the ones by social activist Anita Savale, and Suresh Sakat, whose daughter was killed in the violence. Ekbote was arrested in March and is currently out on bail. He was present at the commission hearing too. Bhide is yet to be arrested. The Bhima Koregaon violence had occurred on 1 January 2018 at Koregaon Bhima village in Maharashtra's Pune district in which one person was killed. The government had set up a commission in February this year to inquire into the violence. The commission will probe the sequence of events leading to the violence, the people responsible for it, if there were adequate police personnel in and around Koregaon Bhima at that time, and suggest measures to avoid repetition of such incidents. According to The Indian Express, Hiray has filed over 200 affidavits on behalf of the Pune Police, the revenue department, the state transport, Pune municipal corporation, medical wings, gram panchayats, zilla parishads and panchayat samitis, along with the victims of the violence that affected the Bahujan visitors at Bhima Koregaon on 1 January and the subsequent violence witnessed across the state on 2 and 3 January. With inputs from agencies The national executive of the BJP is also likely to respond to concerns over the rise in oil prices and refer to the previous UPA government's 'mismanagement of the economy' as it meets ahead of the Assembly polls in five states, with the Lok Sabha election less than eight months away, party sources said. New Delhi: Amid signs of unrest among the upper castes over its push for pro-Dalit laws, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold a two-day meeting of its key decision-making body in New Delhi starting Saturday, in which the ruling party is likely to highlight the Narendra Modi government's steps for "social justice" and "economic successes". The national executive of the BJP is also likely to respond to concerns over the rise in oil prices and refer to the previous UPA government's "mismanagement of the economy" as it meets ahead of the Assembly polls in five states, with the Lok Sabha election less than eight months away, party sources said. BJP president Amit Shah will deliver the inaugural address in the presence of the party's top leaders, including Modi, on Saturday afternoon, while the latter is scheduled to give the valedictory speech on Sunday. Significantly, the saffron party has chosen the Ambedkar International Centre, which works to promote the works and ideas of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, for hosting the meeting, a symbolism for its Dalit outreach. However, it will have to do a balancing act as groups claiming to represent the upper castes, its core vote bank, have been protesting the government's decision to restore the original and stringent provisions of a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals, after the Supreme Court had relaxed those. The groups had called a "Bharat Bandh" on Thursday. Senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra has gone on record to seek a rethink on the law, which non-Dalits/tribals claim is often misused. The issues of the National Register of Citizens, passage of key bills including the one to restore the original provisions of the law on atrocities against Dalits and another that accorded constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) in Parliament will also come up for discussion at the national executive meet, the sources said. BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters that the executive will discuss all the topical issues. He, though, did not elaborate further. It will be the first such meeting of the party following the death of its stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The executive will pay tribute to the former prime minister, Hussain said. The sources said the hike announced by the government in the Minimum Support Price for a number of farm produce and the rise in the economic growth in the last quarter to 8.2 percent would also find a mention, besides the ongoing "Gram Swaraj" campaign to cover the poor with a host of welfare programmes. Modi has often cited his government's pro-poor programmes and push for laws to empower the Dalits and Other Backward Classes as an evidence of its work for "social justice", a theme likely to be picked by the BJP national executive. The BJP is likely to present itself as a party that has promoted the interests of the backward classes a constituency it has constantly been wooing to big electoral successes since 2014. Party leaders said the government's "honest" image and "successful" handling of the economy, besides the Hindutva credentials of the organisation, would keep its core constituency tethered to it in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. They added that the likely alliance of its rivals such as the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and other regional parties would be a red herring for the upper castes. The BJP national executive is meeting almost after a year. BJP's National Information and Technology in-charge Amit Malviya found himself in a spot on Thursday after the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexulaity in India in a landmark judgement. BJP's National Information and Technology in-charge Amit Malviya found himself in a spot on Thursday after the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in India in a landmark judgment. As soon as the five-member Bench of the apex court unanimously struck down the clause in Section 377 of IPC prohibiting a relationship between two consenting homosexuals, activists and LGBTQ community across the country celebrated with much fervour and hailed the Supreme Court verdict. However, even though Malviya did not comment on the judgment on Thursday, social media users dug up his previous tweets, in which he had expressed his reservations about the Act. For instance, in one of the tweets dated, 11 December 2013, Malviya had asked his followers if they would rent their house to a homosexual couple. Just curious how many would rent their apartment to homosexual couples ? Raise hand please. #IPC377 Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 11, 2013 He went ahead to raise questions on the property rights, inheritance and adoption laws for homosexual couples, in reply to the comments on his tweet. Such provisions in the legislature, to date, remain non-existent and thus, prove that there is still a long battle ahead for the community. However, in an even vocal advocacy of the (now earlier) Section 377 Act, Malviya had written on Twitter in 2015 that he was "glad" that India voted against recognising same-sex couples at the United Nations and went on to say that, "We can't allow institution of family, which comprises a man and woman to collapse," making his stand clear on the equal rights issue. Glad India voted against recognising same sex couples @ UN. We can't allow institution of family, which comprises a man & woman to collapse. Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 26, 2015 However, despite the government's anti-homosexuality stand at the UN in 2015, and that of Malviya and the likes, studies conducted between 1990 and 2014 show that support for homosexuality has increased in the country. In fact, based on data sourced from CVoterIndia WVS/WorldValues Survey Data Archive, India ranks way above the global mean score in terms of justifiability of homosexuality. Firstpost delved into the data that studies acceptance of homosexuality in India as well as that of a homosexual neighbour, something Malviya had raised way back in 2013. See for yourself: Mumbai: A non-cognisable offence was registered Friday against BJP MLA Ram Kadam in Maharashtra's Solapur district over his controversial "will kidnap the girl" remarks. While Kadam represents Ghatkopar constituency in Mumbai, a woman social activist lodged a complaint against him at Barshi Police Station in Solapur district, said a police official. A non-cognisable case under IPC sections 504 (insult with intention to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (B) (intent to cause fear or alarm to public) was registered against him, the official said. Police can not start investigation of a non-cognisable offence without a court's order. Kadam has found himself at the centre of a huge controversy following his comments at a Dahi Handi (Janmashtami) celebration in Mumbai on Monday. A video clip showed him saying that youngsters often seek his help after girls reject their proposals. "Come with your parents. What will I do if your parents approve? I will kidnap the girl and hand her over to you," he was heard telling the crowd. The WCD Ministry recently put up a notification on its website warning people of such scams being perpetuated in the name of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. Reiterating the fact that the BBBP is not a direct benefit transfer scheme and has no such component of granting individual cash incentives, the notification makes it clear that any such fake forms received in the future would be disposed of summarily. Lip service feminism, commodity feminism, Imtiaz Ali feminism call it what you will, but whats certain is, in the current scenario, its paying well! A scam we uncovered recently in hinterland UP, which fools people under the banner of the popular, government flagship programme Beti Bachao, is one such instance. The Pradhan Mantri Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme (BBBP), a pet project of the Modi government, was launched in 2015, with the aim to address the twin issues of pre-birth gender-biased sex discrimination manifesting itself in the form of a declining child sex ratio, as well as post-birth discrimination against girls in the form of gross neglect in their nutritional, health and educational needs. The primary focus of the scheme is geared towards challenging deep-rooted misogynistic mindsets and patriarchal norms by strengthening local bodies and communities to act as catalysts of social change and increasing awareness through an aggressive mass media campaign. However, in UPs Mahoba district, the BBBP has taken on a new challenge with fraudsters using it to swindle people out of their hard-earned money. A few weeks ago, Mahoba was abuzz with chatter about the BBBP. The word on the street was that every girl must fill a simple form said to be released by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD Ministry) to avail a handsome cash prize that came sanctioned by the central government. Anju decided to do the needful, and happily explained the entire process to us when we met her. She had procured the form from a local stationery shop for five rupees, she said, which had to be filled in with all her details and also affixed with two photographs each of herself and her parents. All of this had cost her 210 rupees already, but she was all smiles in hopes of her prize money being sanctioned soon. Anju isnt alone. Parents and relatives across the district have been rushing in droves to fill the forms, young girls of their families in tow. They are willingly paying anything from 100 to 250 rupees for procuring and submitting the form. When asked what they know about how the scheme exactly works, the responses are varied and many. While some believe that every girl is simply going to be given a cash prize of two lakh rupees by the government very soon, others are still waiting on some duplicitous receipts to come so they can take their applications forward. This too is expected to happen immediately. Mohammad Rafeeq, who has filled and submitted three forms so far, all of them allegedly aligned with the BBBP, acquainted us with the state of affairs, as he understands them, What we were told is that every girl/woman between the ages of 8 and 32 is going to receive a sum of two lakh rupees from the government under the BBBP. Naturally, we filled the forms and completed all the formalities at once. But so far, we have got nothing. Another Mahoba resident, Mangal, has the same story. We took two tickets for the two girls in our household. This alone cost us 200 rupees. When we went to submit the forms, they even gave us a receipt, but we are yet to see the money. So far, we have spent 500 rupees already. It would be good to know when we can go and get the money now. The WCD Ministry has been the recipient of thousands of such fake forms filled by naive girls and their families, all of whom have been duped by this scam. In a flooding of their offices, the ministry is said to have received nearly 3 million fake application forms over the last year, from across the country besides UP, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi have all been home to BBBP cons. In Mahoba, with a few weeks gone past and the illusive cash prize nowhere in sight, there are now those who are realising what happened. Mohammad Rafeeq says with a sad smile, Now we know that neither is this information available anywhere on the internet nor has it been published in the papers or on TV. We dont know whether it was a baseless rumour or a devious hoax, but we filled and submitted the forms. Not just us, the entire village has done it! Santosh, on the other hand, clearly spells it out calling it all an elaborate hoax which someone came up with, printed credible-looking forms, and ran away with everyones money. Help isnt likely for Rafeeq or Santosh or Anju, or anyone else coaxed out of the hundreds. When we inquired at the local office of the state welfare department, no one seemed to have any knowledge about these events; the local MLAs office too was clueless. The WCD Ministry however recently put up a notification on its website warning people of such scams being perpetuated in the name of the BBBP. Reiterating the fact that the BBBP is not a direct benefit transfer scheme and has no such component of granting individual cash incentives, the notification makes it clear that any such fake forms received in the future would be disposed of summarily. Much like the cash that once belonged to the families in Mahoba, blessed with daughters. The Czech Republic, a manufacturing 'powerhouse' with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for India's development initiatives, President Ram Nath Kovind has said, referring to footwear major Bata, a brand with which all Indians have grown up. Prague: The Czech Republic, a manufacturing "powerhouse" with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for India's development initiatives, President Ram Nath Kovind has said, referring to footwear major Bata, a brand with which all Indians have grown up. Addressing the Indian community here on Thursday, the president said. India has some very interesting connections with this city and this country. "Many of you would know that Bata, a brand with which all Indians have grown up and which all of us consider our own, has its roots in this country," he said. "A great son of the Czech Republic, Thomas Bata founded the Bata shoe company in a town not far from Prague. And from here it spread to every nook and corner of the world including Batanagar, close to Kolkata in India. Bata shoes today walk in every village, every town and every city in India," President Kovind said. Recalling other connections with this city, he said, "Our great leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose visited Prague and spent some time here. In his quest for freedom for his motherland, he founded the Indo-Czech Association in Prague in 1934." He said India is keen to strengthen and diversify its relations with the Czech Republic as there are numerous opportunities for businesses to grow both ways be it trade, technology or investment. "This is not just a beautiful country, but a country with a large heart for India and for Indians. We have warm and friendly relations with the Czech Republic. Our ties go back a thousand years when traders from Bohemia bought spices and silk from India," the president said. "Both our countries have inherited a rich cultural heritage, which has gained vibrancy over the years. The Charles University here is the oldest centre of Indology in Europe. Eminent Czech scholars brought the works of Rabindranath Tagore to the Czech people and helped foster a deep cultural connect with India." The installation of the bust of Rabindranath Tagore, in Prague, and naming the tram station "Thakurova after him, is homage to Gurudev and to his poetic genius, he said. He said, "the Czech Republic, a manufacturing powerhouse with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for our 'Make In India', 'Digital India', 'Start-up India' and other national programmes." "We seek your support in this endeavour. Your professional experience, convening power, and entrepreneurial spirit can make this partnership blossom," he said. President Kovind arrived in the Czech Republic Thursday on the final leg of his three-nation European tour. A day after the National Conference (NC) decided to boycott panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) said it would follow the same path, noting that a political party could not ask people for votes in a tense situation that was compounded by Article 35A Section 377 verdict: India joins 125 other countries where homosexuality is legal In what is being hailed as a historic verdict, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality. The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed the part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code as irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary. With the Supreme Court decriminalising consensual sex between individuals belonging to the LGBTQ community, India joins 125 other countries where homosexuality is legal. PDP distances itself from J&K panchayat polls over Article 35A A day after the National Conference (NC) decided to boycott panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) distanced itself from the local polls, saying that a political party could not ask people for votes in a tense situation that was compounded by Article 35A. Speaking to News18, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said, Some powers might be up to some mischief to fiddle with Article 35A once polls are done. In view of that and the mood on the ground, it is difficult for the PDP to ignore public sentiment. The party is yet to take a clear stand on the polls though. Madhya Pradesh govt ready for dialogue with protestors against amendments of SC/ST Act As protests continue in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh against amendments to the ST/ST Act the state government has said it is ready for a dialogue with protesters, according to News18. The 'Bharat Bandh' call given by some upper caste organisations and supported by OBC outfits against the amended SC/ST Act on Thursday evoked a strong response in Madhya Pradesh. The bandh was called against the amendment carried out by the Parliament to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act after some of its provisions were read down by the Supreme Court. KCR govt recommends dissolution of Telangana Assembly; TRS announces candidates for 105 seats The Telangana Cabinet on Thursday recommended dissolution of the state assembly months before the end of its term, a move driven by the TRS' hope that caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's charisma and a fragmented opposition will help the party retain power. Shortly after his big political gambit which was seen as a bid to avoid a "KCR vs Modi" campaign in any simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls, Rao announced candidates of the ruling TRS for 105 of the 119 assembly seats and launched a blistering attack on the Congress, calling the party Telangana's "enemy number 1" and its president Rahul Gandhi the "biggest buffoon" in the country. India play England in fifth and final Test Having lost the Test series, India take on England in the final Test at The Oval. England will be looking to give Alastair Cook the perfect farewell gift with a win after the former captain announced his decision to retire. India, on the other hand, will be looking to end their tour of the UK on a winning note. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in action in US Open semi-finals Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro clash once again in the US Open semi-final, a year after Nadal beat Del Potro in the same stage on his way to winning the title. World No 1 Nadal comes into the semi-final on the back of a thrilling five-set win over Dominc Thiem and will be looking to make it to his second US Open final in a row when he takes on third seed Del Potro. In the other semi-final, two-time US Open winner Novak Djokovic will face 2014 finalist Kei Nishikori. The two had met earlier in the year in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon with Djokovic winning the clash on his way to winning the title. Huawei caught cheating on benchmarks Huawei recently took over as the second-largest smartphone maker in the world, beating out Apple, whove managed to hold on to that spot for years. Alongside that, Huawei now has the dubious distinction of being the largest cheat in the smartphone world. Recent reports on various enthusiast sites, notably AnandTech have confirmed that Huawei is cheating on benchmarks. According to reports, the phone maker is targeting benchmarking software by name and is artificially boosting performance in those apps. Given the evidence, Huawei was forced to acknowledge its actions and attempted to push the blame on the super-competitive Chinese market. According to Huawei, everyone was cheating on benchmarks and the only way they could stay competitive was by cheating as well. Firstpost has since acquired a custom benchmarking tool and will be measuring the extent to which Huawei is cheating. The companys flagship phones, including the P20 Pro and sub-brand Honors Honor Play, which have been singled out in reports, will be tested. Fuel prices break all records Fuel prices once again witnessed a hike on Thursday with petrol being sold at Rs 79.51 per litre and diesel at Rs 71.55 per litre in Delhi. The price of petrol was increased by 20 paise per litre, and diesel by 21 paise per litre. In Mumbai, the price of petrol has surpassed the Rs 86-mark and retails at Rs 86.91 per litre, while diesel is sold at Rs 75.96 per litre. The surge in fuel prices is largely attributed to the rise in crude oil prices and high excise duty in the country. The recent slump in the rupee has also lifted the import cost of crude oil, subsequently affecting fuel prices. The rise in global crude oil prices pushes the domestic cost of petrol and diesel higher as the country is a net importer of crude oil. Singer Remo Fernandes acquitted in verbal abuse case A local trial court on Thursday acquitted musician Remo Fernandes, who was booked for allegedly verbally abusing a minor girl. Speaking to reporters, the singer's lawyer Rajeev Gomes said that Fernandes has been acquitted of the charges framed under Section 8 r/w 2 (m) of the Goa Children's Act, a special legislation which specifically deals with crimes against children in Goa. Pyongyang apparently wants to first achieve an official end to the seven-decade state of war with South Korea, while Washington wants to start immediately on the long process of denuclearization. Washington: US President Donald Trump pledged Thursday to complete a deal on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula together with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, signalling that negotiation remain alive after weeks of an apparent deadlock. "Kim Jong-un of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.' Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!" Trump wrote on Twitter. The tweet came hours after Kim renewed his own commitment to the goal of denuclearization in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in Pyongyang scheduled for 18-20 September with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. "The north and the south should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-yong, who met with Kim, said the North Korean leader also emphasized that his "trust in Trump remains unchanged," the comment which led to the US president's tweet. Chung added that Kim expressed his intention to work closely with the United States to achieve denuclearization "in the first official term of President Trump," which ends in January 2021. The enthusiastic comments came 12 days after Trump summarily cancelled a trip to Pyongyang by his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, which was aimed at getting the discussions on North Korea's nuclear talks back on track three months after Trump's landmark summit with Kim in Singapore. In a statement on 24 August, Trump said he was scotching Pompeo's trip "because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." He also slammed China as not helping with the effort to convince Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme. "Additionally, because of our much tougher trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were," Trump said at the time. Thursday's statements by the two leaders appeared to paper over differences the two sides have over what the current talks should focus on. Pyongyang apparently wants to first achieve an official end to the seven-decade state of war with South Korea, while Washington wants to start immediately on the long process of denuclearization. Stephen Biegun, newly-appointed US envoy for the North, said last month Kim had promised "final, fully verified denuclearization" at the Singapore summit. But Pyongyang has slammed Washington for its "gangster-like" demands for complete nuclear disarmament. Trump's statement came hours before the US Justice Department unveiled criminal charges against a North Korean government-linked hacker involved in several major cybercrimes, including the hacking of Sony Pictures and the theft of USD 81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh. Pyongyang had no immediate comment on the charges, which it has denied responsibility for in the past, and it was not clear whether they would impact the nuclear negotiations. The State Department announced Thursday that Biegun would travel to South Korea, China and Japan next week for talks on North Korea. In New Delhi Thursday, Secretary of State Pompeo, the former US intelligence chief who heads the US negotiating effort, struck a sober note, saying there is still much work to do. North Korea "is the only country that has commitments under UN Security Council resolutions," he told reporters. "It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We haven't had any nuclear tests, we haven't had any missile tests, which we consider a great thing." "But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make the strategic shift which we talked about, for a brighter future for the people of North Korea, continues," Pompeo added. Equal citizenship then is about celebration of diversity and acknowledgement that many people face oppressions other than Section 377. There are many possible starting points to discuss the judgment on Section 377. 1860, when the colonial British government brought the Indian Penal Code came into force, and along with it their Victorian morality of what was appropriate and permissible sexual conduct. 1950, when our Constitution came into force and guaranteed to all of us equal citizenship. 1991, when the AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan filed the first case challenging Section 377. 2009, when the Delhi High Court, in a remarkable judgment, read down Section 377 for the first time. 2013, when the Supreme Court inexplicably reversed course on Section 377 and held that the Constitution did not protect minuscule minorities from discrimination. 2014, when the Supreme Court held that gender identity and expression were inherent to individual dignity, and that transgender people had a right to self-identification and State recognition. 2017, when nine judges unanimously declared that the right to privacy was inherent in the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by our Constitution. I will begin in 1947. Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny," said our first prime minister, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. On a chilly night in December 2013, the words Azaadi, Azaadi (Freedom, Freedom)" echoed on the streets of central Delhi. A crowd protesting against the Supreme Courts regressive revalidation of Section 377 chanted this slogan, originating from the resistance in Kashmir and quickly adopted by movements for freedom within India. We will claim our freedom, they chanted, that freedom which is as dear as life itself. Sixty-six years after Nehrus speech, the pledge had yet to be redeemed. The contemporary Kenyan thinker and author Keguro Macharia writes of post-colonial societies: To imagine and pursue freedom means insisting on populating our lifeworlds with the word freedom, to act toward freedom, to enable each other as free. And to think, continuously, of what it means to be we, to be free together. For freedom dreams, as histories of liberation struggles teach us, are dreams about who we shall be together, about how we can imagine being together as those who are free. At least one group of people was imagining freedom in Independent India. Amid the violence and chaos of Partition, the Constituent Assembly, led by BR Ambedkar, came up with a draft, including a list of Fundamental Rights, in a little over two years. On 26 January 1950, the Constitution came into force, with the vision of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. But while India was free, all Indians were not, and the Constitution did not change things overnight. A famous short story by Sadat Husain Manto illustrates this. A rickshaw puller overhears from the conversations of his passengers that a new Constitution is coming into force the following day, and that the British colonial government will no longer have authority. Excited, he goes out the next morning, and beats up a British soldier he encounters, who had previously assaulted him during the colonial regime. For this, he is arrested by the police, and instead of gaining freedom, is thrown into a lock-up. Ambedkar himself was deeply cognisant of the gap between the Constitutions values and the new Indian society. In his last speech to the Constituent Assembly in 1949, he noted that there was a complete absence of equality in Indian society, and cautioned that the contradiction between political equality and social and economic inequality would put the former in peril if the latter was not addressed. This lethargy of the law, as Justice Chandrachud put it, delayed our freedom from Section 377 by seven decades. The power of Thursday's judgment, then, is that it both acknowledges the wrongness of its previous decisions (history owes the community an apology, said Justice Malhotra), and the transformative potential of constitutionalism. In 2009, the Delhi High Court, while holding Section 377 unconstitutional, elucidated two constitutional principles that have a decade on, found resonance in Thursdays judgment. The first is that of constitutional morality, the values and practices which must be cultivated, in Ambedkars words, for the Constitution to endure. And who else to do this but the courts? Writing in 2009, the high court had said that only constitutional morality could pass the test of compelling state interest, and popular morality or public disapproval of certain acts could not be the basis for restricting Fundamental Rights. In 2013, the Supreme Court regressed severely from this when it reduced so-called LGBT persons to a minuscule minority that did not deserve constitutional protection. Less than four years later, it corrected course in the privacy judgment, holding that Fundamental Rights were inalienable and insulated from the disdain of majorities. And on Thursday, this came a full circle, with all judges holding that the classification of against the order of nature under Section 377 was incompatible with constitutional morality, and setting aside the 2013 judgment. The second was non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which was an inclusive and transformative reading of the constitutional text, in line with international law and global progress on the issue. Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, among other grounds. In 2009, the high court had held sexual orientation to be a ground analogous to sex, and found Section 377 to be unconstitutional on that account. Five years later, the Supreme Court, hearing a petition on the rights of transgender persons, held that gender identity was inherent in the term sex under Article 15, and that non-conformity with stereotypical generalisations of binary genders was protected by the Constitution. On Thursday, this came a full circle, with sexual orientation and sexual identity also being held to be integral aspects of sex under Article 15. This judgment has two more significant legal moments. First, it cements the doctrine of manifest arbitrariness propounded by Justice Nariman in the triple talaq case, which is a very important safeguard against arbitrary exercise of power by the State. All the judges found Section 377 to be manifestly arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. Secondly, it is also the one of the first major applications of the right to privacy to a direct constitutional claim before the court. All the judges held that the right to privacy protects individual sexual choices, including the right to have a partner (ironically enough, the last point was first articulated in the Hadiya case). When the privacy judgment came out, many of us wondered whether the court would, in subsequent cases, use the expansive contours of the right to privacy for meaningful protection of the rights of the individual against the creeping claims of the State. Today, it seems to have done just that. In doing so, the court has finally liberated queer people from the shackles of criminal prosecution under Section 377, and the resultant official stigma. What this means moving forward is another question. The Chief Justice advances an interpretation of transformative constitutionalism as non-retrogression: that is to say, constitutional morality demands that society must advance, not regress, and that constitutional institutions such as the court must read rights in a manner that enables this. The 2013 judgment, he holds, was an instance of regression on rights that were being enjoyed, and ought to be set aside. For all of us, it behoves asking: what does it mean to imagine being free together, and to advance towards the ideals in our Constitution? One line is presented by the court itself: in Justice Chandrachuds words, decriminalisation can only be the beginning. He says that members of the LGBTQ community are entitled to equal citizenship meaning equal protection of law in all aspects. The ideas of equal protection before law and equal dignity in society are also articulated by the other judges. In our country, the movements for marriage, inheritance, adoption, state recognition of non-heteronormative families, and related rights, are yet to come. But if this judgment is any indicator, the Constitution is ready to exercise its transformative potential. In 2004, when the Supreme Court of the United States decriminalised its equivalents of Section 377, it observed that when sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring. Thirteen years later, the same court held that the right to marry a partner of ones choice, irrespective of gender or sexuality, was protected by the US Constitution. The wait here, for all we know, could be much shorter. But there is a deeper meaning to equal citizenship, which Justice Chandrachud articulates in the form of a universal right to love, through a re-imagination of the order of nature as being not only about the prohibition of non-procreative sex but instead about the limits imposed by structures such as gender, caste, class, religion and community. To go a step further, the link between LGBTQ individuals and couples who love across caste and community lines is not just the disruption of existing lines of social authority. Queer lovers are also inter-caste and inter-religious lovers, and sometimes love involves crossing multiple social lines, some of which themselves cross each other. Equal citizenship then is about celebration of diversity, recognition that individuals are composed of multiple identities in addition to gender and sexuality (caste, religion, class, age, ethnicity, language, and more), and acknowledgement that many people face oppressions other than Section 377, and that these fights will continue. Imagining freedom is about recognising each of these fights as ones own: against caste discrimination, patriarchy, religious hatred, family pressure, hostile workplaces, forcible displacement, sexual violence, police repression, AFSPA, and everything else that needs to be demolished for all of us to have full and equal citizenship. It is about resisting an increasingly fascist state that takes criminal action against dissent. It is also about being effective allies and amplifying voices without appropriating narratives. As we celebrate freedom from Section 377, let us continue to imagine and work towards other freedoms, for everyone, everyday. Manish is a research associate at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal. Those arrested include promoters of a private guthka company, AV Madhava Rao and Uma Shankar Gupta; food safety and drug administration official P Senthil Murugan; Superintendent of Central Excise Department NK Pandian; and a person named PV Srinivasa Rao. New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested five people in connection with the alleged gutkha scam in Tamil Nadu. Those arrested include promoters of a private gutkha company, AV Madhava Rao and Uma Shankar Gupta; food safety and drug administration official P Senthil Murugan; Superintendent of Central Excise Department NK Pandian; and a person named PV Srinivasa Rao. All of them have been sent to judicial custody till 20 September. The CBI had on Wednesday conducted searches at 35 locations across the country including Chennai, Tiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Puducherry, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Guntur in connection with the case. The places searched were residential premises of the promoters and directors of a company and other public servants including officials of Sales Tax Department, Customs & Central Excise, Food Safety & Drug Administration Department and jurisdictional police officials. The CBI had earlier registered a case on the orders of the Madras High Court dated 26 April. The High Court had directed the CBI to conduct an investigation into all aspects of the offence of alleged illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutkha and other forms of chewable tobacco which are banned in Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry. It was alleged that the private company, based in Tamil Nadu was in the business of manufacturing and sale of gutkha and other chewable tobacco products since 2011. Subsequently, production and sale of gutkha 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 gutkha products illicitly. The scam surfaced in July 2016 when the Income Tax (IT) department raided various properties of a gutkha manufacturer, who was accused of evading taxes of Rs 250 crore Patidar leader Hardik Patel was on Friday shifted to a hospital after his health deteriorated on the 14th day of his indefinite fast in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad: Patidar leader Hardik Patel was on Friday shifted to a hospital after his health deteriorated on the 14th day of his indefinite fast in Ahmedabad, a Patidar Ananmat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) functionary said. According to PAAS spokesperson Manoj Panara, Hardik agreed to be shifted to Sola Civil Hospital after his supporters requested him to do so in view of his failing health. Following the end of a 24-hour ultimatum by the PAAS to the Gujarat government to begin talks with the protesting leader, Hardik had on Thursday evening stopped intake of water, he said. "Hardik's agitation will continue. But, since his health has deteriorated due to the 14-day fast, we requested him to get hospitalised," Panara told reporters at the fast venue near the city. Another PAAS leader, Dharmik Malaviya, said that Hardik's "fight will continue". Hospital authorities said Hardik was in the ICU and a team of doctors was treating him. He was shifted to the hospital shortly after senior Patidar community leader and president of Khodaldham Trust, Naresh Patel, met and advised him to call off the strike or take medical treatment. "Hardik has not taken water since the last 18 hours. I told Hardik that everyone is worried about his health and that he should call off the hunger strike as soon as possible. He told me that he will inform me soon about his decision to call off the fast," said Naresh Patel. During the meeting, Hardik asked Naresh Patel to mediate with the Gujarat government and hold talks on three of the former's demands. "Hardik asked me to be a mediator. As per his wish, representatives of Khodaldham, along with of another Patidar body Umiya Dham Sansthan, will try to talk with the government to break the deadlock. Our priority is to see that Hardik's health does not deteriorate," Naresh Patel said. "If needed, we will pressure the government to accept Hardik's demands. Though the issue of reservation may take longer, we hope that the state government shows a positive attitude towards the two other demands," he said. Hardik went on the indefinite fast on 25 August demanding reservations in government jobs and education for the Patidar community and waiver of farm loans. Later, he added another demand that his close aide Alpesh Kathiria, who was recently arrested in a 2015 sedition case by the city Crime Branch, be released. The government had, in the last 14 days, not made any attempt to negotiate with Hardik, his supporters claimed. However, Gujarat energy minister Saurabh Patel said that "doors are open" for anyone who wanted to talk to the government. The state's Congress leaders, in a show of support for Hardik, Friday observed a 24-hour fast. While Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani protested outside the collector's office in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda sat on a hunger strike in Anand. Chavda, speaking to reporters, questioned why no one from the state government had met Hardik despite the latter observing a fast for the past 14 days. Hitting out at the BJP-led government, Chavda said, "It is matter of shame for this government that someone has to sit on a fast for the welfare of his community as well as farmers." Dhanani called Hardik's demand for a farm loan waiver legitimate and claimed that Gujarat farmers were reeling under debts as they were not getting the right prices for their produce. "In such a scenario, the government must waive loans of farmers. Even the past UPA government had waived farm loans worth Rs 71,000 crore," Dhanani said. As the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in a landmark ruling, there was a common theme running across the front pages of our national dailies As the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in a landmark ruling, there was a common theme running across the front pages of our national dailies - that of visible jubilation on the victory of a 'minuscule minority', and of silent elation at the basic civil rights being reinstated by the highest court of the land. Playing on puns and alliterations, the tone of most newspaper headlines was not only congratulatory but also one of looking ahead: Most dailies took the view that getting the progressive judgment in their favour was only the first step to a long and hard journey to reclaim rights of the community. While some newspaper packages also included reactions from overwhelmed rights' and LGBTQ activists, most carried quotes from a brilliantly-worded concurring judgment, authored by four of five judges on the constitutional bench. Most Hindi language dailies lead with straight quotes in headlines but resonated the common congratulatory tone. The largest newspaper by circulation, The Times of India, led with the words 'Independence Day - II' smeared across top in bold with rainbow-coloured 'II' as it celebrated India's arrival in the 21st century. The headline was apparently a reference to the Constitution being freed of the shackles of a colonial-era law, formed at the time by Lord Macaulay, in keeping with the orthodox Christian sensibilities, with a single 'stroke of judicial wisdom'. The strap read: "On 6/9/2018, at 12.25 pm, India Entered the 21st century. With one stroke of judicial wisdom, the Supreme Court flung the draconian 1860 colonial law that criminalised homosexuality into the dustbin of history and wrote a new freedom song... There are still many stern battles to be fought and won... For the moment, though, let's relish this milestone moment..." The Supreme Court, in its judgment, had also argued that a law that satisfied victorian moralities had no place in the Indian Constitution. "Victorian morality must give way to constitutional morality as has been recognised in many of our judgments. Constitutional morality is the soul of the Constitution," said Justice RF Nariman. The front page-package also included a forward-looking piece on the way ahead for the community, titled Now, time to give LGBTs marriage & parenting rights. The newspaper's jacket, a few-inch wide column folded atop the front page, was full of reactions from members of the community and was titled RIP Prejudice. The Times of India's city tabloid Mumbai Mirror carried a poignant image of the dawn with a rainbow cutting across the sky. The words, Liberty. Fraternity Equality, which frequently occurred in the voluminous 493-page judgment. The Indian Express chose to pun on the phrase 'Love at first sight', carrying a picture of a gay man leaving a peck on the cheek of his partner, right outside the Supreme Court premises. The picture was indeed the first sighting of public display of affection by a homosexual couple, outside the same court of law that discarded their rights terming them a 'minuscule minority', five years ago. It was captioned, "A moment in history, 12.42 pm, outside Supreme Court of India" The Indian Express also carried a piece sketching out how emotional the moment the ruling came out was for the community that continuously faced dereliction, societal bias and persecution. The piece was titled: On a street far away, looking at a police car in the eye: Today, I am no criminal The DNA chose to keep the headlines simple and instead set the tone with an image. It led with a creative which had the words Section 377 fashioned like a lesbian couple kissing each other on the front page. The package headline was a straight reproduction of the news, but the first piece on the front page reflected that the judgment only paved the way for a long and arduous fight. The headline simply read, Still a long way to go. The Hindustan Times headline read Rainbow Nation, with a hand holding an LGBTQ flag against the backdrop of the Supreme Court featured in black and white. The front page piece and headline were straight news pieces, but the bottom strap carrying the judges' quotes was labelled 'Justice is Served'. Its city supplement HT Cafe carried the headline Hail the pride. Prominent Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar commented on the decriminalisation of consensual sex between adults with the words Gay ab Gairapradhi (Gays are no longer criminal. It carried reactions from across the political spectrum and a newspiece tracing the long battle for legal rights along with a picture of the gay couple. Hindi paper Jansatta carried the headline Pyar par ab nahi koi pehra (Love is now free of restraints) with images of members of the LGBTQ community celebrating outside Supreme Court. Apart from celebrating the fact that India joined the list of 125 nations (the newspaper erroneously mentions 25 nations) who legalised homosexuality, it also briefly profiled the petitioners on its first page. The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned its 2013 ruling which held that homosexuality was a crime owing to larger sensibilities. In a progressive judgment, the court held that the majoritarian morality cannot take precedence over constitutional morality, specifying that the majority cannot impose its way of life on others at the cost of their Fundamental Rights and basic civil liberties. In doing so, the court finally put to rest the recurring question of majoritarian sensibilities and morality as a benchmark to gauge society's civil rules a clause that is likely to be quoted in civil rights cases for a long time to come. Reacting to the question of religion terming homosexuality a sin and, the court said that it only had powers to punish crimes committed on earth, which homosexuality is not, and not sins. "Sin is not punishable on earth by Courts set up by the State but elsewhere; crime alone is punishable on earth," underlined Nariman. US, wary of China's growing assertiveness in the region and its influence, has been giving increasing weightage to its Indo-Pacific strategy. India and the United States, in the 2+2 dialogue concluded on Thursday, signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and, agreed to promote synergy in their diplomatic and security efforts. However, the most significant mention in the joint statement was that of working towards a "free and open" Indo-Pacific, reflecting the growing importance of this region for both the nations. "The ministers reviewed cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, noting that the common principles for the region articulated in the India-US Joint Statement of June 2017 have been further amplified by President Donald Trump at Danang, Vietnam on 10 November, 2017, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue on 1 June, 2018. Both sides committed to work together and in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, based on recognition of ASEAN centrality and on respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, rule of law, good governance, free and fair trade, and freedom of navigation and overflight. "Noting the importance of infrastructure and connectivity for the Indo-Pacific region, both sides emphasised the need to work collectively with other partner countries to support transparent, responsible, and sustainable debt financing practices in infrastructure development," the joint statement after the 2+2 dialogue read. US, wary of China's growing assertiveness in the region and its influence, has been giving increasing weightage to its Indo-Pacific strategy and even in its National Security Strategy (NSS), Washington warns against China using economic inducements and penalties, influence operations, and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda. Nadia Schadlow, Deputy Assistant to the US President for National Security Strategy, said at the Raisina Dialogue 2018 that the NSS recognises the centrality of India-US partnership. "India is a pillar of our common vision for free and open Indo-Pacific." The NSS states that the US will support Indias growing relationships throughout the region. The document further notes, China's infrastructure investments and trade strategies reinforce its geopolitical aspirations. Its efforts to build and militarise outposts in the South China Sea endanger the free flow of trade, threaten the sovereignty of other nations, and undermine regional stability. US is also engaged in a 'trade war' with China at present with Trump threatening fresh tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports. China on Thursday warned of retaliation saying, if the US, regardless of opposition, adopts any new tariff measures, Beijing will be forced to roll out necessary retaliatory measures. China and the US have already slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on $50 billion of each others goods, spooking financial markets in recent months. Trump is demanding Beijing improve market access and intellectual property protections for US companies, cut industrial subsidies and slash a $375 billion trade gap. China has also spent $1.3 billion on concessionary loans and gifts since 2011 to become the Pacific's second-largest donor after Australia. Given US concerns over China's assertiveness, the Trump administration has time and again said that India is a key partner in America's efforts to ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and called on New Delhi to play a more weighty role in the region. The Trump administration has also defended the use of the term 'Indo-Pacific' by saying that it captured the importance of the rise of India with which the US has strong ties. Speaking to the media after the 2+2 dialogue, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed on the need to "ensure the freedom of the seas and the skies." Regarding the Indo-Pacific, he said, "... India and the United States have a natural starting point for advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific. We should continue to ensure the freedom of the seas and the skies; uphold the peaceful resolution of territorial maritime disputes; promote market-based economics; support good governance, fundamental rights, and liberties; and prevent external economic coercion." He also said that the COMCASA is a major step forward in our (India and US) defence collaboration and coordination. "It will allow us to better protect freedom in the Indo-Pacific." From Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific Former US president Barack Obama and Modi used the term 'Asia Pacific' in their joint statements in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, both the leaders committed to work more closely with other Asia Pacific countries through consultations, dialogues, and joint exercises. They also reaffirmed their shared interest in preserving regional peace and stability, which are critical to the Asia Pacific region's continued prosperity. Modi and Obama also expressed concerns about rising tensions over maritime territorial disputes, and affirmed the importance of safeguarding maritime security and ensuring freedom of navigation and over flight throughout the region, especially in the South China Sea. Then in 2015, both the leaders agreed on a Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean region and reflected that a close partnership between the US and India "is indispensable to promoting peace, prosperity and stability in those regions." The term 'Indo-Pacific' was repeatedly used by Trump and his administration to reflect a conceptual shift in US' strategy in the region. The term treats India as a regional power, and not just a big, isolated country, according to Quartz. "We talk about Indo-Pacific in part because that phrase captures the importance of India's rise," a White House official told PTI. Alex Wong, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, also said that the use of the term 'Indo-Pacific' acknowledges the "historical reality and the current day reality that South Asia and in particular, India plays a key role" in the Pacific, in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Even in the India-US joint statement in 2017, Trump and Modi agreed that a close partnership between the United States and India is central to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The US military also renamed its Pacific Command the US Indo-Pacific Command in May this year and officials termed it a "symbolic move" underscoring the growing importance of India to the Pentagon. "In recognition of the increasing connectivity between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, we rename the US Pacific Command to US Indo-Pacific Command," Defence Secretary Jim Mattis had said. China, however, has always expressed apprehensions over this budding US-India relationship and warned that any benefits from the Indo-Pacific strategy may be "greatly outweighed by the costs to India." 'US, India not on same page' An op-ed in The Global Times warned that despite India and US having converging interests in counterbalancing China's regional influence, New Delhi does not want to provoke Beijing in sensitive issues. Another op-ed said that India is considered by many US strategists as the best choice for the US to counterbalance China but, it's not the best choice for New Delhi to become such a strategic follower of Washington. It further called on India and China to better cooperate, especially in the face of pressure from Washington while adding that coordinated China-India ties are essential to the stability of Asia. With inputs from agencies Iran on Friday said it is working together with the Indian government to keep its oil export lines to India open even after US sanctions on the Gulf nation kick in on 4 November. New Delhi: Iran on Friday said it is working together with the Indian government to keep its oil export lines to India open even after US sanctions on the Gulf nation kick in on 4 November following Washington's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Global Mobility Summit, the Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi described the US as an "outsider" to the region and underlined the need to strengthen the traditional relationship between India and Iran. "India and Iran's relationship is essential for region and we are looking at ways to work together. The US is an outsider in the region, so the insiders should come together and continue their friendship," he said. The Iranian minister's remarks come a day after India and the US signed a long-negotiated defence pact that enables Indian Armed Forces to buy more sensitive military equipment from Washington but there was no progress on securing a waiver from American sanctions that bar New Delhi from purchasing Russian weapons or Iranian oil. India has been maintaining that purchase of Iranian crude is crucial to its energy security and that it would go ahead with its purchase of S-400 missile defence system from Russia. Briefing reporters here after the first India-US 2+2 dialogue, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he had told the Indians "consistently that on 4 November the sanctions will be enforced, and that we will consider waivers where appropriate". He, however, said the US expected that the purchases of Iranian crude oil would "go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed. So we'll work with the Indians". "From whence they (India) purchase the other crude oil, we're happy to see if it's American products that are able to deliver for them." However, responding to a question on India's Russian defence deal, Pompeo said: "Our effort here, too, is not to penalise great strategic partners like India, a major defence partner. The sanctions aren't intended to adversely impact countries like India. They are intended to have an impact on the sanctioned country." India currently has a competitive agreement with Iran for oil supplies the shipping costs from the Persian Gulf are minimal in comparison to the US and Iran also offers a longer credit repayment period. Iran became the second biggest oil supplier to India during the first quarter of the current fiscal with state-run oil companies opting for the heftier discounts offered by the Gulf nation, which thus replaced Saudi Arabia in this position, according to official data. The state government removed SP Vaid as the police chief on Thursday night, and appointed Director General of Prisons Dilbag Singh as an interim head of the force contrary to the guidelines of the Supreme Court. New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir government approached the Supreme Court on Friday to explain the reason behind appointing an interim Director General of Police in the state without consulting the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as mandated by the apex court in July, officials said. Standing counsel for the state Shoeb Alam mentioned about the application before Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, they said. The matter is likely to be taken up on Monday. The state government removed SP Vaid as the police chief on Thursday night, and appointed Director General of Prisons Dilbag Singh as an interim head of the force contrary to the guidelines of the Supreme Court, which had ruled in July that there will be no ad hoc arrangement for the post of police chief in the states. In its application, the state informed the apex court that Jammu and Kashmir Police, which has been fighting militancy for the last three decades, cannot be left headless for a minute and therefore, the decision was taken by the administration on Thursday night, they said. In July, the top court had taken note of an application filed by the Centre in which it claimed that certain states have been appointing acting police chiefs and then making them permanent just before the date of their superannuation to enable them get the benefit of an additional two-year tenure till the age of 62 years. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud passed slew of directions for appointment of state police chiefs. "None of the states shall ever conceive of the idea of appointing any person on the post of Director General of Police on acting basis, for there is no concept of acting Director General of Police...," the bench had said. Chronicling the steps to being taken for appointment of the police chiefs, the apex court had said, "All the states shall send their proposals in anticipation of the vacancies to the UPSC well in time, at least three months prior to the date of retirement of the incumbent on the post of Director General of Police". It said the UPSC shall then prepare a panel as per the earlier directions of the court and intimate it to the states, which in turn shall immediately appoint one of the persons from that list. "An endeavour has to be made by all concerned to see that the person who was selected and appointed as the DGP continues despite his date of superannuation," the bench said and added that the extended term beyond the date of superannuation should be a reasonable period. JP Nadda said that the central government understands the sensitivity of the situation in Kerala. Kochi: The Centre on Friday assured all possible support, including more financial assistance, to flood-ravaged Kerala to rehabilitate the affected people. Union Health Minister JP Nadda said during his visit to flood-affected areas in Thrissur district that the central government understands the sensitivity of the situation in Kerala. "Fund is no problem, funds have been always there and we have always been giving it. All possible support has been given as far as the rehabilitation part is concerned and re-development part is concerned," Nadda said. The minister said he would evaluate with the state government the rehabilitation and rebuilding work being carried out in the affected areas. "We just want to have an evaluation and whatever best we can do and what more we can do, that is what we are going to discuss," he added. Nadda, who is accompanied by Health and Family Welfare secretary Preeti Sudan, expressed satisfaction over the work being done to restore medical facilities in affected areas. He said the central team's visit was to see how the relief work is going on, and evaluate what more is required to assist Kerala. Kerala state health minister KK Shailaja Teacher also accompanied the minister to affected areas. "We feel very much disturbed. The people of Kerala had to face a lot of problems because of the natural calamity and we are all with them," Nadda said. He said medical experts including doctors sent by the central government and state governments including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were working in flood-affected areas. The deluge last month triggered by torrential monsoon rains had left a trail of destruction in the state and claimed 491 lives since 29 May. In his complaint, advocate Amruthesh NP said Karnad sported a placard around his neck declaring himself as an urban Naxal. Bengaluru: A lawyer on Friday lodged a complaint against noted playwright and Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad for holding a placard which read 'Me Too Urban Naxal' during an event organised to mark the first death anniversary of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh on 5 September. In his complaint, advocate Amruthesh NP said Karnad sported a placard around his neck declaring himself as an urban Naxal. "Urban Naxals are those who spread insurgency against the nation," he said in his complaint and demanded that Karnad be arrested immediately. By holding such a placard, "Karnad has tried to promote/abet and propagate the violent and criminal activities of Naxalism," the advocate said. Speaking to PTI, Amruthesh said, "How can somebody carry a banner of a banned organisation and support it?" When contacted by Firstpost, The Vidhana Soudha (state secretariat) police said they have transferred the complaint to the Halasuru gate police station under whose jurisdiction the incident took place. Karnad, along with many other activists, took part in an event organised outside Lankesh's residence on Wednesday. The participants also staged a protest against the house arrest of five activists from across the country for their alleged links with Maoists. The high court, during earlier hearings, had observed that the Maharashtra government was yet to take a decision on granting sanction to prosecute Khaire, though the incident involving him took place on 29 October, 2015. Mumbai: Maharashtra's law and justice department has recommended prosecution of Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire for allegedly obstructing demolition of an illegal temple in 2015, the state government informed the Bombay High Court on Friday. Khaire, a Lok Sabha member from Aurangabad, had allegedly abused a tehsildar and prevented a demolition squad from razing the illegal shrine in Walunj on 29 October, 2015, as per a plea filed by a social activist before the court. The demolition was part of a statewide drive to raze illegal shrines in accordance with a Supreme Court order. During a hearing into the matter by a bench of Justices AS Oka and MS Sonak, the state government on Friday sought time till Monday to take a decision on the law and judiciary department's recommendation on Khaire' prosecution. The government's sanction for prosecution would pave the way for the police to file a charge sheet against Khaire. The high court is monitoring compliance of directions given in its October 2016 judgement in a PIL filed by the Society for Fast Justice and activist Bhagwanji Raiyani. The PIL has sought implementation across the state of the Supreme Court's 2009 order on acting against illegal shrines in public places. The high court, during earlier hearings, had observed that the Maharashtra government was yet to take a decision on granting sanction to prosecute Khaire, though the incident involving him took place on 29 October, 2015. Shiv Sena is part of the BJP-led ruling alliance in the state but has often been critical of the NDA governments at the Centre as well as in Maharashtra. The Supreme Court declared Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to be unconstitutional to the extent that it criminalises consensual sexual acts between adults whether homosexual or heterosexual By Alison Saldanha and Prachi Salve Mumbai: In a judgment that erased a 157-year-old law and catapulted India from a league of 72 nations where homosexuality is a crime to another league of 124 that sees it as normal human behaviour, the Supreme Court reminded India that majoritarianism and social morality could not override the countrys founding document. The court declared Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to be unconstitutional to the extent that it criminalises consensual sexual acts between adults whether homosexual or heterosexual. However, non-consensual sex and bestiality, or having sex with animals, will continue to be a crime. "I am what I am, so take me as I am," said Chief Justice Dipak Misra, on Thursday, at the start of his judgment, adding that denial of self-expression is inviting death. Misra wrote his judgment along with Justice AM Khanwilkar. Justices Fali Nariman, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra delivered the other three judgments. Members of the LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Queer, Intersex) community are entitled, as all other citizens, to the full range of constitutional rights, Chandrachud said in his judgment one of four concurring judgments. The choice of whom to partner, the ability to find fulfilment in sexual intimacies and the right not to be subjected to discriminatory behaviour are intrinsic to the constitutional protection of sexual orientation, he added. Morality and criminality are not co-extensivesin is not punishable on earth The LGBT community must not be outlawed or given step-motherly treatment in the garb of social morality, Misra said. Morality and criminality are not co-extensive sin is not punishable on earth, said Nariman in his judgment, adding that only crime is punishable on earth. Nariman went on to say that the very purpose of fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution is to place the subject of an individuals liberty and dignity beyond the reach of majoritarian governments. This is so that constitutional morality can assure the the rights, among others, of discrete and insular minorities. These fundamental rights do not depend upon the outcome of elections, Nariman said. Democratic as it is, our Constitution does not demand conformity. Nor does it contemplate the mainstreaming of culture, said Chandrachud. Recalling his recent order of 29 August, 2018, which issued notices to the Maharashtra government on the arrests of five human rights activists by the Pune Police in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence, Chandrachud said (non-conformity) nurtures dissent as the safety valve for societal conflict. Our ability to recognise others who are different is a sign of our own evolution, Chandrachud added. We miss the symbols of a compassionate and humane society only at our peril. Section 377 forces consensual sex between adults into a realm of fear and shame, as persons who engage in anal and oral intercourse risk criminal sanctions if they seek health advice, Chandrachud observed. This lowers the standard of health enjoyed by them and particularly by members of sexual and gender minorities, in relation to the rest of society, he said. History owes an apology to the members of this community and their families, said Malhotra, the sole woman judge on the constitution bench, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries. LGBTQI persons were compelled to live in fear of reprisal and persecution, because of the ignorance of the majority to recognise homosexuality as a completely natural condition, part of a range of human sexuality, she observed, adding that this had led to a denial of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 (equality before the law or equal protection), 15 (prohibition of discrimination), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and 21 (right to life) of the Indian Constitution. LGBT persons deserve to live a life unshackled from the shadow of being unapprehended felons, Malhotra said. Indian Constitution is a living, breathing document Emphasising that the Constitution is an organic and breathing document with senses, capable of adaptation, Misra added that the judiciary cannot remain oblivious to the fact that the society is constantly evolving. Does the Constitution allow a quiver of fear to become the quilt around the bodies of her citizens, in the intimacies which define their identities? Chandrachud asked, adding, the tragedy and anguish which Section 377 inflicts must be remedied. Homosexuality not a mental disorder Mental illness shall not be determined on the basis of non-conformity with moral, social, cultural, work or political values or religious beliefs prevailing in a persons community, said Justice Nariman, ruling that homosexuality can no longer be viewed as a mental disorder. The judgement makes a note of the statement issued on 6 June, 2018 by the Indian Psychiatry Society (IPS), which said the Indian Psychiatric Society would like to state that there is no evidence to substantiate the belief that homosexuality is a mental illness or a disease. Currently, the Medical Council of India, following the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification of diseases, lists homosexuality as a mental disorder under F66 of the International Classification of Disease-10. As per the classification, a patient who identifies as LGBTQI is seen to be suffering an identity crisis, which needs treatment. In 1990, the WHO revised its classification, removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders requiring diagnostics and said that sexual orientation by itself is not to be considered a disorder. Yet, homosexuality is still included under F-66, as we said. Homosexuality could still provide the basis for a psychiatric diagnosis, but only if the individual was distressed about it, said WHO. One of the reasons cited by some in the WHO for keeping homosexuality in the ICD-10 was that in some parts of the world, homosexuality is penalised by death. In such cases, treating it as a mental disorder helps such individuals. Under this approach, in India, conversion therapy, which can supposedly convert queers to heterosexuals using electro-convulsive therapy/hormone therapy, is allowed. For the ICD-11 revision which comes into effect in 2022, homosexuality has been recommended to be deleted completely. Understanding consent: Sections 377 and 375 The apex court judges also analysed the major difference between the language of Sections 377 and Section 375 (which relates to rape of a woman through vaginal, anal or oral penetration), and deemed the former legally unsustainable. While Section 375 elaborates on the absence of consent in detail thus describing how rape is a criminal offence, this understanding of willful and informed consent/voluntary carnal intercourse is absent in Section 377 for homosexuals and well as heterosexuals. If consensual carnal intercourse has been allowed among heterosexual population due to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, Misra said, such kind of proclivity amongst any two persons including LGBT community cannot be treated as untenable so long as it is consensual and it is confined within their most private and intimate spaces. Homosexuality not against the order of nature Evaluating the idea of carnal intercourse against the order of nature held previously by the Supreme Court and the high courts of India, the judges observed that the description is vague and does not fit in with recent judgments passed by the court, referring specifically to the NALSA case of 2014, wherein the Court was dwelling upon the status of identity of the transgenders, and the right to privacy judgment of 2017, among others. In the contemporary world, even marriage now is not carried out solely for the purpose of procreation, the judges observed. It is the freedom of choice of two consenting adults to perform sex for procreation or otherwise and if their choice is that of the latter, it cannot be said to be against the order of nature, Misra said, ruling that sex, performed differently, as per the choice of the consenting adults until now criminalised under Section 377 of the IPC does not per se make it against the order of nature. The way forward: Awareness and sensitisation Nariman directed the Centre to take all measures to ensure that this judgment is given wide publicity through the public media at regular intervals and initiate programs to reduce and finally eliminate the stigma associated with such persons. All government officials particularly police officials are to be given periodic sensitisation and awareness training of the plight of such persons, Nariman added. The repercussions of prejudice, stigma and discrimination continue to impact the psychological well-being of individuals impacted by Section 377, Chandrachud said, adding, Mental health professionals can take this change in the law as an opportunity to reexamine their own views of homosexuality. Saldanha is an assistant editor and Salve is an analyst with IndiaSpend A news editor with Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, Vinod Chandran and his wife Saritha, were brutally assaulted by a group of robbers who barged into their house in Kerala's Kannur district. A news editor with Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, Vinod Chandran and his wife Saritha, were brutally assaulted by a group of robbers who barged into their house in Kerala's Kannur district. The incident, according to The News Minute's report, happened at the Thazhe Chovva area of the district during early hours of Thursday. The burglars reportedly entered the house by breaking the front door and when Vinod and his wife came out of their room to inquire about the noise, they were tied up, blindfolded and assaulted by the burglars. It was only after the burglars left the house that Vinod managed to free himself and call for help. A team of Kerala Police then reached their home, following which the couple was rushed to the ICU of the AKG Memorial Hospital in Kannur. The couple has suffered serious injuries on their neck and face, the report said. Talking to Mathrubhumi, Vinod said, They tied my eyes and mouth and started assaulting me. They did the same to my wife. Luckily, I was able to remove the knot after they left. Otherwise, we would have died there. According to the police, the gang spent nearly an hour in the house after assaulting the couple. According to The Times of India, the gang looted cash, gold ornaments, laptop, mobile phones and ATM cards and other valuables from the house. The group is expected to be a from a Hindi-speaking state as they were communicating in Hindi and English, reports said. Meanwhile, the District Congress Committee president Satheesan Pacheni told the Times of India that "criminal gangs were having a field day in the state due to the inefficiency of the police." The case is being investigated by a team led by Kannur deputy superintendent of police PP Sadanandan. The plea, which has sought a stay on the operation of the high court's 23 August order, has alleged that the order was 'patently erroneous' as it amounted to imposing a 'blanket ban' on the media reporting in the case. New Delh: The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a plea challenging the Patna High Court order restraining the media from reporting about the investigation into Muzaffarpur shelter home case where several women were allegedly raped and sexually abused. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud posted the case for hearing on 10 September after the matter was mentioned by advocate Fauzia Shakil. The plea, which has sought a stay on the operation of the high court's 23 August 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 said. The Patna High Court, which has been monitoring the probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, had on 23 August 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 news 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 news 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 31 May. 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. The Delhi High Court on Friday said that it would not interfere with its single judge's order rejecting a plea for furlough by Vikas Yadav, who is in jail for life for the murder of Nitish Katara. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday said that it would not interfere with its single judge's order rejecting a plea for furlough by Vikas Yadav, who is in jail for life for the murder of Nitish Katara. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao noted that the state government and later the single judge on 9 July had rejected Yadav's plea based on his conduct in prison and said "we are not going to interfere in the matter". The bench observed that he was punished for misconduct while in jail and his behaviour in prison was found unsatisfactory. "Your conduct was not good. Your plea for furlough was rejected based on your conduct," the court said, adding it will pass an order later on Yadav's appeal against the 9 July decision. The case relates to kidnapping of Katara from a marriage party on the intervening night of 16-17 February 2002, before killing him for his alleged affair with Vikas Yadav's sister Bharti, the daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav. Katara was murdered as Vishal and Vikas did not approve of the victim's affair with Bharati as they belonged to different castes, the lower court had said in its verdict. On Friday, Yadav's lawyer told the high court that his client has already spent over 16 years in prison and he was punished four times for violation of jail conditions. Additional criminal standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan opposed the appeal, saying Yadav was not qualified for furlough as he has not earned the required three Annual Good Conduct Remissions. Mahajan said Yadav will not be eligible for remission till he completed the 25-year jail term awarded to him by the high court, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court. He said the high court had made it clear that the convict was not eligible for remission till he completes his imprisonment. The prosecution lawyer also said that the appeal was not maintainable as, according to the apex court, a single judge's order in a criminal writ petition can be assailed only in the Supreme Court. He also said that Yadav could apply for parole as it does not require annual good conduct remission. Furlough is a right of a prison inmate to have leave for a certain period of time in a year when he can come out of jail. It is counted towards the total period of his sentence. The prison authorities may deny the relief in certain cases. Parole is also a temporary release from jail, but it is not a matter of right and is entirely subject to discretion of the prison authorities and the period outside does not count towards the duration of sentence. On 29 August 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed Vishal Yadav and Vikas Yadav's pleas seeking review of its verdict sending them to prison for 25 years. It had also awarded a 20-year jail term to third convict Sukhdev Pehalwan in the case. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday refused to comment on Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa's speech on the occasion of Pakistan's Defence and Martyrs' Day on Thursday. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday refused to comment on Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa's speech on the occasion of Pakistan's Defence and Martyrs' Day on Thursday. Bajwa had "vowed to avenge the blood being shed on the border of the country", and said the Pakistani Army had been 'valiant' during the wars of 1965 and 1971. Sidhu, having created controversy back home with his demeanour on his visit to Pakistan for Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony, spoke to the media on Friday about the Pakistani government's decision to open the corridor of the Kartarpur Sahib pilgrimage for the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. "There can be no bigger happiness than this for the people of Punjab," he said, according to ANI. No comments. The only way forward is talks. The only way forward is peace: Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa's recent statement against India pic.twitter.com/KIrFVNld3P ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 However, Sidhu refused to comment on Bajwa's speech. The refusal becomes significant due to the controversy created when Sidhu embraced the army chief after the swearing-in ceremony on 18 August. The BJP on 22 August had attacked Sidhu for hugging Bajwa and for sitting beside the President of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) at the event and demanded his suspension from the party. In the press conference on Friday, Sidhu thanked Khan for the "noble gesture" of making the corridor available for the pilgrimage. "He has not only taken steps, he has walked miles. I am indebted forever," Sidhu said. "Gurunanakji is revered around the world," he added. Sidhu also said that nobody can object to the goodwill gesture by Khan, and made a "heartfelt request" to Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and the Centre, to "take a step" towards peace between the two neighbours. Reiterating that he had gone to Pakistan "with only a message of love", Sidhu said that he "did not interfere with the government's policy on Pakistan" in any way, and visited the country with all the right permissions. On Thursday, Dawn quoted Bajwa as saying, "September 6, 1965, is an important day in the history of our nation. It is the day when the armed forces, with the full support of the nation, defeated an evil adversary. Every Pakistani was the nation's soldier. We were all united to defend our country and played our respective roles. Our soldiers jumped into the fiery pits of warfare but did not let our nation be harmed," on Pakistan's Defence and Martyrs' Day. India and the Czech Republic on Friday agreed to jointly cooperate in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and Prague: India and the Czech Republic on Friday agreed to jointly cooperate in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. In a joint statement, President Ram Nath Kovind thanked his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman for his support for an early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the United Nations. "President Zeman and I shared our concerns on global and regional challenges. We emphasised the importance of cooperation in defence and security. We committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," President Kovind said. The president also expressed his gratitude to the Czech Republic leadership for supporting India's claim for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and its membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Speaking on defence cooperation, President Kovind elucidated, "There is immense potential for India-Czech defence collaboration to meet the growing requirements of the Indian defence industry. "I invite Czech defence company to take advantage of the opening of defence manufacturing sector in India and set-up joint ventures in India both to produce for the domestic market and for the rest of the world. I thank the Czech side for recognising the need to enhance the mobility of Indian professionals and students into the Czech Republic to upscale our economic partnership. We look forward to the launch of Special Procedures for Highly Qualified Employees meant for India in October." He further said that five Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were finalised, out of which three agreements have been signed between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India and the Czech Academy of Sciences on work plan for support of India-Czech projects in diverse areas of science and technology, on visa waiver agreement for diplomatic passport holders and between ELI Beamlines and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in the field of laser technology. "In addition, we also look forward to initiating cooperation for peaceful use of nuclear energy between the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, India and a relevant institution on the Czech side. These agreements would step-up our ongoing research and innovation partnership," President Kovind added. Terming Czech Republic as an important trade, technology and investment partner, the president underscored that Prague's strengths in manufacturing and advanced technology make it a natural fit to partner Indian growth and next-generation development. He announced that Czech automobile organisation, Skoda Auto and its parent company Volkswagen have announced plans to invest $1 billion in India under the 'Make in India' initiative. President Kovind stated that the annual bilateral trade is a little over $1 billion, which is way below its potential. He further said, "given the economic strengths of the two countries, this is way below potential. President Zeman and I committed to write a new chapter in our trading relations. The India-Czech Joint Economic Commission meeting to be held next month at the ministerial level, will deliberate in detail and take steps to enhance trade and investment cooperation and diversify our partnership into new areas." While addressing the Indian community on Thursday, President Kovind said that the Czech Republic, which is a manufacturing "powerhouse" with advanced technology base, can be a key partner for India's development initiatives such as 'Start-Up India', 'Digital India' and 'Make in India'. He also appealed to the people living here to participate in Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Varanasi in January next year. Earlier in the day, President Kovind received a guard of honour at the Prague Castle, ahead of the bilateral talks with his Czech counterpart. This is President Kovind's first visit to Czech Republic in 22 years after former president Shankar Dayal Sharma had visited the European nation in 1996. Both India and Czech Republic share close cultural and trade ties, as thousands of businessmen from Bohemia used to trade spices and silk from India. President Kovind's trip is expected to further deepen the bilateral relations between both the countries in the field of high technology, nanotechnology and industrial development. AMS Odisha has released The State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) 2018 merit list on its official website, scert.samsodisha.gov.in. SAMS (Student Academic Management System) Odisha has released the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) 2018 merit list on its official website, scert.samsodisha.gov.in. SCERT had conducted the entrance examination from 7-14 August. SCERT Odisha exam is conducted by SAMS Odisha for admissions to different courses to train as a teacher. These include Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed), Bachelor in Education (B.Ed), Bachelor of Physical Education (BPEd), Bachelor in Higher Education (B.H.Ed), Masters in Education ( M.Ed), and M.Phil (education). How to check the SCERT 2018 Merit List: - Log in to the SCERT Odishas official website. - Click on the Common Merit List button on the home page. - Select the course name and stream preference or enter the application number. - The SCERT 2018 merit list will be displayed. Candidates can also check Institution-wise breakdown of intake capacity here. Selected candidates will have to appear for the counselling session for admission in different colleges. Official sources told Times of India that, as many as two lakh candidates have registered for the examinations for admission in these courses in 84 institutions of the state. The right-wing and Urdu newspapers semed unimpressed with the landmark Supreme Court judgment reading Section 377 and legalising homosexuality with some accusing the apex court of committing egregious excess and others underplaying it The Supreme Court on Thursday decriminalised homosexuality, terming parts of Section 377 which criminalised carnal intercourse as not only "arbitrary" but also violative of the fundamental rights of equality, expression, liberty and life guaranteed in the Constitution. The landmark judgment received appreciation from both the media as well as liberals and intellectuals across the country. However, a section of the media seemed unimpressed with the judgment. Urdu newspapers showed varied interest in the verdict. However, none of them carried any opinion article. Inquilab's Mumbai edition had no mention of the Section 377 verdict, while its Delhi edition covered it on the front page, but there was no opinion article on the same. Hind Samachar, another Urdu daily, published an article on the front page in its main edition, but there was no opinion on the verdict either. Urdu Times Daily quoted Dar-ul-Uloom Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani as saying that all religions have prohibited homosexuality, and that it does not accept the Supreme Court order. He also asked religious bodies in India to take legal recourse against the verdict, according to the report. Again, there was no opinion piece on the verdict. Daily Sahafat, another Urdu newspapers which has editions in Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow gave more space to the Section 377 verdict than other Urdu newspapers with the Delhi edition having interviews from local maulvis slamming the verdict. There was no op-ed on the topic though. Siasat Daily, a prominent Urdu newspaper in the south, mentioned the verdict briefly. But again, no opinion article was written on the same. There were no comments from LGBT activists in Urdu newspapers. News portal OPIndia.com called the victory "impermanent" and attacked the Left for calling the BJP government 'intolerant'. The opinion article, which ran the headline, "Today, an intolerant India emancipated the tolerant", didn't shy away from applauding the government. It criticised the 493-page judgment as "infantile ramble" and "senile rant" while accusing the apex court of committing "egregious excess" and opposing the view that the criminalisation of gay sex was based on majoritarianism. The article goes on to say that the Supreme Court verdict on Section 377 was not because of the LGBTQ campaign by the gay community but rather because of "the fundamentally liberal nature of the Indian People expressed through the organs of the Indian state, restraining the government from opposing and stiffening the supreme courts notoriously weak spine". Swarajya, a magazine which describes itself as "a big tent for liberal right of centre discourse", discussed the Section 377 verdict in the light of Hinduism. Blaming Christianity for the archaic law, the author emphasised on how Hinduism was more tolerant to homosexuality. Drawing references to the Bible, it said that "they (British colonial government) brought in the legislation (Section 370), in fact, because they thought 'native' cultures did not punish 'perverse' sex enough". Speaking of Manu Smriti, which specifies punishment for homosexuality, the author argues that "the most stringent punishment (for homosexuality), that of cutting off two fingers (or shaving the head and riding a donkey), is prescribed for an older woman who has had a relationship with a young virgin (ibid, 8:370). But the concern here is on virginity, not homosexuality." Saamana, the Marathi mouthpiece of Shiv Sena, has no mention of the Section 377 verdict in its op-ed. It ran a small single column article announcing the verdict, but that is all. Among English newspapers, most including the The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, etc, ran detailed coverage on the verdict. Playing on puns and alliterations, the tone of most English newspaper headlines was not only congratulatory but also one of looking ahead. While some newspaper packages also included reactions from overwhelmed rights and LGBTQ activists, most carried quotes from a brilliantly-worded concurring judgment, authored by four of five judges on the constitutional bench. Most Hindi language dailies led with straight quotes in headlines but resonated the common congratulatory tone. The posting of Vaid as transport commissioner is seen to be relegating him to an insignificant post while the government has ignored many senior officers by giving the additional charge of, head of the police force to Dilbagh Singh. Srinagar: The change of guard in police with the transfer of Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid and his replacement by Director General, Prison, Dilbagh Singh has got more to do with the feud within the police force than the concerns about security over the recent kidnapping of the family members of police personnel in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. Even as the transfer of Vaid came days after the kidnappings of relatives of cops and the militants releasing all the family members of cops after police set free the father of Hizbul Mujahideen top commander, Riyaz Naikoo, the top police officers have always wrangled over their appointment for the job of DGP. Earlier in a video Naikoo said that the kidnapping of the family members of policemen was in reaction to the burning of some of their houses and harassment of their family members. The differences in the police force came to the fore after the incumbent chairman-cum-managing director of Police Housing Corporation, SK Mishra, made a complaint to the government that instead of Vaid he should have been posted as the DGP in view of his seniority. Mishra who was replaced as the DG Prisons in February 2018 with Dilbagh Singh after Pakistani militant, Naveed Jutt, escaped from police custody at SMHS hospital in Srinagar, also approached the high court challenging the government decision to post Vaid as the DGP. He contended that he was 1985 batch Indian Police Service (IPS Officer) of Jammu and Kashmir cadre and Vaid was junior to him and belonged to the 86-batch of IPS. However, the state government in its objections to the writ petition submitted that the Vaid was appointed as the DGP by the state cabinet after considering the entire service record, merit, eligibility, suitability and qualification of the persons/candidates falling in the zone of consideration and this decision is based on the subjective satisfaction of the State cabinet". The high court had upheld the decision of the state government to appoint Vaid as the DGP. But the new dispensation of Governor Satya Pal Malik, instead of posting an official on a permanent basis has only made an interim arrangement by giving Dilbagh Singh the additional charge of the head of the police force. The transfer came two days after the government issued an order that in the interest of administration it was posting B Srinivas, who was awaiting orders of posting, as the ADGP, CID replacing AG Mir, IPS, who was posted as ADGP Headquarters. What interpretation does one make of the government order to replace Vaid? If he had failed to check kidnappings, why did the government give an officer an additional charge? Is it possible to offer security to every family of a police officer or know beforehand the plans of militants? asked an official, on anonymity. The decision to transfer Vaid has not even gone done well even within the political circles. Although he was appointed as the DGP by former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti in December 2016, her predecessor Omar Abdullah tweeted that, there was no hurry to replace Vaid". Changing the DG is the prerogative of the administration, but why a DG as a temporary arrangement? The current DG wont know if he is going to stay & others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. Officials in the state administration, who didnt wish to be named, said that government is considering joint secretary in the office of the National Security Council SM Sahai and special DG police headquarters VK Singh for the post of DGP. However, with the appointment of either of them, the feud in the police will only intensify. The state cadre IPS officers, DR Doley and Navin Agarwal are more senior to both of them and are on Central deputation. Sahai had earlier also triggered a controversy after he said that Mehbooba was aware of the presence of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in a house where he was killed in 2016, while as she had made a statement that, security agencies say they suspected three militants were hiding without knowing who they were. Had I known about him (Wani), I would have given him a second chance in the wake of ongoing economic activity, improving the situation and booming tourism. The posting of Vaid as transport commissioner is seen to be relegating him to an insignificant post while the government has ignored many senior officers by giving the additional charge of, head of the police force to Dilbagh Singh. Mishra said that the government should follow the rules. The government must follow the procedure and the IPS service rules, he said. The post of DGP as the head of the police force is the level-17 job and an apex scale of IPS, the other DGPs like that of Home Guards and Prisons are considered to be junior and fall in the level-16 category. Apex scale is the highest level. There is a rule which has been also confirmed by the Supreme Court that the DGPs position as head of the state is a promotion. When you promote someone, you have to follow a procedure, he said. Vaid earlier tweeted that it required a lot of courage to fight militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. But he told Firstpost that he will take over as the transport commissioner. Official sources however also see the transfer of DGP as more of a new administrative reshuffle by Governor Malik, which is apart from the transfers of the staff of Advisors and of the bureaucrats in civil administration which have been effected in the last few days. The Supreme Court has warned all states to comply with its 17 July verdict directing states to submit reports on the procedure to curb to incidents of cow vigilantism and mob lynchings. The Supreme Court on Friday asked all the states to comply with its directions to deal with incidents of cow vigilantism and mob lynchings within one week. The apex court noted that only 11 states have filed compliance reports following its 17 July verdict on cow vigilantism. The top court warned that if the reports are not filed then home secretary of defaulting state will have to appear in person before court. The court asked remaining states to file compliance report within one week on dealing with cases of cow vigilantism. In its 17 July verdict, condemning the rising incidents of lynching cases in India, the Supreme Court had instructed the Parliament to come up with a new law which would deal with offences of mob-lynching. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra condemned cases of mob-lynching and called the incidents "horrendous acts of mobocracy" which cannot be allowed to become a new norm. Pronouncing the judgment, Misra said that no one can take the law into their hands or become a law unto himself. The bench, which also comprised Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud, said it was the duty of state governments to ensue law and order in society, besides ensuring that the rule of law prevailed. The bench passed a slew of directions to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism as it said that it was the duty of state governments to ensue law and order in society. "Citizens cannot take law into their hands and cannot become law unto themselves," the bench said. The top court passed the order on a plea seeking formulation of guidelines to curb such violent incidents in the country. With inputs from PTI Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality. New Delhi: With the Supreme Court decriminalising gay sex, India joins 125 other countries where homosexuality is legal. However, 72 countries and territories worldwide still continue to criminalise same-sex relationships, including 45 in which such relationships between women are outlawed. In what is being hailed as a historic move, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality. The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed the part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises consensual unnatural sex as irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary. According to a recent report of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), there are eight countries in which homosexuality can result in a death penalty, and dozens more in which homosexual acts can result in a prison sentence. Indian equal rights activists have undertaken a long and arduous journey to decriminalise same sex relationships. They had tasted their first victory when the Delhi High Court in July 2009 decriminalised homosexuality among consenting adults. However, in December 2012 the Supreme Court, quashing the High Court order, held that the order was legally unsustainable. In 2015, the Lok Sabha voted against the introduction of a private member's Bill to decriminalise homosexuality, proposed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, indicating that the BJP led NDA Government was not in a hurry to legalise homosexuality. Soon after a group of well known LGBT rights activists, NS Jauhar, journalist Sunil Mehra, chef Ritu Dalmia, hotelier Aman Nath and business executive Ayesha Kapur approached the SC which agreed to reconsider the issue. The petition claimed their rights to sexuality, sexual autonomy, choice of sexual partner, life, privacy, dignity and equality, along with the other fundamental rights guaranteed under Part-III of Constitution, are violated by Section 377. In a ray of hope for the community, in August 2017, the apex court upheld the Right to Privacy, stating that sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy. In Thursday's verdict the bench, which also comprised Justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, struck down part of Section 377 of the IPC as being violative of the right to equality and the right to live with dignity. In four separate but concurring judgements, the top court set aside its 2013 verdict in the Suresh Kaushal case which had re- criminalised consensual unnatural sex. "I was turning into a cynical human being with very little belief in the system, but honestly this has really shown once again that, at the end, we are a functional democracy where freedom of choice, speech and rights still exist," said Dalmia who is currently in the UK. Calling the SC verdict a historical judgment, Karan Johar wrote on Twitter, Historical judgment!!!! So proud today! Decriminalising homosexuality and abolishing #Section377 is a huge thumbs up for humanity and equal rights! The country gets its oxygen back!" Some of the countries where gay sex has been legalised are: Argentina (2010), Greenland (2015), South Africa (2006), Australia (2017), Iceland (2010), Spain (2005), Belgium (2003), Ireland (2015), United States (2015), Brazil (2013), Luxembourg (2014), Sweden (2009) and Canada (2005). BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis said on Thursday in Damascus that opposition-controlled Idlib province will soon be restored to Syrian state sovereignty, vowing to win any coming war. 'Idlib will soon be restored to the nation,' Khamis said in a speech during the opening ceremony of the 60th edition of the annual Damascus International Fair. BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis said on Thursday in Damascus that opposition-controlled Idlib province will soon be restored to Syrian state sovereignty, vowing to win any coming war. "Idlib will soon be restored to the nation," Khamis said in a speech during the opening ceremony of the 60th edition of the annual Damascus International Fair. Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed on Tuesday air strikes against insurgents in north western Idlib province, following weeks of bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the rebels' last major enclave. "Syria has prevailed and will win in any coming war," Khamis said. Last week, a source close to Damascus said the government was preparing a phased offensive to recover Idlib province, but Turkey, whose army has a string of observation posts around the edge of the rebel area, has warned against such an assault. Russian, Turkish and Iranian leaders are due to meet on Sept. 7 in Iran and are expected to discuss the situation in northwestern Syria. (Reporting by Dahlia Nehme; Editing by Toby Chopra) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18, Nalini said that the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre should work according to the Supreme Court's directions. A day after the Tamil Nadu government hinted that it stood for the release of all seven convicts in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicts, said that she wanted to let her daughter know that she will be free soon. On Thursday, the Supreme Court told the Tamil Nadu governor to consider the mercy petition of AG Perarivalan, another convict in the case. Reacting to this, Tamil Nadu law minister CV Shanmugam had said that it was "the stand and desire" of late Amma (Jayalalithaa) that the seven convicts should be released. In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18, Nalini said that the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre should work according to the Supreme Court's directions. "I pray that the central government will be magnanimous," CNN-News18 quoted her as saying. She also thanked Congress president Rahul Gandhi for not opposing the release of the convicts. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief Su Thirunavukkarasar did not welcome the apex court's direction on Thursday. "The death of Rajiv Gandhi on the soil of Tamil Nadu is still a wound in the hearts of the people," he told reporters in New Delhi. Thirunavukkarasar, however, said party president Rahul Gandhi had made it clear that he did not hold any grudge against anyone. Reacting to Nalini's statements and Rahul's view, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy told CNN-News18 that the Tamil Nadu governor should show no mercy in the matter. "Who cares what their (Rajiv Gandhi) children say? If the children are disloyal to their father's memory, I don't have to be bound by that. They don't have exclusive rights on Rajiv Gandhi. He was the prime minister of India," he said. On Thursday, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and KM Joseph disposed of the Centre's petition regarding Tamil Nadu government's proposal for the release of the convicts. The Centre had on 10 August told the apex court that it does not concur with the Tamil Nadu government's proposal to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying remission of their sentence will set a "dangerous precedent" and have "international ramifications". On 20 August, 47-year old Perarivalan alias Arivu had told the apex court that no decision has been taken as yet on his mercy petition filed before the Tamil Nadu governor over two years ago. He was charged with supplying a 9-volt battery which was allegedly used for the belt bomb that had killed Rajiv Gandhi and 14 others. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of 21 May, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed. Perarivalan, who is among the seven convicts in the case, had said that he had filed the mercy petition seeking remission or pardon from the governor under Article 161 of the Constitution. He had filed the mercy petition on 30 December, 2015, saying he has suffered more than 24 years of solitary/single confinement. "As per jail rules, life imprisonment at the ground level is only for a maximum of 20 years and thereafter the prisoner is considered for release. Now, I have already undergone more than life imprisonment," his letter had said. He had also claimed that the probe was not full-fledged and was incomplete and partial. "The main culprits who designed the bomb made of RDX were not nabbed till date. They are scot-free and investigation is still pending into the vital aspects of the crime itself," he had said in his letter to the governor. "There will be no justification in keeping me behind bars even after 25 years of actual punishment when the investigation is itself pending", Perarivalan's letter said, giving a detailed outline of the case against him for seeking pardon of his sentence from the governor. Convicts Perarivalan, Nalini, V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santham, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, and P Ravichandaran have been in jail for 25 years. After the apex court's direction on Thursday, Shanmugam had said that Chief Minister K Palaniswami will take a decision on Perarivalan's mercy petition after a thorough study of the Supreme Court's judgment and consultations with legal experts. With inputs from PTI Section 377 has tried to diminish our dignity and our humanity, and in trying to get it scrapped, I feel that many of us have resorted to harmful ways of mobilising people to support our cause. Editor's note: Firstpost reached out to several members of the LGBTQ community for their reaction to the Supreme Court verdict on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. We tried to compile voices from across the LGBTQA+ spectrum and give their stories a platform in their voice. The following are first-person accounts, lightly edited for style and clarity. Names of some of the people have been withheld/ changed upon request. Chandra Moulee, Founder, Queer Chennai Chronicles Once again today - after four years, eight months and 26 days, Indians who go down on their partner or Indians who flip their partner or those who flaunt their imported sex toys won't be criminals. Thanks to the lengthy legal battle in the name of 'gay sex' and LGBT rights. I am a 35 year old gay man and I reluctantly call myself as an LGBT activist, mainly because my involvement in the Indian queer movement was more of a personal journey. I, sort of, came to terms with my desire towards men even before I stumbled upon the term gay. It was only in the early 2000s that I became aware of Section 377. I do not exactly remember the context or how I learnt about Section 377. When the Delhi High Court verdict came out in 2009, I was overwhelmed. I wasn't sure how it would change my life. But having made to believe that there would be queer liberation if Section 377 was scrapped made me feel more confident. I vividly remember the next four-and-half years after the Delhi High court verdict. As a middle class, English speaking, corporate employed cis-gay man my days were the same. Although my then employer had LGBT 'inclusive' policies, I was not encouraged to be out at work. The general homophobia made me anxious about losing my job and the fear of being kicked out of my accommodation. There was a general illusion of liberation, but when I look back now, we had stagnated. The conversation and the next step was not a public discourse. Section 377 did take a lot of our energy and time while talking about LGBTQ rights in our country. Every time a discussion related to LGBTQ rights was put forth, we had to start from Section 377. It was easy for those who are against LGBT rights to deflect the conversation using Section 377. Even in the most refined corporate spaces it wasn't easy to push LGBT inclusive policies citing Section 377. With the judgment, the fear of persecution for gay men like me is reduced. And I hope the lesser privileged persons in the LGBT community share the same experience, and we stand in solidarity with each other acknowledging that all our experiences are not the same. I know a lot of my friends truly believe that amending Section 377 will liberate us. I hope so too. But the truth is far from it. This lengthy legal battle by the community, especially keeping the working class trans women and gender non-conforming persons in the forefront, should not be forgotten. Educational institutions are still hostile towards queer children. We need more change in the societal attitude towards the LGBT community and our rights. While it is natural for the flow of the discussion to move towards same-sex marriage and other related issues, the conversation on legal protection and empowerment of queer individuals in all spaces should not be ignored. Especially in progressive spaces that claim to be inclusive of LGBT individuals. Maybe it is time for every progressive and liberal movement to look into their own spaces on how many LGBT individuals are in decision making spaces. We still havent moved beyond urban spaces and cis-gay men. Let us make use of this momentum to trickle down the conversation in every sphere of life. And those of us who think that our fight is over, congratulations, and please give way to others. Today, is a day of happiness for me. I thank all those who fought against this archaic law for so long. This has given renewed hope to a lot of young queer individuals. I hope we have fair representation, discussion and disagreement within the queer community to talk about issues without prioritizing one over the other. From what is coming out of the court room, I am also hopeful that the jurisprudence will do justice for all the time lost and our future discourse of the queer movement. *** Yatin, a queer woman from Hyderabad and member of TISS Queer Collective When the verdict came out, I was sitting by myself outside the Vashi station. I knew that it was going to be a positive verdict, that Section 377 would be scrapped. I wanted to have a few minutes for myself before I went to office. It is difficult to explain my happiness and my anxiety in words today. My friend R. was threatened by his brother last year after his family discovered about his sexual orientation. He left home and struggled for months to get back on his feet, to find a place and a job, and to forget the violence that he suffered at the hands of his own family. We used to talk about our "gay ass utopias," where natal families would learn to accept us, where we wouldnt be threatened by the State, where the concept of families and blood relations could also be challenged. Today, he was the first person to call me after the verdict. He was crying. We could not say a word. We just cried and hung up the phone to receive other calls from friends. We did not say a single word to each other. Personally, I have never had the fear of being caught under Section 377. My girlfriends have been introduced to my family as my "close friends" and because we would both usually be female-assigned, there was little to no surveillance. I was able to have girlfriends, have sex with women, publicly display my affection without facing repercussions. But this is not my worry. I am coming to a "marriageable age." Everyday, so much emotional energy goes into worrying about what will happen when I publicly claim my identity as a queer person in front of my family and in front of the society. It is true that sexual intimacy is a private matter, but till the time my sexuality is private, I do not have many problems in navigating my life and relationships. You compartmentalise your life and present a different part of you to different people. It is only when it becomes public that I have faced physical and emotional violence. Recognising the rights of queer folks should not be centered on the rhetoric of privacy. It excuses so many wrongdoings. I also cannot separate the privacy of my sexual life from the privacy of my everyday life. The courts, on one hand, say they will respect the former, while they let the state get away with violating the latter. The fight against Section 377 has also been a source of frustration for queer folks, especially those who are not cis-gay men. I remember attending one of the Queer Azadi March meetings, whose slogan this year was, Section 377 Quit India. What about the Trans Bill? we asked. The Trans Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, with its painfully ironic title, is a draconian bill which has the potential to systematically destroy the lives of trans people in India. I hope we can mobilise a fight against it as we did against 377. I hope we will get the resources needed to go to courts for this struggle as well. The words of Ambedkar come to my mind: Ours is a battle not for wealth; nor for power, ours is a battle for freedom; for reclamation of human personality. Many of us cannot help but feel frustrated at the discourse surrounding Section 377, especially the way it is reported by the media, straight "allies," or even our fellow queers. Section 377 has tried to diminish our dignity and our humanity, and in trying to get it scrapped, I feel that many of us have resorted to harmful ways of mobilising people to support our cause. I am angry about the "Born this way," rhetoric. I dont want to tell this heteronormative society: I am born this way. If I could be a different person, I would be. But I am born this way, so you have to please accept me. Why should I forego my dignity for conditional acceptance from people? I do not want to ask straight people for my rights, I want to claim them. We have to remain alert and refrain from dehumanising ourselves. We cannot win any battle this way. While all around me there is celebrations and joy, there is also an underlying tension. The Trans Bill is going to be reintroduced soon. Another friend, S. told me last month over the phone, "If this Bill is passed, I am going to go inside the damn court and set myself on fire." She laughed, and then I laughed. But I could hear the truth in her words. Her life is precious to me, and I do not know how she and other trans people can survive in the future if the Bill passes. Criminalising beggary, forcing trans people to stay with their natal families...it is a death blow. Trans women have been at the forefront of the gender and sexuality rights movement in India, and we have not done justice by them. I have seen many people thank the Supreme Court for this judgement. I am not grateful to them. How can I be grateful to the same court that has upheld the Trans Bill in 2014? The same court that diluted the SC/ST Atrocity act? The same court that only last week gave out a judgement that says people cannot claim their SC/ST status outside their home state for reservations in employment? A court that hands out death penalties exclusively to people from marginalised communities? I am only grateful to the people who have struggled so long to obtain our rights, to my friends who support each other and become each others families under immense pressure, and I am grateful for those who will continue this struggle to ensure the victory of Constitutional morality. *** Kanaga, a Bahujan transwoman from Tamil Nadu, working as Domain Consultant in London The day that LGBTIQA+ community in India has been eagerly waiting for the past several years has finally arrived. The Supreme Court of India decriminalised homosexuality in a landmark judgment. Section 377 which criminalized homosexuality even between consenting adults is finally amended to provide the fundamental rights to queer people to be who they are. What this day and this judgement means to a queer person like me? I think there are two facets in that question that needs to be addressed first me as a queer person and how emotional the day is for me and me as a Dravidian Bahujan wondering where we go as a community from here. The first emotion that I went through on hearing the judgement is that of grief, today is the day we remember countless lives that we lost. The kind of discrimination that queer community faces can be summarized by the fact that each and every one in the community knows at least one person who has committed suicide. Social stigma, marriage pressure, forced conversation therapy, heartbreaks, blackmail and the list goes on, today we remember them all. Next, I feel grateful to the numerous unknown and blurred out faces that supported each other within the community. The ones that organised get together in safe spaces for people who were still in the closet, the ones that were available for late night calls to listen, the ones that rushed to the police stations to intervene in crisis situations. Folks who invested hours of labour in preparing placards, organising movie screenings and book discussions. People who were thoughtful enough to distribute masks before every pride march, who were sensitive enough to use right pronouns. The transwomen and sex workers who paraded the streets and voiced for gay rights much before it became mainstream, to all of our godmothers today is the day we say thank you to all your efforts. As a transwoman, I feel the judgment is not only important for the gay community but will also influence the lives of trans-people in many ways. One narrative that we have built in the Indian society, even in the most progressive queer spaces, is assuming trans people are straight and their struggle is only for gender affirmation. Some people have gone to the extent of voicing to separate LGB from T based on sexuality. The anxiety Trans people face in asserting their gayness is exponentially higher than a cis-gender person in India. As a pansexual transwoman, I often neglect my sexuality to get my gender validated because the moment I express my attraction towards a woman I am called out as a man or a drag queen and crossdresser; it has always been either gender or sexuality even inside the LGBTQIA spaces. Today we have a reason to assert out sexuality beyond gender binary and hetero normativity. Today, I feel hopeful to protect both my gender and sexuality rights. Though the landmark NALSA judgement asserted the right to self-identity in 2014. Trans people who are in pre-transition have always found it difficult to assert their rights and feared persecution based on 377 because, before transition, a transwoman is often seen as an effeminate gay man by the society. The sexual life of trans people who are yet to undergo surgeries, or who do not pass as cis-genders are often seen as an act of homosexuality. Media has always found it easy to frame a juicy story on trans people's life by erasing their gender and painting a homosexual flair to it. The events that unfolded after the death of Akshay dev is a wakeup call for many of us. Scrapping 377 will not change this insensitivity overnight but legal protection both on gender and sexuality front ensures wider scope of dialogue and legal aid to counter the negativity in the form of defamation cases will prove lethal in the longer run. Today is also the day we look within the community and ensure we make the spaces more sensitive, more equal and just for every one of us. Today is the day I feel determined to commit my share of labour in making queer spaces truly inclusive. To ensure non-English speaking people get the same time as the English speaking ones to express themselves. To remember queer people need not study queer and feminist theories, quote popular authors, read famous books, speak elite language, understand foreign movies and appreciate English poetry to be a queer activist or spokesperson. To acknowledge and listen to stories of gay transmen and lesbian transwoman. To ensure the event spaces are accessible to all disabled people even those who are not privileged enough to afford wheel chairs. To respect sex workers as much as I respect any other professionals. To talk about kinky, non-monogamous, long-distance relationships with the same seriousness. To ensure that I will always pass on the mic and not try to occupy any more space than I require. As a Dravidian/Bahujan Transwomen, I feel that today we need to regroup on how the movement should go forward as the struggles of LGBTQIA community is beyond 377. Most of us want political and social empowerment within and outside the Hindi, Hindu fold of mainstream India. There is a need to question status quo, to dismantle power structures within the LGBT community and it needs to be done on caste and gender lines to make a justification to the spirit of the movement. To start with, it is no longer enough to have gender representation in the LGBT spaces, one queer woman and one trans person cannot be enough anymore. We need to ask what is the representation of Dalit, Bahujan community in the panel? What is the representation of non-Hindu, non-Hindi members? We need to ask, what is the power and position of non-Brahmin savarna members in LGBT spaces? We need accountability on who gets representation in media, corporate events, D&I panels, government funding across caste and gender lines. We need to discuss how are we going to sensitise queer communities on caste-based oppression as most of us have not only faced discrimination based on our sexuality and gender but also on caste. How can a queer space be called safe when most of us voicing against one form of oppression is oblivion to another?. Phrases like "I am a vegetarian by choice, Iyer preferred, we are orthodox family" cannot go unnoticed inside queer space. Today we need to understand how to assimilate into mainstream political movements. How needs of LGBT community could be heard in electoral politics. We need to understand what are the political parties that support and what are those that oppose and why? We should ask ourselves why is that progressive regional parties are negative or silent on LGBT rights but national parties are trying to champion queer rights. What is the role of NGOs in sensitising central and regional parties? Finally, today is the day we regroup and look forward to fighting our next battle. To make families understand, to make workplaces safe, to assert marriage and adoption rights. We move forward as the first battle is won, the war must go on. *** Kumam Davidson, independent journalist who advocates gender justice, co-creator of The Chinky Homo Project It's 11:30 am, so my father is grumbling why lunch hasn't been laid out for him on the dining table. He has just returned from his usual late morning stroll in the city and brings scraps of news from here and there. He announces to everyone in the kitchen that there are two marriages to attend later in the evening. He then turns to my mother, who is busy checking the piles of white dhotis and pumyats, and tells her, Make sure the dhotis and pumyats are washed and ironed. She grumbles and replies in a sharp tone, Yes, I know! My sister signals to me that the curry is ready and I immediately lock the screen of my phone where I'm watching the live stream of the news regarding the Supreme Court's verdict on Section 377 (the volume is almost muted). I start serving lunch for everyone. I can hear slogans from the rally on the street against Manipur University's suspension of students and teachers' associations. My father switches on the TV after he hears the slogans. On channel ISTV, the correspondent is reporting live from the university gate about the statewide protest. Fifteen minutes later, I unlock my phone. As soon as I open Facebook, the updates come thick and fast: 377 scrapped, homosexuality decriminalised in India. I immediately type a euphoric Facebook update on the Supreme Courts judgment. A minute later, I get a WhatsApp notification. It's a message from a school friend: 377 se keino? (what is 377?). At that moment, the long-awaited euphoria subsides and I go to the terrace to smoke a cigarette. I wonder what to tell him. Then, it slowly dawns on me: I don't know what to say. I open Facebook again. The scope of celebrations in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati are astounding. I examine myself: sulking and wondering what to tell my friend. There are no easy answers. Worse, I no longer feel a sense of connect to the massive jubilation of the people in the cities. I light another cigarette, take long puffs and watch the never-ending rally in the street. After sitting on the terrace and smoking two cigarettes, my mind begins to wander. In 2012, I went to my first LGBTQ meet put together by the then Queer Campus Delhi (now defunct) at the Alliance Francaise in Connaught Place. Fifteen people turned up: mostly gay boys and a few lesbians. We introduced ourselves: which, back then, was both awkward and exciting. Following my first participation in an LGBTQ meet, over the next few years, I went to various other meets and events by the same group and others, though my participation was mostly limited to the initial interactions. I never attended the after parties that occurred at the homes of those that turned up. In retrospect, that marked the beginning of inclusivity and exclusivity conflict in my coming out journey as a queer person in Delhi. For a few years, I happened to be the only person from the North East in all such meets. I made some friends from Delhi: I met them for lunches and coffee once in a while, but no such association lasted. For a long time, I didnt understand why such a sense of alienation marked my experience. That was also the time when occasional protests and rallies were held to protest discrimination faced by people of the North East in Delhi-NCR. I attended such protests and chanted slogans in solidarity with my people. After I came out, some Facebook friends stopped following me. As the communication ended, it became harder and harder for me to gain a sense of belonging with people from my state and region, or with the people in Delhi. Meanwhile, the partial associations through work, meets, and protests continued. The question of belongingness became a major source of anxiety for me in the past few years: which runs against the egalitarian ethos of queer solidarity, diversity and inclusivity. The sense of alienation continued in Delhi and trying to keep a close association with the community in Delhi didn't shape up well. Coming out seemed to open new layers of alienation, especially from the people of my region, and I internalised a sense of rejection as well. A few months ago, both me and a close Meitei friend from Imphalwho lives in Delhirealised we had similar concerns regarding the sense of alienation both in Delhi and back home. We exchanged thoughts, poured out our emotions and thought about the issue extensively but found no clear answers. And as time passed by, we just carried on with our lives and our activism. Then, out of the blue, earlier this year, Plainspeak magazine published by Talking about Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues (TARSHI) invited the public to send articles on the theme Home and Sexuality. My friend and I quickly penned our thoughts and sent an article titled: Do queer migrants from the northeast find Indian cities alienating or empowering? After several drafts, we found that it became a very pertinent piece for us because we were able to lay out our anxieties and conflicting thoughts on belongingness: In the case of a northeastern queer migrating to another city for opportunities and livelihood, the racial othering, cultural subordination, and the eroticisation and exoticisation of the northeastern body represent a curious case where it is rather tricky to draw a line between alienation and celebration. Often, reclaiming the desirability quotient and the exoticised versions of the bodies of the people of the North East, which are fetishised as an object of fantasy becomes the most obvious and primary ground for the process of self-assertion and determination, but it doesnt signify a divergence from the narrative of Chinky. In any case, the victimhood remains. By victimhood, we mean a certain loss of power and not being able to represent and influence public opinion of oneself and ones own community. Therein lies the complex case of the Chinky homo. Following the publication of the article, responses from the community and further collaboration with TARSHI led to the founding of The Chinky Homo Project, a queer anthology of North East India, which at the moment, is in digital format. From the initial years of coming out until now, it has been a long journey: one filled with confusion, euphoric moments, anxieties, fear but also laughter and love. And even today, sitting on the dining table with my parents, I still wonder how much relevance Section 377 has on my life and dignity. The Supreme Court ruling on Section 377 is indeed a historic moment. Nevertheless, I wonder how much relevance it has on LGBTQIA+ and citizens who live in the nooks and corners of India. Being a Meitei from a far-off town in Manipur who's living in Delhi, even after all these years there's still a sense of estrangement. And good or bad, people from diverse cultural, racial, linguistic, caste, class and regional backgrounds came together to fight for the cause on many occasions. Now, what's the future of the movement? Is the case of the northeastern queer, with its baggage of racial, class and regional alienation in Indian cities, going to be acknowledged? These thoughts occupy my mind today as I sit on the terrace of my small town, far away from Delhi, where the judgment was announced. I get on YouTube and websites of local media to see if there are any reports on today's historic judgment. To my anguish, I find none. I fling my phone aside and take out another cigarette (my third). But before I can light it, my father calls out to me from the stairs, "Give my shoes for a good polish." As told to Greeshma Rai Two suspected terrorists, affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) organisation, were arrested from near the Red Fort by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, police said on Friday. New Delhi: Two suspected terrorists, affiliated to the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) organisation, were arrested from near the Red Fort by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, police said on Friday. The duo, from Shopian in Kashmir, were identified as Parvez (24) and Jamshid (19). They were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near the Red Fort, said PS Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell). They were boarding a bus to return to Jammu and Kashmir when they were nabbed around 10.45 pm on Thursday. The officer said the duo was using Delhi as a transit point. Parvez's brother was a terrorist, who was killed in an encounter in Shopian on 26 January this year, he said. Parvez is currently pursuing MTech from Gajrola in Uttar Pradesh and was inspired by his brother. Jamshid is a final-year diploma student. He had also facilitated Mohammed Abdullah Basith's movement, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the officer said. This was their second trip to Delhi, they had gone from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through Delhi in May. Two .32 pistols and four cell phones were seized from the duo, who were working on the instructions of Omar Ibn Nazir and Adil Thokar, he added. The officer said that they had no plans to carry out terror activities in the national capital and were using Delhi only as a transit point. He said the Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir is at a nascent stage. Tension gripped Noida's Gejha village where alleged remains of a cow were found on Thursday, prompting police to file a case and arrest seven people suspected of slaughtering the animal. Noida: Tension gripped Noida's Gejha village where alleged remains of a cow were found on Thursday, prompting police to file a case and arrest seven people suspected of slaughtering the animal. The remains were spotted by locals near a 'baraat ghar' in a meat market in the village in Sector 93 in the morning and they soon alerted the police on the emergency 100 number, officials said. Based on a complaint filed by a villager in Noida, an FIR was filed under the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 at the Phase 2 police station. In the complaint, he accused meat traders of slaughtering the animal. "Seven accused persons have been arrested so far. They have been charged under section 3/5 A/8 of the Uttar Pradesh Cow Slaughter Act," Circle Officer, City 3rd, Shwetabh Pandey told PTI. Another police official said the samples of meat from local shops and those of the alleged remains of the cow were sent for forensic test. The arrested persons will be remanded in judicial custody till Friday morning, the official said. The police pacified the villagers and stepped up security in the area, he said. The World Hindu Congress, which is scheduled to be held from 7 to 9 September, is held once every four years. The event will also mark the commemoration of 125 years of Swami Vivekananda's address at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. New Delhi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday embarked on a two-day visit to the United States. During the visit, Naidu is slated to deliver an address at the 2nd World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago on 9 September. He will also interact with the Indian community residing in the country. The WHC, which is scheduled to be held from 7 to 9 September, is a "global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good. It will offer 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 will 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, said the website. The global event also marks the commemoration of 125 years of Swami Vivekananda's address at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. As the latest incident of grievance against popular taxi-service provider Uber, a customer in Mumbai took to Twitter on Friday to lodge a complaint about negligence by an Uber driver during her ride on 4 September. In the latest incident of grievance against popular taxi-service provider Uber, a customer in Mumbai took to Twitter on Friday to lodge a complaint about negligence by an Uber driver during her ride on 4 September. Priyanka Singh, a resident of Mumbai, tweeted a statement to bring the incident to the attention of the company, Mumbai Police, and the National Commission for Women. Singh alleged that she had the "most worst and terrible" experience, travelling with Uber. Singh claims that on her ride from Aarey Colony in Goregaon to Borivali, the driver Sushant insisted on ending the trip on a secluded and dark road just on the outskirts of Aarey Colony. Due to the dark, Singh says, she stumbled over a pothole and was badly injured in her foot. "He insister he needed to go to Andheri, and going towards Borivali would actually be going on the opposite route," the statement said. She said passersby took her to the hospital, where a torn ligament was diagnosed by the hospital staff. Singh also said that her Uber account showed that she had paid in cash when it was not the case. Later on Friday, Singh tweeted her thanks to the Mumbai Police for "handling the matter with emergency". In July, Mid-Day had reported that a 35-year-old woman died after her cab had crashed into a garbage truck in Bhandup. In a separate incident, a journalist from Mumbai has alleged that she was "racially abused" and attacked by a woman co-passenger in a shared Uber cab at Lower Parel. People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Rafi Ahmad Mir on Thursday asked Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik to address issues related to Article 35A. Mir said his party wants wider consultations on various issues including 35 A before going for the upcoming panchayat and urban local bodies polls in the state. Srinagar: People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Rafi Ahmad Mir on Thursday asked Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik to address issues related to Article 35A. Mir said his party wants wider consultations on various issues including 35A before going for the upcoming panchayat and urban local bodies polls in the state. National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday had said that his party will not participate in the polls until the "Government of India and the state government make their position clear on Article 35A inside and outside the court." Maintaining suspense over PDP's decision, Mir after a core group meeting of the party earlier on Thursday, told media, "We are not in competition with them (National Conference), but we have a genuine concern. There is a mix-up of issues, due to (Article) 35A, which we are not in favour of. We want the governor to address this and other election-related issues, after which we will take a decision." "It will take some time. We are for a consultative mechanism, not within PDP only, but rest of the things also. We also have to look at our cadre base and people. We are not here to spoil the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, we don't want bloodshed here. But we are the main political party. We have always participated in the election, we should not be seen running away from the election. We are going to participate. We will take a final call and share with you," he added. Mir's comments come days after the Supreme Court deferred, until January 2019, the hearing on a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A. Article 35A disallows people from residing in Jammu and Kashmir, buying or owning immovable property in the state, settling permanently, or getting state government jobs. Kapil Sibal, 'I think everything will depend on two key states Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. When the Opposition unites, then the BJP cannot win. New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidamabaram on Friday predicted a broad alliance of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that will bring a coalition government, while his colleague Kapil Sibal said there is no way the BJP can retain power if Opposition parties unite. Speaking at a discussion after the launch of Sibal's book "Shades of Truth", Opposition leaders exuded confidence that a non-BJP government would be in place in 2019 while calling for the need of a coalition of like-minded parties. Among those present at the launch were former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former vice-president M Hamid Ansari and a host of Opposition leaders. Leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the DMK and the Bahujan Samaj Party were not there. "I never predict the future. I will predict a step ahead of the election results. I think there is a very very good chance that there will be a broad coalition of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states. That I will predict today. If that happens, then I think night falls day, or day falls night, the result is foretold," Chidambaram said when asked about what will happen in 2019. Sibal, however, said, "I think everything will depend on two key states Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And if Gorakhpur, Kairana and Phulpur are any indication, when the Opposition unites, then the BJP cannot win. If we can replicate that in Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh, I think there is no chance for the BJP." Former JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav said, "It is impossible to get everyone together, but even if there is possible unity, this government will have to go." He said all sections of society are being suppressed and the entire country will defeat the BJP in 2019 and the country's Constitution and its values will be restored after that. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, while refusing to predict election result, said "What we will work for is to make sure that this government does not return to power, and we will work to strengthen India through a coalition of all the progressive secular forces." Trinamool Congress leader Chandan Mitra, formerly a BJP MP, however, struck a discordant note saying while the Opposition is expected to win, there will be a regional leader leading it, as the rules will be changed now. Yechury said, "The Trinamool Congress will correct the historical blunder committed by the CPM." Former prime minister Singh, however, refused to make any prediction for the next Lok Sabha polls. Sibal noted,"I think it is time to understand that India as a nation is a coalition. Only coalitions with compromises can take this country forward. Since 2014, the nature of our polity has changed and the difference between the party and the government has ended. It is the party that runs the government and not the government that runs the country," Sibal said. Chidambaram, however, said since 1989, the Lok Sabha elections have been a collection of state elections as no longer one leader will sway the elections in the country. "2019 will not be different and it will be a state-specific election. In every state a non-BJP coalition will be formed defeat the BJP. It is wrong to assume that India's election will be a presidential election," he said. Asked if Rahul Gandhi was up to the job of taking on prime minister Modi, Sibal said, "The prime minister sold dreams to India in 2014. Has he been up to his job?" For the first time, Chidambaram also acknowledged publicly that the party was divided and he was against impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, a move that finally failed, while Yechury said the move was delayed and much time was lost in bringing about consensus. Saoji's remark came after BJP MLA Ram Kadam, while speaking at a dahi handi event, said that he would 'kidnap' a girl he likes even if she rejects his proposal. Buldhana: Congress leader and former Maharashtra minister Subodh Saoji announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone who "chops off the tongue" of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ram Kadam. "I am announcing a Rs 5 lakh reward for anyone who chops off BJP MLA Ram Kadam's tongue. I strongly condemn him saying girls should be abducted," Saoji said. His remark came after Kadam, while speaking at a dahi handi event, said that he would "kidnap" a girl he likes even if she rejects his proposal. #WATCH: Former Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Subodh Savji says I am announcing a Rs 5-lakh reward for anyone who chops off BJP MLA Ram Kadams tongue. I strongly condemn him saying girls should be abducted.' (06.09.18) pic.twitter.com/Y3h8AR7Vd1 ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 Condemning Kadam's remark, Bala Padelkar, president of Mumbai's Dahi Handi Coordination Committee, has decided to boycott the former's dahi handi from next year. After the furore over his remark, Kadam had clarified that his statement was quoted out of context. "A 40-second incomplete video is being circulated by opposition leaders. I would only request them to listen to my complete statement. If my statement has hurt anyone, I won't mind expressing regret for the same," he had told ANI. Politics at Delhi University, which goes to polls on 12 September, is dominated by caste and money. Most students prefer to remain mere spectators. Unequal opportunities on the basis of family ties or community considerations constitute an imperfection in our collective conscience, for they undermine the democratic principle of a level playing field. The alternative to lineage and pedigree is a fair chance to meritorious and motivated people at electoral politics. Politics at Delhi University, which goes to polls on 12 September, is dominated by caste and money. For the last five years, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishads (ABVP) candidates for the post of the president of Delhi University Students Union have been Gujjars. To counter this, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) has fielded Jat candidates for the post of president. Other candidates have mostly been from the Jat and Gujjar communities. In 2016-17 all four posts (president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary) were won by candidates from these communities. Last year, Ankiv Basoya, the presidential candidate of the ABVP was seen shaking hands with people from the sun roof of his red Mustang. One person contested from our college as an independent candidate, and he was beaten up. Politics is dirty and scary. They (student leaders) come in big cars and raid our classrooms, and classes are disrupted. There is much screaming and shouting, but we dont know what they have promised in their manifestos, a science student at Kirori Mal College told Firstpost. Recently, Kawalpreet Kaur of the All India Students Association registered a harassment complaint with the Delhi Commission of Women against two members of the ABVP. This year, AISA is contesting the DUSU polls in alliance with AAPs student wing Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS). According to the Lyngdoh committee's guidelines, a candidate can spend a maximum of Rs 5,000 for canvassing and other election-related work. Last year, the NSUIs poll campaign centered around an RTI that showed that the ABVP-led DUSU panel spent Rs 22 lakh on tea, photostats and other miscellaneous activities. Rain dances, trips to amusement parks in Sonepat, make-up kits and tons of free pizzas this is what the students of north campus are getting in return for turning out on election day. Till last year, of the 22 womens colleges in Delhi University, only five participated in the DUSU elections. These include Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Lakshmibai College, Bhagini Nivedita College, Miranda House and SP Mukherji College for Women. This means that almost 80 percent of DUs women students dont cast their vote. The corrosion in the level of politics runs deep in north India, and isn't limited to Delhi University. Close to where the river Saraswati lends spiritual depth to the waters of Ganga and Yamuna stands the Allahabad University. It is the fourth oldest modern university in India, having been established in 1876. The student politics here has given India a long list of fine leaders. Several prominent people including former prime ministers VP Singh and Chandrashekhar, former chief justices Mohammad Hidayatullah and Kamal Narain Singh, two-time president of the Indian National Congress Madan Mohan Malaviya and former president Shankar Dayal Sharma were first exposed to designs of governance inside the institutionss Victorian halls. In 2016, Richa Singh became the first woman president of the Allahabad University student union in 128 years, after decades of SUVs parading campuses, smuggling of alcohol into hostels and the use of muscle power. We fought a simple campaign within a budget of Rs 1 lakh, as opposed to the parties contesting against us, which spent close to Rs 25 lakh. We brought in a model of alternate politics based on samvaad or dialogue over concerns like the lack of scholarships and fading opportunities for academic researchers, she told Firstpost. Pooja Shukla, who was arrested outside Lucknow University after she went on a hunger strike demanding the results of her entrance exams along with 25 others that were allegedly being withheld by the Vice Chancellor, said she derives her strength from Richa Singhs victory. However, she feels that money and muscle power still dominate politics. Lucknow University banned elections in 2016 and recently, the authorities also banned protests on campus even on issues critical to students welfare. There is a lot of violence in student politics in north India, and it needs to be uprooted, said Shukla, a former member of AISA who recently joined the Samajwadi Party. Back in 1970, Professor Alok Pant and American political scientist Walter Anderson authored a series of articles titled Student Politics in Allahabad in Economic and Political Weekly. On the subject of violence in politics, these articles spoke of an "intervening variable between the violence itself and the unsatisfactory creation of a new identity, resulting in a feeling of alienation and frustration." It said that the inability of students to cope with a new environment led to a disposition towards violence. A majority of the students at Allahabad came from the villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh, where poverty is slowing down change in lifestyles. In the 80s and 90s, we used to talk about government policies and had scientific approaches. There was no role of casteism and money or power, said Atul Kumar Anjan, a senior CPI leader and national secretary of the Communist Party of India, who was elected president of the Lucknow Student Union six times and led the movement to overthrow two chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh Kamalapati Tripathi and Ram Naresh Yadav. He recalled the National Students Convention of 1936 organised at the Ganga Memorial Hall, which had Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammed Ali Jinnah on the same stage for the last time. Today, Anjan believes, student politics tries its best to mirror the bigger political game. Several people who acquired prominence had earlier been student leaders. Former prime minister IK Gujral was at one point the secretary of the All India Student Federation. DP Dhar, chief architect of the Indian intervention in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, was earlier the president of the Lucknow University Students Union. Former president Shankar Dayal Sharma was an office bearer of the Lucknow University Student Union. Subhash Kashyap, former secretary-general of the 7th, 8th and 9th Lok Sabha, was politically active at the Allahabad University in the 1950s. He spoke to Firstpost about how everybody has a role to play in reforming student politics. Describing simpler times in Allahabad, he said, The V-C should command the respect of students and teachers and through his or her integrity and ability, become a role model. During our time, the Allahabad University used to boast of professors from around the country who moulded the characters of students through their devotion to academics. If students remain in the university longer only to contest elections repeatedly, then it is an injustice to the system. Unlike politics outside of educational institutions, the purpose of student politics isnt as much the impact it creates but the electoral lessons it leaves young leaders with. Student politics is useful for democracy in terms of becoming nurseries of national-level parties, until political parties start using student cadres to campaign for them. This aspect is visible in the greater involvement of leaders in shaping college politics. At one point, the distribution of tickets in the NSUI was controlled by Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and HKL Bhagat, and later by Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely. Equally worrisome is the trend of students giving expression to their ideologies in extreme ways. In April 2016, Rajat Chaudhary, the presidential candidate of the ABVP last year, disrupted a seminar on Ambedkar on Caste and Social Justice at Deshbandhu College, ordering people to chant Bharat Mata ki jai in order to let the event take place. The institutionalisation of interference of political parties in campus politics started with the emergence of Sanjay Gandhi, after which other parties too subscribed to caste and muscle power to mobile students for support, said Anand Pradhan, who was the president of the students union at Banaras Hindu University from 1992-1993, and is now a professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He recalled that in the 1980s and the 1990s, when the Mandal Commission and the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid issue emerged in the public discourse, student politics became divided on the basis of caste. This was coupled with the liberalisation of the 1990s, which made students career-driven, and promoted an approach of apoliticisation and depoliticisation, creating a void in student participation. Pradhan further said, JNU is a model through which student politics can be revived, but it is too localised for it to have an impact outside the institution." The larger question is whether left-wing politics, which is more issue-centric and nuanced in its narrative, is putting pressure on bigger parties to reform themselves. Apoorvanand, professor at the Department of Hindi, University of Delhi, believes so. He says, The pinjra tod campaign that seeks to make hostel and paying guest accommodation regulations less regressive and restrictive for women students is refreshing to see. In the past one year, we can see a change in the way the NSUI has conducted itself, and this could have been an influence of left-leaning groups like the All India Students' Association (AISA). Dynasticism isnt new to Indian politics. From the BJPs Vasundhara Raje, Varun Gandhi, Devendra Fadnavis, Pema Khandu, Pritam Munde, Poonam Mahajan, Heena Gavit, Raksha Khadse and Eknath Khadse to Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress to Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal to Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, lineage makes it easier to rise through the ranks. The Left may have emerged in Delhi University's politics and shaken things up, but caste and money still dominate north Indian campuses, where most students still prefer to remain spectators to the drama of student elections. The Gujarat Congress on Thursday announced that it would observe a 24-hour fast on Friday in support of Hardik Patel if the state government did not begin talks with the Patidar leader. Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Congress on Thursday announced that it would observe a 24-hour fast on Friday in support of Hardik Patel if the state government did not begin talks with the Patidar leader. Hardik's fast, launched by him on 25 August at his farmhouse near here, entered its 13th day on Thursday as the visibly weak Patidar leader was seen being moved around in a wheelchair. Doctors from the Sola Civil hospital, after an examination, advised him to immediately get admitted for medical treatment. As many as 30 state Congress leaders, including the party's state unit chief Amit Chavda, Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Paresh Dhanani and around 25 MLAs, met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in connection with Hardik's fast on Thursday. The Congress delegation demanded that the state government begin negotiations with the Patidar leader and accept his demands concerning farm loan waiver. "If the government does not give a positive response to our demand, the Congress will sit on a 24-hour fast at each district headquarters of the state from 11 am tomorrow in Hardik's support," Dhanani told reporters at Gandhinagar after meeting Rupani. "The government should immediately start talks with Hardik and sort out the issues raised by him," he said. The Congress's memorandum, submitted to Rupani, however, did not make any mention of the quota demand for the Patidar community. Hardik's Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) had on Wednesday night threatened that he would stop taking water if the government did not begin the negotiations within 24 hours. Following the completion of the deadline to the government, Hardik on Thursday stopped drinking water, a PAAS leader said. "We feel that the BJP government is not interested in the issues concerning the farmers and the people of Gujarat. Since it has not expressed its willingness even after the expiry of our ultimatum, Hardik has now stopped taking water," PAAS convener Manoj Panara said. Talking to reporters at Hardik's residence on Thursday evening, he said the Patidar leader would continue to abstain from consuming water till the state government came forward for talks. While the BJP government in Gujarat has asked Hardik several times to call off his fast, it has not cleared its stand on talking to the Patidar leader over his demands. Reacting to the Congress leaders' meeting with the chief minister, Gujarat revenue minister Kaushik Patel said the government had not received any official representation from the PAAS to hold talks with Hardik. "A few days back, we had appealed to the Patidar leaders, who came to meet us over this issue, to convince Hardik to end his fast. The government is also worried about Hardik. However, they (PAAS and Hardik) did not listen to the senior community leaders," the minister told reporters. Putting the onus on the Congress to clear its stand on the issue of reservations, he said, "Even today, we have asked Dhanani to persuade Hardik to end his fast. We will think about holding talks with the PAAS if they make a representation to us." Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani also tried to corner the Congress over the issue, claiming that the party's double standards were exposed as there was no mention of reservation for the Patidars in its memorandum submitted to the chief minister. "The Congress as well as the agitators are diverting the issue. Now, they are not talking about reservation to Patidars under the OBC quota. If the Congress has the guts, it must put it in writing that it is in favour of including the Patidars in the current quota meant for the OBCs. "This agitation is a pressure tactic. The government has to keep in mind the interests of all the communities. The Congress is playing politics. It is up to the agitators and the Congress to decide what they want to do about the fast. The BJP and the government have no role in it," he said. Patel is on an indefinite fast demanding reservations in government jobs and education for the Patidar community as well as waiver of farmers' loans. Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel, who is on an indefinite fast since 25 August, on Thursday night gave up taking water to press for the demand for reservations for his community and loan waiver for farmers. Ahmedabad: Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel, who is on an indefinite fast since 25 August, on Thursday night gave up taking water to press for the demand for reservations for his community and loan waiver for farmers. But the Gujarat government remained unmoved despite medical reports about Patel's worsening health. Patel's Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) had served the Gujarat Government a 24-hour ultimatum to initiate talks with him over their demands. The government maintained that the agitation was sponsored by the Congress. PAAS spokesman Manoj Panara said the ultimatum expired at 7 pm and the 25-year-old Patel decided to stop consuming water. Earlier too, he had given up drinking water but was persuaded by leaders of the community after seven days of his fast as his health started deteriorating. Panara said Hardik Patel, who took a stroll in a wheel-chair of the compound of his residence where he is fasting and met some of his supporters in the afternoon, would stop having even a drop of water and the state Government would be responsible for the consequences. Manoj Panara came up with an allegation, though unsubstantiated, that the PAAS had "definite information" that the state government was "conspiring to kill Hardik" as a warning to all those who dared raised their voice "against the autocratic rule of the BJP". He said the government hospital doctors, who were appointed to monitor Hardik Patel's health, had started claiming that his kidney, heart and several other organs had been "infected" but the private medical practitioners had refuted the claim. Meanwhile, a state Congress delegation called on Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and submitted a memorandum requesting him to intervene and initiate dialogue with the PAAS to break the impasse. While having an explicit understanding with MIM, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi never questioned controversial policies of BJP which critics call as divisive agenda. Telangana chief minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, more popularly known as KCR, has inflicted a surgical strike on the Opposition by dissolving the state Assembly few months ahead of schedule and declaring 105 of 119 candidates on the day of dissolution besides taking a calculated risk by announcing the names of almost all his sitting MLAs. The TRS supremo is holding his first election meeting at Husnabad on Friday and plans to tour 100 Assembly segments in 50 days to remain much ahead of his rivals in the electioneering. The speed with which KCR took key decisions that went beyond political speculation indicates that careful planning went into the whole process. The outgoing chief minister held meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ostensibly to get the state grievances addressed. However, insiders told Firstpost that, political matters were high on the agenda when the two leaders met. The central leadership of the BJP which is not averse to and in fact would love to rope in TRS to the NDA fold in case the need arises post-2019 has readily agreed to the idea of premature dissolution. Though the Centre's approval is not technically needed in regard to the constitutional scheme as far as the dissolution of state Assembly is concerned, the shrewd politician in KCR ensured that there would not be any political roadblocks in realising his strategy of early elections. Even KCR acknowledged this in his press conference immediately after dissolution. By disclosing that he himself was in touch with the chief election commissioner to ensure that elections are not delayed at any cost. KCR averred that Telangana would also go to polls along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It was a calculated electoral strategy of KCR to delink Assembly elections and Parliament elections in the state. It is ironical that TRS which is a votary of simultaneous elections decided to separate the Assembly elections with that of the Lok Sabha elections purely for political reasons. Notwithstanding the mounting criticism from the opposition for failure to give valid reasons for the dissolution of the House over eight months ahead of schedule, KCR felt that the political mood during Lok Sabha elections would be focussed on Modi versus Rest of India and such a climate, according to KCR would benefit the Congress in the state. The BJP is not a force to reckon with in the state despite being instrumental in ensuring the formation of a new state. The state has over 12 percent Muslim population. The failure of the Modi-led government in fulfilling the provisions of state reorganisation act and the promises therein is incurring the wrath of the people. The Seemandhra voters who constitute a significant chunk of Telangana electorate especially in and around Hyderabad are completely annoyed with the Modi government on the denial of special status to Andhra Pradesh where they originally hail from. KCR fears that this antipathy towards Modi may cost him if elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly are held together as Congress would be taking advantage exploiting this anti-Modi sentiment. KCR's decision to go for early polls was in the realm of speculation for quite some time now. But his decision to announce 105 candidates out of 119 on the day of dissolution has certainly surprised even his party men. This was a strategy to demoralise the opposition camp which is yet to seriously take up electioneering activity. The Congress-led opposition has to finalise political alliances and subsequent seat-sharing arrangements. The selection of candidates cannot be completed unless alliance talks come to a conclusive stage. The Congress hopes to unite as many opposition parties as possible in a bid to prevent split of the anti-TRS vote. The BJP cannot obviously be a part of any such Congress-led combine. The CPM stating its political line of not allying with Congress has floated Bahujan Left Front rallying few smaller parties and individuals on the plank of social justice. Thus, the Congress has already expressed its intentions to rope in TDP, CPI and the newly formed Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) of Kodandaram. Yet the alliance talks are at a stage of intent. Thus, by right away plunging into active campaign mode immediately after the dissolution of the house KCR has certainly taken an initial advantage, leave alone its political and electoral dividend. In a clever bid to tide over possible anti-incumbency over sitting MLAs, KCR turns the contest into a sort of referendum on his leadership. In fact, the ground reports indicate that his party outgoing MLAs do not enjoy the same popularity as KCR does. But, KCR took a calculated risk by retaining almost all of them as he thought that any large-scale changes may result in election eve dissidence. Thus, KCR is going to people seeking a personal mandate. As leader of Telangana movement that delivered a new state, KCR certainly enjoys taller political stature within the Telangana political spectra compared to any other opposition leader. KCR wishes to capitalise on this. Along with his personal charisma invested in the polls, KCR wishes to fight the opposition with Telangana sentiment. This is evident from the fact that he chose to dismiss TDP as Andhra party and any congress alliance with it is a betrayal of Telangana cause. Embracing MIM to garner Muslim votes KCR intelligently distances himself from BJP by delinking assembly and Loksabha elections. The state has not seen any major communal conflagration in the recent past. The state BJP and its Parivar never tried seriously to polarise the voters on religious grounds. The BJP not taking up even KCR's 12 percent Muslim quota in a big way is an illustration of saffron Parivar's decision to not embrace a non-Congress regional party too much when BJP has no political stakes in the state. As a result, KCR has audaciously announced MIM as a friendly party. But calling TRS a secular party, KCR says his party, therefore cannot have any truck with the saffron party. However, he fails to explain how bonhomie with MIM will fit into his secular politics. In fact, while having an explicit understanding with MIM, the TRS never questioned controversial policies of BJP which critics call as divisive agenda. Thus, KCR makes a strange political maths of sailing with MIM and going soft on BJP. For the first time in the past three decades of political turmoil in Kashmir, both mainstream political parties as well as the separatist groups are calling for a boycott of elections Srinagar: For the first time in the past three decades of political turmoil in Kashmir, both mainstream political parties as well as the separatist groups are calling for a boycott of elections. After the National Conference announced that it will stay away from the upcoming panchayat and urban local body elections, the Peoples Democratic Party too seems disinterested in the polls that are slated to be held at the end of this year. PDP chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said that the manner in which the Central government and the state government (presently headed by the governor) presented its argument in the apex court on 31 August hearing "smells like a conspiracy to target the identity" of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. "There is a large section of people in Jammu and Kashmir today who think that after these elections, the Government of India may do away with the Article 35-A. If that is what the majority of population is thinking, what are we fighting for? The public sentiment cant be ignored and taking eyes off the issue would be disastrous," Mehbooba said. "The decision (of the National Conference) not to contest election tells us all to stop and ponder if we are really helping ourselves by participating in these elections. What credibility would these elections have when the states oldest political party will not participate? she asked. While the separatists have been calling for the election boycott since 1990, the mainstream political parties this time have called for a boycott of the elections for the first time due to the deteriorating security situation that has resulted in a spate of killings of political workers and leaders. After the National Conference decided to boycott the polls, the decision of the PDP to boycott the upcoming polls will erode the credibility of the electoral process and further deepen the political uncertainty in the state that was brought under Governor's Rule after the fall of the PDP-BJP coalition government earlier this year. National Conference president, Farooq Abdullah said that it is not easy for any party, whose very existence depends on participation in a democratic process, to call for a boycott, but the situation and the governments response to the pleas in apex court to the Article 35-A of the Constitution, which is facing a legal challenge, has forced the core group of his party to come to the boycott decision. I am for democracy and the electoral process. We have sacrificed the lives of thousands of our party workers to uphold these values," Abdullah said, "But the Centre needs to clear its stand in court and in public when it comes to the protection of our identity. This (Article 35A) is our identity. Interestingly, the additional solicitor-general, Tushar Mehta, while seeking deferment of the hearing of the case in the court on 31 August till the Urban Local Bodies and panchayat polls have been completed, had termed the law, which allows only state subjects to buy land in the state, as gender discriminatory. Under the law, while the women state subjects of Jammu and Kashmir who get married to non-state subjects are entitled to own property in the state, their offspring cant have those rights. At least two petitioners have challenged the legislation on these grounds. Soon after taking charge, the state government headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik said that it would hold the four-phased municipal polls from 1 to 15 October and the eight-phased panchayat elections from 8 November to 4 December. But the announcement was met with much skepticism given the situation on the ground with the Hizbul Mujahideen threatening to kill those who participate in these polls. The separatist parties have been arguing that over the years, the Government of India has used the participation of people in the election processes as a referendum in its favour at international fora. In fact when only seven percent voting was registered in by-elections to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat last year, the separatists said their stand about the election boycott was vindicated. Abdullah, the former chief minister, won in the elections. However, it is he said this time that his party wouldnt participate in the panchayat elections. "I have still not come to terms with the fact I was appointed with such a low margin. If the same happens with the upcoming polls, how can we claim that we represent democracy in Kashmir, Abdullah said. While the suspicion that the law may be modified or entirely removed was confirmed after Mehta told the Supreme Court that there was "no doubt that the provision (Article 35A) is discriminatory against women", it has pushed the mainstream political parties, who have stood for democracy and rule of law in the past three decades of turmoil, into a corner. "If the law is modified, what face will we show to people? We will be hounded out of the state and even living here will become difficult. In all these years of turmoil, we braved bullets and bombs to protect the idea of democracy. But when it comes to the question of identity, we will not allow it to be targeted, a senior National Conference leader said. The Shiv Sena sought to know why the ruling BJP, which is generally quick to label the opposition as anti-nationals if they raise its voice on issues concerning the country, was silent over Kadam's remarks. Mumbai: The Shiv Sena Friday likened Maharashtra BJP MLA Ram Kadam to Alauddin Khilji, 13th century Sultan of Delhi, for telling youngsters he would "kidnap" a girl they like, and also questioned his party's silence over his remarks. The Sena said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen on giving "justice" to Muslim women in triple talaq, the MLAs of his party in Maharashtra were creating panic among the women of the state. In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, the Sena said: "Queen Padmini committed jauhar (self-immolation) along with thousands of other Rajput women to protect their honour, prestige and religion. Their jauhar against Alauddin Khilji and his tyranny is still inspiring women in India. But it seems time has come for the women in Maharashtra to commit jauhar against the BJP's Khilji." According to the legend, queen of Mewar, Rani Padmavati, had committed jauhar along with thousands of other women in Chittorgarh to protect their honour when Alauddin Khilji attacked the fort in 1303. "BJP MLA Ram Kadam, who is the chief minister's favourite, uttered derogatory words against women that showed his arrogance. He said 'Just let me know the girl you like and I will kidnap her and hand her over to you'. What kind of hedonistic culture has landed in Maharashtra?" it asked. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party alleged that the BJP was nurturing such kind of people, who speak ill of women, farmers and wives of soldiers. "Such people have no right to take Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's name and rule the state," it added. "What kind of message is the BJP sending out to the youth in the state? Is this what the party's Hindutva and its culture is all about?... This is bound to happen if you rub dirt on yourself in the greed to win elections. What was sown in the last five years is being reaped now," the Sena said. It further said that Lord Krishna was a protector of women, but ironically the BJP MLA passed anti-women remarks on the birthday of Lord Krishna. The Sena sought to know why the ruling BJP, which is generally quick to label the opposition as anti-nationals if they raise its voice on issues concerning the country, was silent over Kadam's remarks. "On the one hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to give relief to Muslim women on triple talaq, on the other hand, a sense of fear is prevailing in the minds of women due to the BJP legislator's remarks. The only woman cabinet minister in the state government, Pankaja Munde, should speak on it," it said. It asked why Union minister Smriti Irani, who usually talks about the rights of women, was keeping mum over the issue. The editorial added that had a Congress legislator made such remarks, the BJP would have created a din and even spoken against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Kadam, while speaking at an event during dahi handi celebrations in the city had said he would "kidnap" a girl a boy likes even if she says no to the proposal. "You can meet me for any work," he is seen in the video clip, telling the crowd, mainly comprising youth. He was heard further saying that he got requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposals. "I will help, 100 percent. Come to me with your parents. What will I do if parents approve of the girl a boy has liked? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he was heard telling the crowd. Amidst the fast-paced political developments in neighbouring Telangana, TDP leaders from the state rushed to Amaravati on Thursday for confabulations with party supremo and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh): With the ruling TRS in Telangana opting for dissolution of the state Assembly, the Telugu Desam Party is expected to take a call on electoral alliances at a crucial meeting on 8 September amid indications it was not averse to a tie-up with Congress. Amidst the fast-paced political developments in neighbouring Telangana, TDP leaders from the state rushed to Amaravati on Thursday for confabulations with party supremo and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. A resolution recommending the dissolution of the Assembly before its term ended was adopted at a meeting of the state Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday afternoon, putting the state on election mode. The TDP is said to be not averse to forging an alliance with the Congress in Telangana as part of its state-specific policy and a decision on it would be taken by Naidu. During the the TDP's annual conclave Mahanadu in May, Naidu had announced his party would emerge as the decisive force in Telangana and play the kingmakers role. Naidu will have a detailed meeting with Telangana TDP leaders in Hyderabad on the 8 September. "We will decide on alliances after that," TDP general secretary E Peddi Reddy told reporters emerging from a meeting with the party supremo. He claimed the Congress was ready for an alliance with the TDP while there was also a proposal to join hands with Left parties and the Telangana Jana Samiti, floated by Professor M Kodandaram, to form a united front. "We will discuss all this in detail and take a well thought-out decision," Reddy said. In the 2014 elections, the TDP in alliance with the BJP had won 15 seats in the 119-member Telangana Assembly in 2014, but 12 of the MLAs later defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti while another joined the Congress. Its lone MP from Telangana had also joined the TRS subsequently. The TDP has snapped its ties with the BJP this year. Interestingly, the CPM is ready to sail with Jana Sena of actor Pawan Kalyan while the CPI has not made its stand clear yet. The TDP, which suffered further jolt in Telangana when it lost the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in 2015, was desperate to prove it was a force in the second Telugu state with a strong cadre base. It also is seeking to bank on the Andhra-Rayalaseema population settled in Telangana that could possibly influence the electoral fortunes in several constituencies across that state. tech2 News Staff A large iceberg in Antarctica has calved off the Larsen C ice shelf as of July last year and budged only a little from the coast until recently. In the past two months, the iceberg, known as 'A68', has taken a drastic 90-degree swing away from the Antarctic mainland and into the Southern Ocean. The A68 iceberg is the sixth-largest ever recorded, according to a NASA-ESA database, weighs an estimated trillion tonnes. Not only is this state-sized chuck of polar ice on the move it has enough momentum to stay moving for months to come, in the view of Mark Brandon, a renowned Oceanographer at the Open University. He bases this claim on temperature data from the Suomi NPP satellite. I should think we will see some interesting collisions with the ice shelf in the next few months, Brandon wrote on his website. As for what got the iceberg moving to start with, glaciologist Martin OLeary, who studies A68 as part of the MIDAS Project, thinks it could have been winds, currents or even just a natural process. It might have been shaken loose by winds or ocean currents, or it might be that the natural thinning process (from both melting and the flow of the ice) has lifted the bottom of the iceberg off the seabed, O'Leary told Earther. Looks like the berg is now a lot more free to move about, so it will probably continue to rotate, and move out to sea. While some experts, Brandon included, think a collision with the Larson ice shelf is on the cards, marine ecologists are otherwise occupied by possibilities in the newly-vacated patch of ocean. After a large chunk of ice breaks away, sunlight, plankton and fish take over and transform the ecosystem pretty quickly, marine biologist Phil Trathan explained to Live Science last year. "It will be sort of a chain reaction. As you get productivity happening then youll get more species coming in, and so there will be quite significant changes over relatively short time scales. Courtesy of an international agreement, the area will be off-limits for any commercial operations fishing included for two years at the least. In the meanwhile, you could catch up with the iceberg's latest antics here. Indo-Asian News Service Genetic factors account for about 60 percent of academic success, even after accounting for intelligence, finds a study. For many years, research has linked educational achievement to life trajectories, such as occupational status, health or happiness. But, the study explains that genes have substantial influence on academic success. The kids were highly stable throughout schooling, meaning that most students who started off well in primary school continued to do well until graduation. "Around two-thirds of individual differences in school achievement are explained by differences in children's DNA," Margherita Malanchini, a psychology postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, said. "But less is known about how these factors contribute to an individual's academic success overtime," Malanchini added. However, that does not mean 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. "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," Kaili Rimfeld, a postdoctoral researcher at the King's College London, said. For the study, published in NPJ Science of Learning, the team analysed test scores from primary through the end of compulsory education of more than 6,000 pairs of twins. Genetic factors explained about 70 percent of this stability, while the twins' shared environment contributed to about 25 percent, and their non-shared environment such as different friends or teachers contributed to the remaining 5 percent. 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 non-shared environmental factors. tech2 News Staff One of the most enigmatic features of our solar system are the curly, long stretches of flat clouds above the moon's surface called lunar swirls. After nearly six decades of investigation, lunar scientists from University of California Berkeley and Rutgers University may have demystified the phenomenon. Lunar swirls are strange markings on the Moon made by pale clouds of moondust, as NASA describes it. These swirls resemble cream in a cup of coffee, but on a much greater scale stretching for many kilometres over the moon's surface. Part of what puzzled lunar scientists about these swirls was how perfectly flat they are, and the magnetic field around where they are located far stronger than the moon's own field in the area. The study suggests that these swirls are a product of ancient volcanic activity and the moon's magnetic field at the time. The most recognised and widely studied lunar swirl is the Reiner Gamma a 64-kilometre-long snake-like cloud (pictured), wildly popular with backyard astronomers. The researchers believe that the patterns seen in these clouds which alternate between dark and bright shades could be from solar wind particles being deflected by the magnetic field in the area. This would cause some areas on the moon to weather more slowly than others, the study notes. NASA, too, has reported in the past that lunar swirls were almost always found in regions with a powerful magnetic field. "The cause of those magnetic fields, and thus of the swirls themselves, had long been a mystery," Sonia Tikoo, coauthor of the study recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, said to Rutgers University Press. "To solve it, we had to find out what kind of geological feature could produce these magnetic fields and why their magnetism is so powerful." The team developed a mathematical model for these hotspots by putting together what is already know about the geometry of the swirls with data they collected about the magnetic field that surrounds them. The findings show that swirls like the Reiner Gamma develop above patches of the moon that have a narrow, long and magnetic object buried just under the lunar surface. The researchers think these objects are likely lava tubes formed as lava flows in an eruption, or lava dikes vertical sheets of magma that settle into the crust of the moon, based on their observations. The magnetism of these volcanic rocks finds answers in a simple geochemical reaction some minerals release magnetic iron when exposed to temperatures as high as 600C in an oxygen-deprived environment, the study explains. If a magnetic field is present during this reaction, the metallic iron aligns itself along the same direction, making the magnetism stronger in just that location. But iron getting magnetised doesn't just need an oxygen-free environment, it needs a global magnetic field. The Apollo mission brought back evidence to show that our moon did have a strong magnetic field once, which diminished over time and left the moon as weakly magnetic as we've known it for over 3 billion years now. "No one had thought about this reaction in terms of explaining these unusually strong magnetic features on the moon," Tikoo said. "This was the final piece in the puzzle of understanding the magnetism that underlies these lunar swirls." Towards that end, Tikoo is serving as a committee member on a moon mission to collect samples of the swirls and study them first-hand. The signing of Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) opens the door for a range of US defence technologies that are part of a more efficient and secure ecosystem. It is easy to overlook the importance of the military communications accord that India and the United States signed on Thursday during the inaugural 2+2 ministerial talks. It is a landmark deal, pregnant with implications. In some ways, its import mirrors the breakthrough civil-nuclear deal that both nations signed eight years ago. This move, that underwent similar birth pangs and took years in signing, reinforces the key component of bilateral ties a strategic defence partnership to balance the rise of an assertive and revisionist power in Asia. To quote Salman Rushdie (albeit in a different context), it is the whole thing, the whole ball game. From an Indian point of view, the signing of the deal shows that we may be emerging out of Cold War hangover and finally looking at the larger picture. The deal bolsters Indias defence and enhances its capacity to project power into the Indo-Pacific region, dovetailing the interests of both nations. It broad-bases the relationship into an area of particular interest for the Donald Trump administration defence trade. It is also a critical area for India as the worlds largest arms importer. These realities will help the relationship survive disruptions or mutual irritants that will inevitably arise. One such wrinkle is the threat of US sanctions on India over its close military ties with Russia and energy partnership with Iran. Media focus understandably has been on these sanctions and the likely impact on bilateral ties. What Thursdays high-level engagement told us is this: Important as these issues are, to define the gamut of the partnership through that prism would be missing the wood for the trees. The structural nature of the relationship goes deeper. En route to New Delhi via Islamabad, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo had told travelling journalists that though India buying missile defence system from Russia or oil from Iran will be part of the conversation, the 2+2 dialogue will be about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years. It is evident that the summit participants had done their homework. But what exactly does this military communications pact help India? The signing of this foundational agreement provides a legal framework for the US to transfer high-end defence equipment to India that features encrypted communications network and enables optimal use of existing US platforms. Encryption is the first and most important line of defence in military equipment. In absence of such a pact, US had held back several key components from the equipment they sold to India in the past. These were most prominent, as Shiv Aroor points out Livefist, in the three large military aircraft purchases that India has made in the last decade: Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules special mission transports, Boeing P-8I long range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine jets and C-17 Globemaster III heavy transport aircraft. India had no access to, for instance, encrypted radio network, secure voice module that ensures interoperability between military aircraft and other vehicles or a family of radios for military aircraft that provides two-way voice and data communications across modes. Since India was denied these high-end gears, we had to fill the gap with indigenous technology that very often fell short of the mark and hampered the effectiveness of these advanced systems. The signing of Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) opens the door for a range of US defence technologies that are part of a more efficient and secure ecosystem. News agency Reuters quoted Joseph Felter, US deputy assistant secretary of defence for South and Southeast Asia, as saying: It (COMCASA) not only allows us to be more interoperable with India, but it allows India to be more interoperable across its own systems. He indicated that some Indian weapon systems would see an immediate increase in capabilities, including the C-130 and C-17 aircraft, according to the report. In other words, a key Indian lacuna in modernisation and technological advancement of its military equipment has now been at least theoretically addressed. This has major implications, as Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies senior fellow Abhijit Iyer-Mitra points out in Economic Times. Right now, even Indias Western sourced equipment dont talk to each other. So, Indias Israeli airborne radars dont talk to its US maritime surveillance aircraft, which, in turn, dont talk to its French-supplied submarines This (COMCASA) not only improves Indias ability to fight alongside the US Navy better, but also alongside several other global navies with similar equipment that are major players in the Indo-Pacific, such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore. To quote Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her comments post the dialogue: The signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 and the Helicopter Operations from Ships Other Than Aircraft Carriers (HOSTAC) earlier this year were important steps in this direction. The signing of the COMCASA today will enable India to access advanced technologies from the US and enhance India's defence preparedness. What exactly do we mean by defence preparedness? The jargon associated with the deal might take away from its significance. COMCASA allows us to utilise US communications core that is among the best in the world. During Doklam standoff, for instance, India benefitted from US intelligence on the placement of Chinese troops on the plateau in the high Himalayas. However, in absence of a foundational agreement on sharing of sensitive intelligence such as the COMCASA, US inputs were subject to a time-lag. It wasnt real-time, that can often make all the difference. The Dokalam face off was the turning point for the Indian position on the Comcasa when it realised the benefit of US intelligence on Chinese troop deployments in calibrating its approach. This sort of intelligence was not available with India, writes Pranab Dhal Samanta in Economic Times. Given Chinese capabilities in this area, access to US data will make qualitatively significant impact on Indian military planning against China, he writes. A legitimate question may arise on Indias apprehension that this agreement harms Indias strategic autonomy by making its own communication network vulnerable to US spying. Some critics are concerned that the US will retain control over its equipment sold to India under this pact and may manipulate decision-making. These concerns are not unwarranted, but they undermine the fact that no Indian government would walk into a deal with its eyes closed, given Indias post-colonial experience. According to a report in The Hindu, the 10-year deal features specific India-related adjustments to secure our national interests. While the text of COMCASA is confidential, we have ensured that we have full access to the relevant equipment and there will be no disruptions. Data acquired through such systems cannot be disclosed or transferred to any person or entity without Indias consent, the report quotes an official as saying. Whether or not this deal pushed India into an "Asian NATO" also involving Japan and Australia is a peripheral talk point. The real issue is a stark reality. We may beat around the bush and try to manage our risks (mostly by bending backwards) with China but as long as India does not address own capacity constraints, the balance of power will shift increasingly away. This foundational deal may work as an enabler to address that critical lacuna. The PTI-led government had nominated Dr Atif Mian to be part of the 18-member EAC, to inform, optimise and synergise the formulation and implementation of its economic and financial policies. Princeton University economist and a member of the minority Ahmadi community Atif Mian resigned from Pakistan's newly-constituted Economic Advisory Council (EAC) on Friday, after the Imran Khan government requested him to step down. Senator Faisal Javed Khan tweeted that a replacement for Mian will be announced in the coming days. Atif Mian was asked to step down from the Advisory Council and he has agreed. A replacement would be announced later. Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) September 7, 2018 Taking to Twitter, Mian said that he resigned from the EAC since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf government was "facing a lot of adverse pressure regarding my appointment from the Mullahs (Muslim clerics) and their supporters." 2/ Nevertheless, I will always be ready to serve Pakistan as it is the country in which I was raised and which I love a great deal. Serving my country is an inherent part of my faith and will always be my heartfelt desire. Atif Mian (@AtifRMian) September 7, 2018 4/ My prayers will always be with Pakistan and I will always be ready to help it in any way that is required. Atif Mian (@AtifRMian) September 7, 2018 Ahmadis are designated non-Muslims in Pakistan's Constitution and their beliefs are considered blasphemous in most mainstream Islamic schools of thought. They are often targeted by the extremists and their places of worship vandalised. Mian, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated Pakistani-American economics professor, was recently named member of the 18-member EAC to advise the government on economic policy. He is the only Pakistani to be considered among International Monetary Fund's list of 'Top 25 brightest young economists'. Early on Friday, Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhary announced the Pakistan government's decision to withdraw Mian's nomination. "The government wants to move forward alongside scholars and all social groups, and it is inappropriate if a single nomination creates a contrary impression," he tweeted. Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 7, 2018 Chaudhary went on to say that the ideal state, according to Prime Minister Imran Khan, is of Madina, whereas the premier and his cabinet members love the Prophet Muhammad dearly. "Khatm-i-Nabuwwat is a part of our faith and the recent success achieved by the government over the matter of blasphemous sketches also expresses the same sentiment," he wrote. Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 7, 2018 The move comes days after the PTI defended Mian's nomination, saying that it will not bow to extremists. "Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority," Chaudhary was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper, amidst a vicious online campaign targeting Mian for his Ahmadiyya faith. The PTI has received heavy backlash on Twitter for succumbing to mounting pressure from politicians and the religious right: This principled statement of support will forever remain a slap in the face of Imran Khan the coward, who first carried out a dishonest khatm e nabuat campaign against the PMLN, and has now fired Atif Mian because he is Ahmadi. https://t.co/hZoTH3qKNZ Gul Bukhari (@GulBukhari) September 7, 2018 We strongly opposed Nawaz-Govt to take resignation from Zahid Hamid on the same issue based upon bigotry & hooliganism. PTI & allies were on the wrong side of history then! Strongly oppose asking Atif Mian to step down. PTI & allies once again on the wrong side of history now! Gharidah Farooqi (@GFarooqi) September 7, 2018 It's a blow, I won't lie. It also hurts. But we have seen this before, and I have full faith that tomorrow will be better. Although I'll have to find a career other than the public service but i'm sure there are better ways to serve the public. #AtifMian Hussain Nadim (@HNadim87) September 7, 2018 Is there no resistance that can save Pakistan from bigots & hate-mongers? Are we doomed to watch Aamir Liaquats, Orya Maqbools, Khadim Rizvis and Ehsanullah Ehsaans become the face of our country? How do people like Malala & Atif Mian survive? Where do they go? Mahwash Ajaz (@mahwashajaz_) September 7, 2018 I, as a human being, as a Muslim, as a Pakistani, & as a PTI supporter, am deeply disappointed & saddened at the decision of PM Khan's govt to remove Atif Mian's name from the Economic Advisory Council. This is not the Islam of Mohammad (PBUH). This is not the Pakistan of Jinnah Mehr Tarar (@MehrTarar) September 7, 2018 "Atif Mian asked to step down." Unfortunately the naya Pakistan govt didn't have the guts to see this through. Quaid e Azam did when he appointed Chaudhry Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Pakistan There are some things purana Pakistan did better. pic.twitter.com/nhCyA54l8L Fifi Haroon (@fifiharoon) September 7, 2018 Mian was roped in to be part of the EAC by Prime Minister Imran Khan, to provide the best possible professional advice to his cash-strapped government on prudent economic policies. Out of the EAC's 18 members, seven belong to government and 11 are from the private sector. The council is expected to play a pivotal role in strengthening the government's capacity to design and introduce sound and effective policies for rapid and continued social and economic advancement, human resource development, improvement of business processes, and strengthening of data services. Khan asked the council to give its recommendations in two weeks for possible steps to be taken for the expedient return of unlawfully acquired assets from abroad. With inputs from PTI Former President Barack Obama is stepping into the midterm battle. Obama is set to speak Friday as he accepts an ethics in government award in Illinois. Washington: Former President Barack Obama is stepping into the midterm battle. Obama said Friday his successor, US president Donald Trump, is "the symptom, not the cause" of division and polarization in the U.S. Trump, the former president said, is "just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years." His comments came during a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he accepted an ethics in government award. The remarks served as Obama's first steps into the political fray ahead of the fall campaign. While he has endorsed candidates and appeared at fundraising events, he has spent much of his post-presidency on the political sidelines. In unusually direct terms, he made clear his concerns about politics in the Trump era and implored voters especially young people to show up at the polls in the November midterm elections. "Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different," Obama said. "The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire." He later added: "This is not normal." The speech was a preview of the argument that Obama is likely to make throughout the fall. On Saturday, the former president will stump for House Democratic candidates from California at an event in Orange County, a conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several congressional seats. Next week, Obama plans to campaign in Ohio for Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ohio Democrats. Obama's campaign activity will continue through October and will include fundraising appearances, according to an Obama adviser. The adviser was not authorized to discuss Obama's thinking publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. While the former president will be visible throughout the general election, the adviser said that Obama will not be a daily presence on the campaign trail. After the speech, Obama will travel to California and campaign for more than a half-dozen House Democratic candidates at an event in Orange County. Next week, he'll return to the campaign trail in Ohio to campaign for Richard Cordray and other Democrats. By Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's front-running far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is in serious but stable condition in hospital following 'successful' surgery after he was stabbed while campaigning on Thursday, his running mate said. Flavio Bolsonaro, the candidate's son, wrote on Twitter that his father had been wounded in the liver, lung and intestine By Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's front-running far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is in serious but stable condition in hospital following "successful" surgery after he was stabbed while campaigning on Thursday, his running mate said. Flavio Bolsonaro, the candidate's son, wrote on Twitter that his father had been wounded in the liver, lung and intestine. "He lost a lot of blood, arrived at the hospital ... almost dead. He appears to have stabilized now," he said. General Antonio Hamilton Mourao, Bolsonaro's running mate, told Reuters by telephone that the candidate's condition was stable but still worrying. "He underwent surgery, which was successful and he is doing OK," Mourao said. "But his state remains delicate." A hospital spokeswoman in the city of Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais state, where the attack took place, confirmed to Reuters that Bolsonaro had been undergoing surgery but provided no details on his state nor his wounds. The attack on Bolsonaro is a dramatic twist in what is already Brazil's most unpredictable election since the country's return to democracy three decades ago. Corruption investigations have jailed scores of powerful businessmen and politicians, and alienated infuriated voters. Violence in Brazil is rampant - the country has more homicides than any other, according to the United Nations - and political violence is common at the local level. For instance, in the months before 2016 city council elections in Baixada Fluminense, a hardscrabble region the size of Denmark that surrounds Rio de Janeiro, at least 13 politicians or candidates were murdered before ballots were cast. Earlier this year, Marielle Franco, a Rio city councilwoman who was an outspoken critic of police violence against slum residents, was assassinated. But violence against national political figures, even in the extremely heated political climate that has engulfed Brazil in recent years, is rare. SUSPECT CAUGHT The Federal Police said in a statement that it had officers escorting Bolsonaro at the time of the knife attack and the "aggressor" was caught in the act. It said the circumstances were being investigated. Local police in Juiz de Fora confirmed to Reuters that a suspect was in custody, but they did not identify him. "We do not know if it was politically motivated," Corporal Vitor Albuquerque, a spokesman for the local police, said by telephone. TV images show Bolsonaro being carried on someone's shoulders in the middle of a crushing crowd of cheering supporters on one of the city's main streets when a knife was seen raised above heads just before it plunged into the candidate's body. The pictures show Bolsonaro appearing to scream in pain, then falling backward into the arms of those around him. It took a few moments for the crowd to realise what occurred, but they quickly rushed the candidate out of the street. Bolsonaro, who has spent nearly three decades in Congress, is a law-and-order candidate who routinely says that Brazilian police should kill suspected drug traffickers and other criminals at will. He has openly praised Brazil's military dictatorship and in the past said it should have killed more people. Bolsonaro faces trial before the Supreme Court for speech that prosecutors said incited hate and rape. He has called the charges politically motivated. Fernando Haddad, who will likely be the leftist Workers Party presidential candidate, said the stabbing was a "shame" and a "horror." President Michel Temer and Bolsonaro's electoral rivals Ciro Gomes, Marina Silva, and Geraldo Alckmin all expressed outrage at the attack. Brazil's stocks and currency extended gains after the stabbing as traders bet the incident could boost support for Bolsonaro, who has tapped a University of Chicago-trained banker as his main economic adviser. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Ricardo Brito and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo; Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Carolina Mandl in Sao Paulo and Bruno Federowski in Brasilia; Writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Grant McCool and Rosalba O'Brien) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Beijing: A wary China on Friday welcomed the first 2-plus-2 Dialogue between India and the US but declined to comment on the landmark security pact under which Indian military will have access to critical and encrypted American defence technologies. The 'Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA)' was signed on Thursday after the first 2-plus-2 talks External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis. The COMCASA will allow India to receive high-end military communications equipment from the US and will also help get real-time encrypted information from the US. Asked about China's reaction on the Indo-US talks and COMCASA agreement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "As to the 2-plus-2 consultations between India and US we have seen the report...We are happy to see the normal bilateral relations between the two sides and we also hope that in this process they will do more to promote regional peace and stability." She, however, did not respond to the question on the COMCASA. On the India-US call for maritime freedom in the Indo-Pacific region Hua said, "About the security navigation in the sea, we uphold the legal rights entitled in the international law and we also hope parties can do real things to ensure freedom of navigation." Referring to maritime cooperation during the first edition of the 2-plus-2 talks, India and the US expressed commitment to work together and in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. The two sides also discussed cross-border terrorism, India's bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the contentious H1B visa issue, and ways to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A British Royal Navy warship that sailed close to islands in the South China Sea claimed by China risked hampering any talks about a free trade agreement after Britain leaves the European Union, a major Chinese state-run newspaper said on Friday. SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A British Royal Navy warship that sailed close to islands in the South China Sea claimed by China risked hampering any talks about a free trade agreement after Britain leaves the European Union, a major Chinese state-run newspaper said on Friday. China and Britain agreed last month to look at the possibility of reaching a "top notch" post-Brexit free trade deal which, if struck, would be an important political win for Britain's Conservative government. "China and the UK had agreed to actively explore the possibility of discussing a free trade agreement after Brexit. Any act that harms China's core interests will only put a spanner in the works," the state-run China Daily newspaper said in an English-language editorial. Britain has long courted China for a post-Brexit trade deal and talked up a "golden era" in ties, although any talks could not begin until Britain officially leaves the European Union and typically take many years to conclude. The HMS Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship, sailed near the Paracel Islands claimed by China last month, Reuters reported on Thursday, prompting an angry reaction from China which called it a "provocation". The Paracels are occupied entirely by China but also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. China's claims in the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Britain does not have any territorial claims in the area. The China Daily said Britain was trying to "curry favour" with the United States, which has been pushing for more international participation in Freedom of Navigation Operations in the strategic waterways. "Now that it is eyeing the U.S. as an economic lifeline after it exits the European Union - the United Kingdom is no doubt eager to seize whatever opportunity it can to get into Washington's good books," the paper said. (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Paul Tait) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. For over 50 years, Nick Uts defining images have captured watershed moments in the Vietnam War as well as the celebrity culture in Hollywood making him one of modern day photography greats. His open smile and signature silvery mane are the first things one notices as Nick Ut welcomes you with a childlike enthusiasm with no baggage of being one of the most feted photographers in the world. For over 50 years, Uts defining images have captured watershed moments in the Vietnam War as well as the celebrity culture in Hollywood making him one of modern day photography greats. It was his powerful image of the then 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc, fleeing from a napalm attack that became a turning point in the Vietnam War and is widely considered to be one of the defining images of war photography in modern history. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, at the sidelines of Indian Photography Festival (IPF) in Hyderabad, Ut recalls his initiation into the world of photography. I was the 11th child of 12 children in a big family in Vietnam and really looked up to my brother Huynh Thanh My, who was a photographer with AP (Associated Press). After he was killed on an assignment, I went to the office and asked for a job but was turned away because they thought at 15, I looked too much like a baby! I went back after a year and my boss (the late Horst Faas) gave me a job on one condition I wasnt allowed to go to the war-prone areas. The Napalm Girl picture Ut says that dictum was issued because AP was nervous about the Huynh family losing another member in the crossfire of the war. But eventually, the war came to him in 1968. I spent a couple of years working in the darkroom and learning the basics of the camera with which I wasnt familiar with. I toured the nearby places and remember clicking a lot of pictures. I started traveling and covered Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. I would travel by motorcycle and go on assignments every day. I did this until the fall of Saigon," he says. Ut clearly remembers the events leading up to his capturing the image of the Napalm Girl which catapulted him to international fame. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese had locked the highway for a couple of days and I went very early in the morning to the sounds of bombs all around me. There was a lot of media personnel and I heard the noise of an aeroplane, the second one poured napalm which resulted in chaos. It was then that Ut saw the children running and trained his long lens on the scene unfolding in front of his eyes, I saw an elderly lady with a baby run and in the corner of my lens, a young girl, naked, and crying. I shot the picture while running towards her and thought she would die. The Pulitzer Prize winner wrapped the young girl (Phan Thi Kim Phuc, now a grandmother based in Canada, with whom Ut is still in touch) in a raincoat and took her to the hospital. He returned to Saigon and realised that he had taken eight rolls of images. My editor liked the pictures and asked us to immediately send them to America. Back then, it had to go through Tokyo and took some time. In the next couple of days, the picture was all over US newspapers. People began calling me every day for interviews. It changed everything overnight. 50 years after the image was taken, Ut is still remembered for it and has recounted the story many times, even for celebrities like Warren Beatty and Joan Collins. Ut says that image became iconic because when children become casualties of a war they strike a powerful chord. When the body of the three-year-old Syrian Boy, Alan Kurdi, was found in Turkey, that powerful image made us question the whole idea of immigration. Children are often the worst casualties of war and when they are attacked, it sends out a powerful message. Winning the Pulitzer Prize at 21 (one of the youngest winners) changed his life and Ut soon relocated to the United States where he added to his stock of iconic images. I was having breakfast with my boss who said I might win. I was so young, I had no clue about the prize. I won a lot of awards for that image. Move to Hollywood Ut started taking images of Hollywood stars once moved to the US. His many candid shots Michael Jackson dancing on an SUV after being acquitted of child molestation, capturing actor Robert Blake when he was announced not guilty of killing his wife and perhaps his most famous one, of Paris Hilton tearing up in the back of her car after being sentenced to Jail ensured that the 67-year old photographer remained in the limelight. Reminiscing about the Paris Hilton picture which coincidentally was taken on the 35th anniversary of the day he took the "Napalm Girl" picture, Ut says that it was a lucky happenstance. I rushed to the spot as my company wanted a picture of Paris walking to the country jail. I clicked pictures of her parents and suddenly she broke down which was captured on my lens. Every media outlet in the US carried that picture. The photographer excitedly shows us his Instagram account including a picture of him with the late John Mc Cain. Sharing stories of the various images he clicked on his travels to India (he has just visited Kerala), he is all praises for millennials hooked to photography. I started with the Nikon M and the Leica M2. Then moved to M2, M3, and two Nikon Fs, I love using longs lens. I was always the short guy with the big camera. Now, you see teenagers learning on their phones before buying professional models. Its a healthy trend. He laughs as he recalls his recent trip to Kerala where everyone wanted to capture him with actor Mohanlal and shows pictures he clicked in the markets at the crack of dawn, There were a hundred photographers waiting to click me. I met some popular actors and tried to catch the local life. I took a lot of pictures there. For someone who spent more than half a century as a renowned photographer, Ut humbly says that he considers himself very lucky. I dont want to shoot forever. I shoot every day but now, I want to make way for younger photographers." WHY DONT YOU READ THESE? Imran Khan's speech at an event to mark Pakistan's Defence Day was remarkable for what it largely steered clear of rhetoric against New Delhi. A substantial portion of Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's speech at the country's Defence Day event on Thursday was aimed at India, and it was little surprise that it caught the attention of the media on this side of the border. On the other hand, Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech at the same event was remarkable for what it largely steered clear of rhetoric against New Delhi. The only time that Khan referred to India whether directly or indirectly was when he narrated his memories of the 1965 war, when he was twelve years old. This was to be expected, since the Defence Day commemorates the Battle of Chawinda during the 1965 war. However, barring this, Khan's speech was largely focused inwards; and when he did take a stand that was critical of a foreign country, it was with respect to the United States, not India. Shortly into his address, Khan received a huge applause when he said, "It is my promise to you that Pakistan will not get into anyone else's war." He further said, "Our duty is to stand up for own people, and our foreign policy will also be aimed at the betterment of the people of Pakistan." Through this, Khan took an unambiguous swipe at the United States, a country which he has repeatedly accused of having 'imposed' its war against terrorism on Pakistan. He had taken a similar stand in his victory speech after his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won the most seats in the recently concluded election to the country's National Assembly. He had said, "With the US, we want to have a mutually beneficial relationship...up until now, that has been one way, the US thinks it gives us aid to fight their war...we want both countries to benefit, we want a balanced relationship." The PTI chief has pulled no punches in attacking the US over involving Pakistan in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan in the past. The following tweet amply indicates his position on the issue: And now Pakistan being blamed for US failures in Afghanistan by an ignorant and ungrateful Donald Trump. https://t.co/Y4oh6OgnxC Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 3, 2018 These statements were made after US president Donald Trump made scathing remarks against Pakistan on New Year's Day, accused it of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists in return for $33 billion aid over the last 15 years, thinking of American leaders as "fools". Khan's statements on Thursday at the Defence Day event constituted an extension of the same stance. Most of his speech emphasised on improving the human development situation of Pakistan, including health, agriculture and access to justice. He said, "I want a country where people who send their children to government schools believe that these children will grow up to be doctors, engineers, or army generals. When labourers believe that their rights are not being granted, they should be able to approach courts to access justice." Khan also observed that 33 percent of children in Pakistan suffer from stunted growth, and said, "We should consider them to be our children." In sum, as mentioned before, the Pakistan prime minister's only statements about India were about a war which took place over fifty years, ago. On the other hand, army chief Bajwa spoke about the present-day situation. Observing that enlightened nations do not forget their martyrs, he asserted, "We will avenge the blood which has been shed on the border." This was not the only time in Bajwa's speech when he made an indirect reference to India. He further said, "I salute the brothers and sisters of Kashmir, who have shown the spirit of bravery and sacrifice." Bajwa also made references to human development challenges by terming them as 'another war' that the country is fighting, but these references were brief ones. While it is true that Khan largely desisted from attacking India, what may worry New Delhi is his zealous attempt to reach out to the military establishment, which is widely believed to call the shots in the country. The prime minister heaped lavish praise on the armed forces, while making veiled criticism of other authorities. He said, "I have come to the conclusion that if there is one institution which is intact and is functioning, it is the armed forces. There is no political interference, and there is a culture of professionalism." He even made a specific reference to the country's bureaucracy, saying that during the 1960s, it was considered as one of the best civil services in Asia, as it was then a professional one. While he did not make a comment on the present-day bureaucracy, he seemed to imply that the situation is not the same today. "When there is political interference by politicians like us, and when the institutions are destroyed that is when a country is destroyed," he said. Towards the end of his speech, Khan also denied that there is any conflict in civil-military relations in the country, saying that it was a 'myth' being spread by some people. "Both (military and political leadership) have the common goal of uplifting the people of Pakistan," he asserted. His statement is particularly significant considering that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had fallen out of favour with the 'establishment,' and is now in prison. Sharif's party, the PML-N, had based its campaign on the slogan 'vote ko izzat do' (respect the vote), indicating that the political class was being undermined. In an audio message from jail released before the polls, Sharif had hinted at army interference in the political process, saying, "I am seeing that the whole country has been turned into a jail. We have to break these shackles and get out of this jail and rid the 70-year-old game that has turned the prime minister of Pakistan into a tamasha." He had further said, "In the past a dictator (Pervez Musharraf) couldn't end our relationship and neither will they be able to break our relationship today." In this backdrop, while Imran Khan's omission of references to present-day tensions with India offer some encouragement, the Pakistan prime minister's speech also makes it clear that he has no intention of rubbing the armed forces the wrong way. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dong Changzheng, vice general manager of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., recently revealed that Toyota is cooperating with China's largest privately-owned automaker Geely to popularize hybrid power technology, through Corun, Toyota's largest Chinese core parts supplier of hybrid power. At the eve of the 2018 Chengdu Motor Show on Aug. 30, An Conghui, president of Geely Holding Group, and president and CEO of Geely Auto Group also confirmed that Geely and Toyota are working on the cooperation. However, the detailed information will be announced later. Currently, both parties have reached an agreement that Geely's models will come fitted with Toyota's hybrid power technology. Via sharing and collaboration, the cooperation will benefit for both Toyota and Geely. On one hand, Toyota can enjoy lower application cost of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) in China, on the other hand, Geely will set a good example that helps attract more automakers to use hybrid power technology. Noticeably, this is first time for Toyota to share its advanced hybrid power technology with its Chinese peer, and also the first time Toyota deeply cooperates with China's domestic automaker. On June 27, Foshan plant of CHS project, which was jointly invested by Corun, Geely, Changan and Yunnei Power, officially put into operation. With an investment of around RMB 10 billion, the Foshan plant is planned to have an annual production capacity of 1 million units or sets. Having invested RMB 4.65 billion, the production capacity of the plant's early stage will reach 100,000 units or sets. Iran will handover the strategic Chabahar port to Indian company within a month for operation as per an interim pact, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said New Delhi: Iran will handover the strategic Chabahar port to Indian company within a month for operation as per an interim pact, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said Thursday. Akhoundi is in India to participate in the Mobility Summit by Niti Aaayog on the invitation of India government. "Now, we are ready just to handover the port (Chabahar) to the Indian company just to operate this in interim agreement that already we had with Indian part for one and a half year," Akhoundi told PTI here. The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar. Akhoundi after a meeting with his Indian counerpart Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said: "We have already moved one step forward...We should introduce a banking channel to India, which we already did it and fortunately has been formally accepted by the Indian side". He said the India has also introduced a banking channel, which has been approved by Iran's Central Bank. "Indian side had investment in Chabahar port and we are moving towards utilisation of the Chabahar port," Akhoundi said, adding that the handing over of the port should be done "during one month. We have done everything". The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. "The routes of the region should be connected on land, sea and air," Rouhani had said at the inauguration ceremony. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease. On US sanctions impacting oil trade, the visiting minister hoped to find a way out to continue selling crude oil to India. "Of course, it will impact the trade between the two countries," Akhoundi said, adding the sanctions would not halt oil sale to India. "At the end of the day, both sides will find out some way out to carry on their relationship as we hear from the Indian part that they are already committed to buy the crude oil and we are also committed to continue our trade relationship with India and buy rice and other food material and also industrial material from the Indian side". Iran is India's third biggest supplier of crude oil but US sanctions will from November 3 block payment gateways. "There has been some impact... I will just not say something that is not realistic ...Certainly US has made the trade between the two sides uneasy but I would like to emphasise that this is not something that US can halt and stop this relationship between two sides," Akhoundi added. He said Iran welcomes Indian firms developing the giant Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf nation. "Indian side is very keen to invest there. We are still to receive the project proposal," he said. On his meeting with Gadkari, the Iranian Minister said: "We reviewed the formal statement which was released by Prime Minister Modi during visit of Mr Ruhani to India. That statement is very very strong which shows that ... we have very deep relationship". He said the thing that was emphasised in the meeting was that India is very committed to all the agreements that India has signed. By Joseph Nasr BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) of using violent protests over a fatal stabbing blamed on migrants to stir up ethnic tension. Far-right groups clashed with police and chased people they deemed to be migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Aug. 26 after police said a Syrian and an Iraqi had been detained as suspects in the killing of a 35-year-old German man. By Joseph Nasr BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) of using violent protests over a fatal stabbing blamed on migrants to stir up ethnic tension. Far-right groups clashed with police and chased people they deemed to be migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Aug. 26 after police said a Syrian and an Iraqi had been detained as suspects in the killing of a 35-year-old German man. AfD leader Alexander Gauland had earlier this week urged a "peaceful revolution" against Merkel's liberal immigration policy and said this required banishing politicians and members of the media who support the "Merkel system". Asked about the role of the AfD in the events in Chemnitz, Merkel told the RTL broadcaster: "The AfD is stirring up the mood and this has to be said clearly. I view some of their remarks very critically." The protests in Chemnitz have set off a debate about whether politicians are being too complacent in the face of rising xenophobia in a country where many had thought the lessons of Germany's Nazi history had been learned. The protests, during which some members of an 800-strong crowd performed the illegal Hitler salute, laid bare the divisions in Germany over Merkel's decision in 2015 to take in around one million, mostly Muslim asylum seekers. A survey of 1,002 voters for broadcaster ARD, conducted on Monday and Tuesday and published on Thursday, showed just 27 percent believed the integration of refugees into society had been successful, with 69 percent believing it had gone badly. Some in Germany blame Merkel's liberal immigration policy for the rise of the AfD, which entered parliament for the first time in an election last year as the third-largest party. After the violence in Chemnitz, German politicians urged intelligence agencies to start monitoring the far-right party, some of whose members marched with supporters of the anti-Islam PEGIDA group in the city last weekend to protest the stabbing. 'NOT NAZIS' Merkel repeated her position in the RTL interview that only intelligence chiefs can decide whether to monitor the party. "We first want to deal with the AfD politically," Merkel said. The state intelligence agency in Thuringia on Thursday said it would examine whether the AfD's state chapter was pursuing anti-constitutional goals, a possible step towards putting the group under official surveillance. Merkel's immigration policy has also caused a rift within her conservative bloc, which includes her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Christian Social Union (CSU) Bavarian allies, that almost toppled her coalition government in June. Interior Minister and CSU leader Horst Seehofer had threatened to pull out of the coalition government over immigration. In an interview with the Rheinische Post published on Thursday, Seehofer said: "People are annoyed and outraged because of such homicides and I understand that. "If I had not been a minister, I would have taken to the streets as a citizen, but of course not with the radicals." He added: "I understand it when people protest, but this doesn't make them Nazis." Seehofer has taken an increasingly hardline stance on immigration as his party tries to fight off a strong challenge from the AfD in October's regional election in Bavaria. Seehofer was rebuked by politicians and Germans on social media for telling CSU members in the eastern state of Brandenburg on Wednesday: "Migration is the mother of all problems." Asked what she thought about Seehofer's remark, Merkel said: "I say it differently. Migration presents us with challenges and here we have problems but also successes." (Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke, Hans-Edzard Busemann and Paul Carrel; Editing by Michelle Martin and Janet Lawrence) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By John Whitesides (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama assailed President Donald Trump and Republicans on Friday, urging Democrats to deliver a vital check on their 'abuses of power' and restore a sense of sanity to politics by voting in November's elections By John Whitesides (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama assailed President Donald Trump and Republicans on Friday, urging Democrats to deliver a vital check on their "abuses of power" and restore a sense of sanity to politics by voting in November's elections. In an unusually blistering attack on his successor, Obama said Americans were living in dangerous times and accused Republicans of threatening democracy, dividing the country, undermining global alliances and cozying up to Russia. "In two months we have the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics," he said in a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "There is only one check on abuses of power, and that's you and your vote." Both parties are urging their core supporters to get to the polls for the Nov. 6 midterm elections, when Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in the House of Representatives and two seats in the Senate to gain majorities in Congress and slam the brakes on Trump's agenda. Obama, who had frustrated some Democrats by keeping a relatively low profile since leaving office in January 2017, accused Republicans of being unwilling to safeguard democracy or offer a check on Trump's policies or worst instincts. He said voters would have to do it for them. "In the end, the threat to our democracy doesn't just come from Donald Trump or the current batch of Republicans in Congress," he said. "The biggest threat to our democracy is indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism." Trump was dismissive of Obama's speech. "I'm sorry, I watched it but I fell asleep," he said during a fundraiser in North Dakota. "I found that he's very, very good for sleeping." The November elections have been seen as a referendum on Trump, who has fulfilled campaign promises to cut taxes and regulations but who faces a widening special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and growing questions about his fitness for office, even by some within his administration. 'RESENTMENT AND PARANOIA' Until now, Obama had been reluctant to publicly criticise his successor, although last week he appeared to chide Trump, without naming him, in a eulogy for the late Republican Senator John McCain. But he dropped that political tradition in Illinois, the state where he launched his own political career, saying a vote against Republicans could restore "honesty and decency and lawfulness" to government. "If you thought that elections don't matter, I hope these last two years have corrected that impression," he said. "The politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party." Republicans shrugged off Obama's criticism. "In 2016, voters rejected President Obama's policies and his dismissiveness towards half the country. Doubling down on that strategy won't work in 2018 either," said Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens. If Democrats win control of one or both chambers in Congress in November, they would be able not just to stymie Trump's agenda but to launch investigations into the Trump administration. Trump told supporters in Montana on Thursday that Republicans needed to maintain control of Congress to stave off possible impeachment proceedings against him, although Democrats have played down any discussion of that approach. "If it (impeachment) does happen, it's your fault, because you didn't go out to vote. OK? You didn't go out to vote. You didn't go out to vote. That's the only way it could happen," Trump told a Montana rally. Obama will hit the campaign trail on Saturday, appearing at a campaign event in Southern California before heading to Ohio next week and to Illinois and Pennsylvania later in the month. In August, Obama endorsed 81 Democratic contenders in 14 states, emphasizing young, diverse candidates running for state-level offices in an attempt to help new party leaders establish themselves. (Reporting by John Whitesides; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Steve Holland in North Dakota; Editing by Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By John Whitesides (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama waded into the political fray on Friday, launching a blistering critique of President Donald Trump and Republicans and urging Democrats to vote in November's elections to restore 'honesty and decency and lawfulness' to government By John Whitesides (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama waded into the political fray on Friday, launching a blistering critique of President Donald Trump and Republicans and urging Democrats to vote in November's elections to restore "honesty and decency and lawfulness" to government. In a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Obama said Americans were living in "dangerous times" and accused Republicans of undermining global alliances, cozying up to Russia and exploding the federal deficit. "In two months we have the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics," Obama said. "There is only one check on abuses of power, and that's you and your vote." Both parties have encouraged their core supporters to get to the polls on Nov. 6, when Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in the House of Representatives and two seats in the Senate to gain majorities in Congress and slam the brakes on Trump's agenda. Obama, who has frustrated some Democrats by keeping a relatively low profile since leaving office in January 2017, said Republicans seemed unwilling to safeguard democracy or offer a check on Trump's policies or worst instincts. "It's not conservative, it sure isn't normal. It's radical. It's a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters even if it hurts the country," he said. The November elections have been seen as a referendum on Trump, who has fulfilled campaign promises to cut taxes and regulations but who faces a widening special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and growing questions about his fitness for office, even by some within his administration. Obama had so far been reluctant to publicly criticize his successor, although last week he appeared to chide Trump, without naming him, in a eulogy for the late Republican Senator John McCain. If Democrats won control of one or both chambers in Congress in November, they would be able not just to stymie Trump's agenda but to launch investigations into the Trump administration. Trump told supporters in Montana on Thursday that Republicans needed to maintain control of Congress to stave off possible impeachment proceedings against him. "If it does happen, it's your fault, because you didn't go out to vote. OK? You didn't go out to vote. You didn't go out to vote. That's the only way it could happen," Trump told a Montana rally. Obama will hit the campaign trail on Saturday to back Democrats in key races. He will appear at a campaign event in Southern California before heading to Ohio next week and to Illinois and Pennsylvania later in the month. In August, Obama endorsed 81 Democratic contenders in 14 states, emphasizing young, diverse candidates running for state-level offices in an attempt to help new party leaders establish themselves. (Reporting by John Whitesides; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) - Passengers and crew on two flights arriving in Philadelphia from Europe on Thursday were screened by medical teams after 12 people aboard became ill with flu-like symptoms, a day after a similar outbreak on a flight from Dubai to New York. All 250 people on separate American Airlines flights from Munich and Paris were 'held for a medical review' as a precaution, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified, Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Diane Gerace said. By Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) - Passengers and crew on two flights arriving in Philadelphia from Europe on Thursday were screened by medical teams after 12 people aboard became ill with flu-like symptoms, a day after a similar outbreak on a flight from Dubai to New York. All 250 people on separate American Airlines flights from Munich and Paris were "held for a medical review" as a precaution, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified, Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Diane Gerace said. Flight 717 from Munich and Flight 755 from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris both arrived in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, she said. The CDC worked with Philadelphia health officers, emergency responders and Customs and Border Patrol agents to evaluate the sick passengers for influenza and other respiratory illnesses, CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said. "Twelve passengers from the two flights reported sore throat and cough, none were identified with fever. None of the passengers are severely ill, and they will be released and informed of test results in 24 hours," Haynes said. The rest of the passengers from the two flights were allowed to continue on to their destination, he said, adding that the CDC would provide further information when tests results were confirmed. No one on either plane was quarantined, American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott said. She said members of the crews had not contacted medical personnel ahead of landing to alert them of sick passengers on board. On Wednesday, at least 19 people aboard an Emirates airlines double-deck Airbus 380 flight from Dubai were confirmed ill when the aircraft landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Ten of them were treated at a local hospital. A press secretary for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday that test results had confirmed influenza. "Some tests came back inconclusive on other viruses, which is common," de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips said on Twitter, adding that the tests were being re-administered. "All 10 patients will be kept in the hospital as a precaution until we know those final results," Phillips said. Separately, health officials in Houston said they were looking into a case of a person with measles possibly exposing others to the virus during a flight connection at that city's Hobby Airport on Aug. 21 and 22. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Leslie Adler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. (Reuters) - All passengers and crew from two American Airlines flights arriving at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday were held for medical review after 12 people became ill with flu-like symptoms. (Reuters) - All passengers and crew from two American Airlines flights arriving at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday were held for medical review after 12 people became ill with flu-like symptoms. A total of 250 people were undergoing medical evaluation as a precaution, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified, airport spokeswoman Diane Gerace said. Both of the flights had arrived at the Philadelphia airport on Thursday afternoon, one from Paris and the other from Munich, Gerace said. No other flights or airport operations were affected, Gerace added. No one on either plane was quarantined, American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott said. She said the crews had not contacted medical personnel ahead of landing to alert them of sick passengers on board. Representatives for the CDC could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters. The reported illnesses come a day after at least 19 people aboard an Emirates flight from Dubai to New York were confirmed ill when the aircraft landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Three passengers and seven crew members from that flight were treated at a local hospital, reportedly also suffering from flu-like symptoms. The Emirates plane, a double-deck Airbus 380, was taken to a location away from the terminal so emergency officials could evaluate the situation, according to Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Berkrot) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Aref Mohammed and Raya Jalabi BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of people returned to the streets of Iraq's southern oil city Basra for a fourth day of violent protests on Thursday, where residents, angry over the neglect of their city's collapsing infrastructure, set fire to political offices. Seven demonstrators have been killed in clashes with security forces and dozens injured since a new wave of protests began on Monday. Tens of security forces members have also been injured, some by a hand grenade, local health and security officials said By Aref Mohammed and Raya Jalabi BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of people returned to the streets of Iraq's southern oil city Basra for a fourth day of violent protests on Thursday, where residents, angry over the neglect of their city's collapsing infrastructure, set fire to political offices. Seven demonstrators have been killed in clashes with security forces and dozens injured since a new wave of protests began on Monday. Tens of security forces members have also been injured, some by a hand grenade, local health and security officials said. Protesters on Thursday targeted several provincial government buildings, setting them on fire, and blocked main roads in the city centre. They also attacked the offices of the state-run Iraqiya TV and set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Dawa Party, the Supreme Islamic Council and the Badr Organization, whose leaders are all vying to form Iraq's ruling coalition. Protesters also set fire to the offices of a powerful Shi'ite militia, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and those of the Hikma Movement about 100 km (60 miles) north of Basra, and stormed the house of the acting head of the provincial council. The provincial government headquarters was engulfed in flames, local police and military sources said. However, no protesters were near the building when the fire broke out in the afternoon, they said. Security forces, including members of the rapid response team, were expected to be patrolling in high numbers on Thursday. By nightfall, however, they were few and far between in the city centre and were not interfering heavily in protesters' activities. Officials announced a city-wide curfew would be in place after 3 p.m., but cancelled it as it was due to come into force. An Iraqi security official in Basra said they were struggling to cope with the demonstrations. "We are still waiting for orders from the state's highest authorities," he said. The port of Umm Qasr, the country's main seaport and its principle lifeline for grain and other commodity imports, closed on Thursday. Port employees said all operations had ceased after protesters began blocking the entrance, which lies about 60 km from Basra, on Wednesday night. Trucks and staff were unable to get in or out of the complex. Oil exports, handled at offshore terminals, remained untouched by the unrest. Oil exports from Basra account for more than 95 percent of Iraqi state revenues. RAGE Southern Iraq, heartland of the Shi'ite majority, first erupted in unrest in July as protesters expressed rage over collapsing infrastructure, power cuts and corruption. Residents in Basra, a city of more than 2 million people, say the water supply has become contaminated with salt, making them vulnerable and desperate in the hot summer months. A Health Ministry spokesman told a news conference in Baghdad that 6,280 people had been recently hospitalised with diarrhoea due to the oversalinated water. Public anger has grown at a time when politicians are struggling to form a government after an inconclusive parliamentary election in May. Residents of the south complain of decades of neglect in the region that produces the bulk of Iraq's oil wealth. Leading political figures, embroiled in government formation negotiations in Baghdad, have scrambled to respond to the crisis, condemning rivals for inaction. Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shi'ite cleric whose electoral bloc came first in May's election, called for an emergency televised session of parliament to discuss "radical" solutions to the crisis in Basra, a city "without water, electricity or dignity". Iraq's second biggest city, Basra is a stronghold of Sadr who has recast himself as an anti-corruption campaigner and has allied himself with incumbent Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The prime minister responded that he would be ready to attend a meeting of parliament with the ministers and officials concerned to try to find a resolution. Abadi has ordered the Interior Ministry to conduct an investigation into the protests and to instruct security forces not to use live ammunition. Parliament convened for the first time on Monday, but failed to elect a speaker as mandated, delaying its next meeting to Sept. 15. The Basra head of Iraq's Commission for Human Rights, Mahdi al-Tamimi, called for an investigation into the deaths of protesters, saying most had been shot. (Reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra and Raya Jalabi in Erbil; writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Janet Lawrence) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The HMS Albion warship of the British Royal Navy sailed near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea after which The China Daily, a state run newspaper warned Britain that such 'provocation' could risk hampering trade talks. Beijing: A British Royal Navy warship that sailed close to islands in the South China Sea claimed by China risked hampering any talks about a free trade agreement after Britain leaves the European Union, a major Chinese state-run newspaper said on Friday. China and Britain agreed last month to look at the possibility of reaching a top notch post-Brexit free trade deal which, if struck, would be an important political win for Britains Conservative government. China and the UK had agreed to actively explore the possibility of discussing a free trade agreement after Brexit. Any act that harms Chinas core interests will only put a spanner in the works, the official China Daily newspaper said in an editorial. Britain has long courted China for a post-Brexit trade deal and talked up a golden era in ties, although any formal talks could not begin until Britain officially leaves the European Union next year and typically take many years to conclude. The HMS Albion, a 22,000 ton amphibious warship, sailed near the Paracel Islands claimed by China last month, Reuters reported on Thursday, prompting an angry reaction from China which called it a provocation. The Paracels are occupied entirely by China but also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Chinas claims in the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Britain does not have any territorial claims in the area. The China Daily said Britain was trying to curry favor with the United States, which has been pushing for more international participation in freedom of navigation operations in the strategic waterway. Now that it is eyeing the U.S. as an economic lifeline after it exits the European Union - the United Kingdom is no doubt eager to seize whatever opportunity it can to get into Washingtons good books, the English-language newspaper said. Chinas Defence Ministry said in its statement responding to the Royal Navy action that, with the joint efforts of China and Southeast Asian countries, the situation in the South China Sea had stabilized. Certain countries from outside the region pay no heed to this, and send military ships and aircraft to the South China Sea to foment trouble, creating problems where none exist, threatening regional peace and stability, it said. China has repeatedly denounced what it views as interference from countries outside the region in the South China Sea, generally a message to the United States and its allies to stay out of the dispute. By Denis Pinchuk TEHRAN (Reuters) - The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia on Friday failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian government offensive in rebel-held Idlib province which the United Nations fears could cause a humanitarian catastrophe involving tens of thousands of civilians. Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan Rouhani, meeting in Tehran for a summit of key foreign players in Syria's war, agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process By Denis Pinchuk TEHRAN (Reuters) - The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia on Friday failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian government offensive in rebel-held Idlib province which the United Nations fears could cause a humanitarian catastrophe involving tens of thousands of civilians. Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan Rouhani, meeting in Tehran for a summit of key foreign players in Syria's war, agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process. But as Syrian government and Russian warplanes mounted air strikes in Idlib on Friday morning in a possible prelude to a full-scale offensive, Putin and Rouhani pushed back against Erdogan's call for a truce. The Turkish leader said he feared a massacre and Turkey could not accommodate any more refugees flooding over its border. Putin said a ceasefire would be pointless as it would not involve Islamist militant groups it deems terrorists. Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory. Idlib is the insurgents' only remaining major stronghold and a government offensive could be the war's last decisive battle. Tehran and Moscow have helped Assad turn the course of the war against an array of opponents ranging from Western-backed rebels to the Islamist militants, while Turkey is a leading opposition supporter and has troops in the country. Their discussions in Tehran mark a crucial point in a seven-year-old war which has killed more than half a million people and forced 11 million to flee their homes. Erdogan, in his opening remarks, said a ceasefire in Idlib would be a victory for their summit. Putin responded: "The fact is that there are no representatives of the armed opposition here around this table. And more still, there are no representatives of Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS or the Syrian army.". "I think in general the Turkish president is right. It would be good. But I can't speak for them, and even more so can't talk for terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS that they will stop shooting or stop using drones with bombs." Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with Putin on Friday that Iran and Russia can work together to restrain America and that Syria is a good example of how American can be restrained, according his official website. "One of the issues that the two sides can cooperate on is restraining America," Khamenei said. "Because America is a danger for humanity and there is a possibility to restrain them." "The Americans have faced a real defeat in Syria and have not reached their goals," he added. In the final statement, the three agreed on the need to eliminate Islamic State, the Nusra Front, and other groups linked to al Qaeda and designated as terrorists. But there were other armed opposition groups who could join any ceasefire agreement, they said. The communique also called on the United Nations and the international community to step up humanitarian aid to Syria and help in restoring basic infrastructure assets. Efforts must be made to protect and to create conditions for the safe return of refugees, it added. "HORRIFIC, BLOODY BATTLE" Iran's Rouhani said the battle in Syria would continue until rebels were pushed out of the whole country, especially in Idlib, but he added that any military operations should avoid hurting civilians. He called on all rebels in Syria to disarm and seek a peaceful end to the conflict. "The fight against terrorism in Idlib is an indispensable part of the mission to return peace and stability to Syria, but this fight should not harm civilians and lead to a "scorched-earth" policy," Rouhani said. Erdogan said Turkey no longer had the capacity to take in any more refugees from Syria should the government offensive in Idlib go ahead. Turkey has accepted 3.5 million refugees from Syria since the start of the war in 2011. "Whatever reason there is an attack that has been made or will be made will result in disaster, massacre and humanitarian drama," he said. "Millions will be coming to Turkey's borders because they have nowhere to go. Turkey has filled its capacity to host refugees." The Assad government was not directly represented at the summit, nor were the United States and other Western powers. The United States came in for criticism from all sides, however, highlighting to complex nature of a conflict involving a myriad of factions. Rouhani said the United States should end its presence in Syria, while Erdogan said Turkey was "extremely annoyed" by Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, whom Ankara considers as terrorists linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey. Widely abhorred internationality for the brutal conduct of the war, Assad has largely reclaimed most of Syrian territory though much of it is ravaged. Although the West has long said he must stand down or be removed, that looks unlikely at this point. Meanwhile, the fate of Idlib hung in the balance. The United Nations Security Council met to discuss Idlib on Friday at the request of the United States, and U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said there were "all the ingredients for a perfect storm". "The dangers are profound that any battle for Idlib could be, would be a horrific and bloody battle," de Mistura said. (Reporting by Reuters reporters in Tehran, Moscow, Istanbul, Geneva, Beirut and the United Nations, Writing by Angus MacSwan) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The signing of COMCASA is a landmark step in the US-India relationship as it facilitates 'interoperability' between the forces of the two countries, and potentially with other militaries as well, a top American business advocacy group said. Washington: The signing of COMCASA is a landmark step in the US-India relationship as it facilitates 'interoperability' between the forces of the two countries, and potentially with other militaries as well, a top American business advocacy group said. India and the US signed the path-breaking Communication Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) on Thursday which henceforth allows Indian defence forces to receive military-grade communications equipment from America and ensure access to real-time encrypted information. The pact, which came into effect immediately and remains valid for a period of 10 years, will ensure interoperability between the US and the Indian armed forces. "The signing of COMCASA is a landmark step in the US-India relationship as it facilitates interoperability between the Indian and US forces, and potentially with other militaries as well. The industry has pushed for COMCASA for nearly a decade, as it will also facilitate additional defense sales to India," said Mukesh Aghi, president of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF). In a statement, the USISPF also congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his commitment to the relationship. "We also applaud US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who helped make this agreement possible and who has been a relentless advocate for the bilateral relationship," he said. Both leaders understand the strategic importance of their partner country, and COMCASA is proof of their ongoing commitment to this partnership, Aghi said. The Russian leader said it was important to begin work on a political settlement in Syria 'as soon as possible' and urged Iran and Turkey to ramp up their coordination with Russia of their countries' foreign and defence ministries and security services. Tehran: Damascus has every right to take back all its territory, Russian president Vladimir Putin told a summit Friday expected to decide the fate of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib. "The legitimate Syrian government has a right and must eventually take under control all of its national territories," Putin told Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the summit. The Russian leader said it was important to begin work on a political settlement in Syria "as soon as possible" and urged Iran and Turkey to ramp up their coordination with Russia of their countries' foreign and defence ministries and security services. Putin said "terrorist elements" continued to "stage provocations" and use drones in Idlib. "We cannot ignore this," the Russian president said. "We should solve this problem together." The three leaders are expected to determine the future of Idlib amid growing fears of a humanitarian disaster. The three countries are guarantors of the so-called Astana process, a track of talks launched after Russia's game-changing 2015 military intervention which has eclipsed the Western-backed Geneva negotiations led by the United Nations. The move further escalates Turkey's role in the de facto buffer zone it has carved out in northwest Syria. It points to Ankara's growing entanglement as its forces spread across that arc, with long-term implications for their Syrian allies. Syria: Turkey is compensating the families of Syrian rebels who died fighting in support of its offensive in Syria's Afrin, promising them citizenship and a house in Turkey, a rebel commander and families said. The move further escalates Turkey's role in the de facto buffer zone it has carved out in northwest Syria. It points to Ankara's growing entanglement as its forces spread across that arc, with long-term implications for their Syrian allies. The Turkish military pushed into the northwest in two offensives. The first, "Euphrates Shield" in 2016, drove Islamic State from territory along the border. The second, "Olive Branch", wrestled the nearby Afrin region from the hands of Syrian Kurdish forces this spring. Lieutenant Abdallah Halawa, commander of the Hamza Brigade rebels, said the family of each fighter killed in Afrin was getting 60,000 Turkish Lira ($9,142.02). Relatives of 65 men from his faction have already been compensated. They will get housing and citizenship in Turkey, he told Reuters. "It does not compare to what they sacrificed but, to the best of our abilities, it's about honoring them." Injured rebels will also later receive 15,000 Turkish Lira each, and may get up to 30,000 if disabled. Turkish security sources could not immediately be reached for comment. Turkey was long a key backer of rebels who fought president Bashar al-Assad in Syria's war. Its focus shifted in recent years to mending ties with his ally Russia and curbing the power of the Kurdish YPG militia. US support for the YPG has infuriated Turkey, which sees it as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK movement that has waged a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey. Kurdish authorities in northern Syria see Turkey as an invader. Ankara has repeatedly denied their allegations of human rights violations in its Afrin operation. The United Nations has said after the offensive that more than 134,000 people remained displaced in harsh conditions in a cluster of towns nearby. Defending this land Halawa said the Afrin battle marked the first time rebels received such compensation. "We have no supporters of the Syrian revolution left except for the Turkish brothers." He said there could soon be similar plans for those who battled Islamic State nearly two years ago, seizing the wide strip between the towns of Azaz and Jarablus. Syrian rebel authorities have sought to develop an administration there, as Turkey helps with reconstruction, funds schools, and trains police. The northwest corner now remains Syria's last major rebel stronghold. Assad calls the Turkish forces illegal occupiers and has vowed to recover "every inch" of the country. Relatives of three rebels who fought in Afrin said that after they got 60,000 Turkish Lira, officials recently called them in to a border town to submit fingerprints and documents. "We were promised citizenship and a house on Turkish soil," said Maamoun Shaaban, whose 19-year-old son was killed. "The Turkish brothers have spared no effort to help us." Shaaban, 51, and three other sons have all fought across the northwest as part of the Ahrar al-Sharqia faction. He said his wife and small kids might move but he would stay in Syria if they get Turkish passports. "And if there are coming battles, we stand ready, my sons and I, even if we're all martyred for defending this land." Malak al-Sweid, 30, said she would likely move to Turkey when she becomes a citizen. She continues to receive her late husband's salary, around 500 Turkish Lira, from the Hamza Brigade. When he died in a landmine blast in Afrin, she worried about providing for their six-year-old son. For Ibrahim Jenbod, who works in construction and lost his 20-year-old son, the Turkish cash was "salvation" after the family fell into debt. "They told us the (citizenship) procedure is underway," said Jenbod, who keeps his son's military hat and boots in the living room. "It's hard going through the loss, I can't forget my boy day and night." (Reuters) - Two associates of Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump, were questioned in the past two days in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign, a lawyer and one of the men said on Friday. Jerome Corsi, a right-wing commentator who contributes to conspiracy theorist websites, was questioned by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors on Thursday but had a planned grand jury appearance for Friday put on hold, Corsi's lawyer said. (Reuters) - Two associates of Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump, were questioned in the past two days in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign, a lawyer and one of the men said on Friday. Jerome Corsi, a right-wing commentator who contributes to conspiracy theorist websites, was questioned by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors on Thursday but had a planned grand jury appearance for Friday put on hold, Corsi's lawyer said. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Corsi had been subpoenaed. [nL3N1VR555] The lawyer, David Gray, declined comment on the content of Thursday's questioning, although he said earlier this week that he and Corsi believed it would be about his communications with Stone, who in recent months has been the subject of scrutiny by Mueller's office. Gray has said Corsi and Stone communicated by phone and email between 2016 and 2018. Investigators appear focused on Stones contacts with Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, according to sources familiar with the interviews of a series of Stone's associates who have been contacted by Mueller's team. Before the election, Wikileaks published emails hacked from the Democratic Party and the personal email account of John Podesta, candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. Another Stone associate, comedian and talk show host Randy Credico, appeared as scheduled for his grand jury appearance at a federal courthouse in Washington on Friday. He brought his therapy dog with him, an accommodation approved by Mueller's team. Like Corsi, Credico was subpoenaed by the special counsel's office. Credico told Reuters before Friday's appearance that he met with representatives of Mueller's team in New York. He said he was questioned extensively but declined to elaborate. Stone, for decades a Republican political operative, was at one point in contact with Credico as a possible intermediary to Assange. Credico interviewed Assange for a radio program and visited him in 2017 in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he took refuge six years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden in a sexual molestation investigation. Muellers office is looking into whether Stone had advance knowledge of material detrimental to Clinton that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was obtained by Russia through hacking, the sources said. Russia denies U.S. allegations of meddling in the election. Stone has denied having any advance knowledge. He has said he has neither been interviewed by Mueller's team nor summoned before a grand jury. (Reporting by Chris Wattie in Washington, Mark Hosenball in London and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should suspend its military aid to Uganda over the government's human rights record, the U.S. lawyer for a prominent critic of President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should suspend its military aid to Uganda over the government's human rights record, the U.S. lawyer for a prominent critic of President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday. The call broadens criticism of the government by opposition lawmaker Robert Kyagulanyi, a musician known by his stage name Bobi Wine. Authorities charged Kyagulanyi with treason last month over the suspected stoning of Museveni's convoy. He denies the charge and says he was tortured in detention. He arrived in Washington on Saturday for medical treatment for his injuries. Kyagulanyi was elected last year and has gained popularity for his attacks on Museveni. The president has ruled since 1986 and has won a series of elections but is viewed by some as out of touch. The government in Kampala denies torturing Kyagulanyi. "We want the American tax payer to know that the American tax payer is funding this. The military equipment we are supplying to Uganda is being used in a war of terror against Uganda's citizens," lawyer Robert Amsterdam told a news conference in Washington flanked by Kyagulanyi, 36. "We call on the U.S. government to immediately suspend military funding to Uganda," he said. Kyagulanyi used crutches and showed reporters blisters on the palm of his hand he said were traces of the torture. "I must go back home. Uganda is my home," he said. "I want you (my supporters) to stand with the oppressed, not the oppressor." There was no immediate comment from U.S. authorities or from the government in Kampala. The U.S. embassy previously said it was concerned about the beating of MP's following the incident during which Kyagulanyi's driver was shot dead. Washington is a major source of funding for Uganda's military, supplying hardware, cash and training. It has given equipment, money and intelligence for the military's hunt for Lord's Resistance Army warlord Joseph Kony. Museveni also receives diplomatic support from Washington for his deployment of troops in international peacekeeping missions including the fight against militants in Somalia. Chinese offshore oil and gas company CNOOC Ltd, France's Total and London-listed Tullow Oil are among major investors present in Uganda. "International investors in Uganda have obligations," Amsterdam said. "While we are not today in any way seeking disinvestment from Uganda, what we are seeking is responsible investment in Uganda," Amsterdam said. (Reporting by Reuters TV in Washington and Elias Biyraberema in Kampala; Writing by Cecilie Kallestrup in Nairobi; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Matthew Mpoke Bigg) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Mattis, on his second visit to the country in recent months, will meet with President Ashraf Ghani and the new US commander for American and NATO forces, General Scott Miller. Kabul: US defence secretary Jim Mattis landed in Kabul on Friday for an unannounced visit to war-torn Afghanistan, adding his weight to a flurry of diplomatic efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. His trip comes a little more than a year after president Donald Trump unveiled a revamped strategy for Afghanistan that saw him commit thousands of additional US forces to the country on an open-ended basis. Mattis, on his second visit to the country in recent months, will meet with president Ashraf Ghani and the new US commander for American and NATO forces, General Scott Miller. His arrival in Kabul comes at a sensitive time in the 17-year war. The grinding conflict has seen little progress by Afghan or US forces against the Taliban, the country's largest militant group. Afghan and international players have been ratcheting up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001. An unprecedented ceasefire in June followed by talks between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July fuelled hopes that negotiations could bring an end to the fighting. But a recent spate of attacks by the Taliban and the smaller but potent Islamic State group that left hundreds of security forces and civilians dead has severely dented that optimism. A twin bomb attack on a wrestling club in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on Wednesday was just the latest in a long line of devastating assaults, killing at least 26 people and wounding 91. The attack underscored the challenges facing Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces that have been beset by corruption and low morale. Trump's strategy, announced in August 2017, increased the US troop presence in the country and now includes a renewed push to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But there are fears that Trump is growing frustrated with the pace of progress in the country, spurring US diplomats and other officials to intensify their efforts. The Taliban have long insisted on direct talks with Washington and refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, which they see as illegitimate. There is speculation that another meeting between US and Taliban representatives could be held this month. Mattis arrived in Kabul from Delhi where he and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo met with their Indian counterparts. Pompeo also visited Islamabad on Wednesday where he held talks with new premier Imran Khan and other senior officials. Pompeo said he was "hopeful" of resetting the troubled relationship with Pakistan, a key player in the Afghan conflict. Miller, who took command of US and NATO forces at a handover ceremony in Kabul on Sunday, replaces General John Nicholson, who rotated out of the role after a more than two-year deployment. Nicholson told reporters last month that the warring parties now had an "unprecedented" opportunity for peace, and insisted Trump's strategy for the country was working. But his optimism belied recent setbacks on the battlefield. The Taliban last month launched an extraordinary attack on the provincial capital of Ghazni just a two-hour drive from Kabul. Militants held large parts of the city for days and Afghan forces needed US air power to push them back. Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry said that the US should demand that the country's allies to treat their citizens equally, so everyone could realise their full potential. Washington: Several US lawmakers have urged the new government of Pakistan to treat its ethnic and religious minorities with equality and dignity. Addressing 'The Minorities Day on the Hill' organised by South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation (SAMAF) and Voice of Karachi (VOK) on Wednesday, the lawmakers urged the Imran Khan government to stop human rights violation of minorities in Karachi as well as other parts of the country, including Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In his speech as the host of the event, US congressman Thomas Garrett Jr appealed to all countries in the world to treat their minorities with respect and dignity they deserve and grant them equal rights. He said that Mohajirs (Muslims who migrated to Pakistan from India during the partition in 1947) had left their homes hoping for a better life but they were not welcomed in their new homeland. I clearly understand the plight of Mohajirs who are the product of post-independence ethnic cleansing. They were forced to leave their homes hoping they are going to somewhere they'd be welcomed, but they weren't, Garrett said. They have a story that needs to be told. I am not advocating on behalf of any group to demand a radical change in policy except that we expect our allies to treat their minorities with equality and dignity they so much deserve," he added. Congressman Scott Perry said that we in the United States see and treat all ethnic and religious minorities equally and we demand that our allies do the same. We can all live together and practice our faith in peace and harmony. This is the way it is now in America, but that should be everywhere. The lawmaker from Pennsylvania said that America should take lead on this and demand all those countries the US does business with or have relations with to treat their citizens equally, so everyone could realise their full potential. In his speech, Virginia Congressman Rob Wittman highlighted the geo-strategic importance of Karachi, particularly in the wake of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China's One Belt, One Road initiative and Karachi port's importance in providing logistical supplies to Afghanistan. He assured minorities in the region his full support and promised that he would continue to work in this direction as a member of the influential Armed Services Committee. Congressman Andy Harris said that "practising one's religion is a basic human right, and as humans, we should share this right. It doesn't matter which part of the world we live in, or which ethnic or religious group we belong to, we have the right to exist peacefully and enjoy our basic human rights." US lawmakers who attended the event and expressed their support for the cause of ethnic and religious minorities included Perry, Adam Kinzinger, Dave Brat, Morgan Griffith, Jeff Duncan, Raul Labrador, Gary Palmer, Rod Blum, Randy Hultgren, Jodz Rice, Andy Biggs, Tom Rice and Alex Mooney. Vu Technologies, California-based luxury TV company yesterday launched Vu 100, the companys first 100-inch TV with full metal design and Android Oreo 8.0. It has a 4K HDR10 Panel with 2.5 Billion Color & Wide Color Gamut, JBL Speakers with Woofer and 2000 watt Dolby and DTS Sound and Vu ActiVoice Remote with Voice Assistance as well as HotKeys for YouTube and Google Play. It has Google Play Store and comes with Hotstar, Alt balaji, Sony Liv and other apps. Vu 100 100-inch Android 4K UHD LED TV specifications 100-inch (3480 x 2160) 4K UHD A+ Grade IPS Panel with 178-degree viewing angle Quad-Core Processor 2.5GB RAM, 16GB internal storage Android TV based on Android 8.0 Dual Band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3 x HDMI (1 HDMI ARC), 2 x USB, Ethernet Port MPEG/H.264/H.265 decoder 12 + 12 + 12 Watt Built-In JBL Soundbar & JBL Woofer, DTS TruSurround, Dolby Digital Voice Control Remote with Hotkeys for YouTube & Google play The Vu 100 is priced at Rs 20 lakhs and is currently available only at Vu official stores. However, the company is planning to make them available at partner stores soon. Devita Saraf, CEO of VU at the launch, said: The Vu 100 is the most spectacular television you can buy today. Vus superior panel technology gives you 2.5 billion colours with depth and sharpness, 2000 watt sound that will both stun you with its power and ensure you hear every voice with clarity. And all of this comes packed in a stylish full metal designer exterior that would look at home in the worlds top art galleries. The Vu 100 doesnt just integrate the household devices, it has a similar effect on people. Since inception Vu has been known for customer-centric innovation of 4K, QLED and Official Android. Which has led to the unwavering loyalty of our customers high net worth individuals and young professionals to who we owe our best. In August, we sold our millionth television, making us the largest 4K television brand in India, ahead of Sony. We have grown from a 95 crore company 3 years back, to a 750 crore company last year and will be at a revenue of Rs. 1,200 crore this year. With the largest and most innovative range of TVs, Vu is the future of the television industry, in India, and globally. By continuing to browse our site you agree to our Privacy & Cookie Policy. > Privacy & Cookie Policy I Agree Marijuana stock investors were surprised last month when beverage giant Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) announced it's paying nearly $4 billion to acquire a 35% ownership stake in Canada's market-share leading cannabis company, Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC). The multibillion dollar deal suggests cannabis could be a once-in-a-generation investing opportunity, but just how big could the marijuana market be? Bigger than beer In a presentation to shareholders this week, Constellation explained its decision to acquire a big stake in Canopy Growth. Constellation highlighted Canopy's 30%-plus market share in Canada, its market-leading marijuana grow capacity, and the fact that it's secured marijuana supply contracts with more Canadian provinces and territories so far than any other producer. And that's all ahead of recreational marijuana laws going into effect next month. Cannabis potential in Canada, however, is dwarfed by the opportunity to produce, distribute, and market pot products globally. According to Constellation Brands number-crunching, retail marijuana sales could top $200 billion worldwide in 15 years. For perspective, Americans spend $117 billion on beer and $77 billion on cigarettes every year, and over the past 12 months, revenue at Constellation Brands, a leading beer, wine, and spirits maker, totaled just $7.5 billion. Building a global brand Canopy Growth generates most of its sales in Canada, and that's going to continue because sales of recreational marijuana begin in Canada next month. According to Deloitte, Canadians will spend $7 billion on cannabis in 2019, only about $1 billion of which will be spent on medical marijuana. Although Canada will be the driver of Canopy Growth's revenue next year, the company has its eyes set on other important markets, too. It's establishing footprints in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Australia, and elsewhere to win what Constellation estimates will be $120 billion in marijuana sales in markets other than the U.S. and Canada in 2033. Canopy Growth's experience so far in Germany suggests Canopy Growth's global expansion plans are on point. Germany's medical marijuana market only opened for business last year, yet it already accounts for 14% of Canopy Growth's 26 million Canadian dollars in quarterly revenue. Exiting 2017, Germany contributed 10% of Canopy Growth's sales. The pace of legalization worldwide will vary, but Canopy's experience in marijuana production, export, import, licensing, taxation, product development, and compliance is positioning it as the go-to company that countries turn to first. Profiting from marijuana's potential Constellation Brands already has a lot of exposure to this market opportunity through its 35% ownership stake in Canopy Growth, but it could wind up owning more than half of the company someday. If it exercises warrants it acquired in 2017, then it's ownership would climb to 38%, and if it exercises warrants it's getting in this latest deal, then it will own over 50% of Canopy Growth. Last year's warrants expire in April 2020 and since their exercise price is C$12.98, it's a good bet that those will be cashed in. The warrants it's getting this year include two tranches, both of which will expire three years after this deal closes. The first tranche can be exercised at C$50.40 and the price of the second tranche will be the volume weighted average price of shares over the preceding five days. Anything can happen, but if Constellation's projections for how big this market can be are anywhere close to correct, then its investment in Canopy Growth could be very profit-friendly. Canopy Growth's projected gross margin is above 50% and its operating margin is projected to be between 20% and 30%. If Canopy Growth secures 10% of Constellation's $200 billion global market estimate in 15 years, then its profitability would translate into $4 billion plus in profit that year. 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. Tony Romas Opens First Restaurant Location in Veracruz, Mexico The beautiful city of Boca del Rio is now home to an all-new Tony Romas, one of the most globally-recognized names in the restaurant industry. September 07, 2018 // Franchising.com // ORLANDO, Fla. - Romacorp, Inc., the parent company of Tony Romas, announces today the opening of its newest restaurant location in Veracruz, Mexico. Known for its combination of modernernity and old world traditions, Boca del Rio is now home to the beloved brandTony Romas. This restaurant makes the sixth location in Mexico for the Tony Romas brand. Since our first meeting with Tony Romas, we believed in this restaurant concept and considered it compatible with the virtues of Boca del Rio, Veracruz, said Ernesto Arana, Principal of Grupo Gastronomico AWA. We are proud to offer fresh, delicious food in a family-friendly environment to our locals and guests. The restaurant will feature a plethora of consumer-focused amenities, such as two vibrant private dining rooms, a full-service bar and indoor and outdoor seating for more than 120 guests. Large screen TVs can be found throughout bar area. Boca del Rio is known for its natural beauty, architecture, history and warm and welcoming community, making it the perfect setting for the first Tony Romas location in Veracruz. We are elated to be opening our first Tony Romas in the beautiful city of Boca del Rio, said John Brisco, President Global Franchise of Romacorp, Inc. We are ready to grow together with this franchisee through the creation of unique and enjoyable experiences for our guests. Both locals and tourists will be able to enjoy delicious food offerings, including the brands world-famous ribs, mouth-watering steaks, savory chicken, signature seafood, gourmet burgers and much more. Families, friends and businesses can also reserve private dining space for corporate lunches and dinners and memorable family gatherings. The venue features two spacious private dining rooms and can accommodate up to 20 guests in an area of more than 7,100 square feet. Restaurant hours are Monday thru Saturday 1pm-12am, Sunday 12pm-10pm For more information, please visit, Tony Romas. About Romacorp, Inc. Romacorp, Inc., is the parent company of Tony Romas restaurants, the worlds largest casual dining concept specializing in ribs. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Romacorp, Inc. has nearly 150 restaurant locations in more than 30 countries and is one of the most globally recognizable names in the industry. The first Tony Romas restaurant opened 46 years ago in North Miami, Florida. Tony Romas is also proud to partner with the Make-A-Wish Foundation (www.cnfl.wish.org), one of the worlds leading childrens charities, in an effort to help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses across Central and Northern Florida. For more information about Romacorp, Inc. and Tony Romas, visit www.tonyromas.com. Please visit www.tonyromasfranchise.com or call (866) 981-0586 for information about Tony Romas franchising opportunities. For information about retail sales licensing opportunities with the Tony Romas brand, contact Bill Cross, SVP, Broad Street Licensing Group at (973) 655-0598. Media Contact: Nathalie Franco Uproar PR for Romacorp, Inc. (321) 236-0102 nfranco@uproarpr.com SOURCE Romacorp, Inc. ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Expungement Clinic at Julian Carroll Convention Center Sep. 06, 2018 By Sep. 06, 2018 PADUCAH - With midterm elections fast approaching, did you know that Kentucky is one of only three states in the nation that permanently disenfranchise former felons? But there is a solution for many - expungement. According to Kentucky Legal Aid, nearly 10 percent of all Kentuckians cannot vote because of a felony conviction. Among the African-American community, over 25 percent can't vote for this reason, and that is the highest rate in the country. The stigma associated with a prior conviction can also put up barriers for anyone trying to get a job, housing, or social services. However, certain class D felonies and most misdemeanors are eligible for expungement after five years, as long as the person has had no other convictions. In an effort to help, Kentucky Legal Aid and the Kentucky Department of Corrections' Re-entry Services are hosting a free expungement clinic on September 22 at the Julian Carroll Convention Center. Staff will help provide free record checks and legal advice on expungement availability from 10 am until 2 pm. The clinic will also serve as a way for clients to access any ongoing support from Kentucky Legal Aid. Job Fair for Anyone Re-entering Workforce at McCracken Co. Library Sep. 07, 2018 By Sep. 07, 2018 PADUCAH - The McCracken County Public Library and the Western Kentucky Reentry Councils Paducah chapter will host the Reentry Councils annual job fair from 1 to 4 pm on Thursday, Oct. 4 in the librarys meeting room. Job seekers will have the opportunity to meet with employers and community organizations that can help them start their next career. The library will provide computers and internet access for job seekers wishing to apply for work online. Were very excited to be hosting the Reentry Councils job fair at the library this year, said Adult and Digital Services Librarian Aaron Williams, We believe its an excellent opportunity for local businesses to connect with job seekers who are looking to reenter the workforce. Second chance employers will be available for interviews and will consider all applicants regardless of criminal history. Job seekers are encouraged to bring their resume. Local businesses looking for candidates will include Genova, Peoples Plus, Pilgrims Pride, Champion Homes, Temps Plus and People Lease. The event is co-sponsored by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the Kentucky Career Center of Paducah, and the American Job Center. For more information, contact Adult and Digital Services Librarian Aaron Williams at 270-442-2510 ext. 140 or email him at awilliams@mclib.net. By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 06, 2018 | 10:11 AM | CARLISLE COUNTY A Ballard County man was arrested on methamphetamine and other charges Wednesday night in Carlisle County. According to the Carlisle County Sheriff's Office, deputies stopped a vehicle for speeding and improper equipment. The driver, Curtis Draper of Kevil, reportedly gave deputies permission to search his vehicle. During the search, deputies reportedly found methamphetamine and a hydrocodone pill that was not prescribed to Draper nor in the proper container. Draper was arrested and lodged in the Ballard County Detention Center. He's charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of controlled substance and speeding. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021. Lock November 16th in your calender because Netflix is bringng Narcos BACK!! "Narcos: Mexico will explore the origins of the modern drug war by going back to its roots, beginning at a time when the Mexican trafficking world was a loose and disorganized confederation of independent growers and dealers. Witness the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s as Felix Gallardo (Diego Luna) takes the helm, unifying traffickers in order to build an empire. When DEA agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Pena) moves his wife and young son from California to Guadalajara to take on a new post, he quickly learns that his assignment will be more challenging than he ever could have imagined. As Kiki garners intelligence on Felix and becomes more entangled in his mission, a tragic chain of events unfold, affecting the drug trade and the war against it for years to come." If that doesn't tickle your peach yet, wait till you see the teaser. Watch the teaser here: Anchor by Panasonic introduces 7w Emergency LED Lamp News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Anchor by Panasonic addresses the issues of power failures. Anchor Electricals Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation has added an innovative Panasonic emergency LED Lamp - 7w to its growing LED lighting portfolio. The newly launched emergency lamps are backed by an in-built lithium-Ion battery that uses LEDs for illumination and is convenient to carry around. Priced at Rs 600, these lamps are a perfect solution during emergencies like power cut and failures. The product aims to make the life of the consumers hassle-free, as it does not require an inverter or UPS. Panasonic emergency LED Lamps, therefore, are the perfect solution for consumers who do not use inverters and allows them to stay safe during sudden power cuts in homes and offices. Backed by BIS certification with burning hours of up to 25,000, they can also be used as a 'flashlight' by holding the socket, making them extremely easy to carry around. Emergency LED lamps are the first-of-its-kind addition to Panasonic's LED lighting portfolio, which serves a dual-purpose of everyday use and is an ideal backup in case of power failures. These LED retrofit lamps can be easily attached into any existing bulb socket, making them extremely convenient to use. They continue to glow even when the main electric supply fails and has a battery backup of up to 2 hours, thereby providing uninterrupted illumination to consumers. High-efficiency LEDs have become the preferred user choice, especially in the emergency lighting segment. These lamps are an ideal fit for any part of the home like the living room, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. Consumers also get an extra benefit of one-year warranty along with the product. Announcing the launch, Mr. Hiroshi Miyasaki of Anchor Electricals Private Limited, the Electricals arm of Panasonic Corporation said, "With over 50 years of our existence in the Indian market, our endeavour is to provide best customer experience through innovative products across categories. We are constantly adding to our LED portfolio with latest technology, which we're envisioning to be our next growth engine. Our brand also offers innovative products that are high on functionality and easy to use. Hence, we believe Panasonic Emergency Lamp will enable consumers to address the situation of emergencies effectively." Best Mobiles in India ISRO showcases the space suits for its first manned mission News oi-Vishal Kawadkar ISRO's first manned mission is slated for 2022. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has showcased a new space suit. The new suit was revealed at the launch of the sixth edition of Bengaluru Space Expo. The development of the suit took two years and was in works at Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvanathapuram. The orange-colored suit is capable of holding one oxygen cylinder, allowing the astronauts to breathe in space for up to 60 minutes. The space research firm has already built two space suits and will produce another one as three astronauts will be the part of the manned mission. This will be the first time ISRO will be sending astronauts into space. The mission is slated for the year 2022. ISRO also demonstrated the crew model and the crew escape model. A prototype crew model has already been tested by the company. The three astronauts will be in space for a week in a 400km orbit from the Earth's surface. The capsule will feature a thermal shield which will catch flame while traveling back towards Earth's atmosphere. The shield will make sure that the temperature inside the capsule remains up to 25 degrees. The capsule is said to rotate around the Earth every 90 minutes and astronauts will be able to witness the sunrise and sunset from the capsule. The astronauts will also be able to see India twice every day. The purpose of the mission is to conduct experiments on microgravity. The spacecraft will carry the astronauts into space taking 16 minutes from take-off to reach 400-km from Earth. While returning, the capsule will take half an hour to enter the atmosphere. The spacecraft is said to land in the Arabian Sea, near the Gujrat coast where Indian Navy will lift the shuttle as it takes a dip in the water. 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 Russia denies involvement in Skripal poisoning, slams UK's 'unacceptable' claim Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 02:38PM The Russian government has categorically rejected the UK's "unacceptable" claim that Kremlin had been involved in a nerve agent attack in March on a former spy in Salisbury. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that "any sort of accusation regarding the Russian leadership is unacceptable" to Moscow. "Neither Russia's top leadership nor those in the ranks below, nor any official representatives have anything to do with the events in Salisbury," Peskov noted, reiterating the Kremlin's position regarding the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The remarks came after British police named Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the main suspects in the attempted murder of the former double agent. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had earlier accused the UK of "manipulating information" concerning the nerve agent attack and pursuing a "witch-hunt" against Russia, stressing that the names published by the British police meant nothing to the Kremlin. The two men which London says were behind the March attack have been identified by the UK as members of the Russian military intelligence service GRU. On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs that the attack was carried out by the two GRU agents and sanctioned at a "senior level" in the Russian state. Ben Wallace, the UK's security minister, even went further on Thursday by saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin bore ultimate responsibility for the action of his spies. "Ultimately, he does insofar as he is President of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence - that's the GRU - via his minister of defense," the British minister said. In reaction, the Russian Embassy in London posted a series of tweets questioning the credibility of British allegations, citing the intelligence evidence used to build the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Skripal, 67, and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury city center on March 4 and spent weeks critically ill in hospital. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK minister heaps blame on Putin for Novichok attack Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 02:03PM Britain's security minister has directly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for a poisoning attack in March in the southern English city of Salisbury a day after London named two suspects for an incident that has caused relations between the two countries to sink to historic lows. Ben Wallace said Thursday that Putin bore "ultimate responsibility" for the attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter which the British authorities claim had been carried out with a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent called Novichok. "Ultimately of course he is responsible, he is leader of the state," said Wallace in an interview with the BBC radio, adding, "Ultimately he does in so far as he is the president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds and directs the military intelligence." Prime Minister Theresa May told British parliament on Wednesday that authorities had identified the suspects for the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter as two Russian nationals traveling to Britain on genuine passports. May said his government's conclusion was that the two, who were in Britain under the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, were officers in Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU. The premier, too, blamed the higher echelons of the Russian government for ordering the attack. "The GRU is a highly disciplined organization 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," May said in her address to the House of Commons. However, a Kremlin aide reiterated Thursday that Britain's naming of names in Skripal cases were just irrelevant. "We have heard or seen two names, these names mean nothing to me personally," Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow, adding, "I don't understand why this was done and what sort of signal the British side is sending." Despite being targeted with sanctions and diplomatic actions over the Skripal case, Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the poisoning. Some Russian authorities maintain that the move was orchestrated by British intelligence services in a bid to enable London and other Western capitals to pile more pressure on Russia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Britain, Allies Urge Moscow To Accept 'Compelling Evidence' In Novichok Attack September 06, 2018 Britain, bolstered by strong backing from its allies, condemned Russia at the UN Security Council over the chemical attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil earlier this year, urging Moscow to accept the "compelling evidence in this crime." London called the September 6 emergency meeting of the Security Council to brief members on the arrest warrants it issued a day earlier for two suspects in the attack against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Britain's UN ambassador, Karen Price, told the session that after "painstaking and methodical work" by the country's independent police agencies and prosecutors, the government has concluded "there is enough evidence to bring charges against two Russian nationals" for conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, the use of and possession of the chemical nerve agent Novichok, and other crimes. Britain on September 5, filed charges in absentia against the two men identified as Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, although it is suspected the names are aliases. They are believed to be agents of Russia's military intelligence service, known as the GRU. 'Chilled To The Bone' Moscow denies any involvement in the poisoning. "Everyone of us in this room, and listening around the world, should be chilled to the bone with the findings of this investigation," U.S. Ambassador Nikiki Haley said in reference to the British probe into the attack. Prior to the council session, the leaders of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Canada said they backed British law enforcement's conclusion that the poisoning was "almost certainly approved at a senior government level" in Russia. In a joint statement, they also said they have "full confidence" in the British assessment that the two suspects were GRU officers, and urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok program. The statement was signed by British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The allegations against Moscow reiterated what many in the West previously have said about the nerve agent attack against the Skripals -- namely, that the act was approved at high levels of the Russian government. 'Cocktail Of Facts' The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, once again denied the allegations on September 6, telling the Security Council that he heard "nothing new" from the British representative and that the charges against Moscow were an "unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts." "We hoped we would hear something conclusive today, something to shed light on the incident. Unfortunately...In today's speech, we have heard the same set of lies," he said of what he called "a politically motivated investigation." Several other council members joined the Western allies in condemning the chemical attack, although not all called out Russia specifically. Kazakhstan's representative, Kairat Umarov, said more time and "concrete data" were needed before a "fair and objective" conclusion could be made in the matter. The Skripals were discovered unconscious on March 4 on a bench in the southern English town of Salisbury. They were seriously ill but later made a full recovery after spending several weeks in the hospital. British officials said the two 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. The attack led Britain, the United States, the European Union, and others to carry out a series of diplomatic expulsions and financial sanctions against Moscow. British police have linked the Salisbury attack to a separate Novichok poisoning on June 30 in nearby Amesbury that led to the death of a 44-year-old woman. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/world-leaders-back-u-k-s-novichok-claims/29475751.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 British Security Minister Says Putin 'Ultimately Responsible' For Skripal Poisoning RFE/RL September 06, 2018 Russian President Vladimir Putin bears ultimate responsibility for the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England in March, Britain's security minister says. Ben Wallace said on September 6 that Putin "controls, funds, and directs" Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, which Britain has accused of using the Novichok nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in March. Both survived the attack and are reportedly recovering at a secret location. Asked whether Putin bears responsible for the attack, Wallace told the BBC: "Ultimately, he does insofar as he is president of the Russian Federation and it is his government that controls, funds, and directs the military intelligence." "I don't think anyone can ever say that Mr. Putin isn't in control of his state," Wallace added. "And the GRU is, without doubt, not rogue." A British citizen, Dawn Sturgess, died in June and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, was made ill when they stumbled across remnants of the poison. Russia has denied any involvement in the poisoning and has said it is willing to cooperate with the investigation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on September 6 that assertions the Kremlin was responsible for the attack were "unacceptable." "We have said more than once and can confirm officially once again that Russia has had nothing to do with the events in Salisbury," Peskov said, referring to the English city where the Skripals were poisoned. "Russia is not involved in any way." On September 5, Britain filed charges in absentia against two Russian citizens who were identified as Aleksandr Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, although it is believed those names are aliases. The two men were believed to be agents of the GRU. Peskov also said that Russia was prepared to check information about the two suspects if it received a formal request from the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament on September 5 that the attack had been approved "at a senior level of the Russian state." She added that the attack was meant "to give a message to those Russians who were living elsewhere who had been involved in matters related to the Russian state." Wallace told the BBC that Britain intends to "push back the Russian malign activity" with "whatever means we have within the law and our capabilities." The United Kingdom will brief the UN Security Council on its findings later on September 6. With reporting by AP and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-council -hear-british-charges-against-russian-over-ex- spy-poisoning-skripal-novichok/29474669.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 Kremlin Regrets London's Noncooperation With Russia on Skripal Case Sputnik News 14:40 06.09.2018(updated 15:55 06.09.2018) Moscow has once again rejected London's newest claims over the Skripal case. On September 5, the UK police press service revealed photos of alleged suspects in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The two men were said to be Russian nationals. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has expressed regret that London has refused to cooperate with Russia on an investigation concerning the attempted murder of ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, and reiterated that Russia is ready to work with British authorities on the case if they make a formal request to do so. "In order to check the identity [of the two men suspected by UK prosecutors], in order for us to have legal grounds to check their identities, we must receive a request to do so by the British side. There is such a thing as customary practice. And from the very beginning, the Russian side offered cooperation on investigating the circumstances" of the poisoning, Peskov said, answering a question about whether Russia was checking the identities of the two men UK Metropolitan police accused on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the spokesman noted, the British side rejected the proposal to cooperate. Furthermore, he said, "publications by the media and statements in parliament" do not constitute a substitute for legal requests made through formal channels. Peskov said that Moscow "can only regret" that London does not find any sense in cooperating on the case. At the same time, Peskov rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's claim, made in parliament yesterday after the Met's presentation, that the poisoning was "almost certainly approved "at a senior level of the Russian state." "Russia had nothing to do with the events in Salisbury. Russia is not involved in these events in any way. We view any accusations against the Russian leadership to be unacceptable. Yesterday, Mrs. May spoke about the possible involvement of the top Russian leadership. We reiterate that neither the top leadership, nor the leadership of the ranks below, nor any official authorities had or have anything to do with the events in Salisbury. There can be no question about this, and any assumptions or accusations on this subject are inadmissible," Peskov stressed. On Wednesday, UK officials said they would not formally request the suspected Russian nationals' extradition, saying that a European arrest warrant had been issued instead. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the UK's ambassador to Russia formally turned down a Russian request to provide information on the suspects, including their fingerprints, which she pointed out were a requirement for Russian citizens seeking UK visas. Former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fell victim to a suspected poisoning attack by what UK authorities said was Novichok nerve agent in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018. London almost immediately blamed Moscow for the crime, sparking a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Moscow, which destroyed the last of its chemical weapons in 2017 under the supervision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, vehemently denied the charges, and called for a joint investigation. Sergei and Yulia recovered enough to be released from hospital in April and May, and were taken to an undisclosed location by UK authorities. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin Bears 'Strong Responsibility' for Skripal Attack - UK Security Minister Sputnik News 12:35 06.09.2018(updated 12:39 06.09.2018) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'bears very strong responsibility' for the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the city of Salisbury. "The GRU [Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate] answers to the Ministry of Defense, it answers to the president of Russia. So I think the key is, of course, that the Russian senior levels of government were involved or linked to this decision. I will let other people speculate whether that means actually Putin or not, but the government as a whole is obviously led by the president of Russia. And, directly or indirectly, he bears very strong responsibility," Wallace told the Sky News broadcaster. On Wednesday, the UK Crown Prosecution Service said that it had sufficient evidence to charge two Russian nationals, named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, of the Salisbury nerve agent attack. On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that the Russian military intelligence was behind the attack on the Skripals. Russian Envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Alexander Shulgin, in turn, said that the suspects' photos and names released by London did not prove Russia's involvement in the attack. On March 4, Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury. The United Kingdom and its allies have accused Moscow of having orchestrated the attack with what UK experts claim was the A234 nerve agent, without presenting any proof. Russian authorities have strongly refuted the allegations as groundless. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian operatives carried out Salisbury chemical attack alleges UK; accusations part of 'post-truth world' asserts Moscow 6 September 2018 - The United Kingdom and Russia traded a volley of words at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, with the former laying out information which, it alleges, clearly places two Russian military intelligence operatives behind the deadly nerve-agent attack in the English city of Salisbury on 4 March. The charges were categorically refuted by Russia, which instead accused the UK of trying to sow "anti-Russian hysteria." Today's meeting, requested by the UK, follows evidence it released on its investigation into the Salisbury incident that left former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia, and a local police officer, seriously injured. In July, two additional people living in the Salisbury area, were exposed to the chemical, and one of them died as a result. The UK alleges that the deadly chemical is the Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok. In April, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agreed with that assessment. UK Permanent Representative, Karen Pierce, told the Council that her country's investigation had identified two Russian nationals, who travelled under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov both members of the Russian Military Intelligence Service (known as the GRU) as those behind the nerve-agent attack and has issued international arrest warrants against them. Ms. Pierce also said that the P5 China, France, Russia, UK and the United States, the five permanent members of the Security Council bear an important responsibility to uphold international law, especially against weapons of mass destruction. "One P5 member has not upheld these important norms [] and played dice with the lives of the people of Salisbury," she said, noting that her country has no quarrel with Russia but that the UK will "respond robustly when our security is threatened and the lives of our citizens are endangered." No convincing evidence, says Russia Forcefully denying and rebutting the investigation's findings, Russia's Permanent Representative Vassily A. Nebenzia said that the UK had not provided any convincing evidence relating to the Salisbury incident, but instead only lies concerning double agents, cyberattacks and military-grade chemical agents. "I am not going to go through the list of this unfounded and mendacious cocktail of facts," he said. Saying that Russia had offered to help the investigation, he said that "London has been refusing us this cooperation. London needs this story for just one purpose to unleash a disgusting anti-Russian hysteria and to involve other countries in this hysteria," Mr. Nebenzia added. Citing several inconsistencies in allegations levelled against his country, the Russian Permanent Representative said it remains impossible to know the real names of the suspects and therefore whether they are connected to the Russian Military Intelligence Service. He claimed that the charges were yet another part of the "post-truth world" crafted by Western countries, he stressed, rejecting UK's sensational disclosures, as well as all unfounded allegations about his Government's involvement in the Salisbury events. Several other Council members, including the United States and France, extended their support for the UK investigation and its findings, but the Bolivian Ambassador said that there needed to be restraint by Members, warning against "slinging allegations" in the chamber, and calling for the use of diplomatic channels to ensure cooperation in resolving the dispute over the Salisbury chemical weapons incidents. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address DoD Leaders Emphasize National Defense Strategy at Conference Sept. 6, 2018 By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON -- Defense Department military and civilian leaders participated in the Defense News Conference here yesterday to discuss the 2018 National Defense Strategy and how the U.S. military is evolving as it responds to global power competition. Leaders in attendance included Chief of Naval Operations Navy Adm. John Richardson, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy Eric Chewning, and military deputy to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. H. Stacy Clardy III. The leaders' remarks revolved around the three lines of effort of the NDS: optimizing lethality, increasing the number of allies and partners, and reforming the way DoD does business to quickly get technology into the hands of warfighters. Here are some takeaways from the daylong conference: -- The Navy must be ready to compete in all arenas of global threats against near-peer competitors such as Russia and China, both of which have growing technology capabilities. -- DoD readiness ensures it has more tools today than it has had in the past, which allows the services to provide training that's rigorous and realistic. More importantly, today's training ensures mastery of skills. -- A tenet of DoD training is to ensure the services can train and fight with DoD partners and allies. -- Squadrons are the power base of the Air Force. They are the guts, brains and clenched fist of American resolve, and comprise how the Air Force competes, deters and wins. "We must build a more lethal and ready Air Force that can operate seamlessly across all domains with joint and allied partners," Wilson said. -- Industrial-base collaboration with U.S. partners and allies is an important diplomatic tool for DoD. -- A critical part of the NDS effort to reform business practices in DoD is the priority to get capabilities in the hands of service members downrange quickly. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 1st Cavalry armor, engineers bring the boom at Atlantic Resolve live fire exercise By Sgt. 1st Class Robert Jordan September 6, 2018 SMARDAN TRAINING AREA, Romania -- A Bradley Fire Support Team Vehicle loaded with combat engineers roared forward to the tangle of razor wire. Covered by the unit's tanks, the Bradley stopped and lowered its armored ramp. The engineer team ran out carrying Bangalore torpedoes, five-foot-long tubes filled with explosives designed to clear obstacles. The team sprinted forward toward the wire. Two of the engineers took cover as one slung a grapple hook and rope across the field in front of the obstacle to remove any simulated booby traps. Once clear, the team assembled the torpedo sections and pushed it under the wire. After a quick radio check with headquarters for permission to detonate the explosives, they ignited the time delay fuses. As the fuse burned, the team sprinted back to the cover of the Bradley. This exercise was how armor, engineers and artillery brought the boom as Soldiers of Charlie Company Team, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division completed a combined arms live fire training exercise at Smardan Training Area, Romania, Aug. 29, 2018. The Soldiers of the battalion are deployed for Atlantic Resolve, an enduring training exercise between NATO and U.S. forces. Coordinating firepower, indirect fire and engineering demolition required careful planning by leaders and Soldiers. Leaders rehearse over and over what each unit is to do, when and what their job is during the exercise. "It is controlling a lot of things at once," said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jesse Nelson, a platoon leader with the team. Trained and practiced, the Soldiers prepared for the live fire exercise at the range that afternoon. The old saying, "If you can't go around it, go through it, and you can if you have combat engineers," applied to this exercise. The mission for the combat engineers was destroying a concertina razor wire obstacle to allow tanks to exploit the breach and launch a simulated counterattack. "A combined arms breach is challenging," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Kelvin Swint, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment commander. The explosion from the exercise tore a huge gap in the wire. The team leader then ran forward to mark the gap for the tanks to safely pass. It was not a long wait. The whine of the 1,500 horsepower turbines rose as three tanks accelerated toward the gap. They spread out along the range and fired en masse at targets imitating enemy forces. Several miles away, other Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment fired 155mm shells on order from their self-propelled M109 Paladin howitzers. Inside the 30-foot-long vehicles, the crew loaded the almost 90-pound shell into the howitzer in seconds. Target coordinates were checked and the order to fire given. A crew member pulled on the lanyard and in a flash, the nearly two-foot-long shell was on the way down range. After the exercise Soldiers and leaders meet to share what they learned during an after action report meant to "maximize the opportunity to be lethal and precise," said Swint. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Transcript Presenter: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis September 06, 2018 Secretary of Defense Mattis' Remarks at India 2+2 Joint Press Conference Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Minister Swaraj and Minister Sitharaman thank you for the warm hospitality and the professional discussions that we have had here today. It is a pleasure to be back in New Delhi among friends representing the United States alongside Secretary of State Pompeo. Minister Sitharaman I would just wholeheartedly concur with how you characterized the defense relationship in your statement just now. Today's fruitful discussion illustrated the value of continued collaboration between these two co-equal democracies. The strong relationship between the world's two largest democracies did not begin with those of us sitting here before you; we inherited it, and now we ensure it is even stronger when we pass it to our successors on a higher trajectory than we received it. Since India gained its independence in 1947, our nations have shared a fundamental respect and love of freedom. Just three years after India's independence, Prime Minister Nehru visited the United States, in his words, and I quote, "on a voyage of discovery of the mind and heart of America." Today, Secretary Pompeo and I bring the same spirit that Prime Minister Nehru carried to Washington almost seventy years ago, promoting the "cooperation which both our countries earnestly desire." Today's successful and highly productive meeting the first ever 2+2 between our nations at the ministerial level has further bolstered our strong defense relationship, as you just heard. We reiterated our highest respect for each other's sovereignty and committed to work together for a safe, secure, prosperous and free Indo-Pacific, one that is underpinned by the rule of law. We appreciate India's role as a stabilizing force on the region's geographic frontlines. Your nation understands better than many: peace and prosperity are only attainable when all respect the principles of territorial integrity, freedom of navigation and freedom from coercion all of these are fundamental to the rules-based international order. Only then, to borrow Prime Minister Modi's words, can "nations small and large prosper free and fearless in their choices." We will continue working together to enhance and expand India's role as a primary Major Defense Partner to elevate our relationship to a level commensurate with our closest allies and partners. Today, we took, as you know, a significant step towards that goal by signing the communications compatibility and security agreement. The landmark agreement deepens our military-to-military cooperation and our ability to share the most advanced defense technology, making us both stronger. In addition, we agreed to increase and expand our engagement in the maritime domain with a new tri-service exercise. Secretary Pompeo and I also gained insights on a range of issues, from DPRK sanction enforcement to counterterrorism cooperation, recognizing that both our nations have endured the effects of senseless terrorist attacks, like those ten years ago in Mumbai, which killed innocents from more than a dozen nations. We remember those lives lost as we approach tenth anniversary of the attacks this November. Today, the steps we took will pave the way ahead for an even closer military relationship. Our meeting signified the bright future ahead for our two nations, indicating the growing trust we share as strategic partners. We look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi this afternoon, and welcome the opportunity to thank him for his strong leadership and to discuss the way ahead. Thank you very much. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1621909/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni missile hits Saudi army's positions IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Sept 6, IRNA -- A Yemeni missile targeted Saudi Arabian army's positions and military equipment in south of the country. According to Almasirah news network, the missile was of the type Zelzal 1 that hit Saudi forces and their armaments in Mash'al Base in Jizan. Yemeni officials say the attack was in retaliation for massacre of the innocent women and children in the impoverished country of Yemen. 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. 8072**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary General visits Skopje to discuss progress in NATO accession talks NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 05 Sep. 2018 - 06 Sep. 2018 Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrapped up a two-day visit to Skopje on Thursday (6 September 2018), which focused on the country's path toward NATO membership. At the Brussels Summit in July, Allied leaders decided to invite the government in Skopje to begin accession talks with the Alliance, which have now begun. The visit the Secretary General's second to the capital this year marked an opportunity to highlight the benefits of NATO accession, as well as progress in the reforms undertaken by Skopje. It was also an opportunity for the authorities to brief the Secretary General on their preparations for the upcoming referendum on the historic name agreement with Greece. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Mr. Stoltenberg said: "NATO's door is open, but only the people of this country can decide to walk through it. So your future is in your hands." He underlined that there would be "no way" for the country to join NATO without implementing the name agreement, calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity. On Wednesday, Mr. Stoltenberg had a working dinner with Prime Minister Zaev and members of his cabinet. On Thursday, the Secretary General met with President Gjorge Ivanov, as well as the President of the Parliament, Talat Xhaferi, and the Leader of the Opposition Hristijan Mickoski. He also met with the new Committee for NATO Integration, which includes Prime Minister Zaev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Radmila Sekerinska, Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov, and other ministers and senior officials. Mr. Stoltenberg also visited Stajkovci village where soldiers and equipment from NATO's KFOR mission helped to clear roads and move debris following devastating floods in 2016. Later, the Secretary General visited the Ilinden barracks and thanked the armed forces for their service and contributions to NATO deployments. The Secretary General also took part in a ceremony to name a street in Skopje after his father Thorvald Stoltenberg, who coordinated Norwegian assistance to the capital after a devastating earthquake in 1963. The Secretary General is travelling from Skopje to Athens, where he will meet with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. 1. Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 37 Saudis injured in Yemeni missile attack on military camp Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 09:30PM In a rare announcement, Saudi Arabia has admitted that at least 37 people have been injured in a Yemeni missile attack carried out in response to the kingdom's military aggression against the impoverished neighbor. The Yemeni army and popular committees backed by the Houthi Ansarullah movement fired the missile at a Saudi National Guard camp in the southern province of Najran on late Wednesday. Saudi officials said they had "intercepted" the missile and the injuries were caused by shrapnel, Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya reported on Thursday night. According to the report, 23 of the injured were taken to hospital while the remaining 14 were treated on site. The debris also damaged 19 cars and 15 buildings. Dozens of people were evacuated as a result of the attack, the report added. The latest strike by Yemeni forces brings the tally of missile attacks to 185 since the beginning of the war in March 2015, the Saudi coalition says, adding that at least 112 people have been killed in the attacks. This is among the very few official figures that Riyadh has allowed to be released on its own death toll throughout the war. Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, including the United Arab Emirates, have been ruthlessly pounding Yemen's infrastructure over the course of the war, killing and injuring over 600,000 people. They have also effectively put Yemen under siege by blocking all major aerial and maritime gateways to the country, worsening a severe shortage of food and medicine that has led to widespread famine and disease outbreaks. Since 2016, more than 2,000 Yemenis have died in what the World Health Organization has called the worst cholera outbreak ever recorded. In late 2017, the organization estimated that one million Yemenis, 600,000 of them children, were likely to contract the disease by the year-end. The imposed war entered a new chapter several weeks ago, when the Saudi-led coalition attacked Yemen's western port city of Hudaydah in coordination with militant groups faithful to the country's fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Masour Hadi. Saudis say the war is aimed at reinstating Hadi and removing the Houthis from power. The Houthis, however, have pledged to step up and continue their missile attacks against Saudi military bases and oil facilities in retaliation for the years-long carnage. They have baffled observers by operating and at times, upgrading, the Yemeni army's cache of short- to mid-range ballistic missiles. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK warship sails near controversial Chinese islands, draws angry response Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 09:31AM A British Royal Navy warship has sailed close to Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea, in a move that Beijing has slammed as a "provocation." The incident occurred on August 31, when the HMS Albion amphibious warship was on its way from Japan to Vitenam's Ho Chi Minh City when a Chinese frigate accompanied by two helicopters were sent to stop it from getting any closer to the China's Paracel Islands, Reuters reported Thursday. The two sides kept calm during the encounter but the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement later on that the move was provocative. "China strongly urges the British side to immediately stop such provocative actions, to avoid harming the broader picture of bilateral relations and regional peace and stability," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters. Noting that Beijing had "expressed strong dissatisfaction" with London, the statement added, "China will continue to take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and security." According to an unnamed source, the British warship stayed within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, the internationally recognized territorial limit. "HMS Albion exercised her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms," a Royal Navy spokesman said. China lays claim over the Paracels but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have similar claims of their own over the islands. Expert say the move was a clear indication of Britain's support for the US, which has carried out similar freedom of navigation missions in the past and asked its allies to participate. UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said in June that London had decided to deploy at least three ships to the region in order to send the "strongest of signals" on the importance of freedom of navigation. The British Navy had previously sailed close to the Chinese-claimed Spratly Islands, further south in the South China Sea, several times in recent years. But none of those passes were within the 12 nautical mile limit, according to British media. China has defended its right to build artificial islands in the sea, which acts as a gateway for some $3 trillions of shipborne trade every year. Beijing has also made it clear that it will intercept foreign aircraft and vessels that challenge its sovereignty there. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Serbian Abbot Likens Territory Swap To 'Ethnic Cleansing' Gordana Knezevic September 06, 2018 Sava Janjic, the popular abbot of the Serbian Orthodox monastery Visoki Decani in Kosovo, is worried that any deal to redraw the border between Kosovo and Serbia would be costly for the entire Balkans. Much of the international "conventional wisdom" suggests that altering borders -- reportedly already under consideration by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar President Hashim Thaci -- could have explosive consequences in Kosovo and beyond. But there are indications that Janjic's suspicion is not so widespread in Serbia -- apart from a few NGOs and some opposition leaders, there has been little public criticism of the rumored proposal, despite concerns that it would be an implicit or explicit recognition of Kosovar sovereignty. And ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo are mostly in favor of the swap, some reports suggest, perhaps in expectation that Serbian citizenship might follow. Janjic has therefore drawn fire from some local media and nationalists. And the abbot has noticed. "I have to admit that the threats and the unscrupulous media campaign [against me] directed by the authorities in Belgrade and sometimes also by some [Kosovar Albanian] Pristina-based media -- according to whom I am, in the first case, an American spy and, in the second, a Russian one -- are reminiscent of the threats that were made against Oliver Ivanovic," Janjic told the Belgrade magazine Vreme recently. That is a reference to an ethnic Serb politician from northern Kosovo who was widely praised for demonstrating cooperation and tolerance in divided times before he was gunned down in North Mitrovica in January. Ivanovic was born in a village near Janjic's Decani monastery. Nicknamed "cybermonk" for his vocal e-mail and other correspondence, particularly with foreign journalists, during the war in Kosovo in 1999, when NATO forces intervened to prevent attacks on Kosovar Albanians by the Yugoslav Army and police, Janjic has nearly 20,000 followers on Facebook and is active on Twitter, posting in both Serbian and English. Despite the venerable status of the Visoki Decani monastery (it was built in the 14th century and has been a protected heritage site for decades), its abbot does not speak for the Serbian Orthodox Church. But there are also ethnic Serb communities in the areas in question that could find themselves unwilling residents of Kosovo if the proposed "border adjustment" became reality -- communities that might welcome Janjic's skepticism. "The lessons of history have been forgotten, and that's why we must warn people while there's still time that the Europeanization of this region cannot be based on the principle of ethnic or territorial partitioning," Janjic told Vreme. Path To Ethnic Cleansing? Since his Vreme interview, Janjic's Twitter feed has become a target of insults and profanity over his stance on the border issue. He has been labeled a "traitor to Serbia's national interests" and worse. One tweet attacked him for being an advocate of Kosovo's membership in UNESCO. (The Decani monastery is on UNESCO's World Heritage list, along with several other medieval monuments in Kosovo, but Serbia opposes Kosovo's membership in that and other international bodies.) Another post suggested -- rightly or wrongly -- that Janjic once held an umbrella for former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who is unpopular among Serbs for her role in the Clinton administration's decision to intervene in 1999. Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, a convicted war criminal, has described Janjic as a "notorious traitor." "I would never attack the church, but I would [attack] some of its individual dignitaries, if they wrong their own people and the interests of the state," Seselj said, adding in a reference to other convicted or accused war criminals who have come before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: "I've been attacking Sava Janjic for a long time. This is a man who wanted [former Yugoslav and Serbian President Slobodan] Milosevic, [former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan] Karadzic, and [Bosnian Serb General Ratko] Mladic to be handed over to The Hague." If not for his monk's robe, Seselj vowed, he would "give [Janjic] a good slap." It is Janjic's role as abbot of one of Serbs' most venerated institutions -- the Decani monastery has often been referred to as "the cradle of the Serbian nation" -- that lends weight to his views. Janjic also appears to enjoy the respect of ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Of the rumored territory swap, Janjic said: "I am especially worried about the part that talks about the border separating Serbs and Albanians, which implies that where one [ethnic group] lives, the other will be absent, and vice versa. This is a retrograde model that is very much in line with the policy of ethnic cleansing implemented during the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia -- and so it's unsurprising that the proposal, which has the backing, albeit for their own reasons, of both Vucic and Thaci, also has the support of one of the chief ideologues of ethnic cleansing, Vojislav Seselj." The executive director of the North Mitrovica-based NGO Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture, Dusan Radakovic, cited complex dynamics on the ground in Kosovo among the reasons the outspoken Janjic is under fire. But he also noted that the Serbian Orthodox Church had not yet issued any public reaction to rumors of any territorial swap between Serbia and Kosovo. "We have yet to hear from other church dignitaries, and even the patriarch himself has not said anything very specific," Radakovic said, adding that "a solution that pleases everyone will not come easily." "Both sides will have to swallow a bitter pill to make that happen." The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/serbian- abbot-likens-territory-swap-to- ethnic-cleansing-/29475725.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 Beijing Slams London After UK Warship Spotted in South China Sea - Reports Sputnik News 08:11 06.09.2018(updated 08:21 06.09.2018) The Chinese government slammed "provocative actions" by the UK after the appearance of a British HMS Albion Warship off the Paracel Islands. The HMS Albion, the British Royal Navy amphibious flagship, passed the Paracel Islands in recent days, the sources told Reuters. The warship was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City, where it docked on Monday, following the deployment in and around Japan. According to Reuters' sources, China dispatched a frigate and two helicopters to challenge the vessel yet both sides did not interfere with each other as the warship didn't enter the territorial waters. The sources said that the action by Albion was meant to demonstrate that Britain does not recognize excessive maritime claims around the Paracel Islands. The Paracel Islands are under the dispute between China, Vietnam, and Taiwan. China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying that the British Navy ship had entered Chinese territorial waters on August, 31 without permission and was warned by the Chinese navy to leave. "The relevant actions by the British ship violated Chinese law and relevant international law and infringed on China's sovereignty. China strongly opposes this and has lodged stern representations with the British side to express strong dissatisfaction," the ministry added, saying that China urges the British side to "immediately stop such provocative actions." The British Navy has previously sailed close to the disputed Spratly Islands, further south in the South China Sea and not far from Paracel Islands, several times in recent years but not within the 12 nautical mile limit, regional diplomatic sources have said. A spokesman for the Royal Navy said that "HMS Albion exercised her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms." China's claims in the South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion of ship-borne trade passes yearly, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Britain does not have any territorial claims in the area. Beijing says that they are claiming their own territories back and need the islands for necessary civil and self-defense purposes. The issue around Albion came in a delicate time of the preparations for post-Brexit talks between China and the UK. Britain has been counting on the start of the negotiations with China for a free trade deal. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in its statement said that the incident might be "harming the broader picture of bilateral relations and regional peace and stability." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Considering Enhanced Military Presence in Greece Amid Regional Tensions Sputnik News 01:24 06.09.2018 The US is exploring the possibility of boosting the numbers of drills and troops in Greece, which could lead to enhanced intelligence efforts in nearby hotspots like Libya, Syria and Turkey. Greek officials are considering expanding US access to additional bases, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford told reporters in Athens on Tuesday. Those officials "made a general overture saying they would be willing to consider that, and I certainly was enthusiastic about the possibility," Dunford told the Pentagon's internal news service, Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday. Tensions between Turkey and the US have been high ever since US President Donald Trump recently authorized the doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkish exports, up to 50 and 20 percent, respectively, after Turkey refused to release detained American Pastor Andrew Brunson. Turkey jailed Brunson two years ago for his alleged ties to the movement founded by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara has accused of orchestrating the 2016 failed military coup. In late July, Brunson was released from a Turkish prison and placed under house arrest. According to Stars and Stripes, the US military has already "taken advantage" of several bases in Greece, including Naval Support Activity in Souda Bay and Greece's Larissa Air Force Base. "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," Dunford said Wednesday. "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 [in Greece] are pretty significant," he added. The news comes as NATO, an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries, recently set up a counterterrorism intelligence center in Naples, Italy, to counter any potential regional threats. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Remarks to the Press Remarks Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State U.S. Embassy New Delhi, India September 6, 2018 SECRETARY POMPEO: (In progress) just a few moments to wrap up this trip to India and Pakistan, my first visit to both countries as Secretary of State, and we'll be meeting with Prime Minister Modi here in just a little bit and are very much looking forward to that. His leadership along with that of President Trump have truly put the relationship between India and the United States on a good plane with an upward trajectory. My meetings were all productive with each of the counterparts, and here in India I must say the kickoff of the 2+2 was pretty special, a historic level of relationship that the two countries have not previously had. And I think each of us valued the opportunity to have good, strong, candid discussions. We've had 70 years of diplomatic relationships with India, and it was important for the four of us to work together through this dialogue so that we can continue to keep these two relationships both intertwined and moving towards our set of shared objectives of the world's two largest democracies. We're happy that we were able to announce two agreement with India, the COMCASA agreement, and we also agreed to enhance our military cooperation with India as our major defense partner. In Pakistan yesterday, we agreed that it's time to start delivering on our joint commitments. There was broad agreement between myself, Foreign Minister Qureshi, and Prime Minister Khan that we need to take steps that will deliver outcomes on the ground, allowing us to begin to build confidence and trust between our two countries. I've also had fun. On both stops I've had the chance to meet with teams from our embassy always the highlight of my trip to meet with our diplomats and our locally employed staff to deliver President Trump's foreign policy priorities. And with that, I'm happy to take a couple questions. MS NAUERT: (Inaudible), go ahead. QUESTION: If I could start with North Korea, sir, there are new reports today that Kim Jong-un is saying a declaration ending the Korean War would not lead to withdrawal of U.S. troops in South Korea. Do you see this as a concession, and does denuclearization need to come before an end-of-war declaration? And finally, are there any plans to meet with the North Koreans at the UNGA? SECRETARY POMPEO: So as I've said consistently as we've been continuing to work with the North Koreans to deliver on the world's demands, the UN Security Council resolutions, which demand a number of things from North Korea and from no one else. There's only country that has a commitment under those Security Council resolutions. As I've said before, I'm not going to talk about ongoing negotiations, discussions that we're having, with the North Koreans. We will work we will continue to work with them to deliver for the world, as against the UN Security Council resolutions, and for Chairman Kim to deliver on the commitment that he made to President Trump in Singapore now back on June 12th. MS NAUERT: The next question, Nick Wadhams from Bloomberg. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I'm sure you've heard the story that's gripping Washington right now is this anonymous op-ed in The New York Times. Were you the author of that op-ed? Could you comment on it? Thank you. SECRETARY POMPEO: So it shouldn't surprise anyone that The New York Times, a liberal newspaper that has attacked this administration relentlessly, chose to print such a piece. And if that piece is true, if it's accurate, if it's actually I think they described it as a senior administration official they should not well have chosen to take a disgruntled, deceptive, bad actor's word for anything and put it in their newspaper. It's sad more than anything else that our nation has come to where you have again, if it is what it's purported to be, it is sad that you have someone who would make that choice. I come from a place where, if you're not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option: It is to leave. And this person and said, according to The New York Times chose not only to stay but to undermine what President Trump and this administration are trying to do. And I ought to tell you, just I find I find the media's efforts in this regard to undermine this administration incredibly disturbing. MS NAUERT: The next question -- SECRETARY POMPEO: And I'll answer your other question directly, because I know someone will say, gosh, he didn't answer the question. It's not mine. QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I have a question about India and also about North Korea. On North Korea, (inaudible) that Chairman Kim (inaudible) timeline for the first time in terms of when he would denuclearize. But at the same time, the U.S. intelligence assessment (inaudible) concluded that, actually, they were still working on a program (inaudible). And could you help us understand (inaudible) what next steps in light of the developments (inaudible)? On India, was there a request to the Indians that they buy more U.S. oil and less Iranian oil? SECRETARY POMPEO: Let me take the second one first. We have told the Indians consistently, as we have told every nation, that on November 4th the sanctions with respect to Iranian crude oil will be enforced, and that we will consider waivers where appropriate, but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed. So we'll work with the Indians. We committed that we would do that. Many countries are in a place where they it takes a little bit of time to unwind, and we'll work with them, I am sure, to find an outcome that makes sense. And from whence they purchase the other crude oil, we're happy to see if it's American products that are able to deliver for them. I think that'd be a great outcome. But our mission set is to make sure that Iran doesn't engage in malign behavior with wealth that comes from countries around the world, thus the purpose of the sanctions. On North Korea, no, I'm not going to talk about the negotiations and what the next steps might be. It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We haven't had any nuclear tests, we haven't had any missile tests, which we consider a good thing. But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make the strategic shift that we've talked about for a brighter future for the people of North Korea continues. MS NAUERT: Last question, and it's from Joanna Slater from Washington Post. QUESTION: Hi, Secretary Pompeo. SECRETARY POMPEO: Hi. QUESTION: Can I ask you about two other areas of friction with India? Sorry, it's one question but --. SECRETARY POMPEO: Be clever. Make it (a) and (b) and we'll it'll all work. QUESTION: The first the first is the S-400. Is the President inclined to grant a waiver for that purchase? And the second is on trade. Has the U.S., in fact, made demands of India for certain purchase purchases of (inaudible) its purchases of U.S. goods over three years? And your personal relationship with Foreign Minster Swaraj I'd like (inaudible). SECRETARY POMPEO: So I haven't known her for a long time. I met her in person for the first time today, but we've spoken by phone previously. We have a good discussion, one that is marked by true candor. I think we both share our concerns in places where we think our two countries can work together to do better and create opportunity as well. With respect to the S-400, no decision has been made. We are working to impose CAATSA Section 231 in a way that is appropriate and lawful and to exercise that waiver authority only where it makes sense. And we as a team, the national security team, will work on that, and as we continue to have these conversations with India about that, I think come to an outcome that makes sense for each of our two countries. You had a third one. QUESTION: Trade. SECRETARY POMPEO: Trade, yeah. Trade, very straightforward: free, fair, and reciprocal. We want the trade balance, the trade deficit that the United States has in its trade with India, to be rectified. They have made some progress on that, and we thank them for that. They're going to buy more energy products from the United States. They're going to purchase more aircraft from the United States. We truly do appreciate that. But the gap will remain, and so we are urging them to do all that they can to narrow that gap. At the same time, it's important that the trade barriers that are there, places that American companies' and American workers' products can't be sold here, be reduced. And so very consistent what President Trump is seeking all around the world are the things we talked about with our Indian counterparts here today. MS NAUERT: Thank you, everybody. SECRETARY POMPEO: Great. Thanks, everybody. Go ahead, I'll take one more. You look very forlorn. (Laughter.) QUESTION: I just want to clarify on the S-400, is the idea that you're the Indians are so far down in the (inaudible) S-400 that it's not reasonable really to sanction them (inaudible)? SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't. There's been no decision made. But I will share that we do understand the history, right, of India's relationship with Russia and legacy systems. Our effort here, too, is not to penalize great strategic partners like India, a major defense partner. The sanctions aren't intended to adversely impact countries like India. They are intended to be a have an impact on the sanctioned country, which is Russia. And so we'll work our way through the waiver decision as the days and weeks proceed, and we'll do that alongside our partner, India, as well. MS NAUERT: Thank you, everybody. SECRETARY POMPEO: Great. Thanks, everybody. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Envoy working to 'overcome obstacles' barring resumption of Yemen peace talks 6 September 2018 - The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen met Government representatives on Thursday at the start of what were due to be the first peace talks involving both warring parties to be held in two years, vowing to "overcome obstacles" which have so far prevented the Houthi rebel delegation from showing up. Martin Griffiths met the delegation headed by Yemen's Minister of Foreign Affairs Khaled al Yamani, where, according to a statement issued by the Envoy, they discussed "the expectations of these consultations and relevant issues to the peace process, in particular Confidence Building Measures." The Special Envoy thanked the Yemeni Government for "their positive engagement with his efforts to relaunch the peace process" and acknowledged the efforts made by them and the Saudi-led Coalition that is supporting their military campaign to oust Houthi rebels from the country, "to facilitate the convening of these consultations." Fighting between the two sides which escalated in 2015, has caused a humanitarian crisis which has put nearly eight million on the edge of starvation, sparking the world's worst cholera epidemic and leaving the vast majority of Yemenis in need of aid. According to news reports, the Houthi delegation was either unable or unwilling to leave the capital Sana'a to attend the consultations, and the Government has reportedly given a 24-hour deadline for them to arrive in the Swiss capital. Mr. Griffith reiterated the need to reach "an inclusive political solution to the conflict in Yemen. Yemeni people who live under dire humanitarian, economic and security conditions hope for a quick settlement of the conflict." He added that he was "mindful of the challenges associated with bringing the parties together to Geneva, bearing in mind that they haven't met for two years" and said he was hopeful to see the Houthi delegates arrive. "He continues to make efforts to overcome obstacles to allow the consultations to go forward," the statement concluded. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Haiti's security situation remains 'fragile': UN representative 6 September 2018 - Haitian authorities must do more to prepare the Caribbean island nation for the planned withdrawal of the country's UN peacekeeping mission, Bintou Keita, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council on Thursday. Ms. Keita was presenting the Secretary-General's report, a review of the work of The UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), the Government, and the UN country team and external partners, as the country prepares for the transition withouta UN peacekeeping presence, scheduled to take place in October 2019. Ms. Keita told the Security Council that several challenges remain, and dedicated action must take place to ensure the transition is a success. These challenges, she said, include the violent protests that took place in July. These were sparked by a Government announcement of fuel price increases, and included widespread looting in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as in other cities. In that instance, MINUJUSTH assisted the Haitian National Police in protecting the civilian population, and the crisis was quickly overcome. But the outbreak of violence, the worst seen in Haiti for several years, demonstrates the current volatility of the security situation, she intimated. In addition, at a time when armed gangs continue to pose a threat, the number of police officers per 1,000 citizens has dropped to 1.32, and dedicated intervention is needed if the development plan of the Haitian National Police is fully implemented. Several targets have not been met: a national action plan for human rights has not been implemented, a Permanent Electoral Council has not been nominated, and women are not represented in key state institutions. Ms. Keita added that progress hinges on the adoption and promulgation of key rule of law legislation, including the criminal code, and that these problems must be addressed by a fully-functioning Government. MINUJUSTH, briefed Ms. Keita, has outlined a clear political strategy for the transition, working in close cooperation with international partners. Given the October deadline for the end of the UN's peacekeeping role in Haiti, she stressed that the Mission, country team, Government and other partners, will need to "redouble their efforts" to make up for the time lost because of challenges that emerged from the July incidents, and expressed her hope that the Security Council will continue to provide strong support. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Verdict against South Sudan soldiers 'finally delivers justice' - UN Mission 6 September 2018 - The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has applauded the verdict by a military court on Thursday, that found ten government soldiers guilty of murder, rape and other crimes against civilians and journalists at a hotel in the capital Juba, just over two years ago. "The victims and survivors of this horrific attack deserved justice and that has been served today," said UNMISS in a statement. "The outcome of the trial also sends a powerful message to other would-be offenders, including members of the armed forces, that they will be prosecuted and punished for such violence," it added. It is the first time that soldiers have been sentenced for atrocity crimes in South Sudan, where government and rebel soldiers have been accused of committing numerous atrocities against civilians since civil conflict intensified in 2013. The brutal assaults which included the murder of a local journalist and rape of five foreign aid workers occurred at the Terrain Hotel in July 2016, amidst heavy fighting between Government and rival forces which lasted three days and left dozens dead. The judgement delivered early on Thursday, handed down lengthy prison terms to the guilty and also ordered the Government to pay damages to the victims. However, according to evidence raised during the trial, "questions remain about whether accountability for these crimes reached high enough up the chain of command," added UNMISS. 'True courage' of witnesses and survivors In the statement, the UN Mission also commended the witnesses and survivors for demonstrating "true courage and patience" by participating in the judicial process, which began in May 2017. "There were some significant challenges throughout the process, including the detention conditions of the defendants, some impediments to the defendants' access to counsel, and the trial of these crimes against civilians in a military rather than civilian court," it said. However, the UN Mission noted, as the trial progressed, there was a willingness to adopt new procedures, including allowing testimony to be given via video link and using closed sessions to protect the identities of witnesses. Widespread sexual and gender-based violence persists The UN Mission also underscored that despite bringing to justice the offenders in one particular case, the "broader problem" of widespread sexual and gender-based violence against South Sudanese women and children, continues to fester. The world's youngest nation has remained mired in conflict and instability, with most cases of violence going unreported and there is widespread impunity across the country, added UNMISS. 2016 violence and the aftermath The fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) in July 2016 saw dozens killed, with more than 200 reported rapes, and widespread looting and destruction of property. UN compounds and UNMISS-managed civilian protection sites also came under attack. Two UN peacekeepers from the Chinese contingent were killed and several injured, and 182 buildings on the UN House compound were struck by bullets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. An independent special investigation commissioned by then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and led by retired Major General Patrick Cammaert of the Netherlands found "a lack of leadership on the part of key senior Mission personnel had culminated in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence." The investigation was unable to verify allegations that peacekeepers failed to respond to acts of violence committed directly in front of them. In response to the report, the UN moved to enhance training as well as accountability, including working with Member States to bolster the protection of civilians by uniformed personnel in future peacekeeping operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un Meets Special Envoy Delegation of S. Korean President Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Pyongyang, September 6 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, received the members of a special envoy delegation of south Korean President Moon Jae In who visited Pyongyang on Wednesday at the building of the headquarters of the WPK Central Committee. Glad to meet Jong Ui Yong, chief of the State Security Office of Chongwadae, So Hun, director of the National Intelligence Service, Chon Hae Song, vice-minister of Unification, Kim Sang Gyun, vice-director of the National Intelligence Service, and Yun Kon Yong, chief of the State Affairs Planning Office of Chongwadae, on a visit to Pyongyang as the members of the special envoy delegation of President Moon Jae In, Supreme Leader of our Party, state and army Kim Jong Un warmly welcomed their visit to Pyongyang. Kim Yong Chol, vice-chairman of the C.C., WPK, was on hand. The Supreme Leader had a photo session with the members of the delegation. The members of the delegation extended the greetings of sincere gratitude to Kim Jong Un for being so kind to meet them so quickly though he was very busy with the state affairs. Jong Ui Yong, special envoy, courteously conveyed a personal letter of President Moon Jae In to the Supreme Leader. After reading the personal letter the Supreme Leader expressed his thanks to the President for sending the good personal letter which expressed a firm will to wisely overcome many challenges in the future, too, and open a bright future of our nation while appreciating the fresh advance in the relations between the north and the south. The Supreme Leader said he fully supports and sympathizes with the President's determination and that he remains unchanged in his determination to strive hard to bring the fellow countrymen better results at an early date, bearing in mind the mission before the nation and its expectation. He, availing himself of the opportunity, asked the special envoy to convey his warm greetings to the President. The Supreme Leader said that he was proud of the fact that thanks to the sincere efforts and bold decisions he made with strenuous efforts and deep thought together with President Moon Jae In, dramatic moments and good agreements which no one could ever think of were achieved this year, setting right the north-south ties that had been derailed and had remained tragic for years and making significant and excellent successes oriented toward national reconciliation and peace. He said that he highly appreciates and always feels grateful to President Moon Jae In for his sincerity and hard-work for the DPRK-U.S. summit, the first of its kind in history. He said he is pleased over the fact that technical contacts in various fields were made between the north and the south, the reunions of separated families and relatives were realized and north-south military talks and the work of setting up a joint liaison office progressed well after the historic Panmunjom meeting, adding that we should value all these successes which the north and the south made hand in hand and keep advancing without deviation the north-south ties that have definitely entered the new orbit of peace, the orbit of reconciliation and cooperation. He exchanged wide-ranging opinions with the special envoy delegation over the schedule for the Pyongyang summit meeting due in September and its topics, and came to a satisfactory agreement with it. He also talked with it candidly over many issues arising in accelerating the development of the north-south relations and preserving peace and stability of the Korean peninsula. Noting that it is our fixed stand 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 talks between the Supreme Leader and the special envoy delegation of President Moon Jae In proceeded in a compatriotic and warm atmosphere. -0- (2018.09.06) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address DPRK leader recommits to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula: KCNA People's Daily Online (People's Daily) 09:55, September 06, 2018 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) top leader Kim Jong-un has renewed his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday. Kim made the remark during his meeting with a delegation from the Republic of Korea that visited Pyongyang on Wednesday for the inter-Korean summit preparations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Koreas arrange new summit, North 'committed to denuclearization' Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 06:31AM North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has reiterated his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, state media report, as Pyongyang and Seoul arrange a third summit. "The North and the South should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday cited Kim as saying when he received a high-level South Korean delegation in Pyongyang on Wednesday. KCNA said Kim wanted the peninsula the site of long-running tensions and massive military activity by the United States and its regional allies to become "the cradle of peace." "It is our fixed stand and his (Kim's) 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," it said. The high-level South Korean presidential delegation traveled to Pyongyang on Wednesday to arrange a new inter-Korean summit and break a deadlock in denuclearization talks between the North and the US. The delegation was led by South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy Chung Eui-yong. KCNA said the North Korean leader and the delegates exchanged "wide-ranging opinions" over the schedule for the potential summit and "came to a satisfactory agreement." Summit due later in September After his return from the North, Chung announced that the leaders of the two Koreas would hold the summit in Pyongyang from September 18 to 20. It would be the third summit between Kim and Moon. The two Koreas fought a war in the early 1950s. It ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. Ever since, the US military, which fought in the war on behalf of South Korea, has maintained massive presence in the region, holding up the prospect of alleged North Korean aggression. But Kim initiated a rapprochement with South Korea in January, and soon met with President Moon once in April and another time in May. A message for the US The US also sought to diplomatically engage North Korea. US President Donald Trump held a summit of his own with Kim in Singapore in July. Follow-on diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang has however stalled. Chung, the South Korean presidential envoy, said Kim had expressed his "intention to work closely with the US" and "achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" but had also expressed a "sense of frustration" with the international community for not appreciating Pyongyang's "very significant and meaningful" steps. According to Chung, the North Korean leader stressed that Pyongyang had dismantled its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, where nuclear tests "have been made impossible for good." "Chairman Kim asked us to convey the message to the US that the US (should) help create situations where he would feel his decision to denuclearize was a right move," Chung added. Trump, who hopes to make a success of his diplomacy with North Korea, is likely to take the developments positively. He had earlier expressed hope that the South Korean envoy would bring good news from North Korea and that a third inter-Korean summit would be successful. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address North Korea Could Formally End War With South Without US Troop Pull Out - Report Sputnik News 22:20 06.09.2018(updated 22:25 06.09.2018) A South Korean delegation returning from Pyongyang brought important news from the socialist country: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is willing to sign an end-of-war declaration without the withdrawal of US troops from the South. Meanwhile, the North is preparing to celebrate its 70th birthday amid speculation about how militant the fete will be. A special envoy delegation sent by South Korean President Moon Jae In visited the North Korean capital of Pyongyang Wednesday, delivering a personal letter from Moon to Kim. A Thursday statement in the Workers Party of Korea's newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, described the photoshoot, dinner and discussions as taking place "in a compatriotic and warm atmosphere." The Rodong Sinmun article says Kim was "pleased over the fact that technical contacts in various fields were made between the north and the south, the reunions of separated families and relatives were realized and north-south military talks and the work of setting up a joint liaison office progressed well after the historic Panmunjom meeting," and that "we should value all these successes which the north and the south made hand in hand and keep advancing without deviation the north-south ties that have definitely entered the new orbit of peace, the orbit of reconciliation and cooperation." According to the statement, the two Korean delegations mostly discussed the agenda and schedule of the upcoming inter-Korean summit, to take place in Pyongyang September 18 to 20, and Kim said, "The north and the south should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Those efforts that have seemingly stalled in recent weeks as the US cancelled it most recent planned visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the US equivalent of a foreign minister, claiming not to have seen sufficient progress by North Korea toward denuclearization. More details about the meeting came to light once the delegation returned to South Korea, when members of the envoy delivered further messages from Kim. Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security adviser, told reporters Thursday that Kim said he would be willing to sign the end-of-war declaration that Seoul and Pyongyang have been pursuing since the spring without concomitantly demanding the withdrawal of the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea or an end to the alliance between the US and South Korea. While a lasting peace treaty to the 1950 to 1953 war would require much more extensive negotiations between the four powers involved North Korea, China, South Korea and the US a statement declaring the end of the war, issued by the two Koreas, would be an important step toward realizing that goal, which Moon and Kim have indicated to be their primary concern ever since their first meeting at the truce city of Panmunjom in April. Rodong Sinmun articulated the belief Thursday that "[t]he US should no longer stick to a position of attaining denuclearization before signing a peace treaty." "Chairman Kim Jong Un has made it clear several times that he is firmly committed to denuclearization and expressed frustration over skepticism in the international community over his commitment," Chung said. "He said he has pre-emptively taken steps necessary for denuclearization and wants to see these goodwill measures being met with goodwill measures." Chung also told reporters that "Chairman Kim stressed that he has never spoken negatively about President Trump to his staff or anyone," a statement that won praise from US President Donald Trump in a tweet Thursday. In turn, the US State Department announced Thursday that Stephen Biegun, the US' new special envoy to North Korea, who was supposed to go on Pompeo's cancelled visit, would be touring South Korea, China and Japan next week. "The special representative will meet with his counterparts and continue diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore," it said, without further elaborating in Biegun's itinerary, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday. The South Korean diplomat further affirmed the two Korean governments' commitment to opening a liaison office in the North Korean industrial city of Kaesong before the inter-Korean summit. Another goal of the Panmunjom summit, the South Korean Ministry of Unification announced last month the approval of $3.1 million in funding to set up the inter-Korean joint liaison office, to come from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, NK News reported at the time. "We will operate the liaison office with the aim that it can contribute to round-the-clock dialogue and cooperation and the stable management of the situation of inter-Korean relations," the unification ministry said in the statement. "The Ministry of Unification will strive to contribute to the development of the South-North relations by implementing the Panmunjom Declaration sector-by-sector without setbacks." Meanwhile, North Korea is preparing to celebrate its 70th anniversary on Sunday, and there's no shortage of speculation and anticipation about how the festivities will play out. Satellite photos on the website 38 North show that North Korean troops have been practicing for weeks at a mockup of Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square, named after the founder of the country (and Kim Jong Un's grandfather), a revolutionary communist leader who led the Korean insurgency against Japanese colonial rule during World War II. His Workers Party of Korea declared the foundation of the people's democratic republic on September 9, 1948, and the country has made a habit of celebrating its birthday with an extravagant parade, the centerpiece of which is typically their latest military weaponry. However, observers wonder if this year's event won't be different, to reflect the change in tone by Kim in recent months. The last major military parade, in February, showcased North Korea's Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missiles, the very weapons at the center of the denuclearization push on the peninsula, which North Korea says are necessary to guarantee its security and independence amid the presence of US troops in the South and the lack of a permanent peace treaty. In a major contrast to past parades, dozens of international media organizations have been granted visas to attend this year's events, Defense News noted Thursday. It's known that the parade, which always features mass performances by the people of the city, will include a torch parade as well as the revival of the country's iconic mass games after a six-year hiatus. The celebrations also feature civilian contingents celebrating achievements in agriculture, industry, science and art, and may feature these more prominently in the past, given Kim's newly declared focus on building these parts of North Korean society. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Kim Jong-un, Trump Exchange Messages Via S Korean Envoy - S Korean Gov't Sputnik News 13:19 06.09.2018(updated 13:23 06.09.2018) TOKYO (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un through South Korea's presidential special envoy Chung Eui-yong, who visited Pyongyang on Wednesday, while Kim, on his part, asked the envoy to deliver a message to the US leader, South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said on Thursday. "Trump asked President Moon Jae-in during a phone conversation on September 4 to deliver a message to Kim Jong-un," the spokesman said, adding that this was done during Chung's visit to North Korea. Kim Eui-kyeom did not disclose the details of Kim Jong-un's message to Trump and assured that it would be sent to Trump. During the meeting held on Wednesday, Chung met with Kim in Pyongyang and handed over a letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in. In turn, Kim asked Chung to deliver his message to the US administration. In addition, the Korean officials agreed to hold a third inter-Korean summit on September 18-20 in Pyongyang. According to reports, the North Korean leader also reaffirmed his country's commitment to denuclearization. The situation on the Korean Peninsula has significantly improved over the course of this year, with Kim pledging to give up his nuclear aspirations and holding several rounds of talks with his South Korean counterpart and a summit with Trump in Singapore. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address North-South Korea Summit Set for Mid-September By Steve Miller September 06, 2018 A five-person South Korean delegation, led by President Moon Jae-in's top security adviser, visited the North Korean capital Wednesday and agreed to hold an inter-Korean Summit September 18-20. South Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said Thursday that high-level talks will be held early next week at Panmunjom "to discuss protocol, security, communications and media coverage as a part of preparations for the summit." Wednesday's meeting took place amid the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump's abrupt cancellation of a trip to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, because the White House felt Pyongyang had not made sufficient progress toward denuclearization. The one-day meeting between North and South Korea focused on establishing permanent peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula and practical measures of denuclearization. "Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment for complete denuclearization of Korean peninsula," said Chung, "and expressed his willingness for close cooperation not only with South Korea but also with the United States in that regard." Tentative date Chung also said Kim wished to denuclearize and end hostilities with Washington before 2021, adding that the North Korean leader's faith in Trump is "unchanged." The U.S. President responded on Twitter, "Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims 'unwavering faith in President Trump.'" The Seoul and Pyongyang delegations also agreed to take steps to ease military tensions and "decided to reach an agreement at the inter-Korean summit on concrete plans to establish mutual trust and prevent military clashes." Chung announced the two governments would open a joint liaison office with resident representatives before the next summit and "continue necessary cooperation," as well. No pathways to denuclearization announced Despite the diplomatic difficulties between Pyongyang and Washington, Seoul continues to encourage both parties to proceed with peace and denuclearization processes. Troy University International Relations lecturer Daniel Pinkston says Kim's commitment to denuclearization faces skepticism. "I don't see any written commitments," he told VOA. "There are a number of written mechanisms, legal mechanisms, and ways they [North Korea] can demonstrate politically and legally that they're bound to these denuclearization commitments." Harry Kazianis, Director of Defense Studies at The Center for the National Interest, doubts Kim Jong Un will denuclearize, but notes a shift from the "fire and fury" days of 2017. "I do see a lot of hope for a detente on the Korean Peninsula that could be long term," Kazianis said. He also sees the possibility of the Trump administration making a strategic shift in its policy toward Asia, telling VOA, "I think this administration is much more focused on China now than it is on North Korea." But without North Korean compliance in the arms control and denuclearization arenas, Pinkston says "the United Nations Security Council cannot roll back the sanctions regime." Kazianis is doubtful the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization (CVID) will occur, "but there is a lot of ways to lessen tensions with North Korea and to have, what I would call, a working relationship." If North Korea commits to arms control, arms reduction and denuclearization, Pinkston agrees that "there are a number of opportunities" that would eventually open up for North Korea. Moving forward The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically still at war. President Moon has made an end-of-war declaration an important focus. At the United Nations General Assembly in late September, South Korea seeks a trilateral summit, or possibly a four-nation meeting that includes China, to declare a formal end to the conflict. Kazianis doesn't think such a UNGA announcement is likely, but doing so eventually would be tantamount to all sides "agreeing that the war was over." If Kim Jong Un still hasn't demonstrated more concrete steps toward denuclearization, Kazianis says that would be "a clear understanding that he's never going to do it." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India's Iran, Russia Deals Not Likely to Scuttle Better US-India Ties By Anjana Pasricha September 05, 2018 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 Thursday's 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 Pentagon's 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 won't 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 Delhi's 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 China's 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mattis: U.S.-India Partnership Important for Indo-Pacific Stability Sept. 6, 2018 By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity NEW DELHI -- Defense Secretary James N. Mattis arrived here yesterday, ready to engage with senior Indian officials to ensure the Indo-Pacific region remains free, safe, prosperous and secure. Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet in two-plus-two sessions with Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Mattis told reporters his visit to India "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." The secretaries will also meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during the visit. Mattis sees India taking a more prominent role in world affairs. Shared Commitment "Our nations share more than just democracy, of course," he said. "We share a steadfast commitment to a safe and a secure, a prosperous, and especially, a free Indo-Pacific." The current system has allowed the countries of the region to prosper. The system "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," the secretary said. "And as the world's largest democracy, we see India as taking on a greater regional and global responsibility, a stabilizing force." In the meetings, the leaders will examine how to counter terrorism and increase defense innovation. "We are all, of course, looking for how can we enhance stability in South Asia," he said. "We look forward to discussing our respective visions for further strengthening this relationship." Mattis continued, "Relationships don't stay the same, ever. They get stronger or they get weaker. You pay attention, or you lose attention. So we are there to pay attention. We do not take the relationship for granted, and we'll be working to strengthen that. "It is a steady relationship with honest discussions built on common ground that we share as democracies," he added, "but it's ground that provides a firm foundation for our future relationship, a foundation that can take any perturbations in stride without alarm." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Officials Seek to Boost Arms Sales to India Sept. 6, 2018 By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity NEW DELHI -- A decade ago, U.S. arms sales to India amounted to virtually nothing. Today, the United States is the second-largest arms supplier to India, and U.S. officials say they hope to increase that business. Army Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, the director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, spoke to reporters while traveling to India with Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. His agency is responsible for foreign military sales. India is modernizing its military and the United States would like to compete for those sales, he said. "There are four values that govern our relationship with India, and our relationship with all our partners: transparency, responsiveness, integrity and commitment," the general said. Transparency means the agency shares all the information about systems and associated costs with its partners. This allows other nations to make informed decisions on the types of capabilities they need. 'We're Very Confident They'll Choose American Systems' "We're very confident that, when given all of the information that they need, they'll choose American systems and American services," Hooper said. Responsiveness is another key. The general stays in constant touch with his partners. In India's case that is the director general for acquisition. "Every time I see him, I provide him with a spreadsheet that updates the status of all of our systems," Hooper said. "And we have discussions on how we can better strengthen the partnership." Integrity is a key value that separates the U.S. approach to security cooperation from others, he said. "Integrity means, quite simply, our books are always open," Hooper said. "We don't charge one penny more than we have to for the finest systems and the finest services in the world. The books are always open, and we can account for every penny that our partners spend." The U.S. is committed to providing goods and services at the point of sale, and to forging and strengthening a long-term relationship, the general said. "We found that when we follow those four values with our Indian partners, it helps to support, to strengthen that relationship," he said. Hooper cannot comment on possible sales to India, but he said he believes that no matter the domain, any U.S. system would bring enormous capabilities and be economically competitive. "What I can say is, I expect some very fruitful discussions," he said. "All of our systems are the best in the world, and I'm sure are very competitive to suit and meet the requirements of our Indian partners." India has already bought U.S. C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. One aspect of the current U.S.-Indian talks is the communications compatibility and security agreement. Once signed, a much larger range of U.S. weapons systems would be available to India. Over the years, first the Soviet Union and then Russia were the largest arms suppliers to India. Russia remains the biggest supplier, mainly because of contracts for legacy systems. "We're confident that when our partners take a look at the capabilities that we're offering as opposed to whatever capabilities they previously been committed to, that U.S. capabilities will stand head-and-shoulders above all of them and will become the selection of choice, and we will become their partner of choice," Hooper said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S.-India Defense Cooperation a 'Key Driver' of Overall Relationship Sept. 6, 2018 By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity NEW DELHI -- U.S.-Indian defense cooperation has emerged "as the most significant dimension of our strategic partnership and as a key driver of our overall bilateral relationship," Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the conclusion of the two-plus-two talks here today. Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj hosted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis for the talks between India and the United States. The two nations signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement just before the news conference. Mattis called the agreement a significant step in U.S.-Indian defense cooperation. "The landmark agreement deepens our military-to-military cooperation and our ability to share the most advanced defense technology, making us both stronger," he said. "The two-plus-two meeting has helped shared efforts of both sides to promote a whole-of-government approach for our strategic priorities," Swaraj said at a news conference at the conclusion of the talks. 'To Cooperate in Every Possible Way' "The commitment of India and the United States to defend our shared values and common interests is clear and unwavering," Sitharaman said. "We reaffirmed our intention to cooperate in every possible way, to ensure peace and stability as well as to realize the aspirations of our people for continued economic growth, prosperity and development." Both nations have the highest respect for each other's sovereignty, Mattis said. The result is they are committed to work together "for a safe, secure, prosperous and free Indo-Pacific, one that is underpinned by the rule of law," he said. "We appreciate India's role as a stabilizing force on the region's geographic frontlines," Mattis added. "Your nation understands better than many: Peace and prosperity are only attainable when all respect the principles of territorial integrity, freedom of navigation and freedom from coercion -- all of these are fundamental to the rules-based international order." During the meeting the leaders spoke to regional and global concerns like Afghanistan, North Korea and terrorism, Pompeo said. He stressed the shared values the U.S. and India possess. "We have a responsibility to advance those shared values: rule of law; national sovereignty; good governance; the protection of fundamental freedoms, rights and liberties; free, fair and reciprocal trade relationships and peaceful resolutions of territorial and maritime disputes," he said. India already has a robust military training and exercise program with the United States, but the leaders agreed to ramp it up. "To enhance our facilities in this area, we have decided to carry out for the first time a tri-services joint exercise with the United States off the eastern coast of India in 2019," Sitharaman said. "We are also putting in place an enabling framework for further cooperation between our forces." India will continue to work with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, but will now also work with U.S. Central Command, Sitharaman said. Following the meeting, the four leaders also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S., India Tout Defense Ties, But No Breakthroughs On Iran, Russia Purchases RFE/RL September 06, 2018 The United States and India vowed to cooperate more closely on defense matters, but reported no breakthroughs regarding U.S. threats to impose sanctions over New Delhi's purchases of Iranian crude oil and Russian weaponry. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis met with their Indian counterparts in New Delhi on September 6, one day after Pompeo visited regional rival Pakistan. The State Department said the two sides signed an agreement on secure military communications that could pave the way for Washington to sell sensitive military equipment to India. Pompeo and Mattis also agreed with Foreign Minister Sushma Swarah and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to establish a hotline between their top diplomats and to hold joint military exercises off India's eastern coast next year, it added. However, reports said the sides were unlikely to reach an understanding during the U.S. visit over Washington's objections to India's continued purchases of Iranian oil and its planned $6 billion purchase of S-400 antiaircraft missiles from Russia. The United States has asked Indian to reconsider plans to purchase the advanced surface-to-air missile-defense system, saying it could face penalties for dealing with sanctioned Russian defense contractors. India has said that if it finalizes the deal with Moscow, it will ask Washington for a special waiver. The U.S. administration has also set a deadline of November 4 for countries to reduce their imports of Iranian oil to zero or face sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump in May pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with six world powers and last month began reimposing sanctions that had been eased as part of the accord. "We have told the Indians consistently, as we have told every nation, that on November 4, the sanctions with respect to Iranian crude oil will be enforced," Pompeo told reporters after meeting his counterpart. He added that "we will consider waivers where appropriate, but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed." "We'll work with the Indians" and that "it takes a little bit of time to unwind," the U.S. top diplomat said, without being specific. The U.S. officials' talks in India came a day after Pompeo met with leaders of New Delhi's bitter nuclear rival, Pakistan. In Islamabad, Pompeo said he was "hopeful" of resetting the troubled U.S. relationship with Pakistan after he met Prime Minister Imran Khan and other senior officials. The Pentagon announced it was canceling $300 million in aid a week before Pompeo's visit in an apparent attempt to increase pressure on Pakistan to contribute more to U.S. and Afghan efforts to defeat the Taliban or forge a peaceful settlement with the militant group. U.S. intelligence officials say Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and other military bodies have even helped fund and arm the Taliban, both for ideological reasons and to counter rising Indian influence in Afghanistan. Islamabad has denied the accusations. With reporting by Bloomberg, AP, and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pompeo-mattis-in-india- for-delayed-security-talks/29474906.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 India Conducts First Air-to-Air Refueling of Home-Grown Fighter Jet Tejas Sputnik News 18:05 06.09.2018(updated 20:39 06.09.2018) The Indian Air Force (IAF) has committed to purchase 324 Tejas, which means most of the shortfall will be fulfilled by the homegrown fighter jet. The jet is already integrated with Derby beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, while it will eventually boast advanced electronic warfare systems and the Russian-built GSh-23 autocannon. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has successfully carried out its first air-to-air refueling of the domestically built fighter aircraft Tejas MK1 with an IL-78 MKI tanker. The successful refueling test is being considered a big leap in the developmental stage and brightens the chances of the fighter jets getting an operational clearance certificate sooner. "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 refueling is one of the critical requirements for the LCA to achieve 'Final Operational Clearance,'" an Indian Defense Ministry statement reads. The tanker was launched from a base in Agra while the fighter was launched from the Gwalior base in central India. The IAF has carried out several tests on specially modified Tejas aircraft including "dry contact" with the tanker that means that no fuel was actually exchanged between the Il-78 tanker and the Tejas fighter through its air-to-air refueling probe. In the coming days, it will conduct "wet tests" when actual fuel is transferred from the tanker to the fighter. "All flight parameters of Tejas aircraft were transmitted live to a ground control unit set up at Gwalior air base, wherein scientists constantly monitored the technical parameters of the mission," the ministry added. Against the total order of 123 Tejas aircraft, state-owned manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has so far handed over nine Tejas aircraft to the IAF. The Tejas, currently with the IAF, are, however, not combat-ready. Indian defense scientists in cooperation with Israeli defense firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems had completed the integration of the I-Derby beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile on Tejas in July 2017. Presently, nine Tejas are being equipped with the derby missile with an upgraded seeker. The Tejas will be also equipped with smart bombs developed by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Sources told Sputnik that the jet would also be integrated with the Russian-built GSh-23 autocannon. Moreover, the fighter is to get an AESA (active electronically scanned array) radar developed by DRDO and an advanced electronic warfare (EW) suite. Earlier this year,the DRDO claimed before a parliamentary panel that the IAF had committed to buying a total of 324 Tejas, including 201 upgraded versions of the jet. HAL claimed that the IAF would receive Mk-1A Tejas in 2019. Currently, HAL is producing six Tejas per year, which needs to be increased to 16 by 2019. HAL is also working on a more sophisticated version of a jet called the Tejas MK-2, which will fly only after 2022. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India, US Sign Defense Pact to Share Critical Military Communication Technology Sputnik News 13:37 06.09.2018(updated 15:14 06.09.2018) In the first 2+2 ministerial dialogue, India and the US have agreed to set up two new hotlines so that the defense ministers and external affairs ministers of the two countries can be in continuous contact with each other. India and the US have signed a major defense pact on Thursday after a crucial 2+2 ministerial dialogue in New Delhi. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) is supposed to facilitate the transfer of communications security equipment from the US to India and ensure "interoperability" between India and the US in the Asia-Pacific region. "They [the ministers] welcomed the signing of the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) that will facilitate access to advanced defense systems and enable India to optimally utilize its existing US-origin platforms," read a joint statement issued after the dialogue. Pompeo in his address to the media said that both sides had decided to go forward on an "ambitious plan" to "elevate" defense cooperation and in this path the signing of COMCASA is a "major step" in defense collaboration that will allow both countries to work together to protect the Indo-Pacific region. "Defense cooperation has emerged as the most significant dimension of our bilateral relationship," Nirmala Sitharaman said in a press statement. Both countries have also decided to carry out tri-service joint exercises on the eastern coast of India later this year. The ministers also announced their readiness to begin negotiations on an Industrial Security Annex (ISA) that would support closer defense industry cooperation and collaboration. "The Ministers committed to start exchanges between the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the Indian Navy, underscoring the importance of deepening their maritime cooperation in the western Indian Ocean," the joint statement read. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Closing Remarks at the U.S.-India 2+2 Dialogue Remarks Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, and Minister of Defense Nirmala Sitharaman Ministry of External Affairs New Delhi, India September 6, 2018 MINISTER SWARAJ: (Via interpreter) Secretary of State Mr. Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mr. Mattis, my cabinet colleague Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, ladies and gentlemen, and my friends from the media: We have just concluded our talks in the first-ever 2+2 Dialogue between India and the United States. As you know, this new dialogue format was decided by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump during their first meeting in Washington, DC, in June 2017. This decision reflects our leaders' desire to further elevate our bilateral strategic communication on cross-cutting defense and security issues. Friends, this is the first visit abroad by Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mattis together. This is also Secretary Pompeo's first visit to India after becoming foreign minister, and this is also my first meeting with him. Naturally, we have had a lot of issues to discuss during this meeting. Prior to the 2+2 Dialogue, I had a bilateral meeting with Secretary Pompeo, and during this meeting we reviewed the direction of our bilateral relations in recent months, and we exchanged views on a number of regional issues of shared concern. The recent decision by the United States to put India in the list of countries eligible for Strategic Trade Authorization Tier-1 license exemption reflects India's robust and responsible export control policies. During our meeting today, we also agreed to work together to secure India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group at the earliest. Friends, an important element of our strategic partnership is our rapidly growing trade and investment ties. Faster growth in these areas and deeper people-to-people connections are a source of strength for our strategic partnership. Rapidly growing economies are giving rise to new opportunities and a basis for more intense economic engagement. This supports development of manufacturing, promotes knowledge and innovation, creates jobs, and also provides critical resources for growth. The United States is emerging as a supplier of energy to India as well. We recognized and supported efforts made by the two sides to address trade-related issues on both sides so as to make trade balanced and mutually beneficial. With respect to the H1-B visa, we have requested Secretary Pompeo to ensure a nondiscriminatory and predictable approach to the H1-B visa (inaudible), given its high impact on innovation, competitiveness, and people-to-people partnership. All of these are a vital source of strength for our relationship, and I said to Secretary Trump[1] given the friendship between Trump and Prime Minister Mr. Modi, we know that all of our people believe that nothing will ever happen detrimental to our relations between these two countries, and I requested Secretary Pompeo to ensure that we live up to the beliefs of the people of our countries. In the context of our four ministers, we have a growing convergence of views between our countries on the Indo-Pacific. Our respective approaches towards this concept have been outlined by our leaders, by President Trump at the APEC meeting last year, and by Prime Minister Modi at the Shangri-La Dialogue this summer. We see the Indo-Pacific region as a free, open, and inclusive concept with ASEAN centrality at the core and defined by a common, rules-based order that both our countries are pursuing. We welcome the United States interest in expanding its economic footprint in this region, as this complements our own efforts. We agreed to strengthen our bilateral cooperation as well in order to achieve the common goals related to connectivity and infrastructure, and work together with other partners in this region as well to achieve these goals. Friends, in order to fight terrorism we have considerably advanced our cooperation. Last year, the terrorist designations dialogue was established and other mechanisms as well to promote cooperation in counterterrorism. We have agreed to deepen cooperation in international forums like the United Nations and the Financial Action Task Force. We welcome the recent designations of Lashkar e-Tayyiba terrorists by the United States. They underscore the international community's scrutiny over the threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, which has affected India and United States alike. On the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, we recognize the importance of justice and retribution for the masterminds behind this terrorist attack. We also discussed the situation in South Asia in some detail. India supports President Trump's South Asia policy. His call for Pakistan to stop its policy of supporting cross-border terrorism finds resonance with us. We want to also ensure that the call for Pakistan to stop using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. We discussed the ongoing efforts by India and the United States in promoting an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and Afghan Government-controlled reconciliation process, and this brings together all ethnic groups and political formations in the country. We also had productive exchanges on other regional issues as well. Today, overall, I am highly satisfied with our conversation today. The 2+2 meeting has helped shared efforts of both sides to promote a whole-of-government approach for our strategic priorities. India and the United States, as the largest and oldest democracies in the world, each pursuing its independent foreign policies, have many shared global objectives. As equal partners in cooperation our two countries can benefit not only the people of their own countries, but also become a factor for peace and stability in the wider world. We have agreed to closely monitor the implementation of the decisions taken today. Secretary Pompeo and I have decided to remain in touch regularly through the new hotline which has been established between our foreign ministers and defense ministers. And we will thus be able to remain continuously in touch, by myself and our defense minister, Mrs. Sitharaman. MODERATOR: (Inaudible) States, Mr. Michael Pompeo, to give his remarks. SECRETARY POMPEO: Good afternoon. On behalf of the United States, I would like to thank Minister of External Affairs Swaraj and Minister of Defense Sitharaman for hosting Secretary Mattis and me for this first-ever U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. It is truly historic and important. Thank you. This is my first trip to India as Secretary of State, and it is an honor to travel here for such an important and successful event. Later today, Secretary Mattis and I will meet with Prime Minister Modi. We look forward to discussing how best to advance the U.S.-India relationship, one that is in a new era of growth under his leadership and that of President Trump. Today's 2+2 meeting is symbolic of our increasingly close partnership. We had many productive and forward-thinking conversations on our bilateral relationship, our shared future, and how we can cooperate in promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific. As the two largest democracies in the world, the United States and India are deeply bound by our shared values. We have a responsibility to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific that reflects those values: the rule of law; national sovereignty; good governance; the protection of fundamental freedoms, rights, and liberties; free, fair, and reciprocal trade relationships; and peaceful resolutions of territorial and maritime disputes. We know our peoples' ability to exercise their economic and personal freedoms depends on a strong and stable security environment. To that end, today our two countries enter into an ambitious plan to elevate our security cooperation across a number of areas. The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement is a major step forward in our defense collaboration and coordination. It will allow us to better protect the freedom and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. We also agreed on the scope and scale of military cooperation with India as our major defense partner a unique status that the United States has granted to India. I'll let Secretary Mattis speak on this in more detail. Today we also discussed a number of pressing regional and global issues, including Afghanistan and North Korea, and how our two countries can work together more closely to address each of those. We also committed to deepen our already strong counterterrorism cooperation. On economic matters, President Trump recognizes the long-term strategic importance of India's economy playing a productive role in the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing region. He is intent on ensuring the United States, India, and all countries can responsibly reap the benefits of an Indo-Pacific that is open, free with fair trade and investment. As just one example of President Trump's commitment, Secretary of Commerce recently announced Strategic Trade Authorization Tier-1 status for India just a few weeks ago. This will further facilitate high-technology exports from the United States to India. The United States will continue to practice partnership economics with India and all the other countries in the region. We seek to unlock the unparalleled potential of our private sectors to meet the region's developmental, energy and infrastructure needs, and to create an environment in which businesses and countries can thrive when they play by the rules. Today also marks another milestone for our relationship. Thanks to intense advocacy from the United States, 10 years ago today the Nuclear Suppliers Group voted to allow India to engage in trades of civilian nuclear materials and technologies. That vote and the subsequent Section 123 civil nuclear agreement opened a path for our strategic relationship to grow, bolster defense and commercial cooperation and expanded our people-to-people ties. We now look forward to what we can achieve over the next 10 years. In particular, we look forward to finalizing the Westinghouse civil nuclear project that will provide clean and reliable power to millions of Indians. I want to close by again thanking our Indian hosts for your generosity that you have shown to me and my colleagues. The United States will continue to work with India to foster greater security and prosperity for our nations, the Indo-Pacific region and indeed the world. And with that, I invite the Minister of Defense to make remarks. MODERATOR: Thank you, sir. It is my now pleasure to request (in Hindi) Nirmala Sitharaman to deliver her remarks to the media. MINISTER SITHARAMAN: Secretary of State Defense of the United States, Mr. James Mattis, United States Secretary of State Mr. Michael Pompeo, my respected senior colleague (in Hindi) Sushma Swaraj, friends from the media, and ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. We have just concluded a most productive, positive, and purposeful meeting. I wish to thank Secretaries Mattis and Pompeo for their vision and commitment. We deeply value their support for stronger ties between India and the United States. Our discussions today were marked by the deep friendship that characterizes relations between the greatest democracies of the world. The commitment of India and the United States to defend our shared democratic values and expand on our common interests is clear and unwavering. In today's meeting, we reaffirmed our intention to cooperate in every possible way to ensure peace and stability as well as to realize the aspirations of our peoples for continued economic growth, prosperity, and development. We will also work together to combat the persisting threat of terrorism and other shared security challenges. In our discussions, we explored the instrumentalities necessary to deliver on those shared objectives. Ladies and gentlemen, defense cooperation has emerged as the most significant dimension of our strategic partnership and as a key driver of our bilateral overall bilateral relationship. The momentum in our defense partnership has imbued a tremendous positive energy that has elevated India-U.S. relations to unprecedented heights. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi had succinctly stated at his address to the U.S. Congress a year ago, India's relations with the U.S. has overcome the hesitations of history. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of defense. Today, India's defense forces carry out extensive training and joint exercises with the United States. Our joint exercises have acquired greater complexity and newer dimensions both bilaterally and in wider formats. To enhance our synergies in this area, we have decided to carry out for the first time a tri-services joint exercise with the United States off the eastern coast of India in 2019. We are also putting in place an enabling framework for closer cooperation between our defense forces. The signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, LEMOA, in 2016 and the Helicopter Operations from Ships other Than Aircraft Carriers, the HOSTAC, earlier this year were important steps in this direction. The signing of the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, COMCASA, today will enable India to access advanced technologies from the U.S. and enhance India's defense preparedness. Maritime security has been a focus area of our participation and cooperation. To deepen our ties in this area, we will expand our interactions on maritime domain awareness. The United States has renamed its Pacific Command, responsible for relations with India, as Indo-Pacific Command. Reflecting a wider global participation and partnership, we will also enhance our interactions with the United States military's Central Command. Friends, one of the focus areas of the discussions was on expanding the scope and content of the U.S.'s designation of India as its major defense partner. We welcome the recent decision to elevate India to STA Tier-1 status for access to advanced technologies, especially in the defense field. I'm confident that this and other measures to follow will enable our defense industry cooperation to make speedy progress for mutual benefit. We highlighted the major reforms being implemented by the government to promote defense manufacturing in India under the Make in India initiative, including setting up of defense manufacturing corridors. We welcome the U.S.'s positive response to India's request to nominate a point of contact in the U.S. Department of Defense to help address procedural complexities and facilitate Indian companies to join the manufacturing supply chains of the U.S. defense companies. We also identified cooperation in defense innovation as a major area of emphasis for the future. As our defense needs become increasingly driven by technology, this is both necessary and timely. I am particularly thankful to have Secretary Mattis, who has spent several years in Silicon Valley, as our interlocutor in taking this aspect of our ties forward. The memorandum of intent between our defense innovation agencies, which has been signed virtually last night, is a first step in this direction. Ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion of the first-ever Ministerial 2+2 between India and the United States is a concrete manifestation of the vision of our leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, to take the India-U.S. relationship to a new level. Our leaders recognize that it is no longer viable to address foreign and defense issues in a compartmentalized manner. In today's meeting, we were able to discuss a range of issues relating to our ties in a strategic framework and identify steps to take forward our relationship. Our discussions have paved the way for a new era in India-U.S. defense and strategic engagement. Given our shared interests, we are confident that we can work together to promote peace, economic prosperity and security in our region and beyond. I once again thank Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Mattis for their engagement in promoting the India-U.S. partnership. Thank you. MODERATOR: Thank you, ma'am. And finally, may I call upon the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Mr. James Mattis, to deliver his statement to the media. SECRETARY MATTIS: Well, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and Minister Swaraj and Minister Sitharaman, just thank you for the warm hospitality and the professional discussions that we have had here today. It's a pleasure to be back in New Delhi among friends and representing the United States alongside Secretary of State Pompeo. And Minister Sitharaman, I would just say that I wholeheartedly concur with how you characterized the defense relationship in your statement just now. Today's fruitful discussion illustrated the value of continued collaboration between these two coequal democracies. It's a strong relationship between the world's two largest democracies and it did not begin with those of us sitting here before you. We inherited it, and now we ensure it is even stronger when we pass it to our successors on a higher trajectory than we received it. Since India gained its independence in 1947, our nations have shared a fundamental respect and love of freedom. Just three years after India's independence, Prime Minister Nehru visited the United States in his words, and I quote "On a voyage of discovery of the mind and heart of America." Today, Secretary Pompeo and I bring the same spirit that Prime Minister Nehru carried to Washington almost 70 years ago, promoting the cooperation which both our countries earnestly desire. Today's successful and highly productive meeting, the first ever 2+2 between our nations at the ministerial level, has further bolstered our strong defense relationship, as you just heard. We reiterated our highest respect for each other's sovereignty and committed to work together for a safe, secure, prosperous and free Indo-Pacific, one that is underpinned by the rule of law. We appreciate India's role as a stabilizing force on the region's geographic front lines. Your nation understands better than many peace and prosperity are only attainable when all respect the principles of territorial integrity, freedom of navigation, freedom from coercion. All of these are fundamental to the rules-based order. Only then, to borrow Prime Minister Modi's words, can nations small and large prosper free and fearless in their choices. We will continue working together to enhance and expand India's role as a primary major defense partner, to elevate our relationship to a level commensurate with our closest allies and partners. Today we took, as you know, a significant step towards that goal by signing the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement. The landmark agreement deepens our military-to-military cooperation and our ability to share the most advanced defense technology, making us both stronger. In addition, we agreed to increase and expand our engagement in the maritime domain with a new tri-service exercise. And Secretary Pompeo and I also gained insights on a range of issues from the DPRK sanction enforcement to counterterrorism cooperation, recognizing that both our nations have endured the effects of senseless terrorist attacks like those 10 years ago in Mumbai, which killed innocents from more than a dozen nations. We remember those lives lost as we approach the 10th anniversary of attacks this November. Today, the steps we took will pave the way ahead for an even closer military relationship. Our meeting signified the bright future ahead for our two nations, indicating the growing trust we share as strategic partners. We look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi this afternoon, and welcome the opportunity to thank him for his strong leadership and to discuss the way ahead, and thank you very much. MODERATOR: Thank you, sir. This concludes the press statement ceremony and thank you all for joining. [1] Secretary Pompeo NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Opening Remarks at the U.S.-India 2+2 Dialogue Remarks Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, and Minister of Defense Nirmala Sitharaman Ministry of External Affairs New Delhi, India September 6, 2018 MINISTER SWARAJ: Secretary of State Mr. Michael Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mr. James Mattis, my esteemed colleague Nirmala Sitharaman, Excellencies: I extend a very warm welcome to you to India. We are delighted to have both of you here for the very first meeting of Indo-U.S. 2+2 Dialogue. Secretary Pompeo and I met briefly yesterday upon his arrival in New Delhi on his first official visit here. Secretary Mattis has been here earlier, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to my ministry. Both of you are strong supporters of the India-U.S. relationship, and it is only right that we are meeting in New Delhi with the both of you. The 2+2 mechanism has been created in accordance with a decision taken by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump in Washington, D.C., in June last year. It reflects the growing maturity of our strategic partnership. It will facilitate even greater synergies in our engagement in defense and economically (inaudible). India attaches the highest priority to its strategic partnership with the United States. It is a partnership based on shared democratic values, growing convergence of interests, and robust people-to-people linkages. We see the United States as the partner of choice in our efforts to achieve rapid social economic transformation of India. We believe that the U.S. continued economic prosperity and leadership in world affairs is in India's interest. Similarly, India's great political, economic, and security role can reinforce U.S. efforts to promote stability in the region. Partnership between India and the U.S. will not only benefit our two peoples but is also necessary to effectively tackle regional and global challenges. As Prime Minister Modi described at this year's Shangri-La Dialogue, it is, I quote, "a global strategic partnership [which] continues to deepen across the extraordinary breadth of our relationship." During their meeting last year in June, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump set the future direction for our relationship. I am happy to note that there has been significant progress in all of the areas of our engagement, however the potential for what we can do together is a lot more. I am confident that our discussions today and the decisions that we will take will help us unleash the untapped potential of our relations and further elevate the level of our partnership. I would now recognize His Excellency, Secretary of State Mr. Pompeo, to make his opening remarks. This will be followed by opening remarks by my colleague, Defense Minister Sitharaman (inaudible), and then by Secretary of Defense Mr. Mattis. Secretary Pompeo. SECRETARY POMPEO: Minister, thank you. Thank you for hosting us both. Thank you for hosting this important engagement. I am delighted to be making my first trip to India as the Secretary of State now 16 weeks into my time, and especially because I'm here for this important first 2+2 Strategic Dialogue between our two countries. It is a clear demonstration the United States places in terms of priority on the relationship between the United States and India. Our partnership has been steadily growing since Prime Minister Modi visited the White House last June. President Trump is eager for it to continue, and he told Secretary Mattis and I that before we departed. We fully support India's rise as a leading global power, and we welcome India's equal commitment to our partnership. Our two nations are united by shared values of democracy, respect for individual rights, and a shared commitment to freedom. Given those values, India and the United States have a natural starting point for advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific. We should continue to ensure the freedom of the seas and the skies; uphold the peaceful resolution of territorial maritime disputes; promote market-based economics; support good governance, fundamental rights, and liberties; and prevent external economic coercion. We know the threats to stability that exist in the region, and the United States seeks to ensure that both of our peoples can live in peace and in freedom. For years now, our counterterrorism cooperation has deepened, with progress on terrorist designations and information sharing, and is solidified through regular bilateral counterterrorism joint working group meetings. I hope we can continue to make progress on counterterrorism today. We also hope to discuss how India can further work with the United States to achieve the final, fully verifiable, denuclearization of North Korea, and we should explore ways to partner on holding this outlaw regime in Iran responsible for all of its malign activity. Together our nations can achieve our shared vision of prosperity and security as we build a relationship that will help shape the 21st century. Thank you, Madam Minister. MINISTER SWARAJ: Thank you, Secretary Pompeo. Now I invite my colleague, (inaudible). MINISTER SITHARAMAN: Thank you, Madam. Secretary James Mattis, Secretary Michael Pompeo. It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome both of you, Secretary Mattis and Secretary Pompeo, in Delhi this morning. I extend a warm welcome on behalf of the Ministry of Defense of India. Today's meeting marks a defining moment in our bilateral ties. The commencement of the first-ever ministerial 2+2 between India and the United States is a concrete manifestation of the bold vision of our leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President Donald Trump, to take the India-U.S. relationship to an even higher trajectory. This meeting is also a reflection of the tremendous focus that we have made in developing our ties over the past few years. At the same time, it is a strong recognition of the immense potential of our bilateral partnership for the benefit of our peoples, the region, and beyond. As Secretary Mattis and I agreed during our brief interaction this morning, defense cooperation has established itself as one of the most significant dimensions of our relationship. It is now a key driver of our strategic partnership. India-U.S. cooperation in the field of defense reflects the growing maturity of our partnership, which is also a testament to our shared democratic values and common interests of both of our great nations. As we continue to make progress in our defense and security ties, with each step that brings our defense forces and our security entities closer to each other, we add to the growing layers of mutual trust and confidence. Today, India's defense forces carry out more training and joint exercises with the United States than with any other foreign partner. We have acquired various advanced weapons platforms from the U.S. We are thus partners in building defense capability in the broadest sense of the term. Together we are also putting in place an enabling form a framework of closer cooperation between our militaries and our defense establishments. With the announcement of the U.S. designation of India as a major defense partner of the United States and the recent decision to elevate India to STA Tier-1 status for access to advanced U.S. dual-use items, we are hopeful that our defense industry cooperation can also move forward faster in tandem with other dimensions of the defense partnership. We are transitioning from a buyer-seller relationship to one that is more balanced, mutually beneficial, and sustainable. The Government of India has introduced major reforms to promote defense manufacturing in India, including the establishment of defense manufacturing corridor. I invite U.S. companies to become our active partners in this effort. We have identified cooperation in defense innovation as a major area of emphasis for the future. The Memorandum of Intent between our defense innovation agencies is the first significant step that we are making in this direction. I look forward to our discussions today, and now would (inaudible) Secretary Mattis. MINISTER SWARAJ: Thank you. Nirmala. Now I invite Secretary Mattis to deliver his opening remarks. SECRETARY MATTIS: Well, Minister Swaraj and Minister Sitharaman, thank you for hosting this inaugural 2+2, and I echo your words: We embrace on the American side this opportunity, and we share in your confidence in strengthening this top-priority relationship. At this point, I do want to express our condolences for the lives lost here in the Kerala floods, but I must also applaud the Indian military's role in saving so many lives in the midst of that tragedy. Even today as we sit here, our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones. In our two nations, as reservoirs of religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity, and as proud maritime peoples, we see the U.S.-India relationship as a natural partnership between the world's two largest democracies, a partnership that is based on convergence of enduring strategic interests and shared respect for the rules-based order. Our discussion today is a testament to the power of free peoples. I note that over seven decades ago this week, the United States established diplomatic relations with India, prior to its formal independence. Today, our partnership has become one of the most consequential in the region and in the world. As Prime Minister Modi said at Shangri-La last June, "A commitment to common values must be sharedthe foundation upon which we build a shared destiny." The U.S. and India already have that foundation in our commitment to a safe, secure, prosperous, and free Indo-Pacific region, where sovereignty of all nations is respected, international norms are upheld, disputes are resolved peacefully, and nations freely transit international waters and airspace, and further to borrow Prime Minister Modi's words again, nations are free from impossible debt burdens imposed by others. We welcome your insights on how to uphold our shared commitment to the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific, and certainly counterterrorism looms large. We note that 2018 marks 10 years since the Mumbai attacks, where innocent citizens from both of our nations as well as 10 other nations perished at the hands of international terrorism, and we do not forget. India's leadership in the world supports our shared democratic values regionally and globally. We also recognize the increasing connectivity between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, renaming U.S. Pacific Command to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. With India as a major defense partner, we are elevating our defense relationship to be on a par with our closest allies as we deepen the broader U.S.-India relationship, enhancing our interoperability, our defense trade, our technology innovation and industrial collaboration, and bolstering our people-to-people bonds. I appreciate the transparency in our interactions because it reflects the trust we must share for both our nations to benefit from this relationship, and you will not find our military operating outside the framework of our diplomatic set by our diplomats. To conclude, fellow ministers, thank you again for your initiatives in seizing this unique moment with us, and I look forward to hearing your vision for our strategic partnership, and we are ready to work alongside you to take it upon a higher trajectory. Thank you. MINISTER SWARAJ: Thank you, Secretary Mattis. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Senior State Department Official Remarks to Traveling Press Special Briefing New Delhi, India September 6, 2018 SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: First off, if I could say, this is really building from the President's meeting with Prime Minister Modi back in June of last year, which was really set the stage for the administration to continue to build on this convergence of values, which is what makes this relationship remarkable. And I think in the last year you've already seen some of the evidence of this continued transformation in the relationship the STA-1 announcement that India now enjoys, the licensing of our closest allies, our NATO allies, which gives it, in fact, license-free access to certain defense articles in recognition of the role that we play together and a building out of what it means for India to be a major defense partner, which, again, is a sui generis category that was that Congress created for India. We expect to be on our way to the finalization of certain defense agreements, which will enable our militaries as well as our private sectors to work more closely together both on defense acquisitions but also on defense collaboration. We expect to see institutional cooperation between like the Defense Innovation Unit and the Indian parallel organization, really sort of from the top down this convergence of bureaucracy and interests that we're excited about. And I think the context to put this in is the National Security Strategy, the South Asia Strategy, and the Indo-Pacific Strategy. In each of those strategies, India's role is prominent. I think India is one of the most mentioned countries in the National Security Strategy. In the South Asia Strategy this administration for the very first time recognized the role that India has to play in the stabilization of Afghanistan, and we've had great partnership, including trilateral meetings that I hold with Indian and Afghan partners, in recognition of India's status, I think, as the fifth-largest assistance contributor to Afghanistan. And then the Indo-Pacific Strategy, of course, India's role with us, with other likeminded countries of the region, in committing ourselves to a free and open Indo-Pacific. And there are obviously security dimensions to that cooperation. There are maritime domain awareness (inaudible) of our exercise that we do with Japan, the fact that India is already the country we do the most military exercises with. There's an economic dimension, connectivity, how do we help countries that want need infrastructure to have options in order as they pursue infrastructure development and as they pursue development that allows them to increase intra-regional trade? Here in South Asia there is among the lowest levels of intra-regional trade, and so the task is even greater. And then finally oh, I think those were the three elements the security, the governance, and the economics. And I would say that I just came from Vietnam, where there was the India was hosting the Indian Ocean conference, which brings together I think like 40-some countries all behind the concept of working together on a vision. And it's obviously not a containment of China; that's not the purpose of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, but of an alternate vision of development that embraces the highest standards, that looks at debt sustainability, that looks at labor, environmental, that allows countries to be able to develop in a responsible way. And the appetite for that choice I think is very much there, and we see it in our cooperation in this forum as well as in our bilateral, trilateral with Japan and quadrilateral with Australia efforts. Finally, CT is obviously another shared interest. We've worked closely with India over the last year to have both a counterterrorism dialogue as well as a dialogue on designations. We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Mumbai bombing. Obviously, we share India's concern that Pakistan continues to allow Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the Mumbai bombing, free, at-large, despite the reward that's on his head and despite his very known role in helping to facilitate that attack. So again, I would say overall why is this relationship important to successive administrations and why has it been prioritized under the Trump administration? It's because there's a values that creates a foundation that allows us to look not just this year or next year but to talk about how we're going to partner decades out. And so these are big building blocks that are being finalized here today. QUESTION: So you mentioned the defensive units and acquisitions part and the S-400 plays into that, but I wanted to start with something more immediate perhaps and the oil from Iran and getting down to zero by November 4th. The Secretary mentioned that that's going to come up, but are we looking for any specific commitments on that coming out of this particular 2+2? SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I'm sure it will be discussed today. We are asking all of our partners, not just India, to reduce to zero the oil exports or oil imports from Iran, and so I'm confident that will be a part of our conversation with India. In the past we've seen India take steps during the previous round of JCPOA sanctions where they did their private oil companies did work towards that goal. QUESTION: But Indian officials have said that the November 4th deadline is not practical, so -- SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: There are very detailed conversations taking place between the U.S. and India on just the technical issues related to going to zero. Those conversations will continue. QUESTION: Do you expect a deal on this military communications cooperation or partnership? Is that something that could come out of these meetings today? I guess the -- SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah, we are making good progress to concluding some of these key agreements. QUESTION: Okay. QUESTION: That was yeah not confirming. Just saying -- SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Right. We're making good progress. QUESTION: -- we're making good progress, but DOD will address that? SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Mm-hmm. QUESTION: Okay. And then on other agreements from this, do you I mean, I know talking about sort of the broader strategic relationship, but in terms of like a concrete deliverable, is there something going to come out of this where you'd say okay, we are putting our signatures on certain documents? Would either that -- SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: There'll be a joint statement issued later today that will encapsulate what's been accomplished over the course of the year, and that will be newly heralded today. I mean, already you've seen some of the building blocks. The STA-1 licensing status that was given to India is a significant one as well. QUESTION: Okay. But in terms of like a firm commitment from them like to not buy the S-400, I mean, is that something that you would press for out of these meetings, or are those more like a dialogue that would happen -- SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The S-400 continues to be a dialogue, and it's a dialogue we're having not just with India but with all of our partners in the region. QUESTION: Okay. QUESTION: You mentioned CT, and there's been an increase of violence in the Kashmir region with kidnappings of police, family, and more militance on the Pakistani side than we've seen in decades. How much is that a concern to you, and how much is that playing into the discussions today? SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I'm confident that there'll be a conversation on counterterrorism cooperation, and we share India's concerns over cross-border infiltrations and violence. And with respect to with respect to Indo and Indo-Pak relations, we welcome efforts by both countries to speak with one another and to engage one another. There's obviously been a DGMO channel that has been used over the last several months. We saw a commitment by the countries, I believe in early June, a commitment by Pakistan to reduce levels of violence along the Line of Control. I think there's been a reduction in the historic levels, but it's certainly not the level of reduction that we need to see. And so I can't comment on the Secretary's meetings yesterday, but as an ongoing element of our conversation with Pakistan is the need to end all support for terrorist proxies whether on the eastern border or the western border. QUESTION: One thing on the it just seems like the optics between the visit yesterday and the meetings today are so much different. I mean, when he was landed in Islamabad, he was met by like a protocol officer. He comes here, and the external affairs minister greets him at the airport with a bouquet of flowers and shows him into his car. And the things that you guys are saying about Pakistan now seem essentially identical to what you were saying when the State Department cut security assistance last January. It just doesn't seem like anything's changed in that relationship with Pakistan and the Secretary saying exactly what Secretary Tillerson said. SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: But I would say the more important point is what you started with. It's a mistake to try to hyphenate India and Pakistan. These are relationships that are utterly separate: a strategic partnership, burgeoning strategic partnership with India, one in which we're laying out foundations for what you can see down the road is going to be an increasingly robust military, economic, diplomatic relationship; whereas, with Pakistan, we're confronting existential questions about the relationship and about what Pakistan what role Pakistan is prepared to play in the international community. QUESTION: But I know that you guys are in part reluctant to do this, but I mean, is there some point at which you say with Pakistan this just isn't working out, we've got to take other measures, whether it be sanctions or some sort of punitive -- SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think under the South Asia Strategy what you've seen is a series of measures that have been taken with respect to Pakistan. And that dialogue and that effort to engage constructively with Pakistan continues, as you saw with the Secretary's visit yesterday. Since I wasn't a part of that visit, I can't comment on it. QUESTION: Sure. SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: But I would go back to the original point. Our relationship with India stands on its own. It's a partnership that has global implications, and today you're going to see additional evidence of how well we can work together. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US, India Ink Deal to Expand Defense Ties By William Gallo September 06, 2018 The United States and India took a major step to expand defense ties Thursday, signing a deal that allows India to acquire high-end U.S. weaponry, including armed drones. The agreement was signed during a meeting in New Delhi among U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and their Indian counterparts. The U.S. earlier this year offered armed Guardian drones to India, but the sale could not go through until the agreement, known as COMCASA, was reached. "The landmark agreement deepens our military to military cooperation and our ability to share the most advanced defense technology, making us both stronger," Mattis said. If the Guardian sale goes through, India would become the first non-NATO country to buy armed U.S. drones. The deal reflects growing ties between the U.S. and India the world's two largest democracies both of whom are concerned about China's rising power. Defense cooperation, in particular, has emerged as the "most significant dimension" of the U.S.-India relationship, said Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. U.S.-India ties, she said, have reached "unprecedented heights." Iran, Russia disagreements The U.S. and India haven't always been this close. India, which has historically tried to be neutral in world affairs, has bristled at what it considers U.S. restraints on its foreign policy decisions. Most recently, the U.S. has taken issue with India's purchase of oil from Iran and its planned acquisition of a Russian missile defense system. Both moves would violate U.S. sanctions. A Pentagon official last month threatened to impose sanctions on India if it goes ahead with its $6 billion purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system. But in their public comments Thursday, neither side mentioned the Russia or Iran disputes. And the S-400 never came up in private discussions with India's defense and external affairs ministers, said Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for South and Southeast Asia Joe Felter. Iran also "wasn't a big topic," he said. Most of India's weapons are Russian-made, a legacy of India's Cold War relationship with the Soviet Union. The U.S. is currently India's second-largest weapons supplier. But U.S. military sales to India have expanded rapidly going from zero in 2008 to $15 billion this year. That figure now stands to increase, with the new agreement in place. "It comes down to trust. Some of this tech is very sensitive. Some countries we don't want this tech to fall in the hands of," Felter said, adding the U.S. has similar agreements with less than 30 countries. The U.S. and India also agreed to hold a new military exercise. The exercise will involve sea, land, and air forces. It will occur of the eastern coast of India in 2019. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address ICC says it has jurisdiction over Myanmar crimes against Rohingya Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 04:42PM The International Criminal Court says it has jurisdiction to probe the forced deportations of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity. The Hague-based tribunal said in a statement on Thursday that the ICC's "pre-trial chamber... decided by majority the court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportations of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh." A three-judge panel said in a written summary of its decision that "the Court has jurisdiction over the crime against humanity of deportation allegedly committed against members of the Rohingya people." "The court may also exercise its jurisdiction with regard to any other crime set out in article 5 of the statute, such as the crimes against humanity of persecution and/or other inhumane acts." Although Myanmar is not a member of the court, Bangladesh is and the cross-border nature of deportation is enough basis for jurisdiction, the court said. "The reason is that an element of this crime - the crossing of a border - took place on the territory of a State party (Bangladesh)." Prosecutors had asked judges for an advisory opinion on whether such actions could fall under the tribunal's jurisdiction. They have not launched any formal case related to alleged deportations from Myanmar. The ICC's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in April asked judges at the world's only permanent war crimes court to rule whether she can investigate the deportations as a crime against humanity. She likened the deportations to "a cross-border shooting", arguing that the crime "is not completed until the bullet (fired in one state) strikes and kills the victim (standing in another state)". The latest decision at the ICC court paves the way for Bensouda to further examine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case. The Thursday decision comes just days after UN-mandated investigators said Myanmar's military had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state with "genocidal intent". The UN investigation team reported that Myanmar's top generals should face prosecution for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine. The mission has also said the de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi should have resigned over her silence on the campaign of terror. In June, Human rights group Amnesty International said Myanmar's top military officials must be tried at the ICC for crimes against humanity over atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority country. Members of the Rohingya Muslim community have been killed, arbitrarily arrested, and raped by Myanmar's forces and extremist Buddhists, who have also burned and destroyed Rohingya villages in mass arson attacks. More than 700,000 members of the minority Muslim group have fled the state-sponsored violence to southeast Bangladesh over the past months. The UN has described the campaign as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, saying it possibly amounts to genocide as well. For years, Myanmar's government has refused to allow UN investigators to enter Rakhine and Suu Kyi has virtually done nothing to stop the crimes. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian army targets terrorists in Hama, Idleb IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Sept 6, IRNA -- Syrian army units achieved a new advancement in hunting down Daesh (ISIS) terrorists in al-Safa hills in the depth of Sweida eastern Badyia (desert). SANA reporter in Sweida said that army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, engaged in violent clashes with Daesh terrorists in Ard Qa'a al-Banat to the northwest of al-Safa hills as they advanced over an area of 2 km, tightening the noose over the remnants of terrorists and cutting their supply routes. The reporter indicated that scores of terrorists were killed in the clashes and the army established fire control over the rest of water resources of Daesh terrorists amid rapid collapses among their ranks SANA reporter indicated that army units continued to hunt down the remnants of, Daesh terrorists who fled away towards the depth of the area, using suitable weapons. Meanwhile, the army artillery and air force destroyed fortified positions and barricades belonging to terrorists in the depth of the area, killing all terrorists inside them. Meanwhile, the army units destroyed arms depot and sites for Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists in Idleb southern and Hama northern countryside. SANA reporter in Hama said that an army unit targeted with artillery fire positions and hotbeds for the terrorist organizations in the southern countryside of Idleb, destroying sites and arms depot in al-Tamanea town, about 8 km east of khan Sheikhoun city and al-Teh village, in addition to destroying a training camp for the terrorist organizations in Tel Aas village in Idleb countryside. The reporter added that the army units also bombarded the hotbeds and the fortified points of the terrorists in Kafar Zeita surrounding in the northern countryside of Hama, destroying a cave used by the terrorists as a field hospital to treat the injured terrorists. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Daesh to lose all territory in Syria by 2019: French army chief Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 02:59PM The French military chief says the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group will have been flushed out from all the territory it once controlled in Syria under a self-proclaimed "caliphate" before the end of this year. France's Chief of Defense Staff Francois Lecointre made the remark in a press conference on Thursday, adding that the physical annihilation of the so-called caliphate would "probably" occur "late autumn." Daesh is no longer in control of any urban bastions in Syria and its sporadic presence in the Arabic country is quickly shirking against advancing government troops. As for Iraq, the Iraqi central government in late December declared victory against the terror group, stressing that the terror outfit had lost all of its urban strongholds. However, the sporadic presence of Daesh in small pockets of land in some deserts and rural areas of Syria has helped the terror group launch deadly attacks against civilians and army soldiers alike. The US, along with dozens of its allies, including France, launched a military operation against purported Daesh targets in August 2014, a few months after the terror group seized large swaths of land in Iraq and commenced its reign of terror and destruction. The US and its allies have also been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be the positions of Daesh terrorists inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. The US-led coalition has been repeatedly accused of targeting and killing civilians across the Arab country. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh. "Once the physical caliphate has fallen... we will pose the question of how to reconfigure Operation Inherent Resolve," Lecointre further said on Thursday, referring to the US-led coalition's military intervention in Iraq and Syria. He also pledged to downscale the French troop contingent -- currently more than 1,000-strong "as soon as I can." Russia, which has been offering military assistance to Damascus upon a Syrian government's request since September 2015, has already said that the presence of the US-led coalition in the form of "a wide range of foreign countries" is "illegitimate" because "nobody has invited them" to the war-torn Arab country. Syrian army troopers, backed by allied fighters from popular defense groups, have recently made major territorial gains in battles against Daesh and other foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorist groups, almost capturing the entire southern part of the country after securing Damascus and other key areas. Apart from militant-held Idlib, which is waiting for an upcoming operation by Syrian army soldiers, Takfiri militants are also in control of some areas of the western-central province of Hama, and are holding some desert regions near the border with Turkey. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia 'to fight terrorists in Syria until their obliteration' Iran Press TV Thu Sep 6, 2018 09:52AM Russia has stressed that it will continue to fight terrorist forces in Syria until "their total elimination," as a full-scale liberation operation against remaining militants concentrated in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib draws close. "We consider it Russia's duty to strictly adhere to the agreements [concerning the de-escalation zone in Idlib], and it will continue the fight against terrorists until their ultimate and total elimination," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a press conference in the capital, Moscow, on Wednesday, Russia's TASS news agency reported. Zakharova's comments came a few hours after the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its fighter jets had bombed the positions of the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist group formerly known as al-Nusra Front in Idlib. It also dismissed allegations that the strikes had struck civilian areas. Zakharova, too, stressed that the airstrikes were hitting terrorist positions only. "The Russian Aerospace Forces are conducting strikes on Idlib not for 'aggressive' purposes, but for exterminating terrorist objects that are used in the increasing attacks on the Syrian army's positions and the civilian population, as well as in the attacks on the Russian military, whose presence in Syria is requested by the lawful government of the country," she said. Russia started an aerial bombardment campaign against militants in Syria on a request from Syria's elected government in September 2015. Together with Iranian advisory military assistance, the Russian campaign has helped the Syrian military retake almost the entire country from militants. Idlib is a final flash point, where a mix of militant groups has been shuttled to under previous agreements. Early this week, US President Donald Trump, whose country has had unauthorized military presence in Syria for several years, claimed the offensive on Idlib would lead to a humanitarian crisis. This is while the Russian and Syrian militaries are only targeting militant positions. Russia flatly dismissed Trump's claim. Elsewhere in her Wednesday remarks, Zakharova said Moscow found the calls to suspend the offensive on terrorists in Idlib for an unspecified amount of time "unacceptable." "All this imploring comes down to this: leaving the terrorists holding millions of people hostage in Idlib... indefinitely, and it is unacceptable," she said, stressing that there could be no "peace" as long as terrorists were still in Idlib. Terrorists "cannot be allowed the opportunity to export terror across the region and the whole world, while remaining in safety," Zakharova said. She said Russia's partners "should not hinder this process by contradictory signals," in an apparent reference to the US. Apart from Idlib, Takfiri militants are also in control of some areas of the west-central province of Hama, and are holding some desert regions near the border with Turkey. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Treasury Sanctions Target Syrian Government's Petroleum Procurement Network Sputnik News 23:47 06.09.2018(updated 23:56 06.09.2018) The US Treasury Department has announced new sanctions against four people and five entities who, according to the department facilitated petroleum shipments and financing to the Syrian government, accusing one of the companies of facilitating fuel trade between the Syrian government and Daesh terrorists. The US Treasury Department has imposed new sanctions on Thursday on individuals and entities in Lebanon and Syria. The department sanctioned four people and five entities who it said facilitated financial transactions, fuel and weapons shipments shipments for the Syrian government. "Today, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated four individuals and five entities," the release said. "Those added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) as a result of today's action have facilitated financial transactions and shipments of fuel and weapons to the Syrian regime." The US Treasury Department also said in its announcement that the sanctions targeted Muhammad al-Qatirji and his company, claiming that the company facilitated fuel trade between the Syrian government and Daesh* terrorists. Previously, The United States imposed sanctions on five entities and eight individuals recently blacklisted by France for allegedly helping to acquire electronics for the agency in Syria that develops chemical weapons. The Syrian government has been refuting the allegations of being in possession of chemical weapons, pointing at the fact that its stockpiles had been taken out of the country and destroyed under international control. *Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL is a terror organization, banned in Russia, US, Syria and many other countries. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Damascus Destroyed All Chemical Weapons With Support of US - Syrian FM Sputnik News 14:51 06.09.2018(updated 15:32 06.09.2018) Two days ago the White House stated that Washington, together with its allies, was ready to respond to a possible chemical attack carried out by the Syrian government forces. The entire arsenal of chemical weapons that Damascus possessed was destroyed, with US assisstance, the Head of Syria's Foreign Ministry Walid Muallem said Thursday. "I want to confirm that Syria has no chemical weapons, as they were destroyed from the very moment the county joined the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. At the same time, the US fleet took away all of Syria's chemical substances and weapons, which were liquidated in the Mediterranean Sea," Muallem said to reporters in an interview with "International Life" magazine. Earlier, Russia said that militants in Syria were preparing a false flag chemical attack in Syria's Idlib province, adding that the US can use this as a cause for a new attack on Syria. In April, the situation in Syria escalated, in the wake of an alledged chemical attack on the city of Douma. The incident was used to justify airstrikes against Syria by the US-led coalition, thought, Damascus had strongly denied the allegations. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mattis Claims US Has 'Zero Intelligence' on Syrian Militants' Chemical Weapons Sputnik News 09:56 06.09.2018(updated 15:09 06.09.2018) In late August, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that militants in Syria were preparing a provocation to accuse Damascus of using chemical weapons against civilians in Idlib. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stated that despite having a "fairly good penetration" of the Syrian opposition groups, the Pentagon had not seen any evidence indicating that the militants in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib have the ability to conduct a chemical weapons attack. "We have zero intelligence that shows the opposition has any chemical capability," Mattis pointed out. His remarks came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in late July that "there is no doubt" that militants in Syria were preparing a false flag chemical incident, and that Russia has handed the relevant proof the US, the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that the militants planned to use chemical weapons in Syria's Idlib province, adding that the US can use this as a cause for a new attack on Syria. Earlier, the Ministry said that unknown chemicals had been delivered to Idlib, in a move assisted by the White Helmets non-government group. In mid-April, Russian chemical defense specialist Alexander Rodionov announced that Russian troops had found a warehouse containing the raw materials used in the production of chemical weapons in the newly-liberated Syrian city of Douma, where he noted that "a cylinder with chlorine was found in the warehouse" among other things. Chlorine gas was first used as a weapon in the First World War and was used in the Iraq conflict. "It can be concluded that this laboratory was used by illegal armed groups for the production of poisonous substances," Rodionov underscored. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address MND mulls attendance at annual defense meeting in U.S. ROC Central News Agency 2018/09/06 13:19:18 Taipei, Sept. 6 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Thursday it is still weighing whether to have the defense minister attend an annual defense meeting in the United States this year. The head of the Taiwanese delegation will be decided based on the content of the upcoming U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference and the level of the U.S. participants at the annual meeting, among other factors, an MND statement said. Also, an upcoming Legislative session that will require senior defense officials to be in Taipei is another factor to take into consideration, it added. The MND statement came after the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, the chief organizer of the event, confirmed that it has invited Defense Minister Yen De-fa () to the 2018 meeting to be held in October in Maryland. Since 2002, Taiwan defense officials have attended the U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, most recently in 2008, when then-defense minister Chen Chao-min () was present. The U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference has been held every year in the U.S. since 2002 as an annual platform for dialogue on Taiwan's national security needs, weapons procurement and defense cooperation with the U.S. At the first conference, which was held in Florida, Taiwan's then- Minister of National Defense Tang Yiau-ming () gave the keynote address. On other occasions, the delegation has regularly been led by Taiwan's deputy defense minister. This year the meeting will be held Oct. 28-30 in Maryland. It will be the 17th annual event in a series of ongoing conferences addressing the future of U.S. defense cooperation with Taiwan, the defense procurement process, and Taiwan's defense and national security needs, according to the meeting's website. (By Joseph Yeh) Enditem/J NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkey Begins Construction of Site for Russian S-400 - Reports Sputnik News 20:28 06.09.2018(updated 20:37 06.09.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Turkey has begun building a platform site for a Russian S-400 missile defense system, despite pressure from Washington to abandon plans to purchase the military equipment, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing a source with firsthand knowledge of an unpublished intelligence assessment. The source said the assessment was conducted about a month ago and includes satellite imagery of a concrete launch facility and other constructions, including bunkers, the US media reported. The source also indicated that the work at the site "fits the pattern" for Russia's S-400 system, the report said. The report gave no indication about where the site is located in Turkey. US officials have warned that if Ankara goes ahead with plans to purchase the Russian S-400 anti-missile systems, the United States could withhold the transfer of F-35 jets. The US Congress also recently passed legislation that would block the transfer of F-35s if Turkey buys the Russian S-400s. In December 2017, Russia and Turkey signed a loan agreement to supply S-400s to Ankara. According to a statement by the Turkish defense industry secretariat, two S-400 batteries will be operated and serviced by the Turkish military. Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Turkey expects to receive the Russian S-400 missile defense systems in the near future. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PUBLIC POLL: Which of the following challenges do you consider to be Ghana's biggest?@MBawumia @NAkufoAddo @konkrumah @GhPoliceService @GhanaParliament @nccegh @parliament_gh Improperly timed traffic lights. Drivers who pull out in front of you. Drivers who accelerate in the left-turn lane. Drivers who are discourteous about allowing others to merge. Drivers who dont use their blinkers. Drivers on their cellphones instead of driving. Vote View Results Language detectives say the key clues to who wrote the anonymous New York Times opinion piece slamming President Donald Trump may not be the odd and glimmering "lodestar," but the itty-bitty words that people usually read right over: "I," "of" and "but." And lodestar? That could be a red herring meant to throw sleuths off track, some experts say. Experts use a combination of language use, statistics and computer science to help figure out who wrote documents that are anonymous or possibly plagiarized. They've even solved crimes and historical mysteries that way. Some call the field forensic linguistics, others call it stylometry or simply doing "author attribution." The field is suddenly at center stage after an unidentified "senior administration official" wrote in the Times that he or she was part of a "resistance" movement working from within the administration to curb Trump's most dangerous impulses. "My phone has been ringing off the hook with requests to do that analysis and I just don't have the time," says Duquesne University computer and language scientist Patrick Juola. Robert Leonard, a Hofstra University linguistics professor who has helped solve murders by examining language, says if experts could get the right number of writing samples from officials whose identities are known, "an analysis could certainly be done." One political scientist figures there are about 50 people in the Trump administration who fit the Times' description as a senior administration official and could be the author. The key would be to look at how they write, the words they use, what words they put next to each other, spelling, punctuation and even tenses, experts say. "Language is a set of choices. What to say, how to say and when to say it,"Juola says. "And there's a lot of different options." One of the favorite techniques of Juola and other experts is to look at what's called "function words." These are words people use all the time but that are hard to define because they more provide function than meaning. Some examples are "of," ''with," ''the," ''a," ''over" and "and." "We all use them but we don't use them in the same way," Juola says. "We don't use them in the same frequency." Same goes with apostrophes and other punctuation. For example, do you say "different from" or "different than?" asks computer science and data expert Shlomo Argamon of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Women tend to use first- and second-person pronouns more - "I," ''me" and "you" - and more present tense, Argamon says. Men use "the," ''of," ''this" and "that" more often, he says. "You look for clues and you try to assess the usefulness of those clues," Argamon says. But he is less optimistic that the Trump opinion piece case will be cracked for various reasons, including the New York Times' editing for style and possible efforts to fool language detectives with words that someone else likes to use such as "lodestar." Mostly, he's pessimistic because to do a proper comparison, samples from all suspects have to be gathered and have to be similar, such as all opinion columns as opposed to novels, speeches or magazine stories. Rachel Greenstadt at Drexel University studies when people try to throw off investigators with words they don't normally use or purposeful bad spellings. She says her first instinct is that the word "lodestar" - one Vice President Mike Pence has used several times - is "a red herring." It seems too deliberate. "Most people are still looking for sound bite-sized features like lodestar instead of trying to get a handle on the whole picture," says Hofstra's Leonard. Greenstadt says language analysis "could kind of contribute to the picture" of who wrote the Times' opinion pieces, but she adds "by itself, I'd be concerned to use it." Still, with the right conditions words matter. Juola testified in about 15 trials and handled even more cases that never made it to court. His biggest case was in 2013, when a British newspaper got a tip that the book "The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith was really written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. In about an hour, Juola fed two Rowling books, "The Cuckoo's Calling" and six other novels into his computer, analyzed the language patterns with four different systems and concluded that Rowling did it. A couple of days later, Rowling confessed. It was far from the first time that language use fingered the real culprit. The Unabomber's brother identified him because of of his distinctive writing style. Field pioneers helped find a kidnapper who used the unique term "devil strip" for the grassy area between the sidewalk and road. The phrase is only used in parts of Ohio. Even in politics, words are poker tells. In 1996, the novel "Primary Colors" about a Clintonesque presidential candidate set Washington abuzz trying to figure out who was the anonymous author. An analysis by a Vassar professor and other work pointed to Newsweek's Joe Klein and he finally admitted it. But the literary sleuthing goes back to the founding of the republic. Historians had a hard time figuring out which specific Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton and which were by James Madison. A 1963 statistical analysis figured it out: One of the many clues came down to usage of the words "while" and "whilst." Madison used "whilst"; Hamilton preferred "while." Juola says experts in the field can generally tell introverts from extroverts, men from women, education level, age, location, almost everything but astrological sign. "The science is very good," Juola said. "It's not quite DNA. It's actually considered by some scientists to be considered the second-most accurate form of forensic identification we have because it is so good." Lindsay Perry / Lindsay Perry A former Building & Land Technology employee received an eight-month prison sentence followed by four more months of home confinement, after prosecutors said he took kickbacks of up to $500,000 from contractors between 2011 and 2014 to steer them work. Glastonbury resident Javed Choudhry, 60, pleaded guilty in May 2017 to conspiracy and tax evasion related to the kickback scheme, after an investigation by the FBI and IRS, according to the office of John Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. 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 3 1 of 3 Stamford police / Contributed Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Stamford police / Contributed Show More Show Less 3 of 3 STAMFORD Police say two residents of a city senior citizens complex have been arrested for importing cheap heroin from New York. Capt. Richard Conklin said officers in the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad learned that Anthony Debartolomeo, 58, of Crane Road, and Robert Jones, 55, of Main Street, have been bringing the drugs back to sell in Stamford. NEW HAVEN A school bus driver was arrested Thursday afternoon after allegedly leaving two Wilbur Cross High School students unattended, a district official confirmed. According to Will Clark, chief operating officer of New Haven Public Schools, the district is investigating how this could have occurred . We dont have the complete explanation of how or why that happened, but certainly that would be a breach of all the protocols and, as we understand, the training, as well, he said. Clark said the driver is facing two charges of risk of injury, although police spokesman Officer David Hartman would not confirm Thursday evening whether an arrest had been made. Clark said police, district officials, First Student bus company and the state Department of Children and Families responded to the incident in the area of Woodward Avenue. We are working with all agencies to establish facts, he said. Clark said the parents immediately were notified and both students appeared healthy, although one requested to go to the hospital. He said Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks and Director of Student Services Typhanie Jackson visited that student in the hospital and then paid a visit to the other childs family. My understanding is this is someone who has been a bus driver and is therefore a veteran and its all very difficult to fathom how or why this couldve happened, he said. As horrible and unexpected as it is, our staff and police and DCF and everybody responded very quickly to the scene once it was reported. The identity of the driver was not released. First Student could not be reached Thursday and a request for comment from DCF was not immediately returned. The school district had an early dismissal Thursday, responding to the heat and humid conditions. It was the second consecutive day this week that schools were dismissed two hours early. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com South Africa's ruling African National Congress pledged to tackle land reform responsibly as investor concerns mount over plans to change the constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation. "We will not and will never subscribe to land grabbing in South Africa, we are orderly and we are organized in what we do," Fikile Mbalula, the ANC's head of elections and a member of the party's decision-making National Executive Committee, said at a meeting with agricultural lobby group Agri in Pretoria on Friday. "We're after a constructive resolution on expropriation of land, which now will include non-compensation." The move to amend the constitution has added to wider emerging-market jitters in knocking the rand and South African bonds. Critics of the plan and investors have raised concerns that the move could lead to an erosion of property rights and ultimately, Zimbabwe-style farm seizures. The ANC decided at a conference in December that more needs to be done to correct racially skewed land ownership patterns dating back to colonial and apartheid rule. While there's widespread consensus that land reform needs to be accelerated, there are widely divergent views as to how it should be done. Ronald Lamola, who also sits on the ANC's national executive, said it was accepted that the government had failed to effectively address land restitution and that the current situation had created uncertainty for citizens and financial markets -- something the ruling party is seeking to address. "There must be a mixture of ownership," he said. "We have to be able to give some certainty with regards to property rights." It's unclear how long it would take parliament to process the constitutional amendments, which would be coupled with an Expropriation Bill spelling out the circumstances under which land can be taken, according to Lamola. An earlier draft of the bill was withdrawn from Parliament on Aug. 28, pending the conclusion of the constitutional review. Government data show more than two-thirds of farmland is owned by whites, who constitute 7.8 percent of the country's 57.7 million people. South Africa's constitution currently permits land expropriation in the public interest. A parliamentary committee is considering possible amendments that will make it easier for the state to take land without paying for it. Officials from lobby group Business Unity South Africa, the Banking Association of South Africa and Nedbank Group, the country's biggest provider of commercial property finance, appeared before the panel in Cape Town on Friday, and warned that tampering with the constitution could have dire economic consequences. Land redistribution has been frustrated by insufficient coordination within the government, an incoherent legal framework, maladministration and a lack of training and capacity, said Tanya Cohen, BUSA's chief executive officer. "That's not a failure of the constitution," she said. "We don't believe constitutional amendments are necessary for meaningful land reform." Enoch Godongwana, the ANC's head of economic transformation, said the party wouldn't endanger the banks or the economy. "We're quite aware that as we embark on this journey we should not create systemic risk," he said in Pretoria. Dan Kriek, Agri SA's president, said the discussions with the ruling party were productive, and the group was optimistic about the agricultural industry's future. "I feel that the ANC heard our concerns and will take them into consideration for the path ahead," he said in an emailed statement. This year in the cannabis market, weve seen an explosive growth in vapes -- slim accessories that heat oil so the user is only inhaling vapor, not smoke. Vaping products now account for up to 19 percent of market share in some states. Thats just one sign of how quickly the cannabis industry is diversifying its product offerings. As a newly legal industry, the cannabis industry continues to sort out exactly what it is and who its customers are. The data shows legal cannabis users are wealthier and better educated than the tired stoner stereotypes of yesterday, which means the products they want will be different, too. As more states legalize cannabis, and as scientists invent better technology for extracting THC and CBD oil from plants, its a sure bet that the list of cannabis-infused products will only grow to better serve current users and attract new customers. Cannabis is a massive market. Today, there are 35 million consumers, who spend around $1,500 each per year on cannabis products. The industry is expected to generate $75 billion in sales by 2030. Related: Marijuana Industry to Create 283,000 Jobs by 2020, Report Projects Explosion of new products New products are making their way into the market in droves, challenging expectations and prejudices along the way. Vapes are one way the industry is evolving. The sleek devices have more appeal to suburban parents and young professionals than the traditional joint. Theyre small and discrete, so theres no need to be furtive, and they simply dont have the same stigma as a pre-roll. Colorado alone had an 80 percent increase in vape sales from first quarter 2017 to Q1 2018. In California, 32 percent of all cannabis/extracts sales so far this year were vapes. Versatile distillate oils (they can be used for vapes, skin products, edibles or sublinguals) with high concentrations of THC or CBD, will help create vast new markets for cannabis infused products. Companies are pouring money into refining processes that can create concentrated and potent distillates up to 99 percent pure that are virtually odorless and tasteless. That means they wont overpower delicate facial moisturizers and perfumes, or interfere with the flavor of breath mints and energy drinks. Distillates that are flavorless and scent free will lead to a swell of innovative new products. They will allow companies to experiment with different combinations to create pain relieving super medicines, anti-inflammatory makeup or anxiety-reducing dog treats, as well as a myriad of adult-use products. Theres even cannabis-infused beer coming to a bar near you. Related: Hangover-Proof Beer Infused With THC and CBDs? Cheers! Packaging and marketing changes The evolution of products is only part of the equation in a maturing cannabis industry. As the customer base expands into the suburbs, users will demand more sophisticated packaging and marketing. Right now, marketing can be tricky. Thirty states have legalized some form of cannabis use by adults. But at the federal level, its still a Schedule I substance, which is defined as a drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. That means cannabis is equated with heroin and LSD. So big advertising platforms like Google arent keen to post ads for cannabis products. Until cannabis is legalized by the federal government, there will be a need for marketing workarounds to get the word out and differentiate products. So newbies and experienced users alike are depending much more heavily on brick-and-mortar locations than might be expected in these days of the retail apocalypse. Consumers need help understanding how and when to use edibles, sublingual tinctures and creams -- and what the effect will be of each. Theyre more comfortable browsing the dizzying array of new products in person. Then theres the fact that its still illegal to ship cannabis-infused products across state lines, so e-storefronts arent really an option right now. The newness and sheer variety of products makes branding vital. Customers want to quickly understand what theyre buying. Will this make me happy? Relaxed? Sleepy? Most customers dont want to learn the ins and outs of different strains of cannabis. Branding will also benefit the entrepreneurs selling cannabis products by giving them a way to differentiate themselves. NPR recently aired a feature on gourmet ganja and the entrepreneurs making cannabis-infused foie gras and stoner souffles." Branding cannabis products as aspirational or luxury will go a long way toward dispelling any lingering stigma. Related: 5 Things You Need to Know Before Opening a Dispensary Sales and distribution Where theres sophisticated packaging, marketing and branding -- and massive profit potential -- big business wont be far behind. While the cannabis industry so far has been populated by small, independent entrepreneurs, big time alcohol distributors, in particular, are poised to exploit the growing legal market. In fact, the largest wine and spirits distributor in the U.S. recently secured exclusive distribution rights for a Canadian companys cannabis products. For these big firms, theres a measure of self-preservation involved. An April report by Cowan, a financial services firm, said that people are starting to substitute cannabis for alcohol. The company said lower-end beer was the most threatened by legal cannabis. Theyre probably right. Last year, cannabis sales in Aspen, Colorado, outpaced alcohol sales for the first time. Entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry have the chance to reinvent supply chain, retail spaces and sourcing to best fit this emerging industry. In any number of areas, legal cannabis offers tantalizing opportunities and, like the industry itself, they will only continue to grow. Related: Cannabis Culture Is Fast Becoming Corporate Culture The Evolving Cannabis Market Offers Limitless Opportunities She Was the First Finance Journalist to Cover Cannabis, Now She Owns the Industry's Main Finance News Site Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Reports about Huawei cheating on their benchmark results appeared earlier this week. Anandtech spoke to a company official, who admitted to the offense and now the manufacturer is already facing repercussions. UL, the company behind the gaming 3DMark benchmark, has just announced that four Huawei smartphones are getting delisted after confirming a breach of their rules - Huawei P20 Pro, Huawei nova 3, Huawei Honor Play, and Huawei P20. According to UL, the first three phones were tested both with the public version of 3DMark, freely available at Google Play, and a private that is not available to manufacturers. The results from the public app are over 40% higher on average, compared with the private results. The Huawei P20 joined the list later after the additional data revealed the other day. The company said the public 3DMark gets recognized and activates a hidden Performance Mode that overrides the usual power profile. The difference in scores comes simply from recognizing the name of the application by the phone instead of using some form of complicated adaptation. Huawei Honor Play in Player Edition Red color Huawei was contacted by UL and it promised to implement changes. The company is planning to provide users with access to Performance Mode, so they can use the maximum power of their device when they need to. Source Nokia's Taiwanese division just posted a teaser of a new phone on its Facebook page. The device appears to be quite different from the rest of the Nokia smartphones, but local sources suggest the event is going to be about the Nokia 5.1 Plus. There's no actual release date for now but it's happening some time in September. And if the press render doesn't look like the Nokia 5.1 Plus to you, don't worry, you are not alone. We think it's just a generic render of a smartphone - just look at that slim chin on the bottom of the screen - most of the Nokia phones have the Nokia branding there. Or HMD Global is messing with us and we could see an entirely new device. Hope never dies, right? Only time will tell and we'll make sure to keep you updated. Source 1 | Source 2 (both in Mandarin) Although Google has released Android 9 Pie for its Pixels last month, some smartphones are only now seeing updates to the previous version of the OS - Oreo. Case in point: Motorola's Moto G5 and G5 Plus. These devices launched last spring, with Android 7.0 Nougat on board, and now they're finally ready to jump to Oreo. There's a catch, however. Currently, the Oreo update's rollout for the Moto G5 is only happening in Mexico. The Moto G5 Plus is getting the new version in India and Brazil only. And even in these countries, the rollouts are phased, so it may take at least a few days for them to reach every single device. Motorola promises that other regions will get the update in the future, but offers no other details. So if your Moto G5 isn't from Mexico, or your G5 Plus isn't from India or Brazil, then the wait for Oreo definitely isn't over for you. Source Oppo announced the Oppo R17 and R17 Pro last month with plenty of features to look forward to but while we are still waiting on the Pro version to arrive, the standard R17 is now available in China. Oppo R17 Prices are as expected - the standard 6GB/128GB memory variant goes for CNY 3,199 ($468) while the 8GB/128GB model sells for CNY 3,499 ($512). There's also a gradient fog alteration of the latter with a cooler paint job that will set you back CNY 3,599 ($527). The Pro version is still expected to ship sometime in mid-October. Meanwhile, Oppo also had a little something for the Europeans. The Oppo Find X has officially arrived in France and can be bought through Orange or Fnac Darty's outlet stores. And everyone who buys the phone between September 7 and October 4 will get for free Oppo's O-Free Wireless earphones. The price is a little steep, compared to Asian markets, but it's exactly what Oppo said the Find X will cost at its Paris launch event. It's 1,000 for the phone alone, or 499 with a 24-month contract. A Dutch retailer has the phone as well at the same price of 1,000 so we can assume this means official Europe release. We won't be surprised if more European retailers are currently offering the handset. Source 1 (in French) | Source 2 (in Chinese) | Source 3 (in Dutch) Haiti - Petit-Goave : Terrible tragedy in Delatte Marissainte Wednesday evening a terrible tragedy occurred at Delatte Marissainte, a locality of Trouchouchou (3rd communal section of Petit-Goave) when a little girl (Daphca Jean, 4 months old) and a little boy (Rodolphson Jean, 3 years old) died in the flames of the fire of their house. The drama occurred around 7:30 pm, when Ironise Thomasest, the mother of two children went out to buy extra candles, leaving her two children alone at home (Rodolph Jean the father was away), while candle remained on. On his return, Ironise Thomas could only tearfully see that his house had been destroyed by fire and that his two children had died in the fire. Residents in the area who were very affected by this tragedy accused the parents of being careless and careless. Pastor Labady Gilbert, Coordinator of the Board of the Communal Section (CASEC) of Trouchouchou, asked for help for the family experienced by this drama who lost their children, all their meager property in the fire. HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave) Havre Police Department Thursday at 8:01 a.m. a complaint was made at the Havre Police Department involving a 24/7 Sobriety Program no show. -- Someone on First Street West reported a possible bag of drugs Thursday at 10:56 a.m. -- A First Street West business reported a theft, forgery or fraud Thursday day at 12:54 p.m. -- A person on First Street reported Thursday at 2:46 p.m. a noninjury vehicle crash. -- Thursday at 3:55 p.m. an Eighth Street caller reported that a telephone or a power line came down on his vehicle. -- Kim Alan Ironbear of Havre, 46, was issued a summons on charge of theft from buildings after a First Street caller reported finding methamphetamines Thursday at 5:38 p.m. -- A Fifth Avenue caller reported Thursday at 5:58 p.m. that someone had broken into her house and stole some items. -- Brandon Cole Velasquez of Box Elder, 23, was arrested on charges of operating a vehicle with fictitious plates, no vehicle insurance, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license and probation violation after a vehicle stop on First Avenue West Thursday at 6:35 p.m. -- Everett Dale Windyboy of Havre, 65, was arrested at the Hill County Sheriff's Office Thursday at 11:56 p.m. on a Justice or City court warrant. -- Anthony James Corcoran of Box Elder, 37, was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass to property Friday at 2:37 a.m. Hill County Sheriff's Office Kevin Russell Bigby of Havre, 35, was arrested at Hill County Detention Center Thursday at 10:18 a.m. on a Justice or City court warrant. -- Kaleb Steven Dobrenz of Havre, 22, was arrested on charges of violation of no contact order and violation of conditions of release Thursday at 10:55 a.m. by deputies assisting another agency on Seventh Street East. -- An act of vandalism was reported by a caller on U.S. Highway 87 Thursday at 3:27 p.m. no additional information was provided. -- Thursday at 6:18 p.m. a caller on 31st Street North reported suspicious activity when all the doors in a house were open. -- Reports of vehicles hitting cows on the park have been made this week and referred to Montana Highway Patrol, including two Thursday evening. Fire Department Emergency medical personnel responded to five calls Thursday and two calls this morning. -- Firefighters responded to a report of a gas smell on the 600 Block of 12th Street Thursday at 4:06 p.m. NorthWestern Energy also was called and found a positive gas odor. The building was evacuated and NorthWestern Energy took over and found the source of the smell was from a pilot valve. -- Firefighters responded to a call on the 10 Block of 13th Street Thursday at 10:18 p.m. for a lift assist. Havre Animal Shelter This morning the shelter held six medium-hair kittens with gender listed as "unknown," one long-hair female cat, 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, a 7-month-old female mixed breed and a 1-year-10-month-old female Australian cattle dog-blue heeler-German shepherd cross. The shelter also listed five 13-week-old Rottweiler-shepherd cross puppies. Births A boy was born Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, to Amanda Ruzicka and Joseph Reed of Chinook. Ordered back to court to answer for not paying fines The former Hill County attorney has asked a state District Court judge to overturn a justice of the peace finding her guilty of three counts of criminal contempt, two days after that justice of the peace ordered her to again come to court to answer why she had not paid fines stemming from the findings. Former Hill County Attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson filed a request Thursday afternoon that Judge Dan Boucher overturn the findings of Hill County Justice of the Peace Audrey Barger, and asked for a stay on the sentence that she spend six days under house arrest and be barred from practicing in Hill County Justice Court for one year. Aug. 7, Barger found Cole-Hodgkinson guilty of the three counts for failing to appear or find an attorney able to prosecute three cases that had hearings in Hill County Justice Court in July. Barger fined Cole-Hodgkinson $500 for each count and sentenced her to one, two and three days of house arrest, respectively, on the counts to run consecutively. She also barred her from practicing in the justice court for one year unless Cole-Hodgkinson was representing herself. Barger set a date of Sept. 1 to pay the fines, but delayed the jail time until Sept. 10 to allow Cole-Hodkginson the opportunity to request a higher court review. Wednesday, Barger set a contempt hearing for Sept. 27 in which Cole-Hodgkinson can show why she did not pay the fines. Cole-Hodkginson has a history of court's rebuking her performance as a public attorney dating back to when she was a deputy county attorney in Lake County. In 2014, a judge threw out charges stemming from accusations a man had seriously injured a jailer because Cole-Hodgkinson had delayed filing charges against the man for more than 10 days. The Hill County Commission appointed Cole-Hodgkinson Hill County attorney in November 2016, taking the place of Gina Dahl, who resigned to take a position in Yellowstone County. Cole-Hodgkinson was soon facing complaints in Hill County, including Barger holding a hearing in March 2017 to explain why she had not appeared at a trial in Barger's court. Barger admonished Cole-Hodgkinson at that time, but did not find her guilty of contempt. At about the same time, a victim of assault filed a $1 million lawsuit alleging Cole-Hodkginson's failing to perform her duties led to charges being dismissed against her assailant. Boucher dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the lawsuit lacked factual basis and the county attorney is immune from civil liability in performing her duties. The Montana Attorney General's Office refiled the charges in that case and the defendant pleaded guilty and was sentence to seven years. This year, Boucher ordered Cole-Hodgkinson to appear and explain why she had not submitted written judgments on seven cases. He vacated the hearing after Cole-Hodgkinson submitted the judgments and a letter stating she had resigned and requesting the hearing be vacated. In her request for Boucher to review Barger's findings of contempt, Cole-Hodgkinson argues that Barger should not have held a summary hearing, in which external evidence is not needed; she did not prove that Cole-Hodgkinson had willfully disobeyed an order of the court or that Cole-Hodkginson caused immediate damage, as required in a finding of criminal contempt; and that Barger is violating the separation of powers by ruling on how Cole-Hodginson should have operated in her office. Karen Alley, who was deputy county attorney at the time of the hearings and has since been appointed as Cole-Hodgkinson's replacement as county attorney, told Barger during the hearings that she could not represent the state because she had represented each of the defendants while acting as public defender, court documents say. She told Barger that she had told Cole-Hodgkinson she could not represent the state at the hearings, but Cole-Hodgkinson had not responded to her communications about the issue, the documents say. Cole-Hodgkinson argued that to hold a summary hearing, the judge must be able to make a ruling based on the judge's own experience and knowledge. Because evidence showing Cole-Hodgkinson did not know about the conflict and about why she was absent - she said her service dog was having seizures and had to be transported to Great Falls and Missoula for treatment - the hearing should not have been a summary hearing and she should have been allowed to present evidence, she said. Cole-Hodgkinson attached a transcript of the hearing to her petition, including her, for more than an hour, presenting arguments and reading into the court record text messages she said proved her innocence. She said she had extensive communication with her staff members, including Alley following the hearings in question. In her petition, Cole-Hodgkinson argues that she had no knowledge of the conflict in the hearings, and she properly assigned responsibility to manage the lower court cases to Alley. Because Alley did not notify her of the conflict, she had no knowledge she needed to be at the hearings and was not willfully disobedient, which is required to be found guilty of criminal contempt, Cole-Hodgkinson argues. She also argues that Barger's ruling criminalizes how she handled the operation of her office, which is a violation of the separation of powers. During the Aug. 7 hearing, Barger said that it was Cole-Hodgkinson's responsibility to be aware of conflicts and to find attorneys who could represent the state on cases. Barger also said that Alley's statements were not that Cole-Hodgkinson had not communicated with members of her staff, but that Cole-Hodgkinson had not responded to communications about Alley's conflict in those cases. Barger said she was holding the hearing as a summary hearing because she was at the hearings, heard Alley's statements and knew that Cole-Hodgkinson had failed to appear or find an attorney who could represent the state. Havre Daily News staff Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reported a fish kill occurred in Beaver Creek sometime over Labor Day weekend. FWP fisheries personnel estimate that several hundred fish were killed in Beaver Creek from Bear Paw Dam at the upper lake downstream to Rotary Falls, impacting approximately a half mile of the creek. FWP, which operates Bear Paw Lake, reports it was notified Sept. 1 that water was not flowing from the dam at the second lake downstream to Beaver Creek Reservoir on the north edge of Beaver Creek Park. The outlet was clogged with... Dear Congressman Gianforte, At the roundtable meeting you conducted in Lewistown on Aug. 15, you announced that you would be accepting comments regarding your two wilderness study area bills H.R. 5148 and 5149 at this email address. On behalf of Montana Wilderness Association, I would like to share with you the myriad ways in which thousands of Montanans have already made it known that they oppose your legislation stripping protection from 29 wilderness study areas comprising more than 800,000 acres. We feel that its extremely important for you to consider all of these expressi... A five-year-old boy with autism has been unable to return to school because he has yet to receive a place on a school bus, his mother has said. Tracy Neeson, from Mulhuddart, Dublin, said her son Carlos was left in tears at not being able to attend his first week at St Paul's Special School in Beaumont as the family rely on a Bus Eireann school bus to take him there. "I'm a single mum and I don't drive, we have no other options. It could be January by the time he starts school at this stage," Tracy told the Herald. "I've two other children in schools nearby that have to be collected and I wouldn't make it out to Beaumont in time to pick up Carlos too. "It could involve four buses a day and a two-and-a-half hour journey each way." Tracy said Carlos had been looking forward to starting back at school all summer and was heartbroken when he couldn't return with his peers last Thursday. "He's absolutely devastated. The only thing he's been looking forward to is school," she said. "He sees the bus going by every morning. One day he tried to run after it. My heart is breaking for him. "He got up last Tuesday, put his uniform on and cried for two hours when he found out he couldn't go." During his first year at St Paul's, Carlos took the bus to and from school, as well as to a different Dublin school that he attended last year. Frustrated Over the past week, Tracy says she has been trying to get a response from Bus Eireann and the Department of Education and Skills as to why her son's name is not on the list. "No one has been able to make contact with them. All they need to do is put Carlos's name on a list but we haven't heard anything," she added. "He's missing out on school time, it's causing behaviour issues I've never seen before. He's frustrated and taking it out on me because he doesn't understand why he can't go." Bus Eireann said that as St Paul's is a special needs school all applications are made through the Department of Education and Skills. "While Bus Eireann do not generally comment on individual cases, I can confirm that we currently have no record of any application from the aforementioned pupil on file," a Bus Eireann spokesperson said. According to the Department of Education, children are eligible for the transport scheme under the following criteria: If they have special educational needs arising from a diagnosed disability. They are attending the nearest recognised mainstream school, special class/special school or a unit that is or can be resourced to meet their special educational needs. A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: "It is the policy of the department not to comment on individual cases." One of the country's leading homelessness campaigners has said he does not support calls for a no confidence vote in the housing minister, despite a worsening crisis. Fr Peter McVerry, whose charity has been tackling homelessness for four decades, said that people should "challenge the message and not the messenger" in order to tackle the record high of homeless people. This week, Sinn Fein stated that it will table a motion of no confidence in Eoghan Murphy when the Dail returns. Asked if he agreed with the proposal, Fr McVerry told the Herald: "No, I don't support that motion. Eoghan Murphy is not the problem. Government policy is the problem. "Eoghan Murphy is the mouthpiece for the Government policy. It's Government policy we have to change. We have to challenge the message and not the messenger." Emperor The veteran campaigner added that current official homeless figures of around 10,000 may be significantly lower than the actual number, which he believes to be around 15,000. "When will the emperor finally realise that he has no clothes? Homeless figures are up, house prices are up and the fact that Government policy has failed is staring us all in the face," he said. Fr McVerry was speaking as an umbrella movement of trade unions, political parties and campaign groups called for support for the Raise the Roof rally outside Leinster House at 12.30pm on October 3. It coincides with an opposition party motion on housing that is scheduled to be debated in the Dail that day. The umbrella movement includes the Irish Congress of Trade Unions ICTU, the Union of Students Ireland (USI), the Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland and several other groups. ICTU president Sheila Nunan said that the crisis "is an issue for everyone" and that a dramatic increase in the supply of quality, affordable housing is needed. Meanwhile, a report by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE), which co-ordinates homeless services across the city and county, reveals a gap emerging between families presenting as homeless due to family circumstances and because of problems in the rental sector. Between February and June, more families have presented as the result of the inability to secure private rented accommodation, the report says. The DRHE says it recognises that work is under way to strengthen the protections for tenants in private rented accommodation, particularly in relation to the sale and repair of their rented properties and the obligations of landlords. In February, 57pc of those who presented as homeless were due to difficulties in the private rental sector, compared with 38pc who presented due to reasons associated with family circumstances. Problems In January 2017, 63pc of presentations were due to family circumstances. However, in the latest data from June, 52pc of presentations were because of rental problems compared with 39pc who presented because of family circumstances. Between January and July, 677 families presented as homeless in Dublin. The overall increase of families was 178. The DRHE said this was a "direct result of the ongoing work being carried out by the DRHE exiting families from homeless services to tenancies". A review of the freephone services and supports for people who are not eligible for housing supports is currently under way. It comes as the latest construction figures show that Dublin City Council has only built 192 new homes. The council is at 40pc of its target for the year - 721 homes have been delivered overall on a minimum target of 1,763. Gardai are seeking to arrest a number of people based outside Ireland over the feud murder of Eddie Hutch, an inquest into his death heard. Mr Hutch (58) died of gunshot wounds to the head after he was shot at his home at Poplar Row, Ballybough, Dublin 3, on February 8, 2016. Gardai have completed 1,203 actions in the investigation, Dublin Coroner's Court heard. Two relatives of Mr Hutch sat in the public gallery as Inspector Aidan Flanagan applied for a 12-month adjournment of the inquest. Arrests "We have completed 1,203 investigative tasks in relation to this case. There are still a number of tasks to be completed," he said. "There are a number of arrests yet to be made, some of whom reside outside the jurisdiction," Insp Flanagan said. Some of those who are abroad are key hitmen for the Kinahan cartel, including a Cabra criminal who is a former close associate of Martin 'Marlo' Hyland. The inquest was previously opened and adjourned after Mr Hutch's brother, John, gave evidence of identifying his body. John Hutch told how he attended the Dublin city morgue to identify his brother's body on February 10, 2016. "I was shown my brother Eddie in the morgue. I am 100pc certain it's my brother," he said. The inquest was further adjourned last March for six months following a garda application as the investigation continued. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane asked family members if 12 months was agreeable to them and they said it was. She granted the application, adjourning the inquest until September 3, 2019. Mr Hutch was gunned down by a four-man hit team as he returned to his home. Of the nine people arrested, one was picked up by armed gardai in a raid on his north inner city home in February. The man, who is in his 30s, has been the subject of a sinister graffiti campaign by the Hutch gang in recent weeks in Dublin's north inner city. The man has been branded a "rat", which has stoked the feud and contributed to the two latest deaths linked to it. He was released without charge but gardai are hopeful of rearresting some of these suspects. A barrister accused of being a passenger in a stolen car has been given time by a court to decide how she intends to plead to the charge. Shauna Roe (26) had the case against her adjourned when she appeared at Blanchardstown District Court yesterday. Ms Roe, of Ard Rua, Homeleigh, Porterstown, in west Dublin, is charged with unauthorised carriage in a vehicle. Arrested The offence, under the Road Traffic Act, is alleged to have happened at Finnstown House Hotel, Newcastle Road, Lucan, on July 1. It was Ms Roe's second appearance in court on the charge after she was arrested in July. Wearing a pink hooded jacket, black leggings and runners, she sat alone at the back of the court, waiting for her case to be called, then came forward when the brief hearing began. Her solicitor, Evan Moore, said disclosure of prosecution documents had been served on the defence and he was seeking more time in the case. Judge David McHugh remanded the defendant on continuing bail to appear in court again on October 4, to indicate a plea to the charge. "You should have your instructions by then," the judge said. Mr Moore said he had no other application to make on behalf of the accused at this time. Ms Roe did not address the court during the course of the proceedings. On her last appearance, a garda sergeant handed evidence of the defendant's arrest, charge and caution into court by certificate. The four cars were seized by gardai Fifteen homes in five counties have been raided in an operation targeting a Nigerian money-laundering network linked to almost 15m of fraud proceeds passed through Irish bank accounts. No arrests were made in yesterday's high-profile raids, but gardai said they expected to be detaining people in the coming weeks. Officers from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) backed up by armed detectives and local garda units were involved in the dawn searches in Dublin, Meath, Laois, Louth and Kildare. Eleven of the 15 properties raided were in Dublin at locations including Tallaght, Newcastle, Clonsilla, Blanchardstown and Tyrrelstown. Gardai stressed that the operation was about gathering evidence to be used against the global criminal organisation which has been linked to massive fraud in countries as far away as China. A Nigerian national has been identified as the leader of the gang which has what is described as a "highly organised hierarchical structure". Stolen The gang leaders have recruited over 100 fellow nationals to launder money which has been stolen in invoice redirection frauds from companies in Ireland and all around Europe. The network targeted yesterday is suspected of being involved in laundering the cash which associates have stolen in the redirection frauds. Documents, computers and four Nissan X-Trail SUVs were seized during yesterday's raids. Gardai have asked Irish banks to close around 350 accounts suspected of being used in the fraud. They have also identified another 170 suspect accounts in mainland Europe, west Africa and China. The investigation is being led by Detective Superintendent Alf Martin, of the GNECB, who told the Herald: "There is a core group who organised this money-laundering operation who were the targets in the raids. "They got lots of others, mainly from west Africa, who were recruited to open bank accounts for this purpose. "Some of these people are working, some are on social welfare," he said. "There is a core group who organised and managed all of this and many, many others who had very little involvement other than to allow cash to go through their accounts." The Leading Garage Door Sales, Service and Installation Company has Claimed this Title for the Second Consecutive Year Kansas City, MO, USA Sep 7, 2018 For the second consecutive year, Renner Supply has been named the exclusive Garage Door, StyleMaker by Kansas City Homes & Style magazine. The company previously claimed this title last year in its inaugural StyleMakers feature. Moreover, Renner holds the prestige of the position for its iconic garage doors that are renowned across the entire Kansas City metro area. Renners product line is one of the finest in America and the company also offers maintenance and repairs for these doors. A primary reason many customers choose to install a new garage door is for aesthetics, and Renner Supply offers a host of style and design options from which to select from, said Renee Demott, the Publisher and Editor in Chief of Kansas City Homes & Style in a recently published article by the magazine. Renner has more than a dozen product lines and each of them is stylish and unique in its own way, added Demott. According to the Editor in Chief, the most amazing aspect of Renners design is customizability for each customer. According to Brad Dodson, director of marketing for Renner Supply, each product is designed according to the needs of the clients. Renner Supply offers stylish designs in numerous materials and is a popular, trusted brand for garage doors among homeowners, remodelers, builders and construction companies statewide. Since 1956, Renner Supply has made a strong name for itself on some of the most beautiful homes in the Kansas City area, said Denise Dahms, president of Renner Supply, while sharing her thoughts. We are grateful to the management and editorial board of this magazine for recognizing our brand and featuring us for the second consecutive year she added. According to Dahms, the brand aims at completing the hat-trick next year by making it for the third year in a row. For more information, please visit www.rennersupply.com Read the full Renner Supply StyleMakers article at: http://homesandstylekc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/RennerSupplyStylemakers.pdf Media Contact Company Name: Renner Supply Company Contact Person: Brad Dodson Email: Send Email Phone: (816) 413-1650 Address:3530 N. Kimball Drive City: Kansas City State: MO Country: United States Website: www.rennersupply.com Intersects 53.9 g/t Gold over 8.3 M at the Froome Footwall --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Area From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Gold (g/t) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18PR-G276 Froome Main 420.50 422.00 1.50 1.27 4.81 Including 420.50 421.00 0.50 0.42 10.50 And 445.00 455.00 10.00 8.47 2.68 Including 450.00 453.00 3.00 2.54 6.31 18PR-G279 Froome FW 88.60 92.00 3.40 2.86 1.54 And 97.00 101.15 4.15 3.49 3.05 And 113.00 122.90 9.90 8.29 53.93 Including 113.00 114.60 1.60 1.34 322.86 18PR-G280 Froome Main 306.95 315.35 8.40 7.27 2.61 And 347.00 354.00 7.00 6.05 3.24 18PR-G288 Froome FW 81.00 88.00 7.00 5.96 3.32 18PR-G292 Froome FW 150.20 158.00 7.80 7.07 3.05 --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Area From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Gold (g/t) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18PR-032 Pike River 70.00 72.00 2.00 * 2.12 And 79.00 82.30 3.30 * 35.04 --------------------------------------------------------------------- * True width unknown --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Area From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Gold (g/t) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18GF-1087 147 HW 30.10 33.48 3.38 2.76 1.14 And 129.90 136.00 6.10 4.96 3.64 Including 133.00 136.00 3.00 2.44 6.75 18GF-1088 147 HW 8.85 11.30 2.45 1.99 5.79 Including 8.85 10.00 1.15 0.93 9.71 18GF-1092 147 HW 7.00 10.00 3.00 2.82 13.41 Including 9.00 10.00 1.00 0.94 27.70 --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Area From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Gold (g/t) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 520-EX346-42 DCZ 426.50 428.00 1.50 1.30 6.87 And 561.00 563.00 2.00 1.69 35.08 Including 561.00 562.20 1.20 1.01 55.10 490-L094-98 DCZ 215.80 217.00 1.20 0.81 161.89 Including 215.80 216.40 0.60 0.40 320.73 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Toronto, Sep 7, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - McEwen Mining Inc. ( NYSE:MUX ) ( TSE:MUX ) reports an updated resource estimate for the Froome Deposit and highly encouraging exploration results from its ongoing $15 million exploration program at the Black Fox Complex near Timmins, Ontario, Canada.Highlights include:- Froome Footwall: Drilling intersected 53.93 g/t gold over 8.29 m including 322.86 g/t gold over 1.34 m, along the footwall structure located approximately 150 m North of the main Froome deposit.- Froome Resource: Indicated resource estimate increaded by 14% to 181,000 gold ounces at a grade of 5.09 g/t.- Pike River: Shallow high-grade intersection of 35.04 g/t gold over 3.30 m core length (CL) along the same 7 km long structural belt that hosts the Froome deposit and Gibson mineralization.- Grey Fox: Multiple shallow intersections including 13.41 g/t gold over 2.82 m including 27.70 g/t gold over 0.94 m, and 5.79 g/t gold over 1.99 m including 9.71 g/t gold over 0.93 m from a mineralized crossstructure located in the hanging wall of the 147 Zone, which has a current Indicated resource of 264,000 gold ounces at a grade of 7.49 g/t.- Black Fox Mine: 35.08 g/t gold over 1.69 m intersected on the depth extension of the mine. An underground exploration drift is under development and additional drlling will begin in mid-September.Froome FootwallSurface drilling at Froome during Q3 has been focused on two targets: 1) evaluating the down-plunge extension of the Froome Deposit, and 2) assessing the potential of the mineralized footwall, which returned 53.93 g/t gold over 8.29 m including 322.86 g/t gold over 1.34 m. The current interpretation suggests that this new occurance extends the complex, braided 'belt' of elevated gold mineralization (running parallel to Froome) by approximately 350 m strike length to the East.The addition of these new drill intersections within the Froome Footwall could provide an economic enhancement to the proposed underground development planned to commence later in September. Definition drilling to further evaluate the footwall target is ongoing.Significant Froome Footwall drill intersections include:TW = True width (mathematically calculated based on current interpretation)Pike River TargetThe Pike River Target Area, located between the Froome Deposit to the northwest and Gibson Deposit to the southwest, is underlain by the Gibson-Kelore Fault zone. These mineralized intercepts indicate the high potential for a new discovery within this underexplored segment of the Gibson-Kelore Fault Zone.Significant Pike River drill intersections include:Grey Fox - 147 Zone Hanging Wall TargetPrevious exploration activities at Grey Fox focused on east dipping oreshoots. A 3,000 m drill program traced a mineralized cross-structure at a different orrientation over a strike length of 140 m, and from the surface to a depth of 125 m. These results indicate that the mineralized cross-structure is continuous and traceable, and provides a framework for adding resource ounces at Grey Fox.Significant Grey Fox drill intersections include:Black Fox UndergroundOne underground drill rig has been testing the down-plunge extension of the Deep Central Zone (DCZ) (see Figure 1 in link below). Drilling intersected multi-phase quartz-carbonated veining, which retuned an intercept of 35.08 g/t gold over 1.69 m including 55.10 g/t gold over 1.01 m. This represents the deepest high-grade intercept at the mine, and supports the belief that mineralization extends deeper down plunge. Drilling will resume in mid-September from better positions in the newly constructed drilling bays on the 810 m level.Significant DCZ drilling highlights include:Froome Resource EstimateThe tables in link below summarize the current and previous Froome resource estimates. The differences are primarily attributable to additional drilling. Similar modeling parameters were used in both estimates.To view tables and figures, please visit:To view Figure 1 - Black Fox Exploration Drilling, please visit:To view Tables - All Drilling, please visit:About McEwen Mining Inc McEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX) (TSE:MUX) has the goal to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer focused in the Americas. McEwen's principal assets consist of: the San Jose mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the Fenix Project in Mexico; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada, currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina, advancing towards development. McEwen has approximately 345 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns roughly 23% of the shares. Protecting Global Electronic Consumer Goods in China Sydney, Sep 7, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Anti-counterfeit and customer engagement solutions provider YPB Group Ltd ( ASX:YPB ) has secured a significant new distribution partner in China, Shenzen Meixin Electronics Co (SME), which creates a channel for YPB into the global electronics consumer goods market. YPB and SME have already engaged a global major brand in electronic consumer goods as the first client of the new partnership and future opportunity with other majors exists. This is the third major industry that YPB now has access to via its new channel partners in China - the other two announced earlier this week being autos and lubricants.- Shenzen Meixin Electronics new channel partner in China- First client a global major in electronic consumer goods- YPB to protect authenticity of components- Opens third big channel in China - now autos, oil, electronicsHeadquartered in Shenzen, China, SME is a provider of speciality chemicals and adhesives to the electronics industry. It has a full range of adhesive tapes for the electronics industry including polyimide tapes, copper tapes, aluminium foil tapes, LED tapes, conductive double sided tapes, EMI tapes, electronic circuit board tape, and anti-static tapes. Its products are sold to manufacturers within China and exported to Europe, America, South East Asia and elsewhere.Under an annual evergreen (automatically renewed) Master Services Agreement with SME, YPB's solutions will in the first instance protect the authenticity of components used by one of the world's top 5 producers of household appliances and electronic equipment. This client alone is expected to be a moderate revenue contributor to YPB.*YPB's Executive Chairman John Houston said: "Counterfeit components are pernicious and pervasive in almost all goods - they are a genuine menace - and the opportunity to protect components is almost unlimited. It is exciting to have now secured an entry point into the high volume electronic consumer goods in partnering with SME. It builds on our new channels into automotive parts and oil & lubricants in China with CCN Technologies as announced on September 3rd. Our new sales strategies in China are paying off as we drive YPB China toward profitability."*Please note:Modest revenue contribution: < AUD100K per annumModerate revenue contribution: > AUD100K < AUD1m per annumMajor revenue contribution: > AUD1m per annumAbout YPB Group Ltd DEACTIVATED How many COVID tests do you think Meritus has done? Here's the answer Shareholder Vote Approving Finsure Transaction Perth, Sep 7, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Goldfields Money Limited ( ASX:GMY ) ("Goldfields Money" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that per the notice of general meeting dated 6 August 2018, a general meeting was held in Perth today, with Goldfields Money shareholders voting overwhelmingly in favour of the Finsure Transaction.Goldfields Money will merge with Finsure by acquiring 100% of the diluted shares in Finsure via the issue of 40,750,000 fully paid ordinary shares to Finsure shareholders based on an agreed issue price of $1.50 per share. In connection with the Finsure Transaction, Goldfields Money will also issue 15,385,000 new fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of $1.30 per share to raise ~$20 million (before costs), under the Placement announced on 4 September 2018.Goldfields Money CEO Simon Lyons said today's shareholder approval of the Finsure Transaction marked a major milestone in the Company's evolution into a diversified financial services business."The Goldfields Money Board is very pleased with today's result. Maximising value for all shareholders is of utmost importance to us, and we firmly believe this transaction is a compelling opportunity for Goldfields Money and its shareholders." Mr Lyons said.Goldfields Money Chairman Peter Wallace thanked shareholders for their ongoing support during what has been a busy period of corporate activity for the Company.Today's shareholder approval means that completion of the Finsure Transaction is now only subject to satisfaction (or waiver, if applicable) of the other remaining conditions that are considered largely procedural in nature:- Approval from the ASX for the quotation of the Consideration shares; and- No Goldfields Money or Finsure material adverse effect or "prescribed event".The table below shows the currently anticipated transaction timetable.Event: Settlement of the PlacementDate: 14 September 2018Event: Completion of the Finsure TransactionDate: 14 September 2018Event: Commencement of trading of Placement shares on the ASXDate: 17 September 2018If you require assistance, you can call the Goldfields Money Shareholder information line on 1300 308 375 (within Australia) or +61 8 6314 6314 (outside Australia) at any time between 9:00am and 5:00pm (AWST) on Monday to Friday.Goldfields Money's financial adviser is Azure Capital and its legal adviser is Lavan.Finsure's financial adviser is Aura Capital and its legal adviser is Ashurst.WHO IS FINSURE?Established in 2011, Finsure Holding Pty Ltd ("Finsure") had set out to build a competitive and holistic offering for mortgage brokers in Australia with the aim to become a dominant player in the industry. Since inception, Finsure has positioned itself as a leader in the market in offering a diverse lending panel, flexible commission models, lead generation and mortgage broker support services. Through the acquisition of LoanKit in 2013 and a growing brand presence in the marketplace, Finsure has become one of the fastest growing aggregation business in the industry. Finsure was also recently named Aggregator of the Year for 2017 at the Australian Mortgage Awards.At the very core of the Finsure business ethos is the desire to provide the strongest value proposition to all partners and clients. It is this principle that underpins who Finsure is as an organisation, and why they are able to provide the maximum value to those who align with us. As at 31 March 2018, Finsure has a network in excess of 1,400 loan writers across Australia, and a historical book of ~$31.8 billion.To view tables, please visit:About Goldfields Money Ltd Goldfields Money (ASX:GMY) is Australia's new revolutionary digital bank, distributing first class products through a largely branchless distribution network. A bank without the bank. This digital banking platform is built on the recently implemented mobile first, world class core banking system provided by Temenos and our proprietary mortgage distribution software "Loankit". Goldfields is ASX listed (ASX:GMY) with two key divisions: Banking (operates under "Goldfields Money" and "Better Choice" brands) - an APRA regulated bank that offers deposit and loan products that are funded either on-balance sheet or off-balance sheet through a range of third party lenders. Our deposits are all guaranteed by the Australian Government Deposit Guarantee for up to $250,000 per customer. We are the new approach to banking in Australia, we're honest, with transparent bank practices and a straightforward approach to you and your money. It's all yours, honestly. Mortgage Aggregation (operates under "Finsure" and "Loankit" brands) - an ASIC regulated mortgage aggregation and software technology platform with over 1,475 loan writers as of 31 August 2018. Finsure puts brokers first and is a leader in the market in offering a diverse lending panel, flexible commission models, training, lead generation, proprietary SaaS and mortgage broker support services. Finsure was also recently named Aggregator of the Year for 2017 at the Australian Mortgage Awards. You can read more about us at www.goldfieldsmoney.com.au and www.finsure.com.au. CHICO, Calif. - During the busy wildfire season, Cal Fire has used various types of aerial resources to help fight blazes all throughout California. Action News Now reporter Laura Eng got a close up look at some of the planes that they are using at the Chico Air Attack base to help fight the Delta Fire, which sparked on Sept. 5 in Shasta County. One of the main types of resources they use is called the Type One Heli-Tanker, which is used to deliver water and retardants to the fires. The Heli-Tanker can carry up to 2,000 gallons at a time. However, according to Bill Neckels, a Cal Fire pilot of the Heli-Tankers, the fuel moisture has been at a record low in California. "Fuel behavior is unprecedented [in terms of] progress on the fires," Neckels said. "The fires develop so rapidly. We're having a hard time being effective on these initial attacks." Neckels said that he's had a very busy fire season, especially being one of the first pilots to respond to the Carr Fire and also spending some time on the Hirz Fire. Overall, there are 41 personnel from Cal Fire Butte County who are all over the North State helping out the firefighting efforts. BURBANK, Calif. - Ellen Degeneres recognized a Calfire firefighter and his girlfriend on the Ellen Show today. Eric Johnson and Hope Jordan live in Redding. The couple lost their home in the carr fire. Eric has been an engineer with Calfire for nine fire seasons. He told Ellen he had never seen a fire season like this before- working 24-hours on, and 24-hours off for two weeks. Eric and Hope had been working on improvements to their home since 2015. They renovated the inside just before it was burned down. Their friends started a "Go-Fund-Me" page with a goal to raise $20,000. So far, they've raised $12,203. Ellen said, firefighters put their lives on the line every day. So she, along with Shutterfly, want to help those in need when they can. "I wanna help when I can and I love firefighters and it's just devastating what happened to you, so our friends at Shutterfly care about supporting people in need, they wanna round that up to $50,000 dollars," Ellen Degeneres said. Ellen referred her viewers to her website with ways to help those affected by the Carr fire. Her website is attached, to our website under newslinks. Working Day or Night, NDMS Teams Deploy to Support Healthcare Facilities and Save Lives in Communities Overwhelmed by COVID-19: We are NDMSThats What We do UPDATE 9:39 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 - Oroville locals and businesses reportedly donated $15,000, enough to fully fund bringing Frankie back onto the Oroville Police Department. --- OROVILLE, Calif.- The Oroville Police Department will soon take on a new member- a Labrador puppy who is now in training for a very specific assignment: drug detection in Oroville area schools. Her name is Frankie, and her partner will be Officer Breck Wright. Frankie is a young black lab that is training to detect drugs in and around the elementary schools in Oroville. The school district has paid for three School Resource Officers this year and this "drug resource canine" is a part of that effort to protect our kids. That's according to Officer Brent Wright, who's the Resource Officer assigned to Oroville High School. Office Hutton is responsible for schools in the Thermalito area, Officer Sears has the elementary school district. And all three of them will all be working with Frankie. Frankie can run the playgrounds and clear the area of dangerous material left behind from whoever may be using the campuses when school isn't in session (there have been many recent incidents of overnight camping at the schools). It would take Frankie 5 minutes to scan for drug paraphernalia in an area that would take a single officer hours. They'll do random searches of campuses and playgrounds through the year and do demonstrations at the high school level - using Frankie as a deterrent. Frankie is being trained by a local dog trainer Tiffany Damm at "For the Love of Dog" in Oroville. The department needs $15,000 to start the program and the K-9 unit is largely donation based. That will provide equipment costs and Frankie's certification expense. So why a Labrador? Officer Wright says they're great drug detection dogs- and they're a little less scary than a sheppard breed; police don't have a need for a "bite dog" in the schools. This is about student safety. Frankie will also patrol city parks during the summertime. The handlers will be all three School Resource Officers. Dr. Dallas and Mandy Wentz, sister, are working to raise funds for the Oroville Police Department K9 Unit out of Dr. Dallas's new vet clinic, Three Hearts Veterinary Hospital. They've set up a GoFundMe and are currently reaching out to the community for help. Dogs have been used in law enforcement for at least 100 years, and they're hoping to have more of a presence in the Oroville Police Department. Police dogs have so many uses; they can help officers in finding lost children and elderly citizens. Because of their amazing sense of smell, they help with illegal drug detection and searches. They cut down injuries to officers and suspects. To help in the fundraising effort, click here. When asked in 2006 how he would rate the Supreme Court, Fali Nariman had a devastating riposte: Do you feel like reading any of their judgments? That cannot be said about the courts magnificent judgment delivered on September 6, reducing to ashes Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. In a unanimous verdict in Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India, a Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra declared the offending provision inapplicable to consensual sexual relationships between adults. The LGBTQ community stands liberated. Here is a judgment worthy of reading and rereading. It will endure as long as the court and the Constitution. The Supreme Court does here, and does exceptionally well, what constitutional tribunals are meant to do. It draws on the submissions made in court, lifts the discourse through layered research and then applies prodigious analysis to distil the core of the case. The challenge before the court was not about physical acts but about identity. A section of Indians found themselves criminalised for simply being who they are. This, the court held, destroys dignity and so severely undermines a persons self esteem that the offending provision had to be declared unconstitutional. Courts derive legitimacy from the power of reasoning and analysis in their judgments. Thursdays verdict is rigorous in its analysis, careful in its survey of global jurisprudence and, most of all, sensitive to the human condition. The judgment is founded on the recognition of the need for intimacy in developing human relationships. The heart of the judgment is the courts belief that the Constitution creates zones of privacy and spaces for individuals to not conform. Constitutional morality trumps majoritarian notions. Indeed, no matter how small a minority, the Constitution will spring to its defence where the actions cause no harm. This has been a long journey. In 2000, a group of activists and lawyers began strategising on whether and how to challenge Section 377. The Naz Foundation case was lodged in the Delhi High Court in October 2001. The Delhi High Court in 2009 reached the same conclusion in the Naz Foundation case the Supreme Court eventually did, on Thursday. However, after several twists and turns, that case met a grim end in a judgment of the Supreme Court in December 2013. This led to a fresh round of strategic thinking on how Koushal could be overturned. At one point, activists contemplated the possibility of certain state governments amending Section 377. The legislative route, however, meant that the Supreme Courts decision would survive. When the government refused to acknowledge the right to privacy, the Supreme Court was compelled to set up a panel of nine judges to reconsider previous decisions. On August 24, 2017, in an offshoot of the Aadhaar case, the Supreme Court took the opportunity to examine Koushal. The nine-judge bench in Puttaswamy recognised a constitutional Right to Privacy. The judgment also declared the law laid down in the Koushal case wrong. However, it did not overrule it. Finally, with the Supreme Courts verdict, Suresh Kumar Koushal is now buried. The verdict decisively restores to members of the LGBTQ community, long overdue access to the experience of full citizenship. This is a moment to be savoured by the LGBTQ community, finally, full citizens of India. The Court also points the nation down a constitutional path: Let us move from darkness to light, from bigotry to tolerance and from the winter of mere survival to the spring of life as the herald of a New India to a more inclusive society. Inclusiveness is a core constitutional value. Beyond the LGBTQ community in India, the judgment will bring cheer across the globe to other communities seeking their place in the sun. Moreover, by crafting doctrines of progressive realisation of rights and non-retrogression, the court has signalled a fresh phase in the evolution of human rights jurisprudence. Reassuringly, the Constitution remains a wellspring of hope and rejuvenation. Shyam Divan is a senior advocate. He appeared for Voices against 377 The views expressed are personal Delta Fire Update The Delta Fire is 24,558 acres in Shasta and Trinity Counties. There are evacuation orders and warnings in communities in Shasta, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. I-5 remains closed from Redding to the Oregon border this morning. Drivers are asked to take the alternate route through Highway 89. Public Meeting Today for Delta Fire A public meeting will be held tonight for both the Delta and the Hirz fire at 6 p.m. at Dunsmuir High School. The Shasta-Trinity National Forest will also broadcast it live on their Facebook page. Kerlin Fire Update The Kerlin Fire has grown to 1,228 acres and is 0 percent contained. A public meeting will be held at the Hyampom Volunteer Fire Department at 6 p.m. on Sept. 7. Hirz Fire Update The Hirz Fire is now 46,150 acres and is 80 percent contained. The McCloud River Arm of Shasta Lake remains closed to boat access north of Holiday Harbor and the Shasta Caverns Ferry. Recreation sites closed due to the Hirz Fire are Hirz Bay, Moore Creek, Pine Point, Ellery Creek, Dekkas Rock and McCloud Bridge. North Fire Update The North Fire remains at 1,274 acres but is now 43 percent contained. A new song from the upcoming film Batti Gul Meter Chalu, starring Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, has been released online. The two-and-a-half minute number, Har Har Gange, is a more soulful track than the previously released dance numbers, Hard Hard and Gold Tamba. Har Har Gange is performed by Arijit Singh, written by Siddharth-Garima and composed by Sachet-Parampara. The song appears to be set after the suicide of Shahids childhood friend in the film, and has several scenes of Shahids character, a small town lad named SK, mourning the sudden loss of his best friend. We see Shahid sitting on the banks of the river Ganga, weeping and staring morosely into the distance. The song is intercut with back story - we learn of SKs relationship with his friend - and the aftermath in which we see Shraddhas character berate SK after he fails to show up for his friend when he needed him the most. In the trailer for the film, we saw how SKs friend opens up a small business, but is overwhelmed by exorbitant electricity bills, which he fails to pay and thus resorts to suicide. His death acts as a turning point in SKs life. He then vows to take revenge on the corrupt electricity companies by fighting them in court, as a lawyer. Batti Gul Meter Chalu is directed by Shree Narayan Singh, who previously made the Akshay Kumar social drama, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. The film has been slated for a September 21 release. Follow @htshowbiz for more Paltan Director - JP Dutta Cast - Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Jackie Shroff, Gurmeet Choudhary, Harshvardhan Rane Rating - 1.5/5 Im mildly surprised JP Dutta hasnt yet used the National Anthem as background score. The cheerleading jingoism is so strong in his movies that a director like Dutta might be all too glad to have his audience forced to stand through the entire running-time of his long films, to parallel the way our brave soldiers remain standing at the border. His latest film, Paltan, based on a 1967 Indo-Chinese skirmish near the Sikkim border, may be an attempt to have us empathise with the interminable dreariness of soldiers stationed in deadlock at a war-zone. Nobody is supposed to move, and nobody does: not even the director. The film begins with a postman at night, knocking on each door to give families bad news about their loved ones. They instantly begin to wail, and the sound of this chest-beating hysteria is only amplified as the postman makes his way down the street and Dutta sets the stage for a loud war film about the casualties of war. Soon, we see Jackie Shroff as a Major General talking to Arjun Rampal who plays a Lieutenant Colonel, both of them speaking in English and pausing at unnatural points, giving the impression that we are watching a hurriedly dubbed foreign film. Watch the Paltan trailer here Rampal, when leaving the room, turns to Shroff and tells him he is his new idol, after having first looked up to Field Marshal Bernand Montgomery. Shroff, taciturn and scowling, places his elbow on his knee and his chin on his arm as if posing for a portrait painter before he says Im no hero. Yes, this is that kind of film, one where the Indian soldiers sit around in a circle and look at their family photographs at the same time. In Paltan, long stretches of on-field action are occasionally punctuated with trademark JP Dutta flashbacks of wives and lovers back home among verdant farmlands, and because there is such little craft to the enterprise, these come across as abruptly and overtly manipulative as those backstory-montages we see on shows like KBC and Indian Idol, where the contestant playscards with his family, cycles to work or boots up a computer. Here the soldiers speak exclusively in idioms. Sonu Sood, cast as a tough-as-nails Major, has the worst of this as he says things like weapons are a soldiers limbs and soldiers dont fight because of hate for the other army, but love for the ones they leave behind, often in consecutive sentences, halting only to throw around the word yaara an awful lot. Similarly the hot-blooded Sikh warrior keeps invoking Waheguru, and keeps asking his colleagues for common English words like, well, common, while being able to say things about the demarcation of international boundaries without a hiccup. Jackie Shroff is wasted in Paltan. The Indian soldiers are fit and fierce, to a man, even as their wives wait back home Rampal has to go home to the blissfully blank Esha Gupta who stands by his departing jeep, looking as if shes wondering whether the camera is rolling while the Chinese are shown as sneaky soldiers following the orders of a cartoonishly evil Commissar. There isnt much to be said about the ensemble cast, but their relative unfamiliarity serves them well in a film like this. Gurmeet Choudhary and Harshvardhan Rane commit fully to their parts, noses-flaring and eyebrows furrowing the brow, and at least they have the right energy for this kind of production. The film cant match their enthusiasm. The 1967 dispute Paltan is based on is intriguing, a one-day crossfire that ended with China waving the white flag rather impressive considering their brutal victory over India in 1962. There isnt much to the actual incident, however, and Dutta saves all his action for a climactic push after forcing us to sit through two hours of clenched jaws, boots on gravel and bad dialogue. Paltan is mounted on a large enough scale, or at least it has enough uniformed extras to give that illusion, but what is the point to its overarching dullness? It is clear Dutta has nothing new to say after his 1997 hit, Border, which took a few stars and made them look good in uniform. For the record, Id still gladly salute and take orders from Shroff, a relic of the old film who is largely wasted here. There is a lot to be said about the futility of war, and now Dutta has made his case for the futility of the war movie. Follow @htshowbiz for more Shahid Kapoor has finally revealed the name of his newborn son. The actor and his wife Mira Rajput have named their baby boy, Zain Kapoor. Shahid made the reveal through a tweet on Friday. Zain Kapoor is here and we feel complete. Thank you for all the wishes and blessings. We are overjoyed and so grateful. Love to all, he wrote in his tweet. Shahid also thanked their doctor for helping them in this important time of their life. Thank you Dr Kiran Coelho. For being just the best. pic.twitter.com/KMHuLjROiJ Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) September 7, 2018 Mira gave birth to Zain on Wednesday night at Mumbais Hinduja Hospital. She was visited by her daughter Misha, Shahids brother Ishaan Khatter, mother Neelima Azim and father Pankaj Kapoor with his wife Supriya Pathak. Zain Kapoor is here and we feel complete. Thank you for all the wishes and blessings. We are overjoyed and so grateful. Love to all. Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) September 7, 2018 In a news report to Republic TV, Pankaj said: I am very delighted that a new bundle of joy has come to our house. A baby being born in any house is a matter of sheer joy and excitement. Similarly, it is a moment of joy for our family and as the grandfather of the newborn, I am delighted and very proud of my family. I wish Shahid and Mira all the very best and many congratulations. In another interview to Mumbai Mirror, Pankaj said, Its the most delightful thing that can happen to any family. Shahids family is now complete. God bless all of them. We are thrilled about the new arrival. Shahid Kapoor and his daughter Misha arrive at Hinduja hospital in Mumbai on Sept 6, 2018. Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Rajput welcomed a son at a hospital yesterday. (IANS) Shahid and Mira are one of the most popular couples in Bollywood. Their pictures together as a family are a huge hit online. In an interview with Mid-Day before the birth of his baby boy, the actor spoke about becoming a parent for the second time. He said, Its completely different this time. I think we are calmer and more relaxed. He added, Mira and I would be asking questions and having doubts. But this time around, we feel like veterans. We have done it once, so we can handle it this time around. He also spoke on whether Misha understands what it means to have a younger sibling and said, With a two-year-old, you cant tell them too much and at the same time, you cant surprise them completely. So we make subtle mentions because kids are really absorbent. They learn from looking at things around. She is aware of the change without us having had a conversation with her. Shahids mother Neelima Azim also revealed that they are still thinking of a name for the baby. My dearest elder sons family is now complete... Misha (Shahid and Miras two-year-old daughter) has got a brother and Ishaan (son of Neelima Azim and Rajesh Khattar) has got a nephew now. Im a hands-on grandmother with Misha and since Ive had two boys of my own, being with the new member of the family will come naturally to me, she told Mumbai Mirror. Shahid will soon be seen in Batti Gul Meter Chalu and will begin work on his new film, a remake of Telugu hit Arjun Reddy. He will also be seen in a biopic on Asian gold medallist boxer Dingko Singh. Follow @htshowbiz for more The Reserve Bank has imposed a total penalty of Rs 3 crore on three state-run banks of Union Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra for delay in detection and reporting of fraud in some accounts. The central bank in three separate releases Friday said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore each on the three banks of Union Bank of India (UBI), Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra. The RBI on August 30 imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 10 million on the banks for contravention of the instructions contained in Master Circular on Fraud Classification and Reporting issued by RBI, according to the releases. The penalty has been imposed taking into account delay on the part of the bank to detect and report fraud in an account, it said. This is to inform that Reserve Bank has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 million on the bank for delay in detection and reporting of fraud. The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under ...Banking Regulation Act, Union Bank of India said in a regulatory filing Friday. The bank has taken necessary preventive measures and has implemented a comprehensive corrective action plan to strengthen internal controls and to ensure that such incidents do not recur, the bank added. The abrupt, overnight transfer of SP Vaid, the (former) Director General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir, has raised more concerns about who exactly is at the steering wheel in a critical conflict zone, and what they are playing at. This is not about the merits of individual men or women. Or intended to show any disrespect to his successor. Vaid himself was assigned the post in 2016, when another brilliant police officer, Shiv Sahai, a man with a razor sharp instinct and a deep understanding of the complex insurgency, was tipped for the job and then suddenly and unceremoniously shunted to Delhi. Then, too, politics had determined the outcome. Sahai held a press conference after security forces eliminated local militant, Burhan Wani, and in response to a direct question, said that Mehbooba Mufti (then chief minister of the BJP-PDP alliance) was aware of the operation. Faced with ferocious separatist backlash on the streets, Mufti like all other Valley politicians did not want to be seen to be supporting Wanis killing. She declined to take ownership of the action by the forces, arguing that even the police were not aware of Wanis presence at the encounter site; else he would have been given a chance to surrender and live. She disowned Sahais words and the compulsions of her politics clearly cost Sahai his promotion. In the past, Sahai, known to speak his mind and hold his own, has had run-ins with the Abdullah regime of the National Conference as well. Now there are whispers that the appointment of Dilbagh Singh, presently the Director General of Prisons, as the states new DGP, may be a mere holding operation. There is anticipation that in an ironic turn of events, Shiv Sahai could eventually be given the post, once all procedural clearances are done. Sahai would be a great choice if that is what is going to happen. But, lets not forget that what could be ordinary and routine in other states and the sad truth is that politicians do control and manipulate police transfers everywhere else too can hardly withstand the same normalcy test in a place like Kashmir. The Valley is in virtual free-fall. There is a sharp spike in local militancy as educated young men embrace the gun. Kashmiri policemen are being targeted like never before and there is a growing delegitimisation of all political forces, mainstream and separatist groups alike. Effectively, no one is in control of the street today. Forty-two police officers died in the line of duty last year; an estimated 31 have been killed by militants this year. I have met policemen who travel from their village to the city in civilian clothes and a big scarf wrapped around their face to avoid being identified. They worry especially about their families being targeted. It is believed that one of the controversies that cost Vaid his job was the swap deal the police were compelled to make: releasing relatives of terrorists in exchange for the release of kidnapped family members of local policemen. Others suggest a dispute between the states new governor and Vaid over operational autonomy. Critics of the BJP point to Vaids tough and independent handling of the rape of an 8-year-old child in Kathua, in which local BJP leaders from Jammu, including state ministers, defended the accused. Whatever be the provocation and at the moment it looks like Vaid is being made the fall guy for an awful downward spiral in the Valley the administration has acted in a hurry. It has approached the Supreme Court for exemption against a judicial order that prohibits the appointment of acting DGPs. It has cited the precarious law and order situation in the state as a reason for why the post cannot remain empty till the final appointment goes through the UPSC panel. Fair enough. But then why oust Vaid till the new, permanent appointee was in place? This heavy handed response in the absence of any publicly shared information or context not just undermines Vaid; it will undermine the very post itself, whether Shiv Sahai or Dilbagh Singh or someone else is the new incumbent. Read together with the appointment of Satypal Malik as Governor and the other changes in the top bureaucracy, it is clear that the Modi government wants its own team in place before the October civil polls. Remember the states assembly is not yet dissolved and there is every chance of a new political formation being formed with the BJP in alliance with a new political grouping. But experimenting with the security apparatus in the worst phase of the 27-year-old turmoil is not something Kashmir can afford. Policemen especially cannot be moved around like specimens in a laboratory experiment. Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author. The views expressed are personal Two Jammu and Kashmir residents, who police alleged are members of the Islamic State of Jammu & Kashmir (ISJK), were arrested from Delhi on Thursday night by the Delhi police. The two men Parvaiz Rashid Lone alias Shahid,25, and Jamsheed Zahoor Paul,20 residents of Shopian in J&K were allegedly arrested from a bus stop near Red Fort in Old Delhi. At a press conference held by the police on Friday, officers of the special cell said that the two men had come from Amroha ,Uttar Pradesh, after collecting two sophisticated pistols from a contact and were on their way to board a bus to Jammu. The police claimed to have recovered two pistols of 7.65 mm caliber, 10 live rounds and four cellphones from the two men. They said that Lone is an M/Tech student at Venkateshwara University in Gajraula in Uttar Pradesh, while Paul is pursuing a diploma in electrical engineering from a university in Awantipora, J&K. The two do not have a criminal record, an officer said on condition of anonymity. Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Kushwah said at the press conference that the two men were instructed by the chief of the ISJK - Omar Ibn Nazir - to get the weapons. This is the second instance when they were returning (to Kashmir) after collecting the weapons. They had earlier taken weapons from Amroha to Kashmir about 2-3 months ago. They are from the same village. The weapons could have been used against the security forces in J&K, said Kushwah. The DCP said Lone, who completed his BTech in civil engineering two years ago, was self-radicalised. His younger brother Firdous Lone, who was a member of the militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in an encounter with the security forces on January 24 in Shopian, J&K. Lone was influenced to join the terror ranks by his brother. His brother had left HM and joined the ISJK in December last year, the DCP alleged. The officer alleged that Paul, who is the son of a Jammu and Kashmir police constable, had joined the group after meeting a militant at the funeral of Sabzar Bhat in April 2017. Bhat was an active militant of the Hizbul Mujahideen, whose death in an encounter sparked protests and clashes between the public and security agencies in Tral, about 45 kilometre from Srinagar, another senior officer of the special cell said. Kushwah said police are on the lookout for the man who supplied them the pistols. Police said the two men claimed that they bought each pistol for Rs 50,000. The families of the two men said they were innocent. My son is innocent, please release him. He had nothing to do with militancy, said Parvaizs father Abdul Rashid Lone, a retired government employee. Zahoor Ahmad, the father of Jamsheed, too was surprised by his sons arrest. (With inputs from Ashiq Hussain in Srinagar) A Delhi court on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on AAP MLA from Tughlakabad, Sahi Ram Pahalwan, for assaulting a youth in September 2016. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal did not award any jail term to the AAP politician as an opportunity to reform himself. Besides Pahalwan, co-convicts Subhash and Lalit were also directed to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh each. ...considering primarily that the injured Yogender Bidhuri had suffered simple injuries in this case and in order to give an opportunity to the convicts to reform themselves, I do not deem it fit to award a sentence of imprisonment. Therefore, in the facts and circumstances of the case, all the three convicts are punished with a fine of Rs two lakh each under section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) IPC, the Judge said. He also awarded a compensation of Rs 1.50 lakh to the victim. The court had on August 1 held Pahalwan guilty while relying upon the testimony of Bidhuri. The court convicted all the three accused for the offence punishable under sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by sharp object), 341 (wrongfully restrain) and 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code. The offence carried a maximum of three years jail term. The accused had denied the allegations levelled against them, saying that they were falsely implicated in the case. They had claimed that they had not beaten the complainant Yogender Bidhuri and that they were not even present at the spot at the time of the alleged incident. The complainant had earlier told the Delhi Police that a cemented road was being constructed in a lane outside his house in Tekhand. He had alleged that the MLA had threatened the supervisor who was observing the construction to stop work on the intervening night of September 18 and 19, 2016. Bidhuri had claimed that he called the MLA and tried to know why he was opposing the construction of the road after which the legislator threatened him with dire consequences. He had alleged that he had gone to get medicines with a relative when the MLA along with his accomplices allegedly beat him up. The Delhi government plans to give 10% discount to the users of newly launched common mobility card in all state-run buses. The transport department will put up the proposal before the Cabinet within a week. The move is aimed at encouraging more passengers to use the card, said senior Delhi government officials. The Delhi government had launched the common mobility card service on August 25, enabling commuters to pay bus fares through their Metro cards. The scheme is being implemented in all buses run by DTC, DIMTS and DMRC. On an average 30 lakh passengers use public bus services in the national Capital daily. Delhi Metro already offers discount to smart card users. Once approved by the Cabinet, it is going to benefit a large section of the city population which is primarily dependent on public buses for their daily commute. The discount will be applicable on all rides within the city limits, said a senior officer, requesting anonymity. Currently, bus fares in Delhi for non-AC buses are Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 15. There is a flat fare of Rs 5 for travel in non-AC DTC and cluster buses for travel up to five kms. Fare slab for travel in AC buses is between Rs 10 and Rs 25. The DTC runs a fleet of 3,882 buses, of which 2,506 are low-floor non-AC buses, 1,275 are low-floor AC buses and 101 green standard floor buses. Besides, there are 1,672 cluster (orange ) buses plying on city roads. Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot said the discount on the card is expected to be implemented within a months time. The proposal has to go to the Cabinet for approval. We are hoping to make it available within a month, said Gahlot. Nearly 34% of city commuters depend on non-AC bus services while only about 10%-15% of commuters use AC buses, according to a recent report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) during a two-day conclave on making public transport affordable to all. Besides, the department has also asked the DTC to streamline issues with electronic ticketing machines (ETMs) used in buses, which initially had problems swiping more than a few cards per day. Love was in the air on the streets of Delhi as the Supreme Court decriminalised adult consensual same-sex acts on Thursday. Hugs, tears, flags of rainbow colours and songs of victory could be seen and heard as hundreds of members and supporters of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community gathered at Jantar Mantar on a rainy afternoon to celebrate their newly granted freedom. While the large crowd welcomed the historic judgment, they believed the fight for social acceptance is still on. Holding placards and raising slogans of love is genderless and let love be students, teachers artists and activists from across the city supporting the cause danced to the beats of yesteryear Bollywood songs even as it drizzled through the evening. I am just relived that the long legal battle is now finally over. It is the most basic human right, for which we had been fighting all these years. I dont know how to react. I just hope society can now be more acceptable of the community, said Aashi, who is studying to be a journalist. A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalises homosexuality. The law is a relic of British rule over India. The verdict was long overdue. However, its still a long way from societal acceptance and in terms of rights such as of adoption and marriage, said Shiv, an art curator who is one of the organisers of the Delhi Queer Pride parade in the city every year. The annual LGBT pride parade in the city is going to bigger and better this year, he added. We are waiting for this years parade. This November will be our 11th march and with the verdict here it is going to be organised on an even larger scale, Shiv said. Activists and supporters said the legal right can help in due recognition of LGBT people in neighbourhoods, where they face the stiffest opposition. I have been suffering because of my choice of sexuality for many years. I dont know how my parents feel today. I havent called them yet. But I hope things to change now, said a member of the LGBT community, not wishing to be named. Another member, an anthropologist, said on the condition of anonymity that he was just relieved to hear the verdict and that he could feel nothing else. A 20-foot-long python was rescued by Gurugram and Faridabad wildlife officials on Wednesday from Gorota village (Hodal) in Palwal, 102 kilometers from Gurugram city, after villagers reported seeing the reptile swallow a stray dog in the fields. The python, suspected to be a female, was kept under observation to check if it had any injuries and was released in its natural habitat under the supervision of wildlife officials. Around 1pm on Wednesday, the residents of Garota, heard a dog squealing in the fields. When they checked, they saw a python trying to swallow the canine. They tried to save the five-year-old stray dog, but could not. The villagers called the police who contacted Vinod Kumar, the additional principal chief conservator of forests. Kumar directed the wildlife squad in Faridabad and Gurugram to rush to the spot. The rescue operation was led by wildlife enthusiast Anil Gandas, who led the rescue operation, and Faridabad wildlife guard Rajkumar. The villagers tried to pull the dog out, but the snake had swallowed it. The Indian Rock Python has a strong digestive system and it can swallow and digest an animal the size of a dog or a goat. This is the fifteenth rescue operation this month, Kumar said. The incident has left the villagers worried as children roam freely in the fields. This is the first time we have witnessed such an incident. Our domestic animals are tied in the fields or outside our houses during the night. No, we are scared to even come in the fields as the size of python was huge. It can even swallow any one of us, Ram Kumar, one of the villagers, said. Gandas said that despite intense coordination with villagers, it took the team over half an hour to capture the reptile, which weighted about 20kg. This is not the first time pythons have come out of the forest and preyed on animals in the field. They have killed three in the area this year, he said. Last month, 13 Indian Rock Pythons were rescued from Gurugram, besides 20 monitor lizards and 12 cobras. By Richard Gibson MA FIA, Partner and Head of Longevity Risk Transactions and John Cormell FIA, Associate from Barnett Waddingham GMP equalisation is a legal requirement, so why have most ongoing schemes not yet carried it out? The main reason is uncertainty over the methodology to use and the concern that if they do it now, they may have to revisit the exercise if a different method is ultimately prescribed. The uncertainty could be removed later this year by the Lloyds court judgement. In July 2018 Lloyds bank together with the Affinity trade union and the trustees of three Lloyds pension schemes went before the High Court seeking clarification on GMP equalisation. A ruling is expected by the end of 2018. The court case is expected to decide whether or not GMP equalisation applies to the Lloyds schemes and what calculation method should apply. Following the ruling, industry practice may change immediately or may wait on the outcome of any appeals or further guidance from the DWP. Brexit isnt expected to change the legal position so this is not a reason to delay. There may also be an opportunity to simplify your scheme through GMP conversion more on this to follow. How can I get my scheme ready? GMPs should be fully reconciled with HMRC and rectified The Lloyds court ruling in is likely to affect actions by schemes in wind-up. For ongoing schemes it is likely to raise strategic questions over whether ongoing schemes should: reserve for GMP equalisation in their funding basis carry out a GMP equalisation exercise to adjust the benefits being administered Schemes that do decide to proceed with a GMP equalisation exercise will need to consider: what method of GMP equalisation will be best for their scheme? will they also carry out GMP conversion? the impact of the exercise on administration, members reactions, affordability of buyout, ongoing costs The Nun Director - Corin Hardy Cast - Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet Rating - 2/5 In an episode of his terrific podcast, Lore, host Aaron Mahnke tells the story of how, during the cholera epidemics of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was common for coffins to come with a bell mechanism. A thin rope would lead out from the coffin, snake through the six feet of earth, and connect to a bell attached to the gravestone. This was done to prevent premature burial - or, the objectively terrifying scenario in which a living person (presumed dead) was buried, only for them to wake up hours later. Were an unfortunate soul to find themselves in such a predicament, the idea was for them to pull on the string, attract attention with the bell, and have themselves dug out and return to the land of the living. According to Mahnke, this is where the term saved by the bell originates from, although the veracity of this claim is muddy. Instances of premature burial were so common that Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about it, and a German doctor even conducted several experiments on himself to promote his state-of-the-art coffin, which came equipped with a feeding tube and a stock of sausages. Watch the Nun trailer here A similar situation makes for one of the most confusing set-pieces in The Nun, the latest film in the Conjuring Cinematic Universe. In it, a priest is lured out of his chamber in the dead of the night. Displaying the sort of idiocy only horror movie characters seem to possess, he spots a young boy and follows him into a graveyard. There, the priest (played by Oscar nominee Demian Bichir) comes to the realisation that the boy hed been chasing in pitch darkness is, in fact, a ghost. Long story short, the boy regurgitates a snake (dont ask) and pushes the priest into an open grave, which spontaneously fills itself in as a gravestone complete with the Fathers name magically appears on top. Now, common logic - and a cursory knowledge of how films work - would dictate that the priest is simply having a nightmare. Hell wake up any second now, you think, yelling in his bed and clawing at a coffin that doesnt exist. But no. Not only does this scene play out in earnest, but when the priest is eventually rescued - or, ahem, saved by the bell - he vaguely blames it all on the presence of evil. A nun, a priest and a village idiot walk into a haunted abbey. This abstract evil is often invoked in The Nun - usually when the script runs out of logical explanations for things. Characters are prone to saying things such as, the evil is escaping! and the evil must be contained!. The evil that they refer to is Valak, a medieval demon who appears in the form of a nun, haunts an eerie Romanian monastery and will decades later make a cameo appearance in the Conjuring 2. No one dares approach the monastery - even the horses, who stop abruptly at the edge of the surrounding woods because they are too afraid to go any further. The villagers blame all their misfortune - child deaths, faltering businesses - on the evil that lurks within, the evil that resulted in one nun committing the ultimate sin: Suicide. Upon hearing tales of this mysterious monastery - and perhaps sensing a PR nightmare brewing - the Vatican sends their best man to investigate. Father Burke (English name, Mexican actor, but who cares?) is to be accompanied by a novice, Sister Irene (played by Taissa Farmiga, sister of the Conjurings Vera) - who, it is implied, has some sort of history with Romania. But this plot - like many others in the film - is all but forgotten as the story goes along. The Nun is largely absent from her own movie. Although there is no shortage of other nuns. And that, in essence, is the problem with The Nun. Its too thinly written for the audience to form any sort of connection with the characters, it relies too heavily on the goodwill of the Conjuring movies to have any identity of its own; and far too often, it defaults to the same, generic horror elements that these films have helped perpetuate in Hollywood - and, as evidenced by Netflixs Ghoul, even in India. The Nun is directed by Corin Hardy, who is perhaps more known for a film he almost made than for the two that he actually has. For years, Hardy was supposed to direct a remake of the cult classic, The Crow - a project that could very well be cursed by Valak itself, considering the cloak of bad luck that shrouds it. Hed have been the perfect man for the job, because buried underneath his largely unremarkable work in The Nun, there are signs of a fine visual stylist, of someone who has a keen sense of Gothic imagery and atmosphere. But perhaps he isnt the best fit to play inside someone elses sandbox. Will it be revealed in the future that Sister Irene is related to Lorraine Warren, just like Taissa Farmiga is related to Vera? Who knows? I am absolutely in the minority as far as these Conjuring and Annabelle movies are concerned. They routinely take the easy way out, favouring momentary victories over sustained terror - or mental stimulation, for that matter. Evil nuns are spooky, just like clowns and creepy dolls. Thats half the battle won already. But what a movie chooses to do with these perfect archetypal villains is what sets them apart. While It - the Stephen King adaptation, also co-written by this movies Gary Dauberman - chose to use Pennywise as a tool to explore childhood fears and growing pains, The Nun basically just yells at you from in the dark - no context, no subtext. As it turns out, theres an audience for all kinds of horror. For instance, the closest relative to The Nun isnt a schlocky scary movie at all, but a quaint Romanian drama. Director Cristian Mungius Beyond the Hills, with zero jump scares and nearly twice the run time, manages to evoke more fear than most modern horror films. Its part lesbian romance, part psychological thriller, and part exorcism horror. Its unfortunate for The Nun that it must be held to such high standards. It should be satisfying enough for fans of the Conjuring series - God knows if youve liked this stuff four times already then youre probably down for another - but theyre really on their last breath here. It almost makes you want to urge them to tug on the rope. Follow @htshowbiz for more The author tweets @RohanNaahar Kandepi Pruthvi Raj, a 25-year old financial consultant from Andhra Pradeshs Guntur district who was killed after a gunman opened fire in a bank in Cincinnati in the US on Thursday, was expected to return to India once his marriage was arranged, relatives said. The family received the information about Pruthvi death from the officials of the US embassy on Friday morning. His father Kandepi Gopinath is a deputy executive engineer in the Andhra Pradesh Housing Corporation head office at Tadepalli in Guntur district. His mother Sudha Rani is a home maker. A relative told the local media in Hyderabad that the parents were in a state of shock. The parents were in search of a suitable alliance for Pruthvi and he was expected to come to India once the marriage is settled, he said. Pruthvi from Chenchupeta village of Tenali town in the district working as a financial consultant in the Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, was returning from the bank when the gunman opened fire at the foundation square in the downtown. He was one of the three persons killed in the firing which left two others injured. Police shot dead the gunman identified as 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez. Pruthvi went to the US six years ago. He had completed his post-graduation and was working as a financial consultant in a bank in Cincinnati. According to his relatives, Pruthvi Raj studied up to Class X in Tenali town and Intermediate in a corporate college in Vijayawada city. He completed his B Tech in Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) at Vellore in Tamil Nadu. Later he went to US to pursue M.S and got bank job. He had been working as financial consultant in the Fifth Third bank for the last three- years. The Telugu Association of North America (TANA) is coordinating with the local authorities to complete the formalities and send the body to his native place. His body is expected to reach here within three or four days. In July, Sharath Koppu, a 26-year old student from Telangana was fatally shot at a restaurant at Kansas City in Missouri state during a robbery. Four members of a family, including a five-year-old boy, were found with their throats slit in their house in Uttar Pradeshs Allahabad early on Friday, police said. A month-old girl was however spared. Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Allahabad, Nitin Tiwari and other senior officials rushed to the spot with a forensic team and dog squad for investigations. The SSP said the bodies had been sent for autopsy and further investigations were on to identify the accused. Prima facie it appears to be a case of loot but we are looking into all the angles, including a property dispute, he added. The victims had been identified as Kamlesh Devi, 55, her daughter Kiran Devi, 30, son-in-law Pratap Narayan Mishra, 35, and grandson Virat, 5. Kamlesh Devis husband Vimal Chandra had died about three years ago and her son had gone missing about 15 years ago, police said. Kamleshs daughter, son-in-law and grandson lived with her. Her brother-in-law Prakash Chandra, who lives adjacent to the house, informed the police when he grew suspicious on hearing the baby crying since morning. We entered the house and found the family murdered, he said. Prakash said the family did not have enmity with anyone in the village. An 86-year-old retired chief engineer-cum-commissioner of the irrigation department and his wife were found murdered at their Patna house late on Thursday night, police said. Police said that Harendra Prasad Singh and his second wife Swapna Das Gupta were found dead in their sprawling house in Buddha Colony in the heart of the city. Senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj said both were suffocated to death. Prima facie, a pillow was used to kill him while his wife was strangulated to death, he said. The murder of the couple has once again raised serious questions on the safety of the senior citizens in the state capital. Bihar has witnessed 2,055 murder cases from January to August 2018. Police suspect the role of insiders in the killings and have picked up more than seven persons including their driver, domestic help and some tenants for questioning. Some more suspects have been located and teams were on their way to nab them, the SSP added. The couple stayed on the first floor of palatial building spread over a large piece of land. They had employed four persons including a woman for cooking, a driver, a caretaker and a domestic help. All these persons were working at their residence for the last 25 years, sources said. Police said that the matter came to light when around 9 pm, when the cook arrived at the house. She knocked the door but there was no answer. She found the television volume was high, said a senior officer. The woman then asked the tenants for help. When attempts to open the door also failed, some of them broke open the door and found the two lying unconscious on the bed. Police were then informed. Fingerprint and forensic experts were roped in to gather evidences from the spot. Sniffer dogs called in by police chased the smell up to the intersection of Mainpura-Boring Canal Road, about half a kilometre away from the crime scene, and then stopped. Maharaaj told HT the bodies have been sent to the Patna Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. An offence of murder has been registered at the Budhha Colony police station. With the building having no CCTV camera, the police are scrutinizing footage from those installed in the road. The couple is survived by a daughter who lives in Australia and two sons - one in Delhi and another at Patnas Kankarbagh locality. The body of 9-year-old girl, who was gang-raped, brutally mutilated and murdered allegedly at the behest of her step-mother in Jammu and Kashmirs Baramulla district, was exhumed on Friday for some medical and legal clarifications, police said. A team of doctors including experts in forensic medicine from government medical college (GMC), Srinagar were present as the body was exhumed in Boniyar. Certain medico-legal aspects needed more clarifications which local doctors couldnt do, said Baramullas senior superintendent of police Imtiyaz Hussain. He did not elaborate. The girls body was taken to district hospital for some medical procedures and then again buried at its original place, said Boniyar tehsildar Mubashir Amin. He said that besides the civil and police officials, the father of the deceased girl was also present. Horrific details about the case of the nine-year-old girl emerged after her mutilated and decomposed body was found in the forests of Boniyar in Baramulla on September 2. After being raped by her step brother and three others after her step-mother took her into the forests on August 24, she was killed with an axe, her eyes were gouged out and acid was poured on her body, police said. And all this because her stepmother allegedly did not like her husband paying more attention to his other wife the girls mother according to the police. Apart from her step-mother and step-brother, three others, including a minor, were arrested in the case. An advocate on Friday filed a complaint against noted playwright Girish Karnad for sporting an Urban Naxal placard at an event to mark the death anniversary of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh on Wednesday. Karnad had sported a placard that read Me too Urban Naxal at a memorial event on Lankeshs first death anniversary on Wednesday. The placard was a statement of support to the academics and activists recently charged by the Pune police for allegedly being Urban Naxals. Advocate NP Amrutesh, who practices at the Karnataka High Court said in his complaint that he was shocked to see such open support for violent groups from litterateurs. In the programme the so-called renowned writer had proudly put the placard on his neck calling himself as Naxalite is shocking to me that a [Jnanpith] Awardee is active in Naxalite movement, which is banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, he said in the written complaint. Amrutesh who is part of the legal team representing some of those arrested in connection with the murder of Lankesh, also said in his complaint that Urban Naxalists are those who spread insurgency against the nation. Amrutesh asked the police to investigate Karnads connections with Naxals. Also interrogate him about his involvement in Bhima Koregaon offence, he said. Karnad refused to comment on the complaint and would wait for the investigation to be completed. It is his democratic right to make a complaint and I will not comment against that. Let us see what the police does next, he said. Meanwhile, D Devraja, Deputy Commissioner of Police Central Sub-division, said the complaint had been made in the Vidhana Soudha police station and had been transferred to the Ulsoor Gate police station, under whose jurisdiction the venue of the memorial falls. We are in possession of the complaint and will look into the matter, he said. A day after the Supreme Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, Indias lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people say the next step in the legal fight will be for civil rights such as same-sex marriage, inheritance of property, and sharing insurance, among others. But the Union government, which left it to the court to decide on section 377, has indicated that it is likely to oppose any petition for same-sex marriage. If equality of LGBTQ persons is now a fundamental right, then right to marry, bequeath property, share insurance (medical and life) are all part of this. We are asking for rights respect and dignity and it is unconstitutional and impudent to deny that. I am astounded at people who say that we cannot get these rights, said Sunil Mehra, a petitioner in the section 377 case. A government functionary, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, Decriminalisation of same-sex acts was fine but the government would oppose any demand to legalise same-sex marriage. The same stand was echoed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Same-sex marriages are not compatible with norms of nature, so we dont support them. Bharatiya society doesnt have the tradition of recognising such relations, said RSS spokesperson Arun Kumar. The 493-page SC judgment on Thursday had spoken at length about how social norms cannot regulate constitutional liberties and affirmed the rights of the community without going into the question of civil rights. The government counsel in July had asked the court to limit itself to Section 377, and not expand to civil rights. Over the past decade, many queer and trans individuals have got married in community ceremonies while others have moved to countries that recognise same-sex marriages in order to marry their partner. In fact, one of the petitioners before the SC in the Section 377 case spoke of how he planned to move abroad for marriage. In other countries, such as the US and the UK, legalisation of same-sex relationships has been followed by legal recognition of same-sex marriage, adoption, inheritance among other rights. Keshav Suri, executive director of Delhi-based Lalit Suri Hospitality Group that operates the Lalit chain of hotels, who married his partner Cryril Feuillbois in Paris in June, said, Its unfair that I have more rights in his country than in the country we have chosen to call our home. I am an equal citizen in that country, but he is not one in mine. But yesterday gave us hope, and made me proud to be an Indian. I am considering filing a petition regarding some of these issues. The Congress welcomed the reading down of Section 377 on Thursday. When asked on Friday about their position on wider civil rights, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, It is for the government to formulate a position. We will respond accordingly. Marriage and sexual assault are seen as weapons used against queer people as a means to correct their sexuality. It is necessary that the government ensures its citizens are protected from such violence, the SC said. Anand Grover, a senior Supreme Court advocate and a lawyer in the case, agreed that the question of civil rights was likely to come up soon but added that it was a wide gamut of issues from workplace discrimination in the private sector and anti-sexual harassment statutes to rape laws and marriage, adoption and property rights. The demand has to come from the community. We should be ready, and we will be a part of the case, he said. Gautam Yadav, one of the petitioners, said the fight for civil rights will start afresh but at the moment everyone is busy celebrating. Decriminalising Section 377 is the first step. Marriage and other civil rights is the second, he said. An Air India aircraft, carrying more than 136 people, Friday landed on a wrong runway at the Male airport in the Maldives, and following the incident two pilots have been taken off duty, officials said. An Air India spokesperson said the plane landed at an uncommissioned runway and that all passengers are safe. A senior DGCA official said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has been informed since it is a serious incident. The A320 neo plane was operating from Thiruvananthapuram to Male. A senior Air India official said the aircraft VT EXL landed on an under-construction runway at Male. The plane landed at Velana international airport at Male. There were 136 passengers and crew on board. Tyres of the plane were deflated and the aircraft was towed away to the parking bay, the official said. Citing a preliminary report, the spokesperson said two tyres of the aircraft were deflated. It could be because the pilots applied brakes on realising that they landed on a wrong runway. The local authorities are conducting a probe, he added. The senior official at aviation regulator DGCA said both pilots of the plane have been off rostered. Off rostering refers to pilots being taken off their flying duties. Being a serious incident, the AAIB has been informed, the official added. Leader of the Opposition in the Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia has accused the state coordinator for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Prateek Hajela, of misleading the Supreme Court by excluding some vital documents from the list of papers allowed to back up claims and submissions made by applicants. We had full faith in him. But the NRC exercise is not going on properly, said Saikia, a senior Congress leader, demanding action against Hajela. The NRC exercise has come under criticism since the complete draft was published on July 30, excluding four million applicants. A recent submission by Hajela to the Supreme Court on the list of documents which could be submitted afresh in the claims and objections phase of the exercise has vexed some groups. The list of 10 documents excludes some which were in the List A including legacy documentsthe 1951 NRC, voters lists up to March 25, 1971citizenship certificate and refugee registration certificate. Assam Public Works, the main petitioner of the NRC welcomed the submission, saying it will lead to a correct NRC. The rules of the Citizenship Act under which the exercise is being done clearly say voters list and 1951 NRC are acceptable documents for inclusion, Saikia said, questioning Hajelas submission. Hajela did not respond to the allegations and queries from HT. Saikia explained that many refugees who had come to Assam until March 25, 1971 had submitted refugee registration and citizenship certificates that hadnt been accepted in many places because the officials were biased. How can you not allow them in the claims exercise?, he asked. It is discriminatory. There are cases where a brother is in the NRC while the other brother is out. How can you not allow them to not submit legacy documents again, said Azizur Rehman, the advisor of the All Assam Minorities Students Union. We demand the state government and the Centre should intervene against this submission in the court or we will hit the streets. The list of 15 documents was made after agreement of all stakeholders. How can they say that the more than 40 lakh people who are not part of the complete draft cannot submit them, said Deepak Dey, the president of the All Assam Bengali Youth Students Federation. There is a conspiracy to keep Bengali and Hindi speakers out of the NRC, he alleged. Ranjit Kumar Das, president of the state unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, refused to comment. The party, in a press conference just a day before a Supreme Court hearing on September 5, had given a list of 13 documents in addition to those allowed by the top court that should be considered for inclusion in the NRC. Lakhs of indigenous people and genuine Indian citizens have been excluded in draft NRC, which is a matter of serious concern, the party said in a statemen. Meanwhile, Abhijeet Sarma of Assam Public Works, the petitioner in the case, said the submissions by Hajela will ensure a correct NRC. People, even if they are out, have already submitted their legacy documents for inclusion at the beginning. Why do they need to do it again, he said. Not allowing them in claims will ensure that all those who had submitted legacy documents of others, or fake documents, are caught, he said. Allowing them will encourage trading of documents, he said. Saikia, meanwhile, disagreed. The process is software-driven. It should be able to catch who is submitting documents of others, he said. IPS officer Surendra Kumar Das, who allegedly consumed celphos on Wednesday and is battling for life, had been researching ways to end life for the last few days. This was revealed after an assessment by police and cyber experts of the browsing history on his laptop and mobile. He was depressed and in this state he also watched certain videos about using poison and the razor as tool for the suicide, said an official. He was not in a right mental state. He was depressed, said Anant Deo, SSP, Kanpur. Right now our priority is to save his life; a team of specialist has been flown in from Mumbai with essential equipment. Everyone is praying that he recovers, he said. The IPS officer is the superintendent of police of East Kanpur district. He was posted as SP city Kanpur East on August 9. The police, meanwhile, are also looking into aspects that could have pushed him to take the extreme step. The staff at Dass residence told officials there was an argument over food between Das and his wife Raveena Singh, who is doing masters in surgery from GSVM Medical College. Officials privately admit the couple had a fight over the non-vegetarian pizza she ordered on Janmashtami. The argument over food had intensified and the in-laws had to come and settle the issues, said an official. An official said since it has become a police case, the investigators would speak to his family members who are deeply saddened. The hospital, meanwhile, issued a medical bulletin saying there was no change in his condition. The poison had affected the kidneys, said Dr Rajesh Agarwal, chief medical superintendent, Regency Hospital. The team of doctors is monitoring his condition on 20 parameters and ECMO was being used to stabilise his condition. The Centre on Friday assured all possible support including more financial assistance to flood-ravaged Kerala to rehabilitate the affected people. Union health minister J P Nadda said during his visit to flood-affected areas in Thrissur district that the Central government understands the sensitivity of the situation in Kerala. Fund is no problem, funds have been always there and we have been always giving it. All possible support has been given as far as the rehabilitation part is concerned and re-development part is concerned, Nadda said. The minister said he would evaluate with the state government the rehabilitation and rebuilding work being carried out in the affected areas. We just want to have an evaluation and whatever best we can do and what more we can do, that is what we are going to discuss, he added. Nadda, who was accompanied by health and family welfare secretary Preeti Sudan, expressed satisfaction over the work being done to restore medical facilities in affected areas. He said the central teams visit was to see how the relief work is going on, and evaluate what more is required to assist Kerala. Kerala state health minister K K Shailaja Teacher also accompanied the minister to affected areas. We feel very much disturbed. The people of Kerala had to face a lot of problems because of the natural calamity and we are all with them, Nadda said. He said medical experts including doctors sent by the central government and state governments including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were working in flood-affected areas. The deluge last month triggered by torrential monsoon rains had left a trail of destruction in the state and claimed 491 lives since May 29. Three persons, including two minors, were missing and feared drowned when a boat with around 70 persons and two-wheelers capsized in the Bhairab river in West Bengals Murshidabad district on Thursday night, officials said The boat, plying from Kacharipara area to Garibpur village, overturned only a few metres from the shore around 7.30 pm. Locals said in their haste to return home, a lot of people crowded the boat ignoring the boatmans warnings. While most of the passengers managed to swim back to shore, locals swung in to rescue the others. Those missing have been identified as Al Amin (18 months), Umme Salma (4) and her mother Jahura Bibi (40). While Al Amin is a resident of Brindabanpur village, Salma and her mother are residents of Kalyanpur village and were returning from the last rites of a youth. On Thursday, my daughter Jahura and granddaughter Umme came to participate in the last rites of a relative. The boat capsized when they were returning home, Jahuras father Abdul Salam Mondal said. The rescue operation is going on very slowly. Till 11 am, the rescuers couldnt even pull the boat out. Only around midday could they locate the boat, he alleged. Sub divisional officer, Domkal, Dhivya Loganathan, said that they could not confirm whether any person was drowned. We have heard that three persons are missing, but none has lodged any complaint so far, she said. A National Disaster Response Force team was engaged in rescue operation from Thursday night, Loganathan said, adding the search was intensified from Friday morning. India on Thursday signed a path-breaking agreement with the US which will allow Indian defence forces to receive military-grade communications equipment from the US and ensure access to real-time encrypted information. The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) will also help India to obtain critical defence technologies from the US and gain access to critical communication network of the US armed forces, officials said. They said the pact, which came into effect immediately, will ensure interoperability among the US and the Indian armed forces. The agreement will be valid for a period of 10 years. It will also allow the installation of high-security US communication equipment on defence platforms being sourced from the US, the officials said. The long-pending pact was signed after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman held the first edition of the two-plus-two talks with US secretary of state Michael R Pompeo and defence secretary James Mattis. The COMCASA will facilitate Indias access to advanced defence systems and enable it to optimally utilise its existing US-origin platforms, according to a joint statement issued after the talks. Sitharaman said the COMCASA will enhance Indias defence preparedness. Explaining the provisions, an official said if the US Navy detects a Chinese naval ship or submarine in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy will immediately get to know about it through transmission of encrypted data by the US. Though COMCASA will help India obtain critical defence technologies from the US, there have been apprehensions here about allowing the US access to sensitive military communication network. Several countries have signed the COMCASA with the US. The COMCASA will also provide a legal framework for defence technology transfer between the US and India and help New Delhi acquire critical platforms like Sea Guardian drones from the US. However, defence ministry sources said the India specific agreement has specific provisions to protect sensitive information relating Indian defence platforms and communication networks. Without our permission, the US will not be able to share the details with any other country, said a source, adding the US will not be able to force India to make any procurement of military hardware because of signing of the pact. Sitharaman identified cooperation in defence innovation as a major area of emphasis for the future, adding a memorandum of intent between our defence innovation agencies is a first step in this direction. She also welcomed the US positive response to Indias request to nominate a point of contact in the US Department of Defense to help address procedural complexities and facilitate Indian companies to join the manufacturing supply chains of US defence companies. The defence and security cooperation between the US and India is on an upswing in the last few months. In July, the US announced granting India the status of Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) country, the only South Asian nation to be given the designation along with the US NATO allies like South Korea, Australia and Japan. The STA-1 status will help India get critical technology from the US in the defence and certain other key areas. The move is expected to further facilitate India-US trade and technology collaboration in defence and high technology areas. Currently there are 36 countries on the STA-1 list. Till recently India was designated as STA-2 countries, along with seven others. In June 2016, the US had designated India as Major Defence Partner intending to elevate defence trade and technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners. The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the CBIs response on a bail plea of a convict serving life sentence in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The plea by former Congress councillor Balwan Khokhar came up before a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel, which listed it for hearing on September 11. Khokhar has sought the relief saying he should be granted regular bail till the pendency of appeals filed against the trial courts verdict in the riots case. Advocate Tarannum Cheema, appearing for the CBI, said the appeals were listed for hearing on September 11 and the agency will file its response on the bail plea. Khokhar has been lodged in Tihar Jail here since his conviction by the trial court in the case in May 2013. Khokhar, a retired naval officer Captain Bhagmal, Girdhari Lal and two others were held guilty in a case relating to the murder of five members of a family in Raj Nagar area of Delhi Cantonment on November 1, 1984, after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. They had challenged their conviction and the award of life sentence by the trial court in May 2013. The trial court had acquitted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the case but awarded life term to Khokhar, Bhagmal and Girdhari Lal and a three-year jail term to two others former MLA Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokhar. The convicts have filed their appeals before the high court challenging the trial courts verdict. The CBI has also filed an appeal, alleging they were engaged in a planned communal riot and religious cleansing. It also appealed against the acquittal of Kumar. The high court had on March 29 last year issued show cause notices to 11 accused including Khokhar and Yadav in five 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases which were earlier closed. The accused, who were acquitted of the charges, were asked why should the court not order reinvestigation and retrial against them as they faced allegations of horrifying crimes against humanity. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin on Friday said his party will actively participate in the Bharat Bandh called by Congress on September 10 against the oil price hike. In a statement, Stalin said the central government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party was interested in increasing the excise duty on the oil whenever the crude prices went down globally and that it was not interested in passing on the benefits of lower crude prices to the people. It is not doing anything to halt the rupee slide against dollar or to control the fuel prices which are marching towards Rs 100 per litre, he added. Shivpal Yadav, Samajwadi Party MLA from Uttar Pradeshs Jaswantnagar and estranged uncle of party president Akhilesh Yadav, is likely to start his own political party next month. Last Wednesday, Shivpal had announced the formation of the Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM) through which he intends to bring like-minded political groups together. An SP leader familiar with the developments said Shivpal had offered the post of national president of his proposed party to his elder brother and Samajwadi Party patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav, which he turned down. Political circles in Lucknow are abuzz with talk of the developments in the Yadav family which seem to have ended the possibility of any reconciliation between Shivpal and Akhilesh. The SP leader said peace talks, held in the family last week, had failed. A youth leader close to Akhilesh said: Will any peace talk be relevant if he (Shivpal), in his impatience, goes ahead and announces a Morcha? Now, we hear that he is going to float a political party. Akhilesh ji is focusing on larger issues and preparation for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He had even told the family that he would give a suitable position to Shivpal ji at an appropriate time. Still, he announced that his Morcha will contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. What can we say? he asked. Shivpal was not available for comment as he was in Kathmandu, Nepal. On 1 September, Shivpal had announced that the Morcha would contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Two days later, he dropped senior Samajwadi Party leader from his Facebook and Twitter accounts and called himself a leader of Samajwadi Secular Morcha and member of the UP legislature from Jaswant Nagar. In the meantime, Mulayam maintained silence over Shivpals moves but showed an affinity towards Akhilesh. A day after Shivpal announced the Morcha, Mulayam visited the SP headquarters in Lucknow and addressed the party workers. On the day Shivpal announced that the Morcha would contest all 80 seats in UP, Mulayam again visited the party office. Last October, Mulayam had congratulated Akhilesh on being re-elected the party president. When the SP-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) combine won the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls, he appreciated Akhileshs move of forming an alliance with the BSP. Mulayam was a vociferous critic of the SP-Congress alliance in the 2017 UP assembly elections. SK Dwivedi, a political analyst and former head of the department of political science at Lucknow University, said: It might not bring any major benefits to Shivpal but it will hurt Akhilesh and the SP-BSP alliance. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be the clear beneficiary. When Akhilesh was asked about Shivpals Morcha, he had said: We have democracy in our family. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Friday declared Kankaria Lake area in Ahmedabad as countrys first clean street food hub. In the next one year, the food regulator hopes to designate 150 such streets across the country. Hindustan Times, in its December 21, 2017, issue, had first reported about Indias top food regulator being in the process of certifying Indias popular street-food places , to assure quality for those in love with street food but wary of hygiene. The 15th-century Kankaria lake, with around 66 street food vendors, serves popular street food to approximately 12 million people each year. As part of the initiative, the FSSAI framed guidelines for upgrading the existing infrastructure of street food clusters to make it safe and hygienic. The parameters include best practices for garbage disposal, maintaining personal hygiene, demarcating cooking and non-cooking area, working street lights, pest control and overall cleanliness among other things. There is an 80% cut-off and anything above that is outstanding. These people have done a fabulous job in reaching up to that level, and now it is about maintaining the standard. The state food regulator will be conducting regular inspections to keep a check, said Pawan Agarwal, chief executive officer (CEO), FSSAI. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India along with Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration and other regulatory agencies initially conducted pre-audit of the street earlier this year. At the time of pre-audit, suggestions were given for improvement and subsequently training of street food vendors was conducted. After being satisfied with the required changes that vendors made, it was unanimously decided to designate it as Clean Street Food Hub, said Agarwal. The Clean Street Food Hub initiative will raise hygiene standards and revolutionise street food vending in the country, making it popular among both domestic and international tourists while also preserving rich culinary heritage of the country. The initiative will nudge the street food vendors into a food ecosystem where the Indian street food vending will be looked up with high esteem at a global level. The gutkha scam did take place in Tamil Nadu between 2013 and 2016, admitted former commissioner of police, Chennai, S George whose house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the multi-crore case. However, he asserted that he was not involved. Two days after the federal agencys raid at 35 places including the residences of state health minister C Vijaya Bhaskar, director general of police (DGP) TK Rajendran and his house in connection with the scam, George held a press conference to protest his innocence. The guthka scam relates to the fact that while the state government had banned gutkha and other chewing tobacco products in 2013, they continued to be sold in the state till 2016, allegedly with the connivance of politicians and police. A raid conducted by Income Tax (IT) officials in in July 2016 on a warehouse owned by gutkha barons Madhava Rao, Srinivasa Rao and Uma Shankar Gupta in Red Hills, Chennai had indicated that gutkha products were continued to be sold. The IT officials had also retrieved a diary from the site in which there were details about alleged payments made by the gutkha barons to the state health minister, and senior police officers Rajendran and George. Subsequently, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had filed a case. However a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by DMK MLA J Anbazhagan had led to the Madras high court ordering CBI to take over the probe in April 2018. I am not saying that the scam has not happened. Definitely, there is a scam. Someone could have got the money. However, I am not involved in the scam, George said. He also said that he was not the citys commissioner during the time period when the payments were allegedly made. Noting Anbazhagans plea said that he had received payment from the gutkha barons in April, May and June of 2016, he said Rajendran, JK Tripathi and Asuthosh Sukhla were the city police chiefs between October 2015 to September 2016. George also claimed that some of his subordinates failed to bring the issue to his notice. I learnt that Chennai citys then deputy commissioner, crime branch Jayakumar who is currently the Villupuram district superintendent of police- failed to report details about the scam to me. So, I gave him below average rating in his appraisal in 2016. Also, I wrote a letter to the government seeking a probe into that matter in December 2016. However, there was no response from the state government, he said. Alleging that he was being targeted George said: I have not faced any allegations or complaints during my 36 years long service. However, now I have been targeted with this case. There are 300 police stations in the city. How can such a big scam happen only with the knowledge of the commissioner of police? On being asked why he failed to take action against his subordinates for not revealing the details of the scam to him, he said the state government was seized of the matter. Before I wrote a letter to the government, the matter had already reached the higher level officials and representatives of the government. But they did not act. I dont know the reason for that, he said. George said his name was being dragged into the matter to prevent him from becoming the states DGP. There is a conspiracy to prevent me and T K Rajendran from becoming the DGP of TN and that is the reason why our names have been dragged into the gutkha scam - to taint us, he said. He refused to comment on the alleged involvement of some politicians including the health minister in the scam. Since I led the police department in Chennai, I wanted to clear my stand. I dont want to talk about politicians and others, he said. Earlier in the day, Lok Sabha deputy speaker and AIADMk leader M Thambidurai accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) of being hand-in-glove regarding the CBI raids. The raids were conducted, when (expelled DMK leader) Azhagiri was taking out his peace rally. So, it seems DMK and BJP could have a connection to pressurise and ensure defection of our party (AIADMK) leaders with these raids, he told media. However, both the DMK and BJP dismissed Thambidurais charge. A clash between Jammu & Kashmirs top cop and Raj Bhawan led to the removal of the states director general of police, SP Vaid, late on Thursday, multiple officials familiar with the matter said. The differences started soon after the state was placed under Governors Rule, a day after the BJP pulled out of the Mehbooba Mufti government on June 19. There were regular differences between Vaid and advisors to the governor, the officials said on condition of anonymity. In each security review meeting, questions were asked regarding the deteriorating ground situation, particularly in south Kashmir. The hands-on approach of Raj Bhawan and advisor Vijay Kumar in particular led to what one of the officials described as major differences. Several shortcomings were laid squarely at Vaids door: from the increasing number of youth joining militancy despite the killings and arrest of terrorists, to the increase in number of policemen being killed by militants. As many as 33 policemen have been killed in the state this year alone. I dont want to say anything about the differences, Vaid told HT. Asked why he had been removed, he said, I did what I was supposed to do. Probably they were not happy with my performance. Before matters came to a head last week in tat-for-tat abductions by the police and the militants, Vaid and Kumar are said to have been locked in a tussle over transfers and postings of policemen. Raj Bhawan thought he was defying orders and he thought he was guarding his turf, a second official said. Over the last few months, lists of transfers of police officials were being drafted in Raj Bhawan, HT has learnt. The channelling of operational funds the DGPs prerogative was also being influenced by advisor Kumar. You cannot cut the administrative powers of the leader of a force, said a former DGP of the state on condition of anonymity. According to him, this humiliated the top cop in the eyes of his own force. Kumar declined to comment. Speculation regarding Vaids removal has been doing the rounds for the last two months but the tipping point was when the police was forced to swap relatives of militants to secure the release of the family members of their own kin on August 31. After militants abducted 12 relatives of policemen in south Kashmir, the governors office intervened and ordered the police to release Assadullah Naikoo, father of Hizbul Mujahideen operational commander, Riyaz Naikoo, from Pulwama. It was only after the police released Naikoos father that the Hizbul Mujahideen freed abducted relatives. Senior officials in the national security establishment saw the swap as a morale booster for the militants. The timing, too, was crucial: the swap happened on the same day that the government announced plans for holding local body and panchayat elections. The swap cost Vaid his job and Delhi signed off on his transfer, said a home ministry official. Interestingly, Vaid received full public support from the home ministry soon after the abduction fiasco. The ministry on Tuesday denied the reports that it was unhappy with the J&K police. On more than one occasion, MHA has commended the work done by J&K police and the valiant sacrifices made by the men and officers of J&K police. There is no question of any dissatisfaction, the MHA spokesman stated then. Vaid wasnt the only casualty. On September 3, the states Additional Director General of CIP Abdul Gani Mir was replaced by B Srinivas. It did not help Vaid that the BJP, which was instrumental in getting him appointed as DGP in December 2016, did not resist his removal. The party which, in 2016, wanted a DGP from Jammu (they won all their seats from there), began to see him as a liability after he and his force took the lead in investigating the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua. Many BJP leaders believed that he was more loyal to the PDP rather than the BJP. After the state came under Governors Rule, many BJP leaders who had access to the minister of state in the PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh who is also an MP from the Udhampur/Kathua Lok Sabha seat started lobbying for Vaids removal on the grounds that J&K needs a proactive DGP and even suggested certain names as possible replacements. A senior official in Raj Bhawan told HT on condition of anonymity that Vaid was being viewed as non-compliant and too much of a Jammu man. The state needs a dynamic leader to deal with the challenging ground situation ahead of the polls, first announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address, he added. The government announced Dilbagh Singh as Vaids successor, as an interim measure, but has now approached the Supreme Court, which has previously laid down a criterion on appointments of DGPs. Under the process, the appointment must be made after consulting the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which sends a panel of three officers from the pool of eligible officers to the state government. The state government told the top court that since the J&K police cannot remain headless, the government gave the charge to Singh till a regular appointment is made. The matter will heard on Monday now. Though the order appointing Singh said he has been given charge till regular arrangements are made, it is quite likely that he will continue with the job, said a third official. Meanwhile, Vaid has been relegated as transport commissioner. It is prerogative of the government to decide who will be the police chief. The employee cannot question the employer, said Vaid. Monkeys are having a field day in Himachal Pradesh, leaving farmers and the state wildlife wing at their wits end. Two years after they were declared vermin for destroying crops and posing a risk to humans, the government is still grappling for a solution with farmers reluctant to kill monkeys for religious reasons. After the governments sterilisation and relocation drives came to a sputtering stop, monkeys are back in the firing line. The wildlife wing has re-initiated its 2016 campaign, asking farmers to pull the trigger but the peasants accuse the government of firing from their shoulder instead of taking aim itself. Experts suggest a holistic and time-bound approach. Extent of problem Monkeys are a menace in 12 districts of the state, barring the tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti. Of the 17,794 villages in the state, 2,300 are badly hit. The agriculture department reported a crop loss of Rs 184.28 crore due to wild animals, particularly monkeys, last year. Farmers growing horticulture crops suffered a loss of Rs 150 crore. Man-animal conflict Monkeys have turned aggressive not only in fields but also attack humans in towns, mostly tourist places. Since 2004, monkeys attacked 2,315 people in the state. Most of the attacks were reported from state capital Shimla, where the forest department set up a patrol to keep monkeys away from public places. Vermin and after In 2016, the state government urged the Union ministry of environment and forests to declare monkeys vermin in Shimla. The Centre notified them as vermin in Shimla on March 14 that year. Two months later, they were declared vermin in 38 tehsils of the state. Vermin are wild mammals and birds that are harmful to crops, farm animals or that carry disease. This allows state forest authorities and people to carry out extermination (hunting/poaching) of monkeys on a large scale. The permission for killing monkeys was renewed in December 2017 and the notification will expire this year-end. Why no culling In 2016, the Himachal government announced an incentive of Rs 700 for each monkey killed or caught yet not a single one has been culled in Shimla town. Only five monkeys were culled in two years -- four by a farmer in Sangrah in Sirmaur district and one at Kunihar in Solan district. People are still reluctant to kill monkeys. We are again initiating the campaign to encourage farmers to resort to culling, says Tarun Kapoor, an additional chief secretary in the forest department. Most people cite religious reasons. In Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Hanuman led the army of vanaras or monkeys to Lanka to rescue Sita. They are venerated as Hanumans followers and allowed to be despite posing a risk to visitors at public spaces, particularly temples. What farmers want Farmers say the government should set up a task force to kill the monkeys. Does the forest department expect people to patrol the streets of Shimla with guns? says Himachal Kisan Sabha president Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, who is also a retired Indian Forest Service officer. There are 65,000 gun licence holders in the state. They are from affluent families. Most farmers cant afford to buy guns, he says. Plans that backfired The forest department initiated a drive to relocate monkeys from urban to forest areas in 2004. But it found other monkeys filled the areas emptied. The wildlife wing set up sterilisation centres at eight locations, including Tuttikandi in Shimla, Sastar in Hamirpur, Boul in Una, Poanta Sahib in Sirmaur, Sarol in Chamba, Sappar in Mandi, and Ispur in Una. One such centre is proposed at Kani Nalah in Kotgarh. The wildlife department has spent Rs 21 crore on the sterilisation drive since 2006. The government also started a scheme to give subsidy to farmers for solar-powered fencing of farms. It found few takers. A primate park was set up in Shimlas Tara Devi area but the experiment proved a failure as the simians made their way to nearby villages. What experts suggest Experts say the monkey menace is a multi-dimensional problem and there is no single solution. A holistic approach is needed. The forest department has to work on sterilisation with the help of the local community, says Dr Sindhu Radhakrishna of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. Local residents should be trained in catching monkeys for sterilisation. We need publicity and awareness campaigns, she adds. Iran will handover the strategic Chabahar port to Indian company within a month for operation as per an interim pact, Iranian minister of roads and urban development Abbas Akhoundi said on Thursday. Akhoundi is in India to participate in the Mobility Summit by Niti Aaayog on the invitation of the Indian government. Now, we are ready just to handover the port (Chabahar) to the Indian company just to operate this in interim agreement that already we had with Indian part for one and a half year, Akhoundi told PTI in New Delhi. The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province in the energy-rich nations southern coast is easily accessible from Indias western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistans Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 km from Chabahar. Akhoundi, after a meeting with his Indian counterpart, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, said: We have already moved one step forward...We should introduce a banking channel to India, which we already did it and fortunately has been formally accepted by the Indian side. He said the India has also introduced a banking channel, which has been approved by Irans Central Bank. Indian side had investment in Chabahar port and we are moving towards utilisation of the Chabahar port, Akhoundi said, adding that the handing over of the port should be done during one month. We have done everything. The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. The routes of the region should be connected on land, sea and air, Rouhani had said at the inauguration ceremony. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease. On US sanctions impacting oil trade, the visiting minister hoped to find a way out to continue selling crude oil to India. Of course, it will impact the trade between the two countries, Akhoundi said, adding the sanctions would not halt oil sale to India. At the end of the day, both sides will find out some way out to carry on their relationship as we hear from the Indian part that they are already committed to buy the crude oil and we are also committed to continue our trade relationship with India and buy rice and other food material and also industrial material from the Indian side. Iran is Indias third biggest supplier of crude oil but US sanctions will from November 3 block payment gateways. There has been some impact... I will just not say something that is not realistic ...Certainly US has made the trade between the two sides uneasy but I would like to emphasise that this is not something that US can halt and stop this relationship between two sides, Akhoundi added. He said Iran welcomes Indian firms developing the giant Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf nation. Indian side is very keen to invest there. We are still to receive the project proposal, he said. On his meeting with Gadkari, the Iranian minister said: We reviewed the formal statement which was released by Prime Minister Modi during visit of Mr Ruhani to India. That statement is very very strong which shows that ... we have very deep relationship. He said the thing that was emphasised in the meeting was that India is very committed to all the agreements that India has signed. Dilbag Singh, who was given additional charge of heading the Jammu and Kashmir police force after the removal of SP Vaid, seems to be the state governments go-to man. After the sensational escape of Pakistani militant Naveed Jatt from a hospital, Singh was hurriedly posted as director general of prisons to plug holes and prevent a repeat. In a daring escape in February this year, Multan resident Jatt was freed by militants from a hospital in Srinagar dealing a blow to the state police. Singh was immediately called in and played a pivotal role in supervising the security in and around the prisons in the state. Singhs new posting, however, may not be a permanent one. Officials in the administration say his posting is a stop-gap arrangement. Former J&K chief minister, Omar Abdullah raised questions over changing the DGP in J&K at this juncture. Changing the DG is the prerogative of the administration but why a DG as a temporary arrangement? The current DG wont know if hes going to stay & others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. None of this is good for. He further tweeted. There was no hurry to replace @spvaid. He should have been changed only when a permanent arrangement had been worked out. @JmuKmrPolice has enough problems without having to deal with confusion of leadership. On Thursday night, after lot of speculations, J&K government unceremoniously removed SP Vaid as DGP and posted him as the transport commissioner. Singh who is a 1987 batch IPS officer from Punjab has served in almost all regions of Jammu and Kashmir. He was the senior superintendent of Police, Baramulla, in late 1990s when militancy was at its peak in north Kashmir. He has also served as deputy inspector general of police DIG) north Kashmir. As IGP Jammu and as IG Crime, he handled many high profile cases. Singh was also the first investigating officer of the 1991 alleged mass rapes case in Kunan Poshpora, Kupwara. Long before the current legal battle against Section 377 took off, a small collective called the Aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) gathered outside Delhi Police headquarters in August 1992 to protest against police harassment of gay men in Connaught Place. A year before, in 1991, the organisation had brought out a seminal report titled Less Than Gay: A Citizens Report. The report recognised the discrimination that arose out of ones sexuality, and pointed out gay people the world over had been blamed for the spread of HIV/AIDS. Within a few years, in 1994, ABVA would file a petition in the Delhi high court challenging Section 377 the petition lay in cold storage for the rest of the decade, before Naz Foundation, a NGO working for HIV/ AIDS prevention, moved court in 2001. ABVAs impetus to connect the LGBT rights struggle with other marginalised groups was mirrored by activists and petitioners in the long legal battle. By 2006, a coalition of 12 human rights groups, concerned with child rights, womens education and health, legal rights, and LGBT individuals , would intervene in the challenge against Section 377 . Chayanika Shah, a member of Mumbai-based LABIA, a queer feminist collective, recalls getting into discussions around Section 377 back in the 1990s. The discussions on child sexual abuse and the amendments to sections 375 and 376 (which dealt with sexual assault and rape) restarted, she said. Towards the end of the 1990s, another Mumbai organisation, The Humsafar Trust set up a pilot project for men who have sex with men to reduce HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in the community. This focus on health advocacy and service delivery was accompanied by a demand for civil rights. Even the big breakthrough in the HC came when the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) backed the Naz Foundation petition. Im remembering how when we started Voices Against 377, although we came together around the law, often in meetings we used to forget to talk about the law. What mattered was that we were starting conversations on queer issues, and especially on how queer was not the same as LGBT. That queer is about that which challenges ideas of normal and natural. That queer is that which challenges rigid categories of desires and of us and them and recognises the interplay of power and desire, said Jaya Sharma, a Delhi-based activist and writer. In 2011, she was a founding member of Kinky Collective, a group which seeks to raise awareness about Bondage, Domination, Sadomasochism, and take forward the conversation on consent and desire. Over the years, as the legal challenge to Section 377 winded through a maze of daily hearings and petitions, the LGBT movement branched out into diverse territories -- labour rights, Dalit rights, farmers issues and anti-communal struggles. Grace Banu, a Tamil Nadu-based transgender activist, recognised Thursdays verdict wasnt the end of the fight, especially for people who face discrimination not just for their sexuality, but also their gender, caste, and class. As a community, we should educate our people and work towards recognising everyone as human, she said. For Dhiren Borisa, an assistant professor at Delhi University, the judgment was a cause for caution. Many of us from smaller towns and villages, who do not have the right caste surnames will continue to hide, to be humiliated. Bengaluru-based Akkai Padmashali, a petitioner, pointed out many activists continue to be arrested in different parts of India and their voices silenced. I have friends who died because they did not have space to express their gender, and sexuality. So this judgment has helped vindicate them. Today, I am not a criminal, she said. Many LGBT persons said they look forward to using the judgment to fight for civil rights, such as marriage, inheritance and adoption. If equality is a fundamental right, then spousal right , the ability to get a partner to avail your medical and life insurance, the right to bequeath property, all of this should be next on the agenda, said journalist Sunil Mehra, a petitioner. But whatever lies ahead, Thursday finally meant closure for Arif Jafar, a petitioner who was picked up by police and tortured for 47 days in 2001, only for the crime of being gay. For everyday in the past 18 years, the 47-year-old activist carried the scars of abuse even as the case against him refused to wind down. He could hardly believe the judgment on Thursday. It is unbelievable. I cannot imagine that this day has come. We can finally fight back, it feels like all this struggle was worth it. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal says coalition governments have always delivered better governance than majority governments. In a book, Shades of Truth A Journey Derailed, to be released on Friday, Sibal focuses on the failures of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the past four-and-a-half years. He spoke to Aurangzeb Naqshbandi on a range of political issues. Edited excerpts: Why this book? Why now? For two reasons. Firstly, someone had to look at this country just when Modi came to power and the four-and-a half years that have gone by and analyse the policy framework, his promises and this governments deliveries backed by data. Because it is one thing to make allegations and another to collect data contemporaneously, analyse it and tell the people of this country that there is a wide gap between the promises that he made and the delivery on the ground, the dreams that he sold and the dreams that he shattered. Thats why this book. Why now, because I think it is best told just before the Lok Sabha elections. We also want the book to be translated in Hindi so that it goes to the Hindi heartland and the people get to know the reality of the dream that he sold. What is the single biggest failure of the Modi government? It is the most non-performing asset in India. But why does it keep winning elections then? Remember, you can win elections by selling dreams. He (Modi) won the 2014 elections by selling a dream and people were hoping for that dream to be realised. I think people were taken up by Modi and the aftermath of 2014, he developed a level of confidence and I think he was winning the elections on that count. But the downfall started on November 8, 2016 when he, in a very sort of Badshah-like manner, decided to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. But he still won Uttar Pradesh after that? Thats all right. You can win UP but the fact of the matter is what happened recently in the by-elections. When he won UP, the opposition was divided and if the opposition unites, he can never win UP. Is that the roadmap for 2019? Without a doubt. State-level alliances, strategic alliances and the two big states that we need to have these alliances are UP and Bihar. But of course, we actually need to have some level of understanding with all parties at the national level. Is the Congress ready to accept whatever number of seats it is given in UP if an alliance firms up? Whatever the number of seats means that somebody will throw some seats at us. That is not how politics works. Congress is willing to have a constructive dialogue and to extend a hand so that we are all on the same page to defeat the NDA. In that process, there will be give and there will be take but nobody throws anything at anybody. But you mentioned in the book as well that Congress with less than 50 seats cannot dictate terms. Of course, how can any political party dictate terms without a substantial presence? But that does not also mean that we can be dictated. Thats never the case. Mature politics doesnt function like that. We are all in it together for the purposes of winning in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections. In other states also, wherever we dont have a presence, we need allies and wherever we have presence, we need groundwork. Do you think Congress should have a pan-India alliance with the BSP? It wouldnt be a bad idea. Going back to 2019, does the BJP have an edge over the opposition in terms of leadership? After Rajiv Gandhi got over 400 seats, the only time anyone got absolute majority is Modi. He is supposed to be a mascot of a great leader. But what has he delivered? Disruptive politics, disruptive economics and disruptive mindset. We have had coalition governments right from the 1990s. And you see the milestones of those coalition governments liberalisation process by Narasimha Rao who is not a Narendra Modi, dream budget of P Chidambaram, golden quadrilateral (Atal Bihari Vajpayee), visit to Lahore (Vajpayee), mobile revolution, right to information (UPA), right to food security (UPA), right to education (UPA), Indo-US nuclear deal. Now, what have these leaders given to us demonetisation, GST, disaster at Doklam, ISI coming to Pathankot, Kashmir, dislocation of agriculture sector, small businesses destroyed, rural sector in agony, big businesses running out of the country, no private investment. This is your great leadership. Great leaders have destroyed nations. Thats the message we need to convey. Coalitions are good because India as a nation is a coalition. You have a chapter on the judiciary in your book. Are you less anxious about the state of the judiciary given that the Chief Justice has now recommended Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor? I was not anxious about anything, I am anxious about our democracy and checks and balances and the fact that the judiciary should be perceived to be above board. My worry is not individuals but the institutional framework. And if an individual seeks to do something that negatively impacts that institutional framework, then we should be worried. Researchers have discovered snow leopards inhabiting along Sutlej river in Himachal Pradeshs Kinnaur district, suggesting an increase in the population of the species. The elusive leopards were captured in footages from the remote areas of Lippa Asrang Wildlife Sanctuary for the first time, signifying that there is plenty of prey for the wild cats. The sanctuary is located at a height of around 4,000 metres while snow leopards are usually found between 9,800 and 17,000 feet in high and rugged terrain. A team of researchers from the state forest department had installed cameras at eight sites in the sanctuary after inputs from shepherds and villagers. The population of snow leopard is estimated at 30 in the state. Sushil Kapta, conservator, south zone wildlife wing, said the discovery puts spotlight on ascertaining newer areas of habitation by the big cats. It was only last year that the snow leopards count improved from endangered to vulnerable in terms of conservation status, he added. In the state, the habitat of snow leopards range from Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in Lahaul Spiti to Pangi in Chamba district. They have also been spotted in Great Himalayan National park, Kullu. Another camera captured two brown bears at the altitude of about 3,200metres, said divisional forest officerKunal Angrish. Wildlife conservationists attribute the new habitat to an increase in prey base of snow leopards that primarily hunt wild sheep and goats. Blue sheep known as bharals comprise the main prey base for them. Wildlife wing of the forest department has been running a snow leopard project in collaboration with Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, to conserve snow leopards in the valley. It now intends to undertake a survey in high altitude areas to access the population of the animal in the state. The United States has agreed to engage India and explore a mutually agreeable solution on the issue of purchase of Iranian oil despite its deadline for countries to halt imports, an official familiar with discussions at the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi said on Thursday. India is also hopeful that it will be excluded from US sanctions over the purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missile defence systems from Russia, though this specific buy was not discussed when external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, another official said on the condition of anonymity. Pompeo said on Thursday the US would work with India on the two issues. Our effort here is not to penalise a great strategic partner like India, Pompeo told reporters at the US embassy in New Delhi to a question on Indias purchase of the Russian defence equipment. We have told the Indians consistently... that on November 4th the sanctions with respect to Iranian crude oil will be enforced, and that we will consider waivers where appropriate, but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed. So well work with the Indians. We committed that we would do that, Pompeo said. He said that with respect to the S-400 deal, no decision had been taken. The US has said that countries need to reduce the import of oil from Iran to zero, though they would consider waivers and from the sanctions that are planned to begin on November 4. The Trump administration had exited a 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers after a pact intended to stall Tehrans nuclear programme. Indian officials maintained that it would not be a viable proposition for India to reduce the oil imports Iran to zero. The US understands our concerns and both sides will continue with the discussions on the issue, the first official said. India is the biggest buyer of oil from Iran after China, and it is seeking a waiver from the US. Iran is a key partner for India and the two countries are engaged in the development of the strategically significant Chabahar port, which would give land-locked Afghanistan access to sea, bypassing Pakistan. For the benefit it would bring to Afghanistan, India has urged US for a carve-out for the Chabahar port. The US sanctions on Iran cover ports, too. The petroleum sector sanctions will kick in on November 4. Were asking all of our partners, not just India, to reduce to zero oil imports from Iran and so Im confident that will be part of our conversation with India, Reuters had quoted an official telling reporters accompanying Pompeo ahead of the 2+2 talks. After the talks on Thursday, the second Indian official said: We hope the US would understand the significance of our ties with Iran as well as our imperatives as a major oil exporting country. We have been assured that the US would help us meet the challenge. But the ties with Iran are important for us. We are hopeful of a finding a solution through the discussions that doesnt affect our economic priorities, and ties with Iran and factors in our relationship with the US. The US Secretary of State also spoke about the trade issue after the talks. We want... the trade deficit that the US has in its trade with India to be rectified. They have made some progress on that and we thank them for that. Theyre going to buy more energy products from the US. Theyre going to purchase more aircraft from the US... But the gap will remain, and so we are urging them to do all that they can to narrow that gap. Strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellany was not impressed with the developments. The US side got what it wanted Indias signature on Comcasa. What did India get? India has become a prime victim of US sanctions on Iran and Russia. The sanctions on Iran increased Indias oil appreciated the rupees, he said. On the Russia-related sanction threat to India, he said it goes far beyond the likely purchase of the S-400 systems. India also intends to buy other major weapons systems from Russia, Chellany said. A day after dissolving the Telangana assembly, caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao kicked off his campaign for the state election with a sharp attack on the Congress and pitched his Telangana Rashtra Samithi as the only party that upholds the states self respect. Rao, or KCR as he is commonly known, all through in 30-minute speech attacked the Congress, blaming it for farmers suicides, poor power supply in villages, lack of irrigation schemes in several parts of the country and collapsing of economy. KCR alleged that the Congress party, which ruled for more than 50 years in the 71-year old independent India, had miserably failed to build the country as a strong nation. While several countries like China, Japan and Singapore had achieved tremendous progress in various sectors like industrial growth, infrastructure projects and agriculture, India was lagging far behind them even after 70 years, he said. The Congress alone is responsible for farmers suicides, poor power supply in villages, lack of irrigation schemes in several parts of the country and collapsing of economy, KCR alleged. Blaming the Congress for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, KCR said that it was only because of neglect of Telangana region in various fields including education and employment, people of the region were forced to fight for the separate state. Had the Congress developed the region in all spheres, the TRS would not have been born to take up the fight for separate state, he said. The TRS chief, however, made no mention of the Bharatiya Janata Party while attacking the Delhi rulers. KCRs two meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August had fuelled speculation of an electoral alliance between the TRS and the BJP. But Rao on Thursday rejected any possibility of alliance with the BJP. It is true that we have been maintaining cordial relations with the NDA government at the Centre. But that is only on government-to-government basis, KCR said on Thursday. Justifying his move to dissolve the state assembly, KCR said his government had sacrificed nine months of its valuable term only to sustain the unhindered progress the state had witnessed in the last four years. When the Congress leaders were making false and baseless allegations against my government, I challenged them that let us go to the people and seek their verdict afresh. When I dissolved the assembly yesterday. They got panicky and started running to Delhi for directions, he said. He warned that if people of Telangana voted the Congress to power again, they will have to remain slaves to the Delhi rulers. Do you want slavery or self-respect? It is for you to decide, he said. Meanwhile, the TRS revived its Operation Akarsh of luring potential Congress leaders in a bid to weaken the opposition party. As part of the strategy, KCR trapped former assembly speaker in undivided Andhra Pradesh and senior Congress leader K Suresh Reddy into the TRS. He sent his minister son K T Rama Rao to the residence of Suresh Reddy and convinced him to join the TRS to strengthen the hands of KCR. In the coming days, more Congress leaders will join the TRS, as they have realized that they have no future in the Congress, KTR said. Scrap from ordnance factories in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal was recrafted into sophisticated weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles, INSAS rifles and Webley & Scott revolvers, in Bihars Munger district, according to evidence unearthed in two major security operations in the past six months. According to the police , around 15 people in the three states including some working in the ordnance factories have been arrested. The scrap or semi-assembled weapons that should have been smelted used to be smuggled out from the factories and refurbished to make guns, officials said. This week, four persons --- ex-armyman Purshottam Lal Rajak (54), his son Shailendra Rajak (28), Suresh Thakur (56), an officer working in the Jabalpur ordnance factory and alleged gun-runner Imran Alam (42) --- were arrested in Jabalpur in a joint operation by Madhya Pradesh and Bihar police. Three others are absconding, police said. Jabalpur superintendent of police Amit Singh said Lal, who used to procure scrapped weapons from Thakur, had reassembled and sold around 70 AK-47 rifles since 2012, apart from several other smaller weapons. Thakur was a key person in the racket; he used to get replacements for the defective parts in the scrapped weapons from the factory, he said. Lal, who retired in 2008 as an armourer, was an expert in reassembling guns, which he did in his small workshop at his house in Jabalpur. He had opened a small grocery shop which acted as his front and used to take the weapons with his wife Chandrawati to Bihar, the police said. These weapons were mostly procured by Munger-based Alam who used to sell them to local criminals. We are also looking whether the weapons were sold to Maoists, Singh said, adding that Alam was arrested by Bihar police with three AK-47s and 30 rounds of ammunition procured from Lal on August 29. The price of one AK-47 was 5 lakh, he said. The administrator of the ordnance factory, Major JJ Manas, declined to meet the HT reporter. On Friday, as part of the multi-state operation, Bihar police recovered three AK-47 guns from Munger resident Mohammad Shamsher Alam. We believe that these high-end firearms from Munger were being supplied to Maoists in central India. To track them, we have lodged a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, inspector general (operation) Kundan Krishan said. In May, a special task force of Kolkata police had busted a similar racket in Ishapore, in which gunrunners from Munger were getting refurbished weapons from the rifle factory there. Two employees of the factory were arrested along with four other persons, police said. The gang had been operating for a decade. We found during investigation that between 2013 and 2018 they smuggled out 16 INSAS rifles and 4 SLRs (self-loading rifles), said Muralidhar Sharma, deputy commissioner of police in the special task forceclaiming that they suspected similar operations in other ordnance factories ... Within a week, the factory officials recovered as many as 900 finished and semi-assembled sub-machine guns The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Tamil Nadu Governor to consider the mercy petition of AG Perarivalan, a convict in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and KM Joseph disposed of the Centres petition regarding a proposal for the release of the convicts, filed by the Tamil Nadu government. The Centre had on August 10 told the apex court that it does not concur with the Tamil Nadu governments proposal to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying remission of their sentence will set a dangerous precedent and have international ramifications. On August 20, 47-year old Perarivalan alias Arivu had told the apex court that no decision has been taken as yet on his mercy petition filed before the Tamil Nadu Governor over two years ago. He was charged with supplying a 9-volt battery which was allegedly used for the belt bomb that had killed Gandhi and 14 others. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed. This was perhaps the first case of suicide bombing which had claimed the life of a high-profile global leader. Perarivalan, who is among the seven convicts in the case, had said that he had filed the mercy petition seeking remission or pardon from the Governor under Article 161 of the Constitution. He had filed the mercy petition on December 30, 2015, saying he has suffered more than 24 years of solitary/single confinement. As per jail rules, life imprisonment at ground level is only for a maximum of 20 years and thereafter the prisoner is considered for release. Now I have already undergone more than life imprisonment, his letter had said. He had also claimed that the probe was not full-fledged and was incomplete and partial. The main culprits who designed the bomb made of RDX were not nabbed till date. They are scot-free and investigation is still pending into the vital aspects of the crime itself, he had said in his letter to the Governor. The charge sheet of the CBI (Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Authority -MDMA), which was constituted pursuant to the Jain Commission report for further investigation of foreign hand in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, is still pending and the real conspirators are yet to be found. There will be no justification in keeping me behind bars even after 25 years of actual punishment when the investigation is itself pending, Perarivalans letter said, giving a detailed outline of the case against him for seeking pardon of his sentence from the Governor. Convicts Perarivalan, V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santham, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, P Ravichandaran and Nalini have been in jail for 25 years. On August 10, the Centre, while holding that it does not concur with the Tamil Nadu governments proposal to release the seven convicts, had said the case involved the assassination of a former prime minister in a brutal manner in pursuance of a diabolical plot carefully conceived and executed by a foreign terrorist organisation. On January 23, the apex court had asked the Centre to take a decision within three months on a 2016 letter of the Tamil Nadu government written on March 2, 2016, seeking its concurrence on releasing the seven convicts. The apex court had on February 18, 2014, commuted the death sentence of three convicts - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan - citing inordinate delay by the executive in deciding their mercy plea. After Gandhis assassination on May 21, 1991, the probe was transferred to a Special Investigation Team of the CBI on the request of the Tamil Nadu government. The SIT had named 41 accused in its charge sheet - including 12, who died in the blast and three who were absconding - before a TADA court in Chennai. The prolonged trial culminated in 1998, when the TADA court sentenced 26 of the accused to death. In May 1999, the apex court had upheld the death sentence of four, including Murugan, Santham, Perarivalan and Nalini, commuted the death sentence of three to life, and freed the remaining 19. In April 2000, the Tamil Nadu Governor had commuted the death sentence of Nalini on the basis of state governments recommendation and an appeal by Rajivs wife and then Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The death sentence of remaining three convicts were commuted in February 2014 by the apex court on the ground of inordinate delay of 11 years in deciding the mercy petitions. The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up states for failing to comply with its directions on dealing with incidents of cow vigilantism and mob lynching. Noting that only 11 states and seven union territories had filed compliance reports following its July 17 verdict on cow vigilantism, the court asked the remaining states to file their reports within one week. If reports are not filed then the home secretary of the defaulting state will have to appear in person before court, the court said. During the hearing, the Centre informed the court that an empowered Group of Ministers has been set up to consider framing a law on mob violence following the cow vigilantism verdict. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khawilkar and DY Chandrachud was hearing a plea by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Rajasthan officials including the Chief Secretary and the police chief for alleged violation of the top courts verdict in the alleged lynching of dairy farmer Rakbar Khan on July 20. The Supreme Court had in July asked the Parliament to come up with an anti-lynching law to tackle cow vigilantism and lynch mobs while laying down preventive, remedial, and punitive measures. The measures laid down by the court included steps to tackle hate speeches, provocative statements and fake news. (With PTI inputs) One of the last activists facing action under an anti-gay colonial-era law killed off by a landmark Supreme Court ruling expressed hope Friday that he would escape punishment in a new age of liberalisation. Arif Jafar, 48, was arrested in 2001 under the notorious Section 377 law, which was struck down on Thursday. It was quite traumatic. I was picked up from my office with four others, Jafar told AFP. I was beaten up in the jail for 15 days continuously until my fellow prisoners complained. I was denied every basic human right. I was made to sleep on the floor and I was not even given water to drink. It was horrible, he said, his voice choking with emotion. The case has still not come to trial because other accused are missing. Jafar, who now runs a London-based foundation to counter AIDS and promote gay rights, was at the Supreme Court and collapsed in tears after the ruling. Finally I can appeal to the courts by showing them the Supreme Court judgement and I can be free at last, Jafar said. Many commentators said the five justices may have opened the doors to demands for greater civil rights for long-marginalised gays and lesbians, including same-sex marriage. The United Nations and rights activists around the world welcomed the Supreme Court ruling. This is a great day for India and for all those who believe in the universality of human rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement Friday. I hope that other courts elsewhere in the world will look to Indias example and be encouraged to move in the same direction. But Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP has yet to make a comment on the ruling. Modis administration had initially opposed dismantling Section 377, though in July government lawyers said they would give in to the wisdom of the top court. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who was among the five judges to strike down the law, said in his ruling that the government should have taken a categorical stand. Congress and other small regional parties have welcomed the verdict. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said it does not consider homosexuality a crime but it did not support same-sex relations. Traditionally, Indian society does not accept such relations, it said in a statement. Two pro-reservation leaders in Bihar on Thursday bore the brunt of the Bharat Bandh that was called to protest against the recent amendments in the SC/ST Act. Shyam Rajak, former state minister and deputy leader of the ruling JD(U) in the assembly, was attacked in Begusarai district while Madhepura MP and Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) founder Pappu Yadav faced the wrath of bandh supporters in Muzaffarpur. The bandh call given by some upper-caste groups affected the normal life in various parts of the state and train services were briefly affected in Patna, Rajgir town and many other areas. In a statement, Rajak said he had lodged a police complaint, describing the attack as not on him, but on democracy. Explaining the incident, Rajak said, I am on a study tour of different districts of Bihar in my capacity as the chairperson of SC/ST Welfare Committee of the Vidhan Sabha. I was on my way to Khagaria and passing through a village in Begusarai where about 30 bandh supporters came in front of my car and said: Here is Shyam Rajak. Thrash him. They hurled bricks and stones at my vehicle, which got badly damaged and its glass panes were smashed. I myself got hit on my head and my driver and bodyguard also sustained injuries, he said, adding that the escort party had to fire a couple of rounds to disperse the mob. Yadav, meanwhile, was on his way to Madhubani, where he was to take part in a padayatra organised on womens safety, when he met with a traffic blockade near Khabra in Muzaffarpur district. Narrating the incident, the JAP leader broke down and said, I kept pleading that I have never done caste-based politics, but they did not listen. I would have been killed, but for the CPRF jawans who were accompanying me. Yadav, who later left for Madhubani, also alleged that the assailants chased their car for some distance, waving pistols in the air. I frantically dialled the numbers of the Muzaffarpur SSP and the IG of the concerned zone but nobody picked up the phone. I then called up a close aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who said he would convey my message to the CM. I had been receiving threats ever since I raised the issue of Muzaffarpur shelter-home sex scandal on the floor of the Parliament. I suspect the attackers included goons close to Brajesh Thakur, the prime accused, Yadav added. During the day, the bandh supporters -- owing allegiance to several nondescript organisations -- staged a demonstration in front of the BJP state headquarters in Patna, raising slogans against the betrayal by the very party we have been voting for. Some of them also headed towards the office the JD(U), just a few hundred metres away. Many of the protesters were detained. Train and road services were affected in Patna, as well in Muzaffarpur, Jehanabad, Arrah, Nawada, Nalanda, Bhagalpur and Gaya. Shops and commercial establishments largely remained closed in Patna, but banks and government offices functioned normally. Many private schools, though, declared a holiday in view of the difficulties students and teachers were likely to face while travelling. The Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on states yet to comply with its July 17 order listing several directives on dealing with lynchings, and gave them another week to do so. A default would be viewed seriously and the home secretaries of the states would be summoned, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra warned. Only 11 of 29 states and two of seven Union Territories have complied with the order which came against the backdrop of an increase in the number of mob lynchings across India. The order listed 11 preventive, remedial, and punitive steps including a designated police officer in each district to address such issues, a record of districts where such instances are common, outreach through mass media warning people of the consequences of lynching, curbing the spread of fake news and rumours that prompt lynchings, fast track courts to deal with the cases, and the maximum sentence for such crimes. We direct the remaining states and Union Territories to file the compliance reports in a week. If the reports are not filed, the home secretaries of the defaulting states will have to appear personally, said the bench, also comprising justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud. Attorney General KK Venugopal informed the court that in pursuance of the order, the Centre had set up an empowered Group of Ministers to frame a law on mob violence. He said the opinion of states would be sought before the law is finalized. In a related development the court asked the Rajasthan government to share details of its investigation into the Alwar lynching case, reported three days after the top courts mob lynching judgement. The victim died while police officers allegedly took time off to herd his cows to a cattle shelter. The court was hearing activist Tehseen Poonawallas contempt petition against Rajasthan over its failure to follow the July 17 order. The bench was informed that no charge sheet was filed against the erring police officials, as had been laid down in the court order. Appearing for Rajasthan, additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta contested the claim and said the Station House Officer had been suspended and the constables transferred. Three of the four accused have been arrested, he submitted. The bench asked the Rajasthan government to file an affidavit within a week on the status of the probe. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for another petitioner and activist, Tushar Gandhi, drew the courts attention to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals law that provides state accreditation to cow vigilantism. These organised civil society groups engage in cow vigilantism. These groups are given police power to stop vehicles, search premises and seize animals, she submitted. The court orally advised Jaising to challenge the rule permitting this. India and the United States on Thursday made a push to elevate their strategic ties at their first 2+2 dialogue that centred on key issues including cross-border terrorism, Indias bid to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the contentious issue of H-1B visa. Here are five highlights of the joint statement released by the two countries after the talks between external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, defence minister Nirmala Sitharam and their US counterparts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis. 1) Hotline between foreign, defence ministers Joint statement: The two sides further decided to establish secure communication between the minister of external affairs of India and the US Secretary of State, and between the minister of defence of India and the US Secretary of Defense The remarks symbolise the growing synergy between the two countries, as the hotline is aimed at maintaining regular high-level communication on emerging developments between them or regional issues they need to discuss. This comes in the wake of the two sides seeing themselves as major and independent stakeholders in world affairs committed to work together on regional and global issues, including in bilateral, trilateral, and quadrilateral formats. 2) Strengthening defence ties Joint statement: The mutually agreed upon steps to strengthen defense ties further and promote better defense and security coordination and cooperation. This reflects the increasing defence ties between the two nations, a highlight of the strategic dialogue. The efforts included the signing of a Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) that will facilitate access to advanced military systems and enable India to utilise its existing US-origin platforms. There were also negotiations on an Industrial Security Annex (ISA) that will support closer defence industry cooperation and collaboration, and steps to increase personnel exchanges between the two militaries. 3) Message to Pakistan Joint statement: They called on Pakistan to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries. This shows that India and the US are trying to put collective pressure on Pakistan to act against terrorist outfits on its soil. They also named Pakistan-based outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen, the Haqqani Network and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in the joint statement. 4) Focus on Indo-Pacific region Joint statement: Work together and in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, based on recognition of ASEAN centrality. In the backdrop of Chinas expanding footprint in the region, India and the US discussed their larger cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. With the reset in ties between India and China, the two stuck to general positions rather than any posturing. Their remarks reflect that they will work in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, based on recognition of the centrality of the 10-member ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Countries). 5) Infrastructure development Joint statement: Sustainable debt financing practices in infrastructure development. This is an oblique reference to the massive connectivity project the Chinese have undertaken under the One Road One Belt initiative. India has reservations about the financing of huge infrastructure projects that lead countries into debt traps. So, along with the US it has emphasised the need to work collectively with other partner countries to support transparent, responsible and sustainable debt financing practices in infrastructure development. Three men were beaten to death by a mob on Friday which caught hold of them while they were trying to kidnap an 11-year-old girl from inside her school in Bihars Begusarai district, 140 kms east of the state capital, police said. Police said that they were allegedly beaten up by the school students, teachers and villagers when they had forcibly entered a newly constructed primary school at Chhaurahi, to abduct a girl student. The incident took place at about 10.30 am when four men on two motorcycles reached the primary school in the crime-prone district and started looking for the girl. When headmistress of the school, Neema Kumari informed them that the girl was absent from the school, one of the miscreants pulled out a pistol, seeing which Kumari fainted and collapsed. Panic-stricken students then started screaming and running helter skelter. A group of women working at a nearby agriculture filed reached the school premises and surrounded the criminals. Other villagers also reached the spot and dragged the three criminals out of the school and thrashed them mercilessly. One of the criminals died on the spot while two succumbed to their injuries on way to hospital. The fourth criminal managed to flee from the spot. Begusarai SP Aditya Kumar told HT that a police team reached the spot and rescued the abductors from the clutches of irate mob. They were rushed to sadar hospital where doctor declared them brought dead. The police have started investigating the case. The deceased were identified as Mukesh Mahto, Shyam Singh alias Bauna Singh and his relative Hira Singh a resident of Rosera in Samastipur. The SP said that Mahto, was the brother of a wanted criminal Nagmani Mahto and was involved in several cases of loot and murder. He was recently release from the jail. Bauna was a known criminal who was involved in many criminal cases including murders. Police did not say why the men tried to kidnap the girl. Meanwhile, the local people have expressed happiness that justice has been served to those responsible for kidnappings and murders. Fridays lynching was the fifth such case in Bihar this year and second in Begusarai. Earlier, on March 25, a suspected criminal was lynched at Sinhaul police station area. The district has witnessed more than 80 killings in the last eight months. Bihar has recorded 2055 murders till August this year. In the subcontinent, people have lugged suitcases. Said goodbye to old neighbours and acquired new ones. They have changed cities, hammered nameplates on different doors, sometimes in one generation or in each of them. Moving in has never meant that you wont move out. You may even get an answer out of a T-shirt about its place, or factory of origin, but not out of a person. This is true of the people of Assam. Even before it became a state of independent India, Assam was a meeting ground of several dynasties, tribes, traders, immigrants. It was also a place where Bengalis of all faiths learnt to pull together, be watchful of the other, and yet be cordial. And both were accepted by the Assamese as part of Assam, till, as they say, they couldnt. We are looking up the Bengali connection today, simply because the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise being conducted in Assam, does not include the names of 40 lakh people (approx) in the registers final draft. Four lakh (approx) from the Bengali-dominated Barak valley have not made it to the list. There is worry now on every brow. What if this is by design, ask the inhabitants of the valley. Sanjib Deb Laskar of the Barak Valley Bengali Literary and Cultural Association, in Silchar, the headquarters of Cachar district. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO) Every 10 years, the Assamese spring something like this on us, says Sanjib Deb Laskar of the Barak Valley Bengali Literary and Cultural Association, in Silchar, the headquarters of Cachar district. In the 50s, thousands of Bengali Hindus and Muslims relocated to or from East Pakistan due to violence and returned [after the Liaquat-Nehru Pact] to Assam to find their names missing from the electoral rolls of 1952 and the NRC of 1951. In the 60s, Assamese was imposed in our schools; our resistance got Bengali back but now and then they send a circular asking if schools are following the state language when they know in the Barak valley thats Bengali, and its there not as a favour but by law. From the 70s to the 80s, they ran the Bideshi kheda movement, in which the target shifted from outsiders to illegal immigrants to Bengalis in general. Now they have the NRC. Many families could not apply for inclusion in the final draft of the current NRC because they could not supply the legacy data of which the 1951 NRC is a key document. The originals Laskars father has been a legislator in the Assam assembly. Some in his family have not been included in the NRC. Barak Bengalis, he says, have been here as part of undivided Sylhet. Bengalis have been in Assam since the 5th century. [Sylhet went to East Pakistan in 1947 after a referendum and is now in Bangladesh.] And they are calling us foreigners! TaniyaLaskar (no relation to Sanjib, a Hindu), a lawyer who is part of a network comprising 46 organisations in Barak that has been conscientising people on the NRC since the first draft list was published, agrees. She takes us to meet Taslim Ahmed Barbhuiya and Ataur Rahaman Barbhuiya, two brothers in Borkhola village near Silchar, whose names are missing from the NRC list. Their sons Mustafa Kamal and Abu Hanifs names are in. Will our fathers now be considered Bangladeshis?, the sons ask. How can one half of the family be Bangladeshi and the other half Indian? The family traces its roots to Irman Ali Barbhuiya, a resident of the village since 1921 who participated in the Non-cooperation movement. Two-time Congress MLA Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya has also not been included in the final draft. It is a prestige issue for me. In the name of updating the NRC, they are leaving out Bengali names. His name was there in the first list. Archana Pal, the wife of Dilip Kumar Pal, the BJP legislator from Silchar, has also not made it to the list. Pal in an earlier interview to HT laughed off the exclusion, saying the entire process was monitored by the Supreme Court. Lawyer Taniya Laskar of the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO) The NRC, Taniya says, is turning out to be an exercise aimed at turning Indians into foreigners. The Assamese only consider themselves Khilonjia (originals). I have a constitutional right to speak and be educated in my mother tongue, says Taniya. How is that a challenge to anyone and where is the conflict? Next, it can also be said that to stay in India, you can only speak Hindi.... Even when people came in after March 1971, few in Barak said, dont come. [The start of the Bangladesh liberation war was March 25, 1971; entry into Assam on the midnight of March 25 is the cut-off to be considered an Indian according to the Assam Accord that the NRC accepts.] This fear of illegal immigration is an imposed fear and NRC is being touted as its cure. That Bengalis of both communities find themselves out of the NRC has reinforced their shared identity though that unity is not a given. The Bengali of the Barak valley is not on the same page with those of the Brahmaputra valley. Khokan Bhattacharjee, a Guwahati businessman says: Bengali Hindus were driven away from Bangladesh. You cant fight there and hug here, he says. The two-lakh Namasudra Matua community of Barak also does not speak in one voice about the NRC. Babul Das, a fishmonger, for example, begins by talking of the NRC being right to back original settlers, and then being politically correct: Of course those who came after 1971 also came in pain. Being progressive is not a poor mans burden. The Matuas who moved to Assams Barak valley had known both caste Hindu domination and Muslim religious chauvinism at the time of Partition when they were driven back from East Pakistan not yet Bangladesh. Different strokes Three of Baraks districts (Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi) and Barpeta in the Brahmaputra valley have a majority of Bengali-speakers, both Hindus and Muslims. Both communities were accommodated in Assam for different reasons. The main reason is historical; the current controversy surrounding the labels illegal immigrants and indigenous people, which this NRC exercise has thrown up like the 51 NRC did, is political. The 51 NRC buoyed up the Assamese. Their numbers had grown. At the time, the Mymensinghias (Brahmaputra valley Muslims of East Bengali origin), already made insecure by the riots, had said, they were Assamese in their documents. (Front L-R) Taslim Ahmed Barbhuiya and Ataur Rahaman Barbhuiya's names were missing from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft whereas their sons (back row L-R) Mustafa Kamal and Abu Hanif's names are in. They are residents of Barkhola village near Silchar in Assam. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO) By the 80s, things changed. Whenever they went looking for work in the cities people would call them illegal migrants. So they started asserting their Bengali identity in some places as a reaction to the constant questioning of their identity, explains academic Parvin Sultana, who grew up in Dhubri in the Brahmaputra valley, an area that hawks constantly refer to as a place that has shown a decline in Assamese speakers and a rise in (Bengali) Muslim numbers. Bengali assertion, Muslim or Hindu, is seen by the Assamese as a loyalty issue as it accentuates all past fears of Bengali domination, and fears of being turned into a minority in their own state, says documentary filmmaker Soumitra Dastidar researching a film to make in Assam with the NRC as backdrop. The picture, however, is more complicated than a simple clash of two blocs Assamese and Bengali. The aversion of the ultra-nationalist Assamese for the Bengali of Assam, notwithstanding the formers secular claims, is subtly skewed against the Bengali Muslim vis-a-vis the Bengali Hindu. Making the 51 NRC a key document of the current NRC, with lakhs of names already missing from the former, is a ploy to disenfranchise huge numbers of Bengalis, adds Dastidar. Us and them If Bengalis have a grudge-list, the Assamese, too, have different pressure points. The Assamese fear has a context. These are fears based on realism, says Nanigopal Mahanta, who heads the political science department at Guwahati University. Due to their ease with English, the Bengali middle class was able to monopolise administrative jobs and the emerging professions of law, medicine and teaching in Assam in colonial times, says the professor. The British, due to their time in Bengal made Bengali the language of governance in Assam for several years. If any Bengali protested this, it is not known. Resentment at Bengali domination sparked Assamese nationalism. Historian Sumit Sarkar in his book Modern Times India 1880s-1950s writes about Assamese intellectual Anandiram Phukans protest, criticising the foreign medium [Bengali] in courts and schools. The pro-Bengali lobby also tried to pass off Assamese as a Bengali dialect. (This was opposed by Bengali economic historian RC Dutt though). The seed of the language conflict, which has since then fed other paranoia between the Assamese and the Bengalis, were sown at that time, adds Mahanta. There is absurdity and amnesia on both sides; exceptions are passed off as rule. Some Bengalis say the Assamese pass off Tagore songs as Bhupen Hazarikas songs, or that Bengalis are harassed when they go to pursue their pension in Dispur [Assams capital]. Some also raise a most unusual point, which is now too late to correct: Why couldnt Pranab Mukherjee have been a signatory in the Assam Accord? There should have been a Bengali at that table. [The demand for the current NRC flows from the promises of the Accord signed between the government of India, Assam and the leaders of the Assam Agitation, the All Assam Students Union, AASU in 1985.] The Assamese, on the other hand, spin the Sylhet Referendum as a sign of Assamese generosity. Kishore Bhattacharjee, an activist in the Barak valley, denies this. The Assamese were quite happy to let Sylhet go as it had Bengali majority population. Its sacrifice led to massive displacement of population, bloodbath. That Assams first government under the Government of India Act, 1935, was run by a Muslim League government, and that Assam was nearly going to Pakistans share are presented by Assamese politicians as if these events are unfolding right outside their window and not years ago. That this is being dusted out now is with an eye to 2019 elections, say commentators. BJP thinks a division between the Bengali Hindu and Bengali Muslim will improve their chances, says Prodip Nath, a theatre worker in Silchar. Its leaders have been holding rallies saying Hindu refugees have nothing to fear. What they mean is if a person doesnt get to be identified as a legal immigrant through NRC, there is the new Citizenship Act (Amendment) 2016 bill. If passed, it will help a person get legal immigrant status. Nath, however, adds that there are many Assamese who protest ultra-Assamese nationalism. We must talk to them. Samujjal Bhattacharjya, advisor, All Assam Students Union (AASU) at his office in Guwahati. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO) The attack on the Bengali Hindu is in the name of language the Assamese say they do not accept our culture. The assault on the Bengali Muslim is in the name of religion. But there are chauvinists in all parties, says writer Hafiz Ahmed of Barpeta. A pilot project for the NRC was started in 2010 in Barpeta by the Tarun Gogoi government, he adds. Recently, Ahmed met AASU leaders at a television talk show. He asked them Who is Khilonjia (original)? Its basically the Shiv Sena line, the Sena considers only the Marathi manoos as indigenous. AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya was a teenager when the Assam Agitation began. Reading out from a file in the AASU office, he says: Assam is facing external aggression and internal disturbance due to large-scale influx of Bangladesh nationals. Not my interpretation, the Supreme Court has said this. He breaks our interview to give a bite to a local channel and then refers to another file. If they become kingmakers, and this is a Guwahati Court observation, then indigenous people will become a minority in the state. Who is they? Will these categories of indigenous, non-indigenous not create strife? The solution seems to be in music. Look were not against Bengalis or Muslims, says Bhattacharjya. There may have been bad blood during the Assam movement but it was all wiped out when Debojit Saha, took part in the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa challenge in 2005 and became the Voice of India. The AASU backed him. We did not look at him as a Bengali boy. NRC Factsheet What is the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and why the updating was done: NRC was first compiled in 1951. Over the years, there was a demand from indigenous Assamese groups to update it to assess the number of illegal immigrants. The demand for the current NRC flows from the promises of the Assam Accord (1985). Whos a citizen in Assam: Waves of migration led to a fear of the outsider, especially Bengali speakers among the Assamese groups. Post the Assam Agitation, the Citizenship Act, 1955, was amended and all Indian-origin persons including from Bangladesh (civilian population moved around in various phases due to Partition-related violence) who entered Assam before January 1, 1966 were deemed citizens. Those who came after January 1, 1966 - March 25 1971, could get citizenship after registering themselves and living for 10 years. Those who entered after March 25, 1971 were to be deported. NRC and the citizenship connection: The NRC is not guaranteeing citizenship, its just identifying who is a legal immigrant and a permanent resident of Assam. The central governments proposed Citizenship Act (Amendment) Bill 2016 aims to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities except Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. So, if a person isnt included through the NRC, the new bill, if passed, proposes to help a person get legal immigrant status. Meanwhile, through the Passport (Entry into India) Amendment Rules 2015 and Foreigners (Amendment) Order 2015, persecuted minorities including Hindus from Bangladesh could stay in India without valid documents and would be exempted from Foreigners Act 1946. Source: Census of India 2011, NRC Secretariat SADIQ NAQVI NRC was first compiled in 1951. Over the years, there was a demand from indigenous Assamese groups to update it to assess the number of illegal immigrants. The demand for the current NRC flows from the promises of the Assam Accord (1985).Waves of migration led to a fear of the outsider, especially Bengali speakers among the Assamese groups. Post the Assam Agitation, the Citizenship Act, 1955, was amended and all Indian-origin persons including from Bangladesh (civilian population moved around in various phases due to Partition-related violence) who entered Assam before January 1, 1966 were deemed citizens. Those who came after January 1, 1966 - March 25 1971, could get citizenship after registering themselves and living for 10 years. Those who entered after March 25, 1971 were to be deported.The NRC is not guaranteeing citizenship, its just identifying who is a legal immigrant and a permanent resident of Assam. The central governments proposed Citizenship Act (Amendment) Bill 2016 aims to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities except Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. So, if a person isnt included through the NRC, the new bill, if passed, proposes to help a person get legal immigrant status. Meanwhile, through the Passport (Entry into India) Amendment Rules 2015 and Foreigners (Amendment) Order 2015, persecuted minorities including Hindus from Bangladesh could stay in India without valid documents and would be exempted from Foreigners Act 1946. The opposition Congress on Thursday stalled the house over the chief minister Vasundhara Rajes Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra and governments decision to shelve 4,000 questions on public interest from the proceedings. As soon as the house assembled for the Question Hour, the Opposition leaders were on their feet protesting the suspension of the questions and demanded that the government give an account of the money spent on Gaurav Yatra. The BJP countered the opposition, saying the government is willing to answer all questions. After 15 minutes, Speaker Kailash Meghwal intervened asking if the Opposition wanted the house to run. He said the Oppositions objection was misplaced and there could be no debate on cancellation of questions. He then said the proceedings would be expunged and adjourned the house till 12 noon. Addressing the media, Dotasara said they wanted to know why 4000 questions were cancelled. During various assembly sessions, MLAs had asked questions regarding Resurgent Rajasthan and mining issues. But the government did not want to give answers about scams. It is not accountable to the people. Instead of being in the house, the chief minister is on her Gaurav Yatra, he said. Independent MLA from Fatehpur Nand Kishore Maharia said his listed question had been dropped. It was a starred question and was listed at number 14 for today. But I got a communication from the Vidhan Sabha at 1.30 am that my question has been dropped. This is undemocratic. They dont want to answer the people. The people will give them an answer in the elections. Maharia had asked how much money was spent and under what head for the prime ministers beneficiary meet in Jaipur. When the house reassembled, the speaker disallowed an adjournment motion moved by Dotasara on the chief ministers Gaurav Yatra. The opposition members then trooped into the well of the house and shouted anti-government slogans. Dotasara asked why the government was shying away from answering on the yatra. He said even the high court had ruled on the yatra but the government was not allowing a discussion on it. The speaker then adjourned the house till 2 pm. The opposition continued to create unruly scenes. Amid the din, nine bills were passed after which the house was adjourned till Friday morning. The assembly passed an amendment bill that proposes to reimburse the expenditures incurred in the medical treatment of dependent children of ex-MLAs and remove riders for family pension. (With agency inputs) Victory march, cake cutting and tears of joy celebrations erupted on Mumbais streets as the Supreme Court verdict decriminalized homosexuality on Thursday. Alizeh, 20, a BMM student, who sported a beard and wore a dress that read victory march, described the courts order as nothing short of Independence Day for the community. The verdict, she said, gave her the freedom to roam around holding hands with her partner. We were waiting with bated breath for the verdict, and the moment it was announced, I started dancing, said Alizeh, who prefers being called gender fluid. Like Alizeh, many others were present at Santacruz office of the The Humsafar Trust, one of the first groups in Mumbai to work with the gay community. They equated their fight and long wait to the countrys freedom struggle. Todays march, which was no different from the annual Pride March held in Mumbai, drew curious glances from onlookers and passers-by who wanted to know what the celebration was about. The first walk for equality was held in Kolkata in 1999, with only 15 participants. It was called the Friendship Walk. We have surely come a long way since then, but the actual victory will be when there will no stigma attached to the community, said Sridhar Rangayan, a filmmaker. Rangayan credits the current Supreme Court verdict to the 2009 Delhi High Court judgment, which according to him acted a catalyst for change and helped many youngsters come out of the closet. Urmi Jadhav, a member of the LGBTQ group, Dancing Queens, believes the verdict will help change them as a couple to speak about their relationship to their respective families. Transgenders into sex work are picked up by cops and charged under Section 377, said Jadhav, a transwoman. Chitra Palekar, a 70-year-old mother of a lesbian and a founder member of parent-driven support group, Sweekar, was in tears as she spoke about the victory. Her daughter, who is now married and settled abroad, had come out in 1993. Its been a 25-year struggle for us, and going forward, the plan is to do what we have been doing all this while, continue with the advocacy and explain people what being a lesbian, gay or a transgender means. There are a lot of people who dont know what LGBTQ stand for. I didnt know either, it was only after my daughter came out to me that I did research and found out, said Palekar, who had filed a petition in Supreme Court in 2009. I thought it was just me, but nearly every Mumbaikar seems sceptical of an underground Metro line. Wont it flood? What about ventilation? What happens when a train breaks down? Londoners had similar doubts when the world got its first subterranean subway in 1863. The system, now called the Underground, went electric from steam 1890 and still ferries much of the city. There are now more than 150 Metro systems around the world (including in 10 cities in India) and some stations in China are so large, they run through more than one stop and have 100 exits. The longest length: Shanghai, with 644km. The busiest: Beijing, with close to 4 billion riders across 18 lines. The most stations: New York with 424. The largest underground station: Tokyos Ginza, though Shinjukus 200 exits are just as intimidating. The biggest work in progress: Doha, which is building several lines at the same time and holds a Guinness World Record for The Largest Number of Tunnel Boring Machines Operating Simultaneously in a Single Project. The systems are fascinating. Budapests is a Unesco world heritage site, Tokyos are famed for being on time (passengers get official slips when a train is delayed, so you can never fib if youre late). Seouls might have the most frills: phone service, 4G WiFi, TVs, heated seats and AC. But they dont run past midnight (unlike New Yorks 24-hour services). Moscows stations, designed like palaces and cathedrals, might be the most opulent. But theyre as famous for letting stray dogs ride trains the mutts apparently navigate the routes through smell and memory. Frankly, Id rather get off at Delices station than Absesses in France. Id think Nana in Bangkok sounds cuter than Sol in Madrid. I wonder, though, if Washingtons Foggy Bottom will be worse than Londons Cockfosters. Take a look at how Mumbais Metro and Monorail stops get their names. ON THE METRO VERSOVA An Anglicised version of Vesave, which means rest-stop (and may have been derived from the Sanskrit Vishram) DN NAGAR After Dadabhai Naoroji, who helped found the Indian National Congress, campaigned for freedom and had a home at one of the original Seven Bungalows, close by. Theres a government colony in Delhi called Nauroji Nagar; a Dadabhai Naoroji Road in Karachi and a Naoroji Street in London all honouring the same man. AZAD NAGAR Theres an Azad Nagar in Delhi, Patna and Indore, and an upcoming building complex by that name in Wadala. This station, however, reflects the neighbourhood, which is named for freedom fighter Maulana Azad. CHAKALA (JB NAGAR) From Chakala village, records of which go back to 1588, when Marol village converted to Catholicism and Chaquelem was among the 13 villages that followed suit. And JB? After industrialist and freedom fighter Jamnalal Bajaj. MAROL NAKA While it has a history of habitation that goes back centuries, the earliest record dates from a mass Catholic conversion in 1588. The area got its own church in 1840. SAKI NAKA From one of the five villages that originally made up Powai: Saki, Kopri, Tirandaz and Powai. GHATKOPAR As with the railway station and the suburb, in Marathi, ghat and kopar literally mean corner of the mountains, illustrating the edge of the western mountain range ON THE MONORAIL CHEMBUR The Thana District Gazetteer of 1882 records Chembur as the village the Arabs referred to as Saimur between 915 BC and 1137 AD. The Greek merchant Kosmas Indikopleustes who lived in 550 refers to it as Sibor. A Kanheri cave inscription from 300-500 calls it Chemula. It was home to 1591 people in 1882. The Gazetter also notes that Chemburs only interesting feature is an animal home for cows, bullocks, buffaloes, horses, ponies, asses, deer, goats, pigs, dogs, monkeys, cats and hares; and also birds, parrots, fowls, geese, duck, pigeons, crows and peacocks. The homes managers called their neighbourhood Chimod. VNP AND RC MARG Why the alphabet soup? The station leads to two roads. One is named for Vitthal Narayan Purav, a sarpanch and freedom fighter who signed a pact allowing Burma Shell (now BPCL) to use the land and help turn his marshy village into a town after Independence. He also opened the areas first school, and offered refuge to Sindhis who fled Pakistan during Partition. The road adopted his name in 1968. RC Marg is named for Ramkrishna Chemburkar, another freedom fighter and philanthropist who served as the municipal corporator in 1952. He helped set up a local school and library and funded construction of the road that was named after him in 1966. FERTILISER TOWNSHIP For its proximity to the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers plant, which was set up in 1978. BHARAT PETROLEUM It leads to the entrance of the Bharat Petroleum crude oil refinery and processing plant in Mahul. The station largely serves the residents of 72 Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) buildings, who have been rehabilitated close by. WADALA DEPOT Possibly from vad, meaning banyan tree, indicating this was far greener than it is today. The Ontario provincial police says Toronto driver is facing charges after a video footage showed said man clinging to the hood of a car while it was moving at highway speed. The police says the incident took place on a Wednesday morning on highway 404. 42-year-oldEdward Ennis from Scarborough is facing charges for driving along a highway in North York on a Wednesday morning while another man was clinging to the hood of his car. This daredevil ride was allegedly due to road rage. The Ontario Provincial Police said the perilous encounter occurred around 10 a.m. as one driver tried to merge into traffic on highway 404 from an on-ramp at Finch Ave. while the second driver denied him entry. Sgt Kerry Schmidt of the O.P.P told CBC Toronto that the police had spoken to both parties and that one of the men was being charged with dangerous driving and assault with a weapon in connection with the highway 404 incident. One guy was allegedly cut off by another guy, there was some honking and shouting and frustration between two drivers, OPP Sgt Kerry Schmidt said Thursday. When the two vehicles came to a stop in traffic soon after, one driver approached the other vehicle and some property was thrown, he added. The driver who was still in his car initially told the CBC that it was a toolbox that was tossed at him. This was after he had refused to let the other driver merge in front of him on the busy highway. Then he went back to his car, so I got out, took a picture of his license plate and maybe him, and then he sped towards me, Dave Yeomans alleged. Yeoman claims he had to jump on the hood of the car so the driver wouldnt run him over. He remembers thinking, Just hold on to the hood and wiper blades, and hope he doesnt swerve. Yeomans told the CBC that he could remember hearing the cars engine revving beneath him throughout the whole situation, which was captured on video by a separate motorists dashcam. Schmidt said the car traveledat a speed of about 100km/h and covered close to 500 meters before it stopped and the man (Yeoman) slid off the hood miraculously avoiding any injury. This guy was holding on for dear life by the tips of his fingers, he said. If the driver had swerved or changed lanes, he could easily have fallen off the hood and been run over by another vehicle. He also told CBC Toronto that there are ways to avoid situations like this from happening. "A little bit of patience, consideration, kindness goes a long way in preventing these types of situations from escalating from a simple annoyance to a point where someone could have very easily been killed," he said. According to Schmidt, the incident could have ended in a major injury or worse, death. Scarborough resident, Edward Ennis has been charged with dangerous driving as well as assault with a weapon (vehicle). A wave of celebration and euphoria has swept the city after the Supreme Court (SC) verdict decriminalising homosexual relationships on Thursday. Arnab Nandy, 25, returned home on Thursday evening to find his overjoyed parents, hugging him and telling him to now broadcast his sexual orientation. Congratulation son, now it's legal, they said. Nandys mother told him to come out as a gay man so she no longer has to answer relatives who bring marriage proposals for him. My parents have always been law abiding citizens. Since my father has a government, they were always worried about what people would say if they found out that I am gay. After the SCs verdict yesterday, we are not criminals anymore. It has validated their belief and made it easier for them to accept me, said Nandy. Nandy, a technical associate, came out to his parents three months ago but they had refused to acknowledge it as they considered the law to be important. While I was away, my mother was sensitising people around her towards the LGBTQ community. She has come a long way from not knowing anything about the community to spreading awareness about it. People are not born homophobic, it is just the lack of awareness, said Nandy. However, for many, this is just the first victory in a series of hurdles to overcome. Uday Kakkar, a 20-year-old student, came out to his mother as a gay man on live television. He had not informed his mother that he would be appearing on a live television debate, but she found out anyway. She hasnt spoken to him since. I got a call from her at 11.45 last night asking me where I was and what time I would return home. That is when I figured that she had gotten to know about me ,because she isnt usually up this late. Later, she ended up blaming a cousin of mine for my choice, Kakkar said. In the case of Aman Chahal, a media professional, who had come out to his parents three years ago, the SC verdict changed little. Even though his parents have continued their hostility towards him, his childhood friend organised a pride party for Chahal. My childhood friend whom I have always confided in bought a cake for me. My friends told me they accept me for who I am and would always be there for me, said Chahal. Debendra Nath Sanyal, who works for a marketing and communication firm, on Friday distributed sweets in his office and came out to his colleagues as a gay man living with his partner. There was a ruckus at the womens hospital in MMG Government Hospital on Thursday after a three-day-old infant died for want of an ambulance to take the child to a private hospital. The hospital authorities were quick to blame the childs mother for the incident while also claiming that the doctors were not careless. Their reason for not providing an ambulance was also very clerical: Government ambulances are not meant to ferry patients to private hospitals. Finally, the father had to rush the gasping infant on his scooter to a private hospital where the child was declared brought dead. According to Deepak Kumar, his son was born on September 3 and developed breathing issues on Thursday afternoon. He immediately asked the doctors for help and also requested them for an ambulance with life support systems for taking the child to a private hospital. The doctors made me sign a paper and then removed his oxygen supply. They told us that the ambulance cannot be provided. Despite our repeated requests, they refused to give us one. My child was gasping for breath and I had to take him on my scooter to a private hospital in Raj Nagar. There, he was declared dead on arrival, Deepak Kumar, a resident of Sector 23, Raj Nagar, said. When we returned and complained to the doctors, the women staff told us that they will get me implicated in a case of molestation. The police also arrived and asked me to get an autopsy of the infant conducted, he said. Officials of the womens hospital said the child developed complications as the mother breastfed him and did not make him burp. The child was born healthy. After he was breastfed, he was not made to burp and, hence,developed respiratory problems. In the meantime, some journalists were called by his family. They asked to get the child referred to a private hospital and he was taken away and later brought back dead, Dr Deepa Tyagi, chief medical superintendent (CMS) of the hospital, said. Thereafter, the family created a ruckus and thrashed the women staff. We cannot provide ambulances for taking patients to private hospitals as there are directions in this regard from the state government, she said. Following the incident, the CMS forwarded a complaint to Kotwali police against Deepak and several others for damaging government property and also thrashing doctors and hospital staff. Government ambulances, equipped with life support systems, were available. But they cannot be used to take patients to private hospitals. We can only ferry patients to other government hospitals, Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad, said. There was no carelessness on the part of doctors. His mother did not follow the steps after breastfeeding the infant, Dr Gupta justified. He said such complications probably occur once in a thousand cases. Milk enters the lungs if the baby is not burped. In the event of such a complication, we have a special newborn care unit. But the endotracheal tube, which is to be put through trachea and a ventilator support, is not available there, Dr Gupta said. The family of the infant said that they will also file a complaint with the police. Eight years since its coming into being, the Students for Society (SFS) created history on Thursday by winning the presidential post in the Panjab University student council elections. Students have given their verdict on the right wing intervention in the university. Damanpreet Singh, SFS leader Started as a discussion group, the SFS has come a long way in becoming the face of student politics. The left-leaning outfit forced other established parties NSUI and SOI to take up student issues more vigorously and mocked them for offering freebies to students. The SFS was founded in 2010 by five students, of whom only one Sachinderpal Pali is actively involved in its affairs now. The regressive money and muscle power politics and a view that a woman cannot be the president have been broken by the win, says Pali. The partys first shot to popularity was in 2013 when it led a student agitation against fee hike. But it earned a bad name in April 2017 when a similar protest turned violent, and it got tagged as anarchist and its supporters were called stonepelters. The students have thrown out regressive politics and brought in true democracy. Harmandeep Singh, SFS leader Initially hesitant to fight polls, the SFS fielded its first presidential candidate, Amandeep Kaur, in 2014 but lost. After a gap of one year, it again fielded presidential candidates in 2016 and 2017, but failed. Despite the poll upsets, party did not change its tactics and its leaders remained grounded and shunned use of money and muscle power, which had become integral to the PU student politics. It rather forced other parties to bring down their spending and focus on day-to-day problems on the campus. Promises to keep 24-hour hostel timing for girls Hostel for everyone Regularisation of fee structure in self-financed courses Scholarships for students Representation in the senate Student-centric issues are easy to be made part of electoral manifestoes but equally difficult to deliver on them. For the SFS, it is not going to be a cakewalk in the council with just one member. The journey becomes all the more difficult with a right wing vice-chancellor at the helm. Pakistan will never fight any other countrys war in future, prime minister Imran Khan said Thursday, asserting that he was against the war from the very beginning and his governments foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation. Prime minister Khan was addressing the Defence and Martyrs Day ceremony organised by the Army at its headquarters in Rawalpindi and attended by parliamentarians, diplomats, sportspersons, artists among others. Talking about the devastation and sufferings caused due to the war on terror, Khan said, I was against this war from the very beginning. We will not become part of a war of any other country (in future)...Our foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation, he said. Khan, however, praised Pakistani armed forces for combating terrorism. No other nation has fought the war on terror like the Pakistan Army, he said. He said role of security forces and intelligence agencies in making the country safer against all threats was unparalleled. Khan also talked about investing in human capital by sending children to schools and building hospitals and system of merit so that everyone is treated equally on the pattern of first Muslim state of Medina. The government will bring meritocracy and transparency in all sectors by following the golden principles of state of Medina, he said. He said Pakistan was endowed with immense resources. We are rich with minerals, diverse topography and four seasons and the only need is working honestly to realise the goal of making the country great, Khan said. Rejecting the impressions of a divide between the civil administration and military, the prime minister said both were on same page regarding the issues faced by the country. Khan said Army was the only functioning institution in Pakistan where no political interference takes place and everything is run on merit. Army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa said Pakistan learnt a lot from the wars of 1965 and 1971 and has made the defence impregnable by developing nuclear weapons. He said Pakistan had paid a huge cost for its war of terrorism. More than 70,000 people have been killed and injured due to militancy in the country. The economic losses and burden on national exchequer is in addition to human losses, he said. Bajwa said after making the defence strong, it is high time now to wage war against hunger and poverty. Earlier, Prime Minister Khan expressed desire to promote cooperation with the neighbours and the rest of the world. Pakistan believed in peaceful coexistence and wanted to promote mutual cooperation with all its neighbours and the entire world on equal basis, he said. Khan also mentioned Kashmir, saying: The resolution of Kashmir issue according to the United Nations resolutions was indispensable, he said. Khan said his government would continue its absolute struggle in the war against terrorism till its logical end. Sacrifices rendered by our valiant armed forces and the nation call for carrying on the spirit of September by forging unity among our ranks and fostering collective consciousness and wisdom as these traits are imperative to defeat the evil designs and conspiracies of the enemy, said president Mamnoon Hussain. The day is being celebrated across the country with army leading the Defence Day activities. Defence Day was traditionally observed on September 6 to commemorate the steadfast defence of the country in the 1965 war with India. But from 2014, the days is being observed as Defence and Martyrs Day to pay tribute to all those killed in action. US defence secretary Jim Mattis landed in Kabul on Friday for an unannounced visit to war-torn Afghanistan, adding his weight to a flurry of diplomatic efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. His trip comes a little more than a year after president Donald Trump unveiled a revamped strategy for Afghanistan that saw him commit thousands of additional US forces to the country on an open-ended basis. Mattis, on his second visit to the country in recent months, will meet with president Ashraf Ghani and the new US commander for American and NATO forces, general Scott Miller. His arrival in Kabul comes at a sensitive time in the 17-year war. The grinding conflict has seen little progress by Afghan or US forces against the Taliban, the countrys largest militant group. Afghan and international players have been ratcheting up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001. An unprecedented ceasefire in June followed by talks between US officials and Taliban representatives in Qatar in July fuelled hopes that negotiations could bring an end to the fighting. But a recent spate of attacks by the Taliban and the smaller but potent Islamic State group that left hundreds of security forces and civilians dead has severely dented that optimism. A twin bomb attack on a wrestling club in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul on Wednesday was just the latest in a long line of devastating assaults, killing at least 26 people and wounded 91. The attack underscored the challenges facing Afghanistans beleaguered security forces that have been beset by corruption and low morale. Trumps strategy, announced in August 2017, increased the US troop presence in the country and now includes a renewed push to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But there are fears that Trump is growing frustrated with the pace of progress in the country, spurring US diplomats and other officials to intensify their efforts. The Taliban have long insisted on direct talks with Washington and refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, which they see as illegitimate. There is speculation that another meeting between US and Taliban representatives could be held this month. Mattis arrived in Kabul from Delhi where he and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo met with their Indian counterparts. Pompeo also visited Islamabad on Wednesday where he met with new premier Imran Khan and other senior officials. Pompeo said he was hopeful of resetting the troubled relationship with Pakistan, a key player in the Afghan conflict. A Western film shot entirely in the forbidding terrain of Afghanistan is a unique project, given the security situation in that country. As that film, the Australian production Jirga, has its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), some of the credit ought to go to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media arm of Pakistan's powerful military, for the choice of location. Director Benjamin Gilmour initially wanted to shoot in Pakistan, a country he was familiar with, rather than Afghanistan, for obvious reasons. ISPR's censors didnt cooperate, nixing the proposal, deeming the script too "politically sensitive" and adding the critique that there wasnt enough romance in it anyway. A still from the Australian film, Jirga, which will have its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. (TIFF) Gilmour, consequently, spent two months shooting in Afghanistan - in Kabul, the central part of the country showcasing its incredible landscape, and Jalalabad. This could be a first in many years, Gilmour said. I can't think of a feature drama shot entirely in Afghanistan (in recent years)," he added. He said he was very suspicious" of the usual Hollywood offerings, with locales such as Nevada, New Mexico, even Mexico or Morocco standing in Afghanistan. "If you're going be a truth-seeker, authenticity is worth the risk, Gilmour said in an interview. Authenticity isnt just provided by the setting but even the Afghan cast, some of whom are former Taliban members who left that joyless extremist group due to their interest in arts, music and filmmaking, Gilmour said. They brought to Jirga a real-life experience. The film is about a former Australian soldier, Mike (played by Sam Smith), repenting a raid on an Afghan village in the Kandahar region, where he killed an innocent man, and returning years later to submit before the village council or jirga for punishment. A still from the Australian film, Jirga, which will have its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. (TIFF) Filming in Kandahar wasn't possible, given how its Taliban central, but Jalalabad wasn't a safe zone either. It was nerve-wracking," Gilmour said, given Daesh or Islamic State was operating in mountains nearby. There was the frequent sound of gunfire, he said, and the proximity of the terrorists meant the ever-present threat of the town being overrun by them as filming was underway in 2016. We were careful to be very subtle about over movements, we didnt want to expose ourselves too much, he said. The film, Gilmour hoped, will provide audiences with a rare chance to see Afghanistan in a way they may not have seen. Its a unique side of the country." That includes scenes at Band-e Amir National Park in Bamiyan province, with its gorgeous blue lakes nestled within the Hindu Kush mountains. Gilmour was thrilled at the platform that TIFF offers, which can help amplify the central message of Jirga. We can create some sort of reconciliation, he felt. A jaw-droppingly beautiful abandoned house inspired by Oscar Wilde is in need of an attentive buyer to restore it to its former splendour. The Foster-Thomason-Miller House, affectionately known as The Wilde House or The Masterpiece on Main, is on sale in the US town of Madison, Georgia, for just over 350,000. Spanning 5,000sq ft, it would make a fabulous passion project for someone willing to invest significantly in its restoration, after a fire burnt out the kitchen and left the rest of the property smoke and water damaged 17 years ago. Despite its troubles, the 19th-century house's eight main rooms and five bedrooms have been made structurally stable by the Madison-Morgan Conservancy. The Conservancy bought it three months ago using their funding programme and immediately set about fixing windows and sealing the roof. Christine McCauley, executive director of the not-for-profit organisation, describes the historic building as "Madison's darling". "When it was built in 1883, it was second to none for the quality of construction and variety of architectural and artistic details," she says. "It's a miracle that only a few of these have been lost in the last 130 years." The house has a storied history, starting when a young man named Legare Foster inherited a fortune aged just 23 and decided to build a home that celebrated the then-burgeoning aesthetic movement. Forgotten relic: The Wilde House has stood empty for 17 years after a fire Championed by Irish playwright Wilde, who wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray that "all art is quite useless", the movement promoted the ideal of pure, sensual beauty and "art for art's sake". Foster had attended a lecture on the 'house beautiful' given by Wilde in nearby Atlanta in 1882. He completed this house, described in a newspaper at the time as the most elegant country home in Middle Georgia, the following year. Many of its abundant intricacies, from hand-carved wood and beaten brass to sunflower and lily motifs, can be plucked straight from Wilde's lectures: Foster left virtually no surface unembellished. Mantel magic: the house's eight fireplaces are its crowning glory The front door is made of black walnut and features glass etched with a Waterford pattern. The choice material of the wealthy at the time, walnut was also used for the stairway, sliding internal doors and entire hallway floor. The house features elements of the Queen Anne, Italianate and Gothic Revival styles too, with original frescoed and gold plated 14ft-high ceilings, fabulous bay windows and eight magnificent fireplaces. A maritime influence is visible in the dining room, where unusual north wind faces and dolphins have been carved into various built-in pieces. Structurally stable: the original gold-plated and frescoed ceilings need restoring McCauley's team even stumbled upon a compass rose the eight points representing the eight major winds inlaid into the floor of the library. "We found the star after mopping the floor for the first time and had a fit, we were so excited," she says. "It was the last clue I needed for the complete realisation that we had just purchased an amazing work of art." What do you know about Madison? Madison is a picturesque historic city in Morgan County, bang in the middle of the 'Deep South' state of Georgia It is named after the fourth US president, James Madison Tourists come from all over the world to admire Madison's exquisite antebellum (pre-Civil War) architecture The movie Goosebumps, starring Jack Black was filmed here Madison keeps its cultural edge by hosting art, food, music and literary festivals throughout the year Foster was forced to sell the house in 1890. It passed to the Thomason family who owned it for the next 80 years, installing plumbing and electricity, before it was sold again in 1978 to Richard and Marcia Miller. The couple meticulously restored it, winning an award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation for their efforts. But after the devastation of the 2001 fire, they sold it to Kansas entrepreneur Von Friesen, who left it empty before selling it to the conservancy in May. Friesen estimates that "several hundred thousand" will be required to bring the house back to life, but its listing on the National Register of Historic Places means it is eligible for huge tax incentives to help with its rehabilitation. There is also the opportunity to design and build a rear extension with modern fixtures and fittings. Burnt-out: the kitchen fared badly in the 2001 fire and will need to be rebuilt The Madison-Morgan Conservancy is now working closely with the Lewis and Redwine Real Estate Group to find the right owner for The Wilde House, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation describes as "a treasure trove of detail, brimming with decadent, sumptuous details and fine craftsmanship in every nook and cranny". According to a news report, new joint committees are scheduled to be put in place starting this fall. The communities could pave to an eventual overhaul of how the island-wide decision-making body the agglomeration council operates. The mayor of Montreal West, Beny Masella, while speaking to Global news said that the Plante administration has agreed to meet and discuss the outstanding issues between Montreal and the suburbs. The meetings will be focusing on several issues such as giving the suburbs a bigger voice in the $5.5 billion island-wide budget. It will also focus on establishing a new formula thatll be used in billing suburbs to pay for shared island-wide services. Some of the service include the public transit, the fire department, and eventually lead to a complete overhaul of the agglomeration council itself. Weve actually set up some committees to look at some things that we feel need to be addressed short-term, Masella said. There have been several disputes over how the agglomeration council operates which has divided the mayor of the fifteen suburban towns on the island of Montreal with the city for years. An example of one of this issue says Masella, is thatbilling for police services is based on property values in a suburb and not the population. That especially hurts cities like Montreal West and Westmount which dont have large residential populations but have very high property values. We just want something that is fair and dynamic for the whole island, Masella said. Another suburban mayor also agrees with Masellas statement. Georges Bourelle of Beaconsfield told Global News that they needed to hit the reset button on how the entire agglomeration council operates. Our residents in the de-merged cities today pay a whole lot more than they should for actual services rendered, Bourelle said. There is, however, some light at the end of the tunnel. Masella says that Montreal has agreed to set up joint committees with the suburbs to look into the issue. For now, the Plante administration is yet to commit to reforming how the entire agglomeration council operates, so any real change will most likely happen very slowly for the mayors of the de-merged suburbs. The agglomeration council of Montreal has a deeply flawed structure. The system encourages micro-local levels of government throughout the citys 19 boroughs and the islands 17 de-merged municipalities. It also encourages them to operate independently of each other in an inequitable and highly inefficient manner. This puts the de-merged municipalities at a power disadvantage to the city. This fragmented system has turned political representation into a jumbled mess. Without the interest, time, and enough media coverage needed for voters to become acquainted with local candidates positions and platforms, the electorate of Montreals boroughs end up voting down the line for any party that beats the name of its Montreal mayoral candidate. Instead of having a truly democratic system, they are basically picking blindly, and thus end up with the least unpalatable of the choices for the top seat, a seat which is so far removed from the local issues of potholes, snow removal and local parks. Renovation 7 September 2018 Woodbine Legacy Investments (WLI) launched a $20 million renovation on W Atlanta-Buckhead, a 12-story, 291-room full-service luxury hotel in Atlanta's affluent Buckhead neighborhood. The renovation began in May 2018 and will be complete in late December 2018, just weeks before the city hosts Super Bowl LIII. "When this hotel debuted as part of the W Hotels portfolio in 2008, it quickly became a hotspot for locals and visitors alike and has remained that way for the past decade. That said, when Woodbine purchased the property in 2017, we knew it needed a reboot to restore its shine," said Dupree Scovell, managing partner and chief investment officer for Woodbine. "This renovation is definitely more than a makeoverit will reinstate the edgy and artful experience guests expect from the W brand, especially with Buckhead as the backdrop." W Atlanta-Buckhead General Manager Robert Woolridge added, "Our renovated hotel will feature a bold new design that will appeal to our guests, all of whom are drawn to the chic-meets-rebel style of our luxury destination. This overhaul will ultimately make our addressthe hottest address in Buckheadeven hotter." The hotel's 11,000 square feet of flexible indoor/outdoor meeting and event space will receive new furnishings, paint, carpeting, lighting and artwork, along with enhanced spaces for breakout sessions and pre- and post-function events and activities. The fitness center, where guests can enjoy views of the city, will also get a new artful look. Additionally, Woodbine is upgrading all internet cables for faster connectivity throughout the hotel. All guest accommodationswhich include 286 guest rooms plus 4 WOW Suites and one EWOW Suite are being transformed to create a space that's inspiring and comfortable. W Atlanta-Buckhead's award-winning rooftop bar, Whiskey Blue is also being transformed. The update is evolving and upgrading this longtime hotspot, which opened to much fanfare 10 years ago and quickly became one of city's most popular places to see and be seen. "We're extremely excited to reintroduce the renovated Whiskey Blue to the city of Atlanta," said Scott Gerber, principal and CEO of Gerber Group. "We've aspired to create an exceptional experience for our guests through every detail, from our design to our renowned beverage program." A second phase of renovation will commence in 2019, which will focus on the hotel's restaurant, Cook Hall. 1995-2021 Hospitality Net All rights reservedHospitality Net is powered by Hsyndicate JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browser After cancelling his scheduled appearance only a few hours in advance, Drake apologized to attendees of Monsters and Men's TIFF screening in a video message Thursday night. "I wish I could be there to share this moment," he said, acknowledging those left disappointed by his absence, according to a report from The Toronto Star. "Unfortunately Im on tour right now." The explanation for his no-show seemed slightly curious, as his appearance had been announced only two weeks prior, with the rapper' tour schedule already laid out. Thursday marked a one-night break between shows in Montreal and Boston. Though he could not make the opening night event, which marked the Canadian premiere of the film and cost over $100 a ticket, Drake, who's listed as an executive producer on the movie, stated how important its message is to him. "Im just very excited and honored to be part of something that continues a conversation in this day in age," he said. The film revolves around a police shooting that kills a black man in Brooklyn and its aftermath, following various witnesses and others affected by the tragedy. Drake is said to have thanked director Reinaldo Marcus Green in his message as well. Watch the trailer for the film below. TMZ is reporting that Kevin Garnett is accusing his former accountant of pilfering $77 million from his $343 million career earnings. Garnett claims Michael Wertheim is guilty of skimming the accrued funds with the help of a crooked wealth manager. Garnett believes that both men acted together in the interest of a split purse. Charles A. Banks IV, the allegedly crooked wealth manager, is accused of committing the theft, but Kevin has filed a motion to include Wertheim in the lawsuit which is moment's away from heading to federal court in Minnesota. The court document reads that Banks' plan included forcing Garnett to live on a fiscal budget so the two "crooks" could finick with a greater pool of cash. One of example of which occurred in 2013. According to Garnett, Wertheim not only refused his request for $40,000 of his own money, but proceeded to berate him on his spending habits. Then within the same 8-day span, the wealth manager "colluding" with Wertheim allegedly stole $8 million of Kevin Garnett's liquid assets. Michael Wertheim vehemently denies any involvement with Charles A. Banks IV, or any wrongdoing on his own accord. He and his attorney have said they will "vigorously" fight this case, in order to clear his name. Exxon Mobil is riding the petrochemical boom along the Texas Gulf Coast with massive, multibillion-dollar chemicals and plastics expansions in the Houston, Beaumont and Corpus Christi regions. All this growth is driven by the shale boom and the surplus of cheap natural gas liquids that serve as petrochemical feedstock, giving U.S. chemical makers a cost advantage over their international rivals. So whats next up for Exxon Mobil? China. Exxon Mobil said last week its planning to build a multibillion-dollar chemicals and plastics complex in the south of China in Guangdong province. While building in the United States still has advantages, most of the worlds petrochemical demand growth is expected to come from Asia, especially in China, where emerging middle classes are demanding more consumer products, invevitably made from or packaged in plastic. So why not build there and cut out most of the transportation costs? The project, which also would include a liquefied natural gas import terminal, is slated for completion in 2023. That means that Texas shale gas could still be used to manufacture the plastics, albeit in China. A second wave petrochemical boom is taking root along the U.S. Gulf Coast, but other major expansions are ongoing in the Middle East and Asia, according to a new report from the analytics firm GlobalData. China and the U.S. are almost even with about $52 billion each in planned petrochemical investments from 2017 to 2026, GlobalData estimates. Chinese companies such as China Petrochemical, Zhejiang Petrochemical and Wanhua Chemical are leading much of that growth. Exxon Mobil is now joining the fray in China. While Exxon already has a massive Asian petrochemical presence in Singapore, the company only has a small foothold for now in China with investments in some projects and a recently completed expansion of Exxons research center in Shanghai. Timing is everything Mired in protests and lawsuits, Houston pipeline giant Kinder Morgan sold its Canadian Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion just in time. In the end of May, the Canadian government agreed to purchase the pipeline from Kinder Morgan for nearly $3.5 billion after Kinder Morgan threatened to scrap the project over the incessant bickering of federal and provinicial official. But just days prior to the sale being finalized last week, a Canadian federal appeals court ordered the project to stop and for the Canadian government to redo its initial environmental review. Needless to say, the legal wrangling will continue, but Kinder Morgan can walk away with billions of dollar and focus on its as pipeline projects in Texas. The company is now weighing whether to sell its other Canadian assets. Canada, meanwhile, is investing in Texas pipelines as well. The Canadian pension fund, called OMERS, recently agreed to pay $1.4 billion to buy a 50 percent stake in the BridgeTex oil pipeline that runs hundreds of miles from West Texas Permian Basin to Houston. Houstons Plains All American Pipeline and Oklahomas Magellan Midstream will combine to own the remaining 50 percent. Thats a lot of pipeline activity, eh? Sorry for that. jordan.blum@chron.com twitter.com/jdblum23 Sea breezes, ocean views and long walks on the beach: the allure of the Texas coast is unmistakable. The expectation that inland Texans should subsidize coastal homes and businesses with cheap wind insurance, though, is a huge mistake. Coastal residents are up in arms over the government-sponsored Texas Windstorm Insurance Association raising premiums 10 percent next year. The bigger concern should be why a conservative state like Texas has a public insurer subsidizing a risky behavior, like owning property in a tropical storm corridor? Texas set up the quasi-governmental insurer and authorized it to collect as much as $1 billion from private insurance companies so it can offer cheap premiums on 213,278 properties in 14 coastal counties and part of Harris County. Rather than pay higher premiums, folks on the coast want policyholders elsewhere in the state to pay higher premiums instead. RELATED: Houston businesses can avoid higher post-Harvey insurance premiums The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, originally known as the Texas Catastrophe Property Insurance Association, was established after Hurricane Celia made landfall near Port Aransas in 1970 and caused $930 million in damage. The storm forced private insurers to reconsider coverage, and many chose to get out of the market. Real estate developers and local authorities, though, wanted more construction and more people living along the coast. Private insurers charging actuarially-sound premiums would have slowed that down, so the Texas Legislature set up the association best known as TWIA (TWEE-ah). To qualify for discounted TWIA coverage, at least one private insurer must have refused to insure a property, which usually means it is very high risk. Thats why TWIA calls itself the insurer of last resort, and it is also why TWIA is broke. Politics have always plagued TWIA, and in 2011 the Texas Department of Insurance took control after discovering widespread mismanagement. Thousands of policyholders sued the association for failing to properly pay tens of millions in claims related to Hurricane Ike, and many of those claims are still pending. Hurricane Harvey has cost TWIA at least $1.1 billion do far, draining the insurer of its cash reserves and leaving it to rely on expensive catastrophe bonds and reinsurance to pay future claims. At the moment, they have essentially nothing in the piggy bank. They are operating an insurance company that has negligible reserves, Seth Chandler, an expert on insurance at The University of Houston Law Center, told me. If they are ever going to be anything close to self-sustaining, they need more revenue. Policyholders are upset over the 10 percent premium hike, but outside actuaries told TWIAs board they need to raise rates at least 32 percent to be fiscally sound. But TWIA cant charge the appropriate premium because residents put pressure on coastal lawmakers to keep rates low. The root problem of TWIA is a political one, which is the deliberate blindness of some Texas legislators to the actual risks posed by development along the Texas coast, Chandler said. It is particularly galling because it is free-market Republican legislators who are suddenly the big advocates of moving to a government-subsidy scheme. State Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican, has not only overseen TWIA as a member of the House Insurance Committee, but hes also worked for the association as a lobbyist in Austin and a consultant on lawsuits. After TWIA announced the premium hike last month, he was on the streets protesting the move alongside seven Coastal Bend chambers of commerce. Im saying no, he shouts in a video from KRIS-TV. Theyre trying to rush the rate hike faster than theyre paying their claims, and thats wrong. He may be right. Policyholders are filing dozens of lawsuits against TWIA for denying claims related to Harvey. But it was the Texas Legislature that set up the association and then kept it undercapitalized by simultaneously fighting higher premiums on residents and higher assessments on insurance companies. J.M. Lozano, a Republican state representative from Portland, attended the same protest but proposed a better idea: abolish TWIA. RELATED: System rigged against homeowners when it comes to floods Let us have a choice to choose our own insurance carrier," Lozano said. "In the end, in the free market economy, competition is best." Florida, Louisiana and other coastal states have been steadily cutting out their public insurers in recent years and moved customers to private insurance. Yes, rates went up, but higher premiums encourage responsible behavior, such as constructing buildings capable of withstanding powerful storms. Floridas stricter building codes also helped bring private insurers back into the market because they lowered the risk, Chandler said. Some of the structures TWIA covers probably shouldnt qualify for insurance. Whenever government subsidizes insurance, it encourages risky behavior. Many an afternoon I daydream about having a place near the beach, with a small sailboat docked nearby. But if that fantasy ever became a reality, I would not expect a homeowner in San Antonio to subsidize my insurance premiums. And nor should anyone else. Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business and economics. chris.tomlinson@chron.com twitter.com/cltomlinson Glenda Roewe is there when her elderly clients wake up. She serves food, she changes bedding, she tries to get them to execise even if they are adamantly against it. I feel like Im an extension of their normal life, Roewe said. Yet for such an integral role they play in seniors lives, home care givers only make an average of $11 an hour, if that. With few financial incentives to bring in new workers, the home-care industry is facing a labor shortage that is expected to worsen with time. Industry experts anticipate a need for at least 13 million new in-home caregivers by 2030. Were facing a shortage of qualified people to serve rapidly growing demand, said Jeff Bevis, CEO of Ohio-based FirstLight Home Care. To fill in the gaps, agencies such FirstLight are tapping into an older work force willing to care for clients older or closer to them in age on a part-time basis. For the industry, its a temporary solution to a worsening problem. For caregivers like Roewe, 61, its a chance to make a positive connection with someone who needs her. And there are plenty in need. Houston is one of the top U.S. markets for home-care agencies with an estimated 700,000 individuals over the age of 65 living in the metro area, according to Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership. That subset of the population is growing at a rate of 25,000 a year, he added. Yet as demand for in-home services grows, care agencies are struggling to find a supply of workers. In 2014, FirstLight started recruiting in senior centers and retirement homes as a means to fill in the labor gap. Today, 18 percent of the companys 5100 network employees are over the age of 65. The Cincinnati-based caregiving company has 171 franchises across the U.S., including six offices in Houston. While hiring older workers can prove beneficial in the short-term, Paul Osterman, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of a book on the home care industry, notes that its really a Band-Aid solution to a larger problem. One of the key issues within the industry that has led to high turnover rates and labor gaps has been pay, Osterman said. Only 40 percent of home care services are government-funded, yet Medicaid dictates the private sectors wages. With Medicaid designed for those unable to pay private agencies for care, Osterman said, workers are left with little to go on. The private sector also points to a growing number of seniors unable to pay rates that would translate to higher wages. In Houston, for instance, one in every 10 individuals over the age of 65 live in poverty. For Osterman, the solution lies in raising home care aides wages while providing them more training to handle medical care issues. That would in turn lower the frequency of expensive emergency room visits and hospital care. Nonprofits also are experimenting with new business models that would address both service prices and employee wages, including home care cooperatives. Capital Impact Partners, a Virginia nonprofit, together with the AARP Foundation, has been helping home care givers, primarily older women, develop businesses across the U.S. where workers cut out the middleman agencies that would connect them with clients. Through this model these workers split profits among themselves and create career advancement opportunities for those interested, said Candace Robinson, director of strategic aging initiatives for the nonprofit. The goal is to change the perception of the industry while also empowering those who have long composed its work force, namely women, immigrants and persons of color. If home care is still treated like babysitting, were not going to get anywhere, Robinson said. As the cooperative model continues to develop across the nation, those working in the traditional private sector model of home care agencies are putting more effort into recruiting older home care givers. Even then, they face the issue of offering only part time options which limits the pool of applicants. Yet for Mary Moore, owner of a Seniors Helping Seniors franchise in northwest Houston, the part-time work setup does the trick. Moore worked as a private in-home caregiver for five years. Turning 60, Moore looked for other career opportunities but several places turned her down, calling her overqualified, she said. She decided to run a home-care franchise hoping to offer employment to retirees her age and older who want to work but dont necessarily need to. A majority of Seniors Helping Seniors caregivers working through hundreds of franchises across the U.S. are in fact seniors themselvesa tidbit that appealed to Moore when looking for franchise opportunities. She figured a franchise dedicated to hiring older workers would offer better services since both caregiver and client would be able to share a lot experiences. I understand their frustrations, Moore said, I know how my body is changing and some things arent going well for me. That connection helps give more meaning to Roewes work as well. On a recent Thursday morning, Roewe helped Kenath Fether, 78, lay out the days paper for him to read in his Tomball home. She comes over twice a week in between her other clients. As Fether flipped a page in the newspaper, he slipped his half-full coffee cup closer to Roewe who was reviewing some paperwork beside him at the kitchen table. Do you want me to warm it up, Roewe asked. Fether smiled. No rush, he replied. One of the reasons Roewe joined FirstLight Home Care was because when they interviewed her, they kept asking about how she would ensure quality care for the client. Roewe used to work as an emergency medical technician and cared for children with disabilities. Helping others has always felt like her calling. While shes completing nursing courses at Lone Star College, caring for clients such as Fether helps pay the bills and gives her something meaningful to do. She watches war movies with Fether in the garage he converted into a living room years ago. She listens to his tales of when he was an army pilot during the Vietnam War. She convinces him to lift some light weights by lifting weights with him. Its not much, but its what he needs, she said. And its not all about the clients benefit. Roewe appreciates being able to talk to Fether about the first Volkswagen, about the way coffee pots used to look, and about her childhood dream to be a phone operator. All topics both Roewe and Fether can better relate to than a much younger worker. Roewe acknowledges that better pay and societal respect for her line of work are crucial if the industry wants to ensure all those who need care get it. For now, she finds the seniors helping seniors model to be working, if only because of the bond that can form among peers. Christian Brown is president of the oil and gas division of SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal engineering and construction company. He joined the firm in 2014 when it acquired another engineering and construction firm, Kentz Corp., where he was CEO. In 2017, Brown began leading the companys oil and gas operations, which employ about 22,000 people in the United Statea, Asia and the Middle East. His division, based in Houston, oversees the planning, engineering and construction of projects from petrochemical plants to offshore developments. Brown expects the United States will continue to attract substantial investments in shale basins such as the Permian in West Texas, where abundant production on natural gas has spurred the development of petrochemicals plants and facilities to process and export liquefied natural gas. But he also anticipates offshore exploration and production to make a comeback as oil demand and prices rise. He recently spoke with the Houston Chronicle. Edited excerpts follow. Youve done a lot of work on liquefied natural gas projects around the world. Which regions do you expect will attract the most export development in the coming years? When youve got a low cost of capital and large supply of cheap natural gas, thats where the projects will happen. That fits well with the U.S. And if you look at Mozambique and Tanzania, youve got very, very cheap gas and a very low cost of capital. Qatar may be more difficult for international companies now, because the country wants to develop more on its own. That might force the bigger players in LNG to look more at aggressively at southeast Africa, or even Australia Australia will absolutely have one more liquefaction train, maybe two, but I believe most of the trains will come to the U.S., Africa and Qatar. Youve really got an abundance of gas in all three of those locations. Do you expect Asia to continue to account for the majority of LNG import demand? I think it will, but you have to wonder about Europe. If you listen to (chemical maker) Ineos founder and CEO Jim Ratcliffe, hes concerned about gas imports to feed his petrochemical agenda in Europe. Where is the gas going to come from? Look at the disconnect with Russia and the Europes reliance on its pipeline supply of gas. Unless relationships change, European countries have got to look for more security in supply. They cant be beholden to Russia. People want contingency plans, so I think Europe will need more LNG than it has traditionally needed. Whether it comes from Qatar or this side of the world will all come down to price. Do you expect tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to affect industry plans to build new petrochemicals projects? If you look at building a greenfield asset here in the U.S., most of the simple carbon steel comes from China. The tariff probably adds between 2 and 5 percent in project costs. That will get priced in. But U.S. steel manufacturers are putting their prices up, and theyre not adding capacity. So you end up, essentially, with cost escalation. A cost increase of 2 or 5 percent isnt going to affect an investment decision. But what happens if this gets extended? What happens if the administration extends it to other commodities that affect 30 or 40 percent of the capital cost of an asset in the U.S.? Theres been a lot of good work here to drive the cost of capital down, but if you extend tariffs to other commodities, I do fear itll make us uncompetitive here. Thats what worries me. What have you seen in terms of interest offshore? U.S. shale absolutely will account for a substantial portion of future oil demand, but I dont think that will be enough. Thats why youre starting to see customers, particularly the international oil companies and the independents, building some capacity offshore because they believe the market will be there for bigger developments. If you look at some of the leading indicators, there will be 92 projects expected to be sanctioned offshore this year. You see the bidding activity in the Gulf, western Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and its a substantial change from where it was last year. katherine.blunt@chron.com twitter.com/katherineblunt Birney Chick Havey remembers rolling up to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. It was near the end of World War II, just days before Germany would surrender, and he and his Army comrades had arrived in tanks to liberate the camps prisoners. They were all yelling and cheering, he said thousands of people, joyful to see the Army arrive. But there was an electric fence between us. For nearly 75 years, Havey has lived with what he saw that day the piles of dead bodies, the walking skeletons who had survived, the overwhelming smell of death and defecation, sickness and rot. Now Playing: Texas soldiers, who helped liberate concentration camps at the end of World War II, are honored with a moving exhibit at Holocaust Museum Houston. Video: Brett Coomer It was several decades before he started to talk about what hed seen. Havey, who lives in Seabrook, and 35 other Texas veterans were honored Thursday at Holocaust Museum Houston for their work rescuing prisoners from concentration camps. They or their surviving family members were given medals presented by Holocaust survivors. The ceremony coincides a new temporary exhibit that opens Friday at the museum. The Texas Liberator: Witness to the Holocaust features 25 Texans who were interviewed at length about what they saw when they arrived at concentration camps all over Europe. These were stories some of them had never told before and never told again. The Texas Liberator: Witness to the Holocaust When: Friday, Sept. 7 through Sunday, Oct. 28 Where: Holocaust Museum Houston, 9220 Kirby Drive, Suite 100 Cost: $12; discounts for children, students, active-duty military and AARP members. Free on Sundays. Information:hmh.org; 713-942-8000 See More Collapse Texas Liberators The exhibit is part of an extensive project curated by Texas Tech University in collaboration with the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission, a group formed nearly a decade ago to help teach Texas students about state-sponsored mass killings. The project has identified more than 300 Texans who were soldiers in five military units that liberated more than 40 death camps, slave labor camps, sub-camps, work camps and POW camps. Many more have yet to be identified, project coordinators say. Many of the men were interviewed through the Baylor University Institute for Oral History, a project the commission funded between 2011 and 2013. From there, the commission and Texas Tech took over. The work started as an educational app, then a curriculum guide for teachers, said Aliza Wong, an assistant professor at Texas Tech who helped spearhead the project. That led to a website TexasLiberators.org then an interactive map system so people could find where liberators came from and the camps they liberated. And finally the museum at Texas Tech built a permanent exhibit. Wong curated the Houston exhibit and edited a hardback book, The Texas Liberators, that features photographs of several men along with their stories. So many of these men came home and didnt want to talk about it, Wong said. They wanted to protect their families from this. They thought that by fighting, they had protected the next generations from atrocities like this. Itll never go away William Dippo, who was almost 90 when he died in 2014, went decades without telling his five children about what hed seen at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, said his son, Bill Dippo. He never wanted to talk about it. Then several years ago, out of the blue, he asked his son in San Antonio whether the citys Jewish community center had a Holocaust memorial. It did, and Michael Dippo took his dad to see the exhibit. He pointed on the map and said, Ive been there before: Mauthausen, Michael Dippo recalled. I said, Dad youve never said anything about that. When where you there? He started talking, and it all started coming out. And he started crying. The elder Dippo described what he saw at Mauthausen for a Baylor interviewer in 2011. The camp was really the walking dead, he said. To see these human beings walking, shuffling and mumbling, and they dont know what to do and whats going on. It was terrible. He saved some pictures taken at the camp, which his children have donated to the Jewish community center in San Antonio. If I ever mention it or even think about it, I get emotional, William Dippo said in 2011. Its I cant help it. Because its there. Itll never go away. No forewarning William Dippo was just 17 when he joined the Army. He saw things that nobody should ever see, much less a 17-, 18-, 19-year old kid, Michael Dippo said. And the young men who liberated the camps had no idea what they were about to see. We didnt understand what we were running into, said Havey, the veteran who liberated Dachau. We had no forewarning. In fact, Havey said, when the men first saw the prisoners they didnt fully understand what was going on. The big question was, What did these poor people do to get in this camp? What crime did they commit? he said. In retrospect, we found out nothing. The first time Havey talked about what hed seen was about 40 years later, at a reunion of the 42nd Infantry Division. We all got in our hotel room, he said. The guys in my company that were there, we kind of discussed our experience ... and that kind of loosened things up. About 100 people turned out to witness Thursdays medal ceremony most of them liberators and their families. One by one, they came to the front of a tightly packed room, often receiving warm hugs and kind whispers from the Holocaust survivors who hung medals around their necks. Amy Ashby-Pike received a medal on behalf of her father, William Watterson Ashby Jr., who liberated the Buchenwald camp in Germany. Survivor Bill Orlin who escaped Europe during the Holocaust as a boy, then served as an American in Korea saluted Ashby-Pike before he gave her a medal. Thank you for your fathers service, he said, calling Ashby-Pikes father a hero. It is my honor to salute you. A second call to duty At Thursdays ceremony, Michael Cokinos showed the crowd a photo from a camp in Poland that his father, Mike Cokinos, carried with him until he died in August at 98. Eight or nine prisoners can be seen in the black-and-white shot, so emaciated their skeletons are visible. Thats my father, right there, Cokinos said, pointing to the profile of a man at the photos edge. Mike Cokinos saw combat in the Battle of the Bulge, was awarded a Purple Heart and retired from the Army as a brigadier general. But liberating three concentration camps in Poland was one of the accomplishments he was most proud of, his son said. Its terrible what (the Nazis) did to these people, Cokinos said. He said there were dead bodies piled up in closets. He pointed at the photo. These men couldnt eat, he said. All they wanted was sun, because they hadnt seen the sun. The men who liberated the Nazi camps often didnt know what to make of what theyd witnessed, Wong said. Many of these liberators, they were willing to talk about the war, they were willing to talk about the fighting, Wong said. But this they had so not expected this. And they carried it with them. When they were asked to sit for interviews about what theyd witnessed at the camps, it really was answering a second call to duty, she said. The first was to fight for freedom. The second was to witness the Holocaust. alyson.ward@chron.com twitter.com/alysonward In one corner, jokes are flying back and forth in Chinese. Frustration with Donald Trump is being discussed in Hindi in another section of the room. A few seats over, a plea to get out the vote is being delivered in Malay. Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni describes the mix of languages in his campaign office as really beautiful, but it represents more than that: Its also the core of his longshot bid to unseat 5-term Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Olson in one of the most diverse congressional districts in the nation. Once a week, dozens of campaign volunteers from Fort Bend, Brazoria and Harris counties assemble on the third floor of a nondescript office building in Sugar Land to call potential voters in more than a dozen languages. On the walls are reminders of outreach efforts planned for the Nepalese, Salvadoran, Sri Lankan, and Turkish communities, among dozens of others. What languages do you speak? Kulkarni field director Emily Isaac asks as volunteers step off the elevator. Now Playing: Campaign volunteers for democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni meet once a week in Sugar Land to call potential voters in more than a dozen languages. Video: Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle Kulkarni, who speaks a half-dozen languages himself, including Hindi, Hebrew and Russian, said people have questioned the time and resources hes pouring into an effort to reach out to immigrant communities that often dont make it to the polls. OPINION: Democrat Kulkarni is putting Tom DeLays old House seat back in play Ive had consultants tell me this isnt going to work, that its going to be too low of a return on investment to try to talk to people in different languages, Kulkarni said. Some have said dont bother with Asian-American voters because they dont vote. And I said, Maybe they dont vote because we dont bother to reach out to them. Kulkarni, 39, sees the outreach as critical to pulling off what would be one of the biggest upsets in Texas. Olson won his 2016 re-election by 19 percentage points over Democrat Mark Gibson. The demographic changes have been huge, Kulkarni said of a district that was originally drawn a decade ago with the hopes of assuring a Republican would carry it. Then, District 22 had 700,000 residents. But it has grown more than any congressional district in Texas, swelling to more than 881,000, according to the U.S. Census. And foreign-born residents make up a sizable part of that growth. According to Census data, one-quarter of the residents of the district are foreign-born the second-highest percentage in the state, behind the neighboring 7th Congressional District in Houston. More than 167,000 residents of District 22 identify as Asian, nearly 20 percent of the population. No other district in Texas comes close. The statewide average is about 4.5 percent. The district is 25 percent Hispanic and 14 percent black. Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Fort Bend County: Diverse and well-educated At the core of the district is Fort Bend County, which has been called the most ethnically diverse county in the nation by Rice Universitys Steve Klineberg of the the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Klineberg said Fort Bend has nearly equal shares of Asian, Hispanic, black and white residents. It has nearly doubled in population since 2000, largely due to immigration. What makes the growth even more unique is its saturation of residents with higher education and professional skills, he said. About 45 percent of the residents over age 25 have college degrees, according to the U.S. Census. The national average is 30 percent. Kulkarni said those demographics tell him he has a shot if he reaches out to those communities in a way few political campaigns have. His father was of Indian descent and Kulkarni spent more than 14 years as a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department, serving overseas in Iraq, Israel, Russia, Taiwan, and Jamaica. He speaks Spanish and Mandarin in addition to Hindi, Hebrew and Russian. He said he loved his job with the State Department, but became increasingly alarmed at the divisions he felt Donald Trump was creating back home. He points to the white supremacists rally in Charlottesville his mothers hometown as a turning point. I was compelled to do something about it, said Kulkarni, who grew up in Houston and is a graduate of the University of Texas. Speaking to people in their native languages is the key to bridging cultural differences, Kulkarni says. Its not that immigrants cant speak English, he says, but it is a powerful way to demonstrate respect for them: Youre signaling to them that you care about their community and we have a connection. Its that message that helped Kulkarni prevail in a five-way primary election. He said his data showed Asian voter participation jumped to 28 percent in the district compared to just 6 percent four years earlier. But past election cycles show Kulkarni faces a steep task. Olsons average margin of victory: 31 percentage points Since Olson, 55, was elected in 2008, the former Air Force pilot has won every re-election by a landslide. His average margin of victory over his Democratic challengers has been 31 percentage points. After nine years in the Navy, Olson worked for former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and later became U.S. Sen. John Cornyns chief of staff before winning his seat in Congress. Olson has invested in his own outreach programs for years to work with his increasingly diverse constituents, including creating advisory groups for the Indo-American and Asian-American communities. He said he makes it a priority to attend cultural events, speak to minority-owned business leaders and be in the community as much as possible. Ive committed my time to understand and receive guidance from everyone whom I am honored to represent, Olson said in a statement. Olson says being deployed overseas in the military and working in Congress have sent him to the Middle East, India, China and Japan, travels that gave him an in-depth understanding of U.S. relationships around the world. Im proud to represent one of the most diverse congressional districts in America and greatly value the contributions each community makes in adding to the rich tapestry of our region, Olson said. Olson has been a reliably conservative vote in Congress, earning high marks from groups like the Americans for Prosperty and Club For Growth. Some national political experts are changing their forecasts for the race as they watch Kulkarnis unique outreach effort and analyze Trumps underperformance in the district in 2016. Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball, which tracks competitive congressional races across the country, last month moved the race from being solid Republican to likely Republican, calling the move a precaution based on Republican vulnerabilities in the Houston suburbs. And just on Friday, at the Cook Political Report, longtime analyst David Wasserman for the first time put the district on his watch list of competitive races. Kulkarni's challenge will be to motivate the district's young and non-white voters, who have a poor track record of showing up in midterm elections, Wasserman said. His diverse heritage could help. It's still a long shot for Democrats, but one to watch in a wave. The 2016 presidential election shows some favorable winds for Kulkarni. In 2012, Mitt Romney carried the district by 25 percentage points. But in 2016, Trump won the district by 8 percentage points. Republicans say that gap is still too big to make the race anything more than a longshot concern. While Olson has won past re-elections easily, he hasnt faced someone like Kulkarni, says Padma Srinivasan, one of the dozens of volunteers who spent a Thursday night in August calling voters in Hindi. No matter what the language of the voting public, he can connect with them, she said. No other candidate can do this, he is very unique, adds Ling Luo, chairman of the Asian American Democratic Club in Houston, who speaks fluent Chinese and attests to Kulkarnis command of the language. If Kulkarni wins, it would be historic in that Texas has never elected an Asian-American to Congress. And he would join just 12 current U.S. House members that are of Asian-American descent. jeremy.wallace@chron.com 2 1 of 2 James Durbin, MBR / Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Melissa Phillip, Staff photographer / Staff photographer Show More Show Less The campaigns of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto ORourke will take them within just a few miles of each other this weekend, as both camps focus their attention on Harris County. Cruz plans campaign stops in Humble and Katy, while ORourke will be on the northeastern edge of Houston for a rally. The longest ruling monarch in the history of the United Kingdom was George III, who was king for 60 years and considered mad during much of his reign. Through it all, Parliament ensured Englands endurance, notwithstanding its losing a portion of its colonial empire. Nearly 250 years later, those former colonies are led by a president accused by members of his own administration of acting so erratically that they have on occasion surreptitiously stepped in to keep the country from falling into jeopardy. Yet, there is no reaction by Congress. Is Donald Trump incapable of holding office, or is he the victim of an unelected cabal that has admitted to usurping the powers of a duly elected president to press an agenda it deems best for the American people? The public deserves an answer. Congress has a duty to provide it. The most damning accusation of Trump being mentally unstable was made in an anonymous opinion column published online Wednesday by The New York Times. 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, the commentary said. The public should find comfort, the secret writer suggested, in knowing senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. Theres no comfort in knowing the president isnt really in charge. Also released this week were excerpts from a new book by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House, which said members of the administration would intervene when they thought Trump was acting erratically. Staffers said they would remove documents from his desk to stop Trump from issuing rash orders. Though he now denies it, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is quoted in Woodwards book as saying of Trump: Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. Trump predictably turned to Twitter to respond to the double shot from Woodwards book, which he called a total piece of fiction, and the Times commentary. Trump tweeted: If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once! Trumps accusers should come forward not to be pilloried, but so the whole truth can be known. The anonymous writer said there had been whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which details the process by which a president can be involuntarily removed from office. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis, he said. A crisis is exactly what this nation will have if the apparently well-intended White House resistance movement fails in its mission to thwart Trumps more misguided impulses until he is out of office. An unintended or ill-conceived war is not out of the realm of possibility. To be fair, Trump also has a right to know who his accusers are so he can directly answer questions about his stability. The Constitution requires Congress to ultimately act on a presidents ability to serve. Removing a president would take a two-thirds majority in both houses acting in response to an appeal by the vice president and Cabinet. In other words, its a matter not to be taken lightly. The 25th Amendment was enacted after John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963 to ensure a smooth process to transfer power should a president become incapacitated. No one then envisioned the provision being used to cloister a president accused of reckless behavior, though aides to President Ronald Reagan who observed him to be despondent years before he would be diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease briefly floated the idea. Nor should the constitutional option be invoked now based solely on anecdotes from White House insiders. Its troubling that members of this resistance believe their quiet approach is justified by bright spots the administration has achieved, including effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military. Those clearly partisan achievements are no excuse for people who claim to be putting the country first not to stand up, show their faces and voice their concerns loudly and clearly if they believe Trump is too dangerous to be president. A Republican Congress might be reluctant to act. But its duty is to the nation, not to any individual or political position. Our nation doesnt have a king whose image must be protected because its Founders believed in rule by the people informed by truth. Let the truth about Trump be known. As a person of faith, a Baptist minister and an advocate for children, I am deeply troubled by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaughs history of undermining the separation of church and state. This doctrine is foundational to our American democracy and is fundamental to maintaining our religious freedom. Most notably if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, the court could open our state to dangerous private-school voucher programs that fund religious private schools. Kavanaugh has a history of supporting private-school vouchers. He was the co-chair of the Federalist Societys so-called School Choice Practice Group. He also served as an attorney for the state of Florida at a reduced fee in his unsuccessful defense of a statewide school voucher program. Kavanaugh could change the balance of the court, ushering in school voucher programs across the states, including Texas. For nearly 150 years, our state Constitution has included a no-aid clause that protects the religious freedom of all Texans by ensuring that public funds are not used to support any private religious school or religious denomination. In fact, the Texas Constitutions ironclad, explicit requirement for the Texas State Legislature to make suitable provision for the operation and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools was in direct reaction against Texas settlers taxes having to underwrite religious schools at the founding of our state. Our message and movement to protect and preserve religious liberty by opposing private-school vouchers has now spread to Oklahoma, Tennessee and Kentucky and will soon launch in a number of other southern and midwestern states, where voluntary religious faith is so central. Simply put, we want the government to stay out of this intensely personal arena of our lives. If Kavanaugh joins the Supreme Court, I fear it will strike down this no-aid clause and similar clauses that exist in 37 other state constitutions. This reversal would allow state money to flow to religious schools. A flurry of state-funded voucher programs would soon follow, putting both religious freedom and our children in peril. Losing this constitutional protection would be particularly dangerous at a time when the public education system is already under assault from powerful political and economic interests dead-set on privatizing our neighborhood and community public schools. Last year, Texas saw yet another concerted push for a private school voucher program. When it failed in the regular legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session to promote this bad policy. The bill failed a second time, but I have no doubt that efforts to divert resources from public schools into private religious schools will crop up again next year. Vouchers are wrong for our state and our children for so many reasons. First, they violate core tenets of religious freedom guaranteed under our state constitution. That freedom gives each of us the right to decide whether and how we want to exercise our religious faith and prohibits the government from forcing us to pay for someone elses religious education. Equally important, it also ensures that religious schools stay autonomous from state government regulation and entanglement. The last thing we need is government expansion into our private schools. Voucher programs would also divert critical state funding away from our public schools and direct it to unaccountable private schools which are not subject to public oversight. Public schools are the foundation of our society and communities. They mold our students into scholars, athletes and musicians, while serving all Texas students without regard to race, religion, income or disability status. Public education is so important to Texas values that it too is enshrined in our constitution. Finally, voucher programs just dont work. Studies of these programs across the country show that voucher students perform the same or worse in reading and math. Vouchers specifically fail students with disabilities. The reality is that students with disabilities who use a private-school voucher lose the civil rights protections that apply to them in their public schools. Private schools can even deny admission to students based on disability status, potentially leaving these students without a school placement. We cant risk having a Supreme Court that would open the door to vouchers in Texas. We need both a court that upholds Texas constitutional guarantees of religious freedom for all and state policy that puts public money toward public schools. Kavanaughs nomination puts both of these at risk. That is why I oppose his nomination, and I encourage my fellow Texans to contact U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to share the threat Kavanaugh poses to religious liberty. Johnson is executive director of Pastors for Texas Children. Whenever a Supreme Court seat must be filled, we're confronted with a fundamental battle over the meaning of the Constitution: Is it a living document, or can it only be plumbed for the founders' original intent? The so-called originalists have loudly praised President Trump's nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Their cheers, of course, signal a nominee they expect to tip the court in favor of their ideology. It's instructive to hear from one of the most effective and articulate warriors on the other side: Justice Thurgood Marshall, legendary civil rights attorney and the first black justice on the high court. In Marshall's opinion, the Founding Fathers weren't all that astute, and neither was the Constitution they penned in 1787. Marshall delivered that opinion, controversial in its time, during the nation's bicentennial celebration of the historic document at a conference of attorneys on Maui, Hawaii, in May 1987. His less than laudatory words stood in contrast to the praise for the Constitution offered earlier that year by President Reagan and retired Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. Reagan had used his State of the Union speech to laud the Constitution as the impassioned and inspired vehicle by which we travel through history, and Burger, chair of the constitutional bicentennial commission, had described the document as the best thing of its kind that was ever put together. Marshall's words were also at odds with those expressed by conservative jurists such as Attorney General Gen. Edwin Meese III, for whom original intent was sacrosanct. I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever fixed' at the Philadelphia Convention, Marshall told the lawyers in Hawaii. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight and sense of justice exhibited by the framers particularly profound. Marshall was critical of the men who wrote the Constitution because he saw their original intent as favoring a government that advanced slavery and prevented blacks and women from exercising the right to vote. The Constitution was thus defective from the start, he said, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. Two hundred years after its writing, Marshall saw America's founding document as obsolete. While the union survived the Civil War, the Constitution did not, he said. In its place arose a new, more promising basis for justice, the 14th Amendment, ensuring protection of the life, liberty and property of all persons against deprivations without due process, and guaranteeing equal protection of the laws. The 14th Amendment gave rise to a form of justice that the Founding Fathers had never envisioned, never intended. The framers could not have imagined, nor would they have accepted, that the document they were drafting would one day be construed by a Supreme Court to which had been appointed a woman and the descendant of an African slave. Marshall left no doubt about his belief that originalists were wrongheaded in their insistence on a purely textual interpretation of the Constitution and strict adherence to the motives at play in the late 18th century. Calling for a sensitive understanding of the Constitution's inherent defects, Marshall invited his audience on Maui to see that the true miracle was not the birth of the Constitution, but its life, a life nurtured through two turbulent centuries of our own making, and a life embodying much good fortune that was not. Marshall was targeting anyone who would make gods of the Founding Fathers. That group has proliferated in the years since he delivered his bicentennial address, and they are celebrating Kavanaugh's nomination. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, as expected, those who consider originalism an extreme view will have a battle on their hands to ensure that the Constitution lives and evolves in a way that advances rights never imagined by its framers. Let's call it honoring Marshall's original intent. Long is editor of Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Its inevitable. Standing there at the voting kiosk on Election Day, I usually see a name on the ballot and draw a blank. Tyler Smith? Was that the candidate who started checking his email while we asked his opponent a question? Or was he the one who had an unpaid judgment against him? Come to think of it, Smith could be the judge who scored highest in the Judicial Bar Poll. Not recognizing the name of a down-ballot candidate is common for average Texans, some of whom have trouble naming their congress members, let alone a new guy running for justice of the peace. Thats what makes the political endorsements by the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board so essential - even for a board member like me who has attended hundreds of judicial screenings over my five years at the Chronicle. Here on the board, we judge the judges. This season, were conducting 137 screenings of candidates for congressional, state, county and judicial races. Were a nonpartisan organization, and the only group of journalists to take the time to research these candidates records, sit down with incumbents and opponents alike and ask the tough, pertinent questions that help voters make the right choices. Why do you think Houstonians should entrust you with this office? Who are your campaign donors? Do you think theres any difference between Republican or Democratic judges? Should there be? Under Texas system of electing judges, those who want to serve on the bench must win a partisan election even though their loyalty should be to the law and not a party platform. The best judges manage to campaign without compromising their neutrality or fairness. For our part, the board strives to focus on judicial candidates qualifications, impartiality and integrity rather than political affiliations. Sure, we support an ideologically balanced judiciary, but if a Democratic challengers most compelling argument for our endorsement is that she would add partisan diversity to an all-Republican court, thats not enough. We need a good reason to throw out an incumbent judge who, in essence, taxpayers have paid to train with experience on the bench. Regardless of whether Houstonians choose to vote in November, or choose to consider our endorsements in their votes, the Chronicles editorial board members carefully and thoughtfully deliberate the merits of each candidate as if every Houston voter were going to take a copy of the newspaper, a print out or a clipping of our endorsement list into the voting booth. And hey, unlike cell phone usage, newspapers arent banned at the polling place. The process has taught us a lot about the strengths and weakness of the judiciary in Harris County, but my No. 1 take away is that the partisan system of electing judges is broken. One candidate told us weve got the longest ballot in the nation, which is quite possible given that there are 75 contested judicial races alone on the November ballot. Few voters have the time, inclination or interest to research each of these judicial candidates in order to cast the most well-informed vote possible. Trust me. Its a 60-hour project to do even a cursory job, and Im a former partner in a law firm. Judges should not be elected because they have an R or a D by their names. Or just because they have a familiar name, a bias weve seen in the past that can lead to the exclusion of excellent candidates simply because of their exotic-sounding names. Selecting Texas judiciary through partisan elections isnt a fair system for anyone judges, defendants, victims or plaintiffs. But its the only system weve got. And the Chronicle editorial board is doing what we can to help voters make the best choices. Ill be back to talk more about this and other issues about the judiciary system in future posts. For now, Ive got to head over to endorsement screening number 19. More than 50 to go, but whos counting? Actually, the readers are counting - on us. Even if we forget a name or two months later in the voting booth, we never forget whats weighing on our endorsement process: voters who must be informed to keep our democracy in good operating order. Quantum computing is hailed as the next great leap in processing power, but its so complex that even researchers say they arent sure how it works. William Hurley thinks he can get most people halfway to understanding it with the flip of a coin. Think of a coin like a regular computer, which calculates using zeros and ones, Hurley told an audience last month in Houston. Heads are ones, tails are zeros. But when you flip the coin, during the time its in the air, its both one and zero. You dont know what its going to be until it lands. Thats quantum computing. Still confused? Thats OK. Now Playing: CEO and founder William "Whurley" Hurley uses a coin flip to explain the basic concept behind quantum computing. Video: Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle What most folks need to know is that the researchers, startups and big-name tech companies involved in the race to make quantum computers outperform traditional systems believe this technology will take computing to the next level. Immense problems will be solvable in a fraction of the time, and current cutting-edge endeavors such as artificial intelligence will reach full potential. FASTER, FASTER: UT-Austin gets funds to build fastest university supercomputer But it also holds some risk. The toughest types of encryption most commonly used for everything from online commerce to hiding government secrets from prying eyes to keeping Wi-Fi traffic and phone calls private could theoretically be cracked almost instantly. Whurley, as the Austin-based serial entrepreneur is known in startup circles, earlier this year launched a company to get big businesses into the quantum computing game early. Appropriately named Strangeworks - because the world of quantum physics underlying the technology is bizarre - his latest startup targets some very real-world businesses, many with roots in Houston. Although Whurley wont say who his earliest customers are, Strangeworks is chasing four key markets: energy, aerospace, finance and pharma. How long does it take for, say, Exxon to get something like quantum computing integrated into the fabric to its business? Whurley mused during a recent interview in Houston. If youre Exxon, you want to start exploring that now. You want to be ready when this technology hits. Strangeworks is one of many companies that have dived into this complicated pool. Some of them are startups, like Whurleys venture, with unfamiliar names like D-Wave, Rigetti, Q-CTRL and IonQ. Others are more familiar, with vast resources, including IBM, Microsoft, Google and Intel. And whole nations are investing big in quantum computing. China recently spent $10 billion for a national library to study quantum computing science, while Bloomberg reported earlier this year that a 2016 study showed the United States investment is around $200 million. Researchers consider that inadequate to stay competitive. COMPUTING ENERGY: BP doubles power of oil-finding supercomputer Speaking recently at a Halliburton-sponsored conference in downtown Houston, Whurley told a standing-room crowd of oil-and-gas executives that while artificial intelligence may be getting the sexy headlines in tech right now, its not what will have the greatest impact in the future. [Quantum computing], not AI, is the space race of our generation, he said. Artificial intelligence is still taking baby steps, he added, and putting quantum processing to work creating better AI is the big opportunity there. Quantum computing is the precursor to real AI, Whurley said. Explaining quantum computing is difficult, but Whurley has made it his business to explain it to people with no background. He even co-authored a book, published in April, about topic aimed at the very young. Its called Quantum Computing for Babies, complete with pop-up pages. While a traditional computer uses bits and works using the familiar on/off, one/zero, binary approach to computation, a quantum system uses what are known as quantum bits, or qubits. While bits can only be in the positions on/off, one/zero, qubits can be in the position of one, zero, or any state in between in quantum mechanics. Remember Whurleys coin-flip analogy? You dont know on which side it will land until it lands and you look at it. That state of uncertainty, when the coin is both heads and tails, is called superposition in quantum physics. In the case of many quantum computer processors, most of the particles in play are pairs of electrons. How these electrons interact, combined with superposition and other traits, are how quantum computers calculate problems that are potentially beyond the capabilities of traditional computers. QUANTUM RACE: IBM ups pressure on rivals with quantum computer prototype At the moment, however, this power of quantum computers is theoretical. While several companies have actually built them - including D-Wave, Rigetti, Google and Microsoft - the machines are not yet as capable as todays supercomputers. Because of that, the current race among the makers of these systems is to achieve whats called quantum supremacy or quantum advantage - the point at which quantum computers outperform traditional ones. How soon quantum supremacy is achieved is a matter of debate. Whurley says it could happen sooner rather than later, but he expects initial demonstrations of supremacy to be challenged. Google predicted it would happen last year, and that didnt happen, Whurley said during his Houston presentation. I think it will happen this year. When it does occur, he said in a later interview, it will not be long before quantum computing becomes a practical tool thats used regularly by researchers. The adoption curve will be massive once we have the breakthrough, he predicted. But Dan Stanzione, executive director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin, thinks quantum computing today is where conventional computing was in the late 40s and early 50s. The first generations of quantum computers well see will be supplements or accelerators to conventional computers, Stanzione said, adding he thinks they wont be in practical use for 10 to 15 years. BIGGER AND BETTER: The race to the world's first 'exascale' computer But, he allowed, its also possible we get there in five. The TACC recently won a $60 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build a new supercomputer that will, when completed next year, be the fastest available at any university. Stanzione said it will be comprised of more than 8,000 Dell servers stocked with a total of 16,000 processors. Each of those processors will have between 24 and 30 cores - a kind of processor within a processor - for more than 450,000 individual cores. But even with that much muscle, its capabilities will pale in comparison to quantum computing once the latter reaches its full potential. Some of those capabilities have raised red flags for business and governments. Speaking at a meeting of the Churchill Club in San Francisco in May, IBM director of research Arvind Krishna warned that anyone concerned about the ability of quantum computers to crack most common forms of encryption should move your data now. And writing in Wired magazine in December, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, warned: The impact of quantum on our national defense will be tremendous. The question is whether the United States and its allies will be ready. Countries think that it is going to be a weapon, Hurley said. Strangeworks, which made its official debut during a presentation at this years South by Southwest conference in Austin, has picked its four markets because they are the ones to most benefit from what quantum computing can do, Whurley said. For example, the oil and gas business deals with huge amounts of data as it assesses subsurface reservoirs through seismic activity. Drug companies can use quantum processesing to speed the discovery of new pharmaceuticals. Aerospace can use it to design faster and more efficient airplanes, or to better predict global weather. And the finance business can use it to create more complex financial instruments or better assess risks. Whurleys appearance at the Halliburton LIFE2018 conference last month was the start of Strangeworks road show, this one targeting oil and gas. The company already has a handful of early customers that he wont name for competitive reasons, who are already conducting experiments on Strangeworks platform. HOW TO: Speed up your computer with one weird (DNS) trick Strangeworks provides its customers with remote access to the current crop of existing quantum computers, as well as systems that simulate the way quantum computers work. In a partnership with Stack Exchange, a community of computer science professionals and programmers, customers have access to the writings and discussion of some of the best minds in quantum computing research. Anyone can visit this online community at quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com, but be prepared to wade through discussions with subject lines such as Difference between coherence transfer, polarization transfer and population transfer? and Symmetry in Conditional Phase Shift Gates and Realizing CNOT through HCZH. Strangeworks is competing with several other startups and particularly Microsoft, which recently released a series of online tools as well as a programming language called Q# (Q-sharp), all designed to get coders working with quantum systems. We dont mind the competition, Whurley said. Quantum is at the stage where the more people getting into it, the more everybody benefits. We all learn from each other. dwight.silverman@chron.com Dwight Silverman is the technology editor for the Houston Chronicle and the grillmaster for the TechBurger tech news site. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Get more tasty tech news at TechBurger. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to the Chronicle for regular access to TechBurger stories and to be able to comment. France and UK announce tentative deal to end 'scallop fishing wars' September 06,2018 | Source: France24 British and French fishermen reached an agreement on Wednesday in the so-called Scallop Wars over fishing in the Channel, following clashes at sea between rival boats. "We renewed the 2017 agreements," Gerard Romiti, chairman of the French national committee on fishing, told AFP following a day of talks in London. 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. 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. 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 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 following a meeting between officials and industry representatives from Britain and France. "The previous agreement involving the UK 15-metre-and-over fleet will be renewed. "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." France 24 Theme(s): Fisheries Resources. Anger as Italy arrests Tunisian fishermen 'rescuing migrants' September 06,2018 | Source: BBC News Italy has been urged to release six Tunisian fishermen who were arrested at sea on suspicion of smuggling migrants. Supporters of the fishermen, from the south-east coastal town of Zarzis, say their colleagues were simply aiding a boat in distress. The boat, carrying 14 people, was trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa last week. One of the arrested fishermen is Chamseddine Bourassine, president of the Association of Fishermen in Zarzis. He is a local legend in the town, reports the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tunis. A small protest was held outside the Italian embassy in the Tunisian capital, calling for the men's release. One of those present was Mohamed Murad, 22, who is also from Zarzis and was on the boat in distress. He told our correspondent that the engine stopped working, and they were "floating in the middle of the sea and there were children with us crying... it was a situation you couldn't even imagine". He said Mr Bourassine and his fellow fishermen found them, and gave them something to eat. After failing to persuade the migrants to return to Tunisia, the fisherman then said he would try to contact the Italian authorities, with no luck. "So he tugged us a little further where the Italian coastguard can find us, and it was at a time when our boat would have only lasted for a short time and capsized and we would have died... then the Italian coastguard came and took us." Mr Bourassine, he said, should not be in prison, "he should be honoured" for preventing the deaths of 14 people. The Italian coastguard doubts the story given, saying it has no record of an SOS call being made to the Italian coastguard either by the fishermen or the migrants. The men now stand accused of aiding illegal migrants and could face a 15-year sentence if convicted. 2018 BBC Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Protesters in South Africa want right to mine in iSimangaliso reserve by CHRIS MAKHAYE AND NCE MKHIZE September 06,2018 | Source: BusinessDay Scores of angry Kwangwanase community members in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, marched to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority on Wednesday, demanding rights to mine dunes and calling for a bigger pie of the proceeds from the park. The park is home to Africas largest estuarine system and attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world. It is SAs third-largest protected area, spanning 280km of coastline from the Mozambican border in the north to Mapelane south of the Lake St Lucia estuary, and is made up of about 3,280km of natural ecosystems. In December 1999 the park was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site. The local community has been complaining over the years that they have gained almost no economic opportunities from this tourist haven. The protesters who marched to the parks headquarters demanded to see iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority CEO Anis Karodia and other officials. Zamo Mthethwa, one of the protest leaders, said years of promises that the park would yield economic benefits for the locals had come to nothing. He said the community was demanding to be allowed mining and fishing rights in the park. The community had established Amakhosi Resources to conduct mining, but when they negotiated with iSimangaliso to grant concessions at least on the fringes of the park, the park officials opposed this. "The park is visited by thousands of tourists but we, as the local community, are not getting anything out of it," he said. "Amakhosi Resources was established as our last hope so that we can get something out of our land. But we have been sent from pillar to post. "They said iSimangaliso is not even administered in the province, it is administered by the national government." BusinessLIVE MMXVIII Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Latest issue of SAMUDRA Report, ICSF's journal on fisheries, released September 07,2018 | Source: ICSF | Alert Type(s): Samudra Exclusive The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of SAMUDRA Report, its triannual journal on fisheries, communities and livelihoods. SAMUDRA Report No. 79, dated August 2018, features articles on fisheries from around the world that focus on a diverse range of issues, from the labour and human rights of indigenous communities, to natural disasters and occupational safety and health, and weather forecasting through the involvement of both scientists and fishermen. The opening editorial Comment in the current issue argues that as the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) gets under way, it is imperative to lobby for policies and processes that will empower small-scale fishing communities. How the Guaranis, indigenous people of Morro dos Cavalos in Brazil, are being displaced from their lands to satisfy the interests of politicians and businesses is analyzed in one article,while another details how the Seafood Slavery Risk Tool tracks abuses of labour and human rights in seafood supply chains. The current issue also features a report on the Danish Institute for Human Rights meeting on the contribution of human rights to the sustainable development of fisheries. Continuing on the theme of livelihood rights, the article from Indonesia delineates the causes for the poor nutritional intake in Indonesia's coastal communities. On-the-ground reports of two meetings one on the largest conference on occupational safety and health in the fishing industry, held in Canada, and the other, on the 33rd Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) provide insights into issues that plague the fisheries sector in diferent ways. Another article in SAMUDRA Report No. 79 explains how fishermen and scientists are being brought together to track wind and waves, and save lives, through new innovative weather forecasting technology. A report on the Pecheurs du Monde film festival, held in Lorient, France, and which turns 10 this year, as well as a review of a book on the global implementation of the SSF Guidelines, swing the spotlight to the problems that small-scale fishing communities face around the world. SAMUDRA Report No. 79 also features the regular Roundup section that carries news snippets, analysis and tidbits on fisheries from around the world. SAMUDRA Report No. 79 can be accessed at https://www.icsf.net/en/samudra/article/EN/79.html?limitstart=0 ============ ICSF is an international NGO that works towards the establishment of equitable, gender-just,self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector. For more, please visit www.icsf.net ICSF 2018 Theme(s): Others. Imperial Valley News Center Second Lady Karen Pence Assembles Comfort Crew Kits to Support Military Children Washington, DC - Today at the Vice Presidents Residence, Second Lady Karen Pence, joined by the Congressional Club and the Comfort Crew for Military Kids, assembled 500 care packages for military children. Each kit contains an animated DVD to let kids know they arent alone; a guided journal with prompts that provides a safe place to get negative emotions out and on paper; a teddy bear that offers comfort and companionship; a guidebook that contains information for the whole family; and items to help keep the family connected during the separation. We packed the kits with care and respect for the sacrifices military families make every day, said Mrs. Pence. I am looking forward to distributing the kits next week to children with a parent deployed during my visit to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Thank you to the Comfort Crew for Military Kids for collaborating with us on this important project, and helping us to show our support for military families. Mrs. Pence will distribute the kits on Thursday, September 13 at Fort Carson. To stay updated on this upcoming event, follow Mrs. Pence on Twitter at, @SecondLady. About the Comfort Crew for Military Children The Comfort Crew for Military Kids is a 501(c)3 organization that supports school age military kids through programs designed to strengthen their social and emotional resilience. Founded in 2007, The Comfort Crew delivers proven resources to help military kids and their family connect and build resiliency in the face of extraordinary challenges. The Comfort Crew works directly with military children all over the world and provides them with a wide variety of comfort kits and educational resources that are customized to meet their specific needs and let them know we are With You All the Way! To learn more about the Comfort Crew for Military Kids, visit www.comfortcrew.org. Vice President Mike Pences Call with President Mario Abdo Benitez of Paraguay Washington, DC - Vice President Mike Pence spoke yesterday with President Mario Abdo Benitez of Paraguay to discuss Asuncions recent announcement to delay the official move of its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The Vice President strongly encouraged President Abdo Benitez to follow through with Paraguays previous commitment to move the embassy as a sign of the historic relationship the country has maintained with both Israel and the United States. President Abdo Benitez underscored Paraguays lasting partnership with Israel and the leaders agreed to work towards achieving a compressive and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Vice President Pence also congratulated President Abdo Benitez on his inauguration in August and welcomed the opportunity for more dialogue between the two countries. Joint Statement on the Inaugural U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue Washington, DC - Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman welcomed Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis to India on September 6, 2018, for the inaugural U.S.-India Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue. They welcomed the launch of the 2+2 Dialogue as a reflection of the shared commitment by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump to provide a positive, forward-looking vision for the India-U.S. strategic partnership and to promote synergy in their diplomatic and security efforts. They resolved to continue meetings in this format on an annual basis. Celebrating over 70 years of diplomatic cooperation, the Ministers reaffirmed their view that India and the United States, as sovereign democracies founded on the values of freedom, justice, and commitment to the rule of law, must continue to lead global efforts to promote peace, prosperity, and security. Recognizing their two countries are strategic partners, major and independent stakeholders in world affairs, the Ministers committed to work together on regional and global issues, including in bilateral, trilateral, and quadrilateral formats. The two sides further decided to establish secure communication between the Minister of External Affairs of India and the U.S. Secretary of State, and between the Minister of Defence of India and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, to help maintain regular high-level communication on emerging developments. Strengthening the Defense and Security Partnership The Ministers reaffirmed the strategic importance of Indias designation as a Major Defense Partner (MDP) of the United States and committed to expand the scope of Indias MDP status and take mutually agreed upon steps to strengthen defense ties further and promote better defense and security coordination and cooperation. They noted the rapid growth in bilateral defense trade and the qualitative improvement in levels of technology and equipment offered by the United States to India in recent years. They welcomed the inclusion of India by the United States among the top tier of countries entitled to license-free exports, re-exports, and transfers under License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA-1) and also committed to explore other means to support further expansion in two-way trade in defense items and defense manufacturing supply chain linkages. They welcomed the signing of a Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) that will facilitate access to advanced defense systems and enable India to optimally utilize its existing U.S.-origin platforms. The Ministers also announced their readiness to begin negotiations on an Industrial Security Annex (ISA) that would support closer defense industry cooperation and collaboration. Recognizing their rapidly growing military-to-military ties, the two sides committed to the creation of a new, tri-services exercise and to further increase personnel exchanges between the two militaries and defense organizations. The Ministers reviewed the recent growth of bilateral engagements in support of maritime security and maritime domain awareness, and committed to expand cooperation. Toward that end, the Ministers committed to start exchanges between the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the Indian Navy, underscoring the importance of deepening their maritime cooperation in the western Indian Ocean. Acknowledging the unique role of technology in the U.S.-India defense partnership, the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to continue to encourage and prioritize co-production and co-development projects through the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), and to pursue other avenues of defense innovation cooperation. In this regard, they welcomed the conclusion of a Memorandum of Intent between the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Indian Defence Innovation Organization Innovation for Defence Excellence (DIO-iDEX). Welcoming the expansion of bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, the Ministers announced their intent to increase information-sharing efforts on known or suspected terrorists and to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2396 on returning foreign terrorist fighters. They committed to enhance their ongoing cooperation in multilateral fora such as the UN and FATF. They reaffirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that will advance and strengthen the framework for global cooperation and reinforce the message that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism. The Ministers denounced any use of terrorist proxies in the region, and in this context, they called on Pakistan to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries. On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, they called on Pakistan to bring to justice expeditiously the perpetrators of the Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, and other cross-border terrorist attacks. The Ministers welcomed the launch of a bilateral dialogue on designation of terrorists in 2017, which is strengthening cooperation and action against terrorist groups, including Al-Qaida, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul Mujahideen, the Haqqani Network, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, D-Company, and their affiliates. The two sides further reaffirmed their commitment to ongoing and future cooperation to ensure a stable cyberspace environment and to prevent cyber-attacks. Partners in the Indo-Pacific and Beyond The Ministers reviewed cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, noting that the common principles for the region articulated in the India-U.S. Joint Statement of June 2017 have been further amplified by President Donald Trump at Danang, Vietnam on November 10, 2017, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1, 2018. Both sides committed to work together and in concert with other partners toward advancing a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, based on recognition of ASEAN centrality and on respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, rule of law, good governance, free and fair trade, and freedom of navigation and overflight. Noting the importance of infrastructure and connectivity for the Indo-Pacific region, both sides emphasized the need to work collectively with other partner countries to support transparent, responsible, and sustainable debt financing practices in infrastructure development. The Ministers reaffirmed their shared commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous, and peaceful Afghanistan. The two sides expressed support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. The United States acknowledged Indias longstanding and ongoing contributions of economic assistance to Afghanistan and also welcomed Indias enhanced role in Afghanistans development and stabilization. India welcomed the recent U.S.-North Korea summit. The two sides pledged to work together to counter North Koreas weapons of mass destruction programs and to hold accountable those countries that have supported them. The United States welcomed Indias accession to the Australia Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement, and the Missile Technology Control Regime and reiterated its full support for Indias immediate accession to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Promoting Prosperity and People-to-People Ties The Ministers recognized the importance and the potential for increasing bilateral trade, investment, innovation, and job creation in both countries. Both sides committed to further expanding and balancing the trade and economic partnership consistent with their leaders 2017 joint statement, including by facilitating trade, improving market access, and addressing issues of interest to both sides. In this regard, both sides welcomed the ongoing exchanges between the Ministry of Commerce of India and the Office of the United States Trade Representative and hoped for mutually acceptable outcomes. Both sides looked forward to full implementation of the civil nuclear energy partnership and collaboration between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Westinghouse Electric Company for the establishment of six nuclear power plants in India. Observing the strong ties of family, education, and business, and the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that unite their people, the Ministers highlighted the unmatched people-to-people ties between their countries and recognized the benefits to both nations and the world from these ties, including the free flow of ideas and collaboration in health, space, oceans, and other areas of science and technology. The next 2+2 meeting is to be held in the United States in 2019. The clock is ticking for Canadian and U.S. trade representatives meeting in Washington this week to reach a deal on a new Nafta before the end of the month--and companies with business ties across the border are growing anxious. Last Friday, President Trump started a 90-day countdown after he sent a letter to Congress stating his intention to sign a new trade deal with Mexico and "with Canada if it is willing" by the end of November. That deal would update the longstanding trade pact, known as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was enacted in 1994. By law, the administration is required to submit the full text of the treaty to Congress within 30 days, leaving Canada and the U.S. a September 30 deadline to reach a consensus. Many businesses and trade associations have celebrated the progress made with Mexico in Nafta negotiations though they have also urged the Trump administration to make sure Canada remains part of it. "Anything other than a trilateral agreement won't win congressional approval and would lose business support," said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a statement. It remains to be seen whether this is the beginning of the end for the 24-year-old three-nation agreement that helps guide $1.2 trillion in annual trade. Business owners, however, aren't waiting on the sidelines. They're considering their options, which involve everything from pushing off investments and cutting costs to tweaking their pricing structures and targeting new growth markets to augment a potential loss of sales. "In terms of getting ready for something, it's like getting ready to fast," says Carey Smith, former CEO and founder of Big Ass Fans, an industrial fan manufacturer in Lexington, Kentucky. "It's going to vary from company to company and so [it's hard] to say 'get ready for it.' There's no 'get ready for it' at all," he adds. Businesses and entrepreneurs do have options, however. In the case of Big Ass Fans, for example, the Canadian market is bigger than Mexico's, though it pales in comparison to what the company sells in Australia and Malaysia, Smith says. Expanding to markets outside North America could help businesses lessen their reliance on the border nations. Even then you don't need to necessarily cut entire countries out of your revenue forecast. If a deal with Canada isn't reached and tariffs kick in, you most likely will have to tweak your pricing strategy. "When there are tariffs, it makes it more difficult to sell into [a country] because immediately the price goes up," Smith says. "To compete, we would have to reduce our prices." Lower prices can cut into a company's profit margins, naturally. So business owners need to weigh whether dropping them is a financially viable idea. You might also attempt to find a manufacturing partner within the country and shift production there, Smith says. That's an expensive transition and it could open your company up to intellectual property insecurity issues. If your company sources materials from Canada, he adds, it might further be wise to identify a new supplier elsewhere. Still, other companies are slowing down their spending. M. Holland, the Northbrook, Illinois-based distributor of plastic resin, has adopted a more cautious approach to its hiring and investment strategies since President Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs back in March. "We may be less apt to make a major capital investment or acquisition outside the U.S. until these things get settled," says Dwight Morgan, the company's vice president of corporate development. The business makes 10 percent of all its resin sales internationally, the bulk of which goes to Canada and Mexico. Ultimately, none of these strategies are easy. And even if you could simply tweak your plans to account for the changes, having to do so in the first place is not ideal. Twentieth Century Fox has deleted a scene from the new Predator film after discovering it features a registered sex offender. Steven Wilder Striegel appears in a scene that sees his character flirt with Olivia Munn, who later told the studio about Striegels history. He pleaded guilty in 2010 after being accused of attempting to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship over the internet and served six months in jail. Director Shane Black apologised for casting his friend Striegel, stating he had been misled about the conviction. Having read this mornings news reports, it has sadly become clear to me that I was misled by a friend I really wanted to believe was telling me the truth when he described the circumstances of his conviction, he said. I believe strongly in giving people second chances but sometimes you discover that chance is not as warranted as you may have hoped. He continued: After learning more about the affidavit, transcripts and additional details surrounding Steve Striegels sentence, I am deeply disappointed in myself. I apologise to all of those, past and present, Ive let down by having Steve around them without giving them a voice in the decision. Fox states it wasnt aware of Striegels background, telling Variety: Several weeks ago, when the studio learned the details, his one scene in the film was removed within 24 hours. We were not aware of his background during the casting process due to legal limitations that impede studios from running background checks on actors. Black has previously cast Striegel in Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys. He defended the casting decision in the past, telling the Los Angeles Times: I personally chose to help a friend. I can understand others might disapprove, as his conviction was on a sensitive charge and not to be taken lightly. The best films of 2018 (so far) Show all 17 1 /17 The best films of 2018 (so far) The best films of 2018 (so far) The Guardians From its slow-burning beginning, The Guardians develops into an epic melodrama. Its a wartime story in which, for a change, the men are relegated to supporting roles. It follows in a tradition of French rural family sagas like Jean De Florette or Manon Des Sources. The landscapes and the changing seasons play as much of a part in the story as the main characters. The best films of 2018 (so far) Dark River Dark River offers little such consolation. It has some lyrical and delicate moments but the mood is generally overwhelmingly bleak and lugubrious. Incest and abuse dont leave much space for any comic interludes. This is a powerful film with a grinding intensity about it. Light relief it isnt but Dark River still has quite an impact. Alamy The best films of 2018 (so far) Zama Late on in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martels startling, highly original new feature, Zama, a character who has just had both his arms cut off, is advised to shove your stumps in the sand if you dont bleed out, youll survive. Its a grisly, darkly humorous moment in a film that continually surprises us with both its brutality and its lyricism. The Match Factory The best films of 2018 (so far) The Breadwinner The most dispiriting aspect of this otherwise enrapturing Oscar-nominated animated feature is that its storyline still seems so current. The film depicts an Afghan society in which women dont have a face. It is set during the Taliban rule, which lasted from the mid-1990s until late 2001, but this doesnt feel like a period piece. Seventeen years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan following the US invasion, the plight of women in the country appears hardly to have improved. GKIDS The best films of 2018 (so far) BlacKkKlansman Spike Lees work sometimes risks sensory overload. He fires off so many different ideas and storytelling styles that audiences can become bamboozled by his scattergun approach. BlacKkKlansman is one of his very best films because the digressions are as entertaining as ever but dont get in the way of the main story. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Early Man Much of the pleasure in Aardman films has always lain in their gently ironic, Alan Bennett-like humour. They take very exotic characters and subject matter but then deal with them in a matter-of-fact fashion. They make a virtue out of their own relative modesty. Early Man isnt the flashiest animated feature that youll see this year but it is certainly the most likeable. The best films of 2018 (so far) Isle of Dogs Like all of Wes Andersons work, Isle Of Dogs is very stylised, very offbeat and characterised by its extremely dry and often ironic humour. This Japanese-set stop-motion fable is also gorgeous to look at packed full of intricate visual detail. It deals with some weighty themes (ethnic cleansing, fascism and corruption) but does so in an idiosyncratic fashion. The best films of 2018 (so far) Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a host of award-winning plays behind him but his movies havent always lived up to his stage work. This one certainly does. It shares some of the dark and nihilistic humour found in McDonaghs previous film, Seven Psychopaths. The best films of 2018 (so far) A Quiet Place In an era of wearisome poltergeist movies, haunted house stories and torture porn, A Quiet Place is a refreshingly pared-down and very original affair. Director John Krasinski relies on editing, sound effects and off-screen action to crank up the tension. We do see the creatures from time to time, sometimes even in extreme closeup. They are very grotesque, bigger versions of the polyp-like succubus which exploded out of John Hurts stomach in Alien. However, the most terrifying moments here come when the humans are waiting for them to appear, desperately hoping that they wont. Paramount Pictures The best films of 2018 (so far) Lady Bird Lady Bird is one of the best American coming-of-age films since Barry Levinsons Diner. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, it offers an utterly winning mix of humour, poignancy and sharp-eyed social observation. Gerwig approaches her subject matter with the same tenderness and affectionate irony with which the adolescent Lady Bird regards Sacramento. Gerwig also shows Lady Birds heroism as the young heroine strives against the odds to become the very best version of herself she can be. A24 The best films of 2018 (so far) Phantom Thread If Phantom Thread is indeed Daniel Day-Lewiss final film as an actor, he is going out on a wondrously bizarre note. This must be the oddest film in his career, one in which he gives a typically commanding but very idiosyncratic performance. Almost everything here is jarring but generally in a very positive way. The best films of 2018 (so far) First Reformed It is not so long ago that Paul Schrader seemed to be giving up on cinema. The American writer-director (whose credits include Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Affliction) had taken to making movies like the sour Hollywood satire The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan and the cartoonishly violent Dog Eat Dog, shot cheaply, aimed at a VOD audience. The former had a montage of closed-down movie theatres. In interviews, Schrader struck a gloomy note about the future of the industry. This is why First Reformed is so refreshing. This is not just Schraders best film in a very long while. It is also a re-affirmation of the directors belief in the medium. Rex The best films of 2018 (so far) The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde goes to ruin in Rupert Everetts debut feature as director. Everett also wrote and stars in the film, giving a grandstanding performance as the Irish writer at the end of his life, after his release from prison, where he has been doing hard labour for gross indecency. This is a moving and surprising biopic that squeezes out every last drop of pathos from its subject matter. BBC Films The best films of 2018 (so far) Black Panther Black Panther is not only one of the most entertaining recent superhero films but has an intelligence and a political dimension that such inchoate offerings as Suicide Squad and Justice League completely lacked. It is an action movie which touches on Pan-Africanism and which owes as much to Malcolm X as it does to Batman or Captain America. Marvel Studios/Disney The best films of 2018 (so far) Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story is a genre-bending affair that combines elements of teen romance, gothic psycho-drama and political thriller. It is loosely based on a true story of a boy called Giuseppe Di Matteo whose father, an ex-member of the Sicilian Mafia, turned grass against his erstwhile associates. The Mafia responded by kidnapping Giuseppe and keeping him in captivity for nearly 800 days. Altitude The best films of 2018 (so far) First Man First Man is all about understated heroism. Its affecting precisely because Armstrong (played with quiet intensity by Ryan Gosling) doesnt feel the continual need to boast about his mission. The film is a tearjerker but a very subtle one. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Dogman Dogman is one of the best Italian films of recent times, a modern day neo realist fable that bears comparison with the great work of Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica et al. Its main character, the dog groomer Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a wonderful creation: loveable, vulnerable, seedy and comic all at the same time. Curzon Artificial Eye Striegel, however, claims Black knew the full details of his conviction, telling the Times: Ive known Shane Black 14 years, well before this incident, and I think its worth noting that he was aware of the facts. Shane can speak for himself, but Im quite certain that if he felt I was a danger in any way to have around, he would not have. Munn said she found it both surprising and unsettling that Black didnt share Spiegels history with the films cast or crew as well as Fox Studios at any stage of production. Responding to the scenes removal, she said: I am relieved that when Fox finally did receive the information, the studio took appropriate action by deleting the scene featuring Wilder. The Predator which stars Sterling K Brown, Trevante Rhodes and Yvonne Strahovski is released 14 September. Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin died in Syria in 2012. Chris Martins gripping and moving feature documentary tells the story of Colvins final assignment. She and photographer Paul Conroy entered the country illegally, smuggling themselves in through a storm drain and making their way to Baba Amr in Homs. The film is based on a book written by Conroy, who is the main interviewee. He was with Colvin in the international media centre at the time the Assad regime killed Colvin. Wounded in the same incident, he was determined to survive and to give a full account of what happened in Homs as civilian areas were bombed by the Syrian army. These beautiful people who were being slaughtered, I wanted to tell their story, Conroy says, not just of Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik also killed, but of the many Syrians who died. Director Martin has some extraordinarily rich material to draw on Conroys memories, those of colleagues at the Sunday Times and of other journalists who also travelled to Syria, Conroys own photographs, and first hand video footage of the siege. The film is chilling but inspiring. We get an impression of Colvins dogged approach to her journalism her tenacity, her ruthlessness when it came to protecting her patch and her compassion for her subjects. Other journalists would desert the Syrians under siege or see their plight as simply as a way they could make money. Colvin, who had lost an eye while reporting on conflict in Sri Lanka a decade before, earned their trust. She refused to leave. The best films of 2018 (so far) Show all 17 1 /17 The best films of 2018 (so far) The best films of 2018 (so far) The Guardians From its slow-burning beginning, The Guardians develops into an epic melodrama. Its a wartime story in which, for a change, the men are relegated to supporting roles. It follows in a tradition of French rural family sagas like Jean De Florette or Manon Des Sources. The landscapes and the changing seasons play as much of a part in the story as the main characters. The best films of 2018 (so far) Dark River Dark River offers little such consolation. It has some lyrical and delicate moments but the mood is generally overwhelmingly bleak and lugubrious. Incest and abuse dont leave much space for any comic interludes. This is a powerful film with a grinding intensity about it. Light relief it isnt but Dark River still has quite an impact. Alamy The best films of 2018 (so far) Zama Late on in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martels startling, highly original new feature, Zama, a character who has just had both his arms cut off, is advised to shove your stumps in the sand if you dont bleed out, youll survive. Its a grisly, darkly humorous moment in a film that continually surprises us with both its brutality and its lyricism. The Match Factory The best films of 2018 (so far) The Breadwinner The most dispiriting aspect of this otherwise enrapturing Oscar-nominated animated feature is that its storyline still seems so current. The film depicts an Afghan society in which women dont have a face. It is set during the Taliban rule, which lasted from the mid-1990s until late 2001, but this doesnt feel like a period piece. Seventeen years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan following the US invasion, the plight of women in the country appears hardly to have improved. GKIDS The best films of 2018 (so far) BlacKkKlansman Spike Lees work sometimes risks sensory overload. He fires off so many different ideas and storytelling styles that audiences can become bamboozled by his scattergun approach. BlacKkKlansman is one of his very best films because the digressions are as entertaining as ever but dont get in the way of the main story. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Early Man Much of the pleasure in Aardman films has always lain in their gently ironic, Alan Bennett-like humour. They take very exotic characters and subject matter but then deal with them in a matter-of-fact fashion. They make a virtue out of their own relative modesty. Early Man isnt the flashiest animated feature that youll see this year but it is certainly the most likeable. The best films of 2018 (so far) Isle of Dogs Like all of Wes Andersons work, Isle Of Dogs is very stylised, very offbeat and characterised by its extremely dry and often ironic humour. This Japanese-set stop-motion fable is also gorgeous to look at packed full of intricate visual detail. It deals with some weighty themes (ethnic cleansing, fascism and corruption) but does so in an idiosyncratic fashion. The best films of 2018 (so far) Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a host of award-winning plays behind him but his movies havent always lived up to his stage work. This one certainly does. It shares some of the dark and nihilistic humour found in McDonaghs previous film, Seven Psychopaths. The best films of 2018 (so far) A Quiet Place In an era of wearisome poltergeist movies, haunted house stories and torture porn, A Quiet Place is a refreshingly pared-down and very original affair. Director John Krasinski relies on editing, sound effects and off-screen action to crank up the tension. We do see the creatures from time to time, sometimes even in extreme closeup. They are very grotesque, bigger versions of the polyp-like succubus which exploded out of John Hurts stomach in Alien. However, the most terrifying moments here come when the humans are waiting for them to appear, desperately hoping that they wont. Paramount Pictures The best films of 2018 (so far) Lady Bird Lady Bird is one of the best American coming-of-age films since Barry Levinsons Diner. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, it offers an utterly winning mix of humour, poignancy and sharp-eyed social observation. Gerwig approaches her subject matter with the same tenderness and affectionate irony with which the adolescent Lady Bird regards Sacramento. Gerwig also shows Lady Birds heroism as the young heroine strives against the odds to become the very best version of herself she can be. A24 The best films of 2018 (so far) Phantom Thread If Phantom Thread is indeed Daniel Day-Lewiss final film as an actor, he is going out on a wondrously bizarre note. This must be the oddest film in his career, one in which he gives a typically commanding but very idiosyncratic performance. Almost everything here is jarring but generally in a very positive way. The best films of 2018 (so far) First Reformed It is not so long ago that Paul Schrader seemed to be giving up on cinema. The American writer-director (whose credits include Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Affliction) had taken to making movies like the sour Hollywood satire The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan and the cartoonishly violent Dog Eat Dog, shot cheaply, aimed at a VOD audience. The former had a montage of closed-down movie theatres. In interviews, Schrader struck a gloomy note about the future of the industry. This is why First Reformed is so refreshing. This is not just Schraders best film in a very long while. It is also a re-affirmation of the directors belief in the medium. Rex The best films of 2018 (so far) The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde goes to ruin in Rupert Everetts debut feature as director. Everett also wrote and stars in the film, giving a grandstanding performance as the Irish writer at the end of his life, after his release from prison, where he has been doing hard labour for gross indecency. This is a moving and surprising biopic that squeezes out every last drop of pathos from its subject matter. BBC Films The best films of 2018 (so far) Black Panther Black Panther is not only one of the most entertaining recent superhero films but has an intelligence and a political dimension that such inchoate offerings as Suicide Squad and Justice League completely lacked. It is an action movie which touches on Pan-Africanism and which owes as much to Malcolm X as it does to Batman or Captain America. Marvel Studios/Disney The best films of 2018 (so far) Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story is a genre-bending affair that combines elements of teen romance, gothic psycho-drama and political thriller. It is loosely based on a true story of a boy called Giuseppe Di Matteo whose father, an ex-member of the Sicilian Mafia, turned grass against his erstwhile associates. The Mafia responded by kidnapping Giuseppe and keeping him in captivity for nearly 800 days. Altitude The best films of 2018 (so far) First Man First Man is all about understated heroism. Its affecting precisely because Armstrong (played with quiet intensity by Ryan Gosling) doesnt feel the continual need to boast about his mission. The film is a tearjerker but a very subtle one. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Dogman Dogman is one of the best Italian films of recent times, a modern day neo realist fable that bears comparison with the great work of Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica et al. Its main character, the dog groomer Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a wonderful creation: loveable, vulnerable, seedy and comic all at the same time. Curzon Artificial Eye Conroys survival story is astonishing itself. After Colvins death, he had a hair raising encounter with the Syrian Red Crescent, an aid agency run by the Syrian government. He was warned not to get into one of the organisations ambulances. Had he done so, he might have been executed. Colvins life has now been dramatised in A Private War, a new dramatic feature starring Rosamund Pike and set to be released by the end of the year. It will struggle to match up to the tension and drama found in Martins documentary. Today Paul McCartney releases his seventeenth studio album, Egypt Station. Thats not including his seven LPs with Wings and numerous compilation, soundtrack, and classical records since The Beatles disbandment in 1970. The 76-year-old McCartney is, by far and away, the most successful songwriter in pop music history not to mention the most commercially viable ex-Beatle, having outsold his former bandmates by tens of millions of singles and albums. Recommended When Yoko Ono joined The Beatles in the studio for the first time But since the June announcement of McCartneys first LP of original songs since 2013s New, the blogosphere has been rife with debate about his contemporary artistic significance and his abiding need for creating new material. Over the past few months, Beatlemaniacs and their ilk have been engaged in a near-ceaseless chorus of Should he? or Shouldnt he? with the most cynical among them asking Why even bother? After all, McCartneys place in rocks pantheon of greatness is unwavering, and his personal wealth outpaces nearly the whole of the music industry with his closest rival being Andrew Lloyd Webber, who trailed him in NMEs most recent accounting of such things. With the release of Egypt Station, McCartney is poised, yet again, to parade his musical might for old and new fans alike. His recent turn on James Cordens Carpool Karaoke was a masterstroke of public relations, no doubt contributing to the anticipation that has greeted Egypt Stations release. But for every giddy fan singing along with the albums tongue-in-cheek Fuh You, there are plenty of others wondering aloud about his motivations. Surely McCartney has nothing left to prove at this late date? After all, were only a few years removed from his surprising, twilight collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West on the top-five hit FourFiveSeconds. For a man with 32 number-one Billboard singles under his belt, scoring a hit song with the likes of Rihanna and Kanye should be nothing more than icing on the cake for pop musics old master. Right? In the studio: Paul McCartney recording his 17th solo album 'Egypt Station' On the contrary. Given the nature of McCartneys craft and his approach to songwriting indeed, to art in general to consider his nearly six-decade career in that context is misleading. For McCartney, it has always been the work that matters, the artistic impulse that drives him back into the studio for one more stab at greatness. Theres a mid-Sixties McCartney anecdote that is particularly telling in this regard. Shortly before the release of The Beatles Revolver, he was anxious to show the world what the Fab Four had been cooking up in the studio. With John Lennon in tow, he sought out Bob Dylan, who was on layover at a London hotel before embarking on his latest European tour, to play the American folk hero an acetate of Tomorrow Never Knows. McCartney couldnt wait to get Dylans reaction to The Beatles most radical, most experimental creation. After all, The Beatles had been Dylan aficionados of the highest order, playing his records in heavy rotation as they crisscrossed the States during the high tide of Beatlemania. Oh, I get it, Dylan said blankly after listening to Tomorrow Never Knows, you dont want to be cute anymore. Quite suddenly, McCartney felt that he had been put in his place, that to people like Dylan artists whom The Beatles had revered, and had even engaged in a kind of hero worship they were a mere pop act. Worse yet, they were still those four Mop-Tops in Dylans eyes, the product of good looks, catchy tunes, and prodigious marketing. McCartney was reportedly crestfallen, and understandably so. What Dylan didnt quite get was that McCartney was never a mere pop sensation, and he certainly didnt think of himself or the work of The Beatles in that fashion. Rather, he saw himself as an artist, and an evolving one at that. To his mind, Revolver was only the latest growth spurt that would eventually see the band reach even greater heights with Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up And while music critics were merciless at times with his post-Beatles work, particularly Wings, McCartney has enjoyed glowing reviews for such LPs as Ram, Band on the Run, Tug of War, Run Devil Run, and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, among others. And he has carried out some of his finest work with Martin Glover (Youth of Killing Joke) as The Fireman, a collaboration that has produced such experimental albums as Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest and Electric Arguments. And when hes not making records, hes been known to be an accomplished painter and, like his fallen friend John, a clever sketch artist. In short, hes nearly always lost in the act of making something. Recommended Paul McCartney still has plenty to say on his 17th solo album When we understand Egypt Station as McCartneys latest attempt at exploring the mystery of creation that he assails his craft with the heart of an artist then his yearning for going back, time and time again, into pop musics breach makes perfect sense. As with the most celebrated artists of pen and palette the prolific ee cummings and Pablo Picasso come readily to mind the Beatle has been on a lifelong search for that certain something, a quality of achievement likely unknown even to himself. Years ago, McCartney confessed that he is never really sure about what goes into a hit-making composition. Speaking of the UK chart-topper Mull of Kintyre, he admitted that the song touched me, but I wasnt sure it was everyones cup of tea. It was violin prodigy Yehudi Menuhin another world-breaking 20th century musician in his own right who taught us that any artists life is invariably an unfinished journey, that the most authentic creative life is about embarking upon a personal rite of passage without a destination or end. The concept of the unfinished journey was so central to Menuhin that he adopted the phrase as the title of his autobiography. To play great music, Menuhin once remarked, you must keep your eyes on a distant star. Love it or hate it, Egypt Station is merely McCartneys latest attempt at capturing lightning in a bottle. He will likely be no more or less satisfied with his new LP than he was with nearly any of the touchstones of his creative past even ones like, say, Rubber Soul or Abbey Road that have become household words. Only time, it seems, will succeed in stopping McCartney. Until then, hell go on searching for that distant star. Egypt Station is out today on Capitol Records Kenneth Womack is dean of the Wayne D McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University and the author of numerous books about The Beatles. His latest book, Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Later Years, 1966-2016), was released this week by Orphans Publishing Kanye West was the surprise creative director of last nights inaugural PornHub awards where he provided wardrobe and styling for the presenters. The collaboration came about one month after the 41-year-old spoke about the adult website on Jimmy Kimmels late night show. After being asked whether having daughters had changed his view of women, West told the host: Nah, I still look at Pornhub and stuff. He then proceeded to list off his favourite categories. Wests involvement with the Lost Angeles-based awards show the theme of which was the year 6918 was announced through a statement from PornHub. 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes Show all 10 1 /10 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes "I was the best new artist this year" Kanye asserted this after losing the New Artist of the Year award at the 2004 American Music Awards Getty Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes I am the number one human being in music. That means any person that's living or breathing is number two. Kanye made this claim while appearing on the Wendy Williams show in 2007. He had recently released the album 'Graduation' to critical acclaim Getty Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time! In arguably the most famous incident of his career, Kanye bravely stole the microphone from then 19 year old Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for the Female Music Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards REUTERS 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes "I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street and people look at me... like I'm Hitler" Kanye said this during a mid-set rant while on stage at the Big Chill festival in 2011. Despite releasing the acclaimed 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' in 2010, he was still widely disliked following the Taylor Swift incident PA Archive/PA Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes "I am Picasso. I am Michelangelo. I am Basquiat. I am Walt Disney. I am Steve Jobs" Kanye compared himself to these visionaries in a mid-set rant on stage in Paris, 2013 AFP/Getty Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live. In 2013, Kanye opened up to reveal more Kanye. His pain is understandable, considering such performances as his at the BRITs in 2015, where he came on stage with an entourage of flamethrower wielding grime artists (pictured) Getty Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes I have to dress Kim everyday so she doesnt embarrass me. Kanye tweeted this in 2014, around the time that he was designing the first Yeezy range AFP/Getty Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes By 50 percent [I am more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Apostle Paul, Picasso f***ing Picasso and Escobar. By 50 per cent more influential than any other human being. Kanye made this claim backstage after appearing on Saturday Night Live in 2016, he did not show his working out Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes "My wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don't agree with everything Trump does. I don't agree 100% with anyone but myself." This quote followed Kanye's recent expression of love for Donald Trump on Twitter, in which he claimed that he and Trump were "dragon energy" Getty Images 'Imma let you finish' - Kanye West's most controversial quotes "When you hear about slavery for 400 years... for 400 years? That sounds like a choice." Kanye made this comment in a May 2018 interview with TMZ. He later clarified that, in saying slavery was a choice, he meant "we can make our own reality" PA Wire/PA Images Kanye has designed a bespoke erotica-inspired award statue for each of tonights unique categories. In line with the futurist theme, the award statues represent imagined alien sex toys, the statement reads. The rapper also performed at the event with Teyana Taylor and unveiled a Spike Jonze-directed video for new song I Love It, which features Lil Pump. Watch the music video, which has appeared online, below. Watch videos from the awards ceremony below. West has also made long sleeve shirts, featuring drawn cartoons of the winning performers on them. They're available to purchase on his website. Rapper Mac Miller has died at the age of 26. His family has confirmed the news in a statement, describing him as "a bright light in this world", but did not reveal any further details about the cause of death. Miller, whose real name is Malcolm James McCormick, was found dead in his home near Los Angeles, California shortly before midday, according to a statement from the coroner. The artist, a platinum hip-hop star, had struggled with substance abuse in the past, most recently facing charges for driving under the influence after a hit-and-run accident. The incident came weeks after his breakup with his girlfriend of two years, pop star Ariana Grande. Recommended Ariana Grande hits back at criticism of Mac Miller split on Twitter Miller opened up about his drug use and struggles with depression on the 2014 album "Faces," which Rolling Stone named one of the top 40 rap albums of the year. Discussing his music in a profile for Vulture, Miller said he used to rap super openly about really dark s***, because thats what I was experiencing at the time". "Thats fine, thats good, thats life," he added. "It should be all the emotions. Mac Miller: Fame A Major Factor In My Depression Ms Grande also made it clear that drug abuse played a role in the couple's split, calling the relationship "toxic" and pushing back against claims that she was somehow responsible for his arrest this spring. I am not a babysitter or a mother and no woman should feel that they need to be. I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety & prayed for his balance for years (and always will of course)," she wrote in May. In an August interview with Rolling Stone, Miller said he was in a better place and had stopped using drugs. But he also reflected on the pressures of living his life in the spotlight, saying: "Ive been in the tabloids so much randomly recently that Ive realised that I just dont care what people think of me. Why stress things that you cant control? Ariana Grande refuses to answer Ryan Seacrest's question over Mac Miller Miller released his first mix tape in 2007, at age 15, under the stage name EZ Mac. He later signed with Rostrum Records under the name Mac Miller, and his debut album, "Blue Slide Park," reached the top of the Billboard charts in 2011. He released a total of five studio albums, collaborating with artists like Earl Sweatshirt, Talib Kweli, and Schoolboy Q. Tributes from other artists began pouring out as reports of Miller's death surfaced. "I dont know what to say, Mac Miller took me on my second tour ever," tweeted Chance the Rapper. "But beyond helping me launch my career he was one of the sweetest guys I ever knew. Great man. I loved him for real. Im completely broken. God bless him." Rapper Missy Elliot called Miller a "kind spirit," while Snoop Dogg reminisced about a movie the two had shot together. The artist's latest album, "Swimming," was released last month, and he was planning to go on tour again starting in October. He announced the tour in the last tweet sent from his account, writing: "The show is going to be special every night. I wish it started tomorrow." Agencies contributed to this report Replacing a fossil fuel-powered car with an electric model can halve greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the vehicles lifetime, according to a new report. The finding challenges reports by the UK press, other transport research groups and the fossil fuel industry that have underestimated the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and their capacity for cutting emissions. Released ahead of the worlds first zero emission vehicle summit in Birmingham, experts hope these results will drive a rapid switch to electric vehicles. Recommended Transport becomes most polluting UK sector as emissions drop overall It is well established that a transition to electric vehicles will immediately reduce toxic air pollution, but the impact on carbon emissions has been less clear. Critics have pointed to the carbon-intensive process of battery manufacture and the relatively small share of Britains electricity supply coming from renewables as factors that stop EVs reaching their full CO2-cutting potential. The take up of EVs in the UK, as elsewhere, continues to grow fast and sales have just passed 4 million globally, said Andy Eastlake, managing director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership. While no one doubts the air quality benefits of zero tailpipe emissions, critics often question the overall life cycle greenhouse gas impacts. 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan However, the new European Climate Foundation-commissioned report used 2017 data to demonstrate that owners of EVs particularly smaller models are already playing a big role in helping the climate. Transport is now the sector that contributes most to the UKs greenhouse gas emissions, and the Committee on Climate Change has urged the government to improve on their current plan to ensure all new diesel and petrol vehicles are banned from 2040. In their role as the governments climate advisers, the committee has called for more stretching targets to ensure most new cars and vans are electric by 2030. Transport secretary Chris Grayling revealed his Road to Zero strategy in July to make the UK the best country in the world in which to develop and manufacture zero-emission vehicles. Aurelien Schuller from French consulting firm Carbone 4, one of the reports co-authors, said their new study revealed there is no time to waste in the UKs transition to EVs. Thanks to an already-significant decarbonisation of its electricity generation through coal phase-out the UK is already in a position to make significant cuts in the greenhouse gases from its transport sector, he said. The research concluded that a smaller EV produces around 15 tonnes of CO2 from construction through to scrapping, compared to an average of 32 tonnes for the equivalent petrol or diesel car. First ever electrified road for charging cars opens in Sweden Gains were smaller for larger sedan cars, which currently offer a quarter less CO2 emissions compared to their fossil fuel couterparts. Looking ahead to 2030 the reductions become even sharper, with a large electric car expected to produce half as much emissions as current models. These conclusions are more positive than previous reports, such as a far more conservative study released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year. They also chime with a massive underestimation of the potential of EVs by the fossil fuel industry as represented by oil company figures predicting the size of the future fleet. Its clear that the large oil organisations have consistently underestimated the numbers and uptake of electric vehicles, said Matt Finch The question is, have these pessimistic forecasts been adopted as fact elsewhere and have they, therefore, slowed down the low carbon transition? As electric vehicles are set to play such an important role in tackling climate change, these forecasts should really be reviewed more carefully. Mr Eastlake said he thinks the government recognises the wide-ranging opportunities in the EV transition in both industrial and environmental terms. I hope the prime ministers zero emission vehicle summit will help to push the accelerator button and speed UK progress in this area, he said. Whales shot with modern explosive devices often take several minutes to die, and can take as long as 25 minutes, according to official Norwegian data. Figures submitted by Norway to the International Whaling Commission ahead of its meeting in Brazil show around a fifth of the whales shot with their harpoons take a prolonged time to die. The report highlights the role that Norwegian research has played in driving the "adoption of improved weaponry, methods and regulations, but conservationists refuted the idea that whaling has improved. Recommended Japan has killed more than 50 whales in Antarctic protected area These shocking numbers are a timely reminder of how inherently cruel commercial whaling operations are, said Astrid Fuchs, programme lead at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC). It is incomprehensible that Norway is trying to use this report as a demonstration of progress in animal welfare. Explosive harpoons have been in use since the late 19th century, and helped usher in the modern age of whaling, but they have been subject to improvements. The widely used Whalegrenade-99 has been manufactured in Norway since 1999, and consists of explosive penthrite fired from a cannon at the front of a whaling vessel. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Upon impact, the device penetrates deep into the target whale and kills the animal with a burst of energy, before spring-loaded claws release and embed themselves in its flesh. Data collected between 2000 and 2002 by Norway found that 80 per cent of the whales killed with this technology were rendered instantly irreversibly unconscious or dead. However, 49 of the 271 minke whales taken by Norwegian whalers were not killed so quickly. Many took around six minutes to die, and one whale was only wounded by the initial shot, which led to a slow death that took up to 25 minutes. WDC pointed out the inconsistency of this practice with Norways strong tradition of high animal welfare standards. The Scandinavian nation was one of the first European countries to require all livestock to be stunned before slaughter, and polling suggests three quarters of Norwegians think all animals killed for commercial purposes should be given the same protection. Commercial whaling has been banned for over 30 years, but Norway, Iceland and Japan continue to hunt whales regardless. At the upcoming whaling meeting in the Brazilian city of Florianopolis, Japan wants to push for an end on the ban so it can stop the scientific whaling it currently engages in and take up full-scale commercial whaling again. However, in light of news that the country has slaughtered pregnant females and whales inhabiting protected parts of Antarctica, campaigners are pushing back against any changes. At this IWC meeting, Japan and its allies want to convince the world that the time has come to lift the whaling ban and bring back commercial whaling, said Ms Fuchs. This report by Norway is the perfect argument as to why this should never be allowed to happen. We are calling on all conservation and animal welfare minded governments to strictly oppose Japans proposal and to call on Norway and Iceland to stop their whaling and abide by the international whaling ban. The Independent contacted the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries for comment, but had not heard back at the time of publication. The scale of the British Airways data breach has been described as "astounding" and "very worrying" by cyber security experts, after hundreds of thousands of customers' personal and financial data was obtained by hackers. Around 380,000 of the airline's customers were affected by the breach, which took place between 21 August and 5 September and was disclosed on Wednesday evening. The scale and nature of this attack is astounding, with around 380,000 customers knowingly affected," Ross Brewer, from security intelligence firm LogRhythm, told The Independent. "We have heard many times of data breaches involving the theft of personal information which, whilst still very serious, doesnt often include financial details. "This breach involved both personal and financial information being stolen which is causing significant problems, not only for BA and its customers, but also banks which are struggling to manage the number of incoming calls to cancel credit cards." In pictures: British Airways disruptions Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: British Airways disruptions In pictures: British Airways disruptions A passenger looks at a British Airway plane at John F. Kennedy (JFK) international airport in New York Getty Images In pictures: British Airways disruptions British Airways planes are seen at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions Passengers stand at the British Airways check-in desk after the London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports suffered an IT systems failure, at the 'Leonardo da Vinci' airport in Fiumicino, near Rome, Italy EPA In pictures: British Airways disruptions Arrivals notice boards are displayed at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions People wait with their luggage at the British Airways check in desks at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions Thousands of passengers face a second day of travel disruption after a British Airways IT failure caused the airline to cancel most of its services Getty Images In pictures: British Airways disruptions A woman covered in a blanket sleeps in Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Getty Images In pictures: British Airways disruptions People sleep next to their luggage at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions People sleep at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions A woman sleeps on a luggage trolley at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions People queue to enter the terminal at Gatwick Airport Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions People wait with their luggage at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Getty In pictures: British Airways disruptions Thousands of passengers face a second day of travel disruption after a British Airways IT failure caused the airline to cancel most of its services Getty In pictures: British Airways disruptions People queue with their luggage outside Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Getty Images In pictures: British Airways disruptions People queue for check-in at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. Thousands of passengers face a second day of travel disruption after a British Airways IT failure caused the airline to cancel most of its services Getty Images In pictures: British Airways disruptions People sleep next to their luggage at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters In pictures: British Airways disruptions People wait with their luggage at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters BA said no passport or travel details were stolen but the type of data exposed means criminals could use the etails to commit fraud and make high-value purchases. Other security experts said the airline should be more clear on what type of personal details were affected, as this could have an impact on the risk posed to customers. "It is not clear what personal data has been lost and in some cases this can magnify the scope of the fraud," said James Lyne, head of research and development at cyber security firm SANS Institute. "For customers it is really important to know exactly what data has been lost so BA should offer some clarity on this as soon as possible." British Airways chief executive Alex Cruz described the data breach as a "sophisticated, malicious criminal attack" and promised financial compensation to the customers affected. "We are extremely sorry for what has happened. We know it has caused concern to some of our customers," Mr Cruz told the BBC. "Our number one purpose is contacting those customers that made those transactions to make sure they contact their credit card bank providers so they can follow their instructions on how to manage that breach of data." BA discovered major data breach on Wednesday (Getty) The full financial impact on affected British Airways customers may not be realised immediately, however, with the bank card details likely to pass through criminal forums on underground websites before they are used. Cyber security analyst Leigh Anne Galloway, from Positive Technologies, told The Independent: "Once hackers have hold of high-value data like card details, the market in criminal networks for reselling is huge, meaning that we may not see the effects of this theft immediately until a buyer acts. "The best thing to do for anyone who thinks their details may have been involved, or who has been told so by BA, should keep an eye on their transactions." Ms Galloway and other security experts advised BA customers to be wary of scam emails that use credentials taken from this breach, and should consider cancelling their credit and debit cards for peace of mind. Lloyds of London has named former QBE boss John Neal as its new chief executive, replacing Inga Beale when she steps down later this year. Ms Beale announced her intention to leave the iconic insurance market in June, and Mr Neal will take up his new position on 15 October. Mr Neal said he was preparing for his new role with the same excitement I felt when I first stepped into the underwriting room back in 1985. "The insurance sector is facing many challenges. For 330 years the Lloyds market has demonstrated its ability to innovate and adapt, and I look forward to playing my part to ensure this unique marketplace remains at the forefront of global commercial corporate and specialty insurance and reinsurance, he said. Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of Lloyds, said: John will continue Lloyds focus on delivering sustainable profitability, through a combination of underwriting discipline and market modernisation. An immediate priority will be the successful launch of Lloyds Brussels subsidiary which will enable Lloyds to continue serving its customers in the European Economic Area after Brexit. Lloyds confirmed last year that it would open a new EU operation in Brussels, and plans to have the company up and running on 1 January 2019. Mr Carnegie-Brown added: I am grateful to Inga for the leadership she has provided to Lloyds over the past five years, during a challenging time for the market. She has driven the markets modernisation programme, the success of which is evident not least in the recent rapid increase in electronic placement volumes and the launch of the Lloyds Lab. Ms Beale is the first woman ever appointed to lead Lloyds and came top of a list of inspiring LGBT chief executives in 2015. She has been lauded for promoting diversity and modernisation during her tenure as Lloyds CEO. When she announced her departure, Ms Beale said the decision to leave had been a tough one. When the time comes I will miss the energy, innovative spirit and expertise that I come across every working day, she said. Leading Lloyd's is an honour and I am proud to have played a part in ensuring that it remains relevant and fit for purpose for the future. The world trusts Lloyd's to be there when it matters the most and I believe it is well placed for the next 330 years." Teslas chief accounting officer has stepped down after less than one month in the role, blaming the recent publicity surrounding the electric car maker, in a move that knocked almost 7 per cent off shares in early trading on Friday. Dave Morton, who joined Tesla on 6 August, resigned on 4 September, according to documents filed with the SEC. He said: Since I joined Tesla... the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. Recommended Elon Musk smokes cannabis in interview then ponders dead horses I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Teslas leadership or its financial reporting." The company and its founder, billionaire Elon Musk, have been made the headlines on several occasions in recent weeks. The period of heightened scrutiny began with a tweet from Mr Musk in which he said he was considering taking Tesla private at a share price of $420, with funding secured. The statement sent shares in the group soaring. However, Mr Musk has since abandoned his plans, following anger from investors and a probe by the SEC. The tech entrepreneur sent shares tumbling after breaking down in an erratic interview with the New York Times last month, and this week was recorded smoking cannabis during another interview. Meanwhile, Mr Musk is facing legal action in three countries due to his claims that a British caver who helped rescue 12 boys in Thailand is a child rapist. Teslas accounting functions and personnel will continue to be overseen by both Teslas chief financial officer and its corporate controller. A government pledge to invest 145m in emergency department upgrades and 900 more beds will not scratch the surface of shortages which paralysed the NHS last winter, experts have warned. While doctors welcomed the cash injection for A&E, last year hospitals had to deploy 4,000 extra beds to manage demand and said much more investment was needed. This includes funding for temporary staff to cover rota gaps and sorely need spending on social care to prevent patients coming to hospital in the first place. On Thursday, the Department of Health and Social Care said it had brought the funds forward from its existing capital budget for new buildings, equipment and repairs. The Treasury has said there will be no more money for the NHS or other sectors after Theresa May pledged an additional 20bn a year for the health service by 2023, but this funding doesn't begin until 2019. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that pledges to increase bed numbers were not achieved last year, so new investment to deliver this was very welcome. President Dr Taj Hassan added: However, the scale of the challenge is significant, and we would urge a further consideration of funding for acute social care, more acute beds and greater flexibility with locum funding to help minimise rota gaps this winter. Without this, any improvements to waits or reductions in cancelled operations are likely to be minor. NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, addresses demonstrators following the march AFP/Getty NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Reuters NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images The Society of Acute Medicines president, Dr Nick Scriven, said investment was coming earlier than last year but will not scratch the surface. Although 900 extra beds are welcome, we note last winter the total number of extra beds in use was 4,000, so this additional investment will need to be combined with efforts to engage with clinicians as to how to prepare effectively, he added. The extra funding will be used to streamline emergency departments and build capacity, longer term preparations which were not possible with last year's emergency funding which was only announced in the November Autumn Budget. Ministers will be looking to prevent another situation where lack of beds to admit patients led doctors to warn Theresa May patients were dying prematurely in corridors. Some of the projects earmarked funding include University Hospital of North Midlands, which will receive 8.8m for two additional wards on the Royal Stoke site. While East Kent Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust will get 6.4m increase capacity for will increase emergency care bed capacity. It follows a 36m payment to ambulance trusts to buy 256 new vehicles and upgrade depots. NHS Providers, which represents hospital, ambulance and social care trusts, said these improvements are sorely needed, chief executive Chris Hopson said: Trusts consistently tell us that they are struggling to cope with demand that is far in excess of what their A&E Departments were built to handle. However, we are worried about the coming winter The single biggest thing the Government could do now to make a difference for the NHS this winter is to rapidly put more money into our increasingly crisis-ridden social care system. Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said: Staff put in a huge amount of work preparing our health service for the challenge of treating more patients over winter and its right that we make sure they have the resources they need so people receive the care they deserve. Thats why I will be providing an additional 145 million now to upgrade wards, redevelop A&Es and further improve emergency care in time for winter. Illegal posters put up in London bus shelters declaring Israel a racist endeavour have been unanimously condemned by the London Assembly. On Wednesday, bus stops in at least four different sites across the capital were spotted featuring the statement Israel is a racist endeavour - apparently in protest at Labours decision to adopt all internationally recognised examples of antisemitism. The posters were a reference to one of the examples of modern antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Labours adoption of the IHRA document came after months of prevarication that threatened to further engulf the party over accusations of deep-rooted antisemitism. Mr Corbyn, in a rare defeat, was forced to withdraw a clarification, because he lacked support, which argued it should not be regarded as antisemitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist. On Thursday, the Assembly passed the motion condemning the posters and thanking London mayor Sadiq Khan for his swift criticism of this vandalism. It also urged Transport for London and the police to ensure that those responsible are identified, found and brought to justice." Danny DeVito defends Jeremy Corbyn over Labour antisemitism row A spokesperson for Mr Khan had earlier branded the adverts offensive and an act of vandalism, while the Metropolitan Police announced it had launched an investigation. Gareth Bacon, an assembly member (AM) who proposed the motion said: Yesterday we saw a concerted effort by racist, antisemitic and politically motivated people to intimidate Londons Jewish communities. We must make a clear and united stand when it comes to racism in all forms and make sure that those trying to demonise certain communities in our city are brought to Justice. Andrew Dismore AM, who seconded the motion, said the incident was not the first of its kind in London, and that he had raised the issue with TfL several times before. Those responsible must be identified and prosecuted if this abuse is to be deterred in the future, he added. Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP JC Decaux, the advertising firm which owns a number of the advertising spaces, told The Jewish Chronicle the posters were vandalism not advertising, and that it had reported the bus stops in question. The posters were seen at bus stops in Elephant and Castle, Waterloo Bridge, Bloomsbury and Westminster. The Ballymurphy Massacre at the height of the Troubles is being revisited in a new inquest hearing due to open in September. Presided over by Justice Siobhan Keegan at Belfast High Court, the hearing hopes to establish precisely want happened during the three-day siege in August 1971 that left 11 civilians dead, and bring closure to the families who lost loved ones. A Channel 4 documentary, Massacre at Ballymurphy, will also air on Saturday 8 September and will revisit the incident in which 600 members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army allegedly came under fire in a residential area of Belfast, Northern Ireland, prompting them to hit back and become engaged in a violent gun battle. The troops, present in the country to keep the peace since 1969, had been dispatched to pick up suspected members of the Provisional IRA as part of Operation Demetrius, controversial because they were permitted to carry out internment without trial, a measure many objected to as excessive. Although no journalists were present to record events and no press footage of their unfolding exists, the soldiers are thought to have been engaged in early morning raids - kicking in doors and dragging citizens from their beds at 5am, according to local accounts - when the shooting began. Filmmaker Callum Macrae's new documentary explores the suggestion that British soldiers mistakenly firing on their own men might have been the true cause of the massacre. Among those killed in the hail of bullets that followed was Father Hugh Mullan, a 38-year-old Catholic priest hit while administering the last rites to a wounded man, Bobby Clarke. Father Mullan had telephoned the nearby Henry Taggart army base to notify them of his intentions and entered the fray waving a baby grow as a white flag. Francis Quinn, 19, was subsequently shot in the head as he came to the dying priest's aid. Joan Connolly, a 45-year-old mother of eight, was shot in the face, likewise attempting to tend to the injured. In all, ten died in the streets while another man, Paddy McCarthy, passed away of a heart attack shortly afterwards, apparently brought on by shock as a result of a gun being placed in his mouth in a cruel mock execution. No forensic evidence exists to suggest that any of the victims had fired a weapon themselves. Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art Show all 6 1 /6 Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art 186147.bin Tom Craig Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art 186148.bin PAINTINGS REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF NATIONAL MUSEUMS NORTHERN IRELAND Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art 186149.bin PAINTINGS REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF NATIONAL MUSEUMS NORTHERN IRELAND Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art 186150.bin PAINTINGS REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF NATIONAL MUSEUMS NORTHERN IRELAND Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art 186151.bin PAINTINGS REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF NATIONAL MUSEUMS NORTHERN IRELAND Battle lines: 30 years of unseen 'Troubles' art 186152.bin PAINTINGS REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ARTS COUNCIL OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE TRUSTEES OF NATIONAL MUSEUMS NORTHERN IRELAND The British Army has long been blamed for the killings and it has been suggested that the infamous Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry on 30 January 1972, involving the same battalion, could have been averted had Ballymurphy been the subject of proper scrutiny at the time. Whatever precisely occurred during those three days, the inquest promises to pour over the evidence and finally offer answers to those who lives were torn apart by the tragedy. Massacre at Ballymurphy is on Channel 4 on Saturday 8 September at 9pm An estimated 160,000 children in England are living in households where they witness domestic abuse, new figures show, as support services dwindle. Data published by Womens Aid shows that while tens of thousands of under-18s witness domestic violence in their homes, provision of support has dropped by 16 per cent since 2010, in what has been described as a crisis facing domestic abuse services. A short film released by the charity depicts the experience of a child living in a household where abuse is taking place. Figures published last year showed that despite more than half of residents in refuges being children, a third of refuges are unable to provide a childrens support worker. Meanwhile, demand for refuges continues to far exceed supply, with 94 women and 90 children being turned away from a refuge on just one day last year. Womens Aid said many survivors report that their children are experiencing anxiety and behavioural issues and problems at school as a result of witnessing domestic abuse, with one saying her son began self-harming. Twenty-six under-14s are known to have been killed alongside their mothers last year, demonstrating the potentially deadly consequences domestic abuse can have if support is not available. Katie Ghose, chief executive of Womens Aid, said: With this campaign we wanted to shine a light on the hidden victims of domestic abuse: children. Children not only witness domestic abuse, they experience it. Thousands of children are living in homes filled with fear, frightened of what will happen next. If you are worried about your relationship or that of a friend or family member, you can contact the Freephone 24-hour National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit www.womensaid.org.uk. Boris Johnson's hopes of entering Downing Street have been dealt a blow after a new poll found voters think he would make a worse prime minister than Theresa May. The former foreign secretary is currently the bookmakers' favourite to be the next prime minister, but the YouGov survey concluded that the public does not see him as a significant improvement on the incumbent. 31 per cent of voters think Ms May is a good prime minister, while only 29 per cent say Mr Johnson would be. Significantly, the gap was even wider among Conservative voters, with 69 per cent thinking Ms May is a good fit for the job compared to just 42 per cent who say her potential rival would be. On the different question of how favourable voters feel towards the two figures, however, Mr Johnson has a slight advantage. His favourability rating is -22, compared to the prime minister's -26. 31 per cent of people have a favourable view of the prime minister, while 57 per cent do not, giving her an favourability rating of-26. For Mr Johnson, 33 per cent hold a positive view while 55 express a negative perception, meaning his net rating is slightly better, at -22. The survey was conducted for The Times Red Box. YouGov's international politics research executive, Chris Curtis, said: "Many inside the Conservative Party now believe that once Brexit has been delivered there will need to be a change in leadership for the Conservatives to secure an election victory. "This survey shows that, in the minds of the public, Boris doesn't seem to be well suited to fill that role." The results are significantly affected by how people feel about Brexit. Mr Johnson has a favourability rating of +25 about Leave voters, whereas Ms May's is -2. But Mr Johnson is likely to take hope from the fact that voters like him more than Ms May. 35 per cent say they like the current foreign secretary, compared to 29 per cent for the current prime minister. Boris Johnson's resignation letter Show all 2 1 /2 Boris Johnson's resignation letter Boris Johnson's resignation letter Boris Johnson's resignation letter Mr Johnson is widely believed to be planning to succeed Ms May. He will reportedly address a 1000-person rally at the Conservatives' annual conference in Birmingham later this month, where he is likely to double down on his criticism of the prime minister's Chequers plan. The former London mayor used a newspaper column earlier this week to attack the proposals, saying they had left Britain "lying flat on the canvas" It comes as Mr Johnson and his wife, Marina, confirmed they are in the process of divorcing. In a joint statement, the former couple said: Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate. We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further. The EUs chief negotiator has explicitly written off Theresa Mays Chequers Brexit plan for customs and regulations as unworkable, in a further sign that the proposals are dead. But Michel Barnier insisted he did not just reject the white paper outright and instead highlighted two major problems which he specifically said made the PMs plan unacceptable to the EU. The comments were made at a private meeting between Mr Barnier and MPs on the Commons Brexit Committee on Monday; a transcript of the meeting was released on Friday by the commons authorities. The senior EU official said there were lots of positive things in the white paper, but that fundamental problems meant that your proposal does not seem workable to us, basically. Ministers have said categorically that the choice in Brexit talks is between the acceptance of Chequers and a no-deal Brexit. Mr Barnier reiterated to the MPs what he has repeatedly said in public: that the EU would not accept splitting up aspects of the single market, and that it would not delegate EU customs duties to British officials once the UK was no longer a member state. There was a mild Westminster row about Mr Barniers appearance at the committee meeting after Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who was present, said Mr Barnier had made it clear that the Chequers deal was completely unacceptable to the EU. I did not just reject the white paper outright; that is just not true. I hope that you will understand that. Michel Barnier The transcript of the meeting was released in order to clarify what had or had not been said at the meeting, as the government still insists that its proposals have a chance. Asked by the committees chair whether Chequers was not going to fly or dead in the water, Mr Barnier responded: First of all, let me say once again, unlike what I have seen and heard over recent days, following a rather too brief reading of my interview to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, basically in the white paper there are lots of positive things, lots of useful things, just to make that absolutely clear. The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty I did not just reject the white paper outright; that is just not true. I hope that you will understand that. Secondly, we have two major problems, two issues that we cannot accept. Our customs union, our customs system, as it works, is a fully integrated system that cannot be undermined and we cannot split up the four freedoms of the single market. We are prepared to discuss a customs agreement of some sort that simplifies customs arrangements between the United Kingdom and the EU. Customs cooperation could even be part of a free trade agreement, if it went that far, but we do have a problem with the way in which our customs controls and checks work at the moment. There is a clear link between customs controls and regulatory controls and that is not covered in your white paper. Your proposal does not seem workable to us, basically. The UK and EU both say they need to come up with a withdrawal agreement by October/November to avert a no-deal Brexit. The agreement must cover the biggest outstanding issue, Northern Ireland as well as citizens' rights, the financial settlement, and other assorted smaller issues. The future relationship does not need to be technically agreed in full to prevent a no deal, though the UK says it wants a framework spelled out by the time it leaves on 29 March 2019 and that MPs would not accept the withdrawal agreement without such a framework. The government has written into law that there must be a vote on the framework for the future relationship. Britain is trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour over Brexit and risks leaving the EU without an agreement on trade, one of the blocs top commissioners has warned. Phil Hogan lambasted the absurdist politics dominating Westminster and suggested that Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg might want to shut up and let Prime Minister May get on with her work. Speaking in County Wexford in Ireland, the member of the EU executive also warned: If the UK attitude is Chequers and only Chequers, there will be no agreement before March next year on the future trade relationship. Phil Hogan, the EUs agriculture commissioner (Reuters) The British government has suggested that the choice in talks is now between the Chequers trade proposal and no-deal. More than two years after the referendum, the UK remains in a pickle. And by pickle, I mean that the UK is trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour, he told an audience at the Kennedy Summer School. Several times Prime Minister May has courageously dragged the UK factions into some sort of line of battle and turned it to face Brussels. Because, after all, it is with Brussels that the UKs exit deal must be done. But the factions in her own party will have none of it. Mr Johnson and Mr Rees-Mogg say, in effect, prime minister, you must negotiate Brexit with us. The UK remains in a pickle. And by pickle, I mean that the UK is trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour Phil Hogan, EU commissioner Mr Hogan, who is Irelands member of the EU executive, continued: This is leading to absurdist politics. Michel Barnier, on behalf of the EU, has repeatedly said that the UK cannot cherry-pick parts of the internal market by wanting a market for goods but not services, and that the UK cannot split the EUs four freedoms. This is the clear and unequivocal message of the EU 27. So what is the reaction of Mr Johnson and Mr Rees-Mogg? It is certainly not to shut up and let Prime Minister May get on with her work. But what they also dont do, because constructive criticism is not a concept they recognise, is offer some alternative suggestions. They see their task as pouring negativism on all suggestions apart from a clean break from the dreaded bureaucrats of Brussels. So we are stuck at least publicly where we were before the summer. Mr Hogan, whose brief controls the European Commissions agricultural policies, has made a series of interventions about Brexit in recent months perhaps serving as an attack-dog for the Commission. Demonstrating an apparent knack for a soundbite, in June he suggested, the tide is finally starting to go out on the high priests of Brexit accusing politicians such as Nigel Farage and Michael Gove of dealing in deception and lies. In April, he also rubbished Theresa Mays plan for a global Britain, warning that there are stubborn facts that overshadow a rosy picture painted by the prime minister. Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. The building was home to four families who left during the Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced Welcome to Northern Ireland sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. Ive been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again, Johnson said laughing. We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that its gone, we wouldn't like it back again Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crocketts Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day, said Crockett. If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village, said McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. I live in the south but the business is in the North, said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if theres duty, Ill have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. Ill have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. Id be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, youd have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful, said Mullen. All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters Mr Hogan is one of 28 European commissioners who are the equivalent of government ministers and effectively make up the EUs executive branch. His latest intervention comes days after chief negotiator Mr Barnier told MPs on the Commons Exiting the European Union Committee that the Chequers proposal drawn up by the British cabinet does not seem workable to us, basically. Negotiators have begun to meet on a more intense basis since the summer, but there has been little public word of progress. Labour MP Joan Ryan has attacked "Trots, Stalinists and Communists" in her constituency after local party members passed a vote of no confidence in her. The Enfield North MP hit back after a campaign by left-wing activists saw the motion narrowly approved, by 94 votes to 92. Ms Ryan is the chair of Labour Friends of Israel and has been critical of Jeremy Corbyn's handling of antisemitism in Labour. Joan Ryan lost a vote of no confidence by 94 votes to 92 (UK Parliament) Writing on Twitter following the vote, the MP, a former minister under Tony Blair, said: "So lost 92 to 94 votes hardly decisive victory and it never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would gave confidence in me. I have none in them. "I will be out tomorrow morning working hard for the people of Enfield. Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values." Local Labour officers have launched an investigation and complained to party leaders after Iranian state television station Press TV was allowed to film the meeting. The chair of the Enfield North Labour branch, Siddo Dwyer, called the filming "totally unacceptable". Another Labour MP critical of Mr Corbyn also lost a vote of no confidence on the same evening. In response, Gavin Shuker, who represents Luton South MP, told constituents: "It's not part of any formal procedure, so it changes nothing about my role as Labour MP for Luton South. "I'm really sorry a handful of people in the Labour Party want to overturn your vote of confidence in me last year. Their actions say far less about me - and you - than they do about the face of today's Labour Party. "I've not changed, but the Labour Party has." Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP Asked about the votes of no confidence, however, Mr Corbyn defended the right of Labour members to "challenge" their MPs. He said: "Every party has a right to question what its MP does. Every party has a right to challenge them on what they do and how they represent the area and that's exactly what happens in those areas as I understand it." Questioned on whether Jewish MPs should be protected from deselection, he added: "Nobody should be attacked for whatever their faith is and I'm absolutely clear - there is no place for racism anywhere in our society. "There is no place for anti-semitism anywhere in our society or in any of our political parties as I made clear to the prime minister on Wednesday." The Archbishop of Canterbury has appeared to take a swipe at the Labour leadership over its record on antisemitism. The Most Rev Justin Welby praised the party's MPs and peers for voting to accept an internationally-recognised definition of antisemitism without the clarifications that the party leadership insisted on making. Mr Welby said it was "excellent" that the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) had voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition "without any riders or caveats of any kind". The comment will be seen as criticism of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC), which finally agreed to adopt the IHRA definition earlier this week but issued a statement clarifying that this would "not in any way undermine freedom of expression". Mr Corbyn is reported to have wanted the committee to publish a stronger, lengthier statement saying it was not antisemitic to suggest the creation of Israel was "racist". A dispute over the IHRA definition has been at the heart of the row engulfing the party in recent months. Mr Welby spoke out while at the home of the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who he was visiting to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. He said political leaders needed to be "very clear on giving security to the Jewish community". Mr Welby told Mr Mirvis: "I find it hugely distressing and depressing that in the 21st Century, any community, especially the Jewish community given the history of Europe and of the last two or three generations, should have a deep sense of insecurity. "I think is appalling - and what that says to me is that the leaders in our nation must be very clear on giving security to the Jewish community in this country, and that steps like IHRA are the beginning of a long journey. I think the extent of that journey has been reinforced to me in listening to you in this conversation. He added: "Personally, I'm very pleased that the Parliamentary Labour Party has accepted IHRA without any riders or caveats of any kind at all. I think that is excellent news." Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP Mr Welby said the Jewish community in the UK had gone through a "very demanding, stressful" few months and condemned "unspeakable" attacks on Jewish people on social media. He said he wanted the Church of England to "formally" adopt the IHRA definition, adding that he found it "distressing" that he believed this was necessary. Mr Mirvis told his Christian counterpart he believed the situation of British Jews had "deteriorated" in the last year because hope of antisemitism being tackled had diminished. He said: "Ever since the Holocaust we never thought for one moment we would again need to defend our Jewishness, our identity, our existence. It is, to us, unbelievable what is actually happening now. He added: "What we've found particularly upsetting is that after three years of inaction during which we have waited for the Labour Party to show they are actually serious about tackling antisemitism, now we have found during the past summer they haven't even known where the starting blocks are, how do you define it." On Wednesday, the PLP voted by 205 to eight in favour of adopting the full IHRA definition and all its examples into the group's standing orders, without any clarifying statements or caveats. Labour's NEC had originally omitted four of the IHRA's 11 examples from the party's new code of conduct, amid suggestions they would restrict criticism of Israel, but backed down after weeks of fierce criticism from Jewish community groups and the party's own MPs. Responding to Mr Welby's comments, Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "I would like to express my thanks to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his important intervention in advance of Rosh Hashanah, saying that the Church of England should adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. "This moral leadership is warmly welcomed by our community and is a shining example of faith communities uniting against hate." A wildfire spreading across forest land in California has threatened hundreds of homes and prompted evacuations across several counties, officials have said. The Delta Fire in northern California near the Oregon border has burnt more than 34 square miles (89 square kilometres) of timber and brush, as local residents evacuated scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. At times, flames shot up 300 feet (91 metres) high. Recommended California wildfire nears interstate highway as families flee blaze The main West Coast highway between Mexico and Canada was empty on Friday morning along a 45-mile (72-kilometre) northern stretch that remained closed since the fire two days earlier swept down and turned hills on either side into walls of flame. Crews managed to remove burnt-out and abandoned trucks on Thursday but flames continued to burn along an edge of the road in some areas, fire spokesman Brandon Vacarro said. A decision was expected Friday on whether to reopen the highway but first authorities had to check the safety of the pavement and cut down burned trees next to the road - some of them 70 feet tall - that might be in danger of falling down. California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Show all 45 1 /45 California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters try to limit the spread of the Carr Fire by backburning, a process by which areas in the path of a fire are burned up in advance to rob the fire of its fuel Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A street is devastated by the Carr Fire in the town of Redding AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A truck burned by the Delta Fire is abandoned along interstate 5 AFP/Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 This image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration highlights the major fire AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Ranch Fire spots out ahead of the main fire in Spring Valley, burning two homes AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A picture taken by German astronaut and geophysicist Alexander Gerst, showing wildfires in the state of California as seen from the International Space Station AFP/Getty/ESA/Alexander Gerst California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Evacuees from Lucerne, from left, Ken Bennett with Ember Reynolds, 8, and Lisa Reynolds watch the sunset as smoke from the Ranch Fire rises into the sky at Austin Park Beach in California's Clearlake with Mount Konocti in the background The Press Democrat via AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The memorial for Redding firefighter Jeremy Stoke AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 REUTERS California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Holy Jim volunteer firefighter Luke Senger stands next to a home destroyed the Holy Fire in Trabuco Canyon AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters try to stop the spread of a massive fire in Lake County AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A woman walks out of the water after taking a dip as smoke rises in the distance from the Holy Fire in Cleveland National Forest Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A pyrocumulus cloud (or cloud of fire) explodes in the Carr fire near the town of Redding Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Delta Fire burns in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Trees set alight near Whiskeytown Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 An firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant to slow the spread of the River Fire near Lakeport Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A firefighter lights backfires in an attempt to limit the spread of the Ranch Fire Reuters California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters light backfires to defend houses in the town Upper Lake from the Ranch Fire Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Flames consume a home in Lakeport AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Ranch Fire spread towards the town of Upper Lake AFP/Getty Images California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A firefighter lights a backfire in the city of Redding Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Carr Fire burns near Whiskeytown AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters try to limit the spread of the Carr Fire by backburning Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Flames flare in the Cajon Pass near San Bernardino AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 An firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant to slow the spread of the River Fire near Lakeport Reuters California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A schoolhouse burns in the Carr Fire in Shasta County AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Carr Fire burns along Highway 299 by the city of Redding AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A car is seen amongst the devastation left by the Cranston Fire EPA California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A firefighter waters down a backfire on Cloverdale Road in Igo AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters convene while battling the Carr Fire in Shasta County AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters assess the damage in San Bernardino County AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Carr Fire burns along Highway 299 by the city of Redding AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Carr Fire burns along Highway 299 in Shasta County AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The land around Mountain Centre has been left devastated by the Cranston Fire EPA California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Firefighters battle the Carr Fire in the town of Redding AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A home burns in Redding Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Cranston Fire burns south of Idyllwild AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Carr Fire burns through the town of Shasta AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A home burns in Redding Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A collection of antique cars has been destroyed by the fire in the town of Redding Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A home on Sunflower Road in Redding burns in the Carr Fire Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A helicopter aids utility workers as they work to repair burned power lines EPA California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 A home burns in Redding Getty California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 The Carr Fire burns along Highway 299 by the city of Redding AP California in flames: wildfires rage across the US state in 2018 Sunflower Road in Redding burns in the Carr Fire Getty Although the fire wasn't burning near any large towns, Mr Vacarro said about 280 homes were considered threatened. There were some reports that homes had burned but Vacarro could only confirm that an outbuilding and two mixed-use commercial and residential buildings had been damaged. California wildfires this year have reportedly cost the state over $2.6bn in damages, with more than 6,000 fires since the beginning of 2018. Meanwhile, experts have said fires will only become worse in the future. Additional reporting via AP A jury has fined a man $1 for punching the white nationalist organiser of the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last year. Video showed Jeffrey Winder punching Jason Kessler in the back of the head as police tried to escort the rally organiser away from the angry crowd gathering. Mr Kessler was giving a news conference outside of Charlottesville City Hall on 13 August, just one day after Heather Heyer was killed by a car driven through a crowd of counter-protesters demonstrating against the rally - which was called over the removal of a statue of Civil War era Confederate General Robert E Lee. Two police officers also died after the helicopter they were using to monitor the rally crashed. Winder was found guilty of misdemeanour assault and battery in February 2018 and his original sentence was 30 days in jail, which his lawyers appealed immediately. In the appeal trial, Winder could have been sentenced to one year in jail and handed a $2,500 fine. Instead the jury found him guilty, but said no jail time was required and he only had to pay $1. Miss Texas criticises Donald Trump for Charlottesville response in Miss America contest Winder's attorney, James Abrenio said the jury clearly thought about it very sincerely, adding the jury and judge "were all kind." At the trial Mr Kessler testified: "I was attacked in front of the whole world, and then people made fun of me for it. Charlottesville one year on Show all 15 1 /15 Charlottesville one year on Charlottesville one year on Mary Grace, from Durham, North Carolina, walks through the downtown mall area August 11, 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville has been declared in a state of emergency by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as the city braces for the one year anniversary of the deadly clash between white supremacist forces and counter protesters over the potential removal of Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Jackson. A "Unite the Right" rally featuring some of the same groups is planned for tomorrow in Washington, DC. Getty Charlottesville one year on Chris Jessee (R) hands out placards to people visiting downtown Charlottesville as the city marks the anniversary of last year's 'Unite the Right rally' in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 11 August 2018. On 12 August 2017, a bloody clash between white supremacists and counterprotestors in Charlottesville left three people dead and dozens injured Getty Charlottesville one year on A member of the Virginia State Police waits outside the park where a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is located August 11, 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville has been declared in a state of emergency by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as the city braces for the one year anniversary of a deadly clash between white supremacist forces and counter protesters over the potential removal of Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Jackson. A "Unite the Right" rally featuring some of the same groups is planned for tomorrow in Washington, DC Reuters Charlottesville one year on A woman displays a shirt ahead of the one-year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 10, 2018. Reuters Charlottesville one year on A sign reading "Strength, which was taken down at the request of police officers, hangs by the statue of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee, ahead of the one-year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 10, 2018. Reuters Charlottesville one year on Law enforcement arrives ahead of the one year anniversary of 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" protests, in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 10, 2018 Reuters Charlottesville one year on A vendor displays wares on the mall as State Police lock down the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. The Governor has declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville AP Charlottesville one year on A Police bike patrol takes a break in the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. State and local authorities framed the weekend's heightened security as a necessary precaution. AP Charlottesville one year on State Police arrest a local resident, John Miska, in the locked down downtown area in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. Miska purchased razor blades, which are banned items, in a downtown drugstore. On the the anniversary of white supremacist violence, state and local authorities framed the weekend's heightened security as a necessary precaution. AP Charlottesville one year on State Police escort local resident, John Miska, red hat, after he was arrested in the locked down downtown area in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. Miska purchased razor blades, which are banned items, in a downtown drugstore. On the the anniversary of white supremacist violence, state and local authorities framed the weekend's heightened security as a necessary precaution. AP Charlottesville one year on A group Anti-fascism demonstrators, march in the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, AP Charlottesville one year on A group anti-fascism demonstrators march in the downtown area in anticipation of the anniversary of last year's Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., AP Charlottesville one year on People receive first-aid after a car accident ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, 2017. A vehicle plowed into a crowd of people Saturday at a Virginia rally where violence erupted between white nationalist demonstrators and counter-protesters, witnesses said, causing an unclear number of injuries AFP/Getty Charlottesville one year on Alt-right rally members in Lee Park in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday August 12, 2017 White nationalist 'Unite the Right' rally, Charlottesville, USA Rex Charlottesville one year on A counter protester who got hit with a stick by alt-right member covered with blood on his face in Lee Park in Charlottesville, Rex Those gathered for the rally - many of whom identified as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and white nationalists - carried torches and protested the removal of the statue from a city park because they felt it was an affront to history of the American South. Counter-protesters argued removing the reminder of slavery and the war fought to keep it was a necessary step for the city. Mr Abrenio had argued Mr Kessler tried to profit off the tragic deaths and injuries by holding the news conference a day after the rally. At the time of the incident Winder told a local CNN affiliate Mr Kessler had an incredible amount of nerve coming in front of the people of Charlottesville after the pain, suffering, and terror that he brought on the community. He should never be allowed to show his face in town again. Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that a New York Times op-ed from an anonymous Trump administration official could be treason. On Twitter, in a Fox News interview and again at a campaign rally in Billings, Montana, the US president mistakenly suggested the article was a treasonous act. High-ranking members of the administration have raced to distance themselves from the article, which paints a picture of a White House in chaos where officials deliberately work to thwart the presidents most dangerous impulses. Mr Trump told the Montana rally on Thursday night that unelected deep state operatives are a threat to democracy itself. He suggested the person who wrote the op-ed may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time. He claimed erroneously in a Fox interview before the rally that "what they've done is virtually, you know, it's treason, you could call it a lot of things." President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media Show all 16 1 /16 President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "You are fake news!" Then President-elect Trump directed this insult to CNN's Jim Acosta while refusing him a question at a press conference on January 11 2017. The President-elect's anger was due to the publishing by Buzzfeed of unverified memos that implicated Michael Cohen in Russian collusion. CNN had reported on a briefing of Obama and Trump on the memos by US intelligence chiefs, but knowing the content to be unverified had not revealed it AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth" President Trump said this of journalists during a visit to the CIA on the the day following his inauguration. His claim of having the largest crowd of any inauguration ceremony in history had been debunked and he clearly wasn't happy Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "Failing New York Times" President Trump commonly addresses the New York Times in this way, contrary to its increasing profit margins and expanding global readership. He is pictured here in the midtown Manhattan office of the paper Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "Enemy of the American People" President Trump has since repeated the claim that such news outlets are the enemy of the people, often after they break negative stories about him President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "They have no sources" Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24 2017, President Trump suggested that a Washington Post article with 9 sources was "made up". The article in question exposed how then National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence over a phone call to a Russian ambassador. That the article was "made up", while highly doubtful at the time, seems even less likely since Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the same phone call Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media Access denied for major publications Protesters gathered outside of the New York Times office after Trump's White House barred a number of publications from attending a press briefing on February 24 2017. Just hours after the President had again denounced the media, then Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied access to news outlets such as CNN and the New York Times, while permitting Breitbart News, CBS, Fox and others AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "#FNN" On July 2 2017, President Trump tweeted an edited clip from his Wrestlemania XXIII appearance in which the CNN logo had been imposed onto the face of his wrestling opponent Vince McMahon. CNN is a common target for President Trump and here he suggests that he is getting the better of the network through his repeated attacks President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "The most powerful TV show in America" On July 27 2017, President Trump quoted a New York Times article about Fox & Friends. The President is known to watch Fox & Friends every morning, often tweeting about matters discussed on the show, leading to speculation over its influence on his outlook and policies Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write" In a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on October 11 2017, President Trump suggested that the press ought not to be allowed their constitutionally secured freedom. He added "people should look into it", suggesting that he also doesn't respect the protection of sources. At the time, he was angry at an NBC report claiming that the President had expressed a desire to return the size of the US' nuclear arsenal to its 1960s height, a claim that he and others in his administration dismissed as fake news AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "negative (Fake)" In a tweet on 9 May 2018, President Trump conflated negative reporting about him with fake news President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "I didn't criticise the Prime Minister" In a press conference with the Prime Minister on his visit to Britain, President Trump disputed claims published in the Sun that he had criticised Mrs May's Brexit strategy Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "Horrible, horrendous people" At a Republican rally in Pennsylvania on August 3 2018, President Trump deemed all journalists in attendance "horrible, horrendous people". He later denounced the "fake, fake, disgusting news" for falsely reporting that he was late to his meeting with the Queen when visiting Britain AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media Trump's rhetoric "very close to inciting violence" In an interview with the Guardian on 13 August 2018, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein suggested that President Trump's attacks on the press are "very close to inciting violence". Zeid singles out the President's repeated claim that the fake news (negative coverage) media is the "enemy of the people" as dangerous Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "anonymous source" = fiction President Trump claimed that any report citing anonymous sources is fiction. The protection of sources is a vital matter of press freedom, without it a potential source's fear of repercussions could lead them to withhold important information President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "You are a rude, terrible person" At a press conference in the wake of the midterms, President Trump clashed with CNN's Jim Acosta when he asked about the President's use of language during the campaign Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "I would never kill Journalists" For any journalists frightened by President Trump's attacks on the press, perhaps you can take solace in his words from a campaign rally in Grand Rapids on December 21 2015. Responding to remarks over Vladimir Putin's handling of journalists, Trump stated: "I hate some of these people, but I'd never kill them... I'll be honest - I would never kill them. Uhhh lets see.. no, I never would" Getty And he told supporters afterwards: Is it subversion? Is it treason? It's a horrible thing. Treason has a very specific legal definition in the US constitution, relating to acts that aid countries with whom America is actively at war - or to an American citizen mustering for military action against the US themselves. Republican senator Lindsey Graham was blunt in his reaction to Mr Trumps claims on CNN, saying: This is not treason under the Constitution. At the same time as calling the article treasonous, though, Mr Trump claimed he didnt mind. I don't mind when they write books and they write lies because they get discredited, he told Fox. He said the New York Times decision to publish the anonymous article was really sad for the mainstream media, and one that has backfired as he has picked up a lot of support as a result. The unsigned opinion piece has so far drawn disavowals from at least 11 top advisers to the president, including Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, all of whom denied any responsibility for its authorship. Published on Wednesday, the column appeared days after the release of excerpts from a book by famed reporter Bob Woodward that portrayed Mr Trump as prone to impulsive decision-making. The excerpts said aides sometimes tried to limit what they saw as damaging behaviour by disregarding his instructions. The Times op-ed, and Woodward's book, which is to be published next week, followed many news articles during Mr Trump's 19-month presidency that have depicted turbulence inside the White House under his leadership. Additional reporting by agencies Former Donald Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos is set to be sentenced for lying to the FBI as part of the federal investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the president's campaign Mr Papadopoulos is charged with making false statements to investigators during the probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. He pleaded guilty in October to lying to FBI agents about his communication with Russian-linked individuals including one who allegedly promised the Trump campaign dirt on election rival Hillary Clinton. Lawyers for the former foreign policy advisor have asked for leniency, claiming the 31-year-old was in over his head on the campaign and never intended to derail a federal investigation. They are asking for a sentence of probation, but no jail time. [Mr Papadopouloss] motives for lying to the FBI were wrongheaded indeed, but far from the sinister spin the government suggests, his lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo. Caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation, Mr Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master. But prosecutors for Mr Mueller have asked for a sentence of six months in prison. They say Mr Papadopoulos thwarted a national security investigation with his false statements, and proved largely unhelpful even after his arrest. Judge Randolph Moss of the DC District Court will make the ruling on Friday afternoon. Trump's top lawyer Rudi Guliani says colluding about Russia may not be a crime Mr Papadopoulos joined the Trump campaign as a foreign policy adviser in March 2016, and quickly began forging relationships with contacts tied to Russia. One of these contacts was Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor who allegedly promised Mr Papadopoulos incriminating information on Ms Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Mr Mifsud also introduced the campaign adviser to a woman named Olga, claimed to be a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a man named Ivan Timofeev, who claimed to have a connection to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prosecutors say Mr Papadopouloss false statements to the FBI contributed to their inability to secure an interview with the professor. 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 According to court documents, Mr Papadopoulos boasted about his contacts at a meeting with Mr Trump and other senior campaign officials, including then- campaign advisor and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He also proposed setting up a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin a proposal Mr Sessions has said he pushed back against. Mr Papadopouloss lawyers challenged Mr Sessions' version of events in their filing last week, writing: "Mr Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it." Several other Trump associates have been charged with lying to federal investigators. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents in December, and former campaign official Rick Gates pleaded guilty to the same charge in February. Both men have yet to be sentenced. The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Thursday that it has jurisdiction over alleged deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity. The decision at the Hague-based court paves the way for prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to further examine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case, although she has not done so yet. Ms Bensoudas representatives were not immediately available for comment. Although Myanmar is not a member of the Hague-based court, Bangladesh is, and the cross-border nature of deportation was sufficient for jurisdiction, the court said. The court has jurisdiction over the crime against humanity of deportation allegedly committed against members of the Rohingya people, a three-judge panel said in a written summary of their decision. The reason is that an element of this crime the crossing of a border took place on the territory of a state party [Bangladesh]. Myanmars government spokesman Zaw Htay did not respond to calls seeking comment on the ICC decision, instead sending a text response: I cant talk right now. The office of government leader Aung San Suu Kyi last month said Myanmar was under no obligation to enter into litigation with the prosecutor, and setting the jurisdiction over the case would set a dangerous precedent whereby future populistic causes and complaints against non-State Parties ... may be litigated. Ms Bensouda had asked the ICCs judges for a formal opinion on whether the fact that alleged crimes had at least in part happened on the territory of a member state brought them under the courts purview. Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Show all 30 1 /30 Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women and children wait in line for a food distribution of super cereal at Action Against Hunger Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees gather near the fence in the "no man's land" zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh border AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women cry as they shout slogans during a protest rally to commemorate the first anniversary of Myanmar army's crackdown AP Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A Rohingya Muslim child holding an umbrella while under the rain AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees cry as they pray during a gathering to commemorate the first anniversary of Myanmar army's crackdown which lead to a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh AP Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Police stand near the checkpoint at the Shwe Zar village in Maungdaw township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A group of Rohingya refugee children stand at a makeshift camp EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee Juhara, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, poses for a portrait at the Kutapalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh. Juhara passes her days carting water with difficulty to thirsty bricklayers working in a bustling corner of Cox's Bazar. She has just one hand - the other was cleaved off in a raid on her village after the August 25 clampdown started last year. Her husband and parents were killed. The 40-year-old said she ran for her life but was hunted down and savagely attacked AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees walk on a road along a makeshift camp in Kutubpalang EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees are seen outside of their makeshift tent in the Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Thousands of Rohingya refugees staged protests for "justice" on August 25 on the first anniversary of a Myanmar military crackdown that forced them to flee to camps in Bangladesh AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A Rohingya refugee child looks through a window at a makeshift camp in Teknuf EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee women hold placards as they take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A young Rohingya boy waits in line for a food Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees shout slogans during a protest march AFP/Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee girl with other children at a makeshift camp in Teknuf in Cox's Bazar EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women protest on the first anniversary of the Rohingya crisis Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women and children receive super cereal at Action Against Hunger Getty Images Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya girls share a laugh in Kutupalong, the largest refugee camp housing the Rohingya Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees gather near the fence in the "no man's land" zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh border AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees attend a ceremony organised to remember the first anniversary of a military crackdown that prompted a massive exodus of people from Myanmar to Bangladesh AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rashida Begum, a Rohingya refugee woman walks on the Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures A Rohingya refugee bursts into tears as she shouts slogans during a protest march AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugee baby Nur Sadek two years old undergoing treatment at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Teknuf in Cox's Bazar EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees protest Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees perform prayers AFP/Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rashida Begum, a Rohingya refugee woman bathes her son in the Kutupalong camp Reuters Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees protest Getty Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya refugees walk on a muddy road EPA Rohingya crisis one year on Myanmar camps in pictures Rohingya women and children wait in line for a food distribution of super cereal at Action Against Hunger Getty However, Thursdays ruling was potentially more expansive than some experts had foreseen. The judges said: The court may also exercise its jurisdiction with regard to any other crime set out in article 5 of the statute, such as the crimes against humanity of persecution and/or other inhumane acts. With this decision, the prosecutor has no choice but to submit a request to open a preliminary examination, University of Amsterdam international law expert Kevin Jon Heller said. An independent UN fact-finding mission in August concluded that Myanmars military last year carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with genocidal intent and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under law. About 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown and most are now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Myanmar has denied committing atrocities against the Rohingya, saying its military carried out justifiable actions against militants. It has so far signalled it does not intend to cooperate with the international court. Reuters When it comes to iconic road trips, no-one does it quite like America. Anyone thats harboured a romantic daydream of jacking it all in and driving Route 66, or tearing around the desserts of the southwest on a Harley, can attest to the allure of the USAs great open roads. But what if youre looking for something more digestible, a short, sharp burst of classic Americana, achievable on just half a tank of gas? Then head to New England for the countrys best 100-mile road trip. Starting in Connecticut, just north of Manhattan, and finishing up the coast in Rhode Island, the route packs in rugged Atlantic coastline, historical towns, colourful clapboard houses, vineyards and lobster so fresh it slept in the ocean the night before. You can tick off this itinerary in three days, and you can do it after youve done New York. Theres easily enough to do and see for a week, and of course theres no need to stop at Rhode Island if you have more time in America, theres always another road to travel. Recommended The ultimate New York City guide Connecticut Our journey begins not by car but by train, on the two-hour ride from Grand Central to New Haven in Connecticut departing from traffic-clogged New York is nobodys idea of a great American road trip. Pick up your car from the station and head immediately to Wooster Street, New Havens Little Italy, to fuel up at Pepes Pizzeria, regularly named Best Pizza in America by The Daily Meal. Founded in 1925 by local baker Frank Pepe, this institution was the originator of the New Haven pizza style, characterised by thin crispy bases, very little crust, and simple toppings such as the classic tomato red pie, and the signature white pizza topped with clams and cheese. After lunch, take time to explore downtown and New Havens other famous institution, Yale University, including its impressive British art gallery which, remarkably for America, has free entry. Its time to hit the road again, but ignore the multi-lane I-95 in favour of the quieter Highway 1; its a slower, less-direct route but the payoff is fewer cars and passing through pretty New England suburbs with their picture-perfect white clapboard houses. Its also the road that leads you to two of Connecticuts finest craft breweries: Thimble Islands and Stony Creek. Stony Creek has the better location, with an outdoor terrace by the water; but Thimble Islands has the better beer, each named after one of the eponymous Thimble Islands a quick tasting reveals our favourite, an American IPA called Mermaid Rock. Thimble Islands brewery has a brewhouse on site (Joel Porter) Connecticut also has an official wine route who knew? and although its unlikely to rival Napa or Stellenbosch (yet) there are some beautiful vineyards to visit: 40, in fact. For the oenophiles, a possible diversion here could see you spend a couple of days touring the vineyards further inland you can even grab a little passport booklet to have stamped as you go. Established in 1983, Chamard was one of Connecticuts first vineyards. We follow a late afternoon stroll through the vines with a tasting of the estate-grown wines; the dry rose and the chardonnay are the standouts, as the cooler climate makes growing red grapes more difficult here. The weather isnt the only challenge to Connecticut winemakers; a bit further along the coast at Saltwater Vineyards, set in an old 1930s aircraft hangar, they once lost an entire crop to a herd of (very sophisticated) deer with a preference for pinot noir. Chamard was one of Connecticuts first vineyards (Joel Porter) From Chamard its a short drive to Mystic, the home of Mystic Pizza the setting and inspiration for the 1988 film starring Julia Roberts. Its also home to Sift Bakery, where we stock up on freshly baked pastries, cookies, and cakes created by Adam Young, who was recently crowned "Best Baker in America" on a Food Network reality show. Dont miss the sticky toffee pecan bun and the croissant stuffed with guava and cheese. The final stop in Connecticut is the little seaside village of Stonnington, with its rows of classic New England houses dating as far back as 1700 (many of them proudly display the date and the name of its original owner) and an old stone lighthouse built in 1855. Take an hour to stroll the streets before bidding farewell to Connecticut. Rhode Island Still high on sugar from Sift Bakery we cross into Americas smallest state, Rhode Island, a transition we might have missed it wasnt for Google Maps cheerily announcing "Welcome to Rhode Island" as we pass the state line. Here Highway 1 clings close to the coast and every exit promises another beach to explore before we arrive at our destination, the waterside Matunuck Oyster Bar. Its part oyster farm, part restaurant, and owner Perry Raso harvests his own oysters from a nearby pond, coining a nifty phrase in the process: From pond to plate. On the restaurants outdoor deck we order a dozen super-fresh oysters and a chilled lobster roll. Want to eat oysters fresh from the ... pond? Try Matunuck Oyster Bar (Joel Porter) From here its on to Newport, a classic summer destinations for wealthy New Yorkers in the Gilded Age, the remnants of which can be seen in the jaw-dropping Vanderbilt family mansions that still stand proudly on the cliff edge. These days, the homes are open to visitors as curiosities of a bygone era, but if you just want to admire the architecture, take the beautiful cliff-edge walk, a gentle three-mile pathway that winds along the coastline between the crashing waves and the castle-like mansions. A touch of the Gilded Age can still be found at The Castle Hill Inn, a cliff-top hotel located on the scenic Ocean Drive route thats also one of the finest dining destinations in town. With an outdoor terrace and a lawn strewn with white Adirondack chairs, we could almost be in one of Gatsbys parties, as locals chink champagne glasses in front of the setting sun. Its a beautiful setting, with a menu of New England classics to boot; we happily tuck in to clam chowder, lobster roll, shrimp and oysters. About an hours ferry ride from Newport is Block Island. We hire a bike in the touristy but charming town of New Shoreham and head to the northern tip of the island, passing holiday homes that have us searching local property prices within minutes, eventually arriving at quieter beaches. At one end we see an old stone lighthouse nestled amongst the dunes and realise weve walked straight into an Edward Hopper painting. The Block Island lighthouse is a US Historic Landmark (Joel Porter) Back in town we grab yet another lobster roll from a small wooden beach shack called Rebeccas, plus a fried scallop roll which may be even better. On our bikes again we head west, taking a shortcut along dusty tracks (tip: stick to the roads), wheels skidding in the sand, before eventually arriving at Dorrys Cove, a beautiful and completely deserted beach. If you dont mind swimming amongst an underwater seaweed forest, the sea is warm (enough) and perfectly calm, but for small ripples made by the occasional passing boat. After many roads travelled, and many lobster rolls eaten, its an ideal, relaxing end to a jam-packed tour of New Englands greatest hits. Getting there Fly with American Airlines to New York JFK in Premium Economy from 764 return per person. Fly from London to New York, then take the train from Grand Central to New Haven to start the road trip. British Airways (BA) is investigating "as a matter of urgency" the theft of customer data from its website and has urged customers affected to contact their banks or credit card providers. Between 21 August and 5 September, personal and financial details of around 380,000 payment cards belonging to customers making bookings "were compromised", BA confirmed. The airline added it had notified police after the stolen data, which did not include travel or passport details, was taken from ba.com and its mobile app. British Airways is likely to face many claims from customers who either suffer a financial loss as a result of fraud, or simply incur costs from having to 'reboot' their financial settings. The airline may be handed a stiff fine from the Information Commissioners Office. A cyber attack on TalkTalk in 2015 which affected fewer than half as many customers resulted in a record 400,000 fine. The reputational damage could be more serious. The data breach is unconnected with the power outage that triggered a collapse of the airlines information systems in May 2017 and the cancellation of hundreds of flights over a bank holiday weekend. But it will add to an impression that BA has serious IT shortcomings. "The breach has been resolved and our website is working normally," the airline said in a statement. "British Airways is communicating with affected customers and we advise any customers who believe they may have been affected by this incident to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice. A spokesperson told The Independent the breach was identified when "a third party noticed some unusual activity and informed us about it". "We immediately acted to close down the issue, and started an investigation as a matter of urgency." Alex Cruz, BA's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement: "We are deeply sorry for the disruption that this criminal activity has caused. "We take the protection of our customers' data very seriously." 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 A very sophisticated, malicious attack: that is how BAs boss, Alex Cruz, described a security breach that allowed cyber criminals to steal personal and financial information from 380,000 customers who booked direct with the airline over a two-week spell. Once again, a failure in British Airways IT system has caused massive problems for customers. These are the key questions and answers. Q What happened? Between 10.58pm on 21 August and 9.45pm on 5 September 2018, hackers stole the personal and financial details of people who booked flights on the ba.com website and the British Airways app. Recommended British Airways customers urged to contact banks after website theft The data breach was identified, according to BA, when a third party noticed some unusual activity and informed us about it. The airline informed the police and the Information Commissioner. British Airways will not say who the third party was. But The Independent understands it was a company, possibly another airline, that was targeted with a high volume of attempted fraudulent transactions. It is not clear, though, how this was traced back to BA. The airline says that once the theft was identified, We immediately acted to close down the issue, and started an investigation as a matter of urgency. Q Who does this affect? An estimated 380,000 people who booked direct with the airline during the 15-day spell when security was breached. Bookings made outside this timeframe, or through travel agents, are unaffected. Travellers who booked BA code-share flights through other airlines websites, such as Aer Lingus, American Airlines or Iberia have not had their details stolen. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty Q What data was stolen, and what could it be used for? When a passenger makes a booking through the British Airways website, they must submit their name, address and credit or debit card details. BA has confirmed that all bank card details were at risk: the number, expiry date and security code or Card Verification Value (CVV) on the back. With this information, a fraudster has a range of options, from selling on the data to other criminals to cloning cards or making online purchases. Because of the limited time before the fraud is uncovered, a popular way to extract value from stolen details is to buy plane tickets, typically for high-value, short-notice trips. That is why it is possible that another airline alerted British Airways to the fraud. The airline stresses that no passport or travel details were stolen. That should mean that there is no connection between the name and address of the person and their planned dates for being away from home, nor for their passport data to be misused. The nature of the stolen data suggests that it happened during the payment clearing stage of each transaction. The bank wants to check the name, address and card details, rather than the nature of the purchase. Q What details have been stolen and if my details were stolen, what do I need to do? You should already have been contacted by British Airways and told: If you believe you have been affected by this incident, then please contact your bank or credit card provider and follow their recommended advice. The bank may treat your card as physically stolen. The account remains the same, but the compromised card number is changed. That means considerable hassle providing new details to all the firms that automatically bill your credit or debit card. American Express is telling holders of its British Airways-branded cards: If you have used your American Express card to book with British Airways, we are monitoring your account for you. We have industry-leading fraud protection technology that is continually monitoring for any suspicious activity in order to safeguard you. Also, our cardmembers are never liable for any fraudulent charges on their accounts. Q Will I get compensation? If you report the theft of your card details as soon as you become aware, issuers will not charge you for financial transactions. Of course many of the people who bought flights may be away and uncontactable. That appears to rule out claims from customers who incur costs such as loss of earnings from having to reboot their financial settings. Q Will my flight booking be affected? No. This appears purely to be a financial crime, and has no effect on the airlines day-to-day operations. Unlike in June, when thousands of passengers had their BA tickets cancelled and refunded after the airline said its fares system was supplying incorrect data, all bookings made during the affected spell should go ahead as normal. Q What does this mean for British Airways? It is another severe embarrassment related to the airlines information technology systems. In July around 7,000 passengers had their flights to or from Heathrow cancelled after a failure of an IT system provided to BA by Amadeus. In May 2017, a power outage triggered a collapse in the airlines information systems and the cancellation of hundreds of flights over a bank holiday weekend. As with that event, the costs from this data breach could run into tens of millions of pounds. In addition BA could face a stiff fine from the Information Commissioner. After a cyber attack on TalkTalk in 2015, which affected fewer than half as many customers as BAs breach, the telecom firm was fined 400,000. The commissioners line then was: Hacking is wrong, but that is not an excuse for companies to abdicate their security obligations. I bought my BA ticket before the hack, but I flew during it. Is my data likely to be compromised? No, the cyber theft affects only bookings made in the affected timeframe from 21 August to 5 September. Anything else? Beware: the British Airways breach is likely to trigger further attempts at cyber crime, with fraudsters sending out scam emails in a bid to obtain confidential information. BA says: British Airways will not be contacting any customers asking for payment card details, any such requests should be reported to the police and relevant authorities. British travellers have been warned that they are liable to arrest if they are found with alcohol in their blood when transiting through the United Arab Emirates. That means passengers who consume alcohol on flights to the UAE could face arrest when they land. The warning was posted on a Facebook page for the British consulate in the UAE, where Dubai is a major tourist destination. The consulate also warned that visitors could be arrested as a passenger in a car driven by somebody with alcohol in their blood. Recommended How Dubai turned hipster The post on the UK in UAE Facebook page states: If caught carrying or drinking alcohol without a licence or with alcohol in your blood, you can be arrested. It is a punishable offence to be under the influence of alcohol in public including when transiting through the UAE. The consulate adds that having traces of alcohol in your blood can result in a custodial sentence and/or a fine. Of the drink driving rule, the consulate added that there is zero tolerance for drink driving in the UAE. The advice applies to both British expats and visitors to the UAE. The warning comes two months after Dr Ellie Holman was detained in Dubai with her daughter for allegedly drinking a complimentary glass of wine on a flight from London. After landing in Dubai, the 44-year-old says she was questioned about her visa and asked if she had consumed alcohol, before being taken into custody. She was released a month later. Recommended Flying into trouble over a glass of wine Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, commented in a statement today: Ellies arrest highlights two issues that are ongoing risks to travellers. One is that it is entirely illegal for tourists to consume alcohol, even if it is a minute amount and was provided by a licensed vendor or airline. Often alcohol charges are opened because they are easy to prosecute, rather than prosecuting for another charge that would be harder to prove. Another issue has been that complaints are opened against victims for the sole purpose of requesting compensatory payments to cancel the case. The complainant is not required to prove that the person was offensive, his word is enough to secure a prosecution. This leads to false accusations for extortive purpose and has been the cause of many wrongful detentions." The UAE is made up of seven emirates with differing rules and regulations. The Dubai Emirate allows residents to consume alcohol in that Emirate only if they have an alcohol licence. Tourists can buy and drink alcohol in licensed venues such as hotels, restaurants and clubs, says the FCO. Meanwhile, in conservative Emirate Sharjah, drinking alcohol is illegal. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) says: You should be aware that it is a punishable offence under UAE law to drink or be under the influence of alcohol in public. British nationals have been arrested and charged under this law, often in cases where they have come to the attention of the police for a related offence or matter, such as disorderly or offensive behaviour. It advises that in the UAE, laws and customs are very different to those in the UK, and adds: You should respect local traditions, customs, laws and religions at all times. There may be serious penalties for doing something that might not be illegal in the UK. In 2017, 15.79 million people visited Dubai, a leap of 6.2 per cent year on year, according to figures from Dubai Tourism. From January to June 2018, 599,000 British tourists visited Dubai, a drop of 5 per cent from the same period a year earlier. There is an old political adage that leaders often quote but rarely act upon when considering when to close their careers. The gist of it is that party leaders, in particular, would rather observers asked, Why are they going now? than, Why are they still around? When it comes to Sir Vince Cable, it is perfectly true that no one was particularly asking why he was still leading his party, but it is also the case that no one is asking why he is choosing to go as soon as, in his formulation, Brexit is stopped or resolved. By avoiding questions of either kind, he may be the first to confound the dictum. He is also gambling with his partys future in advocating a radically different pattern for party membership (open and free) and, almost alone among national parties, in opening up the party leadership to those outside the House of Commons. The name of Gina Miller is often dropped in this context, although she has ruled it out, but there are prominent businesspeople and others who might like to take on the challenge. There is also some gossip about David Miliband or one of the many Labour moderates taking over. The only people who dont seem to be spoken of much are the partys own MPs, and particularly Jo Swinson, the deputy leader, Layla Moran and Sir Ed Davey. You wonder whether Sir Vince was actively looking to snub them. Perhaps the Liberal Democrats have it in mind to recast their party as a sort of British version of Emmanuel Macrons En Marche! movement in France. That was in effect a new party of the radical centre, along the lines the Liberal Democrats fancy themselves to be and, in the more distant past, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) marketed itself as when it broke away from Labour in 1981. It is certainly curious that, at a time when the broad centre of British politics lies neglected by the two main parties moving to more extreme positions, the Liberal Democrats have been unable to capitalise on these trends. They, and their predecessor parties, have done so in the past. Today, however, the party remains becalmed, with double figure polling numbers and Commons representation mostly an aspiration rather than reality. The reason, however, is quite straightforward. Whereas in other times the public has been prepared to believe, realistically or not, that the Liberals, Liberal Democrats or SDP had a chance of actually winning seats and the balance of power, that seems remote now. The wasted vote argument is back, with a vengeance. The British electoral system has always been brutal towards third parties and insurgencies. The French method of successive ballots for the presidency allowed Mr Macron to create a coalition in opposition to Marine Le Pens Front National. There is no such route to power in the UK. Ask David Owen, David Steel, Caroline Lucas or even Nigel Farage. The success of new parties and insurgents is largely confined to moving each of the main parties, and making them more competitive. The SDP gave rise to new Labour; Ukip gave rise to the Brexit referendum, less happily. Moreover, there is much evidence that, like it or not, the political centre has shifted towards the left, and towards populist sloganeering from whatever point on the traditional spectrum. On issues such as equality, on the power of big business, on nationalisation, the centre is itself moving, though Jeremy Corbyn remains a political outlier. Many disillusioned Labour voters voted Leave, which could be seen as a shift in opinion away from centrist views, and towards an inchoate populism. The chances are that for all the visionary thinking, ferment of ideas, and the finance said to be readily available any new grouping of the centre, wrapped around the Liberal Democrats or not, would suffer from the weaknesses Shirley Williams identified before she herself helped form such a party, the SDP: No roots, no principles, no philosophy and no values. Tony Blair declares that he thinks that it might be game over for Labour, and that the health of the party is irrecoverable. With his record in office he deserves respect. However, he knows better than anyone how, in time and with hard work, and electoral punishment, any political party can be brought back from near death even the Conservatives (as recently as 2015), and the Liberal Democrats (in their breakthrough in 2010). Labour looked equally unsalvageable under Michael Foot in 1983, the general election when Mr Blair entered the Commons. A new centre party has much to commend it in theory, but immense practical obstacles. Breaking the mould of British politics is never easy, and never fast. It took, after all, most of the first half of the 20th century for the Labour Party to displace the Liberals. Even then, Labour splits in the 1930s, 1950s and 1980s helped the Tories maintain a grip on power. A new party cannot be supported, then, if the consequences are another decade or two of Conservative extremism, to be inflicted on the country on a minority vote. Leaving the EU, as the neo-Thatcherites well realise, is one necessary but not sufficient condition for them to implement hardline neoliberal policies. A split on the centre left is another. Ask anyone in Northern Ireland and theyll probably agree that most British politicians dont fully understand our situation. But the admission from Karen Bradley that she knew nothing about the place when first appointed as its secretary of state is particularly jaw dropping. This woman has been charged with piecing back together a fragile power sharing structure borne of one of the worlds most complicated conflicts and yet she freely admits she didnt understand the politics involved. Speaking in an interview to The House magazine, Bradley said, I freely admit that when I started this job, I didnt understand some of the deep-seated and deep-rooted issues that there are in Northern Ireland. I didnt understand things like when elections are fought for example in Northern Ireland, people who are nationalists dont vote for unionist parties and vice-versa. So, the parties fight for the election within their own community... Thats a very different world from the world I came from. Northern Ireland MLAs have pay cut by 13,000 after 20 months of not sitting in Stormont Assembly I dont expect people in Britain to understand everything about Northern Ireland, but when it comes to politics, dogs in the street know that politically, nationalists and unionists are deeply divided. The sad realisation is that Bradley is not alone in her ignorance and lack of regard for Northern Ireland. It is rife within the Conservative Party, and the government it leads despite the fact that it is propped up by the DUP. In fact, by doing this deal in the first place, the Conservatives failed to see that such an alliance would destroy their claim to be a neutral broker in the talks to restore power sharing. Theresa Mays political survival mattered more than our fragile executive. Then there is pretender to the throne Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has casually suggested that we could go back to Troubles-era border checks to deal with a new border in Ireland, having evidently never had to endure such a lifestyle himself. Recommended A second referendum should offer Northern Ireland a choice of unions When the consequences of the border on the region were realised as a stumbling block, Boris Johnson said the issue was so small, and said it was beyond belief that were allowing the tail to wag the dog in this way. And just look at the polling that shows a majority of Conservative voters would rather leave the customs union than avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. We are collateral in their ideological fantasy. They just dont care. And Bradley is at the apex of all of this. With no devolved government at present, she is the person with complete responsibility. How can Britain be trusted with Northern Ireland when she doesnt have a clue whats going on? What faith can the people of Northern Ireland have in the UK government that a no-deal Brexit wont leave us with a hard border down our island, havoc wrecked with our fragile economy and the threat of a return to violence? Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Co Monaghan. The building was home to four families who left during the Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A defaced Welcome to Northern Ireland sign stands on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Mervyn Johnson owns a garage in the border town of Pettigo, which straddles the counties of Donegal and Fermanagh. Ive been here since 1956, it was a bit of a problem for a few years. My premises has been blown up about six or seven times, we just kept building and starting again, Johnson said laughing. We just got used to it [the hard border] really but now that its gone, we wouldn't like it back again Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Farmer Gordon Crocketts Coshquin farm straddles both Derry/Londonderry in the North and Donegal in the Republic. At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day, said Crockett. If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures John Murphy flies the European flag outside his home near the border village of Forkhill, Co Armagh Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Potter Brenda McGinn stands outside her Mullan, Co Monaghan, studio the former Jas Boylan shoe factory which was the main employer in the area until it shut down due to the Troubles. When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village, said McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community. Now this is a revitalised, old hidden village Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Union Flag colours painted on kerbstones and bus-stops along the border village of Newbuildings, Co Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Grass reflected in Lattone Lough, which is split by the border between Cavan and Fermanagh, seen from near Ballinacor, Northern Ireland Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Donegalman David McClintock sits in the Border Cafe in the village of Muff, which straddles Donegal and Derry/Londonderry Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures An old Irish phone box stands alongside a bus stop in the border town of Glaslough, Co Monaghan Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Billboards are viewed from inside a disused customs hut in Carrickcarnon, Co Down, on the border with Co Louth in the Republic Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Seamus McQuaid takes packages that locals on the Irish side of the border have delivered to his business, McQuaid Auto-Parts, to save money on postal fees, near the Co Fermanagh village of Newtownbutler. I live in the south but the business is in the North, said McQaid. "I wholesale into the Republic of Ireland so if theres duty, Ill have to set up a company 200 yards up the road to sell to my customers. Ill have to bring the same product in through Dublin instead of Belfast Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A disused Great Northern Railway line and station that was for customs and excise on the border town of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures Alice Mullen, from Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland, does her shopping at a former customs post on the border in Middletown, Co Armagh. Id be very worried if it was a hard border, I remember when people were divided. I would be very afraid of the threat to the peace process, it was a dreadful time to live through. Even to go to mass on a Sunday, youd have to go through checkpoints. It is terribly stressful, said Mullen. All those barricades and boundaries were pulled down. I see it as a huge big exercise of trust and I do believe everyone breathed a sigh of relief Reuters Brexit threatens life on the Irish border: in pictures A bus stop and red post box stand in the border town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh Reuters In this instance, a new poll has found that 52 per cent of people there would vote for a united Ireland a referendum that can only be called when Bradley sees a majority in favour. Is she even aware of this? For now, Northern Ireland should be run by its own people, from Stormont, and our members of the legislative assembly must restore the executive and the assembly immediately. Bradley has now quite rightly cut the salaries of the politicians who have not been sitting for more than 20 months. But it is evidence of her lack of understanding that she thinks this will make the tiniest bit of difference. The issues remain unresolved. Perhaps she should consider cutting her own salary, for being utterly unqualified for her job. With the 2019 Budget only around the corner, Macra na Feirme is calling for an extension of Stamp Duty exemption on the transfer of land to young trained farmers to 2023. This 100pc exemption is due to expire in 2020. The organisation is also looking for the age restriction for the stamp duty exemption to be increased to 40 years for the purchase of land. In a lot of cases its not possible for farmers to buy land before 35 years of age as they have their money invested in capital on their farms, Agricultural Affairs Chair of Macra John Keane said. Macra na Feirme is also asking for funding for a call centre to support farmers struggling with mental health. Macra na Feirme wants a more relatable service provided for farmers. It is proposing funding of 1.2m, 10 a farmer for the 120,000 active farmers in Ireland, be set aside for this support service. Currently there is nothing to specifically help farmers struggling with mental health, he said. Not taking away from the great work that is being done already by Pieta House and similar charities, but we need a service for farmers that provides them with someone on the other end of the phone that can relate to the situation. Macra na Feirme is also asking for the farm house to be included as an agricultural asset, so that it does not have to be transferred to the next generation at the same time as the associated land. What we are seeing on the ground is people hold onto the farm house, so they own the house they live in, and rightly so, John said. But this means that there is a huge tax bill associated with inheriting it, as its no longer regarded as an agricultural asset. The young farmers organisation is also calling for an exclusion on VAT for farmers buying sexed semen. The price of sexed semen is a huge deterrent for farmers currently. If we could reduce the price, more farmers may use it and it could reduce the problem of unwanted bulls. IFA President Joe Healy warned that suckler farming is now on a cliff edge, due to EU agricultural policy which is asking farmers to produce beef at low prices while reducing direct payments and insisting on ever higher standards. It comes as Teagasc figures from Newford herd in Athenry revealed this week at their open day, show that even the most efficient suckler farming model is not profitable. The 100-cow suckler to-beef demonstration herd established by a number of industry stakeholders commenced operations in Newford, Athenry, Co Galway, in 2015 on 55.8ha of land previously farmed by Teagasc. The 2017 Teagasc eProfit monitor analysis shows the farm generated a gross margin of 674/ha, fell significantly below the target gross margin for 2017 of about 1,000/ha with higher variable costs have also hampered the farms financial performance. Net margin/ha in 2017 came in at -49. Farm Manager Matthew Murphy noted that costs will remain a challenge in 2018, given the delayed turnout of stock this spring and higher drought related costs. Speaking at the ASA Conference today during a discussion on The Challenges in the Global Marketplace for Beef, Joe Healy said the move of CAP policy away from price supports towards direct payments has made beef farming extraordinarily challenging at current prices. At the same time, the EU Commission is reneging on its side of the bargain by proposing further cuts of 100m per annum on Irish farmers as part of CAP reform proposals. To compound this, the Commission is hellbent on concluding a Mercosur trade deal with South America, which would allow more beef imports into the EU despite these countries having lower production standards and their beef production having a negative climate impact, he said. Joe Healy said two significant political decisions will be made in the next month. The upcoming Budget on October 9th provides our Government with the opportunity to help suckler farming by increasing supports for suckler cows, while at EU level, further talks are scheduled for Uruguay next week with a view to concluding a trade deal with the Mercosur group of countries. Minister Donohoe and Minister Creed must deliver an increase in funding for suckler cows in Octobers Budget and we need the Irish Government and Commissioner Hogan to block a damaging trade deal with the Mercosur group. The new CAP must reflect the realities being faced by farmers on the ground. We need an increase in payments at least in line with inflation, not a 100m cut as currently proposed, he said. The dairy landscape may be about to change dramatically in New Zealand as environmental constraints impact on the sector. The basic foundations of New Zealand dairying could be reshaped in the near future, according to Ian Proudfoot, the Global Head of Agribusiness with KMPG. The New Zealand-based analyst told the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference that the Kiwi government has a strong green component in it and issues such as the quality of rivers are now to the fore in the political agenda. He said the impact of nitrogen and water quality is impacting government plans to move towards regulating water standards and he warned that New Zealand farmers face a future of having less cows on their farms. "The government has indicated that its plans are to move quite quickly towards regulating water standards and farmers having to have less cows on their farms. "The big picture for us is that new Zealand will have less cows and produce less milk in the future. So we have to think about how we use our products." He also predicted that there will be mo more mega driers built in New Zealand and that the real focus will be on value add with dairy products. He also said that some industry commentators are saying that Fonterra may not need to exist and that the dairy industry will be about a low carbon future. Consumers, he said, want diets that have more variety in them and the food producing sector must react to this. "We're moving to a food system thats integrated with health care, pharma companies are coming into your space and will change how things are." But he said that such disruption presents opportunities for the sector. "The consumer has to be understood and you get rewarded on the solution to bring to them." He also said that the sector should not be overly concerned by veganism. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has thrown his full weight behind Central Bank Deputy Governor Sharon Donnery's bid to win a top job at the European Central Bank. It effectively means the Government here is backing both the Central Bank Governor Philip Lane and his most senior deputy to move to top roles at the ECB. The Department of Finance told the Irish Independent last night that Sharon Donnery has the "full support of Minister Donohoe" in her application for the role of chair of the of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Board at the ECB. The Minister doesn't have a roll in the SSM appointment, but gave his clear backing after a report in Germany said Angela Merkel's government there will back both Irish candidates to take two top ECB jobs at the same time. That's a rarity in the complicated horse trading for senior EU positions. Germany is likely to want support elsewhere for its own candidates as a quid pro quo. In August, Sharon Donnery formally put herself forward as a candidate to become chair of the powerful SSM Board, which coordinates bank supervision across the Euro area. It prompted speculation that if she succeeds it will derail Governor Philip Lane's candidacy to become ECB chief economist or even ECB president to succeed Mario Draghi when those jobs come up next year. Paschal Donohoe was known to be backing Governor Lane for a top ECB job, he nominated the Governor to become ECB vice-president earlier this year, though that job went to Spain's Luis de Guindos in a two-horse race. Governor Lane is seen as an especially strong candidate when the chief economist role falls vacant next year. Complicating things further, the SSM position sought by Sharon Donnery isn't in the gift of European governments - unlike the other top ECB board jobs. The appointment will be made by the ECB's own governing council and Ms Donnery did not require a nomination from Mr Donohoe to become a candidate. But Minister Donohoe has swung in behind her, while also voicing support for Philip Lane to move when a post comes up. "Governor Lane is doing an excellent job at the CBI. We will continue to support him in that role and in any future opportunities that may arise," his Department said. Germany's 'WirtschaftsWoche' magazine reported yesterday that the German government favours Irish candidates for both the ECB chief economist post and to head bank supervision arm. Ireland has never previously secured a top ECB appointment. The 'Sunday Business Post' newspaper has been sold to Galway-born businessman Enda O'Coineen's Kilcullen Kapital Partners. It comes almost 12 months after current owner Key Capital put the business up for sale. In a statement confirming the sale agreement, Sunrise Media, the entity that is selling the newspaper, said it expects the title to be profitable in 2018 and that "no significant changes are anticipated" before what it expects to be a strong final quarter of the year. Enda O'Coineen is a former journalist and previously publisher of titles including sailing magazine 'Afloat'. His ventures include setting up the Czech & Slovak Credit Bureaus, mortgage business SIMPLY and the hugely profitable Globix Telecom as Central Europe deregulated and moved to free market systems in the wake of the communist collapse. The most recent accounts filed for Post Publications Ltd, the company behind the newspaper, show the publisher swung to a pre-tax loss of just over 520,000 in its last financial year, ended June 2017, following a small profit in 2016. Irish investment firm Key Capital bought the newspaper out of examinership in 2013. The investment company is chaired by Conor Killeen, a former chairman of NCB Stockbrokers. 'Sunday Business Post' chief executive Siobhan Lennon confirmed the sale in a statement. "I am delighted that the sales process has been concluded and want to thank everyone at Key Capital. "Also I would like to pay tribute to the team in 'The Sunday Business Post' for their commitment to championing Irish business and promoting independent quality journalism," she added. "We look forward to our future with the Kilcullen Kapital team and driving The Business Post on to its next exciting phase," she said. The latest Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) data, which tracks the media market, show the 'Sunday Business Post' had a weekly circulation of 28,701. Black potatoes, women in rags, a million dead, a million gone: most of us understand the Great Famine sketchily, in half-remembered snatches from school books. Now that those geniuses at the Department of Education have decided that history is no longer a core subject, future generations may not remember it at all, yet it's the single most significant event in Irish history, the catastrophe that drove us off the path of glum compliance towards sustained insurgence. The Famine put fire in revolutionaries' bellies and created a large, politically influential immigrant community in America that would be of huge help to us once independence had eventually been achieved. It's the ground zero of Irish history, yet it has never, to my knowledge, once been portrayed on film - till now. Wisely, I would say, Lance Daly's Black 47 does not tackle the full horror of the Great Hunger head on, and instead uses it as a haunting backdrop for a moving and very entertaining genre picture - a revenge thriller, its director reckons, though to me it felt as much like a western, the kind of Irish film John Ford might have made if he'd been inclined to move beyond the wistful paddywhackery of The Quiet Man. Australian actor James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom, The Stanford Prison Experiment) is Martin Feeney, a large and taciturn Connemara man who's been away fighting in Afghanistan with the British Army and returns home to be confronted by the full horror of the Famine. In the ruins of his family homestead, he meets his half-starved sister-in-law Ellie (the excellent Sarah Greene), who tells him how his brother was hanged for resisting eviction by a vengeful judge, while his mother and remaining relatives were driven off their land to shiver in mud huts and hedges and slowly starve. A neighbour is grazing pigs in their roofless home, and when bailiffs and soldiers come to evict Ellie and her children from an empty cottage, Feeney is arrested when he attempts to help. But he's a warrior, a seasoned, ruthless soldier, and lazy garrison troops are no match for him. He slaughters his unfortunate gaolers, escapes and takes to the hills, determined to avenge his family by hunting down and killing the judges, bailiffs, policemen and landlords who so mercilessly persecuted his people. Meanwhile, Feeney's vengeful exploits have come to the ears of the British, who've ordered a ruthless former Afghan comrade of his called Hannah (Hugo Weaving) to track Feeney down. With him goes Pope (Freddie Fox), a priggish army captain whose smug beliefs in the virtues of patriotism and empire are about to be sorely tested. And as Hannah silently surveys the carnage in the west, his priorities begin to shift. Filmed in Wicklow and Connemara, Lance Daly's film powerfully evokes the bleak hopelessness of 1840s Ireland, an upside down land gripped by despair that no one seems quite in charge of. Not all the English are monsters, and Barry Keoghan plays a young Liverpudlian soldier who's so shocked by the endless and needless misery that he decides to do something about it. Jim Broadbent's Lord Kilmichael is less empathetic, a gouty landlord who calls Gaelic "that aboriginal gibberish" and dreams aloud of a time when a Gaelic Irishman will be "as rare a sight as a Red Indian in Manhattan". In the fields and hills around him, that wish would appear to be coming true. Expand Close James Frecheville with Hugo Weaving / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp James Frecheville with Hugo Weaving Read More In Black 47, language becomes a weapon in the uneven battle between oppressor and oppressed. The judges in the law courts erupt in fury when the peasants start conversing as Gaeilge, and by the end of the film Feeney has become so thoroughly radicalised that he won't speak a word of English. Video of the Day Stephen Rea is the heart and pulse of this film, playing Conneely, a cunning, clever western countryman who hides his broken-hearted anger behind a crooked smile and mocks the English at every turn. As they search the Connemara hills for Feeney, with him as their not entirely reliable translator and guide, Conneely sings endless ballads to annoy the British tourists. He's a survivor, who's prepared to share a drink with Lord Kilmichael and tell him languid jokes, but you get the sense he'll never forget what happened in the west in 1847, and will never forgive it either. The film's not perfect: low budgets and a daunting historical backdrop has necessarily led to corner-cutting, most of which Daly and Co get away with. And I might have been inclined to avoid the use of cloying uilleann pipes in the soundtrack - there's nothing wrong with them, they're just trite in an Irish setting. But these are minor quibbles, and, overall, Black 47 succeeds magnificently in evoking the misery of the Famine while simultaneously treating us to a rattling adventure yarn. Its ambition is admirable. Black 47 (15A, 99mins) 4/5 stars A five-year-old boy with autism has been unable to return to school because he has yet to receive his place on the school bus despite the term starting last week, his mother has claimed. Tracy Neeson, from Mulhuddart, west Dublin, said her son Carlos was left in tears after being unable to go back to school for his first week as they are yet to receive a spot on a Bus Eireann school bus. A pupil at St Paul's Special School in Beaumont, Ms Neeson says that Carlos has been left deeply upset. "I'm a single mum and I don't drive, we have no other options," Ms Neeson told the Irish Independent. "I've two other children in schools nearby that have to be collected and I wouldn't make it out to Beaumont in time to pick up Carlos too. "It could involve four buses a day and a two-and-a-half-hour journey each way. "He's absolutely devastated, the only thing he's been looking forward to is school. "He sees the bus going by every morning, one day he tried to run after it. My heart is breaking for him." During his first year at St Paul's, Carlos got the bus to and from school. Over the past week, Ms Neeson says she has been trying to get a response from Bus Eireann and the Department of Education as to why her son's name is not on the list. Bus Eireann confirmed that as St Paul's is a special needs school, all applications are made through the Department of Education and Skills. A spokesperson for the Department of Education told the Irish Independent that "it is the policy of the department not to comment on individual cases". An American man accused of trying to kill three people while honeymooning in Northern Ireland had his bail varied yesterday to allow him to return home. At Ballymena Magistrates Court, district judge Nigel Broderick allowed 31-year-old Nicholas Keith Warner to go back to South Carolina, on condition that he lodge a 4,000 (4,500) cash surety and surrender his passport to US police within three days. Electrical engineer Warner, who appeared in court on crutches having broken his leg in the incident, is accused of attempting to murder three men in Ballycarry on August 11. The 31-year-old is also accused of having a knife in a public place, affray and causing a fourth man actual bodily harm. Expand Close Kaylee, wife of Nicholas Keith Warner, from Summerville in the USA. Photo: Trevor McBride / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kaylee, wife of Nicholas Keith Warner, from Summerville in the USA. Photo: Trevor McBride The charges arise after three men, two aged in their 30s and one aged in his 60s, sustained stabbing injuries in an incident outside a bar on Main Street. A previous court heard that Warner denies the charges but admits he did have a knife. A detective constable said police were objecting to Warner and his wife being allowed to leave the jurisdiction amid fears they would not return. The court heard there had been an initial incident inside the bar with Warner and his wife leaving by the front door while the three complainants left by a rear door. When a barman went to retrieve the couple's hire car, CCTV footage showed the men running after it, Warner going to ground and one male circling him while kicking at his head. The footage also shows, the court heard, Warner getting up and stumbling away pursued by a group of men and the police officer confirmed the defendant's own phone had been used to contact the emergency services. At the scene, Warner "complies and co-operates and makes a self-defence case," Judge Broderick heard. Handing up a sheaf of character references, defence solicitor David Jones revealed that Warner had already instructed an attorney in his native United States and repeated his intention to come back to NI in order to clear his name. Judge Broderick said he could vary bail but that Warner could only leave once 4,000 (4,500) had been lodged and must also surrender his passport once he returns to the USA. Warner is also prohibited from entering Ballycarry or contacting the complainants. The case will be heard again next month, but the defendant was excused from attending court. Shauna Roe has been charged with being a passenger in a stolen car A BARRISTER accused of being a passenger in a stolen car has been given time by a court to decide how she intends to plead to the charge. Shauna Roe (26) had the case against her adjourned when she appeared in Blanchardstown District Court today. Ms Roe, with an address at Ard Rua, Homeleigh, Porterstown in west Dublin is charged with unauthorised carriage in a vehicle. The offence, under the Road Traffic Act, is alleged to have happened at Finnstown House Hotel, Newcastle Road, Lucan on July 1 last. It was Ms Roe's second appearance in court on the charge after she was arrested in July. Wearing a pink hooded jacket, black leggings and runners, she sat alone in the back of the courthouse waiting for her case to be called, then came forward when the brief hearing began. Her solicitor, Evan Moore, said disclosure of prosecution documents had been served on the defence and he was seeking more time in the case. Judge McHugh remanded the defendant on continuing bail to appear in court again on October 4, to indicate a plea to the charge. "You should have your instructions by then," the judge said. Mr Moore said he had no other application to make on behalf of the accused at this time. Ms Roe did not address the court during the proceedings. On her last appearance, a garda sergeant handed evidence of the defendant's arrest, charge and caution into court by certificate. A university president has called for a radical new approach to third-level funding that would limit the number of students paid for by the State, while others, who could afford it, would be liable for full fees. Professor Brian MacCraith of Dublin City University (DCU) said there were "people who can afford to go to university, in the same way as they can afford to pay for private schools". He floated the idea as he expressed impatience at the lack of action on tackling the third-level funding issue and said it was time to explore new approaches to protect the quality of education. Mr MacCraith also called for universities to be removed from some of the shackles of State control and to be allowed "operate in a more entrepreneurial fashion" like a "semi-state" company. He referred to the resignation of Dr Graham Love, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) who, he said, "felt very constrained to advance anything and did the noble thing and walked away". On funding, Prof MacCraith said two years after the publication of the Cassells report on third level funding, there was "no sign of it being implemented". He added: "I don't believe it is going to happen." The Cassells Report called for an extra 600m a year for the system, either through significantly more State funding or higher fees, linked to a student loan system, which have no political support. Speaking at the Kennedy Summer School, in New Ross, Co Wexford, Prof MacCraith said with investment per student less than half of that it was a decade ago "something has to be done". He likened it to a patient presenting with a temperature of 104 degrees who, instead of being treated, was told it would take six more months of tests to deal with the problem. Prof MacCraith said he understood that the Government faced the dilemma of competing spending demands, but universities had responsibilities to deliver a quality education to students and there was a direct correlation between quality and the level of investment per student. After a decade of cuts, the Government has started to increase funding for higher education, but Prof MacCraith said there was no change in investment per individual student. He noted that there would be an additional 40,000 students in higher education by 2030. He said his ideas on new funding models were not fully worked out, but he suggested that, one way would start with agreement - based on international benchmarks - on the unit cost per student of delivering a high quality education. Based on that, the Exchequer would cover the cost of whatever number of students was deemed appropriate, "with first rights given to those who were most economically disadvantaged, and, other people who could afford to pay the economic cost, would pay". Posted on: September 7, 2018 3:10 PM The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has wished the UKs Jewish community an increase in your sense of security and peace. He made his comments in a conversation with Britains Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, during a visit to his home in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The Community Security Trust, which protects Jewish communities in the UK, reported a record annual total of 1,414 antisemitic incidents in the UK last year. The figure for the first six months of 2018 727 incidents showed an eight per cent fall on the same period last year; but despite the fall, the first half of 2018 is the second-highest total ever recorded by the CST. Britains opposition Labour party has repeatedly been accused of failing to take action against incidents of antisemitism committed by its members and activists. Media reports of the issue often result in a tirade of abuse against Jewish politicians, media and campaigners on social media. You have gone through, in the last few months, a very demanding, stressful time; and in some ways in the last few years with the increase in anti-Jewish attacks across the country on synagogues, on cemeteries, on individuals; and the unspeakable trolling on social media, Archbishop Justin told Chief Rabbi Mirvis. Coming into this New Year we are where we were a year ago, but actually were in a worse position, the Chief Rabbi said in response. Because a year ago we had our aspirations, our hopes, our prayers; and we have seen that matters havent moved forward. If anything, they have deteriorated. And ever since the holocaust we never thought for one moment that we would again need to defend our Jewishness, our identity, our existence. It is, to us, unbelievable what is actually happening now. We are absolutely determined to ensure that there will be a stop to this scourge of antisemitism across all institutions in this country. There should be a zero tolerance. We want to have a great wonderful and happy future in the country that we love. We are Jewish and British. We are British and Jewish. The Chief Rabbi criticised the irresponsible world leaders who were allowing it to take place; and some even encouraging it. Where you have poisonous comment laced with hatred, you can be sure that hatred of the Jew will be coming very quickly. Archbishop Justin said that community in Britain was a collection of larger or smaller groups, most of whom were minorities. Anything that permits attacks on one minority group is a threat to the entire structure of the nation, he said. Once you attack one group, why not attack every other group? During the 90-minute meeting, Archbishop Justin reflected on his predecessor Archbishop William Temple establishing the Council of Christians and Jews in 1942, with Chief Rabbi Joseph H Hertz, as a means of combating the evils of antisemitism. Archbishop Justin told the Chief Rabbi he was pleased that the Parliamentary Labour Party had adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism without any caveats. This is something that had been opposed by the wider Labour party. He offered his own unequivocal support for the definition and suggested that the Church ought to formally adopt it. I am distressed that it should be necessary, but I think it is necessary, he said. Listening to you, I find it hugely distressing and depressing that in the 21st century that any community, especially the Jewish community given the history of Europe of the last two or three generations should have a deep sense of insecurity. I think that is appalling; and what that tells me is that the leaders of this nation should be very clear in giving security to the Jewish community in this country. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, begins on Sunday 9 September and ends on the evening of Tuesday 11 September. During the meeting, Archbishop Justin wished the Chief Rabbi Shana Tova the traditional Hebrew greeting for a good and sweet year. Alan and Malak Thawley were expecting their first child Obstetricians from outside Ireland are to be asked to conduct an external probe into the circumstances around the death of Malak Thawley in the National Maternity Hospital. The tragic case of Ms Thawley (34), who died when a blood vessel was pierced during routine ectopic pregnancy surgery, is expected to be investigated by experts from the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It follows a decision by the High Court yesterday to side with the hospital, which challenged the decision of Health Minister Simon Harris to have the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) conduct the investigation on the grounds of "serious risk" to the health and welfare of patients. After considering the evidence, Judge Charles Meenan said it was "irrational and unreasonable" for the minister to direct this kind of investigation. However, he said an external review should proceed to learn lessons that can be applied across the health service. Ms Thawley's grieving husband Alan Thawley said he welcomed the conclusion of the High Court challenge, during which the "very tragic and distressing facts" of his wife's death were revisited. In a statement issued through his solicitor Caoimhe Haughey, he called on the Government to introduce mandatory inquests in all cases of maternal death. Responding to the High Court ruling, Mr Harris said: "While I accept the judgment, I remain concerned about the circumstances surrounding Malak Thawley's death. "I therefore remain committed to conducting an external and independent patient safety investigation, so that I can be assured that any patient safety risks at the hospital are identified and addressed, and that any learnings are disseminated across all our hospitals. "I have asked my Department to progress this and I look forward to the hospital's full co-operation in this regard." He will examine the court judgment "with a view to bringing forward proposals to amend the Patient Safety Bill recently approved by Government". He wants to ensure "that sufficient powers are available to any future minister for health to ensure investigations can be expeditiously conducted where there is the potential to improve patient safety". In his judgment, Judge Meenan revealed that the minister made his decision to refer the probe to Hiqa on a "seriously deficient briefing". He said the conclusions and recommendations of two previous reports and the inquest into Ms Thawley's death "were not properly considered" before the decision to set up a Section 9 inquiry. He also claimed assertions by Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan about incidents, including the need for doctors to go to a local pub for ice, did not "stand up to analysis" as grounds for the Hiqa probe. The involvement of Department of Health officials in planning meetings about the relocation of the maternity hospital to St Vincent's Hospital campus stopped months ago after the court proceedings were lodged. Judge Meenan said it was good governance on the part of the hospital to take the case. The legal bill will be picked up by the taxpayer. Ms Thawley's inquest, held in June last year, raised questions about the need to reduce the risk to patients who undergo emergency surgery on Sundays. Hospitals have to cope with emergencies on reduced staffing. An internal report suggested consideration should be given to having a senior obstetrician and anaesthetist on site at all times, but it is estimated another 8 to 12 extra consultants would be needed to provide this cover. The hospital says that a senior consultant now carries out this kind of surgery. Taps believed to be deliberately left running in a recently vacated property in Co Antrim have forced a family out of their home. It happened at a flat in Beechview Court in Crumlin on Wednesday September 5. Water had been left running in an upstairs property causing the property underneath to be damaged. Sinn Fein councillor for the area Anne Marie Logue said the two social housing properties were left uninhabitable, blaming "criminal elements". She said the ceilings had all caved in within the property and all the family's property including their clothes had been destroyed. "They have been left destitute," the councillor told the Belfast Telegraph. She said those "responsible for terrorising our community" needed to be faced down for the sake of the law-abiding and hard-working Crumlin community. The reckless criminal damage on a recently vacated first floor flat has completely destroyed the flat beneath and forced a family out of their home. This is the outworking of a series of anti social behaviour incidents, during the course of which the family who occupied the ground floor flat was terrorised and threatened by criminal elements." The councillor called on Clanmil Housing Group, which operates the properties, to urgently respond. Clanmil was contacted for a comment. Police are investigating. Figures showing that maternal deaths in the US are seven times higher than in Ireland have led to strong claims for the safety of maternity care here. But it has also bred a complacency over the years and a delay in setting up a standardised system to fully inquire into those deaths. Three maternal deaths were recorded last year, including two in maternity units and one case in a general hospital. The two women who died in maternity services had pre-existing medical conditions and their clinical care was shared by obstetric and other medical teams. The biggest weakness is the lack of an automatic inquest into a maternal death. Between 2011 and 2013, there were some 27 maternal deaths reported but only three were referred for an inquest. The tragic death of Malak Thawley, whose blood vessel was pierced during a routine keyhole operation to remove an ectopic pregnancy in the National Maternity Hospital, has been examined at an inquest and was the subject of two reports. But the demand for an external probe by doctors outside the Irish health system remains unresolved more than two years after her death. The High Court decided to quash a decision by Health Minister Simon Harris and his officials to give that review to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa). It supported the National Maternity Hospital's challenge, effectively saying the charge of "serious risk to patients" was not warranted. The case brought to the surface some bitter tensions between the Department of Health and the maternity hospital which must be mended. More than 8,000 babies are born in the hospital annually and it is unthinkable that relations between both sides could have deteriorated to such a level. Questions must also be asked about why Mr Harris ordered the Hiqa probe without, according to the High Court, "considering the findings, recommendations and conclusions of the inquest and other reports into the case". It has now ended up in a High Court case which the taxpayer will have to pay for. Meanwhile, on the sidelines of this wrangling between hospital and officials is Malak Thawley's husband Alan, who has spoken of how bereft her death has left him. Judge Charles Meenan was clear to both sides yesterday that another form of external review which has been agreed to must proceed and that lessons have to be learned. Another lesson must be a clear system of review when a pregnant women dies. The Government is now promising legislation, first put forward by TD Clare Daly, making it mandatory for all maternal deaths to be subject to an inquest. But the overhaul must be wider than that to avoid the kind of unnecessary pain and delay suffered by Alan Thawley. Independent News & Media (INM) has pledged to co-operate fully with inspectors appointed to investigate the conduct of its affairs - but has warned the answers being sought lie with people outside the company. High Court President Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday said the inspectors could begin their work with immediate effect after counsel for INM, which publishes this newspaper, indicated it would not be appealing the appointments. Sean Gillane SC and solicitor Richard Fleck were installed as inspectors following a lengthy probe by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), sparked by a November 2016 protected disclosure by former INM chief executive Robert Pitt. Among the issues they will investigate are concerns INM data, including journalists' emails, was accessed by outside companies during a "data interrogation" directed by former INM chairman Leslie Buckley in 2014. INM chief executive Michael Doorly told the Irish Independent the company would co-operate fully with the inspectors and respect the judgment of the court. But he cautioned that INM had already provided all relevant information under its control to the ODCE. "I don't think there is anything new that hasn't been provided," Mr Doorly said. "They [the inspectors] are going to have to go outside of INM to get the full story." Mr Doorly continued: "The inspection will involve INM but also parties who are outside of INM, particularly in relation to the data breach, but also in relation to any of the other matters that arose from the protected disclosure. A lot of the protagonists are no longer within INM." Mr Buckley stepped down from INM's board last March and is being sued by the company for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, misrepresentation, breach of contract and wrongful interference with its economic interests. Invoices connected with the "interrogation" were paid by Blaydon Limited, an Isle of Man company owned by businessman Denis O'Brien, INM's largest single shareholder and long-time business associate of Mr Buckley. It is unclear when the inspectors will begin their inquiries in earnest, but it is understood they may need to do a good deal of preliminary work before they are in a position to move forward. 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. Yesterday, the ODCE was awarded its costs for the application to appoint inspectors. As well as the data interrogation issue, the inspectors will examine claims Mr Buckley put pressure on INM executives to pay an inflated price for Newstalk, the radio station owned Mr O'Brien. The deal was ultimately abandoned. Also being examined are the circumstances surrounding a proposal, later withdrawn, that a 1m "success fee" be paid to Island Capital, a firm owned by Mr O'Brien, in connection with the sale of INM's shares in Australian media group APN. Concerns inside information was shared with Mr O'Brien by Mr Buckley, in breach of market abuse regulations, will also be probed. Mr Buckley has pledged to defend himself against each and every allegation. A spokesman for Mr O'Brien did not respond to a request for comment. Gardai at the scene of the incident outside the Starbucks in Airside Retail Park in Swords, Co Dublin. Photo:Mick O'Neill. A Dublin teenager was in a critical condition last night after being attacked because of the shoes he was wearing, his heartbroken mother has said. Adam McDonnell (17) was rushed to Beaumont Hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning after the incident outside the Starbucks cafe in Airside Retail Park, Swords, at around 1.30am. It's understood he was with a group of friends when there was some sort of pre-arranged meeting with another group of teenagers to sort out a disagreement. At some point, Adam was struck and fell to the ground, hitting his head off the path. "Adam is very interested in fashion, and he has been slagged about it. This is all over a pair of shoes," said his heartbroken mother Aileen. "Clothes mean more to him than just looking well. He had an interview last week in Griffith College to do a course in fashion design. It's just his thing. "Adam is not a violent person, and people were picking on him and antagonising him about his clothes and shoes. "They would torment him, and it seems they said that if he didn't show up they would call him names. "Adam isn't a fighter. He doesn't look for trouble. He works part time in T1 [Terminal One] in the airport and spends his money on clothes and shoes rather than drink. "He's a quiet lad and well liked, and some people are jealous of that and bully him," she added. Adam lives in Donabate and did his Leaving Cert at Colaiste Choilm in Swords this year. He is in an induced coma in hospital after surgery to have parts of his skull removed temporarily to reduce pressure on his brain. "This could be a murder inquiry yet, we just don't know," Aileen said. "He's in a coma and we don't know if he will come out of it, or how he will be if he comes out of it. If he survives, we don't know if he'll ever be the same again. "We just hope his age and his health go in his favour. I wouldn't wish this on anyone." Gardai confirmed that officers attended an incident at Airside Retail Park on Sunday at approximately 1.30am. "A teenage male was allegedly assaulted by another male and was seriously injured in the assault. "He was taken to Beaumont Hospital. No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing," they added. Gardai are appealing for witnesses and in the process of collecting CCTV images from the vicinity of the incident. There would have been a lot of people in the area at the time who may have been socialising or heading home after a night out. "We hope that anyone in the area at the time, or taxi drivers who were collecting or dropping fares and who may have seen something, would get in touch," a Garda source said. The Taoiseach has said that he wants to see a Brexit withdrawal agreement between the EU and Britain by November at the latest. "Our objective is to conclude a withdrawal agreement, including an Irish protocol between now and October or November at the latest," Mr Varadkar told reporters. The Taoiseach's comments come as British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said on Friday he was sure Britain will reach an agreement with the European Union on its exit from the bloc by an informal October deadline, in contrast to growing expectations of a no-deal Brexit. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said the bloc must prepare for a no-deal Brexit, and Germany is preparing for all scenarios including that one. Mr Hammond himself has warned of the economic damage that not having a deal in place by March, when Britain is due to leave, would do. "I believe we will be able go get a deal. It's very much in the interests of the EU 27 as well as the UK that Brexit runs smoothly next March," Mr Hammond said as he arrived for a meeting of EU finance ministers in Vienna. More to follow... Posted on: September 7, 2018 3:35 PM [Anglican Journal, by Joelle Kidd] Do you know anyone in the shelter? the woman inside asks. The group standing before her exchange glances, their hope deflating. When they respond that, no, they dont know anyone inside, she replies, Im sorry, but were full. The door closes. Luckily for the group in front of the closed door, this is a simulation. The shelter is a repurposed classroom, and those trying to find housing for the night are youth from the diocese of Algoma. But, while the rejection wont mean having to spend the night outside in the cold, it does strike a chord. I know it was a simulation, says one youth leader, but I felt crushed. The simulation activity took place last month at the Canadian Lutheran Anglican Youth (CLAY) gathering in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Groups of Anglican and Lutheran teenagers were charged with finding a temporary shelter in an undisclosed location on the campus of Lakehead University, which hosted the gathering. Some groups made it into the shelter. Others, like the Algoma group, were turned away because of lack of space. And others never found the shelter, not having been provided any clues about its location a reminder of how important dissemination of knowledge and resources is for those seeking housing. The activity was planned to coincide with the launch of Welcome . . . Home, the current Anglican and Lutheran National Youth Project. The initiative, focused around issues of homelessness and affordable housing, will run from 2018 to 2020. A new national youth project launches every two years as a joint project of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada. The two churches have been in full communion partnership since 2001. At the 2013 Joint Assembly of Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada, the two churches committed to engaging issues of housing, both through advocacy and supporting their own agencies and programs that work with those experiencing homelessness or poverty. I think its important with the joint declaration between [the two Churches] to have these important conversations and to try . . . and make a difference, says Tammy Kirkwood, director of youth and family ministry at St Pauls Evangelical Lutheran Church Ellerslie in Edmonton, Alberta. And to show that we can work together on these different things. As a member of the Lutheran Programme Committee for Youth Ministry, Kirkwood is part of the team that organises the National Youth Project. They wanted to choose a topic that would resonate with youth across Canada, she says. We wanted something that the youth were going to be able to identify with, she says. She adds that some youth at the gathering may have experienced homelessness, or know a friend who has, often in the form of couch-surfing, or staying with different friends for a few nights at a time. Statistics provided alongside the Welcome . . . Home activity state that an estimated 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness every year, with 20 per cent in the 16-24 age range. It also stated that more than 50,000 Canadians experience hidden homelessness, such as couch-surfing or having to sleep in a car. Kirkwood says they hope the project will inspire youth to take part in local initiatives in their home communities, like volunteering with local shelters and educating their family members and peers. The activity at CLAY was eye-opening for youth who had never directly experienced homelessness, says Kirkwood. Theyre more aware if theyre experiencing it than just reading about it. All of a sudden, theyre trying to find this homeless shelter and theyre not sure where it even exists. Its like, you dont know where, if youre going to have somewhere to sleep at night. She adds that even for homeless youth who couch-surf or stay with friends, there is a stressful uncertainty about not knowing whether one will have a safe place to spend the night. The activity could potentially be adapted for smaller groups, Kirkwood says, for congregations to experience with their youth. As part of the CLAY activity, youth also gave donations of socks to be distributed to Grace Place, a Thunder Bay street ministry. Youth participants also signed postcards to send to their local members of Parliament and provincial representatives, urging them to support policy to alleviate the issue of homelessness and under-housing in Canada. In their group, diocese of Algoma youth discussed what it felt like to be unsure of where one can stay for the night, and the feelings that arose after being told where they could and could not sit. Early on in the simulation, while reading through instructions on how to complete the activity, the youth were asked to move and told they were loitering. Actually having to leave certain places was super unsettling, reflects Jesslyn Emms. Emms, attending CLAY for the first time, is the Temiskaming deanery youth representative in the diocese of Algoma. Its like, I was just sitting there minding my own business! I didnt do anything! The interactive element of the exercise was impactful, she says. You got to feel what it was like. Another Anglican CLAY attendee, Charlotte Lilley, found herself on the other side of the simulation. Lilley, who worships at St James Anglican Church in Cambridge, Ontario, is the youth council representative for the ecclesiastical province of Ontario with justgeneration, the youth initiative of the Primates World Relief and Development Fund. She ran one of the stations for the National Youth Project activity. It was kind of hard, she says. We had a limit on how many people we could put in that room that was being used as the shelter, so we had to turn some groups away. It was interesting to have that perspective as well. Lilley says that though homelessness is an issue you hear a lot about, and maybe you see it, its one that can be hard to understand without first-hand experience. Not everybody has these experiences and is able to completely relate to it, just because of the nature of what all of that entails. Watching the simulation, she says, she saw youth take these issues to heart because theyve, to some extent, experienced . . . what it is. The previous national youth project, Right to Water, focused on water issues in Canadian indigenous communities. State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy is retiring from her role. Dr Cassidy joined Office as Deputy State Pathologist in January 1998, and succeeded Dr John Harbison as State Pathologist in January 2004. Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan today thanked Dr Cassidy for her years of service. The Office of the State Pathologist is a vital part of the criminal justice system. The expertise of its scientists has helped resolve many crimes and bring perpetrators to justice and in doing this work it has been expertly led by Prof. Marie Cassidy, he said. I would like to thank Marie for her valuable service to the Irish people. I know that she will be greatly missed not just by her colleagues in the Office of the State Pathologist, but by all those who work with her in the criminal justice system. I wish Marie a long and happy retirement. The Minister also took the opportunity to thank the Deputy State Pathologists, Dr. Michael Curtis and Dr. Linda Mulligan, and the Assistant State Pathologist, Dr. Margo Bolster, for their ongoing work. The television licence inspector comes knocking at the door. Again. He's a regular visitor. I tell him (again) that we don't have a television. He does another quick scoot around the gaff. No telly. He leaves, shaking his head in disbelief for the umpteenth time. We have a projector combined with a decent sound system. It makes for a cinematic experience. It's not capable of receiving a television signal (are you reading Mr Inspector?). As of January 2018, 93pc of Irish households had a television set. That's according to TAM Ireland, a body set up to monitor television usage. Its research shows that 58pc of us have one TV set while 42pc own two or more. So not having one at all is an unusual choice. In interior design terms, the television is the elephant in the room. When they're switched on, they command a lot of attention. In July, on average, Irish 24 to 44-year-olds watched two hours and 17 minutes of television every day. The trouble with a switched-off TV though is that then it becomes the large black space. Expand Close Loewe Bild / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Loewe Bild "This is the burning question," writes Kate Watson-Smyth in her excellent interiors book, Mad About the House. "The one that everyone wants the perfect solution for. He wants to know how big a sound system he can get away with while she wants to know how to make the telly disappear." Her suggestions are (a) paint the wall black so the TV becomes less obvious; (b) conceal it behind a sliding panel; or (c) use a projector aimed at a blank wall. And TVs are getting larger too. Over the last year, Aaron Duff, television marketing manager at Harvey Norman, has seen the average TV size creep up from a 49" to 55" screen. Now, he's selling more 55" TV sets than any other size. Televisions are also getting thinner. From an interiors perspective this is a big plus. The 65" LG Signature OLED 4K Wallpaper TV (5,999) is only 44mm deep. "The bezel is so thin you'd barely notice it," Duff explains. If that's too pricey, the LG 55" 4K UHD HDR OLED Smart TV (2,399) is just 47mm deep. The next problem is accommodating the boxes. The television is often accompanied by DVD players, Sky boxes and the like - each with their own remote, wires and flashing lights. If you're made of money, really high-end TV sets, like Bang & Olufsen's BeoVision Eclipse, work from a single remote, which can also be used to operate all the associated devices. "Everyone suffers from having multiple remotes and I don't think they know how much they're suffering until they get a remote that does everything," says Andy Williamson of Bang & Olufsen. "It means that all the boxes can be stored in another room." The price? The BeoVision Eclipse starts at 9,100. Expand Close Bang and Olufsen BeoVision Horizon / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bang and Olufsen BeoVision Horizon It belongs to a generation of high-end sets that are designed to work as pieces of furniture, as well as technology. LIke the BeoVision Avant which can be either wall hung or freestanding. Both versions have a functionality that allow the user to swivel the screen to angle of up to 90. This means that you don't have to cluster the furniture around the television. The German brand Loewe has paid more attention to the design of its sets than most and seems committed to restoring the TV to furniture status. Some of its designs hark back to the television cabinets of yore by using wood and other natural materials, but the designs are modern. The Loewe bild 3 (from 2,250) and bild 5 (from 3,500) OLED TV ranges each received an iF Design Award in March 2018. Loewe is a niche brand and Irish stockists are hard to find. These prices came from Hi Fi Hut, which will order them in. Samsung's Frame TV (1,999 for a 55" set from Harvey Norman) is designed to mimic a picture. It comes pre-loaded with art and sits within a wooden frame. You can also use it to display your family photographs. And then there's the ambient mode, a chameleon-like functionality of the new Samsung QLED TVs. You take a picture of the television and its surroundings, and the TV screen will camouflage itself by mimicking the colour or pattern of whatever is behind it. It's bananas, but it works. So in the future never mind the missing remote, we might have to find the telly too. 'Mad About The House' (2018) by Kate Watson-Smyth, published by Pavilion, 20. See also harveynorman.ie, bang-olufsen.com and hifihut.ie. A long-awaited new building for Hedgestown National School is a step closer this week with news that an architect has been appointed to move to move the project forward. The Minister for Education has informed Senator James Reilly that the new project architect has been appointed to the long awaited new Hedgestown National School in Lusk. Senator Reilly said: 'I have been pressing the Department and Minister for some time to move this project forward. 'The existing school is not in great condition and it's way past time it was replaced with a modern facility, with safe access and egress for parents students and teachers. ' Senator Reilly praised the school authorities and the local community for their long campaign to secure the new school building. He said: 'The local community, teachers and parish representatives have been great in campaigning for the new school and assembling sites to provide the school. 'Eddie Kirk, former principal laboured long and hard on this project and the new principal and parents team are also taking up the challenge. 'As a local GP and a local politician they have my full support. ' Senator Reilly added: ' It's very important we invest in our rural communities and this new school is a key investment in the Lusk rural area at Hedgestown. 'I look forward to the next positive real steps on this school project. The Minister for Education, Richard Bruton TD confirmed the news that a new architect has been appointed, in a letter to the local senator. The letter states: ' The new architect was immediately provided with the project drawings and detailed design to date completed by the previous in-house Departmental architect, in order to familiarise, review and update the project. The new architect has also been in contact with the other Design Team members and will need to meet with the school in the near future. Following their review, the Design Team will provide a report and project programme to the Board of Management which will in turn be forwarded to my Department for review. 'At that point, my department will advise the school authorities of the timeline for the progression of this project to tender and construction.' A year on from the intended opening date, Malahide Portmarock Educate Together Secondary School is now up and running and open for learning. Malahide Portmarnock ETSS opened in the Riasc Centre, Feltrim Road, Kinsealy, County Dublin. The school opening, initially due in 2017, was postponed due to the difficulties in sourcing adequate accommodation. Aoife Kelly-Gibson was appointed Principal of the school in 2016. The new school's principal said: 'This is a very exciting time, the beginning of a new journey in education and the introduction of a long awaited Educate Together Secondary School in this area. 'Our team is coming to us with a wealth of teaching experience from Ireland, the UK, the Middle East and Australia.' Aoife added: 'We are delighted to have them all on board. 'Our curriculum will provide students with a wide variety of learning experiences and opportunities, to grow and develop their skills and knowledge.' This last week saw the opening of three brand new Educate Together secondary schools in Dublin, including the one for Malahide and Portmarnock. Educate Together was granted patronage of all these schools after a process to ascertain parental preference so this week is especially meaningful to all the parents and supporters that campaigned so effectively. After a year's delay in finding a site for the school, it was confirmed back in March that the Malahide Portmarnock Educate Together Secondary School will be able to open this September but the school's temporary site is not located in either Malahide or Portmarnock, but in Swords. The school opening, initially due in 2017, was postponed due to the difficulties in sourcing adequate accommodation. Aoife Kelly-Gibson, Principal of Malahide Portmarnock ETSS said at the announecment of the temporary site for the school, back in March: 'I am delighted to be in a position to announce the temporary location for Malahide Portmarnock ETSS. It's been a long road to this point but now that we have a base we can continue to establish what I believe will be a fantastic school and a great asset to the community it serves. 'I look forward to welcoming our new teachers, our parents and most of all, our brand new students who will be joining us on this exciting journey.' Last Monday, the school principal got to do just that and now the school is looking to the future. Gerry McKevitt, school manager of Malahide Portmarnock ETSS, said: 'I would like to commend Aoife and the school community of Malahide Portmarnock ETSS for their patience and resilience during the last year while we sought accommodation for the school. We are grateful to the management and staff at the Riasc Centre for their co-operation.' Educate Together also have a primary school for the Malahide Portmarnock area, currently temporarily located in Kinsealy. The new Mount Elliott roundabout is due to cost 1m and to be open to traffic in February. Work began on the roundabout in a field owned by Frank Mannion in early July, but because of builder's holidays progress was delayed for a fortnight. Senior roads officer with Wexford County Council Noel O'Driscoll said clearance works have been carried out to date. The 'three-leg' roundabout will be set back and at an angle from the approach roads to ensure traffic slows down at the approach. Storm water piping was laid along the Ferry Bridge road for 60 metres last week causing major traffic diversions. Mr O'Driscoll said: 'The pipeline goes along the edge of the road. We don't anticipate many more significant diversions. There will be some tie-ins with existing road legs, as there was with the Oaklands roundabout when it was being built, which will lead to some delays.' Mr O'Driscoll said every effort will be made to reduce the need for traffic diversions and delays, adding that work is due to be completed on the roundabout by mid-February. 'We will have some cosmetic stuff to do afterwards but it should be open to traffic by then, subject to the weather,' Mr O'Driscoll said. David Walsh Civil Engineering Ltd were awarded the contract and the paving of the roundabout will be carried out by Carlow company Dan Morrissey Limited. Transport Infrastructure Ireland's decision to fund two major roundabouts in quick succession surprised many. Mr O'Driscoll said New Ross was doubly fortunate to get funding for the two roundabouts. He said the Mount Elliott roundabout will compliment the bypass, leading to less traffic from the Enniscorthy side in to New Ross via the new roundabout. He expects most drivers to use the roundabout at Corcoran's Cross and to enter New Ross via the Ballymacar junction. A 150-strong crowd attended the launch night of author Tina Callaghan's debut novel Dark Wood Dark Water in New Ross Library. Librarian Anne Griffin welcomed everyone, paying tribute to her colleague Tina who has worked in the county library service for several years, describing her generosity of spirit and her infectious love of books. In January Tina signed a three book deal with Poolbeg Press for her River's Edge series. The first spooky instalment, Dark Wood Dark Water hit the shelves on Saturday, in time for Hallowe'en. From Begerin, Loftus, just outside New Ross, Tina works at New Ross Library by day. She has been an avid reader and writer all her life and told her mother when she was a young child that all she wanted was to be a writer. She has been published in horror anthologies by Stephen King's publisher. Drawing on a rounded and well-honed knowledge of fiction in all its guises, Tina based her story on the curse of New Ross. 'The story is very loosely based on the medieval history of New Ross. In the 13th century there was an abbey on Priory Street run by the Crutched Friars. They were hospitular monks who became corrupt. They put a very high toll on the river and when a popular ship's captain was nominated to try and get the toll reduced they murdered him. The people of New Ross rose up and drove the monk from the town, drawing a curse from the abbott. 'The Pope of the time supported the monks and took the sacraments from the town and it was only in 1945 when the last enclave of these monks returned to bless the town and lift the curse.' Set in a fictional Irish town called Bailey where bad things happen to its residents, the action sparks to life when a brother of one of the protagonists dies in the river. There is an unrequited love story between two of the teenagers, Gabe and Kate, and between the three friends, they try to get to the bottom of the curse. 'They keep seeing the animated bodies of the dead in the river and they get chased by the dead abbot and there is a banshee.' Journalist David Looby praised Tina for her 'deliciously dark debut' novel. He said: 'It's one of the best blockbusters to be written in many a moon on these shores. And it is these shores and the river below our window which are the inspiration at the heart of Tina's audacious novel.' He said Tina's Bailey is loosely based on New Ross, a town with a storied and rich history of its own, adding 'but it is her skill as a fiction writer and the particularity and vision of her writing which lifts the narrative time and again. There's gore, twists, turns, there's romance, unrequited love, a curse and an age old battle between good and evil. What's more - there's Tina: her voice, her wit, her humour and her grace shine through on every page.' He said in the young adult fiction book Tina successfully returns us to those exhilarating, awkward, obsessive teenage years. 'Who knows - Kate, Josh and Gabe could be the Hermoine, Harry and Ron of Harry Potter fame - of a whole new generation of young adult fiction readers.' Tina thanked her colleagues for hosting the event, the crowd for attending and her brother Des for the music. She said she was blessed to grow up in a house full of books and comics. Tina said her mother was a voracious reader who passed on her passion for reading dark and interesting stories to her. She developed a love of Stephen King and the horror genre. 'As an adult, I discovered that the reason horror appeals to so many people is that it provides a delicious scare from a safe place. It makes adrenaline course through our veins and the part of our brain that remembers being chased by a sabre toothed tiger is both thrilled and terrified, all the while knowing, it'll all be OK in the end. That feeling is important. Children's fears return in much the same form for every generation; the clothes on the chair looking like a figure in the dark, watching us; the hand that reaches from under the bed to grab a bare foot. Those are the feelings that kept us alive at a time when we were not the apex predator.' She said for her first novel, there was only one way to go. 'My dad loved the river and we spent a lot of time on it in our teens. My Mam loved the woods and we spent a lot of time there too. Dark Wood Dark Water speaks through poetic licence about those times. Dark Wood Dark Water is about three teenagers, who face down an ancient evil in an effort to save their town, their friends and family, and themselves.' She urged anyone pursuing a dream, to never give up. 'In terms of writing, some people get snapped up the instant they write a book and are suddenly best sellers. That's like winning the lotto. Mine is the more common experience. It has taken hard work, hard neck and dogged persistence to achieve this dream. Luck has a part to play, but a small one.' The book is available in good book shops and online. 'Mr Williams chased the giraffe away, but not before his family had sustained serious injuries' (stock photo) The wife and three-year-old son of a British scientist living in South Africa are in critical condition in a Johannesburg hospital after being attacked by a giraffe near their home. Dr Sam Williams, a 36-year-old UK resident, was returning from an evening run in Blyde Wildlife Estate, where the family lives, when he saw his wife Katy (35) and their son, Finn, being attacked by a female giraffe 150m from their home. Mr Williams chased the giraffe away, but not before his family had sustained serious injuries. They were treated at the scene by local doctors and then airlifted from the estate on the outskirts of Hoedspruit, in South Africa's Limpopo province, to Busamed Modderfontein Hospital in Johannesburg. Finn was operated on to relieve pressure in his brain due to his injuries. Dr Katy Williams, who born in the United States, was operated on for multiple injuries. Both mother and son were in critical but stable condition, the family said in a statement. It said the family has "decided to take one day at a time and stay positive". Riaan Cilliers, manager at the Blyde Wildlife Estate, said the giraffe had a two-month-old calf, which Dr Williams said may have made it see his wife and son as a threat. Both Katy and Sam Williams work in animal-related fields. Though giraffes are herbivores and not generally aggressive toward humans, they can lash out if they feel threatened. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have begun a summit on Syria as a bloody offensive on Idlib province looms, despite warnings from the US and others against the attack. The summit between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may determine whether diplomacy halts any military action ahead of an anticipated offensive targeting the north-western Syrian province. Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about three million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. That also includes an estimated 10,000 hardcore fighters, including al Qaida-linked militants. Expand Close Vladimir Putin (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vladimir Putin (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) The three leaders each held bilateral talks before the meeting began in Tehran. As photographers took pictures of the three leaders Mr Rouhani, smiling, reached for their hands. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Mr Rouhani said, adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Mr Erdogan appealed for a reasonable way out to avoid a bloodbath in Idlib. Iran, Russia and Turkey all have competing interests over Syria, and all also face US sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump. Iran wants to retain its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and further destabilisation of areas it holds in Syria. Meanwhile, Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Early on Friday, a series of air strikes struck villages in south-west Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing a fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Mr Abdurrahman said suspected Russian planes carried out the attack. The stabbing of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarisation in Latin Americas largest nation. Far-right Social Liberal Party congressman Jair Bolsonaro was seriously injured after a man stabbed him in the abdomen during a campaign event in Juiz de Fora. The former army captain has promised to crack down on crime, and has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand. After the attack, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the incident supports Mr Bolsonaros assertions that the country is off the rails, or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Expand Close National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (Eraldo Peres/AP) Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery on the candidate, said Mr Bolsonaros recovery is satisfactory so far. He said the candidate would remain in hospital for at least a week after a two-hour operation to stop serious internal bleeding. In videos of the moment of the attack posted on social media, Mr Bolsonaro could be seen on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs-up sign with his left hand. Expand Close Adelio Bispo de Oliveira is suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Adelio Bispo de Oliveira is suspected of stabbing Jair Bolsonaro (AP) He is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who appears to have been the attacker. A suspect, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, was arrested within seconds. Police did not identify a motive, but one official said the man appeared to be mentally unstable. After more than four years of revelations of widespread corruption within Brazils political class, anger is running high in the country, and analysts initially predicted this poll would see huge changes. But no true outside candidate has emerged. Instead, Mr Bolsonaro, despite being a congressman since 1991, has harnessed much of the anger and presented himself as a maverick who will clean up a corrupt system. He also promises to confront a surge in crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot to kill while on duty. The publics anger is partially responsible for making this years campaign the most unpredictable in years for Brazil, and the attack could lead to another seismic shift. The man leading the polls, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been barred from running by electoral authorities because he was convicted of corruption and is in jail. That puts Mr Bolsonaro in the lead position, though it is unclear how the attack might affect the campaign for the October 7 presidential ballot. In the hours following the attack in Juiz de Fora, about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro, Mr Bolsonaros supporters predicted it would carry him to the presidency. They made Bolsonaro a martyr, said Jonatan Valente, a student who joined a small vigil for Mr Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro. However, it is unknown when the candidate can get out again on the campaign trail or if his injuries will impede his ability to campaign. Undated handout photo issued by Carlsberg of their new Snap Pack, which they have come up with as a solution to the environmental damage caused by six-pack rings and wrapping. Photo credit should read: Carlsberg/PA Wir A leading beer company has come up with a sticky solution to the environmental damage caused by six-pack rings and wrapping. In what it is heralding as a world-first, Carlsberg's new multi-pack beer cans are held together solely by glue - a move that is set to reduce the Danish brewer's use of plastic to package the product by more than 75%. After a three-year development process, which involved testing more than 4,000 different adhesive formulations, the company insists the dots of glue bonding its new "Snap Packs" are strong enough to withstand the journey from shelf to home, yet sufficiently brittle to break when twisted. British beer fans will be the first to test this pledge as Carlsberg has chosen the UK market, which consumes 30% of its beer annually, to debut the eco-friendly packaging innovation. At an official launch event in Copenhagen, inventor Christopher Stuhlmann revealed how a trip to his local DIY store helped convince him that his brainwave could become a reality. "The starting point was going to a hardware shop and buying all the adhesive I could get, all the glue that was there," said Mr Stuhlmann, who works for one of Carlsberg's design partners. "Over the weekend I just glued things together and made a short video for my CEO and so the idea was born." The technology has the support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which has hailed it as a "big step" in efforts to tackle the worsening global scourge of plastic pollution. To mark the launch, the brewery unveiled a replica of Copenhagen's famous Little Mermaid statue - an artwork originally donated by Carlsberg's founders, the Jacobsen family - made from the new Snap Packs. Head of sustainability at Carlsberg, Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, said once the Snap Packs are rolled out worldwide the company will reduce its plastic use by 1,200 tonnes a year - the equivalent of 60 million plastic bags. "It's a little bit of magic," he said of the design. "It's glued together so you can't actually see the packaging. It's almost not there, and that is what is extremely exciting from a sustainability perspective." Bo Oksnebjerg, secretary-general of WWF Denmark, said the issue with traditional multi-pack rings was particularly serious, given their potential to trap animals and birds. "Our wildlife is drowning in plastic - and the problem is unfortunately growing considerably," he said. "We therefore need to act now. We need less plastic to end up in nature. That is why we consider it huge progress that Carlsberg is now launching solutions that significantly reduce the amount of plastic in its packaging." Carlsberg chief executive Cees 't Hart said he would be happy if competitors adopted the same technology. "I think, frankly, in the area of environmental footprints we should not compete, we should not race each other, we should not make this a kind of competitive edge for us," he said. "We do believe if we are serious about our concerns about the environment then we just need to innovate in an open way." Vice president of product development at the brewery, Myriam Shingleton, said she wanted the glue to become the new packaging norm. "It's a global problem and we are very happy we are at the front end to propose that," she said. "As always in Carlsberg we will not keep this for ourselves. "I'm sure other players will follow when they see that - and that's a very exciting journey if more and more players are coming." The glue technology was one of a series of sustainability innovations launched by the brewer in its headquarters in the Danish capital. It also showcased beer bottle labels made from recyclable ink; a coating technique to extend the lifespan of its refillable glasses bottles; and new bottle tops that absorb the oxygen trapped in the neck of the bottle, in a development designed to make the product stay fresher longer. The series of environmental initiatives is part of the company's drive to reduce both its carbon footprint and waste water output to zero in the coming years. More than a thousand far-right supporters have gathered for a rally over the fatal stabbing of a man in the German city of Chemnitz, for which two migrants have been arrested and charged with manslaughter. The flag-waving crowd rallied under the motto security for Chemnitz and behind a banner proclaiming we are the people. The number marching was far smaller than the estimated 6,000 who assembled the day after the August 26 stabbing of 35-year-old Daniel Hillig. Expand Close Protesters marched under a banner reading we are the people (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protesters marched under a banner reading we are the people (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Around 500 counter-protesters gathered nearby shouting slogans like theres no right to Nazi propaganda, while another opposition protest featured an open-air performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony as a sign against xenophobia, hate and violence. Local media reported one far-right supporter was arrested after being identified as having given the stiff-armed Nazi salute at a previous rally, which is banned in Germany, but police headquarters said they had no details on the report. Since the killing of Mr Hillig, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has sought to mobilise support with its anti-migrant message. But after a brief bump, polling suggests little change. An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges over Mr Hilligs death, which has also put a renewed a focus on Chancellor Angela Merkels welcoming migrant policies and revealed disagreements between her and top security officials. Expand Close An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp An Iraqi citizen and a Syrian citizen have been arrested on manslaughter charges (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) Interior minister Horst Seehofer expressed sympathy on Thursday for the protesters who were provoked by the killing. If I were not a minister, Id have gone to the streets as a citizen, Mr Seehofer said, quickly adding: Naturally, not together with the radicals. Mr Seehofer, who heads the Bavarian sister party to Mrs Merkels centre-right Christian Democrats, has long been to the chancellors right on immigration, but his rhetoric has toughened as polls show his party struggling ahead of an October state election. He told the Rheinischen Post newspaper that voters were linking their concerns to the issue of migration, which he called the mother of all political problems in this country. Mrs Merkel responded in an interview with Germany TV network RTL late on Thursday that she saw it differently. Migration presents us with challenges and here we have problems, but also successes, she said. Mrs Merkel added that she was working with Mr Seehofer to solve those problems. The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are meeting to discuss the future of Syria as a bloody military operation looms in the last rebel-held area of the war-ravaged nation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a ceasefire and an end to air strikes in the north-western province of Idlib, something that was not immediately accepted by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Mr Putin warned that militants in Idlib planned provocations, possibly including chemical weapons. The Syrian government has been repeatedly accused of using such weapons in the long conflict. Mr Putin added that it is unacceptable to use civilians as a pretext to shield terrorists in Idlib. Expand Close Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) Mr Rouhani demanded an immediate withdrawal of American forces in the country. The US has 2,000 troops in Syria. The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end, Mr Rouhani said, adding that terrorism must be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib. Each of the three nations has its own interests in the years-long war in Syria. Iran wants to keep its foothold in the Mediterranean nation neighbouring Israel and Lebanon. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a flood of refugees fleeing a military offensive and destabilising areas it now holds in Syria. Russia wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by Americas long uncertainty about what it wants in the conflict. Expand Close Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) North-western Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about three million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. There are an estimated 10,000 hardcore fighters, including al Qaida-linked militants. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after government troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Mr Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalising, and could hurt Moscows longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias post-war reconstruction. Expand Close Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) For Turkey, the stakes could not be higher. Turkey already hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its borders to newcomers. It has also created zones of control in northern Syria and has several hundred troops deployed at 12 observation posts in Idlib. A government assault creates a nightmare scenario of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including militants, fleeing towards its border and destabilising towns and cities in northern Syria. Early on Friday, a series of air strikes struck villages in south-west Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing one fighter, said Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said suspected Russian planes carried out the attack. Cincinnati police respond to the bank shooting. Photo: Cincinnati Police Department/Handout via REUTERS Police say four people are dead, including the gunman, in a downtown Cincinnati bank shooting. Police chief Eliot Isaac said the shooter opened fire early yesterday morning at the loading dock of the Fifth Third Bank building in the Ohio city. Mr Isaac said the gunman then entered the bank's lobby where he exchanged gunfire with police. It is unclear if the gunman shot himself or was shot by officers. One of the victims also died at the scene. Cincinnati mayor John Cranley said the gunman was "actively shooting innocent victims" and that it was a "horrific" scene. He noted the building on the city's Fountain Square houses popular ice cream, sandwich and pastry shops. He said it "could have been much, much worse" if not for the immediate police response to end the threat. US President Donald Trump vented his anger at the New York Times op-ed on Twitter yesterday. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis Pushing back against explosive reports his own administration is conspiring against him, US President Donald Trump lashed out against the anonymous senior official who wrote a 'New York Times' opinion piece claiming to be part of a "resistance" working "from within" to thwart his most dangerous impulses. Washington was consumed by a wild guessing game as to the identity of the author, and swift denials of involvement in the op-ed came yesterday from top administration officials, including from Vice President Mike Pence's office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Dan Coats, director of national intelligence. Mr Trump was furious, tweeting yesterday morning that "The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don't know what to do." On Wednesday night, Mr Trump tweeted a demand that if "the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!" White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on the "coward" who wrote the piece to "do the right thing and resign". White House officials did not immediately respond to a request to elaborate on Mr Trump's call for the writer to be turned over to the government or the unsupported national security ground of his demand. To some observers, the ultimatum appeared to play into the very concerns about the president's impulses raised by the essay's author. Mr Trump has demanded that aides identify the leaker, according to two people familiar with the matter. The op-ed also brought to light questions that have been whispered in Washington for more than a year: Is Trump truly in charge? And could a divided executive branch pose a danger to the country? Former CIA director John Brennan, a fierce Trump critic, called the op-ed "active insubordination... born out of loyalty to the country". "This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the orders of the chief executive," Mr Brennan told NBC's 'Today' show. "I do think things will get worse before they get better. "I don't know how Donald Trump is going to react to this. A wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded." The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the "resistance" to Mr Trump "working diligently from within" his administration, said: "Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." "It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room," the author continued. "We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't." The text of the op-ed was pulled apart for clues: The writer is identified as an "administration official"; does that mean a person who works outside the White House? The references to Russia and the late Senator John McCain - do they suggest someone working in national security? Does the writing style sound like someone who worked at a think tank? In a tweet, the 'Times' used the pronoun "he" to refer to the writer; does that rule out all women? The newspaper later said the tweet referring to "he" had been "drafted by someone who is not aware of the author's identity, including the gender, so the use of 'he' was an error". Hotly debated on Twitter was the author's use of the word "lodestar," which pops up frequently in speeches by Pence. Could the anonymous figure be someone in Pence's orbit? Others argued that the word "lodestar" could have been included to throw people off. Mr Pence's communications director tweeted that: "The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed." Barack Obama made his first serious contribution in the US midterm elections (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) Former president Barack Obama has said his successor Donald Trump is the symptom, not the cause of division and polarisation in the US. Mr Trump is just capitalising on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years, the former president said. His comments came during a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he accepted an ethics in government award. The remarks served as Mr Obamas first steps into the political fray ahead of the midterm elections autumn campaign. While he has endorsed candidates and appeared at fundraising events, he has spent much of his post-presidency on the political sidelines. The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more direBarack Obama In unusually direct terms, he made clear his concerns about politics in the Trump era and implored voters especially young people to show up at the polls in the November elections. Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different, Mr Obama said. The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire. He later added: This is not normal. The speech was a preview of the argument that Mr Obama is likely to make throughout the autumn. On Saturday, the former president will stump for House Democratic candidates from California at an event in Orange County, a conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several congressional seats. Next week, Mr Obama plans to campaign in Ohio for Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ohio Democrats. Mr Obamas campaign activity will continue through October and will include fundraising appearances, according to an Obama adviser. While the former president will be visible throughout the election, the adviser said Mr Obama will not be a daily presence on the campaign trail. Iran and Russia have backed a military campaign to retake the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria as Turkey pleaded for a ceasefire. The disagreement narrows the chances of a diplomatic solution to avoid what many say would be a bloody humanitarian disaster. The trilateral summit in Tehran involves Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Expand Close Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Hassan Rouhani in Tehran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) It puts further pressure on the rebel forces still operating in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, including about 10,000 hardcore jihadists and al Qaida-linked fighters. It left the chance, however slim, for further diplomacy to try to separate civilians and rebels from the Islamic militants in Idlib. While Mr Putin called for the total annihilation of terrorists in Syria, he left open the possibility of a ceasefire. Mr Rouhani also spoke of cleansing the Idlib region of terrorists, while also noting the need of protecting civilians. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a military offensive will touch off a flood of refugees and destabilise areas it now holds in Syria. Ankara also has hundreds of troops manning 12 observation posts in Idlib. Idlib isnt just important for Syrias future; it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region, Mr Erdogan said. Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience. We dont want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath. Expand Close Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Vladimir Putin meeting Bashar Assad in May (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) Mr Erdogan also sought to use Persian literature to drive home his point in Tehran, quoting the poet Saadi: If youve no sympathy for human pain, the name of a human you cannot retain. The US also warned against an assault in Idlib, with Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the UN Security Council that the consequences will be dire. North-western Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalising, and could hurt Russias longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias post-war reconstruction. Expand Close Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anti-Assad protests in Maaret al-Numan, a town in Idlib province (Wissam Zarqa/AP) Russia also wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by the US and its long uncertainty over what it wants in the conflict. We think its unacceptable when (someone) is trying to shield the terrorists under the pretext of protecting civilians as well as causing damage to Syrian government troops, Mr Putin said. As far as we can see, this is also the goal of the attempts to stage chemical weapons incidents by Syrian authorities. We have irrefutable evidence that militants are preparing such operations, such provocations. Mr Putin offered no evidence to back his claim. The UN and Western countries have blamed Assads forces for chemical weapons attacks in the civil war, something denied by Russia and Syria. The US, Britain and France have vowed to take action against any further chemical attacks by Assads regime. Reacting to Mr Erdogans proposal for a ceasefire in Idlib, Mr Putin said a ceasefire would be good but indicated that Moscow does not think it will hold. We hope that we will be able to reach an agreement and that our call for reconciliation in the Idlib area will be heard, the Russian president said. We hope that the representatives of those terrorist organisations will be smart enough to stop the resistance and lay down arms. There was no immediate reaction from fighters in Idlib. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said before the summit that his forces were prepared for a battle that they expect will lead to a major humanitarian crisis. Idlib is about a lot of international power play and everyone is looking after their interests, Mr al-Mustafa said. Serbias president has refused to meet his Kosovo counterpart at European Union-backed talks, dashing hopes of an imminent improvement in long-strained relations between the two countries. Hopes of a breakthrough had been relatively high after a territory swap had been suggested as part of a package to normalise relations between Serbia and its former province. The two sides must patch up their differences to stand a chance of becoming members of the EU. However, after separate meetings on an array of issues with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said difficulties remain. There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina todaySerbian negotiator Marko Djuric Without elaborating, she said she trusts that both leaders will continue the process and reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalisation of relations, in line with international law. Behind the scenes in Brussels, there were few signs of a change in the rhetoric. Marko Djuric, a leading Serbian negotiator, said Mr Vucic refused to meet Mr Thaci because of recent threats and deceits from Kosovo. There are not minimum conditions to talk to the representatives of Pristina today, he said. .@FedericaMog hosted @predsednikrs @avucic @HashimThaciRKS in context of #EU facilitated dialogue: Trust full commitment of both Presidents to continue work to reach legally binding agreement. Next high level dialogue to take place later this month. https://t.co/X0cx8909Kx pic.twitter.com/k7GKq9oFcy European External Action Service - EEAS (@eu_eeas) September 7, 2018 The dispute between Serbia and Kosovo dates back to 1998-99, when former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic ordered a bloody crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists. More than 10,000 people died in the conflict before Nato forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognised as a nation by more than 100 countries, but Serbia does not recognise it, and neither do five EU countries Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Tensions remain high in northern Kosovo where many ethnic Serbs still live. Serbia and Kosovo have been told to sort out their differences if they hope to join the EU. Officials from both sides have suggested a land swap could work, but the idea has been criticised locally and internationally. Expand Close The town of Presevo is at the centre of the idea (Zenel Zhinipotoku/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The town of Presevo is at the centre of the idea (Zenel Zhinipotoku/AP) The proposal could see a part of southern Serbia centred on the ethnic Albanian-dominated city of Presevo transferred to Kosovo, while the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, around Mitrovica, would become part of Serbia. Some fear any border changes might trigger similar demands elsewhere in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro, which like Serbia and Kosovo, were part of the former Yugoslavia. Germany, Austria and Luxembourg have warned that any land swap could open up old wounds in the region. Other EU countries, such as Belgium and Romania, believe it is up to the two sides to sort things out. Zoran Ostojic, an analyst from Belgrade, said Mr Vucic and Mr Thaci are testing the ground, primarily with the international community by floating the swap idea. Who knows where that could end? he warned, echoing fears of a chain reaction throughout the Balkans. Ms Mogherini is due to chair further high-level talks in Brussels between the sides later this month. American defence secretary James Mattis has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul on a surprise visit to the war-weary country. Mr Mattis is expected to meet Afghan, US and Nato military commanders as well as Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. The defence secretarys arrival comes just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people amid a fresh round of insider attacks that claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police officers earlier this week. Expand Close A US serviceman was killed in Afghanistan this week (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A US serviceman was killed in Afghanistan this week (AP) Washington appears to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistans war. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, as Washingtons new senior official for Afghan reconciliation. Mr Khalilzad, a controversial figure in the region, is a former envoy to Afghanistan. US defence secretary James Mattis has made a surprise visit to Afghanistans war-shattered capital, days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people and wounded 90 others in the city. Accompanied to Kabul by General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mr Mattis met senior government officials, including President Ashraf Ghani and his leadership partner in an often fractious unity government, chief executive Abdullah Abdullah. Security featured prominently in their discussions, as did government attempts to put the brakes on runaway government corruption, said a presidential statement following the meetings. Mr Mattis also assured the Afghan leadership that the US is committed to stay the course in Afghanistan until the country is secure and stable, the statement said. Expand Close A US Army team carries the remains of US Army Staff Sgt Diobanjo S San Agustin (Alex Brandon/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A US Army team carries the remains of US Army Staff Sgt Diobanjo S San Agustin (Alex Brandon/AP) There was no indication from the Afghan government or the US military command of a change in strategy that might bring about greater security or how the existing strategy might bring results. The visit to Afghanistan, which lasted a little more than six hours, came amid brutal assaults against the countrys minority Shiites and a fresh round of insider attacks this week that claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police. The US has been supporting Afghan forces in an aggressive campaign against Islamic State group insurgents in eastern Nangarhar province, but the IS affiliate has repeatedly been able to carry out horrific and brazen attacks in the heavily fortified capital. The victims have most often been Afghanistans minority Shiite Muslims. The radical Sunni IS reviles Shiites as apostates. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a wrestling centre, killing 21 people and wounding 90. Two of the dead were journalists who died when a second bomber blew himself up as first responders and journalists rushed to the scene. On Friday, Afghanistans IS affiliate issued a statement claiming the attack. The statement was accompanied by a picture of a young man with a masked face, who was identified as suicide bomber Saber al-Khorasani. The second explosion was a vehicle filled with explosives, according to the statement, which could not be independently verified. The discrepancy between the IS account and the Afghan governments initial report of two suicide bombers was not immediately clear. Mr Mattiss visit to Kabul comes as Washington seems to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistans protracted war and Washingtons longest military engagement. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as Washingtons new point man for Afghan reconciliation. Mr Khalilzad, a controversial figure in the region, is a former envoy to Afghanistan. Mr Mattis arrived in Afghanistan fresh from meetings in Pakistan where Mr Pompeo said the US wanted to reset its relationship with Pakistan, and newly elected prime minister Imran Khan expressed optimism, promising to work with Washington for peace. But Mr Khan has repeatedly said Pakistan is no longer interested in partnering with the US in war. This is my promise that Pakistan will never again fight someone elses war, he said on Thursday in a speech to mark Pakistans Defence Day. Tribal slot machine revenues are on the rise in New Mexico, according to new figures. Almost every tribe reported an increase in slot machine earnings in fiscal year 2018, The Associated Press reported. The Pueblo of Taos , for example, saw a 7 percent rise while the Pueblo of Tesuque saw a 6 percent boost. The Mescalero Apache Tribe saw the highest gain of nearly 8 percent. Thats surprisingly strong growth, Jon Clark, an economist with New Mexico's Legislative Finance Committee told the AP. The figures cited by the AP cover fiscal year 2018, which ended June 30. The New Mexico Gaming Control Board has posted reports for the four quarters: Quarter ending November 17, 2017 Tribes share a percentage of their revenues with the state. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, the state received more than $66.2 million, the AP reported. Read More on the Story Join the Conversation It is for the first time that Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor are collaborating for a film. When it was announced that the duo will be seen romancing each other in Brahmastra, the audiences were excited to see them share the screen space on the silver screen. But before that could happen, their off-screen romance started making headlines. Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor have both admitted that they are dating each other. The families of the duo are also happy. Rishi Kapoor recently said that he and Neetu Kapoor like Alia Bhatt too. Also Read: Rishi Kapoor Approves Of Son Ranbir's Girlfriend, Says Neetu & I Like Alia Bhatt After a short break, Alia is back on the sets of Ayan Mukerji's directorial Brahmastra. She is back to where she belongs read the caption. Is Ranbir Kapoor the reason behind that smile? Recently, President Ram Nath Kovind visited the sets of Brahmastra while he was on his three-nation visit to Europe. #PresidentKovind and President Radev dropped in at the studio in Sofia where the Hindi film Brahmastra is being made. The Presidents met the Indo-Bulgarian crew and chatted about cinema as a business and cultural link between the two countries pic.twitter.com/8ApZq1gEJA President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) September 5, 2018 Brahmastra is a trilogy produced by Dharma Productions. Apart from Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, the film also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Dimple Kapadia and Mouni Roy. The first part of the film is expected to hit the screens on Aug 19. Horror as a movie genre has a niche audience and this is also the reason why it's also the one least made in comparison to a rom-com or a action-thriller. This year, the horror genre has gone up a notch higher and some spectacular movies got us spooked. Yes, 2018 has been a mix of English and Hindi supernatural movies. Bollywood too made 3 scary films which is rare. Here's taking a look at 9 films that will shake the life out of you. In case, you missed watching these, then the weekend is right time to catch up. And some are yet to be released. Take a look: 1. The Nun All set to release tomorrow, The Nun is a fifth installment in The Conjuring Universe. The plot follows a priest and a Catholic novitiate, as they uncover an unholy secret in 1952 Romania. 2. Stree "O Stree! Kal Mat Aana" - The trailer shows the story is based on the Indian urban legend, Nale Ba, about a witch who knocks on people's doors at night. This is the first time, a Bollywood film has been successful in establishing a scary film with lots of humour in it just in the right proportion. Pankaj Tripathi is a delight in the film as far as punchy lines are concerned. The movie just released last week and is a must watch 3. Pari Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma has been taking the difficult route despite being an A-lister, the actress is experimenting with her roles. This year too, she came up with a horror movie. She did not just act in it but also produced it. The story of Pari revolves around the concept of Ifrit and Auladhchakra, a satanic cult in Bangladesh aiming to propagate and progress the bloodline of Ifrit.You must watch it to see how creepy Anushka looks in some scenes. Too scary to be true. 4. Slender-man As per the trailer, four friends, Wren, Hallie, Chloe and Katie in a small town in Massachusetts summon the Slender Man. A week later, Katie disappears and the other three girls go to her house to investigate for clues. The three discover that Katie had been involved in the occult and that she wanted the Slender Man to take her. 5. 1921 Starring Karan Kundra and Zareen Khan, 1921 is a revisit to the Gothic horror, sparsely populated with ghouls ,demons,and other forms of occult. It had mixed reviews but directed by Vikram Bhatt, the movie promises to have unpredictable scares. 6. Halloween As per a report on Toronti Sun, the movie is not only a stellar sequel (a rarity in of itself), but also the scariest American slasher that this programmer has seen since Scream upended the genre in 1996. 7. Delirium Just watching the trailer will send shivers down your spine. This supernatural thriller centers on a man who inherits a mansion from his late parents shortly after he is released from a mental institution. However, he grows convinced that the house is haunted following a series of strange occurrences. 8. Insidious : The Last Key One of my favourite from the list, Insidious follows the life of parapsychologist Elise Rainier as she investigates a haunting in her childhood home. 9. Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich We suggest, you do not watch this movie alone. It is bound to give you jump scares more than once. It is the first film in the Puppet Master franchise and stars actors as psychics who are plotted against by a former colleague, using puppets animated by an Egyptian spell. As India prepares to send three humans into space for seven days before 2020, support from France has poured in for the ambitious mission. The spacecraft will be placed in a low Earth orbit of 300-400 kilometres. ISRO and CNES, the French space agency, will be combining their expertise in fields of space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support, radiation protection, space debris protection and personal hygiene systems, said French space agency president Jean-Yves Le Gall. Engineering teams have already begun discussions and it is envisioned that infrastructure such as CADMOS centre for development of microgravity applications and space operations or the MEDES space clinic will be used for training of future Indian astronauts, as well as exchange of specialist personnel, Gall said. ISRO plans to conduct experiments on microgravity through its astronauts. Representational Image French-Indian space cooperation spans in areas of climate monitoring, with a fleet of joint satellites devoted to research and operational applications, innovation, through a joint technical group tasked with inventing the launch vehicles of the future. The two also have plans to work on Mars, Venus and asteroids. OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Ocean Springs city officials said Friday there is no budget deficit, there have not been nor will there be any employee layoffs, and the decision to close the municipal jail was unrelated to balancing the budget. The reaction from officials came less than 24 hours after a report by local television station WLOX which erroneously claimed Ocean Springs was "facing a budget deficit." "The whole budget deficit thing -- I know some in the media like to stir up drama, especially with the current situation in Pascagoula," said alderman Mike Impey, "but to say Ocean Springs is facing a deficit is totally false." Impey, fellow aldermen Rob Blackman and Bobby Cox and Mayor Shea Dobson all told The Mississippi Press that reductions in expenditures are common place during budget talks each year -- and this year was no different. "Let me break it down," Blackman said. "This year, we ended up with a surplus of about $220,000. After we began working on the new budget, we looked at all the department's wish lists and requests and saw that to meet all of those requests would put us about $500,000 in the red. "So we did our typical reductions and now we're projecting a surplus by the end of fiscal 2019." A copy of the proposed budget, which is expected to be approved next week after Friday's state-mandated public hearing, projects Ocean Springs to end FY19 with a surplus of just under $100,000. In addition, the City currently maintains a reserve fund of more than $900,000, Cox noted. "We're not in a crisis situation," said Impey, who said he was quoted out of context in the WLOX report. "Layoffs were never part of the equation. That's something they (WLOX) tried to steer me into saying -- that the jailers were layoffs. They were not. I really resent the way that was presented in that article." The Mississippi Press first reported Thursday that Ocean Springs had reached an agreement under which the municipal jail would be closed and city prisoners housed at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center. The WLOX report suggested three Ocean Springs jailers would be out of jobs. While the positions were eliminated, all three have been guaranteed spots working at the ADC if they want them -- a point confirmed by Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell Friday. "We have some openings at the ADC and we plan on hiring these guys," Ezell said. "The way it works here is there's a procedure for starting out in the jail and then transitioning to deputy sheriff. So we continually have guys who transfer from the jail to the road, so that creates openings at the ADC. So right now we have openings for them." In addition, the ADC jobs pay more than did working in the municipal jail and carry the same state retirement benefits. Blackman and Impey said, and Ezell confirmed, discussions about closing the Ocean Springs jail began long before the budget process began. "The jail closure had absolutely nothing to do with the budget," Blackman said. "That was a decision made weeks ago and was in talks months ago. We wanted to get out of the jail business. It made sense. This was voted on before even knew of any potential problems with the budget. "The way WLOX spun this as a cut of personnel because of budget constraints is just not true." Impey agreed. "The whole thing about the jail -- to try and tie the two together is extremely disingenuous," he said. "They're trying to make out the three jailers as layoffs and that is absolutely not the case. It was something Chief (Mark) Dunston and others have worked on for a while, because it just didn't make economic sense to continue to be the only city still running our own jail." Dobson and Cox both said the process of trimming the budget was part of the normal process each year. Blackman noted the city ad valorem (property tax) millage rate of 25.83, set to be adopted after Friday night's budget hearing, is unchanged from the current millage and, while the new budget will not include employee raises, there were across the board raises last year. "Basically, it was making adjustments to the budget based on revenue projections," Cox said. "With all the requests from departments, we had to go in and make decisions about what we wanted to do this coming year and what could be put off." "We had to pull back on some projects we wanted to do," Dobson said. We're doing that, frankly, because we're having to purchase new software, public works had equipment that was falling apart -- what we're doing is investing back in the City so we can be more efficient, which will later allow us to do more of the projects we want to do. "Certainly, it would be nice to be able to give our departments everything they ask for, but the reality is we have to spend within our means, which is what we're doing." Cox also noted that if the City were truly in a deficit situation, they would tap into the reserve fund, although he said the board has worked hard to build the reserve, not use it. "The story that came out last night was a very negative spin on the whole thing," Cox said. "But I guess you can put a negative spin on anything if you try hard enough." India and the United States, in the first 2+2 India-US dialogue attended by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman engaging with their US counterparts Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis has clearly told Pakistan to end exporting terrorists from its land. The two countries, issuing a joint statement, named and called upon Pakistan to ensure its territory wasn't used to launch terror attacks on other countries. The "reprimand" is said to be one of the important takeaways from the meeting which saw India and the US agreeing to further intensify counter-terror cooperation. youtube/representational image "The ministers denounced any use of terrorist proxies in the region, and in this context, they called on Pakistan to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries,'' said the joint statement. Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, India and US also called on Pakistan to bring to justice expeditiously the perpetrators of the Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, and other "cross-border terrorist attacks". Welcoming the recent designations of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists by the US, Swaraj said it underscored the international community's scrutiny over the threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, which had affected India and the US alike. reuters "India supports President Trump's South Asia policy. His call for Pakistan to stop its policy of supporting cross-border terrorism finds resonance with us," said Swaraj. Pompeo didn't mention Pakistan in his remarks though. The two sides welcomed the launch of a bilateral dialogue on designation of terrorists in 2017 which, they said, is strengthening cooperation and action against terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul Mujahideen, the Haqqani Network, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, DCompany and their affiliates. The US and India welcomed the expansion of bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation with the ministers announcing their intent to increase information-sharing efforts on known or suspected terrorists and to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2396 on returning foreign terrorist fighters. afp/representational image The two countries are also discussing the possibility of bringing another resolution at the UN for a ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar. It is important though for them to ensure that China drops its opposition to the ban. China has twice earlier blocked a UN ban on Azhar. The strong support from the US on cross-border terrorism is significant, coming as it does ahead of the UN General Assembly meet which is likely to see yet another Indo-Pak face-off on the J&K dispute later this month. While Pakistan is likely to highlight what it describes as human rights violations by India, Swaraj is likely to respond by reiterating that the main problem in the state was Pakistan sponsored terrorism. Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhus hug to Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed landed him in controversy. However, the strategy has finally is bearing fruit. Pakistan has agreed to open the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. Indians can now visit Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan without a visa. Reacting to the news, Sidhu thanked his friend Imran Khan. He said that the news has fulfilled the desire of millions of Sikh devotees. The doors of Kartapur Sahib shall be opened on the 550th Birth anniversary of Sikh guru Guru Nanak Devji which falls September. Guru Nanak Devji died on September 22, 1539 in Kartarpur. Sidhu also added that it has nothing to do with the infamous hug. PTI Sidhu landed in controversy when he hugged Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed during the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, to which he was invited in Pakistan. The Supreme Court of India on September 06 delivered a historic verdict in which it read down Section 377 as no longer a criminal offence in the country. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code considered consensual sex between homosexuals as 'unnatural' or 'against the order of the nature'. Though, the Delhi High Court had decriminalized homosexuality in 2009, the order was repealed by the apex court in 2013. Lawyers, activists, LGBT members burnt midnight oil to challenge court's order citing that Constitution must recognise love and not just sexual acts (Menaka Guruswamy). As soon as the verdict was announced, ecstatic Indians took to streets to display gestures of love, harmony and peace. Celebrations and drum beats could be heard in every major city. Perhaps, our seven sisters also painted the North East in seven rainbow colours. Despite facing flood like situations, the citizens didn't refrain from celebrating the momentous occasion. 1. Assam Assam has been going through a roller coaster ride. First the National Register Of Citizens then swelling of the Brahmaputra river. However, a group of 30 people in Guwahati's Dighalipukhuri area made a modest gathering to raise a toast. They were asked not to make much noise as a candle light march was taking place nearby for an accident that had taken place a day before, the Indian Express reported. Teenagers aged between 18 and 30 laughed, cried and hugged each other. Photo: Indian Express/Tora Agarwala "When I was a teenager, I used to hate my mom for not accepting me. Today, I want to kneel down in front of her. His mother hugged him, as everyone cheered. Later he added, with his mother by his side, My mother doesnt understand everything about all of this but what she does understand is equality. said a 28 year old to Indian Express. Another finance professional shared how they were glued to their TV screens since the morning for the verdict to come. Assam has a robust network of the LGBTQ+ community but many of them believe that this is only the first stage of victory. How will the decision be implemented is what they want to see. Most of the transgenders in Assam were left out of the NRC because the state doesnt have a Transgender policy. 2) Manipur Photo: Indian Express/Tora Agarwala The LGBTQ+ community in Manipurs capital, Imphal gathered to cut a cake at the Manipur Press Club. Social organisations like Manipur Nupi Manbi Association (AMANA), Empowering Trans Ability (ETA), Maruploi Foundation and All Trans Man Association (ATMA) felt as if they had come out of a cocoon. While not many know that Manipur was the first North-east state to have a Pride Parade in 2013. It was replaced with Miss Trans Queen Contest North East until 2016. 3) Nagaland Keven, a LGBTQ+ activist based in Kohima said that most of their meetings until now were organised in silent spaces. They are organizing a celebration on the 9th and 10th of September. In a Christian society like ours, the SC verdict means a lot. 377 verdict, I hope, will give people a sense of confidence, she was quoted as saying to IE. 4) Meghalaya Photo: Indian Express/Jimmy Leivon Shillong hasnt done even a single Pride Parade until now because reportedly, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) Amendment Bill doesnt even recognise the third gender. Shamakami is the only LGBTQ+ organization in Meghalaya. Its founder chairman, Rebina Subbah is optimistic that after the historic judgement they will surely make a Pride Parade happen this year. A street celebration is expected to take place at 4 pm today in Shillongs Police Bazar. 5) Mizoram 33 year old, Goosh Vangchhia, who is known to come out as the states first gay man in public said that though he is certain that there may be many preachers who will be speaking negatively about the judgement in the church, he is sure that the Christian state of Mizoram will transform with the judgement. Everyone should be equal. Thats what the Bible says. After all, its all about the love that Jesus is preaching., Express reported. 6) Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura There wouldnt be any public celebrations in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. These are the only two states which do not have any active LGBTQ+ organisations. Im from Arunachal Pradesh and here the people dont even know that we exist. After watching the verdict today, I came out to many of my friends. And they understood. I was depressed for very long but today, I cannot even define my happiness, said a 20-year-old from Itanagar. Hence, these people would organize a party with friends and celebrate with cake and alcohol. Stigmatising homosexuals and transgenders are so common in Tripura that no LGBTQ+ community/collective has ever had the chance to grow in the state. I recall the abuses, body shaming, slander and insults when I grew up. The Supreme Court verdict is a reply to all of them. said an elated transwoman civil engineer, Shivani Acharjee. Photo: Reuters This is an opportunity for even the communities who opposed equal rights to the LGBTQ community to welcome the judgement and join the larger battle for equality in India. Remember, its not only about faith or caste; its about food, profession, gender and many other individual choices that are guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Researchers may be evaluating how best to implement 5G in an efficient and economically viable format, but in the meantime India is still catching up with 4G. To that end, it seems were doing pretty great, especially the City of Joy. According to a new report by mobile analytics company OpenSignal, Kolkata is actually leading the 4G charge. In a 4G availability survey across Indias 22 telecom circles, the city has stolen the lead over not just the rest of India, but even international metros like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. Kolkata is Indias top region for 4G availability, being the only circle in the country with a hugely impressive LTE availability score of over 90 percent, OpenSignal CEO Brendan Gill told Economic Times. This is quite a feat, considering the rest of India isnt lagging too far behind. OpenSignal says the other 21 telecom circles in India have by and large crossed the 80 percent threshold in 4G availability. This is despite the fact that weve only had 4G since 2012. Take a minute to let that soak in. Just to be clear, this doesnt necessarily mean that 90.7 percent of people in Kolkata have 4G connections, after all that depends on other factors like financial income. What it does mean however is that 90 percent of the city has access to 4G if the people there so choose. Its basically 90 percent coverage. Close behind Kolkata is Punjab with 89.8 percent 4G availability, followed by Bihar at 89.2 percent, Madhya Pradesh with 89.1 percent, and Orissa with 89 percent. Other major metros like Mumbai and New Delhi were much further behind, with 86.65 percent and 86.73 percent respectively. If it wasnt already clear, you can thank Reliance Jio for this uptick in 4G services. Not that the company is single-handedly carrying India along the 4G path on its back, not by far. However, its dynamic entry into the scene two years sparked a tariff war between the major telcos that turned the mobile internet system on its head. Two years ago you would have paid Rs 300 - 400 for a few GB of data in a month. Now, that same amount would probably get you 1GB a day for perhaps two months or more. Unfortunately, while 4G availability has improved, Indias mobile internet speeds remain somewhat stagnant. Were still stuck at a national average of about 6.1 Mbps, far from the global average of 17 Mbps. Its not surprising considering the density of population in metropolitan areas, where tens of thousands of users are fighting for the same bandwidth. Back in 2014, Sony Pictures experienced a devastating hack that saw the perpetrators making off with private data and company emails. Now, the US Justice Department has charged a North Korean man with the crime, as well as for the WannaCry ransomware. The man in question is allegedly a state operative, working on North Koreas orders. Park Jin-hyok, they say, was part of a wide-ranging, multi-year conspiracy the North korean government ordered. Park and other allegedly cracked into Sony Pictures using a front organization, and also created the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware. The latter, is responsible for damaging computer systems of businesses and government institutions in at least 150 countries. The United States has previously blamed North Korea for both attacks, but especially the Sony Pictures hack. Supposedly, that one was an act of cyberwarfare taken in response to The Interview, the movie starring Seth Rogan and James Franco. In it, the two are depicted as talk show producers setting up an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Aside from mocking him profusely in the movie though, it also depicted them assassinating him as part of a US Intelligence plot. The Sony hack saw the leak of footage of multiple unreleased movies at the time. More importantly though, the leaked emails were a major source of embarrassment, and also served as attack vectors for subsequent independent hacks. Park has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The Treasury Department has also placed sanctions on Park and his front company. Self-check in at airports makes things a lot easier, so you can just punch in a PNR number and be on your way with a boarding pass. Now the Bengaluru International Airport says its improving even the security process with facial recognition. The private airport operator has signed a partnership deal with Lisbon-based Vision-Box, a biometric solutions provider, for the project. The idea is that cameras will track fliers faces as they move across the airport and match them with existing databases. That way, once you enter the airport, you wont have to present your identification or boarding pass at multiple checkpoints. Vision-Box has already been running pilots at the Los Angeles International Airport in the US, in partnership with certain airlines. In that case, the facial recognition tech has been implemented into self check-in kiosks, with face captures being matched against records gathers by the Department of Border Control and Immigration. In Bangalores case, it seems the system will rely on an initial face capture when you check in or at the airport doors. That capture can be matched against a persons Aadhaar records and booking to confirm their ticket, and then be added to a tracking pool monitoring fliers in the airport until they depart on a flight. The Vision-Box facial recognition system at Buenos Aires International Airport - Image courtesy: Vision-Box The move is part of BIALs attempts to implement the governments DigiYatra program. The aim is to minimise paperwork for air travel, by controlling airport entry and flight boarding using a passengers Aadhaar number and mobile phone. Vision-Boxs biometric technology, combined with its passenger flow platform will enable a seamless journey for our passengers, from registration to boarding, says Hari Marar, managing director and CEO of BIAL. The new facial recognition technology is expected to be in place by the first quarter of 2019, with Jet Airways, Air Asia and SpiceJet passengers being the first to implement it. It will make Bangalores airport the first in India to have a completely end-to-end paperless travel system. 6th September 2018 is a date that will go down in history. That's the day India finally decriminalised homosexuality and gave legal safety to all those who identify themselves as homosexuals. A judgement which had been long awaited was welcomed with social media posts, status updates and a whole lot of pride flags which the rainbow represents perfectly. Artists all over India have been putting out their work on the new verdict and all the rainbows look so beautiful: Love has finally won over the regressive views that exist in the society: It is truly time to celebrate the pride flag: Love of all kinds should be free to grow: May the Pride flag keep flying high: The verdict is just the beginning: Kyuki pyaar gender dekh kar nahi hota. Bas ho jaata hai: India has finally said goodbye to 377! How the youth bid farewell to the one law that put boundaries on love: You're no longer a criminal now: Ab koi darr nahi: To loving without breaking any laws! No, we are not making this up, it actually happened, Mr Musk did 'light up a J' during LIVE podcast! Now before you go crazy, here's what happened. Elon Musk took a drag on a fat joint while being interviewed on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast on Thursday. In his defence, Marijuana is legal for medical and recreational use in California and that's where the interview took place. The Tesla chief executive was speaking with comedian Joe Rogan who is an advocate of legalizing weed. "Is that a joint? Or is it a cigar?" Musk asked Rogan before being told it was a cigarette containing marijuana. And with the joint in hand the two engaged in a lengthy discussion on a number of issues including humanity and artificial intelligence. Just the kind of conversation to be had over a joint, right? People were far from calm when they stumbled upon this on the Internet: #1 #2 Bruh what dimension are we living in Tyler Mai (@Tee_Maister) September 7, 2018 #3 #4 What the actual fuck Vandelay Industries (@Artie_Vandelay) September 7, 2018 #5 Fine line between mad man and genius Mark Mcguire (@mcguiremark143) September 7, 2018 At this point, I am taking the 'what dimension are living in' tweet seriously. Left to right: Gurmeet Chaudhary, Arjun Rampal and Sonu Sood in J.P. Duttas war drama Paltan. The film tells the real story of how the Indian armed forces crushed a bigger Chinese force at Nathu-La Pass on the Sikkim-Tibet border and won a victory over those who had defeated India in 1962. (photo provided) The Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama, has returned this ancient statue of Lord Shiva to India, which was stolen out of the country as a part of a $100 million international smuggling racket organized by Indian American art dealer Subhash Kapoor. (artsbma.org) 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) Nemenoff Report 11/04/2021 The PRICE Futures Group - 14 minutes ago Financials: As of this writing Dec. Bonds are 3 lower at 16012, 10 Year Notes 2 higher at 13026.5 and the 5 Year Notes 5 higher at 12130. Yields have crept up over the last few weeks especially... High Anxiety. The Energy Report 11/04/2021 The PRICE Futures Group - 1 hour ago The oil bull gave into high anxiety as the Fed, OPEC, and rumors of an SPR release and a surprise build in weekly crude supply caused profit-taking. While the oil market tried to recover late in the session,... "A lot of people say, are you happy?" Deacon told ABC. "Happiness isn't really an option when the house, in my opinion and that of my builders and engineers, was destroyed by the insurance process and not by the cyclone. I've made the decision to demolish it and I'll get rid of the land and not, for a really long time, own a property again." Youi paid to install a tarpaulin over her damaged roof, but Deacon said it left gaping holes causing far more damage when it rained. Youi disputed the extent of the damage, but a Financial Ombudsman Service decision found the insurer liable for the damage. Despite the finding, Youi paid Deacon just $161,000 well below the $270,000 she was insured for and her quotes to fix the damage and closed her case against her will. In June, Deacons home was featured in a 7.30 broadcast and was shown to have been riddled with mould, had widespread water damage, and had gaps where the roof should have been. After the storys broadcast, two Youi representatives met with Deacon and her federal member of parliament, the LNPs George Christensen, to resolve the dispute. Christensen said it was clear the property was absolutely stuffed and a complete write-off. "The good thing is the very senior representatives of Youi who came to look at it also recognised pretty quickly that was the situation," Christensen told the publication. It's obviously sad that anyone has to go through that sort of trauma after a natural disaster to try and get a fix to what should be a simple service that they're paying for." Deacon believed Youi only relented after her story was featured. To increase the pressure on her insurer, Deacon made a submission to the royal commission and lodged a follow-up dispute with the financial ombudsman. "It was probably becoming quite obvious that I would have won and I think that by folding they avoided having another decision passed by the ombudsman," Deacon told ABC. "They have offered to pay out the full amount insured ($270,000) and pay the full cost of demolition." In a statement, Youi acknowledged that Deacons claim took an unacceptably long time to resolve and apologised for it. "We are pleased that Ms Deacon has now been settled in full and will begin to get her repairs underway," the insurer said. Deacon said the royal commission should look into making lasting changes to simplify the claims process and improve dispute resolution for consumers. I think the insurers have these gaps that they can go through as big business and they take them, Deacon told ABC. I think the only way to actually stop that from happening is to close those holes. (Youi Insurance) just took every single opportunity that they could just to win, so it became really unnecessarily adversarial." The building ministers agreed to: collaborate with the insurance industry to identify information and data to enable accurate risk quantification by insurer; share information across national jurisdictions to facilitate risk management across the construction industry; work with the construction industry to establish non-regulatory measures to help provide assurance to insurers; and devise a permanent ACP labelling system through Standards Australia. The forum also cited the need to provide building surveyors and certifiers access to professional indemnity insurance cover and tasked the building ministers senior officers group (SOG) to consult with the Building Regulators Forum (BRF) to work with insurers and other industry stakeholders to develop an Australia-wide framework. The BMF will reconvene in December. Roger Irvine, Gallagher head of construction for Australia and Asia, acknowledged the need to tackle the cladding issue, but wants actions to be taken soon. "While we are seeing many insurers taking a flexible approach to underwriting of the cladding risk, it is very difficult to get any sort of cladding cover for building surveyors and certifiers in this market," Irvine said. This is a solid initiative for the BMF, but December seems to be a long way away for them to reconvene. The issues are happening right now, with the insurance market not being particularly supportive for the little guys." Gallagher Bassett has received the Insurance Industry Innovation of the Year award by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and Asia Insurance Review (AIR). The accolade was in recognition of GBs development of LaunchPad for its Northern Territory government self-insurance service, designed to simplify and enhance the claims experience for employers, government agencies, and injured workers. Every year, uninsured visitors account for roughly $30 million in unpaid medical expenses in NSW. While certain Australian visas already require health insurance, these are largely restricted to foreign students and a number of specific working visa holders. Hazzards proposal, if enacted, would see this extended to all overseas visitors to Australia. With the notable exceptions of Iran and Cuba, no other country requires mandatory health insurance upon visiting. Accordingly, some have rejected the ministers proposal and suggested that his words could cause longer-term harm to Australias tourism industry. Speaking to Insurance Business, Margy Osmond, CEO of the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF), stated that the minister was raising undue concern among potential visitors to Australia. International visitors to NSW alone represent $13.1 billion for the economy, says Osmond. In a remarkably competitive international tourism market, the last thing you want to do is add a disincentive to anyone choosing Australia Minister Hazzards proposal would do exactly that. Osmond also stresses that unfettered public discussion around the issue can potentially cause problems of its own, well before it becomes law. Weve already had Chinese tour operators raise concern that theres suddenly going to be an insurance issue around getting a visa to visit Australia, says Osmond. Similarly, the discussion around a backpackers tax a couple of years ago was enough to scare off numerous travellers for 12 to 18 months. Additionally, Osmond suggests that this could have unforeseen consequences for Australians travelling overseas. There are reciprocity issues, too, says Osmond. Australian tourists who travel without insurance may well be left vulnerable overseas if any changes are made. Osmond also notes that there is another means for Health Ministers to reclaim these costs. Currently, the Federal Government collects close to $1 billion AUD per annum from the Passenger Movement Charge, says Osmond. If the State Health Ministers are genuinely concerned about this issue, their best route of recovery is via the Federal Treasurer. The Ministers comments come in the wake of a new proposed State tourism target of $55 billion AUD by 2030. On August 29, Discover NSW launched a new plan to help further boost the states tourism and engagement with overseas visitors. Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall stated that: Marketing Sydney as the gateway to Australia is key to growing the visitor economy in NSW. It remains to be seen whether the Minister will issue a retraction on his words, or pursue the policy further. Weve certainly written to the minister, well be writing to all of the health ministers around the country, and the relevant Premiers. Well also be speaking to the Home Affairs Minister, says Osmond. Id like a retraction, but well see. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was approached for comment for this article, but had not responded at time of press. Organisations should be reflective of the societies and communities they exist and operate within. Perhaps the most obvious example is the representation of women in the insurance industry. While recent years have seen improvements in gender diversity in senior roles, there are still numerous areas to be addressed. Traditionally, diversity initiatives have been delegated to HR. But Charis Martin-Ross, head of diversity and sustainability at Allianz, stresses that diversity needs to be approached on a much more holistic basis. Issuing employees with a mandate from on high will not generally be well received, even if staff agree with the broad principles. Diversity and inclusion cant be seen by staff as a HR project or a HR strategy, she says. Youve really got to have leaders who understand the business case and then care enough to do something about it. You have to tackle it in absolutely everything that you do. Martin-Ross staunchly believes that the insurance industry has a key role to play in the future of diversity and inclusion in wider society. One of the parts of my role that I love the most is seeing the number of people within Allianz and across the insurance industry that share my values, she says. Its full of people who genuinely want to make a difference. As an example, Martin-Ross points to a key Allianz initiative, developed in conjunction with Settlement Services International (SSI) the Sustainable Employment Program, which is geared towards teaching young refugees basic business skills and helping them find a job. Over the last two years, weve provided permanent employment to 21 refugees, says Martin-Ross. During that time, weve also established a scholarship to provide educational grants, and weve issued around 100. This is reflective of Allianzs wider work with the community too; the organisation has worked closely with the Australian Paralympic Committee since 2006 and has recently established a partnership with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance to support financial literacy in people with a disability. For Martin-Ross, all of these activities are natural extensions of how businesses should approach diversity and inclusion. She stresses that collaborating closely across multiple stakeholder groups is critical for any business looking to do good work in the area of diversity and inclusion. Individual effort is essential, but holistic solutions are necessary for the most effective outcomes. Were really trying to wrestle with complex societal issues, says Martin-Ross. But you cant tackle, say, refugee settlement in isolation. Its not a government issue specifically; its something that Australia needs to tackle as a society. That spans across corporate, not-for-profit and government. Ordinarily insurers collect data from a specific pool of resources, which naturally restricts the number of insights that can be gained into the particular needs of a client or a claim. However, this partnership will enable Finity to collect layer data and collect deeper insights from additional data sources, e.g. through quotes, policy inception, endorsements, claims and renewals. This layered approach is aimed at improving product matching, better suiting the specific circumstances of the individual, both at time of purchase and during the claims process. Insurers have a business imperative to connect external data sources, yet theres absolutely no tolerance for insecure practices, noted IXUP Founder & Executive Director Dean Joscelyne. Recent years have seen a far greater awareness and understanding of the potential risks presented by data breaches, whether via malice or accidental leaks. IXUPs technology aims to keep data protected 100% of the time, while still allowing for robust analytics to be conducted between partners. The Finity-IXUP partnership will give insurers a new level of capability in using more data sources for effective decision-making while maintaining absolute control over their own data, said Aaron Cutter, Principal at Finity Consulting. IXUPs unique platform enables Finity to better understand and explain trends in performance through advanced analytics across multiple data sources, including common personal information. Earlier this week, Finity also announced its acquisition of Cause Way, a Melbourne-based actuarial consulting firm, to expand its pricing, financial-capital and analytics services. This has also been a milestone week for IXUP; on Thursday, with former Data61 global head of commercial Peter Leihn hired as the companys new CEO. He is scheduled to start in November 2018. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has announced its acquisition of United Dealer Services. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. United Dealer Services, based in Highland Mills, N.Y., is a retail insurance broker and program administrator providing a full range of coverages to franchised car dealerships in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Pennsylvania. The company is also a program administrator for franchised auto dealerships in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Hub International Investment Services and Hub International Midwest Limited, both subsidiaries of global insurance broker Hub International Limited, have announced that they have acquired a Florida-based retirement plan consulting and financial services business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Orlando-based Cash & Associates (C&A) is an employee benefits, retirement and financial planning firm originally founded by John T. Cash Jr. in 1980. John T. Cash III joined the business in 1990 and assumed leadership in 1995. After taking the reins, Cash turned C&A from a strictly life and health firm into a practice with a primary focus on helping individuals and corporations with their retirement plans and wealth management. Marijuana advocates told a New York panel considering legalization that it should be affordable and accessible to everyone rather than enriching corporate producers and state tax coffers. Of about 30 people who spoke at the first of 15 listening sessions on legalizing recreational marijuana Wednesday evening, most touted its therapeutic qualities and many advocated letting people grow their own. A few spoke against legalization, citing potential adverse health effects. Marijuana will be a big issue when lawmakers return to Albany in January. In July, state health officials recommended legalizing recreational marijuana in a 74-page report that estimated it could generate nearly $700 million in tax revenues for the state. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed a 20-person panel to draft legislation. The listening sessions, which continue around the state through mid-October, will provide public input to the panel. While Democrat Cuomo has long opposed legalization, calling marijuana a gateway drug, he has softened his stance under pressure from proponents, including actress Cynthia Nixon, whos challenging him in a primary next week. Dr. Joseph Sellers, a Schoharie County pediatrician who spoke on behalf of the Medical Society of the State of New York, said the society recommends decriminalization but not legalization of recreational marijuana use. He said studies have found increased incidence of marijuana-related traffic deaths and exposure of children to the drug in states that have legalized it. Another pediatrician, Dr. Roger Green, said many of his young patients were already getting marijuana from unregulated dealers on the black market and it would be better if he could recommend legal, less-potent strains to those who choose to use it. The Rev. Henry McGrath of NeighborhoodsAgainstDrugs, a Fulton County social action group fighting the opioid epidemic, said marijuana should be treated like any other product grown by New York farmers. We believe marijuana is a natural medicinal herb, he said. Marijuana should be legalized in New York state on that basis rather than heavily regulated, which would serve only corporations and governments unnecessary control. Several speakers advocated expunging conviction records of those imprisoned for marijuana offenses and allowing them to participate in new businesses related to legalized pot. A bunch of white men are poised to become very rich off the same thing our people have gone to jail for, for decades, said Lauren Manning, assistant director of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. Zachary Savage, a meteorologist, said marijuana could be a budding industry creating jobs in New York the way craft beer has. Samara Gabree, a nurse practitioner certified to prescribe medical marijuana, said she sees many low-income patients who cant afford to pay several hundred dollars for marijuana from a dispensary. We need to move forward in a way people can afford it, she said. Nine states, including Vermont and Massachusetts, have legalized recreational marijuana use for adults. It remains illegal on the federal level. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics New York Cannabis Vermont on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against drugmaker Purdue over what it called deceptive marketing of OxyContin and other prescription opioid painkillers that the attorney general says helped lead to the drug crisis in Vermont and around the country. The lawsuit filed in Vermont Superior Court seeks civil penalties, fees and costs and damages not a specific monetary amount and calls for Purdue to change its practices. Vermont has suffered too long, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said Wednesday during a press conference outside the courthouse. Too many lives have been ruined. Connecticut-based Purdue denied the allegations. In a prepared statement the company said it shares Vermonts concerns about the opioid crisis, but it denies that Purdue acted improperly. While our opioid medicines account for less than 2 percent of total prescriptions, we will continue to work collaboratively with the state toward bringing meaningful solutions to address this public health challenge, the statement said. Purdue has also denied claims in other lawsuits around the country over the scourge of opioid abuse. A number of other states, including Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas have filed similar lawsuits claiming unfair and deceptive trade practices. Vermont is also part of a multistate investigation, and has engaged in settlement negotiations but those not been fruitful, Donovan said. In the 100-page complaint, the state accuses Purdue of engaging in unfair, false and misleading conduct by omitting or minimizing the serious risks of addiction; overstating the effectiveness of screening tools to prevent addiction; and failing to disclose or denying that the dangers of opioids increase with an increased dose. Purdues sales representatives regularly omitted from their visits to Vermont prescribers any discussion of the addiction risks that are plainly associated with long-term use of opioids, the complaint said. Patients receiving substance abuse treatment whose addictions started with prescription painkillers said they were not warned that they might become addicted, the lawsuit said. Purdues scheme was effective, Donovan said. Just ask any Vermonter. Ask the thousands of Vermonters whose lives have been ruined by addiction. Ask the hundreds of Vermonters who have lost a loved one to an overdose. Ask any child whos living in a home with an addicted parent or any grandparent whos now parenting that child. In the last five years 455 Vermonters died from opioid-related overdoses, according to Donovans office. Former Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, made the fight against heroin and opioid abuse the centerpiece of his State of the State address in 2014. Two years later he said the Food and Drug Administrations approval of OxyContin in 1996 lit the match that ignited Americas opiate and heroin addiction crisis. Vermont was a pioneering state in the fight against opioid abuse with the White House drug czar last year calling its opioid addiction treatment system an an incredibly valuable national model that is being emulated around the country. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Drugs Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired United Dealer Services LLC. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in Highland Mills, N.Y., United Dealer Services LLC is a retail insurance broker and program administrator. It provides a range of insurance coverages to franchised auto dealerships in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Pennsylvania. It is also a program administrator for franchised auto dealers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Principals Randolph T. and Dustin Winston will remain in their current location under the direction of Dan Tropp, head of Gallaghers mid-Atlantic retail property and casualty brokerage operations. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill. The company has operations in 34 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Topics Mergers New York A.J. Gallagher Japanese insurer Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. agreed to buy a minority stake in South Africas Hollard Insurance Co. Ltd. to help both companies expand through Africa. Tokio Marine will pay 5 billion rand ($327 million) for a 22.5 percent shareholding in Johannesburg-base Hollard, one of sub-Saharan Africas largest providers of property and casualty insurance. The deal will enable Tokio to gain a foothold in markets such as South Africa and Botswana from its base in Chiyoda-Ku, Japan. The transaction fits with South African President Cyril Ramaphosas plan to attract $100 billion in foreign investment over the next five years, a strategy he hopes will revive an economy that slipped into recession in the second quarter. For Hollard, the capital boost will provide the insurer with funds to expand into new regions including East Africa and West Africa, Chief Executive Officer Saks Ntombela said by phone. The deal comes after a series of transactions for closely held Hollard, including the acquisition of Regent Insurance Group for 1.8 billion rand. This is a game-changer for our business that will greatly assist us in growing our international business, that now makes up a third of the companys bottom-line, Ntombela said. Hollard was founded in 1980 by Robert Enthoven, and the family still holds a majority share. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Mergers Carriers Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd. (R&Q) announced a corporate restructuring to create a new division, Accredited, which comprises its U.S. and European program management businesses. Accompanying this initiative is a renaming of R&Qs Malta domiciled insurance platform, R&Q Insurance (Malta) Ltd., to Accredited Insurance (Europe) Ltd. This change is effective immediately. Accredited will be jointly run by Todd Campbell, as CEO of its U.S. business, and Colin Johnson, as CEO of its European division. Both individuals report to Alan Quilter, co-founder of R&Q and group CFO. Accrediteds strategic aim is to provide high quality and fully licensed capacity for MGAs and other counterparties on both sides of the Atlantic, R&Q said in a statement. The name change is designed to reflect the importance of this core business to the group and also to provide a simplified, single brand that provides the same level of service and client understanding to its customers on both sides of the Atlantic, R&Q added. Accredited is one of two core businesses of R&Q the other being legacy acquisitions and the claims management of discontinued business. Both Accredited Surety & Casualty Co. Inc., the groups wholly owned U.S. platform, and its European equivalent, Accredited Insurance (Europe) Ltd. have an A- (Excellent) financial strength rating from A.M. Best. R&Q said both platforms are enjoying high demand for their services at a time of significant market turmoil in the sector which includes: The partial or complete withdrawal of other program capacity providers in 2017-18 (both in the U.S. and Europe), Continuing uncertainty over Brexit The emergence of disruptive fintech initiatives challenging the status quo, and The desire for entrepreneurs to launch new insurance businesses but require a program partner to provide licensed paper and infrastructure that acts as a conduit between them, their policyholders and their reinsurance capital providers. A total of seven new program underwriting partnerships have been entered into this year by the group, R&Q said, noting that since R&Qs program initiative began last year, the group has entered into partnerships that are the equivalent to circa $200 million in annualized gross written premiums, which is expected to at least double by year-end. Domiciled in Florida, Accredited Surety & Casualty Co. Inc. is licensed in all 50 states to write admitted business for all P/C classes. After Brexit takes place as it is currently scheduled to do in March 2019 Accredited Insurance (Europe) Ltd. will remain fully licensed to write every P/C class across all remaining 27 EU member states. In addition, a UK branch office will enable it to write business on behalf of UK MGAs, ensuring R&Q has a gold-plated Brexit solution for all its program partners. R&Q is, of course, well known for legacy acquisitions and for providing first class innovative exit solutions to owners of discontinued business, commented Colin Johnson, CEO of UK and European Program Management. Since 2017, we have brought this same level of professional, client-focused attention to MGAs in the U.S. and in Europe who require a program underwriting partner who can act as the conduit between them and their reinsurers. Todd Campbell, president and CEO of Accredited Surety & Casualty Co. Inc., added: There is a growing demand for program partnerships and Accredited is determined to be the markets go-to choice on both sides of the Atlantic. Source: R&Q Investment Holdings Topics USA Europe Insurance Wholesale Uk Aon plc is continuing its investment in cyber by creating US$350 million of new reinsurance capacity and launching its silent cyber* solution. Aons silent cyber solution is designed to partner with carriers in their journey to identify, quantify and mitigate the silent cyber risk by providing a clash solution** to reinsure the exposure in the interim period. Where the carrier chooses to provide affirmative cyber coverage going forward, Aon can arrange a reinsurance solution for that cyber exposure to sit across multiple lines of business. The goal of the solution is to help insurers obtain more clarity on their cyber exposures with the option to exclude or recognize the exposure in each portfolio, and then evolve their reinsurance protections for cyber accordingly, said Aon in a statement. This will create more efficient reinsurance structures, while empowering clients to strategically underwrite cyber risk across all lines of their portfolios with greater certainty, the broker continued. The solution is supported by an analytical, end-to-end process to help insurers: Identify their silent cyber exposures through wording and threat analysis Quantify their exposures using bespoke scenarios developed by Aons dedicated Cyber Analytics team, insights and scenarios from cyber security specialists within Aons Cyber Solutions, and cyber modeling provided by partner Guidewire and its Cyence Risk Analytics product, to establish credible risk levels Protect that silent exposure with a cyber clash reinsurance product Establish appetite and methodology to underwrite, price and reinsure affirmative cyber across multiple lines of business Working with key reinsurers in Bermuda, London and Europe, Aon has sourced the US$350 million of capacity prior to launch, Aon continued. Aons silent cyber solution reinforces the firms commitment to innovation in this space and follows last weeks announcement that Luke Foord-Kelcey has been appointed global head of Cyber Innovation for its Reinsurance Solutions business. Over the last 18 months, a combination of regulatory attention and criticism from regulators including reports by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), as well as the far-reaching ransomware attacks NotPetya and Wannacry have raised awareness of how cyber incidents can affect multiple lines of business, Aon said. Carriers are now under increased pressure to identify, analyze and mitigate their exposures. However, challenges include locating the exposure, and developing scenarios that are both realistic and relevant to that carrier, Aon explained. Our process-led and forward-looking approach to assessing, quantifying and transferring silent cyber will lead to improved coverage, pricing and capacity through robust, modelled results and strong reinsurer partnerships, commented Foord-Kelcey. But most importantly, it is about how we end the silence, strengthen the cyber re/insurance market and make it future-proof with more transparency, opportunities for growth and enhanced protection across the value chain. *Silent or non-affirmative cyber refers to potential cyber exposures contained within other lines of business that do not explicitly exclude cyber as a peril, nor expressly include cyber coverage. **According to the International Risk Management Institute, clash coverage is a type of reinsurance designed to protect an insurance company from the loss of its normal reinsurance recoveries when it is faced with multiple claims from multiple insureds arising out of the same catastrophe and where its reinsurance does not fully reimburse the insurer for these related losses. Source: Aon Topics Carriers Cyber Reinsurance Aon New Markets Hub International Limited (Hub), the Chicago-based insurance broker, announced that it has acquired Access Insurance Brokers Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Access Insurance provides personal and commercial insurance solutions. Rico Saleh and Daniel Cernea, co-owners of Access Insurance, will join Hub Quebec and report to David McNamara, vice president of Hub Quebec. Source: Hub International Related: Topics Mergers Agencies It took just 78 days for a deal involving billionaire J. Christopher Flowers to blow up. Confie Seguros Holding II Co., an owner of auto-insurance brokerages that cater to Hispanic drivers with spotty credit, paid $100 million for another brokerage that had ties to Flowers just weeks before that companys financial situation deteriorated, leaving Confie with a worthless acquisition. Deals go bad all the time, but this one crashed and burned with astonishing speed. Confie is suing Flowers and his firm, which is a top stockholder and creditor of the seller, saying they withheld information and participated in a race against time to complete the transaction. We got a raw deal, Confies lawyer, Michael Kasdin of Foley & Lardner LLP, said in an interview. In April, Confie settled for $2.4 million, a fraction of the selling price, from the directors and officers who sold it the brokerage. Flowers and his firm are the lone holdouts. A spokesman for Flowerss firm said the companys finances were fully disclosed before the deal and Confies lawsuit is a case of buyers remorse. Without Merit Confies allegations regarding the transaction are totally without merit, the spokesman, Owen Blicksilver, said in an email. The lawsuit is a desperate attempt to hold JC Flowers, which did not control the transaction, accountable for a business decision they now regret. Flowers, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner, is fast-talking and profane, with the ability to read a balance sheet in less than 30 seconds and offer an articulate and well-reasoned judgment of it, according to Too Big to Fail, Andrew Ross Sorkins 2009 account of the financial crisis. Flowers was busy throughout that time, trying unsuccessfully to buy stakes in Bear Stearns Cos., the ill-fated investment bank, and American International Group Inc., the insurance company that received a $182.3 billion bailout from U.S. taxpayers. $916 Million Debt The current dispute is made urgent by Confies $916 million in debt, much of which comes due in the next few months, including nearly $22 million owed to a company managed by Apollo Global Management LLC. Apollo declined to comment. Also at stake are the thousands of insured motorists in an underserved market who may struggle to find alternative coverage as a result of the tumult. Its up to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Durkin in Chicago to untangle the dispute between Flowers and Confie. Durkin heard oral arguments in February on the defendants motion to dismiss the suit. He has yet to rule. The transaction was far from straightforward. On June 30, 2015, Confie, owned by Boston-based Abry Partners LLC, bought the brokerage, MGA, from Affirmative Insurance Holdings Inc., or AIH. Flowerss firm owned 48 percent of AIH and remains the companys biggest secured lender. $20 Million Part of the deal was $20 million that Confie would pump into an AIH subsidiary, Affirmative Insurance Co., or AIC. The cash was needed to bolster AICs capital so it would avoid receivership by the Illinois insurance regulator, according to court documents. AIC was MGAs only customer, so the payment would ensure Confies newest acquisition could stay in business. The $20 million wasnt enough. Less than three months after the deal was signed, the Illinois Department of Insurance placed AIC into receivership. A month after that, AIH filed for bankruptcy. Now, Confie is facing its own debt hurdles. Cesar Soriano, Confies chief executive officer since August 2017, has cut leverage, but the company has a $655 million first-lien term loan due in November and a $261 million second-lien loan to be repaid in May. Last month, S&P Global Inc. cut Confies credit rating to CCC, meaning creditors are vulnerable to nonpayment. Soriano declined to comment. Integration Inefficiencies Buying up brokerages has been Confies strategy since its inception in October 2007. It has purchased more than 100 firms, according to its website. S&P analyst Steve Guijarro said Huntington Beach, California-based Confie started running into trouble when the buying binge created integration inefficiencies. They were acquiring just to acquire, less due diligence, Guijarro said. Thats part of what they got burned with. In July 2017, Confie sued Flowers because, they argued in court, he was a controlling AIH shareholder. Flowerss attorneys denied that he was. AIH paid Flowerss firm $3.1 million from the MGA acquisition, according to court documents. Confie argued in court that there was a meeting at which AIH threatened to kill the deal if it didnt get what it wanted. The company alleged that it was Flowers who made the demand. His lawyer denied that. Said Kasdin, Confies attorney: You cant throw a bunch of holding companies between yourself and a bad actor and say, It wasnt me. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Mergers Agencies Auto Insurance Wholesale The family of a man who was killed in August in a shooting at a Houston-area food warehouse has filed a lawsuit asking for $25 million in damages from his employer. The lawsuit was filed in state civil court in Houston by the family of Francisco Reyes. He was an overnight manager at a food warehouse run by Ben E. Keith Co. in the Houston suburb of Missouri City, Texas. Police say Reyes was fatally shot Aug. 20 by Kristine Peralez, a co-worker. Another worker was wounded. Peralez died after a confrontation with police. In the lawsuit, Reyes family alleges the company knew the warehouse could be the target of workplace violence but didnt provide adequate security. An attorney for the company didnt immediately return a call seeking comment Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Texas Commercial Lines Business Insurance Houston-based managing general agency and wholesale insurance broker Myron Steves has hired Jennifer Flake as director of Transportation. She is based in Dallas. Flake will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the firms transportation business including the long-haul trucking, business auto and garage segments. She will expand Myron Steves brokerage capabilities, grow relationships with various carriers and actively produce business to help agents meet their clients needs in the increasingly challenging transportation market. Flake joins Myron Steves with over 15 years of experience as a transportation specialist. She has worked for insurance companies, wholesalers and insurance agents during the course of her career. Most recently, she worked for Southwest Risk LP and prior to that, AmWINS Group Inc. Source: Myron Steves Republican Dean Jeffries has been appointed to the West Virginia House of Delegates seat from Kanawha County vacated by the resignation of Tim Armstead. Gov. Jim Justice announced Jeffries appointment Wednesday. Jeffries is a State Farm insurance agent from Elkview. Hes also the GOP nominee for Armsteads seat in the November election. Armstead did not seek re-election and resigned last month to run in a special election for the state Supreme Court. Justice also has appointed the Republican to serve as an interim justice after until the election. Several justices were impeached by the House or retired following questions involving renovations to the justices offices and accusations of corruption, incompetence and neglect of duty. Delegate Roger Hanshaw has been elected House speaker in Armsteads place. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Agencies Virginia As the price of a college education continues to soar, many American families are counting on significant outside help to foot the bill. Consider that the average cost for tuition and fees at an out-of-state public university is now nearly $24,000 per year, according to The College Board. For private schools, tuition and fees average $32,410. For students who haven't earned lucrative scholarships, need-based financial aid can play a vital role. The key to receiving a generous package rests largely on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, better known as the FAFSA. This is the document that schools use to determine federal aid, including Federal Direct Loans and Pell Grants. Many institutions also use it to decide whether students are eligible for any of their own scholarship funds. Much of the time, parents dont give the FAFSA much thought before the deadline. By understanding how the form works, however, youll have a better chance of meeting the aid criteria. Its also important to look beyond the form itself and realize that finding the right school can be just as important to your aid prospects as what you put in the document. Here are some basic steps for ensuring that you get the best combination of grants, loans, and work-study programs possible. Key Takeaways With the cost of college tuition soaring, parents and students need to benefit as best they can from need-based financial aid, scholarships, and other financial support available. Filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form (the FAFSA) is critical, as it is what schools use to determine federal aid, as well as whether students qualify for any school-specific scholarship funds. To benefit, a family should file and not assume they won't qualify, do the filing early, minimize taxable income, consider carefully whose name any college savings have been listed under, and also remember that FAFSA isn't the whole picture when it comes to financial aid. 1. File Early Perhaps the easiest move you can make is to fill out the FAFSA as early in the year as possible. Thats because many federal loans and grants are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Even if the university has a much later deadline, it helps to submit the document as soon after Oct. 1 (the new, earlier FAFSA filing date) as possible. Many parents assume they have to put the FAFSA on hold until they complete their previous years tax return. Unfortunately, doing so can put your chances of need-based assistance in serious jeopardy. The new rules let you fill out the financial aid documents using the previous years data. You can do this automatically by using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool on the official FAFSA website, which is available roughly three weeks after filing the form. Oct. 1 The earliest date at which you can file the Free Applications for Federal Student Aid form, also known as the FAFSA. 2. Minimize Your Taxable Income The FAFSA is the main tool universities rely on to determine the applicants expected family contribution (EFC)that is, the estimated amount the student and the student's parents can kick in toward tuition and other expenses. All else being equal, a lower EFC will result in greater need-based aid. When calculating the familys portion of expenses, the biggest factor is its income level. Needless to say, it helps to keep the amount of taxable income as low as possible in the base year. Thanks to the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, beginning in July 2023 the term "student aid index" (SAI) will replace EFC on all FAFSA forms. In addition to some changes in the way the SAI is calculated, the change attempts to clarify what this figure actually isan eligibility index for student aid, not a reflection of what a family can or will pay for postsecondary expenses. How can a family accomplish this feat without hurting itself in the short term? One way is to postpone the sale of stocks and bonds if they generate a profit, as the earnings will count as income. That also means holding off on early withdrawals from your 401(k) or IRA. Besides, ask your employer if you can defer any cash bonuses to when they wont have a negative impact on your childs financial aid. 3. Clarify Who "Owns" Your Assets If youve been putting money away for your childrens college education over the years, youll be in much better shape when they graduate from high school. But all that saving does have a small catchsome of that money will be included in your EFC. One important aspect to realize about the FAFSA is that schools anticipate students will contribute more of their assets toward higher education than parents will. Consequently, your application will fare much better in most cases if any college savings accounts are in a parents name. So if you set up a Uniform Gift to Minors Act (UGMA) account for your child to avoid gift taxes, you could be hurting your chances of need-based aid. Youre often better off emptying these accounts and putting the money into a 529 College Savings Plan or a Coverdell Education Savings Account. Under current rules, these are both treated as a parents asset, as long as the student is classified as a dependent for tax purposes. 4. Dont Assume You Wont Qualify Having a substantial family income doesnt always mean that financial aid is beyond your reach. Its important to remember that the needs-analysis formula is complex. According to the U.S. Department of Education, factors such as the number of students attending college and the parents' age can affect your award. Its always a good idea to fill out the FAFSA just in case. Keep in mind, too, that some universities wont offer their own financial aid, including academic scholarships, if you dont fill out the FAFSA first. The assumption that the form is only for low- and middle-income families often closes the door to such opportunities. 5. FAFSA Isnt the Whole Picture While the FAFSA is a vital tool in determining need-based aid, some families actually put too much emphasis on the document. The fact is, most financial-aid counselors have the authority to use resources as they see fit. The expected family contribution usually plays a big role, but it may not be the only factor theyll consider. The more an institution values the students skills and experiences, the more likely it is to woo them with an attractive aid package. The key is to look for colleges representing a good fit and reach out to the financial aid office about your childs prospects for grants or federally subsidized loans. (For example, Harvard has several specific programs for academically excellent students.) This, in addition to its academic reputation, can help families select whether a school is worth pursuing. The Bottom Line A generous financial aid award can take much of the sting out of college tuition costs. The best way to improve your childs chances of getting one is by filing early and doing whatever you reasonably can to reduce your familys estimated contribution. A prepaid debit card is much like a gift card: It allows you to spend whatever amount of money is stored on the card. Once the balance is used up, you can reload the card online or at an ATM, a participating store, or other physical location. Prepaid debit cards are issued by banks and branded by the major credit card companies, including Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. Key Takeaways A prepaid debit card can be a useful alternative to cash. Prepaid debit cards are an option for people who don't have a credit card or access to a regular debit card connected to a bank account. There are many fees associated with prepaid debit cards, so it's important to shop around for the best deal. Understanding Prepaid Debit Cards A prepaid debit card is as good as cashand sometimes better: It is a safe way to carry money aroundunlike, say, a wad of paper money. Prepaid cards also come with certain consumer protections, while cash does not. A prepaid debit card can be used for online purchases. It can make a more attractive gift than cash. Anyone who wants to stick to a strict budget, or who has had trouble managing credit cards, could also consider using a prepaid debit card. You can use a prepaid debit card for any transaction that you might otherwise use a credit card or regular debit card for. In many instances, the recipient of your payment may even be unaware that the card is prepaid. Some employers pay their workers with prepaid debit cards called payroll cards (which can be useful if the person doesn't have a bank account or direct deposit). Many government benefits are also available via prepaid debit cards, including Social Security. Prepaid Debit Cards vs. Regular Debit Cards With a regular debit card, the amount of money you can spend is tied to how much you have in the checking account it is linked to. So you need to have a bank account to use a regular debit card, while you don't with a prepaid debit card. With a regular debit card, the amount of money you have available to you will also fluctuate from day to day, as money moves in and out of your checking account. With a prepaid debit card, you have a fixed amount of money to spend, which declines as you spend it and rises only if you reload the card. The Downsides of Prepaid Debit Cards Prepaid debit cards can come with an assortment of fees that will eat into your cash balance. These may include monthly fees, transaction fees, ATM fees, reloading fees, foreign transaction fees, and more. You may even be charged a fee for checking your balance in the card. Employees have a legal right to decline being paid through a payroll card because the fees will reduce their take-home pay. Shopping for a Prepaid Debit Card If you're shopping for a prepaid debt card, pay particular attention to its fees. Also consider convenience. For example, if the card is free to use at an ATM (as many of the best cards are), how large an ATM network will you have access to, and is there one close to where you live or work? Important If your goal is to repair your credit rating, consider a secured credit card instead of a prepaid debit card. An Alternative to a Prepaid Debit Card If the reason you want a prepaid debit card is that you have a bad credit history or no credit history and are unable to get a conventional credit card, you might consider a secured credit card instead. Secured cards are easier to qualify for because they require you to put down a refundable security deposit that serves as collateral for the lender. The advantage of a secured credit card is that your monthly payments can be reported to the three major credit bureaus and help build your credit history. Debit cards, either prepaid or the regular kind, don't report transactions to the credit bureaus and will do nothing to improve your credit. September 7, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Portfolio manager and technical analyst John Newell of Fieldhouse Capital Management profiles a company exploring for gold in Ontario's Red Lake District that has seen its share price more than triple this summer through the drill bit. Combining Fundamental and Technical Analysis The two disciplines of fundamental and technical analysis are often set against each other and investors may think that they must make a choice. This doesn't need to be the case and there is a middle ground. You can consider combining the two approaches as part of your overall investment plan. This is what I do. I look for certain chart patterns and try to research the fundamental reasons behind why the chart patterns look either bullish or bearish. Chart patterns have changed since the days of Robert Edwards and John Mcgee's classic "Technical Analysis of Stock Trends," although still very relevant, when they recognized recurring patterns that occurred from the stock operator pools of the day. Today, we must deal with computer algorithms and high-speed communications that have made the stock markets much faster than in the past, so new and different patterns have emerged, and that is what I focus on today in my work. Fundamental analysis attempts to determine the value of a share by analyzing a company's financials from its annual report and using qualitative data about the environment in which it operates. This value is often called intrinsic value. The simplest form of fundamental analysis is by using fundamental ratios such as the P/E ratios, Price to Sales ratios, or the dividend yield. However, in the case of junior explorers like Great Bear Resources Ltd. (GBR:TSX.V) and other junior mining shares, we simply don't have that luxury; the nature of these companies is that they are cash burning machines and don't have much in the way of fundamentals. However, there is help. Many people write about the sector, and one of many I like is "J. Taylor's Gold, Energy and Tech Stocks Newsletter," and his radio show. Jay does a great job of looking at the fundamentals behind the junior mining companies: property assessment, drilling results and all-important management interviews; he also highlighted Great Bear Resources (GBR.V) in his letter starting in January of this year. Jay also highlights the famous "Momentum Structural Analysis" of Michael Oliver every week, so he doesn't ignore technical analysis either. If you are super keen, you can find the genetic DNA on just about any junior miner at John Kaiser's Kaiser Research Online site. Technical analysis offers a different view of a stock. It is based on the belief that the combined minds of the world are making decisions about a company on a moment-by-moment basis, and all that is known about a stock is reflected in its price and volume. The market is made up of a very large number of people who may have very different views on the market, making both long- and short-term decisions on both long and short positions. The activity of these very large numbers of investors and traders results in different patterns emerging in the market. (An example could be as simple as a cook is told to cook extra meals for more guests, a helicopter pilot is booked to bring in banking analysts and investors, drillers see the core they are drilling, and on and on. We can imagine that all these minds are at work assessing a company.) Technical analysts attempt to recognize these patterns and take advantage of them when making their investment decisions. In the Shadow of Giants: Red Lake, Ontario, Canada When looking for a mining company in today's markets, in a world where majors must build up their ever-declining reserves, we start by looking for projects with district-size potential or large land packages put together by great management teams and geologists. Great Bear Resources is one of those companies. Great Bear Resources is exploring in the famous Red Lake Mining District in Ontario, a mining district in northern Ontario, Canada, where about 30 million gold ounces have been recovered from the time it was first discovered in the mid-1930s by approximately 15 companies. Great Bear Resources' properties sit about 30 km from the famous Red Lake mine owned by Goldcorp, in keeping with the old mining adage, "the best place to find gold is next to where it already has been found." It's a strategy that has already been paying off for Great Bear Resources with high-grade drill results within an expanding mineralized gold system. The Red Lake area has always proven to be geologically very fertile for important gold discoveries, and mines that have a gift of keep on giving, the deeper you go. About Great Bear Resources (GBR.V) Great Bear Resources is a Canadian precious metals exploration company engaged in advancing projects with special merit in leading mining regions, currently working the famous Red Lake District in northwestern Ontario. Great Bear Resources is earning a 100% royalty-free interest in the Dixie and Madsen properties, which consist of a total of 10,000 hectares in the Red Lake District. All Great Bear's Red Lake projects are accessible year-round through existing roads. The company is led by Mr. Chris Taylor and a team of experienced and proven mine finders in many mining districts, but they have also been very successful in the Red Lake mining camp. See information about the team here. Shares Issued and Outstanding: 23,176,169 Stock Options: 1,936,000 various prices between $0.23 and $2.50 (weighted average $0.33) expiring between July 17, 2017 and October 5, 2021 Warrants: 10,437,217 between $0.20 and $0.70 Fully Diluted: 35,549,386 It is believed that management, family and friends own about 30% of the outstanding shares and warrants. Special Note: On August 24, 2018, Great Bear issued ~7 million new shares and warrants that increase the share and warrant count written above. Further, the company announced that McEwen Mining and Mr. Rob McEwen will participate in the private placement and will own ~18% of the shares of Great Bear Resources. See News Release here: McEwen Buys into Great Bear Resources. Great Bear has enjoyed some early-stage success in validating its geological model while "elephant hunting" among some of Canada's richest gold fields, with a remarkable drill hit ratio and continuity of a high-grade, near surface resource in a structurally controlled gold mineralization system on its Dixie Lake property, which is currently the focus of the company. There are three points we want to make that help us build our thesis that Great Bear could be a dynamic investment in the months and years ahead: The company controls 100% of more than 10,000 hectares of highly prospective greenstone belts at Dixie Lake and Madsen, with no royalties. Great Bear has a tight share structure with ~40 million shares fully diluted and ~$12 million in cash (assuming the exercise of current warrants) to continue to explore this highly prospective ground. Great Bear is finding the same success as its neighbor, Pure Gold (PGM.V), and has a remarkable success ratio in its drill results, as it follows the near-surface, high-grade resource in this structurally controlled gold mineralization system. I would point to two excellent recent interviews done by Jay Taylor and Eric Coffin with Great Bear's CEO and president, Chris Taylor, that present the investment case and outline the story for Great Bear Resources better than I could do, as well as an Investing News Network video with Chris Taylor. Jay Taylor Interview Eric Coffin Interview Investing News Interview: Chris Taylor's in his own words The Map of Great Bear Resources Projects in the Red Lake District: The graphic of the "Fold" that potentially makes a 10 km system into a 20-km system: Great Bear Resources (GBR.V) shocked the market on August 22, when the company reported high-grade assay results from the Hinge Zone (shown in table below, approximately 33 grams of gold = 1 oz) on its Dixie Lake gold project in the Red Lake Gold District. Then on August 24, the company announced a private placement that insures this frugal, tightly knit, smart, experienced management team has all the funds needed to advance the company forward. The table below shows the latest drilling results that moved the share price. The map below outlines approximately 2 km of the 10 km Dixie Lake Project: A picture of Red Lake prize that all miners in this area hope for: More than just the Dixie Lake Project Great Bear also has two potential successes in the Red Lake Mining District with its 2,725-hectare West Madsen Project comprising West Madison A Block and West Madsen B Block as shown in the map below, which encompasses the strike extension of the geology that Pure Gold Mining (PGM.V) controls with its nearby Madsen gold discovery. Great Bear is located about three kilometers from Pure Gold's (PCM.V) discovery zone. West Madsen is also located in proximity to the historical Starratt Olsen and Madsen mines, of which it shares very similar geological characteristics. In the event of a major taking over Great Bear Resources, this property could be a standalone company by itself, or included in the merger, but this is pure speculation on my part. If Pure Gold's stellar drill results are any indicator of things to come, then Great Bear can also look forward to an exciting drill season at its West Madsen blocks when and if that gets going. West Madsen (100%) is an on-strike extension of Pure Gold's high-grade Madsen project. Recent eastern expansion of Block A of 725 hectares; 2,725 hectares for all West Madsen. PGM's Wedge Zone (adjacent to GBR's West Madsen Block A) drill results include: 33.3 g/t gold over 8.3m, 21.3 g/t gold over 10.3m, 22.5g/t gold over 2.0m, 15.1 g/t gold over 5.4m. Other PGM Zones: 28.2 g/t gold over 7m, 26.4 g/t gold over 12.7m, 27.1 g/t gold over 5.8m. Geophysical survey shows two primary gold targets: A prominent northeast to southwest magnetic linear Strong evidence of large-scale folding Plans for 2018 at West Madsen properties include geological mapping, rock sampling, and prospecting and drill target generation. The Technicals: "Deja Vu All Over Again" I was first introduced to Great Bear resources when a shareholder asked me to do a chart on the company, concerned about the volatility, so I did my first chart on Great Bear as shown below, in late November of 2017. Chart from Interactive Brokers Then, I did my second chart in January 2018 (not shown), as a follow up, in which three targets emerged, as I was encouraged by Great Bear's resilience in the face of an overall declining precious metal market. Now I was intrigued, so I listened to and visited the company at the Metal Investors Forum in Vancouver in May 2018, and the fundamental story began to emerge. It was also a top pick for 2018 of "The Resource Maven," Gwen Preston, found here. From the beginning of the year Great Bear Resources builtin technical termsa "triangle" until it announced the drill results and its share price gapped higher, giving new investors little time to position themselves at lower prices or holders to sell at the two additional higher targets; the shares blasted through all the previous targets. Then on August 24, Rob McEwen, famed precious metal investor and CEO of McEwen Mining (MUX.TO), bought an ~18% position in Great Bear Resources, divided between himself and his company. And the shares proceeded to and exceeded my last published target. Stockcharts.com Short back story: As a rookie stockbroker in the mid-1980s, against the advice of the management of my company and the brokers in the bullpen, all ready to carve up my small but growing list of clients, because of my soon to be ill-fated venture, the IPO of Goldcorp at $10.00 per share and an "A" and "B" warrant attached. It started out as a closed-ended investment fund that held physical gold on behalf of investors. I put in for and got filled on $400,000 worth and had the weekend to sell it; problem was I had only a handful of accounts. I was told by a chorus of brokers that "closed-end funds always trade at a discount of 10%15% percent of their value and I was going to take a big loss right away, and that it was a stupid thing to do." I got scared with all the guys telling me I was doomed, so I telephoned Goldcorp in Toronto in the afternoon Vancouver time hoping to talk to someone to bolster my sagging spirits. To my surprise Mr. McEwen, Rob's father, answered the telephone and I told him my sad story. I will never forget the words he said, sensing the fear in my voice, "John, if gold goes down, it's cash (Goldcorp had not yet invested the proceeds of its IPO), and if gold goes up it's 'Goldcorp,' you have nothing to worry about." I sheepishly responded "errwhat about the net asset discount?" He said, "Why do think we attached the two warrants to the offering!" I sold 19,600 units that weekend with 20,400 yet to go, Goldcorp opened with a premium on the Monday morning and shortly thereafter went to $12 (the older brokers in the office split the commission with me as they batted cleanup, on the balance unsold). The purpose in telling that story is that the McEwens have a history of good timing in precious metals. Also, we must remember Rob McEwen was the former head of Goldcorp where as CEO he had the fortitude to change the company from a closed-end fund to an operating gold company and found an extension of its main asset in Red Lake under the existing, almost depleted mine. Goldcorp, in 2001, traded for its cash value, as he faced many investors and institutions that did not believe in his vision. The mine that arguably built Goldcorp resides in Red Lake, so McEwen knows the ground, and now he's back in Red Lake, and as they say, "timing is everything in mining." As shareholder, I want a major shareholder that has guts, vision, and belief in the product he produces, and knows the ground. Great Bear Resources gets all that with McEwen Mining (MUX.TO) and Rob McEwen. One of the benefits of age, or as I call it now, experience, is you have lived to see a few cycles, and mining has a lot of cycles, but also I remember the stock charts of precious metal companies for some strange reason, and when I looked at the break out of GBR.V, two companies popped into my head, but I thought Virginia Gold was the most similar, so I went back and looked at the charts, and then I ask myself "Does this look like that?" I say, "...err... yup. I can see that." Now I realize I am getting ahead of myself comparing an exploration play like Great Bear Resources to Virginia Gold, a company that built a resource and later was bought out by Goldcorp, but the technical evidence is mounting both fundamentally and technically that Great Bear is on to something important. We can see that after Virginia broke out of its triangle it corrected back to its break point and then some, so we have to be aware of the tremendous volatility these companies can experience, but as a technical person, I also have to look at the long-term potential of such an investment and see the possibilities of the "what ifs" that are in the chart pattern. Because Great Bear broke above the last stated target of $1.80 and exceeded it, I can see the "possibility" of $4.50 in the chart, not right away, and not straight up, but it's possible when rock that was previouslyonly days agogiven little value, potentially becomes very valuable. Charts above from Independent Survey Company Charts above from John Kaiser's website Investment Summary: Great Bear Resources has made great progress in advancing exploration at its leading Dixie Lake project and has the potential for one or more world-class gold discoveries. This project sits just off the highway to Red Lake and it is near all the infrastructure needed to advance. We are planning to hold our position to see the results of the more than 5,000 meters of drill results, yet to be announced. Virginia Gold put about 220 drill holes into Eleonore before it was taken over by Goldcorp; Great Bear Resources has about 160 historical holes drilled by Teck and others previously on this ground and is planning 50 holes this year, so with future success it could begin to define a resource at Dixie Lake as early as 2019. I am not suggesting in this short article that speculators and investors jump into this company immediately, a company whose share priced increased greater than three times in less than a week and did a financing that historically would move the share price lower, at least temporarily. Or that a significant discovery is a valuable deposit yet, but I have successfully charted discovery stories in the past, which does not guarantee I will do it in the future, but Virginia Gold was one of them, and that was 14 years ago, and I am still learning, and getting bounced around every day in precious metal arena, called the stock market, and in my own way "hunting for elephants." John Newell is a portfolio manager at Fieldhouse Capital Management. He has 38 years of experience in the investment industry acting as an officer, director, portfolio manager and investment advisor with some of the largest investment firms in Canada including Scotia McLeod, CIBC Wood Gundy and Richardson Greenshields (RBC Capital Markets). Newell is a specialist in precious metal equities and related commodities, and follows a disciplined proprietary approach incorporating equity research, analytical frameworks and risk controls to evaluate and select long and short stocks primarily from the Canadian small and mid-cap coverage. Many large, midcap and junior precious metal companies use his technical charts. Newell is a registered portfolio manager in Canada (advising representative). Disclosures: 1) John Newell: I, or members of my immediate household or family and friends, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Great Bear Resources. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company currently has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: John Newell manages the Fieldhouse Global Precious Fund Class G, and it is long the shares of Great Bear Resources (GBR.V). 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John Newell has based this document on information obtained from sources he believes to be reliable, but which has not been independently verified. John Newell makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of John Newell only and are subject to change without notice. John Newell assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission. Furthermore, I, John Newell, assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or for lost profit, which you may incur because of the use and existence of the information provided within this Report. John Newell manages the Fieldhouse Global Precious Fund Class G, and it is long the shares of Great Bear Resources (GBR.V). Friends and family of John Newell hold shares of Great Bear Resources (GBR.V) Additional Disclosures and Disclaimer from John Newell, Fieldhouse Capital Management, September 5, 2018: Disclosures and Disclaimer: It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these pages will be profitable or that they will not result in losses. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Examples presented on these pages are for educational purposes only. These set-ups are not solicitations of any order to buy or sell. The authors, the publisher, and all affiliates assume no responsibility for your trading results. There is a high degree of risk in trading. Hypothetical and historical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical and historical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical and historical performance results is that they are generally presented with the benefit of hindsight. In addition, hypothetical and historical trading may not present the financial risks and returns for future trading. For example, the ability to withstand losses or to adhere to a particular trading program in spite of trading losses are material points which can also adversely affect trading results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific trading program which cannot be fully accounted for in the preparation of hypothetical performance results and all which can adversely affect actual trading results. Disclaimer: This Publication is protected by Canadian and International Copyright laws. 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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 By Eamon Quinn A leading adviser on household debt has called on the Central Bank to do more research on the fate of tenants after banks have sold off landlords property loans to vulture funds. Paul Joyce, senior policy analyst at the Free Legal Advice Centres, or Flac, said thousands of tenants were being overlooked by officials in the debate about the sale by Irish banks of distressed loans held by landlords on their buy-to-let properties. Both the Central Bank and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe have endorsed the policy of lenders selling off billions worth of non-performing loans, of both buy-to-let and of individual homeowners. The Central Bank has repeatedly said the same regulatory consumer protections apply, no matter who owns the loans. The treatment of tenants is being forgotten, when landlord loans are sold on to vulture funds, or when the rental properties are repossessed, said Mr Joyce. Two new reports by the Central Bank have thrown more light on non-performing loan sales. Cures and Exits: the drivers of NPL resolution in Ireland, from 2012 to 2017, by Fergal McCann and Niall McGeever, says banks since the crisis have experienced substantial delays in the Irish courts system in their dealings with borrowers. They say that loan cures that return soured loans to performing loans drove the reduction in non-performing loans for homeowners, while so-called loan exits, involving liquidations, write-offs, and sales, were behind the falls in non-performing commercial property loans. Both cures and exits drove the reduction in buy-to-let, non-performing mortgages. The second report, Long-Term Mortgage Arrears in Ireland, by Terry OMalley, showed the average amount of missed payments on residential mortgages in long-term arrears was 66,409, while 10% of the loans have 129,148 in missed payments. They tend to be disproportionately located in areas with the largest falls in income since the 2000s, though many are in Dublin, the report says. Central Bank figures published later today, for the second quarter, will unlikely reflect the batch of sales by banks to vulture funds in recent months. Britains Civil Aviation Authority is stepping up efforts to ensure that airlines and aerospace companies can carry on functioning in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The regulator has briefed government officials on its plans to recruit staff with the expertise to take over the certification of parts and planes should the split cause Britain to leave the European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa), which is currently responsible for such approvals. Up to 20 airworthiness engineers are being sought and steps are being taken to estimate the potential workload, CAA policy director Tim Johnson told the UK Business Department. The aim is to establish UK capability before Marchs split from the EU. Airlines and manufacturers such as Airbus, which now owns the Bombardier plant in Belfast, are concerned a hard Brexit would leave jetliners and components without the required approvals. Mr Johnson said there have been no direct discussions with Easa on no-deal contingency planning, and that the continuation of the status quo remains preferable for both the CAA and the government. UK Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure to show that shes ready to walk away from Brexit talks and opt for a no-deal split if EU negotiators reject the so-called Chequers Plan thrashed out at her country retreat in July. Thats led to the publication of a tranche of documents advising UK businesses on how to prepare for the possibility of talks collapsing, with more to come. The so-called Basas, which enable mutual recognition of certification, are currently structured with Easa. The aviation sector is anxious new accords be put in place from the point Britain quits the EU to avoid any question of flights being unable to operate, he said. Jet-engines giant Rolls-Royce in July moved the approvals process for its products to a business-jet facility in Germany. The shift will allow Rolls to continue to get endorsements for its engines from Easa. Bloomberg/ Irish Examiner By Elaine Keogh The National Monuments Service (NMS) received 66 reports of newly identified monuments during the months of July and August 2018, it has confirmed. Many of the new reports relate to features identified through crop-marks or scorch-marks which had become visible on account of the dry weather, a spokesperson confirmed. Among them was a previously unknown henge near Newgrange in the Bru na Boinne Unesco World Heritage Site in Co Meath, found by Anthony Murphy using his drone, which made international news headlines. Among the other sites reported over the summer are a prehistoric barrow cemetery found in Redcow, near Dundalk, Co Louth, by a man trying to locate a site once described as Irelands Stonehenge. Matthew Kelly also took footage of two ringfort enclosures in the nearby Glebe and Lisdoo townlands, and the NMS estimates the range of monuments recorded across all sites date from 2200BC to 1000AD. The NMS said that the two ringfort enclosures were not previously known to the National Monuments Service, although they were visible on aerial footage taken in 1995. The sites reported by Mr Kelly in the Redcow townland were not previously known either. The NMS said: These features probably represent a prehistoric barrow cemetery comprising up eight individual monuments with two of the eight features being classed as enclosures which might either represent features contemporary with the barrow cemetery or later settlement activity. It estimates that the barrows date from 2200BC-1900BC, while the two newly identified ringforts referred to NMS by Mr Kelly in Glebe and Lisdoo are likely to date to the period 500-1000AD. Mr Kelly is chief technology officer with software company DroneSAR and said, I was inspired by Anthony Murphys find by drone at Newgrange due to the very dry weather, and so the very next day I went to Dundalk to see if I could also find any sign of a long lost monument discovered by antiquarian Thomas Wright in 1748 which he described as Irelands stonehenge. "But by 1907 Historian Henry Morris could not find any remains of the monument, it had disappeared. I (also) read about this monument in Anthonys mythical Ireland blog a few years ago. I arrived at what I thought was the location of the stonehenge monument outside Dundalk with my drone to look for any markings in the ground that might indicate the presence of this monument but I could not see anything . "Before I landed the drone I decided I would do a 360 pan across the horizon and it was during this that I saw the circles in 2 different fields in the distance. "I found two large circular enclosures facing each other separated by a road and then at the other location where I thought there was just one circular enclosure there was actually 8 in the same field, I remember the moment as the drone took off over the field and the many circles became visible." "Between the two locations, I found 10 previously unknown monuments. The National Monuments Service said reports are still being received, so this should not be taken as a final figure for monuments newly reported in 2018. Meanwhile, Mr Murphyhas confirmed that the henge he discovered with Ken Williams near Newgrange will feature on Channel 4s Hidden Britain by Drone, which is presented by Tony Robinson. Mr Murphy travelled to London for the interview and the piece will be an extra special episode of the series. He said, the programme producers felt they couldnt leave out what was (in their words) the biggest archaeological discovery of the summer, from the programme. It is being broadcast at 7pm this Sunday the 7th September. This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner. Gardai intend to make arrests and prepare a prosecution file for the DPP in relation to the suspected laundering by a Nigerian criminal network of more than 15m through Irish and international bank accounts. In a major search operation, more than 100 gardai yesterday targeted 15 homes in Dublin, Meath, Laois, Louth, and Kildare and removed documentation, computers and other evidence. The investigation team, led by detectives from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, also seized four jeeps. The GNECB will liaise with the Criminal Assets Bureau regarding the confiscation of the jeeps and private houses they suspect are the proceeds of crime. As part of the operation, 350 bank accounts in Ireland have been closed by financial institutions on foot of a report to them by the GNECB, and a further 170 accounts abroad have been identified as being part of the fraud. The bank accounts here received money from fraud scams, before transferring the money out of the jurisdiction across Europe, west Africa and China. People from the Nigerian and west African communities were recruited to provide bank accounts to help launder the funds, and received a cut for it. Detective Superintendent Alf Martin of the GNECB said the complex investigation covers an 18-month period between 2015 and 2017. He said they were assisted by new technology, the goAML system that they got two years ago, which can pull together and analyse financial data. He said a lot of information and documentation were removed, including false documentation, such as a fake passport. All this will be used in putting together a comprehensive file which will ultimately end up with the DPP, he said. He said the network targeted was laundering money from frauds conducted by other gangs. It particularly involved invoice redirection fraud which occurs when a criminal impersonates a person or a company to whom a legitimate payment is due. The criminal contacts the company due to pay the money and deceives them into sending the money to them via a new account. The money is often broken up into different accounts and transferred abroad. Det Supt Martin said the difficulty for gangs isnt conducting the actual crime, but cleaning the money through legitimate systems. He said considerable work had yet to be done in examining the evidence, but he expected arrests to follow. Yes, there will be arrests and if somebody decides to fly to another jurisdiction, we have the European Arrest Warrant, and protocols with most countries regarding extradition. Det Supt Martin said that a money-laundering bill going through the Oireachtas will increase their powers to request and share financial information domestically and abroad. An elderly woman died in a house fire sparked by a coal fire in her kitchen last year, an inquest heard yesterday. Mary Moynihan, 89, a leading figure in the Irish Deaf community who pioneered the use of Irish Sign Language (ISL), died in the blaze at her home on Model Farm Rd on November 6. Cork City coroner Philip Comyn returned a verdict of accidental death after hearing details of the tragic case. The inquest was told that Ms Moynihan, who was deaf and single, lived alone and independently thanks to the support of family and a HSE home help worker. Home help Aileen Coughlan said she called to Ms Moynihan every morning, lunchtime, and evening, seven days a week. She called to Ms Moynihans home at around 10.30am on November 6 last year and did some jobs around the house. She told the coroner that Ms Moynihan loved the heat from a fire and that the fire in the kitchen was lighting. However, she said Ms Moynihan, who walked with the aid of a frame, seemed a bit tired. Ms Coughlan called to the house again at lunchtime and left at 2pm. One of Ms Moynihans nephews, Declan Donovan, who also called to the house regularly, said he arrived between 6.30pm and 7pm. He said his aunt complained of the cold and he put some extra coal and briquettes on the fire, before replacing the fireguard. Everybody put the fire guard up, he said. He left around 7pm as Ms Moynihan settled down to watch Nationwide on TV. Ms Coughlan said she returned at 9pm to help Ms Moynihan to bed but when she opened the back door, she was met with a wall of smoke and raised the alarm. She said she heard banging from inside the house. Third officer with Cork City Fire Brigade, Victor Shine, said they got the call at 9.25pm and were on the scene by 9.30pm. He said that when they arrived, flames were shooting through the kitchen window, which meant the fire had been ablaze for some time. He also said the buildings corrugated steel roof contributed to heat retention inside the property. Firefighters brought the fire under control quickly and Ms Moynihans badly burned body was found lying in the kitchen. Death was pronounced at the scene. Investigating garda Darren Suffin said a report by forensic crime scene investigator Garda Stephen Dennehy found no evidence of forced entry at the house. His report established that the seat of the fire was located in a fuel storage area to the left of the fireplace in the kitchen, where timber blocks and briquettes were stored. He was satisfied that this was an accidental fire. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death was smoke inhalation due to a house fire. Mr Comyn described it as a tragic case, but he praised Ms Moynihans relatives and Ms Coughlan for ensuring that she was able to live independently at home right up to her death. Mr Donovan said his aunt, although frail, was still very involved socially, and was even planning to meet friends the next day. She was involved in her younger life with older deaf people and when she got old, younger people came to visit her in her house. Nothing held her back. She had a great life, he said. Poignantly, the ISL which Ms Moynihan used for most of her life was formally recognised as a minority language weeks after her death. Chairman of the Cork Deaf Club, Graham OShea, said Ms Moynihan had a strong character, and she was great company. She was much loved by her extended family, and by all of us in the deaf community, especially here in Cork, he said. She will be sorely missed. By Liam Heylin A woman has refused to swallow a criminal damage charge at Cork District Court after she was accused of popping a 1.50 packet of Pringles at a local Tesco outlet almost two years ago. Kathleen McDonagh, aged 24, of 1 Inchera Close, Mahon, Cork, denies the charge of damaging the item at Tesco, Mahon Point Shopping Centre. The case was listed for hearing yesterday before Judge Mary Dorgan. Garda Linda OKeeffe was in court for the case yesterday as was Inspector John Deasy. The accused woman was represented on free legal aid by solicitor, Shane Collins-Daly. Mr Collins-Daly said his understanding was that two other State witnesses were not present. Those witnesses were members of staff at the shopping centre. The case was adjourned until November 27 so that the staff could be in court for the contested case. Judge Dorgan made it a condition of the adjournment that it would be peremptory against the State if they were not in a position to proceed with the case on that date. In other words, the case will be dismissed if it cannot go ahead. The charge states that on December 27, 2016, at Tesco, Mahon Point shopping centre, in Cork District Court area she, did without lawful excuse, damage property, to wit, a foil lid on a box of Pringles partially removed, value 1.50, not resalable, belonging to Tesco shop of Mahon Point intending to damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be damaged, contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Criminal Damage Act 1991. This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner. By Elaine Loughlin and Daniel McConnell Dublins local authorities have been threatened with the loss of powers if they do not immediately tackle the homelessness crisis. The housing minister has written to three of Dublins four councils threatening to remove some of their powers if they do not act. Eoghan Murphy intends to send more strongly worded letters to other local authorities across the country in the coming days as the numbers of families in emergency accomodation continues to escalate. Mr Murphy has vowed to deny local authorities some of their powers and will hand responsibility to his department if they do not ramp up the provision of emergency accomodation and social housing. He said: Certain local authorities when I have looked at the numbers over the last couple of months of people in emergency accommodation I still havent seen the solutions coming through and I am still hearing excuses which are unacceptable, I now have no choice but to tell them to either use their emergency powers and if they wont I will be stepping in. Although all 31 councils were given targets in January, Mr Murphy has now been forced to write to Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, South Dublin, and Fingal councils over their lack of progress in rolling out emergency hub accommodation. It is understood he also hit out at councils for refusing to use their discretionary powers to provide financial top-ups to housing assistance payments (HAP) in areas where rents are higher than the State support. Mr Murphy wrote to the four Dublin authorities on Wednesday with all receiving a wrap over the knuckles apart from Dublin City Council, whose progress on developing homeless hubs and supporting HAP tenants is satifactory. It is expected that councils in other major urban areas including Cork, Limerick, and Waterford will be contacted early next week, with a source stating: This is by no means the last of this, every local authority will be receiving letters in the coming weeks. The latest figures show almost 10,000 people were living in hotels, B&Bs, and emergency hubs in July. Speaking at the Fine Gael think-in in Galway, a visibly annoyed Mr Murphy said: There are certain local authorities which have not put in place family hubs when they have a large number of families that are self-accommodating. We know that family hubs are the appropriate first response, not hotels. Also speaking in Galway, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted that the number of people in emergency accommodation, which has increased by almost 1,000 in the past year could not be described as progress. Its evident to everyone that we are still going in the wrong direction when it comes to emergency accommodation and we are in no means in denial about that, said Mr Varadkar, who added that it would take time to solve the issue. Fianna Fail TD Eamon O Cuiv said he declined to enter the presidential election race because of senior party officials threats that he would be kicked out of the party if he did so. Mr O Cuiv last night confirmed the reason for his decision to formally rule himself out of the contest in a two-page letter to supporters, saying: You can understand I would not do anything that would force me to leave. Last month, it emerged that Mr O Cuiv had ignored the view of party leader Micheal Martin and, on July 23, met with several councillors who wanted him to be Fianna Fails candidate. In his first public comments on the matter yesterday, Mr O Cuiv broke his silence on Galway Bay FM to say he was not entering the race because he had already decided not to do so if President Michael D Higgins sought a second term. However, while referencing this reason in a letter to supporters last night, Mr O Cuiv also revealed that he had been warned that he would be kicked out of the party if he sought a nomination saying this way the main reason for his U-turn. Irish Examiner The clear indication by Fianna Fail spokespersons was that, even if Fianna Fail councillors supported a county council nomination, any Fianna Fail person so nominated would be forced out of the party, he wrote in the letter, seen by the . I have been a member of Fianna Fail in Galway West for over 40 years. You can understand I would not do anything that would force me to leave the party at this time, or cause division. One supporter of Mr O Cuiv last night said he passionately believes the TD should have been allowed to run, and it beggars belief that he was blocked from entering the contest. However, Mr O Cuivs decision to formally end his interest in the presidency means it is now almost certain the party will adhere to Mr Martins decision not to run a candidate an issue likely to be raised at the partys pre-Dail think-in next week. Meanwhile, 10 potential presidential candidates sought the support of Galway county council yesterday in the latest stage of the race to win nominations to enter the contest. The pitches came as one of the candidates, journalist Gemma ODoherty, hit out at the fact that potential runners have to attend a number of councils around the country on the same day. President Michael D Higgins next public appearance will be at the Kennedy Summer School in Wexford tomorrow. By Rebecca Black A former Stormont minister appeared emotional as he claimed he was just one boy against multiple attempts to smear him. Jonathan Bell claimed the DUP fitted him up, that the executive office briefed against him, and a journalist advised the DUP how to discredit him. I fear I have been the victim of a massive smear campaign, he said. Mr Bell made the claims while giving evidence to a public inquiry in Belfast into how costs for a green energy scheme spiralled. He was minister at the enterprise department which oversaw the publicly funded Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. Mr Bell was suspended by the DUP in December 2016 after giving an interview to BBC journalist Stephen Nolan about the RHI scheme. He has made explosive claims that DUP special advisers were reluctant to introduce cost control tariffs to the scheme. Appearing at the RHI inquiry yesterday, Mr Bell claimed the DUP has fitted him up. Text messages between Mr Bells special adviser Timothy Cairns and DUP leader Arlene Foster as well as another special adviser Timothy Johnston reveal that he (Mr Cairns) would fit his story to whatever the party narrative was to be, Mr Bell claimed. Mr Bell also told the inquiry of attempts to smear him. He has claimed that an Executive Office official described him as a monster who had to be put to sleep, and that a journalist gave the DUP advice on how to discredit him. Mr Bell said that advice from the journalist included attacking his Christian faith. I have to say to you, I am just one boy, I cant operate against the Executive Office, he told the inquiry. Mr Bell also claimed that the DUP offered a newspaper an exclusive story about him being a bully, if they used the headline Bully boy Bell. I fear I have been the victim of a massive smear campaign, and I fear this is part of the smear campaign. Half a million people in Ireland either have no home or are seriously distressed about their housing situation, anti-homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has claimed. That has to be a matter of concern for our Government, said Fr McVerry when he joined trade unionists, housing advocates, community and campaign leaders to call for a radical shift in housing policy. He reckoned there were tens of thousands of people, particularly families, living in overcrowded accommodation because they did not want to be included on the homeless register. There were three-bedroomed houses with four generations of one family living there. Adults who had now reached their 40s were living with their parents because they could not afford to move out. Fr McVerry said there was an unknown number of people living in appalling quality private accommodation who feared they would be thrown out if they complained. People were struggling to pay their rent and worried sick that it would increase to a level they could no longer afford while those with hefty mortgages were too afraid to talk to their lenders. I would guesstimate at a very conservative level that there are half a million people who either have no home or whose housing is causing them serious distress, he said. There were 43,000 mortgages in arrears of more than two years and in the short or medium term many of the houses were going to be repossessed and the occupants evicted. If even a fraction of those people become homeless this country will not be able to cope. We will end up with families living on the streets, he said. We have a crisis today that I believe could get much, much worse and the Government have their head in the sand. They dont have a policy that is actually working. Irish Congress of Trade Unions president Sheila Nunan said three-quarters of young workers had little or no confidence in being able to buy a home in the future should they wish to. That is an inter-generational inequity that none of us can live with, said Ms Nunan, when she launched the Raise the Roof initiative in Dublin yesterday. Ms Nunan said ICTU had organised a special rally on Wednesday, October 3 outside Leinster House to support an opposition party motion due to be debated in the Dail on the same day. She said the motion supported by Sinn Fein, People before Profit, the Labour Party, Solidarity, the Social Democrats, Green Party and Independents4Chang reflected ICTUs Charter for Housing Rights. Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin said about 40 TDs had worked on the cross-party motion that calls on the Government to declare a housing emergency, substantially increase investment in social and affordable housing, and establish a legal right to housing. ICTU general secretary Patricia King said Congress had contacted every TD and senator about their Charter but some did not want to engage with them. There are people in the Oireachtas who thought it was quite acceptable not to speak to a very large representative group about the housing crisis, she said. By Joe Leogue A scheduled appearance of a Polish travel writer and comedian at the CIT School of Music has been cancelled, the Irish Examiner understands, after the LGBT+ community protested against his homophobic rhetoric. Wojciech Cejrowski was set to appear at CIT School of Music next Friday for an American-style performance of stand-up comedy and stories about adventures and travels, according to the events Facebook page. However, Mr Cejrowskis remarks on issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and Islam prompted protest. Cejrowski has built a career and his notoriety by inciting hatred and violence towards people who identify as LGBT+, Cork Pride said in a statement. Hes not just homophobic; he equates people who are gay to paedophiles and openly calls for them to be attacked. Irish Examiner The understands that the event has been cancelled. A CIT spokesperson said bookings for the School of Music building is overseen by facilities management company Apleona. Apleona did not reply to queries. The Cork appearance was one of a series of dates due to take place across Ireland in the next week, starting in Dublin tonight, Galway tomorrow, and Belfast on Saturday, September 15, as part of Polish Cultural Week. Aleksandra Lojek, a hate crime support worker in the North and a Polish native, objected to Mr Cejrowskis appearance in Belfast. Its not even controversial, its simply Islamophobic and homophobic rants, she told The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster in July. My initial reaction was: No, no, not here, not this guy, not here in Northern Ireland where we are trying to integrate and where we have been living for many years. I would never agree for anybody, regardless if they are a Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, Northern Irish, British, or an Irish person, to spread hatred. Mr Cejrowskis appearance at the Black Box Theatre in Galway tomorrow will be protested by the Amach LGBT Galway group. The scheduled performer has a well-know history of including discriminatory and inflammatory content in his programmes; content that in particular is considered homophobic, with an aim to incite the exclusion of members of the LGBT+ community as well as womens rights, the group said. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) claim that the HSE has admitted to having no plan to deal with extra patients this winter. The INMO said that they found it out during a meeting at the Workplace Relations Commission today with HSE and Department of Health officials. They said that the HSE also admitted that they have been unable to fill 169 nursing posts in emergency departments across Ireland, for which they have funding. On top of this, the INMO said, another 57 nurses would be needed to provide minimum levels of safe care, according to recognised staffing ratios. Yet extra funding for the posts is not available. Speaking after the meeting, an emergency department nurse and INMO member said: Its impossible to think that things could get any worse. But winter is coming and theres still no plan. "It will simply be impossible to provide safe care. Emergency departments are overcrowded now, in summer. Theyll be warzones once winter comes. INMO Director of Industrial Relations, Tony Fitzpatrick, said: Despite record overcrowding this summer, the HSE still dont have a plan to deal with winter. Community health services are being cut, so emergency departments will face a tsunami of desperate patients with nowhere else to go. The recruitment and retention crisis is deepening, with hundreds of nursing vacancies in hospitals across Ireland. "Nurses and midwives will be protesting at some of the worst-affected hospitals in the coming weeks. We cannot go on like this. The HSE has to be honest with the public. Some locals opposed to a second runway at Dublin Airport have been offered payments to leave their homes under a voluntary scheme put in place by the company. Those who qualify for the scheme live near the proposed 320m project. By Liam Heylin A young man who denied threatening to slice up a young womans face and rip her in two was released from jail yesterday despite objections from gardai. Daniel Hogan was refused bail on Monday as the complainant said she was in fear of the accused being released. Judge Olann Kelleher said the application for bail could be renewed yesterday. Inspector Gary McPolin said Detective Garda Ed ODonoghues objection to bail was as strong yesterday as it was on Monday. Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said he had discussed possible bail conditions with the detective if Judge Kelleher decided to grant bail. While the detective remained opposed to bail, eight conditions were agreed and Judge Kelleher added one further condition that required an independent surety of 500. Inspector Gary McPolin said that as well as the curfew, the main concern is the injured party and that Mr Hogan would stay miles away from her and have no contact direct or indirect with the injured party by text, social media or any means. Hogan said he accepted that. On Monday at Cork District Court the complainant said she was in an on-off relationship with the accused from childhood. Daniel Hogan, aged 20, of 60 Liffey Park, Mayfield, Cork, disagreed and said: I was never going out with her. I dont know what she makes of it but I was never going out with her. Hogan was arrested by Det Garda Ed ODonoghue and charged with threatening to kill 20-year-old Shanice OLeary and carrying out an aggravated burglary at the home of the complainants mother, Elizabeth OLeary, at Liffey Park, Mayfield, around midnight on Saturday/and the early hours of Sunday, September 2. Ms OLeary testified that she was in fear of the defendant being released from custody because of the threats he allegedly made to her. There was threats made that I am going to get cut up, my face is to going to be sliced up, that I am going to be ripped in half and threats that my mother is going to get it too. Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said all these allegations were denied and that the accused man would be pleading not guilty to charges of aggravated burglary and making threats to kill. Hogan will reside with a relative at Shandon St, Cork, as a condition of his bail. By Ray Managh The High Court has blocked Health Minister Simon Harriss direction for an inquiry into patient health and welfare at the National Maternity Hospital, following the tragic death of a young woman during surgery for an ectopic pregnancy in 2016. Mr Justice Charles Meenan said it was irrational and unreasonable for the minister to direct such an investigation into what happened at the hospital when such practices are investigated, without his intervention, in many other hospitals across the health service. The judge found that the minister, before ordering his inquiry, had not properly considered the findings and recommendations of three other reports: those of the coroners inquest; an internal NMH inquiry; and a further Health Service Executive probe. These followed the death of Malak Thawley, aged 34, when her aorta was accidentally torn by a doctor, during investigative treatment relating to a suspected pregnancy outside the womb. The National Maternity Hospital, in Holles Street, had legally challenged the ministers direction to the Health Information and Quality Authority and asked for it to be quashed. Judge Meenan said the minister had responsibility for the safety of patients using services provided by various health institutions, including the hospital, and must have believed, on reasonable grounds, that there was a serious risk to patients at the NMH. He said the far-reaching implications of this were self-evident for patients, for those who referred patients, and for the medical and nursing and midwifery staff, and, surprisingly for a minister, took six months to file a statement of opposition to the judicial review of his decision, which was being sought by the hospital. The judge said there had been lengthy exchanges of correspondence to, and meetings with, the minister, involving Caoimhe Haughey, of C.M. Haughey Solicitors, who acted for Alan Thawley, husband of the late Ms Thawley. Judge Meenan found that the minister, through his officials, had not carried out any investigation of his own, but claimed to rely upon the NMH and HSE reports and evidence at the inquest. It was clear to the court that the findings, recommendations, and conclusions of these reports had not been properly considered. The minister and his officials had stated, on numerous occasions, that the ministers proposed inquiry would be a learning exercise, since the practices being inquired into were across the health system. The judge found that the grounds relied upon by the minister, in his statement of opposition to the High Court challenge, had not been supported by the relevant reports, correspondence, or the evidence given during the High Court hearing. He said the object of the ministers proposed investigation must be to eliminate a risk, rather than to be a learning exercise, and it was irrational and unreasonable for the minister to direct such an inquiry. Judge Meenan quashed the decision of the minister to order his inquiry. The mother of tragic Donegal woman Danielle McLaughlin said she was disgusted to be refused a meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar because his office claims "she was not an Irish citizen". Danielle's mother, Andrea Brannigan, requested a private meeting with the Taoiseach during an upcoming visit to Donegal to discuss the tragic case of her daughter, who was murdered while backpacking in Goa, India in March 2017. Danielle, from Buncrana in Co Donegal, was 28 years old when she was murdered during Holi Festival celebrations at a beach resort in Goa. She was travelling with a British passport at the time and had dual British-Irish citizenship as she was born in Glasgow. He mother Andrea Brannigan had emailed the Taoiseach this week to ask him to meet her to discuss the circumstance of her daughters case. Ms Brannigan was shocked to receive a reply from the Office of the Taoiseach saying it "was not possible and indeed probably not worthwhile" for her to meet Varadkar, because his office claimed Danielle was not an Irish citizen. Ms Brannigan said: Danielle would be so annoyed by this because she was so proud to be Irish. Danielle lived in Ireland since she was two weeks old. She had an Irish passport, but when she lost it she needed another quickly and applied for a British one in 2015. Ms Brannigan sought a private meeting with Mr Varadkar to ask for more assistance for Irish families who have had relatives die abroad. She also wanted to ask for government intervention in the trial of the man accused of murdering her in South Goa. I wanted to discuss the fact that this case is going to take a long time and I was looking for a way to see if he (Varadkar) could intervene in any way, Ms Brannigan said. We have a trial every few weeks and we have to fund the legal costs ourselves. It is so slow that I want to ask the government to try and fast track it. I dont think me or anybody else should be left in this situation, there is basically no help for us. Ms Brannigan said she has received no help from the Irish Embassy, and felt as though the British and Irish consulate are passing the case off to each other due to Danielles dual citizenship. I need to discuss how Irish citizens need more support when their loved ones die abroad. Danielle McLaughlin Ms Brannigan pointed out the lack of support from the Irish consulate extended to the fact that she learned of Danielles horrific death through social media, instead of an official call from the Embassy. She said: On the morning Danielle was found, I should never have found out the way that I did on Facebook. I had to phone the guards and they didnt know. It was only that afternoon that they confirmed it. She was dead about 48 hours at this stage. A Bill needs to be put through the government, thats what Im fighting for - for more support for families. I am Danielles voice now because she doesnt have one. We are her only voice. I am very lucky, in a way, that I have a great community behind me who have helped to fundraise for our legal team, but not everyone has that. The remains of murder victim Danielle McLaughlin are carried to her resting place at St Mary's Church, Cockhill in Inishowen. Picture: North West Newspix Ms Brannigan added that she does not know if Varadkar has seen her request because the letter received on Friday was signed by the Assistant Private Secretary to the Taoiseach. I dont know if the Taoiseach has seen it, but the Secretary works for him," she said. To come back with a response like that is absolutely disgusting. Despite the reply, she said she still wants a private meeting with the Taoiseach. Ms Brannigan said: I want to tell him that Danielle is Irish. Danielles favourite day of the year was St. Patricks Day. She was known by her friends as the Wee Irish Princess. She was never known as a British person. She loved her Irish roots. Muslims in Galway claim they are struggling to find locations to practice their faith after being told they cannot use a residential home on the outskirts of the city as a mosque. An Bord Pleanala has refused planning permission to the Western Islamic Cultural Centre for the unauthorised use of a house at Mincloon, Rahoon, on the western side of the city as a place of worship. The congregation had originally sought retrospective permission to use the building for assembly for prayer from Galway City Council last year. The city authorities rejected the application which also generated strong opposition from some residents in Rahoon, who complained about the growing number of visitors to the building which had generated an extremely high level of traffic on an inadequate road network in a rural area. The Western Islamic Culture Centre appealed the decision but An Bord Pleanala has upheld the councils ruling. Locals said the suggestion by the Muslim community that the use of the building as a mosque was ancillary to its main use as a dwelling was incorrect. The primary use is as a place of worship involving at times a large number of persons, meeting a number of times throughout the day, one resident said. They complained that a loudspeaker was sometimes used at the centre, while meetings could start at 5am and finish at 2am. The building has been the subject of a number of enforcement notices from the council over recent years due to unauthorised development of the site. In its appeal, the Western Islamic Culture Centre said the site was the subject of a special zoning under the Galway city development plan 2017-2023 which allowed it to be used as a place of congregation and worship for the citys Muslim community. (The measure was introduced as a material contravention of the plan by councillors against the advice of council planners.) The centre claimed the site was principally used as the residence of the local Imam. Gatherings occur at prayer times with social calls at other times, said a spokesman. The centre said there was a maximum of 10 people at most meetings, although the figure could be as high as 50 on occasional evenings. Yesterday, a spokesman for the centre, said members of the Galway Muslim community was very upset at the ruling. We have 2,000 Muslims and not enough facilities. People are asking why they are not being allowed to pray, he added. Council planners claimed 76% of the total floor area of the building was for communal activities which was therefore its primary use. An inspector with An Bord Pleanala said the daily gathering of people at the property cannot be considered to be informal or an irregular occurrence. The board said it was refusing planning permission because of the scale and extent of the non-residential use of the building. It said the frequency of meetings and numbers attending gatherings significantly undermined and compromised the residential use of the building. It also found the development could not satisfactorily dispose of the likely volume of wastewater that would be generated by the number of visitors, particularly because of its proximity to the Moycullen Bogs, a designated natural heritage area. Consultants at University Hospital Kerry have written to the South SouthWest Group warning they cannot continue to operate at current levels unless urgent action is taken to boost staffing and improve resources. It is understood that doctors are considering going off-call, which could lead to patients being taken to Cork by ambulance if consultants are not available outside of normal working hours. A meeting is due to take place today between the consultant board and Gerry ODwyer, CEO of the South South-West Group (SSWHG). A spokesperson for the group confirmed a meeting is due to take place but said it would be inappropriate to discuss internal issues in advance of any meeting with staff. Irish Examiner In a draft letter seen by the , the consultants warn that the hospital is under significant threat of a downgrade. It is without a full-time cardiologist or respiratory physician, which consultants say falls below the standard of care expected by the Acute Medical Programme. They say respiratory and cardiovascular illness are major causes of morbidity and mortality in Ireland. Irish Examiner The previously reported that University Hospital Kerrys (UHK) clinical director, Claire OBrien, has temporarily stepped down from her post due to clinical pressures. A pathologist is also set to leave. The consultants letter says the hospital is unresourced and undersupported by the group. This, they claim, has resulted in a large number of consultants leaving the hospital from many departments, including obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, cardiology, geriatrics, radiology, the emergency department, and pathology. Against this backdrop, they say, it is impossible to recruit consultants, that applicants will not apply for standalone positions in a hospital with so many deficiencies. They also accuse the group of failing to plan for retirements, which they say are generally predictable. While UHK is currently a Level 3 hospital, catering for acute medical and surgical patients, and providing a 24-hour emergency department service, doctors believe it is under threat of becoming a Level 2 facility, which would mean treating low-risk medical patients only and putting ambulance by-pass protocols in place. Consultant radiologist Martin Schranz told the Irish Examiner he was recently reprimanded by HSE management for being critical of hospital managers in communications with colleagues. Dr Schranz received an email from the HSE assistant national director of human resources on August 21 warning him he had been put on notice in relation to your personal obligations that arise due to your organisational role in a situation where you have circulated emails where details reference senior managerial colleagues in an unacceptable manner. Dr Schranz said that while he had been critical of local management, he believed it was within a closed consultant forum. He said the HSE had not clarified what put on notice meant, but his union believed it to be an official warning. In my opinion, it is aimed at producing a chilling effect on what I can say freely within this closed forum consultant group, he said. Dr Schranz has previously highlighted difficulties in his radiology department where he says he has no administration staff to register public patients, making it impossible for him to refer them on for scans. He says private patients are being referred on. He said politicians such as Sinn Fein councillor Toireasa Ferris had continually lobbied on the hospitals behalf, to no avail. Another consultant, who spoke to the Irish Examiner on condition of anonymity, said morale at the hospital was at an all-time low across all staff grades, but especially clinical grades and that recruitment is now becoming impossible at all levels. Tanaiste Simon Coveney doesn't think Donald Trump is racist. The US President is coming to Ireland in November as part of a European tour. Mr Coveney acknowledges it will be a controversial visit but says it doesn't mean the Government endorses his policies. "I don't say he's a racist but, as I've said before, I disagree with many of the policies that he advocates," the Tanaiste said. "That is unfortunate but it's the reality. "The way mature politicians deal with these things is that they meet with each other, they have disagreements and they explain each other's positions." Digital Desk By Sean ORiordan Archaeologists working on Spike Island have discovered a First World War trench used to train troops heading to France and Gallipoli, foundations of long-gone buildings, and chess and gaming pieces carved from stone by convicts. A team led by Barra ODonnabhain of the Department of Archaeology in UCC also discovered graffiti daubed on walls by Famine-era prisoners, which was not dissimilar to that produced by more modern-day prisoners, mainly joyriders, who were incarcerated on the island up until 2004. After an initial trial excavation in 2012, the Spike Island Archaeological Project has dug there for four weeks each summer. While the island has a rich and varied past, the focus of the excavations was on its conversion in 1847, at the height of the Great Famine, to the worlds largest prison, which was closed in 1883. Convict-related finds from the excavations included carved gaming pieces and burials from the prison cemetery. Dr ODonnabhain said the gaming pieces give some insight into how convicts coped with long sentences and a harsh prison regime. The team has discovered artefacts in areas where prisoners were housed and in the backfill of some of the graves in the cemetery, including a collection of hand-carved stone and bone objects. Part of the reason for the high death rate on Spike Island in the early 1850s was the inadequate accommodation for prisoners. Some of the pieces of carved stone look like chess pieces, while a hand-made domino has also been found. They say that life often imitates art and it seems to be the case here as these artefacts remind me of the rock-carved chess pieces in the movie The Shawshank Redemption, said Spike Island manager John Crotty. While excavating the convict cemetery, the team found evidence of a trench that had been dug during the First World War to give soldiers the experience of trench warfare before they were sent to the front. An unexpected find at the base of the chest-deep trench were two lumps of corroded metal that turned out to be grenades. After the convict depot was closed in 1883, Spike Island was returned to the British military who held it until 1938 when the island was handed over to the Irish state. During the First World War, troops are known to have trained on the island before being sent to the Western Front and Gallipoli. The fort would have looked very different in 1847 compared to what we see now, said Mr Crotty. You could not see from one end of the parade ground to the other as the rock of the original hill was still in place. This was all removed by convicts who spent the first 15 years effectively building their own prison. Archaeologists have been working on the island in cooperation with its owners, Cork County Council. This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner. The infamous Trump Baby is to make an appearance during the US President's visit to Ireland in November. Trump Baby was the centrepiece of the protests in London during Donald Trump's visit to the UK in July. The people behind the protest, the Trump Babysitters, have teamed up with four Irish civil society groups to bring the Trump Baby to Ireland for the protests planned here against Trump and the right wing politics he represents. Great news - I am coming to inspect my great and very beautiful Atlantic Ocean property, Ireland, in November. The Irish people are very smart, very talented protestors. They love me - I have a 128% approval rating! Absolutely magnificent. https://t.co/c4k5Sb2l3r Trump Baby (@TrumpBabyUK) September 3, 2018 The four groups, Afri-Action from Ireland; Comhlamh; Friends of the Earth and the Latin America Solidarity Centre have said they are delighted to work with The Trump Babysitter team from the UK. The organisations are committed to grassroots-driven social and environmental change, challenging rising xenophobia and racism, ever increasing wealth inequalities and climate change. Kevin Smith, one of the Trump Babysitters in London helping facilitate the Trump Babys journey to Ireland commented: "We're thrilled to be working with groups like Comhlamh and Friends of the Earth to bring the Trump Baby over to Ireland for the protests against the US president's politics of hate and division." Apart from wanting to troll Donald wherever he goes, we made the Trump Baby as a symbol for for those who would mobilise in support of migrants and refugees, and for those who want to create a safe and liveable climate for generations to come." Oisin Coghlan from Friends of the Earth commented: Trump's visit to Ireland is an opportunity for all of us who reject his nihilistic vision to come together and build the movement for a more sustainable, fair and inclusive future. The Trump Baby blimp will provide a fun focal point for those demonstrations." However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney have both commented on Trump's visit to Ireland positively. Simon Coveney said in a tweet that the US President is always welcome in Ireland and highlighted the strong historic, economic, cultural and family ties between Ireland and the US. President Trump will visit Ireland in November. The US President is always welcome in Ireland. Our two countries have such strong historic, economic, cultural and family ties. Maintaining those connections is always a top priority Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 31, 2018 -Digital Desk By Esther McCarthy Some of West Corks most striking landmarks will feature in a new movie to make its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival tonight. Filmed on location in Co Cork and backed by Screen Ireland (formerly the Irish Film Board), Float Like a Butterfly tells the story of a young Traveller girl who dreams of becoming a boxer like her hero, Muhammad Ali. It is one of six Irish films to screen at the acclaimed festival, which is widely regarded as kick-starting awards season. The drama is directed by top Cork filmmaker Carmel Winters, who delighted in the chance to shoot in some of her favourite places. I live in West Cork and am out every day walking my dogs, she said as she prepared for the premiere. I put a lot of our favourite haunts on the screen in the film. We shot scenes in the beautiful graveyard on the Ilen estuary, the white sandy beach at Ballyrisode, my favourite music pub Levis Corner House Bar in Ballydehob, an epic quarry in Skibbereen, an old shop in Goleen. My partner, production designer Toma McCullim, even managed to convince me to turn the road under the Twelve Arch Bridge into a bustling 70s fair day. We had the kind of creative collaboration from the local community other film sets could only dream of. The crew behind Fastnet Film Festival in Schull really got behind us and opened doors and hearts. It was this immense wave of local talent and goodwill that carried the biggest scenes in the film. My experience of shooting in my home county was so special, I want to make a television series here next. That way we can build on the foundations already laid to create a sustainable creative hub all year round. Set in 1972, the year Muhammad Ali came to Ireland, Float Like a Butterfly tells the story of Frances, whose father has recently been released from jail, who dreams of becoming a boxer and making her hero Ali proud. But the man that gets out of jail after seven hard years isnt the same man who went in. He has lost faith in himself and in her. The film is about Frances struggle to be seen and recognised by him again. And, ultimately, to choose her own destiny despite him. A scene from Carmel Winters film Float Like A Butterfly starring Hazel Doupe, which has its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival tonight. The filmmaker adds that she turned to some of her own childhood memories while developing the feature film. The ancient nomadic way of life kept alive by Irish Travellers until recent times is so rich and vivid perfect for a large screen story. As well as that, my mother traded caravans when I was young. I remember going off to Traveller camps playing with the children while my mother did the wheeling and dealing with the Traveller men. It was a very familiar landscape to me the caravans, the large families of children (I have six brothers and five sisters myself), horses, dogs, the sense of family as tribe. Its a way of life I resonate with and love. Its a truly great honour to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Its one of the most prestigious festivals in the world and the competition to get in is very tough. I hope everyone that came together to make this film feels very proud. Winters film is one of six Irish projects selected for TIFF this year. They include Rosie, Roddy Doyles drama about the homelessness crisis starring Cork actress Sarah Greene in the title role. Audrey's been sorting out Cork people for years... Im a successful wellness guru with 20,000 followers on Instagram. In the past people said this is because I went to Scoil Mhuire and my father owns half of Glanmire, but I dealt with this by blocking them on my social media channels. Anyway, I was posing for an Instagram post to promote my new anti-ageing protein pancakes when it occurred to me Im not just the ideal person to be the next President of Ireland, I bloody well deserve it. Do you think Id win? Monica, Blackrock Road, Im better than any of those guys from Dragons Den. Love that show, watching all the delusional blow-hards coming in with over-inflated notions of their true worth. Anyway, enough about the Dragons. (Except if Peter Casey wants to put a name on the ballot paper that will chime with voters, he should run as Peter Who?) I asked my Posh Cousin if someone from the Blackrock Road would be right for the Aras. She said no, theyd probably refuse to move into a smaller house. Cmere, whats the story with imagining my old doll doing it with a stranger. I dont mean imagining me catching her doing it with Roy Keane and then Roy becomes my friend to make up for it and we go for a pint and all my friends think I do be the bollox. What Im talking about here is her hen party in Galway this weekend, where she says she wants to block me on Facebook for a few days so she can have a mad one, and now I cant help thinking about her doing it with a beardy bongo player. Am I wrong? Dowcha Donie, Blackpool, do your husband have that fantasy too about Roy and you? As if Id sleep with a northsider. In fairness, I know your pain. I have some terrible nights when my husband is away on business, tossing and turning in bed, with Marco or is it Pepe, dreading that My Conor will arrive in the front door because some meeting is cancelled. Hope this helps. Hey. Ive been seeing this guy from Offaly for six months and I genuinely think he might be marriage material. (Long gravel drive up to his gaff, horses, Range Rovers, parents own an apartment block in Marbella, its all very Downton Abbey if you block out their hilarious accents.) Unfortunately he went off the booze for something called Dry September and it turns out hes as dreary as a Tuesday in Kanturk. Is it possible to have a pre-nup, where he promises to drink a bottle of wine every night, forever? Kate, Douglas, please tell me I dont sound like a spoiled cow. Cant, Im doing something called Truthful September. Soz about that. My friend from college is a solicitor, specialising in putting a 500 grand extension on their house in Farran and pretending they have no money. I said, is there any way to make your future husband drink a bottle of wine every night? She said absolutely. I said how? She said, talk to him non-stop about the wedding. #HurtsHisEars Ciao. The nights draw in, the evenings grow colder, my mind turns to winter, and finding a slightly larger girlfriend who can keep me warm, like a beautiful coat. The problem is Cork is too small for my love life and every time I break it off with a girlfriend to make room for a new one, I keep bumping into this ex all over town, who often shouts at me when I suggest we go to my apartment for old times sake. Can you help? Marco, Verona and Ballinlough. My neighbour, Nerdy Niall, has written an app called Wheres My Ex, it makes your phone vibrate every time an ex is detected within 200 metres. I took it for a test drive, and fair play the phone went bonkers when I bumped into Rugby Rory on the Grand Parade. I wont go into the details in a family newspaper, but lets just say the phone gave me far more pleasure than Rugby Rory ever managed back in college. Hello old stock. Im back in the bad books at work after a complete misunderstanding with a 24-year-old stunner from Bilbao. (Were talking at least a 9.) Shes new, so I brought her out for what was supposed to be one drink, but ended with the two of us singing Despacito to a pub full of bewildered locals on Blarney Street. I was only trying to make the girl feel welcome, but now I have to make a formal apology to her in front of the partners. What should I say? Reggie, Blackrock, absolutely nothing untoward happened, unfortunately. For you shes probably changing her name to Lucky. My cousin is in PR, he specialises in making men like you seem like human beings. (No offence.) I told him your story and his face nearly dropped with the despair. I said whats wrong. He said your guy broke the golden rule. I said whats that. He said trying to impress a bird by bringing her drinking on the northside. #HeHasAPoint. Catherine Shanahan talks to Prof Brian Lawlor, consultant psychiatrist and chair of the Dementia: Understand Together Campaign about his working life 7.30am I cycle from Blackrock to work at St Jamess Hospital, Dublin. Ive only myself to get out my children have grown and (mostly) flown. 8.30am I meet with the lead of our DemPath project to discuss staff training. DemPaths designed to improve the care journey for people with dementia at St Jamess. There are a couple of strands, including a rapid assessment screening tool for people over 65. The idea is to try and detect early on if the patient has delirium or cognitive impairment. Early pick-up can mean shorter hospital stays, appropriate referrals following discharge, and better outcomes. 9am I spend most of the morning in the Memory Clinic. My first patient is an older man with memory loss, whos concerned he may have Alzheimers. Hes fully assessed, including memory testing, MRI, blood tests. Some of the patients referred dont have dementia and their memory complaints are due to conditions that can be treated, such as depression, anxiety, medication side-effects. 11am A patient with young-onset dementia (under 65) returns to clinic and we discuss behavioural interventions such as exercise and social engagement which help improve mood and wellbeing. The patient has significant anxiety and depression. Our initial approach strategy is non-drug. 1pm I rarely have time for anything more than a coffee and my salad box. 1.30pm I follow up on phone calls around our recent nationwide dementia awareness survey. The results show people are gradually becoming more aware of the disease and are gaining greater understanding. It also showed our Dementia Understand Together TV campaign is having an impact, with three in five saying they were affected by the personal stories. 2.30pm Ive a research meeting related to our study on dementia prevention involving healthy volunteers in mid-life , where we are trying to develop early markers to see who is at risk of developing Alzheimers disease . 4pm Ive a meeting with our new Atlantic Fellows at the Global Brain Health Institute. This is an interprofessional leadership training programme, based at Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco thats breaking down the silos around dementia. and Im one of the co-directors. Among the newest recruits are a Nigerian neurologist, a Scottish musician and, an American writer. 7pm I head home on the bike. Tennis and cycling are my passions during downtime. Prof Brian Lawlor is consultant psychiatrist and chair of the Dementia: Understand Together Campaign Simon Yates lost his overall lead in the Vuelta a Espana, as Alexandre Geniez claimed victory in a chaotic finish to stage 12 at Manon. AG2R La Mondiale rider Geniez held firm as an early 18-rider breakaway was whittled down to sprint home ahead of Team Skys Dylan van Baarle and Mark Padun of Bahrain-Merida. Spains Jesus Herrada did enough to grab the lead in the overall classification, with an advantage of three minutes and 22 seconds over the now second-placed Yates. Herrada had been part of the initial breakaway but fell away to finish over two minutes behind the leading pack, with the peloton, including Yates, almost 12 minutes back. Geniezs win was marred when he swerved to avoid photographers and crashed into a race official after crossing the finish line, bringing down a number of other riders including Van Baarle. The 181km stage saw a series of attacks from the start until a prominent bunch including the likes of Geniez, Van Baarle and Vincenzo Nibali managed to establish an advantage of over 10 minutes. A further attack split the leading group, but Geniez and Dylan Teuns (BMC) were among those to haul them in, while Herrada hung in in his bid to claim the red jersey. Despite sporadically losing touch with the leaders, Geniez and Van Baarle worked themselves back into contention and set up the final sprint in which the Frenchman stole a march on his rivals. Herrada will take his advantage into the forthcoming stages in the Asturias and Leon mountains, while Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) remains one second behind Yates in third place. Nicolas Roche slipped three places to 34th overall. Meanwhile Primoz Roglic took over at the top of the Tour of Britain standings after his LottoNL-Jumbo team won the team time trial in Cumbria. The Dutch team finished 16 seconds ahead of Quick-Step Floors, with Katusha-Alpecin in third place a further four seconds back. Paddy Bevin had started the stage in the green jersey, but was forced to relinquish his lead, as his BMC team trailed in sixth place, 40 seconds behind the winners. Slovenian Roglic, who finished fourth at this years Tour de France, had started the day 16 seconds behind Bevin in the overall standings. The win for Roglics team lifts him six seconds clear in the standings ahead of Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, with Bob Jungels a further 10 seconds back. Royal Ascot heroine Lagostovegas and beaten Ebor favourite Stratum are two of 11 possible runners for Willie Mullins in the Dubai Cesarewitch at Newmarket on October 13. Mullins has never won the prestigious Flat handicap, but appears intent on opening his account this year, with the total prize fund having been increased to 500,000 at the meeting. Lagostovegas was third in last seasons Cesarewitch and led home a Mullins 1-3-4-5 in the Ascot Stakes in June. Following an impressive victory in Newburys JLT Cup, Stratum was a warm order for the Ebor at York last month, but encountered trouble in running on his way to finishing in midfield. Other Mullins-trained contenders include Cheltenham Festival winner Limini and talented dual-purpose performer Whiskey Sour. Mullins said: The horses are well at the moment and, although there is still a long time to go, I am keen to get as many of them to the Cesarewitch as possible. Stratum has bounced back well from the Ebor, where things did not go to plan, and I would imagine the Cesarewitch will be something that we will target with him. I will try to get Lagostovegas there again. We will play it day by day with her and it will depend on the ground as to where she goes next: She needs nice ground. We took a chance running Limini twice at Galway, but she has come out of those races well. We will look at Irish Champions Weekend for her and the Cesarewitch is still very much a possibility. Laws Of Spin, Meri Devie, Gustavus Vassa, Low Sun, Uradel, Chelkar and Law Girl complete the Closutton team. Mullins added: Low Sun looks an ideal Cesarewitch candidate and the good thing about him is that he handles any ground. Although neither he nor Uradel made the first three at Bellewstown last week (finishing sixth and fourth) I was happy with how they ran. The Mullins squad is part of a 21-strong Irish entry, which also features five trained by Aidan OBrien and one, Light Pillar, trained by Aidans son, Joseph. The weights are headed by Nearly Caught, trained by Hughie Morrison, and another member of the massive Irish contingent, Jim Bolgers Twilight Payment. There are a total of 84 entries with a maximum field of 34 runners. Daniel Gros. Evolutionary psychology, which stresses competition for females, can add another dimension to our understanding of anti-immigrant mood, says The rate at which migrants are arriving has diminished considerably almost everywhere in Europe since the huge inflows seen in 2015. Yet migration continues to dominate political debate throughout the EU. This suggests that populist, anti-immigrant sentiment is not actually being driven by claims that mainstream politicians cannot defend Europes frontiers. The decline in new arrivals to Europe began well before anti-immigrant political leaders took power in Italy or immigration pressure nearly toppled Germanys ruling coalition. It is largely the result of EU efforts, such as the agreement with Turkey to prevent Syrians from crossing into Greece, its co-operation with Libyan militias, and the massive pressure it has placed on the Sahara transit states to close their borders. Thanks to these measures, Europe has become a de facto fortress against migration. So why does immigration remain at the top of many Europeans minds? The answer could be economic: Those who arrived in 2015-2016 have already created labour-market imbalances, with low-skill immigrants increasingly competing for jobs with low-skill citizens. And it is true that, in most of Europe, hostility toward foreigners runs deepest among low-skill workers. But there are reasons to believe that more than economic issues are at stake. For starters, anti-migration (more accurately, anti-foreigner) sentiment is beginning to be expressed violently, not just in Italy, where there have been several instances of shootings aimed at migrants, but even in generally well-ordered Germany. In the eastern city of Chemnitz, violent clashes broke out recently between far-right protesters and police and counter-demonstrators, following the killing of a 35-year-old German by two young men from Iraq and Syria. Support for the right-wing Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party is strong in Chemnitz and the wider region, with most of the attacks on foreigners having occurred in the new Lander of the former East Germany. Crime and unemployment cannot explain this eruption. Chemnitz is home to fewer foreigners than many similar-size German towns, and crime is generally under control there. Moreover, unemployment which is declining throughout Germany is not particularly high in Chemnitz, standing at 7%. But there is another potential explanation, rooted in evolutionary psychology. One trend that is rarely mentioned in migration discussions is the rise in the share of men among refugees and asylum-seekers. In the last three years, men many of whom are aged 18-35 comprised more than two-thirds of all people seeking protection in Germany. Whereas the total number of refugees as a share of Germanys total population is small (2.5%), refugees form a far larger share of Germanys young male population. The impact is particularly noticeable in eastern Germany, which already suffered from a gender imbalance the male-to-female ratio among the younger cohorts approaches 115:100 in most parts of the region because educated women have a much higher propensity than men to move to western Germany for higher-paid jobs. As a result, a significant share of eastern Germanys young male population has little chance of finding a partner and starting a family. Research shows that when there are significantly more men than women, the increased competition for female partners can lend itself to violence. One study links polygamy, which leaves low-status males without wives, to civil wars. The implication is that hostility toward foreigners in eastern Germany and perhaps across Europe may be rooted partly in a primordial defensive response by local men, who want to protect their territory, including their women, from other men. It is probably not a coincidence that Chemnitz, which has shown a readiness to vote for extremist parties, has the highest male-to-female ratio among 20- to 40-year-olds in all of Germany. Not all men are affected equally by this state of affairs. Since women tend to marry up, or find partners with higher socio-economic status, it is the less educated and poorer men whose romantic prospects are most affected by an influx of male asylum-seekers. And, indeed, less educated and poorer groups tend to show the most opposition to migration. Notably, the problems created by gender imbalances cannot be solved with better education or more income redistribution, because mating preferences are relative, not absolute. Those among the native population with the lowest incomes and education levels will always be worse off if they have to compete with a large number of young male immigrants. To be sure, gender imbalances are not the only driver of anti-immigrant sentiment, let alone populism more broadly. But evolutionary psychology, which stresses competition for females, can add another dimension to our understanding of these phenomena, while helping us to predict when and where civil strife might erupt. There is little that can be done to change gender imbalances in a particular place. But, even if the problem cannot be solved, understanding it might help to limit the damage, not least by enabling leaders to avoid policies that are either not useful or would exacerbate tensions. For example, restricting family reunion (to limit the number of foreigners) might make matters worse, because the male asylum-seekers would be more likely to be single and seek partners in the local population. Countries such as Germany that have recently admitted a large number of young male refugees will have to manage the fallout of the resulting societal shifts. Doing so effectively requires their leaders to recognise that those shifts are not just a matter of economics. - Daniel Gros is director of the Centre for European Policy Studies. - Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018. As an academic in creative writing, I attend a lot of literary events. One question I can always count on being asked is, can I write characters of other backgrounds? This has been a growing concern since Lionel Shriver at the 2016 criticism of her book The Mandibles. The recent ABC Q&A episode, Stranger Than Fiction, in conjunction with the Melbourne Writers Festival, showed the many sides of the write what you know debate. Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Sofie Laguna argued that space should be given for marginalised groups to represent themselves. Maxine Beneba Clarke pointedly discussed when appropriation can be harmful, as was the case with Shrivers representation of Latino and African American characters. Meanwhile, Trent Dalton argued that appropriation leads to a good story, which also takes empathy and care. Read more: Lionel Shriver and the responsibilities of fiction writers But is taking a walk in other peoples shoes as effective a writing method as many authors believe? To find out, I wrote a novel manuscript about four people from refugee backgrounds. I did it in three drafts, each using a different method. I wrote the first draft while observing and empathising as a volunteer working with asylum seekers, and refugees. I wrote the second after interviews with 15 people from refugee backgrounds (some of whom I had observed) and the third after getting feedback from three of the interviewees about the manuscript. Then I compared the drafts. The findings were very interesting. Even before I had begun my interviews I had an interesting instance regarding the fallibility of my own memory. I had kept a journal while I was volunteering. As I sat down to write the novel manuscript, I remembered an instance when a young girl, who happened to be in the same public place, approached the group with an origami boat she had made. She offered it to one of the volunteers. It was beautiful with crayon scribbles on the outside and three different sized paper cranes lined up in a row inside. In my memory, the attendees recoiled and anxiously said, we hate boats! I began to write this into the manuscript, when I remembered the journal. I opened it to the day of the event, and found Id recorded that the attendees were not anxious at all, nor did they recoil. They were joking and laughing about how they hated boats. One criticism of stories about refugees is that they tend to show refugees as helpless victims. Was I drawing on existing stereotypes when I remembered this instance? Another possibility is that my feelings about the highly emotional issue of asylum were influencing how I interpreted the conversation. Read more: Indigenous cultural appropriation: what not to do In another instance, I wrote a character that was verbally and racially attacked on public transport. White Australians came to her rescue. I was thinking that was what I would have done. But after interviews with refugees, I discovered the instances of racial abuse were much more violent and common than I imagined. One interviewee related a story about an apple being thrown at her head; another described how her foot was stomped on. Contrary to what I had written, they expressed resilience and stood up for themselves. I once watched author Claire G. Coleman in a debate by ABC RN on the topic of writing what you know. She said that cultural appropriation is dangerous because authors can only contextualise that character as a version of themselves. That certainly seemed to be the case. I was just writing what I thought would happen, from my perspective not theirs. So how can we get it right? Its difficult to tell unless we ask someone from the background we are writing about. In getting feedback, I found that there were parts of my manuscript that resonated with interviewees experiences, such as an instance where an Iranian man was told that he was lucky to be here by a white Australian. The character didnt feel that he was lucky. One interviewee said that he felt the same, that he had everything in Iran, including education and a job, and now he had to start over. But even gaining feedback from interviewees did not mean they were going to tell me everything I got wrong. Those giving feedback wanted to give advice, not to criticise. Walking in someones shoes is useful as a method, but it is far from perfect. As writers, we need to ask ourselves whether we are contributing to the oppression of a group of people by speaking for them, and reinforcing racist stereotypes as we do so. This is not to say that we should never write characters from other backgrounds, just that we need to accept criticism by people who identify from that group rather than dismissing it as censorship (as Beneba Clarke also pointed out on Q&A), and to be more realistic about our own limitations as empathetic writers. This article was written by Tresa LeClerc, Sessional teacher, RMIT University Read the original article here. Lifestyle Exploring Inwa, a Royal Capital in Ruins Yadanar Hsimee, one of the remaining ancient pagodas from the royal Inwa period. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy YANGONInwa, formerly known as Ava, was once the royal capital of the mighty Burmese kingdom. The city was founded by King Thado Min Phaya in 1364 at the confluence of the Myint Nge and Ayeyarwaddy rivers. Since the earthquake of 1838 destroyed the city, it has become a place of hidden secrets and many features of the ancient capital remain in various states of dilapidation resulting in a mysterious collection of historic pagodas, temples, stupas and other buildings. Nowadays, a visit to Inwa can bring you back to the rich historical past through palace ruins, a massive damaged wall and moat. The farms, village and horse carts that continue to exist there today will give a strong sense of Burmese village life that feels a world away from cities like Yangon or Mandalay. For these reasons, I did a day trip to Inwa while visiting Mandalay a few weeks ago. The distance from Mandalay to Inwaonly 21 kilometers south of the citymakes it easy to visit. We rented a car for the day for 35,000 kyats and it only took about 45 minutes to get there from Mandalay. Starting from the citys entrance, the roads were clear and lined with a small brick wall next to another massive palace wall, and a moat which all gave me a sense of being in an ancient Burmese village and I was so excited to see more. Many horse carts were being driven around by the local women and some of them were explaining the citys history as paid guides. Our first stop was at the Mahar Aung Mye Bonzan Monastery which is also known as Me Nu Oak Kyaung. The monastery is located at the entrance of Inwa Palace and it is one of the few remaining historic buildings from the Inwa dynasty. Its famous for its brick building which was donated by Queen Nanmadaw Me Nu. The monastery was built in 1822 and badly damaged in the 1838 earthquake but later restored by Queen Sinphyu Mashin, a daughter of Queen Me Nu and a queen of King Mindon, in 1873. Most old Burmese monasteries were built of teak or wood but this one was built of brick with the floors and interior walls made of teak. The monastery is a yellowish color and is really impressive from the outside. Inside the monastery, you can see mural paintings from the Inwa dynasty and there are also Buddha statues. The landscape scene the monastery is set in is really beautiful and it is a good opportunity to take a photo. Then we moved to the next place, a teak building called Bargaya Monastery first built in 1595. During the reign of King Bagidaw (1819-1837), the monastery was burnt during a huge fire outbreak. Many parts of the monastery were damaged and abandoned. The Myanmar Government resurrected the monastery based on designs of the old one in 1992. Now you can see the amazing architecture of the building and the brilliant teak craft skills used. The whole black monastery wall is decorated with engravings mostly of birds, flowers, and people. Inside the monastery, there are high wooden pillars and its really mind-blowing. There are a few Buddha statues which were sculpted during the Inwa dynasty. Many parts of the building such as the floor and tiered roof are damaged and need restoration. The monastery is still in use by monks with some living there, but you can still go inside. Bargaya Monastery has an entrance fee for foreigners of 10,000 kyats. In Myanmar, visitors have to take off their shoes at those kinds of religious monasteries, temples and pagodas but I saw some foreigners there wearing shoes inside. I thought maybe they didnt know or they forgot. I would like to request that foreigners follow these rules when they visit there. We then traveled down a narrow earthen road flanked by fields of banana trees. After 10 minutes drive we saw some beautiful shrines. One shrine was called Wingabar and though the building was damaged on the outside, we could still enter it. The inside of the building is like a maze and you might get lost along the way so please ask the vendors nearby and they will show you the right way to go upstairs and get to the top of the building. The stairway was really narrow and dark so we had to use phone flashlights but the view from the top of the building was green and beautiful. At the top of the building, there were a lot of human-made brick stacks and I built my own one too. Near this shrine is another called Myint Moh Taung and you can also climb up to the top of the building of that one. The place really reminded me of some pagodas in Bagan. Another example of the old Myanmar architectural style is a watch tower called Nan Myint which is 90 feet (30 meters) high and was built in 1822 but it was also destroyed by the earthquake of 1838 and now leans perilously to one side. Visitors can only view it from the outside because the wooden stairs are damaged and cant be climbed. I thought the trip had ended as we were leaving the ancient city through the palace entrance, but then we observed some other temples like Yadanar Hsimee and Lay Htet Gyi pagodas which are located on the boundary roads of Inwa Palace. Yadanar Hsimee Pagoda is already an Instagram-friendly ancient attraction of Inwa and there are some souvenirs to buy there. Though the pagodas dont have much background information and most people dont know their exact history, they are famous for their building structure, ancient engravings and mural paintings. Then the trip really was over. On reflection, I have a few travel tips for a visit here. Inwa is really hot so wear comfortable clothes and bring sunglasses and a hat as well. I strongly recommend wearing slip-on shoes because there are a lot of pagodas, temples and monasteries and you will have to take off your shoes repeatedly. Follow these tips and I am sure you will enjoy your day at Myanmars ancient royal capital. Burma Four Dead in Magwe Coal Mine Explosion Rescuers give medical care to a miner rescued from the coal mine after a gas explosion on Thursday. / Saw Township lawmaker U Kyaw Myint / Facebook MANDALAYAt least four people are dead, one seriously injured and four are still trapped after an explosion in a coal mine in Saw Township, Magwe Region, on Thursday. According to police, a methane gas explosion trapped 12 coal mine workers on Thursday morning at Htun Yarzaw coal mining company in Kyauke Myaung, a village in Saw Township about 130 kilometers north of the city of Magwe. Rescuers rushed to the area and were able to rescue seven miners right after the incident. However, three of those rescued have died since and one remains in a serious condition, said the duty officer from Saw Township Police Station. Police said the bodies of Ko Kyaw Naing Tun (25) and the other man who died inside the mine were carried out on Thursday and Ko Tin Kyaw Win (25), who received serious injuries during the explosion, was sent to the general hospital in Saw Township for medical treatment. Police said the body of another miner, Ko Aung Zin Htun (17) was recovered from the mine on Thursday afternoon, followed by a fourth on Friday morning. However, the condition of the four remaining trapped miners is still unknown. Another body was brought out this morning and rescue work is still ongoing. We hope the remaining four miners will be found safe, said the police officer. According to the police, the incident is under investigation and a lawsuit has been opened against U Min Min Oo, the manager of the coal mining company, for the negligence of safety at the mine and for the death of the miners. Meanwhile, rescuers are struggling in their efforts to bring out the trapped miners as the mine contains dangerously low levels of oxygen. It is very risky for the rescuers to go down into the 700-feet deep mine as there isnt sufficient oxygen due to the gas explosion. The chance of survival for the trapped miners is also getting lower. We will do our best and work as fast as we can to bring out them, said U San Lin, the chief of Saw Township Red Cross Association, which is leading the rescue efforts in coordination with firefighters, police, army, the health department and locals. In Magwe Region, about 40 coal mines are in operation mainly in Saw, Minbu, Minhla, Pauk and Gantgaw regions. The Magwe regional government ordered the closure of a coal mine in Minbu after a deadly explosion there which claimed eight lives in November 2017. In August this year, an explosion in Thit Chauk coal mine in Sagaing Region killed five miners, including one Chinese technician. Burma Parliament Rejects Lawmakers Pleas for Action to De-Escalate Fighting Displaced children at Manli Monastery in Shan States Namtu Township. / U Tin Maung Thein / Facebook YANGONProposals that the Union Parliament and Lower House take urgent steps to de-escalate fighting in ethnic regions in order to protect civilians were rejected for debate, said Nan Kham Aye, a Lower House lawmaker representing Shan States Namtu Township who submitted the motions. The lawmaker on Wednesday put forward a proposal to the Lower House urging the Union government to de-escalate armed conflict, drawing attention to the plight of civilians caught up in ongoing clashes in Namtu Township. [The office of the Lower House] said that the proposal is against parliamentary rules because [de-escalation of armed conflicts] is not something that Parliament can do, Nan Kham Aye said. A similar urgent proposal she submitted to the Union Parliament on Tuesday was also rejected. In that motion Nan Kham Aye urged the Union government to hold negotiations with all armed ethnic groups, including both signatories and non-signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), to end armed conflicts. Fresh clashes broke out in the township on Aug. 30 between the Shan State Army-South (the armed wing of the Restoration Council of Shan State) and troops of the Northern Alliance. The clashes have displaced over 2,000 villagers since then, according to local residents. The Northern Alliance bloc of four armed ethnic groups comprises the Kachin Independence Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Taang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army. The latest clashes followed earlier fighting between Myanmars military (also known as the Tatmadaw) and Northern Alliance troops in Namtu Township, she said. Clashes have been going on for a long time, and have become fierce now. Who will come and take care of local people when clashes break out? No one, Nan Kham Aye said. People have to flee by themselves and take shelter at monasteries or rely on their relatives. Local residents are very vulnerable right now, she added. The government is working on the peace process, but its representatives have not been able to see conditions on the ground, so it does not understand the basic needs of the people, she said, referring to the fact that public consultations have yet to be held in the areas controlled by some of the ethnic NCA signatories. The consultations are a required step before national-level political dialogues can be held. I submitted the proposals in response to the demands of the people, and I am sad that they were rejected, the lawmaker said. Cultivation season has arrived, but locals have not been able to grow any crops, as they have had to flee the fighting, said Sai Yan Pyae, a resident of Man San village in Namtu Township. If they cant grow in the rainy season, they will not have sufficient food until next year. They might have to find other jobs and may fall into debt, he said. We were not injured, but our houses were damaged, said a resident of Nam Pon village who fled to Man San following renewed clashes on Aug. 30. As we are taking shelter at a monastery now, so we dont have to worry about food. We dont want to see any more clashes. We just want to go back to our village and live a normal life, he said. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are currently receiving food from donors, but could face a shortage in the long term, local residents said. Burma President Urges Parliament to Back Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty Myanmar President U Win Myint / Presidents Office / Facebook YANGONMyanmar President U Win Myint is seeking lawmakers approval to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, with a final decision to be made next week in the Union Parliament. Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin explained Myanmars stand on the abolition of nuclear weapons and the details of the presidents proposal to sign the prohibition treaty to lawmakers on Thursday in the Union Parliament. The government supports nuclear disarmament, U Kyaw Tin said. He said the Myanmar government believed nuclear disarmament is the only way to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and the use of such weapons, whether intentional or accidental. According to the Signature and Ratification terms of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, members need to follow a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities such as undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The treaty also prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons on national territory and the provision of assistance to any state in the conduct of prohibited activities. Myanmar became a non-nuclear weapon state party to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1992, and signed the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty in 1995, committing not to develop nuclear weapons. The country also signed the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and a Small Quantities Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1995. However, Myanmar attracted global concern in the 2000s when the countrys then military rulers maintained close relations with North Korea on arms sales, nuclear missiles development and nuclear warhead technology. The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative said Myanmar had developed relations with North Korea in the hope of receiving missile and nuclear weapon technologies. In November 2008, the then chief of staff of the Myanmar Army, Navy and Air Force, and the coordinator of Special Operations, Shwe Mann, who now heads the Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission formed by the National League for Democracy-led government in 2016, led a 17-member, high-level delegation on a seven-day visit to Pyongyang. Among the sites they visited were secret tunnel complexes built into the sides of mountains to store and shield jet aircraft, missiles, tanks and, possibly, nuclear and chemical weapons. The visit prompted then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express concern, saying that Myanmars ties with North Korea would destabilize the region and posed a direct threat to its neighbors. We know that there are also growing concerns about military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take very seriously, she said in Bangkok in 2009. But Myanmar explicitly denied any cooperation with North Korea during Clintons first visit to the country in 2011. After U.S. President Barack Obamas visit in November 2012, Myanmar announced that it would sign the Additional Protocol. In 2013, Myanmar signed the agreement, but it has yet to ratify the instrument. Myanmar also signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 2016, but has not yet ratified it. However, according to the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, Myanmar expressed an interest in nuclear energy for peaceful uses as early as 1955. NTI said Myanmar has consistently looked to Russia to obtain assistance on nuclear technology. In 2001, Russia and Myanmar signed a contract to design radioisotope production. Although a few hundred Myanmar specialists have trained in nuclear research in Russia, NTI could not confirm whether the government is continuing to send scientists abroad after its decision to sign the Additional Protocol an agreement created in the 1990s to strengthen existing rules in 2012 and increase its transparency regarding its nuclear program. In March 2015, Rosatom, Russias State Atomic Energy Commission, announced that Myanmar and Russia had agreed to cooperate further on nuclear energy development, according to NTI. Myanmar was pushed to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by ASEAN in 2014 when the previous U Thein Sein government held the ASEAN chair. But the country failed to do so, missing a chance to gain political capital among ASEAN countries, experts said. On Thursday, U Kyaw Tin told the Union Parliament: The treaty aims to abolish nuclear weapons from the world. That suits our ambitions. We have already received decisions from related ministries. A total of 60 countries have signed the treaty and 14 have agreed to sign, including ASEAN members Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam. Union Parliament Speaker U T Khun Myat said a final decision would be made on Sept. 14. He said if lawmakers want to discuss the issue in Parliament, they have until Monday evening to propose their names. Burma Request for Legal Proceedings in Ghost Container Ship Case The Sam Ratulangi container ship. / Yangon Police YANGONThe Department of Marine Administration will seek legal advice from the Union Attorney-Generals Office to file a lawsuit regarding a ghost container ship which ran aground near the mouth of the Gulf of Martaban, 7 nautical miles (13 kilometers) from Thongwa Township in Yangon Region in late August. At a press conference held by the department in Yangon on Thursday, department director-general U Thaung Kyaing said legal proceedings will be initiated according to the remark of the Attorney-Generals Office. The rusty container ship Sam Ratulangi registered in Palau, an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean, was first discovered by fishermen off Yangon on Aug. 29. Two days later, the Myanmar Navy found a tugboat, called Independence, which had towed the freighter, about 80 kilometers off Myanmars coast. The Navy found 13 Indonesian crew members on board the tugboat who said they had been towing the vessel since Aug. 11 and intended to take it to a ship-breaking factory in Bangladesh where the ship would be dismantled. The Indonesian crew members said that they released the freighter after some of the cables attaching it to the tugboat broke in bad weather on Aug. 27. They confessed that they failed to inform the authorities of Myanmar in whose territorial waters their ship went adrift, according to the Department of Marine Administration. The 13 Indonesian crew members are being held in detention in Kawthoung for investigation, said U Thaung Kyaing. Since the incident, the Navy has come under criticism regarding the marine security of the country. It is difficult for a poor country like Myanmar, said U Thaung Kyaing, to constantly keep an eye on the countrys territorial waters that stretch from the Naf River in Rakhine to Kawthoung in Taninthayi Region. Following the case, some interest has been shown by the government in establishing a coastguard force for the security of Myanmars coast, he said. The owners of the Independence tugboat have appointed Daw May Thant Zin as their Myanmar representative to work for the release of the 13 Indonesian cabin members. Daw May Thant Zin claimed that the crew members did not abandon the container ship, but they were arrested while attempting to recover it. The Singapore-based First Capital Insurance Co, which the owners of the Sam Ratulangi have an insurance policy with, has also appointed a Myanmar representative to handle the case. The Department of Marine Administration is also arranging for officials from the Indonesian Embassy to Myanmar to be able to visit the detained crew members. News Government Denies Suu Kyis Comments Influenced Courts Decision in Reuters Case State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi holds a talk with scholars at Yangon University in August. / REUTERS YANGON State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis comments in a June interview on the then-ongoing case of two reporters who have subsequently been jailed on charges relating to their coverage of the conflict in Rakhine State did not influence the outcome of their trial, a government spokesman said on Friday. Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were on Monday convicted of violating the Official Secrets Act and jailed for seven years after the court ruled they had been in possession of state secrets. Myanmar Presidents Office spokesman U Zaw Htay admitted that with the United Nations General Assembly scheduled to be held this month, the conviction of the Reuters journalists was likely to bring more international pressure on Myanmar. On the other hand, the sentencing highlights that the judicial system in Myanmar is independent and free from government intervention, he added. U Zaw Htay was giving a press briefing in Nyapyitaw on Friday afternoon on the current international affairs facing Myanmar and the state of the peace process, when some reporters asked him about comments made by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during an exclusive interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK on June 28. In the interview, she said the two reporters were not arrested for covering the Rakhine issue and that they were arrested because they broke the Official Secrets Act. U Zaw Htay was asked whether her remarks had put pressure on the court to deliver a guilty verdict, and strongly denied the claim. Last December, the Reuters reporters investigated the massacre of 10 Rohingya men in Rakhine States Inn Din village by a group of local villagers, police and Army troops. 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 confirm some facts about a mass grave in Inn Din. At that time, the Myanmar authorities were bluntly denying that security forces had committed any mass killings during their clearance operations in the area following a series of attacks against security officials by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in August 2017. The United Nations says the military crackdown has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. In January, the Army announced that seven soldiers involved in the killings had been sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor in a remote area of Myanmar. The two reporters were brought before the court in a series of hearings over a period of nine months in a trial that resulted in both of them being handed long prison terms. Observers were critical of the fact that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had made her comment on their guilt prior to the courts verdict and sentencing in the case. Furthermore, it seemed at odds with her own warning during previous interviews that commenting on an ongoing trial could be considered contempt of court. Responding to the query over whether her comment influenced the trial, U Zaw Htay said, In terms of the NHK interview, to be frank, I can decisively say: Definitely not. We did not pressure the judiciary and this [comment] should not be seen as pressure either. Other than journalists, ordinary peopleand even the courtwere unaware of that interview. The spokesman insisted that the State Counselor had clearly stated that she wouldnt comment on judicial affairs, and that those were matters for the courts. However, the record shows that she made the comment that the two reporters were not arrested for covering Rakhine, and were arrested because they broke the Official Secrets Act on two occasions. Comments from her in which she specifically declines to comment on the reporters guilt have in fact been rare. In a press conference the day after the reporters were jailed, their wives, Pan Ei Mon and Chit Su Win, said they were extremely upset by the comments from a person they had admired as much as State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They said they had not expected the two men to be given such long prison terms. Family members, defense lawyers and journalists are pinning their hopes on presidential pardons for the two reporters. The 2008 Constitution clearly states that the power to pardon ultimately lies with the Union president; Section 204 of the charter stipulates that the president has the power to grant a pardon. When asked by journalists whether the government had considered presidential pardons for the jailed Reuters reporters, U Zaw Htay said, Not so far. On Tuesday, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) urged the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government to seriously consider all aspects of the larger interest of the country as international and local criticism of the government mounted over the case. Friday, September 7th, 2018 (8:54 am) - Score 930 The Superfast North Yorkshire project in England has revealed how an additional 11.15m of funding, which was recently secured from the Governments 75m Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme (RBIS), could boost superfast broadband (24Mbps+) coverage from the current target of 95% to 97%. At present the existing SFNY contract with Openreach (BT), which was recently extended (here) via a Phase 3 contract to cover an additional 12,500 local homes and businesses with ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology (or 14,239 if you include some FTTC), expects to reach 95% of premises in the county by June 2021 (currently at around 90%). The new roll-out map for this was published in May 2018 (here) and has just been updated again. Back in July 2018 the SFNY scheme also announced that it had secured an additional 11.15 million from the recently extended RBIS fund (here), which among other things also adopted the higher download speed definition of 30Mbps+ for superfast classification. We should point out that RBIS is part of the Rural Development Programme for England. At the time of writing we still dont know precisely which areas will benefit from this extra funding or how it will be spent (details coming soon), although the SFNY programme has now confirmed that they expect the extra funding to deliver 97% coverage of superfast broadband. After that theyre also aspiring to target 100% in a future Phase 4 proposal. Cllr Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said: NYCC is the leading local authority for the supply of superfast broadband and now people can see where it is coming to and start preparing. The RDPE award is very welcome indeed since it will give our SFNY programme a major boost in bringing superfast broadband to those communities which we have not reached yet. It is likely to raise coverage to 97% of all properties in the county. We will announce details of the additional premises as soon as we can. High-quality digital infrastructure is essential for business success, for so many needs of households, for education and for health and social care. We do not intend to wait for the end of Phase 3 before beginning a fourth phase of broadband expansion in order to press on towards 100% coverage, although value for money considerations will influence our decision-making in the late stages. The UK Government is now pushing a very heavy full fibre agenda and this suggests that Phase 4 may well attempt to deliver even more FTTP coverage, not unlike Phase 3. This perspective is supported by the fact that the extra RBIS funding must also be used to support full fibre wherever possible. NOTE: SYFN is managed on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council by NYnet. Over three days, Cisco has released 32 security advisories with three of them rated critical, one being a flaw in the Apache Struts Web framework which is used in several Cisco products. The other two critical flaws were in the company's Umbrella API and in the Web-based management interface of of the RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall, the RV130W Wireless-N Multifunction VPN Router, and the RV215W Wireless-N VPN Router. A number of exploits exist for the Struts flaw, with one being leveraged by attackers to mine the monero cryptocurrency. Cisco said in an advisory that the vulnerability in Apache Struts could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on a targeted system. "The vulnerability exists because the affected software insufficiently validates user-supplied input, allowing the use of results with no namespace value and the use of URL tags with no value or action," the advisory said. "In cases where upper actions or configurations also have no namespace or a wildcard namespace, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a request that submits malicious input to the affected application for processing. "If successful, the attacker could execute arbitrary code in the security context of the affected application on the targeted system." Regarding the Umbrella APi flaw, an advisory said: "The vulnerability is due to insufficient authentication configurations for the API interface of Cisco Umbrella. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to view and potentially modify data for their organisation or other organisations. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read or modify data across multiple organisations." About the third critical flaw, Cisco said it was due to improper boundary restrictions on user-supplied input in the Guest user feature of the Web-based management interface. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious requests to a targeted device, triggering a buffer overflow condition. "A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to stop responding, resulting in a denial of service condition, or could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code." Patches have been released to fix these and the other 29 flaws that were detailed from 4 to 6 September. WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange is in extremely poor health and unless he is released from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, his condition may deteriorate to the point where his life is threatened. Australian lawyer Greg Barns, a member of Assange's legal team and an adviser to WikiLeaks, told iTWire in response to queries that Assange had not been able to access medical treatment for six years. This was because the UK Government had refused to allow him to leave the embassy for medical appointments without being arrested. "This is a cruel and inhumane stance from a government professing to be a liberal democracy," Barns said. As iTWire has reported, the Australian journalists' union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, appears to have nothing to say about Assange's plight. Reports in Julythat Ecuador President Lenin Moreno had either finalised, or was about to finalise, an agreement with the UK to end asylum protection for Assange. But nothing has eventuated since then. Ecuador has blocked Assange from using the Internet since the end of March, after he criticised alleged human rights abuses by Spain at the time when Catalonia launched protests for independence. Assange, who holds both Australian and Ecuadorian citizenship, has been taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012. Said Barns: "In fact, what is remarkable is that Julian remains so mentally alert and is able to function physically given the inevitable impact of six years detention without natural light or access to fresh air on a constant basis. "However if there is not a resolution to his case in other words, the UK guaranteeing that he will not be extradited to the US the reality is Julian's health will deteriorate to the point where his life is in serious danger." Assange's problems began when he visited Sweden in August 2010 to attend a conference where he was scheduled to give a talk. During that visit, he had sex with two women whom he met. The pair filed rape and molestation complaints against him later, claims that he denied. He was questioned by Swedish authorities and cleared. He could have left the country then and there, but stayed for a while, in case the authorities decided to question him again. Interpol issued a Red Notice for his arrest on 20 November 2010. On 27 November, Assange surrendered to authorities and appeared before a Westminster judge. He was granted bail in December after his backers provided 240,000 in cash and sureties. A legal back and forth eventuated and went on until June 2012, when Swedish prosecutors sought his extradition. Assange's lawyers, among them the world-renowned Australian Geoffrey Robertson, replied that if he agreed to the extradition request, then he could be flown to the US from there. On 19 June 2012, he jumped bail and took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, seeking asylum in the South American country. British police surrounded the building and blocked any chance of his leaving. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012. He has had to stay inside the four walls of the embassy since then. He was granted Ecuadorian citizenship by a former president of the country, Rafael Correa. OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- The City of Ocean Springs is shutting down its six-year-old municipal jail. Alderman Rob Blackman and police chief Mark Dunston each confirmed to The Mississippi Press that an agreement has been reached for all city prisoners to be housed at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center in Pascagoula. "We'll take arrestees straight to the ADC after we book them at our station," Dunston said, "just like every other agency in the county. We were the only municipality on the coast with a full corrections facility and it's just a huge liability." The new arrangement began shortly after the agreement was approved by both county supervisors and Ocean Springs aldermen last month. Dunston said at the time there were three prisoners housed in the city jail who had to be moved to the ADC. The municipal jail opened in January 2012 as part of the new $6.6 million, 18,000 square foot police station on U.S. 90 east, built largely with funding from the city's 2 percent food & beverage tax. At capacity, it could hold 20 "residential" inmates and another 15 in the booking area. But the cost of providing liability insurance and the risk to officers ultimately proved too great, Blackman said. "We had that incident not long ago where an inmate attacked one of our officers," he said. "It's things like that -- the safety of our officers and the liability involved, that makes this a good move for the City and why I supported it. "We were just looking to get out of the jail business." Dunston said anyone arrested in Ocean Springs who can post bond and be released in less two hours will remain at the OSPD. But all others -- including those charged with DUI and public drunk -- will be transported to the ADC. No longer will anyone spend a night in the Ocean Springs jail, he said. The $27.6 million ADC opened in 2015. It has 725 beds and, according to the prisoner roster on the County website, there are currently 375 prisoners being housed there. While cost savings figures were not readily available, both men said there will be a savings to the City -- even after paying Jackson County $35 per prisoner, per day and the additional fuel costs in transporting prisoners to Pascagoula. "Off the top, we'll save on our liability insurance," Dunston said. "By the time the costs are matched up between paying the county versus running our own correctional facility, there will be a savings." With the jail facility no longer housing prisoners, it will instead be used for records and equipment storage, Blackman said. "Currently, there are a lot of records being stored at Dewey Avenue (the former police station and now a substation) and they're out of space, so they're going to start using the jail area as storage." Dunston said he could not comment on the status of the jail personnel working for Ocean Springs, citing privacy concerns, but Blackman said there have been discussions with Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell about hiring those displaced by the jail closure. Noting he was not on the board of aldermen at the time, Blackman was nevertheless asked why the City would build a jail knowing the liability issues involved. "Had I been on the board at that time, I would have asked that question," he said. "Why are we doing this when we can use the county facility? Unfortunately, I was not in office at that time." Human Rights Workshop Centers on Environmental Justice BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Illinois Wesleyan Universitys Center for Human Rights and Social Justice will host its annual Human Rights Workshop on Thursday, Sept. 13 from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Hansen Student Center. The workshop, titled Human Rights and Environmental Justice, is open to campus and community members. Anyone who wishes to partake in the event must register by midnight on Monday, Sept. 10 by following this link. Facilitated by faculty, staff, and students, participants will consider various local, national and global environmental issues through the framework of human rights and social justice. The workshop, which is centered on small group case study discussion and large group conversation, will begin with an opening session, providing an introduction to human rights and environmental justice. Faculty, staff and students will then facilitate the discussion of case studies in small groups on the following topics: Toxic Waste in Regent, Louisiana; Lead in the Water in Flint, Michigan; China and the Mekong Delta; Native Americans and the Environment; Solar Panels in Illinois; and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The workshop also includes a free dinner and provides participants with the opportunity to network with campus and community environmental leaders and activists. By discussing issues concerning human rights and environmental justice, participants can then spread awareness on these issues and encourage others to get involved on campus and in the community. By Vi Kakares 20 Register with JOC.com and receive 5 free pieces of content for the first thirty days. After thirty days, you will receive 3 pieces of content and after sixty days you will receive 1 piece of content. To receive full access, Subscribe Today . You can also subscribe to our daily newsletter. Register Nonprofit Doors to Freedom is one of three organizations throughout Dorchester and Berkeley counties set to receive grant money from the S.C. Attorney Generals Office. Reddit Email 42 Shares Dublin (Informed Comment) Tahrir Squares voices have been silenced. During the 18 days of Egypts 2011 up- rising, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians from every corner of the country, every social level, and every persuasion flocked to Cairos iconic Tahrir Square to speak freely about their lives, their dreams and their rulers. Anyone and everyone could climb onto a stage and hold forth. The glorious goals of the uprising, Bread, Freedom and Justice, have been reduced to a struggle for bread alone for most Egyptians. Freedom and justice are not on demand. This year at least a dozen Egyptian playwrights, theatre directors, musicians, and other artists have been arrested for publishing false information and harming the army and state security. Earlier on, it was the turn of journalists, broadcasters and newspaper editors. In July, the government ruled that cultural or artistic performances must be reviewed and obtain a permit from the Culture Ministry in consultation with the relevant authorities. In the 60s and 70s Cairo was the cultural capital of the Arab world. Despite a degree of censorship, art and artists flourished. Egyptian music, writing, films and television programmes dominated the Arab world. Egyptian Arabic was understood from east to west. Although Saudi Arabia has always stifled voices critical of the regime, since King Salman appointed his favourite son Muhammad crown prince in June 2017, hundreds of people have been jailed. Social media satire which disrupts public order now attracts a sentence of five years and a hefty fine, silencing online bloggers. Liberal activists and prominent clerics were arrested in September 2017. Eleven princes, 40 ex-ministers, and scores of businessmen and media moguls were detained in November 2017 and stripped of their assets in an anti-corruption drive. The public prosecutor has called for the death penalty for prominent fundamentalist cleric. Shaikh Salman al-Awada, At the end of June this year, after women began to drive for the first time in the kingdom, female activists led the campaign against the ban were jailed. Shia activists from the Eastern Province who have demanded civil rights are in prison facing execution. Among them is a prominent woman. Raucous voices have risen in Iraq in protest against rampant corruption and the lack of electricity, water, and jobs 15 years after the devastating US occupation of that country. The majority of these voices belong to Shias, who are expected to support the Iran-backed Shia fundamentalist dominated government. Instead of keeping mum, they shout Out Iran! Their cause is endorsed by Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and radical nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr whose coalition won most seats in the countrys May parliamentary poll. There is a free-for=all of voices in politically splintered government-less Lebanon more than four months after the first parliamentary election since 2009 were held. Lebanese angrily slam power cuts, water shortages, and graft while politicians squabble over portfolios. During my many visits to government-held areas in Syria during the worst of days of the seven-year war, Syrian voices criticised Damascus handling of the crisis and condemned insurgents and their regional and western supporters for intervening. No one can predict whether these voices will be hushed once the war is won by Damascus amd its allies. This past summer Jordanian voices have mounted a chorus against new taxes, rising prices and corruption. A government fell and was replaced with a cabinet promising, once again, to deliver the demands of the people. In spite of the Saudi-led war in their country, Yemenis have raised their voices against the Riyadh-backed regimes failure to provide governance and pay civil servants wages, the collapse of the Yemeni currency, and, of course, corruption the word on lips across the Arab world. While Palestinian voices in Gaza and the West Bank continue to rail against Is- raels occupation, no one listens. Every Friday since March Gazans risk death and injury by taking part in the Great March of Return and pleading for justice while advancing on Israels fence that pens them in the narrow coastal strip. Israeli peacenik voices are mostly stilled by the ruling right. The world considers Israel to be a democracy. Silence in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Israeli peace camp is ominous while the cacophony of protest voices elsewhere reveals people of this region are growing impatient with the current state of affairs. Arabs seek the change the uprising in Tahrir seemed to herald. The great expectations generated in the fifties and sixties by the first generation of post-independence leaders notably, Egypts Gamal Abdel Nasser and the promise of economic, social, and political development have been dashed by war after war, mismanagement, corruption and non-stop western political interference and military intervention. No region has been subjected to so many wars in the past half century. Following Israels 1967 war, which began the downward slide, the region has suffered six wars involving Israel: 1973, 1978, 1982, 2006, 2008-09, and 2014. There have been civil wars in Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen; two US invasions of Iraq; regional and Western intervention in the Syrian and Libyan civil conflicts; and the Saudi-driven war on Yemen. No region has such a horrendous history. The Arabs are left with devastation and death, impotent or iron fisted leaders, fury and frustration. When I settled in Beirut in 1962, the Arabs were filled with hope. No longer. As a journalist, I have tried to record their voices during the long descent from optimism to extreme pessimism in my book Windows on Interesting Times, published this summer by Rimal Books. These voices are of Egyptians reclaiming their voices in Tahrir Square, Palestinians battling the juggernaut of the Zionist project, Iraqis defending their ancient heritage against looters following the 2003 US invasion, Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanese survivors of 15 years of civil war, and secularists resisting the plague of sectarianism and religious extremism. Reddit Email 77 Shares Basra (Iraq) (AFP) Three mortar shells were fired into Baghdads green zone early Friday as a curfew was imposed in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after a fresh outbreak of violent protests over poor public services left one person dead and 35 injured. The rare assault by unidentified attackers on the heavily-fortified green zone, which houses Iraqi government officials and the US Embassy, came without any victims or causing damage, the head of security for the capital said. The attack comes as Iraq struggles with an outbreak of violent protests in oil-rich southern Basra, in which eight people have been killed since Tuesday as crowds have clashed with security forces and hurled Molotov cocktails at the regional government headquarters. Basra has been the epicentre of protests that have rocked Iraq since July, with anger fuelled by pollution of the water supply that left 30,000 people in hospital. Thousands of demonstrators converged in central Basra Thursday after local officials decided to scrap an earlier curfew imposed by central authorities in Baghdad, with the atmosphere appearing calmer than in previous days. AFP / Haidar MOHAMMED ALI. Iraqi protesters watch an official building in flames as they demonstrate against the government and the lack of basic services in Basra on September 6, 2018. One person was killed and 35 were wounded; 24 civilians and 11 police officers, said health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr, without giving any more details. The statement came as authorities announced a new curfew in the city, where the local government headquarters and the offices of political organisations were in flames. Fire was seen spreading around the massive government complex that has been the focus of anger, with witnesses saying it tore through offices housing state TV channel Iraqiya. AFP journalists also reported that the nearby governors residence was alight, while witnesses and sources said fires were raging at the local offices of several political organisations. It was unclear if the blaze started as the result of a fresh attack with incendiary devices or was due to earlier fires that emergency services had failed to extinguish. Government doesnt care At least 23 people have been killed in the demonstrations since they erupted in Basra on July 8. Rights activists have accused the security forces of opening fire on the demonstrators, while the government has blamed provocateurs in the crowds and say troops have been ordered not to use live rounds. AFP / Haidar MOHAMMED ALI. Iraqi protesters wave their national flag in front of official buildings as they demonstrate against the government and the lack of basic services in Basra on September 6, 2018. The people protest and the government doesnt care, treats them as vandals, said Ali Saad, a 25-year-old at the rally Thursday in Basra. Nobody (here) is a vandal: the people are fed up, so yes they throw stones and burn tyres because nobody cares, he told AFP near the building littered with debris. Ahmed Kazem, who was also at the protest, urged leaders to respond to the demands of the demonstrators so that the situation doesnt degenerate. The 42-year-old said their demands included public services, water, electricity and jobs. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has scrambled to defuse the anger and authorities have pledged a multi-billion dollar emergency plan to revive infrastructure and services in southern Iraq. But Iraqis remain deeply sceptical as the country remains in a state of political limbo after elections in May. Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose political bloc won the largest number of seats, on Thursday called for a special parliamentary session to address protesters concerns. Politicians must present radical and immediate solutions at the meeting or step down if they fail to do so, he said. Abadi responded, saying he was ready to attend a parliamentary session with the ministers and officials concerned, to discuss the situation and the needs of Basra province. The premier is trying to hold onto his post in the future government through forming an alliance with Sadr, a former militia chief who has called for Iraq to have greater political independence from neighbouring Iran and the United States. Featured Photo: AFP / Haidar MOHAMMED ALI. Iraqi protesters watch an official building in flames as they demonstrate against the government and the lack of basic services in Basra on September 6, 2018. Police Constable Darius Duncan retires after 31 years of policing The RAPF announces the retirement of Police Constable 49 Darius Duncan after some thirty-one (31) years as a police officer in the Royal Anguilla Police Force. Constable Duncan joined the RAPF on 9st January, 1987 and later completing his initial training at the Regional Police Training Centre in Barbados. He worked as a constable in the Beat and Patrol Department and later in the Marine Department from 1990. In 2000 he was transferred to the Chief Ministers Office and remained there for a little under ten (10) years before being transferred back to Out Stations and then Beat and Patrol. PC Duncans last attachment was with the Prosecution Department. PC Duncan who participated in training programs across the region and Canada benefitted from a Basic Coast Guard Course, Crew Commanders Course, Watch Keeping Engineering Course as well as a Senior Constable Development Course. Commissioner of Police Mr. Paul Morrison and other ranks of the Royal Anguilla Police Force wished PC Duncan a very productive retirement. PC Duncans retirement was effective 1st September, 2018. Police seize boat and drugs The Royal Anguilla Police Force on Saturday 1st September 2018 at around 12:00 noon seized a white with black boat along with three (3) bales of cocaine from the waters off Lockrum Beach. Also recovered at the beach was a partially damaged grey rubber dinghy. The boat, dinghy and drugs were transported to The Valley Police Station where the drugs were tested, weighed, sealed and tagged. They were later handed over to representatives of the US Drug Enforcement Agency DEA for further testing and analysis. As the Police continues investigation into this discovery they are appealing to members of the public who may have been in the area of Lockrum Beach, and may have witnessed anything surrounding this boat and drugs or have any information regarding it to contact the Valley Police Station with such information. The telephone number is 497-2333 and asks for the Criminal Investigation Department or to speak to any Police Officer of their choice. Additionally information can be sent via the RAPF Tips Website by logging on to www.gov.ai/911 which is a secured website. 39 year old arrested for Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm The Royal Anguilla Police Force on Monday 3rd September, 2018 arrested and charged 39 year old Damien Brookes of Sandy Hill with the offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Brookes who appeared before the Magistrates Court on Wednesday 5th September, 2018 was granted bail in the sum of EC $15,000.00 with one surety. He is required to report to The Valley Police Station every Friday between the hours of 6:00am and 6:00pm. Brookes is due back in court on Monday 5th November, 2018 to answer to the charge. The RAPF would like to remind the public that: a) The defendant is entitled to a fair trial; b) There is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty; c) Nothing would be stated or published which would prejudice a fair trial taking place; and d) Section 115(g) of the Criminal Code applies and which provides for an offence in respect of any person who, while a judicial proceeding is pending, makes use of any speech or writing misrepresenting such proceeding or capable of prejudicing any person in favor of or against any parties to such proceeding, or calculated to lower the authority of any person before whom the proceeding is to be held. Chrispen Gumbs, Insp. PMRO Royal Anguilla Police Force Reddit Email 120 Shares Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) The country is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Asked about its resolution, former Secretary of State John Kerry urged that the solution is to elect a Democratic Congress, and if possible, senatethe solution is for voters to vote. It is true that US voter participation rates are extremely low, especially in midterms, and participation can run to only a little bit over a third of eligible voters. Thus, if more people would just vote, they might well be able to end the Republican dominance of all three branches of government. The problem is not, however, merely one of low voter participation (which may well be bipartisan, so that lazy Democrats and Republicans cancel one another out). The problem is gerrymandering. Rahm Emmanuel, who is no ones fool when it comes to politics, has said that it took a couple decades for the Republicans artificially to engineer their majority, and that process would not be overturned over night. Take Austin, Texas. In an ordinary political world that wasnt corrupt, Austin would be represented in Washington, D. C. by a couple of Democratic representatives. The Republicans in the Texas state legislature, however, used their dominance of the statehouse to cut Austin up into 6 congressional districts, attaching a rural hinterland to each so that the city slickers could be outvoted by more rural voters, who were disproportionately white. The minorities in Austin were particularly robbed by this crass piece of voter suppression. That this is so was one of the grounds for optimism that at long last the Supreme Court might invalidate the extreme gerrymandering. But if so, it wont come soon enough to affect these midterms. All around the country there has been similar gerrymandering, the bulk of it Republican rather than Democratic (some Democratic states have even put districting in the hands of nonpartisan commissions, as in Californiawhich should be universal.) So Mr. Kerrys hopes that a blue wave will solve our constitutional crisis are not a sure thing. Nate Silvers polling is showing a blue wave in the House, but the proof will be in the pudding. The senate, where small conservative dinky little states can overrule 39 million Californians, is even less in play. The long and the short of it is that even if Democratic voters dutifully come out in droves, so many voting districts have been gerrymandered to have a permanent Republican majority that there is no guarantee that we can produce a congressional democratic majority. That isnt a counsel of despair. It is a warning that doing just a little bit more wont do the trick. Everyone who is worried for our country has to pull out all the stops. The inertia is with Trump. And if he keeps one or both houses of Congress, will the crisis become permanent? - Bonus video: ABC: Democrats favored to win the House l FiveThirtyEight 2018 election forecast Reddit Email 373 Shares (TeleSur) The major problem with Israel is with the young generation of the Black community, Judith Varnai Shorer, Israeli consul general in Atlanta, explained in the footage. Footage leaked from a censored documentary on Israeli influence in the United States shows Israeli officers gloating about targeting Black Lives Matter and convincing Martin Luther Kings friend to write pro-Israeli propaganda. Judith Varnai Shorer boasted of a dinner she held with very important Black community leaders whom according to her, can be part of Israels activities. In the past, Black Lives Matter (BLM) supported the International Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, a call on Israel to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands in 2016. According to the documentary, their adoption of the movements platform exposed them to the Israeli governments anti-BDS efforts. Al Jazeeras censored documentary The Lobby-USA released by the Grayzone Project exposed some of these tactics. Due to political pressure, the release of the documentary had been stalled for almost a year. This led to the release of segments of footage by the Grayzone Project and Electronic Intifada. The footage revealed that right-wing think tanks based in the U.S. arranged staged protests at a pro-Palestinian student conference. It also shows that a U.S. billionaire is behind an anonymous website which targets U.S. students supporting Palestinian rights and attempts to portray them as terrorists. The latest released segment documents part of the Israel American Council (IAC) conference. An undercover journalist from Al Jazeera attends the IAC conference which is more right wing than the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. At the conference, Israeli diplomats like Shorer spoke about their concerns with Black Lives Matter. Andy David, the Israeli consul general in San Francisco, California, told the group present at the conference that he got Martin Luther Kings former lawyer Clarence B. Thomas to become an Israeli ally. He celebrated that, because of that relationship, [Thomas] published three articles in the Huffington Post explaining why the [BLMs] agenda was hijacked. Martin Luther King will turn in his grave if he saw the anti-Israel tendencies or policies that are starting to emerge within Black Lives Matter, David later claimed. In 2014, Thomas said that King could have been a supporter of Israel as he collected an award at the Israeli consulate in New York. The cancellation of one of BLMs fundraiser in a New York nightclub Feinsteins/54 Below was also a result of the efforts of the Israel Project lobby groups development director Eric Gallagher as shown in the footage. The venue canceled the fundraiser because of BLMs opposition to Israel as told by Gallagher to the undercover journalist present at the conference. Via TeleSur Featured photo: h/t Wikimedia Commons. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 7, 2018) - Spearmint Resources Inc. (TSXV: SRJ) (OTC Pink: SPMTF) (FSE: A2AHL5) ("SRJ" or the "Company") wishes to announce that it has renewed all of its lithium claims in the Clayton Valley of Nevada with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These claims directly border Cypress Development Corp., who on September 6, 2018, released positive results from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Cypress' Clayton Valley lithium project in Nevada representing a Net present value of $1.45-billion (USD). Figure 1: Spearmint Clayton Valley Lithium Claims James Nelson, President of Spearmint stated, "We applaud the positive PEA results reported by our neighbor Cypress Development Corp and we are very pleased to renew all of our claims in Nevada. We had drill results as high 1670 ppm lithium on our property which directly borders that of Cypress and appears to share the lithium clay formation (please refer to map). With work programs currently underway on Spearmint's strategically located properties in the Golden Triangle, and operations about to get started on our Vanadium Prospects in Quebec, we are working diligently to increase shareholder value and we are optimistic about the company's developments in the near and long term." About Spearmint Resources Spearmint's current projects also include three areas of focus on gold in British Columbia; the 'Golden Triangle Gold Prospects' comprising of four separate claim blocks totaling 4,095-acres, bordering GT Gold Corp., the 'Gold Mountain Prospects' comprising of three separate claim blocks totaling 1,245-acres bordering Barkerville Gold Mines, and the 3,972 acre 'Neba Prospects' bordering Aben Resources Ltd. Spearmint's 8,482 acre 'EL North' Nickel-Copper Prospect is a contiguous land package that includes the 'EL North, EL North 2 and the BUDDY claims' in the Eskay Creek Camp bordering Garibaldi Resources Corp. Spearmint's 10,300 acre 'WHY WEST' Magnesium project near Rossland, B.C., directly borders West High Yield Resources. Spearmint's current projects include a portfolio of lithium prospects. The 'Clayton Valley Lithium Prospects' in Nevada comprise of two claim blocks totalling 800-acres, bordering Pure Energy Minerals & Cypress Development Corp. Spearmint's 'Chibougamau Vanadium Prospects' comprise of four separate claim blocks totalling 9,735-acres bordering, or in the direct vicinity of the vanadium deposit of BlackRock Metal's (private) Ilmenite vanadium project, Vanadiumcorp Resource Inc. and Vanadium One Energy Corp. If you would like to be added to Spearmint's news distribution list, please send your email address to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Contact Information Tel: 1604646-6903 www.spearmintresources.ca "James Nelson" President Spearmint Resources Inc. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc.) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. France has detained a suspected former militant commander from Liberias brutal civil war and charged him with crimes against humanity for alleged atrocities including torture and cannibalism, police said Friday. A legal source said the man, identified as naturalised Dutch citizen Kunti K., is suspected of being a former commander in the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), which fought during the 1990s. Arrested on Tuesday in the Paris region, he is suspected of torture, murder, slavery, the use of child soldiers and cannibalism between 1993 and 1997. Liberia, Africas oldest republic, formed by freed American slaves, was devastated by two civil wars which killed around 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003. ULIMO was set up to fight a rebel force headed by warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, who is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting rebels who committed atrocities in neighbouring diamond-rich Sierra Leone. Kunti K., born in 1974, was detained in a joint operation by elite GIGN police and officers from Frances OCLCH agency, which investigates war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Paris prosecutors had opened an initial investigation into Kunti K. after victims rights group Civitas Maxima filed a criminal complaint on July 23. Dallas, TEXAS, USA, 09/07/2018 / Story.KISSPR.com / Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer News /Dallas County / Capital punishment, which is also known as the death penalty, is legal in the majority of states, including Texas. Currently, 31 states permit capital punishment, while 19 states plus the District of Columbia prohibit it. The death penalty is also permitted under federal law for certain crimes. Texas, which has the second-highest population of any state with California ranking first has executed more people than any other state since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty as constitutional. Across the country, however, the number of capital punishment sentences has gone down dramatically. In 1998, for example, there were 296 capital sentences. In 2017, there were just 39. Because each state has its own laws regarding capital punishment, death penalty cases can vary a great deal from state to state. For example, many states now only permit lethal injection as the sole form of capital punishment. States also have their own rules regarding which types of crimes can rise to the level of capital cases. Temporary Halt of the Death Penalty Under Furman v. Georgia The death penalty has often been a source of controversy and political disagreement throughout the United States history. For a time, the U.S. Supreme Court even held that capital punishment was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment, which meant there were no executions of convicted persons between 1972 and 1976 when it was reinstated. In the Furman case, the defendant had been convicted of sexual assault and murder and sentenced to death. The defendant, who was mentally challenged, appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court, which decided the case in 1972, ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. In a concurring and dissenting opinion, Justice Marshall wrote that the death penalty is likely unconscionable to most Americans. However, the Court reinstated the death penalty just four years later in Gregg v. Georgia. In that case, the defendant had been convicted of armed robbery and murder. In a 7-2 decision, the Court overturned Furman, holding that Georgias capital punishment law was not unconstitutional because it didnt violate the Eighth Amendment and acted as a deterrent for those who might commit similar crimes. History buffs might be interested to know that the defendant, in that case, Troy Leon Gregg, escaped from prison with three other inmates in the first ever death row breakout in the states history. Gregg was killed in a bar fight the same night he escaped. Capital Crimes Under Texas Law Like other states with capital punishment laws, Texas imposes the death penalty in only the most serious murder cases. Under Texas law, an individual can be sentenced to death in murder cases involving: A victim who is a police officer or firefighter killed on duty The defendant was carrying or attempting to carry out a kidnapping, arson, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or burglary at the time of the murder A contract killing The defendant killed more than one person The victim is under 10 years old The murder happened in connection with a prison break or attempted prison break In Texas, the only permitted form of execution in a death penalty case is lethal injection. Just a handful of states allow alternatives to lethal injection. In Utah, for example, individuals convicted of capital offenses can choose to be executed by way of a firing squad. In Mississippi, the law allows execution by gas chamber, electrocution, or firing squad if lethal injection isnt available. Death Row Exonerations When someone is convicted of a capital offense, the evidence can seem insurmountable, and it might be difficult for people to believe that any innocent person could be sentenced to death. However, there have been many cases in which someone was wrongly convicted of a capital offense. Between 1973 and 1999, for example, an average of three people were exonerated each year. Between 2000 and 2011, that number went up to five exonerations per year. According to a study, Rate of False Conviction of Criminal Defendants Who Are Sentenced to Death, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1 in 25 people sentenced to death are innocent. To put it another way, that means 4.1 percent of all death row inmates are not guilty. Based on that data, the studys authors, who are law professors at the University of Michigan, say its certain that states have executed people who were innocent. As the study states, its purpose seeks to put to rest the conventional wisdom that wrongful criminal convictions are extremely rare. The authors point out that wrongful convictions are actually much more common than many people realize. In the case of capital convictions, the stakes cant get any higher. Dallas Best Criminal Defense Lawyers Broden, Mickelsen, LLP T: (214) 720-9552 2600 State St, Dallas, TX 75204 https://www.brodenmickelsen.com/ Sources: ***ATTORNEY ADVERTISING*** Prior results cannot and do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future case. Social Media Tags:Capital Punishment Crimes in Texas, Capital Punishment Laws, Capital Punishment Texas, Dallas Criminal Lawyer, Broden Mickelsen, News, Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Source: Story.KISSPR.com Release ID: 12081 It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print Port of Spain, September 6, 2018 How to better assess vulnerability in coastal communities to inform adaptation in the Eastern Caribbean fisheries sector? This was the central question addressed at a regional workshop in Barbados recently with government and civil society stakeholders, including the Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisations (CNFO), Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), coastal zone and disaster management agencies and fisheries authorities from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop held from July 2-3, 2018, aimed to develop a regional framework and toolkit for a harmonised approach to community-level assessments of vulnerability and capacity to adapt to inform adaptation measures for the Eastern Caribbean fisheries sector. CNFO Programme Coordinator, Mitch Lay, highlighted at the workshop, the critical need for better understanding of the vulnerability of coastal communities, especially fisherfolk and aquaculture farmers, to adapt and build resilience in small-scale fisheries across the region as climate change adds to existing pressures like market volatility, lack of investment, ageing fisherfolk populations, competition and pressures from other interest groups and sectors, pollution and environmental degradation. At the workshop, stakeholders reviewed drafts of the regional framework and toolkit developed for vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA) in coastal and fishing communities and lessons learned from pilot testing the VCA approach and tools in Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to determine their suitability for the Eastern Caribbean context. They identified opportunities for roll out of VCAs in their countries to inform adaptation in the fisheries sector once the regional framework and toolkit are finalised. Stakeholders were also provided with the opportunity for knowledge exchange and insights into the vulnerability of coastal communities and fisherfolk in Barbados through field visits to Paynes Bay, Weston, Speightstown and Six Mens Bay. Further details can be found in the workshop report. The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) and the University of the West Indies Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (UWI-CERMES) co-facilitated the workshop as part of the Regional Implementation of a Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) under the Climate Change Adaptation in the Eastern Caribbean Fisheries Sector Project (CC4FISH). CC4FISH is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project, which is being implemented by the FAO, Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC) and national fisheries authorities in seven Eastern Caribbean countries from 2017-2020. Source:CANARI Three persons from the Island Harbour community and one Police Officer were awarded certificates of recognition for executing a successful search and rescue operation 70 miles NW of Anguilla. The circumstances are that Vern Webster alias Gilly from Island Harbour was returning home from a fishing expedition when he slipped and fell overboard his boat which was in gear at the time. Mr Webster was rescued about an hour later by a passing fishing boat. However his boat continued for about 40 miles NW of Anguilla until the fuel was finished. An aerial search was mounted in collaboration with Anguilla Pilots association, accompanied by Sergeant (ag) 41 Webster from the Marine Department of the RAPF. The boat was spotted about 52 miles NW of Anguilla. A search party consisting of the four men then went via sea in search of the boat. The boat was found some 70 miles NW of Anguilla. The search lasted approximately 5 hours and was toured back to Island Harbor Anguilla. The search was made possible with the use of Patrick Websters fishing boat with the Royal Anguilla Police Force absorbing the fuel cost. In presenting the certificates, Commissioner of Police Mr Paul Morrison thanked the men for their time, effort and bravery, he also alluded to his similar experience of being in the merchant navy as a navigating officer in the Mona Passage and having a massive engine room explosion which resulted in them drifting and feeling isolated and wishing someone would turn up at sea. The search party consisted of Sgt (ag) Charles Webster from the RAPF Marine Department, Trivon Smith, Vernon Webster and Patrick Webster from the Island Harbour community. WHEN THE CITIZENS of Antigua and Barbuda go to the polls on 6th November 2018 to vote in a referendum to determine whether they will permit their nation to remain under the judicial jurisdiction of the British Privy Council or whether they will embrace a judicial jurisdiction that is exclusively Antiguan/Barbudan and Caribbean, I hope that they make a choice that takes both Antigua and Barbuda and the Caribbean Community in the direction of fulfilling their historical journeys towards the goals of full national sovereignty and civilizational independence. This is my fervent hope and it is a hope based on an understanding of just how long and deeply rooted those journeys to national sovereignty and civilizational independence are, and how much blood, sweat, tears, struggle and hope have been invested in those journeys! You see, if we are to fully appreciate the rootedness and sacredness of the Antiguan and Barbudan struggle for national sovereignty, we have to go way back to the middle of the 17th Century and to the heroic efforts of our enslaved African ancestors to escape the jurisdiction of the British slave plantations of Antigua and to establish free maroon-type communities in the primeval woods of the Shekerley range with its imposing Boggy Peak. We would also need to recall that so determined were the British slave masters to reassert their plantocratic jurisdiction that most of those early Antiguan freedom fighters were brutally hunted down and executed! But, tellingly, this did not deter those heroic Antiguan ancestors from joining a growing tide of regional slave rebellions and developing even more advanced aspirations for the achievement of a free independent and sovereign black nation. In fact, the year of destiny for Antigua was 1736! By that time, fellow enslaved Africans in such neighbouring British colonies as Barbados, St. Kitts and Jamaica had already demonstrated through slave plots, rebellions and maroon resistance that they intended to achieve black freedom and sovereignty. Furthermore, in the Danish colony of St. John a mere 200 miles from Antigua fellow enslaved Africans had risen up in 1733 and taken control of the entire island. It was against this background that, in October of 1736, the British plantocracy of Antigua discovered to their great consternation that the leaders of the enslaved African people of Antigua had developed a master-plan to destroy the system of slavery; to take control of the island; and to establish an independent sovereign Asante-type kingdom. This, of course, was the famous King Court rebellion of 1736. Tragically, the revolutionary plan was discovered by the British plantocratic authorities; the rebellion was crushed; and such heroes of Antigua and Barbuda as King Court (Tacky), Tomboy, Scipio, Hercules, Ned, Fortune and Secundi were brutally executed and made into national martyrs. However, it is one thing to kill revolutionary leaders, but it is another thing altogether to kill revolutionary ideas of freedom, nationhood and sovereignty. Needless to say, those aspirations towards freedom and nationhood remained very much alive among the black people of Antigua, Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts and all the other European colonies of the Caribbean, and, some two hundred years later in the year 1945 coalesced in the demands of Vere Bird and the other leaders of the Caribbean Labour Congress (CLC) for the transformation of the socially and racially oppressive West Indian colonies of the day into democratic, socially and economically just self-governing nations within the over-arching structure of a West Indian Federation. Without a doubt, the most potent formulation of these historic demands took place at the founding conference of the CLC in Barbados between the 17th and 27th of September 1945. Antigua was represented not only by Vere Bird, but also by Harold T. Wilson and J. Oliver Davis. Also in attendance were such political giants as Richard Hart (Jamaica), George McIntosh (St. Vincent), Grantley Adams, Hugh Springer and Frank Walcott (Barbados), T. A. Marryshow (Grenada), Hurbert Crichlow and A. A. Thorne (Guyana), Albert Gomes (Trinidad and Tobago) and W. J. Lesperan (Suriname). And when these historic demands were ultimately betrayed and subverted largely through the combined duplicity of the British Colonial Office and the folly of Alexander Bustamante culminating in the 1962 collapse of the West Indian Federation, it was the veteran leader, Vere Bird, who joined forces with the younger Errol Barrow of Barbados and Forbes Burnham of Guyana to retrieve the vision and re-engineer our peoples historic journey to full nationhood and sovereignty with the signing of the Caribbean Free Trade Association Agreement (CARIFTA) at Dickenson Bay, Antigua, on 15th December 1965. CARIFTA was formally launched on 1st May 1968 making this year of 2018 the 50th anniversary year of CARIFTA and by 1973 had evolved into the more comprehensive and substantial Caribbean Community (CARICOM). And it is CARICOM which through functional co-operation has supported and maintained such critical edifices of our national sovereignty and civilizational independence as the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Development Bank, and that has established the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Of the three visionary architect nations of CARIFTA, two have removed themselves from the judicial jurisdiction of the British Privy Council and have established the CCJ as their highest and final appellate court Barbados and Guyana. But what of Antigua? How will Antigua decide? Perhaps this 50th anniversary year of the effective launching of CARIFTA is symbolically and spiritually the right time for the people of Antigua and Barbuda to in this most tangible and meaningful of ways reiterate their commitment to the completion of our peoples historic journey towards full national sovereignty and Caribbean civilizational independence. I humbly ask the people of Antigua and Barbuda to reflect deeply on the sacrifices made by the King Courts and Tomboys of sacred memory, and on the outstanding lessons of self-respect and self-determination taught to us all by such outstanding Antiguan and Barbudan sons and daughters of our Caribbean Civilization as George Weston, Vere Bird, Tim Hector, Sir Vivian Richards, Jamaica Kincaid, Sir Andy Roberts, King Shortshirt, Paget Henry and so many others before casting their vote on the 6th of November. DAVID COMISSIONG Citizen of the Caribbean Free speech loving Labour purges Israel supporters and censors the media as Joan Ryan is voted down The purge is underway. As Jeremy Corbyn is labeled an anti-semite and the party twists and turns over its attitude towards Jews, Labour Party members called for a vote of no confidence in Labour MP Joan Ryan, The Enfield North MP, who just so happens to chair Labour Friends of Israel. She has been a vocal critic of Jeremy Corbyns handling of anti-Semitism in the ranks. She lost the vote. Ryan called the 94-92 result hardly a decisive victory, adding in a statement: It never occurred to me that Trots Stalinists Communists and assorted hard left would have confidence in me. I have none in them. Later she tweeted: I fought the hard left to a virtual draw This was about anti-Semitism in the Labour party and those of us who have stood by the Jewish community and said enough is enough. I made no apologies last night for that and I make no apologies now. You can see the vote on Press TV, which filmed and live tweeted the vote. Press TV is the Iranian State broadcaster banned from broadcasting in the UK since 2012. On it you used to be able to watch such presenters as George Galloway, Yvonne Ridley (this might be her discussing an anti-semitic mural with Corbyn) and, of course, Corbyn, the Labour Party leader who reportedly received up to 20,000 for appearing. Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values. https://t.co/VEp2ZEDBrN Joan Ryan MP (@joanryanEnfield) September 6, 2018 Siddo Dwyer, chair of the Enfield North CLP, plans to lodge a complaint against Press TV. He says: No press was allowed to be in that room, nor members of the public, or registered supporters, you had to be a fully paid up member of the Labour party. Photo ID was taken as well as Labour party cards. Everyone was checked and double-checked, but the process isnt bullet proof. Perhaps the Press TV reporter is a Labour Party member? After all, it only cost 3 to join, and look at the mayhem you can cause. And isnt banning Press from political meetings foolish? Its almost impossible to implement. But Labour HQ showsw us its clean hands and says: Filming of local Labour Party meetings is not permitted, and Enfield North will be reminded of this fact. Only a few days ago, Labour was stating its commitment to free speech. Admittedly, it was hard to hear the noble cry over Corbynistas calling for Israeli musicians, speakers, actors, artists, medics, scientists and politicians to be no platformed. Meanwhile, heres an argument for an uncensored media from Press TV. See if you can spot the lie: We have documented an amazing amount of Jewish support for Jeremy Corbyn over the past week. Both at the #NEC debate on #IHRA and at the Enfield North #JoanRyan vote. The idea that @jeremycorbyn is unliked by British Jews is void of reality. https://t.co/1E3HnC5hgs Press TV UK (@Presstvuk) September 7, 2018 Anorak Posted: 7th, September 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink OTRANTO (LECCE) - Otranto is opening its doors to the world of diplomacy and big names in national and international reporting with the 10th edition of the Journalists of the Mediterranean Festival. The festival begins on Monday, September 10 and will run through Sunday, September 16. It will bring important figures from the intellectual sphere to the 'City of Martyrs' to discuss the Mediterranean area. Workshops, seminars recognized by the Italian journalists' guild (ODG), book presentations and events on Mediterranean culture and traditions will enliven the streets of the medieval district, the Aragonese castle and the Lungomare degli Eroi. The schedule will look at conflicts affecting the Middle East but is also a chance to dive into the cultures of countries able to offer many opportunities due to their economy. This is the case with Morocco, which will be the focus of an international workshop entitled ''Reinventing the Mediterranean: Dialogue, Challenges, and Opportunities''. Among the speakers will be the Moroccan ambassador to Italy, Hassan Abouyoub, who has given three Berber tents to the Puglia region in which Morocco tea can be sipped and the history and culture of the country learned about. Music and dance from the Mediterranean, traditions, culinary art and debate will be at the center of the Journalists of the Mediterranean Festival week, offering an invaluable chance to build an integrated system of cooperation with countries in the area and to foster intercultural dialogue, peace, and social and political coexistence. At the end of the week will be the Journalists of the Mediterranean awards ceremony, on Sunday, September 16. The ceremony will be held on Lungomare degli Eroi. The winner of the 10th edition of the award is Alessio Lasta, a journalist from the La7 television channel, for his "Dreaming France - The Migrants' Snow Route on the Alps''. Winners of other theme-based sections will also be given awards during the evening. Lyft(DENVER) -- Ride share company Lyft is entering the scooter arms race, marked by launching its scooter rental program in Denver on Thursday. The company, which tries to differentiate itself from its competitors by stressing sustainability and social justice issues, is launching its two-wheeled vehicles later than its competitors. Early entrants into the scooter market moved stealthily into markets like San Francisco and Santa Monica, often before municipalities could craft regulation. As a result, cities like San Francisco responded with a ban, while making companies apply for permits for a pilot program. This was not lost on Lyft. "Weve obviously taken time to look at what works well what doesnt work so well," Caroline Samponaro, Lyft's Head of Bike, Scooter & Pedestrian Policy told ABC News. "We were looking for ways that Lyft could add value. Were not just thinking about bikes and scooters, we're thinking about how to make multi-modal trips more possible for most people." Multi-modal trips involve more than one kind of transportation. "People think, 'If I ride a bike to work I have to ride a bike home,'" Samponaro said. "We can help piece together commutes in new ways. Forty percent of car trips in the U.S. are less than two miles. If we want to decrease congestion, bikes and scooters become amazing tools." Denver was an ideal launch city because of its buses and light rail system already available as public transit, Samponaro said. Riders of either of those systems can get a discount on scooter and bike shares. Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green detailed their ambitions in a Medium post on July 16, stressing transportation equity and sustainability. "Lyft Bikes and Scooters will be our most affordable transportation options, and will extend mobility to communities that have historically been underserved," the founders wrote in their post. In addition to distributing scooters to such neighborhoods, Lyft personnel will collect and redistribute the scooters to communities more in need of transport options, Samponaro said. Although Denver does not have a helmet law, the company will give some away for free at the Lyft Hub at 1401 Zuni Street starting on Sept. 7 on Wednesdays and Fridays. To rent a scooter through the Lyft app, you have to be 18. You scan your drivers license, and are charged a $1 unlock fee and then 15 cents per minute for a rental period for up to 30 minutes. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Another one. Patriots second-round rookie cornerback Duke Dawson has been placed on injured reserve, the team announced Thursday. Five of New England's nine 2018 draft picks now reside on IR, with first-round offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn, wide receiver Braxton Berrios, linebacker Christian Sam and tight end Ryan Izzo also gone for the year. Due to the timing of the transaction, New England can retrieve Dawson from IR after Week 8. Promoted from the practice squad, second-year receiver Riley McCarron has taken Dawson's spot on the 53-man roster. Former Texans tight end Stephen Anderson, who signed Thursday, replaced McCarron on the 10-man practice squad. Dawson, who's battled a hamstring injury for the last month, was downgraded from a limited participant in Wednesday's practice to DNP (did not participate) on Thursday. Following initial warmups and stretching, he walked straight from the team's indoor facility back toward the stadium. Over the last week, Dawson saw an increased workload in practice. In prior practices, he'd follow the same routine from Thursday and depart to a separate field for conditioning. At practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, he remained with the team and ran through initial positional drills. Dawson's only game action to date came in Week 1 of the preseason, when he took 17 defensive snaps and 16 more on special teams. As the Florida product battled injury this summer, fellow rookie cornerbacks Keion Crossen, a seventh-round pick, and J.C. Jackson, who went undrafted out of Maryland, made up ground and the 53-man roster. They will now back up starters Stephon Gilmore and Eric Rowe, with veterans Jonathan Jones and Jason McCourty also in the mix. Jordan foreign debt reaches 96.1 of GDP Economic stability at risk, analysts say (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, SEPTEMBER 7 - Ministry of Finance said that the Jordan's outstanding foreign debt has reached JD28.118 billion ($39.6 billion), constituting 96.1 of GDP, rising from from JD27.269 billion ($38.44 billion) in 2017. The ministry said the increase that mounted to nearly one billion dollar during the past year is related to additional loans secured to pay outstanding debts for the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ), which are guaranteed by the central bank. Debt of both institutions reached JD7.2 billion ($10 billion), according to official figures. Jordan's public debt has been climbing steadily during the past decade as the government struggles to meet fiscal obligations, including capital expenditure mounting to more than 80 percent of the state budget. The government's efforts to secure debts in the midterm future could be at risk after Standard & Poor's last year downgraded value of Jordan credit, amid concern about further downgrading by the organization. Earlier this year, the government cut subsidies on bread, hiked prices of a large number of commodities and imposed new taxation regime to increase public revenues, but the move backfired as protests swept across the kingdom. Economists say the rise in public debt, verses GDP is worrying for economic stability of the kingdom as it climbed from %71 of the GDP in 2011 to %96.1 of the GDP in 2018. The government says it hopes fiscal reform measures would cut down public debt to %77 of the GDP by 2021, but observers are concerned the plans are too ambitious in a country riddled with high level corruption and struggling economy that heavily depends on foreign aid. (ANSAmed). TEL AVIV - A Palestinian protestor was killed Friday in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, during ongoing clashes with the Israeli army at the defensive barrier between Gaza and Israel. The incident occurred during the 'March of Return' held on Friday at the border. Palestinian media quoted medical sources as saying that the protestor, a 17-year-old named Bilal Mustafa Khafajah, was hit in the chest by an Israeli bullet. The same sources say that 94 were injured including 30 by live bullets. Local sources say that the protestors made use of incendiary kites and balloons. One sparked a fire in Rafah at an Israeli Defense Forces communication tower, where there were advanced electronic surveillance devices. The day's demonstrations along the Gaza border were organized by Hamas in protest against the lack of a new ceasefire agreement in Cairo. Thousands took part in the protests and were brought to the border by vehicles provided by Hamas. The day's demonstrations were ''dedicated'' to US president Donald Trump. One group of protestors staged a mock public execution of both him and Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu using dolls that resembled them. Newshub reports: Clare Curran has no credibility left as an MP and the Prime Minister should take appropriate action, says The AM Show host Duncan Garner. What more does the Prime Minister need to sack embattled, flustered minister Clare Curran? Garner said. What are you trying to hide Clare? Who knows? Curran no longer passes the test as a minister, does she? Her credibility, crucially, has gone. She cant be trusted and shes a liability for the Government, said Garner, before labelling Ms Curran a walking wounded target. As Duncan says, a test of leadership. And in another Newshub story: Newshub political editor Tova OBrien says it was a catastrophic performance from the Minister, who has already been stripped of two portfolios and removed from Cabinetafter failing to record private meetings. Clare Curran stumbled and fumbled over questions she couldnt answer, simple questions she couldnt understand, OBrien told The AM Show. She had to have them repeated for her. At one point the Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard had to swoop in and rescue her and buy her time so she could catch her breath. He later had to force her to answer a question, which she again stumbled over. OBrien says her response was an appalling display from an MP. She says Ms Currans continued role in Government after her many scandals isnt a good look for Labour. This is a woman who was the Minister for Open Government and she got busted twice having secret meetings with people. Shes still the Minister of Communications and she cant even communicate simple answers to the Parliament about her communications. Again its the PMs call. Has been made worse by the fact the embattled Minister skipped question time on Thursday, which aggravated the press gallery. I actually feel sorry for Clare Curran. Having a shocker day in the House is hard on you, and does knock the confidence. And I worked quite a bit with Clare when she was in opposition. She did take a genuine interest in the ICT portfolio, worked hard to get on top of the issues, and is passionate about the importance of the sector. Ive always found her well intentioned, nice on a personal level, and it must be horrible going through all this. But Parliament is a tough environment and Labour never held back when a National MP was in trouble. As someone pointed out on Twitter, Labour tried to crucify Todd Barclay (also a really nice guy) for a stupid mistake, and even get him arrested. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr The Herald reports: When Penny Bright rang to say she had been dying and might yet continue to do so, her voice was weak and she struggled at times. David Bloody Fisher, she said, her usual greeting, but it was faint. Her Warship as she likes to call herself usually bellowed down the phone. She was about to turn 64. The day of her birthday was the day she was supposed to die, according to doctors when she turned up at Auckland City Hospital on August 31. As if Penny Bright ever listened to anyone with authority. But here was Penny fighting a battle that everyone loses eventually and she knew it. Ive never felt less energy or more tired in all my life, she says. But whos going to do our democracy now, I asked her. For years I had watched with bafflement and some wonder at Pennys determined fight against infringements on citizens rights. Richard Harman writes at Politik: In a week which has already seen Winston Peters and New Zealand First go it alone on refugee policy, Peters surprised western diplomats in Wellington yesterday with a low key response to the naming of the Russian agents responsible for poisoning the former KGB agent. His response did not accuse Russia of the poisoning nor did he make any reference to joining international efforts to take reprisals against the country because of the poisoning. It stood in marked contrast to a much stronger statement from Canberra. And once again it raised questions as to why he so frequently appears soft on Russia. The issue is about a former KGB agent, Sergey, and his daughter Yulia, Skripal who were poisoned with a toxic nerve agent, Novichok earlier this year. More recently another woman died and her partner was hospitalised after contact with the nerve agent. The incidents happened in the English town of Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May told the UK House of Commons on Wednesday that a forensic investigation had now produced sufficient evidence for the independent Director of Public Prosecutions to bring charges against two Russian nationals, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov for conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal and the attempted murder of him and his daughter. The Security and Intelligence Agencies have carried out their own investigations into the organisation behind this attack, said May. 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. Despite that assertion by May, Peters made only a veiled reference to the role of the Russian state in being responsible for the attack in his statement on the matter issued yesterday morning. Prime Minister May has indicated that the UK authorities have undertaken a careful and systematic inquiry, he said. The UK announced that after a thorough criminal inquiry the independent Crown Prosecution Service has sufficient evidence to bring charges against two Russian nationals. We said from the outset of Prime Minister May announcing this investigation that we should wait for it to be completed to draw our conclusions, and we have. The rest of the statement reiterated New Zealands support for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons. This contrasted with Australias response which came in a joint statement from Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister, Marise Payne. They said that the (British) investigation had found that two Russian military intelligence officers were responsible for this attack. The investigation also concluded that the Russian leadership authorised the attack, they said. The results of the UK Police investigation confirm Russias culpability for this heinous attack, in clear and direct violation of international law. Australia shares the UKs anger and outrage at this dangerous and deliberate act by Russia, which also puts at risk the British public, police and other first responders. We are in lock step with the UK on the importance of holding Russia to account and reaffirm our support for calls on Russia to fully disclose the extent of its chemical weapons programme. The Australian Government is in close consultation with the UK Government and other partners. We are committed to acting with our allies and partners to deter further Russian violations of international security. POLITIK understands that the British noticed the difference between the Australian and New Zealand statements and were, to quote one source, pissed at Peters response. ISTANBUL - The Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad has the right to retake control of the entire country including the Idlib region, Russian president Vladimir Putin said at a summit on Friday in Tehran with Iran and Turkey. Putin added that, in Syria, ''the terrorists are only in Idlib'' now. ''Our top priority is to eliminate terrorists entirely in Syria,'' Putin said. ''Recently, with the assistance of Russian air forces, the southwestern part of the country has been liberated. The aim in this phase is to kick the fighters out of Idlin. Their presence is a direct threat to Syrian civilians and the inhabitants of the entire region. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan instead said that ''no hasty move must be made in Syria with the excuse that it is part of a fight against 'terrorism'.'' The comment was in relation to the insistence by Iran and the Syrian government that in fighting Syrian opposition groups they are ''fighting terrorism''. Iran and Russia support the Syrian regime, which has called opposition groups a ''festering abscess'' to be eliminated, while Turkey has thus far supported opposition groups and spoken out against all attacks by the Syrian regime on Idlib while warning against the possible consequences if the conflict continues, including even more Syrians fleeing and seeking refuge in Turkey. In the press conference after the talk, Erdogan reiterated that his country already has 3.5 million Syrian refugees in it and that the Idlib region has another 3.5 million people in it. ''Turkey does not have the strength or the ability to welcome another 3.5 million'' refugees, he said. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said that ''US intervention in Syria must end immediately'' and stressed the importance of cooperating with the Assad regime. He added that ''the bloodshed in Syria is about to end''. The final declaration of the summit stated that ''there can not be a military solution to the conflict in Syria'' and that a solution must be sought only through a negotiated political process. By Jhoo Dong-chan KB Kookmin Card has launched its first overseas subsidiary in Cambodia under a joint venture. According to KB Financial Group, KB Kookmin Card held an inauguration ceremony in Phnom Penh Thursday for KB Daehan Specialized Bank, a joint venture with LVMC Holdings, the Laos-based automotive firm listed in the benchmark KOSPI. The move is part of KB Financial Group's efforts to strengthen its foothold abroad. The card firm's parent group also established an asset management unit in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday. KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo and other executives, including, KB Kookmin Card CEO Lee Dong-cheol, participated in the ceremony with LVMC Holdings Chairman Oh Sei-young and National Bank of Cambodia Governor Chea Chanto. "Separate from KB Kookmin Card's launch in the country, KB has expanded its presence in Cambodia since KB Kookmin Bank opened its branches in Stueng Meanchey and Chbar Ampov in July," said a KB Financial Group official. "KB Daehan Specialized Bank will closely cooperate with KB Cambodia Bank to strengthen its marketing in retail sectors, including consumer financial, card and capital products." Under the deal with LVMC Holdings, KB Daehan Specialized Bank will immediately provide an auto loan service for Cambodian people who buy cars from the automotive firm's dealerships. The bank also offers mortgage loans for Cambodians. In the long term, the bank aims to expand its businesses to credit cards as well as the credit loan sector while opening more branches in other major cities in Cambodia. The group added KB Cambodia Bank will also start a check card service with its bank customers beginning next year. PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Friday in Marseilles to discuss a range of European issues. ''We are here to prepare for the future,'' French president Emmanuel Macron said in receiving German chancellor Angela Merkel. The meeting focused on ''preparing for the large challenge of the moment, that of migration issues'', Macron said, adding that ''this must be seen as an opportunity and not a source of fear.'' ''From now until the EU elections, after a few months,'' Merkel said to Macron prior to the talks,'' we have several things to do, such as the development of the economic and monetary union, the banking union, as well as strengthening the eurozone.'' On the issue of migration, she added that ''Marseilles is a place that is appropriate to discuss the issue, on which France and Germany have a shared approach. Europe must prove that it is worthy.'' Merkel added that they would also be discussing, ''unfortunately, the UK's exit from the European Union. There is work to do on this, with a spirit that enables us to be close partners.'' CAIRO - General Khalifa Haftar warned that, if elections in Libya will not be ''transparent'' his army will make them ''abort''. In statements made Thursday and quoted by the website Alwasat, Haftar claimed he is the first to want a vote and that, in the event of proof demonstrating they are not ''transparent, the army will take action and make them abort''. Haftar then claimed that militia chiefs in Tripoli need to leave the capital and that a ''liberation'' of the city with military means remains an ''inevitable option''. ''Tripoli's militia chiefs can only leave. We have nothing left to do but to help them, through embassies, to live far from the Libyans'', Haftar told Benghazi's tribe chiefs, according to Alwasat. During a meeting with notables and tribe chiefs in Benghazi, Haftar expressed support for elections and the recognition of their result ''in the measure in which they are transparent''. ''There was a political accord in Paris between rival parties in Libya but all political accords are in vain (or ''are not useful''), the general was quoted as saying by Alwasat. ''We respect the agreement of Paris'', he added. He was referring to an agreement that was reached (but not signed) in the French capital in May that set December 10 as the date for elections, which Italy believes is too close given the country's precarious stability. ''We are engaged in a calculated risk, we are not working on a coup against power'', also said Haftar, who heads militias of the east that are also present in the west and are formally included in the Libyan National Army (LNA). Spain: Catalan police to become part of State intelligence Agreement for neutrality public spaces (ANSAmed) - MADRID, SEPTEMBER 7 - The Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's police, will become part of Spain's system of coordination of investigations of the Centre of Intelligence against terrorism and organized crime (Citco), which groups various security agencies of the State, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a press conference. Marlaska made the announcement at the end of a meeting of Catalonia's security council in Barcelona, which was attended by the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra. A Catalan police representative will become part ''within the next 30 days'' of the intelligence services, in the fight against terrorism, to share information on ongoing investigations, he said. The importance of such a measure was in particular highlighted by the Islamist terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils on August 17, 2017. At the top of the meeting's agenda was the so-called battle of yellow ribbons in Catalonia, which symbolize the detained Catalan officials, after incidents between separatists and unionists were reported over the past few weeks. Minister Grande-Malaska and the Catalan interior 'conseller', Miguel Buch, agreed on the need to guarantee ''the neutrality'' of public spaces, preventing the symbols from being placed and then removed. The two administrations are working so that ''public spaces belong to all citizens, all ideologies and are neutral'', Minister Grande-Malaska was quoted as saying by national broadcaster RTVE. He stressed the ''full collaboration and institutional loyalty'' of the Mossos d'Esquadra. For his part, Buch said there is ''no problem of cohabitation'' in the region, between separatists and unionists, and recalled that the Statute of autonomy gives Catalan police authority over matters of security and public order. The meeting was held after the interior ministry announced that it would deploy 600 national anti-riot police to Catalonia ahead of separatist demonstrations scheduled on September 11, the day of Diada (national holiday of the autonomous community of Catalonia). (ANSAmed). Syrian: 2.5 million civilian lives at risk in Idlib, Oxfam International community 'must prevent humanitarian catastrophe' (ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 7 - The two summits being held Friday on the Syrian conflict may be the last hope to prevent yet another humanitarian disaster for over 2.5 million civilians living in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. ''The UN Security Council meets today to discuss the situation in Idlib, following a meeting between the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Turkey in Tehran earlier in the day. Oxfam is calling on the entire international community to urgently work together to prevent a new humanitarian catastrophe, which the UN estimates could displace 800,000 people,'' the Oxfam website noted. The statement went on to say that there ''have been reports of airstrikes this week in western Idlib - the last governorate under control of armed groups. The governorate has been described by the UN as a 'dumping ground for fighters and civilians' evacuated from areas of Syria retaken by the Government and has seen regular fighting between the different armed groups, providing only a fragile sanctuary for those civilians who fled violence in other parts of the country.'' The website quoted Oxfam's Country Director in Syria, Moutaz Adham, as saying that it's ''clear that the situation in Idlib is already dire. The population of Idlib has roughly doubled, as people have fled conflict elsewhere - putting an increased strain on water supplies, shelter, and other humanitarian support.'' ''A major conflict in Idlib would result in a catastrophe unlike anything we have seen before. The international community simply must come together to find a solution to help those who are simply trying to survive, and prevent an escalation of violence on any side,'' the statement stressed. (ANSAmed). Prague [Czech Republic], Sep 07 (ANI): President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday stressed on strengthening economic ties between India and the Czech Republic during his three-day visit to the central European country. Addressing an Indian business delegation in the capital city of Prague, Kovind said, "We are keen to strengthen and diversify our relations with the Czech Republic. Tomorrow, I will have discussions with President (Milos) Zeman on taking forward our bilateral relations, particularly, our economic ties." The President underlined trade, technology and investment as a few of the numerous opportunities for businesses in the two countries to grow. He also expressed his delight over the Indian community's contributions to the Czech society, saying, "I am pleased to learn that the Indian Community in the Czech Republic, though small in number, is making a significant contribution to the progress of this country. As professionals, scientists, entrepreneurs and students, you also serve as a living bridge between the two countries." While saying that the two countries have been engaged in trade for thousands of years, Kovind hailed the Czech Republic for bolstering the cultural connection with India by honouring Indian writer and poet Rabindranath Tagore. "Eminent Czech scholars brought the works of Rabindranath Tagore to the Czech people and helped foster a deep cultural connect with India. The installation of the bust of Rabindranath Tagore, in Prague and naming a tram station after him, is homage to Gurudev and to his poetic genius," Kovind said during his address. He also stated that the founding of the Indo-Czech Association by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Prague in 1934, and the popularity of the shoe-manufacturer Bata; that was started by a Czech Thomas Bata; in India as factors that have strengthened ties between the two countries. Later, the India-Czech Sinfonietta Orchestra performed a rendition of several Hindi songs at the Indian community reception in Prague for President Kovind. In the final leg of his visit to three European countries-Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, three-President Kovind will hold bilateral meetings with his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and several other political leaders over the course of the next two days. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Male, September 7: The Air India flight AI263 landed at the under-construction runway at Male Velana International Airport in the Maldives. The Air India flight AI263 was flying from Trivandrum to Male, when it landed on a non-operation runaway. All the 136 passengers and crew members on board are safe. Two main wheels of the plane were deflated. The aircraft was towed to the parking bay. Air India flight #AI263 landed at the nonoperational runway (under construction) at Male Velana International Airport in the Maldives: Flight24 pic.twitter.com/utL4XljH8D ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2018 On September 4 in Chennai, The pilot of Indigo airlines aborted landing after he spotted a vehicle crossing the runway. According to a report published in The Times of India, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has kept the main runway closed for taxiway work daily, between 12.30pm and 6.30pm, and flights are diverted to the second runway. In a similar incident, a charter jet missed four taxiing airplanes as 200 feet after it mistakenly lined up with a taxiway instead of the nearby runway on August 10. In another incident, on July 7, 2017, an Air Canada plane missed landing on a taxiway at San Francisco airport. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2018 06:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Mumbai, September 7: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has off rostered both the pilots of Air Indias 320-NEO aircraft for landing at the under-construction runway at Male Velana International Airport in the Maldives. The DGCA termed it a serious incident. The Air India flight AI263 was flying from Trivandrum to Male when it landed on a non-operation runaway. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has also been informed about the incident. All the 136 passengers and crew members on board were reported to be safe; however, two main wheels of the plane were deflated. The aircraft was towed to the parking bay. In a similar incident, on August 3, pilots of a Jet Airways Boeing 737 at Riyadh airport attempted to take off using full power from a taxiway parallel to the runway. It was supposed to fly for Mumbai. At the time of the incident, 141 passengers were onboard. On September 4 in Chennai, The pilot of Indigo airlines aborted landing after he spotted a vehicle crossing the runway. Airports Authority of India (AAI) has kept the main runway closed for taxiway work daily, between 12.30pm and 6.30pm, and flights are diverted to the second runway. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2018 07:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). On Wednesday, around two dozen passengers and crew members had been confirmed sick after Emirates Flight 203 from Dubai landed at JFK International airport. The crew members and passengers reported symptoms that included coughing, a headache, sore throat, fever and other flu-like symptoms, New York City health officials said. And on Thursday afternoon, two flights arriving at Philadelphia International Airport sparked an investigation by CDC after passengers experienced flu-like symptoms. Emirates Airline Flight EK203 Quarantined At JFK Airport After 100 Passengers Fall Sick on Board. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention originally reported that as many as 100 people on the flight said they felt ill but hours later Emirates Airline confirmed that 10 of the 549 crew members and passengers were transferred to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Ice Ice baby rapper Vanilla Ice was also on board the flight but he was all okay. A CDC official familiar with the situation told CNN that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a viral respiratory disease first identified in 2012, was being considered as a potential cause for illness, along with other respiratory illnesses. On Thursday, 12 passengers from two American flights arrived in Philadelphia, one from Munich and other from Paris, were referred to medical professionals after exhibiting flu-like symptoms on their flight, officials said, as reported by NBC News. A spokesperson for Philadelphia International Airport said in a statement that the passengers were held for medical reviewas a precaution. It was the second day in a row at a Mid-Atlantic airport that arriving passengers from the Middle East exhibited indications of illness. The 12 passengers were ultimately checked out and released on-site. Although, Thursdays reports of illness did not require hospitalisation, but Southwest Airlines said it has notified crew members. Its planes are subject to rigorous cleaning. Several passengers on the flights into Philadelphia were reportedly returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where a flu outbreak is ongoing. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2018 12:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Manila, Sep 7: Police in the Philippines have arrested 34 people for not standing while the national anthem was being played at a movie theatre, an official report said on Friday. The report said the incident took place on Thursday in the theatre inside a mall in Lemery, a town in Batangas province, reports Xinhua news agency. The national anthem called "Lupang Hinirang" is played in every theatre across the Philippines before the screening of a movie. The police said the 34 people violated RA 8491 also known as the "Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines". "As a sign of respect, all persons shall stand at attention and face the Philippine flag, if there is one displayed, and if there is none, they shall face the band or the conductor," the Act says. According to the law, any person or judicial entity which violates any of the provisions, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than 5,000 pesos ($93) but not more than 20,000 pesos ($371), or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2018 10:08 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). The nation's first Catholic high school for students in recovery from drug or alcohol addiction is planned to open for fall 2019 outside Bethlehem. Diocese of Allentown officials on Friday announced the creation of Kolbe Academy, on its Monocacy Manor campus along Bridle Path Road in Hanover Township, Northampton County. "The Diocese of Allentown is blessed to be able to offer this, recognizing the need ... of so many families in the Lehigh Valley, families who may be Catholic, who may be of another faith, who may be of no faith," diocese Bishop Alfred Schlert said. "All will be welcome here, not because they are Catholic but because we are Catholic, are we offering this service to the people of the Lehigh Valley and beyond." Friday's announcement comes at a difficult time for this and five other dioceses across Pennsylvania, following a grand jury probe that found claims of sexual abuse against 301 priests dating to the 1940s. The United States has about 60 high schools dedicated to students in recovery, said Brooke Tesche, deputy superintendent of education for the diocese. As a Catholic high school sharing that mission, Kolbe Academy is the first of its kind, according to the Association of Recovery Schools based in Houston, Texas. "It is unique in the fact that it will be the first faith-based high school in the United States for students in recovery from addiction," township Manager John "Jay" Finnigan said at Friday's announcement at Monocacy Manor. Serving grades ninth through 12th, Kolbe Academy will be open to students from across the diocese's five counties: Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Carbon and Schuylkill. School districts whose borders come within a 10-mile radius of the school will be responsible for busing students there, said Philip J. Fromuth, the diocese's superintendent of Catholic education. That's about 15 districts, he said. Interested families in the diocese beyond that boundary would be responsible for their students' transportation. The school will be accredited by the Middle States Association, and students who complete their coursework will receive a diploma in addition to support for their recovery from addiction. "Our system is not meeting the needs of our students," Tesche said. "We do have excellent resources in Lehigh and Northampton county but the majority of our providers' expertise is working with adults. We need to expand supports for our youth. "They need a program that will specialize in the challenges they have with this disease and supporting lifelong recovery. We need a recovery high school. The Lehigh Valley children deserve a recovery high school." Tesche, who moved into Catholic eduction from a career in public schools, shared statistics that students who enter treatment then return to their previous school environment have a 20 percent chance of avoiding relapse. "But when students go into treatment and they're ready to go back to school and they go to a recovery high school, it's over 85 percent chance of staying sober," she said. "Those statistics are astounding. This works." Students will pay tuition of $15,000 to $16,000, comparable to the diocese's other high schools, according to Tesche. That's also how much a 28-day treatment program can cost families, she said. The diocese expects financial aid to be available, and Kolbe Academy will have room for 90 students in Mullen Hall. Formerly St. Francis Academy, the building is now home to Covenant Christian Academy under a lease that ends June 30, 2019. The diocese has 40 elementary and high schools in its territory. This is its first new school to open since Immaculate Conception Academy opened in 2003 in Douglassville, Berks County, said Fromuth. The diocese this year also relocated its St. Jerome Regional School from Tamaqua to Rush Township, in Schuylkill County, the (Pottsville) Republican Herald reports. The logo for Kolbe Academy is projected during an announcement Sept. 7, 2018, about the new Catholic high school for students in recovery from drug or alcohol addiction in Hanover Township, Northampton County, outside Bethlehem. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) About the name Kolbe Academy is named for St. Maximilian Kolbe, the patron saint of those with addiction. Its logo features a phoenix: "It's a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated and born again. In history the phoenix is often used to symbolize renewal in general, as well as the resurrection to new life in Christ," Tesche said. The logo's colors of purple and blue represent, respectively, recovery and the Virgin Mary. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Director M. Night Shyamalan's new film "Glass" won't be released until January, but you could own a piece of it right now. Church pews used in the movie's filming are for sale now at the Habitat Lehigh Valley ReStore, according to the Whitehall Township resale and home improvement store. "Glass," starring Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and James McAvoy, was shot in part at Allentown State Hospital last fall. The 13 pews, donated to the shop on Thursday, are priced at $200 a piece. "We've had church pews before, and they cause a lot of interest. But we haven't had any quite like this," manager Emily London said. Aside from their connection to a major film, she said it's rare for the shop to receive so many of the same type. #freshfindsFriday You won't believe this! These pews were used in the recent filming of M. Night Shyamalan's new movie... Posted by Habitat Lehigh Valley ReStore on Friday, September 7, 2018 London said that part of the crew involved in the film's production reached out to donate the pews. "We were excited. We would be excited even if they weren't connected to the film -- definitely a unique piece," she said. Before being used in "Glass," the pews came from a church in New Jersey, London said she was told. While a Facebook post announcing their availability has generated dozens of responses, London said that none of the pews had been sold as of late morning on Friday -- though the store had only been open since 10 a.m. She noted they could make for good seating in a foyer or sunroom. The filming of "Glass" brought director Shyamalan and stars Jackson, Willis and McAvoy to the area last year. They were spotted dining at local restaurants like Queen City BBQ and Fegley's Allentown Brew Works. Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook. 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. 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." 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. By Mohammed Khaku Sept. 11 is around the corner, which generated global empathy and solidarity for the United States. Flags flew at half-staff. The event was a great tragedy that should be remembered every year, but not with hate against the people who had nothing to do with the murderers, most of whom were from Saudi Arabia. There has been an uptake in divisiveness and bigotry against Jews and Muslims, such as the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center there has been an increase in activity by hate groups such as white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. They been emboldened by the actions of the current president. However, 17 years after 9/11, there remains much ignorance and misunderstanding about Islam and Judaism. So let this New Year for Muslims and Jews be a time to join hands, recognize our commonalities, and work together to fight against racism and bigotry. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, America enjoyed the sympathy and goodwill of the entire world. As I look back on that tragic day, I recall the horror I experienced as my wife was returning from London on a United Airlines flight to Newark Airport. It suddenly was diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Waiting at the airport and having no knowledge of my wife for 18 hours was extremely painful and agonizing. The outrage for me was twofold. First, I had experienced an attack by an extremist group on our country by individuals who committed this criminal act of violence in the name of Islam. Second, during the tumultuous days after Sept 11, 2001, American Muslims, including myself, not only were mourning this tragic event but had to deal with a backlash of anti-Muslim sentiments and hate crimes that continue today. Then there were four days of painful experiences my wife had to go through in Halifax, being the sole American Muslim wearing the veil (hijab) in the crowd of thousands at a convention center. Even today after any terrorist attack -- be it in Boston, Orlando or Paris -- I have to explain to my coworkers and friends that Islam in fact condemns such acts of violence, as any other major religion would, that the action of a few fanatics should not malign an entire faith, and that American Muslims are just as patriotic as their fellow citizens. One of the lingering perceptions is that American Muslims have not expressed enough outrage and condemnation of these horrific attacks on our nation. I believe this misperception is partly due to American Muslims expressing outrage in a multitude of ways, including religious decrees and statements of denunciation by major Muslim organization such as CAIR, ISNA, ICNA and NASIMCO, but they do not get fair media coverage. The mass media have failed to present Islam accurately. It is the responsibility of media to portray all religions accurately, without bias. There is another wonderful opportunity for lawmakers, educators, faith leaders and public to attend the lectures every night for 12 days with the beginning of Muharrum starting Sept. 11 at the Al Ahad Islamic Center in South Whitehall Township. Come join us for dinner and chat every night. That is what America is all about. Visit the website at www.sijpa.org for programing updates. Mohammed Khaku lives in Upper Macungie Township. One person's sedimentation basin is another person's protected waterbody. A former quarry's classification at the Grand Central Sanitary Landfill was the subject of much discussion Thursday at the Plainfield Township Planning Commission's review of a proposed sewage sludge treatment plant. Synagro Technologies Inc. is going through the Plainfield Township planning development process for the proposed plant, which would convert sewage sludge into Class A biosolids. The end product can be used as fertilizer or fuel. It is proposed beside the Green Knight Energy Center at the landfill. The plant's sludge-drying ovens would harness excess heat created by Green Knight by burning landfill gas, which is primarily methane. Synagro has applied for several state permits with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Planning Commission members questioned Synagro representatives about other permitting regarding the water-filled quarry. Hanover Engineering, which is representing the township for this project, wrote a letter to Synagro noting several issues. The letter indicated Synagro would need to meet any federal and township laws regarding the nearby quarry. However, Synagro representatives said the quarry was permitted by the state several years ago to be a sedimentation basin for runoff stormwater at the landfill site. As such, no additional permits or permissions are required, they argued. "This is an existing sedimentation basin for the landfill," Synagro lawyer Elizabeth Witmer said. "That is what it is operating as now. That is what it will continue to operate as." Commission member Terry Kleintop said the quarry is different than other development sedimentation basins and requires special consideration. Typically, stormwater fills a basin then flows out or naturally dissipates, he said. Whereas, the quarry is filled continuously with water. Water levels rise and fall with underground water tables, according to Kleintop. "There is water going in and out of this quarry as we sit here..." Kleintop said. "This is the most unique sedimentation basin that I've ever seen." Whether to refer to the former quarry as a pond, waterbody or sedimentation basin was the subject of debate. Each term has its own legal definition, which has different protections and regulations. Witmer said any water from plant processes will be contained and will not be dispersed into the quarry. "There is no anticipated change to water quality of sedimentation basin number two," Witmer said. In an effort to come to an agreement, Witmer said Synagro representatives will continue to discuss the matter with the township's engineers before the next commission meeting. The two-and-a-half-hour meeting covered three pages of a Hanover Engineering letter. Hanover also submitted another 27-page letter to Synagro and the township zoning officer wrote a 40-page letter. All the issues in those letters still need to be discussed with the commission. Commission Chairman Paul Levits said the planning process has a long way to go. John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Staff at The Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise held a fundraiser on Thursday which has raised almost 2,500 for their friend and colleague Daniel Wolski. Daniel was seriously injured when he fell off a wall while on holiday in Tenerife on August 1. He suffered instant paralysis, underwent two serious surgeries and was flown home with medical assistance after one month in hospital in Tenerife. Laois man flown home after month in Tenerife hospital. He is now in Beaumont hospital in Dublin where he is waiting for a place on a rehabilitation programme. Daniel was looking forward to starting college this month to be a fitness instructor. His girlfriend Sara started a GoFundMe page to raise enough money to transport Daniel home. The fundraiser has been hugely successful with over 20,000 raised. The fundraiser has to reach its 30,000 target for the family to receive the money. A number of local fundraisers have taken place this week to help out. Both Daniel and his girlfriend Sara work in The Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise. Wedding and Event Manager at the hotel, Cavan Dunne, organised the fundraiser on Thursday. Cavan said he is delighted with the 2,300 raised so far and says they expect this to surpass the 2,500 mark after the raffle money is counted. The Killeshin held a day of free tea, cakes and coffee in their cafe and asked customers to make a donation. Raffle tickets were also sold with great prizes like overnight stays in a number of hotels and vouchers for local businesses. Gs Gourmet Jams also held an afternoon tea on Wednesday to raise funds as two friends of Daniels have worked there for 10 years. Portlaoise school fundraiser to help injured past pupil Daniel Wolski. DONATE HERE. Two talented young Laois musicians recently took centre stage at Dublins Bord Gais Energy Theatre with renowned percussionist Alex Petcu. Aibhlinn Doheny (17) and Liam Cunningham (13) travelled from Portlaoise last Tuesday morning, September 4, to take part in a photocall to mark the announcement of the 27th annual Allianz Business to Arts Awards. They were accompanied on their trip to Dublin by their tutors, Ros O'Meara and Denise Boyle. Both Aibhlinn and Liam are young musicians and participants with Music Generation Laois and Laois School of Music, with whom they play percussion among other instruments. After the photocall, which took place on the theatres main stage, the pair had an opportunity to learn some tricks of the trade at a workshop with internationally renowned Irish percussionist Alex Petcu, who performed during the awards ceremony later that evening. The Allianz Business to Arts Awards recognise and celebrate imaginative, innovative and effective partnerships between businesses and the arts. This year, Music Generation, in partnership with U2 and The Ireland Funds and with support from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, was announced as winner of the Award for Best Long Term Partnership. The Award was presented by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan TD before an audience of some 600 leaders from across the arts, cultural and business sectors. That same night in Portlaoise, Music Generation Laois and Laois School of Music hosted an open evening for new and returning young musicians at their brand new home, Laois Music Centre formerly Scoil Mhuire on Church Avenue. Music Generation Laois is part of Music Generation is Irelands national music education programme, which was initiated by Music Network and is now co-funded by U2, The Ireland Funds, the Department of Education and Skills and Local Music Education Partnerships. Locally, Music Generation Laois is managed by Laois Music Education Partnership and funded by Laois County Council, Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board and Laois Partnership Company. On August 24, Jane McIntyre from Newbridge courageously jumped out of a plane to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society. Jane had to make her way to the Irish Parachute Club on three different occasions due to weather restrictions but she finally got to do her parachute jump on a sunny Friday afternoon. Jane raised an incredible 6,563 for cancer services and cancer research. Brenda McCarthy, Community Fundraiser, Irish Cancer Society said, I am truly taken aback by the money raised through Janes parachute jump. The cancer experience can be a very difficult one, but this money will help ensure no one has to face that journey alone. As Irish Cancer Society gets 98% of its funding through public and corporate donations I want to say a special thanks to all those who donated to Janes parachute jump. Your support will make an immense difference to those affected by cancer. Jane McIntyre said; "I would like to thank all the people that contributed so generously to the Cancer Society it is very much appreciated." When asked why she embarked on the fundraiser, she replied; "I had cancer myself. I am a survivor and I wanted to give something back so I decided to take up the challenge. A woman was grabbed by the throat and punched in her Naas home, Naas District Court heard. The incident happened at St. Itas Place on February 16. Before the court was Gavin Mulvaney (28) whose address was given as 26 Woodlands Road, Cabinteely, Dublin, who was prosecuted for entering a building with intent to commit an offence and assault. Sgt. Jim Kelly said the woman saw the defendant and confronted him over the way he was treating his dog because he kicked the animal, a whippet. He grabbed her by the throat and pushed her back. The womans son then hit the defendant over the head with a candlestick holder. The court also heard that the defendant has not come to garda attention in recent times and was remorseful. The defendant was in foster care at six weeks old because his parents are alcoholics. He had also lived at times with his parents and it appeared his difficulties began when his mother tried to stab him when he was 12 years old. He did not receive help when in State care and subsequently ended up in a mutually abusive relationship. The defendant was abusing substances and alcohol. He is remorseful for the offence and has not come to garda attention since then. He also has a partner and and they have two children together. The defendant is also trying to get a horticulture business started. He had has written a letter of apology to the injured party and says he will stay out of the area. Referring to a victim impact statement, Judge Desmond Zaidan noted the defendant was assaulted in her own home and for a few weeks afterwards the victim would not walk around her home or sleep. She felt afraid and her son moved out and she had been prescribed anti depressants and sleeping tablets. Judge Zaidan imposed two terms of five months each. The last crane at the unopened shopping centre in Naas won't be coming down this weekend, after all. Two of the three structures, erected a decade ago, were dismantled and removed last weekend. It was planned that the third one would be taken down in an operation conducted from South Main Street starting later today or tomorrow. All of the work is scheduled as weekends to minimise the impact on traffic. However this has been deferred until Friday next (Sept. 14) because of likely weather conditions, according to Kildare County Council. The removal of the third crane will causes more disruption than the work down to take down the others. This is because this will be done from the main street instead of Corbans Lane. Unlike last weekend when traffic disruption was largely confined to Corban's Lane as two cranes were removed, there will be delays on the main street from tomorrow. This because the final crane will be dismantled from South Main Street. The work is being done at weekends to avoid congestion in an area where there is considerable weekday school traffic. Politicians have broadly welcomed the decision to remove the cranes which had towered above Naas Shopping Centre for a decade. Fianna Fail TD James Lawless said the work takes away an eyesore which people have long been complaining about particularly since the cranes have done nothing for some time. However Dep. Lawless also sought to assuage fears that the removal of the cranes might lead to a prolonged delay before the centre is sold. This is a good progression, it does not mean that the centre has been abandoned as has been suggested by some on social media, he said, adding that the cranes are falling apart and represent part of a construction site from ten years ago. This in no way signifies that the Naas shopping centre has been abandoned, said Dep. Lawless. He said the site is being prepared for a sale, a process that did not take place up to now because of financial arrangements made between the National asset Management Agency and the developers and these arrangements were fully honoured by the developers. The hope is that the centre will be put up for sale shorty. SEE ALSO Go Wild for food and fun in Naas this weekend While it is his preference that the centre opens as originally intended it could, subject to the appropriate planning permission, host another a number of enterprises and these could include the centre opening as offices or an education campus. He said it may well be that any additional work needed on the site after the premises will be sold will be facilitated by new cranes moving in. I don't want to speculate on what it might open as but the removal of the cranes is the first sign of progress there for a long time. It may well be that a new owner will produce figures to show that a shopping centre might not be viable in the town centre. The shopping centre was the brainchild of Marshalsea, a locally owned development company which has separate interests in Dublin. The reaction of business people was more mixed. Andy Hogan, proprietor of 33 South Main in Naas, criticised the fact that they were not told that Corban's Lane would be closed to through traffic on Friday evening and throughout Saturday. Had we been informed then we could have put up signs highlighting that it was possible to access our premises from Fairgreen Street. It's great that the cranes are coming down but nobody is happy that the shopping centre has not opened. I'd really like to see something happen with the centre. Conor McCormack, of the nearby McCormack's pub, also said that the centre needs to open. Nobody knows what's happening with the centre and we're wondering if new cranes need to be erected to finish off the centre, said Mr. McCormack. . One south Leitrim farmer has criticised the increase of afforestation in Leitrim claiming it is a form of ethnic cleansing. As far as Im concerned what they are doing is they are clearing the indigenous people of Leitrim off the land and its government policy. Thats the truth, its ethnic cleansing. Nothing short of it, Jim McCaffrey told the IFA Director General, Damian McDonald when he visited his home last week. Located near the shore of a lake, Jim pointed out that he is all but surrounded by forestry plantations of Sitka Spruce at various stages. And, with the requirement for all land in forestry to be replanted once felled, Jim says he can see very little cause to hope that things will change for the next generation. That, he said, gesturing to the surrounding farmland, is Sitka Spruce and it is not sustainable forestry. Thats a 35 year crop. Sustainable forestry is 100 years old. And they start to thin it in sections and replant it in sections and by the time you have it thinned your original planting has grown back. What they are telling us is a lie. That's not sustainable, he said. Jim argues that the present system allowing anyone - whether they are farmers or not and whether they are living here in Ireland or not - to plant and claim tax free payments for forestry, is completely wrong. I am involved in Save Leitrim. I am one of the founding members and I can tell you now that we will accept nothing less than a full stop (for Sitka Spruce forestry). It is not negotiable to have this whole county decimated. If you take out your roads lakes, rivers and your areas of special conservation then there is 50% of remaining land in Leitrim that is forestry. It is gone and will never be farmed again. That's just another area where you won't have people farming and living ever again. It is just depopulation and it is government policy and it should not be allowed, he maintained. Planning problems, the proliferation of forestry and falling farm incomes are just some of the challenges facing farmers in Leitrim says local members of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA). Last Thursday IFA President, Joe Healy; Deputy President, Richard Kennedy and Director General, Damian McDonald toured Leitrim, meeting with local branch members and seeing first hand the issues farmers are facing. The first stop on the schedule was a visit to the farm of Adrian Kelly. Adrian is Chairperson of the Cloone IFA branch and he recently had to purchase a home six miles away from the family farm because he could not get planning to build a house. Adrian, who is getting married in a few months, said he had no option but to buy a home in Aughavas or face renting a property in Carrick-on-Shannon. My brother went for planning for his house before 2009 on the family farm but now you can't get permission to build because of the soil. You won't pass the T90 soil test, pointed out Adrian. Although there was the possibility of engaging with a pilot programme testing a zero discharge waste water treatment system to secure planning, Adrian said the costs were simply too prohibitive. That (waste water system) is 55,000 in the ground before you even put down a block or pay the cost of actually building the house. That's impossible to afford and there's no guarantee the system will work, he said. While his parents had offered to move out of the family home to allow Adrian to move in with his wife, he said he couldn't agree to that and was left little option but to purchase six miles away from the farm. Its six miles from the farm. I dont know how you calve cows six miles away. Youd want a long rope, he said. He acknowledges his situation is far from unique, especially here in Leitrim where nearly 90% of the land will not pass the T90 test. Adding to stress of farming, Adrian says the proliferation of forestry is causing huge problems, not just for young farmers who want to expand their farm enterprise, but also within rural communities where it's trees replacing people. Our main problem in this parish is forestry. The lower side of the parish is around 70- 90% covered in forestry, he said. Taking the Director General and Deputy President to forestry bordering his farm he pointed out the forestry was planted in the 1980s and was right up against his boundary. You can see for yourself that a large part of this fields is constantly in shadow, he said. The field is wet and no matter how many drains you put in you can do nothing with it, he said. There hasnt been a pound turned out of that (forestry) since 1987 (when it was planted) on this side (of the hedge) here were going into the co-op and were buying wrap and were buying diesel and you all know that for every euro a farmer gets he generates 4.27. What benefit if the likes of that forestry to anyone but the person pulling the grants off it? There has to be a better option for Leitrim There has to be a better option for Leitrim (than forestry). There has to be something better than that. You can see that theres no future for us here if more and more of this land around here is planted. We won't be able to farm it and we can't compete with the prices being paid for land by forestry companies, Adrian said. Sligo-Leitrim Deputy, Martin Kenny and Director General of the IFA, Damian McDonald, are pictured during the visit to the farm of Adrian Kelly last week, near Cloone. He argued that active farmers in areas like Leitrim should be paid the same level of grant as those paid to forestry. We do more for our communities. We, at least will go out and spend the money we get. What will that forestry do for any community other than empty it? Co Leitrim Executive Chairperson, James Gallagher, said he had taken the Director General up to a high point in the locality to get a view of the impact of blanket forestry. This isn't something just impacting South Leitrim it's in North Leitrim as well. It's very hard to say to someone not to plant when the payments are so good, but the long term impact for land and for communities is devastating, he said. I welcome the fact that the Director General, President and Deputy President are here in Leitrim to see what is happening for themselves. Deputy Martin Kenny, who jointed IFA members on the day, said the situation was very disturbing in Leitrim, especially in regard to the proliferation of Sitka Spruce plantations. The argument that these trees are being planted for carbon sequestration is absolute nonsense, he told our reporter. Sitka Spruce is the worst tree you could plant for this. In fact, low intensity farming is better for carbon sequestration than forestry so it is baffling that more isn't being done to support small farmers instead of just paying big money to forestry. His fear for his local community is echoed by a lot of people in South Leitrim. Seamus Tiernan is principal of Aughavas National School and comes, himself, from Cloone. He points out that unless young people are able to build in the area and move to rural communities these communities will die. We are trying to get more students in Aughavas National School in order to save a third teacher but it's almost impossible because there isn't enough housing and no one can get permission to build, he acknowledged. Seamus is also a member of the committee who successfully developed the Cloone greenway - Bothar Na Naomh. It was LEADER funding which started this project off. These projects are the sort of things that are important in building a community and being able to get planning permission to build in your own local area is also an important part of sustaining communities. If we can't facilitate young couples who want to live here and raise families here then all we will be left with are older people and eventually our communities will die out. That's a fact, he said. Only a few years ago we had three schools in the parish of Aughavas and now we have only one and we're fighting to keep teachers. Definitely we're seeing more and more plantations of forestry, of Sitka Spruce, and those places where once families lived are gone forever. Along with that we're also losing a huge amount of local knowledge in farming methods. People always accuse IFA of being for the bigger farmer and that the Association doesn't cater for the small farmer. But if something isn't done now by the IFA, to ensure the future of small farmers in places like Leitrim then there will be no rural communities here in 20 or 30 years. Maureen Murray, Treasurer Leitrim IFA, warned that unless things change there might not be county officers in Leitrim in the coming days (near future). The Department of Agriculture has to make huge decisions about the upcoming Budget and we are also going into a new round of CAP. Farmers are under serious pressure and the IFA has to act now, she said. Time for other counties to pick up the slack Sean McLoughlin, Chairperson of Aughavas IFA branch, said the urgency of the situation facing farmers in Leitrim could not be underestimated. I am on the Save Leitrim Committee against forestry and we've stopped 1,600 acres of land in Co Leitrim being planted and we have objected to felling licences because bonds haven't been paid and we have no way of guaranteeing that any damage to our roads will be repaired, explained the IFA Branch Chairperson. He said that initial investigation by Save Leitrim had revealed that Coillte owned nearly 800 folio numbers in north Leitrim and work was only just beginning on establishing the ownership of forestry folios in south Leitrim. He said that already there were indications that overseas companies were buying forestry in Leitrim and taking the money of Irish taxpayers out of the country, leaving land with no option but to be replanted again and again. There is no value added for land in forestry. If anything it takes from us. It takes from our communities and from our future, he argued. Our communities are dying on their feet because of forestry, in particular Sitka Spruce and it has to be stopped. We are nearly at 19% afforestation in Leitrim. It is time for other counties to pick up the slack. The L Shape is an exhibition featuring artists Jenny Brady and Sarah Browne at the centre of which are two moving image works; a new presentation of Bradys Going to the Mountain (2015) and Brownes The Invisible Limb (2014). This exhibition is showing for the first time in a gallery context in Ireland and it is here on our doorsteps in The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon and opens on Saturday, September 15. A nod to the physical relationship between The Docks two gallery spaces, The L Shape is conceived as an exhibition that foregrounds the point at which two distinct artistic practices meet and thereby generate momentum. The exhibition title also refers to the shape of a periscope, an instrument for observation that, like both Going to the Mountain and The Invisible Limb plays with and redirects the reflective properties of the mirror, an object frequently used as a metaphor for cinema. Embracing the transformation of The Docks two main galleries into proto-cinema spaces, The L Shape will be framed by two screening events relating to ideas in Brady and Brownes moving image works. Ventriloquist Nina Conti will take part in a discussion after the screening of her film Her Masters Voice (2012) on Saturday, September 22 and artist John Smith will participate in a conversation around his work in relation to The L Shape on Saturday, October 13. For more details visit www.thedock.ie This unique exhibition continues until Saturday November 3. Artist Talk At 2pm on Saturday, September 15 there will be an exhibition preview and talk with Alice Butler, Jenny Brady and Sarah Browne. The following week on Saturday, September 22 there will be a screening and talks with Nina Conti at 1pm. Part of the Visual Artists Ireland International Speakers Series. Also read: The Dock welcomes a brand new season this September At the quiet end of Henry Street in the city sits an unassuming office building, whose workers, at home and abroad, are trying to change the world. One of those people is Paula Nolan. Paula of Irish Aid has spent the last 30 years working across three continents, driven by a desire to help people and make the world a fairer place. Her interest in world affairs was not always so strong. When she was growing up in Tulla in the seventies and eighties, a trip to Todds in Limerick was a big day out. Surrounded by a close family in a close-knit community, Paula felt her little village was the centre of the world. But this was not to last. Her first experience of a very different world was a short visit to Russia in 1989. She remembers a country of contrasts. They were hungry during the day, with food shelves bare and people obsessed with identifying which shop would get the next delivery of bread. Then at night, their group was brought to tourist restaurants that served champagne, caviar and chicken Kiev. It was the first time she had grappled with a world riven with injustice and inequality. I can remember wondering what had gone wrong with it. Because Communism was born of a desire to bring about equality. This massive social experiment. I mean how could that have gone so wrong? I wasnt able to figure it out in my head, she remembers. That question might have remained nothing but an idle thought, but in her early twenties, Paula was caught up in an event that changed the course of her life. She was returning from travelling in Australia and Asia when protests against a recent military coup in Thailand turned violent. Some 50,000 protesters gathered in the streets, and gunshots rang out through the night. The next morning, parts of newspapers had been blacked out, and many of the protesters were covered in blood. For Paula, while the experience was horrific, it crystallised a growing feeling that she did not want to return to Ireland and work with her qualification as a lab technician. She wanted to work full-time in overseas development. Shortly after, she found a job with the Red Cross in Cambodia. The country was just emerging from decades of civil war, and she became part of a national and international effort to rebuild the country. Cambodia was magic, says Paula, there was a real energy of hope. We were swept away by this feeling isnt this so meaningful? Arent we so privileged to be here, to be doing some good? We thought we were there to save the country. Her hand covers her face as she chuckles at the idea now, clearly embarrassed. Thats how naive we were. On St Patricks Day in 2002, Paula reconnected with her Irish roots, albeit in Lesotho. She began working for the Irish government, managing the Irish Aid programme. Her work involved directing Irelands overseas aid funding to health and education programmes in a country which had been ravaged by HIV/AIDS. She remembers feeling a huge sense of pride to be representing Ireland and to see the difference Ireland was making in the lives of the poor. After four years, she moved to Irelands Embassy in Mozambique, again managing parts of Irelands aid programme. In 2009, Paula decided it was time to return to Ireland. In her mind, it was a permanent decision. She needed to settle, needed one place to call home. Its tough, because in some ways, you think, what am I doing here? Its just a rainy, cold, windy rock in the North Atlantic. Why dont I go live on a proper continent? she says with a laugh. But this is home, this is my tribe, this is where I feel She pauses, struggling to find the right word. not like an ex-pat. I feel part of the community. And its a nice feeling. Her return home did not stop her interest in overseas development though. Working in the Department of Foreign Affairs office in Limerick, she managed multiple millions in funding to support childrens education in poorer countries. She is most proud of her work advocating for girls education on the global stage. It is perhaps less tangible than a specific funded project, but it is the kind of global influencing that is at the heart of Irelands overseas development work. It also reflects Paulas changing attitude towards aid. Her Cambodian idea of saving people is long gone, replaced by a belief that aid is about building relationships, establishing partnerships and working together to make progress. Despite her decision to settle in Ireland, the call of the African continent proved too tempting. After nine years at home, Paula recently moved again to South Africa and is now managing Irelands aid programme there. It was a difficult decision, because she had felt her earlier return to Ireland had brought her full circle from Tulla being the centre of her world, to an adult life travelling and seeing that world, to being back in Tulla and Limerick but still working on the world stage. But maybe that is her real full circle from her first attempts to grapple with inequality in the 1980s to becoming Irelands Head of Development in the country with the highest income inequality in the world. LIMERICK County Board has taken a stand against the Irish drink culture by effectively refusing Liam MacCarthy entry to local pubs. And the bold move by Limerick GAA to ban the MacCarthy Cup from being taken on tour in public houses has been described as setting a great example for the young people of Ireland, by a leading addiction specialist. Ultimately, the priority is that the cup is taken to the clubs and schools. There was no alcohol at the big screen on All-Ireland final day or at the homecoming at the Gaelic Grounds either. These are family occasions and its about setting an example for youngsters, said Mike ORiordan, secretary of Limerick County Board. The MacCarthy Cup hasn't been inside one pub since its arrival to Limerick & the plan is to keep it that way. Every effort is being made to get it to every club & primary school in the county in the coming weeks & months. Respectful and responsible approach by @LimerickCLG pic.twitter.com/2BEuWDX3Al August 30, 2018 Since its return to Limerick soil after a 45 year wait the precious silverware has visited numerous clubs and schools throughout the county and city. While there are 66 clubs in Limerick only a small number have bars in the clubhouses including Na Piarsaigh, Ahane, Claughan, Fr Caseys and Ballybrown. Mr ORiordan admitted the cup has been taken to clubhouses for the celebrations but there has been a deliberate attempt to avoid engaging in the time-honoured tradition in other counties of filling the cup with alcohol in pubs, bars and clubhouses and passing it around for locals to enjoy a swig from the precious silverware. According to sources the cup has been seen during the celebrations in one public house in the county but not many more than that. The name of the same pub keeps cropping and there was a small number of photos on social media but, in fairness to the county board, the cup hasnt been doing the rounds on a grand scale in the pubs, he added. Sr Agnes Fitzgerald who runs Cuan Mhuire addiction centre in Bruree, known as Bruree House, has praised Limerick GAA on their respectful and responsible stance saying the last thing I would want to see associated with the cup is alcohol. The first thing I would say is I am absolutely delighted about the achievement by the Limerick hurlers. Needless to say, the last thing I would want to see associated with the cup is alcohol. I think it is a great stance Limerick GAA have taken and its a great example for the young people of Limerick and Ireland. According to Sr Agnes -who is working in the area of addiction for the past 36 years, the power of the message being sent out by the county board and the players should not be underestimated. Since the Limerick Leader broke the news on Twitter of the stand being taken, the tweet has received hundreds of retweets and over a 1,000 likes, with former Cork star Tomas Mulcahy and current Limerick star Sean Finn among those to show their support. These players, these young people who have achieved greatness, are role models for the younger generation and if these role models are saying this is what they stand for then thats a great message for the young people. I havent come across a sporting organisation sending out a mass message like this before and I am delighted they are doing it. They are marvellous young people and people will go by what they say because they are role models. Sr Agnes was particularly pleased to hear reports that some players have refused offers of cans of cider while signing autographs for children, stating they didnt think it was appropriate at the time. I have no problem with drink in moderation once people know how to handle it, its when people have the illness of addiction it is devastating for any family. While addiction affects the person who has the illness, not infrequently if affects the family even more. It is extremely difficult for children to have to visit their mother or father in a treatment centre but how much more difficult it must be for them to come home from school to a parent who is intoxicated. There was great celebrations in Cuan Mhuire after the win as two of the players family members work in the Bruree centre. Breda Quaid, Nickies mother, is a staff member and Ciaran Carey, former Limerick star and uncle of Cian Lynch is an addiction counsellor with us, said Sr Agnes. Meanwhile, the Limerick hurling team, management and members of the county board enjoyed a private reception at the home of Limerick GAA sponsors Noreen and JP McManus in Martinstown on Sunday night where the MacCarthy Cup took pride of place. AFTER more than a decade, it looks like the end of the saga surrounding the Horizon Mall/Parkway Valley site at the Dublin Road is finally near. The Limerick Leader can this week exclusively reveal that a new multi-million euro development plan is being put together for the long-derelict site. The plan was unveiled to council members this Thursday night. Hundreds of jobs could be created as a result of the plan, by the new owners of the land, investment fund Novelty ICAV which acquired the site from Capital Assets. This week, theywrote to local councillors to invite them to a presentation of their plans for the land, which in the boom was once earmarked for a massive shopping centre, ice-rink and cinema. Its understood pre-planning meetings have taken place between council bosses, and the new site owners, with the local authority receptive to the proposals. Now, a planning application is likely for a mixed-use development, containing office space, houses and limited retail to support the development coffee shops, and a small general store. The move has been welcomed by local councillors Daniel Butler and Paul Keller, who lives behind the site in the Castletroy View estate. It has been a scar on the landscape of Limerick, so Id welcome this development. It has been done in support of the city and the county development plan, and the residents living in its sightline, said metropolitan mayor Butler, We need it to be viable. What we dont want is a building which is empty as that can be an issue. Cllr Keller, who has lived behind the derelict site for over a decade, said: It looks very futuristic. We dont want another retail outlet. We have plenty of those already, and many are closing down. I think people are looking at his as a positive. Its been a continuous eyesore. Their plan is one for the future: housing, apartments, we definitely need them. The Parkway Valley site has had a storied history. In 2013, its former owner, the Belfast-based developer Suneil Sharma, unveiled plans for a massive shopping centre, named the Horizon Mall. At its heart would have been Limericks first branch of Marks and Spencer. While these proposals were accepted by council planners, upon legal advice, the plans never progressed. This could be in part due to the fact that Mr Sharma was only given a limited period of time to complete the proposal. Prior to that, a much bigger development was granted planning permission by the former County Council, before plans were put in place prioritising city centre retail. Since the 2013 proposal was considered as an extension of permission, the council felt it had no choice but to approve it. Davy Real Estate, acting on behalf of Novelty, did not respond to a request for comment. VICKY Phelan, the Limerick mum-of-two who lifted the lid on the HSEs Cervical Check scandal, will be among this years special guests at an annual lunch in aid of The Hope Foundation. Ms Phelan will be joined by motivational speaker Dr Sinead Kane, a solicitor who holds two Guinness world records and is legally blind, and HOPE ambassador Georgia McGurk at this years event at the Savoy Hotel on Friday September 14. The event will act as an important fundraiser for The Hope Foundations work in Kolkata, according to Catherine Duffy of Northern Trust Limerick, this years sponsor. It is important for people of all walks of life to connect with, and support one another, Ms Duffy said. This lunch will provide people and businesses in the Mid-West with the opportunity to do just that. The luncheon will begin with a prosecco reception at 12pm, followed by an elegant three course lunch with wine, and a luxury gift bag for all guests. Tickets for the event are priced at 75. For more information or to book a ticket or a table please call Charlotte on 087 3666937 or by email charlotte@h- opefoundation.ie or Loretto Kennedy on 087 6957523. Alternatively, you can book online at www.hopeshop.ie. A WOMAN has been prosecuted after her electricity meter was found to have been tampered with. Lenka Gabcova, with an address at Templegreen, Newcastle West, was fined at the local court for the offence. In early June of 2017, ESB Networks became suspicious about the amount of electricity going through the meter at the home, Newcastle West court heard. An inspector called to the house and encountered a gentleman at the house, who was reluctant to allow the inspector to look at the meter. Eventually, the inspector gained access to the meter, the court heard. State solicitor Aidan Judge said that the meter had been tampered with. A hole had been drilled in the meter and a copper wire inserted. The contraption reduced the amount of electricity recorded, having the effect of dramatically lowering the bill. Upon installing a new meter, at a cost of 200, the inspector was able to view the true amount of electricity being used, the court heard. After the inspectors visit, the defendant was invited to an interview with ESB, which she attended. The maximum fine for this type of offence is 5000 or six months in prison. Solicitor Enda OConnor said that the man at the house was the ex-partner of the defendant, and that the two are no longer together. Mr OConnor said that Ms Gabcova would not have had the expertise to carry out this type of work, adding that there was a degree of ignorance involved on her part. The woman, who is originally from the Czech Republic, is a full-time carer for her son, the court heard. She didnt set out to do this, but she should have been more cognisant of the bills coming in, said Mr OConnor. Judge Bernadette Owens fined the defendant 500 with four months to pay. A MUM of an eight-year-old autistic child says her son was refused entry to an activity centre because he wanted to play in his bare feet. Jacinta Mooney, Murroe, says her boy, Ronan, is non-verbal and has high sensory needs around his feet. He never wears shoes. The only time he wears shoes for me is when we are walking from the house to the car. The minute he gets in the car he throws the shoes and socks off. He is going to school in St Vincents, Lisnagry. He takes them off there and there is no problem at all, said Jacinta. She said it has taken her months to integrate Ronan into play centres like Kids Town in Corbally and Delta Adventure Centre. I have to compliment both their staff for their understanding and being so nice. There was never an issue about him taking off his socks when I explained he was autistic, said Jacinta. For a change, the mum of two autistic children Ronan and Darragh brought Ronan to Tons of Fun on the Ballysimon Road on Monday, August 27. I went in the door, Ronan saw the slides and got all excited. He took off his shoes and socks and was mad to get going. I said to the man at the desk, He is autistic, he wont wear socks for me. He just said straight away, Sorry, I have to refuse you the right to come in, recalled Jacinta. Ronan was getting more and more worked up. He was crying and very upset as he wanted to get in there. It was like giving him his favourite bar of chocolate and taking it back off him, she continued. Jacinta says Ronan has been very cold to her since this happened and has been a huge set-back for him. I dont want another mother to go through what I went through and I dont want another child to go through what Ronan went through. It is very upsetting for the child, said Jacinta. I understand health and safety but what about kids with the flu, coughs or colds? They are not turned away, she concluded. The Limerick Leader contacted Tons of Fun about the incident. In a statement, Juliet Morris, co-owner / director, said: Tons of Fun has been operating as a business for the last 15 years, providing local employment and work experience opportunities, working alongside local schools and preschools, supporting local businesses and charities, and sponsoring fundraising activities in the area. The business has always been based on a commitment to the highest standards of cleanliness, safety and security. To ensure these standards are met, and to fulfil our insurance obligations, clearly defined House Rules and Conditions of Entry are in place which apply to all customers. These house rules can be accessed on our website, and are clearly displayed at the reception area prior to entry, and throughout the play centre. THE plan to develop the Shannon LNG plant in the estuary would lock Ireland and the EU into the continued use of fossil fuels for decades, a group opposing the project, has declared. It would also lock the country into using dirty, fracked gas from the US and would push the planet closer to runaway climate change the group, called Futureproof Clare has claimed. While a High Court injunction was granted this Thursday, a free afternoon concert will take place in Kilkee this Saturday to raise awareness about the proposed project. The concert at Kilkee Community Centre, from 2-5pm will feature music, mime and the spoken word and is one of thousands of events planned for Rise for Climate, a global day of action to provide real climate leadership from the grassroots up. Anne Marie Harrington of Futureproof Clare said this week they are part of an international coalition of campaign groups opposing Shannon LNG, claiming it will have an impact on peoples health, the local environment and tourism. It also makes a mockery of Irelands commitment as an EU member to reduce climate-polluting emissions by 40% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, she continued. According to figures released by the EPA last May, the best-case scenario for 2030 is that our emissions will still be 10% above 1990 levels. That will cost Irish taxpayers billions of euro in fines, Ms Harrington said. The Minister for Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten admitted last week that the Governments plan to tackle climate change by reducing emissions and adopting renewable energy was not working, she added. But just five days earlier, both Mr Naughten and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave their public backing to the Shannon LNG project. This is a stunning contradiction. Campaigners are also highlighting the consequences for communities in the US. Last year, Ireland took a proud step when we banned fracking because of its devastating effects on human health and the environment, but the Shannon LNG terminal simply exports fracking to the US, thereby harming communities in the US where fracking takes place. Its a shameful Irish solution to an Irish problem, Ms Harrington said. The planning permission for Shannon LNG terminal allows it to output more than twice as much gas as Ireland consumes. This is because the developer and the European Union plan to export this gas via the UK, turning Ireland into a pipeline for fracked gas from the US into Europe. On Saturday, there will be a live video link-up with anti-LNG campaigners in Texas as well as a presentation from the Love Leitrim group which was prominent in bringing about the ban on fracking in Ireland last year. Mime artist Astrid Adler and Robert Ashley Hopkins, along with Katie Theasby and Quentin Cooper will be be among those performing on Saturday. PLANS FOR a four-storey, 60-bed block at University Hospital Limerick, to be used to tackle the chronic overcrowding crisis, look set to be delayed following an objection from a local resident. A Dooradoyle resident, one of a small number of residents to make submissions on the development, has lodged an appeal to An Bord Pleanala against the decision last month by Limerick City and County Council to green-light the 14m project. If upheld, the appeal could delay the development for four to six months or stop the development from going ahead. In his application, the resident stated that 11 major projects have been carried out at UHL in the last eight years. He stated that it is inappropriate for planning permission for a building and car-parks of this scale to be sought without a landscaping plan to help alleviate negative effects on the nearby residential areas. He also believes a master plan should be submitted to allow an assessment of how the block fits in with other developments on the site. The HSE lodged a planning application on June 22 for the 14m project, which is expected to be delivered in late 2019. The massive construction project is an interim measure while the UL Hospitals Group awaits the delivery of the 25m 96-bed block in 2021. In August, UHL endured the highest level of overcrowding in the country as it dealt with a major outbreak of the deadly CPE superbug. In a statement, a spokesperson for the UL Hospitals Group said: We are hopeful the appeal will be resolved to all parties satisfaction and that it will not impact on the delivery of the project. In the midst of celebrating LGBTQ Pride the U.S. Supreme Court rained on our virtual parade by ruling in favor of the Catholic Social Serv... A MULTI-MILLION euro project to develop a liquid natural gas (LNG) plant along the Shannon Estuary is facing fresh delays. It has emerged this Friday lunchtime that an environmental group has sought, and secured an injunction against a decision to extend permission to Shannon LNG for a further decade to develop between Tarbert and Ballylongford. The High Court in Dublin has granted an injunction against a further ten-year planning permission given for the project which could deliver Irelands gas needs for generations. The hearing on this is expected on Thursday, October 4, and Kerry Fianna Fail TD John Brassil has urged that a decision be made on the scheme there and then. The LNG project could bring up to 500 construction jobs to West Limerick and North Kerry as well as over 50 permanent positions once operational. But since being announced in 2006, the scheme has been beset with delays, with the Safety Before LNG campaign group playing a big part in this. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a supporter of clean and renewable energy. However, gas energy is the cleanest of the fossil fuels and will be part of Irelands fuel mix for many years to come. The Irish economy needs this terminal to help Ireland reduce its dependence on dirtier fossil fuels such as oil and coal, Mr Brassil said in a statement, This is much needed investment and job creation in North Kerry. John Fox, of the Tarbert Development Association said he believes 99% of people in North Kerry, West Limerick and Clare are in favour of the LNG scheme. We honestly think this project has been checked out to death. But obviously people have their rights, and if they feel there is a case to be masde, there is a process for it. We say, good luck to them. We are anxious the project goes ahead, as there are people unemployed around here. Shops and post offices are closing, garda stations are shutting, and schools are losing students. Rural Ireland is going further into decline, he said. Earlier this week, US-based New Fortress Energy sturck a deal with Shannon LNG, a move which many hoped would open the pipeline up to the project on the 260-acre site. A MEMORIAL service is due to take place in Limerick for a teenager who died in a car accident in New Zealand. The victim, 18-year-old Ava Powell, was living in New Zealand, but had a number of close family members in Limerick. The motorway crash, near Napier in New Zealands Hawkes Bay area, took place on Monday night. The car Ms Powell was travelling in, along with her school friend, collided with a truck. The teenager is missed by her parents Vikki and Pat Powell and her sister Scarlett, as well as her grandmother Deirdre Powell, who lives in Moyross. Her funeral will be held this coming Monday at a local church in New Zealand. On the same day, a memorial service will be held in Corpus Christi Church, Moyross, at 7.30pm. The teenager finished secondary school at Sacred Heart College in Napier, New Zealand, last year. Principal of the school Maria Neville-Foster is also from Limerick. She told the New Zealand Herald that staff and students are deeply saddened by the loss of Ava. She was a much loved and respected member of our school community. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time. May 3, 2021, 5 PM The United Nations issued stamps in 1969 for the 50th anniversary of the International Labor Organization. Stamps for the 100th anniversary are planned for 2019. By Denise McCarty The United Nations Postal Administration recently announced its 2019 stamp program in its bulletin for collectors, Fascination (issue No. 127). Six commemorative stamp sets are planned for next year, along with seven special event panes or souvenir sheets, and one definitive issue. International Mother Language Day and World Bee Day will be celebrated on stamps to be issued Feb. 21 and May 20, respectively. These sets, like all of the commemorative sets, will include denominations for each of the three U.N. post offices located at U.N. headquarters in New York City; the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; and the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria. A set of six stamps and a souvenir card will be issued June 28 to honor the 100th anniversary of the International Labor Organization. The theme of an Oct. 25 issue of six stamps and three souvenir sheets will be Life Below Water. Two other commemorative sets are part of long-running stamp series. New stamps in the Endangered Species series are slated for release on April 26. The World Heritage series will continue Sept. 6 with six stamps and three prestige booklets featuring Cuba. The first of what UNPA calls special event sheets to be issued in 2019 will be the Year of the Pig pane of 10 $1.15 stamps and 10 labels on Jan. 11. This will be the ninth pane in UNPAs Chinese Lunar Calendar series. Two souvenir sheets will mark the Stockholmia 2019 and China 2019 international philatelic exhibitions. Each sheet will include three stamps in three different currencies. Connect with Linns Stamp News: Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter The Stockholmia sheet will be issued May 29, the opening day of this exhibition in Stockholm, Sweden. The sheet for the exhibition in China is scheduled to be issued in August, according to the UNPA. The 40th anniversary of UNPA/Vienna will be honored on a pane of 10 0.90 stamps and 10 labels to be issued Aug. 24, while the 50th anniversary of UNPA/Geneva will be remembered on a pane of 10 1.50-franc stamps and 10 labels on Oct. 4. On Nov. 25, the UNPA will recognize the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with a pane of 10 $1.15 stamps and 10 labels. Another special event pane with a proposed November release date will mark the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the 2019 climate summit. New definitive stamps are scheduled to be issued March 15 in sheets of 20. The UNPA 2019 program is tentative and subject to change. A persistent myth about milk that drinking it can lead to the production of more gooey mucus in your body's airways is completely false, a new review finds. The myth is so persistent that some parents have stopped giving milk to children with chronic respiratory conditions, such as asthma and cystic fibrosis, out of concern that drinking milk might make it harder for their children to breathe. [The 7 Perfect Survival Foods] But the milk-mucus connection is simply a myth, said review author Dr. Ian Balfour-Lynn, a pediatric pulmonologist at Royal Brompton Hospital in London. And when people take this myth as true medical advice, it could have serious consequences: Not giving milk to children can make it challenging for them to get enough calcium, vitamins and calories, Balfour-Lynn said. Children who don't drink enough milk are also more prone to fractures and shorter stature, studies show. It's unclear exactly when the milk myth got started. It's possible that it came from Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), a philosopher and doctor who wrote that milk causes "a stuffing in the head." Moreover, traditional Chinese medical texts have linked dairy consumption with "a humidifying effect and thicker phlegm," Balfour-Lynn wrote in the review, which was published online yesterday (Sept. 6) in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Even the influential "Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care" book, of which more than 50 million copies have been sold since its publication in 1946, repeats this claim. A 2011 edition of the book states that "dairy products may cause more mucus complications and more discomfort with upper respiratory infections," Balfour-Lynn found while researching the myth. Given the myth's reach, it's no surprise that in a study of 345 randomly selected shoppers in Australia, 51 (46 percent) of the 111 whole-milk drinkers "agreed" that milk causes mucus, according to research published in 2003 in the journal Appetite. However, the type of milk appeared to influence the shoppers' decision: Just 30 (25 percent) of the 121 reduced-fat-milk drinkers and only 12 (11 percent) of the 113 soy-milk drinkers agreed with this statement, the study found. The myth may persist because of milk's unique properties. Milk is an emulsion, meaning it has droplets of one liquid suspended in another liquid. (In milk's case, fat droplets are suspended in water.) When a person drinks milk, the milk mixes with their saliva. The sticky compounds in saliva can boost milk's viscosity, or thickness, and volume, Balfour-Lynn told Live Science. The resulting "thickness coating the mouth and the after feel when small amounts of emulsion remain in the mouth after swallowing" may make people think that drinking milk leads to a sudden spike in mucus, he noted. Another potential explanation for the myth is that when milk breaks down, it releases a protein that is known to boost the activity of a gene involved in mucus production. But this particular mucus production happens in the bowel, not the respiratory tract, Balfour-Lynn said. [10 Celebrities with Chronic Illnesses] This mucus could affect the respiratory tract only if the bowel were weakened by infection, which would allow the mucus to travel elsewhere in the body, he said. This wouldnt happen with a common cold, although it's possible it could affect people with cystic fibrosis, which is sometimes accompanied by gut inflammation, Balfour-Lynn said. However, small studies dating back to 1948 show that drinking milk is not associated with an increase of mucus in the respiratory tract, he found. In all, "while certainly the texture of milk can make some people feel their mucus and saliva is thicker and harder to swallow, there is no evidence (and indeed evidence to the contrary) that milk leads to excessive mucus secretion," Balfour-Lynn wrote in the review. "The milk-mucus myth needs to be rebutted firmly by healthcare workers." The review is an important one because it helps raise awareness that it's perfectly healthy to drink milk while having respiratory problems, said Dr. Corey Wasserman, a pediatrician at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, who was not involved with the review. It's common to hear parents ask about the milk myth during flu and cold season, Wasserman said. She tells patients exactly what this review found that milk does not increase mucus or phlegm production. In addition, cold milk can help hydrate and soothe the throat of a sick child in need of calories, Wasserman told Live Science. Original article on Live Science. Thieves ransacked the collection of a live insect museum, making off with a number of exotic arthropods, such as this giant desert centipede. A museum in Philadelphia is short a few bugs. Well, more than a few. Approximately 7,000 insects, spiders and scorpions and a number of lizards were recently stolen from the Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion. The purloined critters are estimated to be worth about $40,000, and museum officials suspect that the thieves will try to sell many of the highly prized creatures to collectors, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Exotic species such as orchid mantises, giant African millipedes and leopard geckos are among the missing, and museum employees are thought to be responsible for the theft, which is currently under investigation by the FBI, John Cambridge, owner of the Insectarium, told Live Science. [Photos: 15 Insects and Spiders That May Share Your Home] Rhino roaches, multiple tarantula species and highly venomous six-eyed sand spiders are also among the individual arthropods that were stolen, according to Cambridge. "They just took them straight out of active exhibits, put them into transfer containers and took them away," he said. Entire colonies of insects that were maintained behind the scenes and used for educational programs were also taken. In total, the thieves made off with more than 80 percent of the museum's collection, CNN reported. This might be the biggest live-insect heist in history, and it's a theft that's so unusual that the museum's insurance probably won't cover the loss, Cambridge told CNN. "Why would they? This is unprecedented," Cambridge added. Sending a message A disgruntled employee may have masterminded the theft as payback for being fired, organizing the rest of the people in his or her department to steal the collection, Cambridge told Live Science. The employee had turned in their blue work uniform in a disturbing manner, using a pair of knives to stab it into the wall of a quarantine space at the museum, "to send a message," Cambridge said. That's one way to give notice. (Image credit: The Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion) Beginning on Aug. 21, security cameras captured the culprits employees of the Insectarium removing insects and other creatures from the premises in boxes; they stealthily continued to spirit bugs and lizards out of the building for the next several days, according to Philly Voice. Once all the animals had been pilfered, the thieves' final act was to steal the Insectarium's records of their bug populations, making it harder to track what was taken, Philly Voice reported. Seven employees were involved in the theft, but two individuals have since "come clean" and convinced officials that they acted as they did under duress, Cambridge told Live Science. This unusual crime could land the thieves in even more trouble than they might expect, as eight of the stolen tarantulas are considered to be federal evidence, Cambridge added. The Insectarium was acting as a temporary home for the spiders, which had been smuggled into the country and were subsequently confiscated by authorities, Cambridge explained. "We're one of the facilities that can house those creatures and care for them," he said. The Insectarium is currently renovating its top two floors and expects to reopen them to the public on Nov. 3. The museum has launched a GoFundMe campaign Save the Philadelphia Insectarium to help replace the lost collection, Cambridge said. Original article on Live Science. Outside, the temperature is flirting with triple digits. But inside its beginning to feel at least a little bit like Christmas. At least in one Monte Vista house where a team of photographers and stylists is busy working on a holly jolly photo shoot of this holiday seasons hottest decorations. Once the weather finally does turn nippy, their photos of Christmas trees, stars, reindeer and the like will deck the aisles of most H-E-B Plus supermarkets. A man has been arrested for stealing a money bag from a 71-year-old, Laredo police said. Investigator Joe E. Baeza, LPD spokesman, said detectives identified Nicolas Garcia, 27, as a suspect based on surveillance video and the "distinct markings on his facial features." Patrol officers encountered Garcia on Wednesday afternoon in a Ford F-150 in the 4500 block of San Bernardo Avenue. Authorities said he was in possession of $540 and a plastic bag belonging to the elderly man. RELATED: LPD: Man put elderly woman in chokehold, stole $23 from her Garcia was charged with aggravated robbery. Police said the incident occurred at about 3:30 p.m. Monday in the 1000 block of Matamoros Street. The complainant stated that a man with several tattoos on his face assaulted him and took his money bag. The man sustained minor injuries during the struggle, according to police. A woman has been arrested for not seeking proper medical attention for her 6-month-old daughter who had a fever for three days, according to an arrest affidavit filed by Laredo police. On Wednesday, Stephanie Rodriguez, 22, was charged with endangering a child by criminal negligence. She was later released on bond. READ ALSO: LPD: Woman accused of scratching car of ex-boyfriend's girlfriend On May 21, a social worker employed by Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi called Laredo police to file an injury to a child report. She stated to police that a 6-month-old girl was diagnosed with a bilateral subdural hematoma. Reports indicated she had been taken to Doctors Hospital on May 10 for seizures. She then had to be flown to Driscoll in Corpus Christi for further medical evaluation. An investigation revealed she had received treatment for a fever at Doctors Hospital. She was diagnosed with fever, pneumonia and having febrile seizures. "It was also documented that Stephanie Rodriguez had witnessed her daughter's eyes rolling back prior to arriving at the hospital," the arrest affidavit states. RELATED: Baby dies from 'lethal combination of drugs' hours after his mother breastfed him, police say Police reached out to the parents, who agreed to meet with police at LPD. Rodriguez said to police that she had noticed her daughter having a fever on May 7 and it lasted until she was taken to the hospital on May 10, the affidavit states. When asked why she didn't immediately seek medical attention, she told LPD that she did not have insurance and added she would take her to Mexico, according to the affidavit. Six Galveston County residents may have been exposed to measles after sharing flights through Hobby Airport twice last month with a passenger who tested positive for the disease, county health officials said Friday. "We have contacted all of the six passengers who may have been exposed and notified them of the risk," said Dr. Philip Keiser, Galveston County's local health authority in a statement. "We are checking their vaccination status and monitoring them to see if they develop any symptoms." The Houston Health Department said on Thursday the infected traveler was "contagious at the time of travel" on Southwest Airlines Flight 5 from Dallas Love Field to Hobby and a connecting Flight 9 from Hobby to Valley International Airport in Harlingen on Aug. 21. The passenger returned to north Texas the following day on Flight 665 from the airport in Harlingen to Hobby and Flight 44 from Hobby to Dallas. The infected passenger did not leave the airport during the connecting flights at Hobby and is believed to have only visited an airport waiting area for about an hour each day. Galveston County health officials said that the six county residents shared some of these flights with the infected passenger. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control worked with the Department of State Health Services to locate potentially exposed passengers. None of the six passengers from Galveston County presented symptoms for measles -- which typically begins with high fever, cough, runny nose, rash and red, watery eyes -- but will be self-monitoring through Sept. 12, the latest date that symptoms could arise based on when they were exposed to the disease. If any of the Galveston County passengers experience symptoms, they have been told to immediately go to their medical provider for a follow-up blood test to confirm a measles diagnosis. The Galveston County Health District emphasized that measles is a preventable disease through vaccination, and that anyone not vaccinated should consult their medical provider. Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com The New York attorney general's office has issued subpoenas to every Catholic diocese in the state, becoming the latest U.S. state to embark on an expansive investigation of sex crimes committed and covered up by Catholic priests. The Catholic Church faces a major test over the next several months, as the attorneys general of at least five states conduct investigations and several more consider opening up the decades-old secret files of the dioceses in their states. Millions of Catholics nationwide now must grapple with attending a church that is under criminal investigation. After New York's subpoenas were issued, and first reported by the Associated Press on Thursday, New Jersey quickly followed, announcing a criminal task force focused on investigating sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. New Mexico launched an investigation this week, and Nebraska and Missouri have inquiries underway. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro set off this wave when he announced last month the results of a massive grand jury investigation, alleged that more than 1,000 children were sexually abused by more than 300 priests in six of the state's Catholic dioceses, over a period spanning more than 70 years. The report began a storm across the country, with many Catholic faithful demanding that their own dioceses open their files to criminal investigators to examine whether a similarly extensive cover-up took place. Shapiro said on Thursday, "Our work in Pennsylvania has spurred a movement." Marci Hamilton, a professor of religion and law at the University of Pennsylvania who is an expert on child protection laws, said these state investigations signal a totally new phase in the U.S. government's treatment of clergy abuse. While several other countries have had government-led national probes of child sexual abuse, in the United States, Pennsylvania's is the very first state-wide investigation. Previously, Hamilton believed, U.S. politicians like attorneys general didn't want to touch the church. "Since 2002, I've been waiting to hear three words: 'Clergy sex abuse,'" she said Thursday. "It's see no evil, hear no evil. They are terrified in this hyper-religious liberty environment of offending an organized religion like the Catholic Church." She thinks state officials changed their minds when they saw Shapiro "did it with no political peril." Due to the statute of limitations on sex crimes, almost all the abuses documented by the Pennsylvania grand jury cannot lead to criminal prosecutions, and Underwood's office warned that any victims who report abuse in New York might also find that the crimes are no longer prosecutable under state law. A person familiar with the New York investigation told The Washington Post that the attorney general's office sent civil subpoenas to the eight Catholic dioceses. The subpoenas are part of an ongoing civil investigation by the attorney general's Charities Bureau, which is looking into whether the nonprofit dioceses covered up sexual abuse of minors. Separately, the criminal division is working with district attorneys in the state who might convene grand juries to investigate crimes committed by priests. On Thursday, Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced a telephone hotline and an online forum for victims and witnesses of child abuse committed by clergy in the state of New York to contact investigators. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal also said that his office had set up a new telephone hotline for victims of sexual abuse by clergy and would investigate the allegations through its new criminal task force. Many within the church have called for criminal investigations in recent weeks, in place of the church-run remedies that U.S. bishops have pursued since the Boston Globe exposed the clergy sex abuse scandal in 2002. Michael Merz, a federal judge in Ohio who formerly chaired the National Review Board that the church set up to handle sexual abuse cases, said the government can investigate in a way that his board never could. He said the body didn't investigate so much as audit how dioceses were handling the abuse cases that parishioners brought to the church. "That kind of auditing doesn't do anything about stuff that's never been reported, for example. This has the possibility of helping people who have never spoken out about their abuse do so," Merz said. He wondered about expending state resources on exhaustive investigations that lead to few if any criminal prosecutions, though. "There's a serious question in my mind about the validity of an investigation by a grand jury that doesn't result in indictments," he said. "On the other hand, it's clear from the press reports that the investigation in Pennsylvania was of great assistance to victims. . .. In my judgment, it's valuable to get those accusations out there where people can read them." After the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, The Washington Post reached out to the attorneys general of the 49 other states to see if they had plans to launch similar inquiries or had investigations already underway. Many said they could not comment on potential investigations, while others said they lacked the authority to immediately act on local cases. Under state law in many states, the investigation needs to begin at the local level. Missouri became the first state to launch an investigation in the wake of the Pennsylvania report, announcing last month that it would explore allegations of alleged abuses by clergy in the St. Louis area, which is home to more than half a million Catholics. In New Mexico, Attorney General Hector Balderas sent letters to the bishops of the state's dioceses on Tuesday, saying that the Pennsylvania report was "shaking the conscience of those throughout the world by detailing the vast extent of sexual abuse perpetrated by priests and clerics and the shocking cover-up by church leaders." Balderas acknowledged that the statute of limitations would likely prevent many prosecutions but said that he is investigating "in the interest of long overdue transparency." Calling the letter a "demand. . .in contemplation of litigation," he asked the dioceses to turn over by October 5 all documents relating to child sexual abuse allegations and to numerous specific priests. In Nebraska, the state's three dioceses said they had received an inquiry from the attorney general's office requesting their files on the subject dating back to 1978. The dioceses of Lincoln and Grand Island said they would cooperate with the investigation; the archdiocese of Omaha did not immediately respond to The Post's inquiry. The results of such state probes could cause many U.S. Catholics to leave the church, as happened after a national probe in Ireland, where the Catholic Church was literally part of the government. Hamilton noted that Scotland's government also ran a national probe, as did Germany, Sweden, Japan. A commission by the Australian government ran a years-long investigation that just ended this year. "People are much less inclined to belong to institutions that are suspect," Merz said. "There's no doubt that a lot of people have left because of doubting the integrity of this particular institution." In the New York investigation, Albany bishop Edward Scharfenberger, who leads one of the eight dioceses subpoenaed in the state, said on Thursday that he had asked Albany's district attorney to review the diocese's records of handling sexual abuse cases. In a letter to parishioners on Thursday, Scharfenberger said his decision to contact law enforcement "is necessary and ultimately will result in much good, but [is] one that is likely to be difficult and incredibly challenging for us for the foreseeable future." "I believe a fully independent investigation, one coordinated by the District Attorney, is the only way forward," Scharfenberger wrote. "So many people have questions about transparency and about the process. We need a thorough review of our records in order to objectively answer those questions. Our goal is to build trust, demonstrate transparency, and restore confidence that we mean what we say." In the archdiocese of New York, which includes most of New York City, spokesman Joseph Zwilling said that the archdiocese received the subpoena on Thursday. New York joined other dioceses across the state, and across the country, in professing to be "ready and eager" to comply with an investigation. - - - The Washington Post's Mark Berman contributed to this report. Ending months of self-imposed restraint, former president Barack Obama delivered a blistering critique of President Donald Trump and Republican politics Friday, one that prompted a back-handed dismissal by the man who now occupies the Oval Office. Over the course of an hour-long address, Obama left little doubt about the severity of his concerns over Trump's approach, which he referred to obliquely as "this political darkness." He compared Trump to foreign demagogues who exploit "a politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment," appeal to racial nationalism and then plunder their countries while promising to fight corruption. "This is not normal. These are extraordinary times, and they are dangerous times," Obama said during the speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "But here is the good news: In two months we have the chance - not the certainty, but the chance - to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics." Minutes after his predecessor unleashed his strongest repudiation yet, Trump responded jocularly. "I'm sorry I watched it, but I fell asleep," he said. "I found he's very good. Very good for sleeping." Later, Trump returned to the sentiment during an event in Fargo, North Dakota. "Isn't this much more exciting than listening to President Obama speak?" he asked the crowd. The back and forth between the two titular figures of American politics - each with an unparalleled capacity to both attract his party's voters and energize the opposition - signaled a dramatic escalation ahead of November's elections for the House, Senate and other positions. Obama, kicking off weeks of voter turnout efforts, argued that his aim was not to get into a presidential spitting match but to convince voters across the ideological spectrum that the conditions that gave rise to Trump's election were a pressing threat and must be battled directly with increased citizen participation in politics. "It did not start with Donald Trump," Obama said. "He is a symptom, not the cause." That did not stop him from denouncing actions that Trump has taken that Obama said undermine American progress, from the ban on travelers from certain Muslim countries to the failure to take action beyond sending "thoughts and prayers" after recent school mass shootings. He criticized Trump's attacks on the media, his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, and his government's response to the 2017 hurricane in Puerto Rico. "I know there are Republicans who believe government should only perform a few minimal functions but that one of those functions should be making sure nearly 3,000 Americans don't die in a hurricane," Obama said. He acidly rebuked Trump for his public equivocation about white supremacists involved in a violent confrontation last year in Charlottesville, Virginia. "How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad?" Obama asked. Beyond Trump, Republicans reacted sharply to the speech, arguing that Obama's decision to return to the political arena could work in their favor. "The more President @BarackObama speaks about the 'good ole years' of his presidency, the more likely President @realDonaldTrump is to get re-elected," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted. "In fact, the best explanation of President Trump's victory are the 'results' of the Obama Presidency!" Courtney Alexander, a spokeswoman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, an outside group affiliated with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that works to elect Republicans to the House, said she welcomed Obama to the campaign trail. "Nothing would be better than the Obama-Pelosi team traveling the country nonstop until November, reminding voters of the failed Obama-Pelosi days of higher taxes and increased government spending," she said. The speech was the first indication of the re-entry the former president and his wife, Michelle, have planned ahead of the midterm elections, a move filled with peril and opportunity as the most powerful duo in Democratic politics test whether they can help handicap Trump's presidency without also motivating his supporters to go to the polls. Trump has consistently used Obama as a foil on Twitter to energize his voters, while Democratic incumbent senators are struggling for reelection in states where Obama has never been particularly popular. Republicans also continue to use Obama's image in campaign ads, as in a special House election in Pennsylvania and the Senate contest in West Virginia, where the Republican candidate, Patrick Morrisey, often boasts of his efforts to stop Obama policies with lawsuits. To avoid such traps, Obama in his post-presidency has previously chosen his spots carefully. For instance, he opted to do targeted robo-calls last year to support Democratic Sen. Doug Jones's upset victory in Alabama instead of more high-profile public appearances. Obama also has hewed, until now, to high-minded rhetoric that contrasts starkly with Trump's brawling approach to politics. Obama denounced the "politics of fear and resentment" in a summer address in South Africa, and in a recent eulogy for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., he seemed to take a swipe at Trump, without naming him, when he described "politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear." "I'm asking you to be neither blind to, nor dismayed by, reality - but motivated by it," Obama wrote in an email Thursday to supporters of Organizing for Action, a grass-roots organization he founded. "Those who believe in democracy and civil rights and a common humanity will always have the upper hand." Obama had sought a post-partisan post-presidency, publicly embracing that in a series of events with former Republican president George W. Bush. And he has been wary of outshining the next generation of liberal leaders, whose success he has described as the greatest ambition of his post-presidency. "He is acutely aware that he has a mixed record of success when his name is not on the ballot," said one person familiar with Obama's thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. "We understand that we energize the other side like very few people do, so we have to be thoughtful about where we campaign." Over the coming weeks, Obama plans a strategy of big events in blue corners of the country, quiet fundraisers with donors and a series of digital videos or robo-calls meant to drive Democratic attention and turnout in a targeted way. A top focus of his efforts will be helping Democrats retake the House, which he will kick off Saturday with a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rally in Orange County, California, for the seven Democrats running there in Republican-held districts Hillary Clinton won in 2016. He has also made a priority of helping individual candidates in governors' and state legislative races by working closely with former attorney general Eric Holder Jr., who has founded a group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, that is focused on expanding Democratic state power in advance of the next round of congressional-district mapping. Of the 81 candidates Obama endorsed in August, 40 were running for state legislative seats. "There is no one else in the Democratic Party that is able to focus people's attention on an issue the way that he can," said Patrick Rodenbush, the communications director for the Holder group, for which Obama recently sat to shoot a promotional video. Obama will appear at a Sept. 13 rally in Ohio with Richard Cordray, a former Obama appointee who is running for governor in a state that is one of the top targets for the Holder effort. Further campaign stops will be announced later. Organizing for Action, meanwhile, has launched a parallel effort focused largely on House and state legislative races. The group has trained 200 team leaders around the country, many of whom are focused on training groups that can volunteer for House campaigns. Michelle Obama has opted to avoid, for now at least, any explicit candidate advocacy, choosing to throw her lot in with another new group, When We All Vote, that has been gathering celebrity endorsers in an effort to launch a major voter registration drive this month. Co-chairs of the project include the former first lady, the actor Tom Hanks and musicians Janelle Monae, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. "I want every single one of you to host events in your community to get registered and to get them fired up," Michelle Obama said in a conference call with organizers Wednesday, when she announced events she would attend this month in Las Vegas and Miami. In his speech Friday, her husband defended his own administration from near-constant criticism by Trump, noting its killing of Osama bin Laden and its handling of the economic collapse of 2008. "Let's just remember when this economy started" improving, Obama said. He drew attention as well to the current president's attempt to, as he put it, use the Justice Department as a "cudgel" against political opponents. "None of this is conservative," he said. "It's not conservative. It sure isn't normal. It's radical. It's a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters." As Obama began to speak, Trump was with reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight to Fargo. In a brief interview, the president called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to do more to defend his administration against internal critics, including the recent anonymous author of a critical op-ed in the New York Times. "I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was, because I really believe it's national security," Trump said. --- Video Embed Code Video: Former president Barack Obama directly attacked President Trump and the GOP during a speech in Illinois on Sept. 7, and called on all Americans to vote in the upcoming election.(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Embed code: Video: President Trump said Sept. 7 he "fell asleep" during former president Barack Obama's speech calling voters to turn out in November.(The Washington Post) Embed code: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic canceled a meeting with his Kosovo counterpart, in an unexpected escalation of tension with its neighbor as his premier warned the international community not to test "our patience." Vucic scratched a planned meeting with Hashim Thaci in Brussels on Friday after meeting European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. Vucic had suggested the meeting could lead to progress in stalled efforts to normalize ties since the neighbors split after a 1998-1999 war, possibly even including an agreement to swap territory. Serbia's government has tried to build support for a deal with Kosovo that could allow it to absorb a Serb population from the majority ethnic-Albanian state. He has expressed frustration over opposition to the plan from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other EU leaders who fear redrawing borders could stoke tension in a region that was the site of Europe's bloodiest conflicts since World War II. The EU has demanded that Serbia mend ties with Kosovo as a precondition of membership in the bloc. "It's obvious that the border-change project has failed," Dusan Janjic, the director of the Belgrade-based Forum for Ethnic Relations, said by phone. With both Vucic and Thaci facing opposition at home for a solution that could result in new borders or even land swap, "this is the moment to delay the dialog and introduce a new theme for talks," Janjic said. Shortly after he canceled the meeting with Thaci, Vucic's prime minister, Ana Brnabic, issued a warning over the situation with Kosovo. She accused international observers of letting Kosovo dodge the so-called Brussels Agreement, which among other tenents calls for ethnic Serbs living there to be given more autonomy. "Our president obviously has great and endless patience only for the sake of peace, stability and prosperity of all the citizens of all nationalities in this region," Brnabic said in the statement. "I am asking first of all the international community not to test any longer either our patience or our understanding, but acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and act accordingly." Vucic had announced he would deliver a speech in Kosovo to ethnic Serbs living there this weekend, but authorities in Pristina threatened to ban him from visiting. The border created after Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 left about 120,000 Serbs living among Kosovo's 1.8 million people. About 50,000 ethnic Albanians reside on the other side of the frontier, mainly in the so-called Presevo Valley. Thaci, who also met Mogherini, said that there had been occasions in the past where he had not met Vucic in Brussels when they were both there and that "it is important that we continue along the same path, the path of peace, toward solving the problem," the B92 news portal cited him as saying. "As far as Vucic's visit to Kosovo is concerned, he's welcome, whatever agenda he proposes," Thaci was quoted as saying. "There is nothing controversial about the president of Serbia visiting Serbs in Kosovo, just like I am welcome to the Presevo valley." Since Kosovo's declaration of independence, Serbia has refused to acknowledge its neighbor and has relied on help from its allies Russia and China to block its recognition at the United Nations. "Difficulties remain," Mogherini said in a statement after she met Vucic and Thaci separately. "I trust the full commitment of both presidents to continue the process and reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalization of relations, in line with international law." Mogherini added that she was working to bring the two sides together "to advance the work on the content of the agreement." Bekim Collaku, Thaci's chief of staff, wrote in an opinion piece in the EUobserver that "sizeable portions" of both Serbia's and Kosovo's citizens would be against swapping territory and any final deal will be "painfully difficult to reach." Still, he suggested it may be the only way for a solution because no progress could be made "unless the core of the problem is tackled." "A potential deal between Kosovo and Serbia involving border adjustments would be mutually agreed in a peaceful manner and would not be made along ethnic lines," he wrote. "The momentum is there and neither country can afford to lose it now." When Jocelyn Bell Burnell began her doctoral studies in physics at Cambridge University in 1965, she was convinced that they had made a mistake by admitting her. "I'm not bright enough for this place," she now recalls thinking at the time. It didn't help that she was one of only two women in her graduate program. And Cambridge was far more affluent than anywhere she had lived before. Both factors likely contributed to her impostor syndrome, she told The Washington Post, "although of course we didn't know that term then." Bell Burnell's response was to work as hard as she possibly could. If they threw her out anyway, she figured, she would know that she wasn't smart enough to be at Cambridge. Her diligence ended up paying off. Two years after she arrived at Cambridge, Bell Burnell discovered the first pulsars - a groundbreaking revelation that on Thursday earned her the $3 million special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which was previously awarded to Stephen Hawking, among others. It's a recognition that many feel is long overdue. Bell Burnell's male PhD supervisor won a Nobel Prize for the same discovery - in 1974. Like the stars of "Hidden Figures" and DNA researcher Rosalind Franklin, Bell Burnell's personal story embodies the challenges faced by women in scientific fields. Born in Northern Ireland in 1943, she had to fight to take science classes after the age of 12. "The assumption was that the boys would do science and the girls would do cookery and needlework," she told The Washington Post. "It was such a firm assumption that it wasn't even discussed, so there was no choice in the matter." By her junior year at the University of Glasgow, she was the only woman enrolled in honors physics. Men whistled and heckled her every time she walked into the lecture hall, she said. "I learned not to blush," she said. "If you blushed, they just got louder." At Cambridge, the sexism was somewhat more subtle, she said. When Bell Burnell got engaged, the automatic assumption was that she would be dropping out of the program soon, since it was still considered shameful for married women to work. "I got a bit of the sense that because I was quitting, it probably wasn't worth investing in me anymore," she said. Then, in 1967, Bell Burnell alerted her PhD supervisor, Antony Hewish to an "unclassifiable squiggle" on the readout from the radio telescope that she was in charge of monitoring. It was the kind of detail that others might have disregarded or overlooked. "The source didn't seem to be man-made - it was moving around with the stars, keeping pace with the constellations," she told The Guardian in 2009. "We estimated it was 200 light years away, far beyond the sun and planets, but still within our galaxy, the Milky Way." As a joke, they labeled it LGM-1, which stood for "Little Green Men." When Bell Burnell returned to the observatory at 3 a.m. on a freezing cold December night, she had what she called a "Eureka!" moment. "Wading through miles of chart, I discovered two more of the mysterious signals," she told The Guardian. "I had, it transpired, discovered the first four examples of an unimagined kind of star - bizarre astral bodies that transmitted radio beams as they spun, which swept through space like the ray of a lighthouse. We called them pulsars." The discovery of pulsars ended up being "one of the biggest surprises in the history of astronomy, transforming neutron stars from science fiction to reality in a most dramatic way," the Breakthrough Prize committee said in a Thursday news release. "Among many later consequences, it led to several powerful tests of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and to a new understanding of the origin of the heavy elements in the universe." When Bell Burnell and her supervisor published a paper detailing their findings in 1968, it attracted international attention. The media didn't know what to do with a young female scientist who had made a major breakthrough, she told The Guardian. "Photographers would say, 'Could you undo some buttons on your jacket, please?'" she recalled. "Journalists asked how many boyfriends I had." Then, Hewish, her supervisor, was awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize in physics "for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars." Being overlooked by the Nobel committee didn't surprise her, Bell Burnell told Science News in a recent interview. It was just how things worked back then: Professors, not students, got the credit. "At that stage, the image people had of science was of a senior man, and it always was a man, with a fleet of younger people working for him," she said. "And if the project went well, the man got praise. If the project went badly, the man got the blame." These days, her Nobel snub is often cited as an example of how women's contributions to science get erased or overlooked. But Bell Burnell, who currently teaches astronomy at Oxford University, says she isn't bothered by it. "I feel I've done very well out of not getting a Nobel Prize," she told The Guardian on Thursday. "If you get a Nobel Prize you have this fantastic week and then nobody gives you anything else. If you don't get a Nobel Prize you get everything that moves. Almost every year there's been some sort of party because I've got another award. That's much more fun." As for the $3 million, Bell Burnell, whose Quaker faith preaches living simply, doesn't plan on keeping any of it. "I don't need a Porsche or Ferrari," she told The Washington Post. "I don't have an affluent lifestyle." Instead, the money will go to creating scholarships for people from underrepresented backgrounds who want to study physics. The funds will be administered by the U.K.'s Institute of Physics, and Bell Burnell is hopeful that having a more diverse array of people entering the field will lead to even more new discoveries. "Maybe," she joked, "having some people who suffer from impostor syndrome is not a bad thing." President Donald Trump is facing another set of revelations that call into question the loyalty of his inner circle, this time within the White House. Last month, two longtime business confidants struck cooperation deals with federal prosecutors, potentially trading information on Trump's dealings for better treatment. Now, Watergate investigative reporter Bob Woodward's book detailing a chaotic West Wing and former staffers actively deceiving and undermining Trump, coupled with an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times describing senior administration officials' attempts to thwart the president, has further undermined his trust in his staff. Trump, who considers loyalty a paramount virtue, made his frustration apparent during a rally Thursday night in Billings, Montana, likening the Times op-ed to treason. "You look at this horrible thing," he said. "Is it subversion? Is it treason?" The author of the op-ed asserted Trump is acting "in a manner detrimental to the health of our republic" and claimed "many" officials inside the administration are working against the president's "more misguided impulses." Back in Washington, the strain was evident from the latest episodes of an administration-wide soap opera defined by paranoia and distrust. Press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a plea to reporters hunting for the identity of the mystery administration official who wrote the column: "Stop." The search for the person Sanders described as an "anonymous coward" was "recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump," she said in a statement. Her request seemed to underscore the extent to which speculation over the author had consumed the West Wing. Even after the statement from Sanders, top administration officials continued issuing their own statements denying their involvement in the publication and denouncing the author. By the time Trump boarded Air Force One for Montana, chief of staff John Kelly -- who accompanied the president on the trip -- was the only Cabinet member or Cabinet-level official not to issue a public denial. First lady Melania Trump issued a statement saying the author of the column was "sabotaging" the country and warning that accusations "can lead to severe consequences." Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren seized the moment to urge administration officials to invoke the Constitutional process for the Cabinet to find Trump incompetent and remove him from office. "This is about the safety of our children, the national security of our nation, and the future of our democracy," Warren said on Twitter. "If senior officials believe the president is unfit, they should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking info to Bob Woodward, and do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office." Former administration officials took to social media to stir the pot, while underscoring how little loyalty the president seemed to receive from those whom he had given jobs within his administration. Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former staffer and "Apprentice" contestant who published her own tell-all book earlier this summer, started a Twitter poll asking followers to guess which senior staffer had written the op-ed. Former communications director Anthony Scaramucci tweeted that the article validated his warning during his short White House tenure "that there were forces inside the building that were 'saving the country"' from the president. It isn't just the White House staff. Both Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, and David Pecker, the tabloid executive who helped squash damaging allegations of infidelity against Trump, are reported to have agreed to share their knowledge of his private affairs for some level of criminal immunity. It's unknown what Weisselberg and Pecker have told prosecutors, or if they have information that can deepen Trump's legal or political jeopardy. On Aug. 21, Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to violating federal campaign finance laws before the 2016 election -- at the direction of Trump. He made or helped arrange hush-money payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, according to court documents, which also said that Cohen worked with a "popular national tabloid" to identify stories about Trump's alleged extramarital affairs and suppress them. The White House wouldn't say if it was undertaking an internal investigation into who the op-ed writer might be. The president has already announced that White House counsel Don McGahan -- who would normally handle such an inquiry -- would be departing the administration shortly after the confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose ongoing Senate hearings competed for cable airtime with panels speculating over the possible author. Still, those closest to Trump seemed to hope that their statements denying involvement in the Times op-ed might assuage the embattled president. It's a strategy they adopted to some success just a day before, when the president appeared buoyed by statements from Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis denying anecdotes attributed to them in Woodward's book. Trump told reporters he appreciated the support from both men, noting that they appeared to share his outrage over their depiction as dismayed by his leadership. But even as Trump tried to signal that he enjoyed combat over critical books -- saying that even with their release seemingly "every week" that he liked "to take them on when they come out" -- the chaotic behind-the-scenes machinations of the White House's rapid response efforts were apparent. In a meeting with the emir of Kuwait, the president told reporters that Mattis and Kelly had issued their statements "without my even knowing about it." Hours later, as he met with Republican leaders, Trump said Mattis told him that he'd like to write a statement to respond to the allegations contained in the book. The White House offered no explanation of the apparent contradiction. And even as the administration tried to undercut Woodward's reporting, new evidence emerged to support some of the claims in the book. After Trump disputed that former economic adviser Gary Cohn had stolen a draft letter that would terminate a trade agreement with South Korea, news organizations published a copy of the letter that had been given to the author and included in the book. Woodward said he stands by his reporting. The Kavanaugh hearing on Capitol Hill offered little respite. The third day's proceedings included questioning on whether the Supreme Court nominee had had conversations about special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation with anyone at the law firm of the president's personal lawyer. While Kavanaugh denied any "inappropriate" conversations, the episode renewed focus on a probe that led to the indictment and conviction of Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Mueller was also responsible for referring a criminal case that resulted in a guilty plea from Cohen on the same day that Manafort was found guilty. The White House dismissed the notion that the various crises have proven disruptive, with Sanders arguing that the staff "stand united together." But some current and former White House officials also acknowledged that Woodward's account of dysfunction and infighting broadly ring true. "I think people just have a tendency in a competitive high power to say nasty things about each other," Scaramucci said in an interview with Fox News. "If they want to walk back and pretend they didn't say it, that's fine." Scaramucci added that "cockroaches" within the administration who were speaking to journalists had decimated Trump's ability to trust his team. "Who is he going to trust?" he said. "He is learning that the people he hired actually don't like him and are trying to stop him. That could make somebody paranoid. There's no question about that. " --Bloomberg's Shannon Pettypiece and Toluse Olorunnipa contributed. U.S. Marines conducted a live-fire, aerial assault exercise in southern Syria on Friday designed to warn Russian and other military forces to stay away from an American base there. The exercise, involving a company-size unit, came amid rising U.S.-Russia tensions across the Syrian battlespace. The Trump administration has warned both Russia and the Syrian government against a planned offensive in Idlib province in northwest Syria, the largest remaining pocket of rebel fighters who have tried, and failed, over the past seven years to oust President Bashar Assad. In support of the Idlib operation, Russia has deployed a significant naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, with weaponry capable of reaching across Syria. The Marine exercise took place near the U.S. garrison at Tanf, along the Syrian-Iraqi border near Jordan, around which the Americans have long declared a 35-mile deconfliction zone off-limits to others. It followed a Russian notification, and U.S. rejection, of a plan to enter the zone to pursue "terrorists." "The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war," Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement. "However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend U.S., coalition or partner forces." The garrison has served as a launchpad for U.S. counter-Islamic State operations and a U.S. Special Operations Forces training facility for Syrian fighters aiding in that effort. The zone also lies astride a major transport line between Tehran and Damascus, and control of the area has long been a goal of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies. Increasingly frequent skirmishes have occurred near and inside the zone, including one Monday in which several Iranian and Iranian-backed fighters were reportedly killed in an airstrike. A U.S. military spokesman said the base had "received fire from unknown forces" but "did not fire back." Israel, which has conducted strikes against Iranian forces in Syria, made no direct comment on the Monday incident. Russia has repeatedly charged that the United States is harboring Islamic State forces inside the zone, something the Americans have vehemently denied while suggesting that Russia and its allies in Syria are looking for an excuse to attack the area. "Coalition partners are in the At Tanf deconfliction zone for the fight to destroy ISIS," Brown said. "Any claim that the U.S. is harboring or assisting ISIS is grossly inaccurate." ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State. Outlining an unusual series of events that led up to the exercise, Brown said that Russia, using a communication line dedicated to avoiding accidental conflict between U.S. and Russian forces operating in Syria, had notified U.S. Lt. Gen. Paul Funk II, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, that "they intended to enter the At Tanf deconfliction zone to pursue terrorists." That was followed Thursday, Brown said, by an unprecedented written note to Funk from his Russian counterpart "that they would make precision strikes." "The U.S. does not require any assistance in our efforts to destroy ISIS in the At Tanf deconfliction zone," Brown said, "and we advised the Russians to remain clear." Russia and other pro-government forces, he said, were expected to abide by deconfliction agreements. The 4th annual Get Up and Go Inspirational Conference returns this September 21st 22nd for a momentous two days in Sligo. The theme of this years conference is Inspiring Contribution Thinking Outside The Box, encouraging and motivating participants to follow the dreams of your own life. A host of truly inspirational speakers from here in Ireland and globally will address a variety of topics including entrepreneurship, adventure, artificial intelligence, human consciousness, sport, business for good, wellbeing and sustainable development. The speakers at Get Up and Go 2018 are ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things. These speakers have had the courage to step outside their comfort zones and to follow their dreams into new areas of self-expression, motivation, freedom and power, and will inspire and empower you to do the same says Eileen Forrestal, co-founder. They are role models who, by thinking outside the box and living outside the box are now inspiring and contributing others to do the same. The conference organisers will also connect you to the best Sligo has to offer in food, adventure and self discovery ensuring this is a not-to-be-missed life experience packed into two days. A highlight of Friday 21st Sept is interviews by Emcee Bibi Baskin where the audience and in particular younger people/school leavers/college students are encouraged to connect with their dreams and not to give up. On Saturday there are longer Ted-Style talks for the general audience to listen to and engage with. We hope this weekend will motivate and empower the audience to get up and go in life says Brendan Sands, co-founder. We invite attendees to participate in new conversations, engage in new activities, indulge in new experiences, and share the magic of this beautiful county with new friends. For all ages, from teenagers (15+) to seniors and everyone in between this enriching 2-day event is brought to you by Sligo based Get Up and Go Publications, producers of the worlds best loved inspirational and transformational diaries and journals. Tickets to the two day event: Friday from 35, Saturday from 55. Additional ticket types and offers for students and seniors on website. Booking: 071 914 6717 www.getupandgoevents.com info@getupandgodiary.com Read Also: With the excitement of last weekend's Electric Picnic still buzzing throughout county Longford and the rest of the country, it's already time to look towards next year's festival. Several Longford bands performed last week in Stradbally and received spectacular feedback, while gathering plenty more fans in the process. State Lights, which comprises three Dublin lads and one Longford man, Joe Regan from Granard, performed twice during the course of the weekend. Drumlish band, Cronin were also found on stage over the weekend, with huge crowds turning out to listen to the very popular band. Electric Picnic returns to Stradbally, Co. Laois from Friday August 30 to Sunday September 1, 2019 and tickets are currently on sale on Ticketmaster. Organisers are urging picnickers to get their tickets in plenty of time to avoid disappointment as tickets for last years music and arts festival were snapped up in record time. And the great news is that prices for this years Electric Picnic remain the same and once again we are offering the Loyalty Scheme tickets to our loyal followers as well as a three-stage instalment plan. To be eligible for a discount, you will need to prove youve been before and in return, youll get the discount code. If you have been to the festival three times or more a ticket will cost 165, if you've been once or twice a ticket will cost 185 and if you haven't been before it will cost 205. For those who have purchased tickets from Ticketmaster in the past online and who opted into future mailing, you should receive a code direct from Ticketmaster. If you wish to automatically receive your loyalty code for future Electric Picnic events from Ticketmaster, please ensure youre signed up to receive marketing emails from Ticketmaster. If you don't automatically receive a discount code from Ticketmaster, you will need to follow the application process detailed HERE. You can also bring your proof of attendance into any Ticketmaster outlet listed here to purchase your discounted ticket. To guarantee you get a discount code for Electric Picnic 2019, please submit your code request by Midnight Monday September 24, 2018. Please note that tickets are subject to availability. The loyalty scheme (and use of discount codes) will end at Midnight Sunday September 30, or in the event of a sell-out of the allocation, whichever comes first. A discount code or request for a discount code does not guarantee a ticket purchase and tickets are sold on a first come first serve basis. So for information on 2019 ticket prices, instalment plans and claiming your discount code please visit www.electricpicnic.ie Dont miss out on the early opportunity to get your tickets! The highly anticipated festival line-up will be revealed early next year. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: September 07 2018 The Sunset Candlelight and Remembrance Ceremony was held Thursday, September 6th at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre at Eisenhower Park. East Meadow, NY - Sept. 7, 2018 - With the 17th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks approaching, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and victim families gathered to honor the memory of Nassau County residents who lost their lives. Despite the rain, the Sunset Candlelight and Remembrance Ceremony was held Thursday, September 6th at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre at With the 17th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks approaching, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and victim families gathered to honor the memory of Nassau County residents who lost their lives. Despite the rain, the Sunset Candlelight and Remembrance Ceremony was held Thursday, September 6th at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre at Eisenhower Park The passage of time does not diminish the tragedy that our nation suffered 17 years ago, said County Executive Curran. As we prepare to observe a national day of remembrance on September 11th, we must commemorate that day by reflecting and honoring those we lost that tragic morning and the bravery and heroism shown by first responders and our service members who continue to make sacrifices to secure our freedom and safety. Local News, Crime, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: September 07 2018 The vehicle, an SUV, is red with New York license plates and may be a Ford Explorer, cops say. SCPD are seeking the driver of an SUV that damaged a fence in South Huntington. South Huntington, NY - Sept. 7, 2018 - Suffolk County Crime Stoppersand Suffolk County Police Second Precinct Crime Section officers areseeking the publics assistance to identify and locate the driver of an SUV that crashed into and damaged a fence, then fled the scene in Suffolk County Crime Stoppersand Suffolk County Police Second Precinct Crime Section officers areseeking the publics assistance to identify and locate the driver of an SUV that crashed into and damaged a fence, then fled the scene in South Huntington last month. An unknown person crashed an SUV into a cast iron fence on South Huntington Public Library property located at 145 Pidgeon Hill Rd. on Monday, August 13, 2018 at 11:30 p.m. The SUV is red with New York license plates and may be a Ford Explorer. Air India is reeling under a debt burden of Rs 48,000 crore. The government is mulling strategic sale of Air India subsidiary AIATSL to raise funds and help cut debt of the national carrier, according to official sources. New Delhi: The government is mulling strategic sale of Air India subsidiary AIATSL to raise funds and help cut debt of the national carrier, according to official sources. Strategic sale of Air India Air Transport Service (AIATSL), which provides ground handling services, is being planned as part of the turnaround scheme for Air India which is reeling under a debt burden of Rs 48,000 crore at end of March 2017. The official sources said strategic sale of AIATSL is in the works. "The Expression of Interest (EoI) for bidders would be floated soon after the GoM clears the EoI," the sources told PTI. The stake sale plan follows the decision of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley led ministerial panel in June to make the airline competitive, but cutting down debt and raising resources by selling land assets and other subsidiaries. The Group of Ministers (GoM) had decided to revive Air India after the government's offer to sale 76 per cent stake in the airline failed to attract any bidder earlier this year. The government had originally proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players. The buyer would have had to take over Rs 24,000 crore debt or the carrier along with over Rs 8,000 crore of liabilities. However, the stake sale failed to attract any bidders when the bidding process got completed on May 31. In June, the GoM then decided not to go ahead with Air India stake sale in an election year. As per latest data, in 2016-17, two subsidiaries of Air India AIATSL and Air India Express Ltd posted profits. While AIATSL earned Rs 61.66 crore profit in 2016-17 fiscal, another subsidiary AI Express earned Rs 297 crore as profit. Some of the other subsidiaries of Air India include Air India Charters Ltd, IAL Airport Services Ltd, Airline Allied Services Ltd, Air India Engineering Services Ltd and Hotel Corporation of India Ltd. Besides, catering services provider AISATS a 50:50 joint venture between Air India and SATS Ltd too posted profit of Rs 66.06 crore in 2016-17. AIATSL was incorporated in June 2003 with the objective of carrying on the business of providing all types of services at airport. Under the administrative control of Ministry of Civil Aviation, AIATSL is 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India. The company is engaged in the business of providing repairing, maintaining, servicing, refurbishing providing engineering services of and for aircraft. Industrial/Business operations of AIATSL include rendering airport ground handling services, including passenger, ramp, security and cargo handling for Air India. Kim Kardashian made a visit to the White House this week to speak with Donald Trump about prison reform, something she has been advocating for since the start of the year. Her actions caught the attention of Migos front-man Offset, who believes Kim's efforts prove that she's a worthy candidate for the US top office. The "Narcos" rapper praised Kim's work, saying that if she ever decided to run for office, she would have his vote. The idea of a new Centre Party is back in the news in Britain. There is a growing realisation amongst the ruling class that the crisis of the Tory government, together with the debacle over Brexit, could soon lead to a general election that would propel Corbyn into 10 Downing Street. A recent headline in the Financial Timesaccurately summarised the mood amongst the Establishment: Business fears a Corbyn government almost as much as Brexit. How then can the bosses avert this calamity? By relying on the Blairites to come to their rescue, of course. Smears and sabotage In recent months, the preferred strategy of the Labour right wing has been to manufacture a hysteria about anti-Semitism in order to discredit Corbyn and the Labour Party. In this smear campaign, the Blairites have been joined by conservative Jewish establishment figures and the capitalist press, both for their own reasons. Leading the charge recently has been Chuka Umunna, who asserted in an article in the Independent that the Labour Party is the home of institutional anti-Semitism. In 2016, however, the right-wing Labour MP said the opposite, stating that he had never seen a single example of anti-Semitism in 20 years. Chuka Umunna asserted in an article in the Independent that the Labour Party is the home of institutional anti-Semitism. In 2016, he said the opposite / Image: Socialist Appeal The overwhelming majority of Labour MPs did not believe he was fit to lead the party in the first instance, the arch-Blairite writes. In spite of the silence of most of the Parliamentary Labour Party driven by a fear of deselection if they speak out there is no doubt that most Labour MPs are as horrified as I am by the anti-Semitism which has been exposed in the party in recent months. Many feel that they are being pushed to breaking point. If only right-wingers in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) were afraid of speaking out. In fact, you cant shut them up! The likes of Umunna and others have rushed to the media to sabotage and undermine Corbyn at every opportunity. Umunna goes on in his article to scandalously equate the far right with the far left, before stating that: The enemies identified by the far left tend to be America (regardless of who is the sitting president), markets, capitalism and the so-called business-owning class. Well, yes. The left have attacked American imperialism, markets, capitalism and the ruling class all of which Umunna has consistently defended to the hilt. This shows clearly where his political loyalties lie. He is pro-capitalist, pro-market and pro-big business. Party of the establishment This is the real reason behind Umunnas nonsense accusations that Labour is institutionally anti-Semitic. In reality, such ludicrous statements are part of an ongoing campaign to split the Labour Party and provide big business with a new, reliable Centre Party. There have been dozens of reports about MPs and peers plotting to split from Labour as soon as the Brexit negotiations are out of the way. It is no accident that John Woodcock, the anti-Corbyn MP who recently resigned from Labour, has called for MPs on all sides to come together to form a new political party. There have been dozens of reports about MPs and peers plotting to split from Labour as soon as the Brexit negotiations are out of the way / Image: Socialist Appeal Mike Gapes, the useless MP for Ilford South, is hinting that he could go any day now. When push comes to shove, many others will likely split too. But some have pledged to stay, including Dame Margaret Hodge. They will act like a Fifth Column, continuing to attack Corbyn from within. In such a scenario, the Blairites hope that a new right-wing leader in the Tory party might lead to a split in the Conservatives also. Remainers like Nicky Morgan and Anna Soubry are good candidates to break away and join hands with Labour right-wingers. The Liberal Democrats would no doubt climb aboard too. They would like to emulate the rise of French President, Emmanuel Macron. Indeed Macron himself seems to be encouraging such a project. But what those seeking a new Centre Party in Britain fail to mention is that Macrons bubble has burst. Barely one-third of the French electorate now approve of the former investment banker. Rule or ruin The aim of any Blairite split would be to inflict the maximum damage to the Labour Party and keep Corbyn out of power. They intend to do this with the full support of the capitalist media. Richard Burgon: "The formation of the SDP breakaway from the Labour Party in 1981 was an anti-socialist betrayal that helped to gift the 1980s to Thatcherism and her brutal anti-working class policies" / Image: Socialist Appeal Labour MP Richard Burgon has correctly highlighted the true goal of these threats. The formation of the SDP breakaway from the Labour Party by Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rodgers in 1981 was an anti-socialist betrayal that helped to gift the 1980s to Thatcherism and her brutal anti-working class policies. Ramsay MacDonalds formation of a national government with the Conservatives, Liberals, Liberal Nationals and so-called National Labour in 1931 was done to push through austerity politics, guaranteeing that his name went down in history as a byword for betrayal. There are some now proposing to repeat these historical tragedies. (Morning Star, 16/8/18) Socialist Appeal has warned about this many times. The Blairite Trojan horse in the PLP will never be reconciled to Corbyn or the left. Faced with a mass membership that is seeking an end to austerity and war, they have little prospect of winning the party back to New Labour principles. Instead, their motto is rule or ruin. Mandatory reselection This is why we need the mandatory reselection of MPs: to clear out the careerism and Toryism within the Labour Party. This demand for the democratic accountability of Labour MPs has begun to gather momentum in recent weeks. A rule change to introduce mandatory reselection is due to be discussed at the upcoming Labour Party conference. It has generated a head of steam, with Unite the Union backing the proposal, together with the FBU. We need the mandatory reselection of MPs to clear out the careerism and Toryism within the Labour Party / Image: Socialist Appeal With the likely backing of other unions such as ASLEF, TSSA, CWU, BFAWU as well as possibly two-thirds of local party delegates, this could easily be passed. Elsewhere, Chris Williamson, the Labour MP for Derby North, has also come under attack from the party establishment for organising a democracy roadshow, with meetings around the country in support of mandatory reselection. This has created a storm of protest from Labours right wing. Lord Hattersley, the former deputy leader of the party under Kinnock, amongst others, has called on Corbyn to repudiate Williamsons campaign. Writing in the Guardian, Hattersley has warned that the right wing will split from the party if this measure goes through: Reselection and the prospect of reselection will undoubtedly split the party led not just by sitting MPs who were deselected or fear deselection but also by MPs who think that the attempted cull of their colleagues demonstrated that Labour no longer represented their view of the good society. (The Guardian, 28/8/18) This threat is precisely the reason why we need reselection. What Hattersley means by the good society is the good life that MPs have become accustomed to. Rather than seeking to represent the interests of the working class, they see their privileged position as being a job for life. Kick out the careerists It is no surprise that Hattersley goes on in his letter to attack the party leadership, stating that Corbyns team, because of a combination of its own incompetence and its enthusiasm for ideological claptrap, is squandering its chances of winning the next election.This is rich coming from someone who lost two general elections in a row. We must get rid of these pro-capitalist saboteurs within our ranks. This must go hand-in-hand with the fight for socialist policies and the return of Clause IV / Image: Socialist Appeal In any case, it is clearly not Corbyn who is squandering these chances, but those right-wing Labour MPs who are constantly publicly attacking the party. Without any hint of irony, they admonish left-wingers like Williamson, accusing them of risking a split in the party; yet in the same breath, they smear Corbyn and threaten to walk away over made-up accusations of anti-Semitism. We must get rid of these pro-capitalist saboteurs within our ranks. To root out careerism, we should have Labour MPs taking a workers wage, in order to ensure that our representatives will for the interests of the working class. This must go hand-in-hand with the fight for socialist policies and the return of Clause IV, to rid ourselves of the ravages of the market and the greed of the capitalist system. LONGMEADOW -- Entrepreneur, philanthropist and Longmeadow resident Harold Grinspoon has not only lived a rags-to-riches story, he's spent decades giving back to local farmers, recognizing teachers and helping others in this community and around the world. Visit the new MGM Springfield casino and you'll see one of his tree sculptures in the courtyard, its branches reaching up to the sky. Directing the tree sculptures is one of the newest initiatives in Grinspoon's expansive career. He "loves nature" and recently went whitewater rafting to celebrate his 89th birthday. But his main focus for the last several decades has been using his wealth and business-minded spirit to improve the lives of others. "Growing up poor, I wanted to invest in helping people," Grinspoon said. He first moved to Springfield for a job selling paper cups, then tapped his entrepreneurial spirit and switched to real estate, buying a duplex in West Springfield and building his business from there. He grew up in a Jewish family in an underprivileged section of Newton, on the "wrong side of the tracks." His father loved farming, and because of this, he knows how hard farmers work, and how they're often hesitant to ask for help or financial assistance. That's why, for the past four years, the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation has focused on awarding money to local farmers in order to upgrade their infrastructure. Big Y is also a partner in this initiative, he said. His foundation's other main focus is awarding money to local college students with strong entrepreneurship initiatives - not to fund a specific project or idea, necessarily, but to recognize their ambitions, curiosity and creativity, and help them start on the path to leadership. Over the last 15 years, the foundation has given more than 825 awards and $630,000 directly to students. Grinspoon's foundation also organizes banquets to honor teachers and offer teaching excellence awards, which he called "the logical thing to do." Teachers are often under-recognized for their efforts, but can inspire students and get them excited about lifelong learning, he said. The foundation offers various awards for local teachers, including those with under three years of experience, "to encourage them to continue the good work they're doing." Grinspoon said he "learned best through hands-on learning." He wasn't a great student, but remembers teachers who thought outside the box and organized educational projects. That's why the foundation also offers awards to teachers who have demonstrated educational projects in the classroom. Being Jewish and growing up witnessing the horrors of the holocaust, he's also wanted to help Jews around the world. Today, his PJ Library program sends more than 200,000 books a month to Jewish children in the United States, and worldwide delivers more than 700,000 books a month to kids living in countries like Australia, Russia, Mexico, Israel and soon Ukraine. Last year, Grinspoon also started an "ener-G-save" initiative to nudge homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. Working in the building industry, he saw how much money was being wasted through inefficient buildings, and has been working with towns and grassroots groups to reach out to homeowners and encourage them to get free consultations to point out ways they can make improvements, save money and reduce impact on the environment long-term. Last year, the initiative reached 1,600 homeowners who made improvements. To keep the giving going, Grinspoon and his wife have signed the Giving Pledge, which was started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet, encouraging wealthy individuals to donate most of their fortunes to charity after they die. The suspect in a hit-and-run crash that left an 80-year-old woman dead in Cambridge is due in court Friday morning. Ashley Monturio, 41, of Pembroke, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after allegedly crashing into Romelia Gallardo, 80, of Cambridge with an Infiniti SUV. Gallardo was pushing a wheeled walker when she was struck around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the area of 150 Erie Street near the parking lot for Cambridge Housing Authority apartments. Gallardo was forced to the ground and injured, and was transported to Cambridge Hospital before she was pronounced dead. "All of us at the [Cambridge] Police Department want to express our deepest condolences to the victim's family and the LBJ Housing community. While this is a tragic incident, I am proud of the outstanding investigative work conducted today," Cambridge Police Commissioner Branville Bard said in a statement shared on Twitter. Monturio was taken into custody at Cambridge Police Station on Thursday and will be arraigned there is an ongoing investigation into the death and crash. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says the anonymous op-ed, published in the New York Times and written by an official within President Donald Trump's administration, shows it's time to use a constitutional amendment to remove the president from office if officials don't think he can handle the job. "If the presidential cabinet believes that President Trump is 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office' as the 25th Amendment states, then every minute they make excuses is a minute that our country is at risk," Warren said in an email blast to supporters. "If senior officials believe the president is unfit, they should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking information to Bob Woodward boasting that they're trying to save our country, and instead do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office," she added, referring to the Washington Post journalist who has a new book out about the Trump White House. She ended the email with, "Tell the cabinet: if Trump is unfit, invoke the 25th." Warren's email to supporters came after she made similar comments to CNN. "The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the Vice President and senior officials think the President can't do his job," she told the television network. "It does not provide that senior officials go around the President -- take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds," Warren added. "Everyone of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's time for them to do their job." The 25th Amendment of the Constitution, put in place after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, sets up a process to remove a president from office, as well as the handling of a presidential death or resignation. Warren, a Cambridge Democrat, is considered a potential 2020 presidential candidate. She is running for a second six-year term in Massachusetts and slated to face off with Trump's 2016 campaign co-chair in the state, Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl. Trump and Warren have sparred repeatedly on Twitter, going back to the 2016 campaign, when Warren backed his opponent Hillary Clinton. This post was updated at 5:28 p.m. to with quotes from Warren's email blast and Warren's comments to CNN about the 25th Amendment. A Beverly man has agreed to plead guilty to mailing threats and a suspicious white powder to an array of public figures, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and multiple law enforcement officials. Daniel Frisiello was arrested on March 1 for sending letters containing white powder to Trump Jr., California U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna, Stanford University professor and advocate for sexual assault victims Michele Dauber and Michigan Sen. Deborah Stabenow. He has now admitted to sending 13 total threatening letters -- including six to high-profile people and seven to law enforcement officials and other targets, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office said. Frisiello, 25, has agreed to plead guilty to 13 counts of mailing a threat to injure the person of another and six counts of false information and hoaxes. His newly revealed targets included former Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Katie Rayburn, who gained prominence while prosecuting Michelle Carter -- a Plainville woman accused of manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself. Frisiello sent his letter on June 23, 2017, a week after Carter's conviction. Like Rayburn, several of Frisiello's other victims were involved in high-profile controversies in the criminal justice system. Frisiello's letter to Hanna blamed her for the death of former Glee actor Mark Salling, who reportedly killed himself on Jan. 30 while awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges. Dauber was the foremost public advocate for the victim of convicted rapist Brock Turner and had worked to recall Judge Aaron Persky, who received national criticism for sentencing Turner to six months in jail. "Since you are going to disrobe Persky, I am going to treat you like 'Emily Doe,' " Frisiello wrote to Dauber. "Let's see what kind of sentence I get for being a rich white male." The letter to Stabenow criticized her comments sympathizing with Randy Margrave, the father of three victims of former USA Gymnastics team doctor and serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar, who tried to attack Nassar during a sentencing hearing in February. Frisiello's letter to Donald Trump Jr. made national news after members of Trump's family opened it and were hospitalized as a precaution in February. "You are an awful, awful person. I am surprised that your father lets you speak on TV," Frisiello wrote to Trump. "You make the family idiot, Eric, look smart. This is the reason why people hate you, so you are getting what you deserve. So shut the [expletive] UP!" Investigators found that the white powder was not toxic, but said it was intended to make the victims believe they had been exposed to anthrax. Another letter included both white powder and a series of anti-Semitic slurs directed at California Republican Congressional candidate Antonio Sabato Jr., an Italian actor and Trump supporter with Jewish roots. Frisiello's efforts to hide his identity were undone when he allegedly used the website shipyourenemiesglitter.com -- currently taken offline -- to send Dauber a "glitter bomb" containing the same message as the white powder envelope. Investigators contacted the owner of the the website, who reviewed records and disclosed that Frisiello had ordered the glitter bomb for Dauber. "The owner also told law enforcement that Frisiello had attempted to use his company to send over ten additional glitter bombs to other people, including members of President Trump's family," the criminal complaint said. Investigators obtained Frisiello's IP address from the payment service used by shipyourenemiesglitter.com and his address from RMV records and law enforcement databases. Documents filed in federal court reveal that Frisiello's letter campaign dates back to September 2015, when he sent one to a manager at a company that had recently terminated a member of Frisiello's family. Other previously undisclosed targets include Middletown, Conn. Police Chief William McKenna, Windsor, Conn. Police Chief Donald Melanson, former Connecticut State Police Col. Alaric Fox and former South Kingston R.I. Police Chief Vincent Vespia Jr. After Frisiello appeared in federal court in March, his attorney Scott Gleason described him as an "overwhelmed young man." "He has wonderful parents, wonderful support. He's very much a overwhelmed young man who has got some issues and some difficulties that he's been dealing with through his life," Gleason said. "But I am optimistic and confident that when all of the facts play out there will be a very good understanding of what transpired and I'm expecting the best to work out." Quaker faith faith Quakers have always expressed their faith in action, particularly social action and peace making. Quakers concept of Inner Light, inner voice = Holy Spirit within individuals heartof simplicity, justice & peace. with Friends aboutand practice. What does it means to be Quaker on a daily basis? Can tech help a quietfind a bigger voice? And in a world of constant connection, could the rest of us use a little peace?nothing could possibly be as important to Quaker faith as the concept of Inner Light. Friends believe that the answers to their most pressing issues are ultimately found uniquely in their own hearts. Mitch GouldThat every man, woman, and child on this planet has direct access to divine love, presence, and guidance and if we listen closely to this still small voice we can heal ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world. Steve Chase God is with us, helps, leads, and comforts us, if we are willing to stay in touch. Margaret Kataranides Truth and integrity (truth to self) are what we seek. When truth within matches truth without we are expressing that which is whole within us. It is then that we are most free: willing to be and do what God [Logos, The Way] wills us to be and do, rather than reacting out of habit, past wounds, and unexamined cultural norms. La Verne Shelton Metaphorically, the overlapping of circles (like those from raindrops falling on a calm pond) between us and God we are a little in God and God a little in us and where the twain meets, light blossoms. Bill Powell For me its the silence and the waiting and the discerning what the Spirit is saying and then acting on it. - Edy Nolan Openness to the Spirit and to love. Keeping the testimonies growing in our hearts and not reaching for the shorthand. Openness to the possibility that, despite believing in divine guidance, we make mistakes and are not always right. Ruth Seeley To me such an exercise is powerfully expressive of Quaker faith, which is not doctrinal but expressed in the individual experiences of those who practice. I think these answers together create a lovely poem expressive of the multitude of ways that Quakers understand and experience Quaker faith. If you'd like to view the whole conversation, go to the original Facebook post. - Lucy ___ The Religious Society of Friends is commonly referred to as Quakers. It consists of the members of the Society and many others who worship with us and are involved with us. Quakers believe that everyone has a direct connection with God, which some call the 'inner light' or Spirit'. Each Quaker seeks their own path with the support of the group. We try to clarify our beliefs by careful consideration, listening to the Spirit within us, listening to others and reading the wisdom of others. Although our origins are Christian we are open to many ideas. We are committed to working for equality and peace and believe firmly in religious tolerance. All are welcome to join us. ++++++++++++++ Pacifism - https://www.quakersaustralia.org.au/ Quakers believe that there is a spirit within each of us that joins us all together some call it 'that of God'. It follows that we cannot deliberately harm or kill another person without damaging that spirit. That was as obvious to 17 th Century Quakers as it is to us today. But pacifism is not just thou shalt not kill. It is an active process of removing situations where violence and war may occur. It is also a complex process of understanding how different forms of violence are related and of accepting that peace does not come overnight. If one person tries to dominate, control ordamage another person it is no different from a country trying to dominate, control and damage another country. So stopping domestic violence is as important as stopping wars. How I treat my family, friends, colleagues and the people I meet in the street or on the bus can help the world become a peaceful and safe place. The food, clothing and other things I buy affect other peoples lives particularly those who have made those products. My purchases also have environmental consequences and can result in a lack of resources available in other parts of the world. This in turn can lead to competition for resources and on a global scale can lead to war. Violence also comes from individuals who are afraid, lack confidence or feel their lives are not under their own control. Hence, social justice systems where people know their concerns are being heard and taken into account are essential. Even without environmental change there are millions of people in the world who do not have fresh water and/or adequate food and shelter. Inadequate sharing of the worlds limited resources leads to mass movements of people desperate to find their basic needs. Hence the refugee crises affecting millions in many countries. So for Quakers pacifism is working at all levels of society - personal, national and global. Some individuals are involved in their local or national communities; others work internationally at the Quaker United Nations offices in New York and Geneva. But there is also a danger in being pacifist. The scale and complexity of the problems can become overwhelming. So we concentrate on our own skills and abilities and our own world. If we are each doing even small things to make the world a more peaceful and safe place, then we are moving in the right direction. If you would like to explore our peace activities and attitudes further you could look at our recent public statements, some of the investigations by our Peace and Legislation Committee, our World War I Exhibition and other groups and organisations we are in contact with. _______________- In many respects, simplicity is at the heart of all Quaker aspirations. Early Quakers felt they should live simply, tending to real needs and avoiding luxuries. They were aware of the poverty around them and that resources needed to be shared. For Quakers in the affluent West today, simplicity of lifestyle is challenging. Quakers value the spirit over material objects. This is demonstrated in the way Quakers worship in a simple room undecorated with symbols. Our worship is based on silence in which any may speak which invites a direct, uncluttered experience of the spirit. The earliest Quakers demonstrated visible forms of simplicity through what was known as Plain Dress; the clothes they wore were plain, unadorned, usually grey or black, and without showing expensive jewellery or other ostentatious displays of wealth. Later on, when many Quakers entered the milling and weaving trades it was noticed that their clothes tended to be of the best quality! So the practice of Plain Dress was dropped, but the spirit carried on. Today, Quakers will often buy cheaper, fairly traded clothing or support charity shops rather than buy expensive designer labels. Many Quakers still dont wear jewellery at all, but of those who do, the jewellery is chosen for its sentimental meaning or its aesthetic value rather than how much might be paid for it in the shop. We try to follow Mahatma Gandhi's call to live simply, that others may simply live. It is not true that Quakers dont usecomputers, mobile phones, cars, or other forms of technology; what is true is that they always try to consider the impact that lifestyles and other choices might have on themselves, on other people, and on the Earth itself. Quakers consider whether the benefits of these choices might be outweighed by the harm of them. You may also be interested in an article by Jenny Spinks. _________________________ Integrity Integrity starts at the personal level, seeking to be honest with ourselves and others. Integrity in our thoughts and actions arises from accepting that each person is of equal value. Integrity links our beliefs to our words and our actions. It requires us to find the places where we do not live according to our principles and to review our behaviour. Usually there are no simple answers to how we might act. Quakers do not have a book of rules about these things. But there are Quaker Queries that help us focus our consideration of how we act. John Woolman (a Quaker born in New Jersey in 1720) came to realise that to own a slave was inconsistent with Christian understanding and his conscience. Tricky, because Americas main industry depended on the toil of slaves. Woolmans campaigning was mostly gentle. When visiting, he would insist on paying the slave who had looked after him. He and others who felt this way also preached and spoke persuasively. It took him and others 12 years to convince Quaker Meetings to ban slavery. We may become aware of corrupt business practices, deliberate deception by lying, secret deals and bribes, coercion and unfair work practices. Integrity may suggest that we should withdraw from many institutions. Yet integrity also requires that we become involved to work for change. Perhaps we become aware of enslaved workers who make our favorite products. How should we act on this knowledge? Finding the path that allows us to act with integrity can also resolve our internal contradictions, and reduce stress. The Quaker approach to integrity gives principles, and asks questions. Each person responds in the way they feel appropriate for them and applies the amount of energy that is realistic toward bringing about change. But we must apply the integrity test to how we pursue change - so Quakers are unlikely join in violent actions because violence always promotes more violence. Integrity is one of several Testimonies developed by Quakers over the years, which can be seen here. https://www.quakersaustralia.org.au/ _________________________________________________ Making Decisions What do Quakers need to make decisions about? Matters of governance, campaigns and actions they will get involved in - and more. How do Quakers make decisions? A little differently. Quakers extend their worship into listening for the guidance of the Spirit. Each person in a business meeting has a glimpse of that guidance. So its important to listen carefully to each person who wants to contribute. Some silence surrounds each spoken contribution. Decisions are made without voting. The clerk of the meeting, after listening, proposes a minute that summarises the sense of the meeting. Anyone may suggest a change to the minute. If the minute is agreed it becomes the completed minute of that topic - confirmed by those present. Often, the decision is a lot different from the direction at the start. Because everyone could contribute to the minute there is usually a high level of commitment to the action thats been agreed. If we cannot agree we may defer the matter to a later meeting to discuss it and perhaps come up with fresh insights. Or we may ask a small committee to come back with a recommendation. If there is not agreement the clerk will minute that there is not agreement. The decision does not go forward into action. When this process works well, there is a strong sense that the Spirit has guided the meeting. It is uniquely Quaker and yet the method can be used in other organisations. It may be slow - sometimes the process calls for a lot of patience. Sometimes it is remarkably quick. It takes individual discipline and commitment. https://www.quakersaustralia.org.au/ ________________________________________________ Continuing revelation. Humility. Truth. Emma Churchman Unmediated access to the Divine. T. Harrison I would add: fearless direct nonviolent action when necessary, consensual process. Laura Roxanne Seagraves There is That of God in everyone. That belief is the primary reason that I became a Quaker, and the reason I remain a Quaker. Marilyn Gilmore https://www.afsc.org/friends/what-core-quaker-faith Quaker silence is an invitation to experience that of God within ourselves, and indeed within ... The Department of Telecom is discussing a middle path with the operators for rolling out public wifi services. Telecom operators will submit a new model by Monday for the rollout of 10 lakh public wifi hotspots after they rejected the plan suggested by Trai, a top official said on Friday. (Photo: AFP) New Delhi: Telecom operators will submit a new model by Monday for the rollout of 10 lakh public wifi hotspots after they rejected the plan suggested by Trai, a top official said on Friday. The Department of Telecom is discussing a middle path with the operators for rolling out public wifi services after they opposed the model recommended by the regulator Trai, saying it will adversely impact the debt-ridden industry and compromise national security. "Today telecom operators have given a presentation on technical architecture for public wifi model. They will submit the rollout model for 1 million wifi hotspots by Monday. They will roll out pilots after DoT accepts it," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told PTI. Sundararajan said that the DoT will examine the model, security requirements etc before approving the operators' version. A senior representative of a telecom operator, who did not wish to be identified, said that if DoT approves their model then 10 lakh wifi hotspots can be rolled out within a year. Based on existing rules for cyber cafes, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended that a new set of players to be called Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) should be allowed to resell internet services through yesteryears PCOs type of set-up that will be called Public Data Offices. But, telecom operators had unanimously opposed the Trai model which was also approved by the Telecom Commission. Industry body COAI had argued that Internet services can be provided by a telecom licence holders only and the scope of PDOA recommended by Trai is similar to that of internet service provider license holder. It had outlined that a licence is required even if the Internet services are provided to end customers using de-licensed spectrum band, however, no such condition has been imposed on unlicensed entities, who will make use of de-licensed bands of commercial purposes. The man accused of killing Weymouth Police Officer Michael Chesna and 77-year-old bystander Vera Adams following a police pursuit in July has been indicted on two counts of murder and multiple other charges by a Norfolk County grand jury. Emanuel Lopes, 20, was arrested in July and charged with two counts of murder, possession of a firearm without a license, destruction of property and negligent driving of a motor vehicle after allegedly killing Chesna by striking him in the head with a rock, grabbing his gun and shooting him. With Thursday's grand jury indictment, Lopes is now facing additional charges, including armed assault with intent to murder other responding officers, larceny of a firearm, leaving the scene of a crash and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Chesna was the first officer to confront Lopes on the morning of July 15, following reports of a car crash and erratic driver near South Shore Hospital. Lopes was allegedly attempting to vandalize a home near the scene. When Chesna approached with his gun drawn, Lopes allegedly threw a large rock at the officer's head. The impact caused Chesna to fall and drop his weapon, which Lopes allegedly then took and used to shoot Chesna repeatedly in the chest and head. Chesna's death was mourned by a crowd of thousands at his funeral, as community members, police officers from across the state and public officials gathered to pay tribute to his memory. Lopes' indictment comes the day Gov. Charlie Baker unveiled a bill in response to recent shootings of police officers that would allow stricter enforcement of pre-trial release conditions. In October, Lopes was arrested after officers found him with a group of minors who had been drinking alcohol near the Weymouth waterfront. Officers described him as nervous during a pat frisk, and he allegedly fled into the woods, leaving behind a backpack containing a digital scale and cocaine. Lopes was committed to a detox program after his arraignment, his attorney said at a Nov. 1 bail hearing. At that hearing, prosecutors requested he be held on $5,000 bail, while his attorney asked for a "nominal" bail. Judge Jeanmarie Carrol set a bail of $500, and Lopes was ordered to remain drug and alcohol free. He remained out on bail despite later failing a drug test; the Norfolk District Attorney's Office did not ask for his bail to be revoked at that time, the Boston Herald reported. BOSTON - A former civilian employee of Hanscom Air Force Base was arrested Thursday after investigators said they found more than 3,000 encrypted images and videos of child pornography, including a manual titled "How to Practice Child Love," on his computer, in a case that had ties as far away as Australia. William Gates, 41, of Burlington, was charged with one count of possession of child pornography. He is being held until a detention hearing can be scheduled for Friday, said Christina DiLorio-Sterling, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. Federal investigators were initially tipped off by Australian authorities about an investigation of an online child pornography site. Overseas agents alleged Gates posted photos and comments of a boy on a field trip, who was about 6, she said. "Australian and U.S. authorities were able to trace the account activity to IP (internet protocol) addresses assigned to Gate's home in Burlington and to Hanscom Air Force Base where Gates was a civilian employee at the time," she said. Federal investigators first interviewed Gates in December and he allegedly admitted he took the photographs while chaperoning a trip to the zoo with his son's elementary school. Soon after he gave agents permission to search some of his computers and other devices. In the initial search, agents found 51 images of child pornography. They then received a search warrant in January and found more than 900 child pornography files. He was then indicted by a Middlesex grand jury for possession of child pornography. In August, investigators conducting a forensic analysis of one of Gates' laptops turned up a hidden and encrypted volume of about 2,900 more images and 70 videos in the computer. The examination also turned up a document which serves as a guide to teach adults how to practice sex with children called, "How to Practice Child Love," she said. If convicted Gates faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, announced the arrest on Thursday. The Burlington Police Department assisted in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Paruti, Lelling's Project Safe Childhood Coordinator and a member of the Major Crimes Unit, is prosecuting the case. SPRINGFIELD -- The billions of dollars in federal funding that flow into cities and towns won't go where there's pot. Officials with federal agencies confirmed what local job and housing providers have said, that municipalities and vendors that receive federal money jeopardize that funding if they get involved with marijuana companies. Because despite 30 states and the District of Columbia legalizing marijuana in some form, federal law still prohibits marijuana. That means, for example, that the $3 billion issued in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development cannot be used for a marijuana-related purpose. "No, they cannot use CDBG funds for medical marijuana or any kind of marijuana because federal law, it's still an illegal substance under federal law, so that would not be an authorized use of CDBG funds," said Rhonda Siciliano, spokeswoman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The same goes for HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which provides funding aimed at developing housing for low-income Americans, she said. Peter A. Gagliardi, president and CEO of Way Finders, said the nonprofit developer of affordable housing has been advised to avoid leasing commercial space to marijuana companies in order to keep receiving millions of dollars in federal funds. That funding includes housing tax credits administered by the Internal Revenue Service, he said. Spokesman Bruce Friedland said in an email the IRS declined to comment. CareerPoint Executive Director David C. Gadaire told The Republican in July that the job referral and employment counselor is blocked from helping clients gain access to jobs at marijuana companies that have opened or are planning to open here. Officials from the Massachusetts Employment Board spoke with the U.S. Department of Labor and advised CareerPoint recently to look the other way when marijuana jobs emerge, for fear of losing federal funding. CareerPoint's yearly budget of $2.5 million to $2.7 million includes $1.2 million to $1.3 million in federal funds, Gadaire said. A spokesman said the U.S. Department of Labor abides by all federal laws, presumably including the marijuana prohibition. But it remains unclear if the department will issue a policy specifying that organizations that work with the department or receive federal funding from it should avoid working with marijuana companies. "The Department of Labor has to comply with all federal laws. The Employment and Training Administration has not issued any formal guidance on this issue," department spokesman James Lally said. Marijuana remains a Schedule 1 substance under the schedule of controlled substances. Such drugs have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Other Schedule 1 drugs are heroin and LSD. The Department of Justice's continued inclusion of marijuana as a Schedule 1, and thus banned, drug in the face of such broad legalization by states makes no sense to advocates. "It's unfortunate that some organizations out there that do have ties to the federal government cannot assist folks that are looking for jobs or housing because of cannabis and its illegality," said Kamani Jefferson of the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council. The Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council is a nonprofit that works to ensure that the marijuana industry is safe for large and small markets and that the products available to consumers have variety and quality. Continuing to ban marijuana shows the federal government is failing to heed the wishes of states and communities, Jefferson said. "It just doesn't make sense," he said. The federal government's marijuana categorization also is contradicted by such specialists as Dr. Peter Grinspoon of Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Marion McNabb, a public health doctor and CEO and co-founder of the Cannabis Community Care and Research Network ("C3RN"), of Somerville. People no longer use marijuana only to get high, such specialists have said. Marijuana in various forms from smoking to lozenges to tinctures and body oils is taken to ease pain, depression, anxiety and insominia, according to research C3RN is doing with the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. Grinspoon said at a panel discussion in May that the truth is that not a lot of options for pain relief are available. Chronic pain will strike most individuals at some point at a time people are living longer and the realization is spreading about opioid-addictions' horrors. "To me, cannabis is the obvious way to treat people's chronic pain," Grinspoon said. SPRINGFIELD -- Hampden Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney made it clear in a recent ruling she was not happy with city police officer Felix Aguirre. Aguirre testified in a defense motion to suppress drug evidence in a case against Jonathan Santiago, 25, of Chicopee, and Edwin Morales, 21, of Springfield. Police pulled their car over on June 29, 2017, and at the time, each was charged with trafficking cocaine in the amount of 36 to 100 grams, and possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Sweeney allowed defense motions to exclude as evidence the cocaine and heroin found in what she said was an illegal search of the car Santiago was driving. She also ruled there was not enough evidence to have brought any charges against Morales, who was a passenger in the car. Sweeney did not issue a written ruling on the defense motions, instead reading her findings into the court record August 28. The judge said most of the evidence came from Aguirre and said, "His testimony, plainly stated, was not credible." Sweeney said Aguirre and his partner legally arrested Santiago for driving without a license. But, she said, she believes that arrest was a "pretense" to search the car. Sweeney said Aguirre "uses that arrest as a springboard to vault into what is nothing but a fanciful tale, to put it kindly, of why the officers acted the way they did." At another time she referred to Aguirre's reasoning for doing an inventory search of the car. "This is beyond convoluted. Factually and legally it's beyond convoluted," she said. Again referring to Aguirre's reasoning for the search, Sweeney said, "and here we go down the rabbit hole." Sweeney gave a summary of some of the facts she heard in the hearing. The events began with a woman who reported an ex-boyfriend was shooting at the car in which she and her current boyfriend were riding. A lookout was given by police dispatch for a gold Toyota Camry driven by a light-skinned male. Aguirre and his partner Jameson Williams saw a car matching the description and followed it. The car, driven by Santiago, parked in a legal parking space near an apartment building. The search for the suspect car was called off, though, and dispatch broadcast that the suspect was located. Aguirre knew the driver of the car he was following was not the suspect, Sweeney said. "I think a lot of adrenaline was flowing at that point... this happened in such a compressed time frame," Sweeney said, directing most of the comments in her findings at Aguirre. "But that does not excuse what happened after that point." Aguirre said he watched Santiago, soon joined by Morales, go to the back of his car and begin rummaging around in the trunk. "Again I'm not sure whether this actually occurred or not, I have such issues with his credibility in this case," Sweeney said of Aguirre. "This is the point where I have a lot of trouble, a whole lot of trouble, finding any facts -- again the Commonwealth has the burden of proof. I don't believe what officer Aguirre testified to plain and simple," Sweeney said. The officers knew that the car they were observing was not the one being sought in the shooting, she said. She said the officers' actions "have no legal basis at that point whatsoever." But the officers did an "inventory search" of the car, finding the drugs. Sweeney said she believes Aguirre wanted to look in the trunk. Santiago's girlfriend owned the car and police had no information he was driving it without permission. Sweeney said Aguirre claimed there was a Springfield police policy that allowed them to do the search and tow the car. She said Aguirre said Santiago was in custody and there was a warrant out for his girlfriend. Sweeney said Aguirre testified the girlfriend would be arrested on the warrant so there would be no one to get the car. The judge said the car was legally parked and didn't have to be moved. The judge said when asked where that written policy was, Aguirre said he never saw it but was told about it by a supervisor. "An unknown supervisor of unknown rank," Sweeney said. The cases are still pending against the Santiago and Morales. The prosecutor in the case is Assistant District Attorney Ingrid Frau. Santiago is represented by Daniel D. Kelly and Morales is represented by Brett Lampiasi. SPRINGFIELD -- The trial of Adrian B. Hinds is slated to start with jury selection Monday, and several contentious hearings recently have focused on what evidence can be put before jurors. Defense lawyer Dana Goldblatt told Hampden Superior Court Judge David Ricciardone on Wednesday her case is that Hinds acted in self-defense against the male victim. She said that victim attacked Hinds because Hinds is black. Hinds, 27, is accused of six crimes, including two counts of armed assault with intent to murder. He is charged with attacking the man, a woman and a dog with a hammer on March 23, 2016, at the Southwood Acres apartment complex in Westfield. Hinds lived in one apartment and the victims lived in another. Goldblatt said a tattoo on the male victim's arm is associated with white supremacist groups. She wanted to call a "gang expert" to testify about the tattoos used by such groups and an associate professor of anthropology to testify about how such symbols are used by sympathizers to identify each other. After several days of hearings, including questioning of both proposed defense experts by prosecution and defense, Ricciardone excluded their testimony from the upcoming trial. He said he heard no evidence linking the victim -- or the victim's tattoo -- with any racist or white supremacist groups. Assistant District Attorney Janine M. Simonian argued the tattoo has nothing to do with the incident. She noted the male victim is Asian, not white. She said the defense has shown no connection between the tattoo and any white supremacist groups. The victim has no such sympathies or affiliations, she said. Goldblatt, after hearing Ricciardone's rulings, said the judge was taking away Hinds' right to a fair trial. Ricciardone said depictions submitted by the defense of tattoos used by the 211 Bootboys of New York and the 211 prison gang do not match the distinctive font of the victim's tattoo. He said even if the victim's tattoo says 211, which the victim says it doesn't, there is no link to the white supremacist groups. There was some testimony the tattoo has an "M" instead of the number 211, Ricciardone said. Or it could be 217, the judge said. Goldblatt acknowledged there was nothing else to connect the victim with white supremacist feelings except the tattoo. SPRINGFIELD -- A Hampden Superior Court judge has set bail for a Springfield murder defendant at $20,000, saying "at this time the strength of the Commonwealth's case appears to be poor." Judge Michael K. Callan wrote in his decision to set bail for Miguel Fonseca-Colon, "The defendant's presentation (consisting of two extremely detailed affidavits totaling 99 separate paragraphs, several attachments and a memorandum) regarding reasonable doubt, if not innocence was comprehensive and convincing." "The Commonwealth filed no written opposition, affidavits or documents, and overall offered very little to support the alleged strength of its case," he wrote in a decision dated Wednesday. Fonseca-Colon, 35, is charged with murder in connection with the death of a 5-month-old child in Springfield in January 2013. He has been held for more than four years on the charge. He was a friend of the child's mother but was not the baby's father, according to court records. Fonseca-Colon is represented by defense lawyers David P. Hoose and Jeffrey S. Brown. The prosecutor on the case for years had been Jane Mulqueen, who is now a Superior Court judge. The prosecutor is now Assistant District Attorney Rachael T. Eramo. The defense lawyers, at an Aug. 29 bail hearing, asked that bail be set at $500 for Fonseca-Colon. James Leydon, spokesman for Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, said the commonwealth did present an argument to Callan regarding the public safety and flight issues surrounding Fonseca-Colon. He said it would be unusual for the prosecution to present any written arguments during a bail hearing, and it did not do that here. Fonseca-Colon was first indicted in August 2014, and had been held in jail awaiting trial since then. But on Oct. 14, 2016, a Hampden Superior Court judge dismissed the indictment. Judge Tina S. Page, in her ruling, said prosecutors failed to present to the grand jury videotaped statements from the baby's mother, Diana Llanos, and aunt. She said the prosecution "simply presented select statements and elicited testimony from the two women that supported its theory of the case." Mulqueen then secured a Springfield District Court warrant charging Fonseca-Colon with the murder again. Fonseca-Colon again denied the murder charge. When Fonseca-Colon was arrested on the District Court warrant in October 2016, Hoose argued his client should be released on personal recognizance with GPS monitoring. But he was ordered held without right to bail. Callan wrote in his bail decision this week that there are many avenues for the defense to pursue in the case. He said there was "erratic and exculpatory testimony from the percipient witnesses against this defendant." "There appear to be severe credibility issues with several witnesses as well," he wrote. Leydon said some of the issues brought forth during the bail hearing will be addressed at the appropriate time at trial. LUDLOW - Police are asking for help to find a man who has been missing for five days and is considered endangered. Christopher W. Ganieany, 26, was last seen on Saturday and his family and friends are concerned for his safety, Lt. Daniel Valadas said. He is white and has long, light brown hair. He is about 6 feet, 1 inch tall, weighs about 180 pounds and has a distinctive tattoo of a skull and roses on his chest, he said. Ganieany was last seen at the Big Y in South Hadley. At the time he was wearing a black sweatshirt, grey sweatpants and black shoes, he said. He typically spends most of his time in Ludlow but more recently he has been in Chicopee, South Hadley, Holyoke in the Maple and Chestnut street area, on Riverdale Road in West Springfield and in Indian Orchard in Springfield, Valadas said. Anyone with information about Ganieany's location or who may have seen him since Sept. 1 is asked to contact Ludlow police at 413-583-8305. GREENFIELD -- An introduction to the marijuana industry will be the topic of a workshop set for 6 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 27 at Greenfield Community College's Downtown Center, 270 Main St. "This is our first workshop on this topic and we plan to offer more in this semester," Alyce Stiles, dean of workforce development and community education at the college, said in a phone interview Thursday. The college is offering the workshop with Patriot Care, which operates a medical marijuana dispensary at 7 Legion Ave. The workshop is free but registration is required. Capacity at the venue is 85 to 90 people, Stiles said. "We're excited to raise awareness and talk about this topic," she said. Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 and legalized marijuana for medical use in 2012. The workshop will be an introduction to the industry as well as a preview for a more comprehensive workshop to be held later this year, Stiles said. "We developed this workshop to serve the broader Greenfield community in the most impactful manner possible and we are looking forward to educating the public about the cannabis industry," Nicholas Vita, chief executive officer of Columbia Care, parent company of Patriot Care, said in a press release. Topics at the workshop will include, the press release said: overview of the marijuana industry, including current and future issues analysis of Massachusetts regulations of medical and recreational marijuana careers in the industry and requirements for such jobs challenges faced by those who operate marijuana businesses. "The workshop is designed to bring together and educate anyone interested in working in, operating, or investing in the regulated marijuana industry," Stiles said in the press release. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday he's supporting the full GOP ticket in November. "I've endorsed the ticket, which I said I was going to do months ago, yeah," Baker told reporters at the State House when asked whether he'll be endorsing state Rep. Geoff Diehl, the GOP nominee who is taking on Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Baker, a Swampscott Republican, and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, a former state representative from Shrewsbury, are running for second four-year terms. Baker on Tuesday easily fended off a challenge from anti-gay Springfield pastor Scott Lively, who repeatedly criticized Baker for not supporting President Donald Trump. Baker now faces Jay Gonzalez, a Needham Democrat who headed up Gov. Deval Patrick's budget office, in the Nov. 6 general election. Gonzalez said Friday that Baker, in his endorsement of Diehl, is supporting a "right-wing extremist" who served as Trump's presidential campaign co-chair in Massachusetts. "By helping Geoff Diehl, Charlie Baker is effectively supporting Donald Trump's agenda," Gonzalez said. "I honestly can't believe he's doing it," he added. "And I'm going to be offering people a very different choice in this election." Gonzalez is slated to appear with Warren at a noontime rally Sunday in Cambridge, while Baker and Diehl will both be attending a Plymouth County GOP unity breakfast in Middleborough on Saturday. Diehl has slammed Warren as a divisive politician who is focused on running for president in 2020. Warren, a Cambridge Democrat and Harvard professor, is seeking a second six-year term in the US Senate. Baker, who blanked the 2016 presidential ballot rather than voting for either Trump or Hillary Clinton, has touted a bipartisan governing style, working with a Democrat-dominated state Legislature to sign bills on climate change, gun control, and a $15 an hour minimum wage. That apparently extends to his re-election effort, too: He announced this week that longtime Democratic philanthropist Jack Connors is serving as the Baker-Polito campaign chairman. Earlier this week, the governor declined to say who got his vote in the Sept. 4 GOP Senate primary between Diehl, former Mitt Romney aide Beth Lindstrom and Winchester businessman John Kingston. But Baker, who also hits the trail for Republicans whose views he's disagreed with, campaigned for Diehl in the 2015 election cycle, when the Whitman Republican was unsuccessfully sought a state Senate seat during a special election. "Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito are focused on running their own campaign by communicating directly with voters about their record of results, look forward to supporting the GOP ticket, and remain committed to leading an efficient and accountable state government," Terry MacCormack said Friday in an email. Others on the GOP 2018 ticket include Bourne Attorney and Trump supporter Jay McMahon, who is taking on incumbent Attorney General Maura Healey, a Charlestown Democrat; state Rep. Keiko Orrall, a candidate for treasurer against incumbent Democrat Deb Goldberg; secretary of state candidate Anthony Amore, who is running against longtime incumbent Bill Galvin; and candidate for state auditor Helen Brady, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Suzanne Bump. Baker said he also plans to support incumbent GOP state lawmakers. "I think in some respects, those are people we know, those are people we work with, and those are folks who can help us pursue our agenda up here on Beacon Hill," he said. Asked about whether he plans to back GOP challengers to incumbent Democrats as well, Baker said, "I guess that depends to some extent on time. I mean, we have a race and we plan to spend most of the next 58 days focused on ours." SPRINGFIELD -- Denise R. Jordan, longtime chief of staff to Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, has been approved by the state to lead the Springfield Housing Authority. The five-member authority, which oversees public housing in Springfield, unanimously selected Jordan to be the agency's next executive director in May. But her appointment was delayed pending drafting of a contract and review by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. A successor for Jordan in the mayor's office is expected to be announced in the coming days. (Update: On Saturday morning, The Republican confirmed City Councilor Thomas Ashe would be named Sarno's new chief of staff. See Story below.) Jordan's start date at the housing authority wasn't immediately clear. "I'd like to thank Denise for her service to the citizens of Springfield and my administration," Sarno said in a statement Friday evening. "Denise has been by my side for the past 10 years through some of the most challenging times in the history of our City. She has been a confidant and a very valuable part of my administration and I will miss her. However, I wish her well in her new role as Executive Director of the Springfield Housing Authority (SHA) and I look forward to working with her in that capacity. This is bittersweet for me. My loss is the SHA's gain." Jordan has been Sarno's chief of staff since he took office in 2008. She previously worked as a civil rights officer with the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services. "It's been an honor and a privilege to be a part of some of the great things we've done under the Sarno administration," Jordan said in May. "It's been a hell of ride and I'm going to really miss it." Jordan succeeds William H. Abrashkin, who retired Aug. 1, 2017, after nine years as executive director of the Springfield Housing Authority. Abrashkin has stayed on the job on a part-time basis since his retirement to assist with the transition to a new director. The Springfield Housing Authority lists itself as the second-largest housing authority in the state, with 2,397 traditional public housing units located at 27 sites throughout the city, 240 Massachusetts rental vouchers and 2,893 Housing Choice vouchers. Jordan has a master's degree in human resource development from American International College in Springfield and a bachelor's degree in political science from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Her father, former state Rep. Raymond A. Jordan, retired after being senior community building-state coordinator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Reportedly, Rahmans concert to be held on September 9 at Orlandos CFEs Arena will be a charity fundraiser for Kerala flood victims. Following the massive floods that caused large-scale devastation in the state of Kerala, there has been an outpouring of support from the entire country. And legendary music composer AR Rahman is the latest celebrity to chip in. After singing a song to raise awareness about the plight of the Kerala flood victims, Rahman and his team of artistes who are currently touring the USA, have donated Rs 1 crore to Gods Own Country. Sharing the news on Facebook, the maestro writes, From my artistes and me touring the USA to our brothers and sisters of Kerala! May this small offering help in providing you some relief! (sic). And his generosity doesnt end there. Reportedly, Rahmans concert to be held on September 9 at Orlandos CFEs Arena will be a charity fundraiser for Kerala flood victims. He was accompanied on the occasion by Javed Ali, Hariharan, Udit Narayanan, Ranjith Barot, Jonita Gandhi and Neeti Mohan. SPRINGFIELD -- Friends of retired Springfield District Court Judge William J. Boyle have two ways to honor him. A retirement celebration for Boyle will be held Oct. 12 at the Lusitano Club in Ludlow. And the Hampden County Bar Association is accepting donations to go toward the cost of a portrait of Boyle that will be displayed in a courtroom at the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse in Springfield. Boyle announced his retirement last month, citing his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The Oct. 12 event in Ludlow begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person or $50 per couple and are available at the Hampden County Bar Association, located on the first floor of the courthouse at 50 State St., or by calling 413-732-4660. Persons wanting to help with the costs of the portrait should make checks payable to the Hampden County Bar Association Judicial Portrait Fund with a note that it is for Boyle's portrait. Boyle is a former Hampden County assistant district attorney and was president of the Springfield City Council from 1993-98. He became a judge 19 years ago, and was elevated to first justice of the Springfield District Court in 2006, taking over for Judge Robert Kumor Jr., who also suffered from ALS and died from complications of the disease in 2013. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. "As many of you may know, I have been battling ALS for the last year or so and recently have found it increasingly more difficult to appear in court and attend to my other duties as First Justice," Boyle wrote in a letter to the area legal community last month. "I am truly grateful for all of the kindness shown to me by so many of you as I've struggled with this debilitating disease." BRIMFIELD -- Haven't been to the Brimfield Antique Flea Markets yet this year? No sweat. You still have three days before the six-day September show ends the 2018 season on Sunday. The half-baked souls here on Thursday had to sweat out the heat advisory issued by the National Weather Service. Normally, there are large crowds here, even on a weekday. Not so much on Thursday. "It's the heat," said Marie Hughes, of Marlborough, Connecticut, standing in a shaded area. Hughes said the September show is her favorite. "It's not about the buying," she said. "It's about the experience." Nancy Hurd and Pat Brown, both of Rochester, New Hampshire, are regulars at Brimfield, so they speak with experience. "September is a good show," Hurd said. "The dealers want to get rid of their stuff so they don't have to lug it back with them." The Brimfield markets are actually about 20 different, privately operated properties located on both sides of a one-mile stretch of Route 20. There are thousands of dealers. Some have been coming here for years. "I'll probably die here," one dealer said Thursday. "I'd rather die in the middle of the lake with my fishing pole and a canoe." Don't mind him. That was the heat talking. There is still time to visit the flea markets on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. And the heat will be turned down. The high in Brimfield will be 75 degrees on Friday, 72 degrees on Saturday and 66 degrees on Sunday. On Thursday, Red Rabbit Vintage dealers Johnny Deary, Joshua Walters and David Almond decided to grin and bare it to beat the heat. All three went shirtless. A group of Southampton elementary school students were evacuated from their school bus Friday morning after the bus began to fill with smoke and the bus driver reported a potential fire. Around 8:22 a.m., Southampton police officers and firefighters responded to Country Road, where a bus carrying students from William E Norris Elementary School had become disabled. "Upon arrival by responding units there was no fire showing. However there was a a strong odor of burning brakes," police wrote in a Facebook post. "The bus driver advised that at one point there was a lot of smoke in the bus." All students were uninjured and were standing on the sidewalk down the road from the bus, and the principal of the school arrived at the scene to check on them, police said. No open flame was found, but firefighters used a thermal imaging device and found that the right rear well was "extremely warm." Students were taken to school by an alternate bus. "No students were injured and the bus driver did a great job and acted appropriately by evacuating the bus and reporting a possible fire," police wrote. "Also the students did a fantastic job evacuating the bus and staying together in a orderly fashion and were very well behaved." Dan Koh, who appeared to have lost the Democratic primary for the Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District by a razor-thin margin, has announced that his campaign will ask for a recount. Once 100 percent of the district's precincts reported initial results on Wednesday, Koh was down by just 52 votes out of the 82,000 cast. Lori Trahan announced her victory late Tuesday night when 99 percent of the votes were in. As of 10:30 Wednesday morning, all precincts had reported results, which showed Trahan ahead with 18,368 votes, or 21.6 percent, to Koh's 18,316 votes, or 21.6 percent. "As we have said since Tuesday, Dan is committed to making sure all ballots are counted," Koh's campaign wrote in a statement released Friday. "That is why we will be filing for a recount later today. We want the process to progress as swiftly as possible so that the ultimate nominee will have adequate time and resources to win in November." 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. The two were among 10 Democratic candidates vying for the seat, which is now held by retiring U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas. The other candidates were 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. The winner will face Republican Rick Green of Pepperell in November. "We're going to claim victory," Trahan 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." The 3rd Congressional District includes 37 towns and cities in Essex, Middlesex and Worcester counties. Yarmouth Sgt. Sean Gannon was killed in 2018 by a career criminal with over a dozen arrests and 100 charges on his rap sheet. On Thursday, after Gov. Charlie Baker rolled out a bill proposing reforms to how prosecutors and judges categorize someone as "dangerous," Yarmouth Police Chief Frank Frederickson called the bill "a big deal." "It's about fairness," Frederickson said. "We ask with this current system we're working under, was that fair to the Tarentino family? Was it fair to the Gannon family? Was it fair to the Chesna family? And is it fair to Mrs. Adams and her family?" Weymouth Sgt. Michael Chesna and bystander Vera Adams were shot in July by Emanuel Lopes, a twice-arrested 20-year-old man. Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino was killed in 2016 by a man who also had previous run-ins with the law, including threatening State Police troopers. Currently, a judge can hold a "dangerousness hearing" and incarcerate someone pre-trial if they are charged with specific crimes and under specific circumstances. Baker's bill would broaden the circumstances under which a criminal could be held as dangerous, rather than let out on bail. Baker's bill would, for the first time, let judges consider someone's criminal history in deciding whether they are dangerous -- rather than considering just the crime they are currently in court for. It would let the police arrest someone for breaking conditions of their release, rather than requiring the police to first obtain a court warrant. A person's bail could be revoked for violating a condition of release. The bill would expand the lists of crimes that could justify calling someone dangerous and let people be held for longer periods of time. The bill would improve notification for victims when an offender is released and create a new felony offense of cutting off a court-ordered GPS monitoring device. The bill would also let prosecutors, rather than just defense attorneys, appeal a judge's decision to release someone -- a policy that a number of Springfield officials have been pushing for. Although the Legislature is unlikely to consider a major bill before they return in January, and lawmakers are expected to make major changes of their own, Baker is staking out his position as he moves into his general election campaign against Democrat Jay Gonzalez. At a press conference announcing the bill, Baker said the bill "gives DAs and courts the full range of tools that would keep dangerous people off our streets." Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno has complained in the past that Springfield area trial judges have been granting low bail to repeat offenders, who return to the streets. Recently, some Republican lawmakers have been pushing for the removal of Salem Judge Timothy Feeley for doling out light sentences. Baker said judges "are only going to be as good as the information that's in front of them." "If we want hold judges more accountable, we need to create a toolbox that puts more information and better tools in front of them so they and the prosecution are in a position to do something about these issues that are currently off-limits," Baker said. Bob Harnais, a defense attorney and past president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, said there has been a lot of criticism of judges based on decisions they made. "What the public didn't understand was judges' hands were tied in many cases," Harnais said. If the bill passes, Harnais said, judges will be able to make a "much more informed decision based on a person's past." Boston Police Commissioner William Gross, who spoke at a press conference with Baker, said the reforms will "bring a sense of justice to our community and bring a sense of justice to the victims," and will go a long way toward eliminating situations where violent criminals are repeatedly released. Hrithik Roshan took notice of a fan who recreated his Super 30 first look with a lipstick. After a young fan expressed her love for Hrithik Roshan by painting a portrait with lipstick, the Superstar took to Twitter to reply to the fan. The unique sketch featured Hrithik Roshan in his bearded look from Super 30 which soon spread on social media like wildfire. Hrithik's fan Anamika Sharma shared the creative on her social media handle and tweeted, "To the sexiest teacher with love". Hrithik Roshan came across the special gesture by the fan and today he replied to her by quoting tweeting her post and wrote," Thank you for such a sweet gesture. Sending your way loads of love and a surprise. I hope it surprises you too :)" Hrithik Roshan enjoys a massive fandom globally and is also celebrated as one of the most handsome as well as one of the sexiest men in the world. The social media rage which was witnessed when his Super 30 poster came is a testimony to the above statement. Marking the occasion of Teacher's Day, the makers of Super 30 had released the first look posters of the film creating an immense buzz amongst the audience. The audience and critics have been lauding the actor for his incredible transformation as a Patna based math teacher as he steps into the shoes of math wizard Anand Kumar. The Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety actor didnt mind being honest about what aspect of the actress turns him on. Kartik Aaryan and Katrina Kaif are yet to work together in a film. Mumbai: Its never surprising for anyone to go gaga over Katrina Kaif as its a no-brainer, she is gorgeous and sultry. And its not surprising to see an actor praise her either, Salman Khan and most of her co-actors usually rave about the actress. But for an established actor to confess that he wants to make babies with Katrina is surely out of the blue. The person who didnt mince words while making the statement was Kartik Aaryan, who is currently riding high on the 100-crore success of Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. The actor appeared on a new chat show, Feet Up with the Stars, hosted by well-known fashion designer Anaita Shroff Adajania, wife of Cocktail and Finding Fanney director Homi Adajania, for a streaming platform. The teaser of the episode has been shared on Instagram by Anaita, in which we see the host put up a tricky question, Who would you do like to make babies with? Kartik said in an instant, Katrina. He also revealed the reason, slightly unusual one, nothing about the beauty or hotness, saying, I have a thing for accents. The actress today is relatively more fluent in Hindi than before, but courtesy her British upbringing, the accent is still very much there. But if it turns someone on, then what's the harm the? From newcomers, Kartik has now moved on to working with the A-listers now, walking the ramp with Kareena Kapoor Khan, and signing films opposite Kriti Sanon and Jacqueline Fernandez. So we hope he gets a chance to make babies with Katrina, maybe as an on-screen couple in a film at least, as in real life were not sure of it with his rumoured girlfriend Dimple Sharma around. This study covers the market dynamics and trends in major countries that are expected to influence the current market scenario and future status of the Global Ayurveda Market over the forecast period. Global Ayurveda Market Competitive Analysis Key players are more focusing on the expansion of Ayurveda business across the globe which is contributing around 40% of strategy share. After expansion, key players are acquiring companies to strengthen their presence and to get an edge over increasing competition. R&D, partnership, and product launch contribute equally (~10%) in the strategic share of key players in Ayurveda market. Get Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6166 Key Players: The Global Ayurveda Market is led by some of the fervent players including Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd, Dabur, Baidyanath Group, Charak Pharma, Hamdard laboratories, Vicco Labs, and Emami Group Market Scenario: Ayurveda, although a traditional Indian healing system, worldwide, it has long been recognized as an effective alternative treatment, being offered in therapeutic practices. It takes a holistic approach to health, promoting daily maintenance of the mind, body, and soul, striking a balance between the two which further reduces the risk of needing major medical intervention in the future. Alongside the recognition, Ayurveda has also garnered huge popularity across the globe. Online and store-based distribution channels are availing various therapeutic-grade Ayurveda products, offering the convenience of purchasing. Resultantly, the global Ayurveda market is growing pervasively, witnessing augmented uptake of Ayurveda as an alternative medicine practice. All these factors such as advantages, awareness, and accessibility cumulatively drive the Ayurveda market on the global platform. Acknowledging the traction this market perceives today, Market Research Future (MRFR) in its recently published study report asserts that the already booming market of Ayurveda is expected to gain fabulous accruals registering a phenomenal CAGR during 2017-2023. Improving economic conditions worldwide are fuelling the urbanization, further ushering in the problems of the changing lifestyle. Simultaneously, the improving economy is fostering the market growth, enhancing the quality of life of people making the best healthcare available to them. The non-invasive nature of Ayurveda is also one of the key factors fostering the market growth exclusively. Conversely, there are some growth restraining factors as well that are expected to hinder the market growth. These factors are stringent regulations about the obligatory differentiation label on the product citing therapeutic grade or cosmetic grade products, and lack of expertise Also, the fact that there is no solid medical evidence that Ayurveda prevents or cures diseases mentioned above, is impeding the market growth up to some extent. Industry/innovation/Related News: April 25, 2018 Hanna, LLC (US), an Ayurvedic-influenced company announced the launch of its new product HANAH Cordyceps+, wild-harvested from the Bhutanese Himalayas. The new product is a powerful combination of wild Bhutanese Cordyceps sinensis, a rare Himalayan medicinal mushroom, with eight other herbs and minerals all wild harvested from the untouched Bhutanese Himalayas. August 14, 2018 India Ministry of AYUSH introduced new Central Sector scheme for promoting pharmacovigilance of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy (ASU&H) Drugs. The prime objective of the scheme is to develop the culture of documenting adverse effects and undertake safety monitoring of these alternative therapies including Ayurveda and Homoeopathy alongside surveillance of misleading advertisements appearing in the print and electronic media. The scheme intends to facilitate the establishment of a three-tier network of National Pharmacovigilance Centre (NPvCC), Intermediary Pharmacovigilance Centres (IPvCCs) and Peripheral Pharmacovigilance Centres (PPvCC). Global Ayurveda Market Segments: The MRFR analysis is segmented into seven key dynamics; By Applications : Medicinal, and Personal Care among others. By Disease Pattern : Respiratory System, Nervous Systems, Gastrointestinal Track, Cardiovascular System, Infectious Diseases, Skeletal System, Skin & Hair among others. By Sources : Vegetable (leaves and fruit, seeds, roots, bark and other), Animals (oils, bones, and other) and Minerals. By Forms : Herbal, Herbomineral, and Mineral among others. By End-Users : Academia & Research Centers, Hospitals, and Clinics among others. By Distributions : Organized, and Over the Counter among others. By Regions : North America, Europe, APAC and the Rest-of-the-World. Get Valuable Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6166 Global Ayurveda Market Regional Analysis The Asia Pacific region is estimated to dominate the market with the largest market share in terms of revenue and size both, followed by North America and Europe respectively. Led by China and India, the region is expected to emerge as the fastest growing market for Ayurveda, owing to their rich traditions of herbal medicines. Besides the APAC region is the largest producer of ayurvedic products including medicinal products which is undoubtedly impacting the regional market growth positively. North America accounts for one of the growing markets for Ayurveda owing to the high per capita income and healthcare expenditures, the U.S. and Canada are major markets for Ayurveda in the region. Strong potential of Ayurveda products, rising application areas and therapeutic applications in cosmetics and personal care are supporting market growth in the region. Whereas, in Europe, another promising market for Ayurveda, France, Italy, and Germany are major Ayurveda products market. Increasing popularity of Ayurveda as therapeutics and pharmaceuticals is supporting the Ayurveda market in the region. High disposable income and the presence of large facilities especially in France and Germany drive the regional market growth. Table of Content: 1 Report Prologue 2 Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope of the Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations 2.3 Market Structure 2.4. Market Segmentation 3 Research Methodology 3.1 Research Process 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation 3.5 Forecast Model 4 Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restraints 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Mega Trends 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators Continued! Report Enquiry @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/6166 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 Biopsies and bronchoscopies are the gold standard for diagnosing lung diseases, including pneumonia and cancer. However, these procedures are difficult to provide, requiring general anesthesia and an operating room. Deton hopes to simplify the process. The Pasadena-based company takes advantage of the lungs natural reaction to bacteria or particles coughing it out. Rather than invasively sampling lung tissue within the lungs, Detons patented technology samples the particles ejected from the lungs. The expelled cough sample is then read by a point-of-care analyzer or sent to a lab. When a person coughs, its the bodys natural way of expelling any extra bacteria in the lungs, Co-Founder and COO Ramzi Nasr points out. Any DNA can come out so it makes sense to use this mechanism and leverage that when were trying to access the lung non-invasively. Patrick Sislian, Co-Founder and CEO, says that the technology has two key advantages over traditional bronchoscopy and biopsy: its much quicker and less expensive. For instance, the exact bacterial species causing a case of pneumonia could be identified using a point-of-care test rather than waiting to see a pulmonologist, reducing the time spent on empiric antibiotics that may or may not work for that particular infection. It takes about 10 minutes to obtain a sample, Sislian says. As a result, the patient can receive tailored antibiotics within hours rather than days. Youre saving the patient trouble, and youre saving the system money. Another important use case is lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. If a CT scan shows a suspicious lung nodule, the current protocol is to wait a few months, repeat the CT scan, and obtain a lung biopsy if the mass has enlarged. Detons goal is that an aerosol biopsy could be obtained immediately after seeing the first CT scan, either detecting cancerous cells or ruling out lung cancer months earlier than before. So far, the technology has been tested in patients with cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes recurrent lung infections. In a sample of a hundred patients from the University of California, San Diego, the companys aerosol biopsy showed 94% sensitivity in detecting Pseudomonas, one of the major bacterial causes of pneumonia in cystic fibrosis. While more research and fine-tuning will be needed before the aerosol biopsy is used in hospitals, the company aims to commercialize its technology for lung research use within the next two years. The lungs are very difficult to access without invasive methods, Nasr points out. Its very hard to recruit a healthy control baseline of subjects that are willing to be in a study where [samples] are going to be invasively collected from the lungs. As such, Deton aims to fill a major need in lung research. Since idea conception in 2012 and the first commercialization efforts in 2016, the company has moved quickly, raising $1.8 million in government grants and investments and is in the process of raising a $2 million seed round. Sislian acknowledges the skepticism that some might have about the aerosol biopsies. The key to overcoming [that] is data, he says. So we want to build our data, and were very conscious about having data to back us up every step of the way. With more data in hand, Deton hopes to replace traditional lung biopsies and bronchoscopies with something much more efficient, less expensive, and less invasive. Learn more at Detons homepage The global cerebral palsy market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. Cerebral palsy (CP) refers to a group of neurological conditions that affect muscle movement and coordination. CP can be caused by damage that occurs to the immature developing brain of an infant. In addition to this, other possible causes of CP include asphyxia neonatorum, bleeding into the brain, brain infections, and severe jaundice in the infants. Cerebral palsy is the most common form of childhood disability. According to the Cerebral Palsy Guidance, around 10,000 babies are born each year in the US with cerebral palsy. The global cerebral palsy market is driving owing to the growing prevalence of cerebral palsy coupled with increasing awareness about the condition. Moreover, the growing adoptions of medications for controlling the symptoms of the cerebral palsy are anticipated to propel the market growth. Additionally, increasing expenditure for the healthcare sector in developed economies and increasing insurance coverage contribute to the growth of the market. Get Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6334 Despite the drivers, side effects associated with medications and high treatment cost and lack of awareness in some developing regions may hamper the market growth during the assessment period. Segmentation The global cerebral palsy market has been segmented into type, diagnosis, and treatment. The market, on the basis of type, has been segmented into spastic cerebral palsy, dyskinetic cerebral palsy, hypotonic cerebral palsy, ataxic cerebral palsy, and mixed cerebral palsy. The market, by diagnosis, has been segmented into imaging tests and others. The imaging tests have been further segmented into magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cranial ultrasound, computed tomography, and electroencephalogram. The market, by treatment, has been segmented into therapy, medication, surgery, and others. The therapy segment has been segmented into nutrition therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, stem cell therapy, and others. The medication segment has been segmented into anti-convulsant drugs, muscle relaxants, anti-depressant drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, and others. Further, the surgery segment has been segmented into orthopedic surgery and others. The market has been segmented, by region, into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The cerebral palsy market in the Americas has further been segmented into North America and South America, with the North American market divided into the US and Canada. The European cerebral palsy market has been segmented into Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe has further been classified as Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. The cerebral palsy market in Asia-Pacific has been segmented into Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. The cerebral palsy market in the Middle East & Africa has been segmented into the Middle East and Africa. Key players Allergen Plc, Cellular Biomedicine Group, Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Abbott Laboratories, Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., Medtronic, Meridigen Biotech Co., Ltd., GW Pharmaceuticals Plc, and Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd. are some of the key players in the global cerebral palsy market. Regional Market Summary Geographically, the Americas is anticipated to dominate the global cerebral palsy market owing to a well-developed healthcare sector, rising prevalence of cerebral palsy and growing healthcare expenditure. Additionally, favorable reimbursement scenario in this region and a relatively large number of research and development (R&D) activities contributes to the growth of the market. Europe is expected to hold the second largest position in the global cerebral palsy market. The market growth in this region is attributed to the growing prevalence of cerebral palsy, availability of funds for research, and increasing healthcare expenditure. According to the data stated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2017, in the UK, it is estimated that 1 in 400 babies are born with cerebral palsy. It also stated that approximately 1,800 children diagnosed with CP each year. The cerebral palsy market in Asia-Pacific region consists of countries namely China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, Australia and Rest of Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing region in the market due to the presence of a huge patient population, continuously developing economies, rising prevalence of cerebral palsy and increasing government funding for the healthcare sector. On the other hand, the Middle East & Africa has the least share of the market. Majority of the market of this region is expected to be held by the Middle East region due to a well-developed healthcare sector and growing government initiatives for the healthcare sector. Apply for Exclusive Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6334 Detailed Table of Contents: 1. Report Prologue 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope Of The Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restrains 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment 5. Market Factor Analysis 5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis 5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers 5.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Buyers 5.1.3 Threat Of New Entrants 5.1.4 Threat Of Substitutes 5.1.5 Intensity Of Rivalry Continued Send An Enquiry @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/6334 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 study report worldwide Healthcare Games and Simulation Market covers the market analysis for the regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific/ Southeast Asia and Row and country analysis of China, Japan, and India focusing on top manufacturers in world market and the market share they hold including their contribution to the market growth Market Scenario: Global Healthcare Games and Simulation Market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. Healthcare games and simulation are considered to be one of the fastest growing technologies globally. Healthcare simulation is the advanced methodology for the education and training of the healthcare professionals through the use of advanced educational technology. Numerous factors such as growing population, new technological advancements, growing focus on patient safety, increasing mortality rate due to medical errors and benefits of simulation over traditional learning are anticipated to drive the growth of the market during the assessment period. Despite the drivers, the high cost of healthcare simulators can hamper the market growth during the forecast period. Get Premium Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/750 Global Healthcare Games and Simulation Market Top Key Players: Laerdal Medical AS Gaumard Scientific Company, Inc. CAE, Inc. 3D Systems Inc. Surgical Science Sweden AB Simulab Corporation Limbs & Things, Ltd. Simulaids, Inc. Mentice AB Kyoto Kagaku Co., Ltd. MedaPhor Ltd. Segmentation: The Global Healthcare Games and Simulation Market has been segmented into healthcare simulation products and services, healthcare game types, software, and end-user. The market on the basis of healthcare simulation products and services has been segmented into anatomical models, web-based simulation, and simulation training services. The anatomical models segment has been further segmented into patient monitors, task trainers, interventional/surgical simulators, endovascular simulators, ultrasound simulators, dental simulators, and eye simulators. The patient simulators have been further segmented into high fidelity, medium fidelity, and low fidelity. Further, the interventional/surgical simulators have been segmented into laparoscopic surgical simulators, gynecology simulators, cardiovascular simulators, arthroscopic surgical simulators, and others. The simulation training services segment has been segmented into vendor-based training, educational societies, and custom consulting services. The market on the basis of healthcare games has been segmented into serious games, fitness games, and others. The market, by software type, has been segmented into virtual tutors, performance recording software, and preoperative planning software. On the basis of end-user, the market has been segmented into academic institutes, hospitals, and others. The market has been segmented, by region, into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The healthcare games and simulation market in the Americas has further been segmented into North America and South America, with the North American market divided into the US and Canada. The European healthcare games and simulation market has been segmented into Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe has further been classified as Germany, France, U.K, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. The healthcare games and simulation market in Asia-Pacific has been segmented into Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. The healthcare games and simulation market in the Middle East & Africa has been segmented into the Middle East and Africa. Get Valuable Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/750 Regional Market Summary: Geographically, the Americas is anticipated to dominate the global healthcare games and simulation market. The market growth in this region is attributed to the increasing adoption of healthcare simulation by the medical universities and training centers, the presence of a well-established healthcare system, and increasing number of deaths due to medical errors. According to an article published in Johns Hopkins Magazine, more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the US. Europe is expected to be the second largest market in the globe owing to the growing emphasis on computer-based learning through simulation, continuous innovation in technology, growing demand for non-invasive technologies, and increasing healthcare expenditure. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing market owing to the presence of a huge patient population, increasing disposable income, and growing healthcare expenditure. Moreover, the countries such as China, India, and Japan are continuously involved in technological advancements is likely to contribute to the growth of the market. The Middle East & Africa account for the lowest market share in the global healthcare games and simulation market due to low development, lack of technical knowledge, and poor medical facilities in developing economies in this region. Table of Contents: 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 Restraints 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment Continued! Get Reports Enquiry @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/750 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 sternal closure systems market is expected to register a CAGR of 5% and reach USD 2500 million during the forecast period. Open heart surgery is a huge success today. Sternum closure systems are used to close the sternum and are the last step in open heart surgery. This technique involves steel wires that are wrapped around the halves of the sternum to close it. The global sternal closure systems market is majorly driven by the rising geriatric population, alcohol and drugs abuse, the high prevalence of cardiac diseases, and growing penetration of key market players. Furthermore, raising awareness of healthcare, favorable reimbursement policies, increasing advanced technical devices, increasing innovations in research and development of medical devices, as well as rising average income of individuals, are fueling the market growth. However, factors such as high cost of devices, complicated and costly surgical procedures, and risks of getting infected due to sternum closure devices are likely to hamper the growth of the market. Lack of proper healthcare infrastructure, as well as awareness regarding cardiac diseases in middle-income countries, are also the major challenges to the market growth. Get Exclusive Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6137 Market Segmentation of Sternal Closure Systems Market: The global sternal closure systems market is segmented on the basis of product type, procedure, closure material type, and end-user. According to product type, the market is segmented into closure devices and bone cement. Closure devices are further segmented into wires, plates and screws, clips, and cables. Considering the type of procedure, the market is segmented into median sternotomy, bilateral thoracosternotomy, hemisternotomy, and others. According to the closure material type, the market is segmented into stainless steel, titanium, and others. On account of end-user, the market is segmented into, hospitals and clinics, research institutes, and others. Based on region the market is segmented into Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The American region is segmented into North America and South America. Similarly, Europe is segmented into Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Avail Premium Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6137 Top Players in Sternal Closure Systems Market: Depuy Synthes Zimmer Biomet Holdings Orthofix International N.V. A&E Medical Kinamed Incorporated Abyrx Jace Medical. Jeil Medical Corporation Acute Innovations Intended Audience Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Suppliers Medical Research Laboratories Research and Development (R&D) Companies Market Research and Consulting Service Providers Potential Investors Regional Analysis of Sternal Closure Systems Market: Americas is the global leader in the sternal closure systems market owing to increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases among older population due to their vulnerability to hypertension and obesity issues. As obesity, hypertension, and diabetes trigger cardiac diseases, this positively impacts the market growth of sternum closure devices. Additionally, factors such as increasing government initiatives and funding for research, development in advanced medical treatment options, and rising demand for technologically advanced treatments are likely to enhance the growth of the sternal closure systems market in the American region. For instance, according to American Heart Association, in 2014, around 31% of the deaths in the U.S. were due to cardiovascular disorders. Similarly, according to stats presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 2015, cardiac disease is responsible for approximately 15 million deaths each year across the globe. The same source also states that it is a major cause of death in adults and accounts for 50% of the total deaths worldwide. This alarming rate of cardiovascular disorders is expected to have a direct effect on the growth of the sternal closure systems market as it finds whole and sole application in cardiovascular disorders. The presence of pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer and Merk, etc. also propels the market growth in this region. Europe is the second largest market and holds a healthy share in the global sternal closure systems market. The European market is expected to grow during the forecast period due to major driving factors such as availability of advanced treatment facilities, increasing healthcare expenditure along with the growing need for better healthcare infrastructure, and government initiatives of healthcare reform. For instance, according to 2017 statistics presented by the European Society of Cardiology, there were more than 6 million new cases of cardiovascular diseases in the European Union and more than 11 million in Europe as a whole. Hence cardiovascular diseases being one of the major concerns in Europe contribute significantly to the market growth of this region. Additionally, Europe spent around 210 Euros in 2015 for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders. This rising healthcare expenditure due to cardiovascular disorders is expected to have a positive impact on the sternal closure systems market. But the popularity of minimally invasive procedures, as well as risks associated with open heart surgeries and close sternum devices, may hamper the market growth. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market. According to the report published by the United Nations in 2015, between 2015 and 2030, the number of older persons aged 60 years or over in the world is predicted to grow by 56%, out of which 66% of the older population would reside in the Asia Pacific region. This makes the region prone to metabolic disorders that would further aid the chances of cardiovascular diseases. Owing to the huge patient pool, a faster adaptation of healthcare technology, government initiatives to increase the healthcare quality, and availability of favorable insurance and reimbursement policies the market growth is likely to be accelerated during the forecast period. Moreover, key players such as Boston Scientific Corporation, Pfizer, and Merck, etc. have been setting up their regional headquarters and manufacturing plants in Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, and Australia. The growth curve of sternal closure systems market is likely to see a positive trend. However, on the other hand, factors such as lack of skilled healthcare professionals may slow down the market growth during the forecast period. For instance, according to the Global Burden of Disease Report in 2016, heart diseases is expected to lead to 1.7 million deaths in India. This rising prevalence of heart diseases is expected to propel the growth of the market. The Middle East and Africa is expected to show the least growth in the market due to some major factors such as lack of awareness and limited access and availability of treatment facilities. In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates is the largest market owing to the development of the healthcare industry and rising availability of specialty care centers. Major Table of Content for Sternal Closure Systems 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/6137 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 by Tanya Gazdik , September 6, 2018 Boutique luxury brand Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is launching what it calls a first-of-its-kind social experiment. The experience, called Room 301, is "rooted in the idea that commonalities and connections exist between all people -- no matter their background," according to Kimpton, which was acquired by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) family of hotel brands in 2015. The room will be available at the Kimpton Everly Hotel in Los Angeles for three months, with additional interactive activations at select Kimpton hotels across the country, including Kimpton Aertson Hotel in Nashville, the Kimpton Hotel Allegro in Chicago and the Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia. Guests who choose to stay in the immersive Room 301 will engage in a variety of in-room activities, with each element designed to spark creativity and encourage self-reflection. advertisement advertisement A 60-second teaser video invites guests to consider booking the room and directs them to kimptonroom301.com, a microsite with further details. The teaser video shows guests interacting with previous and future guests via an iPad, a guest book, and an instant photo camera. Allison+Partners created the teaser video, and Kimpton managed the website internally. Room 301 is available to book between Sept. 6 and Nov. 30 at 15% off the best flexible rate. For each guest who books Room 301, Kimpton will make a $10 donation to the guests choice of either The Trevor Project or No Kid Hungry, two of Kimptons nonprofit partners. We're curious about whether complete strangers can share meaningful connections, even though their stories only intersect in this shared experience of the same space at different times, according to the hotel. At the conclusion of the three-month run, Kimpton will assess and share the results of the experiment. "We hope to have some interesting insights that can inspire the way we continue to build community at our hotels and restaurants, says Kathleen Reidenbach, chief commercial officer at Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, in a release. "Room 301 is an extension of Kimpton's overarching Stay Human brand campaign, "grounded in the idea that in our world of rapid innovation and technology, we're actually craving more authentic connection, more personal experiences, more surprises -- in short, more humanity," Reidenbach says. by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, September 6, 2018 The Justice Department appears to be gearing up to investigate whether Google, Twitter and Facebook are squelching speech. The agency said this week in a widely circulated statement that Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to meet with state attorneys general "to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms." The news comes at a time when tech companies are increasingly under attack by conservatives for allegedly discriminating against right-wing views -- either by blocking posts, burying links to conservative commentary or, in at least one case, hindering monetization of conservative clips. advertisement advertisement Those accusations reached new heights last week, when President Trump made the astonishing claim that Google's search engine is "rigged" because it highlights stories from "Fake CNN." But even before Trump's pronouncement, Congress held more than one hearing at which conservatives denounced tech companies for allegedly suppressing right-wing opinions. Even Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai joined the chorus of voices condemning tech companies -- despite the agency's lack of jurisdiction over social media services or search engines. But while conservatives might condemn tech companies over their decisions about content, the law is on the tech companies' side. Courts have said over and over that Google, Facebook and other companies have every right to pick and choose what material to allow on their platforms, due to the First Amendment. That amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from either censoring or compelling speech. What's more, despite the energy some right-wingers are devoting to this issue, there's no evidence that tech companies actually block conservative content more frequently than liberal material. Ari Waldman, a professor at New York Law School, made that point when he testified to Congress earlier this year. "When victims of racist, homophobic, and sexist tweets and comments post those comments to call out the aggressors, it is often the victims that are suspended or banned," he said in prepared testimony. "Activists associates with the Black Lives Matter movement have reported just as many if not more take downs of images discussing racism and police brutality than any of the anecdotal evidence of suspensions or take downs on the right." by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, September 6, 2018 A Minnesota resident has dropped a lawsuit alleging that Google shared names and other personally identifiable information of people who purchased apps with developers, according to court papers filed last week. The court papers didn't give a reason for the withdrawal. The suit was originally brought last year by Adam Gurno, who said in a class-action complaint that he purchased nine apps totaling more than $26 from the Google PlayStore between 2012 and 2014. He alleged that Google transmitted his name, email address and ZIP code to the developers without his consent. Gurno's allegations stemmed from reports in 2013 that Google automatically shared app buyers' personal information with developers. Australian developer Dan Nolan revealed the transmissions in a blog post that criticized the data-sharing as a "massive, massive privacy issue." Google's privacy policy for Wallet said at the time that the company may disclose information that is necessary to process transactions. Google initially contended it was necessary to share users' data, because Google didn't process the purchase. In 2014, the company changed its practice. advertisement advertisement Google defeated two prior lawsuits with similar allegations, including a federal suit brought by app purchaser Alice Svenson, who alleged that Google transmitted her personal information to the developer YCDroid after she purchased an app that converts SMS messages to emails. U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California dismissed that matter in late 2016, ruling that Svenson hadn't shown that she was injured by the alleged data sharing. Freeman also said in her ruling that there was no evidence that YCDroid had ever viewed Svenson's personal data. by Ray Schultz , September 7, 2018 The Republican Governors Association sent an email blast on Thursday attacking Andrew Gillum, Floridas Democratic gubernatorial nominee, for comments he purportedly made, condemning Israel for killing Palestinians during recent violence. According to Florida Politics, Gillum said in a recent podcast that Israel had committed murder. The Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails, the RGA email says. According to a senior Hamas official, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed were members of the terrorist group Hamas, it continues. The email states that Gillum is too radical for Florida. The message is part of a nasty campaign in which racist robo-calls have been made to voters with someone pretending to be Gillum. advertisement advertisement The narrator speaks in an exaggerated minstrel dialect, with jungle noises in the background, NPR reports. The calls were paid for by The Road to Power, a neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic podcast operated by Scott Rhodes of Idaho, NPR continues. The RGA email also hit Gillums running made, businessman Chris King, an evangelical Christian who reportedly made an anti-Semitic comment when responding to a Harvard Crimson editorial: I was nailed to the cross. And most of the editorial staff that was so hard on me, the vast majority were Jewish. King has since apologized for the comment, saying he was 20 years old when he made it, according to Florida Politics. The RGA email concludes, Gillums condemnation of Israel and Kings past comments prove their campaign is one of the most radical in the nation and raises serious questions about the direction of their campaign. Gillum , the 39 year-old African-American mayor, of Tallahassee, is running against Republican Ron DeSantis, a strong supporter of President Trump. DeSantis has been criticized for saying, the last thing we need to do is to money this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda, which some critics call racist dog whistling, according to NPR. DeSantis has denied any such intent. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, September 7, 2018 Speaking at a Merrill Lynch 2018 Media conference on Friday in Beverly Hills, Calif., Matt Ellis, CFO, Verizon Communications, reiterated the company's commitment to Oath. He noted: Theres a significant opportunity for us there. While Ellis declined to comment on rumors, he said Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, a former Ericsson CEO, was on television a few weeks ago and made the companys allegiance to Oath clear. Ellis said the commitment has not changed just because he stepped into the CEO seat, and it is stronger today than it has ever been. When you look at whats been going on in Oath, theres a lot of activity on the integration. The team is making good progress there, Ellis said. He said the integration of ad tech platforms would be completed by around the end of the year. advertisement advertisement "Thats going to increase the efficiency of us going to market and working with partners." He contrasts that with the current system, when marketers "have to interact with us across multiple platforms, which creates a level of inefficiency. The integration will set the foundation of what Verizon expects to do with the Oath business in the future. Ellis also said there are many strong technology skills within the Oath business, some potentially under-used. The idea is to take that skill-set and apply it across the Verizon business. He also said Verizons goal is to take Oath from a $7 billion to $8 billion revenue business, to a $10 billion business by 2020. Saif Ali Khan played a prominent role in the film, and the filmmakers are hoping to give him a complete makeover for the sequel. Filmmaker duo Raj and DK, who are currently basking in the success of their horror-comedy Stree, are reportedly keen to begin work on their next project a sequel to Go Goa Gone. And they cant stop gushing about actor Saif Ali Khan, whom theyve worked with in the past. Saif is the most versatile actor I know. His comic timing is just crazy. We share the same sense of humour, and he gets it just right, says Raj, adding, He is up for wacky stuff, so its exciting to work with him. The entire Go Goa Gone gang is excited to get back into that world. The 2013 film Go Goa Gone was a zombie comedy that told the story of three friends Hardik (Kunal Kemmu), Luv (Vir Das) and Bunny (Anand Tiwari) whose dream holiday in Goa turns into a nightmare. Saif Ali Khan played a prominent role in the film, and the filmmakers are hoping to give him a complete makeover for the sequel. We have a couple of ideas in mind and we would love to give Saif a cool new look in this film, says DK. The film is expected to go on floors in March 2019. Meanwhile, the filmmakers are thrilled that Stree has been doing so well. Stree was very close to our hearts. While writing the film, we didnt know how would turn out. I am glad that people are liking it and waiting for a sequel, DK says. The Internet abounds with wellness blogs that recommend yoga for a better sex life, as well as personal accounts of the practice improving sexual experience often to an enviable degree. Does the research back up these claims, however? We investigate. Share on Pinterest Yoga can be a relaxing and enjoyable way to enhance our sex lives. Modern research is only just starting to unpack the numerous health benefits of the ancient practice of yoga. Some conditions that yoga reportedly helps with include depression, stress, and anxiety, as well as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and thyroid problems. Recent studies have also delved into the more complex mechanisms behind such benefits. It turns out that yoga lowers the bodys inflammatory response, counters the genetic expression that predisposes people to stress, lowers cortisol, and boosts a protein that helps the brain grow and stay young and healthy. On top of all its benefits, we must add, it just feels good. Sometimes if were to believe the hype around the mythical coregasm during yoga it feels really, really good. Getting in touch with our bodies can feel replenishing, restorative, and physically pleasurable. However, can yogas yummy poses improve our sex lives? We take a look at the research. Yoga improves sexual function in women One often-referenced study that was published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found that yoga can indeed improve sexual function particularly in women over the age of 45. Share on Pinterest The triangle pose was among those shown to improve sexual function particularly in older women. The study examined the effects of 12 weeks of yoga on 40 women who self-reported on their sexual function before and after the yoga sessions. After the 12-week period, the womens sexual function had significantly improved across all sections of the Female Sexual Function Index: desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain. As many as 75 percent of the women reported an improvement in their sex life after yoga training. As part of the study, all of the women were trained on 22 poses, or yogasanas, which are believed to improve core abdominal muscles, improve digestion, strengthen the pelvic floor, and improve mood. Some poses included trikonasana (also known as the triangle pose), bhujangasana (the snake), and ardha matsyendra mudra (half spinal twist). The full list of asanas can be accessed here. Yoga improves sexual function in men Yoga doesnt benefit just women. An analogous study led Dr. Vikas Dhikav, whos a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, examined the effects of a 12-week yoga program on the sexual satisfaction of men. Share on Pinterest The bow pose may improve sexual performance in men. At the end of the study period, the participants reported a significant improvement in their sexual function, as evaluated by the standard Male Sexual Quotient. The researchers found improvements across all aspects of male sexual satisfaction: desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, [and] orgasm. Also, a comparative trial carried out by the same team of researchers found that yoga is a viable and nonpharmacological alternative to fluoxetine (brand name Prozac) for treating premature ejaculation. It included 15 yoga poses, ranging from easier ones (such as Kapalbhati, which involves sitting with your back straight in a crossed-legged position, with the chest open, eyes closed, hands on knees, and abdominal muscles contracted) to more complex ones (such as dhanurasana, or the bow pose). Yogic mechanisms for better sex How does yoga improve ones sex life, exactly? A review of existing literature led by researchers at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, helps us elucidate some of its sex-enhancing mechanisms. Share on Pinterest Yoga could help partners enjoy better sex. Dr. Lori Brotto, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at UBC, is the first author of the review. Dr. Brotto and colleagues explain that yoga regulates attention and breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and regulates parasympathetic nervous activity that is, it activates the part of the nervous system that tells your body to stop, relax, rest, digest, lower the heart rate, and triggers any other metabolic processes that induce relaxation. All of these effects are associated with improvements in sexual response, write the reviewers, so it is reasonable that yoga might also be associated with improvements in sexual health. There are also psychological mechanisms at play. Female practitioners of yoga have been found to be less likely to objectify their bodies, explain Dr. Brotto and her colleagues, and to be more aware of their physical selves. This tendency, in turn, may be associated with increased sexual responsibility and assertiveness, and perhaps sexual desires. The power of the moola bandha It is safe to say that stories about releasing blocked energy in root chakras and moving kundalini energy up and down the spine to the point that it produces ejaculation-free male orgasms lack rigorous scientific evidence. However, other yogic concepts could make more sense to the skeptics among us. Moola bandha is one such concept. Moola bandha is a perineal contraction that stimulates the sensory-motor and the autonomic nervous system in the pelvic region, and therefore enforces parasympathetic activity in the body, write Dr. Brotto and her colleagues in their review. Specically, moola bandha is thought to directly innervate the gonads and perineal body/cervix. The video below incorporates the movement into a practice for pelvic floor muscles. Some studies quoted by the researchers have suggested that practicing moola bandha relieves period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, as well as treating premature ejaculation and controlling testosterone secretion in men. Moola bandha is similar to the modern, medically recommended Kegel exercises , which are thought to prevent urinary incontinence and help women (and men) enjoy sex for longer. In fact, many sex therapy centers recommend this yoga practice to help women become more aware of their sensations of arousal in the genital area, thus improving desire and sexual experience. [M]oola bandha stretches the muscles of the pelvic oor, [] balances, stimulates, and rejuvenates the area through techniques that increase awareness and circulation, explain Dr. Brotto and colleagues, referring to the work of other researchers. Another yoga pose that strengthens the pelvic floor muscles is bhekasana, or the frog pose. As well as improving the sexual experience, this pose may help ease symptoms of vestibulodynia, or pain in the vestibule of the vagina, as well as vaginismus, which is the involuntary contraction of vaginal muscles that prevents women from enjoying penetrative sex. I am what I am, so take me as I am - The Chief Justice of India Dear mom and dad, Yesterday, the Supreme Court of India came out with a verdict that has, for once and for all, struck down the archaic law that made someone like me, a criminal. In a landmark ruling, it scrapped the outdated section 377 that criminalised homosexuality and made it a punishable offense. It's a big time for equality in India, one that ushers in what is certain to be a more progressive and just era championing freedom and equality. It's also a cause for celebration and self-expression, without any fears of legal persecution. I am sure yesterday was a special day for countless LGBT folks who have lived fearfully under the shadows of homophobia and discrimination, as well as those who have been subjected to harassment and bullying simply because of who they are. Pexels My story is a bit different. I too have been bullied because of my sexuality, especially in a convent 'all-boys' school where being feminine pretty much gave others a license to bully you. But I've had one thing going for me that has been a pillar of strength and support, something which I understand all-too-well I've been privileged to receive - your unconditional love and support. I came out to you both at a relatively younger age - I was all of sixteen - and I still remember the sense of dread and anxiety that had engulfed me. After all, being your only son, I had this notion that I was somehow about to disappoint you or let you down. Till today, coming out to you is possibly the bravest thing I've ever done. Unsplash But to my immense joy and relief, your reaction was anything but disappointing. You hugged me, embraced me and made sure I knew that there was nothing wrong with me, that I was perfect the way I was and that I had nothing to be ashamed of. I only wish every LGBTQ kid in the world gets to hear those same words when they come out of the closet, as I got to hear from you both. Mom, you have been, without question, my biggest cheerleader in the world. Just like the loving and accepting Kirron Kher in Dostana's second-half (but with the histrionics slightly toned down), you started talking about potential son-in-laws and how crazy my wedding would be. Even yesterday, when the news of Section 377 being scrapped broke, you were the first person to call me and were even more enthusiastic about the verdict than I was. Needless to say, I couldn't be more grateful for having you in my life. Dad, you too were incredibly supporting and accepting, though the ways you showed it were more subtle. Those nonchalant conversations about whoever I settle down with meeting your standards or about how adopting a kid or having one via surrogacy is no different than (or any less special) than the normal way, reflected your love and support in the best way possible. I may have lost you earlier this year, but your words will always stay with me. So dad, wherever you may be, I just wish that you were got to see all of the rainbows that engulfed our nation, the pride and acceptance that filled the air, and the energy of equality that can be sensed by one and all. Reuters I understand that when it comes to acceptance of homosexuality, the embracing, loving and nurturing nature of my parents is a rarity - in fact a majority of the LGBT community hasn't been as lucky. Having you both loving and embracing me even before section 377 was scrapped was a privilege, and it's outright depressing to realise not all LGBT kids get to have that. Pexels So in closing, I want to say something to the parents of all the LGBTQ people out there who might be reading this. Yesterday was a big day for your children, but the advancement of equal rights has only just begun. There are still lots of battles that need to be won (marriage equality and adoption rights come to mind), and your kids will NEED your unconditional love and support to get through those battles. With you firmly standing in their corner, nothing can bring them down. Trust me, I speak from experience. With love, A 'legal' Indian citizen You know what's the best answer (and a f**k you) to all the people who have bullied you? Go on and work so hard that they can't help but be jealous of your success. Actually, I feel that bullying mostly comes from a place of insecurity, I mean, why else would you be so cruel to someone for no reason at all? Husain Saify proved everyone wrong by being more successful than most people, at just the age of 21. He's running an IT-service startup 'HackerKernel' and the best part is that his company has already crossed an annual turnover of over 1 crore in just three years. His company basically provides mobile and web application development services to over 200 companies both in India and abroad, including countries like the USA, Japan, and Dubai. So yes, he's doing big things. Facebook It all started in Husain's room in Bhopal and ended up becoming one of the most successful startups in Madhya Pradesh. It all started when he got his first computer at the age of 12. Starting off by just playing games, he developed his first website idea, which was 'how about creating a website that allowed people to download games?' After gaining basic technical knowledge at school, he started visiting the local internet cafe to learn even more. And, then he learned how to make his first website. Talking to The Better India, he said, It was funny because I had no idea how to make it live at the time. On his journey of becoming a web developer, he poured everything he has in programming, learning PHP and javascript, to build a closed social network website using PHP called Trendyfi. But soon, tech gurus started trolling him by calling him the 'kid who had stumbled into programming'. But, he didn't let the trolling and bullying slow him down. The first website he built was for a local burger joint in Bhopal. He said, The man sold amazing burgers but was hardly aware of how online delivery could help him earn revenue. When he asked if I knew anybody willing to build a website, I volunteered. I worked for one week and made a website, which he loved. He handed 5,000 to me. A big amount at the time, since no commercials were ever discussed. I was really happy! When I researched, I realised such websites cost over 25k! Then, after buying the domain HackerKernel.com, he started connecting with people and working as a freelance developer. With him getting more and more work, he decided to drop out of college. He said, Of course, my parents wanted me to complete my graduation. But I wanted to give my 100% to my work. Facebook He also realized how he would need a partner to keep up with all the work, so he got his friend, Rithik Soni, on board. In less than three years, his small startup that started in his room and basement moved to a bigger office. The company they built today has 25 engineers who serve 200 companies, including Eduzina, Zingfy, Madcue, Fast2sms, Quants Investment Strategy and consultancy service LLP, Yantralive, Deeptalent etc. He finished off by saying, There is no substitute for hard work. I have worked for 18 to 20 hours a day to reach where I am. Put in your best efforts, and glory will follow. Take risks, but ensure they are calculated by weighing the pros and the cons. Yesterday was a remarkable day for our country, as we made our way to the pages of history for having achieved something that's still a distant dream for a lot of LGBT people across the world. Millions in the country rejoiced over Section 377 being decriminalised and we totally get their sentiments and share in their joy. Many people have also taken this opportunity to share some of their most intimate stories about the fears and struggles they had to face in the past when Section 377 still held its post. But yesterday's judgement has not only brought lively hopes in the hearts of the LGBT community but has also made them share their stories of love and freedom. Reuters Danish Sheikh, a law professor and an LGBTQ activist, is one such ecstatic person who shared his joy on the verdict through a string of tweets, which has since stolen hearts and gone viral. Twitterati can't help but be charmed by his story of finally coming out with his encounters, now that he has the rights to admit them and share them with the world! Here's the Twitter thread and his story for you to go all mushy over: I was 13 when I first fell in love with a boy. I didn't realize it then. I only knew that I was willing to learn 9th grade Sanskrit without any prior knowledge of the language just to be in a class with him. (1/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 I was 16 when I fell in love with another boy. This time, I knew what it was, but was able to successfully convince myself it was a phase - or even better, that it was a one-off kind of love, that I'd just as easily fall for a woman. (2/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 I was 17 when I realized that I wasn't going to fall for women. That year, for the first time I spoke the words that would make the jigsaw confusion of the last 6 years fall into place. "I'm gay" I said, sitting in the dark, practicing the utterance. (3/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 I was 18 when I began reading about the law that was not on my side, and when I began to see how its existence seemed to validate the silences that had slowly accrued. (4/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 I was 19 when I fell in love with a man, sense what it could mean for love to be reciprocated and then what it could mean for it to be lost. (5/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 Read on to understand what many others like him must have been through over the last few years. I was 24 when the Supreme Court delivered the Suresh Kumar Koushal judgment and told me that the rights I assumed were part of my innate humanity did not in fact exist. (6/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 The Koushal Court's words were weighted down with prejudice and hate. I laughed and brushed them off but they often became an unsaid justification to tolerate casual indignities in public or casual cruelties in private. (7/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 I am 29. The highest constitutional court of my country has finally told me that I am, unambiguously, an equal citizen. That I have, unambiguously, the right to love. (8/9) Danish Sheikh (@dsheikh726) September 6, 2018 This last tweet is basically all of us who have waited for a positive verdict with bated breath, all this while. About time we say, and the time is now. Congratulations Danish and y'all enthu cutlets too! History was created in India yesterday and it is being said that this can be a move towards real change, which would put the nation on the world map as a progressive torchbearer. We believe that the journey has only just begun and there still remains a long journey ahead of us, in terms of securing the rights of the LGBTQ community. Nonetheless, the ripples of change shall be felt in the years to come and push the nation and its youth to move towards building a more welcome and compassionate society, that treats all its members equally and ensures they get the respect and love they deserve. Reuters However, while we rejoice over the verdict today, we must not forget the incredible people who deserve all the credit for this monumental decision and that has to be the five-member constitutional bench that ruled out the prolific verdict yesterday and changed the fate of millions. Meet the five heroic judges who upheld the essence of justice and liberation in its truest sense: 1. Justice Indu Malhotra Twitter An empanelled lawyer, who sought protection for the LGBT community from sexual harassment, Justice Indu Malhotra also happens to be the first female lawyer who was upgraded directly from the Bar as a Supreme Court Judge. She became the second woman who occupied the chair of a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, after Justice Leila Seth. Justice Indu Malhotra also spearheaded SC's 2015 verdict that ensured unmarried mothers could have legal guardianship of their children without the father's consent. Upon yesterday's verdict, she said that history owes an apology to the members of the LGBT community for all the persecution they had to go through. 2. Justice DY Chandrachud TOI Justice Chandrachud is the former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and is also a former judge of the Bombay High Court. He was also a part of the nine-member bench that declared Right to Privacy as a fundamental right in the country. Yesterday, he stated that this verdict was long overdue for the discrimination being meted out to a community, for which the people sought a firm remedy. 3. Justice Deepak Misra Twitter The current Chief Justice of India, who will be remembered to have survived one of the Indian judiciary's most turbulent periods. He was the head of the bench that delivered the death sentence to Nirbhaya's killers, as well as the bench that dropped Yakub Memon's plea to hold off his execution. Post the declaration of the verdict, Justice Misra stated that denial of self-expression is akin to inviting death. That's just about the correct way to put it. 4. Justice AM Khanwilkar barandbench The former Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Khanwilkar was on the bench that allowed medical termination for the pregnancies of two minor rape victims in Delhi and Bangalore. He was also on the panel of judges that dissolved the petition seeking a ban on Malayali author Hareesh S.'s novel 'Meesha'. Yesterday, he said that Section 377 has been felled only partially and while the law shall not apply to consensual same-sex acts, it shall still be applicable to forced sexual acts without consent. 5. Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman YouTube Son of renowned jurist Fali Nariman, Justice Nariman was earlier practising as a senior counsel at the Supreme Court. He was part of the bench that disposed of the Cyber Law which gave the police extensive powers to arrest anyone deemed to be posting offensive comments and was also on the chair that delivered the monumental judgement against Triple Talaq. Yesterday, he stated that the nation must recognise that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and the government must take adequate steps to raise awareness and eliminate the stigma attached to the LGBT community. Remember the 'Jurassic Park' film series? It features an amusement park where extinct dinosaurs are genetically cloned and bred. If you thought the movie is too ahead of its time, think again. A university in Russia is gearing up for the opening of a Jurassic Park-style cloning facility for extinct animals. The new Jurassic Park style facility will be a 'world class paleo-genetic scientific hub' in the world's coldest city, Yakutsk. The project currently has a budget of almost US$ 6 million and the project further project details shall be made public at the 4th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia. MovieMania Working together with the South Korean SOOAM Biotech Research Foundation, Russian scientists from the Northern-Eastern Federal University will reportedly study the DNA and genetics of several extinct species once native to the area. According to experts, the 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". North-Eastern Federal University Using tissue samples extracted from Siberian permafrost, the scientists seek to study animals that went extinct many thousands of years ago and, if possible, bring them back to life. The extremely low temperatures in the Siberian region have helped in preserving the soft tissue of animal remains and the DNA that the tissue cells contain. Though, extracting viable DNA would still be challenging as DNA tends to degrade over time. Flickr Expert Dr Lena Grigorieva who drafted plans for the centre said: There is no such unique material anywhere else in the world. If the cloning and breeding are successful, there are plans for the species to roam free in Siberia's Pleistocene Park. The Yakutia district houses about 80 percent of the retrieved Pleistocene and Holocene animal samples. Even Harvard University geneticist Professor George Church might plan to inset woolly mammoth genes into an Asian elephant embryo by 2020. Reuters Last year, scientists hit a gold mine of two perfectly preserved cave lion cubs that are reported to be 12,000 years old. As of now, there is no official date on when the lab and experiments shall commence from, but the Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to unveil the plan next week. Via: The Inquirer There has been speculation about an electoral alliance between the Congress and TDP in Telangana. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday had described Gandhi as the 'biggest buffoon' in the country. (Photo: File) Hyderabad: Describing the fight against TRS in the coming assembly polls in Telangana as a "war for righteousness," state Congress state president N UttamKumar Reddy Friday said various opposition parties, including TDP, and civil society organisations should join forces with Congress. The state Assembly was dissolved Thursday as per the recommendation of the TRS government, paving way for early polls. The assembly elections were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year. "We call upon all political, non-political forces in Telangana, NGOs, civil society organisations, students bodies, employees organisations, all political parties, including Telugu Desam, to join forces to defeat this corrupt government by treating these elections as a Dharma Yuddham (war for righteousness)," Reddy told reporters here. There has been speculation about an electoral alliance between the Congress and TDP in Telangana. The TDP has been anti-Congress since its inception in 1982. Reddy said the coming elections is not a fight between Congress and TRS but a fight between "the family of TRS president and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the four crore people of Telangana." Taking strong exception to Rao's attack on Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi, Reddy said, "the caretaker CMs comments are unbecoming of a Chief Minister." Rao had described Gandhi as the "biggest buffoon" in the country. On September 12, party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad would address a public meeting on minorities issues. N. KOTZIAS: Good morning. I would like again to welcome my dear friend Edgars, who accepted my invitation to visit Athens. As always, I thank the interpreters, thanks to whom there is diplomacy. What we ascertained once again is that the South and the North of Europe have common interests. We are promoting the development of bilateral relations in all the sectors where we can, from security issues to culture and education. We talked about the Presidents upcoming visit to Riga, on 13 and 14 September. My counterpart met with our President, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, with whom, as is always the case, he had a very interesting conversation. What we talked about was how to further develop the discussion and cooperation between the two sides, because we have many common interests: on security, regarding the future of the European Union, in the EU budget. We think the North and South of Europe need a secure environment in which to develop. We want security in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, but we also want security for the Baltic countries, which have long traditions and strong links with the rest of Europe. We talked about the migration issue. I thanked my colleague once again for the solidarity Latvia has shown and for his countrys meeting all the commitments it undertook. I am afraid this is an exception in Europe. And of course, we also discussed the situation in todays world, the role played by the great powers, the United States of America and Russia. And we once again ascertained our feeling that we dont want conflicts with third countries or within the West, because we are states whose security depends on and comes with peace, mutual understanding, a priority for diplomacy, shared values and shared visions. I wont add anything else so as to spare us time for the luncheon. I want to welcome Edgars once more and thank him for his hospitality in Riga. I want to thank him for his leadership in directing the proceedings of the Council of Ministers during the Latvian Presidency. Especially when we were discussing difficult issues like the Macedonian issue. Thanks to the stance maintained by the Latvian Presidency at that time, we were able to find good and creative solutions. I just want to make one comment, since I am speaking publicly. I said it this morning, too. FYROM was recognized as Macedonia by 145 countries, including the United States of America. That is why the United States of America now calls the country Macedonia. This recognition took place when Pasok and New Democracy governments were in power. So, it shows a weak sense of responsibility when they blame us today for this countrys still being called Macedonia. As soon as both parliaments ratify the Prespes Agreement, the international community and our allies will call the country North Macedonia. And this proves that the Prespes Agreement brings back the right name, rather than just plain Macedonia. They created that plain Macedonia. We didnt. If I may say, it is a little hypocritical that their propaganda has come to this nonsense. Thank you. E. RINKEVICS: Thank you very much. Nikos, first of all, thank you very much for the great Greek hospitality, I would say, as usual, because I have visited Greece many times. But I always find the warmth of the hospitality really great. And also thank you for the very good and very productive and constructive discussion we have had with you this morning, and also earlier with the President. Let me just outline a couple of points, first of all on bilateral issues. We have found, and it may come as a surprise to some of you, that we are very much like-minded nations on many issues. Security, the future of Europe, and also some economic issues. Some five or six years ago, one Greek newspaper called Latvia the fiscal paradigm in Europe. But we have found today that actually we share the same opinion: that we need to tackle inequality, that we need to tackle issues that are related to European growth, and that we need also to work together within Europe. And the next European budget is one of those tools that can help in this issue. And from that point of view I am very happy to see that our position on the continuation of cohesion policy, investing more in education, is actually very, very close. And I hope that we will be able to continue in that way also during those debates and discussions we are going to have in Europe. Second, let me also thank Greece for your support in the discussions we are having in NATO. We both live in very interesting neighbourhoods. And I think that we also understand each other better when it comes to debating security. The Greek aircrafts have been part of the NATO air policing mission over the Baltics. Our border guards are part of the Frontex mission here. And also, I think that better understanding comes through practical cooperation. On regional issues, Nikos, thank you for all those nice words youve just said about our Presidency and all those discussions we had three years ago, in the process of trying to find a solution to the name issue. Regarding North Macedonia - I will call it - I can only say that we really admire the courage and leadership that you have shown so far in addressing this issue. We very much hope that this process will be completed by North Macedonia becoming both a NATO and European Union nation. That one of the issues will be solved, and also that there will be one more member state. And also, we believe that what you and also the government in Skopje have done is exemplary in a continent where there are so many unsolved issues. And I think the way you have been addressing this issue can also be a model for some other clountries, for some other disputes. Finally, let me say that we also believe that the future of Europe, the discussion we are having and on which we have also exchanged our views should include small and medium countries. By all standards, we are a small country. We can call Greece a medium country. But still we believe that there is a need for effective decision-making where each vote counts, where each country counts. And of course, for us, the United Kingdom, which is leaving, the whole Brexit issue, the whole idea about deepening eurozone governance and broadening that governance, also addressing migration issues, addressing issues of enlargement are very important. And I very much look forward to continuing both bilateral contacts, but also, I think, and we also discussed this, we should have a more broad discussion. And there are three Baltic states Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania there are four EU member states here in this region: Greece, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. So, from that point of view I think that we will be also able to add the broader North-South dialogue, when now we have only the bilateral one. So, thank you very much for your really great hospitality and also for the very good and inspiring and interesting discussion we just had. At the time of the GST rollout, the Congress had demanded that fuel prices should be brought under the ambit of GST. The surge in fuel prices is largely attributed to the rise in crude oil prices and high excise duty in the country. New Delhi: The Congress has decided to call a nationwide Bandh on September 10 over the issue of rising fuel prices. Announcing the decision, the partys communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said, The Congress party has decided to give a call for a Bharat Bandh on September 10, Monday, in order to highlight the Rs 11 lakh crore fuel loot and to demand an immediate reduction in Central excise duty and excessive VAT in the state. The Congress has also asked other Opposition parties and civil society groups to join their protest against the government. Mr Surjewala said the Congress demands that petrol and diesel should be brought within the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) so that the common man whose budget has gone haywire is provided with the requisite relief. At the time of the GST rollout, the Congress had demanded that fuel prices should be brought under the ambit of GST. The Congress on its Twitter handle has put out videos of senior BJP leaders who when in Opposition were targeting the then-Prime Minister Dr Man-mohan Singh for the rising the prices of fuel during the UPAs tenure. The Congress aims to build a narrative around the price rise in a manner similar to what the BJP had done before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has also asked its frontal organisations to gear up for the nationwide agitation. The surge in fuel prices is largely attributed to the rise in crude oil prices and high excise duty in the country. The recent slump in the rupee has also lifted the import cost of crude oil, subsequently affecting the fuel prices. On Wednesday, finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that there was no need for a knee-jerk reaction to the risi-ng prices of global crude oil Will help India obtain defence tech from US, waivers on S-400, Iran oil being considered. New Delhi: Following the culmination of the 2+2 Dialogue at the foreign and defence ministerial level, India and the United States on Thursday inked the crucial defence Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (Comcasa) which will facilitate the obtaining by India of critical defence technologies from the US, access to critical communication networks installed on American defence platforms and reportedly pave the way for the sale of hi-tech armed drones to India. After the dialogue between external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis, the two countries also decided to carry out a massive tri-service exercise next year off Indias eastern coast, with New Delhi deciding to enhance its interactions with the US militarys Central Command. It was also decided to establish hotlines of communication between the two Indian ministers and their respe-ctive American counterparts. In another development of huge significance, the two countries also called on Pakistan to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries, adding that they called on Islamabad to bring to justice expeditiously the perpetrators of the Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, and other cross-border terrorist attacks. New Delhi also said it supports President Trumps South Asia Policy and that his call for Pakistan to stop its policy of supporting cross-border terrorism finds resonance with it. New Delhi also raised the H1B visa issue, with Ms. Swaraj asking the US to keep the trust of Indians in their belief that it would not do anything against their interests. The issue of import of Iranian oil and Russian arms like the S-400 was also discussed, with New Delhi putting across its case forcefully to Washington and hoping for waivers in both cases. Later, speaking to the American media on Indias proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US did not intend to penalise great strategic partners like India but added that no decision had yet been made on granting a waiver to New Delhi for the deal. However, he did say that the US would work its way through a decision in the days ahead along with partner India, thereby indicating that a way out may be devised for New Delhi. Mr. Pompeo said, Theres been no decision made. ... We do understand the history of Indias relationship with Russia and legacy systems. Our effort is not to penalise great strategic parters like India, a major defence partner. The sanctions arent intended to adversely impact countries like India. They are intended to have an impact on the sanctioned country which is Russia and so well work our way through the waiver decision as the days and weeks proceed and well do that alongside our partner India. On the issue of import of Inranian oil, he said, We have told the Indians consistently, as we have told every nation, that on November 4 the sanctions with respect to Iranian crude oil will be enforced, and that we will consider waivers where appropriate, but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed. The Indo-Pacific region and Chinas role in the region was also discussed. The two countries also agreed to work together to secure Indias membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group at the earliest. Ms Swaraj said, Overall, I am highly satisfied with our conversation today. The American dignitaries also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi who congratulated them and the concerned Indian ministers on the fruitful and productive talks. The next edition of the dialogue will be held next year in the United States. The signing of the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (Comcasa) on Thursday will enable India to access advanced technologies from the US and enhance Indias defence preparedness, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. An Indo-US joint statement released, stated, They welcomed the signing of a Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (Comcasa) that will facilitate access to advanced defense systems and enable India to optimally utilise its existing U.S.-origin platforms. The defence minister further said, We are also putting in place an enabling framework for closer cooperation between our defence forces. The signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (Lemoa) in 2016 and the Helicopter Operations from Ships Other Than Aircraft Carriers (Hostac) earlier this year were important steps in this direction. Mr Pompeo described the signing of the Comcasa as a a major step forward in our collaboration and cooperation. Ms Sitharaman said, To enhance our synergies in this area, we have decided to carry out, for the first time, a tri-services joint exercise with the United States off the eastern coast of India in 2019. She further said, Defence cooperation has emerged as the most significant dimension of our strategic partnership and as a key driver of our overall bilateral relationship. The momentum in our defence partnership has imbued a tremendous positive energy that has elevated India-US relations to unprecedented heights. In what is being seen as a significant statement, given the Chinese military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, she added, Maritime security has been a focus area of our cooperation. To deepen our ties in this area, we will expand our interactions on Maritime Domain Awareness. The two countries also discussed Pakistan-based terrorism in detail and named Islamabad in this regard, which is being seen as a huge setback for Pakistan. The Joint Statement said, ... they (India and US) called on Pakistan to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries. On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, they called on Pakistan to bring to justice expeditiously the perpetrators of the Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, and other cross-border terrorist attacks. The ministers welcomed the launch of a bilateral dialogue on designation of terrorists in 2017, which is strengthening cooperation and action against terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda ISIS, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul Mujahideen, the Haqqani Network, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, D-Company, and their affiliates. Ms Swaraj also said, We welcomed the recent designations of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba terrorists by the United States. They underscore the international communitys scrutiny over the threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, which has affected India and the United States alike. In the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, we recognised the importance of justice and retribution for the masterminds behind this terrorist attack. We also discussed the situation in South Asia in some detail. India supports President Trumps South Asia Policy. His call for Pakistan to stop its policy of supporting cross-border terrorism finds resonance with us. On the H-1B visa a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields India mounted pressure on the US, with Ms Swaraj saying, Specifically, I conveyed our expectation for a balanced and sensitive approach to the H-1B visa regime. Any change in it will have an (adverse) impact on the relationship for our relationship. I have mentioned this to Secretary Pompeo that on the basis of the friendship which exists between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, Indians believe that America will not work against their interest. I have requested him to maintain the trust of Indians. On civilian nuclear energy cooperation, the joint statement said, Both sides looked forward to full implementation of the civil nuclear energy partnership and collaboration between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Westinghouse Electric Company for the establishment of six nuclear power plants in India. Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development is in India to participate in Mobility Summit by NITI Aaayog on government's invitation. The Chabahar port is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar. (Photo: File | AFP) New Delhi: Iran will handover the strategic Chabahar port to an Indian company within a month for operation as per an interim pact, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said Thursday. Akhoundi is in India to participate in the Mobility Summit by NITI Aaayog on the government's invitation. "Now, we are ready just to handover the port (Chabahar) to the Indian company just to operate this in interim agreement that already we had with Indian part for one and a half year," Akhoundi told PTI in Delhi. The Chabahar port is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar. Akhoundi after a meeting with his Indian counterpart Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said: We have already moved one step forward...We should introduce a banking channel to India, which we already did it and fortunately has been formally accepted by the Indian side. He said the India has also introduced a banking channel, which has been approved by Iran's Central Bank. "Indian side had investment in Chabahar port and we are moving towards utilisation of the Chabahar port," Akhoundi said, adding that the handing over of the port should be done "during one month. We have done everything". The first phase of the Chabahar port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. The Chabahar port is being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi. "The routes of the region should be connected on land, sea and air," Hassan Rouhani had said at the inauguration ceremony. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of USD 85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of USD 22.95 million on a 10-year lease. On US sanctions impacting oil trade, the visiting minister hoped to find a way out to continue selling crude oil to India. "Of course, it will impact the trade between the two countries," Akhoundi said, adding the sanctions would not halt oil sale to India. "At the end of the day, both sides will find out some way out to carry on their relationship as we hear from the Indian part that they are already committed to buy the crude oil and we are also committed to continue our trade relationship with India and buy rice and other food material and also industrial material from the Indian side." Iran is India's third biggest supplier of crude oil but US sanctions will from November 3 block payment gateways. "There has been some impact... I will just not say something that is not realistic ...Certainly US has made the trade between the two sides uneasy but I would like to emphasise that this is not something that US can halt and stop this relationship between two sides," Akhoundi added. He said Iran welcomes Indian firms developing the giant Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf nation. "Indian side is very keen to invest there. We are still to receive the project proposal," he said. On his meeting with Gadkari, the Iranian Minister said: "We reviewed the formal statement which was released by Prime Minister Modi during Hassan Rouhani's to India. That statement is very very strong which shows that we have very deep relationship". He said the thing that was emphasised in the meeting was that India is very committed to all the agreements that India has signed. Meanwhile chief secretary S.K. Joshi issued a notification on Mr Rao and his Cabinet continuing in a caretaker capacity. Hyderabad: Ending weeks of speculation, Telangana chief minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Thursday recommended dissolution of the state Assembly eight months before its full term, clearing the decks for early elections in the state. After KCRs communication, governor E.S.L. Narasimhan dissolved the first Telangana state Assembly eight months ahead of its full term and asked the chief minister and his council of ministers to continue as a caretaker government. There is a possibility that Telangana elections may be held along with Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. A notification issued by governors office said the caretaker government will continue till the new government is formed or for six months, whichever is earlier. If Assembly elections are not conducted within six months of dissolution of the House, Presidents rule will be imposed. Earlier in the afternoon, Mr Rao chaired a Cabinet meeting at 1 pm which passed a one-line resolution requesting the governor to dissolve the Assembly. After the Cabinet meeting, which lasted four minutes, Mr Rao went to Raj Bhavan and presented the resolution to the governor during a 20-minute meeting. After the Governor accepted the resolution, Raj Bhavan issued the gazette notification within minutes on dissolution of the Assembly. Raj Bhavan also communicated the dissolution of the House to the Assembly secretariat and the Election Commission. Meanwhile chief secretary S.K. Joshi issued a notification on Mr Rao and his Cabinet continuing in a caretaker capacity. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was formed on June 2, 2014, the Appointed Day of Telangana state. Mr Raos push for early polls is seen as amove to surprise rivals and avoid a clash between Assembly polls with Parliamentary elections. The U.S. has plenty to learn from other economically developed countries when it comes to preparing students for the jobs of the future, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told reporters Thursday. DeVos spoke on a conference call from South America this week where she participated in the first ever G-20 meeting of the member nations education and employment cabinet ministers. While in South America, she also explored career and technical education in both Argentina, and nearby Chile. The summit focused on how G-20 countrieswhich include the worlds largest economiescan collaborate to make sure that students are prepared for the jobs of the future. This was a really important step for the G-20 to take, to elevate education, DeVos told reporters in a conference call after the summit. Without education, nothing else really follows. Education is really the foundation for everything. The ministers planned to talk about how their nations can identify and help students develop the digital and other skills that will be needed for the jobs of the future, with a special emphasis on vulnerable populations. And the agenda included discussions on how policymakers can better coordinate with business and other sectors. Ultimately, the meeting resulted in a declaration that calls for putting education at the center of the global agenda. It says the G-20 nations will work to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. DeVos said the document was very consistent with all of the themes that weve been talking about. The need for America to focus on opportunities for students today and also for returning [to the workforce] and second, and third, and fourth, and beyond careers for those of us in middle age and older in our country. In particular, the summit stressed the need to help students develop so-called 21st century skills, such as communication and collaboration; to promote entrepreneurial skills, such as leadership; to foster the development of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math; and to promote career and technical training. And she said that some of the other countries in the G-20 are making more progress in these areas than the U.S. There are too many other countries that are further down the path of adopting some of these themes and embracing some of these opportunities, she said. In particular, DeVos was impressed with a visit to an after-school program in Mendoza, Argentina, that has a strong focus on science, technology, engineering, and math education. It is emblematic of where we need to go for students to get them more engaged in and taking more ownership of their learning and education, DeVos said. DeVos also traveled to Santiago, Chile, where she visited Liceo Industrial Eliodoro Garcia Zege, which describes its mission as professional technical training, based on competencies, with a projection towards higher education. She also visited the Instituto Nacional de Capacitacion (INACAP) Santiago, which offers postsecondary training. While there, DeVos met with Minister of Education Marcela Cubillos, who is a member of the political party that is most supportive of choice. DeVos is one of the biggest choice cheerleaders in the U.S. and has pushed for more money for vouchers here. But she said the two didnt delve deeply into policy, and that their conversation focused much more on workforce preparation. Chile has one of the most robust school choice programs in the world. It was established by dictator Augusto Pinochet back in 1980. The state allocates a certain amount of funding for each childs education, and those dollars can be spent in a public or private school. There are also private schools that dont take government funding. Those are primarily used by the wealthy, said Jennifer Pribble, an associate professor of political science and global studies at the University of Richmond. School choice fans have long celebrated Chiles system, which Pribble described as Milton Freidman to a T, a reference to the conservative economist who championed the modern concept of vouchers. She said that it may have helped more Chilean students enroll in school, but it also introduced huge inequality into the system. The voucher system clearly took funding away from public schools, which became an option of last resort for the highest-risk kids and the neediest kids. Rural students, in particular, have had a tough time making use of the vouchers. When asked if there was anything the U.S. could learn from Chiles system, DeVos said only that, I think there are things we can learn, but in other conversations that Ive had they will acknowledge that they have lots of opportunities to continue to improve options and pathways for students. Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated Press Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . The police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the mob and clear the highway. Several upper caste organisation activists raise slogans during Bharat Bandh protest called over SC/ST Amendment Act, in Allahabad on Thursday. (Photo: PTI) Lucknow: The call for Bharat Bandh in protest against the amendment in the the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atroc-ities) Act had a considerable impact in Uttar Pradesh, where upper- caste organisations led protests on streets, jammed highways and stopped trains in several districts. Shops and commercial establishments were clo-sed in most districts including Lucknow, Ag-ra, Kanpur, Mainpuri, Hardoi and Gorakhpur. In Hardoi, protesters shaved their heads to register their anger against the amendment in the SC/ST Act and trains were stopped in Agar and Mainpuri. The Agra Expressway was jammed for several hours by demonstrators. The police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the mob and clear the highway. Protesters damaged a bus in Khairagarh in Agra and tyres were set on fire by protesters. In Agra, two caste groups clashed and pelted stones at each other after which the police burst tear gas shells to disperse the mob. In Lucknow, protesting mobs tried to burn effigies of the Prime Minister, but the police managed to snatch the effigy before it could be set on fire. In Chinhat area, people resorting to protests by undressing. In some districts of Bundelkhand, people staged demonstrations outside the offices of the ruling BJP and shouted slogans against the central and state governments. Lawyers joined the agitation in Hamirpur. In Kannauj, children in the age group of four to six years were seen carrying placards with slogans against reservation written on them and large-scale protests were reported from Kushinagar too. UP minister Siddhartha Nath Singh said that the protests were a political conspiracy against the BJP government in view of the approaching general elections. Our government are working on the Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas concept and there will be no injustice to anyone, he said. SP Vaid, 1986 IPS officer of J&K cadre, was on Thursday night removed as DGP and replaced by Dilbagh Singh as an interim head. Singh, the IPS officer of 1987 batch, who is serving as the DG prisons for past several months has been given additional charge as the DGP of J&K. He took over as the new police chief on Friday. (Photo: PTI) Srinagar: The unceremonious exit of Jammu and Kashmirs police Chief Shesh Paul Vaid has led to spread of rumours and speculations across the restive state. Paul, the 1986 IPS officer of the J&K cadre, was on Thursday night removed as Director General of Police (DGP) and replaced by Dilbagh Singh as an interim arrangement till the formal appointment of the new police chief for the State. Singh, the IPS officer of 1987 batch, who is serving as the DG prisons for past several months has been given additional charge as the DGP of J&K. He took over as the new police chief on Friday. Vaid has been transferred and appointed as Transport Commissioner, a post which was held by Saugat Biswas, a 2006-IAS officer. The post has been upgraded from Additional Secretary to the rank of Secretary. It will be headquartered in Jammu, the states winter capital. The appointment of Singh as the interim head of the state police organization is a violation of the guidelines of the Supreme Court (SC), which had ruled in July that there will be no ad hoc arrangement for the post of police chief in the states without consulting the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The J&K government has, however, tried to justify its decision by asserting that since the state police has been fighting militancy for the last three decades, it cannot be left headless for a minute. Shoeb Alam, the standing counsel for the state, on Friday, moved an application before Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to explain the reason behind appointing an interim DGP in the state without following the guidelines issued by the apex court in July this year. The matter is likely to be taken up by the apex court on Monday. A 3-member bench of the SC comprising CJI Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had while taking note of an application filed by the Centre said that none of the states shall ever conceive of the idea of appointing any person on the post of Director General of Police on acting basis, for there is no concept of acting Director General of Police. The top court had also ruled that all the states shall send their proposals in anticipation of the vacancies to the UPSC well in time, at least three months prior to the date of retirement of the incumbent on the post of DGP. The Centre had in its application to the SC claimed that certain states have been appointing acting police chiefs and then making them permanent just before the date of their superannuation to enable them to get the benefit of an additional two-year tenure till the age of 62 years. Meanwhile, J&K is agog with rumours that Vaid was removed as the states police chief unceremoniously because the Home Ministry was not happy over the stand he took over certain issues during his stint as the head of the force. Vaid, 59, who is a native of J&Ks Kathua district, was appointed as the DGP on December 31, 2016, replacing K Rajendra Kumar, a 1984 IPS officer from Hyderabad, Telangana. Some reports suggest that the Home Ministry higher-ups were discontented with the manner in which the recent crisis set off by the polices detaining the family members and other close relations of some commanders of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen were handled by it. The outfit had retaliated to the police action by abducting three policemen and seven relatives of other members of the force and, after a two-day stalemate, all the abductees were freed unharmed but that only after the police had released the detainees including the father of top Hizb commander Riyaz Naikoo. This was seen locally as being a moral victory for the militants and an embarrassing moment for the police. Another issue being cited as a reason for Vaids abrupt transfer is the reported unease caused in the corridors of power in New Delhi by a purported letter written to the Home Ministry by him cautioning it of a possible revolt in the J&K police organization in the event of Article 35A of the Constitution being abolished. The buzzword back in the state is that the Home Ministry saw in it an attempt to shift the responsibility of controlling the situation in such an eventually to the Centre instead of dealing with it locally and was quite dejected over it. The SC had on August 31 deferred the hearing on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A after its three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was informed by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir government respectively, that in view of the impending eight-phased local body elections and law and order situation in the state, the hearing be deferred. Article 35A guarantees special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and thereby prohibiting non-permanent residents from permanent settlement and from acquiring immovable properties, government jobs and scholarships in the state. The provision also empowers the state legislature to define such permanent residents and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is very much against continuation of Article 35A as well as Article 370 which guarantees J&K a special status within the Indian Union. Vaid is reported to have irked the party leadership in the state by his alleged asserting that being a resident of J&K he also believes that abrogation of Article 35A wont be in the interest of the state and its people. Also, the BJP and likeminded political groups had openly criticized the stand of the J&K police under Vaid over the alleged gangrape and murder of an 8-year-old nomad Bakarwal girl inside a temple in Rasana village of Kathua, incidentally the home district of the then police chief, in January this year. The BJPs demand that the case which was investigated by the Crime Branch of the J&K police be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was turned down by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. The BJP insiders said that the role played by Vaid, in this case, was not to the liking of the party. It is also said that Vaid and the Home Ministry officials held divergent views on the question of effecting reforms in the working of J&K police. This was the second major transfer in the state police apparatus. Earlier this week, the Governors administration replaced senior police officer Abdul Gani Mir by B. Srinivas as J&Ks intelligence chief. While reacting to the manner in which Vaids has been replaced as the police chief, former chief minister Omar Abdullah, questioned the wisdom behind the decision. He asked why a DG as a temporary arrangement?" Abdullah on Friday tweeted, The current DG wont know if hes going to stay and others who would like his job will be trying to replace him. None of this is good for Jammu and Kashmir police. In another tweet, he said, He (Vaid) should have been changed only when a permanent arrangement had been worked out. @JmuKmrPolice has enough problems without having to deal with confusion of leadership. The Prime Minister directed officials to sensitise their counterparts to be more people-friendly and fast-track their cases. New Delhi: Aiming to give a clear message that there is no room for corruption in government departments, especially for personnel involved in public dealing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed income tax department officials that any action taken against personnel found guilty of corrupt practices should be shared with all PAN card holders through email. Highly placed sources said that taking a strict view of the fact that indulging in corrupt practices by officials in government departments affects the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the system, Mr Modi during a recently held high-level meeting with officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), is learnt to have suggested the aforementioned unique but stern measure to discourage such practices in the future. The Prime Minister said that if any official is found guilty of corrupt practices, action taken against the personnel concerned should be made known to all PAN card holders. To ensure that there is full efficiency in settling the tax claims of people, the Prime Minister is said to have advocated a complete shift in technology. Sources privy to developments told this newspaper that Mr Modi told CBDT officials that processes such as e-assessment should be done in a time-bound manner so that there is a reduction in the number of grievances related to claim settlements. The Prime Minister directed officials to sensitise their counterparts to be more people-friendly and fast-track their cases. For this, he said that the feedback system should be strengthened. The meeting was especially held as the July-August period witnesses filing of income tax returns by taxpayers throughout the country and there have been several complaints regarding undue tax demands, of which the Prime Ministers office is learnt to have taken a serious note, sources said. As there is a provision of a fine of Rs 5,000 for those taxpayers whose annual salary is above Rs 5 lakh this year, there has been a lot of panic among people, which led to the government increasing the return filing deadline from July 31 to August 31, 2018. BAD AXE Is more wind development in Huron Countys future? The subject came up Wednesday night as the Huron County Planning Commission reviewed the Huron County Master Plan draft. Issues they addressed included typos, grammar and spelling, as well as solar and wind development. Planners spent nearly an hour and a half reviewing more than half of the 180-page document. One planner suggested the plan not allow future wind energy development. Ken Walker proposed the following phrase be added to page 104: With the current shift in attitude, the county will not allow any new wind development. The shift in attitude refers to the May 2017 vote, where voters in county-zoned municipalities turned down two new wind energy developments by a 2 to 1 margin. Some officials noted the vote was not countywide, and applied only to the 16 townships under county zoning. Its not everybody in the county, but the overall consensus seems to be that people have had enough of it, Chairman Robert McLean said. Walker noted the master plan only applies to the townships that are county zoned. A 2016 survey of the entire county, which also included some non-county residents, showed a near-even divide on wind energy development. That information was also included in the master plan, and many planners took issue with that, saying the vote is more important. Planners also discussed the language of Walkers request that the county will not allow any new wind development. McLean suggested the word will be substituted for the word may. Planner Terry Heck asked whether planners have the authority to use the word shall instead. We dont have the final say, Mclean said. Thats up to the (Huron County) Board of Commissioners. Walker noted there are other specific items in the master plan that can and cannot be done. The master plan also addresses adding "future" overlay districts, which Jeff Smith, county building and zoning director, called questionable. And that is also up to the board of commissioners. Voters can then petition for a referendum on the issue if desired. I dont think the voters would ever approve another overlay, regardless, Smith said. The planners will research their legal authority in terms of the wording, and resume discussing wind energy development issues at the Oct. 3 meeting. Smith suggested inviting the Legislative Committee of the board of commissioners to that meeting. Prolonging discussion of revisions could throw off the timeline for master plan adoption suggested by Alan Bean of Spicer Group. The timeline would have allowed adoption by the board of commissioners by the end of the year. Final revisions were supposed to be submitted to Smith by Friday, and the planners were expected to recommend adoption of the plan Oct. 3. That would leave time for further approvals by the board of commissioners and a public hearing before the planning commission. Building homes on farmland Another issue Walker raised regarding the master plan included building homes on farmland. The previous master plan, which is 25 years old, states that residential development should be limited to cities and villages, and should not be encouraged in the farming districts. When were losing population, or weve lost population, I disagree with the old master plan, Walker said. We need to encourage people to build a home wherever its legal to do so, McLean added. We dont want them building next to an industrial facility because youre going to have problems down the road. Smith said PA 116, the states farmland preservation program, does not prevent an owner from building a home on an agricultural parcel. PA 116 is already a limiting factor, he said. It doesnt mean were discouraging housing, Its just that were encouraging farmland preservation too. Commercial solar development PA 116 also came up when the planners discussed revisions to the language governing solar energy development, which describes it as "a serious threat to the viability of the Countys agricultural economy as it has the potential to remove large-scale swathes of productive agricultural land from the PA 116 program." Planner Dan Tighe questioned whether that words "a serious threat" were accurate. McLean responded: "We recognize and concur with the state of Michigan on the purpose of the PA 116 program." Smith noted the state's stance is that commercial solar development is not compatible with PA 116. Allowing large amounts of farmland for solar development could eat away at not only the county's farmland, but also the county's agricultural way of life, McLean said. UPPER THUMB The Sanilac County Sheriff's Office reports a 16-year-old Lexington girl has been reported missing and endangered. Kelsey Paige Vonanderseck was last seen in the area of her home in Lexington. She left with 41-year-old Pavel Padalka, and has psychiatric medication that she does not have with her, creating a decreased mental and physical function. Her last known whereabouts were in the Port Huron area on Thursday. Vonanderseck is described as white, 4 feet, 11 inches tall, and weighing 110 pounds. Her hair is red and purple, and she has blue eyes. The vehicle in question is a dark blue 2008 Buick Allure, with a Michigan license plate of DRV0436. If you have information about their whereabouts, call 911 or the sheriff's department at 810-648-2000 ext. 2. Mr Bhansali was instrumental in rotation and diversion of the proceeds of crime generated in this case, sources said. The agency had informed the Interpol that Mr Bhansali was likely to visit the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China or the UAE. (Photo: Nirav Modi website) New Delhi: The Interpol has issued a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Mihir R. Bhansali, right hand man of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, in connection with the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) money laundering case. The RCN, which is as an international arrest warrant, states Mr Bhansali, CEO of Nirav Modis jewellery firm in the USA Firestar International, is wanted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering. The Central probe agency wants him to join the investigation in order to take the probe in the case forward, sources said. The agency had informed the Interpol that Mr Bhansali was likely to visit the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China or the UAE. Sources added that the ED has identified Mr Bhansali as the second-in-command in Firestar Group after Nirav Modi, and that he was actively involved in the diversion and laundering of the funds received from the alleged fraudulently issued Punjab National Banks LOUs (letters of undertaking). Mr Bhansali was instrumental in rotation and diversion of the proceeds of crime generated in this case, sources said. Investigation by the ED has revealed that with the help of other officials of Firestar Group, Mr Bhansali inducted dummy partners in Solar Exports, Stellar Diamond and Diamond R US (Modis firms in whose names LOUs were issued), sources said. He was also instrumental in formation of overseas dummy companies in Hong Kong and Dubai, and employees/ex-employees of Firestar Group were sent as dummy directors/owners in these entities at his directions, the ED charged. The ED, as part of its probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), found that a secure internal email communication system was developed at Bhansalis insistence and its server was deliberately kept in Dubai. The ED alleged that after the PNB fraud came to light, Bhansali along with Nehal Modi (Nirav Modis brother), took 50 kg gold and substantial cash from Dubai, and directed dummy directors not to reveal his name before the authorities. It is alleged that the businessman is also a director in few of the dummy companies which are controlled by Nirav Modi and are based in the British Virgin Islands. These relationships are not natural, so we do not support this kind of relationships, Mr Kumar said. RSS prachar pramukh Arun Kumar, in a statement , said, Like the Supreme Courts verdict, we also do not consider this (homosexuality) as a crime. (Photo: File | PTI) New Delhi: Agreeing with the Supreme Courts views, the RSS on Thursday said it also does not consider homosexuality a crime but maintained that it does not support same-sex marriage as it is not natural. The Congress hailed as momentous the top courts verdict decriminalising consensual gay sex and termed it as an important step towards a liberal and tolerant society. RSS prachar pramukh Arun Kumar, in a statement , said, Like the Supreme Courts verdict, we also do not consider this (homosexuality) as a crime. Mr Kumar, however, reiterated the Sanghs old stand that gay marriages and such relationships are not compatible with nature. These relationships are not natural, so we do not support this kind of relationships, Mr Kumar said. The RSS claimed that Indian society traditionally does not recognise such relations. Humans usually learn from experiences, so this topic needs to be discussed and handled at the social and psychological level. Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date. Robots with minds of their own, bad guys manipulating data, and getting sorely outpaced by the Chinese. Those are just a few concerns shared by leaders tasked with weaving machine learning into military operations. Exactly how artificial intelligence will play out on the battlefield remains to be seen. Defense leaders and researchers are on the hunt for ways to free up troops' time so they can address more pressing issues. "How can we lighten the load for soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines?" Maj. Gen. William Cooley, head of the Air Force Research Laboratory, asked during a Wednesday conference hosted by Defense News. "How can AI make us more efficient, effective and capable?" Think more computers sifting through complex data instead of an officer having to assess it, or technology that can recognize preventative maintenance needs on troops' equipment. There are plenty of challenges that come along with using artificial intelligence, though. Here are just a few worries they shared about machines doing the thinking for troops. 1. Killer robots. We might be a ways off from a "Terminator"-style nightmare in which a self-thinking computer wages war on the planet. But as the military experiments with more autonomous vehicles and robots, experts are thinking about ways to keep them in check. Balancing the desire to make life easier for the warfighter while protecting humans from machines is an "incredibly difficult" topic, said Rear Adm. David Hahn, chief of naval research and director of Innovation, Technology Requirements and Test and Evaluation. What's important to remember, he added, is that accepting some risk and knowingly taking a gamble are two very different things. 2. More machines, fewer humans making decisions. Warfare will always involve human beings, said Alexander Kott, chief scientist with the Army Research Laboratory. One of his lab's key efforts is thinking about how humans and artificial intelligence can best fight as a team. Researchers first need to think about what's best done by a machine versus a human, Cooley added. "How can we apply these tools to a more unpredictable environment to safeguard humans so they're in control, but they have help?" he said. 3. Bad or tainted data. A lot of machine-based-learning software used in the civilian world is open source, which means lots of different people can affect the artificial intelligence. In the military where national security risks are at stake, that approach isn't likely to work. Kott called data the "greatest challenge in terms of applying artificial intelligence in the military." "There's not enough of it, it's distorted, it's dynamic, it's rapidly changing," he said. "Data can and will be used against you." That not only means they need to be clever about how they teach artificial intelligence to work using limited data, but also how to protect that data being manipulated by an adversary. 4. Limited platforms. Another limitation the military faces is having to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities into some of its complex existing platforms. It's not always feasible for the U.S. military to design entirely new systems built just for AI capabilities -- especially something with complicated security needs. "The legacy systems we start with are significantly different than those our adversaries start with," Hahn said. 5. The next space race. There's a global power competition happening in artificial intelligence. China has openly declared AI to be the next space race, Hahn said. And the country plans on winning that race. That means the military must look to industry and academic experts who can help the services build capabilities rapidly, Cooley said. Countries like China don't deal with the rigid contract structures and other rules that can slow the developmental process significantly. "We must be innovative and change the dynamic of how we're going to get at this or we're not going to get the capability for the U.S. military," he said. --Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins. CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa -- A Japanese man was in police custody Friday after causing an early morning "security incident" at Kadena Air Base's front gate. The incident happened near the Gate 1 guard shack at 5:26 a.m., said Okinawa Police Station Deputy chief Eiji Hirata. The man drove across a yellow line onto base property, approached the security gate and then crashed into the vehicle of a base worker who was waiting in the ID-check line. The man was not intoxicated at the time of the incident but did appear "disoriented," Hirata said. There were no injuries and the only damage was to the base worker's vehicle. "Police are still seeking his motive," Hirata said. Okinawan police declined to release details about the man other than his nationality. He does not have access to or business on the base, Hirata said. The incident prompted emergency services and local authorities to arrive at the scene, and the gate was closed for a short time. "Emergency services responded along with local authorities," according to a statement from the 18th Wing. "More information will be released when it becomes available." In a first major address to women's military and veterans organizations Friday, new VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said that the department would be making changes to accommodate their needs but declined to give specifics. "My pledge to you is the VA will become a welcoming home for all those who have worn the uniform," Wilkie said at the inaugural meeting in Atlanta of the Military Women's Coalition, a new umbrella group of existing service organizations. Wilkie said he was not ready to give the "ABCs" on new initiatives, but stressed that the Department of Veterans Affairs was "on the cusp of great change" in terms of addressing services for women that were ignored in the past. He suggested that improvements in mental health and primary care for women would be on the agenda. "In order to meet that change, we have to change the way of doing business," he said. To that end, Wilkie said he was committed to installing more diverse leadership at the VA. He noted that last month retired Air Force Col. Pamela Powers became his chief of staff. Powers held a similar post under Wilkie in his previous job as under secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Powers replaced Jacquelyn Hayes-Byrd, who had been serving as acting chief of staff and now has been named acting assistant for Human Resources and Administration. "It is your VA," Wilkie said, citing statistics that made meeting the needs of women a priority. Women now make up about 13 percent of active duty forces, and Wilkie said he expected that number could rise to about 20 percent in coming years. "This is your Veterans Affairs department.The doors are open we will be making changes to make sure that the needs of our fighting women are taken care of," Wilkie said. As he left the stage, Lydia Watts, chief executive officer of the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), said the group look forward "to seeing those changes implemented." Wilkie's address was met with skepticism by some in the audience. Retired Army Col. Ellen Haring, a West Point graduate and 30-year veteran who now serves as director of research for SWAN, told Military.com before Wilkie spoke that she was looking for specific updates that would make the VA more welcoming. "We want to know how change will happen on his watch," she said. Haring also said Wilkie appears to want to steer clear of "controversial issues" including a possible change to the motto of the VA to make it more gender-neutral. The current motto taken from Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural address reads: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan." The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) began advocating for a change earlier this year. One possible replacement motto reads: "To care for those who shall have borne the battle and their families and survivors." The VA has thus far rejected a change. In her own address to the coalition meeting following Wilkie's, Haring said a survey showed that military women and veterans had three top priorities: mental health care, action on sexual harassment, and culture change. She said the first action of the new coalition would be a letter campaign demanding that Congress hold hearings on the report last month from the VA's Office of Inspector General, stating that about 1,300 claims of sexual trauma may have been wrongly denied by the VA. Women's service organizations, including SWAN, Women in Military Service to America, and the Women Veterans United Committee, Inc. announced the formation of the Military Women's Coalition in July. In a statement, the groups said that the goal was to "elevate the voices of the 2.2 million current service women and women veterans to bring about policy and culture change within the military and the veteran communities." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. The Air Force is looking into comments a Catholic chaplain made at a base chapel in which he allegedly equated child abuse in the church with homosexuality, prompting one officer's family to walk out of mass. Capt. Antonio Rigonan, an Air Force chaplain at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, said during an Aug. 19 service that many priests who've abused children were "homosexuals" and "effeminate," according to a military officer's spouse who attended that morning. After Rigonan allegedly repeated the stance several times, the spouse said her family got up and left. The woman, who spoke to Military.com on the condition of anonymity to protect her husband's career, said she felt "very incapable of fixing" the wrongdoing she felt occurred that day. "I've had to talk about a lot of serious things with [our children], who didn't understand why we were upset," she said. "It's at least been a good message on consent and being aware of other people's intentions." Goodfellow officials said they were not aware of Rigonan's comments before Military.com inquired about them. There are no recordings of chapel services, base public affairs officials said, but "Goodfellow leadership is looking into what comments were made." The officer's spouse contacted Archbishop of the Military Services Timothy Broglio the day after she attended mass to share her concerns about Rigonan's comments. Broglio oversees all Catholic pastoral ministries and spiritual services at more than 220 U.S. military installations worldwide. Broglio's response took her aback, she said. While he said he didn't agree with Rigonan's word choices, the archbishop wrote that he stood by the chaplain's comments concerning homosexuality, according to a copy of the email reviewed by Military.com. Broglio's office confirmed the email's authenticity. "There is no question that the crisis of sexual abuse by priests in the USA is directly related to homosexuality," Broglio wrote. "[Ninety percent] of those abused were boys aged 12 and over. That is no longer pedophilia." The officer's family hasn't been back to mass on base and won't be attending future services at Goodfellow, the spouse said. Instead, they'll find a church off base. But troops and their families deserve better, she added. "Being a homosexual is not the same as [being] a pedophile," she said. "I want young people in the military to feel welcome when they're on base. How is the military affecting how they feel about their new home if they hear comments like that?" Responding to a scandal Rigonan's alleged comments in the Goodfellow chapel came just days after an explosive report released by a grand jury in Pennsylvania detailed how Catholic Church leaders covered for hundreds of priests who sexually abused more than 1,000 victims over several decades. The Air Force chaplain read a letter from the San Angelo bishop that took a hard stance against pedophilia, the military spouse said. The bishop also pledged to review a connection between a priest placed in the central Texas diocese years prior who'd been named in the grand jury's report. "It was this very thoughtful and good letter," the spouse said. "He gave the hotline number people could call if they had experienced any abuse, and we were really happy with that." Rigonan then asked the parishioners if he could share his own thoughts on the matter, she said. Since Goodfellow is a training base, there were a lot of young troops attending mass alone, she said, and her officer husband quickly grew uncomfortable with the idea that his presence might be viewed as standing by the chaplain's comments. "It's the very opposite of what the military puts out there, especially with the dropping of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell and celebrating Pride month and everything," she said. "...We didn't want to sit there and let people think we're OK with that." A chaplain's rights When chaplains like Rigonan are conducting mass or other services, they are performing duties in accordance with the requirements of their religious institutions, according to official Air Force guidance updated in January. Chaplains are also protected by a host of religious rights put in place by Congress, said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon. The military can't require a chaplain to perform any rite, ritual or ceremony contrary to their moral principles or religious beliefs, according to public law. And the services cannot "cannot take any adverse personnel action against a chaplain, including denial of promotion, school, training or assignment" if they don't comply with requirements in which they don't believe. That is also backed up by Defense Department policy, Stefanek said. The Air Force spouse said she just wants troops and their families to feel safe at the base chapel -- especially after reading Broglio's comments about male victims over the age of 12. "Children are children," she said. "They cannot give consent." A spokesman for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, who was not authorized to use his name, said the number of cases of sexual abuse by priests has "declined markedly" since 2002. "However," he added, "even one case is too many." The comments in Broglio's email were his own, the spokesman said, adding though that he was "simply reading the facts." "The archbishop believes that any abuse of anyone, regardless of his or her age, is a sin," the spokesman said. "When it involves someone under 18 or a vulnerable adult, it is also a crime." Still, he added, the issue of "homosexual attraction" cannot be ignored since most of the victims of sexual abuse by priests in the last century were committed against males 12 and above. "Otherwise," the spokesman added, "would one not expect that the victims would have included more females?" Ensuring troops and their families feel safe attending mass at Goodfellow or any other base activity is a top priority, according to officials there. Anyone uncomfortable with comments being made by religious leaders can submit those concerns through the "Ask Your Commander" hotline or website or by contacting base public affairs. They also have the option to reach out to their chain of command, the wing commander, inspector general, security forces or the office of special investigations. Chaplains, chaplains' assistants, religious program specialists and others interacting with children under the age of 18 on a Defense Department base also undergo background checks, Stefanek said. "Safety of our children is paramount," she said. --Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins. Veterans who have been in the service a while know that the exact dates and times of the biggest operations are typically classified until just before they pop off. But the troops have found ways of knowing what's coming because the command can't quite keep everything to "business as usual" while also preparing for a big push. Here are six signs that sh*t's about to get real: 1. The commander shows up to inspections Lt. Col. Matthew Danner inspects a rifle aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex, July 31, 2018. In theory, the commander cares about all inspections, but he or she typically leaves the actual inspecting to their noncommissioned officers and platoon leaders. After all, company commanders and above have a lot to keep track of. But sometimes, the first sergeant and commander are involved in more inspections than normal, and are checking for more details than normal. It's a sign that they're worried weapons, vehicles, and troops will see combat soon, making an untreated rash or rust damage much more dangerous. 2. Low-level, constant exercises or operations suddenly stop Soldiers training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, undergo a CS gas attack. When a force is built up for a potentially big fight, the commanders have to keep everyone razor sharp and focused. If the troops aren't in regular combat, this is typically accomplished via small exercises and large drills. But, if the fight is about to start, the higher-ups want to ensure that everyone gets a little rest before going into the big battle. So, leaders get word from their own bosses to cease unnecessary training and operations the days immediately preceding the fight, and troops may even get official confirmation 24 hours out along with orders to rest up. 3. All the headquarters pukes are suddenly mum, or are talking in whispers in corners But of course, not every low-level soldier can be kept out of the loop. Someone has to look at where the moon will be on different nights, cloud cover, whether the locals will be outside or in their homes during normal patterns of life. Someone has to move the right equipment to the right spots, and someone runs the messages between all the majors making the plans. So, those people are all low-ranking, yes, but they're also in the know. They'll respond in one of a few ways, usually spilling the beans to close friends or cutting themselves off from everyone which are dead giveaways in their own right. If the intel guy who typically wants to talk to everyone is suddenly mum or will only talk in whispers to close friends, get ready for a fight. 4. A whole bunch of fresh supplies arrive Marines deliver an M777 howitzer via MV-22 Osprey slingload during training in Australia in 2018. Here's a little secret: For as much as all the troops complain about always having to deal with old, hand-me-down gear, the U.S. is actually one of the best-supplied militaries in the world, if not the best supplied (we're certainly the most expensive). But all of those supplies are typically sent to top-tier units or units about to go into the fight. So, if you're not in a Special Forces unit but the supply guy shows up with a ton of useful, new gear especially batteries that your unit has been asking for and failing to receive then you might be going into combat. Get to know the equipment quick. 5. A sudden, seemingly unprompted, nice meal Pizza Hut shows up at the Marines' base just before the invasion of Iraq begins in "Generation Kill." (HBO) As odd as it sounds, an unexpected nice meal is a dead giveaway that troops are about to experience something rough. If you're a soldier in the middle of a huge force, it's a good bet that the "something rough" is the planned operation. This sometimes comes up in movies and TV, like in "Generation Kill," when 20 cars showed up at the wire filled with Pizza Hut while the Marines were waiting for the invasion of Iraq to begin. Driver and comedian Ray Person immediately calls it, "Sh*t is on. Has to be." 6. Comms blackout Marines communicate with family and friends on new morale internet lines in 2011 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Of course, the officers typically want to tell all their troops what's going on and get them mentally prepared for the fight, but there's a big step they need to take to make sure word doesn't leak out: a communications blackout. Internet and phone access to the outside world is cutoff so no one can send an errant text home and let the enemy know the invasion is coming. So, if the morale lines suddenly cut off, go ahead and report to your platoon, because word is coming down that something has happened or is about to. MORE POSTS FROM WE ARE THE MIGHTY: 6 tips to help you survive the notorious 'Crucible' 4 stupid fights lost because of racism The best post-workout drink probably isn't what you expected We Are The Mighty (WATM) celebrates service with stories that inspire. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty. Fans of Michigan rockers Greta Van Fleet have been waiting anxiously for the release of their first album. Now they know when it will be released as they get another taste of it with a new song. The foursome from Frankenmuth will release "Anthem of The Peaceful Army" on October 19, 2018. The album has 10 original songs on it, including the previously released "When The Curtain Falls," which shot to No. 1 on iTunes the same day it was released earlier this year. In addition to the new album release date announcement, the band has dropped a second song from it, "Watching Over." The album is now available for pre-order on iTunes and other music services. Fans who pre-order receive both released songs. All 10 songs on the new album were written collectively by the band: Jake Kiszka/guitars, Sam Kiszka/bass & keys, Josh Kiszka/vocals, and Danny Wagner/drums. The album was produced by Marlon Young, Al Sutton and Herschel Boone (The Rust Brothers) and recorded earlier this year at Blackbird Studios in Nashville and Rustbelt Studios in Royal Oak, Michigan. Greta Van Fleet debuted in March 2017 with the release of the their debut single "Highway Tune." The song went to No. 1 on U.S. Rock Radio Charts for five consecutive weeks and on Canada's Active Rock Radio Charts for nine straight weeks. The band has been on a world tour the last few months which has seen most of their concerts sell-out in advance. Here is our recent interview with them: ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor and DTE Energy are taking steps to convert another 378 streetlights to energy-saving LEDs. The City Council voted 9-0 this week to approve $65,354 for the city's share of the cost to convert some more of the mercury vapor streetlights in the city that are owned and maintained by DTE. City officials say the investment should pay for itself in about a year and a half, as the city will reap the financial benefits associated with lower energy consumption from more efficient lights. Importantly, Ann Arbor officials say, it also will help the city make headway in its goals of reducing community greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2025 and by 80 percent by 2050. According to a breakdown provided by the city's staff, the total project cost is $88,790. DTE is making a $23,436 labor contribution. After an $11,362 energy optimization rebate, the city's final cost for the conversion is $53,992. The city is currently paying DTE $89,383 per year for energizing the lights and that is projected to drop by $33,763 with the LEDs. Brandon Faron, DTE's community lighting account manager, provided the following information about the 378 streetlights to be converted in a July 30 proposal to the city: 4 overhead lights on wood poles from 100-watt mercury vapor to 58-watt LED 367 overhead lights on wood poles from 175-watt mercury vapor to 58-watt LED 1 overhead light on wood pole from 250-watt mercury vapor to 136-watt LED 1 overhead light on wood pole from 400-watt mercury vapor to 136-watt LED 3 underground lights fed by underground cable from 400-watt mercury vapor to 136-watt LED 2 underground lights fed by underground cable from 1000-watt mercury vapor to 238-watt LED City officials said last year the city owns roughly 2,300 streetlights, while DTE owns roughly twice as many in the city. DTE charges the city for the cost of electricity for those lights. According to information provided on the city's website, about 2,000 city-owned streetlights and about 500 DTE-owned streetlights have been converted to LEDs over the last decade, providing more than $200,000 in annual energy cost savings. The city's administration provided the City Council with a separate memo on streetlights this week, noting priority locations where crosswalk lighting is needed. See a map of priority locations in the gallery above. The memo summarized the findings of a recent crosswalk lighting needs assessment done by staff, which identified 17 "highest" priority locations, 22 "high" priority locations, 45 "mid" priority locations, 25 "low" priority locations and 22 "lowest" priority locations. "Using this assessment as a guideline, the current plan is to spend the $115,000 allocated in the 2019 budget for pedestrian safety streetlighting, plus the approximate $70,000 remaining balance from previously allocated funding for new streetlight installations, during fiscal year 2019," the memo states. "Because this additional $70,000 will be used for pedestrian safety lighting improvements, it will no longer be available to spend on general streetlighting needs." The city's fiscal years start July 1, so the fiscal year being referenced is this current fiscal year. The spending of $185,000 this fiscal year is expected to address the 17 "highest" priority locations, and about half of the 22 "high" priority locations identified on the map, according to the memo. If the same level of funding is included in the following year's budget, the memo states, the funding could complete the "high" priority locations and then continue to address other locations. The city is prioritizing crosswalk locations for enhanced lighting based on crash history, the potential to reduce crashes, proximity to bus stops and other destinations, street classifications, public requests for lighting, and an evaluation of current lighting levels. The city also looked at which spots were proximate to the city's streetlight system versus DTE's streetlight system. City officials say adding to city's system is more financially desirable in the long run. A student advisory body told the City Council last year a lack of adequate street lighting in some neighborhoods near the University of Michigan campus is a safety and security concern. Pedestrian safety advocate Kathy Griswold, who will be joining the City Council as a new 2nd Ward rep in November, also has for years raised concerns about poor lighting at crosswalks in the city. The city had a moratorium on new street lighting for about a decade until it was lifted in February 2015. Griswold successfully lobbied for lifting that moratorium in 2015, arguing that the city needed to address unlit mid-block crosswalks, including one on Fuller Road between Huron High School and Gallup Park. In October 2016, a 16-year-old student was struck by a vehicle in the dark in that crosswalk and killed, after which the city took action to finally make improvements and add lighting. At a candidate forum earlier this year, Griswold said unfortunately another unlit mid-block crosswalk on Packard Road near the U.S. 23 overpass that she complained about in 2015 is still not lit. "I don't want to just be a critic," Griswold said at the June 26 candidate forum. "I want to be on council accelerating these improvements and getting the budget that's needed." ANN ARBOR, MI - An Ann Arbor District Court judge is being nationally recognized and honored at the U.S. Supreme Court for her outstanding work. Washtenaw County 15th District Judge Elizabeth Pollard Hines was named as recipient of the 2018 William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, one of the highest judicial honors in the country, according to a statement from the National Center for State Courts. Presented annually by the organization, the award honors a state court judge who demonstrates outstanding qualities of judicial excellence. The award is being presented on Nov. 15, by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. during a ceremony at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. "I've attended the award ceremony for many years and I never thought I would be a recipient," Hines said. "It's an honor just to be nominated. I'm still in awe that I was selected for the award." Hines is the first judge for Michigan to receive the award, according to a listing of past recipients. Qualities the organization looks for in its honorees include integrity, fairness, open-mindedness, knowledge of the law, professional ethics, creativity, sound judgment, intellectual courage and decisiveness, the organization wrote in a news release. "Judge Hines holds the rare combination of qualities that everyone admires, but few possess," NCSC President Mary McQueen said. "She's diligent, prepared, loves challenges, takes on tough issues - and stays with them until she gets results." McQueen added it is how Hines "gets things done" that made her stand out among her peers along with her work in domestic violence intervention. "She is kind, thoughtful, compassionate, and one of the humblest people you'll ever meet," she said. Hines helps train new judges on domestic violence through the Michigan Judicial Institute and was appointed to serve on the Governor's Task Force on Children's Justice and the Governor's Task Force on Batterer Intervention Standards. Hines was elected to the 15th Judicial District Court bench in 1992 after serving as the presiding judge of the District Court Division of the Washtenaw County Trial Court when all courts in the county were unified. In its response the CBI said the role of Perarivalan in the conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi was clearly established. New Delhi: The Supreme Court, without granting any relief to the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, on Thursday asked the Tamil Nadu governor to consider the mercy petition submitted by A.G. Perarivalan, a life convict in December 2015. With this observation, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and K.M. Joseph disposed of the Centres petition que-stioning the Tamil Nadu governments proposal to release all the seven convicts viz Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan (whose death sentence was commuted to life sentence) and that of Nalini, Robert Pius, Jayakumar and Ravichandran. The bench disposed of the petition since the Centre told the bench that the Union home ministry had passed an order on April 18 and conveyed its decision to the Tamil Nadu government rejecting its proposal to grant remission and release the seven convicts in the assassination case, who are in jail nearly for the last 27 years. The Centre told the apex court that it did not concur with the TN governments proposal to release the seven convicts.in the case, saying remission of their sentence will set a dangerous precedent and have international ramifications. It said the case involved the assassination of a former Prime Minister in a brutal manner in pursuance of a diabolical plot carefully conceived and executed by a foreign terrorist organisation. When counsel Gopal Sankaranarayan submitted that the mercy petition of Perarivalan submitted in December 2015 has not been decided by the Tamil Nadu governor, the bench asked the Governor to take a final decision in this regard. In view of the liberty given by the court, window is now open for other six convicts to seek mercy before the Governor, which will be decided independently by him. Perarivalan was charged with supplying a 9-volt battery, which was allegedly used for the belt bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi and 14 others on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. A woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally, triggered the belt bomb. Perarivalan in his petition said the only substantial overt act attributed to him was that of supplying two 9-volt Golden Power batteries, which was alleged to be used in the Improvised Explosive Device. The conspiracy in relation to the origin and make of the Improvised Explosive device would through much light in to the larger conspiracy. The CBI internal evidence shows that even if providing of the 9-volt batteries were true, the knowledge of the conspiracy cannot be attributed to the petitioner. In its response the CBI said the role of Perarivalan in the conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi was clearly established. It said the TADA court had noted that Perarivalan went to Jaffna in Sri Lanka during June 1990 along with Baby Subramanian to hatch the conspiracy. Further his acquaintance with Murugan in Jaffna, his visit to Vellore Fort where LTTE cadres were lodged; removal of LTTE literature, pamphlets etc established his active participation. The TADA court had categorically held that Perarivalan was neck deep in conspiracy with one-eyed Sivarasan and others and had actively assisted in bringing about the conspiracy to a successful completion. The CBI said Perarivalan was an electronic engineer and he knew that to explode IED power source would be 9-volt battery, which was ultimately used in exploding the device (belt bomb). The claim of Perarivalan that he was innocent and was not aware of the conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi could not be accepted. Several Ann Arbor road projects are delayed due to an ongoing dispute between a union and a contractors' organization. The dispute is between Operating Engineers 324 (OE324) and the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA), and numerous projects across the region are impacted. Ann Arbor's impacted projects include: Scio Church Road: Planned construction included asphalt paving on the south half of Scio Church Road. The paving subcontractor is one of the contractors involved in the dispute. The prime contractor for the project revised their schedule to begin construction of the sidewalk along the south side of the roadway to progress work that is not affected by the dispute. Only westbound traffic between South Main and South Seventh streets is permitted. South Seventh Street: Paving is currently delayed and southbound Seventh Street will be closed from Huron to Liberty. Motorists are advised to follow the posted detour. Pauline Boulevard: Construction is delayed on Pauline Boulevard between Stadium Boulevard and Seventh Street. The road is close to westbound traffic. Eastbound traffic is being maintained for local traffic. Motorists are advised to follow the posted detour. MITA Vice President Michael Nystrom said in a Tuesday statement that the work stoppage is the result of a "defensive lockout" instituted by the contractors' group, which alleges "coercive, disruptive and unlawful activities the union has spearheaded against MITA contractors." "The lockout will end when the union ratifies the industry proposed contract," MITA announced. MITA claims that under a previous contract that expired June 1, the average union worker was earning $55.67 per hour in wages and benefits, and that MITA was proposing an increase of $8 an hour, or 14.4 percent over five years, to $63.67 per hour. "As there is no contract in place, and there have not nor will be negotiations between Operating Engineers 324 and MITA, there is nothing in dispute," the union said in a press release. "(The union) has not threatened action against the contractors, and have taken no aggressive or hostile actions, including strikes or slow-downs. Since June 1, MITA has repeatedly stated publicly that OE324 would shut down work - that has not happened once." The contract expired on June 1 and union workers continued with projects around the state without a contract, according to OE324. "The state of our crumbling infrastructure has long been cited as the number one concern to Michigan's residents. Because of this, as well as to support their families, Operating Engineers 324 members continued to work on every single project around the state without a contract," the union said. "It has long been OE324's contention that the contract would work itself out, but completing the work of rebuilding Michigan's roads was of the utmost importance and therefore, must continue." The union also stated the stoppage is a way for MITA to "force financial desperation" upon workers. "Without a contract, OE324 is legally unable to accept fringe benefit payments for members. MITA has dishonestly characterized this as a choice rather than a legal obligation by OE324," according to a press release. An electronic scooter service was launched Friday morning in Ann Arbor, and the city was quick to warn users to keep them off sidewalks or face penalties. Bird, a scooter-share company that deployed its small battery-powered vehicles in Detroit in July, dropped a small batch on the University of Michigan campus Friday as part of a university pop-up tour. "Today, the city learned that a vendor, Bird Rides, Inc., had deposited motorized scooters around the City of Ann Arbor for short-term use by visitors or residents," the city announced. "Please be aware that for the safety of our community, operating these scooters on city sidewalks or leaving them in city streets is prohibited and subjects violators to citation by the city, penalties, and city removal of any scooters left behind." Bird's pop-up tour is intended to steer students away from driving to reduce traffic for short travel gaps, according to a company spokesperson. "Whether it's making it to a class on time, clocking in for work or simply getting to campus from the nearest public transit stop, Bird will help eliminate transportation gaps so students and faculty can focus on what really matters: education," Bird Founder Travis VanderZanden said in a news release. The city attorney's office could not immediately be reached for further details on rules and enforcement. The University of Michigan may not find a student guilty of sexual misconduct in a he-said-she-said situation without giving the accused, or their representative, the opportunity to directly question the victim, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, Sept. 7. While the ruling applies specifically to a case out of UM, the decision could have implications at university campuses across Michigan and beyond. A growing number of universities, including UM and Michigan State University, in an effort to shield sexual assault victims from their attackers and to encourage victims to speak up, have established policies that deprive the accused, usually young men, of their constitutional right to cross-examine, argues Bloomfield Hills-based attorney Deborah L. Gordon. Gordon is representing an anonymous former UM student, named only as John Doe in court filings, who was kicked out the university based on allegations that he had non-consensual sex with a woman, also a student, while she was drunk during a fraternity party on Jan. 16, 2016. The woman filed a sexual misconduct complaint with the university. The allegations were initially ruled to be unfounded, but the woman appealed and the decision was reversed. The male student, who at the time held a 3.95 GPA and was 13.5 credit hours from earning his degree, was forced to withdraw from UM on June 27, 2016, according to the original complaint. In September of 2016, the student filed a federal lawsuit asking UM to grant him his degree. He argued that the sexual misconduct finding was erroneous, partially based on the fact that he was never able to defend himself before the appellate body or question the credibility of his accuser's claims. John Doe, according to the appeals court ruling, claimed he and the female student were kissing, and decided to go up to his bedroom to have sex. Afterwards, he left for an extended period of time and returned to find the woman distraught, he believed because he left her alone in the bed shortly after their sexual encounter. The woman describes the encounter very differently, claiming she said "no sex" before she "flopped" onto the male student's bed. "Without asking, (the man) undressed her and had intercourse with her while she 'laid there in a hazy state of black out,'" the appellate court ruling says. "And at some point, she passed out and woke up to (the man) having oral sex with her." In January 2015, U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson ruled in favor of the University of Michigan and it's appellate board, UM Law School Assistant Dean David H. Baum, former professor Susan Pritzel, Office Of Student Conflict Assistant Director Nadia Bazzy and Tabitha Bentley. The case was dismissed. But based on the successful appeal, the case will now return to the U.S. District Court for a possible jury trial to determine whether the male student should be granted his degree, as well as compensation for attorney fees. Gordon says she's representing another plaintiff in a similar case filed against UM that is awaiting an appeals court decision. Based on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, she fully expects the court to again rule against UM. The university has "wasted an incredible amount of taxpayers' dollars and energy" creating and attempting to uphold the unconstitutional policy, Gordon said. MLive has sought comment and was awaiting a response from attorney David Debruin, who is defending the university, its policy and employees. Gordon said UM policy allows "a full hearing and live cross-examination to a student accused of any wrongdoing at the university ... except sexual misconduct." It was unclear if UM intends to adjust its sexual misconduct investigation policy or appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals also ruled on a second aspect of the original complaint. The student claimed gender discrimination, alleging that the U.S. Department of Education, student groups and the general public are encouraging universities to be overzealous in their investigations of men accused of sexual misconduct. The appeals court ruled there is a basis for this claim to be argued and decided upon by the lower court. Sixth Circuit Court judges Amul R. Thapar and Julia S. Gibbons issued the court's majority decision. Judge Ronald L. Gilman dissented in part, writing that the decision to grant the accused or the representative a chance to cross-examine their accuser is a "bridge too far," as precedent has already determined that due process may be afforded at the university level without the benefit of an attorney. Gilman also wrote that there was "no basis to reasonably infer" gender discrimination played a role in UM's ruling against the male student. Read each of the judges' opinions below: A masseur from Shelby Township is accused of placing the hands of at least two clients, both women, on his erect penis, and digitally penetrating at least one of the women during therapy sessions. Nathan Isaiah Weems, who operated Namaste Massage and Spiritual Wellness Massage Parlor in Shelby Township, pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree and six counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct on Aug. 13. He's scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 25 in Macomb County's 16th Circuit Court. Based on his convictions, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) suspended Weems' massage therapist license. He may petition to reinstate his license at a later date. Anyone who believes they have been mistreated by a public health professional is urged to file a complaint with LARA online at Michigan.gov/BPL. Full complaint below: Amor Ftouhi FLINT, MI -- A Flint U.S. District Court judge has denied a change of venue request for accused airport stabber Amor M. Ftouhi. Ftouhi's attorney recently argued on his behalf that Judge Linda V. Parker move the jury trial to Detroit due to the publicity the case has received and a smaller jury pool in Flint that wouldn't allow him an impartial trial. In a Thursday, Sept. 6 opinion and order, Parker notes a juror questionnaire has already been granted by the court "which will probe prospective jurors' exposure to any pretrial publicity." She added the juror pool is "sufficiently large to allow for a fair and impartial jury," and that the time between publicity and trial "is not too short to warrant a presumption of prejudice. Parker also denies Ftouhi's argument that pretrial publicity would be weighed against him. "Here, Ftouhi has not made a confession nor has he demonstrated that news articles have reported clearly prejudicial information," she said. "In fact, Ftouhi relies on the mere existence of several news articles that report the facts of his alleged offense, and related local events that sought to honor the victim and other law enforcement." Ftouhi is accused in the June 21, 2017, stabbing of Bishop Airport Police Lt. Jeff Neville inside the airport terminal. The dual citizen of Canada and Tunisia is charged with committing an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, violence at an international airport and interference with airport security. Ftouhi faces the potential of a life sentence in prison. He is accused of stabbing Neville with a large knife while shouting "Allahu Akbar" and referenced killings in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq just four days after entering the United States from Canada, federal prosecutors claim. Neville survived the attack. Investigators said Ftouhi said he was a "soldier of Allah" and subscribed to the ideology of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, according to his indictment. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, with assistance from the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. LINDEN, MI - Jordan Asbury thought he was joking around with his friends in February while they learned about genetics during a biology class at Linden High School. The seven-word message he scribbled on the table changed his life, and now he cautions others from making the same mistake. "I'm going to shoot up the school," he wrote before leaving from the final class of the day in February. When Asbury admitted to writing the message the next day, he thought he would get suspended. But he started to get an uneasy feeling when was handcuffed in school and taken to the Argentine Township Police Department. Charged with false threat of terrorism, the teen faced a 20-year felony and $20,000 in fines and was expelled from Linden schools. "It was meant as a joke and obviously it was a pretty bad one - obviously I wasn't taking into account the people who have been through situations like that," Ashbury said. "It can change everything - one thing you write, say or do." Asbury, 16, was expelled from Linden schools for 180 days, served two months at the Genesee Valley Regional Center, had to complete community service hours, pay fines and was on a 90-day probation. The threat was later deemed non-credible by law enforcement, according to Argentine Township police and School Resource Officer Ken Engel. He said that there was a lot of threats of school violence across Genesee County. "It was a five-day epidemic where everyone thought it was a joke," Engel said. "It's really sad. It's sad that people think it's funny. What this young man is putting out there is it's life-changing. It's a tragedy for everyone. It's very sad all the way around." Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has visited schools across Genesee County warning kids about the law as it addresses school shooting threats. "Even if you do it as a joke, the law doesn't deem it as a joke," Leyton said. "I'm not looking to hang felonies on kids, but on the same token I cannot have that kind of disruption in our county." Asbury's parents also had to pay $3,000 to hire an attorney. "I did deserve to get in trouble because it was a stupid thing to say," he said. "Knowing now how such a little decision can affect your life so much - I'd say it's definitely eye-opening." Linden schools told Ashbury during a meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 6, that he couldn't enroll in the school early, according to his mom, Michelle Asbury. He's been taking classes online and may try to get into Swartz Creek's alternative education high school. "I don't think that the kids or the families realize the seriousness of this," Michelle Asbury said. "Hopefully, this can help another kid." Already this year, Fenton High School students were placed in secure mode on the first day of school after a bomb threat against the building was called in to police. Asbury's threat took place around the same time as the shooting that left 14 students and three staff members dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. "We're going to continue to be vigilant on this," Leyton said. "Schools should be safe places. There's no room for these pranks or those who want to do harm to others." Meijer will be offering free junior deer hunting licenses at all Michigan stores from Sept. 14-15. The Walker-based retailer says the deal is valid for a single junior deer hunting license, which carries a $20 value, or a mentored youth hunting license. Children must be accompanied by an adult to get the license, which can be accessed at the sporting goods desk or by contacting customer service. Hunters in Michigan must also purchase a base license, which costs $6 for youth, ages 10-16, Meijer said in a news release. "The base license allows hunters to hunt small game and purchase additional hunting licenses," according to the news release. "The mentored youth hunting license, valid only for hunters under the age of 10, includes a base license and does not require separate purchase of the base license." Meijer has offered free deer hunting licenses for children since 2008. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The public can pay its respects to the late Rich DeVos, Amway co-founder and one of the community's most generous philanthropists, Wednesday at the Amway Grand Plaza, officials announced Friday, Sept. 7. DeVos, 92, died Thursday, Sept. 6, from complications from an infection at his home in Ada. He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, who died last fall. More than 700 people lined up at the Amway to bid Mrs. DeVos farewell and honor her generous support of health care, education and the arts. There are two visitation times scheduled for the public to celebrate the life of DeVos prior to his private, invitation-only funeral at 2 p.m. Thursday at LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church: Wednesday, Sept. 12, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 4 to 8 p.m. in the Ambassador Ballroom at the Amway, 187 Monroe Ave. NW. Members of the family will be present during the visitation periods. The public can also watch a simulcast of the Celebration of Life services at the DeVos Performance Hall at DeVos Place, located at 303 Monroe Ave. NW. DeVos gave his time, leadership and resources to many organizations and causes. He was a central figure in leading the revitalization of Grand Rapids, and later spearheaded numerous projects to improve his hometown through higher education, health care, economic development, and the art. Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel also shared with employees Thursday that they've created a website, www.RichDeVos.com, where the public can express their thoughts to the family. The site highlights his story from growing the company into a global direct sales giant with Jay VanAndel to his faith, family and charitable giving. The company, founded in 1959, is a world-wide leader in health, beauty, and other products. In February, officials announced sales of $8.6 billion USD for the year ending Dec. 31, 2017. Amway operates in more than 100 countries and territories and employs 21,000, including 4,000 in West Michigan. Rich DeVos was Amway's president until 1993, when he was succeeded by his son, Dick. His son Doug has been president of the company since 2002. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - State police would not say what led a Grand Rapids police officer to fire his weapon while responding to a report of a subject with a gun. No one was injured by the gunfire. State police detectives are investigating as an outside agency at the request of Grand Rapids police. State police and Grand Rapids police released few details of the officer-involved shooting, which happened around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, on Howard Avenue SE, east of Madison Avenue. Police were responding to a report of a subject with a gun when the officer fired his weapon. Police then stopped a person, who was not arrested. State police would not say if the person, whose age and gender were not released, was armed. State police Lt. Rob Davis, in charge of the Sixth District Special Investigation Section, said investigators are "actively investigating" the incident. The officer who fired his gun has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure. The incident was unrelated to a nearby search for two teens who escaped last week from the Muskegon River Youth Home in Evart. Around the time of the gunfire, police were looking for the two escapees. An FBI fugitive task force had spotted one of them going into a house in the 900 block of Kalamazoo Avenue SE. Police summoned additional officers, the Special Response Team, Major Case detectives and Kent County sheriff's detectives to the scene. While police helped nearby residents evacuate, police arrested a 16-year-old fleeing the house. A 15-year-old who escaped the youth home with him was not there. An operator at the youth home twice hung up when contacted by The Grand Rapids Press seeking comment. MUSKEGON, MI -- A 33-year-old Muskegon area native has been charged with murder after he was accused of killing a Pennsylvania woman at the request of her husband. Kenneth Wayne Smith, 33, has been charged with homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and killing domestic animals, according to a report by PennLive. Police said Smith, who now lives in Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, has been charged in the Aug. 17 death of 49-year-old Sonja (Fryer) Heck. He was arrested Aug. 31 in Muskegon County, and returned to Williamsport, Pennsylvania where he was jailed without bond. The woman's husband, Edward Heck, is also charged with homicide in the killing, according to the PennLive report. Police said he admitted to hiring Smith to kill his wife. Smith is accused of hitting Sonja Heck on the head with a hammer and then cutting her throat. She was found dead in her bedroom. The family's two dogs were also found dead in the house after suffering blunt-force injuries, police said. Smith was arrested by police and U.S. Marshals at his childhood house in Muskegon, according to a WNEM report. Muskegon County Undersheriff Ken Sanford said Smith was arrested at a relative's home in the 1100 block of Sullivan Road in Egelston Township. Pruthviraj Kandepi was killed when a gunman opened fire at headquarters for Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati. Police investigate the scene after a shooting at the Fifth Third Bank building on Fountain Square on Thursday, in downtown Cincinnati. (Photo: AP) New Delhi/New York: A 25-year-old Indian man was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in a bank building in the US city of Cincinnati before police shot him dead on Thursday. Pruthviraj Kandepi, who belonged to Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district, was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, police said. India's Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told news agency PTI that the consulate is in touch with the police, Pruthviraj Kandepi's family as well as members of the community. An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Pruthviraj Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added. The two other victims were identified as 48-year-old Luis Felipe Calderon and 64-year-old Richard Newcomer. Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, they said, adding that the gunman was killed in a shootout with the police. According to Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call at around 9:10 am local time about an "active shooter" at the bank. The gunman was shot multiple times as four police officers approached him and he died at the scene. He had a pistol and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, Eliot Isaac said, adding that the gunman was not a former or current employee of the bank. He had gone to several businesses before going to the bank, he said. Omar Enrique Santa Perez had opened fire in the building's loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Mr Isaac told reporters at a televised press conference. A state board begrudgingly certified a petition from independent attorney general candidate Christopher Graveline Friday, securing his spot on the November 2018 ballot. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted 3-0 to certify Graveline's election petition, which a federal court ordered the state to reconsider despite him not turning in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot under current state law. Graveline's petition was initially turned down because he didn't obtain 30,000 signatures from registered voters in 180 days, a requirement for independents running as a statewide candidate. He then sued the state, alleging the state's current rules enacted in 1988 effectively bar independents from being on the ballot. U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts agreed and ordered the state to allow him on the ballot if Graveline turned in 5,000 valid signatures. Both the federal district and appeals courts denied the state's request to stay the district court's injunction. Elections Director Sally Williams said a state review concluded he had more than 5,000 signatures, and recommended the board comply with the court order so the state could meet the Sept. 7 deadline for certifying ballots. The federal ruling did not address the legality of Michigan's existing signature requirements, and Williams said the state is continuing to appeal Graveline's suit. Secretary of State spokesperson Fred Woodhams said regardless of how the case pans out from here, it won't impact Graveline's ballot status. Even as they complied with the court's ruling, board members urged state officials to keep fighting the issue. Julie Matuzak, a Democratic member of the board, said she considered the issue "ridiculous," adding sarcastically, "I'm sorry it's so hard to get on the ballot in Michigan." "There is not an issue with getting the required number of signatures to get on the ballot in Michigan, in my opinion," she said. Republican board member Colleen Pero said she believe's there's a rational basis for why the requirement is in law. Norm Shinkle, the board's chair, ultimately passed on the vote, but not before asking, "If we deny this, what's the federal judge going to do?" Graveline, who attended the hearing, told reporters he believed the federal decisions thus far were sound and said Friday's decision "is a big win for people who are looking for an option other than the two parties." Graveline joins Democrat Dana Nessel, Republican Tom Leonard, Libertarian Lisa Gioia and U.S. Taxpayers candidate Gerald Van Sickle on the ballot. All of the other candidates were chosen at their respective party conventions. Michigan residents will get a chance to tell federal officials in person what they expect from the U.S. government as it determines public protections from PFAS chemicals. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell pressed the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to restore plans to hold an engagement meeting in the state. That move came as she and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee held a subcommittee hearing on the chemicals and federal steps that could better protect Americans from their effects. "We did get the EPA to commit," Dingell said after the hearing in Washington, DC. Michigan continues to identify sources of PFAS contamination, with a focus on drinking water. Officials are testing all of the municipal water supplies and wells, and in August initiated an emergency shut down the water system in Parchment, near Kalamazoo. High levels of the chemicals have been found at sites all over the state, including northern Kent County, Oscoda, the Huron River in southeast Michigan and Battle Creek. PFAS represents a group of water-repellent chemicals known as per- and poly-flourinated compounds, which have links to cancer, liver damage, birth defects and autoimmune diseases. The EPA said in May that it would travel to select sites in the U.S. as the agency reviewed its role in setting national enforceable standards for the chemicals. Sessions featuring expert presentations and public feedback were held in five states starting in June. Michigan was announced as one of the first two stops on the outreach effort. But by late August, the final location was announced, and Michigan wasn't on the list. Dingell on Thursday took the floor at the subcommittee hearing after Rep. Hudson of North Carolina, who thanked Dr. Peter Grevatt, director of the EPA's office of groundwater and drinking water, for making Fayetteville, NC, one of its stops. That community has been struggling with contamination by GenX, a type of PFAS. "North Carolina wanted to see you, but so did Michigan. People wanted you from one side of the state to the other," Dingell said to Gravatt on Thursday, "and you didn't come. "Why did you cancel Michigan? And could we get you to still come?" The answer suggested that the state turned down the EPA. A state spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality previously told MLive.com that the state wanted to ensure a "productive and manageable format." "If in fact Michigan now wants us to do an event in the state, we'll be glad to talk talk with you or talk with them," Gravatt told Dingell, D-Dearborn, who then pulled in U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, and Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, into the request. "We take that you've accepted it," Dingell said. Unclear so far is where or when the meetings will take place. Grevatt said that the EPA will follow up with the representatives on setting it up. Upton, Walberg and Dingell "need to figure out where the EPA is going to go," Dingell said. And the meeting may not be limited to a single location, she added. "We may be able to get two EPA meetings while they're in the state." BROOKLYN, MI - Victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will again be remembered in a blood drive at Michigan International Speedway. The 17th annual "Spirit of America" Blood Drive takes place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, at MIS. Appointments can be made here, by calling 866-642-5663 or by visiting miblood.org. Anyone 17 or older -- or 16 with parental consent -- can donate if they are in good health. Donors should bring with them a photo ID that includes a date of birth. The event is hosted by Michigan Blood and sponsored by MIS. More than 10,000 blood products have been collected since the event began in 2002. People who attempt to donate blood can ride the MIS tram around the track to the "Home of the Brave" exhibit, which is 4,000 square feet and features videos, presidential letters, magazines, newspapers and more. Lunch for donors is provided in the Champions Club, presented by CP Federal Credit Union overlooking the track. Donors also will receive a "Spirit of America" gift bag, commemorative pin and T-shirt. At the end of the tour, donors can view nearly 3,000 American flags on display at Unity Field to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Each flag represents a victim of the attacks. They are placed by community volunteers and the Columbia Central High School Honor Society. Around 3,000 people died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and aboard Flight 93 over Pennsylvania. Michigan Blood states it needs blood donations because supplies are at their lowest in the summer months. The blood products supplier states type O negative and type O positive blood are especially needed. JACKSON, MI - In response to the Flint water crisis, the state made changes in June to toughen requirements for lead service lines in water systems. The Jackson City Council voted unanimously to take a stand against these new rules, at its Tuesday, Sept. 4 meeting. Jackson joins Detroit and Oakland County - among other communities - in asking the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to reconsider its rule. It doesn't mean the city is against the proposed changes, Mayor Derek Dobies said. Council is just opposed to who's footing the bill, he said. "Ultimately, it comes down to our ability to pay for it," Dobies said. "If the state government is not going to fund infrastructure, that's going to fall onto the citizens - and that would be a substantial increase in water rates." The expense currently would fall to the city, with City Manager Patrick Burtch estimating it would cost $50 million to $63 million. To cover it, Burtch said water rates would have to increase by nearly 50 percent. Tuesday's vote doesn't enter the city into litigation. It's just a request to the MDEQ. Dobies said there will likely be litigation to resolve the issue in the future, if the state doesn't alter its rules. State changes mandated earlier this summer include the following: Requiring the lead action level to have 12 parts per billion of lead or less, down from 15 ppb Requiring public water systems to replace all lead service lines, replacing 5 percent of the lines every year for 20 years, starting in 2021 Requiring a second sample collection at sites with lead service lines Prohibiting partial replacement of lead service lines Jackson County has the highest percentage of children younger than 6 with elevated blood lead levels in Michigan, per the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Data released in May from 2016 shows 7.6 percent of children tested had elevated blood lead levels. The problem is even more pronounced in the city, where 8.4 percent of those tested had elevated blood lead levels. While Jackson has an issue, City Attorney Bethany Smith said it's lead in paint - not in water - causing the problem. Lead in Jackson's water was at 2 ppb or less at 90 percent of sites tested in 2017. The federal threshold is 15 ppb. Other water systems in Jackson County tested between 0 and 11 ppb. "The real shame of the new rule is, that in most Michigan communities - and Jackson - the vast majority of lead poisoning cases is not the result of the city's water - which always passes all the tests," Smith said. "It's mostly the result of lead-based paint. So this very expensive remedy that the MDEQ crafted will not help that at all." Last year, the city received $2.9 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to abate lead paint in city homes. KALAMAZOO, MI -- County officials acknowledged that a community action agency consistently failed to distribute funds to low-income and minority citizens but disagreed about what to do about it. During the last several years, the agency failed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants meant to assist Kalamazoo County's most vulnerable citizens. Tuesday, Sept. 4, Commissioner Michael Seals introduced a surprise motion to decertify the community action agency's citizen advisory board, which passed 6-4. The vote turns oversight of the funds over to the state. County Administrator Tracie Moored said a nonprofit will be selected to distribute community action agency funds. Moored and Seals said the move will allow the distribution of funds to be more efficient. County Board Chair Stephanie Moore, liaison to the advisory board, said the county is absolving its responsibility to vulnerable citizens. Republican Commissioners Dale Shugars, John Gisler, Ron Kendall, Scott McGraw and Roger Tuinier joined Seals to rescind the board's certification. Democrats Tracy Hall, Julie Rogers and Kevin Wordelman voted against the move, expressing concern that the decision was made too quickly. Moore left the Tuesday meeting before the vote to be with her pregnant daughter, who was enduring complications from labor. Thursday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the agency will lose its designation once an interim provider is selected. The transition must take place before Dec. 31. Moored said she has been assured by the state that current community action agency employees will be offered employment with the new agency. The Kalamazoo County Community Action Tripartite Advisory Board (CATAB) is mandated by the federal government to help the county distribute funds to income-eligible people living in poverty. The money goes toward things like food vouchers, school supplies, laundry tokens and senior services. The board has until Sept. 30 to use its funds each year. Unspent money from state and federal grants is carried over to be used in the next year. Moored said funds have gone unused several times since 2011. A total of $259,687 is unspent this year; $234,797 was carried over from 2016-17 and $214,595 from 2015-16. For the 2017-18 budget year, the community action agency had a budget of $894,452. Moore criticized Kalamazoo County leaders in public meetings, local media and on her campaign Facebook page for letting money go unused. A failure to spend those funds contributed to issues being raised during ongoing protests about homelessness in Bronson Park, she said. Meanwhile, the county administrator said funds are unused due to bureaucratic barriers at the county and state levels, which prevents spending to be approved quickly. This year, the Board of Commissioners failed to reappoint CATAB members whose terms had expired. Moore accused the process of being tainted by politics because one of the members was Seals' political opponent in the Aug. 7 primary. At an Aug. 9 meeting, commissioners failed to pass a motion to reappoint Nicky Leigh, Robert Reynolds, Anthony Bradley and Shequita Lewis to new three-year terms on the advisory board. There were no other applicants for the seats. Tuesday, Commissioner Julie Rogers reminded her colleagues that several board vacancies still need to be filled. Immediately after, Seals introduced a motion to decertify the community action agency's board. He said it is "one of the hardest boards to run" and hasn't been effective in the last several years. "(My motion) has to do with the fact that we could not pull this thing together the way we were hoping to get it pulled together," Seals said. The motion was immediately controversial. The agency's fate was discussed in committee meetings, but several commissioners said they were not expecting a vote so soon. "This is a terrible idea, what are we doing?" Commissioner Kevin Wordelman said. "This isn't on the agenda; we didn't talk about it beforehand. I think this is completely inappropriate." Wordelman asked if citizen comment could be received before commissioners voted. Shugars said no. After the motion passed, Leigh exclaimed, "You have just destroyed the income-eligible people in this county." Shugars had her removed from the board chambers. Wordelman and Hall stood up and left the room in the wake of the board's vote. Corporate Counsel Elizabeth White authored the motion after being contacted by Seals on Aug. 31. She has recently been working on amendments to the board's bylaws to prevent items from being voted on without prior notice. In a Thursday email to commissioners, White said the county's bylaws should be changed to prohibit items from appearing for a vote without at least appearing on the agenda, in writing, in advance of the meeting. "I strongly urge you to adopt the amended bylaws, so that all items will appear on the agenda, and will be considered by the Committee of the Whole prior to any vote," she wrote. "Until new bylaws are approved, I hope that the items will be placed on the agenda, allowing for thoughtful consideration in advance." Moore had harsh words for her colleagues, criticizing them for being unwilling to fix issues with the community action agency. "It's a circus," the board chair said. "(Administration) blames everything on an advisory board that makes no decisions and has no authorization. (The county) rejects half of the advice that CATAB gives them." Seals said he still would have made the motion if Moore was present. Last fall, an embattled veterans services advisory board was also disbanded. Administration of veterans services was turned over from the county health department to a mental health authority. "I'm disappointed that leadership has not taken ownership," Moore said. "Last year they got rid of veterans, not we got rid of the community action agency. Why not address the culture and the toxicity that we have in Kalamazoo County so we can have viable services for most vulnerable in community?" Seals said he repeatedly voiced concern that the community action agency only distributed money to parts of the city of Kalamazoo and not the county as a whole. Problems with the agency have not been fixed in years, he said. "I'm not going to apologize for what I did," Seals said. "Now we can talk about the elephant in the room: how can we fix it, how can we do it better ... it is clear to me, that under our leadership, we have not been able to get that organization to the point it needs to be." The Rev. Nathan Dannison, leader of First Congregational Church and a member of the community action agency's advisory board, also criticized the county for disbanding the board. Wordelman and Rogers tried to postpone the vote for two weeks, but the motion failed. Rogers said she is open-minded about the idea, but didn't see a compelling reason to "rush" the vote. "I continue to be baffled by this board," she said. "This is not the kind of commission that I am proud to be a part of. We have people getting up and leaving in frustration, we have people yelling at each other, there have been a number of things in the last two years." During the Aug. 9 meeting, Moore criticized commissioners for preventing bodies that benefit vulnerable communities from operating. She accused her colleagues of discriminating against the advisory board because it serves minority and low-income residents. While Moore was speaking, she was interrupted by Seals. He asked Moore to resolve a point of order, which indicates that he believed a rule was being violated, then made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which passed by a voice vote. Marshall Washington (Photo provided to MLive by KVCC) KALAMAZOO, MI -- Just over 60 days into his presidency at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Marshall Washington has his eyes set on connection and collaboration. Washington, 49, said his daily schedule in the first 60 days at the helm has been packed with meetings with community, campus and business leaders. He has learned about college policies, heard what needs exist from faculty and staff, and even spent some time on the roofs of campus buildings during a tour, he said. "I'm pleased," Washington said. "I'm very pleased about what I've inherited." Former president Marilyn Schlack, who served for 35 years, "put her stamp" on the college, he said. But Washington is looking ahead and asking what he can do differently. "One of the biggest things I've learned about KVCC is we are a very fascinating and complex organization in a sense of all the offerings we provide," Washington said. "And what marvelous facilities we have." But as a new chapter at the college begins, Washington is searching for opportunities for innovation. Washington mentioned the downtown presence of the college, including the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, the Art and New Media Center and the Healthy Living Campus and said he is working to find ways to strengthen the college's connection to the community. "How can we do it so that everyone knows, 'That's KVCC?'" Washington said. "We've got to do more." Additional signage for the downtown buildings and more opportunities for the community to come inside will strengthen the mutual relationship, he said. "Sometimes people have been walking by those buildings for years," Washington said. "Sometimes you just never look up." Though there's no guarantee he will serve three decades like his predecessor, Washington said his connection to the area motivates him to stay a long time. The president, a native of Columbus, Ohio, worked 15 years at Kellogg Community College, beginning in 1995. He held multiple positions ending his time as a vice president for student services. Washington also worked as a part-time instructor at Western Michigan University. All three of his kids were born in West Michigan too, he said. Time spent with community, college and business leaders included talks with Western Michigan University, KRESA staff, officials from the Kalamazoo Promise and faculty working within the walls of KVCC, Washington said. In spending time with President Edward Montgomery, who took the lead at Western Michigan University a little over a year ago, Washington both began the forming of a professional relationship and laid the foundation to collaborate with this "four-year partner," he said. In other meetings, Washington discussed the achievement gap among high school students and the challenges for first-generation college students with staff from the Kalamazoo Promise and KRESA. As a first-generation student himself, Washington said he understands the struggles and wants to help those in education understand the greatest challenges. "Our first-generation students sometimes need that extra help," Washington said. "Sometimes they don't know what they don't know." Offering extra information and giving them permission to ask questions regardless of how simple they may think it is opens the door to allow them to achieve, he said. With only two months under his belt as president, Washington said specific goals for the future of the college have yet to be decided. "I'm still meeting with the board and with our cabinet, and our faculty and asking, 'What are some of the things we can work on together?' Because it's not just me putting these goals down and saying we are going to make this happen," Washington said. "Thought leaders" for the college who have spent time "in the trenches" will work side-by-side with Washington to determine the college's future, he said. "I see myself over the next few months really establishing what those goals would be," Washington said. "So, I don't know specifically what those goals are today, but I would certainly say that in formulating those goals, I will be including cabinet members, faculty and other employees in that decision making." One goal Washington does have his eyes set on is connecting with the community, he said. "How can I get out there, relate to different individuals and understand the community's relationship to KVCC?" Washington said. "That's what I'm trying to do." Discussing industry and business needs and working alongside K-12 leaders to help students transition to college will determine what sorts of jobs are in need and place students on those paths to success, he said. "I believe our role is our mission," Washington said. "We are trying to educate students so that they can certainly be able to fulfill the workforce needs of the community." Proving the value of a community college education to students focused on the price tag is one challenge Washington sees ahead of him. KVCC, like other colleges in Michigan, is seeing declining enrollment. Though community college tuition is less expensive than a four-year degree, there is still work to be done to prove that the investment is worth it because of both cost and value, he said. Students can gain a "very good quality education" and get employed immediately after graduation, Washington said. The college is working to better display the types of jobs that can come with an associate degree or certificate, and the "very good lifestyle" people can have working as a welder or nurse for example, he said. Community colleges offer hands-on experience and "meaningful opportunity for students to be engaged in their learning all along the way," Washington said. MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - It takes only moments for a farmworker to quickly become engulfed in a grain bin, and rescues too often have poor outcomes. To help improve those outcomes, Nationwide has been giving away tubes that are used in grain bin rescues. The Moorland Township Fire Department, located in rural Muskegon County, was one of 29 fire departments across the country that received grain bin rescue tubes this year. On Wednesday, the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety trained Moorland firefighters on how to use the tube to rescue an individual who has fallen into a grain bin. Volunteers entered a grain bin simulator and were submerged in grain to their waists. The tubes donated by Nationwide have saved three farmers, said Ryan Whittington, a spokesman for Nationwide. Since 2014, the insurance and financial services company has donated rescue tubes and training to 77 fire departments in 23 states. Other departments in Michigan that received rescue tubes this year are Howard City Fire Department and Almont Fire Department. "Grain bin entrapments can devastate a family in a matter of seconds and we hope that this effort will help save lives that would otherwise be lost," said Brad Liggett, president of Nationwide Agribusiness. "Until we can convince all farmers to develop a zero-entry mentality, we will continue to make rescue resources as widely available as possible." There have been more than 900 cases of "grain entrapments" over the past 50 years, with 62 percent ending in fatalities, according to research by Purdue University. SAGINAW, MI -- Two men are facing attempted murder charges after police allege they fired on a teenager they had blocked from driving down a Saginaw street. The incident in question happened about 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 10 in the area of Houghton and North Charles streets. A 19-year-old man had been driving on Houghton when he encountered a large group of people standing in the roadway, said Michigan State Police Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser. Unable to drive by them, the teen exited his vehicle and ended up getting into a physical altercation with at least one of the people blocking his path, Kaiser said. The scuffle was broken up and the teen returned to his car and again tried to leave. At least one of two other men went to another vehicle, retrieved a firearm, and fired several bullets through the teen's windshield, Kaiser said. The teen ducked and lay down as the shooting occurred, thereby avoiding being struck by a bullet, the lieutenant said. Police responded to the scene and recovered numerous shell casings, which are currently being analyzed at the Michigan State Police Crime Lab. Authorities on Aug. 22 issued warrants for two suspects -- Ricky H. Morgan, 20, of Grand Rapids, and Dion D. Hardy, 17, of Saginaw. Two days later, Morgan appeared in Saginaw County District Court for arraignment on single counts of assault with intent to murder and felony firearm. The former is a life offense, while the latter is punishable by a mandatory minimum two-year sentence, to be served consecutively to any other prison term. State police troopers arrested Hardy on Sept. 4 and he was later arraigned on the same two charges. Kaiser could not say if the suspects and the victims knew each other prior to the shooting. Both men remain in custody in the Saginaw County Jail. They are scheduled to appear for preliminary examinations on Sept. 11. This is not Morgan's first time running afoul of the law. In October 2015, a judge sentenced him to one year of house arrest and three years' probation on a conviction of unarmed robbery. Morgan had pleaded no contest to the charge in August 2015, stemming from him and another teen robbed two younger teens at knifepoint of their Nike Foamposite shoes and $50. MOUNT PLEASANT, MI - The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan recommitted one of its ancestors back to the earth, almost 50 years after the remains were found on private property in Michigan and given to a museum. Tribal members gathered at the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways on Thursday, Sept. 6, in Mount Pleasant for the ceremony to rebury the remains of a Native American ancestor. The remains had been housed at the University of Michigan's Museum of Anthropological Archaeology after they were discovered in 1971. "The point of today is to restore dignity to this young ancestor," said Shannon Martin, director of the center. "Bringing her back and putting her into the earth where she was supposed to stay until she could complete her last giveaway ceremony." Martin described the ancestor as being a "powerful, respected" young warrior woman who died in conflict based on injuries discovered on her upper torso and back. She was also expected to have lived between 1760 and 1820 based on the funerary objects buried with her and associated with that time frame. The remains were buried at the tribe's Nibokaan Ancestral Cemetery - established in 1995 - solely for the purpose of reburying repatriated Native American remains and funerary objects. The remains of the woman were found in August 1971 in Arenac County when construction workers contacted the Michigan State Police after finding human remains while digging a trench for a water main on private land, according to a news release. On Thursday, the beginning of the ceremony had tribal members bless the remains and make final preparations for the ancestor to be buried. One of the members also presented the ancestral remains with a gift. Tony Perry, a member of the tribe as well as a veteran, offered his tomahawk as a temporary gift because one of the artifacts that was buried with the warrior woman was not returned. "When ... her tomahawk was taken by this dude, creator was like, 'You've got one, you need to give it up,'" he said. "I introduced myself in the language and told her it was an honor to be here and who I was and I'm in the bear clan too, that's where it came from, from spirit to spirit." Getting the remains was not always easy, Martin said, because of the complexity and protocols of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Martin said they started the process in 2011. In 2015 was when they had their first consultation with the University of Michigan about returning the ancestor back to their land. According to NAGPRA's website, it was a federal law passed in 1990 to help tribes reclaim their ancestral remains from from museums and federal agencies by establishing a process to return the items to lineal descendants of the ancestor. The Arenac County Historical Society also repatriated 15 associated funerary objects to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe under the spirit of the law, according to a news release. "The community, coming together to do this work, it takes a community," Martin said, "As we do more and more of these repatriations and bringing our ancestors home, these re-committment ceremonies (help) to restore their dignity to get them placed back into the earth." WASHINGTON -- Rudy Giuliani, one of President Donald Trump's personal lawyers says the president is not going to answer questions related to possible obstruction involving the special investigation involving Russian interference in the 2016 election. Giuliani told the Associated Press in a phone interview that questions about obstruction of justice would not be answered either in writing or in person. "That's a no-go. That is not going to happen," Giuliani said. "There will be no questions at all on obstruction." Trump as repeatedly said he would be willing to sit down with special investigator Robert Mueller and his team, but lawyers for Trump insist the right circumstances must be reached in order for an interview to happen. Giuliani's announcement is the first definitive rejection made regarding possibly questioning Trump. Negotiations on a possible interview are still ongoing, but it appears Trump's team will not allow the president to address his possible attempts to block the probe into Russian interference. Mueller's team does have the option of attempting to subpoena Trump and force him to cooperate with the investigation, but that would likely lead to a court battle that would end up in front of the Supreme Court. CYSS-Aisa will make sure that the DU campuses are equipped with sanitary napkins vending machines. Candidates of Aisa-CYSS Sunny Tanwar, Chandra Mani Dev, AAP MLA Alka Lamba, Abhigyan and Anshika Singh during the Dusu elections press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: Bunny Smith) New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party legislator and former Delhi University Student Union (Dusu) President Alka Lamba introduced the joint panel of CYSS-Aisa with their respective ballot numbers on Wednesday. She released the CYSS-Aisa slogan Badlenge DU ki life, 1-1-2-5 for fighting the Dusu election 2018. We shall be promoting the dialogue based model in DU which will help the students to speak out their minds and provide positive atmosphere for better education, Abhigyan the CYSS-Aisa Candidate for the post of president said. Anshika Singh the Vice-President Candidate from CYSS-Aisa said that the students have to face a lot of pressure and torture in the campus and the promised sanitary napkins ven-ding machines have not yet been set up in the campus. CYSS-Aisa will make sure that the DU campuses are equipped with sanitary napkins vending machines. Chandra Mani Dev the Secretary Candidate from CYSS-Aisa is a hard working student from Poorvanchal said that students face a lot of problem in getting cheaper accommodation and a good library with the best collection of books. CYSS-Aisa have come together to solve these issues related to the students. Raja Chaudhary, who is a well-known face among the students of DU, has supported the joint panel. He has continuously been struggling for the rights of students in the campus. He fought for the post of President in the year 2017 and was successful in winning the support of 4,000 students of the University. Even after the election is over he is still fighting for a better library for students because of him the DU library remains open round-the-clock. At present he is the second year student of Hindu college. He has also been active as the founder member of Parliament of Hindu College and civil services society. DALLAS -- An off-duty police officer who thought she was returning home to her apartment, entered the wrong home Thursday evening and eventually killed the man who lived there according to Fox 4 in Dallas. The officer, returned home around 10 p.m. Thursday to find a man she did not know in what she believed to be her apartment. She eventually shot the man who later died from his wounds. The man was identified as 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean. The officer has not been identified in the shooting. Police could not say exactly why the officer shot Jean or whether or not she felt threatened when she encountered him. A joint investigation regarding the shooting has been launched by police and the district attorney's office. "Super scary because the police are supposed to protect you and then they come home and, you know, you're just hanging out in your own house and then they come home thinking they're home or whatever. I don't know if she was tired but that's pretty scary," said Richard Healy Nelson," a resident in the complex. Police have also not explained how the officer ended up in the wrong apartment. Two tropical weather systems are actually going to affect Michigan and the Great Lakes Region over the next week. Each weather system will affect Michigan in two totally opposite ways. The remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon are working their way north toward Michigan right now. The remnants are areas of rain stretching from Indiana and Illinois all the way southwest to Texas. Here is the always updated radar, showing the arch of rain south and west of Michigan. The rain from Gordon will move into southern Lower Sunday, and circulate around much of Lower Michigan Monday. The total accumulated rainfall forecast from the GFS model shows the very heavy rain should miss Michigan just to the south. Far southern Lower could get into rain around an inch, and the rest of Lower Michigan will have just a few tenths of an inch of rain from Gordon. Total rainfall forecast from Friday, September 7, 2018 to Monday night, September 10, 2018 So the effects of Gordon will be rain showers and wind here in Lower Michigan. Hurricane Florence will do the opposite of Gordon Tropical Storm Florence is out in the Atlantic, east of the southeast U.S. Florence is expected to strengthen to a hurricane by Sunday, and continue to move toward the East Coast. Surrounding a well-developed hurricane is a warm, dry outflow. Orange area shows where warm, dry air usually develops on the surrounding area of a hurricane. Forecast is for the track of Florence over the next five days. If the actual track of Florence takes a path anywhere close to the forecast, the eastern third of the U.S. would get in the sinking, warming air circulating out of the hurricane. I've found our sophisticated weather models still don't account for this warming effect. Typically I see us having sunny skies and temperatures between 85 degrees and 92 degrees in Michigan when a fully developed hurricane hits the Mid-Atlantic coast. The warming, drying effect would be felt in Michigan and the Great Lakes from Wednesday to Saturday of next week. If you continue to hear about Florence heading toward the East Coast, take whatever weather forecast app you look at and add five degrees to the temperatures. Also cut the amount of cloudiness forecast by 50 percent. Florence will probably make sunny skies and highs in the mid-to-upper 80s here in Michigan late next week. The court asked Anil Singh, CBI counsel to convey to senior police officials concerned that it is unhappy with the press conference. Mumbai: The Bombay high court rapped the police during the hearing of the Dabholkar and Pansare murder case. The court said that it was unhappy about the police conducting press conferences and revealing crucial information to the public. The court also pulled up Dabholkars kin for addressing press conferences; the court said it means you dont have any faith in judiciary. The court told the state SIT, who is conducting investigation in Pansare murder case, to not depend upon ATS investigation and conduct their own independent investigation. A division bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadh-ikari and B.P. Colabawalla was hearing petitions filed by family members of slain rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, seeking court supervision in probes being conducted by the SIT (in Dabholkar case) and the state CID (in Pansare case). The bench, after perusing reports submitted by SIT and CID on the progress of the investigation, said that vital information is been leaked to the media by probe agencies. Referring to the press conference of senior IPS officer Parambir Singh with Pune police last Friday on their case against activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, Justice Dharmadhikari said, There are hue and cries about this media briefing. He further added that, this over-enthusiasm could be fatal and such acts of self-praise was not advisable. The court asked Anil Singh, CBI counsel to convey to senior police officials concerned that it is unhappy with the press conference. Ask those police officials to figure out the difficulty involved in proving a case, Justice Dharmadhikari said. SIT counsel informed the court that they hadnt conducted any press conference till date and they await to interrogate the accused in CBI custody. SIT should continue to look into the involvement of other accused, Justice Dharmadhikari said. The bench posted the matter for hearing on October 10. The opposition as well as social activists are mounting pressure on the CM to come out publicly and condemn Mr Kadam. Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam on Thursday again extended an apology for his remark about abducting girls. He said that he had been misquoted for political reasons. But the pressure has now moved to his partys leadership, especially chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who has not uttered a word on the issue as yet. The opposition as well as social activists are mounting pressure on the CM to come out publicly and condemn Mr Kadam. My political opponents misquoted my statement and created a controversy. Sisters and mothers are hurt due to this. I have extended an apology again and again for that. Respecting my sisters and mothers, I am again apologising now, Mr Kadam tweeted on Thursday morning. His second apology came after political parties and civil society continued to slam him. Opposition parties demanded immediate action on Mr Kadam. Why is chief minister Devendra Fadnavis keeping mum on Mr Kadam? Doesnt he think that its his duty to speak to the people of Maharashtra and assure them? This is the height of insensitivity," said Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan. Nationalist Congress Party's state chief Jayant Patil demanded an FIR against Mr Kadam. His statement is serious in nature. Why should not action be taken against him? Just because he belongs to the ruling party, the police thinks he is above law, said Mr Patil. In a preview of where the SAT could falter in its bid to gain new ground in the K-12 world, the U.S. Department of Education has decided that it cant fully approve Connecticuts use of the college-admission exam as a high school achievement test. The department wants Connecticut to submit substantial additional evidence showing that the SAT meets all requirements in federal law when its used to measure achievement, rather than for its original purposes as a college-admissions test. Among the areas where the SAT fell short in the federal review were how well it reflects Connecticuts academic standards, and whether students with disabilities and those learning English will get adequate accommodations on the test. Connecticut is one of nine states planning to use the newly redesigned SAT in 2018-19 to measure student achievement in high school. Thats part of a big, yearslong shift in testing, in which states are increasingly using the SAT or ACT instead of traditional tests. All states have to submit their tests in grades 3-8 and high school for approval to the U.S. Department of Education, in a process known as peer review. The experts who review the assessments look for evidence that the testing plans comply with federal requirements that tests are well designed, reliable, valid, and appropriate for the way states plan to use them. Connecticuts results are worth noting because its the first state to complete the federal peer-review process with the new version of the SAT. The findings offer a glimpse into the areas that could prove bumpy for states if they opt to use the SAT as a test of high school achievement. More Evidence Needed for SAT The peer-review findings dont mean that Connecticut cant go ahead and use the SAT. But the state does have to submit information to satisfy the reviewers, and until theyre satisfied, they can attach strings to some of Connecticuts federal funding. Connecticut Department of Education spokesman Peter Yazbak said the department is confident that it will receive a higher rating once it works with the College Board to submit additional evidence. If the SAT had passed with flying colors, the peer reviewers would have sent a letter saying that it meets all requirements in federal law. Thats rare, though. Typically, states get letters saying their tests substantially meet the requirements. Then they have to work over a period of monthsand sometimes yearsto supply more evidence to satisfy the reviewers. But theres a lower rating states can get, too: a letter saying their test only partially meets federal requirements. Thats what happened to Connecticut with the SAT. In an Aug. 14 letter to Commissioner of Education Dianna R. Wentzell, Frank T. Brogan, the departments assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, said Connecticut only partially meets federal requirements. The state will have to provide substantial additional information to show that using the SAT for achievement in high school passes federal muster, Brogan wrote. UPDATED (Wisconsin and Wyoming also got the lower partially meets rating last year when they went through peer review with the ACT as their high school test. Wisconsin is still working to get a higher rating. Wyoming has since changed its assessment lineup, and no longer uses the ACT as its achievement yardstick for accountability.) Alignment, Accommodations: Key Issues for the SAT The list of additional evidence needed for Connecticut is long. It includes wonky things like details about the guidelines item-writers used to ensure that the questions they wrote didnt put some students at a disadvantage based on factors like race or socioeconomic status. But it also includes demands for evidence that go to the heart of key questions about the SAT. Such as: How well does the SAT reflect each states academic standards? Since the SAT was designed as a national test, for college admissions, is it really well matched to each states specific academic expectations? Thats still being debated. The experts refer to this matching as alignment to standards. If the SAT isnt well aligned to a states standardsin Connecticuts case, the common corehow valid are scores that declare students proficient (or not) in the material covered in the standards? The federal peer reviewers told Connecticut that it didnt provide adequate evidence that the SAT is appropriately aligned to its standards, especially in math. Their notes say that the College Board submitted its own alignment study for the review, but that no independent studyas required by federal lawwas included. But Connecticut did commission its own study, in 2016 . And Yazbak, from the state education department, said it was submitted for review. The state believes that the SAT is adequately aligned to our state standards for the purpose for which we use it: to get an efficient and reliable estimate of a students overall achievement, Yazbak said in an email. The study found very solid alignment in English, with 71 percent of state standards matching content on the SAT. In math, it found only a 43 percent matchup. The researchers wrote that the material on the SAT may not be as deep or broad as the expectations in Connecticuts academic standards, and worried that teachers may begin to limit their instruction to topics on the SAT. Do students with disabilities and those learning English get appropriate accommodations on the SAT, and all the same benefits other students get? Connecticut was dinged in these areas, too. Peer reviewers want to see evidence proving that the SAT is fair across all student groups in the design, development, and analysis of its assessments. It also wants Connecticut to prove that it enhances the accessibility of the SAT by providing appropriate accommodations. The peer reviewers said in their notes that they had no evidence on the types and frequency of accommodation approval requests. They went on to ask: How many students automatically qualify and get approved? How many students do not qualify automatically and get approved or not approved? How is the decision made? At one point, the peer reviewers said in their notes that the College Board did not provide any information to ensure that appropriate accommodations are available for English-learners. Hitting a Sore Spot These issues have been a sore spot for the College Board and the ACT as their tests are increasingly used by states to measure high school achievement. In some cases, the College Board and ACT havent let students use the accommodations theyve received in school and on state tests. That puts students in a bind if their state requires them to take one of those college-admission exams for accountability: Students can insist on using unapproved accommodations on the exam, and receive scores that cant be certified for use in college admissions. Or they can take the exam without their usual accommodations, and risk getting a lower score. The College Board revised its policies in early 2017, allowing most students to get automatic approval for the same accommodations on the test that are included in their IEPs, or Individualized Education Plans. It also provided, for the first time, supports for English-learners, such as getting test instructions read to them in their native language. But those issues surfaced anyway in the peer review of the new SAT in Connecticut. The reviewers told Connecticut that it needs to prove that all students get the same benefits from participating in the test, including college-reportable scores. Yazbak said that Connecticut automatically grants students the accommodations on the SAT that are listed in their IEPs or section 504" learning plans, and allows English-learners a suite of supports, including extended time on the tests. It shared this information with federal officials, Yazbak said, and remains hopeful it will be acknowledged as the process proceeds. In an email to Education Week, the College Board noted that the U.S. Department of Education did not decide the SAT didnt meet accountability requirements. It only asked for more information, which is understandable. The College Board will support Connecticut as it provides that information, the company said. Get High School & Beyond posts delivered to your inbox as soon as theyre published. Sign up here . Also, for news and analysis of issues that shape adolescents preparation for work and higher education. Photo: Getty Images Kadams remarks at a Dahi Handi event on Monday, where he spoke about abducting women, has embarrassed the BJP. Mumbai: The opposition against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam touched a new height on Thursday when a former minister and Congress leader from Buldana, Subhodh Savji announced a Rs 5 lakh award for anyone willing to cut off the MLAs tongue. Mr Kadams remarks at a Dahi Handi event on Monday, where he spoke about abducting women, has embarrassed the BJP. Senior BJP leaders are very upset and the party may decide not to give Mr Kadam a ticket in the upcoming assembly elections. The BJP students wing, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad also condemned the MLAs remarks and agitated at Ghatkopar. The Shiv Sena also staged a protest at the state BJP office in Nariman Point and at Ghatkopar. Following a discussion with BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was asked to remove MLA Ram Kadam as state spokesperson of the party. The BJP has also sought an explanation from him. Mr Fadnavis is believed to have instructed the MLA not to participate in media discussions and represent the party till further orders, said senior party leaders. The CM and the BJP have kept mum on the issue and not declared any action against him, just like in the case of MLA Prashant Paricharak, who commented on soldiers wives. Even though there are agitations going on across the state with strong reactions being registered across the country, the BJP has not officially declared any action against Mr Kadam. Mr Fadnavis is avoiding taking strict action immediately, as he hopes the situation may cool down in some days. Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women condemned Mr Kadams remarks. The president of the state womens commission Vijaya Rahatkar issued a notice to Mr Kadam. The LGBT community would want to rightly press on with the logical implications, leading to issues of gay marriage, adoption and inheritance. The sense of relief and happiness felt by the LGBT community over Thursdays verdict by the Supreme Court Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that same-gender relationships in privacy does not fall foul of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. There are legal dimensions to the issue that need to be considered with care and a sense of responsibility. As of now, Section 377 stays but it protects same-gender couples from police and social harassment. The simplified version that homosexuality has been decriminalised and that Section 377 has been quashed is both right and inaccurate. The euphemism that the section has been read down is nearer the truth. It is necessary to remember that Section 377 remains on the statute book, but it cannot be used by the law enforcement authorities and social vigilantes to harass same sex couples as they have done all these years. It also means that Section 377 will be used to protect vulnerable children, a problem that the liberal progressives pretend does not exist. That is why the court was insistent on how the law will not apply to consenting individuals over what they do in privacy. The court, it seems, has rightly taken the strictly legal and constitutional view that the fundamental right to life includes sexual rights and the right to privacy. It is an unexceptionable view, which would be praised as a progressive view from what many would have considered the conservative bastion. It is interesting to recall the judgment of the United States Supreme Court on the issue of same-sex marriages has taken a cautious view. Chief Justice John Roberts, a known conservative, had said that it was not for the court to set the social agenda. It should be inferred that the Supreme Courts Thursday verdict is not taking a position on homosexuality. What it is saying is that legal penalties cannot be laid on individuals for their sexual preferences because they infringe on fundamental rights. CJI Misras view that popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights is the crux of the legal argument. The courts plea against removing prejudice, however, falls beyond the legal ambit of the issue. Juvenile liberals must rein in their saturnalian tendencies because it is a serious matter for those involved the LGBT community and the rest of society. Each would have to come to terms with the other, and respect each other. This will take time to become the norm, and this will require serious thinking from everyone on how to accept this diversity. It is possible to maintain social harmony if differences are recognised and respected, and agitprop strategies are avoided. A majority of the LGBT community are aware of this delicate social balance, and if left to themselves they will work it out. The irrepressible immaturity of progressive liberals should not be taken as the yardstick for the issue at hand. Society is conservative, and it moves at its own pace. At the same time, society is adept at accepting changes because that is how societies survive and thrive. The enthusiasm of the crusaders for the rights of the LGBT community is to be appreciated and they should keep at it in their own way. But it would be better for all if they realise that even as they had won the space for their point of view, they may have to leave space for other views within the confines of the law. The sexual mores of a society cannot be legislated, nor can they be shaped by judicial verdicts. As society adjusts to its new and evolving norms, the issues they throw up will need appropriate legislation and appropriate judicial interpretation; and then the appropriate jurisprudence will emerge. The clash between the new and old is the norm and it should be allowed to play out. Any attempt to silence and intimidate contrary opinions will not be helpful. This is the lesson that conservatives must learn from this that you cannot suppress things which you do not agree with. The LGBT community would want to rightly press on with the logical implications, leading to issues of gay marriage, adoption and inheritance. And the courts will have to apply their mind to each of the issues and deliver verdicts which defend and protect the constitutional rights of these individuals. And these questions are not going to be sorted out in a jiffy, which is what the simple-hearted liberals would want. There is also the need to accept the reality that the issue of homosexuality is not an ideological one, where the enlightened liberals stand up for the LGBT rights and the right-wing reactionaries are opposed to it. The sexual preference questions are spread across the political, social and religious spectrum. And each of these sections will have to face up to it in their own way. The Christian Protestant churches in Europe and America are slowly coming to terms with it. The Roman Catholic Church is still struggling with it. Homosexuality is prevalent in Muslim societies across the world, and the struggle is still on. In Asian societies, from India to Japan, sexual mores, though conservative, are also pluralistic. In India, the problem was the colonial law. Orthodox Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians and Shintoists have no stated position on the matter. This does not mean that there is no prejudice. It is unreasonable to expect that the tone of the debate between the opposing sides will remain rational and civilised. There will be invective and disinformation. The Supreme Courts verdict has clarified the basic issue that individuals have an inalienable right to their own sexual preferences and in a liberal democratic society governed by rule of law, the LGBT community cant be shunned, ostracised and denied their civic rights. This is as big a victory for the LGBT community as the courts judgment on triple talaq was for Muslim women. The Supreme Court has stumped its liberal critics time and again. The verdict on Section 377 is one of them. Bottles of Heinz tomato ketchup of U.S. food company Kraft Heinz are offered at a supermarket of Swiss retail group Coop in Zumikon, Switzerland December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann - RTSXB3C live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Coca-Cola and Zydus Cadila Group are leading in a race for acquiring the consumer portfolio of Kraft Heinz in India that makes childrens milk drink Complan, reported The Economic Times quoting people aware of the development. Both companies are expected to submit binding bids in the coming days. Tata Group, Wipro Consumer, Dabur India and Danone are among other food and consumer companies which have been shortlisted by Kraft Heinz for the second round of talks. Kraft Heinz is seeking about USD 1 billion for the assets. However, potential bidders feel brands such as Complan and Nycil talcum powder may find it hard to catch up with shifting consumer tastes and preferences. Thus, the bids are expected to be in the USD 550-600 million range, sources told the paper. While Coca-Cola declined to comment, Zydus Cadila did not respond to emails sent by the paper. Also read Milk it! Coca Cola plans to re-enter dairy business with Vio brand A number of food and cola companies such as PepsiCo and Coke or even over-the-counter (OTC) pharma players like Zydus Cadila are working towards expanding their core brands as the consumer beverage preferences are shifting to low-sugar or functional options such as juice and juice drinks, flavoured water, dairybased beverages and tea. An acquisition of Kraft Heinz brands in India will help Coca-Cola as well as Cadila to use these products to populate their existing shelves. Coca-Cola recently acquired the Costa Coffee chain from UK leisure group Whitbread last week in a USD 5.1 billion deal to take on Starbucks, Nestle and JAB Holdings. The company is also in talks to buy GlaxoSmithKline Plcs consumer nutrition business, which owns malted milk brand Horlicks, for about USD 4 billion. The Atlanta-headquartered cola giant is expected to emerge as the highest bidder as the firm aims to establish a high potential brand in the non-soda beverage space. In India, as is the case globally, the core soft drink sales business remains sluggish. The strategy is to acquire established or high potential brands in the non-soda beverage space, to take share in fast-emerging spaces of health-based hydration, an executive familiar with Cokes plans told the paper. In the case of Zydus Wellness, the listed consumer business subsidiary of Pankaj Patel-led Zydus Cadila Healthcare, the Kraft Heinz business will add to its existing portfolio of personal and skin care, sugar substitutes and health foods. This segment of Zydus Cadila accounted for 4 percent of the Zydus Cadila Groups total revenue, growing 7 percent in FY18. Sugar Free, Everyuth, and Nutralite are the three mainstay brands of Zydus, which registered faster growth despite challenges such as the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST). Sugar Free maintained leadership position in the artificial sweetener category with a market share of 94.2 percent, a decline of 30 bps YoY, Edelweiss Securities analyst Deepak Malik told the paper. Experts, however, believe that the acquirer may face headwinds related to taxation and labour unrest. IRCON International, the public sector engineering and construction company, said it's looking to monetise its Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) road assets as it pursues an asset-light strategy. IRCON, that launches an initial public offer (IPO) on September 17, has four road assets in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka valued around Rs 4,700 crore. The IPO is priced in the band of Rs 470 - Rs 475 per equity share. The IPO that is a part of the government's disinvestment programme will involve dilution of 10 percent stake to raise Rs 470- Rs 475 crore. The issue will end on September 19. Monetising assets The company said it wants to start its monetisation programme with the road project in Maharashtra by end of this year. IRCON, with a 50:50 joint venture with Hyderabad-based infrastructure company Soma Enterprises, completed the four-laning of the Pimpalgaon Dhule Section of NH-3 in Maharastra at an investment of Rs 606 crore. The project completed three years ago has been generating a toll of around Rs 150 crore on an annual basis. Two other projects in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are scheduled to be completed this year, while the construction work on Karnataka road project is underway. IRCON has invested over Rs 3,000 crores on all these projects. "Our strategy is to keep it asset light, unlock value in the completed projects and use those proceeds to invest in the next project," said Mukesh Kumar Singh, Director Finance of IRCON. Singh said his company is exploring opportunities emerging from stressed road assets. IRCON has an order book of around over Rs 22,000 crore. Around 87 percent of the order book comes from Indian Railways projects, of which two-thirds is through nomination. Moneycontrol News The government of Uzbekistan is in the process of inviting cryptocurrency exchanges to start their operations in the country. President Shavkat Mirziyoev has stated in an order, passed recently that there would be a number of benefits for foreign exchanges, who would commence operations in Uzbekistan. As reported by Coindesk, referring to the order, cryptocurrency-related income would not be taxed, licensed exchanges with cryptocurrencies and foreign fiat currencies would not be subject to existing foreign currency regulations. The order was issued months after the government announced a goal to develop new regulations for cryptocurrencies in the country. According to the news agency Fergana.ru, in February, the government announced its intention to create a state-funded innovation centre for the introduction of blockchain in Tashkent, the state capital. There are benefits for miners also. Federal and local government officials should provide land without auction on "specially designated territories to industrial miners using more than 100 kWh of power. An auction is a normal procedure required in order to acquire land. However, foreign exchanges would get a license for a cryptocurrency exchange only after they open a subsidiary in Uzbekistan. The terms of getting a license may be restrictive in several ways. An exchange must have an authorised capital of a minimum 30,000 times the average minimum salary, which is roughly $700,000. The servers must be located in Uzbekistan. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has said the LIC-IDBI Bank deal is an exception to the rules and has been granted permission looking at the merits of the case. As part of the deal, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will hold 51 percent stake in government-owned IDBI Bank. "We are not giving a blanket exception to LIC to hold more than 15 percent in companies. The approval is being given for only this transaction," said IRDAI Chairman Subhash C Khuntia. According to IRDAI investment rules, an insurer cannot hold more than 15 percent stake in a single investee company. However, they can do so if they have been given explicit permission by the regulator. Further, he said IRDAI will give a timeline to LIC for reducing stake in IDBI Bank to 15 percent once their deal with the bank is complete. While Khuntia did not give an indicative timeline to be given to LIC on the stake reduction to 15 percent, it is likely the life insurer will get six to seven years to bring it down. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an Assocham event. LICs board met on September 4 to study the contours of the deal. It is likely the deal will be completed by the third quarter of this fiscal. Khuntia said LIC was given the approval to acquire IDBI Bank on the condition that it should safeguard policyholders interests. Litigation The All India IDBI Officers Association had in August filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court asking the court to prohibit the government from reducing its stake in the bank below 51 percent. However, Khuntia said they have responded to this petition and have stated their powers to relax investment rules for specific cases. In June, IRDAI gave its nod to the LIC-IDBI Bank deal. IRDAI has the powers to give relaxations in specific cases if it is justified. LIC had requested that in line with their expansion, they would like to have a synergy with a bank. The relaxation has been given only for this specific case, he added. LIC in its response to the petition has said that buying stake in IDBI Bank was part of their plan to have banking operations in the country. LIC Housing Finance had earlier applied for a universal banking licence but did not receive Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval to do so. When asked about whether other insurers would also be eligible to get similar exemptions on holding more than 15 percent stake in a company, Khuntia added it will depend on the merits of the case. Flipkart aims to account for over 30 percent of the phone sales this festive season as it lines up new launches through handset partners and dishes out more financing options to woo Indian shoppers. The Walmart-backed company, which is locked in a fierce competition with US-based Amazon, claimed that about 25 percent of the total phones sold in the country are through its platform. "We are confident that we will be able to expand our leadership further and by the end of the festive sales (Big Billion Days or BBD), we should have 30-32 percent share," Flipkart, Senior Director (Smartphones), Ayappan Rajagopal said The company had, in April, said it aims to touch 40 percent market share by 2020 as part of its 'Mobiles 40by20' strategy. "Our platform will have a number of new launches in alliance with our handset partners (during the festive sale). There will be devices across price points we expect strong volumes coming especially in the Rs 10,000-15,000 category as well as the entry-level smartphones (Rs 4,000-7,000)," he said. The company is working with a number of brands, many of them exclusively, including the likes of Informix, Realme, Panasonic and Asus, he added. Rajagopal noted that as per industry reports, about 39 percent of the mobile phones sold in the country are through online platforms. "Online sales is about 39 percent in the country, which is the highest so far. It is also the highest globally for any country. In China, for example, about 29 percent phones are sold online," he explained. Stating that its mobile phone vertical has been growing steadily, Rajagopal said the company has started offering EMI option for debit card holders to help more people transact on its platform. It is also with offerings like mobile protection services. Flipkart is yet to announce the dates of BBD, but the sale is likely to take place in October. Both Flipkart and Amazon India are betting big on mobile phones to drive growth. Mobile phones are one of the most popular items sold through e-commerce sites in the country. Over the last few years, a number of new handset companies, including the likes of HMD, Xiaomi, Motorola and CoolPad have partnered players like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal to enter the Indian market. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers Auto companies reported strong sales numbers in the commercial vehicles (CVs) segment for August 2018. Two-wheelers and passenger vehicles sales growth were modest and can expect good growth in the upcoming festive months. We believe the upcoming festive months will be next trigger for our consumption-demand driven economy. Consumption and discretionary demand has always been high in India due to economic growth and demographic of young population. Strong demand has been seen in consumer durables, FMCG, retail & auto among others. Export-oriented companies in IT, pharma & other sectors are seeing more investor interests; due to positive factors like favorable rupee, buy backs & reasonable valuations. However, the rising bond yields & weak rupee are a concern for the markets overall. The stocks we like are - Sundaram Fasteners | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 760 The firms revenue from operations improved by 22.4% year on-year to Rs 971 crore. It achieved the reported PAT of Rs 106 crore, a growth of 17.8% year-on-year with a net margin of 10.9%. The company is also significantly adding capacity and incurred Rs 200-300 crore capital expenditure in FY18. Further, the management is expecting to invest Rs 350 crore in FY2019. The company is expanding its capacity and making concentrated efforts to improve the product mix with focus on high-value products and increased contribution of exports. It is a quality ancillary player with robust return ratios and is poised to further improve its earnings growth momentum. Anticipating the future growth potential of the auto component industry and the positioning of the company as a multi-product and multi-location company, it has huge growth potential and thus we maintain BUY with target price of Rs.760 per share. Voltas | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 680 Voltas being a strong brand in the room air conditioner (RAC) segment has maintained its market leadership position in India despite rising competition. It reported a growth of 10.5% in its consolidated revenue at Rs 2,148 crore in Q1-FY19 as against Rs 1,944 crore in Q1FY18. Out of Rs 4,623 crore worth of the total order book, the international order book was at Rs 1,914 crore while domestic order book was at Rs 2,709 crore. The joint venture company, Voltbek, will be launching new products in refrigerators, washing machines, micro waves and other white goods/domestic appliances under the brand name of Voltas-Beko. There will be a capacity of 1 mn refrigerators and washing machines and 0.5mn micro wave ovens. With continuous improvement in operating performance, we expect a healthy up side in the near-term too. We continue to maintain Buy with target price of Rs.680. Persistent Systems | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 960 The firm believes that Persistent can stage a strong recovery in FY19. Over the last two years, the companys focus has been on Digital, which has helped it build capabilities in key technology areas as it transforms to software-driven businesses. The company is investing more in sales & marketing in FY19. In FY19, part of the revenue shortfall is likely to be reversed and margins may be supported by currency/tax breaks. With its cash balance now, of USD 175m, it will be seeking more acquisitions to expand its geographical reach, mainly in non-US markets, and is not keen on acquiring legacy businesses. Levers to improve margins expansion 1) Better business mix, 2) Incremental IP revenue. 3) Greater utilization ratio 4) Pricing 5) Favorable currency factor. Q1FY19 revenue of USD 123.6 million was up 5.7% QoQ, 9.4% YoY, driven by IP-led revenue, up 30% QoQ, 10% YoY. The 16.8% EBITDA margin was better than anticipated. The 16.8% EBITDA margin was up 203bps QoQ, 245bps YoY, as IP sales came at higher margins. The author is Vice President - Equity Advisory, Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers. The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on Moneycontrol are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Infosys Ltd. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Share price of IT major Infosys rose more than 1 percent intraday Friday as company announced a joint venture with Temasek in Singapore. The joint venture will integrate teams from Infosys and the operations of Temaseks wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Trusted Source Pte, which currently delivers IT services to Temasek and a number of other clients. As part of the transaction, Infosys will acquire a 60 percent stake in the joint venture and Temasek will hold 40 percent. Infosys gains significant capacity in terms of workforce as it focuses on strengthening its footprint in Southeast Asia, while Temasek will see a rapid enhancement of its IT services through the augmented capabilities of the joint venture entity. Infosys and Temasek have named Shveta Arora, Vice President, Regional Head South East Asia, as chief executive officer (CEO). Mohit Joshi, President, Infosys, said, Our joint venture with Temasek will accelerate our efforts in the region, enhancing our existing presence, as we help clients navigate the next journey in their business transformation. This development is a key element of our continued efforts to invest and have a presence in the regions in which we operate. At 09:39 hrs Infosys was quoting at Rs 728.45, up Rs 0.50, or 0.07 percent on the BSE. Posted by Rakesh Patil live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Aditya Agarwal The mounting concern of falling Indian Rupee (INR) against the US Dollar along with the rising bond yields put tremendous pressure on Indices. As a result, Nifty nosedived sharply this week and slipped below 11,400-mark in Wednesdays session. Subsequently, Nifty saw a decent pullback and managed to reclaim 11,500-mark on Thursday. Looking at the daily line chart, the index broke the previous swing high of 11,470 in Wednesdays session but on a closing basis, it managed to rebound and hold 11,470 which led to decent pullback on Thursday. Now, the recent swing low of 11,393 will act as an immediate support and a break below 11,393 will pull index lower towards 11,340 11,235 levels respectively which is a crucial support zone. Whereas, on the higher side, 11600 11650 will act as a strong resistance in coming trading session. However, in the short-term market outlook remains weak and any pullback move towards 11600-11650 can be used to initiate fresh short positions with immediate targets of 11400 and below that Nifty can correct by another 150-200 points. On the higher side, call writing at 11700-11800 will act as stiff resistance zone for the index and a close above 11,800 will only negate bearish view on indices. Here is a list of top three stocks which could give 6-14% return in the next 15-21 sessions: Tata Motors Ltd: Buy around Rs 270| LTP: Rs 269| Target: Rs 305| Stop Loss: Rs 254| Return 14% Looking at the daily chart, the stock has formed a strong base near 250 levels and is trading in a narrow range. As a result, it has formed an inverse head & shoulder pattern on the daily chart. The said pattern will be activated if Tata Motors starts sustaining above 275. The daily Bollinger band has contracted significantly and indicates the period of low volatility. Considering the above technical evidence, we recommend traders to buy this stock at the current level of 270 with a price target of 305. A Stop loss should be placed at 254 on a closing basis. Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd: Buy around Rs 2580 - 2530| LTP: Rs 2567| Target: Rs 2760| Stop Loss: Rs 2460| Return 7% On the weekly chart, Dr. Reddys has formed a Descending Triangle pattern and off late stock breached the upper band of the triangle pattern. The break out of the said pattern was supported by the weekly RSI (14) which entered well inside the 60 levels. The weekly 9-45 EMA on price has signaled positive crossover which supports our hypothesis. Hence, we advocate traders to buy Dr. Reddy in a range of Rs 2,580 to Rs 2,530 with an upside price target of Rs 2,760. A stop loss should be placed at Rs 2,460. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd: Sell Around 1435 - 1450| LTP: Rs 1417| Target: Rs 1330| Stop Loss: Rs 1495| Time frame 15 to 21 trading session| Return 6% Jubilant FoodWorks has been in a strong uptrend since several months and in that optimism, the stock hit a record high of 1578. Subsequently, it saw profit booking and stock slide below 1400. Due to the sharp profit booking, the stock broke the upward sloping pattern drawn on the daily chart. Subsequently, stock saw pullback during Thursdays trading session but the up move got resist near 1450 1460 which was a breakdown point of channel pattern. On the weekly chart, we are seeing complex bearish divergence. Combining the above technical parameters we recommend traders to build a short position in a range of Rs 1435 to Rs 1450 with a price target of Rs 1330. A stop loss should be placed at Rs 1495. The author Head of Technical Research, Way2Wealth Brokers Pvt. Ltd. The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. The scale of the humanitarian tragedy in Yemen, however, extends far beyond the direct carnage of conflict. The United Nations-mediated talks began in Geneva on Thursday between representatives of Yemens Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels who have thus far managed to survive a concerted military assault led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They follow last weeks UN report on some of the atrocities committed on Yemeni soil in the recent past, which holds both sides responsible for possible war crimes, but attributes greater culpability to the Saudi-UAE coalition in the context of civilian casualties. That is hardly surprising, given the military capabilities of the two Gulf kingdoms, the biggest consumers of lethal hardware supplied by the US and Britain, among other countries. It was a 500-pound American bomb that the Saudi Air Force dropped less than a month ago on a school bus, causing dozens of fatalities. Forty of the victims, returning from a picnic, were under 12 years of age. A couple of weeks later, another 26 children and at least four women were killed in a Saudi air strike while fleeing fighting in a different part of the country. Last Sunday, the coalition took the unusual step of admitting that the destruction of the school bus was unjustified, adding that anyone found to be responsible for the error would be held to account. Well, dont hold your breath. The Saudis are far more inclined to incarcerate human rights activists than war criminals. The UN report cites evidence of attacks on residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings and medical facilities, among other targets, and talks about torture, rape and the use of child soldiers, some as young as eight. The Houthis may be incapable of mounting air strikes, but on the ground are not much less brutal than their foes. The scale of the humanitarian tragedy in Yemen, however, extends far beyond the direct carnage of conflict. An estimated 80 per cent of the population relies on aid for sustenance, amid the threat of famine and mass outbreaks of diseases such as cholera. Meanwhile, an Associated Press investigation last week suggested that Saudi-Emirati claims of combating Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula are exaggerated at best: the coalitions dealings with the Yemeni branch of the terrorist outfit often entail paying them to move away (including in one case a farewell feast for the departing mujahids), as well as recruitment from AQAP ranks. It is, of course, not entirely surprising that there should be some ideological affinity between Al Qaeda and its Wahhabi cousins, especially when it comes to opposing the Shia Houthis whose affiliation with Iran has never been as close as Riyadh has made it out to be, even if it has increased since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched his offensive three years ago. One can only wonder whether the prince encounters moments of self-doubt. After all, every foreign misadventure he has dictated since his father became king has essentially flopped. A military triumph remains elusive three years after the assault on Yemen. Qatar seems to be getting by quite comfortably after being consigned to the naughty corner by its Gulf brethren (although Al Jazeera was recently obliged to withhold a documentary about the Israel lobby in Washington that risked incurring the wrath of powerful voices in the US). The audacious Saudi attempt to coerce a resignation out of Lebanons Saad Hariri backfired. Inevitably, the crown prince has enjoyed greater leeway on the domestic front by posing as a reformist while castrating potential rivals within the vast royal family, and expecting plaudits for permitting women to drive while imprisoning those who had mildly agitated for this peripheral right. The arrogance that draws sustenance from having the Trump White House and the Netanyahu regime on his side was demonstrated by last months breach in ties with Canada after the latters foreign minister tweeted a message in support of a detainee, Samar Badawi, whose brother Raif is serving a 10-year sentence by virtue of being a blogger whose opinions did not chime with the kingdoms official line, while her ex-husband Abu al-Khairs human rights activism earned him a 15-year prison term. Tellingly, almost none of Canadas Western allies sprang to its defence, while Saudi insouciance has lately been compounded by prosecutors seeking the death penalty against five peaceful protesters, including womens rights campaigner Israa al-Ghomgham. Need one say anything further about Saudi liberalisation? As for the state terrorism in Yemen, former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel pointed out two years ago that if the US and UK tonight told King Salman that this war has to end, it would end tomorrow, because the Royal Saudi Air Force cannot operate without American and British support. Thats probably true, but again it would be inadvisable to hold ones breath. Theres probably worse to come as a monumental catastrophe continues to unfold across the Middle East. By arrangement with Dawn live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Markets regulator Sebi imposed a total fine of Rs 8 lakh on four individuals including three former directors of Saianand Commercial for disclosure lapses. The former directors Naresh Shivlal Rupani, Utam Ravji Gada and Ashok Shivlal Rupani were fined for failing to disclose to the exchanges the board's recommendation of change in management. In a separate order, Sebi fined one Sopan Maruti Shelar Rs 2 lakh for non-disclosure of change in shareholding of Saianand Commercial (formerly known as Oregon Commercial Ltd). In the former directors' case, the regulator observed that the board of directors in its meeting held in July 2010 recommended change in management. However, no corporate announcement was made by the company to the exchanges regarding the board meeting and the recommendation of change in management, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said. "The recommendation of the board of director in regard to change in management of the company is a very vital information. "For this reason, it is essential that a corporate announcement is made by the company to the exchange. All directors at the relevant time are liable for the non-compliance and hence they are to be penalised under SCRA (Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act)", Sebi said. In the case of Shelar, he was holding 58,000 shares which was 6.04 percent of the total shareholding of the company in April 2010. Shelar transferred the entire 58,000 shares, which changed his shareholding to nil but no disclosure was made by him to the stock exchanges, which was in violation of PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) norms, the regulator said. Accordingly, a penalty of Rs 2 lakh was imposed on him by the regulator, besides a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on the three former directors. business Money Wise With Smart Alex - Part 3: How Pratik learns to read companies' financial statements over tea and biscuits Watch the third show of our six-part series to become a smarter investor. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More In a bid to meet this year's divestment target, the Finance Ministry has given an in-principle approval to planned share buyback in 13 Public Sector Units (PSUs). Government sources told Network18 that the candidates selected include National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Coal India, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), BHEL, NHPC, SJVN, NLC India, KIOCL, Hindustan Aeronautics, NBCC and National Aluminium Company (NALCO). The funds received from companies via tendering shares may give some respite to the exchequer which is already dealing with stressed finances. In a buyback, the government can tender its equity share to the PSU and raise money for the same. In an election year, the government is facing a possible breach of its fiscal deficit target, thanks to higher crude prices and a lower-than-expected GST collections in the recent months. The government has budgeted fiscal deficit to be at 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current fiscal ending March 2019. Fiscal deficit during April-July period of current fiscal had already touched 86.5 percent of budgeted estimates. Nissan Motor Co has launched the new version of its all-electric vehicle Leaf in seven markets of the Asia-Pacific region. Nissan Motor Co will produce and sell only premium vehicles in India, while using its sister brand Datsun to crack the mass budget car market, in a revamp of its strategy in the country, a company executive said on Thursday. India is one of the world's fastest-growing car markets but several global automakers, including Nissan, have struggled to boost sales in the country where rivals Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Hyundai Motor Co together control about two-thirds of the market. Nissan will upgrade its manufacturing facility, double the number of car dealerships over the next three years from about 270 today and hire more people, Peyman Kargar, senior vice president at the Japanese carmaker, told reporters in New Delhi. "India is one of the most important markets for us. We are not at the level we want today. That is why we have identified a very comprehensive plan," Kargar said. Several global automakers including Nissan, Renault SA and General Motors have launched budget cars to win over India's cost conscious buyers but the segment has remained dominated by Maruti Suzuki. Nissan's share of India's passenger vehicles market fell to 1.6 percent in the fiscal year ended March 31, from nearly 1.9 percent a year ago. Total passenger vehicle sales in the country rose 8 percent during the year to 3.3 million units, industry data showed. As part of its new strategy Nissan, which sells cars including the Micra hatchback and Sunny sedan in India, will launch more sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) under its brand, starting with the Kicks SUV in 2019. It also plans to sell electric vehicles. It will develop a range of new cars under the Datsun brand, mainly targeted at cost-conscious buyers in smaller towns and cities, where it will launch more dealerships to boost sales, Kargar said. Nissan resurrected the Datsun brand in 2012 to try to capture market share in emerging markets such as India. It launched three Datsun cars in the country, starting in 2014, that initially boosted the company's sales but has failed to sustain the momentum. Ritesh Dhoot "Volatility actually is the opposite of risk. Its an opportunity. But you need to think through and fight some basic human weaknesses." - Jeff Ubben Nothing blindfolds an investor more than a sharp fall or rise in equity prices. Bottlenose dolphins of the shallow Florida Bay, Florida, USA, have devised a smart ambush strategy to catch fish effortlessly. One of the dolphins would beat its tail hard down the seabed to stir up the mud. While doing so, it swims circularly to create a ring of mushrooming mud aka fishing net made of mud. The dolphin continues to swim inward in a circular fashion to tighten the noose around the trapped fishes. With tightening mud-net, agitated fishes jump out of the muddy net. However, they fall straight into the gaping mouth of the many dolphins who have been laying in the ambush outside the net. In this hunting strategy, dolphins successfully exploit fishes aversion to mud-nets, i.e., uncertainty. Tightening mud-nets (uncertainty) in the capital markets Unfortunately, humans (like fish) exhibit uncertainty/loss aversion mindset when faced with capital markets mud-nets aka uncertainty. During uncertain times, investors tend to sell into the falling market to avoid the pain of further losing money. Assuming the investments fundamentals remain intact, some investors do hold on to their investments. The hold decision does not continue for long. With more investors throwing in the towel, prices continue to fall (tightening mud-nets). Irrationality and fear take precedence. Investors start doubting the company fundamentals. Falling prices form a base when the stock has dropped low enough compared to its fundamentals or the mud-nets start to dissipate. Then the security is mostly held by investors who are either numb to losses or who truly believes in the fundamentals of the stock. Cautiously exploiting mud-nets: one mans trash is another mans gold In the capital markets, mud-nets are common. We have to decipher them. If we are in the net, then we have to decide if it is time to fold cards or merely stay put or buy more. A thumb rule here is to check if the fundamentals of the company are intact. The challenge is that during uncertain times, the fundamentals itself becomes questionable. Then it boils down to reevaluating the business quality and management quality. Under such uncertain times, look for companies with an easy to quantify safety net. The safety net provides a backstop to the worst-case valuation and market price - ensuring that we have not caught a falling knife. Here are three things to look for while ascertaining the safety net: 1. Free net cash or fixed income generating asset;2. Management quality; 3. Business quality; An ideal combination would be to have a company with a fixed income-generating asset or free cash (net of debt) and a fundamentally strong operating business - both run by able and ethical management and is available at an enterprise value that is below the discounted cash flow value of its fixed income-generating asset or free cash. Thus, the operating business and able management come free. Takeaways To conclude, during uncertain times stocks with downside protection should provide enough confidence for investors to buy it. Moreover, during such times, the market tends to not price in growth, and so growth comes free. If we were to draw parallels, this theme in spirit is similar to Warren Buffett's deal to buy USD 5 bn of preferred stock of Goldman Sachs in late 2008 providing 10% dividends. In his deal, Buffett received downside protection, i.e., preferred dividends and the principal was placed superior to ordinary equity shareholders in the capital structure. In addition, he received USD 5 bn of warrants with a five years exercise period at a strike price of USD 115/share serving a sweet and significant upside. Coming back to current times, US-China trade-war; US Feds non-stop rate hikes; rising oil prices; volatile currency, sell-off in Indian mid and small cap companies; upcoming Indian election outcome uncertainty means we may be heading for times when such lucrative valuations may once again become commonplace. Nissan Leaf | Nissan has already entered the e-race with their flagship hatchback, the Leaf. With its latest iteration being loaded with features, however, Nissan is strengthening their competition against Tesla. The new Leaf has a bigger battery pack, better safety options and improved rider aides. Japanese auto major Nissan announced Thursday plans to hire 1,500 people in India to strengthen R&D and global digital hub while also stating that it would go for "voluntary separation" at its Chennai manufacturing unit. The company, which is seeking to revive its presence in India, said it would go for separate dealerships for Nissan and Datsun brands especially in smaller towns in the country. As part of a new strategy, the company is positioning the Nissan at the upper end building on the brand's global SUV heritage while the Datsun brand will address the mass market segment, Nissan Chairman for Africa, Middle East and India Peyman Kargar said. Interacting with reporters on the sidelines of annual convention of SIAM, he said Nissan will also bring new products to India starting with the Kicks SUV in 2019. The company already employs around 7,000 people at its R&D centre near Chennai doing development work for vehicles in India and handling engineering activities for its alliance with Renault. "We are going to invest in this area in India further. We will hire 1,000 for R&D this year and another 500 for the newly set up digital hub," Kargar said. In the coming years, in India, he said, "We will grow and our workforce will shift towards highly skilled jobs to lead the technological changes coming to the auto industry in India." On the other hand, he said the company will also reduce excess manpower starting with its manufacturing vertical. "We are also going to offer a voluntary departure for excess people in areas where we don't require," he said without disclosing exact number. "Our aim is to ensure our operations in India are best in class and that India becomes an even more significant global hub for Nissan and the alliance in manufacturing, engineering and R&D," he added. As part of the company's MOVE 2022 strategy, Nissan is looking to fix its business operation in India along with Saudi Arabia, where it has made significant investment but hasn't had much success. "Our strategy in India is to strengthen both the brands Nissan and Datsun for our customers across India," he said, adding the strategy was to use the alliance synergy differently as compared to the past. Through it new strategy, the company is looking at utilising the full capacity of the alliance plant in Chennai as compared to the current 40 per cent through the new measures, Kargar said. At present the plant has an annual production capacity of 4.8 lakh. Kargar said going forward, the company is looking at the plant serving the domestic requirement mainly although exports would continue. When asked about new product launches, he did not elaborate but said the company would continue to bring new models in the country. "We will reinforce Nissan as a premium brand building on its SUV heritage starting with the launch of Kicks in 2019," he said. He said Nissan would also harness opportunities in India from its global leadership in electrification and connected cars. The company has been testing its e-Power electric vehicle in India but Kargar said Nissan hasn't fixed a time line for launching the product in India. For Datsun, he said the focus would be on progressive mobility targeting mass market through reinforcement of new product line-up to address developing segments in India. When asked if sales network for Nissan and Datsun would be separated, Kargar said in Tier III and Tier IV areas, it would be to offer differentiation of the brands. "We are putting in place dedicated people for marketing and sales for the Datsun brand," he added. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Here are the stocks that are in news today: Infosys and Temasek announce joint venture in Singapore L&T Technology Services: Company enters into agreement to acquire Graphene Semiconductor Services. Yes Bank's capital raising committee would consider the proposal to raise funds by issuing debt securities, on private placement basis on or after September 11, 2018 Welspun Corp entered in to an agreement for supply of at 220 KMT of Pipes for Oil & Gas project in the Americas region Vijaya Bank revises MCLR for different tenors w.e.f. September 7 Reliance Naval has been informed that IDBI Bank has filed an application before NCLT seeking debt resolution under IBC process Bajaj Auto: Company to expand 3 wheeler & Quadricycle capacity to 1 million per year as Government announces end to permits. Religare Enterprises: Q1 loss at Rs 17.07 crore versus loss of Rs 14.05 crore; revenue falls to Rs 1.63 crore versus Rs 4.73 crore (YoY). Apollo Hospitals' two independent directors resign w.e.f. August 20, 2018 Shankara Building Products: Company has received A/stable (upgraded from A-/Stable) credit rating from CRISIL. Gufic Biosciences: National Company Law Tribunal pronounced the order sanctioning the scheme of merger by absorption of Gufic Stridden Bio-Pharma Private Limited with the company. Indostar Capital approved allotment of 48 Series XXX Tranche 6, Rated, Listed, Secured, Redeemable, Non-Convertible Debentures of face value of Rs 10 lakh each on private placement basis Blue Star scheduled meeting with T Rowe and Portfolia Japan on Sept 7 Ajmera Realty & Infra India has acquired 85 percent stake in Anirdesh Developers LLP HDFC: Company completed sale of 5.1 percent equity stake of Computer Age Management Services Private Limited to Great Terrain Investment, Mauritius (an affiliate of Warburg Pincus Group) for Rs 169.52 crore. Post sale, the corporation will continue to hold 5.99 percent stake in CAMS. CHD Developers: CARE Ratings assigned BBB rating for the long term bank facilities of company amounting to Rs 235.30 crores, BBB (FD) for the fixed deposit programme for an amount of Rs 38.15 crore; and BBB (FD) for the fixed deposit programme for an amount of Rs 7.37 crore. Magma Fincorp to meet Goldman Sachs on September 7 Share India Securities: Company has acquired 10 lakh equity shares in Share India Insurance Brokers Private Limited ('wholly owned subsidiary') for cash consideration. Saksoft: CARE Ratings reaffirmed credit rating on long term bank facilities worth Rs 20.82 crore at BBB+/Positive. Ajmera Realty & Infra: Company has acquired 85 percent stake in Anirdesh Developers. Sakuma Exports: Company's board of directors, on September 14, will consider the split off shares from the face value of Rs 10 to a lower face value and raise the funds through QIP / QIB / FPI. JK Paper: India Ratings and Research has upgraded/ assigned its ratings of the company Phoenix Mills' associate Classic Mall's Series 1 & 2 NCDs upgraded by India Ratings to IND AAA(SO)/Stable Posing a challenge to "haters" of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress asked whether they can "keep up" with its president saying he has clocked over 46,000 steps while travelling more than 34 kms during his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. The party also posted a picture of a smiling Gandhi posing in front of the Mount Kailash, considered the abode of Lord Shiva, on Twitter along with details of his trekking details compiled by popular fitness mobile app 'fitbit'. Leaving all the haters behind, Congress President @RahulGandhi sets the pace during his #KailashYatra. Can you keep up? pic.twitter.com/aphQ8B6CAn Congress (@INCIndia) September 7, 2018 The fitbit data showed Gandhi having travelled 46,433 steps, 203 floors, 34.31 kms over 463 minutes, while burning 4,466 calories. Gandhi is expected to be back from his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra by end of this week. The Congress chief also tweeted a video of the hills on his official Twitter handle and said, "Shiva is the Universe". On Thursday as well, Gandhi had posted a picture of Mount Kailash, saying, "It is so humbling to be walking in the shadow of this giant." He had earlier put out pictures of the "tranquil and calm" waters of the lake and said there "is no hatred here". "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 had said on Twitter. The 48-year-old leader is undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in accordance with a wish he expressed in April when his plane plunged hundreds of feet during the campaign for the Karnataka polls. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. The plane dipped steeply with violent shuddering, but soon recovered and landed safely. Three days later, on April 29, Gandhi announced during a rally that he wanted to undertake the pilgrimage. The arduous pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which is considered the abode of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology and is in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. Gandhi left the national capital on August 31 for the Yatra. Navjot Singh Sidhu Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed Friday that Pakistan has decided to allow Sikh pilgrims direct access to the historic Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara just across the Punjab border. Sidhu's claim, based on a media report, came on a day when television channels showed Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa hailing militancy in kashmir and vowing to avenge the deaths of his country's soldiers. Sidhu flatly refused to comment on Bajwa's remarks made during a Pakistan Day address, and pushed for talks with Islamabad. The minister had faced flak after he returned home last month from the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad, where he was seen hugging Bajwa. "A decision to open Kartarpur corridor has been taken by Pakistan PM Imran Khan after consultations with various stakeholders, Sidhu asserted Thursday. "They are prepared to open the Kartarpur corridor on the occasion of Guru Nank Dev's 550th birth anniversary," he said. He claimed Sikh pilgrims may not require a visa to undertake the pilgrimage. "A formal announcement to this effect will be made by Pakistan very soon," he said. He was apparently referring to comments attributed to Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, who also urged resumption of the dialogue between the two countries. Sidhu added that Pakistan was awaiting a positive reply from India for dates for the talks. "I thank my friend Imran Khan for this noble goodwill gesture. He has not walked two steps but miles and opened the doors for infinite possibilities. I am indebted forever," he said. Referring to the purported move by the Pakistan, he said this was a signal from the neighbouring nation, and appealed to the Centre to reciprocate. "Pakistan has sent a message of friendship, he said. "Following the path of peace is the only way to resolve issues. Talks can bring prosperity to the region," he said. "India should see this as a goodwill gesture. The desperation for a dialogue is visible from the Pakistan side," he said. Defending his hug with Bajwa, Sidhu had said last month that he was overwhelmed when told that Pakistan was making efforts to allow access to Kartarpur Sahib. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had expressed unhappiness over his minister hugging the Pakistan Army chief, but backed his push for opening the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. Facebook did not do enough to check fake news, says Zuckerberg JUST IN | The Current Account Deficit (CAD) for Q1 FY19 stood at $15.8 billion. The widening of the CAD on a year on year (YoY) basis was mainly on account of a higher trade deficit. JUST IN | Nitin Shahi, the Assistant finance officer at Gitanjali Gems, has filed application in special CBI court to make Punjab National bank an accused in the case as well. The application states there are enough material available but not charge-sheeted yet. The hearing is scheduled for September 21. Shahi is also stands an accused in the PNB fraud. September 07, 2018 / 10:28 PM IST / 10:28 PM IST September 07, 2018 / 10:12 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 07, 2018 / 08:07 PM IST JUST IN | Nitin Shahi, the Assistant finance officer at Gitanjali Gems, has filed application in special CBI court to make Punjab National bank an accused in the case as well. The application states there are enough material available but not charge-sheeted yet. The hearing is scheduled for September 21. Shahi is also stands an accused in the PNB fraud. September 07, 2018 / 08:02 PM IST September 07, 2018 / 07:17 PM IST September 07, 2018 / 07:02 PM IST September 07, 2018 / 06:09 PM IST JUST IN | The RBI recorded a net outflow in portfolio investment of $8.1 billion for Q1 FY19 September 07, 2018 / 05:49 PM IST JUST IN | The RBI recorded a net outflow in portfolio investment of $8.1 billion for Q1 FY19 September 07, 2018 / 05:48 PM IST JUST IN | The private transfer receipts amounted to $18.8 billion, increasing by 16.9% YoY. The net foreign direct investment stood at $9.7 billion for Q1 FY19, as opposed to $7.1 billion YoY September 07, 2018 / 05:47 PM IST JUST IN | The net services receipts increased by 2.1% on a YoY basis, which were mainly due to the earnings from software and financials companies September 07, 2018 / 05:46 PM IST JUST IN | The Current Account Deficit (CAD) for Q1 FY19 stood at $15.8 billion. The widening of the CAD on a year on year (YoY) basis was mainly on account of a higher trade deficit. The reality of military cooperation with a major power is summed up in the adage in for a penny, in for a pound. The agenda was self-evident at the delayed 2+2 joint dialogue of the foreign and defence ministers of India and the United States that was eventually held in New Delhi on Thursday, and both sides, in their official statements, stuck to happy tidings, avoiding areas of dissonance. What was emphasised was their shared commitment to democratic values, economic growth, the rule of law, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, recalled the 10th anniversary of the India-specific waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which had led to the landmark India-US civil nuclear agreement. He expressed the hope that the Westinghouse nuclear power project, flowing from that deal, would fructify soon and usher prosperity and security. This ignored that nuclear energy was finding declining favour in most developed nations, including in the United States, with only China racing ahead with new reactors. Defence secretary James Mattis flagged another 10th anniversary by recalling the horrendous 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. Thus, two important pegs were marked, which strengthened the relationship over the last decade and a half high technology trade and counter-terror cooperation. The joint statement urges Pakistan rather directly to ensure that the territory under its control is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries, repeating former Pakistan President Pervez Musharrafs words to reassure India in 2004. Furthermore, it requires Pakistan to bring to justice expeditiously the perpetrators of the 26/11, Pathankot and Uri and other attacks. Indias defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked for the hesitations of history to be overcome. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used that phrase in his address to the US Congress in 2016. An indication that India was overcoming old doubts was the signing of the Communication Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), which should facilitate the transfer of additional state-of-the-art communication technology for planes, drones or weapons systems already bought or to be acquired. It would facilitate inter-operability between Indian and US forces, or with American allies. But questions remain, despite government claims that data thus collected from US equipment in Indian hands would be protected. Russia may worry about the data protection of its sophisticated equipment in Indian hands, particularly their Akula-class nuclear powered attack submarine and Sukhoi warplanes. The reality of military cooperation with a major power is summed up in the adage in for a penny, in for a pound. Thus, the P-81 maritime reconnaissance aircraft, which India already possesses, are devoid of their full capability as would be armed Guardian drones on offer sans COMCASA. India has gradually subscribed to foundational agreements that became even more urgent once former US President Barack Obama approved India as a major defence partner. The General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) was penned in 2002 and a modified for India Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016. India hesitated over feared horizontal and vertical penetration by the United States into Indian defence and government communications grids. There was also the legacy of avoiding alliances and over-dependence on any single power. Hopefully India would be factoring-in the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump and the resulting unreliability of the US as a strategic crutch. Thus, a cornerstone of Indias US policy since 2001, that the US considered a stronger India crucial to balancing rising China and for a stable Asia-Pacific security paradigm, is no longer is a given. Consequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the aftermath of Doklam, began re-balancing Indias relations with China and Russia. Complicating India-US relations now is Americas abandonment of the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and the Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) targeting Russia. It is not yet clear what slack the US may cut India on Indias relations with both these nations. Even if the S-400 missile defence system acquisition is exempted it may be conditional on India buying more US weapons. Similarly, the US will possibly insist that instead of Iranian oil, India should buy from other Gulf nations. A closer military clinch with the US may also impact thawing Sino-Indian relations. Russia too may move closer to the Pakistan-China axis, including in its approach to Afghanistan. Already, Russia has tried to play the role of peacemaker by inviting all parties, including the Taliban, for an Afghan peace deal. The Russian concern is over the rise of the Islamic State clone in Afghanistan called Islamic State Khorasan Province. Russia feels that the antidote to that is the Taliban. The US has been alleging that Russians are arming the Taliban. India-Iran relations would also get tested. Iran may not allow Indias Chabahar port project to proceed unimpeded if India was to abandon oil purchases from it, which the US seems to be demanding. The American assessment on these issues would have been shared, as indeed on the new Imran Khan government in Pakistan. While external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said she had raised the H1-B visa issue, secretary Pompeo must have emphasised President Trumps hobby horse: the need for India to balance trade by buying more US planes, etc. Hotlines are to be established between the ministers and the two US Cabinet secretaries. A memorandum of intent was signed between the US Defence Innovation Unit and the Indian Defence Innovation Organisation for co-production, which has so far seen paltry progress. A tri-services India-US military exercise was announced off Indias east coast in 2019. The US Naval Forces Central Command and the Indian Navy have committed to commence exchanges. All told, Thursdays meetings in New Delhi were more an incremental step forward than a grand leap. There was much emphasis on shared democratic values. But there was no mention of what is happening in the Maldives or Myanmar. India faces uncertain times abroad and the looming Parliament elections at home. Caution seemed to be the watchword. There are some people with vested interests in India and Pakistan who do not want peace in Kashmir for their own survival, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has said. Inviting business leaders to the state for investments, Abdullah said "you will find more love from people in Kashmir than you think". "Some politicians in Pakistan or in India do not want to resolve the Kashmir issue, they want the instability and hatred to continue in the valley so that they could survive," he said on Thursday night at a business event organised by the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO). There is the vested interest that wants to crack everything, Abdullah, the Member of Parliament from Srinagar, said. "The vested interest is everywhere, be it some of the politicians, leaders or military establishment. Many are making money and unless we throw them out, the Kashmir issue would not be resolved," the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said. He said the two countries have to move forward if they want peace and prosperity in the region. Asked about the status of Kashmiri pandits and what he would like to do for their return to the valley, he said whoever wants to return, will surely return and there was a need to create a space inside the muslim community with whom they have lived harmoniously and peacefully. He said many of the young pandits may not want to return to the valley as they have never been there and have established themselves elsewhere. "It's the older pandits who want to go back to the valley. Many of them have already sold their properties at throwback prices fearing that the valley will become Pakistan which was not true. So there is a need to create an area inside the Muslim community and not outside as they have lived together harmoniously and peacefully," Abdullah said, adding that at the time of partition, the people of Kashmir chose to stay with India. Urging businesses to visit Kashmir and invest there, he said, "We are a muslim majority state but that doesn't mean we are not Indians. We believe India belongs to all of us. You will find more love from people over there." "People often say is Kashmir safe to visit? I would ask them is New Delhi safe? Anything can happen to you when you go out even in New Delhi. You can be attacked or looted. But creating a notion that Kashmir is not safe for visiting is not correct," Abdullah said. Even today, there are temples and mosques everywhere in Kashmir, he said, adding that people happily live together and only some people with vested interests are creating problems. "We are not Pakistanis, we want to live with Hindustanis with love. We left everyone for this nation at the time of partition but it is very unfortunate that some of them call us traitors," the NC chief said. The only difference is that there are certain safeguards in Kashmir as "our Constitution gives us some special rights under Articles 35-A and 370 which should not be taken away from the people of Kashmir. It is important for the state. "There is hope that this nation would rise, no body will be harassed, no phones would be taped, no one would be targeted and people will have liberty," he said. "I stand by me saying 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. When I said 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', I said that from my heart. I was even attacked by a group of people for saying that but I didn't care about it. There are some people who will not let the country go ahead and peace prevail in the valley," Abdullah said. He also blamed the mainstream media for portraying a negative image of Kashmir, saying the media has played the most destructive role. "The press is spreading lies," Abdullah said, adding that people living with in harmony and assisting each other never makes news. There is brotherhood in the valley and tourists visiting the state say that they have never found so much love anywhere in the country than in Kashmir, he said. The business event was organised by the EO, a global non-profit organisation and business network of over 13,000 leading entrepreneurs in 179 chapters and 57 countries. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said balance needs to be maintained when using consumer data to ensure that individual privacy does not get compromised and asserted that sanctity of data is crucial in the Indian democracy. "We need to have a blend of balance of data availability, of data utility, of data innovation, of data anonymity and data privacy," he said at the Global Mobility Summit 'MOVE'. He further stated that India being a democracy, the sanctity of data is important, and so is the use of data for different purposes. "Therefore while we are very proactive in the use of data analytics and are clear that India must become a very big centre of data analytics but this must blend (with) the sanctity of data, blend with the rights of the owners of the data," he said. "How do you do it, is the larger question," he noted. Prasad highlighted that data analytics offers huge potential for India as the country has the required human resource, capabilities and capacity. The minister said data is needed to improve business but that data must be anonymous, objective and taken with consent. He said that while data analytics is projected to become "big and lucrative", the process needs to have well-defined principles and adhere to stipulated standards with focus on fairness and transparency. The issue of abuse of user data on technology platforms has been under scanner in India over the last few months and the government has resolved to take tough action to prevent any such misuse. Earlier this year, social networking giant Facebook came under fire after data of its millions of users was improperly shared with another firm Cambridge Analytica. Taking a strong view of the issue, the Indian government had shot off notices to the two companies seeking explanation. In fact, the CBI has recently initiated a preliminary enquiry against British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook. Prasad, during his recent visit to the US, had stated that India has taken "serious note" of reported data misuse of social media platforms and such tools will never be allowed to abuse the election process for extraneous means. Tamil Nadu is looking to attract investments in 12 sectors including auto, textiles, renewable energy, petrochemicals among others, during its second edition of global investor meet, the state's industries minister MC Sampath said Friday. "Tamil Nadu is going to organise the global investors meet for the second time on January 23 and 24, 2019 in Chennai. We have many competitive strengths and attractive packages like land allotment, good infrastructure support, single window facilitation portal for investment," he said. The state had attracted investments to the tune of Rs 2.42 lakh crore during its first global investors meet in 2015, with 98 MoUs. Of this, it has realised Rs 73,000 crore through 63 projects which are under various stages of implementation. For the second edition, it is looking at surpassing the quantum which it achieved in 2015 and is looking at investments in textiles and apparel, pharmaceuticals and biotech, agro and food processing, aerospace and defence, automobiles and auto components, renewable energy, infrastructure, heavy engineering, chemicals and petrochemicals, heaving engineering, electronic hardware, and IT and ITeS. It contributes 27.45 percent of the national automobile output. The state government has identified over 200 infrastructure projects, targeting to attract investments to the tune of $250 billion. The minister met with some of the corporates like Tata Group, Mahindra and Mahindra, Godrej Group, Hinduja Group, RPG, BASF among others. He added that the state is looking at attracting investments in its southern districts and that the company is one of the top states in attracting foreign direct investment and last year saw inflows worth $3.6 billion. Tamil Nadu has 38 Special Economic Zones and 22 Industrial Parks. Ramakrishna Upadhya Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, KCR as he is popularly known, may have trumped both the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) by recommending the dissolution of the state assembly and paving the way for elections nine months ahead of schedule. To understand why KCR chose to dissolve the assembly, it is important to look at the politics at state level. Even as the Congress and the TDP were working on a tacit understanding to unseat KCRs Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in the elections due in April 2019, the CM sprang a surprise on them by opting for early polls. KCR, who with 82 MLAs has a comfortable majority in the 119-member House, hopes that the election commission will club the Telangana assembly elections with those of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh due in November-December. KCR is counting on the work he has done in Telangana and also on the image he has created for himself in the state and at the national level. A perception has grown that KCR has done much better as a chief minister than the more-experienced Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Even after getting generous funds from the Centre, while Naidu walked out of the NDA over Andhra Pradesh not being granted a special status, KCR quietly leveraged Hyderabads resources to win over the people of Telangana. KCR, assisted by his son, KT Rama Rao, who is also the IT, industries and urban development minister, has firmly put Telangana on a high-growth path by developing the states infrastructure, irrigation and power sectors. In about four years, from deficit, Telangana has turned into power surplus state, even offering its farmers uninterrupted power supply. Apart from initiating a number of populist schemes, KCR has turned farmer-friendly by starting Indias first farmer investment support scheme the Rythu Bandhu is a direct cash benefit scheme that covers about 5.8 million farmers. He also takes pride for ensuring peace and harmony in the state. At the national level, KCR briefly flirted with the idea of floating a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front. However, he may have now reconciled to join hands with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to maximise benefits for his state. Despite occasional sparring with BJP chief Amit Shah, KCR has maintained good equations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Though he is not part of the NDA, KCR has supported the Centres moves such as demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). KCR also supported the BJPs candidates for the posts of president and vice-president. This is in contrast to Naidu, who was until recently a part of the NDA government. Given this, why did KCR choose to go for early assembly polls? There could be three possible reasons why he opted to do so. First, KCR is slightly unnerved with the prospect of the powerful Reddys and the Kammas in the Congress and the TDP joining hands to recapture power in Telangana, as he himself belongs to the former princely community of Velamas, who form a small minority. He reckoned that though Naidu would be fighting the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, a secret Congress-TDP pact could reap electoral dividends in Telangana. Second, with the Modi government facing likely backlash across India, KCR wanted to de-couple state elections (in 2014, both Lok Sabha and assembly polls were held together) from the Lok Sabha polls and turn the focus entirely on him and the performance of his government. Third, after consolidating his position in the state, KCR could focus on the 17 Lok Sabha seats from the state. If the TRS does well in the general elections, KCR could even play kingmaker at the Centre in the event of the BJP falling short of majority. Thus, by opting for early polls and being prepared to lose nine months, KCR may have played his hand wisely. The author is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal Abhijit Iyer-Mitra The 2+2 dialogue format was devised by the United States to overcome a very specific problem the vast differences in foreign and defence policy. The fact is that foreign policy is esoteric, frequently philosophical in nature, and regularly passes off activity as achievement. Defence policy, on the other hand, is all tangibles. Both are important for a country and yet both are as different as chalk and cheese even though they are conjoined twins. For example, the job of the US defence department is to be a lean, mean killing machine, while that of State is to promote the warm fuzzy image of America, and act as a champion of human rights. The problem is that these two polar opposites also require two totally different mind-sets, which make governmental schizophrenia worse. The 2+2 puts the two very different mindsets in the same room in the hope they understand each others tangible and intangible interests and in so doing break departmental silos. In theory this is how its meant to work, in practice, 2+2s are some of the most boring meetings you will attend being the same drab routine of talking points, platitudes and photo-ops. Yet at the 2+2 in Delhi something unusual happened. A major agreement, the COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) that had eluded past governments and much of the tenure of this government, was finally signed. Small as it may seem, the impact is massive. It not only opens up a whole world of critical, time-sensitive information-sharing from the vast US intelligence apparatus, but also from US allies and nations who operate US equipment bilateral politics of India and those countries allowing. This is particularly profound as even if such countries would not wish to get into a bilateral tiff India has with a neighbour, they could still transfer intelligence to India, giving it a major boost. One canard put out has been that this means the elimination of Russia as a supplier with the S-400 deal to be abandoned and this would mean Indian intelligence would be shared with Pakistan. This is far from the truth. All it means is that India is committed to making a part, not the whole of its force compatible with US and western equipment and is free to purchase and deploy Russian equipment if its willing to accept the logistical and operational nightmare of two different systems and philosophies. Similarly, the chances of Indian intelligence falling into Pakistans hands are almost non-existent, as the deal is bilateral, with each country bound by a strict hierarchy and secrecy clause, much like the maligned secrecy agreement with France that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Indeed it could be said that the S-400 was the sweetener for Russia to acquiesce to this coming together of India and the US. But an opposite and equally valid point of view that is equally tenable and true is that COMCASA incentivises the US to maintain the India exception under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and allows major purchases like the S-400 to go unchallenged save the occasion grumble in the press. It has also been reported that India and the US agreed to major combined tri-services exercises next year, which for the first time may allow Indian forces to use the entire electronic spectrum available to them without the fear of compromising frequencies. This will be a major step that allows a true measuring up of the Indian military, unlike previous iterations where the electronic spectrum remained unexploited and our military capabilities untested. Effectively then, the India-US 2+2 was an absolute delight for those who seek the reassurance of tangibles, reflected by the fact that it was the defence minister who tweeted the final press bureau report and not the foreign minister as is customary. Though the final summation of conversations and agreements contained all the usual talking points about friendship and energising the relationship, the fact that it was the tangible defence agreements that spoke the loudest meant that the conversations revolved around security, rather than the incessant banality of human rights across the world one of the favourite talking points of US diplomats. What we do not know yet and was missing from the press brief was the positions on a key area of mutual concern Afghanistan. Irrespective, by all accounts the one tangible that was agreed on, made this one of the most productive dialogues in a long time. Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is senior research fellow, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal Maruti Suzuki, Indias largest car maker, will start road-testing 50 electric vehicles, a top official of parent Suzuki Motor Corporation said on Friday at the MOVE Global Mobility Summit in Delhi. Osamu Suzuki, chairman and chief operating officer, Suzuki Motor Corporation said, We will start road-testing 50 electric vehicles in India from next month for developing easy-to-drive vehicles in Indian traffic conditions. Maruti Suzuki has committed to launch its first fully electric car in 2020 in India. The company has tied up with Toyota Motor Corporation, one of worlds biggest car makers, for sharing of electric and hybrid vehicle technology. We would be launching our first fully electric car in 2020, added Suzuki. At present SMC does not have an electric car on sale anywhere in the world and the India launch in less than two years will mark its debut in the segment. In July, the 88-year old chairman had asked the company's executives to target sales of 1.5 million electric cars a year in India by 2030 through its subsidiary Maruti Suzuki. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other top government officials, and heads of global automotive companies attended the MOVE summit. Toyota's bet Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, who attended the Summit, said the company is working towards popularising electric vehicles for the Indian market. The Japanese giant is working for not only developing electric and hybrid vehicles but also has proposed participating in development of electric mobility infrastructure. Toyota has enormous know-how in electric vehicle technology. We want to accelerate popularisation of EVs in 2020. We will make electric all Toyota models by 2025. Electric and fuel-cell vehicles will together cover more than 1 million units, he said "In India, Toyota is making efforts to promote electric vehicles. We are working here with Suzuki for electric vehicle and hybrid. We will also support the government of India in electric mobility infrastructure development, he added. Osamu Suzuki also mentioned the need to simultaneously develop and promote hybrid and CNG-powered vehicles alongside electric vehicles. Presently, Maruti Suzuki does not have a full hybrid model in its line-up but is relying on Toyota to develop the technology. But it has a range of seven CNG-powered cars. Korean car brand Hyundai has also promised to launch three vehicles in India powered by electric and hydrogen. The company will start selling its first fully electric, locally assembled model in India next year. Euisun Chung, vice chairman, Hyundai Motor Company said, We will launch a hybrid, fuel cell and three smart electric vehicles in India. This will include a hydrogen-powered SUV too. In the wake of recent scandals surrounding Facebook, the relationship of Americans with the social media platform has turned complicated. In past one year, nearly three-quarters of the users in the US have changed the way of using the app, revealed a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre. The survey was conducted on 4,594 Facebook users between May 29 and June 11 this year. The result said as many as 74 percent of US adult users of the platform have taken measures with regard to their app usage. The results can be a major fall for the Mark Zuckerberg- funded social media platform, as it revealed that more than one in four Americans (over a quarter) had deleted the app from their phones. A greater percentage, 42 percent, said they had taken a break from checking Facebook for several weeks or more, while 54 percent said they had adjusted their privacy settings. The study further gave details of the age group of users who took the measures in terms of using the platform. From the data found by the study, it is apparent that younger people outpaced older users for taking any of the mentioned three actions. Some 64 percent of users aged between 18 and 29 changed their privacy settings in the past year, compared with 33 percent of people aged 65 and older. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may soon allow mobile wallet interoperability but with a condition of Rs 25-crore capital requirement imposed on licence holders, reported The Economic Times quoting payment industry executives familiar with the matter. We have learned that interoperability could be opened for only those players with a positive net worth of Rs 25 crore, thereby ensuring only the major wallet companies are allowed in this space, a chief executive of a Delhi-based payments company told the paper. Many of the 50 companies, who hold prepaid payment instrument licences, may not meet the capital requirement of Rs 25 crore. The higher net worth requirement may pave way for serious players to start offering the new inter-wallet payment services to their customers, one of the persons quoted above said. RBI did not respond to an email query sent by the paper. Earlier, the regulator had raised the minimum net worth for a mobile wallet issuer to Rs 15 crore from Rs 5 crore. Also read Interoperability of mobile wallets: Everything you need to know If the mobile wallet interoperability becomes a reality, payment banks fear that it may pose a challenge to services they offer. The CEOs of payment banks had earlier passed a resolution to approach RBI claiming that wallet interoperability may cause regulatory arbitrage. The RBI, however, promised interoperability to mobile wallets in October last year. Interoperability shall be enabled in the_rbi_may_soon_allow_transfer_of_money_07sep.mp4phases for the PPIs, RBI said. While the interoperability among wallets will be the first phase, the regulator will allow fund transfers between bank accounts and wallets through the UPI platform in subsequent phases, the central bank said in its guidelines. Also read: Digital payment revolution can get a push with right infrastructure and technology Interoperability will be allowed only for those wallets which are compliant with KYC norms, the regulator said as part of its revised master directions for prepaid payments instruments. The higher net worth requirement will likely be listed among the final guidelines by RBI, industry sources told the paper. The move may, however, make it harder for small and mid-sized companies to sustain in the field owing to the capital expenses. Now, if interoperability is restricted to bigger players, then there would not be any business case left, a founder of a Mumbai-based domestic remittance company told the paper. The mass quotient and canniness of Gandhis electoral campaign has to increase. One year after Congress president Rahul Gandhi started repositioning his public image, what does he have to show in the balance sheet? To get some perspective on the benchmark, project rebranding-the-scion, aka Pappu, kicked off around the time that the BJP stumbled for the first time after the peak scaled during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The dampener was occasioned in Gujarat in August 2017 during the Rajya Sabha elections when party president Amit Shahs Operation Defeat Ahmed Patel came unstuck. Despite this setback to the ruling partys presiding duo in their home state, Mr Gandhi still faced a formidable challenge in the race to grab prime media space and secure popular approval. His Berkeley interlocution was rivalled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his showcasing of the civilisational worldview at an event in the heart of the Indian capital to mark 125 years following Swami Vivekanadas watershed talk in Chicago in 1893. If nuances are set aside and a detailed perusal made of what the challenger has achieved in the past one year, the most striking conclusion is that the Congress president is less of a bumbler than he was projected as. Instead, the BJP leadership sees Mr Gandhi as serious challenger and credible alternative to Prime Minister Modi. This explains the qualitative shift in the nature of criticism against the Congress chief. The BJP troll army on the social media and its TV shouting brigade, undeniably of zero calibre compared to its party spokepersons of yore, continue belittling Mr Gandhi. But, barring the naamdaar barb which Mr Modi keeps repeating in the hope of arousing peoples sentiments against dynastic politics, credible BJP leaders, in government or the organisation, are more substantive in their criticism. Going by the first responses to the two contrasting speeches of Mr Gandhi and Mr Modi last September, the former exhibited greater confidence not just compared to his track record but even when juxtaposed with pre-scripted events of the Prime Minister. In fact, most of Mr Modis public events have appeared little different from the few rare media interactions that Dr Manmohan Singh had during the decade he was in office. For all his chutzpah and capacity to take the bull by its horns, the Prime Minister has not been open to spontaneous questions and supplementary queries. Mr Gandhi, in contrast, from his speeches in the United States to the latest in England, displayed comfort with unprompted questioning and demonstrated a gift of the gab and a capacity for repartee. He has successfully pedalled some lines of criticism for instance, that this government is both the harbinger and sustaining agent of hatred whereas the Congress is wedded to the politics of love. However, if this becomes the focal point or at least the primary facet of Mr Gandhis bid for power, as it appears at the moment, the Congress president risks addressing only the electorally miniscule middle class intelligentsia whose role as opinion makers remains grossly over-estimated. In his post-Pappu innings, Mr Gandhis emphasis has been on securing the backing of a section of anti-BJP intellectual elite which swears by liberalism and radicalism of various shades, a throwback to the tactics used by his grandmother Indira Gandhi in the late 1960s and early 1970s during her battles with the Syndicate. However, the Congress chief must recognise that although it is important to enlist this group and the diaspora, besides making a mark on the social media, this must be backed by the peoples support on the ground. It is necessary to go beyond the primary concern of the intelligentsia the besiegement of minds and ideological assaults by the troika, comprising the State, ruling party and unaccountable foot soldiers who lead violent assaults. The Congress president must not be perceived as a unifocal leader, who is concerned only with the ideological, not the material. Social disharmony may be a cause of worry, but eventually people will vote because their daily necessities are not being met. Consequently, his interventions must raise issues that are agitating the minds of people farmers distress, scarcity of jobs, womens insecurity, students woes over high fees and poor academic standards of institutions, inadequate health infrastructure and, of course, rising prices. The Congress president, as well as other Opposition leaders, must understand that there has been little change in peoples anxieties on these set of issues between 2014 and now. It will be important to understand how Mr Modi converted this sentiment as not just negativity towards the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, but also into a positive endorsement of Mr Modi himself. In 2014, he generated hope by marketing a dream. Mr Modi made people optimistic about their future while raising fears at the prospect of the UPAs return to power. He was a dream seller in a world at a time when the re-election of the Congress-led coalition would be nothing but a continuation of a nightmare. Once people began considering that Mr Modi was an agent of change with the capacity to speed up growth and development, stagnating in the incumbents regime, all structural opposition within his own fraternity disappeared. Mr Modi, it must be remembered, was not the choice of the Sangh Parivar or the BJP leadership, but his anointment was forced by a cadre which made it amply clear that for once the individual was more important than the institution. It is nice to be a good person with a benign face. But rarely have jolly good fellows won elections. The mass quotient and canniness of Rahul Gandhis electoral campaign has to increase. He has made the point, rather contentiously among support within the intelligentsia, that he is as good a Hindu as Mr Modi, but heading off to pilgrimages and taking temple breaks repeatedly will not get the Congress any additional votes. Elections are hunting grounds and for that it is necessary to sully ones teeth, although it is not necessary to lower the bar as has been done by other dramatis personae since 2014. The writer is the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times and Sikhs: The Untold Agony of 1984 Elon Musk The prominent short-seller Andrew Left has sued Tesla Inc and its Chief Executive Elon Musk, saying Musk fraudulently engineered his since-abandoned plan to take Tesla private to "burn" investors hoping the electric car company's stock price would fall. Left, whose reports at Citron Research often push stock prices lower, said in his proposed class-action complaint on Thursday that Musk's issuance of materially false and misleading information harmed short-sellers like himself, as well as those hoping Tesla's stock price would rise. The shareholder lawsuit is one of at least seven targeting Musk since he stunned investors by announcing on Twitter on Aug. 7 that he might take Tesla private for $420 per share, in a $72 billion transaction for which "funding" had been "secured." That announcement drove Tesla's share price up more than 13 percent from its close the prior day. Musk announced on Aug. 24 that Tesla would stay public. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on Left's lawsuit, which was filed in San Francisco federal court. Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be lower prices to make profits. Known as an activist investor, Left was among the first short-sellers to challenge Canadian drug company Valeant, which he called a "pharmaceutical Enron" after the failed energy company, before its stock price plunged amid worries about its business practices and regulatory probes. Valeant is now called Bausch Health Companies Inc. Musk has long used Twitter to criticize short-sellers, and Left said his conduct violated federal securities laws. "Defendant Musk artificially manipulated the price of Tesla securities with objectively false tweets in order to 'burn' the company's short-sellers," Left said. "In the succeeding days, the truth regarding the supposedly 'secure' financing needed to effectuate the going-private transaction began to emerge, exposing the fraudulent scheme," he added. The proposed class period runs from Aug. 7 to Aug. 17, over which time Left said he bought and sold many millions of dollars of Tesla shares. That period ended after the New York Times published an interview in which Musk, who owns about one-fifth of Tesla, described severe stress he faced running the Palo Alto, California-based company. Finally, on the evening of Aug. 24, a Friday, Musk, by then facing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scrutiny into the factual accuracy of his "secured" tweet, blogged https://www.tesla.com/blog/staying-public%20 that Tesla would remain public, citing investor resistance. "The sentiment, in a nutshell, was 'please don't do this,'" he wrote. Tesla shares rose 21 cents to $280.95 in Thursday trading. They have fallen 27 percent from their Aug. 7 intraday high of $387.46. The case is Left v Tesla Inc et al, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-05463. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the gathering by video message because of the pandemic, warned that "the only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons". UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's commitment to continue working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Kim on Wednesday pledged to denuclearise North Korea by the end of Donald Trump's first term in 2021, officials in South Korea said. It comes as Kim and South Korea's president Moon Jae-in have agreed to a summit in North Korea from 18-20 September - the third between the two leaders this year. "The Secretary-General commends the continued momentum and efforts by both Koreas to further trust-building and reconciliation, in line with the Panmunjom Declaration," his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement released on Thursday. Dujarric added that the UN chief "looks forward to further progress at the inter-Korean summit later this month towards sustainable peace, security, and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions." North Korea's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, said that Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang to discuss denuclearisation measures marking the first time that the North Korean leader has offered a potential timeline for fully dismantling his country's nuclear weapons programme. In June, after the summit in Singapore, Kim pledged to work toward the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula in return for security guarantees from the US, as Trump wrapped up the meeting with outcomes that could ease tensions and reshape the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region. Three years after the "dieselgate" scandal shook it to its foundations, Volkswagen next week faces a first major court case in Germany over cheating emissions tests on millions of vehicles worldwide. From 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Monday, the regional court in Brunswick will examine whether the auto giant should have informed investors sooner about the trickery. On September 18, 2015, American authorities accused the group of fitting some 11 million vehicles with a so-called "defeat device" able to detect when they were undergoing regulatory tests and reduce emissions to meet legal limits only to allow them to rise again in on-road driving. Volkswagen's stock plunged some 40 percent in two days when markets reopened the following week, wiping billions off its market value. Now investors are claiming some 9.0 billion euros ($10.5 billion) of reimbursement. Shareholders say they could have avoided painful losses had executives legally obliged to share promptly any information that could affect the share price informed them sooner of the cheating. The case beginning Monday will not result in a final decision for the 3,650 claims against VW, but is supposed to clear up more than 200 questions common to all of them, in a "model case" procedure specific to German law. Judges are expected to take at least until next year to work out whether VW failed in its legal obligation to keep investors in the know. Lawyers for investment fund Deka, whose case has been chosen to stand in for all the others, argue board members knew about the fraud and should have revealed it between the offending software's first deployment in 2008 and September 2015. For its part, the world's largest carmaker blames a handful of engineers acting without authorisation for the scheme, and says the information it had before the American authorities intervened was not significant enough to warrant warning capital markets. At the centre of attention in the court case will be Martin Winterkorn, the engineer who claimed to know "every nut and bolt" of Volkswagen's entire range of models and ran the company as chief executive from 2007 to 2015. VW said in 2016 that Winterkorn who stepped down after the scandal became public was sent a "memo" highlighting emissions irregularities in the manipulated EA189 engine, without confirming whether he ever read it. As it looks to move past dieselgate, in part with a slew of upcoming battery-powered cars, Volkswagen remains mired in court cases related to the cheating along with other firms in the industry. Several regional prosecutors' offices in Germany are investigating fraud, stock price manipulation or false advertising by employees of Volkswagen, its subsidiaries Audi and Porsche, Mercedes-Benz manufacturer Daimler and components supplier Bosch. Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler remains in custody after being arrested on June 18 on suspicion of "fraud" and involvement in "issuing false certificates". Prosecutors in Brunswick, whose jurisdiction includes VW's Brunswick HQ, are targeting some 40 people in their probe alone. As well as inquiries into individuals, German investigators slapped the group with a one-billion-euro fine in June for failing to adequately monitor emissions testing. So far, dieselgate has cost VW more than 27 billion euros in fines, vehicle buybacks and recalls and legal costs. After the firm pleaded guilty to fraud and obstruction of justice in the US, Winterkorn was among eight former and current managers charged for fraud and conspiracy, on top of an Audi manager. Of those nine people, two engineers have already been convicted. The government is caught in a Catch-22 situation. On the one hand, banks appear to have been the biggest laundry for unaccounted cash, with 99.3% of demonetised currency having returned to the banking system. But, on the other, it now turns out that the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which is touted as a boon to the poor people of India, was an important route for laundering this cash and depositing it in banks. Many experts had warned that this would happen, especially after the Aadhaar linkage. We now have proof. The sums deposited are staggering, as revealed by Right to Information (RTI) queries by Moneylife. United Bank of India alone has admitted to a gigantic deposit of Rs93.82 crore in a single Jan Dhan account. While this was, by far, the largest deposit, several nationalised banks have also admitted to deposits running into crores of rupees in Jan Dhan accounts. The largest single deposit in Bank of India was a hefty Rs3.05 crore; Union Bank of India admitted to Rs1.21 crore; Bank of Maharashtra to Rs98.45 lakh and Dena Bank admitted to Rs94.45 lakh as the highest deposit in a single account. This information is not complete. It pertains only to those public sector banks (PSBs) that bothered to respond to RTI queries. It is another matter that one bank now claims that it has converted the Jan Dhan account into a regular one. That and other issues is the subject of another article. Moneylife also sought information on the number of accounts with deposits of over Rs1 lakh. Of the 16 banks that provided this information, only Indian Bank appears to have been fairly circumspect in accepting large deposits. It had only 198 accounts with deposits of over Rs1 lakh. United Bank of India has 1.18 million Jan Dhan accounts with deposits of over Rs1 lakh. Union Bank of India had 0.32 million, Oriental Bank of Commerce had 0.28 million, Bank of Baroda 79,240 and IDBI Bank 68,147. The government has been emphatic in asserting that Jan Dhan accounts were aimed at financial inclusion and to provide basic banking facilities to unbanked Indians and a small insurance cover. These accounts were for the very poor Indians who have no access to the formal banking system and need to be included so that subsidies and State benefits and pensions can be credited to their accounts without being gobbled up by corrupt intermediaries. With this objective, Jan Dhan accounts were allowed to be opened with just an Aadhaar card (which is an incomplete and unauthenticated identity proof) or job card issued under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) duly signed by a government officer, or a letter issued by a gazetted officer accompanied by an attested photograph of the applicant. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also allowed these accounts to be opened on the basis of a self-attested photograph and a signature or thumb print (affixed in the presence of a banker). But account-holders with no identity needed to apply for some form of identification within 12 months and this low-level KYC (know your customer) would be valid for another 12 months thereafter. The PMJDY website makes it clear that there would be specific restrictions on such accounts. They cannot have aggregate credits of over Rs1 lakh in a year, or aggregate withdrawals of over Rs10,000 in a month. Importantly, the balance in the accounts cannot be more than Rs50,000 at any point of time. This is stated on the Jan Dhan website. However, such is the confusion and lack of clarity about these accounts, that one academic has been arguing that all restrictions on such accounts have been withdrawn. More on this later. Now consider this. The bulk of Jan Dhan accounts were opened in the massive drive that started after 15 August 2014 with banks resorting to all kinds of subterfuge and trickery to fulfil the stiff targets imposed by the government for opening such accounts. Jan Dhan was declared a spectacular success and even made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for most bank accounts opened in one week. Over 325.4 million accounts have been reported on the PMJDY website, at last count. It is not that the government was unaware that Jan Dhan accounts would be misused. Problems had surfaced soon after the scheme was launched. Speaking at a bankers conference on 24 May 2016, RBIs then deputy governor SS Mundra had said that Jan Dhan accounts very vulnerable to misuse for money muling. This was nearly six months before demonetisation was announced, when there were only around 220 million Jan Dhan accounts. He cited the specific case of a labourer in Punjab in whose account Rs1 crore was deposited, which came to light only when the income-tax (I-T) authority served a notice on the account-holder. On 5th September, the Business Standard (BS) reported that over 60% of Jan Dhan deposits after demonetisation, amounting to Rs42,200 crore (Rs422 billion), were classified as suspicious. The PMJDY website reports total deposits of Rs82,039 crore into Jan Dhan accounts, as on 29 August 2018. The BS report quotes the finance secretary, Hashmukh Adhia, as saying that the Central Board of Direct Taxes has received 30 one-time reports from 187 reporting agencies and investigations were on. He also insists that these deposits will be considered illicit only after an investigation and validation by the courts. This is rather surprising because we have no way of knowing whether this covers every suspicious account. It will soon be two years since demonetisation and we don't even know if all Jan Dhan accounts with crores of rupees have been frozen or whether banks have been colluding with depositors and allowing withdrawals. Given the many cases of scams in collusion with bankers, this is a high possibility, since we have only had silence from the government. Finance minister Arun Jaitley was rather more forceful. On 6th September he tweeted: Cash once deposited removes anonymity of its owner. Accordingly, post-demonetisation about 1.8 million (18 lakh) depositors have been identified for enquiry. Many of them are being fastened with tax and penalties. Mere deposit in a bank does not lead to a presumption that it is tax-paid money. Mr Jaitley does not say if these are Jan Dhan accounts; also, he is only partly correct. Cash deposited in regular, KYC-compliant savings accounts is not at all anonymous; it could be a problem only in Jan Dhan accounts. A detailed inquiry may reveal that the beneficiary account-holders may be entirely fictitious or are being used as money mules. There is a clear case for marking every Jan Dhan account with a deposit of over Rs1 lakh as suspicious since they were never meant for stashing large sums of money; sadly however, if the account-holder has been victimised and used as a money mule, making the depositor responsible for proving the source of funds may only harass many innocents. Our RTI application reveals that as many as 2.08 million Jan Dhan accounts in just 18 banks (which provided data) ought to be classified as highly suspicious. The actual number will be significantly higher if all nationalised and scheduled commercial banks as well as cooperative banks are included. Are these separate from the 1.8 million accounts that the finance minister has referred to? Curiously enough, the government is not in a hurry to go after these deposits. After all, Indias political machine is greased by cash and over 69% of political funding comes from unknown sources (says the Association of Democratic Reforms). This government has only made the process less transparent with its electoral bonds. Further, one academic who works in the banking sector has been sending us long emails that are very agitated at the suggestion that there are restrictions on withdrawal from Jan Dhan accounts with full KYC. This adds another shady dimension to the whole business, since we have no idea whether all "suspicious" accounts have been detected and frozen or a few thousand or more have had the deposits transferred and withdrawn as clean, white money. Two years is a very long time for the tax department not to show results, especially when general elections are less than a year away. What will happen with a new government at the Centre is anybodys guess. Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), the an unlisted infrastructure behemoth with scores of complex subsidiaries, some of which are listed and a giant load of debt, has called an emergency meeting of its board of directors for raising funds. The financial services conglomerate, with around Rs1-lakh-crore public debt, is gasping for liquidity after failing to meet certain repayment obligations and triggering fears of loan recalls, says a report from Times of India "The emergency meeting is expected to convey the intensifying crisis at IL&FS to all the main shareholders and also possibly expedite a proposed Rs4,500-crore rights issue, which is scheduled for early November. On the positive side, all prominent shareholders - Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), Orix of Japan, State Bank of India (SBI), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and HDFC - have agreed in principle to participate in the rights issue," the report says. says the board will take a call on fundraising, sale of assets, including road projects, and default by its subsidiary IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) on commercial paper. Other report from Business Standard says the board will take a call on fundraising, sale of assets, including road projects, and default by its subsidiary IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) on commercial paper. Last month, IL&FS Financial Services has failed to meet its repayment obligations through a commercial paper. Due to this, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred the group company from raisng short-term funds through commercial paper route till 2019. Ratings agencies have downgraded the debt of IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltdd and two other entities in the road sector are struggling to make payments on time. There are also reports about delayed salaries in its toll company and ILFS Environmental Infrastructure and Services Ltd. Several fund raising plans have also failed. As reported by Moneylife, IL&FS has reportedly defaulted on a short-term loan worth hundreds of crores from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) . According to our sources, IL&FS has defaulted in repaying a short-term loan of Rs1,000 crore to SIDBI. At the same time, a subsidiary of IL&FS too has defaulted in repaying loan worth about Rs500 crore to the development financial institution. Defaulting on short-term loan commitment that too from an infrastructure development and finance company with pan-India presence, is very serious issue. Nothing of this sort has happened before, our source says. Separately, last week, ratings agency ICRA has downgraded to 'D' from 'C' bank debt of Rapid Metrorail Gurgaon South Ltd (RMGSL) for not making interest payment for August 2018 on time. RMGSL is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) sponsored by IL&FS Rail Ltd (IRL) with 65.0% stake and IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd (ITNL) with balance stake. "The revision of RMGSL's rating takes into account the recent irregularities in debt servicing by the company. RMGSL has not paid the interest for the month of August 2018. The company's inability to generate sufficient revenues due to continued weak ridership on the project route had made it highly dependent on timely funding support from promoters. However, the promoter has not made available the required funds. As per the RMGSL's management, the company has represented to Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for claims due to breach of provisions of the Concession Agreement," ICRA has said. Total cost of the project was funded by a combination of debt of Rs1,500 crore and equity. The entire term loan of Rs1,500 crore has been sanctioned by a consortium of five banks with Canara Bank as the lead bank and an external commercial borrowing (ECB) loan lender. The project achieved commercial operations on 31 March 2017. You may also want to read We had mentioned in last weeks closing report that GDP growth might propel Nifty, Sensex higher. The major indices of the Indian stock markets closed on Friday with losses over previous Fridays close. The trends in the course of the weeks trading are given in the table below: The major indices of the Indian stock markets suffered a correction on Monday and closed with losses over Fridays close. On the NSE, there were 853 advances, 925 declines and 313 unchanged, after opening sharply higher on the back of healthy April-June GDP. The indices trimmed the major gains made earlier in the day, due to weak Asian markets. Globally, Asian markets traded in the negative territory on concerns of escalations in the US-China trade war. According to analysts, buying was witnessed in consumer durables, healthcare and IT (information technology) stocks. Global software major Wipro said it had won a USD1.5 billion (10,500 crore) 10-year deal from the US-based technology firm, Alight Solutions LLC. "We have won a 10-year engagement to provide a suite of solutions and services to the Illinois-based Alight Solutions, a leader in technology-enabled health, wealth, human resources and finance solutions," said the Bangalore-based IT major in a statement. Claiming the deal to be its largest win so far, the company said it would generate $1.5-1.6-billion revenues over the tenure. The construction arm of L&T has won orders worth Rs2,654 crore across its businesses. The Transportation Infra business wins Rs2,095 crore order from MSRDC for 10th package of Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway. The Heavy Civil Infra business bags Rs559 crore order from MSRDC. Graphite India's subsidiary Graphite International BV has signed a definitive Agreement for investment of upto US$ 18.59 million in cash in General Graphene Corporation, a US-based unlisted company located in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a 46% stake (approx.) in the company. The major indices of the Indian stock markets suffered a correction on Tuesday and closed with losses over Mondays close. On the NSE, there were 414 advances, 1,351 declines and 305 unchanged. The Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-Astaldi S.p.A.(Italy) consortium has bagged the project for the northern extension of the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra Worli Sea Link from Bandra to Versova, an official said here on Tuesday. The MSRDC had floated the tenders for the construction of the second sea link on an EPC-basis to build the Versova-Bandra Sea Link, 17.17 km-long, or three times the existing 5.6 km-long RGBWSL. RInfra EPC CEO Arun Gupta said the mega-project will further propel the company as a premier EPC company in India. Lupin's Tarapur API manufacturing facility has completed cGMP inspection carried out by the US FDA. The inspection closed with one observation of procedural type. The inspection focused on cGMP compliance and also on the safety of Lupin's Valsartan, Losartan and Irbesartan APIs. Budget carriers IndiGo and GoAir offered low-fare tickets for travel during September 2018 to March 2019. Under the IndiGo offer, fares would start from Rs999 and the tickets would be available from September 3 to 6, the airline said in a statement. Persistent Systems has acquired Herald Technologies Inc., an IT (information technology) services start-up in the US, for a cash consideration of US$ 5.2 million. The acquired business will strengthen Persistent's IP led offerings in the Healthcare domain and create a number of cross-sell opportunities. The major indices of the Indian stock markets were range-bound on Wednesday and closed with losses over Tuesdays close. On the NSE, there were 625 advances, 1,125 declines and 321 unchanged. Centrum Financial Services Ltd, the NBFC arm of the Centrum Group, signed an agreement to acquire L&T Finance's Supply Chain Finance business. The business has a loan book of approximately Rs800 crore with a combined customer base of 800 (approx). Goldiam International has received export orders worth Rs140 crore from its International clients for manufacturing of diamond studded designed gold jewellery. The order was to be delivered within three months. The key Indian equity market snapped its six-day losing streak after a largely volatile trading session on Thursday. According to market observers, a late recovery in the Indian rupee which breached the 72 per dollar mark for the first time aided the market to pare its earlier losses. Besides, value buying and healthy pick-up in healthcare, oil and gas and banking stocks also lifted investors' sentiments. Weak global cues and domestic uncertainty over foreign investment norms in the equity market pulled the Indian rupee to a new record low of 71.97 per US dollar, but it later recovered. The rupee opened at 71.45 per US dollar and settled at a record closing low of 71.75, weaker by 17 paise than its previous close of 71.58 per greenback. L&T Technology Services has executed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% stake in Bangalore-based Graphene Semiconductor by way of an all cash deal. Graphene had revenues of Rs66.3 crore for the year ended March 31, 2018. TCS has successfully completed a CRM-based sales transformation program at Maxim Integrated Products, a leading global manufacturer of analog & mixed-signal integrated circuit. The solution provides a streamlined and agile digital sales process to maximize Maxim's sales velocity. The key Indian equity indices closed in the green on Friday supported by buying activity in the auto stocks and a recovery in the rupee from its previous close. The rupee traded around 71.70 per dollar (3.50 p.m.), against the previous close of 71.99 per greenback. Buying was witnessed in the auto index, which surged by 501.93 points, followed by metal and healthcare indices. Software major Tech Mahindra said it has entered into a partnership with deep-learning software company Avaamo to develop and deliver conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for global enterprises. Tech Mahindra said it would evangelise Avaamo's enterprise products and build solutions around platforms in areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and Machine Learning (ML). The collaboration will help Tech Mahindra harness newer enterprise AI technologies and serve global markets in countries like the US, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Malaysia, Israel, Indonesia and the Philippines, among others. Tech Mahindra shares closed at Rs770.40, down 0.30% on the BSE. Indian software major Infosys said it has formed a joint venture (JV) with global investment firm Temasek in Singapore to service it and its clients in the digital domain. "The JV will integrate our team with that of Temasek's Singapore subsidiary Trusted Source Pte Ltd, which delivers IT services to it and its clients," said the city-based IT major in a statement here. As per an agreement signed by the partners on Thursday night, Infosys will hold 60% in the JV and Temasek 40%. Infosys shares closed at Rs733.15, up 0.71% on the BSE. Commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland Ltd said it has inaugurated its electric vehicle (EV) facility in its plant at Ennore here. In a statement issued here the company said it is India's first integrated facility for design, prototyping, testing, process prototyping and solutions design. "The in-house facilities include engineering, prototyping and testing for motors, battery modules and packs and a power electronics lab. Keeping in mind the rapidly evolving and changing market and technology, it has been conceived as an in-house start-up facility in order to stay flexible and fast," the statement said. "In our 70th year, we are laying the foundation for our future. The EV Centre in Ennore will give us the edge throughout the evolution of eMobility," Vinod K Dasari, Managing Director was quoted as saying in the statement. Ashok Leyland shares closed at Rs131.75, up 1.54% on the BSE. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday said traders from across the country are expected to participate in a strike against the Walmart-Flipkart deal on September 28. The confederation has called for a 'Bharat Trade Bandh' on September 28 and a mega traders rally on December 16 in the national capital. On August 28, the confederation had approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approval for Walmart-Flipkart deal. On August 18, Walmart Inc. acquired approximately 77 per cent stake in e-commerce major Flipkart. Walmart now holds approximately 77 per cent of Flipkart, while the remainder of the business is held by other shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent, Tiger Global and Microsoft Corp. Walmart's investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding to help accelerate the growth of the Flipkart business and both companies will retain their unique brands and operating structures in India. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. Dominos Pizza Enterprises Limited [ASX:DMP] is taking some heat along with its share price, after Fairworks investigation found that the franchise continues to have issues with workplace compliance. The pizza chains share price is sitting at $52.33 at time of writing, down 3.34% from the beginning of the week. Findings of the investigation As reported by the ABC, only four of Dominos 33 stores investigated across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, fully complied with workplace laws. The investigation noted that a large number of Dominos employees are extremely vulnerable, with three-quarters under 25 years of age and approximately half being foreigners on visas. And during one month, 20 workers had been underpaid $1,978. In addition, the franchisees were also rather vulnerable, with 65% from non-English speaking backgrounds and unfamiliar of Australian workplace laws. This isnt a good look for Dominos. Ombudsman Sandra Parker told ABC that Dominos needs to do better. The Fair Work Ombudsman has worked with Dominos head office for several years to try to promote a culture of workplace compliance We expect better from a major network like Dominos it should not be up to the Fair Work Ombudsman to find and alert businesses to the systemic issues identified. What next for Dominos? The issue of workplace compliance for Dominos isnt newthis has been a long battle. But the pizza chain reached a share value of $57.70 on Wednesday, 29 August its highest price in just over 12 months. Although disappointing, Dominos has a way of surprising the market to the upside. There will in all likelihood be repercussions from Fairworks investigation on the company, but investors will hope that theyll be able to turn this situation around. Regards, Matt Hibbard, For Money Morning PS: Youll find over 2,000 stocks listed on the ASX and on any given day a bunch will rise or fall, just like Dominos. Its near impossible to monitor these on your own. Our analyst Vern Gowdie has picked out four Aussie stocks he believes could be top performers in 2018. Check out his free report The Four Best ASX Stocks for 2018. I finished yesterdays Money Morning saying I would explain why the mainstream media is getting increasingly hysterical about Donald Trump. Ill get to that in a moment. But first, lets get stuck into some important developments in the Aussie economy While the government continued to celebrate strong economic growth figures for the year to 30 June yesterday, the market fell another 1%. Its trading at two month lows and is likely to fall below support, marked on the chart below. A break below this level would suggest the market is heading into a correction phase. How big of a correction? Having an annoying inability to see the future, the answer is that I dont know. But its worth considering some scenarios. The positive view is that stocks are just correcting a strong run that has occurred since early April. This was a period of strength for both resources and the banks. If thats the case, a decline down to 6,000 or so points on the ASX 200 shouldnt come as a surprise. But what if something more fundamental is going on that we dont really know about yet? This is the scenario Im leaning towards, and it all comes down to the poor performance of the emerging markets this year. I mentioned the trouble brewing in emerging markets yesterday. Ive been following this all year for my subscribers at Crisis & Opportunity. In short, emerging markets went on a debt binge during the age of quantitative easing. They borrowed heavily in US dollars. It turns out that European banks are big lenders to emerging market countries. For example, Spanish banks have large exposures to Turkey and Argentina. And Italian banks have large exposures to Spanish banks. And French banks have large exposures to Italian banks. I think you get the picture. The chart below shows the performance of Spanish and Italian stock markets in 2018. They are down around 9% and 6% respectively. Thats not too drastic, but its a big underperformance compared to US stocks, which are up more than 6% in 2018. How European emerging markets effect Australia Whats this got to do with Australia? Well, you probably saw yesterday that ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank raised variable home loan rates by 16 and 15 basis points respectively. Thats after Westpac increased its variable rate by 14 basis points last week. The NAB will be up next. Cartel, anyone? Aussie banks fund around 60% of their loans from local deposits. For the rest, they need to borrow in offshore markets, and our banks are very active in European debt markets. In recent months, bank funding costs have increased. In my opinion, this reflects a few things. Firstly, its a sign of emerging market risk, and the potential flow on effect to the European banking system. It also reflects the fact that the downturn in emerging markets is an indication that the global economy is slowing. Thats why the Aussie dollar recently hit its lowest level since mid-2016. The Aussie currency is a growth sensitive currency. When the global economy decelerates, our dollar falls. And since peaking in January at over 81 cents, it has fallen 12%. If this is telling us what the future is going to be like, theres a good chance Australias economic growth has peaked for the year. And our banks are now paying a higher price for the increased risk that comes with this scenario. In terms of an investment strategy to deal with this, you may want to look for counter cyclical plays. You may also want to look at formerly beaten down stocks that show good value relative to the rest of the market. Whats more, consider looking at asset prices that have languished for a long period of time, but are showing signs of a recovery. These assets are out of sync with the global economy, and likely have the best chance of doing well while growth dependent assets fall. Discover how to pick off potential multiple triple-digit ASX stock gains in ANY type of market. Join (free) today. The Trump drain continues As I showed yesterday and mentioned earlier, US stocks have outperformed the rest of the world over the past few years. Thats in large part due to Trumps tax cuts and protection of the US economy by rolling back poorly structured trade deals. But you wouldnt know it judging from the hysterical mainstream media. Yesterday, The New York Times ran an unprecedented anonymous op-ed against a sitting American President. A White House insider (so the NY Times says) wrote a scathing piece that paints Trump as some foaming at the mouth lunatic, out of control and destroying the country. But the raw economic facts dont support it. Economic growth is booming, unemployment is at record lows, and the stock market is at record highs. Thats not all Trumps doing. He came to office at the right time in the cycle. But if his administration is so chaotic, would the US economy be so clearly outperforming the rest of the world? To understand this epic hit piece on Trump, you have to put it in context. Ive mentioned this a few times before, but it bears repeating. Trump campaigned on a promise to drain the swamp. That is, ridding Washington of its deeply entrenched corruption. The establishment media plays a part in this corruption by publishing stories that come from anonymous sources and high up officials. This is not a conspiracy theory. Its a fact. Look up Operation Mockingbird. This was a CIA initiated program designed to have the media create narratives. Arthur Hays Sulzberger, owner of the New York Times, was an original participant. You can check out more info here if youre sceptical. So why did the NY Times run the piece yesterday? There are a few reasons. Bob Muellers investigation into Trumps alleged collusion with the Russians is going nowhere. In fact, its now surfacing that the Democrats and their deep state allies tried to frame Trump to bring about impeachment, although you wont hear about that in the mainstream media. Yesterday, Trump tweeted the single word, TREASON? It was probably both in response to the article and the attempts to overthrow a democratically elected President. As Ive been saying for weeks, this is only going to continue to heat up. But if you dont view it through the lens of what Trump is trying to do, youll get sucked into the mainstream media narrative. That is, that Trump is some deranged dictator. Two more of Trumps tweets in the past 24 hours give you an idea of the real battle going on. Im draining the swamp, and the swamp is trying to fight back. Dont worry, we will win! and; The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy & they dont know what to do. The economy is booming like never before, Jobs are at Historic Highs, soon TWO Supreme Court Justices and maybe Declassification to find Additional Corruption. Wow! Brett Kavanaugh, Trumps nomination for the Supreme Court, is set to receive Senate approval. This should give Trump the numbers on the Supreme Court and make things very uncomfortable for Hillary Clinton, given her past history. Trump IS draining the swamp. And the swamp critters dont like it. If he succeeds, it will be ultimately beneficial for the US and global economy. But there might be some considerable turbulence in the short-term. Thats why this story bears close watching. Regards, Greg Canavan, Editor, Crisis & Opportunity PS: How to capture MORE Aussie stock gains in a single year than most investors do in 10 yearssign up free today here. by Melani Manel Perera The Sri Lankan Government has accepted 177 recommendations (out of a total of 233) made by the UN Commission on Human Rights. The role of advocacy groups is fundamental in making the general public aware of the content of the periodic review. Colombo (AsiaNews) The Sri Lankan government and civil society groups have agreed to work together on human rights issues. Officials from the government, civil society organisations, and the United Nations will start with a shared approach and will seek a joint path of cooperation and dialogue between the parties. Meeting in the Sri Lankan capital on 22-24 August, the various stakeholders reiterated their commitment to the implementation of recommendations made by the United Nations following the Universal Periodic Review, which the government accepted last March. Some 43 civil society associations attended the event but some 94 took part in the Universal Periodic Review process. The National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO), the Movement for the National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) and the Law and Society Trust (LST) played an important role in facilitating dialogue between the various parties and motivating human rights groups to participate. Sri Lankas Ministry of Foreign Affairs also played a vital role in getting other government departments to cooperate. During the periodic review, civil society groups played an important role by raising awareness about human rights programmes, carrying out educational campaigns, translating the recommendations into Sinhala and Tamil, informing specific groups about their content, most notably women and workers (fisherman, plantation labourers, etc.). At the three-day meeting, participants were divided into eight working groups according to sector and examined the recommendations accepted by the Government of Sri Lanka, 177 out of a total of 233. The latter included: meeting the needs of the people impacted by the civil war; ensuring the full return and resettlement of Internally Displaced People; guaranteeing the participation of minorities in the decision-making process and offering them equal economic and social opportunities; boosting the protection of Tamils so that they can enjoy full economic, cultural and social rights; fighting child labour as well as discrimination against the most vulnerable groups, including women. Personalul care se ocupa de bagaje la aeroportul Heathrow a adus un omagiu solistului Freddie Mercury, care ar fi implinit miercuri 72 de ani. Legendarul muzician a fost, inainte sa ajunga celebru, unul dintre cei care carau bagajele calatorilor in aerogara londoneza, informeaza Mediafax. Lucratorii de la benzile de bagaje din aeroportul Heathrow au repetat miscarile de dans cu coregraful Lyndon Lloyd pentru a marca ziua de nastere al legendarului solist al trupei Queen. Titlurile pieselor interpretate de Mercury au aparut si pe panourile de afisaj ale terminalului de sosiri din aeroport. Mai mult, orice pasager care putea dovedi ca se numeste Freddie, Frederick sau Farrokhcan a avut acces gratuit la salonul clasa I al British Airways. Actiunea a avut in vedere si promovarea peliculei "Bohemian Rhapsody", un film biografic regizat de Bryan Singer, urmarind cariera starului muzical. Filmul are premiera in Romania pe 2 noiembrie. Trupa Queen a lansat 15 albume pana la destramarea ei, in 1991, dupa decesul lui Freddie Mercury, din cauza maladiei SIDA. Artistul a murit la varsta de 45 de ani, pe 24 noiembrie 1991, la o zi dupa ce a anuntat in mod public ca este bolnav de SIDA. Piese ca "Bohemian Rhapsody" si "Don't Stop Me Now", compuse de Mercury, au intrat in panteonul rockului si o noua generatie de artisti, printre care Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, Foo Fighters si Muse, revendica influenta trupei Queen. Concertele in care Mercury canta "We Are The Champions", "Killer Queen", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" sunt considerate momente antologice, iar "We Will Rock You", comedia muzicala lansata in 2002 pe baza hiturilor trupei, a fost pusa in scena in lumea intreaga si se joaca inca in teatrele londoneze. Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Renewing the educational alliance between school and family of which today we speak "above all to denounce its decline" to "face the new educational challenges that come from contemporary culture, society, the mass media, from new technologies". This is the invitation that Pope Francis today to the members of the Italian Association of Parents (AGE), received (in the photo) on the 50th anniversary of its foundation. In his speech, Francis claimed "the educational pact is falling". "The family no longer appreciates the work of teachers - often poorly paid - as they used to be - and they feel the annoying intrusiveness of parents' presence in schools, keeping them on the sidelines or considering them adversaries". "To change this situation, someone needs to take the first step, overcoming fear of the other and reaching out their hands generously. For this reason I invite you to cultivate and always nurture trust in school and teachers: without them you risk remaining alone in your educational activity and being less able to face the new educational challenges that come from contemporary culture, from society, from mass media, from new technologies. Teachers, like you, are engaged every day in educational service to your children. While it may be right to complain about the possible limits of their action, it is our duty to esteem them as the most precious allies in the educational enterprise that you carry forward together. If I may, I will tell you an anecdote. I was ten years old, and I said something unpleasant to the teacher. She called my mother. The day after my mother came to school, and the teacher went to receive her; they spoke, then my mother called me, and in front of the teacher she rebuked me and said to me, Apologize to the teacher, which I did. Kiss the teacher, my mother said. And I did, and then I returned to the classroom, happy, and the story was over. No, it wasnt over The second chapter was when I returned home This is collaboration in the education of a child: between family and teachers". "Your responsible and willing presence, a sign of love not only for your children but for the good of all that characterizes school, will help to overcome many divisions and misunderstandings in this area, and to ensure that families are accorded their primary role in the education and instruction of children and young people. In fact, if you as parents need teachers, the school too needs you, and cannot achieve its goals without engaging in constructive dialogue with those who have the primary responsibility for the growth of their pupils". "Helping to eliminate the educational solitude of the families is also the task of the Church, and I invite you always to feel that she is by your side in the mission of educating your children and making the whole of society a family-friendly place, so that each person may be welcomed, accompanied, guided towards true values and enabled to give the best of his- or herself for the growth of all.". "The children - concluded the Pope - children are the most precious gift you have received. Know how to safeguard this gift with commitment and generosity, leaving them the necessary freedom to grow and mature as people who in turn will one day be able to open themselves to the gift of life. The attention with which, as an association, you keep watch over the dangers that threaten the lives of children does not stop you from looking confidently to the world, knowing how to choose and indicate to your children the best opportunities for human, civil and Christian growth. Teach your children moral discernment, ethical discernment: this is good, this is not so good, and this is bad, so that they may know how to distinguish. But this is learned at home, and at school: together, both of them". The recent agreement with FirstEnergy Solutions allows FirstEnergy (FE) to avoid years of litigation separating itself from its bankrupt merchant unit. FirstEnergy can now focus on accelerating investments in its wide- and narrow-moat businesses (now 90% of earnings) that should result in strong earnings growth and put it in position to begin increasing its common dividend. Because of these factors, we think FirstEnergy should trade more in line with its regulated utility peers with economic moats. At 14.6 times our 2019 EPS estimate, FirstEnergys shares trade meaningfully below this peer group. In our U.S. utilities coverage (excluding FirstEnergy), the median forward price/earnings multiple of utilities with narrow or wide moats is currently 18.5 times. We believe solid earnings growth and a growing dividend will be the catalysts for the market valuing FirstEnergys shares more in line with this peer group. Sewell Ford at Parks Legado offers something that most vehicle dealerships dont. Inside Sewell is Press Cafe, which sells everything from a latte and a pastry to brick oven pizza. The cafes menu includes coffee listed as eye openers -- pastries, soups, sandwiches, salads, burgers and burritos. Everything is made in-house, and all pastries are made fresh daily, said Andrea Russell, who manages the restaurant with Renee Elfret. Press Cafe also has twice-weekly specials, Russell said. Two days out of the week we have a special. We try to do something different, especially for the people that work here on the campus, she said. Im sure you dont want to cook and eat the same thing every day, or be offered the same thing every day, so we try to spruce it up on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have a special. Russell, who has an associate degree in culinary arts from Odessa College and worked previously at Cork & Pig and Red Oak Kitchen, said the Loaded Chicken Salad Sandwich is one of her favorite menu items. Renne Elfret, who also serves as assistant to Collin Sewell, and Russell both highlighted the pizza when listing their menu recommendations. I am real proud of our wood-burning oven, our pizzas, Elfret said. We make our dough every morning and pull it, and we have awesome pizzas from the outdoor stove and fire grill. The Press Cafe is not exclusive to Sewell customers. Elfret said the majority of their patrons are not Sewell customers or team members. She said the cafe has a childrens play area, indoor and outdoor seating and a putting green. Press Cafe 4400 Parks Legado Road 432-498-0235 www.presscafe.com. Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday See More Collapse I think the best thing here is the atmosphere of the place, Russell said. To the community, we provide a place that you can come and hang out and enjoy someones company, have a latte in front of the fireplace in the morning before your day starts, or come and enjoy breakfast on the inside, and get to just relax. The cafe has been open since the end of May but has been on the minds of Sewell and Elfret for many years. Weve always had the Press Cafe as something wed like to do. We had thought of different scenarios that we could do it and when (Sewell) decided to build the new dealership, well, we decided this is the perfect place to start it out, Elfret said. Elfret has been Sewells assistant for almost 14 years but has a long history with cooking. She said her cooking philosophy is, If you mess up, you can always turn it into something else. I started cooking on the kitchen counter of my grandmothers kitchen, and she was just an old-fashioned home cook, and I used to go to her house and stay a lot in the summers, and cook with her, and that is just something Ive always done. I think through that, being with her, I was never afraid of cooking and mixing things, she said. Elfret is from the Midland/Odessa area, but moved to New Mexico when she was in high school and attended the University of New Mexico for two years. She owned two food operations, Look Whos Cooking and Look Whos Catering, and served meals at the bed and breakfast she operated with her mother. Elfret said she met Sewell when he hired her for the cook staff at a learning retreat where team members go several times a year. Collin is an awesome, awesome person to work for, she said. Hes one of those type of people that cares very deeply for his team members, and those that are around him. We have a great working relationship. We can listen to each other and talk about things that we want, and we have a lot of common desires when it comes to cooking and the future of our restaurant. According to Elfret, Sewell is hands-on and ready to help with anything. Russell said that in the first two weeks of business, Sewell was in the back, helping her cook fries. He is full 100 percent committed in helping us, and if we ever need anything, he is here. He doesnt mind picking up trash off the floor, or wiping down a table, or washing dishes, or doing any of the dirty work, Russell said. He is 100 percent committed. It is not one of those things where they come in once a week and check on it. He is here every day, if he is not on a business trip. Elfret said Press Cafe has evolved from the original concept. At one time we were going to do the name Press Cafe, because you press coffee beans and you press grapes for wine, she said. We were going to do a small stand-alone type thing, where theres probably not a whole lot of food, but more charcuterie type things and a little wine, but then it developed into more of this. She said wine could be on the menu in the future. We eventually plan to get our beer and wine license, where in the evening, you know, someone could come by and have a glass of wine, or they could have a mimosa on a Saturday morning, and that type of thing, Elfret said. I had a customer come in from Midland that said, Its just a breath of fresh air, she said. I just think (Press Cafe) offers something new and refreshing to our community. Its bright and cheerful and just a fun, new place to come. Nine people are confirmed dead, nine others are in very serious conditions, 24 are missing. Half of the island is still in the dark. Things are particularly difficult for seniors in high-rises. Caritas Japan is ready to act. Brother Narcisio, who has been in Japan for more than 50 years, has never seen anything like this quake. Another missionary notes that churches are intact but getting in touch with parishioners is hard. Sapporo (AsiaNews) Rescue team continue to dig in the mud uninterruptedly with little hope of finding survivors, following a earthquake that shook Hokkaido Island yesterday morning. Nine people are confirmed dead, nine are in cardiopulmonary arrest and 24 are missing, most of them in the in the town of Atsuma, where a cluster of homes was wrecked when a hillside collapsed. The earthquake caused a power blackout, leaving Hokkaido in the dark for hours. Power was restored to 1.4 houses or 40 per cent, with the other 60 per cent still waiting. Brother Narciso Cavazzola, a Franciscan friar in Sunagawa (central-western Hokkaido) has been in Japan for more than 50 years. When the quake struck he was in Sapporo on a spiritual retreat. "It was a very big jolt," he said. "Since the building where we were is reinforced concrete, we were very scared but we did not suffer any damage and we were not injured. I had never felt a 7-magnitude earthquake before. It was scary." Fr Ignacio Martinez, a Guadalupe missionary and director of the Social Affairs Department of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan, describes the difficulties of residents. "Given the timing of the earthquake, 3.08 am, many people were asleep. For this reason, they suffered a serious shock. It was very difficult, without light, gas, water, finding food, especially on the first day." Fr Martinez notes that one of the biggest problems is helping senior citizens living alone, stuck in high-rises without electricity. The government is now setting up shelters in schools and gyms. The missionary adds that there is no significant damage to the buildings owned by the diocese, but that there is also no information about parishioners. "The problem is that there is a lot of water on the island, and the earthquake caused the liquefaction of the ground. This is why homes and buildings have collapsed. It will take time to restore roads and railways and bring power back to some parts of the area." Contacted by AsiaNews, Caritas Japan said that is working directly with the Diocese of Sapporo, and that it was ready to bring relief. In recent months, Japan has been hit by a series of natural disasters, with hundreds of casualties. A few days ago, a typhoon killed 11 people whilst torrential rains caused more than 200 fatalities in July. In June, an earthquake in Osaka killed five people, injuring more than 350. With respect to the latest quake, Japans meteorological agency warned that aftershocks could cause more mudslides. The third bilateral summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is scheduled for September 18 to 20 in Pyongyang. North and South have already signed an agreement to denuclearize the region and establish a "permanent peace". The South Korean president: "Implement the agreement reached and make progress by the end of the year". Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A permanent peace between the two Koreas that is "irreversible". This is what President Moon Jae-in said today in an interview with the Kompas newspaper, adding that his government's goal is "to put a formal end to hostile relations with the North by the end of the year". "The most basic goal of our policy is that there must never be another war on the Korean Peninsula," says the president. Together with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un he has already signed an agreement to denuclearize the region and establish a "permanent peace". "The point now is to implement the agreement reached and the plan is to make sufficient progress by the end of the year - he continues - Thus, the process cannot be reversed". Moon is about to hold the third bilateral summit with the North Korean leader, scheduled for September 18 to 20 in Pyongyang. Previously, the two had met in the village of Panmunjom, on the border between the two countries, on April 27 and May 26. North and South are technically still at war with each other, since the conflict of 1950-53 ended only with an armistice and not with a peace treaty. "As a country directly involved in problems on the Korean peninsula - concludes Moon - South Korea will take all necessary measures not only for the development of the South-North Korean relationship but also for the development of the North Korea-U.S. relationship and acceleration of the denuclearization process". by Nirmala Carvalho The Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount has organised a novena of prayer. This year's reflections focus on passages from the apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate. For rector, many non-Christians ask how they can pray to Mary. His answer: we can speak to Mary spontaneously just as we address our own mother. Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Thousands of pilgrims have been coming every day to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount in Bandra, a district of Mumbai, for the novena on the occasion of the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated tomorrow, although here the main feast will be on Sunday 9th September. The local parish has organised the novena focusing on Pope Franciss apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate. "We honour Mary, our Mother. In her we see the perfect example of holiness," said Mgr John Rodrigues, the rector. Every day, a passage of the exhortation in which the figure of Mary appears is read in the basilica. For pilgrims, it is a way to learn more about the life of the Mother of Christ, "model of holiness". The devotees of Mary, both Christians and members of other religions, participate in the Masses (five a day), lay floral tributes and light candles. Citing a passage from the apostolic exhortation, Mgr Rodrigues said: "[The Virgin Mary] lived the Beatitudes of Jesus as none other. She is that woman who rejoiced in the presence of God, who treasured everything in her heart, and who let herself be pierced by the sword. Mary is the saint among the saints, blessed above all others. She teaches us the way of holiness and she walks ever at our side" (No. 176). Mary pondered in her heart all the events of her life. In silence and in prayer she allowed the mystery of Gods plan to permeate her whole being. Mary discerned what God was asking of her in each situation. This is another characteristic of holiness a habitual openness to the transcendent. The saints discerned what the Spirit was telling them in small and seemingly insignificant choices. They realised that greatness of spirit is manifested in simple everyday realities. Mary accompanied her Son the whole way, Archbishop Rodrigues noted, sharing even in his suffering at the foot of the cross. Mary trusted in Gods power to transform the most absurd situation into something meaningful. A shameful event became the deed of salvation by the power of God. Mary reminds her children to be persons of hope knowing that God will not abandon them. Noting that the Marian cult is widespread among many believers of other religions, the rector went on to say: Sometimes they ask, Is there a special prayer that we must recite to Mother Mary? I tell them that while there are specific invocations, we can speak to Mary spontaneously just as we address our own mother, pouring out our feelings, expressing what is in the depths of our hearts. Surely, Mary knows what lies in the heart of every child of hers. Pope Francis says, Mary our Mother does not need a flood of words. She does not need us to tell her what is happening in our lives. All we need do is whisper, time and time again: Hail Mary (n. 176). Forecasts for this weekend call for substantial rain across west-central Illinois, the result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon. The storm is bending its way across the middle of the nation and is expected to produce 2 to 6 inches of rain in parts of the state. In Illinois although far removed from the usual concerns about hurricanes and tropical storms this is not an unusual phenomenon. Every few years, hurricanes or tropical storms come north and though they lose most of their strength, they can still wreak havoc in the Land of Lincoln. The most noteworthy example was Hurricane Carla, which swept across the upper Midwest in September 1961, blasting the region with gusty winds and intense rainfall. Carla originated in the southwest Caribbean during the first week of September and plowed into the Texas coast on Sept. 11 with power that today would classify as a Category 5 hurricane. At that time, Carla was the largest hurricane ever to hit the American mainland. The storm resulted in the largest evacuation until Hurricane Rita in September 2005. In all, Carla left $300 million in damage in Texas, one of the costliest storms in American history to date. By early Sept. 12, Carla was downgraded from a hurricane, but still packed plenty of punch, dumping high amounts of rain across Texas, as well as up to 8 inches in some spots in Oklahoma and Kansas. Parts of the Kansas City metropolitan area received up to 8 inches in a sixteen-hour period. On Sept. 13, the storm picked up additional power as it collided with a cold front over the Ozarks. The bands of the monster storm reached as far north as Illinois, which felt the wrath across the state. In Moline, heavy rain began falling late on September 12 and continued throughout the next day, racking up 6.29 inches in a 24-hour period to break the old record of 4.89, set in October 1954. The city received a record 7.47 inches from Carla overall. Wind gusts of 50 miles per hour were clocked at various locales statewide. The storm, then centered in southwestern Illinois and still heading northeast, also dumped 8 inches of rain on Dubuque and just over 5 inches on both Rockford and Kirksville, Missouri. Nearly an inch fell in Springfield in only one hour. In Chicago, up to 3.5 inches quickly fell, flooding viaducts and causing the Chicago River to rise 5 feet. Gale warnings were eventually posted on all of the Great Lakes as the storm rolled through Michigan before finally crossing into Canada on Sept. 14. Some 46 deaths were attributed to Carla, including five in Kansas and one in Missouri. Due to its intensity and levels of destruction, the name Carla was eventually removed from the list of hurricane names. Twelve years before, a Texas hurricane rumbled over Springfield in October 1949, producing 1-3 inches of rain statewide. In 1957, Hurricane Audreys remnants poured 10.2 inches of rain in Paris, Illinois, believed to be a record for precipitation for a tropical system in Illinois. The remnants of Tropical Storm Candy had been downgraded to a depression by the time it reached the Land of Lincoln in June 1968, but it still packed enough punch to drop 3-5 inches of rain on areas north of Springfield. In September 1988, Illinois endured unsettled weather due to the remains of Hurricane Gilbert, one of the most destructive Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded. Rains left over from Hurricane Dennis fell over a two-day span across the state in July 2005. One of the more drastic storm remnants to hit Illinois came on Sept. 14, 2008, when the remains of Hurricane Ike dumped 4-6 inches of rainfall statewide, including five inches in Decatur and 7.08 inches at the Quad Cities International Airport. Mount Sterling received 4.53 inches. In some locales south of Interstate 70, gusts of 50-60 miles per hour were reported. The downpour from Ike caused Interstate 280 to be closed briefly near Milan, in northwestern Illinois. In central Illinois, Illinois Route 4 near Carlinville was closed for several hours when Ikes remnants dropped enough rain to flood a viaduct north of town. When Ike hit, parts of Illinois were still bailing out from what was left of Hurricane Gustav, which struck the state on Labor Day weekend and passed between Springfield and Decatur. Some 2-4 inches of rain were measured along Interstate 55, and one person was killed by a lightning strike in Shelby County. More recently, what was left of Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms of the 2017 hurricane season, produced light rain in central and southern parts of Illinois last September. Police had the right to arrest ... Washington A student who survived the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., urged the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday to oppose the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh because of the nominees views that the high courts rulings limit regulation of certain certain semi-automatic weapons. As you make your final decision, think about it as if you had to justify and defend your choice to those who lost to gun violence, said Aalayah Eastmond, who was a junior at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last Feb. 14 when a gunman killed 17 students and adults. Eastmond, 17, spoke on a witness panel on the last day of Kavanaughs confirmation hearing, when the committee heard from some 26 witnesses for and against the nominee. Among the other witnesses against Kavanaugh were two other teenagers, who spoke about health care and environmental regulation, and a public school teacher. Eastmond described how she was in her Holocaust History class at Stoneman Douglas when the shooting began, and she hid behind the body of classmate Nicholas Dworet, whom she learned later died in the violence. We all ran out passing bodies in the hallway, said Eastmond, who is now a senior. Outside the school, friends were picking body parts out of my hair. Eastmond is now a youth leader for the Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and a leader with Team ENOUGH , a group founded by student activists. Kavanaugh, who was not present during Fridays session full of witness panels, drew attention at various times during his testimony earlier in the week for a 2011 dissent he wrote in a gun regulation case decided by his current court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Kavanaugh would have struck down a District of Columbia law prohibiting semi-automatic rifles, saying his view was based on his reading of a legal test established by the Supreme Courts landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller , which upheld possession of handguns because they were not traditionally banned and were in common use by law-abiding citizens. Im very concerned since learning Brett Kavanaughs views on guns, and how he would strike down any assault weapon ban, Eastmond said. Too many dangerous people remain able to readily access and use guns to terrorize Americans at home, work, school, church, on our streets, and anywhere we go on our day-to-day life. The youth is urging our society to recognize the depth and seriousness of the gun violence epidemic in America, Eastmond continued. We are all here with an urgent message for you. If the youth across the country can fight to eradicate gun violence, why cant judges, lawmakers and Donald Trump understand that young people are dying from this senseless gun violence. The audience in the Hart Senate Office Building hearing room, as well as all of those committee members present, applauded when Eastmond finished. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., lauded Eastmond as well as Jackson Corbin, a 13-year-old student from Hanover, Pa., with existing medical conditions who expressed concern about Kavanaughs views on the Affordable Care Act; and Hunter Lachance, a student with asthma from Kennebunk, Maine, who worried about the nominees view on environmental regulation. But Whitehouse warned that the students are up against powerful forces in this society, such as the National Rifle Association, ardent opponents of the health-care law, and polluters. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who had an exchange on Thursday with Kavanaugh over gun violence, choked up as he told Eastmond that he had gone to the scene at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 when a gunman killed 26 children and adults. If Kavanaugh were before her, Blumenthal said, what would you say to him? That my life, along with all the other lives, is more important than that gun, Eastmond said. The panel also included Melissa Smith, a social studies teacher at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City, who expressed opposition to Kavanaugh because of his record of supporting private school voucher programs while he was a private lawyer in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Judge Kavanaughs stated position on private school vouchers would exacerbate the [school funding] situation in Oklahoma City, Smith said. Vouchers do nothing to help student achievement but do everything to undermine the public schools that 90 percent of the children in this nation attend. Siphoning money away from public education will destroy public schools, she said. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Smith that Kavanaughs role as a judge was different from that of a policymaker, but she said she worried the nominees personal views would influence his decisions on the high court. The Judiciary Committee will likely hold its vote on Kavanaugh on Sept 20. Senate Republicans are hoping to see him confirmed by the full Senate in time to join the Supreme Court for the Oct. 1 opening of its new term. Protesters set fire to the offices of political parties, TV stations and government departments. At least ten people have died so far. Tribal leaders are seeking vengeance for the dead. Unemployment and poor human rights record have contributed to the outbreak. Three mortar rounds hit Baghdads Green Zone; no damages or casualties have been reported. Basra (AsiaNews) The City of Basra in southern Iraq continues to be the scene of violence. The poor state of infrastructures and shortages in drinking water and electricity are fuelling the protest. Speaking to AsiaNews, Mgr Habib Hormuz Al-Naufali, Chaldean Archbishop of Bassorah of the Chaldeans, said that the situation "is still very bad. Government buildings have been set on fire; yesterday, even the offices of political parties. Protests are taking place at different sites inside and outside the city." Eyewitnesses have reported seeing fires burn at the offices of the Badr organisation, which has led the fight against the Islamic State group. The headquarters of Firat TV, which is close to the Shia party Ammar al-Hakim, have also been targeted. "Many tribal leaders are seeking revenge for the death of at least ten young people, noted the prelate. The deaths occurred during last week's clashes. Hundreds of wounded and more than 22,000 people have been poisoned [by polluted water] and suffer from various disorders, especially dysentery. Some of them belong to our community." For some time, a severe water shortage has affected southern Iraqs largest city. Residents have also been protesting against the poor level of public services, high unemployment officially 10 per cent, but 60 per cent among young people and endemic corruption. At least ten people have died and dozens wounded in recent clashes. About 90 per cent of Iraqs oil revenues are found in the Basra region, but only 1 per cent of those working in the industry are locals. In an attempt to stop the spiral of violence, the authorities have imposed a curfew across the city. For its part, the Iraqi Parliament has announced an extraordinary session tomorrow to "discuss problems, solutions and recent developments" in Basra. Because of the violent protests (23 dead since 8 July), the local Church suspended all cultural activities and catechism to protect the members of the community. The suspension remains in place. Archbishop Al-Naufali noted that humans are not the only ones suffering. The drought has been bad for vegetation and animals and things are getting worse by the day. The deteriorating state of affairs is compounded by the "lack of work and the absence of basic human rights". In such a situation, "tensions are bound to persist, he explained. The fear is that they can grow and spread throughout southern Iraq." Some people are speaking on behalf of the demonstrators but lack a strong personality to emerge as protest leaders." This is due in part to the fact that "tribal affiliation prevails here. People tend to follow the leader of their own tribe, or the leaders of the militias. Some people even follow the army." The situation is very fragmented; there is no one with the necessary charisma to play a unifying role. And the situation has progressively worsened and pressures from regional and world powers do not help. Recently, Baghdad too has seen tensions and violence. This morning, three mortar rounds fell in the Green Zone, the capitals heavily protected quarter, which contains government ministries and the US embassy. No one was hurt in the attack and no damage was reported. So far, no one has claimed responsibility. Nevertheless, the rare incident does raise concerns since it occurred in the heavily fortified area. The historic 20-day visit is taking place thanks to the Archdiocese of Lipa (Batangas) in collaboration with the Episcopal Commission for the Clergy. The pilgrimage will mark one hundred years since the appearance of the stigmata and the 50th anniversary of the saint's death. For the rector of the national shrine, Padre Pio can be an inspiration and a challenge for us to have a heart like his. Manila (AsiaNews/CBCPNews) Filipino Catholics are waiting for the relic of Padre Pio's heart, which will travel through the country between 6 and 26 October in an historic pilgrimage, exhibited in several cities, including Manila, Cebu and Davao. The visit will be "a time of grace for Filipinos, especially the devotees of Padre Pio, who are now walloping in near hopelessness during these uncertain times of our nation's history," said Father Joselin Gonda, rector of the National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio in Santo Tomas, Batangas, at a press conference presenting the event. Fr Joselin Gonda noted that the visit marks two milestones in the life of the saint: one hundred years since the appearance of the stigmata on 20 September and the 50th anniversary of his death on 23 September. "Moreover, this is the Year of the Clergy and of the Consecrated Persons, the prelate said. Padre Pio, given as a model for them, can be an inspiration and a challenge for us to have a heart like his, close to the Eucharistic heart and forgiving heart like the Lord." The pilgrimage is taking place thanks to the initiative of the Archdiocese of Lipa (Batangas), in collaboration with the Episcopal Commission for the Clergy, presided by the Bishop of San Pablo, Mgr Buenaventura Famadico. The Philippines will be the fourth country to receive the relic after the United States, Paraguay and Argentina. Mgr Gilbert Garcera, Archbishop of Lipa, approved the detailed plan for the visit, in particular the presence of the relic at the shrine of Saint Padre Pio, declared "national sanctuary" by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 2015. Since then, the shrine has attracted thousands of pilgrims, especially during Holy Week and on the 23rd of every month, a special day set aside for Padre Pio with Masses and liturgies for the sick. Gonda said that a contingent of devotees from the national shrine will fly to Italy a week before to take and accompany Padre Pio's heart to the Philippines. We will be accompanied by two Capuchin friars to ensure the safety and orderliness of the visit of the heart relic to the different places in the country, Gonda added. Canada is eyeing a free trade deal with the ASEAN bloc, as US president Donald Trump continues to threaten to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A deal with the ASEAN bloc, which includes Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Cambodia, would give Canada access to 650 million consumers. Expanding into the Southeast Asia region will help Canadian-owned businesses access one the worlds fastest-growing markets, Trade Minister Jim Carr said as he headed out to Thailand and Singapore for exploratory talks. Ottawa is also eying free trade with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, which form the Mercosur bloc, and has suggested a trade deal with China is also in the works, which if successful would make Canada the first Western nation to do reach a free trade deal with Beijing. Canada and the EU provisionally entered into a free trade pact last September, as NAFTA appeared to falter and the US exited from the Trans Pacific Partnership. Canada is also trying to revive its trade deal talks with India. India is one of the worlds fastest-growing economies, displacing France for sixth place among the worlds nations last year, yet trade with Canada remains sluggish. In 2012, the former Conservative government set a goal of increasing two-way trade to $15 billion by 2015. In 2017, it was about $8.4 billion. For eight years, Canadian and Indian officials have been in talks to work towards a free trade agreement. The Conservative government said in 2011 it hoped to conclude an economic partnership agreement with India in 2013. Five years later, there is still no agreement in place. Stewart Beck, president and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada told Mata Press Service: With one billion new middle-class consumers, major infrastructure investments, continued economic growth, and unprecedented regional economic integration, Asia is on track to becoming a global powerhouse. The growing significance of the region combined with the uncertainty weve been seeing in the global trading system thanks in large part to the Trump administration underscores the need for Canada to strategically deepen and diversify its partnerships in the region, of which ASEAN is a critical part, said Beck, who was the former Canadian High Commissioner to India. As a group, ASEAN is the seventh-largest economy in the world and Canadas sixth-largest merchandise trading partner. The region represents more than 640 million people with a combined economy of C$2.6 trillion. So, the economic potential for Canada is clear. Whats not so clear is Canadians willingness to grasp the opportunity. At the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, our national opinion polling indicates that Canadians are increasingly aware of the importance of trade and investment relationships with Southeast Asia. Our 2018 NOP found that Canadians show strong and growing support for a potential free trade agreement with ASEAN, with 63% showing support compared with less than 40% in 2014. Thats higher than the support for a potential FTA with China, already our second-largest trading partner, at 59%. Beck said he is encouraged by Minister Carrs overtures to ASEAN. I think it signals to Asia, and to stakeholders here in Canada, that the government is committed to deeper and wider strategic engagement in a region that is going to be critical to Canadas future economic prosperity. Meanwhile, the Canada-ASEAN Business Council (CABC) has release The Canada Advantage, a report highlighting the benefits for ASEAN businesses through increased economic engagement with Canada. The Canada Advantage is a collaboration between the CABC, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). The report seeks to address how ASEAN-based companies can benefit from the Canada trade opportunity, and specifically from the implementation of an ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The report builds on the momentum of The ASEAN Advantage, an earlier CABC joint report, which estimated that an ASEAN-Canada FTA can add an additional CAD$11 billion to ASEAN-Canada bilateral trade by 2027, compared to the baseline case. The Canada Advantage features an analysis of eight priority sectors in which Canada offers strategic advantages to ASEAN firms that may be looking to expand or invest abroad: Automotive, Oil and Gas, Cleantech, ICT, Agri-food, Banking and Finance, Aerospace and Aviation, and Biopharmaceuticals. The report highlights that Canada offers a business climate with low business costs and more robust investor protections relative to most other G7 economies; this presents attractive opportunities for ASEAN-based firms looking for a gateway to the North American market. According to the report, Canada has the strongest cost advantage relative to the US among G7 countries. It has ranked 2nd best in the G7/G20 for favourable business environment over 5 years. It also offers high level of investor protection, ranking 2nd in the G7 and 7th out of 127 countries. The Canada Advantage report goes beyond the two-way economic benefits and examines fascinating stories of how ASEAN businesses from various industries are already engaging with Canada, and how an ASEAN-Canada FTA would meaningfully grow opportunities further. Wayne Farmer, president of the CABC, said, There has never been a more important time for ASEAN and Canada to seize the moment. The foundation for the trade relationship is solidASEAN and Canada are two trade-dependent regions with complimentary economies and deep people-to-people ties, he said. Key ASEAN-Canada trade facts: Canada is forecasted to have the highest real GDP growth in the G7 in 2017-2019. Canada has the highest level of R&D investment in Higher Education across the G7. ASEAN remains a strategic trading partner for Canada ASEAN is Canadas sixth-largest trading partner. ASEAN-Canada trade relations continue to grow: In 2017, ASEAN-Canada trade stood at CAD$23.2 billion, increasing from CAD$21.6 in 2016. Canada has diplomatic representation in all ten ASEAN nations, including a dedicated Canadian Ambassador to ASEAN, based in Jakarta. Guest Commentary By Rob Fleming B.C. Minister of Education As we get our kids ready for the school year ahead adjusting to changing schedules and new routines I am filled with incredible optimism. After years of underfunding by the previous government, Premier John Horgan made it a priority to quickly make a number of positive changes in B.C. schools, recognizing no investment is more important than a quality education its the key to a better future and a prosperous economy. For the students, teachers and parents who suffered through crowded classrooms for generations, weve funded the hiring of a record-breaking 3,700 new teachers and education assistants. School districts across the province are actively filling any remaining positions with a huge recruitment effort, plus we have added more spaces in teacher education programs to bring in more French, Indigenous and specialist instructors to add more highly skilled educators to B.C. schools. Students are now better served with more resources to help them thrive. To support growing communities and ensure kids are safe in the event of an earthquake, we injected the highest levels of capital funds in history fast-tracking upgrades and building new schools. Our annual $5-million playground fund means parents can focus on helping their children reach their full potential, instead of fundraising. And, over the next year, we will change the way we fund school districts so we can make the system more fair, ensuring every learner receives the time, attention and resources they need, regardless of their background or where they live. British Columbia is already a world leader in education, with our learners regularly ranking among the best in international assessments. But there are still too many kids who are slipping through the cracks. The new curriculum will help to address this, and Ive seen first-hand how students are benefiting from critical thinking, teamwork and flexible, personalized learning. Best of all, these strategies help kids feel more connected and engaged with what they are studying, so they have a better chance of success. To feel this important sense of connection, Indigenous students need to see schools embrace and reflect their unique heritage and perspectives. Thats why we have built Indigenous content into all subjects from math to science to literature and weve also added 17 Indigenous languages in classrooms. Education is a powerful tool for reconciliation, and we are committed to implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action. There is no question kids have trouble learning when they are feeling stress and anxiety, or coping with addiction. Because of this, government is improving supports for mental-health promotion, prevention and early intervention. We hosted a first-of-its kind school mental-health conference in May, to help build a comprehensive strategy for students and, this year, learners will have new resources focused specifically on social media, mental health and wellness. To combat bullying, we created a campaign to teach students that everyone deserves to be welcomed, included and respected in a safe learning environment, while being fully and completely themselves. No one should be excluded or bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and Im proud to be a part of a government that is dedicated to an inclusive society. The graduation years are very important for a students smooth transition to post-secondary opportunities, and we have to think beyond K-12 and help learners prepare for our ever-changing labour market and society. Learners will now have a better chance of success, thanks to B.C.s new curriculum, already in place for grades K-9. This year, the new curriculum will be in place for Grade 10, and we will add grades 11 and 12 next year to ensure all students are prepared for the extraordinary range of career opportunities available after high school. We are getting it done, step by step. We are committed to making constant improvements to B.C.s already great education system and to keep looking for new and innovative ways to improve the outcomes for B.C.s 650,000 students. Submitted by Gastrofork Special to the Post The Puri-Puri Ebi is the classic prawn tempura made with panko that is drizzled with tartar sauce, sesame and parsley. The panko breading is crisp and not overdone. The Ebi Gyoza is filled with one prawn and vegetables. The gyoza had its own individual shrimp. It was inside while still crispy on the outside. Each ramen bowl features noodles and broth made in house. Kings Seafood Ramens spiciness level can be ordered as non-spicy, mild or spicy. The Kings Seafood Ramen has blue crab, clam, green mussel, cabbage, black tree fungus, onion, red pepper, green pepper, Thai chilis, bean sprouts and red pepper powder on top. The broth was great and that the noodles had a nice snap to them. I was surprised how much seafood came in the dish especially for the price point. The Kyouka Tsukemen is served with the noodles, bamboo shoots, half seasoned egg and seaweed on the side. The broth has the shredded pork in it. The soy egg had a good consistency gelled but slightly runny its not too salty so it isnt overpowering. The seaweed and bamboo shoots give a nice crunch and texture. The noodles are thick. It can be served hot or cold. The noodles have the perfect amount of snap to them. The broth is hearty, slightly oily from the beef and a good amount of spice. The bits of shredded pork are a nice addition. The broth is not too salty and the flavour is quite good. This is probably my favourite tsukemen bowl in Vancouver. The portion sizes here at Ramen Koika are perfect but if youre still hungry, you can always order more. I would definitely recommend Ramen Koika theyre a great spot in the city for a delicious bowl of ramen. Ramen Koika 1479 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC Gastrofork is a Vancouver based food and travel blog. Gastrofork has been featured in Eat In Eat Out Magazine, is one of the top blogs onurbanspoon and named Top 100 Blogs to Follow in 2013. Read more reviews at gastrofork.ca.http://gastrofork.ca/ Starting next week, Plainview Christian Academy students will start four-day school weeks. The PCA school board voted Tuesday morning to make Fridays an optional school day, said Karen Earhart, administrator for the district, during a phone call with The Herald. The state legislature passed a bill last year that now requires Texas schools to operate for a minimum of 75,600 minutes as opposed to providing 180 days of instruction, according to a list of frequently asked questions published by the Texas Education Agency in Dec. 2016. The decision by the PCA school board will stretch the school day by 30 minutes and the school year by six days, Earhart said. Instead of ending the 2018-2019 school year on May 23, it will end on May 31. School days will now end at 4 p.m. In an email sent to parents, Earhart wrote: "The board felt that it was important for school to still end in May. However, in order to keep from extending each day too much, the board voted to change the end day of school to May 31. If we continue with this type of calendar next year, we will not have to go that long in May because we will have already done extra minutes every day in August and early September." Next year, she said, the school year should end in early May. While Fridays will be optional starting next week, there will still be activities going on. Earhart said Fridays will be reserved mostly for extra-curricular activities sports, agriculture activities, service projects, etc. "For the younger kids, it'll be more of a daycare," she said. Anybody that wants to can still attend, Earhart said. Other schools like Olfen ISD near San Angelo - have already moved to four-day weeks. Data shows switching to a shorter school week reduces absences for both teachers and students, she said. There may be some Fridays that are required, according to Earhart's letter to parents, but they'll be "very few." Earhart said kids are excited and so are parents. "You always want your kids to have the best education that they can have, but also be able to spend time with family and travel," said Kent Webb, a parent of a PCA student. Several students who participate in activities like stock shows often miss a lot of school to attend their events, he said. Athletes with out-of-town activities do too. Webb said he hopes the shorter weeks will help class time be utilized more efficiently and help kids get the most out of their education with fewer distractions. "I really like the idea that they can do some special things on Fridays, too," he said. "It's not just a throw-away." He's excited to see how it'll play out calling it a "win-win all around," he said, and so is his child. Earhart said many parents, like Webb, have stated they like the flexibility. In her email, Earhart called the change an "evolving project" that will be monitored as district officials decide what works best. She also encouraged feedback. "The overwhelming majority of parents wanted to start this immediately, and we are trying to accommodate that, but please let us know if there are issues that arise that we need to address as this evolves," Earhart's email reads. "If email doesn't suffice, I would be glad for you to come see me or any board member to answer questions or help in any way." A subdivision in a small Texas town north of Austin is facing a dangerous influx of rattlesnakes. Micah Brown, a resident of the Leander, Texas neighborhood, has lived in the area since 2016 and has only heard of rattlesnake reports being a "one-off" situation until around mid-August. Brown came across a baby rattlesnake in his own yard, where his two-year-old daughter and three dogs often play. Shortly thereafter he began noticing more warnings from people finding rattlesnakes in their yard on his Nextdoor app a platform where neighborhood residents can communicate including one woman whose dogs were bitten on the face. UM WHAT? Hen sits on egg-thieving snake, leaving both the snake and the human no idea what to do next According to KXAN, local authorities are aware of the issue, but to Brown's knowledge, they haven't done much other than recommend people take preventive measures by cleaning up any overgrown brush or getting rid of places where snakes can hide. Leander city officials told the publication that a new development in the area could be the cause of a mass exodus from the woods into nearby yards and are asking residents to contact Animal Services with the Leander Police Department at 512-528-2800 if they come across any wildlife. As for Brown, he thinks the snakes are victims too and people should heed the recommendations from authorities. I don't want a child, adult, or dog to be bit," Brown said. "I just think people could pick up stuff in their yards, and have situational awareness. If the snakes have no reason to take up residence in your yard, they will go elsewhere." Brown and his wife are taking precautions when taking the dogs out, or letting their daughter play outside, including teaching the little girl how to search for snakes before playing on her playscape. "When any number of mosquito-transmitted diseases get news attention, people may be distressed, but they don't just stay indoors forever, " said Brown. "They put on bug spray, avoid mosquito-ridden places, and get rid of standing water. That's basically what people need to do now - take preventative measures and be aware." Take a look through the gallery above to see photos of the rattlesnake found in Brown's yard. Daniela Sternitzky- Di Napoli is a digital producer covering Texas news and pop culture. | Daniela.DiNapoli@chron.com | @Dani_DiNapoli Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! looks into Filipino-Canadian shenanigans, queer insights, family epiphanies and soul-gratifying karaoke. The shows writer/performer Davey Calderons visit to his familys homeland, the Philippines, inspired the show. Katie Sly teamed up with the all-LGBTQ creative team to bring this play to the Vancouver Fringe Festival. The lead artists of Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! include Director Chris Lam. The creative team also includes Costume Design by Vancouvers long-time drag artist darling Rose Butch. As part of the Site-Specific series, this play takes place at XYYVR, one of Vancouvers queer bars and a staple of Vancouvers queer community. The bar will be available to patrons during the show. The patrons should expect to be invited onstage to sing. The play runs from Sept. 7 - 16 at XYYVR located at 1216 Bute Street. For more information, visit https://tickets.vancouverfringe.com/shows/big%20queer%20filipino%20karao... Big city problems came to this year's annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. A plane crash, a death, an armed car jacking and 44 arrests are among the incidents officers dealt with while patrolling the Playa, the temporary city of some 70,000 people set up Aug. 25 to Sept. 3. The Pershing County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management work together to oversee law enforcement, and records from the Sheriff's office reveal 14 fewer arrests were made in 2018 than in 2017. As with year's past, the majority of arrests in 2018 were for drug possession and trafficking of drugs. Deputies also arrested people for endangerment of a child, obstruction of a public officer, unlawful trespassing on land, domestic battery and driving under the influence. "Citations are still being processed, however the arrests are accurate as of today," Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said Thursday. "We are still attempting to break down our camp while still taking reports from a Festival that was supposed to be over on Monday." Burning Man spokesperson Jim Graham points out that there were fewer arrests despite a "very heavy police presence, but we are waiting final data from the Sheriff." ALSO, Burning Man without drugs: 'The type of fun you have sober is on a different level' One attendee was found by law enforcement "unresponsive and not breathing" in the cab of a truck on Sept. 4. Sherman Nicholson received CPR from medical personnel but he "died at the scene unexpectedly," according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office. An autopsy was performed and the cause of death is currently under investigation. Graham says Nicholson was a staff member of a vendor. The Sheriff's Office also reports a Cessna aircraft taking off for a sightseeing tour flight was involved in a minor crash that damaged property and didn't cause any injuries. Graham says the small plane was carrying four passengers and the pilot was taken to an onsite medical facility for evaluation. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. Police continued to respond to incidents the day after the event as attendees lingered on the Playa, and on Sept. 4 police received a 911 call from a female reporting her vehicle was stolen by a male with a knife outside the south gate of the festival exit gate. Deputies from the Washoe County Sheriff's Office spotted the vehicle in front of Bruno's Country Club in Gerlach Nevada, and the driver matched the description given by the victim. After a foot chase, deputies and a police dog apprehended the suspect and arrested 32-year-old Tiago Gomez of West Hollywood, Calif., on several charges. More charges are possible as Pershing County Sherriff's office is investigating the car jacking. HEALDSBURG, Calif. The town square here feels as if it is from a bygone era: lush greenery, redwoods and palm trees, a bakery that sells its famed sticky buns each morning, a more-than-a-century-old inn that proclaims its wine country warmth. It is also the sort of place, with an abundance of wealth and aging baby boomers, that loves its local newspaper. Even so, last year Rollie Atkinson, the owner and publisher of The Healdsburg Tribune and three other weeklies in Sonoma County, was staring down a grim financial reality. The business model, he said, was failing rapidly. He was tired of throwing his savings into the newspapers to keep them going, and weary of the daily struggle of staying afloat in an environment where readers have access to a torrent of information for free. I knew we had to do something different, he said. He hired a broker to put a value on his business, thinking perhaps he could find a deep-pocketed investor. That went nowhere. Then he found another possibility. Just to the south, in Berkeley, Calif., an online news site called Berkeleyside had taken a new approach to the crisis in local news: Sell stock to its readers. It was wildly successful. The sites direct public offering a more intimate version of an initial public offering in which a company sells stock without an investment bank began in 2016 and closed this year. It raised $1 million. The DPO just hit all the right buttons, Atkinson said. It allowed for longer-range planning. It provides for community ownership, community buy-in. So, in what is believed to be a first for a local newspaper, Atkinson undertook a similar strategy for the four newspapers that make up his Sonoma West company, which have a combined paid circulation of 9,900: The Healdsburg Tribune, The Cloverdale Reveille, The Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News. Since March, he has gotten a quarter of the way to his goal of $400,000. The offering lasts until March 2019, and the road show consists of Atkinson making his pitch over cocktails, at dinner parties and in everyday conversations around town. (A prospectus is posted online, offering a rare look at the finances of a local newspaper chain.) Were a high-contact sport around here, Atkinson said in a recent interview alongside Ray Holley, his managing editor. Our readers are right here. Were face to face. When we are in the grocery store checkout line, there are our subscribers and readers. For Ray and I, it takes a long time to get our shopping done. Local newspapers have long been staples of communities across the country. But the shifts in the wider media industry have been devastating to these smaller publications. Over the past decade, many have closed while others have cut their newsroom staffs and how many times a week they publish. Yet the political moment the nation finds itself in has helped Atkinsons crusade. Sonoma County is reliably blue although there are pockets of conservatism in its agricultural communities and President Donald Trumps constant attacks on the news media have worried many of the papers readers. A number of Atkinsons new investors have told him that they dont just want to save their local paper. They also want to save democracy, he said. One of those investors is Marie Gewirtz, 67, who has lived here for three decades and is retired from her job in marketing in the local wine industry. Many of us really treasure our local newspaper, she said. I was raised to believe that journalism was key to democracy. In recent years, as the print paper cut back by two pages some weeks, there was a backlash among members of the community, especially older ones, who felt a cherished ritual was disappearing. The people who wanted to sit and read the print paper with a glass of wine or cup of coffee, Gewirtz called them. She added, I think, now more than ever, we can support democracy by supporting our communities. Rick Theis, 72, also retired from the wine industry, said: I get my notifications from The New York Times every day, and I open them up with dread. What did our infamous president do now? So he put $5,000 in Sonoma West, an investment that he said made him feel that he was pushing back, in a small away, against forces that have diminished the role of traditional journalism in American society. I really depend on the small community newspaper, Theis said. They at least have trained journalists reporting the news, which social media does not. In a note to its readers published this year, Berkeleysides editors wrote, Local news around the U.S. is in peril, but Berkeleysides D.P.O. shows that small sites can raise the capital they need to succeed from within their very own communities. Berkeleyside also helped Sonoma West with its DPO. Atkinson was quick to stress that he did not believe a stock offering would work for many other local newspapers, especially those that are not in wealthy areas like Sonoma County, or have the same kind of older readership with liberal leanings. Now that he has an influx of money, however, one of the first things he plans to do is raise salaries for his staff, which has eight newsroom employees. Reporters have been making $15 an hour, a rate that California has decided will be its minimum wage in a few years. Thats not because Im stingy, Atkinson said. Thats because its all we could afford. Ride-hailing company Lyft is expanding its presence in San Antonio with the opening of a new driver support center and a partnership with Hertz. The new center at 8610 Broadway St. will host training, dispense supplies and help with driver needs. It will also serve as Lyfts headquarters in San Antonio, housing the companys local marketing and operations employees. Jacom Stephens/Getty Images A 31-year-old restaurant employee was shot and injured while taking out the trash early Friday in San Franciscos Marina, authorities said. The shooting occurred about 2:50 a.m. on the 2100 block of Lombard Street, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Staff file photo Texas Music star Pat Green returns to San Antonio tonight to perform at The Rustic, the sprawling North Side dining, drinks and concert venue he co-owns When asked what it was like to play a room he has a stake in, Green referenced a moment from his past. Jack Ingram, he said, told him when they were younger that whether the audience was 10 or 10,000, its the same show. Pasha co-owner Kamran Vandi said Metro Health officials told him they suspect hummus is the source of the outbreak, but said he doesn't know how chickpeas could be contaminated. Metro Health officials told the San Antonio Express-News late Friday afternoon that the source of the illness has not yet been identified since they are still in the early phases of the investigation. "We always take every precaution to ensure our food is prepped, stored and contained properly," Pasha Director of Operations Bill Deiri said in an email. "In the 10 years we have been in business, we have never had anything like this happen and are incredibly committed to making sure it never does again. The reported illnesses were all isolated to the location at 9339 Wurzbach (Road) and we have proactively been in touch with the health department and are continuing to work with them to identify what happened and how to do better on these situations." RELATED: Lowest scores on San Antonio restaurant inspections: September 7, 2018 Metro Health reported that they have received 301 phone calls about the Pasha investigation as of 4 p.m. Friday. Most of those calls 255 were linked to the outbreak and came from people who said they became sick after dining at the Pasha location on Wurzbach. Fourteen of those showed laboratory evidence of salmonella and 12 had been hospitalized as of Sept. 7 at 4 p.m., officials said. The reports first began surfacing shortly after the holiday weekend and have continued to grow in the days since. Early Thursday morning, Pasha reported more than 60 sickened, and they reported nearly 200 calls Thursday evening. Common symptoms of foodborne diseases include diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps and vomiting, but symptoms may vary by person. They may take one to two days to appear, following a contaminated meal. Metro Health encouraged recent Pasha customers with any symptoms to speak with health officials. In order to prevent gastrointestinal illness, Metro Health recommended following proper hand-washing techniques, including washing hands before eating or preparing food, while caring for sick people, and after using the restroom or changing diapers. S. M. Chavey is a staff writer for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here. | sarah.chavey@express-news.net | 210-250-3122 | Twitter: @smchavey Peggy OHare is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: @Peggy_OHare "Remove the dead lizard," that's what one local restaurant was told by city health officials during a recent inspection according to a new report. Vans Chinese Seafood Restaurant off Broadway was cited by inspectors after a dead lizard was discovered with packaged food in a walk-in freezer. Other violations this week at restaurants across the city included raw meat stored above cooked food, a bag of cabbage stored on the floor and roaches in the kitchen. LAST WEEK'S SCORES: San Antonio restaurant inspections: August 31, 2018 A total of 18 other low scoring restaurants joined Vans in this week's inspections report, including a popular taco joint once featured on a network TV food show. Click on the slideshow above to check out this week's lowest scoring eateries. To make the Express-News' list of dirtiest restaurants, an establishment must score 89 or below or anything less than an "A" during a random city health inspection over the past week. The San Antonio Express-News examines hundreds of restaurant inspections each week conducted by the San Antonio Food and Environment Services division to bring you the eateries with scores of 89 or below. Restaurants are graded on a 100-point system. where "100" is a perfects score, and demerits are based upon the number of violations found during a regular food establishment inspection. There are three categories of demerits and each are assigned a demerit score of 3, 2, 1 points, according to the health division. Scores and demerits listed are only representatives of the state of the restaurant at the time of the inspection and establishments are surveyed at random. If you have questions about inspections or complaints about a food establishment, contact the Metropolitan Health District office by calling 3-1-1 or 210-207-6000. Be prepared to provide the name, location, date of incident and details of the incident. Candice.Garcia@express-news.net Shaking hands and kissing babies. That's what politics is all about, right? A new ad by Ted Cruz suggests that if Texas voters are interested in meeting his challenger in the race for the U.S. Senate, Beto O'Rourke at one of his many campaign stops, they should consider leaving their baby at home. Why? Because O'Rourke has a salty mouth. Like, saltier than a Supersized fry, chased by a jug of pickle juice. O'Rourke loves to drop the F-bomb at campaign events. And Cruz, who stands pretty firm on what his idea of family values includes, thinks there are certain words that should be left out of politics. Here's the ad: How you interpret the ad depends on who you feel about the formality of speech these days. And it seems like Cruz may be a bit more conservative on that front than many Americans -- and even many other politicians. Last spring, Politico published a thoughtful piece entitled Why Democrats Are Dropping More F-Bombs Than Ever, highlighting the use of colorful language for decades: "Roll through the archives and you'll find John F. Kennedy chewing out an Air Force General over a Washington Post story and Lyndon Johnson giving his tailor graphic instructions on how to ensure the breathability of his pants." But these were largely novel examples. It's been way more commonplace in the past decade. Former President Obama sprinkled some salt on his language at times. And his Vice President Joe Biden called Obama's healthcare bill a big f'ing deal on a hot mic. So there's plenty of precedent for bigwigs dropping bombs. In a time when we elected a president after he was caught saying he'd grab women by the ... well, you know, it's probably fair to say that pearl-clutching about spicy language is a thing of the past. Even newspapers get to have fun with some of the words we're not technically supposed to use in print. Just this week, the Houston Chronicle asked "Can we say ass?" in the print edition, for a story about the top 25 words used in highly rated romance novels. According to our copy editors, we can. So while Cruz's ad seems genuine, it also looks like it might be another swing-and-a-miss for the Texas Republicans, akin to last week's diss about O'Rourke's past as a punk rocker, which only seemed to up O'Rourke's appeal. Dear Mr. Premack: My mother is widowed, and in an effort to help her manage her funds, she asked if I could be listed on her accounts. I agreed and signed the bank cards and have helped pay her bills for a few years. Three months ago, she died and my sister who is named as executor in the will has filed for probate. When she went to collect the bank accounts, the bank told her that the accounts had a right of survivorship to me, that I own the money now, and that they wont pay the estate. I dont want to do it that way and did not know the bank card said that. How do I get the money back to my sister so it can be divided up the way mother said in her will? SF When a person dies, there are four ways that someone else becomes the owner of their assets. First and most traditional is for the assets to pass to the devisees named in the will. Typically, the will needs to be probated, a courtroom process which can be very streamlined under Texas law. Second and all too often seen is for the assets to pass under the laws of intestacy. This happens when the decedent made no plan, signed no documents, and state law must be used to identify the proper legal heirs via a more complex proceeding in court. A conservative national group has filed a federal lawsuit for a pair of state employees who want a refund of the union dues that were taken from their paychecks despite having never joined the bargaining unit. Its the first case of its kind in Connecticut following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling called Janus versus AFSCME earlier this year that said it was a violation of the constitutional rights of employees for unions to take fees without the consent of workers. The Virginia-based National Right to Work Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court to reclaim the fees. The suit alleges that two state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection employees, Kiernan Wholean and James Grillo, along with possibly hundreds of other state workers who are not members of unions, should be eligible for the return of their fees covering the last three years. Defendants include Service Employees International Union Local 2001, DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee, and officials from the state Office of Policy Management. By failing to refund the full amount of seized union fees from union nonmembers and by maintaining a union monopoly bargaining agreement that requires nonmembers to pay union fees as a condition of employment, SEIU Local 2001 violates the plaintiffs First Amendment rights as protected by the new Janus precedent, said a statement from the foundation released on Thursday. Although Wholean and Grillo are not members of SEIU Local 2001 and had not consented to the deduction of forced fees, they and other non-union member employees were forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment under state law. The union stopped collecting fees from nonunion members as soon as the Janus decision was issued and followed the law before that, said Ben Phillips, communications director for CSEA SEIU Local 2001. This is yet another attack by the anti-worker forces who are determined to destroy the American middle class, said CSEA SEIU Executive Director David Glidden. It is certain that labor unions have been the path for workers to reach the middle class through fair wages, reliable healthcare, and honorable retirements. The despicable NRWF and its billionaire funders seek to undo the progress workers have made, but nothing they do will stop the resolve of workers banding together and speaking with one voice for what is just and fair for ourselves, our families, and our communities. The Janus decision said it is unconstitutional to force government employees to pay any union fees as grounds for employment; and that workers must give their affirmative consent. The suit says that while the state has ceased deducting such fees, Local 2001 failed to give refunds; and alleges that the DEEPs active contract with Local 2001 includes the requirement that non-union members pay such dues. This class action is one of many across the country which together seek the return of more than $100 million to the victims of union bosses unconstitutional forced-dues schemes, said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. In July, Foundation lawyers won its first refund for an Oregon state employee, a fish and wildlife workers who was awarded about $3,000. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT NORTH HAVEN The opening of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart preschool, daycare and kindergarten was celebrated Thursday morning, as a new era began in the decades-long history of the institution. The school, formerly known as St. Frances Cabrini Day Care and Learning Center, was founded by the sisters and educated young people in North Haven for 33 years, according to Sister Jacinta Ibe, the head of the school. Parent Tahia Thaddeus Kamp said it was closed in June following the 2017 consolidation of three local Catholic parishes St. Therese Parish, St. Barnabas Church, and St. Frances Cabrini into the St. Elizabeth of the Trinity Parish. Kamp said she and her family were left without the services of a school that she believes has educated her children well, provided a strong Catholic foundation and has become a dear part of their lives. Her eldest son, Frederick, graduated from the school, while her middle son, Thaddeus, is entering the new kindergarten there, Kamp said. Her youngest son, Aurelian, will attend when hes old enough. Education is of paramount importance to us, said Kamp. The academic rigor of this school is like none Ive seen. The theology that the children learn, and the real academic work that they do one doesnt suffer from the other. But the sisters and school families banded together to petition the church, Kamp said. We werent having it, to say the least, said Kamp. All of us felt we loved the sisters and we loved what theyve done with our children we dont want to go to the other school. The sisters were granted permission to operate the school independently by the Archdiocese of Hartford. An ongoing fundraiser has since brought in more than $3,000 to aid them in the effort. While the situation is not permanently resolved, the archdiocese has leased the property to the sisters for a year for $1, Kamp said. On Thursday, the new school was christened with a ribbon-cutting, prayers from the Rev. Michael Santiago of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and a few words from First Selectman Michael Freda, who shared fond memories of when his daughter attended the school years ago. Ibe said she was pleased that the school would continue on, and credited God for seeing that this day would be. The institution is wholly owned and operated by the sisters of the Sacred Heart, Ibe said, and currently educates 22 children. She said she believed St. Elizabeth of the Trinity would help the school thrive and flourish in the years to come. Im very, very happy that God, one way or the other, has done his will, said Ibe. I ask [him] for the strength and the wisdom to continue to serve him, to continue to believe in the potentiality of the little children [to help] them know that they are special, and helping to protect them and educate them in the right path, as we have been doing. I thank God for the parish of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity; I thank God for the people of North Haven; I thank God for each and every person who [has] made this day a reality and I believe God will bless them, in his own way. OLD SAYBROOK Local police and FBI officers are investigating a white powder incident that took place Friday morning at the Community Health Center at 263 Main St. A CHC spokeswoman at the Middletown headquarters confirmed the company received the package. NBC Connecticut reported state police bomb squad officials confirmed the event is related to area incidents over the past few days involving white powder. In Old Saybrook, the package was successfully removed from the building and is being examined at the state forensic lab, NBC Connecticut said. The Connection, Elysium Massage, a law office, weight loss center and tailor are also housed in the facility. While a possible connection is unknown, 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. The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Marshals Service, Connecticut State Police, Hartford Police Department and New Haven Police Department, in coordination with other federal, state and local law enforcement and emergency services agencies, are investigating several incidents involving letters containing white powder that were mailed to government facilities and non-governmental organizations in Connecticut and elsewhere in the country, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney John H. Durham. It is alleged that many of these letters were mailed by an individual who has been in federal custody since his arrest, for alleged violations of his supervised release Sept. 5, he said. Through the course of the investigation, investigators have seized unmailed letters, notified numerous potential recipients of letters, and successfully removed some letters from the mail stream prior to their delivery. However, letters continue to arrive in various locations, according to the release. Although the seized and retrieved letters have caused no illness or injuries to date, we strongly urge anyone who receives a suspicious letter or package not to handle it further, and immediately call 911. This will permit law enforcement and emergency services personnel to investigate the matter safely, Durham said. On Wednesday at 11 a.m., state police officials from Troop H in Hartford responded to the offices of the State Education Department in the State Office Building at 450 Columbus Boulevard in Hartford to look into the report of the delivery of a suspicious package containing white powder, according to a press release from the state Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection. Shortly thereafter, both the State Police Emergency Services Unit and Bomb Squad, the FBI, state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Hartford police and fire departments responded, it said. Each delivered package contained an unknown white powdery substance, the statement said. No one who has had contact with the substance has experienced illness or injury, the release said. Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis. WASHINGTON - A once low-profile foreign policy campaign adviser whose offhand remark in a London bar in May 2016 helped trigger an FBI counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump's campaign was sentenced to 14 days incarceration Friday by a federal judge in Washington. George Papadopoulos, 31, pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about key details of his conversations with a London-based professor who had told him the Russians held dirt, in the form of thousands of emails, on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos tried futilely for months to arrange a meeting between top campaign aides and Russian officials. In asking the court for leniency, Papadopoulos said he made "a terrible mistake, for which I have paid a terrible price, and am deeply ashamed," and that he was motivated to lie to the FBI try to "create distance between the issue, myself, and the president." In hindsight, he said in court, he recognizes that was wrong and "might have harmed the investigation." Papadopoulos' attorney, Thomas Breen, went further, saying "the President of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could," by calling the investigation fake news and a witch hunt. After an Australian diplomat reported to American counterparts that Papadopoulos had told him over drinks about the "dirt" approach, the FBI opened its investigation, that also was around the time WikiLeaks posted thousands of internal Democratic National Committee emails online. His sentencing came as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe that has led to the indictments or convictions of 32 people. Papadopoulos, a young oil and gas consultant, was the first Trump official to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, agreed to allow Papadopoulos to surrender at a future date and to travel between now and then to New York and California, where his lawyer said he is considering relocating. Trump criticized the investigation and the Justice Department on the day he was inaugurated, Breen told Moss. "The message here is to check your loyalty, tell the truth, and help the good guys, even if you have to pay a price," Breen said. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday ahead of the sentencing, Trump played down his relationship with Papadopoulos. "I see Papadopoulos today, I don't know Papadopoulos, I don't know. I saw him sitting in one picture at a table with me - that's the only thing I know about him," he said, an apparently reference to a March 31, 2016, campaign meeting that Papadopoulos and Trump attended. Federal sentencing guidelines under Papadopoulos' plea deal called for a penalty between probation and six months in prison. Moss said he had planned to give Papadopoulos a 30-day term but was persuaded by his courtroom expression of remorse to reduce the sentence. But he said incarceration was necessary because Papadopoulos had lied on a matter of grave national interest and the public needed to understand that lying to the FBI is a serious matter. Moss described Papadopoulos' behavior as a "calculated act of self interest over national interest," and noted it took him six months to correct his statements and he did "in the face of proof he lied." Asked if he had any comment as he left court, Papadopoulos said, "not yet." But his mother Kiki Papadopoulos told reporters she believed the sentence was "very fair." She also said that when FBI agents showed up in January 2017 seeking in interview, she advised her son to call a lawyer. "So everybody said if you only listened to your mother none of this would have happened," she said. "I think about it still. I think he learned his lesson." Breen, too, said he was pleased with the outcome and said that he believed the FBI has treated Papadopoulos fairly. Three other campaign officials - chairman Paul Manafort, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates and national security adviser Michael Flynn - either have pleaded guilty or been convicted of various crimes but none of the trio has yet been sentenced. Gates has testified against Manafort who was recently convicted in Virginia on bank and tax fraud charges brought by Mueller's team. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for Papadopoulos, but said up to six months' jail time was appropriate saying he had lied repeatedly to federal investigators and had not provided substantial cooperation to them. They said Papadopoulos' initial lies hindered investigators' ability to effectively question, challenge or detain Joseph Mifsud, the London professor who had contacted him. Mifsud left the United States and not returned, after the FBI found him in the U.S. on Feb. 11, 2017, about two weeks after Papadopoulos' first interview. Prosecutor Andrew Goldstein said Friday in court that Papadopoulos "deliberately and repeatedly lied to FBI agents pursuing a highly significant federal investigation," making a calculated decision "to advance his personal interests" to try to land a high-level administration post. He ultimately cooperated but, Goldstein added, he "didn't come close to the standard of substantial assistance." Papadopoulos' attorneys had asked for probation for their client and said in court filings that Papadopoulos misled investigators to try to save his professional ambitions and out of a "perhaps misguided loyalty to his master" but not for more sinister reasons. His lawyers argued their client volunteered information, such as describing a March 31, 2016, meeting in which then-candidate Trump "nodded with approval" when he suggested a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that then-Sen. Jeff Sessions "appeared to also like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it." That account conflicts with what Sessions, now attorney general, testified before Congress. A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment after Papadopoulos' filing last week. As part of his sentence, Papadopoulos also will have one year of court supervision, 200 hours of community service and was fined $9,500. In the 16-page sentencing memo seeking leniency, his attorneys, Breen, Robert Stanley and Todd Pugh, wrote, "to say George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement. Despite being a young energy policy guru, he had no experience in dealing with Russian policy or its officials." - - - The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey contributed to this report. Last year, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, authorities announced that they had found a mass grave filled with more than 250 human skulls. At the time, state prosecutor Jorge Winckler told news station Televisa that "once we have opened all the mass graves in the state, [Veracruz] could become the biggest mass grave in Mexico, or even the world." On Thursday, Winckler announced that another mass grave had been discovered, again in Veracruz. This time, more than 160 human skulls were found inside. As many as 40,000 people are missing across Mexico, and about 30,000 are known to have been killed last year. Violence in Mexico is widespread, and Veracruz in particular has suffered from bloodshed in recent years. Officials have not revealed the exact location of the gravesite, but speaking to reporters, Winckler said that in addition to the human remains, investigators also found more than 100 ID cards at the site, as well as around 200 items of clothing - raising hopes that some of the victims can be properly identified. He also said that they are using drones to search for more bodies, and will try to match DNA samples from the site with those in a national database of people who have gone missing in recent years. "The state has become a cemetery, that's the terrible and sad reality," Winckler told the Wall Street Journal, adding that of 212 municipalities in Veracruz, mass graves had been found in more than half of them. Hundreds of people are missing in the state. Authorities found this grave in August after receiving a tip, but did not immediately inform the public because of security concerns. The last time such a grave was found, a group of mothers campaigning for authorities to search for their missing family members were also helped by anonymous tipsters: Two men handed them a hand-drawn map indicating where bodies were buried. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the mothers themselves hired diggers to find the grave, and then convinced authorities to help them. Drug cartels are believed to be behind the slayings and burials. For years, cartels have operated in Veracruz and elsewhere in Mexico, targeting civilians and police, who are at times complicit with various criminal organizations. The victims may have been in rival gangs, been unlucky witnesses or have refused to collaborate with criminal groups that then tracked them down and killed them in retaliation. Winckler told the Journal that his office now knows "that government officials collaborated with drug gangs to illegally arrest people of a rival group, torture them and then killed them and disappeared the bodies." He did not elaborate, but until late 2016, Veracruz's governor was Javier Duarte, who later went on the run after he was accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the state. He is now in jail awaiting trial, as is his former police chief, Arturo Bermudez. Bermudez has been accused of enforced disappearance. The remains from this grave are thought to be about two years old. Roberto Campa, who was at the time Mexico's deputy interior minister for human rights, told the Journal after the earlier mass grave discovery was announced last year that "something like this can only happen with the complicity of the police." "There is no way they could have done this for so long without the police knowing," he said. EDWARDSVILLE - On the afternoon of July 28, a 911 call came to Edwardsville Police from Mary Shaffer, who told a dispatcher that her husband was having difficulty breathing. Fortunately, their home on Olive Street is only a mile from the Edwardsville Public Safety Building and it took only a few moments for Officer Rick Thompson to arrive. He found Steve Shaffer unresponsive in the basement of their home and was able to complete two full cycles of CPR before paramedics arrived. Edwardsville Fire Department Capt. Robert Morgan noted that due to the quality of CPR provided by Officer Thompson, this patient was able to survive, according to a statement read at Tuesdays City Council meeting by Edwardsville Police Chief Jay Keeven. Capt. Morgan further indicated that Officer Thompsons efforts made the difference in the positive outcome for the patient. At Tuesdays meeting, Thompson was given the Lifesaving Award. It is clear to me that Officer Thompson demonstrated immense courage under pressure, Keeven said. He relied on his training to implement life-saving CPR. He is an asset to the Edwardsville Police Department and an asset to the citizens we serve. Following the meeting, Steve Shaffer said the episode was not a heart attack but simply a scary episode during which his heart had stopped beating. It just quit, he said. Shaffer said he has no memory of anything that happened in the week leading up to the July 28 incident though he has since learned what happened from his wife. Earlier in the day, the Shaffers had gone to a winery in Aviston, and when the returned home, Steve Shaffer went downstairs to watch TV and Mary Shaffer went upstairs. Mary said that while she doesnt normally bring snacks to him downstairs, this time she decided to slice some watermelon for him and bring it down, she said Tuesday. As she approached the basement, Mary called out his name but got no response. I heard somebody making a gurgling sound, and I thought What kind of movie is he watching? She found her husband seated in the recliner, face to the ceiling, and saliva spewing from his mouth. May called 911, and Thompson arrived and began administering chest compressions and breaths. As Edwardsville paramedics arrived to continue the CPR, Thompson turned his focus to Mary, trying to distract her with questions and easing her away from the scene. It was a bit puzzling at the time, though she appreciates his efforts now. He didnt want me to pass out or something, she says. I was cooking, and he smelled food in my house and asked what I was cooking. He was so kind. I kept looking behind, but he said it was OK. He asked how old I was, how old my husband was? Steve Shaffer, who turns 70 soon, was taken to Anderson Hospital. Tests were run, and he says he was told later that all my arteries and veins, everything, was completely clear and that there was no need for a stint. My heart just stopped, he explained. My electrical system just said Youre done. Quit. Shaffer says he was told that he was taken to Missouri Baptist Hospital, in St. Louis, where they inserted a defibrillator just above the heart. Next time his heart decides to quit on him, he says, hell receive an electrical shock. Steve Shaffer says he feels pretty good, except for a cough. They had a tube down my throat, and I didnt like that. But its going away. For the past 15 years or so, he has been a runner and a cyclist, logging 50 to 150 miles a week on the bike. Im almost 70, and this is the first thing thats happened to me. So maybe this is a fluke, I dont know. Im hoping this never happens again. I dont want this thing to go off if I can help it. Doctors have told him that for the next couple of weeks he must not raise his arm over his head or risk pulling wires out that attach to the defibrillator. Still, hes getting better. Two more weeks, says Mary. Two more weeks and Im done. I should be able to get back to it, Steve says. Steve and Mary Shaffer have been married now for 36 years. After the breathing incident, they began going to the Edwardsville Y three days a week - Steve rides the stationary bicycle and Mary the spinning bike. You know what? This town is wonderful, Mary Shaffer says. I think somebody told me Cut up some watermelon. Then she pauses. And I think God said, God check on your husband. I think thats what happened. HARWINTON The Northwest CT YMCA and Edison Grill are hosting a car show and cookout, with cocktails by Trinchero Spirits, craft beer by Stony Creek, food, games, raffles, music and a silent auction. This years event, in honor of Sept. 11, is being dubbed Red, Y & Blue. The event runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11. The rain date is Tuesday, Sept. 18. Proceeds from the event benefit the Northwest CT YMCA. Marty Connor, a member of the Ys Board of Directors, who organized the fundraiser, invites everyone to come on down and celebrate the end of summer in style. Last year we added a car show to our annual end of the summer fundraiser and it was a huge success. This year is going to be bigger and better, Connor said. It is going to be a fun night looking at all the amazing cars and eating the wonderful food prepared by Edison Grill and tasting great drinks as well. Its a terrific way to put a stamp on a great summer and to support such a great organization, too. This marks the fourth consecutive year the Y has teamed up with Edison Grill to bring people together for a night of fun - a night that goes a long way in making sure that the Northwest CT YMCA is able to continue to meet the growing needs within the community. Our goal at the Y is to serve every individual who comes to us, regardless of age, income or background. We truly believe that everyone should have the opportunity to become their best self and learn, grow and thrive here at the Y, Johnny Burnham, marketing and community development director at the Y, said. We are so grateful to Marty, and Jerry and Michelle Czyz at Edison Grill for joining together for this great evening. Its support like theirs that allows the Y to continue to be there for those who need us most. Last years event raised more than $8,000. The Northwest CT YMCA, in 2017, provided more than $181,000 in financial assistance to 855 individuals while serving nearly 10,000. Connor also praised the Czyz family for opening Edison Grills doors and most importantly, their hearts, to the Y. Every year Jerry, Michelle and their amazing staff make this fundraising event for the Northwest CT YMCA bigger and better, Connor said. We are blessed for their support of the Y and its mission to support youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Tickets for Red, Y & Blue are $50 per person or $90 per couple and are available at the Y, Edison Grill or online at nwctY.org/carshow. The ticket includes access to the party and games, food and three cocktails. Tickets can also be purchased at the door. In order to make as much space as possible for the car show at Edison Grill, parking will be off site with bus transportation provided. There is no charge to view the car show; entrance fee is $10 to enter cars in the show. Those who enter a car in the show also have the option to join the cookout for $25 more. Food is included in the $25, but drinks are not. Cars will be registered for the show as they arrive. The car show will take place in the Edison Grill parking lot. Awards will be given to the top three cars, voted on by the viewers. There are no individual categories. For more information contact the Y at 860-489-3133 or Edison Grill at 860-860-485-1401. The Red Sea states of Eritrea and Djibouti agreed to normalize relations, a further sign of what Eritrea's president called a "season of peace" in the strategically important Horn of Africa region that has been riven by rivalries. The agreement may draw a line under a border dispute between the countries whose troops clashed in 2008 and may help once-isolated Eritrea secure the removal of near-decade-old United Nations sanctions. It's the latest movement toward harmony in an area that's on a key shipping route to the Suez Canal, following an historic peace deal between Eritrea and regional giant Ethiopia in July that's ending 20 years of tensions. "The Horn of Africa is experiencing a rare extraordinary period in terms of peace and stability building," Ilyas Dawaleh, chairman of Djibouti's ruling party, said by email from China where he was attending a Sino-African summit. "Our people, our region, our children deserve a peaceful, prosperous, interconnected and integrated region." The agreement was struck this week when delegations from Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea visited Djibouti, a country about the size of New Jersey state that's home to the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa and China's first such overseas facility. The Djibouti development was described by Eritrea's information minister as the first initiative of a pledge by Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia to work "in coordination to promote regional peace and security." The shakeup in regional relations follows the coming to power of a new, reformist-minded premier in Ethiopia, which has Africa's fastest-growing economy and its second-largest population, and could have far-reaching consequences for trade, infrastructure and security. A territorial dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea led to several days of fighting in June 2008. Qatar, which has been mediating the dispute since 2010, withdrew its observer forces last year after Djibouti downgraded its diplomatic ties with Doha as it was mired in a dispute with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has greeted his Djiboutian counterpart, Ismail Omar Guelleh, and hailed a "season of peace" in the Horn of Africa that "should be inclusive to all," Eritrea's information minister said on Twitter. The UN Security Council is due this year to vote on whether to extend sanctions against Eritrea, first imposed in 2009 on allegations it supported Islamist rebels in Somalia. Ethiopia and Russia have pledged support for a sanctions lift. Eritrea describes the charges as baseless and politically motivated. The Security Council has previously demanded that Eritrea disclose information about Djiboutian fighters missing in action from the 2008 clashes over the Ras Doumeira peninsula and adjacent territory, who are presumed prisoners of war. UN monitors said last year they found evidence of continued Eritrean support to armed groups active in Djibouti and Ethiopia. The week of Sept. 3-7 as seen through the lens of Telegraph photojournalist John Badman. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump, who just five months ago said he wanted "to get out" of Syria and bring U.S. troops home soon, has approved a new strategy for an indefinitely extended military, diplomatic and economic effort there, according to senior State Department officials. Although the military campaign against the Islamic State has been nearly completed, the administration has redefined its goals to include the exit of all Iranian military and proxy forces from Syria, and establishment of a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community. Much of the motivation for the change, officials said, stems from growing doubts about whether Russia, which Trump has said could be a partner, is able and willing to help eject Iran. Russia and Iran have together been Syrian President Bashar Assad's principal allies in obliterating a years-long effort by domestic rebels to oust the Syrian leader. "The new policy is we're no longer pulling out by the end of the year," said James Jeffrey, a retired senior Foreign Service officer who last month was named Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's "representative for Syria engagement." About 2,200 U.S. troops are serving in Syria, virtually all of them devoted to the war against the Islamic State in the eastern third of the country. Jeffrey said U.S. forces are to remain in the country to ensure an Iranian departure and the "enduring defeat" of the Islamic State. "That means we are not in a hurry," he said. Asked whether Trump had signed off on what he called "a more active approach," Jeffrey said, "I am confident the president is on board with this." Jeffrey declined to describe any new military mission. But he emphasized what he said would be a "major diplomatic initiative" in the United Nations and elsewhere, and the use of economic tools, presumably including more sanctions on Iran and Russia and the stated U.S. refusal to fund reconstruction in Assad-controlled Syria. But the more activist policies he outlined, and only in vague terms, could increase the likelihood of a direct confrontation with Iran, and potentially with Russia. Jeffrey's description of a much broader U.S. role follows years of criticism from lawmakers and analysts that neither Trump nor his predecessor, President Barack Obama, had a coherent strategy for Syria. Trump, like Obama, insisted that U.S. interests were focused on defeating the Islamic State, and he resisted significant involvement in the civil war against Assad raging in the rest of the country, even as both Iran and Russia increased their influence. Jeffrey and retired U.S. Army Col. Joel Rayburn, who transferred to the State Department from the National Security Council last month to become "special envoy for Syria," were brought in to try to create a coherent blueprint that would prevent a repeat of what the administration sees as the mistakes of Iraq - where a precipitous U.S. pullout left the field open for Iran, and for a resurgence of Sunni militants that gave birth to the Islamic State. Pompeo first listed Iran's withdrawal from Syria as one of 12 U.S. demands of Tehran in a May speech at the Heritage Foundation. U.S. policy is not that "Assad must go," Jeffrey said. "Assad has no future, but it's not our job to get rid of him." But he said he found it hard to think of Assad as a leader who could "meet the requirements of not just us, but the international community" as someone who "doesn't threaten his neighbors" or abuse his own citizens, "doesn't allow chemical weapons or provide a platform for Iran." The first test of the administration's expanded role in Syria may come sooner rather than later in Idlib, in the northwest part of the country. The province is the last bastion of rebel control after seven years of civil war, during which Assad, with extensive Russian and Iranian assistance, pounded opposition forces into submission. Idlib has now become a crowded holding pen for up to 70,000 opposition fighters, along with about 2 million Syrian civilians displaced from other battle zones, and activists and aid workers trying to assist them. Turkish military forces are also in Idlib, where they have pushed back Syrian Kurds from the Syria-Turkey border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who fears a new exodus of Syrian refugees, is due to attend a summit in Tehran on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Assad has said he is preparing a final offensive in Idlib, and Russian warplanes this week began bombing the region. Humanitarian organizations have warned of an unprecedented level of civilian bloodshed, and Trump himself has threatened U.S. retaliation if an all-out offensive is launched, especially with the use of chemical weapons. "If it's a slaughter, the world is going to get very, very angry. And the United States is going to get very angry, too," Trump said Wednesday. Pompeo, Jeffrey said, has delivered the same message by telephone to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as did White House national security adviser John Bolton in a recent meeting with his Russian counterpart. Russia, which has beefed up its naval and other forces in the region in recent weeks, has charged that the United States is preparing to manufacture a chemical weapons attack to justify military intervention. It says its operations in Idlib are aimed at up to 14,000 fighters linked to al-Qaida. The United States agrees that those forces must be wiped out, but it rejects "this idea that we have to go in there and clean out the terrorists" when "most of the people there are not terrorists, but people fighting a civil war against a brutal dictator" as well as millions of civilians," Jeffrey said. Instead, the United States has called for a cooperative approach with other outside actors. "We've started using new language," Jeffrey said, referring to previous warnings against the use of chemical weapons. Now, he said, the United States will not tolerate "an attack. Period." "Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation" he said. "You add to that, if you use chemical weapons, or create refugee flows or attack innocent civilians," and "the consequences of that are that we will shift our positions and use all of our tools to make it clear that we'll have to find ways to achieve our goals that are less reliant on the goodwill of the Russians." Trump has twice authorized U.S. air and missile attacks on Syrian government targets as punishment for previous chemical weapons use. Asked whether potential U.S. retaliation for any offensive in Idlib, with or without chemical weapons, would include airstrikes, Jeffrey said, "We have asked repeatedly for permission to operate," and "that would be one way" to respond. "In some respects, we are potentially entering a new phase, where you have forces from the different countries facing each other," rather than pursuing their separate goals, he said, listing Russia, the United States, Iran, Turkey and Israel, which has conducted its own airstrikes against Iran-linked forces inside Syria. "Now all of them have accomplished their primary jobs" there. "But nobody is happy with the situation in Syria." As controversy brewed over proposed Alamo-related changes to the seventh-grade Texas history curriculum, registration began Friday for the State Board of Educations public hearing Tuesday on social studies standards. Working groups of teachers and historians have proposed eliminating the words all the heroic defenders who gave their lives at the Alamo from a state standard governing instruction on the Texas war of independence from Mexico, calling heroic a value-charged word and saying the reference to all defenders is too vague and covers too many individuals. Google Maps Two girls had minor injuries after they were hit by a car while they were jogging in southwest Houston on Friday morning, police said. The girls, 12 and 15 years old, were running in the 3000 block of West Bellfort at Buffalo Speedway around 6:30 a.m. 3 1 of 3 Jay R. Jordan Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Jay R. Jordan Show More Show Less 3 of 3 A man was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the back in southeast Houston early Friday evening. Officers were called around 5 p.m. to a home in the 10500 block of Sagewick Drive to reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found a person shot in the back near the house, police said. A San Antonio man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly raped a woman he met on Facebook. Marshall Aponte, 26, is accused of aggravated sexual assault, according to jail records. On Aug. 3, a woman called San Antonio police and said that Aponte struck her with a handgun and sexually assaulted her. RELATED: Mugshots: 55 arrested on felony DWI charges in August The woman told police she began talking to Aponte through Facebook but they had been staying together at a motel for about a week. Both were using drugs the day of the rape and the woman refused Aponte's request to have sex, according to the affidavit. Aponte grew upset, yelling at the woman and slapping her before he sexually assaulted her, police said. When she tried to leave, he hit her with a handgun and pushed and kicked her, according to the affidavit. The woman was eventually able to get away and call police. Aponte was previously convicted in an aggravated robbery he committed in 2012. He had robbed an Exxon corner store, and police found a text message on his phone he sent to a friend saying "just robbed the Exxon." Aponte, who is also facing an unrelated burglary charge, had his bail set at $95,000, according to jail records. NASA astronaut Anne McClain said Thursday she is confident Russia will get to the bottom of the air leak-causing hole recently found on the International Space Station. Russia has "a very long history of safe space flight," McClain said at a news conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "I know the people there, I work with the people there and I trust them just as I trust the people at NASA." McClain is scheduled to launch to the space station Dec. 20 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft -- her very first spaceflight since being selected as an astronaut in 2013. She will be joined by two crewmates, Canada's David Saint-Jacques and Russia's Oleg Kononenko who were also at the Thursday news conference. REPORT: Six Galveston Bay beaches listed as some of the most unsafe places to swim The safety of the Russian Soyuz -- the only spacecraft that ferries astronauts to and from the station -- was called into question last week after an air leak was traced back to a hole in the Soyuz currently attached to the station. More for you Errant drill likely the culprit in hole in Space Station that caused air leak, Russia says The leak first was discovered Aug. 29 while the six astronauts on board slept. The following day, space station crew found the hole which measures a fifth of a centimeter in diameter (about the thickness of a penny) in the Soyuz. The compromised part of the Soyuz does not return to Earth and the patch astronauts put in last week is holding. Russian officials currently are investigating how the hole occurred, whether it was intentional and if other Soyuz modules currently in development also have defects. They expect to complete their investigation by mid-September, well before the next Soyuz flight is scheduled to launch Oct. 11. It's not yet clear how the hole discovery will impact the October flight, which will be carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague. Hague is not a member of McClain's crew and was not at the news conference Thursday. But Kononenko said he believes the hole was an "exception" and not a problem in other Soyuz models. "Just in case, they're checking other Soyuzes, including ours," he said. "I'm sure they'll figure out what went on." STEPPING DOWN: First astronaut candidate in 50 years resigns Design engineers in Russia initially thought the hole was caused by space debris, but now believe it was the result of sloppy drill work, either on Earth or in space. If left unchecked, the leak could have resulted in total air loss for the station in 18 days. The Soyuz has been the only way to get to the orbiting laboratory since 2011, when NASA's space shuttle program was shuttered. "I know [the hole] is a big issue and a lot of people are worried about it and thinking about it," McClain said. "I can say that no one probably thought about it more than those of us inside the space program right now." But Russia "will not let an unsafe vehicle fly," she continued. Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. Washington On Brett M. Kavanaughs final day of testimony at his confirmation hearing, a senator who went to the scene the day of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court nominee to change his view that the Second Amendment does not prohibit certain semi-automatic weapons. I was at Sandy Hook [Elementary School] the afternoon of that massacre, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said late Thursday in reference to the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six adults. I dont know whether you have been at these kinds of scenes. I dont know whether youve seen the pictures of what these assault weapons can do. They were designed for the sole purpose to kill and maim human beings. Theyre very good at it. Kavanaugh, as he has on Second Amendment questions throughout his three days before the Senate Judiciary Committee, reacted somewhat dispassionately, even though he repeated that he grew up in the Washington, D.C., area as the nations capital faced a surge of violence. Senator, I appreciate what your saying, Kavanaugh said. Im from this area. I grew up in it. I dont want to overstate that. I grew up in an urban-slash-suburban environment where there was a lot of gang and gun violence in the District of Columbia in the 1980s. All that experience isnt reflected in the test youre going to impose here, Blumenthal said, in reference to a 2011 dissent Kavanaugh wrote on his current court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, that would have struck down a District of Columbia law prohibiting semi-automatic rifles. Kavanaugh said his view was based on his reading of a legal test established by the Supreme Courts landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller , which upheld handgun possession because they were not traditionally banned and were in common use by law-abiding citizens. I would just suggest that, with all due respect, you give us the benefit of saying here that you will reconsider a test that is out of touch with reality, Blumenthal said. Kavanaugh said he could not offer such a promise but would consider all arguments if a similar case came before him again. Blumenthal had started the conversation by saying he had considered bringing some posters here today, showing what happened at Sandy Hook when 20 beautiful children and six wonderful educators were gunned down, just as has happened in countless places across the country, including Sutherland Springs in Texas, Parkland in Florida, Las Vegas in Nevada, Orlando in Florida, Virginia Tech, San Bernardino. Kavanaugh replied that of course, I detest all school violence. He took notes as Blumenthal made his emotional appeal, and repeated that his dissent in the appeals court decision, also known as District of Columbia v. Heller, had concluded with a lament about gun violence. And when Blumenthals time was up, Kavanaugh thanked him for sharing his perspective. I appreciate it and will take it into account and remember what you said here, said Kavanaugh, who concluded his last day of testimony after 10 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, the committee is scheduled to hear from several panels of witnesses, including Aalayah Eastmond, a Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School student who survived the shooting in Parkland, Fla., by hiding under the body of a slain classmate. Since the founding of our republic, there have been precisely 1,974 members of the United States Senate. John McCain is only the eighth senator who was not also president or vice president to lie in state in the rotunda of the Capitol and only the 31st individual overall to be so honored in American history. Yet, for the first time in recent memory, a sitting president of the United States did not participate in the funeral or other ceremonies honoring that individual because the president made himself unwelcome by his behavior. As recently as Aug. 21, just days before McCains death, President Donald Trump attacked him at a West Virginia campaign rally, declaring, We had (Obamacare) beaten, but one man Im sure nobody knows who Im talking about voted no, shockingly. He launched similar attacks at rallies this summer in Tennessee, Nevada, South Carolina, Minnesota and New York. At last months signing ceremony for the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (the last bill passed by the McCain-led Senate Armed Services Committee), Trump declined to even utter McCains name, leaving it off the bill name in his remarks. When a White House aide declared McCains opposition to Gina Haspels nomination as CIA director doesnt matter because hes dying anyway, Trump did not permit press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to apologize. And last week, after McCain died, the White House raised its flags from half- to full-staff on Monday, until it came under pressure from veterans groups to lower them again. When asked at press gaggles to comment on McCains passing, Trump stared ahead in silence, unable or unwilling to muster a kind or generous word. Add to that the fact that, to this day, the president has still never apologized for his declaration that McCain was not a war hero because I like people who werent captured a comment that was deeply offensive not just to McCain but also to all American prisoners of war and it is little wonder the McCain family wanted the president nowhere near his flag-draped casket. Trump didnt like McCain, in some cases with good reason. But when you are president, you sometimes have to honor people you didnt like or who didnt like you. You have to put aside personal and political differences and represent not yourself but the office you occupy and the country you lead. Trump seems to be congenitally incapable of rising to such occasions even when it is in the national interest and his own interest to do so. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, McCains closest friend in the Senate and a Trump supporter, says hes told the president several times that his attacks on McCain were beneath the office, adding, I dont see how it helps the president. To the contrary, those attacks hurt Trump. Its one of the reasons that despite a booming economy, historically low unemployment and American factories hiring at their fastest rate in decades a new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 31 percent of self-described conservatives. Trump should be riding high in the polls, winning over skeptics with economic successes. Instead, he is managing to raise both the gross domestic product and his own disapproval at the same time. No doubt Democrats took advantage of McCains passing to cast Trump in a negative light. Their praise for McCain was, in many cases, opportunistic. When he was running for president in 2008, they attacked him brutally. But their hypocrisy does not justify Trumps gracelessness. As the Senate conducted hearings this week on Trumps nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court, conservatives were reminded how important it is that Trump, and not Hillary Clinton, is sitting in the Oval Office. But this past week has also served as a reminder that good policies do not excuse abhorrent behavior. If Trump cannot muster the wherewithal to be presidential when the occasion demands it, he may end up being a successful president but he will never be a great president. When the subject of history arises, rarely does one think of the present. Rather, what may come to mind is a boring textbook or some oddly dressed individual. But history is truly part of our everyday experience. We experience a part of history while browsing social media sites on our phones. Thats because words have been one of the most significant influences throughout history. Consider why migration from several European countries to the New World occurred in a relatively short time. While early arriver Christopher Columbus didnt know where he was, many others soon would. Multiple explorers followed. However, a substantial part of the credit for exploration and settlement in the New World should be given to Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenbergs innovative printing press enabled words to be dispersed faster and in greater amounts beginning in the mid-15th century. As Alan Taylor states in the American Colonies, Columbus published report ran through nine editions in 1493 and twenty by 1500, thanks to the newly invented printing press. Taylor notes that this would lead to an accelerating spiral of further voyages. Englands increasing awareness of the New World, along with other economic and political factors in the latter part of the 16th century, ultimately created a presence for a future republic that would become the home of the First Amendment. Yet even in the 18th century, prior to the American Revolution, it was a dangerous business to use the printed word for political dissent. It is telling that Thomas Paines influential work in 1776, Common Sense, was not signed with his name, but as an Englishman. An individual could be prosecuted for seditious libel for similar acts in the American Colonies prior to the First Amendment. For instance, the trial of John Peter Zenger in 1735 was the result of the printer publishing negative sentiments toward the New York governor. Zenger was found not guilty, but only because his peers disregarded the seditious libel law that restricted free expression on such topics. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the First Amendment would continue to be interpreted and debated. History shows that freedoms are never stagnant. They fluctuate based on voices that advocate for their expansion or repression. This leads to new interpretations of those liberties, many times based on ideological shifts. The result is that in cases of free speech, employing it reinforces it as fundamental liberty in American society. Who thinks of words as being one of the reasons for English settlement and the precursor of the United States? Among todays contemporaries, the medium for many of those influential words is social media. So, when debating issues in a logical and constructive way, let us remember we are not only participating in history but also creating it. Dale Schlundt holds a masters degree in adult education with a concentration in history from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is a faculty member at Palo Alto College. Downtown developer Weston Urban has purchased a historic building across the street from City Hall with plans to rehabilitate its second floor into creative office space, just as its new Frost Tower takes shape a block away. The developer bought the quarter-acre property, at the northwest corner of Flores and Commerce streets, on Aug. 31 from another locally-based partnership that had owned it since 2003, county property records show. The buildings second story, which has been vacant for some time, will support about 10,000 square feet of office space, Weston Urban President Randy Smith said. He declined to share the purchase price. Theres just a ton of demand for that size of really unique, really special product, he said. Our vision behind buying (the building) was we just think that Flores and Commerce is a very important intersection for downtown, for our community, for what were doing. RELATED: San Antonio hotel sells for $18M after major renovation announced The first floor of the building, which was constructed in 1915, is now home to a 7-Eleven, a MetroPCS cell phone store and a VIA Metropolitan Transit information center. Weston Urban wants to create a mix of retail options there to support downtown residents and workers, Smith said. The purchase increases Weston Urbans presence in an area of downtown that it is already set to dominate as a result of a public-private partnership it entered into with the city in 2015. As part of the partnership, the firm is expected to take ownership by late next year of about 1.5 acres of parking lots owned by Frost Bank on the same block as the recently-purchased building. Later, it will also acquire the citys Municipal Plaza building on Commerce Street, where City Council meetings are held. Weston Urban isnt yet sure what it wants to do with those properties, Smith said. The firm recently installed the distinctive crown atop the new Frost Tower it is building as the new headquarters for Frost Bank. The tower is expected to be occupied by next summer, Smith said. Two blocks east of the new Frost Tower, Weston Urban is in the process of rehabilitating the Milam Building into office space with retail on the ground floor, Smith said. That work will be done in about a year, he said. The firm is also renovating space in the basement of the Rand Building to give Geekdom room to expand. Richard Webner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering real estate and development. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rwebner@express-news.net | Twitter: @RWebner - INEC boss, Yakubu Mahmood, has assured that collection of PVCs still continues till February 2019 - He gave the assurance during a meeting with the 36 electoral commissioners - He said the collection lasts till a week to the general elections Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), has expressed that the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by Nigerians will continue till a week to the coming general elections. Premium Times reports that the INEC boss gave this assurance on Thursday, September 6, in a speech he delivered while meeting with resident electoral commissioners across the 36 states. READ ALSO: Breaking: Gunshots reportedly heard around PDP secretariat as Atiku submits nomination form Read the full speech below: "Remarks by honourable chairman, Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, at a regular meeting with the resident electoral commissioners, conference room, INEC headquarters, Abuja, Thursday, 6 september, 2018 Honourable National Commissioners Resident Electoral Commissioners Senior officials of the Commission Ladies and Gentlemen "1. Once again, it is my pleasure to welcome the resident electoral commissioners to this meeting. You may recall that at our last meeting held about two (2) months ago and four days after the Ekiti State Governorship election on Wednesday 18th July 2018, I told you that as we approach the 2019 general elections, our meetings are going to become more regular. "Todays meeting is holding exactly sixteen (16) days to the Osun state Governorship election scheduled for Saturday 22nd September 2018. Since the Ekiti state governorship election, the commission has conducted six (6) bye-elections, concluded five (5), but suspended the Port Harcourt III State Constituency in Rivers State. In addition to the interim report submitted to the Commission, the resident Electoral commissioner in charge of the State will brief this meeting on that election. "I wish to assure Nigerians that our elections will continue to meet the requirements of our laws, processes and procedures as well as international best practice. Todays meeting shall dwell essentially and extensively on the conclusion of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise and the consequential steps we need to take as we continue to prepare for the 2019 general elections. "2. As you are aware, the commission concluded the current phase of the nationwide CVR exercise last week. For a period of sixteen (16) months, from 27th April 2017 to 31st August 2018, the exercise was conducted continuously in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as envisaged by the electoral act. At the end of the exercise, a total of 14,551,482 new voters were registered. "If this figure is added to the existing register of 69,720,350 voters, it means that the nation now has a voter population of 84,271,832. Although the figure may drop slightly after we run the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the current figure represents about 21% increase on the existing register. "On this note, let me also appeal to Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the ongoing nationwide display of the particulars of new voters for claims and objections as required by law. By doing so, citizens will be helping the Commission to further clean up the register and purge it of all ineligible registrants as required by Sec. 12 of the electoral act. "3. The commission has consistently shared information on the voter registration exercise with Nigerians by publishing the figures as well as detailed breakdown by States and gender. After running the AFIS, the commission shall present a detailed analysis of the voter register, not only by State and gender, but also by age group and occupation. "4. In addition to fresh registration, the commission is also processing 769,917 requests for intra and inter-State transfers as well as 1,178,793 requests for replacement of lost, damaged or cards with misspelt names or incorrect personal details of voters as required by law. This means that the Commission has to print a total of 16,500,192 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and make them available for collection by citizens ahead of the 2019 general elections. "Already, the Commission has printed the PVCs for those registered in 2017 and delivered them to States for collection. I can also confirm that the PVCs for 2.7 million voters registered in the first quarter of 2018 have been printed and will be delivered to the States next week. We wish to reassure Nigerians that every registered voter will have his/her PVC available for collection before the general election. "5. The collection of PVCs will continue until one week to the 2019 general elections. We shall ensure that the process of collection is simplified with minimum inconvenience to citizens. We will also ensure that information about the collection of PVCs is widely disseminated. Already, we are partnering with telecommunication companies to send bulk text (sms) messages to citizens for the collection of their PVCs. "Todays meeting will also consider other options, including the devolution of collection to Ward level. We however wish to restate the Commissions policy that no PVCs will be collected by proxy. Registered voters must endeavour to collect their cards personally. We are working hard to ensure that no PVC goes into the wrong hands. "6. On the preparation for the Osun state governorship election, all processes and activities are going according to our timetable and schedule of activities released almost a year ago. The last major activity was the presentation of the Voters Register to each of the 48 political parties fielding candidates in the election, giving detailed information of the distribution of the 1.6 million registered voters by Local Government Areas, Wards and Polling Units. "The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State will brief this meeting on the state of readiness so far. Furthermore, the Commission is convening a meeting of the national Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) next week to review the security arrangement for the election. We are working on a multi-faceted approach to the menace of vote-buying and other sundry electoral malpractices. We will introduce changes to the election-day administration of our polling units, in addition to the electronic tracking of our sensitive materials. "We are discussing with the security agencies on a more vigorous enforcement of the law against voter-inducement. Furthermore, we are working with the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and other stakeholders on voter education and sensitization. This is the third election we are conducting in Osun State since the 2015 general elections. The first was the Ife Central State Constituency and the Osun West Senatorial District. We wish to reassure the people of Osun State that their votes will continue to count. "7. Once again, I welcome all resident electoral commissioners to this meeting. We now go into the working session. "6. I thank you for your attention." PAY ATTENTION: Download our news app to enjoy updates from #1 news portal Meanwhile, the office of the youth organising secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos, on Saturday, September 2, pleaded with Nigerians and residents of the state against acts that could heat up the polity. Aregbe Idris, the head of the office, also pleaded with INEC to extend the deadline for the voters registration exercise so that many citizens would be able to take part in the 2019 general elections. Nigeria Election 2019: What are Bukola Sarakis chances against President Buhari? | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Chief Edwin Clark has petitioned President Buhari and NSA Monguno, over illegal raid on his house - Three police personnel had on Tuesday, September 4, raided Clark's Abuja home - IGP Idris later apologised to the elder statesman and eventually dismissed the police personnel on Thursday, September 6 Elder statesman and nonagenarian, Chief Edwin Clark, has petitioned both President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Mohammed Babagana Monguno (rtd), over the illegal and unauthorised search of his residence by four officers of the Nigeria Police Force. This Day reports that armed policemen, had on Tuesday, September 4, invaded the Asokoro residence of Chief Clark over allegation of stockpiling arms in his house. Legit.ng gathered that though the elder statesman said he accepted the public apology of the police, nonetheless he wants the matter to be thoroughly investigated and the real mastermind of the raid exposed. READ ALSO: Osun 2018: Falae reveals why electorate must reject APC and vote SDP However, the south-south leader has alleged that the deputy commissioner of police Yusuf Kolo and commander of the Inspector General of Police (IG) Special Tactical Squad and assistant inspector general of police (Federal intelligence) Umoru Usman were those who ordered the raid and search on his residence. In the petitions with reference No KACCL/PET/KA/76/18, dated September 6, 2018 and signed by his lawyer, Kayode Ajulo, Clark wondered why the police authorities who are in the know of the masterminds and conspirators of the invasion are going after the four junior officers who were merely carrying out instructions from their superiors. Part of the petition read: Our client did brief us that at about 12:30pm on Tuesday, the 4th day of September, 2018, officers and men of the IGP Tactical Squad (a unit under the direct command of the Inspector General of Police) alongside pressmen invaded and ransacked his Asokoro residence on the pretext that they were in search of arms and ammunitions. However, despite the siege and search, they found nothing incriminating on our client. Our client further briefed us and we confirmed that at the point where officers and men of the IGP Tactical Squad were to commence their search having introduced themselves, stating that they were acting under the instructions of the inspector general of police and deputy commissioner of police Yusuf Kolo as their commander, Ambassador Boladei Igali (former SSG Bayelsa state and former permanent secretary, ministry of power) who was with our client at venue of the search put a call through to Assistant Inspector General of Police (Federal Intelligence) Umoru Usman Shehu who spoke with the leader of the search party and gave authority to go ahead with the search. Having so searched in vain, the Inspector General of Police in the face of the impudent search conducted on the property of our client, has publicly denied any knowledge of the said search and has immediately ordered the arrest of the four (4) junior officers who were responsible for the search and tendered a public apology to our client. Taking into the consideration the circumstances of the invasion and uncivilized search conducted on his property, and the attendant embarrassment caused to our client and what he stands for, it is imperative to hold the view that there are serious questions which ought to be determined forthwith and without mincing words. It will be rather unfortunate for junior officers and men of the IGP Tactical squad who were at best acting on the orders of their superiors to fall prey in this regard. Ajulo stressed that Clark has been a frontline advocate against taking up of arms by the youths of the Niger Delta and has been responsible for brokering peace between the Niger Delta and several administrations in Nigeria. In leading the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), our client has joined other stakeholders to put a halt to youth restiveness and wanton destruction of oil pipelines in the region and ultimately restore peace, thereby increasing production of Nigerias sustenance in oil and encouraging foreign participation. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app "However the invasion of his Asokoro-Abuja residence has since fanned wrong embers, caused uproar and pandemonium in the Niger Delta of which our clients and others have been assiduously working to curtail, his lawyer said. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris ordered the immediate dismissal of three policemen involved in the illegal search of the residence of Chief Edwin Clark in Abuja. Lagos Police Commissioner Parades Suspected Criminals (Nigeria News) - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Nigerian Army raided a Boko Haram hideout in Amdaga Madachi village, Gwoza LGA, Borno - During the successful raid, the troops killed 14 terrorists and rescued 21 civilians - The troops have been commended for their gallantry and urged to maintain the momentum Troops of the Nigerian Army have raided a hideout used by Boko Haram terrorists in Amdaga Madachi village, Gwoza local government area, Borno state. The development was made public in a statement signed by the director of Army public relations, Brig Gen Texas Chukwu. In the statement released to Legit.ng, Chukwu disclosed that the troops killed 14 terrorists and rescued 21 civilians during the raid. READ ALSO: Buhari-led FECs inexperience caused crisis in Senate - Saraki The gallant troops gather some of the rescued civilians (Photo credit: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Facebook The statement read: Troops of 192 Battalion of 26 Task Force Brigade of Operation Lafiya Dole in conjunction with Civilian Joint Task Force neutralised 14 Boko Haram terrorists in a village suspected to harbour terrorists that ambushed a civilian vehicle in Pulka on Wednesday 5th September 2018. The troops attained the feat on Thursday, 6th September 2018, during an early hours clearance operation to Amdaga Madachi village in Gwoza local governmnent area in Borno state suspected to habour the terrorists. The troops engaged and subdued the terrorists following a superior fire power of troops in the village. Their aggressive posture, tactics and marksmanship resulted in the following: (a) the troops neutralised 14 Boko Haram terrorists; (b) rescued 21 civilians (6 women, 11 children, 4 men who are being attended to at the military hospital). The acting general officer commanding 7 Division, Brigadier General Abdulmalik Bulama Biu, through the commander of 26 Task Force, Brigade Brigadier General Dahiru, has commended the troops for their gallantry, urging them to maintain the momentum by taking out all Boko Haram terrorists within the division area of responsibility. See more photos from the raid: The troops pictured at the entrance to the hideout (Photo credit: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Facebook Goats seen in the hideout (Photo credit: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Facebook Some of the rescued civilians sit by the roadside (Photo credit: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Facebook The victorious troop pictured excitedly making their way back (Photo credit: HQ Nigerian Army) Source: Facebook PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Nigerian Army said it had unraveled a Facebook and other social media accounts allegedly used by a faction of the Boko Haram group to recruit new members. The artillery commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major Murtala Usman, who announced this at the Nigerian Army combat support training week in Maiduguri, said the social media accounts had 2,000 followers. Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng Many are confused after a pastor survived several gun shots in Anambra state. Some think God miraculously spared his life while others are thinking otherwise. According to a Facebook user Izuegbunam Chi-Chi, she disclosed that the founder of Grace and Power Prophetic Ministry International, Pastor David Elijah, was recently shot by unidentified assassins but his body refused to take in all the bullets fired at him. She added that, this took place while the man of God was on his way to church. His native top had several bullet holes but none of them pierced through his body. Bullets allegedly fail to penetrate pastor after he was shot in Anambra Photo: Izuegbunam Chi-Chi Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Man shows the fuel tank of a bus he boarded in Lagos Chi-Chi shared several pictures from the scene of the incident with the caption: MIRACLE OR SHOW? **Bullet Unable to Penetrate A Pastor's Body After He Was Attacked By Unknown Gunmen** Earlier today, the founder of Grace and power prophetic ministry international, Pastor David Elijah, was attacked by unknown assailants in Awka, Anambra state capital. According to multiple reports, the pastor was shot at while going to his church by the hoodlums as the bullets refused to penetrate his body even after piercing his car an tearing his clothes as it can be seen in the pictures. See post below: A young man identified as Prince Keccy also shared pictures of Pastor Elijah with the caption: My brother pastor David Elijah was shot at 'Awka' please pray for him. PAY ATTENTION: Join Africa Love Aid today for your daily relationship tips and advice See post below: UPDATE: Contradicting claims to being attacked by unknown gunmen, a young man identified as Nwajagu Chisom J took to his Facebook handle on Thursday, September 6, to call out the man of God. According to Chisoms post, he disclosed that he was surprised when he began to see reports of Pastor David Elijah being attacked because as at the time he claimed he was attacked, he was on the same route with him and even overtook his car. He added that he even saw the pastor speaking with some police officers outside his church. His post reads: I sincerely lost hope today. Reading the now viral news of one pastor David Elijah of one Pentecostal church based in Awka & how he escaped assassination & trying to reconcile what I have been reading in the news both vanguard, naira land, Linda ikeji etc, really shows the level of grand fraud, deceit & treachery that prevails our world. A man whose vehicle I overtook while he was driving from club street in Awka & whom I witnessed when he stopped his car in the middle of the road in front of his church close to the mechanic I had stopped to fix my car ( near state secretariat) suddenly became a man who was attacked in front of his church by assassins while he was returning from Enugu. The same damaged vehicle I overtook & saw him driving, suddenly became a vehicle the assassins sprayed with bullets at the entrance of his church. I personally witnessed him talking with some people & seeing policemen & civil defence already stationed in front of his church before his arrival & after a while, his church members started screaming & waving their hands in frenzy while pouring out to surround his damaged vehicle. I personally witnessed all this & I am trying to reconcile it with the news of his miraculous escape from assasins & bullets not penetrating him going round. Suddenly a church I saw dwindling, as I passed this evening around 5pm, I saw huge numbers of persons & cars as it was when he started. I then start pondering, what about all these miracles these pastors claim on TV, we watch daily, the so called healings etc we hear, only God knows what transpired behind the screen . the drama is real. The theatrics now absurd & the sheep's ever most gullible. Kiri eleh isoh! See post below: Legit.ng earlier reported that a beautiful National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member has just taken to her Facebook profile to thank God for sparing her life. Stella Okwy is most grateful after escaping from a tragic accident. Thank God! Osun Osogbo Festival: My Entire Family Serves the River Goddess, Traditionalist Says| Legit.ng TV - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit - A major crisis is brewing in the Nasarawa state House of Assembly - A lawmaker has dragged the speaker of the House to court for alleged contempt - The speaker had reportedly declared the lawmaker's seat vacant after he defected to another political party The lawmaker representing Wamba constituency in the Nasarawa state House of Assembly, Makpa Malla, has approached a court to jail the speaker of the Assembly for alleged contempt of court. Malla claimed that the speaker disobeyed a court order by declaring his seat in the House vacant on Wednesday, August 29, because he defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). According to him, the Assembly declared his seat vacant despite a subsisting court order restraining it from doing so. READ ALSO: Why Nigerians must not take Marks presidential ambition serious - Benue senatorial aspirant His lawyer, Benjamin Davou, told The Punch on Thursday, September 6, in Lafia, the state capital, that a vacation judge, Justice Simon Aboki, made the restraining order on Tuesday, August 28. He said the restraining order was given pending the hearing of an originating summons brought before the court for the assembly to maintain the status quo. Davou explained that despite the valid order, the Assembly went ahead to declare the seat of his client vacant. When contacted, counsel for the Assembly speaker, Rikki Danlami, declined to comment on the matter. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Meanwhile, a former minister of information, Professor Sam Oyovbaire, has revealed that former governor of Delta state, Chief James Ibori, was sorry for the defection of his elder cousin and ex-governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC and had asked people to pray for him. Oyovbaire said he discussed Uduaghans shocking exit with Chief Ibori and what he said was that those who know Uduaghan should pray for him. News Nigeria Today: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Newspaper - Niger Delta militants have threatened International Oil Companies (IOCs) that they will resume their hostilities if their demands are not met - The agitators also vowed to attack oil facilities in the region following the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to give assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill - However, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on both parties for a deliberation and truce Following threats from Niger Delta militants to resume violence because of the alleged refusal of multinational oil firms to relocate their headquarters to the region, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has appealed to the agitators not to resort to hostilities, Punch reports. READ ALSO: Alleged defection of 6 governors: PDP is hallucinating - APC Consequently, PENGASSAN urged both stakeholders in the oil and gas sector on the need to meet and discuss issues bordering on the demands of the Niger Delta region. This call came after the threat by the coalition of Niger Delta agitators, a frontline militant group in the region, that International Oil Companies (IOCs) should stay away from oil platforms and other installations starting from December 2018, if they fail to relocate their headquarters to the Niger Delta. Moreover, the militants had vowed to begin attacks on oil facilities over the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to give assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill. The group's national president, Francis Johnson, speaking on Thursday, September 6, in the Obio/Akpor local government area of the Delta state, urged the presidency to address the issues raised by the agitators. Johnson said: All IOCs operating in this country have an office here (Niger Delta), but relocating their corporate headquarters also depends on the collaboration of the government because definitely, they need land, they need resources and they need some waivers to do that. So, everybody must work together, but not by threat. For the agitators, we want to appeal to them that they should not return to the creeks. For now, oil is our only major source of revenue. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! We also need to appeal to the government that whatever is the demand of the region; whatever they can do to make the place conducive and ensure that the relocation is a reality, they should please do. Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that a group in the riverine area of Nigeria known as the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) had appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to pay no attention to the activities of some mischievous persons who are bent on rubbishing the good works of the Amnesty Programme. The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), on Sunday, July 8, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to dismiss all the ill-intended petitions from persons it described as mischief-makers whose goal was only to bring disrepute to the enviable achievements of the Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta. Meet Sunny Ofehe, the new face of Niger Delta development - On Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Nigerians have taken it upon themselves to create jobs for one another as the federal government keeps promising but thousands of university graduates are still unemployed. In recent times, many young women are fond of sharing posts on social media with the hashtags small girl big God and daughters and sons of grace, as many keep wondering where these young women get their money from. Some work hard for their money while some make use of what they have to get what they need to get all the wealth they desire. A lady identified as Musah Mufeedah has taken to her Facebook handle to share some of her beautiful paintings. READ ALSO: Top Nigerian intimacy therapist Jaaruma set to wed her man, shares cute photos Mufeedah is also a student and supports her education with part of the money she makes from her hustle. Her Facebook post reads: Proudly a bae of her self. Don't form if u are not a hard working bae. Yes I can do it..... In case u don't know am from Kogi state ooooo....... Mercy Johnson is from Kogi... And she can do similar too. See post below: The hardworking young lady also shared several pictures of her having fun at work with the caption: U can still style when working. See post below: PAY ATTENTION: Join Africa Love Aid today for your daily relationship tips and advice It was earlier reported that a young man has decided to share beautiful pictures and story of a female painter, Busayo Balogun. She studied mass communication at Kogi State University. She resides in Akure, Ondo state. Good job! Meet 15 Year-Old Nigerian Wizkid Who Made 9 As in his WAEC | Legit.ng TV - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit Nigeria - Jones Abiri claimed he saw Sambo Dasuki in SSS detention - The journalist said he was treated badly in detention - He called on the president to assess the treatment of detainees Jones Abiri has spoken about his experience in the State Security Service (SSS) detention, describing his two-year incarceration as a terrible experience. In an interview with Premium Times, the journalist claimed he also saw former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki in detention. He said he was accused of being a member of a militant group which led to his arrest and detention. READ ALSO: Alleged defection of 6 governors: PDP is hallucinating - APC Asked how his experience was like, he said: Very unfortunate. While I was in the detention facility of the SSS, underground where I was kept; there was no freedom of moving out of the facility. When the light is off, I will not even recognise the person who is sitting in front of me until when the light returns, that is when we would start moving within the facility. We were about 26 of us that were in the facility and the room is about 12 by 12 which is not up to some prominent Nigerians parlour. That was where we were being kept and though the ground was tiled, nothing was on top of the tiles for us to have a conducive environment. We demanded for cartons before they could even bring in the carton for us to use part of it to lay our heads. That was the hostile nature of my being in the hands of SSS and if you talk in terms of food, medical and other things, I was severally denied of my right to medication. I was not given proper medical care but since I could not do anything, I continued to rely on my creator. And thank God, God saw me through and you see the little (frail) body (pointing at himself), at this material time, if not I would have been a dead man. According to him, breakfast was mostly tea with N50 bread and one sachet milk which cost N30, lunch was either beans or rice and the evening, they were served semo with soup or wheatmeal or eba (cassava meal). READ ALSO: Troops raid Boko haram hideout, kill 14 terrorists, rescue 21 civilians Asked if he was tortured, Abiri said: When I was arrested on the 21st of July and brought to their office, a state command in Yenagoa; my eyes were blindfolded and they asked me to stay glued to the wall. So I did that but did not know what was happening. The next thing I heard was something that struck on my back and I fell down. That is why my spinal cord, (pointing at his waist) this my waist; I cannot stand for a very long time. That is why I want to hurriedly go home to ensure that proper medication is administered before the next date of my trial. So I was tortured and through that torturing, they were able to achieve their aim. I told them that I am not a militant because of a story that I wrote. I was against the governor, most especially Bayelsa governor and the federal government. Some of the stories that were published in my newspaper were antagonistic and many of them were investigated before it was published and some were gotten online. I believe that was what angered the government to have arrested me by linking me up with those men to write a press statement, so that they would be able to achieve their aim. Asked if he saw Sambo Dasuki in detention, Abiri said: I met Dasuki in there but not in the same cell. You know he is a big fish but where he is now; there is no toilet, so anytime he is pressed, they take him outside; so through that process we were able to see him, there was a time I physically met him and shook hands, he was coming to ease himself, by then I was at the room up. That is where they normally keep suspects after investigation after which they would be assigned to various cells. I knew of his matter before meeting him, so there was no need to discuss with him, though." PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app He said the president needs to be told of the activities of the State Security Service, while asking if the president is giving more power to the security outfit. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that a Bayelsa-based journalist, Jones Abiri, narrated his bitter experience in the hands of some operatives of the Department for State Services (DSS) who kept him in detention. Speaking at the secretariat of the NUJ, Abiri told newsmen and leaders of the Civil Liberties Organisation that he was arrested in his office, detained for seven days in DSS cell in Yenagoa and later blindfolded and flown to Abuja. He said he was kept in seclusion in an underground cell in Abuja and denied access to medical treatment for about two years. If Any Police Officer Misbehaves With You, Call Any of These Numbers | Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit - Some suspected herdsmen allegedly killed a PDP ward chairman in Adamawa - The suspected killer herdsmen reportedly beheaded the PDP chieftain and made away with his head - While the police said that investigations are ongoing concerning the incident and that some arrests have been made, the deceased's wife alleged they were shielding the suspects Some suspected herdsmen have allegedly beheaded the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bare ward in the Numan local government area, Adamawa state, Charles Chrisanthus. According to The Punch, the politician was reportedly killed in the presence of his wife, Dorcas, in his farm on August 29, 2018. Legit.ng gathered that the widow of the slain PDP chieftain is, however, accusing the police of shielding the killers of her husband. Speaking in an interview with The Punch, correspondent at State Criminal Investigation Department where she had gone to lodge her complaint on Tuesday, September 4, Dorcas reportedly said that only justice for her slain husband would bring her peace. READ ALSO: Alleged defection of 6 governors: You are hallucinating - APC fires at PDP She reportedly said she was holding her four-month-old son and watched helplessly as the assailants hacked her husband to death. His attackers led by our neighbours repeatedly stabbed him on the back and on his stomach before beheading my husband in our farm and made away with his head, she said. Claiming to have made some arrests, the police had invited the widow of the slain ward chairman and three other female witnesses to the state Criminal Investigation Department for their statements. It was at the CID that the families of the deceased were alerted to the whereabouts of the suspected killers. The bereaved families, it was learnt, discovered that some of the suspects arrested in connection with the killing were receiving medical attention at an undisclosed hospital. Dorcas said she could identify her husbands killers, alleging that the police were shielding them from answering for their crime. The police under the guise of allowing the suspects to seek medical attention are shielding those that killed my husband. The only thing I want is justice, she was quoted to have said. A PDP youth leader in Bare ward, Tekas Adiel, reportedly explained that the police earlier claimed that the suspected herdsmen who perpetrated the killings had fled the community, insisting that the same assailants carried out another attack on Tuesday, September 4. But the police public relations officer in the state, Musa Habibu, reportedly insisted that some of the alleged perpetrators of the crime were in custody, adding that investigation into the incident was ongoing. Asked about the suspects allegedly receiving medical attention in a hospital, the spokesman reportedly said: A suspect has a right to medical attention if he is sick. He added: "Some arrests have been made and those arrested are in police custody. I have had consultations with the assistant commissioner of police handling the issue who said arrest had been made. But if they said one of those arrested is receiving medical attention, a suspect has a right to medication if hes truly sick, it could be but I dont have that information, Habibu said. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, declined to preside over a suit seeking to declare herdsmen as terrorist group. Justice Dimgba reportedly declined to preside over the suit on Wednesday, August 29, saying he was not comfortable to adjudicate on the matter as a vacation judge. A Makurdi-based legal practitioner, Mathew Nyiutsa, lodged the suit before the court, who said nine members of his family were killed by armed herdsmen in 2014. TY Danjuma, Nigerian army and the herdsmen crisis | on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit Nigeria - An initiation ceremony into a newly formed secret confraternity turned sour, on Thursday, September 6 - One of the recruits was said to have bolted for his dear life as he couldn't endure the torture and other initiation rites he was subjected to - The police was called after the the group chased him to his mother's residence and began to beat up everybody in sight - Items recovered from the suspects include one locally made shotgun, four live cartridges, three cutlasses, one sledge hammer, ten horse whips and assorted charms An ordinary initiation ceremony into a newly formed secret confraternity named " The New Black Movement of Africa" a breakaway faction of the AIYE cult group, turned sour, on Thursday, September 6. In a statement made available to Legit.ng ,when one of the recruits who couldn't endure the torture and other initiation rites he was subjected, he bolted for his dear life and ran to his mother's house at Jakande estate, Ajah Lagos. Miffed by the apparent show of cowardice by the intending recruit and the fact that he may give them up to the police, the group chased him to his mother's residence and began to beat up everybody in sight, at same time, robbing residents of the estate who were woken up by their noise. READ ALSO: Troops raid Boko haram hideout, kill 14 terrorists, rescue 21 civilians Members of the Black Movement of Africa a breakaway faction of the AIYE cult group. Source: Original Unfortunately for the group, the mother of the runaway boy, sneaked out of the house and placed a distress call to the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ilasan division. CSP Onyinye Onwuamaegbu led a contingent of policemen to the estate and arrested eleven members of the group, all males; namely, Godwin Victor, Benjamin Daniel, Saviour Anioffiong, Lawal Ibrahim, Shola Odekunle, Sodiq Olawuyi, Segun Fagbohun, Bashiru Lawal, Chinedu Francis, Wahab Adams and Ifarinde Adeniyi. The police team recovered the following items from the suspects, viz: one locally made shotgun, four live cartridges, three cutlasses, one sledge hammer, ten horse whips and assorted charms. In a related development, two notorious cultists, Rasheed Yusuf aka Radical and Abel Okwo, were arrested during a supremacy battle between the Aiye and Eiye confraternities at Akerele street, Oworonshoki. Notorious cultists, Rasheed Yusuf aka Radical and Abel Okwo. Source: UGC Meanwhile, the said Abel Okwo was charged to court two months ago by the Command for cult related offences only to come back to terrorise the town the more. The commissioner of police, Lagos state, CP Edgal Imohimi, vowed that the command will not relent in its efforts at ridding the state of members of these unlawful societies. He therefore called on parents to hold heart to heart talks with their children, male and female alike, on the evil consequences of belonging to cult groups. Imohimi thanked Lagosians for always providing the command with information about the activities of these outlaws and solicits for more cooperation. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng previously reported that about 200 suspected cultists in Ikorodu on Monday, February 12, renounced their membership and surrendered their weapons to the Lagos state Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgar. The repented cultists, mostly youths, converged at the palace of the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, where they formally surrendered. The weapons surrendered were 15 locally made long guns, 11 cutlasses, four double barrel guns, four axes, five locally made short guns, one sword and 30 bullets. Police Parade Over 50 Suspected Cultists in Lagos | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - A presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, in the forthcoming elections in Brazil has been stabbed - Bolsonaro was allegedly stabbed by a mentally deranged man at a rally - The doctor attending to him said he could take two months to fully recover from the stabbing and will spend at least a week in the hospital A far-right presidential candidate dubbed Brazils Donald Trump was reportedly left fighting for life after being stabbed in the street at a campaign rally. Jair Bolsonaro, a controversial congressman considered the frontrunner ahead of next months national election, was knifed amid a crowd in the city of Juiz de Fora, Independent UK reports. His internal wounds were grave and put the patients life at risk, said Doctor Luiz Henrique Borsato, who operated on the politicians serious intestinal injuries. READ ALSO: Suspected herdsmen allegedly kill Adamawa PDP chairman, flee with head Police in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais have reportedly arrested a man over the stabbing, which took place as Bolsonaro was being held aloft on a supporters shoulders. The newspaper reported that TV footage showed a knife being raised above the heads of the crowd and plunged into the candidates body, causing him to scream out in pain and fall backwards. Legit.ng gathers that the attack on the 63-year-old was a dramatic twist in what was already Brazils most unpredictable election since the countrys return to democracy three decades ago. Rival candidates called off campaigning on Friday, September 7, amid fears that violence could flare as the nation celebrates Independence Day and political groups march in hundreds of cities. Bolsonaro has allegedly outraged many Brazilians with racist, sexist and homophobic comments, but he is leading the polls ahead of voting on 7 October. Left-wing former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva had been the long-standing favourite but was jailed for corruption in April and is banned from running for office. He could take two months to fully recover from the stabbing and will spend at least a week in the hospital, according to Dr Borsato, who said the candidate was at risk of infection after his intestines were punctured. However, the candidates son, Flavio Bolsonaro, said his father was conscious and predicted the attack would be a political boost. I just want to send a message to the thugs who tried to ruin the life of a family man, a guy who is the hope for millions of Brazilians: you just elected him president. He will win in the first round, he said. Flavio initially tweeted that his fathers wounds were only superficial, but later said: Unfortunately it was more serious than we had expected. He lost a lot of blood, arrived at the hospital with a [blood] pressure of 10/3, almost dead. His condition now seems stabilised. Pray, please! Federal police said it had officers escorting Mr Bolsonaro at the time of the knife attack and the aggressor was quickly arrested. Authorities said it was not clear if the stabbing was politically motivated. Police in Juiz de Fora named the suspect as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, 40, and said he appeared to be mentally disturbed. Our agents there said the attacker said he was on a mission from God, said Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police. Their impression is that they were not dealing with a mentally stable person. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Legit.ng previously reported that Former Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is currently serving a 12-year graft sentence, was registered as the presidential candidate of the countrys Workers Party on Wednesday, August 15. Senior party members who registered the candidacy just hours before the deadline, were accompanied to the countrys top electoral court by about 10,000 of the former presidents supporters who chanted Free Lula and Lula for President. Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng - Things seem not to have completely returned to their normal conditions in Benue as far as security is concerned - This could be deduced as troops, according to Major General Adeyemi Yekini, are still on red alert throughout the state to stem the tide of violence - Yekini said that this military stance is vital in order to ensure that the state does not experience the kind of reawakened killings that is underway in Plateau Major General Adeyemi Yekini, the theatre commander of the military unit known as Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), has revealed that troops have been placed on red alert in an effort to subdue any inkling of attack on locals throughout Benue state and neighbouring towns, The Sun reports. READ ALSO: Suspected herdsmen allegedly kill Adamawa PDP chairman, flee with head Briefing newsmen on Thursday, September 6, Yekini disclosed that troops of the OPWS have intensified patrols within and around the state as far as Nasarawa border to ensure it does not experience the sort of reawakened killings that is underway in Plateau by bandits and criminals. He dismissed claims that there were gunfires between troops and some suspected herdsmen in the state recently. However, the commander remarked that a few herdsmen took to their heels on sighting approaching troops. Yekini explained: What happened is that a few herdsmen were sighted in Guma and as soon as they saw our troops, they ran away. It is a usual occurrence that our troops encounter almost on a daily basis that doesnt really need reporting. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Our troops have been placed on red alert to forestall a recurrence of what is happening in Plateau. Troops are on 24 hour surveillance, patrolling the length and breadth of Benue, even up to Nasarawa state sometimes. Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that troops of the Nigerian Army had raided a hideout used by Boko Haram terrorists in Amdaga Madachi village, Gwoza local government area, Borno state. The development was made public in a statement signed by the director of Army public relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu. In the statement released to Legit.ng, Chukwu disclosed that the troops killed 14 terrorists and rescued 21 civilians during the raid. TY Danjuma, Nigerian army and the herdsmen crisis | Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Residents of Abuja have been urged by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency to remain calm over reports of tremors in the city - The DG of NGSA said Nigeria is not on the boundary of nations that could witness earthquake - He also said Nigeria might experience low level earth tremors but not earthquakes as widely suggested The Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) has urged residents of the Federal Capital Territory and its environs to remain calm over reported cases of earth tremors in the area. Alex Nwegbu, the director general of NGSA on Friday, September 7, during a press briefing assured residents that there is no cause for alarm. Punch reports that Nwegbu said that Nigeria is not on the boundary of nations that could witness earthquake. According to him, Nigeria might experience low level earth tremors but not earthquakes as widely suggested. READ ALSO: Suspected herdsmen allegedly kill Adamawa PDP chairman, flee with head He said: I will like to assure Nigerians that there is no cause for alarm. Nigeria is not on the boundary that can make us suffer an earthquake. Hence, we might just get low level earth tremors. For those at Mpape, as long as youre not at risk from a building or home collapse, they are safe to return to their houses. When we got reports on the 5th, we dispersed our geoscientists to ascertain the cause. We checked for the intensity using certain parameters used in checking these things. We noticed no cracks on building walls and on the grounds, implying its an earth tremor of low intensity," Nwegbu said. READ ALSO: PDP lists its presidential aspirants, contemplates reduction of number He said the scientists were still on the field to get more information and ascertain the origin of the earth tremor. Our people are still in the field so we are still getting more information to know the origin of the earth tremor and where it was triggered from. The Buhari administration has been helpful in enabling us to generate our Geoscience data. We are set to deploy our equipment in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. This will enable us to get firsthand info on when the tremors are set to occur in order to warn residents around," Nwegbu added. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has ruled out every possibility of an earthquake disaster in Nigeria following complaints of earth movement in the FCT. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The agency in a statement released on Thursday, September 6, said the earth shaking could be as a result of earth tremors; a sign of seismic movement within the earth which can be caused by sudden breaks along a fault line releasing energy that cause the shaking. It also said that the movement could also have been caused by stress in underground rocks due to blasting and mining activities in an area. The statement by the agency followed reports by residents of tremors in various areas including Maitama, Jabi, Utako, Gwarimpa and Mpape, among many others. List President Buhari's achievements in two years - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - Civil society groups have asked President Buhari to reject the nomination that a shadowy group bought on his behalf - The groups include Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Pan Niger Delta Forum and Afenifere - Afenifere said the president should shun the forms, arguing that his claim that he could not afford them was hypocritical Civil society groups on Thursday, September 6, asked President Buhari to reject the N45.5 million APC presidential nomination forms bought for him by a shadowy group, Nigeria Consolidation Ambassadors Network (NCAN). This Day reports that the groups include Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and Afenifere asked the president to reject it. The national coordinator of NCAN, Sanusi Musa, had presented a cheque of N45.5 million at the APC national secretariat for the purchase of expression of interest N5 million and nomination N40 million forms on behalf of President Buhari. READ ALSO: Suspected herdsmen allegedly kill Adamawa PDP chairman, flee with head The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, said the president should shun the forms, arguing that his claim that he could not afford them was hypocritical, adding that it was a rehash of similar attitude before the 2015 election. The groups spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, warned that Buhari might be sued by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for violating the Electoral Act. It was learnt that Odumakin did not say which NGO would sue the president, he stressed that it is typical of the Buharis administration to take Nigerians for granted. Odumakin said: You say you are fighting corruption but this is corruption. This is a clear contravention of the Electoral Act. It is all hypocrisy. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! The National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Anabs Sara-Igbe, said the organisation is a pressure group that does not dabble into partisan politics except that which has to do with issues relating to restructuring the country, fiscal federalism and the Niger Delta. Sara-Igbe, however, said that if the president has violated the laws, those who feel aggrieved have the right to seek redress in the court of law. According to him, They should approach the court for interpretation of the Electoral Act, if they feel aggrieved; but they are also free to advise the president to do the needful. Everybody is free to advise the president. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the President Buhari purchased his form from the 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. PDP's Magnificent 7 For 2019 Election | Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit A former governor of Kano state, Ibrahim Shekarau, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Shekarau announced his decision to join the ruling party after a closed-door meeting with the national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, Channels TV reports. Legit.ng gathers that the closed-door meeting was held on Friday, September 7, in Kano state. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and other top party officials were also at the meeting. Governor Ganduje of Kano state, APC national chairman Adams Oshiomhole in attendance as Shekarau finally abandons PDP for APC. Source: Channels TV Source: UGC READ ALSO: PDP lists its presidential aspirants, contemplates reduction of number Shekarau while announcing his defection said he believes that given by the current state of the political situation in Nigeria, it is important he moves to the APC. He added that his decision follows due consultation with members of his constituency, stakeholders and supporters. Cheerful moment as Shekarau dumps the PDP for the ruling party. Source: Channels TV Source: UGC The more the merrier: Ganduje, Oshiomhole celebrate the return of Shekarau. Source: Twitter/APC Source: UGC Meanwhile, Channel TV mentioned that Shekarau earlier on Friday, September 7 during an interview on its Breakfast Programme, Sunrise Daily, said he was still a member of PDP but based on certain conditions. The conditions he noted was reportedly in relation to the members of the APC who recently defected to the PDP including the former governor of Kano state, Rabiu Kwankwaso. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that an oil magnate in Kwara state, Abdulrazaq Abdulrahaman, on Thursday, September 6, led thousands of his supporters to join the APC from the PDP. Abdulrahaman who contested with Senate president Bukola Saraki in the last senatorial election in Kwara Central on the platform of the CPC said all his supporters joined him to the APC. The oil magnate while speaking with journalists after his registration with the ruling party at his Idi-igba ancestral home in Ilorin said the APC had given him the assurance that it would accomodate all the defectors. Senators, lawmakers defect from APC - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit By Outis Philalithopoulos, a ghost haunted by the mystery of the origins of modern political ideas. This post concludes a three part series. For part 1, see here. The hidden goodness in everyday life Before Peggy McIntosh began to talk about privilege, in 1985s Feeling Like a Fraud (henceforth, Fraud), she saw the world as riven by a great conflict. On the one hand, there is the vertical world, where [] you win lest you lose [] Either you are on your way up, or youre on your way down, falling toward the bottom. One wouldnt want to be on the bottom, so it is assumed one will be striving toward what the world calls the top that is, toward accomplishment, achievement, success [] But, as described further in the most recent part of this series, there is also another world, the lateral world, containing the more ordinary functions which have either no visibility at all in most of what we read and do and think and are told, or very little visibility, and have seldom been named and identified. In this world, ordinary people just trying to act decently make the world a better place, through simple, unsung activities that she summed up as making and mending of the social fabric. The vertical world, however, treats its lateral counterpart with disdain. Partly as a consequence, it is unable to truly understand it: [] if you think only in terms used at the top, [] you really wont have seen [accurately] the lateral world. Your account of it will be that of a person who has looked down at the surface of the water in the Caribbean rather than snorkeling in it. The life underneath cant be guessed from the surface. The hidden hurtfulness in everyday life From 1988 on, McIntoshs focus became very different. She continued to describe to others an everyday world that few could see, but it was no longer the ordinary, lateral [] business of simply getting along without accomplishing anything. It was now a world of oppressiveness. The vertical world she had warned against had been an looming structure in plain sight. Now, she denounced invisible systems conferring unsought [] dominance, surrounded by silences and taboos, with colossal unseen dimensions. She entitled her talk the Invisible Knapsack. Fittingly, McIntosh learned about these hidden systems through an elusive and fugitive process, fighting against great pressure from her subconscious. The original motivation for thinking about white privilege According to McIntoshs account, when she started thinking in the direction that took her to the concept of white privilege, black people were not on her mental horizon. Relationships between men and women were on the other hand central. McIntosh had been trying to insert ideas from Womens Studies into the rest of the curriculum. In doing so, she often dealt with men who were on board with working to improve womens status. However, there was an additional step that McIntosh thought was appropriate, but that met with less assent. It involved acknowledgement and compunction: I have often noticed mens unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged [] I have met very few men who are truly distressed by systemic, unearned male advantage. McIntosh was troubled by this intransigence, and, and as she pondered it, an idea came: Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of white privilege that was similarly denied and protected. Reevaluating the vertical world Fraud confirms elements of this narrative. Already in 1985, McIntosh was expressing substantial frustration with male faculty who balked at acknowledging that they did not deserve their present status. But something important changed by 1988. Describing the disproportionate representation of men in positions of status (the vertical world), McIntosh now spoke of unearned advantage and being over-privileged. For the earlier McIntosh, success in the vertical world was a set of fraudulent roles, and a trap not just for everyone else but for the winners as well, who, like the Wizard of Oz, would turn out to be just the little shriveled man if wise people looked behind the screen. She did not speak of high rank in that world as advantage, and if she had, it would have undercut the thrust of her argument. The rupture McIntosh has explained that she was unwilling to face these new truths, because of her great attachment to the myth of meritocracy. We have seen that taking this account literally leads to problems in fact, for at least three years before writing Privilege, McIntosh had no attachment to meritocracy and considered those who did to be prideful and absurd. But if McIntosh did not renounce meritocracy in 1988, she had certainly renounced something. Fraud discusses many examples of things people can do to help make the world livable: little things, like patting the cat, putting together a good spaghetti sauce, answering the phone, and being a conversationalist. In Privilege, though, every time McIntosh says I can, it is evidence for her conferred dominance. It is therefore cause for distress. It is in fact hard to find in Privilege even faint echoes of the lateral ideal she had set forth in Fraud. In many cases, she demonstrably turned her back on her earlier worldview. What might have led to this rupture? True distress McIntosh states that she wanted for the men she encountered in the university to be truly distressed. The word distress implies suffering, while the word true implies that she was typically unsatisfied with the depth of suffering offered up to her. Did she merely want them to be outraged at unfair systems and so motivated to change them? It went further than that in Privilege she concluded that she (like all white people) was justly seen as oppressive and elsewhere implicitly applies the words oppressor and racist to herself. This is not the language one uses simply to express loathing of a system that hurts people. If readers think of times when they have wanted very badly for someone to apologize, what picture comes to mind? Ideally, the person would not waste our time suggesting that he or she is, in spite of it all, a good person. At least during the apology, the person would act as if their whole being was embodied in their fault. In Privilege, McIntosh modeled for others the distress she had wanted others to feel. In order for it to be true distress, it could not be marred by any protestation of innocence, or by attempts to mitigate her guilt by citing her good deeds mending the social fabric. The lateral world was in the way, and it had to go. The enemy within As McIntosh arrived at a self-understanding of herself as an oppressor, she would inevitably build images of the mindsets of oppressors and the oppressed. Where did these images come from? It doesnt sound like she formed her ideas about the disadvantages faced by black people by doing research in the ordinary sense of the world. She recalls: And I asked my unconscious mind to answer my questions. And after three months, forty-six examples had swarmed up, most of them in the middle of the night. Her concept of the oppressed was therefore formed by introspection; meanwhile, her concept of oppression came from thinking through mens oppressiveness and their unacknowledged male privilege. Summing up, McIntoshs account indicates that she formed her new archetypes through a pair of analogies. On the one hand, her new self-image as an oppressor involved psychic fusion with precisely those men who had, up to then, most frustrated her. On the other, her new image of the disadvantages faced by black people owed a debt to her prior self-image as innocent and oppressed as a woman. The resulting picture was brimming with schematic complexity, with race, gender, and McIntoshs past and future selves all actively intersecting. A crossroads According to McIntosh, only after contemplating her white privilege did she realize that for men, much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. In other words, she had previously regarded mens oppressiveness as fully conscious. Her earlier attitude toward her whiteness was very different. She says that she barely thought about it; when racial questions came up, the white past McIntosh instinctively thought of herself (and other white women like her) as nice people. The female past McIntosh also saw herself as innocent (due to her powerlessness in the face of male oppressiveness), and so reinforced the self-understanding of the white past McIntosh. There was therefore no commonality between the female past McIntoshs idea of privilege as culpable and largely deliberate, on the one hand, and the white past McIntoshs view of herself as innocent and nice. This conflict presented McIntosh with an opportunity: she could have posited a sort of reduced intentionality that would have harmonized the conviction of the white past McIntosh that her oppressiveness was largely unconscious, with the conviction of the female past McIntosh that male oppressiveness should be understandable in moral terms. It seems, though, that McIntosh took a different route. Juxtaposition Consider, for example, the sentence: I began to see why we [white women] are justly seen as oppressive, even when we dont see ourselves that way. The final clause underscores the idea that there is no conscious ill will going on, just the presence of advantages. The opening clause, however, says that it is just to see her as oppressive, a word (compare oppressor) with active, conscious connotations. When McIntosh puts these two clauses into one sentence, she draws attention to our duty to take upon ourselves two apparently contradictory self-images: as fully culpable, even while being entirely innocent of any active or conscious participation. She does not attempt anything like a synthesis of personal, intentional guilt with collective, unintentional consequences. Instead, both old ideas continue to exist in their original forms, side by side. The rhetoric of the Invisible Knapsack from time to time offers a succession of descriptions, each one featuring a different level of emotion, intentionality, and moral content. Only the weakest, most neutral description is defended; the stronger ones are grafted on by fiat. To take one example, when discussing how some privileges are unambiguously negative, she says that they give license to be ignorant, oblivious, arrogant and destructive. Her narrative supports the idea that people with hidden advantages are often ignorant of them or oblivious to how they affect others. The word arrogant adds intentionality and ramps up the negative connotations. The word destructive comes out of nowhere. The real world disadvantages faced by black people were not so hard for her to see introspection by night sufficed to lay them bare to her. But McIntosh had now taken two steps: she had reversed the way she talked about disadvantages (so she now talked about advantages she enjoyed rather than disadvantages under which black people struggled) and then attached a moral valence to the resulting advantages. At this point, she could perceive a culpability of which she had not had any prior consciousness. Although it would be misleading to say that McIntosh had discovered hidden oppression, she had discovered invisible personal culpability in what had previously been considered something else. This culpability was unstable, coexisting with innocence, so that it could be seen and also not seen, depending on the demands of the moment. The magic of the invisible knapsack was not so much its invisibility it was its indeterminacy, and the invisibilty of its indeterminacy. Persons of power and virtue Before, McIntoshs system came close to making virtue and power mutually exclusive. The powerless tended to be virtuous, while the powerful were typically not. In her new system, McIntosh and those who follow her end up with a strikingly textured identity. The juxtaposition just described means that they contain within themselves a contradictory innocent oppressor, but also the potential for a more heroic role: [] there are pressing questions for me and I imagine for some others like me. [] What will we do with [the knowledge of our privilege]? As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden systems [] Is acknowledging ones privilege therefore the precondition for having power and virtue together? Compare Andrea Smiths account of her experiences in anti-racism workshops: [] despite the cultural capital that was, at least temporarily, bestowed on those who seemed to be the most oppressed, these rituals [wherein people acknowledged their privilege] ultimately reinstantiated the white majority subject as the subject capable of self-reflexivity and the colonized/racialized subject as the occasion for self-reflexivity. The oppressed upon a pedestal Other people play less dynamic roles within the system. Men originally entered McIntoshs system as targets, while black people entered it as raw material (for the gender/race analogy). Throughout the Invisible Knapsack, men do one thing fail to acknowledge their privilege. Meanwhile, black people also do one thing suffer from their lack of privilege. According to Fraud, women and various minority communities do a disproportionate share of the activities that make life livable; they therefore constitute resources from which everyone could, if they choose to, draw insights about how to live life in a more sustainable way. In Privilege, as the lateral ideal faded away, the spotlight shifted from what could be learned from the wisdom of minorities; the role of minorities was now what could be learned from their pain. As mentioned above, it is plausible to suggest that McIntoshs new image of oppressed black people was partially based on her earlier feminine self-image. In fact, an alternative analogy to Smiths colonialization for the role of black and other oppressed people in privilege culture is chivalry they are set upon a pedestal according to the type of ideal white femininity. Some features of chivalry that are relevant here is that women are presented as supremely sensitive to being wronged, and insults to their honor are the stereotypical justification for conflict and violence. A model in which black and other oppressed people are treated with perpetual chivalry certainly leads to better behavior than some models, and being on the receiving end can at times feel like a shot of emotional oxygen. But whatever one thinks about desirable and undesirable gender roles, it seems like there are problems with a structure that promises its leaders that they can transcend gender, and meanwhile honors the oppressed with a normatively feminine role, complete with encouragements to value this role and protect it from those who might threaten it. The privilege of privilege McIntosh was very conscious of unwritten maps, passports, codebooks, visas that could make people of one group confident and comfortable while making others inconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Privilege discourse makes some people feel comfortable and others less comfortable but whom? When cracking down on problematic statements, common expedients at least superficially eschew conflict, from the menacing I find it telling to acknowledging ones privilege in a way meant for someone else. When having to backtrack, the culture favors people who can apologize without ultimately losing too much face. When advancing ones own views, it can be helpful to talk openly about ones emotions and vulnerabilities in a way that others will respect. We have just seen that people in the role of the oppressed will often become the object of a sort of chivalry. These cultural practices are all compatible with very mainstream ideas about femininity. We could say that setting them up as norms benefits women. Which women, though? Women who are ideally placed to leverage a culturally privileged ideal of femininity in a word, white upper-middle class femininity. For some people, stringing together white upper-middle class femininity is meant as an immediate takedown. That is not the sense in which I am using the phrase. White upper-middle class female culture is a culture like other cultures, running a very wide gamut all the way from the charmingly idealized portrayal of Gilmore Girls to dystopian nightmares like Heathers or Courtney Summers novel Some Girls Are. The issue, however, is that it isnt the only culture besides white upper-middle class male culture. Do all white women find its norms easy to observe? Do black women? How about black men? The indispensable McIntosh According to white privilege facilitator Paul Gorski, [] white privilege, was popularized by the feverish, largely grassroots, pre-World-Wide-Web circulation of a now famous essay by my now-equally-famous friend and colleague, Peggy McIntosh. [] The white privilege concept wasnt new, of course, nor was it uniquely Peggys, a fact that she has explained over and over with great humility through the years. Scores of People of Color [] had spoken about the concept of white privilege for generations before Peggy wrote [] Each, despite never using the term, wrote or spoke about white privilege before doing so was hip; when nobody grew wealthy writing and lecturing about white privilege [] Still and this, in and of itself, is a marker of privilege it took Peggys essay to plant the concept firmly into the mainstream diversity lexicon [] Unease oozes from this paragraph many white people are now writing and speaking about white privilege, it has become the hip thing to do, some of them are becoming wealthy doing so. The term itself was invented by the white McIntosh and her essay almost singlehandedly popularized the idea. Gorski attempts to quell the dissonance by claiming, with McIntosh, that the concept (if not the term) was invented by authentic People of Color, that McIntosh merely publicized it, and even there she didnt do anything particularly special consistent with the privilege narrative, her success should be attributed to privileges afforded by her whiteness. Is any of this convincing, though? Let us quote James Baldwin (from The Fire Next Time), one of the writers whom Gorski claims spoke about white privilege before McIntosh: There appears to be a vast amount of confusion on this point, but I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be accepted by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply dont wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet. White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed. There are no invisible hidden systems here, just not being beaten over the head. There is no wish for whites to acknowledge their privilege; Baldwin thinks that whites might be better off if they would just work at loving themselves. The only sense in which Baldwin and McIntosh are talking about the same universe is that they both refer to black people as being in some way disadvantaged. And even without discussing the other supposed intellectual progenitors of McIntosh, we have hopefully made a plausible case that the specific concept of white privilege that has become hip is so thoroughly interwoven with specific aspects of McIntoshs spirit and will, as to raise serious doubts about whether it could have been discovered by anyone else. Unasked questions about privilege If we consider modern privilege discourse as a sort of semi-animate entity, a part of its genius lies in its ability to convince its adherents that questioning it means claiming that no disadvantages distributed unfairly according to collective patterns exist. Or that questioning it means denying the existence of subtle conventions that make certain people feel unwelcome in certain settings. Or, closer to home, that critiquing McIntoshs uvre means dismissing all of her ideas. I believe, on the contrary, that there are important questions that should be asked about all of these topics. Privilege discourse doesnt exactly encourage asking them, but that doesnt need to stop us. First, the lateral/vertical world distinction is worth thinking about. The way in which the distinction is partially overlaid on gender in McIntosh isnt really essential, even to her own treatment of the idea. Real questions arise at this point. To what extent can things smacking of meritocracy be done away with? To what extent can the vertical world be marginalized? To what extent can people, even well-meaning people working towards similar goals, discuss ideas without sometimes tearing the social fabric? The lateral world seems less uncomplicatedly good than McIntosh suggests. The secretary praised by her for keeping everything going might be working for an elementary school, but might instead be working for an arms dealer. In a case like the latter, the lateral worlds relationship with the vertical world is not conflictual but symbiotic. One thought Ive had is that I think people respond better if treated as individuals who are potentially involved in larger group patterns, rather than as exemplars of groups, fighting an uphill battle in any effort to be seen as single people. One way in which privilege discourse has been efficient is by separating the process of classification of something as a privilege from the process of assigning it a moral charge. I dont think theres anything inherently wrong with trying to look at advantages as a single large category. But from this starting point, it seems clearly important to make distinctions about where these advantages come from, what they signify, and what can be done about them. In the spirit of McIntoshs vertical/lateral distinction, we could make a (not at all hard and fast) distinction between vertical and lateral advantages. Vertical advantages would include things like money, where people generally feel like having more is preferable. Lateral advantages would include things like speaking French versus speaking English, where either one can be preferable, depending on the milieu. One problem, in fact, with classifying lateral advantages as privileges (and therefore presumptively bad) is that they are more or less coterminous with culture. If the goal is to make it so there are no environments where some people are more confident and others less confident, I dont see how to do this without leveling all cultural distinctions. After all, one name for a place where a particular group of people feel disproportionately comfortable is home. And there are many more questions that can be asked but at this point, in the spirit of Fraud, I will postulate reader response and turn the floor over to you to continue the discussion. Using state of the art CGI and the latest underwater technology and working alongside divers, wreck investigators and archaeologists, Ocean Wreck Investigation tells the stories of the final moments of ships and those on board. Thursdays from 9:30pm AEDT. One South Tipperary community facing the permanent closure of its post office service is to appeal the decision to An Post citing its substantial population as one of its key arguments for retaining the service. Clogheen's local councillor Marie Murphy says she plans to lodge the appeal challenging An Post's decision to close her local post office service once the local post mistress retires under the controversial voluntary retirement scheme the Irish Postmaster's Union agreed with An Post. The appeal will be lodged to independent assessors appointed to review rural post office closures in individual communities that believe they have good grounds for the service to be retained. Cllr Murphy is a member of the Clogheen Save Our Post Office Action Group, which has been set up to oppose the closure of the post office. She said An Post has given a commitment to provide post offices in communities of more than 500 people She regards Clogheen as a small town. The population in the urban area alone is 478 and much more in the surrounding hinterland. And she points out Clogheen's population increases during the summer months due to holiday makers staying at Parsons Green Caravan & Camping Park. Read full article in print edition of The Nationalist now in shops. The Croatian Navy and the Royal Navy joined NATOs maritime operation in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday (7 September 2018). Over the next two weeks, the Croatian Navy vessel HRMV Vukovar, a Helsinki-class missile boat, and the Royal Navy vessel HMS Echo, an Echo-class survey vessel, will join the Italian Navy frigate ITS Espero and other associated vessels and aircraft in patrolling the central Mediterranean. Sea Guardian is a maritime security operation through which NATO maintains situational awareness in the Mediterranean. The operation helps deter and counter terrorism and identify possible security concerns. Sea Guardian regularly provides logistical and situational awareness support to the European Unions Mediterranean operation, EUNAVFOR Sophia, as part of the strengthened cooperation between NATO and the EU. Since the beginning of Operation Sea Guardian in November 2016, around ten Allied navies have provided ships, aircraft and submarines. While working together for the security of the Mediterranean Sea, the Allied navies train together and enhance their interoperability. Visiting Athens on Thursday (6 September 2018), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to discuss current security challenges and the implementation of decisions taken at the NATO Summit in July. The Secretary General thanked Greece for its participation in NATO operations and its role at the forefront of the refugee and migrant crisis. He underlined that NATOs presence in the Aegean helps counter illegal human trafficking into Greece by providing real-time information to coastguards. Mr. Stoltenberg also commended Greece for investing 2% of GDP in defence, and congratulated Prime Minister Tsipras on the official termination of the bail-out programme, as a historic moment after years of austerity. The Secretary General and Prime Minister Tsipras also discussed the historic breakthrough on the name issue with Skopje. Mr. Stoltenberg stressed that this is a great achievement for both countries, adding that the upcoming referendum in Skopje is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Czech contingent of NATOs enhanced forward presence battlegroup in Lithuania recently took part in exercise Namejs 2018 in Latvia, along with around 10,000 participants from 13 NATO Allies. The exercise concluded on 2 September 2018, after two action-filled weeks of training, focusing on the mobility, readiness and interoperability of NATO and national forces. It was the largest exercise of its kind ever conducted in Latvia and took place in every region of the country. The Czech Mechanised Infantry Company brought around 180 troops and 15 Pandur-II Infantry Fighting Vehicles from Lithuania to Latvia to take part in various exercise scenarios. Like we predicted, the constant maneuvering from one place to another, which our role in the exercise required, was one of our main challenges, but the troops did very well, said LtCol Jiri Libal, commander of the Czech unit in Lithuania. Our troops were mostly playing the opposing forces, engaging defensive units in built up areas, forests and other terrains. Among other tasks, we engaged the Latvian National Reservist Units and the NATO battlegroup in Latvia in their defensive positions, he added. The Commander of the Joint Headquarters of Latvian Army, Lt. Gen. Leonids Kalnins, underlined that the training impressed him: I personally witnessed that the level of tactic and combat skills of the Czech company is on a very high level. LtCol Rene Braun, Commander of NATOs battlegroup in Lithuania, noted that the troops did very well and it was a very useful experience both for them and our battlegroup. He added: This was the first time for the battlegroup to participate with a whole company in an exercise outside Lithuania. On all levels, there were a lot of lessons learned, especially in logistics and interoperability. In the end, it was a great display of unity and cooperation within the Baltic States and a common understanding of staying together and showing strength in a powerful NATO mindset. NATO deployed four multinational battlegroups to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in 2017. The battlegroup in Lithuania is led by Germany. LtCol Rene Braun commands about 1,200 troops from eight NATO Allies. The battlegroup in Latvia is led by framework nation Canada and has a similar number of troops, with contributions from nine NATO Allies. Two other battlegroups, in Estonia and Poland, are led by the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. (Natural News) Bugleweed (Ajuga bracteosa), a plant widely distributed in northern India and Pakistan, has long been used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat various diseases. In a study released in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a team of researchers looked at the plants medicinal properties. The group, composed of scientists from The University of Poonch, Capital University of Science and Technology, Quaid-i-Azam University, and the University of Gujrat in Pakistan, assessed the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant, and anticoagulant properties of various extracts of bugleweed using in vitro and in vivo assays. For the study, researchers used an extract from the aerial parts (the parts that are exposed like the stems) and the roots of bugleweed, using chloroform and methanol, and tested its active biological properties in mice models. They found that all extracts of the bugleweed plant were potent antioxidants and antidepressants. Moreover, the bugleweed methanolic extract had the highest values of flavonoids and phenolic contents. It also significantly decreased edema and reduced ferric ions, and it exhibited significant antioxidant and anticoagulant activities. In addition, the bugleweed methanolic root extract demonstrated the highest total antioxidant capacity. The researchers said that these beneficial effects of the bugleweed extracts could be attributed to the plants polyphenols and phytoecdysteroids contents. The research team concluded that the methanolic extract of aerial parts of bugleweed exhibited promising antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant, and anticoagulant properties and can potentially be used as a powerful elixir. Many other benefits of bugleweed Bugleweed is a plant with a stalk that grows three to six inches with bright purple flowers. The plants leaves are quite broad and grow about three inches off the ground. Both the flowers and leaves of bugleweed are often used for medicinal purposes. The following are some of the benefits of the bugleweed plant: Bugleweed supports respiratory health Bugleweed is commonly used to relieve respiratory distress, including excessive coughing, shortness of breath, and sore throats, because of its anti-inflammatory compounds. It can relieve the respiratory tracts and ease irritation. At the same time, it also helps to eliminate phlegm and mucus. Bugleweed is commonly used to relieve respiratory distress, including excessive coughing, shortness of breath, and sore throats, because of its anti-inflammatory compounds. It can relieve the respiratory tracts and ease irritation. At the same time, it also helps to eliminate phlegm and mucus. Bugleweed helps improve sleep Bugleweed, as a soothing agent, helps people get better, uninterrupted sleep. It interacts with the hormones in the body to help balance the circadian rhythm and promote healthy rest. Bugleweed, as a soothing agent, helps people get better, uninterrupted sleep. It interacts with the hormones in the body to help balance the circadian rhythm and promote healthy rest. Bugleweed relieves anxiety The soothing effects of bugleweed is beneficial to people who suffer from chronic stress and anxiety. The soothing effects of bugleweed is beneficial to people who suffer from chronic stress and anxiety. Bugleweed helps prevent hormonal disorders According to research, bugleweed helps regulate thyroid and estrogen levels and prevent hormonal disorders. (Related: Understanding thyroid disorders and how to treat them naturally.) According to research, bugleweed helps regulate thyroid and estrogen levels and prevent hormonal disorders. (Related: Understanding thyroid disorders and how to treat them naturally.) Bugleweed protects the heart Bugleweed normalizes the heart rate and lower blood pressure, thus protecting the heart against heart diseases, such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and strokes. Bugleweed normalizes the heart rate and lower blood pressure, thus protecting the heart against heart diseases, such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and strokes. Bugleweed speeds up wound healing Applying bugleweed extract topically on a small cut or wound can help accelerate healing. This can be attributed to its strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that promote cell growth, prevent infection, reduce pain, and relieve inflammation. Applying bugleweed extract topically on a small cut or wound can help accelerate healing. This can be attributed to its strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that promote cell growth, prevent infection, reduce pain, and relieve inflammation. Bugleweed is good for overall health The antioxidant property of bugleweed extract promotes overall health. Moreover, its phytochemical compounds remove the dangerous free radicals in the body that harms cells. Read more news stories and studies on enhancing health with natural medicines by going to AlternativeMedicine.news. Sources include: Science.news OrganicFacts.net (Natural News) A study published in JAMA Psychiatry has revealed that while children bullied during their pre-teen years may suffer from adverse mental conditions such as anxiety and depression, some children may well outgrow bullying and not endure the lasting negative effects of the abusive behavior. As part of the study, a team of researchers at the University College London, University of Birkbeck and the Kings College London examined more than 11,000 twins born in England and Wales between 1994 and 1996. The research team instructed the participants to accomplish assessments about their bullying experiences between the ages of 11 and 14 years. The scientists also measured the participants mental health through various evaluations between the ages of 11 and 16. The results showed that children aged 11 who were exposed to bullying were more likely to exhibit anxiety, depression, and hyperactivity compared to children not exposed to peer victimization. Likewise, the research team observed that children bullied at age 11 tended to show inattention and conduct problems compared to the controls. However, the results also revealed that some effects of bullying appeared to diminish over time. According to the research team, bullying is no longer associated with the onset of anxiety in children at five years after the bullying activities occurred. In contrast, the scientists have observed that other negative effects tied to bullying such as cognitive disorganization and paranoid thoughts persisted through the years. The findings suggest that children may otherwise show resilience in the face of bullying and may well rebound years after the abusive experience, the research team stated. The experts have added that both parents and schools should focus the resources more on initiatives that promote resilience and adaptability in children. While our findings show that being bullied leads to detrimental mental health outcomes, they also offer a message of hope by highlighting the potential for resilience. Bullying certainly causes suffering, but the impact on mental health decreases over time, so children are able to recover in the medium termThe detrimental effects of bullying show that more needs to be done to help children who are bullied. In addition to interventions aimed at stopping bullying from happening, we should also support children who have been bullied by supporting resilience processes on their path to recovery. Our findings highlight the importance of continuous support to mental health care for children and adolescents, lead author Dr. Jean-Baptiste Pingault told Science Daily online. Experts weigh in on the recent findings The scientific community has both lauded and criticized the recent findings. Dr. Sophie Dix, Director of Research at MQ: Transforming Mental Health, says the results effectively demonstrate the effects of bullying on mental health and that resilience play a key role in overcoming the experience. This important research is further strong evidence of the need to take the mental health impacts of bullying seriously. We hope this study provides fresh impetus to make sure young people at risk and those currently being bullied get effective help as soon as possible, Dr. Dix has stated. In contrast, outside expert Bonnie Leadbeater is more skeptical of the results. According to the scientist, the study only evaluated the correlation between bullying and mental health at two points in time. Having said that, the findings do not completely clarify how the two factors are related, the expert adds. The effects of bullying at age 11 on anxiety and depression at age 16 is what diminishes. You cannot interpret this as supporting a more general statement that the effects of bullying lessen over time. Bullying may be episodic or chronic, and the limited assessment of bullying may severely underestimate the effects of chronic bullying on mental health and behavioral problems, Leadbeater discussed in a Reuters article. Sources include: Reuters.com ScienceDaily.com JAMANetwork.com (Natural News) Total censorship of the internet is headed our way and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) is driving the bus. Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has drafted up a 20-point plan for full-blown government seizure of the Internet of Things. The Left is launching an all-out war on American freedom by instituting policies that echo those seen in Communist China, where the internet and journalism are strictly controlled and tightly monitored. The IoT is ultimately a public platform, no different than a town square or other public space and therefore, should not be subject to censorship. The left-wing is set on trampling all over the First Amendment rights of American citizens and Warner has just written up a 23-page piece of legislation to get the ball rolling. If they dont like what you have to say, Democrats want to take away your right to say it. Legislative attack on free speech begins On Capitol Hill, Warner and his political cohorts grilled Silicon Valley leaders over the vulnerabilities of a free, unregulated IoT. Warner contended, The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end, where we go from here, though, is an open question. According to him, its time for Congress to butt in. The answer to the question of regulating the IoT is not censorship at least not in the United States. Regulating the internet will, ultimately, lead to the regulation of the free press. And when government regulates speech, it is no longer free. Under the poorly fitted guise of public good, leftists like Warner propose that the government can protect the public from dangerous thoughts by regulating the IoT, and instituting pathways for government to educate people on media literacy and for government agencies to take down threats to democracy. As The Republican Standard reports, Warners 20-point proposal is broken down into three key sections: combating disinformation, protecting user privacy, and promoting competition in tech. But as the Standard notes, most of Warners proposals fail to accomplish the latter. Among the most controversial of Warners ideas is his proposed changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Warners proposal suggests that platforms should be legally accountable for state-law torts (defamation, false light, public disclosure of private facts) for failure to take down deep fake or other manipulated audio/video content. Warner himself notes that distinguishing true disinformation from satire could prove difficult. Free speech advocates are vehemently against this measure. As the Standard argues, Such revisions to Section 230 could mean that the threat of liability will encourage both social media platforms and online service providers to tip towards the side of content takedown, even if such content does not violate standards of practice. Re-education or brainwashing? Worse still, Warner has proposed a re-education measure, funded by the feds and implemented by the states. The public initiative for media literacy, as he calls it, would be focused on building media literacy from an early age [which] would help build long-term resilience to foreign manipulation of our democracy. This sounds an awful lot like a diplomatic code for brainwashing. How this program would work, or what would be taught, is not specified again, prompting concerns about government overreach. Now Warner wants the government to tell people what they should and should not read, hear or see? As sources note, if even just a handful of Warners tyrannical ideas become laws, freedom of speech as we know it will cease to exist at least on the internet. Further, the costs of Warners measures greatly prohibit the formation of new social media platforms and other tech. The regressive policies of the Left will do nothing but crush freedom and stifle innovation. But maybe thats what they want. Read more stories about proposed leftist policies that would change our country at Censored.news. Sources for this article include: ZeroHedge.com FCW.com FoxNews.com TheRepublicanStandard.com (Natural News) Do you want a secure supply of water while staying off-grid and living green? Drop by the University of Alicante (UA) in Spain and pick up their new solar-powered water desalination plant. According to a Science Daily report, the stand-alone system uses a proven method of electrodialysis to remove salt from water, turning the saltiest of liquids into potable water. A UA research group of applied electrochemists devised this nifty water purifier. Its described as sustainable and ecology-friendly technology. The new machine derives all of its power from solar photovoltaic cells. It does not have batteries, nor does it need them. Users avoid the hassle of managing empty batteries as well as the associated costs born by the economy and the environment, said Science Daily. (Related: Why buy a water filter? Is your tap water toxic?) Furthermore, it can be adapted and applied for treating water of many different origins, remarked research group director Vicente Montiel. According to Director Montiel, the UA-designed desalination system can remove salts from seawater, brackish water and even tainted water that comes from treatment plants or industrial processes. This impressive capability makes it perfect for remote, off-grid areas with uncertain access to clean water. Potential uses for the water desalination plant include providing potable water for human use, irrigating and street-cleaning. Since the plant is solar-powered, it can be used in the absence of an energy grid. It will function during and after natural disasters like earthquakes, fires and floods. The technology we designed can be a potential solution to drought, just like osmosis plants, Director Montiel explained. The pilot and demonstration plant can produce a cubic meter of drinking water on a daily basis. A happy marriage of proven technologies The research team is looking for companies interested in the commercial exploitation of the technology through licence and/or technical cooperation agreements. This is not a new technique, Director Montiel explained to potential sponsors who worry about unproven technology. The Canaries electrodialysis has been employed for many years for desalination purposes. The groundbreaking change introduced by the UA is the use of a photovoltaic solar field to supply all electrical needs; although even that is proven tech. He also mentioned that the Canaries electrodialysis method used by their device can only treat water with a salt content exceeding that tolerated for human consumption or irrigation. Other types of impurities are beyond its capability. If the water has other problems, for instance the presence of organic matter, this technology cannot be applied, Director Montiel warned. In that case, it would be better to use the traditional reverse-osmosis desalination process. Reducing reject water No process is perfect. Desalination is no exception to the rule. Removing salt from saline water normally generates a useless byproduct called reject water. Reject water ends up with a much higher concentration of salt than before the desalination process. This hyper-saline water is unfit for human consumption or irrigation purposes. This is less of a problem for the UA-designed desalination system, which uses the Canaries method instead of reverse-osmosis. The new machine can control the salinity of reject water until it matches seawater salinity, allowing the recovery of 80 percent to 90 percent of all treated water. The ability to reduce the salinity of reject water contributes to the efficiency of the new desalination plant. According to Director Montiel, the water purifier can get the most out of the electrical power provided by the solar panels because it allows the accumulation of treated water during times when renewable electric sources cannot deliver enough energy to meet demands. Visit CleanWater.news for more articles on new water-purification techniques and technologies. Sources include: ScienceDaily.com WaterOnline.com (Natural News) Limited knowledge on the difference between an emergency room and a freestanding emergency room may be contributing to the rising out-of-pocket costs among U.S. patients, a report showed. According to the National Association of Freestanding Emergency Centers, long ER wait times and limited ER access across the country have resulted in the increasing number of freestanding emergency rooms. A report by the NBC News revealed that at least 35 states currently have some type of freestanding emergency room. According to the report, a majority of those establishments serve as off-campus ERs affiliated with an existing medical facility. However, more than a dozen of these freestanding emergency rooms were found to be owned by independent providers. The report also noted that regulations and licensure policies for these establishments vary per state. An analysis also identified a big discrepancy in prices for procedures done in both traditional and freestanding ERs and those conducted in urgent care centers. As part of the research, the Colorados Center for Improving Value in Health Care examined claims data from the 2014 calendar year. The researchers found that seven out of 10 most common diagnoses overlapped among Colorado patients who either went to traditional and freestanding ER and those who went to urgent care clinics. The researchers also found that the median health care costs for both traditional and freestanding ER were significantly higher compared with urgent care establishments. According to the analysis, the median emergency room bill for ankle sprain or strain was $1,060, compared with only $300 in urgent care facilities. The report also showed that the median emergency room bill for bronchitis was $980, nearly 10 times higher than that of urgent care centers at $200. In addition, the median cost of ear infection treatment in both traditional and freestanding ER was $760, compared with only $100 in urgent care establishments. However, industry representatives were quick to defend the discrepancies in health costs, stating that freestanding emergency centers provide a higher level of care, have better trained emergency doctors, have round-the-clock operations, and carry sophisticated medical equipment. In case that sore throat that you had was actually something called epiglottitis, where your airway was about to close, youre paying for the fact that you have the airway equipment there where you wouldnt necessarily have that diagnostic ability in your doctors office. Its more expensive to order a filet mignon than a hamburger. Its two completely different types of care, said Dr. Carrie de Moor. The physician currently runs her own small chain of freestanding emergency rooms in the Dallas area. Mounting evidence on costly freestanding ER services A recent study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine highlighted the alarming discrepancies in freestanding ER costs. To carry out the study, a team of researchers examined more than 16 million insurance claims filed between 2012 and 2015. The researchers found that the total price of a freestanding emergency room visit averaged $2,199 in 2015, compared with only $168 for an urgent care clinic visit. The study also revealed that freestanding ER use grew 236 percent from 2012 to 2015 In contract, hospital-based ERs and urgent care clinics grew 10 percent and 24 percent, respectively, during the same period. These findings are significant for both patients who find themselves in need of immediate care, as well as for the overall health care system. Many patients mistakenly think that freestanding emergency departments and urgent care clinics are similar, because they are often conveniently located in neighborhood shopping centers with modest storefrontsThe sticker shock is alarming. Insurers are being forced to pay higher prices for many health care services at freestanding emergency departments that could have been dealt with at much lower cost. These unnecessary medical costs then get passed onto all insurance consumers in terms of higher premiums, said research co-author Vivian Ho. Sources include: NBCNews.com News.Rice.edu (Natural News) The Deep State has struck another blow against POTUS Donald Trump and his administration in its latest attempt to negate the results of the 2016 election and destroy a duly-sworn-in commander-in-chief. The New York Times, proving once again that the Washington establishment media really are enemies of the Republic, published an anonymous op-ed by someone claiming to be a senior White House official slamming POTUS Trump and his leadership style. Not only does the writer admit to undermining the presidents agenda, he/she goes a step further and claims that there is a two-track presidency that exists in the White House. Under the headline, I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration, the writer noted, I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader, the writer noted which may be the only truthful thing he/she says, given that POTUS Trump has been spied on, lied to, undermined, investigated, betrayed, and attacked every single day hes been in office. 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, says the writer. I would know. I am one of them. (Related: Disgusting mainstream media NOISE aimed at disrupting POTUS Trump 24/7/365 is a MASSIVE national security issue.) The writer goes on to state that he/she isnt part of the Lefts #Resist movement and claims that this hidden unelected cabal really does want the president to succeed, adding that there have been successes so far like an improved economy and a rebuilding of the U.S. military. Nevertheless, our first duty, the writer continues, is to America, and so many of the presidents appointees have pledged to do whatever they decide is best to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trumps more misguided impulses until he is out of office. The writer goes on to make claims Trump supporters are used to hearing from the media and Deep State: Hes argumentative, hes inept, hes impulsive, hes not moored to conservatism or freedom, hes prone to ranting, he likes dictators, he hates being told what to do, etc. The writer even claims that some members of Trumps Cabinet whispered early on about invoking the 25th Amendment to have him declared mentally unfit for office and removed. This was all foretold by a former NSC staffer The op-ed reads a lot like (not coincidentally) Bob Woodwards latest book, which was just released, titled, Fear: Inside the Trump White House. In it, Woodward claims to quote White House insiders and Cabinet officials like Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis calling POTUS an idiot (both men have vigorously denied those claims). And Woodwards book read a lot like the establishment narrative on POTUS Trump that has been constant since his inauguration: Hes an incompetent boob who cannot be left in charge. Notice that this coordinated attack with special counsel Robert Muellers investigation percolating in the background is coming as we approach the 2018 midterm elections, in which Trump and Republicans can and will run on a record of massive success. How better to steer the topic away from how well the countrys doing under GOP leadership than to continually launch bogus distractions? By the way, all of what is taking place now was foretold by former National Security Council member Richard Higgins in a memo he authored in May 2017. The Trump administration is suffering under withering information campaigns designed to first undermine, then delegitimize and ultimately remove the President, it begins. His reward for being right? He was forced out by then-Trump National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who was often accused of being part of the Deep State. Read more about the Deep States agenda to oust POTUS Trump at DeepState.news. Sources include: NYTimes.com UnconstrainedAnalytics.com TheAtlantic.com Sonoma County leaders say they've overhauled their emergency alert system after a state audit found the county was understaffed and had a "limited awareness and understanding of the wireless emergency alert system" and its capabilities during the North Bay Fires. More than 30 additional staff members are now trained to issue wireless emergency alerts, with roughly six authorized users on duty at any given time. Despite the progress, county officials caution that problems still remain with the alert system technology that could prevent administrators across the state from notifying residents during the next disaster. ONE YEAR LATER In March, Sonoma County hired Chris Godley to serve as Interim Emergency Manager and help redesign its emergency alert procedures. [[492654221,300,320,L]] "In any event that's threatening life or significant property, we will make use of all of our alert warning systems, and that includes the wireless emergency alert system," Godley told NBC Bay Area. The new policy marks a change in the county's approach towards issuing those alerts, which are similar to an Amber Alert that goes to all cellphones in a targeted area. "Our community has very clearly indicated at this point they're OK with being over-warned," Godley said. In October, NBC Bay Area spoke with multiple residents who said they never received an evacuation alert as the wildfires raced across Santa Rosa, burning nearly 5,300 homes and killing 24 people. Four days after the firestorm, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit asked Sonoma County's then-emergency manager Chris Helgren why the county did not send out a WEA alert to warn residents living in the path of the fire. Helgren explained that the county would never send a wireless emergency alert to evacuate residents because the system couldn't be used to target specific neighborhoods. Helgren believed the alert would reach too many people outside the evacuation area, causing widespread panic and traffic jams. "If I send a message out to 500,000 people simultaneously, what's going to happen to those mass of people trying to leave at the same time, especially in the middle of the night," Helgren said last October. Sonoma County asked the state Office of Emergency Services to investigate its response to the wildfires. Investigators concluded that the county's procedures for using its alert capabilities were, "Uncoordinated and included gaps, overlaps, and redundancies, and found its procedures and policies were misunderstood. SENDING ALERTS "Having learned from those experiences, the county has made a number of changes. For one, the county does make use of the wireless emergency alert system now," Godley said. "[Sonoma County] trained additional staff to be able to activate the systems earlier [and] get better information to inform those warning systems." Sgt. Spencer Crum is one of 22 members of the Sonoma County Sherriff's Office who have been granted access to the WEA system since the wildfires. "We call it the big red button. ... At any time, we have six people [on duty] able to push those buttons," Crum said. "Last October, the dispatch center did not have access to [issue] wireless emergency alerts." [[492657451,300,400,L]] Emergency responders used the WEA system twice this summer to warn residents about potential disasters. In June, officials targeted a portion of the county near Schellville and issued an alert to stay away from a three-alarm pallet fire. In August, the county sent an alert to warn people to shelter in place after deputies found an explosive device. SENT BUT NOT RECEIVED After the pallet fire, county staff conducted an informal survey asking people in the area if they received the alert. Godley said only 16 out of the 28 residents interviewed for the survey received the message. Further analysis revealed that AT&T users received the alert, while Verizon users did not because their cell phone towers were unexpectedly outside of the area that the county targeted to receive the alert. [Verizons] cell phone towers were located so far away, the ones that serve that area, that their computer system simply didn't turn on the cell towers, Godley explained. On Sept. 12, Sonoma County plans to conduct a WEA test to collect more data and determine which carriers have trouble receiving alerts in certain areas. It will be the first WEA test ever conducted on the West Coast. Godley hopes that the information will be helpful to counties across the region. "By this time next year, Sonoma County will be a leader in California. Not just in alert warning, but in it's an emergency management program," Godley said. REDCOM handles fire and EMS dispatch services for Sonoma County. Executive Director Aaron Abbott provides tips on how you can survive the next disaster. If you have a tip for Vicky Nguyen about this or any other story, you can email her directly at vicky@nbcbayarea.com or you can email theunit@nbcbayarea.com or call 888-996-TIPS. Follow Vicky Nguyen on Twitter www.twitter.com/VickyNguyenTV and Facebookwww.facebook.com/VickyNguyenTV Click here to submit tips online Twenty years after Larry Page and Sergey Brin set out to organize all of the internet's information, the search engine they named Google has morphed into a dominating force in smartphones, online video, email, maps and much more. That resounding success now has regulators and lawmakers around the world questioning whether the company has become too powerful as its ubiquitous services vacuum up sensitive information about billions of people hooked on its products. Google's search engine remains entrenched as the internet's main gateway, and its digital advertising business is on pace to generate about $110 billion in revenue this year. Much of that revenue now flows through Google's Android operating system, which powers 80 percent of the world's smartphones. Google also runs the biggest video site in YouTube, the most popular web browser in Chrome, the top email service in Gmail and the maps that most people use to get around. Not bad for a company that started 20 years ago Friday with an initial investment of $100,000. Google and its sibling companies operating under the umbrella of Alphabet Inc. are now worth $800 billion. Although Google wouldn't comment for this story, the company has repeatedly pointed out that its mostly free products are so widely used because people like them. Google's success often draws comparisons with Microsoft. By 1998, the year Google started, U.S. regulators had become so concerned about Microsoft's power through its Windows operating system that they had begun to explore a forced breakup. Although Microsoft remained intact, the multiyear battle with the U.S. government and other disputes with European regulators hobbled and distracted Microsoft, helping to propel the rise of Google and Apple. Google is now confronting the same potential fate. "Google is in the government's crosshairs," said Ken Auletta, who was given inside access to the company while writing his 2009 book, "Googled: The End of the World As We Know It." ''This company once had a certain glow to it, but it is losing its halo." Just this past week, Google raised hackles in Congress by refusing to send Page or its current CEO, Sundar Pichai, to a hearing on Russian manipulation of internet services to sway U.S. elections. Congressional officials left an empty chair while top executives from Facebook and Twitter appeared. Offended lawmakers derided Google as "arrogant." The European Commission already has imposed fines totaling $7.8 billion after concluding the company had unfairly used its search engine to highlight its own services and illegally bundled together its products in Android. Google has denied any wrongdoing, but that hasn't discouraged European regulators from looking into other possible abuses. U.S. President Donald Trump and some U.S. regulators are now raising the possibility of opening new investigations into Google's business and privacy practices five years after the Federal Trade Commission decided the company was mostly complying with the laws. It all paints a picture of a company that may spend the next decade fighting to protect the empire it built during its first two decades. An airline based in Taiwan is reportedly being accused of discriminating against a same-sex couple from the Bay Area. The incident reportedly occurred at San Francisco International Airport when the couple boarded an EVA airplane to Taipei. Jeff Cobb tells the San Francisco Chronicle the gate agent told the couple only he or his husband could pre-board with their toddler. Cobb ended up waiting until normal boarding. Cobb soon realized straight couples with young children were pre-boarding together. EVA has since apologized, saying the gate agent was misinformed about airline policies. After learning about the incident, EVA ordered its staff to review diversity training. The family of a black man shot by police in March has filed wrongful death claims with the city of Sacramento. Police fatally shot 22-year-old Stephon Clark, setting off weeks of protests in in Sacramento and calls for police reform. Two officers said they shot Clark thinking he was pointing a gun at them, but he turned out to be carrying only a cellphone. Clark's family is seeking more than $15 million in damages, including loss of financial support, funeral expenses, attorney fees, and punitive damages, according to the city. Such claims are usually a precursor to a lawsuit, the city said. District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert has not decided whether to bring charges against the officers in the March shooting. Police officers and firefighters in Sunnyvale are going public with their concerns that the city is allowing business to boom without enough consideration for public safety. On Thursday, the public safety officers union sent a letter to City Council members formally requesting they take a closer look at the Sunnyvale's looming development plans, especially the proposed massive Google campus. It's yet another sign that Sunnyvale is losing its small-town atmosphere to Silicon Valley growth. For the citys public safety officers, who alternate between being cops and firefighters, it's becoming more than they can handle. In one national survey, Sunnyvale has been hailed as the countrys safest city for the past three years. Its probably one reason Google has applied to build massive projects there, including a reported 1 million square foot campus as well as another 400,000 square foot project, adding thousands of new employees. Google is also asking the city to consider building new high density housing. The president of Sunnyvales Public Safety Officers Association, made up of 200 cops, firefighters and dispatchers, is worried. "Im sure theyre kind of star struck with some of these big companies wanting to come to the city to do business, which were all for," union President Frank Bellucci said. "But we just want to make sure that type of growth is done wisely." So, the union sent the letter to City Council members, formally requesting impacts to public safety be specifically analyzed. The letter points out the city last year saw a 13-year high in some major crimes, including rape, aggravated assault, robbery, larceny and vehicle thefts. "We are also seeing huge problems with traffic in our city,' Bellucci said. "That will add response time to our being able to get to you when you call 911, and its also causing some problems with some of our pedestrian collisions that are occurring in the city." A union consultant and adviser said the focus is on protecting public safety but added litigation has not been ruled out. A career criminal who authorities believe is the Gypsy Hill Killer faces trial Friday in Redwood City for the murders of two young women four decades ago. Law enforcement officials believe Rodney Halbower, 69, is the man who raped and killed six young women during a five-month period in 1976. The serial killer was given his nickname when one of the bodies was found in the Gypsy Hills section of Pacifica, about 10 miles south of San Francisco. Opening statements start Friday in Redwood City, which is about 30 miles south of San Francisco. The killings of six young women in Northern California and Reno, Nevada, remained a mystery until 2014. That's when DNA taken from cigarette butts saved from the scene of one of the killings in Reno led investigators to Halbower's prison cell in Oregon. The San Mateo County district attorney's office charged Halbower with two of the six murders that occurred there, citing the cases' DNA evidence. San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe called Halbower "a sociopathic serial killer" and said he is seeking to have Halbower sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Halbower's DNA was taken when he entered the Oregon prison in 1989 where he was serving 90 years for rape and attempted murder. Halbower's DNA was stored in a national database and matched the sample Reno cold case detectives scraped from the cigarette butt when they took another look at the Reno murder case in 2014. A woman who confessed to murder spent 30 years in prison for the crime, but evidence mounted that she was mentally unfit and probably innocent. It's likely Halbower would never have been linked to the five California murders and the killing of a University of Nevada nursing student in Reno had he not escaped from a Nevada prison in December 1986. He stole a car and made his way to Oregon, where within days of his escape he was arrested for rape and attempted murder. An Oregon jury convicted Halbower and sentenced him to 15 years in prison in that state. First, he was returned to Nevada to finish that state's prison term. When Nevada paroled him in 2013, he was sent back to Oregon, where prison officials took a DNA sample and submitted it to the national database investigators use to revive stalled investigations, which linked him to the Gypsy Hill murders. Halbower was first transferred to the San Mateo County Jail in 2014 and his trial has been delayed several times. He has fired several of his public defenders and demanded to represent himself. The case was also delayed until a jury last year determined he was competent to stand trial. Judges have refused to let him serve as his own attorney. His current public defender, John Halley, didn't return a call from The Associated Press on Wednesday. Court records show Halbower has spent the last 53 years in prison or on the lam after escaping. A 1987 psychiatric report for an Oregon court concluded that Halbower was an intelligent man who suffered from "a severe personality disorder, with a propensity toward criminal behavior." Halbower earned a high school diploma in prison, but he has had no other education, court records show. He does not appear to possess job skills, although he took drafting classes and dabbled with art behind bars in Michigan, Nevada and Oregon. Still, that psychiatric report said Halbower "feels that he is pretty accomplished, that he should be able to teach, that he has a great many qualifications" and yearned to be a famous artist or a rock-and-roll star. The report concluded that Halbower's "life is replete with poor impulse control, narcissism and a certain grandiosity." Days after Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he would not seek a third term in office, NBC 5 learned Thursday that labor leaders held a special meeting as they look to unify behind a single candidate in the race. The meeting brought together 20 members of the Chicago Federation of Labors executive board. While a consensus wasnt reached, some members are pushing hard for the board to support Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. In the last mayoral race, Preckwinkle opted not to take on Emanuel, but now sources are telling NBC 5 that her political team is talking to campaign staff, making phone calls, and polling Chicagoans about a potential run. Preckwinkles ties to labor and to the Democratic Party in the city, of which she is the leader, could work in her favor, but her support of the countys controversial soda tax could negatively impact her candidacy if she chooses to jump into the race. The head of the CFL board says that they will not make a decision on whom to support until the field is more well-defined in the coming weeks and months. Other candidates are also looking to potentially jump into the race, including County Commissioner Chuy Garcia, who lost to Emanuel in 2015. Garcia is currently running for Congress, and is looking to replace Representative Luis Gutierrez, who could also join the crowded field. Garcia has not said when he will decide about a potential run, but Gutierrez says that he will make a decision by the weekend, as time comes for petitions to be circulated in the race. A pair of other potential candidates, including Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, have both said they will not run for the office. In the wake of the latest round of sex abuse allegations against the Catholic Church, a group of Catholic women are stepping up pressure on Pope Francis to take on a leadership role in dealing with the crisis. The American group Legatus announced Thursday that it would withhold $1 million in donations in the midst of the controversy, saying that they want clarity on how the Church is going to proceed in investigating the abuse allegations. I certainly would support a very prudent study, and thats why we really need the Holy Fathers answers, Mary Fiorito of the Ethics and Public Policy Center said. Legatus, a group of Catholic business leaders, has given the Vatican $18 million annually since 1987, and theyre using the donation as a wake-up call to the Church to address the crisis more forcefully. Fiorito, who was Cardinal Georges executive assistant for 12 years, is one of 37,000 Catholic women who have signed a letter asking for answers after Archbishop Carlo Viganos letter stated that Pope Francis was aware of sex abuse allegations surrounding Cardinal Theodore McCarick. Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, a member of the very first lay review board appointed in 2002, is asking the Pope to reinstate that group to investigate what the Catholic Church knew about the situation, and when they knew it. It has to be done because theres no trust in the Church, she said. (We seek) to inquire about how Cardinal Theodore McCarrick rose through the ranks to become a bishop. Cardinal Blase Cupich, head of the Chicago archdiocese, does not support Burkes request. I am confident the current national lay review board has the competence to carry out any task the president of our conference requests, he said in a statement. Cardinal Cupich was on his way to Rome Thursday, sources said. Rocco Palmo, a Catholic writer with Whispers in the Loggia, said Cardinal Cupich is speaking Friday at a Vatican conference training newly named bishops. The community turned out for a vigil to honor activist Delmonte Johnson as two persons of interest were taken into custody by Chicago police. The 19-year-old activist was shot to death in the 8600 block of South Euclid on Wednesday night, according to police. On Thursday night, authorities confirmed that two persons of interest were in custody, and said the investigation is still ongoing. After Thursdays vigil, activist Andrew Holmes offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. According to police, Johnson was standing on a sidewalk at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night when a tan colored vehicle pulled up, and an occupant inside opened fire, striking him in the chest and stomach. Johnson was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. According to friends of Johnson, he was a volunteer with the advocacy group GoodKids MadCity, and was passionate about preventing gun violence in the city. Former President Barack Obama said he was re-entering the political stage on Friday to tell Americans to vote in what he called the most important election of his lifetime. In a speech at the University of Illinois, Obama called out President Donald Trump by name, along with the Republican Party, for embracing demagoguery and division, leading to the erosion of American norms that helped make the country great. The cure for America's "current funk" is voting, he said, telling young people that they have the power to change the world if they mobilize. "Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you that this moment really is different, the stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire," Obama said, speaking, "as a fellow citizen, not as an ex-president." Advisers had cast the speech, which came as Obama accepted an ethics in government award, as the moment he would re-engage in politics after spending most of his post-presidency on the partisan sidelines. Obama did so with his most direct comments about Trump since the start of his presidency he rarely mentions Trump by name. Obama called the times we are living in extraordinary and dangerous times in which politicians on the right have taken advantage of people's simmering economic insecurity. "Over the past few decades the politics of division and resentment and paranoia has unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party," he said, highlighting its attempts to roll back the social safety net, cut taxes without raising more revenues, rejecting climate change and more. But Trump is a "symbol, not the cause" of the party's appeals to tribalism and to fear, which wouldn't work in a "healthy democracy," Obama said. Yet Obama also called out his actions directly, including threatening the freedom of the press and pressuring the Department of Justice to investigate political opponents and protect members of political allies ahead of elections, as Trump has recently done including during the speech. "We're supposed to stand up to bullies, not follow them," Obama said. "We're supposed to stand up to discrimination, and we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?" The cure for such actions, Obama said, is by making sure to vote in November's midterm elections. "This is not normal ... but here's the good news: in two months, we have the chance not the certainty but the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics," he said. Trump responded to Obama's comments at a speech in North Dakota: "I watched it, but I fell asleep. I found he's very good. Very good for sleeping." The Republican National Committee cast Obama as the "resistor-in-chief" and said he was dismissing the people who voted Trump into office. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted that the speech made it more likely that Trump would get re-elected. "In fact, the best explanation of President Trump's victory are the 'results' of the Obama Presidency!" he said. The speech came as Trump told reporters that the Justice Department should investigate the identity of the senior White House official whose anonymous New York Times op-ed this week said people inside the White House are trying to stop Trump from achieving his worse impulses. Obama touched on that article as well, saying people inside the White House not following the president's orders shouldn't be seen as a check on Trump's power: "They're not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff that's coming out of this White House and then saying, 'Don't worry, we're preventing the other 10 percent.'" More than 17 times as many University of Illinois students registered to hear the speech as there are seats in the auditorium. The News-Gazette reports 22,611 students registered before a ticket lottery portal closed last Friday for the some 1,300 available seats in Foellinger Auditorium. University special events director Laura Wilhelm-Barr says Foellinger was being closed part of Thursday and all day Friday ahead of the speech. Larger campus venues are hosting other events, with concerts scheduled Wednesday and Friday nights at State Farm Center and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts booked for its 50th anniversary celebration on Friday night. What to Know Federal and local authorities are investigating multiple cases of letters containing white powder that were mailed to facilities in CT. The substance that prompted investigations into four white powder incidents in Hartford Wednesday was baby powder. A man is being questioned in connection with these incidents and remains in custody on unrelated charges. Authorities investigating several cases of letters containing white powder that were mailed to facilities in Connecticut have uncovered more letters connected to the case. The FBI, USPS, US Marshals Service, Connecticut State Police and local departments are investigating multiple incidents of letters containing white powder delivered to both government and non-government organizations over the last few days. At least four of those incidents were in Hartford Wednesday. New Haven authorities are also investigating several similar cases. According to the US Attorneys Office, investigators seized unmailed letters and stopped some letters from reaching the recipients. Authorities are also warning potential recipients to look out for anything suspicious. Some letters continue to arrive at new locations. Connecticut State Police said that to date, no one who had contact with any of the white powder suffered any illness or injury. Anyone who receives a suspicious package is encouraged to call 911. 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. Officials 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. A New Haven police lieutenant who is accused of assaulting his wife and holding his family hostage in their home has been suspended and police said he is facing serious criminal charges. Police identified the officer as Rahgue Tennant, an 18-year veteran police officer with a wife and three young children. He is accused of assaulting his wife over the course of several days before holding her and their children in their Morris Cove home on Tolli Terrace in New Haven, according to a news release from police. "We were led to believe that this was, that people in the home were prevented from leaving for several days," Officer David Hartman said Thursday. Officers and the SWAT team and Hostage Negotiators were requested at 5:51 p.m. Thursday and mutual aid was requested from the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Division. Tennant, who was despondent, requested help and agreed to come out peacefully, police said. Members of his family did eventually escape the home and went to a neighbor's. "He did have people in the home with him over the past several days who were able to get out of the home and help with the alert that this was going on," Hartman explained. Tennant has been taken for psychological testing and Hartman said he's had no previous issues. "This is a job that is filled with anguish on a daily basis, hour to hour, year to year. And some people reach a breaking point where theyre unable to manage certain things," Hartman said. The situation prompted road closures and a large police response in the area. Today proved that with the right training and the right mindset, officers can perform their duties compassionately, no matter the circumstances, regardless of personal feelings," Chief Anthony Campbell wrote in a statement. "I am pleased with the peaceful resolution and that our officer will now be afforded the care he so desperately wants." Connecticut businesses provided a mixed bag of news in the annual survey conducted by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. As things get better you would hope the optimism would rise a little bit and its not quite there, yet, said Joe Brennan, CBIAs president. On the whole, companies did report that individually, many are doing better. Sixty-nine percent of businesses responded that they have been profitable over the past year, while the rest reported either now profit or that they lost money. The harshest assessments had to do with the direction of the state of Connecticut, the performance of elected officials, and the states ability to develop and retain millennial employees. Eighty-one percent of respondents said they either somewhat or strongly disapprove of the legislatures handling of the economy and job creation, with 59 percent feeling strongly. Ninety-seven percent of respondents said state policymakers focus too heavily on workplace mandates rather than prioritizing economic development and job creation. The pessimism of the outlook is also specific, as many fear for what the next General Assembly and governors solutions may be to the states nearly $5 billion deficit projected over the next two years. Most of our folks firmly believe, as do I, that another round of large tax increases is going to do a lot more harm than good for this state, Brennan said. The issue of retaining millennials is one of the topics that CBIA and employers say the state and businesses need to come up with solutions for in the immediate future. Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported that they have trouble finding and retaining millennial talent, while the remaining 33 percent reported no issue when it came to recruiting or holding on millennial employees. Recruitment here is very, very challenging, said Lynn Fusco, president of Fusco Corporation, who was a panelist for CBIA during a discussion of the states economy. She said Connecticut has to come up with a way for its cities to compete with major urban centers that are both right around the corner and across the country. Theres a multitude of universities, I mean Boston, so many knapsacks walking around, it really seems like a college town and the Yale graduates seem to leave for New York or San Francisco or Boston. They dont stay. Brennan says if the state can get its fiscal house in order, the state may be able to see some of the gains many other states have seen over the past few years. Confidence leads to investment. Investment leads to growth and job creation, so thats what we really need, that path toward more jobs. More than 60,000 people are expected to fill New London for the annual Maritime Heritage Festival this week. Thursday was the official kickoff. Gov. Dannel Malloy, festival and local leaders were all in attendance at Fort Trumbull. Families will get to tour a combination of historic schooners, merchant marine vessels and U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Ships, including the USS Lassen, the Navys guided missile destroyer. The five-day celebration runs from Wednesday, Sept. 5 to Sunday, Sept. 9 and promotes the states maritime heritage during Connecticut Maritime Heritage Week. This festival is a little bit about our history, a little bit about whats currently going on and a lot about what going to happen in the not too distant future, Malloy said. Were making massive investments here in New London at the Naval Base, up the river and across the way at Electric Boat. Events include a Swingin on the Pier dance party, a parade of ships and a Coast Guard search and rescue demonstration. Major staffing changes are coming to the Meriden Police Department after the city council pushed a new budget following the voter referendum rejecting a tax increase over the summer. City Councilor Michael Carbona, who is the chair of the public safety committee, told NBC Connecticut the police department took the hardest hit from budget cuts. Police officers are not losing their jobs, but there will be fewer of them assigned to the citys schools and a community policing program is being eliminated altogether. One week ago, Meriden police called in the state police bomb squad to detonate a pressure cooker found near the Israel Putnam Elementary School. It was an excellent response, it was an appropriate response and I really commend them especially Officer Egan who is a school resource officer to take care of that issue very quickly, said Holly Wills, the president of the Meriden Council of Neighborhoods. Chief Jeffry Cossette said he needs to reassign the three elementary and middle school resource officers after the city council cut the police funding by more than $420,000. Now the schools will obviously still remain safe, the chief said, but they wont have that extra connection that they would have to the same officer every day. Cossette said it was a difficult decision given the heightened attention to school safety. No one is getting laid off, he said, whats happening is they are all being reassigned to patrol which will reduce my $1.5 million overtime line item. Eleven officers in the neighborhood initiative program are also moving back to patrol, Cossette said. Theyre dedicated to a certain area in the city, they get to know neighbors, they get to know them, Will said. Our concern is that crime is going to increase. Wills said the neighborhood officers have done good work responding to quality of life issues while cracking down on crime and blight. Its a very sad day for the city of Meriden, she said. We really rely on these officers to be in our neighborhoods, especially the inner-city neighborhoods. Meridens two high schools will still have SROs. The staffing changes go into effect September 15. If the city finds a way to restore the funding, Cossette said the neighborhood and school positions cannot be reinstated until January at the earliest. Cellphone video taken aboard an American Airlines flight from Arizona to Hawaii last week appears to show a flight attendant telling a passenger that they should urinate in a plastic bag. The Aug. 31 flight had departed Phoenix for Kona when the lavatories malfunctioned during the flight, an American Airlines spokesman said in a statement. A passenger, who wished to not be identified, told Phoenix NBC affiliate KPNX the cabin crew made an announcement to passengers that there was a problem with the bathrooms. The woman said only one restroom at the front of the plane was open, but that the toilet was overflowing. What do you mean I have to pee in a bag? the woman asks the flight attendant in the video. The flight attendant tells the woman the toilets are overflowing, and that's why bags are available: "I know, it's horrible. And guys are going in bottles." The Fort Worth-based airline said a diaper had been flushed down one of the toilets, causing the lavatory system to malfunction. Normally a flight would redirect to a nearby airport but AA said this plane didn't because of its location. AA said customer service agents were reaching out to all 187 passengers who had been on board the Boeing 757. "At American, lavatories must be working properly prior to departure," an AA statement read. "If an American flight is in the air, and all lavatories become inoperative, the flight will divert to the nearest suitable airport in order for maintenance to rectify the situation. Due to the location of the aircraft, the flight continued to its intended destination. The issue was subsequently rectified upon arrival in Kona, and our flight returned to Phoenix as scheduled." What to Know Uniformed, off-duty officer called police, saying she shot a man after she entered a neighbor's apartment by mistake Botham Shem Jean, 26, transported to a hospital where he died Police issue manslaughter warrant against officer; Chief says blood will be drawn from officer to test for drugs/alcohol. A manslaughter warrant is expected to be issued for Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer who police say shot and killed a man after entering an apartment unit she believed was her own Thursday night. Dallas Chief of Police U. Renee Hall announced the warrant during a news conference early Friday afternoon and added that a blood sample will be drawn from Guyger to test for drugs and/or alcohol. "Right now there are more questions than we have as answers," Hall said. Police released Guyger's identity late Saturday. She was not in custody as of 11 p.m. Saturday. Hall said Friday afternoon she wasn't sure of the officer's current location. Jean Family Hall said police were notified of an officer-involved shooting at the South Side Flats just before 10 p.m. Thursday -- the apartment building is about one block away from the Dallas Police Department Headquarters south of downtown. Hall said as the investigation unfolded the details of the incident created "a very unique situation." When pressed for details, Hall declined to elaborate. Hall said given the direction of the investigation, the Dallas Police Department ceased normal protocol for investigating officer-involved shootings and, in the interest of transparency, has invited the Texas Rangers to take over the investigation. A Dallas police officer shot and killed a man after entering an apartment unit she believed was her own, police said. Earlier in the morning, Dallas Sgt. Warren Mitchell said Guyger was heading home after working a full shift when she mistakenly entered a neighbor's apartment and was confronted by a man, identified by the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office as 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean. Dallas Chief of Police U. Renee Hall says a manslaughter warrant is forthcoming after an off-duty officer shot and killed a man in his apartment after mistaking the residence for her own Thursday night. A manslaughter warrant is being issued for a Dallas police officer who police say shot and killed a man after entering an apartment unit she believed was her own Thursday night. At some point during the interaction between Jean and Guyger, she fired her weapon, hitting him, police said. Guyger then called 911 to report an officer-involved shooting -- minutes later, Hall said, officers and EMS with Dallas Fire-Rescue arrived and began to treat the victim. Jean was transported to a hospital where he was later pronounced deceased. Hall said Friday afternoon the nature of the interaction between Guyger and Jean was unclear and the department has not issued an official statement on what took place. Mother Against Police Brutality Planned to Hold a Vigil at Dallas police headquarters for Botham Jean, who was shot by an off-duty officer Thursday night. Jean later died at an area hospital. The mother of a man killed by a Dallas police officer Thursday night who shot him after entering an apartment she believed was her own says her son loved everybody and that she wishes she could wake up from this nightmare. In an interview in New York Friday, Allison Jean, Botham's mother, questioned how someone could walk into an apartment and not know they were in someone else's home. "Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment. He's a bachelor. Things are different inside," Jean said. "I dont want to judge her. We are Christians. We forgive. But I need to look into her eyes and ask her why did she do that to my son. She took away my heart. My soul. He didnt deserve to die. The explanation does not make sense." Resident Tomiya Melvin said the hallways in the building all look the same so it could be a simple misunderstanding, but that, of course, she never expected anything like this to happen. "It's more than a tragedy because that person is gone forever and this is going to be forever in that person's [officer's] mind and be embedded," Melvin said. VHT Studios Many residents told NBC 5 they chose to live at the complex because they believed it was safe. They said keyfobs are needed to access each floor but that doors do not automatically lock when closed. Jean's mother is from St. Lucia but was visiting New York when she learned of her son's death. She traveled to Dallas Friday night and met with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings on Saturday. A funeral service for Botham will be held Thursday at noon at the Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in Richardson. A viewing will be held prior to the service from 10 a.m. to noon. Residents of a Dallas neighborhood share their thoughts on the officer-involved shooting that happened Thursday night. Editor's Note: A previous version of this story included an account of events told by a Dallas police source. Due to conflicting reports of the incident from various sources, we've removed that account from the story. NBC 5's Jack Douglas, Jack Highberger and Ken Kalthoff contributed to this report. In Collin County, some first-time criminal offenders are getting a second chance with an enhanced criminal diversion program meant to get them on the right track. Thursday afternoon, a small group of program participants attended a graduation ceremony at the Collin County Courthouse. Among the group was 23-year-old Josh Nichols, who said he was at the wrong place and wrong time, hanging out with people he should have avoided, when he was caught with a small amount of marijuana last year. At the time, Nichols said he didnt have a steady job and faced a possession charge on his record. But his lawyer encouraged him to apply for the Collin County DAs Path 2 Criminal Diversion program. Collin County has had a criminal pre-trial diversion program for several years, but the Path 2 program is new and enhanced. Its designed for low-level, first time non-violent offenders who need additional support. Participants are required to complete life skills classes and are paired with mentors and job placement opportunities. We can surround you with people who care about you. We can surround you with people who can equip you to make a difference and make something of your life, said District Attorney Greg Willis. That then has a ripple effect on their families and friends and communities. Thats a way that a DAs office can be transformative. Judge Willis had a vision and a goal to create a diversion program that would decrease crime and increase public safety by not only holding an eligible defendant accountable, but also providing the resources, skills, relationships, education and employment placement needed to break the cycle of crime, Assistant District Attorney Ann Sheu told those who gathered for the graduation on Thursday. She also encouraged them to take a moment to think about their journey. Nichols said he hasnt talked to his old friends in more than a year. Hes also working in a job the program referred him to. He works to build playgrounds for Recreation Builder. His boss, David Russell, said Nichols has come a long way since hiring him last December. In the first interview, it was sketchy. I wasnt sure this was going to work but we were committed to give it a shot, said Russell. What Josh did is he took that opportunity and he absolutely seized it -- just took it to the absolute max. Russell said he promoted Nichols in July and said he has a bright future in the business. Its just amazing to see him blossom, Russell said. A key component in the program is job placement. Pivot Staffing Group, a nonprofit, helps screen candidates for the DAs program and match them with entry-level positions in careers that include administration and construction. We want them to be at the right place at the right time with the right attitude, said Pivot Executive Director Kenny Brown. Once you find employment, then it eliminates the risk of going back to a certain lifestyle you had beforehand, explained Pivot Director of Development Reggie Nious. The program is meant to be intensive and not everyone makes it. Out of the 15 participants who started the diversion program last year, nine are now graduating. Graduates arent guaranteed a clean record moving forward. Prosecutors will file to dismiss charges and the graduate can apply to have their record expunged. Charges that are eligible for the program include drug possession, forgery, theft, criminal mischief and trespass. People charged with violent crimes, domestic violence, sex offenses or DWI are not eligible for the diversion program. Program participants pay a $500 fee along with $50 a month in monitoring fees. Those who are declared indigent and have a court-appointed attorney can have the fees waived. One person who changes his life around and then theyre no longer breaking the law. Theyre holding down a job, theyre getting promotions, theyre in healthier relationships, theyre raising kids that are in a better environment, said Willis. We have the opportunity to be transformative in the community. The district attorney's offfice said it plans to expand the enhanced diversion program and that there are 100 candidates in the pipeline. The mother of a man killed by a Dallas police officer Thursday night who shot him after entering an apartment she believed was her own says her son loved everybody and that she wishes she could wake up from this nightmare. Allison Jean, who lives in St. Lucia but was visiting New York this week, said she was told over the telephone that her son Botham Shem Jean had been killed, apparently in his own apartment, in Dallas. "I couldnt believe it when we got that call. It just feels like a nightmare. I wish I could wake up. He impacted the lives of many. Im getting calls from all over the world. My country St Lucia is impacted," said Jean. Dallas Chief of Police U. Renee Hall said officers were called to an officer-involved shooting at the South Side Flats just before 10 p.m. Thursday and that as the investigation unfolded it became clear that what actually took place was something far more unique. Dallas Chief of Police U. Renee Hall says a manslaughter warrant is forthcoming after an off-duty officer shot and killed a man in his apartment after mistaking the residence for her own Thursday night. Earlier in the morning, Sgt. Warren Mitchell said officer Amber Guyger was heading home after working a full shift when she mistakenly entered a neighbor's apartment home. After entering the unit, she was confronted by a man and at some point during the interaction she fired her weapon, hitting him. "Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment. He's a bachelor. Things are different inside," Jean told NBC News Friday morning via telephone. Without providing much additional detail, Hall said during a news conference Friday that Guyger would soon be the subject of a manslaughter warrant and that blood would be drawn to determine if drugs or alcohol were present in her body. Saturday, Hall said the Texas Rangers advised Dallas police to "hold off" on issuing the warrant. "I dont want to judge her. We are Christians. We forgive. But I need to look into her eyes and ask her why did she do that to my son. She took away my heart. My soul. He didnt deserve to die. The explanation does not make sense," said Jean. A manslaughter warrant is being issued for a Dallas police officer who police say shot and killed a man after entering an apartment unit she believed was her own Thursday night. Dallas police released Guyger's identity late Saturday of the officer, and Jean's mother wonders if race may have played a role in her son's death. "I didnt know she was white until now. If it was a white man would it have been different? Would she had reacted differently?" Jean said. Jean is expected to travel to Dallas Friday where a vigil is being organized for Friday night by the Mothers Against Police Brutality. The vigil will be held at 7 p.m. at Dallas Police Headquarters -- 1400 S. Lamar Street. Mother Against Police Brutality Planned to Hold a Vigil at Dallas police headquarters for Botham Jean, who was shot by an off-duty officer Thursday night. Jean later died at an area hospital. "Botham would want me to get justice for him. Whoever did it to him needs to pay. A heavy price," Jean said. "The state needs to pay for my son. They need to pay for the loss of my son. Botham was no where in any wrong place at any wrong time. He was in his sanctuary. In the place he called home. He didnt deserve it. Jean worked in Dallas for PricewaterhouseCooper, a multinational professional services firm. The company said they were heartbroken to learn of Jean's death. Before moving to Dallas, Jean attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas where he frequently led church services and campus events, school officials said. "The entire Harding family grieves today for the loss of Botham Jean, who has meant so very much to us," a university statement read. "Please join us in praying for Bothams friends and family." Music and worship were a big part of Jean's life, he was very involved in Dallas West Church of Christ. He first visited the church in 2014 with his university's singing group. The minister's daughter gets emotional thinking about Jean, a young man described as concerned about justice and aware of current events and social issues. "I would have heard this story, if this wasn't Bo, and I would have immediately texted him and we would have ba dialog about that," said Jessica Berry. "He was a very smart young man and just had a nice, sweet, humble heart, that's the best way I can explain it." [[492736621, C]] The minister of Dallas West Church of Christ wants more answers from police before deciding how to respond to Jean's death. "I think he would demand first answers and then justice," said Sammie Berry. A survivor of a deadly crash in the Fort Worth Stockyards is describing the moment a suspected burglar plowed into him, during a police chase that killed one innocent driver and injured four others. It happened around 11 a.m. Thursday, when the Stockyards was busy with tourists and visitors on foot and in their cars. Police said 26-year-old Luis Young came racing down North Main Street in a stolen pickup truck and slammed into five cars. He's now charged in connection with the death of a 58-year-old grandmother. Many would call the Stockyards the heart of Fort Worth and on Thursday, that heart was broken. "It hurts for me a little bit to know that I was a part of that," Antonio Martinez said. Martinez is principal of North Side High School. At 11 a.m. Thursday, he had stepped out for a rare lunch break and was stopped at a red light on North Main Street. "All of a sudden, I just hear this, like an explosion," Martinez said. "In my mind I'm like, 'What is happening,' not knowing that a car was plowing into me from the back." Martinez blacked out for a moment and came to with an aching neck and a swollen cheek. "As I walked out of the car, I knew I was going to be OK," Martinez said. "My concern was for the family." In the car right next to him, he could see that Gaudencia Meza was not moving. She died at the scene. Her husband was rushed to the hospital. "My kids used to go to school with their kids," said neighbor Donnie Bradley. Bradley has lived next door to the Mezas for more than 15 years. "Oh man I just saw her out there yesterday," Bradley said. "Today she's gone, it's terrible." Mezas family told NBC 5 she has four children and one young granddaughter, whom she adored. She loved to cook and worked in the cafeteria at Washington Heights Elementary School for close to 20 years. Bradley can't get over how it happened. "It's just plain senseless, burglary suspect, driving reckless trying to get away," Bradley said. Now there are questions about whether police were right to follow that suspect into such a densely populated area. Martinez doesn't fault the police, but believes they should review their policies. "I felt like maybe they had some reason to pursue and unfortunately it took someone's life. That is the sad part," Martinez said. Fort Worth police said they were already in the process of revising their chase policy to make it even stricter. They will be looking closely at whether the officers in this case followed that policy correctly, including how close they were to the suspect when he entered the busy Stockyards. Luis Young is now charged with auto theft and evading arrest causing death. He's expected to face more charges, and he already has a long criminal history, including four burglary charges, four theft charges, assault, evading arrest, and three charges of sexual assault of a child younger than 17 years old. What to Know LAPD officers were dispatched to California cities outside of Los Angeles at least a dozen times to provide security for U.S. Sen. Harris LA taxpayers paid for airline tickets, hotel stays, car rentals, and meals, according to detailed expense reports The unusual arrangement was shut down by new LAPD Chief Michel Moore in July Armed, plain-clothes LAPD officers were dispatched to California cities outside of Los Angeles at least a dozen times to provide security for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris at public events, media appearances, and a party. LA taxpayers paid for airline tickets, hotel stays, car rentals, and meals, according to detailed expense reports obtained by NBC News. The total cost of the trips, not including the officers' overtime, topped $28,000. The LAPD routinely provides security for dignitaries and officials visiting LA, but a senior retired department official said the courtesy extended to Sen. Harris for her travels to other cities was unprecedented. Mayor Eric Garcetti's office said the Mayor was, "unaware," of this unusual arrangement until July, when it was shut down by new LAPD Chief Michel Moore. "It was not until Chief Moore was sworn in, conducted a new assessment of the threat, determined that this arrangement was no longer needed, and informed Mayor Garcetti, that the mayor became aware of the state-wide detail," Garcetti spokesman Alex Comisar wrote in an email Wednesday. Garcetti said former LAPD Chief Charlie Beck was solely responsible for the program. "Chief of Police Charlie Beck assigned a security detail for US Senator Kamala Harris shortly before she was sworn into office in 2017, based on a threat assessment he believed to be credible," said LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein. "Funding for the detail was provided by the Department budget." Beck's signature appears on many of the LAPD documents authorizing the trips, including one that occured just 10 days after Harris was sworn-in to the Senate, in which two officers flew to Oakland to go with Harris to a, "retirement event," for a California Department of Justice official. NBC4 asked LAPD to contact Beck for comment. No response had been received at the time of publication. Between January 2017 and July 2018 the records show LAPD officers flew to San Francisco at least seven times, including a trip in April 2017, when Harris gave TV interviews, a trip in March 2018 for a speech at a YMCA event, and a visit in June 2018, to escort Harris to the San Francisco Pride parade, where LAPD officers were visible in video and pictures captured along the parade route. Officers also traveled to Sacramento, Fresno, and San Diego for Harris. The use of the officers and the purpose of the trips were confirmed by Harris' office. "Since she became a protectee more than a decade ago, Senator Harris has always deferred to public safety experts on procedures, protocols and determinations," said Harris' communications director Lily Adams. "Our office did not request or question LAPD's decision to provide protection and we are grateful for the ongoing work of officers in Los Angeles and across the state who risk their lives to keep all Californians safe," she said. The decision to end the out-of-town security program for Harris was made around the time the Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit that demanded Mayor Eric Garcetti turn over records detailing the taxpayer expense of his own security detail during his extensive out-of-state travels, after both City Hall and the LAPD refused to release the documents through a routine California Public Records Act request. "Unfortunately we are not able to give out this information, as it could potentially undermine the Mayor's safety and security," LAPD spokesman Rubenstein wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times that was cited in the newspaper's lawsuit. The Times' lawsuit claims there is no portion of the Records Act that exempts these expense records from public disclosure. An attorney for the Times pointed out in a court filing that the U.S. Secret Service has provided information about the cost of travelling security details for both Presidents Trump and Obama, and the cities of Chicago, Baltimore, and Seattle have all produced similar mayoral expense records for public review. Take a look at four stories we're watching Friday, including an important upcoming date for the Golden State. How 40-Plus Symbols Came to Represent California The Golden State is represented by a wide ranging list of nearly 40 symbols, including a state dinosaur, fish, insect, dance, reptile and fabric. Set by state law, some have been around for a long time, others are recent additions, and many might make you wonder how they came to represent California. List: California's Many State Symbols in Photos Sen. Harris Given LAPD Protection, Even When She Wasn't in LA Armed, plain-clothes LAPD officers were dispatched to California cities outside of Los Angeles at least a dozen times to provide security for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris at public events, media appearances, and a party. See the full report from NBC News Investigations. An I-Team investigation reveals Los Angeles Police Department officers were deployed far from the city to protect Sen. Kamala Harris anytime she isn't in the state. Prosecutors Considering More Than 50 Cases Against Ex-USC Gynecologist Detectives investigating alleged sexual assaults by former University of Southern California campus gynecologist George Tyndall have now presented 53 cases to prosecutors, but so far, no criminal charges have been filed. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office told NBC4 Friday the cases are under review. Weekend: Halloween Time at Disneyland Is Here Still hanging on to the last vestige of summer? It's getting tougher with so many fall- and Halloween-theme events popping up this weekend around Southern California. Click here to see what's going on this weekend. Detectives investigating alleged sexual assaults by former University of Southern California campus gynecologist George Tyndall have now presented 53 cases to prosecutors, but so far, no criminal charges have been filed. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office told NBC4 Friday the cases are under review. Tyndall and USC have been sued by hundreds of former patients who allege they were touched inappropriately during exams at the Engemann Student Health Center between 1998 and 2016. Last week Tyndall agreed to temporarily surrender his medical license while the Medical Board of California reviews the allegations. Tyndall has denied wrongdoing. His attorney, Leonard Levine, has said Tyndall's actions during the exams were consistent with, 'the standard of care.' The pace of the criminal investigation has frustrated some of the victims, who said they were interviewed both by LAPD detectives and prosecutors. "This may be the most exhaustive and largest individual investigation of an alleged predator that the LAPD has ever done," explained plaintiff's attorney John Manly, whose firm in Irvine represents well over 100 women. "While our clients are perplexed as to why no charges have been filed, we continue to believe the DA's office is going to do the right thing." In June LAPD detectives assigned to the Robbery-Homicide Division served a search warrant at Tyndall's condo on Wilshire Boulevard in the Westlake District near downtown. Tyndall was not arrested. He resigned from USC following an internal investigation of complaints. USC officials have denied there was a cover up. In an open letter to faculty and staff in May, USC Provost Michael Quick said top administrators did not know about the complaints until 2016. "It is true that our system failed, but it is important that you know that this claim of a cover-up is patently false," Quick wrote. "We would never knowingly put students in harm's way." USC established a hotline for complaints about Tyndall and has offered free counseling to his former patients. What to Know Investigators in Volusia County, Florida say Carlos Cruz-Echevarria was "executed" last November to keep him from testifying in a case. Authorities thought a 60-year-old U.S. Army veteran was killed on Veteran's Day as he was robbed for his truck while trying to help a stranded motorist. But sheriff's investigators in Volusia County, Florida, now say Carlos Cruz-Echevarria was "executed" last November to keep him from testifying in a road rage case. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports that the veteran was killed after stopping to help someone in a disabled car. His truck was later found burned. Sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant says DNA linked 24-year-old Benjamin Bascom to the car; Investigators then learned that 28-year-old Kelsey McFoley hired him to kill the man and 21-year-old Melissa Roque helped him get away. All three were arrested on first-degree murder charges. Cruz-Echevarria had been scheduled to give a deposition in the road rage case against McFoley. What to Know A man opened fire Thursday in a building in downtown Cincinnati, killing three people and wounding two Police have not determined a motive but said the gunman legally purchased his firearm in August Police said the gunman was carrying 250 rounds of extra ammo with him and that his firearm jammed at the scene The shooter who killed three people in the lobby of a downtown Cincinnati office high-rise could have killed many more if his gun hadn't jammed during the four-minute rampage, city leaders said Friday. Newly released security footage from inside the lobby showed the gunman firing randomly while carrying a briefcase with hundreds of rounds of ammunition over his shoulder. The footage also showed 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez walking quickly past a security turnstile Thursday morning just as he was shot by police officers who fired through a plate glass window. Cincinnati police chief Eliot Isaac said investigators don't know why Santa Perez decided to open fire in the building that headquarters Fifth Third Bancorp. He never worked there and a search of his apartment did not turn up any answers yet, the chief said. Isaac said investigators looked at the 9mm handgun that Santa Perez bought legally in August and noticed it had jammed at some point. He had fired 35 rounds inside the lobby as receptionists and other workers starting their day dove for cover, Isaac said. Santa Perez had entered through a side door, wearing dress pants and white button-down shirt. Initially, police had thought Santa Perez had entered at the loading dock and began shooting there, but Isaac said Friday that was because some of the shooting victims had ran to that area. His aunt, Yudy Martinez Perez, slumped against a kitchen wall and muttered denials after she heard the news, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Martinez Perez described him as "very quiet" and said he had been working various jobs but his family didn't know where. One of the victims, a 25-year-old, was recognized by the coroner. Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco had met Prudhvi Kandepi at a local Hindu temple. The two also shared the same hometown and language, Telugu. Sammarco posted Thursday on Facebook, asking how officials will explain to his parents "they will never see their son again because of a senseless shooting in a foreign country." The local Telugu Association of North America office said they plan to help Kandepi's father. He wants his son's body to be taken back to India. The other two victims were identified as Luis Calderon, 48, a bank employee, and Richard Newcomer, 64, a contractor who worked for Gilbane Building Company. One of the people wounded was in fair condition Friday and another patient was in serious condition at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Authorities believe that Santa Perez has lived in the Cincinnati area since 2015. Police swarmed his apartment in North Bend, Ohio, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away. Records show the shooter formerly lived in South Carolina and South Florida and had been charged with some non-violent crimes years ago. Police said he went into a sandwich shop and other businesses before entering the lobby and opening fire in the building that sits alongside Fountain Square, often a site of concerts, dancing, food trucks and other events around lunchtime or in the evenings. Gov. John Kasich ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds in Hamilton County, and at the Statehouse, through Monday. Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley praised the city's police officers who confronted and took down the shooter. "If he had gotten on the elevator, gone up to a floor, if he had been there earlier or a little bit longer, many more people would have been killed," Cranley said. CORRECTION (Sept. 8, 2018, 3:20 p.m. ET): A previous version of this story misspelled the name of victim Prudhvi Kandepi. What to Know A family wants a law that would require schools to notify parents, not just the state education department, if their child is being bullied Their 13-year-old son Jacobe Taras died by suicide after being tormented at school, and his parents want Jacobe's Law to be passed in NY But there are concerns over rights of students, especially LGBTQ youth With the terror of school shootings lurking in the minds of parents and students, a booming industry is taking aim at parents: bulletproof backpacks are being marketed as a way to keep kids safe. They are sold online and at some stores. The I-Team bought one at Office Depot in Union, New Jersey, for $186. Reaction from back-to-school shoppers was mixed. Its kind of a shame where we went to as a country that you have to sell this for safety, said Lennox Mars, a teacher and parent. "Its kind of sad to know that kids even have to think about this," said educator Jodie Ramey. "Instead of making a bulletproof backpack," she added, "We need to invest more in preventative stuff." High school sophomore Raquel Vargas said, "If I had the money to buy one, I would." The I-Team at News 4 New York's sister station in Los Angeles bought the same backpack, the Guard Dog ProShield 2, which says it will stop a 9-millimeter or 44-caliber bullet. A firearms instructor helped the I-Team put it to the test. The backpack did stop bullets as advertised, but when the instructor used an AR-15, a military grade weapon used in many school shootings, the bullets went through the panel of the backpack. In a statement, the company said their line of backpacks are tested and rated against level IIIa standards, which excludes AR-caliber bullets. While the backpacks may be able to withstand bullets in a demonstration, some school security experts arent buying it. "I think that its a false sense of security," said Paul Kissane, deputy police chief of the Fort Lee Police Department who has more than 20 years of school security experience. "In most drills when youre evacuating we teach everyone to leave everything behind, so theres a concern for that are we having children that are going back to get their backpacks in order to evacuate a building and I dont see the logic in that," said Kissane. A better way to protect kids, he says, is reporting any sign of trouble at school and practicing safety drills. What to Know A 'Trump 2020' flag was snatched from the hands of an audience member by an actor performing in the 'Frozen the Broadway Musical' Monmouth University in New Jersey has indefinitely suspended all of its fraternities and sororities A video of an incident aboard an American Airlines plane has really taken off on the internet Friday, Sept. 7, 2018 Happy Friday! It should stay dry for most today, but the coast may see some drops this afternoon. It will be much cooler with highs only reaching the 70s. As always, get the latest forecast at nbcnewyork.com/weather. 1. Actor Tears 'Re-Elect Trump' Flag From Audience Member at 'Frozen the Musical' Broadway Show A "Trump 2020" flag was snatched from the hands of an audience member by an actor performing in the "Frozen the Broadway Musical." The actors were doing their bows during the encore at the St. James Theatre when the audience member in the front row starting waving the flag. Seeing it, actor Timothy Hughes -- who plays Pabbie the wise troll in the musical -- snatched it and threw it behind the stage. Read more here. 2. New Jersey University Suspends All Fraternities, Sororities The party is over at a New Jersey University, at least for now. Monmouth University has indefinitely suspended all of its fraternities and sororities for what school officials say was an inadequate response to some "serious conduct violations." All non-educational activities sponsored by Monmouth University's seven fraternities and nine sororities have been canceled, including parties, recruitment efforts and community service events. Read more here. 3. Airline Passengers Asked to Urinate in Bags During Flight A video of an incident aboard an American Airlines plane has really taken off. In the video, a flight attendant tells a horrified passenger she would have to go to the bathroom in a plastic bag during the flight to Hawaii. The bizarre request came after another passenger apparently flushed a diaper and clogged up the flight's tank, the airline says. Get more here. For the latest entertainment news and things to do, tune in to New York Live, Monday through Friday at 11:30 a.m. on NBC 4 New York. Tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions could be erased with the OK of Brooklyn's top prosecutor, under a new plan for wiping records clean of offenses no longer being prosecuted in parts of the nation's biggest city. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is inviting people to request conviction dismissals. He expects prosecutors will consent in the great majority of a potential 20,000 cases since 1990 and an unknown number of older ones. To Gonzalez, whose office has stopped prosecuting most cases involving people accused of having small amounts of pot, it's only right to nix convictions that wouldn't be pursued now. "It's a little unfair to say we're no longer prosecuting these cases, but to have these folks carry these convictions for the rest of their lives," the Democrat told The Associated Press ahead of a planned announcement Friday. Several states have laws allowing for expunging or sealing marijuana convictions in certain circumstances. And prosecutors in San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle - all in states where pot is now legal - have taken steps toward clearing marijuana convictions en masse. California lawmakers approved a measure last month that would require prosecutors to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 pot convictions. It's awaiting action from Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. The Brooklyn initiative envisions a case-by-case wipeout of thousands of convictions obtained under a law that still stands. New York allows marijuana-derived medications for some conditions, but recreational pot remains illegal, although Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed a panel to draft legislation that could legalize it. Meanwhile, Gonzalez and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. decided this year to decline to prosecute most misdemeanor pot possession and smoking cases. The men oversee prosecutions in two of the city's five boroughs. The DAs said the prosecutions did little for public safety but sometimes a lot of harm - jeopardizing job opportunities, housing, immigration status and more - in the lives of defendants who were overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. District attorneys in the other three boroughs still pursue such cases, however. All five DAs are Democrats. Under Gonzalez' new initiative, people already convicted of pot possession misdemeanors or violations in Brooklyn can ask a court to dismiss the cases. Legal groups are ready to help people with the paperwork. The DA's office will oppose requests from people with additional convictions for drug sales, certain violent felonies or sex offenses, for instance. But Gonzalez expects those cases to be few. "This is really a relief that I think we can provide, and we do it in a way that is safe," he said. A dismissal will ultimately be up to a judge. In general, judges often dismiss cases when prosecutors consent to it. New York City overall has been shifting its approach to policing marijuana, which spurred more than 50,000 arrests a year as recently as 2011. Last year, there were 17,880, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. A 2014 city policy called for police to issue summonses citing violations, instead of making misdemeanor arrests, for most small-time marijuana possession cases, though not public pot smoking. As of last Saturday, officers have been directed to issue tickets in most marijuana-smoking cases, too. Police Commissioner James O'Neill supports the move, but the city's efforts to ease off on pot have drawn criticism from Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins. "If you want to not have enforcement of arrests," he told The Wall Street Journal in May, "then you need to change the law." The attorney generals of New York and New Jersey each announced plans to intensify investigations into allegations of sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy in both states Thursday. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood subpoenaed all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state Thursday as part of her office's investigation into the church's handling of sex abuse allegations. Meanwhile, New Jersey joined New York soon after the news broke with Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announcing he was forming a task force to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, as well as any efforts to cover up such abuse. The news comes less than a month after a shocking grand jury report of 'predator priests' in various Pennsylvania dioceses revealed some of the priests had links to New York and New Jersey. New York's Investigation A law enforcement source familiar with New York's investigation but not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press the subpoenas went out Thursday. The subpoenas seek documents relating to sexual abuse allegations, financial payments to possible victims or the findings from internal church investigations. Underwood's office is pursuing a civil investigation into how church leaders responded to reports of abuse. Archdiocese of New York director of communications Joseph Zwillings said the archdiocese had not seen the subpoena, but it was looking forward to working with the attorney general. "While we have not yet seen a subpoena, it is not a surprise to us that the Attorney General would look to begin a civil investigation, and she will find the Archdiocese of New York, and the other seven dioceses in the state, ready and eager to work together with her in the investigation," he said. Underwood also announced Thursday a clergy abuse hotline and online complaint form through which victims and anyone with information can provide information. Victims and anyone with information about abuse can call the hotline at 1-800-771-7755 or file a complaint online at ag.ny.gov/ClergyAbuse. New Jersey's Investigation Attorney General Grewal has appointed experienced sex crimes prosecutor and former Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino to head the New Jersey criminal task force. To help identify potential victims, Attorney General Grewal also announced a dedicated hotline to report allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. That number is 855-363-6548 and the line is staffed 24/7. The announcement comes three weeks after a grand jury investigation found rampant sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by about 300 priests in Pennsylvania. What to Know A family is devastated after an airline lost their most precious cargo: their beloved dog Jonathan Rolon says his parents flew from JFK Airport to Paraguay Aug. 27; Their emotional support dog was supposed to take that flight, too Allegedly the dog never took the flight; LATAM airlines says it is actively searching for Logan since his Aug. 27 disappearance Questions are intensifying for an airline it lost a family's beloved emotional support dog almost two weeks ago. Logan the labradoodle has not been seen by his family since he was taken home by an airlines employee instead of being placed on a flight to Paraguay with his owners. Now pet rescuer Bonnie Floz is leading the charge to help the Rolon family find their dog, and she's demanding answers about what the airline has or hasn't done. "The airline is 100 percent at fault, I believe," she said. On Thursday night, Floz went searching for the flyers after the airline said it put up 3,000 of them within 30 miles of JFK to help find the labradoodle. "I would like to see what they look like, and I want to know where they are posted, because they aren't around the airport," said Floz. While she found four flyers in Brookville, she does not believe they were put up by the airline, rather the individual employee who had the dog last. NBC 4 phoned the number on the flyer and the woman who answered confirmed she worked for LATAM but soon hung up. Logan was last seen by his family at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Aug. 27 when he was supposed to be put on a plane to Paraguay but was not put on the LATAM Airlines flight due to a ramp issue. Jonathan Rolon -- the son of the couple who Logan belongs to -- says he went to the airport and asked to see Logan, but the story took an odd twist when he was informed by an airlines employee that he couldnt see the dog because another worker took the pooch home. Though he wasnt told why the employee took the dog home he was given the name of the worker and an intersection to search, since, apparently, the dog went missing from that employees residence. In a statement from LATAM, the airline says it is actively searching for Logan since his disappearance. According to the airline, it has posted about 600 search posters around neighborhoods close to JFK Airport including Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County. The search flyers cover a 30-mile radius and offer a reward for information on Logan. Logans disappearance has taken a toll on the family, with Rolon saying his absence is a blow to his mother who has become extremely depressed due to the missing pooch. A romance novelist was arrested on suspicion of murder three months after her husband, a chef, was found fatally shot inside the culinary institute where he taught, NBC News reported. Police in Portland, Oregon, said that Nancy Crampton-Brophy, 68, was arrested at her home on Wednesday three months after Daniel Brophy was killed inside the Oregon Culinary Institute. She was arraigned Thursday on charges of murder and unlawful use of a weapon. Police did not release a possible motive for the June 2 killing. Crampton-Brophy describes herself on her website as the author of "fiction books under the Romance Suspense genre." Among her works is a series with the tagline "wrong never felt so right," which includes titles such as "The Wrong Hero," "The Wrong Brother" and "The Wrong Husband." At a vigil outside the culinary school where he taught for decades, Crampton-Brophy had mourned her husband, saying, "Daniel was one of the few people I've ever known who did exactly what he wanted in life and loved doing it. He was a person who did what he loved: he loved teaching, he loved mushrooms, he loved his family." What to Know An anonymous author claiming to be part of the resistance working within the Trump administration penned a critical NYT opinion piece President Trump was incensed about the column, fuming that a "deep state" within the administration was conspiring against him Many prominent administration members, including Vice President Pence, have denied on-the-record that they were behind the op-ed One after another, President Donald Trump's top lieutenants stepped forward Thursday to declare, "Not me." They lined up to deny writing an incendiary New York Times opinion piece that was purportedly submitted by a member of an administration "resistance" movement straining to thwart Trump's most dangerous impulses. By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials paraded in from Cabinet-level officials and even Vice President Mike Pence apparently crafted for an audience of one, seated in the Oval Office. Senior officials in key national security and economic policy roles charged the article's writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against America's interests in harsh terms that mimicked the president's own words. Trump was incensed about the column, calling around to confidants to vent about the author, solicit guesses as to his or her identity and fume that a "deep state" within the administration was conspiring against him. He ordered aides to unmask the writer, and issued an extraordinary demand that the newspaper reveal the author to the government. As striking as the essay was the long list of officials who plausibly could have been its author. Many have privately shared some of the article's same concerns about Trump with colleagues, friends and reporters. With such a wide circle of potential suspicion, Trump's men and women felt they had no choice but to speak out. The denials and condemnations came in from far and wide: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied authorship on a visit to India; Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chimed in from American Samoa. In Washington, the claims of "not me" echoed from Vice President Pence's office, from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, from Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman from Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other Cabinet members. The author professed to be a member of that same inner circle. So could the denials be trusted? There was no surefire way to know, and that only deepened the president's frustrations. On Twitter, Trump charged "The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don't know what to do." White House officials did not respond to requests to elaborate on Trump's call for the writer to be turned over to the government or on the unsupported national security grounds of his demand. Some who agreed with the writer's points suggested the president's reaction actually confirmed the author's concerns. Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney, suggested that it "would be appropriate" for Trump to ask for a formal investigation into the identity of the op-ed author. "Let's assume it's a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped," Giuliani said. As the initial scramble to unmask the writer proved fruitless, attention turned to the questions the article raised, which have been whispered in Washington for more than a year: Is Trump truly in charge, and could a divided executive branch pose a danger to the country? Former CIA Director John Brennan, a fierce Trump critic, called the op-ed "active insubordination ... born out of loyalty to the country." "This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the orders of the chief executive," Brennan told NBC's "Today" show. "I don't know how Donald Trump is going to react to this. A wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded." The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance "working diligently from within" the administration, said, "Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." "It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room," the author continued. "We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't." First lady Melania Trump issued a statement backing her husband. She praised the free press as "important to our democracy" but assailed the writer, saying, "You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions." The Beltway guessing game seeped into the White House, as current and former staffers traded calls and texts trying to figure out who could have written the piece, some turning to reporters and asking them for clues. In a rare step, Pence's communications director Jarrod Agen tweeted early Thursday that "The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts." With many prominent administration members delivering on-the-record denials, the focus could now fall on other senior aides to do the same, with questions raised about those who stay silent. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to head off reporters' inquiries of Trump officials, tweeting that the questions should be aimed at the Times, which she said was "complicit in this deceitful act." The anonymous author wrote that where Trump has had successes, they have come "despite not because of the president's leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective." Down Pennsylvania Avenue, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he did not know of any role Congress would have to investigate, though Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Trump ally, said the legislative body could take part. "Nothing in this town stays secret forever, and so ultimately I do think we will find out who is the author," he said. The writer said Trump aides are aware of the president's faults and "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." Lemire reported from New York. AP writers Catherine Lucey, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Ken Thomas contributed reporting. What to Know Papadopoulos was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison for lying to investigators during their probe of Russian election interference. The ruling in U.S. District Court in D.C. marks Papadopoulos as the first member of the Trump campaign to be sentenced in Mueller's probe. Papadopoulos' lawyers had asked for a sentence of probation, which his lawyers argued he had already effectively served since his arrest. George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, was sentenced to 14 days in prison Friday after he told a judge he was "deeply embarrassed and ashamed" for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries. Papadopoulos, the first campaign aide sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation, acknowledged that his actions hindered an investigation of national importance, a move that the judge in his case said resulted in the 31-year-old putting his own self-interest above that of his country. "I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption," Papadopoulos said. The punishment was far less than the maximum six-month sentence sought by the government but more than the probation that Papadopoulos and his lawyers had asked for. Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, has been a central figure in the Russia investigation dating back before Mueller's May 2017 appointment. He was the first to plead guilty in Mueller's probe and is now the first Trump campaign adviser to be sentenced. His case was also the first to detail a member of the Trump campaign having knowledge of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election while it was ongoing. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said Papadopoulos' deception was "not a noble lie" and said he had lied because he wanted a job in the Trump administration and didn't want to jeopardize that possibility by being tied to the Russia investigation. "In some ways it constitutes a calculated exercise of self-interest over the national interest," the judge said. Moss noted that many similar cases resulted in probation but said he imposed a sentence of incarceration partly to send a message to the public that they can't lie to the FBI. The sentence drew a quick response from Trump on Twitter, as he scoffed at the two weeks of prison time by comparing it to an unverified cost figure for the Mueller probe. "14 days for $28 MILLION - $2 MILLION a day, No Collusion. A great day for America!" the president tweeted. Memos authored by House Republicans and Democrats , now declassified, show that information about Papadopoulos' contacts with Russian intermediaries triggered the FBI's counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. That probe was later taken over by Mueller. According to a sweeping indictment handed up this summer, Russian intelligence had stolen emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign and other Democratic groups by April 2016, the same month Papadopoulos was told by a professor that Russian officials had told him they had "dirt" on Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." Papadopoulos later used his connections with the Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, and other Russian nationals in an attempt to broker a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He admitted last year to lying to the FBI about those contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries, false statements that prosecutors say caused irreparable harm to the investigation during its early months. Prosecutors say those false statements, made during a January 2017 interview with federal investigators, led the FBI to miss an opportunity to interview Mifsud while he was in the United States in early 2017. In court Friday, prosecutor Andrew Goldstein said Papadopoulos' cooperation "didn't come close to the standard of substantial assistance." "It was at best begrudging efforts to cooperate and we don't think they were substantial or significant in any regard," he said. He said Papadopoulos' deception required investigators to scour more than 100,000 emails and gigabytes of data to reconstruct the timeline of his contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries. Even after his arrest and plea agreement last year, Goldstein said, Papadopoulos continued to be difficult, only providing information after being confronted with documents such as emails and text messages. In response, defense lawyer Thomas Breen said his client was "remorseful" that his lies impeded the investigation. Papadopoulos lied because he was torn between wanting to cooperate and wanting to remain loyal to a president whose administration he hoped to join, Breen said. His client was also affected by Trump's cries of "fake news" and his casting of the Russia investigation as a "witch hunt" just days before his FBI interview. "The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could," Breen said. Breen described his client as a "patriot," who wasn't trying to help Russia. But he acknowledged that Papadopoulos was unsophisticated, naive and even a "fool" for having made contacts with Russia intermediaries during the campaign. Breen said his client's primary interest was brokering a meeting between Trump and Putin, a move he believed the campaign supported. In court papers, Breen wrote that during a March 2016 meeting attended by Papadopoulos, Trump nodded with approval at the idea, and then-Senator Jeff Sessions "appeared to like" it and said the campaign "should look into it." That clashes with what Sessions, a key campaign aide and now Trump's attorney general, told the House Judiciary Committee last November. In that testimony, Sessions said he resisted the idea of any Russia meeting proposed by Papadopoulos. Outside the courthouse Friday, Breen said Papadopoulos didn't recall ever telling anyone in the campaign about the fact that Russia had dirt on Clinton in the form of emails. Breen also rejected the idea that Papadopoulos was the victim of a witch hunt or prosecutorial misconduct. "We have seen no such thing. We have seen no entrapment. We have seen no set up by U.S. intelligence people," he said, noting that he also had no reason to believe that Papadopoulos was the subject of a warrant obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Asked if Papadopoulos still remained loyal to Trump, Breen smiled wryly and paused for a beat. "We don't talk politics," he said. What to Know Amid brutal assaults in Afghanistan, US Defense Secretary James Mattis made a visit to Kabul Friday The trip comes Washington seems to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistan's protracted war He's expected to meet with President Ashraf Ghani, along with Afghan, U.S. and NATO military commanders U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan's war-shattered capital on Friday, the U.S. command in Afghanistan said, just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people in the city and wounded 90 others. As helicopters patrolled the skies over Kabul, Mattis arrived accompanied by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He was expected to meet President Ashraf Ghani, presidential spokesman Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri told The Associated Press. He was also expected to meet Afghan, U.S. and NATO military commanders. Mattis' arrival comes amid brutal assaults against the country's minority Shiites and a fresh round of insider attacks this week that have claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police. While in Kabul, Mattis is expected to discuss the escalating violence against both civilians and military personnel. The U.S. has been supporting Afghan forces in an aggressive campaign against Islamic State group insurgents in eastern Nangarhar province, yet the IS affiliate has repeatedly been able to carry out horrific and brazen attacks in the heavily fortified capital of Kabul. The victims have most often been Afghanistan's minority Shiite Muslims. The radical Sunni Islamic state reviles Shiites as apostates. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a wrestling center killing 21 people and wounding 90 others. Two of the dead were journalists who died when a second bomber blew himself up as first responders and journalists rushed to the scene. Mattis' visit to Kabul comes as Washington seems to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to Afghanistan's protracted war and Washington's longest military engagement. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as Washington's new point man for Afghan reconciliation. Khalilzad, a controversial figure in the region, is a former envoy to Afghanistan. Mattis arrives in Afghanistan fresh off earlier meetings in Pakistan where Pompeo said the U.S. wanted to "reset" its raucous relationship with Pakistan and newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed optimism, promising to work with Washington for peace. But Khan has repeatedly said Pakistan is no longer interested in partnering with the United States in war. "This is my promise that Pakistan will never again fight someone else's war," Khan said on Thursday in a speech to mark Pakistan's Defense Day. As an opposition leader Khan was a sharp critic of Pakistan's participation in the U.S.-led war on terror. Still, Pakistan is seen as key to any negotiated end to the Afghan war because of its close relationship with the Taliban. Both Washington and Kabul have been harsh critics of Pakistan for allowing safe havens for Taliban fighters on its territory, a charge Islamabad has denied. Khalilzad's appointment was also unwelcome news in Pakistan because of his outspoken attacks on its military and powerful ISI intelligence agency, even suggesting Washington should declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. Washington last weekend announced it canceled a $300 million Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan, which is a payment for costs incurred by Pakistan's military in the war on terror. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed. UPDATE: Bishop Kevin Rhoades was cleared of suspicions of misconduct involving a former jail inmate he counseled while serving as a Pennsylvania priest in the 1990s. Here is the previous story: A former Pennsylvania Roman Catholic bishop who now serves in Indiana has denied an allegation of misconduct. The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend told PennLive.com in a statement Thursday that former Harrisburg bishop Kevin Rhoades "adamantly denies" the accusation and that he "did nothing wrong." Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo received the report last month. Rhoades hasn't been charged. According to Chardo, the alleged male victim was around 18-years-old when the incident happened. Chardo says the individual died in 1996. "The report alleged that they perceived the relationship as odd," Chardo said. "But they did not witness any inappropriate conduct," he added. The allegation would land within the statute of limitations. "We would stress that this is an allegation," said Mike Barley, a spokesman for the Harrisburg Diocese. "We will have no further comment until the investigation of the Office of the District Attorney is concluded," added Barley. Rhoades began with the Harrisburg Diocese in 1983 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in York. He went on to serve as bishop from 2004 to 2009. Rhoades left Harrisburg and was named bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese in Jan. 2010. David Clohessy, former director of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, believes Rhoades should step down while the investigation is underway. "I urge Catholic officials in Indiana and Pennsylvania to aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes, misdeeds or cover ups, by Rhoades or other clerics," Clohessy said. The accusation follows a landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report that claimed over 1,000 children in six Catholic dioceses have been abused since the 1940s. Two counselors at a Delaware County school for at-risk students are accused of repeatedly body slamming a 17-year-old student and striking the teen in the head. Surveillance video captured Christopher Medina, 31, and Patrick Raquet, 34, allegedly attacking the Philadelphia boy at The Glen Mills Schools on July 19. The boy could be heard telling the counselors, I cant breathe, the Philadelphia Inquirer said. Medina and Raquet both face aggravated assault, simple assault, child endangerment and reckless endangerment charges. A judge arraigned both men Friday and set bail at $200,000. Medina had no comment as he was led into court Friday afternoon. The Glen Mills Schools Executive Director Dr. Randy Ireson says the school promptly self-reported this incident to the Pennsylvania State Police. This isolated incident did not uphold our stringent ethical standards and protocols, Ireson said. The schools top priority is putting student safety first, Ireson said. He added that the school is cooperating with investigators. The Glen Mills Schools is the oldest existing school of its kind for at-risk children, serving court-referred students, according to the schools website. Philadelphia courts have stopped sending students to Glen Mills since the assault accusations emerged last month. Since 1826, The Glen Mills Schools has been committed to providing the highest quality of services to at-risk youth, transforming their lives by offering students a future filled with new opportunity, hope and resiliency, Ireson said. What to Know Johnny Bobbitt, Jr. first met Katel McClure in November when she ran out of gas on I-95. Bobbitt gave McClure his last $20 for gas. She started a GoFundMe to pay him back. The online campaign raised more than $400,000 from 14,000 people. Johnny Bobbitt, Jr., the homeless veteran at the center of an online fundraising controversy turned criminal investigation, will get the full $400,000 donors gave to him. GoFundMe, the crowdsourced fundraising website, and Bobbitt's attorney, Chris Fallon of Cozen O'Connor, made the announcement Thursday evening. "Johnny will be made whole and we're committing that he'll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from. GoFundMe's goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets support he deserves," GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whitmore said in a statement. The New Jersey couple Mark D'Amico and Katelyn McClure who started the campaign to help Bobbitt are now under investigation for allegedly misusing the funds. McClure and D'Amico started the GoFundMe campaign after he used his last $20 to buy gas for McClure, whose car ran out of gas in Philadelphia in November. More than 14,000 people donated to the campaign that garnered international attention. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at the couple's Burlington County home early Thursday, carting away boxes of evidence and a new BMW. Fallon said he only received $75,000 of the money, which includes the value of a camper and a 1999 Ford Ranger. That came a day after a New Jersey judge demanded they make sworn statements about the status of the money and provide documentation. Fallon said GoFundMe will conduct an audit to determine how much money Bobbitt is owed and then provide it to him with the help of the legal team. The couple did not answer questions as they left their Florence Township, New Jersey, home Thursday. Their attorney, Ernest Badway, also declined comment. The criminal investigation remains active, but no charges have been filed. What to Know Jeff Guaracino, currently president and CEO of Welcome America, will be the new chief executive of Visit Philadelphia. Next month, Guaracino takes over the role filled by Meryl Levitz, who was the founding leader of Visit Philly. The Visit Philly tourism agency drums up leisure visitation to the five-county region. Visit Philadelphia will have a new leader by year's end the destination marketing organization has named its new president and CEO. Jeff Guaracino, currently president and CEO of Welcome America Inc., will be the new chief executive of Visit Philadelphia, the tourism agency charged with drumming up leisure visitation to the five-county region. He will start his tenure on Oct. 29. Guaracino takes over the role filled by Meryl Levitz, who was the founding leader of Visit Philadelphia, which was originally called the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. Since it launched its first campaign in 1997, leisure tourism to the region grew to 38.2 million leisure travelers and over 1 million Center City hotel room nights in 2017 alone. Find out more about Guaracino's expereince at the Philadelphia Business Journal. For more business news, check out pbj.com. What to Know Zaborney's consulting firms have been paid more than $43,000, according to the most recent campaign financing report filed June 30 The crude meme is the latest in a series of missteps associated with Wagner and his campaign that has stunted chances to cut Wolf's lead. A spokesman for the Wagner campaign did not immediately return a message left seeking comment. Neither did Ray Zaborney. A Pennsylvania political consultant working for Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner reportedly texted an offensive meme mocking Caitlyn Jenner to a reporter, apparently mistakenly, according to the news site Billy Penn. Ray Zaborney, whose Harrisburg political consulting businesses Maverick Finance and Red Maverick Media have received more than $40,000 from Scott Wagner's campaign, texted Billy Penn political reporter Max Marin inadvertently in a group with three other people, Billy Penn reported Friday. The three others are all senior staffers for Wagner, including campaign manager Jason High, finance director Jenise Harris and policy director Shauna Boscaccy, Billy Penn reported. Wagner, a former state senator and businessman from York, is challenging Democratic incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf in the Nov. 13 general election. Wolf is seeking a second term. An NBC News/Marist poll released last month found that Wagner trails Wolf by 14 points, 54-40, among registered voters. The meme is a black-and-white image of Jenner's face with the the words: "Believe in something. Even if it means cutting your d--- off." There is also a Nike Swoosh and the Nike slogan: "Just Do It." in the bottom right corner of the meme, in an apparent mockery of the new Colin Kaepernick advertising campaign. Jason High, Wagner's campaign manager, said in a statement that "one text by a consultant who poorly judged the line between humor and sensitivity" should not take away from the candidate's advocacy for the LGBT community. "Scott has been a strong advocate for the LBTQ community as both a business owner and lawmaker. He was vilified throughout the Republican primary for shepherding an anti-discrimination bill through the Senate," High said. "And even after millions in negative advertising was spent against him on the issue, he refused to back down one inch from demanding equal rights for LGBTQ individuals." A Wagner spokesman said Zaborney would continue to consult for the campaign. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party on Friday afternoon called for Wagner's campaign to "immediately fire" Zaborney and High. "Scott Wagner must immediately fire campaign consultant Ray Zaborney for his despicable, transphobic actions and campaign manager Jason High for failing to denounce Zaborney, the state Democratic organization's spokesman, Mike Mikus, said in a release. Wagner's campaign has paid Zaborney's political consulting firms $43,653.70, according to the most recent campaign financing report filed by the Wagner campaign June 30. The next filing deadline is Sept. 30. Red Maverick Media's slogan is "Winning. Differently." A message left Friday at the firm seeking comment from Zaborney was not immediately returned. Zaborney sent the meme in a text about 9 a.m. Thursday morning, Billy Penn reported. A short time later, the consultant texted Marin again to apologize for sending the initial text. He then texted, in an ongoing exchange with Marin about a request the reporter asked of the Wagner campaign, that he'd like it if Marin "just forget I sent that meme." He ended the message with a smiley face, Billy Penn reported. Marin initially texted Zaborney that the meme would be forgotten, according to screengrabs Billy Penn posted, but the reporter told NBC10 that the meme became newsworthy when he realized who the others were in the text group. "I was pursuing other information at the time, and once I discovered who the other recipients were on the text, the story changed," Marin told NBC10 Friday afternoon. He said he never considered the mistakenly sent text off the record. "If a flack texts a reporter something, it's on the record," Marin said, using journalism vernacular for a spokesperson or communications officer. Wagner has struggled to gain momentum in the race, with missteps from the stump like recent comments that he didn't want his employees knowing how much he makes. He is running on a message of bringing change to state politics. What to Know A woman from western Pennsylvania says three priests sexually abused her as a child. One of the accused is the late Rev. Anthony Bevilacqua. Bevilacqua was the Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1987 through 2003. The woman says he was Bishop of Pittsburgh when the assault happened. The woman said she came forward after reading about widespread abuse in the Pa. AG's Grand Jury report. A newly-filed lawsuit claims Anthony Bevilacqua, the deceased former Archbishop of Philadelphia, was among three Roman Catholic priests who sexually assaulted a Pittsburgh woman during her childhood. The assaults took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the woman was between the ages of 5 and 13 years old, the civil lawsuit filed Friday in Allegheny County claims. The woman said Bevilacqua, who was head of the Diocese of Pittsburgh at the time, groped her chest behind a partition in the lunchroom of her Catholic grade school. Over a two-year period when the woman was between 5 and 7 years old, another priest, the Rev. Lawrence O'Connell, fondled her on top of her school uniform in the St. Gabriel's Church rectory, the complaint says. The Rev. Edward Huff, the third accused priest, allegedly fondled the girl's privates a half-dozen times in 1983 and 1984, according to the lawsuit. The woman said O'Connell and Huff, along with a nun, urged her to keep quiet about the incidents with Huff vowing to bar her from attending a mass where she'd receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Fr. Nicholas S. Vaskov, director of communications for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said Friday evening that the diocese has "never received an allegation" that Bevilacqua abused anyone. "We will evaluate each matter filed in Court and respond as required by the rules of Court. We remain committed to assisting victims and prefer to direct resources to victims rather than litigation. However, once suits are filed we are compelled by law to respond," Vaskov said in an email to NBC10. Ken Gavin, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said, "Todays news reports are the first time the Archdiocese has learned of any such allegations. As there is no ability for a deceased person to speak to such accusations, we will not be commenting further." Bevilacqua served as Bishop of Pittsburgh from 1983 to 1987. He took over as Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1987 and served in the role until 2003. The end of his tenure was shrouded in controversy amid the Philadelphia District Attorney's investigation into pedophile priests serving in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Bevilacqua died in January 2012. O'Connell died in 1986. It is unclear if Huff is still alive. In the early 1990s, Huff was accused of molesting several boys and was sentenced to up to five years in prison, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The woman's assaults were not included in the Pennsylvania Attorney General's explosive grand jury report released in August. The grand jury found more than 1,000 victims of assaults by 300 "predator priests" and alleged a massive cover-up operation by church leaders. The woman, who has since moved to San Diego, California, decided to come forward after reading the grand jury report and learning about systemic abuse in the Pittsburgh diocese, the suit says. Among the defendants listed is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the former head of the Pittsburgh diocese and current Archbishop of Washington. Wuerl is prominently named in the Pa. AG report for allegedly covering up sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy claims he's repeatedly denied. The woman is seeking unspecified damages. Three-term U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, one of the most influential Delaware politicians in the last half-century, held off an upstart candidate from the left-wing of his own party to win the primary election Thursday. Carper, 71, was declared winner by the Associated Press over political newcomer Kerri Evelyn Harris, 38. Harris is an Air Force veteran and member of the LGBT community. Carper, a former governor, will face off against Robert Arlett, who won the Republican primary, easily defeating Rocky de la Fuente Roque and Eugene Truono Jr. The general election will be Nov. 13. All official election results can be found here, in real time, on the Delaware Department of Elections page. Knocking off Carper was viewed as a long shot similar to the upset sprung by 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a congressional district race in New York City earlier this summer. The similarities in the candidates' stories were compelling. Both are young women. Both represent the left side of the liberal spectrum. Both challenged well-established members of the Washington D.C. and political elite. Ocasio-Cortez knocked off incumbent U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, one of the senior Democrats in Congress. Harris tried toppling the best-known politician in recent Delaware history not named Biden. Buoyed by the improbable rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, more liberal factions of the Democratic Party have won several races in primaries this year. Charlie Gerow, a longtime Republican strategist based in Pennsylvania, said it remains to be seen how the success of the "far left" factions of the Democratic Party in the primaries will play to independent voters in the general election in November. "The Democrats are increasingly nominating far-left candidates," Gerow said. "Whether far-left candidates can win in the general election, that's the biggest question of 2018." In Delaware's other race Thursday to decide who will represent the state in Congress, Republican Scott Walker beat Lee Murphy, 53 percent to 47. Walker will challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester in the general election in November. Rochester did not face a primary challenge. Delaware has only one seat in the House of Representatives. Delaware's other U.S. senator, Chris Coons, is not up for re-election this year. Numerous down-ballot primary races were also held, including state attorney general and numerous seats in the state Senate and House of Representatives. The races are the highlights of one of the country's last remaining primaries ahead of what will be a contentious midterm election in the fall. It may also surprise some Delaware voters who aren't aware of a scheduling change made back in 2016. The Delaware General Assembly two years ago changed the date for the primary from a previously scheduled Sept. 11 date to Sept. 6. For more information about the election and details about how and where to vote depending on your address, go to the Department of Elections page here. Language detectives say the key clues to who wrote the anonymous New York Times opinion piece slamming President Donald Trump may not be the odd and glimmering "lodestar," but the itty-bitty words that people usually read right over: "I," "of" and "but." And lodestar? That could be a red herring meant to throw sleuths off track, some experts say. Experts use a combination of language use, statistics and computer science to help figure out who wrote documents that are anonymous or possibly plagiarized. They've even solved crimes and historical mysteries that way. Some call the field forensic linguistics, others call it stylometry or simply doing "author attribution." The field is suddenly at center stage after an unidentified "senior administration official" wrote in the Times that he or she was part of a "resistance" movement working from within the administration to curb Trump's most dangerous impulses. "My phone has been ringing off the hook with requests to do that analysis and I just don't have the time," says Duquesne University computer and language scientist Patrick Juola. Robert Leonard, a Hofstra University linguistics professor who has helped solve murders by examining language, says if experts could get the right number of writing samples from officials whose identities are known, "an analysis could certainly be done." One political scientist figures there are about 50 people in the Trump administration who fit the Times' description as a senior administration official and could be the author. The key would be to look at how they write, the words they use, what words they put next to each other, spelling, punctuation and even tenses, experts say. "Language is a set of choices. What to say, how to say and when to say it,"Juola says. "And there's a lot of different options." One of the favorite techniques of Juola and other experts is to look at what's called "function words." These are words people use all the time but that are hard to define because they more provide function than meaning. Some examples are "of," ''with," ''the," ''a," ''over" and "and." "We all use them but we don't use them in the same way," Juola says. "We don't use them in the same frequency." Same goes with apostrophes and other punctuation. For example, do you say "different from" or "different than?" asks computer science and data expert Shlomo Argamon of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Women tend to use first- and second-person pronouns more "I," ''me" and "you" and more present tense, Argamon says. Men use "the," ''of," ''this" and "that" more often, he says. "You look for clues and you try to assess the usefulness of those clues," Argamon says. But he is less optimistic that the Trump opinion piece case will be cracked for various reasons, including the New York Times' editing for style and possible efforts to fool language detectives with words that someone else likes to use such as "lodestar." Mostly, he's pessimistic because to do a proper comparison, samples from all suspects have to be gathered and have to be similar, such as all opinion columns as opposed to novels, speeches or magazine stories. Rachel Greenstadt at Drexel University studies when people try to throw off investigators with words they don't normally use or purposeful bad spellings. She says her first instinct is that the word "lodestar" one Vice President Mike Pence has used several times is "a red herring." It seems too deliberate. "Most people are still looking for sound bite-sized features like lodestar instead of trying to get a handle on the whole picture," says Hofstra's Leonard. Greenstadt says language analysis "could kind of contribute to the picture" of who wrote the Times' opinion pieces, but she adds "by itself, I'd be concerned to use it." Still, with the right conditions words matter. Juola testified in about 15 trials and handled even more cases that never made it to court. His biggest case was in 2013, when a British newspaper got a tip that the book "The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith was really written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. In about an hour, Juola fed two Rowling books, "The Cuckoo's Calling" and six other novels into his computer, analyzed the language patterns with four different systems and concluded that Rowling did it. A couple of days later, Rowling confessed. It was far from the first time that language use fingered the real culprit. The Unabomber's brother identified him because of of his distinctive writing style. Field pioneers helped find a kidnapper who used the unique term "devil strip" for the grassy area between the sidewalk and road. The phrase is only used in parts of Ohio. Even in politics, words are poker tells. In 1996, the novel "Primary Colors" about a Clintonesque presidential candidate set Washington abuzz trying to figure out who was the anonymous author. An analysis by a Vassar professor and other work pointed to Newsweek's Joe Klein and he finally admitted it. But the literary sleuthing goes back to the founding of the republic. Historians had a hard time figuring out which specific Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton and which were by James Madison. A 1963 statistical analysis figured it out: One of the many clues came down to usage of the words "while" and "whilst." Madison used "whilst"; Hamilton preferred "while." Juola says experts in the field can generally tell introverts from extroverts, men from women, education level, age, location, almost everything but astrological sign. "The science is very good," Juola said. "It's not quite DNA. It's actually considered by some scientists to be considered the second-most accurate form of forensic identification we have because it is so good." AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report. A growing number of states are working toward setting standards for college and career readiness. In many of those states, the argument is being made that because all students should leave high school ready for college or career, the high school diploma should be set to the new college and career standard, and no one should get a diploma in the future who does not meet that standard. At the same time, there is renewed interest in many states in what we used to call vocational education and we now call career and technical education (CTE). But giving it a new name has not really changed the widely held perception thatwhatever you want to call itit is the schooling of last resort for students who cannot do academics. Some states have responded to the baleful status of CTE by creating some CTE high schools that screen their applicants and only take in those who meet high academic standards. Some offer AP courses or an IB program right along with their IT or shop courses. This seems to work, enabling CTE to attract more high-performing middle school graduates than used to be the case. At least in those schools, CTE is no longer the option of last resort for those who cant do academics. That is a good thing for the students involved, but also for an economy that is very short of people qualified for high-tech jobs in occupations requiring less than a four-year education. But the dynamics set up by these developments are very complex. Nearly four in ten of the students graduating high school and heading for college go to our community colleges. But more than half of them are told by their community colleges that their literacy in English and mathematics is not high enough to enable them to enroll in credit-bearing courses. Community colleges are not only a primary gateway to college in the United States, but also the primary provider of career and technical education. If you are not ready to succeed in community college, you are not ready for either college or career. The obvious policy response is to set a standard for graduating high school that matches the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in initial credit bearing courses in community college. We know what that standard is. Students would have to read at the 10th grade level at a minimum, be proficient in the topics in a typical Algebra I textbook and a few topics in geometry and statistics and write a good deal better than they do now. There is good reason to believe that 40 to 50 percent of high school graduates cannot do these things now. So what to do? Much depends on what you think the students themselves are capable of. If you believe that a large fraction of students are and always will be incapable of reading at an 10th-grade-level and doing 8th-grade math, then, obviously, it would be mean and unreasonable to set up a system that requires them to do so. You would be setting them up for failure. But there is abundant evidence that they can do far better than they are doing. Students in the top-performing countries leave high school two to three years ahead of our students. More students in the top performers score in the upper quartile of the PISA performance scale than do students in the U.S. and more U.S. students score in the bottom quartile than do students in the top-performing systems. Singaporean students at the bottom 25th percentile actually score higher on PISA than the average U.S. student. So, we know kids can do it. It is the system that is failing the kids, not the kids who are failing the system. So, if we know that the kids can do it, why not just raise the standards for getting the high school diploma to a college and career ready standard that matches what it will take to succeed in the first year of a typical community college program? Because even in the most optimistic scenario, it will take many years to match the achievements of Singapore, Estonia, Hong Kong, Finland and Canada. It would be hard enough if the only challenge was reorganizing how we do education, but the enormous disparities in family income in the U.S.the greatest in the industrialized worldand the lack of appropriate services for children growing up in poverty in the United Statesmake this an even greater challenge. So the reality is that, if the standard for getting the high school diploma is raised to the standard required to be successful in the first year of community college, then a large fraction of the students who complete high school under the current requirements for a high school diploma would no longer get one, for many years to come. That will not stand. The political pressure to change such a system will be unstoppable. It will take the form of a demand to lower or abandon the standard. The alternative is abandoning the idea of simply raising the graduation standard to the level required to succeed in the first year of community college. Let the high school diploma be what it has effectively been for many years: an attendance certificate. That attendance certificate is no minor thing. It certifies that the student has had the stick-to-itiveness to show up for 12 years, take all the required courses, complete the required work and do whatever else was needed to get passing grades. Not only is that not nothing, it is pretty much all that is required for millions of jobs in the American economy, from unskilled laborer to farmhand and retail clerk. Millions of American employers are looking for workers who have a good work ethic, will show up on time, put in a full days work and get the job done. They are even happy to teach them the arithmetic they need if they can find them. That is what a high school diploma should do for millions of job applicants and employers. Which gets me to the third side of my tangled web. When I first heard that successful CTE high schools were actually selective high schools, selecting on academic performance in middle school, I was very upset. What, I asked, about the very large numbers of students who this process left behind? Then I realized that I could not have it both ways. If CTE was ever to be anything other than the low-status option for students who could not do academicsif CTE was ever to have the same status as academic education and provide the high technical skills that middle-skill jobs now demandthen it would have to set academic standards for the students who choose it on a par with the standards for students going on to serious academic programs. Students would choose it not because it was easy but because it was hands-on and exciting and they could see the purpose in learning the classroom component every day. The Bush and Obama administrations put enormous pressure on the schools to raise graduation rates. Too many responded with workarounds for the students, ways to get a diploma by cutting corners. Some did it with credit recovery, which was nothing more than a chance to graduate using an alternative assessment that virtually anyone could pass. Others used similar workarounds. The leap in graduation rates was largely bogus. One could argue that these measures were the result of adults making themselves look good, or one could argue that it was the result of compassionate educators trying to help kids who would otherwise have no future. The right policy goal is to find a way to greatly improve student achievement across the board, for every group in our society, while portraying achievement honestly and accurately. If you dont do that, if you choose instead to misrepresent student achievement by lowering the standard without acknowledging you have done so, all you do is put the integrity of the whole system in doubt. But if you advertise a standard as college and career ready and then deny a high school diploma to all who do not meet it, you will either have to lower that standard or lose your policy-making job, because it will be years before that gap is closed and the society cannot and will not tolerate a large fraction of students leaving high school with no credential at all. Better to have one standard that truly means college and career ready and another that means the student did everything needed to meet a traditional high school graduation standard. But this way of thinking about standards and gateways has its own dangers. Suppose that sticking with a high school diploma that is not tied to a community college entrance requirement results in a permanent underclass of mainly poor and minority students who are never expected to get more than a high school diploma, who will always be in the low-skill, low-wage jobs, generation after generation. That is an intolerable outcome. Fortunately, there are a growing number of high-performing countries that have managed to produce not only much higher student achievement overall than the United States, but much higher equity in those results than we have yet achieved. Among the most important indicators of equity is the substantially higher proportion of students living in poverty in these countries that end up in the top ranks of student performance. Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the litany of strategies the top performers use to produce these outcomes. They include not just more money, but much more effective ways to spend that money, especially for the most disadvantaged. I dont have the space here to rehearse the list once more . In the context of the argument I have made in this blog, what I want to emphasize is what I have seen most clearly in Singapore and Shanghai. I told you earlier that, according to PISA, students in the top-performing systems are graduating two and three years ahead of their U.S. peers. The students at Singapores lowest quartile perform better than the average American student. In both cases, a great effort is made to place first-rate teachers and administrators in the schools serving the most disadvantaged. The expectations for students are set very high for all students and the students are given a curriculum that is matched to those standards. But the teachers are given much more time to work with each other to develop highly effective lessons and no less effective teaching techniques so the students can reach those standards. Their approach to formative evaluation provides teachers with the skills needed to figure out whether every student in the class is getting the material as it is being taught, so no one falls behind. If a student does fall behind, a team of teachers is formed to figure out why and fix the problem, whatever it is, in school or out. If a whole group of students is falling behind, the core curriculum is stretched out and enriched for them and the students get much more support, whether that means before school, during the school day, on Saturdays or during the summer, in small groups, one-on-one, whatever it takes. More time, more support, but not lower standards. In this system, students do not routinely arrive at middle school from elementary school two or even three years behind. It simply does not happen. Nor does it happen at the transition from middle school to high school. The teachers take collective responsibility for the students, monitor them closely and work together in real time to address problems in performance as they arise, not after they have accumulated for years. They are given the time, support, training and leadership they need do that. If one of our states set up a system like this, it could reasonably expect to cut the proportion of its students not ready for college dramatically in ten years and, no less important, greatly increase the probability that any given child from a poor family will do well enough to get into a highly selective college. Indeed, the global record shows that, with this kind of design, it should be possible to cut the proportion of students in special education by half, not by depriving them of services they need, but by providing them an education so effective that they do not need special education. I do not know what proportion of our students will, in the end, achieve a college and career standard. But I do know that it is a far larger proportion than do so now. There is no reason why schooling cannot once again be the gateway to opportunity in the United States that it once was. Hours after the evacuation of Southwestern College's Chula Vista campus and all centers Thursday, officials said they made contact with the person of interest involved and determined there was no threat. The Southwestern College Police Department (SWCPD) launched an investigation just before 10 a.m. for what they considered a credible threat. A spokesperson for the college told NBC 7 a student overheard another student make a threat during a math class. The student alerted their parent who in turn alerted the school. Right now. Students being evacuated at Southwest College because of a credible threat. No word yet on what the threat is. #nbc7 pic.twitter.com/E9EDHFOICA Artie Ojeda (@ArtieNBCSD) September 6, 2018 "In an abundance of caution while we investigate, the college is canceling all classes and evacuating all campuses," said Southwestern College Superintendent & President Dr. Kindred Murillo. Southwestern's main campus on Otay Lakes Road and three satellite campuses in National City, Otay Ranch and San Ysidro, plus their Crown Cove Aquatic Center on Silver Strand were all evacuated. The Chula Vista Police Department assisted with evacuations, which the department called precautionary. By 11 a.m., evacuations at the Chula Vista campus had concluded and CVPD cleared the scene as SWCPD continued their sweep of the empty school. CVPD said it was safe to return to the area but the campus would remain closed for much of the day. Just before 3 p.m., officials said the college would resume classes and normal business operations at all campuses on Friday. Students or employees who needed to retrieve vehicles could enter through the H Street entrance, officials said. Southwestern College's main campus and three satellite campuses combined serve about 20,000 students. What to Know D.C. government surveys show high school students reported a nearly 3 percent increase in electronic bullying since 2012. Bullying on social media and through electronic devices was more frequently reported by LGBT students in DC. Area school districts offer guidance online for parents with concerns about bullying. Washington, D.C.-area high school students are as likely to be bullied electronically as they are to face bullies in the school buildings, according to a review of more than a dozen school and health department surveys conducted by the News4 I-Team. The number of students who acknowledged being bullied electronically matched the number of kids who said they were bullied in school buildings, according to state health surveys in Maryland and Virginia. In Arlington County and Montgomery County, the numbers were nearly identical, according to the most recent surveys provided to the I-Team. A 2017 presentation by a youth commission to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors specified cyberbullying as a growing threat in the county. Cyberbullying in particular needs to be addressed at the school because nearly every kid comes with a smart phone. Bullying that starts in school now extends to afterschool and broadcasts of bullying messaging are widespread, the report said. In D.C., government surveys reviewed by the I-Team show high school students reported a nearly 3 percent increase in electronic bullying since 2012. OSSE Bullying on social media and through electronic devices was more frequently reported by LGBT students, especially those at the middle school level. I see it a lot and I dont understand why people do that, said Sydney Allen, who graduated from Bishop McNamara Catholic High School in June. They dont know whats going on in other peoples lives. Allen said bullying was not present inside her school but was easy to witness on social media pages between students at other nearby schools. Its a scary thought, because it can lead to violence, said Allen. Kids are digitally interconnected today, said Christine McComas, whose daughter Grace committed suicide in 2012 after a string of cyberbullying incidents. Theyre in touch with each other at all times. It can be very damaging and it never goes away. It can be forwarded, discussed and people can take sides. Loudoun County Public Schools is employing a restorative practices program to respond to incidents of bullying and other disciplinary issues. Under the initiative, the school district arranges and helps moderate conflict resolution sessions between victims and accused bullies. The school district said the program requires students to take ownership of disruptive behavior and allows reduced use of expulsion. If youre not in school, youre not getting information you need and youre not contributing to your community, Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Services Asia Jones said. Were in the business of educating students. A D.C. Public Schools spokeswoman said the system is working to provide safe learning environments. At DCPS, we do this through in-depth staff training on preventing, identifying and responding to all types of bullying; participating in out-of-school programming, such as the Safe Passage program; and ensuring students, staff and families have access to community-based resources that support their well-being, she said. A Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman said the district has put bullying prevention efforts into place at its schools. He said it includes providing instruction for students and parents on the impact of bullying. Montgomery County Public Schools created a bullying incident report form for students and families to submit. It is available in seven languages and specifically references cyberbullying incidents. Frederick County Public Schools posted guidance for families who have questions about bullying. The guidance includes: It is not helpful to simply tell a child to ignore bullying or encourage a child to fight the bully. Children need a trusted adult to turn to when they feel threatened. It is important to contact the school counselor, administrator or teacher to report bullying because it may not stop without help. Reported by Scott MacFarlane, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper. A former cellmate of the D.C. mansion murders suspect told investigators another person was involved in the brutal crime, according to court documents. That inmate, listed as Witness 92, shared a cell with Daron Wint for eight days and wrote two letters to the U.S. attorneys office, according to the documents. He told prosecutors another person was involved in the kidnapping, torture and murders of Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy, 47; their 10-year-old son, Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57. Investigators looked into that person, even swabbing for DNA, but preliminary results showed there wasnt a match to the crime scene, the documents said. He could have gotten that information from Wints papers when he was going out for a shower or he was out in the yard, D.C.-based criminal defense attorney Bernard Grimm said. He said its not uncommon for cellmates to come forward with information to get a lower sentence. Its not clear if Witness 92 or any other convicted felon will testify for the prosecution, but jurors were asked if they could believe a witness who is guilty of a crime and will get a reduced sentence for testifying. By noon Friday, the jury was selected. There are 12 jurors and four alternates. Seven are women, nine are men. Nine are white, and seven are minorities. Wint is charged with murder in the four deaths. He is accused of holding the victims captive, extorting $40,000 and setting their Northwest Washington mansion on fire. Wint faces life in prison without possibility for release on each murder charge. The minimum sentence is 30 years on each murder charge. The trial continues Tuesday. A man suspected of abducting a 12-year-old Virginia girl and her grandmother has led investigators to their bodies one month after they went missing, according to authorities. Angie Caroline Rodriguez Rubio, 12, and her grandmother, Elizabeth Rodriguez Rubio, 48, were last seen on Aug. 5 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, authorities said. Police issued an Amber Alert for Angie and a critically missing adult alert for Elizabeth two days later. Harrisonburg police found their bodies Wednesday in Shenandoah County and Shenandoah National Park. Commonwealth's Attorney Marsha Garst said in a news release that the man accused of abducting them led detectives to the bodies as part of a plea agreement. Garst said Hareton Jaime Rodriguez Sariol has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, which carry a maximum of life in prison and no less than 20 years for each count. Rodriguez-Sariol was apprehended in Pennsylvania in August. He has "a known history of infatuation" with the grandmother, according to police. All three were believed to be traveling in his vehicle, which was involved in a vehicle fire on Interstate 66 in Warren County. Rodriguez-Sariol was seen at the two-mile marker on I-66 where the fire happened before police apprehended him. On Aug. 11, Harrisonburg Police Lt. Pete Ritchie told News4 that police were still searching for Angie and Elizabeth and hoped to find them "alive and well." "We're not changing our tune at all," Ritchie said. "We keep investigating, we keep following leads, and we're still looking for them." Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will get price cuts. That's the conclusion from an exclusive analysis of the besieged but resilient program, which still sparks deep divisions heading into this year's midterm elections. The Associated Press and the consulting firm Avalere Health crunched available state data and found that "Obamacare's" health insurance marketplaces seem to be stabilizing after two years of sharp premium hikes. And the exodus of insurers from the program has halted, even reversed somewhat, with more consumer choices for 2019. The analysis found a 3.6 percent average increase in proposed or approved premiums across 47 states and Washington, D.C., for next year. This year the average increase nationally was about 30 percent. The average total premium for an individual covered under the health law is now close to $600 a month before subsidies. For next year, premiums are expected either to drop or increase by less than 10 percent in 41 states with about 9 million customers. Eleven of those states are expected to see a drop in average premiums. In six other states, plus Washington, D.C., premiums are projected to rise between 10 percent and 18 percent. Insurers also are starting to come back. Nineteen states will either see new insurers enter or current ones expand into more areas. There are no bare counties lacking a willing insurer. Even so, Chris Sloan, an Avalere director, says, "This is still a market that's unaffordable for many people who aren't eligible for subsidies." Nearly 9 in 10 ACA customers get government subsidies based on income, shielding most from premium increases. But people with higher incomes, who don't qualify for financial aid, have dropped out in droves. It's too early to say if the ACA's turnabout will be fleeting or a more permanent shift. Either way, next year's numbers are at odds with the political rhetoric around the ACA, still heated even after President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law last year. Trump regularly calls "Obamacare" a "disaster" and time again has declared it "dead." The GOP tax-cut bill repealed the ACA requirement that Americans have health insurance or risk fines, effective next year. But other key elements remain, including subsidies and protection for people with pre-existing conditions. Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Trump of "sabotage," driving up premiums and threatening coverage. The moderating market trend "takes the issue away from Republican candidates" in the midterm elections, said Mark Hall, a health law and policy expert at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. "Part of the mess is now their fault, and the facts really don't support the narrative that things are getting worse." Market stability also appears to undercut Democrats' charge that Trump is undermining the program. But Democrats disagree, saying the ACA is in danger while Republicans control Washington, and that premiums would have been even lower but for the administration's hostility. "Voters won't think that the Trump threat to the ACA has passed at all, unless Democrats get at least the House in 2018," said Bill Carrick, a strategist for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose re-election ads emphasize her support for the health law. As if seconding Democrats' argument, the Trump administration has said it won't defend the ACA's protections for pre-existing conditions in a federal case in Texas that could go to the Supreme Court. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that Americans regardless of partisan identification said those protections should remain the law of the land. In solidly Republican Arkansas, Democratic state legislator and cancer survivor Clarke Tucker is using the ACA in his campaign to try to flip a U.S. House seat from red to blue. Tucker, 37, says part of what made him want to run is the House vote to repeal the ACA last year and images of Trump and GOP lawmakers celebrating at the White House. Business analysts say the relatively good news for 2019 is partly the result of previous premium increases, which allowed insurers to return to profitability after losing hundreds of millions of dollars. "They can price better, and they can manage this population better, which is why they can actually make some money," said Deep Banerjee of Standard & Poor's. Repeal of the ACA's requirement to carry insurance doesn't seem to have had a major impact yet, but Banerjee said there's "a cloud of uncertainty" around the Trump administration's potential policy shifts. Yet some administration actions have also helped settle the markets, such as continuing a premium stabilization program. April Box of Spokane Valley, Washington, lives in a state where premiums could rise substantially since insurers have proposed an 18 percent increase. In states expecting double-digit increases, the reasons reflect local market conditions. Proposed increases may ultimately get revised downward. Box is self-employed as a personal advocate helping patients navigate the health care system. She has an ACA plan, but even with a subsidy her premiums are expensive and a high deductible means she's essentially covered only for catastrophic illness. "I'm choosing not to go to the doctor, and I'm saying to myself I'm not sick enough to go to the doctors," Box said. "We need to figure out how to make it better and lower the price." Now in her 50s, Box was born with dislocated hips. She worries she could be uninsurable if insurers are allowed to go back to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. She might need another hip surgery. "It needs to be a level playing field for everybody," said Box. "We need to have universal coverage that is really the only answer." Tennessee is a prime example of the ACA's flipped fortunes. Last year, the state struggled to secure at least one insurer in every county. But approved rates for 2019 reflect an 11 percent average decrease. Two new insurers Bright Health and Celtic have entered its marketplace, and two others Cigna and Oscar will expand into new counties. Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander called that a "welcome step," but argued rates could have been even lower if congressional Democrats had supported a market stabilization bill. Democrats blame Republicans for the failure. To calculate premium changes, Avalere and The Associated Press used proposed overall individual marketplace rate filings for 34 states and D.C., and final rates for 13 states that have already approved them. Data was not available for Massachusetts, Maryland and Alabama. The average rate change calculations include both on-exchange and off-exchange plans that comply with ACA requirements. The government isn't expected to release final national figures until later this fall. If Republicans want to protect President Donald Trump from impeachment, they've got to show up and vote, he said at a rally in Montana Thursday night, NBC News reported. "This election, you aren't just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress," he said just before bringing up what he called "the impeachment word." Democrats want to dump him from the White House regardless of whether he's actually done anything wrong, Trump said at the Rimrock Auto Arena, where he was supporting Matt Rosendale, the Republican running against the state's Democratic U.S. senator, Jon Tester. Trump also gave an interview to Fox News at the rally before the speech, accusing The New York Times of "virtually" committing "treason" with the publication of an opinion piece by an anonymous senior administration official that said many of Trump's aides are "working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." Lawyers are seeking to force President Donald Trump's administration to pay for the mental health treatment of immigrant children they say are suffering lingering emotional effects from being separated from their parents at the U.S. border. A federal class-action lawsuit filed late Wednesday seeks unspecified monetary damages on behalf of children who were detained away from their parents after the Republican administration adopted a policy requiring anyone who crossed the border illegally to be prosecuted. The lawyers say in the complaint that the administration must be held accountable for psychological harm they inflicted, citing two families from Guatemala whose children are experiencing nightmares and separation anxiety because of their ordeal. "These children are innocent and federal officials harmed them based solely on their race and national origin," said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit in Worcester, Massachusetts against Attorney General Jeff Session and other administration officials. "It is illegal and unjust. These families must be made whole for the harrowing experience they have survived," Espinoza-Madrigal said. U.S. Department of Justice officials didn't immediately respond to an email. Federal immigration authorities separated more than 2,000 migrant children from their parents at the border this spring before Trump reversed course June 20 amid an international outcry and said families should remain together. On Thursday, the Trump administration also moved to abandon a longstanding court settlement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept locked up, proposing new regulations that would allow the government to detain families until their immigration cases are decided. The lawyers are asking the court to order the creation of a fund that would support the mental health treatment of the children from Central and South America who were separated from their families. One of the children described in the complaint was 11 years old when he fled violence in Guatemala to seek asylum in the U.S. The boy was separated from his father for more than a month and feared he would never see him again, the lawsuit says. The child now has nightmares that are sometimes so bad he falls out the bed, the complaint says. The parents and children are identified only by their initials in the complaint to protect their privacy. "The trauma that both C.J. and F.C. experienced was life altering and will continue to affect their mental and emotional well-being for years to come," the lawsuit says. What to Know Daniel Frisiello, 25, of Beverly, was arrested on March 1 after law enforcement connected him to mailing suspicious envelopes The envelopes contained suspicious white powder and notes indicating that the substance was dangerous to high profile individuals Among those that received the envelopes were Trump family members, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, attorney Nicola Hanna, and professor Michele Dauber A Massachusetts man charged with mailing a mysterious white powder to several people, including Donald Trump Jr., has agreed to plead guilty. Daniel Frisiello, 25, of Beverly, has agreed to plead guilty to 13 counts of mailing a threat to injure the person of another and six counts of false information and hoaxes, according to Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. Frisiello was arrested on March 1 after law enforcement connected him to mailing envelopes that contained suspicious white powder and notes indicating that the substance was dangerous to high profile individuals. Authorities said the envelopes had "notable commonalities," including a Boston postmark. One victim received a "glitter bomb," which through investigation was traced back to Frisiello through financial records, according to investigators. In February, one of the letters addressed to Donald Trump Jr. was opened by his wife, Vanessa Trump, who reported she was coughing and felt nauseous. She was briefly hospitalized, although the substance turned out to be nonhazardous. It was not the first time a Trump has received white powder in the mail. In March 2016, police detectives and FBI agents investigated a threatening letter sent to the Manhattan apartment of Donald Trump Jr.'s brother, Eric, that also contained a white powder that turned out to be harmless. Envelopes containing white powder were also sent to Trump Tower twice in 2016. Other recipients included Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic U.S. senator from Michigan; Nicola Hanna, an interim U.S. attorney in California; and Michele Dauber, a Stanford University law professor who has promoted the effort to recall the judge who presided over the Brock Turner sexual assault case. Since being arrested in March, Frisiello has remained in home detention under restrictions. It's unclear when he will appear in court to face the charges or if he has an attorney. If convicted, Frisiello could face a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, or 10 years in prison for threats addressed to a federal official, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. What to Know The U.S. Coast Guard says it is responding to a report of a disabled cruise ship in Buzzards Bay on Friday afternoon. The disabled ship, the 350-passenger Star Pride, is a luxury ship that was making a cruise from Iceland to Manhattan. The ship lost power off Cuttyhunk Island. After power was restored, it headed toward RI to be inspected. The U.S. Coast Guard says a disabled cruise ship in Buzzards Bay on Cape Cod has passed inspection and is back on its way to New York Saturday morning. The disabled vessel, the 376-foot Star Pride, is a luxury ship that was making a cruise from Iceland to New York. It was scheduled to make its maiden docking in Manhattan on Saturday. There were more than 350 people - 191 passengers and 160 crewmembers - on board when the ship became stranded Friday afternoon, according to the Coast Guard. No injuries were reported. The Fairhaven harbormaster said the ship lost power off Cuttyhunk Island. "There was a strong vibration for about five or 10 seconds," said passenger Jose Kirchner. "Then we lost cabin lights, we lost forward power, so we slowly slowed down and we were basically adrift." The ship was anchored while the Coast Guard and tug boats raced to the scene. After 5:30 p.m., the Coast Guard said the ship had regained power. It remained anchored for some time, but Windstar Cruises, the company that operates the Star Pride, said around 9 p.m. that it was on the move to Newport, Rhode Island, where it was inspected. The ship's arrival in New York has been delayed. "By and large most people are concerned about what are we going to do tomorrow," said Kirchner. "What about our flights, that kind of thing." Windstar Cruises says the propulsion and auxiliary engines were shut down automatically after a loss of cooling water. After the power was restored, operations returned to normal and passengers were served dinner. "At no time were the 191 passengers and 160 crew and ship at risk," the cruise line said in a statement. "During the time the ship was without propulsion, the Star Pride was on emergency generator power including power to navigational equipment and essential safety systems as well as basic comforts for the passengers and crew." What to Know Review of data provided by Bostons Inspectional Services Division shows more than a dozen buildings have racked up hundreds of violations. Sixty percent of Boston residents rent and the city is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. Our investigation found many of the landlords with the most violations fail an inspection, and then fail the re-inspection. The woman in her 80s has lived in her Roxbury apartment for 30 years and often struggles with her deteriorating home on the one hand and the potentially risky decision of calling her landlord to complain on the other. We have a raggedy house, she said. NBC10 Boston is withholding the identity and address of the woman and her adult son, who does not live with her. They both fear that speaking out will mean losing the elderly mothers home. Ive seen they complain too much, they no longer live here, the son said. Five years after a Boston University student died, trapped in an attic fire with only one way out, and the city approved a new rental inspection and registration system, inspection officials and community housing advocates said that housing conditions have improved throughout the city. Boston Landlord Violations The map below shows rental properties with the highest number of violations from January 1, 2017, until now. Click on each point to see the number of rental units per property and the number of violations it has racked up. But a review of data provided by Bostons Inspectional Services Division, which inspects rental housing and enforces the citys housing code, shows that while most of the scores of residential rental buildings have few or no housing violations, more than a dozen buildings have racked up hundreds in the last 18 months. We think overall, the housing stock in the city of Boston in the past five years has come up remarkably. Is there more work to be done? Yes, William Buddy Christopher, commissioner of Inspectional Services, said. Sixty percent of Boston residents rent. And for all that Boston offers, or perhaps because of it, the city is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. And sometimes finding affordable housing comes with a hidden price. Youre fighting against the giant. Its David and Goliath. So how do you win? the elderly womans son said. City inspection reports show their building infested by roaches and rodents, no screens on the windows or doors, broken door frames, missing kitchen cabinets and floor tiles, a black substance on the bathroom shower wall and ceiling, and on and on. How is it addressed? Heres four, five cans of Raid and some stickies for the mousetrap, the son said. City inspectors said that landlords are doing a better job fixing up violations. Most of our calls come in through an occupant, the family, said Iris Jones, one of the citys 28 housing inspectors. They are charged with checking up on Bostons 162,000 rental units. Its 60/40 landlords in compliance now compared to years ago, she said. In the past, Jones said fewer than half were in compliance on fixing violations. And Jones said progress is ongoing to fight landlords who bully tenants. Intimidation still is a factor, so you still have tenants that hesitate to contact the city of Boston, she said. The NBC10 Boston Investigators pored through two years worth of housing inspection data provided by Inspectional Services. Page after page showed units failing for rodents, mold, no smoke detectors, among a slew of violations that range from the minorcracked toilet seatsto major structural and health hazards. A housing complex on Cedar Street in Roxbury complied 582 violations between Jan. 1, 2017 and June 2018, according to the data. The complex is owned by Lorenzo Pitts Jr. It was stuck in limbo following the death of Lorenzo Pitts Sr. and a legal fight among his children. The younger Pitts, who lives in Atlanta, told the NBC10 Boston Investigators in a phone interview that he did not know of any violations, but admitted they go to Boston Housing Court a lot. He said his intention is to provide safe and sanitary living conditions. Other landlords have hundreds of violations over multiple properties. Our investigation found many of the landlords with the most violations fail an inspection, and then fail the re-inspection. Its the same violation, same failure over and over and over. Representatives of GBM Portfolio, which owns two apartment buildings on River Street on the line between Hyde Park and Mattapan, disputed the high total of violations shown in the inspections data. City data shows 478 violations for 731 River St. and 370 violations for 720 River St. in the last 18 months. The buildings have 21 and 15 units, respectively. The owner said the repetitions are often the result of inspectors not being able to access a given unit for a re-inspection. Old violations are not reviewed and closed and show up again on new reports, meaning they should not be held against them. But a review of city data shows repeats for health and building violations, like rats, mold, and living conditions, rarely repeat once the inspectors gain entry for the first time because the inspectors often are successful in getting inside for the re-inspection. John Gosnell, head of operations with Advanced Property Management, which works with the River Street buildings, said the violations inspectors find are remedied right away. GBM Portfolio Owner/APM are proud owners/managers of workforce housing in Mattapan, Gosnell said in a written statement. Our policy is to provide safe, secure and affordable housing. The infractions you are referring to are a normal part of the annual inspectional process of all residential units by the City of Boston. Infractions in question are minor and are not life and safety threats and are corrected within the permitted time allowed by ISD. Other properties include 134-136 Everett St. (264 violations) and 3 McCormack Square (256 violations). Both are in East Boston and are owned by Solskinn Properties, LLC. Messages left on the office number of SolSkinn Properties were not returned. And 53 Hancock St. (168 violations) and 62 Clarendon St. (166 violations), owned by developer Charles Dumbaugh. Emails were sent to Dumbaugh seeking comment. Christopher said inspectors do still have problem properties, but has changed focus to be more oriented toward solving problems than issuing tickets. We are now an agency that assists people. Years in the past in our history was more we were an agency about no, and thats not the case anymore. But the city still has a long way to go, some tenants fear. We want a roof over our heads. Thats it. We want a roof over our heads, the elderly Roxbury woman said. To them, its not a violation until somebody gets hurt, said her son. Find out if your Boston rental has a history of problems by address Checklist of what to look for if renting Boston Housing Authority City of Boston Inspectional Services A group of people who were trying to help a stranded whale in Gloucester, Massachusetts, could now face charges related to rescuing the animal even though they thought they were doing the right thing. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the group should not have touched the whale. However, numerous witnesses said they never touched the whale just the rock it was caught on. It was a tense half an hour and the tide was going out so and there was a sense of urgency to do something and we had no idea what to do, said Lisa Carlson, who lives right across from where the whale washed up. Officials with NOAA said their stranding coordinator, along with the harbormaster, were unable to locate the animal and hoped that it found its way back to the deep water safely. They said they appreciate the concern for the stranded whale but want people to call their hotline when the animals are in trouble. In a statement NOAA said: "We appreciate the outpouring of concern for this whale, and understand that it is very hard to watch a whale struggle. We are also very concerned when a whale strands, which is the reason many of us are in this line of work and that we have stranding response teams throughout the region." Under federal law, specifically the Marine Mammal Protection Act, only authorized responders are allowed to interact with stranded marine mammals. Often, marine mammals strand because they are in distress, and a trained responder will best know how to evaluate and help the animal. Pushing an animal back into the water may delay treatment or response, and also limits our ability to gather important information to be able to best help. For example, an entangled minke whale was reported near Gloucester last week, so it would have been valuable to examine this whale for injuries and see if it may have been the same one. Whales in distress can also be dangerous, as they are unpredictable and very powerful. People have been seriously injured or killed trying to help, which is another reason we ask that people wait for trained responders. Officials said the best thing people can do to help a marine mammal in distress is to call the NOAA hotline at 866-755-6622 or the local stranding response partner and stand by the animal until help arrives. NOAA said it's not their policy to confirm or comment on potential or ongoing investigations. Meanwhile, people in Gloucester are outraged their neighbors could get in trouble for such a kind deed. I thought it was ridiculous. Because its something that everyone should be able to and if they are able to do it they should be able to do it, said Emily SmaydaKelley. Mark Hayes the CFO of Ocean Alliance said theres a good reason they dont let people near whales. He said a lot of people dont know that you need to keep the whale wet and protected from the sun, but you cant let water get in its blowhole. There are a lot of things officials know about that the public isn't aware of, said Hayes. Hayes also contends that the men did not touch the whale, but hes not taking a side on this one. I believe you had to do what you have to do in terms of saving a life, said Hayes. A student is facing charges after calling in a false threat that a bomb was aboard a school bus in Bridgewater, Massachusetts on Friday afternoon. Massachusetts State Police said students were evacuated from the bus at a rest stop on Route 24 north near Interstate 495 around 3 p.m. after a threat was received saying there was a bomb on board. State police conducted a search with dogs, and were able to determine that the student who called in the threat was on the bus. The student admitted that it was a hoax. Police said the student will be charged criminally, and his parents are en route to pick him up. The other students have been put back on the bus and police said the scene is expected to be cleared shortly. Maine's annual deer permit lottery is ready to begin, and there are thousands of more permits available this year than in years previous. The state is giving out 84,745 permits this year, which is 28 percent more than last year. Biologists say the state's deer herd has shown strong survival over recent winters and can withstand more hunting pressure. The permits are "any deer" permits which allow a hunter to take a deer of either sex. Only hunters who possess these permits are allowed to hunt antlerless deer and bucks with antlers that are less than three inches long. The permits are needed for the hunting seasons for regular firearms and muzzleloaders. The regular season runs Oct. 29 to Nov. 24. The muzzleloader season is from Nov. 26 to Dec. 8. Police in Manchester, New Hampshire, confirm an officer-involved shooting took place Thursday night. The shooting occurred around 9:20 p.m. at the intersection of Flaherty Lane and Hecker Street. No one was seriously hurt, according to police. The suspect was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. But Manchester Police say he was not hit by a bullet, more likely being injured by broken glass or shrapnel. The area around the shooting scene was closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic while authorities investigated. Police say there is no threat to the public. A former Massachusetts State Police trooper was indicted Thursday as part of the department's ongoing overtime abuse scandal. A grand jury indicted 56-year-old Daren DeJong on an embezzlement charge in federal court in Boston, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. DeJong was previously arrested on July 25. DeJong, a member of the now-defunct Troop E, retired after allegations came to light that he and other troopers received overtime pay for hours they did not work. The overtime hours in question were part of a department initiative to increase state police presence on Interstate 90. According to court documents, DeJong allegedly received overtime pay for hours he either did not work at all, or shifts in which he departed one to seven hours early. DeJong earned about $200,416 in 2016, approximately $68,000 of which was from overtime. About $14,000 of that money was for hours he did not work or did not show up for. Troop E, which was responsible for patrolling the Mass. Pike and tunnels, was disbanded in April after 21 troopers were implicated in the overtime abuse scandal. The case remains under investigation. Students at a Massachusetts middle/high school have yet to start classes this year due to a mold problem, now officials are trying to figure out how to fix the problem and make up for lost classroom time. Instead of teaching science and art inside the classroom, teachers are getting painting projects done outside Quaboag Regional Middle/High School in Warren. Thats because the start of school for students has been delayed due to the discovery of mold in late August. "When all the teachers came back there were several problems reported, we did our due diligence and unfortunately we discovered mold throughout the building," said Dr. Brett Kustigian, Quaboag Regional Superintendent. Service Master crews were called in, but its a tedious process to remediate mold meaning the start of school scheduled for Sept. 4 had to be pushed back indefinitely. "Testing is actually occurring right now as we speak. I will get the results on Monday and hopefully on Tuesday, fingers crossed, we will be back in school," said Kustigian. The superintendent said they looked at portable classrooms and using space in neighboring communities, but the most cost-effective solution seemed to be double sessions. "We're looking at grades 9-12 in the morning and grades 7 and 8 in the afternoon," said Kustigian. At this point, the hope is to use the middle school wing for those split sessions, but the full building may not be available for another two to four weeks. "I don't really care as long as I get back to school, because I dont want this stopping me from learning," said 8th grader Hannah Manzaro. Students and parents NBC10 Boston talked to were understanding. "That's kind of cool too because I'm going to go to school for half days for like a month like thats OK, said senior Katelynn Nichols. "I think the options that they're giving us parents and the students are the best that they can do with what we have going on," added student Angie Manzaro. The superintendent said school officials will be putting updates on the school website and a call out to parents if needed. Monday, Kustigan announced that school would not be able to start Tuesday. "While we are making progress, we needed every room to accommodate students and there remains a few areas of concern," Kustigan wrote in a statement. "This requires additional time." A New Hampshire man is facing multiple charges after an altercation with an officer spilled into the middle of the road on Thursday. Detective Captain Sean Leighton attempted to stop Scott Gagne, 29, near 160 Valley St. in Manchester, New Hampshire on a drug court warrant. However, Gagne walked away from Leighton and into traffic on Valley Street. After Leighton attempted to grab Gagne's arm, Gagne allegedly clenched his fists and continued to resist Leighton. Eventually, the struggle continued on the ground, where Leighton and Gagne were blocking part of Valley Street. Officer Emmet Macken arrived to assist Leighton and ultimately Gagne was taken into custody. A search revealed Gagne was in possession of a small amount of a substance believed to be fentanyl, according to police. In addition to his existing warrant, Gagne was charged with resisting arrest and possession of a controlled drug. He's scheduled to appear in Hillsborough County Superior Court North on Friday. Police in Rhode Island say officers fatally shot a 28-year-old man after he assaulted the officers with a gun. The incident occurred Friday morning in Pawtucket. The man, who died after being taken to a hospital, was identified as DeShawn Cole, a Pawtucket resident. Police Chief Tina Goncalves said officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun. She says when officers confronted the suspect he assaulted them with the gun. She did not say if the man actually fired the gun. The officers, who were not injured, have been placed on administrative leave while the fatal shooting is investigated. One witness reported hearing six or seven shots. Cole's brother told the Providence Journal that family members are confused and want more answers from police. Police are asking for the public's help in finding a woman who has been reported missing from Chicopee, Massachusetts. Police said Amanda Marion, 25, was last seen on Monday, Sept. 3. They said Marion's family is concerned for her well being. Marion is described as 4'11, approximately 90 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact Chicopee Police at 413-594-1740 and reference case 4178. In order to comply with a law passed in 2016, Massachusetts must start to get more of its energy from renewable sources. But a plan get hydro-power from Canada is being met with resistance in Maine, where a new transmission line would have to built. Protesters opposing the New England Clean Energy Connect project worry a proposed 145-mile transmission line, that would run from Quebec to Lewiston, Maine, would spoil a remote area dependent on outdoor tourism. The line would cut through a forested area and rural communities, crossing the Kennebec River. "The most accessible wilderness experience on the east coast is being threatened by this project," Matt Wagener, a camp owner in The Forks, said Friday before a hearing in Augusta. Maine regulators are beginning the permit review and listening to concerns from stakeholders. The $950 million project has been awarded to Central Maine Power, Maine's largest electric company. CMP spokesman John Carroll said Maine ratepayers won't have to foot the bill but could see a financial benefit. "This project will reduce the region's dependency on natural gas, and reduce energy prices all around New England," he said, adding that this is one way Maine can help the region combat climate change. "This is probably one of the largest initiatives New England has ever taken to clean up its air with a single action," Carroll said, adding that the construction would support jobs in Western Maine, where unemployment is high. Nick Bennett, a scientist with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, argued Friday that the project is a bad deal for both Maine and Massachusetts. "The project is just a power cord," he said. "All Hydro Quebec and CMP are going to do is shift power that they're selling to New York, Ontario, and New Brunswick, and sell it to Massachusetts who for some stupid reason is willing to pay more for it than those other places," he said. "I think Massachusetts ratepayers haven't woken up to this yet." While critics accuse CMP of downplaying the environmental impacts of the construction, Carroll said the company has carefully planned a route to minimize disruption, utilizing as many existing corridors as possible. If all the permits are approved in time, CMP hopes to break ground on the project in 2020 and complete it by 2022. A Vermont man will not face criminal charges for his role in an alcohol-fueled fight that involved an innocent bystander getting shot. Carl Martin, 33, of Colchester, had been cited to appear in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington Thursday, with Burlington Police recommending charges of reckless endangerment, aggravated assault, and aggravated disorderly conduct for Martin. However, Chittenden County States Attorney Sarah George announced her office would not bring charges against him. Evidence showed Martin punched another man and threatened him with a gun outside a pair of bars on Main Street in downtown Burlington in February. Investigators say Martin and Rashad Nashid, 37, of Burlington, had gotten into a fight about a woman and threats made to Martins brother. States Attorney George said there is no doubt in her mind that Martin was acting irresponsibly and dangerously, but decided his actions the night in question amounted to self-defense and defense of his brother. Nashid was described as the aggressor in the dispute. He also had a gun and opened fire toward Martin, but missed. The bullet ended up striking an innocent bystander on the sidewalk, police said. That victim suffered a serious physical injury and spent several months recovering, her family told necn affiliate NBC 5 News earlier this year. While the state will not charge Martin, Nashid is being prosecuted. Accusations against him include a federal count of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The situation reignited conversations in Burlington about late-night safety. We should be lucky that things like this are so rare, yet we should be working so that they dont ever happen, said Burlington City Councilor Adam Roof, I-Ward 8, discussing the shooting outside the pair of Burlington bars. The college town is widely thought of as one of New Englands safest small cities, but a handful of incidents in or around bars had Burlington looking to change its city charter a few years ago, to ban guns from places where alcohol is served. While city voters approved of the idea, it never got the approval needed in the Vermont Legislature, so was not enacted. Roof said he will press the city to maintain a focus on late-night safety, especially in the busy downtown. What we could do is work with individual businesses on whether or not they have protocols or procedures in place to keep their staff and patrons safe, Roof said. A half-dozen downtown Burlington bar owners approached by necn for this story declined to be interviewed, indicating they did not want to have their names associated with a news story on weapons in businesses. Several of them did say they wondered how well the issue really could be regulated, asking if it really is possible to stop someone from bringing a knife or a gun inside a business. Some Burlington bars and clubs already do have posted rules that no weapons are allowed inside their establishments, and security personnel at those businesses regularly ask patrons if they are carrying items their employers policies prohibit. More than 90 minutes south of Burlington, in Rutland, the owner of a bar called Center Street Alley said earlier this year that she bought metal-detecting wands and started scanning customers after a pair of shootings near her business. No one was injured in those incidents. It makes me feel safe, Brooke Lipman of Center Street Alley told NBC 5 News in May. It makes me feel safe for my staff and my customers. On Burlingtons Church Street Marketplace, a few bar and restaurant employees told necn Thursday that they rarely, if ever, worry at workand said they hope things stay that way. I walk home at 3, 4 oclock in the morning, and I normally have no troubles, said Mike Lamphere, an employee of a prominent Church Street bar. When alcohol is involvedtheres normal risks that could happen, but a shootings pretty out of the norm, said Albert Brown, who works at a longtime Church Street restaurant and bar. Id say thats pretty atypical for Burlington. Most people are out just trying to have fun. In addition to the shot fired in February outside the Main Street bars that struck the bystander, another bullet went into a second-story apartment above a nearby pizza restaurant, according to investigators. That shot did not injure anyone. States Attorney George, in declining to prosecute Martin, praised the Burlington Police Department detective for his diligent work investigating the case. A Manchester, New Hampshire man was arrested Thursday night following an officer-involved shooting. Justin McInnes, 29, was arrested after he allegedly accelerated his car toward officers in an attempt to harm them as they were conducting surveillance on him. The encounter prompted officers to open fire in an effort to stop McInnes, according to police. The shooting happened at 9:20 p.m. near the intersection of Flaherty Lane and Hecker Street. Officers considered McInnes armed and dangerous at the time of the surveillance. After they saw him exit an apartment complex, they approached themselves and ordered the suspect to show his hands. "We had investigators conducting surveillance at an address they knew he was at, with the belief that he may have been armed and dangerous," police Lt. Brian O'Keefe said. McInnes allegedly refused to comply and instead got into a 2007 Jeep Cherokee, which he used to drive at the officers, police said. The suspect's vehicle broke down as he drove toward Main Street, which gave police an opportunity to detain McInnes. "He came at them and gunshots occurred," O'Keefe said. McInnes was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries he received from broken glass and other shrapnel from his car, according to police. He was arrested after his hospitalization. Officers said they recovered a handgun in his vehicle. "We're just fortunate that the officers didn't get hurt and the suspect sustained minor injuries from most likely fragments of the windshield or parts of the vehicle," O'Keefe said. Manchester police said McInnes was wanted on several warrants, including one stemming from a road rage incident in July in which he allegedly tried to hit another car. He had another oustanding arrest warrant related to a police pursuit in Manchester on Wednesday. In addition to the outstanding warrants, McInnes was charged with three counts of attempted murder felon in possession of a firearm and fugitive from justice. No officers were injured during the confrontation. McInnes is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday afternoon. It is unclear if he has an attorney. A handful of veterans that served in a special operations unit in World War II traveled to Vermonts Camp Ethan Allen Training Site Friday, to meet modern-day soldiers whose skills include some techniques pioneered in combat more than 70 years ago. Its wonderful as one generation of soldier to honor previous generations of soldiers, said Maj. Steve Gagner of the Vermont National Guard. The visit was part of a reunion for members of the MARS Task Force. The MARS Task Force, sometimes known as the mule-packers, was an Army special ops unit that faced dangerous conditions in southeast Asia as part of the offensive against Japanese forces. Even today, the Army Mountain Warfare School discusses the units ingenuity in transporting artillery and supplies through harsh terrainusing mules and intelligent packing methods. The unit also is held in high regard today for its contributions to a decentralized command style, skills in using artillery in mountain areas, and approaches to long-range penetration of territory, Gagner said. Vet Art Naff of Pennsylvania told necn there were two things driving the men during their service in WWII: Duty and loyalty to the country, Neff said, adding that he still feels those today. Earl Mahl made the trip from Ohio, with a bonus of getting to visit his grandson, whos based in Vermont as part of a regiment specializing in mountain operations. A lot of the things are still the basics, Mahl said of the fundamentals of military field operations. Sgt. 1st Class Matt Kehaya of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team loved hearing the stories from his granddad and Mahls buddies. The experiences these guys have gone through is pretty relevant, still todayof some of the things youre going to encounter in the mountains of Afghanistan, Kehaya said, offering an example of how contemporary soldiers are regularly asked to operate in harsh conditions and terrain. With the nation so quickly losing its World War II vets, the sense at the tour of the Ethan Allen Training Site was that get-togethers like this will produce treasured memories. When asked what he was looking forward to about the visit, veteran Charles McGaw of Maine laughed, saying, Sitting down and having a couple beers! President Donald Trump declared Friday the U.S. Justice Department should work to identify the writer of a bitingly critical New York Times opinion piece, purportedly submitted by a member of an administration "resistance" movement straining to thwart his most dangerous impulses. Trump cited "national security" as the reason for such a probe, and he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to open the investigation in comments to reporters. He also said he was exploring bringing legal action against the newspaper over publication of the essay two days earlier. "Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security," Trump said. If the person has a high-level security clearance, he said, "I don't want him in those meetings." It's all but unthinkable that the Justice Department could open an investigation into the op-ed article. Though it was strongly critical of Trump, no classified information appears to have been revealed by the author or leaked to the newspaper, which would be one crucial bar to clear before a leak investigation could be contemplated. Still Trump's call is the latest test of the independence of his Justice Department, which is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without political interference from the White House. A day earlier, Trump's top lieutenants stepped forward to repudiate the op-ed in a show of support for their incensed boss, who has ordered aides to unmask the writer. By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials paraded in from Cabinet-level officials and even Vice President Mike Pence apparently crafted for an audience of one, seated in the Oval Office. Senior officials in key national security and economic policy roles charged the article's writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against America's interests in harsh terms that mimicked the president's own words. In an interview Thursday with Fox News, Trump said the author "may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time." There is a long list of officials who plausibly could have been the author. Many have privately shared some of the article's same concerns about Trump with colleagues, friends and reporters. With such a wide circle of potential suspicion, Trump's men and women felt they had no choice but to speak out. The denials and condemnations came in from far and wide: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied authorship on a visit to India; Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chimed in from American Samoa. In Washington, the claims of "not me" echoed from Vice President Pence's office, from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, from Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman from Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other Cabinet members. The author professed to be a member of that same inner circle. So could the denials be trusted? There was no surefire way to know, and that only deepened the president's frustrations. When asked to elaborate on Trump's call for the writer to be turned over to the government or on the unsupported national security grounds of his demand, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was simply "opining." "Look, hes concerned that someone is trying to undermine the executive branch and he wants it looked at," she told reporters. When asked what law was broken by the op-ed author, Sanders didn't identify one and said she's not a lawyer. "The department does not confirm or deny investigations," said Sarah Isgur Flores, a DOJ spokeswoman. Some people who agreed with the writer's points suggested the president's reaction actually confirmed the author's concerns, and Democrats were quick to condemn the president's call for a federal investigation. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said, "President Trump continues to show a troubling trend in which he views the Department of Justice as the private legal department of the Trump organization rather than an entity that is focused on respecting the Constitution and enforcing our laws." But Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney, suggested that it "would be appropriate" for Trump to ask for a formal investigation into the identity of the op-ed author. "Let's assume it's a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped," Giuliani said. And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a key ally of Trump's, called for the president to order those suspected of being the author to undergo lie-detector tests. "People are suggesting it," Trump said Friday, steering clear of explicitly endorsing the proposal. "Eventually the name of this sick person will come out." As the initial scramble to unmask the writer proved fruitless, attention turned to the questions the article raised, which have been whispered in Washington for more than a year: Is Trump truly in charge, and could a divided executive branch pose a danger to the country? Former CIA Director John Brennan, a fierce Trump critic, told NBC, "This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the orders of the chief executive. ... A wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded." The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance "working diligently from within" the administration, said, "Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." "It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room," the author continued. "We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't." First lady Melania Trump issued a statement backing her husband. She praised the free press as "important to our democracy" but assailed the writer, saying, "You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions." Down Pennsylvania Avenue, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he did not know of any role Congress would have to investigate, though Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Trump ally, said the legislative body could take part. The writer said Trump aides are aware of the president's faults and "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." Mary Hare schoolboy meets Duke and Duchess of Sussex AN inspirational Mary Hare School pupil met Prince Harry and his wife Meghan when he picked up an award for his positivity and determination. Eleven-year-old Jamie Jobson, who is profoundly deaf and has been seriously-ill since birth, collected the Inspirational Child award in the 2018 WellChild Awards ceremony at Londons Royal Lancaster Hotel on Tuesday. Jamie spent the first 18 months of his life critically-ill in hospital and had to return for months at a time over the next 10 years. Despite doctors concerns about his survival and quality of life, Jamies positive attitude pulled him through, exceeding expectations at every stage. Following successful surgery, Jamie is now able to manage his condition at home and is learning how to feed himself through a tube into his stomach. The youngster was nominated for the award by his mother Thandi Jobson, who said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were So lovely. Very genuine and really interested in Jamie. They laughed about the fact Jamie wasnt happy he hadnt got his orange hair spray and Megan commented on it when he was on stage, as we took a detour to fix the hair issue before the meal and awards, she joked. It was utterly amazing and breathtaking. We never could have dreamt of anything so magical. Jamie has been through so much in his short life and its just wonderful to have it recognised at how amazingly hes coped and got on with enjoying life to the full. Im beyond proud of how much hes achieved and feel privileged to be his mum. Jamie recently started at Mary Hare School for deaf children in Newbury and, after receiving cochlear implants, he has continued to thrive, learning to sign in record time and astounding everyone he meets. He took part in the Parallel London 1k Super Sensory Run in his walker, to raise money for charity, and is now in training for another fundraising event next year. WellChild is a national charity for seriously-ill children and the awards, in association with GlaxoSmithKline, celebrate the courage of children coping with serious illnesses or complex conditions and honour the dedication of professionals who go the extra mile to help sick children and their families. Jamie was picked from hundreds of nominations from across the country for the ceremony, which is attended by a host of celebrity supporters. New Milford VNA & Hospice will host a Trees of Love event Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at Harrybrooke Park in town. The event, a fundraiser that will celebrate and remember the lives of deceased loved ones, continues the tradition of the Tree of Life, which for 21 years helped hospice families and all members of the community remember their loved ones while raising funds for New Milford VNA & Hospice. A video recording of the July 23 Washington Zoning Commission Public Hearing for the Wykeham Rise LLC will air Sept. 8-9 and again Sept. 15-16. Wykeham Rise, founded in 1903 on 27 acres near the Washington green, was originally a school for girls that held an important role in the local community until it closed in 1943. The after effects of the terror attacks on 11th September 2001 in the United States are still appearing. Around 15 men who were present near the Ground Zero on the fateful day have been diagnosed with rare forms of male breast cancer. Male breast cancer makes up for less than 1 percent of all breast cancers. The North Pool of the National September 11 Memorial adjacent to One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City United States. Image Credit: Shanshan0312 / Shutterstock This new data emerges from a client list of a law firm that is specially looking into health cases of those in and around the region on 9/11. There could be many more men who are outside of this data base say experts. Two of the men Jeff Flynn (65 years old) and John Mormando (51 years old) who were near the zone were initially diagnosed with the cancer and are being treated for it. Both men say that there is no history of breast cancers in their family and they were exposed to toxins on the day. Flynn was an account manager for a data-storage company Dell EMC and was assigned to Goldman Sachs on Maiden Lane on the fateful day. He was around the region for months after the attack helping Goldman and other financial services firms to set up again. After a decade, in 2011, he first noticed an abnormality in one of his nipples and was then diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer for which he underwent extensive operations. Soon the cancer returned as a stage 4 cancer. He was awarded compensation from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund that helped him pay for his treatment. Mormando was a commodities broker working at the Mercantile Exchange until 2007. He is a triathlete now. Last year he noticed a lump on his chest and was diagnosed with the breast cancer. Leon Silverstein (89 years old), an Army veteran, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to be operated upon. As a result of the cancer both his breasts had to be removed in a double mastectomy. He used to live near Battery Park near the Ground Zero for 30 years. Lymphatic system of the male breast. Experts believe that apart from those killed during the attacks more people are emerging with long term after effects of the attack. There are over ten thousand individuals who were members of the first responders teams for rescue operations or were near the region when the attack took place. These people have been diagnosed with various forms of cancers due to exposure to the toxins. Over 2000 individuals have ailments that can be attributed to the toxins on that day. The Chief of the fire Department of New York, for example, who was leading the first responder efforts died this June from cancer. Founder and Chairman, Dr David Taylor, of Guildford based MR Solutions has been shortlisted as an Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year for London and the South East in the 2018 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. The awards have had a record number of entries with businesses from across the south east vying for a place on the shortlist. MR Solutions which was founded by Dr Taylor in 2004 has developed the worlds first range of commercially available super-conducting, cryogen free compact preclinical multi-modality MRI imaging scanners. Alternative imaging modules known as PET and SPECT can be fitted to companys MRI or CT system for simultaneous or sequential imaging. MR Solutions, with Dr Taylor at the helm, has invested heavily in developing improved imaging technologies more cost effectively. This entrepreneurial lead has meant the company has held a very successful position at the forefront of the preclinical imaging sector with 99% of their orders being export going to top academic institutions across the world. The NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards acknowledge the hard work and inspiring stories of British entrepreneurs and businesses in Great Britain. Now in its sixth year, the Awards have celebrated some amazing entrepreneurs over the years, many of whom are now household names. Gordon Merrylees, Head of Entrepreneurship at NatWest said: Thought Leaders Dr. Paul Tesar TESAR Laboratory Case Western Reserve University Dr. Paul Tesar, D.Phil., from the TESAR Laboratory at CWRU School of Medicine, Ohio, discusses the importance of organoids in biological research and the development of organoids which are capable of simulating the early stages of human myelin. What are organoids? Why are they useful for studying human development? Organoids are three-dimensional pieces of tissue generated in a laboratory that exhibit simple features, functions and organized structure of an organ. The growth of organoids in the laboratory typically begins with human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Image Credit: 3Dme Creative Studio / Shutterstock The development of human iPS cells in particular means we now have the potential to create organoids from any human subject, including those afflicted with certain diseases. The key advantage of organoid technology is that it provides the ability to generate scalable quantities of developing human tissue in the lab, which was previously impossible, especially in the context of the human brain. Are there any limitations when it comes to using organoids to study the human brain? There are several pioneers that have led both the discovery as well as recent advances in human brain organoid technology. Even though this technology is very powerful and offers a tremendous amount of potential, most scientists would agree that we are still in the beta phase and that a number of sequential advancements will be necessary for us to create organoids that provide a more realistic representation of human brain tissue. Currently, we are only able to model certain aspects of early human brain development with this organoid technology, as we are limited by the simplistic organization and lack of maturation within these organoids. Why is it important that new methods of producing organoids are developed? The organoid field is advancing at a very rapid pace. Early pioneering technologies largely consisted of self-organizing neural progenitor cells and neurons. Whereas now, we have organoids that can mature to include contain additional cell types such as astrocytes and vasculature, which enables a more accurate representation of the complex three-dimensional native brain tissue. However, more still need to be done to achieve organoids that contain the full repertoire of cell types normally seen in fully functioning brain tissue. Image Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi / Shutterstock Please describe your recent research. My laboratory is focused on understanding the development of human oligodendrocytes and their dysfunction in neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis and pediatric leukodystrophies such as Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. Along with astrocytes and neurons, oligodendrocytes are one of the three major cell types in the central nervous system. These cells are responsible for creating myelin, a discontinuous lipid-based substance that coats neuronal axons. Without myelin, neurons fail to appropriately conduct electrical signals, leading to neural dysfunction and disability. In the organoid field, we have whole brain organoids and spheroids, which represent a more restricted sub-region of the tissue such as the cortex, in our case. Organoid and spheroid technologies provide a powerful platform from which to examine oligodendrocytes and myelin biology, but thus far, organoids have lacked oligodendrocytes and myelin. This got us thinking, how can we produce organoids that contain these essential components? We modified previous methods developed by pioneers in the field of organoid technology in in a way that allowed us to stimulate the generation and maturation of oligodendrocytes within induced pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids. We call these oligocortical spheroids. These spheroids are capable of simulating the early stages of human myelin, which is one of the first examples of access to the stages of human myelination in the laboratory. Myelination Play How will this research impact patients with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease? This research should have a huge impact on our understanding of Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease is a rare X-linked myelin disorder that typically affects young children. It is caused by mutations in the PLP1 gene and has a range of clinical effects, depending on the mutations involved. So far, we have not been able to fully understand how each of these mutations causes myelin dysfunction in patients. However, using these oligocortical spheroids, we are now able to produce brain-tissue or tissue-like material from iPS cells generated from patient samples. This will allow us to study the temporal, cellular, and molecular pathological underpinnings of Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. More importantly, it will allow us to potentially screen or develop therapeutics that can modulate the disease pathology. This could have the potential to restore myelin function to Pelizaeus-Merzbacher patients in the future. Using this method, can we create models for any neurological condition? Are there any drawbacks to the technique? While oligocortical steroids offer a tremendous amount of potential for understanding human brain development and function, it is still in the early stages of development. Currently, the technology can provide some key insights into the human brain, but in order to be able to model the more complex pathology of adult-onset disorders and normal tissue homeostasis in the adult brain, new methods will be needed. We need to be able to generate organoids that can mature enough to reflect the later stages of human development and be maintained in the laboratory for an extended period. This will allow us to understand normal human physiology and compare this to the pathology of human diseases. Currently, we are following both pathways of advancing the technology and using the technology as it stands to give us novel insight. What does the future hold for your research? In general, my laboratory functions at the interface of neuroscience and stem cell technology. We strive to develop cellular tools that can further our understanding of neural development and disease. When it comes to oligocortical steroids, we are working to further refine and optimize this technology to reflect more mature stages of human myelination. Another goal of ours is to be able to model other regions of the central nervous system outside of the cortex, which is where our previous studies have been focused. Finally, as previously mentioned, we are working to use this oligocortical steroid platform to help identify potential therapeutics that can enhance the generation of human oligodendrocytes and human myelin, both in the context of disease like multiple sclerosis, but also in the context of genetic disorders, including Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. Where can readers find more information? Induction of myelinating oligodendrocytes in human cortical spheroids (2018). Nature Methods. About Dr. Paul Tesar Dr. Paul Tesar is currently an Associate Professor and the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics at CWRU School of Medicine in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. After receiving his undergraduate degree in biology from Case Western Reserve University, Paul went on to earn his D.Phil. (Ph.D.) from the University of Oxford as a recipient of a prestigious scholarship from the National Institutes of Health. Pauls scientific achievements continue to be recognized with a number of prestigious awards including being named a Robertson Investigator of the New York Stem Cell Foundation in 2011. One of only four international awardees, the honor recognizes and supports scientists leading their generation in stem cell research. Paul also co-founded a Cleveland-based biotechnology company to advance new therapies from the laboratory into clinical testing to better the lives of patients and their families. Researchers from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum and the University Hospital of Gieen and Marburg, in collaboration with colleagues from Bonn, the Netherlands, and the UK, have analyzed what happens in the brain when humans want to voluntarily forget something. They identified two areas of the brain - the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus - whose activity patterns are characteristic for the process of forgetting. They measured the brain activity in epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in the brain for the purpose of surgical planning. The team headed by Carina Oehrn and Professor Nikolai Axmacher outlines the results in the journal Current Biology, published online on 6 September 2018. "In the past century, memory research focused primarily on understanding how information can be successfully remembered," says Nikolai Axmacher, Head of the Neuropsychology Department in Bochum. "However, forgetting is crucial for emotional wellbeing, and it enables humans to focus on a task." Rhythmic brain activity and word test The researchers recorded the brain activity of 22 patients, who had electrodes implanted either in the prefrontal cortex or in a deeper structure, the hippocampus. They presented the participants with a number of words, asking them either to remember or to forget them. A test showed that the participants did indeed remember the words that they were supposed to forget less well than the words they were supposed to remember. As they conducted the analysis, the researchers payed close attention to the synchronous rhythmic activity in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. During active forgetting, oscillations in both areas of the brain showed characteristic changes in specific frequency bands. In the prefrontal cortex, oscillations between three and five Hertz were more pronounced, i.e. in the so-called theta range. They were coupled with increased oscillations at higher frequencies, namely between 6 and 18 Hertz, in the hippocampus. The forgetting frequency "The data showed us that during active forgetting, the activity in the hippocampus, an important region for memory, is regulated by the prefrontal cortex," explains Carina Oehrn, who was initially involved in the research project in Bochum and now works at the University Hospital in Marburg. "The activity in the hippocampus is not just suppressed; rather, it is switched to a different frequency, in which currently processed information is no longer encoded," continues the neuroscientist. Potential therapy approach for posttraumatic stress disorder The team believes that research into voluntary forgetting might constitute the basis of potential new therapies of posttraumatic stress disorder, which causes patients to relive negative emotional memories again and again. "The prefrontal cortex, i.e. the brain region that exerts active control over memory processes, may be activated for therapy purposes through non-invasive magnetic or electrical stimulation," as Oehrn outlines an initial idea. "Still, the benefits of this treatment will have to be tested in future studies." A doctoral student in biology at The University of Texas at Arlington has received a prestigious grant to fund her research in genetic variation in whiptail lizards. Kathleen Currie, a third-year doctoral student, was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship Program grant by the National Science Foundation. The award will support her research, which focuses on genetic variation and its impact on the microbiome, using whiptail lizards (genus Aspidoscelis) as the study system. "What makes this system unique, and the perfect system for my research, is the presence of both sexually and asexually reproducing species living in sympatry," she said. In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. "By examining and comparing these sympatric species, we are hoping to gain a better understanding of the role host genetic variation has in the composition of their microbiomes," Currie said. The grant includes a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, which is paid to the institution. Currie said that she learned she had won the award through an email from NSF over the summer. "I got the email right after waking up, so I was pretty disoriented," she recounted. "I took a screenshot and sent it in our lab group message and asked if it meant what I thought it meant, because I didn't believe it. Even though it still doesn't quite feel real yet, I am immensely grateful to NSF for this opportunity and am excited for what the next few years hold." Matt Fujita, associate professor of biology and Currie's faculty advisor, said he is thrilled to see Currie's hard work pay off with the GRFP award. "Kathleen has completely earned this award on her own," Fujita said. "She supported herself through her education as an undergraduate at UTA and continues her academic excellence as a graduate student. "The GRFP will provide her the flexibility to make sure she reaches her research goals but also attain new ones that may not have been possible if she had to teach for an entire semester. I am excited to see the opportunities that open up for Kathleen via this award." Currie grew up in Euless and graduated from Colleyville Heritage High School. Her interest in biology - and science in general - began in her childhood, she said. "My favorite classes growing up were always science classes, and I loved to go outside and look for whatever critters I could find," she said. After high school she attended Tarrant County College before transferring to UTA in 2012. "While I didn't know quite what I wanted to do in the long run when I initially came to UTA, I knew I wanted to major in biology," Currie said. "I took biological anthropology my first semester here, and realized that I really enjoyed learning about genetics and evolution." A year later, she took a genetics course taught by Fujita and, after hearing him talk about his research, realized it was what she wanted to do. After class one day, she asked Fujita if he had any space in his lab for an undergraduate. He did, and Currie was on her way to entering the field of evolutionary genetics. Currie graduated in 2015 with a bachelor's in science in Biology. She spent the next year working as an academic advisor in the Department of Biology, and then started as a doctoral student in Fujita's lab in the fall of 2016. In the two years since, she has worked as a graduate teaching assistant in human anatomy and physiology courses in addition to conducting research on her dissertation project. Some species of these whiptail lizards are all-female and reproduce by parthenogenesis, a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization. They live in desert grasslands. For her research, Currie has visited West Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado to collect lizard samples. "It can be a real challenge to catch them because they're so fast and agile," Currie said. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions. Move over Hawkeye, Pizza Dog could be the real star of the MCU's newest Disney Plus series If Marvel Studios really wants fans to love their Hawkeye show, they'll give Pizza Dog his due Singapore : An Indian-origin "serial prank caller" in Singapore who repeatedly made nuisance calls to the police, despite being jailed for the same offence previously, was jailed for three years on Thursday. Gurcharan Singh, a 61-year-old cleaner, usually made the "999" emergency calls after drinking alcohol, the court heard. The latest incidents occurred over two days in June, with Singh making two calls on the first day and 15 on the second, Channel News Asia reported. On June 10, Singh called the police using a public phone at a void deck in Chai Chee housing estate. During one such call, he told the operator: "You are stupid." "I put one dynamite to the immigration house... You are the police emergency ... You should find out everything in the world what's happening ... and question everything ... all you should have find out ... What a f***ed up police emergency you are," Singh told the operator. He called the emergency hotline a second time later that night, again expressing his unhappiness with the immigration authorities, the report said. Singh made another 15 calls to the police, all in one day, later that month. Singh has been a repeat offender since 2000, with the most recent conviction in 2016, when he was sentenced to two years' jail, Deputy Public Prosecutor Daphne Lim said. "His underlying problem is alcohol use disorder," said Lim, adding that any nuisance calls made to the police deprive people in distress of timely police intervention. The court also ordered Singh to serve an additional enhanced sentence of 66 days for breaching his remission order. Jakarta : A regency in the conservative Indonesian province of Aceh, where Islamic or sharia law is applied, has issued a ban on unmarried couples sharing the same table unless accompanied by family members. The new law adopted in Bireuen also prohibits attending to homosexuals and serving women from 9 p.m, human rights activists said on Thursday, Efe news reported. According to the law signed by the mayor, Saifannur, the time limit for women may be ignored if accompanied by a relative. Article 10 of the regulation, approved on August 30, bans establishments from serving customers who violate sharia law, such as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) clients. Article 13 underlined that it was "haram" or prohibited, for men and women to eat at the same table unless accompanied by a relative. Aceh, located in the north Sumatra island, is the only Indonesian province to be governed by sharia law. Actress and founder of non-profit Suara Hati Perempuan, Nova Eliza, joined the criticism from activists and local business people. Eliza sent a letter to the city councillor on the grounds that the regulation interprets sharia law incorrectly. She told Efe news that the regulations limited the freedom of working women and were detrimental to not just women but also businesses. Aceh first introduced sharia law under a concession made by the central government to persuade it to abandon its aspirations for independence and to end clashes. Sharia law in Aceh criminalizes homosexual relations, adultery, gambling and alcohol consumption, with caning a common form of punishment. Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population, with nearly 88 per cent of its over 260 million inhabitants devoted to Islam, who mostly practice a moderate form of the religion. Sorry! This content is not available in your region Dr. Richard Sackler, a member of the family that owns controversial OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, is a recipient of a recently granted patent for a treatment for opioid addiction, according to several media reports this week. Sackler comprises one of six inventors of a fast-dissolving wafer form of buprenorphine, whose patent was awarded in January and first reported Friday by the Financial Times. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a tablet and film, buprenorphine works to prevent withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking opioids by producing similar effects to those drugs. While opioids have always been known to be useful in pain treatment, they also display an addictive potential, the patent said, according to the Times. Thus, if opioids are taken by healthy human subjects with a drug-seeking behavior, they may lead to psychological as well as physical dependence. A number of experts said they were troubled the patent could allow Sackler a former president of Stamford-based Purdue and a son of one of the firms late co-founders to benefit financially from the opioid crisis, according to the reports. Purdue officials declined to comment on the patent. The companys ownership family faces heightened scrutiny as Purdue grapples with more than 1,000 lawsuits that generally allege the company has fueled the epidemic of opioid abuse through deceptive marketing of opioids including OxyContin. Nearly 30 states have sued the company; Colorado and Vermont this week were the latest to file complaints. Purdue has denied the lawsuits allegations. Legal pressure is also mounting against members of the Sackler family who are involved with the company. Richard Sackler is one several family members named as defendants in the lawsuit that the state of Massachusetts filed in June against the company. Congress members are also investigating Purdues role in the opioid crisis. Last month, a House of Representatives committee asked the company for a deposition from Richard Sackler that was taken as part of a Kentucky lawsuit against Purdue. The case was settled in 2015, but it is believed to be the only time a Sackler family member has been questioned under oath about OxyContin marketing and the extent of the companys knowledge about its addictive characteristics, according to statnews.com. Meanwhile, grassroots campaigns have mounted against the company. Four protests have been held in the past three months outside the companys headquarters at 201 Tresser Blvd., in downtown Stamford. Purdue officials say they are taking a number of steps to tackle the opioid crisis. Earlier this week, they announced they had given a $3.4 million grant to a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit pharmaceutical company to develop a low-cost nasal spray version of naloxone, a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses. In its own operations, Purdue has increasingly moved away from opioids in the past year. In February, it announced it would no longer market opioids to medical prescribers. By June, the company had disbanded its sales force, a move that resulted in several hundred layoffs. pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschott Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Greenwich resident Tim Armstrong, who Verizon Communications tasked with overseeing the creation of Internet subsidiary Oath, is planning to leave the company according to the Wall Street Journal. New York City-based Verizon had considered spinning off Oath as an independent company, according to the report citing multiple unnamed sources, but is electing instead to better integrate the platform which includes Yahoo, AOL and HuffPost. Politicians have followed the lead of Sandy Hook activists calling on U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to renounce plans that would allow local school districts to use federal education grants for arming teachers. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on Friday called for DeVos to testify at an upcoming committee hearing about news reports that she is considering using taxpayer money earmarked for student enrichment and safe classrooms to pay for guns and firearms training for teachers. "Democracy" has taken different forms throughout history. In ancient Athens, it was a closed, self-governing community of citizens; in 1790s France, it involved an expansive assertion of popular sovereignty via armed uprisings. For many Americans, democracy suggests self-reliant individuals living under a limited government; for 19th-century European social democrats, it entailed a struggle for social and economic justice that expanded the role of government. After World War II, democracy emerged as a universal aspiration, memorialized in Article 21 of the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which states, "Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives." Virtually every political regime today claims to embody some form of democracy - and its diverse proponents, and its critics, have propagated many myths about it. Here are five. Myth No. 1: The United States revived and perfected democracy. In "Self-Rule: A Cultural History of American Democracy," Robert H. Wiebecalls democracy America's "most significant contribution to world history." President Trump, in his first State of the Union address, described the country at its founding as "home to an incredible people with a revolutionary idea: that they could rule themselves. That they could chart their own destiny. And that, together, they could light up the world." Yet most of America's founders abhorred democracy as a form of government. They hoped to create what John Adams called a "natural aristocracy," comprising men of virtue and talent who would govern on behalf of all. In one letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams expressed his wariness of the "stupidity" of the "numerous multitude." Alexander Hamilton, in a speech to New York's constitutional ratifying convention, said that pure democracy "never possessed one feature of good government." That's why the Constitution set up American government with so many explicitly anti-democratic elements, such as the electoral college, an equal number of senators for each state and indirect election of senators by members of state legislatures, creating, in effect, an American House of Lords. The democratic ideal in the United States emerged only gradually. The right to vote, for Americans of any "race, color, or previous condition of servitude," wasn't recognized until the 15th Amendment's ratification. Women gained the franchise after the 19th Amendment's ratification. Populist President Andrew Jackson agitated, without success, for the abolition of the electoral college. Only after the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913 did each state's two senators become "elected by the people thereof." Disproportionate representation and the electoral college remain in place, though, resulting most recently in Trump's 2016 election despite his losing the popular vote. Myth No. 2: Democracy is about electing representatives. In 2004, Stanford political scientist Larry Diamond defined democracy in terms familiar to most Americans. Among other things, it is "a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections." This view is echoed whenever an election rolls around. As one local paper's editorial board wrote last year, "Democracy depends on citizens voting." In Australia, voting is compulsory. But this isn't the only way to ensure the people's input. Ancient Athens selected almost all significant officials not by voting but randomly, by drawing lots. This is how we select juries today, for the same reason: It nullifies the advantages of the wealthy and well-known, and it means a political order in which citizens engage in public life on equal terms, ratifying Aristotle's conclusionthat "from one point of view governors and governed are identical." As Montesquieu wrote, "The suffrage by lot is natural to democracy, as that by choice is to aristocracy." Myth No. 3: Democracy is a guarantor of liberty. A section of the United Nations website titled "Democracy: Overview" says that democracy "provides an environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights." In their recent best-selling study, "How Democracies Die," Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt take for granted that democracy includes an assortment of what they call "guardrails" that protect minorities and check the rise of authoritarians. Democracy ensures "broad protection of civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, and association," as Levitsky and Lucan A. Way outline in "Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War." Not necessarily. The first Protestant champions of popular sovereignty, an idea embraced by the French Huguenots and English Puritansthat would become central to modern democratic thinking, summoned the power of the people for the purpose of dethroning rulers with whose religious views they disagreed. As historian Edmund S. Morganwrites, "It was not religious liberty they sought, but the elimination of wrong religions." And democratically elected governments can produce illiberal policies: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was democratically elected, but he has sought to stifle critics, including a senator who hasn't left the nation's Senate building after being threatened with arrest by Duterte over decade-old allegations of coup attempts. Last year, the Hungarian parliament revised a law reportedly to facilitate the shuttering of Central European University, whose founder, billionaire George Soros, and curriculum are political foils of the ruling party of authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Myth No. 4: Democracy is inherently pluralistic. In 2015, President Barack Obama used the phrase "That's not who we are as Americans" to rebut then-candidate Donald Trump's immigration proposals. It was a phrase he deployed routinely to push back on views he saw as exclusionary. His framing was consistent with Americans' popular descriptions of their country as a "nation of immigrants" and a "melting pot." Still, history is rich with democracies that excluded minority groups or reduced them to second-class citizenship. In Athens, women, foreigners and enslaved people couldn't become citizens. In the United States, of course, slavery was legal until the end of the Civil War; segregation was legal until the middle of the 20th century. The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts placed discriminatory limits on who could become a citizen; the Constitution referred to American Indian nations in the same context as foreign countries. To this day, some advocates of democracy argue that robust forms of self-rule require the exclusion of foreigners. In Italy, the recently elected deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, has said he plans to expel members of the country's Roma minority who don't have Italian citizenship, stereotyping Roma as people who "live in total lawlessness." Former White House adviser Stephen Bannon has blamed immigration for undermining American living standards, calling it "the beating heart of the problem." Myth No. 5: Democracy will triump. "A great democratic revolution is going on amongst us," Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1835, in the aftermath of the French Revolution and the rise of Jacksonian democracy in America. Tocqueville was one of the first in a long line of modern writers who have posited that democracy, in some sense, represents a logical culmination of human affairs. For Francis Fukuyama, writing in 1989, liberal democracy marked "the end of history." Fukuyama predictedthat the triumph of a liberal form of democracy would be so complete that a potential threat to its survival might be the "prospect of centuries of boredom," which would then "serve to get history started once again." But history hasn't quite evolved in the way these theorists expected. In many nations that flirted with or even embraced democracy, democratic norms have crumbled. Poland, after a backlash against an unusually progressive government in the 2000s, has drifted in an illiberal direction: Last year, President Andrzej Dudasigned a law meant to pack the country's judiciary with judges friendly to the party in power, a move that has contributed to strained relations between Poland and better-established democratic governments in the European Union. After decades of military rule in Egypt, Arab Spring protesters brought down Hosni Mubarak, and voters chose Mohamed Morsi to lead their country. But Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and the military seized control again in 2013, and even democratic governments around the world, such as ours, have supported him. Still, nearly every modern regime pays at least lip service to democracy. President Vladimir Putin and his supporters have long declared Russia a "sovereign democracy." Even North Korea, one of the most repressive authoritarian states in the world, if not the most, calls itself a "Democratic People's Republic." - - - Miller is a professor of politics at the New School for Social Research and the author of "Can Democracy Work?: A Short History of a Radical Idea, From Ancient Athens to Our World." President Donald Trump wants to uncover and punish the anonymous author of the New York Times op-ed that claims senior administration officials have formed a "resistance" movement intent of thwarting an unstable and dangerous president. The op-ed, and Trump's reaction to it, put U.S. democracy in a unique position on the spectrum between Europe's coalition-driven governance and authoritarianism as practiced, for example, in Russia. The writer claims to be a senior administration official working with other "adults in the room" to frustrate parts of Trump's "agenda and his worst inclinations." Stealthy insurgencies by bureaucratic means are pretty standard in the U.S., as Bloomberg Opinion columnist Noah Feldman has pointed out. By contrast, open expressions of dissent by members of government and even sometimes personal attacks against a political leader are not particularly unusual in Europe. Consider the recent conflict between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, over the latter's plan to prevent some asylum seekers from crossing into Germany. Seehofer's proposal put Merkel in a difficult spot because it would break European Union rules. But firing the rebellious minister might blow up her Cabinet: Seehofer is the leader of the Christian Social Union, which is in the ruling coalition and the longtime partner of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. To keep the alliance alive, Merkel had to negotiate with other European leaders to work out a common solution acceptable to Seehofer and with the minister himself to make him soften his plan. "I can no longer work with the woman," Seehofer grumbled to a small circle of allies at one point during the conflict. Unlike U.S. officials who will almost always deny reports that they've insulted or criticized Trump, Seehofer didn't take back his comments. In a newspaper interview, the minister maintained that Merkel was chancellor only because of him and therefore he "wouldn't let her fire" him. Merkel kept him on once they resolved their differences in July. Seehofer, for his part, continued to openly disagree with her on migration policy and even attacked her personally. "Migration is the mother of all political problems," he said Thursday, alluding to Merkel's moniker, Mutti ("Mommy" in German). Similarly, British Prime Minister Theresa May has put up with the open criticism of Brexit supporters in her government. Even though the U.K. Conservatives aren't strictly speaking a coalition, the party is divided between two factions, Brexiters and remainers. May is playing by the rules of coalition politics, which allow differences and even open quarrels within governing teams. Although U.S. parties share some characteristics of coalitions - there are conservatives who don't back Trump and Trump supporters who break with his agenda by, for example, defending free trade - this state of affairs isn't recognized in the U.S. as in Europe. That's why the op-ed writer felt the need for anonymity to protect a job that he says allows him to keep Trump in check. The president said he'd force the official to resign and perhaps even have him or her prosecuted on "national security" grounds. The U.S., however, is still enough of a democracy to prevent the kind of events that shook Russia soon after the Soviet Union fell apart. In late 1991, a rift started developing between President Boris Yeltsin and his vice president, Alexander Rutskoy, and between Yeltsin and the Russian parliament. For more than two years, officials opposed to Yeltsin's shock therapy market reforms and what they saw as his submission to the U.S. worked, first quietly and then increasingly openly, against Yeltsin's "agenda and his worst inclinations," blocking his moves whenever possible, grumbling that he was unfit for his post and a traitor to Russia. Yeltsin fought back. In September 1993, he dissolved parliament and announced a constitutional reform. The legislators swiftly moved to impeach him and appoint Rutskoy president. Yeltsin sent in the troops; tanks fired at the parliament building and the rebels were thrown in prison. (The next Russian parliament amnestied them.) The chaos in the Trump administration as described by insiders and writers with access to them is reminiscent of the early years of Yeltsin's erratic rule in Russia, and the "deep state" resistance to Trump has echoes of the Soviet bureaucracy's quiet revolt, which was backed even by some Yeltsin appointees. But the American internal rebels do not have the stomach for an open confrontation. Trump, for his part, isn't constrained by the same political mechanisms that dictate the tolerance for dissent of Merkel and May. In addition, the U.S. isn't a shaky young democracy emerging from 70 years of Communist misrule and Trump isn't a former Soviet regional boss, so the U.S. president lacks both the tools and the sense of being above the law that determined Yeltsin's treatment of his deep state resistance. This is a bad situation for the U.S.: The country is not being governed effectively because it is stuck in the middle between the Merkel and Yeltsin poles. It has a weak president pitted against anonymous rebels. That's not just a feature of the Trump era but an institutional flaw that may well persist under future presidents. The U.S. party system and the presidency need to develop toward a more explicit recognition of coalitions. That would help clear the air and make the public discussion of the government's internal differences healthier and more open. Otherwise, moving toward the other extreme might become too much of a temptation. - Bershidsky is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European politics and business. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. The Chinese government is ramping up its worldwide effort to strip Taiwan of its international recognition, legitimacy and economic freedom, but the United States seems either unwilling or unable to confront Beijing. The Trump administration must challenge Chinese intimidation of Taiwan wherever it emerges - especially in our own backyard. The paradox of the Trump administration's Taiwan approach is that, despite the presence of pro-Taiwan officials throughout the government, the actual policy has moved only incrementally, well short of what would be a proportional response to Beijing's increasingly aggressivediplomatic, economic and military campaign against Taiwan. The United States' Taiwan policy is hampered by two challenges: the lack of a comprehensive strategy and the personal resistance of President Donald Trump. Convinced his personal friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping will yield results for the United States on either trade or North Korea, Trump has resisted more assertive moves to bolster the U.S.-Taiwan relationship, several officials said. "This administration, from a personnel perspective, has the most hawkish Taiwan team ever," one senior administration official told me. "But if Xi calls and complains, the president's instinct is to defer to that because there is always some pending issue in which we want something from the Chinese." Since Trump's surprise phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen before his inauguration, official U.S.-Taiwan interactions have increased somewhat, and the administration has taken public stands against many of Beijing's actions. Last month, the White House criticized El Salvador for breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Earlier this year, the administration called out Beijing for attempting to force international airlines to scrub Taiwan from their websites. Though the Trump administration approved a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan last year,there is no word of any further deals. And in June, the administration failed to send any Cabinet-level officials to the opening of the new headquarters for the American Institute in Taiwan, our de facto embassy. This is not the Taiwan policy that Trump officials such as national security adviser John Bolton have long championed. Trump's attitude has forced his own officials to calculate what can be done to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan ties without provoking backlash that might reach the president. That's a tricky calculation, as State Department official Alex Wong discovered after his March visit to Taipei resulted in a strong rebuke from Trump, who was not briefed on the trip in advance. Congress is pushing the administration to do much more. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who met the Taiwanese president last month in Los Angeles, introduced a bill this week with bipartisan support that authorizes the State Department to downgrade relations or withhold aid money to countries that abandon Taiwan under Chinese pressure. Congress is building on legislation Trump signed (but has largely disregarded) encouraging more U.S. official travel to Taiwan, as well as a new National Defense Authorization Act that calls for enhanced military and security cooperation. Gardner said the president should understand this is not just about Taiwan but part of the greater effort to compete with China's growing global influence. "El Salvador is important because of Taiwan but also because of Chinese intentions in the Americas," he said. "We make it clear that a decision on Taiwan doesn't just affect your relationship with Taiwan, but it affects your relationship with the United States." Meanwhile, the United States must help Taiwan bolster its own defenses opposite China's overwhelming military buildup. The Taiwanese government's situation is delicate and U.S. action must avoid making Tsai's problems worse or provoke an outright crisis. But there are still tools the United States can employ to mitigate Beijing's strategy. "The cross-strait military balance has already shifted fundamentally but we can never have China draw the conclusion they can attack Taiwan with impunity and achieve a political goal," said Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The United States should regularize arms sales to Taiwan to remove Xi's ability to feign outrage each time. Then, the United States should increase official visits, sail more and larger ships through the Taiwan Strait, and ramp up defense of Taiwan's continued membership in international organizations still willing to accept it. Just this week, the small Pacific island country of Nauru stood up for Taiwan by giving visiting Chinese officials a taste of their own medicine, refusing to stamp their diplomatic passports. After Chinese officials stormed out of the recent Pacific Islands Forum, the Global Times, a state-run media outlet in China,stated, "Taiwan's 'independent sovereignty' is like melting ice, and it is swimming against the dominant global tide." The Trump administration's strategy should provide countries such as El Salvador and Nauru economic and diplomatic incentives to resist Chinese pressure and partner with democracies such as the United States and Taiwan. Most importantly, Trump officials must persuade the president that defending Taiwan is not an irritant in the U.S.-China relationship.It is a test case for America's willingness to respond to Beijing's global aggression. 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. Marion Belangers photograph from 2003 Utah shows three hunters on a brown, grassy plain, smiling broadly as they walk away from a hunt on a migratory bird refuge with white swans in hand and gray clouds overhead. Sounds bad, but it turns out swans are not an endangered species, the hunt is regulated and legal and the photo demonstrates the Western balance between preservation and land use. We learned that backstory from George Miles, curator of Western Americana for Yales Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, who confessed to being a prolific talker at a Thursday preview of the Beineckes new visual exhibition, Eye on the West: Photography and the Contemporary West. So why are the rich photos in this show minimally titled with just photographer, title and sometimes place or event? Because there would be too much story to relay on a wall card, Miles said, and each of the 158 photos tells several stories if you look close. The chosen images are well-crafted puzzles, in a way, that spur curiosity and the imagination. For almost two centuries, said Miles, photographers have been some of the most interesting, important, significant observers, chroniclers (and) critics of the American West as a place, as a homeland for multiple, divergent, diverse cultures and as a stage for really significant events in American social and political history. This collection, a narrow segment of the estimated 250,000 photos in Beineckes archives, covers from 1960 to 2016 instead of the usual iconic photography of Gold Rush, transcontinental railroad or Dust Bowl. The modern-age photos no less imbued with stories have roots in the acquisition of a photo collection by Yale alum David Plowden, whose book The Handyman in America converted Miles to the idea that we need to collect contemporary photography. Yale has been building such archives for almost a quarter-century from photojournalists, activists, scholars and fine art photographers. There are 20 photographers showcased here, 17 in some depth (and eight of those are women, including Yale School of Art grad Belanger of Guilford). Theres no master narrative here, said Miles, also known as the longtime curator of swimmers on the Branford Stingrays swim team. The photos instead are an opportunity to consider the ways that photos inform us and, at times, misinform us about the West and its people, influencing national policy. Looking through about 8,500 photos, Miles said, the categories formed in his mind. Prints downstairs on the ground floor show themes of the land, human marks on the land, working, ceremony and development. On the other side of the lobby are photos of recreation, activism (early photos of Johnny Cochrane), conflict (a tear-gassed water protector at the 2016 Backwater Bridge battle in North Dakota), destruction (Laura McPhees 2013 photo of an open-pit coal mine), remnants and regrowth. Talking about photojournalists, sometimes downplayed by arts snobs, Miles said, To me, these folks that are working in the moment, having to respond to what they see, are also incredibly creative and are working to craft images that have extraordinary impact. Amen to that. On the mezzanine, curved cases at the head of the stairs feature nicely matted portraits of faces and young people of the West. Also, display cases show popular photobooks of the West. Missing are photos involving TV and movie stars; our culture arguably has a vast surplus of those southern California and Las Vegas images to hijack our perceptions and warp our understanding. One way to find out more about each photo is to Google the events and places as youre standing there, but theres also a large, tilted-screen touch display on the mezzanine to filter searches and get a biographical sketch of the photographers. This is a show that I hope shows the tensions as well as achievements in the West, said Miles, that makes people think not only about how beautiful parts of the country are and how remarkable the cultures are, but also the conflicts and some of the challenges and ... the real questions about our relationship to the landscape. The exhibition runs through Dec. 16 with an opening reception and lecture Sept. 21 at 4:30 p.m. There will be music events Sept. 25, Nov. 28 and Dec. 4 and a few other lectures. See beinecke.library.yale.edu. jamarante@nhregister.com; @Joeammo on Twitter Wine in cans may be here to stay. The package more commonly associated with soft drinks has been increasing its shelf space in the wine section since about 2014. Sales of wine in cans rose 43 percent year-over-year from June 2017 to June of this year, according to market research firm BW166. To be sure, this impressive increase is from an incredibly small base: Wine in cans accounts for only about 0.2 percent of all wine sold in the United States. But a new survey of consumers and producers suggests that the can format resonates with wine drinkers because of its convenience, affordability and sustainability. "Wine in a can is not a fad," says Robert Williams Jr., assistant professor of marketing at the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. "It represents a significant new wine category that is finding a permanent, positive place in the overall wine market." During the past two years, Williams - joined by colleagues Helena Williams and Matthew Bauman from Texas Tech University - have surveyed consumers and winemakers about their attitudes toward wine in cans. Williams noted that wine was first canned in 1936, but its quality suffered because the technology was inconsistent. Better packaging developed over the past decade or so has allowed the format to grow in use and popularity. And the survey (of nearly 1,000 respondents ages 21 to 88, with an average age of 34) suggests that cans are allowing winemakers to reach new audiences, rather than eating away at existing sales of wine by the bottle. Williams and his team have compiled a database of more than 450 wine-in-a-can offerings from 130 wineries around the world. The most popular sizes are 250 milliliters (49 percent), followed by 375 milliliters and 187 milliliters. These sizes, compared with a standard 750-milliliter bottle, are part of the format's attraction. They allow portion control, for one thing, without the drinker having to deal with leftover wine. Cans also allow wine to go where no wine has gone before, at least without some inconvenience. Picnic areas, parks and concert venues that ban glass bottles, for example, or boats, where glass is discouraged. "Or hiking, where it's not prudent to carry a full bottle, plus glasses, and then carry the empty bottle back," Williams says. (I'm rather sedentary by nature, but if you're hiking, shouldn't you be drinking water?) "One winemaker we surveyed started putting wine in cans after a bad experience where lack of a corkscrew ruined his romantic picnic." (Ahem, screw caps?) Snark aside, Williams' research is interesting because it gives insight into generational shifts in wine consumption. Millennials are receptive to cans because they can buy individual servings - great for singles - but also for the environmental aspect. Aluminum cans are 100 percent recyclable, unlike bottles (with their labels, foils, corks and even screw-cap liners), boxes or other wine formats. "Millennials, especially, are passionate about sustainability, so they rank this high," Williams says. There are also savings for winemakers - cans are lighter, making them easier to stack and to ship. And they don't shatter when they topple over. But it's not an easy decision for wineries to add cans to their lineup. "We had several moments of apprehension when we first considered introducing canned wines," says Drew Baker of family-owned Old Westminster Winery in Maryland. Old Westminster was the first winery in the mid-Atlantic to offer wine in cans late last year, but the Bakers were worried about how cans might affect market perception of their brand. "We came to the conclusion the market was ready for serious wine in a can, and so were we," Baker says. "Everything we do focuses on making the best wines we can and challenging the status quo." He also cited cost and sustainability as factors. "Cans are less expensive, much lighter to transport, and easier [for processors] to recycle than traditional glass, cork and foil." Nor are cans just for cheap wine. Williams pointed me to Sans wine, which markets a Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon (from Soda Pop Vineyard, no less) for $25 for a 375-milliliter can - the equivalent of half a standard bottle. Wine Enthusiast magazine gave it 90 points out of 100. If we're willing to pay more by the glass at restaurants for a high-quality wine, why not in cans that we can enjoy at home, on picnics, hikes or at tailgate parties? Convenient packaging is fine, but as I've said before, don't drink it from the can and expect it to taste like something special. It may defeat the purpose of that easy portability, but the wine will taste a lot better if you pour it into a glass. - - - McIntyre blogs at dmwineline.com. 3 1 of 3 Catherine Avalone/Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3 NEW HAVEN - The troubled Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity has sold both its chapter houses on Lake Place, Yale Daily News reports after reviewing New Haven County public records. The fraternity has been under investigation by Yale University after several women reported sexual assaults by a chapter president. The university also received reports of racism at a fraternity party, according to past reporting. NEW HAVEN A veteran city police officer will face criminal charges and has been suspended from the department after a standoff that ended peacefully Thursday evening, police said in a news release Friday. Rahgue Tennant, who has worked as a police officer for 18 years and currently is a lieutenant, is accused of assaulting his wife over the course of several days and then holding her and their children hostage in their Morris Cove home, police said. Tennant on Thursday evening reached out to ask for help, and he released his family members before eventually surrendering to police, officers said. Investigators were still in the process of compiling the list of charges against him Friday afternoon after interviewing those involved, police said. He has been suspended from the department pending the outcome of the case, police said in the release. Police were called to the Tolli Terrace home around 5:40 p.m. Thursday. Hostage negotiators were brought in shortly after the first officers arrived at the home and Connecticut State Police were brought in to assist, police said. Townsend Avenue was closed to traffic as a result of the incident, and neighbors were asked to remain in their homes. Members of Tennants family had been inside the home with him before officers were summoned to the scene, but were able to leave and sought refuge with a neighbor, police spokesman Officer David Hartman said. Negotiators contacted the lieutenant, Hartman said, and he requested help and agreed to come out peacefully. He was taken to an area hospital for evaluation. Though a peaceful resolution to the barricaded person incident was achieved, the on-going investigation has revealed a disturbing pattern of domestic abuse at the hands of Tennant, Hartman said in his release Friday. On Thursday, Hartman said the lieutenant would be afforded all available resources, as would anyone in such a situation. Police Chief Anthony Campbell said there is no special treatment of officers when it comes to the commission of a crime. We have an obligation to the victims an obligation to uphold the law and assure that the perpetrators of crimes are held accountable, Campbell said in the release. Im troubled deeply by what weve learned. We feel for the family and assure them their wellbeing is our first priority. The Connecticut states attorneys office is assisting in the investigation, Hartman said. Hartman has described the lieutenant as a soft-spoken and highly respected member of our police family. NEW HAVEN City police were able to quickly diffuse a situation Thursday evening in which one of their own, a lieutenant with the department, barricaded himself in his home. Police were called to the Tolli Terrace home in the citys Morris Cove neighborhood at around 5:40 p.m., according to Officer David Hartman, a spokesman for the department. Officers responding to the scene determined the man inside the home was an 18-year veteran of the New Haven Police Department, currently assigned to the Patrol Division. Townsend Avenue was closed to traffic as a result of the incident and neighbors were asked to remain in their homes. Hartman said members of the mans family had been inside the home with him before officers were summoned to the scene, but were able to leave and sought refuge with a neighbor. Hostage negotiators were brought in shortly after the first officers arrived at the home and Connecticut State Police were brought in to assist. Negotiators contacted the lieutenant, Hartman said, and he requested help and agreed to come out peacefully. The lieutenant was taken to an area hospital for evaluation, Hartman said. Hartman said criminal charges are likely in the case, but added that none had been filed as of late Thursday. The department is working with the the states attorneys office on the investigation, he said. The lieutenant will be afforded all available resources, as would anyone in such a situation, Hartman said. A full review of the incident is under way. Hartman described the lieutenant involved in the standoff, whom he did not identify, as a soft-spoken and highly respected member of our police family. New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell said officers involved in the peaceful resolution to the standoff performed in such an exemplary fashion today. When officers train, they never know what situation theyre entering into and what it may truly involve especially those involving a brother or sister officer, Campbell said. Today proved that with the right training and the right mind set, officers can perform their duties compassionately, no matter the circumstances, regardless of personal feelings. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com DERBY Residents who received sticker shock when their annual sewer bills arrived in the mail can rest assured rates havent gone up though the bill has. Thats according to Mayor Richard Dziekan who said City Hall has been flooded with phone calls from concerned residents about their sky-high sewer bills. This years mailings included a separate envelope containing the first bill associated with the 2014 bond referendum, Dziekan said. Voters, at a 2014 referendum, approved $31.2 million worth of work to improve the citys failing sewer infrastructure. When sewer bills were sent to residents in 2017, there was a notice included telling property owners that the first referendum bill would be sent this year, according to Dziekan. Dziekan said the additional $257 sewer bill per household is not a result of any increase in sewer usage charges, but rather is associated with the major sewer upgrades voters approved. He said the WPCA, in fact, hasnt raised usage rates over the past five years. This has nothing to do with my administration or the previous one for that matter, but rather, we have had failing infrastructure in the sewer system for decades, said Dziekan. If the city is to continue providing quality sewer service, these are mandatory repairs that must be made. Dziekan added that three pump stations since been rebuilt since 2014 and now construction on a fourth has begun. Unfortunately, the bills came as a surprise to some property owners, but this is something that has been publicly known for the past four years, said Dziekan. Bills can be paid in two installments, with the first half due in September and the second half due in March of 2019. However, there will not be another bill sent, so if residents do decide to pay in two installments, it is their responsibility to remember to make the second payment in March, Dziekan said. More information can be found on the citys website. WPCA Chairman Jack Walsh stressed that the regular rates were definitely not raised. Even when state environmental officials suggested the WPCA raise rates to speed up work on some of the citys compliance issues, Walsh said he wrote back (to officials) emphatically that would not be possible as the capital charge was going to take effect this year and would negatively impact people in Derby. Walsh said the citys website was updated to keep residents informed about the projects progress, and in addition to the notices included in last years bill, Walsh said several stories in the media were published to keep residents apprised about the additional bill. At the end of the day, this is work that needs to be done and the voters recognized that in the referendum, said Walsh. That does not make it any easier when the bills finally arrive, but we do have to pay for the work being done. On the positive note, Walsh said our rivers are now much cleaner and safer than they were and the cleanup of the Naugatuck is one of the greatest environmental success stories in history, but it does come at a price. A couple of years ago, our infrastructure was crumbling and we were under heavy pressure from the state and federal government to fix it. We are doing that and have met all our compliance guidelines, but still have a ways to go. Resident Stan Muzyk said when he and wife opened their sewer bill, they were utterly confused by the additional charge, but after speaking with WPCA officials, learned the extra $257 was the capital fee associated with the referendum. jean.sos@snet.net. A Fort Lee woman has been charged with animal cruelty after leaving her blind and deaf Boston Terrier on the side of the road near Teterboro Airport on Saturday - apparently because the dog had developed too many medical problems, authorities said. Tania Connelly, 59, was issued a summons to appear in court later this month, according to Roni Wildoner, chief of the Bergen County SPCA. Connelly, reached by phone Friday, said she left her elderly dog "Bruna" in a grassy area near Teterboro Airport for about 30 minutes to go shopping at a nearby Walmart. When she returned, the dog was gone, she said. "It was not my intention to abandon her. I swear to God," said Connelly, choking back tears. "I was going shopping and it was very hot. I didn't want to leave her inside the car." Connelly said she has had the dog for eight years and believes the dog is 13 or 14-years old. "I saw the grass," Connelly said. "I thought I could leave her there for a half an hour and then come back. When I came back, she was gone." But the SPCA believes Connelly dumped the dog due to growing medical problems, which Connelly herself admits she cannot afford to cover. "I don't have this kind of money to pay now," she said Friday. A motorist snapped this photo of a car on Industrial Avenue in Teterboro moments after Boston Terrier was dumped on the side of the road, authorities allege. (Bergen County SPCA) Authorities said Connelly was in her red Nissan with another adult and a child about 4 p.m. on Saturday when she pulled over on Industrial Avenue and forced the black-and-white dog out of the car. A motorist in traffic behind Connelly saw the dog being dumped and snapped a photo of Connelly's car and the license plate, Wildoner said. The photo was shared on social media and led investigators to Connelly, the chief said. A person who became aware of the case on social media found Bruna and brought her to the animal shelter in Teterboro, Wildoner said. The dog was found with no collar, no ID tags, and no microchip, Wildoner said. Though there were others in the car, Connelly was the only person charged because she "took full responsibility" for leaving the animal on the side of the road, Wildoner said. Even more disturbing to investigators was that Connelly could have brought the animal to the nearby Bergen County Animal Shelter, located about a quarter of a mile away from where Bruna was dumped, Wildoner said. "They (shelter workers) don't remember anyone trying to surrender the dog," said Wildoner, who checked to see if Connelly was there that day. After she was issued a court summons, Connelly signed a surrender form to allow the dog to be adopted before the case is resolved, Wildoner said. The dog remained at the Teterboro shelter this week. Connelly is due to appear in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack on Sept. 20. Wildoner asked that anyone aware of animal cruelty or neglect call the SPCA at 201-573-8900 or visit bergenspca.org. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Johnny Bobbitt will receive the full $400,000 raised in his name by a South Jersey couple, who are now the focus of mounting questions over what happened to the donations for the then-homeless veteran. "Johnny will be made whole and we're committing that he'll get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefitted from," GoFundMe and Cozen O'Connor, the law firm representing Bobbitt, said in a statement Thursday. Burlington County couple Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico launched the online fundraiser for the homeless man 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 gave way to accusations the couple squandered the donations on vacations and other personal expenses. "GoFundMe's goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets support he deserves," a company spokesman said in a statement. The fundraising site announced earlier this week that it would deposit $20,000 into an account for Bobbitt, maintained by his lawyers, as the case plays out in ongoing litigation and a newly-disclosed criminal probe. "As we've said, 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," a GoFundMe spokesman said. "We're fulfilling that commitment today and we will continue to work with Johnny's team to make sure he's receiving all donated amounts." GoFundMe said it would continue working with law enforcement in the case. Also on Thursday, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott A. Coffina confirmed investigators served a search warrant at the couple's Florence Township home "in connection with a criminal investigation into the Johnny Bobbitt matter." No charges have been filed, according to the prosecutor. Authorities were seen removing a BMW from the couple's residence. The announcement came after Bobbitt's lawyer, Christopher C. Fallon, said Tuesday he learned the money raised for his client was gone. An attorney for the couple has declined comment and told a judge they would invoke the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. By Patrick Wall, Chalkbeat Newark Newark's largest charter-school network suspends students with disabilities at a disproportionately high rate, violating their rights, according to a new complaint filed with the state. The complaint alleges that North Star Academy gave suspensions to 29 percent of students with disabilities during the 2016-17 school year. The network disputes the complaint's allegations and says the actual figure was 22 percent. North Star removed students with disabilities from their classrooms for disciplinary reasons, including suspensions and expulsions, 269 times that school year, according to the complaint filed by an attorney at the Education & Health Law Clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark. The complaint is based on state data and reports by parents who contacted the clinic. Those numbers stand in sharp contrast to ones at Newark Public Schools, where students with disabilities were sent out for disciplinary reasons just 87 times that school year, according to state data. Overall, just 1.3 percent of special-education students and 1.1 percent of all students were suspended in 2016-17, according to the attorney's analysis of state data. Excluding North Star, the city's charter schools together suspended about 9 percent of students with disabilities, the analysis found. North Star serves roughly 5,000 students in 13 schools across Newark. Founded in 1997, it is New Jersey's largest charter-school network and one of its highest performing, with its predominantly low-income students routinely outscoring their peers in the state's wealthiest districts. Its students are also suspended more often than their peers at many schools. At North Star, 23 percent of students received suspensions in 2016-17, compared to 6 percent of students statewide, according to publicly available state data. The complaint, filed on Aug. 17, alleges that North Star does not adequately modify its discipline policies to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities -- particularly those with behavioral challenges, who find it hard to follow the schools' strict rules. As a result, those students are unfairly punished, causing them to miss class and be separated from their general-education peers in violation of federal disability law, the complaint alleges. "These discipline policies have a disproportionate and discriminatory impact on students with certain disabilities," according to the filing, which was addressed to the state education department's Office of Special Education Policy and Procedure. A state education department spokesman confirmed that the complaint is being investigated. North Star denies the allegations, saying it properly adjusts its discipline policies based on the needs of students with disabilities. The allegations add to an ongoing nationwide debate over school discipline and the harmful impact that punitive policies can have on black and Hispanic students and those with disabilities, who tend to be suspended at higher rates. Across the country, many district and charter schools alike have tried to move away from suspensions and toward an approach known as "restorative justice," which pushes students to try to repair any harm their behavior has caused. Nationally, students with disabilities are suspended at about twice the rate of their non-disabled peers -- a disparity that is slightly higher at charter schools, according to of 2013-14 data. Meanwhile, that students do worse academically after being suspended, adding to prior research showing that students who have been suspended are more likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system and drop out of school. North Star is part of the Uncommon Schools network -- one of several large charter-school organizations whose reliance on strict discipline and demanding academics is sometimes called " ." Some of the schools have in recent years, but others have held firm, insisting that their no-nonsense approach to misbehavior creates a safe, orderly environment where students can focus on academics. According to the complaint, North Star continues to take an exacting approach to managing behavior. Each week, students receive behavior points in the form of "paychecks." They can lose points for even minor infractions, such as not paying attention in class or violating the school-uniform code. If their points dip below a certain level, they can be sent to detention or suspended, the complaint says. The complaint alleges that some students with disabilities struggle to follow the rules, and wind up being punished at a higher rate than non-disabled students. Federal data from the 2014-15 school year appear to support that claim. In that year, students with disabilities made up 7.2 percent of North Star's enrollment, yet they received 16.5 percent of in-school suspensions and 12.9 percent of out-of-school suspensions, according to by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights. Barbara Martinez, a North Star spokeswoman, said the network's suspension rates have declined since 2015. She added that network officials "would be surprised to see a meaningful discrepancy" in suspension rates today between students with and without disabilities. She also said the network believes the suspension rate for North Star students with disabilities cited in the complaint is incorrect. The network has asked the state education department to provide "the underlying data source so that we can understand where any confusion may have arisen," she added. She also noted that the department has repeatedly renewed the network's charter, a process that involves on-site inspections and a review of school data -- including data related to special education. She added that North Star students with disabilities perform in the 75th percentile on the state PARCC exams among all New Jersey special-education students. "We take great pride in the high-quality instruction and support that we provide to all our special education students to meet their individualized learning and behavioral needs," she said in a statement. "North Star has a 20-year record of success in delivering on its mission of preparing all students to get to and through college -- including our special education students." The complaint was filed by Deanna Christian, an Education & Health Law Clinic attorney who has represented parents in arbitration cases against North Star. She said she filed the complaint after several parents raised concerns about the network's discipline policies. (The Education Law Center, a Newark-based advocacy group that has represented parents in , , saying that it has received complaints from North Star parents about students with disabilities being "inappropriately" suspended.) Christian, who is doing a focused on the rights of students with disabilities who attend charter schools, requested suspension data from the state for general- and special-education students in district and charter schools. She found that North Star had one of the highest suspension rates in the state for students with disabilities, even though the network's share of special-education students was far below the state average, according to the complaint. Federal law requires that students with disabilities be taught alongside non-disabled peers whenever possible. The complaint alleges that North Star violated disabled students' rights by improperly suspending them, which reduced their learning time and separated them from their peers. It relies on parent reports and North Star's written policies, saying it is the clinic's "understanding" that the discipline code is applied "without regard to a student's disability status" and that the code is rarely modified for students with disabilities. The complaint calls on the state to investigate North Star's discipline policies and their effect on students with disabilities, including whether those students are held back more often than non-disabled students. It suggests several remedies, including additional training for teachers and administrators in "positive interventions" to manage the behavior of students with disabilities. "These exclusionary disciplinary policies are keeping kids out of class," Christian said in an interview. "And when kids are not in class, they're not learning." North Star made a parent available to interview for this story. The parent, Crystal Williams, has four students at North Star, including Jayson, an eighth-grader at the network's Valisburg Middle School. Williams disputed the complaint's claim that North Star does not modify its discipline code for special-education students. She said school staffers have gone out of their way to accommodate Jayson, who has been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. For instance, the school allots Jayson extra behavior points at the start of each week and teachers give him three warnings before deducting points, Williams said. A dean has even allowed Jayson to run laps in the school hallway and do pushups in the gym when he is having trouble focusing, she added. Still, Williams said that Jayson was suspended about 10 times last school year for infractions that included throwing a book and giving the middle finger to a teacher. She also picked him up from school several times after he misbehaved but before he was suspended, she said. However, Williams defended Jayson's multiple suspensions, saying they were only for "egregious" violations and that the policy keeps all students safe. She added that he was given work to do whenever he was suspended, and that he was always given a "fresh start" when he returned to school. "It is a little inconvenient not to have your child in school," she said. "But the greater lesson is that for us to be a community, your child has to behave correctly." A Hoboken Planning Board member is under fire for an email he reportedly sent to real-estate developers recommending a group of 16 lawyers they could hire to represent them in front of the board he sits on. Now the board member, Gary Holtzman, first appointed in 2011 and once the chair, has been called to a hearing in front of the City Council, which may remove him from the board. Council members say the email represents an ethical breach, saying it could be interpreted as Holtzman offering the names of favored attorneys. Holtzman, reached by phone, declined to comment. The email in question appears to have come from Holtzman's Gmail account. It's not clear who received the email or when it was sent. A copy of the email obtained by The Jersey Journal has the "date" and "to" fields redacted. A source with knowledge of the email said it was sent at the end of July. The email refers to Bob Matule, an attorney who had until recently represented developers making applications to the Planning Board. "With the retirement of Bob Matule numerous people have asked for suggestions for a land use attorney," the email reads. "I have polled our current and past Planning Board professionals and have compiled a list, alphabetically, of the people they have suggested." The email included an attachment that lists 16 different law firms, including one, Florio Perrucci Steinhardt and Cappelli, where Mayor Ravi Bhalla was once a partner. Holtzman was a Bhalla supporter in last year's mayoral race and his wife is a city zoning officer. The email represents "disappointing conduct that has created undue risk for our city," Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher told The Jersey Journal. Bhalla's spokesperson said the process for removing a Planning Board member "lies solely with the City Council." At Wednesday's council meeting, the council voted 7-2 to notify Holtzman that it intends to hold a hearing about the matter at its Sept. 17 meeting. Holtzman does not have to attend. The council split on this issue in a typical fashion, with its seven administration critics voting in favor of the hearing and Bhalla's two close allies, Councilman James Doyle and Councilwoman Emily Jabbour, voting against. In a statement, Doyle said he and Jabbour feel the council's action is premature. He said the council should have waited to find out what the law says about the causes that can lead to the removal of a Planning Board member. "We feel that the fact that certain councilpersons have historically been openly hostile to Mr. Holtzman as well as his wife, the latter of which being an member of the Zimmer and Bhalla administrations, may have clouded their judgment and perhaps served as much of a motivating force in this instance as the facts on the ground did," Doyle said. Asked to respond, Fisher said, "Mr. Doyle is a historical revisionist who has tried in the past to diminish Mr. Holtzman's role. This isn't politics, it is Land Use 101 with consensus from professionals that Mr. Holtzman's conduct was a material, ethical breach." Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. JERSEY CITY Hudson County's Democrats crammed inside a hot, second-floor banquet room at Liberty House Thursday night to raise cash for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and show the world that, despite the recent, bruising battle for county Democratic chair, they are unified. Well, mostly unified. There was one high-profile Democrat whose absence was conspicuous, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. Fulop has been on the outs with the Hudson County Democratic Organization since June's chair fight (his side lost) and with Menendez since the senator sensed Fulop was angling to replace him (Fulop has denied this). Fulop said he boycotted the gala because of his opposition to the county's housing of immigrant detainees at its jail in Kearny. Menendez, formerly a close ally of the mayor, did not mention Fulop's name during his speech on Thursday, an address he used to attack President Trump and predict a "blue tsunami" when voters head to the polls in November. But the senator did make an allusion that some in the audience said was a clear shot at Jersey City's mayor. Menendez, who is seeking a third full term in November, had just finished praising state Sen. and Union City Mayor Brian Stack, who sought to become the HCDO chair in June with Fulop's help and lost to Amy DeGise, daughter of County Executive Tom DeGise. "I want to thank my friend, the mayor and state senator from Union City, Brian Stack, for being with us and putting this party above any self-interest. Thank you, mayor," Menendez said. "And I would just simply say to those who have aspirations to higher office, they should understand that the only way to a higher office is through a united Hudson County like we are here tonight." Allies of Menendez have said Fulop killed his political future when he ended up on Menendez's naughty list. Without Menendez's support, they say, Fulop is going nowhere. After the speech, The Jersey Journal asked Menendez whether "those who have aspirations to higher officer" was a reference to someone specific. The senator grinned and said, "Anyone in Hudson County who has desires for rising political ambitions should understand that the only way to get an effective springboard, to have a real chance statewide, is with a united Hudson County." On Twitter Thursday, Fulop likened his boycott of the Thursday gala to crossing a picket line, a reference to an anti-ICE protest outside Liberty House during the fundraiser. His critics scoffed, noting that Fulop did not start publicly criticizing the ICE contract until after he went to war with the county this year. Asked to respond to Menendez's comment, Fulop said in an email, "It's not what comes out of a person's mouth that's relevant it's their actions that matter and in that light (it's) amazing that while I chose to not even go to this event, they feel the need to be talking and obsessed with a discussion about me. In of itself, that should tell you something." Not everyone on Thursday avoided using Fulop's name. Craig Guy, the county's chief of staff, the HCDO treasurer and a Menendez ally, offered this metaphor to The Jersey Journal, "There is no island for Steve Fulop." Meaning? "He can't go anywhere," Guy said. So there is an island for Fulop and he's on it? "I guess so, yes," Guy said. "And Tom DeGise has all the life preservers and won't give Fulop any." Guy added that he will work on the metaphor. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. WEST NEW YORK -- A school board member and the Democratic committee chair in this largely immigrant Hudson County town is defending himself after flyers appeared this week accusing him of "working with" U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and urging him to resign his seat. Jonathan Castaneda, who is seeking re-election in November, has been connected to ICE because of his new job as chief of staff at the Hudson County jail, which has a contract with ICE to house immigrant detainees. The county freeholder board recently renewed the ICE contract, sparking outrage from liberal activists who say the agreement with ICE runs contrary to the values of this county that has a large immigrant population. It was announced yesterday that Hudson County would exit the ICE contract no later than 2020. "To insinuate that I, of all people, am against immigrants, is truly ironic since I am the child of immigrants," Castaneda told The Jersey Journal. "I'm looking forward to running and winning this upcoming election to continue to fight for all the students of our school district, regardless of their immigration status." The flyer includes a picture of Castaneda and images of the ICE logo and says he "has privileged information about our children and parents." "The danger and the conflict of interest are very scary," the flyer says. The accusation that a politician is connected to ICE is not ideal in this town of 53,000 where, Census figures show, 60 percent of the population is foreign born and 35 percent of residents are not United States citizens. Castaneda, 29, is seeking re-election on a ticket that includes Adrienne Sires and Joseph Rodriguez. Sires' husband, Albio, is a U.S. congressman. Rodriguez's wife, Caridad, is a Hudson County freeholder. There are six other candidates in the race for three open school board seats. "Our community is tired of the political mongering and antics that distract from the real problems we are having in our community," Castaneda said. "Instead of smearing, (let's) work to move our community forward." He took the chief of staff job at the jail in July, according to Hudson County View. That was after the contested Hudson County Democratic Organization chair fight won by Amy DeGise, the daughter of County Executive Tom DeGise. Castaneda was an Amy DeGise supporter. The gunman police say terrorized a Hamilton neighborhood last year by going on a carjacking spree that wounded two people has been indicted on eight federal crimes, records show. The federal government took over the prosecution of Cedrick Hodges sometime this year, charging him with one carjacking. On Thursday, a grand jury indicted him on eight federal felonies. Hodges, NJ prison photo. Court documents in the case allege he tried to carjack three vehicles while brandishing a sawed-off, 12-gauge shotgun. Hodges, 35, had been paroled from state prison in September 2017 after serving about 13 years of a 20-year state prison term for another crime spree in Mercer County. That prior one, in 2000, was for raping two women and committing a string of robberies over an eight-day period. On Dec. 16, 2017, police said a day after the crimes, Hodges shot two men in three carjackings in the 2300 block of South Broad Street and on surrounding neighborhood streets. The federal case against him provides some additional details. In the first confrontation, Hodges approached a woman who was parking her car and screamed, "get me out of here, get me out of here!" and jumped in the back seat. The woman ran from the car, leaving the key in the ignition and called for help, documents allege. Hodges fired toward her direction, and police had said he'd shot at the woman's husband, too, as he came to her aid. Moments later, on Lafayette Avenue, Hodges allegedly confronted two people in a car and pointed the gun at the driver and said, "get out the car." The driver refused with a simple "no" and started to drive away. Hodges then fired into the car's driver-side window, wounding the man, who police said was 67 years old. A few moments later, Hodges found a man unlocking his parked vehicle and said, "give me your keys." That man also said "no" and Hodges shot him in the arm, causing the man to cry out, "murder, murder, murder!" Hodges ran and the victim saw him chuck the shotgun over a fence, where Hamilton police found it, between Lafayette and Harrison avenues. Officers arrested Hodges at the corner of Genesee and Lily streets after following his footprints - it had snowed the day before. The federal charges say cops found 18 unspent shotgun shells in his pockets. Hodges is charged with three counts of carjacking, three counts of using a firearm in an act of violence, possession of an unregistered firearm and possessing as a convicted felon. He's currently back in the New Jersey prison system, serving time off his first sentence. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A 29-year-old man with convictions for dealing drugs and burglary has been charged with killing a Pennsylvania man in Trenton last weekend, authorities announced Thursday. Mycol Beckett (police photo) Mycol Beckett is charged with murder and firearms possession charges for the Saturday, Sept. 1 shooting death of Eric Rue, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office announced. Police found Rue, 34 of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, at about 8 a.m. in his car at the corner of Morris and Commonwealth avenues. He'd been shot multiple times and died a short time later at a hospital in the city. The prosecutor's office's Homicide Task Force, led by Detective Scott Rich, linked Beckett to the crime pretty quickly and issued warrants for his arrest on Monday. Trenton Police located him early Thursday in the city during a traffic stop, the prosecutor's office said. The office did not divulge a motive for the crime. Beckett is known to authorities in the city. One of the charges in this killing is possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and records show they are from convictions in 2014 for burglary and 2011 for drug dealing. Beckett was charged with shooting a teen last year in Trenton, a case that is pending. Police alleged in August that Beckett was the gunman who shot a 17-year-old boy in both legs in July 2017 on Fairway Drive. And in June 2017, he was arrested on felony drug dealing charges related to a drug operation on Summer Street. Following his arrest, Beckett was taken to the Mercer County jail pending a detention hearing in Superior Court. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Geoffrey Owens will soon be $25,000 richer thanks to rapper Nicki Minaj, who announced Wednesday that she is making a donation to the former "Cosby Show" actor. The donation comes just a few days following Owens' decision to quit his job at a New Jersey Trader Joe's after he was so-called job-shamed over the weekend. Minaj made the announcement on her Beats 1 "Queen" radio show. "That man is now getting so many opportunities," Minaj expressed. "I personally want to donate on behalf of Queen Radio $25,000 to Geoffrey Owens. You know why? Imma tell you something. This man is a whole ... legend in these streets." "What did you get by taking a picture of that man at the grocery store," she added. Owens played Elvin Tibideaux, the husband of one of the Huxtable daughters, Sandra, during his time on the "Cosby Show." However, he told the Good Morning America that he hasn't had an acting job that lasted more than 10 weeks since leaving the show. 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 He worked at the Trader Joe's store for 15 months before photos of him working as a cashier appeared in the Daily Mail and on Fox News, the actor said. Karma Lawrence, the woman who snuck a picture of Owens as she paid for her groceries, told NJ Advance Media she meant no ill will and regrets her decision. "I don't know why I snuck a picture," said Lawrence, 50. "I figured everybody does it. I don't know what possessed me. I just did it. I didn't even think about it. I just kind of did it on impulse and it was a bad impulse." Hes here, and sporting his Trader Joes nametag. Former Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens about to speak on @GMA after being shamed online for working at a grocery store. pic.twitter.com/aQxFDGQTkG T.J. Holmes (@tjholmes) September 4, 2018 Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. A 42-year-old man who owns a defense contracting business in New Jersey allegedly defrauded a federal agency out of $7 million by misrepresenting where military parts were manufactured. Authorities are seeking Ferdi Murat Gul, a Turkish citizen who is thought to be in his home country, the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said in a statement. Gul is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act, and one count of violating the act. He was indicted on Wednesday in federal court in Newark. Gul allegedly lied to the Department of Defense to get 346 contracts to produce military parts between 2010 and 2015 by saying that the parts would be manufactured in the U.S. Instead, they were made in Turkey, authorities say. Bright Machinery Manufacturing Group Inc. of Paterson produced torpedo parts for the U.S. Navy, bomb ejector racks used in U.S. Air Force aircraft as well as firearms and mine clearance systems used by U.S. military personnel in foreign nations. After making the parts in Turkey, the company emailed forged certifications and inaccurate information to Department of Defense representatives in New Jersey, federal authorities allege. Bright Machinery Manufacturing and its U.S.-based subcontractors are accused of falsely claiming they performed required quality control tests when they manufactured the parts. Gul also unlawfully exported drawings and technical data, according to the indictment. The sales manager of Bright Machinery Manufacturing pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker wasn't done with the fireworks Thursday. Hours after saying he was willing to risk being ousted from the Senate by releasing confidential documents, the New Jersey Democrat openly questioned whether Republican President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect himself amid criminal investigations. "You've seen this president demanding loyalty," Booker told Kavanaugh during the afternoon session of Day 3 of the judge's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. "I'm just wondering what kind of loyalty is being required of you for this job," added Booker, who is considered a potential Democratic candidate to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election. "It is understandable for people to suspect that there's something going on, that somehow this is rigged," the senator said. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump's campaign colluded with the country. Mueller is also examining whether Trump obstructed justice in the investigation. Meanwhile, Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to tax fraud and violating campaign finance rules, and said in court that Trump directed him to break those rules. Trump has vehemently denied roles in any of those issues. Booker referenced how Kavanaugh has written articles suggesting a president could not be indicted while in office. Kavanaugh responded that the U.S. Justice Department has held that position for 45 years -- but also insisted he has "an open mind" as to whether that position is constitutional. Booker also noted that Kavanaugh, who is currently a U.S. appeals court judge, was not on Trump's shortlist for possible Supreme Court picks until after the Mueller probe was launched. And Booker pointed out that Kavanaugh, the former White House staff secretary under then-President George W. Bush, a Republican, has said he has "the greatest respect" for Bush and has spoken frequently about how the "character" of a president matters. Booker then asked Kavanaugh if he also has "the greatest respect" for Trump. Kavanaugh declined to answer, saying: "You don't hear sitting judges commenting on political (matters)." "I appreciate the question," he added. "What I've said during this process is I need to stay away." Booker accused Kavanaugh of "going mum as to the character of this president given all his lies, all his remarks that have been criticized on both sides of the aisle." "Can you speak to that credible suspicion that people might have that the system is somehow rigged and the president is putting somebody up just to protect him from a criminal investigation?" the senator asked. Kavanaugh replied that his "only loyalty is to the Constitution." "I've made that clear. I'm an independent judge," he added. Booker said he respects Kavanaugh for spending his "whole life in public service" but argued these are "unusual times" in America -- almost like "a fiction novel." "The test for all of us is coming," the senator said. "The test for the Supreme Court is coming, as well. This is going to be a time, if we have a constitutional crisis, where the faith in this country will be tested, shaken again. And it's really important the Supreme Court be above suspicion." He then asked Kavanaugh why he won't promise to recuse himself if anything involving Mueller investigation comes before the Supreme Court. "If I committed to deciding a particular case ... all I'd be doing is demonstrating I don't have the independence of the judiciary that is necessary to be a good judge," Kavanaugh said. Earlier Thursday, Booker made headlines by flaunting that he was breaking Senate rules by releasing confidential documents about Kavanaugh despite being warned he could be expelled from the Senate for doing so. "I come from a long line, as all of us do as Americans, understand what that kind of civil disobedience is and I understand the consequences," Booker said. "This is about the closest I'll have in my life to an 'I am Spartacus' moment,'" he added. But Republicans said the documents had already been cleared for release and accused Booker of grandstanding and manufacturing the drama just to draw attention for his possible 2020 run. Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Gov. Phil Murphy is pictured earlier this year. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) WASHINGTON -- Will U.S. Sen. Cory Booker to face penalties for his actions during the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh? Don't count on it. Booker, D-N.J., broke Senate rules when he questioned Kavanaugh Wednesday night about emails that had been made off-limits by a Republican lawyer, and then released the documents Thursday ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He could lose his committee position or be expelled from the Senate for violating the chamber's rules. "I don't think that an expulsion would be seriously considered, given the content of the emails," said Ben Dworkin, director of Rowan University's Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship. "That Booker would be willing to risk even the chance of expulsion says a lot about the deterioration of Senate norms, a process that has been going on for years." Jim Manley, a former aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Republicans don't have the votes to expel Booker even if they wanted to. "Senator Booker is not going anywhere and the Republican leadership knows it," said Manley. "Not only does it take a two-thirds vote to expel a member, which they will never ever, get, but the documents being released are going to be real hard to defend in any way shape or form." Ross Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, called Booker's action "a bold move" but noted "he had plenty of allies" among his fellow Democrats. And Fairleigh Dickinson University political science professor Krista Jenkins called Booker's actions "great symbolic fodder for tweets to the base. Such is our political reality these days." The controversy cast a spotlight on Booker, mentioned as a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and Republicans pounced. "Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, who earlier supported changing the rules to eliminate a 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees and allow Republicans to confirm Trump's picks without any Democratic support. At the confirmation hearings, Democrats hammered Republicans for initially classifying the documents in question as "committee confidential," meaning that the senators could see them but the public couldn't. "'Committee confidential, is a complete fiction, a subterfuge, to avoid the American people getting to know the real Brett Kavanaugh," said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "The members of the committee should be praised -- not chastised -- for making these documents available. They did the right thing, and they had an obligation to do it." The classification decision was made by veteran Republican lawyer Bill Burck, an attorney for former President George W. Bush. Burck is deciding which documents can be released because Judiciary Committee Republicans abandoned normal procedure and refused to wait for the National Archives to review them, which would take until the end of October. "We were surprised to learn about Senator Booker's histrionics," Burck said in a statement, "because we already told him he could use the documents publicly." Even so, the documents were still under wraps during Wednesday's hearing, when Booker questioned Kavanaugh on an email that described a preference for minorities who faced discrimination as a "naked racial set-aside." "The documents were not cleared for release when Booker read from them in violation of committee rules," Booker spokesman Jeff Giertz said. Another Booker spokeswoman, Kristin Lynch, said Booker and his Democratic colleagues "were able to shame the committee" into making the documents public, "and Cory publicly released those documents as well as other committee confidential documents." Lynch said Booker will "keep releasing them because Republicans are hiding Brett Kavanaugh's record from the American people." Here are two additional "committee confidential" documents that have been kept out of public view until now: https://t.co/WJR8Jd2RL7 Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 7, 2018 Here are 6 more Kavanaugh "committee confidential" documents: https://t.co/pcZew5mE4J Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 6, 2018 Rather than wait for the National Archives to fulfill its traditional role of reviewing a nominee's papers, Judiciary Committee Republicans instead are allowing Burck, who also has represented Trump administration aides, to decide what documents the committee and public can see. "That process is unfair, it's unnecessary, it's unjust and it's unprecedented," Booker said after questioning Kavanaugh on Wednesday. U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has teamed up with Booker on criminal justice issues, originally objected to the senator's use of the emails. "You can't cross-examine somebody about the document they can't see," Lee said, though he agreed to work with Booker to get it released. Giertz, the Booker spokesman, said he didn't expect his boss to face sanctions for his actions. "I don't think the GOP will follow through, no," he said. Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that "it wouldn't surprise me" if the Senate Ethics Committee looked at Booker's "unusual behavior." "When you break the Senate rules, it's something the ethics committee could take a look at," McConnell said. "And that would be up to them to decide. But it's routinely looked at the ethics committee." Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Mexico & Banderas Bay Area News Sept-Dec Full of Culture & Tradition in Puerto Vallarta From September through December, a host of cultural celebrations and national holidays will fill the streets of Puerto Vallarta with exciting sights, tastes, sounds, and unforgettable vacation experiences. Share Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico Whether you're a visitor or a full- or part-time resident, engaging in Mexico's holidays and traditions is a great way to get to know the culture and heritage of the Mexican people. From September through December, the following cultural celebrations and national holidays will fill the streets of Puerto Vallarta with exciting sights, tastes, sounds, and experiences for the enjoyment of locals and tourists alike. Las Fiestas Patrias - September 13-16 September is El Mes de la Patria in Mexico, the month of the country, when Mexico celebrates its Independence from Spain on September 16th. And in true Mexican style, we celebrate the entire month. The streets are decked out in green, white and red, which are the national colors of Mexico, and street vendors sell flags, streamers, balloons and other things to celebrate the event. Although the holiday is the 16th of September the festivities actually begin a couple of days before. September isin Mexico, the month of the country, when Mexico celebrates its Independence from Spain on September 16th. And in true Mexican style, we celebrate the entire month. The streets are decked out in green, white and red, which are the national colors of Mexico, and street vendors sell flags, streamers, balloons and other things to celebrate the event. Although the holiday is the 16th of September the festivities actually begin a couple of days before. On the 13th of September, Mexico remembers the fallen young soldiers who died in the Battle of Chapultepec in 1847 in Mexico's war with the United States. El Dia de los Ninos Heroes celebrates the slain cadets that fought so bravely for their country. The 14th of September is known as El Dia del Charro, or Day of the Cowboy. The celebration traditionally begins with local charros, wearing large sombreros and brightly embellished jackets, riding on the horseback through the streets of downtown. The festivities continue into the evening with rich food, music, dancing, and traditional charro style calf roping on the Malecon. The 15th of September is Noche del Grito, or Night of the Yell. At 11 pm all over Mexico, people gather in the main plazas of their towns and the mayor, together with the President of Mexico from the National Palace in Mexico City, gives "El Grito" (literally the yell or shout) of independence, commemorating El Grito de Dolores where Father Dolores Hidalgo launched the War for Independence on the night of September 15, 1810. The 16th of September is the National Holiday, and it's a patriotic celebration marked by civic ceremonies, parades, concerts and lively parties in the downtown area. Dia De Los Muertos Oct. 31-Nov. 2 At first glance, the Mexican custom of El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead,) may sound much like the US custom of Halloween. After all, the celebration traditionally starts at midnight on the night of Oct. 31st, and the festivities are abundant in images related to death. But the customs have different origins. In typical Halloween festivities, death is something to be feared. But on El Dia de Los Muertos, death or at least the memories of those who have died is something to be celebrated. Every year on November 1st (All Saint's Day) and 2nd (All Soul's Day), Pre-Hispanic religion, life, death, art, sorrow and humor come together to commemorate and honor family members and friends who have passed on. Celebrants attend family reunions, decorate their loved ones' graves, and create elaborate altars, or ofrendas. In Puerto Vallarta, the 5 de diciembre cemetery is the site of traditional Day of the Dead observances, but the city's other cemeteries, located in Ramblases, El Progreso, Ixtapa and Las Palmas, will receive thousands of residents and visitor alike during this three-day observance. El Dia de la Revolucion - November 20 On November 20 Mexico commemorates El Dia de la Revolucion, or Revolution Day, the start of the Mexican Revolution ignited by Francisco Madero. More commonly known as el veinte de noviembre, Revolution Day in Puerto Vallarta is a time of celebration with music, (especially Mariachi, which became the symbol of the Revolution because it represented the national spirit of the indigenous Mexican blood,) parades, cultural activities, patriotic speeches and official ceremonies. Christmas and Las Posadas - December 1-28 December in Puerto Vallarta is always filled with colorful traditions and wonderful fiestas, making it a great time to visit! December 112, the twelve days leading up to the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are particularly festive, with the church bells ringing every morning and the nights filled with people walking the Malecon, street vendors, and great entertainment throughout the city. December 12 is one of the most festive holidays in Puerto Vallarta, simultaneously celebrating Dia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, which commemorates the miraculous appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Indian peasant Juan Diego on December 12, 1531, and the day that Puerto Vallarta was founded. After the religious ceremony, join the celebrations on the Malecon with fireworks, and a variety of street food vendors offering Mexican delicacies. December 1224 are the time of Las Posadas, which are candlelight processions throughout the city that commemorate the biblical story of Joseph and Marys search for shelter in Bethlehem. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are dedicated to spending time with family and celebrating. Shortly after Christmas, the festivities continue with the Day of the Innocents (Dec 28), when people pull practical jokes on each other; and on into the New Year when Puerto Vallarta gathers on the Malecon, the preferred spot to watch the fireworks display over Banderas Bay.Travelers visiting Puerto Vallarta over the next few months will have the unique and memorable opportunity to experience these cultural celebrations first-hand. The local community welcomes tourists to join all of the festivities and learn about the cultural heritage of Mexico. December in Puerto Vallarta is always filled with colorful traditions and wonderful fiestas, making it a great time to visit! December 112, the twelve days leading up to the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are particularly festive, with the church bells ringing every morning and the nights filled with people walking the Malecon, street vendors, and great entertainment throughout the city. December 12 is one of the most festive holidays in Puerto Vallarta, simultaneously celebrating, which commemorates the miraculous appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Indian peasant Juan Diego on December 12, 1531, and the day that Puerto Vallarta was founded. After the religious ceremony, join the celebrations on the Malecon with fireworks, and a variety of street food vendors offering Mexican delicacies. December 1224 are the time of, which are candlelight processions throughout the city that commemorate the biblical story of Joseph and Marys search for shelter in Bethlehem. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are dedicated to spending time with family and celebrating. Shortly after Christmas, the festivities continue with the Day of the Innocents (Dec 28), when people pull practical jokes on each other; and on into the New Year when Puerto Vallarta gathers on the Malecon, the preferred spot to watch the fireworks display over Banderas Bay.Travelers visiting Puerto Vallarta over the next few months will have the unique and memorable opportunity to experience these cultural celebrations first-hand. The local community welcomes tourists to join all of the festivities and learn about the cultural heritage of Mexico. Site Map Print this Page Email Us Top 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 Starbucks CDMX Store 'Perks Up' Senior Citizens' Lives Mexico City - Starbucks customers in Mexico City may notice something distinct about one particular coffee shop's new employees: They're all senior citizens. The new coffee shop is part of the company's push to provide more job opportunities for seniors, Mexican news agency Notimex reported on August 28. Located in the Colonia del Valle neighborhood, the store has seven employees who are between 55 and 60 years old. It's currently also staffed with younger employees who are training their older counterparts to eventually run the location themselves. The chain is also working to promote interaction with the elderly, since their stores are traditionally staffed by young people and students. "Starbucks celebrates its commitment to providing opportunities to everyone and being a multi-generations company that embraces diversity and inclusion and welcomes everyone who is seeking employment," the company told The Washington Post in a statement. Starbucks said the opening builds on an employment agreement it signed with the National Institute for Older Persons (INAPAM) in 2011 to offer job opportunities to seniors that will help boost their quality of life. People 60 and older made up 10 percent of Mexico's population in 2017, but that figure is expected to more than double to 25 percent by 2050, the United Nations projected. Mexico's expanding senior population may also become vulnerable to poverty, according to a Rand Corporation study. There are currently about 65 seniors among the 7,000 "partners" who work at Starbucks in Mexico, and the company hopes to increase that segment of the workforce to 120 by the end of the year, the CEO of Starbucks Mexico told Notimex. Starbucks has also made some alterations to help accommodate the older staff. Their work shifts are limited to 6.5 hours per day and they receive at least two days off a week. Also, Starbucks is looking to employ them in locations that are only one floor and have lowered shelves. The seniors also receive medical insurance like all employees. "It took us two years to land the best scheme to contribute to the elderly community in Mexico, opening the doors of our stores to senior baristas was not a goal, it was an act of congruence with the inclusion philosophy of Starbucks," CEO Christian Gurria said. "It's becoming more difficult to employee people over 40, but the need to keep elderly people in work exists," Gurria said. "If the opportunity is there, I'm happy to help." Beyond Puerto Vallarta: Discover San Pancho, Nayarit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Up the coast north of Puerto Vallarta, just a hop and a skip from Sayulita, is the small town of San Francisco, affectionately referred to as "San Pancho." We have watched the growth of this village over the years from when an excursion to San Pancho almost guaranteed being the only gringos in town. Since then, home ownership by foreigners has made a big difference to everything in this seaside village, from the numbers of bars to the conditions of roads (though the latter tends to get less attention than the former.) Accommodations are plenty, contrary to when we found finding a place to stay could be frustrating in both low and high season. These days there are hotels ranging in price from nearly $200 USD/night to as little as $55/night. Airbnb and their competitors have become increasingly popular and easy to book, most kid friendly and many accepting pets. Hostel San Pancho costs as little as $37 US a night. San Pancho is appealing to the well-traveled tourist, as well as newcomers to the beach/jungle scene. Airport transportation is easy. At one time there was a small university in this village; The University of the Third World was the endeavor of Mexican President Luis Echeverria, who built a vacation home in San Pancho in the 1970's and had his own personal vision of the future of San Pancho. With the new airport in Puerto Vallarta in the 70's, holidays from Mexico City could be pulled off with ease and comfort. Centro Comunitario Entreamigos may have been what President Echeverria was dreaming of decades ago. In 2006, an American woman, Nicole Swedlow began this non-profit learning center, which eventually gained support from the state government, rebuilding their site in a local warehouse. With over 700 classes offered and a library that boasts thousands of Spanish and English books, there's little that can't be learned by children and adults alike in fields as diverse as technology, sports, art and circus skills. The circus school, Circo de los Ninos, founded by the directors of Cirque du Soleil, was once housed at Entreamigos; they now have their own space, called the Circo Bodega, where they put on annual shows that are breathtaking and fantastic. La Patrona Polo and Equestrian Club draws people to San Pancho. Supported by the Mexican Polo Federation, La Patrona maintains the goal of training polo players, with an accent on women's polo. This polo club presents a competitive learning environment in a world class facility. Once the simple residence of a handful of Franciscan priests and a small population of landowners of immense agricultural estates, San Pancho is no longer a sleepy little village north of Puerto Vallarta. It continues to grow as a developing community with rich educational values and a varied, enthusiastic population. Que como es es. The number one selling and listing agency in the greater Bay of Banderas region since 2011, Timothy Real Estate Group is a locally-owned and operated real estate brokerage with a strategic location in the city's Romantic Zone. Because the Puerto Vallarta area has varying neighborhood personalities, we practice localized real estate and, with 5 sales offices around the bay, we know our communities well. If you are looking to sell or purchase a property in the Banderas Bay area, please contact one of the Timothy Real Estate Group agents for the best experience in Puerto Vallarta real estate. For more information, visit TimothyRealEstateGroup.com. Roseburg, OR (97470) Today Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 56F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 48F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. - 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." No matter how much free time you have this weekend, we have TV recommendations for you. Come back every Friday for new suggestions on what to watch. This Weekend I Have an Hour, and I Am Soft Top Chef Junior When to watch: Saturday at 6 p.m., on Universal Kids. Season 2 of this darling Top Chef iteration features a new crop of tiny baby chefs who are all astoundingly knowledgeable and talented. I always worry that kid versions of shows will be garish or manipulative, but Top Chef Junior has a much more genuine vibe than grown-up Top Chef theres no infighting or disparagement. Instead, theres just an earnest passion for cooking, a deep camaraderie and a constant excitement and delight among the contestants. an Hour, and I Like Period Dramas Those chasing Ms. James believe that the numbers have surely changed since then because of the high percentage of undecided voters. Ms. Jamess closeness with the governor, whom she marched with in the West Indian American Day Parade, has, at times, been viewed as a liability, as her opponents have suggested that she was least capable of being independent of Mr. Cuomo. Ms. James said she has sued both Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio and remains independent. There will be no sunlight between me and the law, Ms. James said. During the debate, it was clear her opponents believed that Ms. James may have facilitated a shift in momentum by saying to The New York Times that she did not want to be known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, and suggesting at last weeks debate that not everyone in Albany was corrupt. Ms. Eve made clear her intent to attack Ms. Teachout from the very beginning, declaring in her opening statement that when she spoke about being an independent voice for vulnerable New Yorkers, it was not rhetoric, and certainly not a classroom exercise a barb that elicited an audible ooh from the crowd. Mr. Maloney stopped short of calling Ms. Teachout a liar, but just barely, calling her attacks and rebuttals just false or a pile of nonsense. This is like the tale of two Zephyrs, he said, adding, I have seen the good Zephyr. This is not it. This is the attack Zephyr that wants to win a political campaign. The debate was co-moderated by Preet Bharara, the former United States attorney in Manhattan who was fired by President Trump; there had been speculation that Mr. Bharara was interested in running for the seat, which is being filled by Barbara D. Underwood. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan investigating the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein have for months been looking into his dealings with Black Cube, a private Israeli intelligence firm that was said to have been used to spy on some of the women who have accused him of sexual assault, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The inclusion of Mr. Weinsteins ties to Black Cube added a previously unknown element to the inquiry and served to heighten the legal risks he was already facing. Black Cubes involvement in the investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. After a decades-long reign as a hitmaker in Hollywood, Mr. Weinstein was charged in May by the Manhattan district attorneys office with raping one woman and forcing another to perform oral sex. Two months later, the same prosecutors brought new charges against him, saying he had forced a third woman to have sex with him. Mr. Weinstein has also been accused in a series of civil lawsuits of sexual and physical assault and of waging smear campaigns against some of his accusers. The federal investigation started last year when prosecutors from the United States attorneys office in Manhattan began to examine whether Mr. Weinstein had committed fraud when he arranged for two auction items a sitting with a fashion photographer and a package of tickets to a Hollywood awards event to be offered together at an AIDS charity fund-raiser in France in May 2015. There was one condition to the deal, said people with knowledge of the matter: $600,000 of the proceeds had to go to a theater that had staged a trial run of a Broadway musical produced by Mr. Weinstein. While lawyers for Mr. Hall and Mr. Martins have never said explicitly that the encounter was consensual, they have moved twice unsuccessfully to dismiss the indictment, claiming that the prosecutors allowed the young woman to lie in front of a grand jury, adding that her story of assault is uncorroborated. The defense lawyers have also contended that the woman has repeatedly changed her account about details of the attack, including the clothes she was wearing, the make and model of the vehicle she rode in and which of the defendants assaulted her first. It is a common phenomenon for rape victims, because of shame or trauma, to make incomplete or inconsistent statements in the hours even days after their attacks. Although her statements to the police did contain contradictions, the woman at the center of the charges against the two detectives has never wavered in her insistence that they forcibly raped her, court papers show. But at the hearing on Thursday, Mr. Martinss lawyer, Mark A. Bederow, added the cellphone tracking data to the body of evidence that he suggested proved the prosecutions theory of the case was false. According to the district attorneys office, the woman was in her car with two friends at Calvert Vaux Park near Coney Island last September when Mr. Hall and Mr. Martins approached her in plain clothes while conducting operations as part of an antidrug unit, Brooklyn South Narcotics. After finding marijuana and a few pills of Klonopin, an anti-anxiety medication, in the car, the men detained her, prosecutors said, placing her in their police van, handcuffed. The woman claimed that the two defendants drove her through the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, near the bridge and up Shore Road past her grandmothers home. During the ride, she said, Mr. Hall forced her to perform oral sex on him. Mr. Martins raped her, she said. But in court on Thursday, Mr. Bederow said that the analysis of the defendants cellphone data proved with scientific certainty that the officers were never in Bay Ridge. Mr. Bederow added that if prosecutors called her to testify at trial about this so-called ride from hell, they would be suborning perjury. The lieutenant governor of New York, day to day, is in charge of ribbon-cutting and little else. But twice in 45 years, the occupant of that office rose to become the states chief executive upon a governors departure. So while races for lieutenant governor have often been forgettable, the result can be consequential. Jumaane Williams, an independent-minded New York City Council member, has shown that he can be a real leader and is the right choice for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary next Thursday. The current lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, a lawyer and former county clerk and House member from Buffalo, is a dedicated public servant. But in her more than three years in office, Ms. Hochul has served as little more than an echo for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. During a debate with Mr. Williams, Ms. Hochul could not name a single instance in which she had changed the governors mind on an issue, or opposed one of his policies. We have endorsed Mr. Cuomo for governor in the Democratic primary, while arguing that he is likely to act aggressively against systemic corruption in Albany only if reformers continue to pressure him. FRONT PAGE Because of an editing error, a subheading with an article on Thursday about British detectives use of surveillance footage to identify two Russian men linked to the poisoning of a former Russian spy misstated the status of the two suspects. As the article correctly noted, Interpol red notices and warrants have been issued, but the men have not been arrested. Also, a picture caption referred incompletely to a bottle that detectives said was used to transport the nerve agent used in the poisoning. It was a counterfeit not genuine Nina Ricci bottle. INTERNATIONAL An article on Aug. 30 about a study in China suggesting a link between air pollution and reduced language and math skills referred imprecisely to a type of pollutant analyzed in a study on air pollution and cognitive performance in China. The pollutant, known as PM10, was defined in the study as particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter, not between 2.5 and 10 micrometers. NATIONAL An article on Thursday about a heated exchange between Alex Jones and Senator Marco Rubio referred incorrectly to Laura Loomers affiliation with Project Veritas. She left the group in 2017; she is not currently a member. SPORTS The On Tennis column on Thursday about Anastasija Sevastova misstated Niki Pilics French Open history. He was a finalist there, not a champion. LONDON Steve O Smith By the age of 13, London-born Stephen O. Smith had his mind set on becoming a designer even lying about his age so he could take summer courses at Central Saint Martins. At 19, Smith moved to the United States to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. It was quite a culture shock for me, he recalls. I became very aware of how performative national identity was, which is something I started to incorporate into my work. He explored the idea of Britishness in his work at RISD, and when he returned to England he began to look into the history of tailoring, on Savile Row in particular. Smiths research influenced his focus on tailoring, which is now the main signature of his brand, Steve O Smith. Up until now, I have done all of my own pattern cutting, and its through this hands-on approach that Ive really grown to love and respect the craft, he says. Another interest of his, angels, drives Smiths upcoming collection; titled The Ascension, its his modern interpretation of angels ascending into heaven. His fascination with supernatural beings stems from time spent at the Louvre in Paris. I think angels are the perfect muse, because they are whatever you want to them to be, he explains. A jacket with ruched fabric inspired by the idea of wearing a cloud, and a shirt with more than a hundred buttons and button holes made to be worn in different variations, will be among his first pieces shown on the schedule at London Fashion Week. Wistful and punishing, Private Peaceful spends a word-drenched, story-sodden night with Tommo Peaceful, a 17-year-old English soldier. The time is 1916, the place is Ypres, Belgium. And Tommo, convicted of cowardice in the face of the enemy, will be shot at dawn. This solo show, by Pemberley Productions at the TBG Mainstage Theater, is an adaptation of a young adult novel by Michael Morpurgo, a man best known in theater circles anyway for writing the book that became War Horse, the ideal play to see if youve ever wondered if a puppet could make you cry. (Yes. Hatfuls.) Even War Horse isnt as grim as Private Peaceful. At least the horse makes it out alive. Shane ORegan coltish, sky-eyed plays Tommo and about 20 other roles, too. All of the action is set in Tommos prison as the boy counts down the hours on his watch, a gift from his beloved older brother, Charlie. As the time ticks relentlessly by, Tommos mind makes a getaway, scurrying back to his rural school days spent with Charlie and their friend Molly, then to a few short years as a farm laborer, then to his weeks as an underage recruit and finally to the blasted waste of a barren battlefield. No fields or trees, not a blade of grass simply a land of mud and craters. Its there, in a stinking, dirt-filled trench, wounded and half-buried, that Tommo undertakes an act of great bravery. A brutal sergeant calls it cowardice, and Tommo is sentenced to die. Mr. ORegan directed by Simon Reade, who also adapted the novel for the stage attacks the various roles like hes engaged in a full-body, full-spirit workout. Hes an all-rounder, precise in his stance, specific in his gestures, flexible in his voice, slipping from one character to the next with preternatural ease. His Tommo is callow, with a flutelike voice, his Charlie gently arch and charming, the other men delineated with military efficiency. His women are arguably wobblier, but this is a war story. There arent many women here. But the success of candidates like Ms. Pressley and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was clearly on the mind of Mr. Carper. Since his first race in 1976 he had relied on a mix of affability and political pragmatism to find success 13 victories in 13 statewide races in one of the countrys most lightly populated states. He raised more than $3.5 million, airing commercials trumpeting his achievements for Delaware and boasting of all the miles he put on his Town & Country minivan but also reminding voters of his opposition to Mr. Trump and polarizing cabinet figures such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. And Mr. Carper enlisted his friend and former colleague, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., to record a radio ad and automated call on his behalf. Most of all, he relied on the relationships he has built up in the state of neighbors, as Delaware politicians call it, a place small enough with a population of about 960,000, ranking it 45th among all states where a veteran figure like Mr. Carper can personally meet a sizable number of voters, and an even larger share of the primary electorate. Mr. Carper is all but certain to defeat the Republican nominee, Sussex County councilman Rob Arlett, in November. Even as he won the right to serve a fourth term, though, Mr. Carper suggested he was puzzled by the competing demands he was hearing from Delaware voters. I go around the state and I hear two messages: Number one is, why cant you guys in Washington find a way to work together like we do here in Delaware? he said after the Labor Day parade in Wilmington Monday. But the other message is: This guy Trump is no good and you should oppose him with everything you can. WASHINGTON Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has left it to Congress to decide whether states can use federal funds to purchase firearms for their schools, prompting congressional Democrats to begin a last-ditch effort to restrict those funds. Conservatives said Ms. DeVoss stance was consistent with her championing of local school control. But Democrats and advocates denounced her decision as a tacit endorsement of federally funded firearms in schools, and federal policy experts saw the move as an abdication of the departments core function to help districts navigate the federal bureaucracy. The Education Department had been considering whether school districts could tap into a $1 billion program intended for academic and enrichment programs after states asked whether school safety measures including providing firearms and training would be an allowable expense. But Ms. DeVos essentially punted the question back to Congress, which wrote the law that created the program but was silent on firearms purchases. Congressional Democrats are planning to push for language in an end-of-year spending bill that would expressly prohibit the use of grant funds for guns. WASHINGTON After the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, started scaling back consumer protections for student borrowers last year, six states and the District of Columbia sped up their own efforts to crack down on abusive lending practices by companies that administer federal loan programs. Now Ms. DeVos is trying to stop them. Trump administration lawyers filed a statement of interest last month supporting a lawsuit from the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, an industry trade group, against the District of Columbia for creating a student loan ombudsman office. Under a new city law, the companies would be required to apply for licenses and could lose their right to operate if officials determine that they have engaged in fraudulent or irresponsible practices. Administration lawyers accused the District of Columbia of trying to second-guess department officials in the selection of loan servicers, violating the supremacy clause in the Constitution in a case that could determine the future role of states in consumer protection. Federal loans are federal assets and therefore must be controlled and regulated by the federal government, said Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for Ms. DeVos. She described the actions of the states as an illegal veto of federal authority. WASHINGTON A former Federal Reserve official is suing the Fed for blocking his plan to create a new kind of bank, saying it is putting the interests of big Wall Street banks ahead of their large customers. The lawsuit, filed in federal court last week, accuses the Fed chairman, Jerome H. Powell, of preventing the new bank, known as TNB USA, from operating. James McAndrews, who filed the lawsuit, asserts Mr. Powell directed Fed staffers to withhold permission for his bank to open an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York a necessary precursor for TNB USA to open its doors. We are aware of the lawsuit and we are reviewing it, a Fed spokeswoman said. TNB USA would function quite differently from existing banks. It would not make any loans. Instead, it would put all of its customer deposits into an account at the New York Fed. The bank is seeking to take advantage of a space that the Fed created in 2015 when it overhauled the mechanics of monetary policy. Before the 2008 financial crisis, when the Fed wanted to slow economic growth, it drained money from the financial system. Now, instead of removing money from the system, the Fed seeks to immobilize money by paying banks to maintain deposits at the Federal Reserve. WASHINGTON House Republicans withdrew on Thursday from negotiations with Democrats over a pact that would have effectively barred both parties from using hacked or stolen material on the campaign trail this fall. Leaders of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, and their counterparts at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had labored for much of the summer over rules that would have governed the way the congressionally run committees and their candidates treated material like the thousands of pages of damaging Democratic documents stolen and leaked by Russian hackers in 2016. Instead, the two parties were left on Thursday exchanging shots just two months before Election Day; Republicans claimed that Democrats had negotiated in bad faith and violated an agreement not to speak about the negotiations publicly, and Democrats said that Republicans were merely searching for an excuse to pull out. It only fed the complaint by Democrats that Republican lawmakers have resisted bridging partisan divisions in the two years since Russia began its brazen attack on the American political system. Negotiations are about trust. Once that trust is breached, there is simply no way to reach an agreement, said Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the Republican committee. We dont need a pledge to do what we planned to do already. And were certainly not going to be a pawn in someones publicity stunt. 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. Twentieth Century Fox pulled a scene from its forthcoming movie The Predator after learning that Steven Wilder Striegel, an actor with a minor role in the picture, is a registered sex offender, the movie studio said Thursday. Mr. Striegel, 47, had been featured in one scene in the movie, which was set to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday and play in theaters nationwide on Sept. 14. The studio said in a statement that it had not been aware of Mr. Striegels background when he was hired. In August, when the studio learned the details, his one scene in the film was removed within 24 hours, according to the statement. We were not aware of his background during the casting process due to legal limitations that impede studios from running background checks on actors. Mr. Striegels status as a sex offender came up after the actress Olivia Munn, who was also in the scene featuring Mr. Striegel, learned of it and told the company on Aug. 15, The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. The newspaper initially reported the decision by the company, and reported that Shane Black, the director of the movie and a longtime friend of Mr. Striegel, had been aware of his status as a sex offender. MEXICO CITY Mexican authorities said Thursday they found a mass grave with 168 human skulls in Veracruz State, a somber reminder of the tens of thousands of people who have gone missing, presumably at the hands of organized crime members. The remains and personal items found at the site, including 200 articles of clothing, suggested that the victims might have been killed two years ago, said Jorge Winckler Ortiz, the Veracruz attorney general. It is one of the biggest clandestine graves found in Mexico in recent years. Veracruz has been one of the states caught up in the horror of these giant dumping grounds, used by drug gangs to dispose of their victims. Federal officials say more than 30,000 people have disappeared in Mexico, although human rights groups put the number much higher. Many families, fearful that the police are working with drug gangs or convinced that investigators will do nothing, never report their missing relatives. In a surprise ruling, judges at the International Criminal Court said Thursday that they could exercise jurisdiction to investigate the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from their homes in Myanmar as a crime against humanity. The judges 2-to-1 decision opened a path toward possible accountability for ferocious attacks by security forces on civilians that began a year ago and caused immense suffering as some 700,000 men, woman and children struggled to cross the waterlogged border into Bangladesh. A recent United Nations report described the campaign as genocide, with an estimated 10,000 deaths; it offered harrowing accounts of gang rapes and the widespread destruction of villages. Despite an international outcry, the campaign by Myanmars army was carried out with impunity as the countrys civilian leaders declined to criticize the violence. To this day, Myanmars de facto leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has refused to hold the nations military leaders accountable. When Tom Cruise parachuted onto the Grand Palais in Paris in the blockbuster Mission: Impossible Fallout, he landed with surprising delicacy, given the jump. Art dealers will be striving for a similar light touch when they gather for the 30th edition of La Biennale Paris, the venerable fair taking place underneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais from Saturday to Sept. 16. Last year, the big Biennale news was stripping mention of antiques from its name and its shift to an every-year presentation big changes, given that the fair made its debut in 1962, the brainchild of the novelist and French culture minister Andre Malraux. This time, the primary shift is the fairs reduction to about 62 dealers, down from 94 last year. Its a smaller group of galleries, and more in the tradition of the Biennale when I first knew it, said Christopher Forbes, the fairs president. While a number of pieces in the show come from a prestigious provenance, including the Rothschild collections, many are unsigned, which until now had made a precise attribution challenging. According to Mr. Kugel, the absence of modern research on tortoiseshell objects and their makers prompted him to tackle this task. The fruit of his work, aided by an extensive in-house library, is a catalog published in English by Rizzoli that contains what promises to be the most exhaustive research to date on the subject of Neapolitan tortoiseshell pique, research that could alter some of the existing attributions for such objects in museums around the world. Michele Bimbenet-Privat, senior curator in the decorative arts department of the Louvre, has studied the catalog. Until now, the writings on the subject of pique were limited to a few short articles and notices in auction catalogs, she said. What is both novel and precious about the work done by the Kugel gallery is they have brought together an ensemble of rare pique objects, something no one had done before, making it possible for the first time to compare different styles and decorative motifs to identify the specific ateliers and set exact dates. This new scholarship could bring precision to the attribution of a rare tortoiseshell table that the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia, has lent to the show. This is the first time that the richly decorated table, with Chinese-inspired motifs of pagodas and exotic animals in engraved mother-of-pearl and gold pique, attributed today to Gennaro Sarao and dated from 1730 to 1770, has left the Hermitage since it entered its collections in 1933. And long before Bartok, he wrote music in compound meter, overthrowing the tradition that subdivided musical time into multiples of twos and threes. One such fugue, written in 1803 in the knock-knee time signature of 5/8, will appear on Mr. Ilics third Reicha disc next year. I was fascinated by the way he broke the rules, Mr. Ilic said. He has a musical style thats pretty close to Haydn in terms of the surface, but then he modulates in really weird ways and its in 5/8. Whats especially strange about Reicha is that this unconventional streak was embedded in a sober, even pedantic personality and a compositional work ethic rooted in the past. His voluminous writings for solo piano Mr. Ilic estimates that his five albums will cover about a third of the output are related in spirit to those of Bach. Fugues were an obsession. As a theorist, Reicha was driven by a desire to bring the same structure and logic to music education that he saw in other sciences. Louise Bernard de Raymond, a musicologist in Paris, said in a phone interview that in Reichas work there is also the desire to understand music through other fields: mathematics, Kantian philosophy. There is a general desire to forge a form of musical education that is systematic and rational a belief in progress. To his students, Reicha appears to have been a wonderfully open-minded teacher. Nothing offends him, Gounod wrote in his memoirs, everything amuses him; everything is of interest; and what I like best about him is that he always wants to know why. Piano fans, rejoice in two wonderful new recordings. Vikingur Olafsson, who made his Deutsche Grammophon debut last year with an album of Philip Glass etudes, has come out with a sweeping collection of works by (and inspired by) Bach. And Leif Ove Andsnes has brought his trademark clarity and thoughtfulness to a collection of Chopin Nocturnes and the four looming Ballades. Mr. Olafssons Glass album was a revelation, with harmonic discoveries in works that often resist musicality. In his new recording, he has similarly plumbed the polyphonic depths of Bachs preludes and fugues, as well as a handful of other small pieces, including arrangements of Bach by Rachmaninoff and Busoni. He manages to surprise even in the most familiar works, taming the different voices with authority while allowing room for adventurous turns a blend of respect and audaciousness that makes for a refreshing addition to the crowded field of Bach recordings. In an interview this week, Mr. Andsnes said that the Chopin Ballades are pieces you really have to live with for years, and try again and again. He started learning them as a teenager. Now, nearing his 50s, he has finally recorded them. Listen in particular for how he navigates the infamous Fourth Ballade and its daunting, rhapsodic coda. JOSHUA BARONE What were your first encounters with these pieces? Chopin was one of the first composers as a child that I felt really close to. Of course I couldnt play any Chopin immediately, but I did feel this immediate connection to the incredibly confessional quality in the music. The Ballades, I think, I discovered when I was 12. There was this cassette we had with the four Ballades. And I just thought I had never heard piano music as beautiful as this. What makes them different from other piano music? Theres such a diversity of emotion, isnt there? The beauty and the storytelling of the melodies combined with extremely haunting, interesting, painful harmonies. That just got to me immediately. And the intelligence of the composition like in the Second Ballade, he can create something very pure and you think, O.K., this is how its going. Then in a split second theres a dissonance that changes absolutely everything. This music is so transitional, from one thing to the next all the time. When we get to something like the Fourth Ballade, its so rhapsodic and so complex. I was extremely haunted by it. I thought: This is it, this is the peak of Romantic piano music. How could he give voice to such suffering and create something so epic at the same time? And in 10 minutes. How have your feelings about the Ballades changed since then? Theyve become much more rich. I remember listening to something like the Fourth Ballade and recognizing it as truly great. But it was still very much an adult world, and it would take me time to grasp and digest it. Thats a piece that I only started playing seven years ago. I always thought: This is too early, I cant do it. Its elusive: You need a feeling for this kind of music, and you need to live with it. What made you think you were finally ready? I thought: I have to do it, this is getting ridiculous. It sounds pathetic, but that piece the first times I played it in concert, it took me four or five concerts before I could play it without starting to cry. Thats a terrible thing for a performer; one should never be sobbing. But I just couldnt take it. Mac Miller, a Pittsburgh rapper who built a loyal cult fan base with low-key charisma and intimate verses, died on Friday at his home in the San Fernando Valley in California. He was 26. His family released a statement confirming the death but said it had no further details as to the cause of his death at this time. Mr. Miller had recently released his fifth full-length album, Swimming, which opened at No. 3 on the Billboard album chart. An early internet success story, he topped the chart with his independent debut, Blue Slide Park, in 2011, the first indie album to do so in 16 years. Though he began as a mischievous party-starter, Mr. Miller, who often made his own beats, turned toward darker sounds and motifs. He rapped about substance abuse, having spoken in interviews about an addiction to prescription opiate cough syrup. And he cultivated a following with bracing lyrics about struggling with depression. ATYPICAL on Netflix. The screenwriter and producer Robia Rashid, whose career has included How I Met Your Mother, Will & Grace and The Goldbergs, created this dramatic domestic comedy series, whose main character is a high school student on the autism spectrum. Sam (Keir Gilchrist) spent the first season navigating two crushes, one on a peer (who returned the feelings) and one on his therapist (who, thankfully, did not). The show spends plenty of time on the love lives of its characters, including Sams mother, Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh). It was interesting to me that a whole generation of kids were growing up knowing that they were on the spectrum and wanting independence, Ms. Rashid told the website Vulture. That point of view seemed so interesting to me and such a cool way to tell a dating story. The show returns to Netflix on Friday for a second season. LILO & STITCH (2002) on Netflix. An aliens spaceship slams into Earth. Lucky for him, he survives. Even luckier, hes in Hawaii. Disneys animated feature about a young woman, Lilo, adopting an alien and naming him Stitch is sentimental in a way that does not feel dishonest or heavy-handed, A. O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. Mr. Scott called the movie an example of quiet, confident craftsmanship that tells a sweet, charming tale of intergalactic friendship. After Pearl Harbor the fawns ass enlisted. Dorothy, too old for the Womens Army Corps, applied for a passport to become a foreign correspondent, but she was now listed by the government as P.A.F. a premature anti-fascist and, as such, a Communist. No passport. When the war ended, Alan, stationed in London, decided to stay, and Dorothy divorced him in 1947. A couple years later, unable to bear living alone, she remarried him in Hollywood. In 1950 her name appeared in the anti-Communist pamphlet Red Channels. There would be no more movie work. Their home in Bucks County had been sold at the time of the divorce for less than half of what they had lavished on it. Having no income except for some iffy book royalties, they moved to an apartment in an unfashionable West Hollywood neighborhood, and Dorothy was advised to apply for unemployment compensation. When she reported each week to fill out the card saying she was available for work, Dorothy saw there were always a few Rollses and Cadillacs in the parking lot. You make money writing on the coast, she observed. But that money is like so much compressed snow. It goes so fast it melts in your hand. By the time heroin addiction catches them in its jaws, Emily is in her mid-20s, teaching college writing and helping the narrator, who is halfheartedly taking classes on the G.I. Bill, grow marijuana in a tent in their living room. After the plants flower and dry, they flip them for dope money. Emily orders salad at McDonalds. She says man a lot. Her male friends want to sleep with her. Our narrator loves the way she cussed with great beauty and always gave you everything and she wasnt ever fake about it. That shes less a woman than a collage at first doesnt seem much of an issue the novel is told in the first person, after all, limited to the narrators perspective, and what lover can ever truly see his or her beloved? But whats glossed over ultimately mitigates the intensity of their romance. We never learn why Emily wanted to transfer to a school in Montreal, for instance; though were told shes smart (its a point of pride with the narrator), were rarely given access to conversations in which she says what she wants or doesnt want, or shares what she thinks. Explore the New York Times Book Review Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See whats new in October: Among this months new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. This shortsightedness doesnt stop at Emily. Women, when they appear, are categorized by their sexual availability and desirability. Often theyre given no name, and simply assigned to a male character his woman, his girl. Whats meant by this construct is unclear. Of course, some men really talk this way, but accuracy as justification seems at odds with how the narrator intends to be perceived. Hes a self-professed scumbag, sure, but he also underscores his vegetarianism and claims, I take all the beautiful things to heart till I about die from it. Hes sensitive, not to mention extremely damaged by his time at war. But his flashes of gooey adoration for Emily and moments of sympathy for other women feel less genuine than put-on, as if theyve been carefully planted to distract us from the casual sexism inherent in his voice. I got the impression I was meant to like him. Its a miracle I credit to the urgency of every aspect of this novel outside of the love story that I often did. Image Cherry is a singular portrait of the opioid epidemic and the United States failure to provide adequate support to veterans. Its full of slapstick comedy, despite gut-clenching depictions of dope sickness, the futility of war and PTSD. The sections on Army life in and out of Iraq offer a searing glimpse into the wretchedness of that American disaster. (Fort Hood was bleak, a new kind of desert, engineered to induce fatalism in the young. It worked like a charm.) As a stylist, Walker is un-self-conscious and rangy. He has a gift for the strategically deployed profanity, and writes dialogue so musical and realistic youll hear it in the air around you. He can pull off judicious caps lock. And yet, its a struggle to root for a novel that relies on a woman for narrative structure even as it constantly undermines her humanity. Emily feels even more spectral in contrast to the all-too-concrete Soren, the primary love interest in Lisa Locascios debut novel, Open Me. Due to an administrative mix-up, the 18-year-old narrator, Roxana Olsen, who is supposed to be studying abroad in Paris with her best friend, has instead been sent to Denmark. At the airport, bleary with jet lag, shes scooped up by Soren, a 28-year-old representative from International Abroad Experiences, the program responsible for the mismanagement of her eight-week trip. From their first meeting, Roxanas perception narrows; despite the newness of her surroundings, all she can see is Soren: His eyes the blue of a frozen morning under brows like smudges of ash. He took my hand as if to shake it but didnt close the grip. My fingers swam in his, little fish. Six new paperbacks to check out this week. NOTES ON A FOREIGN COUNTRY: An American Abroad in a Post-American World, by Suzy Hansen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $15.) Over her years living in Istanbul, Hansen, a journalist, became keenly aware of Americas enduring influence in the Middle East and, as she put it, Americans active denial of their empire even as they laid its foundations. This pointed memoir reconciles her personal idea of the United States with its political realities. THE SEVENTH FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE, by Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor. (Picador, $16.) This high-minded detective novel is a semiotic romp. Binet treats the death of the critic Roland Barthes as a possible murder with political undertones. Heaps of real-life figures crop up along the way, including Julia Kristeva, Francois Mitterrand and Michel Foucault. The sendups of academia are frequent and gleeful. THANKS, OBAMA: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, by David Litt. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $16.99.) Litt joined the Obama campaign as a volunteer, eventually rising to become a senior speechwriter for the president. This optimistic account centers on Litts coming-of-age at the White House (in a job where every audience is the entire United States), and assesses the presidents legacy along with the political processes that shaped it. BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD, by Attica Locke. (Mulholland/Little, Brown, $15.99.) In East Texas a ranger goes searching for the killer of a black man and white woman, whose bodies were fished out of a bayou. As he rushes to solve the crime, secrets, betrayals and racial tensions across generations threaten to erupt. Our columnist Marilyn Stasio listed the book as one of the best crime novels of 2017, and wrote, Locke writes in a blues-infused idiom that lends a strain of melancholy and a sense of loss to her lyrical style. ALL THAT IS LEFT IS ALL THAT MATTERS Stories By Mark Slouka 175 pp. Norton. $24.95. Image These elegant stories are stuffed full of the bittersweet wisdom of people who have lived enough to know, as the title puts it, that all that is left is all that matters, that the world doesnt care for us we pass through its rooms like ghosts, that if there were any justice left it would shrivel and die at the injustice of it all. Yet Sloukas characters arent so world-weary as to be cheerless; theyre just real and flawed like the rest of us, their wisdom hard won. Explore the New York Times Book Review Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See whats new in October: Among this months new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. In Then, Tom takes the train into Manhattan to escape, or perhaps to wallow in, a gathering sadness about my father, wrapping up and not inclined to go gently, about time, about mortality, the speed of things. It also becomes a journey into the past when Tom bumps into someone who was his lover 40 years earlier and remembers a weekend when the death of a stranger fortuitously (for them) delayed his lovers departure from the city so one mans death became anothers extra nights of passion. Death also looms over Crossing, about an estranged dad taking his young son on a camping trip in the Pacific Northwest. No spoilers here, but the tension is as powerful as the swiftly flowing field of river water they must cross on foot, which is described so well that it comes alive, another character in yet another gem of a story. OTHER PEOPLES LOVE AFFAIRS Stories By D. Wystan Owen 213 pp. Algonquin. Paper, $15.95. Image The people who live in the village of Glass are a sad lot, their lives suffused with a grayness that borders on oppressive. Located somewhere on the coast of England, the village links the stories in this debut collection about some very British characters who have all, in different ways, been disappointed by life. Theres an old-fashioned air to the writing and the people, the Harolds and Walters and Esthers and their recollections of Trilby the florist, Herville the butcher, the old picture house, the trip to the big top even, in The Patroness, to a salon run by a wealthy widow and frequented by a collection of not-quite-first-rate artists. Owen is a gentle writer who tenderly sifts through his characters lives, revealing the losses and regrets that stalk them. The title story is about two women, Erma and Violet, drawn together by their corpulence (Owen isnt the kind of writer who would call them fat), who live as companions for 20 years. But then comes Violets death from heart failure and Ermas discovery of a small curiosity in Violets will: an old desk bequeathed to the owner of a local pub. From that grows an obsessive, destructive doubt about what their years together had really meant to Violet. Like so many of Glasss citizens, Erma is among the broken beings far past repair. The Times highlighted her folksiness when she visited Manhattan in 1940: Modest Grandma Moses declared, If they want to make a fuss over me, I guess I dont mind. But Moses was no naif. A believer in womens autonomy, she said in her autobiography: Always wanted to be independent. I couldnt bear the thought of sitting down and Thomas, her husband, handing out the money. And her primitive painting style was carefully conceived: I like to paint something that leads me on and on in to the unknown something that I want to see away on beyond, she wrote. She died at 101, having created some 2,000 paintings and received two honorary doctorates. All Americans mourn her loss, President John F. Kennedy said. Nancy Wartik wrote todays Back Story. _____ Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays and updated all morning. Browse past briefings here. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning. To receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights, sign up here. Check out our full range of free newsletters here. What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com. 1. President Trump called on the Justice Department to investigate who wrote an anonymous Op-Ed in The New York Times assailing his administration. I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe its national security, he said on Air Force One, referring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Separately, George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser who last year pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., was sentenced to 14 days in jail. A pair of flights from Europe landed at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday and their passengers were sent for medical reviews. A day earlier, a plane from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was quarantined briefly at Kennedy International Airport in New York after initial reports of as many as 100 sick travelers on board. It sounds scary. Plane loads of passengers reporting flulike symptoms naturally raise concerns about a broader outbreak of disease. But the reports of quarantines and medical checks are actually evidence of a complex health system working exactly as intended, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And theres a good explanation for why it all seemed to happen at once. Basically, theres no reason to worry. It might help, though, to know more about what happened. Emirates Airline Flight 203 The flight from Dubai landed on Wednesday morning at Kennedy Airport and was quarantined. The pilot had alerted officials on the ground after dozens of passengers reported feeling ill, a law enforcement official told The New York Times on Wednesday. The C.D.C. initially said about 100 of the passengers were thought to be sick, but after they were all screened, just 19 out of more than 500 travelers were deemed ill. Of these, 11 were taken to the hospital. They had the flu or a common cold, C.D.C. said. Good Friday. Want this in your inbox every morning? Sign up here. Investors worry about Elon Musks drug use. He doesnt. The Tesla chief made his first public appearance since ending an attempt to take the carmaker private. Overnight, during nearly three hours live on The Joe Rogan Experience, a popular podcast, he mused on A.I. and contemplated the end of the universe. He also drank whiskey and took a drag from a tobacco-and-marijuana joint. (He was in California, so that was legal.) Mr. Musk probably wont have allayed investor concerns about his behavior. I got text messages from friends asking, What the hell are you doing smoking weed? he told Mr. Rogan during the show. In fact, he may have raised more questions. One, given that he says he sometimes works 120 hours a week, is where he found the time to make this appearance. Mr. Musk, who has talked before about using Ambien to sleep, was also asked what keeps him up at night. Its hard to run companies, especially car companies, he replied. Its very difficult to keep a car company alive. He has told the NYT that the task can be excruciating. Stunts like this may not ease the pressure. I thought about what are the problems that are most likely to affect the future of the world or future of humanity. Elon Musk, a South African-born engineer, inventor and billionaire, is one of the most important entrepreneurs in the world. But the 47-year-old is no stranger to turmoil, and by his own account his career has been full of highs and lows. Just three years ago, I was showering at the Y and sleeping on the office floor. And now, I have got a million-dollar car and quite a few creature comforts. After making a fortune with his first successful startup, Zip2, Musk gained fame as the co-founder of PayPal in the late 1990s. So this is an ATM. What were going to do is transform the traditional banking industry. The company lost hundreds of millions of dollars, and Musk was ousted as CEO because of internal turmoil. But when PayPal went public in 2002, and then was sold to eBay, Musk as the biggest shareholder walked away with $200 million. By the mid-2000s, Musk had turned around and invested almost all of his PayPal fortune into his new companies: SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity. With SpaceX, Musks aspiration is out of this world literally. Its a commercial space flight company, which designs and launches advanced rockets into space. Behind me is where Falcon 9 would sit during launch. One of its ambitions is to eventually send people to Mars. And I cant think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars. But it has faced some roadblocks. Their first three rocket launches failed, burning through almost all of the companys assets. But SpaceX has had recent successes. The Falcon Heavy launch earlier this year was a big milestone and it carried an interesting payload: a dummy astronaut riding a Tesla car that was orbiting space. The company has also landed contracts with NASA, but questions about safety and cost remain. We sold over 1,000 cars and by sold I mean people put down a substantial deposit on the car. Tesla, Musks electric car company, is one of the first of its kind to work on a large scale. It has also successfully disrupted the auto industry. The company is valued at over $50 billion. The Tesla Model S has been called the greatest car ever built. But Tesla has also faced some setbacks, including car batteries that caught on fire, recalls and production delays. SolarCity, Musks renewable energy venture, initially had a bright future. Its the largest provider of rooftop solar systems in the U.S., and the company boomed on Wall Street. But after investors raised doubts about its business model, SolarCitys shares quickly lost value, and Tesla had to take over in what was widely seen as a bailout. We really need to make solar panels as appealing as electric cars have become. But while Musk may have been flirting with bankruptcy and calamity for years, his projects continue to captivate the collective imagination. Life has to be more than about solving problems. There have to be things that make you proud to be a member of humanity. Low-lying areas along the water have long been seen as ideal sites for building new runways and terminals, because there are fewer obstacles for the planes during takeoff and landing, and less potential for noise complaints. But coasts also provide few natural protections against flooding or high winds. All told, extreme weather and rising sea levels today pose one of the most urgent threats to many of the worlds busiest airports, which often werent designed with global warming in mind. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 inundated all three airports that serve New York City, crippling travel for days. Typhoon Goni closed runways at Hongqiao International Airport outside Shanghai in 2015, forcing passengers and crew members to teeter on improvised bridges of tables and chairs as they tried to reach dry ground. The worst floods in nearly a century in Kerala, India, killed more than 400 people last month, and the deluge caused Cochin Airport, a regional hub, to close for two weeks. We know that there are going to be impacts. And we expect those impacts to become serious, said Michael Rossell, deputy director-general at Airports Council International, a group representing airports from across the world. Recognizing the problem is the first step, and recognizing the severity is the second. The third is: What can we do about it? Many airports have started to bolster their defenses. St. Paul Downtown Airport in Minnesota, which has been frequently flooded by the Mississippi, now has a portable flood wall that can be erected if the river starts to overflow. With the help of a $28 million federal grant, La Guardia Airport in New York is adding a flood wall, rainwater pumps and a new drainage system for the airfield, as well as upgrading its emergency electrical substations and generators. Kansai airport, which serves the bustling cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe and handled almost 28 million travelers last year, faces an additional predicament. A feat of modern engineering, Kansai sits on an island three miles offshore that was built over the course of a decade from two mountains worth of gravel and sand. The airport, which opened in 1994, was built in Osaka Bay partly to minimize noise problems but also to avoid the violent protests over land rights that are the legacy of older airports in Japan, like Narita, which serves Tokyo. Signs of trouble came early. Engineers had expected the island to sink, on average, less than a foot a year over 50 years after the start of construction as the seabed settled under the airports weight. But the island sank more than 30 feet in its first seven years and has continued to descend, now losing 43 feet in elevation at the last measurement. Thats because the agency has long counted not just the direct health benefits of pulling a certain pollutant out of the atmosphere, but also what are called the co-benefits that occur when, as a result, other toxins are also reduced. For example, in the case of the mercury rule, the Obama administration found between $4 million to $6 million in health benefits directly from curbing mercury. But it further justified the regulation by citing an additional $80 billion in health benefits a year by, among other things, preventing as many as 11,000 premature deaths. Those savings come from a reduction in particulate matter linked to heart and lung disease that also occurs when cutting mercury emissions. Mr. Konkus, the E.P.A. spokesman, said last week, One of a number of issues E.P.A. is assessing in the context of the appropriate and necessary analysis is whether and how to account for co-benefits. A powerful array of business groups including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Home Builders and leaders in the coal industry say the E.P.A. has for too long ignored or downplayed in its formulas the costs of regulations to their businesses . One of the fiercest critics is Robert E. Murray, the C.E.O. of Murray Energy Corp., who has donated to Mr. Trumps inauguration fund, and has served as a chief counselor to the president on his efforts to revive the nations flagging coal industry. Mr. Murray helped underwrite lawsuits that Republican attorneys general and industry groups brought against the mercury rule. He cited its repeal as one of his top priorities in letters last year to cabinet heads. Mr. Murray is also a former lobbying client of Mr. Wheeler , the current acting administrator of the E.P.A. who joined the agency after spending nearly a decade as the coal executives top attorney. Mr. Konkus said that Mr. Wheeler did not work on the mercury issue when he served a lobbyist for Mr. Murray, and said Mr. Wheeler did not lobby the agency at all in the two years before joining in April. Mr. Wheeler signed a statement in which he recused himself from working with former clients, including Murray Energy, until April 2020. If youre not preparing for the high holidays, this weekend might be a good one to prep some casseroles for dinners in the week ahead. Weve pulled a bakers dozen of casserole recipes that picky kids will probably-maybe love. I dont think theres one of them I wouldnt freeze for later. Either way: Cook some figs. There are enough around. There are thousands more recipes to consider cooking this weekend on NYT Cooking. Just take out a subscription and youll be able to see and save them all. (You can also receive inspiration on Instagram and Facebook, where we post with the intensity of a Snapchatting teen.) Do not hesitate to get in touch if anything goes sideways, either with your account or with a recipe. We are here to serve: cookingcare@nytimes.com. You can also yell at me, if you like, though Im hopeless with technology and worse with business rules: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I like helping people, though! Now, its nothing to do with lamb shanks or muesli, but Capt. John McMurray captured a cool moment in nature the other day, right inshore, and posted it to Instagram. Please read A Turbulent Mind, a Marshall Project and New York Magazine report about Andrew Goldstein, a violent schizophrenic who in 1999 pushed a 32-year-old woman into the path of a subway. His crime led to a huge shift in how society cares for the violent mentally ill, both in and out of prison. Goldstein will be released from custody on Sept. 14. During his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Thursday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh referred to some forms of birth control as abortion-inducing drugs. The phrase is a characterization that some anti-abortion religious groups use, but it is not supported by scientific evidence. Judge Kavanaugh used the phrase while answering questions by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, about a 2015 dissent he wrote in a case brought by a Catholic organization over a requirement in the federal health care law that employers include contraception coverage in employee health plans. The group, Priests for Life, argued that the provision violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, despite an exception allowing employers with religious objections to arrange for a separate insurance company to provide contraceptive coverage. They said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objecting to, Judge Kavanaugh testified, describing the groups position. It was not clear exactly which methods Judge Kavanaugh was referring to when he used the phrase abortion-inducing drugs. Have your parents ever used technology to track your location? If so, what was it like for you? How did it affect your relationship with your parents? If not, how do you think you would feel if they did? Why? In Should You Track Your Teens Location?, Lisa Damour gives advice for parents considering using location-tracking technology: Indeed, the ability to locate our children using GPS technology touches on some of the most loaded topics in all of parenting: questions of trust and safety, a young persons right to privacy and autonomy, and the gut-wrenching truth that to be a parent is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that while most adults dont location-track their 13- to 17-year-olds, a full 16 percent of parents do. Given that we can use tracking apps to surveil our ambulatory hearts, should we? Lorrie Faith Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies childrens privacy and safety in the context of technology, has decided against monitoring the location of her two teenagers. Its tempting to do it because we are all worried about our kids, notes Dr. Cranor. Yet she resists the urge because she doesnt want her children to feel like their parents are following them around all the time. Likewise, Kate Gjaja, a mother raising three teenagers in the Chicago suburbs, doesnt keep digital tabs on her teens movements because she feels that learning to manage without adult supervision is an important part of the growing up process. Location tracking can, without question, damage the connection between parent and teenager. Research shows that adolescents who believe their parents have invaded their privacy go on to have higher levels of conflict at home. And teenagers who resent being trailed digitally sometimes disable location features, take pains to spoof their GPS, or leave their phones at friends houses to throw parents off their scent. As a psychologist, I also worry that location tracking can confuse the question of who is mainly responsible for the safety of the roaming adolescent the parent or the teenager? If parents decide against using location tracking, I encourage them to talk with their teenager about why. They might say, for example, When you are not with us, you are in charge of yourself. Were here if you need help, but we will not monitor you because we cannot, at a distance, protect you from the choices you make. Its easy enough to point to the downsides of location tracking, but can it ever be a good idea to track a young persons movements by phone? Yes, if we keep some key parameters in mind. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: Do you think parents should use technology to track their teenagers location? Why or why not? If not, are there any special circumstances when you think it would be acceptable? What are they and why? What do you think of Ms. Damours advice over all? With which points do you most agree or disagree and why? What advice would you give to parents who are considering tracking their children? Everyone compares it to a war. The ones left behind had too many to mourn. Research was slow, disorganized and underfunded. Women were excluded from drug trials. Infants were given placebos. In Texas, a local politician said that one way to solve the AIDS crisis was to shoot the queers. But Wojnarowicz wasnt just angry; he was tired. It is exhausting, he once wrote, living in a population where people dont speak up if what they witness doesnt directly threaten them. He battled fatigue, rousing himself and others from the numbness of constant grief. This section of Postcards From America escaped the notice of the N.E.A., but it was more incendiary than whatever insults he had to fling at the Roman Catholic Church: I worry that friends will slowly become professional pallbearers, waiting for each death, of their lovers, friends and neighbors, and polishing their funeral speeches; perfecting their rituals of death rather than a relatively simple ritual of life such as screaming in the streets. I imagine what it would be like if, each time a lover, friend or stranger died of this disease, their friends, lovers or neighbors would take the dead body and drive with it in a car a hundred miles an hour to Washington, D.C., and blast through the gates of the White House and come to a screeching halt before the entrance and dump their lifeless form on the front steps. It would be comforting to see those friends, neighbors, lovers and strangers mark time and place and history in such a public way. Wojnarowicz always had anger in him. In his 20s, he and his friend Willy, whom he met at a halfway house, would walk the streets, smashing every telephone booth, or so he claimed, between Midtown and South Street Seaport. He once told an interviewer that if he hadnt found the communication outlet of writing and art, he would have been on the top of a water tower years earlier, with my rifle. But over his life as an artist, Wojnarowicz learned to direct this anger like a controlled burn. The result was something unexpected: comfort. Anger, he learned, could comfort only when it was made public, when it expressed shared values, when it asserted dignity, when it made life on the margins more visible. Instead of giving in to political exhaustion, Wojnarowicz fanned his rage and channeled it into a message of not hope, exactly, but insistence. I am here. Dead or alive, this kid would be seen. Instead, she came across at times as self-conscious and a bit nervous. (Oh no, Ive just weirdly used the word wealth three times in the same sentence.) She spoke candidly about being disappointed that the 2000 Academy Awards she was nominated for her supporting performance in Boys Dont Cry had not pushed her higher up the Hollywood food chain. (I really thought everything was going to change.) She was also funny and warm, insisting on inspecting the rear of my jeans for plaster dust before I left. (We both have flat asses.) Ms. Sevigny is perhaps one of her generations finest character actresses. Chloes artistic choices are refreshingly dangerous, said Bob Gazzale, president of the American Film Institute. Time and again, she invites us into her own fragility and that invitation is hand-delivered with a strength, courage and confidence that few are able to convey. Ms. Sevigny has worked with auteur directors like David Fincher, Whit Stillman, Andrew Haigh, Jim Jarmusch and Lars von Trier. Her television resume is vaster than most people likely realize: Bloodline on Netflix, American Horror Story on FX, Portlandia on IFC, Comrade Detective on Amazon. She won a Golden Globe in 2010 for her acting on Big Love, the HBO series about a polygamist and his wives. Ms. Sevigny said she is close to signing a deal to star in another major series. Rather, the question about Ms. Sevigny involves us: Will we ever allow her to be known first as an actress and second as a downtown personality the epitome of cool, as Jay McInerney christened her in The New Yorker in 1994. Once media narratives are created, it is nearly impossible to rewrite them. Just look at Americas Sweetheart, a.k.a. Jennifer Aniston, still supposedly pining away for Brad Pitt and a baby on a tabloid cover near you. But the Constitution is also quick to point out the superseding authority of the state that created those localities. According to a ruling in 1929 by Chief Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo of the Court of Appeals, Albany takes precedence if the state has a substantial interest in the property, affairs or government of a locality. In other words, the state can butt into a localitys business whenever it sees fit. Albany mandates lots of other things that villages, towns, cities and counties (New York City has five of them) can and cant do and what they have to pay for. Sure, New York City voters are entitled to choose their State Senators and Assembly members, but in Albany, legislators from the five boroughs are outnumbered by the ones elected upstate and in the suburbs. The conflict is not unique to this state, although it is more acute in places with partisan splits like New York, where Democrats control the city and Republicans have had a veto power in the Senate. Brooks Rainwater, director of the Center for City Solutions of the National League of Cities, said that bigger cities in general are passing more progressive legislation while state legislatures are trying to limit the authority of those localities. He said legislatures are more vulnerable to lobbying by special interests because local officials are closer to the people they represent and are more responsive. In a New York Times profile this week, my colleague Vivian Wang sat down with Ms. Marinoni for a rare interview. Ms. Marinoni, like Ms. Nixon, is a longtime activist and organizer, but, unlike Ms. Nixon, is a fiercely private person (she calls herself shy). The daughter of two teachers, Ms. Marinoni helped establish the Alliance for Quality Education in New York in 2000, which fights for funding equality across school districts. Its also where she met Ms. Nixon, who was a spokeswoman for the group. Now, Ms. Marinoni is navigating her place in the political spotlight. Here are some unpublished tidbits from that interview. [Sign up here to get future installments of the Gender Letter delivered to your inbox!] On life in the public eye When youre married to a celebrity and youre not a celebrity yourself, theres ways to not be in the spotlight. Ive perfected those, and I abide by them. Now that shes running for governor, its a very similar dynamic. People want to see Cynthia in action. She knows how to deal with that, and we know how to deal with that. In some ways, its almost harder if youre talking about celebrity media than political media. ... With the political reporting, at least theyre more focused on my work life than what kind of clothes Im wearing. On their path to a third child Ms. Nixon has two children from a prior relationship with Danny Mozes, a schoolteacher. Ms. Marinoni gave birth to their son, Max, in 2011, after several miscarriages. The sixth time, it worked. It messed with your head a little bit every time it was like, Oh, O.K., now its happening. And then no. The last one, I had gotten to the second term, and [doctors] determined that the baby was not viable. I probably would have lost the baby anyway, so I had an abortion. There was still sort of a darkness around the idea of having an abortion in the second term. The laws are still not the most up-to-date. Going through that firsthand it does impact you. Cynthias been a longtime advocate of abortion. I think this experience really drove it home. This is one of the issues shes been fighting the longest on. On their roles in the home, and family Im often more the wife. Shes done some pretty big public things. My taking a break and being home with the kids, I think I arguably have done more of that. I couldnt actually envision being happily married with kids. I thought, Im never going to get that. I think its amazing that I got that. Its huge. ______ What were reading Ayanna Pressleys triumph. The first black woman elected to the Boston City Council may become the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress. She beat a 10-term incumbent in the primary. [The New York Times] The judges have long said they are deciding the fates of immigrants in a traffic-court setting. They wear robes, but do not have gavels. Instead, they pound date stamps on the pages of filings that come across their desks. In April they were rattled when the Justice Department began requiring them to provide a detailed itinerary of upcoming foreign travel car rental agencies, hotels and names of foreign nationals they were visiting in order to maintain their security clearance. Although all executive branch employees with security clearences were required to submit the new information, the judges found it invasive, said Los Angeles Judge Ashley Tabaddor, speaking as the president of the union. Other changes have been more substantive. In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a ruling making it more difficult for victims of domestic violence or gang violence to make asylum claims. He also limited judges ability to put cases aside, for instance, while an immigrant sought legal status another way, such as by applying for a green card. After a Philadelphia judge, Steven A. Morley, postponed a case because he thought the immigrant had not received proper notification, the Justice Department in July reassigned all of his 87 similar cases saying it had reason to believe he had committed potential violations of law and policy. The union filed a grievance, arguing the government was trying to influence the outcome of the case. Then, in August, Mr. Sessions declared that if judges saw it necessary to postpone a hearing as they had in the past, for instance, to give a lawyer more time to prepare they had to show good cause. David Martin, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Virginia and a former lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security, said he understood the governments perspective. He said immigration lawyers have used postponements to string things out, on the theory that the longer immigrants are in the country, the harder it is to deport them. Erich Lessing, a self-taught photojournalist who fled the Nazi annexation of Austria as a teenager in 1939 but returned after World War II to document Europes political and cultural rebirth, died on Aug. 29 in Vienna. He was 95. His death was announced by Magnum Photos, the agency that recruited him in 1951 after he returned from Israel, where he had eked out a living driving a cab, selling cameras, breeding carp on a kibbutz and taking pictures of kindergarten classes and of mothers with their children on the beach near Tel Aviv. Image Erich Lessing in Vienna in 1955. In the postwar years, he said, I wanted to tell the truth about the pain, death and destruction Europe was dealing with. Credit... Erich Hartmann/Magnum Photos That Mr. Lessing returned to Europe at all, much less moved back to Vienna permanently, might seem inconceivable given the boyhood memories that his hometown would invoke. His father died of cancer when he was 10. His mother remained behind when Erich emigrated to what was then Palestine and, like his grandmother, was murdered in a German concentration camp. Irving Petlin, whose idiosyncratic paintings and pastels reflected a moral commitment to document inhumanity during the Vietnam War, in the Middle East and on the streets of Paris and Los Angeles, among other examples died on Sept. 1 at his home on Marthas Vineyard, in Massachusetts. He was 83. His wife, Sarah, said the cause was liver cancer. He lived most of the year in Paris and spent his summers on Marthas Vineyard. Mr. Petlin strove to preserve history in a style that was neither realistic nor abstract. Rather than depict brutal events graphically, he reimagined them with subtlety and surrealism. He was totally unclassifiable, John Yau, a poet and critic, who has written about and interviewed Mr. Petlin, said in a telephone interview. Hes kind of a modern-day symbolist. Some critics, including Afghan officials, worry that direct Taliban-American talks would legitimize the insurgents and undercut Afghanistans elected government. To the contrary, direct talks with America could test whether the Taliban want a future in Afghanistans civil politics, rather than continuing their insurgency with links to Pakistans intelligence service. By revealing the Talibans real intentions in this way, such two-party talks might open the door to talks among Afghan parties. The critics also question whether any Taliban partner could deliver an agreement that would bind that large, diverse movement. Does the Talibans political office in Doha, Qatar, represent the movements senior leaders? This should be a priority issue in exploratory talks. Our own experience suggests that the Doha office is the most accessible connection to the Talibans leaders able to deliver decisions from the Talibans topmost governing body and to enforce its agreements. Consider that more than four years have passed since five captured Taliban members were transferred on June 1, 2014, from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in exchange for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier to have been held by the Taliban. Rather than returning to the battlefield, those Taliban members have remained in Qatar in accordance with our agreement. This is not to say that the Taliban are to be trusted, but it is evidence that the political office can deliver. Other critics worry that the Taliban wont engage in serious dialogue with the United States until they are defeated militarily. To be sure, the Taliban are nowhere near defeated, having attacked Kabul and other major Afghan cities in recent months. But the Taliban have internal political challenges that threaten their cohesion. After decades of war, they are hard-pressed to demonstrate that they offer Afghanistan something more than unending conflict. This is especially true since Taliban leaders sit in the relative calm and safety of Pakistan, far from battlefield hardships and beholden more to the demands of Pakistans intelligence service than to their Afghan brothers desires. Lenin liquidated Russias Tsarist aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the affluent peasants known as kulaks. In the 1930s, Stalin killed off most of the first Bolsheviks. The New Class that subsequently emerged in the Soviet Union consisted mostly of technocrats with undistinguished political backgrounds. Mao was different, and his legacy today is as well. He, too, liquidated landowners. And he sidelined, humiliated and exiled many of his comrades from before 1949. But he did not have them killed off. After he died in 1976, members of the old guard returned to power. They were ousted again later, by Deng after the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989, for sympathizing with the pro-democracy students or resisting Dengs capitalistic reforms. That year Mr. Jiang became general secretary of the C.C.P. He wielded formal power or great influence for nearly two decades, including long after he ceased being party chairman, and planted many loyalists in key positions. His people, mostly commoners, amassed personal wealth as Chinas economy skyrocketed to the dismay and envy of many Red Aristocrats. The Plebeian faction expanded during the first decade of this century, under the leadership of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao: They tapped their power base in the Communist Youth League, a boot camp for commoners wishing to be credentialed for Party membership. But then came Mr. Xi, a high-carat Red Aristocrat whose father was a senior leader during the republics early years. Like a Hamlet kicking out usurpers a popular comparison Mr. Xi promptly went after each of the two Plebeian subgroups. He first aimed his anticorruption campaign exclusively at Plebeians mostly, in the beginning, at Mr. Jiangs people but then later also at stalwarts of the youth league. Then in 2016, he openly humiliated the league, cut its funding and placed it under the C.C.P.s meaning, his own control. On Wednesday, as you likely know by now, The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed by a senior Trump official headlined, I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. It was revealing, though not necessarily in the way the author intended. We already know that many of Trumps closest aides hold him in contempt. Whats fascinating is how this official, who describes the president as amoral, anti-democratic and reckless, rationalizes working for him regardless. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous, the official wrote, adding, 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. This is the quintessence of the Trump-enabling Republican. He or she purports to be standing between us and the calamities that our ignorant and unstable president could unleash, while complaining, in the very same op-ed, that the media doesnt give the White House enough credit. This person wants the administration to thrive because it has advanced Republican policy objectives, even as he or she argues that the administration is so dangerous that it must be contained by unprecedented internal sabotage. Since this dystopian regime began, Ive wondered how Republicans who collaborate with Trump despite knowing he's a disaster live with themselves. Why hasnt a group of White House staffers quit in protest and then held a press conference? Why havent Senators Bob Corker and Ben Sasse, both of whom have said that the anonymous op-ed matches their own understanding of Trump, done more to stand up to him? Why arent former officials like Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn and H.R. McMaster telling us publicly what they saw on the inside? How is it that none of these people have managed to behave as honorably as Omarosa Manigault Newman, who at least put her name to her words, and brought us evidence of what she witnessed? One answer is that they care about the norms of American democracy at least some of them but not quite as much as they care about the agenda of the Republican Party. If Kavanaugh werent confirmed, it would be a profound blow to Trump, and not just because he would look weak and disappoint his evangelical base. Without Kavanaugh, Trump wouldnt be assured of a conservative majority on the Supreme Court if and when it rules on him and his administration. With Kavanaugh, the tie-breaking vote on the Supreme Court will be a right-wing apparatchik chosen in part for his deference to executive power. A vote for Kavanaugh is thus a vote to give Trump a measure of impunity. Republican senators who know the president is out of control have a choice they can maintain a check on his ill-considered autocratic inclinations, or solidify right-wing power on the Supreme Court for a generation. Its obvious which way theyll go. Maybe theyll tell themselves having adults in the room at the White House makes it O.K. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion). The tragedy that engulfed the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night, turning up to 20 million of its holdings into dust, is an urgent reminder of the need for better safekeeping measures at museums around the world. To put what happened in perspective: Its as if the entire collection of the British Museum disappeared, twice over, in the blink of an eye. The fire ignited for unknown reasons. But many Brazilians are blaming their government and some have taken to the streets in protest. After years of declining federal funds, the museum staff had requested urgent maintenance funds from the countrys National Development Bank. In June, the money was disbursed but not in time to install the planned update to the museums fire equipment, which lacked a sprinkler system. Right after the fire erupted, haunting images of panic-stricken museum workers with arms full of museum objects started to circulate on social media and in news outlets. One video showed some of them carrying jars of preserved specimens outside, as firefighters raced back in to save what they could. I have seen firsthand the museums invaluable holdings. In 2014, I visited with two archaeology friends a bio-archaeologist and a paleoanthropologist and we just stood, slack jawed, as we went from room to room. One of the oldest skeletons in South America, nicknamed Luzia, from 11,500 years ago, was in storage; a replica showing a complete reconstruction of her head was on display. An entire room was filled with Egyptian treasures, including the brightly painted coffin containing the mummy of Sha-Amun-In-Su, dating to about 750 B.C. Innumerable priceless objects from diverse indigenous cultures in Brazil and other parts of Latin America could be seen in glass cases. There were frescos from Pompeii in the museums Mediterranean collection. The museum housed an extraordinary library with nearly 500,000 books, 2,400 of which were rare, and a natural history collection including dinosaurs, insects and meteorites, curated from countless expeditions by scientists and explorers. But had we proceeded, I was well aware of the anger we would have faced. The objections are substantive and deserve to be taken seriously. They include: that hes a liar, and you cannot interview a liar who is only playing you; that he is a racist and a Nazi or at least affiliates with racists and Nazis and deserves no place on any stage; that mainstream journalists, especially white ones, do not grok the harm Mr. Bannon does to people of color and are talking to him simply for the ego gratification of maybe being the one to finally break him; and, perhaps most important, that we would have been giving him a space that could have been occupied by those too often ignored by the media. Many made these points in response to my tweet. While some more delicate media figures whine about out-of-control Twitter mobs, I actually think most social media mobs serve an important role these days. They make journalists think hard about their choices and their words. If you write or say something controversial or more likely dumb, you should not be surprised, aggrieved or sanctimonious if a lot of people on social media tell you youre an idiot. As soul-sapping as it can be, we need to suck it up and take it. That doesnt mean we have to back down, as Mr. Remnick did. I still want to interview Mr. Bannon. Coincidentally, just before the New Yorker debacle, I had emailed him asking him to come on my podcast, largely because a lot of what he had previously said about tech was now emerging from the mouth of Mr. Trump. He is clearly aiming at the heart of Silicon Valley and is most definitely influencing Mr. Trump and those in power with the idea that it needs to be brought to heel. Members of Congress have recently called for antitrust investigations against big tech, and the Justice Department has announced that it will look into the bias allegations. This is dangerous stuff, and I cant agree with the people who argue that its worthless to talk to Mr. Bannon because we already know what he thinks. Even in these awful times, questions posed directly to the source are worthwhile, especially because you need to unmask bad actors again and again. I often use as my journalism motto the first lines of a poem by Louise Gluck (which, it's worth noting, was originally published in The New Yorker): I never turned anyone into a pig. / Some people are pigs; I make them / look like pigs. Mr. Bannons squeal has a real-world impact, and we cant make him go away by not looking at him. In that vein, Mr. Morris added one more thing to his explanation about why he went ahead with the Bannon documentary, despite the wrenching compromises he was making: If Ive done anything to help us understand who he is I dont want to go overboard here, but I think its an important service. Its part of what journalism should be doing. What he said. Oink. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. To the Editor: Re Emails Give Rise to New Battling Over Kavanaugh (front page, Sept. 7): The three days of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings regarding the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court have made it abundantly clear that the deck is stacked in favor of approving this nominee. During Thursdays hearing, it was revealed that documents previously labeled confidential had in fact just the night before been cleared as no longer confidential. In addition, thousands of pages of documents were released the night before the hearings. These stunts revealed the thin transparency of the Republican majoritys plan to ram through this nomination without a thorough examination of all the documents. When a seasoned jurist and former White House lawyer like this nominee who has a long record of position papers on vitally important issues, any of which may come before the Supreme Court in the coming years, is nominated to sit on the nations highest court, our citizenry deserves an exhaustive review by the senators. Anything short of that will only confirm the one-sided, totally partisan and unfair handling of these crucial hearings. Alan Safron Woodcliff Lake, N.J. To the Editor: As I watched the Senate hearing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh and observed his hesitant and often misleading answers, the overall picture that emerged for me is that with President Trumps selection of Mr. Kavanaugh, I was witnessing a situation in which a defendant was able to select a member of his own jury. What has Mr. Trump done that warrants this extraordinary sabotage? The official complains about the presidents supposed lack of principles. However, it is clear that his real grievance is that the president does not share his principles, on issues like trade and foreign policy. But even that gives the author too much credit. If he were really concerned about standing up for principle, he would attach his name to the essay instead of hiding behind anonymity. If he really believed that Mr. Trump was such a threat, he would resign instead of working for his government. If he really cared about defending the Constitution, he would work within the Constitutions framework instead of undermining the chief executive. The anonymous officials essay is shocking. He should be exposed and fired. But we cannot be shocked to learn that this is going on. It has been clear for many years that there is a permanent political class in Washington that believes that it has a divine right to rule the American people. You could even call it a Deep State. The members of this political class claim to love democracy, but they are working diligently to insulate the government from democratic decisions. They claim to love the norms that protect constitutional government, but shatter constitutional norms of executive power. They claim to be above party and ideology, but are in fact so blinded by groupthink that they cannot tolerate any challenge to their 1990s-era consensus on trade, immigration and foreign policy. When Britain decided to support Ibn Saud and his Wahhabi troops in the 1930s, Indian Muslims were prepared to welcome the creation of Saudi Arabia. The ground for this welcome had been laid once Istanbul, or for that matter Cairo or Baghdad, was replaced by Mecca and Medina not only at the geographical center of Islam but also as the historical models for an ideal Muslim society. The new geography of Islam was also a Protestant one, with Romes decadence mirrored in Istanbul and forsaken for Genevas austerities as found in Arabias holy cities. At its birth, Saudi Arabia looked very much like Mr. Blunts vision of it, the center of Islam protected by the Royal Navy and placed firmly in the camp of Christian powers. After World War I, the American Navy replaced the British, and oil turned the kingdom into a crucial resource for Western capitalism. But its religious and economic centrality was contradicted by Saudi Arabia's continuing political marginality, with Britain, the United States and even the Pakistani Army responsible for its internal stability and defense from external threats. Today, Saudi Arabia is ostensibly countering Iran, but its claims to dominance are also made possible by the decline of Egypt and the decimation of Iraq and Syria. Turkey remains its only and as yet ambiguous rival apart from Iran. And Prince Mohammeds kingdom is looking more like a secular than a theocratic state in which sovereignty has finally been wrested from clan and cleric to be claimed directly by the monarchy. But Saudi Arabia can assume greater geopolitical power only by putting its religious status at risk, defined as this has been by its marginal role in geopolitics. What will the subordination of religious to secular if despotic authority mean for the geography of Islam? In the aftermath of World War I, when the Ottoman defeat placed Islams sacred cities under indirect European control, Muslim thinkers debated the idea of neutralizing Mecca and Medina politically on the model of the Vatican or internationalizing them in the name of the worlds Muslims. Iran still refers to the latter option when trying to prise the holy cities from the grasp of the Saudis. The growing immediacy of the problem of slavery made matters worse. Congressional brawling increasingly pitted North against South, fracturing national parties across sectional lines and rendering routine congressional violence far less tractable. Westward expansion set off a desperate debate over the slavery status of new states, and Southern congressmen defended their slave regime by attempting to silence antislavery advocates with threats and violence. Take, for example, Representative John Dawson, a Democrat from Louisiana. Dawson routinely wore both a Bowie knife and a pistol, and he wasnt shy about using them in the House, particularly when someone dared to attack slavery. In 1842, when Thomas Arnold, a Whig from Tennessee, defended John Quincy Adamss right to discuss antislavery petitions, Dawson strutted over to Arnold with his knife plainly visible and threatened to cut his throat from ear to ear. Dawson went even further three years later in what may well be the all-time greatest display of firepower on the floor. When the Ohio abolitionist Joshua Giddings gave an antislavery speech, Dawson, clearly agitated, positioned himself in front of Giddings, vowing to kill him, and cocking his pistol. Four armed Southern Democrats immediately joined him, which prompted four Whigs to position themselves around Giddings, several of them armed as well. After a few minutes, the pistoleers sat down. But the potential for bloodshed was very real. The 1854 debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act made matters worse. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had drawn a virtual line across the country separating the free North from the slaveholding South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act seemingly undid that compromise, enabling future states to decide slaverys fate on their own through popular sovereignty. Not surprisingly, debate over the act raised the passions of the slavery debate and congressional violence to new heights. The press amplified the crisis. In their efforts to rouse public sentiment for or against the act, newspapers promoted conspiracy theories about sectional plots to seize control of the Union. Antislavery papers argued that an organized Slave Power was trying to spread slavery throughout the Union by stifling Northern opposition. Pro-slavery papers insisted that Northern aggressors were trying to isolate and destroy the slaveholding South. New technologies like the telegraph broadcast these accusations with ever-increasing speed and reach throughout the nation, and did just what editors and reporters hoped they would do: outrage the public and encourage them to fight for their rights and demand the same of their congressmen. The Republican Party was born of this furor. The arrival of a Northern antislavery party in Congress caused violence to spike. Dedicated to fighting the Slave Power, Republican congressmen did their duty, confronting Southerners as never before, and Southerners replied in kind. Sumners caning was of a piece with this wave of violence. Slavery supporters saw his raging antislavery rhetoric as proof of Northern attempts to degrade and subjugate the South. Antislavery advocates, in turn, saw Brooks, Sumners attacker, as part of a Slave Power plot to dominate the North. Joined with some recent assaults on Northern congressmen and the rising intensity of antislavery efforts, for Northerners and Southerners alike, the caning seemed to prove the existence of a sectional conspiracy to seize national control. To be prepared for basic repair tasks, homeowners should arm themselves with a few essential tools. Peter Grech, an instructor at New York City College of Technology, City University of New York, who has worked as a superintendent for various residential buildings, suggested investing in the following items. (For many of the tools, we have linked to recommendations from Wirecutter, the New York Times company that reviews products.) For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate. You may never make it to the South Pole, but you can now see Antarctica and its glaciers in unprecedented detail. Researchers this week announced the release of a new high resolution terrain map of the southernmost continent, called the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica, or REMA, which they say makes Antarctica the best mapped continent on Earth. Antarctica is the most desolate and inhospitable place on Earth and its remoteness makes monitoring changes in the fluctuations of ice and water levels difficult. Because of the warming climate, seasonal changes at Antarctica are becoming more severe, making the need to understand the loss of ice even more important. Ian Howat, the projects principal investigator and a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, and Paul Morin, of the University of Minnesota, used data from a constellation of polar orbiting satellites to image the frozen wastes. The satellite data was licensed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense. They had faces then, says Norma Desmond, the silent-film star burning out in Sunset Boulevard, a tragic lament for a more gorgeous time gone by. They had faces then, we could say just as well of a more recent era, that rich era in the 1970s and 80s when Interview magazine ruled the newsstand, its oversize, Technicolor covers a parade of stars. Diana Ross. Mick Jagger. Debbie Harry. Cher. They had faces then or did they just have Richard Bernstein? For 16 years, between 1972 and 1988, when we saw Interview, Richard Bernstein was the first thing we saw. Whoever appeared on its cover, beneath the lipstick-scrawl banner, there they were as Mr. Bernstein made them: pop gods with airbrushed aura. Many people assumed the covers were by Andy Warhol, whose name appeared along the top. (Andy Warhols Interview was rechristened Interview in 1977.) But they were the work of Mr. Bernstein, a Bronx-born painter who turned every portrait sitting with a star or socialite into Interview gold. The House That Matches Built While the British fashion retailer Matches has for years been primarily an online store it first opened as a boutique in London in 1987 but officially rebranded as MatchesFashion.com in 2013 it has never underestimated the importance of the personal touch. Every order, extravagant or restrained, arrives in a sturdy box made from irresistibly colorful marbled cardboard pretty enough to keep on display in an apartment (as many customers do). Its no surprise, then, that Matchess newest London storefront, named for its address at 5 Carlos Place, feels more like a lovingly arranged home than a boutique. Occupying all five stories of a red brick Queen Anne townhouse in Mayfair, the store is a sanctuary of understated luxury, offering womens and mens clothing as well as the brands recently launched assortment of home wares. Matches worked with the architecture and design firm P Joseph, run by the twin brothers Peter and Philip Joseph, to renovate the space, which includes an outdoor courtyard and a broadcasting area where events and live podcasts will take place. In the attic, a kitchen will be the site of culinary events with visiting chefs; guests will eat at a large pale-wood Gerrit Rietveld dining table ringed with traditional elm-and-beech Ercol chairs. Other classics of British midcentury design are scattered about the house, too: a sinuous Gerald Summers plywood chair, a boxy Sonance sofa, originally designed for Cecil Beaton. The latter is finished with a bespoke slipcover woven by the London-based mill Rare Thread and patterned, of course, in a custom marble print. 5 Carlos Place, London, matchesfashion.com ALICE NEWELL-HANSON Each week, technology reporters and columnists from The New York Times review the weeks news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Hi, Im Adam Satariano, a tech correspondent based in London, and I dont know who wrote the Op-Ed. One moment during Jack Dorseys testimony in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday perfectly summed up the upside-down world were living in. The alt-right provocateur Laura Loomer began yelling from the back of the hearing room while holding a floral-cased smartphone and pink selfie stick, to film and broadcast her outrage. Representative Billy Long, Republican of Missouri, broke into an auctioneers patter he was once an auctioneer to drown her out until security arrived. It felt like the pathetic moment we deserve: A hearing, called ostensibly to explore the power of social media, being interrupted by one of social medias worst creations, filming herself to presumably post on social media. The C-SPAN video went viral, of course, and in it theres a woman sitting a few rows in front of Ms. Loomer, staring forward somberly, painfully enduring whats happening. Im with her. Ms. Loomer wasnt alone in making a spectacle. Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist behind Infowars, tussled with a senator. Lock your doors, bolt your windows and gather your children close. It wont do any good. The message being sent by some of the most promising plays opening in New York this season is that the walls of the traditional homestead have never been more permeable. For much of the 20th century, a majority of domestic dramas seemed to take place within the equivalents of sealed rooms, no-exit environments in which clans fought, fell apart and reconstituted themselves in what felt like a cyclical eternity. Think of Eugene ONeills Long Days Journey Into Night or Tennessee Williamss The Glass Menagerie, or even Sam Shepards Buried Child. True, these plays often reflected, in concentrated form, political and economic tensions in the contemporary world beyond. But the field of battle was usually confined to one set of living quarters and propelled by psychological warfare among people who knew one another better than anyone else possibly could. More recently, though, the domestic dramas dominant lens has widened to accommodate a much longer view, a perspective on abundant display this fall. The families portrayed in many of this seasons works often seem swept away on a heaving tide of current events, groping for anchors in a universe that no longer feels safe or familiar. The health troubles of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The long shadow of how Woodrow Wilsons wife assumed a role in the presidency after he became ill. The assassination of John F. Kennedy. These crises served as a backdrop more than 50 years ago for Congress to settle what should happen if a president is left unable to govern. The matter turned up again on Wednesday, when The New York Times published an Op-Ed by an unidentified Trump administration official who wrote that there had been early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment because of the instability many witnessed. The amendment, ratified in 1967, clarified the succession to the presidency and offered a mechanism for an acting president if the vice president and a majority of the cabinet deemed a president unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. The provisions concerning an involuntarily declared incapacity have never been used. [Read: Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, reportedly discussed the 25th Amendment.] In interviews this week, three men who were involved in the design or enforcement of the 25th Amendment especially Section 4, which deals with incapacity reflected on its history and the discussions about whether it should be invoked now. Abortion opponents, who believe that the procedure destroys human life, argue that Roe is simply bad law. The Supreme Court stepped over the line in the ruling, they say, finding a constitutional right where there wasnt one and sweeping away established laws in dozens of states. Abortion should be decided in state legislatures, said Steven Aden, general counsel of Americans United for Life. It would probably remain mostly legal in a third of the states, mostly illegal in another third, and be the subject of a furious fight in the rest, he said. Thats the fight we think America should have, Mr. Aden said. At least six states are down to one clinic North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Kentucky, Mississippi and West Virginia. At times, Arkansas and Missouri had been a seventh and eighth. The fight in Arkansas centers on medication abortions, which currently account for nearly a third of all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Medication abortions enable women up to 10 weeks pregnant to take two pills, the first supervised by a doctor and the second at home, to terminate a pregnancy without surgery. It was approved for use in 2000. When the medication abortion law went into effect in Arkansas, it left only one clinic for a state of three million. That meant women from northwest Arkansas, where Dr. Ho practices, had to either go out of state or make a 380-mile round trip to Little Rock for a surgical abortion. Now the number of clinics is back up to three. But many other barriers remain: a ban on abortions after 20 weeks; a 48-hour waiting period, which requires women to make two or three trips to the clinic; parental consent for minors; doctors unable to dispense medication abortion pills remotely by video. If youre a woman in Arkansas, and youre almost 200 miles away from a clinic, have a 48-hour waiting period, and a job that doesnt give you sick leave or flexible hours, then your access to abortion has already been banned, said Helene Krasnoff, head of litigation at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. A regional branch of the organization, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, runs the clinic in Fayetteville, which provides medication abortion only. We all know a teenager who is nearly impossible to get out of bed in the morning. And research provides some relatively simple answers why: Sleep cycles make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 p.m. and that does not leave them enough time to get a full nights rest before school starts the next morning. That is why, for decades, some doctors, educators and even politicians have been pushing for middle school and high school to start later. If class were to commence as late as 8:30 a.m., they have argued, student attendance, grades and graduation rates would improve. Now, if Gov. Jerry Brown of California signs the bill that is on his desk, we will get a clearer sense whether they are right. Its the biological equivalent of waking you or me up at 3:30 a.m., Anthony J. Portantino, a state senator and Democrat who wrote the bill, said of forcing teenagers to get out of bed so early. Imagine how you would feel if, 187 days a year, you had to get up at 3:30 a.m. Youd be miserable, youd be depressed youd act like a teenager. SAN FRANCISCO As a firestorm descended on the Northern California city of Santa Rosa in October, staff members at two nursing homes abandoned their residents, many of them unable to walk and suffering from memory problems, according to a legal complaint filed by the California Department of Social Services. The state agency is now seeking to close the facilities and strip the managers of their licenses. While none of the residents died or were injured in the fire, the Department of Social Services accused the staff of being unprepared and leaving before everyone was taken to safety. In one nursing home, Villa Capri, the complaint described staff members who had never participated in a fire drill, did not know the evacuation plan, could not find flashlights or batteries when the power went out and did not know where to find the keys to a bus that could have helped in the evacuation. One staff member searched in vain for the keys for an hour, the legal complaint said. The last staff members left the facility sometime after 3 a.m. leaving family members and emergency medical workers to take charge of evacuating the remaining 20 residents. CHICAGO He was part of a group trying to stop the gun violence that has plagued this city. But this week, Delmonte Johnson was killed by it. Mr. Johnson, 19, who was fatally shot along a South Side street on Wednesday evening, was part of a group called GoodKids MadCity, which emerged in Chicago following the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla. The group has focused on curbing gun violence by pushing to create more jobs for young people and improving mental health treatment. Mr. Johnson was often among the first to show up for events and meetings, organizers said. Im not surprised that something like this has taken place, because unfortunately, hes one of many people that this has happened to here, said Carlil Pittman, 25, a leader in GoodKids MadCity. But to think that a young person who was out there trying to fight this issue was taken down by this issue is really heartbreaking. ATLANTA In a further sign of the sprawling nature of the Justice Departments effort to collect voting records in North Carolina, prosecutors demanded eight years of information from the states Division of Motor Vehicles, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by The New York Times. The newly disclosed order, along with subpoenas sent to the states elections board and counties, appears linked to a federal inquiry into illegal voting by noncitizens. Under federal law, residents seeking to obtain or renew a drivers license must be offered a chance to register to vote. The demand from the government seeks voter-registration forms submitted to the North Carolina D.M.V. by an array of applicants since 2010. The applicants include those who are foreign-born, said they were not citizens, did not produce a drivers license as proof of identification, or displayed nonimmigrant visas or other documents that reflect the applicant was not a United States citizen. The order also asks for applications completed in a language other than English, and for applications that had been revoked, denied, deemed fraudulent, incorrectly filed or found to have other irregularities. Youll never For talk show host Alex Jones, the revolution starts not with a bang, or a whimper, but with Tangy Tangerine. You know, many revolutionaries rob banks and things, and kidnap people for funds. We promote in the free market the products we use that are about preparedness. Thats how we fund this revolution against the new world order. Like a burly carnival barker, he once boasted that Tangy Tangerine weight loss supplements allowed him to shed 37 pounds in just two months. Its just one of the products Jones has hawked in the past to fund his media empire, Infowars, and to bankroll his, at times, lavish lifestyle. Today, he sells a number of items, ranging from freeze dryers to so-called testosterone boosters for men in need of a little something extra to fight the globalist agenda. And dont forget the fish oil. You ever seen fish oil look like that no, youve never seen that, have you? Just like our information is dynamite, so are our products, infowarsstore.com. In 2014, Joness business had revenues of more than $20 million. Whats made Jones a millionaire is his ability to merge his bizarre claims with his merchandise. The apocalypse requires products that the Infowars store can readily supply. His customers buy in, and then they buy. The globalists, obviously, are hitting us through our water. Its time to take control of our lives. Its time to not give our children and families these poisons. Jones touts the coming Armageddon. Conveniently, he also sells body armor and components for homemade guns. Youve pissed in the face of the globalists that dont want us to be able to defend ourselves. Youve supported the infowar. You basically have made America great again, so thank you all for your support. Limited editions available right now. Jones, and others who help peddle his products, like chiropractor Edward Group, accuse the government of putting fluoride in drinking water, knowing it was a deadly poison. Dumbing the population down, youre easily controllable, and they can also Theyre cutting us off from higher consciousness. And thus, Jones will sell you fluoride-free toothpaste laced with counteractive iodine. If the struggle against the deep state is getting you down I cant handle it anymore. theres Super Male Vitality for aging men. With Dr. Groups help, we have developed the ultimate male vitality supplement. This is the answer to the globalist war on male vitality with the estrogen mimickers theyve added to the food and the water supply. Oh, my God! But all that prowess comes at a cost. Shut this down! This is not safe! Documents show Jones has sold at a 20 percent markup. Where he bought it for around $15, he sells it for around $70. (On sale now.) The millions of dollars his fans have spent on his products have made Jones a wealthy man. But his vitriolic rhetoric have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides. and crackpot theories, like that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, have gotten him kicked off of Facebook and YouTube and resulted in various lawsuits. Most recently, Twitter has permanently banned Jones and Infowars for violating their abusive behavior policy. Despite these setbacks, Jones continues to seethe against the machine, presumably not without the help of his survival shield formula. what was said They're going to hurt your Social Security so badly, and they're killing you on Medicare. Just remember that. I'm going to protect your Social Security. We're going to take care of your Social Security. Were going to take care of your Social Security. Matt Rosendale is going to make sure were not touching your Social Security and your Medicare is only going one way. Thats stronger. Theyre going to end up taking it away from you, and you wont even know what happened. President Trump, at a campaign rally on Thursday in Montana for Mr. Rosendale, the Republican state auditor who is running for Senate. The Democrats will destroy Social Security. Were saving Medicare. The Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what theyre doing, theyre going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it. We will keep it going. Were making it stronger. Were making Social Security stronger. Mr. Trump, in remarks on Wednesday with the emir of Kuwait The facts False. The president is wrong on both claims: that Democrats plan to deplete Medicare and Social Security and that the two society safety nets are stronger under his administration. First, not only has Mr. Trump failed to strengthen Medicare and Social Security, the financial outlook for both trusts has largely worsened. Thats at least partly the result of Mr. Trumps tax law that is collecting fewer taxes from Americans and, in turn, investing less money into each program. In June, the government projected that Medicare funds would be depleted by 2026, three years earlier than estimated in 2017. The report noted that less money will flow into the fund because of low wages and lower taxes. Florida officials must provide Spanish-language election materials in 32 counties with Puerto Rican populations, a federal judge ruled on Friday, granting part of what a Puerto Rican voter and several Latino advocacy groups had requested. But the judge concluded that there would not be enough time before the November elections to make other changes the plaintiffs had sought. In a harshly worded, at times sarcastic, order, Judge Mark E. Walker of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida granted an injunction requiring Secretary of State Kenneth W. Detzner to instruct county election supervisors to provide Spanish-language sample ballots for the coming midterm elections, both online and at polling places. The order also called for Spanish-language signs at polling places to notify voters that the sample ballots are available. But Judge Walker declined to require the counties to provide official Spanish-language ballots, accepting Florida officials argument that it would be impossible, or close to impossible, to do so in the two months remaining before the election. But he wrote that the plaintiffs had shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits in their lawsuit, which seeks to require such ballots in the future. In the meantime, the sample ballots must match the official ballots in size, information, layout, placement and fonts, so that Spanish-speaking voters can use them on Election Day as a guide to filling out the official English-language ballot, the ruling said. PAPADOPOULOS: My biggest regret, actually, is not telling the U.S. intelligence community what [Joseph] Mifsud told me actually the minute after I left that meeting in London with him. The stupidest thing I did was actually gossiping about it with foreign diplomats. Allegedly, the Australian and for sure with the Greek. And not telling the U.S. intelligence community until I was interviewed. MAZZETTI: Because that was a you now say that is something that you should have notified the F.B.I. or somebody about? PAPADOPOULOS: It is. It is. Definitely. Looking back we all make mistakes in life, you know and thats I really hope for it to redeem myself in the eyes of my fellow countrymen, here in the United States. But I do really regret not telling the F.B.I. immediately after that because I probably would have saved a lot of problems for the world, at this point, considering I was perhaps the light that created this conflagration. On joining the Trump campaign. MAZZETTI: Were you surprised when you got a call to interview for the Trump campaign? PAPADOPOULOS: I wasnt really surprised because Id let them know very early on that I was interested in joining them. Like I said, I think it was June 2015 and I had just I was still working at the Hudson Institute at the time. I left Hudson in September of 2015. I think my work in the Middle East, and in the eastern Mediterranean publications Ive written in and conferences, Ive spoken out, really spoke volumes, about my particular expertise in that part of the world. So I wasnt really shocked, but of course I was honored. MAZZETTI: The memo that your lawyers have put together says that you were told pretty early on in the campaign that one of the goals of the campaign was to foster better relations with Russia. Why were you told that was a goal? PAPADOPOULOS: I mean, I think Mr. Trump throughout the campaign season was very vocal about his desire to have, at least, a working relationship with President Putin should he eventually become president of the United States. It wasnt a secret. Especially by the time I joined the campaign in March of 2016. So I wasnt shocked at all when my supervisor, during my interview with him over Skype, told me that this is part of what this campaign is about. [Read excerpts from the Timess interview with George Papadopoulos.] I wanted to distance myself as much as possible and Trump himself and the campaign from what was probably an illegal action or dangerous information, he said. He told the judge that he was blinded by personal ambition and the thrill of being part of Mr. Trumps electoral victory. Just before his F.B.I. interview, he had attended an inauguration event; just after, he promoted his campaign work as a reason he should be hired by the Energy Department. I was surrounded by important people, he told the judge. I was young and ambitious and excited. At the time of the F.B.I. interview, he told The Times, he was concerned about where the escalating investigation might lead. He made no suggestion that anyone on the campaign or in the administration had directed him to lie. The sentencing hearing, which lasted more than 90 minutes in a packed courtroom, veered in unexpected directions. Mr. Papadopouloss defense lawyer, Thomas M. Breen, tried to shift some of the blame for his clients lies to President Trump. He suggested that Mr. Papadopoulos took his cues from Mr. Trump, who has tried to discredit the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russias interference in the election and whether any Trump associates conspired. The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could, Mr. Breen said. The message for all of us is to check our loyalty, to tell the truth, to help the good guys. That Mr. Obama has stepped in to confront Mr. Trump underscores the vacuum of leadership and coherent message at the top of the Democratic Party, whose titular chiefs are in their 70s and whose next-generation figures have yet to establish themselves as commanding or unifying presences. And his return may play into the hands of Mr. Trump by giving him the public foil he wants. I understand the idea that Democrats want to get the former president on the campaign trail as much as possible, said Jim Manley, a longtime Senate Democratic aide, but Im not so sure that makes sense strategically because Trump would love nothing more than to use Obama as a punching bag. And neither would Trump allies like Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. The more President @BarackObama speaks about the good ole years of his presidency, the more likely President @realDonaldTrump is to get re-elected, Mr. Graham wrote on Twitter. In fact, the best explanation of President Trumps victory are the results of the Obama Presidency! But Mo Elleithee, a longtime Democratic strategist who is now executive director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, said Mr. Obama seemed to be providing a message for Democrats to retake the mantle of populism by arguing that Mr. Trumps version has actually elevated the interests of the wealthy and powerful. He filled a leadership vacuum for the opposition party, Mr. Elleithee said after the speech, but what I thought was more interesting is he started to draw a road map for Democrats who are looking for a different way of engaging this populist era and bring us back to a more hopeful approach. Still, like other presidents, Mr. Obama does not have a good record helping his party in midterm elections, even when he was in office. Democrats lost the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. After his speech, Mr. Obama dropped by a cafe with J. B. Pritzker, the Democratic candidate for governor, and his running mate, Juliana Stratton, and worked the room. Its all about turnout, he told customers after ordering hot tea and tiramisu. While he extolled a free press in his speech, he took no questions from reporters. WASHINGTON On one end of Pennsylvania Avenue this week, President Trump and his closest advisers labored to beat back perceptions, fueled by an anonymous essay in The New York Times and a bruising new book by Bob Woodward, that he had all but lost control of the presidency from within. He lashed out anew at his attorney general, shouted TREASON and demanded investigations of his detractors. But as he raged, Republicans in the Senate were pressing steadily through angry liberal protests and Democratic perjury traps toward perhaps the most lasting impact of the Trump era: a conservative shift in the balance of the Supreme Court capable of shaping the country for a generation. The dueling images of a president on the edge and a conservative Congress soldiering forward explain succinctly why almost all elected Republicans here have quietly supported Mr. Trump through his travails or at least not chastised him too loudly. The payoffs for what Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, called the partys Faustian bargain have been rich and long awaited: deep cuts in corporate and personal tax rates, confirmation of a wave of conservative judges for the lower courts, and soon an ideological shift in the highest court of the land. Process and personality is what we are talking about how they do things, how dysfunctional it is and how off the rails he can be, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, conceding that Mr. Trump was a handful. But, he said, what I am talking about is results. SAO PAULO The front-runner in Brazils presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro, was in a serious but stable condition on Friday, recovering from near-fatal stabbing amid predictions that the attack will lift his standing and ratchet up tensions in the most uncertain vote in years. Im well and getting better, he posted on Twitter Friday, one day after he was attacked with a knife during a campaign event in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. Video of the attack was shared on social media. After emergency surgery to repair perforations to his intestines and an abdominal vein at a local hospital, he was transferred on Friday to Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo. Mr. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is a deeply polarizing figure, at once the most popular and most reviled candidate in a presidential race that remains splintered just weeks before the Oct. 7 vote. NEW DELHI Even as gay activists in India celebrated on Friday, a day after a landmark Supreme Court ruling ended the countrys ban on gay sex, they were preparing for resistance to the decision. Among the pressing questions left unresolved by the ruling: Will the authorities drop the countless criminal cases that had been filed under the Victorian-era law that had made consensual gay sex a crime? What will happen if a gay couple shows up at a registrars office and asks to be married? Will gay people be able to pursue cases of harassment based on sexual orientation? At the forefront of many peoples minds was how to translate the courts lofty language History owes an apology to gay people, one justice said into practical gains. India is still a deeply conservative, incredibly diverse nation of 1.3 billion that often feels more like a continent than a country. Keshav Suri, 33, a Delhi-based hotelier and one of the more than two dozen petitioners in the case, was feeling rather optimistic on Friday. He said he hoped the ruling would be used to address hate speech against gay people. Personally, he said, he was planning to seek legal recognition of his recent marriage to a Frenchman. President Ghani recently appointed Hamdullah Mohib, a computer expert who had been Afghanistans ambassador in Washington but has little security experience, to be his new national security adviser, a cabinet position. Mr. Mattiss visit was his first to Afghanistan since March. He has been instrumental in persuading President Trump to resist calls by Republican Party populists to pull out of Afghanistan and instead give commanders the latitude to increase their troop levels here, which they have done on a modest scale. There are now 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan, about 4,000 more than last year. During the peak of the American involvement during the Obama administration, there were 140,000 coalition troops there. The defense secretary, in his remarks Wednesday, said the insurgents recent attacks were not militarily significant other than the tragedy of killing innocent women and children. He said there was increasing interest in reconciliation. The State Department has put additional staff into the embassy with that sole effort. Youre seeing this now pick up traction, Mr. Mattis said. The insurgents last month overran the strategic city of Ghazni for six days, killing hundreds of Afghan soldiers and policemen in attacks throughout the country. While the Taliban insurgents have said they will no longer deliberately target civilians, Islamic State extremists in the country have continued to do so. They have carried out series of deadly attacks in Kabul, most recently on Wednesday when a double bombing killed 25 people, including two journalists. MANILA President Rodrigo Duterte has backed down from his order to arrest a senator who is a leading critic of his war on drugs, his spokesman said Friday, just as the lawmaker was poised to be arrested in his Senate office. Mr. Duterte, who was traveling in Jordan, made the decision after meeting with cabinet officials, who advised him to wait for the courts to decide the fate of Senator Antonio Trillanes, the spokesman said. The senator had been holding out at his office since Tuesday, when it was announced that the president had revoked an amnesty he received years ago for his involvement in two military rebellions. He will allow the judicial process to proceed and he will wait for the issuance of appropriate warrant of arrest before Senator Trillanes is arrested, Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, said in a news conference in Jordan. Mr. Duterte, he said, will abide by the rule of law. The decision put a halt at least temporarily to a brewing drama that saw the military and police officers gather for the imminent arrest of Mr. Trillanes in his Senate office, despite protests from opposition lawmakers who said it would be an abuse of presidential power. For example, he said, he blamed a dismissive approach to negotiations with President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines for Americas loss of access to important naval and air bases there in the early 1990s. She was a woman and she was brown, Mr. Osius said of Ms. Aquino. And we were smart and arrogant and didnt listen. Years later, Mr. Osius was part of a group of diplomats who quietly pleaded with the George W. Bush administration to engage North Korea through the so-called six-party talks. As the administrations North Korea policy hardened, he said, two of his colleagues resigned in frustration. This is the dilemma that every professional diplomat faces: What ethical lines wont you cross? he said. But in that case, I decided not to quit but to ride it out and see if I could continue to do some good. Mr. Osius has spent decades building diplomatic relationships in Vietnam, a one-party state, where he first served as a political officer in the late 1990s. One of his early tasks there was helping to open the United States Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly called Saigon. The idea that he would become an ambassador in Vietnam or anywhere else was once inconceivable to him, Mr. Osius said, largely because the State Departments conservative culture made such senior postings effectively off-limits to openly gay American diplomats like himself. But by 2014, when then-Secretary of State John Kerry recommended him to President Obama as the next ambassador to Vietnam, the agencys politics had changed. MILAN, Italy If there is one thing Italy would not seem to need, especially from Americans, it is another place to buy a cup of coffee. But hundreds of people in Milan thought otherwise on Friday, lining up for at least an hour to take part in the latest place-to-be event in Italys fashion and design capital: the countrys first Starbucks cafe. No ordinary Starbucks, this is a Reserve Roastery the companys third, after locations in Seattle and Shanghai complete with an in-house coffee roastery, a 30-foot-long Tuscan marble bar, various coffee stations (customers are given a physical map to the shop) and over 115 different beverages. It lies in the heart of the city, a short walk from the Milan Cathedral and the Royal Palace in one direction, and the Sforza Castle in the other. With its splashy entree into Milanese society, Starbucks tailored its offerings to Italian tastes, which may need time to get used to some of the companys American fare, like a venti pumpkin spice latte with maple pecan sauce. For now, there is novelty aplenty, but no frappuccino. To that end, certain delicate topics were taboo, but no longer, he said. Now the political debate is quite heated, people are rude to one another, not seeking consensus or trying to understand their opponent. By opening the borders so completely, he said, we misunderstood the practical implications, that it wasnt sustainable in the long term or even moral, because we ended up essentially closing our borders, which is worse. Near the Flen library, Alma al-Aallaf was walking with her younger cousin, both wearing headscarves. Three years ago, she came here as a refugee from Damascus, Syria, to join her aunts and pave the way for her parents and three siblings. Now 18, she will vote for the first time and is taking her responsibility seriously, especially with the Sweden Democrats on the rise. She feels visible but not unsafe, she said. Sometimes I feel that some people dont like me here, she said. But I dont think they will do anything. Im worried, of course, because the Sweden Democrats are getting bigger and bigger, she said in the English she learned from her mother, who was a teacher in Damascus. Sweden is a good country, but they could ruin it, she continued. They are damaging the things that are good in Sweden. OSLO In a remote Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle, a cybersecurity expert with ties to WikiLeaks checked out of a hotel, dressed in khaki hiking gear and carrying heavy baggage. That was on Aug. 20. No one has reported seeing him since. The disappearance of Arjen Kamphuis, 46, has so far flummoxed a widening police investigation that has chased stray clues and false leads in Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Norwegian police have released statements saying that they have no idea whether he was a victim of foul play, but that they are open to all possibilities. The uncertainty, and Mr. Kamphuiss links to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization that has run afoul of governments and other powerful interests, has the internet buzzing with conspiracy theories. Some suggest a kidnapping or worse involving Russia, the C.I.A., MI6, Islamists or the Clintons, while others ask if he intended to disappear, possibly on some secret assignment for WikiLeaks. Other spurs to speculation include that Bodo, the town where he was last seen, is home to Norways main military air base, that the armed forces joint operations center is nearby, and that part of the countrys cyberdefense center is hidden in a mountain outside town. Investigators have ruled out any connection between the military presence and his disappearance. CHEMNITZ, Germany The day after far-right demonstrators took over the streets here, Soren Uhle, a city official who oversees municipal marketing and development, began to get strange phone calls from reporters. The man whose killing had set off the riots, they said, had died while trying to stop asylum seekers from molesting a local woman. And it wasnt just one local man who had been killed, but two. Could he comment? These sorts of accusations suddenly seemed to be everywhere. But none were true. They had come, Mr. Uhle and others suspected, from social media particularly YouTube. Ray Serrato, a Berlin-based digital researcher, noticed the tide of misinformation when his wifes uncle showed him a YouTube video that claimed the rioters had been Muslim refugees. Mainly Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province & Ringing Trips to Bahrain BAGHDAD Angry protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra on Friday, setting a fire inside as part of continuing demonstrations that have turned deadly in the past few days, a security official and eyewitnesses said. At least 10 protesters have died in clashes with security forces since Monday, including three who were shot dead on Thursday night as protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails and set fire to a government building and the offices of Shiite militias in the city. Residents of Basra and other cities in Iraqs oil-rich southern Shiite heartland have been protesting since July over endemic corruption, soaring joblessness and poor public services. Clashes erupted earlier this week, leaving several civilians and police officers dead. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into the violence. The violence prompted the temporary leader of Iraqs parliament to call an emergency meeting on Saturday. BEIRUT, Lebanon At a summit meeting in Tehran on Friday, the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed that there could be no military solution to the war in Syria, but Russia rejected Turkeys call for a cease-fire while Iran called for a military push to crush the Syrian rebels and drive out American forces. At the same time, at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, Western powers warned of unspecified consequences if Syria and its allies launched an offensive that has raised fears of a humanitarian disaster, but they cannot act without the assent of Russia, which backs the Syrian government. Both meetings, while seemingly fruitless, starkly illustrated the extent to which Syrias fate now lies in the hands of foreign powers and offered little hope that those powers could resolve the crisis diplomatically. Speaking at the Security Council, Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations envoy for Syria, said the military offensive was incompatible with diplomatic efforts. Rocket Lawyer follows a simple tenet of these sites: Offer free or low-priced services. For a subscription fee of $40 a month, users can work through an array of personal and business legal documents on their own. If questions arise, a lawyer can provide answers online. Actual time talking with a lawyer who can advise them based on their location and type of question is billed at an hourly rate, and members receive a 40 percent discount. We want people to take advantage of an attorney when they have more complex needs, Mr. Moore said. There are times you can treat yourself for a simple cold with over-the-counter medication. There are other times when you have appendicitis and you should go see a doctor. Another competitor, LegalZoom, bundles conversations with a lawyer into annual packages. Its estate-plan bundle, which includes a will, a trust, a power of attorney and a heath care proxy, costs between $149 and $349, but includes a year of access to a lawyer without an additional charge. Chas Rampenthal, general counsel at LegalZoom, said most people would never need to consult an expensive lawyer. The $1,200-an-hour person is solving complex multijurisdictional tax plans, he said. You can find a competent estate planning attorney who will charge $200 to $250 an hour. Beth Wolfer, 55, a single mother of three in Salt Lake City, said she needed a will that cost less than that. After testing out various online sites, she settled on FreeWill because as a fund-raiser for Best Friends Animal Society she wanted to offer it to donors as a way to raise money. Ms. Wolfer said she finished her will in less than an hour, and then had it signed by three witnesses and notarized. Instead of putting it in the vault of a law firm, she handed copies to her daughters and the charities that would receive money upon her death. Rasmus Weng KarlsenLukas Graham, the frontman of the Danish band of the same name, is experiencing a love hes never felt before with his baby daughter Viola and his fiancee. So its no wonder he wanted the bands new music to reflect that. The bands new single, Love Someone, is out today with a touching music video that showcases all different types of love, including Lukas new role as a family man. In a note on his website, he writes, "This time, we tried to capture something universal, rather than only something personal." "If you love someone, and you're not afraid to lose 'em, you probably never loved someone like I do, he sings on the sweet track. The "7 Years" hitmakers have also announced their new album, 3 (The Purple Album), will be out on October 26. The album is available now for pre-order. Fans who pre-order through LukasGraham.com will get early access to tickets for upcoming U.S. tour dates. In a statement, Lukas says, "Its a more mature record, definitely, but it has more life in it. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The principal of a kindergarten in Shenzen, China, was recently axed after videos of children as young as three being welcomed back by scantly-dressed pole dancers went viral online. The first Monday in September marks the start of a new school year in China, and many learning institutions host special celebrations to mark the event. The Xinshahui kindergarten in Shenzhen was no different, but the parents of the roughly 500 children aged three to six enrolled there did not expect the ceremony to include pole dancers winding and spinning provocatively on a metal pole with a Chinese flag flying on top. Photo: video screengrab About 100 parents were in attendance at the awkward ceremony, many of whom declared themselves outraged by the pole dancers performance. The principal of the kindergarten, Lai Rong, had a very simple explanation for her choice: some of the parents had expressed a desire for their kids to learn a new type of dance and she had selected the pole dancers because of their excellent skills. That makes total sense Apparently, this isnt Principal Rongs first questionable decision, at least according to journalist Michael Standaert, whose child is enrolled at Xinshahui kindergarten: So before our kids got out of kindergarten for the summer, there was 10 days of military activities and displays of machine guns and mortars at the door; now the principal has welcomed them back with a strip pole dance on the flagpole bearing the PRC flag. Shes gone nuts. pic.twitter.com/BJr4UI6Oq3 Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) September 3, 2018 Before our kids got out of kindergarten for the summer, there was 10 days of military activities and displays of machine guns and mortars at the door; now the principal has welcomed them back with a strip pole dance, Standaert wrote in a tweet, adding Shes gone nuts. The local education bureau launched an investigation into the bizarre ceremony and found that a pole dancing groups had been invited to perform at the kindergarten. In an official statement, the bureau said that performing pole dancing for kindergarten children is not appropriate. Many of the children were obviously uncomfortable watching a scantly-dressed pole dancer perform in their kindergarten courtyard, and the controversy around the event lead to the firing of Principal Rong. The Museum of Public Relations is teaming up with the Hispanic PR Association to present the second annual Celebration of Latino PR History on Sept. 10. The keynote speaker for the event will be Aflac chief brand and communications officer Catherine Blades. There will also be a panel discussion with several leaders from the Puerto Rican PR industry, moderated by Univision chief communications officer Rosemary Mercedes. A networking reception (with complimentary sangria and empanadas) will follow the program. The event, which starts at 6 p.m., will be held at Baruch College (Newman Library Building, 7th floor, room 750) in New York City. General admission for the event is $50, with student admissions available for $5. For more information about attending the event, or being an event sponsor, go to www.prmuseum.org/2018latinopr/ A first ever Bothar Weanling for Heifer sale is set to take place on 10th September 2018 in Tullamore Mart, when up to 10,000 worth of livestock will be put to the hammer to support Bothors ongoing appeal to help Rwandan genocide victim families transform their lives through gifts of Irish dairy heifers. The proceeds from the sale will go towards rearing heifers until they are sent in-calf at 18 months old to Rwanda, a country which suffered a huge genocide back in 1994. "An Irish dairy cow for these people is like winning the lotto. Its a huge life changer; its the difference between living in dire poverty and being able to send their children to school," Pat Mahon told the Offaly Express. A local Rwandan cow would give about a litre of milk a day and an Irish cow would give 20 times that. The first female calves born from the animals sent to Rwanda will be passed on to another family in the Rwandan community to help educate them. It is the gift that keeps on giving, Nelson Mandela famously said Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world Tullamore Mart is backing the initiative and hopes that the people will come out in force to support the event organised by Pat Mahon, Mount Bolus Co Offaly Farmer and Bothar volunteer. All animals will be auctioned in aid and support of the Bothar project. Weanlings have already been donated by farmers from, Moate and Tyrellspass Co Westmeath, Coolderry, Clonbollougue, Geashill, Kilcormack, Rahan and Mountbolus, Co Offaly, Clonaslee Co Laois, and Roscrea Co Tipperary Farmers have also made cash and cheque donations,{both large and small} and many more donations are pledged to the Donation box to be provided on the night. An Offaly woman is on the search for votes having been named as a finalist in the Miss Bikini Ireland competition. Clara woman Donna Feehan is appealing to the public for votes in the annual competition after a model search and adjudication process put her into the final. The competition gives women from the ages of 18-35 a chance to take part and become a finalist, a search that began on social media. The organisers reached out to Donna and asked her to apply to be in with a chance to get a potential spot for the finals held on October 14. "I decided to take the opportunity and then got informed I was a finalist and now here I am as an Offaly woman getting amazing opportunities like this one as a small town model," Donna told the Offaly Express. The opportunities for the winner are huge with lucrative sponsorship deals to work in the areas of fitness, as well as take part in various magazine shoots. The overall Miss Bikini winner also receives a cash prize and an all expenses paid trip to the USA for the swimsuit USA competition. "I'm just glad to be given such an amazing opportunity and I will make the best of it and I look forward to meeting the rest of the finalists soon," Donna said. The public are eligible to vote in the early stages of the competition so if you want to vote for Donna, you can do so as follows: Text Bikini followed by vote ID: BIKINI 140 to 57003 from Rep of Ireland and 60999 from Northern Ireland. Please note that a charge of 1.00 per text applies, and network charges vary 18+ Lines close at 11pm on October 14. Whatever happened is wrong, Law will take its course: Rakesh Tikait on Singhu lynching Alwar lynching: 3 booked for Rakbar Khan's murder India pti-PTI Jaipur, Sept 7: The police Friday filed a chargesheet against three Alwar villagers arrested for beating a man to death in July after accusing him of smuggling cows. Dharmendra Yadav, Paramjeet Singh and Naresh are accused of murder in the chargesheet filed before an Alwar court, Ramgarh SHO Chauthmal Jakhad said. Earlier, the Rajasthan government had also ordered a judicial inquiry amid allegations that policemen delayed taking Rakbar Khan to hospital. An assistant sub inspector was suspended and three constables sent to police lines for negligence. A post-mortem report had suggested that Khan of died of shock caused by his injuries. The National Human Rights Commission and the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission had issued notices to the state government, seeking a report on the killing. Khan and his friend Aslam had reportedly bought two cows from Ladpura and were taking them to their village in Haryana through a forested area near Lalawandi in Alwar district when they were attacked. Aslam managed to flee but Khan was seriously injured. When the police brought him to hospital, allegedly after a long delay, he was already dead. PTI As floods in Coorg, Kerala subside, the conversion factories are at work 24/7 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: In a major operation, the Chandwak police in Uttar Pradesh filed cases agains 271 persons on charges of promoting conversion to Christianity. The charge was that they were spreading misinformation about Hinduism and luring people into their fold. While this is a major breakthrough, such incidents appear to be on the rise in the country. The agencies have said that missionaries tend to tread into areas which are disaster hit and go about their mission. Kerala and Kodagu are the latest victims of this problem. Statistics would reveal that conversions to Christianity are the highest in the southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. It is quite rampant in the eastern states as well. Evangelisation in India, a uniform world policy: Over the years, the agencies report that the missionaries have become even more aggressive. They want get into the core of the society and enforce Christianity forcibly on people who are gullible. For instance the Bible is translated into every local language in India and distributed. Recently one saw pictures of a Bible in the Kodava language (Kodava thakk) that were circulated. It must be recalled that Kodagu is flood ravaged and several thousand people continue to be gullible. Also Read | How Christian missionaries are funding naxals, their urban friends to 'BREAK INDIA' The case is similar in Kerala as well, which too has been affected by floods. Such incidents of conversions were also reported in the aftermath of Tsunami. The Madhya Pradesh government had sought a report on missionary activities in the state. A seven member committee said that they had visited 77 centres, 700 villages and heard over 1,000 people. The committee stated in its report that, "Evangelisation in India appears to be part of a uniform world policy to revive Christendom, to re-establish Western supremacy and is not prompted by spiritual motives. The objective is to disrupt the solidarity of the non-Christian societies, with danger to the security of the State. Enormous sums of foreign money flow into the country, and it is out of such funds that the Lutherans and other proselytising agencies were able to secure nearly four thousand converts. Missions are in some places used to serve extra-religious ends. As conversion muddles the convert's sense of solidarity with his society there is a danger of his loyalty to his country being undermined." Different tactics: There are various tactics that have been used by missionaries to enforce conversions. They are quick to reach to disaster hit places and take advantage of the situation. With the aid comes a big clause and that is religion. Kodagu district has seen several such attempts in the past. This is however for the first time that such a big disaster has hit the district and this means that the people are likely to be more vulnerable. Also Read | Centre to provide more aid to Kerala as per mechanism: Jaitley Several years back, the district had also witnessed something called a Coorgi Christian Fellowship. This was however reported extensively in the media, following which they shut shop. In 2010, a conversion racket was unearthed in a place called Ponnampet and it was said that 13 persons were operating in a colony and were forcing gullible tribals to convert. They were found to be luring them with cash and gifts. Further it was also found that they were being assisted by people from Hunsur, Hassan and other places. The tactics used in Kodagu and Kerala are similar in nature. Kerala has reported several such cases in the past, but the flood victims are gullible. Take the Chandwak case for instance. The complainant's advocate Brijesh Singh alleged the accused had been convincing people from Jaunpur, Varanasi, Azamgarh and Ghazipur districts for the last few years to visit a church in Baldeh village and attend the prayers there. They used to spread various misinformation about Hinduism and convince them to embrace Christianity, Singh alleged. The accused also used to give prohibited medicines and drugs to the visitors and make them convert to Christianity under its influence, Singh alleged. A vile propaganda: The seven member committee also noted in its report that a vile propaganda was being carried out against the religion of the minority. There has been an appreciable increase in the American personnel of missionary organisations in India. This increase is obviously due to the deliberate policy of the International Missionary Council to (exploit) opportunities opened in newly independent countries by mass evangelism through the press radio and television. Further there are several reports prepared by the Intelligence that show that the missionaries are moving money into India in large numbers. The book Breaking India, by Rajiv Malhotra, an NRI from the US explores this issue in detail. The book written after 5 years of extensive research speaks about a Western project to break India into small independent Christian countries. Also Read | Kerala floods: No changes should be made to eco-sensitive zones The aim of the missionaries is to exploit the existing fault-lines along religion, caste, community, language, ethinicity and race. Exploiting the faultiness there have been conversion factories that have been set up. The aim is to create hatred and divide the dominant non-converted community. There have been several instances especially in the north-eastern states where an armed struggle has been created to achieve the cause. It took a while for the Indian government to realise how deep-rooted this problem was. At first these agitations and armed struggles were viewed as a political or law and order problem. However it has come to light that this is part of a larger conspiracy hatched abroad. It is not just staging armed struggles or protests, but the 24/7 conversion factories achieve their goals through various means. Many Hindus who have converted to Christianity were brainwashed into believing that Christianity is a superior religion. An effective propaganda was also run to make Hinduism appear evil. Gone too soon: From Puneeth Rajkumar to Sidharth Shukla, untimely deaths leave family and fans stunned Bayeux-Calvados Awards to unveil memorial in honour of Gauri Lankesh India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Bengaluru, Sep 7: The Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents will honour journalist Gauri Lankesh with the stele in city of Bayeux in recognition for her service in journalism. The organisation said 'She (Gauri) was known for her outspoken positions in favour of women's rights and against the caste system. The Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh was brutally murdered on 5 September last year.' A new stele at the Reporters' Memorial will be unveiled on Thursday October 11th, 2018. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has drawn up the list of journalists who have died in the course of their work: this year between May 2017 and May 2018. The stele will be unveiled in the presence of Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, together with the loved ones of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Gauri Lankesh and Shah Marai. As per the organisation, in 2017, 65 journalists were killed throughout the world. 26 of them lost their lives in the course of their work, collateral damage in a deadly context (such as bombings or attacks). In 2018, more than 30 journalists have already been killed. The massacre in Kabul on 30 April made Afghanistan the most deadly country in 2018 with 11 deaths. Bayeux-Calvados Awards The Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Bayeux and the General Council of Calvados. Its goal is to pay tribute to journalists who work in dangerous conditions to allow the public access to information about war. Daphne Caruana Galizia The Maltese journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated on 16 October 2017 by a bomb placed under her car. She had been investigating and revealing cases of corruption which were highly embarrassing to the Maltese political establishment. PTI file photo Shah Marai Shah Marai, chief photographer for AFP in Kabul, was killed on 30 April 2018 in the Afghan capital in a double suicide bombing. He had been covering the first explosion. PTI file photo Gauri Lankesh Gauri 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 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 BJPs 21-member booth committee to have five bikers and five members with smart phone India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 7: With Lok Sabha elections coming closure, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set a target to constitute a 21-member committee at every booth in the country and in-charge of the booth committee will have a weekly meeting preferable at different places and different people. The party also plans to organise a big motorbike rally in February-march with around 5-7 lakh people participating in it in Uttar Pradesh. The calendar of the programme has already been decided and handed over to the senior party leaders to implement them on the ground. Sources in the BJP said that the party asked by the senior party leadership that the 21-member committee must have a member from the Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribe, one from Other Backward Classes and if possible one from the minority committee. They also have to add five such people in the booth team having smart phones. The in-charge of the committee has been asked to meet these member on tea every week. These members have been asked to invite people on this weekly meeting even the workers from the rival political parties should also be invited in these weekly meetings. They must be informed about the party programme and also encouraged to listen to the monthly broadcast programe Man Ki Bat. BJP to organise Rath Yatra in West Bengal after Durga Puja The party has also asked to make a team of the five bikers in every booth. Sources said that they will be riding through the city till the elections so a rider and pillion means 10 people will be constantly on road telling schemes of the BJP and if 1.5 lakh booths have this team then there will be an strength of 4.5 lakh bikers with nine lakh people. Sources said that BJP plans to organisation a mega show in February-March of motorbike riders in which the PM too will participate in what format that is not yet clear. But with this planning the BJP wants to show that it still commands support of people. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 12:36 [IST] Campaign launched to raise funds for dismissed IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's legal aid India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar New Delhi, Sep 7: The crowdfunding campaign started by Indians Fight for Justice (IFFJ) for legal support to sacked Gujarat Cadre IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt has been taken down by crowdfunding website Ketto. The campaign started raised Rs 16, 03, 230. The amount is 10 per cent of the total target Rs 1,50,00, 000. However, the page is inaccessible. OneIndia asked about the reason for the defunct page, the Ketto team shared a new link where the crowdfunding is still active. This website has the contact address of Advocate SS Sayyed, Kshitij Yamini Shyam, Mumbai. The website states that supporting IPS Sanjiv Bhatt is our collective responsibility. The new campaign page claims, "India is currently passing through one of the darkest phases in its post-independence history. Time-tested democratic institutions are under threat of total and complete subversion at the hands of a totalitarian regime. The independence of the Media has become a distant memory. The spectre of a totalitarian fascist takeover is staring us in the face. Lynchings, rapes, murders, and staged encounters have become commonplace. All voices of dissent are sought to be silenced. The criminal justice system continues to implode under its own weight, while murderers and rapists roam free in society. How did we come to this pass? Why is the police machinery unable to stand upright and perform their duty? Have the police let us down, or have we let the police down? The answer probably lies in the story of one upright IPS officer who continues to be wronged with brazen impudence; and how we, as a nation, let him down." The day crowdfunding was started by former IIT Professor Ram Puniyani posted a video on Facebook: Sacked Gujarat police officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested on Wednesday by the Gujarat CID in connection with a 22-year-old case of alleged planting of drugs to arrest a man. 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, Mr Bhatt was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department, while others are still kept under detention, Director General of Police, CID, Ashish Bhatia said. Does striking down of Sec 377 pave the way for same sex marriage? Knot yet India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court on Thursday partially struck down as unconstitutional Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The court said that gay sex between consenting adults in private is not an offence. While the LGBTQ community won a battle that lasted decades, the question now is whether the judgment would pave the way for same sex marriage. The verdict which ran into 493 pages is however not clear on this aspect. While there have been a few instances of same sex marriage, under the current law registering the same is not permitted. Unless the laws are amended, same sex marriages cannot be registered. There is also a question mark on other aspects such as inheritance, guardianship and adoption. Also Read | Sec 377 down: Heralding a new India from darkness to light Legal experts say that the SC verdict is silent on these aspects and has only gone into specifics. If same sex marriages are to become legal, then an amendment is required. For instance, civil and personal laws do not provide for same sex marriages. This means an amendment to the Special Marriages Act is required. The other option would be to come up with an entirely new law for the LGBTQ community, experts also say. Madhuri Sarode Sharma, a transgender activist had got married two years back. Her husband's parents had accepted the marriage. However till date the marriage is not registered as there is no provision to do so under the current laws. To come up with a new law, it is the Parliament which would have to take the first step. The Supreme Court too could suggest framing of new laws, but to get into motion would be in the hands of the Parliament. Some activists could also go back to the Supreme Court and seek a clarification regarding the same. EC team to visit Telangana to review poll preparedness India oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, Sep 7: The Election Commission will send a team of officials to Hyderabad next week before it takes a decision on the timing of elections to the Telangana assembly that was dissolvedon Thursday. "The Commission has decided to send a team of ECI officers to assess the situation in the state regarding poll preparedness," a statement by the election body said on Friday. A team of Election Commission officers headed by Umesh Sinha, senior Deputy Election Commissioner will be visiting Hyderabad on Tuesday and will give its report to the Commission after completion of the visit, the statement said. The statement comes a day after the Telangana government headed by K. Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the assembly and the governor acted on the cabinet decision to end the tenure of the assembly whose term was there till June next year. Earlier in the day, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat on Friday said that any astrological predictions will not decide the date and time of elections for Telangana Assembly, which was dissolved on Thursday. "We will assess if Telangana elections can be held with other 4 states. Any astrological predictions (over dates) made by anyone is notwithstanding." For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 19:10 [IST] When is Ganesh Chaturthi 2018? The date of Ganesh Chaturthi falls on the fourth day of the waxing moon period (Shukla Chaturthi) in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada. This is August or September each year. The festival is usually celebrated for 11 days, with the biggest spectacle taking place on the last day called Anant Chaturdasi. Importance and Significance According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Parvati created Ganesha from dirt and appointed him to prevent anyone from entering her chamber while she was taking a bath. Unaware of Ganesha, Lord Shiva got angry upon seeing an unknown boy standing outside trying to prevent him from entering. He then severed Ganesha's head. After seeing the headless Ganesha, Goddess Parvati asked Lord Shiva to join his head back, since that was not possible, a head of an elephant was used instead. This gave birth to the beloved Lord Ganesha. How do devotees celebrate on Ganesh Chaturthi 2018? On this auspicious day, processions are held to enjoy the festival. In Mumbai, where Ganeshotsav is the biggest festival, people take to the streets and dance along to religious songs. People cherish the festive spirit with lights, lasers, fireworks and drumbeats. Foods to eat on Ganesh Chaturthi 2018 Lord Ganesha was a fond lover of food, especially modak. Another popular sweet dish is karanji (karjikai in Kannada), similar to modak in composition and taste but in a semi-circular shape. This sweet is popularly known as nevri in Goa, which is an intrinsic part of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Goa. Happy Ganesh Chaturthi 2018! Rahul has lunch at roadside eatery in Goa, rides pillion on two-wheeler taxi for few kms Giriraj Singh calls Rahul Gandhis Mansarovar Yatra fake India oi-PTI New Delhi, Sep 8: The Congress Friday posed a challenge to "haters" of Rahul Gandhi, currently on a yatra to Kailash Mansarovar, and asked whether they can "keep up" with him after union minister Giriraj Singh mocked at pictures of him with some pilgrims and called it "photo-shopped". BJP's Mahila wing national in-charge of social media Priti Gandhi and Akali leader and legislator in Delhi Manjinder Singh Sirsa also poked fun of Gandhi over his pictures. The Congress later posted on Twitter a picture of a smiling Gandhi posing in front of Mount Kailash, considered the abode of Lord Shiva, along with details of his trekking details compiled by popular fitness mobile app 'fitbit'. The fitbit data showed Gandhi having travelled 46,433 steps, 203 floors, 34.31 kms over 463 minutes, while burning 4,466 calories. "Leaving all the haters behind, Congress President Rahul Gandhi sets the pace during his Kailash Yatra. Can you keep up?" the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. "These are Photoshopped. The reflection of the stick is missing," Singh had earlier tweeted, along with a picture of Gandhi will a fellow pilgrim also on the Kailash Yatra. Sirsa accused Gandhi of "stealing" the picture from Google and said people will not forgive him for speaking a "lie" even on Kailash Yatra. "Have seen many who read their speeches written on a page, but have seen for the first time a pilgrim who picks up pictures from Google. "Fake 'Janeyu-dhari' Rahul Gandhi has spoken a lie even on the Kailash Yatra. People will not fogive him," he tweeted. Priti Gandhi asked the Congress president whether he was downloading pictures from the internet and tweeting them. "Rahul Gandhi, Are you downloading pictures from the internet and tweeting? Are you really at Mansarovar or some place else?," she tweeted, while showing similar pictures tweeted by Gandhi available on Google images. Her post was retweeted by BJP's social media incharge Amit Malviya. Hitting back at Singh, Congress spokesperson RPN Singh said the minister has not done anything worthwhile to show to the people and is thus making these kind of statements "only to remain in the headlines". "It is unfortunate that the minister without any information is tweeting like this, as he has been doing for the last 4.5 years. He tweets like this to remain in the news. I feel Rahul Gandhi ji is very fortunate to have undertaken the Kailash Yatra as it is done only when the call from Lord Shiva comes. "Gandhi is the among the first front-rung leaders of the country to have undertaken the arduous Yatra. Issues of faith should not be linked to politics," he said. The Congress leader also attacked the BJP for using religion for political gains but said they do not understand the true meaning of the Hindu religion. Gandhi is expected to be back from his Kailash Mansarovar Yatra by end of this week. The Congress chief also tweeted a video of the hills on his official Twitter handle and said, "Shiva is the Universe". On Thursday as well, Gandhi had posted a picture of Mount Kailash, saying, "It is so humbling to be walking in the shadow of this giant." He had earlier put out pictures of the "tranquil and calm" waters of the lake and said there "is no hatred here". "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 had said on Twitter. The 48-year-old leader is undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in accordance with a wish he expressed in April when his plane plunged hundreds of feet during the campaign for the Karnataka polls. On April 26, the plane carrying Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side. The plane dipped steeply with violent shuddering, but soon recovered and landed safely. Three days later, on April 29, Gandhi announced during a rally that he wanted to undertake the pilgrimage. The arduous pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which is considered the abode of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology and is in the Tibetan Himalayas, is organised every year between June and September. Gandhi left the national capital on August 31 for the yatra. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Saturday, September 8, 2018, 1:07 [IST] How India convinced the US to help track and crack Dawood Ibrahim India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: At the Indo-US 2+2 dialogue there was a major development relating to Dawood Ibrahim. The United States agreed to help India track down Dawood Ibrahim, who is currently hiding in Pakistan. US President Donald Trump who has very often spoken about Pakistan harbouring terrorists and has urged the country to act on the issue. The joint statement issued by the two sides does mention the launch of a bilateral dialogue on the designation of terrorists in 2017. It also speaks about strengthening the action against terror groups, which also includes the D-company and its affiliates. Behind the scenes: For India the top headaches are Dawood Ibrahim and Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief, Hafiz Saeed. Top security officials tell OneIndia that Dawood is a more important person to nab because he provides the finances to the ISI, which in turn is channelised into aiding terror groups. Also Read | 2+2 dialogue: India urges US to take 'balanced, sensitive' view on H-1B visa issue It is a cycle in Pakistan and Dawood sit on top of the rung, provided the big money. Dawood has always been a strategic asset for Pakistan and this is the primary reason, why he continues to be sheltered in that country, officials also state. Dawood Ibrahim who has a 20 million dollar bounty on his head has already been declared a global terrorist by the US. India on the other hand has been sharing plenty of information on Dawood's global financial network and how nearly 40 percent of his money is being used to fund terror. Also Read | The don is depressed, brother in charge and not all is well in Dawood paradise Sources said that the US shared its concern with India regarding Dawood and assured that all efforts would be made to track him down. As part of this India and US would now increase information sharing on the likes of Dawood. The two nations would also implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2396 on returning foreign terrorists, the joint statement also read. Dawood is the prime concern: When the NDA government took over, the very first security briefing dwelled a lot on Dawood. The then Intelligence Bureau chief, Asif Ibrahim said in his first official briefing that terrorism receives a major chunk of its funds through narcotic smuggling via India, which is controlled by Dawood. While convincing the US, India said that the largest funds for terror come from narcotic trade controlled by the D-Syndicate. There are several routes on which he operates on and unless these are shut down, narcotic/terror would continue to thrive. Also Read | '2+2' dialogue: India-US relationship has immense potential, says Sitharaman Official sources say that the US is very concerned about terror and financing and hence the country was more than eager to help India out. The US realises that unless the financial network is not broken, there is no end to terror. The source also said that this decision by the two nations would not only help track down the don, but also help identify his smuggling and financial routes. With increased information sharing between the two nations, the activities of the D-gang can be monitored real time. Breaking his financial network is extremely important and once that is done, he becomes a liability for Pakistan, the officer also said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 9:49 [IST] Mission can be rescheduled again: Jitendra Singh after GSLV fails to inject EOS-03 satellite in orbit How India and France will work together on ISRO's 'Gaganyaan' human space mission India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Sep 7: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO's) human space mission 'Gaganyaan' will now have a France's space agency as a working group which will help in life support and medicine for the Indian crew. Earlier on Thursday, India and France signed an agreement to collaborate and formed a working group for this first manned space mission. The announcement was made at the sixth edition of Bengaluru Space Expo by French space agency President Jean-Yves Le Gall. India has plannned to send three humans to space for five to seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 k m from the earth's surface before 2022. The ISRO's mission is significant as it would make India one of the four countries in the world after Russia, US and China to launch a manned space flight. Jean Yves Le Gall, president of the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), France explained how ISRO and CNES will be working together. "ISRO and CNES, the French space agency, will be combining their expertise in fields of space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support, radiation protection, space debris protection, and personal hygiene systems," Gall said. ISRO has also planned to conduct experiments on microgravity through its astronauts. Engineering teams have already begun discussions and it is envisioned that infrastructure such as CADMOS center for development of microgravity applications and space operations or the MEDES space clinic will be used for training of future Indian astronauts, as well as the exchange of specialist personnel, Gall said. Meanwhile, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said the joint vision statement was an umbrella agreement while today's MoU was more specific to the human space mission. The two space agencies also plan to work on Mars, Venus and asteroids. It can be recalled that France is one of the three countries - the other two being the US and Russia - who share robust cooperation in the three strategic areas of defence, nuclear and space. Chabahar Port (File photo) The Chabahar Port just not cements the ties between India and Iran but it gives the former an access to Afghanistan and central Asia without touching Pakistan's soil. The agreement was made in 2003 when the NDA led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power but it was slowed down by the sanctions imposed on Iran later. Akhoundi after a meeting with his Indian counerpart Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said: "We have already moved one step forward...We should introduce a banking channel to India, which we already did it and fortunately has been formally accepted by the Indian side". Gadkari chairing a high level meeting on Chabahar Port (File photo) He said the India has also introduced a banking channel, which has been approved by Iran's Central Bank. "Indian side had investment in Chabahar port and we are moving towards utilisation of the Chabahar port," Akhoundi said, adding that the handing over of the port should be done "during one month. We have done everything". India went on with the port development despite US's warning India had earlier rushed some of its important ministers to Iran to launch initiative on various development projects and the two sides did so despite the US warning. New Delhi felt developing the port did not amount to violation of the sanctions. India also ensured that the land-locked Afghanistan would be given an access to the sea through this project, hence reducing its reliance on Pakistan and bring it closer to its own fold in the greater power game of South Asia. Iran also has its plans to benefit from the port. It wants India to set up a free-trade zone near Chabahar, just like the Chinese Overseas Ports Holding Company has agreed to help Pakistan create a free economic zone. Under the agreement signed between India and Iran earlier, India is to equip and operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease. On US sanctions impacting oil trade, the visiting minister hoped to find a way out to continue selling crude oil to India. Chabahar is India's reply to Gwadar India is particularly keen to increase its involvement with the Chabahar Port as it sees in it a reply to the China-operated Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Separated by barely 72 kilometres, these two ports are not just trading and transit points but significant geo-political launch pads. While China has plans to use the Gwadar Port to get an access to the water bodies around India, the latter eyes to use the Chabahar Port to reach out to the land routes in central Asia, posing a competitive threat to China. Jaya death probe: Panel wants doctors deposition, warns Apollo hospital India oi-Madhuri Chennai, Sep 7: The Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry, probing the death of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, on Thursday warned the Apollo Hospital of legal consequences if it failed to depute its doctors to appear before the panel. In a letter to the hospital chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy, the panel, whose extended tenure ends next month, noted that in previous hearings some of the doctors, summoned, had not appeared before it had been condoned. "Depute the doctors and technician before this commission without raising any technical objections, remembering that your hospital has received several crores of rupees towards treatment charges (of Jayalalithaa)," it said. Also Read | Jayalalithaa waved and said thanks: AIIMS doctors The panel directed cardiologist Dr Sai Sathish, Consultants, Dr C Vignesh and Dr D Ravi Varma to appear before it on September 11, respiratory medicine specialist Dr Babu K Abraham and technician Madivannan on Sept 12 and chief physiotherapist, Raj Prassanna on September 10. "...if you fail to depute the doctors and technician, law will take its own course against you and other directors," the letter, a copy of which is made available to the media, said. The one-man commission, headed by retired Madras High Court judge A Arumughaswamy, pointed out that the doctors were directed to appear only in a phased manner. It has so far examined a number of witnesses, including over ten doctors, retired and serving government officials and police officers. Also Read | Jayalalithaa's death: AIIMS doctors summoned by probe panel Last month, three AIIMS-Delhi doctors, who had periodically examined Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation, appeared before the panel. Jayalalithaa had died on December 5, 2016 after being treated in the hospital for 75 days for various ailments. In September 2017, the state government had constituted the probe panel under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, mandating it to inquire into the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's hospitalisation on September 22, 2016, and treatment provided by the hospital till her demise. The commission, whose term has been twice extended since then, had invited all those having "personal knowledge and direct acquaintance" to furnish information related to her. Several persons, including present Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and his followers, had earlier raised suspicions about the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's death. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 8:31 [IST] Google India puts out a rainbow flag Google India put out a 'rainbow flag' on its homepage on Thursday to mark the decriminalisation of consensual gay sex by the Supreme Court. The internet giant, known for its timely theme doodle on various occasions put the colourful icon below the search bar on its webpage. A message 'celebrating equals rights' pops up when a cursor is moved over it. Image credit:google.co.in Facebook display multi-hued icon The India page of social media behemoth Facebook also changed its display picture to a multi-hued icon. The rainbow flag, commonly known as the gay pride flag or LGBT pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. Image credit: facebook.com/FacebookIndia Historic judgement The path-breaking judgement held that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised consensual gay sex was "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary". While a constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the 158-year-old law had become an "odious weapon" to harass the LGBT community by subjecting them to discrimination and unequal treatment, a judge also said that history owed an apology to the community and their families for the delay in providing redressal for the "ignominy" and "ostracism" they have faced through the centuries. It said Section 377 was a product of Victorian-era morality and there was no reason to continue with it as it enforced Victorian morale on the citizens of the country. Lawyer without brief is like Tendulkar without his bat on cricket ground: SC Lynching: Comply with our order or face music, SC to states India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court has directed states to comply with its anti-mob lynching verdict of September 13. If this is not done, then chief secretaries of the state face the prospect of being summoned by to court, the Bench said. Attorney General of India, K K Venugopal told the court that the Centre has set up an empowered group of ministers to consider the nature of the legislation to be brought in to curb mob lynching. The court gave the states one week's time to implement its verdict providing the procedure to prevent mob lynching. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 12:38 [IST] Manmohan Singh slams Modi govt over demonetisation, GST and job creation India oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, Sep 7: In a scathing attack on Narendra Modi government, former prime minister Manmohan Singh accused it of all-round failure leading to economic crisis. Singh was speaking at the launch of Congress leader Kapil Sibal's book Shades of Truth in New Delhi on Friday. "The Modi government "has not constructively dealt with the agrarian crisis facing the nation and the indication of that is that every now and then in state capitals and the national capital, farmers die in protest. Farmers are still not assured of receiving the remunerative prices of their produce," he said. "Programs like Make in India and Stand Up India yet to make meaningful impact on industrial production growth. Small and marginal enterprises yet to derive significant benefit from ease of doing business schemes," he added. He also attacked PM Modi's notes ban in 2016, days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that over 99 per cent of the banned cash was back in the system. "Nothing concrete has been done to bring back the promised billions of dollars allegedly held abroad as black money," said Singh. Referring Modi's 2014 promises of 2 crore jobs, Singh said the employment growth rate has been declining in the last 4 years. "Our youth are desperately waiting for the promised 2 Crore jobs. Employment growth rate has been declining in last 4 years. People aren't impressed with the figures being put out by Modi govt to justify creation of large number of jobs," he further said. Mehul Choksi appeals to Interpol against Red Corner Notice India oi-Vikas By Vikas New Delhi, Sep 7: With both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI seeking a Red Corner Notice from the Interpol against Mehul Choksi, the Fugitive Diamantaire has reportedly appealed to the Interpol against it. The decision on Red Corner Notice will be taken by the Interpol committee in Lyon, France, in Octoder. Choksi's appeal against red corner notice has been opposed by the Indian agencies, said an ANI report while quoting sources. India can seek extradition of fugitive billionaire Mehul Choksi without an Interpol Red Corner Notice as it is not a mandatory requirement for the process, the CBI had told the Ministry of External Affairs. In a communication to the ministry earlier this month, the agency said the purpose of a Red Corner Notice (RCN) is to locate an absconding accused which has already been achieved in Choksi's case after confirmation from Antigua that he is their citizen. [India can seek extradition of Mehul Choksi without Red Corner notice: CBI] Interpol has now raised queries on an Enforcement Directorate (ED) request to get a Red Notice (RN) issued against him. Earlier, Interpol had similarly asked CBI to respond to Choksi's claims of poor jail conditions in India and anomalies in the agency's case against him. Choksi has acquired citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda and is said to be presently hiding in the Caribbean country. The government has sent an extradition request to the country to bring him back to India. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 12:07 [IST] As cries for same sex marriages grow, government likely to put its foot down Milli Council, JuH criticise SC decision on Section 377; Christian organisations opposed in SC India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court partially struck down Section 377 on Thursday. The 158-year-old British-era law had the provision of punishment for consensual gay sex between adults. However in over 158 year old history of this law just one conviction took place that to way back in 1935. The court has declared that an individual's sexual orientation is a matter of privacy and also an essential facet of one's dignity. Interestingly it was supported by the RSS that it should not be criminalise, when Arun Kumar, Akhil Bhartiya Prachar Pramukh of the RSS, said, "Like the Supreme Court, we also do not consider this to be a crime. The same sex marriages are not compatible with norms of the Nature, so we do not support such relations. Bharatiya Society also doesn't have the tradition to recognize such relations." Also Read | Sec 377 down: Heralding a new India from darkness to light This petition was opposed by three Christian organisations - the Apostolic Alliance of Churches, Utkal Christian Council and Trust God Ministries organisation. However, All India Milli Council came down heavily on the government against it. General secretary of All India Milli Council Maulana M Manzoor Alam told One India that all this has been done by the government at the behest of the RSS as it wants to give a message to the world of being liberal not radical. They want to become liberal on such issues while they become communal when it comes of education and knowledge. The Milli Council Leader said that courts just look at the legal aspect however there are social, cultural, religious, civilisational and many other aspect in the society. This will lead to the degeneration of the society at large. Copying to the west is not always good. Besides the Milli Council, Jamiat Ulama e Hind general secretary Mehmood Madni too opposed scrapping of Section 377 by the Supreme Court. The Congress Lok Sabha member from the Kisanganj Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar Mohammad Asrarul Haque Qasmi also opposed this judgment of the Supreme Court. Also Read | Does striking down of Sec 377 pave the way for same sex marriage? Knot yet The Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community too possesses the same human, fundamental and constitutional rights as other citizens, It's no longer a crime to be a homosexual in India. The SC bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that Section 377 was arbitrary and unconstitutional to the extent that it punishes consensual intercourse between adults irrespective of their gender identity or sexual orientation. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 11:48 [IST] Bharat Bandh on 27th September 2021: What is Open, What is Closed BKU-Bhanu chief attacks Rakesh Tikait on Bharat Bandh: 'They want to follow Taliban' Bharat Bandh was peaceful; no untoward incident reported from anywhere: Samyukta Kisan Morcha NCP extends support to Congress-sponsored 'Bharat Bandh' against fuel price hike India oi-Deepika By Deepika New Delhi, Sep 7: After DMK, The Nationalist Congress Party on Friday extended its support to Bharat Bandh called by the Congress over fuel price hike and declining value of rupee. 'The NCP appeals everybody for their cooperation & support to make this bandh a grand success', it said in a statement. Earlier in the day, the DMK on Friday announced it would extend its support to the Congress party's nationwide shutdown on September 10. Conveying his party's "whole-hearted support," party president MK Stalin said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) would "enthusiastically take part and cooperate to make the shutdown a complete success". The DMK chief urged all sections of people, including government employees, teachers, traders and state transport corporation workers, to voluntarily support the bandh to "teach the BJP government a fitting lesson". The Congress had Thursday called a Bharat Bandh to protest against the rising fuel prices. Top opposition leaders, including Congress's Ashok Gehlot and Ahmed Patel, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and NCP's Tariq Anwar met at rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav's residence during which the decision to call a bandh was finalised. The Congress has also asked civil society groups and NGOs to join the bandh. It also said the 'Bandh' will be between 9 AM to 2.30-3 PM so that the common person is not inconvenienced. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 17:48 [IST] PM likely to address issue of resentment against SC/ST Act in National Executive India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 7: The two-day national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have a very clear stand on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as there is a huge resentment among the upper cast community on the issue. So much so that some of the leaders belonging to the upper caste community have come out in open to speak against it. Sources said that on the issue of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has complicated the situation for the BJP across the country so whatever clarity is required in the party and outside, it will be done in the national executive of the party. BJP National Executive on September 8-9; NRC and SC/ST to remain at centre stage The party leaders feel that if any impact on the issue has to be made on people it is only possible by the intervention of the PM. So it will come directly from the PM's mouth and no one else. This could possibly be through his speech. Party sources said that a resolution on this issues in also being planned by the party leadership in the national executive which will properly explain the matter. But resolution will not be exactly termed as Dalit or SC/ST Act but as an issue of social justice in the national executive itself. The resolution will have overall solution to the problem. A party leader said that the entire Monsoon session of Parliament was devoted to social justice so the intention of the BJP here will be to send across the message that people and political parties have been so far only talking about the social justice but the BJP has done something very solid. The BJP has given it a constitutional structure whether it was constitutional status of National Commission of Backward Classes (NCBC) or restoring SC/ST Act or any other benefit to them. The sources said that does not mean the issue issue of anger and unease among the upper caste will be ignored. This is also likely to be addressed and clarified by the PM that how the BJP will go about it. The PM is likely to come out with a clear line. However, the one thing that is clear that the BJP will not take any step back on this issue. The party is clear on that let the leaders of the party say whatever they wished to say but the party is committed to justice and empowerment of Dalits which will be very clearly stressed in the NE. Sources added that but this will also be told that upper caste need not fear about anything and even on this issue the PM might come out with some solution. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 19:30 [IST] RAS, RTS Pre-exam 2018 results expected date India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar New Delhi, Sep 7: The RAS, RTS Pre-exam 2018 results will be declared soon. The results once declared will be available on the official website. Rajasthan Public Service Commission will soon release the results of Rajasthan State and Subordinate Services Combined Competitive Exam 2018 or RPSC RAS, RTS Pre-Exam 2018. The RPSC RAS, RTS Examination 2018 was conducted on August 5, 2018 for recruitment to over 1,017 posts. The results are expected to be released in the month of September itself and updates regarding the same are going to be published on the official website soon. Although exacts dates have not been released, reports claim that RPSC RAS Results 2018 will be released before September 15. After the release of results, candidates who will qualify in the RPSC RAS Pre Exam 2018 will have to appear for RPSC RAS Mains Exam, 2018. Candidates are advised to check the official website of Rajasthan Public Service Commission - rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in- for updates regarding the declaration of results. The updates will be available on this website under 'Exam Dashboard' Section. The results once declared will be available on rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 9:04 [IST] As cries for same sex marriages grow, government likely to put its foot down Sec 377 down: Heralding a new India from darkness to light India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a historic order in which is concluded that gay sex among consenting adults in private is not an offence. The court while striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a British era law that criminalised gay sex said that it violated the constitutional right to equality and dignity. In the 493 page verdict, Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, who led the five judge Bench said that the 158-year old law had become an "odious weapon" to harass the LGBT community by subjecting them to discrimination and unequal treatment, a judge also said that history owed an apology to the community and their families for the delay in providing redressal for the "ignominy" and "ostracism" they have faced through the centuries. It said Section 377 was a product of Victorian-era morality and there was no reason to continue with it as it enforced Victorian morale on the citizens of the country. Also Read | Section 377 partially struck down: Consensual same sex act in pvt not an offence While concluding the historic 493-page verdict, Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who headed the constitution bench, said it was time to move from "darkness to light" to herald a New India which would be a more inclusive society. "Section 377 IPC, so far as it criminalises even consensual sexual acts between competent adults, fails to make a distinction between non-consensual and consensual sexual acts of competent adults in private space, which are neither harmful nor contagious to the society. "Section 377 IPC subjects the LGBT community to societal pariah and dereliction and is, therefore, manifestly arbitrary, for it has become an odious weapon for the harassment of the LGBT community by subjecting them to discrimination and unequal treatment. Therefore, ... Section 377 IPC is liable to be partially struck down for being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution," the five-judge constitution bench said. The bench, which also comprised Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, held that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community possess the same constitutional rights as any other citizen and part of Section 377, which prohibits sexual relationship between consenting adults of the same sex, is violative of the right to equality and the right to live with dignity. Also Read | Love is Love: This is how Google, Facebook celebrated Section 377 verdict However, the court clarified that non-consensual gay sex or sexual activity with an animal or a child will continue to invite penal liability under Section 377 of the IPC and would remain a criminal offence. The CJI, who along with Justice Khanwilkar, penned the main judgement, termed sexual orientation as a "biological phenomenon" and "natural" and held that any discrimination on this ground was violative of the fundamental rights. "It is declared that insofar as Section 377 criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private, is violative of Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution. It is, however, clarified that such consent must be free consent, which is completely voluntary in nature, and devoid of any duress or coercion," the bench ruled. Delivering the judgment on a clutch of petitions, it said "morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality and only constitutional morality can allowed under the rule of law". Justice Malhotra, a member of the bench in her separate judgement, said that history owed an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries. Justice DY Chandrachud, in his judgement, said that due to Section 377, the LGBTQ members were forced to live in hiding and as second class citizens, while the others used to enjoy the right of sexual orientation. "Section 377 IPC, so far as it penalises any consensual sexual relationship between two adults, be it homosexuals (man and a man), heterosexuals (man and a woman) or lesbians (woman and a woman), cannot be regarded as constitutional. However, if anyone, by which we mean both a man and a woman, engages in any kind of sexual activity with an animal, the said aspect of Section 377 is constitutional and it shall remain a penal offence under Section 377 IPC. "Any act of the description covered under Section 377 IPC done between two individuals without the consent of any one of them would invite penal liability under Section 377 IPC," the court said in its landmark verdict. Justice Nariman said that homosexuality was not a mental disorder and such persons have a fundamental right to live with dignity. It also said that "consensual carnal intercourse among adults, be it homosexual or heterosexual, in private space, does not in any way harm the public decency or morality. Therefore, Section 377 IPC in its present form violates Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution." The respect for individual choice is the "very essence" of liberty and criminalising carnal intercourse was "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary", it stated. The court referred to its 2013 verdict and said that upholding the validity of Section 377 on the ground that LGBTs comprised a minuscule fraction of the total population was constitutionally "impermissible" and the law was being misused. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 7:28 [IST] Sheena Bora murder case: CBI Court rejects Indrani Mukerjea's bail plea India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Mumbai, Sep 7: Special CBI Court has rejected Indrani Mukerjea's bail plea Sheena Bora murder case on Friday. Indrani Mukherjee, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, had moved a special CBI court for bail, citing ill-health and alleged threat to her life as the reasons. The judge said the grounds filed by Indrani in the plea, such as threat to life, have been exaggerated and are unacceptable, according to News 18 report. Indrani, lodged in Byculla prison here, in her application mentioned two occasions when she was hospitalised -- once for suspected drug overdose and again, in April, when she complained of difficulty in breathing. She claimed that someone inside the jail might have tried to poison her. Also Read | Gutka scam: CBI raids 40 locations in Chennai including top officials' houses Sheena (24), the daughter of prime accused Indrani Mukerjea from an earlier relationship, was allegedly killed in April, 2012. The crime came to light in August, 2015 after Indrani's driver Shyamvar Rai, who was arrested in another case, spilled the beans. Also Read | Narendra Dabholkar murder case: Sharad Kalaskar sent to 10-day CBI custody The police arrested Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna and Rai. Later, Indrani's husband and media baron Peter Mukerjea was also arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy. The CBI, which took over the case, had claimed that a financial dispute was the reason behind the killing. (With PTI inputs) Shekhawat appointed convener of Polls Management Committee; free hand seems denied to the CM India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Sep 7: Tug-of-war between the Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party and the Central leadership of the party seems to continue as the party has appointed Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as convener of the Assembly Election Management Committee for Rajasthan. Actually the Central BJP wanted to make Shekhawat state BJP president but his candidature was watered down by the Rajasthan CM. Now, Shekhawat will be part of the state election procedure against the wishes of the CM. The party chief Amit Shah has entrusted state party president Madan Lal Saini with the responsibility to head a 16-member panel that will take all the important decisions regarding the forthcoming Rajasthan assembly elections. The CM is one of its members while Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Rajasthan BJP spokesperson Satish Punia are joint conveners of the panel. Shekhawat is an MP from the Jodhpur Lok Sabha constituency. Party insiders said that his appointment was very significant in view of differences between the Rajasthan CM and the party chief that had delayed appointment of the new state president for around three month. The CM had her last word on this by getting appointed a president of her choice. This is to recall that Raje loyalist Ashok Parnami had resigned as the Rajasthan BJP president chief on April 16, due to party making some changes in the organisation in the aftermath party's debacle in the by-elections of the two Lok Sabha seats in the state and one Assembly election. Sources said that the BJP chief wanted to appoint Shekhawat as the state party president which was opposed by the Rajasthan CM chief as she wanted Srichand Kriplani to be appointed as state party chief. So a compromise candidate was made state party chief. Actually the name of Shekhawat virtually brought division in the Rajasthan BJP with a section of leaders expressing their reservations over his appointment as state party chief. So the compromise was reached and the party appointed Rajya Sabha member Saini as the state party president in June. Two state ministers Yunus Khan and Rajendra Rathore have also been included as members. Rajya Sabha member Kirodi Lal Meena also finds a place in the committee. Union minister CR Choudhary and state home minister Gulabchand Kataria will also be part of the team. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 10:43 [IST] How the National Investigation Agency is getting the better of terrorists in J&K Two ISIS terrorists arrested, were using Delhi as transit point India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: The Delhi police has arrested two suspected terrorists. The arrested duo hail from Kashmir and were arrested on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. They are currently being questioned for further details. The police say that the duo are part of the Islamic State of Jammu and Kashmir. They were picked up from the Red Fort area. They have been identified as Pervez and Jamshad and are residents of Shopian in south Kashmir. The police say that both were engineering students and were well versed with the areas in Delhi. However the police say that there was no plan to attack Delhi, but was being used as a transit point. The police suspect that they may have slipped into the city earlier this week. The Delhi police had intelligence about the movement of terrorists into the city from Kashmir. Further leads on the case are being worked on, officials said. Influencing their way to the top - meet Reeva and Gaurika Entrepreneur Rahul Kaul: Social Media is the new place to earn your bread With terrorists recruiting on the dark net, here is what the agencies are doing India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Sep 7: Paving the way for better security, the agencies would not get a new software to dig deeper into the social media whose criminal record is not available in the police database. The move comes in the wake of a huge threat looming in the form of cyber crimes. In fact cyber crime is one of the biggest challenges for the security establishment. This new software would also come in handy since the security agencies have detected that terrorists have been using the dark net to recruit operatives. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that for the first time they have created a cyber security division in the home ministry. Also Read | International legal framework needed for cyber space to deal with cyber crime across the globe Inaugurating a three-day Defence and Homeland Security Expo and Conference 2018, organised by the PHD Chamber, Singh said the utility of drones in ensuring security has been found to be necessary and the GoI will soon bring out a policy on their comprehensive usage in the country. "I am fully confident that drones will be very useful for our security forces. I have seen their capabilities and utility in the conduct of anti-naxal operations," he said. The home minister then talked about the "new tech-edge" that the country's security agencies are looking to procure. Tracking criminals: "We can track criminals through the CCTV cameras. But at times, it is very difficult to identify and recognise them. We are trying that face recognition technology is better improved so that if a criminal is not identified by CCTV cameras, there should be a technology to get his face recognised. This is what we are trying." "We are also trying that if there is no information about them (criminals) in the CCTNS (crime and criminal tracking network system), we should have such software that can dig into the social media network and collate information about such elements," the home minister said. Also Read | Indian Military to set up Defence Cyber Academy Singh said apart from these challenges faced by security agencies and forces under his ministry's command, ensuring effective security of India's over 15,000-km land border and more than 7,000-km sea border was also very essential. He said he will soon inaugurate a pilot project for laser-fencing border security in Jammu. "We are testing similar laser fences, radars and non-physical barriers at other border locations in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Assam. The country's borders need to be effectively secured," the home minister said. Lauding the security forces and agencies, he said it was an achievement that there has "not been even one major incident of terrorism in the country" in the past four years of the BJP-led government at the Centre. Terror still the biggest challenge: "Organised crime and terrorism are the biggest challenges for us. We know that these elements are using new technology and sophisticated weapons." "That is why, technical upgrade and modernisation of the central and state police forces is necessary and these two should go together," he said. Singh said his ministry has simplified the purchasing procedures for equipment, weapons and gadgets for the security forces and "now it is a two-tier system as compared to the previous three-tier task." "If it requires that we will have to delegate more financial powers to the chiefs of the security forces, we will do that too," Singh said. He assured that the CCTNS, a comprehensive national computer-based police database, will be "effectively launched" across the country. At the conclusion of his speech, the home minister promised the defence manufacturing industry he will soon hold discussions with Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu about difficulties faced by them in obtaining production licenses. "I will see to it that it is simplified and streamlined," he said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 10:20 [IST] Why UP was lagging behind and thrown into fire of riots: Yogi explains Will die, but not ally with BJP: Priyanka Gandhi in Yogi turf Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath takes dig at Akhilesh, calls him 'Aurangzeb' for betraying his father India pti-PTI Lucknow, Sep 7: In a scathing attack on Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath Friday likened him to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who had jailed his father. "There is a character in history who kept his father in jail. This is the reason why no Muslim names his son Aurangzeb," he said. "I think something like this has happened with the Samajwadi Party. History repeats itself, and the repetition is taking place," the chief minister said at the 'Nishad Sammelan' here. Adityanath did not directly name the SP leader, but made it clear that he was alluding to the manner in which Akhilesh Yadav had edged out his father Mulayam Singh Yadav to take charge of the party. "Somebody who could not remain loyal to his father and uncle is now talking about connecting with you," he said. Adityanath's remarks come amid fresh trouble in the first family of the Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh's estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav has just floated his separate Samajwadi Secular Morcha and announced plans to contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 elections. Shivpal Yadav said he will unite all sidelined leaders and workers in the party, and accused the SP leadership of ignoring him for the past one and a half years. He also accused the party leadership of not giving enough respect to SP founder and his brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. Akhilesh had on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of igniting caste politics in the state and said Adityanath's days as chief minister were numbered. He said the monk-turned-CM will not remain in the post in 2019. Yadav blamed Adityanath for creating a mess in the state with caste politics. "After stoking communal passions, now these people are whipping up passions on the reservation issue," he had said. Uttar Pradesh was among the northern states which saw protests on Thursday by anti-reservations groups. PTI All Air India employees to be retained for one year: Govt This is daylight highway robbery of national assets, Sitaram Yechury on Air India returning to Tatas Procurement of expensive aircraft parts to be done after approval of senior official: Air India Air India flight lands on wrong runway at Male airport; pilots taken off duty International oi-Deepika By Deepika Male, Sep 7: Air India flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Male landed on a non-operational runway at Velana International Airport in Maldives. In a statement, Air India said that the Airbus A320 Neo aircraft landed on an under-construction runway. All 136 passengers and crew on board the flight are safe. It is investigating why the flight landed on the wrong runway. The aircraft had to be towed to the parking bay at the Velana International Airport. A senior Air India official confirmed to news agency PTI that the aircraft "landed on an under-construction runway at Male". The Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has been informed of the matter and the two pilots involved have been taken off flying duties, aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said. Reports said that the new runway is 3,400ft long and 60 meters wide. The 'Code F' standard runway will have the capacity to manage the largest airlines from across the world. More than 60 hectares of land was reclaimed for to build the runway when the project to construct it began in 2015. In August, a Jet Airways flight was not even on the runway when it tried to take off from the Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia. Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh 20 members of a family removed from US flight after mask of 1 slipped under nose AUKUS will be game-changer in Indo-Pacific, won't compete with Quad: US Deputy Secretary Finance Consultant from Andhra Pradesh killed in Cincinnati shooting International oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Cincinnati, Sep 6: At least three men, including a man from India, were killed and two others injured in a shooting at the Fifth Third Center in Cincinnati's Fountain Square on Thursday. According to CNN reports, the three men killed were Luis Felipe Calderon (48) Pruthvi Raj Kandepi (25), and Richard Newcomer (64). According to reports, Pruthvi Raj Kandepi is Andhra Pradesh. The gunman was also killed in the shootout said Cincinnati Police Chief Elliot Isaac said. The Police Chief also said the shooter acted alone, and there is no further threat to the public. The police added the victims had no connection to each other. It wasn't immediately clear if any knew the gunman. No police officers were hurt. India's Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told news agency PTI that the consulate is in touch with the police, Mr Kandepi's family as well as members of the community. An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Mr Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added. Fifth Third Center in Cincinnati's Fountain Square The gunman was also killed in the shootout said Cincinnati Police Chief Elliot Isaac said. The Police Chief also said the shooter acted alone, and there is no further threat to the public Manager Duhaney Manager Duhaney gives credit to police for "swift and decisive actions" that played a role in keeping this incident from being "much worse." He also thanks the City's dispatchers and call talkers for enabling 1st responders to make a full, speedy response. Cincinnati Police Chief Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said, "Shooter has been identified as 29-year old Omar Perez who resided in Northbend, OH." FBI Cincinnati Division The police added the victims had no connection to each other. It wasn't immediately clear if any knew the gunman. No police officers were hurt. (With PTI inputs) Are Imran Khan and Gen Bajwa at war over appointment of new ISI chief? Imran Khan highlights need for improving Pak-India ties; takes a dig at India over T20 cricket victory Imran Khan speaks of better ties with India and rubs T-20 World Cup victory It is time, says Pakistan on finding a solution in Kashmir International oi-Madhuri Islamabad, Sep 7: Pakistan's President and Prime Minister Thursday said it was imperative to find a solution to the Kashmir issue under the UN resolutions for peace in the region as they voiced their desire to promote mutual cooperation with other countries on the basis of equality. Pakistan observes September 6 as the Defence Day to mark the anniversary of the 1965 war with India. Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his first message on the occasion, said: "Pakistan believed in peaceful coexistence and wanted to promote mutual cooperation with all its neighbours and the entire world on equal basis". Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain said that people of Pakistan demonstrated unsurpassed national unity and stood by their armed forces to thwart the evil designs of the enemy. Also Read | Pak Army chief calls on PM Khan for 1st meeting, discusses security situation The President and Prime Minister, in their separate messages on the occasion, emphasised that the resolution of the Kashmir issue in light of the UN resolutions is imperative for peace in the region, Radio Pakistan reported. In his victory speech in July, Khan had said that Pakistan was ready to improve its ties with India and his government would like the leaders of the two sides to resolve all disputes, including the "core issue" of Kashmir. In his message today, Khan appreciated the courage and professionalism of the Pakistani armed forces in eliminating militancy and terrorism, saying "no doubt their efforts for national development, strengthening of democracy and world peace were laudable". The government, he said, would continue absolute struggle in the war against terrorism till its logical end. The day is being celebrated across the country with the Army leading the Defence Day activities. The day dawned with 31 gun salute in the country's capital and 21 gun salute in provincial capitals. Special prayers were offered in mosques for progress and prosperity of the country. The main event is held every year at the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 8:25 [IST] Are Imran Khan and Gen Bajwa at war over appointment of new ISI chief? Imran Khan highlights need for improving Pak-India ties; takes a dig at India over T20 cricket victory Imran Khan speaks of better ties with India and rubs T-20 World Cup victory 'Will not fight any other country's war', says Imran Khan; Lauds Pak army's action against terror International oi-Vikas By Vikas Islamabad, Sep 7: Asserting that he was against the war from the very beginning and his government's foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation, Prime Minister Imran khan on Friday said Pakistan will never fight any other country's war in future. Khan was addressing the Defence and Martyrs Day ceremony organised by the Army at its headquarters in Rawalpindi which was attended by parliamentarians, diplomats, sportspersons, artists among others. Also Read | US continues to press Pakistan to 'indiscriminately' target terror groups Talking about the devastation and sufferings caused due to the war on terror, Khan said, "I was against this war from the very beginning." "We will not become part of a war of any other country (in future)...Our foreign policy will be in the best interest of the nation," he said. Also Read | US suspends military training with Pakistan Khan, however, praised Pakistani armed forces for combating terrorism. "No other nation has fought the war on terror like the Pakistan Army," he said. He said role of security forces and intelligence agencies in making the country safer against all threats was unparalleled. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Khan also talked about investing in human capital by sending children to schools and building hospitals and system of merit so that everyone is treated equally on the pattern of first Muslim state of Medina. "The government will bring meritocracy and transparency in all sectors by following the golden principles of state of Medina," he said. He said Pakistan was endowed with immense resources. "We are rich with minerals, diverse topography and four seasons and the only need is working honestly to realise the goal of making the country great," Khan said. Rejecting the impressions of a divide between the civil administration and military, the prime minister said both were on same page regarding the issues faced by the country. Khan said Army was the only functioning institution in Pakistan where no political interference takes place and everything is run on merit. Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa Army chief general Qamar Javed Bajwa said Pakistan learnt a lot from the wars of 1965 and 1971 and has made the defence impregnable by developing nuclear weapons. He said Pakistan had paid a huge cost for its war of terrorism. "More than 70,000 people have been killed and injured due to militancy in the country. The economic losses and burden on national exchequer is in addition to human losses," he said. Bajwa said after making the defence strong, it is high time now to wage war against hunger and poverty. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Khan's remark comes two days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his first official trip to Pakistan during which he said that nearly $300 million in security-related funding to Pakistan that the US suspended could be back on the table if the White House believes Pakistan is making sufficient progress in the fight against terrorist groups. Pompeo suggested that he had not received firm enough commitments yet to warrant re-establishing that aid. US President Donald Trump The Trump administration has claimed Islamabad is granting safe haven to terrorists who are waging a 17-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan - a charge Pakistan denies. Announcing the initial suspension of funds in January, President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of "lies & deceit." In January, Trump had blasted Pakistan for its unwillingness or inability to act against terrorist groups like the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. OneIndia News with PTI inputs Canal bridge collapses in Siliguri Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government came under fire from the opposition after a portion of Majerhat Bridge in Kolkata came crashing down on Wednesday. Three persons died and over a dozen were injured in the indicent. This was the third bridge collapse in the city since 2013. (Image credit - ANI/Twitter) Bridge caved in while truck was crossing it West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh on Thursday claimed that negligence on the part of the state government led to the partial collapse of a south Kolkata bridge and urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter instead of covering it up by bringing other issues to the fore. He also alleged that the bridge collapse is the result of the state government's tendency of giving contracts to the people of the state ruling party Trinamool Congress. (Image credit - ANI/Twitter) This comes two days after part of Majerhat bridge collapsed in Kolkata Banerjee, on her part, assured that stern action will be taken against those responsible for the incident. Defending her government, she said that the bridges were not constructed during the Trinamool Congress's tenure so they should not be the only one to be blamed. [Kolkata bridge collapse: Two still missing, search operations underway] Majerhat bridge in south Kolkata collapsed on Sep 4 On March 31, 2016, an under-construction flyover collapsed in the crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, claiming 26 lives. On March 4, 2013, a road bridge collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city. There was no casualty. 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 UP Board Class 10th, 12th Result 2021 Declared: How to check Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah 16 year old boy beaten to death in Kanpur Lucknow oi-Madhuri Kanpur, Sep 7: A teenager was allegedly beaten to death by a group of boys for talking to the girlfriend of one of the accused persons in Kidwai Nagar locality here, police said Thursday. The victim, a student of class 11, was beaten up Wednesday, said Anurag Mishra, the Station House Officer of Kidwai Nagar police station. The 16-year-old boy was rushed to the Lala Lajpat Rai hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Also Read | 8 identified in lynching of man over suspicion of theft He was a friend of the girl living in his neighbourhood but her boyfriend did not approve of him talking to her frequently and had warned the victim many times in the past to stay away, the SHO said. On Wednesday evening, the teenager was spotted talking to the girl by her boyfriend who called his other friends and assaulted him, resulting in his death, the SHO added. A case was registered against the accused persons, he said. For More Lucknow News, Click Here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 9:13 [IST] Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah Minor forced to take back rape complaint in UP Lucknow pti-PTI Muzaffarnagar, Sept 7: A 16-year-old girl has alleged her family was being pressured to withdraw an attempt-to-rape case against a man who has been jailed in the matter, police said on Friday (Sep 7). Superintendent of Police (city) Omvir Singh said the girl approached the police on Thursday with her complaint. According to her complaint, the man, in her early 20s, had attempted to rape her on August 9 in Charthawal police station area in the district. She filed a police complaint against the man and he was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sent to jail the same day, Singh said. In her complaint on Thursday, she has alleged that she was being pressured into withdrawing the case, the SP said. He said the matter was being probed. For more Lucknow news Click Here. PTI Cruise drugs party organisers took nod from Centre, not Maha govt, says Nawab Malik MHT CET Counselling registration begins: All you should know 20 year old acquitted in case of sexually harassing sister Mumbai oi-Madhuri Mumbai, Sep 7: A court 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. Also Read | Youth sexually harass 17 year old girl in UP 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. Also Read | Two women sexually harassed in two separate incidents in UP 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. For More Mumbai News, Click Here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 10:35 [IST] Diwali 2021: How to perform Lakshmi puja at home, puja samagri, vidhi and shubh muhurat Delhi: 3 arrested for duping job aspirants New Delhi oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Sep 7: Three people, including a woman, was arrested and a juvenile was apprehended for allegedly duping people on the pretext of providing them jobs in a massage parlour, police said Thursday. Two of the three arrested people were identified as Shree Ram and Akash, they said. Based on a complaint filed by Rinku Pandey, a case was registered on August 24, the police said. The complainant alleged that he received a call from a number and was offered a job at a massage parlour. He was assured a payment of Rs 40,000 for four hours of work, said Nupur Prasad, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (north). Also Read | 4 nabbed in connection Mangolpuri stabbing As directed by the caller, Pandey deposited Rs 1,18,000 through Paytm for registration and other formalities, said the senior officer. During investigation, Paytm ID transactions of the alleged mobile numbers were obtained. On analysing the transactions, three transactions of electricity bill payment were found and the details of the same were obtained, she said. Subsequently, the three accused persons were arrested and a juvenile was apprehended, the DCP said, adding that 10 mobile phones and some SIM cards were recovered from their possession. For More New Delhi News, Click Here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 9:25 [IST] Diwali 2021: How to perform Lakshmi puja at home, puja samagri, vidhi and shubh muhurat Cow slaughter: 7 persons arrested New Delhi oi-Madhuri Noida, Sep 7: Tension gripped Noida's Gejha village where alleged remains of a cow were found Thursday, prompting police to file a case and arrest seven people suspected of slaughtering the animal. The remains were spotted by locals near a 'baraat ghar' in a meat market in the village in Sector 93 in the morning and they soon alerted the police on the emergency 100 number, officials said. Based on a complaint filed by a villager here, an FIR was filed under the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 at the Phase 2 police station. Also Read | Suspected cow smugglers open fire at cops In the complaint, he accused meat traders of slaughtering the animal. "Seven accused persons have been arrested so far. They have been charged under section 3/5 A/8 of the Uttar Pradesh Cow Slaughter Act," Circle Officer, City 3rd, Shwetabh Pandey told PTI. Another police official said the samples of meat from local shops and those of the alleged remains of the cow were sent for forensic test. Also Read | No slaughterhouses in Uttarakhand says CM The arrested persons will be remanded in judicial custody Friday morning, the official said. The police pacified the villagers and stepped up security in the area, he said. For More New Delhi News, Click here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 9:19 [IST] Delhi: Portion of crumbling ceiling of a govt quarter crashes, breaks woman's nose New Delhi oi-Vikas By Vikas New Delhi, Sep 7: In an incident which brings to fore the lackadaisical attitude of municipal authorities towards maintenance of government quarters, a woman was injured after a portion of ceiling of her official accommodation in Delhi came crashing down. The injured woman, Beena Chadha, has alleged that she had been filing complaints regarding the dilapidated ceiling of their flat for almost a month, said a HT report. The incident took place on August 15 when Chadha was watching TV in her living room. The plaster on the ceiling and some debris fell on her, leaving Chadha with a broken nose and serious injuries on her face. Chadha has blamed South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) officials for her injuries. Nearly three weeks after the incident, the Delhi Police booked unnamed municipal officials over the incident. The cases were booked under sections 288 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) at the Lajpat Nagar police station on Wednesday, said the HT report. [Fire accident kills 2 and injures 9 in Delhi] Chaddha has been living with her husband and 25-year-old daughter at a ground-floor flat in the Chest Clinic and TB Hospital government quarters in Nehru Nagar since 2013. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, September 7, 2018, 10:16 [IST] President Mokgweetsi Masisi has returnsl from his visit to Beijing, China, certainly a happy man, in light of the concessions he has extracted from his counterpart, Xi Jingping. According to official news reports China has extended some P340 million for Botswanas development and on top of that, cancelled Botswanas P80million debt. This is no small feat by any measure. Masisis state visit has also calmed the frosty relations between China and Botswana, which erupted last year over a planned visit of Tibets spiritual leader, Dalai Lama to Botswana for a peace conference. The two nations cordial relations which were begun in 1975 by this countrys founding fathers were almost sullied by this single act, which China deemed offensive and against the spirit of the One China Policy, which Botswana has always respected. Masisi will announce in a press conference tomorrow 9Saturday 8th September) other concessions that he has made with the Chinese people across economic, social, cultural and political relations. A sticking point for most of the Asian investors has over the years been Botswanas restrictive immigration laws. Thankfully, Masisi has since committed to review the immigration policies with a view to relax visa and work permit requirements for investors, businesspeople and other foreign nationals visiting the country as either tourists or workers.Even though Botswana and China have signed Memorandum of Understanding on various areas of cooperation during the recent state visit, there is serious concern that the agreement on promotion and protection of investment between the two nations, which was signed in June 2000, has not entered into force. Reasons advanced for this delay are that it is being withheld by legal issues, on the Botswana side, while China has already signed it and passed it through Parliament. In a recent interview before the delegation left for China, the countrys Chief Negotiator at the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Phadzha Butale expounded further on this.Indeed we signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with China. Subsequent to that we found that BITs as previously crafted brought unforeseen problems and debilitating consequences for developing countries particularly in Africa. As a result, both nationally and regionally a decision was taken to review our template BIT and to come up with a suitable model that would be adopted in the region at SADC. Thus Botswana took the decision to impose a moratorium on the negotiation and commencement of BITs where same had been signed so as to allow for their review. The review is still underway and the moratorium still stands, said Butale. Trade value between Botswana and China is skewed in Chinas favour. Li Hongbing, the First Secretary in the Economic and Commercial Counsellor's Office at the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Botswana, says the trade value between China and Botswana was US$ 266 million. Chinese statistics show that in the same period, the outflow of foreign direct investment from China to Botswana dropped 77 percent year-on-year to US$ 18.78 million, while the amount of FDI from China to SADC was US$ 1.07 billion. Chinas main imports from Botswana were jewellery, precious metals and their products, mineral sand and ash; oil seed kernels, clothing and accessories. There is hope that China could relax her sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) standards and lift the ban on Botswanas beef exports to that huge market. Observers however, wonder whether Botswana would be able to supply that market with beef if this came to pass. It is food for thought, as Botswana explores alternative export markets in her quest to diversify her economy and bring poverty levels down. Officers responded to Sephora at Hamilton Place on a theft case. A store employee said two unknown black females concealed store items without offering payment. The items taken were various fragrances valued at approximately $650. It was the second theft this same day involving two of the same people, store officials said. * * * Police were dispatched on a noise complaint on Cowart Street. The call originally came in as a large group of people outside in the middle of the road by the Coyote Jack's nightclub hooting and hollering waking nearby residents up. By the time police arrived the crowds in the street had dispersed. Neighbor George Parker said he went outside to ask the parties to stop being loud and asked they turn down the music in their vehicles. He said this in an ongoing issue every weekend. Police contacted a second complainant, who also stated this was an ongoing issue every weekend and she is always awakened in the middle of the night by people exiting the night club. * * * A resident of N. Germantown Road said he heard a loud bang from inside his residence. He walked outside with his niece. A white male (skinny, sandy blonde hair and beard, early 40's, wearing a blue shirt and camo pants) exited the driver side of a vehicle. The driver then asked if he could use one of their phones before taking off running southbound down N. Germantown. Police ran the vehicle, which came back stolen out of Nashville. Police discovered a cell phone inside the truck and turned it into property. * * * A woman said she was traveling on Volkswagen Drive and she hit a rock that was in the middle of the road. She attempted to straddle the rock because she thought that it was smaller than she thought and, when she drove over the rock, it hit the undercarriage causing damage to the vehicle. After looking at the undercarriage it was apparent that the vehicle was unable to move and was disabled, police said. Denton's Wrecker arrived and towed the vehicle. * * * Anthony Jones said he sat his wallet on a bench inside the lobby of the Patten Towers and left for a few minutes. He said after he returned his wallet was gone. Lost were his debit card, Social Security card, his Identification Card and $40. * * * An officer said he observed a woman flagging down vehicles and standing in the middle of the roadway. He said, "These are common traits among prostitutes." He checked the woman for warrants, but did not find any. * * * A woman said she pulled out of the Starbucks lot at Northgate Mall and a gray Ford pickup truck blew the horn at her. She said the white male driver gave her the middle finger and she returned the goodwill gesture. The driver then pulled up beside her and started to curse her. He then showed her a handgun. The woman said she was not able to get a full tag number on the truck. * * * An official of Sportsman's Warehouse on Perimeter Drive said a white male was seen concealing a Gerber Ghost Knife under his shirt. The man then ran out of the store without paying for the item. The suspect was heavy set, wearing a red shirt, red shorts, and a black hat. Police searched the area for the suspect, but were unable to locate him. * * * A pizza delivery guy said he was summoned to 11 Minnekahda Trail. He said he had trouble finding the address. He said a man in a black F-150 started yelling at him telling him he was on private property. The pizza guy said he left and the truck followed him down the road. He said he finally located the person who ordered the pizza and, when he pulled over, the man in the truck got out and started cussing at him again. * * * Officials of Lowe's on Gunbarrel Road said they had someone walk out of the store with a chainsaw, a vacuum, and yard mulch totaling around $950. The only information was that it was a white female. Also, at the same Lowe's, a white male ran out of the store with a drill. Store personnel were unable to get a tag of the vehicle that the suspect drove off in. * * * A woman said an unknown suspect broke her lock off of her locker, #14, at Planet Fitness and stole all of her items that she had stored while she was working out. She said her purse, wallet, gym bag, husband's wallet, and three sets of keys were stolenr. She estimated all of the items to be $802. * * * At Hamilton Place Boulevard, a woman said she was inside Abuela's when a window was broken out of her vehicle and her purse stolen. She said she came out and found the glass on the ground next to her vehicle. She then noticed that her purse was stolen and it had her driver's license, Social Security card, two debit cards and two credit cards. She said that all of her cards were canceled by the time the officer arrived and she was working on canceling her checks also. She said the window would cost her $200 and there was no money taken from the credit or debit cards. The restaurant had video surveillance of the parking lot, but her vehicle was not in the video. * * * The manager at Circle K at 4900 Brainerd Road said an older black male with a cane came into the store and pocketed three cell phone chargers and possibly some medication and then proceeded to exit the store without paying. He also did not acknowledge the manager when he asked the man if he was going to pay for the items he took. Police were told that the man left on foot heading toward Waffle House. About $65 worth of merchandise had been stolen. He was described as in his 50s/60s, wearing a gray shirt and red pants. He had white hair and mustache. Police searched the area for the man, but did not locate him. * * * At Payless Shoes on Gunbarrel Road, an employee said three females came into the store and one of them was carrying a flat bag, which made her suspicious of them. While she was watching them and trying to help other customers, one of the women became confrontational and was asking why she was watching them. She then saw them picking up shoes and they were walking around the store with them. While she was helping other customers, she noticed that all three of them left the store without paying for the shoes they had been carrying. She then saw them get into a silver Chevy Malibu and drive away. * * * At a business at 2038 S Kelley St., an employee watching the surveillance system saw a white female put five cans of mosquito spray and two cans of roach spray in her purse. She then left without paying for the items. She drove off in a white four-door Nissan.. * * * The Fire and Police Departments were called to the parking lot of Firehouse Subs at 5546 Hwy. 153 on a car in a sinkhole. Anita Gowdy showed an officer her 2008 Nissan Rogue. The left rear tire was in the sinkhole, which was about five feet in diameter. A tow truck was summoned. * * * Police took a call on 13th Avenue. A man said he had been inside the residence "engaged with a female friend when there was a knock on the door." He said he "ignored the knock because he was indisposed at the time. At this time two black males then entered the residence and greeted the complainant." The said said he "told them to leave and followed them out of the house where they left on foot headed north." The man said "he was mainly surprised by the interruption and that he actually knows one of the male parties so he did not wish to prosecute." Matthias Knab, Opalesque: More than 300 finance, public policy experts, and institutional investors will convene at the inaugural Greenwich Economic Forum in Greenwich, Conn., on November 15-16, 2018 to discuss the biggest opportunities and challenges facing global markets, public and private investments, pension plans, institutional investors, and the wider economy. Conversations will be led by luminaries including Ray Dalio, Afsaneh Beschloss, Paul Tudor Jones, and Dmitry Balyasny, with the aim to develop solutions for some of the industry's leading problems. The forum is being organized by the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association (CTHFA) and the Greenwich Business Institute (GBI), under the auspices of Greenwich First Selectman Peter J. Tesei's Economic Advisory Committee. Topics to be addressed span the global pension crisis, allocation strategies, global private market investing, the opening of China's financial markets, trade wars, and the rise of private credit strategies. Opalesque founder Matthias Knab is on the event's organizing committee and will also attend the conference. Opalesque users will receive an additional 10% discount on all delegate passes with code Opalesque10 when registering. "Our industry has some of the brightest minds in the world, but as the current economic cycle comes to a close we are facing a myriad of divergent issues," said CTHFA President and GBI Co-Chair Bruce McGuire. "In these uncertain times, it's impe...................... To view our full article Click here US Amniotic Membrane Market Expected to Reach $722 Million by 2022 United States Amniotic Membrane http://bit.ly/2oKxQMe http://bit.ly/2wO54hf According to a new report published by Progressive Markets Report, titled, "United States Amniotic Membrane Market by Product and Application: United States Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2012-2022," the United States amniotic membrane market was valued at $189 million in 2012, and is projected to reach $722 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 13.6% from 2017 to 2022. The cryopreserved amniotic membrane is anticipated to be the highest revenue contributor during the forecast period.Access Full Summary at:Amniotic membrane is the innermost layer of the placenta, which consists of a thick basement membrane and an avascular stromal matrix. It can be used as a graft and as a dressing to ease ocular surface reconstruction and promote healing of various ailments. Advanced wound care products, such as amniotic membranes, are gaining preference over traditional products, as they promote faster-wound healingThe United States amniotic membrane market is driven by different factors such as an increase in elderly population, growth in awareness to reduce healthcare costs, and technological advancements associated with amniotic membrane applications. However, a dearth of skilled professionals involved in amniotic membrane treatment procedures restricts the market growth.Get sample report:-The impact of the drivers is significantly higher than that of the restraints in this market. Rise in awareness about the advantages of amniotic membrane transplants among the populace is expected to provide lucrative opportunities for market growth during the forecast period.In the product segment, cryopreserved lyophilized amniotic membrane accounted for nearly 77% of share in 2012. The lyophilized amniotic membrane, on the other hand, is anticipated to be the fastest growing segment, poised to grow at a CAGR of 16.1% from 2017 to 2022. Based on region, the west region is anticipated to dominate the United States amniotic membrane market.In the application segment, surgical wounds segment accounted for nearly 67% of the share in 2012. The ophthalmology segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR of 15.4% from 2017 to 2022, owing to the fast recovery associated with amniotic membrane utilization for different eye-related ailments.The study offers a comprehensive analysis of the key manufacturers operating in the United States amniotic membrane industry. An overview of each market player is provided in the study to assist market players, new entrants, investors, and stakeholders determine steps to be taken to achieve growth in the future.The report highlights their overview, business performance, key strategic moves & developments, and market share with respect to the market players in the report. Important market players studied in the report include Fziomed, Inc., Skye Biologics Inc., IOP Ophthalmics, Amniox Medical, Inc., Amnio Technology LLC, Applied Biologics LLC, Alliqua Biomedical, Inc., Human Regenerative Technologies, LLC, Derma Sciences Inc., and Mimedx Group, Inc. Information about the players assists in assessing the competitiveness prevailing in the United States amniotic membrane market.The company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.Reach UsMr. Shriram Dighe4th Floor, Unit 12, Marisoft III,West Wing, Marigold IT Park,Kalyani Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411014,India: +91 20 66346040Toll Free: + 1-888-906-9222help@progressivemarkets.com Aldehydes 2018 Global Market Key Players Celanese Corporation, Huntsman Corporation, BASF SE, Georgia Pacific Corporation, Eastman Analysis and Forecast to 2025 Aldehydes Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3385755-global-aldehydes-market-insights-forecast-to-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3385755-global-aldehydes-market-insights-forecast-to-2025 www.wiseguyreports.com WiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Aldehydes Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 New Document to its Studies DatabaseThis report researches the worldwide Aldehydes market size (value, capacity, production and consumption) in key regions like North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (China, Japan) and other regions.This study categorizes the global Aldehydes breakdown data by manufacturers, region, type and application, 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.Global Aldehydes market size will increase to Million US$ by 2025, from Million US$ in 2017, 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 Aldehydes.This report focuses on the top manufacturers' Aldehydes capacity, production, value, price and market share of Aldehydes in global market. The following manufacturers are covered in this report:Celanese CorporationHuntsman CorporationBASF SEGeorgia Pacific CorporationEastmanGujarat Alkalies and Chemicals LimitedSimalin Chemicals Industries LimitedSinopecCNPCSumitomoRequest For Sample Report @Aldehydes Breakdown Data by TypeAcetaldehydeBenzaldehydeButyraldehydeFormaldehydePropionaldehydeTolualdehydeOthersAldehydes Breakdown Data by ApplicationMedical DisinfectantsPharmaceuticalPlastic AdditivesDyesAgrochemicalsIndustrial ApplicationsOthersAldehydes Production Breakdown Data by RegionUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanOther RegionsThe study objectives are:To analyze and research the global Aldehydes capacity, production, value, consumption, status and forecast;To focus on the key Aldehydes manufacturers and study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in next few years.To focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.Complete Report Details @Table Of Contents:1 Study Coverage1.1 Aldehydes Product1.2 Key Market Segments in This Study1.3 Key Manufacturers Covered1.4 Market by Type1.4.1 Global Aldehydes Market Size Growth Rate by Type1.4.2 Acetaldehyde1.4.3 Benzaldehyde1.4.4 Butyraldehyde1.4.5 Formaldehyde1.4.6 Propionaldehyde1.4.7 Tolualdehyde1.4.8 Others1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Aldehydes Market Size Growth Rate by Application1.5.2 Medical Disinfectants1.5.3 Pharmaceutical1.5.4 Plastic Additives1.5.5 Dyes1.5.6 Agrochemicals1.5.7 Industrial Applications1.5.8 Others1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 Global Aldehydes Production2.1.1 Global Aldehydes Revenue 2013-20252.1.2 Global Aldehydes Production 2013-20252.1.3 Global Aldehydes Capacity 2013-20252.1.4 Global Aldehydes Marketing Pricing and Trends2.2 Aldehydes Growth Rate (CAGR) 2018-20252.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)2.3.2 Key Aldehydes Manufacturers2.4 Market Drivers, Trends and Issues2.5 Macroscopic Indicator2.5.1 GDP for Major Regions2.5.2 Price of Raw Materials in Dollars: Evolution2 Executive Summary2.1 Global Aldehydes Production2.1.1 Global Aldehydes Revenue 2013-20252.1.2 Global Aldehydes Production 2013-20252.1.3 Global Aldehydes Capacity 2013-20252.1.4 Global Aldehydes Marketing Pricing and Trends2.2 Aldehydes Growth Rate (CAGR) 2018-20252.3 Analysis of Competitive Landscape2.3.1 Manufacturers Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)2.3.2 Key Aldehydes Manufacturers2.4 Market Drivers, Trends and Issues2.5 Macroscopic Indicator2.5.1 GDP for Major Regions2.5.2 Price of Raw Materials in Dollars: Evolution..8 Manufacturers Profiles8.1 Celanese Corporation8.1.1 Celanese Corporation Company Details8.1.2 Company Description8.1.3 Capacity, Production and Value of Aldehydes8.1.4 Aldehydes Product Description8.1.5 SWOT Analysis8.2 Huntsman Corporation8.2.1 Huntsman Corporation Company Details8.2.2 Company Description8.2.3 Capacity, Production and Value of Aldehydes8.2.4 Aldehydes Product Description8.2.5 SWOT Analysis8.3 BASF SE8.3.1 BASF SE Company Details8.3.2 Company Description8.3.3 Capacity, Production and Value of Aldehydes8.3.4 Aldehydes Product Description8.3.5 SWOT Analysis8.4 Georgia Pacific Corporation8.4.1 Georgia Pacific Corporation Company Details8.4.2 Company Description8.4.3 Capacity, Production and Value of Aldehydes8.4.4 Aldehydes Product Description8.4.5 SWOT Analysis8.5 Eastman8.5.1 Eastman Company Details8.5.2 Company Description8.5.3 Capacity, Production and Value of Aldehydes8.5.4 Aldehydes Product Description8.5.5 SWOT AnalysisContinued.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 Disease-modifying Anti-rheumatic Drugs Market Poised to Expand at a Robust Pace Over 2026 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/disease-modifying-anti-rheumatic-drugs-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=45015 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=45015 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Treatment of symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and modification of the course of the disease is carried out using disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. These disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs help in slowing down the progress of rheumatoid arthritis along with reduction of stiffness, inflammation, and pain, unlike non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids, or aspirin that help only in the treatment of symptoms such as inflammation and pain. Rheumatoid arthritis is a long lasting chronic inflammatory disease that causes swelling, redness, warmth, stiffness, and pain in joints of neck, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, ankles, feet, wrists, and hands. This disease damages and misaligns the joints. As the disease spreads in the joints, the lining tissue of the joint becomes thick and wears away surrounding bone, cartilage, and ligaments.Read Report Overview:Rheumatoid arthritis is a symmetrical pattern disease, and is considered to be an autoimmune disease. When the healthy joint tissues of the body are attacked by white blood cells, it leads inflammation of the thin layer of cells lining the joint, causing release of enzymes. The ligaments, tendons, bone, and cartilage near the joint are damaged as the disease progresses due to the enzymes and certain immune cells. According to certain researches, this faulty immune system is triggered by a virus. However, there is no evidence that rheumatoid arthritis is caused by virus. Some researchers also suggest that it is due to genetics, or smoking habits may cause rheumatoid arthritis.Incidence of rheumatoid arthritis is increasing across the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each year, nearly 22.7% adult population, around 54.4 million, in the U.S. had some form of fibromyalgia, or lupus, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, or arthritis. The CDC also anticipates that around 26%, or 78 million, adult population in the country will have doctor-diagnosed arthritis by 2040. Obesity and overweight raise the chances of rheumatoid arthritis. Increase in obese and overweight population in the world is likely to boost demand for disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. According to the CDC, approximately 31% of the obese and 23% of overweight adult population report arthritis in the U.S. each year.Request Brochure of Report:The global disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medicines market can be segmented based on dosage form, distribution channel, and region. In terms of dosage form, the market can be categorized into tablet, capsule, and injection. Based on distribution channel, the global disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medicines market can be classified into retail pharmacies, online pharmacies, and hospital pharmacies.Geographically, the global disease-modifying anti-rheumatic agents market can be categorized into Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, North America, and Middle East & Africa. North America held the largest market share owing to increase in health care expenditure, surge in obese and overweight population, and rise in prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis. Europe held the second largest market share in 2016 due to increase in research and development on anti-rheumatic drugs, and rise in obese and overweight adult population. High incidence of rheumatoid arthritis in developing countries and investment by key players in these countries with large patient population are anticipated to drive the market in Asia Pacific. The disease-modifying anti-rheumatic medicines market in Middle East & Africa is anticipated to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period due to rise in prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis. The market in Latin America is expected to be driven by increase in awareness about rheumatoid arthritis among the people.Request For TOC :Key players in the global disease-modifying anti-rheumatic agents market include Sebela Pharmaceuticals, Inc., DAVA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ)., Pfizer, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc. Amgen, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, and Janssen Biotech, 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.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Tumor Ablation Market foreseen high market growth Opportunities With CAGR of 13.15% by 2023 | AngioDynamics Inc, Galil Medical Inc, SonaCare Medical, Boston Scientific, EDAP TMS S.A, HealthTronics Inc, Medtronic Tumor Ablation Market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report/tumor-ablation-market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report-sample/HC06854 https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/send-an-enquiry/HC06854 https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/check-discount/HC06854 The Advancements in Medical science, the Crystal Market Research added a new report Tumor Ablation Market gives an overview of various key elements like Market size and growth rate. This report is made on the basis of analysis and on the basis of key players involved in the market segment.Competitive InsightsThe leading players in the market are AngioDynamics Inc, Galil Medical Inc, SonaCare Medical, Boston Scientific, EDAP TMS S.A, HealthTronics Inc, Medtronic, NeuWave Medical and MISONIX Inc. These industry players have implemented different methodologies to support their position in the market. For example, collaborations, new product launches, mergers and acquisitions, technological advancements are the most well-known activities in this industry.Detail Research Study With Complete TOC Click On Below Link-Industry Trend Outlook -The Tumor Ablation Market was worth USD 0.28 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach approximately USD 0.86 billion by 2023, while registering itself at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.15% during the forecast period. Expanding pervasiveness of cancer is the main consideration contributing for the development of the market. On the basis of the insights published by World Health Organization (WHO), around 13% of the general population suffer from cancer around the world. Furthermore, there is 70.0% ascent in cancer cases expected throughout the following couple of decades. Hence, in excess of 100 cancer composes need tumour ablation in this manner boosting market development over the conjecture time frame. Technological progressions in the field of thermal ablation technologies are expected to fuel market development. The fast ascent in maturing populace is anticipated to increase.Regional Outlook and Trend Analysis:North America ruled the general tumor ablation market with more than 32.0% share in 2015. Main factors adding to development of this district incorporate support of the government for quality healthcare, availability of reimbursement, high purchasing power parity, and expanding predominance of growths in the U.S. also, Canada. In expansion, accuracy prescription activity is detailing the custom fitted procedures on exceptional qualities of diseases.Request to Get Exclusive Sample Copy At:Technology Outlook and Trend AnalysisRadiofrequency tumor ablation technology held considerable share in 2015. Radiofrequency ablation uses of imaging devices and needle electrode probe to pierce through skin. High recurrence currents are gone through electrode for creating heat in order to decimate tumor cells. These electric currents create sound waves; these waves at that point produce warm responding target cell particle. Increasing application of this innovation in solid tumor removal everywhere throughout the body and its specificity contributed its development.Treatment Outlook and Trend AnalysisSurgical ablation fragment held significant share of 42.1% of every 2015. Expanded pervasiveness of cancers such as liver disease and breast cancer, which require open surgical methods, added to development of surgical procedures. Nonetheless, percutaneous procedures are anticipated to reflect lucrative development over the estimate time frame. Rising interest for minimally invasive surgeries is high-affect rendering factor adding to their development. These methods offer quicker recovery, diminished scarring, and expanded security.Application Outlook and Trend AnalysisLiver cancer represented biggest shares in 2015. Liver cancer is most common in males as opposed to females, and rising rate of bile duct cancer and also primary liver cancer brought about their dominion. Lung cancer has been expected to develop with the most astounding CAGR amid the conjecture time frame. The prevalence of lung cancer is rising, especially cancer types such as Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).Market SegmentationBy Technology:Microwave ablationCryoablationRadiofrequency ablationOther ablation technologiesBy Treatment:Surgical tumor ablationLaparoscopic tumor ablationPercutaneous tumor ablationBy Application:Liver cancerBreast cancerLung cancerProstate cancerOther cancersTo Discuss Any Question About Report You Can Click OnBy RegionNorth America - U.S, Canada, MexicoEurope Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacific- Japan, China, Australia, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia PacificRest of the World Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab EmiratesMajor Table of Contents:1. Introduction1.1. Report Description1.2. Research Methodology1.2.1. Secondary Research1.2.2. Primary Research2. Executive Summary2.1. Key Highlights3. Market Overview3.1. Introduction3.1.1. Market Definition3.1.2. Market Segmentation3.2. Market Share Analysis3.3. Market Dynamics3.3.1. Drivers3.2.2. Restraints3.2.3. Opportunities3.2.3.1. Emerging Markets to Offer Lucrative Growth Opportunities....CONTINUED FOR TOCTo Avail an Discount Offers About Report Please Click On The Link @About Crystal Market Research:Crystal Offers One Stop Solution For Market Research, Business Intelligence, And Consulting Services To Help Clients Make More Informed Decisions. It Provides Both Syndicated As Well As Customized Research Studies For Its Customers Spread Across The Globe. The Company Offers Market Intelligence Reports Across A Broad Range Of Industries Including Healthcare, Chemicals & Materials, Technology, Automotive, And Energy.Contact Us:Judy S,304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: Sales@Crystalmarketresearch.Com High-intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) therapy Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth by 2026 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/high-intensity-focused-ultrasound-therapy-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=48465 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/high-intensity-focused-ultrasound-therapy-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ High-intensity focused ultrasound therapy (HIFU) is an emerging, novel therapeutic modality that utilizes ultrasound waves. The waves propagate through tissue media as carriers of energy. HIFU is a non-invasive technology that can transport energy through a media of intervening tissues to specific targets in the body. HIFU has high potential for tumor ablation, thrombolysis, hemostasis, and targeted drug/gene delivery. The treatment of cancer is an important issue in both developed as well as developed countries. Ultrasound has not only been used in the diagnosis of cancer but also in its treatment. Focused ultrasound surgery (FUS) is a noninvasive technique that when combined with high-intensity and imaging method has the potential to ablate tumor lesions precisely. The mechanisms of HIFU ablation involve mechanical and thermal effects. Recent advancements in HIFU have widened its popularity. Many promising results were achieved in managing various malignancies in the prostate, pancreas, breast, liver, kidney, and bone.Read Report Overview:The global high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy (HIFU) market can be segmented based on application, end-user, and region. In terms of application, the high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy (HIFU) market can be classified into hemostasis, thrombolysis, target drug delivery, tumor ablation, and others. Based on end-user, the market can be categorized into hospitals, diagnostic centers, and research centers. In terms of geography, the market can be divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa.Major factors driving the HIFU therapy market include increase in the prevalence of cancer, rise in awareness among people about the therapy, approval of HIFU therapy for new indications, and increase in safety and success of the treatment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer accounts for 8.3 million deaths each year, with 70% new cancer cases expected to be reported over the next 20 years. According to the American Cancer Society, the most common cancers in the U.S. include breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and melanoma. National expenditure for cancer care in the U.S. stood at US$ 125 Bn in 2010 and is expected to reach US$ 156 Bn in 2020. Rise in prevalence of cancer is expected to drive the HIFU therapy market during the forecast period.Request Brochure of Report:In terms of region, North America accounts for a significant share of the market in terms of revenue, followed by Europe. The market in emerging countries such as China, South Korea, Brazil, and India is expected to expand significantly over the next five years. However, the global market will continue to be dominated by North America and Europe. The prominent market share of North America is attributed to the high diagnosis rate of diseases, high disposable income, well-developed health care infrastructure, and high awareness about the latest medical developments among people. Moreover, high research and development activities in the region promoting development of new therapies can be attributed to the large market share of the region.The market in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at a rapid rate, due to increase in prevalence of cancer, investment by market players in the emerging countries such as China and India, and increased consumer awareness about the treatment of cancer. Other regions, such as Middle East & Africa and Latin America, are anticipated to be prospective regions of the markets in the near future. This is due to the high adoption rate of advanced therapeutics and a rapidly developing health care industry.Request For TOC :Major players operating in the HIFU therapy market include EDAP TMS, THERACLION, CARDIAWAVE, BrainSonix Corporation, FUS Instruments, Image Guided Therapy, Promedica Bioelectronics s.r.l., Verasonics, Inc., PROFOUND MEDICAL Corp., and EpiSonica.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Automotive E-tailing Market 2018 Industry Trends, Leading Players - Rock Auto LLC, Genuine Parts Company, CARiD.com, O'Reilly Auto Parts, AutoZone, JEGS High Performance, K&N Engineering Automotive E-tailing Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1915 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/automotive-e-tailing-market-1915 Automotive E-tailing Market Share, Size, Trends, And Business Opportunity Analysis Report 2018 include historic data, with forecast data to 2022. Automotive E-tailing Market report is helpful for future strategy development, and to know about Market Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, And Global market key players forecast to 2022Global Automotive E-tailing Market Information Report by Vendor Type (OEM Vendor, Third Party Vendor), by Components (Electrical & Electronics, Chassis, Powertrain), by Vehicles (Commercial Vehicles, Non Commercial Vehicles) and by Region - Global Forecast to 2022.Get Sample Report of Automotive E-tailing Market@E-tailing is the fastest growing sales channel of the automotive industry and is expanding briskly. Market Research Future (MRFR) predicts the automotive e-tailing market to reach USD 55.22 Billion by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of 12%. A growing number of businesses today are deploying e-commerce as a tool to boost sales and revenue, and the automotive industry is one of them. Automotive e-tailing refers to the sale of automotive goods and components through electronic media. The automotive e-tailing market is growing primarily due to increasing e-commerce platform and collaboration between e-commerce providers and companies. Ease of online shopping and payment, availability of a wide array of automotive products such as infotainment systems, engine parts, tires-wheel, interior accessories, and electrical components supports the growth of the automotive e-tailing market. The rapid expansion of the automotive industry in emerging economies also aids the growth of the automotive e-tailing market. Feature comparison, availability of goods at a discounted price and customer reviews also boost the growth of the market. Additionally, rising initiatives in many developing countries for digitization has also supported the growth of the automotive e-tailing market. Moreover, automotive e-tailing provides buyers with the assurance of the authenticity of the products being purchased. E-tailing in the automotive industry is increasing rapidly as it solves the problems of automotive parts suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers such as complex order processing, errors on conditions, payment and shipping, etc. Other drivers include growing internet penetration, increase in consumer base of vehicles, increased preference of consumers for e-commerce platforms, and increasing investment of companies on e-commerce platforms. Despite the growing popularity of automotive e-tailing, the majority of consumers prefer brick and mortar stores over online platforms which are restricting the growth of the market. Other factors which might hinder the market growth include online payment frauds, delay in product possession and slow adoption of e-commerce for automotive parts due to inhibitions regarding product quality.SegmentationThe global automotive e-tailing market has been segmented based on vendor type, component, and vehicles. By vendor type, the market has been segmented into OEM Vendor and Third Party Vendor. By component, the market has been segmented Electrical & Electronics, Chassis, and Powertrain. By vehicles, the market has been segmented into commercial cars and non-commercial vehicles.Regional AnalysisThe key markets of the global automotive e-tailing market are North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. The Asia-Pacific market accounts for the largest share of the market owing to rising internet penetration and proliferation of smartphones in the region. China and India re the key contributors in the region due to high vehicle population. North America market is also consolidated due to a high inclination towards e-tailing in the region.Competitive LandscapeThe key players operating in the market include Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (U.S), eBay Inc. (U.S), Genuine Parts Company (U.S), O'Reilly Auto Parts (U.S), JEGS High Performance (U.S), Delticom AG (Germany), Rock Auto LLC. (U.S), CARiD.com (U.S), AutoZone, Inc. (U.S), K&N Engineering, Inc. (U.S) and others.Industry UpdatesIn April 2018, Hero MotoCorp, an automotive company launched an e-commerce portal to sell authentic hero parts and accessories for two-wheelers. The company has partnered with Delhivery, an Indian logistics company for delivering parts to its customers across India.In June 2018, eBay Canada announced the availability of a new automotive parts compatibility feature called Fitment. The feature will make it easier for buyers to search for parts and accessories.In June 2018, Xevo and TomTom announced a partnership to combine Xevo market platform with TomTom's map and navigation expertise. The partnership would offer an opportunity to extend in-vehicle personalization and make navigation experience better and smarter.The report for Global Automotive E-tailing Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Get Complete Report of Automotive E-tailing Market@Continued.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR) and Market Research & Consulting Services.Address:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.com Cancer Diagnostics Market Grows Dynamically with Striking CAGR of 11.8% up to 2023; MRFR Unleashes Industry Forecast Cancer Diagnostics Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1962 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1962 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1962 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 HighlightsThere 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 @Key Players for Global Cancer Diagnostics MarketSome 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 MarketThe 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 MarketThe 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 Prime Discount on Report @Some Brief Table of Contents of ReportChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restrains4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4.6 Technology Trends & AssessmentChapter 5. Market Factor Analysis5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of SuppliersTOC ContinuedDo You Have Specific Requirement? Ask To Our Experts@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 FutureHadapsar, Pune 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Geothermal Energy Market Detail Analysis focusing on Key Players like Ansaldo Energia, TAS Energy, Chevron, Enel Green Power, Ormat, Calpin, Terra Gen, Fuji Electric, General Electric, Exergy, Reykjavik, Terra Gen Geothermal Energy Market, Geothermal Energy Market trends, Geothermal Energy Market forecast, Geothermal Energy Market analysis https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/512053/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/512053/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/geothermal-energy-market/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-geothermal-heat-pumps-market-research-report-2018/?utm_source=RR-AN https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Geothermal Energy Market 2017 2024 research report providing information and data By Technology, Industry Analysis, Regional Outlook, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast spreading across 180 Pages with table and figures in it.Geothermal Energy Market size is set to exceed USD 57 billion by 2024.Increasing energy demand from heating & cooling systems including ground source heat pump and district heating will positively drive the geothermal energy market. Favorable legislations to reduce GHG emissions will further stimulate demand. The EU has introduced several action plans and framework including Paris Climate agreement and 2030 climate and energy framework with an aim to reduce the emissions to 47% from 1990 level. Directive also focusses to increase sustainable energy share to at least 27% of total consumption by 2030.Ability to offer reliable, stable, environment friendly and baseload power will embellish industry penetration. Growing demand for electricity among developing countries owing to increased infrastructure spending will further complement the business outlook. In Latin America, electricity consumption reached from 1268 TWh in 2013 to 1279 TWh in 2015. However, high upfront cost along with location dependency may act as restraint.Request a sample of this premium report at:Easy availability of low temperature resources along with stringent regulation to minimize environmental impact will fuel the U.S. geothermal energy market growth. Regulations including National Ambient Air Quality Standards has been introduced to limit industrial emission including SOx and NOx. Increasing demand for energy efficient system for heating and cooling applications from commercial and residential sector will further influence the industry growth.Increasing demand to recover heat from low to medium temperature reservoirs will propel binary geothermal energy market share. Improved thermal efficiency and strong environmental benefits makes it a preferable option when compared with available counterparts. In 2016, Costa Rica announced to expand its Las Pailas installed capacity by 165 MW, which is expected to be operational by 2018. Flash geothermal energy market will witness strong growth owing to its ability to generate electricity by utilizing water dominated reservoirs with temperature greater than 1800C.Japan geothermal energy market share is predicted to expand over 8% by 2024.Introduction of several incentives including feed in tariff to encourage renewable energy adoption will favor the business growth. In 2016, Japan Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry has introduced USD 0.26 FIT for less than 150MW and USD 0.36 FIT for greater than 150MW geothermal power plants.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Increasing electricity demand along with growing investment towards renewable energy will foster the Ethiopia geothermal energy market. In 2013, the country announced to invest USD 4 billion to build 1000 MW Corbetti geothermal power plant out of which first phase 500 MW is expected to be operational by 2018. In Ethiopia, over 69% of the total population lacks access to electric grid.Key participant in geothermal energy market includes Mitsubishi heavy industry, Ansaldo Energia, TAS Energy, Chevron, Enel Green Power, Ormat, Calpin, Terra Gen, Fuji Electric, General Electric, Exergy, Reykjavik, Terra Gen, Turboden, Toshiba, and U.S. Geothermal.Geothermal Energy market research report includes in-depth coverage of the industry with estimates & forecast in terms of volume (MW) and revenue(USD Million) from 2013 to 2024, for the following segments:Global Geothermal Energy Market, By TechnologyBinary, Single Flash, Double Flash, Triple Flash, Dry, Back pressureTable of Content:Chapter 1. Methodology and ScopeChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Geothermal Energy Industry InsightsChapter 4. Geothermal Energy Market, By TechnologyChapter 5. Geothermal Energy Market, By RegionChapter 6. Company ProfilesFor More Details about this report:Related Report:Global Geothermal Heat Pumps Market Research Report 2018The global Geothermal Heat Pumps market is valued at million US$ in 2017 and will reach million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of during 2018-2025.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:Industry News: news.marketsizeforecasters.com Small Molecule Targeted Cancer Therapy Market Analysis, Trends, Opportunity, Market Size and Segment Forecasts 2013-2019 Transparency Market Research https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/small-molecule-targeted-cancer-therapy-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2107 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=2107 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Small molecule targeted cancer therapies are drugs designed to block the growth of cancerous cells. Conventional cytotoxic medications and chemotherapies usually destroys rapidly dividing cancer cells by inhibiting cell division process. However, small molecule targeted therapies destroys cancerous cells with fewer side effects and high precision. Small molecule targeted cancer therapies can be used for the treatment of various cancers such as prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, breast cancer, lymphoma, melanoma and other cancers.Report Overview @Geographically, North America is the leading market due to the rise incancer cases. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), around 13 million new cancer cases has been diagnosed worldwide. Moreover, according to the World Cancer Report, incidence rate of cancer could further rise by 50% to 15 million new cancer cases by 2020. Furthermore, the European and Asian-Pacific regions are expected to witness increased market traction due to commercialization of target oriented economic drugs.Request Brochure @The major factors driving this market are rise in incidence rate of cancer, minimal adverse effects, targeted approach and high adoption rate. Additionally, more number of blockbuster drugs such as Novartiss Glivec are losing their patents, leaving significant opportunities for manufacturers of targeted cancer drugs. However, high developmental costs, stringent regulatory policies andlow awareness are some of the restraints that could impede the growth of the market.Some of the market players in this industry segment are Abbott Laboratories, Bayer HealthCare AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, CytokineticsInc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Hospira Inc. , OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and others.Request for TOC @This report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porters five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis.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: Organic Personal Care Market 2026: Key Players - The Body Shop International PLC, Amway Corporation, Aubrey Organics, Oriflame Cosmetics S.A., Estee Lauder Companies Inc. https://bit.ly/2wSGLyM https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/organic-personal-care-market/ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/organic-personal-care-market/request-for-customization According to a new report published by Polaris Market Research the organic personal care market is anticipated to reach over USD 27,276.5 million by 2026. In 2017, the skin care 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.A significant increase in disposable income, changing lifestyles, and initiatives by market players to promote natural and organic personal care products drive the growth of this market. Other driving factors include growing inclination towards use of natural and organic products, and increasing awareness regarding use of chemical free personal care products. Increasing demand from developing nations is expected provide numerous growth opportunities to the market players during the forecast period.Request For Sample Of This Research Report @There has been a shift towards e-commerce and consumers are increasingly purchasing organic personal care through online platforms. The variety of choices available coupled with ease of purchase offered by online platforms encourages consumers to buy organic personal care products online, supplementing the growth of the market.Improvement in lifestyle due to rise in income level, especially in the developing countries of Asia-Pacific fuels the demand for organic personal care market. Factors such as increase in per capita income and changes in consumer behavior are expected to accelerate the adoption of organic personal care in the coming years.North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The increasing geriatric population in the region coupled with high disposable income drives the market growth. The increasing demand of organic personal care in the region is owing to high consumer awareness regarding the benefits of natural and organic personal care products and rising environmental concerns. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to increasing disposable incomes in developing countries of this region, and rising awareness.Browse Full Research Report with Table of Content @The different types of organic personal care products available in the market include skin care, hair care, oral care, cosmetics, and others. In 2017, the skin care segment accounted for the highest market share. Use of organic skin care products offers benefits and reduces the risk of skin irritations and allergies. Growing awareness regarding use of natural ingredients in skin care products is expected to support market growth during the forecast period.The well-known companies profiled in the report include The Body Shop International PLC, Amway Corporation, Aubrey Organics, Oriflame Cosmetics S.A., Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Arbonne International, LLC, Aveda Corporation, Aveda Corporation, Burts Bee, The Hain Celestial Group, Yves Rocher, Bare Escentuals, Inc., and LOccitane en Provence 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.Request For customization @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-Polaris Market Research30 Wall Street8th FloorNew York City, NY 10005United StatesEmail ID - sales@polarismarketresearch.comFollow us- LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market 2018 Global Trend, Segmentation and Opportunities Forecast To 2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3366648-global-internet-protocol-private-branch-exchange-ip-pbx https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3366648-global-internet-protocol-private-branch-exchange-ip-pbx This report focuses on the global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) development in United States, Europe and China.Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) is a PBX system that is built over IP-based architecture for delivering and managing voice communication services. IP PBX provides IP telephony and switching services between an IP telephone network and a public switched telephone network (PSTN) system.IP PBX is designed to provide similar functionality to that of traditional PSTN-based PBX systems. IP PBX can be built or provided by a telecom operator, a third-party Internet service provider or it can be hosted in-house. Unlike PSTN PBX, IP PBX has the ability to switch, forward and route the calls between VoIP networks to PSTN and PSTN to VoIP. IP PBX services are largely delivered and managed through purpose-built software with supporting switches and network devices. Hosted PBX and virtual PBX are among the delivery modes of IP PBX system.In 2017, the global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) 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.The key players covered in this studyCiscoAvayaAsterisk3CXHuaweiEricssonAlcatelSangomaShoreTelWelltechRequest a Sample Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoSIP PhonesVoIP PhonesIP PBX ServersVoIP GatewayMarket segment by Application, split intoEnterpriseGovernmentOthersMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) 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 regions.Table of Contents - Key Points1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 SIP Phones1.4.3 VoIP Phones1.4.4 IP PBX Servers1.4.5 VoIP Gateway1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Enterprise1.5.3 Government1.5.4 Others1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market Size2.2 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) 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 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market Size by Manufacturers3.1.1 Global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Revenue by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.3 Global Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.2 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans.............12 International Players Profiles12.1 Cisco12.1.1 Cisco Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.1.4 Cisco Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.1.5 Cisco Recent Development12.2 Avaya12.2.1 Avaya Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.2.4 Avaya Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.2.5 Avaya Recent Development12.3 Asterisk12.3.1 Asterisk Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.3.4 Asterisk Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.3.5 Asterisk Recent Development12.4 3CX12.4.1 3CX Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.4.4 3CX Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.4.5 3CX Recent Development12.5 Huawei12.5.1 Huawei Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.5.4 Huawei Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.5.5 Huawei Recent Development12.6 Ericsson12.6.1 Ericsson Company Details12.6.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.6.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.6.4 Ericsson Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.6.5 Ericsson Recent Development12.7 Alcatel12.7.1 Alcatel Company Details12.7.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.7.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.7.4 Alcatel Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.7.5 Alcatel Recent Development12.8 Sangoma12.8.1 Sangoma Company Details12.8.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.8.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.8.4 Sangoma Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.8.5 Sangoma Recent Development12.9 ShoreTel12.9.1 ShoreTel Company Details12.9.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.9.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.9.4 ShoreTel Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.9.5 ShoreTel Recent Development12.10 Welltech12.10.1 Welltech Company Details12.10.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.10.3 Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Introduction12.10.4 Welltech Revenue in Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) Business (2013-2018)12.10.5 Welltech Recent DevelopmentContinuedAccess Complete Report @ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Global Advanced Carbon Dioxide Sensors Market 2018 | Major Key Players Amphenol, AirTest Technologies, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, SENSEAIR Analysis And Forecast : TECHNAVIO Reports Advanced Carbon Dioxide Sensors Market 2018 http://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3167624-global-advanced-carbon-dioxide-sensors-market-2018-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3167624-global-advanced-carbon-dioxide-sensors-market-2018-2022 http://www.wiseguyreports.com Description :Advanced CO2 sensors are devices used to monitor the intensity of CO2in any medium such as air or water. These are next-generation CO2 sensors that can adjust automatically to changes in temperature, humidity, and altitude. In addition, they have a lower error rate than standard CO2 sensors.Technavios analysts forecast the global advanced carbon dioxide sensors market to grow at a CAGR of 53.96% during the period 2018-2022.Request For sample Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global advanced carbon dioxide sensors market for 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEATechnavios report, Global Advanced Carbon Dioxide Sensors Market 2018-2022, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Amphenol AirTest Technologies Honeywell Johnson Controls SENSEAIRMarket driver Growth of the global construction market For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Complex operations of advanced CO2 sensors For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Rapid urbanization For a full, detailed list, view our reportComplete Report Details @Table Of ContentPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysisPART 05: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2017 Market size and forecast 2017-2022PART 06: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market conditionPART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY FITTING Segmentation by fitting Comparison by fitting Wall-mount Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Retrofit Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by technologyPART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT Segmentation by product Comparison by product NDIR Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Chemical Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by productContinued.About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers PreTechnavioum Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Social Intelligence Market 2018-2023 Huge Growth Opportunities with Latest Trends and Emerging Technology by Industry Expert https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=166340 https://www.researchnreports.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=166340 https://www.researchnreports.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=166340 www.researchnreports.com This report includes a thorough synopsis of the present state of Social Intelligence Market and ventures its growth and every other essential element across foremost county markets. It presents a gigantic amount of market data that has been assembled with the help of countless number of primary and secondary research practices. The data of this report has been tapered down using several businesses based systematic methodologies.Social intelligence is a person's ability to interact well with others, often called people skills or tact. It is a learned ability involving situational awareness, understanding of social dynamics, and a decent amount of self-awareness. Social intelligence is closely related to cognition and emotional intelligence. Persons with Social Intelligence are concerned with the impression they are making on others. Growing need for data analytics is one major factor driving the growth of social intelligence market. The Social Intelligence Market is expected to reach USD +13 billion by the end of 2022 with +26% CAGR during forecast period 2018-2022.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Top Key Players:IBM Corporation (U.S.), Synthesio (U.S.), 4c (U.S.), Frrole (U.S.), Salesforce.Com (U.S.), Sysomos Inc (Canada), Talkwalker (U.S.), ARBA Holdings (Hong Kong), Germin8 (India)This surveyed report is collated by conducting both primary as well as secondary research. The data comprised in the Social Intelligence Market report has been consulted from top industry leaders and the topmost sectors of the market have been underlined. These sectors have been offered by giving numbers on their projected state by the end of the prognosis. The data helps the eminent and upcoming players to measure the investment scope within the sectors and sub-sectors of the market.The Porters five theory and SWOT analysis have also been utilized for analyzing the market data. The major plans accepted by the renowned players for a better penetration in the Global Social Intelligence Market also form a key section of this study. The market dynamics such as drivers, restraints and opportunities have been presented together with their corresponding impact analysis.Enquiry before Buying:Table of Content:Social Intelligence Market Research Report 2018-2025Chapter 1: Industry OverviewChapter 2: Social Intelligence Market global Market AnalysisChapter 3: Environment Analysis of Social Intelligence.Chapter 4: Analysis of Revenue by ClassificationsChapter 5: Analysis of Revenue by Regions and ApplicationsChapter 6: Analysis of Social Intelligence Market Revenue Market Status.Chapter 7: Analysis of Social Intelligence Industry Key ManufacturersChapter 8: Sales Price and Gross Margin AnalysisChapter 9: Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Social Intelligence.Chapter 10: Development Trend of Social Intelligence Market 2018-2023.Chapter 11: Industry Chain Suppliers of Social Intelligence with Contact InformationChapter 12: New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Social IntelligenceChapter 13: Conclusion of the Social Intelligence Market 2023 Research ReportGet 30% discount@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:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com, Internet Radio Market 2018 Global Key Players: CBS Corporation, Citadel Broadcasting, Chrysalis Group, Spotify, Pandora Media, Inc https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3892 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/internet-radio-market-3892 Internet Radio Market Overview:Technological advancements have played a major role in the development of internet radio market. Steep increase in demand for on demand content streaming and growing penetration of internet and smartphones are major factors driving the growth of Internet Radio Market. Internet radio engages the web based audio service that is transmitted through internet. It consists of streaming media that features continuous streaming of audio that cannot be paused in between or replayed once the audio is over.Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means. It can either be used as a stand-alone device running through the internet, or as a software running through a single computer system. Also, decreasing costs of streaming, collecting, storing large amount of data and increase in growth of powerful tools is further fuelling the growth of internet radio market. However, connectivity issues and data piracy concerns are major factors which could restrain the market growth.Radio over the Internet differs from other delivery media in three ways such as it is a relatively new way to experience radio via a computer device, IR widens the choice of service providers. These can be traditional radio broadcasters, new stations, portals or independent users, and radio content on the web can differ from radio broadcasting. Whereas, on terrestrial networks the choice of stations is relatively limited. Grace Digital, Aluratek, Sangean, Sungale, and Divoom are the major players in the internet radio market.According to a recent study report published by Market Research Future, the global market of internet radio is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2023 with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017 2023).Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players:Grace Digital, Aluratek, Sangean, Sungale, Divoom, Ocean Digital, TuneIn Radio, iHeart Radio & Sirius XM among others are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Internet Radio Market.Industry News:Aug 2018 The Pharmacy Podcast Network (PPN) has announced the official launch into Internet Radio with a strategic partnership with Helium Radio. This new initiative will create a concierge radio platform that will reach over 4.2 million listeners who can now hear experts within the pharmacy profession deliver subject matter on pertinent health care topics.Aug 2018 The Pharmacy Podcast Network has acquired RXVIP Enterprises, LTD and all its subsidiary entities to advance their corporate vision of enhancing the role of Pharmacists in the healthcare continuum. The acquisition coincides with the network moving over to an Internet Radio Platform.Internet Radio Global Market Competitive Analysis:The market of internet radio appears to be highly competitive. To maintain their market position and to drive the market growth, various dynamic and diversified international organizations, domestic organizations and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. Market leaders are innovating continuously and increasingly seeking market expansion through various strategic mergers and acquisitions, innovation, increasing investments in research and development and cost-effective product portfolio. Major players are investing on internal R&D and, most of all, in acquiring other firms.Internet Radio Global Market Segmentation:The internet radio market can be classified into 5 key segments for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Media Player Software: iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, Spider Player, and OthersSegmentation by Type: Streaming Radio, E-Radio, and Online RadioSegmentation by Audio Formats: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media Audio, RealAudio, and HE-AACSegmentation by Platform: Android, iOS, and WindowsSegmentation by Region: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Rest of the WorldBrowse Full Report Details @Internet Radio Global Market Regional Analysis:North America is expected to witness a significant growth and hold the largest market share during the forecast period. U.S and Canada are anticipated to drive the growth of the internet radio market in North America owing to the declining price of internet bandwidth usage and emergence of 4G networks. Also, US is leading the market in North America due to the technological advancements and increasing demand for real time data streaming of online audio content in the region.The growth in the region is attributed to the increasing adoption of smartphones and increasing internet penetration. Internet radio market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a substantial CAGR during 2017 to 2023 owing to growing population and increased urbanization in China, Japan, and India in the region. Whereas, the Europe market for internet radio is expected to grow at a considerable CAGR (2017-2023).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.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Exclusive: Immunotherapy Market India & China the World's 10 Fastest Growing Region | Statistics Segmented By Type, Therapy, Region Forecast to 2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/639 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/639 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/639 The Immunotherapy Market Research Report 2018 is the latest comprehensive analysis document assists the reader to build effective business strategies. This report provides an in-depth insight covering all important parameters including development trends, challenges, opportunities, key manufacturers and competitive analysis.Cancer is condition of uncontrolled cell growth. It is one of the deadliest disease in the world and the second major cause for death. Cancer can be defined as an abnormal cell growth with the potential to spread to other part of the body. There are over 100 types of cancer which has affected human. According to survey carried out by Pfizer, in 2012, 6.7 million of cancer cases was registered in Asia Pacific region which will increasing continuously. Additionally, according to the American Cancer Society, in 2015, 4.2 newly diagnosed invasive cancer cases were registered in China. During last decade, there is a significant increase in the number of patients suffering from different types of cancer. Smoking is one of the most risk factor for the cause of the cancer. Due to deteriorating lifestyle, smoking, and alcoholism there is a rise in the incident of cancer. Increasing cancer population is the major reason for increasing the Asia Pacific immunotherapy market. Different treatment are available in the market but the advantage of immunotherapy is its high effectiveness compare with other therapy. This therapy is effective for patient suffering from melanoma cancer where chemotherapy and other radiation therapy did not work. Increasing government support for research & development and increasing healthcare expenditure have fuelled the market growth. However, side effect of the treatments and high cost of the therapy may slow the market growth during the forecasted period. Asia Pacific immunotherapy market is expecting a sound growth of CAGR of 15.5% during the forecasted period 2017-2023.Get Current Market Statistic Report @Key Players for Asia Pacific Cancer Immunotherapy Market:As no absolute treatments are available for the treatment of cancer many manufacturers are investing in research & development to identify the novel drug against cancer. And this provides a wide range of opportunities for the development of market across the world. Beside this the key challenge for the manufacturers is to provide a cost-effective treatment to the people.The key players for the market: Amgen, Inc. (US), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (US), Eli Lilly and Company (US), AstraZeneca Plc. (UK), GlaxoSmithKline Plc. (UK), Bayer AG (Germany), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland), Pfizer, Inc. (US), Merck & Co., Inc. (US), Novartis AG (Switzerland), Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. (US), Janssen Biotech, Inc. (US), Sanofi (France), AbbVie Inc. (US), Takeda Pharmaceuticals (Japan), Oncomed Pharmaceuticals (US), and Immunomedics (US)Intended Audience Government and private research companies Research and Development (R&D) Companies Drug Manufacturers and Suppliers Pharmaceutical Companies Medical Research LaboratoriesSegments for Global Asia Pacific Cancer Immunotherapy Market:Asia Pacific cancer immunotherapy market is segmented on the basis of type of therapy, application, and end users. On the basis of type of therapy the market is segmented into monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines, immunomodulators, and others. On the basis of application, the market is segmented as lung cancer, blood cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, and other. On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into hospitals & clinics, research laboratories, cancer institute, and others.Regional Analysis for Global Asia Pacific Cancer Immunotherapy Market:Asia Pacific cancer immunotherapy market is segmented into Japan, China, India, Australia, Republic of Korea and Rest of Asia Pacific. The major driving factor for the market is increasing number of patient population in India and China. China and India are the major contributor in the Asia Pacific cancer immunotherapy market. According to the NCIP, 0.33 million of the people in India are suffering from cancer and the number is continuously increasing owing to the changing lifestyle. Moreover, presence of huge patient population and increasing government support for research & development will fuel the growth of the market in India. China holds the second largest market for cancer immunotherapy market which is followed by Japan. Increasing government support, rapidly developing economy and increasing healthcare expenditure will boost the growth of China and Japan market. Moreover, availability of highly skilled healthcare professionals and rising acceptance of these therapies and increasing demand for the treatment have provided push for the growth of the market in these countries. Australia and Rest of Asia Pacific contribute the least share in the market.Get Amazing Discount on Report @Some Brief Table of Contents of ReportChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restrains4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4.6 Technology Trends & AssessmentChapter 5. Market Factor Analysis5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers5.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Buyers5.1.3 Threat Of New EntrantsTOC ContinuedDo You Have Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Experts @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.Market Research FutureHadapsar, Pune 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market 2018 Key Players: Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, ZTE, Athonet, Cirpack, Cisco, Commverge, Solutions, Dialogic, Interop Technologies,. IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3355850-global-ip-multimedia-subsystem-ims-market-size-study https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3355850-global-ip-multimedia-subsystem-ims-market-size-study IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting 2025 reports tits database.Executive SummaryGlobal IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market to reach USD 5.1 billion by 2025.Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market valued approximately USD 1.32 billion in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 16.33% over the forecast period 2018-2025. Rapidly increasing number of mobile users, the upgradation of network infrastructure, low capital and operational expenditure are the major factors driving the growth of Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market. Challenges like, updating the systems to fulfill the current customers demands, extreme competition, high capital and operational expenditure, and low Returns are pushing the mobile operators to adopt IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solutions and services. However, low security in virtualization, scarcity of expert workforce, and the unwillingness of telecom operators are the major restraints to the market. IP Multimedia Subsystem a design which provides services for the networks such as voice, video and text messages. IMS is an integrated network of telecommunications channel to facilitate Internet Protocol to be used in packet communications. The advantages of IP Multimedia subsystem are, lower costs, faster time, multi-vendor methodology, better third-party interfaces aiding to the growth of the market. The introduction of LTE and VoLTE technologies have boosted the market growth. IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) traditional telephony, fax, e-mail, Internet access, Web services, Voice over IP (VoIP), instant messaging (IM), video conference sessions and video on demand (VoD).The regional analysis of Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. North America is the leading/significant region across the world in terms of market share. Whereas, owing to the countries such as China, Japan, and India, Asia Pacific region is anticipated to exhibit higher growth rate / CAGR over the forecast period 2018-2025.The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players. The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:By Component:ProductServicesBy Telecom Operator:Mobile OperatorsFixed OperatorsFurthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year 2015, 2016Base year 2017Forecast period 2018 to 2025The industry is seeming to be fairly competitive. Some of the leading market players include Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, ZTE, Athonet, Cirpack, Cisco, Commverge, Solutions, Dialogic, Interop Technologies, Italtel, Metaswitch, Mavenir, Oracle, Radisys, Ribbon Communications, Samsung, WIT Software and so on. Acquisitions and effective mergers are some of the strategies adopted by the key manufacturers. New product launches and continuous technological innovations are the key strategies adopted by the major players.Target Audience of the Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market in Market Study:Key Consulting Companies & AdvisorsLarge, medium-sized, and small enterprisesVenture capitalistsValue-Added Resellers (VARs)Third-party knowledge providersInvestment bankersInvestorsRequest Sample Report @Table of ContentsChapter 1. Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market Definition and Scope1.1. Research Objective1.2. Market Definition1.3. Scope of The Study1.4. Years Considered for The Study1.5. Currency Conversion Rates1.6. Report LimitationChapter 2. Research Methodology2.1. Research Process2.1.1. Data Mining2.1.2. Analysis2.1.3. Market Estimation2.1.4. Validation2.1.5. Publishing2.2. Research AssumptionChapter 3. Executive Summary3.1. Global & Segmental Market Estimates & Forecasts, 2015-2025 (USD Billion)3.2. Key TrendsChapter 4. Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market Dynamics4.1. Growth Prospects4.1.1. Drivers4.1.2. Restraints4.1.3. Opportunities4.2. Industry Analysis4.2.1. Porters 5 Force Model4.2.2. PEST Analysis4.2.3. Value Chain Analysis4.3. Analyst Recommendation & ConclusionChapter 5. Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market, By ComponentChapter 6. Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market, By Telecom OperatorChapter 7. Global IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market, by Regional AnalysisChapter 8. Competitive Intelligence8.1. Company Market Share (Subject to Data Availability)8.2. Top Market Strategies8.3. Company Profiles8.3.1. Ericsson8.3.1.1. Overview8.3.1.2. Financial (Subject to Data Availability)8.3.1.3. Product Summary8.3.1.4. Recent Developments8.3.2. Huawei8.3.3. NEC8.3.4. Nokia8.3.5. ZTE8.3.6. Athonet8.3.7. Cirpack8.3.8. Cisco8.3.9. Commverge Solutions8.3.10. Dialogic8.3.11. Interop Technologies8.3.12. Italtel8.3.13. Metaswitch8.3.14. Mavenir8.3.15. Oracle8.3.16. Radisys8.3.17. Ribbon Communications8.3.18. Samsung8.3.19. WIT SoftwareContinuousFor further information on this report, visit About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042 Global Garbage Disposer Market Product Development Overview, Main Region Analysis, Raw Materials Analysis, Classification Share Analysis, Price Cost Production Value Garbage Disposer https://www.researchreportsinc.com/sample-request?id=178144 https://researchreportsinc.com/enquiry?id=178144 https://researchreportsinc.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=178144&&attribute_pa_choose-license=single-user&&quantity=1 The main players are Emerson, Anaheim, Whirlpool and GE. The United States sales of garbage disposer will increase to 5927.5 K Units in 2017 from 5067.4 K Units in 2012 with average growth rate of 3.19%.Download Sample Copy @Historical year 2013Base year 2018Forecast period 2018 to 2023Then it analyzed the worlds main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Garbage Disposer Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2023 is a professional and in-depth research report on the worlds major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).Make an Enquiry @The report includes six parts, dealing with:1.) Basic Information;2.) Asia Garbage Disposer Market;3.) North American Garbage Disposer Market;4.) European Garbage Disposer Market;5.) Market Entry and Investment Feasibility;6.) Report Conclusion.Complete report on Global Garbage Disposer Industry 2017 Market Research Report is spread across 138 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and landscape details in this niche sector.The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure.The Garbage Disposer Market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, Garbage Disposer landscape analysis, and major regions' development status. The report focuses on Global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What's more, the Garbage Disposer industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed...Download Direct Copy @Table of ContentsPart I Garbage Disposer Industry OverviewChapter One Garbage Disposer Industry Overview1.1 Garbage Disposer Definition1.2 Garbage Disposer Classification Analysis1.2.1 Garbage Disposer Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Garbage Disposer Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Garbage Disposer Application Analysis1.3.1 Garbage Disposer Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Garbage Disposer Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Garbage Disposer Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Garbage Disposer Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Garbage Disposer Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Garbage Disposer Product Market Development Overview1.6 Garbage Disposer Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Garbage Disposer Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Garbage Disposer Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Garbage Disposer Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Garbage Disposer Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Garbage Disposer Global Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter Two Garbage Disposer Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand Analysis2.2.3 Down Stream Market Trend AnalysisPart II Asia Garbage Disposer Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia Garbage Disposer Market Analysis3.1 Asia Garbage Disposer Product Development History3.2 Asia Garbage Disposer Competitive Landscape Analysis3.3 Asia Garbage Disposer Market Development TrendAbout Us:Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwideContact us for your special interest needs and we will get in touch within 24hrs to help you find the market research report you need.With our expertise and research offerings, we ensure we deliver on all your requirements, whether youre looking for industry analysis or market trends or anything else, first time and every time!Email us sales@researchreportsinc.comCall: US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424, UK : +4403308087757 New Study On Veterinary Blood Analyser Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players Siemens, IDEXX Laboratories Inc., Heska Corporation, Abaxis Inc. 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The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Veterinary Blood Analyser 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 Veterinary Blood Analyser market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Veterinary Blood Analyser Market covers: North America Europe China Japan Rest APAC Latin AmericaThe Major players reported in the market include: Siemens IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. Heska Corporation Abaxis, Inc. Sysmex Corporation Mindray Medical International Ltd. Boule Medical AB Qreserve, Inc. Drew Scientific, Inc. Urit Medical Rayto Life and Analytical Sciences Co., Ltd Woodley Equipment Company Ltd. Scil animal care company GmbH HORIBA Medical Diatron MI PLC Clindiag Systems Co., Ltd. HemoCue ABFor More Information, Please VisitGlobal Veterinary Blood Analyser Market: Product Segment Analysis: Table Top Analyzers Point of Care AnalyzersGlobal Veterinary Blood Analyser Market: Application Segment Analysis: Research Institutes Veterinary Diagnostic Centers Veterinary Hospitals and Clinics OthersThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Veterinary Blood Analyser 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 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Veterinary Blood Analyser Chapter 6 Veterinary Blood Analyser Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Veterinary Blood Analyser Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Veterinary Blood Analyser Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Veterinary Blood Analyser Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Veterinary Blood Analyser Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceBuy Veterinary Blood Analyser Market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 Report along with complete TOC @Veterinary Blood Analyser Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. 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Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Wound Cleanser Products market industry analysis & forecast 2018-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.The major manufacturers covered in this report 3M Angelini Pharma B. Braun Melsungen AG Cantel Medical Corporation Bionix Development Corporation Medtronic Inc. NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Smith & Nephew Cardinal Health Church & Dwight Co, Inc. Coloplast A/S Coloplast A/S Derma Sciences, Inc. Hollister Incorporated Medline Industries, Inc.Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering North America Europe China Japan Rest APAC Latin AmericaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Spray Solutions Wipes Foams OtherBy Application, the market can be split into Pharmacy Hospital Clinic OtherThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Wound Cleanser Products 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 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Wound Cleanser Products Chapter 6 Wound Cleanser Products Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Wound Cleanser Products Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Wound Cleanser Products Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Wound Cleanser Products Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Wound Cleanser Products Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceBuy this report@Global Wound Cleanser Products Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Wound Cleanser Products Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Wound Cleanser Products market industry analysis and forecast 2018-2025.For more information@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.About UpMarketResearch: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 Industrial Food Blanchers Market Estimated with Key Players like Cabinplant, Turatti Group, Lyco Manufacturing, Ezma, DTS during the Forecast Period 2018-2025. Industrial Food Blanchers Market Estimated with Key Players like Cabinplant, Turatti Group, Lyco Manufacturing, Ezma, DTS during t https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/4873 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/4873 https://www.upmarketresearch.com/buy/industrial-food-blanchers-global-market www.upmarketresearch.com UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Industrial Food Blanchers Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 156 pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Industrial Food Blanchers global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018 - 2025.Get FREE Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This Report @Industrial Food Blanchers market 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 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 Industrial Food Blanchers market industry analysis & forecast 2018-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Industrial Food Blanchers Market covers: North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaThe major manufacturers covered in this report Cabinplant Turatti Group Lyco Manufacturing Ezma DTS Blentech Inox-Fer Hughes Equipment Idaho Steel Key Technology Meyer Industries Kiremko Food Technology Noord-Oost Nederland Urtasun Tecnologia Alimentaria Food Machinery Australasia Lewis M. Carter ManufacturingIndustrial Food Blanchers Breakdown Data by Type Drum Blanchers Screw Blanchers Belt BlanchersIndustrial Food Blanchers Breakdown Data by Application Pasta Rice Vegetables Dry Beans OtherIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Industrial Food Blanchers are as follows: History Year: 2013-2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2018 Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For more information, Visit:The Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Industrial Food Blanchers Market Overview Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industrial Food Blanchers Industry Chapter 3 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Market Competition by Manufacturers Chapter 4 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018) Chapter 5 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018) Chapter 6 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type Chapter 7 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Market Analysis by Application Chapter 8 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Manufacturers Analysis Chapter 9 Industrial Food Blanchers Manufacturing Cost Analysis Chapter 10 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers Chapter 11 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders Chapter 12 Market Effect Factors Analysis Chapter 13 Global Industrial Food Blanchers Market Forecast (2018-2023)Buy report @Global Industrial Food Blanchers Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Industrial Food Blanchers Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025 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 Industrial Food Blanchers market industry analysis and forecast 2018-2025.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.About UpMarketResearch: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 Telecom Billing Software Market Trending Technologies, Remarkable Developments, Potential Revenue and Top Key Players (Oracle, Ericsson, Amdocs, Accenture, SAP, NEC) | Global Forecast to 2025 Telecom Billing Software Market https://www.businessindustryreports.com/sample-request/108593 https://www.businessindustryreports.com/buy-now/108593/single https://www.businessindustryreports.com/check-discount/108593 Global Telecom Billing Software Market Report, History and Forecast 2025 report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability. The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.Global Telecom Billing Software Market Overview:The report spread across 95 pages is an overview of the Global Telecom Billing Software Market Report, History and Forecast 2025. The Global Telecom Billing Software Market is projected to grow at a healthy growth rate from 2018 to 2022 according to new research. The study focuses on market trends, leading players, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, and future strategies.Available Exclusive Sample Copy of this Report @The Global Telecom Billing Software Market is expected to grow at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2025. Telecom billing software is primarily designed to support telecommunications billing processes. It consist of group of processes of communications service providers that are responsible to calculate billing and charging information, collect consumption data, produce bills to customers, process their payments and manage debt collection.The Telecom Billing Software Market is driven by increasing mobile penetration and consumer base in emerging economies. In addition, increasing operating costs and heavy competition in the Global Telecom Billing Software Market drives the adoption of telecom billing software propels the growth of the market. However, difference in telecom regulations across the world which lead to interoperability issues and legacy systems limits the growth of this market. Furthermore, increasing technological adoptions within the telecommunication industry and emerging markets such as India, China with greater subscriber growth is expected to provide numerous opportunities for this market to grow.The Global Telecom Billing Software Market is segmented on the basis of Deployment Type, Service and Region. The Deployment Type segment covered in this study includes cloud and on-premises. On the basis of Service, the market is segmented into managed services, system integration, planning and consulting services and operations and maintenance services.Purchase this report online with 95 Pages, List of Tables & Figures and in-depth Table of Contents on Global Telecom Billing Software Market Report, History and Forecast 2025 @Major Key Players:1 Oracle2 Ericsson3 Amdocs4 Accenture5 SAP6 NEC Corporation7 Alcatel-Lucent and MoreMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers:1 North America2 Europe3 China4 Rest of Asia Pacific5 Central & South America6 Middle East & AfricaGrab Your Report at an Impressive Discount @What Information does this report contain?1 A detailed analysis of regulatory trends, drivers, industry pitfalls, challenges and growth opportunities for participants2 Which are the leading market products, applications & regions and how will they perform by 2025?3 What are the technologies & innovation trends, how will they evolve by 2025?4 Which companies lead the industry, how are they positioned in the market in terms of sustainability, competency, production capacity and strategic outlook?In the end, this report covers data and information on capacity and production overview, production, market share analysis, sales overview, supply, sales, and shortage, import, export and consumption as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin of Telecom Billing Software Market.Major Points in Table of Contents:Telecom Billing Software Market Report by Company, Regions, Types and Applications, Global Status and Forecast to 20251 Industry Overview of Telecom Billing Software2 Global Telecom Billing Software Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Telecom Billing Software Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 North America Telecom Billing Software Development Status and Outlook6 Europe Telecom Billing Software Development Status and Outlook7 China Telecom Billing Software Development Status and Outlook8 Rest of Asia Pacific Telecom Billing Software Development Status and Outlook9 Central & South America Telecom Billing Software Development Status and Outlook10 Middle East & Africa Telecom Billing Software Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Telecom Billing Software Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. 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.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940 Smart Home Medical Device Market Growth Will Escalate Rapidly 2018-2026 by Global Top Players - ViVO Smart Medical Devices Ltd., Health Care Originals, Hocoma AG, VitalConnect, Proteus Digital Health Smart Home Medical Device Market https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/111 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/toc/111 Post-discharge care plays an extremely important role in ensuring speedy and effective recovery of the patient. 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The increasing lonely deaths in the region is also a vital factor that is expected to favor the smart home medical device market.Request Sample Copy of this Business Report @Growing internet penetration favors growth of smart home medical devices market:Smart home medical device is latest and futuristic approach towards making life easier and secure. This revolutionary step by the medical devices company has affected the healthcare industry and the adoption rate for such technology in a positive way. While most consumers and healthcare organizations were skeptical about the technology, the scenario is rapidly changing, with higher adoption rate of such devices, a trend that is expected to continue over the forecast period. Furthermore, the wide availability of the smart home medical devices is a crucial block to fill the loop hole for acceptance of such devices and services. Easily available personal monitoring system and other electronic devices are expected to favor rise in adoption of smart home medical devices. Smart home basically defined as the residence that uses controllers to integrate the functions of the device installed at home. 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As these beacons are supported by almost all operating systems, their demand is expected to increase. Bluetooth beacons are deployed by businesses to send content and information, which are contextually relevant, to users at specific locations. They open up the probability of connecting the online virtual world with the offline, physical world by providing context -aware information to mobile users. Bluetooth beacons devices broadcast signals and messages to smart devices under range, in the form of notifications. They basically consist of a chip and various electronic components on a small circuit board. As these devices offer a more personalized and enhanced user experience, the market for Bluetooth beacons is projected to grow at a healthy pace.This comprehensive Bluetooth Beacons Market research report includes a brief on these trends that can help the businesses operating in the industry to understand the market and strategize for their business expansion accordingly. The research report analyzes the market size, industry share, growth, key segments, CAGR and key drivers.New vendors in the market are facing tough competition from established international vendors as they struggle with technological innovations, reliability and quality issues. The report will answer questions about the current market developments and the scope of competition, opportunity cost and more.Scope of the Report:This report studies the Bluetooth Beacons market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Bluetooth Beacons market by product type and applications/end industries.The key factor driving the industry growth is the increased number of applications powered by beacons and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags. Beacons are witnessing growing penetration across asset tracking and machine/equipment status observation in high volume verticals. At the same time, the markets for both existing and new applications are maturing, leading to larger roll-outs. Growing integration of beacons in cameras, LED lightings, point of sale (POS) devices, digital signage, and vending machines is expected to propel the industry growth over the forecast period. Apart from retail applications, beacons are also projected to become a common commodity in industrial applications.Inquiry for buying sample copy @Bluetooth Beacons in its database, which provides an expert and in-depth analysis of key business trends and future market development prospects, key drivers and restraints, profiles of major market players, segmentation and forecasting. Bluetooth Beacons Market provides an extensive view of size; trends and shape have been developed in this report to identify factors that will exhibit a significant impact in boosting the sales of Bluetooth Beacons Market in the near future.Market Segment by Companies, this report covers: BlueCats Estimote Kontakt.io PayPal GimbalMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers: North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) Latin America, Middle and AfricaMarket Segment by Type, covers: IBeacon Eddystone Microsoft 10Browse full Description with Table of content @Moreover, the research report assessed market key features, consisting of revenue, capacity utilization rate, price, gross, growth rate, consumption, production, export, supply, cost, market size & share, industry demand, export & import analysis, and CAGR.Bluetooth Beacons Market Key players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into: Retail Travel and Tourism Healthcare Financial InstitutionsFor Request sample Copy @Browse more details in PDF format @About Us: - MarketResearchNest.com Market Research Nest (MRN) is an offering of GRN Research Pvt. Ltd. It is a one-stop-shop for market research products and services. At MRN, we offer reports from almost all top regional and global publishers and research firms who specialize in their domains. We ensure that you receive the most reliable and up to date research data. We update our collection daily to help our clients have an access to a most up-to-date database of expert insights on global industries, organizations, products, and trends. Our database covers research studies including periodic updates on a range of industries, companies, products, SWOT profiles, recent marketing, and other trends.Contact us: - Mr. Jeet Jain, Sales Manager, sales@marketresearchnest.com ;+1-240-284-8070, +44-20-3290-4151;Connect with us: Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook Coal Tar Pitch Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players RuTGERS, JFE, Koppers Industries, Coopers Creek, Tangent Rail, Shanxi Coking Coal Tar Pitch Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3136647-global-coal-tar-pitch-market-report-2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3136647-global-coal-tar-pitch-market-report-2018 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Coal Tar Pitch Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players RuTGERS, JFE, Koppers Industries, Coopers Creek, Tangent Rail, Shanxi Coking.Description:-The Coal Tar Pitch industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Coal Tar Pitch market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 3.91% from 3200 million $ in 2014 to 3590 million $ in 2017, The analysts believe that in the next few years, Coal Tar Pitch market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2022, The market size of the Coal Tar Pitch will reach 4330 million $.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThis Report covers the manufacturers data, including: shipment, price, revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better. This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size, volume and value, as well as price data.Besides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment, channel segment etc. cover different segment market size, both volume and value. Also cover different industries clients information, which is very important for the manufacturers.Sections:-Section 1: FreeDefinitionSection (2 3): 1200 USDManufacturer DetailRuTGERSJFEKoppers IndustriesCoopers CreekTangent RailShanghai BaosteelShanxi CokingWugang CokingJining CarbonShandong Gude ChemicalYenakiieve Coke and ChemicalsBaoshunShandong WeijiaoXinnuolixingRisunJinnengZhongyiSection 4: 900 USDRegion SegmentationNorth America Country (United States, Canada)South AmericaAsia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)ContinuedComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsSection 1 Coal Tar Pitch Product DefinitionSection 2 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Manufacturer Share and Market Overview2.1 Global Manufacturer Coal Tar Pitch Shipments2.2 Global Manufacturer Coal Tar Pitch Business Revenue2.3 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market OverviewSection 3 Manufacturer Coal Tar Pitch Business Introduction3.1 RuTGERS Coal Tar Pitch Business Introduction3.1.1 RuTGERS Coal Tar Pitch Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2014-20173.1.2 RuTGERS Coal Tar Pitch Business Distribution by Region3.1.3 RuTGERS Interview Record3.1.4 RuTGERS Coal Tar Pitch Business Profile3.1.5 RuTGERS Coal Tar Pitch Product Specification3.2 JFE Coal Tar Pitch Business Introduction3.2.1 JFE Coal Tar Pitch Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2014-20173.2.2 JFE Coal Tar Pitch Business Distribution by Region3.2.3 Interview Record3.2.4 JFE Coal Tar Pitch Business Overview3.2.5 JFE Coal Tar Pitch Product Specification3.3 Koppers Industries Coal Tar Pitch Business Introduction3.3.1 Koppers Industries Coal Tar Pitch Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2014-20173.3.2 Koppers Industries Coal Tar Pitch Business Distribution by Region3.3.3 Interview Record3.3.4 Koppers Industries Coal Tar Pitch Business Overview3.3.5 Koppers Industries Coal Tar Pitch Product Specification3.4 Coopers Creek Coal Tar Pitch Business Introduction3.5 Tangent Rail Coal Tar Pitch Business Introduction3.6 Shanghai Baosteel Coal Tar Pitch Business IntroductionSection 4 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Region Level)4.1 North America Country4.1.1 United States Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.1.2 Canada Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.2 South America Country4.2.1 South America Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.3 Asia Country4.3.1 China Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.3.2 Japan Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.3.3 India Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.3.4 Korea Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.4 Europe Country4.4.1 Germany Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.4.2 UK Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.4.3 France Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.4.4 Italy Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.4.5 Europe Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.5 Other Country and Region4.5.1 Middle East Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.5.2 Africa Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.5.3 GCC Coal Tar Pitch Market Size and Price Analysis 2014-20174.6 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Region Level) Analysis 2014-20174.7 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Region Level) AnalysisSection 5 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Product Type Level)5.1 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Market Size 2014-20175.2 Different Coal Tar Pitch Product Type Price 2014-20175.3 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) AnalysisSection 6 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Industry Level)6.1 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Industry Level) Market Size 2014-20176.2 Different Industry Price 2014-20176.3 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Industry Level) AnalysisSection 7 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Channel Level)7.1 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Channel Level) Sales Volume and Share 2014-20177.2 Global Coal Tar Pitch Market Segmentation (Channel Level) AnalysisContinuedFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Global Needle-free IV Connectors Market 2018 by Global Trends and Key Companies 2026 - Baxter International, Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Becton, Dickinson and Company, CareFusion Corporation, ICU Medical, Inc. Needle-free IV Connectors https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/426 https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-discount/426 Needle-Free IV Connectors are routinely used in the hospitals for intravenous administration of fluids and medicines to protect the hubs in vascular access systems. In order to reduce risks of possible contaminations associated with the IV administration and to curb manipulation as much as possible, needle free IV connectors can prove to be ideal in all types of IV infusions. Furthermore, technological advancements such as connectors that prevent fluid reflux, highly closed systems, and connectors embedded with antimicrobial agents (V-Link) have helped to decrease the risk of bloodstream infections associated with IV administration. Needle-free connectors are with extended dwell time that can help preventing intraluminal contamination and device cross-contamination, which can be favorable for the growth of the market in the near future.Request a Sample Copy:Market DynamicsGovernment organizations and regulatory bodies namely Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) have recommended the usage of needle-free connectors to reduce the incidence of sharp injuries and blood stream infections mandating its usage in medical facilities in the Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections in 2011. Major issues associated with the conventional options of intravenous infusion are contamination from external sources during administration, blood reflux, and risk of bloodstream infections, which are addressed by needle-free IV connectors. The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) conducts various programs worldwide that helps to impart education and hands on training sessions to all physicians and nurses about the usage of needle-free connectors and insertion of central venous catheters in children and adults. The advantages of needle-free IV connectors over conventional IV administration namely, safer access to IV lines without using needle, reduced risk of bloodstream infections and reduced possibility of contamination, rising chronic diseases prevalence and cost containment through use of needle-free IV connectors is expected to boost the growth of needle-free IV connectors market over the forecast period.Market TaxonomyThis report segments the global IV Connectors (Needle-free) market on the basis of design type, mechanism, and dwell time. On the basis of design type, the global needle-free IV connectors market is segmented into Simple and Complex. Mechanisms of needle-free IV connectors include positive, negative, and neutral. Needle-free IV connectors are segmented by dwell time as seven-day dwell time and other than seven-day.Table of ContentsResearch Objective and assumptionResearch ObjectivesAssumptionsAbbreviationsMarket PurviewReport DescriptionMarket Definition and ScopeExecutive SummaryMarket Snippet By Design TypeMarket Snippet By MechanismMarket Snippet By Dwell TimeMarket Snippet By RegionCoherent Opportunity Map (COM)Market Dynamics, Regulations, and Trends AnalysisMarket DynamicsDriversSupply Side DriversDemand Side DriversEconomic DriversRestraintsMarket OpportunitiesProduct DesignUses and BenefitsSupply Chain AnalysisMerger and AcquisitionsPorters Five Forces AnalysisCost Tier Down AnalysisGlobal Needle Free IV Connectors Market, By Design Type, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)IntroductionMarket Share Analysis, 2016 and 2025 (%)Y-o-Y Growth Analysis, 2017 - 2025Segment TrendsSimpleIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)ComplexIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)Global Needle Free IV Connectors Market, By Mechanism, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)IntroductionMarket Share Analysis, 2016 and 2025 (%)Y-o-Y Growth Analysis, 2017 - 2025Segment TrendsPositiveIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)NegativeIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)NeutralIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)Global Needle Free IV Connectors Market, By Dwell Time, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)IntroductionMarket Share Analysis, 2016 and 2025 (%)Y-o-Y Growth Analysis, 2017 - 2025Segment TrendsSeven DaysIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)Other than Seven DaysIntroductionMarket Size and Forecast, and Y-o-Y Growth, 2017 - 2025, (US$ Million)Global Needle Free IV Connectors Market, By Regions, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)IntroductionMarket Share Analysis, By Region, 2016 and 2025 (%)Y-o-Y Growth Analysis, For Regions, 2017 - 2025North AmericaMarket Size and Forecast, By Design Type, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)Market Size and Forecast, By Mechanism, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)Market Size and Forecast, By Dwell Time, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)Market Size and Forecast, By Country, 2017 - 2025 (US$ Million)U.S.CanadaEuropeAsk for Discount Before You Purchase Global Needle-free IV Connectors Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2018-2026":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 Polyfilm Market 2018: Demand, Future Scope and Global Industry Players Treofan, Taghleef Industries, Chiripal Poly Films Limited, Cosmo Films Limited, Formosa Plastics Group, Polyfilm http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-polyfilm-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-polyfilm-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-polyfilm-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com The Polyfilm Market report contains data for historic years 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and Industry forecast period is 2017 to 2024. Forecasting Global Market Segmented By Resin Type (LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), BOPP, CPP, PVC, BOPET, BOPA, Others), By End-User (Packaging, Agriculture, Building & Construction, Consumer Goods, Medical, Others) and By Geography. The Global Polyfilm Market accounted for USD 113.30 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024.Get Free Sample of This Information Analysis:The global polyfilm market is fragmented with the presence of a large number of players across different regions. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Some of the major players in polyfilm market Chiripal Poly Films, Cosmo Films, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Garware Polyester Limited, Jindal Poly Films Limited, Max Speciality Films Limited (MSFL), Polyplex Corporation Limited, SRF Limited, Taghleef Industries,Others: Treofan Group, Uflex Limited, Vacmet India Private Limited, Barflex Polyfilms Pvt Ltd., Premier Polyfilm Limited, Polifilm Group, Flex Film Ltd., Specialty Polyfilms Pvt. Ltd., AMERICAN POLYFILM, INC., Garware Polyester Ltd., Polyplex and many more.Polyfilm, also known as polyethylene film, has many uses in a variety of applications and industries. In the apparel, garment, sewn goods, fabric and related industries, poly film is used to protect goods during shipment from dirt, dust, and moisture. There is a growing demand for polyfilm foams in packaging, agriculture, building & construction, consumer goods and medical activates, which is expected to be one of the major drivers of the market over the next seven years.Visit Report Description or Request TOC of Full Report:Major market drivers: Global Polyfilm MarketDemand of food packaging in retailGrowing demand from Asia-PacificDemand for food packaging driven by growing population in Asia-PacificIncreasing demand for BOPET filmsMarket Segmentation: Global Polyfilm Market The polyfilm market is segmented on the basis of resin type into LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), BOPP, CPP, PVC, BOPET, BOPA And Others. On the basis of End-user, the market is segmented into packaging, agriculture, building & construction, consumer goods, medical and others. On the basis of geography, the polyfilm market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others.Market restraint: Global Polyfilm MarketMatured European marketLow demand for photographic and magnetic filmsStrict environmental and government regulationsWant Full Report? Enquire Here:About UsData Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with an unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. For Customization or Getting Discount on Report by emailing sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com . We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.Contact UsData Bridge Market ResearchToll Free: +1-888-387-2818Mail: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Smart Speaker Market Key Player Growth Analysis On Amazon.com, Inc., Bose Corporation, Altec Lansing, Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics, Logitech International SA Smart Speaker Market, Smart Speaker Market Study, Smart Speaker Market Size, Smart Speaker Market Segmentation, Smart Speaker Mark https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/512064/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/512064/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/smart-speaker-market https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-real-time-locating-systems-rtls-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2023/?utm_source=RR&utm_medium=DC https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog/ The Global Market for Smart Speaker to 2024 offers detailed coverage of Smart Speaker industry and presents main market trends. The market research gives historical and forecast market size, demand and production forecasts, end-use demand details, price trends, and company shares of the leading Smart Speaker producers to provide exhaustive coverage of the Smart Speaker.Smart Speaker Market is set to exceed USD 30 billion by 2024 owing to the several benefits of these devices such as the ability to communicate with other devices and keeping users connected to the internet. For instance, these devices can perform a range of tasks such as giving information, sharing audio files, and provide on-command to other connected devices.The increasing penetration of IoT technology and the adoption of connected devices will boost the smart speaker market growth in the next six years. The increasing popularity of connected devices to perform domestic tasks, such as controlling lights and security doors, through single devices is fueling the industry demand. The integration of these devices with connected households will propel the industry growth.This report focuses on the top Manufacturers and players in global market are given bellow:-Amazon.com, Inc., Bose Corporation, Altec Lansing, Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics, Logitech International SA, Sonos Inc., and Sony Corporation.Request a Sample of this premium Research Report@The smart speaker market is expected to grow at a significant pace over the forecast timeframe owing to the growing proliferation of smart homes across the globe. Factors such as high network connectivity and growing need to increase consumer convenience are anticipated to drive the market. Several device manufacturers are investing in improving the functionality of legacy systems beyond playing music. This, coupled with increasing demand for wireless devices will escalate the industry size.Smart Speaker Market Size By Technology (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC), By Product (Single Room, Double-Room, Multi-Room)Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers(U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, South Korea, China, India, Japan, Brazil, GCC, Africa), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 2024Request a Discount on standard prices of this premium Smart Speaker Market Research Report@The study objectives of this report are:Rise in demand for Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to fuel the smart speaker market growth. The manufacturers are increasingly investing to develop devices that work with the devices such as Wink Hub, Logitech Harmony Elite, and Philips Hue Bulbs. For instance, Amazon Alexa works directly with several smart home devices using If This Then That (IFTTT) methodology.Implementation of virtual personal assistants are expected to positively impact the smart speaker market growth. This technology can stream music and audio books with a single voice commands. The launch of Amazon Echo has caused disruption in the market, with several other companies such as Google and Apple following suit. For instance, Apple has announced the launch of HomePod in December 2017.Factors such as connectivity range, compatibility, and power are expected to restrain the smart speaker market growth. The market faces growing security concern, owing to the connection of these devices to the internet. The voice assistant-enabled speakers inadvertently store consumers' private data into Amazon servers. The threats of hacking and data leaks persist, though the company claims that the data is secured. This is expected to hamper the market growth during the forecast timeframe.More Report At:Related Report:Global Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023Real-time locating systems (RTLS, also known as real-time location systems) are local systems for the identification and tracking of the location of assets and/or persons in real or near-real-time. Scope of the ReporAbout 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: Acne Medication Market Study With Prominent Key Players Like Allergan Plc., Nestle S.A. (Galderma S.A.), Johnson & Johnson, Mayne Pharma Group Limited, Mylan N.V., Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc (Stiefel Laboratories, Inc.) Acne Medication Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4356 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4356 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/acne-medication-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Acne vulgaris is a skin disease, characterized with the growth of pimples, oily skin, and blackheads. This is caused due to dead skin cells, clogged hair follicles, and oil secretion from the skin. According to various studies, it is estimated that the average age of onset of acne is 11-15 years due to changes in demographics and social habits. Several acne treatment options are developed, among which acne medications are employed in the treatment of mild to severe acne cases. These medications include topical retinoids, isotretinoin, antibiotics, salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, and others.Acne medication market was valued at $8,017 million in 2017, and is projected to reach $10,929 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 3.9% from 2018 to 2025.Get sample copy of this market study:Market DynamicsRise in patients suffering from acne vulgaris condition, especially teenagers, is the major factor that drives the growth of the global acne medication market. Other factors such as rise in demand for skin care products and unhealthy urban lifestyle are expected to have a significant impact on the growth of the market. However, factors such as side effects associated with acne drugs and presence of alternative treatment options such as laser, hamper the market growth.The use of acne medications is the highest in North America, owing to a large patient population and high adoption of prescription-based products, and is followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. In addition, acne medication providers and distributors are focused on expanding their presence in the emerging economies, which in turn is anticipated to drive the market growth.Make purchase enquiry:Top Investment in Pockets:North America was the leading revenue contributor to the global acne medication market in 2017, and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. This is attributed to the early approval of acne medication products and high adoption of prescription medicines in this region. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 5.6% during the study period, due to increase in affordability, surge in healthcare expenditure, and rise in awareness toward safe acne medications products.Segment Review:The retinoids segment accounted for the largest share in 2017, owing to high usage in treatment of acne and lesser side effects as compared to other therapeutics. However, the salicylic acid segment is expected to grow at the high CAGR from 2018 to 2025.The inflammatory acne segment is the largest acne type segment in the global acne medication market in 2017 and is expected to maintain its lead in the forecast period. On the other hand, non-inflammatory acne segment is anticipated to record the highest CAGR from 2018-2025.By type, the prescription medicine segment dominated the global acne treatment market in terms of revenue in 2017 and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period.The utilization rate of topical medications for acne treatment is high owing to high availability of these products with high success rate and lesser side effects. However, the oral medication segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period.Access full summary of this study:Key Findings of the Acne Medication Market: The antibiotics segment accounted for nearly one-fourth share of the global acne medication market in 2017. The over-the-counter medicine segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.9% from 2018 to 2025. The non-inflammatory acne segment accounted for around two-fifths share of the global market in 2017. Europe accounted for around one-fourth share of the global market in 2017. LAMEA is expected to provide lucrative market growth opportunities and grows with the CAGR of 4.5% from 2018 to 2025.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: Therese Bottomly, a nationally recognized leader in enterprise journalism and an outspoken advocate for government transparency, was named editor and vice president of content at The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday. The announcement was greeted with sustained applause and cheers from gathered staff at the company's downtown Portland office. Bottomly, 57, is a 35-year newsroom veteran who began her career as a copy desk intern just days after graduating from the University of Oregon in 1983. She has served in senior leadership roles at The Oregonian and OregonLive since 1998 and was instrumental in transforming the newsroom into a digital-first news organization. Therese Bottomly is a Portland native and University of Oregon grad. She was promoted to senior director of news in 2018 and has been serving as interim editor since late July, when Mark Katches departed for a job in Florida. "I'm thrilled to be working with Therese in this role," said John Maher, president of Oregonian Media Group. "She knows the market so well, she knows our staff and our history so well and she has a vision for the future." Bottomly said she will champion investigative journalism and timely reporting that is compelling to readers. "I have a passion for local journalism and, as a Portland native, I am well aware of the important role The Oregonian/OregonLive has in our community. I am grateful to work with the tremendously talented journalists here," she said. The Oregonian received six Pulitzer Prizes during Bottomly's tenure, including the 2006 Pulitzer for Breaking News for its coverage of the search for the Kim family. She also oversaw coverage of Oregon's first mass school shooting in 1998 at Thurston High and the 41-day standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Bottomly ascends to the top newsroom job as the newspaper business continues to struggle through a difficult transition. Like many other news organizations across the country, The Oregonian/OregonLive has downsized in response to declining ad revenue. "Our industry is absolutely in transition, and Therese is the best person to drive us into the future," Maher said. Bottomly said the newsroom will continue to prioritize delivering tenacious, fair and accurate coverage. "Our focus will be on producing consequential watchdog journalism, a robust daily news report and coverage that reflects the unique place we call home," she said. Bottomly is a longtime director of Open Oregon, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting the state's public records law. She has served as a judge for many national journalism awards, including as a Pulitzer Prize juror twice. She is a former president of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. She is intimately familiar with the region; she grew up in Northwest Portland and attended Lincoln High School and the University of Oregon, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Her sister, Leslie, is a Multnomah County judge, and her brother, Bernie, is a senior executive at TriMet. Jeff Manning A Washington woman on Friday made her first court appearance since she was charged with shoving her teen friend from a bridge at a popular swimming area, an incident that shattered the girl's ribs and generated headlines worldwide. Tay'lor Smith, 18, was granted supervised release by Clark County District Court Judge Darvin Zimmerman during a brief exchange and told not to contact the girl she's accused of shoving, Jordan Holgerson. Smith faces a charge of reckless endangerment stemming from the 50-foot fall last month that also left Holgerson, 16, with a punctured lung and ruptured esophagus. Viral video footage of the shove made a splash, racking up millions of views on YouTube and landing stories on international news websites as well as NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America." The teens and a group of friends had decided to beat the afternoon heat on Aug. 7 by going swimming at Moulton Falls Regional Park. The friends climbed the bridge that spans the Lewis River near the falls, which is a popular spot among swimmers. As Holgerson stood at the open side of the railing, she appeared to have second thoughts about jumping, video of the incident shows. Smith suddenly shoves Holgerson off the bridge. The girl screams and her arms windmill through the air. Holgerson's face and chest strike the water first. Smith admitted to pushing Holgerson in an interview with Clark County officials. According to court records, the 18-year-old "engaged in conduct which created a substantial risk of death and resulted in serious physical injury" to Holgerson. This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates. -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh skavanaugh@oregonian.com 503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh BY EUGENE ROBINSON The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- Journalist Bob Woodward's new book and an op-ed by an anonymous administration official portray President Trump as dangerously capricious and amoral, exhibiting textbook symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and behaving in ways that suggest, to some, early signs of age-related dementia. But you knew that. We've all known about Trump from the beginning. We've known that he was entirely unfit to hold any public office, much less wield the awesome powers of the presidency, regardless of what political views he might have. Trump demonstrates this fact literally every single day. Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times published an extraordinary essay headlined, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." In it, an unnamed "senior official" claimed to be "working diligently from within," in concert with "many" colleagues, "to frustrate parts of [Trump's] agenda and his worst inclinations." The author went on to describe chaos, dysfunction and a president who changes his mind "from one minute to the next." Even more alarming, however, was the response from retiring Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, one of the few Republican officials who ever dare to criticize Trump, even mildly: "This is what all of us have understood to be the situation from day one." Trump's enablers in Congress have all been lying to us. They pretend there is a normal president in the White House instead of, let's be honest, a maniac. They know the risk the nation is running. They have the power to alleviate that risk but they do nothing, instead counting on "mature adults" in the administration to keep Trump from plunging the nation off some cliff. According to Woodward's book "Fear," Trump was going to pull the United States out of a trade agreement with South Korea, but former economic adviser Gary Cohn, who saw the move as unthinkable, simply swiped the order from Trump's desk before he could sign it. At another point, the book reports, Trump phoned Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and commanded him to assassinate Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. According to Woodward, Mattis played along, hung up the phone, and told an aide, "We're not going to do any of that." It feels as if we have entered a new phase of the Trump saga. As with all the prior phases, it's impossible to predict with confidence what will happen. But the combination of the Woodward book and the insider's op-ed feels like an inflection point. We learned about the insanity inside the West Wing months ago from Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury," but he got enough little things wrong to cast doubt on the big things he reported. We read it all again in Omarosa's "Unhinged," but she was a professional minor celebrity who'd had only glowing things to say about Trump until she got fired. Woodward, to say the least, is different. Beginning with Watergate and Deep Throat, Woodward has set the gold standard for Washington-based investigative reporting. He doesn't just get the goods; he keeps meticulous records, including recordings of many of his interviews. You will note that the denials coming from the Trump administration are actually carefully worded non-denials that skirt, rather than confront, the specifics of what Woodward wrote. His account supports what we've been told all along by award-winning White House correspondents from The Washington Post, the Times and other media organizations. As for the anonymous "senior official" who penned the op-ed in the Times, I'm not inclined to join the chorus of commentators who say he or she is being cowardly and instead should have gone public, resigned in front of television cameras, marched up to Congress and demanded to testify and ... and then what? Exactly what would such a performance achieve? Does anyone believe the Republican leadership in the House and Senate would actually do anything? As Corker said, Trump's unfitness has been obvious from the beginning. Republican officials have made the conscious decision to see, hear and speak no evil. We're probably better off with the "senior official" still in place, saving us from Trump's destructive whims. The whistleblower wrote that "there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment" by which Trump could be removed, but "no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis." After this week, however, it's clear that we're already in a constitutional crisis of frightening proportions. The Cabinet will not act. Congress, under GOP control, will not act. The internal "resistance" can only do so much. Voters are the last line of defense. You must save the day. -- Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinsonwashpost.com. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group The utter desperation of the Trump haters to depose a duly elected president of the United States has now come full circle to the point of farcicality. The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed allegedly received from a senior staff member of the White House. Major networks fawned over the piece as though it was genuine. Senators have now breached their vows of confidentiality, adding to breaches of national security that border on treason. It is now evident that they will do anything, including immoral, unethical and even illegal acts to change the leadership of this country, including the Supreme Court. -- Lee Richey, Tualatin 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. Rick Wendler and Ann Sherman were both slapped around big time by the national foreclosure crisis several years back. "I went bankrupt. I lost the house, lost the job, and went on disability," says Wendler, who was forced out of his Northeast Portland home in 2011. Sherman knows the feelings. A certified pharmacy technician, she lost her Southeast Portland home in 2008 when her husband quit working and paying his share of the bills. Ann Sherman But even as Wendler and Sherman wondered if life could get much worse, along came the obligatory water torture, courtesy of the Portland Water Bureau. The Water Bureau is the rare utility that never stops billing. Even when the local predatory lender forces Portlanders to vacate their homes through foreclosure, they are still responsible for the ongoing water and sewer bills. "No other utility in Oregon does what the Water Bureau does," says Margie Sollinger, the city ombudsman. "When you shut off your gas or your cable or your electricity, there's not this rolling, fictional charge that follows you around years after you vacate the property. "It's unconscionable what they're doing to people. Rick and Ann have gone through this hellish experience. Now they are making choices between paying rent, buying food ... or paying off the Water Bureau for a service they didn't receive and water they didn't use." The Water Bureau insists it is obligated under the city's municipal bond covenants to collect water, sewer and storm-water fees. "The city isn't allowed to provide utility services for free," notes Todd Lofgren, senior policy director for Commissioner Nick Fish, who has been charged with the bureau since June 2013 (Amanda Fritz took command on Sept. 4). "And Code requires that the party in control of a property is responsible for the utility bills." Back in 2012, however, David Shaff, then head of the bureau, realized the city had a problem. Foreclosures were rampant. Either banks couldn't process all the distressed property or, as The New York Times reported, they refused to take possession, "most often because the cost of the ordeal - from legal fees to maintenance - exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate." "Banks would tell people to get out, yet wouldn't complete the foreclosure process," Sollinger says. "They'd change the locks, and put up 'No Trespassing' signs, but they wouldn't change title." At Shaff's behest, Sollinger says, the city passed an ordinance to "clarify billing responsibility for water service issues." "Owners may no longer have access to these properties once vacated and secured by lenders," the ordinance reads. "Therefore, it is the lender in possession or control of the property who directly or indirectly benefits from water services provided by the City to the property." All good, right? Council reminded the Water Bureau it was duly empowered to pursue the lenders who took control of Rick Wendler's and Ann Sherman's homes. But as Sollinger discovered, the bureau couldn't be bothered. When Wendler and Sherman left those homes, they told the city to shut off the water as they paid their "final" bills. Yet because their names remained on the title at county records, the billings never ceased. Wendler's tab reached $3,709. Sherman's topped $1,877. "I didn't live there, but every two months, another bill," says Sherman, who now lives with eight family members and an ankle-biting dog in a four-bedroom apartment off Southeast 122nd Avenue. "I called them and they said your name is still on the deed, so we're going to bill you. "I have anxiety. It trashed me. I could cry right now." Sollinger says she's not aware of a single example of the City "successfully assigning billing responsibility to the lender in possession and control." Says Fish's office: "This is not tracked by the bureau." Your city government at work. Wendler and Sherman didn't use a drop of city water after the banks took control of their homes, yet Lofgren said the bureau can't "write off" their responsibility without "legal instruments or verifiable evidence that they have been physically prevented from entering their property." Wendler and Sherman had no trouble convincing Sollinger that was the case. The Water Bureau, on the other hand, treated them like deadbeats. The Water Bureau sent collection agencies after them. The Water Bureau rarely if ever informed displaced homeowners to preserve evidence, Sollinger says, that banks were in possession and control. Because Sollinger intervened, the bureau reluctantly agreed to reduce Wendler's bill to $1,844.17 and Sherman's to $241.79. Wendler is judgment proof. He says he doesn't have the money, and the bureau, fortunately, can't dock his disability payments. Sherman somehow scraped together the $241.79, believing she couldn't move back to Portland unless she did. But get this: Michael Stuhr, the current director of the Water Bureau, wrote Sollinger's office in August and addressed her contention that the bank is the ratepayer responsible for payment of the water and sewer charges. Just how hard did the bureau work to determine if that was true in Sherman's case? "As you know," Stuhr told the city ombudsman, "we wrote to the lender, but to date have not received any response." What diligence. What a commitment to holding accountable the only party still benefiting from the property's connection to the city utility. What smug, lazy disdain. -- Steve Duin stephen.b.duin@gmail.com Burgerville says it's banning employees from wearing buttons with statements and any other non-work approved items on their uniforms after 10 workers at a Northeast Portland branch were sent home in August for wearing pro-immigration pins. The fast-food business announced Thursday that it's updating its written uniform policy so it "represents our long-standing commitment to creating a universally welcoming and inclusive environment for our customers and employees alike," according to a statement from Burgerville Human Resources Director Liz Graham. The new policy goes into effect next Thursday and forbids items on workers' uniforms that have political and personal messages. The 10 employees at the Northeast Glisan Street and 82nd Avenue Burgerville wore buttons that said, "No one is illegal," and called for the elimination of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The employees returned to work the next day, received back pay and continued to wear the buttons, the company and the Burgerville Workers Union said. A union spokesman said he is still reviewing the company statement and declined to immediately provide a comment Thursday. Graham said in her statement that the company already had a verbal policy forbidding employees from wearing personal buttons on uniforms. The updated policy is common among businesses that regularly deal with the general public, she said. "We respect our employees' right to express their own opinions and we encourage them to stay active and engaged in forums outside the workplace," the statement said. Workers at two of the burger chain's locations in Southeast Portland and Gladstone voted to form a federally recognized union in the spring. The company is in the midst of negotiating a contract with workers. Shane Dixon Kavanaugh of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report. -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey Gov. Kate Brown has settled on a retired tech executive to be the next board chair for Oregon's complicated, underfunded and controversial Public Employees Retirement System, despite the nominee's apparent reluctance to immediately lead the body. Sadhana Shenoy is the right choice to lead the board because "she's extremely bright" and has "great technical expertise," Brown said Thursday during a news conference. Shenoy does have the financial management background that the state typically looks for in PERS Board members. She is the former chief financial officer of Moovel North America, which develops TriMet's mobile ticketing app and other transportation technology. She's a certified public accountant and has a background in information technology that could be useful in overseeing a system that has major challenges in that arena. She also has experience serving on nonprofit and community boards, with an evident penchant for environmental causes. Sadhana Shenoy But Shenoy lacks any direct experience in pension management or administration. That's experience that governor's office originally said it was looking for in a new board chair, and background that could come in handy at a time when the administrative complexity and political profile of the system are rising. She would also be joining the board in tandem with a new agency director and another board seat about to open up. Indeed, during a meeting with the outgoing chair, John Thomas, after the board's last regular meeting on Aug. 3, Thomas said Shenoy told him she was eager to learn but reluctant to join the board as chair because she had no experience administering or overseeing such plans. Shenoy did not return calls for comment. In her statement of interest filed with the governor's office, Shenoy said, "I have the technical skills and background to lead a board oversee (sic) the management of PERS Funds with responsibility, acumen and foresight. These skills include a sound background in Finance, Accounting and Mathematics and working proficiency in modeling tools and techniques." Chris Pair, a spokesman for Brown, said "Shenoy was chosen to lead the board and assist the agency of tomorrow, not of the past ... For the PERS system to modernize and meet the challenges ahead, the board must adopt a creative approach." The PERS Board was reconstituted in the wake of Oregon's 2003 pension reforms to give majority control to independent members with no financial connection to the system. It currently has five members, including one employee representative, one employer representative, and three independents. One of those independent seats the chair is open now, and another will become available at the end of the month when that board member's second term expires. That board member, Krystal DeAsis, has agreed to stay on until the next round of legislative appointments. Theoretically, the board is nonpartisan, with members focused on keeping the system on a sound financial footing. In practice, however, it faces strong political pressures from a variety of stakeholders, particularly to keep costs down. With Thomas' departure and Shenoy's confirmation by the Senate, it would be made up entirely of Portland-area Democrats one a union leader and two others, including Shenoy, who are donors to Brown's campaign. The PERS Board does not set benefit levels for retirees or manage PERS investments. Rather, it administers the system and is directly responsible for setting the pension contribution rates that government employers and ultimately taxpayers are required to pay to meet those benefit obligations. The board also adopts economic assumptions and funding policies that influence how big a budget hit those employers will face each biennium. In the last few years, that's been a very big hit indeed. Required contributions have more than doubled since 2010 and are slated to jump nearly 40 percent again next year. That will leave local governments, schools and agencies scrambling to pay a collective tab of $2 billion a year while trying to maintain services. To ease that budget pain, the PERS Board has adopted policies to slow walk the rate increases that need to take place to dig out of the system's $22 billion in unfunded liabilities. It faced pressure last year, and to some degree acquiesced, to maintain higher assumptions about investment earnings, which would otherwise require bigger contributions from employers. And there is periodic pressure for the board to extend the payback period of its pension debt from 20 to 30 years, which would lower employers' required contributions but would actually increase the pension debt for the first two decades. Debate over the system will return during the 2019 legislative session as Brown and lawmakers try to alleviate the next spike in required contributions from employers. There are ideas on the table, including new taxes and proposals to lower benefits and share costs with employees. But there is no political consensus. And that could bring renewed pressure on the PERS Board to do something. The governor's office has had difficulty filling the chair's job. It backed away from its first favored candidate, who happened to be Brown's personal accountant, this spring. Thomas said he forwarded several names to the governor's office for consideration, including two with direct experience managing retirement plans. All were registered Republicans, however, and it's not clear if they were considered. One of them told The Oregonian/OregonLive he had never heard from the governor's office. Pair, the governor's spokesman, said Thursday that political affiliations played no role in Shenoy's selection or the recruitment of candidates. Kevin Olineck, who recently took over as executive director of the PERS agency, said his staff had been preparing orientation material, and would be as supportive as possible to bring new members up to speed. He said he was impressed by Shenoy's broad background and the due diligence she was doing. He also said there can be surprising advantages of bringing someone in fresh. "From a governance perspective, diversity of thought and experience is a very important attribute to any board," Olineck said. "Sometimes those who haven't got so much experience in a field can get right to the heart of an issue." - Ted Sickinger 503-221-8505; @tedsickinger Nike co-founder and billionaire Phil Knight has written another big check to Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Knute Buehler, this time for $1 million, according to Willamette Week. That would bring Knight's total contributions to Buehler, a state lawmaker and orthopedic surgeon from Bend, to $1.5 million. Buehler's campaign has not yet reported the contribution in Oregon's campaign finance database. Knight gave Buehler $500,000 last summer, which at the time was the largest individual contribution in an Oregon campaign. Knight has a history of giving money to candidates of both parties, including former Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat. Willamette Week did not disclose how it learned of Knight's latest contribution. Buehler's spokeswoman, Monica Wroblewski, declined to confirm the campaign donation to the news organization on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Nike has thrown its financial support behind Democratic incumbent Gov. Kate Brown. So far, that sum is much smaller: $35,000 so far this year, according to state campaign finance records. -- Hillary Borrud 503-294-4034; @hborrud An Oregon man making and distributing child pornography received an email several years ago from someone who identified himself only as "Blackhands.'' "Blackhands'' had hacked into the man's computer and found the pornography. He demanded $10,000 or he would expose the crimes, promising his life would be "over.'' The man paid "Blackhands'' $1,000 a month in Western Union money transfers for at least a year and a half, sending them to addresses in New York. But that was only part of the heinous scheme detailed in federal court Thursday as the extortionist was sentenced to prison for hacking into dozens of computers, then blackmailing child pornographers to turn over hundreds of thousands of dollars. Two of the hacker's victims committed suicide, prosecutors said. The man in Oregon who was being blackmailed turned over his young daughter to the hacker, presuming she would be abused and used for explicit photos, court records show. Andre E. Shaw U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon sentenced Andre Eugene Shaw, 34, to five years and three months in prison. The judge rejected a shorter sentence of three years and six months recommended in a plea deal worked out by prosecutors and Shaw's lawyer. The judge said both sides in the case had neglected to consider the harm to the pornographer's daughter. Her drugging and transfer to Shaw amounted to abduction and should lengthen Shaw's prison term. "She's a victim of this crime," Simon said. The girl's father took her to meet Shaw at Oaks Park and another time to Westmoreland Park. The last time, in July 2014, he transferred his daughter to the blackmailer across from the Chart House on Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard. The father, identified in court records only as "JAD,'' usually drugged his daughter until she was unconscious before handing her over to the stranger. The last time, he adhered to the blackmailer's demand that he also provide sex toys, costumes, makeup and a digital camera for a photo shoot, according to court documents. "I still don't like this ... but I know I don't have a choice,'' the father messaged Shaw in a chat log on July 16, 2014, according to an affidavit. The full extent of Shaw's crimes remains a mystery, federal investigators said. Computer equipment and discs seized from his home were heavily encrypted and the government hasn't been able to access them all, they said. Two of Shaw's victims -- one in Great Britain and the other in the Midwest -- committed suicide when contacted by law enforcement officers, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman. The case against Shaw, who also used the alias "Joseph Stanis," began after the 2014 arrest of JAD for producing and distributing child pornography involving four young children, including his daughter. JAD told an FBI agent that he'd been blackmailed for three years by someone he knew only as "Blackhands.'' JAD told investigators he arranged to make monthly payments to "Blackhands" through Western Union and that the blackmailer over time made additional demands, directing JAD to recruit people to skim credit cards at restaurants, buy guns, ammunition and a ballistic vest for him and pick up extortion payments in the form of wire transfers sent by other victims, Sussman said. Once JAD began providing the other services, his monthly payments were reduced from $1,000 to $500. Before JAD's arrest, "Blackhands" demanded photos of JAD's daughter and then for JAD to turn his daughter over to him to make child pornography, according to a sentencing memo. Investigators found Shaw's palm print on a box with costumes and a camera that the blackmailer had returned to JAD, after a session with his daughter. The camera was missing a memory card. JAD provided investigators with the cellphone number for "Blackhands," which was traced to a Joe Stanis in Irvine, California, at that time. But a vehicle Shaw drove when he picked up the young girl was registered to a Southeast Portland address. In December 2014, FBI agents raided the Southeast Portland residence that Shaw shared with his girlfriend. They found counterfeit driver's licenses, supplies and equipment for making high-quality false IDs, numerous guns including an assault-style rifle, ammunition and homemade gun silencers and discs labeled with the initials of victims he extorted. Shaw also had a police badge, a DEA jacket and a ballistic vest. Another blackmail victim, identified only as KAS from California, said one day he received an email that told him he had seven days to transfer $500 to the stranger or his life would be ruined, according to court documents. The email, sent from an anonymous email service, contained screenshots of his computer, work and personal emails, social media profiles and banking information. Later, he was given the choice of making a lump-sum payment of $20,000 or $500 a month indefinitely. KAS took out a personal loan, flew to Portland as instructed and handed over the money to JAD at a Starbucks. JAD, serving as an intermediary, then gave the money to Shaw. KAS received a confirmation email from the blackmailer that read "It is done'' and "Godspeed,'' according to court records. KAS said he believed Shaw went by the name "Whitehand'' in his emails. Computer discs found in Shaw's home were imprinted with a prominent black hand, Sussman said. Shaw had pleaded guilty to extortion, two counts of transmitting extortionate communications in interstate commerce, money laundering and possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle. Once he completes his sentence, he will be on three years of supervised release and must undergo a sex offense assessment. His computer and data will be subject to searches and he won't be allowed to access the Internet unless his probation officer grants him permission. Shaw justified what he did at first "because in his view it was only hurting people who deserved it,'' his lawyer, Richard McBreen III, wrote in a sentencing memo. Shaw also noted that the "money was too easy.'' Shaw didn't rebut any of the government's facts, his lawyer said. Shaw declined to address the court. Four months before Shaw's arrest, JAD wrote to him, "I am frankly running out of money. Are you ever going to actually let me go?'' -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a hefty fine to NW Metals, the Northeast Portland scrapyard that caught fire in March, for violating a number of the state's environmental laws. In a letter to the company dated Aug. 30, the agency said NW Metals was being penalized for disposing of waste in ways it could get into groundwater, operating a tire disposal facility without a permit, failing to properly manage waste tires and operating prohibited underground injection control, a system that injects stormwater into the ground, potentially providing a conduit for hazardous waste to enter groundwater. For those violations, the company was fined $52,854. FHA Holdings, which owns the property, was fined an additional $29,554. "The facility repairs, dismantles, and shreds used vehicles, generating waste materials, including waste tires, antifreeze, petroleum wastes, and other likely toxic and hazardous substances," the agency wrote. "When mismanaged, these wastes pose a threat of harm to human health and the environment." Moyata Anotta, son of the business owner, told KATU News that some information provided in the letter was incorrect, and that the company intended to appeal the fine. NW Metals, located near Northeast Killingsworth Street and Northeast 75th Avenue, was the site of a massive blaze in March. Eventually growing to five alarms, the fire forced the evacuation of many in the surrounding Cully neighborhood, including roughly 100 students from the nearby Sacajawea Head Start School. The blaze also destroyed a duplex and two detached homes, displacing four families and killing 16 pets, Portland fire officials said. The state has ordered the company to take a number of specific steps in cleaning up in the aftermath of the fire, including clearing all cars, tires and other materials by the end of Friday. It appears unlikely they will meet that deadline and "DEQ is currently assessing additional actions," a spokeswoman for the agency said. -- Kale Williams kwilliams@oregonian.com 503-294-4048 FARGO, N.D. -- President Donald Trump said Friday that the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential is not only bad for the country, "it's really unfair for our midterms." Trump also said special counsel Robert Mueller should have wrapped up the inquiry a "long time ago." Asked about the investigation, which he has repeatedly denounced as a "witch hunt," Trump reiterated to reporters that there was no collusion between anyone one his presidential campaign and the Russian government. But he said the time had long past for the investigation to have ended. "We have to get it over with. It's really bad for the country. It's really unfair for our midterms. Really, really unfair for the midterms," Trump said. "This thing should have been over with a long time ago." The president addressed reporters in the midst of a two-day campaign swing through states where Republicans hope to expand their narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate by knocking off vulnerable Democrats from Montana and North Dakota. Trump was flying from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota, for fundraising events when he visited the press cabin aboard Air Force to address reporters accompanying him on the trip, part of an intense schedule of campaigning that Trump plans through the Nov. 6 elections. Asked if he would consider allowing a government shutdown before the November elections, Trump said, "I would do it because I think it's a great political issue." But he said some Republican lawmakers would "rather not do it because they have races, they're doing well, they're up." The president told Fox News in an interview broadcast earlier Friday that a government shutdown "is up to me, but I don't want to do anything that's going to hurt us or potentially hurt us because I have a feeling that the Republicans are going to do very well." At a rally Thursday in Billings, Montana, Trump urged the defeat of Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, a top GOP target in the fall elections. He is expected to do the same against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota during Friday's appearance in Fargo. As he stood alongside Tester's opponent, state Auditor Matt Rosendale, Trump said Tester "will never drain the swamp because he happens to live in the swamp." He also criticized Tester for voting against Republican tax cuts. Trump praised Judge Brett Kavanaugh's progress toward confirmation to the Supreme Court but decried the "anger and the meanness on the other side" and the Democrats' "sick" behavior as he sought to turn Kavanaugh's confirmation into a political litmus test for voters. Democrats sought to block Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings from going forward. "It's embarrassing to watch those people make fools of themselves as they scream and shout at this great gentleman," Trump said. The president's strategy on the Supreme Court nomination aims to turn the screws on Tester and Heitkamp. Both red-state Democrats find themselves caught between their Senate leaders and their states' more conservative voters, who are more broadly supportive of Trump's pick. Neither senator has laid down clear markers on how they will vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, which Senate Republican leaders hope to bring to a floor vote later this month -- just weeks before the election. Tester opposed Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Heitkamp voted for to confirm him. White House officials contend the Supreme Court was a powerful motivator for Republican base voters in 2016, when Trump won the White House, and they're seeking to capitalize on Kavanaugh's nomination to help overcome an enthusiasm gap with Democrats. Likewise, a vote for Kavanaugh by either Tester or Heitkamp could frustrate a Democratic base eager for a more confrontational approach to the Trump administration. Democrats question whether the Kavanaugh vote will resonate in the race to unseat Tester. He has emphasized his independence and willingness to cross the aisle to work with Trump, who carried Montana by 20 percentage points two years ago. Likewise, Heitkamp is locked in a tough re-election fight in heavily Republican North Dakota, where she narrowly won six years ago and now faces a more formidable opponent in Rep. Kevin Cramer. Cramer has been a fervent supporter of Trump, who remains popular in North Dakota. --The Associated Press UPDATE: Police identified the 22-year-old man shot by police. He was also indicted. Police shot a man with a knife Friday morning in a parking lot near Jesuit High School in Beaverton, an official said. Officer Bryan Dalton, a Beaverton police spokesman, said the man was conscious, alert and breathing when he was taken to a hospital. The shooting happened in a lot adjacent to the BottleDrop Oregon Redemption Center parking lot on Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway and didn't involve the nearby high school. Police initially received a report Friday morning of a person with a knife riding around on his bike outside the 7-11 at 9145 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Highway. As police approached, the man left the store. A 7-11 employee said the man had threatened the employee with a knife. The man then tried to hide at the BottleDrop, according to a police statement. He pulled the knife from his clothing near his chest and held it in his right hand while facing police who confronted him inside the BottleDrop. Police say he then left the business around 8:30 a.m. He ran into a nearby area where, at some point, police fired at him, Dalton said. He was hit and taken to a hospital, Dalton said. Dalton said he didn't know what the man did to prompt the shooting. No officers were injured, and the man's condition later Friday morning was unknown. Dalton said he didn't know how many officers fired or the total number of shots. Officers responded about 8:30 a.m. Raquel Rodriguez, who lives nearby, said she was in the backyard letting her dog out when she heard five shots, other dogs barking and someone yell, "Get down." She went down the street afterward and saw officers huddled around a person on a gurney. "It didn't look good," Rodriguez said. The neighborhood BottleDrop facility has been the subject of some controversy. Trisha McPherren, who lives nearby, said neighbors object to the smell and noise of cans and bottles, as well as people loitering in the parking lot. Business owners also object to problems that have been introduced to the area because of the people who come to the BottleDrop, she said. A statement from the Oregon Beverage Recycling Center, which operates BottleDrop, said that there is no evidence the man was a BottleDrop customer and no staff or customers were injured. Jesuit High School Principal Paul J. Hogan emailed the school community to address the shooting, saying in part that the school was advised a lockout wasn't needed. "We want to assure you that our students, faculty, staff and visitors are safe and were not harmed. Our security team was actively monitoring the situation as soon as we became aware of it," he wrote. "Had this been a situation that threatened the safety of our school community, we would have gone into a lockout immediately." Students aren't allowed to leave campus during the school day Friday, he said in the email sent about 9:55 a.m., and Valley Plaza was inaccessible at that time. Police said about 10:45 a.m. that the westbound lanes of Beaverton Hillsdale Highway between 91st Avenue and Jamieson Road were expected to be closed for several hours. -- Jim Ryan Beginning this fall, Mid Michigan College students will earn industry certifications as part of their automotive, HRA (Heating, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning), and manufacturing technology (AIM) programs. These certifications will advantage students as they apply for new jobs or look to advance in their current ones. Three of Mid's faculty members traveled to Wisconsin to complete train-the-trainer certifications for Snap-On tools, a leader in the tool and trade industry. Ron Holmes, HRA instructor, Richard Hollister, automotive instructor, and Jess King, manufacturing instructor, are now credentialed to teach nearly 20 different modules to students. Each module allows students to apply for certifications from Snap-on like micrometer measurement, ShopKey Pro Service and Repair, and slide caliper measurement. To support these expanded offerings, the college purchased three industrial Snap-On tool carts containing all equipment necessary for each industry certification. Mid's investment in these carts and faculty training marks a larger shift for the technical programs at Mid. Over the coming years, the college plans to broaden its emphasis on practical, hands-on certifications that students can earn as part of their skilled trade degrees. "We want to ensure that we're setting students up to succeed. That means that they get a job in their field or they get a better job because of what we taught them," says Shawn Troy, Mid's Dean of Workforce and Career Education. "Employers are looking for candidates that have a proven record of success, and our students' resumes will demonstrate that they have mastered the most important skills for their chosen career." Mid is also in the process of joining NC3, the National Coalition of Certification Centers. This organization includes many significant industry partners who have developed certifications alongside colleges and technical centers. Examples of industry partners include Trane, Fiat Chrysler, Snap-on, Dremel, Greenlee, and others. Through its affiliation with NC3, the college will become a recognized certification center, sponsor more faculty trainers, and broaden the number of industry certifications that it provides students. "This effort reestablishes our commitment to both our students and to building a stronger local workforce. It demonstrates our investment in keeping pace with current and upcoming technologies and preparing students to be excellent employees," notes Richard Hollister, Mid's lead automotive faculty member. "The college has always been dedicated to responding to community needs, and this venture ensures that our students are best prepared to serve local industry." The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame. Wednesday, Sept. 5 1:27 a.m. - A motorist was arrested for drunken driving in the 4400 block of North Saginaw Road. 2:38 a.m. - A deputy was sent to a Midland location for a report of an argument, and city police stopped a vehicle containing someone involved in the argument. The driver was jailed for drunken driving. 3:43 a.m. - A 56-year-old man was arrested for domestic assault. The assault occurred in Midland County. 9:23 a.m. - A deputy stood by as a 37-year-old tenant was served with eviction papers at a Midland apartment. 11:05 a.m. - A deputy assisted Midland Police investigate a hit and run traffic crash. 11:16 a.m. - A deputy investigated a report of trespassing in Lincoln Township. 8:13 p.m. - A deputy checked the well being of a 38-year-old woman in Geneva Township. The woman was in good health. A 40-year-old man living at the home was arrested on a warrant. 8:14 p.m. - A deputy was sent to Homer Township for a report of noise from a revving engine. Tuesday, Sept. 4 12:55 a.m. - Police were sent to the 100 block of East Main Street for a report of trespassing. 9:16 a.m. - Police made arrests for driving while license suspended and on a warrant at Jefferson Avenue and East Haley Street. 10:40 a.m. - Police assisted probation agents in the 4900 block of Glencoe Street. 1:11 p.m. - A deputy investigated a domestic assault in Lincoln Township. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office for review. 2:28 p.m. - Officers investigated a breaking and entering in the 200 block of East Carpenter Street. 3:04 p.m. - A Midland man, 31, reported his work truck was hit by a vehicle that did not stop while it was parked at a business in Lincoln Township over the weekend. 3:14 p.m. - Police assisted probation agents in the 200 block of West Ellsworth Street. 8:31 p.m. - Officers investigated a traffic offense at West St. Andrews and North Saginaw road. 10:27 p.m. - Officers responded to a report of a missing person in the 2100 block of Virginia Street. 10:34 p.m. - A Harrison man, 24, was arrested on a warrant after a traffic stop in Lee Township. He was stopped for failing to dim his headlights. 11:49 p.m. - Police responded to an assault and battery in the 200 block of West Indian Street. A community organization focused on helping former offenders be successful after their release has been gifted a grant to help female clients. The Zonta Club of Midland has granted $1,000 to Midland Community Former Offenders Advocacy and Rehabilitation to assist female offenders. "We are very grateful for their support," said Rob Worsley, executive director. MCFOAR focuses on helping former offenders in Midland County with their successful reintegration into productive societal life, improving not only their quality of life, but that of their families, neighborhoods, and community. The organization helps with a variety of needs by providing resources and services for shelter, food, and clothing, transportation, creating resumes, applying for jobs, substance abuse disorder mentoring, mental health referrals, anger management and more. So far this year, MCFOAR has placed 82 clients with employment and assisted 47 with housing, including moving in or emergency rent. Housing and employment are major predictors as to if former offenders will reoffend or not. From July 21, 2015, to July 21, 2018, MCFOAR has received 145 former prison inmates, those returning to the Midland community from the state prison system, as opposed to those being released from the Midland County Jail. Of those 145, only nine have returned to incarceration in prison, resulting in a recidivism rate of only 6.2 percent. The reduction in the recidivism rate is a substantial savings to the citizens of Midland County regarding Midland County Jail housing costs, the cost of law enforcement and the judicial system, and most importantly the lower number of victims in our community. For more information or to donate, go to midlandcommunityformeroffenders.org or call 989-423-1124. MCFOAR is located at 1415 Washington St. and is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Friday from 8 a.m. to noon. The Moon River Festival is this weekend at Coolidge Park. Aaron Wilkinson, the concessionaire hired by the promoter of the festival, came to the Chattanooga Beer Board meeting Thursday morning to get a permit that will allow beer sales in the park during the concerts on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 11 p.m. The laws have recently changed, said Assistant City Attorney Keith Reisman, so that a for-profit organization is allowed to sell beer in a public park as long as they have also obtained a festival license. Both licenses are costly which will limit the applications, he said. There will be 100 security officials from Access Security throughout the area of the festival that will be completely fenced in. There will be limited access points each manned with security. The crowd will be constantly monitored, and undercover purchases will take place during the event to test that the beer sales conform to the law. An app will be used that scans an ID for every beer sale. The app can access all information nation-wide that is connected to the ID. The Moon River festival is tremendous for Chattanooga, said board member Christopher Keene. There were 10,000 tickets sold in eight hours the first day they went on sale, and about 60 percent were bought by out-of-towners, he said. Mr. Wilkinson described the music as various types of hipster rock. There will be some local and some Tennessee bands. The special event beer license was unanimously approved. Another special event license was issued for the 40th Anniversary Party put on by Hair Benders International, 1615 Gunbarrel Road. This will take place on Sept. 8 from 5:30 10 p.m. in front of the building under a tent. Harriet Stafford said 250-300 people are expected, mostly clients. The event will serve as a fundraiser for Chattanooga Room in the Inn. 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.... Microsoft has scheduled an event in New York City on Oct. 2, where the company is expected to release new Surface devices. Officially, the event is scheduled to update journalists on how Microsoft is continuing to think about empowering every person on the planet to achieve more. But its expected to include the launch of one and probably multiple Surface devicesthough not a Surface phone. It also may include some updates to Microsofts services, almost certainly including the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. While competitors like Apple, Dell, and HP tend to update their flagship notebook lines on an annual basis, Microsoft has been a bit more infrequent. Microsofts Surface Pro (2017) was last refreshed in June of 2017, though the Surface Book 2 was released later in the fall. Its likely that well see a refresh of the Surface Pro, and possibly a new Surface Book, too. Microsoft Whats less certain is whether Microsoft is committed to refreshing more niche products like the Surface Studio, which launched with a bevy of mobile parts and a massive, show-stopping display. That, too, launched in mid-2017. One would think Microsoft would also issue a new update to the Surface Laptop, its excellent notebook that nailed long battery lifeideal for the student market that it was aimed at. But Microsoft clearly missed the back-to-school season, since many schools resumed classes in late August and early September. In any event, Microsoft will almost certainly try to talk up the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, which, as the name suggests, is scheduled for a release sometime in October. Look for Microsoft to nail down the final date at this event. Though the Windows 10 October Update isnt as consequential as in years past, Microsoft still has a number of key features it has in store, including the ability to cut and paste across PCs (informally known as Cloud Clipboard); a smarter mechanism for issuing updates; the Your Phone app, and more. Well be in New York on October 2 to report on any new Surface devices announced and give you a hands-on report of the new PCs. Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers. If the circus-like atmosphere prevailing at Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week have shown us anything, it's that who's in charge of the U.S. Senate matters more than ever. Democrats seized the narrative on Thursday as they posted documents about the Trump White House's high court pick that they claimed the panel's majority Republicans wanted kept out of public view. The usual histrionics ensued, and the duels continued on drive-time cable news this morning. Which means now seems a good a time as any to take the pulse of things stand in the fight for control of the 100-member chamber. More astute readers will recall that Republicans hold a slender, 51-49 majority. And while the math and the map for a Democratic takeover remains as challenging as ever, the folks crunching the numbers for University of Virginia political sage Larry Sabato's "Crystal Ball," aren't necessarily ruling anything out. Control of the Senate will be determined by the winners of 10 contests (six Democrats and four Republicans) that are competitive this campaign season. We'll get the provincial stuff out of the way first. If you take a gander at that there map down there, you'll see that Pennsylvania remains a rich shade of Democratic blue when it comes to the contest between incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton. Now for the rest of it, from Crystal Ball's Kyle Kondik. The biggest shift may go to Texas, where the fight between GOP incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke has shifted from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican" Cruz holds an average 4.4 percent lead over O'Rourke, according to the RealClear Politics polling average. And things have gotten so volatile that President Donald Trump has vowed to come in to campaign for Cruz, who was a mortal enemy during the bitterly fought 2016 GOP primary cycle. "With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, the race to Election Day is on. The national picture remains favorable to Democrats, but because of the Senate playing field, the Republican majority still will be difficult for Democrats to dislodge even in an optimal environment," Kondik wrote. Right now, "the shakiest incumbent in the nation is a Democrat: Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). We're holding her race as a Toss-up, but it could (should?) be rated as Leans Republican," he observed. According to Kondik, Senate contests in Arizona, Florida, North Dakota, and Nevada all remain toss-ups. And "in all likelihood, Democrats need to win at least three of four to avoid losses this year, and a sweep is likely necessary for them to win the majority," he wrote. Closer to home, Democratic U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Jon Tester, D-Mont. (not so close to home), remain "modest favorites," in their respective states. Here's the bottom line, according to Kondik: "In order for Democrats to win the Senate, they need to do two of three things: 1.) Win both Republican-held Toss-up seats in Arizona and Nevada; 2.) Hold all 26 seats they currently hold, several of which are in states that Trump won in landslides; or 3.) Win at least one Senate seat in a dark red state where Republicans are currently favored, be it Mississippi, Tennessee, or Texas," he wrote. "At this point, we might peg Democrats as slightly better than 50-50 to accomplish No. 1, but we'd put Republicans as a bit better than 50-50 to prevent Democrats from accomplishing No. 2 and even better to prevent them from accomplishing No. 3. So that's why Republicans continue to be favored to hold the Senate, in our view. Finally, "the Democratic path to a Senate majority does not involve them doing something radically out of the ordinary to win: The presidential out party did not lose a single incumbent-held seat in any of the last three midterms in the Senate, for instance, and both Arizona and Nevada (if not the redder Republican-held states) certainly fit the profile of Senate battlegrounds the out party could win in a year like this one. In other words, if Democrats swept the closest races and captured a small majority, it would be surprising, but not shocking," he wrote. And now you're up to date. One of the owners of a midtown Harrisburg music club said the decision to file for bankruptcy was the result of a social media campaign that targeted the business and prompted a number of artists to cancel performances. HMAC -- originally the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, now the House of Music, Arts and Culture -- on North Third Street filed last month for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it works to reorganize. Co-owner John Traynor said problems began in July when a woman reported to police that she'd been raped after visiting the bar. She later posted on Facebook that she'd been drugged in the club and HMAC staff had kicked her out, all but delivering her into the hands of her attacker. Police have charged a Harrisburg man with her rape, and that of another woman. The woman's post was deleted, but had been copied and shared extensively on social media. The allegations were repeated on a social media site. The state of business Traynor said he believes what followed was an organized campaign that worked to discourage people from patronizing HMAC. He said musical acts scheduled to perform at HMAC. were discouraged from appearing at the club. "I have the emails," Traynor said. "I'm talking about national agents. I said, 'here's the real story. There's no truth to it. The girl wasn't raped [at HMAC], people are conflating stuff. Traynor said lost bookings were the direct cause of the bankruptcy filing. HMAC currently has roughly $4 million in debt, Traynor said, with just over $3 million in two mortgages and a bit under $1 million in unsecured claims. In the wake of the woman's Facebook post, HMAC announced new policies to help protect patrons, including test strips which would allow patrons to check their drinks for drugs. "In 12 years, we've had no underage drinking, nothing." Traynor said. "And the only problem I've had with the PLCB was noise violations." The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has issued HMAC 12 citations since 2010, with the majority being for noise violations. Other citations include for attempting to purchase alcohol via credit or using bad checks and allowing smoking in non-smoking areas. HMAC's liquor license expired in March 2014, and since December of 2014 the venue has been operating under a conditional licensing agreement with the PLCB. HMAC was issued a citation in December 2017 for failing to adhere to the conditional licensing agreement. "One foot in front of the other" Despite filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Traynor said business will generally continue as usual for HMAC and its patrons. "We're going to put one foot in front of the other and continue," he said. "Chapter 11 is a tool for business in distress, when unexpected things happen. Every major airline has filed Chapter 11 to reorganize. The pilots are still flying. That's a good analogy. HMAC will continue." Traynor asserts that the company doesn't have "a lot of debt, it's not extensive." The roughly $4 million in debt is set against what he estimates to be a $5 million project, encompassing HMAC's Stage on Herr, the Kitchen, and plans for renovations including a music school and production facility. The latter renovations were to be financed by a $1 million state grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capitol Program, awarded HMAC in December 2017. HMAC's bankruptcy filing shows the owners expect to keep operating in the black, although they sought protection from utility shut-offs. They also secured court permission to pay the Aug. 31 payroll. What's next? After the bankruptcy proceedings, Traynor said, the company looks to sell and find a new owner, or transition into a non-profit. Income estimates attached to the filing show the owners project profits of $19,000 to $26,000 a month through the end of the year. "The banks are willing to work with us," Traynor continued. "They understand what happened." Traynor said his attorney has also spoken with the Dauphin County District Attorney's office concerning the damage he believes was done to his reputation and his and that of his business. District Attorney Fran Chardo confirmed Thursday that Traynor had contacted his office but would not comment further. Traynor noted HMAC was an early cornerstone of the recent revitalization of midtown Harrisburg. "They don't realize the good that this place does, and the damage because of their own petty, selfish interests," he said of his detractors. PennLive has contacted several people who have posted complaints about Traynor's behavior or business practices online. None, to date, have been willing to speak on the record. This story has been edited to list the correct date for the beginning of the conditional licensing agreement with the PLCB. URBANA, Ill. -- Former President Barack Obama issued a scorching critique of his successor Friday, blasting President Donald Trump's policies and his pattern of pressuring the Justice Department. Obama also reminded voters that the economic recovery -- one of Trump's favorite talking points -- began on his watch. Obama's speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was delivered less than two months before midterm elections that could determine the course of Trump's presidency. The remarks amounted to a stinging indictment of political life in the Trump era. "It did not start with Donald Trump," Obama said. "He is a symptom, not the cause. He's just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years." Noting the history of former presidents avoiding the rough and tumble of politics, Obama acknowledged his sharp critique of Trump was something of a departure from tradition. But he said the political moment required a pushback and called for better discourse. "Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do -- that's an old playbook," he said. "It's as old as time. And in a healthy democracy, it doesn't work. Our antibodies kick in and people of good will from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fear-mongers and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature." READ MORE: More details released for upcoming Trump visit to Pa. But, Obama added, when there is a vacuum in democracy, "other voices fill the void. A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold." Trump, meanwhile, claimed he fell asleep watching Obama's speech. "I found he's very good for sleeping," Trump said at a campaign appearance in Fargo, North Dakota. He said Obama was trying to take credit for this "incredible thing that's happening to our country." Even as he has largely remained out of the spotlight, Obama made clear he's paid close attention to the steady stream of headlines chronicling the Trump administration and said the news is a reminder of what's at stake in the November midterm elections. "Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different," Obama said. "The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire." He later added, "This is not normal." He was especially stern in his condemnation of Trump's pattern of pressuring law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The president has repeatedly called on Sessions to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and earlier this week blamed the Justice Department for indicting two incumbent Republican members of Congress, arguing the moves could jeopardize their seats. "It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents," Obama said. "Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. I'm not making that up. That's not hypothetical." READ MORE: President Trump, we're the 'fake news' that panned the Gettysburg Address. But we apologized. As Obama spoke, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he believed Sessions should investigate the identity of the author of an anonymous New York Times opinion piece that was sharply critical of his leadership, saying the essay was a "national security issue." Obama, reacting to the op-ed account, said, "That's not how our democracy is supposed to work." "The claim that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren't following the president's orders, that is not a check," Obama said. "I'm being serious here. ... These people aren't elected. They're not accountable." Obama also jabbed Trump on the issue the current president frequently heralds as one of his greatest achievements: the strong economy. Obama reminded the audience that the economic recovery began during his administration and defended his handling of the 2008 economic collapse. "When you hear how great the economy's doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started," he said. He also criticized Trump's response to the violence last year at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of a counter-protester. "We're supposed to stand up to discrimination," Obama said. "And we're sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?" The speech was a preview of the argument that Obama is likely to make throughout the fall. On Saturday, the former president will stump for House Democratic candidates at an event in Orange County, a conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several congressional seats. READ MORE: No, it's not good news that there are adults in the White House. That's supposed to be normal | John L. Micek Next week, Obama plans to campaign in Ohio for Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor, and other Democrats. Obama's campaign activity will continue through October and will include fundraising appearances, according to an Obama adviser. The adviser was not authorized to discuss Obama's thinking publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. While the former president will be visible throughout the general election, the adviser said Obama will not be a daily presence on the campaign trail. Republicans said voters won't find Obama's argument appealing. "In 2016, voters rejected President Obama's policies and his dismissiveness towards half the country," Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said in response to the Friday speech. "Doubling down on that strategy won't work in 2018 either." Meanwhile, Michelle Obama is also stepping up her political involvement ahead of the November midterm election. She will headline voter registration rallies in Las Vegas and Miami later in September as part of a week of action by When We All Vote, the new nonpartisan organization she co-chairs. ___ Juana Summers and Sara Burnett of the Associated Press wrote this story. Summers wrote from Washington. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report. The Fortneys were a one-family welcoming committee. Eleven members in all, including eight girls, when they threw their arms around a person, even a stranger could feel instantly at home. It was only natural the Fortneys, whose lives revolved around St. John the Evangelist Church in Swatara Township, would embrace the newly transferred parish priest, welcoming Father Augustine Giella to the community, their family, and into their home. The year was 1982, long before child sex abuse at the hands of priests would rock the Catholic Church. That would come much later, beginning with the blockbuster reporting in Boston in 2002 and continuing with last month's jaw-dropping Pennsylvania grand jury report uncovering accusations against 300 alleged pedophile priests and more than 1,000 victims across seven decades and six diocese in the state. The Pennsylvania report reveals a systematic pattern of the Catholic Church covering up the abuse by priests by transferring them to new, unsuspecting parishes each time complaints arise. But back then, no one thought it odd that in the twilight of his priestly career, Giella would request a transfer from New Jersey, where he'd spent three decades, to the middle of Pennsylvania, where he hardly knew a soul. If anything, the veteran father's uprooting late in his career only made St. John parishioners, such as the Fortneys, more determined to make Giella feel welcomed. Well into his 50s, Giella struck a grandfatherly figure. He fast became a regular at Fortney family meals, presiding over grace and ingratiating himself deep within that big family. Little did anyone know the Fortneys had invited a predator into their midst. WATCH: Two of the Fortney sisters, in their own words: By welcoming Giella, the Fortneys had unwittingly granted the priest easy access to the young girls that, according to the grand jury, he liked to watch use the bathroom, collecting their menstrual blood and pubic hair, among other forms of sexual abuse. Giella would remain embedded deep within the Fortney family for the next decade. Among the big brood, it was 18-month-old Carolyn Fortney who almost instantly gravitated to Father Giella. Perhaps, the trusting toddler saw the priest's signature black-and-white collar as a symbol of safety. It was anything but. Now age 37, Carolyn Fortney testified before the grand jury that Giella began abusing her almost immediately. But he wouldn't stop there. Fortney family members say the priest worked his way through five of the family's eight sisters - from early teens to a two-year-old - allegedly groping and kissing them at every opportunity and obsessing on their bathroom habits, their pubescence and the onset of their menstrual cycles. The Fortney sisters say somehow Giella was able to abuse them both in secret - including with a device attached to the toilet to collect their urine, menstrual blood and pubic hair - but also in plain sight, with his constant hugging, groping and kissing, sometimes in the presence of their parents. Yet aside from their grand jury testimony, the Fortney family hasn't spoken publicly about any of this until now. Carolyn Fortney and one of her sisters (center rear) comfort one another during the press conference on the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, nine of the eleven family members, including four of the five abused sisters, are breaking their silence and revealing what is was like for one family to suffer five times the hurt at the hands of an alleged pedophile priest. Watch the family's CBS interview here. First, Father Giella killed them with kindness, showering the Fortney sisters with candy, toys and dresses, according to the CBS interview: "He would give us candy. He would take us out and just constantly giving, giving. Gave us stuff, bought us clothes, bought us toys. Anything we wanted," Teresa Fortney-Miller told CBS, saying she was in first grade when the priest began abusing her. Patty Fortney was the oldest sister -- 13 and in the flower of adolescence -- when she and her sisters say the grabby Father Giella would put his hands and lips all over her - right in front of the other girls. "He was constantly hugging me in front of them, kissing me in front of them, trying to put his tongue in your mouth. He needed to know my cup size," said Patty Fortney-Julius, who adds she knew it felt wrong but the priest's collar seemed to say it was okay. "I would continually remind myself, 'He's my priest. He's the mediator between God and man. This is okay,'" Patty said in the CBS interview. Such over-the-top displays of supposed priestly love even took place in the presence of the Fortney parents, Ed and Patty. "I mean, even at our kitchen table things happened in front of my parents' face that they couldn't see," Lara Fortney McKeever, who said she was 10 when Giella began abusing her, told CBS. But it fell to the youngest of the abused Fortney sisters to finally help stop the priest. The former St. John the Evangelist Church in Swatara Township, which was closed in the 1990s and now is used by another denomination. Carolyn Fortney told the grand jury and CBS she wasn't yet two when the abuse began. It would continue for the next decade, even as Giella retired in wake of a separate report of sexual abuse in Harrisburg, and returned to New Jersey. In the end, it was a movie that helped a then-12-year-old Carolyn realize her friendly priest was really a predator and she and some of her sisters, his victims, she tells CBS: "I was watching a movie of a priest molesting altar boys and that's kind of the day that I put it together," Carolyn said. But it should not have taken such a young girl awakening to a decade of abuse to stop Giella. Carolyn Fortney, now 37, says the abuse by her family priest began before she was even two years old. According to the grand jury report and long-secret internal Diocesan letters, the Harrisburg Diocese knew the priest was following girls into restrooms as far back as April 1987. That's when a teacher's aide working with a student in Harrisburg's Catholic school system told church officials about a middle school girl who said Giella routinely followed her into the restroom at the church rectory, where he watched her use the toilet and did "wrong things." The teacher's aide, who worked with the district's intermediate unit, testified before the grand jury. And the grand jury report includes redacted copies of the internal Diocesan letters detailing the complaint for Harrisburg Diocese leaders. According to those internal letters, Father Joseph Coyne, then with Bishop McDevitt school, took the teacher's complaint and then reported it, initiating a process that would alert the very top Harrisburg Diocese to Giella's alleged actions with the girl in the rectory bathroom. Yet in response, Coyne was "instructed to do nothing in the case until the matter had been discussed with diocesan legal counsel," the internal Diocesan correspondence shows. William H. Keeler, who interviewed Giella as a father before approving his transfer to the Harrisburg Diocese around 1980, had by then risen to bishop. Upon receiving the letter outlining the complaint against Giella, now-Bishop Keeler did nothing, according to the grand jury report, which notes: "In spite of the detailed memorandum and this note, Giella remained in ministry and neither Keeler nor the Diocese attempted to remove Giella from ministry." Instead, it would fall to the Fortneys to finally stop Father Giella, who voluntarily retired from the priesthood in 1988 and then moved back to New Jersey. Fortney family members, including the abused sisters, continued to visit the retired, aging priest at his home in New Jersey. By then, some of the Fortney sisters were old enough to have their own daughters, and they brought them to Giella's place near the beach, too. But before the priest's alleged abuse could extend to a new generation, Carolyn Fortney was beginning to question Giella's actions. And then a Fortney niece discovered alleged proof of the priest's abuse at the Giella's New Jersey home, all according to the family's CBS interview. It was 1992 when one of Carolyn's nieces stumbled upon a box. Inside, there were pictures -- but not the kind any priest should possess. The Fortneys say the pictures were naked photos of girls, including Carolyn. In other words, child pornography. Confronted with the shocking find, long-trusting parents Ed and Patty Fortney reported the photos to the Harrisburg Diocese in 1992. But a Fortney sister did one better. She contacted child services, which then alerted police, according to the CBS interview. That's all it took. Police in Pennsylvania and New Jersey pounced on the priest. Giella's New Jersey house was searched, and police confiscated the following as evidence: young girls' panties; plastic containers containing pubic hairs identified by initials; twelve vials of urine; soiled panties; sex books; feminine sanitary products (used); numerous photographs of girls in sexually explicit positions; and some photos depicting children in the act of urination, according to the grand jury report. Giella was arrested and charged with child pornography and sexual abuse in August 1992. But he would die before ever facing trial. Separately and secretly, the priest was interviewed prior to his arrest by a Church official on July 30, 1992, about the Fortney family complaints. That's when Giella allegedly confessed, according to the grand jury report and internal church documents, which state: "Among other admissions, Giella stated that he began having contact with the girl (Carolyn) in the bath and that 'as time went on they became more comfortable with each other the embraces became more intense and involved some fondling on his part." Giella also confessed to Church officials that he took pictures of the girl, the grand jury report states. Meanwhile, news of Giella's arrest spawned a wave of new complaints of abuse, with "numerous" women alleging Giella had fondled and abused them when he was a priest in Hackensack, New Jersey. These women stated they had been afraid to come forward given Giella's position in the church, the grand jury report states. Around this same time, four more of the Fortney sisters came forward with their own stories of abuse at the hands of Giella. On October 12, 1992, an attorney for the Fortney family gave the Diocese of Harrisburg official notice of their intent to sue over the abuse suffered by five of the sisters. According to the grand jury report, the Fortneys demanded $900,000. Records show the Diocese tried to talk them down to $225,000. Eventually, the two sides reached a settlement of nearly $1 million. But the money came with confidentiality agreements that kept the Fortneys silent until Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro convened his investigative grand jury, removing the muzzle and freeing the Fortney's to finally tell their story - some 26 years after the fact. Decades later, the fallout is still affecting Fortneys, each in different ways. A pair of still-dumbfounded parents are left to wonder how their kindly, Christian act of welcoming a priest became tantamount to failing to protect their family. "It's bewildering," father Ed Fortney told CBS. "I gotta contemplate on it probably for the next 10 years, the-- to figure out where the hell I went wrong, you know?" Added mother Patty Fortney: "We were on the inside. We didn't know... I mean, can you -- honestly think that if we knew, we would let something like that happen to our babies?" Once close-knit sisters were left isolated by the abuse five of them suffered, but never discussed. "For a long time, we just-- we-- it's not that we weren't close," Carolyn Fortney told CBS. "We just didn't know each other. There's always this big elephant in the room when we were together-- because we-- you know, there was so much going on that we didn't want to talk about it." So first, the Fortney sisters told their stories to each other. Then, some went before the grand jury. Now, they are telling the world. In doing so, perhaps, they will help others, stopping this from happening again. After all, something good should come from all the evil visited upon one family - five sisters robbed of their innocence -- by a priest. "I believe that there's going to be change," Teresa Fortney-Miller told CBS. "I pray that there's going to be change because nobody should live like this with this pain. Nobody should. It's every day. But I have hope now. I do." FBI agents raiding a Swatara Township home Thursday arrested a man believed to be a member of a violent gang from New York City, responsible for heroin distribution and four murders. Norman Marrero, 35, was identified as the man arrested around 6 a.m. in the 500 block of North Street, Swatara Township. The raid caused a heavy police presence in the area as the warrant was executed. Marrero is believed to be a part of the "Bushwick Crew" from the Queens and Brooklyn boroughs in New York, according to a release from the United States Attorney Richard Donoghue of the eastern district of New York. Marrero is one of nine men federally charged in connection with a racketeering conspiracy focused on drug distribution and several violent acts, including four murders. Marrero is not charged in connection with any of the murders, but officials believe he participated in the shooting of a drug customer "to extort him for a drug debt" which was owed to the crew, the release states. Other members of the group are believed to be involved in the murders of Donte Williams, Gary Lopez, Rudy Superville and Kelvin Johnson, which all occurred in New York, according to the release. The rest of the group is accused of being a "violent crew that beat, tortured and killed in furtherance of heroin trafficking," Donoghue said in the release. "Not only are these gang members pushing deadly drugs in our most vulnerable communities, they're allegedly killing rivals and bystanders in their attempts to maintain power and control," stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney in the release. "We've stated before the FBI Metro Safe Streets Task Force will continue our pursuit of the leadership in these gangs, and stop their violent and illegal trafficking enterprise before more and more people die from either addiction or at the hands of the gang members." Investigators believe the Bushwick Crew was involved in a large-scale heroin trafficking organization with Mexican cartel connections, according to the release. Crew members served as "enforcers" to protect the group's interests by arming themselves while escorting drug traffickers, forcibly collecting drug debts and committing acts of violence against anyone who interfered with the crew's operations, officials said. If convicted of the drug and gun-related charges, Marrero faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years imprisonment, or a maximum of life imprisonment, according to the release. The following men were arrested from Brooklyn, New York this week: Maurice Brown, 27, Jaquan Cooper, 30, Lance Goodwin, 29, and Tyquan Griem. The following men were previously charged in other crimes and are now facing new charges: Luis Lopez, 36, Jason Pantojas, 30, Miguel Pantojas, 31, and Peter Vasquez, 31. Former Harrisburg bishop Kevin Rhoades on Thursday night categorically dismissed an allegation of misconduct lodged against him as baseless. A statement to PennLive from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., where Rhoades is now bishop said: "Bishop Rhoades adamantly denies any validity to this accusation and the insinuation of inappropriate behavior. He did nothing wrong, and is confident any investigation will bear this out." PennLive on Thursday confirmed that the former Harrisburg bishop was at the center of a fresh allegation filed with the Diocese of Harrisburg involving potential misconduct - possibly one of a sexual nature. The Diocese of Harrisburg has reported the allegation to PA ChildLine and the office of the Dauphin County District Attorney. "We would stress that this is an allegation," diocesan spokesman Mike Barley said in a statement to PennLive. "We will have no further comment until the investigation of the Office of the District Attorney is concluded." Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo is investigating the allegation against Rhoades. Rhoades has not been charged. Chardo said the victim, a male, died in 1996 and was around the age of 18 when the alleged incident happened. Chardo's office received the report last month. "The report alleged that they perceived the relationship as odd," Chardo said. "But they did not witness any inappropriate conduct." Chardo said the allegation could fall within the statute of limitations. Now 60, Rhoades was bishop in Harrisburg from 2004 to 2009 and prior to that a diocesan priest. Rhoades was the youngest bishop in the country when he was named to the Harrisburg post. The accusation comes weeks after a grand jury report unearthed widespread clergy sex abuse and its cover-up across six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. David Clohessy, a former director of the Survivors Network for those Abused by priests - or SNAP - said the fact that Rhoades' accuser was in jail should not damage the credibility of the accusation. "Most abuse victims are traumatized and engage in self-destructive behaviors like addiction and crime," Clohessy said. He urged Rhoades to step down while the investigation proceeds. "I urge Catholic officials in Indiana and Pennsylvania to aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes, misdeeds or cover ups, by Rhoades or other clerics," Clohessy said. He began his tenure in the Harrisburg Diocese at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in York in 1983. Five years later, he became assistant chancellor under then-Bishop William Keeler. He was appointed pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in 1990 and served there until 1995, when he accepted a full-time faculty position with Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, eventually becoming rector. In 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed him the ninth bishop of Harrisburg. He was 46 years old and the nation's youngest bishop. During his tenure, he announced that Bishop McDevitt High School would be moved out of the city of Harrisburg to Lower Paxton Township. His departure from the Harrisburg diocese and move to Indiana caught some by surprise. Rhoades led the Harrisburg diocese for just five years, a shorter time span than most of his predecessors. He was installed in January 2010 as the ninth bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese. The grand jury report released last month by Attorney General Josh Shapiro found that more than 300 priests had for decades sexually molested more than 1,000 children, often unchecked by church officials who knew of the abuse. The report found that church officials covered-up the crimes and failed to report them to law enforcement. Rhoades has repeatedly affirmed that he acted appropriately to protect children during his time in Harrisburg. The grand jury report faulted Rhoades, along with former bishops William Keeler, Nicholas Dattilo and Gainer, for what it deems ineffective handling of reports against a predatory priest. In August, Rhoades announced he planned to release the names of priests in his current diocese who have been accused of sexually molesting children. He explained that he made his decision in an effort to foster reconciliation and healing among victims. The Bon-Ton name will live on thanks to a $900,000 deal to purchase the department store's trademarks and customer lists. The future of specific stores, however, remains uncertain. More than 2,225 jobs were lost earlier this year when the century-old retailer declared bankruptcy and liquidated 267 stores. On Thursday, a giant banner appeared on the Bon-Ton website declaring the department store's return. The website didn't elaborate and messages left with the purchaser weren't returned. Federal bankruptcy court documents, however, shed some light. CSC Generation Holdings, an Indiana-based firm that has bought up a number of e-commerce sites, entered the top bid of $900,000 for Bon-Ton's intellectual property. That refers to all of the data and trademarks we associate with a brand: Logos, social media accounts, 180 website domain names, and, most importantly, Bon-Ton's customer list. In an age when data is power, Bon-Ton--even in bankruptcy--still holds valuable information about consumers with discretionary income to burn. Department stores shed some 500,000 jobs since 2002, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The closing of Bon-Ton stores, like this one in Carlisle, will add about 2,225 to that tally. (Wallace McKelvey photo) The defunct company's customer list, according to the court filings, contain 24.5 million individual records with a full name and mailing address. It also contains some 5.6 million email addresses. Every time a store clerk asked for a customer's email address or a customer signed up for a mailing list, that information was entered into a database that will soon become CSC's property. Bon-Ton's data set also includes information about rewards program participation, purchases for the last three years and even information about whether the customer responded to emails in the last two years. Data is integral to CSC Generation, which reported annual sales of $150 million in 2017. In addition to running a number of retail websites, it also offers leasing services through which customers can lease jewelry, apparel, handbags or electronics for six to nine months. "If a bank rejects you (for a loan), you're done," CEO Justin Yoshimura told The Wall Street Journal last year. "If we reject you because you have no credit history, why not use alternative data resources to approve you?" The beauty products company L'Oreal, in a separate bid, plans to pay $312,900 for data on customers who shopped at Bon-Ton for cosmetics and fragrances. CSC Generation told USA Today on Thursday that it plans to reopen stores in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The plan is to reinvent the brand with a focus on e-commerce while offering personal styling services at the physical location. Now, it's not clear how many stores CSC Generation plans to reopen or how much of their business would shift online. Department stores shed some 500,000 jobs since 2002, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while online retailers created a scant 200,000. Bon-Ton's physical stores were not included in either sale; only its intellectual property. Going out of business sales at those physical stores wrapped up last week. Great American Group, the company that oversaw liquidation, could not comment on the specifics of the sale but confirmed that all physical store locations were closed as of Aug. 31. "The company's intellectual property is in the process of being sold," Scott Carpenter, the company's president of retail solutions, said in a written statement. "We cannot speak to the purchaser's future plans with the company." A number of companies that own or lease out former Bon-Ton stores were unaware of the CSC bid. As of Friday, they hadn't heard anything about the possibility of reopening physical stores. Across the country, landlords are already making plans for the future of those locations after Bon-Ton. The location at the Queensgate Shopping Center in York Township, for example, will become a CommunityAid thrift store. Both the CSC Generation and L'Oreal deals are subject to final approval by a Delaware bankruptcy court judge. Wallace McKelvey may be reached at wmckelvey@pennlive.com. Follow him on Twitter @wjmckelvey. Find PennLive on Facebook. Read the 'TAPPED OUT' special investigation of drinking water and share your comments on Facebook. The clergy sex abuse scandal in the U.S. emerged most prominently in 2002 when an investigation by The Boston Globe uncovered patterns of widespread child sex abuse by priests and the cover-up of crimes by church officials. Since then, investigations across dioceses across the country, and indeed, the world, have uncovered the identical patterns of such crimes. Yet in spite of the scores of horrific accounts, victims and cases, few church officials have been charged or convicted. On Thursday, former Harrisburg bishop Kevin C. Rhoades became the latest U.S. church official to come under the scrutiny of law enforcement. Rhoades is at the center of a fresh allegation of misconduct while he was a priest in the diocese of Harrisburg. The Diocese of Harrisburg on Thursday confirmed that recently an allegation of misconduct had been filed against Rhoades and reported to the Dauphin County district attorney's office. Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo confirmed that his office is looking into the accusation aimed at Rhoades, who is now the head of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind. Rhoades has not been charged. The victim died in 1996, Chardo said. According to a source familiar with the information but requesting anonymity, the victim was once an inmate of the Dauphin County Prison. Allegations of misconduct have been filed with the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office against Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, a former Diocese of Harrisburg bishop and now head of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. PAUL CHAPLIN, The Patriot-News The allegation comes on the heels of Pennslvania's scathing grand jury report into clergy sex abuse. The recent allegations revive the debate around the idea that the church has been well-positioned and resourced to fend off jail time for priests and senior church officials like bishops. The time element remains by far one of the biggest contributing factors in the small number of prosecutions. With few exceptions, most cases of abuse uncovered in Catholic dioceses have timed out of the statute of limitations. Under Pennsylvania law, victims must come forward to pursue criminal cases by the age of 50 and they must come forward by age 30 to file lawsuits. "If I could have charged everyone, I would have," Attorney General Josh Shapiro told PennLive this week. What's more, with every wave of investigation, church documents show that bishops and archbishops are well aware of the time factor and the length of time needed to conceal a crime to protect a predator from the law, critics say. "That's the place it begins," said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability, which maintains a database of abusive priests and church officials. "If you were are wondering why bishops so rarely to never get indicted for obstruction or any of those offenses, it's really because the cases themselves so often don't surface or surface so late nothing can be done about it." The late Bishop Thomas Dupre of Springfield, Mass. was the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States to be indicted on a sexual abuse claim. Dupre was indicted for abuse but the case could not be brought to trial because the statute of limitations had expired on some charges and the grand jury declined to indict on others. Dupre was bishop from 1995 to 2004, when accusations made by the mother of an alleged abuse victim became public. Shortly after he retired, he was indicted in 2004 on charges that he sexually assaulted two altar boys, ages 12 and 13, more than three decades earlier. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph in 2012 was indicted for failure to report an abusive priest and his child abuse images. Finn is the lone American bishop ever to be found guilty of a criminal charge for failure to report an accusation of child abuse. His conviction on a misdemeanor charge stemmed from Finn waiting several months before telling police that explicit images of young girls had been discovered on the computer of one of his priests. Former St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop John Nienstedt in 2015 resigned amid charges that the archdiocese had mismanaged clergy sexual abuse cases, leading prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the archdiocese "for its failure to protect children." When they do face the law, most church officials have received lenient sentencings. Bishop Daniel Walsh of the Santa Rosa (Ca.) Diocese, for example, avoided being charged for violation of state mandatory reporting laws by going into counseling. Generally speaking, most experts agree that current U.S. laws are ill-equipped for the prosecution of church officials. "It's an amazing situation," McKiernan said. "These are among the worst crimes that anyone can commit and among the most horrible crimes anyone can suffer. It's deeply shocking that people responsible for these crimes can't be brought to justice." Proposed legislation passed in the Pennsylvania Senate last year would do away with the safety nets that ensure church officials are not prosecuted. If approved by the House and adopted in law, Senate Bill 261 would eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal charges for conspiracy. Victims advocates are demanding a wider scope to the law - that of a civil retroactive window that would allow victims who have timed out of the legal system a chance to take predators to court. The latter proposal has consistently been defeated in the Legislature in recent years. McKiernan takes small solace in what he says is a changing landscape across the country. The once inconceivable idea of suing the church or convicting its officials has dramatically given way to more aggressive prosecution of predators and accomplices. Pennsylvania has distinguished itself as one of the few states aggressively prosecuting child sex predators. Still, the latest grand jury report, he said, represents a watershed moment poised to change decades of legal inaction against abusive church officials. "There's something about this grand jury report at this time," McKiernan said. "I don't if it's the cumulative reports of horror....it's always shocking." On Thursday, New York and New Jersey announced they are launching similar investigations into clergy sex abuse, a move inspired by Pennsylvania's investigation. Shapiro said that more than a dozen attorneys general and a senior official at the Department of Justice had reached out to him since the release of the Pennsylvania report. "Our work in Pennsylvania has spurred a movement - the time for institutions to place their own interests above protecting our children is over," Shapiro said. To date, Shapiro has indicted two priests as a result of the grand jury report -one of them resulting in a guilty conviction. Monsignor William Lynn, from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is the church's most senior official to have been convicted in this country for his handling of pedophile priests. Lynn, a former secretary for clergy, was convicted in 2012 for transferring a known pedophile priest. As a result of an unresolved defense appeal, Lynn currently is a free man and may not face retrial for months. He had served nearly three years of a three- to six-year sentence. Earlier this year, authorities convicted two Franciscan priests for failure to protect children from a serial sexual predator in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the subject of an equality blistering grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse. The Revs. Robert D'Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered no-contest pleas, and were sentenced to probation and fined after agreeing not to challenge a criminal prosecution. Both priests had been supervisors of the late Brother Stephen Baker, who committed suicide in 2013 amid credible accusations that he molested scores of students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown. Similar scrutiny has now focused on embattled Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, a former Pittsburgh Diocese bishop critically faulted by the latest grand jury investigation for his failure to appropriately handle reports of clerical sex abuse during his time in Pittsburgh. The 77-year-old prelate has also been accused by a former Vatican ambassador of having known of the sexual misconduct by former Washington archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who penned the bombshell letter last month accusing Wuerl, notably charged that Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict also knew of the cardinal's misconduct. "Part of the problem is that as long as bishops feel they can function with impunity, priests will continue to commit these crimes," McKiernan said. "Even when we are talking about second crimes - transferring and concealment - we talk about mismanagement. But these are crimes. This is criminal behavior and it needs to be treated as such." This story has been updated to include information on the proposed legislation in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Harrisburg's Community and Economic Development Director Jackie Parker is stepping down after four years to take a job in the private sector. Her departure Sept. 14 will leave a vacant position in senior management as the city is currently under a hiring freeze. Parker told PennLive she accepted a job in the medical marijuana industry and is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren. She previously served as mayor of Lebanon and worked in the state's Department of Community and Economic Development before joining the city. Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse said he has no immediate plans to replace Parker's position until the city's financial situation becomes more clear. As it stands, the city faces the potential loss of $12 million annually unless the Legislature acts on a bill to allow the city to keep its current taxing authority. Some of the city's current taxing authority is tied to the state's Act 47 program but the city is trying to exit the program. Meanwhile, the mayor's administration is looking to reorganize the department of community and economic development. Other department managers can take over Parker's supervisory tasks over the planning bureau, parks and recreation and building and housing, Papenfuse said said. Then eventually he would like to hire a project manager who could serve as the economic development point person, but that will depend on the city's long-term financial stability. The Legislature is expected to make a decision on a pending bill regarding Harrisburg's taxing authority this month or next. Papenfuse said he will then roll out his 2019 budget proposal in November, which will reveal his plans going forward for the city's community and economic development department. Parker's position originally was paid in part through a grant from the Capital Regional Economic Development Corporation. Prior to that, the city did not have anyone serving as a community and economic development coordinator. While leading the city's economic development, Parker brought millions in grant financing into the city, Papenfuse said. "She is much pretty single handedly responsible for bring a variety of state agencies and funding sources to the table," Papenfuse said. Parker spearheaded an idea to summon $2 million in grants from the state department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Impact Harrisburg to restore five of the city's playgrounds. The improvements were unveiled Thursday at Cloverly Heights, Royal Terrace, Penn and Sayford Streets; Norwood and Holly Streets; and Fourth and Dauphin Streets. Parker also obtained a $50,000 grant from DCNR for a master site plan for Reservoir Park and was the "driving force," Papenfuse said, for two state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grants. The city won $3 million for the "Mulder Square" project to improve a blighted neighborhood at the end of the Mulberry Street Bridge that extends to 13th Street. The city also received a $2 million state grant to begin its Paxton Creek Reclamation project. "She's brought significant dollars to the city and that's going to be a real lasting legacy, Papenfuse said. "She's served the city incredibly well." Something that used to make four sisters feel distant decades ago now has brought them together as they're beginning to share the stories of the abuse they say came at the hands of their priest. Four of five sisters who accused Rev. Augustine Giella of molestation and sexual abuse shared their stories during an interview that aired Thursday night on CBS Evening News. The women are just a handful of the hundreds of victims who reported sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members that was investigated for two years by a Pennsylvania grand jury, which recently issued its report. But what made their case unique was the number of members of one family who made the claims. Carolyn Fortney, Teresa Fortney-Miller, Lara Fortney McKeever and Patty Fortney-Julius sat down with reporter Nikki Batiste to discuss the allegations against the religious figure close to them and their family. Excerpts of that interview aired Thursday night and an extended interview with the family was set to take place on Friday's CBS This Morning broadcast, which airs at 7 o'clock. Giella was eventually charged with possession of child pornography in connection with their case, but died awaiting trial. Each woman shared the ages they said the abuse began for them: Patty at 13, Lara at 10, Teresa in first grade and Carolyn before she was 2 years old. Carolyn Fortney said she didn't realize what happened to her until she was 12, when she was watching a movie involving a priest molesting altar boys. That was the first day she put it together, she said in the interview. Teresa Fortney-Miller described how Giella would do things for the girls, such as bring them clothes and toys, and give them anything they wanted. Meanwhile, the incidents went on, they said, sometimes even in the house. Patty Fortney-Julius said there were times when Giella would molest her in front of her sisters, including hugging and kissing her, try to put his tongue in her mouth and ask her cup size. "I would continually remind myself, 'He's my priest, he's the mediator between God and man. This is OK,' " Fortney-Julius said. One of the sisters' nieces found a box containing pornography and nude photos of Carolyn, which was eventually reported to authorities in 1992. Another sister called child services around the same time. The sisters' father, Ed Fortney, told Batiste he questioned where he went wrong. His wife, Patty Fortney, said they had no idea what was happening. "Can you honestly think we would let something like that happen to our babies?" Patty Fortney asked the interviewer. The sisters told Batiste that for the longest time they weren't close. There was an elephant in the room, so much going on, and they didn't want to talk about it. When they finally began discussing the abuse three years ago, it meant they began telling their stories to each other. Carolyn, one of the first to speak publicly about the abuse, said she did it in order to help other people. "I believe there's going to be change," she said. "I pray that there's going to be change because nobody should live like this with this pain. Nobody should. It's every day. But I have hope now." According to the grand jury report, Giella regularly collected samples of the girls' urine, public hair and menstrual blood. According to the grand jury report, the Harrisburg Diocese was warned about Giella in 1987, when an allegation came out that he routinely followed a middle school girl into the restroom at the church and watched her use the toilet. Giella retired after the allegation, and nothing was done until the youngest Fortney sister came forward in 1992, which prompted the criminal case. Officials say 12 people arriving on two international flights at Philadelphia International Aiport are experiencing flu-like symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control is investigating. The American Airlines flights came from Paris and Munich. BREAKING: Several passengers on two international flights are complaining of flu-like symptoms. Here is a statement from the airport. @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/lX7NPvsbij David Spunt (@davidspunt) September 6, 2018 According to a statement issued by Philadelphia International Airport, 250 passengers and crew members on the flights underwent medical evaluations before being released. Normal airline operations were not impacted. On Wednesday, a plane was quarantined at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City after 10 passengers became ill aboard a flight from Dubai. | BY Ricki Green | Eleven young creatives originally from seven countries in the Asia Pacific region have been named finalists for the the global Young Guns 16 competition, celebrating international creative professionals age 30 or younger. Australian expats Luke Chard, senior art director at Droga5 New York and Joyce N. Ho, and art director and motion designer, based in Brooklyn have both made the cut. Finalists this year originally from the Asia-Pacific region are: Luke Chard, originally from Australia (working at Droga5, New York), Advertising Melina Fiolitakis, Auckland, New Zealand, Advertising, instagram.com/melholiday Esther Goh, Singapore, Illustration, www.esthergoh.co Au Chon Hin and Si Nga Ian, team from Macau, China, Graphic Design, untitledmacao.com Joyce N. Ho, originally from Australia (now in Brooklyn), Film & Animation, www.joycenho.com Jiaxi & Zhe, team originally from China (now in Brooklyn), Photography, www.jiaxiandzhe.com Satoshi Kohno, Tokyo, Japan, Advertising Victo Ngai, originally from Hong Kong (now in Los Angeles), Illustration, victo-ngai.com Woshibai, Shanghai, Illustration, instagram.com/woshibaii/ This marks the first time live social video has been used to announce finalists for Young Guns, the industrys only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies todays vanguard of young creatives. Young Guns is part of The One Club for Creativity, the worlds foremost non-profit organization recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design. The 82 finalists consist of creatives originally hailing from 24 countries this year, two-thirds from outside the US. Submissions were judged by 61 top creatives from around the world, about half of whom are past Young Guns winners. The full jury list can be viewed at http://youngguns.org/jury/. This years winners will be announced at the Young Guns 16 awards ceremony and party on November 15, 2018 at the Highline Ballroom in New York. The evening will be hosted by Gemma OBrien (Young Guns 13 winner), acclaimed Australian artist and designer specializing in lettering, typography and illustration. Tickets are available at https://www.oneclub.org/events/-young-guns-16-ceremony-party. Young Guns 16 winners receive a unique version of the iconic Young Guns Cube, designed exclusively for this years incoming class, and have their permanent profile page added to the Young Guns website. Winners also receive a complimentary one-year membership to The One Club for Creativity, permanent membership in Young Guns network, a chance to be featured in Young Guns events and an assortment of career-boosting opportunities from Young Guns sponsors. Says Michael ORourke, executive director, ADC: Young Guns is special because its incredibly difficult to make the cut as finalists. Many of the best young creatives from around the world entered really strong portfolios across multiple disciplines, so its badge of honor to make it even this far. Past Young Guns include rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields, including advertising creatives Rei Inamoto (YG4) and Menno Kluin (YG6); graphic designers James Victore (YG1), Stefan Sagmeister (YG1) and Jessica Walsh (YG8); illustrators Christoph Niemann (YG2) and Deanne Cheuk (YG4); photographers Ryan McGuinness (YG2) and Jeremy Floto/Cassandra Warner (aka floto+warner, YG5); typographers Alex Trochut (YG6) and Gemma OBrien (YG13); film and video director Mike Mills (YG1), animation artist Todd St. John (YG1) and others. Program branding is developed each year by a past Young Gun winner. Branding for Young Guns 16 was designed by New York-based creative studio and artist representation agency Sunday Afternoon, led by Young Guns 11 winner Juan Carlos Pagan, co-founder and executive creative director. Nancy Eshelman Heroin. Opioids. Addiction. Overdose. Wait! Before you think, "Has nothing to do with me," let's take a look at why it does. Maybe you think it hasn't touched your family, but are you sure? What about your friends? Neighbors? Co-workers? The people in the pew in front of you in church? Addiction doesn't exist in a bubble. All around you people ache because someone they love is an addict. That fact has spurred an event being held Saturday at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Cumberland. "Night of Hope" is free and open to everyone. It begins at 5 p.m. with dinner, followed by a keynote address by Dr. Dean Ruble, an addiction specialist and internal medicine physician. Next comes a screening of "Heroin(e)," a 35-minute documentary. Participants then can choose to attend one of several break-out sessions on topics ranging from grief to how faith-based organizations can become involved. You don't have to register; you don't have to pay. You simply show up. Why should you bother? I put that question to Angela Cook, a recovery advocate who spends her time giving motivational speeches and educating people about addiction. Like many people who work in the field, Cook, 36, is passionate about her subject because she is a recovering addict, now 10 years clean. She said most people, whether they realize it or not, know someone for whom addiction - theirs or someone else's - is an issue. And if they don't, she said, "You are the person we need. You have the energy, instead of being devastated." Addicts, she said, often feel hopeless because they believe nobody cares about them. Working together, she said, a community can show them that somebody cares. "We do recover. It's possible," is the message she wants to send. Pastor Sharron Blezard of St. Paul's said her congregation is trying to show concern to addicts and the people who care about them. "Our church is too silent about this," she said. "There are people sitting in our pews every Sunday who are touched by this." The congregation began its mission with some fact-finding. Member Douglas J. Morris, who came of age during the Vietnam War, said he found the statistics terrifying. We lost 58,148 Americans in the course of the Vietnam War. Yet, in just one year - 2017 - we lost more than 72,000 Americans to drug overdoses, according to federal government figures. We are losing a generation, Morris said. That fact alone should spur community members into action. Blezard said her church has always shared its facilities with groups who need a place to meet. Both Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meet in St. Paul's. But sharing space isn't enough, she said. Churches must extend a hand and become part of their communities. "If you're not engaged in your community, you will die as a congregation," she said. Despite the pain addiction causes, there are people who cannot conjure up any compassion or desire to help. I know because I've heard from them. To them I say: Addiction costs all of us money. The Center on Addiction says spending on addiction and substance use consumes 10 percent of the federal budget and 16 percent of state budgets. The annual cost of drug-related crime alone is more than $61 billion, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Those are your tax dollars. Now do we have your interest? NANCY ESHELMAN: columnist1@verizon.net -- Night of Hope, 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, 530 Bridge St., New Cumberland. WILLIAMSPORT - An inventory and logistics analyst is the latest to be charged in a scheme to tamper with emission control devices on heavy duty diesel trucks used at the Marcellus Shale natural gas fields. An indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. Middle District Court charges Brian Mellott, 45, with conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing a lawful function of government and violations of the Clean Air Act. Five others have pleaded guilty to the same charges admitting they played a role in altering the emission-control devices on more than 30 trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines. Mellott worked at the Linden facility of Rockwell Northeast, a subsidiary of Rockwater Energy Solutions Inc. of Houston, Texas, that provided transportation of water and wastewater to and from natural gas wells. He and co-conspirators agreed to tamper with the emission-control systems to reduce repair costs and maintenance down time, the indictment alleges. They are accused of doing this by: Replacing hardware control devices with exhaust tubing or "straight pipes" that do not limit emissions. Removing the hardware control devices from their compartments and then re-welding the entry point to create a false appearance they remained installed. Mellott and the others are alleged between Sept. 1, 2013, and June 27, 2014, to have arranged for Rockwater to purchase approximately 50 defeat devices to disable the on-board diagnostic systems and "straight pipes." Mellott is charged with approving three invoices labeled complete exhaust systems that were used to purchase $19,494 worth of defeat devices. The others who have pleaded guilty but not sentenced are Joseph A. Powell, John E. Joseph Jr., Gavin Rexer, Dennis Paulhamus Jr. and Timothy Sweitzer. Powell was general manager of water management for Rockwell facilities in Linden, Hickory and Avella, the latter two in Washington County. Joseph was shop manager for Rockwell in Hickory and Rexer held the same position at Linden. Paulhamus owns a trucking firm that did hauling for Rockwater and Sweitzer owns a garage. Both businesses are in Jersey Shore. When they pleaded guilty, Paulhamus admitted selling $62,000 worth of defeat devices to Rockwell and Sweitzer acknowledged he passed for state inspection trucks without the required emission controls. A US-born woman and her son were critically injured after a giraffe trampled them, according to media reports. The Sun reported Dr. Kay Williams, 35, and her son were "covered in blood" and underwent surgery after the attack at their home on the Blyde Wildlife Estate near Hoedspruit, South Africa. Williams' husband chased off the animal after the attack, the outlet reported. The couple are scientists who work on the reserve. Emergency services and the Hoedspruit Medical Rescue team responded to the scene. Williams and her son was airlifted to Johannesburg for further treatment, the Sun reported. It's not often that Pennsylvania finds itself in the vanguard of much of anything. But three weeks after a nearly 900-page grand jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania's Roman Catholic dioceses became public, prosecutors in other states are taking notice and launching probes of their own. On Thursday, attorneys general in New York and New Jersey announced they planned to initiate investigations of clergy sex abuse in their states. New York is moving forward with a civil investigation to determine if dioceses and other church entities covered up allegations of child sexual abuse. The New York attorney general's office is also partnering with district attorneys on possible criminal investigations. "The Pennsylvania grand jury report shined a light on incredibly disturbing and depraved acts by Catholic clergy, assisted by a culture of secrecy and cover ups in the dioceses," New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood said in a statement. "Victims in New York deserve to be heard as well - and we are going to do everything in our power to bring them the justice they deserve." New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced the creation of a task force to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse involving priests. New Jersey prosecutors will also examine whether Catholic dioceses adhered to agreements with law enforcement to disclose allegations of abuse. "I was deeply troubled to read the allegations contained in last month's Pennsylvania grand jury report," Grewal said in a statement. "The report revealed that sexual assaults on children - and efforts to cover up such assaults - were far more widespread in Pennsylvania than we ever thought possible," Grewal continued. "We owe it to the people of New Jersey to find out whether the same thing happened here. If it did, we will take action against those responsible." In an interview with the PennLive/Patriot-News Editorial Board earlier this week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office released the grand jury report, said he's heard from more than a dozen prosecutors around the country who are interested in launching investigations of their own. While prosecutors in other states don't have the same tools available to them as Pennsylvania did (In New York, for instance, only county district attorneys, not the attorney general, can convene grand juries), he urged them to seek other avenues of investigation. Shapiro told the Editorial Board that Catholic bishops in Pennsylvania held many documents in secret archives outlining the cover-up of abuse. He said other prosecutors should try to obtain similar records. "If I were a law enforcement leader in another jurisdiction, I would want to get my hands on these documents real quickly, before they weren't in the secret archives," Shapiro said. Attorneys General in Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, New Mexico and Florida have also initiated their own investigations, or asked for documents related to allegations of abuse, according to published reports. Let's be clear: The occasion for launching these investigations is an unalloyed tragedy. But if there is good news that comes from it, it's that the untold thousands of abuse survivors in Roman Catholic dioceses across the country will finally have their stories told; that the church will be forced to confront its mistakes and atone for them; and, where it's possible, the perpetrators of such abuse will be brought to justice. And that is no small matter. So you might have heard by now that President Donald Trump said the media "excoriated" President Abraham Lincoln when he delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863. Wait? What? Uh-oh. This sounds familiar. "You know when Abraham Lincoln made that Gettysburg Address speech, the great speech, you know he was ridiculed?" Trump said during a rally in Billings, Mont., on Thursday night, The Hill, and other outlets reported. "And he was excoriated by the fake news. They had fake news then. They said it was a terrible, terrible speech." Ohhhh ... boyyyy ... Trump went on to tell the crowd that Lincoln's 272-word address, a model of economy and rhetorical perfection, only became widely revered a half-century after his last words echoed on that Pennsylvania battlefield. "Fifty years after his death they said it may have been the greatest speech ever made in America," Trump said. "I have a feeling that's going to happen with us. In different ways, that's going to happen with us." News outlets scratched their heads over the subject of Trump's ire. What cockamamie, fly-by-night, amateurish, tone-deaf, fish-wrapping news outlet could possibly have been daft enough to pan ... ... The Gettysburg Address? The coverage of President Lincolns address in the New York Times was quite favorable, actually:https://t.co/ipsgvOusbghttps://t.co/5umCU6yq1I https://t.co/8DmK3LphWN George Conway (@gtconway3d) September 7, 2018 Mr. President, to borrow from one of your predecessors, we cannot tell a lie. 'Twas us. Or, rather, it was our journalistic forerunner, the Harrisburg Patriot & Union, that gave its official thumbs-down to Lincoln, dismissing his now immortal speech as mere "silly remarks." "We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of," The Patriot and Union's reviewer observed." Talk about your Days that Live in Infamy .. wait ... that was the other guy But in 2013, as the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's remarks closed in, we did the right thing, we owned up and apologized in an editorial that .... well ... got us a bit of attention. MORE: Living on the wrong side of history? The Harrisburg Patriot & Union's notorious 1863 'review' of the Gettysburg Address Full text of the Gettysburg Address Nationwide reaction to the retraction 'Saturday Night Live' skit spoofs the retraction For the good of the country, for our colleagues in the news media, and for our posterity, here, once again, is the full text of our retraction: "Seven score and ten years ago, the forefathers of this media institution brought forth to its audience a judgment so flawed, so tainted by hubris, so lacking in the perspective history would bring, that it cannot remain unaddressed in our archives. We write today in reconsideration of "The Gettysburg Address," delivered by then-President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the greatest conflict seen on American soil. Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time, called President Lincoln's words "silly remarks," deserving "a veil of oblivion," apparently believing it an indifferent and altogether ordinary message, unremarkable in eloquence and uninspiring in its brevity. In the fullness of time, we have come to a different conclusion. No mere utterance, then or now, could do justice to the soaring heights of language Mr. Lincoln reached that day. By today's words alone, we cannot exalt, we cannot hallow, we cannot venerate this sacred text, for a grateful nation long ago came to view those words with reverence, without guidance from this chagrined member of the mainstream media. The world will little note nor long remember our emendation of this institution's record - but we must do as conscience demands: In the editorial about President Abraham Lincoln's speech delivered Nov. 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, the Patriot & Union failed to recognize its momentous importance, timeless eloquence, and lasting significance. The Patriot-News regrets the error." So, Mr. President, on behalf of our ancestors, we're sorry for panning the Gettysburg Address. It seriously won't happen again. Crooked Tree Arts Center to host jazz quintet performance Friday Jazz will fill the air of a downtown Petoskey venue as a Detroit-area quintet performs standards from the likes of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. | BY Ricki Green | Canon Australia has launched a campaign for its groundbreaking new EOS R System, with an innovative and inspiring piece of content by Monster Children Films. Shot throughout Japan and featuring five photographers each with a unique style, the film beautifully captures a balance of Japanese culture while showcasing the unique capabilities of the much anticipated EOS R lenses and full frame mirrorless camera in different locations and with different levels of light and subject matter. Music and travel photographer Jarrad Seng, adventure film maker and photographer Beren Hall, surf lifestyle photographer Cait Miers and street photographer Maria X Boyadgis, joined Canon ambassador Dr Chris Brown to test the EOS R, with each exploring ways to maximise the cameras functionality for their own particular style of shooting. The film was overseen by director and photographer Chris Searl, who says the campaign is designed to both capture the consumers imagination, and educate them on the possibilities opened up by the new system at the same time. Says Searl: The functionality of the EOS R system is really exciting, and it was our job to not only communicate the features but to really inspire photography enthusiasts and professionals to explore the possibilities the the revolutionary lens and camera design opens up. Creating a stunning film for Canon was of course also a priority, and we feel we were able to achieve all of these objectives. Says Jason McLean, director of consumer imaging, Canon Australia: EOS R is a revolutionary new system that enables photographers and videographers to look at the world through new eyes. Were incredibly proud of our products but utimately what we are known for is the amazing things that people do with Canon. So what better way to launch the new system than by putting it in the hands of the photographers themselves and letting people see their experience first-hand through beautiful content. To view more about the campaign, click here. Director: Chris Searl Producer: Jam Hassan DOP: Sam Brumby Assistant Producer: Rip Zinger Additional cinematography: Jam Hassan Editor: Lincoln Caplice Canon team: Brendan Maher, Lisa Walker, Lucas Townsend Colourist: Matt Fezz Design direction: Matt Pike Sound engineer: Tim Bridge (Sonar Music) Sound producer: Sophie Haydon (Sonar Music) Sound Assistant: Haylee Poppi (Sonar Music) Music composition: Fait Russia poses real and active threat, warns head of GCHQ But review finds no basis to re-open any of 14 investigations into sudden deaths. CCTV image issued by the Metropolitan Police of Russian nationals Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov in Salisbury on March 4 Date - 7th September 2018 By - Police Oracle - 7th September 2018 0203 119 3303 or alternatively get in touch via the Do you have an interesting news story? Contact the newsdesk onor alternatively get in touch via the contact form The head of GCHQ has warned Russia poses an active threat. In a speech, Jeremy Fleming touched on the Novichok poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal, which also put Wiltshire Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey in hospital. The nerve... 2.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Popular Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen is leading Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn by 2-4 points in a new poll of the US Senate race in Tennessee. The NBC News/Marist poll found: Bredesen, the states former governor, gets support from 48 percent of likely voters, while Blackburn, who is a current member of Congress, gets 46 percent. Only 5 percent of likely voters say theyre undecided. Among the larger pool of registered voters, Bredesen leads Blackburn by 4 points, 48 percent to 44 percent, but its within the surveys margin of error. . Among likely voters in this Tennessee contest, Bredesen leads among Democrats (97 percent to 0 percent), African Americans (86 percent to 8 percent), women (55 percent to 40 percent) and independents (49 percent to 45 percent), while Blackburn leads among Republicans (86 percent to 9 percent), men (54 percent to 40 percent) and whites (53 percent to 42 percent). Tennessee Still Supports Trump, So Whats Going On? Unlike in other states, Trump still has a net positive (+4) approval rating (47%-43%) in Tennessee. Trump won the state by more than 25 points in 2016, so the question is how is the Democrat winning in Tennessee? The answer can be found in Phil Bredesens approval ratings. Bredesen has a 61% approval rating and a net (+39) approval rating. His disapproval is just 22%. Blackburn has an approval rating of 46% and a net approval rating of (+10). Her disapproval rating is 36%. Democrats got the perfect candidate for Tennessee Against a less popular Democrat, Blackburn would probably be running away with the election, but she is running against one of the popular if not the most popular political figure in the state, so she is in for a fight. Phil Bredesen is the perfect example of what having a good candidate can do. Bredesen is perfect for Tennessee, and if Republicans lose the retiring Bob Corkers Senate, it will make their job of holding on to their slim 51-49 majority very difficult. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. WASHINGTON (Reuters) Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee, raised questions as a White House aide more than a decade ago about whether the 1973 high court ruling legalizing abortion was settled law, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing leaked emails. The Times said an unknown person provided several confidential emails to the newspaper late on Wednesday relating to Kavanaughs work in the White House under Republican former President George W. Bush. A lawyer for Bush previously turned over thousands of documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Republican-led panel deemed committee confidential, meaning they could not be made public or discussed during Kavanaughs confirmation hearing this week. Some liberal critics have expressed concern that Kavanaugh, if confirmed by the Senate, could provide the decisive fifth vote on the nine-member high court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide. In one document cited by the Times, Kavanaugh suggested striking a line from a draft opinion piece that had stated it is widely accepted by legal scholars across the board that Roe v. Wade and its progeny are the settled law of the land, saying that the Supreme Court could overturn it. During his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Kavanaugh addressed the Roe decision, calling it an important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times. He also highlighted the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that reaffirmed Roe, calling it a precedent on precedent. The Times also reported that Kavanaugh wrote in another document that some U.S. Transportation Department affirmative action regulations used a lot of legalisms and disguises to mask what is a naked racial set-aside, the Times reported. Affirmative action refers to policies that favor groups like racial minorities in practices such as hiring that have experienced past discrimination. Reuters could not confirm the release of the secret emails. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Will Dunham) 8.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, once a tough critic of Donald Trump, is now leading the White House witch hunt to find the senior administration official who wrote a scathing op-ed in the New York Times. The pretend libertarian said it would be acceptable for the president to implement polygraph testing to get to the bottom of who wrote the editorial. Its not unprecedented for people with security clearances to be asked whether or not theyre revealing things against the law under oath and also by lie detector, Paul said, according to Newsweek. We use the lie-detector test routinely for CIA agents and FBI agents. If you have a security clearance in the White House, I think it would be acceptable to use a lie detector test and ask people whether or not theyre taking to the media against the policy of the White House. MSNBCs Chris Hayes touched on it during his broadcast on Thursday: Chris Hayes shares the strange advice Rand Paul has for Trump on how to identify the NY Times op-ed writer. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/DrLIxckmst PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) September 7, 2018 What the hell happened to Rand Paul? Over the course of Trumps political career, Rand Paul has gradually gone from a critic to one of his closest allies in Congress. As Trumps strange allegiance to Russia has played out for all the world to see, Sen. Paul has latched onto Trump even more tightly. Weeks after the presidents disaster in Helsinki which Paul actually defended the Kentucky senator traveled to Russia to strengthen relations with Moscow. Now, he is abandoning any pretense of caring about civil liberties by leading the presidents witch hunt and suggesting anyone in the administration with security clearance should be subject to a lie detector test. Of course, it really doesnt matter who wrote it. What matters is that those closest to the president dont see him as mentally fit to fulfill his job. Perhaps the Kentucky senator should spend a little more time looking at that angle. Once a Republican who prided himself on his independent streak, Rand Paul has turned into a shameless puppet for Donald Trump. As Trump would say, Sad! Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 5.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Trump Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh reminded the country just how extremist his views on reproductive rights are during the third day of his Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill. When answering a question from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz about whether employers should provide their employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives, Kavanaugh made the eye-popping admission that he thinks birth control induces abortion. In that case, they said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to, Kavanaugh said. Video: Kavanaugh seems to refer to birth control as abortion-inducing drugs pic.twitter.com/JILxzYiN6b Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 6, 2018 Democratic lawmakers and womens rights groups were quick to pounce on Kavanaughs comments, with Sen. Jeff Merkley calling it a red-alarm moment and Sen. Dianne Feinstein pointing to his remarks as further proof of Kavanaughs hostility toward womens reproductive freedom. This is a red-alarm moment. In his confirmation hearings, #Kavanaugh just called birth control abortion-inducing drugs. If you didnt believe it before, believe it now a womans constitutional right to abortion AND birth control are both 100% at stake. https://t.co/heXqS2mz83 Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) September 6, 2018 Judge Kavanaugh just said Burwell v. Hobby Lobby was about abortion-inducing drugs. Thats a GROSS misunderstanding of the case, which was about insurance coverage for contraceptives. Its further proof of Kavanaughs hostility toward womens reproductive freedom. #WhatsAtStake Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) September 6, 2018 Kavanaugh just referred to birth control as abortion-inducing drugs, which is not only an anti-science lie, its an anti-choice extremist phrase that shows that our right to access both abortion and contraception would be in SERIOUS danger if he is confirmed. #StopKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/TWqaU0YjmH NARAL (@NARAL) September 6, 2018 Brett Kavanaugh is a dangerous extremist Republicans and anti-abortion activists have been trying to rush Kavanaugh through the confirmation process, painting him as a harmless family man with impeccable credentials. But his frightening record and todays comments serve as a stunning reminder about who he is and what kind of Supreme Court justice he would be. A man who spews debunked right-wing lies about contraceptive care most certainly cant be trusted to uphold the settled law established in Roe v. Wade. From reproductive rights to presidential powers to environmental protections and much more, Brett Kavanaugh is a dangerous extremist who has no business serving the rest of his life as Donald Trumps puppet on the Supreme Court. His confirmation process should be immediately halted until voters and Robert Mueller have a chance to weigh in. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. | BY Lynchy | Ogilvy has appointed Matt Collette as Managing Partner, Social, in Singapore, effective immediately. In his new role, Collette (pictured left) will be leading Ogilvys social media offering to its next phase of growth through a blended application of creativity and technology that makes brands matter and helps to achieve business targets. He will report to Ee Rong Chong, Group Managing Director, Ogilvy Singapore. Chong said, Matt has a deep understanding of Asia, having spent the last decade creating value for brands across the region. His ability to build effective teams, combined with his expertise in social media, digital, strategy, technology, planning and public relations makes him a well-rounded practitioner and champion of innovative ideas. Were delighted to have him back in the Ogilvy family. Collette brings with him 15 years of digital and integrated marketing experience with local, regional and global brands. Prior to joining Ogilvy, Collette was with Zeno Group for six years where he served as Managing Director from 2016-2018 and held other leadership positions. During his tenure, Collette helped to establish Zeno Groups Singapore office and was instrumental in growing the business and team through integrated social led marketing campaigns. Earlier, Collette began his career at H-Line Ogilvy in Beijing in 2004 and later re-joined Ogilvy in Beijing in 2007 as Account Director. Over the years, Collettes work has received numerous industry honors from the Creative Circle Awards, Marketing Magazine, PRWeek, Spikes Asia, SABREs and Campaign Asias PR Awards. Collette said, It feels great to be back at Ogilvy again! This time Im really looking forward to bringing the art (creativity) and science (technology) closer together so that we can create locally impactful and globally influential work that delivers the results that clients need and consumers want. 298 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Gina Cherelus (Reuters) Dan Coats, Mike Pence and Kirstjen Nielsen were among the favorites on Thursday among political gamblers taking an online stab at predicting which senior Trump administration official authored a scathing anonymous column in the New York Times. Coats, the director of national intelligence, was seen as having an 18 percent chance of being the writer who said senior officials are part of a quiet resistance in the administration, according to PredictIt.org, an online market for betting on political events. Vice President Pence was listed in second place with a 12 percent chance, while Homeland Security secretary Nielsen came in third with 10 percent. Players can also bet no for each choice. The no bets will win if the author is not identified by the end of this year. The market was slowly attracting participants and the top rankings were expected to fluctuate as it picked up steam, said a spokeswoman for PredictIt, Brandi Travis. We had so many traders asking us if theres a market on this, Travis said. It was definitely something that was in high demand. I think its going to get a lot of action in terms of trades. Coats and Pence, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, have denied writing the article which was published on Wednesday and sent shockwaves through Washington. President Donald Trump blasted the anonymous author and the newspaper. The column fueled more accusations by critics that the Republican president was unstable and unfit for the Oval Office. PredictIts market, which went live at 11 a.m. EDT and was titled, Who will NYT confirm as anonymous op-ed author in 2018, listed 19 senior officials as possibilities. Betting was scheduled to run until midnight on Dec. 31, 2018. If the author is not identified by the newspaper or an authorized representative by then, the market would close and traders who bet yes would automatically lose, Travis said. Each of them are individual markets, Travis said. Whoever bet no will win. This will be one of the all time great markets, wrote trader Dennis Cao in the sites associated comments section. (Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by David Gregorio) 5.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard While many in the media have claimed Democratic efforts to thwart Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee are pointless stunts, Rachel Maddow said on Thursday that Brett Kavanaugh is no shoe-in for confirmation. Instead, the MSNBC host said Democrats clearly believe they can successfully block Kavanaugh, and they are acting like it. If [Democrats] just wanted to make a stink, there are easier and more fun ways to do that, Maddow said. Thats not what theyre doing. Video: Maddow said: If Democrats were just trying to make a spectacle out of the Kavanaugh confirmation process, if they knew it was a futile effort, he was definitely going to be confirmed anyway no matter what they did, if they just wanted to make a stink, there are easier and more fun ways to do that. Thats not what theyre doing. Whats now become clear after these three long days of hearings is that the Democrats arent just trying to make a spectacle of the confirmation process here. They appear to be actually trying to block Brett Kavanaughs confirmation. They appear to be actually trying to win. Democrats arent used to seeing this in their elected officials, so Im not sure this is being recognized widely coast to coast, but look at what theyre doing. Theyre not just making sound and fury here. Theyre doing something specific to try to win, to try to stop Kavanaughs nomination and they may not win. But I think it is worth being clear that that is what theyre going for. They are apparently aware that it is sort of a close question here, for a number of reasons. This nominee is actually super unpopular. Democrats need just two Republican votes to sink Kavanaugh Democrats are actively trying to pick off two key Republican Senate votes Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Maddow further explained the Democratic strategy during her program on Thursday. Maddow explains the Democratic strategy on stopping Kavanaugh: Picking off Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/bfL2kPi6IS PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) September 7, 2018 This strategy is aimed at two specific Republican senators, Maddow said. It has an audience, a very specific audience. And those two senators have admitted that they will base their vote, in part, on that issue. By exposing Brett Kavanaugh as an extremist enemy of reproductive rights for women, Democrats are pushing a strategy that could ultimately pay off. As it continues to reveal Kavanaughs dangerous views, it makes it increasingly uncomfortable for Murkowski and Collins to support his confirmation. After all, the two GOP lawmakers know that if they vote in favor of a nominee who goes on to overturn Roe v. Wade, their constituents will raise holy hell. If Democrats remain united and continue to pound this drum and stand up for womens rights, it could give them the votes they need to prevent a nightmare on the Supreme Court. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Donald Trumps The Art of the Deal ghostwriter Tony Schwartz emphatically urged the country not to lose sight of the real problem at the core of the anonymous New York Times op-ed published Wednesday: The president of the United States is a mentally ill criminal. In an interview with MSNBCs Ari Melber, Schwartz said the medias focus on who wrote the letter is missing the point. Instead, the country should be alarmed that it was even written in the first place. Whats important about that piece is that it got written, he said. Youve got a man in office who is unfit to be president, hes mentally unfit, hes emotionally unfit, hes ignorant, he is despotic, and we are continuing to have him. Video: Trump ghostwriter said it doesnt matter who wrote the Times op-ed. It matters that it was written in the first place. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/Lbj6R7fTrf PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) September 6, 2018 Schwartz said: Nonsense about this notion that it was somehow wrong for this person to write this piece anonymously who gives a damn? Whats important about that piece is that it got written. Whats important about that piece is that there is someone in the White House who has daily contact with Donald Trump whos saying this guy is unmoored, this guy is crazy. Everything else pales in comparison to that. And lets stay focused on that and stop parsing the argument of whether its a good thing or bad thing. It is easy to lose sight of the heart of this, which is youve got a man in office who is unfit to be president, hes mentally unfit, hes emotionally unfit, hes ignorant, he is despotic, and we are continuing to have him. And we have him in a position where somebody who is on the verge of being accused of a whole series of crimes, I believe, I think thats what will happen with Mueller, is in a position to change the rule of law for the next 40 years through Kavanaugh. Trumps mental health is deteriorating Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump showed plenty of evidence that he was an unhinged and mentally unstable individual. As Hillary Clinton frequently pointed out during the campaign, Trumps instability combined with his complete lack of knowledge on foreign and domestic issues was a recipe for disaster. Since taking office, these fears have been realized and Trump has only become worse. With his corruption catching up to him and those around him now admitting albeit anonymously that he is a clear and present danger to the country, Trump is further coming apart at the seams. As Tony Schwartz pointed out on Thursday, whats important isnt that a high-ranking administration official penned the New York Times op-ed. Its that the president of the United States has according to those closest to him completely lost his mind. Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook. 1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Trump made a government photographer doctor his inauguration photos to make his crowd look bigger than what it was. The Guardian got the documents from an FOIA request and reported: A government photographer edited official pictures of Donald Trumps inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger following a personal intervention from the president, according to newly released documents. The photographer cropped out empty space where the crowd ended for a new set of pictures requested by Trump on the first morning of his presidency, after he was angered by images showing his audience was smaller than Barack Obamas in 2009. . The records detail a scramble within the National Park Service (NPS) on 21 January 2017 after an early-morning phone call between Trump and the acting NPS director, Michael Reynolds. They also state that Sean Spicer, then White House press secretary, called NPS officials repeatedly that day in pursuit of the more flattering photographs. Trump used presidential power to lie and mislead the American people The doctored photos matter because they show that Trumps abuse of presidential power began almost as soon as he walked through the White House door as president. Trump complains about fake news, but his presidency has been a ceaseless effort to lie to the American people and create false narratives of success to hide this administrations consistent and unending failures. Trump isnt afraid to use presidential power to doctor photographic evidence, so it stands to reason that he also wouldnt fear using presidential power to cover up his crimes. Trump is a criminal who has used the presidency for his crimes. The doctored photos show that Trump is indeed petty, but more importantly that he is fundamentally corrupt and has no issues with corrupting the presidency or misleading an entire country to further his own aims. The doctored photos will go down in history as the first act of a criminally corrupt president who was destined for disgrace from the moment that he was sworn into office. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 368 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard (Reuters) Twitter Inc said on Thursday that it had permanently banned U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his website Infowars from its platform and Periscope. The company said in a tweet that the accounts violated its behavior policies. Last month, Twitter banned Jones and Infowars for seven days, citing tweets that it said violated the companys rules against abusive behavior, which state that a user may not engage in targeted harassment of someone or incite other people to do so. The ban came weeks after Apple , Alphabets YouTube, and Facebook took down podcasts and channels from Jones, citing community standards. (Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru) 313 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard President Donald Trumps television attorney Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that the president would NOT answer questions about obstruction of justice if interviewed by Robert Mueller. Then, in a later interview, he appeared to change his mind. Giulianis initial comments, as well as his subsequent backtracking, were the subject of much discussion as well as a great deal of confusion. Everyone wants to know where the Mueller probe will go next, and if the president will talk to the special counsel under oath, subject to the penalties of perjury if he lies. And of course, one of the main lines of inquiry would be whether or not the president illegally obstructed justice. First, Giuliani told the Associated Press that with respect to the obstruction questions, Thats a no-go. That is not going to happen, and there will be no questions at all on obstruction. Later on Thursday he spoke to NBC News and said that questions about obstruction of justice are not ruled in or out. Could this be just another case of the presidents lawyer trying to muddy the waters? What is he hoping to accomplish by changing his mind on such an important topic? This would not be the first time where Giuliani has said something provocative and then later, upon further reflection, come back to say something different. It also may be the case that somebody else spoke to the former New York mayor after his initial comments and told him that what he had said was not entirely correct. Robert Mueller of course is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He wants to know as do the American people whether or not people in the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to help Trump win. In addition, federal prosecutors are investigating the charges of obstruction of justice on the part of the president, since he has done many things to interfere in Muellers investigation. Giulianis statements Thursday came after many days of discussions about Trump submitting to an interview, either in person or in writing. We have said we would agree to written questions on Russia after we review questions but no further commitment on interviews. After we finish this we will assess it with no agreement to any post-presidential questions, Giuliani told NBC News. He also added that theres no commitment on obstruction which are post-presidential matters but says the legal team will agree to talk after the collusion/pre-presidential questions are over. Giulianis comments show that Trumps lawyers are trying to protect the president from answering questions about actions he took in office, and want to focus only on actions taken during the campaign and transition time. It is widely believed that an interview with the president would be the last step in the Mueller probe. Mueller and his team have talked to everyone else, and have cut deals and gotten guilty pleas from some Trump associates and employees. If Giuliani and Trump tell Bob Mueller that they will not submit to an interview, and if Mueller does not subpoena the president, then the investigation is over. And if its over, that means Mueller will be ready for his next moves, whatever they might be. It could be an indictment, or just a final report to Rod Rosenstein at the Justice Department. It may be that Giuliani and Trump are simply stalling by refusing to definitively answer the interview question. The longer they stall the interview, the longer they delay Trumps day of reckoning. But they cant stall it forever, and both of them know the day is coming soon when Donald Trump will be called to account for his crimes. 4.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Nicolle Wallace explained that Republicans should be afraid because Obamas return will wake up his coalition of Democratic and Independent voters. Video: After playing a clip of Obama saying how presidents should denounce neo-Nazis, Wallace said, Good God, Trump makes you miss everyone that came before him. Obamas return to the campaign trail is sure to fan the flames of Donald Trumps inferiority complex. Trump was trying to brush off Obamas return with an insult. Wallace showed Trumps lame attempt at an insult, and said, Actually its more likely that Obamas presence on the campaign trail will wake up his coalition of democratic and independent voters, but there is ample time to test that theory. What Obamas Return Means Obamas presence automatically makes Donald Trump look worse. The previous president doesnt have to say a word. Obama is now a reminder of what the country was like when it had sane, drama free, intelligent, and competent leadership. One doesnt have to agree with Obama on everything to see that the country was in much safer hands when he was in the Oval Office. George W. Bush inspires the same kind of reaction in many swing voters. You dont have to like or agree with Bush, but no one ever questioned his love for his country while he was in office. Obamas return means that all of those Obama voters who held their noses and voted for Trump in 2016 are more likely to come back to the Democratic Party in 2018. Obama has a coalition of voters that didnt directly transfer to Hillary Clinton in 2016, but they are already fired up, and the former president will have them ready to go in 2018. Barack Obama is the man that Republicans could never beat, and now he has returned to lead voters in an election for the purpose of putting a check on Donald Trump. Republicans are already reeling, and now Obama has them terrified. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 459 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) Former U.S. President Barack Obama will jump back into the political fray on Friday, telling Democratic voters the stakes are too high to sit out Novembers elections, when the party is seeking to wrest control of Congress from President Donald Trumps Republicans. Obama has largely avoided the spotlight since Trump succeeded him last year. But a speech on Friday at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will mark the start of a flurry of activity as he hits the campaign trail on behalf of Democratic candidates in critical races. The Nov. 6 election is widely seen as a referendum on Trump. While the president touts fulfilled campaign promises such as tax cuts and deregulation, his tenure has been clouded by a widening probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and growing questions about his behavior and fitness for office, even by some within his administration. Both parties traditionally see a large drop-off in turnout in non-presidential election years, but Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to energize voters with talk of high stakes. Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and two seats in the U.S. Senate. Control of one or both chambers would allow them not only to foil Trumps agenda but also to open congressional investigations into his administration. Democratic control of the House would also allow the party to press impeachment proceedings, although the party has broadly steered clear of making that threat. Despite that, Trump starkly told his supporters on Thursday to stave off any impeachment proceedings against him by keeping Republican majorities in Congress. Its so ridiculous, he told a rally in Montana, referring to impeachment. But if it does happen, its your fault, because you didnt go out to vote. OK? You didnt go out to vote. You didnt go out to vote. Thats the only way it could happen. Obama, in his speech, will press Americans to turn out in November, saying this moment in our country is too perilous for Democratic voters to sit out, according to his spokeswoman Katie Hill. The former Democratic president, following tradition, has so far been reluctant to publicly criticize his successor, to the frustration of some Democrats. Last week, he appeared to chide Trump, without naming him, in a eulogy for the late Republican Senator John McCain. Obama will appear at a campaign event in Southern California this weekend before heading to Ohio next week and, later in September, to Illinois and Pennsylvania. (Reporting by James Oliphant; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Peter Cooney and Frances Kerry) 444 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Now that Nancy Pelosi is finally appearing on the cover of Time Magazine it may be true that 2018 is the year of the woman. The Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives is confident that her party will win the majority of House seats in November, putting them back in power and without a doubt making her (again) the Speaker of the House. According to a new race-by-race analysis by the Cook Political Report this November could see American voters elect more than 100 women to the House for the first time in history. As Cook says there will be more new women elected to the House this year than in any other election, they also say the increase will be entirely Democratic, as the number of Republican women in the House is expected to decline. There are likely to be from 30 to 40 NEW women Members of Congress who will take office next January. The previous record was 24 set in 1992, when Bill Clinton won election as president, in a year that was also called Year of the Woman. Political experts said that the 1992 wave that brought so many women into Congress occurred as a backlash against Clarence Thomass Supreme Court confirmation. Women activists strongly opposed the nomination of Thomas but their efforts were to no avail. So they went to the ballot box to vent their frustration, much as may happen this year. There is no question that the election of 2018 will be seen as another backlash election in this case to the anti-woman rhetoric and policies of President Donald Trump. Trumps electoral triumph over Hillary Clinton launched the Womens March but it also started an avalanche of Democratic women running for public office, including Congress. Many of the women running this year are first-time candidates, and they have a wide range of backgrounds, from former Navy helicopter pilots to former CIA officers to former United Nations ambassadors. There are 254 non-incumbent Democratic nominees for the House of Representatives this year, and fully 50 percent of them are women, compared to 18 percent of Republican candidates who are women. Right now there are 61 female Democrats and 23 female Republicans serving in the House. But after November, the number of women Democratic representatives is expected to be about 80. This years voters in Democratic primaries have been emphatic that they believe that the best way to send a message to Trump is to send women to Congress. In Democratic House primaries, female candidates have won 69 percent of the time, which is phenomenal. (In GOP primaries, a female candidate has won just 35 percent of the time.) The surge of women Democratic congressional candidates is also leading to younger and more progressive candidates, which could significantly change the complexion of Washington. Examples of this include the victories of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts, both of whom beat older, incumbent white men in Democratic primaries. In Pennsylvania a new congressional map could help elect four new Democratic women from the Philadelphia suburbs: Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06) and Susan Wild (PA-07). Throughout the country this phenomenon is occurring. Many women hate Donald Trump and everything he stands for, but they love the fact that they may be in a position to go to Washington and hold hearings in the House and hold the president accountable for his misdeeds. Its been a long time coming, but we may be finally seeing a time when the old saying becomes true: Women truly do belong in the House. 1.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Dr. Bandy Lee, editor of the best-selling book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, told the New York Daily News on Thursday that she was contacted by members of the White House staff because the president was scaring them. Lee made her comments to the Daily News during a week in which Donald Trump has erupted in volcanic anger at comments made about him in an anonymous New York Times editorial and in a new bombshell book from Bob Woodward. The Yale University professor said that two officials from Trumps White House officials contacted her a year ago due to their concerns about their bosss increasingly erratic behavior. They said that Trump was scaring them, that he was unraveling, Lee told the Daily News. Not wishing to confuse the role I chose, as an educator of the public, and a potential treatment role, I referred them to the local emergency room without inquiring much further, she added. Lee said that she did not bring this news to the attention of the public before now because I did not want to confuse my role an an educator to the public. I thought I would be more effective by retaining my public role then getting involved in either the treatment of those who were feeling scared or in the actual intervention with the President, she added. Lee also wrote in an op-ed for the New York Daily News in February of this year in which she gave her opinion that the president is a dangerous leader. In that op-ed, she listed examples of Trump invoking violence in speaking to rallies or in interviews, such as his grab them by the psy quotation from the Access Hollywood tape and his statement that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and [he] wouldnt lose voters. These are clear statements and acts of verbal aggression, sexual aggression, incitement to violence, endorsement of violence, encouragement of assassination, promotion of violent imagery, and actual threats and taunting of a hostile nation with nuclear power, Lee wrote. Considering Mr. Trump as one of the authorities, I am following his words to say: Mr. President, please submit to a proper examination. If you do not wish to, you can always resign, Lee wrote. The New York Times op-ed was written by an anonymous senior Trump administration official who argued that the presidents actions are detrimental to the health of the nation. In Woodwards book he describes several scenarios in which frustrated White House officials tried to block Trumps decisions because they were harmful. Last year Lee was contacted by White House officials because they believed the President was unraveling a year ago. And we know that in the past year his mental state has deteriorated, and things are worse than they ever were. This news from Dr. Lee confirms the information in the anonymous editorial and in the Woodward book. We are in a time of crisis because the most powerful person in the country and in the world is suffering from extreme mental illness and his behavior cannot be trusted. Steps must be taken immediately before further damage is done. | BY Lynchy | TBWA\China Group has launched Q Lab, a technology studio harnessing creative technology as the basis to innovate for clients. Engineer and developer Herbert Ng (pictured), the current head of creative technology for TBWA in China, will lead Q Lab for the Group, with immediate effect. Joanne Lao, CEO, TBWA\Greater China said, Creative technology, as a pervasive part our creative product, has been a strong differentiator for TBWA in China. Incorporating creative technology into the creative process upfront and bringing ideas and brand experiences to life through the ability to ideate and prototype at speed. This success has created the opportunity to meet client digital and innovation needs beyond typical communications briefs. Q Lab will work with its own clients in addition to the TBWA Group client portfolio. Q Lab has two core product streams: the first; turnkey digital solutions, which are easily reconfigured and scaled to various campaigns and clients to increase cost efficiencies. These applications include product interaction, retail engagement, and product personalization, incorporating technologies such as physical computing, gesture and body control, interactive projection mapping, augmented reality, and social integration. The second; bespoke innovation solutions as result of specific marketing or brand briefs. Q Lab will also assemble project teams from within the TBWA Group to co-create and implement projects in an agile and practical way. Ng said, It is exciting to establish an in-house unit to bring technology closer to clients and our creative team. This allows us to naturally leverage technology in creative ideation and execution, ensuring feasibility and enriching user experience in our final products. Lao added, We are very excited to expand our offering in creative technology. Q Lab is a testament to our maker culture as we constantly seek to innovate on behalf of our clients. 3.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Trump intermingled his business with his presidential campaign, and now the Trump Organization is being investigated for potential federal campaign finance violations. Bloomberg reported, Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether anyone in the Trump Organization violated campaign-finance laws, in a follow-up to their conviction last month of Michael Cohen, according to a person familiar with the matter. The inquiry, not previously reported, shows that the Manhattan U.S. attorneys office doesnt intend to stand down following the guilty plea from Trumps longtime personal lawyer. Manhattan prosecutors are working on a parallel track to U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is tasked with examining Russian interference in the presidential election and who is referring other matters as they arise to appropriate sections of the Justice Department. Indicting the Trump Organization Is A Way To Indict Trump When Trump didnt separate his business from his presidential campaign, Trump gave federal prosecutors an easy, but indirect way, to indict him. Much of the focus from the feds is on the fact that Trump funneled money from his company to pay back Michael Cohen for the hush money payouts to keep Trumps affairs quiet, but the business and the campaign were so mixed together that it would be worthwhile for investigators to examine the potential for a wide series of campaign finance violations. Trumps presidential campaign on the cheap that was run out of the same building where his business is housed was campaign finance violation waiting to happen. Trump has likely already committed several felonies with the payouts. It will be interesting to see how far and how deep the felonies could reach inside the Trump Organization. Prosecutors may not be able to indict Trump while he is in office, but they can indict his company, which he is still in charge of. One way or another, the law is going to get Donald Trump. It is just a matter of how and when it happens. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook. 342 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Nancy Pelosi has been involved in politics almost her entire life, ever since she was a little girl running errands for her father who was mayor of Baltimore. But it took until this week for the 78-year-old first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives to make the cover of Time Magazine. Believe it or not, this marks the first time @NancyPelosi has ever made the cover of a major national newsmagazine. Never happened when she was the first woman speaker. pic.twitter.com/jisG3uBv9T Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) September 6, 2018 Part of Pelosis story is her achievement, and part of it is her lack of recognition for what she has achieved. When she became the first woman Speaker in 2009 she didnt make the cover of Time (or Newsweek) but after she left the Speakers job her successor, Republican Rep John Boehner of Ohio, made the cover of BOTH Time and Newsweek immediately. Her lack of recognition could have been pure sexism. It could have been a pure lack of respect for what she, as a woman, had accomplished in her life. But it also could be that many people were (and are) simply afraid of her, as they recognize how powerful she really is. The Washington Post wrote that when Pelosi was Speaker it was a position more powerful than any woman in the nations history has held before or since, and one she wielded more effectively than anyone who has held it in modern history. And then added: She has consolidated more power than any other Speaker in modern history, scholars of the office believe. Now, nearly 10 years after her amazing accomplishment of becoming Speaker of the House, she is finally getting recognized by Time Magazine (although this recognition doesnt mean as much as it used to mean). Still, it is worth talking about. And it is something that deserves to be recognized now, as her role in American politics may be more important than it has ever been. 2018 is being called the year of the woman in U.S. politics as unprecedented numbers of female candidates seek elected office. There will be a record number of those women candidates who also win their elections and take office, and when that happens we may truly see a revolution take place in this country. Donald Trump has won political power in part by demeaning and disrespecting women, because his base of supporters is sexist, and that is what they want him to do. For most women, the lack of respect shown to Pelosi in 2009 was annoying, but tolerable. But under Donald Trump the lack of respect shown towards women is no longer tolerable. He has been accused of sexual assault or harassment over 20 times, and yet he stays in office. This cannot stand. This year Nancy Pelosi has become the main target of Republicans running for Congress. They claim they must retain their majority in the House in order to keep her out of the Speakers chair. But she doesnt care about that, because she knows it wont work. She is keeping Democrats focused on affordable health care, better paying jobs, and fighting the corruption in Washington. Shes not afraid to stand up and fight for what she believes like she did last week when she called the Trump administrations plan to keep immigrant children separated from their families indefinitely inhumane. In a sure sign of her effectiveness, she has even been attacked by Vladimir Putin and Russian bots. Nancy Pelosi may be the most important leader in America, in addition to being the most powerful woman in America. As our country faces a time of crisis unlike any other in its past, and as tens of millions have taken to the streets to join the Resistance and protest against what Trump and his enablers in Congress are doing, we need someone to look up to. Time Magazine has called it correctly. On its cover this week is the leader America needs and wants right now. It is someone our country can really look up to at this time, and recognize for what she has accomplished: Nancy Pelosi. Two years ago, weight-loss surgeons at Roper St. Francis sent all of their patients home with a prescription for an opioid painkiller. This year, they have written only three. That's because the bariatric surgery unit at the hospital system has been working hard to create a new list of pain management policies in an attempt to bring down the number of potentially addictive prescriptions they write. Those prescriptions are thought to be at the root of the painkiller epidemic. The hospital system is "engineering" new ways to treat surgery patients' pain, said Dr. Jeffrey Frohock, an anesthesiologist tasked with reducing opioid prescriptions across Roper St. Francis. In bariatric, or weight-loss, surgery, the physician must inflate the abdomen with gas in order to be able to see to do the surgery. That is the most common source of pain in these patients. Bariatric surgeon Dr. Bryan Thomas said the key has been to prepare patients for that pain, and manage it before it becomes unbearable. "It's easier to keep up with it than catch up," Thomas said. Roper St. Francis' effort is one example of how the state's hospitals are trying to bring down their opioid prescription rates. Across the state, that same goal has been a policy focus. Gov. Henry McMaster's opioid study committee asked insurers and medical groups to work on the issue. During a visit to Roper St. Francis on Friday, Attorney General Alan Wilson said he was searching for ways to play a role. He asked the Roper physicians for marching orders. Frohock said patients are warming to the idea of trying different options, like less addictive painkillers or a nerve block, he said. "We didnt have a great option to give them in the past," Frohock said. "We now do." One study released this year by the American College of Surgeons showed bariatric surgery patients are prescribed a high rate of opioids compared to other common types of surgery. The same study showed any patient who is assigned an opioid prescription after an operation is at an increased risk of becoming a chronic user at a 3- to 7-percent rate. Chronic opioid use is the most common complication after elective surgery, research has shown. Said another way, optional surgeries can lead to dependence on the pain medication patients are sent home with. Patients often use only a fraction of the opioids they're given. This creates a problem because excess pills are left around the house and can be misused in the future by the patient or someone else. Roper St. Francis is not alone in its attempts. The Medical University of South Carolina's obstetrics group, for instance, nixed their oxycodone prescriptions for many of their patients, a spokeswoman said. Another example: MUSC's surgeons cut their opioid prescriptions by 37 percent for pediatric hernias, which are not uncommon. Health insurance companies have found their own ways of changing how they pay for pain medication. Cigna dropped Oxycontin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, in the beginning of this year. Tennessee's BlueCross BlueShield association will blacklist the drug in the beginning of 2019. There is a divide between how physicians approach the topic. Some feel there should not be restrictions on their ability to prescribe medications, and patients with serious pain issues are being sidelined. "There is no correlation between the number of prescriptions written and a states death rate by opioid overdose," two local physicians wrote in a recent opinion piece in The Post and Courier. Place opioid blame where it belongs The physicians of the Charleston County Medical Society welcome the attention brought to the rising death rate from opioid overdoses. Concern New numbers released from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control show a shift from deaths from overdose of prescription drugs to illicit ones. Statewide overdoses involving the powerful synthetic drug fentanyl increased by 432 percent between 2014 and 2017. In total, 758 people in South Carolina died from an opioid overdose in 2017, compared to 616 the year before. The attorney general said lawyers are prosecuting cases involving illegal drugs. But Wilson still wants to see more physicians cutting down on their opioid prescriptions. "We need to attack the cause of the epidemic, not the symptom," Wilson said. "By the time you're prosecuting something, you're treating the symptom." Frohock said Roper St. Francis has been reigning in its opioid use little by little. His job will be to bring the bariatric unit's success to the rest of Roper's facilities. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 62F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Low around 45F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. LAS VEGAS (AP) A federal government plan to ship weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina to a U.S. nuclear materials handling facility about 100 miles from Las Vegas drew protests and official outrage Thursday from Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and a bipartisan group of the state's congressional delegation. The Republican governor, whose term ends in December, posted a vow on Twitter to, in his words, "fight ... at every level" the U.S. Energy Department announcement that it will store radioactive bomb-making material at the former Nevada nuclear test site, with no designated time for removal. A National Nuclear Security Administration official said the plan was developed after a federal court ordered the removal of more than 2,200 pounds (1 metric ton) of plutonium by January 2020 from the Savannah River reservation, which was built in the 1950s to refine nuclear weapon materials. The plutonium would be "temporarily staged" at the Nevada National Security Site and at the Pantex Plant for weapons assembly and disassembly in Texas for eventual shipment to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico "or another facility," NNSA spokesman Greg Wolf said. "We ship this type of material routinely between NNSA sites as part of our national security mission and we have done so safely and securely for decades," Wolf said. He did not say when shipments would start. U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, posted a letter demanding that Energy Secretary Rick Perry stop what Heller called an "unreasonable and unnecessary" plan and order a broad environmental study of health and safety risks "before any further action is taken." "Not only does shipping up to 1 metric ton of plutonium across the country likely present risks to the Americans living along the proposed transportation routes," Heller said in a statement, "storing this type of material just a few miles outside of Las Vegas could ... have a devastating effect on our state's tourism economy." Heller's opponent in the November election, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, accused Perry of "recklessly pushing this proposal forward without properly assessing the impact." Democratic U.S. Reps. Dina Titus and Ruben Kihuen also declared their opposition to storing weapons-grade plutonium not far from Las Vegas, which has 2 million residents and draws more than 42 million annual visitors. The facility designated to accept the plutonium shipments is near, but separate from, Yucca Mountain. That's a site Nevada's congressional delegation and governors have long fought to prevent from becoming the repository for the nation's spent nuclear fuel. Some other members of Congress want to restart that mothballed project to accept radioactive material currently stored at power plants in 39 states. When you Google things, sometimes this means youre looking for something youve searched before. Google Search is making it easier for you to tap into that by surfacing your Relevant history to the top of the search results. It shows you three of the most relevant pages from your browsing history. There is also a View More link to show you other relevant links. These results are meant for your own viewing and convenience. It doesnt seem to be rolled out to all users yet and looks like a server-side test. It hasnt shown up for us just yet. Is this a feature youll find useful? 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 Florid-ian. 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. Harsher sentences are needed so people know, in no uncertain terms, that taking advantage of the innocence and vulnerability of our children i Read more A team from the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been deployed to Guam to provide assistance to Guam's Emergency Operations Center as the National Weather Service tracks a tropical disturbance that is currently located east of the Marshall Islands. The team is anticipated to arrive on Saturday. NWS Meteorologist Larry Nirinberg said Tropical Depression 26W is moving west and is expected to strengthen slowly over the weekend. "Where it will be when it hits the Marianas is the big question right now," he stated. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. The tropical disturbance is 1,570 miles east of Guam, and NWS warns there is still uncertainty as to the exact track and strength of the system but impacts are expected to be felt by Monday with heavy showers, wind gusts and dangerous marine conditions for parts of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Offices of Civil Defense and Homeland Security said the FEMA incident management assistance team's deployment was "out of an abundance of caution" and coordination has already begun among various government agencies, military and federal partners. September is emergency preparedness awareness month. Although this weekend is forecasted to bring some great weather with a few isolated showers, residents are urged to make necessary preparations by fueling vehicles, prepping emergency kits at home, and following weather updates throughout the weekend. Heart & Soul Healing Arts and Massage Therapy to celebrate 15th anniversary Heart & Soul Healing Arts and Massage Therapy invites the public to its 15th Year Anniversary Open House Celebration Saturday, Sept. 29. The free event runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Heart & Soul, 13 Nicholas Parkway, Cape Coral. Guests will receive a goody bag, special discounts on natural retail items and services, a chance to win Heart & Soul gift cards and more. Guests can also meet the staff, take a selfie in the Himalayan Salt Mist Serenity Lounge and learn about the holistic wellness options Heart & Soul offers, including massage, Reiki, reflexology and salt therapy. Heart & Soul is a family owned and operated, and has been serving the community since 2003. The staff of 12 licensed massage therapists specialize in Swedish, deep tissue, hot stone and prenatal massage. Also offered are aromatherapy massage, couples massage and onsite chair massage for health fairs and special events. For additional information about this event. call 239-573-HEALTH (4325) or visit heartandsoulmassagetherapy.com. Pushing the Envelope wins two awards of distinction Pushing the Envelope Inc., a local marketing communication firm, was recently honored with two Awards of Distinction from the Florida Public Relations Association at the organizations 80th Annual Golden Image Awards. The Awards of Distinction were given for PTEs Hurricane Irma crisis communication work on behalf of The Dock at Crayton Cove, a Naples restaurant, and its mobile campaign work for Sloans Motorcycle & ATV. The firm has won nearly 20 Golden Image Awards since its inception twelve years ago. The Golden Image Awards competition is conducted annually by the Florida Public Relations Associa-tion to recognize outstanding public relations programs throughout Florida and to encourage and promote the development of public relations professionalism in the state. They represent the standard of public relations excellence in the state of Florida. For more information about the local chapter, visit www.fpraswfl.org. Pushing the Envelope Inc. is a strategic marketing communication firm. Based in Fort Myers, the firm services clients both regionally and nationally. For more information, call 239-221-2858, visit www.getpushing.com or email Info@GetPushing.com. Alliance Financial Group partners with Blessings in a Backpack to feed hungry children Alliance Financial Group has just announced they will be sponsoring Blessings in a Backpack to feed hungry children in Southwest Florida. At this event, bags will be filled with kid-friendly, ready-to-eat items providing food for children in need every weekend for an entire year. Alliance Financial Group will be hosting this charity event at their Fort Myers, FL location on no other day than, National Blessings Day, September 27th , 3:00pm 5:00pm. We welcome everyone to assist us with the process, witnessing the direct impact Blessings in a Backpack has on our Southwest Florida children. Approximately 13 million children across the United States do not have consistent access to food. 1.1 million of those children live in Florida. With drastic numbers must come drastic measures; evolving into the heart-warming program, Blessings in a Backpack. In the 10th years working with Lee and Collier County, there has been a tremendous improvement regarding test scores, general health and attendance. Alliance Financial Group intends on continuing their support as well as being an active partner in this movement. Alliance Financial Group has offered wealth management and financial strategies for individuals, families, and corporations for over 30 years. We protect what you care about most, and on September 27th, owners, Michael Kochis and Jerry Hemmer, are pleased to donate 500 meals to our Southwest Florida children. For more details on how you can help, visit www.afgfl.com/events Richmond elected to Florida Bar Board of Governors, YLD The law firm of Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A., has announced that attorney Kayla Richmond was elected to the Florida Bar Board of Governors, Young Lawyers Division. She is one of two governors for the 20th Judicial Circuit. She has also been sworn in as the president of the Lee County Association for Women Lawyers. Richmond focuses her practice in the areas of divorce, marital and family law. She handles dissolution of marriage (divorce), custody, paternity, child support and domestic violence cases. Richmond may be reached at 239-344-1156 or via email at kayla.richmond@henlaw.com. Henderson Franklin is a locally-based law firm with over 55 attorneys dedicated to providing a wide range of legal services in the areas of business and tax planning, estate planning, family law, business and civil litigation, eminent domain, intellectual property, workers compensation, employment law, real estate, and land use and environmental law. Since 1924, Henderson Franklin has been assisting clients build their homes, businesses and communities in Southwest Florida. Henderson Franklin operates offices in Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples and Sanibel Island. For more information on Richmond or Henderson Franklin, please visit www.henlaw.com. Lake Michigan Credit Union hires David Collins as Executive Mortgage Loan Officer for Fort Myers area Lake Michigan Credit Union of Florida has announced the hiring of David Collins as executive mortgage loan officer for its Fort Myers branch office. He reports directly to LMCUs vice president of Regional Mortgage Production, Jayne Malinowski, and will be serving the southwest Florida market. Previous positions include loan origination at Mutual of Omaha Bank, Regions Bank, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and AmSouth Bank, all of Fort Myers. Collins is originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and currently lives in Fort Myers. Founded in 1933, LMCU is the largest credit union in Michigan, with over 408,000 members. Employing a staff of over 1,200, LMCUs assets exceed $5.8 billion, with a mortgage-serviced portfolio of over $10 billion. LMCU now has 53 convenient branch locations overall, including ten in southwest Florida. LMCU members have access to over 55,000 AllPoint ATMs worldwide. LMCU provides a full-range of financial services, from high interest-bearing checking accounts to personal loans, mortgages, investments and commercial banking. To find out more, please visit www.lmcu.org. Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner recognized with Outreach Effort of the Year Award Nearly everyone who drives in Southwest Florida is bound to encounter one of several new roundabouts on our roads. And because of an awareness campaign funded by Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, more drivers will know what they need to do to stay safe. The firm was recently recognized with the Outreach Effort of the Year Award from the Lee County Injury Prevention Coalition for its support of a televised public service announcement on roundabouts. When the initial seed money for the ad ran out last year, Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner stepped in to provide the tens of thousands of dollars worth of funding necessary for it to continue to run. This recognition is in keeping with the firms commitment to improving the quality of life for people in Southwest Florida. Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner supports a number of community organizations, including Captains for Clean Water, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) and the Annual Make a Difference Awards for local students. Please visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEfV mm2bwa4 to watch the PSA. Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, was founded in 1971 by Bruce L. Scheiner and his wife, Cheryl Scheiner. Both continue to work alongside their son, P.J. Scheiner, who joined the firm as a trial attorney in 2007. Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, has the knowledge, experience and resources to handle all types of personal injury and wrongful death claims for clients, including trucking accidents, boating accidents, airplane accidents, nursing home neglect and abuse, construction accidents, defective product claims, premise liability claims and injuries to children. Call 1-800-283-2900 or visit www.blslawyers.com for additional information. POTTSTOWN As the aging masonry stormwater arches in Pottstown continue to crumble, the borough is pursuing state funds to shore them up. Monday, council is expected to vote to apply for a $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth Finance Authority to repair arches that have fallen as well as make maintenance repairs to prevent other collapses. Borough Manager Justin Keller said the boroughs match for the grant would be $100,000, but that he intends to pursue a separate grant in January to provide the money for the boroughs match. The second grant comes from money set aside for flood mitigation, Keller said. The arches are, in effect, long bridges that, over the years, covered over the small streams that run through the borough as it was developed over the last 200 years. Many property owners are likely unaware there are arches on their property as they are often not mentioned on deeds. News about Pennsylvanias crumbling infrastructure often focuses on roads and bridges. But just as problematic is the infrastructure you dont see every day. Since 2004, when a major arch collapse in the middle of the first block of Walnut Street made the problem dramatically clear, the borough has been dealing with a slow-motion catastrophe of arch collapses on both public and private property. * In 2009, an arch beneath the former Frederick Brothers Mill at East and North Hanover Street partially collapsed * In 20012, a stormwater arch collapsed on Grant Street, adjacent to The Hill Schools physical plant * In May, another section of the same stormwater arch that collapsed in 2004, collapsed behind a home on the south side of the same block of Walnut Street. * Last month, an arch beneath the former Memorial Hospital at 1200 E. High Street collapsed in the wake of a thunderstorm. Keller said he recently participated in a meeting with state and county elected officials in which the problem was laid out in broad brush. I explained to them that none of the current state programs address this problem, Keller told Digital First Media after Wednesdays workshop meeting. I said you either have to change the parameters of the existing program or establish a new program, Keller said. The response I got was put in an application and lets see where it goes,' he said. Part of the problem relates to private-versus public property. The borough is wary of setting legal precedent by undertaking repairs to arches that are on property that does not belong to the borough. Not only does it significantly increase their potential liability, it also has the potential to create insurance problems should an injury or property damage occur during the repair. He said he had spoken to at least one of the property owners and told them you are going to have to come up with some part of the boroughs share of this, unless we get that other grant. This week, executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google testified before Congress. Again. This was the third congressional hearing this year where the internet giants were grilled on their content policies, their privacy and security practices and their role in democracy. Its been a rough couple of years for social media platforms. Theyve come under fire for so many different things it can be hard to remember all of them. To recap: For enabling Russian propagandists to influence our presidential election and terrorist organizations to find new recruits. For allowing fake news stories to go viral. For exacerbating political polarization by trapping their users in filter bubbles. For giving hate mongers and conspiracy theorists a platform to reach a wider audience. For filtering or down-ranking conservative viewpoints. For collecting private user data and selling it to the highest bidder. For siphoning profits away from struggling local news organizations. The social media platforms are taking various actions to mitigate these problems. But every potential solution seems to bring forth another unanticipated consequence. YouTube is currently trying to debunk conspiracy videos on its site by displaying links to more accurate information right alongside of them but theres concern that the presence of a link to an authoritative source will make a video seem more legitimate, even if the text and link directly contradict the video. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has expressed a desire to break up his users filter bubbles by injecting alternative viewpoints in their feeds. But new research suggests that exposing people to opposing political views may actually cause them to double down on their own ironically, actually increasing political polarization. Facebook instituted a system for users to flag questionable news stories for review by their fact-checkers but soon ran into the problem that users would falsely report stories as fake news if they disagreed with the premise of the story, or just wanted to target the specific publisher. Some doubt the sincerity behind these efforts. As former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao says, [S]ocial media companies and the leaders who run them are rewarded for focusing on reach and engagement, not for positive impact or for protecting subsets of users from harm. In other words, whats good for a companys bottom line and whats good for society as a whole are often at odds with each other. Its no wonder that the government is looking to step into the fray. If the numerous congressional hearings dont make that clear, a proposed plan to regulate social media platforms that leaked from Senator Mark Warners office last month ought to. Just last week, President Trump announced that he wanted to take action against Google and Twitter for allegedly not displaying conservative media in his search results. Its unlikely that the president would be able to do much about that, just as its unlikely that Congress would be able to force Facebook to say, ban all fake news stories from its platform. Twitter, Facebook and Google are all private companies, and the First Amendment prohibits government officials from limiting or compelling speech by private actors. So what can the government do? It can encourage (and, if necessary, regulate) these companies to be more transparent. Its shocking how little we know about the algorithms, content moderation practices and internal policies that control what information we receive and how we communicate with one another. Its reckless that we only become aware of these things when something catastrophic happens. Lata Nott is executive director of the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum Institute. Contact her via email at lnott@freedomforum.org, or follow her on Twitter at @LataNott. Ahead of Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing, a number of Georgia state officials and elected leaders sent letters to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in support of his nomination to the United States Supreme Court: Governor Nathan Deal said, As Judge Kavanaugh stated in his remarks to the nation, his judicial philosophy is straightforward. He believes a judge must be independent and open-minded and must interpret the law as written. As his record shows, he will interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history, tradition, and precedent. Judge Kavanaugh will adjudicate legal disputes with impartiality, preserving the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said, Judge Kavanaugh exhibits all of the personal qualities that we must demand from our Supreme Court justices. He prioritizes his faith and family, raising two school-aged children with his wife, Ashley, and stands as a pillar in his community. In all circumstances, he exudes civility and respect for others. He is a man of unquestionable integrity and values. Throughout his career, Judge Kavanaugh has built consensus, decided cases based on fact and law with no regard for his personal preferences, and shown enduring respect for the text, structure, and authority of our Constitution. I strongly urge Judge Kavanaugh's timely confirmation to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said, Confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court will have profound and long-lasting consequences for the people in our States. For too long we have suffered the ill effects of federal overreach as all three branches have at times exceeded the constitutional limits on their authority. Judge Kavanaugh will help reverse that trend by reviewing challenged laws and regulations with an eye to ensuring that all branches of our government act within their constitutionally assigned roles regardless of which party is in power. A judiciary committed to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution can ensure that the work being done now is safeguarded for decades to come. He is also supported by 27 Georgia state senators and five state representatives. Watch U.S. Senator David Perdues floor speech in support of Judge Kavanaugh here. REIS real estate symposium Sept. 13 The 2018 Real Estate Symposium takes place Thursday, Sept. 13, from 8 a.m. to noon, at Florida Gulf Coast University. The theme of this years event is Cows, Cars or both? A look at rural land development in Southwest Florida. The program will include: Ave Maria Successes and Lessons Learned by Brian Goguen, COO, Barron Collier Companies; Current and Future Trends in Rural Land Development in Lee County by Tony Cameratta, P.E., Cameratta Companies; and Rural Land Development as an Economic Engine by Hendry County Commissioner Michael Swindle. A panel discussion on the impacts of rural land development will be moderated by Sean Ellis, Esq., and include local authorities from the development community and government agencies. The annual event is presented by the Real Estate Investment Society in partnership with the Lutgert College of Business at FGCU and the Florida Planning & Zoning Association. Register on the REIS website! Collier and Lee Building Industry Associations to host the 8th annual market trends The Collier Building Industry Association and Lee Building Industry Association will host the 8th annual home building industry event, Market Trends, Tuesday, Oct. 30, at Miromar Design Center in Estero. This event is the regions largest program of its kind and brings together prominent building industry professionals and businesses to support the Building Industry Associations of Lee and Collier counties. Randy Thibaut, president and CEO of Land Solutions Inc., will be presenting facts and insight that directly impact the industry. His knowledge of the market and accurate, up-to-date research will provide attendees with the tools needed to make informative decisions that positively impact the Southwest Florida region. Early registration is encouraged as seats are limited. Tickets are $35 for members and $55 for non-members and can be purchased by visiting www.Market-Trends2018.com. About Land Solutions Inc. Randy Thibaut is the CEO and founder of Land Solutions, Inc., a full-service real estate company specializing in the feasibility, development, acquisition and disposition of land and improved properties throughout Southwest Florida. Thibaut has been actively involved in the creation, development, sales and marketing of residential and resort developments throughout the area since 1982. He has more than 30 years of experience in the Southwest Florida real estate industry with residential and commercial sales, development, project management and new home construction. He is a co-founder and board member for Builders Care, a nonprofit organization formed by the Lee Building Industry Association to provide construction services at no cost to needy and deserving elderly and disabled homeowners who cannot obtain home repairs through traditional means. He also serves on the board of the Lee Building Industry Association. About Lee Building Industry Association Founded in 1954, the Lee Building Industry Association, a not for profit organization representing Lee, Hendry and Glades counties, is a powerful voice for the building industry in the regulatory arena. The Lee BIA is chartered by the National Association of Home Builders and is an affiliate of the Florida Home Builders Association, giving members three memberships in one. It is comprised of approximately 380 companies involved in every aspect of building and creating a thriving community for a growing Southwest Florida. The mission of the Lee BIA is to promote, protect and preserve homeownership, private property rights and affordable housing by advocating for balanced laws, regulation and fees through member education and outreach. Please visit www.CBIA.net or www.BIA.net to learn more about their programs and memberships. This past 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. I am continuing the exploration of this smear in a few more posts that take us to the Russia hoax engineered by Glenn Simpson as a Clinton campaign contractor. I am continuing this series under the same heading as the Journal editorial. Working on this series I have come to understand that it is Glenn Simpsons world and were just living in it. 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. Stone and Gordon allow Simpson to cloak himself under the veil of anonymity. He is vaguely described as one of two sources of the story/smear. Stone and Gordon say that they grant the sources anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. In any normal understanding of the language they employ, that is a bald-faced lie. They grant Simpson anonymity because he is a paid operative and identifying him by name would assist readers in evaluating his allegations for what they are worth. What, however, is the evidence that outs Simpson as the key McClatchy source peddling the smear? There is a trail of circumstantial evidence: Simpson served up his conspiracy theory involving the NRA in his November 14, 2017 testimony to the House Intel Committee (HPSCI). The transcript of Simpsons testimony is posted here. In this testimony Simpson retailed his Russia-NRA-Trump money laundering conspiracy theory. Simpson and Fusion GPS co-founder Peter Fritsch demanded that Simpsons congressional testimony be made public in this January 2, 2018 New York Times op-ed column. The HPSCI Democrat status report made the first public mention of Cletas name in connection with the Russia-NRA-Trump money laundering conspiracy theory here. Two days after the HPSCI Dem status report appeared, McClatchy published the Peter Stone/Greg Gordon story smearing Cleta here. Kim Strassel then bashed McClatchy as Fusion GPS stooges in this Wall Street Journal column. Most recently, Chuck Ross reported for the Daily Caller last month that notes taken by Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr reflect Simpson retailing the smear to him. Rosss key story is posted here. This is essentially the thread that the the Journal editorial follows in calling out Glenn Simpson for the smearing of Cleta Mitchell. The Journal editors rightly state that the evidence points to Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, the outfit that financed the infamous Steele dossier. QED, one might say. The Journal editorial also calls out McClatchy (reminder: that would be reporters Peter Stone and Greg Gordon) for smearing Cleta via the anonymous Glenn Simpson. Thus the headline Anatomy of a Fusion Smear. So far as I can tell by searching the Journal online, neither Simpson nor McClatchy has responded to the Journal editorial. Insofar as the responsibility for the smearing of Cleta is concerned, a reasonable observer would judge the case closed. PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-07 18:39:01 As per the recent notification from Foreigners Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, after completion of studies in India, foreign students may be granted with an Intern Visa to pursue internship opportunities in India GMAC Relaunches the Second Version of the Study in India Initiative in Partnership with 13 Leading B-schools Avian Media Anuradha Chawla / Mayuri Dahiya 9899965560 / 8585925739 Anuradha@avian-media.com / mayuri@avian-media.com In its endeavor to strengthen India as a management education destination and build preference amongst international aspirants, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has relaunched the second version of the Study in India initiative. Under this initiative, students globally can explore India as a graduate management education destination and seek admission to any of the 13 participating business schools. The business schools associated with the Study in India initiative are: Great Lakes Institute of Management IFIM Business School Indian School of Business Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad International Management Institute, New Delhi ISBR Business School K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research NMIMS SDA Bocconi Asia Center SPJIMR T. A. Pai Management Institute Universal Business School Xavier University, Bhubaneshwar Commenting on the launch, Mr. Gaurav Srivastava, Regional Director, South Asia, GMAC said, With the evolution of the economic and academic landscape, India has emerged as a promising market for management education amongst global aspirants. After the successful launch of the Study in India initiative the second version further strengthens GMACs mission to connect candidates across the South East Asia, Africa and Middle East regions for pursuing quality business education from leading b-schools in India. Furthermore, foreign students now have the opportunity to pursue internship opportunities in India and fast track their careers. He further added, We would like to thank the b-schools for their relentless support to this initiative. Study in India will assist b-schools to access a larger talent pool and increase diversity at their campuses. As per the recent notification from Foreigners Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, after completion of studies in India, foreign students may be granted with Intern Visa for pursuing Internship in India. For doing employment in India after completion of studies, foreign students must go back to the country of their origin/domicile and apply for Employment Visa at the Indian mission/Post concerned. In case there may be a course requirement to complete industrial training/summer project/internship etc. which may be a part of the prescribed curriculum, no special permission is required for completion of such industrial training/internship etc. Hence, foreign students may participate in industry internship during summer between the first and second year of their graduate management education on the strength of their student visa granted to pursue management studies in India. Launched in 2017, Study in India generated over 2700 leads from 64 nations including Nigeria, Korea, Bangladesh, Ghana, Philippines, Morocco, Tanzania, Indonesia, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, USA, Congo, Vietnam, among others. William Ofusu Adi from Ghana was the winner of MBA@India Contest 2017 and won a round trip to India to visit the Indian School of Business campus with the help of GMACs support. This year too, three lucky winners of the MBA@India Contest 2018 will have a chance to visit any of the partnering b-school campuses of their choice. Students can visit the Study in India website www.studyinindiamba.com to discover more about studying and living in India. The website will offer aspirants access to information about the participating schools and opportunity to connect with them to seek requisite details. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005 PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-07 14:59:02 Raising money in shirts and suits on classic motorbikes: On September 30 th , bikers in 650 cities around the world will meet up in aid of a good cause. Delticoms online shop Moto-tyres.co.uk is sponsoring the event in ten European cities. The biker who raises the most money in each city will receive a set of Metzeler tyres free of charge. Moto-tyres.co.uk is Once Again Sponsoring the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride in 2018 insignis Agentur fur Kommunikation GmbH (GPRA) Henning Jahns Tel.: +49-511-132214-14 Fax: +49-511-132214-99 delticom@insignis.de or Delticom AG Anne Lena Peters Tel.: +49-511-93634-8909 Fax: +49-511-93634-8301 anne.lena.peters@delti.com On September 30th, 2018, when tens of thousands of bikers around the world don their finest threads for the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, theres a good reason for it: events in more than 650 cities are aiming to raise money for a good cause. The organisers expect to raise around $ 6 million, which will be spent on fighting prostate cancer and raising awareness of depression and suicide in men. This would be about 20 times as much as was raised five years ago. The first time the Ride took place in 2012, participants raised $ 277,000. It has been an annual event ever since. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005 Moto-tyres.co.uk will once again be sponsoring the "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" (Photo: Business Wire) It goes without saying that Delticoms two-wheel division with its online shop Moto-tyres.co.uk will once again be sponsoring the "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" this year. The online motorbike shop from Europe's largest online tyre retailer is sponsoring events in Hamburg, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, London, Copenhagen, Milan and Madrid with a total of $ 5,000. But its not just companies that can raise money: each and every biker can donate by registering and supporting the event with a donation of their choice. Or simply by mounting their bikes and raising money themselves by taking part in one of the many Rides. As an additional incentive: In each city where Moto-tyres.co.uk is sponsoring a Ride, the biker who raises the most money will receive a set of (front and rear) Metzeler tyres from the online shop free of charge. For more information, go to https://www.moto-tyres.co.uk/gentlemans-ride-2018.. The "Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" is also interesting for spectators, as the bikers wear smart clothes such as silk waistcoats and tweed suits, and ride elegant motorbikes such as choppers, cafe racers and classic scooters. Australian Mark Hawwa, creator of the event, also requests good manners on that day. While around 2,500 drivers participated in 2012, by 2017 this had grown to 94,000. This year, organisers are expecting 120,000 men and women to actively participate in the campaign. Currently, about 40,000 participants have already registered and a quarter of the target sum has been raised. The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride is not only about fighting prostate cancer, but also about preventing suicide, which has been on the increase in many countries for several years. "This is a very serious, important topic. We are happy to be able to raise awareness of it as part of the campaign this year, and to raise money for a good cause together with tens of thousands of bikers, says Oliver Pflaum, Head of Sales for motorbike tyres at Moto-tyres.co.uk. For more on the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, information about local campaigns, and to register or donate, head to: https://www.gentlemansride.com. Go to www.gentlemansride.com/rides for a world map showing all the cities where a charity ride is taking place. About Moto-tyres.co.uk Whether you're looking for chopper, sport-touring or scooter tyres: bikers will find everything their heart desires in this renowned online store's range. Accessories such as bike tubes and motor oil complete Delticom's bike range. The two-wheeler tyre specialist's portfolio includes all established premium bike tyre manufacturers such as Metzeler, Pirelli, Continental, Dunlop, Bridgestone and Michelin, as well as renowned quality brands such as Heidenau, Avon, Maxxis and Mitas. Online store for end users: www.moto-tyres.co.uk Further online stores in Europe: www.motorradreifendirekt.de (DE), www.motorradreifendirekt.at (AT), www.motorradreifendirekt.ch (CH), www.pneus-moto.fr (FR), www.motorbandenmarkt.nl (NL), www.moto-pneumatici.it (IT), www.neumaticosdemoto.es (ES) and more. Online store for dealers: www.yourtyres.co.uk About the company: www.delti.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005 Smart Bed Market PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-07 06:32:18 Press Information Goldstein Research 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527 Steve blade Global Sales Manager 6465687747 email https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/ # 595 Words 99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747 According to Goldstein Research, there is a huge demand of smart beds in the hospitals as compared to the residential sector as these beds are very useful in remote monitoring of patients. Rising expenditures over healthcare sector across the globe and growing geriatric populations increased the demand of smart beds in hospitals. Further, increasing penetration of smart technologies such as IoT and Artificial Intelligence will further boost the growth of smart bed technology over the forecast period. Global smart beds market outlook also includes new technological innovations, product developments and capital investment as the key strategies adopted by the major players for a significant expansion of business in developed and as well as in developing countries across the globe. However, the high cost related to smart beds is a major challenge for the market players, as smart beds majorly consist of sensors and complex engineering.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, global smart bed market can be segmented as follows:By Product Type Manual Semi-Automatic Fully-AutomaticBy End Users Residential Hospitals Other (Luxury Hotels etc.)By Geography North America (US, Canada) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)} Europe (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Rest of Europe) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)} Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of Middle East & Africa) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion) } Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion) } Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Rest of Asia-Pacific) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion) }Global Smart Bed Market Outlook 2024 contains detailed overview of the global smart bed market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by product and by end users.Download Exclusive Sample Report:Further, for the in-depth analysis, Global Smart Bed Market Analysis encompasses the industry growth drivers, market challenges, risk analysis, market attractiveness, BPS (Base Point Scale) analysis, Porters five force model and SWOT analysis. This market report also includes competitive outlook of some of the major players profiling of companies such as Stryker Corporation, BodiTrak, ArjoHuntleigh ABetc, Hill Rom Holdings Inc., Invacare Corporation, Responsive Surface Technology, Hi-Interiors SRL. The company profiles include business strategy, geographical revenue distribution, major information of the companies which encompasses business outlook, products, services and industries catered, financial analysis of the company and recent developments. Overall, the report represents the global smart bed market trends along with market forecast that will help industry consultants, technology providers, existing players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.Key questions answered in this Global Smart bed Report What is the global smart bed market Size by 2024 and what would be the expected growth rate of the industry? What is the total revenue per segment and region in 2015-16 and what would be the expected revenue per segment and region over the forecast period? What are the smart bed market trends? What are the factors which are driving this industry? What are the major barriers to smart bed industry growth? Who are the key vendors in this industry space? What are the industry opportunities for the existing and entry level players? What are the recent developments and business strategy of the key players?Browse Similar Report: PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-07 11:45:01 Waterstones Announces Acquisition of Foyles Waterstones James Daunt, Waterstones Managing Director Email: James.Daunt@waterstones.com Phone: +44 (0)7771 538882 or Sandra Taylor, Waterstones PR Email: Sandra.Taylor@waterstones.com Phone: +44 (0)207 071 6343 Waterstones is pleased today to announce its acquisition of the Foyles bookshops from the Foyle family. In addition to its Charing Cross Road flagship, Foyles has three shops in London Royal Festival Hall, Waterloo and Westfield Stratford and shops in Bristol, Birmingham and Chelmsford. Founded in 1903, Foyles has developed a strong brand identity and unique bookselling ethos, and its Charing Cross Road flagship is one of the worlds most iconic bookshops. Waterstones operates a chain of 283 bookshops located across the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium. The bookseller also owns the London bookseller Hatchards, established in 1797 and the Dublin booksellers Hodges Figgis, who celebrate their 250 year anniversary this year. James Daunt, Waterstones Managing Director said: We are honoured to be entrusted with the Foyles business, and greatly look forward to joining forces with the Foyles bookselling team. Together, we will be stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazons siren call. It is an exciting and invigorating time in bookselling as good bookshops are rediscovering their purpose in the fight back against online and e-reading. At Waterstones, we see our future as responsible stewards of shops that strive to serve their customers each according to their own distinct personality. This is nowhere more important than with those shops Hatchards, Hodges Figgis and now Foyles that have such singular heritages. The Foyles booksellers join a company that celebrates the traditional virtues of Foyles bookselling as equally as it does the illustrious history of Foyles itself. We take on this responsibility with pride and confidence and are committed to ensuring Foyles a future as bright as its past. Christopher Foyle said: My family and I are delighted that Foyles is entering a new chapter, one which secures the brands future and protects its personality. I look forward to witnessing the exciting times ahead for the company founded by my Grandfather and his brother 115 years ago. The transaction is expected to complete before the year end, and the terms are not disclosed. Waterstones is the UK and Irelands leading high street bookseller with 283 shops. It employs over 3,000 booksellers. Waterstones is the only national specialist book retailer of scale in the UK, with the average sized shop carrying a range of around 30,000 individual books and with over 200,000 titles in the largest shop. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180907005 Stanbic IBTC Ventures Limited (SIVL), a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, on Friday said it has surrendered its Venture Capital Licence to the Nigerian authorities. The group, which made this known in a disclosure sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), said it had applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is to inform The Nigerian Stock Exchange that Stanbic IBTC Ventures Limited (SIVL), a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC has applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) to surrender its licence as a Venture Capital Manager, the group said Friday in a disclosure signed by Chidi Okezie, the companys secretary. It however said that the surrender is entirely voluntary and the commission has granted a No Objection to SIVLs application. We also would like to state that SIVL does not have any Venture Capital obligations with any of its clients and the surrender of its licence would not impact negatively on the Stanbic IBTC Group as SIVL will still continue to operate as a going concern, it added. The banking subsidiary of the group is one of the four banks fined by the Nigerian authorities last week. The banks accounts were debited to the tune of over N5 billion, details emerged Thursday. The unit, Stanbic IBTC Nigeria, was fined N1.88 billion. The deductions were made after the CBN imposed fines on the banks for helping South African telecoms firm, MTN, illegally repatriate money from Nigeria. The other banks are Standard Chartered Bank (N2.47 billion), Citibank Nigeria (N1.265 billion) and Diamond Bank Plc (N250 million). Stanbic IBTC confirmed in a disclosure notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange that it had been debited. It added, however, that the debit would not impact on its capacity to handle clients requests or clients ability to continue to carry out viable business transactions with either the bank or any member of the Stanbic IBTC Group. Our business transactions will continue to be handled professionally and in a manner that is aligned with Nigerias laws and regulatory guidelines, it stated. Research and risk analysis firm, Moodys, has placed MTN Group on a review for downgrade following the recent fines imposed on the South African mobile phone operator by Nigerian authorities. The telecoms operator has in the last one week been slammed with about $10.1 billion fine by regulators from its biggest and now most problematic market, Nigeria. On Tuesday, the Nigerian government slammed the firm with a $2 billion tax demand. The new tax bill, incurred by the telecom firm over the last decade, came after the firm had been directed to return $8.1 billion the Nigerian apex bank claimed it illegally sent abroad with the collusion of four banks. MTN said it had been in talks with Nigerias Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, over concerns around tax compliance, but it was billed all the same, for the importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers. Moodys said the telecom firm would be placed on review amid the uncertainty that surrounds its operations in Nigeria and South Africa where its shares slumped earlier in the week. MTN debt stands at around 57 billion rand ($3.7 billion). MTNs ratings have been placed on review for downgrade to reflect the uncertainty around the potential implications of the recent CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) and NAG (Nigerian Attorney General) announcements on MTNs credit profile, Moodys said Thursday. Moodys, a global risk assessment firm, provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to evaluate growth, efficiency and risk management objectives of companies. The risk evaluation firm already has a junk rating on MTN debt at Ba1. A junk rating can set off a wave of capital outflows because it automatically excludes bonds from certain high-profile indexes. It, however, noted that without the demand for the refund and the potential tax shortfall, MTN would be able to repay approaching debt maturities over the next 12 to 18 months. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has given the Nigerian government till the end of September to constitute the Board of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) or face its wrath. The President of the association, Francis Faduyile, who announced the ultimatum on Thursday, said the association was prepared to approach the court on the issue. Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, Mr Faduyile said it is saddening that three years after dissolving the last board, the government was yet to constitute a new one. He said the action of the government has badly affected health delivery in the country, as the profession has gone unregulated. Reading from a communique issued at the end of the National Executive Council of the association, Mr Faduyile said, The NEC call on the Federal Government to immediately re-constitute the Council of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). The NEC also directed the National Officers Committee (NOC) to approach the court of law to seek for the interpretation of the statement the Council shall be a body corporate in with perpetual succession as clearly stated in the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act Cap M8. He said NMA has decided to defend the health of Nigerians and by the 30th of September if the council is not constituted, we will take decisive steps that will make people know that we are serious about it. For your information, all what the Nigerian government needed is to just give only one nominee because every other member of the council are statutory member. I dont know why it is difficult. Mr Faduyile disclosed that the association was in talk with its rival group in the health sector, the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), with the aim of ensuring industrial harmony in the sector. NMA is looking at how we can have harmony within the health sector. What we are doing now is to have our own dispute resolution with some of the critical members of JOHESU so that we can solve our problems ourselves. We are looking at and we are seriously working on that. Not minding their request and our position, it is certain that the two of us must be able to work synergistically within the sector for the benefit of the patient, he said. He however stated that both parties are still before the National Industrial Court (NIC), where they are undergoing the Alternative Dispute Resolution. On the issue of medical quackery, he said NMA is not taking the menace lightly as it is working to checkmate the practice. Mr Faduyile noted that as part of the efforts in tackling the menace, practicing doctors in the country had been told to have their stamps on any report. He urged members of the public to always insist on doctors stamp on their medical reports. On the delay of the implementation of the health fund, the NMA president said the association was working with the Primary Health Care Development Agency on the policy guidelines for the implementation of the fund. A former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has knocked President Muhammadu Buhari for not taking action on the certificate forgery scandal involving finance minister, Kemi Adeosun. Mr Abubakar also flayed the president for not punishing officials involved in the controversial recall of fugitive civil servant, Abdulrasheed Maina, last year. In a statement by Mr Abubakars media adviser, Paul Ibe, on Thursday, the former said with those unresolved issues bogging his presidency, Mr Buhari cannot lay claim to being uncompromising. Both episodes were exclusively reported by PREMIUM TIMES, over the last one year. The government did not resolve any of the scandals or punish those involved. In October, this newspaper reported how Mr Maina, who was dismissed from service for refusing to answer to summons on corruption charges, was secretly reinstated into the civil service. Nigerias Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, was later discovered to have played central role in Mr Mainas recall. He also frustrated an attempt by members of the National Assembly to probe the scandal. Eight months later, PREMIUM TIMES published details of how Mrs Adeosun skipped the mandatory one year national service administered by National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), though she was eligible to participate in the scheme. Instead of serving the country, the minister parades a purported exemption certificate from the scheme, a document that was discovered to be fake. In his statement on Thursday, Mr Abubakar rhetorically asked, How uncompromising a President can be when he allows a minister accused of forgery to remain at her job? A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar He also questioned why action was not taken on Mr Malami for his roles in the MainaGate. Why did the Presidency do nothing as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, went to court to secure a kangaroo court order to stop the Senate of the National Assembly from investigating who recalled, reinstated and double promoted Abdulrasheed Maina? LINGERING SCANDALS Despite widespread public uproar over the two scandals, the Buhari administration remained unperturbed over the two clear cases of fraudulent acts. While partial action was taken on the MainaGate, with the government reversing the recall, those who were responsible for the action have remained in their posts. Mr Malami and minister of interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, were uncovered to be behind the recall and promotion of Mr Maina, without him facing his pending trial. A memo by the Head of the Civil Service of the federation submitted to Mr Buhari at the time, clearly indicted Mr Malami and Mr Dambazau. No action was however taken on the two men. Mr Maina is also yet to be brought to face his charges, despite the anticorruption agency, the EFCC declaring him wanted. PREMIUM TIMES at the time discovered that the dismissed civil servant was moving about under of operatives of the State Security Service (SSS), and was living in a safe house of the service in Abuja. A policeman was also guarding one of his houses visited by our reporter at the time. In the case of Mrs Adeosun, over 60 days since the publication of the messy affair, the federal government has declined to comprehensively speak on the scandal, or take any action. Nigerians have expressed outrage over the contemptuous silence maintained by both the minister and the presidency, her employers. Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, only referred journalists to a half-hearted statement issued by the NYSC which is not categorical on the position of the Corps on the issue. Updates promised Nigerians are not forthcoming seven weeks after. On Sept 10, 2017 Hurricane Irma made landfall over Florida, taking with it the lives of 84 people statewide, leaving millions without power and hundreds of thousands with property damage. A Category 5 hurricane at its peak, Irma was the fifth costliest U.S. Atlantic Hurricane in history, with damages totaling $53.4 billion. Lee County was hit hard by 100-plus mph winds and massive rainfall that led to flooding and power outages across the region. County officials have learned a lot in the calendar year, trying to absorb as much information as they can and implementing what theyve learned into future seasons. Every hurricane, every storm, every disaster we always learn something new. If we dont learn, then we are not really doing our job, said Lee County Emergency Management Director Lee Mayfield. So taking all those components and lessons learned from Irma some are really able to be applied really quickly. A lot weve already done. County spokesperson Betsy Clayton provided numbers attesting to the staggering costs from last years historic storm. Countywide, commercial loss due to Irma totaled $102.4 million, residential loss totaled $725.9 million, as well as an additional $4.4 million in other loss. Irma left behind 2,704,829.76 cubic yards of debris in her wake in unincorporated Lee County and the Village of Estero, costing $39,038,906.50 in removal costs. Nearly 10,000 traffic signs and sign supports have been repaired, as well as 303 traffic signals. Countless businesses were affected, many closing their doors for some time to deal with roof issues and lack of power. All told, 2,996 Small Business Administration Loans were approved, totaling $117.7 million, with 75 Emergency Bridge Loans approved, totaling $3.1 million. Southwest Florida homes were hit hard by Irmas intense winds, deteriorating roofs and spewing shingles about. A total of 12,175 roofing permits were issued from Sept. 11, 2017 to Aug. 23 of this year. Flooding was another issue for Lee County residents, with some roadways deemed unusable for people looking to leave their house post-storm and retrieve additional supplies. More than 36 miles of major drainage canals were cleared of debris after Irma. Lee County has allocated $3 million in its 2018-2019 budget for flood remediation. The City of Cape Coral was tasked with cleaning up 340,000 cubic yards of debris from its rights-of-way. There were 25,000 cubic yards of construction and demolition in the city, as well as 164,800 cubic yards of debris from canals. Irma downed 2,7000 trees, and killed many more in the process. Since Hurricane Irma made landfall one year ago, Cape Coral has made a strong and lasting recovery, said Ryan Lamb, Cape Coral Fire Department Chief, who also oversees emergency management for the city. In order to prepare for the next, inevitable storm, we have identified our strengths and are implementing changes to shore up our weaknesses. The City has worked hard over the last year with our community and regional partners to improve our resiliency and implement long-term mitigation initiatives. And, perhaps most importantly, we are striving to build the preparedness capacity of individuals within the community through education, outreach and training. Total debris removal totaled an estimated $14 million in the Cape, with response and administration costs totaling an estimated $4 million, bringing the grand total to a whopping $19 million in estimated costs as a result of Hurricane Irma. City spokesperson Maureen Buice, who provided the information, said the city has not yet received any reimbursements from FEMA. Seawalls took quite the blow as well, but it is unclear what the extent of the damages are. We do not know how many seawalls were damaged, Buice said. Since September of 2017, there have been 224 seawall permits issued but many of these are for new seawalls. Lee County has also been working hard on making sure its residents, as well as its employees, are more prepared this time around. They county has also bolstered its shelter operations. Whatever the disaster may be, were broadening our reports. We always want to do better, whether its short, medium or long-term changes, Mayfield said. He added that the county is boosting its preparedness for staffing of first responders, making sure they and their families are safe and can get where they need to if a disaster occurs. Many first responders have no choice to evacuate, as their duties require them to stay and be of service. Last year, around 300,000 people evacuated while 14 shelters housed 35,000 Lee County residents, including 3,500 pets. There were two special needs shelters. From the first shelter opening to the last shelter closing, they operated for six weeks and two days. We are paying special attention to our shelter operations and those who help us get them together, Mayfield said. Our shelter decisions are based on the storm. We feel confident in our shelter locations no matter how many we need to open. Were working on staffing, food, investing in generators, impact glass, square-footage and capacity, Mayfield said. Mayfield advises residents to have a plan to stay with a friend of family member, even a hotel, outside of an evacuation zone if you can. Shelter opening information can be found at www.Leeeoc.com, as well as social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The more you prepare, the better your outcome, Mayfield added. He says to develop and talk through a family disaster plan and to build a disaster supply kit. You can print out our family emergency plan, where it has questions to help shape what your family should do if a disaster scenario was to occur on our website. Keeping records, making sure food and water is available for humans and pets alike, as well as getting any medicines in order are some things to add to your disaster supply kit according to Mayfield. Staying up-to-date on the latest information is key as well. Knowledge is power in these situations. For hurricane preparedness tips, visit www.leegov.com/publicsafety or visit the hurricane guide posted to the Breeze website at cape-coral-daily-breeze.com -Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj It is a heart touching story of scheming, incarceration and torture. Recently released journalist, Jones Abiri shares his experience in the hands of the dreaded State Security Service (SSS) in this interview with PREMIUM TIMES Evelyn Okakwu and Halimah Yahaya. Mr Abiri spent two years without trial at an SSS detention facility. Excerpts: PREMIUM TIMES: You were arrested and detained for two years. Can you narrate how your arrest took place? Mr Abiri: I was arrested in my office in Yenagoa. That was on July 21, 2016, 23 minutes after three o clock. Twelve men came into my office and showed me a warrant for searching my office, duly signed by a magistrate, Lucky. I gave them the privilege to search my office. After the search, they could not find any incriminating thing. What they found was a phone that they had been tracking. The phone was brought to my office by some men who had come to ask me to write a (press) statement for them as a journalist. They said someone directed them to me. I did not know that they were having an ulterior concept (motive) for asking me to anchor the statement. At a point, I wanted to resist. But two of them threatened me. They said I must write the press statement, if I was mindful of myself. So I became afraid for my life and decided to write the press statement for them. It was published by various media houses and later they called me and said that there was a particular story that was published that the government had reacted to the story and that they would like to react to the position of government. At that point, two of them came. They were looking quite haggard. They asked me to help them charge a small Nokia phone. The phone should cost about N2, 000 or so in the market. Its one of these old phones. Unknown to me that was the phone they were using to send text messages to oil companies (allegedly) demanding for money. I ignorantly agreed to help them charge the phone. I did not know that AGIP had sent a petition to the SSS state command, which had resulted in the tracking of the number inside the phone. They gave me the phone and left, as if to return shortly. When they did not come back, I realised that there was no way I could contact them, because the phone I was using to contact them, was charging in my office. So I removed the phone and put it in my drawer. They (SSS) found the phone in my drawer. That purportedly linked me to becoming the leader of joint Niger-Delta Liberation Force. Which I do not know. I am not the founder nor a member of the militant group. If I had been attending any of their meetings, I would not have been operating an office for the production of newspapers, in Yenagoa I would have been in the creeks. They wouldnt have seen me. Moreso, I was running a programme, I was a law undergraduate. A level three law undergraduate. As a law undergraduate and mindful of the facts about the illegality of militancy, why would I condescend so low as to be involved in such a thing? When they left, they told me they wanted to buy a copy of the paper, so that I would see the story that government reacted to. That was how I kept the phone and the SSS said I am a militant, a leader of a militant group. PREMIUM TIMES: What was prison experience like for you? Mr Abiri: Very unfortunate. While I was in the detention facility of the SSS, underground where I was kept; there was no freedom of moving out of the facility. SSS Officials When the light is off, I will not even recognise the person who is sitting in front of me until when the light returns, that is when we would start moving within the facility. We were about 26 of us that were in the facility and the room is about 12 by 12 which is not up to some prominent Nigerians parlour. That was where we were being kept and though the ground was tiled, nothing was on top of the tiles for us to have a conducive environment. We demanded for cartons before they could even bring in the carton for us to use part of it to lay our heads. That was the hostile nature of my being in the hands of SSS and if you talk in terms of food, medical and other things, I was severally denied of my right to medication. I was not given proper medical care but since I could not do anything, I continued to rely on my creator. And thank God, God saw me through and you see the little (frail) body (pointing at himself), at this material time, if not I would have been a dead man. PREMIUM TIMES: What were the medical issues you had while in detention? Mr Abiri: The medical issues I had was H.B.P (High Blood Pressure) too because I thought as much about my family, most especially my children and my other relations, so I had B. P in the night, I fell down while I was praying because I was the pastor in the cell. I quickly made myself an evangelist preaching the word of God. When I was outside I was not that well known to the word of God but since I was in the captivity I continued to rely on God, so I prayed earnestly to ensure that God answers my prayer. PREMIUM TIMES: What kind of food were you eating while in detention? Mr Abiri: In the morning hours its mostly tea with N50 bread and one sachet milk which cost N30. That was what they were giving us to feed on as breakfast. In the afternoon they may likely bring beans or rice and the evening, they serve us semo with soup or wheatmeal or eba (cassava meal). There was also meat. PREMIUM TIMES: You mean you people were better than some of us outside the prison, you were eating three square meals daily? Mr Abiri: I did not know when I was in captivity what you were eating, so I cannot make the comparison. In fact, if you know the hostile nature of the environment, you will not pray to be there. PREMIUM TIMES: Was there a means of ventilation? There was no proper ventilation, since the facility was underground, there was no natural breeze coming into the room for you to have air to breathe but one standing fan was kept for the 26 suspects. PREMIUM TIMES: Were you tortured? Mr Abiri: Yes I was. When I was arrested on the 21st of July and brought to their office, a state command in Yenagoa; my eyes were blindfolded and they asked me to stay glued to the wall. So I did that but did not know what was happening. The next thing I heard was something that struck on my back and I fell down. That is why my spinal cord, (pointing at his waist) this my waist; I cannot stand for a very long time. That is why I want to hurriedly go home to ensure that proper medication is administered before the next date of my trial. So I was tortured and through that torturing, they were able to achieve their aim. I told them that I am not a militant because of a story that I wrote. I was against the governor, most especially Bayelsa governor and the federal government. Some of the stories that were published in my newspaper were antagonistic and many of them were investigated before it was published and some were gotten online. I believe that was what angered the government to have arrested me by linking me up with those men to write a press statement, so that they would be able to achieve their aim. PREMIUM TIMES: After you left the state command, where else were you taken to? Mr Abiri: Abuja. They flew me to Abuja and I was detained on the 28 of July. Since then, I have been in Abuja till date before I had my little freedom in the hands of DSS on the 2nd of August. The prison warder took me to Keffi Prison and that was where I was kept before Peter Nkanga, Maurice Alangwa and others jointly, with Daniel Ezekiel organised to bring my family for sightseeing and that was my first day of seeing my family, for over two years. So that was the bitter part I had while in detention. PREMIUM TIMES: You were 26 in cell, did you talk with others, what were their offences? Mr Abiri: Yes we discussed a lot, I have my problem and they have their problems too, so in the cause of being in the same cell, there are people with ordeals that have been there for the past 2,3,4,5,6,7 years without trial. The whole story has been made public, if the DSS is denying what I am saying, they should allow human right bodies and other NGOs, the media to visit their facility and personally interview and find out one or two things about those suspects that they have arrested. They would narrate their ordeals. PREMIUM TIMES: So those people that have spent seven years, why were they detained? Mr Abiri: Well everybody has his own degree of offence; allegedly, because they have not being brought before any court of law. They have never ever been taken to court and their family relations have forgotten about them because they dont know if they are still alive. It was as a result of some of them going to court that they were able to inform the lawyers to get across to those that are from the same area as they were. That is how some of them luckily get help at times. PREMIUM TIMES: Are some there for terrorism related offences? Mr Abiri: Yes, many of them were accused of alleged involvement with Boko Haram. Others were accused of involvement with Niger Delta militants. PREMIUM TIMES: Did you meet Sambo Dasuki in the DSS facility? I met Dasuki in there but not in the same cell. You know he is a big fish but where he is now; there is no toilet, so anytime he is pressed, they take him outside; so through that process we were able to see him, there was a time I physically met him and shook hands, he was coming to ease himself, by then I was at the room up. Former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki That is where they normally keep suspects after investigation after which they would be assigned to various cells. I knew of his matter before meeting him, so there was no need to discuss with him, though. PREMIUM TIMES: In your own cell did you have toilet? Mr Abiri: Truly, we had. PREMIUM TIMES: When suspects are sick, do they treat them there in the cell or they take them out for treatment? Mr Abiri: Sometimes, the doctor would come to the facility to attend to those who have some medical issues but it is only on specific issues that they take the person to the clinic. If not, the doctor would come to the cell and give prescriptions and then return to get the drugs for the suspect. PREMIUM TIMES: During your own case, you said there was a time you fell down, while you were praying. How did you get attention? Mr Abiri: My co-members continued to bang our cell door, until I was given due attention. The doctor had to return from airport road to attend to my matter that night. I did not know myself for over an hour, many of them thought I was dead. PREMIUM TIMES: How would you describe Nigerias democracy in the light of your experience? Mr Abiri: The President should be told of the activities of the State Security Service. Is it that the president is giving more power to the security outfit? SSS is attached to the Office of the President. So I am also making efforts to forward a bill to the National Assembly. I have told Peter and they have seen the concept of my bill. Im going to forward that bill by next year because it is a transitional period. The government should be held responsible for any missing Nigerian; especially the State Security Service. Human right groups and the media should be given opportunity to visit various detention facilities/prisons for them to have first-hand information. Sometimes, the story might have a public Interest and when you are denied of any access, it becomes a problem. So doors should be open for the media and human right bodies to ensure that they visit those places and talk to the suspects. They (suspects) are Nigerians. I am going to sponsor that bill through my senator and federal house of representative member from my area; for them (lawmakers) to review the Act that establishes the State Security Service. PREMIUM TIMES: One last word from you for Nigerians? Mr Abiri: I specifically thank the media who came to my aid. If not for their intervention, the SSS would not have thought it wise to take me to the court for the one count charge; that I sent threatening text messages to Shell and other Multi-national companies. They arrested me for allegations under terrorism law but they could not prosecute me under the same law. That is where they fumbled. They know the law. Im in court now with them, at the Magistrate court and I have also asked my lawyer, Femi Falana, to institute a legal action enforcing my fundamental rights at the Federal High Court in Abuja here. I thank most especially PREMIUM TIMES who took the pains of writing stories about my captivity and the world media also aided in my release. Also, Amnesty International, Press Unlimited, an organisation in Netherlands. They brought some money to rehabilitate me and thanks to Peter, he coordinated that. That (money) has made it possible for us to pay some of the bills of the legal team. The media should please not relax on us, my release has propelled me, given me strength, I am so resilient now. What they never expected is what they would see. That is what I would say. Since the matter is in court, I dont want to say certain things about the court issue. When I have secured justice, then I am going to address a press conference to that effect. The Nigerian Army said it killed14 Boko Haram insurgents and rescued 21 hostages in Pulka village in Gwoza Local Government area of Borno. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the insurgents had on Tuesday, ambushed military escort at Amdaga area in Pulka and burnt one passenger vehicle as well as abducted some travellers. Texas Chukwu, Director of Army Public Relations, who disclosed this in a statement in Maiduguri on Friday said the terrorists were alleged to have haboured the insurgents that ambushed the civilian vehicle. The troops have neutralised 14 Boko Haram and rescued 21 civilians, comprising six women and 11 children. Troops of 192 Battalion of 26 Task Force Brigade of Operation LAFIYA DOLE, in conjunction with Civilian Joint Task Force, neutralised the insurgents on Thursday. The troops engaged and subdued the terrorists, following a superior fire power of troops in the village. Four men injured during the attack are being attended to at the military hospital, he said. (NAN) The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has debited the accounts of three banks to the tune of over N5 billion, as punishment for financial infractions, PREMIUM TIMES learnt on Thursday. The deductions were made after the CBN imposed fines on the four banks for helping South African telecoms firm, MTN, illegally repatriate money from Nigeria. The apex bank had last week imposed a total of N5.87 billion fines on the banks, saying they violated Nigerian foreign exchange laws. The four banks are Standard Chartered Bank (N2.47 billion), Stanbic IBTC Nigeria (N1.88 billion), Citibank Nigeria (N1.265 billion) and Diamond Bank Plc (N250 million). On Thursday, Reuters reported that Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Citigroup had been debited to the tune of over N5 billion. The news agency reported that the central bank debited N2.4 billion ($7.9 million) in fines from Standard Chartered and N1.2 billion from Citigroup. Stanbic IBTC confirmed in a disclosure notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange that it had been debited. Following our earlier announcement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on 30 August, 2018, in respect of the penalty of N1.886bn imposed by the CBN on our banking subsidiary Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc (the bank) in relation to the remittance of foreign exchange on the basis of certain capital importation certificates issued to MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, we write to update the NSE that the CBN had debited the account of our banking subsidiary with the CBN for the full amount of the above stated fine advised to the bank, the bank stated. CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele used to illustrate the story. The bank, however, restated its position that it did nothing wrong, adding that the debit would not impact on its capacity to handle clients requests or clients ability to continue to carry out viable business transactions with either the bank or any member of the Stanbic IBTC Group. The bank said: Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc as well as our banking subsidiary maintains our position on this matter, which is the fact that the bank has done nothing illegal and accordingly the bank will continue to provide the CBN with documents and details in support of our contention that our actions in relation to these transactions were not illegal. It was unclear Thursday whether Diamond Bank had been debited and the bank made no such disclosure to the stock market. PREMIUM TIMES efforts to clarify the position from its spokesperson proved abortive Friday morning. MTN Nigeria Office Last week, apart from the fines imposed on the banks, the apex bank also directed MTN Nigeria Communications Limited to refund a sum of $8,134,312,397.63, which was said to have been illegally repatriated by the company. The back and forth of former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, over his political future came to an end Friday as he hosted All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, to put finishing touches to his official defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. Mr Shekarau received the two men at his residence at Mundubawa Avenue, Kano. He is expected to publicly declare his return to the ruling party on Saturday in Kano. Mr Shekaraus spokesperson, Yau Sule, had earlier on Tuesday disclosed in an interview with the BBC Hausa that the former governor was returning to the party he left for the PDP just before the 2015 general elections. But the following day, he refuted the claim of his spokesperson, saying he was still consulting with his supporters. However, on Friday, he ended the controversy by appearing with Messrs Oshiomhole and Ganduje in Kano to announce his defection. Among those present during the visit of the two APC leaders to Mr Shekaraus home were national officials and state leaders of the APC leaders from Kano, two senators from the state and members of the House of Representatives, state legislators and members of the state executive council. Speaking at the event, Mr Oshiomhole described the return of Mr Shekarau to the APC as a reunion of progressive politicians. In any union, it is real progressives that reunite when conservatives run away. In my estimation, you are above many many when it comes to progressive ideas in this country, the APC chairman said. You didnt participate in the formation of APC for yourself alone, you did participate for the development of the country of which we share similar thinking along that line. I am extremely happy to be here, visiting a long time comrade who also believes in the Nigeria project. I know your views on social policies and economic approach for the development of the country, Mr Oshiomhole added. This is the beginning of the reunion of progressive minds who believe in the development of our dear nation. We are here also to do more for the development of our country. Mr Ganduje said, We are here to reunite ourselves for the betterment of our nation, to reunite relationship between Shekarau and APC. This relationship has come to stay. Mr Ganduje said he and Mr Shekarau have many things in common. We are all bureaucrats. We have always been friends. I am the happiest person for Shekarau to be in the same political party with me. We all believe in the development of the country, the governor said. He said all other things between his government and the former governor would be sorted out. You are one of the founding members of this party, the APC. But we know you left the party because of some issues that were caused by some hypocritical minds around the former governor (Rabiu) Kwankwaso. On his part, Mr Shekarau thanked the leadership of APC for finding him worthy of such special treatment. I sincerely thank you Mr Chairman and the governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, for this friendly and political visit. I assure you that we will remain as one, he stated. Describing Mr Oshiomhole as a long-standing friend and comrade, Mr Shekarau said, It is history that is repeating itself here. I have a singular honour of being the chief midwife of the APC. Claiming a long-standing relationship with Mr Ganduje, he said Since when I left, I have good relationship with Governor Ganduje and his people. Due to my training and tradition, we dont look down on people with disdain. He assured that, his reunion with the APC would bring more meaningful development to the state and Nigeria at large. We share many things in common, like sincerity of purpose and morality in political activities, he said. Mr Shekarau was a founding member of the APC but left following the arrival of his successor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, in the party from the PDP. He was then appointed Minister of Education by former President Goodluck Jonathan. He is returning to the APC as a fall out of the defection of Mr Kwankwaso in July back to the PDP. Mr Shekarau is being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly fraud by receiving, alongside two others, N950 million campaign funds in the build up to the 2015 general election. Mr Shekarau is being prosecuted by the EFCC for alleged fraud by receiving, alongside two others, N950 million campaign funds in the build up to the 2015 general election. An invitation extended to Theophilus Danjuma by senior members of the United Kingdom Parliament to speak on the ongoing killings in central Nigeria has been postponed, organisers told PREMIUM TIMES Friday. Members of the British House of Lords, which is the upper house of that countrys parliament, invited Mr Danjuma, a former chief of army staff, to address them on September 5 on the violence that has claimed over 1,500 civilians this year alone. But two days since the date passed, there was no indication that it held or any information about why it failed to hold. A widely circulated announcement of the programme said Mr Danjuma would address the House of Lords on whether Nigeria faces an existential threat with the large-scale killings that have also seen hundreds of thousands villagers displaced across several states along the Benue River. Also invited to speak alongside Mr Danjuma was Ben Kwashi, the Anglican Archbishop of Jos, the capital of Plateau State where hundreds have been killed in attacks linked to herdsmen this year alone. They were invited by David Alton and Caroline Cox, both life peers from Liverpool and Queensbury, respectively. The event was postponed, which is why there have been no reports about it and no record of the event appears on the UK Parliament website, a spokesperson for Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which coordinated the event and circulated invitations, told PREMIUM TIMES in an e-mail Friday afternoon. The CSW said no new date has been determined after the postponement, adding that Mr Alton, as the UK official responsible for the event, would be best placed to answer any questions about when it is likely to take place. Mr Alton could not be reached for comments Friday night. Messages and telephone calls to Mr Danjuma were not immediately returned Friday night. Mr Danjumas botched appearance was to hold two days after 11 people were killed and a dozen wounded in an overnight attack on Plateau communities. A similar violence in another Plateau local government had killed several residents only four days earlier. The assaults on the communities underscore the protraction of the violence in central Nigeria, although overall killings have reduced in intensity across the region in recent weeks. Mr Danjuma, a one-time defence minister from Taraba State where hundreds have been killed by suspected herdsmen, is amongst the prominent senior citizens from the region who are becoming increasingly outraged by the violence. In March, he accused the Nigerian armed forces, especially the Nigerian Army and the police, of complicity in the deadly violence, warning residents across the lush plains of Benue River to arm themselves or risk being incrementally wiped off. The armed forces are not neutral, Mr. Danjuma said at the maiden convocation of the Taraba State University in Jalingo March 24. They collude with the armed bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians. The comments sent ripples through the countrys security circles, and also placed top officials of the Buhari administration on immediate defensive. The military said it took the allegations seriously, coming from a retired lieutenant general who hardly comments publicly on issues. The military, however, denied the allegations. The Nigerian Army promptly set up a panel, which it said comprised human rights advocates and own personnel, to probe the allegations. The panel absolved the military of conspiring to kill citizens as alleged by Mr Danjuma in a report submitted about two months later in May. In late June, the House of Lords held a session about the killings in Nigeria, with many lawmakers, including Mr Alton, alleging that the killings bored the markings of a coordinated effort to chase Christian residents from their ancestral communities across central Nigeria. Despite the herder militia taking more lives during 2015, 2016 and 2017 than Boko Haram, President Buhari, who belongs to the same ethnic group, has been accused of turning a blind eye, a member, Denis Tunnicliffe, said during a debate on the herdsmen crisis June 28. Beyond intermittent verbal condemnations, I cannot see much practical action that has been taken to end the violence, which has emboldened perpetrators even further, Mr Alton said in his contribution at the time. The Nigerian government did not respond to the scathing June 28 session at the House of Lords. But Mr Buhari has always insisted his security chiefs are capable, and his officials have said a large proportion of the crisis is being sponsored by opposition politicians. The military has also made similar claims, but no one under the administration has presented evidence in support. The president also strongly rejected allegations that he had been deliberately lenient about the herdsmen carnage, insisting that herdsmen are not known to carry sophisticated weapons and, even if they do, he should not be adjudged complicit in handling the crisis. Several measures, including creation of cattle ranches and dialogue conferences, had been taken by Mr Buharis government to curb the killings. Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris has scrapped the police Special Tactical Squad (STS), the Force Headquarters announced Friday, as the fallout over the raid on the home of Edwin Clark continues to claim casualties within the police. All personnel hitherto attached to the STS have now been collapsed into the polices investigation units at different departments and formations, according to an announcement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood. Mr Moshood, a deputy police commissioner, said the tactical operations and statutory core police duties that the dissolved Special Tactical Squad (STS) were charged with are now collapsed and will be carried out by other operational, investigative and response units. The disbandment, which takes immediate effect, comes three days after Mr Clarks home in the exquisite Asokoro neighbourhood was raided by police officers. The police said the officers did not secure appropriate clearance before proceeding on the raid, an approach which Mr Idris considered illegal and distanced himself from. Three of the four officers who participated in the controversial search were summarily sacked yesterday. The fourth officer, an assistant superintendent of police, has been suspended as investigation into his role is being thoroughly conducted, police said. Mr Idris also sent senior police officers, including a deputy inspector-general, to apologise to Mr Clark, an elder statesman perhaps more prominent for his Niger-Delta advocacy in recent years. Mr Clark, 91, said he had accepted the polices apology, but insisted nonetheless that the operation was sanctioned at the high-levels of police command chain, a claim the police continue to push back against. The STS, an elite investigation team crucial to the operations of the IGP Monitoring Team, is headed by a deputy police commissioner. A deputy superintendent of police coordinated administrative duties at the department. It was not immediately clear whether the two officers were amongst the four officers Mr Moshood said are currently facing disciplinary measures. President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday night returned to Abuja after attending the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. During the six-day visit to China, Mr Buhari held bilateral talks and witnessed the signing of some agreements between Nigeria and China in the areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the economy. He also participated in dialogue between Chinese and African leaders and business representatives. At the FOCAC meeting, Mr Buhari expressed the appreciation of ECOWAS member states for Chinas increasing investment in the sub-region with the aim of building a prosperous and shared future. He noted that China was the largest investor in the sub-region in both private and public sectors, covering areas, such as infrastructure development in energy, agriculture, mining and healthcare. According to him, China also provides significant assistance in emergency humanitarian aid and response to climate change for Africa. Mr Buhari at the FOCAC roundtable on Tuesday, attended by African leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Nigerias partnership with China through FOCAC had resulted in the execution of vital infrastructure projects worth over five billion dollars. Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, who was part of the presidents entourage to China, reported that Mr Buhari won Chinas support for Nigerias aspiration to build the 3050 Megawatts Mambilla hydro-power project. He said that Nigeria and China also signed the agreement of 328 million dollars 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 of China. (NAN) The Nigerian government in collaboration with human right groups has created an electronic platform to reach vulnerable people in need of legal assistance. The platform, www.probono.ng, was unveiled during a meeting of the organisers in Abuja, on Thursday. Speaking during the unveiling of the platform, the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, said the portal was created to connect lawyers with socially disadvantaged members of the society and reduce the challenges usually connected with rendering pro-bono services. The initiative of providing a pro-bono Clearing House is a unique opportunity that harnesses technology to minimise some of the challenges usually connected with rendering pro-bono services. The Clearing House Portal is a platform that seeks to connect lawyers, civil society organisations, government agencies and other relevant stakeholders to the indigent and socially disadvantaged in our society. By signing up to this initiative, stakeholders are able to offer their services and get connected to cases that align with their expertise and interest, regardless of their location. The portal, which categorises various groups of people in need of legal assistance, was created to focus on major groups, including victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual harassment, disinheritance of widows and orphans, disinheritance by reason of gender, rape, unfair dismissal, commercial cases (involving oppression of indigent persons, such as petty traders on matters such as unlawful taxation), among others. Mr Apata said the portal is an addition to governments effort towards decongesting prisons through assistance from the Legal Aid Council. Another of such initiatives is the Prison Decongestion and Reform programme, which as part of its mandate, deals with the issues of awaiting trial inmates in prison facilities across the federation. Statistics indicate that a disproportionate percentage of inmates in Nigerian prisons are awaiting trial inmates largely because they cannot afford legal representation. As part of the initiative, government through the Office of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation farmed out cases to private practitioners and external solicitors to provide legal representation to verified indigent inmates in various prison facilities. This aspect of the initiative is currently being run through the Legal Aid Council. Moreover, as part of the prison decongestion programme, government and other key stakeholders provided funds to pay off the fines of indigent inmates who were languishing in prison because they could not afford to pay the fines, some of which were for amounts less than five thousand naira. Also speaking at the event, Vice President Yemi Osinbajos adviser on rule of law, Akingbolahan Adeniran, said the platform will also include specialists who will help in carrying out forensic examination of cases to ensure adequate investigation, before prosecution. The specialists will conduct such forensic examination so that you can always tell in an alleged rape case for example; that the act did happen. We are collaborating with developmental partners to ensure that this becomes a success, both local and international. The programme was jointly organised by the ministry of justice in collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Organisation and the Justice Research Institute. The federal government has appealed to Nigerians in the diaspora to return home and help build the Nigeria of everybodys dream, assuring them that things are changing in the country. The Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, made the appeal at a series of Town halls with Nigerians in the U.S., assuring that old ways are now giving way to new ways of doing things. The minister was in the U.S. to sensitise diaspora Nigerians on the Presidential Executive Order V signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in February, to improve local content in public procurement with science, engineering and technology components. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Order is expected to promote the application of science, technology and innovation towards achieving Nigerias development goals across all sectors of her economy. The president, in line with his constitutional powers, ordered that all procuring authorities shall give preference to Nigerian companies and firms in the award of contracts, in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007. Mr Onu thanked the diasporas for their remittances to Nigeria estimated at $22 billion yearly, saying it is a major contribution for our nation but we want you to return home. The minister said: Please we want you to return home, it is important. Not everybody will return but some can start coming home, and thats the essence. We are telling you that things are changing in Nigeria, this is the message, thats why Im here. I heard all the complaints people will do this and nobody responds and all that and so on; yes, these are things that happened in the past and we cant correct these things just overnight. This is the truth, there is no way you can make these changes and then make the corrections and all that overnight. But the important thing is that there is a change. Mr Onu appealed to the diasporas to make a patriotic decisions about their country, saying we cant all be waiting until everything is okay in Nigeria before we can return home According to him, there are many Bill Gates in Nigeria, adding, we need to give you the opportunities and we are giving these opportunities. If there were pioneers that built America, there must be pioneers to build Nigeria. Please I beg you, let us not wait until everything is ready. Somebody has to get it ready. If we keep waiting until everything is ready, it may never be. We must decide that we have to look at the future of our children and grand children. Lets not look about ourselves. So we have to think of the future, we have to think of the greatness of our nation. He said Nigeria had never had it like this before about the level of infrastructure development that was going on in our country, stressing that the country is having changes across board. Things are changing in our country, and if all of us can walk together, if we can do that, then we can now build a great nation that all of us would be proud of. This is the message and I believe that this is also your intentions that our nation will be a great nation. Please, you should never have any doubt about the future of our country. We have some of the most intelligent people in the world. I can tell you this because I know those Nigerians who have done so well in the best universities, in the best research centres in the world. According to him, the executive order will make money for Nigeria and Nigerians, create jobs for the citizens, fight poverty and increase the middle class in the nation. In their responses, the Nigerians in the U.S. assured the federal government of their eagerness to return home and use their expertise to help build a Nigeria of everybodys dream if there is enabling environment. They expressed concerns that they had always looked forward to contribute their quota to their homeland but expressed regrets at some of the frustrations they had always encountered. Many U.S.-based Nigerians drawn from all over the U.S., attended the town halls at Washington DC, New York, Virginia and Miami venues, where presentations were made about the presidential directives. Emmanuel Anosike, President, American-Nigerian Chamber for International Trade and Commerce, bemoaned what he called the bureaucratic bottlenecks in Nigeria when the diasporas had projects in the country. Mr Anosike said: When the Kaduna refinery broke down, I brought the engineers who built the refinery to Nigeria severally to revamp it but we were not able to make any headway. I have been to Nigeria 37 times with projects and investors but I have been frustrated all the 37 times. Its just very sad that you leave here with the best intentions and youre frustrated. Jolly Abu, President, Nigerian United Nations Staff Recreation Club, urged the minister to create a platform for the diasporas who have something to contribute to the country. When you leave now, to have access to you will be very difficult. Weve been in Nigeria several times but to gain access to the minister becomes a problem. Several times we spend months and we go back the same. If you can create a platform where the diasporas can access the platform so easily, it would be good. This order of the president, Ive gone through it several times, there should be a provision for people in the diaspora; if you are bringing an expert from the U.S., you must have a company at home. The people coming from diaspora, when they want to register a company at home, it becomes a problem. So if you can create a platform where diasporas can easily have access and tracking. Temitope Ajayi, the Chairman, Silicon Valley Nigerian Economic Development, called on the Nigerian Government to put measures in place for strong patent law to protect patent owners. Its sad that you could give Nigerian public officials your blueprint and they carbon-copy it and remove your name. The owner is the originality, who knows the clue of how to solve the problem. Every proposal is a puzzle, if you look at it from the surface angle, there are some clauses that only the person that has the business proposal that can implement it, she said. Ms Ajayi also said for the executive order to succeed, government at all levels must put round pegs in round holes adding, when politicians are appointed, competent people should be given sensitive portfolios. Kazeem Bello, Board Member of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), advised government to step down the implementation of the order trough the Public-Private-Partnership arrangement due to the perceived bureaucracies of the public sector. Mr Bello said: Government should implement the order by setting institutional and enabling environment for the private sector to work under Privately Owned and Operated Project that is completely private sector driven. The federal government should also consider including some slots for disapora Nigerians like NIDO members in the Governing Council to allow for an effective representation from the Nigerian professionals in the diaspora. Other Nigerians who spoke at the town halls also called on the governments at all levels in Nigeria to operate open governance and tackle the endemic corruption. (NAN) Nigerians living around Mpape neighbourhood and other residential areas in Abuja should not be apprehensive about their safety, Nigerian Geological Survey Agency has said. Alex Nwegbu, the director-general of the agency, said at a press briefing Friday afternoon that the tremors that Abuja residents experienced since Wednesday are not significant enough to be worried about, much less considering relocating. There is absolutely no cause for alarm, Mr Nwegbu said. When tremor occurs, people may temporarily leave their homes, but should return shortly after it ends. The official also said the agency was working to install newly purchased equipment to monitor seismic activities across the country. Residents in Mpape, a suburb of Abuja, as well as Maitama, Gwarinpa, Utako have reported experiencing the tremors. He added that his agency has not been able to establish the cause of the latest tremors in Abuja, but that its officials are currently on the field investigating all immediately and remote causes. We are also partnering with foreign organisations with advanced technical capabilities to help us understand what happened, Mr Nwegbu said. The United States Geological Survey and similar authorities in France, China and other counties are amongst those providing assistance, he said. Mr Nwegbu emphasised that there can not be an earthquake in Nigeria based on scientific information available to experts, saying the country is not situated in regions susceptible to earthquake or where earthquake could be expected to occur occasionally. A similar tremor was felt in 1984 in Ijeno-Ode, southwest Nigeria, and the latest recorded incident occurred in Kaduna State a few years ago, Mr Nwegbu said. Mr Nwegbu encouraged residents who have concerns or observations about tremors to reach the agency on the following lines: 08035956056 08023154825 08037000623. The mammoth or mastodon bone fragment found back in July by utility workers was donated to the Cape Coral Historical Society & Museum Thursday morning. Though the fossil was not a funny bone, it sure did bring a lot of smiles to the faces of those in attendance. I have been excited since I got the call about it, said Wendy Schroder, president of the Cape Coral Historical Society & Museum. Look at all the people that are here that probably didnt know about Cape Coral, but the fossil brought them in. Its doing mammoth things for us, she added with a smile. Mayor Joe Coviello and City Manager John Szerlag unveiled the fossil, enclosed in a clear case, with a dedication from the two to the museum. Coviello thanked the Utility Extensions Project workers that realized what they had stumbled upon. Szerlag spoke on how amazing it was that this artifact most likely pre-dated human existence in Florida, and how he believed that the Historical Society & Museum was the perfect home for the bone. For us to be able to donate it to our local historical museum-I think is the only place that it should be, said Coviello. Im only wondering how many of these things were not found, but were there, when they dug up all these canals when building our city. Anything that we can do to promote our city, and have things available for our residents to see, is a good thing for us, he added. The fossil is currently in the main lobby of the museum, in the previously mentioned case, surrounded by information about mammoths and mastodons. The report on the bone fragment, compiled by the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, Inc. is also available to read. The report breaks down where the fossil was found, the time period they suspect it came from, how far underground they found it and a skeleton of a mammoth pointing out where on the prehistoric creature the bone came from. The museum is currently deciding on a permanent home in its facility to let the fossil rest for thousands of years to come. Its so old, but just think of hundreds of years from now. If we preserve it correctly, and it lasts that long, people are going to come and say, Oh this is what was here! I think thats going to be good for the future, said Schroder. North Fort Myers High School student and Cape Coral resident Marissa Logsdon came up with a T-shirt design for the museum depicting a mastodon and wooly mammoth. She loves to help out at the museum and frequently volunteers her time there, so when staff approached her about a design, she jumped at the chance. I really wanted to show the differences between the two, she said of her design featuring both trunked mammals. Because were not sure if this fossil bone is one or the other. And a lot of people think theyre the same thing, but theyre not the same thing. Logsdons T-shirts are available for purchase only at the museum. Prices are $18 for adults and $15 for children. Schroder hopes that this addition to the museum will encourage residents to come out and learn more about the amazing find and the city. I would love for people to come and learn the history, not only about the fossil, but to come and learn about everything we have here, she said. You can learn all about the history of our city as you walk around and you look at the photographs and artifacts, said Coviello. This is just one item that goes along with whats here for people to see The museum is open Wed-Fri from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is $5. Cape Coral Historical Society & Museum is at 544 Cultural Park Boulevard. Visit www.capecoralhistoricalmuseum.org or call 239-772-7073 for more information. Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj Former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, on Friday said he joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to run for the office of president in the 2019 election because his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had unconstitutionally zoned political offices. In a series of tweets, Mr Duke, who submitted his nomination form at the SDP secretariat on Friday, said his decision came after deep reflection and candid assessment of the Nigerian polity. Condemning zoning of political offices, Mr Duke said it remained unconstitutional, as it limits the choices we have as a country to a section of the country. As rational as they may see it, it remains unconstitutional and there are not enough strong voices out there speaking up objectively. Besides, democracy is all about choice, how then do we limit the choices we have to some section of the country or the other? Can we under such aegis obtain the best? Nigeria can only be whole when the sum total of its parts are able to contest freely and at will for the highest office in the land, Mr Duke tweeted. In addition, Mr Duke disagreed with those who say that only two political parties have the physical presence nationwide to win the presidency in a general election. He said he hopes his participation would enrich the playing field and offer Nigerians wider options. Some folks have espoused that only two parties have the physical presence nationwide to win the presidency in a general election. I disagree. Our fate as Nigerians should not be determined by two underperforming platforms, but rather by we ourselves. By joining the race on the platform of the SDP, I hope my participation enriches the playing field and offers Nigerians a wider berth of options other than a zero some playing field of either the APC or the PDP, Mr Duke said. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has vowed to tackle vote buying in the upcoming Osun State Election. The Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Friday at INECs consultative meeting with political parties at the National University Commission (NUC) auditorium. The Osun governorship election is scheduled for September 22 with 48 political parties presenting candidates. This number of parties, Mr Yakubu said, is the highest number so far for any election in Nigeria. However, INEC promised to do all within its powers to end the phenomenon of vote buying, saying it is working with security agencies in this direction. Mr Yakubu called for the cooperation of political parties who he said have a part to play as the vote buyers are their candidates. We are looking forward to the Osun State governorship election to make a very definite statement on vote buying. Right now, we are working with security agencies to arrest and also prosecute and also make public show of how not to behave in a democracy. So when the time comes, dont say you were not forewarned. The commission said it has been doing everything to improve on the processes and the transparency of the electoral process such that everyone in the country now knows that votes count. He said this is probably the reason why candidates and parties now resort to vote buying, but stressed that this must be tackled as this practice cannot be allowed into the 2019 general elections. We cant carry this menace into the 2019 general elections and Osun is going to be the laboratory for us to test all the processes that we intend to introduce to address this menace of vote buying. We are witnessing a trend in most recent elections, and that is the menace of vote buying. And to be very frank, the vote buyers are your own candidates and actors because these are the people looking for votes. These vote buyers, Mr Mahmood said are giving the nations democracy a very bad name and this cannot be condoned. Our democracy, I keep saying this, cannot be available for sale in the open market on the election day. There is a difference between democracy and plutocracy, which is the government of the rich that only those who have money can win election. The commission which hosted the 91 new political parties also addressed the issues of primaries and how parties produce candidates. He said the new trend where parties do not conduct primaries and just bring up a candidates or conduct primaries and before the names get to the headquarters in Abuja from the state capital, the name of the candidate who won the primary is changed, will no longer be tolerated. Mr Mahmood said though the commission by law cannot reject the names of candidates, where it knows there had been a substitution from the original candidate or proper primaries were not conducted, it will name and shame any party involved in such. He therefore urged that there should be communication between the parties and INEC if the need for substituting candidates arises or primaries cannot be conducted. I think we must deal with consensus if we want to grow our democracy. When this kind of things happens going forward, even though INEC has no power to reject under the law, we are going to name and shame. We will no longer keep quiet. The chairman pointed out that there are circumstances under which political parties can substitute, such as from appeal. Its legal. If someone is aggrieved, you set up a committee within your party and you address grievances and replace the names of candidates and also officially by writing to the commission. In conclusion, he said credible elections are determined by credible primaries which is why the commission needs the cooperation of the parties to commit to the timetable and ensure transparent process/procedures for their primaries and nominations. Jubilant market women in Enugu State on Friday converged on the Government House, Enugu to express their firm support for the re-election of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in 2019 for entrenching peace and good governance in the state, and assisting traders in the state grow their businesses. The traders, who described Mr Ugwuanyi as the most trader-friendly governor, disclosed that we have never had it so good like this since the inception of civilian regime in 1999. The women added that Mr Ugwuanyi was the only governor of the state, who came on board and remembered the welfare of the traders, stressing that they are supporting his re-election because he cares for them and the masses. Presenting their stance, the states Market Woman Leader, Esther Edeh, appreciated the governor for the Enugu State Traders Empowerment Scheme his administration launched in 2017 to assist genuine traders who win the monthly open raffle draw of N50,000 each to grow their various businesses, irrespective of state of origin, religion or ethnicity. She noted the women have benefited immensely from the empowerment programme, expressing delight with the governors passion for the wellbeing of the traders, saying: Every day what he is thinking is what he can do for market traders in Enugu State. The excited market women, comprising representatives of all the markets in the state, therefore, unanimously endorsed Mr Ugwuanyi for a second term in office, declaring that the only thing we can give him is our vote our united vote goes to you, Gburugburu. Ms Edeh maintained that the market women in Enugu State have resolved to work for Mr Ugwuanyis re-election in 2019 because he is our messiah, a God-sent leader, the only and true governor, who knows where it pinches the traders and the poor masses. Her words: Daddy, the reason why we are here is to thank you and also tell you that whatever you want in Enugu State as it concerns traders, we will give it to you double. We have come to say to you that this Lion Building there is no vacancy, come 2019. We have to establish that God loves women more than anything he created on Earth. He said that anything we ask of him that He will do it. Others have been praying and endorsing you, but we are women who have gone through nine months of pregnancy and given birth. What we have come here to say today is that God said that we should go and say it and so shall it be in Jesus Name, Amen. You dont have problem. You are not dragging the governorship election with anybody come 2019. We say that it is well with you. Responding, Mr Ugwuanyi thanked the women for their support, solidarity and prayers, assuring them of his resolve to continue to serve the people of the state with the fear of God and to improve their living standard. Activities were grounded in parts of the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday as commercial tricycle drivers protested alleged attack by members of a Joint Task Force. About 50 tricycles were damaged in the melee caused by the so-called Keke Napep drivers. The joint task force comprises the police, civil defence, road safety and the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO), with the last at the heart of the complaints by motorists. The protest, which started from Life Camp Junction in Abuja spread to Jabi Motor Park, Airport Junction and Karmo. It left many commuters stranded for hours in the affected areas. The tricycle drivers blocked traffic, pushed down police checkpoints and set tyres ablaze around Jabi in the Nigerian capital. Several eye-witnesses confirmed that the protest started after officials of the VIO and the task force arrived Life Camp Junction around 12:00 noon and started shooting during which they allegedly damaged several tricycles at the junction. They just came with their Hilux vans and started shooting and when we started running they began to damage our Keke Napep, a protester said. PREMIUM TIMES observed that windscreens and several parts of almost 50 tricycles were damaged. A protester who was hit by a stray bullet in the leg was still in pains. According to witnesses, some tricycle drivers were arrested in the heat of the face-off. Many owners of the damaged tricycles also alleged that officials of the VIO made away with cash inside the pigeon holes of their vehicles. Just take a look at what they did, they damaged every part of my keke, broke my pigeon hole and took all the money inside, a protester narrated as he showed our reporter the burgled pigeon hole of his damaged tricycle. We did not do anything to them, they just came and started attacking us. Uche Umeoha, the secretary of the Keke Napep association, said the riot was a result of accumulated anger. We have been cheated overtime. Many times, when a keke driver wants to drop a passenger at a certain checkpoint, he will be crossed by these VIO officials. They will not even come with their official uniform so you will not know its them. Almost 50 tricycles damaged as Protesting Keke Napep Drivers Ground activities in parts of Abuja Almost 50 tricycles damaged as Protesting Keke Napep Drivers Ground activities in parts of Abuja They will take you to their office in Wuye and collect about N8,000 and this happens almost everyday. Today, they came to Life Camp where we are authorised to run and started arresting people as usual and also damaged many Keke Napep without any reason or provocation and that was why we started rioting. They should just let us be, we are running our business legitimately in authorised areas. We pay our daily dues. By 3:00 p.m. many of the blocked roads had been cleared as armed police officers were seen trying to calm the situation. Officials of the VIO and other members of the task force could not be immediately reached as they had vacated the scene of the protests. Police officers at the scene refused to comment on the incident. The Director of VIO in Abuja, Bodinga Wadata, could not be reached on phone. He is yet to respond to text messages sent to him. The agencys spokesperson, Kalu Emetu, also did not pick repeated calls or respond to text messages as at press time. Cosmas Uzodinma, a Public Relations Officer of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), said he was aware of the development but could not immediately give details. VIO: Nightmare For Commercial Motorists Apart from Thursdays incident, several other commercial motorists including taxi drivers have in the past complained about the activities of the VIO and other members of the task force. Almost 50 tricycles damaged as Protesting Keke Napep Drivers Ground activities in parts of Abuja Almost 50 tricycles damaged as Protesting Keke Napep Drivers Ground activities in parts of Abuja Almost 50 tricycles damaged as Protesting Keke Napep Drivers Ground activities in parts of Abuja The complaints ranged from alleged extortion, illegal arrests, maltreatment and fatalities in some instances. Despite these complaints, Mr Bodinga absolved the VIO of any wrongdoing. He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja last May while acting as the agencys director that cash payment through its officials had been stopped. Mr. Bodinga explained that all payments, including vehicle registration, renewal of papers and traffic offences, were now done through the banks. The issue of money exchanging hands between our officers and members of the public is what is actually new to me because we have completely eliminated hand payment. But last November, activities in many parts of Abuja including Wuse Market, the largest in the Nigerian capital, were grounded as a result of protests by taxi drivers over extortion and maltreatment by the task force. Several protesters and witnesses confirmed then that the protest started after the driver of a painted taxi was shot by a task force in the market. Drivers alleged that the VIO officials often laid siege at various points in the city in an attempt to arrest vehicles thereby causing accident. They said some of the officers were in the habit of extorting money from motorists, adding that such conduct negated the ethics of VIO and must be stopped. Leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Cross River State on Thursday adopted the direct primaries option for the election of its flag bearers for various positions in next years general elections. Five governorship aspirants including Paul Adah, Venatius Ikem, Emmanuel Robson, Edem Duke and Ogban Ebock were present at the meeting which was presided over by the state chairman, Matthew Achigbe and attended by some members of the State Executive Committee (SEC), among others. Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly aspirants also attended the meeting. As soon as the state chairman, Matthew Achigbe, introduced the meeting agenda as being the issue of mode of primaries to adopt, the leaders started deliberations. Mr Adah who led the deliberations, swiftly moved a motion for the adoption of direct primaries, an option which David Okon, as a seconder, described as the best that the state may wish to accept from the national echelon of the party. Mr Achigbe had hit the gavel to affirm the resolve of the leaders when a motion to the effect that those who support the idea should indicate, received an overwhelming applause as against naysaying. Others leaders who spoke on the issue affirmed that the direct primary option will expand the reach of the party into the hinterlands were the electorates would further appreciate it. On the ongoing membership registration, the chairman said interested persons wishing to join the party can register online or manually. He saluted the efforts of some aspirants who have not only mobilised the new entrants but have equally made copies of the forms available. Mr Achigbe however assured that the exercise cannot be hijacked to the advantage of one against the collective interest of the party. He maintained that at the end of the exercise, there will be thorough scrutiny of the outcome to make sure that all grey areas noticed during the exercise will be addressed for an articulate party register. In related development, the state caucus of the party is billed for inauguration on Saturday at the Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar at 4pm. State secretary of the party, Victor Ebong, who harped on the issue, said the inauguration is in fulfilment of relevant provisions of the party constitution, adding that the caucus was necessary to point to a definite direction that guarantees elections victory for the party in next years elections. A former governor and member of the national caucus of the party, Clement Ebri, former and present national and state assembly members and some state and national officers of the party will be among those to be inaugurated on Saturday. The National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olu Falae, and the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, have tipped the partys candidate, Iyiola Omisore, to win the September 22 governorship election. They also described him as the most promising of all the candidates, saying he would provide the needed leadership in the governing of Osun State. Mr Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, while addressing a rally of the party on Thursday in Osogbo ahead of the election, said Mr Omisore possessed the qualities to lead the state effectively. He also used the rally to present the partys flag to the candidate and his deputy, Azeez Lawal. According to Mr Falae, Mr Omisore is the most experienced of all the candidates, having formerly served as a deputy governor in the state, and as chairman of the appropriation committee in the Senate. The SDP helmsman also charged the people to be vigilant and thumb print the slot showing a horse on the ballot sheet which is SDPs symbol. He added that, SDP is a party set out to represent the Yoruba interest. The rally which held at the Freedom Park, Osogbo, was attended by leaders of Afenifere, with its leader, Rueben Fasoranti, represented by its general secretary, Seinde Arogbofa. Mr Arogbofa said the Yoruba leaders support Mr Omisores ambition, and urged Osun people to vote for him. It is now the time to free Osun people from many years of suffering caused by the mismanagement of human and capital resources by Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led All progressives Congress (APC) government in Osun State, said Mr Omisore, as he addressed the huge crowd of supporters. He said the cause of the huge debt and non payment of salaries and pensioners arrears was because of corruption and mismanagement of funds. He assured that the SDP government would resolve all the the crisis the ruling APC had caused in the state. It is less than N7 billion to pay outstanding salaries and pensioners arrears, but information reaching us confirmed that the government has spent N4.3 billion on erection of campaign billboards and printing of posters. If the money had been well spent, the state will not be at the level it is today, Mr Omisore said. Barely 16 days to the Osun State governorship election scheduled to hold on September 22, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had its mega rally at the Osogbo Stadium on Thursday. Major stakeholders of the party such as the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole; a national leader, Bola Tinubu; Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje; Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi; and House of Representatives Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila were present at the rally. Others present include Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun; Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu; Ekiti State governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi and outgoing Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola amongst others. While addressing the crowd, Mr. Tinubu said the opponents calling them ajele (emmissaries) need to be psychologically examined. He said living in Lagos does not mean the party governorship candidate, Gboyega Oyetola is not from Osun as tagged by opponents. We all pray to amass wealth so that we can successfully go back home to better the lives of our people. Oyetola and other people who are called Ajele have done just this. They were born in this state before moving to Lagos and just because they made it over there, they are no longer for Osun? Thats why I call those calling us emmissaries need their brain reexamined. They are dunce and nitwit, he said. He also said Mr. Oyetola was selected out of many aspirants for his roles towards the development of the state. Mr. Oshiomhole also told the crowd not to forget the sufferness they went through during the reign of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. APC leaders kick off campaign in Osun state ahead of the gubernatorial elections. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official twitter handle of Orji Uzor Kalu] APC leaders kick off campaign in Osun state ahead of the gubernatorial elections. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official twitter handle of Orji Uzor Kalu] APC leaders kick off campaign in Osun state ahead of the gubernatorial elections. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official twitter handle of Orji Uzor Kalu] FILE: APC leaders kick off campaign in Osun state ahead of the gubernatorial elections. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official twitter handle of Orji Uzor Kalu] Sometimes people forget what they have been through. Some eight years ago, the state was going through hell before APC came on board to to change the trend, he said. 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. To the editor: Some real facts: There has been a Republican federal Congress for eight years. There has been a Republican Florida Legislature for eight years and a Republican governor for eight years. Then why is Gov. Rick Scott blaming a Democrat, Bill Nelson, for the dike not being repaired and the algae bloom? Huh? I just dont get the reasoning here. Didnt Scott and the Legislature cut the funding to have the water diverted south and deregulate agriculture run off and septic tank regulations? Isnt that the cause of the toxic blooms causing health problems for people and killing marine life? As a nurse Im appalled by this entire situation. Is this alternate news? Alice Mack, R.N., BSN. former Air Force nurse, Captain. Fort Myers Beach At a ceremony held today at Morristown Medical Center, members of the university and the health system gathered to mark the culmination of the academic alliance and to celebrate the inaugural class of medical students as they begin the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC), a special model of medical education that reinforces continuity of care and patient-centered treatment. "The partnership of Atlantic Health System and Jefferson that enables the foundation of our LIC represents a bold commitment to excellence in medical education by both institutions," said Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, President, Thomas Jefferson University and CEO, Jefferson Health. "It is the expression of a vision of the ideal physician, prepared to provide the best possible patient care in the 21st century." "Today is all about our students, who are truly pioneers in medical education," said Brian Gragnolati, President and CEO of Atlantic Health System. "Their desire to learn and engage with patients in innovative ways will enable us to create the future of care we all envision one that puts the patient at the center of a true network of personalized, accessible and affordable care designed for a lifetime of health and wellness." The regional campus is among the recent strategic partnerships by Atlantic to strengthen its position as the premier provider of high-quality health care in New Jersey, as well as an important step in Jefferson's growing presence in New Jersey, following meteoric growth throughout eastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey. In 2015, SKMC entered into an agreement with Atlantic Health System to establish the campus, the first site at which SKMC is establishing an LIC. The regional campus's inaugural class of six students, all in their third year of training, recently completed inpatient rotations throughout Morristown and Overlook. They will now begin the innovative LIC curriculum, following selected patients through the full health care continuum of Atlantic Health System's network of care in many cases, from patients' primary care doctors to specialists, both in the traditional hospital setting and out to providers in community settings. Both organizations believe that the innovative LIC model for medical education and training reflects how medicine has become less reliant on care within the hospital walls. SKMC chose to pilot the LIC model at Atlantic Health System due to the organization's robust continuum of care a system comprised of more than 400 sites of care including the network of more than 2,500 community-based health care providers in the Atlantic Alliance, and the high-level of care offered at its six hospitals. For Aisha Golaub, one of the six LIC students, continuity was a big factor in choosing a third-year program. The Wayne, NJ, native noted that the inpatient rotations had already allowed her to witness patients' progression through multiple stages of their care, an experience that is not traditionally found in medical education. "It was almost magical to see these fields converge and it felt like a sign that this year would be truly different than the traditional third year experience," Golaub said. "Third-year is when you are trying to decide just what kind of medicine you want to practice, so the early exposure that the SKMC regional campus at Atlantic Health System offers to the variety of health care specialties is already proving to be invaluable." Students can choose to return to the regional campus for their fourth year of training. Earlier this year, SKMC and Atlantic Health System appointed vascular surgeon and medical educator James Alexander, MD, as associate dean for the regional medical school campus. Prior to joining Jefferson and Atlantic Health System, Dr. Alexander was the vice chairman for education in the Department of Surgery at Cooper Medical School, as well as professor of surgery. At Cooper, Alexander piloted a third-year longitudinal integrated clerkship for the school, established in 2012. About Atlantic Health System Atlantic Health System, headquartered in Morristown, N.J., is an integrated health care delivery system powered by a workforce of more than 16,500 team members and 4,800 affiliated physicians dedicated to building healthier communities. The system serves a population of 5 million, with more than 400 sites of care, including six hospitals: Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center, Newton Medical Center, Chilton Medical Center, Hackettstown Medical Center and Goryeb Children's Hospital. Atlantic Health System provides care for the full continuum of health care needs including 11 urgent care centers, Atlantic Rehabilitation and Atlantic Home Care and Hospice. Facilitating the connection between these services on both land and air is the transportation fleet of Atlantic Mobile Health. In addition to the employed workforce, Atlantic Alliance, a Clinically Integrated Network represents more than 2,500 health care providers throughout northern and central NJ. Atlantic Health System leads the Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a partnership of 6 regional hospitals and health systems dedicated to improving access and affordability and is a founding member of both the PIER Consortium Partners in Innovation, Education, and Research a streamlined clinical trial system that will expand access to groundbreaking research across 6 health systems in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and AllSpire Health Partners, a consortium of 5 leading health care organizations dedicated to serving patients, families and communities in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania. About Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) is a leader in interdisciplinary, professional education. Jefferson, home of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, is a preeminent university delivering high-impact education in 160 undergraduate and graduate programs to 7,800 students in architecture, business, design, engineering, fashion, health, medicine, social sciences and textiles. The new Jefferson is re-defining the higher education value proposition with an approach that is collaborative and active; increasingly global; integrated with industry; focused on research across disciplines to foster innovation and discovery; and technology-enhanced. Student-athletes compete as the Jefferson Rams in the NCAA Division II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. SOURCE Atlantic Health System Related Links http://www.atlantichealth.org EMERYVILLE, Calif., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- What are micro-credentials? Micro-credentials are certificates and badges that identify specific skills and competencies. With the national $1.52 trillion student loan debt crisis looming over America, micro-credentials are seen by some as a way to certify soft and technical skills without adding to the cost, and debt, of a four-year degree. Many universities and online learning platforms are offering these certifications. American Financial Benefits Center (AFBC), a document preparation company that assists with federal student loan repayment program applications and recertifications, encourages borrowers to seek educational opportunities that can give them more marketable skills without increasing student loan debt. "Many student loan borrowers need to update their skills, or just get acknowledgment for the training and experiences that they already possess," said Sara Molina, Manager at AFBC. "Though it is impossible to tell if micro-credentials will be valued by employers, we encourage our clients to face their student loan debt, find a manageable solution such as an income-driven repayment plan, then hopefully pursue the career they have always wanted." One way micro-credentials work is for online learning platforms to award them to employees to document the skills that they possess and the training they have undergone. Employers utilize micro-credentials as a means to assess the specific skills an employee has. Micro-credentials allow employers to better understand areas where employees can excel and where they will need more training. Employees can use micro-credentials as a way to build their resume if they want to advance within an organization or move to another company. Another way that micro-credentials work is within the traditional college system, by certifying skill sets learned in a class, rather than just the normal letter grade at the end of each class. The goal, for employers, is to be able to more closely scrutinize a prospective or current employee's attainment of soft or technical skills for more efficient hiring and placement. For learners, micro-credentials are portable, meaning they stay with them from employer to employer, and can be leveraged for wage and career advancement in the workplace. Proponents say that micro-credentials can be quantified, giving learners a more efficient tool to understand which micro-credentials are most valued in the workplace. With millions of Americans owing trillions of dollars of debt, it is crucial for learning institutions to provide more affordable marketable certifications for students and employees. Detractors say that the system may be difficult to monitor and that there is no way to ensure that micro-credentials will add value to a resume. It is difficult to say if micro-credentials can help borrowers facing the realities of life after higher education. For student loan borrowers, career pursuits often result in accepting low-paying or entry-level jobs. Such borrowers may have trouble affording their costs of living and the costs of student loan repayments. Alternative plans, such as IDRs, may help a borrower obtain more flexibility to pursue life and career goals. IDRs reduce a qualifying borrower's payments to 10 to 15 percent of their discretionary monthly income based on income and family size allowed to be as low as $0. IDR programs are also eligible for federal loan forgiveness after 20 to 25 years of enrollment in the program. "Micro-credentials may or may not help those overwhelmed by student loan debt, but IDRs might allow borrowers the chance to get their payments together," said Molina. "If monthly payments are lowered, borrowers can hopefully more easily repay their debt, and hopefully pursue the career opportunities they always dreamed of." About American Financial Benefits Center American Financial Benefits Center is a document preparation company that helps clients apply for federal student loan repayment plans that fit their personal financial and student loan situation. Through its strict customer service guidelines, the company strives for the highest levels of honesty and integrity. Each AFBC telephone representative has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA). American Financial Benefits Center Newsroom Contact To learn more about American Financial Benefits Center, please contact: American Financial Benefits Center 1900 Powell Street #600 Emeryville, CA 94608 1-800-488-1490 [email protected] Related Images micro-credentials.jpg Micro-Credentials Credit: abscent/Bigstock image2.png SOURCE American Financial Benefits Center Related Links https://afbcenter.com/ CLEVELAND, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bernstein Private Wealth Management ("Bernstein"), a unit of AllianceBernstein L.P. ("AB"), today announced that Kara H. Lewis has been promoted to Director to lead its private wealth practice based in Cleveland, Ohio. In this role, Kara will be responsible for overseeing the client service, management and strategic growth of Bernstein's business in the region. She succeeds Shane McRann Bigelow, who departs after more than a decade with the firm and will become Chief Executive Officer of Ownum, a blockchain company funded by Cleveland-based entrepreneur and industry visionary, Bernie Moreno. "Kara is a seasoned executive with two decades of distinct experience servicing institutional and high net worth clients and exactly the right person to lead our business in Ohio and build on our recent success. She is taking over after nearly five years of exceptional growth, and we are confident she will take us to even greater heights," said David Barnard, Head of Bernstein. "We also congratulate Shane for the new role at Ownum, and thank him for his 13 years at the firm and long list of accomplishments serving our clients. We wish him continued success." A native of Ohio, Kara previously served as Vice President in the Cleveland office with responsibility for building out Bernstein's business in Central Ohio. Prior to joining Bernstein in 2015, she was President of Winslow Asset Management. Kara earned a BA in economics from Denison University. She is also an active member of the local community, and serves on the boards of the Akron Children's Hospital and Flying Horse Farms. About Bernstein Founded more than 50 years ago in New York and with a 40-year history in Ohio, Bernstein Private Wealth Management, a unit of AllianceBernstein L.P. (AB), provides investment planning advice and services to individuals, families, endowments, foundations and other financial guardians, so that they can reach their long-term investment objectives. Our global research enables us to customize a portfolio that suits any type of investment goal, income need, tax situation or tolerance for risk. And we use proprietary, centrally managed investment strategies that ensure every client receives the firm's best thinking on opportunities and risk control. The firm ranks among the top 17 wealth management firms in the U.S.* and manages approximately $95 billion in assets as of June 30, 2018. For more information, visit www.bernstein.com. *Barron's 2017 Top 40 Wealth Management Firms Annual Ranking About AllianceBernstein AllianceBernstein is a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals and private wealth clients in major world markets. In May 2017, AXA S.A. ("AXA") announced its intention to pursue the sale of a minority stake in AXA Equitable Holdings, Inc. ("EQH") (NYSE: EQH) through an initial public offering (the "IPO"). On May 14, 2018, EQH completed the IPO and AXA now owns approximately 71.9% of the outstanding common stock of EQH. As of June 30, 2018, including both the general partnership and limited partnership interests in AllianceBernstein, AllianceBernstein Holding owned approximately 35.9% of AllianceBernstein and EQH, directly and through various subsidiaries, owned an approximate 64.7% economic interest in AllianceBernstein. Additional information about AB may be found on our website, www.alliancebernstein.com. SOURCE Bernstein Private Wealth Management Related Links https://www.bernstein.com/ FOLSOM, Calif., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Solutions (http://encompass-hs.com/ and http://carivacare.com/) recently announced the appointment of Dr. Ramon Terrazas as Medical Director, overseeing the medical aspects of the company's signature workers' compensation services. Dr. Terrazas has a distinguished array of credentials to bring to the fore in service to Encompass Health Solutions' clients. CarivaCare Dr. Terrazas is a specialist in occupational and environmental medicine. He presently holds the position of Fire Surgeon for the San Francisco Fire Department, where he manages multiple workers' compensation claims and has expertise in performing complex return and fitness-for-duty evaluations. He also currently serves on the University of Pennsylvania Occupational Medicine Residency's Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Preventive Medicine, is board certified in Occupational Medicine and holds a Master of Public Health from the Medical College of Wisconsin, alongside his MD from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Terrazas has performed research for the National Institutes of Health and recently completed a term as a Site Supervisor for the University of Pennsylvania Occupational Medicine Residency. Dr. Terrazas is a fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and has served for nearly a decade on the board of directors for the Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association (WOEMA), served as Chairman of WOEMA's Young Physician's Committee, as Treasurer for WOEMA's board of directors and currently serves as Chairman of the 2018 Western Occupational Health Conference. Dr. Terrazas is a Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) for the state of California and has extensive experience consulting on utilization reviews for workers' compensation carriers nationwide. A noted advocate for the underserved, Dr. Terrazas has spent two decades on the board of directors of Northern California's largest Federally Qualified Community Health Center: La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland. Dr. Terrazas served twice as President of La Clinica's board of directors and has agreed to serve as Vice President for the upcoming fiscal year. "We are proud to welcome Dr. Terrazas to our team here at Encompass. He is a distinguished professional who brings decades of invaluable experience, in addition to the important work he undertakes in multiple organizations throughout the medical industry. We have always worked to provide for our clients the best representatives in workers' compensation excellence. Dr. Terrazas is a perfect example," said Paula Baker and Cheryl Cabrera, Owners of Encompass. Encompass Health Solutions focuses specifically on workplace injury management programs for employers of all sizes. With its signature CarivaCare 24/7 Injury Reporting & Nurse Triage service leading the service offerings, Encompass also serves as an access center in the Workers' Compensation and Human Resources industries. In addition, Encompass provides customized case management and utilization review services. About Encompass Health Solutions Encompass helps clients and injured employees navigate through the labyrinth of the workers' compensation and human resources industries. The experts at Encompass work directly with public and private employers, third party administrators, insurance companies, captive groups and brokers to help deliver the most beneficial outcomes for their clients. The company was founded by Paula Baker and Cheryl Cabrera, who hold a combined 43 years in the Workers' Compensation and Human Resources industries. They are proud to be a woman owned and operated business, with integrity and a strong ethical foundation. Learn more at the company website: http://encompass-hs.com/ or by visiting the CarivaCare website at http://carivacare.com/. Contact: Sam Rogers, Sales Director 800-274-1102 x1015 [email protected] SOURCE Encompass Health Solutions, Inc. Related Links http://www.encompass-hs.com COSTA MESA, Calif., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Visitors to car-shopping site JDPower.com can quickly gauge the ownership experience of any current model by accessing the vehicle's rating on the site's 100-Point Score. Given that the scores are based on depreciation and verified data from real owners in the areas of quality, dependability, performance, reviews, awards and dealership ratings, what are the site's highest-rated vehicles? The highest-rated model year 2018 vehicles listed on JDPower.com today are: Porsche 911 (94 points) Genesis G90 (93) Mercedes-Benz S-Class (92) Lincoln Continental (92) Porsche Macan (91) (91) Lincoln Navigator (91) Lexus RX (91) Porsche 718 (90) BMW 7 Series (90) Cadillac Escalade (90) Genesis G80 (90) Lexus GS (90) Porsche Cayenne (90) Complementing the 100-Point Score on the new consumer-friendly website is a series of Red Blade Ratings that provide a quick, easy-to-digest look into the vehicle data at several touchpoints. "With nearly 600 models receiving a score of 81 or higher, car shoppers can find a high-quality vehicle on JDPower.com that suits their wants and needs," said Troy Snyder, Vice President, Consumer Division at J.D. Power. "In addition to the rating scores, car shoppers can see which vehicles won a J.D. Power award by segment, so they can rest assured that they're making a wise purchase decision." The Red Blade Ratings and 100-Point Score are sourced from J.D. Power's wealth of consumer insight data from studies such as Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS); Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI); Initial Quality Study IQS); Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL); and Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI). These studies reflect more than 3.2 million verified ownership experiences from vehicle models dating from model year 2013 to model year 2018. For all vehicle ratings, rankings, reviews and awards, visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. These capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Established in 1968, J.D. Power is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices serving North/South America, Asia Pacific and Europe. J.D. Power is a portfolio company of XIO Group, a global alternative investments firm headquartered in London, and is led by its four founders: Athene Li, Joseph Pacini, Murphy Qiao and Carsten Geyer. Media Relations Contacts Gene Effler; West Coast; 714-621-6224; [email protected] Shane Smith; East Coast; 424-903-3665; [email protected] About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info SOURCE J.D. Power Related Links http://www.jdpower.com SAN DIEGO, Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds and possibly thousands of doctoral students attending the online-only for-profit Northcentral University, Inc. (NCU) have been subjected to an abusive marketing scheme under which degrees are promised relatively quickly and at low cost, but then drag out for years longer and tens of thousands of dollars in additional student loan debt, according to a class-action complaint filed today by the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane (PWCK) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, San Diego Division. For more information on the lawsuit go to www.ncuclassaction.com. The class-action complaint was filed on behalf of Christina Torres, a Bronx, New York City resident who attended NCU from 2010-2017. Torres and other students seeking a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from NCU were told that it would take "three and a half to five years" at a cost of $30,600. However, NCU's own documents confirm that the Ed.D. program was in fact "designed" to take 83 months, or nearly seven years, resulting in a cost exceeding $50,000. NCU appears to have made such representations across its entire range of doctorate programs. It also appears that NCU is still falsely advertising online as of today that it can deliver a degree quickly and at a low cost. The NCU lawsuit is the third such lawsuit to be filed against an online-only, for-profit university by Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane. PWCK also has filed such complaints against Walden University and Capella University, both of Minnesota. For-profit universities received extensive attention under the Obama Administration, which created the Gainful Employment disclosure requirement that exposed false marketing claims made by NCU and other for-profit universities. Trump Administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has taken steps to eliminate the vitally important public disclosure rule. Joseph Peiffer, managing shareholder and attorney, PWCK, said: "NCU is running what is essentially a bait-and-switch marketing scheme in its doctoral programs. The bait is displayed when NCU's marketing materials and employees mislead prospective students by promising that doctoral degrees will cost less and take less time to complete than those programs would actually take. Prospective students take NCU's bait when they commit to attend the university, pay substantial tuition and fees, and obtain hefty student loans. Because those students rely upon NCU's misrepresentations and omissions, they are now saddled with crippling debt, bad credit, inability to obtain additional student loans, useless course credits that will not transfer to other institutions, and for many, no doctoral degree. It's the dog that never catches its tail." Christina Torres said: "NCU never dealt with me on the level. If they had not misrepresented the timeline, costs, and hurdles to completing this doctoral program or if they had just honestly disclosed their scheme, I would not have enrolled at NCU. Period. I certainly would not have put myself on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to finance my education. They wasted my time, sidelined my ambitions, created a huge delay in my life, and forced me into deep debt." Paul Lesko, attorney, PWCK, said: "As a for-profit corporation, NCU has clear incentives to mislead students about how long it will take to complete its doctoral programs. First, the longer it takes for a student to get a degree, the more tuition and fees (and profit) NCU receives. Second, because NCU knows that most of its students rely on loans to finance their education and will consider the expected total cost of a doctoral program before agreeing to enroll, NCU has every reason to make its programs appear as affordable as possible, even though they are not affordable. NCU also knows that once students have paid tens of thousands of dollars to partially complete their program, they will be compelled to continue enrolling for additional semesters (and taking out additional loans) for fear of having nothing to show for the time and resources that they have already committed." NCU currently has approximately 10,000 students, 5,500 alumni and potentially thousands of former doctoral students who did not graduate, many presumably due to delayed degrees or mounting student debt. Nearly all (98 percent) of NCU's current student body is composed of graduate students, 69 percent of whom are enrolled in doctoral degree programs. As the class-action complaint notes: "Once enrolled in the doctoral programs, problems began. While the students attempted to obtain their degree, they met an endless series of hurdles, delays, and tuition payments, resulting in students incurring unnecessary additional loans beyond those they expected to incur based on the timeframes promised by NCU. Students who believed that they were getting ever closer to their doctoral degree were repeatedly confronted with decreasing resources, high faculty turnover, disorganization, a lack of oversight, poorly trained instructors, a 21-day-turnaround time (with most instructors taking the full 21 days to respond their students), and little to no constructive feedback (or if feedback was given, inconsistent feedback), all of which extended the doctoral students' enrollments at NCU. Frustrated, doctoral students eventually realized that, contrary to NCU's promises, they did not control the time it would take to complete their degree they were at the mercy of NCU." While students did what they could to obtain their doctoral degrees, their programs stretched beyond the promised timeframes, and tuition payments (and student loans) continued to mount. As students' enrollment at NCU dragged on for years past the expected timeframes, NCU's promises of an affordable education became a nightmare of frustration and crushing debt. Many students' debt would grow so large that they would have no choice but to un-enroll so they could stop accumulating more debt and dedicate themselves full-time to paying back their enormous student loans, all without degrees to show for their hard work. Northcentral University is a private, for-profit, online-only university founded in Prescott, Arizona in 1996. NCU moved to San Diego in 2017. NCU offers online degree and certificate programs from the bachelor's level through the doctoral degree level in its School of Education, School of Business and Technology Management, and School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. ABOUT PWCK The law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane maintains offices in Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, St. Louis, and New Orleans. PWCK is available on the web at www.ncuclassaction.com. SOURCE Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane (PWCK) Tony's first launched its Limited Edition bars concept in 2011 in the Netherlands to help smaller retailers have a competitive edge by offering special products. Released only once per year, the Limited Edition bars come in three delicious flavors that share a common theme, each in a specially designed wrapper. The first set of Limited Edition bars in the US is all about caramel. The colorful wrappers are based on three patterns inspired by African design, each and every bar completely unique thanks to an algorithm that created more than 50,000 one-of-a-kind designs. Caramelicious - Limited Edition Flavors: 28% Blonde Chocolate Caramelized Pecan Lucky you! You're holding one of our 3 Limited Edition bars. This blonde chocolate bar is a tasty mix of our white and dark chocolates with caramelized pecans. Sweeet! 32% Milk Chocolate Shortbread Caramel This Limited Edition taste like one in a millionaire's shortbread! Shortbread bits and chewy caramel in our famous creamy milk chocolate. 51% Dark Chocolate Cocoa Cookies Caramel This Limited Edition goes out to all the cookie lovers out there. Dark chocolate with pieces of caramel and cocoa cookies made from our very own cocoa powder. The Limited Edition bars are available beginning today at New Seasons, Cost Plus World Market, The Fresh Market, select independent retailers and online at Tonyschocolonely.com for $5.99 per bar. Serious Partners with AFRIEK Tony's and AFRIEK, a Dutch fashion label that aims to change the bias of Africa by selling high-end fashion from Rwanda and equal collaboration with their partners, have teamed up to create one-of-a-kind totes in celebration of the Limited Edition launch. Like the wrappers, the bags will come in three totally unique prints corresponding to the three wrapper designs. Inside the bag is a label with the name of the bag maker and a place to put the owners name, this gesture refers to the equality between maker and owner. The bags will be available exclusively online at Tonyschocolonely.com with the three Limited Edition bars for $24.99 + shipping and handling. Serious friends Tony's vision is 100 percent slave-free chocolate. Not just their own chocolate, but all chocolate worldwide. They can't do it alone, so they need all the help they can get. Wanna see what you can do to help? Tony's invites everyone to join their mission and become serious friends on their website tonyschocolonely.com. About Tony's Chocolonely Tony's Chocolonely was founded to ban modern slavery and exploitation in the cocoa industry. They're not an average company. But a chocolate company that wants to solve a social problem in the world. Since its founding by the makers of the Dutch television program 'Keuringsdienst van Waarde' in 2005, Tony's Chocolonely has been fighting for slave-free chocolate. They not only want to make their own chocolate 100% slave free, but all chocolate worldwide. They buy the cocoa beans directly from partner cooperatives in Ghana and Ivory Coast and work closely with them. This is how they set the example that chocolate can be made differently. And so, they inspire others to follow them. And you can participate too. The more people choose slave-free chocolate and share Tony's story, the sooner 100% slave-free chocolate becomes the norm. TONY'S CHOCOLONELY. CRAZY ABOUT CHOCOLATE, SERIOUS ABOUT PEOPLE SOURCE Tonys Chocolonely VERO BEACH, Fla., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Watercrest Senior Living Group proudly announces Robert Harwood as Community Relations Director of Watercrest Lake Nona Assisted Living and Memory Care Community. Watercrest Lake Nona is a luxury senior living community offering 56 assisted living and 24 memory care residences with premium accommodations, resort-style amenities, and world-class care, all nestled in the 7,000-acre master-designed community of Lake Nona, Florida. Harwood specialized in retirement planning for insurance and financial services for over 20 years before entering the senior living industry eight years ago. He brings focused expertise in marketing and operations as a certified executive director and certified assisted living manager. Harwood has successfully led his team through the opening of new buildings and achieved 95 percent occupancy in nine months as a community relations director. "I have followed Watercrest Senior Living Group for several years now and have always been attracted to their passionate and ethical approach to senior living," says Robert Harwood, community relations director of Watercrest Lake Nona. "I believe we should all be in this business for the mission and not the commission." Watercrest Senior Living Group is part of the mission to optimize healthy living in Lake Nona. Lake Nona was recently recognized by CBS News and The Wall Street Journal as one of the nation's leading wellness communities and fastest-growing communities designed specifically for improving health. Watercrest associates answer a calling to serve seniors and their families every day. They are recognized for their achievements and empowered to share their vast experience with their peers. By continuously investing in these servant hearts, Watercrest develops value-centered leaders who deliver personalized service. "Bob brings a highly successful skill set in senior living leadership and census development to Watercrest Lake Nona," says Dana Ryder, senior executive director of Watercrest Lake Nona. "He is an excellent role model of servant leadership and lives our mission daily, 'to welcome, to care, to serve'." Watercrest Senior Living prides itself on providing outstanding caregivers and exceptional care, all tailored to individual resident preferences. All Watercrest memory care associates are Nationally Certified Dementia Care Practitioners and programming focuses on innovative lifestyle approaches, including personal life silhouettes, multi-sensory enhancements, Memories in the Making, and Music and Memory programs. Watercrest Lake Nona boasts an exquisite design with signature water wall, multiple dining options, pool, fireplace, salon & spa, and Florida style outdoor living spaces. Residents enjoy pampering in elegant Spa W, savor private label Watercrest wines at the wine bistro, and relish the flavors of locally grown, seasonal ingredients and organic fare whether dining poolside, bistro-style or in the chef's private dining room. To schedule a tour contact Robert Harwood at 407-226-3113. Watercrest Senior Living Group specializes in the development and operations of assisted living and memory care communities and the growth of servant leaders. For information, visit https://watercrestseniorliving.com/lake-nona/ or www.watercrestgroup.com. SOURCE Watercrest Senior Living Group Related Links https://watercrestseniorliving.com/ Through the partnership, eMotorWerks is helping Xcel Energy pioneer a new business model to better prepare their regional grids for the expected increased electric demand created by EV charging. Unlike most utilities, Xcel Energy will be purchasing and owning the charging units, and installing the systems at the residential customers' home locations. This gives the utility a more active role in EV charging management throughout their territories, while simplifying homeowner charging. "By 2025, there's expected to be over 11 million EVs in North America alone, and utilities need to work fast to actively meet this growing demand," said Val Miftakhov, Head of eMotorWerks. "As seen with Xcel Energy, our solution is practical not only for drivers and grid operators, but utilities as well, as it saves costs and increases customer touch points. We are pleased to see Xcel Energy preparing early for the EV market boom by implementing a charging solution for its customers that will pay dividends for decades to come." The eMotorWerks JuiceBox Pro 40 will provide Xcel Energy EV driving customers savings by avoiding the need to install a second electric meter at their homes otherwise required to track EV charging electric usage. Customers will also receive lower charging rates under Xcel Energy's EV Pricing Plan, which can help save money by charging their vehicle in the overnight hours. Connected by eMotorWerks' JuiceNet cloud platform for EV charging load aggregation and control, the network of JuiceBox stations also provides the utility a dynamic demand response management solution for its grid operations. By integrating smart-grid EV charging into their grid balancing toolkit, Xcel Energy, NSPM and their customers gain affordable, cloud-connected chargers. The software features of JuiceNet allow grid operators, such as Xcel Energy, to evaluate customer and network-wide EV charging responsiveness to participate in demand response events at times of peak energy demand. JuiceNet also enables operators to integrate low-cost renewable electricity into the EV charging electricity supply and to provide other grid benefits, such as reducing marginal greenhouse gas emissions, helping stabilize grid frequency and minimize costly grid infrastructure upgrades to meet the growing electricity demands of EVs. The program began on August 29th and interested customers can apply for program participation at: https://www.xcelenergy.com/energy_portfolio/innovation/electric_vehicles/ev_service_pilot_pre_enrollment. About eMotorWerks: Founded in 2010, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, eMotorWerks is a subsidiary of the Enel Group's new advanced energy services division Enel X, revolutionizing the electric vehicle (EV) charging market with its JuiceNet-enabled smart grid EV charging solutions. JuiceNet enabled devices, such as the company's connected, high-power JuiceBox charging stations, maximize charging efficiency and speed while providing EV owners intuitive control and visibility. By shifting when and how much electricity JuiceNet-enabled stations draw from the grid, eMotorWerks helps utilities and grid operators reduce electricity costs, ease grid congestion, and maximize the use of solar and wind power. eMotorWerks grows the EV charging ecosystem by partnering with EVSE and EV manufacturers to provide an extensive cloud platform for grid balancing and optimization for utilities. For more information on eMotorWerks, please visit www.emotorwerks.com. Follow us on Twitter (@eMotorWerks), on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/electric-motor-werks-inc-) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/eMotorWerks). Enel X is a new Enel global business line dedicated to developing innovative products and digital solutions in sectors in which energy is showing the greatest potential for transformation: cities, homes, industries and electric mobility. For more information on Enel X, please visit https://www.enelx.com/. SOURCE eMotorWerks Related Links http://emotorwerks.com At this three-day event, AmCham South China's CIFIT delegation will co-host a China-US Investment Forum on the Health and Food Industry in cooperation with MOFCOM CIPA; meet with government leaders from provinces including Hebei, Hainan, Jiangxi, and Ningxi; and explore business opportunities and other opportunities for cooperation. The delegation will also visit major investment projects in Jinjiang City in Fujian Province. "CIFIT represents the largest and best platforms for investment and trade in the world. Our Chamber and members have returned here for 16 consecutive years. We owe the success of our delegation every year to the excellent organization and the high quality of arrangement and service provided by the CIFIT Organizing Committee. I want to offer my congratulations to MOFCOM, Xiamen and Fujian leaders, and the CIFIT Organizing Committee for undertaking and delivering the high level of professional excellence that keeps drawing us back to the beautiful city of Xiamen every year," Seyedin said. The delegation held an open discussion on the influence brought by the recent US-China trade frictions. Seyedin stressed that AmCham South China supports Washington and Beijing's ongoing efforts to deal with the bilateral trade practices and policies through continuous dialogues and negotiations. He called on U.S. companies operating in China to play an active role in developing U.S.-China trade relationship. About The American Chamber of Commerce in South China The American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AmCham South China) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating bilateral trade between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Certified in 1995 by its parent organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., AmCham South China represents more than 2,300 corporate and individual members, is governed by a fully-independent Board of Governors elected from its membership, and provides dynamic, on-the-ground support for American and International companies doing business in South China. In 2017, AmCham South China hosted nearly 10,000 business executives, government leaders and journalists from around the world at its briefings, seminars, committee meetings and social gatherings. For Additional Information, please contact: Ms. Rachel Chen Communications Manager The American Chamber of Commerce in South China Tel: 86-136 3219 9935 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE AmCham South China HONOLULU, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jazz vocalist and performer, Andy James, continues her "Little Wow" 2018-19 Tour with two shows at Jazz Minds in Honolulu, HI October 4 & 5, 2018. These tour dates celebrate the release of her current album Caravan. Andy will offer her crisp and original interpretations of the Great American Songbook's canon of the most exceptional numbers. Some of the jewels in this cache include the Ellington title track, the Beatles' "Blackbird," and Rogers and Hart's "It Never Entered My Mind." She will also sprinkle in hits from her recent EP No Regrets and her upcoming big band album All the Lovely Things You Are (to be released Valentine's week 2019). Each and every song is a diamond in its own right, but some other powerhouses from earlier albums are "What Ever Lola Wants, Lola Gets," "Slow Hot Wind," and "Fever." Andy James at Jazzminds Honolulu | October 4 & 5, 2018 Andy James | Caravan release date September 21, 2018 Riff Review called Andy James' sound "smoky and luxurious with every lush detail of the music carried out exquisitely." Andy is a graceful stylist that is delicate and ladylike with an uppercut to the jaw ready to trounce when you least expect it (and when you want it the most). The renowned and sublime Bill Cunliffe is her music director and arranger. He is in the driver's seat commanding a first-rate band of players in the top echelon of the business. Her full band from Los Angeles comes to Honolulu to be at her back: Chris Colangelo, Bass; Jake Reed, Drums; Jake Langley, Guitar; Michael Stever, Trumpet; Nathan King, Alto Saxophone; and Charles McNeal, Tenor Saxophone. Each and every musician is at the top of their game, and together they achieve the ultimate in artistry in these spectacular pieces and scintillating charts. This engagement is the second of more than a dozen quintessential jazz rooms on her Little Wow International Tour that encompasses ten US cities, and six additional dates in her home country of Australia in the Spring of 2019. Shows at Jazz Minds are on Thursday, October 4th, and Friday, October 5th, 2018 with two sets nightly at 7:30pm and 9:00pm. Curious jazzheads who want to come down can visit imandy.me/honolulu for details. Reach Andy at: Official Site: http://www.andyjames.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/andyjamesjazz Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/andyjamesjazz Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/andyjamesjazz SoundCloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/andyjamesjazz ArtistPR EPK: https://imandy.me/EPK18 Venue Info: Jazz Minds 1661 Kapiolani Blvd Honolulu, Hawaii honolulujazzclub.com Phone: (808) 945-0800 [email protected] Contact: Zeffin Quinn Hollis HolliVOX 212-749-0395 [email protected] SOURCE Andy James Related Links http://www.andyjames.com/ PLANO, Texas, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At Home Group Inc. (NYSE: HOME) (the "Company"), the home decor superstore, announced today the pricing of an underwritten secondary public offering of 10,000,000 shares of its common stock by certain of the Company's existing stockholders, including certain affiliates of AEA Investors LP and Starr Investment Holdings, LLC (collectively, the "Selling Stockholders"). Additionally, in connection with the offering, the Selling Stockholders have granted to the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,500,000 additional shares of the Company's common stock. The shares will be offered from time to time for sale in one or more transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, in the over-the-counter market, through negotiated transactions or otherwise at market prices prevailing at the time of the sale, at prices related to prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices. The offering is expected to close on September 11, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company is not selling any shares in this offering and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares being sold by the Selling Stockholders in this offering. BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as sole underwriter for the offering. A shelf registration statement relating to these securities was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on October 31, 2017. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and the documents incorporated by reference in that registration statement, as well as the preliminary prospectus supplement related to this offering and the documents incorporated by reference in that prospectus supplement. Copies of these documents are available at no charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, and the final prospectus supplement, when available, may be obtained from BofA Merrill Lynch, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001, Attn: Prospectus Department, or by email at [email protected]. The offering of these securities is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement and an accompanying prospectus. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About At Home Group Inc. At Home (NYSE: HOME), the home decor superstore, offers more than 50,000 on-trend home products to fit any budget or style, from furniture, mirrors, rugs, art and housewares to tabletop, patio and seasonal decor. At Home is headquartered in Plano, Texas, and currently operates 167 stores in 36 states. HOME-F SOURCE At Home Group Inc. Related Links http://www.athome.com NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyvos Insights, a big data analytics company, today announced it will be hosting a session with Bell Canada during Strata Data Conference in New York, the leading event for data industry visionaries. The session on "How Bell Canada increased the scale of BI exponentially with OLAP on big data" will feature insights from Mark Huang, director of engineering at Bell Canada and Ajay Anand, vice president products and marketing at Kyvos Insights. The session will provide a deep dive into why Bell Canada chose Kyvos' OLAP on big data technology to achieve interactive multi-dimensional analytics and how it helped the company deliver to its growing business intelligence demands. "As companies grow, their data programs and business intelligence initiatives need to evolve to meet changing organizational demands. However, while data teams appreciate this need to grow, finding an architecture which is truly scalable, while delivering interactive response times, remains a constant challenge," said Ajay Anand, vice president of products and marketing at Kyvos Insights. "We're honored that Bell Canada has chosen Kyvos Insights to help them scale their leading business intelligence initiative to achieve their business objectives." Along with discussing the business value driven by the implementation of Kyvos Insights' technology, the session will also explore: Why adopting OLAP on big data was mission critical for their business teams How Bell Canada exponentially increased the volume and time span of the data they could analyze The importance of selecting an architecture which delivers fast performance with an increasing amount of concurrent users "We're thrilled with the results we've been able to achieve through our implementation of Kyvos Insights," said Mark Huang, director of engineering at Bell Canada. "Large volumes of data are what allows us to make the right business decisions for our company and enables us to deliver the service our customers expect. We're excited to continue partnering with Kyvos Insights to further unleash big data to drive business insights." Complete session details are below: What: "How Bell Canada increased the scale of BI exponentially with OLAP on big data (sponsored by Kyvos Insights)" "How Bell Canada increased the scale of BI exponentially with OLAP on big data (sponsored by Kyvos Insights)" When: Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at 5:25pm Eastern Daylight Time at Where: 1A 04/05 - Javits Center - 655 W 34th Street in New York, NY Mark Huang: Mark is the Director of Data Engineering at Bell Canada. Mark's responsibilities include managing BI environments, ETL development, architecture, governance, and technology decisions. Since joining Bell over 6 years ago Mark has played a key role in designing the BI roadmap and executing on the strategy to meet current and future business needs. Ajay Anand: Ajay is the vice president of products & marketing at Kyvos Insights. His association with Hadoop goes back to 2007, when he was director of product management at Yahoo and led their initial Hadoop projects and releases, after which he founded Datameer. Ajay also held product management and market development roles at SGI and Sun. Ajay earned an M.B.A. and an M.S. in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BSEE from the Indian Institute of Technology. The world's fastest BI on big data platform, Kyvos enables organizations to create a BI Consumption Layer that allows organizations to create data cubes with near limitless scalability and performance. To learn more about Kyvos visit www.kyvosinsights.com or request a demonstration at: www.kyvosinsights.com/request-demo About Kyvos Insights Kyvos Insights is committed to unlocking the power of big data analytics with its unique "OLAP on Big Data" technology. Backed by years of analytics expertise and a passion for big data, the company aims to revolutionize big data analytics by providing business users with the ability to visualize, explore and analyze big data interactively, working directly on Hadoop or Cloud platforms. Headquartered in Los Gatos, California, Kyvos Insights was formed by a team of veterans from Yahoo!, Impetus and Intellicus Technologies. The company has partnered with companies including Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR, Qlik and Tableau. For more information, visit www.kyvosinsights.com or connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Media Contact: Brianna Bruinsma LEWIS 619-308-5220 [email protected] SOURCE Kyvos Insights Related Links https://www.kyvosinsights.com BEIJING, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IK Healthcare Investment Limited (" Parent ") and IK Healthcare Merger Limited (" Merger Sub ") have informed the Special Committee (the " Special Committee ") of the Board of Directors of iKang Healthcare Group, Inc. (the " Company ") that Parent and Merger Sub are re-evaluating the commercial viability of the merger (the " Merger ") contemplated under the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of March 26, 2018, entered into by and among Parent, Merger Sub and the Company (as amended on May 29, 2018, the " Merger Agreement "), and have requested an extension of the termination date under the Merger Agreement from September 26, 2018 to October 31, 2018. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, the obligations of Parent and Merger Sub to consummate the Merger are subject to the condition that holders of no more than 15% of the shares of the Company have served notices of objection under Section 238(2) of the Cayman Islands Companies Law (the " Condition "). On August 20, 2018, the shareholders of the Company approved the Merger Agreement. However, as previously disclosed by the Company, the Special Committee has notified Parent and Merger Sub that the Condition has not been satisfied. It is expected that the Company will receive by late September 2018 any formal notices of decision to dissent under Section 238(5) of the Cayman Islands Companies Law (" Dissenter Notices "). In light of the fact the Condition is not satisfied and the timing for the Company's receipt of Dissenter Notices, Parent and Merger Sub have requested an amendment to the Merger Agreement which would provide for an extension of the termination date under the Merger Agreement from September 26, 2018 to October 31, 2018 so that the sponsors of Parent and Merger Sub (the " Sponsors ") have sufficient time to re-evaluate the commercial viability of the Merger. The Special Committee is currently considering this request. The Sponsors do not presently intend to cause Parent and Merger Sub to waive the Condition based on current circumstances. The Sponsors will consider the final percentage of dissenting shareholders among other relevant factors, including the recent business performance of the Company, in determining whether to proceed with consummation of the Merger. Contact Information To the Sponsors: Attention: Terry Yin Address: Suite 3008, Tower 2, China Central Place, 79 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing Email: [email protected] Fax: +86 10 5969 6010 SOURCE IK Healthcare Investment Limited and IK Healthcare Merger Limited LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With unanimous support from union leaders, Cast Members at Walt Disney World Resort today overwhelmingly ratified a five-year contract that sets them on the path to $15 an hour starting wage by 2021, representing one of the highest entry-level wages within the service industry in the United States. This historic collective bargaining agreement will raise starting pay by 50 percent for more than 37,000 Cast Members in a variety of roles represented by the Service Trades Council Union, (STCU) including lifeguards, bus drivers and housekeepers. It also demonstrates Disney's continued investment in the future of its Cast Members. "Our 50 percent wage increase will have a real, meaningful impact on our Cast and their familiesand is part of our commitment to the thousands of Cast Members who make magic for our guests each and every day," said George A. Kalogridis, president of Walt Disney World Resort. "Increasing wages for Cast Members represents a significant investment in Central Florida, and will provide a powerful boost to the local economy." This industry-leading shift to $15 an hour will be phased in over the next three years beginning in December when starting pay for hourly, non-tipped Cast Members will increase to $11 an hour. In March 2019, starting rates will rise to $12 an hour; $13 an hour in September 2019; $14 an hour in October 2020; and finally, $15 an hour in October 2021. Eligible Cast Members will also receive retroactive pay of 50 cents an hour or 3 percent, whichever is greater, dating back to Sept. 24, 2017; they will also receive a one-time, $1,000 bonus. Additionally, the increase will substantially raise the earning potential of current Cast Members whose pay is already above $10 an hour, giving them at least $4.75 an hour more by October 2021. This collective bargaining agreement runs through October 2022. This is the second significant contract agreement reached this summer between Disney theme parks and their largest unions. In July, the Disneyland Resort in California announced that it reached agreement with its largest labor unions for a minimum wage rate increase of 40 percent within two years of the agreement. This puts Cast Members represented by Master Services Council at $15 per hour by 2019. The agreement at Disneyland benefits more than 9,700 Cast Members, is one of the most aggressive entry-level wages in the country and demonstrates Disney's commitment to its valued Cast Members. Since Walt Disney World Resort opened in 1971, it has grown to be the largest single-site employer in the United States, employing over 74,000 Cast Members in more than 3,000 different job classifications. During the past 10 years, Walt Disney World Resort employment numbers have grown by 20 percent, adding 14,000 jobs. Leading up to the celebration of the resort's 50th anniversary in 2021, more roles will be added to support the opening of new resorts and attractions throughout the theme parks, including immersive lands such as Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2019. SOURCE Walt Disney World Resort PAPILLION, Neb., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Charles William Wilcox, DDS is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Professional of the Year in the field of Dentistry in recognition of his role as Prosthodontist at Charles William Wilcox, DDS and Professor Emeritus at Creighton University School of Dentistry. With its inception in 1905, Creighton University School of Dentistry is respected for their work in the field of dentistry. Devoted to improving the health of their community, the university "has prepared more than 5,000 dentists for lives of professional excellence, community leadership and compassionate service." Providing eminent educational services and ensuring their clients receive professional and affordable healthcare, the university's mission is to "educate students who can demonstrate the attainment of competence and the progression toward proficiency in providing for the oral health needs of society." With compassion, leadership, and service at the forefront of the institutions values, the university has specialized in investing thousands of professionals throughout the years. An active member in the United States Air Force for over twenty three years, Dr. Wilcox retired at the Rank of Colonel. Inspired by his commanding officer to go into the field suggesting "Prosthodontics", Dr. Wilcox suggests that "the advances in Implantology made Prosthodontics very exciting." Currently serving as Professor Emeritus at Creighton University School of Dentistry, Dr. Wilcox has established himself as a prominent expert in the field and attained expertise within the areas of Prosthodontic services. Throughout his educational pursuits, Dr. Wilcox attended the University of Nebraska where he attained his dentistry license. In his previous years, Dr. Wilcox attended the University Of Texas School Of Dentistry where he earned his Master of Science degree in Advanced Prosthodontics. To further advance his professional career, Dr. Wilcox is a distinguished fellow of several elite organizations including the National Board of Examiners. Dr. Wilcox Dedicates this recognition to his wife, Donna Kay Wilcox, thanking her for her continuing love and support. For more information, please visit https://dentistry.creighton.edu/about/mission-and-vision. Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Churchill Capital Corp (the "Company") announced today the pricing of its initial public offering of 60,000,000 units at $10.00 per unit. The units will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") and trade under the ticker symbol "CCC.U". Each unit consists of one share of the Company's Class A common stock and one half of one warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of the Company's Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share. Once the securities comprising the units begin separate trading, the Class A common stock and warrants are expected to be listed on the NYSE under the symbols "CCC" and "CCC WS," respectively. Churchill Capital Corp was formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The Company intends to focus its search for a target business in the information services segment of the broader technology services and software industry. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. The Company has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to 9,000,000 additional units at the initial public offering price to cover over-allotments, if any. The public offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from Citigroup, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717 or by telephone at (800) 831-9146. A registration statement relating to the securities has been declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements," including with respect to the proposed initial public offering and the anticipated use of the net proceeds thereof. No assurance can be given that the offering discussed above will be completed on the terms described, or at all, or that the net proceeds of the offering will be used as indicated. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and preliminary prospectus for the Company's offering filed with the SEC. Copies are available on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. Contacts: Churchill Capital Corp [email protected] SOURCE Churchill Capital Corp Related Links churchillcapitalcorp.com WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- High school students in Fort Collins, Colorado, will talk live with a NASA astronaut currently living and working aboard the International Space Station Wednesday, Sept. 12, as part of NASA's Year of Education on Station. The Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website at 11:15 a.m. EDT. Astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor will answer questions from students at her alma mater, Poudre High School. These students are enrolled in various levels of physical science classes, and the school plans to use the downlink as a culminating activity for a unit on experimental design. Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides unique, authentic experiences designed to enhance student learning, performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Media interested in covering the event must contact Matt Benson at 970-488-6132 or [email protected]. The event will be held in the school's auditorium at 201 Impala Dr. Space fans have a second opportunity next week to see what's happening in space when NASA astronaut Drew Feustel talks to ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff at 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11. This conversation also will air on NASA TV and the agency's website. Astronauts living and working on the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through the Space Network's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS). Follow NASA astronauts on social media at: https://www.twitter.com/NASA_astronauts See videos and lesson plans highlighting research on the International Space Station at: https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov "This is an exciting opportunity for our students and families of west Dallas as this unique public private partnership comes together," said Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. "STEM jobs are the wave of the future, and Toyota and SMU's contribution is a major investment in shaping the next generation. This is a significant shift in education, and we're grateful to these incredible partners." Toyota USA Foundation is granting $2 million to SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development , which will develop curricula, advise on state-of-the-art educational practices, provide professional development for teachers, coordinate nonprofits operating in the area, and monitor and evaluate the program. The future school will be operated and staffed by the Dallas ISD. The Office of Transformation and Innovation will co-facilitate the design of the school in collaboration with School Leadership. The collaboration will also bring together nonprofits, including groups already working with Dallas ISD through the SMU Simmons School program, The School Zone, as well as Toyota Motor North America and Toyota Financial Services' partners to address community issues like literacy, nutrition, transportation and afterschool care each vital to creating successful outcomes for the community. "Collectively, our goal is to create a brighter future for students, help families become more resilient, and create a community and school model that can be replicated," said Mike Goss, president of Toyota USA Foundation. "We want to help increase access to opportunity, connecting students to the millions of STEM jobs that exist today, and the many more that will be created as industry advances." This partnership developed as a result of numerous requests from the community for STEM offerings within the Pinkston High School feeder pattern. "This partnership advances our efforts currently underway in west Dallas, with a holistic approach that lifts the community and provides opportunity for students," said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "Evidence-based education is the foundation for everything we do in the Simmons School, and we look forward to the opportunity to provide resources and research that underscore the success of the school." Following an inclusive planning phase, the next two academic years will focus on curriculum and professional development for faculty. "Everything is still on the table, including decisions about curricula and which wrap-around services will be provided through the school by community partners," said SMU Simmons School Dean Stephanie L. Knight. "This announcement is meant to let all the stakeholders, parents included, know that we want their input at every level as we move forward." The school will begin a phased opening beginning fall 2021. About Toyota USA Foundation The Toyota USA Foundation is a charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12th-grade students and their teachers in the United States, with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). For more information, visit www.toyotagrants.com/foundation. About Dallas Independent School District The Dallas Independent School District is continually preparing its more than 156,000 students for college or a career. The district offers a competitive mix of innovative programs, choice programs and instructional initiatives that support the increased academic achievement and the social and emotional development of its students. To learn more, visit www.dallasisd.org. About SMU SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU's alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world. For more information visit www.smu.edu. Toyota Karen Nielsen, [email protected], 469.847.2187 Amanda Roark, [email protected], 310.291.5002 SMU Kim Cobb, [email protected], 214.336.2290 Dallas ISD Robyn Harris, [email protected], 214.202.6806 SOURCE Toyota USA Foundation SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - DeepGreen is proud to contribute to the health of our oceans by being a part of The Ocean Cleanup (TOC) project to remove plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, in the central Pacific, over the next five years. DeepGreen, along with the global shipping company Maersk, is contributing to this historic project by offering The Ocean Cleanup foundation the Maersk Launcher to launch its plastics cleanup project on September 8th, in San Francisco Bay. The Launcher is under lease by DeepGreen, to carry out through our Nauru incorporated and sponsored subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resource, survey and scientific work on the deep-ocean floor to recover polymetallic nodules that contain a rich-supply of cobalt, copper, nickel and manganesemetals required to power the green infrastructure from electric cars to wind turbines. The Maersk Launcher and its crew will be instrumental in deploying TOC's unique system designed to capture a significant portion of plastic debris in the central Pacific and reduce manmade pollution that poses an environmental threat to marine wildlife. "DeepGreen believes the health of the oceans is essential to our future and that is why we are doing our part to assist The Ocean Cleanup in its visionary mission," said Gerard Barron, CEO of DeepGreen. "We envision the oceans becoming an important source of metals for our future, providing a much cleaner alternative to land-sourced metals. As a company, we see it as our duty to not just harness cutting-edge science and technology to harvest ocean metals with minimal environmental impact but also improve the health of our oceans through our other activities." DeepGreen's Chief Ocean Scientist, oceanographer Greg Stone, said: "I have spent my life studying and working to protect the ocean. In more than 10,000 dives, in nearly every ocean on the planet, I've spent about two years under water and I know first-hand we have a lot of work to do to improve the health of the oceans. At DeepGreen, we think about this systematically. Taking macro-plastics out of our oceans is a step in the right direction and we are excited to support TOC." Added Stone: "As our population grows from 7.2 billion today to almost ten billion people in the next three decades, we will need more metals to power the technologies and infrastructure to get us to a low-carbon world. But after centuries of mining on land, evidence shows we're running out of options to find those metals. The social and environmental costs are just too high, and the metals are simply harder to come by. "The ocean has the answer in the form of polymetallic nodules. By collecting them from a relatively small part of the deep ocean's abyssal plain, more than a thousand kilometers from shore and four kilometers below the surface, I believe we can find a bountiful supply of the metals we need for our future without major impacts on the ocean's health." DeepGreen executives will attend the launch of the Ocean Cleanup Project. Both Barron and Stone are available for interviews. About DeepGreen: DeepGreen is a Canadian company offering a new and disruptive approach to supplying the world with metals needed for economic growth and clean technologies. With its patented processing technology, DeepGreen is on track to become a leading producer of base and strategic metals obtained from vast high-grade seafloor polymetallic nodule deposits containing nickel, manganese, copper and cobalt. For more information About DeepGreen, please visit the website at www.deep.green About Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI): NORI, a Nauruan company sponsored by the Republic of Nauru, is engaged in the exploration and responsible development of seafloor mineral resources. In 2011, NORI became the first company to obtain a license from the United Nations' International Seabed Authority to explore for minerals in the international seabed area. It will not operate near shallow coral reefs, volcanic ocean vents nor require digging, drilling or use of explosives. About Maersk Supply Service: Maersk Supply Service provides marine services and integrated solutions to the energy sector worldwide. Maersk Supply Service is the market leader in deep-water services such as anchor handling in ultra-deep water, mooring installations, rig moves and transport of equipment to drilling rigs and production units. Maersk Supply Service employs an international staff of around 1100 offshore and 200 onshore people. Headquartered in Lyngby, Denmark, Maersk Supply Service is represented globally with offices in Aberdeen, Houston, St. John's, Rio de Janeiro, Accra, Lagos, Luanda, Singapore and Perth. Maersk Supply Service is a part of the stand-alone Energy division of A.P. Mller Mrsk A/S. A.P. Mller Maersk A/S employs roughly 88,000 employees across operations in 130 countries. For more information about Maersk Supply Service, please visit the website at www.maersksupplyservice.com About The Ocean Cleanup: The Ocean Cleanup develops advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat (24), The Ocean Cleanup now employs approximately 80 engineers and researchers. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Instead of going after plastic debris with vessels and nets which would take many thousands of years and billions of dollars to complete The Ocean Cleanup is designing a fleet of extremely long floating screens that will remain in the water to act like an artificial coastline, enabling the ocean to concentrate the plastic using its own current. Once fully operational, this fleet of passive collection systems is expected to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years' time. After years of conducting reconnaissance expeditions, scale model test and the deployment of prototypes of the North Sea, the assembly of the first full-scale cleanup system is near completion. This first system is set to be deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from San Francisco Bay in September 2018. It is expected that the first shipment of debris collected y this system will be returned to land for recycling before the end of the year. SOURCE DeepGreen Metals Inc. PUNE, India, September 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ReportsnReports.com has pronounced the extension of the "Global Emulsifying Wax Market Research Report 2018-25" conveyed in Aug 2018 and available in a comprehensive collection of market research reports. Global Emulsifying Wax Market Report 2018 statistical surveying furnishes industry outline and examination with 2025 Emulsifying Wax market gauges and additionally organization profile, item picture and determination with limit creation, value, cost, generation esteem and more for real makers. Finish give an account of Emulsifying Wax market spread crosswise over 117 pages, giving examination of 10 noteworthy organizations upheld with 185 tables and figures is presently accessible at https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1644205-global-emulsifying-wax-market-insights-forecast-to-2025.html . This is an expert and top to bottom examination on the present condition of the Emulsifying Wax market. The report gives a fundamental review of the business including definitions, arrangements, applications and industry chain structure. The Emulsifying Wax market investigation is accommodated the worldwide markets including advancement patterns, focused scene examination, and key districts improvement status. Improvement strategies and plans are additionally examined and producing procedures and cost structures broke down. Emulsifying Wax market import/send out utilization, free market activity figures and cost and creation esteem net edges are additionally given. Organizations profiled in this Emulsifying Wax statistical surveying incorporate are Strahl & Pitsch, Keim-Additec, Koster-wax, Kelly Chemical, Bio-Nest Biochemical Technology, Wuxi Kodin Chemical, Sinowax, Beijing Zhongguang Specialty Wax, Likang Weiye, Jining Baichuan Chemical and others. Order a Copy of Global Emulsifying Wax Market Report 2018 statistical surveying at https://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=1644205 . Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering - North America - Europe - China - Japan - Other Regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America and Middle East & Africa). This 2018 Emulsifying Wax market report centers around worldwide significant driving industry players giving data, for example, organization profiles, item picture and determination, limit creation, value, cost, generation esteem and contact data. Upstream crude materials and gear and downstream request investigation is additionally completed. The Emulsifying Wax market improvement patterns and advertising channels are dissected. At last the achievability of new venture ventures are surveyed and general research conclusions advertised. 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Some of the tables and figures provided in Global Emulsifying Wax Market Report 2018 research report include: Figure North America Emulsifying Wax Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025) Figure Europe Emulsifying Wax Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025) Figure China Emulsifying Wax Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025) Figure Japan Emulsifying Wax Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025) Figure Global Emulsifying Wax Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2025) Figure Global Emulsifying Wax Capacity, Production (K Meters) Status and Outlook (2013-2025) Figure Global Emulsifying Wax Major Players Product Capacity (K Meters) (2013-2018) Table Global Emulsifying Wax Capacity (K Meters) of Key Manufacturers (2013-2018) Table Global Emulsifying Wax Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2013-2018) Figure Global Emulsifying Wax Capacity (K Meters) of Key Manufacturers in 2017 Figure Global Emulsifying Wax Capacity (K Meters) of Key Manufacturers in 2018 Figure Global Emulsifying Wax Major Players Product Production (K Meters) (2013-2018) Table Global Emulsifying Wax Production (K Meters) of Key Manufacturers (2013-2018) Table Global Emulsifying Wax Production Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018) Figure 2017 Emulsifying Wax Production Share by Manufacturers On comparable lines, ReportsnReports.com has another investigation titled "United State Emulsifying Wax Industry 2017" Market Research Report that spreads crosswise over 101 pages and upheld with 190 information tables and figures. The report then estimates 2017-2022 market development trends of Emulsifying Wax Industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Emulsifying Wax Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2017-2022 United State Emulsifying Wax Industry covering all important parameters. United States Emulsifying Wax showcase rivalry by top makers/players, with Emulsifying Wax deals volume, value, income (Million USD) and a piece of the overall industry for every producer/player; the best players including Strahl & Pitsch, Keim-Additec, Koster-wax, Kelly Chemical, Bio-Nest Biochemical Technology, Wuxi Kodin Chemical, Sinowax, Beijing Zhongguang Specialty Wax, Likang Weiye, Jining Baichuan Chemical and others. With 180 tables and figures the report gives key measurements on the condition of the business and is a significant wellspring of direction and bearing for organizations and people intrigued by the market. Read more at https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/848837-united-states-emulsifying-wax-market-report-2017.html . You can also view "Global and Chinese Emulsifying Wax Industry 2017" Market Research Report a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Emulsifying Wax industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Emulsifying Wax manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. 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Read more at: https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1078741-global-and-chinese-emulsifying-wax-industry-2017-market-research-report.html . About Us: ReportsnReports.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 100,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports. We provide 24/7 online and offline support to our customers. Contact: Tower B5, office 101, Magarpatta SEZ, Hadapsar, Pune-411013, India +1-888-391-5441 [email protected] Connect With Us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReportsnReports/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reportsnreports Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketsreports G+ / Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/111656568937629536321/posts RSS/Feeds: http://www.reportsnreports.com/feed/l-latestreports.xml SOURCE ReportsnReports SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Funding Circle, the leading small and medium enterprise ("SME") loans platform in the UK, U.S., Germany and the Netherlands1, and Alcentra Limited and Alcentra NY, LLC (collectively "Alcentra Group"), an alternative fixed income specialist for BNY Mellon Investment Management (IM), today announced a strategic partnership to support the growth of thousands of U.S. small businesses. The partnership will see Alcentra, a global asset management firm with assets under management of approximately $37.7 billion2, on behalf of its clients purchase up to $1 billion in business loans originated through Funding Circle's U.S. platform (Funding Circle U.S.) over a period of up to three years, with financing from Credit Suisse. In total, the deal is expected to fund loans to approximately 8,000 U.S. businesses, creating thousands of new jobs across the country. Today's news follows a record first half of the year, with Funding Circle facilitating more than $1.4 billion in lending globally in the first half of 20183. Despite playing an important role in the American economy, including employing roughly half of the country's private workforce4, small businesses continue to face challenges accessing finance through traditional channels. Funding Circle links this demand with supply, supporting access to finance for small businesses and enabling economic growth. In total, Funding Circle has facilitated $1.5 billion of loans to U.S. small businesses. A recent analysis by Oxford Economics found that lending through Funding Circle contributed $2 billion to the American economy in 2017 (measured in Gross Value Added)5. Globally, this lending enabled more than 75,000 jobs globally in 2017, including 28,000 jobs in the United States. Samir Desai, Funding Circle co-founder and CEO, said: "This partnership is further validation of the attractive risk-adjusted returns that are being generated by investors lending through Funding Circle. By opening up a new asset class for investors, we are helping to channel much-needed finance through to local small businesses who use these funds to create jobs and generate economic growth around the world." Alcentra joins a wide range of individual and institutional investors lending to small businesses through Funding Circle, including more than 80,000 retail investors, banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities and funds across Funding Circle's geographies. David Forbes-Nixon, Alcentra Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "With the shrinking of traditional lending channels, businesses of all sizes are facing similar challenges in securing financing. Alcentra's global expertise across syndicated loans, direct lending and structured credit, makes us ideally positioned to partner with Funding Circle and broadens the suite of credit strategies and solutions Alcentra is able to offer investors." Hiram Hamilton, Alcentra's Global Head of Structured Credit, said: "Alcentra is excited to partner with Funding Circle to extend our lending capabilities with large and middle market companies into small business loans in the U.S. The partnership will align the lending requirements of Funding Circle's clients with the potential to provide attractive investment returns for Alcentra's fund investors in this growing asset class." Bernardo Martinez, Funding Circle U.S. managing director, said: "We're continually encouraged by the high degree of investor interest we see in this asset class. This significant funding commitment will help small businesses across the country access the finance they need to expand and grow." Through its platform, Funding Circle is expanding access to finance for small businesses at competitive and transparent pricing. Using cutting-edge technology, proprietary credit models and sophisticated data analytics borrowers can complete a quick and simple initial application in minutes and typically receive a decision within 24 hours in the United States. Alcentra Group is a global asset management firm with assets under management of approximately $37.7 billion as of 31 July 2018. Alcentra Group has an investment track record that dates back to 1998. Strategies include: senior loans, high yield bonds, direct lending, structured credit, distressed debt, and multi-strategy credit. Alcentra Group is majority owned by The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and is headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Boston and San Francisco as well as representatives in Singapore and Hong Kong. BNY Mellon Investment Management is one of the world's leading investment management organizations and one of the top U.S. wealth managers, with $1.8 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2018. It encompasses BNY Mellon's affiliated investment management firms, wealth management services and global distribution companies. BNY Mellon Investment Management is a division of BNY Mellon, which has $33.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration as of June 30, 2018. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news. Funding Circle (www.fundingcircle.com) is a global SME loans platform, connecting SMEs who want to borrow with investors who want to lend in the UK, U.S., Germany and the Netherlands. Since launching in 2010, investors across Funding Circle's geographies including more than 80,000 retail investors, banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities and funds have lent more than 5 billion to over 50,000 businesses globally. Funding Circle has raised approximately 250 million in equity capital from some of the same investors that backed Facebook, Twitter and Airbnb. Unless otherwise stated herein all information sourced by BNY Mellon as of 5 September 2018. This press release is qualified for issuance in the U.S. and in the UK and Europe is for information purposes only. It does not constitute an offer or solicitation of securities or investment services or an endorsement thereof in any jurisdiction or in any circumstance in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful or not authorized. This press release is issued by BNY Mellon Investment Management/BNY Mellon Investment Management EMEA Limited to members of the financial press and media and the information contained herein should not be construed as investment advice. The value of investments can fall. Investors may not get back the amount invested. Income from investments may vary and is not guaranteed. Investment Managers are appointed by BNY Mellon Investment Management EMEA Limited (BNYMIM EMEA) or affiliated fund operating companies to undertake portfolio management activities in relation to contracts for products and services entered into by clients with BNYMIM EMEA or the BNY Mellon funds. Registered office of BNY Mellon Investment Management EMEA Limited: BNY Mellon Centre, 160 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4V 4LA. Registered in England no. 1118580. Authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. 1 By Q1 2018 originations for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and cumulative originations for the United States and Germany, according to OC&C analysis and estimates. 2 As of 31 July 2018 3 1.043 billion at an exchange rate of 1.377 dollars to the British pound. 4 U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. United States Small Business Profile, 2018. https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/2018-small-business-profiles-states-and-territories 5 The Economic Impact of Lending Through Funding Circle. Research commissioned by Funding Circle from Oxford Economics, June 2018. http://www.fundingcircle.com/us/impact SOURCE Funding Circle Related Links https://www.fundingcircle.com HILLSDALE, Mich., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hillsdale College welcomes 11 new faculty members to campus for the 2018-2019 academic year. "We are pleased to welcome these accomplished scholars and teachers to the Hillsdale faculty," said Hillsdale College provost David Whalen. "They join a dedicated cadre of professors, and our students will cherish these new faculty as well." Hillsdale College welcomes: Dr. Robert Atra, associate professor of finance Dr. Nicole Coonradt, visiting assistant professor of English Dr. David Diener, headmaster of Hillsdale Academy and lecturing professor of education Dr. Elizabeth Fredericks, assistant professor of English Dr. Kevin Gerstle, assistant professor of mathematics Dr. Khalil Habib, associate professor of politics Dr. Christopher Matsos, assistant professor of theater Dr. Sang-Chul Nam, associate professor of biology Dr. James Strasburg, assistant professor of history Dr. Benjamin Winegard, assistant professor of psychology Dr. Qianying (Jennie) Zhang, assistant professor of finance and economics Dr. Robert Atra joins Hillsdale College as an associate professor of finance. Dr. Atra received his bachelor's degree in business from The College of the Ozarks, his master's degree in finance from Northern Illinois University, and his doctorate in finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He earned credentials as a certified financial planner in 1993 and as a chartered financial analyst in 2002. Dr. Atra comes to Hillsdale from Lewis University, where he served as professor and chair of the finance department. Dr. Nicole Coonradt joins Hillsdale College as a visiting assistant professor of English. Dr. Coonradt earned her bachelor's degree in English at Hillsdale. She completed her master's degree in English language and literature at Central Michigan University and her doctorate in literary studies at the University of Denver. Dr. Coonradt previously served as an adjunct professor in English for Hillsdale College. In 2015, she began teaching writing courses in Cotton Correctional Facility as a part of Jackson College's Prison Education Initiative, a program by which inmates can earn an associate degree. Dr. David Diener is the new head of school for Hillsdale Academy and also serves as lecturing professor of education. Dr. Diener completed his bachelor's degree in integrative philosophy at Wheaton College. He earned his master's degree in history and philosophy of education and dual doctoral degrees in philosophy and philosophy of education from Indiana University. He was head of school at Grace Academy in Georgetown, Texas, and prior to that was head of upper school at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas. He has also taught at Taylor University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Indiana University. Dr. Elizabeth Fredericks joins Hillsdale College as an assistant professor of English. She received her bachelor's degree in English from Hope College, her master's degree in interdisciplinary studies from Regent College, her master's degree in English from Durham University and her doctorate in English from Baylor University. Her dissertation focused on how 20th-century authors of British and Irish communities incorporated rituals into their writings as cultural protection against modernity. Dr. Fredericks was previously a Lilly Fellow and lecturer in English at Valparaiso University. Dr. Kevin Gerstle joins Hillsdale College as an assistant professor of mathematics. Dr. Gerstle earned bachelor's degrees in psychology and mathematics at Kenyon College and a master's degree in mathematics, a certificate in college teaching and a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Iowa. His current research focuses on computational harmonic analysis. Dr. Gerstle taught mathematics at Oberlin College and at the University of Iowa and was also an apprentice teacher in Chinese courses at Kenyon College. Dr. Khalil Habib joins Hillsdale College as an associate professor of politics. Dr. Habib earned his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Maine, his master's degree in political science at the University of Toronto and his doctorate in philosophy at Boston University. His articles have been published in three books, and he is co-editor of Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization: Citizens without States. Dr. Habib was an associate professor in philosophy and director of the Pell Honors Program at Salve Regina University. He is an associate editor of VoegelinView. Dr. Christopher Matsos joins Hillsdale College as an assistant professor of theater. Dr. Matsos received his bachelor's degree in theater from the College of Wooster, his master's degree in acting from the University of Florida and his doctorate from The Ohio State University. He is a published playwright and has acted in theater productions around the U.S. and in Ireland. Last year, Dr. Matsos was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Florida. Dr. Sang-Chul Nam joins Hillsdale College as an associate professor of biology. Dr. Nam earned his bachelor's degree in agricultural chemistry at Seoul National University, his master's degree and doctorate in biology at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and also pursued postgraduate studies in biology at Columbia University. Much of his research and published articles have focused on genetics through studies of Drosophila. Dr. Nam has taught as an associate professor at Texas A&M International University and as assistant professor at Baylor University. Dr. James Strasburg joins Hillsdale College as an assistant professor of history. Dr. Strasburg earned his bachelor's degrees in history and theology from Valparaiso University and studied as a Fulbright research scholar at the University of Leipzig. He then received his master's degree in theological studies from Duke University and his master's and doctoral degrees in history from the University of Notre Dame. His journal articles and writings have examined 20th-century Protestantism in Germany and America. Before coming to Hillsdale, Dr. Strasburg was a visiting scholar and research fellow at the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Benjamin Winegard joins Hillsdale College as an assistant professor of psychology. Dr. Winegard earned his bachelor's degree in sociology at Grand Valley State University and his master's degree and doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Missouri. His many journal papers, online magazine articles and book chapters frequently address issues in evolutionary psychology. He was previously an assistant professor of psychology at Carroll College. Dr. Qianying (Jennie) Zhang joins Hillsdale College as an assistant professor of finance and economics. Dr. Zhang earned her bachelor's degree in economics at East China Normal University, her master's degree in economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her doctorate in economics at Florida International University. Dr. Zhang's research focuses on empirical asset pricing and applied time series. Most recently, she was a visiting assistant professor in the economics department at Allegheny College. About Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is an independent liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis, with a circulation of more than 3.8 million. For more information visit hillsdale.edu. SOURCE Hillsdale College Related Links http://www.hillsdale.edu MACON, Ga., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honorary S. Phillip Brown is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Lifetime Achiever in the field of Law in recognition of his role as a newly appointed Senior Superior Court Judge. Judge Brown is now a Senior Judge in Georgia, where he handles cases where needed in Georgia. Judge Brown recently retired as an active lawyer in the Law firm of Anderson, Walker and Reichert in Macon. Having attained over fifty eight years of experience in the field, the firm specializes in general trial law, including personal injury, domestic, and criminal law. Dedicated to offering quality legal services at the fraction of the cost, the firm is adept in handling matters in all facets of law including general practice, corporate and business, insurance defense, tax, estate planning, estates and trusts, wills, probate, real estate, personal injury, creditor bankruptcy, employment, family law, adoptions and more. A distinguished law firm, they are known for their "highest ethical standards," and "devotion to public service," as they remain unwavering in their devotion to their clients. With a longstanding career of over fifty years of experience in the field of Criminal and Civil law, Judge Brown has become an astute member of the legal community. Known for his remarkable contributions to the industry, in his previous roles, Judge Brown has served in the office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service in New York City for two years. Upon return to Macon, he engaged in the general practice of law. Sworn in as Judge of the Superior Court of the Macon Judicial Circuit in January 1996, Judge Brown served for eighteen years of which the last two years were spent serving as Chief Judge. In his capacity as Judge, Brown presided over cases of all types from death penalty, to other felony trials in addition to civil cases of all types. He was also called as special visiting judge to sit with the Supreme Court of Georgia to determine title of the land and building of a historical Episcopal Church, one of the oldest churches in the nation, located in Savannah, Georgia, and which church was established before Georgia was a State, and therefore before the United States was a nation. Judge Brown is a 1967 graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University.To further advance his professional development, Judge Brown is an influential member of several elite organizations including the Georgia Bar Association, Rotary International and a local Palaver Club who belong by invitation so as to share issues of interest from a wide circle of professions. Judge Brown has taught several classes for Judges in the humanities studies offered by the Georgia Counsel of Superior Court Judges. Outside his judge duties, Judge Brown is an ardent reader of the Scientific American Magazine. He is, in his retirement, also writing a book regarding the interplay between religion and science, and of how these two disciplines might find grounds for mutual understanding. Both science and religion are founded on an assumption of a creator of such things as space, and universe(s); life; universe along with the ordering and genesis thereof, about which both science and religion know virtually nothing. The equal ignorance of science and religion on these and other matters such as consciousness can facilitate sharing of ideas of what facts ground both religious and scientific thought. Judge Brown dedicates this recognition to two former law partners with which he tried several highly complex criminal and civil cases. Both such lawyers were raised on rural Georgia farms. Their family farm life required hard work. No doubt this experience equipped both for a life of hard work and acceptance of very important duties requiring discipline and prolonged, structured effort. Attorney Gerald Mullis and Fred Hasty, both past law partners, are now deceased, but both were devoted to solid legal and factual research, coupled with common sense, amidst a native quest for justice. This character sustained them staying on the hunt for facts and law as needed to represent clients well. Both of said mentors' personal roots were rural, South Georgia poor, unsophisticated, farm bred and trained mentors, coupled with their inner quest for justice and fairness acted in their being great mentors, to whom I give great thanks. For more information, please visit http://www.awrlaw.com/. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com SAN DIEGO, Sept. 7, 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. Anusha Preethi Ganesan of Rady Children Hospital-San Diego with the $200,000 Hyundai Young Investigator grant. This September, 38 new doctor-researchers will receive a combined $14.1 million in grants to support novel therapeutic approaches and innovative research options in pediatric cancer. The $200,000 Hyundai Young Investigator award will be officially presented to Dr. Anusha Preethi Ganesan and Rady Children's on Friday, September 7, at 10:00 a.m. behind the Acute Care Pavilion at 3010 Children's Way, San Diego, CA. 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, Rady Children's has received more than $1.5 million in grants from Hope On Wheels, contributing to the organization's $145 million in the organization's total lifetime giving. "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." During the event, children being treated at Rady Children's 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 2018 Hyundai 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 http://www.HyundaiHopeOnWheels.org RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Infinia ML, an advanced machine learning company, will be honored in a ceremony today as one of the Triangle's "Best Places to Work." The Triangle Business Journal conveys the coveted award to companies with the highest levels of positive employee feedback on an independently-administered survey. Infinia ML 2018 Best Places to Work, Triangle Business Journal "Being named a Best Place to Work is an honor from our employees, and we're incredibly grateful for that," said CEO Robbie Allen. "We've made a commitment to our employees to create a productive work environment, support the health and wellness of all employees, and encourage every employee to pursue their educational goals." The company, which has tripled in size since the beginning of 2018, recently moved into a larger office to accommodate growth. Among Infinia ML's employee benefits is "Research Wednesdays," during which employees set aside client projects and focus on research to advance the field of machine learning. Employees also attend guest lectures about the cutting edge of machine learning and artificial intelligence. "Employees are the lifeblood of any company," said TBJ Publisher Jason Christie. "These 50 companies have demonstrated belief that happy employees produce successful and thriving businesses." 2018 Best Places to Work Ceremony | Triangle Business Journal Friday, September 7, 2018 | 11:30am 2:30pm PNC Arena | 1400 Edwards Mill Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607 About Infinia ML Infinia ML is a team of advanced machine learning experts helping enterprise clients reduce costs, increase efficiency, and achieve breakthroughs. 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 company is led by CEO Robbie Allen, an experienced AI entrepreneur, Chief Scientist Lawrence Carin, Ph.D., 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 has produced 31 patents, 11 books, 7 Ph.D.s, and more than 575 published papers. Learn more at InfiniaML.com. Contact: James Kotecki 9842278480 [email protected] SOURCE Infinia ML Related Links http://InfiniaML.com MORTON, Ill., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- G&D Integrated announced that Jeff Cohen has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the company. Cohen will report to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Joe O'Neill, and have overall responsibility for G&D Integrated's three operating divisions of Transportation, Contract Logistics, and Manufacturing as well as the Human Resources, Customer Relations, and Information Technology Departments. Cohen joined G&D Integrated in 2013 as Vice President of the Transportation Division and led in that role for five years prior to becoming the Chief Operating Officer in July of 2018. Prior to joining G&D, he was the Chief Executive Officer with a trucking and freight brokerage company based in the Atlanta area. Cohen also spent 17 years at BearingPoint, Inc. (formerly KPMG Consulting) where he began as a consultant and progressed to roles of increasing responsibility including nine years as a Managing Director/Partner. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College. "Jeff has played a key role in the growth of G&D and its transportation group the past five years," said President and CEO, Joe O'Neill. "He brings a wealth of experience to the company which will help lead G&D in its continuing plans towards growth in the logistics industry." ABOUT G&D INTEGRATED G&D Integrated is a provider of transportation and logistics services and has over 100 years of experience advancing innovative global supply chain solutions. Headquartered in Morton, IL, the company provides domestic transportation, freight brokerage, contract logistics, and supply chain services to a variety of industries with 1,000 employees at over 20 facilities across North America. For more information, visit www.gdintegrated.com. Contact: Susan Himes, Marketing Communications 309-284-6795 [email protected] SOURCE G&D Integrated Related Links http://www.gdintegrated.com SHANGHAI, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 4, Luye Pharma announced that its independently developed drug, Goserelin Acetate Extended-release Microspheres for Injection (LY01005), has entered phase III clinical trials for prostate cancer in China. Meanwhile, LY01005 is currently under phase I clinical trials in the U.S. via part 505(b) (2) of the United States Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Luye Pharma is working to hasten the launch of LY01005 in China and in other markets around the world, meanwhile advancing its strategic participation in the field of oncology therapeutics. Constantly enriching its R&D pipeline, the company aims to further strengthen its leading position in this field and lay solid foundations for future global market expansion. Developed by Luye Pharma through its long-acting and extended-release technology platform, LY01005 is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist for the treatment of several conditions, such as prostate cancer, breast cancer and endometriosis. Designed for once-monthly intramuscular administration, LY01005 has similar bioavailability to that of currently marketed drugs, but with better patient compliance and more stable efficacy. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers, with a rate of incidence among the most prevalent of all male cancers in Europe and the United States. In China, incidence of prostate cancer has increased rapidly over the last 10 years. According to IQVIA (formerly known as IMS) data on drug demand, in 2017, total sales revenue for gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist products in China was about 4.05 billion RMB. Between 2015 and 2017, the compound annual growth rate for this market was 19%. Luye Pharma believes that LY01005 will have a good market prospect after its launch, providing better treatment options for patients in China and around the world. In addition to China and the United States, the company is also working on clinical trial approvals for the drug in Europe and Japan. Luye Pharma Group acquired the patent for the goserelin microsphere pharmaceutical composition in China, filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application for it in 2014, with patent applications filed in the U.S., Europe, Japan and a number of other countries and regions in 2015; the application for Japan was approved. Oncology is one of Luye Pharma's four core therapeutic areas. In addition to the recent progress on LY01005, a number of positive results have been achieved in other pipeline products in the same therapeutic field. For example, LY01013, a IDO/TDO dual-target inhibitor, a new immune-oncology drug independently developed by Luye Pharma, has been approved for Phase I clinical trials in China. LY01008, a Bevacizumab analog indicated for colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, is progressing smoothly with its Phase III trials. In addition, the company has launched a series of collaborative research and development projects with global leading biotech companies to jointly develop the next generation of therapeutic antibodies for use in immuno-oncology and CAR-T therapy. At present, Luye Pharma has more than ten innovative formulations and drugs in this therapeutic field, which are in different stages of clinical development in China and overseas markets. As an international pharmaceutical company dedicated to the R&D, manufacturing and sale of innovative drugs, Luye Pharma has built a rich pipeline across different therapeutic areas, such as central nervous system, metabolism, and cardiovascular diseases. Driven by a strategy of "Global R&D", the company has established a global R&D network with three R&D centers, located in China, the United States and Europe. Currently, 30 drug candidates are being studied in China and more than 10 are being studied in overseas markets. Luye Pharma has reached advanced world level towards the research of new delivery technology, such as liposome, microsphere and transdermal drug delivery. Moreover, the company has been actively exploring opportunities for the development of innovative compounds and antibodies, cell & gene therapies and smart formulations. To better leverage R&D results to benefit patients, Luye Pharma has established 7 production bases and more than 30 production lines around the world, as well as a GMP quality management and control systems with international standards. The company has more than 30 marketed products and has presence in more than 80 countries and regions around the world, including China, the United States, Europe, Japan, other major global pharmaceutical markets and high-growth emerging markets. By building high-standard global quality management systems and global operation capacity, Luye Pharma is committed to improving the lives of global patients with ever more high-quality and innovative drugs. SOURCE Luye Pharma EDWARDS, Calif., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA invites media to view UP Aerospace's SpaceLoft suborbital rocket launch on Sept. 12 carrying the agency's Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) project. Once the rocket reaches space, the umbrella-like heat shield will eject and deploy to test the planetary entry technology. Previous launch of UP Aerospaces SpaceLoft rocket from Spaceport America in New Mexico carrying NASA Flight Opportunities program technology in 2013. After launching into space in 2015, UP Aerospaces rocket ejected NASAs Flight Opportunities Maraia capsule, https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/features/rocket_demonstrates_new_capability.html Media interested in covering the UP Aerospace launch must contact Spaceport America's Rosa Banuelos via email or at 575-202-4524 by 6 p.m. EDT on Sept. 10 to receive a press kit and instructions for attending the launch at Spaceport America's Vertical Launch Area in New Mexico. NASA experts will be available for media interviews at Spaceport America on Sept. 12. In addition to ADEPT, the launch will test two other NASA technologies, including the Autonomous Flight Termination System for launch vehicles and a system that measures the internal environment of suborbital vehicles carrying experiments. These payload flight tests were funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate's (STMD) Flight Opportunities program, managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. ADEPT was funded by STMD's Game Changing Development program and was designed and built by NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. Through both programs, NASA supports promising technologies from government, industry and academia for development and/or testing. For more about Armstrong, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong SOURCE NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center Related Links https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong A 2001 to 2007 Gallup Poll revealed that 93 percent of the world's Muslim population believed the 9/11 attacks unjustified. Another study from the Muslim Public Affairs Council found that one in three al-Qaeda terrorist plots between 9/11 and 2011 were disrupted with the aid of Muslim Americans. Muslims speak out against terrorism all the time. Yet, a disheartening pattern has emerged in the West whenever acts of terror occur. Almost immediately, public figures ask the same question: "Why don't Muslims speak out against terrorism?" The implicationMuslims don't speak outis obvious. According to Green, it really isn't a question but a condemnation, because it "wrongly assumes Islam is the driving force behind terrorism." Moreover, he says this assumption diverts our attention from unjust Western violence, preventing us from confronting our own troubling history. Green, a religious studies professor and former advisor to the US State Department under both the Trump and Obama administrations, debunks other myths, showing how ISIS actually targets Muslims more than any other group and why politics matter more than religion in driving terrorism. Ultimately, Green argues, "It's time to end the distractions and to spend more energy on coming to terms with unjust Western violence." Only then can we honestly assess the causes of violence, stop relying on damaging stereotypes, and begin to ask better questions of our Muslim neighbors. Todd H. Green teaches at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He is a sought-after speaker, giving lectures on college campuses and to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Green's work has appeared in the Huffington Post, and his expertise has been cited by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for American Progress, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has been interviewed by CNN, NPR, and Al Jazeera. He is the author of The Fear of Islam. http://fortresspress.com/presumedguilty For More Information: Cathy Husid-Shamir [email protected] 617-487-5026 (o), 413-822-4372 (c) SOURCE Fortress Press Related Links http://www.fortresspress.com NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Each year, an estimated 140,000 individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, a malignancy that often develops from a benign polyp into cancer over time. Screening by colonoscopy allows for the detection and removal of polyps, and therefore aids both the prevention and early detection of colorectal cancers. However, when colorectal polyps or other lesions are too large or difficult to remove by colonoscopy, surgery is required. Now, an innovative new option is available: a robotic scope that enables the physician to successfully remove lesions that cannot be removed by endoscopy without the patient undergoing surgery. Through a collaboration between the Division of Colorectal Surgery and the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, physicians at NYU Langone Health were the first in New York to use the Flex Robotic System within the gastrointestinal tract. Together, colorectal surgeon Mitchell Bernstein, MD, chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery, and gastroenterologist Seth A. Gross, MD, removed a large, premalignant rectal lesion in a woman who was later discharged on the same day. "This is the first time a robotic platform was incorporated into gastrointestinal endoscopy," says Dr. Gross, also an associate professor of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine. "At a time when technology and advancement in endoscopy is rapidly improving, our Division is committed to studying and utilizing the best technologies available to care for patients." Patients with large lesionswhether benign, premalignant, or potentially malignant-- in the GI tract often undergo surgery to remove the diseased anatomy. The robotic platform combines the principles of both endoscopy and minimally invasive surgery for luminal gastrointestinal procedures. "As surgeons, we continually strive to enhance our techniques, to provide better results for our patients while minimizing complications, decreasing pain, and speeding up recovery," said Dr. Bernstein, also an associate professor of Surgery at NYU School of Medicine. "As a proponent of minimally invasive and robotic surgery, I appreciate the value of technology that treats disease without creating a traditional incision, thereby reducing scarring, recovery time, and risk of infection, while enhancing patient experience." How the Medrobotics Flex Robotic System Works During the procedure, a flexible robotic scope is inserted into the anus under general anesthesia. The physician advances the endoscope, which contains a high-definition, 3D camera, to the site of the lesion by using a robotic console. Once in position, the scope creates a stable surgical platform through which flexible instruments can pass. Physicians remove the lesion without making any cuts through a patient's skin. The Flex Robotic System has been widely recognized for advances in robotic technology, including Best-in-Show at the 2016 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA) and a Best New Product at the 2017 Edison Awards. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the Medrobotics Flex Robotic System for colorectal application in the anus, rectum and distal colon in May 2017. The procedure is covered by most private insurance plans and Medicare. Drs. Bernstein and Gross have no disclosure of any commercial interest or financial support from Medrobotics. Media Inquiries: Rob Magyar 212-404-3591 [email protected] SOURCE NYU Langone Health NORFOLK, Va., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Cynthia C. Earhart will make a presentation at: Morgan Stanley 6th Annual Laguna Conference Friday, Sept. 14, 8:45 a.m. PDT The Ritz-Carlton, Dana Point, Calif. Interested investors not attending the conference may listen to the presentation via webcast using the following URL link, which also will be posted at www.norfolksouthern.com in the Investors section: Webcast URL: https://cc.talkpoint.com/morg007/091218b_as/?entity=11_RI41RUJ About Norfolk Southern Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway Company subsidiary operates approximately 19,500 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal, automotive, and industrial products. SOURCE Norfolk Southern Corporation Related Links http://www.norfolksouthern.com In subsequent stages, Liquid will offer a World Book technology that aggregates the orders and prices on various exchanges into a single highly liquid and tradable order book and allows orders to be placed in the currency of one's choice. A fragmented trading landscape and lack of liquidity have hampered the development of the cryptocurrency markets. Liquid will facilitate market stability, enhance liquidity and empower a new wave of digital asset traders to buy and sell tokens safely. Quoine is the first global cryptocurrency exchange to be officially licensed by the Japan Financial Service Authority (FSA) for its Japanese operations. Moreover, Quoine's existing trading platforms, Qryptos and Quoinex, are among the most advanced in the world. The existing digital currency exchange and trading platforms will merge into the new Liquid portal, providing access to liquidity pools sourced by a unified platform. Currently, Quoine processes annual transactions worth over $50 billion and are amongst the top crypto-exchanges in the world [1]. In November 2017, Quoine successfully raised USD105M in an oversubscribed ICO, to fund the growth of the Liquid platform. A fragmented and non-liquid crypto economy Crypto exchanges offer an overlapping variety of cryptocurrency pairs. However, the fragmented trading landscape has led to price and volume discrepancies, creating individual currency silos, with greater liquidity on one exchange not reflected on the other. As liquidity and the best price constantly shifts from exchange to exchange around the world, it creates substantial price volatility and accessibility issues for traders. "Cryptocurrency markets need stability. This year, the 30 day BTC/USD volatility index [2] has been above 3% for almost the entire year, with highs topping 8% at the start of the year. Liquid is paving the way to a less volatile future by improving liquidity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem," said Mike Kayamori, Co-Founder and CEO of Quoine. "However, Liquid is more than just a cryptocurrency exchange. Liquid is an all-in-one platform that will bridge the gap between traditional finance and the token economy. We offer everything you need within our suite of services, while our underlying tech will help connect a global crypto community." Introducing Liquid Platform Liquid's World Book will provide liquidity with its matching engine technology, which matches orders to ensure traders can always buy and sell into healthy order books. Liquid's World Book comprises an internal and external book: Internal Order Book: At launch, the order book contains FX-adjusted orders for all orders placed by users internally within Liquid platform. External Aggregated Order Book: Moving forward, the external order book will eventually contain all other orders (but FX adjusted) that exist throughout the world other than those placed in Internal Order Book. Each order in this book is linked to an order on the various exchanges internationally. The World Book is driven by three technologies that have been utilised extensively by Quoine daily, powering the existing QUOINEX and QRYPTOS trading platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges: Matching Engine (ME): The engine is capable of processing several million transactions per second, making it one of the most advanced matching engines in the industry. Cross Currency Conversion Engine (CCCE): The CCCE allows for near-instant, automated currency conversions between cross currency pairs. Smart Order Routing (SOR): The technology maintains low-latency, real-time (R/T) feeds for all major exchanges throughout the world. In the first phase of the launch, Liquid is introducing new and refined features such as: - Internal Order Book that will enable the matching of orders across orders books with different trading pairs - Upgraded Matching Engine that processes up to several millions of transactions per second - Improved User Interface (UI) which includes a Markets page allowing users to explore spot markets - Advanced Features allowing users to execute iceberg orders - Advanced Margin Trading allowing users to view unrealised penalties - Lending feature allowing hodlers to earn interest on their crypto assets - ICO Market 2.0 allowing users to access ICO token sales, private sales, and project analyses Quoine will continue to roll out the following features in progressive phases: External Aggregated Order Book that can aggregate the orders and prices on the world's various exchanges into a single highly liquid and tradable order book New KYC process enabling withdrawals under certain limits to be done without KYC Use of credit card to fund accounts Quick deposit/withdrawals of funds Mobile app on Google and Apple app store Fuelling the platform will be a utility token called the QASH token, which grants access to the full suite of services on Liquid, along with discounts and additional benefits. "Quoine aims to provide liquidity to the non-liquid crypto economy. With the launch of Liquid, Quoine is building a solid, global financial utility. An advanced platform the entire crypto economy will use to great advantage; where anyone can participate as users and token holders," said Mario Gomez Lozada, Co-Founder, President and Chief Product Officer of Quoine. [1] According to CoinmarketCap rankings [2] According to buybitcoinworldwide.com ABOUT QUOINE Quoine is a leading global fintech company that provides trading, exchange, and next generation financial services powered by blockchain technology. With offices in Japan, Singapore and Vietnam, Quoine combines a strong network of local partners with extensive team experience in banking and financial products to deliver best in class financial services for its customers. More information is available at www.quoine.com In 2014, Quoine launched Quoine Exchange, later known as Quoinex, which became one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world by transaction volume. In June 2017, Quoine launched a cryptocurrency-only exchange and trading platform called Qryptos, exclusively for cryptocurrency trading. Both Quoinex and Qryptos offer powerful trading features, a sophisticated user dashboard, secure cold wallet storage and KYC compliance for individual and corporate customers. In September 2017, Quoine Corporation became the first global cryptocurrency exchange to be officially licensed by the Japan Financial Services Agency for its Japanese operations. In October 2017, Quoine became the first licensed global cryptocurrency exchange in Japan to launch a global Initial Coin Offering (ICO), also known as the QASHToken Sale. In November 2017, Quoine successfully raised 350m QASH (the equivalent of 350K ETH or ~USD105m) in an oversubscribed ICO, to fund the growth of the Liquid platform. As part of the Liquid platform development, Quoinex and Qryptos will be merged into Liquid. As at July 2018, both Quoinex and Qryptos exceeded USD50 billion in combined transaction volumes in the past 12 months. In September 2018, Quoinex and Qryptos was merged and relaunched as Liquid. Liquid is powered by Quoine's World Book, which provides customers enhanced price matching and deeper liquidity for various fiat and cryptocurrency pairs. More information can be found at: https://liquid.com MEDIA CONTACT DETAILS Quoine Contact Person: Renee Tng Email: [email protected] Corporate Website: https://quoine.com Liquid Website: https://liquid.com Telegram Community: https://t.me/Quoine SOURCE Quoine Related Links http://www.quoine.com COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Although it has no confirmation of unauthorized access to or acquisition of personal or protected health information, Ohio Living in Columbus, Ohio announced today that it has taken action after becoming aware of an incident in which an unknown third party gained access to employee email accounts. Out of an abundance of caution, Ohio Living is providing this notice of this event to potentially impacted individuals, as well as certain regulators. What Happened? On July 19, 2018, Ohio Living determined that there were potential unauthorized logins into some Ohio Living employee email accounts. Previously, on July 10, 2018, Ohio Living became aware of suspicious activity relating to an employee email account. They quickly launched an investigation to determine what may have happened and what information may have been affected. Working together with a leading computer forensics expert, Ohio Living's investigation determined that an unknown individual accessed employee email accounts on July 10, 2018. Because they were unable to determine which email messages may have been opened or taken by the unauthorized actor, Ohio Living reviewed the email accounts to identify what personal information was stored within them. What Information Was Involved? On September 4, 2018, Ohio Living determined that the affected email accounts contained, and the unauthorized actor may have accessed or acquired, information related to certain individuals who attended an Ohio Living facility, and/or received treatment from an Ohio Living facility, including the following types of information: name, contact information, Social Security number, financial information, date of birth, medical record number, patient identification number, medical and/or clinical information including diagnosis and treatment information, and health insurance information. Ohio Living cannot confirm whether any individual's personal information was actually accessed, viewed, or acquired without permission. They are providing this notification out of an abundance of caution. What They Are Doing. Ohio Living has strict security measures to protect the information in its possession. Upon learning of this incident, they quickly disabled the known impacted employee email account, changed the password, and notified other employees to be on the lookout for suspicious emails. Ohio Living then implemented password resets for all employees. They are currently implementing additional training and education for employees to prevent similar future incidents. They are also offering the impacted individuals access to complimentary credit monitoring services as an added precaution. Because Ohio Living has insufficient contact information for the some of the individuals whose information may be contained in the impacted employee email accounts, Ohio Living is providing notice to potentially impacted individuals by way of a notification posted on the homepage of its website, https://www.ohioliving.org, as well as by publishing notice to certain state media outlets and in certain state media publications. Ohio Living is mailing notice letters to those individuals for whom Ohio Living has confirmed mailing address information. For More Information. Ohio Living has established a dedicated assistance line for individuals seeking additional information regarding this incident. Individuals may call 877-670-0980, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday with questions or if they would like additional information. What You Can Do. Ohio Living encourages everyone to remain vigilant and take steps to protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss by reviewing their account statements and Explanation of Benefits statements regularly and monitoring their credit reports for suspicious activity. Under U.S. law, individuals over the age of 18 are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order a free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. Individuals may also contact the three major credit bureaus directly to request a free copy of their credit report. Ohio Living encourages individuals who believe they may be affected by this incident to take additional action to further protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss. At no charge, individuals can also have the credit bureaus place a "fraud alert" on their credit file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify their identity prior to granting credit in their name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect the individual, it may also delay their ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies their identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms the individual's fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on the individual's file. Should the individual wish to place a fraud alert, or should the individual have any questions regarding his or her credit report, the individual can contact any one of the agencies listed below. Equifax Experian TransUnion P.O. Box 105069 P.O. Box 2002 P.O. Box 2000 Atlanta, GA 30348 Allen, TX 75013 Chester, PA 19022 800-525-6285 888-397-3742 800-680-7289 www.equifax.com www.experian.com www.transunion.com An individual may also place a security freeze on their credit reports. A security freeze prohibits a credit reporting agency from releasing any information from an individual's credit report without the consumer's written authorization. However, individuals should be aware that placing a security freeze on their credit report may delay, interfere with, or prevent the timely approval of any requests they make for new loans, credit mortgages, employment, housing, or other services. If an individual has been a victim of identity theft, and the individual provides the credit reporting agency with a valid police report, it cannot charge the individual to place, lift or remove a security freeze. In all other cases, a credit reporting agency may charge a fee to place, temporarily lift, or permanently remove a security freeze. Individuals will need to place a security freeze separately with each of the three major credit bureaus listed above if the individual wishes to place the freeze on all of their credit files. In order to request a security freeze, you will need to supply your full name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, current address, all addresses for up to five previous years, email address, a copy of your state identification card or driver's license, and a copy of a utility bill, bank or insurance statement, or other statement proving residence. To find out more on how to place a security freeze, individuals can contact the credit reporting agencies using the information below: Equifax Security Freeze P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348 1-800-685-1111 (NY residents please call 1-800-349-9960) www.freeze.equifax.com Experian Security Freeze P.O. Box 9554 Allen, TX 75013 1-888-397-3742 www.experian.com/freeze/center.html TransUnion PO Box 2000 Chester, PA 19022-2000 1-888-909-8872 www.transunion.com/securityfreeze Individuals can further educate themselves regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, and the steps they can take to protect themselves, by contacting the Federal Trade Commission or their state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20580, www.ftc.gov/idtheft/, 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. Individuals can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement. SOURCE Ohio Living NAPLES, Fla., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The independent authority on Search vendors, topseos.com, has released their list of the one hundred best SEO companies for the month of September 2018. Each month the rankings published on the website are updated to account for the latest developments and achievements of the leading and top contending marketing companies offering professional SEO solutions. While there are thousands of competing vendors within the industry, the rankings aim to highlight top performers to assist buyers in finding reputable search vendors. The rankings of the best SEO companies for the month of September 2018 include: Digital Marketing Agency HigherVisibility OuterBox VJG Interactive Ignite Digital Inc. Boostability Ignite Visibility Prime Visibility Thrive Internet Marketing Bruce Clay To view the rankings of the best SEO companies visit: https://www.topseos.com/rankings-of-best-seo-companies The process used to determine placement within the rankings involves an in-depth analysis of leading and top contending search engine marketing companies. The evaluation process used to benchmark and compare the competing vendors involves the use of a set of evaluation criteria consisting of five areas of evaluation. These five areas of evaluation include on page optimization, off page optimization, needs analysis, keyword analysis, and reporting methods. For an additional look at the competing vendors client reviews and testimonials are taken into consideration. About topseos.com topseos.com is an online provider of independent reviews and ratings. The ratings of the best search engine marketing companies are released monthly to assist businesses in connecting with search engine optimization companies which feature a history of effective solutions. Thousands of search engine marketing companies are put to the test while only the absolute best companies are highlighted in the ratings. This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. SOURCE topseos.com Related Links https://www.topseos.com COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Petroff Law Offices was recognized on August 30th, 2018 as one of Central Ohio's companies to watch. The annual search, based on nominations from clients, colleagues and members of the business community, recognizes privately-held companies with substantial revenue growth rates. "The firm is extremely proud to have earned a spot on the Fast 50 list. From a business standpoint, it shows the hard work our team has put in over the past several years. More importantly, it showcases our unique position in the community and our capability to make a significant impact on people's lives," says Managing Partner Ronald Petroff. The firm will be honored at a luncheon on October 17th in downtown Columbus, where business owners, professionals, and alumni honorees from across the region gather to celebrate select companies. About Petroff Law Offices, LLC Petroff Law Offices, LLC is a leading statewide domestic relations law firm. All five family law attorneys are well known for successfully handling complex contested domestic relations cases, and the firm prides itself on establishing long-lasting relationships with clients based on a passion and determination for achieving the best possible outcome for each matter. Practice Areas Include: Divorce, Dissolution, High Asset Divorce, Same Sex Divorce, Military and Firefighter Divorce, Child Custody, Domestic Violence, Support issues, Adoption, Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO's), Marital Settlement Agreements and Equitable Property Divisions and child support review and enforcement. Media Contact: Jelena Hotic Wheelhouse Creative, LLC [email protected] 614-962-7751 SOURCE Petroff Law Offices Related Links http://www.petrofflawoffices.com OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Poets&Quants, the leading online publication for graduate business education news, announced exclusive live stream access to the grand opening of the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business quad building on September 14th, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. ET. John A. Byrne, editor in-chief of Poets&Quants, will be on campus for the opening of the new Tepper building. The event, [email protected], will be an all-day event streamed live to the Poets&Quants homepage and Facebook page. This unique event will include senior executives from Facebook, Amazon, IBM, and more as they discuss topics like artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and machine learning. John A. Byrne will bring you exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with panelists and surprise guests. Scheduled to appear are: Jerome Pesenti, VP of AI at Facebook Brian Olsavsky, SVP and CFO, Amazon Alexander Gray, Head of AI Science, IBM Research, IBM Anthony Foxx, Former US Transportation Secretary Kris Kersey, Blockchain Director Lead Emerging Technology, PwC Poets&Quants will broadcast this event live on September 14th at 9:00 a.m. PT. Including behind the scenes commentary and interviews conducted by John Byrne. Visit https://news.poetsandquants.com/intersectcmu to learn more and register for this event. About Poets&Quants: Poets&Quants is the leading resource for complete coverage of graduate business education. We feature multiple tools and authoritative content, including: consolidated B-school rankings, news and in-depth features, videos, podcasts, two searchable directories and events, empowering our community with information needed to make decisions along their journey from pre- to post-MBA. About John A. Byrne: Poets&Quants' Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne is the founder of C-Change Media, a global digital media company of higher education content operating five websites and hosting events worldwide bringing together business school students, the world's best schools, and largest employers. Byrne is the author or co-author of more than ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and is the former executive editor of Businessweek, editor-in-chief of Businessweek.com, and editor-in-chief of Fast Company. He also is the creator of the first regularly published rankings of business schools for Businessweek in 1988 and the author of several business school guidebooks. He wrote an unprecedented 58 cover stories for Businessweek and is the only business journalist to have written covers for Businessweek, Fortune, Forbes, and Fast Company magazines. This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. SOURCE Poets&Quants NEWARK, N.J., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rafael Holdings, Inc. (NYSE American: RFL) today announced that, through a subsidiary, it has partially exercised a warrant to purchase preferred equity in Rafael Pharmaceuticals, Inc ("Rafael Pharma"), a clinical stage, metabolic oncology-therapeutics company which is developing innovative, highly selective and well tolerated anti-cancer agents. "We see real promise in Rafael Pharma's lead therapeutic compound, CPI-613 - as well as in other molecules under development in Rafael Pharma's Altered Energy Metabolism Directed platform," said Howard Jonas, Chairman and CEO of Rafael Holdings. "We are excited to continue our investment in this promising approach to some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers." "Rafael Pharma anticipates initiating Phase III clinical trials with CPI-613 in patients with pancreatic cancer and in patients with relapsed/refractory AML," said Sanjeev Luther, Rafael Pharmaceutical's President and Chief Executive Officer. "This investment will help us to execute on our clinical trial programs and hopefully move us closer to bringing CPI-613 to patients in need." CS Pharma Holdings, LLC ("CS Pharma"), in which Rafael Holdings owns an effective 45% interest, partially exercised a warrant to purchase 8 million shares of Rafael Pharmaceuticals' Series D Convertible Preferred Stock for $10 million representing approximately 7.9% of the equity on a fully-diluted basis (excluding the remainder of the warrant) of Rafael Pharmaceuticals. The warrant in full is exercisable for up to 56% of the fully diluted equity of Rafael Pharmaceuticals. The right to exercise the first $10 million of the warrant was held by CS Pharma. The remainder of the warrant is held by a Rafael Holdings 90%-owned subsidiary. Rafael Pharma plans to utilize the proceeds from the investment to advance its clinical trial programs, research and develop additional molecules from its Altered Energy Metabolism Directed platform and for general corporate purposes. All statements above that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "target" and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors. Our filings with the SEC provide detailed information on such statements and risks, and should be consulted along with this release. To the extent permitted under applicable law, Rafael Holdings, Inc. assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. About Rafael Holdings, Inc.: Rafael Holdings holds commercial real estate assets and interests in two clinical stage pharmaceutical companies. The real estate holdings consist of properties in Newark and Piscataway, New Jersey and Jerusalem, Israel. The pharmaceutical holdings consist of interests in Rafael Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and a majority stake in Lipomedix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Both are focused on development and commercialization of drugs in the oncology space. For more information, visit www.rafaelholdings.com SOURCE Rafael Holdings, Inc. Related Links http://rafaelpharma.com UPPER MARLBORO, Md., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rick Jaklitsch is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Professional Member in the field of Law in recognition of his role as an Attorney at The Jaklitsch Law Group. With over seventy five years of combined experience in the legal industry, the attorneys at The Jaklitsch Law Group are dedicated to offering their clients excellent, timely, quality legal advice. The group has, "developed a reputation for providing effective legal counsel to victims of car accidents and other personal injuries caused by negligence." With over thirty three years of experience in the field of law under his belt, Rick Jaklitsch has established himself as a trusted name in the industry. Having gathered extensive experience in all facets of law, Jaklitsch has gained expertise in the areas of Motor Vehicle Accidents, Truck Accidents, Wrongful Death, Nursing Home Negligence, Medical Malpractice, Slip and Falls. Early in his career, Jaklitsch attained his degree from the University of Maryland in College Park. In addition, Jaklitsch attended the University Of Maryland School Of Law, located in Baltimore, Maryland. In an effort to further advance his professional career, Jaklitsch is a distinguished fellow of several elite organizations including the American Trial Lawyers Association, Maryland Association for Justice, National Personal Injury Association, Maryland State Bar Association, the Anne Arundel Bar Association, Prince George's County Bar Association and the American Bar Association. In recognition of his professional achievements, Jaklitsch was the recipient of Prince George's County Bar Association's esteemed President's Award for "outstanding contributions to the Bar and to the community," and was named a "Make-A-Wish Star" by the National Make-A-Wish Foundation. In addition, he was the recipient of the Terrapin Club Lifetime Giving Award; "Top 100 Trial Lawyers" by the American Trial Lawyers Association; "Nationally Ranked Top 10 Attorney Award" by National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys; "Top Attorney" Award in Washington, D.C., and the "Top Attorney" Award in the State of Maryland by Super Lawyers Magazine. Additionally, Jaklitsch was listed in the Best Lawyers in America registry, has held the highest possible rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been featured in the Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers in America (reserved for the top 1% of lawyers in the country) for 20 consecutive years. He has been featured in Who's Who in American Law for the past twenty three years. Married to Judge Michele Jaklitsch of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, Jaklitsch is the proud father to Drew and David Jaklitsch. For more information, please visit http://jaklitschlawgroup.com/ Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com Three-day auction attracts 9,000+ bidders from 49 countries; 67% of equipment sold online EDMONTON, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Ritchie Bros. started September strong, with a CA$78+ million (US$60+ million) auction in Edmonton, AB this week, selling equipment for more than 1,000 consignors. The three-day auction (September 4 6, 2018) attracted more than 9,000 bidders from 49 countries, including 6,850+ people that registered to bid online. Approximately 88 percent of the equipment was sold to Canadian buyers, including 56 percent sold to Alberta. International buyers from such countries as the United States, Singapore, and New Zealand purchased 12 percent. Online buyers purchased approximately 67 percent (CA$53+ million or US$40+ million) of the assets sold. "We continued to see strong pricing for equipment and trucks in this week's auction," said Trent Vandenberghe, Regional Sales Manager, Ritchie Bros. "Transportation pricing remains solid and bidding on heavy construction equipment was very active, showcasing depth in the market for this equipment right now. Oilfield transportation equipment also delivered solid results, as contractors looking ahead to fall and winter work start to upgrade their fleets." In total, more than 7,650 items were sold in the Edmonton auction, including 200+ truck tractors, 130+ compactors, 100+ skid steer loaders, 80+ excavators, 70+ flatbed trucks, 50+ dump trucks, 40+ dozers, 40+ loaders, 40+ boom trucks, 25+ farm tractors, and more. All items were sold without minimum bids or reserve prices. "The auction was great, prices exceeded our expectations," said Jason Weinberger, President of W Corporation, who sold 75+ items as part of a complete dispersal of his company's trucking and drilling division. "We chose Ritchie Bros. because of the size and scope of their audience. I saw our equipment get bids from across Canada, as well as Mexico, and Colombia. The whole team at Ritchie provided excellent customer service and followed through on their promises." Specific sales highlights include: A 2007 Foremost Commander C 8x8 off-highway bed truck sold for CA$530,000 A 2016 Komatsu D155AX-8 dozer sold for CA$410,000 A 2013 Caterpillar D6T LGP w/ Vanguard 72H hydraulic pipelayer sold for CA$395,000 A 2011 Western Star 4900SA 9,450-litre tri-drive hot oiler pres tank truck sold for CA$380,000 A 1999 Liebherr LTM1080 90-ton 8x8x8 all-terrain crane sold for CA$265,000 A 2011 Caterpillar 349EL hydraulic excavator sold for CA$240,000 A 2014 Western Star 4900SA 14,793-litre tri-drive sleeper combo vac truck sold for CA$225,000 A 2012 Caterpillar 740B 6x6 articulated dump truck sold CA$220,000 6x6 articulated dump truck sold CA$220,000 A 2013 Caterpillar 966H wheel loader sold for CA$202,500 A 2012 Freightliner M2112 T/A tire truck sold for CA$142,500 Auction quick facts: Edmonton, AB (September 2018) Gross transactional value CA$78+ million (US$60+ million) CA$78+ million (US$60+ million) Amount sold to online bidders CA$53+ million (US$40+ million) CA$53+ million (US$40+ million) Total registered bidders (onsite and online) 9,000+ 9,000+ Online registered bidders 6,850+ 6,850+ Number of lots sold 7,650+ 7,650+ Number of sellers 1,000+ Ritchie Bros. currently has more than 50,000 equipment items, trucks, and other assets listed for sale in its upcoming onsite unreserved auctions, IronPlanet weekly online auctions, Marketplace-E and its other marketplaces. For a complete list of upcoming auctions and equipment available, visit rbauction.com and ironplanet.com. About Ritchie Bros.: Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a multitude of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offers live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing its exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; Marketplace-E, an online marketplace offering multiple price and timing options; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales. The company also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, Kruse Energy Auctioneers , and Cat auctions, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about the unprecedented choice provided by Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com. Photos and video for embedding in media stories are available at rbauction.com/media. SOURCE Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Related Links www.rbauction.com The emergence of Internet shopping mall has created a sensation in the industry, and it has become so widespread that the term "Internet shopping mall" now equates to "shopping mall". The industrial revival of the Internet shopping mall is now leading the explosion of economic growth, creating synergies and expansion of business communication through social network services. People's reliance on social network services is growing beyond the reach of the Internet chat and e-mail in the past, and attempts to link transactions directly to SNS have become a big challenge in the industry. An example is a service that allows people who want to sell on various platforms such as Auction and Gmarket to freely trade with people who want to buy. In response to this technological trend, venture company called FunkeyPay, which aims to link SNS with direct commerce, is recently drawing attention. World's first blockchain model to incorporate payment and P2P marketing Funkeypay's platform is an innovative model that combines P2P marketing with payment for the first time. Facebook and Instagram already have more than 3 billion users worldwide. On these SNS, Funkeypay is able to provide services to customers using P2P marketing tools developed by TicketSocket USA. Companies using TicketSocket P2P marketing tools are provided with highly efficient advertising tools that dramatically reduce costs. On the other hand, consumers can easily purchase and pay for the products anytime, anywhere using Funkeypay coin (FNK). World's first business model to combine blockchain technology with API technology It has applied the world's highest level of security to payment API technology which was used for FinTech, P2P, and blockchain technologies. The combination of these technologies provides differentiated marketing and payment services that have not previously been experienced. Dr. Watler Tonetto, who is recognized as a blockchain expert in Southeast Asia and Europe, is currently working as Vice President of the Global Blockchain Research Application Foundation (GBRAF). He commented on this matter, "When I think about this from the perspective of API, Funkeypay has a different, unique open API with TicketSocket Korea. It gives easy access to other applications and the ability to purchase things." He concluded, "The blockchain technology of Funkeypay and the API composition of TicketSocket are very special." An asset type model with already-existing ecosystem that does not require pioneering a new market "Among those who have come to me for business proposals were companies with skills that were really difficult to refuse. However, in the end, we had to turn them down for reasons that their outstanding technology was still difficult to be used and commercialized right away. In fact, in this respect, Funkeypay, who already has an ecosystem called SNS, has a really attractive business advantage." The above statement is an evaluation of Funkeypay by David DH Kim, a business developer and Director of DAO Consulting. As David DH Kim stated, Funkeypay is an asset type ICO model that does not require creating a new market. The service is provided on SNS, as already-existing ecosystem. Therefore, it is under development to be immediately applicable and utilizable. There is no need to pay astronomical costs to create an ecosystem. Rather, most assets are used as security guarantees for safe transactions. It doesn't stop with online services, they extend to offline services, thus the potential expansion of the ecosystem in the future is beyond imagination. Funkeypay's CEO Dr. Jung Jong Ki states, "SNS as a service market is already in full swing, but as a commercial transaction market, it is in early stages and will grow rapidly in the future. And Facebook will most likely be the first to gain control of the market." Meanwhile, Funkeypay held technical presentation meetups in Seoul (July 12), Shenzhen (June 30) and Ghaungzhou (July 7) China and Japan (August 4). Many cities in Vietnam and China are currently requesting more meetups. Funkeypay is a global cryptocurrency P2P payment platform that applies to Social Network Services. There are about 3 billion active SNS users worldwide. And the number is growing every year. While the service aspect of SNS has developed and matured over the years, commerce is in its beginning stages. Funkeypay will enable seamless and active payment services on SNS platforms through combining blockchain, P2P advertising and Fintech. Telegram : https://t.me/funkeypayairdrop Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/FNKpay/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/funkey_pay SOURCE FUNKEYpay GOTEBORG, Sweden, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Brazil's state-owned oil company, one of the world's fastest-growing energy companies, has signed a contract with Stena Bulk for the chartering of its MR product tankers Stena Conqueror (47,000 dwt, built in 2003) and Stena Conquest (47,000 dwt, built in 2004). The contract is for a term of two years and includes the option to extend the charters for another 11 months. The vessels will carry refined products along the Brazilian coast. "We have a long-standing, highly-valued relationship with Petrobras when it comes to both Suezmax and MR tankers and we are committed to continue to provide them with safe and efficient deliveries. We also hope to expand our relationship in the future," says Erik Hanell, CEO and President of Stena Bulk. "As part of our business strategy, we continue to cater for Petrobras' shipping requirements as a preferred customer and logistical partner of Stena Bulk. Over the years we have developed a close working relationship and our latest commitment of time chartering out the Stena Conqueror and the Stena Conquest are good examples of our continued efforts of supporting Petrobras throughout their supply chain," comments Claes Leschly Bang, General Manager & Head of Stena Bulk Products & Chemicals USA. With offices in six countries, Stena Bulk is one of the world's leading tanker shipping companies. The company controls a combined fleet of around 110 vessels. Stena Bulk is part of the Stena Sphere, which has more than 20,000 employees and sales of SEK 60 billion. www.stenabulk.com For further information, please contact: Erik Hanell President & CEO Stena Bulk AB Mobile: +46-704-855-002 [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/stena-bulk/r/stena-bulk-charters-out-two-mr-tankers-to-petrobras,c2610974 The following files are available for download: http://mb.cision.com/Main/2249/2610974/904710.pdf Stena Bulk charters out two MR tankers to Petrobras http://news.cision.com/stena-bulk/i/stena-conqueror,c2482095 Stena Conqueror http://news.cision.com/stena-bulk/i/stena-conquest,c2482096 Stena Conquest SOURCE Stena Bulk Related Links http://www.stenabulk.com TORONTO, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Hydro One Limited ("Hydro One"), Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution company, today announced that Tom Woods has been appointed as the new Chair in a unanimous vote by the company's Board of Directors. Mr. Woods had served as interim Chair since August 14 until the company's Directors convened to appoint a Chair. "I am honoured to serve as Chair of a great company with tremendous opportunity," said Tom Woods, Chair of the Board, Hydro One. "The Board and I are completely aligned in our support of a strong and vibrant Hydro One with a focus on system reliability and a commitment to continuous improvement for the benefit of customers, employees, shareholders and the communities we serve. We look forward to enabling the company to reach its full potential." Mr. Woods spent his entire career at CIBC where he served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Vice Chairman. He is a Director on the Boards of Bank of America Corporation and AIMCo and is the Chair of the Board at Providence St. Joseph's St. Michael's Health Care. "On behalf of the thousands of skilled and dedicated Hydro One employees across the province, I welcome Tom as Chair of our Board of Directors," said Paul Dobson, Acting President and CEO, Hydro One. "As a highly-regarded business leader, Hydro One and the Board will benefit from Tom's depth of experience in both management and corporate directorship." More information about Hydro One's leadership and Board of Directors can be found here. About Hydro One: We are Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with more than 1.3 million valued customers, over C$25 billion in assets and 2017 annual revenues of nearly C$6 billion. Our team of over 7,400 skilled and dedicated regular and non-regular employees proudly and safely serves suburban, rural and remote communities across Ontario through our 30,000 circuit km of high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit km of primary distribution networks. We are one of only six utility companies in Canada to achieve the Sustainable Electricity Company designation from the Canadian Electricity Association. We also provide advanced broadband telecommunications services on a wholesale basis utilizing our extensive fibre optic network through Hydro One Telecom Inc. Hydro One Limited's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: H). For more information about everything Hydro One, please visit www.HydroOne.com. Forward-Looking Statements and Information: This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "attempt," "may," "plan," "will", "can", "believe," "seek," "estimate," and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking information. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or actions and involve assumptions and risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking information. Some of the factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from the results expressed, implied or forecasted by such forward-looking information, including some of the assumptions used in making such statements, are discussed more fully in Hydro One's filings with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Hydro One does not intend, and it disclaims any obligation, to update any forward-looking information, except as required by law. SOURCE Hydro One Limited Related Links http://www.hydroone.com WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, Senators Edward J. Markey and Richard Blumenthal introduced the Funding for Aviation Screeners and Threat Elimination Restoration (FASTER) Act, which will end the diversion of the 9-11 security fee to the general fund. In 2003, Congress imposed a 9-11 security fee on every airline ticket sold to help pay for aviation security. However, since 2013, Congress has diverted one-third of that fee to pay for spending unrelated to aviation security. The union representing Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) at our nation's airports strongly supports legislation introduced in the Senate on Sept. 5 that would prevent Congress from diverting funds away from the Transportation Security Administration that should be used for aviation security. "The September 11th Security Fee was initially created to support the TSA and the aviation security measures we all rely on to keep our families and skies safe the American people rightly expect the fee to be used for its intended purpose," said Senator Blumenthal. "This bill will prevent these funds from being raided for other uses increasing TSA's ability to keep the traveling public safe and reducing congestion at our nation's airports." TSA is severely understaffed while nearly $14 billion of security fees have been diverted to reduce the country's deficit including $1.3 billion this fiscal year alone. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has repeatedly called on lawmakers to increase TSA staffing at airports and give TSA officers the resources they need to do their jobs effectively. Instead, Congress has continued the diversion of the security fee rather than provide TSA funding to increase staffing levels. "TSA remains chronically understaffed, while funds intended for aviation security are being diverted to unrelated government spending," said AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. "The FASTER Act will help restore funding to TSA security operations and could help the agency address critical staffing needs." "Understaffing at the security checkpoints puts an enormous amount of pressure on our TSA officers," said Hydrick Thomas, AFGE TSA Council 100 President. "Officers are often required to work excessive mandatory overtime all while trying to move passengers through security lines as quickly and safely as possible." "The TSA must be provided with robust resources to fulfill its mission to protect the nation's transportation system," said Senator Markey. "This bill will ensure that all of the September 11 Security Fee goes to its intended use improving security at our airports and in the skies." Representatives Peter DeFazio, Bennie Thompson and Bonnie Watson Coleman have introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives (HR 2514). "AFGE thanks Senators Markey and Blumenthal for taking the steps to ensure airline security fees are used for their intended purpose of protecting the flying public," said Cox. "We urge the House and Senate to pass the FASTER Act and make aviation security a budgetary priority." 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 PALO ALTO, Calif. and NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian (NYSE: VAR) signed a partnership agreement with Mediheal Group of Hospitals to expand access to radiotherapy in Kenya. This comprehensive partnership agreement includes the supply of advanced linear accelerators to five new radiotherapy centers across Kenya, as well as service, training and research collaboration opportunities. The equipment to be supplied will comprise one Varian TrueBeam system and four Varian Halcyon systems. According to the World Health Organization, the cancer burden is growing rapidly in Kenya. Currently over 40,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer each year in the country. "Supplying equipment is only part of the solution," said Varian president and CEO, Dow Wilson. "By partnering with a visionary hospital network like Mediheal, we seek to address the entire cancer care continuum, from human capacity development to treatment to long-term sustainability." The signing ceremony on June 29, 2018 was witnessed by U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Gil Kaplan, who led the President's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA) delegation to Ethiopia, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Varian CEO Dow Wilson is a member of the PAC-DBIA. Health leaders from the Kenyan government also joined the signing ceremony, including Cabinet Secretary of Health Sicily Kariuki and Principal Secretary of Health Peter Tum. "The Ministry of Health will also leverage the centers once established so that they can contribute to improved cancer care and evidence-based policy development," remarked Cabinet Secretary Kariuki during the event. Over the next seven years, Varian and Mediheal will work together to realize the goals of the agreement. "Varian and Mediheal's partnership is the beginning of the fight against cancer in Kenya," stated Hon. Dr. S.R. Mishra, Mediheal Chairman. About Varian Varian is a leader in developing and delivering cancer care solutions and is focused on creating a world without fear of cancer. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Varian employs approximately 7,000 people around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com and follow @VarianMedSys on Twitter. Press Contact Mark Plungy Director, Public Relations +1 (650) 424-5630 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact J. Michael Bruff Senior Vice President, Investor Relations +1 (650) 424-5163 [email protected] SOURCE Varian Related Links http://www.varian.com KISSIMMEE, Fla., Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The Hispanic Federation and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health will bring the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Journey to the Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday, September 9th. The traveling, hands-on exhibit raises awareness about the All of Us Research Programan ambitious effort to gather data from 1 million or more people living in the United States to accelerate research and improve health. "We are glad the National Alliance for Hispanic Health recognizes our region as an important stop on the national tour and they are taking on a national effort to focus on the Hispanic population," says Betsy Franceschini, Senior Director of the Hispanic Federation in Orlando. "There is a lack of representation of the Hispanic community in the United States clinical studies that seek to learn more about different diseases, treatments and improve the health of our communities. It is critical that we educate our community and engage them in making a difference in their health." "All of Us is an essential part of the future of health in the United States," said Dr. Jane L. Delgado, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the nation's leading Hispanic health advocacy group. "This research program will bring together communities throughout the United States to drive new discoveries, which may lead to earlier disease identification, more precise treatment solutions and better health outcomes for all in the future." When: Sunday, September 9, 2018 from 11am to 5pm Where: Kissimmee Lakefront Park - 201 Lakeview Drive, Kissimmee, Florida 34741 What: All of Us Journey Traveling exhibit, parade, business expo, festival and more More Info: www.joinallofus.org/juntos About the National Alliance for Hispanic Health The Alliance is the nation's foremost science-based source of information and trusted non-partisan advocate for the best health outcomes for all. The Alliance represents thousands of Hispanic health providers across the nation providing services to more than 15 million each year. For more information, visit https://www.healthyamericas.org or call 1-866-783-2645 SOURCE National Alliance for Hispanic Health Related Links http://www.healthyamericas.org United Nations, Sep 7 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the commitment made by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "The Secretary-General commends the continued momentum and efforts by both Koreas to further trust-building and reconciliation, in line with the Panmunjom Declaration," said Guterres on Thursday in a statement issued by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, Xinhua reported. "He looks forward to further progress at the inter-Korean summit later this month towards sustainable peace, security, and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions," said the spokesman. Kim reconfirmed his firm commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy said in a press briefing after visiting Pyongyang on Wednesday. Here's your horoscope for November 4, 2021 Some sun signs will be really successful today. Read today's horoscope to know more, Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Aries Horoscope Aries Horoscope: Be authentic instead of nice. Niceness alone wont cut it in the real world. In the past, people have taken advantage of your niceness, leaving you hurt and disappointed. Dont blindly believe in things that an informant tells you today. You need to ask yourself what they stand to gain, from passing such information. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Taurus Horoscope Taurus Horoscope: You are in a confused state today. Why cant things go seamlessly at least this once? Stop complaining, accepting the truth will be your best bet today. When in doubt, you must definitely consult your best buds or mentors. They will be your guiding light. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Gemini Horoscope Gemini Horoscope: You are really craving attention today. Dont let this get to your head. You dont need everyones validation to take this decision. Choose to do things quietly without attracting a lot of attention. Let the end result speak for you instead of you tooting your horn. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Cancer Horoscope Cancer Horoscope: Let your words have grace today. Empathetic words will bring healing and comfort. The wounds of yesteryears will just fade away and people will look at you with newfound respect. All because you choose your words diligently. Experience the power of words today. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Leo Horoscope Leo Horoscope: Harmony is very much what you want. This is very much further away from the reality of things. You cant see eye to eye with a colleague and this is making your life at work pure hell. You have every mind to quit and move. Dont be a quitter, you must deal with such folks diplomatically and tactfully. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Virgo Horoscope Virgo Horoscope: You have a very protective energy in you today. You dont have to be very aggressive about it though. Those who you think are meek are not necessarily weak. They are just taking things slow. Dont think about painful things of the past today. You dont want to go down the downward spiral again. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Libra Horoscope Libra Horoscope: You keep waiting to resolve your problems until you are at the peak of your frustration. Such procrastination has only added to your stress and your frustration. Your go-to person may not come to your rescue every time. So if you are struggling to stay on top of things, it is time you turned a new leaf. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Scorpio Horoscope Scorpio Horoscope: Keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground. There is something fishy happening around you. You need to be prepared because some knives are aimed at your back. Dont let your temper go out of control today. Choose to speak kind words that are soothing to the soul and will not leave behind any unpleasantness. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Sagittarius Horoscope Sagittarius Horoscope: Be proactive in listening to your intuition today. Dont shush them away anymore. You may think of making a commitment to a person you love a lot. You need to ask yourself if you are rushing into things too soon. The answer lies within yourself. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Capricorn Horoscope Capricorn Horoscope: Speak the truth today. But make sure you do this with empathy and love. Lashing out not only causes resentment, but will make you appear more hostile and domineering. You cant seem to shake off the embarrassment from a recent faux pas. One day at a time, dear friend youll definitely get there. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Aquarius Horoscope Aquarius Horoscope: Resentment is filling your mind today. Some people will really benefit from your generosity today. You have high expectations that your friends will come through for you. Dont be alarmed if they dont come to your aid. Before you judge them or burn down bridges, give them the benefit of the doubt. Image Source: Prokerala.com Daily Pisces Horoscope Pisces Horoscope: You are neither here nor there. You have always found it difficult to take sides. The people-pleasing nature of yours is what is preventing you from taking sides. The addictions you bid farewell to a while back may tease you. Your willpower will be put to the test today. Don't lose out! Did we pique your curiosity about your future? Read your detailed Horoscope and Rashifal to know more, San Francisco, Sep 7 : Twitter said it has permanently banned US conspiracy theorist Alexander Jones and accounts associated with his website Infowars for "abusive behaviour". "Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope," Twitter said on Thursday on its Safety account, Xinhua news agency reported. The world leading social media site said it took the action "based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behaviour policy, in addition to the accounts' past violations." The ban will cut Jones and Infowars from its 1.5 million followers on future interaction on Twitter's platform, and Twitter vows to "take action" if the latter attempts to circumvent the prohibitive measure. "We will continue to evaluate reports we receive regarding other accounts potentially associated with @realalexjones or @infowars and will take action if content that violates our rules is reported or if other accounts are utilized in an attempt to circumvent their ban," @TwitterSafety said in one of its tweets. The social media firm said it will increase transparency in implementation of its rules and actions, but it declines to "comment on enforcement actions we take against individual accounts, for their privacy." Twitter is one of the latest major tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple that has permanently banned Jones and his associated accounts. It imposed a week-long ban on Jones as a warning for his bellicose behaviour last month. In August, Google-owned YouTube, Apple and Facebook removed or restricted Jones' activities on their platforms for hate speech. Jones is a controversial American radio show host and conspiracy theorist, who runs the website Infowars.com that is devoted to conspiracy theories and fake news. He is notorious for accusing the US government of planning the Oklahoma City bombing that killed at least 168 people and wounded more than 680 others in 1995. Jones also doubted the government's role in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US that left 2,996 people dead and over 6,000 injured. Washington, Sep 7 : The US State Department has imposed financial sanctions on four individuals and five entities, accusing them of having facilitated weapons or fuel transfers, or provided other financial or material support, to the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. According to a statement released on Thursday by the State Department, the sanctioned individuals were Syrian and Lebanese nationals, and the targeted entities included companies based in Syria, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, Xinhua reported. "Today's action shows that the US will continue to take concrete and forceful action to cut off material support to the Assad regime and its supporters. The US will continue to use all available mechanisms to isolate the Assad regime," read the statement. In a separate statement, the US Department of the Treasury said the targeted were involved in transactions with the Assad government and with the IS, noting the fact that the Idlib province has been encircled by the government forces. All of the sanctioned individuals' and entities' assets within the US jurisdiction would be blocked, and US individuals and entities would be generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. 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 gear around Idlib in recent weeks, as a major battle against the rebels in Syria looms. An Athens, Tn., man who built a software firm with $60 million in annual sales, then was sentenced in early 2015 to serve 57 months in federal prison on drug charges, is back in trouble again. Leslie Scott Webb has been charged by federal authorities with being involved in a meth ring. The complaint says Webb was involved in meth trafficking between January and April of this year. At his sentencing hearing in 2015, Webb asked to be allowed to start a faith-based, 12-step recovery program. He said he had a plan to raise $2.5 million for a center advising others not to get involved in illegal drugs. Webb said he served 10 years in the Air Force and later had top security clearance while working for Lockheed Martin and Hughes Aircraft. He then helped launch the Insurance Shopping Network, which he said was sold in 2012 after four years of a meteoric rise. He said he got into trouble when he returned to his hometown after his mother became ill. "I made the mistake of my life," he said after being offered a taste of Ice meth. "Life as I knew it changed in a moment of time." He said another man involved in meth, Matthew York, moved in with him in Athens. York was given a 10-year sentence. Webb said he started taking meth every day. He said it cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars and his family home. "I lost it all because of this stupid stuff," he said in 2015. Tokyo, Sep 7 : Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday announced that the toll from a 6.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Hokkaido prefecture has increased to 16, with 26 others still reported missing. "So far there are 16 (dead) people and many people injured, with 26 still missing,"Abe said at a press briefing after an emergency cabinet meeting. Abe added that rescue efforts were underway in the affected areas and urged civilians to exercise extreme caution in the coming hours, as rains are expected to cause more landslides, reports Efe news. Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko said that 47 per cent of Hokkaido's power supply was restored as of Friday morning. At 6 a.m., electricity had returned to 1.4 million households and other establishments, according to Seko. It is expected that with the resumption of operations in thermal and hydroelectric plants throughout Friday the capacity will rise to 3.12 million kilowatts, around 80 per cent of the maximum production recorded a day before the earthquake. The electric company, therefore, urged people to save as much energy as possible. The earthquake on Thursday triggered an immediate shutdown of the main Tomato thermal power plant in Atsuma, which accounted for half of the electricity production on the island, and other power plants, leaving 2.95 million houses and buildings without electricity. The power cut also affected transport services, which will resume their services in the coming hours. The high-speed railway operator JR Hokkaido said it will resume operations around noon, while the New Chitose Airport, the largest in Sapporo, is scheduled to reopen later on Friday for incoming flights. Washington, Sep 7 : US President Donald Trump has proposed to indefinitely extend the detention period for undocumented migrant children by abandoning a judicial agreement establishing a limit of 20 days after being apprehended. The government initiative would entail ending the so-called Flores Settlement, approved in 1997 and setting a limit of 20 days as the maximum period authorities may detain children entering the country illegally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Thursday. The decision seeks to respond to the problems facing the administration as a result of the controversial "zero tolerance" policy pushed by the Justice Department, which had allowed the separation of immigrant families detained at the border with Mexico, reports Efe news. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in the statement that the current protocol - which Trump wants to abandon - allows for "legal loopholes... (that) significantly hinder the department's ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country". She added that altering the rules would standardise the way in which minors entering the country alone or who are removed from their parents or guardians are treated. Nielsen claimed that the new rule would allow the federal government to implement the immigration laws as they were approved in Congress, the same argument she had used when the administration started implementing the zero tolerance policy last April. The government said that abandoning the Flores Settlement is an important step toward regaining control over the country's border. "It is sickening to see the United States government looking for ways to jail more children for longer," said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project. Although the new rule will be implemented on Friday, its legal viability will have to wait to be tested in court. Kabul, Sep 7 : US Secretary of Defence James Mattis made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday. Mattis arrived here on Friday morning and is scheduled to meet Army Gen. Scott Miller, the new Commander of Resolute Support and US Forces-Afghanistan, who assumed the role last week, reports CNN. During a dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Mattis, and their Indian counterparts, "reaffirmed their shared commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous, and peaceful Afghanistan", according to a joint statement. Earlier this week, Pompeo named veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad as a newly-named State Department special envoy to Afghanistan. Khalilzad, Pompeo said, would be "full time focused on developing the opportunities to get the Afghans and the Taliban to come to a reconciliation." The topic of reconciliation was a prominent one as both secretaries travelled the region this week. The two secretaries arrived in the country amid violence that took place earlier this week, CNN reported. One US service member was killed and another was injured on Monday in "an apparent insider attack" in eastern Afghanistan. On Wednesday, 20 people, including two journalists, were killed in Kabul in twin bomb attacks on a wrestling club. The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack. New Delhi : Title: The Wily Agent/The Zero Cost Mission; Author: Amar Bhushan; Publisher: HarperCollins India; Pages: 189; Price: Rs 250. Spymaster Amar Bhushan's first book, "Escape to Nowhere", based on the defection of a senior RAW officer to the US, was so racy that I still rate it as the best work of fiction I have read after the celebrated "The Day of the Jackal". A gifted writer, Bhushan has now come with a two-story fictional work based on the exploits of the Indian intelligence in Bangladesh that is simply unputdownable. A Bangladeshi diplomat who was on the payroll of RAW in New Zealand is transferred back to Dhaka where he decides to continue his relationship, for monetary considerations of course, with the Indian intelligence. But he runs into RAW bureaucracy until an officer who realises his potential steps in. What follows is drama at its best as the Bangladeshi, not new to the world of spying, not only piles one classified document after another in the hands of a startled RAW but also introduces the Indians to others in the government ready to spy. The merry game goes on until the Bangladeshi counter-intelligence gets wise and the traitor is caught, jailed, tortured and sacked. A grateful Indian intelligence quietly funds his family so that they don't starve and is also able to fight the arrested man's legal battle. "The Zero Cost Mission" is the account of an audacious RAW operative who requests a Kolkata-based, politically well-connected Bangladeshi to finance an operation (because RAW is not ready to give him the money he wants) that will involve targeting the anti-India Jamaat-e-Islami and its patron, the Pakistani intelligence. The Indians know that the Jamaat and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan are using madrassas that have sprouted along the Indo-Bangladesh border to infiltrate terrorists into India. And the Jamaat is not willing to mend its ways despite polite requests. After just one visit to Dhaka, the RAW operative executes a deadly plan that startles even his seniors as bomb attacks take place on Jamaat offices and madrassas (used as launching pads to infiltrate terrorists) in Dhaka and elsewhere. An ISI safe house in Dhaka is also bombed. The Awami League, when it comes to power, cracks down hard and hangs the Jamaat leader. And in what may not be a coincidence, those who had been jailed by the Nationalists but helped the RAW operative financially get rehabilitated. But this book is not just about two successful Indian operations in Bangladesh which the author says are inspired by true stories. The book also exposes the rot in RAW as incompetent seniors try to throttle the more energetic juniors out of sheer jealousy. Thus, the operative who took on the Jamaat and ISI in Bangladesh is brazenly overlooked for promotion by those who resent his achievements. But he silently bears the pain and humiliation. There are those who don't mind ruining the career of those they can. To keep the bosses on the right side, some prefer to silently suffer humiliation. Others are made of sterner stuff. (M.R. Narayan Swamy can be reached on narayan.swamy@ians.in) Mumbai, Sep 7 : The first 'Namaste in Namaste London came ten years back. It was an honest sweet gentle film about a NRI London-bred girl Katrina Kaif's attempts to adjust in marriage to a Punjabi rustic man Akshay Kumar who adores her to death. Director Vipul Shah wanted to make the sequel with the same pair but things didnt work out. Shah's long-standing association with Akshay Kumar ended abruptly. It is a setback that he doesn't talk about at all. It took the producer-director ten years to direct another film. He is happy with the way "Namaste England" has shaped up. Looking at the trailer, so are we. It seems to take us into a quaint universe where the dramatic complexities are created by cultural rather than emotional conflict between the lead pair. This time it is Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, who made their joint debut in Habib Faisal's "Ishaqzaade" violent brutal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet rooted in the fiercely internecine caste and communal system. This time in "Namaste England" there is little opposition or tension in their relationship from the outside. Says Vipul, "I wanted to make a gentle romantic film where the conflicts are very basic, very relatable. I think I've succeeded in doing that." Vipul took ill recently and had to be hospitalized. But the film didn't suffer on account of his health. "I had finished all my work on the film when I took ill.So there has been no setback due to my health.We are ready to release on 19 October." The trailer shows Parineeti's Jasmeet fleeing to London to escape the stifling patriarchal bastion of Punjab. Arjun Kapoor playing the devoted duty-bound husband follows her to London to bring her back. But the lady has other plans. While reveling in the rites of a traditional rural Punjabi family the film seems to suggest that the female population of rural India desperately needs to find its voice. A supportive spouse helps. This is not the first time that Arjun Kapoor plays a caring empathetic husband willing to relinquish the traditional role in a marriage to let his spouse take the lead. But this is the first time that Arjun plays a husband with a hygiene problem. On two occasions in the trailer he is heard talking about his lack care for basic hygiene. Maybe it's just joke. Then again maybe it's not. Either way we don't want kids telling their mothers, "Why should we brush our teeth when Arjun Uncle doesn't." New Delhi, Sep 7 : Amid the Indian government's call to store data locally, experts here said on Friday that the consumers should be free to choose jurisdiction in which data can be stored and it might not be prudent to force data localisation. According to Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, The Software Alliance, consumers should be free to choose jurisdiction in which data can be stored, and "different options could appear as a drop down menu to enable consumer choice". Shagufta Kamran from the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), a non-proft, observed that Indian information technology and enabled industry has traditionally benefited from cross border data flow and it might not be a good idea to restrict such flows. Amitayu Sengupta from the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) pointed out that setting up data centres is resource intensive and requires significant capitalisation and consequently has been avoided in the past. The experts were speaking at a roundtable organised here by the advocacy group Consumer Unity & Trust Society CUTS) International. It saw participation from different stakeholders, including government, industry, consumer groups, academia and data protection experts. According to Dr Usha Ramanathan, Legal Researcher and Consumer Rights Activist, basis for government to demand data localisation is not clear as the government is unlikely to provide heightened security and data protection standards to consumers. "Mandatory data localisation provisions are likely to create artificial distinctions between large and small businesses and adversely impact the latter," pointed out Nikhil Pahwa, Founder, Medianama, adding that India does not have necessary infrastructure to support large-scale data centres in the country. According to GV Srinivas, Joint Secretary, Cyber Diplomacy, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the data protection bill by Srikrishna Committee has made genuine efforts to be sensitive to consumer rights. "Access to important data by law enforcement agencies is likely to be made easier under the proposed regime," he said, adding that the industry will need to adjust to increased cost of data mirroring mandate as its greater benefits are likely to follow. Ashim Sanyal from VOICE said data localisation is anti-consumer from the point of view of quality and cost of services and it is unlikely to help in data protection. Kabul, Sep 7 : US Secretary of Defence James Mattis arrived here on Friday on a surprise visit to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at a time when Washington is trying to make headway in Kabul after 17 years of war. Mattis' visit, in the middle of his tour of the region, comes unexpectedly as is usual owing to security concerns, and no details about his activities or the duration of his stay in the Afghan capital have been revealed, reports Efe news. "US Defence Secretary Mattis and General (Joseph) Dunford the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Kabul. And will be having meeting with President (Ashraf) Ghani. Details will be shared later," Afghan presidential spokesperson Haroon Chakhansuri tweeted. The information office of the US and UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed Mattis' arrival but did not disclose any details about his agenda. The arrival of Mattis coincides with the recent takeover by Austin Miller from John Nicholson as NATO's Resolute Support Mission and US Forces Afghanistan. Mattis, who came to the Afghan capital on Friday morning from New Delhi, had, along with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, discussed with their Indian counterparts, Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj respectively, the importance of both India and the US in Afghanistan. New Delhi and Washington reiterated their support for an Afghan-led peace process in a joint statement on Thursday, in which the latter acknowledged the former's longstanding and ongoing contribution to Afghanistan as well as India's role in its neighbour's development and stability. The same subject was addressed by Pompeo and Mattis during their stopover in Pakistan, where the Secretary of State stressed the need for Pakistan "to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan". Los Angeles, Sep 7 : Actor Ray Diaz, who starred in the show "Lopez", has been charged with domestic violence after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. The Los Angeles City Attorney's office has charged Diaz with domestic battery, false imprisonment, dissuading a witness and vandalism, reports tmz.com. According to a source, his case was originally heading for a city attorney hearing, until prosecutors re-examined the evidence and decided to file charges. The incident between Diaz and the woman went down earlier this summer. He allegedly got into an argument with his girlfriend and grabbed and pulled her. She claims the attack was so severe she suffered bruising on her leg and scratches on her neck. A source connected to the couple said the girlfriend attempted to call 911, but he grabbed the phone from her. London, Sep 7 : A ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) establishing its jurisdiction to investigate the mass exodus of Rohingyas from Myanmar would pave the way for bringing justice to the minority Muslim community, Amnesty International (AI) said on Friday. ICC on Thursday ruled it had jurisdiction to probe the forced exodus as the Rohingyas fled to and were currently being hosted by Bangladesh, which was a state party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC. "This decision is a significant step in the right direction which opens up a clear avenue of justice for the Rohingya," Biraj Patnaik, AI South Asia Director was quoted as saying by Efe news. "The Court has sent a clear signal to the Myanmar military that they will be held accountable," he added. In April, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had requested a ruling to probe if the ICC could investigate the alleged deportation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas, fleeing state persecution as Myanmar was not a state party to the Statute, the international treaty that established the ICC. The human rights non-profit also said that forced deportation was one of many other crimes against the Rohingyas and it "documented extensively how the military's crackdown also included murder, rape, torture, forced starvation, the targeted burning of Rohingya villages and the use of landmines". AI also urged the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar's case to the ICC so that it can investigate all crimes against humanity, including those against other ethnic minorities in Kachin and Shan states in north and northeast Myanmar. "While we welcome the ICC's decision, the international community must see it as a spur to further action," Patnaik added. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingyas as citizens and subjects them to various kinds of discrimination, including restrictions on their freedom of movement. More than 700,000 Rohingyas fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following a crackdown by the Myanmar Army in August 2017 in response to a series of attacks on government posts by Rohingya rebels. Bhubaneswar, Sep 7 : The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday staged a two-hour protest against the hike in petrol and diesel prices across Odisha. Biju Mahila Janata Dal, Biju Yuva Janata Dal and Biju Chhatra Janata Dal activists staged a demonstration in front of petrol pumps at various locations from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The protest will continue till Sunday. Holding banners against the fuel price hike, the party activists shouted slogans against the Central government and distributed leaflets to fuel consumers at various petrol pumps in the state to create awareness. "The Central government has failed to control the fuel price which has affected the common people across the country. We are creating awareness of fuel consumers regarding the price hike of petrol and diesel," said senior BJD leader Arun Sahu. The BJD members also raised the issue in the state Assembly on Friday. However, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan slammed the agitation. He said the BJD was suffering from mental bankruptcy as Odisha was now getting a revenue of over Rs 7,000 crore as against Rs 3,000 crore in 2014. "It is Odisha which has benefited most following the price rise. While it was getting Rs 3000 crore revenue in 2014, the state is getting Rs 7000 crore now. We had slashed excise duty on the petroleum products and Odisha government should slash VAT (Value Added Tax) on these products," said Pradhan. He said the policies of the US and the petroleum producing countries' refusal to increase their production are reasons for the price hike. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Ahead of the full meeting of the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on Friday appeared to hint at the possibility of holding Assembly elections in Telangana along with the polls due in four other states in December this year. However, he said it could be difficult if more states decide to go for early polls in view of difficulties in logistics. "The Supreme Court has ruled clearly that in case of the House dissolution, polls should be held on the first occasion becuase caretaker governments cannot continue and get the advantage. You cannot dissolve the House and continue for six months as a caretaker government," Rawat told media hours before the Commission's meeting on the demand for early election following dissolution of the Telangana Assembly on Thursday. "Elections have to be held as soon as possible. A decision will be taken keeping in mind various court rulings on the issue and prevailing ground reality," the CEC said adding that the Commission holds poll within the legal framework to ensure they are free, fair and credible. Assembly elections are due in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram later this year. The term of the Telangana Assembly was ending on June 19, 2019 but the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government chose to dissolve it, seeking early polls. Citing the malfunctioning of the VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines during the recent by-polls in many places, he said the Commission was working to fix the problem. "We are facing one constraint as of now. In many places during the by-polls the VVPAT malfunctioned, somewhere the complaints were about 5 per cent, eight per cent and 11 per cent. The technical committee of the Commission is working to fix the problem in the VVPAT after doing the root analysis of the problem," he said. He also said that the Commission would get the electronic voting machines (EVMs) by September 30 and the VVPATs by November 30. "And as the Commission has committed in the all-party meeting that the elections would be held with the VVPATs... so the elections that are possible within the VVPAT numbers, it won't be any issue for us. "But as you are saying that this (demand for early polls in other states) may spread like an infection, then there will be some problem," Rawat said. The CEC also said that as per Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling, "it is clear that the any constitutional institution cannot claim impossible as possible. And as I said if there is any resource constraint then we shall explain it clearly that we are resource-constrained." Ranchi : National Ranchi, Sep 7 (IANS) The Jharkhand government on Friday announced that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Centre's flagship Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission from here on September 23. "It's a matter of pride for us that world's biggest health scheme Ayushman Bharat will start from Jharkhand on September 23 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi" a state government press release quoted a tweet from Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who is on a visit to China. "The people of the entire country along with 3.25 crore people of Jharkhand are eagerly awaiting for this historic moment," Das added. Modi will also lay foundation stone for medical colleges at Koderma and Chaibasa, a Tertiary Cancer Center in Ranchi, restoration and renovation work at Birsa Munda Jail and conservation work at Birsa Munda Museum while golden records (e-cards) will also be distributed among the beneficiaries. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Digital payments platform Paytm on Friday said it has tied up with global payment service provider Visa to enable credit card payments through its mobile app. Paytm has also integrated BHIM UPI on the app for the customer to source funds to make credit card bill payments, a statement from One97 Communications Limited, which owns the Paytm brand, said. The statement said the Alibaba-backed company aims to process over two million credit card payments during fiscal 2018-19. Agartala, Sep 7 : Tripura's ruling alliance partners BJP and IPFT are most likely to contest the September 30 panchayat bypolls separately, while the opposition CPI-M and Congress maintained that the present atmosphere was not conducive to holding the byelections due to "terror spread by ruling party cadres". The by-elections to 3,386 vacant seats of gram panchayats (3,207 seats), panchayat samitis (161) and zila parishads (18) were necessitated by large-scale resignations and death of some elected representatives. "We will field candidates for 3,386 vacant seats. The issue was discussed with IPFT leaders," Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, also the Chairman of BJP's election committee, said. On the other hand, Indigenous People's Front of Tripura's (IPFT) General Secretary and Forest Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia told IANS: "We will discuss the matter with the BJP leaders to jointly fight the elections. No discussion has been held yet with the BJP leaders to contest separately." Another main tribal political party, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura, has not yet decided on contesting the polls. Communist Party of India-Marxist Central Committee Member Bijan Dhar said: "Large- scale attacks, arson, loot and intimidation has continued since the BJP-IPFT alliance came to power in March. The ruling parties' leaders and cadres forced thousands of elected panchayat representatives from opposition parties to resign." "Around 96 per cent of elected representatives of CPI-M and other non-BJP parties were forced to resign," Dhar alleged. The Left Front and Congress leaders separately met Tripura State Election Commissioner G. Kameswara Rao on Thursday and urged him to ensure security to opposition leaders and candidates besides a conducive environment to hold rural body elections. Responding to charges, BJP leaders maintained that most of the elected representatives who resigned did so on their own or the CPI-M itself had asked them to resign. Nath claimed that the CPI-M could foresee humiliating loss and was thus trying to escape a poll battle. "We will not allow a pre-poll situation like in West Bengal to develop. Free and fair elections will be held in Tripura. Actually, the CPI-M is not finding people to field," Nath told IANS. The last panchayat elections in Tripura were held in June 2014 and the next polls are due in or before June 2019. Geneva, Sep 7 : Michelle Bachelet, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Friday applauded the Indian Supreme Court's decision to decriminalise homosexuality by repealing a 2013 verdict which had criminalised gay sex. "This is a great day for India and for all those who believe in the universality of human rights," Efe news quoted Bachelet as saying in a statement. "With this landmark decision, the Indian Supreme Court has taken a big step forward for freedom and equality. I hope that other courts elsewhere in the world will look to India's example and be encouraged to move in the same direction. "Throughout the world such laws have led to a litany of abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people including arbitrary arrests, violence, bullying in schools, denial of access to health and harassment at work. "Such discriminatory laws have no place in the 21st century, and I'm delighted the Indian Supreme Court has recognised that," she added. In a historic verdict, a five-judge Constitution Bench on Thursday declared Section 377 of IPC, the penal provision which criminalised gay sex, as "manifestly arbitrary". The court said it was no longer an offence for LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer/questioning) community to engage in consensual sex between two adults in private. The Delhi High Court in July 2009 legalised homosexual acts between consenting adults. But in December 2013, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court ruling saying that it was for the legislature to look into the desirability of deleting Section 377. Bhubaneswar, Sep 7 : The Odisha government has submitted the required documents for getting the Geographical Indication (GI) status to 'Odishara Rasagola', MSME Minister Prafulla Samal said on Friday. Replying to a written question, the Minister told the Assembly that they have complied with 14-point checklist sought from the office of the Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai. The Minister said all required documents have been submitted on August 17. Notably, the Geographical Indications Registry, in the last week of June, had sought detailed information on 14 questions including submission of documentary proof that substantiates the origin of Odishara Rasagola in the state. The Odisha Small Industries Corporation of state government had applied for the GI tag for 'Odishara Rasagola' in February. The state moved the GI Registry for its own version of the popular sweet after West Bengal was awarded the GI tag for its own variant 'Banglara Rasagulla' in November,2017. : New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis during a press briefing after ... Image Source: IANS/DPRO External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis during a press briefing after the ... Image Source: IANS/DPRO Beijing, Sep 7 : China on Friday said it was "happy" to see the maiden "2+2" dialogue between India and the US and hoped the two countries would do more for regional peace and stability in the region. During the talks on Thursday, New Delhi and Washington inked a crucial defence pact and vowed to work for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Reacting to the joint pledge by India and the US for inclusive Indo-Pacific, Beijing said it was well entitled to sail into the international waters. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing hoped that "parties can do real things to ensure freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region". "As to the 2+2 consultation between India and the US, we have seen the report. We are happy to see the normal bilateral relations between them. We also hope that in this process they will do more to regional peace and regional stability," Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said replying to a question how China viewed the Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement (Comcasa) between New Delhi and Washington. India and the US have strategically grown closer to each other in recent years, unsettling Beijing which thinks that Washington is using New Delhi to contain it. Alarmed by the growing presence of the Chinese Navy in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the US, India, Japan and Australia have formed a regional grouping, dubbed as "Quad". The Indo-Pacific featured in 2+2 dialogue on Thursday and both New Delhi and Washington vowed to work for inclusive and open Indo-Pacific. "You also mentioned about the security issue of navigation in the sea. We uphold the legal rights entitled in the international law and we also that hope parties can do real things to ensure freedom of navigation," Hua added. Mumbai, Sep 7 : Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Kapoor have named their second child "Zain Kapoor" and the actor says that they feel complete with his arrival. The "Padmaavat" actor on Friday took to Twitter to thank his fans and followers for their wishes. He wrote: "Zain Kapoor is here and we feel complete. Thank you for all the wishes and blessings. We are overjoyed and so grateful. Love to all." The son was born on Wednesday evening at the Hinduja Hospital. The couple has also a daughter named Misha, born in 2016. Also, a day after Shahid Kapoor became a father for the second time, the actor's Twitter and Instagram accounts were hacked, but later both the accounts got retrieved. "Hey guys, finally I am back on twitter. Yes it was hacked. Kindly ignore any communication that came from my handle in the last 24 hours," Shahid tweeted. Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 7 : Even as the Kerala government has appointed a team of experts to study the damage caused to the biodiversity due to torrential rains and floods, the Centre on Friday reiterated its commitment to extend all possible help to the battered state. A 100-member expert team under the Kerala State Biodiversity Board has been appointed to study the damage caused to Kerala's biodiversity and submit its report in a month's time, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. Meanwhile, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda again assured the state of central help. "It's a moment of sorrow, and the government of India has stood by the state. Whatever we can do, and what more needs to be done, will be done," said Nadda, who visited the Chalakkudy Taluk Hospital on Friday and a relief camp. The hospital had suffered considerable damage in the floods, the worst to hit the state in nearly a century. The Union Minister's visit comes amid an alert in the state against leptospirosis (rat fever), with authorities urging 20 lakh persons to take preventive steps after more than 100 persons tested positive. Over a dozen persons have died in Kozhikode, which is the worst affected. Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan, the de facto Chief Minister after Vijayan left for the US for treatment, told IANS on Thursday that there are 2,267 families still housed in 146 camps in the state. The maximum camps are in Alappuzha district. Congress legislator V.D. Sateeshan from Paravoor in Ernakulam said on Friday that there were around 125 families in two camps in the district. "We provided relief kits to 50,000 affected families when they left the camps. Those lodged in the camps now have no homes to return to since these were completely damaged by floods," said Sateeshan. Vijayan told the Assembly on August 30 that torrential rains and subsequent floods from May-end till mid-August had claimed 483 lives whereas 14 persons were reported missing. The worst affected districts were Alappuzha, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Wayanad, besides parts of Kannur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kottayam and Kollam. Kasargode district remained virtually untouched, while Thiruvananthapuram recorded miniscule damage. Panaji, Sep 7 : The Goa police arrested a 35-year-old man on Friday for allegedly breaking into homes in his underwear, at an apartment complex here at night, staring at women and occasionally stealing cash. The accused, Tulsidas Shirodkar, 35, a resident of Taleigao, a Panaji suburb, was arrested after residents of the apartment complex, located close to the private residence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, complained to the police. "The accused has been booked under sections 457 (trespass), 380 (theft), 354(c) (voyeurism)," a police spokesperson said. "In three cases, complainants have said that money was also missing from the house so we have also booked the accused for theft," the police official said. In a collective complaint filed by the residents of the Adwalpalkar Horizon apartment complex, some of the residents whose homes had been broken into, alleged that the accused would break into the house in his underwear and with oil smeared on his body. "In one case, I woke up for some reason and saw him just staring at me. I shouted in alarm but he had disappeared by the time someone could arrive," a woman victim said. Another woman said that he was lying next to her and her relative, who were sleeping on the bed. "I felt something next to me and I shouted when I felt another person sleeping next to me. But at that time I thought it was a dream, because when I put on the light there was nobody there." Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 7 : The ruling Left and the Congress-led opposition have called for a state-wide shutdown on September 10 to protest against the rising oil prices, "which the BJP-led Union government has failed to curb". A day earlier, the national leadership of the Congress party called for a nation-wide protest and on Friday, the state Congress President M.M. Hassan told reporters here that they have decided to hold it in Kerala from dawn to dusk. "We have instructed all our party members that it should hold a peaceful protest and at no cost should anyone attempt to take law into their own hands," said Hassan. On Friday the state leadership of the CPI-M met here and said they have decided to see that even while observing a shutdown in the state, the relief operations in flood-affected areas will go on unaffected and exempted all essential services form the shutdown. Siliguri, Sep 7 : Three days after the Majherhat bridge partly collapsed in Kolkata, another bridge caved in at Mangach in Darjeeling district of West Bengal on Friday, police said. No casualty or injury has, however, been reported so far. The bridge over Pichla river in Phansidewa block came down when a lorry carrying bricks was crossing it, they said. North Bengal Development Minister Rabindranath Ghosh, who visited the spot after the incident, blamed the lorry driver and Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad for the mishap. The 30-year-old bridge was built and maintained by the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad. "The lorry driver should have given a thought as to whether the bridge was capable of withstanding the load of the heavy vehicle. Many drivers are reckless. This is one such example. "Our panchayat representatives have also time and again given representation to the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad requesting that the bridge be repaired. But no one paid any heed to their pleas," said the Minister. On August 11, an under-construction flyover had come crashing down at Goaltuli of Phansideoa Block. Three people were killed and 19 injured when the Majherhat bridge in south Kolkata collapsed on Wednesday. Chennai, Sep 7 : Car maker Ford India on Friday said it is voluntarily inspecting 7,249 EcoSport petrol vehicles made between November 2017 and March 2018 to update the powertrain control module (PCM) software. In a statement, the company said the software update action is in line with Ford's continued commitment to ensuring world-class quality of its vehicles and will eliminate any remote chance of sudden deceleration or battery drainage. Customers will receive a notification from Ford India via an email or a letter. They can also visit the field service action section on Ford India's website to check if their car is covered under the action, the statement added. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Border Security Force (BSF) Director General K.K. Sharma on Friday launched a veiled attack on Pakistan accusing it of using Bangladesh as a transit route to smuggle fake Indian currency into India. However, he claimed that the menace has come down since demonetisation. Only 11 lakh Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) have been seized so far this year and these were easily detectable because of its poor quality, Sharma said while addressing a joint press briefing with his visiting Bangladeshi counterpart Major General Shafeenul Islam, Director General, Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Islam is heading a 14-member BGB delegation to India since September 3 to attend a five-day 47th DG-level bi-annual conference. The Chiefs of the two forces also signed a joint record of discussion on Friday before the BGB delegation left for Bangladesh. Appreciating the efforts of BGB to curb the menace, the BSF DG said: "The BGB is also very alert and whenever they seize the FICN they try to find out where it is coming from. Mostly we find that Bangladesh territory is being used as a transit route for FICN smuggling. And, these fake notes come from our other friendly neighbour on the western side." "The quantum of smuggled FICN has come down since demonetisation and the quality also is not very good. Only 11 lakhs FICN has been seized this year so far. If we see the entire economy of the country, it is nothing. Earlier, the seizures in the entire years used to be in crores," Sharma said. He also sought Islam's further cooperation in detecting FICN units operating in Bangladesh and launching legal prosecution against the culprits. Acknowledging that FICN is a concern in Bangladesh too, Islam said: "We have installed our vigilance all along the borders, including machines to detect such notes. We have been constantly able to reduce the transaction of FICN". On Rohingya status, the BGB Chief said "we are keeping them confined to some specific areas allocated for them but yet there are some cases in which they are found slipping out and located at some other places in Bangladesh". The BSF DG, however, said a large number of Rohingyas were there in Bangladesh and from time to time some groups did try to enter India. "We did not let them in," he said. "So, there has not been any large scale influx of Rohingyas into India," he said. "Whatever Rohingyas are already there in the country, they are also under pressure at some places. So they are going to West Bengal which is likely (to be) friendly with them. They (West Bengal) even created camps for the Rohingyas coming from within the country not from Bangladesh." Both the the Chiefs of the two forces, during the DG-level talks, also expressed their satisfaction in approval of almost all pending developmental works and lauded the results of crime free zones which had been introduced in South Bengal Frontier, South West Region and agreed for its further expansion in other frontiers. They also agreed to take strong measures for prevention of illegal border crossing and human trafficking, and providing aid to victims of human trafficking and facilitating their early rescue and rehabilitation. They agreed to bring down violence on the border to zero level, take preventive measures against wilful violation of the sanctity of the International Boundary (IB) which would be dealt as per law of the land. Inadvertent crossers would be handed over to the concerned border guarding force immediately. The BSF Chief said as his force was asked by the Indian Government to use non-lethal weapons to avoid deaths "there has not been a single death on the borders this year so far". On the issue of trafficking, he said 1,522 illegal Bangladeshi migrants have been caught in India and handed over to the police. Of them, 166 were inadvertent crossers. On migration of Bangladeshis into India, BGB DG said: "There is no large infiltration from Bangladesh. Some people migrate because some of their relatives are residing across border. But they all come back after visiting their relatives. We have apprehended around 100 in the last six months. But we are very alert in maintaining the sanctity of the India-Bangladesh border." DG BSF sought cooperation from BGB to eliminate rampant Indian insurgent groups while the BGB DG informed there was no hideout of such groups inside Bangladesh. He clarified that his country "does not allow its soil to be used by any entities or elements hostile to any country". Both sides appreciated the efforts made to improve mutual relations through various agreed upon Confidence Building Measures and decided that next DG-level conference would be held in Dhaka in the month of March-April 2019. Ahmedabad, Sep 7 : Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel was on Friday rushed to a hospital on the 14th day of his indefinite fast as he complained of difficulty in breathing, even as he tweeted soon after that the BJP Government remained indifferent to the demands of the farmers and Patidars. He was admitted to the Government Civil Hospital in Sola a day after he gave up taking water in protest against the government ignoring his demands. Minutes after he was hospitalized, the 25-year-old leader tweeted in Hindi that, "I am having difficulty in breathing. I have been admitted to hospital. The BJP (and its government) are ignoring farmers' woes and demands of Patidars." His associates in the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), who had given a 24-hour ultimatum till Thursday to the Bharatiya Janata Party government to hold negotiations with him, rushed him to the hospital. "Hardik was not willing to go to hospital and was adamant with his fast. But today when he went to washroom, he fell on the ground. After that all of us decided to rush him to hospital and brought him her forcibly," Geeta Patel, a close associate and member of Patel's core team, told reporters. A three-member team of doctors, including a nephrologist, are treating Patel in an Intensive Care Unit. Patel's blood and urine samples have been taken and the reports were awaited. The firebrand leader has lost over 20kg in the past two weeks. His kidney and liver had been affected by his continuous fast, PAAS leader Manoj Panara told reporters. Patel is on indefinite fast since August 25 demanding reservations for his community, debt waiver to farmers and release of his associate Alpesh Kathiria, who is in jail on sedition charges. New Delhi, Sep 7 : A man was stabbed to death on Friday for intervening in a scuffle over open urination, police said. Deputy Commissioner of POlice Atul Kumar Thakur said the incident happened in the Shastri Park area around 4.30 a.m. "A man urinating in the open was warned against doing so by the accused in the case. He ignored him and went away by an autorickshaw." "The accused didn't let him get in. Wasim, who was sitting in the rickshaw already, intervened, and was stabbed to death," the officer said. The accused is absconding and a case has been filed against him. Chennai, Sep 7 : DMK President M.K. Stalin on Friday expressed shock that no action has been taken against Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Minister C. Vijaya Baskar and DGP T.K. Rajendran after CBI raids related to the gutkha scam and again demanded their sacking as well as arrest. Stalin said he was shocked over the "inaction" of the Tamil Nadu government and Governor Banwarilal Purohit in moving against the two. It is shocking that even after the CBI raids at the residences of Baskar and Rajendran the government had not dismissed them and even the Governor had not taken any action, he said in a statement here. The DMK leader said it was not clear why Baskar and Rajendran, who are accused of accepting bribes from a gutka manufacturer, have not been arrested yet while bribe-giver gutkha manufacturer A.V. Mahdava Rao, intermediary and government officials were arrested by CBI on Thursday. On Septembr 5, the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the houses of Baskar, Rajendran, gutkha manufacturer Rao and several state and central government officials in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as a part of investigating the alleged payment and receipt of bribes. Stalin said that as per a diary noting by Rao a bribe of Rs 60 lakh was allegedly paid on April 21, May 20 and June 20 in 2016 to 'CP'. He alleged that Rao told Income Tax officials that 'CP' stood for Commissioner of Police. The Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly said that it was Rajendran who was then the Commissioner of Police in Chennai. Stalin said that another diary noting mentioned Rs 56 lakh paid to 'HM' between April 1, 2016 and June 15, 2016 and as per Rao 'HM' means Health Minister. Citing other diary entries, Stalin said Rs 20 lakh was given to a Joint Police Commissioner on November 4, 2015, December 10, 2015 and Jauary 2, 2016. Washington, Sep 7 : The US has said there is significant evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared by the Syrian government forces in Idlib city, as Russia, Iran and Turkey meet in Tehran for a crunch meeting to decide the fate of the region. The warning about the evidence of an imminent chemical attack was made by new US envoy to Syria Jim Jeffrey. The US has repeatedly said it will not tolerate a chemical attack but has not said how it would respond. "I am very sure that we have very, very good grounds to be making these warnings. Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation. There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared," he said. According to a report in the Guardian, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was pressing Russia to order the Syrian government to abstain from an assault on the final large opposition enclave, saying it could lead to a bloodbath or mass displacement of Syrian refugees into Turkey or Europe. Erdogan proposed a plan whereby rebel groups are given the chance to leave. He was scheduled to meet his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani later in the day. Although the three leaders will also discuss plans for reconstruction, the return of refugees and the fate of Kurds in Syria, the focus will be on Russia's determination to oversee a capture of Idlib by force, the report said. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura also urged Russia to hold off and to return to talks in Geneva that he has prepared for next week on a future constitution for Syria. The US envoy to Syria said: "I think the last chapter of the Idlib story has not been written. The Turks are trying to find a way out. The Turks have shown a great deal of resistance to an attack." He said the US had repeatedly asked Russia whether Washington could "operate" in Idlib to eliminate the last holdouts of jihadist groups. Asked whether that would include US air strikes, Jeffrey said: "That would be one way." The US State Department warned earlier that Washington would respond to any chemical attacks by the Syrian government or its allies. Despite Syrian denials, experts from the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said they were confident government forces were behind an attack involving the nerve agent Sarin on a rebel-held town in southern Idlib in April 2017 that killed over 80 people. The US envoy said a "major diplomatic initiative" was now needed to end the seven-year civil war. London, Sep 7 : Britain's former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his wife Marina Wheeler announced on Friday that they have separated and are in the process of a divorce. Johnson and the senior lawyer, both 54, have been married for 25 years. They made the announcement in a joint statement after a story appeared in the Sun newspaper detailing claims that Johnson was "unfaithful", the Guardian reported. "Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate," the joint statement read. "We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way... As friends we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead. We will not be commenting further," it said. Johnson, who has four children with Wheeler, resigned from the government in July over his opposition to Prime Minister Theresa May's Chequers Brexit plan. He has since written a series of articles criticising the government, which have been viewed as attempts to position himself as an alternative Prime Minister. Wheeler is a human rights lawyer who became a Queen's counsel in 2016. Johnson credited her as a key voice in his decision to support Brexit before the referendum. New Delhi, Sep 7 : The Congress on Friday tweeted a picture of party chief Rahul Gandhi with Mount Kailash in the backdrop, along with his walking record, amid questions over the authenticity of some of his photographs from the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage. "Leaving all the haters behind, Congress President Gandhi sets the pace during his Kailash Yatra. Can you keep up?" the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. The tweet carried a picture of Gandhi and his walking record that showed he had covered 34.31 km in 463 minutes and ascended a height equal to 203 floors in a day. Gandhi, who left Delhi on August 31, has been tweeting pictures and videos from his yatra. In his tweets, Gandhi has been referring to the tranquillity and calmness of places along the journey. On Friday, he tweeted a video of snowcapped mountains, saying "Shiva is the universe." Gandhi had tweeted the "stunning beauty" of lake Rakshas Tal on Wednesday and the Mansarovar lake on Tuesday. He had said it was so humbling to be walking in the shadow of this giant (Mount Kailash). BJP leader and Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh on Friday questioned the authenticity of a photograph from Gandhi's yatra. "This is photoshop... the shadow of the stick is missing," he said in a tweet, attaching Gandhi's picture wherein he is seen standing with a fellow pilgrim with a stick in hand. Priti Gandhi, incharge of BJP Mahila Morcha social media cell, had on Wednesday also raised questions over a photograph. "Rahul Gandhi, are you downloading pictures from the Internet and tweeting? Are you really at Mansarovar, or some place else?" she said while referring to a picture shared by Gandhi on the social media. Porec (Croatia), Sep 7 : The International Biathlon Union (IBU) refused to reinstate the full rights of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU), according to a decision at the IBU Congress here on Friday. "The IBU Congress has voted against the Russian Biathlon Union's application for full IBU membership. As a result the RBU remains a provisional member of the IBU," the organisation said on its website. Some 29 members voted against and another 20 voted for reinstating the RBU's full rights, reports Tass news agency. In December 2017, the IBU Executive Board made a decision to limit the rights of the RBU with the international organization due to numerous doping abuse allegations. The RBU was particularly stripped of the right to vote at the IBU Congresses and nominate its candidates for the executive posts in the global organization. The Congress, due to be wrapped up on September 9, will also elect its new president. The candidates for the post are Olle Dahlin, a current executive board member and chairman of the Swedish Biathlon Federation, and Baiba Broka, president of the Latvian Biathlon Federation. Norwegian Anders Besseberg, 72, who has led the IBU since the organization's founding in 1993, won't be re-elected for a new term. New Delhi, Sep 7 : The Delhi High Court on Friday reproached Shiv Sena's Telangana Unit President for using objectionable words in his plea for de-registration of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM as a political party. Justice Siddharth Mridul while issuing notice to Election Commission of India (ECI) and Central government observed that the petitioner has made a "scandalous statement" in his plea for quashing the registration of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen as a political party. The plea was filed by Tirupati Narasimha Murari through his advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain. "It is noteworthy to mention that Muslims came from Arab countries and ruled for considerably long time, causing serious damage to the life, property, cultural heritage of the country and forced Hindus to embrace Islam at large scale, adopting most barbaric methods," the plea read. "In 1946-47, the disruptive elements forced the then thinkers and persons at the helm of political affairs to accept the demand of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of Muslim League, for giving major portion of India to Pakistan as they did not want to live with Hindu community." The Court said: "You can't make such scandalous statement. This is not history. This is your view which is not desirable and irrelevant." The Court warned the counsel and said that these allegations are neither necessary nor permissible and said 'do not use the courtroom as a platform' for such propaganda. The AIMIM's counsel told the Court that it was ironic that the petition was filed by a Shiv Sena leader. The HC asked the AIMIM to file its response and listed the matter for further hearing on December 3. The Court was hearing a plea against the June 19, 2014 order of the ECI granting recognition of state party of Telangana to the AIMIM. The petitioner pleaded that the constitution and working of party was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court and AIMIM 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, 1951. The petition said the English translatation 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 and goddesses". It alleged that several FIRs have been lodged against them. Geneva, Sep 7 : The UN refugee agency UNHCR and the UN development agency UNDP are prepared to begin assessment of Rohingya villages in Myanmar, an official said on Friday. UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said at a press conference in Geneva that the Myanmar government had informed the two UN agencies that the assessment tasks could begin, but were yet to give individual authorization for the international officials to travel in the country, Efe news reported. These assessments were a part of a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh, agreed between the agencies and the Myanmar government, and which even three months after being signed is yet to be implemented. On June 6, UNHCR and UNDP signed the MoU establishing a framework of cooperation aimed at creating conditions for a safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingyas to their places of origin. More than 800,000 Rohingyas, mostly from Rakhine state, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since the end of August last year following a crackdown by Myanmar security forces. Besides the MoU, another important step towards creating appropriate conditions for the safe return of the refugees were to allow access through Rakhine to UN inspectors. The assessment will cover 23 villages and will be the "initial step only -- with the expectation being that access will then be expanded to allow for the larger-scale comprehensive assessments that continue to be needed," said the spokesperson. However, Baloch said that, beyond the authorizations, the Myanmar authorities needed to implement what was included in the MoU, especially access to all parts of Rakhine, freedom of movement for all communities and solving the primary causes of the crisis. Regarding access, the UN agencies called for their officials to be allowed to enter all parts of the state and interact with local communities regularly and without restrictions. Moreover, they also called for basic services to be distributed to all communities in the state, irrespective of their religion or ethnicity. Patna, Sep 7 : In a fresh case of street justice in Bihar, three suspected kidnappers were on Friday beaten to death by a mob in state's Begusarai district, police said. The incident took place near Goriya Dharamshala in Narain Pipar village under Chhaurahi block of the district. According to district police officials, three armed criminals, who were suspected to be kidnappers in search of a girl student to kidnap her from the village school. As the word spread about their presence in the village, they were surrounded and caught hold of by the angry villagers, who beat them to death with bamboo sticks, bricks and iron rods, the officials said. The police have registered a case in this regard and investigating the case. New Delhi, Sep 7 : The upcoming Assembly elections in four states that will set the trend for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are likely to figure prominently in the two-day BJP National Executive meet beginning here on Saturday. "The National Executive will discuss the current political situation in the country," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters. The meeting is likely to adopt political and economic resolutions. He said before the inaugural session of the meeting, national office bearers, state BJP chiefs and state's General Secretary (organisation) will hold a meeting with party President Amit Shah to finalize the agenda and the resolutions to be taken up in the meeting. The party is likely to reiterate its commitment to welfare of the poor and marginalised sections of the society by highlighting initiatives like higher MSP (minimum support price) for farmers, passage of OBC Commission Bill giving it a constitutional status and restoration of the provision for immediate arrest under the SC/ST Act. The National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Citizens Amendment Bill will also come up for discussion as the party ups the ante on identity politics. At the same time it will also seek to assure the upper castes, the traditional voters of BJP, which are agitated against the amendments made by Parliament to restore the provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, of thier rights, sources said. The executive meeting of the ruling party comes ahead of the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram due in December. The BJP, which is ruling in three states excluding Mizoram, is leaving no stone unturned to retain power. A new election angle has been added with the dissolution of the Assembly in Telangana, which could also see early polls. "The main focus of the executive will be on Assembly polls of three states where we are ruling. If the party wins these polls, a momentum for 2019 could be easily built in favour for 2019," a senior BJP functionary said on the condition of anonymity. He said a separate session for the election-bound states will be held where the preparations for the polls will be reviewed. The party will also review the status of various organisational activities it undertook to reach out to the people through Modi government's ambitious schemes such as Ujjawala, Swachha Bharat Abhiyan, Saubhagya, Aawas and Ayushmaan Bharat. The two-day meet, the first after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's demise, will be attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, union ministers, Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of the states ruled by the party and in coalition with allies. Amit Shah will give inaugural remarks while the Prime Minister will deliver the valedictory speech on Sunday. Kolkata, Sep 7 : Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, on Friday said that a political window had opened with the installation of a new government led by Imran Khan in that country to take forward the process of normalisation of bilateral relations. "We hope not to be derailed by violence and to take small steps to move forward," Bisaria said on the sidelines of an event at IIM-Calcutta here. He said that India is prepared to take 10 steps forward if terrorism was ended. "A political window has opened now with the election of a new democratic government in Pakistan. We are filled with cautious hope that we can move the normalisation process forward," Bisaria said. Bisaria said that the apetite for conversation and constructive dialogue goes down with acts of terrorism. "We are hopeful that with a new government in Pakistan, there will be more sensible policy towards India...," he said. Elaborating on the bilateral relations, he said that there was much scope of collaboration in the World Trade Organisation and climate change issue but terrorism was a deal breaker for India. The envoy said that India has been working hard with the neighbouring country on humanitarian fronts like release of prisoners and building an atmosphere of trust. Kathmandu, Sep 7 : In a major breakthrough, Nepal and China have finalised the text of the much-awaited protocol of Nepal-China Transit and Transportation Agreement that will allow Nepal to use Chinese ports for third-country trade. In the wake of Indian blockade nearly two years back, Prime Minister K.P. Oli had signed Transit and Transpiration Agreement with Beijing in 2016, ending Nepal's long dependence on using Indian sea ports for the third country trade and business. With this agreement, Nepal's dependence on India for third-country trading would end, resulting in Nepal facilitating its trade through Chinese seas and land ports. In the protocol agreed during the third senior official-level meeting held in Kathmandu on Friday, China has agreed to grant access to Nepal to its four seaports and three dry-ports for trading with third countries. According to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies following the agreement on Thursday, China has agreed to let Nepal use Tianjin, Shenzhen, Lianyungang and Zhanjiang open seaports and Lanzhou, Lhasa and Xigatse dry ports for trading with third countries. On Tuesday, the Nepali and Chinese teams carried out field visits of Kurintar in Chitwan where the proposed Nepal-China rail is expected to cross as well as a new north-south corridor to be built. They examined the road condition and geography of the area. Both sides have agreed to sign the protocol after completing their respective internal procedure before Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit expected next year. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday asked the officials in his Ministry to focus on capital expenditure and schemes and ensure full utilization of allotted budget grants. The direction came at a review meeting of the budget expenditure of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the current financial year. "The Union Home Minister directed the officials to maintain greater focus on capital expenditure and schemes and ensure full utilization of allotted budget grants," said the statement quoting Singh. The Minister expressed satisfaction at the pace of budget expenditure after he was apprised that his Ministry has utilized 49.14 per cent of the funds from April to September 7 out of total budget of Rs 93,171.61 crore for 2018-19, said the statement. Ministers of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Kiren Rijiju as well as Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and senior officers from various divisions of the Ministry were present in the meeting. Mumbai, Sep 7 : Despite a largely volatile session on Friday, the key Indian equity indices ended on a positive note supported by a recovery in the rupee. A healthy pick-up in auto, metal and healthcare stocks also supported the gains, said analysts. The rupee strengthened during the day following an intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), they said. Index-wise, the Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 11,589.10 points, higher 52.20 points or 0.45 per cent from its previous close of 11,536.90 points. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 38,314.55 points, closed at 38,389.82 points, higher 147.01 points or 0.38 per cent from the previous close of 38,242.81 points. It touched an intra-day high of 38,421.56 points and a low of 38,067.22 points. Among the global markets, major Asian markets closed on a negative note, barring the Jakarta and Shanghai indices, and the European indices including FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 traded in the red, according to Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities. On the currency front, the Indian rupee settled at 71.73 against the US dollar, stronger by 26 paise than its previous close of 71.99 per greenback. The central bank intervened heavily in the foreign exchange market on Friday, aiding the recovery in the domestic currency, Jasani told IANS. In the broader markets, the S&P BSE Mid-cap rose 1.15 per cent and the S&P BSE Small-cap ended 0.55 per cent higher from its previous close. The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1,533 advances against 1,202 declines. The total number of stocks traded on the exchange are 2,907 and 172 scrips ended unchanged. Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrips worth Rs 37.56 crore and domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 942.45 crore. Among the sectors, the S&P BSE Auto index gained the most 501.93 points. It was lifted by strong gains in Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Motherson Sumi and Mahindra and Mahindra stocks during the day. The auto index was followed by the metal index which rose 269.39 points and the healthcare, which ended 143.80 points higher than its previous close. As for declines, only three indices on the BSE ended in the negative territory with marginal losses. The S&P BSE Banking index slipped 13.28 points, the power index 1.68 points and the finance index ended 1.19 points lower from their respective previous close. The top gainers at the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp, up 5.27 per cent at Rs 3,327.45; Bajaj Auto, up 5.06 per cent at Rs 2,924; Bharti Airtel, up 5.06 per cent at Rs 2,924; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 4.12 per cent at Rs 973.45; and Tata Steel, up 3.09 per cent at Rs 619 per share. The majors losers were Yes Bank, down 4.59 per cent at Rs 323.45; Adani Ports, down 1.89 per cent at Rs 377.10; Sun Pharma, up 1.84 per cent at Rs 664.20; Power Grid, down 1.73 per cent at Rs 195.75; and State Bank of India, down 1.62 per cent at Rs 291.85 per share. Bangkok, Sep 7 : Indian activist Vidya Dinker, Bolivian Martin Vilela and Zimbabwean Mela Chiponda live in different continents but suffer a common problem of climate change, which they denounced before the UN in Bangkok. The three are among many activists and civil society representatives attending the UN climate change conference on Friday that will run till Sunday, Efe news reported. As delegates discuss percentages and technicalities regarding climate change at the UN building here, members of non-profits speak about their concerns on ecological damage from coal, intense droughts that destroy entire communities, as well as activists who end up dead for their environmental activism. Activist Dinker recalled a march from Tamil Nadu to New Delhi in 2017 by farmers with rats in their mouths, symbolizing food shortages, and carrying the skulls of debt-ridden farmers who committed suicide amid severe droughts. The activist from Mangalore rued that the farmers' widows were left to take care of the children while facing increasingly mounting debts. Extreme climate conditions were also observed in India, where severe floods in Kerala left several hundred dead, while thousands were rendered homeless in Assam this year. Dinker told Efe that climate change also affects the pollination of flowers, which in turn could affect the day to day lives of humans in many other ways. Activist Chiponda, from the Zimbabwean province of Manicaland, has been working for the last three years against the extractive economy and empowering women in several African countries through the non-profit WoMin. Chiponda alleges that global warming causes heat waves and extreme droughts in Zimbabwe, compelling men to migrate or commit suicide due to debts, while coal mining pollutes farmland. Chiponda said that there was food scarcity and diseases among children that earlier were not seen. She added that there was an urgent need for countries to give up fossil fuels and for the people to change their consumption habits in order to not pollute the environment. Activist Vilela, a resident of La Paz and member of the Bolivian Climate Change Platform, said that climate extremes in Bolivia cause floods in the Amazonian region and droughts that dry up large lakes such as Poopo. Vilela said that climate change has been affecting many poor communities that face adverse situations every day, adding that the negotiations in Bangkok were not addressing structural solutions and not even taking little steps against climate change. Other victims of climate change have been vocal about the increasing frequency of landslides and floods in northern Thailand, proliferation of coal-fired power plants in the Philippines, as well as the loss of arable land due to sea erosion and salinization in Bangladesh. Activists fighting against the polluting companies have reportedly been killed in Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines. Climate change has also affected Australia, which is suffering one of its worst droughts, and Europe, where lack of water has affected crops in Poland. UN negotiators in Bangkok seek to prepare a document with guidelines and standards for approval at the forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in Poland in December, with the aim of keeping temperature change this century within 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. Moreover, the NGOs have urged keeping in mind the poorest communities, who often end up losing their lives to the effects of global warming. Jakarta, Sep 7 : Indonesian journalists on Friday gathered outside the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta to protest the conviction of two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in prison for violating a state secrets law. The protesters taped their mouths shut and wrists together, and laid down their cameras and recorders on a poster that read "Defend Press Freedom", Efe news reported. A Myanmar court on Monday sentenced journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, to jail for breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The pair were investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims at Inn Din village in northern Rakhine state as part of an offensive last year by the Myanmar Army after Rohingya rebels launched a series of attacks on security posts in the region. The offensive led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in overcrowded refugee camps. The two journalists were arrested in December after meeting police officers who the pair said handed them papers. The journalists, whose report was published in February and led to the conviction of seven Myanmar soldiers to 10 years in prison, had claimed they were set up by Myanmar authorities. One police witness testified the meeting was a set-up to entrap the reporters, the report said. "We know we did nothing wrong. I have no fear. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom," Wa Lone said after the verdict. Kyaw Soe Oo said: "What I want to say to the government is: You can put us in jail, but do not close the eyes and ears of the people." The conviction of the reporters spurred an international outcry from rights groups, governments and news organizations. "The outrageous convictions of the Reuters journalists show Myanmar courts' willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities. These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Aung San Suu Kyi's government," Human Rights Watch's Asia Pacific Director Brad Adams said. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Around 600 food and beverage (F&B) importers from about 50 countries are likely to participate in Indusfood-II, touted as the world's food supermarket, in January 2019, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Friday. "The Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) is expecting around 600 global buyers from 50 countries and over 350 Indian exporters and producers to participate at this World Food Supermarket in Indusfood-II," the Ministry said in a statement. The second edition of Indusfood will be held on January 14-15, 2019 in Greater Noida in the National Capital Region (NCR). Indusfood-I, held in early 2018, saw importers from 43 countries generating an estimated business of $650 million, it said. Following a recent meeting between TPCI Director Ashok Sethi and India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce (IBCCI) President Abdul Matlub Ahmad in Dhaka, IBCCI has confirmed its participation with a strong contingent at the F&B trade fair. "Bangladesh is already doing business with North Eastern states of India and in Indusfood-II, their contingent will be looking forward to meeting new exporters from the North East region, including the horticulture departments of these states," it said. Some of the key products that Bangladesh is likely to source from India are fruits, spices, confectionary, agri produce, dry fruits and mustered and soya oil. "TPCI is working to attract maximum buyers from the SAARC countries to source their food and beverage-related requirements from India," the Commerce Ministry said. Some big buyers, including supermarket chains, from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries including Iran and Russian Commonwealth countries (or CIS) have already pledged their presence in Indusfood-II, the statement added. "(At Indusfood-I,) international buyers and Indian sellers from 12 categories of F&B industry experienced a unique opportunity of a B2B dialogue and insight into the large basket of brands, private labels and bulk purchase of raw items that India could offer to the world," the Ministry said. Vijayawada, Sep 7 : The death of Pruthviraj Kandepi, who was among the three people killed by a gunman at a bank in the US state of Ohio on Thursday, has left his parents distraught. The parents were grief-stricken at their house in Tenali town of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh after the family received the shocking news of his killing. The 25-year-old was working as a consultant with the Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. He, along with two others, Luis Felipe Calderon, 48, and Richard Newcomer, 64, were shot dead by the gunman identified as Omar Perez, 29. Perez was later shot dead by the police. Five others were also injured in the incident that took place on Thursday morning at the headquarters of the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square, Cincinnati. The only son of Kandepi Gopinath and Kandepi Sudha Rani, Pruthviraj had gone to the US six years ago and after completing his education joined the bank as a consultant. The parents and his sister were shocked after they were informed about his death. The parents were inconsolable. Relatives and friends poured in to meet the couple. Gopinath is Deputy Engineer in Andhra Pradesh Housing Development Corporation and is currently serving in Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati. According to Pruthviraj's relatives, his parents had plans to get him married and were looking for a suitable alliance. The family is in touch with relatives and friends, officials of the bank and representatives of Telugu associations in the US and is requesting them to make arrangements to send the body home as early as possible. New Delhi, Sep 7 : The BJP on Friday slammed Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for praising Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the issue of opening of the Kartarpur corridor to enable devotees pay obeisance at a gurdwara associated with the first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev. The praise was an "insult to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi". "This has become a habit with the Congress to insult our Prime Minister and praise that of the neighbouring country. The entire country is watching this. (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi should clarify the issue," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told a press conference here. Hussain said that Sidhu's remarks came at a time when Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa has vowed to avenge the blood shed on the border by his country's soldiers. "On one side, Pakistan's Army chief is speaking of 'khoon ka badla khoon' and in India a Congress leader is thanking Pakistan. It is very sad and unfortunate," he said. "We reject Bajwa's statement. India is capable of responding to them," he added. Seeking to know if it (praise) was the Congress statement or of Sidhu, he said that until the opposition party clarified, the BJP will consider it a statement by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. "Sidhu is not an individual. He is a Congress leader and a Cabinet Minister in Punjab," the BJP leader said, adding that his statement thanking Pakistan is an indication of what the Congress feels about that country. He said that India and many of its Prime Ministers had tried many a time to improve bilateral relations but to no avail. Addressing reporters in Chandigarh, Sidhu earlier in the day thanked his "friend" Imran Khan for enabling the opening of the corridor that would allow pilgrims from India to go to the gurdwara close to the international border in Pakistan. "Ajj meri zindagi safal ho gayi (today, I have succeeded in life)," Sidhu told the media. Mumbai, Sep 7 : The Board of cash-strapped IL&FS has sought immediate financial support from its key shareholders, sources said. Accordingly, the Board met here on Friday and sought around Rs 3,000 crore loan from key shareholders including Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Besides, sources said the Board informed the shareholders of the brewing financial crisis at the company and the need to raise additional funds. As per an earlier statement of the company, the Board had approved a plan to approach shareholders for support to the extent of Rs 9,000 crore. On August 29, the company's board, among other fund-raising plans, approved a Rights Issue of 30 crore equity shares at Rs 150 per share aggregating to Rs 4,500 crore to shore up its capital and the process would be completed by October 30, the company had said in a statement. "As on March 31, 2018, IL&FS net worth was Rs 7,400 crore. In addition, the Board approved the re-capitalization of Group companies to the extent of Rs 5,000 crore in IL&FS Financial Services, IL&FS Transportation, IL&FS Energy, IL&FS Environment, and IL&FS Education," the company said. "The Board also approved the Company's specific asset divestment plan based on which IL&FS expects to reduce its overall debt by Rs 30,000 crore. Out of a portfolio of 25 projects identified for sale, firm offers have already been received for 14 projects." The August 29 statement had also said that the company expects to complete its divestment plan over the next 12 to 18 months in a systematic and professional way to fulfil its commitments. The group has around Rs 1 lakh crore worth of debt on its books. As on March 31, 2018, LIC and ORIX Corporation Japan were the largest shareholders in IL&FS with their stake holding at 25.34 per cent and 23.54 per cent respectively, while Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), HDFC, CBI and SBI stake holdings are at 12.56 per cent, 9.02 per cent, 7.67 per cent and 6.42 per cent respectively. Last month, ICRA had downgraded the long-term rating for IL&FS. "The rating revisions take into account the company's elevated debt levels owing to the funding commitments towards Group ventures," ICRA had said in a note on August 7. "While IL&FS has recognised opportunistic asset monetisation as a key strategic initiative, the actual progress on the same has hitherto been slow, resulting in high gearing for the company, albeit within the regulatory limit." Jaipur, Sep 7 : The last day of the Rajasthan Assembly's monsoon session on Friday saw relentless attacks by the opposition Congress on the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House twice before adjourning it sine die. The Opposition on Friday cornered the government over rising fuel prices and for a lathicharge on Youth Congress workers on Thursday. Amid ruckus, six bills were passed in the Assembly. Under the Rajasthan Stamp (Amendment) Bill, the surcharge at the rate of 10 per cent on the stamp duty has been increased to 20 per cent in order to generate funds for conservation and protection of cow. State Cooperative Minister Ajay Sigh Kilak said over 19.24 lakh farmers in the state have been benefitted with a loan waiver worth Rs 5,461 crore under BJP's rule in Rajasthan. "The remaining farmers will also be given a waiver by October 31, 2018," he said. The present government has distributed crop loans worth Rs 70,000 crore and this amount will rise to Rs 80,000 crore by the end of this financial year, Kilak said. Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 7 : Having drawn flak from several quarters, the Kerala CPI-M on Friday said the party is looking into allegations levelled by a woman against P.K. Sasi, the party legislator from Shornur in Palakkad district of the state. In a statement, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a section of the media are making baseless allegations to malign the party. "It was on August 14 that the state party unit got a complaint from the woman against Sasi. He was immediately summoned by the party and his explanation was taken. "On August 31, a two-member committee of the party comprising state Minister for Culture A.K. Balan and Kannur Lok Sabha member P.K. Sreemathi was asked to look into it. Once the committee submits its report appropriate action will be there," said the statement. Sreemathi, a former State Health Minister, told the media that they are on the job. "It's too early to say anything about it now as we have to meet the woman." The Congress has been critical of the government and also the Kerala State Women's Commission (KSWC) Chairperson M.C. Josephine, a CPI-M Central Committee member, after she said since there is no complaint from the woman, nothing can be done. State Youth Congress activists on Friday marched to the office of the state police chief here. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Even as it condemned Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa for "vowing to avenge bloodshed on the border", the Congress on Friday endorsed Pakistans move to open Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims. Reacting to General Bajwa's offensive, Congress spokesperson R.P.N. Singh wondered why the Modi government was not able to give a befitting reply to Pakistan's continuous rants. "We condemn it (Bajwa's remarks) in strong words. Pakistan continues to make such statements, but one should ask the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) about the Government's response to these statements," Singh told the media. "The government must give a befitting reply to Pakistan whenever it points fingers and tries to condemn the sacrifices of our soldiers and citizens," he said. Addressing the Defence Day ceremony in Rawalpindi Bajwa said: "We will avenge the blood flowing on the border." Reacting to Pakistan's opening the religious corridor, Singh said it was good move for the people of India. "If Sikh pilgrims are allowed to visit the holy shrine, it is something which is very good for the people of India," said Singh. Singh's remarks follow Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu thanking his "friend" Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for enabling the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor. "I thank you Khan Saab (Imran Khan) a million times for doing this," Sidhu said on the opening of the corridor which will allow pilgrims from India to go to a gurdwara in Pakistan, close to the India-Pakistan border, which is associated with Guru Nanak Dev. Sidhu, however, drew flak from the BJP, which said the praise was an "insult to India and Modi". "This has become a habit with the Congress to insult our Prime Minister and praise that of the neighbouring country," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. New Delhi, Sep 7 : The Indian government's public debt increased to Rs 79.8 lakh crore by the end of the first quarter of the fiscal ending June, from Rs 77.98 lakh crore at end of the previous quarter, official data showed on Friday. According to a Finance Ministry release, the government's debt (including liabilities under the Public Account) accounted for 89.3 per cent of total outstanding liabilities at end-June 2018 with internal debt accounting for 83.0 per cent share. "Nearly 24.9 per cent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than 5 years. The holding pattern indicates a share of 42.7 per cent for commercial banks and 23.5 per cent for insurance companies by end-March 2018," it said. "During the first quarter of fiscal year 2018-19, the government issued dated securities worth Rs 1,44,000 crore in 12 tranches, lower than Rs 1,68,000 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2017-18. "The temporary cash flow mismatches were bridged through issuances of Cash Management Bills in three tranches up to Rs 65,000 crore during the quarter," it added. The quarterly report on debt management also said that government securities' (G-Sec) yields have shown a hardening trend in the April-June quarter with the increase in weighted average yield of primary issuances to 7.76 per cent from 7.34 per cent in the previous quarter reflecting the impact of both global and domestic developments. "The manifestation of global developments being increase in crude oil prices, rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, rising geo-political tensions while domestic developments included weak rupee, rise in CPI (consumer price index), demand-supply imbalance for shorter-tenor securities and weak demand from FPIs (foreign portgolio investors)," it said. The Finance Ministry set up a Public Debt Management Cell in 2016 to better manage the government's debt management functions. New Delhi, Sep 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged American investors to step up their investment in India, saying the country offers enormous investment potential. Modi made the remarks to board members of United States India Business Council (USIBC) who called on him. An official release said they briefed Modi on the outcomes of the India Idea Forum held in Mumbai earlier this week. The business leaders expressed their desire to prepare a roadmap to achieve the target of $ 500 billion in bilateral trade and expand meaningfully their Corporate Social Responsibility activities in India. Interacting with the members, Modi mentioned various reforms undertaken by his government. "He also spoke of the enormous investment potential in India and encouraged the American investor community to step up investment in the country," the release said. He also called for greater people-to-people exchanges between the two countries mentioning the shared values between India and the US. New Delhi : Geneva, Sep 7 (AKI/IANS) A total 1,565 migrants perished on the Mediterranean crossing to Europe this year through September 5 while 71,779 arrived over the period, the United Nations migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday. Spain, where 31,040 migrants arrived by sea this year, has overtaken Italy as the leading destination, IOM said. At further 4,575 irregular migrants entered Spain by land, according to IOM. A total 20,250 boat migrants reached Italy through September 5, while 19,564 landed in Greece and 714 in Malta over the period, IOM reported. Italy's sea arrivals to date are the lowest recorded by IOM since 2014 and lower than those recorded by Italian authorities during many individual months over the past five years, the agency noted. Migrant sea arrivals in Europe this year dropped sharply from 125,613 during the same period of 2017 and 289,681 at same point of in 2016, the IOM said. The proportion of migrants who died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year (2.18 per cent) was similar to the 2017 death rate (2.04 per cent), the IOM figures showed. Italy's anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini has barred rescue ships from delivering migrants to the country's ports since taking office in June and has set a goal of "zero" migration to Italy, where around 700,000 people have arrived by boat since 2014. Salvini has also vowed to deport half a million illegal immigrants from Italy. He has accused charity rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean of abetting human trafficking gangs and of providing a "taxi service" for migrants. Chandigarh, Sep 7 : Former general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Sukhdev Singh Bhaur was on Friday arrested from Mohali town, adjoining Chandigarh, following a case registered against him for hurting religious sentiments of a community, police said. He was booked by the Punjab Police in Banga town in Nawanshahr district, around 85 km from here, following a complaint from the members of Ravidassia community who alleged that Bhaur had hurt their religious sentiments by saying unwarranted things against the community's religious leader Sant Ramanand. Sources said that Bhaur, who made the comments in a recent speech, took to social media to regret his utterances and apologised to the community members. Sant Ramanand, who headed the influential Dera Ballan in Punjab's Doaba belt, was killed in an attack at a shrine in Vienna in Austria in 2009. His killing had brought Punjab to a standstill due to violence by the Ravidassia community in Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts. Bhaur had even remained acting-President of the SGPC earlier. He fell out with the Shiromani Akali Dal leadership in 2015 following sacrilege incidents in the state. The SGPC, considered mini-parliament of Sikh religious affairs, is a cash-rich organisation with an annual budget of nearly Rs 1,200 crore. It manages gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, including the holiest of Sikh shrines "Harmandir Sahib", popularly known as Golden Temple, in Amritsar. Rome, Sep 8 : Sicilian prosecutors have dropped all charges but one -- kidnapping -- against Italy's hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini in the case of 177 rescued migrants left stranded on a coastguard ship last month after Salvini refused to allow them ashore. Salvini's chief of staff Matteo Piantedosi no longer faces charges in the case, prosecutors said. Palermo presiding judge Fabio Pilato said on Friday he was instructing Italy's special ministerial court to investigate Salvini for the single charge of kidnapping the 177 migrants, who spend 10 days aboard the Diciotti patrol vessel after Salvini refused to allow them to disembark in Catania unless the European Union "stepped in". "Senator Salvini has been informed of this procedure, and the victims of the alleged offence are in the process of being informed, as required by law," the Sicilian prosecutors stated. Prosecutors in August said they were probing Salvini and Piantedosi for kidnapping in order to coerce, illegal detention, abuse of office and negligence in the Diociotti case, an investigation Salvini said "would not stop" his drive against migration. Salvini ordered the migrants to be allowed off the Diciotti on August 25 after Ireland and Albania and agreed to take 45 while the Italian Catholic Church agreed to take most of the others and relocate them to parishes across Italy. Italy appeared in the Diciotti standoff to have flouted the European Convention on Human Rights which states that any asylum seeker detained for more than 48 hours should be released and given the opportunity to apply for refugee status. Brussels, Sep 8 : Over 45 countries on Friday vowed to globally eradicate by 2030 the highly contagious Peste des petits ruminants disease which kills of millions of sheep and goats each year in Africa and Asia, the UN, EU and World Organisation for Animal Health said in a joint statement. At a global conference hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, participants stressed that PPR "directly threatens the livelihoods of the poorest people of our countries with significant losses in our local economies," the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the European Union and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) stated. The disease causes more than $2.1 billion in economic losses per year, FAO, European Union (EU) and OIE said in the statement. Since its initial identification in Cote d'Ivoire in 1942, PPR has spread to over 70 countries in Africa, the Near and Middle East, and Asia and has reached new areas including Europe in recent years, the statement said. In December 2016 the first reported outbreak in sheep and goats with spill-over of the disease to a wild antelope species was observed in Mongolia, and later in June this year it reached the EU, with a first-ever case reported in Bulgaria, FAO, EU, OIE said. While the disease is highly lethal to small ruminants -- killing up to 90 per cent of infected animals -- it is easily preventable with inexpensive vaccines that can be administered at low cost. At the one-day Brussels conference, countries also urged resource partners and the development community to held bridge a 340 million funding gap for the PPR Global Eradication Programme, according to the statement b FAO, EU and OIE. "Our commitment to tackle animal diseases - like PPR - is also a response, to the wider challenges of migration, food security, poverty alleviation, resilience and global trade. And it is essential to our efforts to provide better jobs and prospects for women and young people in particular," EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica said. Small ruminants are the primary resource of about 300 million people, FAO Director-General Graziano da Silva said, stressing that PPR's elimination was key to sustainable development. "The financial resources to eradicate PPR are not an expense, but an important investment that will result in future economic and social gains," da Silva said. "If we do not tackle the spread of PPR, the disease will increase poverty, hunger and also other forms of malnutrition. Eradicating PPR is fundamental for building a safer and more sustainable world." OIE Director-General Monique Eloit underlined that eradicating PPR would preserve the livelihoods of millions of poor families. "The technical means and knowledge are available...reinforcing national Veterinary Services will be a key milestone in the achievement of this common goal," Eloit said. Nearly 270 participants, among them ministers from over 45 PPR-infected and at-risk countries as well as high-level representatives from resource partners, international, regional, civil-society and non-governmental organisations attended the Brussels conference. The event was preceded by a Stakeholders Forum, which gave the opportunity to exchange views and to collect first-hand testimonies on the grave impact of PPR, FAO the EU and OIE said. The NSW Government has announced a new a regulatory framework to govern the short-term holiday letting industry. Short-term holiday letting has rapidly expanded in recent years due to the growth of online booking services such as Airbnb and Stayz. The regulatory framework is designed to ensure that local communities continue to gain from the economic benefits of short-term holiday letting, while protecting neighbours from anti-social behaviour. What is the new framework? The new framework will include new planning laws, an industry Code of Conduct and new provisions for strata scheme by-laws. Planning laws New planning laws will allow short-term holiday letting under certain conditions. If the host is present, they can use their home for short-term holiday letting all year round as exempt development. That is, they do not need to submit a development application to local council. If the host is not present, that residence can be used for short-term holiday letting up to 180 days per year in Greater Sydney, with 365 days allowed in all other areas of New South Wales. Councils outside Greater Sydney will have the power to decrease the 365 day limit to no less than 180 days per year. There will also be additional conditions for bushfire prone land to ensure visitor safety. Click here to enlarge Code of Conduct A mandatory Code of Conduct will be introduced that will apply to anyone involved in providing or using short-term holiday letting including hosts, guests, online platforms, and letting agents. The Code will establish the two strikes and youre out policy. Hosts or guests who commit two serious breaches of the Code within two years will be banned for five years. Platforms and letting agents will not be permitted to offer services to anyone, or any dwelling, that is listed on the exclusion register. A strike will include any behaviour which unreasonably interferes with a neighbours quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their home. The Code will establish a complaints system, which will be available to neighbours of short-term holiday letting premises, strata committees and owners corporations. Complaints will be assessed by independent and impartial adjudicators, approved by the Commissioner for Fair Trading. Adjudicators will be required to make decisions on evidence and after giving both complainants and respondents a chance to put forward their case. Strikes will be recorded on an online register to ensure that guests and/or hosts cannot 'platform shop'. Platforms and property agents will have to check the register before taking on new customers. Failure to do so may result in significant penalties of up to $1.1million for corporations and $220,000 for individuals. NSW Fair Trading will have powers to police online platforms and letting agents. The Code, its enforcement, the compliance system and the register will be funded by industry. What about strata schemes? Strata scheme management laws will be amended to clarify that by-laws can prohibit short-term holiday letting, but only for lots that are not a hosts principal place of residence. That is, if a host is genuinely sharing their home, they will still be able to use a spare room for short-term holiday letting, and will be allowed to let out their principal place of residence while they are away on holidays. NSW Fair Trading will also develop guidelines to advise owners corporations on how they can use other existing strata laws to help deal with short-term holiday letting. Click here to enlarge When will the new framework start? The NSW Parliament passed the Governments short-term holiday letting reforms on Tuesday 14 August. The new framework is expected to start in 2019. The Code of Conduct will be developed in consultation with Government agencies, and industry and community groups during 2018. The reforms will be reviewed a year after they commence. How was the framework determined? In October 2016, the NSW Parliament Legislative Assembly Committee on Environment and Planning made several recommendations to the Government following its public inquiry on the Adequacy of Regulation of short-term residential accommodation. The Committees report was released in October 2016 and made 12 recommendations, mostly relating to planning and strata laws. In mid-2017, the Government released an Options Paper on short-term holiday letting. The Options Paper explored approaches to implement a whole of Government regulatory framework for the industry that addressed land use and planning issues and strata scheme management issues, including the amenity and safety of existing residents. Community and industry feedback on these options helped guide and inform the Government's reforms to the regulations of short-term holiday letting. How to Be a Better You: The Ultimate Playbook to Life: an empowering guidebook to personal success. How to Be a Better You is the creation of published author, Adam Mient, an accomplished independent filmmaker from Chicago whose work has been featured at local film festivals in Minnesota; he is also the proud father of one. Mient shares, The world can and will present us challenges at every twist and turn and usually does this at the worst times. What can go wrong will go wrong when you least expect it. Our lives are filled with high stress situations which can quickly deteriorate ones mental state. The key here is to try and stay positive. You and you alone are the master of how you react to any given situation. The choice is always yours. Our emotions may be difficult to control sometimes but how we react to them is always up to us. This may take some practice. Once achieved, it will become one of your most valuable and noteworthy attributes and will help set you apart from the rest. A positive attitude is also often a trait of successful people. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Adam Mients new book is a roadmap for those who are looking to thrive instead of just survive. Mient shows readers in these energized pages that anyone, regardless of their past, can change their lives for the better, offering himself as living proof that all things are indeed possible through God. View a synopsis of How to Be a Better You: The Ultimate Playbook to Life on YouTube. Consumers can purchase How to Be a Better You: The Ultimate Playbook to Life at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about How to Be a Better You: The Ultimate Playbook to Life, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Performance Brokerage Services "For over 50 years, the Frieze family acted as role models for the Harley-Davidson dealer body." - George C. Chaconas Performance Brokerage Services, a new car and Harley-Davidson dealership broker is pleased to announce the sale of Frieze Harley-Davidson in OFallon, Illinois from Virginia (Jenny) Frieze to Brad Holzhauer. Frieze Harley-Davidson was established in 1963 in East St. Louis by Russell Frieze. Russell had a passion for motorcycles and a love for Harley-Davidson. As the motorcycle industry continued to grow in the 60s, Russell turned his racing passion into his life dream by opening Frieze Harley-Davidson. Russell was loyal to the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, having only ever raced, sold and serviced Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In 1988, Frieze Harley-Davidson was the first dealership in the St. Louis Metro area to be remodeled under the Harley-Davidson Motor Company Designer Store Program. In 2001, the Frieze operation expanded with the opening of a second location, an alternate retail outlet, in OFallon, Illinois. One year later, Russell passed away and left the Frieze family legacy in the hands of his wife, Jenny and their daughter, Etta. In 2007, Jenny Frieze relocated the dealership to its current home in OFallon. Jenny had been working with the dealership for nearly 45 years, and became the General Manager in 1998, when Russell had stepped down from the position. Their daughter, Etta, who joined the family business in 1984. commented, Coming here to work is more than just a job to me, it is the continuing of the Frieze family heritage. Jenny was a pioneer in building an eco-friendly dealership, becoming the first dealership to receive a gold rating under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification program operated by the U.S. Green Building Council and the only dealership to receive the Environmental Award from Harley-Davidson Motor Company. After 55 years of ownership, the Frieze family decided it was time to sell their business and hired George C. Chaconas from Performance Brokerage Services to assist them with the sale. Following the sale, Jenny shared, George was knowledgeable and persistent in finding a buyer. He kept me apprised on a regular basis and left no stones unturned. During this process we have become friends. To anyone considering selling their business, I recommend giving George a call. You won't be disappointed! Brad Holzhauer, the buyer, also owns and operates Big Saint Charles Motorsports and Saint Charles Harley-Davidson in Missouri. The acquisition of Frieze Harley-Davidson was a great strategic fit for him. Brad mentioned that the beauty and magnitude of Frieze Harley-Davidsons facility ultimately sold him on the deal. An entire inside wall of the dealership boasts a mural that depicts the first Frieze Harley-Davidson location with Russell Frieze standing out front with his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Brad intends to maintain the mural paying homage to the 55-year-old legacy the Frieze family has built. Following the purchase, Brad commented, George was very instrumental in acquiring Frieze Harley-Davidson. His professionalism, consistency and perseverance helped bridge the gap in a very difficult transaction. I want to thank George very much for helping us grow our Harley-Davidson dealerships in our area. The dealership will operate under its new name, Green Mount Road Harley-Davidson and reside at the same location of 1560 North Green Mount Road in OFallon, Illinois. George C. Chaconas, the exclusive agent for this transaction and the head of the National Harley-Davidson and Powersports Division for Performance Brokerage Services commented, For over 50 years, the Frieze family were role models for the Harley-Davidson dealer body and their community. It was such an honor being involved in passing the torch of this family legacy. I wish Brad Holzhauer much success with this purchase and thank Jenny for the opportunity to earn her business and her friendship. About Performance Brokerage Services Performance Brokerage Services, an auto dealership broker, specializes in professional intermediary services to buyers and sellers of automotive, Harley-Davidson and Powersports dealerships. The company offers a different approach to the automotive, Harley-Davidson and Powersports industries by providing complimentary dealership assessments, no upfront fees, no reimbursement of costs and is paid a success fee only. Performance Brokerage Services gets paid only after the client gets paid. With over 25 years of experience, the company utilizes an extensive network of industry related accountants, attorneys, hundreds of registered buyers and enjoys longstanding relationships with most of the auto manufacturers and the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. The intermediaries at Performance Brokerage Services have been involved in well over 600 transactions. Pledging loyal and unwavering representation, confidentiality is vigilantly protected during the selling process and after the transaction closes. With corporate offices in Irvine, California, six regional offices in Utah, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Alberta and Ontario, and a dedicated Harley-Davidson and Powersports Division, Performance Brokerage Services provides its clients national exposure with local representation. For more information about the services offered by Performance Brokerage Services, visit https://performancebrokerageservices.com. Flagstaff not only gives us a presence throughout the state of Arizona, but also grants us better access to our hospitality, education, healthcare and mining customers." In July, American Fire Equipment, a division of The Hiller Companies, Inc., celebrated the opening of its new branch in Flagstaff, Arizona. The addition of the Flagstaff branch solidifies American Fires strong presence in the state of Arizona, where offices are currently located in Phoenix, Yuma, Tucson, and Show Low. Purchased by Hiller in January 2017, American Fire builds on our strong foundation of experience steeped in almost 100 years in the fire protection industry coupled with the most modern service technology. Flagstaff not only gives us a presence throughout the state of Arizona, but also grants us better access to our hospitality, education, healthcare and mining customers," shares Operations Manager Mark Murrell. With Hillers support and American Fires drive, we are excited to build on our reputation of excellence in fire protection solutions and high quality customer service. The Flagstaff branch provides a full range of fire protection services for educational, commercial and industrial environments and specializes in solutions for fire alarms, fire sprinklers, clean agent fire suppression, portable fire extinguishers and backflow preventers. The new branch location is: 5310 E Northgate Loop, Suite B, Flagstaff, Arizona 86004 For more information about American Fire, please visit http://www.americanfire.com. The Hiller Companies offers 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 in domestic markets 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@hillercompanies.com. Our partnership with Antidote will provide researchers with an efficient method to determine whether a patient is qualified for a particular study with lab-based requirements. This is a win for patients and researchers alike. Antidote Technologies, a digital health company with strategic partnerships across the clinical development ecosystem, today announced a collaboration with PWNHealth, LLC to incorporate direct-to-patient lab services and bolster efficiencies in clinical trial recruitment. This partnership brings together Antidotes proven end-to-end patient recruitment model and PWNHealths patient-centered lab service offerings to speed up recruitment for complex studies while lowering patient burden with the ultimate goal of accelerating medical research. The joint services of Antidote and PWNHealth will provide researchers with: -Unique access to engaged patient populations through Antidotes extensive network of partners -Highly efficient pre-screening technology -Lab-validated referrals based on PWNHealths physician oversight of direct-to-patient diagnostic services, through their network of physicians and 40+ lab partners -Effective referral management services to enrollment -Insights for feasibility and recruitment planning As medicine advances, clinical trial eligibility requirements are becoming increasingly complex in both number and specificity. For example, a Journal of Thoracic Oncology study showed 50% growth over the past 30 years in the number of eligibility criteria for lung cancer studies.[1] Clinical trial protocols increasingly require patients to meet the thresholds of certain lab values in order to qualify for a study. The reasons for this include treatment regimens becoming more complicated, safety concerns becoming better understood, and study populations becoming more precisely defined.[2]These complexities directly impact clinical trial recruitment, slowing down the process and causing frustration for patients who want to take part in a study, as well as for researchers who want to conduct their study on-time and on-budget. As more trials fold lab values into their requirements, making lab services easily available to patients is one way that PWNHealth can significantly accelerate medical research, said Bill Paquin Chief Commercial Officer of PWNHealth. Our partnership with Antidote will provide researchers with an efficient method to determine whether a patient is qualified for a particular study with lab-based requirements. This is a win for patients and researchers alike. The ability to screen patients for lab values makes precision matching of patients to trials that much more attainable, said Tom Krohn, Chief Development Officer at Antidote. We strive to find innovative ways to improve recruitment efficiency and were excited to start seeing the impact of this collaboration with PWNHealth. In the United States today, nearly 80% of clinical trials are delayed or closed due to difficulty finding the right patients to take part, and these delays can cost researchers up to $8M per day. Its time to explore new models to help willing and interested patients join clinical trials. For more information, please visit http://www.pwnhealth.com or http://www.antidote.me. About PWNHealth PWNHealth is a virtual care company that is transforming the way diagnostic tests are delivered, understood, and acted upon. Through our diagnostic testing ecosystem, we connect millions of people to thousands of sophisticated and clinically-sound diagnostic tests. As a pioneer with unparalleled industry experience, we have established a nationwide physician and genetic counselor network to support a broad range of healthcare partners that include employers, labs, and life science companies. Diagnostic tests have the power to change a persons life. Through the PWNHealth Network we work to ensure the right tests are delivered to the right person with the right context. For more information, please visit http://www.pwnhealth.com. About Antidote Antidote is a digital health company on a mission to accelerate the breakthroughs of new treatments by bridging the gap between medical research and the people who need it. In a world where 80% of clinical trials are delayed or closed due to lack of participants [3], Antidote uses cutting-edge technology to match the right patients with the right trials, helping medical researchers make faster progress, and offering new treatment options to patients. Antidote MatchTM, the companys unique trial matching tool, currently powers clinical trial search for more than 250 patient communities and health portals bringing clinical trial awareness, matching, and access to more than 15 million patients a month. Antidote was launched as TrialReach and is based in the US and UK. For more information, please visit http://www.antidote.me. Media Contacts Grace McElroy VP of Partnerships and Communications, Antidote grace@antidote.me 914-643-5260 Bill Paquin Chief Commercial Officer, PWNHealth bpaquin@pwnhealth.com 201.970.8978 [1] 2 3 https://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/features/featureclinical-trial-patient-recruitment/ The Biggest Game of All: One Life to Live, So Many Choices: an inspiring book of guidance and Scripture-based advice for meeting the challenges and decisions of daily life. The Biggest Game of All: One Life to Live, So Many Choices is the creation of published author David M. Hoof, a California native, father, and grandfather who found the Lord at the age of sixty-eight and now resides in Maryville, Tennessee with his wife, Susan. David shares, Life: the biggest game of all. Whats it all about? This book contains many stories about my life and bits of wisdom that I have learned over seventy-one years. It is a very objective look at my life and the choices that I have made. I have learned there is a better way. All teenagers, young adults, and adults are faced with many choices and want to make their own decisions. They want to be in control. I remember because I did it My Way. Without Gods plan, one is just drifting along and making decisions on their own. Establish your priorities, set goals, and make God first in your life. Remember, Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, David M. Hoofs new book is a personal memoir of seventy years of life choices and their consequences offered to assist and inspire others on their own journeys. View a synopsis of The Biggest Game of All: One Life to Live, So Many Choices on YouTube. Readers can purchase The Biggest Game of All: One Life to Live, So Many Choices at traditional brick and mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Biggest Game of All: One Life to Live, So Many Choices, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Bahama House Hotel Pool The Bahama House provides many amenities for guests including free daily continental breakfast, daily happy hour, free parking, high speed Wi-Fi, & fresh baked cookies. With the addition of free passes to 24/7 Workout Anytime, our guests can now continue their fitness routine without interruption. Past News Releases RSS The Bahama House Hotel announces their newest partnership with 24/7 Workout Anytime. This partnership offers Bahama House guests the opportunity to work out for free during their hotel stay. Blaine Lansberry, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for the Bahama House, stated, The Bahama House provides many amenities for our guests including free daily continental breakfast, daily happy hour, free parking, high speed Wi-Fi, and fresh baked cookies. With the addition of free passes to 24/7 Workout Anytime, our guests can now continue their fitness routine without interruption. Our guests can visit the gym Monday through Thursday from 8am until 9pm, Friday from 9am until 7pm, Saturday from 9am until 5pm and on Sunday from 1pm until 5pm. The front desk staff is happy to provide the full details and answer any questions our guests may have about this newest amenity. 24/7 Workout Anytime features strength training equipment, a variety of cardio equipment including treadmills, ellipticals, stair climbers, and stationary bikes, a dedicated weight training area, free wi-fi access, and flat screen televisions. For more information, travelers can visit online at https://workoutanytime.com/daytona-beach-shores/. The Bahama House Hotel offers guests a variety of room options. All guest rooms are 400 plus square feet and have a private balcony. Guest rooms feature either two queen beds or one king bed. Rooms have either an ocean view or an ocean front view. The ocean view rooms have views of Daytona Beach, the Atlantic Ocean, and surrounding beach neighborhoods. The ocean front rooms have views of Daytona Beach, the Atlantic Ocean and the Bahama House pool and sun deck area. There are rooms available with a kitchenette that feature a 2-burner glass cook top, a full-sized refrigerator, a microwave oven, a coffee maker with a starter pack of coffee, a toaster, dinnerware for four, and cookware. Standard rooms come equipped with a mini-refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker. Lansberry added, A variety of room types and views allow guests the opportunity to customize their experience. Many of our guests prefer to cook their own meals while others enjoy dining out and experiencing some of the local restaurants. This oceanfront resort includes many amenities in their affordable rate. Guests can enjoy a hot cup of coffee at the daily complimentary breakfast along with donut holes, assorted danish, assorted breads, english muffins, croissants, plain and cinnamon raisin bagels, jellies, butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, assorted cold cereal, oatmeal, grits, bananas, assorted yogurts, hard boiled eggs, sausage, orange juice, milk and tea with condiments. A favorite of guests is the make your own pancakes station. On Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, biscuits and gravy are also served. Breakfast is served daily in the Grand Bahama Room from 7:30am until 9:30am. In addition to the many amenities included in the nightly rate, this oceanfront resort also provides easy beach access. Lansberry stated, The beach is just footsteps away from the hotel. Our guests, especially those traveling with children, appreciate our location as we are literally footsteps from the sand. The Bahama House hotel is located at 2001 South Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach, Florida. This location is in close proximity to the Daytona Beach International Airport, the Daytona Beach International Speedway, the Daytona Beach pier, and the nearby Tanger Outlets. To learn more about the Bahama House hotel, travelers are encouraged to visit online at https://daytonabahamahouse.com/ or call 1-800-571-2001. Rates are currently available for Biketoberfest 2018 and Speedweeks 2019. While many of our grants support a broad range of youth and underserved adults, I am personally interested in providing motivated girls with the resources and support they need to become happy, thriving and successful women, said Parsons. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (September 6, 2018) During its Fueling our Future community breakfast, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix (BGCMP) unveiled the new Renee LaBelle Parsons Girls Leadership Award and scholarship. Spearheaded by businesswoman and philanthropist, Renee Parsons, the award honors girls who have exhibited three key leadership qualities collaboration, assertiveness and empathy and provides the recipient with a new laptop and four years of scholarship funding up to $20,000 a year. While many of our grants support a broad range of youth and underserved adults, I am personally interested in providing motivated girls with the resources and support they need to become happy, thriving and successful women, said Parsons. Parsons formally introduced the award and announced the 2018 honoree, Yareli Guadalupe Martinez Medina, via video address. More than 250 business and community leaders attended the breakfast which highlighted the impact of BGCMP and the effect its programs have on the community. The organization provides structured, comprehensive educational and recreational programming designed to help youth reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible members of the community. Much of the focus is on academic achievement, personal development and leadership, resulting in higher than average graduation rates among Club members. More than half of our members live at or below the federal poverty level and the chance to pursue a higher education is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty, said Marcia Mintz, CEO of the BGCMP. We are grateful for the continued support from Bob and Renee Parsons and are proud to recognize Yareli for her outstanding achievements this year. Longtime supporters of the BGCMP, The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation has given more than $8 million to the organization, including several Youth of the Year scholarships. The Renee LaBelle Parsons Girls Leadership Award, with an annual benefit of $20,000 and renewable up to four years, will provide financial support of up to $80,000 per student, making it the largest scholarship created by the Foundation to date. BGCMP serves more than 30,000 youth each year with 12 clubhouses located in some of the Valleys most underserved communities. To learn more visit https://bgcmp.org/. About The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation offers support to nonprofit organizations successfully working to empower, educate, nurture and nourish people during what is often the darkest time of their lives. Founded in 2012 by philanthropists and business leaders Bob and Renee Parsons to provide hope and life-changing assistance to the countrys most vulnerable populations, The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation offers critical funding at critical times to those in need. The Foundations giving is driven by the core belief that all people regardless of race, religion, roots, economic status, sexual orientation or gender identity deserve access to quality healthcare, education and a safe place to call home. Follow @WeDealInHope on social media or visit TBRPF.org, to learn more about partner organizations and the important work being done in the community. About the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix provides after-school and summer programs in some of the Valleys most deserving neighborhoods. Our programs focus on four key areas: Academic Success, Healthy Choices, Be Great-Do Good and Fun with a Purpose, providing youth with the tools they need to enjoy childhood and become successful adults. Every year, thousands of children and teens benefit from programs through our 12 Clubhouses, outreach services in the community and Childrens Dental Clinic. For more information about the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix follow us on Twitter @bgcmp or visit http://www.bgcmp.org. Ideal Implant Structured Breast Implants The hard work and dedication of the 45 U.S. plastic surgeon investigators has confirmed the performance of an implant technology that better addresses womens concerns, with evidence of a lower risk of complications. This year, the California Society of Plastic Surgeons (CSPS) awarded Dr. Terry Zimmerman the Best Overall Scientific Paper Award for his presentation of: IDEAL IMPLANT - Seven-Year Clinical Trial Results at the 68th CSPS Annual Meeting. Dr. Zimmerman has also been asked to present the paper again at the upcoming ASPS (American Society of Plastic Surgeons) meeting in Chicago this fall. I am honored to receive this award for my presentation of the extensive clinical trial results that supported FDA approval of the IDEAL IMPLANT. The hard work and dedication of the 45 U.S. plastic surgeon investigators has confirmed the performance of an implant technology that better addresses womens concerns, with evidence of a lower risk of complications, explained Dr. Terry Zimmerman of The Zimmerman Center for Plastic Surgery. IDEAL IMPLANT, the only structured implant on the market, is the latest advancement in the breast implant industry with a patented, unique internal structure consisting of a series of implant shells nested together and two chambers filled with saline. The structure supports the upper part of the implant, so it does not collapse when upright, and supports the edge to minimize wrinkling, resulting in a natural look and feel, without the risk of silent rupture. Seven-year data for primary breast augmentation has demonstrated a lower rupture rate than other implants at 1.8%. I am elated that Dr. Zimmerman has been recognized by the California Society of Plastic Surgeons for his work as a trial investigator, and for his effort to educate his colleagues about the IDEAL IMPLANT, said Robert S. Hamas, MD, President and CEO of Ideal Implant Incorporated The IDEAL IMPLANT provides women with a breast implant option that combines the natural feel of a silicone gel implant and the safety of a saline implant, without the compromises of either, such as silent rupture and an unnatural feel. Terry J. Zimmerman, M.D., F.A.C.S., is the medical director of The Zimmerman Center for Plastic Surgery and is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He is also an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). He is currently Vice president of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons (CSPS), and past president of the Greater Sacramento Society of Plastic Surgeons (GSSPS) and is a participating Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (F.A.C.S.). The award was presented at the 68th CSPS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, from May 17 20, 2018. As an organization of practicing, board-certified plastic surgeons, the California Society of Plastic Surgeons aims to advance the profession of plastic surgery through continuing educational activities, advising the public, and acting as patient advocates. Learn more about Dr. Terry Zimmerman at ZimmermanCenter.com and the California Society of Plastic Surgeons at CaliforniaPlasticSurgeons.org. For more information about IDEAL IMPLANT, please visit IDEALIMPLANT.com. Christos Bellios, a Greek immigrant and married father of three who retired from the bakery industry, has completed his new book Triumphs in Adversity: The Life of Andreas Nikolaos Bellios: a stirring account of the authors fathers legacy. Author Bellios writes about how his fathers life was marked with difficulty even before birth: As told to me in his own words, my father explained that my grandmothers pregnancy with him was difficult. She had worried that she would miscarry due to physical problems during her pregnancy. She had told my father that she was determined to do anything in her power to save the baby because she had felt very strongly that he would be the one to watch over her in her elder years. There is an old saying, I hope you will be the one to get me a glass of water, an analogy that explains how one would take care of an elders needs when they can no longer do for themselves. My father continued to tell me that at that time, women only went to the doctor for emergencies. Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Christos Bellioss new book is an immersive adventure spanning Greece and America, tracing the remarkable life of a man who refused to be defeated. As the author and other key people weigh in on the legacy of Andreas, an inspiring, living portrait of determination comes to light. Readers who wish to experience this compelling work can purchase Triumphs in Adversity: The Life of Andreas Nikolaos Bellios 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 of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex and time-consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. Coldwell Banker Realtor Jennifer Hupke I strongly encourage everyone in the community to drop off a pair of shoes to help someone in need and to make this drive even bigger. I am hoping to have over 200 shoes to kick off this drive. Coldwell Banker Realtor Jennifer Hupke, founder of the Hupke Team, is hosting a back-to-school donation drive for Soles4Souls from September 10-28. She is hosting the fundraiser at her sons school, Meadowbrook Elementary, 3130 Rolling Ridge Drive, in Waukesha. Jennifer, along with Jessica Barry, the schools principal, and Tracie Kitchener, the PTA President, have organized this donation drive and are hoping for a big turnout. I strongly encourage everyone in the community to drop off a pair of shoes to help someone in need, and to make this drive even bigger, said Jennifer. I recently acquired a home in which they left over 400 shoes. I cant wait to go through all of them and pull out the gently worn and new shoes for Soles4Souls. I am hoping to have over 200 shoes to kick off this drive. Soles4Souls is a nonprofit global social enterprise committed to fighting poverty through the collection and distribution of shoes and clothing. Soles4Souls aims to eradicate extreme poverty by 2050. Children every day are prevented from attending school and adults are unable to work as walking becomes unbearable, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. To date, Soles4Souls has collected and distributed more than 30 million pairs of shoes to those in need in 127 countries around the world and all 50 states in the U.S. Businesses and individuals that host donation drives for Soles4Souls help us fulfill our mission by providing short-term relief and long-term solutions to global poverty, said Buddy Teaster, Soles4Souls President and CEO. Every single one of those pairs of shoes collected by our partners makes a difference in someones life. For more information about getting involved with Soles4Souls or to become an official drop-off location, visit https://soles4souls.org/get-involved/. About Soles4Souls Soles4Souls is a not-for-profit global social enterprise committed to fighting poverty through the collection and distribution of shoes and clothing. The organization advances its anti-poverty mission by collecting new and used shoes and clothes from individuals, schools, faith-based institutions, civic organizations and corporate partners, then distributing those shoes and clothes both via direct donations to people in need and by provisioning qualified micro-enterprise programs designed to create jobs in poor and disadvantaged communities. Based in Nashville, TN, Soles4Souls is committed to the highest standards of operating and governance and holds a four-star rating with Charity Navigator. About Jennifer Hupke, Coldwell Banker Jennifer Hupke specializes in residential real estate and has an abundance of experience with bank owned properties (REO), short sales and probate properties. Jennifer is a master of her area of Southeastern Wisconsin covering six major counties including: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington, and Jefferson. Jennifer is committed to providing outstanding service and treating each property as if it were her own. She offers four local branches servicing all of Southeastern Wisconsin and has a full-service and full-time marketing department that offers maximum exposure for all of her properties and featured listings in sites such as Redfin, Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. For more information, call 262-613-2548, or visit http://www.jenniferhupke.com. About the NALA The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. The information and content in this article are not in conjunction with the views of the NALA. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361. Envoy America, the first national ridesharing service for seniors and the infirm, announced today the Better BYachad (Better Together) Partnerships for the High Holidays program, providing transportation solutions to those in need, so that synagogues will have ALL their members there to pray as one, Better Together. The Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashana, (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) are just a few days away, while they are days of inspiration for many, they can be days of isolation for seniors and the infirm, as transportation challenges prevent them from being part of the community. Envoy America is partnering with synagogues to provide transportation for seniors who need a little more help, so they can truly feel like a part of the community at the time of year where the theme of community is most important. Envoy America provides transportation PLUS assistance and companionship, for seniors and the infirm, allowing clients to stay independent, healthy and socially active all without getting behind the wheel of a car. Envoy America provides door through door service, going to the door to help congregants to the car, storing their walker or wheelchair if necessary, and escorting them into synagogue, not simply leaving them at the curb. After the Holidays, Envoy America's Driver companions can provide a helping hand for doctors appointments, grocery shopping, social outings and more. The level of care is of the utmost importance, Driver Companions are carefully recruited and go through extensive training on the specific needs of seniors and the infirm. Envoy America has received numerous accolades and awards, and are the FIRST AND ONLY RIDESHARING COMPANY to receive the distinctive Dementia SMART Award from the Dementia Society of America for excellence in its proprietary Driver Companion training. Rabbi Moshe Bellows, JD, LMSW, LNHA, Envoy Americas co-founder, opines, Envoy America has had a blessed year. We have grown to 6 states, 12 major and 68 other cities. We are deeply thankful to the faith-based communities that have embraced Envoy Americas services. We are happy to play a part in helping seniors and the infirm join their community in the most impactful days of the year. Rabbi Levi Levertov added Our community is very fortunate to have Envoy America and their partnership with the Jewish Federation. They have truly changed the landscape of Arizona for our valley's seniors. When a senior calls us wanting to attend an event but have no transportation means, Envoy America is there to help. Our events benefit tremendously from Envoy America as many seniors use their services for transportation to attend. The response to Envoy Americas High Holiday promotion has been stellar. We encourage Rabbis, Senior Program Directors and Activities Coordinators to reach out quickly as we continue to experience great interest. To schedule a ride or to learn more about Envoy America, please call 888-375-5558 or visit http://www.envoyamerica.com. About Envoy America: Envoy America helps seniors, stay independent, healthy and socially active all without getting behind the wheel of a car. Envoy America is the fastest growing rideshare company in the U.S. that is solely focused on seniors and people that cannot or shouldnt drive. Envoy America is preferred by senior passengers and drivers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to affecting positive change for the future of seniors. Call Envoy America at (888) 375-5558 to schedule an appointment. For more information, visit http://www.envoyamerica.com. ##### Left to right, Jillian Haynes, Alex Luebkeman, and Don Whitaker at Ceronix. Photo taken by Daryl Stinchfield who gives permission for its use. "It is true that jobs for people doing repetitive tasks are being replaced by machines. But these machines create new jobs that provide higher wages for people who build, install, maintain, or repair them." said Sierra College Mechatronics Professor Mike Halbern. Alex Luebkeman looks out the floor-to-ceiling window in his office to a grassy area with a stream running through it, where black swans preen in the morning sun. He works for Ceronix, located within a sanctuary for exotic birds in Auburn, California. Ceronix produces circuit boards and flat-panel LCD monitors primarily for gambling and lottery machines, point-of-sale terminals, and kiosks. The sanctuary, created by the founder of the company, is there not just to provide a haven for the birds and provide the community with a beautiful preserve, but also to enhance the work environment. A Sierra College graduate with an Associate Degree in Mechatronics, Luebkeman is the technician who maintains the plant's automated assembly line conveyor system, but this was not his original career plan. Following his fathers example, Luebkeman had attended San Jose State where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Administration of Justice and planned to become a police officer. "At the police academy, I realized this wasn't what I wanted to do," he said. So, he went back to school, this time at Sierra College where he discovered mechatronics. "I realized that with this training, I could get a job that combined mechanical devices with electronics and computers, my real-life interests." The hands-on learning approach of the program "really clicked" for him. "You get in there, pull out a circuit board and start soldering." He acquired a knowledge base of just about everything a worker might encounter in the field, he said. This included an understanding of computer hardware and software, electronic circuits, motors, pneumatics, and hydraulics. "It's amazing how much of that I use. For every course I took, I find an application here at Ceronix." Betting on Yourself Don Whitaker is the founder and CEO of Ceronix. "I grew up in the ghetto of Oakland and got married with $200 in my pocket," he said. "I couldn't afford to go to a university." Instead, he went to the Laney Trade and Technical Institute in Oakland, now part of Laney Community College. He took electronics courses and earned an associate degree in 1963 in mechanical and drafting technology. "I got the basic knowledge at Laney," he said, "and learned how to build things." He went to work as an apprentice machinist for Marchant Calculating Machine Co., which closed in 1963 with the advent of electronic calculators. With help from a professor and mentor at Laney, Whitaker found a new job with Lawrence Berkeley Labs at UC Berkeley. He worked as a machinist and then advanced to manager of research projects with a $7 million budget, which is equivalent to $58 million in todays currency. There, he saw commercial value in one experiment, the Silicon Lithium Drift Detector. Used for x-ray spectrometry, it could detect, in parts per billion, each of the elements in any sample of material it analyzed. He talked to some graduate students about starting a company to build the detectors. "My wife Kay was very supportive," he said. "We put everything we had into it and named the company Kevex." After ten years, he left behind the security of his job at Berkeley to develop Kevex. "I was betting on myself," he said. Whitaker described Kevex as a rocket ride. By 1979, it had over 400 employees and income of $60 million (equivalent to $350 million in 2018). In response to a lucrative offer, he sold the company and went to retire with his wife Kay in the gold rush town of Auburn. They built a second house in Squaw Valley and traveled the world. However, Whitaker soon decided that a life of leisure was not for him, and he started looking for a new business venture. During a trip to Las Vegas in 1983, amidst the rows of slot machines at Bally's casino, he saw one of the first video poker machines. "It looked like the future, except for the black and white monitor which I'd make in color," he said. "All the slots were mechanical then, but here was a digital computer running a gaming machine." Back in Auburn, with his wife and an engineer he had known in Silicon Valley, he started the new company Ceronix in his garage. In his first business, Kevex, Whitaker had built a detector that flew to Mars to analyze the planet's soil. Now he was going to build components for the first touch-screen gaming machines. Both ventures combined technologies into what are now known as mechatronic systems. Mecha is for mechanics and tronics is for electronics, hence, mechatronics. Robots, like the dozens building electric cars at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, are an example of a mechatronic systemmechanical devices integrated with electronics and computer control. "Robots are getting a bad rap," said Sierra College Mechatronics Professor Mike Halbern. "It is true that jobs for people doing repetitive tasks are being replaced by machines. But these machines create new jobs that provide higher wages for people who build, install, maintain, or repair them." Sierra College mechatronics graduates have found good-paying jobs repairing elevator controls in Sacramento; calibrating precision automated equipment that keeps the Roseville water supply safe; and looking after the computer-controlled equipment that makes possible the fantastic staging of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. Breaking through Stereotypes Jillian Haynes is a single mother with an Associate Degree in Mechatronics from Sierra College who has worked at Ceronix for seven years. Before that she had been working in customer service, but she wanted to do something else"to work with my hands," she said. Surfing the web in search of a new career, she had stumbled upon Mechatronics. "When I was little, my dad taught my brothers to build and fix things," she said, "while my job was to hold the flashlight." She wishes that she had stood up to say, "I want to help you fix that, as I should have. Instead, she learned to care for the little ones and do other "girl things." When she came to her first mechatronics course, everything was new to her; "Even screwdrivers were new." As one of only three women in her classes of thirty students, she remembers that the students who knew about mechanical things liked to help. "I'd watch them and ask questions. It was fun making friends that way." By her second year at Sierra, she was taking apart any discarded device she could find to look at the electronics and see how it worked. "It had never occurred to me that these computer things had parts inside that could break and need repair." At Ceronix, Hayne's primary job is to repair monitors and circuit boards under warranty. Her advice for new mechatronics students? "To really learn what they're teaching you," she answered. "Even now my fellow technician Alex and I want to go back to Sierra and re-take an electronics class because we weren't paying close enough attention." Whitaker pays the cost for employees to improve their education. "Jillian wanted to take up welding," he said. "So we sent her back to Sierra, and now she's our welder." Never Give Up Whitaker started Ceronix in 1983. The business grew with the emergence of notebook computers and handheld devices; by 1996, he had 100 employees building 150,000 LED monitors per year. As demand accelerated in the late 1990s, screen makers built plants in Korea, Taiwan, and China where they conspired to fix prices and dump monitors, causing US manufacturing to collapse. "Here was a trillion-dollar industry, among the most competitive in the world," said Whitaker. "Within years it was all gone in the US." Ceronix could no longer compete with offshore companies building monitors in high volume and sold at low cost. "But I wasn't going to give up," he said. "It's not in my nature." He changed his business model to serve the replacement market. While it takes at least eight weeks to get a monitor or circuit board from China, Whitaker provides next-day service. "We found a way to survive," he said, "and to survive well." Today, Ceronix has twenty-four employees who earn good money and have excellent benefits. Whitaker is proud that one hundred percent of the product is assembled in his hometown of Auburn, where he is able to find "a qualified work-force and highly trained people. Coastal Trail Cliffs My best reward for nearly ten years of intense work on this project is to see all the smiling faces of residents and visitors while they enjoy and discover the trail for the first time. Marie Jones, Community Development Director The entire length of the coast of Fort Bragg, CA is finally open to the public for the first time in more than 100 years. The central section of the five-mile Noyo Headlands Park and Ka Kahleh Coastal Trail, finished this summer, joins two sections of the trail completed over the past three years, from Glass Beach in the north to the Noyo River in the south. The multi-use area includes 8-foot wide ADA-accessible paved trails, beautiful ocean views, and handmade redwood benches crafted by local artists. On the northern end of the trail, a parking lot with a public restroom is located at the west end of Elm Street adjacent to Glass Beach. The trail leading south from Glass Beach extends along carefully restored coastal bluffs, allowing visitors to experience an awe-inspiring stretch of coastlinepart of the California Coastal National Monumentthat was hidden behind a chain link fence for the past century. Harbor seals, sea lions, and a wide variety of seabirds and wildlife enjoy the diversity of habitats provided by the ocean and rocks, with beautifully illustrated interpretive panels all along the trail to enrich the hiking experience. Otsuchi Point Commemorates Fort Bragg's Sister City Highlights along the trail include the magnificent Otsuchi Point, a promontory named for Fort Bragg's sister city in Japan, Otsuchi, which was decimated by an earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. Otsuchi Point is the site of a beautiful compass rose and a handmade bench that commemorates the sister city relationship between the two communities. One side honors Fort Bragg's iconic Pudding Creek Trestle and the other Otsuchi's Tori Gate. Fort Bragg Landing, The Crow's Nest, and Noyo Harbor The newest mile of trail at Fort Bragg Landing connects the north and south trail around the Georgia Pacific mill pond, with stairs to the beach. On the southern portion of the trail, The Crow's Nest Interpretive Center, a branch of the Noyo Center for Marine Science, offers exhibits focusing on marine and environmental education, including projects like the Help the Kelp Initiative.There is an off-leash dog park, with viewpoints including Johnson Rock, the Noyo Headlands Preserve, Skip's Punch Bowl, Noyo Bay, Frontier Cemetery, and Noyo Harbor. Parking and trail access on the south end of the trail is at Cypress Street, north of Noyo Harbor on Shoreline Highway (Highway 1). Midpoint trail access will soon be available from the center of town at Alder Street. Bikes, strollers, roller blades, hikers, runners, and dogs on a leash are welcome on the trail, which connects on its north end to MacKerricher State Park and on its south end to the Noyo Harbor and Pomo Bluffs Park. The Coastal Trail Collaboration The Fort Bragg Coastal Trail has come into being as a collaborative effort of the California Coastal Conservancy, the California Coastal Commission, the Mendocino Land Trust, the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Parks District, Caltrans and the volunteer organization Coastwalk, with support from Noyo Center for Marine Science, the City of Fort Bragg, and other organizations. The vision for the California Coastal Trail is to build a continuous interconnected public trail system along the California coastline as close to the ocean as possible. Fort Bragg Coastal Trail joins this state initiative, which now includes nearly 50% of Californias 1100 miles of coastline in developed trails. "With these grants we can now put the finishing touches on our programs and the rest of the center. Through these projects, we will be able to guide so many more entrepreneurs in ways that will accelerate and transform their businesses." - Kathie Callahan Brady, CEO, FITCI The Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc. (FITCI), Frederick, Marylands tech incubator, announced today that it is the recipient of two grants totaling $450,000 from the Rural Maryland Prosperity Investment Fund of the Rural Maryland Council (RMC). The Fund provides targeted investment to promote economic prosperity in Marylands rural communities. The first grant, for $200,000, will be used toward the development of a Community Growth Accelerator Program to complement the services provided in FITCIs two incubator locations. The accelerator is a cohort-based program that includes connections, mentorship, educational components, and culminates in a public pitch event to accelerate growth. The RMC also awarded FITCI $250,000 for the construction and operation of a premier Tech Shop, a new shared tech makerspace in the incubators downtown Frederick location. The Tech Shop will be designed to prepare rural Marylanders with the tools and training necessary to adapt to a rapidly changing technological landscape, by tapping into the nascent Internet of Things (IoT) market. FITCI President and CEO, Kathie Callahan Brady, expressed appreciation for the grants as well as support of the incubator from Frederick County public officials: We couldnt be more thrilled to hear of the news. This couldnt have come at a better time for FITCI, we recently opened our beautiful new center in the ROOT building downtown, thanks to County Executive Jan Gardner and the Countys support. With these grants we can now put the finishing touches on our programs and the rest of the center. Through these projects, we will be able to guide so many more entrepreneurs in ways that will accelerate and transform their businesses. We are so grateful for the support of so many people. The Rural Maryland Council (RMC) brings together citizens, community-based organizations, federal, state, county and municipal government officials, as well as, representatives of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors to collectively address the needs of rural Maryland communities The Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc. (FITCI) was founded as a nonprofit partnership in 2004 to foster entrepreneurial activity within Frederick County. FITCIs mission is to encourage innovation and accelerate the development of commercially viable technology-based businesses by providing a nurturing and supportive environment. FITCI supports early stage biotechnology, information technology, and renewable energy start-up companies by offering office and wet lab space, business services, and strategic support to local entrepreneurs. Manchester Financial is pleased to announce that Gabrielle Tyberg has joined the firm as Office Manager. In her new role, Gabrielle is responsible for managing the office operations for the Manchester team in providing excellent client service. Were excited to have Gabrielle on the team. Her breadth of experience will help us meet a variety of client needs, said Robert Katch, president of Manchester Financial. Born and raised in the Conejo Valley, Gabrielle gained her financial industry experience as an assistant with Jones Trading in New York, and has also worked in Human Resources, heading the client services division of the International Furniture company. Gabrielle will add new energy and a new voice to optimize our team, said Alan Hopkins, Chief Economic Strategist of Manchester Financial. About Manchester Financial: Founded in 1990, Manchester Financial provides savvy financial planning and astute portfolio management. Focused on protecting and growing their clients lifestyles, they seek to always do what is right by meeting the unique needs of each client and consistently delivering superior results through their knowledge, experience and wisdom. Their goal is simple: to make sure that their clients decisions are Powered by Planning. Learn more at http://www.manchesterfinancial.com. Manchester Financial is a registered investment advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered specific investment advice, does not take into consideration your specific situation, and does not intent to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed. Consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional. Author Captain Dwight Horn "Journalists in the media refer to troops entering a combat zone as 'boots on the ground'; they are truly the hearts, minds and souls of young men and women "Journalists in the media refer to troops entering a combat zone as 'boots on the ground'; they are truly the hearts, minds and souls of young men and women said U.S. Navy Captain and chaplain Dwight Horn. His book "Emasculating Warriors: to be published by History Publishing Company deals with the full reality of the troops sent by the nation into combat zones, yet places restrictions and expectations on their behavior patterns and natural instincts.. Captain Horn, a chaplain who may be at heart a warrior like the Marines with whom he served with in Iraq , puts the hard reality he perceives on the pages of his book. He identifies troops, often a sizable number of those in elite military organizations like the Marines, who are instinctively driven to wage war without reservation. They serve to kill in the process, yet are often called to account by the nation that sends them into the fires of war. The makeup of the warrior and the driving force that propels them to kill as a natural act is also examined. The author captures the warriors of history and the cultures in which they lived and protected; cultures in which killing was accepted and understood as a natural part of the human condition. Captain Horn also turns his attention to those who send the warriors into combat zones but have little understanding of the consequences to the hearts, minds and souls of the warriors and their less aggressive comrades who suffer too, the damage to spirit, body and brain. As there are consequences to every act, that of war affects the troops, and their brains capture the moments and it never allows them to forget the deformation and desecration of life which they wrought or to which they bore witness. With this book, Dwight Horn may stir the national conscience "Emasculation Warriors" will be published in both print and electronically November 27, 2018 and will be distributed nationally and internationally to markets worldwide. Author Dwight Horn resides with his wife and family in Vista, California. Through the REALTORS Rock the Block event we strive for a substantial community impact, one neighborhood at a time. We feel so fortunate to see our vision growing and are thrilled to branch out into Kansas this year." REALTORS from across the Kansas City region will gather on the 600 block of Wille Street in Olathe, KS on Wednesday, September 12 to participate in the 3rd annual REALTORS Rock the Block event, a day-long service project that will help revitalize 12 homes. The Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS (KCRAR) is partnering with Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City for the Rock the Block event. More than 300 REALTORS and industry partners from 20 local companies will be participating as volunteers during the event. Volunteers will help with exterior home repairs to windows, doors, porches, railings and stairs; as well as yard work, painting, lot clean up, tree trimming and landscaping projects. Participating homeowners will also receive Ecobee thermostats. This years Rock the Block event has also received support from the City of Olathe, the Olathe Healthy Neighborhoods program and Water One. Through the REALTORS Rock the Block event we strive for a substantial community impact, one neighborhood at a time. We feel so fortunate to see our vision growing and are thrilled to branch out into Kansas this year, said Andrea Sheridan, president of the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS. By partnering with Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City, local REALTORS hope to create positive long-term change for the areas served by the Rock the Block program each year, including higher property values and a general feeling of well-being and community pride for current and potential homeowners. We are very excited to address the vital housing needs of Kansas City through our collaborative partnership. Together we will make meaningful impact in Olathe by Rocking the Block, said Pat Turner, President/CEO Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City. The event will feature a kick-off gathering with leaders from KCRAR, Habitat for Humanity and local elected officials in preparation for the work day. During their lunch break, volunteers will enjoy live music by Casi Joy, a local favorite who recently competed on Season 12 of The Voice. In this third year of the Rock the Block event, we look forward to once again bringing positive change to a deserving community through the work of hundreds of our REALTOR members and supporting partners. Our ultimate goal is to improve quality of life and home values for those living in and around the communities we serve through the Rock the Block event each year, said Kipp Cooper, CEO of the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS. About Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS The Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, The Voice for Real Estate in the Kansas City Region, is the largest professional business association in Kansas City. KCRAR serves more than 10,000 REALTOR members across Kansas and Missouri. Additional information can be found at http://www.KCRAR.com. About Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City Habitat for Humanity was born from a dream of Millard and Linda Fuller to create affordable housing programs nationally and internationally. Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City is one of 1,500 affiliates nationwide, serving six counties in the Kansas City region including: Clay, Jackson and Platte in Missouri, and Johnson, Leavenworth, and Wyandotte in Kansas. July 1, 2016 marked the celebration of bringing two greater Kansas City Habitat for Humanity legacy organizations together. This newly combined organization is comprised of Habitat for Humanity Kansas City, incorporated in 1979 as the seventh oldest affiliate worldwide, and Heartland Habitat for Humanity, formed in 2006 by the merger of Kaw Valley Habitat for Humanity and Northland Habitat for Humanity, that had begun their journey in 1987. Collectively, these organizations have had a direct impact on the housing community over the past 37 years; more than 315 homes have been built or rehabbed in the Kansas City, Missouri urban core, and over 250 homes in Wyandotte, Leavenworth and Johnson counties in Kansas and Clay and Platte counties in Missouri. For additional information about Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City, visit http://www.habitatkc.org. Our focus will be to service and meet our clients' needs throughout the United States and the world. Lowers Forensics International (LFI), a leading firm in the financial forensics and litigation support industry, is pleased to announce the official opening of its Chicago office. As a division of Lowers Risk Group, one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States and a provider of comprehensive enterprise risk management solutions, LFI brings nearly 50 years of expertise in forensic accounting, litigation support, insurance claim accounting, and financial investigation services to support organizations worldwide. Marc Johnson, President of LFI states, To continue mirroring our parent companys growth, LFI will continue to expand domestically and internationally. Our focus will be to service and meet our clients' needs throughout the United States and the world. This new office will be led by LFIs Alex Corral. Alex has extensive experience in servicing clients in both the United States and Latin America. Chicago is a world-class city that will allow LFI to establish closer ties to our clients and strengthen our service capabilities, remarks Corral. About Lowers Forensics International, LLC Lowers Forensics International (LFI) offers expertise in forensic accounting, litigation support, insurance claims accounting, and investigation services. The company is an internationally recognized financial forensics and consulting firm with offices across the United States and United Kingdom. Its broad range of expertise includes financial and data analysis, review of relevant economic issues, expert witness testimony, evidence gathering, and administrative support. For more information about LFI, visit lowersforensics.com. About Lowers Risk Group Lowers Risk Group provides comprehensive enterprise risk management solutions to organizations operating in high-risk, highly-regulated environments and organizations that value risk mitigation. The company's human capital and specialized industry enterprise risk management solutions protect people, brands, and profits from avoidable loss and harm. With Lowers Risk Group organizations can expect a strategic, focused approach to risk assessment, compliance, and mitigation to help drive the organization forward with confidence. For more information about Lowers Risk Group, visit lowersriskgroup.com. Contact Information: Alex J Corral: acorral(at)lowersforensics.com Marc Johnson: wmjohnson(at)lowersforensics.com John R. Frazier J.D.,LL.M. I have seen many cases where seniors were referred by trusted sourcessuch as social workers or nursing home administratorsto Medicaid planners who were not lawyers. These nonlawyers do not always have the seniors best interest in mind. The handbook raises awareness of an ethical and fiduciary tragedy that happens all too often to Floridas aging citizens. The tragedy is the Unlicensed Practice of Law, or UPL, related to Medicaid planning services. By reading this book, Florida seniors and the long-term care facilities in which they reside will become financially safer and wiser as to the right way to engage in Medicaid planning. Medicaid planning is a complex legal field where, if mistakes are made, the applicants can be financially devastated. Medicaid planning should only be done by licensed attorneys with specific training. But most seniors and their families in financial need are not thinking about this. They are bewildered by the nursing homes admissions process and overwhelmed by their sudden financial consequences. Attorney John Frazier explains, I have seen many cases where seniors were referred by trusted sourcessuch as social workers or nursing home administratorsto Medicaid planners who were not lawyers. These nonlawyers do not always have the seniors best interest in mind. They have neither the skill nor expertise to handle the legal aspects of a case properly. If the planning fails, there is no regulatory authority to hold them accountable. John adds, Equally dangerous are people who have the best of intentions, and try to help seniors apply for and become eligible for Medicaid. Nursing homes are committed to helping the seniors in their care, but their administrators and staff are not trained to assist in Medicaid planning. Someone trying to help may unwittingly cross the line into the practice of law. Such UPL can cause great harm to the Medicaid applicant and to the facilities in which the senior lives. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities must stay vigilant to the dangers of Medicaid planners who are not attorneys. This book will help protect Florida nursing homes and their residents by answering questions such as: What are the things a nonlawyer Medicaid planner can and cannot legally do? Can a nursing home get in trouble for working with a nonlawyer Medicaid planner? Is it against the law for a nursing home employee to be paid a fee to refer Medicaid cases to a nonlawyer Medicaid planner? Is financial exploitation concerning UPL and Medicaid planning a form of elder abuse? What is the penalty if someone is charged with UPL? How can a nursing home protect its rights? How can an elderly Medicaid applicant protect his or her rights? How does one file a UPL complaint in Florida? This handbook is part of an extensive effort to protect Florida seniors from financial exploitation through prevention and awareness. We must all work to increase public awareness about unlicensed individuals who engage in Medicaid planning, but shouldnt. About John R. Frazier John R Frazier, J.D., LL.M. is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys and the Florida Bar Elder Law Section. John is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and he is accredited by the Veterans Administration to assist VA claimants present, prepare and prosecute claims with the VA. John can be reached through his website: EstateLegalPlanning.com. About Leonard E. Mondschein Leonard Mondschein, J.D., LL.M., CELA, CAP is Board Certified by the Florida Bar in Elder Law and Wills, Trusts and Estates, and is a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) by the National Elder Law Foundation and is a member of The Council of Advanced Practitioners (CAP). He is a past chair of the Elder Law Section of the Florida Bar and a past president of the Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Leonard can be reached through his website: MiamiElderCareLawyers.com About Twyla L. Sketchley Twyla Sketchley, B.C.S. is a Florida Bar Board Certified Elder Law Attorney. Ms. Sketchleys practice focuses on elder law, guardianship, fiduciary representation, and elder law related litigation. Twyla is an active member of the Florida Bar and its Sections, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. Twyla can be reached through her website: SketchleyLaw.com Matthew Taylor will be recognized along with 39 other award recipients at the publications annual "Forty Under 40" event, September 20, at iPlay America in Freehold, NJ. The "Forty Under 40" is an award presented by NJBIZ to recognize New Jersey business leaders under the age of 40 who have already demonstrated a solid track record of leadership and innovation. Matthew Taylor will be recognized along with 39 other award recipients at the publications annual "Forty Under 40" event, September 20, at iPlay America in Freehold, NJ. Since 1993, NJBIZ has celebrated the rich array of talent in New Jersey by recognizing 40 young men and women who make outstanding contributions in their fields of expertise. "I am honored to be recognized by NJBIZ as one of New Jersey's top forty under forty this year, Taylor commented. I can safely credit our great team at Delia Associates, my amazing and supportive wife and family, and some truly wonderful clients who really made this possible. At age 32, Taylor has already achieved an impressive track record and career in digital marketing and project management. He joined Delia Associates in 2016 as Director of Program Management. In just two years, he rapidly made progress in several key strategic initiatives for the firm and was recently promoted to Managing Director. Under Taylors direction, the firm has increased depth in its digital marketing offerings, while introducing several unique solutions designed to grow awareness and engagement for b2b organizations. Were all so proud of Matt for being recognized in this years class of forty under forty, remarked Ed Delia, President of Delia Associates and 2006 Forty Under 40 recipient. Matt is incredibly humble by nature and more inclined to highlight the accomplishments of others than his own. Its so great to have the opportunity to cast a spotlight on him, as he is truly deserving of the recognition. Hes already accomplished so much in a relatively short amount of time. Im sure many more great achievements are in Matts future. Born and raised in Morris County, NJ, Taylor currently resides in Califon, NJ with his wife Amber. He is committed to the welfare of the regional community and donates a significant portion of his energies to several important causes in the region. Taylor serves as a board member of the Califon Veterans Memorial Fund, as well as the marketing director on the board of the David D. Hammar Foundation, which has existed to promote bicycle safety for children. Through Delia Associates, he is currently heading up an effort to rebrand Hunterdon Drug Awareness and Prevention, an organization at the front lines of combatting drug and alcohol addiction in Hunterdon County, where Delia Associates is based. Taylor earned his Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University where he studied Entrepreneurship and Finance. He is also a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Certified Scrum Master (CSM). Taylor is a frequent speaker on the topics of b2b social and digital marketing strategies and is working on writing a book about the integration of popular philosophy and project management. ABOUT DELIA ASSOCIATES Founded in 1964 and based in New Jersey, Delia Associates is a second-generation business branding and marketing firm specializing in brand development, website development, content, and search marketing. Clients range from global to regional business-to-business companies. The firms proprietary Brand Leadership Solution, a unique brand-based marketing platform, has helped hundreds of brands establish market distinction, generate increased demand, and achieve sustainable growth. For more information, please visit https://www.delianet.com. For additional press information, please contact: Ilena Della Ventura Delia Associates 908-534-9044 idellaventura@delianet.com Parker Elmore, President and CEO of Odyssey Advisors, is looking forward to having Andrew & Samantha on the team to allow us to continue to deliver the service that our clients have come to expect. Odyssey Advisors recently hired two new employees who will join the team on September 4 at the companys east coast location in Colchester, Connecticut. The new hires represent Odyssey Advisors continued growth; the company will celebrate its 20th anniversary on September 15. Im excited about the unique experience and insights my teaching background brings so I can best help Odyssey's clients, said Samantha Schneider who will be joining Odyssey Advisors as an actuarial consultant. Previously, Schneider taught math at Maya High School in Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2008. Also joining Odyssey as an actuarial consultant is Andrew Taggart. Taggart whos excited to join Odyssey from Chicago and lend my skills and knowledge to all of our clients, has spent the past five years as a Senior Actuarial Analyst at Clarity in Numbers, LLC in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 2010. Parker Elmore, President and CEO of Odyssey Advisors, is looking forward to having Andrew & Samantha on the team to allow us to continue to deliver the service that our clients have come to expect. Odyssey Advisors began in 1998 as Primoris Benefit Advisors. Since then, theyve developed solutions to the complex financial issues faced by municipalities and small to mid-sized employers including their OPEB and retirement needs. Odyssey serves clients globally, with service ranging from California to Maine and parts of Europe. About Odyssey With over 25 years of industry experience, President and CEO Parker Elmore is dedicated to quality service, expertise, and efficiency. Odyssey prides itself on great work, exceptional service, and accessibility. People choose Odyssey for their extensive knowledge in all aspects of financial consulting. Odyssey develops and implements solutions to the complex financial issues faced by small and mid-sized employers. For more about Odyssey, visit their website at OdysseyAdvisors.com. Understanding Dog Separation Anxiety Seminar - Nov 4th, 2018 "My company regularly takes care of dogs who are suffering with differing degrees of separation anxiety." Joette White, President of Park Cities Pet Sitter Park Cities Pet Sitter is hosting a seminar called Understanding Dog Separation Anxiety on Sunday, November 4th from 1-5pm at the Pinots Palette at 4560 W. Mockingbird Lane. \ The seminar will be taught by renowned dog trainer and behavior expert, Scott Sheaffer. Sheaffer holds multiple industry accreditations including CDBC, CBCC-KA and CPDT-KA, and specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression and phobias in dogs. Separation anxiety is a common behavior issue, affecting approximately 15% of all dogs. Incidences of separation anxiety are often even higher amongst rescue dogs. Symptoms of dog separation anxiety can include: urinating or defecating when left alone or when separated from their owners, excessive barking or howling, chewing and destruction of household objects, escape attempts, pacing and panting, amongst others. Having a dog with separation anxiety can be very stressful for owners, as many feel like they are hostages in their own homes because they are afraid to leave their dog alone. Many commonly used techniques to curb separation anxiety simply do not work and can actually make things worse. In this 4-hour classroom seminar, Sheaffer will cover the following topics to help owners manage and address dog separation anxiety: Defining the different types of separation anxiety and detailing how they are determined Realistic prognosis expectations and timeframes Ongoing management Treatment options and techniques How medication can play a role in treatment Park Cities Pet Sitters President, Joette White, knows first-hand how helpless many dog owners feel if their dog is suffering from separation anxiety. My company regularly takes care of dogs who are suffering with differing degrees of separation anxiety, said White. It is very stressful for such an owner to go out of town, knowing their dog is feeling so anxious. That is why we are so happy to host this seminar with Scott Sheaffer, because we know he understands this problem better than anyone, and can lay out clear expectations and techniques to help these dogs and owners. The Understanding Dog Separation Anxiety seminar is ideal for dog owners, trainers, rescue organizations and pet service professionals. Cost to attend is $50 when registering in advance, and $60 at the door on the day of the event. To learn more about Park Cities Pet Sitters seminar, or to enroll, visit http://www.pcpsi.com/events. About Park Cities Pet Sitter: PCPSI has served the Dallas, Richardson and Plano areas 7 days a week, 365 days a year since 1992, and was recently named the 2017 Business of the Year by the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters. Dog walking, pet sitting, pet taxis, overnight sitting, pet supply shopping, and dog training are some of the many services PCPSI offers. Park Cities Pet Sitter is bonded and insured, and all sitters are employees--not independent contractors. A manager is on-call 24 hours a day to handle any emergencies. Go to http://www.pcpsi.com to learn more. Franchesca Cox is known for helping moms grieve and fight for the privilege to love life again. The Retreat is about celebrating our babies lives, finding joy in life even through the grief and building lifelong connections. The Ramsey Keller Memorial, a non-profit organization that pays for infant funerals in Montana, is launching its first-ever national retreat for moms who are living without a child. The Retreat is designed to connect moms in person and is slated for the weekend of October 26, 27 and 28 at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort near Butte, Montana. The registration fee is $325/person and moms, nationwide, who have experienced the loss of a child are invited to attend. Topics are primarily focused on infant loss (children 1 year of age or younger and stillborn babies). Nationally known keynote speaker and founder of Still Standing Magazine Franchesca Cox is donating her time in an effort to offer The Retreat at the lowest cost available. Registration includes all scheduled events, the resort room, all meals Saturday and Sunday and additional goodies for attendees. Franchesca Cox is known for helping moms grieve and fight for the privilege to love life again, says Ramsey Keller Memorial Founder Kori Keller. She has experienced the loss of her firstborn daughter and while she has spearheaded many local and worldwide projects in her daughters name, she found the most healing came from living life to the fullest. The Retreat is about celebrating our babies lives and finding joy in life, even through the grief. Im grateful and humbled that Franchesca is coming to Montana to share her message with moms like myself who have lost a child. Franchesca Cox is the author of Facets of Grief: a creative workbook for grieving mothers, and Celebrating Pregnancy Again. She is scheduled to speak twice during the weekend retreat. Her topics are "The Space Between Love and Loss" and "Broken and Brave." Cox is also opening up discussion on baby loss to attendees and inviting the audience to participate in a Q & A session. Surviving the aftermath of infant loss is something we, as mothers who have lost a child, think about often. Whether the loss was last month or last decade, this retreat has excellent programming with key takeaways for everyone, as well as a format designed to build lasting relationships, says Founder of Still Standing Magazine Franchesca Cox. Women who attend The Retreat will walk away with a lifelong network of people who belong to the same club, one that no one wants to be part of, but who understand something that very few people do. Were a network, an incredibly strong support system. We will bond together and grow together and were there for each other, says Keller. Check in for The Retreat opens Friday October 26 at 4:00 p.m. with opening remarks from Ramsey Keller Memorial Founder Kori Keller starting at 6:00 p.m. Saturdays agenda kicks off at 8:00 a.m. with breakfast, followed by the keynote address from Franchesca Cox, break out topical discussions, a message from Kori Keller about unnecessary baggage, a creative outlet activity presented and donated by Held Your Whole Life, a second impactful message from Franchesca Cox followed by dinner at 6:00 p.m.. Sunday includes breakfast starting at 8:00 a.m. followed by a panel discussion. The Retreat wraps up at 11:00 a.m. Sunday. For more information or to register, visit The Retreat Website. Moms are encouraged to seek sponsors if they choose to do so, as payment for the retreat is considered a non-profit donation to the Ramsey Keller Memorial. While the topics are tailored for moms who have experienced baby loss, moms are welcome to invite the women who support them to attend so that they may be joined by sisters, mothers and close friends. By combining the TIGTAs unique expertise with insights from RGCA members, attendees will benefit from a holistic view of how fraud is impacting the industry from varying perspectivesand leave with new ideas for how to stay ahead of criminals. -Marina Hodges, RGCA Board Chair. Today the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) announced it will feature a keynote session solely dedicated to closed-loop gift card fraud at the second annual RGCA Forum (http://bit.ly/ForumHomePR) held in Nashville this October 1 through October 3. Special guest Michelle Brasfield from the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), as well as fraud experts from Macys, InComm, and Stored Value Solutions (SVS) will deliver insider fraud intelligence that organizations can apply to their own gift card business operations. During the session, attendees will learn how government agencies like the TIGTA are collaboratively approaching current fraud issues and how the newest types of fraud are being fought by different law enforcement entities. Moderator Kevin Halvorsen from Macys and InComm fraud expert Skeet Rolling will also present on the most prominent fraud categoriesincluding mitigation strategies for eachand guide discussion on how different gift card industry stakeholders can self-regulate to effectively combat fraud. SVS expert Mark Willis will join the conversation by providing best practices for ensuring gift card programs have the right protocols in place to protect consumers from plots designed to fraudulently gain access to gift card balances. By combining the TIGTAs unique expertise with insights from RGCA members, attendees will benefit from a holistic view of how fraud is impacting the industry from varying perspectivesand leave with new ideas for how to stay ahead of criminals, said Marina Hodges, RGCA Board Chair. Were extremely fortunate to have such knowledgeable experts joining us at Forum. RGCA members and non-members with a vested interest in the closed-loop gift card industry are encouraged to attend Forum. With a focus on the issues and trends impacting todays gift card industry, RGCA Forum is a content-rich, interactive event that includes in-depth discussions about the evolution, trends and hot topics surrounding gift cards as forms of branded currency and stored value solutions. To register for RGCA Forum or learn more about the events agenda and speakers, click here: http://bit.ly/ForumHomePR More than 90 RGCA member brands work collaboratively to protect, promote and enhance the use of retail gift cards as forms of branded currency and stored value solutions that enable, enrich and encourage commerce in todays digital age. Members collectively fuel consumer confidence in the industry, evolve best practices for gift card programs and optimize emerging opportunities to meet contextual commerce demand. More information on the RGCA, including details on becoming a member, is available at http://www.thergca.org. About the Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) The Retail Gift Card Association is the nonprofit trade association that represents the closed-loop gift category. The Associations mission is to protect, promote and enhance the use of retail gift cards as forms of branded currency and stored value solutions that enable, enrich, and encourage commerce in todays digital age. All RGCA members abide by a Code of Principles that supports consumer-friendly policies for the purchase and redemption of closed-loop gift cards. RGCAs membership is comprised of retailers from all sectors, including restaurants, general merchandise, apparel, sporting and leisure, and non-retailers. For more information, visit us at http://www.theRGCA.org. Key speakers from the Global SOF Symposium-Spain and parallel Joint SOF Seminar are highlighted here. We expect to have a lot of uniforms from the NATO and EU in attendance at this landmark Symposium. - Stu Bradin, GSF President The Spanish Ministry of Defense has confirmed that high-level representatives will provide remarks at this months Global Special Operations Forces (SOF) Symposium - Spain. General de Ejercito Fernando Alejandre Martinez, Spains Chief of Defense, will provide the opening remarks on Sept. 26, the first full day of the event, and the Commander of Spains Joint Special Operations Command, General de Division Jaime Iniguez Andrade, will provide the closing remarks on Sept. 27. In addition, keynote remarks will be provided by The Honorable Maria Elena Gomez Castro, Spains General Directorate of Defense Policy, on the morning of Sept. 27. Spains Joint Staff Chief, Almirante Francisco Javier Gonzalez-Huix Fernandez, will also join leaders from the EU and NATO to participate in a government-only EU/NATO Joint SOF Seminar, which will take place in the Symposium spaces for a full day on Sept. 25. This seminar will mark the first official meeting for these two entities, and many participants will stay for the full Global SOF Symposium - Spain. The Symposium is hosted by the Global SOF Foundation, the only professional association for the international SOF community. This non-profit organization has partnered with the Spanish Ministry of Defense to execute this three-day opportunity, which also features unique networking opportunities and an expo space for industry participation. The Global SOF Foundation is a networking organization; ample time is built into the schedule to allow attendees to discuss the presentations, make introductions, and tour the Exhibit Hall. Networking events at this Symposium will bring many new faces together. This is a unique opportunity to meet directly with policymakers from many NATO nations; there are official representatives attending from twenty-nine nations and counting. This Symposium will take place at the largest conference hotel in Europe--the Madrid Marriott Auditorium. Conveniently located near the airport, this venue allows for a large exhibit hall. Defense companies with capabilities relevant to European SOF will have the opportunity to purchase exhibit space or sponsorship opportunities, all of which are detailed on the event website. Dont miss this rare opportunity to join the global SOF community in Madrid, Spain, from September 25-27, 2018. Learn more at http://bit.ly/18GSS-SpainInfo The Global Special Operations Forces (SOF) Foundation (GSF) is a non-profit organization registered in the U.S. that aims to build and grow an international network of military, government, commercial, and educational stakeholders in order to advance SOF capabilities and partnerships to confront global and networked threats. Timothy Wolfe, Complex General Manager Were 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. 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 complexs 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. Were 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 Associations (CHLA) Hall of Fame in 2015 and was named CHLAs 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. Im excited to return to Colorado to join The Brown Palace hotel complex team, said Timothy Wolfe, Complex General Manager of The Brown Palace Hotel & Spa and Holiday Inn Express. My wife and I held our wedding reception at Ellyngtons, so The Brown Palace is a very special place for our family. I look forward to spearheading the future growth of the complex and being a part of a team that takes pride in delivering exceptional guest service. The Brown Palace Hotel & Spa is a Forbes Four Star, AAA Four Diamond luxury landmark located in the heart of downtown Denver. Playing host to presidents, celebrities and royalty for more than 125 years, The Brown is the longest continuously operating hotel in Denver, and one of the citys oldest and most prestigious businesses. Encompassing 241 richly appointed guestrooms and presidential suites; six iconic dining options including Ellyngtons, Palace Arms, Ship Tavern and the renowned afternoon tea service in the lobby; more than 20,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space and luxurious spa, The Brown Palace captivates guests with its historic heritage fused with modern-day amenities. The Brown Palace is part of the signature Autograph Collection, an exclusive collection of upper upscale and luxury hotels within Marriott Internationals global portfolio. The 22-story Holiday Inn Express completes The Brown Palace hotel complex offering an additional 1,287 sq. ft. of contemporary meeting space on-site and a pedestrian sky bridge, allowing convenient access to The Brown Palace. To learn more about The Brown Palace Hotel & Spa, please visit http://www.brownpalace.com or call 678-425-0900, and for more information on Holiday Inn Express, please visit http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress.com or call 303-296-0400. The best of show was especially close this year as craft distillers and blenders are perfecting their talents and competing with long time producers" Whiskies of the World is delighted to announce the winners of the 2018 Whiskies of the World Awards. Whiskies of the World is known for its industry standard tasting events in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco and San Jose. The Whisky Awards is an additional feature that provides brands marketing materials to promote their products. As only 31% of entrants receive gold medals, the results of these awards are extremely meaningful. Additionally, all judges notes are made available to each entrant as important data to develop the brand and determine best marketing strategy. Whiskies are judged on a 100-point basis with a concentration on aromatics, flavor and finish. Blind judging was performed by a panel of seventeen tastemakers who are all influential figures in the beverage industry. The panel included: David "Bart" Bartlett - Whisky Guru at Beverage World; Steve Beal, World Renowned Whisky Expert and a Keeper of the Quaich; Jeff Boley - Beverage Manager Townsend; Beth Brooks - Pernod Ricard Specialist, Venture Brand Spirits; Jeramy Campbell - Assistant Manage, Seven Grand Whisky Bar; Jennifer Dunn - Brand Ambassador Luxco Brands; Mike Groener - CEO Genius Liquids; Tom Koerner - Spirit Guide, Seven Grand Whiskey Bar; Lana Lindsley - Bulleit Whiskey Ambassador; David Maguire - Co-owner The Austin Shaker; John McEntire - Spirits Consultant Twin Liquors; Greg Randle - Wine and Spirits Business Consultant/Good Taste Report Founder; Mike Raymond - Owner Reserve 101; Kevin Rhodes - Cocktail specialist, The Eleanor/Sourced Cocktail; Ken Seeber - Spirits Consultant Twin Liquors; Kevin Stein - Regional Manager Twin Liquors; Jason Stevens - Director of Beverage, La Corsha Hospitality Group. The judges are extremely talented with sensitive palates and work hard to evaluate each product, explains Douglas Smith, Whiskies of the World Event Director. The evaluation of whiskies is taken very seriously. Our judges not only taste and make notes, but also discuss and consider many angles. We are proud that our awards reflect the experience and integrity of our excellent judging panel. THE 2018 BEST IN SHOW WINNER (Tie): Sons of Liberty Uprising American Single Malt - Pedro Ximenez Finish (Malt American greater than 2 Years) Whip Saw Rye (Whiskey Rye greater than 4 Years) THE 2018 BEST IN CLASS WINNERS: Bourbon less than 3 years: Balcones Texas High Rye Bourbon Bourbon 3-6 years: Bower Hill Barrel Strength Bourbon Bourbon greater than 6 years: Old Forester Birthday Bourbon Bourbon Wheated: Balcones Texas Wheated Bourbon Corn Whiskey: Ironroot Hubris Corn Whiskey Irish Blended: Bogart's Blended Irish Whiskey Malt American less than 2 years: 10th Street Single Malt Whisky Malt American Smoked less than 2 years: Westland Peated Malt Bourbon Cask: Glenmorangie 18 Year Old Malt Non-Bourbon Cask: Penderyn Myth Malt Peated Medium: The English Smokey Single Malt Malt Peated Heavy: Port Charlotte 10 Rye less than 2 years: Minor Case Rye Whiskey: FEW American Whiskey THE 2018 GOLD OUTSTANDING RECIPIENTS: Old Forester Birthday Bourbon (Bourbon greater than 6 Years) Trail's End Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Bourbon greater than 6 Years) Bower Hill Barrel Strength (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Ardbeg An Oa (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) Ardbeg Corryvreckan (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) Port Charlotte 10 (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy)hiskies of the World Awards 2018 Recipients THE 2018 GOLD RECIPIENTS: Blood Oath P4 (Bourbon greater than 6 Years) Widow Jane 10 Year Old Bourbon (Bourbon greater than 6 Years) Bower Hill Single Barrel (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Law's Whiskey Four Grain Bourbon- Bottled in Bond (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) The Burning Chair Bourbon (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Bogart's irish Whiskey (Irish Blended ) The Quiet Man Traditional Irish Blended Whiskey (Irish Blended ) 10th Street Single Malt Whisky (Malt American less than 2 Years) Kurayoshi 12 Year Old (Malt Non-Bourbon Cask) Penderyn Myth (Malt Non-Bourbon Cask) Amrut Fusion Single Malt (Malt Peated Light) Black Adder Chimera (Malt Peated Light) The English Smokey Single Malt (Malt Peated Medium) Fukano 2018 (Rice Whisky) Axe and the Oak Colorado Mountain Incline Rye (Rye less than 2 Years) Minor Case (Rye less than 2 Years) Bower Hill Reserve Rye (Rye greater than 4 Years) Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2010 (Single Malt Scotch ) Glencadam 10 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie 18 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glengoyne Sherry Cask (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Lasanta (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Nectar D'Or (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Tayne (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) The GlenDronach 18 Year Old Allardice (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) The Glenlivet 18 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Ardbeg 10 Years Old (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) Ardbeg Grooves - General Release (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) The Glenlivet Nadura (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) Ardmore Peated Single Malt (Single Malt Scotch Peated Medium) Dry Fly Cask Strength Wheat Whiskey (Wheat greater than 2 Years) Dry Fly Straight Wheat Whiskey (Wheat greater than 2 Years) FEW American Whiskey (Whiskey) Dry Fly Straight Triticale Whiskey (Whiskey Creative) THE 2018 SILVER OUTSTANDING RECIPIENTS: Balcones Texas High Rye Bourbon (Bourbon less than 3 Years) Bio Whiskey (Bourbon less than 3 Years) Ironroot Harbinger XC Straight Bourbon (Bourbon less than 3 Years) David Nicholson Reserve (Bourbon greater than 6 Years) Uncle Nearest Premium 1856 Aged Whiskey (Bourbon greater than 6 Years) Bower Hill Barrel Reserve (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Ezra Brooks Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) FEW Bourbon (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Garrison Brothers Balmorhea Bourbon (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Garrison Brothers Small Batch (2018 Release) (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Iron Wolf Ranch Select Bourbon (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Old Forester 86 proof (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Yellowstone Select (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Balcones Texas Wheated Bourbon (Bourbon Wheated) Lambay Whiskey Small Batch Blend (Irish Blended ) Alley 6 Single Malt Whiskey (Malt American less than 2 Years) Sons of Liberty Wheated American Single Malt (Malt American less than 2 Years) Whiskey Del Bac Classic (Malt American less than 2 Years) Westland American Oak (Malt American greater than 2 Years) Westland Sherry wood (Malt American greater than 2 Years) Whiskey Del Bac Distiller's Cut (Malt American greater than 2 Years) Westland Sherry wood (Malt American Smoked less than 2 Years) Whiskey Del Bac Dorado (Malt American Smoked less than 2 Years) Amrut Classic Single Malt (Malt Bourbon Cask) The English Original Single Malt (Malt Bourbon Cask) Penderyn Madeira (Malt Non-Bourbon Cask) The Quiet Man Single Malt Irish Whiskey (Malt Non-Bourbon Cask) Amrut Peated Cask Strength Indian Single Malt (Malt Peated Heavy) Alley 6 Rye Whiskey (Rye less than 2 Years) Corsair Ryemaggedon (Rye less than 2 Years) FEW Rye (Rye less than 2 Years) Title No 21 Rye (Rye less than 2 Years) Law's Whiskey Secale Straight Rye- Bottled in Bond (Rye greater than 4 Years) Glenmorangie 19 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Signet (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Cadboll (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Duthac (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Lambay Whiskey Single Malt (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) The Glenivet Nadura Oloroso (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) The Glenlivet Code (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Ardbeg Uigeadail (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2011 (Single Malt Scotch Peated Heavy) Port Askaig 110 Proof (Single Malt Scotch Peated Medium) Charbay Doubled & Twisted Whiskey (Whiskey) THE 2018 SILVER RECIPIENTS: Axe & The Oak Colorado Mountain Bourbon Whiskey (Bourbon less than 3 Years) Ironroot Harbinger (Bourbon less than 3 Years) Ironroot Promethean (Bourbon less than 3 Years) Garrison Brothers Single Barrel Bourbon (Bourbon 3 to 6 Years) Dry Fly Straight Bourbon 101 (Bourbon Wheated) Rebel Yell Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Bourbon Wheated) Woody Creek Distillers Colorado Straight Bourbon (Bourbon Wheated) Balcones True Blue 100 (Corn Whiskey) Ironroot Hubris (Corn Whiskey) Second Glance American Whiskey (Corn Whiskey) Virginia Distilling Chardonnay Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky (Malt American less than 2 Years) Balcones 1' Texas Single Malt (Malt American greater than 2 Years) Sons of Liberty Battle Cry American Single Malt - Sauternes Finish (Malt American greater than 2 Years) 10th Street Peated Single Malt Whisky (Malt American Smoked less than 2 Years) Corsair Triple Smoke (Malt American Smoked less than 2 Years) Corsair Wildfire (Malt American Smoked less than 2 Years) Fifty Stone Single Malt Whiskey (Malt American Smoked less than 2 Years) Brenne Estate Cask (Malt Non-Bourbon Cask) Penderyn Celt (Malt Peated Medium) Balcones Texas Rye 100 (Rye less than 2 Years) Devils River Rye Whiskey (Rye less than 2 Years) Jack Daniel's Tennessee Rye (Rye greater than 4 Years) Bruichladdich Classic Laddie (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glencadam 13 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glengoyne Bourbon Cask (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie The Original (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) The Glenlivet - Founder's Reserve (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) The Glenlivet 12 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Glenmorangie Spios (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) The Glenlivet 15 Year Old (Single Malt Scotch Non-Bourbon Cask) Devils River Barrel Strength Whiskey (Whiskey) THE 2018 BRONZE RECIPIENTS: Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Malt (Malt American greater than 2 Years) The Glenlivet Nadura (Single Malt Scotch Bourbon Cask) Rebecca Creek Fine Texas Whiskey (Whiskey) Rebecca Creek Texas Ranger Whiskey (Whiskey) Seven Stills Chocasmoke (Whiskey) Category Clarification: Malt: Includes Single Malt (all from same distillery) and Blended Malts (100% malt but from different distilleries). To help define the product some have been listed as Single Malt Scotch, or Single Malt. However, for Best in Class purposes, these are the same category. Bourbon Cask: Malt whisky which has been aged in bourbon cask Non-Bourbon Cask: Malt whisky that has significant influence from casks other than bourbon. Most commonly, sherry casks. Cask Finished: Either matured in a non-bourbon cask, or finished in a non-bourbon cask or blended with a non-bourbon cask. Join us for the upcoming Whiskies of the World Texas Expos for a seventh time in Austin on Thursday, September 20th, for the first time in Dallas on Friday, September 21st and for the fourth time in Houston on Saturday September 22nd. We will also be returning to Atlanta for a sixth time on Friday, November 2nd. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.whiskiesoftheworld.com. Follow Whiskies of the World on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About Whiskies of the World LLC: Whiskies of the World LLC, an IWSC Group North America event, began in San Francisco, CA in 1998. Under the direction of whisky enthusiast and event director, Douglas Smith, the event has expanded into Texas and Georgia. The IWSC Group is a global leader of alcoholic beverage events, including the prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition. Media Contacts: Anne Jovine Asual office(at)whiskiesoftheworld(dot)com Philadelphia labor, employment, workers compensation and family law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson is pleased to announce that Jessica R. Brown and Jessica C. Caggiano, both of whom are labor and employment attorneys, have joined the firm. Serving as Of Counsel to the firm, Brown focuses her practice on the representation of labor unions and individual employees before state and federal courts and in arbitrations, negotiations and administrative proceedings. Prior to joining Willig, Williams & Davidson, she was a senior trial attorney at the U. S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor. As a senior trial attorney, she successfully litigated a wide range of matters under federal labor laws, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and Occupational Safety and Health Act. She received her bachelors degree from Bates College and her law degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law. Caggiano practices labor and employment law, advocating for union and worker rights. Before joining the firm, she spent years advocating on behalf of union workers and teachers as counsel for the New York State Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO (PEF) and the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). She represented working people in labor arbitrations, state court litigation, federal court litigation, and before governmental agencies. Her dedication to fighting for unions and employee rights comes from growing up in a working-class family with a history of union membership and advocacy. Caggiano earned her bachelors degree from York College of Pennsylvania and her law degree from University of Pittsburgh School of Law. About Willig, Williams & Davidson Willig, Williams & Davidson (http://www.wwdlaw.com) is one of the largest and most respected union-side labor law firms in the United States. The firm has offices in Philadelphia, Jenkintown and Harrisburg, Pa., as well as Haddonfield, N.J., and Chicago, Ill. Founded in 1979, Willig, Williams & Davidson focuses on representing labor unions, employee benefit funds and individual working people and their families on a variety of legal fronts, including national, regional and local contract negotiations; dispute resolution through mediation, arbitration and litigation; tax and benefit law compliance issues; discrimination and other employment matters; prepaid legal services for union members; and workers compensation matters in Philadelphia and beyond. 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. Fermentation is having a moment. Kombucha and other probiotics have made the move from specialty health stores to neighborhood delis and supermarkets; Americans outside of the Korean community are finally appreciating kimchi; and some of the worlds hottest restaurants and culinary establishments, including Raest on the Faroe Islands and David Changs Momofuku Lab in New York, are putting ferments both ancient and contemporary front and center. But if you ask chef Rene Redzepi, fermentation has always been central to our gastronomic liveswe just werent paying attention. You have to remember that fermentation is a lot of things, Redzepi says. Fermentation is also a beer. Its a glass of wine, a slice of bread, a good cheese, chocolate, your espresso in the morning. So it is something that we have in our daily life all the time; we just dont know it. The reality is that theres so much space to innovate. We can have even more of these sorts of things that give us so much delight on a daily basisparticularly so that we can cook better. Redzepi would know. His Copenhagen restaurant, Noma (ranked best in the world four times in under a decade by Restaurant magazine, despite boasting only two Michelin stars), didnt start the recent fermenting trend, but it certainly helped popularize it. And he, along with David Zilber, the director of Nomas fermentation lab, aims to bring that trend from fine dining to home cooking with The Noma Guide to Fermentation, which the duo cowrote, and which Workman Publishings Artisan division will publish in October. The publisher is as confident as Redzepi and Zilber that fermentation can take off in the home kitchen. It has planned a first printing of 150,000 copies in English, and international rights have been sold in the Dutch and French markets, where the book will be released simultaneously, as well as in the German, Japanese, and Spanish markets, where it is due to be released next year. (Artisan, which retained world English-language rights, will also release the book in Australia, Canada, and England on October 16.) The project is nothing if not ambitious. More handbook or bible than cookbook proper, The Noma Guide to Fermentation is divided into nine chapters, with each but the firsta primer chapter detailing, among other things, the microbial and biochemical processes behind various forms of fermenting, the necessity of disinfectants and cleanliness, the reasoning behind the books use of the metric system, and how to build a fermentation chamber out of a Styrofoam coolerfocusing on one particular ferment. Some, such as kombucha, miso, soy sauce, vinegar, and lacto-fermented (i.e., preserved in salt) fruits and vegetables, might be familiar to the average home cook. Others, such as koji (rice or barley inoculated with the Aspergillus oryzae mold), garum (fermented fish sauce), black fruits and vegetables, and a misolike creation made from peas that the chefs call, appropriately, peaso, very well may not. (The miso and peaso chapter also includes instructions on how to make such grain-related miso mutants as ryeso and breadso.) The goal is to arm home chefs with the ability to experiment with and master a set of fermenting skills that will allow them to reach new heights in their everyday cookinghence the books focus on explaining global fermenting traditions and techniques, and its relatively small number of standard recipes. In that the book reflects both chefs own histories and interests. The Danish-born Redzepi, whose foraging and locavore approach to his national cuisine at Noma has been widely lauded, nonetheless remains enamored with culinary cultures worldwide. For instance, he and former Noma pastry chef Rosio Sanchez (who now runs Copenhagen taqueria Hija de Sanchez) debuted a heavily hyped pop-up, Noma Mexico, in Tulum last year. Zilber was born in Toronto and, he says, in addition to cooking all over Canada, has lived and worked in England and the U.S. That was all before he was hired by Noma. A year after joining the fermentation lab, Zilber took the reins, designed the new fermentation lab at the new Noma, which is in Copenhagens Christianshavn neighborhood, and put together a team. That was right around the time Redzepi began to consider the idea of a cookbook. Zilber recalls that Redzepi walked into the lab one day and said, We have to write a cookbook, and it has to be on fermentation. The time is right. And it shouldnt just be my name on the cover. This has to be someones voiceit has to be the voice of someone whos an expert in the field. Sure, this is happening in my restaurant, but its not like Im the one whos actually got his hands in figuring out what water content makes the peaso rice. So Zilber began to write. You know, if Rene tells you to go get six carrots from the fridge and bring it back to the service team because we have to change up the menu, you just do that, he says. I started my morning thinking I was going to do research on a new strain of mold, and then I was writing a cookbook. The process, Zilber and Redzepi both note, involved a good deal of collaboration. Part of that was due to the lack of a definitive reference with instructions for home fermenting that the duo could consult. Redzepi says that the goal was to make a good entryway for readers, so that they might understand what to do, how it works, why are we using it, and how they can use it. Phaidons Noma: Time & Place in Nordic Cuisine, in 2010, was Redzepis first foray into print. That work, which PWs review described as a massive study of the restaurant and its chef, was less practical, with the reviewer noting its spectacularly innovative dishes for which few home cooks will have the equipment, ingredients, or patience. And though The Noma Guide to Fermentation is certainly not a standard celebrity chefs bound bandolier of recipes, its practicality is, in fact, the point, even if such recipes as bee pollen garumand Nomas own, more complicated dishes, such as pumpkin seed tofu with grasshopper mole and rosesmay seem more whimsical than most kitchen staples. Once you start doing it, cooking will be easier, Redzepi insists. You wont need a list of 20,000 ingredients to make dinner that night. If you have two or three fermented things in your kitchen cabinet, then you can make the bok choy taste as good as steak. That may mean, he adds, making something as simple and healthy as fermented raspberriesadding a little bit of salt to two or so fistfuls of the fruit and allowing it to go through a gentle two-day fermentation. Sprinkle them over your yogurt in the morning, Redzepi says. Oof, oof, oof! And youll feel like a champion for the rest of the day. When I do these things, it sets the record straight in my stomach. Its like a gut bacterial kick. In that way, the book reflects its contents: think of it as a 450-page bacterial kick to bookshelf and kitchen alike. Summer recess continues for another few weeks for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and yet, beginning this week, its all about kids and books. The Justice releases two new books for young readers this week: One, The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor, is a middle grade adaptation of her bestselling adult memoir, My Beloved World (2013); the other, Turning Pages, is a picture book version of Sotomayors life, illustrated by Lulu Delacre. PW caught up with Justice Sotomayor while she was traveling down the East Coast on her book tour. Youve spent most of your life writing for grown-ups. Why did you decide that you wanted to share your story with younger readers? My Beloved World was stimulated by a lot of questions kids were already asking me: What was it like to lose a parent when you were young? What was it like having a condition like diabetes? Was it scary? Once [children] see you in a position of power, a lot of them who are facing their own challenges ask: Have you ever been afraid? Can you ever succeed if you fail? Theyre natural questions, you know? My cousin Miriam is a middle-school bilingual education teacher in Stamford, Connecticut; she used my adult book in her class but she told me that many pieces in ita lot of the law thingswere a little bit over the students heads. The middle grade book was a natural follow-up; we tried to retain those aspects of my life that were responses to the kids questions. Since we knew it would be impossible for the youngest readers to understand the adult book, no matter how much I simplified, I wondered if there was a way for me to introduce myself and my life story to them in a way that they might appreciate. An illustrated book seemed perfect for that purpose. What did you learn in the process of creating Turning Pages? What was it like for you to collaborate with Lulu Delacre and to see your memories come to life through her illustrations? In our search for an illustrator, my publisher and I went through a long process of elimination. To her credit, she asked me what I didnt like: styles that were too abstract, too dark in coloring. I said, It has to be bright, it has to reflect [my familys home in] the island of Puerto Rico, and it has to be lifelikeI want readers to see me as a person and not a cartoon. As soon as I saw Lulus work, I said, This is it. The amount of research she did was so impressive, and it really was a collaborative effort. I had a suitcase full of pictures that I had been collecting, from my family and my mother. She went through every single oneand all of the drawings of my room and living room and some of what Im wearing came from those photos. One of the funniest moments of the process was when she showed me an illustration of me wearing a pair of flowered pants. I told her that I would have never worn those. Sonia? she said, sending me a picture of myself wearing the pants. Well, I said, my taste has evolved since then! Lulu was always so responsive. Working with her was one of the biggest treats of the book. You talk a lot about the books that have influenced you personally. If you could make one recommendation to kids today, based on your experience, what would it be? When kids ask me that, I say there are so many books I love; mentioning one seems unfair. I might tell everybody to read the Bible. My reasons arent necessarily religious: so much of art is reflected in the Bible... if you want to be a student of art, of reading.... For me, when I travel to Europe, some of the churches have the earliest art forms. One of my favorite fantasy books for kids is Watership Down. But should everyone read it? You have photos of your goddaughter Alexia and your niece Kiley in the book. What inspires you about reading with the kids in your life? I tend to send books to my niece randomly. One day, not long after I sent her The Giving Tree, I picked up the phone and heard my sisters voice: Sonia, I think you better listen to your niece. Kiley, whats up, sweetheart? I asked. She said, You sent me the saddest book, Titi. Its the first time youve ever sent me something like thisit was so sad! I told her, I know, sweetie, but its trying to teach you a lesson, both about life and about givingthat sometimes it doesnt come back to you, but you give because you love. And we had a very deep conversation about giving, and about how sometimes its not reciprocated. This wasnt about me trying to tell them a story about what happened to me. She could see in a character she was reading about a real-life experience. I wanted to create that experienceeven if maybe not consciouslyas I wrote. I wanted readers to see me as a real person. I wanted to do that in a way that was engaging, but these experiences werent magical. Theyre real life. The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor by Sonia Sotomayor. Delacorte, $17.99 Sept. ISBN 978-1-5247-7114-0 Turning Pages: My Life Story by Sonia Sotomayor, illus. by Lulu Delacre. Philomel, $17.99 Sept. ISBN 978-0-525-51408-4 Tens of thousands of book lovers came together for the 18th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival, which took place September 1 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The event featured a lineup of more than 100 authors, including numerous childrens book and YA authors who took part in panels, readings, signings, and more. Weve gathered a selection of highlights from the festivities. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (r.), in conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, spoke about her two new books for young readers: her picture book autobiography, Turning Pages: My Life Story (Philomel), illustrated by Lulu Delacre, and her middle grade memoir, The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor (Delacorte). Caldecott Medalist Brian Selznick signing copies of J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter books, for which he designed the 20th anniversary covers. Robin Benway speaking about the origins of her National Book Award-winning novel Far from the Tree (HarperTeen). Authors Leigh Bardugo (center) and Tillie Walden (r.), with Macmillan Childrens publicity director Molly Ellis, in front of the U.S. Capitol. A young fan attempts to join bestselling author Danica McKellar (Do Not Open This Math Book) onstage during her reading at the Library of Congress, as part of a six-month collaborative storytime with the LOC and Dolly Partons Imagination Library, which uses her DPIL selected book, Goodnight, Numbers. Author Kate DiCamillo and illustrator Harry Bliss discuss their picture book tale of canine friendship, Good Rosie! (Candlewick). Author Jewell Parker Rhodes signing a copy of her new novel, Ghost Boys (Little, Brown). 2018 Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell delivered a presentation on the Purple Childrens Stage. Trudi Trueit, author of Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secretwhich kicks off National Geographic Kids inaugural fiction imprint, Under the Starsmeets a young reader. A view of the signing lines. Author Minh Le (l.) and illustrator Dan Santat celebrate their new picture book, Drawn Together (Disney-Hyperion). Authors Nikki Russell (l.) and Rachel Renee Russell greet Dork Diaries fans. Justina Ireland discussing her YA novel, Dread Nation (Balzer + Bray). Jacqueline Woodson, National Ambassador for Young Peoples Literature, meets with readers following her conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Harbor Me and The Day You Begin (Penguin/Paulsen). Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes getting ready to sign copies of Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship (Candlewick), the picture book they coauthored based on Kenskys real-life bond with her service dog. Phoebe Connelly (l.) of the Washington Post interviews author Sandhya Menon about When Dimple Met Rishi and From Twinkle, with Love (Simon Pulse). (From l.): Author Jennifer A. Nielsen, Charlie Young and Tracy van Straaten of Scholastic, author-illustrator David Shannon, and author Christopher Paul Curtis in front of the Library of Congress. As PW reported this week, Penguin Random House has become the second Big Five publisher since July to change its terms for library e-book lending. As of October 1, the worlds largest English language trade publisher will shift from a "perpetual access" model (where libraries pay a higher price but retain access to the e-book forever) to a metered model (with titles priced at lower levels, but expiring after two years). Reaction to the change has been fairly muted among librarians so far. With the fine print of the new terms still not known, librarians are taking heart in PRH's vow not to embargo titles, and to remain engaged with libraries. Thats not an insignificant pointespecially after Macmillan officials sent librarians the exact opposite message in July, when they announced a four-month embargo on new titles from its Tor Division without any consultation with or warning to libraries. Unlike the terrible shift in lending policy announced in July by Tor and Macmillan Publishers, PRHs change is neutral or even a bit positive for U.S. libraries, observed Alan Inouye, on the American Libraries web site. "One important conclusion from this change is that PRH has renewed its commitment to libraries. The company has been talking to librarians and evaluating the market." But on the negative side, Inouye points out, is price. While PRH is lowering its price on e-books for the second time since 2016 as part of the shift, high e-book pricing for libraries remains a major issue with all of the major publishers, not just PRH. Meanwhile, on a broader note, with two publishers making significant changes in two months, the library e-book market appears to be heating up again after years of relative calm. And what happens next, remains unclear. At the heart of the conflict is the effect of library e-book lending on the publishing ecosystem, Inouye writes. Multiple hypotheses have been proposed, but little solid cause-and-effect evidence exists. Inouye points to the recently launched Panorama Project as a potentially positive development that could shed light on the library/publisher ecosystem. With initial funding provided by OverDrive, the Panorama Project will track various data to gain insights into how libraries, publishers, booksellers, and distributors work together, as well as the impact of library holdings on book discovery, author brand development, and sales. Both Macmillan and Penguin Random House are participating in the project. But one thing seems clear at this point: The Panorama Project can't be the whole ball game. And without the ALAs Digital Content Working Group, which ended last year after its six-year charter expired, librarians will need to effectively re-engage with publishers on the e-book issue. More to come. Reserve Reading In other ALA News, the organization this week announced that it is exploring the sale of its headquarters buildings at 40 and 50 East Huron Street in Chicago. "The ALA Executive Board and staff are committed to the mission of ALA and its long-term ability to support its members as they serve their libraries and communities, reports a post on the American Libraries web site. The ALA headquarters are an important part of our history and have served members and staff well. But just as our communities, our libraries, and our work lives have changed, so have the needs of the Associationincluding those of our workplace. And while you're on the American Libraries site, check out this Q&A with Susan Orlean, author of the forthcoming The Library Book. In Europe, Nature reports on the open access movement's taking another huge step forward this week, with a "radical open-access initiative" that "could change the face of science publishing in two yearsand which has instantly provoked protest from publishers." Nature reports the plan would "bar researchers from publishing in 85% of journals, including influential titles such as Nature and Science," in favor of publishing in open access journals. Twitter this week permanently banned Alex Jones. The last straw apparently came when the conspiracy theorist tweeted out a video of himself heckling a CNN reporter. The Atlantic called the banning an important moment, representing "a definitive stance after years of inaction and half-measures" by the company. Elsewhere in the social media universe, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey testified this week in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Google meanwhile, had better things to do, apparently. According to Wired, Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the committee, is not pleased with Google. In The New York Times, Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, has an op-ed on why Facebook may never be fixed: "Facebook has put impressive effort into reforming itself around the margins. But considering the harm that Facebook has causedsharing user data with unauthorized third parties, spreading propaganda that sets off ethnic violence, hosting attacks on elections around the worldexterminating most of the pests is not good enough. Stopping all of them is impossible. Facebook is too big to govern and too big to fix. We might just have to accept that." Over at the EFF's Deep Links blog, Cory Doctorow has a piece calling on citizens to defeat the new EU Copyright Directive. "In exactly one week, the European Parliament will hold a crucial debate and vote on a proposal so terrible, it can only be called an extinction-level event for the Internet as we know it," Doctorow writes. In June, we reported that the EU's 2016 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was headed for a key committee vote this week, which later passed. At the time, Wired had a piece on how the measure could "screw up the whole Internet." Doctorow agrees, calling the measure's "extreme, unworkable proposals" a "grave danger to the Internet." In July, we reported on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's baffling take on net neutrality. This week, Gigi Sohn takes up that fight in an op-ed for NBC News. "His decided opposition to net neutrality and any oversight of big broadband and cable companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon represent another incredibly problematic aspect of his judicial rulings that could have a broad impact on Americans for decades to come. The University of North Carolina is trying to figure out what to do with some Confederate monuments. According to a report in The News & Observer, the UNC librarians don't want them in the library. And we close on some good news. Well done, James Patterson! The mega-bestselling author just donated another $2 million to classroom libraries. This years 25th Beijing International Book Fair, which ran from August 22 to 26, threw the spotlight on Chinas boomingand massivechildrens book market, with a 14,000-square meter exhibition hall dedicated to anything and everything to do with childrens content. The inaugural Beijing International Childrens Book Fair hosted local and overseas publishers and technology partners looking to integrate publishing, multimedia, licensing, and film/television for the countrys estimated 370 million children under the age of 18. Weve gathered a selection of photo highlights from the fair. All photos by Ryk Hsieh unless otherwise stated. Blue skies and a bright sun greeted exhibitors and visitors at the 25th Beijing International Book Fair. Penguin Fairy Tale is one of the emerging Chinese companies that are focused on publishing digital content for children and creating IPs across different platforms. Incubated by Tencent Holdings, it recently received a $6.3 million investment to further ramp up its content creation efforts. Subsidiary rights specialist Kimberly Williams and marketing director Jason Wells of the American Psychological Association signed a deal with Chemical Industry Press at the fair. The Chinese publisher bought 20 new titles from Magination Press (APAs childrens imprint), bringing the total bought so far to around 50. Recent years have seen very few deals inked during the fair itself. Photo: Janet Fritsch. Visitors checking out selected artworks from 66 illustrators from around the world at the BIBF Ananas Illustration Exhibition. This year's Ananas Grand Prix went to Chinese illustrator Liao Ziying, while Grand Jury prizes were awarded to Liao Zongyi (from China), Ekaterina Mikhalina (Russia), and Liva Ozola (Latvia). A storytelling/origami session based on Katharine Holabirds Angelina Ballerina series, hosted by Chinas biggest online book retailer, Dangdang. Peppa Pig has become one of China's biggest brands since the cartoon's 2015 launch in that country. This series, which is aired by national broadcaster China Central Television, has also received more than 34 billion views on online video websites, and this success has prompted the planning of two theme parks (in Beijing and Shanghai) for 2019. Baby Cube, which started as a reading/online book club, is one of the many publishing companies that owe much of their existence to the rise (and success) of social media platformspowered by messaging app WeChat and microblogging site Weiboin marketing and selling childrens books in China. Colorful aisle banners in the childrens zone highlighted the importance of reading and picture books. This one, for instance, says: Open a picture book. Find a new world. The booth counter for Ellabook, a digital reading platform for kids three to 10 years old, featured the companys mascot of a smiling owl with a book. Anhui Childrens Publishing Houses complex pop-up book on the Chinese classic Journey to the West had this boys full attention. Book and app publisher Nosy Crows booth was a hive of activity during the fair. Nothing attracts children (and adults) like dinosaurs, and at the PNSO World of Dinosaurs booth, visitors traveled back to prehistoric times through a scientific art exhibition created by artist Zhao Chuang and writer Yang Yang. According to reports, the two cities experiencing the scaring earth movement are Maitama and Utako. The emergency agency confirmed the report in a statement released on Friday, September 7, 2018, urging citizens to take precautionary methods. What is the cause of Abuja earth tremor? The FCT Emergency Management Agency of Nigeria attributed the cause to the possibility of "earth tremor", describing it as "a sign of seismic movement within the earth". "This is caused by sudden breaks along a fault line, which results in a sudden release of energy that makes the ground to shake. "It is caused by stress in underground rocks and may be due to rock blasting and mining activities in an area," the agency said. Blessed Fon-do, @Laidy_Beeh, in a series of tweets, said the country is experiencing an "intraplate tremor" and could have been caused by regional stresses due to Nigeria's position between two cratons and zone of weakness resulting from tectonic activities even though Nigeria is on a stable continental crust. In the same vein, Sim Shagaya, a Nigerian entrepreneur and former CEO of one of West Africa's largest electronic commerce website, Konga, said the Abuja tremor was caused by the massive 7.8 earthquakes recorded in Fiji days ago. Regarding the Abuja tremors, a massive 7.8 earthquake was recorded in Fiji (and several other locations on the Pacific ring of fire). When an earthquake happens, echoes of the quake can cause tremors to occur in a location at the opposite end of the globe. Abuja is almost diametrically opposite Fiji. This is likely what happened. Nigeria is otherwise geologically stable." Nigeria's Senate leader calls for calm Bukola Saraki, president of the Nigerian Senate, has called for calm on the recent earth tremors in Abuja. He implored all relevant agencies and emergency services to be on high alert to prevent the loss of lives and property. Abuja residents also called on the government to take appropriate steps. Chelsea Powrie A popular sheltered bay, which boaters from the South Okanagan say is a standard go-to location to swim and anchor their boat, has been cordoned off by private buoys. Okanagan Lake is a federal waterway, which is why lake users are annoyed the owners of the shoreline property just north of Naramata felt they were able to place dozens of private buoys at the mouth of the bay, each of which clearly state: "No Boats." This past Sunday, a group of boats entered the bay to protest what they view as an unlawful attempt to restrict their access to the water. "We've been coming here for years," said boater Tammy Hansel. The land along the shoreline, up to the lake's high water mark, belongs to the owner of the land the Mark Anthony Group. They also own Mission Hill Winery, and a house is currently being built on the northern end of the bay. Repeated attempts by Castanet to contact the owners for comment since Sunday have been ignored. Under federal law, they are allowed to place private buoys, but they must clearly state the owner's name, address and phone number. The buoys in question have only a phone number, which Castanet has repeatedly attempted to contact and left messages with throughout the week, to no response. The shoreline property owners are not allowed to restrict boat access to the water in the bay. 'You only own so much of the foreshore," said Hansel, explaining why she had decided to cross the buoy line. "Beyond that, it's public." Transport Canada media relations advisor Julie Laroux said: "An owner would not be able to restrict boats in the water in front of their property through the use of private buoys." While private buoys are allowed for purposes of warning boats about hazards and swimming areas, they are the responsibility of their private owners, and are not intended to restrict visitors from public waterways. "People waiting on line to sit in on the hearings are saying they have seen others get paid cash to wait on line and cause trouble," Henry said on Sean Hannity's show on Wednesday night. The veteran journalist did not cite the source of the allegations or explain how Fox gathered the information, and did not mention that many progressive groups organizing the hearing protests are covering the $35-$50 bail fees incurred by demonstrators who have been arrested. It's likely that Henry was referring to claims made by Related content Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which began on Wednesday morning, have been consistently interrupted by protesters, dozens of whom have been arrested. Progressive groups like Planned Parenthood, the Women's March, and the Center for Popular Democracy have been planning the protests for weeks, according to CNN, and have organized volunteers to sit in on the hearings, participate in evening vigils on Capitol Hill, and write letters to lawmakers. Many of the groups have helped volunteers cover the costs of traveling to Washington and the fees associated with being arrested. LONDON Fears of the negative impact of Brexit are pushing a growing chunk of Leave voters towards wanting to remain in the EU, leading polling expert John Curtice has told Business Insider. Curtice, whose accurate exit polls have become a big part of election night coverage in the UK, told BI that a "substantial minority" of Leave voters are now turning towards backing Remain because of fears over the economic effects of a hard break with the EU. His latest polling for Nat Cen Social Research, released earlier this week, found an 8-point lead had opened up among all British voters to remain in the EU. Curtice said the one thing that had "jumped out" from this research was the extent to which views on the economic consequences of Brexit were driving that shift. The survey found that 51% of voters expect the UK economy to be worse off as a result of Brexit, up from 39 per cent in June 2016. That is significant because it was widely understood that Leave voters backed Brexit in spite of potentially negative economic consequences in 2016, and shows that a chunk of them who are increasingly nervous of the economic consequences are switching their support to Remain. "The pessimism of Remain voters on the economic consequences of Brexit outweighs the optimism among Leave voters," Curtice said. "There is a substantial minority of Leave voters who are not quite sure of the economic consequences." No-deal fears are not cutting through Interestingly, Curtice believes that fears of a no-deal Brexit are not a major factor in the shift towards the British public wishing to remain in the EU. In fact Curtice told BI that voters who back leaving the EU are largely unmoved by the prospect of a no-deal Brexit because they would largely blame any failure of negotiations on politicians such as Theresa May and Michel Barnier, rather than on Brexit itself. While long-term support for Brexit among Leave voters does appear to be falling, this is mostly being driven by fear of the negative economic consequences of Brexit, rather than any fear of crashing out without a deal, Curtice said. New polling led by Curtice for NatCen found that fewer than one in five (17%) of voters now expect a good Brexit deal, a figure which has fallen from 33% in February 2017. But Curtice said that increase has not driven a significant uptick in the number of voters abandoning support for Brexit, because they would blame such an outcome on politicians, or blame "failure of Brexit to meet what they were hoping it would achieve." "The consequences of the Brexit process, for both Remain and Leave voters, depends on how people attribute blame," he said. "If they think that politicians are to blame including the EU, why should they change their mind? That's [perceived to be] the fault of the European Union." "If there is no deal, it's because the EU is [perceived to be] intransigent. It's a question of who you blame." "Voters can blame the politicians, or the failure of Brexit to meet what they were hoping it would achieve. This was after they reached an agreement with the Education Ministry on Thursday (September 8, 2018). When the National Teaching Council (NTC) announced that it will organise the first teachers' licence exams in September 2018, the teachers protested. READ ALSO: Trainee teachers reject NSS postings The teachers argue that they have already undergone training and therefore did not see the need for a teachers licence exams. After a meeting with some stakeholders, the Ministry of Education announced the concerned teachers have agreed to take the test from Monday as scheduled. READ ALSO: 7 things SHS students can do during their double track system vacation In a statement, the Ministry said the licensure examination shall proceed as scheduled. The licensure examination shall be held more than once every year to enable all newly graduated teachers to participate. The statement added that the license examination shall be held more than once a year to allow newly graduated teachers to participate. Read the full statement below The Minister of Education this afternoon met leaders of the various teacher unions. They had earlier expressed reservations about the teacher licensing examination. At the end of the meeting, there was general agreement that; The licensure examination shall proceed as scheduled The licensure examination shall be held more than once every year to enable all newly graduated teachers to participate. iii. National Service period be considered as part of the one-year post-graduation training period of all teachers. All newly graduated teachers avail themselves of the opportunity of the licensure examination to qualify as licensed teachers to enable them secure employment as teachers. Discussions on teacher professionalisation must progress as agreed. EKOW VINCENT ASSAFUAH 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! On the 1st and 2nd of September the show was held at the capacious venue, where several thousands of people were gathered there. This weekend, the Chief Executive Officer of Roverman Productions will relive his old moments of acting in stage plays. The show dubbed A Crazy Ride is part of celebrating 10 years of Rovermans theatre productions and unveiling the other-side of Ebo Whyte. The programme will take place at the National Theatre in Accra 8th and 9th of september,ticket goes for 80Gh cedis. Uncle Ebo Whyte has written, directed and produced hilarious plays such as Nicholas, Women on Fire, The Comeback, Special Delivery, and others. If you are a regular patron of Uncle Ebo Whytes plays (and you really miss a great deal if you are not), you will have been accustomed to the loud uncontrolled laughter, usually interspersed with thunderous claps that often threaten to bring down the roof of the National Theatre in Accra. Peace Corps Trainees Peace Corps Staff and Volunteers, past and present Ladies and Gentlemen Selamnu endemenachu! Aqam Aqam! Kemey Wuelkum! Good afternoon! This is my second opportunity to swear in a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers as Charge dAffaires. The first opportunity was almost exactly one year ago, and Ethiopia was in a very different place. The country had only recently ended its first state of emergency and uncertainty about the future prevailed. A year later, Ethiopians are more optimistic for the future than ever before, and with good reason. They have a government that has firmly committed itself to pursue democratic and economic reform, and to respect the rights of all Ethiopians. The Ethiopian people are absolutely capable of achieving their goals, and through our partnership, the United States can help them do it. Thats where you come in: As Peace Corps Volunteers investing the next two years of your lives. You are investing in Ethiopias success, not in money or infrastructure, but in a far more personal way by offering your time, expertise, and your involvement as a member of your host community. And I already know that you will have a positive impact. You are the next part of a long and proud tradition of Peace Corps service in Ethiopia, dating back to the first group in 1962. Ethiopia was actually one of the first countries to welcome the Peace Corps and the first group of almost 300 Education Volunteers landed in Addis Ababa in September of that year. The volunteers that came before you have each contributed in their own way to help Ethiopia reach this point, where the opportunities seem endless, and hope is something tangible, that you can feel around you. I know you will come to share that hope as you settle into the communities that you will call home. Those communities are anxious to have you join their schools and become their neighbors, and to share their hopes with you as they seek your help to make them a reality. Your 12 weeks of training in communities around Butajira and Mekele have prepared you to do that. Im always a bit jealous of opportunity that Peace Corps volunteers will have to experience Ethiopia in a very special and intimate way. I will try to assuage that jealousy by visiting some of the areas where you will teach and live, where you engage in English camps and the Girls Leading Our World camps that prioritize leadership and empowerment for girls and young women. And beyond the tremendous contributions you will make to Ethiopias future, Ill want to see whether you have mastered the art of hosting a coffee ceremony or making injera. Your time in Ethiopia will not only help shape this country, it will shape you are and how you see the world. Most of all, I believe you will see how one person can make a difference, and I hope you will share that as widely as you can. History is being written in Ethiopia and you will be a part of it. Never forget that the better future we hope for needs to be nurtured from the ground up, and through your service you will do just that by upholding the three goals that have guided the Peace Corps since 1961: To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained Volunteers. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. In advancing those goals, you represent the United States. You will serve in places those of us at the Embassy cant get to very often and in a profound way we cant hope to achieve from our visits. The people in your community will never forget you or the way that you influence their lives for the better and encouraged them to reach potential they may not have imagined possible. The 37 of you who will swear-in today represent the 19th group of Volunteers since the re-establishment of the post in 2007, and will be working in communities of Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray. Over the years, more than 3,600 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Ethiopia. You will both build on their past contributions and blaze new trails in the process. As you support the development of skills in your community, you will also share American values like inclusivity, civic participation, and celebration of diversity that are so important to the political processes underway in Ethiopia right now. Before I swear you in, let me take a moment to recognize those already in service and those who have served in the past. Would the Volunteers currently in service please stand up? Now Id also like to ask our former Peace Corps Volunteers to stand up. Though not all are able to be here today, there are many of you among us at the Embassy. From personal experience, I know that Volunteers who go on to serve in the Foreign Service careers bring the curiosity, conviction, and courage that it takes to be successful diplomats and representatives of the United States abroad. I also need to recognize the Peace Corps Ethiopia staff. Would you please stand up? You find good, safe sites for these Volunteers, prepare them for their experience, and support them around the clock. This program would truly be impossible without you. Amaseganehlu! But our guests of honor today are our trainees. I want to thank you again, on behalf of the U.S. Government and the people of the United States, for the commitment you are about to make and the hard work you will undertake. You have agreed to leave your families, friends and homes to work side-by-side with the people of Ethiopia, thereby rising to President Kennedys challenge of so many years ago. You represent American goodwill and compassion at its best. Your task is far from easy, but you will make the most of this privilege. I have no doubt the effort will be worth it - this will be one of the most profound and transformative experiences of your lives. Now, if youre prepared to commit the next two years of your lives to Peace Corps service and to the Ethiopian people, please stand, raise your right hand, and repeat after me: I, (state your name), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. Volunteers, thank you, and good luck! WHY: While there has been substantial progress in reducing global poverty in recent years, hundreds of millions of vulnerable children remain trapped in extreme poverty. This is especially the case on the African continent, where children account for the majority and growing proportion of the population. In Uganda, 57 per cent of the total population is below 18 years. However, 55 per cent of children under 5 years of age (3.7 million) and 38 per cent of 6-17 year olds continue to languish in poverty. The picture is not very different for many other African countries. The conference that will bring together participants from various sectors and countries, therefore aims at generating key insights for practical actions, programmes and social policy interventions that will make tangible differences in the lives of Africas poorest children. He is quoted as having told health officials that: I felt uncomfortable sensation in my ear when I went to sleep last night, but I didnt pay too much attention to it.. When I woke up this morning, the sensation was still there, but now there was also a drumming like sound. When doctors at the department of otolaryngology at the Dalian Central Hospital, in Dalian, Chinas Liaoning province examined the unnamed patient, they reportedly noticed a white abnormal material. According to odditycentral.com, Doctor Cui Shulin, deputy chief physician at the department used an endoscope to inspect the mans inner ear canal, and observed that about 5 cm into the canal, there was a fog-like white barrier, and past it a moving creature that retreated deeper into the ear as the endoscope advanced. Having done further checks, Doctor Cui Shulin said: This seems to be a spider! He is reported to have recently disclosed to news men that his outfit realised that a spider had actually made the mans ear a dwelling place. He added that the patient had been sensing the sound in his ear when the spider is spinning the web. The doctors then used a special syringe to flush out the spider and its web from the mans ear with water, and he now has respite. Fortunately, when they examined the patient, it was discovered that the spider had not caused any damage to his ear drum. Watch the video below: Pastor David Elijah, the founder of Grace and Power Prophetic Ministry International located in Awka of Nigeria's Anambra state was reportedly on his way to his church when the unexpected attack occurred. Though bullet holes are visibly seen on the pastors car with most of the screens completely shattered, his body suffered no harm, according to yabaleftonline.ng. Photos of the incident reportedly shared online by Pastor David Elijahs church members and some well-wishers show his dress also torn by bullets, but as though his skin was bullet proof, reports say he did not even suffer any abrasion. The news has shocked many social media users, most of whom believe God deserves glory for the miraculous incident. The kind of money skewed to a particular section of the wealthy graph. The one that the people in the most high places have access to. Yes, that kind of money in Nigeria. And these people in the most high places are quite a number compared to the ones in Ghana. Legend has it that the amounts that are deemed surplus by the people who deem it fit to call surplus can fund the main projects when it comes to Ghana. So you see, Nigeria has money. That kind of having money. No one mentioned corruption here. So please move on. This kind of money has played a huge part in the way Nigerians celebrate their wedding ceremonies. Lets face it. A wedding is the first biggest loss for a couple before they even try to think about how to run a family. Just like every other entity under consideration, there are exceptions. But on a general note, weddings are losses. Huge money losses to be precise. Then again, if you have the money, why would you not blow it on your wedding day and justify with the only excuse available, It is a once in a lifetime experience? Some Nigerians did have the money and boy did they show how weddings could actually be a second heaven on earth. When social media became social media, these flamboyant weddings in Nigeria began to find their ways across the borders to the pages of Ghanaian social media users. So the little who did have the gargantuan monies began to emulate these weddings. They invited their friends who also saw that as a wedding goal. Gradually, it is becoming the order of the day in Ghana. The superfluously rich weddings. Not much can be said if the couple are actually that superfluously rich. It just must be done that way. The Ghanaian marriage before white wedding invaded ece-auto-gen Traditionally marriages in Ghana were specifically not about that particular day the event took place. It was about how things could be put in place to make sure the marriage lasted for the lifetime could have. That was why enough time was spent researching on the various families to make sure no family issues could disrupt the compatibility status of the bride and groom after things were finalised and made official. The items the groom was asked to submit to the brides parents were as a sign of respect and proof of commitment he was ready for the long journey. Various acts were used to signify assurance from both the bride and groom that despite the difficulties that may arise in their marriage, they were ready to see it through. The fun and celebration part was just a small section of the whole marriage pie. Weddings and social media, the focus of modern marriages The traditional side of the marriages is still around. Just modified and upgraded to meet the ever requesting needs of a white wedding. There are also some new and gradually becoming permanent aspects of a Ghanaian marriage. Pre-wedding photoshoot Pulse Ghana So this purpose a few years ago was handled by the respective families of the bride and groom. No. They werent photographers nor did they pose for photos. They went round telling everybody who was supposed to know about their daughter or sons marriage, inviting them and revealing all details about the ceremony. This was aided by a few printed invitations for special guests who could actually give the new couple something little to start life with. But that was before social media became a major force in how weddings are run. Of course, somebody has to Save the Date and it has to be a creative reminder. So pre-wedding photoshoot. The extent some of these pre-wedding photoshoots go and the amount spent on the photographer and location is bewildering. But hey, if the money is there, why not? Right? The list ece-auto-gen Legend has it the list was the list everywhere for a man who spotted the rib of his ribs and wanted to spend the rest of his life with. The few who had the flexibility to showcase their abundance of wealth added a few goats to show they were the gangalears [gang leaders] in the marriage game. But overall, the list was an untold universal rule that had the specific items. Not anymore. You are a very lucky man if youre not asked to buy the latest version of all of Apples products for the junior brothers of the bride. An iPhone 7 for the youngest, MacBook for the oldest and an iPad for the middle child. Then again, there are exceptions to the rule but the items the families of the bride are taking is ridiculously scary for young men who want to settle down these days. Bridesmaids and groomsmen ece-auto-gen To go by the terms politicians are throwing around these days, the rule was One bride, one bridesmaid and one groom, one groomsman. How time flies. In recent interview by PulseTV, a Ghanaian lady said 8 bridesmaids was her target. Eight! Can we skip to the next point now? This point has already been made. Budget for the wedding ece-auto-gen This topic is highly relative. PulseTVs research found it ranged from a minimum of 2,000 Ghana Cedis to how much the couple were willing to spend. The maximum that was mentioned during the interviews was 60, 000 Ghana Cedis but thats surely not the limit. It cant be, considering the wedding videos that have found their way unto social media. From the suits of the groom to the wedding gowns, the wedding rings, cloths for the groomsmen and bridesmaids, food at the ceremony, gifts to make guests remember the wedding forever, dancing classes for the groom and bride, wedding budgets have never been higher. Peer Pressure ece-auto-gen Peer pressure is high on social media. No matter how a lot of people may deny, fervently seeking for a high budget wedding is all about what their friends will say and the need to top the last wedding they went to. Nigerian weddings started this a few years before Ghana. But if you have lived in Ghana for long, you probably know there is nothing so easily achieved in the country than copying what others are doing. It has gotten so bad to the extent people go for loans in a bid to settle their debt gradually after their I dos so friends will know they did some. A word of advice though, the secret to spending your life with someone else is not the getting married part. It is about staying married. CGLA earned the top TVAAS score for the 2017 18 school year and was presented a Level 5 School banner by Hamilton County Department of Educations Chief of Staff, Dr. Nakia Towns Edwards on Friday. The academys impressive composite score, which increased by two points over the previous school year, can largely be attributed to the intentional and purposeful intervention and instruction CGLAs faculty provides according to school Principal, Maryo Beck. Beck, who joined the CGLA family as the Dean of Students in 2012- says the school has grown tremendously and aims to employ the brightest and most passionate educators around. The academy currently employs Alicia Bland who was one of four math teachers in Tennessee to receive the 2017 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, and English Language Arts teacher, Jen Semanco, who was one of 38 educators in the state selected for the 2018 19 Tennessee Educator Fellowship. Since opening, CGLA has remained dedicated to reaching underserved girls and providing them with the advantaged education and support they deserve. While the first few years for the charter were challenging- CGLA found its self on the state priority list and facing closure- the school has made a dramatic turnaround and is now known for its success. CGLA has won numerous awards and is now recognized as a Level 5 school. The mission of Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy is to provide girls and young women with a rigorous college preparatory education focused on science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM) in a supportive environment that nurtures self-confidence, inspires leadership, encourages critical thinking, and promotes academic excellence. The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment Score (TVAAS) measures educators impact on students each year by examining student performance and growth in five subject areas: literacy and numeracy (graded together and separately), science and social studies. Scores range from a low one to a high five and are determined by end of year assessments. The all-girls charter, celebrating its tenth school year and third year at capacity, hopes to capitalize on the previous years success and continue making improvements. Beck says the goal for the 2018 19 year is to maintain the TVAAS score while increasing the number of students scoring on track and above on assessments. With the same level of instruction provided again this year, he feels confident the students can help make this happen. They show up every day committed to learning and maximizing each opportunity. Within the last year, CGLA has been one of 27 schools in the state awarded a facilities grant and recognized as a successful, high-quality charter by the Tennessee Department of Education, named Nonprofit of the Year by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, and one of 15 schools in Tennessee to receive the STEM School designation. CGLAs graduating class of 25 committed to completing their post-secondary education and earned more than $342,000 in scholarships. The academy is poised to continue making a positive impact and welcomed back last years leadership to include well-known educator and CEO, Dr. Elaine Swafford. Photo: Troubadour Resources Controversial exploratory mining work is set to get underway this fall in the mountains between Summerland and Peachland, despite opposition from both municipalities. Troubadour Resources is probing five mineral claims near Eneas Lakes Provincial Park in search of copper, molybdenum and gold work that has provoked outcry from local governments in Peachland and Summerland, which were erroneously not informed of the permit prior to it being issued. Documents released to Castanet News through a Freedom of Information request confirm the company did not disclose the work would be taking place in a community watershed, which triggers consultation with the impacted municipalities. That was an error on our part, and it was an error on the ministrys part for not catching it at the time, Troubadour Resources president Geoff Schellenberg said, claiming it's not very easy to determine where exactly watershed boundaries are. He said the ministries handling mining and water rights work in different silos, and suggested information could be shared a bit better. I think there is probably change coming, he added. Several trenches and drill holes are slated to be dug in the area, which is being accessed by existing active and decommissioned forest service roads. We have pretty stringent rules to control water runoff there cant be any water running off any drill sites that contains any sediment, Schellenberg said. The Penticton Indian Band is also assisting in baseline testing at seven locations around the work sites, and will be checking for contamination of nearby tributaries quarterly. Summerland and Peachland have formally opposed the work, relying on a consultants report commissioned by the District of Summerland that found hazards to drinking water quality and the watershed as a whole. The incident has also pushed the Okanagan Basin Water Board to write to Minister of Mines Michelle Mungall asking for the province to seek local assent prior to approving mining work in community watersheds. In a letter dated May 2 seven months after the permit was approved B.C. Inspector of Mines Mike Cloet wrote to Troubadour Resources about the mistake on the application that claimed the work would not be taking place in a community watershed. In fact this application is located in the Peachland community watershed as designated under the Forest and Range Practices Act, Cloet wrote to Schellenberg, explaining that Troubadour would no longer be allowed to source water from within the watershed. Schellenberg confirmed to Castanet they will likely be trucking in water to complete the work. The overall approval of the work permit, however, never appeared to be at risk. While local governments are supposed to have a chance to provide input on mining work in their watersheds, they dont get a veto. Summerland resident Amie Harbor is a recreational user of the area that will be impacted by the mining work, and isnt happy with how the ministry dropped the ball in failing to consult with the municipalities. Shes not sure the ministry would have made a different decision should they have heard the local governments negative feedback earlier, but it certainly made it a lot harder to make a difference after the fact, noting the bar to revoke a mining work permit is extraordinarily high. I dont get how the process can be so completely ignored, and then there is no accountability for that, she said. Errors were made along the way, but I dont really hear the ministry addressing it. A report completed in 2010 by Golder Associates for the District of Peachland listed mining work as a low-risk activity for the watershed, something Schellenberg highlighted. In my personal opinion there are bigger issues happening around that area. Perhaps we are getting a lot of focus when the risk we are posing is a lot smaller than a lot of the other activities. He pointed to recreational backcountry use classified as high-risk by the Golder report which sees garbage left behind, as well as cattle grazing, another high-risk industry. Thats got to be a huge issue, because youve got excrement going directly into the watershed, Schellenberg said, adding they will be required to fully restore their drill sites. Harbor agrees that the watershed is under immense pressure, and said better protections need to be put in place. Forests, Lands and Natural Resources is failing as well, because the logging roads, they are causing so much sediment, she said. I dont think mining is the only problem. There are watersheds in the province that are actually protected, ours just isnt one of them, Harbor said, adding shes not sure fully banning industry from the area is the answer, but I think there is a lot of room there. Troubadour Resources refers to the mineral claims in question as the Amarillo Project, the companys main asset listed on its website. The Vancouver-based firm went public in June, and is now trading on the TSX at around 15 cents a share. Schellenberg said an exact timeline for when the work will take place this fall hasn't been finalized yet. The provincial government did not respond to request for comment by deadline. Take a second to try to wrap your head around that. While the former is normal (although disturbing), the latter means you should seek help immediately, he says. Again, not everyone who considers suicide does it, but everyone who completes a suicide thought about it first, so it's super important to take these thoughts seriously, he adds. What are the risk factors for suicidal thoughts? Not every suicide can be predicted or anticipated but researchers have identified some risk factors that make someone more likely to experience thoughts of suicide, Gandotra says. Devastating life circumstances The most common risk factor is when circumstances in your life take a dramatic turn for the worse. Think: the death of a loved one, a breakup, or the loss of a job, Boynton says. But it doesn't always have to be major-any situation that causes someone to feel demoralized, guilty, or ashamed can increase the risk of these thoughts, Gandotra adds. Mental illness The most common medical cause of suicidal thoughts is having a mental illness like depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or anorexia, Gandotra says. Having a mental illness doesn't mean you will commit suicide but it can increase your risk, especially when you feel that something isn't right in your head but you don't know how to fix it, he adds. Substance abuse Drugs and booze both cause depression and are a way to self-medicate when you're depressed, causing a vicious cycle that can end in a suicide attempt, Gandotra says. "When you're in an intoxicated state, you don't exercise good judgement and you're more impulsive," he explains. It can be even more dangerous when combined with being depressed or suffering a major loss. Hormone swings There are three times in a woman's life when she's at a far greater risk of suicidal thoughts or completion, due mainly to hormones, Gandotra says. If you suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), have had a baby or were pregnant within the last year, or are going through menopause, pay close attention to your feelings and seek help immediately if you start thinking dark thoughts, he says. Being part of a marginalized group A sense of marginalization or oppression-identifying as transgender, for example-can also contribute to a sense of isolation or hopelessness. If one senses that they are a burden to others, feels isolated and alone, or feels that they have lost hope that life will get better, this can increase risk for suicidal thoughts, says Boynton. A history of sexual abuse Being the victim of sexual abuse, especially as a child, is known to increase someone's risk of suicide, Gandotra says. A family history of suicidality Whether it's because you learned poor coping skills from your parents, grew up with a depressed or suicidal parent, or witnessed a loved one's suicide, the sad truth is that suicide can run in families. The link may be genetic or social or a combination of both but regardless of the cause, it's important to tell your doctor if anyone in your family has attempted or completed suicide, Gandotra says. Self-harming behaviors Behaviors like cutting or taking an intentional overdose, with the intent to harm-but not kill-oneself are called parasuicidal behaviors. Even those these aren't a suicide attempt, they are still a risk factor for a future suicide and should be taken very seriously, Gandotra says. Race White and Native American people have been found to have higher rates of suicide attempts and completions than black or hispanic people, Gandotra says. Isolation Having a tight-knit social group of friends and family, along with social responsibilities to that group, are two of the biggest factors that protect against suicidality. So people who are isolated, lonely, and have no sense of purpose are at a higher risk, Gandotra says. How to deal with suicidal thoughts If you find yourself overwhelmed with thoughts of dying or suicide, or you have made a plan to die by suicide (even if you don't intend to carry it out at this moment), you need to know two things, Gandotra says: First, you're not alone; and second, there are things you can do to feel better. "The first step is to recognize you are having these thoughts and not try to ignore them or push them away as that will just cause them to fester," he explains. Once you've done that, the next step is to talk to someone, like a friend, coworker, family member, or pastor, and then call your doctor as they can help you get the appropriate treatment. "It can definitely feel scary, but reaching out to a mental health professional is a courageous and important step, because suicidal thoughts are treatable through therapy and mental health medication," Boynton says. Most people feel relieved and connected after sharing their struggles with someone else, she adds. If reaching out to a mental health professional seems daunting, ask a trusted friend or loved one to help you find one, or contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255), who can put you in touch with local resources to get help. Here, seven courageous women who have experienced suicidal thoughts share what helped them get through it. I was mentally, emotionally, and financially abused from around age 5 by my drug-using and mentally-ill parents, and it didnt end until I left home at 19. I was also sexually abused by a family member of my stepfather at age 8 to 9. As I became an adult, I didn't get proper care to handle the pain of my childhood. Being a black woman, seeking help was quite hard. In 2010, when I was in college, I was so broken and desperately seeking validation from my grades and professors that I went extreme lengths of time with no sleep to study. Still, I felt there was no possibility I could ever achieve anything of greatness. I felt I was invaluable and worthless. I couldnt move past the idea that I didnt deserve life, since no one ever protected me. On February 21, 2010, I attempted to take my life. A friend couldnt reach me, so she called the campus police. I was taken to the ER and then sent to the psych ward for observations. I started campus-mandated therapy, and my counselor diagnosed me with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I had to really evaluate my life and find the good in myself. I began journaling and going to therapy to view myself in a better light. I finally got to a point where I now see myself as a woman who is deserving of love, respect, and kindness. I had a few suicidal thoughts after my incident in 2010, but when the thoughts come I realize its too costly to entertain them, and that thoughts are not facts. I believe my suicide attempt was like a rebirth. I don't have a strong support system but am slowly developing one, though relationships are not my strong point yet. To any beautiful black woman who feels this life isnt worth it, please look in the mirror and see the gift you are to the world. I know its hard to see and believe in your own value, but your life lights the world. Youre worthy and you deserve love and peace. -Christian Simone, blogger, TheChristianSimone.com, Instagram: @TheChristianSimone I was 18 when my 19-year-old sister Bethany died in a car accident due to a drunk driver. My suicidal thoughts started the next year after my high school sweetheart and fiance broke up with me and called off our wedding. I had an intense depressive episode and locked myself in my sisters old room for a weekend. My thoughts told me I was broken in ways I would never be able to heal from, that I could never be happy, hopeful, or love again. I felt so much mental, emotional, and spiritual pain all at once, I couldnt stand it one second longer. I wanted to not exist and just sleep peacefully forever to be free from that pain. That weekend, I attempted to take my life after my parents had left for work and my younger brother had gone to school. I survived because my mom had the thought (she says God told her) to leave work and go home to be with me. Paramedics said if shed been even 10 minutes later I wouldnt be here today. I began therapy but didnt feel much better after seeing six different counselors. Some tried to explore my grief. Some prescribed medication and gave me practical tools to deal with my anger and hopeless thoughts, but they didnt inspire me or change my feelings. Doctors and therapists believed my feelings were circumstantial and would pass with time. About three years after my sisters death, my depressive thoughts worsened when I started suffering from debilitating symptoms of neurological dysfunction (seizures and problems with vision, concentration, memory, and speech). I went to the Mayo Clinic, where they diagnosed me with conversion disorder (now known as functional neurologic disorder), PTSD, and major depression disorder. Considering I had already tried traditional therapy and medications, they recommended hypnotherapy, which led me to seek the help of Jon Connelly. I had one session that lasted two hours and 20 minutes. During the first two hours, Connelly explained how trauma can affect a person and how its possible to recover from it, and he challenged how Id been thinking. He then guided me into a very peaceful meditative-like state and repeated key phrases like, The past doesnt exist, Bethany is at peace, you can be at peace. Your mind is clearing. He also lead me through a guided exercise to clear the horrible images I had of my sister in a coffin and of the crash. Since that session, I havent had any of the symptoms or nightmares that Id suffered for four and a half years. My results were unusual; research says results take six to eight sessions. Since then, I go to on average two sessions a year, and the healthier way of handling my emotions has stuck with me. (Watch Kristins TEDx talk.) During my first session, I made up my mind to train with Connelly, and two months later he began mentoring me to become a hypnotherapist. I became certified to practice within a couple of months, and the next year I opened my own practice in Seattle. Ive seen hypnosis help relieve clients from suicidal thinking by allowing them to resolve past traumas and transform negative feelings and thought patterns into more positive ones. Hypnosis helps a person do this by getting their mind into a clear, calm, and focused state of intention to the point of becoming highly emotionally, and even physically, responsive to imagery and suggestions. Its been eight years and Ive had a few moments resulting from extremely stressful circumstances where I had fleeting thoughts of wanting to be free from the pains of life, but Ive wished to live well and feel better, not die. I remember the strategies Connelly suggested in my session, ways to manage my breathing and my thoughts to prevent myself from suffering panic attacks, rage, or depressive episodes. I focus on making sure my needs in life are being met in healthy ways. -Kristin Rivas, certified hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner at Mind Talk Hypnosis About 12 years ago at age 30, after being been married for five years, my husband asked for a divorce. Not long after we separated, I got involved in a relationship with a married man several years older than me. After about a year and a half, I started having suicidal thoughts. I spent my days wondering if and when he would be able to see me, what my future looked like, if I would ever have kids, how was I going to afford staying in my home, and why my path in life was so different from everyone else who seemed to have it all together. I felt as if nothing was solid in my life. Sometimes, I could see nothing but a black hole and I convinced myself that no one would really miss me. This was the demon of depression talking. "What stopped me from moving forward was my golden retriever, Shadow, who stayed by my side and loved me for me. I wasnt sure what would happen to him if I was gone. Who would take care of him? How long before someone found me and him? Would he be hungry, need to go out? I also believe in God and couldnt come to terms with what would happen to my soul if I did this to myself. Fortunately, I only had suicidal thoughts for a week or two before I finally scared myself enough that I drove myself to my primary care doctor. I told him how I was feeling and he put me on an anti-depressant, which was enough to help get me back on my feet. I didnt do therapy or counseling, but in hindsight think that might have been a very good idea. A few months after I hit bottom, I met my now-husband at a work function. Six months later, we started dating. Weve been married nine years now and have two children. When I think of Shadow, who passed away nine years ago, I remember how very important he was to me-not just as a companion but as my true lifesaver. I share my story occasionally because I want to remind people going through similar experiences that what they are seeing is not reality. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if its dim or not noticeable yet. If I had done something permanent all those years ago, I wouldnt have my two beautiful kids or my loving husband. Im so fortunate I was able to pull myself out of the depths of depression-it was scary and lonely. -Hollie, from Pittsburgh, PA I grew up in a home where, although my parents didnt fight, there was very little love in the home. My dad traveled a lot, we moved every couple of years, and my mom was depressed. I felt unloved. At 11, my parents sat me down and told me they were getting a divorce. I hadn't seen it coming. My world collapsed; I became depressed. I would skip school and lock myself in my room and imagine how I might kill myself, so a school counselor came to my home and spoke with me. We decided I would try to move in with my dad, but life was worse there. I hated life and hated myself. At 14, I tried to kill myself. It was not a cry for help; it was an attempt to end my life, which thankfully failed. After the suicide attempt, I saw a number of mental-health professionals. My dad and stepmom sent me to a psychiatrist, who focused on my dreams. It was not helpful. One counselor I saw had me yell and scream at him like he was my dad to get the anger out. He didn't teach me what to do with that anger. Too often, professionals Ive worked with have discounted my struggles, just making them worse. At 19, I started reading the Bible and going to church. I learned that God loves me unconditionally. The church friends also accepted me for who I was. Yet I was still in the place of feeling like suicide was my only option far too many times to count. Chronic sickness and fatigue while working and raising children as a single parent was often too much to handle. I got through by writing thankfulness lists to force myself to be grateful. I shared what I was feeling with close friends and asked for their prayers. I even took myself to the ER a few times. Now, at the age of 51, Ive been free of depression for about six years. Some of my responsibilities lightened, and I now have an amazing psychiatrist. I finally realized its okay not to be perfect; its part of being human. This was incredibly freeing and healing. Ive learned that laughter really is good medicine. I celebrate progress, even if its baby steps. And I know self-care is enormous. So seek help if you need it. If you don't get it, keep seeking. Surround yourself with people who will support you, accept you, and love yourself for who you are. -Cindy Girard, author, The Great Escape: Helping Someone Break Free from the Deep, Dark Dungeon of Depression In fifth grade, I started having suicidal thoughts because I lost all my friends. I remember thinking that it's all pointless because we all just die in the end. I felt like the pain of life wasn't worth it, and I should just jump to the end. I began hurting myself and told no one. I was always in therapy for one reason or another during elementary school, but it was never the right therapist. I distrusted the people I was sent to because they rarely validated how I was feeling, so I never told them the whole story. In middle school I tried to kill myself. It didn't work and I didn't tell anyone. I started self-harming, too. Then, in college, I started taking stupid risks hoping it would kill me. I even researched ways to do it. That's when I really started to scare myself. When it became obvious that I was a danger to myself, my parents were told that I needed intensive help, and I was finally put into proper treatment. I went to a lot of different programs-mostly dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). They taught me that it's alright to feel how I felt. That was the biggest relief. From the outside I have no reason to be depressed and I have an incredibly lucky life, so people never took me seriously and I felt guilty for feeling so bad. It was my biggest hurdle, and it was such a relief for my pain to be accepted. Every once in a while, usually when I'm overwhelmed with life, I'll be waiting for the train and I'll think it would be really easy to just throw myself in front of it. But I wouldn't do it. I've never gone back to that place where I'm really in danger. When Ive had suicidal thoughts, I played a game with myself. Id say, I can always kill myself, that option isn't going anywhere, and decided that I should at least give myself a chance. The rule was that if I didn't feel hope in six months, I go through with it, but I had to fully throw myself into my treatment and do everything the doctors asked. I didn't need to be better, I just needed to feel hope. It's dark, but it worked. -Anonymous from New York City When I was 18 and had just started college and moved away from home, I started having horrible anxiety and depression. I used to wake up every morning before class and contemplate the best ways to end my life. Daily suicidal thoughts lasted until I was about 21. I went to a number of therapists and was diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder. I went to therapy weekly and tried a handful of different prescription anti-anxiety/depression medications. When I experienced suicidal thoughts, Id think about how my family and friends would feel if I was no longer around. The thought of my parents finding out that I had killed myself was enough to keep me from actually going through with it. Suicide would end my sadness, but I figured it would only end up causing more sadness for the people I loved. And despite wanting to hurt myself, I didn't want to hurt them. I also found it helpful to take the day minute by minute. I know a lot of people say take it one day at a time, but for someone suffering from suicidal thoughts, a day can seem like forever. So I'd tell myself if I could just survive the next 60 seconds, I'd be alright. I'd repeat that same thought process for hours. It seems ridiculous, but it was enough to keep my mind on the seconds instead of ways to try and end my life. Distractions of any kind are helpful. I never liked being alone in my apartment because that gave me the perfect chance to actually go through with what I'd been planning all day. I spent a lot of time just sitting in public places because I figured I couldn't actually kill myself with 75 other college students sitting around me. Starbucks was a favorite. It's a surprisingly calm atmosphere. Even if you don't have a friend or family member around to keep you company, just go somewhere public. I still have suicidal thoughts from time to time, but they're not all-consuming like they once were. I just try to remind myself that they'll pass and I try to keep myself occupied in the meantime by doing something I love. I cope by exercising frequently. Sometimes just going to sleep is the best solution. A good support system really helps, so I surround myself with people who understand my anxiety and depression. When considering suicide, it's hard to think of life ever being enjoyable again, but I promise it gets better. And some day, you'll look back on this period of life and realize how brave and strong you were for staying alive when it's the last thing you wanted to do, and you'll be so glad that you kept going. -Allison from Minnesota I first had suicidal thoughts when I was 12 or 13. I felt like a burden to my friends and family, as if my existence was a hindrance to other people's lives and happiness. Many of the things bullies had said at school were magnified in my head. I started inflicting self-harm. I thought about swallowing pills with alcohol and jumping off of high bridges or into traffic, which I had heard about on TV. My first suicide attempt was around 13 or 14. I went in and out of therapy. But I didn't seek my own help or accept help-and decide to get better-until around 10 years later, when I was institutionalized for the third or fourth time. I was put in a psych ward against my will, and I realized the decision to get better was up to me. The thing that helped change my thinking the most was one a dear family member was having similar episodes and hospitalizations. Seeing the way she hurt herself killed me emotionally. I realized that I was doing the same thing, and perhaps she, my parents, or other people could feel that about me. It's when their words of support actually started to sink in. Since then Ive had suicidal thoughts more often than I'd like to admit. I get through them by accepting they are feelings. Instead of fighting against my depression, I navigate it. Fighting it would be like swimming against a waterfall, so I go with the flow and try to exercise compassion and self-love. There are a multitude of CBT and DBT techniques I've learned to use, writing in journals of gratitude, reaching out to friends, being in nature, and compassion meditation, which focuses on extending kindness, love, and compassion to others when I can't do it for myself. Management of the bank has decided to close down as many branches following an initial assessment. The Consolidated Bank was created as a result of the Bank of Ghanas decision to liquidate and merge five struggling indigenous banks. The failed local banks are uniBank, Royal Bank, Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank and Construction Bank. Having taken over the assets and liabilities of the five collapsed indigenous banks, the Consolidated Bank had a total of 191 branches across the country. However, management has now decided to close 98 branches and keep only 93 branches inherited from the collapsed banks. This was revealed by Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Asibey-Yeboah, following an in-camera session with officials of the bank. According to him, management of the Consolidated Bank is yet to decide how many workers will be laid off following the closure of the 98 branches. We asked the question about the number of jobs they will cut, and they said they are still in the process of rationalizing the platform they want to use, and that will determine where they will go. What we had from them was the number of branches they will close down. As of now, they have 191, and they have come to the determination that they will keep 93, but beyond that, we do not have the number of jobs that will be lost, Dr. Asibey-Yeboah told the media. He added that the Finance Committee of Parliament is working to ensure that the severance package for the dismissed workers of defunct UT and Capital Banks is duly paid. For the average Ghanaian whose hospitality meter is high up as the world perceives, this is not just a regular norm despite the situation spreading like wildfire. It is not just another kid standing by the streets to find what to eat. Thinking about it brings up so many questions. Why is this poor child on the street? Where do they sleep at night? In times where proper accommodation cant even calm the hard situations of the nations flood moments, how do these ones cope? What happened to their education? What is the future? So, in all the thoughts, they give. Little or large, they give so these children could eat. This, however, is not the usual sad story like it seems seeing a child beggar on the streets of Accra or any part of this country Ghana. It is bigger than youll ever know. This kind of big that reaches the heights of cross-border child trafficking. In Anas Aremeyaw Anas latest expose Chained by Begging the investigative journalist shows that the rise in numbers of children begging on the streets is not just by coincidence but backed by some masters manipulating the system. The laws of Ghana do not support child begging which is mostly associated with trafficking, separation from family and exploitative child labour, acts also deemed illegal in the country. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and section 87 (1-2) of the Childrens Act, 1998 (Act 560) child begging is child abuse. So, the simple message here is dont feed these masters of child begging by giving to that child on the streets as the help of Immigration, Social Welfare and the various Ministries are required to help curb the situation. We are urging the public to be committed to the #KidsOutFuture 3Rs: React: to children begging on the street. It is a worrying situation to see innocent children on the streets begging. It is an abuse of the child so please do not ignore it. Record: by taking a photo or make a note of the location at which you saw the child begging taking place. Report: to the nearest policeman or police station the incidence. You can follow up on your reported cases to ensure has been attended to. Whom do I report child beggars to? DDOVSU, AMA, TRAFFIC POLICE or DSW Watch the Anas Aremeyaw Anas' latest video below: Many traditional taxi drivers in the community have constantly lamented the situation, saying the influx of the tricycles is collapsing their business. The yellow tricycles became commonplace in the Northern region three years ago when they were distributed to youth of the region to be used for commercial purposes. The distribution was done through the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), with then president Mahama insisting it was meant to ease transportation difficulties in the region. Accra-based Citi FM reports that the booming nature of this business has led to young people dropping out of school to engage in it. Passengers also prefer the Mahama Camboo to traditional taxis because the former charges far cheaper fares for long journeys. In the past, traditional Taxi Drivers in the Tamale Metropolis have protested against the use of the yellow tricycles for commercial purposes. The taxi drivers complained that they were no longer making enough income, since most of their customers had begun going in for the cheaper tricycles. The President believes it will not make sense for his government to even attempt to sabotage the efforts of local banks. Last year, the UT Bank and Capital Bank were liquidated by the Central Bank after both banks failed to meet the required standards in the sector. Two months ago, the Bank of Ghana merged five other indigenous banks to form the Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG). The banks are Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, Construction Bank, uniBank, and Royal Bank. Some have since accused that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of deliberately collapsing indigenous banks in the country. However, speaking on the recent shake-up in the banking sector, President Akufo-Ado said it does not make sense to deliberately collapse local banks. He said it was worrying to note that the actions of the failed indigenous banks had cost the country some GH 8 billion. We are trying to make sure that the banking sector of our country has strong indigenous banks which can compete successfully with these foreign-owned banks. It is not a process to eliminate indigenous banks. It will not make sense to do that at all.I am a politician, I want the votes, but I think that Im required first of all to do what I consider right for our people than worry myself about the impact of it on my political support, he said whiles addressing the Ghanaian community in Rwandas capital, Kigali on Thursday. The President explained that the decision of the Central Bank to take over these struggling local banks is geared towards protecting other indigenous banks. According to him, government wants to avoid a situation where foreign banks become dominant without any local bank to also compete. According to him, the NDC will defeat him and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) because he can't rig the elections. Promises made by Nana Addo were, however, met with questions of feasibility and criticism from the NDC with the party largely accusing him of pandering for apathy during the elections. READ MORE: Rawlings condemns vulgar inducements at NDC primaries Wonder Madilo, however, said the president has failed Ghanaians to deliver. He said the NDC under former president John Mahama has a track record of creating jobs for the youth. In an interview on Accra FM, the national youth aspirant said "Even if the NPP makes President Akufo-Addo the Chair of the EC ahead of the 2020 elections, they will still lose the elections, the NDC will win because Ghanaians are disappointed at the current government, people are losing their jobs anyhow. READ ALSO: Joseph Yamin reveals why NDC will use vigilante group in 2020 According to a family member who confirmed the death, he died after a short illness. Justice Crabbe is a known apostle of the progress Ghana has made in the practice of democracy over the years. Crabbe was Special Commissioner to the 1968 Constitutional Commission; Legislative Draftsmen to the 1969 Constituent Assembly which drafted the 1969 Constitution of Ghana. He was also the Chairman of the 1979 Constituent Assembly and drafted the 1979 Constitution of Ghana. Vice President Alhaji Dr. Bawumia described Justice Crabbe as a fearless advocate. He wrote: "He played an unprecedented role in the development of law, as well as, democratic institutions in Ghana, and was a fearless advocate. He would very much be missed." In a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the forum, it was reported that Ghana is considering signing a 100-year $60 billion bond with the Chinese. 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 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, Akufo-Addo said in the meeting. This move has drawn the ire of the opposition, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and some section of society. The Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi has said he will lead the minority to oppose the proposed $50billion century bond government intends to go for, if it ever comes to Parliament. Future revenue will be mortgaged because every year, you have to pay 15% as interest on $50billion. First of all I anticipate that they will not even come with the $50billion, that is number one, if they come with$50billion I will oppose it personally, if they revise the amount to appreciable amount which we think that it will not mortgage the future revenue to the extent that it will jeopardise the economy of this country," he said. Isaac Adongo, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, caused a frenzy in Parliament this week by storming out of a probe of the recently collapsed banks. He said the documents documents presented to members of the Committee are a pale shadow of the information required to get a better understanding of the circumstances leading to the collapse of the seven banks. Paga, the mobile money company in Nigeria, has raised B2 investment of $10 million; a growth financing round led by the Global Innovation Fund (GIF). Also participating in the round were existing investors, Goodwell (managed by Alitheia Capital), Adlevo Capital, Omidyar Network and Unreasonable Capital. Tayo Oviosu, CEO & Founder of Paga, said with the investment the company is planning to release its payments product in Ethiopia, Mexico, and the Philippines. At Paga, we are building an ecosystem that enables people to digitally send and receive money, and creating simple financial access for everyone. We do not seek to be a bank, but rather to partner with banks and financial institutions in the markets we operate. GIF is proud to lead Pagas Series B2 round, said Alix Peterson Zwane, GIFs CEO. Pagas mission of helping people make life possible aligns with our core mission of supporting entrepreneurs and innovators that seek to improve the lives of those living on less than $5 per day. I am pleased that GIF will help enable Pagas next phase. Paga started commercial operations in August 2012 and processed 9.5 million transactions worth over N156 billion, a 100% year-on-year growth on transaction values. The new investment deal brings the total Paga has raised since 2009 to $35 million. Allah says: " O you who believe when the call for the salah of Jumu'ah is proclaimed, hasten unto the remembrance of Allah, and leave off business (and trading). That is best for you if you but knew." Q 62 vs 9. This day is so special that it has its own requirements. Here are three things you should ALWAYS do before Friday prayer: Cut your nails Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) has related that "The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) before going to Friday prayer would clip his nails and mustache." In obedience to the prophet Muhammad (SAW), Muslims are expected to go to Jumu'ah with short nails. Perform ghusl The ghusl is a full body bath that should be done on Fridays before setting out for Jumuah. Narrated 'Abdullah bin Umar: "Allah's Apostle ( ) said, "Anyone of you attending the Friday (prayers) should take a bath." ALSO READ: 5 countries where Muslim women have led Friday prayer Narrated Abu Said: "I testify that Allah's Apostle ( ) said,"The taking of a bath on Friday is compulsory for every male Muslim who has attained the age of puberty and (also) the cleaning of his teeth with siwak, and the using of perfume if it is available." Beautify yourself/use perfume Since Friday is a special day, Muslims are expected to go to the mosque in their best dress outfit. The prophet said: "It would do no[harm] to anyone if he were to buy two gowns for Friday other than his work clothes." You should also smell nice as indicated in the Sunnah. Amr (a sub-narrator) said, "I confirm that the taking of a bath is compulsory, but as for the siwak and the using of perfume, Allah knows better whether it is obligatory or not, but according to the Hadith it is as above.") Having done all of the above, you can expect your sins to be forgiven. Salman al-Farsi reports that the Prophet (SAW) said: "A man who performs ghusl on Friday, purifies[himself] and uses dye [for his hair] or perfumes himself in his house, goes to the mosque, and does not cause separation between two people [who are already seated], prays what Allah has prescribed for him, and then listens quietly while the imam speaks, all his sins between that Friday and the next Friday will be forgiven." Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will formally apologize in November for turning away a boat of German Jews seeking asylum in 1939, which led to the deaths of more than 200 people. Trudeau says it was a moral failure on the part of the government of the day. The MS St. Louis ship had 907 Jews, who were fleeing Nazi persecution, aboard when it was turned away from both Cuba and the United States before a group of Canadians tried to convince then-prime minister Mackenzie King's government to let it dock in Halifax. King was unable to convince Frederick Blair, the director of the immigration branch of the federal Department of Mines and Resources, to allow them into the country. The ship returned to Europe and many found safety in countries like Holland, the U.K. and France, but 254 of those on board eventually died in the Holocaust after returning to Germany. Trudeau says he announced the date for the apology on a call Thursday with the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus, a national body of rabbis. The prime minister says the government will make the apology in the House of Commons on Nov. 7. Longe who is reportedly the first student to graduate with first-class honours from the Faculty of Law at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba has recorded another amazing achievement. In 2015, the 29-yr-old, left Nigeria to start his Master program at the Oxford University in the United Kingdom. It didn't take long before he established himself as one of the best students at the university. On completion of his masters program, Longe recorded another fantastic achievement as he receives the Winter Williams Prize for the best student in International Economic Law at Oxford University, United Kingdom. Speaking about the award, Longe said, this marks the fulfilment of a dream. A great delight to have completed my BCL journey here at the University of Oxford after rigorous intellectual exercise. I am thrilled to have obtained a Distinction Mark on all modules and to have been awarded the Winter Williams Prize for the best student in International Economic Law. It is exhilarating to have received this global stamp of excellence. Oxford University offers me a remarkable opportunity to meet, dine and interact with the best brains across the globe and, in the process, form long-lasting bonds of friendship. In all of these, I have enjoyed the great grace of the Almighty God, the love and support of family and friends. As the first distinction Law student at AAUA, Longe again proved himself after his admission into the Abuja Campus of the Nigerian Law School in October 2013. He registered his name in the record books of the Nigerian Law School as he merged the overall best graduating student winning eight prizes in 2014. According to Punch, the newly elected NANS President, Bamidele Danielson announced the ban during the inauguration of the new executive of the association in Abuja on Thursday, September 6, 2018. The 32nd NANS President explained that such presentation of awards to groups, organisations and individuals had become a source of distraction for students. He said that was a need for NANS to reform all student unions towards improving the education system and welfare of members. Bamidele who is a student of Nasarawa State University, Keffi also assured his fellow Nigerian students that he would live up to their expectations by keeping his campaign promises. According to Punch, the NANS president campaign promises include stopping the oppression and intimidation of students by school management and the government, as well as attracting local and international training for members. NANS President cancels students planned protest in Abuja Barely two months into his administration, Bamidele has already started making tough decisions. Recently, he ordered the immediate suspension of the planned protest by law students of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) over their qualification for admission into the Nigerian Law School. Explaining why he called off the planned protest, Bamidele during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, August 25, 2018, said the protest called by the NANS Senate President, Bamigbade Taiwo did not follow due process. The VC says this while speaking at the 70th anniversary of Anwar-ul-Islam College Agege on Thursday, September 6, 2018. Speaking on the topic: ''Quality education and national development, Gbajabiamila said Nigeria used to be a Mecca of sorts for other African countries seeking quality education, adding that the county had lost its glory to countries like Ghana, Tanzania and Gambia. These are countries we have always looked down on as not being well endowed as our own country! These countries have not only excelled but have put more of their citizens out of poverty and also put street children in schools. The real singular reason for their successes is the amount of money they are spending on education, he said. American VC makes a similar remark about education in Nigeria Prof Ibraheem Gbajabiamila is not the first to make such a comment about the state of education in Nigeria. In February 2018, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of America, California, Prof. Gamalier O. Prince said that Nigerian students are receiving an expired education. The much anticipated Nollywood movie which has a September release date is a follow up to the comedian/actor's last feature film, ''10 Days in Suncity'' released in 2017. The movie parades a star-studded cast that includes the likes of top Nollywood names in Ramsey Nouah, RMD, Jim Iyke, AY, Falz, Lilian Esoro, Damilola Adgbite, Ireti Doyle, Jide Kosoko, Ireti Doyle, Osas Ighodaro Ajibade and more, was directed by Toka Mcbaror. is a movie that follows the randy lives of four Abuja big boys, who are considered the citys most eligible bachelors. They have thriving businesses, palatial homes, fast expensive cars and the attention of women in no short supply. They are known as the Merry Men, even though the ladies would prefer calling them Yoruba Demons. New music has also been in abundance as we prepare for a truckload of albums or EPs scheduled for release in the last quarter of the year. But as custom, there are a number of heavy records that dropped this week and may have gone under your radar, but not to worry, we have the very best lined up for your listening pleasure. Here are 10 new songs you need to listen to this week Terry Tha Rapman - 'Handcuffz' Ft. DJ Combs Veteran emcee Terry Tha Rapman is not holding back this year as he has a new joint out titled, 'Handcuffz,' where he voices his thoughts on the incessant cases of police brutality in the country. The Trap inspired beat is produced by Beats by Jayy. Santi - 'Freaky' Ft. Bridge & Nonso Amadi Santi - Freaky Ft Bridge and Nonso Amadi Santi has shared the unique visuals to his latest single, 'Freaky', which he released a few weeks back. Shot in Dubai and Nigeria, and directed by Santi, who is also a burgeoning filmmaker, and co-directed by Jullz Bek. The video for Freaky is a dark found footage visual that pays homage to its old Nollywood ancestors, while giving a nod to the unpredictability of Korean movies, as it tells the story of a girl who wants nothing but to destroy the souls of men. Highhillz - '1ne Girl' Ojo Adeola Christian, who goes by the stage name, Highhillz is out with his debut single, '1ne Girl.' The Afrocentric tune declares loyalty for just one girl amidst the pool trying to distract him. The song is produced by Highhillz and Tesla. Dotman - 'Pepesu' Ft. DJ Tunez Dotman x DJ Tunez - PepesuDotman has released a new single in collaboration with DJ Tunez, which he calls 'Pepesu'. "Pepesu" is an Afrobeats tune infused with Latino flavours to produce a wavy sound. The song is a fun, light hearted anthem and a favourite for all playlists. The song is produced by Troypicasso and Kayomusiq. DLarge - 'Badda' DLarge - Badda Rising talent, DLarge has released both the audio and visuals to his song, 'Badda.' Delivered in a mix of pidgin and Igbo languages, 'Badda' has a vibey feel that is geared to make you dance. The Don Kuluku directed video is set in a luxurious edifice built in the middle of a water body, somewhere in the heart of Europe as he crowns his queen as the baddest of them all. Mo'believe - 'Temi Ye Mi' Ft. Fulleffex and Pricelessay Off Mo'believe's recently released 8 track EP titled, 'Ariwo Eko' is this jewel of a song called 'Temi Ye Mi.' Ariwo Eko, the EP translated as 'Lagos Noise' documents all the noises that flies by your ears as you engage in the hustle and bustle of the busiest city in the nation. Temi Ye Mi featuring rapper Fulleffex and Pricelessay is a laid back joint that captures love in different languages. Poverty, Bi Oba and Palmwine are songs you also need to listen to from the project, while the interlude Jide is pure music therapy. Joanny - 'Jeje' Jeje is the new song from the young act known as Joanny. Following the release of his 2017 single Let Go', the Nigerian - Australian afrobeat act is back with a new record, an artistically smooth tune that just envelopes you with every listen. The song was produced by RAK in-house producers, Ephy and Valentino. Tentik - 'Focus' Tentik has released a fire record he calls 'Focus'. Featuring Wumi Spell, Tentik tells his story as he rhymes, ''They told me that I wont make it, too old to be next rated, aite cool, don't rate me, without Reasonable doubt, there will be no .'' The rap is well laid as he extolds the virtues of pushing hard to get the prize. The Black Esper - 'Conditional' The Black Esper is out with his 6 track EP, titled, Rice. From the project is the lead single called, 'Conditional', which asks the ultimate question, ''Will I ever pick love over money.'' The song has an airy grace that leaves you with no choice but to delve further into the brilliant project. Manny_B - 'Way Up' Ft. Jesse Jagz, Terry Tha Rapman, Chuxide and Deece Manny_B's 'Way Up' is the first single of his Zerophobia project due in 2019. The power collaboration that features veteran hip-hop acts in Terry Tha Rapman and Jesse Jagz is a blend of hip-hop, with elements of trap and indigenous (Hausa) music. Two young talents Deece and Chuxide also jump on this solid record. Zamorra - 'Better De Come' Zamorra - Better De Come Promising talent Zamorra has released a new single, titled, 'Better De Come.' The Port-Harcourt first son, who is enjoying the best spell of his career in recent years will play shows at the 'Culture Tour' from September, through to October 2018 across European cities. The performances will see him tour cities like Istanbul in Turkey, Rome, Amsterdam, Munich and Athens. This he made known via a post shared on his Instragram page with the caption, ''It can only be GOD... EUROPE ARE YOU REEEEAAAAAADDDDYYYYY 12 more cities coming.'' Duncan Mighty is one of 2018 most featured artists The story of 2018 will be incomplete without the name 'Duncan Mighty' taking at least a few pages of the book. The sold out event witnessed a turnout of music lovers who had gathered at the call of the OBO, who did not disappoint with his energetic set. His performance alongside a live band covered his large number of hits songs from when he emerged on the scene, as he opened the event with 'Damiduro' and 'All of you', he then performed other songs like 'Assurance', 'If', 'Fia' and more, that got the crowd screaming along. Another highlight of the night was when American-Nigerian rapper Wale joined him on stage and the pair performed the hit single, 'Fine Girls', off the rappers 2017 album, ''Shine.'' Davido has also been added to the line-up of artistes that will be performing at the BBC Radio 1Xtra Live concert holding at the O2 London Arena on the weekend of September 22nd. Davido to perform with J. Cole, Nelly and Big Sean at Dreamville Festival, US Davido has been announced to perform alongside J. Cole, Nelly and Big Sean at the Dreamville Festival in North Carolina, US. This was announced via a tweet shared on the offical Twitter handle for the festival, [@Dreamvillefest} on Friday, August 31st. Due to this experience, he has developed a hatred for Boko Haram. He hopes to become a soldier in order to have his pound of flesh. Daniel reportedly shared details of the encounter in an interview with Al Jazeera in the Gwoza town of Borno State. It is one of the places that has experienced deadly attacks carried out by the insurgents. "Boko Haram, I see them use knife, chop my grandfather's head. The Boko Haram is something that you won't like to see. "I'd like to be a soldier because anything that them [Boko Haram] do, I'd like to do back to them. "If me, I see them, me I go carry them. Me I kill am. I can help government. I can help my parents with being soja". ALSO READ: Schoolgirl visits home to find out dad has been killed in herdsmen crisis 'Islamist group are willing to surrender', says Mama Boko Haram Mama Boko Haram, whose real name is Hajiya Aisha Wakil is a Nigerian woman who has reportedly had close interaction with Boko Haram. She says the group is ready to surrender in their fight against the government. She expressed in a chat with Punch News that the Islamist sect felt aggrieved about the killing of their members, a reason why they have taken up arms which created an ongoing war between them and the Nigerian military. According to Wakil, a fervent devotion to prayer can bring about an end to the unrest in the north east which has recorded deaths of innocent people particularly children and their mothers. The operator which had 40,108,508 subscribers in June ended July with 40,323,154, showing an addition of 214,646 new subscribers. This was the biggest gain by any operator in July as Airtel, which came second, added 149,880 new customers, growing from 39,898,448 in June to 40,048,328 in July. The NCC report also showed that Globacom has since this year added a total number of 2,153,374 new subscribers. As at the end of December, 2017, the company had a subscriber base of 38,169,780, whereas the figure increased to 40,323,154 in July this year. Also according to the NCC statistics, Globacom principally accounted for the growth in the number of internet users on mobile devices during the review period. Total number of data users in the country rose by 866,656, from 102.81 million in June to103.67 million in July. Globacom led the gainers chart with 574,821 new internet users, with its data subscription rising from 26.57 million in June to 27.15 million in July. This is 66% of the total 866,656 new internet users in the industry. Airtels figure rose by 375,724 from 26.71 internet users in June to 27.09 million in July. MTN also gained 134,197 new data users in July as the figure recorded was 39.07 million as against 38.94 million in June. However, 9mobile lost 218,086 internet users in July, as its subscription base fell to 10.37 million as against June when it recorded 10.59 million. Globacoms increasing subscriber base is said to be a result of the several attractive and user-friendly packages which offer a lot of appeal to prepaid and postpaid phone users, thus making its services the most accessible and most affordable. For instance, the company which is marking its 15 years of operations in Nigeria, recently launched Glo Yakata which offers up to 2,200% bonus on every N100 recharge and above and Oga SIM which offers 125% bonus on every data subscription. He brought attention to a social media user's response to his comment discouraging violence against people considered as homosexuals. Awuzie, who referred to the lynching of two gay people in Aba, Abia State, was shocked after reading opinions endorsing the killing of individuals whose sexual orientation differs from the regular straight. As opposed to slaughtering homosexuals, Pastor Charles Awuzie proposed a show of love. He considers this a better chance of affecting change. I posted about gays being lynched in Aba and this brother said they DESERVED TO BE KILLED. Chai. Religion is wicked. "No gay deserves to die. They deserve to be loved and shown Christ like every other human. "Religious Nigerians share same extremist tendency with Boko Haram no difference. I just hope you all are seeing the Wickedness of religion. "I am not gay I am very straight. But I love gays enough to put my reputation on the ground and defend their blood. Thats love. "Love is not defending tithe and false prophets, love is defending HUMANITY," the clergyman wrote. ALSO READ: Lagos State Govt seize twin boys caught having sex from mother Social media unhappy over beating of Abia gay men caught pants down The harsh treatment of some men reported to be gay has inspired opinion on social media. On Instagram, some users condemned the public shaming of the alleged homosexuals who were reportedly paraded naked by a mob in Abia State. In a picture, the victims were slightly covered with palm fronds while a mob strolled with them. Photo: The Canadian Press Aerial view of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain marine terminal, in Burnaby. Opposition New Democrats say the federal government needs to better define what it means to truly consider the wishes of Indigenous communities before it launches into any new consultations over the stalled Trans Mountain pipeline project. NDP MP Rachel Blaney has asked a Commons committee to examine why a court rejected the Trudeau cabinet's approval of the pipeline expansion and to come up with ways to provide Canadians with more certainty around such major undertakings. Last week the Federal Court of Appeal quashed approval for the project, citing insufficient consultation with Indigenous communities. The Conservative have blamed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the ruling, accusing him of relying on botched consultations to further the pipeline project, which would bring more Alberta crude to port in British Columbia for export overseas. But the Liberals say they were relying on a consultation process used by the previous Conservative government to move the project forward. In its decision, the court of appeal also cited the government for its failure to assess the environmental impact of more tanker traffic off the B. C. coast. Before then, Pulse named Davidoprop of the week ending August 31, 2018. As it was about to discover, the entire affair was nonsense upon stealth. Davido not only publicly flout camp rules, he was celebrated by camp officials, while doing it. Problem is, Davido's case is only popular because hes a public figure. A lot of not-so-popular, but informed people also take the affair for granted. ALSO READ: Five reasons federal government should increase NYSC allawee The service is already problematic and without purpose, paying university graduates NGN19, 800 for suffering and doing jobs against their training after pulling through three weeks of hell at whatever camp across the country While that goes on, some people collect certificates without ever dedicating gaari-energy to the cause and never attend community development programs, even once. It is time to scrap the NYSC. It was obvious that it wasnt making sense before. But now, it is quite simply, a joke. ALSO READ: Davido exposes the shambles of NYSC UNILAG On September 6, 2018, Pulse The boy also scored 332 at the last UTME, but the problem is that even though David apparently ticked all the boxes, he i one year less than the accepted age and UNILAG should cop an L - On August 30, 2018, David told Pulse about his ambition to become a Medical Doctor. Yes, we are a country that needs public examples of obeying simple rules, regardless of the consequences, but following this rule seems brainless. The boy is a prodigy who deserves the best education. Rules of age limitation are not new anywhere in the world, but any serious country recognizes special talents who dont come around very often. They need to be aided, not stalled. What does UNILAG think he would be doing over the next year - this is a terrible joke and at this time, even Buhari seems more reasonable than UNILAG. We understand UNILAG, but its the worst time to choose the law over reasonability. Deelen gave the promise at a networking event for journalists in Lagos on a post Dutch Roots Conference recently organised by the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAD). We are really ready to support more small and medium Nigerian farmers in increasing their food production especially those in dairy farming. We are willing to increase their productivity. We are going to be doing a study on how best to assist these Nigerian farmers. We are also looking at the possibility of introducing the seeds mprovement project to enhance the use of improved seeds by Nigerian farmers, he said. Deelen said his office had also decided to invite different agricultural experts from the Netherlands to train farmers in different parts of Nigeria to scale up food production. The deputy ambassador added that his home government has had discussions with President Muhammadu Buhari on how to increase milk production in Nigeria. The director, Engineering Hydrology at the agency, Engineer Clement Nze, stated this at a stakeholders meeting organized by the National Emergency Managemenet Agency (NEMA) to address the recent flood alerts in the country. Nze noted that the current indices which resulted in the September 29, 2012 flooding have almost been reached. He said the water level at River Niger had risen to 10.01meters and 21,731 cubic meters as against the 12.84 meters and 31, 692 cubic meters per second in 2012. Along the River Niger axis, the states at risk of flooding Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Anambra, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta, Nze said. On Benue axis, states like Adamawa, Taraba and Benue state are at high risk of flooding, he added. Addressing journalists, the director general of NEMA, Engineer Mustapha Maihaja, said a team of three persons would be constituted to visit the states. He urged stakeholders to increase their level of preparedness should an emergency occur. Edet Okon, Police Public Relations Officer of the command, gave the advice in a statement issued in Maiduguri. Okon said that the force would want to correct this erroneous impression of no medical attention for gunshot or accident victims without police clearance. The police is stating categorically that no such clearance is needed before accident and gunshot victims are attended to. The Command wishes to restate its respect for the sanctity of human lives and urges all medical facilities that receive such victims to expedite treatment to save their lives. Residents in the Federal Capital Territory were alarmed by the sudden shake of the earth in the the affected areas which was their first experience in many years. The tremor instilled some fear in the residents, resulting in confusion about the cause of the terrific happening around them. Tremor is an involuntary movement. The Director-General of the Agency, Mr Abass Idris, had said there no cause for alarm, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja while reacting to distress calls by residents of the FCT. According to him, the earth-shaking around Mpape and some parts of Maitama district does not imply that the FCT and indeed the country is under the threat of earthquake, saying that the agency is in firm control of the situation. "We are urging all residents to calm down and be rest assured that the abnormal situation would soon stop." According to him, the possible cause of the incident may be due to earth tumor which he explained, is a "sign of seismic movement within the earth that was caused by a sudden break along a fault line. "This sudden release of energy makes the ground to shake which may be caused by stress in underground rocks and may be due to rock blasting and mining activities in the area. "When personnel of the agency interacted with residents of Mpape and its environs, they gathered that this was not the first time the shaking has occurred but has happened five years ago." The DG appealed to the residents of the affected area to remain calm as the agency was doing all within its powers to bring the situation under control within the shortest time. He, however, said that there was need for residents to relocate to a safer zone if living in a building during the tremor. He urged the residents to vacate their houses and take cover under desks or tables and hold tight until the shake is over. He also said that residents should stay away from windows and objects that were likely to fall and also find a clear spot away from buildings, trees and power lines. "If you are in the car, slow down and drive to a clear place, stay in the car until the shaking stops." A resident in Maitama, Mr Victor Okoye, who experienced the tremor, told NAN that he initially thought it was a blast from one of the quarry sites in Mpape which sometime happened but found out that it was not what he initially assumed. "When I came outside my house, I discovered it was indeed a shaking and a lot began to run through my mind as I thought the end of the world was here." Another resident in Mpape, Mrs Alice Adetola, expressed shock over the incident, adding that the experience terrified her children. "I held on to my children and began to pray to God for mercy. I even began to think towards relocating if we make it through the night." Also, Mr John Eson said the prompt response of FEMA to the area had assured residents that the situation was under control. Dr Habeebat Katibi, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development announced the appointment in a statement signed in Ilorin. He congratulated the people of Omu-Aran and Irepodun Local Government Area and prayed that the reign of the Oba would usher in peace, progress and development in the land. His Excellency, Alhaji (Dr) Abdulfatah Ahmed, the Executive Governor of Kwara State has approved the appointment of a new Olomu of Omu-Aran in person of Oba Abdulraheem Adeoti, he said. He said the appointment of Adeoti followed due process. The Permanent Secretary said Alhaji Saidu Habeeb, the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development had presented letter of appointment to the new monarch on Friday in Ilorin. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Adeoti, until his appointment, was the Executive Secretary of Kwara State Town Planning and Development Authority. He said that Boko Haram had launched several attacks which led to mass casualties of troops in the last two month in Borno and Yobe. Honestly, I am worried on the sudden resurgence of Boko Haram in the North east. Some weeks ago, it was alleged that 48 soldiers were killed. On Tuesday there was another attack in Wala Pulka in Gwoza where it was alleged that many passengers were abducted. There was attack sometime ago in Jilli where many soldiers were killed, another came in Zari. There was another one in Njimtilo and Bama axis. I learnt also that there was an attack on commuters along Maiduguri to Ngala. All this attacks occurred in two months. So, honestly, I am really worried and I am sure the security agencies are equally worried. I appreciate that changes were made as a result of the last attacks, but that is not enough. Agree that the insurgency has been defeated, but there are black spots which security agencies address. These are some of the black spots that are known which the military must identify and make the area clean instead of waiting on trenches and wait for what will happen, he said. According to him, the insurgents are now taking the war to military formations. I think there should be some changes so that Boko Haram dont even think of coming to attack any troop. That means the military formations must always be on alert. I am not a military man, but when ever somebody always come to your house without any fear, that means you are relapsed or sleeping, Ndume said. The commandant of NSCDC in the state, Mr Pedro Awili, disclosed this presenting the suspect along with others, arrested for various crimes on Friday in Akure. Awili said that the suspect was arrested at Iju in Iju/Itaogbolu Local Government Area of the state. He said that the prophet had issued about 50 of such fake letters in conjunction with his accomplice, name withheld now at large. According to him, that suspect, is a pastor in charge of a parish of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in the same local government area. He said that the command had recovered about 50 appointment letters from the prophet and another suspect. The commandant said they issued the fake letter to the unsuspecting members of the public after collecting N200, 000 to N300, 000 each from them. We are using this opportunity to tell Nigerians that NSCDC is not recruiting; anything you see on social media about this is a scam. Dont be deceived by the people who want to take this advantage to dupe the teeming population of those looking for jobs by collecting money from them. Also, NSCDC Commandant-General has on several media, the electronic and print, informed the people of this country that NSCDC is not recruiting, even up till now, he said. The commandant said that the suspect would soon be charge to court. Speaking to newsmen, one of the suspects, who claimed to be a prophet of a Celestial Church of Christ, (CCC) Ayomikun Parish, Iju said, denied issuing letters to members of the public regarding recruitment by NSCDS in the state. He said it was another one Pastor that issued the letters. The suspect said that it was the said pastor that requested him to give him his bank account number that someone wanted to send money to him through it. One person paid N130, 000 and later paid N120, 000, while his friend paid N200, 000 into my account on behalf of the pastor and asked them to collect their letters from me, he said. The prophet said when the money was paid into his account, the said pastor sent one account number to him, through which he forwarded the money to him. Residents of Mpape and Maitama districts of Abuja were sent into panic mode when earth vibrations were experienced on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 and Thursday, September 6. To calm frayed nerves, the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)has assured residents that there's no cause for alarm and dismissed the insinuations of a possible earthquake. "The residents are to note that there is nothing to panic as there is no likelihood of any earthquake disaster in Nigeria as we are not in the earthquake zone," an official statement read. Many Nigerians have taken to social media site, Twitter, to raise concerns and express their opinions about the vibrations while others have called for calm. President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, took to his Twitter account , on Friday to call for calm and vigilance. He tweeted, "We have all been feeling the earth tremors in Abuja and surrounding areas over the last 48 hours. I know that many people are scared, but please, remain calm and vigilant. "At this time, it is important that FEMA and all emergency services be on high alert to prevent the loss of lives and property. "The Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, has already briefed the FCT Minister on this issue. "In the event of an emergency, the FCT Emergency Management Agency can be reached at the following numbers: 112 (toll free), 0818-888-8766 and 0805-722-4574." Former Vice President and presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, also encouraged residents to not panic, posting, "I wish to encourage inhabitants of Abuja not to panic following reported cases of tremor experienced in some parts of the city. It will be reassuring to citizens for the relevant authorities to investigate the situation." Gombe State governor and presidential aspirant, Ibrahim Dankwambo, also urged Abuja residents to stay safe and calm and trust the authorities to handle the situation. "I have been following the conversation on the earth tremors in our Nation's capital. I urge everyone to stay safe and calm. I strongly believe that the appropriate authorities are monitoring the situation and will advise on measures when the need arises," he tweeted. Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West - PDP), who's also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, assured residents that measures are being taken to address the problem. He posted, "I have informed the FCT Minister and Perm Sec. on the scaring earth movement in some parts of Abuja at 6:11am. I felt earth tremors in my home in maitama too. Measures are been taken to address the problem. I will keep the FCT administration on their toes on this." Read the reactions of other Nigerians on the tremors What's causing the vibrations? In its statement, FEMA disclosed that the possible cause of the earth vibrations might be as a result of earth tremor. The agency defined it as a sign of seismic movement within the earth which is caused by sudden breaks along a fault line which results in the sudden release of energy that makes the ground shake. Tremors can also be caused by stress in underground rocks and may be due to rock blasting and minig activities in the affected area. Speculation on other causes Despite FEMA's official explanation for the vibrations, Nigerians have speculated on social media that the vibrations could be due to the fact that Abuja is almost diametrically opposite Fiji, a country that just got rocked with a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. An earthquake in one location on the globe is bound to create a wave that travels to the diametric opposite side of it and possibly trigger earthquakes. However, Nigeria is still considered to be safe from an earthquake. According to FEMA, the vibrations are expected to stop soon. How to survive the vibrations The agency also highlighted safety tips on what residents should do when the vibrations happen: 1. If a vibration occurs while you're in a building, the safest thing to do is to locate a safe room, drop down and take cover under desks or tables and hold on tight until the vibrations stop. 2. If a vibration occurs, it is important to stay away from windows and objects that may fall and cause injury. 3. If caught outdoors when a vibration occurs, it is important to find a clear spot far away from buildings, trees, powerlines and other physical objects that could fall and potentially cause injury. 4. If a vibration occurs while inside a car, FEMA urges that you slow down, drive to a clear space, and stay in the car until the shaking stops. Photo: The Canadian Press Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland The vexing issue of securing more American access to Canadian dairy remains the major obstacle to the two countries concluding their negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement, says a top Trump administration adviser. Larry Kudlow, the director of President Donald Trump's National Economic Council, laid that out in the plainest terms possible during a televised interview Friday morning an hour before Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland started her latest meeting with her U.S. counterpart, trade czar Robert Lighthizer. "I think the United States would rather have a trade deal with Canada, but it has to be a good deal, right? And the word that continues to block the deal is m-i-l-k, OK?," Kudlow said on the Fox Business News show "Varney & Co." "I'm just saying, 'Let go. Milk, dairy, drop the barriers, give our farmers a break and we can fix some other things.' So I want to predict. I'll just say Bob Lighthizer is doing a great job and the president is encouraging it." Freeland isn't talking specifics, having made a deal with Lighthizer not to negotiate in public. Canadian and American negotiators resumed their talks Friday on updating NAFTA following Freeland's late night, 20-minute meeting with Lighthizer on Thursday. "It was important to discuss a couple of issues face-to-face," Freeland said Thursday night without elaborating. The U.S. wants Canada to open its dairy market to greater American access, as it has done in two previous major trade agreements, with the European Union and in a re-booted Trans-Pacific Partnership. The latter deal offered 10 other Pacific Rim countries access to 3.25 per cent of Canada's dairy market and most analysts predict the U.S. will settle for nothing less in NAFTA. Trump also wants Canada to scrap its two-year-old pricing agreement that has restricted U.S. exports of ultra-filtered milk used to make dairy products. Both those issues are non-starters for the Canadian dairy industry, which makes the subject particularly politically charged in Ontario and Quebec. In addition to dairy, the two countries still have to resolve differences on culture and the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism. Canada and the U.S. are trying to agree on a text that could be submitted to the U.S. Congress by month's end in order to join the deal the Trump administration signed with Mexico last week. The hope is for a trilateral agreement in principle that Congress can approve before Mexico's new president takes office on Dec. 1. Trump is threatening to move ahead on a deal that excludes Canada, but he also needs a win on trade ahead of midterm elections in November that will test his ability to keep control of Congress. "We do love Canada," Trump told supporters at a rally in Montana on Thursday night. "They've treated us pretty badly in trade for the last 40 years, but that's OK, it wasn't my fault. We're going to make a fair deal with Canada, just like we did with Mexico." Trump reiterated his desire to rename the 24-year-old continental trade deal after his "historic announcement" with Mexico. "We're replacing NAFTA with a beautiful new brand, because it's a much different deal. It will be called the U.S.-Mexico trade deal," he said to partisan applause. Trump said he thinks Canada will join the deal. But if it doesn't, the U.S. can live with that. Akwashiki expressed the optimism at the PDP national secretariat on Friday in Abuja. She spoke with newsmen shortly after submission of her nomination and expression of interest forms to seek the partys governorship ticket in Nasarawa. The aspirant said that despite the cultural factor affecting females, especially in the northern part of the country, she was poised to break the jinx to be the first female to be governor in Nigeria. I agree that its been a religious and cultural thing in the North. In 2015, Hajia Aisha Alhassan tried it in Taraba and she almost made it. I think it is possible that a woman can be a governor of any part of this country. I am the first female to go to the Senate, House of Representatives and the first woman to be given a minister. So, I think I will break that jinx and still be the first woman to become a governor in Nigeria. Its not impossible. It is more cultural than religious. She urged the people not to mortgage their conscience by selling their votes to money bags politicians. Akwashiki decried Nasarawa States over-reliance on the federation account. She said there was the need to harness its untapped natural resources and closeness to the Federal Capital Territory to improve its Internally Generated Revenue. Akwashiki said that PDP Nasarawa had learnt its lesson from the past elections and was ready to do the right thing to win in the 2019 general elections. We have learnt our lessons. Where we have done things with impunity, we have apologised and we are also begging people, she said. Another gubernatorial aspirant from Kwara, Mohammed Ajia, advised Nigerian youths to take advantage of their numerical strength to vote young people into elective positions in 2019. Ajia, who also submitted his nomination and expression of interest forms, said it was high time the youth stopped complaining or taking the back seat in politics. He said they should get involved to contribute their quota to national development. 2019 is our time, we should take advantage of it; we have the number, we have the strength. We should support ourselves. If we do this, nobody can stop us. We have said that we the young people; we shall actualise our struggles by contesting for elective positions in various political parties, and by so doing, we can impact on our people. Complaining at the backside will not solve the situation of Nigeria. So, I enjoin all the people Kwara State and Nigeria at large to be active in politics, so that we will be able to contribute our quota and Nigeria will be a better country, Ajia said. He expressed confidence that credible candidates would emerge in Kwara, as the party leaders, including the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, had pledged to conduct credible primaries. Duke made this known on Friday, September 7, 2018 on his Twitter handle after submitting his presidential nomination form to SDP. The former Cross River State governor said he joined the SDP to run for the office of president in the 2019 election because his former party, PDP had unconstitutionally zoned political offices. ALSO READ: Donald Duke explains why he missed out on presidency in 2007 Read Donald Duke's reason for quitting PDP In a series of tweets, Duke said his decision came after deep reflection and candid assessment of the Nigerian polity. "Firstly, my erstwhile party, the PDP has unconstitutionally zoned political offices. "As rational as they may see it, it remains unconstitutional and there are not enough strong voices out there speaking up objectively. Besides, democracy is all about choice, how then do we limit the choices we have to some section of the country or the other? "Can we under such aegis obtain the best? Nigeria can only be whole when the sum total of its parts are able to contest freely and at will for the highest office in the land. "Some folks have espoused that only two parties have the physical presence nationwide to win the presidency in a general election. I disagree. Our fate as Nigerians should not be determined by two underperforming platforms, but rather by we ourselves. Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this known at the commissions quarterly consultative meeting with political parties on Friday in Abuja. He said that the commission would no longer take lightly, issue of vote-buying which had become a recurring decimal in the countrys elections. We are witnessing an ugly trend of vote-buying in recent elections in the country; this is giving our democracy a bad name. There is difference between democracy government of the people, made by the people and for the people and plutocracy, which is government by the rich. We are going to make Osun governorship election a big statement by arresting and prosecuting vote buyers. We cant carry this ugly trend to 2019 elections, Yakubu said. He urged political parties to adhere strictly to the commissions timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections. The chairman advised political parties to ensure that their primaries were credible, saying credible and peaceful elections started with political parties, which were the cornerstone of our democracy. Nobody can aspire for elective position without a political party. We conduct the election, while parties produce the candidates, and that is why conducting credible party primaries is essential. He said that INEC had so far received invitation letters from 60 political parties out of the 91 registered political parties, to monitor their primaries. Yakubu added that the commission would only recognise notice of primaries from parties national executive committees. Notification should not come from branches; avoid incessant changes to party primaries and strife to eliminate rancour primaries. We incur cost in the process of monitoring party primaries; we dont have all the resources in the world to monitor party primaries. Primaries should be resolved without litigations; we are still battling with litigations from party primaries conducted in 2014; we have been dragged to conduct 680 times over party primaries. Political parties are key to our democracy, some parties change names of candidates who genuinely emerged from party primaries, while some submit names of candidates without conducting primaries. Even though we have no power under the law to reject the names of candidates submitted by political parties, this time, we will name and shame political parties that do these. While Ogun-West Senatorial District picked Abdulkabir Akinlade, a member of the House of Representatives, Ogun East, comprising nine local governments of Ijebu and Remo divisions announced it was settling for long-serving commissioner in the state, Bimbo Ashiru. Both blocs are claiming the right to produce a successor to Governor Ibikunle Amosun, going by the principle of power rotation in the state. Amosun who has governed the state from 2011 comes from Ogun central, while his predecessor, Gbenga Daniel, is from Remo division of Ogun East. Chief Olusegun Osoba, who was governor between 1999 and 2003, is also from Ogun Central and the first civilian governor, Olabisi Onabanjo was from Ogun East, Ijebu division. Governor Amosun had declared on Wednesday that he would announce his candidate for the governorship post today. But he was away in Osogbo for the governorship campaign for the APC candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, when the Chairman of the Ogun-West Elders Council, Alhaji Ajibola Olagbayi, presented Akinlade to the state chairman, Chief Derin Adebiyi and other party members in Abeokuta. It was not clear whether Akinlade is also Amosuns candidate. Olagbayi told APC members that Akinlade who is representing the Yewa-South/Ipokia Federal Constituency at the House of representatives, emerged among other nine aspirants from the region at a meeting on Wednesday. Adebiyi who received Akinlade on behalf of the APC recalled that the party had zoned the governorship seat to the Ogun-West in order to compensate the zone which had never produced a governor since the creation of the state in 1976. He assured members of the region that the party would work assiduously to ensure that Akinlade eventually emerged as the state governor. Responding Akinlade commended the elders from Ogun West for the wisdom displayed during the meeting, in which he emerged as the consensus candidate. He also commended other aspirants for their maturity and acceptance of his candidature Akinlade who promised to operate an inclusive government if elected as the governor, solicited the support of all party members . He said the support had become necessary for the success of the party at the 2019 polls and sustenance of the great development that the Ibikunle Amosun-led administration had brought on the state. Akinlade pledged to be loyal to the party leadership if elected as governor and to continue the ongoing transformation agenda of the present administration in the state. He called on party members to ensure that they collect their Permanent Voters Cards and mobilise people from the grassroots to vote and sustain APC in power in Ogun. Meanwhile, elders from the Ogun-East Senatorial District under the aegis of the Ijebu/Remo Governorship Agenda have described the development as good for democracy. The group in a statement issued and signed by its Media Head, Mr Tayo Mabeweje in Ijebu-Ode on Thursday said, the stage is set for a contest between the regions consensus candidate, Mr Bimbo Ashiru and Akinlade. Mabeweje said Ashiru, the state Commissioner for Commerce and Industry was picked as the consensus candidate of the Ijebu/Remo Ogun East Senatorial District in November, 2017. The decision of our brothers from the Ogun West Senatorial District is long awaited and will further boost internal democracy in the ruling party, APC, as it goes into primary election in September to determine who becomes the partys standard bearer. Since its creation in February 1976, the bipolar nature of Ogun geo-politics was well established in the Egba/Egbado and Ijebu/Remo dichotomy reflecting in historical as well as political institutions and practices. It is only fair and equitable that the Ijebu/Remo zone produce the next governor as by 2019, the old Egba Province would have been in the governorship saddle of the state for eight unbroken years due to Senator Ibikunle Amosuns rule. We believe that, in keeping with the principles of rotation and fairness, the governorship should revert to Ijebu Province. Our position is not in any way an affront to His Excellency Senator Ibikunle Amosun. If anything, we acknowledge the giant strides of his administration in the last seven years in setting standard for infrastructure development and fully identify with his Mission to Rebuild Ogun. We appeal to the good people of Ijebu/Remo that make up Ogun East Senatorial District to be calm in the belief that a level playing ground would be made available for all aspirants, including those of Ijebu extraction, to contest the governorship ticket of the state. Our people should not be in any way be disturbed by the development but rather be more united and unwavering in their support of Otunba Bimbo Ashiru in the gubernatorial primaries. This is the beauty of democracy when we have people from different zones aspiring to be governor of which only one will emerge as candidate, it stated. Oshiomhole made the remark when he paid a visit to the former governor at his personal residence at Mundubawa quarters in Kano metropolis. Shekarau was a founding member of APC, but left when the party was handed over to Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, who was then the governor. Kwankwaso has gone back to PDP, with Shekarau also going back to APC. I am extremely delighted to be in your midst because it is an opportunity for me to meet and reunite with you,Oshiomhole said. We have come to reunite with a friend, Comrade and a real Progressive in order to move our party forward, he said. He expressed optimism that the defection of Shekarau to APC would strengthen the party in the state and the country at large. From your lifestyle and what you did for Kano State, nobody can claim to be more Progressive than you. We know it is condition that make crayfish bend. Oshiomhole thanked the former governor and his supporters for the warm reception accorded him and his entourage. Shekarau said: Our coming together will not only move Kano state forward but the country as a whole. Anybody who writes history of APC without mentioning Shekarau, the history is not complete,he said. Shekarau, who thanked the APC leadership and Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje for the political and friendly visit, assured that the consultation between him and the APC was in full gear for his final movement to the the party. Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje described Shekarau as one of the founding fathers of APC and assured him of his readiness to establish a good relationship. I am the happiest person in the state because the dream has come true as we have always been good friends and brothers, Ganduje said. NAN reports that among those who accompanied Oshiomole on the visit were Sen. Kabiru Gaya, Sen Jibrin Majiya and the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, Abdurrahman Kawu-Sumaila. Also present during the visit were the state Deputy chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Ibrahim KT, other executive committee members of the party as well as many supporters of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. The BoT took the decision not to show support for any of the 13 aspirants at its meeting in Abuja on Thursday, September 6, 2018. So far, former Senate President David Mark, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Senate President Bukola Saraki, former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso; Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal; Governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo and a former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa have all indicated interest in becoming the partys presidential flagbearer at the February 2019 election. Also in the race are a former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations, Alhaji Kabiru Turaki (SAN); a former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi; a former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau; a former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang and Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed. Addressing journalists after the meeting, the BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, noted that Board would look at the possibility of pruning the number of the aspirants. ALSO READ: APC says PDP has assumed the role of comic relief ahead of 2019 The BoT deliberated on the current situation in the party. We also discussed about the number of our presidential aspirants, Jibrin said. We are recommending that we have to manage the situation very well, so that it does not lead to crisis. The presidential aspirants are 13. We are trying our best to ensure that the number is reduced. But we are not forcing anybody. More consultations are ongoing among the elders. We are going to bring out a committee that will be best for Nigerians. We are forming a committee to meet with the aspirants. After that, we will decide on what to do. We have decided to firm a special committee to advise the National Working Committee. If you are a member of BoT, you remain as a member of BoT and conscience of the party. They should not move about with any aspirant. If we are really conscience of the party, we should not move about with aspirants. That was what happened during the last national convention when we elected the national chairman. Some of us went and pitch camp with aspirants, taking them all over the place. This time, we will not allow that to happen. Anyone of us who move about with any aspirant should resign from the BoT. We are the one that will settle the complaint. But if we are involved it will not be fair. So we have told the members not to campaign with the aspirants; we are also the delegates, he added. Similarly, the PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, says all presidential aspirants under the umbrella of the party must sign an undertaking before the primary election. Shekarau, a presidential aspirant with the PDP, announced his defection after a meeting with the APC's national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and incumbent Kano governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, While hosting Oshiomhole, Ganduje and other top party officials at his residence at Mundubawa Avenue, Kano, the former governor expressed his delight at the "friendly and political visit". "It is history that is repeating itself here. I have a singular honour of being the chief midwife of the APC," he said. Explaining why he defected, Shekarau said he's concerned about the political situation in Nigeria ahead of the 2019 general elections. Shekarau's defection had been expected since his media aide, Sule Ya'u Sule, disclosed earlier this week that the former governor had already met with Governor Ganduje, and would soon make his defection public. He noted that Shekarau's defection was caused by the actions of the PDP's national leadership who he accused of favouring another former Kano governor and presidential aspirant, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso. He had said, "I want confirm to you that Shekarau has decided to defect from PDP to APC due to the injustice meted on him and his supporters by the PDP leadership. "My boss has met with Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Abuja yesterday and concluded plans for our return to APC. He will meet with all the stakeholders concerned in Kano and then make his decamping public." Shekarau had initially dumped then-opposition party, APC, in 2014, for the PDP, saying his decision was to satisfy the aspirations of the people of the state who felt left out from the APC. While the presidential nomination forms for he ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) cost N45 million, the leadership of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pegged theirs at N12 million. Speaking at a dialogue with political parties, a convener of the #NotTooYoungToRun group, Samson Itodo, decried the high cost of nominations forms especially for young Nigerians seeking for elective positions. "One of the greatest challenges that young aspirants are facing is the cost of forms," Itodo said. "Today if youths want to buy forms, you are either asked to get approvals from state governors, or approvals from government houses before forms are sold to them. As a movement we believe that this, in itself, is a huge challenge for our political process, in addition to the high cost of nomination forms, which for us as a movement, we can see as very exploitative, he added. Itodo accused the APC of double standard and exploitation. "The SDP reviewed the costs of its nomination forms because of the NotTooYoungToRun. The PDP reduced the costs of its nomination forms because of NotTooYoungToRun. Other political parties are doing same. As you can see from the town hall today, a lot of political parties have also made commitments and they have announced to the world, what are the costs of their nomination forms. This advocacy is gaining ground and there is a lot of progress that we are recording. "If the APC does not yield to the call, it does so at its peril. Why do you peg high costs for forms? You are going to see a mass exodus of people who cannot afford those forms; they are quite exorbitant. What the APC has done with its structure is to say, 'Young people, we only need you in leadership at the state Houses of Assembly.' This is because the form is N850,000. But N3.8m for the House of Representatives? No, that is exploitative in every respect," he added. Similarly, the Buhari Youth Organisation has called on the APC to reduce the cost of nomination forms. French President Emmanuel Macron and the prime ministers of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands said they had agreed on "concrete" proposals to put forward at a meeting of EU leaders in Salzburg, Austria, later this month. Dutch PM Mark Rutte said that "agreements like those concluded with Turkey" were needed to build on a hard-fought but vague deal on migration thrashed out at an EU summit in June. The EU struck a deal with Turkey in 2016 in a effort to stem the flow of migrants, under which Ankara agreed to take back illegal migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid. Over the last year the bloc has been stepping up its efforts to support African countries with aid and investment in a bid to reduce the incentives for people to leave their home countries to seek a better life in Europe. "The European Union must deploy a form of Marshall Plan for Africa, with a concrete operational ambition with African partners", said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. The four leaders also urged more help for European countries of first arrival, Italy and Spain, to deal with the arrivals, but all maintain that these countries must have responsibility for arrivals -- a major point of contention with Italy. The hardline anti-migrant government in Rome has demanded the EU rotate the ports where migrants rescued in the Mediterranean disembark, arguing that Italy was shouldering an unfair burden. Italy has been turning away ships with migrants rescued at sea in a campaign to force other EU countries to take them, and last month it threatened to block the EU budget over the issue. Macron said the countries of arrival "have a responsibility and they cannot get rid of it, but there must be financial solidarity". "An organ of the state is probing another organ of the state. With the small difference that you (the voters) elected this organ of the state," Salvini said in the video. "The others have not been elected by anyone and are not answerable (for their actions) to anyone. "It is you who asked this minister to control the borders, to control the ports, to limit arrivals, to limit the departure of illegal migrants," he said. The migrants on the Diciotti coastguard ship had been stranded at a port in Sicily before Salvini finally allowed them to disembark on August 26 after Ireland, Albania and the Italian Catholic church agreed to take most of them in. The 10-day blocking of the Diciotti migrants followed a number of similar standoffs in which Italy turned away ships with migrants rescued at sea in a campaign to make EU countries take their share. The government threatened to stop billions of euros of EU funding over the issue, accusing Europe of turning its back as Italy grapples with seemingly endless migrant arrivals. 'You only give me more power' Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister and the leader of the far-right League party, said in Friday's video that he regarded the prosecutor's letter as a "medal". "Thank you prosecutors.... I respect your work. Do it well, do it quickly, but you only give me more power," he said. Earlier this week, he said 50 of the 144 Diciotti migrants had since disappeared without trace from reception centres. These migrants "were so in need of protection, a roof and a blanket that they decided to leave and disappear," he said on Facebook. "This is the umpteenth confirmation that those who arrive in Italy are not skeletons fleeing war and famine," he added. Since Salvini's League formed a government with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) on June 1, the minister has implemented his party's hard line on migrants. Within days of becoming interior minister, he delivered on a campaign promise to close Italian ports to immigrants and asylum-seekers, starting with 600 plucked from the Mediterranean by NGO boat Aquarius, which was instead forced to take them to Valencia in Spain. That crisis was only resolved after a meeting between Conte and French President Emmanuel Macron. Migrant issue divides Europe Italy's crackdown on migrants comes as leaders across Europe are increasingly struggling to deal with the issue. In Germany -- where Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced anger at her decision in 2015 not to close Germany's borders resulting in the arrival of more than one million people -- the country has seen a flare-up of xenophobic rage in protests in the eastern city of Chemnitz. In traditionally tolerant Sweden, meanwhile, the far-right is tipped for strong gains in elections this weekend. And Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has described Europe as divided into "two camps" -- one that wants to end illegal immigration and another that is pro-migration. 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. Photo: The Canadian Press President Donald Trump is vowing to root out the leakers who contributed to the White House insider accounts that contend some on his team question his judgment, competence and even rationality. A book by presidential author Bob Woodward and an anonymous New York Times op-ed article, Trump has said, are fiction and lies. But the president nonetheless finds them compelling enough to seek out the leakers of behind-the-scenes stories and quotes. On Friday, Trump said the U.S. Justice Department should investigate the identity of the op-ed writer. "Eventually, the name of this sick person will come out," he told reporters on Air Force One. Some things to know about leak investigations: THE NATURE OF A LEAK Telling embarrassing stories about a president's behaviour is not the same thing as revealing classified information. The first could be a political risk, which is why administration members from Vice-President Mike Pence on down denied being the op-ed writer this week. Still, writing unflattering things about the president isn't a crime. But the Espionage Act and other federal laws do criminalize unauthorized disclosures about certain national security information, such as surveillance methods. Any leak investigations of classified information tend to go through a complex process at the Justice Department that includes determining whether the information was sensitive and known to few people. NATIONAL SECURITY Trump told reporters Friday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should pursue the identity of the New York Times essay writer. "Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it's national security," the president said. If the person has a high-level security clearance, Trump said, "I don't want him in those meetings." The FBI and Justice Department are responsible for investigating federal crimes, but there is no indication of anything illegal having been done in the publication of a newspaper opinion piece critical of the president. It is also extraordinary for a president to demand an investigation by the Justice Department, which is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without White House interference. THE FALLOUT Trump was asked if, in light of the book and column, he trust the people around him. "I do, I do," he said. "But what I do is, now I look around the room and I say 'Hey I don't know somebody.'" Meanwhile, Trump is said to be examining the language of the denials issued this week by the highest members of his administration or their spokespeople. "Everybody very high up has already said it wasn't me. It would be very hard if it was, if they got caught," Trump said. "You'd be shunned for the rest of your life." "I think it's going to be a positive letter." Trump, who said he expects Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to deliver the note, also brought up a statement from Kim on Thursday emphasizing his continuing "trust in Trump," despite difficulties in denuclearization negotiations. "That was a very positive statement, what he said about me," Trump said. "There's never been a more positive statement." He accused the news media of not covering it, however, adding: "Honestly I didn't see it on the front page of your papers." Trump lauded the progress he said had been made with Pyongyang since the June summit with the North Korean leader in Singapore. "We have our hostages back," he said. "I say it a hundred times -- no missiles, no rockets, no nuclear testing. There's been some rhetoric, let's see what happens." Kim on Thursday renewed his commitment to the goal of denuclearization in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in Pyongyang September 18-20 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. "The north and the south should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. Kim's expression of confidence in Trump, relayed by Seoul's envoy, prompted the US president to tweet out his thanks to the North Korean leader and vow to "get it done together." Trump and Kim pledged to denuclearize the Korean peninsula at the Singapore summit but no details were agreed. And Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since on what that means and how it will be achieved. 'Still more work to do' Trump in late August canceled a planned trip to Pyongyang by Pompeo over a lack of progress in North Korea's nuclear disarmament. But relations seem to have improved since then. South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-yong, who met with Kim, said the North Korean leader also emphasized that his "trust in Trump remains unchanged," the comment which led to the US president's tweet. Chung added that Kim expressed his intention to work closely with the United States to achieve denuclearization "in the first official term of President Trump," which ends in January 2021. In a statement on August 24, Trump said he was scotching Pompeo's trip "because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." He also slammed China as not helping with the effort to convince Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. In New Delhi on Thursday, Pompeo, the former US intelligence chief who heads the US negotiating effort, struck a sober note, saying there was still much work to do. North Korea "is the only country that has commitments under UN Security Council resolutions," Pompeo told reporters. "It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We haven't had any nuclear tests, we haven't had any missile tests, which we consider a great thing," Pompeo added. UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who said the planned meeting offered a "flickering signal of hope" for an end to the years-long conflict, had to postpone the start of the talks. "He continues to make efforts to overcome obstacles to allow the consultations to go forward," his office said in a statement Thursday, adding that Griffiths remained "hopeful" the rebels would come. The Geneva talks are meant to be the first since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and rebels failed to yield a deal. The Huthis control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, while a Saudi-led coalition which backs Hadi's government controls the country's airspace. Led by Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani, a Yemen government delegation arrived in Switzerland on Wednesday. But on what was meant to be the first day of talks, the rebels issued an ultimatum from Sanaa Thursday, saying they would not join the talks until the UN meets conditions that include transporting their wounded to Oman for treatment and a guarantee they will be allowed to return home after the talks. The rebels accused the UN of failing to keep promises in this regard. According to the Huthis' Al-Masirah TV, the UN had been unable to "secure authorisation" from the Saudi-led coalition for a plane to transport the rebel delegation, along with wounded insurgents, out of Yemen. Asked about the Huthi claims, Griffiths said Wednesday: "We are working on that." The government delegation said it would wait only another 24 hours, until midday (1000 GMT) Friday. "We have this scheduled meeting since two months ago ... Today we are alone," delegation member Hamza Alkamali told journalists, and claimed the rebels were making it clear "they don't want peace". "We want them to come, and we are pushing them to come," said Alkamali. However, "we will leave, if they dont come... in the next 24 hours." On Thursday, an AFP journalist saw the envoy entering the Geneva hotel hosting the Yemen government delegation. Griffiths had told journalists he would begin informal consultations" with the government team while the rebels make their way to Switzerland. When the two parties eventually meet, he said on Wednesday, there would be no "formal negotiations", merely exploratory talks on how to get the parties around a negotiating table. The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged both sides to "take a first step towards ending a conflict that has brought severe pain and humanitarian suffering to the Yemeni people". 'Collateral damage' All previous attempts to resolve the Yemen war have failed. Griffiths is the UN's third Yemen envoy since 2014, when Huthis overran the capital 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. The conflict has left nearly 10,000 people dead and pushed the Arab world's most impoverished country to the brink of famine. On Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition acknowledged there may have been "collateral damage" from August 23 strikes the UN said killed 26 children south of the port of Hodeida. Rotich on Thursday afternoon said a solution to standoff precipitated by the 16 per cent VAT on fuel will be found soon. The CS said this as he went into a closed door high level meeting as he met the House leadership led by National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi. Among those who were in the meeting included Muturi, Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, CS Rotich, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale, MP Kimani Ichungwa who chairs the Budget Committee in the National Assembly, among others. Heavy criticism CS Rotich has come under heavy criticism for not exercising his powers to suspend the introduction of the new tax pending the Presidents assent of the Finance Bill, 2018 with a section of leaders calling for his impeachment over the raging fuel crisis. A team of MPs earlier this week led by Mathare legislator Anthony Oluoch gave Rotich a 72-hour ultimatum to reverse the taxes failure to which, they would call for mass action by Kenyans to protest the high fuel prices and institute proceedings to kick out the Treasury CS. We are invoking our sovereignty now under Article 1 of the constitution and saying that if you do not withdraw this directive, we will mobilise the people of Kenya in their numbers to come to the streets to demonstrate and we will institute proceedings for your removal, Oluoch said. Speaking in an interview on Citizen TV, Joho said that he would be eyeing for the top seat under Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) ticket, taking over from Raila Odinga who is the party chairman. I want to be the president of this country come next general election because am the deputy party leader of ODM, the party which is influential in the country and thats what gives me the drive towards wanting to be president, said Joho. The Mombasa Governor said that his party leader had not told him not to vie for the presidency in favour of anyone in the party, adding that should Raila opt to also vie, then they would sit down and come up with a solution. My party leader has not told me not to run, and I know democracy has many dimensions and am sure Raila stands for his word when he said he will retire from politics, and should he change mind then we will sit down and talk The handshake On his tour to Baringo County, in Kapsabet to visit retired President Daniel Moi, Joho said that he went to appreciate Moi for the work he had done for the country. Joho added that he was also seeking to extend his friendship and unite all Kenyans across the country. Published on: 7 September 2018 Professor Colin Grant, Vice-Principal (International) at Queen Mary and Professor Ng Huck Hui, Executive Director of the A*STAR Graduate Academy and the Genome Institute of Singapore Professor Colin Grant, Vice-Principal (International) at Queen Mary and Professor Ng Huck Hui, Executive Director of the A*STAR Graduate Academy and the Genome Institute of Singapore Queen Mary cemented the partnership at a signing ceremony in Singapore today in the presence of the British Deputy High Commissioner to Singapore, Alexandra McKenzie. The Queen Mary-A*STAR partnership will develop joint research across medicine, health, science and engineering. This will include funding a number of PhD scholarships through A*STARs prestigious Research Attachment Programme (ARAP), where PhD students can develop their research in both the UK and Singapore. Professor Colin Grant, Vice-Principal (International) at Queen Mary, said: We are delighted to be partnering with A*STAR, a global leader in science, technology and innovation. A*STAR bridges the gap between academia and industry, which is a central theme of Queen Marys new Global Engagement Strategy. Queen Mary is committed to advancing scientific discovery, industrial and social impact and technological innovation on a global scale. By increasing mobility for young researchers, we will nurture the innovation leaders of tomorrow. Our recent activities in Singapore, which include this new partnership with A*STAR and agreements with globally-leading universities, NTU and NUS, deepen Queen Marys engagement with a country at the forefront of research and innovation. Paving the way for talent mobility Professor Ng Huck Hui, Executive Director of the A*STAR Graduate Academy and the Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, said: The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Queen Mary provides a platform for both institutions to collaborate in scientific fields of mutual interest, and expand the R&D ecosystem beyond each countrys geographical boundaries. Through the joint supervision of undergraduates and graduates in physical, biomedical and engineering sciences, the partnership paves the way for talent mobility between both institutions. A*STAR looks forward to deepening its partnership in research and talent cultivation with the United Kingdom to further drive growth and deliver impact that will benefit both countries. In the first instance, Queen Mary is committed to co-funding six students across several areas of medical research. The first PhD students are expected to join Queen Mary in 2019. They will then spend at least a year in Singapore from 2020. Strengthening research in physical, biomedical and engineering sciences Commenting on the partnership, HE Scott Wightman, British High Commissioner to Singapore, said: The educational links between Singapore and the United Kingdom are long and deep. This agreement between Queen Mary University of London and A*STAR will further strengthen the research relationship in physical, biomedical and engineering sciences. The UKs world-class universities such as Queen Mary are ideally placed to support the next stage of Singapores economic transformation and to partner its own world-class S&I institutions. Next year, the UK and Singapore will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of modern Singapore. In July, HE Wightman announced that the UK is about to see a step-change in the scale of its partnerships with the country. He noted that over half of the Cabinet in Singapore studied at one of Britains top universities, and that over 7,000 Singaporeans study in Britain each year. Queen Mary is home to over 150 students from Singapore, studying across its three Faculties at all academic levels. More information Popular hotspot Hahei may soon become a pay-to-visit beach under proposed parking bylaws by Thames-Coromandel Council. The proposed change would prevent visitors from parking for free in the town, which would apply from October 1 to April 30 each year. This isnt about revenue. Its about creating a management plan to solve the issue. With a steady stream of tourists each summer, the council intends to expand an existing carpark to allow for 500 cars. Parking fees, which could be up to $10, would fund the new carpark. John North from Hahei Residents Association told RadioLIVE that paid parking was introduced at Hot Water Beach just three years prior a beach thats only 5km down the road. Its taking away the stress and the hassle and providing a safe environment, Mr North said. He suggested that its no different than popular hotspots around New Zealand who have used parking fees to pay for tourism infrastructure. The problem is 320,000 visitors per year now. An [the Department of Conservation] are forecasting that itll increase to 500,000 in three years time. Weve got to get on top of the problem. This isnt about revenue. Its about creating a management plan to solve the issue. Public feedback is sought on the proposed change, which closes on Monday. Listen to the full interview with John North above. Drive with Ryan Bridge and Lisa Owen, 3pm - 6pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. The Maori Council is calling for better research, more affordable housing, and frankly some tangible action from the intermingling of government agencies. While marae are known for welcoming those without homes, Mr Tukaki says its only a short-term solution. People have got to understand that theres also pressure on a lot of these marae as well, to come up with the food, to come up with the bedding, to come up with the toilet paper and all the different things that go along with it. The Government needs to also address paths to homelessness, which Mr Tukaki says include access to employment, the casualisation of the workforce, and mental health. When theyre being discharged, where are they being discharged to? A lot of them are being discharged to our streets. Mr Tukaki suggests that Maori land should be used to build affordable homes, a move he believes Maori would be open to. In May, the coalition Government announced a $100 million investment to tackle homelessness ahead of winter. Were pulling out all the stops to support people in need and urgently increase housing supply this winter. Were also investing heavily in the future of the Housing First programme to support our most vulnerable homeless people and families, Housing Minister Phil Twyford said in a statement. The Long Lunch with Carly Flynn, in for Wendyl Nissen, 12pm - 3pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. Candidates who are waiting for their SBI Clerk mains result then, a good news for them that the State Bank of India likely to release the result today. Therefore, all the interested candidates should keep their eyes on the official website to see their results. According to the reports, SBI Junior Associates Mains examination results likely to be out today at around 7 pm. Therefore, keep your eyes at the official website of SBI. Heres how to check your SBI Clerk Mains Result 2018: 1. Open the official website of SBI at sbi.co.in. 2. Search the link for the Clerk Mains Result 2018. 3. Click on the link to check your result. 4. Enter your roll number and password to see your SBI Clerk Mains result. 5. Click on Ok 6. Your result will appear on the official website of SBI 7. Download and take a print out of your result for future references However, the examination for SBI Clerk Mains examination was held on 5th August which was conducted after the result declaration of SBI Clerk Prelims result 2018 which was released on 24th July. As soon as the result released on the official website, then only SBI aspirants can check their results. Note: All the candidates are advised that before trusting any news reports, kindly cross-check it from the official website. Because all the updates about any results or recruitment will first be notified on the official website then on others. Watch Video: New Zealand born Australian senator Derryn Hinch this week found himself on the sharp end of a Pauline Hanson rant - told by the Queenslander to go back to New Zealand to pick up your manners Derryn". He discusses his tete a tete with Pauline Hanson, his return to Langi Kal Kal prison today, and the current state of Australian politics. PORTUGAL: The governments Council of Ministers on September 6 gave the go-ahead for national passenger operator CP to start a rolling stock procurement process. M6 Group, which operates multiple TV channels in France, will upgrade its ingest, playout and storage infrastructure to a media-over-IP solution from Harmonic. Offering support for the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards for professional media delivery over IP networks and SMPTE 2022-7 for protection switching, Harmonic's playout and storage solutions will streamline the broadcaster's transition to all-IP video delivery, the companies said."Having relied upon Harmonic's video production and playout solutions for over a decade, we know first-hand the reliability and innovation they provide," said Mathias Bejanin, CTO at M6 Group. "When the infrastructure goes live, we will be leading the market in global deployments of SMPTE ST 2110 and SMPTE 2022-7 protection, setting the benchmark for workflow modernisation, efficiency and redundancy."M6 Group will use the Spectrum X media servers for content ingest, live switching with graphics, DVE, 24x7 playout and manual review, with manual control supported through Broadteam's Omnium video controller. Harmonic's MediaGrid shared storage system meanwhile will support M6 Group's real-time editing and playout operations."The transition toward an all-IP workflow is rapidly gaining traction in our industry based on the significant workflow efficiencies and cost savings that it provides," said Ian Graham, SVP of sales, EMEA and LATAM, at Harmonic . "We're excited to support M6 Group and unleash the full power of IP for playout and storage workflows utilizing the SMPTE ST 2110 and SMPTE 2022-7 standards, which are supported by Spectrum X, the industry's trusted media server." Nationwide, a trend is developing that could eventually endanger jobs in Louisiana. Local governments in several states are teaming with for-profit attorneys to file public nuisance lawsuits, hoping to score massive paydays from energy manufacturers. As Louisiana's chief legal officer, I have significant concerns that these junk suits could find a home here and have serious negative effects on our economy. Filed in hotbeds of liberal activism lawsuits by cities such as Baltimore, New York City, Oakland, and San Francisco argue that energy manufacturers are public nuisances and should be held financially responsible for changes in global climate. There is this old Jewish joke about a guy who gets stranded on a desert island. Miraculously, he finds hes not alone -- another Jew has been marooned there for quite some time. After a tour of the island, the newcomer asks why are there three synagogues on the tiny speck of land. His fellow castaway replies, The first is where I pray regularly, the second is where I go when Ive had enough of the first, and the third, well, you wont catch me setting foot in the place. To the question about where Jews stand on the ever-widening political divide, the answer is, in classic yeddishe fashion, it depends on which Jews you talk to. A recent poll by the Jewish weekly magazine Ami found that approximately 91 percent of Orthodox Jews support President Trump. In the Jewish Orthodox community, he is a rock star. Meanwhile, the picture in a recent American Jewish Committee poll of all American Jews is not so warm. A bulky 57 percent disapproves of the presidents policies and long-term agenda. This comes as no surprise, as American Jews have traditionally aligned themselves with the Democratic Party in lopsided numbers. However, since Trumps election, the Orthodox Jewish vote has been walking away in droves. So, what is driving the split? Several factors seem to be at work, including a mindset much akin to that of the one-time Democrat Ronald Reagan: I didnt leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me. The same could be said of many Jews, who no longer feel comfortable with the Democratic National Committees growing courtship of the ultra-liberal progressive factions within the party. In a party where the likes of Bernie Sanders and Hamas sympathizer Keith Ellison are seen as harbingers of the future, many Jews feel like they can no longer be at home with a party that outright rejects their values, hopes and dreams. In a recent example of this trend, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, the avowed Democratic Socialist who toppled a veteran congressman -- and the future of the DNC, according Chairman Tom Perez -- called Israels defense of its Gaza border a humanitarian crisis and referred to the Jewish states occupation of Palestine. Shes not alone, however. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) was photographed with a group of pro-Palestinian activists holding a sign equating Israels defense perimeter with Trumps border wall. (Booker later apologized, saying he hadnt read the sign he was holding.) And theres Sen. Kirsten Gillibrands (D-N.Y.) endorsement of Islamist Palestinian-American Israel-boycotter Linda Sarsour for Time magazines 100 most influential people. The senators refusal to support legislation banning the anti-Israel boycott, her support for the Iran nuclear deal and her refusal to support cutting off taxpayer aid to families of terrorists just adds to the feeling of betrayal. Such policies are increasingly becoming the official party line. Witness the California Democratic Partys opposition to federal bills outlawing the Israel boycott, and the national Democratic Partys growing constituency to formally support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as part of the platform of the DNC -- a political organization which four years after booing God at the national convention chucked the prayer service aside due to delegate outrage. But as repellant as these anti-Israel and anti-God positions may be, they dont explain the split of American Jewry or rather, why the #WalkAway movement is off to a solid start. There is another factor at play. Many younger, liberal Jews understand Judaism (to the extent they think about it at all) as synonymous with a universalist social justice agenda. This Jewish equivalent of liberation theology and the Social Gospel is known as tikkun olam and was popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by radicals including Michael Lerner, founder of the left-wing magazine Tikkun. One aspect of this agenda, neo-Marxist in origin, subordinates national identity to membership in a transnational class based on race or gender, or in the universal brotherhood of man. In contrast, others in the Jewish community, many but not all of them Orthodox, understand nationhood and exceptionalism to be indispensable central tenets of Judaism. Indeed, they are key Judeo-Christian concepts fundamental to Western civilization. The biblical covenant of a Chosen People is the fountainhead of American exceptionalism, the belief that America can be a shining city on a hill and a light unto the nations. When Donald Trump says, I am president of the United States, not president of the world, he is defending the idea of nationhood and rejecting post-national globalism. Jewish voters identify with his words on many levels. We hear echoes of the Lords ancient promise to Abraham: I will make you a nation. He did not promise, I will make you a global economy, nor did He borrow a page from John Lennon and command Abraham to Imagine theres no countries. Rather, He told Abraham that the land where he lived would be inherited by his descendants, and within the lands borders, He would make Israel a people, and commanded them to defend those borders. Nationhood is central to the Jewish experience. To this day, Jews fast on the 9th of Av in remembrance of the loss of their homeland 2,000 years ago. As Jews, Orthodox or otherwise, we see our Jewish identity entirely congruent with our identity as Americans. With an acute understanding of what it means to achieve American Exceptionalism, we support this nation and want to move the vision of Americas Founding Fathers forward. America has been exceptionally good to the Jewish people and to Torah-true Jewish practice. Americas laws have protected our lives and our religious freedoms, unlike other places in the diaspora where those countries laws did not apply to us. Unlike Andrew Cuomo, who says America was never that great, Orthodox Jews often and fondly use the term Malchus shel Chesed kingdom of loving-kindness -- to describe the United States and its relationship to our people. This viewpoint, of unabashed and proud Americanism, should no longer be silenced or marginalized within the Jewish community. It is time for the Orthodox and others in the Jewish community to stand up for what it feels is right, to promote the biblical values that make Americanism the illustration of what it means to achieve exceptionalism and the right to self-determination. That is the truth, and the longstanding bond between the United States and its greatest ally, the land of our forefathers, the State of Israel. As a Jewish community that in practice follows the rites and rotes of the Bible, we should express our views, and not be deterred or fearful of the wrath of local politicians -- who are in many cases Democrats. They need our vote more then they let us know. With the rise of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement and anti-religious freedom sentiments in the rank and file of the DNC, its time for Jews to #WalkAway from the shackles of the Democrat ghetto, and its ideologies of identity politics and post-national globalism. Its time that our community embraces its rightful place as a solid voter base for the Republican Party, President Trump and his America First agenda. Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz is director of the Moskowitz Policy Forum and special assistant to Cherna Moskowitz. For Republicans in Congress, the anonymous op-ed came just in time. The need to question Bob Woodwards credibility was immediately drowned out by the chorus of outrage over the coward who bragged of subverting the agenda of a duly elected president. An unsigned proclamation in the New York Times, describing an underground within the administration that is working to thwart Trumps worst impulses, has brought him to the darkest hour yet of his presidency. It confirms the findings of the Woodwards book Fear, which confirm revelations from other reporting about the Trump presidency, which confirm what we learned from candidate Trump. Trump will soon act to move the focus off of this humiliation. Whatever comes next isnt likely to surprise or even shock, because chances are it has already been threatened. Rarely does this president fail to make himself clear. For all his claims of being unpredictable, stealthy he is not. So just because GOP lawmakers ignore Trump doesnt mean he isnt shouting at them. On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell briefed him at the White House on the congressional agenda between now and Election Day. When reporters asked Trump if he is still willing to shut down the government over funding for his border wall, as he has threatened numerous times, he said, If it's about border security, I'm willing to do anything. ... I'm willing to do what has to be done." Hours later, McConnell was on Fox News Channels Special Report, telling Bret Baier: No chance of a government shutdown. Zero. Trump is going to fire, or force the resignation of, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, likely hours after the polls close on Nov. 6, though it could come sooner. Trumps goal is to replace Sessions with someone who will protect him from the Russia investigation because he believes Sessions betrayed him by following the rules and recusing himself from the probe. Though Trump may not fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel, his goal is to curtail, if not end, the investigation. He has said so. On Sunday, the president staked a new, unconstitutional claim -- that the Department of Justice is a political arm of the White House. In yet another Sessions attack, he tweeted: 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.. A tepid response followed, which Trump was surely gauging. Ryan stepped out: Justice is blind. Justice should be blind, he said days later. Of course Sen. Ben Sasse was the most emphatic, stating in a tweet that 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. And credit to Sens. Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Lisa Murkowski, along with Rep. Justin Amash, for joining the lonely chorus. Other Republicans did their usual lost-my-phone, umm, really hadnt heard that yet routine. Sen. John Kennedys struggle to explain it on CNNs New Day, when he was hoping to answer questions about Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court, said it all. I don't speak for the president," Kennedy said. "He's entitled to his opinion, and maybe he thinks the policy ought to change. I haven't talked to him about it. I just know that I think it's important to have a consistent policy." Trump has lobbied Republican senators to turn against Sessions and has succeeded in bringing two influential leaders to his side: current Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and likely incoming Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham. Graham is trying to focus on Trumps need to have an attorney general he gets along with, even insinuating the family separation crisis at the border is somehow Sessions fault and was executed without Trumps approval. But theres a presidential tweet for that: I am sorry to have to reiterate that there are serious and unpleasant consequences to crossing the Border into the United States ILLEGALLY! If there were no serious consequences, our country would be overrun with people trying to get in, and our system could not handle it! What firing Sessions is about, which Graham knows, is Robert Mueller, and not children on the border. He has urged Sessions, openly, to end the investigation. Tweets like this arent exactly subtle: Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. The new line is even bolder. I view it as an illegal investigation, the president told Bloomberg last week, citing great scholars he saw on television who he said concluded there never should have been a special counsel. Trump has complained, along with his television lawyer Rudy Giuliani, that the investigation has gone too far afield -- most recently with the conviction of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- because it was originally about Russian collusion. Yet the scope of the probe, as initiated by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, is broad, including the examination not only of "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated" with Trump's campaign, but also "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." Last week Trump said he may soon intervene in the probe, which weeks ago he said he could lead: I could go in, and I could do whatever -- I could run it if I want. At a rally in Indiana he warned: Whats happening is a disgrace and at some point -- I wanted to stay out -- but at some point if it doesnt straighten out properly I will get involved. This wasnt a new concept, as Trump said in May he had powers to intervene. At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved! he tweeted four months ago. Giuliani, who reportedly doesnt want Trump to fire Mueller, has conceded its his job to ruin Muellers reputation. He also told the New Yorker that the administration could block public disclosure of a final report from the special counsel investigation on the grounds of executive privilege. Congressional Republicans have repeatedly refused to pass legislation to protect the Russia probe. So they have no problem with Trump firing Sessions, or Mueller or any attempts by Trump to interfere with the investigation. Because if, behind closed doors, they actually do then they are cowards. WASHINGTON -- Journalist Bob Woodward's new book and an op-ed by an anonymous administration official portray President Trump as dangerously capricious and amoral, exhibiting textbook symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and behaving in ways that suggest, to some, early signs of age-related dementia. But you knew that. We've all known about Trump from the beginning. We've known that he was entirely unfit to hold any public office, much less wield the awesome powers of the presidency, regardless of what political views he might have. Trump demonstrates this fact literally every single day. Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times published an extraordinary essay headlined, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." In it, an unnamed "senior official" claimed to be "working diligently from within," in concert with "many" colleagues, "to frustrate parts of [Trump's] agenda and his worst inclinations." The author went on to describe chaos, dysfunction and a president who changes his mind "from one minute to the next." Even more alarming, however, was the response from retiring Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, one of the few Republican officials who ever dare to criticize Trump, even mildly: "This is what all of us have understood to be the situation from day one." Trump's enablers in Congress have all been lying to us. They pretend there is a normal president in the White House instead of, let's be honest, a maniac. They know the risk the nation is running. They have the power to alleviate that risk but they do nothing, instead counting on "mature adults" in the administration to keep Trump from plunging the nation off some cliff. According to Woodward's book "Fear," Trump was going to pull the United States out of a trade agreement with South Korea, but former economic adviser Gary Cohn, who saw the move as unthinkable, simply swiped the order from Trump's desk before he could sign it. At another point, the book reports, Trump phoned Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and commanded him to assassinate Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. According to Woodward, Mattis played along, hung up the phone, and told an aide, "We're not going to do any of that." It feels as if we have entered a new phase of the Trump saga. As with all the prior phases, it's impossible to predict with confidence what will happen. But the combination of the Woodward book and the insider's op-ed feels like an inflection point. We learned about the insanity inside the West Wing months ago from Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury," but he got enough little things wrong to cast doubt on the big things he reported. We read it all again in Omarosa's "Unhinged," but she was a professional minor celebrity who'd had only glowing things to say about Trump until she got fired. Woodward, to say the least, is different. Beginning with Watergate and Deep Throat, Woodward has set the gold standard for Washington-based investigative reporting. He doesn't just get the goods; he keeps meticulous records, including recordings of many of his interviews. You will note that the denials coming from the Trump administration are actually carefully worded non-denials that skirt, rather than confront, the specifics of what Woodward wrote. His account supports what we've been told all along by award-winning White House correspondents from The Washington Post, the Times and other media organizations. As for the anonymous "senior official" who penned the op-ed in the Times, I'm not inclined to join the chorus of commentators who say he or she is being cowardly and instead should have gone public, resigned in front of television cameras, marched up to Congress and demanded to testify and ... and then what? Exactly what would such a performance achieve? Does anyone believe the Republican leadership in the House and Senate would actually do anything? As Corker said, Trump's unfitness has been obvious from the beginning. Republican officials have made the conscious decision to see, hear and speak no evil. We're probably better off with the "senior official" still in place, saving us from Trump's destructive whims. The whistleblower wrote that "there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment" by which Trump could be removed, but "no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis." After this week, however, it's clear that we're already in a constitutional crisis of frightening proportions. The Cabinet will not act. Congress, under GOP control, will not act. The internal "resistance" can only do so much. Voters are the last line of defense. You must save the day. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group WASHINGTON -- One of the major problems with President Trump's impulsivity is its utter predictability. A recent op-ed in The New York Times by an anonymous administration official accused the president of impetuous, reckless rants, and Trump responded with impetuous, reckless rants ("Treason?"). Bob Woodward's new book "Fear" recounts a private "nervous breakdown" in the administration and Trump responded with a public nervous breakdown -- accusing Woodward of being a "Dem operative" and raising a possible change in the libel laws. Amid this political crisis, Kim Jong Un expressed his "unwavering faith in President Trump" and the president reacted just as the North Korean leader surely knew he would -- touting the positive opinion of a homicidal despot on Twitter as a character reference. If you prick him, does he not explode? If you stroke him, does he not purr? The president's form of deception is qualitatively different from the deviousness of Richard Nixon or the smoothness of Bill Clinton. Trump pursues no deep or subtle strategies. He does not even consistently seek his own interests. He responds like a child or a narcissist -- but I repeat myself -- to positive or negative stimulation. It is the reason that a discussion on "Fox & Friends" can so often set the agenda of the president. It is the reason that Trump's lawyers, in the end, can't allow him to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. It would be like a 9-year-old defending a doctoral dissertation. Or maybe a rabbit jumping into a buzz saw. This lesson can't be lost on foreign intelligence services, which can pre-order a comprehensive account of the president's psychological and political vulnerabilities for $18 on Amazon. (Note: Woodward now owes me.) Here is the increasingly evident reality of the Trump era: We are a superpower run by a simpleton. From a foreign policy perspective, this is far worse than being run by a skilled liar. It is an invitation to both manipulation and contempt. The main response of Trump and his supporters is to point to the polls. Whatever the president is doing, most Republicans want more of it. As one apologist argues, "His personality is a feature, not a bug. Many Americans are comfortable with that." Put another way, a motivated group of Americans -- which largely controls the GOP nomination process -- is enjoying Trump's reality-television version of presidential politics. And you can't argue with the ratings. I can, and do. What we are finding from books, from insider leaks and from investigative journalism is that the rational actors who are closest to the president are frightened by his chaotic leadership style. They describe a total lack of intellectual curiosity, mental discipline and impulse control. Should the views of these establishment insiders really carry more weight than those of Uncle Clem in Scranton, Pennsylvania? Why yes, in this case, they should. We should listen to the voices of American populism in determining public needs and in setting policy agendas -- but not in determining political reality. We should be paying attention to the economic trends that have marginalized whole sections of the country. We should be alert to the failures and indifference of American elites. But we also need to understand that these trends -- which might have produced a responsible populism -- have actually, through a cruel trick of history, elevated a dangerous, prejudiced fool. Trump cannot claim the legitimacy of the genuine anxiety that helped produce him. The political and social wave is very real, but it is ridden by an unworthy leader. The right reasons have produced the wrong man. The testimony of the tell-alls is remarkably consistent. Some around Trump are completely corrupted by the access to power. But others -- who might have served in any Republican administration -- spend much of their time preventing the president from doing stupid and dangerous things. Woodward's book recounts one story in which economic adviser Gary Cohn heads off the American withdrawal from NAFTA by removing the notification letter from Trump's Oval Office desk. Think on that a moment. A massive change in economic policy was avoided -- not by some brilliant stratagem -- but by swiping a piece of paper and trusting in Trump's minuscule attention span. This turns out to be the best argument for the author of the Times op-ed -- and others like him or her -- to stay right where they are. The manipulation of the president in a good cause actually works. And those who engage in this task boldly and consistently are both losing their reputation and serving their country. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe, who had vowed not to vote for his old party in July elections, on Thursday said he accepted the outcome of the disputed poll. Mugabe said on the eve of the ballot he hoped his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party would be voted out of office, complaining they had "tormented" him when he was removed from power following a military intervention last year. He hinted that he would vote for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after the military and his once-loyal ZANU-PF lawmakers turned against him, ending his 37 years in power in just days. Mnangagwa won the election taking 50.8 per cent of the vote -- just enough to avoid a run-off against the MDC's Nelson Chamisa on 44.3 per cent. Chamisa challenged the result in court and lost. But speaking on Thursday at a wake following the funeral of his mother-in-law in Harare, Mugabe said Mnangagwa was the rightful president. "Mnangagwa is the winner. Things have been righted. We can't deny it," he said. It was his first public comment since the election. The 94-year-old spoke slowly and calmly, telling mourners "the past is gone, now it's time to unite and dialogue to build our nation". In a speech lasting about 40 minutes, Mugabe urged that the opposition "be allowed to peacefully" protest against the vote outcome. The country's top court dismissed the opposition bid to have the results annulled on grounds they were rigged. But Chamisa has rejected that ruling and vowed to lead "peaceful protests". Mugabe had not been seen in public since the election and even missed the inauguration of Mnangagwa on August 26, sending an apology that he was in Singapore for medical treatment. -PTI By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/07/2018 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. 's Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder have welcomed Baby No. 2.Jordan and Jeff, who competed on both and The Amazing Race, announced the big news on social media shortly after Jordan gave birth to their new baby boy on Thursday."Welcome to the world Layton Sarti Schroeder 8lbs 7oz -- 20.5 inches. Lawson is gonna be the best ! #family," Jeff captioned photos of the parents and their adorable newborn on Instagram. "@bbjordanlloyd did such a great job! Thank you to all the amazing Doctors & nurses."Lawson is the couple's first son, and he's now 22 months old.And Jordan shared the same pictures on Friday, writing on her own Instagram account, "I had a great delivery last night!! Everything went so smoothly & baby Layton came into this world while Bob Marley 'could you be loved' was playing in the background.""Couldn't have asked for a more chill delivery," she added."Thank you to my doctor & nurses here at the hospital! They are all rockstars. Layton Sarti Schroeder 8 pounds 7oz 20 1/2 inches."When Jordan was in labor, she shared a video on Instagram from her hospital room."I'm laughing now but these contractions are starting to get intense & it's just the beginning," Jordan captioned the clip.Jordan tweeted on Wednesday that she was hoping to go into labor by the end of the day: "September 5th is when @jeffschroeder23 & I got engaged (can't believe it's already been 4 years)."The reality TV stars revealed they were expecting their second child in March during an episode of Daily Blast Live, which is the YouTube news series Jeff anchors."We have a very special announcement that we want to tell everybody," Jeff, 40, said during the online news series.Lawson was noticeably wearing a baby blue T-shirt that read, "Soon to be a .""We're having a baby but we don't know what we're having yet!" Jeff revealed at the time. "Baby No. 2 is on the way!"Jeff and Jordan met on 's eleventh season back in 2009.Jordan was crowned the winner of BB11, but Jeff at least walked away with the honor and title of "America's Favorite Houseguest."The couple -- who competed on The Amazing Race's 16th season -- later returned to compete on Season 13 of in 2011 and then got engaged during a 2014 episode of the show's sixteenth edition.Jeff and Jordan were planning to marry in September 2016; however, the situation changed once Jordan found out she was pregnant in February of that year.The pair therefore wed in a courthouse on March 15, 2016 in front of their loved ones. The former reality TV stars -- who also appeared on Marriage Boot Camp -- then welcomed Lawson in October of that year. Athens, GA (30605) Today Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 51F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Low near 40F. Winds light and variable. WINSTED The American Museum of Tort Law recently announced the launch of a Leaders In Law series, which begins Sept. 27 with nationally acclaimed attorney Thomas Girardi,whose work was highlighted in the movie Erin Brockovich. The 2018 Leaders In Law presentation series will showcase the nations top legal minds, sharing remarkable stories about hard won victories gained through their extensive, challenging and impressive careers. Part Interview, part Master Class, the series will be presented in a Town Hall style format with the opportunity for live, interactive conversation. Along with Girardi, 2018 Leaders In Law presenters include attorneys Thomas Fortune Fay and John Barylick. With the Leaders In Law series, the museum continues to provide an intelligent platform for culturally, politically and legally relevant discourse with the most provocative voices in law today. Please join us and be part of these conversations, said the museums executive director Rick Newman. Seating is limited. For additional details on the Leaders In Law series, and to reserve tickets, visit www.tortmuseum.org or call 860-379-0505. Admission is $20 per lecture or $50 for the series. For the Sept. 27 event, the museum will open for tours at 6 p.m., followed by the program at 7 p.m., a master class at 7:35 p.m., and time for questions at 8:15 p.m. The museum book store will open after the program. While Thomas Girardi has garnered many multi-million dollar verdicts, including high profile cases against Lockheed Martin, Merck and the L.A. Dodgers, he is perhaps best known for the case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company, where he successfully represented 650 residents of Hinkley, California who blamed increased incidents of cancer and other diseases on contaminated water leaked from a gas pumping station. Pacific Gas & Electric Company ultimately paid the Hinkley residents $460 million. This case was inspiration for the movie Erin Brockovich. Honors: Trial Lawyer of the Year from Lawyers For Public Justice; induction into Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame by California State Bar; multiple honors as Best Lawyer by the Best Lawyers publication and the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Girardi received his J.D. from Loyola Law School and his L.L.M. from the New York University School of Law. Prosecutors in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have used physical violence in recent weeks to try to force ailing veteran rights activist Huang Qi, founder of the Tianwang rights website, to "admit his crimes," RFA has learned. Apparently frustrated that Huang refuses to plead guilty to charges of "leaking state secrets overseas," prosecutors from Sichuan's Mianyang city have been beating him about the head in a bid to extract a "confession," defense attorney Liu Zhengqing said on . Huang's mother Pu Wenqing, who has repeatedly dismissed the charges as trumped-up, said her son has sustained injuries from the "interrogation" sessions. "The prosecutor stationed [in the detention center] hit his chest with a water bottle, and he has a number of injuries to his chest," Pu told RFA on . "Their aim ... was to force him to confess, but he refused to do that, so they beat him." Pu said Huang, who was formally arrested by the state prosecution office in Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, in on charges of "illegally supplying state secrets overseas," is in very poor health, with deteriorating kidney function. "He only gets two hours' sleep a night, and he has lost weight again after already losing more than 20 pounds," she said. Repeated calls to the Mianyang Detention Center rang unanswered during office hours on . Huang's trial has been repeatedly delayed by the authorities, amid fears that he may die in detention. Pu has previously said she has documentary evidence that the authorities are deliberately carrying out an act of revenge on Huang after he helped some of the most vulnerable groups in China lodge official complaints against the ruling Chinese Communist Party and local governments. Huang, 55, has been held in the police-run Mianyang Detention Center for more than a year, amid fears that he may be subjected to torture or mistreatment. 'Top secret' document questioned The case is currently pending at the Mianyang Intermediate Peoples Court, but his trial was canceled suddenly after being scheduled for. Pu says that one of the supposedly "top secret" documents Huang is alleged to have shared overseas comes from a local neighborhood committee office, and is highly unlikely to be genuinely "Top Secret." The document relates to a complaint made by Chen Tianmao, a former police officer of the Mianyang Public Security Bureau, who was petitioning the authorities over his disability. Tianwang posted an article on the case, that was later picked up by overseas media. Repeated applications for Huang's release on bail or medical parole have been ignored or turned down by the authorities. Huang issued a statement before his detention saying that if he ever committed "suicide" in detention, that it should be regarded as homicide, because he would never take his own life. He also told his defense attorney that any attempt to force a confession out of him would end up "making a corpse." Activists say the ruling Chinese Communist Party appears in recent years to be deliberately accelerating the deaths of political prisoners. Nobel peace laureate and political prisoner Liu Xiaobo died in July 2017, just weeks after being diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer, and repeated requests from his family to seek medical treatment overseas were ignored. And human rights activist Cao Shunli died in police detention on March 14, 2014, after repeated requests for her release to seek medical treatment. Huang has already served a sentence of three years in prison from after launching an investigation into shoddy school construction blamed for thousands of deaths during a massive 2008 earthquake. Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is clamping down on any public discussion of an outbreak of African swine fever among its pig population, shutting down social media accounts and detaining users who warn others not to eat pork. On Aug. 25, a video of police detaining a woman in her home in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong went viral, with commenters focusing on the arbitrary detention of the woman by officers who said "because we are the police," when she asked them why she was being detained. Local media reports indicated that the woman was detained for "rumor-mongering" after warning her social media friends not to eat pork or chicken because of the risk of disease in the wake of disastrous flooding in Shandong. While her warning wasn't directly related to African swine flu, many others who have posted concerns to social media about the safety of consuming pork have had their accounts shut down, sources told RFA. "She was talking about [the safety of eating pork] on a chat app when she was detained by police," a Shandong resident surnamed Liu said. "The party doesn't want the people talking; they want to shut down any information about this." He said many people believe, via word of mouth, that the virus arrived in China via infected Russian pork. "But all [the government] will do is shut you down and won't put out any announcements," he said. "They report it [internally] to disease prevention centers, but they won't tell the general public about it." State secret Ren Ruihong, former head of the medical assistance department at the Chinese Red Cross, said Chinese officials regard information about disease outbreaks and epidemics as a state secret. "There is a total blackout on this right now; they are just not reporting it," Ren told RFA. "They are now detaining people for talking about this; you can't even talk about it on WeChat." "People have been detained for talking about it on WeChat," Ren said. Ren said some people fear that African swine flu could mutate to a form that could infect, and be transmittable between, humans. "That was the case with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ... so isolation is the safest form of prevention," Ren said. China's public health procedures came under intense scrutiny after an official attempt to cover up the extent of the deadly SARS epidemic of 2003 was exposed by a military doctor in Beijing. SARS spread from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong to other Asian countries and by the summer of 2003, when the disease was contained, more than 8,000 people had been infected and more than 900 had died, according to the World Health Organization. The doctor was detained for several months in 2004 at an undisclosed location, while editors at a newspaper in the southern province of Guangdong that broke news about the SARS virus were also harassed and detained. More cities affected? Ren said the current epidemic may have already spread far beyond the cities indicated in official reports. "Judging by the current speed that it is spreading, it should have reached many cities by now, but they may just not be saying anything," Ren said. "If it gets to Sichuan, that would be terrible, because it will mean that the entire Chinese pig supply chain is unsalvageable." The China Center for Animal Health and Epidemiology found that the strain behind the current epidemic had gene sequences corresponding to a strain found in Georgia in 2007 and in Irkutsk, Russia last year. An employee who answered the phone at the center declined a request for an interview. "You need to keep checking the website of the Ministry of Agriculture," she said. "That's what we're doing; we don't have any other information than that ... so I can't answer your questions." When asked if the African swine fever outbreak was linked to imported Russian pork, the employee said she had no knowledge of the research. "I can't answer it because I didn't do the ... research in this area," she said. An official at the Ministry of Agriculture denied that the epidemic had spread further than had been officially reported. "There isn't any [African swine flu] in any other provinces ... so you don't believe official information channels, huh?" the official said. "Where are you calling from? If you have any knowledge of an outbreak, you can report it and we will verify it with you." "Don't talk rubbish about things you don't know about." Authorities have reported 13 outbreaks across the country since last month. Forbidden to worry Former top Communist Party aide Bao Tong hit out at the administration of President Xi Jinping over the information blackout. "There have been a number of outbreaks of African swine flu across China in the past month or more, and all the authorities have done is issue a notice telling people it's OK to eat pork ... and that they shouldn't worry," Bao wrote in a commentary for RFA's Mandarin Service. "Then ... well, there was no 'then.' They never made any more information public after that," he wrote. "Why? Because they are afraid to lose face, afraid to follow this up, afraid of questions about who is responsible, afraid of social instability?" "The authorities' thoughts and secrets aren't for us ordinary mortals to know. We are forbidden to worry," Bao said. Reported by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man by RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Xu Qin, a key figure in the China Human Rights Observer group, is shown in an undated photo. Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu have released a prominent rights activist on "bail" from criminal detention after holding her since February, but she remains under close police surveillance, RFA has learned. Xu Qin, a key figure in the China Human Rights Observer group founded by jailed veteran dissident Qin Yongmin, was held on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a public order charge typically used in the initial detention of activists. She had been a vocal supporter of a number of high-profile human rights cases, including that of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng. Zhang Enguang, an associate of Xu's from the eastern province of Shandong, said he had received a brief call from Xu at the beginning of the month saying that she was now out on bail. "We didn't speak for long, because she was using a phone and SIM card supplied by [the police]," Zhang told RFA. "Out of the seven months that she was incommunicado, she spent the first month in detention." "After she got out of detention, she was held under residential surveillance at a designated location," he said. "She now has another year to go under bail conditions." He added: "We know that Rose China [an affiliate of China Rights Observer] looks dead in the water right now, given that Qin Yongmin was just sentenced to 13 years." Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei handed down a 13-year jail term to veteran pro-democracy campaigner and rights activist Qin Yongmin on July 11, after finding him guilty of subversion. Qin, 65, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment by the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court, which convicted him of "incitement to subvert state power." He had served nearly 26 years in jail prior to the latest sentence. Zhang said he believes Xu was released as a result of Qin's jailing. "I think that the pressure on Xu Qin eased up after the sentencing of Qin Yongmin," he said. Hubei-based Rose China activist Wu Lijuan said Xu is still likely under close police surveillance, because she hasn't heard from her yet. "I think that Xu Qin has been innocent right from the start, and she should have had her freedom all along," Wu said. "Also, I haven't been able to get in contact with Xu Qin yet, so I'm pretty sure that the authorities [are behind this], not letting her get online." "There are bound to be certain restrictions still in place," she said. Xu's husband Guo Mingwen confirmed Wu's suspicions. "I think the surveillance is continuing ... residential surveillance," Guo told RFA in a brief interview on Wednesday. Asked when Xu would likely return to normal life, he replied: "I don't think that's going to happen, not in China. I don't think so." Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay comments on a decision by the International Criminal Court concerning jurisdiction over the alleged crime of deportation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, at a press conference in Naypyidaw, Sept. 7, 2018. A decision by the International Criminal Court that it has jurisdiction over the alleged crime of deportation of hundreds of thousands of Myanmars Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh during a military crackdown last year drew a swift rebuff on Friday from the Myanmar government, but was praised by rights groups that want to see those responsible for atrocities against the minority group brought to justice. The ICCs chief prosecutor in April requested a ruling on whether the international tribunal could exercise jurisdiction over the country for what she called the alleged deportation of more than 700,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine state during a crackdown by security forces that began on Aug. 25, 2017, even though Myanmar is not a party to the Rome Treaty which established the court. The ICC gave Myanmar a July 27 deadline to submit a written response to the request for a jurisdiction ruling, but the government failed to comply, calling the request meritless and saying it should be dismissed. A statement by President Win Myints office expressed regret over the majority decision announced on Thursday by the ICCs pre-trial chamber and repeated its stance that it has no obligation to adhere to it. Myanmar absolutely rejects the decision which is the result of faulty procedure and is of dubious legal merit, the statement said. The government again denied the allegation of deportation, adding that it has signed bilateral agreements with the Bangladeshi government to repatriate those who were displaced, and cited its creation of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine state, headed by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, to make recommendations for forging peace, stability, and development in Rakhine. Earlier at a brief news conference in Naypyidaw, government spokesman Zaw Htay said Myanmar had laid out its position on the matter in an official statement on Aug. 9. The ICCs decision said it can rule on Myanmar, but didnt cite any evidence, he said. To rule on Myanmar, prosecutors must submit evidence at the ICC, and the ICC has to investigate. This step has not taken place yet. On Aug. 27, however, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, working under a mandate from the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said the evidence it weighed showed that Myanmar military leaders should be referred to the ICC, for abuses that undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law. Bangladeshs Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque welcomed the ICCs decision, adding that the court had sought the countrys assistance in determining whether it had jurisdiction over the issue. What I can say is that the ICC has ruled in line with what our submission says, he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Bangladesh hosts approximately 1.1 million Rohingya refugees from the August 2017 crackdown, from a smaller scale campaign in October 2016, and from previous bouts of violence in Rakhine. Mixed reactions Rights groups, lawmakers, and politicians in Myanmar had mixed reactions to the news. Human rights lawyer Thein Than Oo said the government should not be concerned about an investigation by the ICC if its not guilty of committing atrocities against the Rohingya. If Myanmar didnt commit any crime, such as genocide or ethnic cleansing, what does it have to be afraid of? Just let the ICC investigate. If it does, Myanmar will regain the dignity that it has lost. Thein Tun Oo, spokesman for the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a military-linked party, said the government should not be silent on the matter. It has to speak out by standing by the military when the ICC says it can issue a ruling on Myanmar, he said. We are worried about having problems because of the governments silence and the ICCs speedy steps to prosecute Myanmar. Lawyer Aung Thein said that if the ICC prosecutes Myanmar, it will do so according to its own procedures. That means that the ICC will not consider whether the Myanmar government is working on the issue by ignoring international pressure because it wants reconciliation with the military, he said. Political analyst Than Soe Naing noted that State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has faced scathing international criticism for defending the militarys actions in Rakhine, stands with the armed forces on many issues because she wants national reconciliation. This is the time for the government and the military to talk openly about the differences between them about their stance on national reconciliation to protect the nations sovereignty, he said. Than Soe Naing also downplayed reports and a large body of evidence that soldiers had carried out indiscriminate killings, torture, rape, and arson in Rohingya communities during the crackdown. In late August, investigators from the U.N.s human rights body issued a report in which they said Myanmar military leaders should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya and identified six officials that it said were responsible for crimes targeting the ethnic minority. There might have been some violence [by the military], but I believe it was not genocide or ethnic cleansing, Than Soe Naing said. Pe Than, a lawmaker from the Arakan National Party (ANP), which represents the interests of ethnic Rakhines in Rakhine state, warned that the ICCs prosecution of top military officials identified as responsible for the crackdown could damage Myanmars peace process to end decades of civil war in the country. The governments peace process and its efforts to solve the Bengali problem would become disadvantageous, and we are worried about that, he said, using a derogatory term to refer to the Rohingya, whom Myanmar considers illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though many have lived in the country for generations. We dont want that, Pe Than said. Thats why we support the current governments stance [on this issue], which hurts nobody. If the ICC takes strong actions against Myanmar, we could have internal and external conflicts. Rohingya refugees shout slogans during a protest march marking the first anniversary of a Myanmar military crackdown that sparked a massive exodus to camps in Bangladesh, at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia subdistrict, southeastern Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, Aug. 25, 2018. Credit: AFP Military 'can be prosecuted Sai Late, spokesman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) party, which campaigns for the interests of the ethnic Shan people, agreed with the ICCs determination that Myanmar can be prosecuted even though its not a signatory of the Rome Statute. It can be prosecuted if its actions have affected another country, he said, referring to Bangladesh. If the ICC can submit concrete evidence that shows that the actions of Myanmars military affected another country, then military leaders can definitely be prosecuted, he said. If this occurs, then Myanmar could face a general crisis. If we encounter conflicts, we dont know whether the government and the military will work together to solve them or try to leave each other in the lurch, Sai Late said. Khun Ja, a leader of the Kachin Peace Network said he approved the ICCs decision. If the ICC can investigate human rights violations by Myanmars military, then I welcome it because the military has been committing many crimes for generations, he said. Though lower-ranking soldiers have been punished, top generals who ordered the crimes are still free. Whether or not the ICC is successful with its prosecution, there is a good chance for the country to have better military and government by doing this, he said. Last months findings by the U.N.s human rights fact-finding mission included Myanmar army atrocities in Shan and Kachin states, where fighting has gone on for decades. Mohammad Khaled, a Rohingya leader at the Balukhali refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh, demanded that the alleged perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine be brought before the ICC. The Myanmar government cannot ensure justice for us, he told BenarNews. The military must be tried for the crimes. We welcome the ICC [ruling] and eagerly wait to see their trial through the ICC. The first steps towards justice The ICCs ruling prompted international rights organizations to renew their calls for the prosecution of military officers responsible for ordering and overseeing the violence. Myanmar military officers who think they are above the law may finally face consequences for their criminal acts, said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement issued Thursday. The U.N. Security Council should now refer the whole situation in Myanmar to the ICC so that all victims of atrocities, including those in Kachin and Shan states, get their day in court, she said. Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the Chicago-based Burma Task Force, welcomed the ICCs decision. In all my meetings with the Rohingya survivors of genocide, the first thing they ask for is justice, he said in a statement issued Thursday. Today, I believe, the world has taken the first steps towards a long process of bringing justice to the Rohingya people. On Friday, Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights, called the courts decision monumental, but a first step. The NGO issued an extensive report in July detailing how Myanmar authorities made extensive and systematic plans for attacks on Rohingya civilians in Rakhine state months before Muslim militants carried out the deadly assaults on police outposts in August 2017 which triggered the crackdown. This decision should inspire more international action, not less, he said in a statement. An ICC referral from the Security Council now would enable the court to investigate the full spectrum of atrocities against Rohingya, Kachin, Shan, and others. Nine members of the 15-member U.N. Security Council would need to vote in favor of a resolution to refer the situation to the ICC, but any of the five permanent members the U.S., the United Kingdom, China, Russia, or France could veto the move. A milestone decision Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty Internationals South Asia director, called the decision a significant step in the right direction which opens up a clear avenue of justice for the Rohingya who were driven out of their homes, often as soldiers opened fire on them and burned down their villages. The court has sent a clear signal to the Myanmar military that they will be held accountable, he said in a statement released Friday. Charles Santiago, chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights and a member of Malaysias parliament, said: The is a milestone decision and a step forward towards accountability for the alleged atrocity crimes against the Rohingya population. [I]t remains imperative that we continue to seek other international justice mechanisms, as well as the United Nations Security Council referral of Myanmar to the ICC for the wide array of atrocity crimes its leaders have been accused, including genocide and other crimes against humanity, he said in a statement issued Friday. That doesnt mean that the international community can take our collective foot off the pedal, he said. On Monday, Myanmar came under additional fire after two Reuters reporters in the country were sentenced to seven years in prison on what many say are trumped-up charges of violating the countrys Official Secrets Act for reporting on a massacre of 10 Rohingya in a village in Rakhine. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) took Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to task in a statement on Thursday for remaining silent following its call for her to use her moral authority to ensure that journalists are free to do their jobs in Myanmar without fear of arrest. But nothing, absolutely nothing, forces you as the Union of Myanmars head of government, to observe this deafening silence, wrote RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire. Nothing forces you to refer to journalists coverage of Rakhine state as a huge iceberg of misinformation, he continued. Nothing forces you to go down in history as someone who betrayed the ideals on which she built her reputation. Reported by Thiha Tun, Wai Mar Tun, and Khin Khin Ei for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Turghunjan Tursun, a Uyghur from Yarkand, who says that more than a dozen of his family members, including his wife and young sons, have been detained in political reeducation camps because he has been living since in Turkey since 2014. 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 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. Turghunjan Tursun, a Uyghur from Yarkand (in Chinese, Shache) county, in the XUARs Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture, recently said in a video posted to social media that more than a dozen of his family members, including his wife and young sons, have been detained in the camps because he has been living since 2014 in Turkeyone of more than 20 countries blacklisted by Chinas government because of the perceived threat of religious extremism. Tursun provided further details about his family members in a recent interview with RFAs Uyghur Service and said that while he initially held back from discussing their cases for fear of further reprisals against his relatives in the XUAR, he decided to come forward with his story because he has nothing left to lose. RFA: Could you tell us about your claims in the video you have posted on social media regarding the tragic story of your family? Tursun: I arrived in Turkey in June 2014 and since then, my wife, my four sons, and my sisters and brothers have all been arrested. They were arrested simply because I am living in Turkey. My eldest son, Abdushukur, is 23 years old. He was arrested in Guangzhou in September 2015. My wife, Arzigul Tursun, was arrested in Yarkand countys Egechi Bazar with my two young sons, aged five and seven. My seven-year-old sons name is Seytulla and my five-year-old son is named Mujayit. Another son is Alimjan, and he was arrested in Yarkand countys Yarkand Bazar. My five- and seven-year-old sons were separated from their mother after she was arrested and I dont know where they are now, or if they are even still alive. None of them have committed any crimes, and neither have I, but even if I wanted to return to my homeland, it is impossible now. My eldest sister Gulember Tursun, her husband Ismetulla Qawul, and their son Abdureshit Ismetullah lived in Egechis No.19 village, but my sister and her husband were detained. I dont know which re-education camp or prison they are held in at the moment. My other elder sisters Horniyaz Tursun and Nurimangul Tursun have both been taken for re-education. My younger sister, Gulsenem Ismetullah, was living in Yarkand Bazar at the time of her arrest, which was also because I am living in Turkey. I dont know where they are held, or if they are alive or not. My eldest sisters son, Abdureshit Ismetulla, sent money to me once, and he was given an 18-year prison sentence for doing it. Her second son, Abduqaxar Ismetulla, was also arrested, and he was also handed an 18-year prison sentence for speaking to me over the phone. RFA: What encouraged you to come forward and disclose information about their cases? Tursun: I am the reason for the arrests of all my family members, and my only crime is that I am living in Turkey. I thought it is better for me to burn in the center of the fire than remain on the outside, so I decided to expose what has happened to my family and relatives. I am struggling to find words to express my feelings. We have all jumped into the fire, and sadly my wife and my young children are suffering the most from the flames. I thought that by revealing all of the atrocities perpetrated against us by the Chinese government, I might find some comfort and a sense that somehow my family has been avenged. Reported by Gulchehra Hoja for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Three Vietnamese citizens active on Facebook have disappeared in police custody during the last week, with local authorities dodging questions from family members about those believed to have been detained, Vietnamese sources said. One, Ngo Van Dunga resident of Buon Me Thuot city in the central highlands province of Dak Lakvanished on Sept. 4, Dungs wife Kim Nga told RFAs Vietnamese Service on Friday. On Sept. 4, some friends of his in Saigon told me that he had been detained and was at the Ben Nghe commune police station, Nga said. I traveled 400 kilometers to Saigon to see him, but when I got to the police station, they told me to go [to another place]. Directed next to two other stations, Nga was finally told to ask about her husband at a commune called Ben Thanh, she said. At Ben Thanh, police confirmed that they had detained him, but said they had already transferred him to the authorities in our own hometown, she said. I then went back to Dak Lak to wait for information, but have still not heard anything more about him. Called by RFA for comment, an officer at the Ben Thanh police station denied any knowledge of Dungs arrest. Meanwhile, two other Vietnamese active on FacebookXuan Hong and Pham Vu Phongwere reported by their families to have been detained on Sept. 2 in the Dong Hung Thuan commune of Saigons District 12. Speaking to RFA, family members said they had gone to commune police offices to ask where the detained were being held, but were sent to other police offices in the district, which also denied knowledge of the arrests. As of Sept. 7, none of the families of those in custody had received formal notice of, or explanations for, the detentions, relatives told RFA. Vietnam, with a population of 92 million people, of which 55 million are estimated to be users of Facebook, has been consistently rated "not free" in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group. Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Richard Finney. Armenian lawmakers on September 6 voted overwhelmingly to increase penalties for giving people cash and other enticements to vote for a particular candidate, party, or programs during elections and referendums. All 66 deputies who were present in the 101-seat National Assembly voted in favor of the proposal in the first reading of a government-drafted bill to criminalize electoral bribes in any form -- whether a promise of cash or provision of cash on preferential terms, provision of food, services, or other enticements under the guise of charity -- during campaigning periods. Under the amendments to Armenian criminal statutes, any violation may land the offender in prison for up to six years. Deputy Justice Minister Artur Hovannisian presented the bill to parliament and urged lawmakers to back it. We really need to make sure that citizens make their choices freely, he said, noting that some ways of trying to lure votes currently are punished only with fines of up to 2.5 million drams (about $5,150). "We find that such deeds amount to vote buying. And today vote buying is criminally punishable, he said. YEREVAN -- Ahead of a visit to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has called for developing "much more strategic and cooperative" relations with Russia. Pashinian made the comments in an interview with the Defense Ministry's Armed Forces TV that was set to be aired on September 8. His spokesman, Arman Yeghoyan, posted an excerpt on Facebook on September 7. In the interview, Pashinian stressed that relations with Russia have a special importance for the South Caucasus nation. "Our relations should be at a much higher level. They should be much more strategic, much more cooperative, and much more brotherly," he said. Nagorno-Karabakh Pashinian is set to meet with Putin in Moscow on September 8. It will be their third meeting since Pashinian, formerly an opposition lawmaker, was elected prime minister after leading a wave of antigovernment protests in May. Putin will host the Armenian leader one week after meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the southern Russian city of Sochi. Analysts expect the long-standing dispute over the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be a leading topic of the meeting. Along with the United States and France, Russia co-chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk Group, which is the principal international entity seeking to resolve the protracted Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Another issue likely to be discussed is Yerevan's prosecution of former government officials. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov twice publicly denounced the prosecutions that came after the change of government in Yerevan, arguing that they ran counter to the new Armenian leadership's earlier pledges not to "persecute its predecessors for political reasons." Problems Downplayed Among the officials who have been charged are former President Robert Kocharian and former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov, both of whom are accused of breaching the constitutional order during a deadly postelection crackdown in 2008. Khachaturov currently chairs the Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), of which Armenia is a member. After launching a criminal probe against Khachaturov in late July, Yerevan initiated a procedure to recall him from the top CSTO post. In a live Facebook broadcast on September 2, Pashinian downplayed problems in Yerevan's relations with Moscow, describing them as a "working process taking their natural course." Earlier this week, Pashinian also downplayed the significance of political implications behind Putins birthday congratulations to Kocharian on August 31, which were taken by some analysts as a sign of Moscow's backing for the former Armenian leader, who announced a return to active politics earlier last month. Demonstrators stormed the Iranian Consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, damaging offices before setting the building on fire, security officials and witnesses say. Security officials said the consulate was empty when the Iraqi protesters set the building ablaze on September 7 and shouted condemnation of what they perceive as Tehrans excessive influence over Iraqs political situation. The violence occurred during the fifth day of bloody demonstrations by Iraqis against their government, with at least 11 people being killed in Basra in clashes with security forces and many official buildings being ransacked and set on fire. The casualties were reported on September 7 as the authorities announced a citywide curfew in Basra beginning at 9 p.m. local time. Iran and Iraq -- enemies in a brutal eight-year war that ended in 1988 -- have developed close ties since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 by a U.S.-led invasion. Shi'a-led Iran has become heavily involved in Iraq's political affairs and sponsors powerful Shi'ite militia groups that played a role in defeating Islamic State (IS) extremists last year. Iraq's population is 60-65 percent Shia, 15-20 percent Sunni Arab, and 17 percent Sunni Kurd, creating a tense balance of power in the country. News agencies quoted Basra residents and protesters as saying they have become angered by corruption, mismanagement, and a collapse of infrastructure that has led to a loss of electricity and safe drinking water in the blazing summer heat. Smaller protests have been reported in other cities, including the capital, Baghdad, and Karbala. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi's national security council met on September 7 and said it was investigating reports of casualties in protests over the five-day period. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leading authority among members of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, blamed the countrys political leaders for the unrest and said a new government different from its predecessors" should be formed. "This reality cannot change if the next government is formed according to the same criteria adopted when forming previous governments. Pressure must be exerted for the new government to be different from its predecessors," the 88-year-old Sistani said. Abadi and powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced on June 23 that they had agreed on a political coalition to form a new government after inconclusive national elections. Sadr's political bloc, which includes communists, won 54 seats in the the legislative elections, making it the largest grouping in Iraq's 329-seat parliament. The political uncertainty helped raise tensions amid growing public anger over poor basic services, unemployment, and the slow pace of rebuilding following the long battle with the Islamic State (IS) militant group. The Western-backed government has also attempted to delicately balance relations with the United States and mainly Shiite Iran, which are bitter rivals. With reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia and Iran that an attack by Syrian government forces and their allies on Idlib Province, the last rebel stronghold in the war-ravaged Middle Eastern country, would result in a "massacre." Erdogan spoke on September 7 at a summit in Tehran with Iranian President Hassan Rohani and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said Syria's government "has the right" to recapture the entire country and opposed Erdogan's call for a cease-fire in Idlib. The summit ended with a pledge to seek ways to resolve the situation in the northwestern province, where residents, rights activists, and foreign states fear an expected government offensive could cause high civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe. "Any attack launched or to be launched on Idlib will result in a disaster, a massacre, and a very big humanitarian tragedy," said Erdogan. "We never want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath." "If we can announce a cease-fire today here, I believe this will be one of the most important steps of this summit," he said. "This will bring comfort to civilians. I think making such an announcement will be a victory for this summit." Rohani said that the fight in Syria should continue until all extremists are "uprooted," especially in Idlib, but that the battle there should not harm civilians. Putin said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government "has the right to and must ultimately take control of all its national territory." He voiced opposition to Erdogan's call for a cease-fire, saying that the rebels were not at the talks and a decision on a truce could not be made for them. Instead, Putin said, he and Erdogan and Rohani discussed a "phased stabilization" in Idlib that could involve peace agreements with government opponents who are "ready for dialogue." A joint statement issued after the summit said that Iran, Russia, and Turkey agreed to look for ways to resolve the situation in the province, and contained few details. Hours before the presidents met, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that air strikes hit parts of Idlib province on September 7. Meanwhile, Idlib residents held mass rallies to protest against Assad and the anticipated government offensive. "Leave, Bashar!" hundreds of protesters chanted in Saraqeb, a town in eastern Idlib. "We will defend our revolution." Putin -- traveling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov -- met with Erdogan before the trilateral talks. There are tens of thousands of rebels in Idlib Province, which borders Turkey. An estimated 10,000 Al-Qaeda-linked fighters are among those rebels, and Idlib is also home to about 3 million civilians -- nearly half of them displaced from other parts of Syria. Russia and Iran are both allies of the Syrian government, which has set its sights on retaking Idlib in what it sees as the next critical step to clinching a military victory in the seven-year civil war that has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions. For the Syrian government and Russia, the province is also strategically important because it borders Latakia Province, Assad's main stronghold and the site of Russia's biggest air base in the country, as well as its naval facility. Turkey backs many of the rebel groups in the province but recently moved toward its negotiating partners in declaring that the Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, is a "terrorist organization" that should be eliminated. Russian officials have said "terrorist" groups should be "liquidated," but the Russian military has also said it is seeking to separate out extremist fighters from other rebel groups supported by Turkey. The joint statement said the three countries agree on the need to eliminate the Al-Nusra Front and the extremist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria. As Putin and Erdogan were arriving in Tehran, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes were targeting positions belonging to rebel groups in the northern Hama and southern Idlib provinces. It said strikes on September 7 destroyed a building near the town of Al-Habeet used by the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group, which is separate from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, resulting in a number of casualties. Assad's government has been massing thousands of troops in preparation for an assault. Russia, which has provided air support to the Syrian Army since 2015, has made a big show of force by moving 10 warships and two submarines off the coast of Syria. A spokesman for the National Front for Liberation, a Turkey-backed rebel alliance, said the group's fighters are prepared for battle but are looking to Turkey for efforts to prevent the attack and "protect Idlib." The rebels expect a major humanitarian crisis, a large wave of displacement, and heavy casualties if a Russia-backed offensive takes place, spokesman Najib al-Mustafa said. Western powers, which never formally entered the conflict other than to back Kurdish-led militias instrumental in ousting IS from its northern stronghold in 2017, have largely watched the brewing battle in Idlib from the sidelines. The United States, France, and Britain have warned, however, that they would take action if Assad uses chemical weapons in his assault on Idlib, as he allegedly has done in battles to retake other parts of the country. Russia and Syria and have denied planning a chemical weapons attack, but U.S. special adviser for Syria Jim Jeffrey told reporters on September 6 that "there is lots of evidence" that chemical weapons are being prepared by government forces in Idlib. He said that "any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation" of the war. Putin said in Tehran that "terrorists" were planning "provocations" in Syria, including the potential use of chemical weapons -- repeating a frequent Russian claim that has been dismissed by the United States and other Western governments. He did not provide evidence. The UN has warned that an all-out offensive in Idlib will lead to death and destruction even greater than that seen previously in Syria, including the displacement of another 800,000 civilians -- most of whom are likely to seek refuge in nearby Turkey, which already hosts 3.5 million war refugees. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, said the world is looking to Russia, Turkey, and Iran to find a "soft solution to the crisis." "There are indeed many more babies than there are terrorists in Idlib. There are a million children," he said. De Mistura's call on the negotiators -- in particular the main power broker, Russia -- to protect civilians was echoed by eight European countries in a joint statement on September 6. Iranian fighters have provided critical support for Assad throughout the war. The presidents of Turkey, Russia, and Iran have met to discuss Syria three times in less than a year. Their previous meetings, in Sochi and Ankara, established so-called deescalation zones in several areas, including Idlib, that temporarily reduced violence. All these agreements were later violated, however, as Syrian troops backed by Russia and Iran moved to retake those areas after strafing them with artillery and air strikes -- a pattern which could be repeated in Idlib. In regaining control over other parts of Syria in the last year, Russian-brokered surrender deals offered safe passage for tens of thousands of rebels and their families to Idlib, which is why the province became the last bastion of the armed resistance. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa, Interfax, TASS, and Rossia-24 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised a lot of eyebrows when he voiced Kremlin concern on September 3 that the situation in Armenia is heating up. "Yes, [the weather] was quite hot today," wisecracked Armenia's maverick leader, Nikol Pashinian, when asked to comment on Lavrovs observation. Pashinians quip on September 3 epitomizes the new prime minister's carefree attitude toward relations with Russia, tiny Armenia's longtime big brother upon which Yerevan is dependent economically and militarily. Pashinian was equally relaxed when asked about a much ballyhooed congratulatory phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin to former Armenian President Robert Kocharian for his 64th birthday on August 31. It is a matter of personal relations, said Pashinian on September 4. Putins call -- reportedly his first birthday greeting for Kocharian in more than a decade -- was featured on the Kremlin website and came just two weeks after Kocharian vowed to come out of retirement and reenter politics to challenge Pashinians government. I can say that [Putin] values human relations very much, Pashinian deadpanned about the call to Kocharian. You saw recentlythat he attended a wedding ceremony for a high-ranking Austrian official, which shows that human ties are of special importance to him, he said, referring to Putins much lampooned attendance at the wedding of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl in August. But Putin's sudden support for Kocharian -- who was charged in late July with overthrowing constitutional order for his alleged role in authorizing violent attacks by security forces on antigovernment demonstrators in 2008 -- has irked the Armenian public, which has been firmly behind Pashinian since his government came to power in May. WATCH: Pashinian Becomes Armenia's New Prime Minister But Kocharian has harshly criticized Pashinian's government, claiming the criminal charges against him are revenge on the part of Pashinian and other opposition leaders present at the 2008 mass protests who are now in government. Lavrov has twice made critical statements of the investigation by Pashinian's government of those demonstrations, during which the head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Yuri Khatchaturov, was also charged. "The [call for the arrest] of the CSTO head without informing the Russians first really kind of took them by surprise," Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, told RFE/RL. "And reaffirmed this perception that Russians had about Pashinian -- based on his track record of previous slogans when he was an opposition leader about moving away from Russia." Putin and Pashinian will be able to discuss the latest in their countries' relations when they meet on September 8 in Moscow. Soft Velvet Support Many analysts were surprised by the Kremlin's relative silence during the Pashinian-led mass protests that forced longtime Armenian politico Serzh Sarkisian to resign as prime minister in an event known as the "Velvet Revolution" -- which resembled the "colored" revolutions in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine that Putin has previously reviled. From the point of view of Russia, Armenia is a dangerous example of nonviolent power change and people's power, Yerevan-based analyst Richard Giragosian told the Armenian news website factor.am on August 25. It is also dangerous because the...events [in Armenia] have shown how easy power can be removed. Not only Russia, but also...Kazakhstan, Belarus, and even [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev are worried about this." "What was interesting was Russia, for the most part, has been pretty quietin April and May [as Pashinian came to power]. It's only been [in recent months] that Russia has started to raise its voice about the new Armenian government," said Stronski. "The new Armenian government needs to be pretty careful in how it manages Russia. Russia will fight for its equities in the region," he said. And Moscow could use both economic and security-related leverage over Armenia if it wants to pressure the government if its foreign policy starts leaning away from Russia. Economic, Security Levers Russia is Armenia's biggest economic partner, with more than 26 percent of its total trade turnover from January to July of this year being with Russian companies. Russia is also a heavy investor in Armenia. "Most Russian capital goes to the energy sector. We are talking [primarily] about Gazprom, which has a branch here," said Artak Manukian, chairman of the National Center of Public Policy Research and an economic adviser to Pashinian. Manukian said Russian entities also have substantial investments in Armenia's banking sector and that "in most of the cases the [investors] were in a very good relationship with the political elite [of the pre-Pashinian governments]." There is also estimated to be a more than 2-million-strong Armenian diaspora living in Russia, with the money that is sent back to Armenia making up some 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The Russian Army also operates its 102 Military Base in Armenia's second city, Gyumri, and is seen as a security guarantor for Yerevan against Turkey and, to a lesser degree, Azerbaijan. Russia is also the predominant weapons and military hardware supplier of the Armenian military -- but at the same time also holds the same role for Azerbaijan. Moscow has in the past used its position as primary procurator of weapons to play the two countries against each other. And the belief that many Armenians had that Russia was a close military ally were disappointed and even angered by Moscow's actions during a four-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in April 2016. "Russian behavior was one of mediator instead of Armenia's ally," said Stepan Safarian, head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs in Yerevan. "[Russia] did not act as Armenia's strategic ally. And the [Russia-led] CSTO also behaved...[like some] peacekeeping organization. It was a dangerous experience for Russia." He added that "Russia understands and feels this red line [of using military measures to put pressure on Pashinian] -- that it would be very dangerous to use Azerbaijan to deliver some message to Armenia." Tradition [in Armenia] for Russia is that all Armenian leaders do whatever Russia wants. Now we have a new leader and for Russia that is a big problem." Safarian suggested that Armenia could actually use the status of the Russian base to its advantage. "I think [the Russians] realize that there's no other [country] in the South Caucasus that could provide such a military space to Russia," noting that it would not be possible in either Georgia or Azerbaijan. Sovereign Foreign Policy So what exactly will Pashinian change within Armenia's foreign policy and in its relations with Moscow? "We have in Armenia a national leader who has legitimacy in society and who wants to cooperate with Russia, but as an equal partner," said Stepan Grigorian, chairman of the Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation. "We will cooperate with Russia, we will continue our membership in the CTSO and the Eurasian Economic Union, but we will work with Russia as an equal partner," Grigorian said. "Tradition [in Armenia] for Russia is that all Armenian leaders do whatever Russia wants. Now we have a new leader and for Russia that is a big problem." But he added that the Armenian people will "help Pashinian, will protect his policy in the context of Russia." Safarian stated that Armenia has changed its "foreign policy principals but not its foreign policy direction." "There will be no reverse [move] from the CSTO or the Eurasian Economic Union and nothing threatens the Russian military...in Armenia," he said. "But [Pashinian has] changed the formula of Russian-Armenian relations [at their foundation]...because Armenia is now pursuing a sovereign foreign policy and it's not an accident that Nikol Pashinian has used that term many times in his meetings with...Putin. "The problem is Russia is not [prepared]...to respect this kind of policy," Safarian said. "I hope that at the coming meeting...Pashinian will explain to his Russian counterpart that [Russia's] concerns are baseless." One the eve of his September 8 meeting with Putin, Pashinian said "our relations should be at a much higher level, they should be much more strategic, much more cooperative, and much more brotherly, said Pashinian. Grigorian said he thinks Moscow will eventually agree with Pashinian's new balance in their bilateral relations. "I hope they will understand that they will have to deal with new relations with a new leader -- one who thinks as a pro-Armenian leader. But it will take some time [for Moscow] to understand this." DUSHANBE -- The mother of a Tajik man who is suspected of carrying out a fatal attack against a group of foreign cyclists in the Central Asian country in July poured gasoline on herself outside the Dushanbe office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Gulhehra Shodmonova was approached by police and taken into custody after the incident on September 7. Shodmonova was protesting the participation of the leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), Muhiddin Kabiri, in a human-rights conference sponsored by the OSCE. Shodmonova and the Tajik authorities have accused Kabiri of influencing her son, Hussein Abdusamadov, and leading him astray. Abdusamadov was detained on July 31 and is accused of being the "cell leader" of a group of five Tajik men suspected of carrying out the July 29 attack on a highway some 120 kilometers from Dushanbe, in which a car rammed into the group of cyclists before multiple attackers emerged from the vehicle and stabbed survivors, killing two Americans, a Swiss, and a Dutch national. Two foreign cyclists were injured. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after it occurred and released a video showing five men -- at least some of whom appeared to resemble those identified by Tajik officials as suspects killed in a confrontation with security forces -- pledging allegiance to the IS leader. But the government maintained the suspects were members of the IRPT, which they have blamed for the attack. In a television appearance on September 4 that was organized by the Tajik security agency, Abdusamadov confessed to the crime and said he carried it out at the behest of IRPT member Kori Nosir. Such public confessions are common in the former Soviet Union, and rights activists say detainees are sometimes forced to make them. The leadership of the IRPT has denied responsibility for the attack, calling the authorities' claims "baseless and irrational." Tajik authorities have imprisoned dozens of IRPT officials and members since 2015, when the party was designated a "terrorist organization" by the Supreme Court and banned. The ban on the party and prosecution of its members have drawn criticism from international human rights groups and the UN. Activists accuse President Emomali Rahmon's government of using the group -- which was formerly the only registered Islamic political party in former Soviet Central Asia -- as a scapegoat for unrest and attacks in the predominantly Muslim country that borders Afghanistan. BRUSSELS -- Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic refused to hold face-to-face talks with his Kosovar counterpart, Hashim Thaci, as mounting tension cast new doubt over prospects for a landmark agreement between the countries and the normalization of ties. Amid talk of land swaps between Serbia and Kosovo, Vucic and Thaci had been expected to meet in Brussels on September 7 for talks moderated by European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. A spokesman for Vucic said that the president made the decision because of what he claimed were "lies, deceits, and threats" from the Kosovar side, and the two heads of state ended up meeting separately with Mogherini. Speaking to the media after his meeting with Mogherini, Thaci said it was "now clear that the more we move forward, the whole thing is becoming more difficult" and that the difference between the two sides is "becoming bigger." "In theory, there is the possibility of an agreement, but now we are going through a period of reflection," he added. The EU-moderated normalization talks in Brussels were the first since August, when the pair floated the idea of territory swaps to reach a deal that can move both Belgrade and Pristina closer to EU membership. Before entering the talks, Thaci expressed support for incorporating the Presevo Valley, an ethnic Albanian-majority region of southern Serbia that is adjacent to Kosovo. "The whole society in Kosovo, including institutions and civil society, is in favor of dialogue and in favor of agreement with Serbia, as well as in favor of a demarcation line with Serbia that is 430 kilometers long and that also includes [the Presevo Valley]." According to the proposal under discussion, the Presevo Valley area would be transferred to Kosovo, while the predominantly Serb-populated northern part of Kosovo around the city of Mitrovica would pass to Serbia. The idea of a land swap is strongly opposed by nationalists in both countries. Vucic made no comment to the media in Brussels, but the Serbian director for the Office of Kosovo, Marko Djuric, told journalists that because of all the lies and deception and the disgusting approach that the representatives of Pristina showed toward the Serbian side over the past couple of days...President Vucic will not meet them today here in Brussels." He said that both Vucic and his 16-year-old daughter had received threats, but did not elaborate. "It is a big question if and when we will continue talking with these people or with someone else in the future who is much more understanding," Djuric said. The current tensions stem in part from a proposed visit by Vucic to the Gazivoda Lake area in northern Kosovo, where Vucic had announced he would deliver a speech to ethnic Serbs on September 9. After the Brussels talks concluded, Mogherini issued a statement saying that "all issues" were on the table. "Difficulties remain," she said. "I trust the full commitment of both presidents to continue the process and reach in the coming months a legally binding agreement on comprehensive normalization of relations, in line with international law." She also noted that the next meeting was expected to take place in Brussels before the UN General Assembly starts in New York at the end of September. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Although more than 100 countries recognize Kosovo, Serbia does not. Both countries have been told they must resolve their differences in order to make progress toward EU membership. With reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, AP, and Reuters U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Kabul for a surprise visit on September 7 to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the new commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan and discuss progress on talks with the Taliban. The United States a year ago adopted a strategy of stepping up pressure on the Taliban to negotiate by increasing air strikes and sending thousands more troops to train and advise Afghan forces, but the effort has not as yet yielded major headway in the fight against the militants or resulted in peace talks to end the 17-year war. Mattis is accompanied by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford. U.S. Army General Scott Miller assumed command of NATO forces in Afghanistan on September 2, arriving amid a renewed push to force the Taliban to take up the Afghan government's repeated offers for peace negotiations this year. Speaking with reporters this week, Mattis said he was hopeful about peace talks, despite a recent spate of savage attacks by the Taliban and the Islamic State group that have left hundreds of security forces and civilians dead. "Right now, we have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage," Mattis said. "It now has some framework, there's some open lines of communication." Over the summer, a top U.S. State Department official met Taliban officials in Qatar to try to lay the ground work for broader peace talks. And this week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appointed a new special envoy to Afghanistan tasked with encouraging reconciliation efforts. U.S. officials say one sign of hope is that the Taliban accepted a temporary truce offered by the government in June. "The most important work that has to be done is beginning the political process and reconciliation," Dunford told reporters travelling with him. "What we are trying to do in the military dimension is convince the Taliban that they cannot win on the battlefield and that they must engage in a peace process." Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters Tajik police detained a woman who had poured gasoline on herself in a protest outside the Dushanbe office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Gulhehra Shodmonova is the mother of Hussein Abdusamadov, a suspect in a deadly attack on a group of foreign cyclists on July 29. She was protesting against the OSCE for its conference invitation to a political leader who has been accused of influencing her son to carry out the attack. Two U.S. Air Force jet fighters scrambled to escort a pair of Russia Tu-95 strategic bombers that were conducting a flight over the Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk. The Russian Defense Ministry on September 7 confirmed the incident, saying the bombers were performing "scheduled flights over neutral waters" when they were escorted by the U.S. F-22 warplanes on September 1. Earlier, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD), Michael Kucharek, told journalists that the Russian bombers were flying "in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, south of the Aleutian Islands." "At no time did the Russian bombers enter Canadian or United States sovereign airspace," he said. Based on reporting by Reuters, TASS, and the Washington Free Beacon Denis Pushilin, the chairman of the "people's council" of the Russia-backed separatist formation called the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine, has been selected as the acting head of the DNR. Russian media reported on September 7 that Pushilin, 37, had been selected for the post, which was vacated when Donetsk separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko was assassinated by a bomb blast in a city cafe on August 31. Earlier, self-proclaimed prosecutors in the unrecognized formation annulled the appointment of Dmitry Trapeznikov to the post, saying it could only be filled by "a first deputy prime minister of the DNR." Pushilin reportedly survived two assassination attempts against him in June 2014. Also on September 7, the Donetsk separatists' "people's council" designated November 11 as the date for the election of a head of the DNR to replace Pushilin. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on September 7 that neither Kyiv nor the the international community will recognize the elections on the "temporarily occupied territories" in eastern Ukraine. "If fake 'early elections' are conducted, their outcome will be legally void. They will not create any legal consequences and will not be recognized by Ukraine or the global community." The ministry also blamed Moscow for promulgating the elections and said they undermine the Minsk agreements. The move seemed to violate the Minsk accords for regulating the conflict in eastern Ukraine, under which the question of elections in areas controlled by the separatists must be agreed by the tripartite contact group that includes representatives of Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the separatists. After Zakharchenko's killing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the bombing was "a Ukrainian provocation...obviously aimed at derailing the implementation of the Minsk agreements." Pushilin said on September 7 that "we have yet to decide on the DNR's representative in Minsk." "I believe there are lots of worthy people who are ready to represent the DNR on the Minsk platform," he said. "We will make the decision shortly." Although Russia denies involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Moscow has provided military, economic, and political support to the breakaway movements controlling parts of Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions. In November 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC) determined the conflict to be "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation." More than 10,300 people have been killed since the violence erupted in April 2014, as Russia was fomenting separatism in eastern Ukraine after pro-European protests drove Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power. With reporting by Interfax Lawyers for an Uzbek-born man accused of killing eight people by driving a truck down a New York City bike path have asked a U.S. judge to rule out the death penalty, contending that President Donald Trump's statements against him have made a fair legal process impossible. In a motion filed in a Manhattan district court on September 6, Sayfullo Saipov's lawyers said that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who must decide whether to pursue the death penalty, cannot be objective because Trump has called for Saipov to be executed and has pressured Sessions to make decisions based on what they called "nakedly political considerations." The lawyers cited Trump Twitter posts lambasting Sessions over politicially sensitive decisions and calling for the death penalty after Saipov's arrest in October at the scene of the killings. The lawyers cited a November 1 tweet by Trump which said: "NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang [Islamic State] flag in his hospital room. He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!" Trump in later tweets described Saipov as a "degenerate animal" and repeated his call for the death penalty. Saipov's lawyers argued that Trump's tweets make it impossible for Sessions to "exercise independent discretion" on the case. "A decision not to seek death would inevitably trigger a 'tweetstorm' of ridicule and scorn from the president and might well lead to the loss of his job," they said. Should the judge decide not to bar the death penalty, the lawyers asked that an independent prosecutor be appointed to make the decision in place of Sessions. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, whose office is prosecuting Saipov, declined to comment. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Saipov, a 30-year-old Uzbek national who emigrated to the United States and became a citizen, has been charged with eight counts of murder and other crimes punishable by death for allegedly mowing down eight people on a Manhattan bike path near the site where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood. The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack, and police said Saipov told investigators in interviews immediately after the attack that he was inspired by watching IS videos. Since that time, he has pleaded not guilty to the attack. His lawyers have said he would be willing to settle the case with prosecutors if they agree not to seek a death sentence. Saipov made a public statement at a pre-trial hearing in June, speaking of a "war" led by Islamic State to establish Shari'a, or Islamic law, on Earth, and dismissing the court's judgment as "not important." Saipov's family told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that they believe he was radicalized after moving to the United States. With reporting by AP and Reuters New Dinner in the Sky attraction set for Cancun Hotel Zone Cancun, Q.R. A new attraction for the city of Cancun has been given the green light by officials for the company, Dinner in the Sky. The Belgium company has been given approval to create the new dinner concept in the Cancun Hotel Zone. The new attraction will offer diners a different sort of experience as their dinner booth is suspended in the air by a crane. The Dinner in the Sky experience offers sky-high views while a table enjoys top notch dinner and drinks. While an exact location for the new attraction has yet to be determined, the company is considering setting up next to the wheel in Plaza La Isla or at the scenic tower of Grupo Experiencias Xcaret located next to Calinda Bridge. The concept includes a floating table of 22 seats suspended by a crane 45 meters in the air. Each of the seats includes a safety harness. Diners are accompanied by waiters in the sky, where they are given a 360 degree view while eating. The entire project will include a restaurant, bathrooms, warehouses and parking lot with an investment of approximately 4 million peso. The company has been researching the Cancun market since 2014 and already have several other locations around Mexico including Teotihuacan, Mexico City, Los Cabos, Guadalajara and the latest, in Puerto Vallarta. Joan Cordoves, Mexico partner of the company Dinner in the Sky, said the company has been operating for more than 10 years and is in 120 cities in nearly 40 countries. MP SARAH Champion has welcomed the home secretarys pledge to do more to tackle child sexual abuse. Speaking at the HQ of Childline in London, Sajid Javid announced a number of measures, including new powers for police to tackle online abuse and grooming and additional funding for forces and the National Crime Agency. Mr Javid outlined the scale of the problem, with 15 per cent of girls and five per cent of boys experiencing some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16. He promised an extra 21.5 million investment in law enforcement over the next 18 months, most of which will go to police and intelligence agencies to tackle the most tech-savvy and dedicated abusers. He went on to state on Monday that keeping children safe was his priority regardless of cultural or political sensitivities. Ms Champion (pictured), MP for Rotherham, said: The home secretarys commitment to prevent child abuse on and offline is most welcome, as is his pledge to provide an additional 21 million to the police for enforcement. Part of the approach to prevent abuse must be a public awareness campaign to recognise the signs, especially online. Most parents grew up pre-social media and therefore are often not aware of the challenges, risks and exploitation their children face online. It is right that the home secretary focused on the role of internet companies in preventing abuse on their platforms. Online abuse is escalating at an alarming rate and operates internationally. Tech companies must take responsibility, just as they are beginning to in relation to terrorism. I am, however, frustrated the home secretary didnt focus more on support for victims and survivors. Lives are devastated by child abuse and early intervention would make a huge difference. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said in its annual report earlier this year that it had discovered or reported 78,000 web pages confirmed as containing child abuse imagery, each of which can contain thousands of images. The use of disguised websites containing abuse images had almost doubled, the watchdog found. We reported last month how the IWF had found that many parents left young children alone to surf the net unsupervised. A WOMAN who fraudulently claimed more than 18,000 in benefits will have to wait until December to be sentenced. Sharron Ensor (55), of Brett Close in Rawmarsh, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to claiming 18,462.29 in Employment and Support Allowance between July 2012 and May 2017. She said that she was living alone when she was actually staying at the home she shared with her husband. Prosecutor Mr Richard Davies told Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday: The defendant claimed benefit as a single woman with no dependants. When Ensor was interviewed by investigators in May last year, she said that she was suffering from anxiety and that she did not live with her husband who was sofa surfing, but at another interview she admitted they were living together. Mr Davies said: She said she did not know why she claimed these benefits. The court heard that Ensor had no previous convictions. But Judge Peter Kelson delayed sentencing in order to find out if Ensors home could be sold to pay back the stolen money. He said: This is not an easy role. I have to look into this. The judge added that he had not yet made a decision on how he would sentence Ensor. The case was adjourned until December 10. IDE gets government support; offers free flights for diamond buyers 07 september 2018 News The New Year celebration on the IDE trading floor on Aug 6, the Israels Minister of Finance, Moshe Kahlon, announced the Israeli governments support to the countrys diamond industry. The relationship between the government and the diamond industry was in need of improvement, Kahlon said. The President of the Israel Diamond Exchange, Yoram Dvash, and I have brought this relationship onto a positive path. Together we have worked out a program to assist the industry in many of the challenges it faces. A direct result of the new relationship is a groundbreaking campaign, Fly to Buy, announced by IDE President Yoram Dvash at the event. This campaign, which will run from October to December 2018, will enable diamond buyers to fly to Israel for free, if they purchase $150,000 worth of diamonds during their visit to the exchange. The cost of the flight will be reimbursed up to $1,000. Dvash said that the government had committed to providing more than $4 mn to finance the industrys marketing efforts over the next five years. This is an unprecedented gesture of support for the diamond industry, and a major boost for us in these challenging times, Dvash added. Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished Pranab Mukherjee paid floral tributes to late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi Former president Pranab Mukherjee Thursday paid floral tributes to late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at the latter's residence here. Mukherjee, who arrived here Wednesday to participate in some private events, placed a bouquet of flowers in front of a portrait of Karunanidhi at the Gopalapuram residence of the former Tamil Nadu chief minister. Mukherjee was accorded a warm welcome by DMK president M K Stalin Advertisement Mukherjee was accorded a warm welcome by DMK president M K Stalin. DMK Rajya Sabha MPs Kanimozhi, R S Bharathi and party treasurer Duraimurugan were also present. Karunanidhi passed away on August 7 after a prolonged illness. Big haul by Food Safety Teams Continuing with the inspections, the Food Safety teams made a big haul by nailing two tankers carrying suspected refined palm oil of 28MT and 27MT each and seizing 1602 litres of cooking medium, 930 kg vanaspati and 800 litres refined soyabean oil along with confiscating 558 litres of expired cooking medium, informed KS Pannu, Commissioner Food and Drug Administration Punjab. Nailing two tankers carrying suspected refined palm oil Advertisement It was informed that Food Safety Team Mansa along with Dairy Department raided a lite/cooking medium manufacturing unit at Sardulgarh. The product was claimed to be prepared from milk fat but there was no trace of milk fat on the site. The owner admitted the flaw. The team thereafter seized 89 boxes of cooking medium (1602 litres), 930 kg vanaspati, 800 litres refined soyabean oil. Samples of cooking medium , vanaspati and refined soyabean oil were taken for analysis. 1602 litres of cooking medium, 930 kg vanaspati seized Also expired stock including 31 boxes (558 litres) of packed cooking medium and 390 litres loose of cooking medium in tins was also seized. In a special Naka was set up by Food Safety Team, SBS Nagar at Garhshankar road Nawanshahr to trap suspected food items being transported from other states. Two tankers carrying refined palm oil of 28MT and 27MT each, being transported by two companies of Gujarat. Samples of suspected refined palm oil were taken from each tanker. Advertisement Packed cooking medium and 390 litres loose of cooking medium in tins was also seized Team Mukatsar along with police department, seized 23 litres of cooking medium branded as Aman Lite and 25 kg of duplicate Desi Ghee branded as Haryana Deep from Sidana Shop, Gur Bazar Malout. Samples were taken for further probe. Food Safety Team Fatehgarh Sahib in a joint raid with Dairy Department conducted at raid at 3 a.m. at Inder Dairy, Village Sarkapra, Chunni Kalan. Stock of milk 200lt, Paneer 400kg, Dahi 300kg, Cream 40kg, Khoya 35kg, Milk powder 200kg was found. Samples of milk and milk products were taken. Spoilt products including 40kg curd, 60lt milk and 2kg cream were destroyed on the spot. 25 kg of duplicate Desi Ghee seized Advertisement Joint Food Safety Teams of Jalandhar and SBS Nagar along with dairy development teams raided the residence of owner of Manak Dairy, Vpo Chakdana and found about 1.5 quintals of mixed milk, about 5 litres of cow's milk, and about 50 kg of desi ghee. The team took samples for analysis. Food Safety Wing Pathankot along with Dairy department Pathankot jointly inspected the sweets shop and Dairy of Narot Jaimal Singh and Fatehpur where about 50 kgms of low Quality khoya and about 50 kgms of Spurious paneer and 25 kgms of chum chum of pink shade which was made by adding non permitted synthetic colour was found. The team took samples for analysis The entire stock was destroyed with the consent of FBO. There was one pack of Krishna Burfi weighing 10 kg , in a single block. It was totally misleading and destroyed on the spot. In Mohali at village Ballo Majra , 20 quintal substandard Paneer, 89 kg butter and 10 kg khoa was found and destroyedwith the consent of the FBO. Advertisement The entire stock was destroyed with the consent of FBO Besides, sampling of milk and milk products was done at border areas of Ferozepur and Fazilka. 55 Samples of sub standard Khoya burfi, dahi, milk, desighee, paneer, milk cake, lalmirch and haldi were taken at Quadian and Sathhali in Gurdaspur District. Various leading Singapore companies have shown interest in making investments Various leading Singapore companies have shown interest in making investments worth crores of rupees in infrastructure, gas, smart cities and other development projects in Punjab. These companies conveyed this to the Punjab delegation during CII Norths first out-of-country event, held here on Monday and Tuesday. The Punjab delegation, led by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, along with PWD & IT Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Invest Punjab team had a series of B2G meetings with various companies during the CII Invest North 2018 event, according to an official spokesperson. The summit was held by the Indian High Commission in Singapore in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Ascendas Singbridg and Changi have shown keen interest in planning and development of New Airport at Ludhiana, Aerotropolis - a world class city development at Ludhiana, and Mohali, Convention centres across the State. Advertisement The summit was held by the Indian High Commission in Singapore Buoyed by the investment climate and opportunities under the Captain Amarinder Singh government in Punjab, JMT group has announced an investment of about Rs.100 Cr in real estate and infrastructure sectors, while Linde AG, a world leader in Industrial gases, will be investing Rs.200 Cr. in a plant in Mandi Gobindgarh. The delegation also met FINTECH and other financial companies, which have shown interest in smart cities and SMEs digitization, said the spokesperson. Invest North is an annual event hosted by CII for promoting Northern states as key investment destinations. The Punjab delegation also included Additional Chief Secretary Investment Promotion Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary Finance Anirudh Tewari and CEO Invest Punjab Rajat Aggarwal, industrialists Rajinder Gupta, Kamal Oswal, Sanjiv Arora, RS Sachdeva, Karan Gilhotra, Pankaj Munjal, Upkar Ahuja, Bhavdeep Sardana among others. Advertisement The delegation held multiple meetings with industries and investors based in Singapore The delegation held multiple meetings with industries and investors based in Singapore and explored fields of mutual engagement. The delegation also called on Singapores Foreign Minister, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Higher Education and Skills, Ong Ye Kung, Minister for communication and Minister-in-Incharge for Trade Relations, S. Iswaran, and Principal ITE College, Dr. Ang Kiam Wee. The inaugural session was held in the morning, followed by state session of Punjab, where a presentation was made by CEO Invest Punjab, followed by investors Rajinder Gupta and Singapore-based Atin Kukreja sharing their experiences in Punjab. Singla shared his thoughts on the occasion and reassured continued support to investors from the top level. 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. After being found not guilty by reason of insanity, it's not typically a crime -- rather declining mental health or breaking rules of conditional release like not drinking alcohol -- that puts people back in a psychiatric hospital or even jail, researchers say. And, the violence risk-assessment tool most commonly used in making a release decision, called HCR-20, isn't good at predicting who will end up reincarcerated, says Dr. Michael J. Vitacco, forensic psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. "While recidivism rates for these individuals are fortunately low, we want to be able to better determine who needs more services before they are released. If we can do that, we might be able to take that rate down even lower," says Vitacco. The study reaffirms the success of conditional release programs, as well as the need to regularly monitor dynamic risk factors -- factors that can change quickly like employment status and drug use -- associated with violent or other illegal behavior, which provide both red flags and points for intervention, the researchers write. Next steps should include evaluating other risk-assessment tools' proficiency at both evaluating readiness for release and predicting outcome, Vitacco, corresponding author, and his colleagues report. The study in the journal Law and Human Behavior looked at 238 individuals -- 201 males and 37 females a mean age of 40 at the time of their conditional release -- in Oregon between Jan. 1, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2011. advertisement Sixty-six percent maintained their conditional release throughout the four- to nine-year period they were followed for the study, and 33.6 percent had their release revoked. Out of the 81 individuals who had their conditional release revoked, one committed a new, nonviolent criminal offense. "That means that once you treat the mental illness and take care of some other factors, these people are relatively safe," Vitacco says. In fact, people with mental illness are the minority of violent offenders or other crime committers, he says. Revenge, greed, anger and alcohol are more likely drivers. "There are some real consistencies here," Vitacco said of the low recidivism rates for insanity acquittees the researchers have now found in Oregon as well as Georgia, Virginia, Wisconsin and Maryland. By comparison, the National Institute of Justice reports 67.8 percent of people convicted of committing a crime are rearrested three years after getting out of prison and 75 percent after five years. An Oregon study found about half of those on felony probation are rearrested within three years. "When it is due to mental illness, they are much more treatable and much less likely to do it again," Vitacco says, adding that it's important to counteract myths that most violence is committed by the mentally ill. However, when treatment and conditional release don't work out well, there can be bad consequences, which is one of the many reasons Vitacco and his colleagues are working to find even better ways to assess who will and won't do well on release. advertisement The 20-item HCR-20, or Historical, Clinical, Risk-20, is the most widely used tool to help assess violence risk. It helps mental health professionals -- all psychologists in the case of the Oregon study -- assess things like past behavior and current dynamics emperically linked to violence. It's been suggested that HCR-20 is good at predicting violence among forensic psychiatric patients undergoing assessment for conditional release. But, prior to Vitacco's study, there were already inconsistent findings about that ability. However, his findings and others' do not negate HCR-20's value in assessing overall violence risk and treatment needs, Vitacco notes. For the study, the researchers also looked at demographic and criminal history data on the 238 individuals, like their clinical diagnosis, length of hospitalization and age when they committed crimes. Sex, race and age at the time of the offense or release did not appear to be a factor in their success, neither did the number of charges or whether they involved violence. About 56 percent had committed a violent crime. More than half had committed a single offense, 12 percent had four charges against them and a small percentage were tried on as many as 18 charges. Individuals in the Oregon study had diagnoses of psychosis, mood disorders, intellectual disabilities, substance abuse, cognitive disorders and anxiety. One individual had dissociative disorder, which is often associated with trauma. The majority of the individuals were diagnosed with two disorders and the second one was often substance abuse; 64 had a secondary diagnosis of personality disorder, which interferes with personal and societal relationships. Psychosis, a thought disorder that interferes with the ability to engage in rational thinking, is a top diagnosis for individuals found not guilty by reason of insanity, Vitacco says, but adds that most people who are psychotic do not commit crimes. Vitacco notes another issue that needs exploration is whether the type of crime -- killing someone as opposed to stealing a car -- is predictive of conditional release revocation. "Both individuals broke the rules, but should they be handled differently? That is an important question," he says. Balancing community safety and individual rights underscores the importance of accurately assessing whether an individual is at risk for a violent crime once they are released, Vitacco says. Not guilty by reason of insanity by definition means the individual cannot be held responsible for a crime, even a violent one. "Their mental illness interferes with their ability to differentiate between right and wrong," Vitacco says. Most people found not guilty by reason of insanity are committed to a psychiatric hospital, some of which exclusively treat prisoners, for further evaluation and treatment. If/when they are determined to not be a danger to themselves or others and otherwise ready to return to general society, they typically are given a conditional release. Much like being on parole, that means they must meet certain requirements like taking their medications, abstaining from drugs and alcohol and participating in group psychotherapy, to remain free. Typically they are closely monitored by the state, and a violation can put them back in a psychiatric hospital. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that individuals must be both actively mentally ill and dangerous to be kept in the hospital, and that because individuals found not guilty by reason of insanity were not convicted of a crime, he/she may not be punished for the crime. In fact, the court further stated that there is no clear correlation between a hypothetical criminal sentence and the time it takes the offender to recover. The court accepted that some people found not guilty by reason of insanity, even for a relatively minor on nonviolent crime, might not recover and remain dangerous and require continued hospitalization. Foods high in unsaturated fats may protect against cardiovascular disease, and new research published today in Nature Communications has uncovered why. Apolipoprotein A-IV, known as ApoA-IV, is a plasma protein. Levels of ApoA-IV increase after the digestion of foods, particularly foods high in unsaturated fats, such as olive oil. Higher levels of ApoA-IV in the blood have been reported to be associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease. New research from the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science (KRCBS) of St. Michael's Hospital demonstrates that ApoA-IV is an inhibitory factor for platelets, which are small blood cells that play a key role in multiple diseases, particularly in bleeding and cardiovascular diseases. These new findings suggest that ApoA-IV is a blocker of platelet surface glycoproteins GPIIbIIIa (also named integrin II3). Integrin II3 is a platelet receptor that is necessary for platelets to clump together in the blood (called platelet aggregation). Platelet aggregation can cause vessel occlusion that blocks blood flow, leading to thrombosis, which is the most common cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. "Platelet aggregation can save lives, because it can stop bleeding in damaged vessels," said Dr. Heyu Ni, Platform Director for Hematology, Cancer and Immunological Diseases at the KRCBS, who is the principal investigator of this study. "But we usually don't want platelets to block blood flow in the vessels. This is thrombosis, and if vessel occlusion occurs in the heart or brain, it can cause heart attack, stroke or death." Platelets bind together with a series of connectors. For one platelet to bond to another, the platelet receptor integrin II3 first binds to fibrinogen -- an abundant protein that bridges platelets in blood -- and fibrinogen molecules then bind another integrin II3 on a second platelet. Then fibrinogen and likely also other proteins allow many platelets to bind one another, leading to platelet aggregation. advertisement Examining both lab models and humans, Dr. Ni, who is also a scientist at Canadian Blood Services Centre for Innovation, and his team have shown that ApoA-IV can link to the integrin II3 and block fibrinogen binding, decreasing platelet aggregation in a vessel. The ApoA-IV protein can also change its shape to accommodate increased blood flow, and become more effective to protect vessels from complete blockage. "This is the first study to link ApoA-IV with platelets and thrombosis," Dr. Ni said. "With this work, we have also explained why higher levels of ApoA-IV can slow down plaque build-up in blood vessels, known as atherosclerosis, because this process is also related to platelet function." The researchers also examined ApoA-IV's interaction with food. After every meal, platelets are stimulated, which makes it easier for them to bond together or bond to white blood cells. ApoA-IV increases in circulating blood almost immediately after meals containing unsaturated fats and decreases platelet hyperactivity and bonding, thus reducing the inflammation after meals and the risk of heart attack and stroke. The study also found that ApoA-IV has its own circadian rhythm. It is most active overnight and least active in the morning. "Mother Nature wants us to sleep well," Dr. Ni said. "So we are protected by this protein while we sleep, and most likely to experience a cardiovascular event after waking up in the morning." Dr. Ni and his team are excited about these findings because they show that foods with high unsaturated fats, along with appropriate sleep patterns, create the perfect combination for the protein ApoA-IV to play a positive role in reducing the chances of cardiovascular disease in the form of atherosclerosis, heart attack, or stroke. This new knowledge has many potential applications, Dr. Ni explained. Future studies will focus on better understanding this protein and how to harness its protective potential to build therapies targeted at cardiovascular disease and other diseases that arise from platelet activation and aggregation. Extreme heat poses a unique challenge to cities in the United States. According to the National Weather Service, extreme heat accounts for 20 percent of deaths by natural hazard in the United States, taking an average of 130 lives per year. With exploding urban populations and increasing migration, cities are struggling to keep up with increases in extreme heat-related climate impacts, threatening human health, straining energy resources and reducing economic productivity. Heavily populated cities like Chicago have made an effort to mitigate the effects of extreme heat, implementing green roofs designed to provide insulation and significantly lower temperatures. Now in a new study published in Environmental Research Letters, researchers have created an integrated framework to identify which neighborhoods would benefit most from green roofs -- and provide city officials with a strategic approach to ensure the best return on their investment to beat the heat. "We wanted to look at the potential of these types of mitigation strategies through the eyes of the mayor, city manager or city planner," said Ashish Sharma, research assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, who led the study for Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative. "If you're considering factors like temperature and electricity consumption to improve quality of life, reduce energy loads and lower temperatures, you need a scientific and interdisciplinary approach. We examined temperatures based on current climate models, electricity consumption (air conditioning) loads from public available data, and socioeconomic vulnerability of census tracts to identify susceptible hotspots. The goal of this study is to help city officials make more-informed decisions when it comes to urban planning." Sharma said Chicago was an ideal choice for such a study, as extreme heat has been a particular challenge for the city. During a particular brutal heat wave in the summer of 1995, more than 700 people in Chicago died due to extreme heat. Previous studies found the impact was highest among disadvantaged neighborhoods. advertisement According to the City of Chicago's website, green roof coverage accounts for an estimated 5.5 million square feet, a number that is expected to rise given the city's goal of seeing 6,000 green roofs within the city by 2020. Though green roofs have lowered temperatures and contributed to improved air quality, they are a response to hotter temperatures, not a fix. The reality of climate change shows little relief in sight when it comes to extreme heat. Temperatures are expected to rise, with comparable heat waves expected to occur at the rate of twice a decade, according to current models, rising to five times per decade in high-emission scenarios. Sharma and his team simulated temperature data and used publicly available electricity consumption for the entire Chicago region. They then calculated a social vulnerability assessment, collecting variable data from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Community Survey at the census tract. The results became the Heat Variability Index (HVI). The combination of these factors allowed researchers to take a closer look at optimal locations for green roof implementation. "It's critical not only to identify where green roofs can lower the temperatures most, but also to identify populations that are disproportionately affected by high temperatures," Sharma wrote in the study. Looking only at electrical consumption, those areas where air conditioning is used most, for example, may not account for affluence. In certain neighborhoods, residents can afford the cost, which ultimately makes them less vulnerable. In lower-income neighborhoods, some residents can't afford to turn their air conditioning on, or don't have access to air conditioning at all. advertisement By layering data, the result of the study is a comprehensive look at the utility of green roofs to reduce temperatures, ease electricity consumption and help the populations most vulnerable to heat exposure. "What we've seen when it comes to urban planning is decisions are made without interdisciplinary input," Sharma said. "Now, we have a framework for answering the question, how do we improve urban resilience to extreme heat?" The next step, Sharma said, is to enhance the framework to account for multiple variations, such as variables that take place throughout the day or season so models can be tailored to other cities and their unique conditions. Co-authors of the study include Alan Hamlet, Milan Budhathoki and Harindra Fernando at Notre Dame; Sierra Woodruff, formerly of Notre Dame and currently at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University; and Fei Chen with the Research Application Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The study was funded by the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, the Notre Dame Center for Research Computing, the National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputing resources, and the United States Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. Childhood obesity is a serious public health concern that can have a profound impact on children's health and well-being. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are more likely to have obesity compared to their peers with typical development, data show. Until recently, little has been known about why children with ASD are at increased risk for developing obesity. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), which examined early life risk factors for obesity among children with ASD, developmental delays or disorders, and children from the general population, is among the first to show that children with ASD had the highest frequency of rapid weight gain during the first six months of life, which may put them at increased risk for childhood obesity. The study has been published online in the journal Autism. "Healthy growth patterns during infancy, in particular, may carry special importance for children at increased risk for an ASD diagnosis, including high-risk populations such as former premature infants, younger siblings of children with ASD, children with genetic disorders that predispose to ASD and others," said Tanja Kral, PhD, Associate Professor of Nursing in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences and lead author of the study. The study also showed that mothers across all groups with pre-pregnancy overweight or obesity were almost 2.5 times more likely to have a child with overweight or obesity at ages 2-5 than other mothers. The risk for childhood obesity across all groups was also 1.5 times greater for mothers who exceeded the recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy. "Helping mothers achieve a healthy pre-pregnancy weight and adequate gestational weight gain and fostering healthy growth during infancy represent important targets for all children," explained Kral. The findings of this research may shed light into possible mechanisms underlying the increased obesity risk in children with ASD and offer targets for early intervention. Co-authors of the study include Jennifer A. Pinto-Martin, PhD, MPH, Viola MacInnes/Independence Professor of Nursing, Jesse Chittams, MS, Aleda Thompson, MS, Lisa Young, MPH, and Susan E. Levy, MD, MPH, all of the University of Pennsylvania; Chyrise B. Bradley, MA and Julie L. Daniels, PhD, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Carolyn G. DiGuiseppi, MD, MPH, PhD and Susan L. Johnson, PhD, both of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Juhi Pandey, PhD, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Neloufar Rahai, MPH, New York University; AnnJosette Ramirez, Thomas Jefferson University; Laura A. Schieve, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Gayle Windham, PhD, California Department of Public Health; and Whitney York, Drexel University. This study was supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative Agreement Numbers U10DD000180 (Colorado Department of Public Health); U10DD000181 (Kaiser Foundation Research Institute); U10DD000182 (University of Pennsylvania); U10DD000183 (Johns Hopkins University); U10DD000184 (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); and U10DD000498 (Michigan State University). The number of diagnoses of systemic lupus erythematodes (SLE) has tripled over the past 45 years -- due in part to improved diagnostic methods. Lupus is a systemic inflammatory disease which can affect several organs; most frequently the kidneys, skin, brain and the heart. Involvement of the heart is important as it determines these patients' outcome, yet as it carries on silently for a long time, it may go undetected and untreated for a long time. Heart involvement in lupus: disguised symptoms This problematic situation has several causes. First, the natural course of lupus-caused heart disease often has few or no symptoms -- this 'subclinical course' represents a major challenge for doctors to recognize it. It also affects mostly young, and predominantly female patients, for whom heart disease is not usual in the first place. Moreover, if symptoms occur, they are not classical symptoms of heart disease, such as angina. More commonly, symptoms are 'atypical': in other words, they do not explicitly indicate heart disease. Examples of symptoms are tiredness, dyspnoea, or sharp pain of the chest wall. Lupus patients are also frequently overwhelmed by symptoms in other organ systems, especially the kidneys, which are significantly more pronounced. This results in focus unintentionally being taken away from the heart during diagnosis and treatment. Ultimately, a small percentage of patients develops heart failure, which is often resistant to therapy. Study allows non-invasive diagnosis A study by the University Hospital Frankfurt in collaboration with partners from London and Tubingen has shown that imaging with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) can improve detection of subclinical cardiac injury in lupus patients. The study was published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, the top journal in the field of rheumatology, whose specialists most frequently look after patients with lupus. In the present study, the authors demonstrated that inflammation of heart muscle and the vessels is the defining underlying pathophysiological mechanism of heart injury and impairment in lupus patients, and not, as previously assumed, as a result of the accelerated atherosclerotic blockage of the coronary blood vessels. The research team developed and validated an imaging signature of disease presence and activity of involvement. Thus, they have shown that heart inflammation can be detected and monitored in a non-invasive way without radiation using CMR imaging. Furthermore, CMR imaging can help to adjust the anti-inflammatory treatment to treat the heart involvement directly. Potential for paradigm change The study has significant potential for a real change in the clinical care of heart involvement in patients with lupus: away from the less sensitive, highly invasive and radiation-intensive methods toward patient-friendly and secure diagnostic approaches, which are non-invasive, radiation-free, and aside from the baseline investigation, also largely free from contrast agents. The new diagnostic method informs the treating physicians accurately about the disease presence, stage and severity, and gauges the treatment response. Course of the study Ninety-two patients with lupus were examined using the CMR imaging; 78 healthy individuals served as a control group. This multicentre and multidisciplinary study was headed by Dr Valentina Puntmann from the Institute for Experimental and Translational Cardiovascular Imagery (Goethe CVI) at the University Hospital Frankfurt and builds on a decade-long record of investigation into cardiac inflammation by non-invasive imaging in systemic inflammatory diseases. In addition to the Goethe CVI, University Hospital Frankfurt's Rheumatology, Cardiology and Radiology were also involved. Successful Imaging The heart muscle, its volume, and function were examined in all participants using CMR imaging. Various other blood values, such as troponin and NT-proBNP, which serve as biomarkers for heart impairment, were also examined. These markers were raised in 81 percent of lupus patients, but only in eight percent to a degree we usually see in the course of a heart attack. However, CMR imaging was able to point towards the presence of relevant inflammation of heart muscle much more frequently, making it more suited to detect inflammation, even if the blood tests remain only mildly raised. In addition, changes to the clinical activity can be more quickly detected using the imaging than with blood values, as these may remain raised for weeks on end. There are no disadvantages to CMR, as no invasive procedures or radiation are involved. Experts at the University of Stirling have shed new light on the impact of habitat fragmentation on migrant birds. Scientists used audio technology to analyse the behaviour of willow warblers, after spring migration, in 23 woodland patches across Scotland and England. While the patches were of a similar size, the landscapes in which they were located had differing amounts of available habitat. Significantly, the study found that migrant male willow warblers arrived earlier in woodland patches when there was less habitat in the surrounding landscape, within a 2km radius. The team also found that an individual's decision to remain in a patch after initial colonisation depended on patch quality, as measured by vegetation characteristics. In particular, birds preferred to stay in woodlands with a relatively open understorey, also known as undergrowth. Robin Whytock, of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, led the work as part of his PhD alongside colleagues at the University, Professor Kirsty Park, Dr Elisa Fuentes-Montemayor and co-supervisor Dr Kevin Watts at Forest Research. "Habitat fragmentation and loss has changed how animals move through landscapes and use the remaining habitat," Dr Whytock said. "Whether an animal colonises a fragmented habitat patch -- for example, a small woodland -- depends on a variety of factors, including the content of the surrounding landscape and the quality of the patch itself. advertisement "This study gives a valuable insight into how habitat fragmentation affects the behaviour of even very mobile species, such as migrant birds. "Our results support prior research in aquatic study systems that have looked at colonisation of artificial reefs and ponds -- and, as far as we know, this is the first time that the patterns observed in our study have been observed over such large spatial scales and with such a highly mobile species." The scientists conducted the study in spring 2016 to focus on the spring migration of the willow warbler, which migrates bi-annually between northern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. They combined the latest bio-acoustic technology -- which recorded the first song dates of male willow warblers -- with Stirling's unique Woodland Creation and Ecological Networks (WrEN) project to test how the amount of habitat in a regional landscape affects colonisation timing of isolated woodland patches. On analysing the audio data, the team found first song dates were on average five days earlier in patches with five percent woodland cover in the landscape, when compared to patches with around 30 percent cover. Dr Whytock added: "These findings are particularly interesting when you consider that previous research has suggested this species benefits from large expanses of woodland during migration. Therefore, it's surprising that individuals should choose to settle earlier in isolated woodlands." He said further work is now required to examine whether this has consequences for the survival and reproduction of willow warblers. Millennia ago, ancient farmers cleared land to plant wheat and maize, potatoes and squash. They flooded fields to grow rice. They began to raise livestock. And unknowingly, they may have been fundamentally altering the climate of Earth. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new evidence that ancient farming practices led to a rise in the atmospheric emission of the heat-trapping gases carbon dioxide and methane -- a rise that has continued since, unlike the trend at any other time in Earth's geologic history. It also shows that without this human influence, by the start of the Industrial Revolution, the planet would have likely been headed for another ice age. "Had it not been for early agriculture, Earth's climate would be significantly cooler today," says lead author, Stephen Vavrus, a senior scientist in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. "The ancient roots of farming produced enough carbon dioxide and methane to influence the environment." The findings are based on a sophisticated climate model that compared our current geologic time period, called the Holocene, to a similar period 800,000 years ago. They show the earlier period, called MIS19, was already 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 C) cooler globally than the equivalent time in the Holocene, around the year 1850. This effect would have been more pronounced in the Arctic, where the model shows temperatures were 9-to-11 degrees Fahrenheit colder. Using climate reconstructions based on ice core data, the model also showed that while MIS19 and the Holocene began with similar carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, MIS19 saw an overall steady drop in both greenhouse gases while the Holocene reversed direction 5,000 years ago, hitting peak concentrations of both gases by 1850. The researchers deliberately cut the model off at the start of the Industrial Revolution, when sources of greenhouse gas emissions became much more numerous. advertisement For most of Earth's 4.5-billion-year history, its climate has largely been determined by a natural phenomenon known as Milankovitch cycles, periodic changes in the shape of Earth's orbit around the sun -- which fluctuates from more circular to more elliptical -- and the way Earth wobbles and tilts on its axis. Astronomers can calculate these cycles with precision and they can also be observed in the geological and paleoecological records. The cycles influence where sunlight is distributed on the planet, leading to cold glacial periods or ice ages as well as warmer interglacial periods. The last glacial period ended roughly 12,000 years ago and Earth has since been in the Holocene, an interglacial period. The Holocene and MIS19 share similar Milankovitch cycle characteristics. All other interglacial periods scientists have studied, including MIS19, begin with higher levels of carbon dioxide and methane, which gradually decline over thousands of years, leading to cooler conditions on Earth. Ultimately, conditions cool to a point where glaciation begins. Fifteen years ago, study co-author William Ruddiman, emeritus paleoclimatologist at the University of Virginia, was studying methane and carbon dioxide trapped in Antarctic ice going back tens of thousands of years when he observed something unusual. "I noticed that methane concentrations started decreasing about 10,000 years ago and then reversed direction 5,000 years ago and I also noted that carbon dioxide also started decreasing around 10,000 years ago and then reversed direction about 7,000 years ago," says Ruddiman. "It alerted me that there was something strange about this interglaciation ... the only explanation I could come up with is early agriculture, which put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and that was the start of it all." Ruddiman named this the Early Anthropogenic Hypothesis and a number of studies have recently emerged suggesting its plausibility. They document widespread deforestation in Europe beginning around 6,000 years ago, the emergence of large farming settlements in China 7,000 years ago, plus the spread of rice paddies -- robust sources of methane -- throughout northeast Asia by 5,000 years ago. advertisement Ruddiman and others have also been working to test the hypothesis. He has collaborated with Vavrus, an expert in climate modeling, for many years and their newest study used the Community Climate System Model 4 to simulate what would have happened in the Holocene if not for human agriculture. It offers higher resolution than climate models the team has used previously and provides new insights into the physical processes underlying glaciation. For instance, in a simulation of MIS19, glaciation began with strong cooling in the Arctic and subsequent expansion of sea ice and year-round snow cover. The model showed this beginning in an area known as the Canadian archipelago, which includes Baffin Island, where summer temperatures dropped by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit. "This is consistent with geologic evidence," says Vavrus. Today, the Arctic is warming. But before we laud ancient farmers for staving off a global chill, Vavrus and Ruddiman caution that this fundamental alteration to our global climate cycle is uncharted territory. "People say (our work) sends the wrong message, but science takes you where it takes you," says Vavrus. "Things are so far out of whack now, the last 2,000 years have been so outside the natural bounds, we are so far beyond what is natural." The reality is, we don't know what happens next. And glaciers have long served as Earth's predominant source of freshwater. "There is pretty good agreement in the community of climate scientists that we have stopped the next glaciation for the long, foreseeable future, because even if we stopped putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, what we have now would linger," says Ruddiman. "The phenomenal fact is, we have maybe stopped the major cycle of Earth's climate and we are stuck in a warmer and warmer and warmer interglacial." A new approach that distills deluges of genetic data and patient health records has identified a set of telltale patterns that can predict a person's risk for a common, and often fatal, cardiovascular disease, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Although the method, which uses a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning, has so far only been used to predict the likelihood of this particular condition -- called abdominal aortic aneurysm, or AAA -- it's proof that such an approach could decipher the molecular nuances that put people at risk for just about any complex genetic disease. "Right now, genome sequencing is starting to make its mark," said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of genetics at Stanford. "It's being used a lot in cancer, or to solve mystery diseases. But there's still a big open question: How much can we use it for predicting disease risk?" It turns out, quite a bit. Typically, researchers and health care providers use genetic testing to look for DNA sequences that may correspond to an increased risk for a particular illness. Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, for instance, may signal an increased risk of breast cancer. But the method that Snyder and his colleagues developed doesn't work like that. It's not looking for one standout gene or mutation; it's looking for a slew of complex mutational patterns, and how those genetic errors play into a person's health and risk for disease. The method seeks to identify any likely disease-causing culprits in an "agnostic" manner, meaning that it combs through an onslaught of genetic information from patients with AAA, looking for commonalities. This, Snyder said, is the key to unraveling any number of genetic diseases. It's not often the case that one, two or even a handful of genes take sole responsibility for a condition. Far more likely is that it's a whole bunch of them. The idea is that it takes a village to cause a disease, and by using this new method, those villagers can be identified. advertisement The study will be published Sept. 6 in Cell. Snyder and Philip Tsao, PhD, professor of medicine, share senior authorship. Instructor Jingjing Li, PhD; research manager Cuiping Pan, PhD; and postdoctoral scholar Sai Zhang, PhD, are the lead authors. Often diagnosed at death AAA afflicts upward of 3 million people every year and is the 10th-leading killer in the United States. Patients with AAA have an enlarged aorta, the main artery of the body, which slowly balloons over time until, in the worst of cases, it ruptures. To make matters worse, these types of aneurysms rarely show symptoms. So in many cases, the condition silently escalates, which is in part what makes it so dangerous. Yet AAA is pretty amenable to behavioral change. Things like smoking and high blood pressure intensify the condition, while higher levels of HDL, or "good" cholesterol, help decrease the risk. So, if people know they are at risk early on, they can ideally adjust their lifestyle to avoid exacerbation or onset altogether. "What's important to note about AAA is that it's irreversible, so once your aorta starts enlarging, it's not like you can un-enlarge it. And typically, the disease is discovered when the aorta bursts, and by that time it's 90 percent lethal," said Snyder, the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS, Professor in Genetics. "So here's this irreversible disease, no way to predict it. No one has ever set up a predictive test for it and, just from a genome sequence, we found that we could actually predict with about 70 percent accuracy who is at high risk for AAA." When other details from electronic patient records were added, like whether a patient smoked and his or her cholesterol levels, accuracy increased to 80 percent, Snyder said. advertisement The method Snyder and his team devised relies on an algorithm they call the Hierarchical Estimate From Agnostic Learning, or HEAL, which analyzed genomic data from 268 patients with AAA and scanned the mass of information for any genes that were found to be mutated across the population. The algorithm identified 60 genes that were hypermutated in the AAA patients. Some genes played roles in blood-vessel function and aneurysm development -- a nod to HEAL's accuracy -- but others, more surprisingly, were associated with regulation of immune function, revealing that the mutational landscape of this disease is complex, involving niches of physiology that weren't necessarily expected. The team further confirmed their findings using HEAL in a control group, double-checking that the AAA-related mutational patterns were not seen among 133 healthy individuals. And indeed, there was no significant overlap. "HEAL could, therefore, uncover new research directions and potential therapeutic targets for devastating diseases such as AAA" said Tsao, who is also the director of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Epidemiology Research and Information Center for Genomics. Any disease with a genetic component The key, Snyder said, is that the findings were entirely unbiased. The researchers didn't say, "We think gene X, Y and Z might play a role in AAA." They fed the genetic information into HEAL and asked if there were genes or sets of genes that were enriched for mutation. "We let machine learning figure it out, and that's something that, to our knowledge, has never been done before," Snyder said. Even for diseases that have these big "red flag" genomic markers, HEAL could offer a leg up, Snyder said. "For example, in familiar cases like breast cancer, for which we know of specific 'culprit' genes, you have to remember that these genes -- BRCA1, BRCA2 and a couple others -- only explain about 30 percent of the genetics of the disease," Snyder said. "That means 70 percent is still unexplained. There are probably multiple genes and mutations involved, and that's where we think HEAL may kick in big time." In their next phase of work, Snyder and his group are looking into using HEAL to detect the elusive genetic underpinnings of preterm birth and autism. "I see a future in which everyone will be born with their genome sequenced, or shortly thereafter," Snyder said. "Both your single-gene and your complex disease risk will be used to predict your overall disease risk, and then you can take action based on that information." The work is an example of Stanford Medicine's focus on precision health, the goal of which is to anticipate and prevent disease in the healthy and precisely diagnose and treat disease in the ill. Other Stanford authors of the study are Joshua Spin, MD, PhD, clinical assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine; life science research assistant Alicia Deng; professor of medicine Lawrence Leung, MD; and Ronald Dalman, MD, professor of vascular surgery. Snyder and Tsao are members of Stanford Bio-X and the Stanford Child Health Research Center. Snyder is also a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute. Snyder and Tsao are members of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. The research was funded by National Institutes of Health (grants CEGS 5P50HG00773504, 1P50HL083800, 1R01HL101388, 1R01HL122939 and S10OD020141), the University of California and the Veterans Affairs Office of Research and Development. Stanford's Department of Genetics also supported the work. The Kenyan police on Thursday apologized for storming and briefly arresting Chinese journalists at the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Nairobi. Kenyan police officers on Wednesday raided the CGTN's office in Nairobi and detained several Chinese journalists and staff members of the Chinese-invested organization over allegations that they were working in Kenya illegally. Charles Owino, Kenya police spokesperson, regretted the incident, saying the incident was based on wrong information on the status of the affected Chinese. "The raid on the broadcaster was based on false information on their immigration status. We sincerely apologize for the mishap. Those detained were released later," Owino told media in Nairobi. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday, September 6, 2018 [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn] Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a briefing in the Chinese capital of Beijing that the Kenyan side apologized to China for its improper law enforcement behavior. It promised to strengthen management of its grassroots police officers as well as law enforcement norms and etiquette to avoid a recurrence. "We have learned that this raid was part of the Kenyan police's operation to crack down on illegal immigrants. It is not targeting or limited to Chinese nationals," she added. Hua said the Chinese foreign ministry also wants to avail itself of this opportunity to alert Chinese nationals overseas to properly go through legal procedures for their local business and residence in strict accordance with laws and regulations. A crucial 5-year-old program requiring action by the owners of San Franciscos 4,900 most earthquake-vulnerable buildings is well on its way to making the city safer, with nearly half of those structures now seismically retrofitted, city inspection officials said Thursday. But its not enough, they quickly added. It wont be enough until that number is 100 percent, and the deadline is 2020. Meanwhile, geological experts pointed out that there is a 72 percent chance of a massive shaker on the 60-mile-long Hayward Fault or any other of the Bay Areas big faults sometime in the next 25 years. Which really means any day now. The 150th anniversary of the last time the Hayward Fault roared, in a 6.8-magnitude quake, is coming on Oct. 21 and experts now say its average eruption rate is every 150 years, not 140 as often reported. Now Playing: He was speaking at a soft-story Video: SFChronicle We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for people to take this seriously, San Francisco city administrator Naomi Kelly said Thursday as she joined a bevy of construction, city and quake-study officials for a tour of a vulnerable six-unit residential building being retrofitted on Russian Hill. Weve made a lot of progress, but there is always a need to do more, Kelly said. Paul Chinn / The Chronicle City officials launched the Mandatory Soft Story Retrofit Program in 2013 after studying the effects of every big quake to hit the Bay Area between the 1868 Hayward Fault temblor called the Great San Francisco Quake until the 1906 shaker exceeded it and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake along the San Andreas Fault. The program was created to compel the 4,900 owners of soft-story buildings the ones that have several stories rising above an open garage or commercial space, deemed more susceptible than many other structures to collapse in a major quake to seismically retrofit. More than 45 percent of the owners have completed the work, Kelly said. More than 90 percent of those building owners overall have now filed the proper paperwork to get the retrofits done, she added, and a deadline for those remaining is coming up on Sept. 15. As always, with unpredictable deadly earthquakes, its all banking on chance the hope that the next big one wont hit before the preparations are done. Its a big gamble. U.S. Geological Survey scientists say a 7.0 magnitude quake on the Hayward Fault is likely to kill at least 800 people throughout the Bay Area, leave 150,000 people homeless and cause losses of more than $1.5 trillion. At least 400 fires will ignite, potentially engulfing 50,000 homes. For San Francisco, there is always a sense of urgency to be prepared. The 1906 quake and subsequent fire flattened much of the city, and in 1989, a chunk of the Bay Bridge collapsed and swaths of the Marina District were ruined but the most dire predictions say things could be worse in the next big quake. With that in mind, the city runs regular training sessions for citizen emergency response teams and maintains a website portal called SF72 (www.sf72.org) with information on that and other get-ready measures. And on Thursday, as Kelly and others toured the retrofit project, emergency crews gathered at St. Marys Cathedral to run a four-hour drill on creating a disaster shelter. Aside from the lurking danger of the Hayward Fault, officials at the St. Marys drill pointed out that a less-likely but still-possible 7.9 quake along the San Andreas Fault would displace 23,000 people in San Francisco alone. That would bring inevitable chaos, but once the drill to house 100 refugees in the spacious church was over, officials were somewhat reassured. Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 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. We have more than 100 facilities that (in total) can shelter 60,000 people rec centers, churches and other buildings so we are certainly prepared, said Trent Rhorer, head of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which has primary responsibility for setting up the emergency housing. Obviously, with shelter, feeding, medical and other needs, it will be a logistical challenge, and there is always room for improvement. One essential factor in the preparation, he said, will be having the soft-story retrofits completed as quickly as possible. The more people comply, the fewer people get displaced and need shelter, Rhorer said. We want people to remain in their houses if they can. Emergency guidelines advise everyone in a big earthquake to be prepared to survive for three days with minimal or no help and being in an intact house is a big plus. Danny Wong, whose four-story building on Clay Street was being retrofitted Thursday, said that was just one motivation for fixing up his place. By shoring up his complex, Wong said, he is saving both his investment and the lives of his tenants. The $100,000 tab to install shear walls bolted to cement is worth it, he reckoned. Its a pain in the neck, but the alternative is worse, Wong said. The tenants feel safer, and maybe this way my kids will be able to get the building after Im done with it all. Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron Nick Josefowitz, a candidate for supervisor in District Two, wants the job so badly that hes already sunk more of his own money into the effort than he would make in nearly an entire four-year term on the board. Is he really bad at math? No. Hes just really wealthy and really wants the gig. Campaign finance reports show he spent at least $377,000 supporting a ballot measure pegged for last June that would have implemented term limits for life for supervisors. The measure would have prevented former Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier from running again for the seat Josefowitz wants, which includes the Marina, Cow Hollow and Pacific Heights. But when former District Two Supervisor Mark Farrell became interim mayor in January and appointed Catherine Stefani to replace him on the board, Alioto-Pier bowed out, and the ballot measure was moot. Josefowitz failed to collect enough signatures to qualify it for June and opted not to try for the November ballot. So that was a good use of $377,000. Now, Josefowitz has dropped $115,000 into his personal campaign. Campaigns can receive only $500 from any one individual unless that individual is the one the candidate sees when he looks in the mirror. So the grand total so far is more than $492,000. (And that, by the way, doesnt count the undisclosed sum he spent suing the city to move the November District Two race up to June, an effort that was dismissed by San Francisco Superior Court.) All this for a job that pays just $125,132 per year. I think that might be a record for a candidates personal spending on a supervisorial seat, said political consultant Jim Ross, whos paid attention to San Francisco supervisor races for at least 15 years. I asked Ross why anybody would want a supervisor seat that badly, and he laughed. I dont know why anybody wants the job, period! he said. Truthfully, the job can be a useful stepping-stone for an ambitious politician. Its launched several into the mayors seat, including Farrell, London Breed, Gavin Newsom and Dianne Feinstein. Of course, Feinstein went on to become a U.S. senator, and Newsom is poised to become governor. Josefowitz, a member of the BART Board of Directors, can clearly afford to spend whatever he wants on his quest. He comes from a wealthy British family and founded his own solar company. He met his eventual wife, Tali Rapaport, at Harvard; she held prominent positions at Groupon and Lyft and is now working on her husbands campaign. His statement of economic interest shows the couple owns stock in Lyft worth more than $1 million. The couple also own stock in a host of other companies including Groupon and Secret Escapes, a members-only luxury travel company. They live with their twin 2-year-old boys in a four-bedroom, seven-bathroom home in Pacific Heights worth $17 million. Asked why he wants the job so badly hed spend a half a million dollars to get it, Josefowitz said, San Francisco government is failing our communities. Its been unable to deal with street homelessness, with property crime or how expensive it is to live here or how difficult it is to get around. Everybody feels like we need different types of folks in leadership at City Hall if were going to make our communities places that are really thriving. Stefani, his chief opponent, countered, What I may not have in money, I have in heart and dedication. She said she cant afford to spend much of her own money on her campaign, but did cop to buying doughnuts for campaign volunteers. P.S. Ill be moderating a debate among Josefowitz, Stefani, Schuyler Hudak and John Dennis hosted by the Marina Community Association at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at the St. Francis Yacht Club. Hope to see you there! Polls indicate that a controversial November ballot measure to raise $300 million to fund more housing, shelter beds and services for homeless people has the support of about 65 percent of San Franciscans. Sounds like an easy win, but in the convoluted world of San Francisco politics, nothings a sure bet. And its fate could hinge on whether voters approve it by at least 66.67 percent. Thats because Proposition C as written needs just a simple majority, but a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court could invalidate it if it doesnt receive two-thirds support. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the Building Owners and Managers Association of California, the California Business Properties Association and the California Business Roundtable quietly filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court last month against the city of San Francisco. At issue is a different Prop. C the one voters passed in June by just 50.87 percent to raise the tax on commercial leases to fund early child care. Californias Constitution requires a simple majority for tax measures that raise money for general purposes and two-thirds voter approval for tax measures that raise funds for a specific cause like early child care or homeless shelters. But the state Supreme Court in a ruling last year said that if tax measures for specific purposes are placed on the ballot through a voter signature drive rather than by government officials, a simple majority could be enough. The ruling wasnt crystal clear, and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue that the June Prop. C was an attempt to exploit media-fueled speculation surrounding the decision. Media-fueled speculation? Well, I never! 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. The city attorneys office, no stranger to lawsuits in our perennially boundary-testing city, is determined to preserve Junes Prop. C. San Francisco is confident that when voters act through the initiative process, a simple majority vote is required, rather than the two-thirds majority required when local officials act, said John Cote, spokesman for the city attorneys office. It is important to stand up for the rights of the voters, and we are doing just that. If the courts overturn Junes Prop. C, it would probably mean a challenge to the November Prop. C if it wins more than a simple majority but less than two-thirds of voter support. It could also mean the overturning of Junes Prop. G to levy a parcel tax to raise the salaries of public school teachers. That won with 60.76 percent of the vote. Christin Evans, a proponent of Novembers Prop. C, said her team is keenly aware of the benefits of achieving two-thirds voter approval. Two-thirds is historically challenging, and thats why this is a magical moment, she said. I hear the No on C side is also keenly aware of the court case and is determined to keep support under that magical two-thirds level. I told you recently about a serial car burglar, Deshawn Patton, who was indicted by a grand jury in April on 20 counts, including 11 felonies, related to a year-long spree of breaking into cars, fleeing police and sometimes ramming his car into other vehicles in the process. This happened while he was already on two separate probations. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite indicated July 27 he was prepared to put Patton on probation yet again and give him a suspended sentence, meaning hed do time in state prison only if he committed yet another crime. Hite was supposed to make his final ruling Aug. 17. Several outraged members of the public showed up, but the hearing was continued to Aug. 31. Several still-outraged people showed up that day, but it was continued to Oct. 3. You can be sure Ill keep an eye on this important case and let you know the outcome eventually. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf How is the rising minimum wage impacting the restaurant industry? According to a new study, the answer is: not much. The rise in the minimum wage over the past four years has not triggered widespread job losses in the Bay Area restaurant industry, according to a UC Berkeley study released Thursday. Instead, low-wage workers are earning more $15 per hour in San Francisco while the workforce numbers remain the same. The new data come on the heels of a 2017 study in which UC Berkeley researchers found that Seattles wage law raised pay at restaurants without shrinking the number of jobs. In the new study, minimum wages were examined in six cities across the country: Oakland, San Jose, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The study, co-authored by Sylvia Allegretto of Berkeleys Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, was based around the hourly wages at the end of 2016: $10.30 in San Jose, $12.55 in Oakland and $13 in San Francisco. The Berkeley team focused on the food service industry because it is a significant employer of low-wage workers. And based on the collected data, a 10 percent bump in minimum wage raised pay for restaurant workers between 1.3 and 2.5 percent overall. Furthermore, the study did not detect significant negative employment effects as a byproduct of the minimum wage increases. In fact, average employment changes for restaurant industry across the cities ranged from a 0.3 percent decline to a 1.1 percent rise. San Franciscos climb to $15 a level reached in July began five years ago, when more than three-quarters of city voters approved a measure raising the minimum wage by increments. A Harvard Business School study last year based on Yelp data showed that 8.7 percent of San Francisco restaurants that had been open at the start of 2016 closed by that December. But a direct link between minimum wage and layoffs has not unequivocally been established. Still, over the past few years, restaurants have been recalibrating business models resulting in an influx of fast-casual and counter-service options while cutting back on staff. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Sons Addition, a family-owned restaurant in San Franciscos Mission District, opened in 2017 with a staff of 29. Today the number is 17. The decrease is in part natural staff attrition, but the other factor, according to chef and co-owner Nick Cobarruvias, is wage costs. Theres a reason restaurants are shifting to fast casual. Its a model that works right now, Cobarruvias said. San Franciscos $15 minimum wage is more than twice the federal rate of $7.25. With a minimum-wage job in the city, a San Francisco resident would need to work more than 170 hours per week to afford a median two-bedroom home. The Berkeley study was funded by UC, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the Ford Foundation. Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips Teslas Elon Musk rarely follows the conventional path, on anything. He is, after all, the CEO who launched one of his companys cars into space. Even so, smoking a joint during an interview may have been a bit much. Teslas stock slid more than 6 percent Friday after Musk, in a podcast with comedian Joe Rogan, took a hit from a joint filled with marijuana and tobacco. Although pot is legal in California, where the podcast was taped, it was the kind of behavior rarely seen from a CEO whose company is worth nearly $45 billion. The puff wasnt the only reason Teslas stock fell. The company announced Friday that Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton had resigned, after less than a month on the job. And Gabrielle Toledano, Teslas head of human resources who had been on a leave of absence, told Bloomberg News that she too would quit the company. Now Playing: Tesla's chief accounting officer resigned just a month after starting, citing the pace of work and level of public scrutiny. That news Friday morning came hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a wide-ranging, nearly three-hour interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, in which he touched on everything from the difficulty of running the company, to his idea for a flying plane to, well, the end of the world. Video: Cheddar TV But the podcast followed several months of unusual, even erratic behavior from Musk. And it added to the sense among Wall Street analysts that Teslas board needs to rein in the CEO, urging more caution in his public comments, as well as find him a second-in-command to help run the company. Teslas getting to the point where that decision needs to be made. It just cant go on like this, said equity analyst Davis Whiston, with the Morningstar research firm. Musk last month prompted questions from federal regulators after he abruptly announced on Twitter that he was considering taking the automaker private, a prospect he abandoned weeks later. He has also at times this year berated journalists for negative coverage, insulted Wall Street analysts for asking boring questions and implied that a cave diver involved in a high-profile rescue could be a pedophile. Even though Musk has talked about the toll that running the automaker has taken on him this year, as Tesla struggled to ramp up production of its Model 3 sedan, many analysts question whether he would be able to give up any measure of control to a chief operating officer. He has developed a reputation as both a workaholic, personally immersing himself in problems on the production line, and a demanding, difficult boss. Anyone who takes that position at Tesla would have less power than they usually would like being White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, said auto industry analyst Efraim Levy. Executives frequently cycle in and out of the Palo Alto company. Mortons departure, however, was unusual for its speed. A former chief financial officer for Seagate, he started at Tesla on Aug. 6, one day before Musks tweet about possibly going private. He resigned on Sept. 4, according to a document Tesla filed with federal regulators on Friday. Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations, the document quoted Morton as saying. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Teslas leadership or its financial reporting. Whiston said he wasnt concerned that Mortons departure reflected a financial problem at Tesla, since Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja remains in place. Financially, I dont think its a bad sign, he said. Mostly, its a cultural thing. This guy has worked in the tech industry a long time, he was the chief financial officer at Seagate, and he didnt last a month? That his departure was announced right after the Rogan podcast aired appears to have been pure coincidence. But the combination still rattled investors. During the podcast a wide-ranging conversation touching on artificial intelligence and whether mankind is living in a simulation Musk takes a puff of what Rogan describes as a joint filled with tobacco and marijuana. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes You probably cant because of stockholders, right? Rogan asks, after lighting the joint and taking a few drags from it. I mean, its legal, right? Musk asks. Totally legal, Rogan says. OK, Musk says, before Rogan passes him the joint. Musk stares at it quizzically for a moment, then takes a drag. Teslas code of conduct bars showing up to work under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol or using illegal drugs at work. Musk was not at work, however, and recreational use of marijuana is now legal in California, where the podcast was taped and where Tesla maintains its headquarters and car factory. The federal government still considers the drug illegal. CNBC reported Friday that the Air Force is looking into Musk's smoking of marijuana on the podcast, citing a source at the military branch. Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, has contracts with the Air Force, according to CNBC. Analyst Ben Kallo with Robert W. Baird & Co. said the podcast and the executive departures, coming so close together, represented more distractions that could obscure the companys underlying performance. With Model 3 production and deliveries finally appearing to hit their stride, Tesla has predicted that it will turn profitable in the current quarter, after scoring only two quarterly profits in its history as a publicly traded company. The biggest thing right now is that theres just so much noise, Kallo said. From everything we know out there, I think they will be profitable this quarter. What weve seen so far is theres heavy demand in the U.S. for the Model 3, and I think youll see that in Europe as well. David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF Not surprisingly for a state of nonconformists, the Legislature adjourned Sept. 1 without conforming California state income taxes to any part of the Republican-crafted federal tax law passed in December. That means the federal law wont affect how much Californians pay in state income tax for 2018, although it could make filing tax returns more complicated for some. Those who take the new, higher standard deduction on their federal return will still be able to claim itemized deductions on their state return. Anything that was deductible on a state return last year is still deductible, and state tax rates have not changed. Ever since the federal law passed, Ive been getting emails from readers who thought their California income taxes would go up if the Legislature did nothing, perhaps because theyd be losing deductions without a corresponding cut in state tax rates. That could be true in some states that automatically conform to federal tax law changes unless their legislatures opt out, but California does the opposite: It does not conform to any federal changes except retirement-plan provisions and one or two others unless lawmakers vote to conform. Californias heavily Democratic Legislature introduced no bills that would have conformed to last years federal law. Its always hard to pass a conformity bill in California because it requires a two-thirds vote, and the state does business a bit differently than D.C., said state Sen. Mike McGuire, the Healdsburg Democrat who chairs the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. The problem with last years law is that its complicated and downright bad for the Golden State. It will take several years to conform to this highly controversial bill. The last time California conformed was in 2015, but like most states it has never mirrored the federal code completely. For example, California has long taxed capital gains as ordinary income; federal law taxes long-term gains at a lower rate. These readers might be remembering what happened after Congress passed an authentic tax reform act in 1986, said Richard Auxier, a researcher at the Tax Policy Center think tank. That law did away with many deductions and other tax breaks for individuals and offset this base broadening by cutting marginal tax rates. All states with an income tax link their systems to the federal one in various ways, but set their own tax rates. States that conformed automatically to the federal code in 1986 would have reaped a revenue windfall had they not lowered their own rates, Auxier said. In what became known as the blizzard of 1987, many states did cut their rates and made other significant changes to their income tax systems. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will have a smaller but still significant revenue impact on many auto-conforming states if they do nothing. In some states it will be quite substantial hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of increased revenue, said Jared Walczak, a senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation think tank. Some states such as New York and Maryland have decoupled from federal provisions that would have raised their individual income taxes, while permitting an implicit increase in corporate taxes, Walczak said. Other states including Vermont, Georgia, Idaho and Utah trimmed their tax rates. Iowa and Missouri used federal tax reform as the impetus for broader state-tax reform. Some states are on track to quietly keep the revenue, while others have punted by delaying conformity considerations another year, he added. But there hasnt been the blizzard of state legislation that followed the 1986 act. That law gored a lot of oxes, but it was passed with broad bipartisan support. It was easier for state lawmakers to respond to it with less regard to political implications, Walczak said. By comparison, no Democrats in Congress voted for last years tax act, and 11 of the 12 Republicans who voted against it were from California, New York and New Jersey high-tax states that will be affected by the new federal limit on the state and local tax deduction. Congress capped the federal itemized deduction at $10,000 for all state and local income or sales and property taxes combined. That limit, along with a big increase in the federal standard deduction, will lead many Californians to stop itemizing on their federal return. Congress nearly doubled the standard deduction to $24,000 for couples and $12,000 for singles. It also did away with the personal exemption, which amounted to a $4,050 deduction for each person on the tax return including dependents. For a family of three, those two changes were basically a wash. To help larger families, it doubled the child tax credit to $2,000. Congress obliterated the miscellaneous itemized deduction for things such as investment advisory and tax-preparation fees, unreimbursed employee expenses and union dues. Previously, you added these expenses and could deduct the amount that exceeded 2 percent of adjusted gross income. The federal law created a new deduction for pass-through entities such as sole proprietors and partnerships whose income passes through to owners and is taxed at their individual rates. They now get to deduct 20 percent of their business income on their federal return, although limits apply. This is one part of the federal law many California taxpayers would probably like to see the state adopt. Even if they lose some deductions, most Californians will pay less to Uncle Sam this year because Congress also cut federal tax rates and made fewer people subject to the alternative minimum tax, which tends to hit higher-income people in high-tax states. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Some readers thought that if they took the new, higher standard deduction on their federal return, theyd have to take Californias rather paltry standard deduction on their state return. Not to worry. Unlike some states, California does not require residents to take the standard deduction on their state-tax return if they take it on their federal return. On California returns, you never could deduct state income taxes, but you could and still can deduct property taxes as well as miscellaneous deductions if you itemize. On a California return, you can still deduct interest on up to $1 million in mortgage debt used to buy or improve a first and second residence, along with $100,000 in home-equity debt that was not use to buy or improve a home. On federal returns, those limits have been cut to $750,000 in interest on mortgage debt taken out after Dec. 14, 2017, and zero interest on home-equity debt, regardless of when it was taken out. And Californians can still claim an exemption credit for themselves and their dependents on their state return, which is figured differently from the personal exemption that Congress killed. The Franchise Tax Board is figuring how to incorporate all these new differences between state and federal law on 2018 California returns. It has shown draft versions to tax professionals but said a public version wont be available before Nov. 15. It has said its planning major changes to Schedule CA 540, the state tax form where people adjust for differences between federal and state law. For people using tax software, reconciling the new differences is going to a be a minor hassle, said Renee Rodda, a vice president with tax-information firm Spidell Publishing. For people doing their own returns, its a bigger hassle. Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender State regulators moved to revoke the licenses of two Santa Rosa senior housing facilities Thursday after finding that employees abandoned dozens of elderly and disabled residents during a confused and frantic evacuation amid the deadly Tubbs Fire last year. Investigators with the California Department of Social Services concluded that the staffers at the Varenna and Villa Capri apartments were untrained and ill-equipped to handle evacuations, and that supervisors in both facilities left residents alone at the peak of the crisis. Two dozen residents of Villa Capri would have died in the fire if not for the actions of family members and emergency personnel to get them out before the building went up in flames, according to a complaint filed by the department. It cites the licensed operator of the facilities, Oakmont Senior Living, as well as its management group and the executive directors of the centers, Deborah Smith and Nathan Condie. The licenses will be revoked in 15 days unless an appeal is filed requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge. Based on evidence gathered during the investigations and the statements of witnesses, the department has determined that Oakmont Senior Living failed to protect the health and safety of residents at Varenna and Villa Capri, Michael Weston, the spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, wrote in a statement. The Department served Oakmont Senior Living with legal notice to revoke the licenses of Varenna and Villa Capri and to exclude the administrators of both facilities for life. Oakmont representatives denied the allegations in a statement Thursday, saying all 418 residents were safely evacuated and thanking families, neighbors and emergency personnel for their help. The night of the Tubbs fire, we voluntarily began evacuating residents after we were repeatedly unable to reach emergency authorities on clogged 911 phone lines. We never received an official evacuation order from emergency authorities, the statement said. Our residents and their safety have been, and always will be, our first priority. Oakmont officials said earlier this year that emergency personnel prevented staff from returning to the buildings to evacuate the rest of the residents. None of the residents of the two high-end assisted-living facilities died in the fire, but the complaint describes confusion, inattention and breakdowns in communication among the managers as the fire crackled toward the building the night of Oct. 8 and early morning Oct. 9. Smith, administrator of Villa Capri, failed to train the four staffers on duty that night in emergency and evacuation procedures, according to the complaint. They were responsible for 62 residents, 25 of whom were in the memory care unit and unable to exit the building unassisted, the report said. The employees did not know where flashlights, batteries or keys to the facilitys vehicles were, and two of them were incapable of moving or assisting residents because they could not lift more than 10 pounds or use both hands, the document said. One staffer searched for an hour that night, checking four rooms in the building, but could not find keys to any vehicles, the complaint said. Outside was a large bus that could have been used to evacuate all the residents, but nobody knew where to find the keys. Sometime between 3 and 3:30 a.m., as the fire raged outside, a supervisor, who did not call 911 or notify anyone about the situation, left two untrained staffers with 30 elderly and infirm residents. They subsequently evacuated six residents in their personal vehicles, leaving 24 infirm patients alone in the building as flames approached, the complaint said. Smith knew about the emergency at 11:30 p.m., but never made it to the facility and eventually arrived at an evacuation center at 6 a.m. the next day. The residents were saved by family members, who flagged down a police cruiser and helped their stranded relatives down from the second floor and out from behind a locked door in the lobby, the report said. A 92-year-old woman who suffered from blindness, dementia and hearing impairments reportedly was injured with a broken hip while being rescued by a good Samaritan. If these family members and emergency responders had not evacuated Villa Capri residents, more than 20 residents would have perished when Villa Capri burned to the ground after all staff left the facility, the report stated. The situation at Varenna, where 228 residents were living, was equally chaotic, according to the report. It said Condie, the administrator, had failed to train the two health care workers and two maintenance staffers on duty that night in emergency procedures. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California When Condie arrived sometime between 12:30 and 1 a.m., he was unable to articulate an evacuation plan and instead directed the staff to return the residents to their rooms, the report said. He left the facility in his car with a small number of residents at about 3:30 a.m. and did not tell the staffers where keys to a large bus owned by Varenna were located. All the other staffers later departed, leaving the residents asleep in their rooms as the fire raged toward the facility. They were eventually evacuated by their families and friends, who reported spending hours pounding on doors, waking up and assisting residents, many using walkers and wheelchairs, to the lobby, according to the report. When emergency responders finally arrived at 4:15 a.m., no staffers were available to identify residents or provide a list of those who were evacuated, the report said. They said they had to kick open locked doors throughout the facility to locate and alert sleeping residents. Besides revoking the licenses of the facilities, the complaint would also ban Smith and Condie from ever again working at a care facility. Were very pleased that the state of California has held Oakmont accountable and sent a very strong message that it needs to spend money on residents and not just pretty buildings, said Kathryn Stebner, the attorney for former Villa Capri and Varenna residents, who settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of the residents Aug. 17 for an undisclosed sum. They said they had training and had an evacuation plan, and we found that they did not have training and they did not have an evacuation plan, and we also found that the residents were abandoned, she said. These people would have been dead if not for the heroic acts of family members. The state investigated another care facility, Fountaingrove Lodge, but no wrongdoing was found. Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite Saverio G Greco, age 95, of Princeton Junction, NJ, passed away on October 18 at his home, of natural causes. He was born in Calabria, Italy and came to this country with his family... An Alameda County judge on Friday issued a harsh rebuke of the countys Sheriffs Office in response to evidence that a sergeant had illegally recorded at least one conversation between a youth suspect and his attorney. Ultimately, though, Judge C. Don Clay declined to issue an order that would prohibit the agency from such practices in the future. The decision was a blow to the county public defenders office, which requested the standing order after footage of the sergeant showed him suggesting the unlawful recordings were routine. At an Alameda County Superior Court hearing in downtown Oakland, Judge Clay blasted Sgt. James Russells alleged actions, calling the recording outrageous. The question is: Is it a representation of a systematic issue? Clay asked, noting that Russell had used the word we when talking about recording juvenile suspects and their attorneys. Clay said he was putting the Sheriffs Office on notice and the harshest sanctions would be leveled upon officers found violating the law. It is a felony in California for a third party to record a privileged conversation, with a maximum penalty of three years in prison. The judge additionally floated the idea of a civil rights lawsuit against the Sheriffs Office on behalf of those who were illegally recorded. However, he noted that hed seen no evidence that the problem was widespread and denied the motion for a standing order at this time. Fridays hearing stemmed from two troubling items of discovery the public defenders office received earlier this year: One video, they said, showed a public defender talking to his juvenile client while the boy was detained at the Eden Township Substation in San Leandro. The office, which represents suspects unable to pay for legal services, also received body-camera footage of a conversation between Sgt. James Russell and Lt. Timothy Schellenberg, in which Russell suggested both he and others surreptitiously recorded suspects with their attorneys. What weve done is, like, well, weve had these recordings, Russell said in a video that was obtained by The Chronicle. A district attorneys office spokeswoman told The Chronicle the agency was reviewing all juvenile cases submitted by the Sheriffs Office this year to determine if any cases beyond the one discussed in the first video were compromised. The spokeswoman said the district attorney has not decided whether to file charges against Sgt. Russell. Sheriffs officials have previously said the recorded conversation of a juvenile and his attorney stemmed from confusion about a new state law that requires juvenile suspects be given the chance to consult with an attorney before being interrogated. Both the district attorney and the Sheriffs Office pushed back on the public defenders request for an agency-wide order. District Attorney Nancy OMalleys motion said a judges order was unnecessary because the practice is already against the law. County counsel for the Sheriffs Office echoed OMalleys motion, and argued that Clay lacked jurisdiction to issue such an order in the first place. (The Sheriffs Office) agrees that known attorney-client privileged communications must not be recorded and has policies in place expressly prohibiting any such recordings, the motion stated, adding that the Sheriffs Office does not require a court order to continue to follow the law. Sheriff Gregory Ahern has called the recording an isolated incident, and said the entire agency was being retrained on its policy. At Fridays hearing, Public Defender Brendon Woods said these statements fell short of reassuring. The sheriff has never responded to Woods request to see these policies in writing, and never assured Woods that the recordings havent occurred in other instances in the past, he said. 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. Its not something that were going to let go, Woods told The Chronicle after the hearing. Were going to keep pursuing it. About 10 protesters turned up for the hearing in support of the juvenile defendant. Many wore neon pink or green signs on their chests reading youth deserve rights or the sheriffs dept. is not above the law. Leo Mercer, a demonstrator with the Urban Peace Movement, said he felt the judges mind was in the right place, but he was disappointed that prosecutors and the court had yet to enforce the law. They really need to take precedent and take charge and make sure that (sheriffs officials) pay for that, Mercer said. Because its just not legal. Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman with the Sheriffs Office, said he thought Clay made the right decision. I think that at the end of the day, the actions of one employee dont account for the 1,600 people that work here, Kelly said, stressing that an internal investigation is ongoing. We feel that its limited to exactly what it is, Kelly said. We have not found any other systemwide abuses of that privilege. Woods said he was slightly upset about the judges decision but was heartened that Clay put the department on notice. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy Portuguese flavors are the heartbeat of a new Mission District restaurant Piri Pica opening today on Valencia Street. The joint venture between Uma Casa chef Telmo Faria, a native of Portugal, and Khalid Mushasha (Black Cat and Lolinda), is filling the old home of Frjtz (590 Valencia St.), the Mission spot known for its Belgian fries. It closed in January. Piri Picas menu is based around varying recipes of the smoky, spicy Portuguese dish piri piri chicken, the recipes of which were created by Faria. Whole, half or quarter grilled chickens are available in several styles: a mild version, a Piri Piri option (spicy), a lemon and herbs option (zesty), and lastly, Pica! Pica! Pica! (extra spicy). Among three sides is lighter fare like like cous cous, cabbage-herb slaw or wild rice. Everything is up for grabs either for dine-in, take-out, or delivery. Check out the full menu. The smoky piri piri chicken dish has a vibrantly diverse history. Sure, its Portuguese in origin, but the peppers traditionally used to create it were imported to Portugal from South Africa. To be more specific, they came from former Portuguese colonies like Mozambique and Angola. As for the interior, the 1,800-square-foot space was designed by Craig Walters (Black Cat). The dining room has 60 seats and theres a space carved out for the take-out and delivery components of the business. Piri Pica: 590 Valencia St.; Open from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips The Trump administration, widely condemned for separating thousands of migrant children from their parents at the Mexican border, is proposing to keep the families together, in custody, while awaiting the parents asylum hearings. Regulations announced Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security would repeal a 1997 court settlement that has required immigration officials to release minors from custody without unnecessary delay, generally within 20 days. Under the settlement that, until now, has been supported by administrations in both parties, the children have been usually turned over to an adult relative or guardian, but otherwise must be placed in a minimum-security facility licensed by the state until a sponsor can be found. Under the proposed regulations, minors who cross the border with their parents could be held in family-detention centers operated or approved by the federal government until the parents immigration cases are resolved. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has three such detention centers, in Texas and Pennsylvania, with about 3,000 beds, and has asked the Pentagon for help in building more of them. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that a goal of the proposed policy change is to discourage unauthorized immigration. Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the departments ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country, Nielsen said in a statement. This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress. Under the 1997 settlement, however, the proposed regulations can be challenged in federal court in Los Angeles. When the Trump administration said in June it wanted to rewrite the settlement to allow indefinite detention of children with their parents, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee refused, just as she had done in 2015 when President Barack Obamas administration made a similar proposal. The Trump administration appealed her ruling Thursday. Court approval of the new rules is very doubtful, said Bill Hing, an immigration law professor at the University of San Francisco, because the regulation is proposing things that are inconsistent with the stipulated agreement the time limits on keeping minors in custody, and the requirement to place them in state-licensed facilities. He also said there are no legal loopholes preventing the government from quickly deporting immigrants who had no basis to challenge their removal. Immigrant advocates have accused ICE of abusing youngsters in the three detention centers, and Gee has ordered the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee conditions in them. Hing said he visited a south Texas center in December and found some improvements over previous conditions, but saw continued problems in health care and sanitation in a facility surrounded by barbed wires and armed guards. Its clear that this administration is not going to hold itself responsible for the welfare of these children, said Katharina Obser, a policy adviser with the nonprofit Womens Refugee Commission. Taking away oversight of the courts would be disastrous. The administration created a furor in April when Attorney General Jeff Sessions zero-tolerance policy on unauthorized border crossings separated more than 2,500 children from their parents, who had been held in custody under the new policy. President Trump ordered an end to family separations in June, but nearly 500 minors have not yet been found and reunited with their parents. The Flores settlement that the administration is trying to repeal was the result of a class-action suit filed in 1985 on behalf of 15-year-old Jenny Flores, who fled El Salvador and was held in detention for an indefinite period after entering the United States without authorization. The case was resolved by President Bill Clintons administration 12 years later with an agreement that required minors in immigration custody to be placed in the least restrictive setting available and released as soon as a relative or sponsor is available. Gee reaffirmed the settlement in 2015, rejecting Obama administration arguments that an influx of youngsters from Central America justified longer confinement. She also specified that the government must follow the same standards for minors who enter the country on their own. A federal appeals court upheld her ruling in 2016. The Trump administration said its family-detention proposal would provide children materially identical protections to the Flores settlement in a humane setting. Maintaining family unity during immigration proceedings keeps a child under the considerate care of the parent, promotes communications among family members and enables the physical removal of a family together as a unit if immigration relief is unavailable, the regulations declare. Efren Olivares of the Texas Civil Rights Project sees it differently. The Trump administration has found a new low in the family separation crisis: seeking indefinite imprisonment of children, he said. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@BobEgelko Whos American? The Trump administrations troubling attack against immigrants and the children of immigrants continues. The State Department is denying or slowing passport applications from people with official U.S. birth certificates in states along the southern border; there have been repeated requests for additional documentation. The government is alleging that some midwives and doctors provided fraudulent certificates over the decades, in a crackdown thats swept up U.S. military veterans and those with certificates originating hundreds of miles from the border. The move comes in the wake of the administrations plans to make it harder for legal permanent residents with green cards to become citizens. As the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants, Im outraged by this onslaught. Birthright citizenship is vital to this country, making it possible for immigrant families to integrate and build a life here. Eliminating or curtailing birthright citizenship wouldnt fix our broken immigration system. These racist, xenophobic efforts to block paths to citizenship, whether through naturalization or at birth, could disenfranchise millions of people and generations of families. The question of who has a right to be an American has been debated throughout our countrys history. Following the Civil War, the 14th Amendment in 1868 granted citizenship and equal rights to African American slaves who had been emancipated, to all those born or naturalized (the decision rectified the Dred Scott case, in which an enslaved man sued for his freedom, and lost). Three decades later, Wong Kim Ark, the son of Chinese immigrants born at 751 Sacramento St. in San Francisco challenged the governments refusal to recognize his citizenship. In those days, under the harsh terms of the Chinese Exclusion Act, in order to travel outside of the United States, people of Chinese descent had to get a signed affidavit by white witnesses who could vouch for them and their citizenship. To me, this bureaucratic obstruction is a parallel to the governments additional requests for documentation from certain passport applicants. Though Wong had the required paperwork, customs barred him from landing after his trip to China, by claiming that he was not a U.S. citizen. He had made the round trip as a teenager, and had been allowed to return. With the support of the Chinese Six Companies a Chinatown benevolent organization the cook fought his case to the Supreme Court. In 1898, the court ruled in Wongs favor, upholding that a child born in the U.S. automatically became a citizen. To exclude Wong would have denied citizenship to those of English, Scottish, Irish or other European parentage who had always been considered and treated as citizens, Justice Horace Gray wrote in the majority opinion. The fascinating 2014 documentary 14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark and Vanessa Lopez about the history of the 14th Amendment and the debate over birthright citizenship that rages on includes interviews with Wongs great-granddaughter, Sandra, a native of San Francisco. You can only imagine what he might have felt. If you talked to him, what would he have had to say about these experiences ... having to do it over and over again, Sandra Wong says in the documentary, contemplating his years of legal battles. 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. My ancestor stood up and took on the challenge, she says. He was brave enough to do it. He was just a regular guy; it wasnt like he wanted to be a hero. He wanted to fight for his right, and so you do what you have to do. How terrifying, how daunting it must have been, to fight the powers that be. Although I dont remember learning about Wongs case among the landmark Supreme Court cases that we studied as schoolchildren, he deserves a place among those whose cases changed the fates of the generations who followed him. My family owes thanks to him, and so do other children of immigrants, and everyone in this country who has benefited from contributions of those who hailed from elsewhere but embraced the United States as a home and a haven. Yet Wongs story doesnt end with the court case, with him living happily ever after in the Bay Area. Eventually, he returned to China, quite possibly because of the rampant discrimination Chinese and Chinese Americans faced at that time. To his family, he spoke little about what had happened. Yet his descendants later returned to America, in search of the same opportunity and freedom that has drawn immigrants from the beginning, and draws them still and that we must strive to protect now. Vanessa Hua is a Bay Area author. Her columns appear Fridays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com ANGELA WEISS;Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images The New York Times decision to run a commentary on its Wednesday opinion page from an unnamed author has raised questions both political and practical. Heres my take as The Chronicle editor who has selected and edited commentary submissions for more than a decade, and why I think the Times made an acceptable decision. The decision breaks with convention. Commentary is credible only if the writer can demonstrate that he or she knows what they are talking about. We work hard to make sure we are giving voice on the opinion pages to those who are recognized as community or political leaders or have personal experience that informs their view. Without a name, readers cant judge the motives the writer might have for writing the piece or whether the commentary is valid or even persuasive. Nick Ut / Associated Press California lawmakers have drawn exactly the wrong lesson from allegations that some of their colleagues dont reside in the areas they claim to represent. Instead of taking care not to make the same mistake, theyre trying to rid themselves of the apparently onerous requirement that they live in their districts. Legislation by state Sen. Steven Bradford, a Los Angeles area Democrat, decrees that wherever a member of the Legislature or Congress chooses to vote will be accepted as his or her primary residence as long as the legislator has lived there at some point. For purposes of determining where politicians actually reside, the bill says, such minor details as where they pay taxes, get mail, and house their belongings and children are not to be considered. At a forum in 2017, Assemblyman Chad Mayes, R-Yucca Valley (San Bernardino County), noted that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. Fact-checkers, progressives and conservatives have joined Mayes in a growing chorus calling attention to the fact that more than 20 percent of Californians lived in poverty from 2014 to 2016 the highest rate in the nation. Much of this is based on the Census Bureaus Supplemental Poverty Measure, though the Public Policy Institute of Californias poverty measure finds the same thing. There is much controversy over poverty measures, but even putting those disagreements aside, California still has the highest poverty rate in the U.S. Why? It is certainly not, like some conservatives allege, because our social policies are too generous. There is no evidence that a stronger safety net discourages Californians from working. Even among Californians in poverty, nearly 70 percent live in working households. Moreover, the states labor force participation rate is significantly higher than other states from Alabama to Arizona that offer much less generous social policies. Rather, California has the highest supplemental poverty measure rate simply because of our highest-in-the-nation home prices. If housing prices in California were at the median seen across the rest of the United States, the states supplemental poverty measure rate would drop by nearly a third to 11.7 percent from 17.1 percent. California would then rank 30th among the states based on 2015 data. This might not be surprising, as 29 percent of Californians spend more than half their monthly income to keep a roof over their heads. The problem with these measures The supplemental poverty measure is a huge improvement over the outdated and deeply flawed official U.S. measure of poverty because, unlike the official measure, the supplemental poverty measure assesses people's incomes by including all taxes, tax credits and welfare benefits. Also, the supplemental poverty measure defines who is poor relative to current consumption standards and adjusts for local housing costs. Poverty scholars overwhelmingly prefer the supplemental poverty measure, and these commentators deserve credit for using it. But the measure isn't perfect. Survey respondents tend to under-report whether they received welfare transfers like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (food stamps). We correct the supplemental poverty measure by employing the Urban Institute's TRIM3 model. After correcting for under-reporting, California's supplemental poverty rate in 2015 falls to 17.1 percent from 19 percent. Even with this correction, California has the highest poverty rate. See More Collapse Still, this begs the question of whether Californias poverty rate should depend so exclusively and overwhelmingly on housing costs. It seems reasonable to assume that poor people would struggle with both food and housing costs. So, if California really has the highest poverty rate, we should expect it to also have high food insecurity. However, only 4.1 percent of Californians experienced very low food security from 2014 to 2016. That is the eighth-lowest rate among the 50 states. By contrast, Arizonas very low food security was nearly 40 percent higher (5.8 percent). Arizona happens to be the only state in the United States that forces people off the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families after only 12 months, the most ruthless approach in the country. Californias generous social policies appear to be more effective at reducing food insecurity than a focus solely on the supplemental poverty measure would suggest. So while we applaud the use of the supplemental poverty measure, we urge caution in claiming California has the worst poverty in the United States. We propose two alternative measures for monitoring Californias poverty alongside the supplemental poverty measure. The first asks: How many Californians have less than half the median income of all Californians? The second asks: How many Californians have less than half the median income of all Americans? Both of these are relative measures like the supplemental poverty measure, which is how most international poverty researchers define poverty. These measures acknowledge that people have a wide range of expenses, and people are poor based on all expenses and relative to the prevailing standards of the people around them in California or all of the United States. Our estimates of Californias poverty use the same data as the supplemental poverty measure, and incorporate the Urban Institutes model as well. Using this measure, we find 13.4 percent of Californians were poor relative to the California median in 2015. With this measure, California ranks 29th among the 50 states. We also find 13.7 percent of Californians were poor relative to the U.S. median. With this measure, California ranks 24th among the 50 states. With both alternative relative measures, California is in the middle of the pack of states. Its good news that Californians are debating its high poverty. Careful measurement is essential to this debate. Whether California is the highest in the nation or in the middle of the pack, it certainly has high poverty compared with other rich democracies. To reduce poverty, we need to focus on lower housing costs and more, not less, generous social policies. David Brady is a professor of public policy and director of the Blum Initiative on Global and Regional Poverty at UC Riverside. Zachary Parolin is a researcher at the University of Antwerps Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy. Ongoing FEMA has closed some of its Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC), established last month to assist residents and businesses whose property was damaged by Tropical Storm Ida. However, face-to-face assistance is still available. Residents can find their nearest DRC online at fema.gov/drc,... When President Trump announced last year that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, many feared that international momentum for tackling global warming would be lost. It wasnt. The widespread exodus from the landmark deal that some expected never came, and no major nation has since backed off its commitment to reducing heat-trapping pollution. In many places, Trumps defiance has only hardened resolve. This week, thousands of people from across the globe are expected to descend on San Francisco to show theyre still in the climate fight, from environmental superstars like former Vice President Al Gore, musician Dave Matthews and astronaut Mae Jemison to frontline policymakers from China, Brazil, Germany and elsewhere. The three-day Global Climate Action Summit starting Wednesday, initiated by Gov. Jerry Brown when Trump disengaged, is intended to get cities, states and other regional entities to step up the pace of shifting to cleaner, nonpolluting economies, especially in spots where national governments have been slow to act. This bottom-up effort, however, has a long way to go. While nations in many parts of the world are making progress in putting climate policies in place, their actions are not doing enough to reduce Earths warming. Local governments can only do so much to pick up the slack. Already, the threats of a hotter planet are surfacing amid a summer of catastrophic heat waves, drought and wildfire. Carbon dioxide, the primary pollutant driving atmospheric warmth, hit record concentrations this year, and worldwide temperatures are likely to be recorded as the fourth hottest on record. The warmest years have been the past three. National governments are critical in making the improvements, but a lot of the action and policy innovation seems to be happening at the sub-national level, said William Boyd, professor at UCLA School of Law, who leads the Governors Climate and Forests Task Force, which helps regional leaders reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Is it going to be enough? Its not clear, he said. But what other options do we have? More than 170 nations stand by the 2015 Paris Agreement, but many of the biggies are not on track to meet the emissions cuts they pledged, according to the Climate Action Tracker, a much-watched independent monitoring initiative. The European Union is falling short. Brazil, Canada and Mexico are behind. As for India and China, theyve committed so little in the way of greenhouse gas reductions, that even if theyre on schedule to meet their pledges, they should be doing more, climate analysts say. My guess is were going to end up with having a lot more global warming than is optimal, said David Victor, professor of international relations at UC San Diego, who has written extensively on diplomatic efforts to address the changing climate. Collectively, the whole world is not doing enough. Global Climate Action Summit For details on this week's event in San Francisco: http://globalclimateactionsummit.org See More Collapse The individual commitments made by the worlds nations in Paris are seen as the best chance of getting a handle on the climate problem. The goal was to prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. Thats the point at which scientists expect unrelenting weather extremes as well as irreparable harm to Arctic ice sheets, coral reefs and vast tracts of coastline and forest. An increase of nearly 1 degree Celsius has already occurred, and many studies suggest current policies, including those designed to reduce emissions, will lead to at least 3 degrees of cumulative warming. Even before the Trump presidency, the United States was struggling to follow through on its part to cut emissions. As the worlds second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, following China, it committed to a 26 to 28 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2025. But models have consistently shown that no more than 20 percent is likely to be trimmed. Some scenarios suggest far less. Although Trump has chosen to abandon the U.S. commitment in Paris, the nation doesnt technically leave the accord until 2020. The presidents recent policy proposals, such as undoing the pollution-reducing Clean Power Plan of the Obama era and rolling back fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, promise to move the U.S. only further from its target. Climate analysts say this is where sub-national leadership can play a role. Regional policymakers have a variety of ways to help reduce greenhouse gases, from passing local pollution rules to developing cleaner public transit systems to making buildings more energy efficient. An alliance of 16 states, including California, is vowing to uphold the pledged Paris cuts as are hundreds of cities and businesses under the Americas Pledge initiative, started by Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A major report last month found that climate commitments of states, cities and private companies, which together produce about 38 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, are on track to offer half the pledged cuts that the nation is projected to fall short of. What were trying to do is so big, the more initiatives that we have pulling in the same direction, the better it is, said Niklas Hohne, a co-author of the new report and founding partner of the German research group NewClimate Institute. California, which would rank as the worlds fifth-largest economy if it were a country, is leading the sub-national pack in the United States. The states cap-and-trade program is helping clean up industry by setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions and requiring businesses to buy permits to pollute. Low-emissions vehicle regulation has helped put nearly 400,000 electric cars on California roads. Just last month, lawmakers approved a far-reaching bill that would require the state to get all its electricity from renewable sources by 2045. The legislation is awaiting a decision from Brown. And on Friday, Brown signed an executive order directing the heads of his states agencies to develop plans to protect Californias plant and animal species from the threats of climate change. The climate summit underscores the states initiative, say participants, and many say it also offers a powerful rebuke of federal leadership. I think it was a very smart move to have the event in California to show the world that the U.S. is more actors than just Trump, said Hohne, who will be attending the summit. Globally, the sub-national efforts have been modest, however. While regional leaders in the United States are expected to plug half of the countrys gap in pledged emissions cuts, in most places its much less. Hohnes report estimates that the current commitments of local forces worldwide will cover only 10 percent of what remains to be done to meet the two-degree Paris target. The impact of regional policymakers in the European Union, China, India, Japan and Mexico is described as relatively small. 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. For organizers of the climate summit, which is being held at Moscone Center, the limited contribution of local and regional groups is no reason for disappointment, only motivation to accelerate the effort. Delegates of local governments and businesses from close to 100 nations this week plan to unveil scores of new strategies and initiatives for trimming emissions. Ahead of the event, two dozen cities around the globe have already agreed to slash the amount of waste they send to greenhouse gas-producing landfills. Nineteen cities have pledged to power new buildings with renewable energy. And in the private sector, 289 institutional investors that manage more than $30 trillion in assets have committed to working with the companies they back to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. Theres no doubt that the challenge here is great, said Matt Rodriguez, secretary of Californias Environmental Protection Agency, who has helped spearhead the states climate program. But weve been able to demonstrate in the past that weve been able to meet our targets and be successful. We want to use that momentum. Those who will be attending the summit acknowledge that greater success on the regional front hinges on ensuring that companies and communities follow through on their pledges as well as expanding the climate network beyond the usual bloc of supporters. These events are clubs of the converted, meetings being held by folks that already get it, said Victor, at UC San Diego. Whats crucial is turning these clubs of leaders that develop processes into follow-ship. The only way to make a dent in the global problem is to have global cooperation. Having so many businesses and advocacy groups involved in the summits programs, from Google to Levi Strauss & Co. to European insurance giant Allianz to sustainability nonprofit Ceres, as well as states and nations with different political stripes, will extend the reach of the effort, organizers say. Most of the speakers lean left, but the roster also includes more conservative names such as former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who is scheduled to appear on a live video feed because of a scheduling conflict, and Janos Ader, the president of Hungary. Xie Zhenhua, a special representative from China, where climate policies havent always been a priority, is a co-chair of the event, alongside Brown, Bloomberg, United Nations climate representative Patricia Espinosa, Indian businessman Anand Mahindra, and U.N. youth envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake. Summit organizers also hope that the proven record of California and other environmentally progressive cities and states will inspire the uninitiated. A recent critique of the summit is that the climate efforts being championed, including those of organizers like Brown, arent aggressive enough. The governor has faced criticism from environmental groups for not doing more to stop fracking and for being too accommodating of the fossil fuel industry, a major source of greenhouse gases. Demonstrations calling for greater action are planned. But Nick Nuttall, the summits spokesman, said that whats going to bring everyone together, both critics on the left and the right, is the collective risk they face. I think whats charging people up is the reality in front of their eyes, he said. When they see California on fire when they see the droughts and the floods and people hit by hurricanes, this is what is firing people up, in every part of the globe. Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander Fall fashion collections are once again brimming with rich embroidery and ethnic motifs. These recurring artifacts of wintertime, quickly mass-produced after hitting the runways, once took days to make. They take center stage in celebrations and rituals. Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress, a new exhibition that opened at the Contemporary Jewish Museum Aug. 30, offers a rare encounter with garments exemplifying textile craftsmanship that is slow even by slow fashion standards, while telling a complex story of Jews of the diaspora. It is only fitting that an exhibition partially dedicated to the clothes worn by nomadic Jews have traveled across the world to San Francisco. The exhibition originated at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and made a pit stop in New York City. In San Francisco, the exhibit will span the globe with more than 100 pieces from the 18th to 20th centuries, gathered in Israel by way of Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Morocco and other countries in North Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The exhibition, divided into several thematic sections, is a study in history, geography and anthropology: An elaborate tulle wedding garment from Egypt alongside an embroidered face veil from Afghanistan, and ikat-dyed mens garments from Uzbekistan next to beaded leggings from Yemen. A number of exhibits are childrens clothing small in size but big on detail. Some garments are festive, like an intricate dress from a Moroccan childrens wedding, while others are of religious importance. Many represent a mesh of cultures or exemplify the role of Jews in the indigo and ikat trades. Since the procedure of dyeing left semi-permanent marks on ones hands, the job was considered lowbrow in places like predominantly Muslim Uzbekistan, allowing the Jews to take over the trades. The style and textile aspects of the show are relatively new to curator Heidi Rabben, whos used to working with contemporary art. For her, its the overarching story that makes Veiled Meanings so timely. The exhibition is centered on Jewish diasporic communities, by large of the Sephardic origin, not the Ashkenazi Euro-centered stories most of us are familiar with, she said. It highlights the uniqueness and difference between many peoples understandings of Judaism and how it evolved over time. In a larger sense, Rabben said, the exhibition tells, through clothes, a universal story. The Jewish communities were frequently living in Muslim majorities, and the exhibit marks the similarities, as many items were worn by both communities, she said. Its a beautiful and timely thing to talk about, what brings us together rather than sets us apart. For the San Francisco installment, the museum hung on the walls large historic photographs of Jews wearing some of the exhibited garments and added a projection wall with changing images so more history and individuality can come through, Rabben says. In addition, true to the citys current obsession with experiential offerings, theres an adjacent annex where textile workshops will be held for the public, with weaving and embroidery tools available. More Information "Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress" Jewish Contemporary Museum, 736 Mission St., Aug. 30-Jan. 6. https://www.thecjm.org. See More Collapse Wandering through the space and reading the plaques, however, will keep the visitor busy enough. The stories of the garments are occasionally humorous or sad, and looking closer at the textiles adds another layer. Textile expert Barbara Shapiro, who has served on the boards of the Textile Society of America and Textile Arts Council of the Fine Arts Museums, guided the docents for the exhibition and participated in creating the educational annex. Shapiro noted that its interesting to see how European influences, like the Renaissance-style bodice and skirt, find themselves in 20th century Morocco as part of the Great Dress, a festive Jewish womens garment. After the Jews migrated from Spain to North Africa in 1492, their costumes spoke of where they had lived before; fashion wandered with the wandering Jews, so to speak, she said. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Along with portraying cross-cultural influences, the garments tell the story of Jews social status. When I look at a garment, the type of fiber tells if it came from an isolated pastoral community or a thriving urban one. Textiles reveal a lot about the social position of those who wore them, Shapiro said. The colors are also of great importance ikat and indigo are both fashionable now, and this is a chance for people who purchased them commercially to experience them in an authentic way and to understand their rich heritage. In addition to showcasing the original handcrafted inspirations for many of the prints and details on the runway or at Zara, the exhibition partially addresses the topic of modest fashion, which has been enjoying the limelight in recent years and is the center of another upcoming San Francisco exhibition at the de Young. Throughout the exhibit, undergarments share the stage with veils, capes and long-sleeve caftans. The title refers to a literal veil and, on the other hand, to something hidden that then becomes revealed, Rabben said. Were excited about the timing, and while in our show the majority of the garments are historic, they carry through a personal story and relay how can we relate to our history today. We celebrate the idea that theres no right or wrong way to dress, no matter the context. Flora Tsapovsky is an East Bay freelance writer. Email: style@sfchronicle.com. Courtesy photo/Berkeley Police Department The man suspected of stabbing an elderly woman in Berkeley this week has been arrested in Pinole. Mark Edward Jekabson, 42, was apprehended Wednesday afternoon in Pinoles Fernandez Park by members of the police force in the small Contra Costa County city. They were responding to a call reporting a man with medical issues, Lt. Matt Avery said Thursday. Yet another Wells probe The Justice Department is investigating potential employee fraud at Wells Fargos wholesale banking unit, according to the Wall Street Journal. Citing unnamed people familiar with the probe, the Journal said investigators are trying to determine whether managers pressured employees to alter customer information without consent. Wells Fargo declined to comment, but spokesman Alan Elias said the matter involved a new process and a new required document that the banks employees had to complete to help ensure we know our customers. Twitter bans Infowars Twitter is permanently banning right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars show for abusive behavior. Twitter says Jones wont be able to create new accounts on Twitter or take over any existing ones. Twitter had previously suspended Jones for a week but had resisted muzzling him further. Other tech companies have limited Jones by suspending him for longer periods, as Facebook did, and by taking down his pages and radio stations. A grande ciao Starbucks will open its first store in Italy on Friday, a high-end Reserve Roastery in Milan, the city whose coffee bars inspired Howard Schultzs vision for the chain decades ago. It will be only Starbucks third Roastery, following ones in its home city of Seattle, and in Shanghai. Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. For more items and links, subscribe to the Tech Chronicle newsletter at www.sfchronicle.com/newsletters. Twitter: @techchronicle Earlier this year, we reported on a study of various surfaces at the airport and on airplanes that passengers are likely to touch and how likely it is that those surfaces are contaminated by disease-causing bacteria. But there was one item that study didn't consider, and a new report suggests those may be the germiest of all. Those items are the plastic bins where traveler put their carry-ons, laptops and shoes for TSA x-ray screening. The latest study came from Finland and the results were published in Biomedcentral.com's journal BMC Infectious Diseases. The researchers went to Helsinki Airport during cold and flu season to swab various surfaces, looking for the viruses that could transmit those illnesses to passengers. (The earlier study looked for bacteria.) Of the various surface samples taken during the study, only 10 percent of them turned up traces of disease-causing viruses, the report noted. But the ones with the highest rate of positive detection were the luggage bins at the security checkpoint, with 50 percent of them harboring viruses. Granted, the sample size was very small, but the results for the bins stood out. "Security check trays (i.e., bins) appear to pose the highest potential risk and are used by virtually all embarking passengers," the researchers wrote. "They have the potential to be especially problematic if a severe pathogen with an indirect transmission mechanism were to pose a threat for international spread." On the other hand, many surfaces that passengers frequently touch were found to have no virus material at all. That included airport toilets (the lid, the flush button and the lock handle); armrests of chairs in waiting areas; escalator handrails; luggage cart handles; elevator buttons; and self-service check-in touch screens. Curiously, the earlier study -- which looked for bacteria rather than viruses -- found that the touch-screens of airport check-in kiosks harbor the largest collection of illness-causing bacteria, followed by airplane lavatory flush buttons. 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. Surf Air, the California-based members-only airline, said it hopes to resume service in and out of San Carlos Airport sometime in October after shifting its flights across the bay to Oakland International Airport. The popular all-you-can-fly air service has been noticeably absent at San Carlos, about 20 minutes south of San Francisco International Airport, for more than a month. Surf Air suddenly began operating fewer and fewer flights there in late July, and service stopped entirely in August raising questions about the future of the operation in the Bay Area. Currently, members are having to make the trek to Oakland to hop on its flights although we're told this is only a temporary arrangement. The move is great for East Bay fliers, but for the majority of Silicon Valley-based members who initially signed on to take advantage of the convenience of San Carlos Airport, it's become a big hassle. There are reportedly around 5,000 Surf Air members in the Bay Area. The company began operating at San Carlos in 2013 with a fleet of eight-passenger Pilatus PC-12 single-engine propellor planes, each outfitted with leather seats and high-end interiors. It quickly amassed a membership base of mostly time-pressed business travelers and the high net worth crowd who wanted an alternative to the frenetic pace of SFO and the hassles of commercial air service. Since the service operates from private air terminals and general aviation airports, members do not need to go through TSA screening and can arrive just minutes before a departure to board the plane. (See how I did just that on a test flight last winter.) Members pay a flat monthly fee of either $1,950, $2,450 or $2,950 depending on usage. Membership includes access to unlimited flights on Surf Air's intra-California network. From Oakland, Surf Air operates flights to Burbank, Hawthorne, Santa Barbara and Truckee. Surf Air also operated some flights out of Mineta San Jose International and Napa County Airports, but those flights were not available to book on its website when we checked. The company also operates membership-based air services in Texas, the East Coast (through a partnership with air charter company Blade) and in parts of Europe. Surf Air is more of a marketing company and does not operate any airplanes it partners with Hawthorne, Calif.-based charter airline Advanced Air to do the flying on the West Coast. Surf Air explained Advanced Air is currently operating bigger King Air 350s, which are too large to land at San Carlos a general aviation airport that's more accustomed to seeing Cessnas and smaller aircraft. The company hopes to resume flights to San Carlos in mid-to-late October. "We are currently working on acquiring Pilatus PC-12 aircraft back into our fleet which will enable flights into SQL (San Carlos Airport)," said Surf Air's Rowan Wicks. Wick's has not responded to our query about the current make up of Surf Air's California fleet. Surf Air's operations at San Carlos have been a sensitive topic for residents around the airport who have for years complained about excess propeller noise a combination of growing air traffic at the airport and Surf Air flights. "We've worked extensively with the airport and community on this front and will continue to do so if necessary," said Hudson Andrews, Surf Air's Marketing Director. "But all is well!" Chris McGinnis A community meeting is planned for Sept. 26 with San Mateo County and FAA officials to address the noise issue. The hiatus at San Carlos follows an on-going legal dispute between Surf Air and the company that formerly operated its flights, Encompass Aviation LLC. Over the summer, Encompass sued Surf Air alleging it never received $3.1 million in overdue payments. Surf Air countersued, claiming Encompass was a disgruntled vendor whose leadership sought to takeover the company. Andrews declined to comment on the legal battle. Surf Air was also hit with government tax liens of $2.4 million. The company told us last week that it is working with the U.S. government to pay down some of those back taxes. Despite the legal challenges, Surf Air tells TravelSkills the company is looking at new airports to serve although no specific cities were revealed to us. "We're exploring new strategies and ways in which we can more efficiently launch new routes and scale the Surf Air experience across California, Texas, and eventually the rest of the world." Andrews said. Are you a Surf Air flyer? How have these changes affected the service? Would you pay for a Surf Air subscription? Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. This article, Hey, Twitter and Facebook: Your wild west era's coming to an end, originally appeared on CNET.com. How do Facebook or Twitter know when a bot is signing up for an account instead of a real person? Why do victims of online harassment need to flag the problem instead of trusting the world's most-used social networks to weed out bad actors? Are conservative voices targeted more by censors on Facebook and Twitter? Those are some of the questions Congress asked Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday. During two hearings, over nearly eight hours, lawmakers expressed concern and frustration with how tech companies act when it comes to stopping their platforms from being co-opted -- by foreign agencies looking to undermine our democracy, and by bad actors spreading hate, exploiting fears, feeding misinformation and engaging in personal attacks against opponents. "The key questions are, what do the administration, Congress, the tech industry and the American people need to know and understand about ongoing attacks by foreign governments?" said April Doss, chair of the cybersecurity and privacy practice at law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr. Sandberg and Dorsey acknowledged they were slow to recognize how their platforms could be manipulated and said they're working to figure out solutions. But they also said there are no easy fixes and they're still finding their way. Congress' response to that was pretty clear. "The era of the wild west in social media is coming to an end," said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the Senate intelligence committee's vice chairman. Congress, he said, will have to take action. "Where we go from here is an open question." The tech industry finds itself under the microscope again, but this time it's up against lawmakers who aren't just scrutinizing its missteps but asking fundamental questions about how tech works. Legislators are challenging tech companies for not being transparent about their internal processes and about their decision-making around election tampering, fake news and the banning of account holders. Those issues are tough for tech CEOs to dismiss with a talking point. "We're getting to the next layer down," said James Norton, a former deputy assistant undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. Unlike hearings over the past year in which lawmakers seemed clueless about social media and how Americans today use tech, Congress avoided cringe-worthy moments of gray-haired senators asking seemingly basic questions. (In April, Zuckerberg explained how he kept Facebook free: "Senator, we run ads.") Instead, lawmakers on Wednesday focused on issues like data privacy and election interference. Part of the reason for the change is that Congress doesn't see tech as a wholly positive force in society, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy. Congress isn't going to let up. Chester, Doss and Norton all said there's more to come. Lawmakers have already said they plan to schedule more hearings. And they may even subpoena Google after it decided not to send Alphabet CEO Larry Page or Google CEO Sundar Pichai to Washington to answer questions. The era of the wild west in social media is coming to an end." Sen. Mark Warner But that doesn't mean we'll see new laws or regulations affecting the tech industry coming anytime soon, said Larry Downes, project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. "I don't expect much in the way of legislative action," he said. "There's no markup; there are no bills; there's nothing circulating." What can we expect? Lawmakers asked executives to commit to vague ideas, like an "audit by Amnesty International," which Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette asked Dorsey to do (he agreed to it). New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone asked if Dorsey would commit to an independent third-party civil rights audit (he agreed to that too). Theater on the sidelines Getty Images Congressional hearings are usually intended in large part as political theater, with one-liners, exhibits and stark images meant to produce good TV. But if these hearings were meant to rile up the public about the many failings of social media, they may have fallen flat. Some of the most talked-about moments happened in the audience and the hallways. Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and voice behind the website Infowars, has been a topic of discussion in Silicon Valley over the last few weeks after several tech giants, including Apple, banned him for violating their community guidelines. During the Senate hearing, Jones alternated between sitting in the audience, posing for photos and leaving for the hallways. During a short break, he ranted against Facebook and Twitter and got into a heated exchange with Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida. (A day later, on Thursday, Twitter permanently banned Jones and his Infowars account.) By comparison, the stuff going on inside the chamber was more low-key. By the end of the three-hour Senate hearing on Wednesday, more than half of the seats for the public were empty. Too little too late? Dorsey and Sandberg said their companies are moving as quickly as they can. Given that Twitter and Facebook are known as fast-moving, disruptive innovators, that sentiment didn't play well with lawmakers. Twitter's chief acknowledged as much. "I know that's a frustrating answer," Dorsey said late in the House committee hearing in the afternoon, "because it's hard to predict." Meanwhile, the challenges facing tech companies keep piling up. In July, Facebook said it discovered a new campaign of "inauthentic behavior" that involved dozens of Facebook pages and accounts, and $11,000 worth of ads, to promote political causes and potentially interfere in the 2018 US midterm elections this November. Last month, Facebook also said it was removing more than 600 "inauthentic" pages, groups and accounts with ties to Russia and Iran. Twitter suspended 284 accounts with ties to Iran for "coordinated manipulation." Days later, Google said it was removing 58 accounts tied to Iran from YouTube and other Google services. Congress on Wednesday applauded the tech giants for catching those disinformation campaigns before the elections, rather than being surprised by them after the fact. But some experts say the integrity of the 2018 election may be beyond saving. "In some ways, the United States has broadcast to the world that it doesn't take these issues seriously," former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos wrote shortly after leaving the company last month. "While this failure has left the US unprepared to protect the 2018 elections, there is still a chance to defend American democracy in 2020." Which means that pressure on the tech industry to figure out a way forward isn't going to let up anytime soon. First published Sept. 6, 5 a.m. PT. Update, 3:05 p.m.: Adds that Alex Jones was permanently banned from Twitter. The Honeymoon is Over: Everything you need to know about why tech is under Washington's microscope. Infowars and Silicon Valley: Everything you need to know about the tech industry's free speech debate. Filipa Ioannou A woman sent a 65-year-old man to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after she hit him with a metal cane, authorities said Friday. San Francisco police officers responded to the altercation around 12:51 a.m. Thursday in the South of Market neighborhood at the north end of Sixth Street. 1995-11-04 04:00:00 PDT Los Angeles -- Editor's note: This article was published on Nov. 4, 1995. In 2018, this article has resurfaced in the wake of Burt Reynolds' death on Sept. 6. He was 82. To read his obituary, head here. An exterminator has just left Loni Anderson's country French-style house in the mountains above Beverly Hills, and she is airing out the place. She walks around downstairs, sniffing to see whether the fumigating odor is gone. Anderson is practicing her own kind of pest control these days, emotionally ridding herself of somebody who has been bugging her: her ex, Burt Reynolds. Two years ago, Reynolds served her with divorce papers, threw her out of their Florida home and proceeded to humiliate her publicly by calling her a bad mother to their adopted son, Quinton, and implying that she had slept around. WHY SHE KEPT MUM Through it all, Anderson kept mum and instructed her family and friends to do the same. "I said to everybody, 'Don't get sucked into this or it will become a circus. Burt wants to make a war -- let him be in it all by himself. Someday I will talk.' " Her turn to talk has come, and Anderson, 49, is sitting on her sofa talking her heart out, including about what until recently had been a deep, dark secret: the dozen or so times she says Reynolds physically abused her. She is wearing tight faded blue jeans that show off her hourglass figure, a white sweater and apricot lipstick. These must be her colors: Her house is decorated in white -- white marble floors, a white piano -- with a touch of apricot. On this day, as in her just-released autobiography, "My Life in High Heels" (William Morrow; $23), Anderson tells only part of what happened to destroy her 12-year relationship with Reynolds, the last five as husband and wife. The other half -- his motivation -- she says she still doesn't understand. "You know, I have 1,001 questions that will never be answer ed." During their very public breakup, it was a "challenge" to keep on going, Anderson admits. "But I had to get up every day. Wouldn't that be the worst irony of all, if not only did Burt dump me but he also made me check out of my life? I mean I couldn't give the man that satisfaction." With the help of ongoing therapy and support from her grown daughter, Deidra Hasselberg, and a new boyfriend, lawyer Geoff Brown, Anderson has come through it all. "I have a brand-new house and a brand- new life and a brand-new everything." The $2.3 million, 6,500-square- foot house is the total of her settlement with Reynolds, she says. Some months he doesn't come up with the mortgage or the $15,000-a-month child support, and her lawyers have to get in touch with his lawyers. "It's a very difficult situation. Sometimes he'll go for months (without paying) and sometimes it is all regular. I think it depends on if he is working," Anderson says. She hasn't talked to Reynolds since their split. The one time she tried "because I thought it would be good to have a dialogue as parents," he gave the phone to Pam Seals, the former cocktail waitress he was seeing when he was married. "I think that was a very insulting thing for him to do, so obviously we can't talk," Anderson says. NANNY GOES ALONG When Quinton, 7, visits his father in Florida, Anderson insists that a nanny be present. The tabloids had a field day with that, inferring that she was afraid of sexual abuse, but Anderson says that was never a concern. "I'm concerned about Burt's erratic behavior. . . . Quinton is small and I want him to be protected." His regular nanny has refused to go because, Anderson says, "Burt threw a chair at her," so a substitute nanny makes the trips. Anderson blames drugs for some of Reynolds' odd behavior. In her book, she writes that he has taken Percodan for pain, Valium for anxiety and Compazine for their side effects. "The physical abuse I always blamed on the drugs," Anderson says, detailing beatings that left her bruised all over her body, except her face. She covered the bruises or made excuses for them, such as telling a makeup artist that she had fallen down the stairs and "thank God Burt had caught me." The worst incident happened a month before their breakup. "Burt shoved me all around the room, then threw me to the floor and opened the drawer and got out a loaded gun. He handed me the gun and told me to shoot myself and do us all a favor. I was terrified. "Burt always said no one would ever believe me because he was Mr. Wonderful and the world loved him." Watching the O.J. Simpson trial, Anderson says she could "empathize with everything I heard about Nicole Brown Simpson." When people would question why Brown would stay in the relationship, Anderson wanted to say: "You really have no idea the seductiveness and the charm and with what feeling this insidious thing happens to you." (Through his publicist, Joe Sutton, Reynolds said he had "no comment" about the charges of physical abuse, but that "he wishes Loni nothing but the very best from this day on.") With three divorces behind her, Anderson has no plans to marry again -- "it hasn't been where I shine" -- though she and Geoff Brown live together. She is amazed that Brown "actually cooks and cleans up the kitchen" and that he will say to her, "You've had such a stressful day -- I'll put Quinton to bed and you just put your feet up." Last year, Anderson thought she was pregnant. With one grandchild and another on the way, a part of her was relieved when it turned out to be false alarm, "but I was also a little disappointed. I like being a mom." A regular on "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "Nurses," she would like to do another TV series. "I love to work and I need to work," says Anderson, who was in a production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" in Akron, Ohio, over the summer. In December, she will star in a TV movie with an eerily appropriate title: "Deadly Family Secrets." Rapper Mac Miller was reportedly found dead at his home in the San Fernando Valley on Friday afternoon, his family confirmed. Local law enforcement sources initially told TMZ that Mac Miller, whose real name is Malcolm McCormick, was found around noon, dead of an apparent overdose. Around 2:30 p.m., a coroner's van arrived to Miller's home in Studio City, according to KGO. Miller's family released a statement about the death around 4 p.m.: "Malcolm McCormick, known and adored by fans as Mac Miller, has tragically passed away at the age of 26. He was a bright light in this world for his family, friends, and fans ... Thank you for your prayers. Please respect the family's privacy at this time." There were no further details about his death given. Miller wrote about struggling with substance abuse in his lyrics. "I used to rap super openly about really dark s---, because that's what I was experiencing at the time," he recently told Vulture, referring to the contents of his 2014 mixtape. "That's fine, that's good, that's life. It should be all the emotions." Miller released "Swimming" earlier this year. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Until May, Miller had been in a long term relationship with singer Ariana Grande. Shortly after their breakup, Miller got into a car accident and was subsequently charged with driving under the influence. Grande tweeted soon after, "pls take care of yourself." When pressed about their breakup around the same time, Grande wrote on Twitter that Miller's addiction factored into the end of their relationship. RELATED: Ariana Grande and Mac Miller at One Love Manchester benefit concert "I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety and prayed for his balance for years (and always will of course)," she said at the time, "but shaming/blaming women for a man's inability to keep his s--- together is a very major problem." On Friday, she turned off the comments on her Instagram shortly after users began blaming her for the death. Some of his friends and peers have begun offering their condolences: Miller was due to kick off his "The Swimming Tour" in San Francisco in late October. SFGATE has reached out to a representative for Mac Miller for comment. This story is developing. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. DALLAS A Dallas police officer who shot and killed her neighbor and later explained she had mistaken his apartment for her own will be charged with manslaughter, the police chief said Friday. Its not clear what the off-duty officer may have said to 26-year-old Botham Jean late Thursday or whether there was any interaction between the two before Jean was shot, said police Chief U. Renee Hall. Right now there are more questions than there are answers, Hall said. The officer called dispatch to report that she had shot the man, police said. She told responding officers that she believed the victims apartment was her own when she entered it. The responding officers administered first aid to Jean, a native of the Caribbean island country of St. Lucia who attended college in Arkansas and worked for accounting and consulting firm PwC. Jean, who was black, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Hall said the officer is white, but she didnt say whether investigators believe race was a factor in the shooting. Police havent released the name the officer, who had arrived home in-uniform and wasnt injured. She will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, police said. Authorities havent said how the officer got into Jeans home, or whether his door was open or unlocked. Jean grew up in St. Lucia and attended Harding University in Searcy, Ark., where he graduated in 2016, the school said in a statement. That July, he went to work for PwC. Police said they are conducting a joint investigation with the Dallas County district attorneys office. Ryan Tarinelli is an Associated Press writer. WASHINGTON George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser to President Trump who last year pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries before the 2016 election, was sentenced Friday to 14 days in prison. He is the first Trump campaign adviser to be sentenced as part of the continuing investigation into Russian meddling by special counsel Robert Mueller. Three others pleaded guilty or were convicted of felonies and await sentencing. Prosecutors argued that Papadopoulos lies during a January 2017 interview with federal investigators impeded the inquiry at a critical moment. In part because Papadopoulos misled authorities, they said in court papers, they failed to arrest a London-based professor suspected of being a Russian operative before he left the United States in February 2017, never to return. During an interview this week, Papadopoulos, 31, for the first time gave his own account of why he deceived FBI agents after they arrived at his house in Chicago in January 2017 asking about any connections between the Trump campaign and Russian intermediaries. I wanted to distance myself as much as possible and Trump himself and the campaign from what was probably an illegal action or dangerous information, he said. At the time of the FBI interview, he said, he was being considered for a job in the Trump administration and was concerned about where the escalating investigation might lead. He made no suggestion that anyone else on the Trump campaign or in the administration had directed him to lie. His defense lawyer, Thomas Breen, said in federal court in Washington on Friday that Papadopoulos was loyal to the president and that Trump, by repeatedly attacking the investigation as not credible, was damaging it more than his client had. The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could, he said. Trump sought to distance himself from Papadopoulos. I dont know Papadopoulos, I dont know, Trump said Friday. They got him, on I guess, on a couple of lies. Mark Mazzetti and Sharon LaFraniere are New York Times writers. We all know a teenager who is nearly impossible to get out of bed in the morning. And research provides some relatively simple answers why: Sleep cycles make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 p.m. and that does not leave them enough time to get a full nights rest before school starts the next morning. That is why, for decades, some doctors, educators and even politicians have been pushing for middle school and high school to start later. If class were to commence as late as 8:30 a.m., they have argued, student attendance, grades and graduation rates would improve. Now, if Gov. Jerry Brown of California signs the bill that is on his desk, we will get a clearer sense whether they are right. Its the biological equivalent of waking you or me up at 3:30 a.m., Anthony J. Portantino, a state senator and Democrat who wrote the bill, said of forcing teenagers to get out of bed so early. Imagine how you would feel if, 187 days a year, you had to get up at 3:30 a.m. Youd be miserable, youd be depressed youd act like a teenager. The science that lawmakers have cited most often is a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which calls adolescents lack of sleep an important public health issue that significantly affects academic success. More for you How climate change affects young Californians California has more than 3 million public middle and high school students and about 3 in 4 start school before 8:30 a.m., according to a 2011-12 estimate. The average start for middle and high schools in California was 8:07 a.m. at that time, bill analysts said. Some have argued that pushing start times back 30 minutes would do more to improve educational outcomes than, for example, the seemingly endless focus on testing. They cite upticks in attendance and, yes, higher test scores at high schools in Connecticut, Kentucky and Virginia, which have moved their start times later. Experts and advocacy groups report that hundreds of schools in dozens of states have already made the switch. The Boston Public Schools system pushed its start times back in late 2017, and the San Diego Unified School District has begun the move toward a later start. Still, experts and officials said that if the California bill is signed, it would become the first place to adopt a late start statewide. Starting school before the human brain is awake is problematic, said Kyla L. Wahlstrom, a senior research fellow at the University of Minnesotas College of Education and Human Development who has studied the topic for years. Students need a little more than nine hours of sleep each night, she said, adding that research has conclusively shown that teenagers who get less than eight hours of sleep are more likely to be depressed, use illegal substances and get into car crashes. Supporters of the bill note that even if a school starts as late as 8 a.m., many students must wake up around 6:30 a.m. in order to get ready, eat breakfast and get to campus. If those students get to sleep at 11 p.m., that means they are getting less than eight hours of sleep each night. So why has the change not happened more broadly? In short: logistics and concern that a universal start time might not be good for all schools. The California bill failed to get out of the Assembly in 2017 as opponents argued against a one-size-fits-all approach, and cited the potential for tremendous upheaval to parents drop-off and pickup routine. To work around some of those concerns, the current version of the bill exempts rural school districts. And even then, the bill analysis acknowledges that changing start times could have a ripple effect on parents, buses and extracurricular activities. Significant local costs could ensue, the analysis says. Critics have pointed specifically to what they say will be a need to buy more buses. A 2017 economic analysis by RAND Corp., however, suggested that the benefits of later start times far outweigh those more immediate costs. Some researchers have also worried that the bills proponents have oversold it as a silver bullet that will fix the education system and vastly improve teenagers complicated lives. The California Teachers Association and the California School Boards Association are among the groups that have said they oppose the bill. The Teachers Association did not respond to requests for comment. Nancy Chaires Espinoza, a legislative advocate for the California School Boards Association, said working parents did not have the privilege to simply delay the start of their day. Without addressing our states severely underfunded school transportation and our lack of funding for before-school programs, the bill will disproportionately burden working families, she said. Wahlstrom said it was true that starting school later was not a cure-all and acknowledged that car pool headaches are real problems. But I would say that in the long run, the people who have been creative problem solvers have found benefits, she said. Just because its inconvenient for a schedule doesnt mean that you dont try to do something that is beneficial for a kids health. If Brown signs the California bill into law, school districts would have until 2021 to carry out the shift. Brown, who has until the end of the month to act, has not indicated whether he will sign it, and we generally do not comment on pending legislation, a spokesman for the governor said. Portantino, who wrote the bill, said he was hopeful. In the one conversation I had with him, he said, I didnt like to get up as a teen,' Portantino recalled, quoting Brown. I said, Thats exactly right, governor.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Pinch-hitter David Bote had an RBI double and scored in the 10th inning as the Chicago Cubs came back to beat the Washington Nationals 6-4 on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series. Bote, who hit a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Cubs a 4-3 win over the Nationals on Aug. 12 in Chicago, knocked a 100 mph fastball from Jimmy Cordero (1-2) into right field to score Albert Almora Jr. Bote came home on a single by pinch-hitter Taylor Davis. Kyle Walling has been named the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Wildlife Officer of the Year for the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA). The recipient of the award was announced by Darren Rider, TWRA Boating and Law Enforcement Division colonel. Mr. Walling is a wildlife officer in TWRA Region IIIs District 31 and was selected among other TWRA law enforcement officers to become the state recipient. Mr. Walling is assigned to Van Buren County, but works throughout the districts 12 counties. He will be recognized at the annual SEAFWA meeting in October, this year to be held in Mobile, Ala. Also honored as TWRA region and district selections were Brandon Gavrock, Region I and Chuck Casey, District 11; Rusty Thompson, Region II and Matt Brian, District 21; Joe Pike, District 32; Gene Parker, Region IV and Ryan Rosier, District 42. The officers were selected for their efforts in teamwork, public outreach, innovation, attitude, leadership, achievements and accomplishments. Its always a difficult situation when one officer is selected out of a group of officers that have all gone above and beyond the duty of ensuring Tennessee hunters, anglers and boaters are provided safe and enjoyable recreational opportunities, said Mr. Rider. All these officers are to be commended for their professionalism and efforts they displayed this year. All these officers had a fantastic year, but Kyle really excelled in all aspects of his job. Among Mr. Wallings activities during the year, he conducted educational and outreach events that included boater education, hunter education, trapper education, NASP tournaments, fair booths, Wildlife on Wheels display at NWTF Jakes Day, and information booth at Tennessee Fur Harvester Association convention. He also participated in the Jim Hall Hunt for Wounded Warriors, and youth hunting and fishing events. Kyles efforts in excellence and innovation were also great, said Mr. Rider. His dedication to the youth of the community and knowledge that he passes on is an achievement that will ensure the longevity of hunting, fishing, and trapping for many generations to come. His law enforcement efforts resulted in 2,018 hunters, fishermen and boaters being inspected for compliance. These duties produced a total of 121 court citations and warnings with 35 of these being big game cases. He also assisted other officers with additional citations and warnings. Mr. Walling is a TWRA Honor Guard member, helping demonstrate his passion in honoring agency law enforcement personnel for their career service as wildlife officers. Kyle is certainly not only a great asset for the agency, but also for the hunters, anglers and boaters in the state of Tennessee, said Mr. Rider. A family of four operating an adult residential and child care company in the Bay Area have been arrested and charged with human trafficking and other labor-related crimes, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced today at a news conference in San Francisco. The four defendants, identified as Joshua, 42; Noel, 40; Gerlen, 38; and Carlina Gamos, 67, were charged with 59 criminal counts, including rape of a worker, stemming from the operation of their six Rainbow Bright care centers in South San Francisco, Daly City and Pacifica. Most of the facilities were residential homes, Becerra said. Four of the facilities provided adult residential care and two provided child care. The defendants allegedly targeted members of the Filipino community, many of whom were new to the United States, for labor exploitation. While serving the arrest warrants, agents also seized 14 illegal assault weapons, including three "ghost" rifles without serial numbers. In addition, a loaded pistol was found on a table in the garage of a home used for child care with a blanket over it. In a news conference, Becerra said additional criminal charges will be filed related to the firearms. Becerra said Rainbow Bright was also cheating taxpayers by failing to pay its fair share of state income taxes, workers compensation and state unemployment insurance. He said the number of workers exploited in this case could be in the hundreds and that the abuses took place over 10 years. "It was the workers who helped bring this case to light, and it is the workers who are the greatest victims of Rainbow Bright and its operations," Becerra said. "While the employees were providing by all accounts loving care, they were doing so under egregious circumstances." Rainbow Bright's owners are accused of forcing employees to work nearly 24 hours a day and sleep on floors and in garages, and locking them outside in the rain when the owners were not home. The complaint alleges that Rainbow Bright executives deterred the employees from leaving by regularly threatening to turn them over to U.S. immigration officials and confiscating some employees' passports. The charges are the result of a year-long investigation by the Attorney General's Office Tax Recovery and Criminal Enforcement (TRaCE) Task Force, and included several state and local law enforcement agencies. Since its creation in 2014, Becerra said, the task force has identified close to one-quarter of a billion dollars in unreported business income. Becerra urged member of the public who may suspect similar crimes in their neighborhoods to contact the TRaCE task force at (855) 234-9949. "What's most painful as we discuss this is this is happening in neighborhoods," Becerra said. "This could be happening in your backyard, in your neighborhood, with people you believe are living a regular life and being cared for." 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. In an expected move, Ghost Ship warehouse master tenant Derick Almena and creative director Max Harris today formally withdrew their no contest pleas to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the fire at the warehouse in December 2016 that killed 36 people in Oakland. Almena, 48, and Harris, 28, took that step in the aftermath of Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Cramer's surprising decision at the end of an emotional sentencing hearing on Aug. 10 to reject the plea agreement that the two men reached with prosecutors on July 3 that was brokered by another judge, Morris Jacobson. Cramer said he couldn't accept the agreement because thinks Almena hasn't fully acknowledged his responsibility for his role in the fire or shown sufficient remorse. After Almena and Harris withdrew their no contest pleas today and entered not guilty pleas again, Cramer scheduled their trial to begin next April 2, saying that date is "set in stone." Cramer also scheduled a hearing for Oct. 12 on a motion filed by Almena's lawyer Tony Serra which alleges that Cramer erred in rejecting a plea agreement and a hearing on Nov. 2 on another motion by Serra seeking to move the trial out of Alameda County on the grounds that the case has received so much publicity that Almena and Harris can't get a fair trial locally. Thirty-six victims between the ages of 17 and 61 died of smoke inhalation in the fire during a music party at the warehouse at 1309 31st Ave. on Dec. 2, 2016. Prosecutors allege that guests and residents were endangered by the warehouse's makeshift electrical system and floor-to-ceiling load of pianos, wooden sculptures, pallets, motor campers, rugs, benches, tree limbs and tapestries. They also say the warehouse had no city permits for residency or for the concerts and shows that were held there and allege that Almena and Harris knowingly created a fire trap with inadequate means of escape. After today's brief hearing, Serra says he thinks he has a good chance of winning his motion alleging that Cramer acted improperly in rejecting the plea deal, which called for Almena to serve 9 years in the county jail and for Harris to serve 6 years. Harris' lawyer Curtis Briggs said he hasn't yet joined Serra's motion because he wants Harris to go to trial so he can be "vindicated" and found not guilty. Briggs said he also doubts he will join Serra's motion to try to move the trial out of Alameda County because he thinks Harris will have a better chance of convincing local jurors that he's not guilty than he will of convincing jurors in another county. A woman who was reported missing and at-risk Thursday evening in Santa Clara has been safely located in the Fresno area, according to police. Maria Elena Smith, 65, had last been seen around 2 p.m., and police said she was thought to be walking with the assistance of a walker. Officers thanked the public for their assistance in locating Smith, and said she's being reunited with her family. Police are investigating an attempted robbery and shooting that occurred this morning in San Francisco's Marina District. Officers with the San Francisco Police Department responded at 2:50 a.m. to the 2100 block of Lombard Street on a report of shooting. Responding officers located a 31-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds. Police said the victim is an employee at a restaurant. The victim was transported to the hospital with injuries that were not considered life threatening. Investigators determined the victim was taking out the trash when the suspect approached, demanded money and shot the victim. The suspect fled on foot but was detained by officers several minutes later in the 2000 block of Greenwich Street. Police described the suspect as a man in his 20s but have not released other details about the suspect. A 65-year-old man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after an assault on Thursday and a 31-year-old man was injured in a shooting early this morning, San Francisco police reported today. The assault took place in the first block of Sixth Street at 12:51 a.m. in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood, according to police. Officers said they found surveillance footage of a woman assaulting the man with a metal cane. Police have not yet arrested a suspect. A 34-year-old man was arrested Thursday on a felony warrant after fleeing from police officers in Petaluma in a pursuit that included a brief swim in the Petaluma River, according to police. Officers responded at about 11 a.m. to the area of the Lynch Creek Trail and North McDowell Boulevard on a report that someone was throwing a knife into the ground while a second person was allegedly carrying a makeshift spear, police said. While checking the area of the trail on foot, officers saw the male suspect matching the description of the spear-carrier along with a second person. The suspect, later identified as Petaluma resident Ronald Stamp, then got up when he saw the officers and fled, police said. As Stamp ran west on the trail toward Payran Street, he appeared to discard something on the trail. At one point, he jumped into the Petaluma River and attempted to swim across it toward Jess Avenue, according to police. Additional officers responded and arrested Stamp without further incident. He denied discarding anything as he fled and said the alleged spear was merely a tent pole. Officers checked the area of the trail and did not find any contraband, police said. Stamp had an outstanding felony warrant for a previous weapons violation and was arrested for the warrant as well as resisting arrest. He was booked into Sonoma County Jail. A 23-year-old man was arrested last night in Santa Rosa after fleeing from a California Highway Patrol officer who attempted to make a traffic stop. The CHP officer attempted to stop Antonio Borgeschi, of Santa Rosa, on northbound U.S. Highway 101 near Baker Avenue because he was allegedly weaving in traffic. Borgeschi drove to his house near West Ninth Street and got out of his vehicle with a dog, then aggressively approached the officers, according to the CHP. They called backup, but Borgeschi walked back to his house where officers say there were a number of agitated residents trying to interfere with efforts to take him into custody. Officer deployed a Taser electronic control device, but the suspect allegedly continued to resist. They eventually arrested him on suspicion of DUI, resisting arrest, driving on a suspended license and violating the terms of his probation. The CHP said no law enforcement officers were injured and they secured the dog inside Borgeschi's residence before leaving the scene. Police in Antioch on Thursday arrested a man in connection with several felony crimes involving breaking into his ex-girlfriend's apartment and making threats with a knife. The identity of the 26-year-old suspect has not been released, and police did not immediately release information on the exact crimes the suspect was arrested for. On Thursday at 1:19 p.m., officers with the Antioch Police Department responded to an apartment in the 2200 block of San Jose Drive on a report a man was threatening to break into his ex-girlfriend's apartment. Police said the suspect forced his way into the apartment through the front door, tore up the apartment, armed himself with a large kitchen knife and made death threats. The suspect came outside with the knife, challenged officers as they approached the apartment and refused officers' orders to drop the weapon, polices said. The suspect went back into the apartment, and officers, fearing for the lives of several young children in the home, confronted him as he tried to break into a back room. Police said six children, ages 1 to 5 years old, and the victim were hiding in the apartment during the incident. Officers utilized a Taser and police K-9 to disarm the suspect and take him into custody. The suspect was transported to a hospital and treated for dog bites and was later arrested. Police in Santa Rosa are investigating an assault that occurred Thursday. Officers with the Santa Rosa Police Department responded Thursday at 10:30 a.m. to a report of a stabbing in the 100 block of Railroad Street. Responding officers located a victim with a laceration to his neck. The victim told police he was in a dispute with the suspect over property when a fight ensued, and the suspect cut him on the neck with a knife. The victim told police he was homeless and believed the suspect was also homeless. Investigators searched the area for the suspect but were not able to locate him. The suspect is described as a Hispanic or black man in his 30s. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and shorts. He was last seen riding a yellow and red beach cruiser style bicycle. The victim was transported to the hospital with injuries that were not considered life threatening. 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. OAKLAND (BCN) A judge today scolded the Alameda County Sheriff's Office for unlawfully recording conversations between suspects and their attorneys but denied Public Defender Brendon Woods' request for a standing order barring that practice. At a hearing packed with public defenders and inmates' rights advocates, Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said "the crime of eavesdropping is clearly illegal" and is punishable by a 3-year state prison term and civil penalties. Clay also said, "The sheriff is put on notice" that any violations will be prosecuted. But Clay said Woods failed to prove that the practice of secretly recording conversations between defendants and attorneys, which was discovered in a recent juvenile case, is widespread. Clay said, "The question is whether this video (of the conversation between the juvenile inmate and his lawyer) is a representation of a systematic issue or was it an isolated practice." Clay said, "Based on the record before me, I'm not sure if it goes beyond this (the single recording) because there's no historical record." Woods asked for a standing order against the sheriff's office after he obtained evidence that sheriff's deputies have been recording conversations between public defenders and juvenile suspects in custody, even though it is a felony in California for a third party to record privileged conversations between attorneys and clients. A spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office has said that it is reviewing all juvenile cases filed this year to see how many violations there have been. Clay said today, "I know the District Attorney is investigating this." He said if the investigation shows that the practice of secretly recording conversations between defendants and their attorneys is widespread "every judge in this courthouse would exclude those conversations" from being introduced as evidence. After the hearing, Woods said, "I strongly disagree" with Clay's decision to deny his motion. But Woods said, "I respect the judge for at least putting the sheriff on notice." Woods said he will continue to investigate possible illegal conduct by the sheriff's office, saying, "We will pursue all avenues." 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. Every year, 1.5 billion tires reach the end of their life. The vast majority get dumped or incinerated, releasing massive amounts of CO2 and destroying highly valuable resources. To solve this waste tire problem, Black Bear has developed a unique carbonization process to transform used tires into recovered Carbon Black (rCB). The company has now successfully closed a growth funding round of 11 million Euros to refine the environmentally-friendly process and to start the worldwide roll-out of the technology. This brings the Dutch cleantech company a crucial step closer to bringing the circular economy to tires. Four new partners have become stakeholders: the largest Dutch banking corporation ING Group, two Netherlands-based investment firms 5square and Social Impact Ventures, as well as the conglomerate SCG from Thailand (Asia). This new consortium means much more than just fresh capital, says CEO Martijn Lopes Cardozo, they are strategic partners, who will play a key role in the development of our technology and who will speed up our international roll-out. Existing investors, including the original funders Chemelot Ventures and DOEN Participaties (Ventures), have also contributed to the round. Black Bears industrial-scale prototype plant is located in Nederweert, The Netherlands. It is capable of processing more than 1 million waste tires annually, producing 5000 tonnes of Carbon Black, 5000 tonnes of bio-fuel, 3000 tonnes of steel and one megawatt hour of green electricity. The plant is operated in partnership with Kargro, one of Europes foremost recyclers of tires. Carbon Black is vital for the production of tires, technical rubber goods, inks and coatings. It is found in the ink of pens, smartphone covers or in anything painted black, but, unfortunately, Carbon Black is traditionally produced by burning oil. However, tires contain about 30 per cent Carbon Black and an opportunity. Black Bear now offers the first Cradle-to-Cradle Certified recovered Carbon Black to customers worldwide. One of more than 30 clients is AkzoNobel: The coatings company is one of the plants earliest customers and uses the raw material to make powder coatings. Mark Weustink, ING Groups ING Sustainable Investments: It is remarkable that Black Bear is capable of making old tires into a very high-value product that can replace a polluting raw material. During the process, they also generate energy, which means the production process is highly energy-efficient, says Mark Weustink of ING Sustainable Investments. With its pioneering circular model, Black Bear creates durable change, and it has already won some large clients such as AkzoNobel. Cholanat Yanaranop, President of Chemicals Business, SCG: We are highly committed to the circular economy and Black Bear is addressing a global problem, especially in significantly improving the carbon footprint of Carbon Black production, says SCG President Cholanat Yanaranop. As an integrated petrochemical company that focuses on creating sustainability along with innovations, we are highly interested in the success of Black Bears solution. Helmer Schukken, Social Impact Ventures: We believe in the huge positive environmental impact of the technology especially since the Black Bear product can compete with virgin Carbon Black in terms of cost price and quality, says Helmer Schukken of Social Impact Ventures. Another reason for our investment is the great management team, which consists of not only talented engineers but also seasoned professionals in sales, finance and other functions required for global roll-out. Mark Gitsels, 5square: When you really think about it, its unbelievable that only 10 per cent of our resources are currently part of circular economies, says Mark Gitsels of 5square. Thats why we full-heartedly support the outstanding management team of Black Bear: Their disruptive technology is an opportunity for us to help make the world that bit better and at the same time yield attractive returns. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Police are investigating an attempted robbery and shooting that occurred this morning in San Francisco's Marina District. Officers with the San Francisco Police Department responded at 2:50 a.m. to the 2100 block of Lombard Street on a report of shooting. Responding officers located a 31-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds. Police said the victim is an employee at a restaurant. The victim was transported to the hospital with injuries that were not considered life threatening. Investigators determined the victim was taking out the trash when the suspect approached, demanded money and shot the victim. The suspect fled on foot but was detained by officers several minutes later in the 2000 block of Greenwich Street. Police described the suspect as a man in his 20s but have not released other details about the suspect. 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 65-year-old man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after an assault on Thursday and a 31-year-old man was injured in a shooting early this morning, San Francisco police reported today. The assault took place in the first block of Sixth Street at 12:51 a.m. in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood, according to police. Officers said they found surveillance footage of a woman assaulting the man with a metal cane. Police have not yet arrested a suspect. Then, early this morning, police responded to a shooting in the 2100 block of Lombard Street in the Marina District. A male suspect shot the victim at 2:48 a.m., but police said the victim is expected to survive. The suspect was arrested but police have not released any information about his identity or motive. 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. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held talks with Prince Albert II, head of the state of the Principality of Monaco, pledging to further promote bilateral friendly ties with the European country to bear new fruits. Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for visiting Prince Albert II, head of the state of the Principality of Monaco, in Beijing, on September 7 2018. [Photo: Xinhua] Hailing Prince Albert II and the Monaco royal family for their commitment to developing relations with China, Xi said Monaco has followed a development path with its own features. Though far away from each other, China and Monaco have set a model of friendship and common development between big and small countries as the two countries respect each other and treat each other on an equal footing, said Xi. "China has always said that no matter big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, all countries are equal members of the international community," said Xi, adding that it is something inherent in the building of a new type of international relations. He called on both countries to maintain close exchanges, discuss cooperation in areas of environmental protection, climate change, clean energy, low carbon and wild animal protection under the Belt and Road Initiative and further promote cultural and people-to-people exchanges. Prince Albert II is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and supported China in hosting the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, said Xi. "We welcome you to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics," he told Prince Albert II. Congratulating China on the just-ended successful Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Prince Albert II said he was touched as Xi invited him for a state visit despite his very busy schedule. He told Xi this was his tenth visit to China and each trip he sees new achievements in the social, economic and cultural areas in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shake hands with visiting Prince Albert II, head of the state of the Principality of Monaco, in Beijing, on September 7 2018. [Photo: Xinhua] Prior to his arrival in Beijing, Prince Albert II went to northeast China's Jilin Province to visit bee-keeping and Siberian tigers protection projects and was "impressed by China's achievements in environmental protection." While hailing bilateral ties and China's role in international affairs, especially Xi's outstanding contribution to global governance and the fight against climate change, Prince Albert II said Monaco is willing to enhance win-win cooperation with China. He said he supports and wishes the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics a success. Xi briefed him about the FOCAC Beijing Summit and said China stands ready to work with countries including Monaco to support lasting peace and sustainable development in Africa. Before the talks, Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Prince Albert II at the Great Hall of the People. Prince Albert II is paying a state visit to China from Sept. 5 to 8 at the invitation of Xi. Munich Re is taking a further key step to create new business models in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The Group will acquire the software company relayr via its subsidiary, Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB), and will therefore play an active role in shaping business opportunities in this rapidly expanding sector. From an initial consultation on the right technology through to overseeing implementation and supporting operations, relayr offers industrial companies seeking to digitalise their business a comprehensive range of services. By way of example, relayr has developed a platform which can be used by companies to connect new and legacy hardware and software to extract and analyse data from physical objects such as machines and equipment. This makes it possible to determine when a machine is likely to fail, for example, and conduct maintenance to ensure that this does not happen. With relayrs IoT solutions, companies can obtain critical business data which can be used to improve processes and thus profitability. Costs can be cut, energy efficiency increased, and product quality improved, to name just a few. Since it began to cooperate with HSB in 2016, relayrs offering has been supplemented by financial and insurance-related components. Torsten Jeworrek, member of Munich Res Board of Management: 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. 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. This is our basis to develop new ideas for tomorrows commercial and industrial world. Josef Brunner, CEO of relayr: We are delighted to be intensifying our relationship with Munich Re/HSB and working together to drive digitalisation in commercial and industrial markets. We help companies in those markets to successfully navigate disruption and stay relevant. The unique combination of our companies demonstrates the importance of applying first-class technology and powerful financial and insurance offerings to deliver business outcomes to customers. This transaction is a great opportunity to build a global category leader. While relayrs offering can be applied in many industries, the company currently focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises. relayr sells its solutions directly, in cooperation with consulting partners, and indirectly via technology companies. Munich Res contacts with industrial companies will help relayr to grow in future. Though part of Munich Re, relayr will continue to operate autonomously and will retain its distinct start-up culture in order to drive innovation and attract IoT talent. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, which are expected to be obtained within the next four to six weeks. Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, has assumed patronage of the first ECP Summer Summit. The summer version of the European Chemistry Partnering will take place on September 25, 2018 at the consumer and industrial goods company Henkel in its capacity as the main sponsor of the event. The chemical industry is a pillar of prosperity and employment. This is especially true for North Rhine-Westphalia as one of the world's leading regions for chemical R&D and production said Minister Andreas Pinkwart in his welcome address. That is why I was delighted to be asked to become the Patron of the ECP Summer Summit in Dusseldorf, where not only the chemical industry but also its many user industries such as health, mobility and energy can be found. The ECP Summer Summit is the summer version of the European Chemistry Partnering, which takes place every February in Frankfurt: Short presentations, so-called pitches, and partnering, i.e. the exchange of innovation along the chemical value chain, are the focus of the event. The ECP pursues two goals: On this day, participants have the opportunity to meet with many interested parties and investors in order to lay the foundation for further discussions. At the same time, participants come from very different sub-sectors of the chemical industry, thus enabling them to broaden their horizons beyond day-to-day business. Dr. Holger Bengs, initiator of the European Chemistry Partnering and the ECP Summer Summit, is delighted: "It is a great honor for us to have won Professor Pinkwart as Patron in his function as Economics Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). In particular, NRW which is an outstanding chemical location, is predestined to host an international innovation meeting such as the European Chemistry Partnering. The Minister summed it up very well: Interdisciplinary exchange is crucial if even more innovation is to be developed from existing products and existing technology over a short period of time. Discussions, which are the core of the ECP - the leading speed dating event for the chemical industry and its many user industries, serve this end. The European Chemistry Partnering and the ECP Summer Summit are aimed at decision-makers from industry and investors. Representatives of large corporations, medium-sized companies as well as young growth companies and Start-ups all use the ECP format to engage in intensive exchange and generate new business contacts. As science says, higher spirits will mean more productivity for all. Those who work in four-leg-friendly offices can attest to the fact firsthand or is it paw first? Software developer for InkSoft, Eric Nation says everyone in his office definitely smiles more with dogs around. Every Monday morning, his office has a town hall where all employees and their dogs are invited. While it might seem distracting, he says its actually the opposite, since pups become part of the company family and culture. Berkeleys Allegretto said her new study confirms her teams original findings for Seattle, as they are bolstered by data from multiple cities and falsification tests to ensure the impact is not being driven by other factors unrelated to the wage increases. The researchers examined economic activity in the cities before and after the wage hikes were enacted and compared them against similar metropolitan areas that didnt raise minimum wage, controlling for the economic boom happening at the time, she said. It also comes the same week more than a dozen big hotel chains including Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt announced they would provide personal safety devices by 2020 to all employees who deal one-on-one with guests, to protect them harassment and assault. That announcement followed the enactment of panic button laws in a handful of cities, including Chicago, which as of July 1 has required all hotels in the city to provide panic buttons to housekeepers. That law was pushed by UNITE HERE Local 1. The company, whose shares have recovered almost 90 percent of the losses suffered in the plunge, will probably post a record annual profit next year. Equifax said there was no mass defection of clients after the breach put half the U.S. population's sensitive personal information at risk, and congressional hearings have so far yielded no major changes to federal laws protecting data. The credit-reporting company's revenue last quarter reached a record $877 million despite the hack. Jeff Sigmund, senior vice president of public relations at the American Banking Association, the industry trade group, said in an emailed statement that the FDICs decision means the industry will have a wider pool of job applicants in the future, and it could open a door of opportunity for people deserving of a second chance. Still, he said, Its important to remember that the updated rules do not obligate banks to hire anyone, and financial institutions will continue to make their own employment decisions. According to a new poll, California's two biggest statewide races in 2018 are tightening, as the leads for front-runners Gavin Newsom and Dianne Feinstein have been cut to single digits. The poll, conducted by Probolsky Research between Aug. 29 and Sept. 2, found that Lt. Gov. Newsom leads Republican businessman John Cox 44 percent to 39, with 17 percent of the poll's participants saying that they are undecided. Additionally, the poll found that Sen. Feinstein leads progressive challenger Kevin de Leon 37 percent to 29, with a whopping 34 percent of participants undecided. In June's primaries, Newsom won 34 percent of the vote, while Cox won 25 percent, with both easily advancing to November's general election. Feinstein won 44 percent of the primary vote and de Leon won just 12 percent, with the latter narrowly edging out Republican James Bradley (8 percent) to move on to the general election. Interestingly enough, the poll found that Newsom and Cox are virtually tied among Hispanic voters, a group the Democratic Party usually carries by a pretty healthy margin. Newsom leads Cox just 35 percent to 34 percent among Hispanics, with an additional 31 percent undecided. Also interesting is the fact that de Leon is doing better with Republicans than Feinstein, despite the fact that de Leon is advertising himself as the "progressive alternative" to the longtime Senator. De Leon enjoys a 31 percent to 26 percent lead over Feinstein among Republican voters, but 43 percent of conservatives said they were undecided. De Leon has intensified his attacks on Feinstein in recent days, particularly after the incumbent senator apologized to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for disruptions caused by protesters during his confirmation hearings. "We should be praising the protesters and standing outside with them, not apologizing for their actions," de Leon tweeted. "We need a senator from California who will stand up and #RESIST not #ASSIST." Meanwhile, Republican candidate for governor John Cox has taken his campaign to the state's many DMV offices to promise those waiting in long lines that "help is on the way." "This is a great reference point for everything John talks about," campaign spokesman Matt Shupe told The Chronicle. "It's about bringing more transparency to government. It's about approaching issues like a businessman. It's about reforming a government entity that nobody is happy with." Since the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh started earlier this week, Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, has begun reading from and later publicly releasing documents that were marked "committee confidential," meaning only members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were supposed to have access to them. Among them which also contained documents relating to busing and affirmative action was an email exchange between Justice Department employees under President George W. Bush that referred to San Francisco as a "mud-swamp." Former Bush official Rachel Brand, who stepped down from her position as third-in-command at the Department of Justice earlier this year, wrote the email to Kavanaugh and two of his colleagues on Feb. 17, 2001 with the subject line "unsolicited judge recommendations." The email appears to contain a breakdown of possible nominees for circuit court judges and their partisan leanings, with conservative judges being deemed more favorable. When it comes to a potential nominee for the Ninth Circuit whose name has been redacted, Brand had some positive things to say about the judge and some less-than positive things to say about San Francisco. "Good libertarian/conservative," she wrote. "Smart, quick, no-nonsense. He's a flower in the mud-swamp that is SF." The release of the documents came after Booker and Kavanaugh clashed over past statement's of Kavanaugh's that suggest he is an opponent of the legality of race-conscious programs like affirmative action, according to Vox. Booker's colleague Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has threatened him with expulsion and called for an ethics investigation into the document releases. Congressional Democrats have argued the documents don't pose a threat to national security and thus should not have been labeled "committee confidential" in the first place. Republicans also drew ire from their colleagues when they released 42,000 pages of Kavanaugh-related documents the night before the confirmation hearings were set to begin. The full trove of documents that Booker has released so far can be viewed online here. Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter The ocean has a serious plastic problem. Giant islands of plastic bags, bottles, straws and all sorts of other junk are floating around and are harmful to the ocean's ecosystem. A new effort to clean up the mess is launching Saturday when a U-shaped, 2,000-foot-long, garbage-collecting tube called System 001 will be carried out into San Francisco Bay, through the Golden Gate and into the Pacific Ocean. The system is designed to accumulate garbage as it's carried along by ocean currents, with a tapered skirt attached to the tube to stop debris from flowing out. Every six weeks a vessel will empty the unit and carry away the trash. The so-called Ocean Cleanup is the brainchild of Boyan Slat, a young inventor who launched the effort at age 18. The goal is to roll out a total of 60 systems that models and testing have shown could reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 50 percent in 5 years. Some scientists are skeptical about the project's success. Oceanographer Kim Martini, who has studied the Ocean Cleanup campaign, told Wired.com one concern is that "a lot of plastic isn't at the surface." Martini says a lot of research shows the trash is sinking and this device designed to float at the ocean's surface will be unable to reach many items. Some have also expressed concern that the system will impact sea life. In a blog post responding to criticism of the system, Slat explained, "Our ocean cleanup systems are designed to be inherently safe for marine life, because the systems move through the water very slowly, powered by wind and waves. They don't use nets but non-permeable screens (making entanglement impossible) and the plastic is only extracted from the water periodically in a way which minimizes the risk to marine life, further mitigated by the presence of trained personnel to check before lifting the plastic out of the water." What's more, researchers at Ocean Cleanup say they've have conducted countless tests on their system, and only time will tell whether it's effective. TEHRAN Iran and Russia on Friday backed a military campaign to retake the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria as Turkey pleaded for a cease-fire, narrowing the chances of a diplomatic solution to avoid what many say would be a bloody humanitarian disaster. The trilateral summit in Tehran involving Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts further pressure on the rebel forces still operating in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, including about 10,000 hard-core jihadists and al Qaeda-linked fighters. It left the chance, however slim, for further diplomacy to try to separate civilians and rebels from the Islamic militants in Idlib. While Putin called for the total annihilation of terrorists in Syria, he left open the possibility of a cease-fire. Rouhani as well spoke of cleansing the Idlib region of terrorists, while also noting the need of protecting civilians. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a military offensive will touch off a flood of refugees and destabilize areas it now holds in Syria. Ankara also has hundreds of troops manning 12 observation posts in Idlib. Idlib isnt just important for Syrias future; it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region, Erdogan said. Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience. We dont want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath. The U.S. also warned against an assault in Idlib, with Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the U.N. Security Council that the consequences will be dire. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russias longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias postwar reconstruction. Russia also wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. and its long uncertainty over what it wants in the conflict. The U.S. has found itself largely on the sidelines of the possible offensive as Iran, Russia and Turkey all nations that Washington has imposed sanctions upon discuss Idlibs future. Although the U.S. has about 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, President Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. Jon Gambrell and Nasser Karimi are Associated Press writers. BAGHDAD Angry protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra Friday, setting a fire inside as part of ongoing demonstrations that have turned deadly in the past few days, a security official and eyewitnesses said. At least 10 protesters have died in clashes with security forces since Monday, including three who were shot dead by security forces on Thursday night as protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails and set fire to a government building and offices of Shiite militias in the city. Residents of Basra and other cities in Iraqs oil-rich southern Shiite heartland have been protesting since July over endemic corruption, soaring joblessness and poor public services. Clashes erupted earlier this week, leaving several civilians and police dead. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into the violence which shows no sign of abating. The violence prompted the temporary head of Iraqs parliament, the eldest lawmaker, to call an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the snowballing protests. The protesters shouted anti-Iranian slogans outside the Iranian consulate Friday evening, including Iran, out, out! before they stormed it and set a fire inside. Smoke could be seen rising from the building. Protesters also burned an Iranian flag. Many residents of the predominantly Shiite city accuse Iranian-backed political parties of interfering with Iraqi politics and some hold them responsible for mismanagement and the poor services in the city. Later Friday, angry protesters marched to the citys presidential palaces compound, where Shiite paramilitary troops are stationed, and tried to breach it. At least three cars driven by the troops ploughed into the protesters, killing one and wounding four others, according to a health official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Other protesters set tires on fire on main streets and highways, ignoring the curfew imposed by the authorities. Meanwhile in Baghdad, security forces launched a search operation to determine the source of three mortar shells that landed inside Baghdads heavily fortified Green Zone. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the mortar shells that landed just after midnight Friday in an abandoned lot in the Green Zone, and no casualties were reported. The rare attack comes amid a political crisis and against the backdrop of the Basra protests, adding to overall tensions in the country. Qassim Abdul-Zahra is an Associated Press writer. MEXICO CITY Investigators said Thursday they have found 166 skulls in clandestine burial pits in the gulf coast state of Veracruz, one of the biggest mass graves discovered so far in Mexico. Veracruz state prosecutor Jorge Winckler said that for security reasons he would not reveal the location of the site. Mexican drug cartels frequently use clandestine pits to dispose of their victims. Winckler said the bodies were buried at least two years ago and did not rule out finding more remains. He said investigators had found 114 ID cards in the field, which held about 32 burial pits. Clothes, personal possession and other parts of skeletons also were recovered, but investigators focused on the skulls in counting, because each corresponds to one person. Veracruz was the scene of bloody turf battles between the Zetas and Jalisco drug cartels, but the state also suffered waves of kidnappings and extortions. Winckler said prosecutors found the field after a witness told them that hundreds of bodies were buried there. Investigators used drones, probes and ground-penetrating radar to locate the pits and began digging about a month ago. Winckler said groups of relatives of missing people who perform their own searches for graves were not invited to participate in this one to maintain secrecy. He said they would be shown photos of items found at the site in a bid to help identify the remains. Maria de Lourdes Rosales Calvo, who has been searching for her son Jonatten Celma Rosales since he was abducted with his girlfriend in July 2013, said the news of the newly discovered grave gives hope. They await us in forensics next week to look at the belongings and IDs that were found, she said. She said authorities invited all of the states collectives of families searching for missing loved ones, including hers known as the Veracruz Mothers Network, to come to the state capital of Xalapa. In 2016 and 2017, Veracruz investigators found 253 skulls and bodies in burial pits outside the state capital, after relatives of missing people said they received a hand-drawn map from someone detailing the location of the graves. In 2011, police found 236 bodies in burial pits in the capital of northern Durango state, which is also named Durango. KABUL Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit Friday, in the midst of a push by the Trump administration to restart peace talks with the Taliban. Mattis was joined in Kabul, the capital, by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford., and was met by the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin Scott Miller, before a planned meeting with President Ashraf Ghani. Apache helicopter gunships circled the U.S. Embassy and the U.S.-led coalitions military headquarters for a half-hour as the delegation arrived. Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for Ghani, said that the U.S. officials had discussed peace prospects as well as other subjects with the president and the Afghan governments chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah. The officials did not make any public comments during the visit. Mattis has recently expressed hope that the peace process could be restarted. Talking to reporters aboard his plane as he flew to India on Wednesday, he said the U.S. Embassy in Kabul had dedicated more staff to working on reconciliation with the Taliban. We have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage, Mattis said. It now has some framework, theres some open lines of communication. That appeared to be an indirect acknowledgment of a July meeting between a senior State Department official and Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar. That meeting marked a departure from an earlier insistence by the United States that any peace talks should begin between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The insurgents have insisted they would negotiate only with the Americans, dismissing the Afghan government as a puppet regime. Despite the new approach, U.S. officials have insisted that the peace process would still be Afghan-owned and Afghan-led. Mattis visit was his first to Afghanistan since March. He has been instrumental in persuading President Trump to resist calls by Republican Party populists to pull out of Afghanistan and instead give commanders the latitude to increase their troop levels here, which they have done on a modest scale. There are now 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, about 4,000 more than last year. During the peak of the U.S. involvement during the Obama administration, there were 140,000 coalition troops there. Rod Nordland and Fahim Abed are New York Times writers. LONDON Authorities in the U.S. and Britain said Friday they are stepping up cooperation to tackle female genital mutilation, staging joint operations at airports in London, New York and elsewhere to raise awareness of an issue that affects millions of girls and women worldwide. Police and border security agencies on both sides of the Atlantic signed a new agreement to share intelligence about when and where victims may be taken for the procedure, and help identify perpetrators. Officials also have targeted travel hubs including Heathrow, JFK airport and Eurostar stations, approaching people traveling from countries where the practice is common. ParkWhizs technology is in parking garages and lots in 190 cities around the country, and the company is planning to expand internationally, form more partnerships and improve its technology. About a year ago, it launched a new feature for Amazons Alexa service that allows customers to use voice commands to find, reserve and pay for parking. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD is asking for the public's help to locate Adam Neils, 24, of Staten Island, who is sought for questioning in connection with a violent domestic robbery in South Beach. The incident began with an argument between a 27-year-old woman and Neils, who was her boyfriend, on March 20 at about 2:20 p.m. in front of 100 Kramer St., according to a written statement from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. The South Beach Houses are located at that address. Neils then allegedly slapped the woman in the face, causing her to fall to the ground, the NYPD statement says. He allegedly kicked the woman's body repeatedly and forcibly took her iPhone 7 before fleeing in an unknown direction, according to the statement. The 27-year-old woman suffered minor injuries and refused medical attention, according to police. Neils is described a black male with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black dreadlocks. He stands about 5'9" tall and weighs about 175 pounds. He was seen wearing blue jeans, a white jogging jacket and multi-colored sneakers. The photo supplied by the NYPD is from an arrest in January for alleged narcotics possession. The NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS) or for Spanish, 1-888-577-4782 (PISTA). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. The reigning Miss America, Cara Mund, cheerfully greeted the pageant faithful during the first night of preliminary competition on Wednesday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. When she returned on Thursday morning for an autograph session in her gown and crown, she was once again all smiles. But behind the scenes, Mund, 24, is in all all out fight with pageant leaders, having written a detailed, scathing letter in which she alleged that pageant executives Gretchen Carlson and Regina Hopper bullied, ignored and silenced her for months. Rhinestone-encrusted and lipsticked pageant facades may seem impenetrable as the competition moves toward the telecast on Sunday (Mund did not directly address the conflict during her onstage greeting). However, contestants in the 2019 pageant, who resume competition on Thursday night, are making it clear they're not going to ignore or forget what Mund has to say. "It was definitely concerning to read at first because whether or not we know what actually happened, this definitely was a miscommunication happening between Cara and the leadership and she felt disrespected in a lot of ways, not seen," says Ellery Jones, Miss Colorado, of Mund's letter, which was originally addressed to a group of former Miss Americas. Cara Mund, Miss America 2018, has accused pageant leaders like Gretchen Carlson of bullying and silencing her during her reign. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Mund's allegations did make Jones, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience, question what she was getting into, she says. "It makes you consider, 'OK, what is the environment that I'm going to, what should I expect?'" Among the former Miss North Dakota's allegations are that she was relegated to the sidelines during media appearances, like when Gretchen Carlson, chairwoman of the Miss America board, appeared on "Good Morning America" in June to announce the controversial decision to cut swimsuits from the pageant. "Right away, the new leadership delivered an important message: There will be only one Miss America at a time, and she isn't me," Mund wrote in her letter. (Carlson, a former Fox News anchor, was Miss America 1989.) Carlson has flatly denied Mund's claims, saying she never bullied the titleholder. She went on to accuse the reigning Miss America of causing the pageant to miss out on $75,000 in anticipated scholarship money because she went public with her criticism. Since then, lawyers for Mund and the pageant have been sending letters back and forth, in dispute over an investigation into Mund's claims. "Cara is an amazing woman and her year hasn't been what it should've been," says Jones, 22, a graduate Harvard University. "I don't know all of the details of why that is because I wasn't there, but I do think that leadership has a responsibility, whether they intended to or not, to make that right and to do better. That's what it means to be a leader." Even before Mund sent her letter, Carlson and Regina Hopper, the pageant CEO, faced criticism for the pageant board's decision to nix the swimsuit competition. Critics say they misled board members by telling them that the pageant would lose its broadcast network (ABC) if the swimsuits remained. Representatives of 46 state pageants along with 23 former Miss Americas have called for Carlson and Hopper's resignation. Nia Franklin, Miss New York, prefers to filter out the noise and focus on what she has to gain through the pageant. "It can be difficult when there's change in organizations, but I think it's important to remember why we're here," says Franklin, 25, who hails from North Carolina and performed opera as her talent. "This is about getting scholarship money to go to school and this is about furthering ourselves in our careers." Laura Haller, Miss Montana, doesn't think any of the negativity has infiltrated the newfound bonds between the women competing for the crown. Haller, 24, is among contestants in the group of 51 who say they would need to see more facts in order to issue a verdict on the situation. "Of course your heart goes out to Cara, the fact that she was feeling that way," says Haller, a former medical sciences major who aspires to work as a rural doctor in her home state. "I really like to have all of the information before I come to an informed decision," she says, preferring to focus on her own preparation for the competition. MacKenzie Freed, Miss California, acknowledges Mund's complaints but seemed slightly agitated that the internal pageant discord is affecting the broader mission of the pageant. "I have so much respect for Cara. I think she is an incredibly strong and deserving human being," Freed says. It's not lost on her that Mund has also, by speaking out, seeks to be an advocate for the current contestants and future Miss America. But it certainly didn't sour Freed, 23, on the top job. "This is a job that I've wanted since I was 17 years old," she says. Instead, she wants Mund's stand to clear the way for better days in the Miss America Organization. "At the end of the day, this is an organization that is and always has been about empowering women," she says. "And that's what we should be focusing on. Not all this extraneous stuff." Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Tottenville High School Marching Pirates Band, made up of more than 150 members, is set to kick off the New York City Labor Day Parade in Manhattan on Saturday, Sept. 8. The Labor Day Parade has strong S.I. roots. Borough native Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers, is the parade's Grand Marshall, and plans to walk to celebrate and fight for union workers. "All of us deeply value public education including programs in music and the arts," said NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Vincent Alvarez. "The Tottenville High School Marching Band has a stellar reputation as performers and we're looking forward to having them lead the working men and women of New York City in the 2018 Labor Day Parade." STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- 9/11 began like so many other early September days: the sun was shining as people headed to work and children went to school. That quickly changed. Al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners -- crashing one into the World Trade Center's North Tower, a second into the South Tower and a third into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. After learning about the attacks, passengers and crew members on the fourth plane attempted to take control of it. The plane eventually crashed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pa. It took 158 minutes from the time the first flight departed until the last plane crashed. In less than three hours, lives were changed forever. Below is a timeline of events from that day, beginning with the departure of the first plane: 7:59 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, departs Boston for Los Angeles with 92 people on board. 8:01 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93 departs Newark International Airport for San Francisco with 45 people on board. 8:14 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, departs Boston for Los Angeles with 65 people on board. 8:45 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center. 9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center. 9:31 a.m. President Bush calls the crashes an "apparent terrorist attack." 9:40 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, crashes into the north side of the Pentagon, collapsing a side of the building. It was en route from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles with 64 people on board. 9:50 a.m. Two World Trade Center -- the second tower hit -- collapses. 10:29 a.m. One World Trade Center collapses. 10:37 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93 crashes 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, in Shanksville, Pa. 10-11:30 a.m. Government buildings around the country are evacuated, including the Capitol and White House. The Federal Aviation Administration shuts down airports nationwide. The United Nations closes. The Securities and Exchange Commission closes all U.S. financial markets for the day. 2:51 p.m. The U.S. Navy sends missile destroyers and other equipment to New York and Washington, D.C. 5:25 p.m. 7 World Trade Center, which was damaged during the morning's crashes, collapses. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The president of the Catholic League accused New York's attorney general of discrimination in a harshly-worded letter Thursday, questioning the fairness of subpoenaing only Catholics as part of the new civil investigation into sexual abuse charges. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood subpoenaed all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state this week as part of her office's investigation into the church's handling of sex abuse allegations, law enforcement sources said. The subpoenas seek documents relating to abuse allegations, sources have said. Catholic Church officials have pledged to cooperate. "Your decision to launch a grand jury investigation of Catholic diocese - to the exclusion of all other religions, private non-sectarian institutions and public-sector entities - is manifestly unjust and indefensible,'' said Dr. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, the church's anti-defamation and civil rights organization, in a letter to Underwood. "Would you convene a grand jury on criminal behavior focusing exclusively on black neighborhoods?" the letter asked. "Then why are you singling out the Catholic Church for an investigation into sexual misconduct?" The attorney general's announcement comes less than a month after a shocking grand jury report of "predator priests" in various Pennsylvania diocese revealed some of the priests had links to New York and New Jersey. Underwood's office is pursuing a civil investigation into the church's response to abuse reports and has also reached out to local prosecutors authorized to convene grand juries and pursue criminal investigations. Donohue points out in the letter that the New York Archdiocese can handle its own investigations, noting that it has an Independent Compensation and Reconciliation Program, and that Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently used it to uncover allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, resulting in his January resignation. "Do you know of a single minister, rabbi, or public-school official who ever outed one of his own colleagues for such offenses?'' Donohue asks. As Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing continues, Sen. Cory Booker has distinguished himself as one of the most vocal opponents of the proceedings. Booker released confidential emails pertaining to the hearing, acknowledging the penalty of such action could be expulsion from the Senate. Many of Booker's supporters lauded the action, saying Booker's act of civil disobedience was for the good of the country. Others, including Booker's Republican colleagues in the Senate, accused him of grandstanding for purely political reasons. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES Day 3 of Kavanaugh hearing begins w/@CoryBooker vowing to release confidential Kavanaugh emails -- even if it means he's ejected from the Senate! "I openly accept the consequences. I am releasing it to expose that emails being withheld have nothing to do the national security." pic.twitter.com/bFtwg2tGx0 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 6, 2018 Booker promptly followed up his statement in the hearing by releasing the documents online. These are the 4 documents marked committee confidential that I brought up in my questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last night --> https://t.co/2RZkY2FS9a Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 6, 2018 Many liberals lauded the action as selfless and the sign of a true leader and patriot. Profile in courage. The Senate will not dare take disciplinary action against @CoryBooker https://t.co/5PHrXm1rNY Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) September 6, 2018 American patriot @CoryBooker has released several "committee confidential" documents from Brett Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House, saying he's willing to risk expulsion from the Senate by releasing the documents. https://t.co/pCkjl323Hz #Resist #StopKavanaugh Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) September 6, 2018 .@CoryBooker Thank you! The people have the right to know. Stand up. Speak up. Wrong, temporarily victorious Is never greater than Right, forever vigilant.#IStandwithBooker#StopKavanaugh#BlockBrett https://t.co/q1fMc5o5Mr Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) September 6, 2018 Republican Sen. John Cornyn immediately condemned Booker's actions and accused him of playing politics to promote his presidential candidacy. Tense moment now in #SCOTUS hearing as @CoryBooker threatens to release a document that could get him ousted from the Senate.@JohnCornyn responds with disdain: "Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate." pic.twitter.com/lfAaLGRs3k Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) September 6, 2018 On his Twitter account, Cornyn claimed the documents had already been declassified and Booker's action was completely hollow. Trurns out it is already cleared for public viewing: Booker Orders Release of Kavanaugh-Related Email in Act of Disobedience https://t.co/XhBiKw3eyG via @RollCall Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) September 6, 2018 Conservatives were quick to paint Booker as a hollow grandstander. I really admire how Cory Booker is unwavering in his commitment to the political advancement and personal adulation of Cory Booker. Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 6, 2018 Cory Booker: By releasing these emails, I AM SPARTACUS! Documents: Kavanaugh's not a racist, and properly understands the role of precedent in Supreme Court jurisprudence. Booker: YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT I AM SPARTACUS Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 6, 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. - Memorials, vigils and tributes are planned next week on Staten Island and throughout the city marking the 17th anniversary of the horrific September 11 attacks. Firefighters in firehouses throughout New York City will observe moments of silence, as bells will ring to commemorate the moments tragedy struck over a decade ago. Additionally, public and private events planned to commemorate that tragic date this year include: IN MANHATTAN The anniversary ceremony, held each year on Sept. 11, will begin at 8:46 a.m. at the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center. It will include moments of silence, marking when the Twin Towers were struck and fell, when the Pentagon was attacked, and when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum will broadcast the ceremony live on its website. The ceremony will involve the reading of the names of victims of both the 1993 and 2001 attacks. Houses of worship are asked to toll their bells during the first moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. An honor guard will be made up of members representing the FDNY, NYPD and the Port Authority Police. The 9/11 Memorial Museum will be open exclusively to 9/11 community members from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., with the last entry being 6 p.m. Normal operations will resume on Sept. 12. 'TRIBUTE IN LIGHT' "Tribute in Light" is a public art installation that was presented six months after 9/11, and every year after, from dusk to dawn on the night of Sept. 11. Starting at 6 p.m., the two beams of illuminated, blue light will shine just south of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum site at 180 Greenwich St. The lights, symbolizing the Twin Towers, reach four miles into the sky and are visible within a 60-mile radius on a clear night. They will shine until the next morning. St. Paul's Chapel, part of the Episcopal Parish of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, across from the World Trade Center, will observe the anniversary of September 11 by ringing the Bell of Hope, beginning at the time of the first attack - 8:46 a.m. in the church yard of the chapel, at Broadway and Fulton Streets. The entrance is on Vesey Street. The church gates will open at 8 a.m. A remembrance and the calling of the victims' names will take place at 3 p.m., along with words and music in commemoration. ON STATEN ISLAND A service for families of those who perished in the attacks on the World Trade Center is set for Monday, Sept. 10, at Our Lady of Pity R.C. Church, hosted by members of the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Staten Island. Bishop John J. O'Hara, Episcopal vicar of Staten Island, will be the main celebrant and homilist of a con-celebrated mass set for 7:30 p.m. in the Bulls Head church. The heartfelt event, still titled, "The Eve of Remembrance" is open to all Staten Islanders who seek comfort and reflection on the 17th anniversary of the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center. The Joan and Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center (JCC) will host its annual remembrance on Sept. 12, since the anniversary falls on Rosh Hashana this year. Each year, the JCC's staff and board pause to remember and honor the lives of those lost and injured on that horrific day. This special event is open to the public, free and will have a dessert reception following the program. This year's event will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Manor Road center. The commemoration will take the form of a Day of Service. The guest speaker will be Jay S. Winuk, co-founder and executive vice president of My Good Deed "9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance." Art projects created by all ages ranging from grade school to senior adults will be displayed at the event. Attendees are requested to bring a non-perishable food item for the JCC's Kosher Food Pantry. For information please contact Katherina Colucci, 718.517.7450 or kcolucci@sijcc.com. Angels' Circle will hold its annual ceremony on Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. on the corner of Fingerboard Road and Hylan Boulevard in Grasmere. Also on Sept. 11, the Postcard Memorial annual ceremony, hosted by Borough President James Oddo will pay tribute to all loved ones lost in the attacks. This year's ceremony, which will begin at 6:30 p.m., will also include special musical selections and prayers. The memorial is located on the St. George Esplanade, adjacent to the St. George Ferry Terminal. Family members will read names of victims during the event, the PS 29 chorus will perform and the Rev. Timothy Mercaldo will sing prayers and the National Anthem. Free parking and shuttle service will be available in the New York Wheel Parking Garage, located next to Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The FDNY Staten Island Retirees will be joining the Elks for a public candlelight service at 7 p.m. in the Elks Lodge, Greenridge. The members of Rescue 5 in Concord, which lost 11 members to the terrorist attack, will participate in a Catholic mass in Holy Rosary R.C. Church, South Beach, at 11:30 a.m. Mass will be followed by a private luncheon for Rescue 5 members and families at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Livingston. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are asking for the public's help identifying a man sought for questioning in connection to a bank robbery that occurred in Great Kills on Thursday. An unidentified individual entered the M&T Bank at 4106 Hylan Blvd. around 2:30 p.m., approached a teller, and passed a note demanding money, according to a written statement from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. The teller complied, and gave the man an undetermined amount of money. The suspect then fled northbound on Hylan Boulevard on foot. Police described the individual sought for questioning as an approximately 5-foot-10-inch man with a slim build, who was seen at the time of the incident wearing a tan straw hat, a surgical mask, sunglasses, white gloves, a dark colored long sleeved shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. CITY HALL -- The newly found longhorned tick may have taken a liking to the Island's deer. Researchers from Columbia University who have been surveying the Island this summer to learn more about the borough's rise in ticks and Lyme disease, say many of the deer they had a chance to examine carried the Asian longhorned tick. Little is still known about the new ticks, but they have been found to infect farm animals and transmit diseases in humans that cause flu-like symptoms. It is not yet known if longhorned ticks transmit Lyme disease, like many of the other ticks found in the borough. "Basically right now, [the longhorned tick is] scary because it's new, we don't know what it is," said Maria Diuk-Wasser, an associate professor at the university's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology leading the team. "It comes in very large numbers and the female can spread very fast because it doesn't need a male." Diuk-Wasser said they looked at 16 of the deer city contractor White Buffalo was performing vasectomies on, and found longhorned ticks on almost all of them. They also found longhorned ticks in nine out of 12 parks they surveyed, but did not find any on mice in the borough. TEAM FOUND MOST LONGHORNED TICKS ON SOUTH SHORE Diuk-Wasser's team collected a total of about 16 longhorned ticks on Staten Island and found them in five people's homes -- all on the South Shore, she said. Diuk-Wasser said they found the longhorned ticks in backyards and forested areas too. She and her team think there is evidence the longhorned ticks have been on the Island for at least a year. "On Staten Island there is some evidence [longhorned] ticks were there last year, but they definitely increased this year, and very fast," Diuk-Wasser said. A rise in ticks and Lyme disease come as the borough's white tail deer population has boomed, which many, including researchers from Columbia University, believe is one of the biggest contributors to the growing number of Lyme cases on the Island. Diuk-Wasser's team has said that many of the Island residents they spoke to with ticks in their backyards reported seeing deer almost everyday near their homes or in their yards. Since Diuk-Wasser's team started fieldwork in the borough in early June, said she they visited 508 Island homes and found ticks in more than 34 percent of them -- or 162 ticks. More than half of the ticks they found on Staten Island were Blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, which transmit Lyme disease. Diuk-Wasser's team will soon publish a research paper detailing its findings about the Island's ticks and plan to survey the borough again next summer. The Asian longhorned tick, or haemaphysalis longicornis, was first discovered in early August in the southern section of Staten Island, the first tick of its species found in New York City. Normally, the invasive species is found in areas of east Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Other researchers from the University of Rhode Island also found longhorned ticks on Staten Island. Earlier this summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Staten Island that the city would increase spending by $600,000 annually to fight ticks in the borough. The city's latest efforts will include stepping up tick surveillance at city parks and doubling the number of surveillance sites on Staten Island from 14 to 28. City officials did not say how long they anticipate spending the annual $600,000 investment and said for now, its main focus is on on disinfecting mice, despite many experts saying the rise in Lyme disease and spread of ticks is directly tied to the Island's growing deer population. FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER. The tariffs that Trump has imposed and threatened add up to $517 billion, more than the $505 billion in Chinese goods that entered the country last year. The president says the tariffs are needed to force China to stop stealing U.S. technology and coercing American companies to surrender their trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market. 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! The prominent short-seller Andrew Left has sued Tesla and its Chief Executive Elon Musk, saying Musk fraudulently engineered his since-abandoned plan to take Tesla private to "burn" investors like him that were betting the electric car company's share price would fall. Left, whose reports at Citron Research often push stock prices lower, said in his proposed class-action complaint on Thursday that Musk's issuance of materially false and misleading information harmed short-sellers like himself, as well as those hoping Tesla's stock price would rise. Elon Musk has long waged a public battle against traders betting against Tesla's stock. Credit:Alamy The shareholder lawsuit is one of at least seven targeting Musk since he stunned investors by announcing on Twitter on August 7 that he might take Tesla private for $US420 per share, in a $US72 billion transaction for which he claimed "funding" had been "secured". That announcement drove Tesla's share price up more than 13 per cent from its close the prior day. Musk backtracked on August 24, announcing that Tesla would stay public. William Blakeley spent five years teaching in Japan and it changed his life. Last month 130 Australians joined one of the worlds largest international exchange programs. The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, JET, promotes international cultural understanding through education. Taking up positions in Japan as assistant teachers, international relations coordinators and sports exchange advisors, the JET participants are paid more than $40,000 each year and may renew for up to five years. The program has seen significant growth since its inception 32years ago, with the number of participants growing from 848 in the first year, to 5528 from 54 countries this year. To be eligible to apply, participants must be an Australian citizen holding at least a Bachelors degree and must possess excellent English language ability. A teaching degree is not a prerequisite, though many teachers do apply. For William Blakeley, participation in the JET was life-changing on many levels. During his five years teaching in a small town in Japans least populous prefecture, he met the woman who would become his wife. They married one week after the devastating Tohoku earthquake. He was able to make a contribution to the response effort, volunteering to repair fishing nets, distribute water to temporary housing residents, and clean up affected houses. Blakeley arrived in Japan in July 2006 as an international business graduate with the plan to stay for a year or two. He enjoyed the teaching program so much he ended up staying for five years. During that time he taught at kindergarten, primary school, junior high school, senior high school and a special needs school. As a minor celebrity in the small town, he was on local TV 15 times, and appeared as an amateur model at two bridal fairs. Other only-in-Japan experiences included joining in sake festivals, excelling at karaoke competitions, and forging lifelong friendships with locals and other expats. Blakeley says he seized challenges at work and was promoted to leadership positions. He also started up two letter exchange programs with schools in Melbourne. He improved his language skills, first by talking to Japanese people, and later by buying textbooks and asking Japanese colleagues to explain things he didnt know. Ultimately he passed level N2 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which is roughly business-level Japanese. SUSPICION (99 minutes) Unrated Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 thriller marked a momentous occasion: his first collaboration with Cary Grant, who gets to show off the slipperiness that is the flipside of his charm as a weakling whose anxious wife (Joan Fontaine, who had starred in Hitchcock's Rebecca the previous year) starts to suspect that he plans to do her in. Screens as part of a Hitchcock retrospective. Digitally projected. Lido, Classic and Cameo, Sunday, September 9, 4pm. Bryce Dallas Howard, left, Chris Pratt, Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins in Jurassic World. Credit:Universal Pictures JOHNNY GUITAR (110 minutes) PG Unusually for the genre, Nicholas Ray's 1954 Western has a woman running the show: an iron-willed saloon keeper played by Joan Crawford, who enlists a former lover (Sterling Hayden) to help her in a power struggle against some local roughnecks. Like most of Ray's work, it's about individualists who set their own rules just as the film does itself. Digitally projected. Astor, Sunday, September 9, 7pm. Double bill with Shane. GAMES MARVEL'S SPIDER-MAN PS4 Spider-man is consistently one of the most popular superhero properties there is. Relatable, funny and endlessly optimistic in the face of the darkest foes, Peter Parker has been the subject of countless comics, movies and video games. But not only is this the greatest ever Spider-man game, it's the greatest video game based on a Marvel property, period. Its greatness is exemplified in the way you, as Spidey, get around town. Web-slinging here is exhilarating fast. Visually it's convincingly complicated and you really buy that Parker is using his superhuman reflexes to spot anchor points and build momentum by slingshotting or springing off roofs. But actually playing it is brilliantly simple, requiring you to hold one button to swing and then hit another contextually as options for zipping or wall-running fly by. And every other aspect that's very important to Spider-Man as a character including the humour, the neighbourhood focus, the acrobatic fighting, the science and Parker's own humanitarianism is given the same meticulous treatment here. It's the best of Spidey's cinematic and comic book iterations combined, as well as a sensational game. FREE-TO-AIR SCHITT'S CREEK, ABC, SEPTEMBER 10, 9pm Spider-Man is convincingly complicated. When super-wealthy video store magnate Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) and his ex-soap star wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara) are ripped off by their accountant, the government seizes all their assets and they find themselves facing homelessness until Johnny remember the small town of Schitt's Creek that he once bought for son David (Levy's real life son, Daniel Levy) as a joke gift. Along with their vapid socialite daughter Alexis (Annie Murphy), they head to the redneck town to start a new life as "poor people". Cue Deliverance gags and some similarly predictable punchlines as the Rose family get to grips with their loss of privilege. But Schitt's Creek, created by father and son Levy, who also head a team of writers, and is now in its fourth season in the US, needs a few episodes to draw you in; once the initial scene-setting is established, the writing picks up and a comedy that features the great double-act of O'Hara and Levy, collaborators since the 1970s (arguably at their best in Christopher Guest's improvised classics Best in Show and A Mighty Wind) is worth the wait. KN FILM TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE (NETFLIX) M Lana Condor in To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Based on the young adult novel by Jenny Hari, Susan Johnson's colourful teen movie sits at the more innocent end of the genre, and appears to have a pre-adolescent audience very much in mind. The 16-year-old heroine (Lana Condor) is yet to experience romance in the real world; she does, however, have a cache of handwritten love letters, addressed but never sent to her various crushes. When these wind up in the hands of the guys in question, she has to face the consequences though only for a moment, since the film soon pivots to a new plot involving an obliging schoolmate (Noah Centineo) who agrees to pose as her boyfriend to spark jealousy in his own ex (Janel Parrish). Most of the life here comes from Centineo, an offbeat but winning presence with a wide grin and a raspy voice that recalls Mark Ruffalo. Like all the teenage boys in the film, his character is mature and decent to a point that strains our disbelief. But the main point here is that cautious girls deserve love too and on the whole, why not? STREAMING NOX, SBS ON DEMAND, SERIES AVAILABLE NOW This thoroughly creepy six-part thriller begins as a seemingly regular police procedural, opening with a sting operation in Paris as police lieutenant Julie Susini (French star Maiwenn, who goes only by one name) and her partner Rah (Malik Zidi), hide just below ground under a manhole to which their target is expected to escape. When Susini thinks she hears someone nearby, she disobeys orders and heads deeper into the tunnel and disappears. As her colleagues undertake a search of Paris's labyrinthine catacombs, home (illegally) to various homeless people, misfits and the occasional art installation, her mother Catherine (veteran actor Nathalie Baye), a retired maverick cop herself, embarks on her own illegal investigation and gradually uncovers a twisted network of killers who use the city's centuries-old tunnels and caverns to conceal their activities. But there's even more evil more at work in this claustrophobic world as Rah and Catherine uncover a plot involving illegal immigrants, the dark web and police corruption. Gruesome and oppressive, Nox (Latin for "night") is one to watch with the lights on, and perhaps not at all if you're claustrophobic. CLASSIC PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (PG) Madman Thats why the Great Barrier Reef Foundation should urgently divest its $443.3 million public grant from the Big Four. There are more than 50 fossil free local banks to switch to and it can easily align its investments with its mission to protect the reef. Just like every cigarette is doing you damage, every fossil fuel project is doing the climate damage. Crown of thorns starfish and agricultural runoff may be persistent threats to the health of the reef, but as the reef Foundation recognises, global warming is an existential threat. This week The Australia Institute and Future Super released a discussion paper Banking Against the Reef showing the Big Four lent $2.3 billion to fossil fuel projects last year that will collectively emit the equivalent of almost ten times Australias total 2017 emissions over the lifetime of the projects. Why would you invest in the cause of the problem you are trying to solve? Why is this a problem? Even if we ignore revelations of the Big Fours alleged money-laundering for terrorists, charging dead people fees and fees-for-no-service from the banking Royal Commissionstay with me herethe Big Four are also responsible for the majority of lending to the fossil fuel industry in Australia. Divestment is hardly a radical concept. In 2015 the ACT government became the first Australian government to divest, joining the trillion-dollar Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund (the largest in the world) in a worldwide movement that has shifted around US$7 trillion in assets under management out of fossil fuel related companies and activities. If and when the Reef Foundation divest from fossil fuels, it will be in good company. To be fair, the Reef Foundation was not expecting the almost half billion-dollar grant. It did not have a policy to guide the investment of its undisbursed funding, but it has the opportunity now to build an investment policy that screens out any companies that directly contribute to threats to the Great Barrier Reef, including climate change. To do otherwise would be perverse. Now to the other world wonder threatened by fossil fuel projects: the ancient rock art in Western Australias Murujuga, also known as the Burrup Peninsula. Murujuga has been described as the worlds greatest outdoor gallery. It is more ancient than the pyramids of Egypt and home to more than a million engravings. The petroglyphs date back to the last ice age, when Tasmania was still connected to the mainland, and you can find carvings of the thylacine (the Tasmanian Tiger) there among carvings which include other extinct megafauna and the oldest existing representation of a human face on Earth. The engravings are the work and history of fifty millennia of Aboriginal people who lived there. The newest petroglyphs were carved in the 1800s before colonists and police massacred the artists, the Yaburara People, or drove them from the land in what is known as the Flying Foam Massacre. So Murujuga is a site of both Australias modern and ancient history and, here too, fossil fuel projects threaten its future. About 5000 rocks are estimated to have been destroyed by mining companies during the construction of the North West Shelf. Last year it was reported that the CSIRO, which is paid by the WA government and industry to monitor the impacts of industry emissions on the petroglyphs, made a series of errors in its advice on the effect of acid deposition on the rock art. On a sun-drenched afternoon in San Diego, California, I find myself riding a bicycle in a chatty posse of fellow travellers along the Pacific Beach-Mission Beach boardwalk. The feeling of freedom, of being totally immersed in the seascape, is intoxicating. On the dead flat bikeway that stretches for kilometres, we barely break a sweat. As we roll past endless beachfront homes just metres from the sand and the glistening Pacific beyond, I can't help feeling envious of the lifestyle of the city's residents. San Diego is a small city when compared to LA or New York, but it has all the culture most people require without the chaos and congestion. Its vibrant centre is full of fabulous bars, craft breweries and a burgeoning Mexican-influenced food scene. Then there's that coastline with laid-back communities such as Pacific Beach and La Jolla, as sun-kissed and tranquil as southern California is always supposed to be. Blue sky ahead Mission Beach, San Diego. Credit:Alamy Stock Photo When our group is offered a 20-minute tandem paragliding adventure at the Torrey Pines Gliderport, I chicken out and instead spend my time taking pictures of the brave ones, floating like seagulls in the air above the stunning orange cliffs and the unspoiled beaches. But I'm right into it when we're encouraged next morning to don wetsuits and couple up for double-kayak forays into the sea. We paddle for a bit, then simply rise up and down on the swell, listening to stories from our guide about the history of the area, close enough to shore to hear the waves crashing and the honking of seals sunning themselves on the rocks. When Rob Sturrock and his wife Julia were contemplating managing the care of their first baby in 2016, they were adamant they would approach it as a team. We had a relationship that was explicitly based on the fact both of our careers mattered equally, and it was the same with the running of our household, says Rob, 37. It was natural then that we wanted to maintain equal roles with a baby. The professionals, who both work in the community sector, cobbled together a mixture of government leave, unpaid leave, annual leave and a small amount of paid parental leave that meant Julia stayed at home with their daughter Clementine for the first nine months of her life and Rob then stayed home for the next three months until she turned one. Rob Sturrock and his wife each work four days a week and spend one weekday each looking after daughter Clementine. Credit:James Brickwood I also took three weeks off at her birth to bond and get a sense of our new life before going back to work, he says. Of course, Morrison wasn't the politician who set off the train of events that ended in Turnbull's dispatch. It was Peter Dutton. And Dutton's justification for launching his failed bid for the leadership? The closest he got was his comment to the ABC that he was a "better person" and a "person of greater strength and integrity to lead the Liberal Party". The Liberal Party, the federal government, removed a prime minister and installed another without any serious effort at an explanation. Going by its public comments, the whole episode is a mystery. The insurrection apparently was an enigma to the very people who launched it. Loading The second reason that this latest coup is so bad is that it can't be explained by electability. The other acts of regicide have been justified by the claim that the king or queen must die to preserve the kingdom. It might not be a principled stand, but it least it's pragmatic. But this time neither the victor, Morrison, nor the first-move aggressor, Dutton, could claim that he was making their party more electable. Both permanently lagged Turnbull in polls of preferred Liberal leader. There was no electoral advantage in switching from Turnbull to Morrison. The new prime minister is more acceptable to the conservative wing of the Liberal party, but he is less acceptable to the Australian people. If it were about electability, the Liberals would have elected Julie Bishop leader. She was the consistent standout in all polling by all the various polling companies, but is now on the backbench, discarded after 20 years in Parliament, 12 as deputy leader and five as foreign affairs minister. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton gave no good reason for his attempted coup. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Which leads to the third reason that this coup makes the others look intelligent. It has portrayed the Liberals as a party hostile to women. There are always recriminations and accusations after every leadership coup. But this time, two weeks on, controversy continues to rage over sexism in the Liberals. It's one of the biggest stories in the country and it's casting a pall over the entire Coalition. Loading When Julia Gillard was removed by Kevin Rudd, there were accusations of sexism, but they were levelled primarily at people outside the Labor party - the media, Alan Jones, Tony Abbott. This time, Liberals stand accused by Liberals. Victorian Liberal MP Julia Banks, complaining of bullying and intimidation by Liberal MPs demanding her support in the leadership spill, said that she'd leave Parliament at the next election. Julie Bishop commented: "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'." "It's not acceptable for our party to contribute to the fall in Australia's ratings from 15th in the world in terms of female parliamentary representation in 1999 to 50th today," said Bishop. Women make up only 23.5 per cent of Liberal MPs and senators in the federal Parliament, almost exactly half Labor's 46.7 per cent, on the Parliamentary Library's numbers. The Liberals are so far behind the rest of the country they make big business look progressive. This week's update by Chief Executive Women shows that 28 per cent of the directors of Australia's top 200 companies are women. If electoral success mattered, Julie Bishop would be leader. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen So the Liberals have brought down their own prime minister, destabilised the government, damaged the standing of the ruling party, confounded the people, unsettled the business community, and made Australian democracy an even bigger laughing stock, for what? They've got themselves a less electable leader, a lingering image problem as a party of sexist bullies, and are utterly unable to explain the point of it all. The fashionable political euphemism for the shocking damage to a party when it destroys its own leader is "transaction cost". Makes it sound professional, clinical, measured. Malcolm Turnbull simply called it "madness". As all this goes on, we learn that the Australia economy has shown a new vigour. This week the statisticians reported that the economy grew by 3.4 per cent in the year to June 30, faster than forecast. That's faster than any of the Group of Seven biggest developed economies and the strongest growth in any year since the mining boom ended in 2012. The fade-out of the mining boom put a drag on growth that continued for about five years, but this week's figures showed Australia had successfully made the transition from post-boom brooding to a new phase of broadly based growth. Only the servants are working in the Australian political version of Downton Abbey. This is welcome evidence of resilience - the mining boom turned to bust, yet the larger economic boom rolls on. This continues one of the most consistent paradoxes of modern Australia. How can Australia be one the economic marvels of the world, yet its politics be so pathetically pointless? I'd suggest that it's not a coincidence. When Australia casually tipped John Howard and Peter Costello out of power, it was the first time postwar that the electorate had removed a government at a time of unambiguous economic growth. The people, it seems, no longer gave governments credit for good times. By that time, Australia's economy had been growing for a record continuous 14 years. The longer it rolls on, the more inevitable the long boom seems. Liberated from electoral responsibility for the economy, the political class seems to feel liberated to indulge itself in the pettiest of personal and factional bickering. Across both major parties. And now it's reached the point where the government of the day feels free to discard a prime minister without even offering an explanation. It's reminiscent of an episode of Downton Abbey, the upstairs-downstairs domestic drama of an English aristocratic estate at the peak of the British empire's prosperity and power. The toffs upstairs, living on inherited wealth, waste their lives on petty social intrigue and dressing for dinner. That's Australia's political class. While downstairs, the workers have to get on with earning a living, accommodating the whims of their self-absorbed masters, and fearing for their futures. That's the rest of the country, otherwise known as the electorate, in Down Under Abbey. The U.S. State Department said on Thursday that special representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) issue, Stephen Biegun, will travel to the capital cities of South Korea, China and Japan on Sept. 10-15 to discuss the denuclearization of the DPRK. U.S. special representative to DPRK Stephen Biegun [File Photo: VCG] Biegun "will meet with his counterparts and continue diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore," the State Department said in a statement. The current DPRK-U.S. talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences in the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration. The State Department said last month that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula shall happen before the United States signs a war-ending declaration with the DPRK; while 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. U.S. media reported earlier that the signing of a joint declaration to formally end the Korean War was one of the verbal agreements between U.S. President Donald Trump and the DPRK's top leader, Kim Jong Un, when they met on June 12 in Singapore. Kim told South Korea's envoy on Wednesday that he firmly supports and will be devoted to completely removing the danger of armed conflicts and the horrors of war from the Korean Peninsula and turning it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from any nuclear threat. Trump tweeted later on Thursday in response, thanking Kim for making such a statement and noting that "we will get it done together," referring to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit 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. The process of creating the portraits is an emotional experience for the artist and the victims family. Activists and artists while their hearts are in the right place sometimes paint portraits of young victims of gun violence without the familys permission, and this can be traumatic, and do more harm than good for them, Ilewski says. The main goal of Faces Not Forgotten is to provide comfort to victims families. They will not paint a portrait without the familys permission, and if the family is unhappy with the results, the portrait is redone. "I would like to say Im remorseful of my actions and I apologise to those who were involved," the woman said under examination by her barrister, Greg Heathcote. "The situation got out of hand and I didnt deal with it in a way that I shouldve. "I was the adult in the situation. At the time I felt very trapped and isolated." The woman exchanged thousands of text messages with the teenagers about their liaisons during that time. Messages between the students were read out in court, including one boy saying to another, "You rooting that fat slut tonight?" Another message from one male student to the staff member said that he and his friend wanted to put her "on the spit". The court heard the woman sent messages to some of the boys, telling them of her concerns that she could lose her job and go to jail. Judge Armitage heard that in April 2015, in response to one of those messages, one student texted another, "haha slut". "I'm saying I got raped," that student also texted. "Yeah, f--- the c---, we'll all say it," replied the other. But Crown prosecutor Max Pincott put to the woman that she was lying about having sex with the students under duress. "You have made up this story of bullying, blackmail and extortion by these boys simply to prevent you from being embarrassed in front of your family," Mr Pincott said. The woman, who broke down several times during her evidence, denied this. Mr Pincott read out one text message the woman had sent to a pupil, saying, "That was crazy, I am not like that, I dont know what overcame me, my sex drive." He said the text message suggested it was her idea to have sex with the student, to which the woman replied, "Thats how it could be seen." In another text message exchange in February 2015 one of the students wrote, "I promise I wont say anything, all the boys think youre nice as f---." The woman replied, "Oh great, thank you, I shouldnt put this on you, its a bit hectic." Mr Pincott questioned why the woman sent another message to a boy saying, "I cant wait to cuddle you tonight." "I was just trying to keep the situation at bay, under control," she replied. Mr Pincott also raised text exchanges in which the woman had refused sex without consequence. "Despite what you say about the threats from these boys you were strong enough to resist the threats which were expressed from [a particular student], werent you?" he said, to which the woman agreed. The woman said that, at one stage, a student had sex with her in her room without her consent. "After I moved away from him he had his arm around me and proceeded to kiss me," she said. She then said that she had brought the same boy back to her room on another occasion: "It was to discuss what hed been saying but yes he came to my room." "He, according to your evidence, raped you a second time," Mr Pincott said, which the woman said was correct. Mr Pincott said the woman hadnt gone to the school, teachers or her friends over the alleged assault. "No but I shouldve," she replied. Mr Pincott asked why the woman apologised to that student, among others. "I shouldve just said no and asked for him to leave," she said. The woman admitted to exchanging Facebook messages with another student, who suggested the pair partake in "somersaults", referring to sex. "My relationship with [the student] was a very different situation than the other boys," she said under cross-examination, adding that she and that particular student were very familiar with each other. "It doesnt make it right, it doesnt make it OK," she said. "You did have choices all along, didnt you?" Mr Pincott said. "Choices I didnt take," the woman replied. Judge Armitage lifted suppression orders prohibiting the name, location and type of the school but kept the order surrounding the identity of the staff member in place. Parents of the boys involved had written to the court, urging that the school be named, claiming educators needed to be held accountable for their failure to care for the teenagers properly. In a letter to the school community on Friday, headmaster Murray Guest said the school had "worked hard to support all parties involved" and conducted rigorous checks on prospective employees. "I sincerely regret that these measures were not enough to prevent criminal conduct in this instance, and that it was not brought to our attention sooner," he said. Judge Armitage said it would be a difficult exercise in sentencing the woman. "There are emotional factors pulling in both directions," he said. The City of Parramatta Council has voted to suspend its chief executive officer Mark Stapleton and conduct a full investigation into his hiring and background, two months after appointing him. Councillors voted 13 to two for the investigation at an extraordinary general meeting on Friday night, which had come on the back of coverage in the Herald of holes in Mr Stapletons resume and questions about the hiring process. Mark Stapleton. The meeting followed a week in which management of the council, which governs Sydneys second CBD, had descended into farce. Mr Stapleton had earlier declined requests from councillors and staff to approve an investigation into his own work history, paralysing action over one of the councils most contentious issues. Barely a drop of rain fell in Sydney through winter, but the first Friday of spring has delivered a sudden deluge that left roads flooded across the city and backyards blanketed in snow-like hail just as the evening peak hour hit. It was a horror trip home, as traffic chaos that began in the early afternoon combined with the severe thunderstorms to bring roads and public transport networks to a soggy standstill. Shortly after 4pm, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for heavy rainfall, flash flooding, hail and damaging winds across the city and surrounds. The flash flooding and hail certainly came to pass. A Sydney driver was due to have a faulty Takata airbag replaced two days before he was killed in a car accident, a court has heard. Huy Neng Ngo, 58, died minutes after a "relatively minor collision" in Cabramatta on July 13, 2017, when the airbag activated and flung a piece of metal at his neck, the NSW Coroner's Court was told on Friday. The court heard the inquest will examine why the airbag wasn't replaced as originally scheduled on July 11. The booking was pushed back to a date in October. Counsel assisting, Tamara Phillips, said the Ngo family had deep concerns that they weren't made fully aware of dangers of the Takata airbag and how faults might materialise before the fatal crash. Yet her ambitions extend beyond building apartments in Sydney as part of the citys real estate gold rush. Tians charitable endeavours range from creating specialist suicide prevention services for migrants and international students to providing cheap studio space for artists. She is also an avid collector, amassing artworks by Abdul Abdullah, Janet Laurence, Lindy Lee, Xiao Lu, Judy Millar and George Tjungurrayi that will be displayed in the lobby of the companys Bondi Junction development. She has commissioned Chinese artist Xia Hang to create a public artwork titled Memory Tree for Darling Harbour and Maria Fernanda Cardoso to create sculptures out of sandstone quarried from TWTs construction site in Pyrmont. The yellow block sandstone extracted from the site will also go towards restoring heritage buildings such as the State Library and Australian Museum. The sandstone extracted from the site will also go towards restoring heritage buildings in Sydney. Credit:Louise Kennerley Tian and her company may not yet be a household name like Harry Triguboffs Meriton, but she has quickly made her presence felt in the citys built fabric and cultural life. I want to prove I can do it to my parents [and] to the industry as well, she says. And I think the whole team wants to do the same. Designer dressed and wearing movie star-sized sunglasses, Tian cuts a stylish swathe through the lunchtime crowd at Wild Sage in Cammeray on Sydneys north shore. It is familiar territory for Tian whose life changed dramatically when she left China as a teenager to attend Wenona School in North Sydney where she completed the HSC. The mother-of-two has been a striking figure in a male-dominated industry since she first donned a hard hat as a cadet at property developer Multiplex while studying a degree in construction and economics. Her children, Tim, 6, and Tia, 4, can occasionally be found in her companys St Leonards headquarters, while their mother is in meetings. I do compromise with my work to spend time with them, she says, because in my childhood my parents were always very busy ... Maybe they dont care but I want to spend the quality time with them. Tian says her first months in Australia were a really tough time for me as she struggled with language and loneliness. She later became a boarder at the independent high school, making a few close friends, students from Hong Kong and Taiwan. I helped the girls in maths and they helped with English, she says. Boarding school at that time was really, really good. She went on to study at the University of Technology, Sydney - one of only a few women in her course. In the first year it was really challenging for me, she says. I couldnt understand it at all. I fled back to China and told my father I dont want to do it." However, Tians parents convinced her to return to Sydney to continue her studies, which she began to enjoy after combining it with work at property giants Multiplex and Buildcorp. As a young woman, Tian was a novelty on construction sites, but she says she never felt uncomfortable among male colleagues. However she recalls a former manager at Multiplex telling her: You know, Tina, as a lady to work in a construction company you have to be tough. She also notes a double-standard that allows men to swear or lose their temper, while women are deemed aggressive if they act in a similar manner. I have to work much harder to get the same respect and for the business you have to be more careful and do everything right, she says. Tian, an Australian citizen, says she has given up arguing with people who look upon her suspiciously as a Chinese developer. You just get used to it, she says. And you have your own advantage because you can speak with the Asian community, you can speak to the Western community. So why complain? The 2017 China Philanthropic Person of the Year, Tians most prominent projects are arguably in the fields of mental health and the arts rather than bricks and mortar. A founder and director of the Bridging Hope Charity Foundation, which gives about $500,000 each year, Tian bankrolled this years Biennale of Sydney, the citys major contemporary arts festival. Tian, who divides her time between Sydney, Beijing and Hong Kong, also provides studio space to artists, performers, musicians and filmmakers at the TWT Creative Precinct in St Leonards at a cost of $1 million a year. Artist Caroline Rothwell at the TWT Creative Precinct in St Leonards. Credit:Christopher Pearce The foundation is the principal supporter of the Big Anxiety Festival, a biennial event ran by the University of NSW that brings together artists and scientists to tackle questions about mental health. Tians foundation has also given money to Lifeline, the suicide prevention charity, to provide specialist services for Chinese communities living in Australia. The program, she says, is designed to help people experiencing mental health issues: They can speak to other people in a language they feel comfortable with. I think thats really good to provide that to Asian people. Tian says her experiences as a boarder at Wenona and later at university motivated her philanthropic support for mental health. She says life can be a struggle for international students and migrants, living in an alien culture and separated from their family and friends. I felt lonely and couldnt communicate with other people, she says, especially my parents who were busy and couldnt speak to me on the phone all the time. Tian says her friends tried to alleviate her struggles by inviting her to church. It was a nice environment, people were helpful, but I fell asleep, she says, sheepishly. Another challenge for Tian was the divorce of her parents while she was in high school. I felt shy to talk about it, she says, because we feel its not a good thing in China at that time. People hide it. So I pretended the family was still together. She recalls her surprise at how easily a fellow student at Wenona talked about her parents separation and new relationships. It was her parents problem, she says. She didnt feel any embarrassment or duty or anything at all. The New Yorker Festival, one of the most high-profile and well-respected ideas festivals in the world, this week announced that former Breitbart boss and Trump Svengali, Steve Bannon, was to headline its 2018 event. I saw this, took a sharp intake of breath, and settled back to watch the ensuing explosion. I didnt have to wait long. Within the hour, other speakers including the actor Jim Carrey and the producer Judd Apatow had announced that they would withdraw rather than share a program with Bannon. Social media was aflame with condemnation, outrage, and threats of subscription cancellation. Within the day, New Yorker editor David Remnick issued a statement announcing that he had listened to readers, talked to colleagues, and had a good think. As a result the invitation to Bannon had been withdrawn. The inclusion of Steve Bannon on the New Yorker Festival's program sparked a furious backlash. Credit:AP This decision, and the ideological firestorm that forced it, is emblematic of one of the core cultural conundrums of our time. Who gets to speak in the public sphere? Who has the right to make these decisions? How do we deal with disagreement? How are minorities and vulnerable communities best protected from hate or persecution? How to bridge the widening cultural and political chasm occurring across the Western world? Should ideas festivals include Germaine Greer or should they not? The daughter of an elderly man who died after he was hit by a large rubbish bin outside a Hungry Jack's restaurant says the $275,000 fine the fast food chain has been given is a "drop in the ocean". Rex and Moira Haysom were about to order lunch at Hungry Jack's Mill Park store on March 8, 2013 when they walked in front of a truck that was lowering an empty industrial bin into a loading bay. Rex and Moira Haysom, As the bin obstructed the truck driver's view out the windscreen, he was powerless to stop the Haysoms being hit by the bin and pinned to the ground. Mr Haysom, 86, suffered chest and abdominal injuries and died that night in hospital, while his wife of 45 years suffered a head injury. She needed high care afterwards and died three years later, also aged 86. A Hells Angels bikie who shot two brothers during a 30th birthday party at a pub in Melbourne's south east has been jailed for at least six years. On November 19 last year, Vince Tominiko, 26, shot Tremaine Pasi, then 21, in the abdomen as he lay on the ground in a car park. The victim had just been beaten up and had his head stomped on by others following an altercation at a bar. Tominiko also shot Mr Pasi's brother Foisa, then 27, in the buttocks during the same incident. The documents tabled this week show how, after he was sued in January 2012, Mr Guy and those around him went into lockdown and embarked on elaborate, expensive strategy to hide the truth from Victorian taxpayers and voters. Freedom-of-Information (FOI) Through 2012 and 2013 The Age and the then Labor opposition lodged FOI requests for Ventnor-related documents. The documents tabled this week reveal hand-wringing by the ministers office, lawyers and bureaucrats, about how to respond to FOI requests. Top FOI lawyer Jason Pizer QC was brought in to advise the government. The Ventnor land that Matthew Guy sought to rezone during his time as planning minister. Credit:Eddie Jim In 2012 the government refused an FOI request from the Labor opposition which had sought details of early versions of departmental advice to Mr Guy about the proposal to rezone the land. The government refused to release the documents, claiming it would not be in the public interest. A released document on the Ventnor case shows an apparent plan for handling FOI requests from The Age's Royce Millar by using legal privilege to deny him access. Credit:Fairfax Media Eventually the department was forced to release the documents after Labor appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). Among them was advice that opposed the rezoning, and an email from Mr Guy's ministerial office asking for new advice that supported it. In early 2014, an FOI request from The Age was also denied when Mr Guy intervened to stop his own department releasing the material requested. Documents tabled in parliament this week reveal details of the elaborate plan for handling The Age's request, including instructions about what the FOI officer must include in his refusal letter. Months later, a handful of documents was released after The Age also appealed to VCAT. Threat of exposure in court The filing of a lawsuit by Carley Nicholls in January 2012 threatened to undermine attempts by Mr Guy and his department to control information about the Ventnor rezoning. Media queries could be batted away; parliamentary questions sidestepped; FOI requests delayed or obstructed. But it would be much more difficult to avoid the disclosure of documents through the legal process of discovery. Any departmental and ministerial files, documents and emails obtained by Nicholls solicitors could have been aired in open court, used as the basis of questions put to key witnesses under oath. Mr Guy and other senior Liberal figures embroiled in the dispute - including former premier Ted Baillieu and federal frontbencher Greg Hunt - would have been among those witnesses. Real concern of discovery, the Victorian Government Solicitors Office noted on one document as early as February 2012, just after Nicholls' writ was filed. Carley Nicholls and her husband James Hopkins in 2013. Nicholls owned the Ventnor property on Phillip Island controversially rezoned by planning minister Matthew Guy in September 2011. Credit:Simon Schluter The potential peril was addressed in critical meeting involving Mr Guy and his top lawyers and advisors in March 2013 as the deadline for producing documents loomed. Needs to settle. Cant go to court, Mr Guy is recorded as saying. Would not want Minister to take the stand. The more we admit, the less there is to contest. Lawyer's note Bound up in these concerns was the prospect of the minister having to go in the box - testifying and facing cross-examination about his decision-making on Ventnor. Would not want Minister to take the stand. The more we admit, the less there is to contest, says a lawyers note from the same meeting. Departmental lawyers also grew concerned about Mr Guys state of mind as the case headed towards trial, discussing his demeanour in at least two private meetings. [Solicitor] Ben Morris noted that this was the most stressed he has [seen] a Minister about the proceeding. [Barrister] Marita agreed. Dodging discovery Mr Guy never did go in the box. A $2.5 million payout from taxpayer money, plus about $1 million in legal fees, made sure of that. But the discovery process itself proved thorny when it was realised that many documents sought by Ms Nicholls solicitors no longer existed. Among the missing materials were emails to and from Mr Guy, notes from telephone discussions and correspondence from advisors about the Ventnor matter. It fell to Mr Guys then parliamentary liaison officer, Michelle Pavlou, to explain their absence in a sworn affidavit tendered to the Supreme Court. In my experience, the Minister deals decisively with emails to minimise the number of emails in his inbox Once the Minister has forwarded an email for action or replied to the email itself, it is his practice to delete the email from his email system, Ms Pavlou wrote. Daniel Andrews' botched release of the documents has overshadowed important revelations. Credit:AAP Loading It is often the case that no file notes or written records are kept of telephone conversations. In reaching a negotiated settlement, all of the discovered documents were safely locked away. At least until Monday this week, when some were tabled as part of Labors document dump. Publicly, Mr Guy would defend the settlement of the Ventnor lawsuit as the best outcome to avoid spending millions of dollars more of taxpayer money fighting a lengthy trial where the outcome was uncertain. But during internal discussions about a potential settlement, the primary concern was protecting Mr Guys political future by avoiding a public grilling in court over his decision-making. This may be winnable @ law but this is a political fight and it is unwinnable, Mr Guy is quoted as saying in confidential notes in July 2013. This cant go to court. I shall not be in the job if it goes to [court]. In at least one instance, senior department figures would refer to a potential settlement as a stuff-up payment. The settlement to Ms Nicholls and the then owner of the land, John Cadogan, ultimately cost Victorian taxpayers more than $3.5 million. Behind the scenes, senior lawyers had advised the government that it should have paid a maximum of $250,000 plus legal costs. As part of the deal, all parties were bound to cast iron confidentiality. Mr Guy had used the legal system and bought silence. Obstructing oversight Almost as a soon as Mr Guy considered settling rather than fighting the matter, concerns arose about how a payout would be perceived by oversight agencies. Cant settle b/c no case ... What would the Auditor-General say? a government solicitor noted in February 2012, just one month after the lawsuit was filed. Ultimately, avoiding scrutiny from the Ombudsman became the pressing issue for the planning department when an investigation was launched in October 2013 in the aftermath of the $2.5 million settlement. Have to refuse to hand them over voluntarily. Privilege is good line. If summonsed we will have to comply. A note from a departmental meeting The Ombudsmans demands for documentation were met, and countered, by the planning office using an audacious strategy that involved stalling investigators and withholding information until compelled to do so. At a January 2014 meeting of senior department lawyers, a decision was made to maintain file integrity by separating and refoldering materials to be kept from the Ombudsman. Attempts to access these documents would be blocked with a claim of legal privilege, even though the department had advice that privilege did not apply in an Ombudsman's investigation. Have to refuse to hand them over voluntarily. Privilege is good line, a note from the meeting said. If summonsed [then] we will have to comply. But even then there were some documents that would never be turned over to the Ombudsman. As additional protection against full disclosure, Mr Guy sought external legal counsel to mount an argument independent of the planning department that he possessed a separate legal privilege by virtue of his position as a government minister. The Ministers legal representatives provided legal advice arguing that the Minister was not the Crown and that he was thus entitled to claim privilege over the documents as an individual, the Ombudsman noted in his March 2014 report. While I accept that it was reasonable for the Minister to rely on this advice in the circumstances, I do not agree with the interpretation of the legislation the advice presented. The validity of the claim would never be tested, as the Ombudsman chose to keep his requests voluntary rather than force the issue in court. Mr Guy never turned over six documents that were being sought. The planning department withheld an unknown number of others. It is not clear what those documents were, or if they are buried somewhere inside the 80,000-page archive tabled in parliament on Monday. Labor has weakened its political case for a proper investigation of Ventnor through its too-smart-by-half handling of these important documents this week. "I think that when Burt and I kind of got into it, it may have been the day before or the day after, but it was a really tense three days on the set of 'Boogie Nights,' " Anderson said. "The other 57 days were really fun and a lot of laughs, but there were three tense days there in the middle where Mark was fighting with Burt, or in the film . . . It was the middle of summer, it was really hot, and we were all stuck together in that house for a long time, and things were just - they were heated." Department of Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo valiantly tried to explain the legal and procedural intricacies of ministerial visa intervention powers when he appeared at a Senate committee hearing this week. His precise but overly detailed explanation appeared to be unwelcome evidence, not just because it was getting in the way of finding out the go with the au pairs, but because the powers are exactly that legally and procedurally intricate. Our temporary migration population is 10 times the size of those granted permanent visas. Credit:Robert Rough That intricacy means and matters very little to that elusive constituent which politicians call the "punter in the street". Australians have been nauseated by recent political animus even just within the Liberal Party - about the size and composition of our permanent migration program, but the reality is that our temporary migration population is 10 times the size of its sister program, with more than two million temporary visitors in the country at any given time. The categories of temporary visas are numerous but the lions share of that two million arises from holders of New Zealand special visas, visitor visas, student visas, temporary skilled work visas and working holiday visas, which together make up more than 75 per cent of the pool. A letter to a childcare centre run by Dutton's wife spoke of an "agreement" with the Commonwealth to deliver public funding to hire a special needs teacher at the centre. Dutton is a beneficiary of the family trust that runs the centre, but section 44 forbids an MP from having "any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth". Leading constitutional expert Anne Twomey wrote a paper suggesting this was the crux of Dutton's eligibility question. She insisted the issue would not be resolved until it went to the High Court. Labor's Mark Dreyfus called a press conference and declared Dutton "quite probably ineligible". Loading Dutton, meanwhile, spent the week foreshadowing retaliation but keeping his powder dry. He said a "disaffected former senior Australian Border Force officer" was leaking against him, without naming anyone. He said had "kept a very good list" of Labor MPs who asked him to intervene in visa cases, and wondered aloud about their motivations and union links. Meanwhile, News Corp began running stories about Labor frontbenchers who had lobbied the immigration department on behalf of constituents who were criminals and "hate preachers". Then on Thursday afternoon, following reports of Quaedvlieg's evidence, Dutton went nuclear. In a press release, he accused the former ABF head of fabricating evidence and lying to the inquiry. He said Quaedvlieg was "bitter" and damaged by the bruising and public loss of his job. He even asked Quaedvlieg's successor, Michael Outram, to offer Quaedvlieg "support to address his personal or mental health issues". Dutton also drew attention to several inconsistencies in Quaedvlieg's recount. He pointed out that Maclachlan didn't work for him in June 2015, as Quaedvlieg claimed - he didn't start until October. "It is a fabrication and it is impossible for this conversation to have occurred," Dutton said. Nor had he asked any staff member to contact Quaedvlieg about the au pair. In response, Quaedvlieg conceded he may have mucked up his dates. But he did not resile from his central claim that a conversation took place regarding a visa, and alleged there may even be a third "case" that was not yet public. He urged Dutton to "desist from personal attacks and casting aspersions over my actions, motivation, integrity, reputation and mental health". Liberal colleagues are watching the spectacle with uncertainty. One Dutton ally said it was "bloody hilarious". Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, another Dutton backer, told Sky News Quaedvlieg was "obviously not a credible witness" and his claims had to be treated accordingly. Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester, a National who was a vocal supporter of Malcolm Turnbull, noted drily: "Its two quite strong personalities expressing their very strong views." But Dutton's suggestion that Quaedvlieg may be mentally unwell drew criticism from doctors. 'Inappropriate': Dr Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Association, weighed in following Peter Dutton's comments about Roman Quaedvlieg. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen President of the Australian Medical Association Tony Bartone told Fairfax Media it was inappropriate to publicly speculate about a person's mental condition. "We dont know what's going on here," he said. "Talking about someones mental health in a public arena is obviously not conducive to the wellbeing of the person concerned." While Quaedvlieg's missteps have done him no favours, Labor strategists see Dutton's extraordinary statement on Thursday as a telling example of how the minister reacts under heat. They will sort out tactics on Monday morning but expect to grill Dutton in question time, as well as testing him with a motion of "no confidence" and potentially another bid to refer him to the High Court. Loading Hard heads know these stunts have no chance of success - barring misadventure or malice by MPs on Dutton's own side - but they intend to exert "maximum pressure" in the hope he slips up. Dutton did not respond to requests for an interview, but his intended path is clear: he will deny any wrongdoing and turn the tables on Labor MPs and immigration ministers. He will paint Quaedvlieg as a vengeful and possibly unwell character who can't be trusted and has links to the Labor Party. He will use the opportunity to remind voters of Labor's record on boats and border protection. The political sensitivities of that issue have made it difficult for Labor to land a blow on Dutton. His shadow minister Shayne Neumann is typically a silent presence in question time, as Dutton relishes in pointing out. Last year, he described Neumann as being under sedation. "He's wheeled in on a fridge trolley as I understand," Dutton joked. "Three or four times in question time they take a pulse ... to see whether he is still alive." But Labor is energised about the au pairs. The accusation is not that Dutton broke any rules (other than potentially misleading parliament about his knowledge of the au pairs' employers), but that he gave his mates special service - the kind average punters can't get from government. That perception was aided at this week's inquiry when AFL chief executive Gil McLachlan revealed he had also asked the Coalition for help on another visa case - for a polo player who was "a friend of a friend". (This was in addition to Dutton stepping in to prevent the deportation of an au pair employed by Gil McLachlan's relative, Callum MacLachlan, in 2015.) McLachlan's evidence - and that of his government relations manager Jude Donnelly, a former Tony Abbott staffer - exposed a cosy line of communication to senior government offices. "Weve separated the two things. There was an effort to work those two issues together. That hasnt been successful," he said, in a reference to the governments internal row on climate policy and its decision to abandon cuts to emissions as part of the National Energy Guarantee. "And so I have a minister for the environment who will pursue climate policy and I have a minister for energy who gets electricity prices down. I think that simplifies the world a bit." A crackdown on unions The Prime Minister put the nations peak construction union "on notice" to abide by the law in a warning that stopped short of using imminent legislation to break it up. Mr Morrison said he was not seeking to "demonise" all unions and was yet to see if legislation was needed to disband or deregister the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union (CFMMEU) because of repeated court decisions against it. "Youll notice that when I talk about unions Ive been careful to note there are unions that do good jobs, that do great jobs. Im not seeking to demonise unions as a whole class," he said. "So its not about being anti-union, its about being anti-thugs and against a culture of behaviour that is undermining our economy and threatening the rule of law in this country." Mr Morrison has singled out the CFMMEUs Victorian construction secretary, John Setka, as one of a "bunch of thugs" who wielded too much influence over Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Asked what behaviour would "cross the line" to trigger federal law to de-register the CFMMEU, the Prime Minister said that was yet to be seen. "Im putting them on notice," he said. "Thats whats on my mind. If Bill Shorten wants to put up with John Setka and militant unionism, then thats his business. But I tell you what Im not going to." Mr Morrison did not nominate any need to change the Fair Work Act and the industrial relations laws that determined wages and conditions. Labor's fairness test Mr Morrison countered talk of growing inequality in Australia by insisting voters do not want an "us and them" approach to policy on welfare and tax. He said his government would "leave no-one behind" but would take a completely different approach to fairness compared to Mr Shorten, who has warned of a growing gulf between rich and poor. "Its always our objective that we leave no one behind and we take all Australians forward with us," Mr Morrison said. "Its a fair country if, when you have obstacles that are no fault of your own, we as a country enable you to overcome those and have the same choices, as much as possible, as anyone else. "Thats my practical view. I think Labor has the wrong understanding of fairness. They see fairness as an 'us and them' issue. I see fairness from the point of view of inclusivity. I see fairness as the opportunity that everyone gets, the support that everyone gets to make the most of what they have available to them." The Productivity Commission found last month that living standards had improved for Australians in all income groups, that the tax and welfare system was reducing inequality and some groups continued to experience entrenched disadvantage. Loading The commission found that income and consumption inequality had risen "slightly" on some measures but that other sources showed no trend of rising inequality. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to change laws to protect religious freedom while assuring voters he will not be a "culture warrior" on divisive social issues, as he sets out his agenda as the new leader of a battered government. Mr Morrison said new religious freedom laws were needed to safeguard personal liberty in a changing society, while also using an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media to outline his plans on energy, climate change, industrial relations and economic fairness. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is beginning to outline his agenda as Liberal leader. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But he declared it was not his job to buy into cultural disputes that did not matter to most Australians, saying he would leave it to others to fight over so-called culture war issues like the teaching of Western civilisation in universities. "Just because things havent been a problem in the past doesnt mean they wont be a problem in the future," Mr Morrison said of the case for legislation to protect religious freedom the subject of a government review following the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year. Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Leawarra Railway Station. and State Opposition leader Matthew Guy. Credit:Simon Schluter Scott Morrison chose the back streets of outer suburban Frankston as the place for his first appearance in front of the Melbourne media as prime minister on Friday, his backdrop a primitive railway platform on the Stony Point line. The rows of single storey homes, each with their own driveway, surrounding Leawarra station were an apt setting for a new leader who is viewed as more suburban than his urbanist predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, who was suspiciously fond of Melbournes trams. But as any urbanist will tell you, the price to be paid for living in a low-rise suburb in a big city is heavy traffic at the end of your street. Scott Morrison has a message for Australians about faith, belief and trust. He is open about his Christian faith, declares his belief in Liberal values and assures voters they can trust his government. Loading Morrison used his first major speech as Prime Minister to abandon the lectern, speak from the floor and adopt an almost evangelical style. His love all Australians message drew derision in some quarters but the criticism missed the point. Morrison was branding himself as an optimist, a believer. This sense of belief is essential to Morrisons fate. The Liberal Party has just gone through a collective nervous collapse a crisis of belief during a leadership spill that was all about personal grudges rather than high purpose. How can the Liberals ask voters to trust them when they cannot trust themselves? Morrison has to prove he has something in which to believe. Jilin: Li Chengfan places his beehives in Siberian tiger and bear territory, deep in the Linden tree forests of northern China. The 69-year-old sleeps in a tent in the honey season to protect his hives from theft. A few years back, bears took off with five of them. At 4000 bees per rack, that's a loss of around 250,000 bees. This year the problem has been the abnormal weather. There was too much rain, and it was too cold for Linden trees to blossom in July, causing a dramatic fall in the amount of premium honey Lis bees make. Beekeepers across China are facing a 30,000 Chinese yuan ($6100) average loss in income. Li Xuanyu,3, licks fresh honey off his fingers at the family's honey farm in northern China. Xuanyu is the grandson of Li Chengfan. Credit:Sanghee Liu But Li, a beekeeper for 50 years, and his son Shizhen, 41, will take the hit. Others in the area have suggested that they can reduce the damage by taking their honey to a processing centre and blending it with water. New York: Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy poisoned in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, appears to have been working in recent years with intelligence officers in Spain, a country locked in a pitched battle with Russian organised crime groups, some with ties to the Russian government. The account of Skripal's activities in Spain, provided by a senior Spanish official and an author who tracks the Spanish security apparatus, adds new details to a case that has inflamed relations between Russia and the West. Poisoned: Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia Skripal, 33. Credit:AP Rather than merely living an isolated life in retirement, Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, continued to provide briefings to spies in the Czech Republic and Estonia, according to European officials. Now, it appears he was also active in Spain. The revelation adds another striking parallel between Skripal and another former Russian intelligence operative, Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London in 2006 after being poisoned by a radioactive isotope, polonium 210. Spanish authorities have acknowledged enlisting Litvinenko in a campaign against Russian organised crime figures in Spain. London: The leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Canada have endorsed Britain's assessment that a nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in March was conducted by Russian military officers and "almost certainly" approved at a senior level of the Russian government. The leaders urged Russia to provide a "full disclosure" of its Novichok nerve-agent program and said they would "continue to disrupt together the hostile activities of foreign intelligence networks on our territories." United Kingdom's United Nations Ambassador Karen Pierce Credit:AP The joint statement was released shortly before London's and Moscow's envoys to the United Nations squared off in an emergency Security Council meeting called by Britain to brief diplomats on the investigation. British Ambassador Karen Pierce methodically outlined evidence that she said pointed to the Kremlin's complicity in the attack, which occurred March 4 in the quiet English city of Salisbury. He had been open about his struggles previously, referencing drug abuse and death in his music, particularly in the largely autobiographical 2014 mixtape "Faces." "I used to rap super openly about really dark s," he told Vulture in a profile that published on Thursday. "That's what I was experiencing at the time. That's fine, that's good, that's life. It should be all the emotions." Washington: A US judge on Friday sentenced President Donald Trump's former campaign aide George Papadopoulos to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI during its investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to FBI agents about the timing and significance of his contacts with Russians, including a professor who told him the Russians had "dirt" on Trump's Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation in the first place, told the judge he was "deeply embarrassed and ashamed" of lying to the FBI, and he acknowledged that his actions could have hindered their work. "I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption," Papadopoulos said at the hearing. Rio de Janeiro: The wounding of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate has the potential to reshape the election contest after dramatically exposing the deep polarisation in Latin America's largest nation. Far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has promised to crack down on crime, has long argued that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to be steadied. Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro grimaces after being stabbed. Credit:AP After a knife-wielding man stabbed the candidate in the abdomen during a campaign event on Thursday, Brazilians surged on to social media to argue over whether the attack supports Bolsonaro's assertions that the country is off the rails or whether his heated rhetoric contributed to inciting the attack. Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery on the candidate, said Bolsonaro's recovery so far was "satisfactory". He said the candidate would remain hospitalised for at least a week after a two-hour operation to stop serious internal bleeding. Osisko Acquires Additional Gold Royalty on Barkerville\-\-s Cariboo Gold Project in Canada Posted by Publisher Internet Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd (?Osisko?) (OR: TSX & NYSE http://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298391) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a second amended and restated royalty purchase agreement (the ?Agreement?) with Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (?Barkerville?) pursuant to which it will acquire an additional 1.75% net smelter return (?NSR?) royalty (the ?Royalty?) for the aggregate purchase price of C$20 million (the ?Royalty Purchase?) on the Cariboo property (the ?Property?) located in British Columbia, Canada (the ?Royalty Transaction?). Under the terms of the Agreement, Barkerville also has the option to grant Osisko an additional 1% NSR royalty on the Property (the ?Royalty Option?) for additional cash consideration of C$13 million, at any point between the closing date of the Royalty Transaction and December 31, 2018 (the \Royalty Option Period\). In the event that (i) Barkerville announces a change of control during the Royalty Option Period, or (ii) Osisko participates in an equity financing of Barkerville during the Royalty Option Period, if the Royalty Option remains unexercised, Osisko will have the right to purchase the Royalty Option. The Royalty Transaction will have the effect of increasing Osisko?s existing royalty on the Property to a total of 4% NSR royalty, and a total of 5% NSR royalty if the Royalty Option is exercised. The acquisition of the Royalty provides Osisko with: A meaningful NSR royalty on a significant and growing Canadian high-grade gold deposit; Increased exposure to continued exploration success and resource growth from an extensive land package representing one of the most advanced exploration projects in Canada; and Near-term cash flow from ongoing small-scale production from the Property while Barkerville continues to develop a larger scale long-term mining plan on the Property. As part of the Royalty Transaction, Barkerville will grant to Osisko 10,000,000 common share purchase warrants (the \Warrants\). The Warrants will be exchangeable for common shares of Barkerville (the \Common Shares\) at an exercise price of $0.75 per Common Share for a period of 36 months following the closing of the Royalty Transaction. The Cariboo Gold Project The Cariboo Gold Project currently hosts 1.6 million ounces in measured & indicated gold resources from 8.1 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 6.1 grams of gold per tonne and 2.16 million ounces in inferred resources from 12.7 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 5.2 grams of gold per tonne, as outlined in a National Instrument 43-101 report filed on SEDAR by Barkerville. The Property?s mineral tenures cover 1,950 square kilometres along a strike length of 67 kilometres, which includes several past producing placer and hard rock mines, making it one of the most well-endowed land packages in British Columbia. The Bonanza deposit is currently being processed at Barkerville?s QR mill. QR is a fully owned, permitted mill and tailings facility, located approximately 110 kilometres away from Wells, and can be accessed by an all-season road. Barkerville?s Greenfield team is developing quality exploration assets throughout the remaining Property through systematic, scientific, exploration. Immediately prior to the closing of the Royalty Transaction, Osisko had beneficial ownership of, or control and direction over, (i)?142,309,310 Common Shares, representing approximately 32.4% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares, and (ii)?5,666,527 Warrants. Immediately following the closing of the Royalty Transaction Osisko will have beneficial ownership of, or control and direction over, (i)?142,309,310 Common Shares, representing approximately 32.4% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares, and (ii)?15,666,527 Warrants. Following the closing of the Royalty Transaction and after giving effect to the exercise of all the Warrants then held by Osisko, Osisko would have beneficial ownership of, or control and direction over, 157,975,837 Common Shares, representing approximately 34.7% of the Common Shares that would then be issued and outstanding. Osisko acquired the Warrants for investment purposes and in accordance with applicable securities laws, Osisko may, from time to time and at any time, acquire additional Common Shares and/or other equity, debt or other securities or instruments (collectively, \Securities\) of Barkerville in the open market or otherwise, and reserves the right to dispose of any or all of its Securities in the open market or otherwise at any time and from time to time, and to engage in similar transactions with respect to the Securities, the whole depending on market conditions, the business and prospects of Barkerville and other relevant factors. Certain sections of this news release are issued under the early warning provisions of the Canadian securities legislation. A copy of the early warning report to be filed by Osisko in connection with the transaction described above will be available on SEDAR under Barkerville\-\-s profile. To obtain a copy of the early warning report, you may also contact Joseph de la Plante, Vice President, Corporate Development of Osisko at (514)?940?0670. Barkerville\-\-s head office is located at 1055 West Hastings Street, Suite 2200, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6E 2E9. Mr. Guy Desharnais, Ph.D., P. Geo, is the qualified person for this release as defined by National Instrument 43-101 ? Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has reviewed and verified the technical information contained herein. Mr. Guy Desharnais is an employee of Osisko and is non-independent. About Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd is an intermediate precious metal royalty company focused on the Americas that commenced activities in June 2014. Following the acquisition of the Orion portfolio, it now holds a North American focused portfolio of over 130 royalties, streams and precious metal offtakes. Osisko?s portfolio is anchored by five cornerstone assets, including a 5% NSR royalty on the Canadian Malartic Mine, which is the largest gold mine in Canada. Osisko also owns a portfolio of investments in publicly held resource companies, including a 15.5% interest in Osisko Mining Inc. and a 12.7% interest in Falco Resources Ltd. Osisko?s head office is located at 1100 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montreal, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 2S2. Forward-looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed ?forward-looking information? and \forward-looking statements\ within the meaning of applicable Canadian Securities Laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, the ?forward-looking statements?). All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future events, developments or performance that Osisko expects to occur including management?s expectations regarding the closing of the Royalty Transaction, the benefits of the Royalty to Osisko and the cash flows to be generated from the Royalty, mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words ?expects?, ?plans?, ?anticipates?, ?believes?, ?intends?, ?estimates?, ?projects?, ?potential?, ?scheduled? and similar expressions or variations (Including negative variations), or that events or conditions ?will?, ?would?, ?may?, ?could? or ?should? occur including, without limitation, the performance of the assets of Osisko, the realization of the anticipated benefits deriving from its investments and the transaction with Barkerville. Although Osisko believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors and are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may accordingly differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, without limitation: fluctuations in the prices of the commodities that drive royalties held by Osisko (gold and silver); fluctuations in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar; regulatory changes in national and local government, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies; regulations and political or economic developments in any of the countries where properties in which Osisko holds a royalty or other interest are located or through which they are held; risks related to the operators of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty, influence of macroeconomic developments; business opportunities that become available to, or are pursued by Osisko; continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty or other interest; development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties, delays or adverse climatic conditions on any of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty or other interest; rate and timing of production differences from resource estimates or production forecasts by operators of properties in which Osisko holds a royalty or other interest; risks and hazards associated with the business of exploring, development and mining on any of the properties in which Osisko holds a royalty or other interest, including, but not limited to unusual or unexpected geological and metallurgical conditions, slope failures or cave-ins, flooding and other natural disasters or civil unrest or other uninsured risks. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements made in this press release, see the section entitled ?Risk Factors? in the most recent Annual Information Form of Osisko which is filed with the Canadian securities commissions and available electronically under Osisko\-\-s issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects Osisko?s expectations as at the date of this press release and is subject to change after such date. Osisko disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Sonitrol, the provider of verified electronic security, announces the successful implementation of a Sonitrol TotalGuard system for 4EverReady Home Care, located in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. TotalGuard, innovated by 3xLOGIC, has alarm verification capabilities that detected an incident outside the premises, which led to a successful resolution of a potential false alarm situation. 4EverReady Home Care is a privately-owned home care agency based in Dayton, Ohio. The organisation is committed to providing clients with the highest quality care possible, while allowing them to maintain both freedom and independence in the comfort of their homes. Incident triggered alarm 4EverReady has two locations, in Cincinnati and Dayton. Late on a recent evening, surveillance video from inside the Cincinnati location showed a person standing outside the office when suddenly a car drove by the intersection. The person in the video made a hasty retreat from the building and crossed the street. What had happened? We recognised the man in the video, hes often in the neighbourhood and because our offices are all glass looking out to the street, we can observe him and others walking up and down the nearby sidewalks, recounted Lisa Roberts-Rosser, Executive Consultant for 4EverReady. Because this incident triggered an alarm from our system, Sonitrol of SW Ohio brought the video to my attention, I was the first person called. I knew the man in the video, and Id never seen him move that fast.Sonitrol operator was able to quickly determine that the offices were not in danger of a break-in, therefore, this was not an active alarm Area under protection The Sonitrol operator was able to play the video with the related audio to figure out that the passing car had actually fired (turned out later) a paintball gun at the man in front of 4EverReadys offices, causing him to flee. More importantly, the Sonitrol operator was able to quickly determine that the offices were not in danger of a break-in. This incident occurred outside the area under protection; therefore, this was not an active alarm so no further action was necessary. We installed the Sonitrol TotalGuard system back in April and our systems two cameras give us all the visibility we need. Our office is essentially one big room and the cameras give views in the office and through the windows into the immediate neighbourhood, Roberts-Rosser explained. Motion detection technologies In addition to video surveillance with video and audio alarm verification, the TotalGuard system includes glass break detection and motion detection technologies. 4EverReady has also installed a Sonitrol Cloud Access, which provides key fob entry through the office main entrance. Roberts-Rosser and any other staff with privileges can remotely arm and disarm the TotalGuard system with a smartphone through the available Sonitrol mobile app. TotalGuard provides us complete alarm verification capability, and the mobile app definitely works well for us, she explained. If there is a time that someone has forgotten to arm the system upon exiting at the end of the day, I can arm the system from home or wherever I am. Legitimate alarm situation 4EverReady has a consultant that uses the office space for meetings after hours, to prevent any interruption of the normal daily work flow. Roberts-Rosser can program the TotalGuard system from anywhere, at anytime, to grant the consultant access when it is needed. The sensitivity of our system is impressive, when it was first installed it was alarming because of loud music outside, cars backfiring, and other loud noises In addition to TotalGuard picking up an incident outside the area of protection, Roberts-Rosser said there has been a process to calibrate the system to be as effective as possible. The sensitivity of our system is impressive, when it was first installed it was alarming because of loud music outside, cars backfiring, and other loud noises. Once a neighbourhood child pulled on the door while horseplaying around and that definitely caused an alarm. Working with Sonitrol, were able to verify all of these incidents to make sure we are only contacting the police when its a legitimate alarm situation. Highly-effective system As is becoming abundantly clear in recent years, police forces are not unlimited resources. Sonitrol TotalGuard has proven to be a highly-effective system in cutting costly, even dangerous, false alarms. TotalGuard is a technology package no other company is offering security customers, it is a genuine game changer, and this incident proves the technology goes above and beyond in protecting customers property, even if the action is well outside the area under surveillance, said Alison Shiver, Marketing Manager, Sonitrol of SW Ohio. I would love for them to tour, says Thomas. Theres no reason they couldnt take one of these concerts to Milwaukee or Lincoln Center (in New York) or the Harris or the South Bank Centre (London). If I were a presenter, Id say: Lets have the Grossman Ensemble do five of their premieres. Georgetown, SC (29440) Today Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 60F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness. Low 42F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Space elevators have long been a staple of science fiction. Now, scientists in Japan will test space-elevator tech from the International Space Station. The push for a space elevator took a step forward this week when a team of researchers from Shizuoka University in Japan announced that they will launch an experiment to the International Space Station next week. In the experiment, which will be the first of its kind in space, two ultrasmall cubic satellites, or "cubesats," will be released into space from the station. They will be connected by a steel cable, where a small container acting like an elevator car will move along the cable using its own motor. A camera attached to the satellites will record the movements of the container in space, according to the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi. Each cubesat measures just under 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side. The cubesats will be connected by a 33-foot-long (10 meters) steel cable for the "elevator car" to move along, according to the report. [Japan's Kounotori Space Cargo Ship in Pictures] The materials for the experiment, which was developed by researchers at the Shizuoka University Faculty of Engineering, will launch to the space station Monday (Sept. 10) on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's next Kounotori cargo ship, H-IIB Vehicle No. 7. It is scheduled to launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan's Kagoshima prefecture at 6:32 p.m. EDT (2232 GMT) on Monday, though it will be early Tuesday morning (Sept. 11) local time at the launch site. Engineers have been dreaming of a space elevator for decades. In 2012, Tokyo-based Obayashi Corp. announced plans to build a space elevator by 2050. The concept has also caught the attention of Google X, Google's division for big ideas, in the past, as well as an X Prize competition. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a division of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., also announced last year that it plans to have an operational space-elevator system by 2045. While experiments to extend a cable in space have been conducted before, the new Japanese experiment will be the first test to move a car-like container on a cable in space. If the experiment is successful, it could significantly boost interest in the space-elevator transportation system, a concept that many people still doubt is plausible. Although the space-elevator concept was once thought to be the stuff of science fiction, some aerospace engineers believe the idea is essential to the future of space exploration as an alternative to building ever-larger rockets;in terms of payload, rocket power has more or less reached its limitations. The cost of moving people and materials into Earth orbit would be dramatically reduced, thus enabling the construction of larger space stations and a lunar base, and even helping to serve as a starting point for a crewed Mars mission, space-elevator advocates have said. "In theory, a space elevator is highly plausible," Yoji Ishikawa, leader of the new experiment's research team, told The Mainichi. "Space travel may become something popular in the future." Obayashi Corp. estimates the total cost of a fully functional, first-generation space elevator to be 10 trillion yen (about $90 billion) almost the same as that for the maglev train project connecting Tokyo and Osaka. The Shizuoka University team's space-elevator experiment comes on the heels of the International Space Elevator Consortium's (ISEC) 2018 Space Elevator Conference in Seattle last month, where dedicated scientists, engineers and invited speakers gathered to discuss the latest developments, share new ideas and scrutinize new concepts for the novel space technology.. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold captured this image of Hurricane Florence from the International Space Station on Sept. 6, 2018. Hurricane Florence looks like a giant cotton ball in new photos snapped from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold. "#HurricaneFlorence strengthens in the early morning hours over the Atlantic," Arnold wrote on Twitter yesterday (Sept. 6) in a description of the two images. Florence is currently a Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of around 105 mph (169 km/h), according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), which is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Another photo of Florence taken by Ricky Arnold from the ISS on Sept. 6, 2018. (Image credit: Ricky Arnold via Twitter/NASA) (The Saffir-Simpson scale researchers use to classify hurricanes has five categories, with 1 being the weakest and 5 the strongest. Category 5 hurricanes have maximum sustained wind speeds of at least 157 mph, or 253 km/h.) As of Thursday morning, Florence was about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) east-southeast of Bermuda and was moving northwest at roughly 10 mph (16 km/h), the update added. Arnold isn't the only one monitoring Florence from above. For example, measurements by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, a satellite operated jointly by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, revealed that storms north of Florence's eye were dumping rain Wednesday (Sept. 5) at a rate of 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour. On Sept. 5, 2018, the JAXA-NASA GPM Core Observatory satellite revealed that storms north of Hurricane Florence's eye were producing heavy rainfall at a rate of 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour (red). The satellite's Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar instrument scanned the nearly rain-free areas to the west of the hurricane. (Image credit: Hal Pierce/JAXA/NASA) And that same day, the NASA-NOAA Suomi-NPP satellite captured infrared images of Florence showing where the strongest storms were swirling within the hurricane. (Storms with colder cloud tops are more powerful and tend to produce greater rainfall, NASA officials explained in an update.) Florence officially strengthened from a tropical storm into a hurricane on Tuesday (Sept. 4). To get the latest updates, go to the NHC's Florence site. On Sept. 5, 2018, at 1:06 a.m. EDT (0506 GMT), the VIIRS instrument aboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi-NPP satellite provided an infrared image of Hurricane Florence. The strongest thunderstorms with the coldest cloud tops appear in red. (Image credit: NOAA/NASA/NRL) Florence is the third hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. However, most of the powerful storms rear up from August through October. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. NASA's Dawn spacecraft, seen here in an artist's illustration, will reach the end of its mission to the asteroid belt in 2018. NASA will hold a live "science chat" today (Sept. 7) to showcase the success of the Dawn spacecraft in the asteroid belt as the mission nears its end, and you can watch it live online. The Dawn spacecraft, which visited the huge asteroids Vesta and Ceres in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is "approaching the end of its 11-year mission," NASA officials said in a statement. In today's webcast, which you can watch live here at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), NASA scientists are expected to review Dawn's greatest triumphs at Vesta and Ceres. [Dawn's Pictures: The Weird Bright Spots of Ceres] The spacecraft is currently orbiting Ceres, the largest asteroid in the solar system that is also classified as a dwarf planet. Dawn is expected to end its mission in orbit there when it runs out of hydrazine fuel later this year. NASA's $466 million Dawn spacecraft launched in 2007 to explore the asteroid belt like never before. Using an ion propulsion system, the spacecraft first flew to the asteroid Vesta and studied the space rock from orbit in 2011 and 2012. Dawn then flew to Ceres, arriving in orbit around the dwarf planet in March 2015. In addition to its many discoveries about both asteroids including strange, bright spots on Ceres that have been tantalizing photo targets Dawn proved its ability to visit multiple objects in the solar system with its ion propulsion system. "The mission aided scientists in characterizing the early solar system and the processes that dominated its formation," NASA officials said in the statement. "Dawn is the only spacecraft to orbit two deep-space destinations, a feat enabled by the efficiency of the spacecraft's ion propulsion system." Visit Space.com at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) for complete coverage of today's Dawn mission news. Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. As employees and visitors gathered on Thursday outside a new ASML lab in Wilton, the companys local general manager Bill Amalfitano found a spare moment to slip inside and scrounge through hidden nooks and closets in the building ASML shares with a pair of entities that provide services to children and their families. His goal? Find a few extra square feet to accommodate ASMLs own bulging family on Danbury Road no easy task for a high-tech giant that has hired nearly 400 people in the past year. We need a little bit of space right now, Amalfitano told Hearst Connecticut Media. In Wilton and The Netherlands where it is based, ASML makes huge lithography machines that via the application of light and chemistry etch circuitry onto semiconductor wafers and flat panel displays, in steadily shrinking precisions allowing for ever-smaller devices. On Thursday, ASML showed off its newest investment in Connecticut a testing and measurement lab, with engineers tasked with creating new ways to assess the ability of ASML machines to create flawless nanometer-scale circuits. With its Wilton workforce now numbering 1,600 people, it is not just at the companys new lab where space is at a premium. At the main ASML plant next door, employees are parking their cars on grassy swards as construction proceeds on a new garage behind the facility. Next up will be new offices on the second level of the plant, with executives having taken up temporary quarters across the street at the former headquarters of Sun Products after the laundry products maker relocated to the Stamford offices of new owner Henkel. Its been a long time since weve been able to get a proper use of this facility, Amalfitano said of the newly created lab at 59 Danbury Road. We started out renting it just to get the parking ... but now weve got a real good use for it as an engineering laboratory. Its really state of the art. For Amalfitano and his ASML colleagues, the connotation of state of the art extends well beyond the lines drawn by most. Engineering manager and Michael Opuszynski drew an analogy of one test performed for any imperfections on a polished wafer surface to spotting a quarter-inch bump in an area the size of Connecticut. Nearing his 10th year with ASML, Opuszynski commutes each day from Beacon Falls where he grew up, and says he gets in early enough to ensure a good parking spot. Not everyone who arrives after him is so fortunate; either way, Opuszynski says it is a little boggling to see the number of new faces arriving monthly as ASML continues its big Connecticut expansion. Its a fantastic feeling having a company thats growing (and) seeing the investments that we are making, Opuszynski said. It gives you a really sound feeling that, yes, I am part of something thats fantastic (and) thats doing well. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman DARIEN Hindley Elementary Principal DJ Collela has been placed on leave pending an investigation for concerns of his conduct as principal. Responding to an FOI request, Interim Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon released an Aug. 10 letter from him to Collela. In the letter Landon said he, an attorney for the schools, and Human Resources Director Marge Cion met with the principal, along with the principals attorney on July 26. According to the letter, Collela was questioned as part of the districts investigation into these matters. At the conclusion of this meeting, Attorney Smith warned you not to discuss this matter with district staff while the investigation of this matter is ongoing, and not to retaliate against any district staff members in connection with this matter, Landon wrote. The district has continued their investigation since the meeting on July 26 according to the letter. Landon said the leave is without prejudice to your rights in the letter and will continue until further notice from me. During your administrative leave, unless you are directed otherwise in writing by me, you are not to report to work, Landon wrote, you are not to take any action on behalf of the district, and you are not to access any portion of the districts computer system (including, but not limited to, the districts email system), Landon then reiterated that Collela is not to discuss these matters with any district staff while the investigation is ongoing. You are further directed not to harass, intimidate, and/or retaliate against any district employee in connection with this matter, Landon wrote. Landon ended the letter saying during Collelas administrative leave he is to remain accessible during the work day for contact by administration and is to respond to any such communications. More News Darien principal put on leave, interim named Collela was previously appointed principal of Hindley School on July 1, 2016. Colella was a fifth-grade teacher for 10 years, a sixth-grade science teacher for five years and served as the assistant principal at Somers Middle School in Somers, N.Y., before coming to Darien. On Aug. 17 Landon released a letter to the Hindley School community announcing the leave. Its with sadness that I must report to you that your Principal, DJ Colella will be on leave at the beginning of the 2018-2019 year, wrote Landon. Julie Droller has been appointed the new interim principal for the school year. I will update you on Mr. Colellas status as more information becomes available, Landon wrote. dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com, 203-842-2568 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. I just dont want people to come into the theater and worry about all that, Butler said. I want them to enter a world that is diverse and credible. You cant have a white Herbie; otherwise, Rose would be trading out to be with a white man. And you cant do the opening number the way it is usually done, not with two little black girls. So weve replaced that with something more like you would have found on the TOBA circuit, more of a Josephine Baker or a Nicholas Brothers kind of number, one that is historically accurate. BILLINGS, Mont. - President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the prospects that he could face impeachment if Republicans lose control of Congress, imploring supporters at a campaign rally here to back GOP candidates in the midterm elections. "You aren't voting for a candidate, you're voting for which party controls Congress. It's a very important thing," Trump said. "They like to use the impeach word. 'Impeach Trump!' ... 'But he hasn't done anything wrong.' 'Doesn't matter, we will impeach him!" The president's riff came after days of mounting pressure on the White House over leaks from inside the administration that have deeply embarrassed the president over questions about his competence raised from within his own aides and political appointees. In the wake of a critical new book from journalist Bob Woodward and an anonymous opinion essay in the New York Times, Trump has grown increasingly angry and paranoid over a feeling that his own staff has betrayed him. As he has over the past two days on several occasions, Trump again attacked the Times' essay as "gutless" during his rally here and challenged Times' reporters to discover which senior official inside his administration was granted anonymity to author the essay. "That would be a good scoop," Trump told the crowd. But it was his own future that was clearly on his mind. "I say how do you impeach somebody who is doing a great job, hasn't done anything wrong. Our economy is good. How do you do it?" Trump asked. "It's a hell of a place in Washington." The rally - in support of GOP Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, Montana's state auditor, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Jon Tester - was Trump's first campaign event after Labor Day, as he enters an active stretch run before the November midterms. White House aides have said the president will hold multiple campaign events most weeks before voters head to the polls Nov. 6. Trump addressed the crowd, holding campaign signs and wearing "Make America Great Again" hats, for more than an hour and recited his usual litany of complaints over what he views as unfair press coverage. But Trump also seemed eager to defend his competence in the wake of the revelations in the book and the newspaper essay that his own aides have allegedly taken action to hide information from him and ignore his instructions in order to set guardrails against his destructive impulses. "Is he competent?" Trump said in a tone mocking a news anchor. "I think I'm pretty competent!" Alluding obliquely to the New York Times op-ed, Trump said: "Look at that thing today. Is it subversion? Is it treason? The good thing about that is that even liberals that hate me think that's a terrible thing they did." Though Trump rallies are typically boisterous, the crowd in Montana was restrained and the president, who tends to feed off the energy of his audience, appeared at times to be going through the motions. He attacked Democrats, and liberal activists, over their treatment of his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, over three days of contentious Senate confirmation hearings. "Do you believe the anger and the meanness on the other side?" Trump said. "It's embarrassing to watch those people make fools of themselves screaming and shouting at this great gentleman." Of Democrats, he said: "Their whole campaign is resist, resist." Ahead of the rally, Trump conducted an off-stage interview with a Fox News host, with the audio piped into the arena. The president criticized the Times for publishing the op-ed, saying it was likely a "low-level" or "deep state" person. He did not indicate that he had an idea who wrote the op-ed. Trump also said he didn't plan to shut down the government over the border wall because Republican leaders didn't want him to do so. It is up to him, he later added, after the crowd roared for a shutdown. The rally was a meandering affair - maybe even more than normal. Sections of the arena were empty. The crowd was silent at times during his comments. He gave a boost to a Florida Republican, recounted the 2016 campaign in detail, talked about his son loving to travel to Montana for hunting and even said that Abraham Lincoln faced the "fake news." Lincoln, he said, got poor reviews for his Gettysburg Address. But decades later, he said, the president Trump has long admired was eventually given credit. - - - Nakamura reported from Washington. STAMFORD A former Parking Services Department employee for the town of Greenwich who siphoned thousands from town coffers avoided jail Friday and made guilty pleas to felony counts of first- and second-degree larceny during a brief hearing at the Stamford courthouse. Michael Gordon, 49, of Greenwich was given no jail time or probation for the pleas but he made restitution, paying all that he stole following his arrest, Stamford States Attorney Richard Colangelo said. He has made restitution, but he will have these felonies on his record as a result of this plea, which satisfies the interests of justice and the community in this case, Colangelo said after the hearing. Gordon, who had no criminal record before the two convictions, declined comment in the court hallway following the hearing. I take full responsibility, he told Judge Gary White after making his plea. White gave Gordon an unconditional discharge and waived any court fees and costs. Gordons defense attorney Philip Russell said, I think the sentence was fair and just and reflects some compelling factors on both sides of this case. Gordon was arrested in April 2017 after a police investigation determined that he had been diverting money from his job into his own pocket. When he was arrested, police said he had stolen at least $11,000 from the town between December 2016 and April 2017. In the plea, Gordon was sentenced for stealing about $4,000 from the town. The cause of the discrepancy was not clear. The arrest affidavit said Gordon engaged in an elaborate series of fraudulent transactions, in which he misapplied credits for parking ticket transactions that had already been paid in cash. He then kept the surplus cash for himself. Gordon had been an account clerk at the Parking Services Department since 2009. Greenwich town officials have said many changes have been put in pace to prevent similar theft from happening again. And the town has announced an independent consultant is coming in to take a look at the Parking Services Department. Chicago-based P Plus Corp. will be reviewing current operations, processes, policies and staff assignments to inform the development of an updated, efficient plan of operations, and to assist with the implementation of upgraded technology and equipment to enhance services, according to a statement from town officials. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com B igger private companies should be held to the same corporate governance standards as firms listed on the stock market to prevent a repeat of scandals like the collapse of BHS, a leading audit body declared today. The under-fire Financial Reporting Council is consulting on six tenets for private firms which has been drawn up by a panel of experts led by building boss James Wates. They include balanced and accountable boards, sustainable pay policies and meaningful engagement with shareholders and the workforce. But the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors has called for the FRC to go further, with moves such as a separation of chief executive and chairman roles as recommended for public companies. Chief executive Ian Peters said: The collapse of BHS exposed a number of corporate governance deficiencies, including a lack of transparency and accountability, with its collapse having a catastrophic impact on stakeholders including suppliers, workforce, customers and the wider economy. There are many other well-known companies that are not publicly listed, but are nonetheless strategically important for our future prosperity; therefore, ensuring their longevity and success is vital. Peters added: We believe the additional corporate governance measures we have put forward for large private companies should help to achieve this. L loyds of London was poised to name the controversial former head of Australias largest insurer as its new chief executive on Friday in an attempt to bring the 330-year-old institution back into profit. John Neal, who ran $15 billion (11.6 billion) Aussie behemoth QBE for five years, was likely to be confirmed as the boss to replace Dame Inga Beale, who leaves next year. Despite being credited with leading a successful turnaround of QBE after joining in 2012, Neal has a chequered corporate past. He was ousted last year after a huge profit warning sent its shares tumbling. It closely followed headlines when his pay was docked A$550,000 (then 340,000) for failing to disclose to the QBE board that he was in a relationship with his personal assistant. The relationship triggered huge media interest in Australia, with tabloids running paparazzi shots of the couple on shopping trips and printing pictures of his $7.5 million Sydney penthouse when it was put up for sale. Lloyds of London, which declined to comment, is trying to reverse a 2 billion loss in 2017 by clamping down on unprofitable syndicates and moving to digital systems. New chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown, a former banker, has overseen the search for a chief, helped by Wonga chairman Andy Haste. Carnegie-Brown chairs the appointments committee at Lloyds. Neal, a 53-year-old Brit, is a well-known figure in the Lloyds market and is said to enjoy a good relationship with brokers. His international experience about a third of QBEs business comes from north America is considered key to his appointment as Lloyds seeks to stop business flowing to cheaper rivals like Bermuda and the US. QBE, which is worth $15 billion and spans 36 countries, employs about 14,000 people. Neal was formerly chief executive and lead shareholder of Lloyds syndicate manager Ensign, a car insurer, which he set up in 2000 and sold three years later to QBE. He went on to become chief underwriting officer at QBE before moving to operations chief and then chief executive. T he former Labour leader, Tony Blair, speaks for many Labour supporters when he reflects in a BBC interview that he does not know whether he would join the Labour Party as it is now. It is a different type of Labour Party. Can it be taken back? I dont know, he said. He declares that the anti-Semitism row involving Jeremy Corbyn was bad because it has been, in the end, something that I just cant imagine ever having happened in the Labour Party that I joined. It is a subject that Alan Dershowitz addresses for the Evening Standard today. Mr Blairs feeling that the party, not he, has changed is shared by some of the Labour MPs critical of Mr Corbyn who are at present fighting to fend off Momentum opponents in their constituencies. In Enfield North, activists narrowly passed a vote of no confidence in Joan Ryan , chairwoman of the Labour Friends of Israel group, which she blames on Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard Left. In Luton South, activists similarly passed a vote of no confidence in another Corbyn critic, Gavin Shuker. Ive not changed but the Labour Party has, he said. He too was profoundly disturbed by the anti-Semitism dispute, as well as by Mr Corbyns leadership. David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, struggles to say whether he could vote for Mr Corbyns Labour Party even if his vote could help him win power. In other words, there are real reasons to question, as Mr Blair does, whether Labour, having fallen victim to a hostile takeover by Momentum, can be recaptured by moderates. The partys structures and rules, as well as the governing NEC, have fallen to the hard Left, and the membership attracted by Jeremy Corbyn is very different from the partys supporters even in the difficult period of the Eighties. As Mr Blair says, there is a gap in the market for voters who back socially liberal, progressive politics but also believe in a strong private-enterprise sector alongside a state that is capable of helping people. If, as the old adage has it, a government is only as good as its opposition, were in trouble. BA security breach The extraordinary breach of BAs security by what the company calls very sophisticated hackers means that they may have gained access to the payment details of no fewer than 380,000 transactions over the course of 15 days. It seems extraordinary that it took such a long time for the company to become aware of the breach of security, and to act on it, especially since this is not the first time hackers have obtained access to BA customer data. BA still has the credibility attaching to its former status as the nations flagship carrier; it survives on the basis of its reputation and falls by it too. This episode will not just infuriate customers who have to take the trouble to check their financial statements to see if their card details have been misused; it means they will think twice before trusting the company again. Corporate reputations are hard won and easily lost. BA will have to find ways to make up to customers for its egregious failures. Brave Elliotts new start Little Elliott Livingstone, the boy who was the face of this papers campaign to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provided him with a life-saving organ transplant to remedy his rare heart condition, starts primary school today. But when he was just 16 months old he had to be kept alive for 400 days when the hospital put him on an artificial pump, while he awaited an organ transplant. Downstate: Any new play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Bruce Norris the 58-year-old author of such works as Clybourne Park, The Qualms, A Parallelogram and The Unmentionables represents a significant cultural event in Chicago. But Downstate is likely to garner attention for another reason: it is a play about sex offenders that reportedly offers some empathy for its protagonists predicament as it homes in on whom and what we have decided is beyond redemption. Following its Chicago premiere, director Pam MacKinnons production will transfer to Londons National Theatre in the spring (Britains leading nonprofit theater is a co-producer). Given Norris knack for probing the limits of an audiences comfort zone and his longstanding disdain for liberal complacency, this is likely to be the water-cooler show of the fall, upstate and down. Sept. 20 to Nov. 11 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted St.; 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org. I m sitting in a bar in Stockholm with some good old-fashioned liberals who have that same perplexed, hang-dog look as Remainers the day after the Brexit referendum. Where did our world go wrong, they ask in various facial expressions. The spur for this is the elections on Sunday. Riding high in the opinion polls is Sweden Democrats the nearest thing Sweden has to Ukip. A far-Right party that talks a big game on immigration, law and order, and Europe, the SD led by the charismatic Jimmie Akesson is threatening to take first place in the polls. What a blow to the image of Sweden in the rest of the world, worshipped for its cheerfulness, ABBA and Ikea, and a history of social democracy. The Rights rise comes at the expense of the Social Democrats, currently the ruling party, which has come first in every election since 1917 and created the idea of the country as generous and modern. What will it mean for Swedens position in the world ranking for the most progressive and hip place to live a beacon of equality with official gender-neutral nouns, compulsory paternity rights and 50-50 male-female equality on boards? Will it slide down the list, to the chagrin of all those who make money off Brand Sweden, or will it show these rankings to be rather spurious at best in the first place? Theres no need to burn your Ikea furniture yet. Sweden Democrats, even if the party does come first in the share of the vote perhaps up to 25 per cent according to the latest YouGov poll is still unlikely to form a government. The other parties are likely to unite to silence the SDs anti-immigration policy. However, it goes to show that a nation that has been projecting its perfection as a society, and styling itself as the worlds conscience, has just as many family problems as the rest of us. We can raise a glass with them in commiseration. Take a chance on decoding ABBA lyrics Ive been given a free ticket to the ABBA Museum in Stockholm and asked to be there half an hour early, to slip in ahead of the queues. A museum to a living band really? Even the group didnt want one originally. Its director, Ingmarie Halling, told me: To them, a museum was something dead, like glass boxes, Tutankhamun. They eventually came around to the idea of this temple for fans. However, if you thought the museum was too far away, visit the website of the Paris Review literary magazine, which has run a textual analysis of the bands lyrics. The thesis: the English is slightly off, and this opens up the meaning. After the museum and literary forays one presumes a few PhDs have been penned on Agnetha, Frida (both left), Benny and Bjorn. And why not? I imagine more people can recite the lyrics of an ABBA song than a Shakespeare sonnet, and were still arguing over the meaning of many of the Bards lines. A picture tells only a few thousand words Donald Trump really wasnt happy about those inauguration photographs of the mall outside the White House, with gappy crowds compared to Obamas masses. A Freedom of Information request has shown the US President got on the phone to the National Parks Service director, who looks after the national mall, requesting some better pics. The NPS photographer was asked to go back to his dark room and try again. Not since prominent faces found themselves being erased from Politburo photos has there been such a brazen attempt at photo manipulation. Oh, did I accidentally slip in an allusion to Russia there? Nothing succeeds like a binge watch The problem with Succession is its success. After binge-watching six episodes of the media mogul family drama last weekend, Ive given up. I was recently interviewed by Channel 4 about Donald Trump. Host Matt Frei asked me what he likely intended to be a rhetorical question: Where is the moral backbone of America these days? I responded: Well, where is the moral backbone of Great Britain to have as the head of the Labour Party a virulent anti-Semite, a virulent hater of Jews and the nation-state of the Jewish people? Dont lecture us about our political system as long as you have Jeremy Corbyn, who may potentially become the next Prime Minister. Shame on Great Britain for letting that come to pass. Frei responded that Corbyn would be rejecting all these accusations. That should have been the end of the matter, with each having made our point. But no, Frei felt it was necessary to apologise to his viewers when I was off-air for what I had said. And our apologies for those unexpected remarks from one of our guests about the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, he said, who as weve reported many times consistently and robustly denies allegations of anti-Semitism. In a rebroadcast, Channel 4 cut the discussion of Corbyn. It wrote an email to me explaining that it is obligated under the rules to present the other side of the story whenever there is a significant allegation being made. Yet Channel 4 doesnt apologise or present the other side when it accuses Trump of misconduct, which he denies. Why the double standard? Why not let viewers decide for themselves whether my characterisation of Jeremy Corbyn is correct? So let me present my case. I invite a response by Corbyn. In a widely accepted definition, adopted by the US State Department and its British counterpart, anti-Semitism includes accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations. Alan Dershowitz / Getty Images Corbyns statement and actions meet these standards. Corbyn has taken part in events with Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese militant who rails against Jew-worship and calls homosexuals Aids-spreading faggots, according to the National Review. He also argued against the expulsion from Britain of Raed Saleh, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who claims Jews were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2012 Corbyn invited him to take tea with him on the terrace at Parliament, saying Saleh is far from a dangerous man. Hes a very honoured citizen; he represents his people extremely well. Corbyn has also been accused of donating money to Deir Yassin Remembered, founded by self-proclaimed Holocaust denier Paul Eisen. Corbyn denies having any knowledge of Eisens views but has acknowledged that he attended one of DYRs events as recently as 2013. At another conference, Corbyn said Zionists dont understand English irony, despite having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives. Under fire: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn / PA In this context, Corbyn seemed to be using the term Zionists to apply broadly to British Jews . This same conference also featured a speaker who blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks. Britains former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has accused Corbyn of having given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map and said his remarks about Zionists not being sufficiently British is the language of classic pre-war European anti -Semitism. Corbyn called former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, an advocate of the two-state solution, a war criminal while calling terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah friends a comment which he later claimed he regretted making. While condemning Israel for human rights violations, Corbyn has praised human rights violators such as Venezuela, Cuba and Iran. After the death of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Corbyn described him as someone who stood up, was counted, was inspiring . Following the death of Fidel Castro, Corbyn praised the Cuban dictators heroism and called him a champion of social justice. He has also praised Iran for tolerance and acceptance of other faiths, traditions and ethnic groups in Iran. Protesters outside the meeting where Labour adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism / AFP/Getty Images Corbyn seems to have little interest in the human right of Kurds, Chechens, Tibetans and other groups. Is he more interested in the Palestinians largely because their alleged oppressors are Jewish? I dont recall hearing Corbyn complain when Palestinians are oppressed by Jordan or by Hamas. To be sure, Israel does not have a perfect human rights record. No country does. But singling out Israel for condemnation while praising some of the worst human rights violators and ignoring violations against people at least as oppressed as the Palestinians is applying precisely the sort of double standard against the nation state of the Jewish people the UK and the US have recognised as anti-Semitic. Corbyns actions paint a foreboding picture for British Jews as well as Anglo-Israeli relations should Corbyn become Prime Minister. It may come as no surprise then that the leading Anglo-Jewish newspapers called a potential Corbyn administration an existential threat to Jewish life in the UK and warned that the [Labour] party that was, until recently, the natural home for our community has seen its values and integrity eroded by Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel. Let the good people of Britain show the moral backbone of that great country by rejecting Corbyn and the bigotry he has supported. London has become the first of the main fashion weeks to officially ditch animal fur entirely from its runway shows. The British Fashion Council (BFC), a non-profit trade organisation, today announced the results of a survey they conducted with all the designers on the official London Fashion Week catwalk and presentation schedule, revealed real fur would be totally absent from the runways when the biannual London Fashion Week (LFW) event kicks off next week. Over the last seasons we have seen fewer businesses using fur in their show collection and this season is the first time the survey has seen 100% commitment in advance of the event that there will be no fur on the catwalks," says Caroline Rush, BFC CEO. I believe the BFC survey results reflect a cultural change and choices made by designer businesses as well as consumer sentiment. The fashion industry as a whole has been accelerating its transition to a more ethical, fur-free future in recent years, with anti-fur stalwarts like Stella McCartney joined by Hugo Boss in 2015, Armani and The Kooples in 2016 and Gucci, Net-a-Porter and Michael Kors in 2017. Earlier this year Tom Ford, Versace and Maison Margiela also committed to a fur-free future, and this week Burberry has announced it is the latest high-end fashion brand to go fur-free. Burberrys new creative director Riccardo Tisci will show his entirely fur-free debut collection at LFW next week. The company has committed to a fur-free policy going forward, with all remaining fur items being phased out. I dont think it is compatible with modern luxury and with the environment in which we live, and Riccardo has a very strong view as well on this, its chief executive, Marco Gobbetti, told the Business of Fashion. Its part of what Burberry is today. Rush applauds the move: Burberry is our largest global designer fashion brand and we are proud that it continues to take a leadership position in industry changes. For Hannah Weiland, founder of faux-fur coat brand Shrimps, the transition to a more sustainable status quo was an inevitable one. For me its not surprising that LFW is going fur free, London as a city is very innovative and a leader in important issues such as this. Hopefully all countries will follow suit! Shrimps launched as and still is an animal-friendly brand, so working with real fur was never an option, she continues. A faux fur coat was the first Shrimps piece I designed, it will always be a material that is at the heart of the brand. Faux fur is luxurious and cruelty free and Im so happy other big brands are adopting it. Stella McCartney, whose eponymous brand was one of the first to be entirely vegetarian, is similarly celebratory. There is a reason I have my headquarters in London," she says. "I was born here and to hear about the fur free fashion week decision fills me with a hope that fashion can be cruelty free one day and reminds me that the city of London is still punk rock and has its finger on the future of fashion! This is what the next generation demand and London has heard it loud and clear! So proud to be a Londoner! Thank you London fashion week for showing others this is the way forward in fashion! T his years BBC Proms come to a close tomorrow after two months. But the Royal Albert Hall isnt the only place you can enjoy the festivities. Proms in the Park is the largest outdoor classical music event in Britain, and takes place in Hyde Park at 5pm on Saturday September 8. Michael Ball returns as host, with solo musical performances from soul icon Gladys Knight, Josh Groban, Joseph Calleja, Matt Goss, Lisa Stansfield and Albert Hammond. A new addition to this years celebration, the traditional Last Night of the Proms anthems, such as Pomp and Circumstance and Land of Hope and Glory, will be performed live on the Hyde Park stage by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe. The UKs largest contemporary choir with 27,000 members (only 100 will be performing) Rock Choir will bring a singalong set, while the cast of Bat Out of Hell present the anthems of Meat Loaf on the backdrop of a postapocalyptic kingdom. For tickets, go to bbc.co.uk T he South of France typically conjures up images of luxury yachts and sun-kissed celebrities swanning around Cannes, Nice and St Tropez. However, look a little closer and youll find this region is also full of natural beauty, cultural highlights and hidden spots to enchant without breaking the bank. Heres how to avoid the glitzy crowds and pricey cocktails and experience the alternative attractions. Culture Provence was Paul Cezannes beloved home and served as the inspiration behind many of his most famous works. Atelier de Cezanne in Aix, the last studio he worked in before his death in 1906, is a small space so well-preserved you can almost visualise him hard at work. The opening hours vary throughout the year, so check the website first to avoid disappointment. Do you love wine, art and architecture? Dont miss out on Chateau La Coste. Just a short trip north of Aix, specially commissioned pieces by world-renowned artists and architects sit among rows of lush vines. After exploring the grounds on the Art and Architecture walk, where surprises wait around every corner, you can refuel with a bite to eat on The Terrace and a glass or two from the chateaus excellent wine selection. Food Bouillabaisse is the ubiquitous Provencal seafood dish originating from Marseille. Historically, fishermen made use of their unsold stock by rustling up big pots of this bright red stew. The result is a proper bowl of comfort food bursting with fresh and complex flavours that belie the simple ingredients. For an authentic bouillabaisse, find a table at Chez Madie Les Galinettes in Marseille. Bouillabaisse, the classic seafood dish from Marseille (Objectif Images ) / Objectif Images For an extra-special dining experience, book in advance at the Michelin-starred Le Saint Esteve near Aix, where chef Mathias Dandines seasonal masterpieces are served up alongside stunning views of Cezannes favourite landscape, Mont Sainte-Victoire. No trip to France would be complete without indulging in patisserie. Find shade under the lilac awnings of Maison Weibel in the centre of Aix, and sink your teeth into handcrafted cakes and pastries. Youll be hard pressed to find a pudding more palatable than Weibels elegant and delicate choux bun stuffed with hazelnut cream. Shopping Marseilles best-smelling exports are its colourful, chunky blocks of soap that are as pretty as they are potent. Savonnerie Marseillaise de la Licorne has a well-stocked retail outlet in the Old Port of Marseille, and for a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse at traditional soap-making you can also visit their workshop on Cours Julien. Calissons dAix are the sweet treat of choice for locals. These diamond-shaped nibbles, crafted from ground almonds and candied fruit, are perfect as gifts and ideal with a cup of coffee. At Le Roy Rene in central Aix youll be greeted with a selection of both traditional and inventive recipes, while 10 minutes away at the Le Roy Rene Museum you can see these sweets being made and learn about their history. Exploring Take a day trip to the calanques, the steep-sided limestone inlets near Cassis, where azure waters flow into picturesque bays. While some are more easily accessed by boat, Calanque de Port Pin is a moderate hike. Your reward at the end is the perfect beauty spot for a picnic lunch, sunbathing and a dip in the sea. T his street map reveals the extent of gang territories covering the streets and housing estates of south London. The list, plotted over a Google Map of the capital, claims there are at least 49 street gangs operating south of the River. They include B-Town in Bermondsey, GS in Greenwich, CR0 in Croydon and 417 Tooting in Tooting. The map was posted on Reddit, with one user writing: Please nuke us. This is beyond embarrassing. Loading.... Another said: They do give themselves some rather s**** names don't they? The updated map comes as violent crime continues to grip south London. Last month, four teenagers were stabbed in a brawl in Camberwells Elmington Estate. Stabbing in Battersea is latest attack on weekend of bloodshed in London Meanwhile, a 16-year-old boy was shot in Wandsworth on Sunday and a woman in her 20s was blasted in Woolwich on Wednesday. Labour MP David Lammy warned of an "epidemic" of youth violence in London, with 34 of the capital's 100 murder victims so far this year being under 24. Blaming a "collapse in neighbourhood policing", he said on Friday: "Youth violence is reaching epidemic proportions in the UK and we have a significant problem in London." Camberwell MP calls for more police after fatal stabbing And John Poyton, CEO of the Redthread charity, claimed teens as young as 13 are resigned to being stabbed or ending up behind bars for violence. He said: "They're just in this mindset: 'Yes I will go to prison and yes I will end up getting stabbed.' Or: 'Yes my friend died, and that's normal.'" Drill rap music has also come under the spotlight, with Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick saying YouTube videos have glamorised violence. Rapper Incognito, 23, real name Siddique Kamara from the group Moscow17, was stabbed to death in Camberwell last month. But grime artist Big Narstie said drill was being used as a scapegoat to explain the rise of violent crime in London. P olice investigating the scandal-hit 2014 Tower Hamlets mayoral election have concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prosecute anybody following a lengthy probe. Lutfur Rahman was forced to step down as mayor of the east London borough after an Election Court found him guilty of a string of corrupt and illegal practices. However, he has not faced criminal prosecution despite the courts findings. The Metropolitan Police said on Friday it had concluded its 1.7 million investigation titled Operation Lynemouth, which was launched in May last year. But the force said it "has not identified sufficient additional evidence or investigative opportunities to enable the Met to request the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider the charging of any individual in relation to offences of electoral fraud and malpractice arising from the 2014 mayoral election". The east London borough had to elect a new mayor following the scandal / Getty Images Changes to how police officers are trained and deployed during elections and how criminal investigations into election fraud are conducted have come as a result of the inquiry, it added. During the probe, detectives did unearth "prima facie evidence" of a serious offence not directly linked to electoral fraud. This has been passed to the City of London Police to investigate because of the "nature" of the offence, Scotland Yard said. A Met spokeswoman said: This is an ongoing investigation and it wouldnt be appropriate at this time to provide details of the criminal offence being investigated. City of London has the specialist skills needed for this investigation. An investigation by City of London has the benefit of increasing public confidence. The City of London Police would not comment further on the investigation into evidence the Metropolitan Police handed over, citing "operational reasons". But a spokesman said in a statement: "On July 25 2018, City of London Police launched an investigation in the borough of Tower Hamlets. P olice are hunting a man who assaulted an 84-year-old woman at a busy Overground station, causing her serious shoulder injuries. The incident happened at about 2.20pm on Thursday at Shoreditch High Street station. While the woman was waiting for a train, she was involved in an altercation with a man. During the altercation, the woman fell backwards over a bag, causing the shoulder injuries. Police have released an image of this suspect after the Shoreditch High Street station assault / British Transport Police British Transport Police released an image of a suspect, wearing a dark polo shirt and shorts, on Friday afternoon. T his is the first picture of an inspirational teacher who was the unintended victim of a firebomb attack on a relatives home - in Londons 100th homicide of 2018. Memunatu Warne, 43, a mother-of-two who ran a business college in her native Sierra Leone, had been due to fly home this morning after a holiday visiting family in Woolwich. Her body was found by fire crews called in after masked moped riders hurled a petrol bomb through the first-floor window of the three-storey townhouse in the early hours yesterday. Two other people, a man in his sixties and a woman in her fifties, were seen leaping from a window to escape the deadly blaze. Mrs Warnes family today told of their anguish at her death, describing her as a rare gem. Sixty firefighters were called to the blaze in the early hours of Thursday / PA Her nephew Hudson Burch said the killing was a loss to Sierra Leone, adding: We are all in pain. She was a very good and disciplined teacher. Everyone respected her. She went to London for a holiday. We only thank God she didnt go with her children this time. We thought it was an accident. To lose someone like her is devastating. Firefighters work to contain the blaze / Shane Gillespie/PA Mrs Warne was principal of the Liccsal Business School, which she set up in 2000 with her late husband Reverend Victor Warne to combat poor literacy levels in the aftermath of Sierra Leones decade-long civil war. Starting with just 18 students, the college in the capital Freetown, now takes in nearly a thousand after partnering with the University of Sierra Leone. The fire is being treated as suspicious, with detectives from the Metropolitan Polices homicide and major crime command launching the 100th investigation into a case of murder or manslaughter in the capital this year. Horrified residents in Centurion Square claimed the blaze may have been a gang hit - but it was not clear which address was the intended target. Theo Adler, 21, said: I saw the man run away from the window after breaking it. He was wearing a black hoodie and grey tracksuit bottoms. I could see him join his mate on the corner and they drove off on a moped ... The whole thing happened so quickly. Police were called at around 1.20am, with 60 firefighters battling for two hours to control the blaze. Forensic teams in full protective body suits have been combing the area for accelerants, while 30 residents have been evacutaed and are being housed at a leisure centre. Solomon Anyanwu, who witnessed the fire, said: We ran over and broke the windows, calling on them to come out. You couldnt see inside it was filled with smoke. Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: I heard a woman screaming in a high-pitched voice. They were blood-curdling screams.. it was terrifying. It comes a month after Joel Urhie, 70, was burnt alive in a targeted arson in Deptford. A ctress Vanessa Kirby has praised the Evening Standards brilliant Learn to Live campaign to link London schoolchildren with youngsters in war zones, as she joined the effort by visiting a participating primary. Two secondary schools, a primary and a pupil referral unit are spearheading the Learn to Live project which aims to connect children across the globe and increase empathy and understanding. Pupils will this week start learning about their counterparts in schools in a Syrian refugee camp, the Central African Republic and Iraq. Kirby, 30, who won a Bafta for her portrayal of Princess Margaret in The Crown, was announced today as a global ambassador for the charity War Child, with which the Standard has partnered for the campaign. She showed her support for the initiative on a visit to Betty Layward Primary School in Stoke Newington, where pupils are being twinned with children in Iraq. Hopefully this campaign will show young people that there are amazing differences but also similarities between them and children around the world, she said. Above all I hope it inspires people to overcome their differences and connect with each other. That is exactly what this campaign is doing. Kirby said that becoming a global ambassador for War Child was the proudest moment in her life, and visiting refugee camps with the charity had changed her life. Discussing the Learn to Live campaign, she said: It is such a brilliant idea because it makes the whole understanding of whats going on around the world for children much closer for them. I just think its such a brilliant programme. I hope it inspires people to overcome their differences and connect with each other. That is exactly what this campaign is doing The star, who appeared opposite Tom Cruise in the this years Mission: Impossible Fallout, added: The children we met today were nine and 10-years-old and for them talking to other nine and 10-year-olds living in refugee camps, writing letters to each other and discussing the differences for the kids, it just feels so much more real. Kirby added that she hopes the campaign will build a lot of empathy between children. Pupils at Betty Layward school showed the actress their favourite playground game which they will also teach to their counterparts in Iraq as part of the twinning project. At the end of last term, children in our four London schools recorded video messages introducing themselves to their peers abroad. This week the initiative starts in earnest. They will take part in their first lessons focusing on their twin school, and throughout the coming weeks they will interact with their new friends and find out more about their lives. They will write letters, email questions, record videos, Skype where technology allows and take part in shared projects. During this time, children in all of our schools will grow closer to and learn more about life outside of their own immediate world. Briony Blow, a teacher at Betty Layward school, whose class is linking with children from Mosul in Iraq, said: This is such an important project. We will all be learning as we go along. We dont want our pupils to feel sorry for the children in Iraq, we want it to be a positive thing. Then, the company will stage Footloose the Musical, beginning April 10. Based on the hit film, and the true story of Elmore, Oklahoma, which banned dancing for 90 years , the show is full of hits like Almost Paradise, Lets Hear It for the Boy, Holding Out for a Hero and, duh, Footloose. A senior politician from Bermuda has apologised over a video in which he appeared to ask female workers at London's Cereal Killer Cafe if they had "t***y milk" for his cereal. Wayne Caines, Bermuda's minister of national security, recorded a video of himself making the enquiry as a "joke" before posting the footage to his 4,000 followers on Instagram earlier this week. Mr Caines was in London on Wednesday on government business where he met with National Crime Agency officials to discuss Britain's work on child sex abuse and exploitation overseas. In the video, he approaches two women working behind the counter at the branch of the Cereal Killer Cafe. He is heard to say in the clip: Excuse me, can you mix these cereals? Can I get Captain Crunch and Fruit Loops together? Mixed? Mr Caines pictured with NCA officials on his trip to London "Im lactose intolerant, what kind of milk do you have? Do you have almond milk and soya milk? Then finally he said: Any t***y milk? Mr Caines apologised and denied making the comments directly to the women behind the counter. He said he made the remark "jokingly" into his phone. The women did not seem to react to his comment in the clip. Alright, outta t***y milk, he said, before going on to mention cereals again. Apology: Wayne Caines, Bermuda's minister of national security He later deleted his apology and then his entire Facebook page. "Last night I made an inappropriate comment (joke) on my private Instagram account. To be clear- I did not make the comment(s) to the clerks, it was said jokingly into my phone. "They did not hear the comment." He continued: Having said that, I apologise without reservation to everyone in Bermuda. I am a [sic] elected official who must always, conduct himself appropriately. On this occasion I fell way below the mark. "What was meant to be a funny, is now anything but. I know better! This is an unnecessary own goal. I will stand and take my licks! On this occasion I deserve each lash! People described the incident as a mistake saying he should "move on." One person wrote: All of us make mistakes. The key is to acknowledge them, learn, and move on. The real sin is ignoring mistakes, or worse, seeking to hide them. Another said they did not think he needed to apologise and people were touchy. Another person however told him to resign and another said he should be ashamed of both your actions and this insincere apology. Susan Jackson, the shadow minister of health and seniors in Bermuda, said she was glad Mr Caines had seen fit to apologise. There is no place for offensive comments like this which cant help but have a demeaning impact on young women and young mothers in particular. The Minister is out promoting Bermuda as a place of integrity to attract upstanding professionals. Hes promoting Bermuda to businesses that are working hard to increase diversity and equality within their workplaces. His comment shows remarkable disrespect, she told Bermuda website Bernews. A spokesperson for the Government of Bermuda said they were aware of Mr Caines' apology. The Standard has asked for a further statement from the Government and for comment from the management of the Cereal Killer Cafe. E lliot Livingstone, the young boy kept alive by an artificial heart for more than 400 days as he awaited a heart transplant, started primary school today. He was the face of the Evening Standards 2015 Christmas campaign that raised more than 3.5 million for Great Ormond Street hospital. Elliott was given a Berlin heart aged 16 months and remained at GOSH for more than a year as he awaited a life-saving transplant, which he received in April 2016. Today his parents Candace and Adrian Livingstone celebrated his continuing recovery and first day at school as an example of the magic of organ donation. We are really excited and Elliott is really excited, Mrs Livingstone, 34, said. Its such a huge milestone. At some points we were not sure if Elliott would make it to this. This feels like a massive step for him to be taking. Elliot with mum Candace in 2016 after he returned home following his heart transplant / Alex Lentati Elliott, who will be five next month, was diagnosed just days after birth with dilated cardiomyopathy, a rare condition that prevented his heart from pumping enough blood through his body. Mrs Livingstones mother, a paediatrician in the US, noticed problems with his breathing during a Skype call, and the next day he went floppy and blue and was rushed to Evelina London childrens hospital. He was transferred to GOSH and had the mechanical device, which pumps blood around the body, fitted when he was on the verge of total heart failure. No GOSH patient has relied on a Berlin heart for longer. Elliott is attending primary school in Basingstoke, Hampshire, with a number of friends from nursery. There are no nerves, Mrs Livingstone said. Before he had the transplant, he didnt have a lot of energy. Now you wouldnt notice a difference between him and any of the other children. Elliot in 2016 with dad Adrian / Alex Lentati The Livingstones spoke to mark National Organ Donation Week. Across the country, there are 6,127 people awaiting a transplant, including 160 children. Some 286 are waiting for a heart, 34 of whom are children. Elliott requires daily medication and has three-monthly check-ups at GOSH. Mrs Livingstone said: He understands that he had to have a new heart because the other heart was poorly. He has never asked the question of where his heart has come from. When he does ask, we want to tell him. We feel there was this other little person out there who has saved his life. We have written a letter to the family. We are thinking of writing another letter to say he has started school. A doctor has saved the lives of six people including a toddler by donating her organs, her family said today. Raheal Gabrasadig died after suffering a brain aneurysm in May last year. Two months earlier the 30-year-old, from Dagenham, told her family she would like her organs donated in case of her death. Her donation was even more vital due to the urgent need for donors from minority backgrounds Dr Gabrasadig was half-Egyptian and half-Ethiopian. Her mother Cathrina Gabrasadig, 52, said that following the donation of her daughters kidneys, liver, heart and lungs she had received a letter from the family of one of the recipients. In the letter which arrived on May 17, the first anniversary of Raheals death the mother of a toddler who received her liver thanked the Gabrasadigs. The mother told me her son had lived and was well and she thanked us, telling us she would remember us every day. It gave us such comfort, she said. The young doctor was taken to St Georges Hospital, Tooting, after collapsing when she fell ill very suddenly at a relatives home in Croydon on May 14 last year. She phoned her mother moments before to tell her that she loved her and to say goodbye, knowing she was not going to survive. She was just beginning her medical career, at Luton and Dunstable Hospitals paediatric and neonatal departments, and was due to start work as a registrar in paediatrics. Mrs Gabrasadig, from Dagenham, who also lost a son five years ago to epilepsy, said: She phoned me to say Im dying mummy, she asked me to pray for her and tell her sister she loved her. Then she dropped the phone and she collapsed. Three days later, after being on a life support machine at St Georges, she died. NHS Blood and Transplant figures show that only seven per cent 114 of donors last year were from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. As it is organ donation week, Mrs Gabrasadig, an interpreter who has six other children, urged others, particularly from minority backgrounds, to sign up to the organ donor register. Since Raheals death, her brother, sister, aunt, uncle, father and me have all signed up the register, she said. We now understand the impact it can have and really encourage others to do the same. Leanne McCracken, specialist nurse in organ donation at St Georges, said: Wed encourage everyone to have the same conversation Raheal had with their loved ones. A heroic firefighter who risked his life as he battled to get to the top of Grenfell Tower has recalled traumatic memories of finding victims of the devastating blaze. Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, 35, was part of a crew of London Fire Brigade firefighters who embarked on a desperate search for survivors after the fire broke out on June 14 last year. The former firefighter has previously said he felt suicidal after his experience helping with the fire, which claimed the lives of 72 people in North Kensington. In an interview with London Live, a choked-up Mr Kennedy-Macfoy recalled finding a number of casualties as he battled with his brave colleagues to reach the top of the tower. London Live interview with former firefighter Edric Kennedy-Macfoy / London Live He said: We went in searching all the flats and then back to the stairwell, going up each floor. We started to come across casualties. We came across several casualties on the way up. There were a few that really took me by surprise visibility was so poor we couldnt really see, so were doing our safe movement making our way up and we come across something. We all stop but you cant really make out what it is. So were shining a light and getting closer and closer and then we realise and we all jump back, your heart stops. Inside Grenfell Tower 1 /13 Inside Grenfell Tower Water is sprayed on Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Fire service personnel inside Grenfell Tower in west London PA A view inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Sniffer dogs were sent inside to the tower today PA Fire service personnel inside Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Part of the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA A view inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA The traumatised firefighter, who said death on the job has really affected him, recalled coming across casualties on his journey up the smouldering tower and having to record each one. Heat from the fire left his phone scorching hot and he remembers transferring it from one hand to the other as he tried to record details about victims and the condition of each flat. Mr Kennedy-Macfoy, who also helped in the aftermath of the Croydon tram crash, suggested there was nothing anyone could have done to prepare for the tower block fire. The charred shell of Grenfell Tower / Jeremy Selwyn He added: Id definitely say this was out of the ordinary, beyond anyones imagination. Theres nothing anyone could have done to prepare anyone for that. Similar to the Croydon tram derailment, for me visually the Croydon tram derailment was worse to look at in terms of injuries people sustained, they were far worse. With Grenfell it was the sheer number of people. In todays day and age, for a building to go up in flames like that and for people to lose their lives in such a manner is just unthinkable and something should have never been allowed to have happened. In the TV interview, the former firefighter admitted he was left a different man after the Grenfell Tower fire and at one point he didnt want to be here anymore. A motorcyclist has died in a crash on a busy road in north London. The man, believed to be aged in his mid 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics following the crash on Kentish Town Road in Camden. Police said they were called at 5.13pm following reports of a road traffic collision. The road has been closed in both directions while emergency services respond to the incident. A Scotland Yard spokesman said no arrests had been made and that enquiries were on-going. He said: Police were called at 5.13 to reports of a road traffic collision on Kentish Town Road (North-West). R ose McGowan, actor and #MeToo activist, is making a surprising next step: she is working on a new book aimed at the YA market thats Young Adult to grown-ups. McGowan released a memoir, Brave, earlier this year, which detailed her assault allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein. I have a second book in the works, she tells us. Its called The Second I Got My Boobs, and its for young girls and their mothers to talk about what happens when adolescence hits you overnight and the world gets so loud as a girl. Its scary, because its about setting boundaries on how to transition. I think its a very interesting topic. Her thoughts on womanhood, however, have previously offended the trans community. She made her controversial views clear in February. They [trans women] felt like a woman on the inside, [but] thats not developing as a woman, thats not growing as a woman, thats not living in this world as a woman, she said. McGowan received a six-figure settlement from Weinstein after an alleged assault in 1997 although Weinstein denies non-consensual sex. She is also facing a trial in January for drug possession and tells us that she is not sure how confident she is in the legal process. Its a 50/50 shot with the legal system, I dont know, she says. I hope so but I have confidence in this lifetime and the next. McGowan has visited the UK several times this year for talks and public appearances. On Wednesday she won the Inspiration Award at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, and now hopes to make her presence here more permanent. I love London and Im actually moving here: Im just trying to work out how I can get my citzenship, she says. How has she coped with the pressures of this extraordinary year? I dont do yoga or meditation, she explains, but every month I get in my Porsche and drive 130 mph to the middle of nowhere. An irony overload Howard Jacobson, author and Jeremy Corbyn critic, refused to call the Labour leader an anti-Semite last night at an Intelligence Squared debate. He says he isnt an anti-Semite, Hamas says he isnt, the white supremacist David Duke says he isnt an anti-Semite and thats good enough for me, Jacobson said, adding: You might think Im being ironic. Ladies and gentleman, I am incapable of irony. Chris Williamson MP, also speaking, later retweeted his communications aide blasting those at #iq2 who chuckle along to jokes about our movement by the oh so literary and clever Howard Jacobson. --- Actor Jeff Goldblum jokes that the giant statue of him made to publicise Jurassic Park, currently travelling the world, is like the treasures of Tutankhamun. And everyone can touch it! Goldblum was in London for the GQ Men of the Year Awards in association with Hugo Boss. I would live here in a second, he told us. Its like landing on another planet. My legs are like jelly. Or marmalade. --- American model Chrissy Teigen is also thrilled to be in London. I get to binge-watch Naked Attraction, Great British Bake Off and now Ive heard of Gogglebox, she tells us. I mainly stay indoors to watch Channel 4. Would she ever appear on British television? As long as Im not doing anything with Piers Morgan Im happy. What are the Midult crowd queuing for? M&S pants Absolutely Fine: Samantha Cameron and Tara Bernerd (Photo Dave Benett/Getty Images) / Dave Benett/Getty Images Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, who together make up The Midult, launched their book Im Absolutely Fine! last night. The pair created The Midult website in 2016 as a guide to growing up. Wed be having conversations all the time and realised that if we were having these conversations, then other people are, McMeekan said last night. They decided to write a book, Rivkin says, when people stopped us in the street and said How did you know what was in my head? There is clearly a market: well-wishers at the party, held in the grand Palm Court of the newly redesigned Principal Hotel in Bloomsbury, included firecracker Kate Rothschild and Samantha Cameron, fashion designer and wife of David. Fuelled by Casamigos skinny margarita cocktails, guests queued to have their names embroidered on M&S pants. The party was co-hosted by Tara Bernerd, whose ravishing interior design has lifted it from a four- to a five-star hotel. SW1A Anna Soubry takes aim at Jeremy Corbyn. Some would say that my Prime Minister stands in Parliament in front of [a] very wide open goal. Spectacularly on every occasion he misses it. Why? Because he is somebody who has always been on the absolute fringes, carping from the sidelines, somebody [for whom] probably the biggest decision of his life was what was going to be the vegetarian option at the Palestinian solidarity meeting. --- Greg Hands is a casework champion. As a lifelong communist, one constituent wrote to the Tory MP, I cannot bring myself to vote Conservative. But after Hands had helped him with an issue, he said: It would be churlish to vote against you. --- Jess Phillips MP spoke at the British Library this week for a talk on Women, Class, Politics. Asked by the interviewer whether trainers might not be considered parliamentary footwear, she replied: F*** it. Quote of the day "I am proposing to challenge Mr Rees-Mogg to a duel. More details to follow." Lord Adonis wants to take on Jacob Rees- Mogg. Kinder politics, eh? Yahmmy Mummy L abour MPs today slammed a vote of no confidence in a senior backbencher who spoke out against anti-Semitism. They reacted angrily to the move against Enfield North MP Joan Ryan, the chairwoman of Labour Friends of Israel, who was first elected to Parliament when Tony Blair came to power in 1997. Ms Ryan, a vocal critic of Jeremy Corbyns handling of the anti-Semitism storm that has engulfed Labour, blamed the 94-92 defeat by local activists on Trots, Stalinists, Communists and assorted hard Left. After the vote last night she added: Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through, and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values. Harrow West Labour MP Gareth Thomas said: Its an outrageous vote. She is a class act and a great servant of the Labour Party and Enfield. Poplar and Limehouse MP Jim Fitzpatrick added: It sends a very negative message, not just to the Jewish community but to many similar-minded Labour colleagues facing the prospect of debates, discussions and decisions just like Joans. Another Corbyn critic, Luton South MP Gavin Shuker, also lost a no confidence vote of local activists last night. Walthamstow Labour MP Stella Creasy branded both votes as appalling. Another former minister in Mr Blairs government, Frank Field, resigned the party whip recently after losing a vote of no confidence in his constituency. G rowing numbers of Londoners are swinging against Brexit with new polling revealing today that they would now vote by an overwhelming two to one to stay in the European Union. The YouGov survey of nearly 2,400 Londoners found 66 per cent would support Remain if there was another referendum and 34 per cent Leave. The findings contrast with the actual 60/40 referendum result in June 2016 in the capital and reveal a 20 point gap has widened to 32 per cent. With recent nationwide polling showing a shift to Remain, the London results will fuel doubts over whether there is any longer a majority for Brexit in Britain. They came amid widespread disillusionment over the Governments handling of Brexit, with Theresa May struggling to salvage her Chequers plan on quitting the EU. Loading.... The swing against Leave in the capital is being driven by women, with 68 per cent now saying they would vote Remain, up from 60 per cent. One in 10 Londoners who voted Leave would now back Remain, with four per cent switching in the opposite direction. The biggest generational shift appears to be among young adults, aged 18 to 24, with 87 per cent now saying they would vote to stay, up from 80 per cent. The analysis is a compilation of London samples from three nationwide YouGov tracker polls commissioned by the Peoples Vote campaign. Former YouGov president Peter Kellner said: Londoners generally reject the promises made by Brexiteers two years ago. If London were a separate country, it would unquestionably want to be a member of the EU. At least as many, if not a greater proportion, of Labour voters than Conservative supporters appear to be moving to Remain, 81 per cent in 2016 to 86 per cent now, piling more pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to support a second referendum, with fresh signs that he may be shifting towards it. The survey found 52 per cent of Londoners support a public vote on the outcome of Brexit talks, with 30 per cent opposing it. If there was a referendum, using a system similar to the London mayoral election, with three choices of remaining in the EU, quitting with the Chequers plan or leaving without a deal, Londoners would overwhelmingly back staying in. Sixty-four per cent would vote In with their first preference vote, the polling suggested, 13 per cent for Chequers, and 23 per cent to quit without a deal. Chancellor Philip Hammond indicated yesterday that Whitehall departments could be forced to cut spending programmes to help pay for the cost of a no deal Brexit, details of which are being worked on under plans codenamed Operation Yellowhammer. At least two thirds of Londoners do not believe that it is likely that Britain will get a good Brexit deal, three quarters expect many of the promises made by Leave politicians will be broken, over half expect the economy to be weaker if Brexit goes ahead, with 15 per cent saying it will be stronger. S ir Vince Cable has announced he will step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats. However, he did not reveal a timescale, only saying he would stand down once new party structures are in place and Brexit is resolved". Britain is set to leave the EU on March 29 next year. Announcing his plans in a speech on Friday, Sir Vince, 75, said: "Now is not the time for an internal election, once Brexit is resolved or stopped, that will be the time to conduct a leadership election under the new rules." He also laid down a major overhaul of party rules aimed at attracting younger voters and getting Remain supporters to bolster its ranks. Vince Cable only took over as Lib Dem leader last year / AFP/Getty Images He said voters who are "liberal-minded" should be allowed to sign up free under plans to bolster membership: We should widen membership with a new class of supporters who pay nothing to sign up to the partys values." Sir Vince also addressed his leadership of the party in the major central London speech ahead of the Lib Dem autumn conference. He had already told his MPs prior to the speech that he does not intend to remain as leader long-term, according to reports. Sir Vince had served as leader of the Liberal Democrats and Member of Parliament for Twickenham since the leadership nominations in 2017, when no other viable candidate came forward on the ballot. Vince Cable also announced party reform proposals (Yui Mok/PA) / PA Former leader Tim Farron stood down as head of the party after he was repeatedly pressed during a general election over his personal beliefs on issues including homosexuality. He quit saying his views were "incompatible" with leading the party. Earlier this year Sir Vince was criticised after missing a crucial Brexit vote. He admitted he "made a mistake" after neither him nor Mr Farron were present when the government's Customs Bill scraped through by just three votes. Sir Vince said he was having a "confidential private discussion" when the vote took place. B oris Johnson and his high-flying lawyer wife Marina Wheeler are now living apart after she again accused him of cheating, it has been claimed. The former Foreign Secretary and his wife, both 54, are no longer living together or socialising as a couple, according to reports on Thursday night. Mr Johnson has been accused of a string of affairs during the couples 25-year marriage. And according to the Sun, his latest alleged fling was the final straw. The newspaper reported that his fashion journalist daughter Lara, 25, said Marina will never take him back and labelled her father a selfish b******. Boris Johnson and his wife Marina Wheeler have split, according to reports / PA Archive/PA Images The Conservative MPs marriage has been rocked previously by reported affairs with other women, with Marina throwing him out twice before. A friend of Mr Johnson told the Sun there is no getting around that the couples living arrangements have changed, but added: I wouldnt say their marriage is over until theres a divorce. He doesnt do anything politically without consulting her." Mr Johnson was previously married to Allegra Mostyn-Owen, whom he met at university, between 1987 and 1993. He married Ms Wheeler in 1993. Author Sanchez, whose novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has spent weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, spoke about how she created spaces for the narratives she needed to read. Quoting her favorite author Toni Morrison, Sanchez said, If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it. She said she thinks of her work as an antidote to culture and firmly believes books can save lives. B ritish travellers have been warned they could be arrested for drinking alcohol while on flights to the Middle East. The shock announcement comes after British mother-of-three was jailed for drinking a glass of wine on an Emirates flight from Gatwick. Dr Ellie Holman claims she was spat at and had her hair pulled while she was held in prison for three days for the incident. The British Embassy in the United Arab Emirates posted the message about drinking in the federation on its Facebook page. Alcohol licences are required for residents while tourists are restricted to consuming alcohol in a hotel or a licensed premises. It read: "If caught carrying or drinking alcohol without a licence or with alcohol in your blood, you can be arrested. "It is a punishable offence to be under the influence of alcohol in public - including when transiting through the UAE. "It can result in custodial sentences and/or a fine." The post appeared to be part of a series on the "UK in UAE" page about consular matters. Swedish dentist Ellie Holman, who lives in Sevenoaks in Kent with her English partner Gary and their three children, was detained on July 13 having drunk one glass of wine on her eight-hour Emirates Airline flight to Dubai from London. The warning issued by the UK embassy in the UAE The charges were later dropped. Radha Stirling, chief executive of human rights group Detained in Dubai, said: "In light of the FCO's announcement, we will be contacting all airlines who transit to or through the UAE to clarify their position on serving alcohol to passengers. "Either the UAE will need to reform their laws urgently, or the airlines will need to update their policy to ensure the safety of customers." B ook chain Waterstones has bought its rival Foyles in a multimillion-pound deal ending 115 years of family control. Christopher Foyle, whose grandfather William set up the firm in 1903, signed off the deal that sees Waterstones pick up its landmark Charing Cross Road store as well as smaller shops at Westfield Stratford, Waterloo and the Royal Festival Hall. He said: My family and I are delighted that Foyles is entering a new chapter, one which secures the brands future and protects its personality. "I look forward to witnessing the exciting times ahead for the company founded by my grandfather and his brother 115 years ago. Waterstones said the deal would help booksellers combat the "siren call" of online rival Amazon. Foyles moved to Charing Cross Road, famous worldwide as the home of Londons booksellers, in 1906 and has been there ever since. It became famous for its eccentric approach to the trade. Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road / Getty Images When Nazi Germany began to ban and burn books William Foyle known as the Barnum of Books sent a telegram to Adolf Hitler offering to buy them instead. The Charing Cross Road shop became famous for its chaotic, unsorted shelves and huge amounts of stock which made shopping difficult. Things got so bad that rival store Dillons launched an advertising campaign around Charing Cross Road aimed at disgruntled book lovers with the slogan Foyled again? Foyles moved its flagship branch a few doors away to the former Central Saint Martins art school building in 2014, describing the new building as a bookshop for the 21st century. Waterstones boss James Daunt said the deal would help both brands: Together, we will be stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazons siren call. His firm, which operates 283 bookshops throughout the UK and Europe, also owns a third famous London bookseller, Hatchards, and Dublins Hidges Figgis. Earlier this year it reported an 80 per cent jump in annual profits, with the success of childrens books including titles by JK Rowling and David Walliams boosting the business. A fire in northern California that closed a major highway is burning out of control with flames "over 300 feet high." The US Forest Service says the blaze now covers around 38 square miles, up from 34 square miles on Thursday. According to California Highway Patrol Officer Jason Morton, the blaze is zero percent contained and still burning along interstate 5. The highway runs between Mexico and Canada and is the main thoroughfare for commercial trucks. It has been closed for three days and officials are meeting to assess whether it can reopen. Drivers fled in terror and several big rigs burned on Wednesday as the fire erupted on both sides of the route. Part of the major highway between Canada and Mexico has been closed for three days / AP Crews managed to remove the burned hulks and abandoned rigs on Thursday but flames continued to burn along the edge of the road in some areas, fire spokesman Brandon Vacarro said. The fire prompted evacuation orders for scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. At times, flames shot up 300ft high. Although the fire was not burning near any large towns, Mr Vacarro said about 280 homes were considered threatened. There were some reports that homes had burned but he could only confirm that an outbuilding and two mixed-use commercial and residential buildings had been damaged. California has been hit with a series of giant wildfires this summer / AP Truckers who rely heavily on the I5 to transport timber and other goods along the West Coast had the unenviable choice of waiting or taking a jammed detour that added 115 miles or so to their journeys. California has been hit with one massive blaze after another over the summer, including a blaze not far from the Delta Fire that last month burned about 1,100 homes and killed eight people. The unrelenting flames have drained California's firefighting budget and prompted nearly a billion dollars in property claims even before the start of the dangerous autumn fire season, officials said. P resident Trump's former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI. He is the first former campaign aide to be sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. In October 2017, he pled guilty to one count of lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior government officials. Mr Papadopoulos was a member of the campaign's foreign policy team, but Trump aides have said he played a limited role in the campaign and had no access to the candidate. Court papers revealed that Mr Papadopoulos was told about the Russians possessing "dirt" on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails" on April 26 2016, well before it became public that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails had been hacked. The interactions at the centre of the case included speaking with Russian intermediaries who were attempting to line up a meeting between Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and offering "dirt" on Mrs Clinton. During the trial, Mr Papadopoulos apologised for his actions, telling a judge that he had made a "dreadful mistake" and was eager for redemption. Prosecutors sought a sentence of up to six months, while defence lawyers asked for probation. J ulian Assange's health could deteriorate to the point his life is at risk if does not leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The stark claim has been made by a member of his legal team. Mr Assange, the founder and editor of Wikileaks, has resided there since 2012, after seeking asylum to prevent his potential extradition to Sweden. This came after a long legal wrangle following sexual assault allegations in the country. There is also a chance he might be extradited to the United States should he be extradited to Sweden. He has not left the walls of the embassy in six years, as he would likely be arrested upon his exit. Mr Assange has been in the embassy in London for six years / Dominic Lipinski/PA Australian lawyer Greg Barns, a member of Mr Assange's legal team who also advises WikiLeaks, told iTWire that the WikiLeaks leader had not been able to access medical treatment in that entire time. This, he claimed, was because the UK government refused to allow him to leave the embassy to attend appointments without him being arrested, "This is a cruel and inhumane stance from a government professing to be a liberal democracy," Mr Barns said. What is remarkable is that Julian remains so mentally alert and is able to function physically given the inevitable impact of six years detention without natural light or access to fresh air on a constant basis. "However if there is not a resolution to his case in other words, the UK guaranteeing that he will not be extradited to the US the reality is Julian's health will deteriorate to the point where his life is in serious danger." He might have his asylum revoked by Ecuador in the near future / Getty Images It has been reported that Ecuador has been working to finalise an agreement to end asylum for Mr Assange. He had his internet access revoked in March, according to the Ecuador government. His notoriety comes from running the organisation WikiLeaks, renowned for spreading secret information from whistle blowers. WikiLeaks major rise to prominence came in 2010, F undraising bosses have pledged a homeless man who gave his last $20 to help a total stranger will get 'every penny' of a fund set up in his name. A US couple who set up a fund in the name of Good Samaritan Johnny Bobbitt were accused of squandering $400,000 donated by members of the public. Police raided the home of Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico in New Jersey, but they were not arrested and police said they do not face any charges. In November last year, they set up a successful fundraiser for Good Samaritan Johnny Bobbitt in order to buy him a new home and car. It came after Ms McClures car ran out of fuel on a highway in Philadelphia and rough sleeper Mr Bobbitt used his last $20 to help her fill up the vehicle. Over 10 months, the GoFundMe page attracted 14,347 donations, raising a total $402,706. But things turned sour when Mr Bobbitt accused the couple of squandering the money on vacations and new cars. Johnny Bobbitt accused Mr D'Amico and Ms McClure of 'mismanaging' a large part of the donations raised for him on GoFundMe / David Swanson/AP Scott Coffina, from the Burlington County Prosecutors Office, said in a statement on Thursday: Due to the enormous public interest in this matter, I am confirming that a search warrant was executed early this morning by the Burlington County Prosecutors Office and the Florence Township Police Department at the residence of Mark D'Amico and Katelyn McClure in connection with a criminal investigation into the Johnny Bobbitt matter. As of this time, there have been no charges filed. Further updates will be provided as circumstances warrant. Johnny Bobbitt pictured last month / David Swanson/AP But regardless of the outcome of the investigation, Bobby Whithorne, director of North America communications for GoFundMe, promised: "Johnny will be made whole. T he far-right politician leading the polls in Brazils presidential race is in serious condition after being knifed at a campaign rally just one month before the election. Jair Bolsonaro was rushed to hospital after being stabbed by a man who ambushed him as he was being carried on the shoulders of a supporter on Thursday. The far-right candidate was in intensive care following the shocking incident and remained there today in a serious but stable condition. Police said his suspected attacker was in custody. Dr Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery on Bolsonaro, said the politician would remain in intensive care for at least a week. Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is taken on the shoulders of a supporter moments before being stabbed / AP The first round of Brazil's presidential election is on October 7. The doctor said the two-hour procedure stopped serious internal bleeding and repaired most of the damage from the stab wounds to Bolsonaros abdomen. Dramatic videos on social media showed Bolsonaro, who has promised to crack down on crime in Latin America's largest nation, being stabbed campaigning in Juiz de Fora, a city about 125 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. At the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand. People surround a man, who is not pictured, suspected of stabbing Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro / REUTERS After the incident, he is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who was apparently the suspect. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed that 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira had been arrested in connection with the incident. O n a hot and sticky evening in a Brooklyn park, the so-called Cynthia effect was on full display. This is a David and Goliath battle, but there is a path to victory, said a defiant Cynthia Nixon, 52, to cheers and applause as the Sex And The City star addressed supporters at a canvassing event for her campaign to become the next governor of New York. Indeed, with the states Democratic primary on Thursday, Nixon will have to defy considerable odds if she is to succeed. The Goliath in question, incumbent Andrew Cuomo, 60, who is seeking a third term as governor, not only has a 30 point poll lead over the former actress, best known for playing lawyer Miranda Hobbes in the sitcom, but also a substantial financial advantage he reportedly raised campaign funds of $30 million, compared with her estimated $1.6 million. But following a strong performance in a televised debate with her rival last week in which she accused him of lying and branded him a corrupt, corporate Democrat and a recent wave of shock wins from progressive Democratic candidates across the US, Nixon is convinced that she stands a chance. In an impassioned speech at Carroll Park on Tuesday, she cited recent poll-defying primary victories within the party, saying: Nobody saw Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [a New York congressional candidate] coming, but she came just the same. Andrew Gillum, who was at 11 per cent in the polls, is now the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida. The polls are not capturing this moment. Afterwards her supporters chanted Cynthia! before queueing for photos. When Nixon, who grew up in New York, entered the race for governor earlier this year there was significant doubt over whether she had the credentials to win public support for a post which commands a budget of almost $170 billion and a state of 20 million people. But since then, the mother-of-three, who has two children from a previous relationship and one with wife Christine Marinoni, has been credited with shifting the policies of her opponent to the Left. This has been dubbed the Cynthia effect by her supporters. Her pledges include increasing education funding, improving access to healthcare, expanding rent control, fixing the Subway, legalising marijuana and tackling climate issues. Supporter Sondra Shaye, 54, an energy healer, said that at first she doubted Nixons experience, but added: Shes already moved Cuomo to the Left and so weve already won in that sense. Even some Cuomo supporters think she is having a positive impact. A teenage boy has fallen to his death while taking a selfie on the edge of a waterfall in Yosemite National Park, according to reports. Tomer Frankfuter, an Israeli teen, reportedly fell 800 feet after he lost his balance in the California park on Wednesday. The 18-year-olds grieving mother told Hebrew-language Channel 10 news outlet that her son was trying to line up the perfect photo. His mother said the young man was on holiday in the US for two months, before he was going to join the Israeli army. Mr Frankfuters body was found approximately 820 feet below, at the base of the cascade at Nevada Fall. E very year, it's estimated that three million girls are subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) worldwide. Now police and border control officers are stepping up their efforts to tackle FGM at airports on both sides of the Atlantic. Amanda Reid, the national operational lead for safeguarding and modern slavery in the Border Force, said: "We're here to send that message that FGM is a criminal act and we want to protect girls." This week, FGM campaigner Leyla Hussein warned that although the practice, which involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia, is illegal in the UK, some girls still see it as a cultural practice. Many victims are taken to other parts of the world to get cut, such as North Africa and the Middle East. Here's everything you need to know about FGM and why it's practiced in some cultures: What is FGM? FGM includes "the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." Most often the mutilation is performed before puberty, often on girls between the age of four and eight. There has, however, been reports of FGM being performed on young babies. What's involved in the procedure? There are four types of procedures, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO): Type I: Partial or total removal of the clitoris Type II: Partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia (lips that surround the vagina), with or without removal of the labia majora (outer lips). Type III: Narrowing of the vaginal orifice with the creation of a covering seal, formed by cutting and repositioning the labia. Type IV: All other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example: pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization. Where is it practised? The practice can be found in communities all over the world. FGM is known to be practiced in some African countries, including Ghana, Sudan and Somalia. It's also practiced in Asian countries like India and Indonesia, in Middle-Eastern countries like the UAE and Yemen, in Eastern European countries like Georgia and the Russian Federation and South American countries like Columbia and Ecuador. FGM is also practiced among diaspora populations in Western countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US and the UK. Why is FGM performed? FGM is performed for a variety of reasons but is often a result of deeply entrenched gender inequality within a society. It is sometimes carried out to ensure virginity before marriage and fidelity afterwards, and to increase male sexual pleasure. FGM can also be seen as a signifier of a girl's initiation into womanhood and some communities view the female genitalia as dirty and ugly. What is 'cutting season'? 'Cutting season' is the term given to the period over the summer holidays where potentially thousands of girls in the UK are flown abroad to undergo FGM. Who is at risk? In the UK, the Home Office has identified girls from the Somali, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Sierra Leonean, Egyptian, Nigerian, Eritrean, Yemeni, Kurdish and Indonesian communities most at risk of FGM. Girls are also at risk if FGM has been carried out on their mother, sister or a member of their extended family. Why is it dangerous? FGM has serious consequences for the sexual and reproductive health of girls and women. During the procedure, complications include severe pain, shock and haemorrhage. Long-term effects include complications during childbirth, urinary tract infections, lack of sexual pleasure and infertility. Young women who have had their vaginal opening sealed will also need to have it cut open again later to allow for sexual intercourse. Psychologically, the process is also deeply disturbing, with women affected going on to suffer from anxiety and depression. What's the legal status of FGM? In 2016, the United Nations adopted The Girl Child Resolution, which recognises FGM as a form of "discrimination against the girl child and the violation of the rights of the girl child." In the UK, it's illegal to practice FGM and for UK nationals to perform FGM abroad. The maximum penalty for FGM is 14 years. What's being done to stop FGM? The government has put increasing efforts into tackling FGM in recent years and it is now compulsory for family doctors, hospitals and mental health services to report any new cases in their patients. There's still much more to be done though. There have been 6,195 cases recorded between April 2017 and March this year - but there is yet to be a successful prosecution involving FGM. If you know someone who has undergone or is at risk from FGM, you should contact the police. After a six-year break, "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" returned to Chicago in a big way in 2018, featuring Sun Wah BBQ, Bella Luna Cafe, Saucy Porka, Manny's Deli, Del Seoul and mfk. Host Guy Fieri also visited La Scarola in West Town on an episode of "Triple D Nation," a spinoff of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," that aired in October 2018. Fieri was spotted filming here in April 2018. About 30 Chicago-area restaurants have been featured on the Food Network series since it premiered in 2007. Some seasons highlighted several local restaurants, and other years, there were none at all. Many of the Chicago-area restaurants are still open, and several experienced a substantial bump in business when their episode aired. (Tracy Swartz) A manda Holden led the fashion pack as she joined a host of stars on the red carpet for a night of glitz and glamour at this years Animal Hero Awards. The Britains Got Talent judge stunned crowds as she arrived for the extravaganza at the Grosvenor House Hotel in west London on Thursday night. Holden, 47, stepped out in an elegant black floor-length gown with a sweetheart neck design as she flashed a smile for the cameras ahead of the awards ceremony. Her entrance to the annual bash appeared to be far smoother than in previous years. In 2016 she was pounced on by a Labrador that pushed her to the floor on stage. Looking good: Holden stunned in a black floor-length dress / PA Wire/PA Images The animal lover later shared an image online of her wearing a second outfit during this years event - this one a stylish floor-length maroon Bardot dress. The television star was pictured wearing the gown, which she teamed with chic matching heels, as she leaned elegantly against a grand piano. Joining Holden on the red carpet ahead of the bash was the likes of reality star Ferne McCann and Irish television presenter Laura Whitmore. Whitmore dazzled in a sharply-tailored suit and a graphic print T-shirt. The 33-year-old posed for photos as she held her pet pooch Mick in her arms. McCann, 28, turned heads in a chic beige dress with a side-slit at the leg, which she combined with a pair of towering silver heels adorned with glittering stars. Laura Whitmore dazzled in a two-piece and graphic-print T-shirt as she hit the red carpet with her adorable pooch / PA Wire/PA Images Holden is the owner of two adorable dogs, a Shitzu and Bichon-Frise cross named Rudie and Buddy, who she welcomed to her family shortly after Christmas. She is known to enjoy yoga sessions with her pampered pooches. Speaking to the Daily Star last year, Holden said: We have my instructor come to my home and we set aside an hour session of Kundalini yoga. Rudie and Buddy join in and find their inner zen. It's a great de-stresser for them. Ferne McCann teamed her elegant beige dress with a pair of sparkling heels / PA Wire/PA Images Among pets to be honoured at the London ceremony was a brave beagle who suffers from PTSD after a traumatic two years as a laboratory dog. Scarlett is now a figurehead for anti-animal testing campaigners For Life On Earth, and was named as the Inspirational Animal of the Year at the ceremony. A nthony Joshuas 150,000 personalised Range Rover has been stolen in central London. The boxers luxury car, which is embossed with his signature, was taken outside a family members home in the capital just days before his world title fight against Alexander Povetkin . Joshua, 28, had left the car while he trained at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield ahead of the bout when it was taken on Thursday. His spokesman told the Standard: "A shared car was stolen from a relatives central London home in the early hours of the morning. "This is now a police matter and no further information will be made available." The Range Rover is said to have a drawer where Joshua keeps his title belts, although they were not in the car at the time. A source close to the boxer told the Sun: "AJ's pretty annoyed about it because it's so close to the fight. He doesn't want any distractions at all. "Thankfully no one was hurt when it was stolen. There were no aggravating features in it which is a massive blessing. "But this is probably one of the last things he wanted before the fight. "He's concentrating on the fight at the moment and won't let it distract him but once it's over he will do whatever it takes to find it." It is believed thieves may have broken into the car using a device which mimics the key fob. They can be purchased online. Joshua has often posed with the car for pictures on his Instagram page, referring to it as just perfect. S ally Field has paid tribute to her ex Burt Reynolds following his death aged 82. As tributes poured in for the late star, Field who Reynolds hailed the love of his life issued an emotional statement. The actress said: There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even forty years later. Tribute: Sally Field has paid her respects / Charley Gallay/Getty Images for TCM My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy. The co-stars appeared in four films together, two Smokey And The Bandit films, The End and Hooper. Actor Burt Reynolds dies aged 82 Field and Reynolds met on the set of Smokey and The Bandit in 1977 and dated for five years. Reynolds proposed to mother-of-two Field on a number of occasions but they never married, with the star telling Vanity Fair in 2015 that she was the love of his life. At the time, he said: I miss her terribly. Even now, its hard on me. I dont know why I was so stupid. Men are like that, you know. You find the perfect person, and then you do everything you can to screw it up. 9. Love Lockdown 808s & Heartbreaks marked a pretty dramatic departure for Kanye, with the rapper stripping things back and dialing up the auto-tune for the 2008 album. The deeply personal and introspective work was influenced by the death of his mother and the end of the rappers long-term relationship with fiance Alexis Phifer. Heartbreaks remains his most candid record to date and Love Lockdown is a clear highlight. The track showcases his talent for songcraft and highlights a tender side to the performer. While the album is arguably one of the most unsung of Kanyes career, the production values would come to inform the new wave of commercial hip hop that followed too. AFP/Getty Images A ctress Liz Fraser, best known for her role in the Carry On film franchise, has died at the age of 88. The British star famously played a busty blonde character in Carry on Cruising, Carry on Regardless and Carry on Cabby in the early sixties. Director Michael Armstrong has lead tributes to the late star, describing her as "one of the greatest comedic actresses of her era". He wrote on Twitter: My lovely Liz Fraser has died. I'm too upset to speak of our personal relationship over the years but will state: as one of the greatest comedic actresses of her era on stage & screen. Her legacy of work will serve as a masterclass for future generations. RIP, dearest Liz. X. Comedy legend: Liz Fraser has been praised by the film world / Mail on Sunday The British Comedy Society's tweeted: "We're very sad to learn that the wonderful comic actor Liz Fraser, star of many post-war TV, radio and film comedies, has died at the age of 88. She was a delight. Frasers first major film role was in 1959s Im All Right Jack, playing Peter Sellers daughter, although she played his girlfriend just one year later in Two Way Stretch. Speaking about working with Sellers she once said: He wined and dined me at his Hampstead penthouse and another time locked me in his dressing room having invited me there for lunch. He had treated a girlfriend of mine badly, so I didn't quite go there. Fraser joined the Carry On franchise in 1961 but was reportedly dropped after making a negative comment about the marketing. P iers Morgan has shared a picture of his eldest son Spencer recovering in hospital after his hell falling ill with what doctor's feared was sepsis. The Good Morning Britain frontman posted the snap of his son sitting up in bed in a Turkish hospital where he spent a week after falling ill following a spider bite. Writing on Friday, Morgan said: One small spider bite in Antigua.. led to one long week of near-Sepsis hell in Turkey. Many thanks to all the brilliant staff at Letoon Hospital in Fethiye for taking care of my eldest son @spencer__morgan so well. Thankfully now on road to recovery. A bandage could be seen on Spencers right arm, just around his elbow. Spencer travelled to Turkey for a holiday after his recent family trip to Antigua, and has also kept his Instagram followers up-to-date on his condition. He posted a snap of himself standing outside the hospital, joking: Scared of spiders? Am I f*** #ChristHasRisenAgain. Morgan recently returned to Good Morning Britain alongside Susanna Reid after taking a break from the show over the summer. It's a familiar refrain. Old folks just don't understand what's going on with college students, and that makes them feel out of touch, unsympathetic to the young. In the late 1960s, Ronald Reagan built his political career in California on his hostility to the spoiled, un-American dissidents protesting in Berkeley. In the 1980s, Allan Bloom transformed himself from hedonistic, mandarin professor to best-selling conservative scold by excoriating students for their addiction to rock music and deafness to the higher pleasures of Straussian contemplation. In that same decade, former leftist Sidney Hook whined that "there is less freedom of speech on American campuses today ... than at any other recent period in peacetime in American history." By the 1990s, it was common knowledge that you could attract a crowd of supporters by attacking political correctness, and in recent years we have seen no end of folks with access to a keyboard or a microphone complaining about PC college students, those "excellent sheep," in William Deresiewicz's memorable phrase. President Trump is only the most vulgar and powerful of those willing to say that "political correctness is killing our country." Courtesy SixthmanLilith Fair may not be around anymore, but you can replicate the experience by joining Melissa Etheridge on her annual fan cruise next year. Melissa has tapped some iconic '90s female stars to join her for the third annual sailing: Joan Osborne, Paula Cole and Shawn Colvin. Also on board for the trip: Serena Ryder and the bands Delta Rae and Antigone Rising. The seven-day cruise sets sail from Tampa, FL March 31 aboard the Norwegian Pearl. It'll travel to Harvest Caye, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Grand Cayman island before returning April 7. In a statement, Melissa says of the cruise, "It's about the music, and it's about being together on a boat -- it's one of the most loving experiences I've ever had. All the fans gather together for one thing: for music. The diversity is amazing!" Fans on the cruise will enjoy two concerts, a Q&A and a photo op with Melissa, as well as performances from all the other artists, plus typical cruise ship amenities like a casino, a pool, hot tubs, a spa and a variety of dining experiences. You can book your cabin now at TheMelissaEtheridgeCruise.com; fares start at $1,339 per person. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. In fact, its an ode that contains many odes within itself. Take Ode to Cheese Fries, in which he writes say it with me / cheese fries please / give me everything artificial including cardboard fries,/ the bread fresh/ out of some Walmart cloning experiment / throw in/ a cold pop / I want a joy so fake it stains my insides &/ never fades away. Or Ode to Cal City Basement Parties, in which he writes, lovers tag walls/ the deep blue/ of Levis. Hands on/ hips. hips on hips. red/ Solo cups. smoke hides./ touch reveals. Theres even an Ode to Scottie Pippen, in which the speaker declares Scottie, you made it look easy,/ the way your legs ate air,/ found every escalator up.// i was watching your game. working my own factory/ trying to build my way out. The giveaway comes as the community continues to reel from the deaths of 10 children, who ranged in age from 3 months to 16 years old. Firefighters responded about 4 a.m. Aug. 26 to the 2200 block of South Sacramento Avenue and found a fire that had grown so hot and large that it could have been smoldering for up to half an hour before someone called 911. 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Cluj city's international airport "Avram Iancu" festively celebrated having reached the mark of 2,000,000 passengers a year; the airline hub targets a 7-ml strong traffic by 2030. In 2018 we hit the 2-million passengers mark together with Tarom, our traditional partner that celebrates its 64th anniversary on September 18; for 64 years now the Cluj International Airport has been working together with Tarom. We have major development plans, as we estimate reaching a traffic of about seven million passengers in 2030. We hope works on the diversion of the Somes river carry on so that we are able to expand the runway, and the next step is the inauguration of the Cluj - New York direct flight service, airport CEO David Ciceo said. According to the cited official, the Cluj International Airport will reach about 2.9 million passengers towards the end of the year. IRUM Reghin is launching this fall, the year of the Greater Union's Centennial, the first 100 pct Romanian tractor, designed and made by the company's engineers, 15 years from the disappearance of the Romanian tractors' production, on Friday announced Mircea Oltean, the company's managing director. "We have decided to enter the agricultural area, to be more specific we have decided to enter the market with an agricultural tractor. If the people saw us as a forestry tractors and equipment manufacturer, currently, after 9 years [since we started the TAG tractors manufacturing under Belarus licence, ed. n.] people already see us in the same measure as an agricultural equipment producer. And since we are celebrating the Centennial, we are to launch this fall the first 100 pct Romanian tractor, designed and made exclusively by our team of talented engineers, after 15 years since the vanishing of the Romanian tractors' production," Mircea Oltean told a news conference. According to the IRUM managing director, the tractors' manufacturing will kick off next year, 500 units being due for production at Reghin in a first stage, in parallel with the ones made under Belarus licence, and the two types of tractors will be complementary, meaning they will be different types with different horse power (HP).The zero series of the Romanian tractors has passed the testing phase already, and IRUM will manufacture tractors ranging from 85 to 105 HP in the first stage.The new tractor will be promoted under the "Romanian tractors" slogan with over 80 pct of its components made in Romania.The IRUM Reghin leadership specified that these will not be low cost tractors, since they will be world-wide high-performance equipment."There are certain specific elements wherein it is better to enter a collaboration with a traditional manufacturer than trying to invent the wheel, such as Perkins, that for over 80 years has been dealing with engines. We are talking of a Romanian tractor, of Romanian design, but there are certain components for which we have found external collaborators so as to make a competitive product on the world market. (...) An integrated plant such as IRUM - with a foundry, forging, mechanical processing workshop, welding, metallic constructions, assembly lines - it is hard to find in the Western countries. In general, there are companies that have a product and are looking for collaborators, we are an exception to the rule so far, functioning like this. And yet it is very hard to supervise so many areas and then, there are the partners involved," Mircea Oltean said.The Romanian tractor made by IRUM Reghin will be officially presented at the most important agricultural event in Romania, INDAGRA, organized by ROMEXPO together with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Romania, from 31 October to 4 November.In September 2016, the Romanian forestry articulated tractors' manufacturer SC IRUM SA Reghin, an exclusively Romanian company, launched three new forestry equipment: TAF 2012 G, TAF 4F GT by LOGSET and IFRON POWERSHIFT - two of which being exclusively conceived by the Reghin-based company's engineers and manufactured there.IRUM Reghin inaugurated in September 2015, the first R&D centre for agricultural and forestry equipment of Romania, the iFOR, following an almost 12 million lei investment, the first equipment manufactured here being TAF 2012 G and IFRON POWERSHIFT, and now when turning 65 years of activity, it is launching the new Romanian agricultural tractors.IRUM Reghin was established in 1953 and became a fully private company in 1999 when the Maviprod company (that is turning 25) has taken it over and maintained its main activity object, by manufacturing machinery and equipment for the forestry industry. Subsequently, IRUM was upgraded, kicked off a collaboration with Perkins company, extended its production lines and founded Romania's first private research centre in machinery and equipment. On a working visit to Spain, Romania's Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Thursday was welcomed King Felipe VI to discuss political and economic relations between the two countries, Romanians living and working in Spain, and Romania's presidency of the EU Council. According to a press statement released by the government, Dancila and Felipe VI mentioned the privileged relationship between the two countries geographically positioned at the confines of the European continent. They also highlighted the "excellent level of relations between Romania and Spain at a political and sectoral level, especially at the economic and human level, given good integration with the Spanish society of the over one million Romanians living and working in Spain."Dancila said that Spain is a true European model in terms of citizen integration, both at governmental level and society level."From the perspective of the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019, also discussed were Romania's preparations and priorities for this tenure."Dancila stressed the opportunity to deepen co-operation between Romania and Spain on the main topics on the European agenda, to generate, through joint efforts, positive results for the European Union, for the member states and for their citizens.She pointed out that "Romania's major goal for the future of Europe is the unity and cohesion of the European project, as the country wants a Europe built on fundamental principles and values, generating prosperity, security and stability."At the same time, Dancila and Felipe VI also discussed international political affairs. AGERPRES Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stated on Friday that a certain moment should come when all the protocols concluded with various institutions of the state must be declassified. "For us to start moving forward from a given time point T, we must have the declassification of protocols. If not, we will continue for many years from now on saying 'I have found one protocol in a certain place, there was a protocol two years ago, three years ago.' I believe we need to put a stop to this and the only solution is to have a time point T, when all protocols are declassified," Viorica Dancila, currently on a visit to Dacia Plant in Mioveni, stated. Social Democratic Party leader Liviu Dragnea stated on 1 September that he has information concerning the existence of a collaboration protocol between the National Anticorruption Directorate and the Romanian Television. He told a press conference in Neptun that all secret protocols must be declassified and annulled. Cops would not have to fill out a use of force report, as they do when they use a Taser or fire a gun, but supervisors would have to review the gun-pointing incident and it would be recorded in city data. The department also would have to develop training on when to point a weapon. Prime Minister Viorica Dancila proposed on Friday, after visiting the nuclear platform in Mioveni at the Nuclear Research Institute (RATEN ICN), the organisation of an interministerial meeting intended to solve the financing issues of the National Research Programme and the ALFRED project. "Prime Minister Viorica Dancila voiced appreciation for the activity carried out by the team of researchers and proposed the organisation of an interministerial meeting at the Gov't, with the involvement of the decision-making parties, so as to solve the financing difficulties both of the National Research Programme and of the ALFRED project. The premier also expressed hope that RATEN ICN will be designated International Excellency Centre based on Research Reactors (ICERR) by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, a process currently underway," reads a press release sent by the Government. During the visit, the premier met with the leadership of the Technologies for Nuclear Energy State Owned Company (RATEN), RATEN ICN and with members of the Scientific Council. Moreover, the head of the Executive paid a visit to the national interest installations which function on this platform: the TRIGA-ICN Research Reactor, the Post-Irradiation Examination Laboratory (LEPI) and the Test Stand of the Fuel Handling System (MID)."The Institute's main achievements, both national and international were presented, as well as the difficulties encountered in the research-development activity, especially the ones generated by the financing of the RATEN Annual Research Programme, regarding 'the Development of the national technical support and international cooperation for nuclear energy', of the implementation of the demonstration reactor for fast lead cooled reactors technology, ALFRED, support for the development of the 4th generation of nuclear energy reactors. The capacity and competency in manufacturing of industrial use sources of iridium, as sole supplier in Romania were highlighted, as well as in decommissioning disabled medical radiological installations," the cited source specifies. Premier Viorica Dancila announced on Friday that she will discuss with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker Brussels' possible concerns ensued in the wake of the August 10 anti-government protest in Victoriei Square. Asked during a visit to Topoloveni if she has lately discussed with Jean-Claude Juncker, as Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea had announced, Dancila said: "I haven't spoken yet with Mr. Juncker. (...) I was on a visit to Spain, where I met my Spanish counterpart and where I was also received by the King of Spain, I returned this night, I am now here. But I will discuss with Mr. President Juncker, not seeking to excuse anyone, (...) but requesting that we should let the outcomes of the investigation tip us into one direction or the other." Asked if she will go to the European Parliament if invited, Dancila replied: "Absolutely, I am completely open to appearing in the European Parliament or before the Parliament of Romania, wherever I am called, but I think (...) opinion-spouting on either the part of the government or of the political leaders is of no help. (...) Let's wait for the investigation to determine the truth."On September 1, at the end of the meeting of the PSD National Executive Committee, party Chairman Liviu Dragnea said in connection with the possible concerns sparked in Brussels following the August 10 protest that PM Viorica Dancila will discuss the matter with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker."Mrs. Viorica Dancila will call Mr. President Juncker on Monday to discuss this issue. (...) For my part, I will call Mrs. [Commissioner] Corina Cretu. I think she should have talked first to Mrs. Prime Minister," Dragnea said. President Klaus Iohannis on Friday sent Justice Minister Tudorel Toader the request for the criminal prosecution of Gabriel Sandu, as former minister of Communications and Information Society, the Presidential Administration informs. "Romania's President Klaus Iohannis, sent on Friday, 7 September, to the Justice Minister, the request for the criminal prosecution of Mr Sandu Gabriel, as former Minister of Communication and Information Society in the period December 2018 and September 2010, for acts that are the subject of the Criminal Case no. 476/P/2014 of the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice - the National Anticorruption Directorate - the Section for combating offenses assimilated to corruption, for committing the influence peddling offense stipulated by article 291, paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code referred to article 7 letter a) of Law No.78/2000, as well as complicity to abuse of office offense stipulated by article 48 of the Criminal Code referred to article 297, paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code with reference to article 309 of the Criminal Code and article 132 of Law No.78/2000, to be proceeded in accordance with the law, taking into account the request of the Prosecutor General of the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, based to the provisions of article 109, paragraph (2) of the Constitution of Romania, republished, of Law No. 115/1999 regarding the ministerial responsibility, republished, with the subsequent amendments and additions, taking also into consideration the decision of the Constitutional Court No. 270/2008," the Presidential Administration shows. So the 19-year-old got involved with GoodKids MadCity, an anti-violence group made up of young people in Chicago, according to Kofi Ademola, an adult mentor for the group. Earlier this year, Johnson participated in a die-in at City Hall attended by survivors of the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., to protest the citys gun violence and its plan for a new police and fire academy. The following year, in a separate instance described in the complaint, six female nurses and technicians who used a locker room and bathroom at the medical center were unlawfully recorded by a hidden camera as they used the restroom and changed into and out of their work clothes, according to the complaint. The officer, who has been with the sheriffs department since 1996 and has been a sheriffs police officer since October 2015, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at the same hospital and was released Friday, according to sheriffs department spokeswoman Sophia Ansari. The officer was not responding to a call when the crash occurred, Ansari said Thursday. Its not conservative. It sure isnt normal. Its radical. Its a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters, even when it hurts the country, he said. Its a vision that says the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions set the agenda and over the past two years, this vision is now nearing its logical conclusion. The latest announcement by British authorities of two named Russian suspects in connection with the alleged poison assassination of a former Russian spy and his daughter is more absurd drama in a long-running tawdry saga. No verifiable evidence is ever presented, just more lurid innuendo and more refusal by the British authorities to abide by any due process and international norms of diplomacy. It is all scurrilous sound and fury aimed at smearing Russia. This week, Britains Metropolitan Police released video shots of two alleged Russian men purporting to show them arriving at Londons Gatwick airport on March 2. Other video shots purport to show the same men walking the streets of Salisbury on March 3, the day before former Russian Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were apparently stricken with a powerful nerve agent. The two would-be assassins then allegedly flew back to Moscow from London late on March 4. One preposterous claim, among several by the British authorities, is that traces of the putative nerve poison Novichok were found in the London hotel room where the alleged Kremlin agents stayed. The incompetence of the two supposed super assassins beggars belief. More realistically clumsy, however, is the attempt by the British to lay an incriminating trail. The day after the Met police announcement implicating the two Russian culprits, Britains Prime Minister Theresa May stood up in front of her parliament and claimed that the two individuals were members of Russian military intelligence, the GRU. Another British minister, Ben Wallace, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having personal responsibility for ordering the alleged assassination plot. Then on Thursday Britain summoned the United Nations Security Council to hash over the lurid claims against Russia without providing any further substantiating details to back up the sensational accusations. This is nothing other than more trial-by-media, a process of railroading allegations against Russia, not on any basis of legal due process, but simply by bluster and prejudice. The credulous British news media play a dutiful secondary role in giving the claims a semblance of credibility, instead of asking the gaping questions that are warranted. As Vasily Nebenzia, Russias envoy to the UN, remarked, the whole aim of the British claims is to whip up more international anti-Russia frenzy and hysteria. No sooner had Britain unleashed its latest allegations, a joint statement was released by the United States, Canada, Germany and France supporting the British claims. Britain is now calling for more punitive sanctions against Moscow just as it had triggered earlier this year when the Skripals apparently fell ill on a park bench in the southern English town of Salisbury. Some 28 countries have expelled Russian diplomats over those earlier and as-yet unfounded claims. More expulsions can thus be expected, with the intended effect of framing Russia as a pariah state. The timing of this weeks twist in the Skripal saga seems pertinent. The US, Britain and France are threatening to launch military strikes on Syria just as the Syrian army and its Russian ally move to defeat the last-remaining stronghold of NATO-backed terror groups in that country, potentially bringing an end to the Western-backed criminal war for regime change against the Assad government in Damascus. Last month, too, Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel held a productive, cordial summit with President Putin near Berlin, where the two leaders appeared to solidify a rapprochement over a crucial energy project between Russia the European Union. The British government is also teetering on political implosion from the Brexit debacle and growing public contempt. As Russias UN envoy Nebenzia further pointed out, how is it possible that the British prime minister can make the categorical claim that the two alleged Russian men in the video shots released this week are members of the GRU? Typically, she made the claim without providing any substantiating information. This was the same kind of plucking from thin air that Theresa May performed only days after the Skripals were apparently poisoned in Salisbury on March 4. Again, back then, May stood in front of parliament and dramatically accused Russia of a state-sponsored assassination attempt. The British authorities have cast, and continue to cast, a verdict without any legal case. That verdict relies entirely on Russophobia and prejudice of Russian malfeasance. Former British ambassador Craig Murray and other astute observers have noted that the latest video shots released by Britains counter-terrorism police are highly questionable. The images could have been easily fabricated with modern digital methods. They are not evidence of anything. Yet, suspiciously, the British authorities are in unseemly haste to make their sensational charges of Russian state culpability. Moscow has condemned the reprehensible rhetoric used by the British prime minister and senior members of her cabinet in throwing grave allegations against the Russian leadership. Britains trashing of diplomatic norms is deplorable, befitting a rogue state that is itching for conflict. The fact is that the British have spurned any normal legal attempt by Russia to access the supposed investigation in order to ascertain the nature of the alleged information incriminating Moscow. If Britain had a case, then why doesnt it permit an independent assessment? Russia is being denigrated with foul accusations, and yet Moscow is denied the right to defend itself by being able to ascertain the information. The British technique is that of an inquisition making a mockery of legal standards. Another salient fact is that the whereabouts of the Skripals is not known six months after the alleged poisoning incident. Russia has been repeatedly denied consular contact with one of its citizens, Yulia Skripal, whose bizarre one-off appearance in a video, released by the British authorities three months ago, conveyed her wish to return to her homeland of Russia. Britain is violating the legal principle of habeas corpus. Far from any evidence implicating Russia in a crime, the evidence so far points to the British authorities illegally detaining the Skripals for propaganda purpose. That nefarious purpose is clear: to demonize and delegitimize Russia as a sovereign state. The Skripal saga and official British clowning around would be laughable if the consequences for international relations were not so dire. The British authorities should be the ones in the dock, not Russia, to answer a case of forced abduction and incitement of international conflict. If this weeks media broadside on Trump were a Deep State hit job, then this is how it would proceed. First, an award-winning journalist of Bob Woodwards august reputation publishes a searing book seemingly substantiating long-held accusations of dysfunction in the White House. Then the next day to consolidate the books lurid claims, the New York Times, Americas so-called paper of record publishes an oped allegedly by an administration insider essentially confirming Woodwards tell-all account. Whats more, the sense of paranoia within the Trump administration will now be ratcheted up to levels which make normal staff working and communications almost paralyzed. Its a perfect psy-ops to explode chaos and mistrust among Trumps inner circle. But who really is Bob Woodward? He is famed as one of the Washington Post reporters who exposed the Watergate affair in 1974 which forced then President Richard Nixon to quit office in ignominy. The expose of Nixons wiretapping on Democrat rivals is commonly seen as the high-point of American journalism, and thus Woodward as a paragon of journalistic integrity. But as Russ Baker contends in his groundbreaking book, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Watergate and Nixon affair is not all that it seems. And neither is Woodward. There is credible evidence that the American Deep State of the military-intelligence apparatus used the Watergate scandal as a way to get rid of Nixon whose febrile mental state was becoming a concern to them. Woodward, who had a background in Navy intelligence was suspiciously a prodigy journalist who rapidly rose to cover what became the scandal that ended Nixons presidency. Woodwards newly published book on the Trump White House makes a damning case of a president who is allegedly despised and feared by his inner circle. It claims that staff have engineered an administrative coup against Trump, preventing him from taking key decisions, and generally portraying him as a farcical figure. The book seeds the concept among the public of a necessary coup against Trump. This is where Woodwards prestigious Watergate reputation comes into play. His role in that affair as a supposed champion of truth and of holding power to account is then invoked to give the seal of accuracy to his book on Trump. If Woodward says the president is a basket case, then it must be so, so goes the anticipated general public reaction. In order to drive the message home, the New York Times follows up with an oped claiming to be written by an anonymous official within the Trump administration who confirms what Woodwards book is claiming. When the Woodward book came out, there were staunch rebuttals of its claims from senior White House officials. In particular the Defense Secretary James Mattis, who was supposedly one of Woodwards main sources, saying that Trump was an idiot who wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Mattis dismissed the book and its author as having a rich imagination. There were also similar putdowns from Trumps Chief of Staff John Kelly and his ambassador the United Nations Nikki Haley. Trump himself scorned Woodwards book, Fear, as a shoddy work of fiction. Thanks to the publicity, the title has become a best-seller within days of being published. The pushback from the Trump White House was of course to be expected, given the claims from such an eminent journalist. Thats why the New York Times oped is a crucial capping on the claims, especially since the oped is supposedly written by a senior administration official. The New York Times says it knows the name of the official who wrote the piece. But it is not disclosing his or her identity, as the supposed author requests. The public therefore cant know the authenticity of the oped. Was it really written by a Trump administration senior official? Or some low-level staff? Or maybe not even an actual member of staff? The author of the oped claims: I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. But the main purpose is the sowing of grave doubt in the public mind and among Trumps senior staff at the White House. The oped appears to confirm the claims made by Woodward about a dysfunctional president who is being handled by staff working in resistance to his impetuousness for the safety of America. It also goes further by saying that the dysfunction ultimately stems from Trumps immorality. Ultimately, it is virtually impossible to prove the veracity of Woodwards book and the subsequent confirmatory article in the New York Times. Woodwards book has been denied by supposedly key sources. The authenticity of the author of the New York Times oped is a matter of trust in that newspapers editors. The so-called paper of record has lately been a massive purveyor of baseless scare stories slandering Russia. For many critics it is not a reliable nor ethical source, as is claimed. But the point is that a gravely damaging impact has been inflicted on the Trump presidency. His ability to rebuff critics with his customary braggadocio of slamming fake news appears this time to be mortally wounded. This is not meant to be a defense of the Trump administration nor of this president. Trumps White House certainly appears to be an unorthodox place, as indicated by the high turnover of senior staff over the past two years since his election. Trumps personality certainly comes across as impetuous and petty. His personal life also seems tainted with deceit and lewd scandals. Nevertheless he is the president that Americans voted for. And so far, he has not done anything out of the ordinary for American presidents. He is the usual run-of-the-mill guardian of big business and the oligarch system of enriching the super wealthy. Trump, like most of his predecessors, should also be prosecuted for war crimes over his bombing of Syria and Yemen. But all those misdemeanors and crimes are par for the course for US presidents. The one thing that Trump has done out of the ordinary, as far as the Deep State opponents are concerned, is his refusal so far to ramp up aggression with Russia. That has always been the unacceptable problem with Trump as president for the unelected imperial planners of the Deep State. The so-called Russiagate charade has failed to oust Trump due to its embarrassing dearth of evidence on alleged collusion with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The wider American public have simply not bought into that drama which has been concocted by political and media elites to nix Trump. Given the futility of those efforts, the Deep State may have now found at last the effective instrument with which to eliminate Trump from the White House. You enlist a star journalist with yesteryears Deep State operative experience, get the supposed paper of record to quickly confirm the salacious details, and then wait for the desired administrative coup to become a popularly demanded reality. The military-political landscape in Europe and the Mediterranean is changing. NATO is not as unified as it once was, and Turkeys membership has become more of a formality than a real thing. A pro-US group consisting of Great Britain, Poland, and the Baltic States has emerged as part of a North Atlantic Alliance that is divided by differences and the open rift over the 2% financial contribution, a decree that is largely ignored, along with the other divisions that are weakening the bloc. Other groups are arising that also have common security interests. A new pact, an Arab NATO allied with the United States, will soon materialize in the Middle East. Changes are coming, but they are hard to predict as everything is currently in a state of flux. The United States is interested in increasing its use of military bases and ports in Greece, said General Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), on Sept. 4 during his visit to Athens. If you look at geography, and you look at current operations in Libya, and you look at current operations in Syria, you look at potential other operations in the eastern Mediterranean, the geography of Greece and the opportunities here are pretty significant, he added. According to the Military Times, [N]o specific bases have been identified, but that Supreme Allied Commander Europe Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is evaluating several options for increased US flight training, port calls to do forward-based ship repairs and additional multilateral exercises. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross came to Greece right after the CJCSs visit to take part in the annual Thessaloniki International Trade Fair. Washingtons relations with Ankara continue to deteriorate. The idea of expelling Turkey from NATO is being discussed in the most prestigious American media outlets. The view that Ankara is more of an adversary than an ally is commonly held among American pundits. General Dunford pointedly did not include Turkey on his itinerary, as top US military officials would normally do in order to maintain balance in their relationship with Athens and Ankara. This is a clear message to Turkey. It was reported in May that the US military had started to operate MQ-9 aerial vehicles out of Greeces Larissa military base. That same month, the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier was one of the American ships making a port call. Greeces Souda Bay naval base is being used to support US operations in Syria. US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt has often cited the strategic significance of the ports of Alexandroupolis and Thessaloniki. Washington is interested in helping the Greek military conduct more effective operations in the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Greece is a crucial element in dealing with the challenges of the Eastern Med, the Maghreb, the Balkans, and the Black Sea region. There can be no doubt that Ankaras dispute with Cyprus and Israel over drilling rights in the Mediterranean was also on the agenda of the talks during Gen. Dunfords visit, although no comments were made to the media in regard to this issue. Greece wants to transform Alexandroupoli into a hub for the gas being exported from Israel and Cyprus to Europe. The pipelines approximate length is between 1,300 to 2,000 kilometers, and it will begin in Israel and cross through the territories of Cyprus, Crete and Greece to eventually end in Italy. The hub will also have a rail link to Bulgaria. A floating LNG reception, storage, and regasification unit will be part of this project, to make it possible to bring in US LNG supplies. The planned route of the EastMed pipeline, a project supported by the EU, will bypass Turkey, despite the increased cost. Ankara will hardly sit idly by and watch this turn of events. Turkey claims that part of the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus is under Turkish jurisdiction. According to Turkeys President Erdogan, the Eastern Mediterranean faces a security threat should Cyprus continue its unilateral operations of offshore oil and gas exploration in the region. The countries involved in the project may need US protection and help in order for this to come to fruition. For the US, strengthening its relations with Greece means expanding support for the emerging Greece-Israel-Cyprus Eastern Mediterranean Alliance (EMA) that has been driven by the discovery of hydrocarbons in Israeli and Cypriot waters and by opposition to Turkey. As Ambassador Pyatt put it, Americans are back in a really big way. A year ago the US opened its first permanent military base in Israel run by the US military's European Command (EUCOM). Officially, the primary mission of the air-defense facility located inside the Israeli Air Force's Mashabim air base, west of the towns of Dimona and Yerucham, is to detect and warn of a possible ballistic missile attack from Iran. This is part of a broader process as a new military alliance with its own infrastructure emerges. In 2015, Greece and Israel signed a military cooperation agreement. Bilateral and trilateral military drills, such as Nobel Dina, a multinational joint air and sea exercise conducted under the partnership of Greece, Israel, and the United States, have become routine. In March 2014, Israel opened a new military attache office in Greece to signify this ever-closer relationship. Israel has a strong defense and military relationship with Cyprus. The three nations are pledging deeper military ties, in keeping with the declaration they issued at the first-ever trilateral defense summit last year. Both Greece and Cyprus are EU members and Israel needs allies within the bloc. Greece opposed the EUs decision to label products from Israels settlements. In May, the leaders of the three allied Eastern Mediterranean nations paid a joint visit to Washington. Albania, Greeces neighbor, has recently offered to establish a US military base on its soil. Albania's defense minister, Olta Xhacka, made the proposal in April during her visit to Washington. Of all the members of the emerging alliance, only Israel is not a NATO member, but its an enhanced partner and a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue. What we actually have is a new alliance within the alliance, which was unofficially established to counter Turkey, a full-fledged NATO member. Under the circumstances, it would only be natural for Ankara to distance itself from NATO to move toward Russia, Iran, China, the SCO, and, perhaps, the Eurasian Union. The alliance of the US and the three Eastern Mediterranean states has emerged as a political and military petite entente, a force to be reckoned with at a time when NATO is facing serious challenges to its unity and the EUs future is in question. The two large entities that bring together nations sharing the same values, or the desire to counter China or Russia, are giving way to smaller groups of countries pursuing shared regional interests, thus undermining the very concept of what is known as the United West. TICKERS: EVM, , NSU Source: Adrian Day for Streetwise Reports (9/6/18) Money manager Adrian Day looks at three resource companies in his portfolio with joint-venture announcements. Evrim Resources Corp. (EVM:TSX.V, 1.31) announced that Newmont Mining had made a strategic investment in the company, buying 4.8 million shares at C$1.50 per share, with 80% of the $7.3 million proceeds earmarked for work on its new discovery, Cuale in Jalisco, Mexico, allowing Evrim to advance the project without a partner or earn-in option. Big win for Evrim It's a great deal for Evrim. It brings its total cash to a little more than C$12 millionsome old warrants were exercised earlier in the yearand allows it to advance Cuale without diluting its interest in that property. That is a very healthy balance sheet for a prospect generator exploration company, and provides Evrim with lots of flexibility in advancing the property. The dilution at the company level, around 6%, is modest. Newmont has no rights to the property or the company (other than a Right of First Offera ROFOmeaningfully different and less significant than the better-known Right of First RefusalROFR). A joint technical team will be established and this could be significant, since Newmont has wide experience in high sulphidation systems; Evrim retains the final say. Newmont gets a seat at the table and a microscope on the property, potentially influencing the direction of exploration, with no future obligations, as well as the ROFO which could set the timing of a takeover battle (we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here) to its advantage. There are the usual restrictions on resale of the shares, rights to participate in future equity offerings, and limitations on additional purchases in the market. Newmont and Evrim already work together on a regional generation alliance. Short delay in exploration As mentioned earlier (see here for an review of Cuale and here for more on Evrim), the drill permit for Cuale required a small environmental study and more time, leading to the entire exploration program, including trenching, soil sampling and geophysics, being delayed. That work, however, is now well underway, with results expected in stages this month, and drilling (following anticipated receipt of the permit) now expected later in October. Royalty dispute to be settled? Other company projects are also advancing. Results of a drill program at the Axe copper-gold porphyry project in British Columbia, funded by its partner Antofagasta, are expected shortly. And Harvest Gold has approved a drill program at Cerro Cascaron, in which it has earn-in rights. Lastly, and perhaps significantly, First Majestic announced it is working to settle the dispute with Evrim over the Ermitano property, adjacent to First Majestic's Santa Elena Mine and on which Evrim has a royalty interest. This has the potential for relatively near-term cash flow for Evrim. All the market's focus at present is on Cuale, but positive developments at other projectsparticularly a resolution of the Ermitano disputeall add value to the company. At a market cap of around C$110 million, there is clearly downside if Cuale proves disappointing, but there is still plenty of upside on positive drill results, and other assets to support the price, while the odds of a bust are relatively low. If you do not own it, Evrim remains a buy. Nevsun battle begins to pick up Nevsun Resources Ltd. (NSU:TSX; NSU:NYSE.MKT, US$3.78) continues to advance development of the Timok property in Serbia, though Lundin Mining's hostile bid and moves by Nevsun to find a white knight dominate investor focus as the shares begin to slowly move up above the Lundin bid price. Friday it was announced that China's Zijin Mining had won the tender to buy 63% of the Bor mining complex, including the country's only copper smelter, for $1.26 billion. This potentially has ramifications for Nevsun, though they are purely speculative. Nevsun is thought to be behind schedule for the 2020 deadline of a full feasibility and associated work necessary to convert its exploration license to an exploitation license. (Nevsun disputes this.) Though it might seem difficult to conceive that Nevsun would lose its license, nonetheless it has already had a one-year extension and the government may take a less lenient approach on further delays, especially with Zijin in the country and hungry for more ore to feed the Bor smelter. At the minimum, this could be one added factor to get Nevsun motivated to sell. Zijin is believed to be one of the companies that is talking with Nevsun about an agreed takeover of the entire company. Five companies are understood to have made firm proposals for an interest in the companymost likely at 19.9%with four of those at prices above that represented by the current Lundin bid. Several are understood to be potentially interested in the entire company, with two in more advanced talks. Significant change in shareholder base Lundin's current bid of C$4.76 has been rejected by Nevsun and is widely considered inadequate by Nevsun shareholders, though, as we have discussed, some of the larger institutional holders would be happy with the price for their own peculiar interests. There has also been considerable shuffling of major holders, with London's M&G and Vanguard reducing their holdings, while Fidelity as well as some hedge funds including Cobas and Passport have added considerably, with many others adding incrementally. Regulatory filings for the end of August, to be released within the next 10 days, should shed more light on this and tell us if these assessments are correct. If M&Gthe erstwhile second-largest holderand Vanguardthe erstwhile sixth largesthave sold, then we might infer that the cap on the stock price has been removed. Given the floor presented by the Lundin bidwhich under Canadian law can only be withdrawn on certain narrow conditionsand the potential upside of a competing bid or raised Lundin bid, the risk-reward in buying Nevsun is very positive. We would continue to buy, always subject to continuing developments. Newmont to earn into high potential project Miranda Gold Corp. (MAD:TSX.V, 33.5 cents) announced a long-anticipated option agreement on its Lyra project in Colombia with Newmont, which, by spending $600,000 over 18 months, will earn 51%. It will have the right to take its interest to 70% by spending another $7 million over the subsequent four years. The Lyra project consists of 14 concessions that could offer an extension to Continental's Buritica deposit, in which Newmont last year acquired a 19% interest. Although very early stage, the project certainly is prospective and Newmont's interest in the district keen. And another financing No sooner had the announcement of the option hit the wires than Miranda announced another $1.5 million private placement. This follows a highly controversial placement at the beginning of the year by which the company paid bonuses to directors and officers to purchase shares in the placement, somewhat negating the point of an "equity raise." The equity was issued all right, but the "raise" part of the equation was less than initially announced. So with cash down to $600,000 at last quarter end (May 31), another financing was no surprise. The market did not take well to it, however. After moving up for a couple of hours after the Newmont news, it fell back closing barely above where it has traded before the news. The shares to be issued represent almost 30% dilutionbefore taking into account the new warrants (and that follows 25% dilution in March). The units have been priced at 4 cents, which may be difficult in the current market. Alaska project on hold Separately, Gold Torrent has failed to complete a financing to bring the Lucky Shot project into production, and went into default on an agreement with its largest shareholder. Miranda owned a 30% equity interest and rights to purchase a 3.3% royalty (with monthly installment payments). Now, Miranda has agreed to sign over its equity interest to the new owners, Cartesian Capital, though it retains rights to the royalty. The future is unclear; Cartesian is an investment company not a miner, while Miranda is not in a position to put more money into the project. At minimumand perhaps in entiretyit holds only part of the royalty (currently 0.4%) on a project that has been postponed indefinitely. We expect further developments on the project, however, as Cartesian looks to recover what it can of its investment and finds someone to take over the project. At minimum we can say that the early 2017 announcement that financing for Lucky Shot "had been secured" with an expected end-2018 production start was overly optimistic and premature. The nirvana of a self-financing exploration company is also clearly gone. The Newmont-funded Lyra project is very prospective, so we are holding Miranda for now awaiting exploration work and results. We want to see the financing complete before looking at further decisions. Adrian Day, London-born and a graduate of the London School of Economics, heads the money management firm Adrian Day Asset Management, where he manages discretionary accounts in both global and resource areas. Day is also sub-adviser to the EuroPacific Gold Fund (EPGFX). His latest book is "Investing in Resources: How to Profit from the Outsized Potential and Avoid the Risks." [NLINSERT] Disclosure: 1) Adrian Day: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Evrim Resources and Nevsun Resources. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Funds controlled by Adrian Day Asset Management hold shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Evrim Resources, Nevsun Resources and Miranda Gold. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. 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) This 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 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 (including members of their household) own securities of Evrim Resources and Nevsun Resources, companies mentioned in this article. A man who was taken into custody by Chicago police in the death of a cabdriver who died days after he was involved in a fight in the West Loop Gate neighborhood has been released without any charges, officials said. Click the image above to watch the video There was standing room only at the September meeting of the Tauranga Historic Society this week. The monthly meeting featured guest speaker Buddy Mikaere presenting The Case for a Museum and proved to be of high interest to the audience meeting in the hall behind the Brain Watkins House. Buddy, a historian, author and national resource consent consultant, began by telling amusing stories about his time as a boy visiting the Auckland Museum, and the magic of those experiences staying with him. Even today I will still visit the museum as often as I can, says Buddy. I always get a rush of pride that one of the exhibits I part-curated - the NZ Wars Section of the Scars on the Heart exhibition - is still a well-visited exhibit on the top floor of the museum. Ive had a successful book launch in the Museum foyer; led countless corporate cultural experiences through the Maori and Pacifica exhibits; attended fundraising dinners and other functions there; and like thousands of others, been there on Anzac mornings at dawn. That museum has been a beacon for the Auckland community and its visitors as my multiple use of the facility shows. Buddy served as one of the Museums advisory board members, which he found to be a useful experience later when working in Wellington as one of the advisory board set up to look at the design and exhibit content for Te Papa. Some of my ideas survived the design process the Treaty exhibit and the outdoor area; the upstairs marae and the talking posts are features I recall and still visit with much fondness. There is not one major city in the world that I have visited where I have not tried to get to their museums. Buddy then went on to outline the case for a museum for Tauranga. Im sure we all have our own ideas about what a museum in Tauranga could look like in location, form and content, and so I can only speak to my own vision. My choice of location is Cliff Road on the site of the former Otamataha Pa the name suggested for the Museum is Te Awanui which references Tauranga Harbour. Brain Watkins House in Tauranga. Buddys tangata whenua reasons for preferring the Cliff Road site are that after Mauao, the Otamataha site is the mauri or mana site for Tauranga Moana. In its time the location would have commanded the harbour. Despite the fact that its wahi tapu status has been compromised over the years, it is nevertheless a site of mana and mauri for the three Tauranga iwi, says Buddy. That is important if it is to become a repository for the taonga (treasures) held in our Heritage Collection. Use for this purpose also restores to the site its iwi associations. The preliminary design plans for the museum incorporated a Whare Korero which is literally a Speaking House. As such it could function as the Ceremonial Civic Centre where you might do things such as welcoming visiting trade delegations; politicians; hold citizenship ceremonies; a place for public lectures; an alternative conference location. All these things combine to give tangata whenua a place to stand a turangawaewae in the city. Buddy reminded the Tauranga audience of past promises made to the local hapu in Judea, which is where his grandmother and great grandmother on his paternal side came from. Our Ngai Tamarawaho hapu of Huria made a number of sacrifices to allow for the construction of route K into the city through the heart of our traditional lands the valley of the Kopurererua stream, says Buddy. As part of the mitigation we were promised land for a cultural centre and a health or well-being centre. Those promises were subsequently taken off the table and the search for alternatives is not being pursued with the vigour we had hoped. The Museum on Cliff Road with an accompanying cultural centre would be ideal in our opinion. The Cultural Centre as we envisage it, would complement the Museum by providing living workshops for Maori Arts and Crafts; staff to act as guides, and a core kappa haka group which could give daily performances in the Whare Korero as well as undertaking ceremonial duties; powhiri to visitors and similar. The Cliff Road Reserve lands are part of the land originally acquired by the Church Missionary Society in the 1830s. It was held on trust ... for the benefit and welfare of Maori... and after 1864 given up under pressure to the Crown, says Buddy. But the obligation to hold the land on trust was passed to the Crown. That land was subsequently passed to the Council. These actions are subject to legal challenge and it could well be that the hapu will end up in ownership of the Cliff Road land. The advantage of such a change in ownership is that the land will definitely be earmarked for Museum purposes. Dean Flavell, Manager of the Tauranga Cultural Heritage Collection. The reason for this is self-evident. The site itself has views across the harbour and to the north and south. Buddy believes it has the ability to be the premium site in Tauranga in much the same way that the Opera House is in Sydney, or even the War Memorial Museum in Auckland and its premium site on the Auckland Domain. The site also lies at the heart of what is starting to be referred to as the Heritage Precinct - incorporating the Elms, the Mission Cemetery, Monmouth Redoubt and Durham Redoubt. The question is why tangata whenua dont favour the Willow Street site. It is because that land is also subject to the same legal challenge I mentioned earlier, says Buddy. Exactly 31 years ago in September 1987 at the time of the demolition of the old Town Hall and library, members of our hapu occupied the site to protest the lack of progress with our Treaty claims and the acquisition of the land by the Crown and subsequently the Council. Several of our people were arrested and imprisoned. "The site is described by us as being mana kore, mana mauri bereft of mana and prestige and underlying spirituality not a suitable place for the treasures of our ancestors. You might also hear people usually non-Maori telling us how the site is a burial ground for a massacre and should not be used for a museum. The physical evidence of such an event has not been found. There is one record of skeletal material being recovered but that is over adjacent to the Monmouth Redoubt site. But the point is that we, tangata whenua, have our own way of dealing with these matters and it will be done in accordance with proper tikanga customary protocols. Buddy has been working with tangata whenua to ensure a united front; firstly on the idea of a museum and secondly on where that museum should be. I was formerly a member of the Tauranga Moana Museum Trust but found myself compromised with their objectives in terms of my expressing a preference for the Otamataha/Cliff Road site. I have subsequently joined the Taonga Tauranga group which also has the objective of seeing a museum built and is committed to Otamataha. Buddy was disappointed with the by-election and the referendum results. I was shocked that some by-election candidates used the museum issue as an election issue. I am also disappointed that many people opposed the museum on an incomplete knowledge of projected costs a situation exacerbated by some candidates. I may be naive but it seems to me that there are certain things that contribute to a healthy society or community and one of those is an acknowledgement of our history as a way of building a bridge to the future. This revolves very much around the idea of the museum being so much more than a storage or dry display place for objects from our past. Over 30,000 artefacts are being held in the Tauranga Cultural Heritage Collection. The collection has been in storage for about 13 years inside a warehouse of about a thousand square metres. Its probably the most comprehensive collection in regards to the Western Bay and Tauranga City, says Dean Flavell, Taurangas Cultural Heritage Manager. It covers all aspects of the types of stories wed like to tell. A museum needs to have a life that is also firmly rooted in a vibrant present and accurately aimed at explain the potential of things to come, says Buddy. It further seems to me that as a society we have a collective obligation to ensure these things come to pass. Buddy says that Taonga Tauranga has several projects on the go to keep momentum moving. We are looking at a pop-up surfing museum at Main Beach at the Mount over the summer holidays. He is also working on a museum proposal for the Gate Pa reserve which has become available with the demise of the Gate Pa Bowling club. His proposal involves revitalising the Gate Pa Exhibition of 2014/15 which generated a lot of public interest during the 150th Battle of Gate Pa commemorations, and giving it a permanent home in Gate Pa. Buddy Mikaere at the Gate Pa site. Bay of Plenty We are looking for a storeman with an OSH forklift license. You will need to be physically for as the job is about 70% forklift... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Tauranga residents can expect a change to postal services around the city. In a statement released earlier this week, New Zealand Post has announced the closures of both its Bayfair and Greerton branches. As a way to continue to provide postal services to the community that up to now have been provided by Bayfair Mall NZ Post and Kiwibank, the organisation is also partnering with Girven Road Pharmacy in Bayfair from October 4. To cover services in Greerton, a partnership has also been formed with Unichem Greerton Pharmacy at 221 Chadwick Road, who will take over postal services from October 8. NZ Post Head of Retail Mark Yagmich says in each location the PO Box lobby will remain unchanged. Bayfair customers will be able to collect oversize and signature required items from Girven Road Pharmacy rather than the existing Bayfair Mall branch. Similarly oversized items, postal services and bill payments will also be handled from Unichem Greerton Pharmacy. Until these dates there will be no changes to postal products and services and the box lobby offered at Bayfair Mall NZ Post & Kiwibank, and Greerton NZ Post and Kiwibank, says Mark. The postal services currently available at Tauranga NZ Post and Kiwibank in Cameron Rd, Tauranga, will be moved to nearby agencies, including Paper Plus Tauranga, Cherrywood Variety Store, Paper Plus Bethlehem and Unichem Brookfield Pharmacy. While we understand this is a change in how people will access postal services, which we recognize are essential to the community, we are having to make these changes in order to operate a commercially sustainable business. This model of working with local agents is more financially sustainable for NZ Post, in an ever-changing mix of postal services usage - the decline of mail, versus the increase in parcel services. Its also good for the local businesses we work with as it provides additional business for them and more customers coming through their doors to pick up a parcel or send a postcard. NZ Post provides postal services through local businesses in this way in many of our over 880 postal outlets throughout New Zealand, as a way of being financially sustainable in the face of letter decline. The announcement has been met with much strife from those within affected communities. Meanwhile, one Greerton businessman shared his disapproval to SunLive about the changes earlier this week. He says he's frustrated over the changes and believes it will be a sore loss, particularly to the elderly community of Greerton. The Boulder County coroners office said Thursday that it had identified 60-year-old Jens Jay Yambert. The office says an autopsy has been completed but more investigation is needed to determine how Yambert died. LYSANDER, N.Y. -- A Lysander man fired a shotgun as Onondaga County Sheriff's Office deputies tried to arrest him Thursday night, according to the sheriff's office. Scott Loop, 29, of Lysander, was eventually arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, assault, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and resisting arrest, deputies said in a news release Friday. At approximately 9:04 p.m. on Thursday, deputies responded to call about a domestic dispute between a father and son on Plainville Road in the Town of Lysander, deputies said. When the deputies arrived with the New York State Police, Loop ran into a cornfield with a loaded shotgun, deputies said. The deputies used the department's helicopter to find Loop. they said. Deputies ordered him to drop the gun and leave the cornfield, deputies said. As the deputies walked toward the cornfield, Loop fired the shotgun "several times" before leaving the cornfield with the gun, deputies said. A deputy fired a taser at Loop, deputies said. Even after the deputy fired the taser, Loop resisted arrest and injured a deputy, deputies said. He was eventually arrested, deputies said. Loop was arraigned Friday morning and is being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center on $100,000 bail, deputies said. The injured deputy was treated at Upstate University Hospital for minor injuries and released, deputies said. When Shane Black's sci-fi thriller "The Predator" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night, the adrenaline-pumping action movie was missing something: A short scene with a jogger who repeatedly hits on the lead female character played by Olivia Munn. Twentieth Century Fox, the studio behind the film, confirmed hours before the premiere that the scene was recently cut because one of the actors featured in it is a registered sex offender. Steven Wilder Striegel was cast as the persistent jogger and remained in the film until last month when Munn learned information about his past. In 2010, Striegel pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer, and served six months in prison, according to court records. Striegel had attempted to lure a 14-year-old girl, who he said was a "distant relative," into a sexual relationship through the Internet, the Los Angeles Times first reported. When Munn shared what she knew with Fox, the studio took swift action, removing Striegel's scene "within 24 hours," a spokesperson told The Washington Post in an emailed statement. As of early Friday morning, an IMDb page for "The Predator" did not include Striegel, 47, in its cast list and the actor's own profile lacked any mention of the movie. Striegel, whose professional name is Steve Wilder, could not be reached for comment. "Our studio was not aware of Mr. Striegel's background when he was hired," Fox's spokesperson said. "We were not aware of his background during the casting process due to legal limitations that impede studios from running background checks on actors." But at least one person working on the film did know about Striegel's history: Black, his longtime friend and the movie's director. The pair have been friends for 14 years, long before Striegel was arrested, according to the L.A. Times. Striegel, who first rose to fame with a recurring role in the Fox soap opera "Melrose Place," has made small appearances in other films directed by Black, including "Iron Man 3'' and "The Nice Guys," both of which were made after Striegel's conviction. Striegel told the L.A. Times in an email that Black was "aware of the facts." Striegel is listed as a sex offender in Connecticut where he was charged. According to the registry, Striegel was 38 years old when he "engaged in an Internet relationship with a fourteen year old female victim who was known to him. The offender attempted to lure the victim into a sexual relationship by making sexually graphic suggestions to the victim." The actor and the girl also allegedly had physical contact, which included "kissing, touching [the minor's] breast over her clothing, rubbing her legs and stroking her neck," according to a 2009 arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the L.A. Times. Citing email exchanges, the affidavit alleged that Striegel told the teenager he wanted to pursue a sexual relationship with her and asked her to keep it a secret. Striegel told the Times he emailed the girl, telling her she was "attractive, and sexy, and not a failure, etc." to try to help her with her confidence after she spoke to him about dealing with a variety of issues, including truancy and being pressured to take drugs and drink alcohol. The decision, he said, was a "very bad judgement call," adding that he did communicate that an intimate relationship between the two would not happen given her age and because they were distant relatives, the Times reported. As for the allegations of physical contact, Striegel refuted the claim, telling the Times, " . . . no charges in that regard were even filed. The only thing I was ever charged with were words in an email." Striegel hoped his conviction, now nearly a decade old, would "fade in the past," the Times reported. "This was an enormously unfortunate chapter in my life, and one that I took, and continue to take, personal responsibility for," he said. "If I had even an inkling that my involvement with 'The Predator' would be a point of difficulty for Shane Black, or cast any kind of shadow over a movie that I wish only great success for, I would, of course, never have been involved in any capacity." In an initial statement to the L.A. Times, Black stood by his decision to cast Striegel in the reboot of "The Predator." Black said Striegel was "caught up in a bad situation versus something lecherous," the Times reported. "I personally chose to help a friend," he said. "I can understand others might disapprove, as his conviction was on a sensitive charge and not to be taken lightly." However, hours after the L.A. Times published its story and other news outlets began reporting on Striegel, Black issued a second statement retracting his support. "Having read this morning's news reports, it has sadly become clear to me that I was misled by a friend I really wanted to believe was telling me the truth when he described the circumstances of his conviction," said in a statement to The Post. "I believe strongly in giving people second chances - but sometimes you discover that chance is not as warranted as you may have hoped." Then, Black apologized. "After learning more about the affidavit, transcripts and additional details surrounding Steve Striegel's sentence, I am deeply disappointed in myself," he said. "I apologize to all of those, past and present, I've let down by having Steve around them without giving them a voice in the decision." One of the people who felt voiceless was Munn, one of the film's leads who shared the scene with Striegel. In 2017, Munn was one of six women who accused director Brett Ratner of sexually harassing or assaulting them. On Twitter, Munn fired off a series of tweets decrying Striegel's inclusion in "The Predator." "He made a 'personal choice' to continually work with a convicted sex offender, but I didn't have a choice," Munn wrote in a tweet Thursday, referring to Black. "That decision was made for me. And that's not okay." Om tweeted "The #MeToo movement called out abusers. But they're not the only ones in the wrong. Those who know about abuse and not only do nothing but continue to put abusers in positions of power are complicit." Responding to a tweet praising Munn for her courage, the actress wrote, "It's amazing how many people expect you to put the movie first, especially if you're the lead. On something like this - where a child has been hurt - my silence will never be for sale. And if it costs me my career they can take it." Both Black and Munn did not do interviews on the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival where the film premiered Thursday night, Variety reported. Though Black introduced the film, there was no mention of Striegel and the director didn't participate in the post-screening Q&A, L.A. Times reporter Amy Kaufman tweeted. Munn's castmates Keegan-Michael Key, Jake Busey and Trevante Rhodes, however, voiced their support for the studio's decision at the festival. Munn tweeted that she thought audiences would love the film now that Striegel's scene has been cut. "Speaking for myself, I wouldn't love or enjoy watching any film after knowing a registered sex offender was in it, hiding in plain sight," she wrote in another tweet. A state Supreme Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Kerrin Conklin, former Central New York SPCA executive director, who was fired from her job in May 2017. Conklin alleged in the lawsuit against the SPCA board and a veterinarian that she was wrongfully terminated and defamed. In the lawsuit, she was seeking $4.15 million in damages. Judge Deborah Karalunas ruled on Aug. 10 that Conklin was an at-will employee still within the six-month probationary period, and therefore could be terminated "for any non-discriminatory reason, or for no reason at all." Conklin was hired Jan. 19, 2017 and terminated May 25, the ruling said. Joe Cote, Conklin's lawyer, said he is appealing the decision. Cote said the ruling focuses too narrowly on one issue - Conklin being an at-will employee - and said the judge "missed the forest for the trees." Cote said even if Conklin was in that probationary period, she couldn't be fired for an illegal reason. Conklin alleges the board and veterinarian Stacy Laxen defamed her, in part by blaming Conklin for euthanizing of 14 or 15 cats which had ringworm. In addition, Conklin alleged that Laxen led the effort to get her fired by contacting board members and soliciting letters from staff to the board "marring Conklin's character and decision." The alleged defamation came from statements made by board members at a board meeting or between people with a common interest, and thus are not actionable, the decision said. The ruling also said Conklin is considered a "limited purpose public figure," - someone who who has thrust themselves into the public eye in order to help influence a resolution. Due to that, she'd have to prove actual malice in order for defamation to be actionable, the decision said. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Two prominent alleged victims of abuse by local clergy are optimistic about the new investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office into whether dioceses here and across the state covered up sexual abuse by priests. "It's monumental. A milestone," said Kevin Braney, who said he was abused by Monsignor Charles Eckermann in Manlius in the 1980s. "It's the first piece of really good news to come of all of this since I came forward." The Attorney General's Office announced Thursday it had sent subpoenas to the state's eight dioceses, seeking information about whether church officials knew about and covered up sexual abuse by clergy, most of which allegedly occurred decades ago. The AG's subpoenas come on the heels of a grand jury report in Pennsylvania that detailed how more than 1,000 children in dioceses in Pennyslvania were abused since the 1940s. Officials with the Syracuse diocese said they received the subpoena and will "fully cooperate" with the AG's investigation. Officials here said the diocese now requires that all allegations of abuse immediately be forwarded to a local district attorney's office, and in February Bishop Robert Cunningham announced a compensation program for as many as 76 alleged victims who previously accused priests of sexual abuse. Another alleged victim, Charles Bailey, said the compensation program is a step in the right direction, but he's still enraged decades later at the lack of accountability against his alleged abuser -- Rev. Thomas Neary in the 1960s. "I think something that sticks in my craw so much is the minimization that the church does in this," Bailey said. "They keep talking about the priests who do prayers and penance. Everyone keeps sidestepping the fact that this is a criminal act." The AG's probe is a civil investigation, though criminal charges are possible if alleged abuse occurred within the statute of limitations, according to a statement from the office. The office listed a hotline number (1-800-771-7755) for victims and is investigating how dioceses reviewed and "potentially covered up allegations of extensive sexual abuse of minors," according to the statement. Bailey said he's taken part in the local compensation program and was awarded a settlement, but he thinks the AG's office has the resources and independence to do a thorough reckoning of the church's alleged abuses across the state. "I'm praying to God that the Attorney General's Office will do a proper investigation," Bailey said. The diocese has previously found Bailey's and Braney's allegations to be credible. Bailey alleged Neary raped him between ages 10 and 12. Braney alleged Eckermann raped him at age 15 in the 1980s in and threatened to kill Braney if the teen told anyone about the abuse. Braney and Bailey have since become advocates for victims of clergy abuse. Bailey wrote a book about his experience, and Braney now lives in Denver working as a training director at a mental health center. Neary died in 2001. Eckermann died in 2016. Reporter Julie McMahon contributed to this story. SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The offices of the Onondaga County District Attorney and the state Inspector General are investigating SUNY Upstate Medical University. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said his office is working closely with state Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott. He would not say what specific issues the investigation is focusing on. "I don't have a time frame, but I like to move things along expeditiously," he said. Upstate has been embroiled in controversy in recent months over a $660,500 severance agreement with its former hospital CEO and the departure of a senior vice president who quit after news stories revealed he lied about his past during a speech on campus last year. Upstate paid $660,500 to Dr. John McCabe, its former hospital CEO, for a 14-month off-campus assignment that involved no work, according to documents obtained by syracuse.com. The payment was part of a secret non-disclosure agreement syracuse.com obtained through a freedom of information law request. McCabe has said he wanted to return to Upstate's faculty when he left the CEO job, but Upstate wanted him to "disappear." As part of the agreement, he agreed to quit Upstate's faculty and clinical staff. McCabe said today he's not been contacted by anyone from the offices of the DA or Inspector General. Sergio Garcia was Upstate's chief of staff and senior vice president. He resigned from his $340,000-a-year job in May after an Albany Times-Union story debunked several assertions he made in a 2017 speech, including a claim he narrowly escaped a car bombing in Afghanistan. Garcia also said today he's not heard from anyone involved in the investigation. SUNY recently denied a freedom of information law request from syracuse.com for Garcia's travel expense records from when he was employed at Upstate. SUNY said releasing the documents would interfere with a law enforcement investigation. "Public knowledge of such information would interfere with the investigation by alerting potential witnesses, identifying potential records of interest, possibly leading to records destruction, all of which would serve to thwart the ongoing investigation," SUNY said in a letter. SUNY did not reveal which law enforcement agencies are investigating Upstate officials had no immediate comment on the investigation. A report in today's Albany Times-Union, based on unnamed sources, said the investigation is focusing on the McCabe agreement, Upstate's hiring practices and construction projects. Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245 To the Editor: Thursday, Sept. 13, will be an important day for Democrats in Madison County and parts of Oneida and Onondaga counties, including most of Syracuse. We are choosing a candidate for the 53rd District seat in the New York State Senate, and since this is a heavily Democratic district, the winner is also likely to win the general election in November. Hillary Clinton won it by 15 points, and Barack Obama by 25 points in the same year that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand carried it by a whopping 40 points! In the last three elections, no Republican candidate even ran for the seat. Incumbent Sen. David Valesky faces a critical challenge from within the Democratic Party because he placed his own position as co-chair of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) above his obligation to faithfully represent the constituents. In the words of the New York Times, the IDC is "a group of rogue Democrats who empowered Republican control of the State Senate in exchange for perks and pork." Rachel May is running to be a real Democratic voice in the state Senate. She believes that health care is a right, not a privilege, and is a strong supporter of the New York Health Act. Valesky and the IDC let Republicans block this bill in the Senate. As a lifelong educator, May also supports fair and equitable funding of our public schools, which has also been stymied by downstate Republicans and the IDC. And as a strong supporter of ethics reform in Albany, women's reproductive rights, and growing employment through renewable energy development and housing investment, she will be a true Democrat while representing all the constituents of the district. Please join me in voting for Rachel May on Thursday, Sept. 13. (That's right, Thursday! Polls are open noon to 9 p.m.) Lance Denno Syracuse The writer is a former at-large member of the Syracuse Common Council. OSWEGO, N.Y. -- The Oswego County Sheriff's Office will have a new leader in 2019 for the first time in two decades, and the new sheriff could be decided on Thursday when Republicans and Conservatives go to the polls. Oswego County Undersheriff Gene Sullivan and Investigator Don Hilton, of the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office, are both vying for the position. If one candidate wins both the Republican and Conservative primaries on Thursday, he will likely get the job because there are no other general election opponents and write-in campaigns are historical difficult to win. Democrats -- about 25 percent of all registered Oswego County voters -- do not have a candidate for sheriff and haven't run one in recent history. There are 34,301 Republicans, which is about 44 percent of registered voters, and 19,152 Democrats in the county, according to the New York State Board of Elections. Retiring Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd announced earlier this year that he was not running for re-election. Todd has been sheriff since 1999 after winning his first four-year term in November 1998. He ran unopposed for re-election in 2002, 2006 and 2010. Sullivan has been undersheriff for seven years and he hopes his 23 years experience with the sheriff's office will help convince voters to elect him sheriff. Hilton said he hopes voters want change and believes he is the right person to bring change to the office and the county. The sheriff's position is a four-year term and the current salary is $90,555, according to county records. Background on candidates Hilton, 57, is lifelong Hastings resident. He is married with five adult children and three grandchildren. Hilton graduated from Paul V. Moore High School and attended State University of New York at Oswego where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in public justice. Hilton's first law enforcement job was with the Oswego County Sheriff's Office as a corrections officer. In 1988, he started a 20-year career with the Syracuse Police Department where he spent the majority of his career coordinating the Major Crimes unit for the Criminal Investigation Bureau. He supervised more than 70 detectives investigating felony cases, involving sexual assaults, robberies, countless shootings and more than 200 homicides. After retiring, Hilton became a federal drug intelligence officer in the Northern NY District. In 2010, he became an investigator with the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office where he currently works. Sullivan, 55, is a lifelong Volney resident and lives next door to his childhood home. He is married with two adult children. He graduated from G. Ray Bodley High School and attended Onondaga Community College to study criminal justice. Sullivan interned at the Oswego County Probation Department and worked in the Oswego County District Attorney's Office for the Stop DWI program before becoming a police officer. He served as an officer in the Town of Clay Police Department for 5 1/2 years. When the opportunity arose to transfer to become an Oswego County sheriff deputy, Sullivan said he was excited to return to his community. Sullivan joined the office in June 1995. He worked as a patrol deputy before becoming a criminal investigator and ultimately undersheriff. During his career Sullivan worked on the SWAT team, trained to become a fire investigator and was certified to be a police instructor where he was able to teach future officers. Why did you decide to run for sheriff? Hilton: Hilton said he wants to use all he has learned in the past 30 years to serve his neighbors and his community. "I've lived my entire life there. And I'm sure I'll one day die and be buried there," Hilton said. "My family is invested in that community." Hilton also believes that he is the best person for the job due to his experience, background and training. Sullivan: Sullivan said he never thought about running for sheriff because he didn't think Sheriff Todd would ever retire. "I was shocked," he said. Sullivan said he wanted to see if he had support from the community and he wanted to make sure he was the best person for the job. He looked at the other candidates who were vying for the Republican endorsement. "I decided that they weren't any more qualified than I am," he said. Todd and the Oswego County Republican Committee are backing Sullivan for the top spot. What are your goals for the position? Hilton: Hilton said he wants to bring a change of leadership to the department, work with outside agencies, improve the morale of deputies and staff, and develop progressive policies and procedures that will help update the department and move it forward. "That department is extremely behind the time," Hilton said. "No progressive thought has been put in that department in at least a decade. There's an extreme lack of policies and procedures that protects the deputies and corrections officers as well as liability on the county." Hilton said he believes he has learned the skill-set needed from working with the Syracuse Police Department, a department that he says "stays a head of the curve." "The (Oswego sheriff's office) is living on borrowed time right now before something bad happens that could have been prevented," he said. Hilton said he also feels that the sheriff's office needs change. "I, like much of the community, believe it is time for a change," he said. "You have a system up there where a few political families control every position in the county and I think it's time for the public to decide who the next sheriff should be." Better morale will also be a positive result if a there is a change in leadership, Hilton said. He said he's met with deputies and employees at union meetings and he wants to create change to better their working environments. Sullivan: Sullivan said he has worked the last seven years under the guidance of Sheriff Todd and has carried out Todd's plan for the office, but as sheriff he'll be running things different under his own plan. "I've learned a tremendous amount from Sheriff Todd," Sullivan said. "We do a lot of things right, but there is a lot that we can do better." Sullivan said some of his goals are to modernize the office's technology, open up the budget process, reorganize work schedules to create more efficient staffing and reinstate a canine program. "We need to update technology," Sullivan said. "The folks we are hiring now, they crave technology. We need to meet them where they are. I think we can use technology to increase our efficiency to help us do more with what we have." Sullivan said he also wants to open up the budget process by including more leaders of the office and the county. He wants to be more accessible in general. "We've always had an open door policy, but I want to bring the sheriff out into the community," he said. Sullivan is proposing being available to meet with residents at town offices around the county. One thing Sullivan said he would be passionate about doing is reinstating a canine program to help tackle the drug problems in the county. "I think it is an invaluable tool in this day of age," Sullivan said. He said he would look for grants and community partnership to fund it. The primary Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday. Only enrolled Republicans and Conservatives in Oswego County are eligible to vote for sheriff. In order for both men to be on the November ballot, the Republicans and Conservatives would have to elected different candidates. The winner of the primaries may come down to two conflicting factors: the need for change versus the benefit of experience within the office. "I know the agency, I know the people, I know the process," Sullivan said. "There's not a huge learning curve for me. On Jan. 1, I would be able to hit the ground running." Hilton said he will bring a fresh perspective to the position. "It's up to the public at this point," Hilton said. "If they want change, they need to go out and make it happen. They need to be involved and they need to get out there and vote." Obamas speech earlier was a clear and rare rebuke from the former president against what he called the politics of fear from his successor, President Donald Trump, and the Republican Party. He called the November election the most important in his lifetime, saying the future of the nations democracy depended on people exercising their right to vote. DALLAS (AP) -- A Dallas police officer returning home from work shot and killed a neighbor after she said she mistook his apartment for her own, authorities said Friday. The officer called dispatch to report that she had shot the man Thursday night, police said. She told responding officers that she believed the victim's apartment was her own when she entered it. The responding officers administered first aid to the victim, whom the Dallas County medical examiner's office identified as 26-year-old Botham Jean, a native of the Caribbean island country of St. Lucia who attended college in Arkansas and worked for accounting and consulting firm PwC. Jean, who was black, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Police haven't released the name or race of the officer, who had arrived home in-uniform and who wasn't injured. She will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, police said. Authorities haven't said how the officer got into Jean's home, or whether his door was open or unlocked. The apartment complex is just a few blocks from Dallas' police headquarters. At a Friday morning news conference, Sgt. Warren Mitchell acknowledged there are many questions about what happened that he couldn't answer. "We still have a lot to do in this investigation. So there's a lot of information I understand you guys want but this is all we can give you at this time," Mitchell said. When asked if anyone else had witnessed the shooting, Warren replied, "We have not spoken to anyone else at this time." Residents of the apartment complex said they can access their units with a regular key or through a keypad code. Two women who live on the second floor near where the shooting happened said they heard a lot of noise late Thursday. "It was, like, police talk: 'Open up! Open up!'" 20-year-old Caitlin Simpson told The Dallas Morning News. Yazmine Hernandez, 20, was studying with Simpson when they heard the commotion. "We heard cops yelling, but otherwise had no idea what was going on," Hernandez said. Jean grew up in St. Lucia and attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he often led campus worship services before graduating in 2016, the school said in a statement. That July, he went to work for PwC in risk assurance. Police said they are conducting a joint investigation with the Dallas County district attorney's office. Former President Barack Obama is calling out President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections. The Associated Press reports Obama spoke at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he accepted an ethics in government award on Friday. During a speech, he urged students to vote in November and restore "honesty and decency" in the U.S. "It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents, or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up," Obama said. "I'm not making that up. That's not hypothetical." President Trump has criticized U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeatedly, most recently for bringing charges against two GOP congressmen this week. He accused Sessions of hurting the Republican Party's chances of maintaining a majority in the Senate and House. "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 tweeted. "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff." Obama rarely mentioned Trump's name in his speech, but made it clear he was speaking about his successor often. Trump "is a symptom, not the cause" of a divided America, Obama said: "He is just capitalizing on resentment that politicians have fanning for years. A fear, an anger that is rooted in our past but is also borne in our enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes." Obama said both parties should stand up against discrimination and "stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers." Trump famously said "there is blame on both sides" for deadly violence at a white nationalists' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year. "How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad?" Obama asked. He also accused the Republican-controlled Congress of making it harder for minorities to vote, attempting to take away affordable health care from ordinary Americans, and for not standing up to Trump when he "cozied up" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This is not normal," Obama said. "What happened to the Republican Party?" Former President Obama: "Do not complain. Don't hashtag. Don't get anxious. Don't retreat. Don't binge on whatever it is you're binging on. Don't lose yourself in ironic detachment. Don't put your head in the sand. Don't boo. Vote. Vote." pic.twitter.com/zLJLZKHRKS NBC News (@NBCNews) September 7, 2018 According to the AP, Obama is expected to make similar statements in campaign speeches for Democratic candidates over the next few weeks. "You cannot sit back and wait for a savior," he told the audience Friday. The biggest threat to democracy isn't Trump but "indifference," he added. "If you thought elections don't matter, I hope these past two years have corrected that impression." When Astell&Kern wanted to launch a line of headphones to mate with their high-end digital audio players, they turned to none other than Jerry Harvey. Billie Jean is the latest result of their successful, five-year collaboration, dubbed the Siren Series. While most Jerry Harvey Audio in-ear-headphones are custom-fit, each model in Astell&Kerns Siren Series is universal fit. Billie Jeaninspired by the Michael Jackson song from Thrillerfollows earlier headphones named after famous female song characters, including Layla (Eric Clapton), Roxanne (The Police), and Michelle (Guns-n-Roses). Who is Jerry Harvey? Jerry Harvey served as the monitor engineer for legendary hard-rock band, Van Halen. One day, Jerry was challenged to find a monitoring technology that Alex Van Halen, the bands drummer, could use for live performances. Harvey wasnt happy with any of the in-ear options then available, so he developed the first two-way, custom-fit earpiece for Alex. Van Halen was happy with the result and, as the story goes, word spread to other artists and engineers and voila! The modern in-ear-monitor was born. Theo Nicolakis Ear pieces are branded with the Astell&Kern and Jerry Harvey Audio logos. Harvey went on to launch the headphone company Ultimate Ears, which Logitech acquired in 2005. He has since put his energy into his current company, Jerry Harvey Audio. The companys clients are a whos who of the music industry. Outstanding Design The Billie Jean come in either deep,dark, shiny red or an equally attractive blue. The The right ear-piece features the logo for Jerry Harvey Audio, with the left sporting Astell&Kerns branding. Inside the Billie Jean youll find a pair of balanced armature drivers in each ear piece, custom-designed by Jerry Harvey Audio. Theo Nicolakis The Billie Jean includes Jerry Harvey Audios patented Freqphase technology, which uses precisely cut tube lengths for each driver, which the company says minimizes the phase shift of each frequency. In case youre unfamiliar, in a balanced-armature architecture, an electrical signal vibrates a small reed or paddle thousands of times per second. The reed is balanced between two magnets, hence the name balanced armature. When you introduce multiple drivers to any speaker design, you have the potential for phase shifts and timing issues. The Billie Jean includes Jerry Harvey Audios patented Freqphase technology, which uses precisely cut tube lengths for each driver, which the company says minimizes the phase shift of each frequency. In this two-way design, the high and full-range (which handle the mid and low frequencies) drivers can be aligned to 1/100ms for the most ideal phase curve. The Billie Jean is 30-percent smaller than Astell&Kerns Michelle Limited, and Astell&Kern says the Billie Jean fits more comfortably in the ear. While Id agree with that statement, Billie Jeans ear tips had a tendency to slide out of my ear oh-so-slightly after significant jaw movement. Thankfully, the ear loop is flexible and keeps the bend you apply to it. Fiddling with the ear loops shape and positioning remediated the problem. Personally, Id prefer to see the Billie Jean come with a better-gripping set of silicone tips. Astell&Kern The Billie Jeans body is 30-percent smaller than the Michelle Limited. The headphone comes with a braided, silver-plated, copper cable. To handle the frequent bends and abuse that typically short out cables, the Billie Jeans cable is manufactured by compressing the silver-plated copper, which is then flattened and wrapped around a Kevlar thread. Kevlar is more durable than nylon and is five times stronger than steel. As a result of this process, the companies say the cable has astounding tensile strength. Should something ever happen to the cable, its a replaceable, 2-pin design. The 3.5mm L-tip is right-angled with good strain relief. If you have a habit of putting your digital audio player or smartphone in your back pocket, right-angled tips are less prone to snapping off. The only potential drawback is that they typically dont fit into third-party smart-device battery cases. You might need to use an adapter with an extended neck. Astell&Kern The included cable has sliver-coated copper over Kevlar for increased strength. The cables coating and braided design resisted tangles wonderfully. When the cable inevitably got crisscrossed after stuffing it in my pocket during my review period, the coating and braided design made it easy to untangle. Siren-sound I tested the Billie Jean with Astell&Kerns Kann and Activos CT10 high-res digital audio players, listening to a broad range of high-res music from various sources, including Tidal. In Greek mythology, no one could resist the seduction of the Sirens alluring song. Such is the case with the Billie Jean. Theo Nicolakis Billie Jean comes with basic accessories: Three sets of ear tips and a zippered carrying case. The Billie Jean exhibited fine balance on the DSD version of their namesake, Michael Jacksons Billie Jean, from Thriller. Instruments and vocals were firmly placed in space and time with the superb production value of the song coming forth in full swing. The Billie Jean constructed a wide, deep, layered sound stage. For example, Childrens voices on Adeles Sweetest Devotion from 25 were on a distinct, recessed layer. The Billie Jean also did an admirable job creating a sense of dimensionality around the alarm clocks on Pink Floyds Time, from the DSD version of Dark Side of the Moon. Vocals have excellent presence with a slightly forward presentation. This lent itself well to intimate recordings. The midrange tends to be a bit dark. The top end was good for a headphone in this price range, though it lacked the last ounce of shine in brass instruments and the crispness with cymbals I wanted to hear. Theo Nicolakis The plastic ear-loop is highly flexible, but retains its bend well. The Billie Jean give you audiophile bass thats precise, detailed, and never boomy. The bass tends to be reserved, with the sonic signature of the electronics playing a defining role. The Billie Jean did a fine job reproducing the dynamics of the thumping heartbeat at the beginning of the DSD version of Michael Jacksons Smooth Criminal; however, the Billie Jean gave up some foundational bass lines on Rewrite the Stars by Zach Efron and Zendaya, from the Greatest Showman soundtrack. I encountered a similar shortcoming on Rebecca Pidgeons Spanish Harlem. A match made in heaven Some matches are made in heaven. Thats certainly the case with Astell&Kern and Jerry Harvey Audio. The Billie Jean in-ear monitors deliver clean, engaging, well-balanced sound at a reasonable price for the audiophile and music lover alike. If youre in the market for an outstanding pair of IEMs and have $350 in your budget, you should definitely check these out. Something to look forward to: Google has all but confirmed that it will unveil its Pixel 3 handsets in just over one month's time. Expect to see a number of other products on show at the event, which takes place in New York City. It seems almost certain that Google will reveal the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones on October 9. The company has sent out invites to a Made by Google Launch Event, which takes place at 11 am ET in New York City. Theres no direct reference to the new Pixels, but the 3 that appears in the I <3 NY GIF sends a pretty clear signal, and it includes the #madebygoogle hashtag thats used for its hardware products. The October 9th date matches last weeks report, which also got the location correct. The last two generations of Pixel handsets were unveiled on October 4 in 2017 and 2016, but it seems the company has decided to move the event forward a few days this year. There has been a slew of Pixel 3 leaks over the last few months. We know both devices will feature a single rear camera and dual front-facing snappers. The 3.5mm jack is gone, with Type-C earphones and headphone jack adaptor included in the box, and both devices are expected to feature glass backs for wireless charging. But the most contentious feature is likely to be that oversized notch in the Pixel 3 XL. Last years Google event saw the Pixelbook, Pixel Buds, Clips, and the Google Home Mini and Max unveiled alongside its smartphones, so it seems likely that more new hardware will be shown off this year. A Pixelbook 2 could be on the cards, as could some high-end Chrome OS tablets. We may also see a few new Android Wear smartwatches, though the company has said there wouldnt be any Pixel Watch this year. I dont want to play analyst, but since you asked, Ill play analyst. Ow, my hands behind my back, ow, ow, ow, ow, the inveterately political Emanuel said. OK, here it is, so, look, if other candidates, just take Toni Preckwinkle, Bill Daley or Susana Mendoza, are thinking about this, it means they dont think the other ones, whove been at this for five months, are a roadblock. In brief: Apple has long had a reputation for obstructing law enforcement, but thats far from the reality. The company responds to thousand of requests for digital evidence every year, and its set to make the process easier through the creation of an online portal. Additionally, Cupertino is assembling a team to train police around the world in digital forensics. The news comes via a letter from Apple General Counsel Kate Adams sent to U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). It responds to a July report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on the cybersecurity needs of law enforcement agencies. Apple famously refused to help the FBI access San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farooks iPhone in 2016. Law enforcement officials were also unhappy about the recent USB restricted mode that can protect against police hacking tools. But Adams notes in the letter that in 2017, Apple responded to more than 14,000 requests from US law enforcement agencies related to more than 62,000 devices, accounts, or financial identifiers in the US. Additionally, its stated that Apple trained almost 1000 officers on how to go about obtaining data from the company. To make these requests easier to submit, which are currently done via email, Apple is introducing an online tracking and submissions tool that will be operational before the end of the year. "Later this year, we will launch an online portal for law enforcement agencies around the world to submit lawful requests for data, track outstanding requests, and obtain responsive data from Apple, states the letter. In addition to expanding its police-training team, Apple is creating an online module for law enforcement that mirrors the in-person training. While the letter focuses on Apples willingness to help law enforcement gather evidence where its legally able to do so, there is no mention of encryption. The company emphasises it is committed to protecting the security and privacy of users. Apple Letter to Sen Whitehouse by on Scribd Something to look forward to: Higher density RAM is on the horizon as Samsung begins sampling new memory to its partners. New 32GB UDIMMs will allow even more memory to be installed on high-end platforms and in compact machines with limited memory slots. Memory prices are slowly going back down from their all time high. New many-core CPUs that enthusiasts are buying can make use of massive amounts of memory where cost is the more limiting factor than platform capabilities. Samsung has pushed out a product page to their website that shows new DDR4 memory at 2,666 MHz. Ordinarily, this would not be anything worth a mention, but there is an important distinction. Samsung's latest memory is 32GB and arrives as a UDIMM, or in other words, regular RAM for consumer desktops. Given model number M378A4G43MB1-CTD, Samsung's memory runs at 1.2V and is a dual rank configuration. Memory chips are arranged as (2Gbit x 8) x 16. Packing 32GB per DIMM allows for up to 256GB of memory to be installed with a Threadripper CPU. In theory, Threadripper supports up to 1TB of RAM, but since there are only 8 DIMMs per motherboard, and 32GB per DIMM is about to be the densest solution available, the actual limit is much lower. Conversely, Intel's Skylake Extreme Edition processors such as the i9-7980XE only officially support up to 128GB. Small form factors such as micro-ATX that may only have two DIMM slots could also benefit from higher density memory. Running virtual machines from compact builds is about to be a lot easier. For gamers, such exorbitant amounts of memory offer no return on performance. Currently, Samsung is sampling this high-density memory to third parties. In its base configuration, its nothing more than a typical green PCB with some chips soldered on. However, other manufacturers that add nice looking heat spreaders such as Corsair, G.Skill, Crucial, Kingston, and others are likely to make use of Samsung's chips. The Spix's Macaw, the Brazilian blue parrot that inspired the hero of the 2011 animated movie Rio, is one of eight bird species that are now believed to be extinct in the wild. The study that determined the new bird extinctions attributed the tragedies to a usual suspect, but also discovered a disturbing trend. Spix's Macaw Now Extinct, With 8 Others In Rio, the lead character Blu saved his species by traveling to Brazil to mate with Jewel, the last-known Spix's Macaw in the wild. The family-friendly film saw Blu overcome the odds of surviving in the wild, after being raised as a domesticated bird. Unfortunately, there is no happy ending for the species in real life, as the Spix's Macaw is one of eight new bird species on the extinct animals list. An eight-year analysis by conservation group BirdLife International tagged the Spix's Macaw, or Cyanopsitta spixii, as one of the eight new confirmed extinct, or highly likely extinct, bird species. Five of the eight confirmed or suspected bird extinctions were in South America, and four of them were in Brazil. The Spix's Macaw is now extinct in the wild, with the last one believed to have died in 2000. However, hope remains for the species as there are about 60 to 80 of the birds living in captivity. A sighting in 2016 generated excitement that the blue bird still persisted in the wild, but it is now believed to have been just a Spix's Macaw that escaped from captivity. The Brazilian cryptic treehunter, Brazilian alagoas foliage-gleaner, and Hawaiian black-faced honeycreeper have been classified as extinct. Meanwhile, the New Caledonian Lorikeet, Javan Lapwing, Pernambuco Pygmy-owl, and Brazilian Glaucous Macaw have been tagged as critically endangered and possibly extinct, with further efforts needed to confirm if they have already died out. Alarming Extinction Rates The newly extinct bird species highlight the devastation left behind by the high deforestation rates, particularly in South America. The BirdLife International study, however, also pointed out an alarming trend of mainland extinctions outpacing island extinctions. "Ninety per cent of bird extinctions in recent centuries have been of species on islands," said lead author and BirdLife chief scientist Stuart Butchart in a statement. "However, our results confirm that there is a growing wave of extinctions sweeping across the continents, driven mainly by habitat loss and degradation from unsustainable agriculture and logging." In 2017, tropical forests lost a total of 39 million acres of tree cover, and the Spix's Macaw is one of the many animals that suffered from it. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Mattis arrives in Afghanistan fresh off earlier meetings in Pakistan where Pompeo said the U.S. wanted to "reset" its raucous relationship with Pakistan and newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed optimism, promising to work with Washington for peace. But Khan has repeatedly said Pakistan is no longer interested in partnering with the United States in war. Visiting town for just a few days, a Baton Rouge man was dead Thursday evening, found shot in a car just blocks from his childhood home in Zion City, his family said. Anthony "Tony" Benton, 49, died in a hospital from multiple gunshot wounds, said Sgt. L'Jean McKneely Jr., Baton Rouge police spokesman. Hours earlier, about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, he was found wounded in the driver's seat of a vehicle near Glen Oaks Middle School. Benton's family said he had planned a week-long visit back home to take care of some business and see family. He didn't get to finish the trip. This is supposed to be his home, and somebody stole him at his home," Benton's sister Lazandra Singleton said. "It's sad; he came home to get killed. I wish he stayed. He had been doing great out there. Singleton said her brother was supposed to head back Friday morning to South Carolina, where he had moved. She said another sister was stationed there in the military, and he had been working a construction job. "I don't know what happened. I'm still in a state of shock trying to figure out what's going on," Singleton said Friday. "Whoever did this, come forward because he had many loved ones." Singleton said Benton was a father of three and now a grandfather. She said they have a large extended family many, including Benton, who grew up on Ford Street, just blocks from where Benton was found shot in a vehicle on Kissel Street. She said less than an hour before he was found shot, he had left their childhood home, kissing their father goodbye. "(He) kissed my dad on the forehead, told him, 'Dad I love you, Ill be back,'" Singleton said. "That was the last thing he said to my dad. Singleton said that night Benton had been drinking socially with some friends and family, but she did not know of any fight or argument that could have happened. 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 "He loved to enjoy life," Singleton said. "He was an awesome person, all the kids loved him, the whole neighborhood loved him." She said some witnesses gave information to police, so she is hopeful they can find the person responsible. On Thursday evening, the vehicle where Benton was found was parked diagonally in the intersection of Kissel and Peerless streets. Officers focused their investigation on the vehicle, which appeared to be a white Chevrolet Impala, and a nearby bicycle laying on the ground. It was unclear if the bicycle was related to the incident. Neighbors said they didn't hear gunshots and initially thought someone had crashed their car before realizing the man inside was suffering from gunshot injuries. Police have not yet said whether investigators believe the shooting happened in the area where Benton was found inside his car or if it happened somewhere else and Benton drove there from the scene. Police asked anyone with information on the shooting to contact the Violent Crime Unit at (225) 389-4869 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867. A man who was struck by a fellow inmate Tuesday in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center has died, authorities said Thursday. Brian Alexander, 49, was struck once by Press Shorter III during an altercation in a common area about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, knocking him unconscious. Alexander was treated by the jail's medical staff and transported to a hospital, where he was put on life support and later declared brain dead, according to Anna Friedberg, his lawyer. Alexander was not named by authorities at the time of the incident but was identified by Friedberg on Thursday. "Brian Alexander was a good person who suffered from mental illness and who had just in recent years become involved in the criminal justice system due to his illness," Friedberg said in a written statement. "His death is a terrible tragedy, and I wonder if it could have been prevented. I am curious if the jail was taking measures to protect vulnerable inmates, like Brian." The 26-year-old Shorter, who was in jail on drug and gun charges pending trial, was booked on a count of second-degree battery after the altercation, and would be rebooked on manslaughter after the victim's death, authorities said Thursday. The attack on Alexander is only the latest of several criminal allegations leveled against Shorter in the last year. New Orleans police on Dec. 5 booked Shorter, who has had home addresses in Gonzales and Harvey, on counts of second-degree battery and first-degree rape. A woman reported to investigators that she had been sexually assaulted by a man she did not know. Orleans Parish prosecutors later pressed only a simple battery charge against Shorter, who pleaded guilty in exchange for six months of probation and an opportunity to later get the conviction taken off his record. In April, authorities in Jefferson Parish filed charges against Shorter accusing him of possessing and intending to deal marijuana as well as illegal gun possession. He posted $125,000 bail to be released from jail while he awaited the outcome of that case. But Jefferson deputies then picked him up Saturday on a raft of new counts, including possessing and intending to distribute marijuana, illegal gun possession, possessing a stolen gun, resisting police and battering police, according to records in 24th Judicial District Court. 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 Shorter battered Alexander three days later. Prosecutors with District Attorney Paul Connicks office wrote in a motion Thursday that Shorter should be held in custody without bail, arguing that he clearly poses an imminent danger to the community if released. The weight of the evidence against the defendant is overwhelming, and there will likely be more charges filed" against him, Assistant District Attorney Joan Benge wrote in the motion. A judge had not ruled on Benges motion as of Thursday afternoon. Alexander was awaiting trial on a charge that he robbed a woman on Aug. 15, 2017, while making her believe he was armed with a weapon, court records show. In a court filing, Friedberg said Alexander had been a patient at a mental hospital in Lafayette shortly before the alleged robbery. He left the hospital "against medical advice" and went to Jefferson Parish while he was suffering from psychosis and experiencing auditory hallucinations, Friedberg said. Alexander had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Doctors on Oct. 3 were scheduled to issue their findings in 24th Judicial District Court on whether Alexander was insane at the time of the robbery. Alexander's death came several weeks after the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was sued in federal court by the family of a jail inmate who hanged himself by wrapping a sheet around a window grate in his private cell on Aug. 17, 2017. That suit was the first legal fallout from the death of Joshua Belcher, 32, who was among three inmates who committed suicide at the jail between Aug. 4 and Sept. 27 of last year. The suicides prompted the Sheriff's Office to announce a review of jail policies. Editor's note: This story was corrected on Sept. 7 to reflect that Judge John Molaison is no longer on the 24th JDC bench after being elected without opposition to the state Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal. Gallagher told the jury about the two teen girls who were abducted, raped and killed in a once-tranquil suburb and that DNA from semen found in both women and preserved for decades matched Halbower's DNA. One of the victims was stabbed to death and the other one was beaten in the head with concrete and stabbed in her heart. Doctors will be expected to put aside their personal views and not stand in the way of patients wanting to end their lives when euthanasia is legalised in Victoria next year. While medical professionals can conscientiously object to participating in euthanasia, Victorian Healthcare Association chief executive Tom Symondson said terminally-ill people should not be impeded in their quest for a hastened death by hospitals or doctors that refuse to offer the service. Victorian Healthcare Association chief executive Tom Symondson. Credit:Leanne Pickett "The law is very clear, you can conscientiously object," Mr Symondson said. "But you can't, for example, sit on that request for seven days without telling a person that you conscientiously object. I remember admitting to myself that I had an attraction to guys when I was 14, but I used to date girls, too. I thought I liked both. My hormones were a bit haywire at that age. I first slept with a guy when I was 17 and it gave me the instant realisation that's what I like! The whole bisexual thing went out the window. By the time I turned 18 I knew I wasn't going to stay in the world of public housing and Centrelink. I had the job at the juice bar and I moved in with a friend who had a private rental property. Over the next four years, there were two more occasions when I was paid for sex. Once while travelling in the US, once after reading some graffiti on an Adelaide men's room wall: "Jerk off for cash." The following year, when I was 23, I caught up with a friend for coffee in Melbourne after he'd returned from a year in Sydney. "What did you do for work?" I asked. "When I first moved there, I actually tried escorting at a brothel in Surry Hills." "Wow! What was that like?" I was all ears. He laughed. "When I went for an interview, they asked me a few questions and made me show my dick." He said he only lasted a day. Outwardly, I was trying not to appear too interested, but in my head I was taking notes. As it happened, I was planning to move to Sydney soon after. When I got there, I looked for a normal job for about two weeks, had a couple of unsuccessful interviews, spent some money, then picked up the phone and dialled the brothel. The next day I was outside the place, surprised at how ordinary it looked. Just a discreet terrace house. A guy walked past me without looking and went in. I knocked on the door and he answered: "Oh, it's you," he said. "You don't look like the usual boy who'd be looking for a job here." With my half-sleeve tattoo and boy-next-door vibe, I suppose I stood out from the others who, I would soon see, had more of the feminine thing going on. He took me into the office and asked me a couple of questions. He must have been impressed. He didn't even ask to see my appendage. He didn't want my real name, either, just what name I wanted to work under. "Tyson," I said. He never asked for a tax file number or ID, either. I was 23, though they advertised me as 21. Youth is everything in the gay world. At the brothel, we were always referred to as "boys". I was 183 centimetres and 73 kilograms. The guy told me the clients paid $250 an hour. I'd get $150 of that. I could work whatever days I wanted. Night shift or day. The only thing was that if I started a shift, I had to finish it. I was ushered out the back where all the other boys were sitting. I said hello, sat down and watched the telly. A client would come into the office and the worker would show him our pictures on a screen. He might say he wanted to meet some or all of us. The worker would come out the back and one by one we'd go into the office to meet the client. I found I got picked a lot. I've got to admit that made me feel special. But there was a big downside. Each time I got chosen, I could sense the other boys' growing anger. I'd come down from seeing a client and their eyes wouldn't lift from the TV. "Here comes moneybags," someone would mutter. There was nothing to do but sit back down and watch some more telly. Then another client would come in and part of me would not want to get picked again, but the part wanting to get picked was stronger. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I realised I got a kick out of people putting a price on me. Hell, I was worth $1000 a day. Me. One of the other escorts pulled me aside once: "I used to be rolling in it, too," he said. "But I've been here for a year. I'm old and crusty now." He was my age. One of my first clients was a normal suit-and-tie type who became a regular. He always visited during office hours. He was a good client and a nice guy, but he talked sleazy and was a bit aggressive when it came down to business. He had his sex routine. It was always the same, always climaxing with me standing facing the wall. I discussed it with the other boys and they told me he did the same with them, too. They also told me he was a Liberal politician. I Googled him and sure enough, there he was, with a wife and kids and all that. I'd go on seeing him for years. I mentioned once that prostitution was legal in Australia, and he corrected me. "It's not legal, it's decriminalised." That was him. Always had to have his say. He was taking such a risk coming to the brothel. I remember later, him leaving his wallet and phone out while he took a shower, leaving himself open to exposure and blackmail. Not that I'd ever do that. After three months at the brothel, my new-boy honeymoon period was waning. I wanted to go out on my own. I'd had three months' experience to see how the business worked and what was expected. I knew I was organised enough, smart enough. I needed an apartment, a personal trainer, gay porn and toys, and to stock up on condoms, lube and amyl nitrate. I wanted to be seen as a professional. I used a website for independent gay male escorts. You put your pictures, phone number and details on it. A lot of guys didn't show their face, but I did because I had some distinctive tattoos so anybody who knew me would recognise me anyway. Nevertheless, I kept my new career a secret from all my friends. One of my first jobs was a call to a big antiques warehouse after closing time. A man in his 50s opened the door and locked it behind me. He seemed a bit funny. I knew he'd likely be as nervous as me, scared he'd just let some meth-head into his shop, so it was hard to gauge if he was frightened or awkward or just weird. I looked around at all the creepy old furnishings in the darkness, the bars on the windows. There was no escape if things went bad. It was a sensation I would come to know well. But I realised early on that if you ran from every situation that seemed dodgy, you'd never get any work. I had a job to do, so I did it. The price was $250 and I would keep it all. He tossed a pair of footy shorts at me and smiled. He turned out to be a nice guy who didn't want much. Some chat and a bit of a massage. He became a regular. He always had a new pair of shorts for me to wear, but I'm not sure I ever saw him completely naked. It went well for a while but he became strangely clingy and perhaps a little unhinged. Even though regulars were the most important thing to have in this business, I had to stop seeing him. The politician was another semi-regular, but the client who would go on to be my longest "relationship" was a guy of Middle Eastern background whom I would see for the next seven years. I still know nothing about him. I knew him as Ahmed. He was in his mid-30s when we met. He mentioned once that he was married. He contacted me either on a special phone, or with a secret email account. We had a deal where he'd only give me $100 because he was in and out in 10 minutes. There was no point paying for an hour. He could never book an appointment, so it was always on short notice. He'd call and if I was home and able to do it, I would. I'd have to leave the door unlocked: it was his kind of fetish to be able to walk into my place whenever he wanted, as he liked to play the dominant role. Ahmed wasn't a bad-looking guy, so it was fun and exciting at first, but as the months ticked by it became routine. He was like the politician. He wanted it exactly the same every time. He always had the dominant role in the sex stuff, but as soon as it was over he was a nice guy. A couple of times when I was sick, he left me cold and flu tablets and some soup at the grocer next door. He'd sometimes see me twice a week. One time he got me to organise a threesome, which I thought might be fun but he had a script. He was to be in the room with the other boy and I had to come in without speaking, stand there, do what he wanted me to do, and leave without saying a word. We did a few of those over the years and they were never very successful because he was so particular. You just couldn't get into it. Maybe 50 per cent of my clients lived a straight life, and probably 40 per cent of them were in relationships with women. I came to realise that sex work was real work, just like that of a therapist, a masseur or hairdresser. There is a human need for intimacy and friendship, and for whatever reason my clients had to use an escort for that. I was seeing some amazing, great-looking, normal people who used my service as it was the only way they could fill that need for connection. There was not a lot of competition in those early years, around 2011. I was making a lot of money and it changed my life. I'd never had money before. But I spent it as fast as it came in. Rent was expensive. My personal trainer cost a bit. I was getting laser treatment trying to look good. When I'd go out and party with friends, I spent way, way more money than previously. I was making less money. This was deflating. At 25, now I was the old, crusty one. Credit:Getty Images It was strange that even though none of them knew what I was doing, I felt the need to create a high-living facade so that if they ever did find out, they'd be like, "He might be doing a dirty job, but look at his amazing life!" Every time I travelled for work, I'd check in on Facebook so people could see I was living large. Me. One of my my best regulars was a periodontist. He sometimes worked in emergency at a hospital and would come in the early morning after his shift. He'd do cocaine and we'd drink expensive champagne. I didn't like drugs but I did drink. He loved to party so I would indulge a little bit, but I always wanted to be in control. It was about money for me. Not partying. Sometimes there'd be lines of cocaine and he'd go to the toilet and I'd push my line into his and pretend I'd snorted it. These sessions would go eight or 10 hours during the day, which was good because I could sleep at night. At one point, I told the periodontist that I wanted to get out of escorting and was planning to do a personal-training course. He told me he was planning on renting a city apartment and I could live there while studying and he'd visit on weekends. Like a lot of clients, he lived with a male partner who didn't know about me. I thought that would keep a distance between us but he ended up renting a big inner-city terrace, then broke up with his partner. Suddenly I was his full-time, live-in, kept boy. I got swept up in it, choosing the furniture, enjoying the city skyline views, his platinum credit card, the cleaner, the dog walker. My misery. He'd been a cool, relaxed guy before, but he became clingy and possessive. I'd been able to navigate the notion of getting paid by the hour. Clock the emotions on, clock them off. But this was different and I didn't cope. I did the course, stayed sober, never bought anything on his card for myself because I didn't want to owe him. And after six months, I fled. I was working as a personal trainer, but as so often happens to sex workers I was sucked back into the escorting vacuum. Things had changed in the six months I was away. A lot of my regulars had moved on. Some came back but I had to start from scratch. And as the financial crisis had unwound, a lot of boys from Europe and South America had come to town. The RentBoy Australia website went from 30 to maybe 200 escorts in Sydney, and they were all from exotic places: Spain, Italy, Brazil. I was making less money. For someone whose self-worth was assessed in dollars, this was deflating. At 25, now I was the old, crusty one. My solution was vodka. I never drank at home alone, but I lived close to nightclubs. I wouldn't remember how I got home. I wasn't happy. From a young age, I'd learnt to keep moving. Instead of facing issues, I ran. I moved to Brisbane. I guess I was going to be the new boy there, and the rent was cheaper, so I could get a better place. It's amazing how different the clientele is in different cities. There were a lot more "straight" clients in Brisbane. And they wanted to bargain a lot more with prices and know a lot more about me. I'd never answer private numbers because of the time-wasters: "Do you suck dick?" I'm like, "Der, I'm an escort." Brisbane was slower than I'd hoped, so after three months I moved back to Sydney. I reconnected with Ahmed and a valued Chinese client, and made new clients. But while I was in Brisbane, I had started acknowledging that I was drinking too much. I went into Alcoholics Anonymous and stopped drinking. A lot of my friends didn't think I had a problem but I just knew I wasn't happy with myself: blacking out, spending a lot of money, losing my wallet. I had a lot of anxiety, so alcohol was great to kill that. Looking back, I can see a lot of it was created by the escorting. I was paranoid about who knew, who didn't. I guess I cared a lot about what people thought of me. Around this time, I finally told my sister I was an escort. "Now I get it," she said. "You were always so social when you were younger. Then you started never wanting to do anything. You spend so much energy being social with clients, you're emotionally exhausted. You've got 10 different relationships on the go at once." I knew I'd changed in other ways, too. I was more uptight and more stubborn. My sister pointed out I'd got a lot more vain. I'd become so particular about my look. My hair. Going to the gym. Eating certain things. I decided to give up escorting again and move to Melbourne to be around good friends and family. I got a job at a gym reception, thinking I'd get back into the training side. I lived the "normal" life for eight months but it didn't make me happy. I thought if I was unhappy with escorting and unhappy without escorting, I might as well take the freedom, the travel and the money of the sex work. It paid off. For some reason, I started making a lot more money again in Melbourne. There was a lot of work travelling to Perth for the fly-in, fly-out workers. One of my regulars was a Buddhist monk but he clearly wasn't so good at banishing his earthly desires; he got so clingy and weird I had to let him go. A client took me to London for a week and it made me wonder if I could make it there. So, after a booming year in Melbourne, I moved to the UK. That was a hard market. Some very attractive people move to London. I was competing against guys with perfect six-packs, giant penises: the beautiful youth of the European Union and Brazil who'd do it for 80 an hour. I managed to survive. Weaving my way through all those cliched English fetishes and trying as best I could to avoid the heavy "chemsex" scene: the mixture of drugs and sex that was huge over there. In London, I decided to wean myself off the antidepressants I'd been on for a couple of years. I shouldn't have done that. My symptoms came back even worse. I drank a lot. Drugs were a lot easier to get hold of. I did more cocaine and ecstasy. I turned 30 and my mental health fell apart. I was suicidal. I never planned to be doing this work at 30. I fled home to Adelaide to visit my mum and while staying at a friend's house, drinking, the night thoughts got me. I was old, had no career, nothing to show for it. So when my friend and her kids were sound asleep, I decided it was time to die. I had a bottle of Valium I'd bought on the way home in Thailand. I went rummaging through my gear but I'd hidden the tablets because I hadn't wanted my friend's kids finding them, and now I couldn't find them. I pulled my stuff apart but they were nowhere to be found. There was nothing to do but sleep. I woke up the next day pretty scared. That was last year. I've never escorted again. I worked in a hotel in south-east Asia for five months and that was good to have to get up each morning to go to work, but also to see how happy people can be with no material wealth. I could never return to escorting. I would not want people to see me on some website, seven years after I was that new boy on the scene, still trying to turn tricks. That in itself would make me want to kill myself. I'm back in Sydney working a normal job. It's like I'm starting a whole new life. I'm looking for true love, but I haven't been in a real relationship for eight or nine years. I'm so used to being on my own, I don't even know how to be in a relationship. I've started feeling better mentally. I'm on a new antidepressant. I'm starting to make friends again. Real, proper friendships. You can never get too close to people when you're escorting because you're always lying about something. I never felt good about that. With a lot of clients, I was able to go somewhere else in my mind, to picture them being someone else. That was all part of switching off my emotions, building solid walls, which I guess was detrimental to my life in the real world. It's definitely done some damage. Can I get my personality back? I do feel that there's a big chunk of me missing. I enjoyed people putting a price tag on me. Does that mean I'm less of a person? I couldn't even look at an escorting website now. That would trigger me. Not just because they're young and fabulous, but because it would take me back to those big highs: I'm carrying a big stack of cash. I'm going to fancy hotels and restaurants. I'm going to the opera in Barcelona. Me. * Tyson McLaren is a pseudonym. Story as told to journalist Mark Whittaker. A man accused of attempted murder after firing a police officer's weapon while under guard at Canberra Hospital pleaded not guilty on Friday to a series of driving charges that led up to the incident. James William Shearer, 26, has already pleaded not guilty to the allegations of attempted murder that arose from the July 18 incident. He was in police custody in the hospital's emergency department after he allegedly crashed a stolen car on Yamba Drive, causing serious injury to two people. It's alleged that while in the hospital, Mr Shearer took a police officer's Glock pistol and fired it several times. Through his Legal Aid lawyer on Friday, Mr Shearer pleaded not guilty to six fresh charges. Shocking footage has emerged of a wild bikie gunfight and arson in suburban south Canberra. ACT Policing released the footage on Friday with a call for community assistance to help identify the offenders. The footage shows three men two armed with a handgun and shotgun scaling the rear fence of the Calwell home of a rival gang member about 10.45pm on June 28. The men open a roller door, allowing a fourth man to enter, before pouring petrol on three vehicles. Police fear three Staffordshire bull terriers stolen from a Logan business several months ago could be used for dog fighting, as detectives release an image of a person of interest. The three Staffies were stolen from Queens Road in Logan Central about midnight on April 8 after a man broke into the business and cut through mesh to get into several dog pens. The man detectives would like to speak to regarding the dog-napping. Credit:Queensland Police Service Police said he was carrying a crowbar and may have also had a tattoo on his left forearm. He has been described as Caucasian, with a medium build, medium-length beard and was wearing black pants with white strips, a black t-shirt and black cap. A young boy hit by a reversing car in Brisbane has been taken to hospital with head injuries. Queensland Ambulance Service Senior Operations Supervisor Steven Clarke said paramedics received a call at 9.20am following reports that a male toddler had been hit by a car on Lyon Avenue in Oxley. "When our officers arrived at the scene the young boy was visibly upset," he said. "Paramedics conducted an assessment and his vital signs revealed they were all within normal limits, so that meant to us that his airway breathing and circulation were adequate. "The young boy sustained some bruising and a hematoma to his head, and some grazes on his forehead and his upper back. A former police officer who slapped a female colleague's bottom on a nightclub dancefloor has been convicted and ordered to donate $2000 to a domestic violence charity, while his victim has asked other women to speak out about abuse in the workplace. The serving officer was the victim of an unlawful assault by off-duty police officer Timothy Williams, 37, in a Swan Hill nightclub on October 22 last year. Ex-cop Timothy Williams was told twice not to touch the victim, and then proceeded to forcefully slap her behind. Credit:Bendigo Advertiser Williams, who resigned from Victoria Police last month, was sentenced in the Bendigo Magistrates Court on Friday. A charge of sexual assault was withdrawn and he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful assault. He was convicted and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond. He was ordered to make a $2000 donation to the White Ribbon Foundation and to complete counselling for respectful relationships with women. A mother silently apologised to her children and parents as her former husband came at her with an axe at a shopping centre in Melbourne's south-east, because she believed her life was about to end. What followed was a frenzied minute-long attack during which the 47-year-old man struck her more than 20 times with an axe, aiming at her face. Colleagues and shoppers watched on in horror as the vicious attack unfolded at a beauty salon in the Fountain Gate shopping centre, where the victim worked. Judge Patricia Riddell described the man as irrational, possessive and paranoid in the aftermath of the couple's separation which was, at least in part, caused by his manipulation. She sentenced him in the County Court on Friday to 14 years in prison. Researchers have found a "concerning level of inconsistency" in the sentences handed down by Victorian courts for driving offences, with drivers facing justice in Melbourne much less likely to be jailed than those who appear in Ballarat. Researchers from Deakin Universitys School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Swinburne University found a concerning degree of difference in the sentences meted out for driving offenders between Ballarat, Melbourne, Portland and Sale courts. Melbourne drivers are less likely to be jailed for driving offences. Credit:Paul Rovere Offenders in Ballarat are three times more likely to be imprisoned for the same offence as those sentenced in Portland, twice as likely as those sentenced in Melbourne and more than 50 per cent higher than in Sale. Deakin criminologist and lead researcher, Dr Clare Farmer said she and her colleagues analysed almost 12,000 sentencing outcomes for Victorians convicted for driving while disqualified, suspended, or with a cancelled licence, over the period from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015. Police have charged three men after an alleged vicious beating of two men in East Melbourne after the first AFL final on Thursday night. The trio two aged 27, and one aged 24 were arrested on Friday night over an assault on two men who were allegedly punched in the face multiple times and kicked while on the ground after the preliminary final match between Richmond and Hawthorn. The three men were charged with intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and "other assault-related offences". They were released on bail and will appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on December 4. One of the victims, a 45-year-old father from Mount Evelyn, was on Friday preparing to undergo surgery on his arm, which police say was broken during the incident. The man also told police he saw his friend's face stomped on during the attack. The friend, a 61-year-old father from Rosebud, suffered serious facial injuries, including a fractured cheek bone. DNA, fingerprints and inquiries with Interpol overseas failed to shed any light on who she was in the early stages of the inquiry. "We have very little to go from...it is a horrible death," Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor said at the time. A police officer with intimate knowledge of the case said detectives were working 16 hour shifts at about this time, just so they could identify the woman. "From the outset we spent 14 to 16 hours a day canvassing the area around the traffic bridge for information, CCTV, door knocks, traffic stops at relevant times of the night," the officer told WAtoday. "We spent countless hours with Border Force and other agencies to identify her." Detectives also spent an entire Saturday in early July speaking with Chinatown business owners in the Perth CBD, hoping that someone may hold the key to knowing who she was. Officers put up posters in several different languages all along the William Street area in an attempt to generate leads. The posters read: "Police are investigating the murder of this person and need your help to identify her." The posters put up by police in Perth's Chinatown. Credit:Phil Hickey Several weeks later police held another press conference where they revealed a scooter and a cutting board found in the river were linked to the mystery. But the woman still did not have a name. Detective Senior Sergeant Tom Mills said at the time the scooter and cutting board were secured together with cable ties. He said detectives were exploring the possibility the scooter had been used to transport the suitcase with the body inside into the water. Tiles found in the Swan River and near the Fremantle traffic bridge were also linked to those found in the suitcase. Tiles recovered from the Swan River. Credit:WA Supreme Court Sen-Sgt Mills conceded many of the leads police had been following up until this point had been fruitless. The major breakthrough police were looking for On September 5, 2016 - just over two months after the suitcase discovery was made - police announced the woman had finally been identified. She was 58-year-old Mosman Park mother Annabelle Chen. Annabelle Chen was described as a private and very spiritual person. The breakthrough came after one of Ms Chen's daughter's - Tiffany Yiting Wan - flew into Perth via Melbourne and door knocked houses in the Mosman Park area looking for her mother. Ms Wan then reported her mother missing to police. It didn't take detectives long to realise that Ms Wan's mother was the woman in the suitcase they'd been trying so hard to identify. "The key for us in this investigation is learning more about her and the public can play an important role in that," Sen-Sgt Mills said on September 5. The identification of Ms Chen also changed the whole focus of the police investigation. Detectives went from trying to identify a deceased person, to investigating suspects. Then on September 28, police announced two people had been charged with Ms Chen's murder. They released a statement that Wednesday afternoon saying a 68-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman had been charged. The following day those two people were identified as they faced court for the first time. They were Ms Chen's former husband Ah Ping Ban and the pair's daughter Tiffany Wan, the same person who had reported her mother missing earlier that month. The trial begins and the finger pointing starts On August 13, 2018 Ban and Wan's murder trial began in the WA Supreme Court before a jury. On the opening day of the trial, prosecutors conceded the case against the pair was "circumstantial" and that no motive for the murder had been established. Prosecutor Justin Whalley said both Ban and Wan had initially told police they last saw Ms Chen leave her Mosman Park home on June 30, 2016 with a man in a white sedan. "They acted together in the murder of Annabelle Chen," Mr Whalley said on the opening day of the trial. "Their individual involvement in the cover up was of such a nature and such a degree that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from it was that each was responsible." A post-mortem examination found Ms Chen had sustained 25 blunt-force injuries to her head and face and had a fractured skull, injuries the prosecution alleged occurred in the bedroom of her home. Wan cried in the dock as the injuries on her mother's head were shown to the courtroom. Both Ban and Wan elected to give evidence during the trial. They blamed each-other for the killing. Ban had claimed both he and his daughter disposed of Ms Chen's body in the Swan River, but only after he was confronted with a "horrible scenario" once he arrived in Perth on June 30 via Singapore. That scenario, he had claimed, involved an argument between his daughter and ex-wife on June 27 or 28 at her home, which resulted in her death. "She (Tiffany) dragged me into this situation," Ban testified. Ban admitted to losing his reading glasses in the river while disposing of the body, by balancing the suitcase on the cutting board which was tied to the scooter. A pair of glasses similar to those worn by Ban were later found by police divers. The glasses which were found by police divers. Credit:WA Supreme Court Wan's defence lawyer Simon Freitag put it to Ban in the witness stand that he "could take responsibility" for what he'd done and that he had killed Ms Chen in the bedroom of her home. "That is not true sir ... I wouldn't do that," Ban responded. "I didn't kill Annabelle, that is a true fact." Wan however claimed that she heard her mother scream and then a "loud metallic thud" as her parents were upstairs having an argument in Ms Chen's home. She said her father later confessed to the murder by using a paperweight and told her words to the effect: "I can be your mother too." The long wait for a verdict It took four days for the Supreme Court jury made up of eight men and four women to find Ban guilty of murder on Thursday. Wan was acquitted of murder but was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. Police officers, media and interested members of the public who'd become fixated with the case filled the courtroom for the long-awaited verdict. Wans lawyer Simon Freitag spoke briefly with reporters as he left court. Rows of unsightly orange portaloos lining one of Perth's most popular beachfronts will be removed after the Town of Cottesloe reached an agreement with the Indiana Tea House over the management of its toilets on Friday afternoon. The Town of Cottesloe held a closed-door special council meeting to discuss the sublease of the toilets on September 7 after a week of outrage over who was responsible for the dunnies. The portaloos were met with condemnation. Credit:Town of Cottesloe/Facebook The storm in an S-bend began last week when Indiana Tea House closed the toilets, with management fed up maintaining the them for public use. Worried about the prospect of a summer without toilets at the popular beach, the Town of Cottesloe trucked in rows of portaloos. Sacked border security chief Roman Quaedvlieg will be asked to appear before a Senate inquiry to expand on his hotly disputed claim that he was asked to help resolve an au pair visa problem on behalf of a "mate" of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Mr Quaedvlieg on Friday doubled down on his evidence against Mr Dutton by providing a further written statement to the inquiry to address doubts cast on his original testimony. Former home affairs minister Peter Dutton and former and Australian Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg in 2015. Credit:AAP The Australian Border Force commissioner - who was sacked in March for helping to get his girlfriend a job on the force - refused to say what additional information he had provided "other than to state unequivocally that the effective substance of my original submission stands". Mr Quaedvlieg said in written evidence this week that Mr Duttons chief of staff Craig Maclachlan phoned him in mid-June 2015 asking for help in freeing from immigration detention a young woman who was going to work as an au pair for "the boss's mate in Brisbane". During an appearance on Megyn Kelly's show on NBC last week, McClure and D'Amico insisted that $US150,000 remained of the money they had raised for Bobbitt. The court had ordered them to account for what they spent and put the rest in a trust for the veteran. But a short time later, Bobbitt's lawyers learnt that estimate was about $US150,000 too high. As the case drags on, GoFundMe is working with legal counsel and investigators to make sure Bobbitt gets what he's owed, Bobby Whithorne, a spokesman for the company said. GoFund has a policy for cases such as these that protects donors and beneficiaries. "GoFundMe has given $US20,000 to a bank account created by Johnny's legal team to provide assistance during the investigation," Whithorne said. Homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt. Credit:The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP McClure and D'Amico started the crowdfunding campaign after Bobbitt came to McClure's rescue on the side of the road in October 2017. McClure had run out of petrol on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, and Bobbitt walked to a service station and spent $US20 of his own money to buy her petrol. "Johnny did not ask me for a dollar, and I couldn't repay him at that moment because I didn't have any cash, but I have been stopping by his spot for the past few weeks," McClure wrote on GoFundMe. "I repaid him for the gas, gave him a jacket, gloves, a hat, and warm socks, and I give him a few dollars every time I see him." McClure and D'Amico hoped the GoFundMe effort would raise $US10,000, but the story resonated. It was featured in national newspapers, including The Washington Post. The pair made an appearance on Good Morning America and were interviewed by BBC News - a feel-good story at the start of the holiday season last northern hemisphere autumn. Ultimately, the campaign raised more than $US402,000 from more than 14,000 donors. Attorney Chris Fallon, appears in a New Jersey court on behalf of Johnny Bobbitt last month. Credit:The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP But then the story took a dark turn, with accusations of mismanagement and outright theft of the money raised on Bobbitt's behalf. The GoFundMe cash, Bobbitt suspected, had been squandered on vacations, a luxury car and more than one addiction. "He's homeless and penniless," Promislo aid about Bobbitt in an interview with the Post last week. She added that her client "wants what he wanted before" - a home to live in, clothes to wear and food to eat - and the money that was intended for him. There are conflicting reports from the couple and Bobbitt about how the money was used and whether Bobbitt was a participant or a victim. McClure and D'Amico raised the money starting late last year to buy Bobbitt, among other things, his own home and his "dream" truck: a 1999 Ford Ranger. But in the months that followed, the couple used the money to buy him a camper - in their own names - a TV set, a laptop and two mobile phones, as well as a used SUV that has since broken down, according to local news reports. Bobbitt met a financial adviser but never had access to the money or signed paperwork for a trust, the Inquirer reported. D'Amico said he kept $US200,000 - the amount that remained after paying for the camper, SUV and other expenses - in a savings account that he would gladly turn over to Bobbitt once the vet kicked an addiction to opioids and managed to hold down a job. But Bobbitt said he saw troubling signs. McClure is a receptionist for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and D'Amico is a carpenter, according to the Inquirer. But suddenly, she had a new BMW, and the couple was taking vacations to Florida, California and Las Vegas, Bobbitt told the Inquirer. He learnt of a helicopter ride they took over the Grand Canyon. And Bobbitt told the Inquirer that D'Amico gambled away some of the GoFundMe money at a casino in Philadelphia. D'Amico told the newspaper he had indeed used $US500 from the bank account to gamble on a night when he forgot his Sugarhouse Casino card but had "quickly repaid" the money with his winnings. The couple have denied that they used any more of the money for anything else for themselves. The Inquirer reported that D'Amico spoke of expenses that he and his girlfriend had incurred caring for Bobbitt, including time that they took off from work. And D'Amico gave an "evolving account" to the Inquirer of how he handled the money. "Initially, he said he would not produce financial records because the money was put into an existing account at PNC Bank that does not belong to Bobbitt. On Wednesday, he said he and McClure had opened up a separate account for Bobbitt. On Thursday morning he said he told a reporter the trusts had been set up because thats what Bobbitt wanted him to say," the Inquirer reported. Through it all, the money that came to Bobbitt couldn't stop D'Amico's addiction. He went through two unsuccessful stints in rehab that brought him no closer to being sober. Some of the money that GoFundMe donors gave him ended up in the pockets of drug dealers, Bobbitt told the Inquirer. In April, Bobbitt told the Inquirer that he had been clean for three weeks and jobless for much longer. "It's going to be a struggle for the rest of my life," he told the newspaper about his addiction. Bobbitt's attorneys told the Post that he is in detox and working to get his life back. But the camper, the SUV and most of the other things he got after the GoFundMe campaign are gone. He spent most of the summer back on the streets of Philadelphia, sleeping under a bridge near the spot where McClure's out-of-petrol SUV sputtered to a stop last autumn. Washington: US Senator Elizabeth Warren says if President Donald Trump's cabinet thinks he is unfit for office, they should remove him. The Massachusetts Democrat made the comments in a fundraising email on Thursday. US Senator Elizabeth Warren Credit:AP Warren points to an anonymous senior official who wrote a New York Times opinion piece claiming to be part of a "resistance" working "from within" to thwart Trump's most dangerous impulses. Warren said if senior officials believe the president is unfit, "they should stop hiding behind anonymous op-eds and leaking information to Bob Woodward" and "do what the Constitution demands they do: invoke the 25th Amendment and remove this president from office". Israeli star Shiri Maimon met the Broadway press on September 7 in honor of her upcoming run as Roxie Hart in Chicago. Maimon makes her Broadway debut September 21-October 5. Maimon represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest, was the first Israeli representative ever to perform on the MTV European Music Awards, and for three seasons served as a leading judge on The X Factor Israel music competition series. Her theater work includes the title role in Evita at Habima, the national theater of Israel, which earned her the Best Actress honor at the Israeli Theatre Awards. Set amid the razzle-dazzle decadence of the 1920s, Chicago is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media, and her rival cellmate Velma Kelly by hiring Chicago's slickest criminal lawyer to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today's tabloids. With a legendary book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb, the six-time Tony-winning revival production is now in its 22nd year on Broadway. Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America), Ann Harada (Avenue Q), and Ana Villafane (Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties) will join the all-female ensemble for the previously announced upcoming staged reading of Twelve Angry Men. Set for September 16 at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre, Tony Award winner Cady Huffman will direct, and Lauren Class Schneider will produce. The cast will also feature Geneva Carr (Bull), Jenn Colella (Come From Away), Ariana DeBose (Summer: The Donna Summer Musical), Tony winner Cady Huffman (Chicago), and Broadway vets Lynn Cohen (Sex and the City), Amber Iman (Hamilton tour), Chilina Kennedy (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Caitlin Kinnunen (The Prom), Jill Paice (An American in Paris), and Dale Soules (Orange Is the New Black). All performers are subject to change. Karen Azenberg, Pam Berlin, Sammi Cannold, Mary B. Robinson, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett serve as artistic advisers for the reading. Following the performance, audience members, cast, and staff will have the opportunity to update their voter registration in anticipation of the November 6 midterm elections. Information will also be given about how to increase voter registration and voter turnout. Adapted from Reginald Rose's 1954 teleplay of the same name for the CBS Studio One television series, Twelve Angry Men then become a film directed by Sidney Lumet. In the story, a 19-year-old man has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. It looks like an open-and-shut case - until one of the jurors begins opening the others' eyes to the facts. Sequestered in a small room, each juror reveals their own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, the murder is re-enacted, and a new murder threat is born before their eyes. The special counsel's office, though, has charged several former Trump campaign officials for allegedly misleading investigators examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. If the Justice Department were to decline to take up the case against the FBI's former No. 2 official, that could fuel outrage from conservatives who feel federal law enforcement has been unfairly aggressive toward their party. Using a grand jury could give federal prosecutors some political cover to argue they pursued the case using the most forceful tools available to them and still came up empty-handed. 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 has the right to ask him about actions that he is authorized, under the Constitution, to take as president. Giuliani's comments came just hours after Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, espoused a belief in an expansive view of executive powers and declined to say whether a president can be subpoenaed and forced to testify. Bishop Mcgrath Says He Hopes Presentation High School President Resignation Brings Healing for Victims The president of Presentation High School in San Jose stepped down on Sept. 5, amid community allegations that she did not do enough to prevent sexual abuse and harassment at the private, all-girls Catholic School. Mary Miller announced her resignation in a statement this afternoon, saying the allegations had become too much of a distraction to the schools mission and brought about negative press. It is my sincere hope that my absence will bring some peace and allow the staff and new administration to focus on the success and well-being of our studentswhich is our common goal, she said in the statement. We cannot change the past, but we can and must dedicate ourselves to the future. Miller attended the school as a student before serving as a teacher, principal for 25 years and president, according to school officials, who will now begin the hiring process to replace her. A woman who attended the school between 2002 and 2006 filed a lawsuit on Aug. 10, saying Miller knew theatre teacher Jefferey Hickshad allegedly sexually harassed the plaintiff but failed to report it to police. Miller also shamed and ridiculed the Presentation student into silence and made promises to help her, but never did, attorney Kenneth Turk said after the lawsuit was filed. Kathryn Leehane, another alumna, first brought sexual abuse allegations against the school in October 2017 when she wrote about being an abuse survivor in the Washington Post, according to advocacy group Make Pres Safe. Administrators acknowledged in August that they had become aware of several allegations, and were taking steps to make the school a gold-standard for safety. The newly-elected chairperson of the Presentation Board of Directors, Sister Pam Chiesa, said on Sept. 5, that Miller has been embroiled in the controversy over the last year, but she has also been a role model to several students. Mary has been an inspiration to many young women and helped guide them successfully in their lives and careers, Chiesa said in the statement. Now is the time to refocus on our mission and begin healing our community. In a statement, attorney Robert Allard, who represented the victims for free, said, True change cannot occur until those responsible for past transgressions are held responsible. This decision is the first of what we hope are several steps in that direction. There can be no doubt that Mary Miller enabled numerous predators to sexually abuse countless young girls. Going forward, we hope that the new leaders will make student safety, instead of image and reputation, their number one priority. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the young women whose lives were devastated by the sexual abuse. Bishop Pat McGrath of the Diocese of San Jose commented on Millers resignation, saying he hoped the announcement would lead to positive recovery for victims at the school. He added that he has met with several victims over the last year to hear their concerns. I commend the courageous women who have come forward over the past year to cast light upon the abuse that they and others experienced while students at Presentation High School, he said in a statement. Through these difficult times, they have stood with one another in solidarity. By Supriya Yelimeli Brazil Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro grimaces right after being stabbed in the stomach during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, on Sept. 6, 2018. (AP/Raysa Leite) Brazil Presidential Candidate in Grave Condition After Stabbing Attack on Campaign Trail RIO DE JANEIROJair Bolsonaro, a leading presidential candidate whose heated rhetoric has electrified some voters and angered others in a deeply polarized Brazil, was stabbed at a campaign event on Thursday, Sept. 6, and suffered serious abdominal injuries. Police said the suspected attacker was in custody. Dr. Luiz Henrique Borsato, who performed emergency surgery, said on Sept. 6 at night that the right-wing candidate was in serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for at least seven days. The first round of Brazils presidential election is Oct. 7. The doctor said the two-hour procedure stopped serious internal bleeding and repaired most of the damage from the knifing. The candidate will need further surgery within months for a part of his intestines that was temporarily fixed with a colostomy, the surgeon said. We cant say when he will be able to leave hospital, Borsato said. But in the first hours after the surgery his recovery has been very satisfactory. Numerous videos on social media showed Bolsonaro, who has promised to crack down on crime in Latin Americas largest nation, being stabbed with a knife to the lower part of his stomach while campaigning in Juiz de Fora, a city about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro. At the moment of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, looking out at the crowd and giving a thumbs up with his left hand. After the attack, he is seen flinching and then goes out of view. Other videos show supporters carrying him to a car and hitting a man who was apparently the suspect. Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed to The Associated Press that 40-year-old Adelio Bispo de Oliveira had been arrested in connection with the incident. De Oliveira was beaten badly by Bolsonaro supporters after the attack. The man was arrested in 2013 for another assault, police said. Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police, told AP that the assailant appeared to be mentally disturbed. Our agents there said the attacker said he was on a mission from God,' Boudens reported. Their impression is that they were not dealing with a mentally stable person. He didnt expect to be arrested so quickly; agents reacted in seconds. Bolsonaros son, Flavio Bolsonaro, initially posted on Twitter that the injury was superficial and his father was fine. However, an hour later he posted another tweet saying the wound was worse than we thought. He arrived at the hospital almost dead, Flavio wrote. His condition now seems stabilized. Please pray. A statement from federal police said the candidate had bodyguards. In the videos, Bolsonaro does not appear to be wearing a protective vest. Such measures are rare for candidates in Brazil. This episode is sad, President Michel Temer told reporters in Brasilia. We wont have a rule of law if we have intolerance. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is second in the polls to jailed ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been barred from running but continues to appeal. Despite being a congressman since 1991, Bolsonaro is running as an outsider ready to upend the establishment by cracking down on corruption in politics and reducing crime, in part by giving police a freer hand to shoot and kill while on duty. While Bolsonaro has a strong following, he is also a deeply polarizing figure. He has been fined, and even faced charges, for derogatory statements toward women, blacks and gays. He speaks nostalgically about the countrys 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. Earlier this week, Bolsonaro said during a campaign event that he would like to shoot corrupt members of the leftist Workers Party, which made da Silva its candidate. The comment prompted an immediate rebuke from the attorney general, who asked Bolsonaro to explain that comment. His vice presidential running mate, Hamilton Mourao, is a retired general who blamed leftists for the knife attack. Underling Brazils divisions, people took to Twitter to either to decry the stabbing and ask for prayers for Bolsonaro or to say the candidate had brought it upon himself and even may have staged it. The top five trending topics in Brazil were related to the stabbing. Other presidential candidates quickly denounced the stabbing and many of them decided to suspend their campaign events Friday. Politics is done through dialogue and by convincing, never with hate, tweeted Geraldo Alckmin, former governor of Sao Paulo who has focused negative ads on Bolsonaro. Fernando Haddad, who is expected to take da Silvas place on the Workers Party ticket, called the attack absurd and regrettable. The attack comes at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric, and sometimes violence, related to campaigns and candidates. In March, while da Silva was on a campaign tour in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, gunshots hit buses in his caravan. No one was hurt, and da Silva, who is in jail on a corruption conviction, was not in the vehicles that were hit. Also in March, Marielle Franco, a left-leaning black councilwoman in Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death along with her driver after attending an event on empowering black women. It wasnt immediately clear how the attack on Bolsonaro might reshape a presidential race very much up in the air with the front-runner, da Silva, in jail. In many ways, the incident feeds Bolsonaros narrative that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to steady it. Its likely that Bolsonaro will use the attack to argue his opponents are desperate, that they had no other way to stop him, said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiros state university. A handful of Bolsonaro supporters held a vigil in Sao Paulo on the night of Sept. 6, and briefly exchanged insults with leftists. They made Bolsonaro a martyr, said Jonatan Valente, a student. I think the left shot itself in the foot because with this attack they will end up electing Bolsonaro.' California Highway Littered With Burnt-out Trucks, Closed Until Declared Safe SHASTA-TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST, Calif.Interstate 5 usually swarms with trucks and traffic as it winds its way through California. But the main highway between Mexico and Canada was a ghost road Friday morning along a 45-mile (72-kilometer) northern stretch that remained closed since a fire two days earlier swept down and turned hills on either side into walls of flame. Drivers fled in terror and several big-rigs burned Wednesday as the Delta Fire erupted on both sides of the artery. Crews managed to remove the burned hulks and abandoned rigs on Thursday but flames continued to burn along an edge of the road in some areas, fire spokesman Brandon Vacarro said. A decision was expected Friday on whether to reopen the highway but first authorities had to check the safety of the pavement and cut down burned trees next to the roadsome of them 70 feet tall that might be in danger of falling down. The Delta Fire had burned more than 34 square miles (89 square kilometers) of timber and brush and prompted evacuation orders for scattered homes and buildings in three counties in and around the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. At times, flames shot up 300 feet (91 meters) high. Although the fire wasnt burning near any large towns, Vacarro said about 280 homes were considered threatened. There were some reports that homes had burned but Vacarro could only confirm that an outbuilding and two mixed-use commercial and residential buildings had been damaged. One Massive Blaze After Another It could be like a bed-and-breakfast, it could be a store with a house above it, he explained. Meanwhile, truckers who rely heavily on the I-5 to transport timber and other goods along the West Coast had the unenviable choice of waiting or taking a jammed detour that added 115 miles (185 kilometers) or so to their journeys. The road is essentially all two lanes on that journey and theres some steep hills on there as well so obviously slow-moving trucks going up and down the hill is making it hard to travel, Vacarro said. Patience was running thin at the Pilot Travel Center in the town of Weed, near the northern end of the closure. The truck stops facilities were stretched to their limits, cashier Jacob Chapman said Thursday afternoon. Parked big rigs lined the roads surrounding the facility. Its been ridiculously congested. Its been frantic, Chapman said. A lot of the truckers are upset. Theyre just stuck, they cant get through and theyre sick of waiting around. The general mood is just tired and upset. The truckers are exhausted and just want to get going. And the locals just want a break from the wildfires, Chapman said. We want our towns to stop being on fire, he added. The Worst May be Yet to Come California has been hit with one massive blaze after another, including a blaze not far from the Delta Fire that last month burned about 1,100 homes and killed eight people. The unrelenting flames have drained Californias firefighting budget and prompted nearly $1 billion in property claims even before the start of the dangerous fall fire season, officials said Thursday. The deadly Carr Fire and another in the Mendocino areathe two largest blazes in the state this yeardestroyed or damaged 8,800 homes and 329 businesses, Insurance Commissioner David Jones said. Victims have filed more than 10,000 insurance claims so far, totaling $845 million. The worst may be yet to come, Jones warned at a San Francisco news conference, noting that California wildfires are typically more destructive after Sept. 1. Last year, for example, wildfires that killed more than 40 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in counties north of San Francisco didnt spark until October. Also on Thursday, the director of the states firefighting agency said in a letter to lawmakers that the agency only had about $11 million remaining in its annual budget and anticipates needing another $234 million to add firefighters and helicopters, and to cover other costs of fires expected later this year. The department had spent $432 million through the end of August, said Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Legislature budgets for firefighting costs based on historical averages. Cal Fire has requested extra money in seven of the past 10 years but never this early, according to the Department of Finance. Credit: Mike Daly via Storyful Did you enjoy this article? Continue to read more stories here. Chapter Twelve, Part I: Sabotaging Education (UPDATED) The specter of communism did not disappear with the disintegration of the Communist Party in Eastern Europe The Epoch Times is serializing an adaptation from the Chinese of a new book, How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World, by the editorial team of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Listen to the audiobook: Table of Contents Introduction 1. Communist Elements in Primary and Secondary Education a. Dumbing Down Students b. The Destructive Nature of Progressive Education c. Ruining Students Moral Character d. Psychological Manipulation e. The Infiltration of Education References Education plays an important role in fostering individual well-being and self-fulfillment, maintaining social stability, and securing the future of a nation. No great civilization in the history of humanity has taken education lightly. The fundamental purpose of education is to maintain humanitys moral standards and preserve its divinely bestowed culture. It is the means by which knowledge and craftsmanship are imparted and people socialized. Traditionally, the well-educated respect heaven, believe in the divine, and seek to follow the virtue of benevolence. They possess extensive knowledge of traditional culture as well as mastery over one or more trades. Dedicated to their vocations, they believe in treating others with kindness. They serve as the pillars of society, the national elites, and the guardians of civilization. Their extraordinary character and behavior earn divine favor and blessings. Thus, ruining traditional education is an indispensable step in the communist specters plan to sever the connection between humanity and the divine. To this end, communism has adopted various strategies to attack and undermine education in both the East and the West. In Eastern countries that are home to deep-seated cultural traditions, deception alone is insufficient to brainwash the populace. Communist parties have systematically slaughtered the well-educated elites to stop these bearers of culture from imparting the nations traditional heritage to the next generation. Simultaneously, they bombarded the rest of the population with incessant propaganda. In the West, national histories are younger and traditional roots are relatively new, giving communism fertile ground for covertly contaminating society by subverting and sabotaging education. The complete breakdown of American education is one of the most distressing things to have happened to the country in the past few decades. It signals the success of communisms mission to infiltrate and corrupt Western society. This chapter focuses mainly on the United States as an example of how education in free societies has been sabotaged by communism. From this example, readers may infer how education is being undermined in other countries along similar lines. The communist infiltration of American education manifests in at least five areas: Promoting Communist Ideology Among the Young Communist ideology gradually took over Western academia by infiltrating important traditional fields of study, as well as fabricating new sciences beholden to its ideological influence. Literature, history, philosophy, anthropology, the study of law, media, and other concentrations have become inundated with various derivatives of Marxist theory. Political correctness is now the guideline for censoring free thought on campuses. Reducing the Young Generations Exposure to Traditional Culture Orthodox thought, genuine history, and classical literature have been slandered and marginalized in many different ways. Common justifications for this include arguments that the classics are no longer relevant to modern students, or that school curricula need to make room for more diversity of thought. Lowering Academic Standards Starting in Primary School Because instruction has been progressively dumbed down, students of the younger generations are less literate and mathematically capable. They possess less knowledge, and their ability to think critically is stunted. It is hard for these students to handle key questions concerning life and society in a logical and forthright manner, and even harder for them to see through communisms deceptions. Indoctrinating Young Students With Deviated Notions As these children grow older, the concepts instilled in them become so strong that it is nearly impossible to identify and correct them. Feeding Students Selfishness, Greed, and Indulgence This includes conditioning them to oppose authority and tradition, inflating their egos and sense of entitlement, reducing their ability to understand and tolerate different opinions, and neglecting their psychological growth. Communism has made great progress in all of these areas. 1. Communist Elements in Primary and Secondary Education Although communism is most obvious at the university level, it has deeply influenced primary and secondary school education. Its influence has undermined childrens intellectual development and maturity, making them more susceptible to leftist influences in college. It has caused generations of students to have less knowledge and a diminished ability to reason and engage in critical thinking. The progressive education movement led by John Dewey initiated the trend more than a century ago. Subsequent education reforms have generally followed in the same direction. In addition to instilling atheism, the theory of evolution, and communist ideology in students, primary and secondary education in the United States employ psychological manipulation that destroys students traditional beliefs and morals. It instills moral relativism and modern concepts that convey a corrupt attitude toward life. This occurs across all sectors of education. The sophisticated measures used make it almost impossible for students and the public to guard against the trend. KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov, introduced in Chapter Five, described in 1985 how communist ideological infiltration in America was nearing completion: Even if you start right now, here this minute, you start educating [a] new generation of Americans, it will still take you fifteen to twenty years to turn the tide of ideological perception of reality back to normalcy and patriotism. [1] A third of a century has passed since Bezmenov gave his interview. During this period, even as we witnessed the downfall of the Soviet Union and other socialist regimes in Eastern Europe, communisms infiltration and subversion in the West didnt stop. Communist elements in the West set their sights on education as a primary target. They took over all tiers of the institution, promoting their own twisted theories on education, pedagogy, and parenting. a. Dumbing Down Students The United States is a constitutional republic. Presidents, lawmakers, town mayors, and school-district committee members are all elected by the voting public. Whether such a political framework can be pursued in a manner that is truly beneficial to all depends not only on the moral level of the people, but also on the level of their knowledge and discernment. If voters are not well-versed in history, political and economic systems, and social issues, they will have difficulty electing officials whose platforms are based on the long-term and fundamental interests of the country and society. This jeopardizes the countrys future. In 1983, a group of experts commissioned by the US Department of Education wrote the report A Nation at Risk after eighteen months of research. The report stated: For our country to function, citizens must be able to reach some common understandings on complex issues, often on short notice and on the basis of conflicting or incomplete evidence. Education helps form these common understandings, a point Thomas Jefferson made long ago in his justly famous dictum: I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion. Individuals with little knowledge and poor critical thinking abilities are unable to recognize lies and deception. Thus communism targets education in order to ensure the next generation of students will be foolish and ignorant and vulnerable to manipulation. The report makes these additional points: The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. [2] The report quoted analyst Paul Copperman as saying, For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents. The report cites some shocking findings: In addition to US students grades often ranking near the bottom compared to those of students in other nations, 23 million American adults were functionally illiterate that is, they only possessed the most basic reading, writing, and comprehension skills. The rate of functional illiteracy was 13 percent among 17-year-olds and reached as high as 40 percent among certain less affluent groups. From 1963 to 1980, scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the university entrance examination, declined dramatically, with the average verbal score dropping by more than 50 points, and the average math score dropping by nearly 40 points. Many 17-year-olds do not possess the higher order intellectual skills we should expect of them. Nearly 40 percent cannot draw inferences from written material; only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; and only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps. [3] In the 2008 book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein compiled data on the knowledge gaps of American students in the subjects of history, civics, math, science, technology, fine arts, and more. He gave the example of the history exam in the 2001 National Assessment of Educational Progress, on which 57 percent of students scored below basic and only 1 percent achieved an advanced score. Surprisingly, on a multiple-choice question that asked students to select which country had been a US ally during World War II, 52 percent chose Germany, Japan, or Italy instead of the Soviet Union. Results in other areas were equally disappointing. [4] The decline in the quality of education in the United States is obvious. Since the 1990s, the term dumbing down has appeared in many books on education and has become a concept American educators cannot avoid. John Taylor Gatto, a senior teacher and educational researcher in New York City, wrote, Pick up a fifth-grade math or rhetoric textbook from 1850 and youll see that the texts were pitched then on what would today be considered college level. [5] To avoid making the American education system look bad, in 1994 the College Board redefined the scores of the SAT. When the modern form of the SAT began to be adopted in 1941, the average score of the language exam was 500 points (out of a possible 800 points). By the 1990s, the average score had dropped to 424 points; the College Board then redefined 424 as 500 points. [6] The decline in the quality of education is not just reflected in the decline in students literacy. Due to a lack of basic knowledge, the critical thinking faculties of American students have fallen sharply. American scholar Thomas Sowell observed: It is not merely that Johnny cant read, or even that Johnny cant think. Johnny doesnt know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling in many public schools. [7] The reason for the decline of grades is not that students today are not as intelligent as before, but because communism is quietly carrying out a war against the next generation, using the education system as its weapon. Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, a former senior policy adviser to the US Department of Education, wrote in 1999: The reason Americans do not understand this war is because it has been fought in secret in the schools of our nation, targeting our children who are captive in classrooms. The wagers of the war are using very sophisticated and effective tools. [8] b. The Destructive Nature of Progressive Education The backlash against tradition in American primary and secondary schools began with the progressive education movement of the early twentieth century. The following generations of progressive educators concocted a series of sham theories and discourses that served to alter curricula, water down teaching materials, and lower academic standards. This brought enormous damage to traditional education. From Rousseau to Dewey Dewey, the father of American progressive education, was greatly influenced by the ideas of the eighteenth-century Swiss-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau believed that people are good by nature and that moral decline is caused solely by social ills. He said all men were free and equal at birth and that given a natural environment, everyone would enjoy their innate rights. Inequality, privilege, exploitation, and the loss of mans innate kindness were all products of society. For children, Rousseau advocated a model of negative education that would leave them to their own discovery. This education was to be absent of religious, moral, or cultural teaching. In fact, humanity is endowed with both benevolence and wickedness. Without nurturing benevolence, the wicked aspects of human nature will dominate to the point where people consider no method too base and no sin too evil. Rousseau misled many followers with his elegant rhetoric. The deleterious influence his pedagogical theory has had on Western education is hard to overestimate. About a century later, Dewey picked up where Rousseau had left off and furthered his destructive work. According to Dewey, who was influenced by Darwins theory of evolution, children should be weaned from the traditional tutelage of parents, religion, and culture and given free rein to adapt to their environments. Dewey was a pragmatist and moral relativist. He believed that there was no unchanging morality and that people were free to act and behave as they saw fit. Promoting the concept of moral relativism is a critical first step in leading humanity away from the moral rules set by the divine. Dewey was one of thirty-four people who signed their names to the original Humanist Manifesto, penned in 1933. Unlike the humanists of the Renaissance, twentieth-century humanism is, at its core, rooted in atheism. Based on modern concepts such as materialism and the theory of evolution, it regards the universe as self-existent rather than created and holds that human beings are the product of a continuous biochemical process. In this calculus, the object of education is to mold and guide students according to the educators wishes something not fundamentally different from Karl Marxs new man. Dewey himself was a democratic socialist. American philosopher Sidney Hook said, Dewey had supplied Marxism with the epistemology and social philosophy that Marx had half seen for himself and had half sketched out in his early works but had never adequately spelled out. [9] In 1921, as civil war raged across Russia, the Soviets took the time to produce a sixty-two-page pamphlet featuring excerpts from Deweys Democracy and Education. In 1929, the rector of the Second State University of Moscow, Albert P. Pinkevich, wrote favorably of Dewey, saying that his ideas were very close to those of Marx and the Russian Communists. [10] Biographer Alan Ryan wrote that Dewey supplied the intellectual weapons for a decently social democratic, non-totalitarian Marxism. [11] Progressive educators make no pretense about their goal to transform students attitudes toward life. To achieve this aim, they have overturned all aspects of learning, including class structure, teaching materials and methods, and the relationship between teachers and students. Personal experience is considered superior to knowledge learned from books or teachers. Lectures have taken a backseat to projects and activities. The conservative American website Human Events listed Deweys Democracy and Education as number five on its list of the ten most harmful books of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It pointedly observed that Dewey disparaged schooling that focused on traditional character development and endowing children with hard knowledge, and encouraged the teaching of thinking skills instead. [12] Astute critics have taken to task the progressive bent in education from the very beginning. Mortimer Smiths 1949 book And Madly Teach: A Layman Looks at Public School Education provides a concise and comprehensive rebuttal to the principal tenets of progressive education. [13] Progressive educators have dismissed such critics as reactionaries and used various means to suppress or ignore them. Dewey spent twenty-five years as a tenured professor at Columbia University. During the period in which he taught the philosophy of education at the Teachers College, at least one-fifth of all primary and secondary school teachers received instruction or advanced degrees at Columbia. [14] In contrast to figures like Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, or Mao, Dewey appears to have had no aspiration to become a revolutionary guru or take over the world, but the system of education he created became one of communisms most powerful weapons. Indulging Students According to Rousseaus theory of education, humans are born good and free, but are made bad by society. Therefore, the best method of education is to give children free rein and yield to the childs own whimsical development. Under the influence of Rousseauean thought, progressive educationists since Dewey have often echoed these ideas: One should not force the values of parents or teachers upon students; children should be allowed to make their own judgments and decisions while growing up. English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once elegantly gave the following retort to this sort of view: [British radical John] Thelwall thought it very unfair to influence a childs mind by inculcating any opinions before it should have come to years of discretion, and be able to choose for itself. I showed him my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden. How so? said he, it is covered with weeds. Oh, I replied, that is only because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries. [15] The quick-witted poet used the analogy to convey to his friend a principle: Ethics and wisdom are painstakingly cultivated. Leaving a garden untended will cause an overgrowth of weeds. Failing to educate children allows the negative aspects of human nature to predominate as they grow up. Good and evil are simultaneously present in human nature. Though children are by comparison simpler and purer than adults, they also are susceptible to laziness, jealousy, combativeness, selfishness, and other negative traits. Society is a big dye vat. If children are not properly raised, then by the time they have come to their age of discretion and choice, they will have long been contaminated by bad thoughts and bad habits. Attempts to educate them at that point will be too late. This indulgence of students reached its peak in the pedagogical literary work Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, published in 1960. The books author, A. S. Neill, established in 1921 an English boarding school, Summerhill, whose students at the time ranged in age from five to sixteen. The school gave children complete autonomy. Children were allowed to decide whether they wanted to go to one class but not another, or no class at all. Neills views on education were heavily influenced by Wilhelm Reich, a Frankfurt School philosopher and vigorous proponent of sexual freedom, and the two often corresponded. Besides academics, the school was extremely lax on ethics, discipline, and malefemale relations; it followed all anti-traditional values. According to a former student who attended in the 1960s, male and female students were allowed to have mock weddings and sleep with each other. Neill allowed staff and students to swim naked together in an outdoor swimming pool, and some staff members were permitted to date students. His thirty-five-year-old stepson, who taught ceramic art, would often bring upper-grade girls back to his room. [16] In his book, Neill says, Every older pupil at Summerhill knows from my conversation and my books that I approve of a full sex life for all who wish one, whatever their age. He even hinted that, if not prohibited by law, he would have openly permitted boys and girls to share dorms. [17] When Summerhill was published, it quickly became a bestseller. In the 1960s alone, it sold more than three million copies and became required reading at teachers colleges. An ancient Chinese saying says, A strict teacher produces outstanding students. Studies in the West have found that strict teachers get better results in the classroom. They also have a more positive influence on their students conduct. [18] Sadly, in the United States and other Western countries, under the influence of progressivism and educational autonomy, laws have been enacted that limit the scope of parents and teachers in managing students. This has caused teachers to become afraid to discipline students. Students bad habits are not corrected in a timely manner, or at all, thus leading to a precipitous decline in their sense of morality as well as their academic performance. Student-Centered Education The most important function of education is to maintain and pass on the traditional culture of human civilization. Perhaps nowhere was this more the case than in ancient China, where educators and scholars were held in the highest regard. A teacher is to pass on the Tao, teach the classics, and clear up confusion, as a Chinese saying goes. Deweys progressive educational thought removes the authority of teachers and downgrades their importance. His stance is anti-intellectual and against common sense in essence, against education itself. Advocates of progressive education claim that students must be placed at the center and allowed to explore on their own, to reach their own answers. The real intention of progressive education is to cut students off from their bonds with traditional culture. Traditional curricula contain knowledge accumulated over thousands of years of human civilization. A negation of teachers authority in the process of education is a negation of their role in carrying forward the knowledge of civilization. This is the ulterior motive of communism. Daisy Christodoulous 2014 book Seven Myths About Education analyzes and refutes misconceptions spread in modern education, including claims that facts prevent understanding, teacher-led instruction is passive, projects and activities are the best way to learn, and teaching knowledge is indoctrination. [19] Most of these myths stem from progressive education and have been passed down for several generations, becoming a plague on educational culture. For instance, take the first misconception, that fact-learning prevents true understanding. Modern American education has degraded traditional methods of attention to memorization, reading aloud, and practice, characterizing them as mechanical memorization, rote learning, and drill to kill. Rousseau attacked memorization and verbal lessons in his 1792 novel Emile, or On Education, and Deweys progressive educators furthered such theories. In 1956, American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and collaborators published a framework for categorizing educational goals, widely known as Blooms Taxonomy. It divided human cognition into six levels, from low to high. In 2001, the levels were revised to be remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. The latter three are regarded as higher-order thinking because they involve comprehensive analysis. While withholding judgment on the strengths and weaknesses of the Bloom classification itself, it may be seen that since the framework was proposed, progressive educators have used the goal of cultivating higher-order thinking as a pretext to do away with traditional teaching methods. It goes without saying that learning a large amount of basic knowledge is a prerequisite for any kind of intellectual mastery. Without a reserve of knowledge, the so-called higher-order thinking, critical thinking, and creative thinking can only serve to deceive oneself and others. Blooms classification system provides a seemingly scientific excuse for the inexplicable approach of progressive educators. One tenet in the theory of student-centered instruction is that students should choose what they learn, according to their own interests. The theory also states that teachers should educate students only in what the students are interested in. Every teacher hopes to make learning enjoyable, but children have limited knowledge and experience, making them ill-equipped to discern what is important to learn and what isnt. While there are different methods of instruction, teachers must take responsibility for guiding students so they can broaden the scope of their interests beyond that which attracts their immediate attention. Simply catering to the superficial interests of students, as advocated by student-centered instruction, encourages permanent infantilization. Studies have found that there is now a tendency in American society for adults to remain in a state of adolescence longer than in other populations. In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine defined adolescence as a period from twelve to thirty years of age. Research supported by the MacArthur Foundation went even further and said, based on traditional markers of adulthood, a person nowadays may not be considered an adult until age thirty-five. [20] The education system and media are directly responsible for this extended period of adolescence that many adults have found themselves in. One of the excuses given by progressive educators for lowering teaching requirements is that with higher enrolments in secondary and post-secondary schools, and with students coming from across society, the average level of attainment cannot be as high as it was in the past. This understanding is wrong. In a democratic society, the object of public schooling is to allow those who otherwise wouldnt have the means to receive an education the opportunity to do so not to lower academic standards, which causes everyones learning to suffer. Progressivism claims that useless classical subjects such as Greek and Latin should be replaced with more contemporary subjects, but in the end, most schools dont end up introducing high-quality courses in subjects useful for modern life, such as mathematics, economics, and modern history. The curriculum and teaching-method reforms advocated by progressive educators deceive students who are not yet well-informed, as well as parents who defer to schools, teachers, and so-called experts. Some teaching methods proposed by progressive education are useful when applied to some subjects and areas of learning. However, when we look at the progressive education movement and its specific background and outcomes, it becomes clear that progressive education sets itself up in opposition to traditional education, thereby mutating education and ultimately ruining students. c. Ruining Students Moral Character On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Colorado murdered twelve students and one teacher and injured at least twenty more in a carefully planned massacre. The tragedy shocked the nation. People wondered why the two students would carry out such a cold-blooded attack, gunning down their classmates and a teacher theyd known for years. By comparing social phenomena in different historical periods, educators noticed that up to the 1960s, common problem behaviors among US students were minor, like tardiness, talking in class without permission, or chewing gum. After the 1980s, there were worse problems, like excessive drinking, drug abuse, premarital sex, pregnancy, suicide, gang activity, and even indiscriminate shootings, which have only increased in frequency since Columbine. These downward trends are a concern to millions in the United States and other countries, but few understand the real roots of these developments, and no one is able to prescribe an appropriate treatment for the disorder. The distortion and the downward spiral of the moral standards of American youth are no accidents. Atheism and Evolution Fred Schwarz, a pioneer of anti-communist activism, observed, The three basic tenets of Communism are atheism, evolution, and economic determinism. [21] Those three key elements of communist ideology have been adopted in American public schools. The divine created humankind and laid down the moral standards that should regulate human life. Belief in the divine lays the foundation of morality for society and underpins the existence of the human world. Communism forcibly spread atheism and the theory of evolution in schools as a means of destroying morality. This is to be expected in communist states like China and the former Soviet Union, but in the United States, it was carried out covertly. Under the pretext of separation of church and state, leftists oppose the teaching of creationism in American public schools, while on the other hand promoting the theory of evolution. This education inevitably leads the number of religious believers to decline, as children are indoctrinated with the idea that the theory of evolution is scientific truth and not to be questioned. Since the 1960s, courts around the United States have shut down Bible study in public schools, again under the pretext of separation of church and state. An appeals court ruled in 1981 that students enjoyed freedom of speech, unless the speech was a prayer, at which point it became unconstitutional. [22] In 1987, students in Alaskan public schools were told not to use the word Christmas since it contained the word Christ. They were also told they couldnt exchange traditional Christmas cards or presents. In 1987, a federal court in Virginia ruled that newspapers promoting the gay rights movement could be distributed on a high school campus, but religious newspapers were banned. In 1993, an elementary school music teacher in Colorado Springs was prevented from teaching Christmas carols because of alleged violations of the separation of church and state. [23] Teaching and test materials in the United States have undergone extensive revision due to the anti-theist orientation of the education system, in combination with decades of political correctness. In 1997, Diane Ravitch, an education historian, was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which administered federal tests in schools. She noticed that passages in reading tests had been scrubbed by editors to remove white males as heroes or any references to Christianity. The maxim that God helps those who help themselves was changed to People should try to work things out for themselves whenever possible. [24] On the one hand, the American public education system ejected belief in God from schools under the pretext of upholding the separation of church and state. On the other hand, evolution, with its unresolved gaps, was held to be a self-evident truth to be instilled in children who had no mental preparation or defense. Children tend to believe in the authority of their teachers. Parents with religious beliefs teach their kids to respect others, but children who are instilled with the theory of evolution are likely to challenge the religious education given by their parents. At the very least, they will no longer take their parents religious instruction as seriously. The result is that education pulls children away from parents with religious beliefs. This is the most challenging problem that families with religious beliefs face when it comes to their childrens education, and its the evilest aspect of the anti-theistic education system. Communist Ideology Chapter Five of this book illustrates the nature of political correctness: It works like the thought police of communism, using a set of distorted political standards to replace authentic moral standards. Since the 1930s, political correctness has played a dominant role in the American education system. When put into practice, it comes in different forms, some of which are extremely deceptive. E. Merrill Root, author of Brainwashing in the High Schools: An Examination of Eleven American History Textbooks, published in 1958, conducted research into eleven sets of history teaching materials used in Illinois between 1950 and 1952 and found that they characterized American history as a power struggle between rich and poor, between the privileged few and the underprivileged. This is the essence of Marxian economic determinism. [25] In 2013, a school district in Minnesota adopted a project named All for All, which shifts the focus of teaching toward racial and income inequalities. This ideology blames the poor performance of students on systemic racial or income discrimination. The project demanded that all teaching activities be based on advancing racial and income equality and that only teachers and administrators who were deeply aware of the issues associated with these inequalities be employed. The project was designed for students from pre-K through twelfth grade. Tenth-grade English classes focused on the themes of colonization and immigration, as well as social constructions of race, class, and gender. The eleventh-grade framework claimed, By the end of the year, you will have learned how to apply marxist [sic], feminist, post-colonial [and] psychoanalytical lenses to literature. [26] In July 2016, California adopted a new social science framework for public elementary and high schools. The already left-leaning framework was revised to even more resemble left-wing ideological propaganda. Content that should be emphasized in history and social science courses like the founding spirit of America, and military, political, and diplomatic history was watered down or ignored. By contrast, the values of the 1960s counterculture were passionately highlighted and made to seem like the nations founding principles. The curriculum also articulated a clearly anti-traditional framework on the subjects of sex and family. Take the eleventh-grade courses, for example. The new framework claimed its focus was on the rights movements of minority races, tribes, and religions, as well as women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. In reality, religion was seldom mentioned, but much was written about sexual minorities. LGBT groups were included first and were given a significant share of the eleventh-grade history courses. The LGBT portions were written in a tone clearly supportive of sexual liberation. For example, in a discussion on AIDS, it was suggested that peoples fear of the disease weakened the civil rights and sexual liberation movements. [27] Sexual content occupied many chapters, squeezing out other content far more worthy of attention for young people. For example, in the course on World War I, students hardly learned about the critical role played by the US Army, but were taught that American soldiers enjoyed the looser European sexual customs. [28] This left-leaning framework was full of distortion and bias, guiding students to hate their own country. Though the framework was adopted only in the state of California, the impact of this approach has been felt nationwide. d. Psychological Manipulation Pushing the concept of moral relativism upon students via psychological conditioning is another common method of corrupting the youth. In 1978, hundreds of parents and teachers attended hearings for the Protection of Pupils Rights Amendment, a federal law that affords certain rights to parents of minor students with regard to surveys that ask questions of a personal nature. The hearing testimonies totaled more than thirteen hundred pages. In her 1984 book Child Abuse in the Classroom, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly summed up the issues described in the testimonies, including the use of education as therapy. Unlike traditional education, which aims to impart knowledge, education as therapy focuses on changing students emotions and attitudes. This kind of education plays psychological games on students; for example, they are asked to fill out surveys on personal issues and to make adult decisions, weighing in on issues like suicide and murder, marriage and divorce, and abortion and adoption. [29] Such courses werent set up to take care of the students mental health they were intended to change students moral values through psychological conditioning. Psychology and Education Modern education is heavily based on philosophy and psychology. In addition to Deweys progressive education, other theories that have had a significant impact on the US education system include Sigmund Freuds psychoanalysis, Carl Rogerss humanistic psychology, and the Frankfurt Schools critical theory, which combines theories from Marx and Freud. Herbert Marcuse, a theorist of the Frankfurt School, called for the removal of all inhibitions so that young people could let loose their natural instincts and indulge their personal whims. [30] It was this thinking that helped accelerate the birth of the counterculture of the 1960s. Deeply influenced by the above-mentioned schools of thought on psychology, the first director general of the World Health Organization, Canadian psychiatrist Brock Chisholm, proposed a shocking theory: In order to release the individual from psychological pain, morality and the concept of right and wrong must be neutralized. He said in a 1946 lecture: What basic psychological distortion can be found in every civilization of which we know anything? It must be a force which discourages the ability to see and acknowledge patent facts which produces inferiority, guilt, and fear. The only psychological force capable of producing these perversions is morality, the concept of right and wrong. We have been very slow to rediscover this truth and to recognise the unnecessary and artificially imposed inferiority, guilt and fear, commonly known as sin, under which we have almost all laboured and which produces so much of the social maladjustment and unhappiness in the world. If the race is to be freed of its crippling burden of good and evil it must be psychiatrists who take the original responsibility. [31] Chisholm waged war on morality. Seemingly influenced by Chisholm, humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers came up with values clarification classes, which served the purpose of eradicating traditional values and the concepts of right and wrong. Eventually, Deweys moral relativism, the Frankfurt Schools rejection of inhibitions, and Chisholms psychological theories worked together to attack and undermine traditional values. They destroyed the moral fortifications of public schools in the United States. Moral Relativism Americans who attended schools in the late 1970s may remember an imagined scenario many teachers brought up in class, which went like this: As a ship sinks, the captain, several children, a pregnant woman, and a gay man get in a lifeboat. The lifeboat is overloaded and one person must be let go. The teachers would ask the students to discuss and decide who must get off the lifeboat, giving up his or her life. The teacher would not comment on or judge the students comments. This story was often used in the values clarification classes that emerged in the 1970s. This kind of lesson was also applied in affective education, the Lions Quest drug-prevention program, and sex education. William Kilpatrick, author of the 1993 book Why Johnny Cant Tell Right From Wrong: And What We Can Do About It, described such classes as having turned classroom discussions into bull sessions where opinions go back and forth but conclusions are never reached. Kilpatrick wrote: It has resulted in classrooms where teachers act like talk show hosts, and where the merits of wife swapping, cannibalism, and teaching children to masturbate are recommended topics for debate. For students, it has meant wholesale confusion about moral values: learning to question values they have scarcely acquired, unlearning values taught at home, and concluding that questions of right and wrong are always merely subjective. It has created a generation of moral illiterates: students who know their own feelings but dont know their culture. [32] Sowell understood that these sessions utilized the same techniques developed in totalitarian countries to brainwash people: 1. Emotional stress, shock, or de-sensitization, to break down both intellectual and emotional resistance 2. Isolation, whether physical or emotional, from familiar sources of emotional support in resistance 3. Cross-examining pre-existing values, often by manipulating peer pressure 4. Stripping the individual of normal defenses, such as reserve, dignity, a sense of privacy, or the ability to decline to participate 5. Rewarding acceptance of the new attitudes, values, and beliefsa reward which can be simply release from the pressures inflicted on those who resist, or may take other symbolic or tangible form [33] Sowell notes that the sessions encourage students to rebel against the traditional moral values taught by their parents and society. Classes are conducted in a neutral or a nonjudgmental way, in which the teacher does not distinguish between right and wrong, but rather searches for what feels good for an individual. The focus of values clarification is on the feelings of the individual, rather than on the requirements of a functioning society or the requirements of intellectual analysis. [34] Death and Drug-Prevention Education In September 1990, the US television channel ABC aired a program that concerned many viewers. In it, a school takes students to a morgue as part of its death education and students view and touch corpses. [35] Common activities of the death education classes included asking the students to draw their own tombstones, select their own coffins, arrange their own funerals, and write their own obituaries. Students were asked the following questions: How will you die? When will you die? Have you ever known anyone who died violently? When was the last time you mourned? Was it expressed in tears or silent pain? Did you mourn alone or with someone else? Do you believe in an after-life? [36] Obviously, these questions have nothing to do with studying. They are designed to probe the students outlook on life, their religious beliefs, and their personalities. Some of the questions are aimed to elicit particular reactions and can have a negative impact on teens. It is said that death education can help students establish the right attitude in the face of death. However, some students who attended these classes have committed suicide. For the same 1990 program, ABC interviewed one student at Columbine High School who said her suicide plans were directly related to the death education she received there. She said the classes made death seem glamorous, very exciting, [and] very appealing. [37] Although a causal relationship has not been established scientifically, it is certainly reasonable for parents to suspect and fear that by exposing psychologically immature students to confronting information on death and suicide, some students may be more likely to develop depression and hopelessness, which may contribute to reasons for committing suicide. Drug-prevention education has also become very popular in schools. However, in 1976, a four-year study on a drug-prevention education course called Decide found that students who took the course picked up drug use earlier and used drugs more extensively than a control group that did not take the course. In both 1978 and 1985, professor Stephen Jurs conducted a research project comparing the rate of smoking and substance abuse among students who had taken a self-esteem course called Quest and those who had not. The course was designed to help students make wise and healthy decisions, but the results showed the oppositeparticipation was followed by an increase in drug experimentation. Those who didnt take the course maintained a steady or lowered rate of smoking and substance abuse. [38] Neither death education nor drug-prevention education has generated the expected outcome, so what was the real purpose? To pollute children. Children are very curious but have an immature moral foundation. New and strange content stimulates their curiosity and can lead them down a dark path. In the meantime, such education tends to desensitize students, making them view violence, pornography, terror, and moral decadence as simply normal parts of life. Their tolerance of evil increases in turn. The entire exercise is part of an evil use of art, violence, and pornography to bring about moral decline. Pornographic Sex Education Traditionally in both the East and the West, sex has been a taboo topic in public. According to both traditions, the divine established that sexual conduct must take place only within marriage. All other forms of sexual conduct are considered promiscuous and sinful, violating the divine standards of morality. This makes sex and marriage inseparable, and sex cant be a matter of public discussion in a properly functioning society. In traditional society, youth received education in physiology, and there was no need for todays version of sex education. The modern concept of sex education was first introduced by Hungarian Marxist Gyorgy Lukacs, founder of the Frankfurt School. His purpose was to completely overturn traditional Western values. In 1919, Lukacs was appointed minister of culture in the short-lived Hungarian Bolshevik regime. He developed a radical sex-education program that taught students about free love and that marriage was outdated. In the United States, Alfred Kinsey, financed by the Rockefeller foundations, published his best-selling Kinsey Reports in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In his since-debunked research, he used pedophiles to conduct sexual experiments on infants and children. Kinseys idea that children are sexual beings from birth and thus must be explicitly educated in every manner of sexual activity is the foundation of modern sex education. [39] Rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy began to rise rapidly, especially against the backdrop of the 1960s sexual revolution. Those who wanted to solve such social problems promoted sex education. But in an education system that had already deviated from traditional moral teachings, sex education treated intercourse as disconnected from marriage and instead emphasized the prevention of disease and pregnancy thus following the Lukacs model of sex education by ignoring all moral aspects of sexual activity. This form of education then became a tool for destroying youth. Students have also been exposed to the extramarital, promiscuous conduct of homosexuality, thus normalizing such behavior. The result of all this has been that the younger generation indulges in what they think is freedom, while in reality, it is a path that turns away from divinely ordained standards. This sort of sex education from elementary school onward has already destroyed the traditional values of family, individual responsibility, love, chastity, honor, self-control, loyalty, and more. Deweys learning by doing form of progressive education is a convenient tool for Marxists. The sex-education program Focus on Kids, widely promoted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommends an activity in which teachers organize students to compete in a condom race, in which teams of students must put a condom on a sex toy and then remove it as quickly as possible. [40] In another Focus on Kids exercise, the teacher instructs students to brainstorm ways to be intimate. Be Proud! Be Responsible! is another program endorsed by the CDC and promoted by Planned Parenthood and other organizations. The program requires students to role play for example, pretending to be two female students discussing having safer sex together. [41] To the majority of people who still have traditional values in their hearts, it is difficult to distinguish these supposedly educational activities from child pornography. The main proponent of the program, Planned Parenthood, is the largest single provider of abortions and sex education in the United States and has a presence in many countries around the world. The organization was founded in 1921 as the American Birth Control League. Its founder, Margaret Sanger, was a progressive socialist who traveled to Stalins Russia, where she solidified her belief in eugenics. We should breed out the feebleminded families who have done and still are doing much social and racial damage, she said in a draft article. Sanger was also a strong proponent of the sexual liberation movement. She is on record as saying that an extramarital affair she had really set me free. [42] She even gave her sixteen-year-old granddaughter the advice to engage frequently in sexual intercourse, saying that three times a day was about right. [43] Sex education textbook Its Perfectly Normal has been translated into twenty-one languages and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. The book uses almost one hundred nude cartoons to depict various normal and abnormal movements, feelings, and physical sensations of masturbation between opposite sexes and homosexuals, as well as birth control methods and abortion. The author claims that children have the right to know all such information. [44] The main theme of the book is that a variety of sexual behaviors are all perfectly normal and that none should be subject to moral judgment. In a widely used high school sex-education textbook, the author teaches children that some religions believe that sex outside of marriage is sinful, then writes, You will have to decide for yourself how important these messages are for you. [45] To summarize, this worldview holds that all values are relative, and that right and wrong are for children to decide for themselves. Today, U.S. public schools have two basic types of sex-education classes. The first type, which is strongly promoted by todays educational mainstream (as described above), includes instruction on sexual behaviors, birth control, the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and the like. The other type teaches young people to control their sexual desire, does not discuss birth control, and encourages abstinence from sex until after marriage. It is undeniable that social morality, especially the general attitude toward sex, has deviated far from traditional, faith-based morality. The media and the internet are flooded with pornographic content, all of which drags children toward the edge of the abyss. In todays atheism-dominated education field, most public schools that follow value neutrality dont want to, or dont dare to, teach children that sex outside of marriage is immoral, nor do they teach children right from wrong based on traditional moral principles. Sex education remains a controversial topic in society today. There are numerous arguments in different sectors around the issue of safety in sexual activity, focusing on the rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. However, the fact that schools are publicly teaching teenagers about sexual behavior will obviously increase the incidence of sex outside of marriage. Even if there were no teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases, would promiscuity among teenagers be acceptable? With a decadent attitude toward sexual conduct in ascendance, communism is working to achieve its goal of destroying human morality. Self-Esteem and Egocentrism Since the 1960s, a new dogma heavily promoted in schools is responsible for a major downward slide in educational quality: the cult of self-esteem. On its surface, self-esteem should refer to a feeling of confidence and self-respect that arises from ones own abilities and accomplishments. However, the self-esteem promoted in US schools is something entirely different. In her book The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down of Americas Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem, education researcher Maureen Stout writes about a common phenomenon in American schools: Students care about their grades, but dont care about what they learned or how much effort they put in. To satisfy the students demands for better grades, teachers are forced to reduce the difficulty of exams and assignments. But this only results in even less effort on the part of underperforming students. Stout asserts that teachers seem accustomed to the phenomenon and are even of the belief that school should be like the womb isolated from the outside world so students can gain emotional comfort but not intellectual development or resilience. The focus is on students feelings, rather than their overall growth. [46] As many commentators have pointed out, the dogma of self-esteem confuses cause and effect. True self-esteem is the outcome of effort, not a precondition for success. In other words, feeling good does not lead to success; one feels good after achieving success. This misconception of self-esteem is the by-product of the psychotherapeutic style of education ascendant since the 1960s. Psychotherapeutic education ended up indoctrinating a large number of young people with a sense of entitlement and victimhood. Stout delineates the common mindset as I want to do what I want, how I want and when I want, and nothing and no one is going to stop me. [47] American education exaggerates the ideas of freedom and self-centeredness in the name of sentimental self-esteem. This style of education produces generations of young people who dont value morality and dont assume responsibility. They care only about their own feelings and not those of others. They pursue enjoyment and comfort, but do everything they can to avoid the effort, sacrifice, and suffering that are needed to secure a future for themselves. This has wreaked havoc on the morality of American society. e. The Infiltration of Education Control Over US Elementary and Secondary Education For a long while after the founding of the United States, the federal government was not involved in education; it was the responsibility of state governments to make those decisions. In 1979, the federal government established the Department of Education and its jurisdiction has been enlarged ever since. Currently, its power over education strategies and the allocation of education budgets far surpasses what it previously had. Parents, school districts, and state governments, which used to have a greater say in education, are increasingly compelled to take orders from federal government officials. Parents and school districts have gradually lost their power to decide what gets taught and how its taught. Power itself is neutral those who wield it can do either good or evil. The centralization of power in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but rather a matter of how the person or institution uses its power and to what end. Centralization in American education has become a major issue due to Marxist infiltration at all levels, especially the central bureaucracy. Under such circumstances, once a wrong decision is made, the impact is extensive, and the few clear-headed individuals who remain cannot simply reverse the damage. As explained by writer and former teacher Beverly K. Eakman, one of the dilemmas of the centralized approach to American education is that the officials in charge are unable to see how their educational strategies develop in the long term and how great of an impact they have over time. Although some strategies may raise doubts, most people do not have the time, energy, resources, or courage to investigate for themselves. Even if their suspicions are aroused in some cases, without other pieces of the puzzle, they can do little more than obey what theyre told by their supervisors. Everyone thus becomes part of a gigantic machine. It is difficult for them to see the consequences of their decisions for students and society, and as a result, their moral accountability is attenuated. [48] Communism can take advantage of the weaknesses in this system and break down societys defenses layer by layer. Teachers colleges, publishing houses, educational accreditation organizations, and teacher-accreditation institutions have all become targets of infiltration. The Role of Teachers Unions Chapter Nine of this book discussed how communism manipulates and utilizes unions. Teachers unions have become one of the key reasons behind the failure of American education. These unions do not care about raising the quality of education, instead acting as professional organizations that reward failure, protect incompetence, and sacrifice conscientious teachers who aspire to make a contribution and who truly dedicate themselves to teaching students. In the article How Teachers Unions Handcuff Schools, City Journal editor and writer Sol Stern gives the example of Tracey Bailey, a former high school science teacher who won the National Teacher of the Year Award in 1993. At the time, the chief of the American Federation of Teachers called Bailey to say how pleased he was that a union member had won the honor. Bailey later dropped his membership and now believes that big teachers unions are a primary reason for the failure of American public education. He holds that unions are simply special interest groups protecting the status quo and pillars of a system that too often rewards mediocrity and incompetence. [49] Major American teachers unions are well funded and have immense influence; they are ranked among the most powerful political lobby groups in the country, and they have become the primary obstacle that hinders positive reform within the education system. For example, the California Teachers Association, under the American Federation of Teachers, uses its huge war chest collected from members to push for legislation and make political donations. In 1991, California sought to add Proposition 174 to its state constitution, allowing families to use school vouchers provided by the state government to choose the best schools for their children. However, the California Teachers Association blocked the proposition and even threatened schools into revoking their contracts with a hamburger franchise that had donated $25,000 to support the proposition. [50] The Exclusion of the Family From Childrens Education Another key goal of communism is the removal of the child from his or her parents as soon as he or she is born, having the community or nation raise the child instead. This is not an easy feat, but things have been quietly moving in this direction. In communist countries, students from the bourgeoisie class are encouraged to sever their relationships with their parents. In addition, exam-centric education extends the time that students must spend in school, thus reducing the impact parents can have on their children. In Western countries, different approaches are used to exclude the influence of the family from childrens education. These include maximizing students school time, reducing the age requirement for children to attend school, preventing students from taking textbooks and study materials home, and discouraging students from sharing controversial topics they learned in class with their parents. Courses such as values clarification education attempt to separate students from their parents. A parent of a student taking the Quest class commented: It seemed as if the parents were always put in a bad light. The story would be about a father and his son, say; and the father was always overbearing, always too strict, always unfair. Oftentimes, the subtext of such courses is your parents dont understand you, but we do. [51] Sometimes, due to legal requirements, students must first obtain parental consent before they can participate in certain activities. On such occasions, teachers or administrative staff may use misleading and ambiguous words to make it very difficult for parents to know the details of what theyre agreeing to. If parents complain, school authorities or the school district have methods of dealing with the complaint: procrastinating, shirking responsibility, or taking a superior stance. For example, they might say that parents do not have the professional knowledge of educators, that other school districts are doing the same thing, that only your family is complaining, and so on. Most parents dont have the time or resources to engage in a prolonged argument with the school or school district. Moreover, a concerned parent is generally only a problem for the few years before their childs graduation. In the meantime, the child is almost held hostage by the school, and parents dont dare to offend the school authorities. When parents do protest educational practices, school authorities may label them as extremists, troublemakers, religious bigots, fanatics, fascists, and so on. By doing so, school authorities deter other parents from voicing an objection. [52] In the preface to her book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, Iserbyt argues that America is engaged in a secret war, in which the wagers use sophisticated tools such as Hegelian dialectic (common ground, consensus and compromise), gradualism (two steps forward; one step backward), and semantic deception (redefining terms to get agreement without understanding). [53] Schlafly, in the foreword to her book Child Abuse in the Classroom, cited an invasive trend toward what one US senator called a therapy approach in education. The promoters of this strange therapy education speak in a jargon designed to prevent parents from understanding either the purpose or the methodology, she wrote. Examples of such jargon include values clarification, behavior modification, moral reasoning, decision-making, higher-order critical thinking skills, and humanism. [54] For decades, American educators have created a dazzling array of terms such as constructivism, cooperative learning, experiential learning, deep understanding, problem-solving, inquiry-based and outcome-based education, personalized learning, conceptual understanding, procedural skills, lifelong learning, studentteacher interactive instruction, and so on. There are too many to list. Some concepts appear sensible at first glance, but investigation into the context of the terms and where they lead to reveals that their purpose is to discredit traditional education and advance the dumbing down of education.[55] Large-Scale Changes to Subjects and Textbooks None Dare Call It Treason, published in 1964, analyzes the textbook reform program of the 1930s. The new textbooks created under this reform combined content from different disciplines, such as history, geography, sociology, economics, and political science, and abandoned the content, value system, and way of codifying found in traditional texts. So pronounced was the anti-religious bias and so open was the propaganda for socialistic control of mens lives that the textbooks downgraded American heroes and the US Constitution, author John A. Stormer writes. [56] The set of textbooks was extensive and the mix of content did not fall within the scope of any traditional discipline. Therefore, experts had difficulty judging their merit, as much of the content fell outside of their professional purview. Many years later, when the public realized the problem and began to oppose the materials, five million students had already been educated with them. By then, it was impossible to change the textbooks back to their traditional form. If these changes to the textbooks had been implemented in a transparent way, they immediately would have been questioned and met with resistance from experts and parents. Similar changes to school curricula and teaching materials continued to take place throughout the century. While a minority of people may recognize and oppose these moves, their voices are ignored and have little chance of stopping the planned changes amid the presence of progressive lobbying. After several rounds of reforms, the new generation of students is then separated even further from tradition, making it almost impossible to go back. American textbooks are constantly undergoing updates and revisions, and some say its because knowledge is growing at an accelerating rate. But the fundamental knowledge needed at the primary and secondary levels of education does not change much over time. So why have there been so many different textbooks published and continuously reprinted? The surface reason is that publishers compete with each other. Superficially, they dont want students to repeatedly use the same set of textbooks for many years because it doesnt generate revenues for these companies. But at a deeper level, just like the reorganization of textbook content, the process has been used to distort the teaching materials for the next generation. Education Reform: A Dialectic Struggle Since the 1950s and 1960s, American education has seen a series of reforms, but none brought the expected improvements. In 1981, American students SAT scores reached a record low, triggering the publication of the 1983 report A Nation at Risk and the ensuing back to basics movement. In order to change the embarrassing condition of education in the United States, several administrations since the 1990s successively have launched large-scale reforms, to little effect. Not only did they not help, but they also brought problems that were more difficult to solve. [57] Most people involved in education reform sincerely want to do good for students and society, but due to the influence of various communist ideas, their intentions often backfire. The results of many of these reforms end up promoting communist ideas. Just as in other fields, the infiltration through education reform doesnt need to win all of its battles at once. The success of a reform is not its true goal. In fact, every reform is designed to first fail in order to provide an excuse for the next reform, which is a deeper deviation than the last, further alienating people from tradition. This is the dialectic of struggle one step back, then two steps forward. In this way, people will not only not regret the collapse of tradition they wont even know what it is. Read Next: Chapter Twelve, Part II Updated March 17, 2021. Read the series here: How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World References 1. Yuri Bezmenov, as quoted in G. Edward Griffin, Deception Was My Job: A Conversation with Yuri Bezmenov, Former Propagandist for the KGB (New York: American Media Inc., 1985). 2. National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk (Washington DC: US Department of Education, 1983), https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html. 3. Ibid. 4. Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (New York: Tarcher, 2008), chap. 1. 5. John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2005), 12. 6. Charles J. Sykes, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves but Cant Read, Write, or Add (New York: St. Martins Press, 1995), 1489. 7. Thomas Sowell, Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas (New York: The Free Press, 1993), 4. 8. Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: A Chronological Paper Trail (Ravenna, OH: Conscience Press, 1999), xvii. 9. Sidney Hook, as quoted in Robin S. Eubanks, Credentialed to Destroy: How and Why Education Became a Weapon (Scotts Valley, CA: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013), 48. 10. Albert P. Pinkevich, as quoted in Eubanks, Credentialed, 49. 11. Alan Ryan, as quoted in Eubanks, Credentialed, 4546. 12. Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Human Events, May 31, 2005, http://humanevents.com/2005/05/31/ten-most-harmful-books-of-the-19th-and-20th-centuries/. 13. Mortimer Smith, And Madly Teach: A Layman Looks at Public School Education (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1949). 14. John A. Stormer, None Dare Call It Treason (Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1964), 99. 15. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as quoted in I. L. Kandel, Prejudice the Garden Toward Roses? The American Scholar 8, no. 1 (Winter 19381939): 77. 16. Christopher Turner, A Conversation About Happiness, Review a Childhood at Summerhill, The Guardian, March 28, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/28/conversation-happiness-summerhill-school-review-mikey-cuddihy. 17. A. S. Neill, Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing (New York: Hart Publishing Company, 1960), chap. 3. 18. Joanne Lipman, Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results, The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2013, https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-tough-teachers-get-good-results-1380323772. 19. Daisy Christodoulou, Seven Myths About Education (London: Routledge, 2014). 20. Diana West, The Death of the Grown-Up: How Americas Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization (New York: St. Martins Press, 2008), Kindle Edition. 21. Fred Schwarz and David Noebel, You Can Still Trust the Communists to Be Communists (Socialists, Statists, and Progressives Too) (Manitou Springs, CO: Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, 2010), http://www.schwarzreport.org/resources/you-can-trust-the-communists-to-be-communists. 22. Stein v. Oshinsky, 348 F.2d 999 (2nd Cir. 1965); Collins v. Chandler Unified School District et al., 644 F.2d 759 (9th Cir. 1981). 23. John Taylor Gatto, The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteachers Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling (Baltimore: Odysseus Group, 2000), chap. 14. 24. Diane Ravitch, Education after the Culture Wars, Daedalus 131, no. 3 (Summer 2002), 521. 25. E. Merrill Root, Brainwashing in the High Schools: An Examination of Eleven American History Textbooks (Papamoa Press, 2018), Kindle edition. 26. Katherine Kersten, Inside a Public School Social Justice Factory, Washington Examiner, February 1, 2018, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/inside-a-public-school-social-justice-factory. 27. History Social Science Framework, adopted by the California State Board of Education July 2016 (Sacramento: California Department of Education, 2017), 431, https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/cf/documents/hssfwchapter16.pdf. 28. Ibid., 391. 29. Phyllis Schlafly, ed., Child Abuse in the Classroom (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1984), 13. 30. Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Freud (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966), 35. 31. Brock Chisholm, as quoted in B. K. Eakman, Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality through Education (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House Publishers, 1998), 109. 32. William Kilpatrick, Why Johnny Cant Tell Right from Wrong and What We Can Do About It (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 1617. 33. Sowell, Inside American Education, 36. 34. Ibid., 48. 35. 20/20, Death in the Classroom, ABC, August 30, 1991, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbiY6Fz6Few. 36. Sowell, Inside American Education, 38. 37. 20/20, Death in the Classroom. 38. Kilpatrick, Why Johnny, 32. 39. Judith A. Reisman et al., Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People (Lafayette, LA: Lochinvar-Huntington House, 1990). 40. Robert Rector, When Sex Ed Becomes Porn 101, The Heritage Foundation, August 27, 2003, https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/when-sex-ed-becomes-porn-101. 41. Ibid. 42. Margaret Sanger, as quoted in Norman K. Risjord, Representative Americans: Populists and Progressives (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004), 267. 43. Margaret Sanger, as quoted in Madeline Gray, Margaret Sanger (New York: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr, 1979), 227228. 44. Rebecca Hersher, It May Be Perfectly Normal, but Its Also Frequently Banned, National Public Radio, September 21, 2014, https://www.npr.org/2014/09/21/350366435/it-may-be-perfectly-normal-but-its-also-frequently-banned. 45. Kilpatrick, Why Johnny, 53. 46. Maureen Stout, The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down of Americas Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2000), 13. 47. Ibid., 17. 48. B. K. Eakman, Educating for the New World Order (Portland, OR: Halcyon House, 1991), 129. 49. Sol Stern, How Teachers Unions Handcuff Schools, City Journal, Spring 1997, https://www.city-journal.org/html/how-teachers%E2%80%99-unions-handcuff-schools-12102.html. 50. Troy Senik, The Worst Union in America: How the California Teachers Association Betrayed the Schools and Crippled the State, City Journal, Spring 2012, https://www.city-journal.org/html/worst-union-america-13470.html. 51. Kilpatrick, Why Johnny, 39. 52. Samuel Blumenfeld and Alex Newman, Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy Americas Children (Washington D.C: WND Books, 2015), chap. 14. 53. Iserbyt, The Deliberate Dumbing Down, xvii. 54. Schlafly, Child Abuse, 14. 55. Valerie Strauss, A Serious Rant about Education Jargon and How It Hurts Efforts to Improve Schools, The Washington Post, November 11, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/11/a-serious-rant-about-education-jargon-and-how-it-hurts-efforts-to-improve-schools/?utm_term=.8ab3d85e9e45. 56. Stormer, None Dare, 104106. 57. Diane Ravitch, The Common Core Costs Billions and Hurts Students, The New York Times, July 23, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/opinion/sunday/the-common-core-costs-billions-and-hurts-students.html. "It emphasizes emphasizes prevention, making sure we have more people who can treat people with addiction and it supports people in recovery, it does reflect what the science tells us," she said. "There's always more than can be done, but in an election year, I think this is pretty good. I really do appreciate there's an effort being made to have a bipartisan solution." City Announces Interpretation Services for Council Meetings City of Hayward officials announced on Sept. 5, that enhanced non-English interpretation services will be provided at all open-session City Council meetings. The city said simultaneous interpretation for Spanish speakers will begin during City Council meetings starting next Sept. 11. Hayward officials said simultaneous interpretation services for all other languages during council meetings can be scheduled upon request. They said that to ensure interpreters for languages other than Spanish are available, requests must be made at least 48 hours in advance by calling the City Clerks Office at (510) 583-4400. Hayward City Council meetings generally are held the first, third and fourth Tuesday of each month, starting at 7 p.m. at City Hall at 777 B St. in Hayward. However, the meeting on Sept. 11 will be held at the Matt Jimenez Community Center at 28200 Ruus Road in Hayward. The schedule of upcoming City Council meetings and published meeting agendas can be found on the citys website. In addition, Hayward officials said people who need to conduct business with the city, or obtain assistance, in languages other than English will be assisted by bilingual and multilingual city staff members. By Jeff Shuttleworth Couple Who Survived Las Vegas Massacre Says Comfort Dog Was Killed by Neighbor A couple who survived the Las Vegas mass shooting said that a neighbor shot their comfort dog that they used to help them cope. Lona and Joseph Johnson were there when gunfire broke out at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in October 2017. Shooter Stephen Paddock was accused of opening fire from his hotel room, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more in the incident. Couple who survived Las Vegas massacre left devastated after 'neighbor shoots dead emotional support dog' https://t.co/Yk2aXIuuqD Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) September 7, 2018 The Johnsons dog Jax was shot over the weekend, and their neighbor allegedly told them that the dog was chasing chickens, the Bellingham Herald in Washington state reported. We heard that dogs are good pets to help with the healing and PTSD and anxiety and all the things that came with that horrible night. We decided on a labradoodle and got Jax, and he was such a blessing, Joseph said. Couple who survived Las Vegas shooting says neighbor fatally shot their therapy dog https://t.co/nIExkso2CC pic.twitter.com/c1emOXnE3b KATU News (@KATUNews) September 7, 2018 He gave us something to look forward to. I really believe Jax was a big part of our healing, not only for my wife and I, but for our children, who were at home and saw the news and the social media and knew we were shot at. Hes helped us all. Odin Maxwell, 49, a neighbor of the coupe, was cited for shooting a firearm, Whatcom County Sheriffs Chief Deputy Kevin Hester said. At around 7:45 a.m. on Sept. 2, sheriffs deputies, the Everson Police Department, Nooksack Tribal Police, and the Humane Society responded to reports of a dog being shot, the report said. An investigation found that no chickens were harmed. Hester said that Maxwell was reckless in how he discharged his firearm, a shotgun. Were pretty upset and hurt right now, Lona told the outlet. It triggered a lot of PTSD for our family. Were still trying to deal with what happened in Las Vegas, and then this happened. Everybody who knows us knows how important Jax was to us. We cried pretty much all day Sunday, and the kids had a hard time, wanting to come home, Lona added. It was hard being home without having Jax around. It was so quiet. The Johnsons told The Associated Press that they had not had any previous dealings with Maxwell. They said a nephew returned one of Maxwells chickens unharmed when it came onto their property days before the incident. No Motive Meanwhile, on Sept. 5, police in Las Vegas released a new round of records in relation to the Oct. 1 mass shooting. No motive has yet been established. In August, Clark County Sheriffs officials closed their investigation into the shooting. The goal of our investigation all along was to provide the public with the clearest picture possible of the events leading up to Oct. 1, as well as motive, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told reporters at news conference, reported NPR. What we have not been able to definitively answer is the Why Stephen Paddock committed this act?' he said. Theres been no other gunman identified, he said. Lombardo said that Paddock was an unremarkable man who may have had mental health issues. The layout of the Yunnan Information News website as it appeared on Sept. 5. (screenshot via Yunnan Information News) Deleted Chinese State Media Report Hints at Veiled Criticism of Beijings $60 Billion Africa Investment News of Chinese regimes aid pledge juxtaposed with images of flood victims in southwest China Following an announcement made by the Chinese regime that it would pledge another $60 billion in economic aid to African countries, state media in the flood-stricken province of Yunnan ran a layout apparently suggesting its disapproval. On Sept. 4, the Yunnan Information News published a headline saying Xi Jinping Envisions a Chinese and African Future, with a sub-headline that read China will Provide $60 billion in support to Africa. Below this text was a prominent photo of villagers in the Yunnan town of Mengdong coping with waist-high floodwaters. It was accompanied by a terse caption: Aftermath of the flood in Malipo. In Yunnan Province, also on Sept. 4, a landslide and flood had forced the closure of six schools in the town of Mengdong, Malipo County. The floods have been affecting the southwest Chinese region for several days. According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, at least five people have died and 16 others were missing as of Sept. 2. The juxtaposition of the headlines and the photo led to speculation from Chinese internet users that the layout was an intentional criticism of the largess the Chinese Communist Party reserves for foreign countries, but often denies its own citizens. Comments posted to the site of Yunnan Information News lauded the state-run outlet for having a conscience and called it the pride of Yunnan. Censors soon modified the Yunnan Information News site to remove the sensitive layout. However, print versions of the paper had already been distributed. A Chinese university student told The Epoch Times that its certain that the media took this opportunity to criticize the government. Its too obvious. They reported the sad fact that our own government doesnt care about its people. Zeng Ning, a human rights activist in mainland China, said that the actions of Yunnan Information News could be called a kind of mockery, or a silent protest. Yunnan Information News was established in 1985, and was formerly known as Yunnan Economic Information News. As of 2007, the Nanfang Media Group and Yunnan Publishing Group owed the company. The calligraphy in the logo of Yunnan Information News was penned by Hu Yaobang, an esrtwhile CCP leader known for his advocacy of political reform. East Bay Real Estate Agent Sentenced for Sophisticated Home-Sales Fraud A 70-year-old East Bay real estate agent has been sentenced in federal court in San Francisco to six and one-half years in prison for sophisticated housing-sales fraud based on the creation of a phony mortgage company. Robert Jacobsen, of Kensington and formerly of Lafayette, was sentenced on Sept. 4, by U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney for one count of wire fraud and one count of carrying out a financial transaction with illegally obtained funds. He pleaded guilty to the two counts in July. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped 12 other wire fraud counts and eight other financial transaction counts in a 2015 grand jury indictment. A U.S. Attorneys Office spokesman said Jacobsen admitted in his plea agreement that he created a scheme in 2012 and 2013 to sell two houses in San Francisco and Danville to unsuspecting buyers who did not know the residences had underwater mortgage liens and tried to sell the third house in Monterey in the same way. An underwater mortgage is one carrying a debt greater than the value of the mortgaged home. The mortgages on the three houses were issued by a business called American Brokers Conduit, which went bankrupt along with its parent company, American Home Mortgage Corp., during the U.S. financial crisis in 2007. The mortgages were then sold to other financial institutions, which were unaware of the scheme. Jacobsen created a shell company with a similar name, American Brokers Conduit Corp., and told the original homeowners that he could free them of the debt if they signed over the deeds to companies he controlled. He promised to give them a small payment after he resold the houses, according to court documents. Jacobsen then filed lawsuits against the phony mortgage company and controlled the lawyers on both sides, according to prosecutors. In each case, the two sides directed by Jacobsen agreed to a settlement declaring the mortgages invalid. He then sought to sell the houses. Jacobsen sold the San Francisco house for $1.2 million and the Danville house for $800,000, but the intended sale of the Monterey house for $3 million was stymied when the new mortgage holder discovered the fraud, according to a prosecution-sentencing document. Jacobsen laundered the money from the two sales, through banks in the United States and Belize, and spent some of the proceeds on a $475,000 yacht, prosecutors said. As part of the plea bargain, Jacobsen agreed to forfeit the yacht. By Julia Cheever The first flight from Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates on June 29, 2018. (Patrick Riviere/Getty Images) Family Shocked After Brothers Accused of Plotting to Blow-Up Sydney Etihad Plane A Lebanese family in Tripoli are shocked by the allegations that their three brothers plotted to blow up an Etihad flight from Sydney. I feel like Ive aged with this, said Waled Khayat. Ive started taking anxiety pills, he told the ABC. This is the first time the family has spoken publicly about the allegations and they still dont understand how the charges against two of their brothers, Khaled and Mahmoud, could be true. Waled said that Khaled left Lebanon in the 80s to make a peaceful living and if he wanted to fight in a war, he wouldnt go to Australia to do it. Khaled has been to Mecca, so he knows right from wrong, Waled said. He was there to make a living. He wants to down a plane? Its not logical. If he were a terrorist, he wouldnt have left Lebanon in 1986. I dont understand what happened with them. What is this story? Waled said. In 2017, the Australian police arrested Waleds brothers Khaled, 49, and Mahmoud, 32. They were accused of trying to get an improvised explosive device (IED) on a plane and a fatal rotten egg bomb on a Sydney bus, the ABC reported. The police alleged that Khaled and Mahmoud planted the IED on another brothers luggage without his knowledge. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the other brother, Amer, didnt know anything about the explosives, they alleged that the brothers removed the explosives at the check-ins because they went over the weight limit. Amer was allowed to travel through to Lebanon. Amer Khayat, the Third Brother In Lebanon, Amer stayed with Waled and his family. But a week after his brothers arrests were broadcasted, the Lebanese authorities arrested him, the ABC reported. A year later, the 39-year-old is still in custody and a military tribual is still investigating the incident. Another of his brothers in Lebanon, Fadi Khayat, said that the evidence the military tribunal has against Amer isnt very strong. On Sept. 4, the authorities found nine screenshots of news reports on terrorism and a photo of a letter supposedly written by Amer to his mother saying I agree I was mean to you and did very wrong. Amer has maintained that he didnt take the screenshots. Fadi told the ABC that the letter to their mother made no sense because she died in 2010. Waled is worried that the reputation of their other brother, Tarek, might affect Amer, Khaled, and Mahmoud. He said that Tarek knew a lot about ISIS and was accused of being an ISIS commander after being picked up by Iraqi authorities. I dont care. He [Tarek] chose his own path, said Waled. But Khaled and Mahmoud havent chosen what is happening to them. The familys troubles dont end there. Waled visited Amer in a Beirut prison on Sept. 3, telling him that their sister had just died of cancer a day before his hearing. he burst out crying because he lost his sister and he was in jail, said Waled. And he says she got the cancer because of whats happening to her brothers. Waled said that Tarek is facing execution and that Amer will face execution as well if he is charged and convicted. The trial in Australia for Khaled and Mahmoud is scheduled for March 2019 in the NSW Supreme Court. Fire Crews Contain Two-alarm Blaze Fairfield Fire Department crews extinguished a fire that destroyed a commercial garage attached to a house that started on the night of Sept. 5, and was contained early this morning, according to fire officials. Battalion Chief John Sturde said the two-alarm fire in the 2000 block of North Texas Street was first reported at 10:44 p.m. on Sept. 5. The garage was attached to a home, but the residence wasnt damaged. Firefighters couldnt initially gain access to the garage upon first arriving to fight the fire, but eventually got inside, Sturde said. Sturde said the two-story, 10,000-square-foot garage was an odd structure, with additions constructed inside it and was frequented by transients. He said the garage had rooms within rooms and even had a concrete shed inside one of the rooms. Its a lot of unpermitted construction that went on for decades, Sturde said. The garage is considered a total loss with a damage estimate of $100,000, according to Sturde. Crews are expected to be on the scene throughout the morning extinguishing hot spots and cleaning up the scene. Firefighters from the Vacaville Fire Department responded to the scene and Dixon Fire Department crews provided mutual aid at fire stations. By PF Former Orinda Doctor Who Lost His License Sentenced for Child Pornography A former orthopedic surgeon from Orinda was sentenced in federal court in San Francisco on Sept. 5, to seven years in prison for transporting child pornography while returning from a trip to Thailand in 2016. John D. Warbritton III, 64, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. Warbritton pleaded guilty before Breyer in May to transporting child pornography images on his laptop and his cell phone when he flew from Bangkok to San Francisco International Airport on March 27, 2016. U.S. Attorneys Office spokesman Abraham Simmons said Warbritton acknowledged in his plea agreement that the devices contained between 150 and 300 images of child pornography and that some of them showed adult men sexually assaulting young girls under the age of 12. Warbritton, who had an office in Oakland, lost his medical license last year when he agreed to give it up in the wake of sexual misconduct charges by the Medical Board of California. The board charged that he sexually touched two women patients and made inappropriate sexual comments to them at various times during medical evaluations for workplace injuries between 2008 and 2015. Warbritton was conducting the evaluations for an insurance company and the patients were required to see him as part of their applications for workers compensation. In the May 3, 2017, stipulation to surrender his license, Warbritton agreed that if the board had held a hearing, the board could establish a factual basis for the charges in the accusation and that those charges constitute cause for discipline. Warbritton was indicted on the child pornography count by a federal grand jury in San Francisco in October 2017. He was initially released on bail but was ordered into custody by a federal magistrate in January after a pretrial services officer found that he violated his release conditions by having child pornography images on his smartphone that showed Asian girls and toddlers being sexually assaulted. Defense attorney Edward Robinson said in a sentencing brief that opiate and alcohol addiction contributed to Warbrittons pornography crime. He said the former doctor has genuine remorse. Prosecutors argued in a brief that opiates do not lead someone to look at child pornography and contended, nothing in the defendants past justifies or mitigates his conduct here. Warbritton graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1980 and had his residency training at the University of California at San Francisco and St. Marys Hospital Medical Center in San Francisco. By Julia Cheever Homeless Man Will Get His Full $400,000 Says GoFundMe Johnny Bobbitt Jr., the homeless man whose crowd-funded $400,000 allegedly disappeared, will get his money. Online fund-raising site GoFundMe announced on Sept 6. that the homeless veteran will get all the money from the online campaign, which was sparked by his assisting a stranded motorist. The announcement follows a police raid of the home of the couple who set up the fundraising campaign after he sued them over missing funds. Kate McClure ran out of gas on the I-95 highway in Philadelphia late at night last fall. Bobbitt, who was living under a highway ramp, came to the rescue, spending his last $20 on gas for her. Following the act of kindness, together with her partner, McClure set up a fund-raising page for him that garnered huge public interest. However, McClure and her partner are now the subjects of a criminal investigation after Bobbitt claimed that he only received $75,000 of the $400,000 raised. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Bobby Whithorne, director of North America communications for GoFundMe, said in a statement: Johnny will be made whole, and were committing that hell get the balance of the funds that he has not yet received or benefited from. GoFundMes goal has always been to ensure Johnny gets [the] support he deserves, Money is Gone The prosecutors office on Sept 6. confirmed that a criminal investigation had been launched into missing funds. Burlington County Prosecutor Scott A. Coffina said in a statement, Due to the enormous public interest in this matter, I am confirming that a search warrant was executed early this morning by the Burlington County Prosecutors Office and the Florence Township Police Department at the residence of Mark DAmico and Katelyn McClure in connection with a criminal investigation into the Johnny Bobbitt matter. Johnny holding the article in the paper today about him and the people willing to help!! https://t.co/jLSNrNuYcy pic.twitter.com/MryoaUrGmD Kate McClure (@getjohnnyahome) November 16, 2017 Earlier this week, lawyers for DAmico and McClure disclosed that none of the $400,000 remains. However, lawyers from the two sides disagree on how much of the $400,000 has already been spent on Bobbitts behalf, according to the Inquirer. Bobbitts lawyers say he was given a total of about $75,000. But the couples lawyer, Ernest E. Badway, claims he has received $200,000 so far. But GoFundMe isnt ready to just foot the bill for Bobbittthe company will refund donors too, waiving a 30-day restriction that would have applied to the 10-month-old campaign. GoFundMes policy states that they will refund individual contributions up to $1,000 if those donations were misused. This is an extremely rare situation, and we are working with law enforcement officials to get Johnny the money raised on his behalf, which means the 30-day policy does not apply in this case, Whithorne said in a statement issued on Sept. 6, reported the Inquirer. Bobbitt, a former Marine, had worked as a paramedic and firefighter, but had fallen afoul of drugs and the law and was scraping by panhandling. McClure decided to set up a GoFundMe page in his name, hoping to raise $10,000, to help him back on his feet. More than 14,000 people responded. As the donation total swelled, McClure and her boyfriend began promising on the page to use the cash to buy Bobbitt his own home and set up two trusts. According to Bobbitt, that never happened, and reluctantly, he sought legal help. I always felt like I was in a weird situation. I didnt want to be pressuring to get a lawyer or do anything because I didnt want to seem ungrateful, he told ABC. I wish it didnt come to thisI hate that it came to this. Chris Jasurek contributed to this article The body of missing teen Kiera Lanae Bergman was located in the Arizona desert near Phoenix. (Phoenix Police Department) Kiera Bergmans Body Turns Up in Arizona Desert The body of 19-year-old Kiera Bergman was found in the Arizona desert about 45 minutes drive from her Phoenix home, local police say. Bergmans body was found in the afternoon of Sept. 3 near SR 85 and Hazen Road, about a 45-minute drive from her apartment in west Phoenix, AZ Family reported. Bergman had been missing since Aug. 4. Phoenix police would not say how long Bergmans body had been in the desert or how she had died, saying they could not comment on an active homicide investigation. My sunshine is gone.? Kiera, Im so sorry this has happened to you. Im so sorry that we failed to see what was to Posted by Kissie Elizabeth Montalvo-Bragg on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 In March, Bergman had moved to Phoenix from El Cajon near San Diego to be with her then-boyfriend. The couple broke up not long before she disappeared, though they still lived together. That boyfriend, 23-year-old Jon Christopher Clark, was arrested on Aug. 17 on 22 counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of forgery, Phoenix Police spokesman Sergeant Vince Lewis told AZ Family. Fox News reported that Clark was being held on $25,000 bond. Clark has not been arrested in relation to Bergmans disappearance, though it seems he might have been the last person to see her alive. [/epoch_social_embed] Picked Up by Her Ex Bergmans mother, Kiersten Bragg, told AZ Central that her daughter was a very happy, loving, very outgoing, very strong-minded girl, who attended cosmetology school and was passionate about hair and makeup. Once in Phoenix, Bergman moved in with Clark and got a job with Progressive Leasingthe finance division of furniture retailer Aarons. Not too long after that, the phone line was disconnected. Wed only be able to connect with her through messenger or FaceTime on Facebook, Bragg said. Not long after that, Bragg told AZ Central that her daughter broke up with Clark and moved in with Destiny Hall-Chand, 20, who was a friend and co-worker at Progressive Leasing. But later, Clark also moved in with Bergman. According to Hall-Chand, she and Bergman went to work together on Aug. 4 when Bergman got upset by something and left early, according to AZ central. Clark had picked up Bergman from work, Hall-Chand said. Clark told Fox News that he took her home that day, they argued, and Bergman left the apartment angry. Hall-Chand told AZ Family that Bergman sent her a strange text message that day. She was saying she was going to go out with a guy that she met at the store a couple days ago which is something thats not like her, Hall-Chand told KPHO. I mean, thats not something that she would do. Hall-Chand told AZ Central that when Bergman didnt come home on Saturday, Hall-Chand texted and called her repeatedly. At one point Bergman apparently texted back saying she would call once she found a phone charger. That call never came. Friends Tried To HelpPolice Need More Help Neighbors from Bergmans apartment complex as well as friends from San Diego came to Phoenix to search for Bergman. They plastered phone poles and store windows with flyers, doing their best to make sure everyone would see Bergmans photo. The more people that see this, the better chance that somebody that knows something will see this, and say something, Bergmans father, Chris Bragg, told KPHO on Aug. 19. Now that same small army of volunteers is back at work, this time removing all the posters they put up. Ive been seeing them all over the placeyou know, the pamphlets and everything on the thing, one neighbor told AZ Family. So everybodys really been putting them everywhere. So it was kind of somber to see them taking it down. Phoenix Police are asking anyone with any information about the case to call 1-800-343-TIPS (8477) or 480-WITNESS (948-6377) to leave information anonymously. Spanish speakers are encouraged to call 480-TESTIGO (837-8446). From NTD.tv Watch Next: How Doctors in China Turn into Murderers Former Chinese surgeon Enver Tohti said he was turned into a killing robot while thinking he was working for a great cause. NY, NJ Attorneys General Begin Statewide Investigations of Clergy Sex Abuse The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey both announced on Sept. 6 that they have started investigations into allegations of sexual abuse by clergy in Catholic diocese in their states. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood subpoenaed all eight Roman Catholic dioceses in the state in an effort to collect documents relating to abuse allegations, payments to victims, or findings from internal church investigations, The Associated Press first reported. In New Jersey, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said hes forming a task force to investigate allegations of sexual abuse and coverup by members of the clergy. He appointed former Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino to lead the task force, which Grewal says will have the power to issue subpoenas through a grand jury to compel testimony or demand documents. The New York Attorney Generals Charities Bureau launched a civil investigation into how the dioceses and other nonprofit church entities potentially covered up allegations of sexual abuse of minors. The attorney general in New York doesnt have the power to convene a grand jury to investigate these types of crimes, so that office is partnering with district attorneys across the state. Underwood warned that not all crimes will be prosecutable, due to the statute of limitations, but she asked victims to report their cases anyway. Both attorneys general said their investigations were precipitated by a Pennsylvania grand jury report released in July that detailed decades of abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of priests. Four of the priests in the report were allegedly involved in ministries in New Jersey, and several were listed as having spent time in New York. The report revealed that sexual assaults on childrenand efforts to cover up such assaultswere far more widespread in Pennsylvania than we ever thought possible, Grewal said in a statement. We owe it to the people of New Jersey to find out whether the same thing happened here. New Jersey also plans to review the mechanism it set up with the states five dioceses in 2002, in conjunction with the attorney generals office and several county prosecutors offices, that mandated policies and procedures to report potential cases of sexual abuse within their churches to law enforcement. New York has created an online form where victims can submit a report, and both states have set up hotlines for victims. New York: 800-771-7755 New Jersey: 855-363-6548 One of the Last Traditional Gondola Makers in Venice In 1884, Domenico Tramontin established his boatyard, Domenico Tramontin e Figli, in Venice. It was in that boatyard, or squero as the Italians call it, that Tramontin built the gondola as we now know it. Before 1884, gondolas were symmetrical, and two gondoliers had to row the boat by standing on opposite sides of the hull. Tramontin designed an asymmetrical hull, causing the gondola to become imbalanced in such a way that it created a natural bias on one side. This weight imbalance meant that a single gondolier could row on one side and maintain a straight line. Many boatyards copied Tramontins new, innovative design. Since then, the boatyard has built gondolas for many esteemed clientele, including Italys royal family, the Venetian government, the Venice police, and the Carabinieri (the national military force with police duties). And it continues to carry out repairs and important restoration projects, such as the preservation of the mid-19th-century gondola that belonged to American painter Thomas Moran (18371926), which is now at The Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. In line with the Italian tradition of sons taking on the family business, it is now Tramontins great-grandson Roberto Tramontin who makes Tramontin gondolas. He, along with his team, restores and repairs wooden gondolas during the summer months, and in the winter they construct only one new gondola. The team constructs the gondola largely by hand, according to the 19th-century design of Robertos great-grandfather. Constructing a Tramontin Gondola Every Tramontin gondola is custom-made. The weight of the stern, where the gondolier stands, depends on the weight of the gondolier: The heavier the boatman, the higher the stern needs to sit in the water to compensate. The gondolier can also request specifics, such as the carvings and the type of ferro (the distinctive metal ornament at the front of the gondola). The six teeth on a traditional Venetian ferro are thought to represent the six districts of Venice. Building a custom gondola takes five months. The first two months are purely for construction. At the workshop, workers use the same boat-length wooden beam with its metal markers that Tramontins ancestors used in 1884 to act as a guide for constructing the boats bellies with their characteristic wooden ribs. Eight types of wood are used throughout the gondola, each performing a different function based on their natural strengths: Oaks solidity is used for the sides; fir is lightweight enough for use on the boats bottom; cherry is easy to shape and is used for the thwarts, or struts, that span the inside of the gondola; walnut and elm are flexible enough to be used for the frame; linden is stable; mahogany is used for its structural integrity; and lastly, larch, being both lightweight and solid, provides the gondola with good water resistance. Before shaping the wood, in order to avoid damaging the wood fibers, each piece is first soaked in water and then heated over fire. For most of the gondolas construction, the workers use simple hand tools: an ax, plane saw, and hammer. The master woodcarver then decorates the top panels of the gondola, which takes two months. The gondoliers initials and the boatyards mark can be found on the stern, carved into a piece of wood called a catenella. The final month of the five is spent painting the gondola with six coats of glossy black paint. The striking black paint is a tradition that was set back in 1562 when the Venetian authorities decreed that black paint must be applied to all but ceremonial gondolas. The order was to end the competitive mentality of the gondoliers, who increasingly sought more and more elaborate decoration for their gondolas. In the gondolas heyday, around 10,000 of these vessels were on the waterways of Venice; now they number a few hundred. Visit Domenico Tramontin e Figli and their gondolas via the Venetian Way, a photography exhibition by Susanna Pozzoli, who visited the workshops of 21 master artisans in Italys Veneto region. Venetian Way will be on display Sept. 1430 in the chiostro dei Cipressi (Cypress cloister) of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Giorgio Cini Foundation) on San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy, as part of the exhibition Homo Faber: Crafting a More Human Future. Police Investigate Online Threat Against California High School Police are investigating an online threat of violence against California High School in San Ramon and plan to have an increased presence around the campus on Sept. 6, out of an abundance of caution. Police are investigating the threat with the FBI and the San Ramon Unified School District, San Ramon police Capt. Denton Carlson said today. He would only say that the anonymous website post consisted of a threat of violence. Carlson said police have no reason to believe at this time that the threat is credible but are not dismissing it. The IP address on the threat was traced to Europe, but authorities are not certain whether that is where the post originated because of the possibility of spoofing. By Craig Lazzeretti The campus of Ball State University, where a pro-life student group won a settlement against discrimination. (Screenshot via Google Maps) Pro-Life Student Club Wins Settlement After University Denies Them Funding Students at Ball State University won a settlement after their pro-life student group was denied funding. Attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom helped the students win the settlement from their University. The students claim that their Students for Life club was denied $300 in funding for materials that offered resources to pregnant and parenting students, College Fix reported. Alliance Defending Freedom wrote in a press release that Student for Life were denied funding because the organization does not fit the university administrators ideological views while they funded activities by groups that promote LGBTQ issues, atheism, and abortion. The settlement resulted in the University agreeing to fund the students for the original request of $300, along with $12,000 in legal fees going to Alliance Defending Freedom, according to College Fix. A six-page policy also accompanied the settlement. The policy prohibits the school from continuing to engage in discrimination towards student groups. The new Student Organization Fund Allocation Policy replaces the one that led to the dispute. It requires funds be allocated without the viewpoint of administrators affecting decisions. The old policy stated that student activity fees could not be distributed to (a)ny Organization which engages in activities, advocacy, or speech in order to advance a particular political interest, religion, religious faith or ideology, court documents revealed. VICTORY! Ball State University has agreed to stop illegally discriminating against Ball State Students for Life and will stop denying them student fees. Posted by Students for Life of America on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 Dalton told College Fix that the students all pay into the student activities fund with their tuition fees, and deserve equal access to the pool of money the school distributes to student clubs. Officials denied Students for Lifes request because the organization advocates for pro-life views; however, the Student Activity Fee Committee distributed funding from the same pool to organizations that advocate for viewpoints administrators prefer, including Feminists for Action, Secular Student Alliance, and Spectrum, said Dalton, via the press release. Public universities are supposed to provide a marketplace of ideas, but that market cant function properly if university officials promote some views over others, said Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Caleb Dalton, via the press release. Ball State has taken some important first steps in eliminating the most blatantly unconstitutional aspects of their policies and honoring its intent to respect and learn from differences in people, ideas, and opinions. We sincerely hope this serves as a catalyst to review all policies to maximize the free exchange of ideas at BSU. Students for Life at Ball State University are part of Students for Life of America. The ADF press release states its the nations largest pro-life youth organization and currently serves more than 1,200 groups in colleges, high schools, and medical schools across the U.S. On a scale of 1 to "traveling to an Alaska Glacier to hold up Pro-Life Gen Signs" how pro-life are you? pic.twitter.com/YENhKjVCgI Students for Life (@StudentsforLife) August 10, 2018 Alliance Defending Freedom handled the highly publicized case of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd., v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, where a Christian baker refused to bake a cake for a homosexual couple, citing religious reasons. The bakery won the case at the Supreme Court level. The ADF Center for Academic Freedoms website shows news of other litigation involving Students for Life organizations at different colleges. At California State University, Fresno, Students for Life pro-life messages were being removed by a professor and his students, even though the group had obtained permission from the school. According to the website, the professor said college campuses are not free speech areas. The incident was reportedly recorded on video. Another case involved an application to create a Students for Life group at Queens College in New York City. The application was denied without explanation. After ADF filed a lawsuit, the college began recognizing Students for Life as a campus organization. Both of the lawsuits mentioned are still pending. ADFs website says the center has been involved in dozens of lawsuits at institutes of higher learning in just the past year alone. The center says they have an almost 90 percent success rate and have changed many college campuses that engaged in discrimination and censorship. From NTD.tv Musical artist Post Malone attends The Stronach Group Chalet at 143rd Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland on May 19, 2018. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for The Stronach Group) Rapper Post Malone Involved in California Car Crash Rapper Post Malone was involved in a car crash on the morning of Sept. 7 in West Hollywood, California. Officials said that his white Rolls-Royce Wraith and another car appeared to be a total loss, NBC San Diego reported. #BREAKING Post Malone involved in crash in West Hollywood pic.twitter.com/01iCttZnuC ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) September 7, 2018 A new Rolls-Royce Wraith is worth about $320,000. First almost a plane, now almost a car, he told a local news station, CBS News reported. After the crash, rapper, who was born Austin Richard Post, also said, Oh yeah, Im fine. Sgt. Andrew Myers of the Beverly Hills Police Department said the Rolls Royce is owned by Malone. However, it was being driven by his assistant, and the rapper was a passenger, according to the NBC report. Post Malone cheats death AGAIN as high speed crash destroys ROLLS ROYCE https://t.co/u20rlbbyuN DrudgeTweeter (@drudge_tweeter) September 7, 2018 No injuries were reported. No alcohol was involved the incident, according to reports. Officials also found a wrecked Kia blocking the roadway and the Rolls-Royce crashed through the fence. It was unclear what caused the crash. Since there were no injuries, the police department was not filing a traffic report, said police. The parties involved will just exchange (insurance) information, Beverly Hills police spokesman Andrew Myers said, Reuters reported. A month ago, Post Malone was on a Gulfstream IV when the planes tires blew during takeoff from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. The plane was forced to circle airspace before landing at New Yorks Stewart Airport. Thank you for your prayers. Cant believe how many people wished death on me on this website, the rapper said on Twitter, while using an expletive to insult people who wished death on him. Related Video: Rick Kelly Crafts Guitars From the Bones of Old New York His one-of-a-kind, handmade electric guitars are literally built from the foundations of the cityand have been played by some of rock and roll's biggest stars. NEW YORKIn Greenwich Village, wedged between a custom flooring store and an Asian tapas restaurant, the red brick and glass facade of Carmine Street Guitars features a subtle neon guitar-shaped light in the window and Kelly in gold lettering on the bottom left corner of the glass. A tall potted plant snakes its way around a gold column behind the glass storefront. To enter, you must push the door forcefully, as the sticker on the front door jovially suggests. Inside, three rows of vintage guitars line up on top of each other against the right side of the shop, and a display case of guitars and photographs occupies the left. About 30 feet inside, through a doorway, is the workshop in the back of the store where owner Rick Kelly builds his guitars. The space is littered with different pieces of wood, tools, clamps, works in progress, and smells faintly of fresh sawdust. A large stock of lumber makes up the back wall of the workshop. But this is no ordinary guitar shop. Kellys one-of-a-kind, handmade electric guitars are literally built from the foundations of the cityand have been played by some of rock and rolls biggest stars. Reclaiming New Yorks Heritage What makes Kellys guitars special and sought after is the material they are crafted out of: reclaimed wood, much of it these days from New Yorks iconic historical buildings. In his workshop, he has a healthy supply of wood from a number of historical sites, most notably the Chelsea Hotel, McSorleys Old Ale House, and Chumleys. Getting lumber from these locations happened almost fortuitously. Kelly sourced the beams he has from the Chelsea Hotel, whose notable former residents include Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, after a friend who lived next door called him to tell him a crew was removing the wood from the basement. The lumber he has from Chumleys, the restaurant where Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald regularly stopped in for a cocktail when it was a speakeasy, became part of his wood pile after his nephew called him in the pouring rain to tell him they were throwing the beams away. When Kelly finds wood from these kind of historical sites, its a huge bonus. Thats a real thrill when you know that wood had a history, Kelly told Humanity. What did these beams look down on, and what have they seen through the ages? Theres just so many stories that this wood has seen. The trees themselves were around when George Washington was walking next to them, Kelly said with a chuckle. Its so historicfrom the beginning of the tree to the wood sourced from the building. Method to His Madness Kelly has been making instruments since 1968. His passion for building guitars began when he was making Appalachian dulcimers as a way to pay off his student loans in the early 1970s, but his craft would become something much more meaningful in the years to come. After working in rural Maryland for several years, Kelly realized he would have to move to an urban environment if he wanted to attract new customers, and expand his business. Having grown up on Long Island, he returned to his native New York in the late 1970s. His first shop in New York City was on Downing Street, but he would move down the road and open Carmine Street Guitars in 1990. Using second-hand lumber might sound odd, but there is a method to Kellys madness. He had used reclaimed materials in art school, and when he started making Appalachian dulcimers he knew that vintage instruments sound better, that older wood would make an instrument sound more like a vintage instrument. So I always sourced older wood, whether it be from furniture or other sources, Kelly explained. He would ultimately take his practice of using reclaimed wood with him to the Big Apple. The first batch of New York wood Kelly used was pine from filmmaker Jim Jarmuschs loft on the Bowery. Kelly made two guitars out of the pinewood rafters from the loft for Jarmusch, and that would be the start of using reclaimed lumber from New York buildings at Carmine Street Guitars. Kelly also had a particular reason for wanting this unique pinewood. Knowing that the earliest Fender style guitars were made of pine I knew it was a good wood to use, very resonant. Even Stradivarius violins are made of pine, so its a great wood to use, Kelly explained. And this wood [from the old buildings] it kind of was the best of the best kind of pine. These trees were from virgin forests. They were all old growth that had never been cut down. So some of the trees were 300 and 400 years old. Then theyve been indoors for 170 years, so you couldnt ask for better material to build instruments out of. Super dry, all the resins have crystallized, which leaves the pores in the wood open for vibration. So this stuff is like gold, and they just basically throw it away. The Bones New York has the largest depository of old growth timber in the world, according to Kelly. Each piece of lumber Kelly works with is a piece of New York history, even if its not from a notorious historical site. The craftsman travels around the city on his bicycle looking for construction sites, and he does his fair share of dumpster diving. He calls these wooden beams the bones of old New York City, as they made up the framework, or bones, of old buildings in New York. For Kelly, no other lumber compares. You know, the wood to me is very magical. It has a lot of incredible properties for sound and vibration as well as, who knows, the mystique and the mystery of what these trees and these timbers have been through and seen, Kelly said. This lumber has a tighter grain than the usual wood you find in a lumber yard, because the trees it came from had grown without being cut for 300 to 400 years, Kelly said. The timber condenses as the trees get larger and larger, which produces a different quality of sound once it has been fashioned into a guitar. Once the guitars were made it was like, wow, they were really resonant, and they were really warm sounding, which was kind of a shock, he said. The warmth was a surprise. A Craftsman Then comes the process of building the guitar from this reclaimed lumber. It all starts with the rough timber. Kelly lays out a template on the wood, and cuts out the body of the guitar. Then he shapes the guitar and make indents for the pickups using a pin router. Then he spends hours upon hours sanding, cutting fret slots, and then hand-shaping the necks. Two ceiling fans hum gently as Kelly works. Kelly makes every guitar by hand, and the only machines he uses are a bandsaw and pin router. Amazingly, hes able to crank out about four custom electric guitars a month. Making guitars by hand means a lot to Kelly, especially when he completes a guitar. Its always a new baby coming out of the shop. Its sort of like I just created a new creature thats going to be making music, and its going to outlive me. Its a wonderful feeling to know youve made something thats going to make music, and do good for peoples psyche, Kelly said. Its very rewarding to do this kind of work and to build instruments, musical instruments of any kind. The list of musicians who have bought Kellys guitars is impressive. Hes built guitars for rock icons like Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Roger Waters. Its great. I saw Lou Reed play one of my guitars at Carnegie Hall and I couldnt imagine anything more special than that, or Bob Dylan sending me a picture from Beijing of him playing my guitar on stage, those are really special times. This article was originally published on Humanity. Six Students Robbed, School Locked Down Before Suspects Arrested Six high school students were robbed and American Canyon High School was locked down before two armed robbery suspects were arrested by American Canyon police on Sept. 5, a Napa County Sheriffs Office spokesman said. The students were coming back from an off-campus lunch at about 12:15 p.m. when two suspects stopped them close to campus, which is at 3000 Newell Drive, sheriffs spokesman Henry Wofford said. One suspect had a knife and the other had a gun. Wofford said the suspects demanded the students get on the ground and turn over their personal property such as money, backpacks and shoes and the students complied. However, one of the suspects put a gun to the head of one of the students. The student got up and a fight ensued between the two. Shortly after, the student ran toward campus and the other five students followed. Wofford said the students yelled for help and someone called police. The school was locked down as police searched for the suspects. Wofford said officers were not sure whether the suspects were on campus. Four of the six students suffered injuries not considered life-threatening. The four were taken to a hospital and none of the injuries were gunshot wounds. Wofford said sheriffs officials found no evidence that shots were fired. According to Wofford, both suspects are from outside the county and are not students. All of the victims were 16 years old or younger. The lockdown was lifted at about 1:45 p.m. By Keith Burbank Soldier Fighting Overseas Tries to Bring Home Abused Dog He Saved Serviceman saved a dog he named Rukban on his deployment The United States has an estimated 2,000 troops in Syria. Amidst the chaos of the civil war, one soldier found an abused dog wandering around the Rukban refugee camp that became an unexpected friend. The desperate canine had been at the camp in the demilitarized piece of land between Jordan and Syriahome to approximately 50,000 refugeeswhen he found a glimmer of salvation. David, whose last name is being withheld for operational security reasons, was on deployment in Syria in late June 2018 when he saw something that crushed him: a pup that had been stabbed, had his ears cut off, and was starving. Having grown up with a German Shepherd, David felt like he almost knew the dog, whose face looked characteristic of that breed. He named the dog Rukban, after the refugee camp where he was stationed. An Abused Dog Rukban was in critical condition; at first, David didnt notice that the dog had been stabbed in the neck. Because Rukban hadnt eaten for some time, David began feeding him and giving him water. He felt obligated to help, especially since the dog was living in such a hostile environment. I think I have always had a soft spot for dogs. It just seemed like it was the right thing to do since the locals have a disdain for dogs and would just as soon kill them rather than have to look at them, David told Humanity in an email interview. Taking care of Rukban would be an arduous processhe had been abused to such an extent that it took a month to get healthy. They mended the stab wound, vaccinated him for rabies and parvovirus, and treated him for ticks, fleas, and worms. Mans Best Friend Throughout this whole process, Rukban became comfortable with David little by little. After three or four days, he started eating out of his hand, and the two became closer. I would play with him and get him used to someone that wasnt going to hurt him. Pretty soon he would come to me when called, and take walks with me around the camp. Over the last week or so he would be waiting outside my tent in the morning for me to wake up. Always wagging his tail, David said. The pup proved to be a great comforta way to take the soldiers mind off of being in the war. Rukban would most likely not survive if left behind, and David ultimately decided to bring the dog back with him. Fortunately, two U.S. Airmen informed David about organizations called Guardians of Rescue and Paws of War. Rescuing Rukban The head of Guardians of Rescue, a non-profit animal rights and welfare organization, told the soldier about Paws of War, whose mission is to help military personnel with the financial, medical, and logistical processes of bringing an animal back to the U.S. They explained the process, and how well it worked for them. I decided it was time for me to have a dog in my life again, David recalled. David was able to get his new friend into Jordan, and he has seen the pup twice since then. Despite the difficulties, he is confident that he will be able to reunite with Rukban in his home state of Florida once he returns from the Middle East. It has been a difficult road, but the communication has been excellent. Im getting text messages, photos, and videos while separated from Rukban. Im just thankful I found the Paws of War and the Guardians. They have made the process almost seem routine, David said. The soldier said it would mean the world to him if Rukban had a better life. I named him after the internally displaced persons camp in Syria because he is a Syrian refugee! But, soon, with the help of the Paws of War, and Guardians of Rescue, he will not be a refugee anymore! The views expressed in this article are Davids, and do not reflect the views of the United States Army. If you have an uplifting story youd like to share, write to Andrew Thomas at andrewthomas@humanitytoday.com This story was originally published on Humanity. Immigrant children now housed in a tent encampment under the new "zero tolerance" policy by the Trump administration are shown walking in single file at the facility near the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, U.S., June 19, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Trump Administration Seeks to End Agreement on Detention of Illegal Alien Children The Trump administration said on Sept. 6 it plans to withdraw from a federal court agreement that strictly limits the conditions under which authorities can detain migrant children, and proposed new rules it said would enable it to detain minors during their immigration proceedings. The administration has long targeted the Flores Settlement Agreement, a 1997 federal consent decree that places significant curbs on how long and in what conditions the government can detain migrant children as it seeks to dissuade migrants from crossing the U.S. southern border. The regulation released on Sept. 6, if it goes into effect, would enshrine some of the protections while circumventing others, by allowing the government to detain children in facilities not licensed by state authorities to hold minors. Immigrants and their advocates are expected to mount legal challenges to the move. The agreement has been interpreted over the years to set a 20-day limit on detaining children who entered the country illegally, and also requires facilities that house migrant children to be licensed by a state authority. Trump administration officials have repeatedly referred to the agreements standards as loopholes that attract migrants by forcing authorities to release people pending their immigration hearings. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen repeated that reasoning, saying in a statement that legal loopholes prevent the government from detaining and deporting migrant families. This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress, Nielsen said. The regulatory filing on Sept. 6 said the government would seek to terminate the Flores settlement, and put forward regulations it said parallel the relevant and substantive terms of the agreement. The new rules would ensure that all juveniles in the governments custody are treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors, the regulation said. One significant change would be a new licensing system to allow authorities to hold children in detention centers that are not licensed by state authorities to hold children. The facilities would be licensed by an outside auditor employed by the Department of Homeland Security that would ensure the sites comply with standards established by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the regulation says. The administration earlier this year asked a federal court to ease the limits mandated by the Flores agreement, but the judge overseeing the agreement, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly M. Gee, rejected those requests. That attempt by the administration came after it instituted a zero-tolerance policy at the U.S. border with Mexico that led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. After intense public outcry, the administration was forced to abandon that policy, but hundreds of children remain separated from parents who were deported without them. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal, followed by a 45-day period before the court settlement is terminated. Additional reporting by Tom Hals; Editing by David Gregorio and James Dalgleish Clothing from American brand Abercrombie & Fitch, which was made in China, is seen for sale at a store in Beijing on Sept. 7, 2018. (Andy Wong/ AP) Trump: Ready to Levy Tariffs on an Additional $267 Billion in Chinese Imports WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trump said on Sept. 7 that hes prepared to impose tariffs on an additional $267 billion in Chinese imports. Such a step would significantly escalate his trade war with Beijing and would likely increase costs for a broad range of U.S. businesses and consumers. Those potential tariffs would come on top of tariffs Trump has said hes poised to slap on $200 billion worth of Chinese goodseverything from handbags to bicycle tires. It would also be in addition to tariffs his administration has already imposed on $50 billion in Chinese imports, for which Beijing has retaliated with an equal amount of import duties on U.S. goods. I hate to say this, but behind that there is another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want, Trump told reporters on Air Force One. That totally changes the equation. The trade war the president has initiated between the worlds two largest economies stems from concerns that China has deployed predatory tacticsincluding cyber-theftto steal U.S. tech innovations. Trump also wants to reduce the United States gaping trade imbalance with China. The president says he believes that narrowing the trade gap will bring jobs to the United States. The presidents comments on Sept. 7 came one day after a public comment period ended on his proposed taxes of up to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese imports. Trump said earlier on Sept. 7 that his administration could very soon impose those tariffs. If the president followed through with all of his proposed tariffs, essentially every product being imported from China would be taxed. The administration has said the tariffs would force China to trade on more favorable terms with the United States. To a certain extent its going to be up to China, he said. Twitter Tweaks Anti-Trump Shadow Banning Ahead of Congress Questioning Twitter appears to have modified its practice of shadow banningthe unannounced suppression of a social-media users contentin the leadup to Twitter CEO Jack Dorseys scheduled hearing before Congress. Flying to DC for 2 hearings Wednesday with the Senate Intel Committee to share Twitters work to protect election integrity, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee to show our commitment to impartiality, transparency, and accountability, Dorsey wrote in an Aug. 31 tweet. Around the same time, supporters of President Donald Trump began reporting that their Twitter accounts no longer appear to be affected by Twitters quality filter. The filter removes affected accounts from search results unless the user manually switches the filter off. The filter then snaps back on after each search. The Epoch Times previously reviewed more than 50 accounts identified by hashtags commonly associated with Trump supporters, such as #MAGA, and Trump opponents, such as #TheResistance. Almost all accounts of the Trump supporters were targeted by the filter. None of the accounts used by Trump opponents were apparently targeted by the filter, according to the confirmation function on the website Shadowban.eu, which our reporter repeatedly tested to verify it can indeed identify accounts that have been affected. When the same pro-Trump accounts were tested Sept. 1, none of them appeared to be affected. Joy and Suspicion Under the hashtag #QFDBanLifted, users have posted thousands of tweets rejoicing over what some called being released from Twitter jail. Thanks Jack [Dorsey]. Your heart grew, wrote user SimpleMagnus, in a Sept. 1 tweet. Twitterville singing. Twitter Grinch came through! Many, however, expressed skepticism. This appears to be a coordinated effort by Twitter to cover up any wrongdoing before testifying in front of Congress, said Mike Tokes, a pro-Trump political strategist who runs a social media consulting firm, in a Sept. 1 tweet. Some also alleged the shadow banning simply has become more stealthy. Im not celebrating just yet, Jacks engineers may have found a way to circumvent the latest shadowban detector, said user Silent Lucidity, in a Sept. 1 tweet. Other users have pointed out that their accounts still appear to be throttled. Ive been stuck at 246,250 followers for a week now. Including today, Scott Presler, vice chairman of the Young Republicans of Virginia Beach, Virginia, told The Epoch Times over Twitter. I gain and lose every single day and seem to even around that number. My impressions are only around 200,000 per day, which is incredibly low for the amount of followers I have and retweets I get. Twitter executives previously stated that tweets and search results are ranked lower if posted by bad-faith actors who intend to manipulate or divide the conversation. Twitter never clarified what determines bad faith, but said it includes actions you take on Twitter, such as who one follows or retweets, and even factors beyond ones control, such as who mutes you, who follows you, who retweets you, who blocks you. The alleged slant in Twitter filtering matches how one of the companys engineers, Pranay Singh, described algorithms that are supposed to identify automated bot accounts. In reality, the majority of the algorithms targeted Republicans, Singh told undercover reporters from Project Veritas. You look for Trump, or America, or any of 5,000 keywords to describe a redneck, he said. In addition to scrutiny from Congress, the president addressed shadow banning on July 26, and promised to look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once. On July 27, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he filed a complaint against the company with the Federal Election Commission. Gaetz and several other prominent Republican congressmen had their Twitter accounts scrapped from the platforms search-suggestion function. Twitter stated it was because of the behavior on Twitter exhibited by their followers. Gaetz was convinced he was targeted since it appeared that all of the affected congressmen were Republicans. He said the suppressing of his account amounted to an illegal in-kind campaign contribution to his opponents. Google and Facebook Google and Facebook also are facing scrutiny for practices that appear to be suppressing conservative voices. Trump said at a campaign-style rally in Indiana on Aug. 30 that his administration is standing up for free-speech rights, warning that large social media companies cant be allowed to control what we can and cannot see. You look at Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media giants and I made it clear that we as a country cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting, and rigged search results, Trump said. We will not let large corporations silence conservative voices, he added, noting that it can go the other way someday, too. The president slammed Google in a pair of tweets of Aug. 26 citing a report which found that 96 percent of Google News results for Trump was from left-wing media. Trumps economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, later told reporters that the White House was taking a look at Google, saying the administration would do some investigation and some analysis, without providing further details. Earlier this summer, the new Republican chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Joseph Simons, said the agency would keep a close eye on big tech companies that dominate the internet. In a previous investigation, the FTC decided that Google was likely justified in developing a search function that harmed other companies. Reuters contributed to this report. Watch Next: President Donald Trumps Message to Family Members of the Fallen President Donald Trump paid a Memorial Day tribute at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28. He invited everyone at the college to a Christmas open house each year, where he and his wife, Ruth, were wonderful hosts, Losey said. As a faculty member, I felt respected, valued and part of a community. This sense of community has pervaded Elmhurst College through the years, even as we have become larger and more complex, and it is the reason why many of us have stayed over the years. Two Injured in Crash Involving Concord Police Vehicle Two people in a Concord police vehicle were injured in a collision with another vehicle in Santa Cruz on the afternoon of Sept. 5, according to the California Highway Patrol. The collision occurred at 3:18 p.m. at the intersection of Ocean Street and Broadway, CHP officials said. A 35-year-old man in the Concord police vehicle suffered major injuries in the crash, while a 26-year-old man suffered minor injuries, according to the CHP. They were taken to Dominican Hospital for treatment. A 30-year-old Santa Cruz woman in the other vehicle involved in the crash, a 2001 Honda, was not injured. CHP officials and Concord police were not immediately available to say why the Concord police vehicle was in the Santa Cruz area. Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be factors in the crash, according to the CHP. By Dan McMenamin Update: Concord Police Officer Recovering From Major Injuries After Crash A Concord police officer who suffered major injuries in a crash with another vehicle in Santa Cruz on September 5 afternoon is recovering on September 6, according to the California Highway Patrol and the Concord Police Department. The collision occurred at 3:18 p.m. at the intersection of Ocean Street and Broadway. A 35-year-old Concord police officer suffered major injuries in the crash, CHP spokeswoman Officer Trista Drake said. Concord police said on September 6 that detectives and officers with their department were in the Santa Cruz area looking for a suspect with an outstanding arrest warrant. They located the individual in question and were in the process of taking him into custody when a 30-year-old Santa Cruz woman crashed a 2001 Honda into a police vehicle. Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be factors in the crash, according to the CHP. Additional information about the investigation that brought Concord police to Santa Cruz was not immediately available. By Dan McMenamin and DB. US Fighter Jets Intercept 2 Russian Bombers Over Arctic Ocean Two Alaska-based U.S. fighter jets intercepted two Russian bomber planes over the Arctic Ocean, said officials in a statement on Sept. 7. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) stated that two Russian Tu-95 long-range bombers were monitored by U.S. F-22 jets until they flew out of the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. The incident occurred on Sept. 1. The Russian planes didnt enter Canadian or U.S. airspace at any point, the statement added. As the command designated with aerospace warning and aerospace control mission for Canada and the United States, NORAD monitors all air activity emanating from within an outside North American airspace, said NORAD in the statement. We do not identify the specific distance the aircraft flew from the west coast of Alaska due to operational security reasons However, the two Russian Tu-95 bomber aircraft were intercepted and monitored by the F-22s until they left, NORAD added. NORAD maintains constant vigilance in the defense of Canadian and United States airspace 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, it said. F-35 Gets a Try at Sea In late August, the U.S. Navy gave journalists a rare chance to see its version of the single-seat F-35 being tested for battle, Reuters reported. Video footage (which can be seen above) shows the plane launching from an aircraft carrier. If the F-35 passes its final tests, the jets first deployment could come in 2021. The single-engined F-35 looks quite similar to the larger twin-engined Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and it has design elements from the plane. Meanwhile, maker Lockheed Martin is pitching a new F-35/F-22 plane hybrid to the U.S. Air Force, Defense One reported on Aug. 30. Youre building a hybrid aircraft, David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who is now an official at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Its not an F-22. Its not an F-35. Its a combination thereof. That can be done much, much more rapidly than introducing a new design. The hybrid planesimilar to one Lockheed is pitching to Japan would use the F-35s more modern mission system and other advancements in the stealth coatings and things of that nature, said an unnamed official in the Defense One report. Theres a lot of potential in this idea, Deptula added. Im not suggesting that we jump right into it and embrace it, but from the Japanese perspective when they are looking at and willing to invest in this kind of an alternative as opposed to trying to build an indigenous aircraft thats not going to get close to what an F-22 can already deliver. Its a smart move on their behalf. But according to a person familiar with Lockheeds new plans for a plane, You cannot operate a fourth-generation airplane inside those threat scenarios. The move clearly needs to be to fifth-generation airplanes to have any operational capability thats needed to execute those scenarios. Reuters contributed to this report. Financial planners frequently urge strapped parents to have their children start at a community college. (Shutterstock) Why Americans Are More Cautious About the Cost of College CHICAGOSince he was in fourth grade, Dennis Noltes stepson Jacob has been tacking Massachusetts Institute of Technology posters to his bedroom wall and dreaming of attending someday. But now that Jacob is 18 and applying to colleges, Nolte has delivered an uncomfortable message: If manna comes from heaven, and you get enough scholarships, you can go to MIT, Nolte told him. Otherwise, getting a good education thats cheap and affordable in-state makes more sense. Nolte, who is a financial planner in Winter Park, Florida, compares the high cost of a private university such as MIT to Florida state schools, where the total cost of tuition, room and board, and fees comes in at less than a third of such elite schools. MIT estimates total costs for its upcoming academic year at $70,240, while state schools in Florida come in at less than $20,000. With massive media attention on the high cost of college along with lessons of the Great Recession, even people who can afford to pay are much more circumspect about the cost of college, Nolte said. His impressions are borne out in a survey by student lender Sallie Mae released this month. Despite a strong economy, parents and students are far more cautious about paying for college now than they were in the throes of the last recession, according to How America Values College, the Sallie Mae survey of 1,907 parents and students. About 90 percent of respondents consider college to be a good investment, but that does not mean attending at any cost. Some 78 percent of families said they are focusing on the price of a college education. Even before applying for the 2017 school year, 70 percent of students said they discarded colleges because they were too expensive. That is a huge change from 2008, when only 42 percent of students limited pricier choices immediately. Parents are also taking a tougher line, with 46 percent eliminating expensive colleges at the outset, compared with only 39 percent in 2008. After the initial cut, the scrutiny continues as financial aid offers arrive. When scholarships and grants did not make a school cheap enough in 2017, 69 percent of students rejected the college. In 2008, just 38 percent of students used such rigor. Parents, too, have become more discriminating, with 49 percent saying no to colleges after perusing financial aid offers. In 2008, only 30 percent did so. Parents are still reluctant to say no to expensive schools, said financial planner Sean Moore, president of Smart College Funding in Boca Raton, Florida. Parents say: My child worked so hard. How could we not send them? But increasingly parents are speaking up and asking what is the return, he said. That change in mindset comes amid a time of declining enrollments and the closure of small liberal arts collegestrends that reflect changing demographics and other factors as well as concerns over the cost and value of a college education. Some schools are cutting liberal arts programs while adding engineering and business programs for increasingly career-focused students. Catering to Cost Colleges are responding to cost sensitivities by decreasing sticker prices or offering free tuition. Elissa Schimmel, 17, is beginning community college this fall at Harper College near Chicago, in a new program that will give her free tuition for two years, before she transfers to a public university for a bachelors degree. My friends went away to college and then ended up moving back home and stressed about their college debts, she said. My mother told me this would be a good option because I wouldnt have to worry about money. Often, community college appeals to first-generation or older independent students. Schimmel, both of whose parents have college educations, is a motivated student focused on a business career. Financial planners frequently urge strapped parents to have their children start at a community college. Brenda Knox of Rolling Meadows, Illinois is one: Even the mass affluent can only hope to save a third of college costs. Still, financial planners warn about the need to be careful consumers. A recent report by the American Association of Community Colleges said that too many community colleges lack rigor and credits often do not transfer to four-year schoolscreating more expenses and eating up a students time. In the Sallie Mae survey, half of the families said they are getting the experience they anticipated, while half are not. The latter face shocks over quality, fees, travel costs, housing and living expenses. And after the first year, there are often unanticipated tuition increases and cuts in scholarships. Later this fall, Sallie Mae will release its more detailed annual report, How America Pays for College. By Gail MarksJarvis Wisconsin Man Riding Home From Church With Grandmother Handcuffed A Wisconsin man was handcuffed for approximately six minutes after the vehicle he was in with his grandmother on their way home from church was pulled over. A Wauwatosa police officer pulled over the vehicle carrying the 18-year-old man, his grandmother, and another woman on Sept. 2, just before noon. The officer told a dispatcher over the radio that he had flagged down a vehicle that might be linked to a recent robbery. Traffic Stop The officer did not describe the race of the people in the car but dashboard camera video footage released by the Wauwatosa Police Department shows him telling the driver of the vehicle that the person suspected in the robbery was black. Alright Luke, I think theres two females in the front, one black guy in the back, alright, one officer could be heard saying on the video, which is nearly 15 minutes in duration, to dispatch. I think well just order the black guy out, hands up. An officer ordered the teenager out of the back seat of the car and handcuffed him. The Wauwatosa Police Department said in a statement that the 18-year-old was handcuffed for approximately six minutes. Reasonable Suspicion The 18-year-old male was detained on reasonable suspicion while officers investigated, the department stated, noting that a black male and a black female had flagged down the officer and indicated that a robbery either was occurring or had just occurred and the suspect was a black male in the back seat of a blue Lexus. After the pair pointed out the vehicle to officers, the vehicle was pulled over. Police officers said in the statement that the people who pointed out the car to the officers did not stay in the area, as the officers had requested, to give a formal statement. After the 18-year-old was handcuffed, the officer asked the two women in the front of the vehicle if everything was okay and one woman replied. This is my grandson; Yes, were on the way home from church to my house, she said. One of the officers told the man as he was releasing him that there appeared to have been a mistake made. What it seems like is theres some sort of misunderstanding, an officer told the man. Wauwatosa Police Capt. Brian Zalewski said in the statement that the officers acted professionally during the entire interaction. Attorney Hired An attorney told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that she has been hired by the family of the man who was handcuffed. Attorney Joy Bertrand said that she suspects the man was harassed. She said shes requested all documents from the police department about the traffic stop and the reason for the stop while telling them not to destroy any documents. After we take a look at whatever basis they have for stopping and harassing this family, we will be able to comment further, Bertrand said. Once we take a look at those documents, we will have further comment. From NTD.tv Did you enjoy this article? Continue to read more stories here. A woman walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo on Sept. 7, 2018. (Koji Sasahara/AP) World Stocks Mostly Fall on Possible US-China Tariffs SINGAPOREGlobal stock markets mostly fell on Sept. 7 as traders mulled over the effects of possible U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods and looked ahead to U.S. jobs data. In Europe, Frances CAC 40 fell 0.3 percent to 5,230, while the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares gave up 1 percent to 7,249. Germanys DAX fell 0.3 percent to 11,927, after the countrys trade surplus dipped to four-year low. U.S. indexes are set for a subdued open. Dow futures dropped 0.2 percent and the broader S&P 500s futures shed 0.1 percent. Japans benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.8 percent to 22,307.06. The Kospi in South Korea dropped 0.3 percent to 2,281.58. Hong Kongs Hang Seng index, which has dropped 18 percent since its peak in late January, was almost flat at 26,973.47. The Shanghai Composite index was 0.4 percent higher at 2,702.30. Shares were lower in Taiwan and most of Southeast Asia. Australias S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.3 percent to 6,143.80. U.S.-China Tensions The Trump administration may impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods, after a public comment period ended Sept.6. The imports are equal to nearly 40 percent of all the goods China sold in the U.S. last year. Doing so would escalate a confrontation between the worlds two biggest economies and likely squeeze U.S. companies that import everything from handbags to bicycle tires. The market is risk-off and pricing in the effects of new tariffs. Its a done deal as far as investors are concerned, said Francis Tan, investment strategist at UOB Private Bank. Investors are expecting a string of U.S. releases on Sept.7, such as the latest unemployment rate. Economists have forecast that employers added 189,000 jobs in August and that the unemployment rate dipped from an already-low 3.9 percent to 3.8 percent. In the coming week, the markets will also be looking out for Chinese data, including the countrys year-on-year foreign direct investment and industrial output. Next weeks Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings could also affect sentiment. By Annabelelle Liang Ford Mustangs go through assembly at the Ford Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Flat Rock, Mich. on Aug. 20, 2015. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) Zero Tariffs Help American Workers Tariffs can be useful tool whose short-term pain may lead to long-term gain WASHINGTONPresident Donald Trumps stated goal of zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies in international trade will boost U.S. auto jobs, according to industry experts and economists. In the long run, however, they warn that additional tariffs on steel and aluminum or automotive products will hurt workers and consumers. At a hearing on Sept. 5, titled The Impact of Zero Tariffs on U.S. Autoworkers, experts who testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee said they support President Donald Trumps goal to move towards a zero-tariff policy. Experts agreed the administrations zero-tariff policy would benefit autoworkers, while also raising concerns over steel and aluminum levies slapped on key allies. Zero tariffs in my view are the right goal. Piling tariffs on top of tariffs in my view are the wrong goal, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the HELP committee, said during the hearing. Steel is an important material in automotive manufacturing. According to Alexander, steel makes up 70 percent of the vehicles that Nissan produces in Tennessee and Mississippi, and the cost of steel is up 40 percent since January. This boosts Nissans production cost by several thousand dollars, he said. While there are about 140,000 people producing steel in the United States, there are 17 million Americans working in industries that use steel, he said. Tariffs will destroy more jobs in the steel-use industry than will be added at steel producers, he added. Stephen Moore, an economist at The Heritage Foundation and former economic adviser to Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, said in his testimony that he was initially skeptical of Trumps trade approach. He believes, however, the agreement with Mexico and a handshake deal with European Union are a good start. I would say, today, I am less skeptical than I was six or nine months ago, he said. So far, it appears that Trump is on a right course. Moore expressed optimism that the short-term pain created by tariffs would ultimately bear long-term gain for American companies and workers. At the end of the day, I am an optimist, I think this will work out if we move towards the policy of zero tariffs, he said. The U.S. automotive industry is healthy, as foreign auto manufacturers flock to Southern states thanks to lower costs and Right to Work laws, Moore said. While the United States builds almost 12 million cars and light trucks a year, the number of cars produced by domestic car manufacturers in Detroit is down by 3.5 million in the past two decades, Moore said. Over the years, foreign auto manufacturers such as Nissan, Honda, Toyota, and BMW have opened plants in states such as Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and South Carolina and offset that decline. Zero Tariff Policy Trump has called for dropping all tariffs and trade barriers across countries. You go tariff-free, you go barrier-free, you go subsidy-free, Trump said at a press conference after Group of Seven meetings in June. He also said the United States turned into a piggy bank that everybodys robbing. Hence, he still holds firm on special tariffs on foreign autos, steel, and aluminum, declaring the current situation without tariffs a threat to national security. On June 1, the United States began imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. Trump also instructed the Department of Commerce in May to look into the possibility of imposing 20 to 25 percent tariffs on imported autos and parts. The administration, however, seems to postpone the idea of imposing tariffs on cars due to ongoing negotiations with trading partners. If punitive tariffs of 20-25 percent are imposed on auto and auto-parts imports new vehicle prices will increase by as much as $7,000, John Bozzella, president and CEO of Association of Global Automakers said in his testimony. Tariffs as a Tool The trade war has escalated in recent months, with a number of separate announcements of tariffs on various goods. However, the tariffs imposed so far affect only a narrow sliver of the U.S. economy, according to Thea Lee, president of the Economic Policy Institute. They affect only 0.1 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and the effect may rise to 0.8 percent at most, if all proposed tariffs are implemented, Lee said in her testimony. Tariffs, used strategically, can be an important and useful tool, she argued, adding that steel tariffs are useful in addressing a problem of global excess capacity. However, she criticized the White House for not having a clear strategy and an ultimate goal in its tariff policies, and claimed that the current tariff regime has failed to have the desired effects. She suggested the administration should work together with key allies to address currency manipulation and other unfair trade practices by China. Over a million U.S. manufacturing jobs were directly eliminated between 2000 and 2007 as a result of Chinas increasing trade penetration into the United States, according to a research by the M.I.T. economists. The economists also estimate that as much as 40 percent of the drop in U.S. manufacturing during that time is attributable to the trade shock following Chinas ascension to the World Trade Organization in 2001. WASHINGTON, Va. - Republican Denver Riggleman accused Democrat Leslie Cockburn of living in Washington, D.C., instead of in the swath of rural Virginia that they are vying to represent in Congress, saying during a debate Wednesday night that she and her husband had claimed a homestead exemption for a house in the nation's capital. "That drive from D.C. to the [congressional] district is a long damn way," Riggleman said during one of several heated exchanges during a two-hour debate in the quaint Rappahannock County hamlet known as "Little Washington." Cockburn, a former "60 Minutes" producer and author, insisted that they live in Rappahannock. She then fired back at Riggleman, a former Air Force intelligence officer who with his wife owns a craft distillery outside of Charlottesville, for building a second location out of state. "You're creating jobs - in Pennsylvania," she said. Sponsored by the Rappahannock News and Businesses Rappahannock, the debate was the first of five scheduled between the 5th District candidates. Both are political newcomers competing for the seat being vacated by Republican freshman Rep. Thomas Garrett , who announced in May that he is an alcoholic and will step down at the end of this term to deal with it. The two-hour forum began as a mannerly affair inside the Little Washington Theatre, set in a quaint town best known for the famed Inn at Little Washington. Former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant, who lives in the county, struck a professorial tone as moderator, with his bow tie and preemptive scolding against booing or clapping. "The idea here is to try to have a conversation for 90 minutes," he told the candidates, who were seated on stage on either side of his high-backed chair. "I'm going to lob more softballs than hardballs." At one point, he asked Cockburn for "a little word portrait of what's going on in the community right now." Oliphant kicked things off by asking Riggleman to "pretend I'm from Mars for a minute" and describe the district to him. The Republican used the playful tone to try to defuse an attention-getting allegation that Cockburn had made back in July: that Riggleman was a devotee of "Bigfoot erotica." It was a reference to a satirical book that Riggleman wrote - before running for office - about the mating habits of Sasquatch. The claim was just weird enough to go viral. "I would tell the Martians, first of all, Bigfoot doesn't exist and these are my new Bigfoot socks," he said, lifting one pants leg a bit. "And I would very much appreciate it if we didn't talk about that." Cockburn did not give a nod to the Martian theme, but she talked about how she'd put 70,000 miles on her car crisscrossing a district that's larger than the state of New Jersey, stretching from the Washington exurbs to the North Carolina border. "We all have a huge amount in common," she said. Oliphant noted that it was unusual to see two political "rookies" in a race, even for an open seat. Riggleman made a short-lived bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination last year. This is Cockburn's first run for political office. Oliphant wanted to know what pushed them into politics. "Did you get mad at something?" he asked. For both, the answer was yes. For Riggleman, the impetus came from twin battles: one with the bureaucracy and liquor lobby he encountered while opening Silverback Distillery in 2014, the other with Dominion Energy, which around the same time planned to route a gas pipeline through his property. "We felt like we were fighting this multifaceted war, and I felt like I had no power," he said. For Cockburn, a filmmaker and journalist, it was outrage over President Trump, a sentiment she hopes will resonate in Charlottesville and other liberal enclaves in the largely rural district. "What happened to me was Donald Trump, and the fact that we were being represented and continue to be represented by a mini-Trump," she said, referring to Garrett. "So with Donald Trump, I was really appalled by him as a woman and as a former journalist to hear him say, 'Journalists are the enemy of the people.' " The discussion grew more heated as they got into policy differences over health care, gun control and immigration. But the harshest exchanges came as Cockburn, who grew up in California, claimed to have lived in the district longer than Riggleman, who was raised by a single mother in Manassas and spent summers in the district with his father. Cockburn said she has lived there for 11 years. "You're talking a lot about your commitment to the 5th District where I've been three times as long as you've been," she said. "You've been here six years in the district." Riggleman replied, "Well, ma'am, we just heard about a homestead exemption . . . for you in Washington, D.C., with your husband." The exemption is a break on real estate taxes that applies only the owner's principal residence. "No, that's not true," she said. "You're the last person to know, Denver, that we, like many people in this county, have a place in Washington. We've been residents here for many, many years. . . . And we pay a lot of taxes." "In Washington, D.C.," he added. The most recent tax bill on the couple's $2.2 million District property, at 3127 N St. NW, reads: "The homestead deduction reduced your taxes by $623.48." The bill, for $8,576.12, covers half of the 2018 tax year. In a brief interview after the debate, Cockburn said the couple did not claim the house as their primary residence. "We've been residents here for 11 years - vote, pay taxes, everything," she said. "It wasn't claimed." When asked about the tax records, she suggested that District officials might have erred. "When you say, 'No homestead exemption' on your tract, often D.C. will send it back, so you have to resend it. And that's what happens to me all the time." Garren Shipley, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, attended the debate and echoed Riggleman's claim afterward. "The documents speak for themselves," Shipley said. "She was assessed for the taxes on that home and the bill shows that the homestead exemption is included." He noted that Cockburn also listed the Washington address when she made a $500 campaign donation to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Cockburn said that address was listed only because the couple has an office there. On the topic of health care, Cockburn said she supported the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature health-care law. She criticized Trump for trying to "gut it." "We have the most dysfunctional [health-care] system in the world," she said. Riggleman said his own business has been saddled with sharply rising insurance premiums that he blamed on the ACA. He said health savings accounts and legislation that would allow insurers to sell across state lines could help make coverage more affordable. Amid that exchange, Cockburn disputed a statistic that Riggleman had offered by saying it had come from a study funded by Charles Koch and like-minded donors, the conservative founder of Americans for Prosperity. When Oliphant asked Riggleman about a bipartisan plan to fix the ACA rather than "junk it," Riggleman said he would listen to any practical proposal. But he also dismissed "Medicare-for-all" - a plan to extend the government health insurance program for the elderly to Americans regardless of age - as "pie in the sky." Riggleman then pressed Cockburn on whether she supports that: "So you are for Medicare-for-all, though, Leslie?" he asked. "I am indeed," she said. She, in turn, noted that she covers health insurance for all of her campaign workers and asked Riggleman if he did the same. He said he did not. The candidates also tangled over guns. Riggleman said he was satisfied with current gun laws. Cockburn said the public is clamoring for tighter controls in the wake of many school shootings. "There are a lot of angry mothers out there," Cockburn said. "They see their children having to go to school every day in fear." Cockburn said she would seek to ban large-capacity magazines and bump stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to mimic the firing speed of fully automatic ones. She said she also supported closing loopholes related to sales at gun shows and over the Internet, which allows domestic abusers to obtain weapons. Riggleman accused Cockburn of "hyperbole" because "a felon can't own a gun anyway." On immigration, both candidates favored measures that would help farmers get the immigrant laborers they need. Riggleman said he wants to secure the border, but also "streamline immigration policy" to make it easier for immigrant laborers to obtain special worker visas. Cockburn called for "comprehensive immigration reform" and went on to decry family separations that spiked under Trump at the nation's border with Mexico. Riggleman has also said he opposed the separations. Norwalk Police Department NORWALK A fugitive sought for an attempted murder in New York City was arrested in South Norwalk early Friday. New York police have been searching for Edwin Romero, 32, of Barkhamsted, N.Y., since Aug. 12 in connection to a stabbing in the Bronx. During a dispute, Romero is said to have stabbed a man with a knife numerous times in the neck and body before fleeing the scene. New York City police said the victim was in critical condition when medics arrived, but he survived the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing for a showdown between supporters of liberal values and proponents of nationalism as he bids to rally support ahead of European elections in May. Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium, The Netherlands's Mark Rutte and Luxembourg's Xavier Bettel gathered with Macron on Thursday near Luxembourg's capital city to discuss a European strategy. Macron's Republic on The Move party has held talks in recent months exploring the possibility of joining forces with several European parties, including the liberal ALDE group, which includes the three Benelux leaders. "We see this as a cooperation of the progressive forces that will combat the far right. We need to form a critical mass," Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a lawmaker in Macron's party who works on European election strategy, said in an interview. "We see this as a merger of interests, to form a common platform," he said, adding that they're also in talks with ALDE, Ciudadanos in Spain as well as individual politicians in the European People's Party and the Socialists. Macron's travels to meet with leaders in more than a dozen capitals across Europe is part of his political strategy to transcend the traditional party system. For the French leader, the European elections loom large as the results will affect the appointment of not just EU lawmakers but also the European Commission president who heads the bloc's executive arm. Macron expects a very clear bifurcation in the ballot: nationalists versus progressives, an official in his office said. "These progressive solutions that we carry are the most respectful of the values of our Europe but also the most efficient to face its challenges," Macron said, pointing the finger at nationalists for trying to destroy the EU. "We share the desire to have a more united and sovereign Europe. I hope we can continue to do this together." Macron and his envoys, including his party chief Christophe Castaner, are in talks for a common platform across political groups. This was discussed in Luxembourg, Anglade said, but the 40-year-old leader's vision of a Europe unbound by borders will have to overcome many hurdles. Bettel, speaking to reporters in Luxembourg, said the gathering wasn't a campaign meeting ahead of the EU vote, and that this wasn't "the three liberals inviting the French president" to join their party. Rutte added that forming a cross-party coalition wasn't "why we met here today." Castaner, who met former Belgium prime minister and ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt last week and is on his way to Poland to meet local political parties, is continuing his work to convince Europeans to join Macron's "alliance." He traveled to Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and several other EU countries to promote the French leader's plan, Anglade said. Even though Rutte doesn't share all of Macron's views he does agree on the essential issues, which could help them become allies, the Elysee presidential palace official said. And Macron's party is still working to find a partner in Germany, Anglade said. At the press conference, Macron reached out to German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of their Friday meeting, saying her actions are "on the side of the progressives." He also asked for the EPP group -- of which her CDU party is a key member -- to "clarify" its political positions. --With assistance from Bloomberg's Gregory Viscusi and Peter Levring. From an Oct. 24, 1950, Tribune editorial marking his death: He was a good mayor. He did good things for Chicago. There need be no doubt that the machine he bossed was corrupt. It still exists, and can be observed. Ed Kelly was a good mayor partly because he was brought up in the machine, knew its operations perfectly, and imposed a decent restraint from time to time on its more greedy and corrupt members. Much of what he accomplished was possible only because he was both mayor and boss. Vladimir Ninov In this series called Member Showcase, we publish interviews with members of The Oracles. This interview is with Vladimir Ninov, co-founder of Webcoin, a peer-to-peer social media exchange platform that pioneers the technological dawn of global marketing digitalization. It was condensed by The Oracles. Who was your biggest influence growing up? Vladimir Ninov: My father is my biggest influence. He has been my mentor, and I was very fortunate to learn countless life and business lessons from him that still serve me today. He once told me: If you start a job or a business, either give 110 percent of yourself or dont start it at all. These words changed my life forever. Since then, I have followed his advice in both my personal life and business ventures. Share an interesting fact about yourself that not many people would know. Vladimir Ninov: I have a fear of heights. In August 2008, I flew to San Francisco and my brother took me from the airdrop straight to the drop zone in Lodi, California where I did my first skydiving jump. What excites you the most about your business right now? Vladimir Ninov: What excites me most is the opportunity to make a disruptive change in global digital marketing and advertising. I believe from the bottom of my heart that our platform is the first step toward the new global economy that will open the doors to all markets, including China. Whats your favorite quote and how do you apply it in your life? Vladimir Ninov: The following quote by Steve Jobs inspires me to never give up and to invest in people: "I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance." Steve Jobs's reference to perseverance inspired me to go to work early, stay late, make the extra phone call, send the extra email, and do the extra research on weekends. Every day, I think of one tiny extra thing I can do. Yes, going the extra mile on a daily basis can be a tough journey. It can also be a place filled with opportunities. Meeting the right people, getting to know them, and earning each other's trust is more valuable than it sounds. I believe that over time, this has transformed me to be successful in all my business ventures. What advice would you give to your younger self? Vladimir Ninov: Dont let opportunities pass you by, and never give up. Work hard and smart for your dreams. If you truly believe in your goals and you work daily to achieve them, sooner or later, life-changing opportunities will present themselves. So, seize the moment. Even if it doesnt work out, youll be wiser for it. How do you define great leadership? Vladimir Ninov: Like Napoleon Bonaparte once said: A leader is a dealer in hope. I define great leadership as a person fully dedicated and inspired by an idea or a goal, who can spread their passion and energy within the team. The positive vibe is the differentiator for me. How do you evaluate a good business deal? Vladimir Ninov: To me, a good business deal occurs when both parties reach a mutually favorable agreement. This leads to both short- and long-term financial benefits. To evaluate a business proposal, I take into consideration a number of factors like the positive and negative aspects of the deal, and whether it will help improve our product, service, or brand name. Which single habit gives you 80 percent of your results? Vladimir Ninov: I never lose sight of my goals, and I never give up, no matter what. Regardless of whether people like my idea, I keep working on it until I succeed. I have been doing this for the past 10 years, and it has paid off for me so far. What are you working on right now? Vladimir Ninov: I am working on the beta version of a peer-to-peer social media exchange platform that will pioneer the dawn of global marketing digitalization. We plan to offer a revolutionary all-in-one solution that immensely reduces the cost of digital marketing and advertising services for sole proprietors, agencies, and corporations. What is the most exciting question that you spend time thinking about? Vladimir Ninov: For me, it is: How can I create the best possible all-in-one service that significantly reduces the cost of digital marketing and advertising services globally? Contributed / Contributed Photo WESTPORT A Westport man was arrested following a Connecticut Department of Labor investigation into a complaint against the residents company. James DeVito, owner of DeVito & Sons LLC, a general contractor and residential home construction and development company, claimed to labor department investigators that the person who filed the complaint was an independent contractor. BERLIN - A resistance movement within the administration trying to derail some of President Donald Trump's most controversial policies? At a different time and in a different era, Wednesday's bombshell op-ed by an anonymous senior Trump administration official in the New York Times would have been front page news across the globe. But in the era of Trump and after months of similar revelations, foreign commentators didn't even bother to repeat what they've been saying for more than one and a half years now: The president is unhinged and a menace to the world order. Some did call the unsigned column "frightening" and France's two big papers both referred to it as being "explosive." A similar sentiment was echoed by social media users and journalists across the world, with one German evening news anchor describing the op-ed as a "revolt against the president by his own staff," and readers responding to a viral tweet whether now would be the best time to invade the United States. Julia Ioffe tweeted "Says an anonymous friend, 'Man, if anyone ever wanted to invade America, now's the time.'" But other media outlets had already moved on by Thursday morning. Here are only some stories major European media outlets featured more prominently: a possible ban on diesel cars in some cities, the world's fastest SUV breaking a record and people deciding to retire at age 40. Danish social media users were still circulating a piece that had published a day earlier, explaining why Europe was no longer interested in learning even more details about the White House. "Another book comes with revelations about Trump - but has the world become immune?," the headline of a piece on Danish TV network TV2's website read, referring to European reactions to a book on the White House by reporter Bob Woodward. "It is the story of a government leader apparently being described by some of his closest employees as being ignorant, unpredictable and uninterested in acquiring the necessary knowledge to execute the job as leader of the world's most powerful nation in a way that does not put the nation's security at stake ... Nevertheless, the coverage has been sparse and shallow so far," wrote TV2 commentator Mirco Reimer-Elster. Meanwhile, German weekly Die Zeit replaced its coverage of the NYT op-ed with an extensive poll on the things Germans fear most. "Nothing worries the people of Germany more than the current U.S. president," the paper summarized. While 59 percent of Germans feared terrorism, 69 percent were afraid of Trump, according to a representative annual survey. German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle's analysis echoed that sentiment, writing that recent revelations described an "incompetent and dangerous president." But writer Michael Knigge concluded that "the average American will likely ignore all of this." Meanwhile, Britain's conservative Telegraph newspaper was still exploring solutions, explaining how exactly Trump could be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. In the NYT op-ed published on Wednesday, the unnamed administration official described "early whispers" of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Officials later decided against that option. "The latest leaked account will heap further pressure on Mr. Trump," Britain's Telegraph predicted. But Germany's conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wondered whether the op-ed may also play into Trump's hands. "Whenever someone will try to counter the president's impulsive reactions with sober-mindedness in the future, he or she could come under suspicion of being the 'traitor,'" the paper's author wrote in a piece with the skeptical headline: "Self-declared heroes in the White House." Before he was Indiana Jones and Han Solo, actor Harrison Ford lived in a modest brick Tudor in a suburb 17 miles north of Chicago. Fords childhood home is now on the market for the first time since 1970, listed for $399,900 with Craig Tinder of Century 21 Elm. The current owners are the second family to own the home since the Fords sold it. Ford lived in the home during the 1950s, graduating from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, IL, before attending Ripon College in Wisconsin. He acted with a summer theater group near the resort town of Lake Geneva, WI, and then moved to Los Angeles. RELATED VIDEO: Finding the right Realtor Ford also had another future-celeb neighbor: Hillary Rodham Clinton, who grew up two blocks away during the '50s and '60s, according to Tinder. Built in 1922, this fixer-upper will need a bit of TLC. No, the roof isn't caving in, nor is the plaster peeling; but its a time capsule that was last updated decades ago. The windows and electricity and plumbing systems are original to the home, making them 96 years old. Theres been very little updates, especially in the last 25 years, says Tinder. It has a lot of potential for the next owner to remodel it. While this charming Tudor is listed for just under $400,000, Tinder told us recent comps in the neighborhood are in the $700,000 range. The yard is a bit of a jungle, according to the agent, so the next occupants may want to invest in landscaping as well. Hardwood floors under the carpeting could also give the house a new lease on life. Other projects might include finishing the 850-square-foot basement and modernizing the baths and kitchen (look at those vintage cabinets!). Park Ridge is one of many Chicago suburbs undergoing a renaissance. Back when Harrison Ford lived there, it was very sleepy, suburban, a dry town, says Tinder. Most of the people who are moving to Park Ridge now are coming from Chicago and still want to be close to the downtown areaboth Chicago and Park Ridges Uptown area. Even so, it remains a family-friendly community just as it was when Ford lived here. Most of the people who live here are either raising their families or they raised their families here and continued to stay, says Tinder. There are three bedrooms in the home. Fords parents took the master bedroom while he took the larger of the remaining two bedrooms, and his younger brother (Terence Ford, also an actor, with roles on The Young and the Restless and Knots Landing) got the smaller. Harrison's former room also boasts a balcony. It makes us wonder: Can you imagine standing on the balcony off of what used to be Fords bedroom?! The post Calling All Harrison Ford Fans: His Childhood Home Is on the Market for $400K appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Emanuel pushed hard for another OHare-related vision thats raised much more skepticism. Earlier this year, the mayor hitched his wagon, or should we say passenger pod, to billionaire innovator Elon Musks vision for a high-speed transit link between the Loop and OHare. Musk envisions pods zooming along a subterranean superhighway at speeds of up to 150 mph, a trip that would last as little as 12 minutes. And he pledges to do it without spending a dime of taxpayer money. Its easy to see why Chicagoans and an incoming mayor would be skeptical. Cities need to innovate, though, and if Musk can do it, well be the first to tip our hats to him. ALTON Police arrested a man well-known to them Friday morning, undaunted by his appearance in a clown costume. The suspect, Ronald M. Singleton, 54 a longtime Alton resident but with court records listing a Dupo address allegedly entered a vacant house in the 2500 block of Washington Avenue, a witness told The Telegraph. Once inside, Singleton put on a colorful red, white, blue and yellow clown costume, came outside and began kicking the door of a second empty building that formerly housed a law office, the witness said. He also carried a complementing, multi-colored umbrella. The witness, an employee of a nearby business, called police and they arrested Singleton at about 9:30 a.m. about a half block south on Washington Avenue, still dressed in the costume. Singleton had left the umbrella behind on the steps of the second building, which is just north of James H. Killion Park at Salu. Pfc. Emily Hejna, public information officer at the Alton Police Department, said Friday morning it was too early to say what charges Singleton might face in the incident. People were frightened several years ago during a spate of incidents across the country where individuals would pop up along roads or in wooded areas dressed as clowns, with authorities warning the public they could endanger themselves by wearing the costumes. Earlier this week, the Madison County States Attorneys Office on Tuesday charged Singleton with criminal damage to government-supported property, less than $500 Class 4 felony and a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass to vehicles. The felony charge accuses Singleton of damaging the tint on a window in Alton City Jail, with a judge setting bond of $25,000. Last month, Singleton was cited with pedestrian under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Aug. 17 and 19; and with littering on Aug. 18, as part of 11 total offenses in 2018, not counting Fridays incident. Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_Weller ALTON Thanks to a recent boost by two generous donations, the Senior Services Plus (SSP) Pathways to Wellness Capital Campaign now has the muscle required to succeed. On July 23, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, donated $320,000 to cover the direct costs for the campaign. Fulfilling a promise to match the total raised by SSP, Simmons Hanly Conroy, a national law firm headquartered in Alton, donated an additional $320,000. We are overwhelmed by the Weinberg Foundation grant award and the matching gift from Simmons Hanly Conroy, SSP Executive Director Jonathan Becker said. One year ago, SSP had just over $880,000 committed to the campaign. Today, we have just over $1.9 million. The funds raised along with these two gifts will take us over $2.6 million. It is truly a miraculous turnaround in one year. SSP is built on the foundation that a major component of healthy aging is access to affordable wellness. In 2007, it developed a low-cost alternative for individuals as they age to engage in preventative wellness activities. This strategic initiative, which modestly began with 24 pieces of equipment and 253 members, has grown into a fully functioning Wellness Center with more than 1,400 members, 54 pieces of equipment and 18 fitness classes operated out of four rooms. The new, state-of-the-art 9,900-square-foot Wellness Center will include a 6,400-square-foot gym, indoor walking track and a 2,200-square-foot exercise classroom for group fitness classes. Senior Services Plus is a valuable resource for this community and some of its most vulnerable residents, said John Simmons, Simmons Hanly Conroy chairman. The breadth of services they offer is invaluable, and its a cause we are proud to support. The donated funds will not only allow SSP to complete the construction project, they will also provide the opportunity to purchase all equipment furnishings, upgrade exterior lighting to solar lighting, and operate with no debt, something Becker calls a blessing. This is really a dream come true for SSP, Becker said. Its a prestigious grant award, and we are grateful to be a recipient. This was essentially a three-year process from initial contact with the Weinberg Foundation until we had secured a contractor, and we were breaking ground before we were invited to apply. This has been a career highlight for me personally as it has been the single largest private foundation grant I have written. This is really the effort of a community; we are (just) fortunate enough to lead the project, one that will have an impact on the community for many years by helping to improve the quality of peoples lives. SSP will continue to offer affordable memberships to the community at $200 a year for ages 16 to 54 and $150 for those individuals aged 55 and older, with scholarships on a permanent basis for economically disadvantaged seniors. The center is continuing to accept donations for the project. For more information and to donate, call (618) 462-3298. If the senators want to debate the merits of a nomination, they should knock themselves out. But there is no obvious value in requiring the nominee to explain himself or herself. For such exchanges to be truly educational, someone has to be prepared to instruct and someone else has to be prepared to learn. Thats not the case in these hearings. Madison County is mourning the loss of longtime board member Helen Hawkins who died Thursday night after collapsing at the Administration Building. Hawkins, 89, attended the Planning and Development Committee meeting just prior to collapsing as she was walking to the elevator with a group of people. Chairman Kurt Prenzler said Hawkins death comes a shock to everyone. Helen cares about the people in her community and its the reason she was at the meeting, Prenzler said. Hawkins, who is not a member of the committee, spoke during the public comment session before leaving. County Board member Mick Madison and chair of the planning and development committee said its sad what happened. He said Hawkins was standing by the elevators when she passes out and Capt. Gary Burns with the Sheriffs Department performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Madison said Hawkins was class act and someone who believed in doing the right thing for the people in her district. The last thing she did was stand up for people she believed in, Madison said. Hawkins served as a county board member since 2002 and the Nameoki Township Clerk for the past 25 years, as well as a member of the Metro East Sanitary District Board. Hawkins reputation was for speaking out in support of residents in the flood-prone Dobrey Slough area of Granite City. Her involvement in flooding issues started in 1964 when she moved to the area and she showed constant passion in trying to prevent flooding in homes and businesses. Hawkins worked with the late Illinois Governor Richard B. Ogilive who appointed her to a committee in the 1970s to work on a storm outlet plan in and around Horseshoe Lake and the American Bottoms. Hawkins fought hard to rid the area of the former East Side Levee and Sanitary District and its corruption. The District was dissolved by voters in favor of new MESD. Prenzler said Hawkins was a true public servant. In January, Hawkins was inducted into the Illinois Senior Citizen Hall of Fame by the Illinois Department if Aging. Hawkins has consistently shown support for community-based programs in the Granite City area. Hawkins has chaired special projects and is a member of organizations such as the American Legion Womens Auxiliary, the AmVets Ladies Auxiliary and the VFW Womens Auxiliary, in addition to many others. Hawkins enlisted the Granite City School District in Valentines For Vets, which sends valentines to veterans stationed overseas. Hawkins initiated the program and said her brother and husband were in the service and she knew firsthand how much soldiers appreciate getting that type of communication. During the ceremony Hawkins told the crowd Whatever you can do or think you can do: do it. As you get older, dont slow down. Speed up. Theres less time left. Morgan County Sheriff ARRESTS, CITATIONS Dustin P. Murphy, 28, of 1042 N. Main St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:59 a.m. Thursday on a charge of violating probation on a charge of possession of methamphetamine. Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Chase A. Brown, 18, of 507 S. Lyons Road, Waverly, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:57 a.m. Thursday on charges of retail theft and possession of alcohol by a minor. A 13-year-old South Jacksonville boy was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:11 a.m. Thursday on a charge of assault after an incident at Jacksonville Middle School. BURGLARIES, THEFTS A dog was taken from a residence on Randall Court between 6:45 and 8:16 p.m. Wednesday. VANDALISM Police are investigating the report of 10 vehicles being scratched in a parking lot in the 300 block of South Clay Avenue, according to reports filed at 9:43 a.m. Thursday. South Jacksonville Police ARRESTS, CITATIONS Ethan D. Beavers, 24, of 239 S. Railroad St., White Hall, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:18 a.m. Thursday on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine. Compiled by Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree and Greg Olson 5 hours ago These 3 EV Charging Stocks Are Powering Up By the end of the decade, electric vehicle (EV) charging companies are likely to be household names. Like the Exxon or Chevron gas stations of today, itll become second nature for the newest generation of drivers to swing by their favorite charging stations. Allied Market Research estimated that the EV charger market will grow 27% per year and reach $25.5 billion by 2027. Read Article Pritzker has agreed to three more structured debates. Why wouldnt he want a less formal give-and-take like the Tribune debate that he joined, and seemed to enjoy, before the March 20 primary? Illinois is a big state; we wondered if hed be hundreds of miles away from Chicago on Friday, Sept. 14, the date we had worked out with other campaigns. No, it turns out Pritzker will be here in Chicago, before our 11 a.m. session, at a City Club event a mile away. And Hannity how much do we love Sean Hannity, really? He does such a fantastic job, nobody better. And Hannity said my huge Electoral College win, which they say was the biggest ever, was dedicated to all of you, the forgotten men and women of America. Dont we love America? Dont we love our flag? And Merry Christmas. People are saying Merry Christmas again. Nobody was saying it before. Nobody said it! And Im hoping for the second demand. A conviction seems appropriate. Ive watched the video of the shooting at least 100 times since it was released to the public in November 2015, and Ive soaked up every story about the killing I can get my hands on. And it looks to me as though Van Dyke acted rashly and without sufficient provocation when emptying 16 bullets into McDonald. Weve all been there youre tired, but dont want to go to sleep. Maybe its because youre 4 years old, maybe its because youve had too many Red Bull-vodkas. Regardless, the result is the same: You need someone to read you a story. Fortunately, the Toronto Public Library has a hotline you can call to hear a bedtime story in 16 languages. The Dial-a-Story program has been around since 1989, Yahoo Canada News reports, but its enjoying a new spurt of interest after a tweet by the library went viral. But Chicagoans beware: Most U.S. phone carriers will charge you extra for that international call. In August, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers either outright lied about his vaccination status or made extra effort to conceal the truth. That became clear when Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and the Packers quickly announced he would miss Sundays game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Family of slain Thai student accepts US coroners finding BANGKOK: The family of the 25-year-old Thai law student stabbed to death in an apartment in the United States has accepted the finding of a Seattle coroner that she was killed by her older friend, who then killed herself. crimedeathmurdersuicideviolence By Bangkok Post Friday 7 September 2018, 05:05PM Kornkamol Leenavarat, 25, (centre) with members of her family at Suvarnabhumi airport on Aug 21, when she left for the United States. She and her Thai room-mate were found stabbed to death in their apartment in Seattle on Tuesday (Sept 4). Photo: Weerasak Leenavarat / Facebook via Bangkok Post Weerasak Leenavarat, elder brother of Kornkamol Leenavarat, said the family had no doubts about the forensic finding by US authorities. Ms Kornkamol, 25, and her Thai roommate Thiti-on Chotchuangsap, 32, were found dead in a University District apartment near the University of Washington in Seattle, on Tuesday morning (Sept 4). The King County Medical Examiners Office yesterday (Sept 6) ruled it was a homicide. Thiti-on stabbed Ms Kornkamol to death and then took her own life, according to the Seattle Times. The 32-year-old woman died from a single, self-inflicted stab wound to the chest. They both died last Saturday (Sept 1). An emotional Mr Weerasak, a member of the Pathum Thani provincial council, spoke of the familys distress at his residence in Khlong Luang district today (Sept 7). The family cannot come to terms with the sudden death of Nong Am. She was lovely and most beloved by all of the family, particularly our father. We never expected this would happen. We have lost her forever, he said. Two older brothers were making arrangements for Ms Kornkamols body to be sent back home for funeral rites. The body was expected to be flown back within the next week, Mr Weerasak said. After her death, he had just looked at family photos taken on Aug 21, the date they saw her off at the airport. He was shocked to see that all the family were wearing black clothes. He was a shy man, he said, but on that day he had hugged his youngest sister. The family never dreamed it would be their final farewell for their loved one, he said. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Busadee Santipitak said today that the Thai consulate-general in Los Angeles had already been notified of the finding of the King County Medical Examiner. The consulate-general had been in contact with the families of both women. Read original story here. Fire risk warning for new Suvarnabhumi terminal design BANGKOK: The Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) has warned that the winning design for the new passenger terminal at Suvarnabhumi airport poses a huge fire risk with its huge wooden structures. constructionSafetytransport By Bangkok Post Friday 7 September 2018, 09:16AM The winning design for the planned new passenger terminal at Suvarnabhumi airport. Photo: Supplied to Bangkok Post EIT executives held a media conference at the institute in Bangkok yesterday (Sept 6) to issue the warning. Vice president Kecha Thirakomen said the winning design requires a lot of wood and the use of timber pillars and ceiling support beams increased the risk in the event of a fire. They would catch fire quickly. The fire would be extensive and fierce. High-level wooden beams would be engulfed in rising heat that would be trapped under the ceiling. Standard fire-fighting systems like sprinklers and hoses would not be able to cope, he said. A passenger terminal could contain tens of thousands of people at any time, he added. Mr Kecha said the designer had already confirmed that the new terminal would use wood and that would pose problems with fire-proofing. The intricate pattern of the wooden beams would also cause cleaning problems. Chuchai Sujivorskul, EIT member on building standards, also said the use of so much wood would result in a low level of fire resistance for the new terminal. If Airports of Thailand (AoT) decided to look for a new design, it should let engineering representatives have their say, he said. EIT president Thanes Weerasiri said the design of an airport passenger terminal should focus not only on beauty but also on factors such as safety and environmental friendliness. The news conference was called based on information the EIT received through the media and it had not seen the details of the actual design. The EIT had not been invited to participate in the design process, he said. The designer is DBALP Consortium, headed by renowned architect Duangrit Bunnag. The consortium came second in the area of technical scores, but won the contest last month because the AoT disqualified the top scorer, SA Group, for failing to use the AoTs own tendering form, which detailed important conditions. AoT expects the second terminal to double Suvarnabhumi airports capacity, from handling 30 million passengers a year to 60mn. The construction cost was estimated at B42 billion. Read original story here. Go Eco Phuket call for volunteers for underwater clean up PHUKET: Go Eco Phuket are calling for volunteers to take part in an underwater clean up that will take place at 7am on September 15. environmentmarinepollution By Tanyaluk Sakoot Friday 7 September 2018, 05:21PM The activity will see rubbish cleared from the waters at Coral island, Racha Noi and Racha Yai on Sept 15. Photo: Go Eco Phuket The Secretary of Go Eco Phuket, Ittiput Schadt, said, This activity is being held with cooperation from the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Commandand officials from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR). People are uniting for this activity which aims to improve underwater cleanliness and the environment, he said. The activity will see rubbish cleared from the waters at Coral island, Racha Noi and Racha Yai on Sept 15. Anyone interested can register via https://www.facebook.com/goecophuket1/, Mr Ittiput added. Navy launches search for fishermen missing north of Phuket PHUKET: Royal Thai Navy officers in Phuket have launched a search for four fishermen who were last seen departing on a fishing trip in Phang Nga on Monday (Sept 3), but whose boat was found capsized five nautical miles off Khuk Khak, north of Khao Lak. marineSafety By The Phuket News Friday 7 September 2018, 03:13PM The boat was found capsized five nautical miles offshore from Khuk Khak, north of Khao Lak. Photo: Royal Thai Navy The boat was found capsized five nautical miles offshore from Khuk Khak, north of Khao Lak. Photo: Royal Thai Navy The search began after 9:40am yesterday after Issaman Muatsit reported that the mens boat had been found upturned, with no sign of the four fishermen. The four men Somkit Tohsakul, 32; Natpong Matsit, 25; Thanapong Kongsub, 40; and one man whose identity has yet to be confirmed are all from Moo 2, Thung Maphrao in Tai Muang District. They went fishing on Monday, but never returned. The search yesterday found no trace of the men, Navy personnel confirmed to The Phuket News today (Sept 7), prompting the Navy search to bring in aircraft to assist in locating the men. The Navy has set a search area ranging from offshore from Phuket International Airport to as far north along the coast to Takaupa in Phang Nga. The search is continuing, Navy personnel assured The Phuket News. Phuket Fisheries Dept still await crocs DNA results PHUKET: The Chief of the Phuket Fisheries Department has today (Sept 7) confirmed that they are still awaiting DNA tests results for the crocodile caught on July 29 near the rocks off Koh Kata, just offshore from Layan Beach, after it eluded capture for 11 days. animals By The Phuket News Friday 7 September 2018, 04:20PM Species experts from Mahidol University take blood samples and record the physical features of the crocodile on Aug 15. Photo: Phuket Fisheries Dept The DNA tests were carried out on the croc by species experts from Mahidol University on Aug 15. Speaking to The Phuket News this afternoon, Phuket Fisheries Chief Kowit Kao-ian said, We are still awaiting the blood results so we still dont know whether it is a saltwater or freshwater crocodile. Once we know we will know where we can move the crocodile to. I think we should have the results back soon. Then I will be able to announced the findings. Many people are still interested in this case, he said. The crocodile, which eluded capture for 11 days after it was initially spotted off Yanui Beach in Rawai, was snared in nets by the Kraithong Lumnamtapi team of experts from the Department of Fisheries in Surat Thani, brought to Phuket especially to catch the reptile, at about 5:30am on July 29. (See story here.) Species experts from Mahidol University arrived in on Aug 15 to take blood samples and record the physical features of the crocodile in order to determine the exact type of crocodile the reptile is. On Aug 15 at the marine life research centre at Baan Laem Sai in Mai Khao, Thalang, the Mahidol team took measurements and recorded their observations, and took blood samples. The results were expected to take two weeks. (See story here.) Football Recap: Late skid spoiled Watertown's first season back in Class 11AA since 2014 A four-game losing skid to end the year put a damper on Watertown High Schools return season to Class 11AA football. There is still plenty of retail, and places like the Northgate Shopping Center are still largely occupied. But a drive along Lake Street also shows plenty of For Lease signs up on commercial buildings, such as a large anchor building in one shopping center that used to house a large Blockbuster video store. Metallica have started the North American leg of their 'WorldWired' Tour last week, kicking off in Madison, Wisconsin. Opening with their usual 'Hardwired', the band included 'Cyanide' on their setlist for the first time in years. So here's a taste of what might be in store for us if Metallica make their way to NZ next year. Fingers crossed: 01. Hardwired 02. Atlas, Rise! 03. Seek & Destroy 04. Cyanide 05. Fade To Black 06. Now That Were Dead 07. Confusion 08. For Whom The Bell Tolls 09. Halo On Fire 10. Last Caress (MISFITS cover) 11. Fuel 12. Moth Into Flame 13. Sad But True 14. One 15. Master Of Puppets Encore: 16. Spit Out The Bone 17. Nothing Else Matters 18. Enter Sandman Tens of thousands of employees at more than 18,000 U.S. hotels will soon carry panic buttons to help protect them from harassment and assault in an era of heightened awareness around the #MeToo movement. More than a dozen big hotel chains including Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Wyndham said Thursday that they will provide personal safety devices by 2020 to all employees who deal one-on-one with guests. The companies will also train staff to identify and report harassment and publish anti-sexual harassment policies in multiple languages. The devices will vary by hotel. In a new, Wi-Fi enabled hotel, for example, companies may give out devices that automatically send the employees location to security officers. In an older or smaller hotel, they might distribute devices that emit a loud shriek. The American Hotel and Lodging Association, which is backing the effort, says around three-fourths of its 25,000 member hotels are participating right now. It is working with harassment and human trafficking organizations to develop training and testing devices to help hotels figure out what works best. This isnt the first time hotels are giving panic buttons to staff. New York has required them since 2012, after a hotel maid there accused French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in his suite. Chicago and Seattle began requiring them more recently. But increasing public discussion about harassment and the #MeToo movement has given the effort a new sense of urgency. Red Roof Inn, Best Western, AccorHotels, Four Seasons and Caesars are other participants in the rare display of unity from a fiercely competitive industry. The cultural conversations have changed, and we have gotten smarter, said Erika Alexander, Marriotts chief lodging officer for the Americas. Marriott plans to make the devices standard at all of its nearly 5,000 hotels in North America by 2020. Eventually it hopes to expand the devices globally. Rani Accettola, a housekeeper at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Seattles Pioneer Square, has a safety fob clipped to the front of her uniform at all times. If she presses a button, hotel managers and security are immediately notified of her location. Accettola said the system gives her an added feeling of security, especially when she works late. At any moment, help is there if you should need it, she said. Its unclear how often the devices will be used, but harassment of hotel staff is an ongoing issue. In a 2016 survey of 500 housekeepers in Chicago, 49 per cent said guests had flashed them, exposed themselves or opened the door naked. The rollout of the devices will be messy. Hotel companies only manage some of their properties; others are managed by franchisees. Some companies may require franchisees to add the devices; others may not. Properties vary widely, from sprawling 2,500-room resorts to 65-room, cookie-cutter hotels by the highway. Some hotels have already begun the process. Hyatt mandated electronic safety devices last fall and has already distributed them to 4,500 employees at 120 hotels in the Americas, Hyatt chief executive Mark Hoplamazian said. Hyatt has also strongly recommended the devices for franchisees, and expects to expand the program globally, Hoplamazian said. He said the cost of the devices is easily absorbed by the company. Shrieking alarms the kind most widely used at Hyatt right now cost around $25 each. A React mobile device, like the one Accettola wears, retails for $70, but big hotel chains will likely be able to get bulk discounts. Hoplamazian said there havent been many reported usages. In one instance, a guest was acting strangely so a housekeeper summoned help. It turned out there was no threat, but Hoplamazian is glad the system worked. While the frequency may not by high, the importance of it is really, really high, he said. Wyndham CEO Geoff Ballotti said his company expects to distribute safety devices by the end of next year to 5,000 employees in the 450 U.S. hotels it owns and manages. Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta said tens of thousands of staff at 4,500 hotels will get the devices by 2020. Nassetta said the rollout will take time because training staff members how to respond to the devices is as important as the devices themselves. We dont want to create the appearance of safety without the reality behind it, he said. Do you believe in more? Or do you believe in something? Or will you sacrifice everything? The consumer might be getting confused by the urgent marketing efforts of Nike Inc., be it the muscular dance moves of FKA Twigs or the straight-to-the-heart appeal from Colin Kaepernick to dream crazy. (Calling a dream crazy is not an insult, its a compliment, the former NFL quarterback intoned this week in a two-minute ad for the sports gear manufacturer.) The conscientious investor might be wondering: what does Nike believe? What is at the core of the company suddenly selling social justice and right beliefs and fairness? Because on that front Nike has been a mess of late. Take marketing. Was it not mere months ago that the company announced the departure of its brand president, the top executive who had been riding the swoosh for a quarter century? Why yes, it was. In March we learned that Trevor Edwards the heir apparent to the CEO, apparently would be gone from the company by the end of August. In a note to employees, CEO Mark Parker attributed Edwardss departure to a desire to accelerate change and restructure the companys leadership. The same letter acknowledged reports of behaviour within our organization that do not reflect our core values of inclusivity, respect and empowerment. Parker informed employees that he was both disturbed and saddened by these accounts, especially at a time when Nike was accelerating its transition to the next stage of growth and advancing our culture. Jayme Martin, the general manager of global categories and a direct report to Edwards, was soon out the door. Other executives as many as a dozen by some reports followed. The Wall Street Journal broke the backstory: a group of female managers, dismayed by that very same culture, had circulated a survey to female employees to probe gender pay disparity and alleged inappropriate behaviour by certain male executives. The results of the questionnaire had been delivered to the CEO. Read more: Nike ad featuring Colin Kaepernick will air during Thursdays NFL season opener Nikes bold new Kaepernick partnership is also a shrewd business move and that matters Nike decides a Kaepernick deal is worth the backlash Then all hell broke loose. Details of the allegations and toxic atmosphere at Nike sound an awful lot like the complaints engineer Susan Fowler levelled against the culture at Uber, which we remember did not end well for Travis Kalanick. (A precis: Fowler was propositioned by a superior, complained about the sexual harassment which she had documented to HR, was told it was the guys first offence (not true), that he was top performer (who cares). The complaints to human resources went nowhere. Fowler quit, wrote a blog post, and in so doing lit a fuse under the company, leading to Kalanicks departure.) In a class-action complaint against Nike filed last month, representative plaintiffs Kelly Cahill and Sara Johnston recount a bro culture atmosphere at the sportswear company which, if true, will surprise no one. Example: After a Nike-organized party, Ms. Johnston received inappropriate sexual propositions in messages from a male co-worker who Ms. Johnston had to work with regularly and who contributed to Ms. Johnstons performance reviews. Shortly thereafter, this co-worker sent nude photographs of himself to Ms. Johnston. Johnston reported the harassment to her supervisors. In response, one of the Directors said, in effect, that Nike has a culture that revolves around alcohol, that Ms. Johnston should let the incidents go, that the rise of the internet and cell phones have made drunk messages part of the generation, that she should be less sensitive to these messages, and the people should expect more such messages. The suit alleges that the patterns, practices and policies set by male decision makers not only created a poisonous atmosphere, but resulted in systemic discrimination in pay and promotion, contravening the U.S. Equal Pay Act and the Oregon Equal Pay Act. Nike has until Nov. 5 to respond to the claims. A second lawsuit was filed Aug. 31, naming Nike Inc. and certain officers and directors and alleging breach of fiduciary duty for harbouring a hostile work environment. In a statement Nike responded that its board acted swiftly, responsibly, and decisively to protect the interests of both Nike employees and shareholders. None of this is good news for a company that for the past year has been working to deliver on a strategic transformation that has something to do with Consumer Direct Offense and a Triple Double Strategy. The company wants to double the cadence and impact of innovation and double the speed of getting product to market and double direct connections with consumers. Ramping up its brand appeal with women consumers is a key initiative. Which is ironic, no? The company has amended its pay practices and increased the wages of thousands of employees since the March release of Parkers memo, points that will no doubt be made when the company releases its first-quarter results later this month. And it will be able to claim the creative high ground with its decision to promote Kaepernick as the face of Nike upon the 30th anniversary of the Just Do It campaign. Still, I remain puzzled. As a standard bearer for the cause of social justice, Kaepernick is just right. But Nike itself? It has a long way to go to make the case that its promotion of fair play on the field is matched by fair play in its corporate corridors. Read more about: Nations do behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. -Abba Eban, Israeli statesman, June 1967. Ideally, this is how the global trade relationship looks in 2020. Two years from now, Canada remains a partner with the U.S. and Mexico in a reformed trilateral trade pact. The awkward birth of that new treaty saw moments of high drama offers, counter-offers, threats and concessions all rendered moot with constant changes in negotiating strategies. The new deal was under constant revision until ratified in 2019. But the final deal was good, or good enough. Canada scored a victory in securing a modified trilateral deal that underpins more than $1 trillion (U.S.) in trade among the three amigos, a partnership America had threatened to scrap. Read more: With the White House in turmoil, Canadas NAFTA team studiously avoids the daily drama Canadas dairy farmers could be Trudeaus NAFTA bargaining chip Opinion | Chantal Hebert: For now, it is Trump not Trudeau who will take the heat if NAFTA talks fail The modernized deal got a new name, the Americas Freedom and Fairness Arrangement (AFFA). The rebranding suggested a fresh start, and an invitation to Brazil and other Western Hemisphere economies to contemplate joining the AFFA. And it bore no association with the manufacturing and farm loss in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico during the 24 years of the previous North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the U.S. having cited that pacts bad associations in striking a short-lived tentative bilateral deal with Mexico. The new trilateral pact dispensed with a dispute-resolution mechanism in NAFTA that the U.S. had detested since its inception, as a perceived incursion on its sovereignty. The U.S. had seldom complied with so-called Chapter 19 rulings in Canadas favour. That made the Chapter 19 provision in NAFTA effectively useless. In the new AFFA deal, Canada recognized that its interests were better served by Americas own legal system, including its International Trade Commission (ITC). The ITC had struck down unfair tariffs that the Trump administration tried to impose on Canadian aircraft and newsprint exports. With its new name, the removal of Chapter 19 and modestly expanded U.S. access to the Canadian cultural-product and dairy markets, the AFFA was embraced by the U.S. The multilateralism of which Canada is the worlds most reliable champion had also emerged victorious. A U.S. administration ill-disposed to multilateral treaties, preferring bilateral ones in which the U.S. enjoyed the upper hand, had just re-committed to a multilateral deal. The America of 2017-2018 had attacked multilateralism as a rip-off of the U.S. In recommitting to a trilateral trade pact in the Americas, the U.S. offered at least some reassurance of its continued commitment to the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank and other multilateral groups of importance in advancing human progress and security. Also by 2020, the benefits Canada, Japan and Australia were deriving from their founding membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPATPP) were so obvious that the U.S. was applying to join the CPATPP. The U.S. had, after all, been the driving force in negotiating the former Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the Obama administration. But an incoming Trump administration had withdrawn the U.S. from the TPP talks. The other TPP partners, including Canada, Japan and Australia, had carried on, agreeing to one of the worlds biggest trade zones, spanning 11 Pacific economies of Asia and the Western Hemisphere. At the 11th hour of the TPP talks, Canada had held out for a TPP with the strongest human-rights, environmental and workplace protections of any trade deal in history. These had been agreed to, and the TPP became the CPATPP, the progressive element owing much to Canadas role in the talks. As early as 2018, the U.S. had indicated it would join the TPP if its rules of membership were more agreeable to America. But in 2020, with Chinas economy poised to overtake that of the U.S., Americas compulsion was simply to join the CPATPP as a counter-balance to Chinas influence, and to pressure China to adopt fair trade practices. In 2020, China continued to account for more than half of Americas total trade deficit with the world. America had failed with its heavy-handed efforts beginning in 2018 to pressure China to reform its trade practices. China was still dumping its surplus steel in Western markets, was still an alleged leading thief of intellectual property worldwide, and its rising militarism was especially menacing to Japan, the anchor of Americas Pacific influence. And so, by 2020, the China factor alone compelled the U.S. to join the CPATPP on the CPATPPs terms, which, again, the U.S. had largely shaped during the Obama years. For the U.S., CPATPP membership was also a tremendous boost to U.S. commercial interests. With its imposition of investor and worker protections, several originating with Canadian negotiators, the CPATPP had created the level playing field or lack of competitive disadvantage ardently sought by American Big Business. In 2018, America had waged a trade war with the EU, passing up the chance to make common cause with the EU against Chinas abusive trade practices. And so, in 2020, the U.S. resumed trade-pact talks with the EU, also commenced during the Obama administration, also scrapped by its successor. With the EU, the U.S. settled for a trade deal similar to Canadas, the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). The urgency of the China factor argued for accepting a ready-made deal, CETA, to which the EU would readily agree. China was now isolated. Its vaunted $1.2-trillion (U.S.) Belt and Road megaproject to rebuild the ancient Silk Road from the Pacific Coast to London had met with local resistance in Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The set of punitive sanctions against China that the EU had devised in 2018 were about to be adopted by the AFFA and the CPATAA, as well. The encirclement of China by a CPATAA that would soon include the U.S. was a real threat, unlike the ineffectual Trump administration sabre rattling of 2018. As it happens, Beijing in 2018 had hinted that it might someday seek CPATPP membership. So had South Korea, which in 2019 did join the CPATPP, forcing Taiwan to prepare its own membership application, isolating China still more. The initial high hopes for Belt and Road had dampened Beijings interest in the CPATPP. But now that Belt and Road was faltering, China was seeking CPATPP membership to exert as much influence in that group as the U.S. In 2020, Canada was a player in all the worlds biggest trade alliances. Its global commercial prospects had been strengthened as a result. The remaining challenge was to somehow get a traditionally complacent Corporate Canada to serve the new export markets Ottawa had helped open for it, and curb its over-reliance on a U.S. market that in 2018 had proved unreliable. In 2020, those global realignments seemed inevitable and commonsensical. For both the U.S. and China, it had come down to either joining a new multilateral order, or being left out in the cold, suffering competitive disadvantage and waning global influence. The intensity of 2018s trade wars and protectionism in the U.S., China and parts of the EU blocked out any thought of the scenario above at that time. But in 2020, it was only historians who recalled how fanciful that scenario seemed just two years earlier. Read more about: EDMONTONAfter health inspectors found pigeon poop covering part of the roof of the Hyatt Place Edmonton downtown hotel and water leaking throughout the building, the Hyatt brand has abandoned the troubled hotel. I can confirm that effective September 4, 2018, Hyatt Place Edmonton/Downtown is no longer a Hyatt-branded or a Hyatt-affiliated property, said Sian Rylander, manager of brand communications for Hyatt Place and Hyatt House. Rylander said the company is in the process of reaching out to guests with upcoming reservations, and guests with questions can contact Hyatt at 1-888-848-9496 for information. The hotel, which opened in October 2016, is a 12-storey building offering 255 rooms wrapped in a mirrored glass facade with sharp, angular architecture that makes it stand out amidst the lowrise developments of Edmontons downtown neighbourhood known by locals as The Quarters. On Aug. 24, an inspector from Alberta Health Services noted the HVAC roof top units were drawing fresh air from a semi-enclosed part of the roof that had been infested with pigeons and heavily contaminated with pigeon feces. Read more: Downtown Edmonton hotel ordered to clean up pigeon infestation after poop found in vents The number of non-traditional weddings at Alberta hotels is skyrocketing and theyre cashing in A supervillain pest is destroying crops across the Prairies, and no one knows how to stop it They also noted evidence of water leaking including staining on ceiling tiles, light fixtures and walls throughout lower level hallways used by employees, and extensive water staining and damaged wall material in the north public stairwell next to the elevators between the second and third floors. The inspector reported a musty smell and more water staining on the walls and floors in the hotels parkade. The hotels owner, Prem Singhmar of AUM Hotel Group Inc., was ordered to clean the poop from area of the roof where the HVAC system is located, hire a pest control company to eradicate the pigeons and service the HVAC system by Sept. 4. The owner was also ordered to find the source of the hotels water leaks and remove any and all water damaged material from the hotel by Sept. 30. Neither Singhmar nor management at the Hyatt Place Edmonton downtown hotel could be reached for comment at the time of publication. Read more about: HALIFAXTalk about a change of plans. More than 2,000 people who booked a cruise to Bermuda are being diverted almost 1,400 kilometres away from their intended mark by Hurricane Florence. And she isnt the only one storming, with passengers airing their disappointment at their four new ports, including Halifax. Ripoff! said one Twitter user. A Norwegian Cruise Lines ship that left Boston Friday morning was supposed to spend three days and nights in Bermuda, but the brewing hurricane got in the way. The safety and security of our guests and crew is always our top priority, a spokesperson for the cruise line said in an email. Due to Hurricane Florence in the Eastern Atlantic, we have modified Norwegian Dawns itinerary. The cruise ship capacity 2,300 is now scheduled to dock in Halifax Sunday morning and stay for the day. It will then move on to Sydney, N.S., Saint John, N.B., and Bar Harbor, Maine, before returning to Boston. Air and sea temperatures both average close to 30 degrees at this time of year in Bermuda. Water at our beaches rarely breaks 20 degrees in September. After Norwegian Cruise Lines confirmed the amended plans with StarMetro, they did not respond when asked how and when the passengers were notified of the change, or whether passengers were offered a refund. The Beach Boys never sang about Halifax or any of the other destinations on the Norwegian Dawns new itinerary. That isnt to say the Maritimes arent fun, fun, fun, but its apparently not where some of the Norwegian Dawn passengers really wanted to go. Grievances started appearing on Twitter Friday morning. One Twitter user said, in part, How is Canada even comparable to the Caribbean? My parents' had already left, packed for warm weather when we received notice. They are unprepared for this new climate. Have your say: Bermuda is not actually a Caribbean island. In fact, Bermuda is closer to Nova Scotia than it is to the Caribbean Sea. But the argument stands: Bermuda has shorts named after it, while Canada is known for fur-lined parkas. Lane Farguson, a representative of the Port of Halifax, said Norwegian Cruise Lines confirmed its plans with the port authority Friday morning. Typically, cruise lines book their stays with the Port of Halifax up to two years in advance, but Farguson said the port usually has a few last-minute bookings each year because of weather. So far, Hurricane Florence hasnt diverted any other cruise ships to Halifax, but Farguson said the port would do its best to accommodate more ships if cruise lines asked. The Port of Halifax website notes one other cruise ship scheduled to dock on Sunday with about 2,100 people on board. On its busiest days, the port can accommodate up to five cruise ships. One such day is coming up in October: 11,000 passengers are expected. Reaction to the anger some passengers are having towards their visit to the Maritimes was taking off on social media Friday afternoon. Canadians are wonderful people. Open your mind to a new experiance and I bet you will have a kick ass maritime time of it. We are friendly welcoming people that will show you a good time, wrote @DorringtonTammy on Twitter. Added @lemonsmarty: While I appreciate their frustration it's an amazing port to dock in for a few days. As to those who are worried about wardrobe...um they are experiencing a heat wave currently. It's a fantastic city. Suck it up. Editor's Note: This article was edited from a previous version to reflect new information from one of the passengers of the Norwegian Cruise Line vessels that was thought to have been diverted to Halifax. In fact, they were in another ship that was diverted to Florida. Correction: An earlier version of this article included a photo of a different Norwegian Cruise Lines vessel that was incorrectly identified as the Norwegian Dawn. It has been updated with a photo of the Norwegian Dawn. Read more about: Lewis was arrested in January after police found 200 grams of heroin, 129 grams of marijuana, 13 grams of crack cocaine and $584 in cash at his apartment in the 200 block of Plum Street, police said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will formally apologize in November for turning away a boat of German Jews seeking asylum in 1939, which led to the deaths of more than 200 people. Trudeau says it was a moral failure on the part of the government of the day. The MS St. Louis ship had 907 Jews, who were fleeing Nazi persecution, aboard when it was turned away from both Cuba and the United States before a group of Canadians tried to convince then-prime minister Mackenzie Kings government to let it dock in Halifax. King was unable to convince Frederick Blair, the director of the immigration branch of the federal Department of Mines and Resources, to allow them into the country. The ship returned to Europe and many found safety in countries like Holland, the U.K. and France, but 254 of those on board eventually died in the Holocaust after returning to Germany. Trudeau says he announced the date for the apology on a call Thursday with the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus, a national body of rabbis. The prime minister says the government will make the apology in the House of Commons on Nov. 7. OTTAWARerouting the pipeline expansion to avoid a First Nations aquifer and ensuring another First Nation will always be immediately notified of a pipeline spill are among the steps Ottawa could take to address Indigenous concerns about the Trans Mountain pipeline. The pipeline already runs between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C. carrying various types of crude and refined oil products to be shipped on tankers through the Burrard Inlet to the Pacific Ocean. The expansion proposes to build a second pipeline roughly parallel to the first in order to triple the capacity. Last week the Federal Court of Appeal quashed approval for the project citing insufficient consultation with Indigenous communities and a failure to assess the environmental impact of more tanker traffic off the coast of British Columbia. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has murmured about using that decision as a road map forward and that it provides a number of clear suggestions for what needs to be done. For example, the Coldwater Indian Band in the central interior of B.C. proposed an alternate route for the new pipeline that it felt posed less risk to its aquifer, its sole source of drinking water. The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, whose territory sits right on the Burrard Inlet, raised concerns about the impact of all that extra oil and the higher risk of spills when the number of oil tankers increases. Read more: Notley says Trudeau promised a plan for the Trans Mountain situation will be made in weeks, not months Indigenous self-determination the real force behind another pipelines dead end Liberals say they need more time to review court decision before next move on Trans Mountain pipeline In consultations with both bands, the court said Canada listened and tried to understand the concerns but didnt try to figure out what could be done to address them. With Tsleil-Waututh, the federal governments response was a promise to come up with a plan over the next few years to address the increased risk from about five tankers a month to more than 30, travelling the inlet loaded with diluted bitumen. The band never felt the government took its concerns seriously. One of its specific asks was to have the issue of increased oil tankers assessed under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act which was not done. Such an assessment could have also addressed the courts criticism that the National Energy Board hadnt properly assessed the risk of the increased tanker traffic. On Wednesday, Trudeau hinted that altering the route or introducing additional mitigating measures were things to be considered. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Thursday she hasnt given Ottawa a deadline for producing a plan but said both Alberta and Canadian officials are brainstorming solutions. She said she felt Ottawa understood the urgency but is still hoping for a direct plan soon. A week has passed and we need clear answers, she said. NDP MP Richard Cannings said when the Liberals decided to do additional consultations with Indigenous communities in 2016, it was a chance not just to listen but to directly address concerns. It listened but didnt do anything despite being given many specific actions that could have made First Nations more comfortable with the project, he said. The court found the government mistakenly believed it couldnt add any additional conditions to the pipelines approval beyond the 157 conditions applied by the National Energy Board when it recommended approval in May 2016. The Sto:lo Nation, a political amalgamation of 11 Sto:lo communities in B.C.s Fraser Valley, did their own assessment and made 89 recommendations about how their concerns could be mitigated. Those recommendations included having Sto:lo input on fishing management plans, the location of water testing facilities and river bank restoration. One was as simple as a declaration that Sto:lo representatives would be notified immediately if the pipeline leaks or spills any amount of bitumen. These measures are specific, brief and generally measured and reasonable, the court ruling says. But the National Energy Board did not adopt a single one of Sto:los conditions and neither did cabinet. The Squamish Nation, which also holds territory on Burrard Inlet, felt it didnt have enough information to know whether the project would have a negative impact on its land or people, and one of the biggest gaps in information was about how diluted bitumen behaves when spilled in ocean water. Similar concerns were raised by the British Columbia government and are behind that provinces court challenge trying to prevent diluted bitumen from flowing through the pipeline until more is known about the substance. The federal governments response to that was largely to say there were existing regulations requiring Kinder Morgan to anticipate, prevent and mitigate risks to people, the environment or property. Read more about: On paper, it all seems perfectly simple: five weeks from now Canada will flip a cataclysmic switch. And just like that, cannabis will be legal. Goodbye, century of marijuana prohibition. Farewell, black market. Hello officer, put that badge away and sit for a while. Theres no crime here. Not anymore. But as the government well knows, whats written on paper wont add up to anything nearly so blissful. Though Oct. 17 looms as a cultural and legal sea change, cannabis will not shed its stigma overnight. As the new law takes hold, few expect the vast black and grey markets that carried Canadian cannabis to this moment to vanish like so many puffs of smoke, surrendering lock, stock and barrel to Bay Streets new publicly traded titans of factory-scale production. The day weed becomes legal, activists and cannabis law experts say, marks the start of a prolonged, uncertain and potentially ugly battle for the shape and soul of the industry that emerges from the regulatory haze. Read more: Growing quality cannabis requires equipment and attention Canadas longest-serving cannabis prisoner ponders upcoming legalization How much pot is consumed in your Toronto neighbourhood? Check our interactive map I havent had a day off in two years and I doubt I will for the next five, said Toronto-based cannabis lawyer Jack Lloyd. There are so many legal battles ahead. Lloyd is at the forefront of the fight to bring grey-market cannabis producers into the legal light as licensed providers of the product they know so well. Were about to enter a period of transition where everything is at stake, right across Canada. You have big, well-financed companies who have a large head start on the smaller-scale grassroots growers. And the worry is that the big players are going to oversupply to the extent that they choke out the grassroots communitys ability to even be a part of what comes next. Lloyd argues the full heft of Canadian cannabis expertise resides within that grey market. Done right, with careful vetting and regulatory patience, Canada could yet see a craft cannabis industry every bit as diverse and flourishing as our craft beer industry. The other scenario the bad one is that we go back to the cannabis equivalent of the 1970s beer experience. Labatts and Molsons and thats pretty much it, he says. Its not all doom and gloom. The language of the act allows for micro-licences and so theres a legal pathway that acknowledges the need to bring the grey market onboard. But the regulatory process takes time and whats needed now is patience, on the part of prosecutors and police, a grace period to let the process of moving out of the grey market happen without fear that small growers will be prosecuted. Ontario, the biggest prize in the Canadian market, is a paradox as Oct. 17 approaches. On one hand, we are the laggards as the rest of the country opens with a full spectrum of online and bricks-and-mortar shops, nothing but web-based mail-order will be available here until next April, when privately owned retail outlets begin the battle for market share. Yet Ontario is already emerging as Big Cannabis powerhouse home to major licensed providers that are scrambling now to fulfill orders across the country in time for Oct. 17. One recent example: the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. two weeks ago announced 11 Ontario vendors were among 14 companies supplying its initial cannabis orders totalling 3.74 million grams. Among the most ambitious Ontario projects is the transformation now underway at a massive former Kraft factory in Cobourg by Whitby-based FV Pharma Inc., in partnership with Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. By the new year the project will begin harvesting 220,000 square feet of indoor cultivation, the first milestone in the firms goal to establish the largest indoor cannabis facility in the world. That such emerging Ontario behemoths will be growing so much of Nova Scotias supply has stung small growers and dispensers in the Maritimes. But the grey market there is vowing to fight back. Weve been working with Nova Scotia growers and theres so much local talent here but there wont be any of it for sale in the government stores on Oct. 17, said Chris Enns of the Farm Assists Medical Cannabis Resource Centre, a Halifax dispensary. The local craft market here just doesnt have the lobbying power of the big players in Ontario and British Columbia. But what I am seeing is local growers doing everything they can to self-regulate more and more people in the grey market are registering with Health Canada and going with new packaging that conforms to the new rules. People are taking it as far they can, with the goal of being on-boarded into the legal regime. As a longtime activist for medical marijuana, Enns remains defiant over what he sees as a serious gap in the new laws. We wont see access to cannabis derivatives in the government-run shops and so were staying open after Oct. 17 to ensure patients have access to the edibles, extracts and tinctures that our patients require. In that sense, Oct. 17 is just another day. Were not going to be roaring from a mountaintop, well be in the shop bracing for the next raid because the Halifax integrated drug enforcement unit has already informed me quite succinctly that they will be back. But Enns and others say the grey market is not powerless in this equation. Just as he intends to stay open and continue the fight, he expects local growers, if they are unable to find a foothold in the legal market, will retreat and go back as grey market providers but with a few new ideas about how to do business. One scenario under discussion within grey-market circles, according to two sources who spoke to the Star on condition their names not be used, is a price war. We want to be legal we want to pay the taxes, one small-scale western Canadian grower told the Star. But if there is no pathway for the mom-and-pop growers to do so, many will just stick to business as usual, but at a lower price than the legal shops. Its not ideal. People worry about how aggressive the policing will become. But some people see no other choice. I know one couple in B.C. they are pensioners without a pension. Theyve grown for years and this is what keeps them going. Theyve had the same small circle of customers for decades. By all means go after organized crime. Go after the real bad guys with huge grow-ops. Get the bikers out of it, if there are any left. But a lot of the market involves really small-scale growing. Does anyone want to put people like that in jail? Is that what Canada wants from legalization? Another immediate issue will be the fate of the many hundreds of private Canadian online cannabis shops that have sprouted exponentially in recent months. On Oct. 17, should these pirate mail-order outfits remain, they will be violating the exclusive realm of the government-owned Ontario Cannabis Store and the rest of Canadas web-based outlets and in many cases, offering a significantly lower price per gram. Will Ontario and the other provinces allow the mail-order privateers to continue cutting their grass? Unlikely. But stopping them could get expensive. Said Enns: The online issue is especially tricky in that they are protected somewhat by the sheer cost of prosecution. If police make the effort to find out whos behind the website, and then try to figure out where the product is stored and where the money is, it becomes a game of cat and mouse. And what if it ends up being operated by individuals not in the country? The prospect of such intense and elusive competition, together with the challenges of shifting into the legal market, has prompted some grey-market veterans to consider burgeoning markets elsewhere, as the cannabis thaw spreads globally. One example is Toronto-based 4C Labs SAS, which is now in the final stages of approval for a significant outdoor cultivation project in Colombia, led by a team of Canadian cannabis experts. Colombia respects Canadian expertise and so our team is bringing that knowledge the excellent Canadian grey-market genetics that have been developed over the past 30 years to a very new frontier, said 4Cs CEO and co-founder, Dave Farquharson. The obvious competitive advantage is cost. Growing outdoors at a rate of 240,000 plants per year is the initial goal and we can get there in Colombia at a fraction of what it would be in Canada, while also avoiding Canadas regulatory challenges. Our end product, initially, will be pharmaceutical-grade extracts for the CBD (cannabidiol) market in Europe and we will expand from there, said Farquharson. Were adapting extraction technology already in use in the flower market in Colombia. As far as Canada is concerned, I feel strongly that you cant just turn off one tap and turn on another. Youve got to somehow incorporate the grey market into the new legal framework. I know from our own experience that the people who care most about the end product are the ones who have been doing it for years. Read more about: The family of a University of Toronto student who was pulled from a lake during a school-operated excursion says the 18-year-old couldnt swim. Anand Baiju was attending a U of T camp on Gull Lake near Minden, about 200 kilometres northeast of Toronto, when he died Tuesday. Emergency services said they responded to the area at roughly 4:45 p.m. The teen was pulled from the lake and transported by paramedics to the Haliburton Highlands Health Services hospital in Minden, where he was pronounced dead, according to Sgt. Peter Leon of Haliburton Highlands OPP detachment. Baiju was a civil engineering student at U of T who was excited to embark on his second year of studies, his uncle Manoj Gopinath told the Star in an interview Thursday. Gopinath said Baiju had already purchased back-to-school items in anticipation of starting his new year. Now they sit untouched in shopping bags, Gopinath said, and his nephew will never get the chance to use them. He bought five or six dress shirts, pants, shoes, perfumes ... all with his own money. Baiju worked two part-time jobs to pay for his tuition and support his family, Gopinath said. He was really hardworking. He was a really ambitious kid. According to police, Baiju was in the water with friends when he drowned. I understand he was in the water with friends; he became separated from them, at which point they made an attempt to locate their friend and removed him from the water immediately and started with first aid themselves, Leon said. Baijus uncle said the family is left with many questions, noting that his nephew couldnt swim. I have a lot of questions to ask to university authorities regarding this, because its not a recreational trip or anything. Its part of the study program, Gopinath said. They had been taken to their facility. Its not a public area. Cristina Amon, dean of faculty of applied science and engineering at U of T, said the academic activities at the trip were supervised by staff and they were all organized to take place on land. She said a list of rules was given to each student. She could not confirm whether the rules barred students from going into the water. The school is still gathering details on how the incident took place and if any staff were present when it occurred, Amon said. Were strongly committed to finding out what happened and to learn from this heartbreaking event, she told the Star in an interview Thursday. Amon could not answer whether any lifeguards or staff certified in life-saving skills were at the camp. Were also trying to find out answers to the questions that youre asking, she said. It will take time to do this properly. The field excursion is a part of a second-year introduction to the civil engineering course, a U of T spokesperson said in an email. They were only scheduled to be up north for one night, the spokesperson said. Amon said attending the session is a mandatory requirement for students entering their second year of civil engineering. She said 50 students were at the camp when the incident happened. And she sent a message to staff and students, in which she announced the cancellation of the remainder of the trip. Students who were participating in it returned Tuesday night, she said. We are all heartbroken, as you can imagine, she told the Star. Were in close contact with the family to provide support in any way that is possible. Students who were present at the camp are also receiving help, she said. A Gofundme page has been set up to help raise funds for Baijus funeral. By Thursday evening, 131 people had raised $9,282 of the $20,000 goal. Gopinath said their family is destroyed by the loss. We are totally devastated, he said. I dont know what to say. He was the only hope for them. A hope for the whole family. Correction Sept. 6, 2018: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that the camp was run over a two-week period. The camp was a one-night excursion. With files from Gilbert Ngabo The federal government announced on Thursday that it will be providing upwards of a million dollars to the Toronto Police Service over the next three years to fund a program aimed at preventing violent extremism. Marco Mendicino, parliamentary secretary to the federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities and EglintonLawrence MP, announced the $1,048,000 contribution at a press conference at police headquarters at 40 College St. The funds will be disbursed from the Community Resilience Fund to FOCUS (Furthering Our Community by Uniting Services) Toronto, a program launched five years ago and led by police, the city and United Way. FOCUS Toronto aims to reduce crime and victimization and improve community resiliency and well-being, according to a news release. Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism, nor are we immune to the danger posed by those who are radicalized to violence, Mendicino said. It is increasingly important to focus on prevention and intervention directed at individuals that are at-risk of adopting dangerous ideologies. Mendicino characterized the program as essential. We also know that Canadas strength comes from its diversity and we will not be intimidated by those who seek to divide us or promote fear, he added. According to the release, the program has police, social workers, legal experts and school board representatives meet weekly to discuss a targeted approach to help vulenerable individuals and families in places with heightened risk levels. When it comes to radicalization of any kind, the key to success is involving our communities who we are serving and all levels of government, police chief Mark Saunders said. I have had the experience of going to the FOCUS Toronto table and watching them work, Mayor John Tory said. It is something to behold. What you have there is the smartest, most dedicated, most sensitive and most informed people from all walks of professional life, focusing themselves on individual cases, person by person, in a sensitive and professional way. Sgt. Brian Smith, a FOCUS Toronto coordinator, said the funds will partly be used for training. The training we are doing is Violence Threat Risk Assessment and its basically the gold standard in Canada for all forms of violence prevention, Smith said. It will very much help the trainees in relation to understanding the radicalization type of violence. Investigators have released surveillance footage of a suspect in the killing of Jesse Graham-Richter, 22, who was shot dead at a downtown Toronto Community Housing residence last month. Toronto police arrived to the fourth floor of the building at Adelaide St. East and Parliament St. on Sunday, Aug. 19, after receiving an early morning call for a shooting. Richter was found without vital signs in the common area on the fourth floor, where he was pronounced dead. This was an ambush type of situation, Det. Robert Choe told reporters near the residence on Friday. Choe said that Richter did not live in the building but was visiting someone. Police have not pegged a motive yet but are leaving any possibility entirely open. In surveillance footage released by police, the suspect is seen walking in the area of the building. The man is described as black, with light skin, around 20-years-old and approximately five-foot-ten, police said. He was seen in the footage wearing a black jacket and dark pants. Choe said the suspect was a visitor to the building and is known to frequent the area near the residence as well as the Bloor-Yonge area. As of now, Choe said, police are appealing to the public to identify the his name. Richter death marks the citys 63rd homicide of the year. Police are asking anyone with information to come forward and contact them at 416-808-7400 or anonymously through CrimeStoppers. Wood is good. That might be a fitting motto for Sidewalk Toronto, the proposed smart city project slated for the eastern waterfront. Google sister company Sidewalk Labs, the team behind the primarily residential project, is planning to erect buildings that have structures made of timber. Mass timber the term describes buildings in which the load-bearing structure is made of wood or wood-based products has been used in western Canada, including for the Brock Commons-Tallwood House, an 18-storey student residence at the University of British Columbia, which opened last year and is among the tallest wood buildings in the world. In the next year or so, the University of Toronto is set to start construction of a 14-storey building made of wood and concrete on Bloor St. W. And George Brown College plans to put up a $130 million, 12-storey mass timber building called the Arbour. Like the Sidewalk Toronto project, its also slated for the Queens Quay east neighbourhood. There are also tall, mass timber buildings planned in Europe, including one close to 20 storeys in Norway. Whats unique about the Sidewalk Toronto proposal, however, is its scale and quantity, says Vancouver-based architect Michael Green, a specialist in mass timber who is helping to design the project a partnership between Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto, the public agency representing three levels of government. This project has bigger buildings, more buildings. An entire community made (from mass timber) allows us to start thinking about this technology in an even more sophisticated way, Green said in a recent interview from Vancouver. Sidewalk Labs isnt discussing the cost and exact size of the project that would be built on the 4.9-hectare Quayside site, near Queens Quay E. and Parliament St. Sidewalk says those details will be in a master plan set to be released at the end of this year. The project which has attracted controversy over the fact there are plans to include sensors that could collect data on residents who live there or pass through the area would take several years to complete. Proponents of tall timber tout its environmental benefits, argue its more affordable, easier and lighter to work with than concrete and steel, and say it leads to quieter and speedier construction projects. Even building foundations can be made from wood products (although Green says Sidewalk plans to use concrete). But critics argue these benefits are overblown. These claims are largely unsubstantiated and fraught with questionable assumptions, argues Michael McSweeney, president and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada. He says tall wood buildings raise real safety concerns and are no more environmentally friendly than conventional concrete and steel structures. Proponents of mass timber say prefabrication allows the components to be made in a factory, away from construction sites, thus reducing construction schedules. And concrete, a heavier material, must be poured and needs time to cure or set, a process that can take months, these experts point out. Plus there is an abundant timber supply here in Canada, home to the largest supply of certified forests that can be cultivated sustainably. Aside from Europe, many of the leading manufacturers of tall timber are here. For instance, Nordic Structures, in Quebec and Structurelam in B.C. are two main suppliers, the early adopters in North America responsible for the materials used in most of the mass timber buildings on this continent. Canada has this resource in spades. Its a wonderful starting point. The globe is looking at this material because of global warming and because technology has improved how timber members can be engineered for strength, says Karim Khalifa, an engineer and director of buildings innovation for Sidewalk Labs. A common form of mass timber is cross laminated timber (CLT) a process in which many layers of timber are glued together at 90-degree angles to form large, thick sheets. This gives the timber strength and dimensional stability, proponents like Khalifa and Green say. McSweeney argues that most of the tall timber buildings are in fact hybrids that rely extensively on the strength and versatility of concrete for structural and safety considerations. The Brock Commons students residence in B.C. has a concrete podium and foundation supporting the wood frame, he points out. There have been setbacks with timber. Construction was halted for about five months after a panel made of cross-laminated timber collapsed in March in a building under construction at Oregon State University. The incident at the three-storey College of Forestry building is believed to have happened after two of the panels seven layers split. The incident was blamed on a manufacturing problem. No one was injured in the mishap and the project has resumed. McSweeney also says taller wood buildings have a track record of construction fires, but Khalifa says the polished wood used in tall timber behaves like a whole log in a fire it blackens on the outside but its slow to actually start burning. Although he considers these buildings generally safe, Mark Train, executive vice-president of the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association, echoes the concerns about construction fires. Until the building is complete, its still a little more vulnerable than a building made from noncombustible material, Train says. Kevin Flanagan a partner with PLP Architecture in London who is familiar with Green and the Sidewalk project, says many young people, particularly in Scandinavia, are interested in housing made from tall timber. A big reason is CO2. The timber locks in or sequesters carbon dioxide, taking it out of the atmosphere, Flanagan says, as opposed to burning fossil fuels to create the heat necessary to form steel or produce concrete. He calls mass timber truly a 21st-century material with great promise. But the concrete lobby points out that logging also produces significant CO2 emissions. Criticisms aside, those behind the Sidewalk project say theyre anxious to show the world that timber can be used on this scale. I just think Canada and Toronto has this opportunity to change the way buildings are built around the world. Everybody will watch to see how it all comes together, so its a super exciting project to be involved in, Khalifa says. Read more about: WASHINGTONThe disclosure on Thursday of dozens of previously secret emails involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh provoked pointed new questions on the third day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, as Democrats pressed him to explain fresh disclosures on abortion rights, affirmative action and previous testimony to the Senate. Many of those confidential documents spilled out in an anonymous release to The New York Times. Abortion takes centre stage In documents obtained by The New York Times that date back to Kavanaughs time in the George W. Bush administration, Kavanaugh, then a White House aide, seemed to raise doubts about whether Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that found a constitutional right to an abortion, was settled law. He was considering a draft opinion piece to be run under the names of anti-abortion women that stated, it is widely accepted by legal scholars across the board that Roe v. Wade and its progeny are the settled law of the land. Responding to the email, the future Supreme Court nominee wrote, I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so. Read more: U.S. Supreme Court nominee turned his back on Parkland shooting victims father Kavanaughs confirmation hearing begins as a partisan brawl U.S. senators question Kavanaugh about his record and legal positions The documents do not indicate how Kavanaugh would rule, but they are fodder for Democratic questioning. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, asked Kavanaugh about the document, noting it had been made public. Kavanaugh defended the statement he made in the email, and said the broader point was simply that it was overstating something about legal scholars. Im always concerned about accuracy, and I thought it was not an accurate description of all legal scholars, he said, adding later that Roe v. Wade is an important precedent. It has been reaffirmed many times. He declined to comment directly on Feinsteins questions as to whether it is correct law. NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights lobby, jumped on the release immediately: Brett Kavanaughs emails are rock solid evidence that he has been hiding his true beliefs and if he is given a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, he will gut Roe v. Wade, criminalize abortion and punish women. Everything he said yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about settled law was nothing but a show to mislead the Senate. Email subject line: Spying A tantalizing moment Wednesday came when Democratoc Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vermont), asked Kavanaugh whether he had meetings with Manuel Miranda, a former Senate Republican aide who was caught stealing files from the computers of Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, including Leahy. Kavanaugh denied ever knowingly receiving stolen material when he was a White House aide tasked with getting president George W. Bushs judicial nominees confirmed. On Thursday, questioning Kavanaugh a second time, Leahy described and put up on posters several emails about his interactions with Miranda, indicating that he had received permission from the committee chairman around 3 a.m. to disclose them. They included a March 2003 email from Miranda to Kavanaugh that included several pages of Democratic talking points, marked not for distribution, and another to Kavanaugh from a Republican Senate staff member whose subject line spying and which referred to a mole for us on the left. Kavanaugh reiterated that he had no knowledge that Miranda had infiltrated Democratic files, saying he likely assumed that the Republican staff was getting information from friends who were Democratic staff members and nothing had raised red flags at the time. I was born at night but not last night, Leahy said. If I had something that somebody said, we have stolen this or dont tell anybody we have this, I think it would raise some red flags. Leahy also pressed him about more than 100,000 documents from his period as a Bush White House lawyer that the Senate has not been permitted to see, even on a confidential basis, because a lawyer for Bush has said they are subject to executive privilege. Leahy asked whether Kavanaugh could confirm that none of those contain more such emails from Miranda. Senator, I am not involved in the documents process, Kavanaugh. I dont know whats in them. Replied Leahy: That is convenient. Durbin asks Kavanaugh to clear up his views on the special counsel Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Illinois), pressed Kavanaugh on comments he made in support of Justice Antonin Scalias dissent in a case that upheld the constitutionality of an independent counsel. Given your views on Morrison v. Olson, we are obviously worried you will feel bound by this dissent by Scalia if President Trump decides to attempt to fire the special counsel Bob Mueller, Durbin said. Kavanaugh began by pushing back on the framing of Durbins question, noting that case involved the creation of an independent counsel, not a special counsel. But ultimately, he assured the senator, Ive made clear in my writing that when a court order requires a president to do something or prohibits a president from doing something under the constitution or laws of the United States, that is the final word. When it comes to the scope of executive power, he said, I am one not afraid at all in my record of twelve years to invalidate executive power when it violates the law. A strange contretemps over secret documents Much of the morning was given to what appeared to be real drama, the move by Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (New Jersey) to release committee confidential documents without Republican permission and Republican threats to exact consequences. After all, such a release could result in Bookers expulsion from the Senate. Bring it, the senator said. Booker and Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (Hawaii), went ahead and released the documents. This is about the closest Ill ever come in my life to an I am Spartacus moment, Booker declared. But after the drama subsided, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), the chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said all of those documents were cleared for release overnight. William A. Burck, the former Bush White House lawyer tasked with reviewing the Kavanaugh documents, said in a statement, We cleared the documents last night shortly after Sen. Bookers staff asked us to. We were surprised to learn about Sen. Bookers histrionics this morning because we had already told him he could use the documents publicly. In fact, we have said yes to every request made by the Senate Democrats to make documents public. The question remains, so why were Republicans handing Booker his moment, not saying, hey, whats the big deal? As for Booker, his spokesperson gave him credit for forcing the documents release and said this would not be the last of the document kerfuffles. Cory and Senate Democrats were able to shame the committee into agreeing to make last nights documents publicly available, and Cory publicly released those documents as well as other committee confidential documents today, the spokeswoman, Kristin Lynch, said in a statement. And hell keep releasing them because Republicans are hiding Brett Kavanaughs record from the American people. What do Democrats know that they cant share? Late in Wednesdays proceedings, the questioning finally reached Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris (California) and she launched into tense questioning that centred around whether Kavanaugh had ever discussed the Russia investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, with a lawyer or lawyers from the law firm of President Donald Trumps longtime personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz. Kavanaugh appeared somewhat baffled, but he would not offer a blanket no because he said he didnt know the names of every lawyer who worked for the firm, and he had discussed the Mueller investigation with lawyers and judges. I think youre thinking of someone, and you dont want to tell us, Harris said without elaboration. Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), gave Kavanaugh an opportunity Thursday to revisit Harris line of questioning. Kavanaugh responded by acknowledging he doesnt know everyone who works at the firm, but said, I dont recall any conversations of that kind. I havent had any inappropriate conversations about that investigation with anyone, Kavanaugh said. Ive never given anyone any winks, hints, forecasts, previews, nothing, about my view as a judge, or how I would rule as a judge on that or anything related to that. In a letter last June to Mueller, Kasowitz cited a majority opinion by Kavanaugh, without naming him, saying, The President may decline to prosecute certain violators of federal law just as the President may pardon certain violators of federal law. The President may decline to prosecute or may pardon because of the Presidents own constitutional concerns about a law or because of policy objections to the law, among other reasons. The question is, can and will the senator tell the public what she knows? Cameras in the high court? Not likely. Most Supreme Court nominees express enthusiasm for cameras in the court at their confirmation hearings, only to change their minds after they join the court. Kavanaugh took a different approach, saying only that I will have an open mind on it. He said his current court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has recently allowed live audio coverage of its arguments. That development, he said, was a positive one. But he offered only vague comments on electronic coverage of the Supreme Court. The court generally releases audio recording of arguments at the end of the week and does not allow camera coverage. Kavanaugh made one novel suggestion, offering that the court should consider camera coverage of the sessions in which the justices summarize their opinions from the bench. The court, which currently releases audio of those sessions months later, is unlikely to adopt the idea. The justices may be wary of suggesting to the public that their informal oral summaries, rather than their written opinions, precisely set out the details of decisions. WASHINGTONThree weeks from now, in New York, U.S. President Donald Trump will find himself in the setting he most relishes: seated at the head of a polished table, calling on the those seated around him, rewarding those he likes and cutting off those who displease him. It is not a revival of The Apprentice, or even a meeting of his Cabinet. Trump will be presiding at the U.N. Security Council, a rotating role that falls to the United States this month. His star turn is prompting anxiety among people, inside and outside the administration, who worry that the president will bring reality-TV antics to the world stage. Exercising the prerogative of the chairman, Trump plans to focus on Iran and its malign activity around the Middle East. European diplomats said they fear this will only underscore the disunity of the West, given the unpopularity of Trumps decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. Already, the presidents choice of subject has drawn objections from Russia, which said the focus of the meeting should be entirely on the nuclear deal and Trumps exit from it, and Iran, which accused Trump of abusing his leadership of the council to vilify a single country. The resistance is not limited to foreigners. At the State Department, the National Security Council and the U.S. mission to the United Nations, there are privately voiced qualms about Trump leading a discussion on a complex, divisive subject with foreign leaders who were fiercely opposed to his handling of the nuclear deal. U.S. officials are discussing whether to reframe the session on the broader region or a different theme to reduce the risk of things going awry, though it is unclear whether the president will be receptive. By all accounts, Trump is excited about presiding over the most exclusive club devoted to world peace and security. And he appears equally ready to shake up the customs of that club, where the last time an American leader presided Barack Obama in 2014 he chose a theme that the other members could readily embrace: combating foreign terrorist fighters. Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, accused Trump on Wednesday of using the session to blame Iran for horrors US & clients have unleashed across the Middle East. He noted that the only Security Council resolution currently in force on Iran is the nuclear deal. Under the rules of the Security Council, Zarif or even Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, is entitled to a seat at the meeting and to be called on by Trump. Administration officials said they believed it was unlikely that Rouhani would turn up, though he is scheduled to attend the General Assembly, which meets at the same time. Even if he did come, officials said Trump might leave the meeting before it was Irans turn to speak. It would be called on only after all 15 members of the Security Council had spoken, a process that could take half a day. If Trump left early, he would most likely hand over his seat to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Haley acknowledged that some council members would find Iran an uncomfortable subject. But, she said, I personally think that when we talk about things that are uncomfortable in the Security Council, good things happen. President Trump is very adamant that we have to start making sure that Iran is falling in line with international order, Haley added. And we continue to see them engage in things that are not helpful, whether its in Lebanon, whether its in Yemen, whether were looking at Syria. That is one of the primary arguments for Trumps decision to focus on Iran, other U.S. officials said. The furor over the nuclear deal, they said, had crowded out discussion of Irans other activities. The United States is warning allies, for example, that Iranian missiles pose a threat to civilian aircraft in the Persian Gulf. But particularly among Europeans, officials said, those dangers often get subsumed in the continuing discussion of why Trump abandoned the deal. Some officials played down the risks of Trumps appearance. Diplomatic protocol almost guarantees that the meeting will be a series of canned speeches rather than a freewheeling debate, in which Trump could either be rattled or be seen as bullying other leaders. In any event, Trump has shown himself to be gleefully unconcerned with bruising feelings. In his first visit to the General Assembly last year, he declared, I will always put America first, just like you, as the leaders of your countries, will always and should always put your countries first a call for sovereignty at odds with the mission of the United Nations as a body created to deal collectively with problems that transcend borders. He referred to the country of one African leader as Nambia, prompting questions about whether he had conflated Namibia with Gambia or Zambia (the White House later clarified that he meant Namibia). From the rostrum of the General Assembly, he said of North Koreas leader, Kim Jong Un, Rocket Man is on a suicide mission. Trump returns to the United Nations after having launched an audacious diplomatic overture to Kim. While in New York, Haley said, he planned to meet President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to discuss the nuclear negotiations, which have stalled in recent weeks. Trump can also claim progress in his efforts to isolate Iran, however unpopular they have been. The countrys currency, the rial, plummeted to record lows this week amid fears that the sanctions Trump is reimposing will cripple its oil exports and broader economy. Beyond faulting Irans behaviour, though, it is not clear what Trump hopes to accomplish when he sits at the horseshoe-shaped table in the Security Councils chamber. With so much resistance to his Iran policy from Russia, China and other veto-wielding members, there is no prospect of winning support for any kind of resolution. When Obama first led a council meeting in 2009, the United States won passage of a resolution that promised tougher scrutiny of countries that proliferated nuclear weapons. Days later, the White House revealed intelligence showing that Iran had built a secret uranium enrichment facility in a mountain near the holy city of Qom. In 2014, with the Islamic State terrorizing Iraq and Syria, Obama pushed a resolution in the council to crack down on the financing, and movement of people signing up to fight for foreign terrorist organizations. While a U.S.-led military campaign largely vanquished the Islamic State, Obamas 2009 non-proliferation resolution did nothing to prevent North Korea from making new nuclear bombs, although he did negotiate the deal that blocked Irans ability to do so. For Trump, marshaling global support against Iran seems less of a priority in New York than defiantly advancing his own get-tough policy. Aides said the decision to focus on Iran was very much the presidents and no one actively pushed back on it, whatever their qualms. For a president who hushed dissent in his reality-TV days with a simple Youre fired, the question is, how will he react if the would-be apprentices from Iran and Russia refuse to go quietly? Read more about: TEHRAN, IRANThe presidents of Iran and Russia on Friday backed a military offensive to retake the last rebel-held area of Syria as Turkeys president pushed for a ceasefire, perhaps the final chance to avoid what activists warn will be a humanitarian disaster. The trilateral summit in Tehran involving Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts further pressure on the rebel forces still operating in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, including about 10,000 hard-core jihadists and al-Qaida-linked fighters. It left the chance, however slim, for further diplomacy to try to separate civilians and rebels from the Islamic militants in Idlib. While Putin called for the total annihilation of terrorists in Syria, he left open the possibility of a ceasefire. Rouhani as well spoke of cleansing the Idlib region of terrorists, while also noting the need of protecting civilians. Turkey, which backed opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad, fears a military offensive will touch off a flood of refugees and destabilize areas it now holds in Syria. Ankara also has hundreds of troops manning 12 observation posts in Idlib. Idlib isnt just important for Syrias future; it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region, Erdogan said. Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience. We dont want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath. Read more: Syria airstrikes raise fears of bloodbath in Idlib province Terrorists must be purged from Syrias Idlib, Iran minister says Erdogan also sought to use Persian literature to drive home his point in Tehran, quoting the poet Saadi: If youve no sympathy for human pain, the name of a human you cannot retain. The U.S. also warned against an assault in Idlib, with Ambassador Nikki Haley telling the U.N. Security Council that the consequences will be dire. Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria. For Russia and Iran, both allies of the Syrian government, retaking Idlib is crucial to complete what they see as a military victory in Syrias civil war after Syrian troops recaptured nearly all other major towns and cities, largely defeating the rebellion against Assad. A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalizing, and could hurt Russias longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get Western countries to invest in Syrias postwar reconstruction. Russia also wants to maintain its regional presence to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. and its long uncertainty over what it wants in the conflict. We think its unacceptable when (someone) is trying to shield the terrorists under the pretext of protecting civilians as well as causing damage to Syrian government troops, Putin said. As far as we can see, this is also the goal of the attempts to stage chemical weapons incidents by Syrian authorities. We have irrefutable evidence that militants are preparing such operations, such provocations. Putin offered no evidence to back his claim. The U.N. and Western countries have blamed Assads forces for chemical weapons attacks in the civil war, something denied by Russia and Syria. The U.S., Britain and France have vowed to take action against any further chemical attacks by Assads regime. Reacting to Erdogans proposal for a ceasefire in Idlib, Putin said a ceasefire would be good but indicated that Moscow does not think it will hold. We hope that we will be able to reach an agreement and that our call for reconciliation in the Idlib area will be heard, the Russian president said. We hope that the representatives of those terrorist organizations will be smart enough to stop the resistance and lay down arms. There was no immediate reaction from fighters in Idlib. Naji al-Mustafa, a spokesperson for the Turkey-backed National Front for Liberation, said before the summit that his forces were prepared for a battle that they expect will lead to a major humanitarian crisis. Idlib is about a lot of international power play and everyone is looking after their interests, al-Mustafa said. Early Friday, a series of airstrikes hit villages in southwest Idlib, targeting insurgent posts and killing five people, including a civilian, said Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdurrahman said suspected Russian warplanes carried out the attack. Faysal al-Antar, a member of the local council in Kfar Zita, one of the towns on the southern edge of Idlib that was hit in the airstrikes, said warplanes were flying as the leaders convened Friday in Tehran. The meetings never translate on the ground, he said. Imagine there is a meeting to calm the situation, while we are being hit, and there are airstrikes as it takes place. If they had the slightest respect, they would have at least halted the strikes for the duration of the meeting. Already, nearly a half-million people have been killed in the grinding civil war, which began first as a popular uprising against Assad and later devolved into a sectarian and regional conflict. Eight aid agencies warned that in the coming offensive it will be the most vulnerable who will pay the heaviest price, with women, children, and the elderly in Idlib unlikely to be able to move to safety. But Hassan Hassan, a Syria expert and a fellow at the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said he is doubtful an offensive is imminent, pointing to Turkey getting U.S. backing in opposing a major offensive. The regime might conduct a face-saving attack on areas away from Turkeys zones of operation, a low-hanging fruit, he said. I say this because the US is making it clear it is not bluffing this time, and Turkey is similarly against the offensive. In her remarks at the U.N. Security Council, Haley said the U.S. has been clear with Russia and other nations that we consider any assault on Idlib to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Syria. If Assad, Russia and Iran continue, the consequences will be dire, she said. We urge Russia to consider its options carefully. Stop Assads assault on Idlib. Work with us and the U.N. to find peace at last for Syria, she said. The U.S. has found itself largely on the sidelines of the possible offensive as Iran, Russia and Turkey all nations that Washington has imposed sanctions upon discuss Idlibs future. Although the U.S. has about 2,000 troops and outposts in Syria, President Donald Trump has said he wants to pull those forces out after the war against the Islamic State group dislodged the extremists from vast territories it once held there and in Iraq. Read more about: On this solemn occasion, we will come together again to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day, Irvin said in a press release about the event. We also remember the families of those who perished and all whose lives were forever changed after experiencing the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001. CHAMPAIGN, ILL.Former President Barack Obama charged back into electoral politics Friday with a detailed critique of President Donald Trumps style of governing, warning of dire consequences if American voters stand on the sidelines in the November election. This is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the United States need to determine just who we are, what it is that we stand for, Obama told a mostly student audience of about 1,300 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The U.S. risks slipping further from the ideals of the nations founders as the privileged and powerful exploit the politics of fear and resentment to keep their status, he said. It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not the cause. Hes just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been capitalizing on for years, Obama said. These are extraordinary times and they are dangerous times. Obama is embarking on a campaign swing for Democrats at the same time Trump is planning an ambitious schedule of appearances on behalf of Republican candidates as the GOP girds for the possibility of losing its House majority in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Obamas involvement in the midterm campaign carries risks for Democrats. He doesnt have a strong record of helping his party win when his own name isnt on the ballot and Democrats suffered significant losses during both Obama midterms in 2010 and 2014. The former president is following up his address by campaigning Saturday with Democratic candidates running to flip Republican House seats in Southern Californias Orange County, a traditionally conservative-leaning area where Republicans are at risk of losing several House seats. That event will promote seven Democrats running for Congress in districts Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election. Those districts are central to Democratic prospects of trying to secure a net gain of 23 seats needed to take control of the U.S. House. Obama is likely to be less helpful in some of the most competitive Senate races playing out in states Trump won. On Thursday, the former president is scheduled to campaign in Cleveland for Richard Cordrays campaign for Ohio Governor. Cordray is a former Obama appointee who was director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The race between Cordray and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is rated as a tossup by the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Its playing out in a state Trump won by eight percentage points and where Republicans hold all statewide offices. Obama is also expected to campaign in Illinois and Pennsylvania later this month and headline a fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in New York City, which is looking to reverse gerrymandering that has helped Republicans in some congressional districts. -With assistance from Justin Sink. To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Champaign, Illinois at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum 2018 Bloomberg L.P. Read more about: WASHINGTON Returning to his bellicose trade rhetoric, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Friday that he would cause the ruination of Canada if he imposed tariffs on Canadian-made cars. Trump issued the threat during another day of North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations that did not produce a deal between the U.S. and Canada. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland continued to describe the talks as constructive but provided no details. Trump has repeatedly threatened to hit Canada with the auto tariffs if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to make NAFTA concessions. He had never before spoken about ruining Canada, but it was not clear if the rhetorical escalation was a deliberate, meaningful shift or merely impromptu loose talk. Trump began discussing Canada on his way to a Republican fundraising event in North Dakota. He told reporters on Air Force One: Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, theyve got to treat us fairly. I dont want to do anything bad to Canada. I can all I have to do is tax their cars, it would be devastating. If I tax cars coming in from Canada, it would be devastating, he continued, according to a pool reporter travelling with him. Read more: Democrats love Canada. Republicans, not so much, U.S. poll finds Canada-U.S. deal could come by the weekend, Trump and Mexican official hint, as Trudeau digs in Opinion | With the White House in turmoil, Canadas NAFTA team studiously avoids the daily drama In the North Dakota speech, he said, We cannot continue to get ripped off like weve been ripped off before. Actually, on some countries, including Canada, a tax on cars would be the ruination of the country, he said. Thats how big it is. Itd be the ruination of the country. Now, theyve taken advantage of us for many decades. We cant let this happen anymore. We have a country to run. Trump made clear, as he has before, that he sees the auto tariff threat as an effective tool in trade talks. He claimed that whenever he broaches such tariffs, negotiators from other countries surrender to his desires: Well do it! Well do it! Well agree! Well agree! To date, Canada has not done so. Canadian economists do not think U.S. auto tariffs would ruin Canada, but they have predicted a severe economic hit. A TD Economics analysis in June forecast a job loss of 160,000, almost all of them in Ontario. Scotiabank said the tariffs could reduce Canadian growth by more than a quarter. Canada exported $57 billion (Canadian) in automobiles and $15 billion in auto parts to the U.S. last year, according to Canadian data, more than four times the value of the steel and aluminum exports Trump has already subjected to tariffs. Trudeaus government warned in July that it would retaliate against any auto tariffs. Canada has numerous U.S. allies on the issue: Trumps proposal to use a national security law to impose tariffs on foreign cars has been opposed by every major segment of the U.S. auto industry, from domestic automarkers to dealership owners. Trump tariffs on Canada would directly harm the Detroit Three U.S. automakers. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler plants make up a major percentage of Canadian auto production. Trump delivered the threat to Canada as he issued a separate trade threat to China. He told reporters that he had another $267 billion worth of tariffs on China ready to go on short notice if I want, over and above the $200 billion he has suggested he will impose imminently. Canadian officials sent pessimistic signals on Friday about the possibility of a rapid deal with the U.S. on NAFTA. The talks will likely be paused at least briefly if a deal is not reached by Saturday. Robert Lighthizer, Trumps point man in the negotiations, is scheduled to attend meetings in Europe on Monday and then in Argentina later in the week. There is no immediate deadline pressure on the two sides. The next date of importance is the end of the month: Trump could theoretically abandon talks with Canada and proceed with his deal with Mexico alone as early as the beginning of October. Freeland has declined to identify the issues standing in the way of a deal. Trumps top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, claimed Friday that the problem was Canadian inflexibility on dairy. The United States would rather have a trade deal with Canada, but it has to be a good deal, right. And the word that continues to block the deal is M-I-L-K, Kudlow said on Fox Business. Im just saying: let go milk, dairy, drop the barriers, give our farmers a break, and we can fix some other things. Trudeau said earlier in the week that he would be willing to give incremental ground on dairy, while preserving Canadas protectionist supply management system, if the U.S. were willing to make its own concessions. A Canadian official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the dairy issue is indeed one of the matters that has not been resolved. But the official said there are other unresolved issues, too, including Trudeaus two key recent demands. Trudeau said this week that his red lines are the preservation of the Chapter 19 dispute resolution system, which allows Canada to challenge U.S. duties at an independent panel rather than in U.S. courts, and the preservation of the cultural exemption that allows Canada to favour Canadian music, movies and television, among other cultural products, over U.S. competitors. Read more about: In a landmark decision this week, Indias Supreme Court ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence. The question is, now that its legal, will it be any fun? Im only kidding. Itll be more fun than ever. Of course this is wonderful news and long overdue. The courts decision overturns a 157-year-old law that classified gay sex as unnatural. Newly natural (in the eyes of the law) LBGT Indians celebrated the decision outside Indias supreme courthouse, some of them crying tears of joy. Indu Malhotra, one of the judges responsible for the ruling, declared that history owes an apology to LBGT people. And shes right. But so does the present. Read more: India decriminalizes homosexual acts in landmark verdict for worlds largest democracy Gay rights activists march in annual New Delhi parade Of course a celebration is warranted following Indias historic decision. And of course such a decision can and should be upheld as evidence that the world is inching forward, toward equality. And not just in the West as many of us westerners are prone to believe. In 2017, in another landmark ruling, Taiwans top court ruled in favour of same-sex marriage. But the India decision is also an excellent occasion on which to remind one another that despite progress in some historically hostile places, acceptance of LGBTQ people is still, globally speaking, quite rare. Yes, Im about to become the kind of killjoy who uses news of a human rights victory as a launching pad to go on and on about how dismal things are on a grand scale. Here we go: Today, homosexuality is criminalized in 71 nations worldwide. Every year the ILGA International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association publishes a series of maps detailing sexual orientation laws around the world. According to one of these maps from last year, homosexuality is punishable by death in a total of eight countries (or parts of those countries). To name a few: Mauritania, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen. In 14 other states same-sex activity is an offence punishable by a prison sentence of 14 years to life. And in a whopping 57 more states, gay sex can put you behind bars for up to 14 years. And then there is Russia, a country notorious for its violent vigilante beatings of law-abiding LGBT citizens, not to mention an anti-propaganda law whose explicit purpose is to protect children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values. In other words, a law that protects children from the reality that LBGT people exist. And then theres North America, a stellar continent, comparatively, but a little too self-congratulatory regarding its record of tolerance. This is because though eastern nations like India and Taiwan are moving forward into a more accepting future, research indicates the United States may be moving backward. Dont get me wrong there is no place Id rather live than Canada. To any knee-jerk conservative reading this column who couldnt wait to bellow, well if you hate the West so much why dont you move to Yemen: no thank you. Im very happy where I am. But happiness shouldnt preclude improvement. And we all need some. Especially America. For proof, lets consider this years Accelerating Acceptance study conducted by GLAAD in the United States a survey of American acceptance and attitudes toward LGBTQ Americans. In a report from January, GLAAD notes that this years survey shows alarming decline in acceptance. Some key highlights, or lowlights from the survey: Less than half of non-LGBTQ adults (49 per cent) reported being very or somewhat comfortable with LGBTQ people across seven situations. This is a significant decline from 53 per cent from the previous year and the first time the Accelerating Acceptance report has shown a drop in acceptance for LGBTQ people. And 55 per cent of LGBTQ adults reported experiencing discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity. This number is a significant 11 percentage point increase from the previous year (44 per cent). This is all bad news. But it isnt rocket science. The president of the United States has a special antipathy for transgender people, a population many are quick to denigrate and belittle, but few know intimately. And the polarization of social media doesnt help things either. An Angus Reid poll from 2016 suggests 76 per cent of Canadians believe political correctness has gone too far. We know many Americans feel the same way. And though this belief may be justified in the realm of the liberal arts campus (an environment that in no way shape or form resembles the real world) its unfounded in everyday life where the average person is far more likely to laugh at a cruel joke about a transgender person than he is to chastise the jerk telling it. You have to wonder if the reason LGBT acceptance may be waning in the United States is that Americans are sick and tired of hearing about a human rights issue they thought was resolved under their last president. Put another way, they could live with the gay thing. But theyre confused, uncomfortable, and in many cases, hateful about the transgender thing. The news out of India is truly fantastic. But East to West, weve all got a ways to go. Read more about: Are you feeling blue? Blue, it seems, is the new black. Blue glass, that is. Right now you can go down to the Richmond Adelaide Centre and watch as two rather handsome mid-century black skyscrapers are reclad in boring blue glass. As they were, the buildings at 120 and 130 Adelaide St. W. were not lead-actor, movie-star handsome, but were character-actor handsome: always there, in the background, playing an important role but never taking the spotlight. Toronto needs buildings like this. Black is a somewhat unusual colour for a skyscraper, so even in the background, they stood out and added variety to the cityscape. The downtown core does have some other black towers, the most prominent being the four buildings that make up the TD Centre, the Mies van der Rohe-designed complex that just celebrated its 50th birthday last year. Both Richmond Adelaide towers were not continuous glass, as each floor of windows was separated by black panels, and in between each window was a narrower black panel, reminiscent of the I-beams Mies prominently used on the TD Centre and its predecessor, the Seagram Building in New York. After recladding, both towers will be reflective blue glass boxes from top to bottom, with little to break up their facades. Reflective glass, often blue but not always, was popular in the late 1970s and 1980s and was part of the Late Modernist architecture style. They reflected the city and the sky and, it was thought, might just disappear. Pity the birds, certainly, that fly head first into the reflective walls, thinking the sky might go on forever. Recladding can be an interesting business. Sometimes its done out of necessity, as with First Canadian Place, Torontos tallest office tower, nearly a decade ago. As some of its marble slabs began to fall off, it was retrofitted with white glass panels that kept the look of the building intact, although it now appears sleeker than it did when covered in stone. Other recladding jobs are part of plans that convert or expand a building. The former Sutton Place hotel at Bay and Wellesley Sts. was another handsome mid-century building, although built in the brutalist style. Completed in 1967, its elegant ribbed concrete facade has been removed over the last few years and what remains is being converted into The Britt residences, adding nine storeys to the top and a new chunky podium. Not far away is 488 University Ave., at Dundas St. W., where 37 storeys of residential floors were added on top of an existing 18-storey office building. An engineering feat to be sure, a new structural steel skeleton was created over the existing facade to support the new floors above. Points to both of these projects for not tearing down the existing buildings, as the greenest building is the one already built, but both will simply add more glass boxes to the citys skyline, albeit with balconies. The trouble here is many recladdings, like Richmond Adelaide, are following fashion, and all-glass facades are fashionable again. Fashion is fickle though and chasing it can be exhausting. Fashion makes us change and update our wardrobes constantly, causing us to feel bad if were not quite up to date, and because fashion changes so quickly, its a constant feeling. Real estate companies, wanting their buildings to remain prime locations for high rent office tenants, chase after the same trends. Its better for buildings and people alike to stay true to their own styles, rather than to the whims of fashion. Richmond Adelaide had a distinct style that could have used a gentle update even people with very defined and individual styles will add new items to their wardrobe that complement their style but the wholesale transformation of the facade erases the sense of history the building had. It was from a particular era, something that should be honoured, not hidden. Similarly, the Simpson Tower at Queen and Bay Sts., designed by the legendary modernist Toronto firm John B. Parkin in 1968, is being reclad in yet more boring glass. Even new buildings, like 65 King St. E., next door to the King Edward Hotel, are going with reflective blue glass, here adding a number of storeys on and above a row of historic buildings. Its ironic that the marketing for 65 King suggests we think outside the box. Can you create the box and then think outside of it? Theres a thirst for buildings with true style in Toronto. Look at how beloved the OCAD University tabletop has become. Elsewhere, buildings with solid walls, visible concrete, bricks and splashes of colour stand out today. Our historic styles, even fairly recent ones, embraced all of this and are all things were beginning to lose as building owners and their architects follow fashion rather than style. Norms are social rules so basic that we dont even know what they are until we see them violated. They make the ice on which we skate more or less gracefully. But these informal understandings are now being shattered so thick and fast that they may never be repaired. I think of craquelure, an art term for a dense pattern of cracks. Its done intentionally for a crackle glaze in ceramics, but in oil and tempera paintings it is caused by the passage of time and poor storage as various layers shrink and canvas fibres weaken. Forgers love craquelure; it makes a new painting look battered. I am wondering if the deliberate breakage of U.S. norms will cause a crackle glaze in American culture, making it unfixable. Breakaway Conservative Maxime Bernier is trying this in Canada by objecting to a certain class of immigrant. Will our social rules break apart? The most basic norm is that one never mocks disabled people. But it is no longer a norm for a certain group of Americans: President Trump and his people. Trump actually imitated a reporter with arthrogryposis, a congenital joint condition, while campaigning in 2015. In Bob Woodwards new book, Fear, Trump referred to Attorney General Jeff Sessions as mentally retarded. He has used the word retard before. Its on video. The libtard slur often appears online. I always wonder if Trump blasted it into popularity. There are so many things Trump taught ugly-hearted people to do but well start with that one. People in groups will simultaneously repeat behaviour that is socially rewarded. Just as Sarah Palin audiences chanted the vaguely sexual Drill, baby, drill! in 2008, so Trump voters chant the misogynistic Lock her up! They look at each other gleefully. These are important norms. It is polite to RSVP and when you dont, best apologize. One does not litter, and I still berate myself for a Coke can I dropped on Wickaninnish Beach in 1996. But these are tiny pokes in the social fabric. Now, great rents appear. The handshake is basic. Trump cant even do that properly. Spelling and grammar are basic. Trump knows neither. It used to be that one did not mock women in public, particularly distinguished women like Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna. But she is still called Climate Barbie to her face. Female TV reporters are routinely sexually insulted online, by email, snail mail, and by phone. Those working outside are attacked by men howling F--- her right in the p---y. The men who do this are not arrested. They keep their jobs while the women fear for their employability. Geoffrey Owens, an ex-Cosby Show actor, was caught bagging groceries at a New Jersey store by a gleeful woman who posted a photo online. She hadnt understood the basics that actors are a corporation of one, and they work on the side between acting jobs but worse, she thought the job demeaning. The cruelty, the snobbery of it! But she deeply regretted her mistake and apologized. I have not seen an apology from the Conservative MPs who broke the norms of parliamentary (and human) decency by howling at and mocking Liberal cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi for saying he had once worked as a bus driver. I dont imagine the real Canadians that Andrew Scheer claims to represent would like that. So Conservatives regard bus drivers as too peasanty for the Commons. I have a lot of time for Bill Blair, now minister for border security, whose anger was visible and growing as he lasered the opposition with a glare. His revulsion showed me what decency is. I note that Trumps dumb Southerner remark has angered the Southern senators who represent his whitest base, his off-base as I call them. Trump thinks it and broke a norm to say it out loud. The racist Deep South finally has the president of their dreams, and he despises them? Im not saying hes wrong intellect didnt save the South, air conditioning did but it must hurt. Are there still standards of behaviour? I will never knowingly criticize people who have had a child die. Its the worst pain life can impose and I wouldnt wish to add to it. To see U.S. Supreme Court hopeful Brett Kavanaugh refuse to shake the hand of a man whose young daughter had been shot to death at Parkland was another level of cruelty. I was aghast. Now we read that Kavanaugh investigated the 1993 suicide of Bill Clinton aide Vince Foster to the point of allegedly having staff get actual hair from the head of Fosters grieving blond teenage daughter so very long ago. I say Americans have cracked the vase so badly it broke. Canada is young enough to retain its norms of civility. Its crisping up, its small lines and cracks are riverine, but the canvas will hold. I believe this, if only because I have to. Twitter: @HeatherMallick Read more about: MONTREALWere the federal New Democrats to conduct a leadership review this fall, Jagmeet Singh would likely be handed his walking papers. Over his first year as leader, he has presided over a steep decline in the partys byelection fortunes. The New Democrat family is more divided today than it was on the day he won Thomas Mulcairs succession. The last Quebec byelection to take place under Singhs watch in June in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord saw the New Democrats collect less than 10 per cent of the vote in a riding the party had held from 2011 to 2015. Since then a number of popular MPs have announced they will not seek re-election. They leave behind ridings the NDP cannot presume it will hold next year. Singh himself will be testing the waters in the Vancouver area in a byelection to be held later this year or early in 2019. But if he does hold the NDP-friendly Burnaby South seat, his victory will do little more than blunt the hit of the apprehended loss of Outremont. Many New Democrats would inevitably see the loss of the Montreal riding that was the cornerstone of their 2011 Quebec victory as an omen of what is to come in next years general election. Read more: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will not let ousted Saskatchewan MP return to caucus or run in 2019 Opinion | Susan Delacourt: Could the NDP dump Jagmeet if he loses? Greens wont run against NDPs Jagmeet Singh in Burnaby South byelection, Elizabeth May says When Singh won a first-ballot victory last October, the New Democrats knew he would have a hard time hanging on to the partys fragile Quebec beachhead. But that was also true of the other leadership aspirants. Given that, many New Democrats clung to the assumption that Singh as the first main federal leader to be issued from the ranks of Canadas visible minorities would be best placed to make up for potential Quebec losses with gains in the diverse communities of suburban Canada. On the eve of the first anniversary of the leadership vote, that hope comes across as little more than wishful thinking. The New Democrat polling numbers are dismal across the board as are the partys fundraising returns. Singh is estranged from the Alberta wing of his party over irreconcilable differences as to the merits of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. He has also become persona non grata in party circles in Saskatchewan, the provincial cradle of the NDP. Last spring, Singh referred allegations of harassment against Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir to an independent investigator. The latter found some of the allegations to have merit, albeit in the case of those relating to sexual harassment, on the less serious end of the spectrum. Singh subsequently expelled Weir from the caucus for allegedly failing to show sufficient remorse. Over the summer 67 past Saskatchewan MPs and MLAs called for his reinstatement. Instead Singh announced that Weir would not be allowed to run for re-election as a New Democrat next year. Not all the ailments that plague the federal NDP are of Singhs own making. The fracture between the partys Alberta and federal wings over pipelines predates his arrival at the helm. And it has contributed to the NDPs money woes. Alberta premier Rachel Notley used to be a major NDP fundraising attraction. After the party voted to explore the Leap Manifesto a document that calls on Canada to leave its fossil fuels in the ground at its 2016 Edmonton convention, Notley left the federal fundraising circuit. Once a close ally of the NDP, the labour movement has never had more federal clout, including seats on the prime ministers advisory NAFTA council, as it does under Trudeau. And many trade unions happen to be on the pro-pipeline side of the debate. Singh has surrounded himself with a palace guard that is often accused of being as clueless as to the ways of Parliament Hill as he is. But while the New Democrats do not lack for battle-tested strategists, many of the partys top ones currently toil in the corridors of power of Edmonton and Victoria. Still the main reason so many New Democrats on and off Parliament Hill are not willing to cut Singh as much slack as that granted his predecessors hits closer to home. If there is a common theme to the discontent that is seeping out of the partys caucus room, it is that Singh who only served at the provincial level prior to taking on the federal leadership is in over his head. He would not be the first provincial star to fail to thrive on Parliament Hill. Until recently though it would have been considered politically suicidal to think of ousting a leader in the immediate lead-up to his or her first election campaign. But that was before the Ontario Tories ditched Patrick Brown mere months before landing a majority government at Queens Park. Chantal Hebert is a columnist based in Ottawa covering politics. Follow her on Twitter: @ChantalHbert Read more about: VANCOUVERThe B.C. Green Party is calling for the province to undertake its own environmental assessment of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in the wake of last weeks Federal Court of Appeal decision to quash the projects federal approval. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already pre-determined the outcome of any further assessment and consultation by repeatedly saying the pipeline will be built, said Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver. We cant trust a process that he will put in place, Weaver said. StarMetro requested comment from federal Environment Minister Catherine McKennas office but did not receive a response before publication. On Aug. 30 the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Ottawas consultation with First Nations was flawed and that the National Energy Boards lack of consideration for the risks of increased oil tanker traffic was an unjustified failure. The federal Cabinet approval of the project, which relied on the deficient NEB report, was overturned. The exact same argument applies to British Columbia, Weaver said, as B.C.s approval of the project was based on the same flawed NEB report. Weaver explained that the former B.C. Liberal government signed an equivalency agreement with the NEB that allowed them to rely on the boards project assessments, rather than duplicating the process for the Trans Mountain expansion and other projects. Now, he said, the only way for British Columbians to have confidence in the process is for the province to undertake its own assessment. Asked whether its considering such a move, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change said the government is still reviewing the courts decision and considering the implications and options, if any, with respect to the provincial assessment. Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law who has represented First Nations clients in cases against the Trans Mountain expansion, agreed there is an opportunity for B.C. to overturn the provincial project approval. Arguably, the foundation of B.C.s approval, which was a valid NEB process and decision, no longer stands, Kung said. The equivalency agreement allows either party (B.C. or the NEB) to terminate the agreement at least 30 days before a decision. Now that the decision has been overturned, there may be another opportunity to withdraw from the agreement, Kung said. However, its unclear what powers the province would have to stop or restrict the project even if it were to undertake its own assessment. Some of those questions are now before the B.C. Court of Appeal, said Kung, referring to the reference case filed by the provincial government to clarify what powers it has to regulate the transportation of oil within its borders. Read more about: His latest bid is based on testimony from his medical experts that the boys brain damage resulted from an abdominal issue that, based on tissue evidence, could not have started or been inflicted on the date the child was brought to the hospital. Planners of a fundraising race coming up in Homewood know some participants require more than just cheers of the crowd to keep them going, so theyre providing beer at the start and coffee and doughnuts along the way. And as an incentive to finish, theres a congratulatory shot of spirits awaiting those who want to celebrate the trek. It was just to show we had a community that was interested in it, Patterson said. It was a very small deal we did it all under the radar, but we did it, and it was Josh (Young) who came up to me afterward and said, Ive been dreaming for years to have a film festival here, lets do it. Metra spokeswoman Meg Reile said Fleming did not appear to be in any distress at the time of his arrest and went with the officers willingly. Sosin said Friday he could not disclose the expected cost of building the project, and that it was uncertain whether construction could begin before the end of this year, noting that final engineering and architectural plans would still need to be drawn up. He said he expected the Village Board would vote on the Plan Commissions recommendations sometime next month. The TIF Act is weak and I think our state legislature needs to bring that to the table and change that, he said. Based on how Im looking here and how easy this happened here, I assure you this is not the only municipality thats doing it. I think its the only municipality that people started yelling about it. I participated because Im always looking for ways to help the generation behind me, Kee said. I hope that the students could learn from what I shared about the mistakes I made and from passing along what I did right. Sen. McCain was at his most eloquent when under duress. For example, while in the Hanoi Hilton prison in Vietnam, he refused any special privilege even though tortured by North Vietnamese captors. He was at his best when he went out of his way to praise rival Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and when he lost that election, he called for national unity. Fox 32 meteorologist Mike Caplan will provide his insight on severe weather conditions and Kris Habermehl, former helicopter/traffic reporter for CBS 2 TV and WBBM Newsradio 780, will discuss his experience being one of the first on the scene of the 2015 tornado in Fairdale, Ill. We want (the board) to have a part in this, Pease said. Since it will be a district goal to have this philosophy and these objectives for students who graduate, we really want this to represent your thoughts as well, she said. According to police, witnesses said the car was parked in the fire lane in the parking lot at Panera Bread, 4244 N. Harlem Ave. At 3:15 p.m., police said Matlak was seen grabbing a toddler by the hand and walking him to a 2004 gray Audi A6 sedan, telling the boy that he was being bad and that he would punish him by putting him in the trunk. Police said the boy was put into the trunk, and then Matlak then slammed the trunk shut, got into the drivers seat of the car and drove away through the parking lot. This case is the result of cooperation between local, state and federal authorities, U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirsch II said in a release. My office is, and remains committed, to fighting the scourge of drug trafficking and the illegal possession of firearms in all of the counties in our district, rural or urban. The court noted that Dillards three requests for counsel had been ignored; he had been kept in a small interrogation room without access to anyone other than police for almost 11 hours; his requests for his diabetes medication has been denied three times; and part of his questioning took place with him lying face down on the floor of the room, trying to rest. State laws in 2017 and this year stripped the school board of all of its governing authority and vested it in an emergency manager, hired by the state. The boards pay for attending meetings was also removed, but its not clear if the annual $2,000 stipend was taken away. Douglas and Edward Miller and others then purchased securities in Concur based on this information for the purposes of profiting from these transactions and returning a portion of the profits to Salis, the release states. Following the acquisition, the Millers and their co-conspirators sold the securities and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. The Post-Tribune independently confirmed Lachs letter was read at the Saturday service and included the allegation with a parishioner who attended the service. It was read both by Lach on Aug. 25 and others during Sunday services on Aug. 26, according to the newspapers report. Police and school officials are releasing the information about the threat to dispel any misinformation through social media and other media platforms and to ease any public concerns regarding safety at Valparaiso High School, Grennes said. When we started this congregation, there was a group of young people all the same generation, he said. We started with the idea of having a synagogue and a school. Considering we were all the same generation, our children were pretty much the same age and it was a much more viable group. Our weekly round up of other news affecting foreign investors throughout Asia: Indonesias e-Commerce Sector Market Potential and Challenges Indonesias e-commerce industry holds a lot of promise for foreign investors. The country has more than 130 million internet users and a burgeoning consumer market riding on the growing accessibility of mobile internet in the country. Comparison of Chinese Foreign-Owned Enterprises and Indian Wholly-Owned Subsidiaries In China, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE) is a limited liability company (LLC) formed solely by one or more foreign investor(s) with no mandatory requirements to have a domestic partner. Wholly-owned subsidiaries in India work in a similar manner to Chinese WFOEs, with a few key distinctions. RUSSIA BRIEFING Russia Passes Laws to Redomicile Overseas Russian-Owned Businesses to Offshore Financial Centers Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off a series of laws allowing Russian-controlled foreign offshore companies to be re-registered in offshore financial centers (OFCs) established in Russias Kaliningrad Region and Primorsky Territory in order to minimize the possible consequences of sanctions and political risks from foreign countries. China to Join Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline? China has expressed interest in joining the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, by building a link from Pakistan to China. This could act as alternative to Chinese plans to build a fourth China-to-Turkmenistan pipeline. Vietnam: Media Habits of FMCG Consumers Driven by the growth in living standards, disposable income, foreign investment, and economy, Vietnams fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market is projected to grow by five to six percent in 2018, with rural areas growing faster than cities. In addition to retaining existing consumers, attracting new ones will continue to be a priority for FMCG brands. The world largest social media platform Facebook is losing a large number of young users as about one in four of them had removed the app from their smartphones in the past one year, a new Pew Research Center survey said Wednesday. The survey found that a whopping 44 percent of users aged 18-29 have removed Facebook's app from their phones in the past 12 months, and about 42 percent have taken a break from checking the platform for several weeks or more. The findings coincided with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg's appearance before a U.S. Congress hearing on Wednesday on how Facebook addresses political content on the platform. Facebook has been under heavy scrutiny for the way it was handling privacy issues and misinformation activities over the past months since a scandal erupted earlier this year following revelations that a former British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had illegally accessed data of more than 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. The Pew surveyed more than 3,400 U.S. Facebook users in May and June, and found that more than 54 percent of users aged 18 and older have adjusted their privacy settings. The number of young people who deleted their Facebook app is about four times higher than that of users who are 65 years and older, with about 12 percent senior users quitting the app in the past 12 months, said the Pew study. Older users were less frequently adjusting their privacy settings with only a third of them doing so, in comparison with the 64 percent of younger users more willing to do the readjusting. An estimated 9 percent of Facebook users have downloaded the personal data about them after Facebook updated its privacy settings to make it easier for its users to download the data collected by the social media site, according to the Pew study. Among the users who have downloaded their private data from the Facebook platform, nearly half of them, or 47 percent, have dropped the app from the cell phone, while the majority 79 percent chose a higher level of security options in their privacy settings in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the survey said. China expressed strong dissatisfaction on Thursday after a naval vessel from the United Kingdom sailed into territorial waters off China's Xisha Islands, with China urging an immediate cessation of such provocative actions. Reuters reported that HMS Albion, a 22,000-ton amphibious warship, passed near the Xisha Islands on August 31 on its way to Vietnam. "HMS Albion exercised her rights for freedom of navigation in full compliance with international law and norms," Reuters cited a spokesman for the Royal Navy as saying. The warship illegally entered territorial waters without permission from the Chinese government, and China's Navy, a branch of the People's Liberation Army, verified and identified the warship in accordance with law and warned it to leave, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing. The Xisha Islands are an inherent territory of China, Hua said. "The action taken by the British ship violated Chinese law and relevant international law, and infringed on China's sovereignty," and China strongly protests such moves and has lodged solemn representations, she added. China urged the UK to immediately stop such provocations to avoid harming overall bilateral relations as well as regional peace and stability, she added. Also on Thursday, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Ren Guoqiang said that such an action undermines China's sovereignty and security interests and can easily lead to accidents in the air and on the sea. Ren noted that the situation in the South China Sea is becoming better thanks to the efforts made by China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. However, some countries outside the region ignore this positive trend, dispatch planes and ships to stir up trouble in the region and disturb peace and security, he said, adding that the Chinese military will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national security and sovereignty. The Ministry of Education ordered education authorities in Leiyang city, Hunan province, to properly handle issues that gave rise to a street protest by parents over the weekend. The parents objected to a plan to reduce class sizes by moving some children to a private boarding school. The government is determined to eliminate super-large classes - those with more than 66 students - by the end of this year, ministry spokeswoman Xu Mei said at a news conference on Thursday. In pursuit of that goal, education authorities should be flexible and take local needs into consideration, she said. Education authorities should seek public opinion before proceeding with plans, and the interests of students should be protected, Xu said. She added that more schools should be built and educational resources should be allocated in a more balanced manner. Her remarks came after some parents of primary school students in Leiyang took to streets late on Saturday to protest an order by provincial authorities to cut class sizes in the city's crowded education system by relocating all fifth and sixth graders to a new campus - a boarding school at a branch of a high school affiliated with Hunan Normal University. Some parents complained about unfinished dormitories and expressed concerns over odors in the newly refurbished buildings that they worried could be from indoor pollutants. They also complained about increased fees they would be forced to pay at a private school. In a statement on Monday, the city government said parents would only be charged the standard amount normally paid for a public school. The city has ordered tests of the indoor air quality at the boarding school, the statement said, adding that dormitories that exceed safe levels of chemicals will not be used to house students. Police said on Sunday, the day after the protest, that 46 people had been detained for throwing bottles, bricks and firecrackers at police officers and officials. Charges included disturbing public order and damaging public facilities during the protest outside a police station. Leiyang's mayor, Li Xiangyang, met with representatives of the parents on Saturday evening, but demonstrators mounted another protest outside the headquarters of the city's public security bureau demanding the release of the detainees, police said. Of the 46 people detained, only one was a parent of school-age children, they said. Under a guideline issued by the education ministry in 2016, super-large classes of more than 66 students should be eliminated by 2018, and classrooms with more than 56 students should be eliminated by 2020. China spent 188.2 billion yuan ($27.5 billion) last year helping 95.9 million students from preschools to universities attend school, the Ministry of Education said on Thursday. The funding represented an increase of 92 percent from 2011, while the number of students receiving financial support from the government was up 22 percent in the same period, Tian Zuyin, director of the National Center for Student Financial Aid, told a news conference in Beijing. A total of 520 million students received financial assistance totaling 886.4 billion yuan between 2012 and 2018, Tian said. China will further improve funding for students so that no one will have to drop out of school because of family financial difficulty, he said. Education authorities and schools should respect and protect students' privacy when assessing their families' economic conditions or giving out grants, allowing students in need to accept aid with dignity, he added. As China steps up efforts to eradicate extreme poverty by allocating more educational resources to poverty-stricken areas, the goal is to ensure no child in China is prevented from attending school because of poverty by 2020, according to a ministry guideline released in February. New educational funds, programs and policies will support places where extreme poverty persists, including the Tibet autonomous region, parts of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu, to help lift educational standards markedly in rural China by 2020, the guideline said. During the recently concluded Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), residents of the Chinese capital participated in service and volunteer work in welcoming foreign guests, receiving praises from the forum attendees. The media center of the summit, located in the Beijing Jianguo International Convention Center, was launched on Aug. 29, four days before the summit kicked off. The nearby Beijing International Center provided 300 rooms for the forum attendees, along with a number of amenities ranging from mosquito dispellers to phone chargers. Food provided at the hotel received praise from the foreign journalists who stayed there. The city set up booths on the streets of Dongcheng district, where foreign language-speaking urban management officers were ready to offer help. In Xicheng district, a number of volunteers also provided help, including veteran volunteers. Residents in Chaoyang district contributed to clean-up efforts in the neighborhoods for the summit. During the summit, more than 60,000 bus drivers and conductors changed their shifts in response to increased demand for public transportation. Over 300 people were stationed at the forum venue, along the main roads and at the hotels. More than 100 volunteer booths were set up at key spots, and 600-odd volunteers offered public transportation services in Beijing. Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng will attend the opening ceremony of the annual expo, business and investment summit between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Friday. The 15th China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held from Sept. 12 to 15 in Nanning, the capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Besides Han, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, several foreign leaders will also attend the opening ceremony, according to Hua. Is Nepal caught in a dilemma of choosing either a "Look South" or a "Look North" policy? Has the country been under pressure to make a Hobson's choice on the foreign policy front? Obviously not. After regaining relative stability and building a stronger government, Nepal is in a comfortable position to execute independent and balanced foreign policy decisions to achieve its overarching goals of peace, development and prosperity. Debates on whether Nepal should stick to a "Look South" or "Look North" policy hit media headlines after the Bharatiya Janata Party's General Secretary Ram Madhav asked Nepal to adopt a "Look South" policy to get access to the Indian Ocean region through India's Calcutta port and Bangladesh's Chittagong port. The BJP leader's remark shows a sign of growing restlessness among Indian politicians, policy makers and media as Nepal deepens its relations with China. However, a Chinese scholar offers an unbiased viewpoint in this regard. "Nepal should go for a 'Look Global' policy, not 'Look South' or 'Look North' to ensure economic development and prosperity of the country," said Prof. Dai Yonghong, director of the Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University. The "Look South" prescription is hardly palpable for Nepalis given the country's bitter relations with India in the past. Nepal and India share an open and porous border, and people from both countries enjoy social, cultural and economic ties since ancient times. But relations at the political and diplomatic level have been rocky as Indian leaders continued to enforce British colonial attitudes on its small neighbors even after its independence. Since then India has tried to keep the Himalayan nation under its boots, resulting in the imposition of four blockades on Nepal in 1960, 1970, 1989 and 2015. Even if India realizes its foreign policy blunder and takes conciliatory steps, people in Nepal are still not ready to trust the Indian leadership until it matches its actions to its words. In reality, the "Look South" policy is not a new concept. Nepal has, for centuries, relied on India for trade, commerce and investment. But its excessive dependence on India proved damaging to its economy and society as witnessed during India's 2015 unofficial embargo on Nepal. The blockade forced the country to look to its northern neighbor for economic survival. This led to a landmark trade and transit treaty with China in 2016, allowing Nepal to have the access to the sea via Chinese territory. Last year, Nepal signed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that boosts investment, connectivity, and cooperation in the fields of energy, technology, education, culture and people-to-people relations. Launched in 2013, the BRI seeks to connect three continents, namely Asia, Africa and Europe with a focus on win-win cooperation and partnership for shared prosperity. As Nepal now has access to the Pacific Ocean through Chinese soil, India has asked Nepal to conduct international trade through the Indian Ocean. The argument that Nepal will benefit from the Indian Ocean does not hold much water as Nepali traders have constantly been facing restrictive procedures at India's Kolkata port, delaying the clearance and consignment of goods for weeks. Furthermore, the "Look South" policy is based on the outdated Nehruvian security concept that considers Nepal as India's buffer state and the Himalayas as the natural frontier against China. As the BRI will eliminate this frontier through the Trans-Himalaya railway, India has frantically moved to sell the "Look South" policy to Nepal. This only serves to put a spoke in the wheel of the deepening China-Nepal ties. Nonetheless, Nepal is poised to look South, North, East and West to reach out to all potential partner nations for economic support and investment, which it badly needs to lift millions of its people out of poverty. The BRI is one such vehicle. During Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's visit to China last June, the two nations agreed to "intensify implementation of the MoU on cooperation under the BRI to enhance connectivity, encompassing such vital components as ports, roads, railways, aviation and communications within the overarching framework of Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network." There has been steady progress in the construction of the Kathmandu-Kerung railway, which is described as the "most significant initiative in the history of bilateral cooperation." Both countries are now in the process of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) after completing its technical study. A Chinese team is also going to Nepal next month to ink an agreement on the preparation of the DPR that will take more than one-and-a-half years to complete. The 72.25-km railway project, estimated to cost Rs 257 billion, is expected to be ready in nine years. Once this multi-billion dollar project is complete, Nepal can again truly look global and attain greater economic sovereignty. Ritu Raj Subedi is an associate editor of The Rising Nepal. Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. China and Africa together had about 1.43 million cross-visits in 2017, according to a report released on Monday by the China Tourism Academy (CTA), a think tank under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and several leading Chinese tourism websites. Specifically, there were 797,800 Chinese who visited Africa, while 628,300 African visitors came to China. And, the booming trend seems to be continuing. In the first seven months of this year, Chinese visits to Africa grew by 70 percent year-on-year, as recorded by Ctrip, one of China's leading online tourism service providers. From Egypt's pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, to Casablanca in Morocco and the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, the breathtaking African cultural and natural scenery is attracting more and more Chinese people, with Cairo the most popular spot in the first half of this year, according to the report. In regard to the Chinese cities providing the most tourism departures to Africa in the first half of 2018, below are the top 10 as recorded by Ctrip. 10. Hangzhou Flash South Korean state prosecutors demanded a 20-year imprisonment on Thursday for former conservative President Lee Myung-bak over corruption charges. Prosecutors said in a final court hearing of the Lee case that the Seoul Central District Court should sentence Lee to 20 years in prison, requesting a fine of 15 billion won (13.3 million U.S. dollars) and a forfeiture of 11.1 billion won (9.9 million U.S. dollars). Lee, who served a five-year presidency from early 2008, was arrest in late March, before being indicted in the following month on 16 counts of corruption charges including bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. The 76-year-old was accused of embezzling tens of millions of U.S. dollars from DAS, a local auto parts manufacturer that is believed to have been owned by Lee under borrowed names. Lee was charged with taking bribes from the country's spy agency and Samsung Electronics as well as the head of a state-run banking group and a politician. Samsung was suspected of paying litigation expenses in the U.S. lawsuit for DAS, which prosecutors saw as a bribe to the former president. Lee was also charged with illegally moving confidential presidential documents from the presidential Blue House to his private building after retirement. Prosecutors said the defendant abused his presidential authority, commissioned by people, for his personal interest and tainted the constitutional history. They noted that it was miserable for Lee to completely deny all of his wrongdoings, which were committed during his presidency. Flash Cambodia's National Assembly on Thursday confirmed Samdech Techo Hun Sen as prime minister (PM) for another five years after his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won all parliamentary seats in a July general election. All 125 CPP lawmakers unanimously voted for him as PM, the position that he has held since 1985. The National Assembly also approved Hun Sen's new cabinet members for the 2018-2023 term. According to an official schedule, the 67-year-old PM and his cabinet members will be sworn in on Thursday afternoon at the Royal Palace under the auspices of the nation's King Norodom Sihamoni. Addressing the assembly after the vote, Hun Sen said it was another historic event for Cambodia and expressed his profound gratitude to all lawmakers for giving a vote of confidence to him and his cabinet members. He vowed to continue maintaining the country's hard-earned peace and stability and to further develop economy and reduce poverty. "The new government will work harder to accelerate socio-economic development in all fields and to promote the implementation of deep and broad reforms," he said. He added that the government would give priority to governance reform so as to strengthen state institutions, to build clean administrations, and to enhance the quality of public services. Hun Sen said the government would continue raising wages for civil servants, armed forces, and garment factory workers, and, at the same time, lowering the prices of water and electricity. The PM added that the investment in human capital is also among the top priorities in the new-term government. According to the official list of Hun Sen-led new cabinet approved by the National Assembly, the cabinet is made up of one PM, 10 deputy PMs, 17 senior ministers, and 29 ministers. The list showed that the PM kept all old-term ministers in the same positions in the new term. Experts have strong conviction that the new government would continue maintaining peace and stability and bring more development to the country over the next five years. "With a better economic policy, it is expected that foreign direct investment (FDI) will continue to flow in, and as the result, the economy will continue to strive," Kalyan, chairman of the state-run Royal University of Phnom Penh's board of trustees, told Xinhua. "Here, what we need to do more is to promote inclusive growth so that many members of the society will benefit, by mobilizing national skills, resources, and technology, in particular to lift up agriculture and rural economy," he said. Joseph Matthews, a professor at the Beltei International University in Phnom Penh, believed that Cambodia would continue enjoying peace, stability, and strong economic growth over the next five years under Hun Sen's leadership. "Under his leadership in previous terms, Cambodia's economy has grown very well, and its annual GDP (gross domestic product) growth is around 7 percent, which is the highest in the region," he said. "I believe that robust growth will continue over the next five years." Flash China Daily held its fourth Vision China event, themed "China & Africa: Growing Together", in the auditorium of Beijing Language and Culture University on Thursday. Four speakers, from China, Africa and Europe, shared their opinions on the recently concluded 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as well as on how to deepen the China-Africa comprehensive strategic partnership and build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future. The FOCAC summit was held in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday. In proposing eight major initiatives for China-Africa cooperation, President Xi Jinping appealed for the building of a closer China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era. Vision China has sparked in-depth discussion on how to better implement the summit outcomes and consensus reached by Chinese and African leaders, and boost China-Africa exchanges, all-around cooperation and the construction of a community with a shared future. Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; David Gosset, founder of the Europe-China Forum; Hodan Osman Abdi, adviser to the president of Somalia and executive director of Zhejiang Normal University's Center for East African Studies; and Zahra Baitie, China director of Development Reimagined and founder of Beijing Africa Week, all gave insightful speeches based on their experiences and understanding of Sino-African relations. Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office; Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily; Du Feijin, head of publicity department for the Beijing Committee of the Communist Party of China; Wei Gang, director of strategic planning at Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co; and Ni Haidong, Party chief of Beijing Language and Culture University, also attended the event together in an audience of about 1000 people. Addressing the event, Guo said the success of the Beijing summit opened a new chapter in the construction of the China-Africa community with a shared future, adding that President Xi's important speech had received vast applause from African countries and the international community. Guided by the summit outcomes, China and Africa will enjoy deeper mutual trust, wider cooperation, and tighter bonds of friendship, he said. This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Guo said under the leadership of President Xi, China will firmly carry on people-centered development, implement new development concepts, and comprehensively deepen reforms so that the people of Africa and around the world can benefit from China's innovation and development. As China continues to open up to the outside world and further promote the Belt and Road Initiative, it will firmly safeguard the open world economy and multilateral trading system, and will oppose trade protectionism and unilateralism, creating more opportunities for nations in Africa and worldwide, he added. Guo added that China is determined to build a closer community with a shared future with African countries, which may set an example for the establishment of a community with a shared future for humankind and contribute to constructing a better world. Du, the publicity chief of Beijing, said in his address that President Xi's speech at the Beijing summit showed clearly the direction for building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future. Beijing is boosting construction of a world-class harmonious and livable capital, actively carrying out foreign exchanges and cooperation and continuously enhancing the city's international influence and image, he said. He said Beijing has fully integrated the city's advantageous resources, actively implemented the Belt and Road Initiative, and made a unique contribution to the development of China-Africa relations by deeply and actively participating in China-Africa cooperation. In particular, economic and trade cooperation has achieved new results, culture exchanges have boomed, and international friendship city exchanges have reached a new level, he said. Du said China Daily has launched Vision China by utilizing its distinctive advantages, building an international platform for exchanging new concepts and ideas. Flash Defense & Martyrs Day of Pakistan was commemorated at the Embassy of Pakistan, Beijing on September 6, 2018. Defense Day is dedicated to pay homage not only to the martyrs of the 1965 war in Pakistan, but to all those souls who rendered ultimate sacrifice for the defense of the country. To mark the occasion, a reception was held at the Pakistan House. Chinese Major General Jiang Qianming, Political Work Department of People's Liberation Army (PLA), was the chief guest. Four other Major Generals representing Joint Staff Department of PLA Army, Navy and Air Force were also in attendance. Other guests included Ambassadors and members of diplomatic corps, Defense and Military Attaches, Chinese government officials and members of the media. Pakistani diaspora in China also participated in the event. The event started with the National Anthems of Pakistan and China followed by a tribute to the armed forces, law enforcement agencies and citizens of Pakistan for their sacrifices for the country. Welcoming the guests, Pakistani Ambassador Masood Khalid said that Defense Day is commemorated as a tribute to Pakistani valiant Armed forces and to their inherent patriotism, discipline and commitment. He said that Pakistan seeks a peaceful and prosperous neighborhood which is the key principle of Pakistan's Foreign Policy. He however lamented that despite sincere efforts by Pakistan, India has refused dialogue with Pakistan to resolve outstanding issues. Instead of addressing the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, India has unleashed a reign of terror in Indian occupied Kashmir. He reaffirmed Pakistan's political, moral and diplomatic support to the just cause of the Kashmiri people. The Ambassador also highlighted the sacrifices of Armed forces of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism and reaffirmed Pakistan's resolve to root out terrorism. He thanked the Chinese government and PLA for their friendship and cooperation. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 6) President Rodrigo Duterte's move to void opposition senator Antonio Trillanes' amnesty might be an intrusion into judicial power, Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) President Abdiel Fajardo said on Thursday. As such, the national organization of Filipino lawyers hopes for "judicial wisdom" to guard against that. "[The] government seems to be trailblazing jurisprudence, trying to test certain limits of the law in order to advance certain policies," Fajardo told CNN Philippines' The Source. "I think it would be helpful not only to the camp of Sen. Trillanes, but also to the government, if the Supreme Court finally decides on this or tries to discuss parameters, intent of the lawmakers or the constitution drafters, so that we can finally say whether or not the President needs to consult Congress or whether or not there is such power to revoke an amnesty already granted." Duterte on Tuesday released a proclamation voiding the amnesty granted to Trillanes for his involvement in military coups under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration. While executive officials said Trillanes faced arrest, the senator's camp has pointed out the proclamation is not equivalent to an arrest warrant which the government has not yet procured. The controversial proclamation has ignited debate on the provisions of amnesty. Two pertinent questions have been whether amnesty can even be revoked in the first place; and whether a President can revoke amnesty unilaterally, without Congress or a court. As the government waits for an alias warrant at the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC), Trillanes' camp took his case to the Supreme Court. However, some administration critics worry about the composition of the high court. Newly appointed Chief Justice Teresita De Castro and a majority of associate justices have ruled in favor of Duterte's policies, particularly in issues such as martial law in Mindanao, the burial of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani, and the ouster of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. But Fajardo is withholding judgment. "I would not want to speculate on the leanings of the justices of the Supreme Court," said Fajardo. "What I can say is that I am hopeful judicial independence can be asserted and protected in this case." This is not the first time the Duterte administration has tested jurisprudence. Previous cases include the ouster of Sereno by her own colleagues through a quo warranto petition, and the withdrawal from the International Criminal Court after the Duterte administration claimed the Rome Statute was never published even after it was ratified. IBP questions Makati RTC jurisdiction The Makati RTC under Judge Andres Soriano scheduled a hearing on the Justice Department's request for an alias warrant for Trillanes on September 13. However, the IBP thinks the case might be out of the RTC's hands. "The first question there is, does the RTC still have jurisdiction to entertain anything from anybody?" said Fajardo. He recalled that it was also a Makati RTC that dismissed the case against Trillanes. "You cannot reverse the final ruling of a co-equal judge. Only a higher court can reverse, review, modify the orders of a trial court judge," he added. Fajardo also doubted whether a warrant could be issued at all, as there was no pending case at the court. "When the case was dismissed, there's no pending criminal information anymore... Therefore the [RTC] could not act on anything not even an alias warrant, because the status of the case was it was dismissed," he said. Administration officials maintain that the proclamation was enough to restore those cases. However, constitutional expert Fr. Ranhilio Aquino also said it would be more prudent if the government would just "file the case again." The Justice Department could also take its request to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, Fajardo said. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) also said Trillanes was back to military personnel status. In line with this, the Department of National Defense (DND) expressed belief that Trillanes could be tried before a court martial. However, Trillanes maintained that he resigned from the military. The IBP President also said that Trillanes was no longer under the jurisdiction of the military tribunal. "When Sen. Trillanes filed the certificate of candidacy for senator, legally he lost already his standing as an employee of the [AFP]," said Fajardo. The proclamation against Trillanes is regarded by critics as the latest of the administration efforts to clamp down on 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. Watch the complete interview with Fajardo here. Flash China on Friday urged the United Kingdom to stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs after the UK government released its latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a routine news briefing, saying that Hong Kong affairs are China's domestic affairs and no foreign country has the right to interfere. "Since the return of Hong Kong, the principles of 'one country, two systems' and 'Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong' as well as Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy have been comprehensively implemented," Hua said, adding Hong Kong residents enjoy every right and freedom they are entitled to in accordance with the law. "We have expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the UK government's so-called six-monthly report on Hong Kong. We urge the UK to face reality and stop releasing such reports as well as interfering in Hong Kong affairs," said Hua. China Aviation Daily | Sep. 06, 2018 Japan Airlines (JAL) and Garuda Indonesia have signed a strategic partnership agreement, which will greatly benefit the customers of both airlines by providing more travel options between the two countries. Through this initial agreement, effective October 28, 2018, the two airlines will start offering codeshare flights on select routes between Japan and Indonesia, and on domestic flights operated by Garuda Indonesia and Japan Airlines, respectively. Garuda Indonesia will also offer codeshare flights on select transpacific routes operated by Japan Airlines. "Indonesia is well known for its warm hospitality and rich diverse culture" said Yuji Akasaka, President of Japan Airlines. "We look forward to the partnership with Garuda Indonesia, who continuously strives through its transformation program and has achieved a 5-star Airline rating by Skytrax. I truly believe we can provide our mutual customers the highest level of service, which excels the industry standard." Garuda Indonesia President & CEO Pahala N. Mansury said, "We are pleased to announce this partnership with JAL which will further extend our network not only to Japan, but also to US. Japan is one of important market for Indonesia and through this partnership we can offer more travel options for the increasing number of passengers traveling between the two countries and beyond Japan. At the same time, the partnership is expected to boost trade and tourism activities by making Indonesia much more accessible for Japan visitors." 'This partnership is believed to offer a unique advantage for Garuda Indonesia's passengers who will enjoy JAL's unparalleled services including check-through service, lounge access, in-flight meal and other service" said Pahala. In addition to the codeshare cooperation, in which JAL and Garuda Indonesia aim to expand the applicable routes in the near future, the carriers will look to develop the partnership in various areas, including the enhancement of their frequent flyer programs and ultimately pursue a joint business structure in their respective market. Details on Codeshare Agreement ~ Starting October 28, 2018 ~ Codeshare flights are subject to government approval. Applicable Routes on Garuda Indonesia International Flights Jakarta=Haneda, Denpasar=Narita Domestic Flights Jakarta=Yogyakarta, Jakarta=Surabaya Applicable Routes on Japan Airlines International Flights Narita=Jakarta, Narita=New York, Narita=Los Angeles Domestic Flights Haneda=New Chitose, Haneda=Nagoya-Chubu, Haneda=Fukuoka Contributed by Japan Airlines China Aviation Daily | Sep. 07, 2018 Embraer China will host the 2018 Embraer Executive Operators Conference (EEOC) on September 13 , in Tianjin , with over 100 guests , including customer representatives from Macau Fisherman's Wharf , Sino Jet , China Eastern Business Jet , BAA , HK Bellawings , Metrojet , Ordos GA , Colorful Yunnan General Aviation and SR Jet. Representatives from the Embraer Services & Support team and Embraer authorized service centers , as well as Embraer suppliers , will also attend the conference. EEOC meetings will be held to discuss various topics relevant to the Embraer Executive Jets fleet in Greater China , which includes the Phenom 300--the most delivered light business jet for the past six years--the Legacy 500 , the Legacy 600/650 and the Lineage 1000/1000E. EEOC topics will cover flight operation , engineering technology , maintenance experiences and spare parts. Embraer will also share an overview and update of the company's executive jet business , its services and support in China , in addition to the operation and maintenance of its fleet in the region. "EEOCs have been successfully held for five consecutive years with the objective of building a highly effective communication platform among operators , suppliers and Embraer. In the past few years , Embraer Services & Support has been widely recognized by customers , which in turn encourages us to continuously improve our services and elevate customer satisfaction. We believe that through this year's EEOC , we will further strengthen our relationship and communication with our customers , helping them improve their fleet efficiency and reduce operational costs , delivering more value to our Chinese customers , " says Siu Ying Yeung , COO of Embraer China. In recent years , Embraer has made great strides in customer services and support. Its commitment has been recognized by customers around the world and , in 2018 , Embraer was ranked at the top of ProPilot's Business Jets Product & Service Survey , for the third time in recent years. Embraer has also been among the top two in AIN's Product Support Survey rankings , since 2016. Embraer currently has two authorized service centers in China--Metrojet and ExecuJet Haite Aviation Services China Co. , Ltd--and two executive jets maintenance service providers--STAECO (Beijing) Business Jet Maintenance Co. , Ltd and China Eastern Business Jet. To date , Embraer has received 221 firm orders in China. Since the delivery of the first executive jet in the Chinese market in 2004 , Embraer has delivered 34 executive jets to Chinese customers. Contributed by Embraer Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 7) President Rodrigo Duterte is coming home from Jordan with billions of pesos in investment pledges and a donation of helicopters and firearms. This was announced by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a press briefing in Jordan on Friday. "Ang bagong puhunan po na makakarating sa PIlipinas dahil dito sa ginawang pagbisita ay $60.675 million (3.26 billion)," Roque said. [Translation: "This visit resulted in investments worth $60.675 million."] A total of seven letters of intent and two memorandums of understanding were signed, which are expected to generate some 434 jobs for Filipinos, Malacanang said. It also thanked Jordanian King Abdullah II for donating two Cobra attack helicopters, which Special Assistant to the President Christopher "Bong" Go said will be turned over to the country in July 2019. Along with these are a number of guns and ammunition, Roque said. Duterte is flying back to the Philippines Saturday morning instead of Sunday, cutting short his visit to Jordan by a day. Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo told CNN Philippines Duterte's shorter trip has nothing to do with the controversial order to void the amnesty of Duterte's staunch critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, or with the rising prices of goods and commodities. Roque said they were able to compress the President's appointments and official events. Prior to his Jordan visit, Duterte had a historic trip to Israel where the government signed $82.9 million or roughly 4.4 billion worth of investment deals from Israeli businesses. Duterte is the first sitting president to visit Israel and Jordan. Nepal court on June 7 sentenced a 63-year-old pastor to 10 years in prison on rape accusations the complainant later renounced. Pr Govinda Prasad Dhakal was sentenced upon conviction for "frequently raping a minor" he and his wife had adopted in 2016. His family and the church leaders denied the allegation, citing an attempt by the alleged victim's family to extort lump sum money from him with a false accusation. "We are not happy to see the verdict, because everything was pre-decided," Tanka Subedi, chair of the Religious Liberty Forum Nepal (RLFN), told Morning Star News. Police arrested Dhakal last year on Dec. 12, based on the mother's statement. Later the complainant, the now-12-year-old girl's mother, confessed before the court that she had fabricated the rape story in revenge for the pastor's refusal to pay the girl's school fees after the girl returned to her care, a source that witnessed the courtroom proceedings said. Prabhushanta Dhakal, the pastor's younger son, also witnessed the courtroom proceedings, according to MSN. He said the mother expressed remorse, saying she didn't intend to send the pastor to the jail. Despite her confession, the court failed to yield in its determination to convict Dhakal, the pastor. The court noted that the alleged victim initially said that Dhakal raped her, so the court has the liberty to ignore the mother's retraction and other evidence, Prabhushanta Dhakal told MSN. Dhakal was also fined 2,000 Nepalese rupees (US$18). "We are forced to believe that the judge passed an unfair judgment because Govinda is a Christian, otherwise there was no other reason for such a verdict, especially when the accusers themselves had confessed before the court that they were hoping to make a huge amount of money by putting a false charge against Govinda," said Subedi. "Secondly, we are led to believe that he was not given a clean chit due to our stand of 'no bribing,'" he added. Pr B.P. Khanal, head pastor of The Lord's Assembly and a social activist, told MSN that the medical report of the alleged rape victim presented in court favored the pastor. Two other adopted girls living with the Dhakal family, Sonia, 13, and Mithu Maya, 14, also gave statements against the pastor. However, Prabhushanta Dhakal said that the alleged victim and the other two girls were under pressure from a Hindu woman, Meena Kharel, a member of a child welfare committee who operates an orphanage, opposes Christianity The oldest of the family's adopted children, 15-year-old Amrita, told the court that Dhakal never misbehaved with her, and that she never saw him misbehave with other girls.